5.01 King Netjerkare Siptah
Transcript:
In the year after the thirty-first count of his glorious reign, after the arrival of Hapi for the sixty-third consecutive time, on the twentieth day of the first month of Peret, King Pepi the second left our world to sit on Osiris’s throne and rule over the living.
He ruled long and prosperous, strengthening Egyptian footholds in Byblos and establishing various caravan routes with Nubia and the oases of The Western Desert. It was an age of stability and wealth. His eternal wisdom graced upon his people good fortunes and plentiful harvests.
Alas, by the time Anubis came for his earthly body, King Pepi’s long reign had overcome the lives of most of his prospective successors. His last years were an excellent opportunity for the nomarchs, the rulers of the 42 nomes of Egypt, to extend their influence. To overreach and grab powers that were divinely granted only for The Pharaoh himself. One of them had even started to build a pyramid for himself. They bribed false priests that in exchange gave them the holy word of the gods.
King Pepi had only two children left, a son and a daughter. The son was soon to become our glorious King Merenre the second.
King Merenre was, like his father and grandfather before him, a fierce and righteous king. He curbed the ever-growing powers of the nomes. His first order was to gather all the nomarchs from the 42 nomes that constitute The Egyptian Kingdom in a meeting. After they travelled from their respective seats of power, King Merenre refused to meet them. He then ordered that they can’t leave the white walls of Menefer without his permission. They begged for his holy presence day after day, and he only accepted after 40 days.
The nomarchs would enter his royal court one by one, kneel in front of him, pledge their nome’s allegiance to The Pharaoh, and beg him to go home and rule in his name. Forty-One nomarchs did that. And the one that didn’t, the nomarch on Imty-Khenty, he paid for his sin. The Pharaoh, by his holy self, led an army North East to PerBast and besieged it for a month, until its nomarch came to him crawling. With his graciousness, he stripped that local governor of his titles and ordered his execution. He then gave the title of nome to the eldest son of that ruling family, they had been loyal to the throne for generations, so they had to be kept satisfied.
The same war that King Merenre declared on the emerging powers of the nomarchs, he proclaimed on the priests. The main temple in Menefer, of Ptah master of justice, was led by a vicious gang of priests that had used the false words of the gods to enrich themselves and gain more and more power. They had controlled the harvest of wheat in the whole country, skimming what they skimmed for themselves, in the name of Ptah lord of the truth, who is above what they do. The high priest Sabu was even the last vizier in the age of King Pepi the second.
King Merenre had no chance. He was fighting those battles on every frontier. A few of the nomarchs united and decided to give the capital a significantly less harvest, feigning a decline in The Nile flood as an excuse. The priests, who held control over the flood measures in most the kingdom, had conspired to falsify numbers to The Pharaoh.
Citizens of the capital grew angry day by day. It started by the nobles in the royal court, then crept onto the commoners. Priests began spreading rumours that The Pharaoh had kept all of the harvest to the army to keep its leaders happy. Then one day, King Merenre’s convoy was on its way to The Great Temple of Ptah when an elderly commoner stepped out of the crowd, running, begging The Pharaoh for sustenance. When the guards saw him approach the convoy, they did not think twice. To this day, years later, it’s said that the head of the guards was bribed by the priests to use excess power.
By the time the convoy reached the temple, news had broken out of what had happened. Commoners from all over Menefer gathered around the gates of the temple, shouting at guards of The Pharaoh. King Merenre had taken onto the sanctuary of the temple, The Holy of Holies, where he bunkered in with his guards. This was, in the point of view of the priests, sacrilegious. The Holy of Holies was meant only for The Pharaoh and the highest of priests.
It’s said that in the hours the King was barricaded in the sanctuary he went mad. Those are, however, only rumours. He did not ask for The High Priest’s head, he did not have his way with His Queen for the last time, nor did he relieve himself in The Holy of Holies. Those were mere lies the priests had spread within the slowly boiling crowd that gathered in front of the temple.
They overpowered the last of the guards that were holding the gates. The crowd of commoners entered into The Great Temple of Ptah and, after being joined by a mob of angry priests, the mob made way to The Pharaoh. His earthly body was defiled. They did not leave his heart intact, leaving him nothing to offer Maat to weigh her feather against in the afterlife.
King Merenre the second had no heirs, except his sister. She was the sole heir of the dynasty, a fragile woman that lost her father and elder brother recently, and was a perfect puppet for the priests and nomes. The day her brother was killed, she tried to escape from Menefer and head to Imentet, where her maternal grandfather ruled. She was caught. Her handmaiden, who had helped her escape, was killed in front of her. Then she was taken over to the seat of The High Priest, Sabu.
There she had to kneel in front of the false representative of the gods. She had to apologize for her brother’s demeanour. The High Priest, Sabu, told her that he’s sad for her loss. That King Merenre was, like his father before him, a great king. But he made some avoidable mistakes that led to all of this happening. It was his fault that the capital is now in utter chaos. That she can help them amend Merenre’s mistakes instead of being a liability. Sabu told her that she will be crowned Pharaoh as the last of her royal family. That she would be crowned King Netjerkare Siptah the first, but for that she would have to get rid of her effeminate looks. She would have to go out to the public as a man. But still, let the real men rule the country in her name. No one knew as much about the royal family except the highest of priests and the noblest of nobles who were behind those plans, they just needed someone with a resemblance to the royal family to play the part.
It took less than two days to restore order to the capital. It was as if the guards were already there all of the time, just refusing to act. It was announced that great King Neitiqerty the first would be crowned in a matter of 15 days. That he, being a gracious and kind king, would undo the wrongdoings of his predecessor and grant the public an enormous amount of gifts for this joyous occasion.
The new King spent the days behind closed doors. The priests and nomarchs gained all the powers in the country, while she was locked away in her royal palace surrounded by loyalist guards to The High Priest. On occasions, when The Pharaoh’s presence was needed, or on religious festivals, She, King Neiteqierty would don the costume of The Pharaoh, wear the fake golden beard, and become shown off to the public.
This act went on for a year, every day passing proving to be a satisfying parade of her obedience and fear of the priests and nomarchs. All of the harvest had been controlled by them, leaving breadcrumbs to the royal court. The state of commoners was not getting better either, but the horns of priests were playing to the tone of the humble and gracious Pharaoh, doing all he can to satisfy the needs of his people.
King Netjerkare understood full well the role of the royal court in governing the kingdom, none. Pharaoh is just a front for thieves and lords. For the rich to become even wealthier, and for the noble to stay apart from the commoners. And in every chance she got, she reminded The High Priest that she understood her part loud and clear.
On the first days of Shemu, the commoners were gathered in The Great Temple of Ptah to celebrate the beginning of the harvest season, offering the gods gifts of salted fish and onions. The Pharaoh was in attendance, and after finishing her parts of the ceremony, she leaned down to The High Priest and asked for a private conversation with him. They finished the religious proceedings and retired to his chambers, where King Neiteqrity asked him to let her build a temple in the name of the god Ptah that she was named after. She told him that she knows that the limited funds that the royal court has will not do the temple justice, but that would be the least she could do to atone for her brother’s wrongdoings.
Sabu was wary of her intentions. Nevertheless, he accepted. He knew that such an offering would show the nomarchs how much control the priests have over The Pharaoh, which would solidify their powers even more. She was filled with joy. Excited, yet thankful to The High Priest who gave her this opportunity. She told him that she’ll put the royal architect to the job, to scout for a location, and set the plans. She promised him that by the time the nomarchs gather in Menefer to present their harvests, she would be breaking the ground on the new temple.
Indeed, two months later, when they gathered in Menefer for the annual gathering of harvests, limited work had been started. King Netjerkare had chosen lands on the southern edge of the capital to build the new temple. Those had been shallow marshlands that were dried up by her great-great-grandfather, King Pepi the first. He built a dam along the streams feeding into those marshes years before, to construct a temple there. But his soul had left for the next world before he could see it happen.
In a letter to The High Priest, she said that this temple was a continuum of the work her generous family had done for the gods. She also asked him if he would bless the work they were doing there by taking the nomarchs on a visit, to show them her commitment to her role as Pharaoh in this new order. This was the opportunity Sabu was waiting for to show off his new grip over The Pharaoh. To prove to the nomarchs that no one in Egypt now has more power than the religious establishment that could turn on them one by one if need be.
A great convoy of the powerful men of Egypt headed towards the site of the new temple. The High Priest accompanied by his entourage of the 12 highly ranked priests, and nomarchs from the forty-two nomes of Egypt along with their aides. They went over there from The Great Temple of Ptah, a two-hour journey to the outskirts of the city. When they reached there, The Pharaoh himself and his royal architect were waiting for them.
The architect started explaining the various plans he had put for the temple to The High Priest, who noticed that only 41 nomarchs had arrived at the site of the temple. He dismissed that quickly as an effect of the scorching heat in these dry lowlands. After the architect had finished, The Pharaoh stood up to address the crowd. A soft rumbling sound was coming from far away.
It is said that The Pharaoh had taken off her crown and threw it on the ground. She took off her fake golden beard, and her white linen clothes, to the astonishment of the small crowd of nomarchs, priests, and nobles. The rumbling grew louder.
She started screaming at them, in an eerily, calm voice. She started reminding them of what they did to her brother. Chaos began to break, The High Priest ordered the guards to stop her. She shouted. Reminding them of what they did to her brother, killing him with their lies. They spread the false words of the gods into the ears of his murderers. They conspired to turn the commoners against him. They fought him, and they stole from him. The rumbling sound became so loud that everyone was trying to figure out where it came from instead of listening to the half-naked shouting woman pharaoh.
She told them that she had destroyed the dams. That the water would come for them now. For all of them. That Hapi, the god of The Nile, is coming. Coming to cleanse this world from the false words that were said in her name. That she was coming to take back what was rightfully hers, the fortunes that she gave to this country that those nomarchs stole.
Queen Netjerkare laughed hysterically while noblemen and fat priests scrambled around trying to flee the scene, but the whole area would be flooded in a matter of minutes.
Queen Netjerkare rid the lands of the false priests and the corrupt nomarchs that had killed her brother. She knew that she couldn’t withstand other conspirators coming for her life after this, so she committed suicide at the same time. She thought she’d be saving the country from those corrupt men that caused those difficult times, only to pave the road for more corrupt men and more difficult times.
It started with her grandfather, the nome of Imentet, who declared himself King over the whole country. After that seventy kings ruled the country for seventy days. An oligarchy took control of Menefer, and it lost control of the rest of the country. Egypt has been in a state of chaos until today.
Music:
Desert Caravan - Aaron Kenny
Arab Egypt Music Theme - Free Music TV
The Anunnaki Return - Jesse Gallagher
Spirit of Fire - Jesse Gallagher
Al-Atlal - Ghalia BenAli
