Historical Notes for DWP fic Lord of the Nile
****May contain some SPOILERS****NOTE: This chapter will be updated as new characters/names or words are added to the story, so pop back and look up anything you want to know the meaning for, both lists will be kept alphabetically. Historical notes will refer to chapters.
Historical Notes:
General:
I have tried to aim for a New Kingdom era (c. 1550-1060 BCE) Egypt for most of the historical aspects of this story, but have imported things from the Old Kingdom (c. 2686-2181 BCE) and Middle Kingdom (c. 2055-1650 BCE ) periods of which I am particularly fond. (Henceforward abbreviated as NK, OK, MK respectively.) This means for instance that there will be mention of chariots (which do not appear in Egypt until c. 1650 BCE) and the elite chariot corps of the NK, but I have chosen that the political/military situation in Nubia to be more like that of the MK as an army of occupation against a still strong kingdom of Kerma further south of Nubia. It also means I am editing history somewhat in that I may refer to real rulers of Egypt but Hatshepsut won’t be one of them, and Miranda’s immediate predecessors will be ficticious.
While I have chosen to construct many details of Mereneith/Miranda’s life from my imagination, I will be honest and point out that there are some aspects of the life of Hatshepsut the female Pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty that I have outright copied; mainly because they are interesting and lend themselves to important aspects of the story I want to tell, likewise there are large elements of Hatshepsut’s story that I have chosen not to use because they do not fit the story I am telling.
I have been rather arbitrary in using English equivalents for ancient Egyptian or Greek titles and the transliterations of the titles themselves; my choices were mainly based on keeping the transliterations I liked the best (i.e. Irtpa-ha) and making it easy for the reader to understand the nature of the title, such as Mayor of Thebes or Vizier. I will also admit I have been rather flighty when deciding on what place names to use for ancient sites, sometimes I have opted for the actual Egyptian name and sometimes I’ve gone with the more familiar Greek or Latin name. i.e. I have chosen to use the Egyptian Mennefer rather than the Greek Memphis for the old capital of Egypt, but have chosen the Greek Thebes rather than the Egyptian Waset for the new capital. The choice is I admit completely arbitrary and down to what I felt like as I was writing. That said I’ve taken a little more care over people’s personal names and titles as you will see in the cast of characters/name glossary.
Chapter Two Notes
Egyptian Seasons
Akhet - Inundation (The annual flooding of the Nile) (July-October), the first signs of the inundation, were seen at Aswan in the south by the end of June, reaching its fullest at Cairo by mid to late September. The flood would then decrease in size around two weeks later, leaving behind a deposit of rich, black silt to farm.
The other two seasons were Peret- growing (November - February) and Shemu - harvest (March - June). During the growing season, after the inundation had receded, the Egyptians planted their crops - around October and November - and tended to the fields. The Egyptians watered their crops using an irrigation system of canals or by bringing water to the fields in basins or by using the shaduf, which is still in use in Egypt today, to raise water from the river to the bank of the Nile. By the time the Nile reached its lowest level, some time around March or April, the crops would be ready for the harvest.
Minos: King Minos of Crete features as an individual ruler and the subject of a number of Greek myths, notably the story of Theseus and the Minotaur, Daedalos and Icarus and the tale of his turning things to gold with just his touch.
Historically many scholars believe that ‘Minos’ was a title of the king of Knossos, rather than the name of only one king; much like Pharaoh is the title for the king of Egypt,
International relations:
In the ancient near east the relationships of the different countries to each other was often couched in familial terms relative to the dominance of the differing powers. Rulers who deemed themselves equal to each other addressed each other as brother, while those who acknowledged a lesser power base would address the rulers of a greater power as father and those greater powers would address them as son. Hence Minos addresses pharaoh as father rather than brother because the extent of his power is considerably less than that of the king of Egypt.
Chapter Three Notes
Braves of the King It wasn’t until the NK that Egypt had a substantial standing army. From this time the Braves of the King were the elite shock troops of the Egyptian army. They were made up of a large chariot corps, archers and infantrymen. As the NK progressed they became almost exclusively a chariot corps. Chariots would carry two people, the driver and a fighter whose main weapons were a bow and arrows, throwing javelins and as last resort the Kopesh curved sword.
Minoan Deities: Very few specifics are known about the deities the Minoans worshipped. There is definite mention of more than one Earth mother goddesses including Rhea and Gaia, Poseidon god of the sea is noted with the epithet “earth-shaker”, and the God Zeus is later associated with the island of Crete as his birthplace. Given these connections I’ve decided to co-opt a couple of the oldest known Greek deities for Andrea to know and name from her own culture.
Hair Colour: The Egyptians loved hair, they shaved it, straightened it, curled it, dyed it, dressed it, used hair extensions and wigs. While the vast majority of native Egyptians had hair colours ranging from dark brown to jet black, there is evidence for red heads and blondes as well, both depicted in art and known from mummified remains. The god Set was said to have red hair, and the aged mummy of Ramesses the great shows evidence that he died his white hair with henna to make it red. As Set is the god of chaos and definitely a baddy in my story I decided not to have the twins be red-heads, but still wanted them to be a little out of the ordinary so I’ve opted for making them sandy blonde.
Some notes about Egyptian names and Royal titles:
Names were chosen with care to represent an individual's personality, their devotion to a particular god or location, or to reflect the times in which they lived. The simplest names were nouns or adjectives, such as Neferet ("beautiful woman"), User ("strong") or Nedjem ("Sweet"). Others took the form of statements such as Ptahhotep, ("Ptah is satisfied"), Tutankhamun ("the living image of Amun"). Some names ran in the family (Djau, a sixth dynasty vizier, had at least five brothers who shared his name). It was common to apply an epithet to help distinguish people with the same name, such as Aa ("great" or eldest) Hery-ib (the one in the middle) and Nedjes ("small" or youngest). Similarly, people often included the name of their father (the epithet Ir-en meant "of his body") or mother (the epithet Mes-en meant "born of").
Nick names and abbreviations were also common in ancient Egypt. "Meriamun", "Meriptah" and "Mereneith" were all abbreviated to "Meri" while "Nefertiti" was often shortened to Tiy. Nicknames such as Tahemet ("Queenie") were common while others (such as "Kyky" meaning monkey) seem to have been very personal. Ramesses' troops called him by the nickname Sese, "the vanquisher".
Most Pharaohs are known to us by their birth names but the king lists mostly use their throne names. For example, Ramesses the Great's birth name was Ra-messes Mery-Amun ("born of Re, beloved of Amun"), but the king lists record his throne name User-Maat-Re Setep-en-Re ("the justice/truth of Re is powerful, Chosen by Re").
By the MK the pharaoh went by 5 main names each associated with a specific title. These titles are listed below in the order in which they were added from the First Dynasty to the Eleventh Dynasty.
Horus Name (the oldest and until the OK the personal name of the king)
Nbty (Two Ladies Name)
Horus of Gold Name
Nsw Bty - King of Upper and Lower Egypt name. Also known as the throne name or Praenomen. This is one of the names shown in the cartouche.
Sa Ra - Son of Ra name. Also known as the birth or personal name or the nomen also one of the names shown in a cartouche.
Cast of Characters (Names Glossary) Listed Alphabetically (***SPOILERS***)
I’ve used a combination of ways to choose names for the characters in this tale. I either looked for ancient names/words that meant the same thing as the familiar character names, i.e. Serena means ‘tranquil’ so her character name in ancient Egyptian means ‘quiet’. Alternatively I looked for ancient names that sounded, alliteratively at least, like the familiar name or as near to them as possible. For several of the royal names I have used my knowledge of Middle Egyptian to construct usable Egyptian names.
Amunmose II Pharaoh and ‘earthly’ father of Mereneith, her predecessor. Deceased before the story begins. (Name of an 18th Dynasty Prince, means ‘Born of Amun’)
Andrea Princess of Knossos and priestess of the Goddess Rhea. (Ancient Greek name, feminine form of ‘manly’. Definitely known from the archaic period but possibly not as old as Minoan period, but as it is Greek I decided to keep the name.) Given a new name in Egypt - Neferemkau meaning Beautiful of Souls.
Ariadne The youngest of the three priestesses of Rhea, name held by Andrea between the ages of 10 and 18. (Mythological daughter of Minos and Pasiphae of Crete, means ‘most holy’. After she was abandoned by Theseus she was married to the god Dionysos.)
Gorgo The middle of the three priestesses of Rhea. (Queen of Sparta, wife of Leonidas (of Thermopylae fame), noted for her wisdom and good rule as regent for her young son. ) I was looking for a Greek name for this character so thought this was good. Means ‘of the gorgon.’
Irsu High Priest of Amun, First Prophet of the North and South (i.e. Irv) (Means ‘self-made man’ it was a semi-popular name at many different periods and may often have been given to someone after they’d achieved high office.)
Kitane Keftiu servant woman given to Andrea by her uncle Rusa. We know very few female names from Minoan times but this is one of them.
Mereneith Birth name of the Pharaoh,( i.e. Miranda. )(Means ‘Beloved of Neith’. There was a real regnant queen of Egypt with this name in the First Dynasty, circa. 3000 BCE. She is connected to 3 kings of this dynasty as daughter, wife and mother, but she likely ruled in her own right as well, as evidenced by her ‘kingly’ tomb at Abydos. As I want to use the goddess Neith in this story I thought this the best name for Miranda, also the diminutive “Meri” will prove useful.)
Nakht-Nebamun Vizier of Upper Egypt, Irtpa-ha, Architect, Steward of Amun, Mayor of Thebes, High Priest of Thoth, ( i.e. Nigel )(Means strong one- Amun is Lord. Nakht was a popular name throughout Egyptian history, often combined with a god’s name or an epithet description.)
Nashuja Keftiu ambassador to Pharaoh’s court, ( i.e. Kind of Doug.) (A male name noted in Linear B tablets from Crete. Was looking for a name for this character and figured this would be appropriate.)
Neith Neith was an early goddess in the Egyptian pantheon, dating as far back as the First Dynasty. She was the patron deity of Sais, in the Western Nile Delta. Neith was originally a goddess of war and of hunting and had as her symbol, two arrows crossed over a shield, this symbol was displayed on top of her head in Egyptian art.
Her name may also be interpreted as meaning water. In time, this led to her being considered as the personification of the primordial waters of creation. She is identified as a great mother goddess in this role as a creator.
Neith's symbol also bore a resemblance to a loom, and so later in the history of Egyptian myths, she became the goddess of weaving. As the goddess of creation and weaving, she was said to reweave the world on her loom daily. An interior wall of the temple at Esna records an account of creation in which Neith brings forth from the primeval waters of Nun the first land ex nihilo. All that she conceived in her heart comes into being including Ra and the first thirty gods. Having no known husband she has been described as "Virgin Mother Goddess.”
She is also shown in the form of a hermaphrodite with both male and female secondary sexual characteristics. Female deities are known to occasionally have male features: a bearded Isis figure holding a baby Horus has been found, while Neith is represented with an erect phallus in some papyri. Generally in art, Neith appears as a woman with a weavers’ shuttle atop her head, holding a bow and arrows in her hands. At other times she is depicted as a woman with the head of a lioness, as a snake, or as a cow.
Neith-hotep (I) Great Royal Wife of the Pharaoh Amunmose II. (Mereneith’s mother) Deceased before the story begins. (Means ‘Neith is satisfied.’ Chose this as Miranda’s mother’s name to ground the association with the Goddess Neith. Neith-hotep was the first queen of a united Egypt, the wife of Narmer of the First Dynasty circa 3100BCE.)
Neith-hotep (II) Daughter of the King, Irtpa-hat, Great of Praises, Chief of Noble Women. (i.e. Caroline) Eldest twin daughter of Mereneith and Sen-nefer. Her pet name is Miwsher which means Kitten.
Neithnodjmet Daughter of the King, Irtpa-hat, Lady of all Women. (i.e. Cassidy) (Means ‘Sweet one of Neith’) Younger twin daughter of Mereneith and Sen-nefer. Her pet name is Nedjset which means Little One.
Rhea Name of the High Priestess of the Goddess of the same name. (Rhea is the wife of Chronos and mother of the main Olympian Gods. Gave birth to Zeus on Crete. She is noted as a mother-goddess sometimes conflated with Gaia. Certainly known from Minoan times.)
Rusa Andrea’s uncle, regent of the boy Minos, King of Knossos. (A male name noted in Linear B tablets from Crete.)
Satneith Chief Steward of the Great House, Chief of all Royal Scribes , Steward of the Chantresses of Amun, Priestess of Neith and Erpat-hat. (i.e. Emily. J) A constructed name this one means ‘Daughter of Neith’. This type of construction was popular at all levels of Egyptian society. All the titles are real.
Segret Great Royal Nurse, Chief Steward of the Harem, Chief of Royal Beauticians, Priestess of Hathor,( i.e. Serena.) (The word segret means calm and would have been a known name in ancient Egypt. I chose it because of the meaning being similar to serenity. The titles are all known in ancient Egypt.)
Sen-nefer (SetepenHor), General, Commander of the Chariots of North and South, Irtpa-ha, (i.e. Stephen) Mereneiths husband and father of the twins. (deceased before start of story) Name means Beautiful Man - Chosen by Horus
Sesen Chantress of Neith and Hathor. Daughter of a priest of Thoth. (Name means Lily, can you guess who she is? Heh) She is appointed to serve Andrea, as her interpreter and as her beautician.
Sethirkopshef Scribe, Lector Priest of Set, Steward of the god Set’s estates in the north, Troop Commander (i.e. Christian) Name means ‘Set is his Strength’. Great grandson of Pharaoh Amunneferra through his mother.
Werhedjheket - Nsw Bty or throne name of Mereneith. (This means ‘great white ruler’
Setepenamun -‘chosen by amun’). I constructed this as Miranda’s throne name for the obvious reason of her hair colour. In this kind of construction the name after the hyphen is like a middle name and not always used in conjunction with it except in official titulary.)
Full Titulary for Mereneith
Horus Name Nebiseshep - Lord of Light
Nbty (2 ladies) Wahnesytmiraempet - She of the Two Ladies, Enduring in kingship like Ra in heaven
Golden Horus Netjeretkhauamun- Divine Appearance of Amun
Nsw Bty (Praenomen) Werhedjheket - Setepenamun - Great White Ruler- Chosen by Amun
Sat Ra (Nomen) Mereneith - Beloved of Neith (Neferkheperu - beautiful of forms)
General Glossary:
Amun Amun was one of the eight ancient Egyptian gods who formed the Ogdoad of Hermopolis. He was the god of the air and his consort was Amunet. However, during the MK, Amun was adopted by the Theban kings as the King of the gods with Mut as his new consort. He was promoted to the role of main national god by Ahmose I, the first pharaoh of the NK, because the king believed that Amun had helped him drive the Hyksos from Egypt. At this time he was also adopted into the Ennead of Heliopolis when he merged with the ancient sun god Ra to become the new god, Amun-Ra.
Charis Greek for ‘Grace’
First Prophet of North and South. A title for the High Priest of Amun. As Amun was the pre-eminent state deity and king of the gods, so his high priest was the leader of all other priests of all deities in the country.
Helios Ancient Greek deity the god of the Sun. There is no direct evidence that he was worshipped in Minoan times, but he does predate the later solar deity, Apollo who took over many of his characteristics and mythologies.
Hem-Netjer-Tepi Means ‘first servant of the god’, namely the High Priest of a given deity
Horus The name Horus or more properly Heru means "the distant one" or "the one on high". He seems to have begun as a god of war and a sky god who was married to Hathor. However, the situation is confused by the fact that there were many Hawk gods in ancient Egypt and a number of them shared the name Horus. Each "Horus" had his own cult centre and mythology, but eventually they merged and were absorbed by the most popular Horus, Horus of Edfu.. He was the protector and patron of the pharaoh, and was considered to be the royal god even before unification took place. The Pharaoh was often considered to be the embodiment of Horus while alive and Osiris once he was deceased.
‘Hours’ The Egyptians divided the day into 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of night. The length of the hours however varied depending on the time of the year. So in summer the daylight hours although still numbered at 12 were longer than their corresponding hours of darkness. The differences weren’t huge perhaps taking ten minutes off each night hour and tacking them onto the daylight hours.
Irtpa-ha This is an Egyptian title which means ‘Hereditary Prince’.
Irtpa-hat Female form of Irtpa-ha, known from the titular of Nefertiti. So essentially this means ‘Hereditary Princess’.
Keftiu The ancient Egyptian name for the inhabitants of Crete.
Kemet The name for Egypt in ancient Egypt itself, it means ‘the black land.’
Khat The khat was a single coloured (usually white) head-cloth known as a royal head covering from the 1st Dynasty onward. It has been suggested that during the Amarna period queens also wore the khat.
Khol An ancient cosmetic used in Egypt from early pre-dynastic times onward. Made from either galena (lead sulphide) or the sulphide of antimony. Used to darken the eyelids and as a mascara.
Kush In the OK and MK the area of Nubia south of Second Cataract of the Nile in modern Sudan. In the NK it came to refer to the whole of the area south of Aswan at the First Cataract.
Kyria Greek for ‘Lady’
Kyrie Greek for ‘Lord’
Lector Priest This priest had not only to read the texts of the rituals, but in some ceremonies was a kind of prayer leader or choirmaster. From the OK onwards, members of the royal family often had this rank and office.
Mut Mut was the mother goddess of Thebes. She was either depicted as a woman, sometimes with wings, or a vulture, she was often shown wearing the double crown of Egypt or the vulture headdress of the NK queens. Like Neith she was sometimes depicted as a male, one of her epithets was, "Mut, Who Giveth Birth, But Was Herself Not Born of Any". This hermaphroditic depiction was, in part, due to the superstitious belief that there were in fact no male griffon vultures (the male is almost identical in appearance to the female).
Neb Egyptian word for ‘Lord’ equivalent to Kyrie in Minoan.
Nebet Egyptian word for ‘Lady’ equivalent to Kyria in Minoan.
Nubians The inhabitants of both Wawat and Kush. Both of these lands were interchangeably referred to as Ta Sety - the land of the bow and Nubia - The place of gold.
Sem- Priest A high ranking priestly title, the Sem priests were particularly associated with the funerary cult, overseeing the embalming process and the burial ceremony. They were sometimes also priests of other gods or goddesses.
Ureaus : The rearing cobra found on Egyptian royal crowns. It represents the protective goddess of Lower Egypt, Wadjt. It symbolically spit poison at the monarch’s enemies.
Wa’ab The lowest rank of priest in a temple. The word means “pure”.
Wawat Traditional name in the OK and MK for the land between the First and Second Cataracts south of Egypt Proper. During the OK and MK it bordered the powerful kingdom of Kush to the south. It was dotted by a string of 12 great military fortresses to from Buhen in the north to Semna in the south.