A book narrated by a god...

[onager]

No, not one of those childish "only worship ME-ME-ME" monotheistic gods.

This book is narrated by Thoth, the ibis-headed scribe of the Egyptian gods. He starts right out by lambasting his readers as a bunch of dummies:

'Your ignorance is disgraceful - disgraceful - and the only Pharoah you have ever heard of is the feeble Tutankhamen! Truly, Thoth will have to teach you everything.'

And boy, does ol' Thoth have a story to tell us:

"Thoth will tell this great forgotten story of how the Greeks were Kings and Pharaohs of Egypt for ten generations. And thou shalt weep, and thy hair shall stand up upon its ends, if thou hast any hair, Reader, for this story drips with blood from end to end: it is like a shower of blood, horrible and marvelous at the same time. Read then, Reader, and be horrified. Read, and be delighted."

Thought I'd post this as a follow-on to the Hypatia thread, since it deals with the history of Alexandria and the founding of the Great Library etc.

The quotes are from Duncan Sprott's historical novel "House of the Eagle." This was the first in a proposed quartet of books about the reign of the Ptolemies in Egypt, followed by its sequel "Daughter of the Crocodile." But the first two books didn't sell very well, I guess, so the series ended after the second book.

These are huge, sprawling novels that came complete with maps, genealogies, and lots of other supplementary data that you'll need to keep track of the players and events.

But boy, are they a fun read! This is "Ancients Behaving Badly" on a grand scale, and Sprott really dishes all the dirt.

Consider Arsinoe Beta, who would have HATED that name, since that woman wasn't anybody's "Beta." She was the daughter of Ptolemy I Soter, founder of the dynasty.

Even the staid old Brittanica.com notes that the teen-aged Arsinoe was married off to a 70-something-year-old sugar daddy, Lysimachus of Thrace. But she really wanted to be queen of Egypt. Which she engineered by bumping off her brother's wife (that was Arsinoe Alpha) and marrying him. That's why her bro went down in history as Ptolemy II Philadelphus - "sister-lover."

Duncan Sprott is no James Michener or Philippa Gregory, but he gets the job done.

Link to the Amazon reviews below. Note that "House of the Eagle" was republished under the title "The Ptolemies," and they are the same book:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Ptolemies-Novel-Duncan-Sprott/dp/1400075106

PS - for a more "serious" look at the Ptolemies, try Stacy Schiff's "Cleopatra - A Life." Schiff won me over completely a few pages into that book, when she wrote (from memory): "Cleopatra probably looked about as Egyptian as Elizabeth Taylor..."

[mr blur]

1. Excellent, will look those out (nt)

[Curmudgeoness]

2. Sounds like an interesting book.

I read a lot of books about subjects I know little about....and I know nothing about ancient Egypt.

And that this is narrated by a god makes it irresistible.

[onager]

3. Here's a happy coincidence!

Just this afternoon I was browsing in a used book store and found: "The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt" by Toby Wilkinson, published in 2010. Had to have it, though I need another book like I need another appendix. Only $3.00 for the hardback.

Obviously haven't read any of it yet, but it looks good and Wilkinson is certainly an expert. He has written several other books about ancient Egyptian history and is the editor of a scholarly journal on the subject. So you might want to look for that one too, if you're interested in learning more on the topic.

Here's an Amazon link about it:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Rise-Fall-Ancient-Egypt/dp/0553384902

Yeah, those Duncan Sprott books are just a real blast to read. Be warned that they're as addictive as potato chips and hard to put down, once you get started reading. You can probably find them cheap at used-book stores.

I remember one funny part, after Ptolemy I becomes the Official Pharaoh. That means his family has to take on all the Egyptian religious trappings, whether they like it or not. And his wife Berenike certainly does not like it. One of her new titles is "Hathor, The Great Cow," after that Egyptian goddess. So here's a rational, intelligent woman, very annoyed that suddenly she has become the human symbol of "a stupid animal that stands around in its own shit."

[Curmudgeoness]

4. I have to agree with Berenike.

I'd be pissed too. Cows really are stupid. Makes you wonder why the Egyptians bothered to revere a cow.

[sakabatou]

5. I thought the Book of Thoth wasn't real

does it actually exist?

[onager]

6. Not as far as I know.

A quick search tells me there were several books supposedly "written by" the god Thoth in ancient Egyptian times and called "Book of Thoth."

I'd guess those are about as realistic as the holy books written by Elijah, Moses, Joseph Smith, L. Ron Hubbard, etc.

This doesn't claim to be a Book of Thoth. The author Duncan Sprott simply uses Thoth as the narrator of his novel.

Sprott's second novel in the series, "Daughter of the Crocodile," is narrated by Thoth's wife - Sheshat, the ancient Egyptian goddess of architecture and mathematics. Both sciences come in handy since the book describes the building of the Pharos Lighthouse.

[sakabatou]

7. OK