Before the Throne

8

Horus called out, “Amenemhat the Third!”

A giant came in, walking in his winding sheet until he stood before the throne.

Thoth, Scribe of the Gods, then read aloud, “In his time, the state enjoyed stability, security, and strength. He directed his ardor to extracting minerals from the desert and revitalizing the means of irrigation. The harvests increased, and wealth spread over all.”

Osiris asked him to speak.

“I inherited a stable kingdom,” said Amenemhat III, “that I made even more secure by building a strong army. In my fifty-year reign, I fortunately was fated to send mining expeditions into the deserts. I reformed the methods for watering crops, and well-being overflowed from it. Literature and art rose as they never had before. In my epoch, the people used to chant and sing: ‘He clothes the Two Lands in the garb of greenery; He is our nourishment — his mouth gives bounty.’ ”

Osiris addressed him, “Your grandfather left a teaching that said:

Summon all sternness to treat with those ’neath thee,

For folk but revere those who fill them with fear.

Make no one your brother and no one too dear!

For who ate at my table rose up against me,

And all whom I trusted came to betray me.

“So what did you reap from this?” he asked.

“I do not deny that it affected me greatly during the first part of my reign,” answered Amenemhat III. “Every individual in my family was shaken by the conspiracy that nearly ended the life of my good and mighty grandfather — even those who were not yet born in his time. Some of my counselors urged me not to be clement with my subjects when they were rebellious or exceeded their proper bounds. Yet the heart does not hearken to a way of treating others except when it comes from an impulse within. I found that mine impelled me to love the people — I never hesitated to obey it, nor did I ever regret doing so.”

“You were wrong, my son,” said Amenemhat I. “Only your luck saved you from destruction.”

“Yet you held true to the right and to good guidance,” Ptahhotep commended him, “for when the heart speaks of goodness it is the God who has inspired it.”

“How awful,” exclaimed Abnum bitterly. “To speak well now of when the people were in power has become a subject of dispute!”

Isis then said, “This great and good son needs no defense for the portals of Paradise to open before him.”

Osiris told him, “Go to your seat among the Immortals.”