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On my end, I ve gotten closer to the secretary of state;
we re almost friends. If things work out as I plan, he ll
advance your career.
310 Christian Jacq
Your reputation in Asia is solid, Shaanar. Ramses is an
unknown quantity.
As soon as anything important happens, let me know.
forty-five
n the tenth year of his reign, Seti decided it was time he
Iled Ramses through a crucial rite of passage, although
the crown prince was only eighteen. He would never be able
to rule unless he was initiated into the mysteries of Osiris.
Pharaoh would have preferred to wait and watch his son
mature, but fate might not permit him that luxury. So
despite the potential shock to the young man s system, Seti
decided to take him to Abydos.
Abydos was where Seti had built the largest temple in all
of Egypt, a monument to Osiris, murdered by his brother
Set. Being named for Set associated Seti with terrifying
forces of destruction, which he transformed into the power
of resurrection, just as the murderous Set carried the divine
light of Osiris on his back for all eternity.
Walking behind his father, Ramses passed through the
first monumental gateway. In the courtyard, two priests
Ramses: The Son of Light 311
purified his hands and feet in a stone basin. They passed a
sacred well, then came to the facade of the inner sanctuary.
Before each sculpted likeness of the king as Osiris were
floral arrangements and baskets full of food.
This is the home of light, Seti revealed.
The doors, made of cedar of Lebanon and gilded with
electrum, seemed like a barrier.
Do you wish to go further?
Ramses nodded.
The doors opened.
A white-robed priest with a shaved head bade him bow
down. As soon as he walked onto the silver floor, he felt
himself gliding on a wave of incense into another world.
Seti had placed a statue of the goddess Ma at before each of
the seven chapels, symbolizing the sum of all offerings.
Then he led his son down the Gallery of Lists, where the
name of every pharaoh was carved, beginning with Menes,
the unifier of the Two Lands.
They are dead, said Seti, but their ka lives on and will
guide your actions. As long as heaven exists, so will this
temple. Here, you will commune with the gods and learn
their secrets. Take care of their dwelling place. Make their
light shine.
Father and son read the columns of hieroglyphs. They
ordered the pharaoh to draw up plans for temples, the
kingly prerogative since the dawn of time. When the gods
were happy with their places of worship, the earth would
reflect their joyous light.
The names of your ancestors are written forever in the
starry sky, declared Seti. Their annals are the millions of
years. Govern according to the Law, place it in your heart,
for it is what binds all forms of life.
312 Christian Jacq
One scene stunned Ramses: an adolescent boy roping a
wild bull, with Pharaoh s help! The decisive moment in his
life had been captured in stone, an experience each future
king had shared, unaware that he was stepping into his lim-
itless destiny.
The prince followed Seti out of the temple and up a
slope to a grove of trees.
The tomb of Osiris; few people have ever seen it.
They went down an underground flight of stairs,
through a long, arched passageway whose inscriptions
named the gates to the netherworld. A sharp bend to the
left brought them to an extraordinary sight: ten massive pil-
lars supporting the roof of the shrine rose from an artifi-
cial island in a subterranean lake.
Osiris is reborn each year when his mysteries are cele-
brated, within this giant sarcophagus. It is identical to the
primeval mound emerging from the ocean of energy when
the One became Two, taking thousands of shapes while still
remaining One. This invisible ocean gave rise to the Nile,
the inundation, the dew, the rain, the wellspring. It sur-
rounds the universe, surrounds our world, so the bark of
the sun may sail in it. Immerse yourself in this ocean, that
your spirit may step beyond the visible world and draw
strength from that which has neither beginning nor end.
The next night, Ramses was initiated into the mysteries
of Osiris.
He drank cool water from the invisible ocean and ate
wheat that sprang from the risen body of Osiris, then was
dressed in fine linen for the procession of the faithful, led
Ramses: The Son of Light 313
by a priest in a jackal mask. Set s henchmen blocked their
way, determined to slay them and do away with Osiris for
good. A ritual battle ensued, to eerie music. In the role of
Horus, Osiris s son and heir, Ramses enacted the son of
light beating back the hounds of hell, even as his father died
in the fighting.
His faithful carried him at once to the sacred mound and
began a vigil led by priestesses, including Queen Tuya,
embodying Isis, called Great of Magic, the consort of
Osiris. Her incantations would retrieve the scattered remnants
of her husband s body so the slain god could be resurrected.
Each word that came from her mouth on this sacred night
was stamped in Ramses heart. It was not his mother offici-
ating, but a goddess. His spirit was drawn into the heart of
the mysteries of resurrection, and several times he wavered on
the brink of losing all contact with the human world, dis-
solving into the great beyond. But he emerged victorious
from this inconceivable combat, his body and soul intact.
Ramses stayed several weeks in Abydos. He meditated
beneath tall trees by the sacred lake. Here the bark of
Osiris, built not by human hands but by light, would sail
during his Mysteries. The crown prince spent hours at the
Stairway of the Great God. Nearby stood stones bearing
the names of those Osiris found to be just when he passed
judgment over them. Their souls took the form of birds
with human heads and returned in pilgrimage to Abydos,
where the priests brought them daily offerings.
He was allowed to view the temple s hoard of gold, silver,
royal linen, statues, holy oils, incense, wine, honey, unguents,
314 Christian Jacq
and vases. Ramses was intrigued by the storerooms, where
food produced on the temple s dependent estates was
received and ritually cleansed before it was redistributed to
the general population. Steers, fatted cows, calves, goats, and
fowl were also blessed. Some animals were kept for the
temple barnyard, most sent back to the neighboring villages.
It had been decreed in Year Four of Seti s reign that each
man employed by the temple must know his duty and never
veer from it; consequently, every worker at Abydos was pro-
tected from abuses of power, forced labor, and the draft.
The vizier, judges, ministers, mayors, and provincial offi-
cials had been ordered to respect and enforce this decree.
All that belonged to Abydos boats, livestock, land
could never be taken away. The local farmers, stockmen,
vintners, and other growers lived in peace under the twofold
protection of Pharaoh and Osiris. Seti published his decree
all over the country, even as far as Nauri in the Nubian
desert, where it was strikingly carved on a stone in letters
twice a man s height. Whoever tried to encroach on temple
lands or commandeer its personnel would have his nose or
ears cut off and get two hundred lashes.
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