Spring 2019–Winter 2020

The Dream Stela at Giza

The sphinx and the prince

Tom Hare

A hieroglyph of a seated figure thinking.

Dream
When the prince was still young … he used to pass his time and entertain himself in the Memphis hills on the north-south route, shooting arrows into copper targets, hoofing it after lions and desert game, and taking his chariot for a spin.
A hieroglyph of a horse.

His horses were fleeter than the wind and he went in the company of this one or that from his entourage, and no one found out about it.

A hieroglyph of a carriage.

One of those days, what the king’s boy Thutmose did was take his chariot out for a ride at midday; he went off for a break in the shade of the sphinx. Sleep took hold of him at the moment when the sun was at its zenith, and he found that the Majesty of this Noble God addressed him Himself, from His own mouth, as a father to his son,

Hieroglyphs of hands, eyes, an a stick-like form.

And He said, “Look at me, Thutmose, and see me, my boy. I am your Father, Horemakhet-Khepri-Re-’n-Atum. I will give you my dominion on earth as foremost of the living. You will lift up the crowns of the south and the north, and ascend the throne of Lord Geb; the land will be yours, in all the extent and breadth that the brightening eye of the Universal Lord illumines, and provisions will be yours from within the land as well as wonderful things from abroad, and as the span of your days, a great many years.

A hieroglyph of a figure holding out it’s hand, and a floating head.

My countenance is yours, and My heart is yours, and you are Mine. But look here at My situation: besieged from every direction, My body scattered hither and yon; the desert sand that I used to perch on now comes right in all around Me. Run to Me here so that I can set you to do what I have in mind. This much I know: you are My son and My guardian, so come up close. You see, here I am with you, I am to be your guide.”

Hieroglyphs of three amphorae and a smaller vase on legs.

Once he had concluded this address, the prince stood there astonished at this [text missing] that he had heard. … He understood what the God had said, and it settled a silence over his mind, … and he said, “Come on, let’s get back to our place in the city and set aside some offerings for this God, so they can provide Him with veal and vegetables, and give praise 
to those who came before us.”

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