www.luisprada.com

 

Back to Index Page

By Luis E. Prada

Egyptian Play, A Tale of Imhotep

Note: Pharaoh Djoser is also known as Zozer.

CHARACTERS:

Sabber and Konozer-Horeb are two priests of the Temple of the Sun at On⁽¹⁾ and close friends.
A vestal virgin and chantress prepares the offering table.

BACKGROUND:

Sabber has been absent to Nubia for almost a year fulfilling a diplomatic mission entrusted by the Pharaoh Akhnaton. Upon arrival he went to the Temple and there he finds his old friend Konozer-Horeb when he had just finished an afternoon offering to the Sun God Aton.

TECHNICIANS:

Play music at proper times and control lights.

COSTUMES:

Both actors will wear Egyptian costumes of lector priests with the following elements: Headdress, collar, sash, bracelets and anklets, bare torso and soft linen kilt with ceremonial apron and sandals. Vestal virgin wears an appropriate Egyptian costume with long linen dress, collar, bracelets, anklets and girdle. Delineated and blue shadowed eyes for makeup.

ACCOUTREMENT:

* The symbol of Aton is shown on the East, a winged solar disk
* Offering table at the East
* Incenser and incense located at the center of the offering table
* Basin with water and white towel cloth
* Bowl with fruits and bouquet of flowers
* A lectern with the lyrics of a song. It is placed at the left of the offering table

TIME AND SCENE:

The scene happens during Akhnaton's time (circa 1350B.C.) before the construction of the city of AkhetAten (today's Tel El Amarna). At the West of the Temple of On the antechamber door opens and a chantress enters the temple carrying on her head a bowl of fruits that she holds with her right hand while with her left carries a white towel cloth and a basin with water that she presses against her hip as she walks. Light is dimmed and a spot light follows her. She looks graceful as she walks toward the offering table. There she places the bowl of fruits to the right and to the left the basin of water and the towel cloth. Then she moves to the center of the table, places some incense in the incenser and lights it. Finally she moves to a temple secluded place and sits unseen.

Technician plays entrance music. The antechamber door opens again and Konozer-Horeb, an orator and chanter priest, enters and walks to the East to the altar of offerings. Light follows the priest. Before positioning at the altar, he removes his sandals and moves to the left to the bowl of water were he makes a sacred ablution of face and hands (the music stops when the ablution starts.) The priest dries his face and hands with the towel cloth and moves to the center of altar.

Temple of the Sun, City of Heliopolis.

KONOZER:

Placed at the center of the altar, he stokes up the incense fire. Lifting the incenser offers the smoke to Aton and says this first Hotep-di-Nesu salutation:

A priestly offering is given to Aton, that sustenance might come forth for the spirit of Konozer-Horeb. ⁽²⁾

Speaking in Egyptian he makes a second Hotep-di-Nesu salutation:

"Hotep-di-Nesu Pa-Aton em Akhet,
peret-kheru ta henket kau apedu,
en ka en remetch nebu em AkhetAten djet er neheh."

After the priest has finished the Egyptian words, the technician plays a recording of their translation given below:

Translation: A royal offering which is given to the Sun Disk in the Horizon,
that there might come forth bread and beer, oxen and fowl,
for the spirit of all the people in AkhetAten for ever and ever.

Placing the incense back on the table, in silence does the offering of the bowl of fruits.

Now looking at the image of the Sun disk, he extends his hands saluting the divinity while recites a prayer in an eloquent way. Technician plays appropriate Egyptian-style music for background:

"How splendidly you arise,
O, Living Aten,
Everlasting Lord,
your love is great and expansive,
your rays illumine every face.
Your brilliance gives life to every heart
when You fill the two lands with your love.

"Most Noble God Who created Himself,
Who made every land and what is in them,
all peoples, herds and flocks,
every tree which grows from the soil,
they live when You dawn for them.
You are the Mother and Father
of all that You have made ... "(3)

Now, Konozer chants AUM three times. When chanting starts, Sabber enters the temple via the West portal and walks in the dim light to the East. After Konozer has finished his chanting bows to the divinity with arms crossed over his breast. Then he turns to find his friend Sabber.

KONOZER:
Sabber! My dear friend! (he crosses his arms over his breast and bows while speaking, Sabber returns the greetings with a similar bow: ) Joy and blessings be unto you. (They approach and embrace each other.) Happy are the eyes that behold you after such a long absence!

SABBER:
Konozer-Horeb! I was absent only in body but not in heart. My thoughts were always with Our Beloved Pharaoh, with you, with the Brethren of the School and our loved ones.

KONOZER:
I hope you will illustrate me about such an important trip and the life in that far Nubian land. I see that you came in one piece too! Did they treat you... friendly?

SABBER:
O yes, they did. I received great honors and respect as a representative of Our Beloved Pharaoh Akhnaton, Live, Prosper and Be Healthy. We will find enough time to discuss all details of my visit to Nubia.

KONOZER:
Surely we will. Sabber, last afternoon while I was walking and meditating by the Nile shore, night came upon me and I saw several campfires made by a group of oarsmen and dragomans. The dragomans had unloaded their cargo and the oarsmen had loaded them in their boats to ferry them up the river. But due to the advance of the hour, the dragomans decided to camp with all the caravan by the shore and wait until early morning to start their trip back to Mennufer(4). Likewise, the oarsmen decided to camp by the shore to part early morning too, while guarding their precious cargo. This cargo consisted of expensive materials such as rings and sheets of gold and silver, alabaster, granite, the finest quality limestone, lapis lazuli and precious green stones to be used in the construction of AkhetAten, "The Horizon of Aten", the new city on the East bank of the Nile in Upper Egypt, facing Un(5) at its West. They also had a collection of gold, silver and bronze statuary and ornaments.

SABBER:
Yes, I am well aware of this project.

KONOZER:
Well ... while passing by, they recognized me as a priest of On and invited me to sit by one of the campfires and partake of their supper. A woman promptly brought a bundle of sheepskins for me to sit on and I was treated with great honor. They asked me questions about the magic in the temple and about how to please Seth and Horus Upon-the-Ways, the gods of the desert and to honor Sobek, the crocodile god, for better fortune during their trips.

After one of the oarsmen had finished his meal, he took a lute and started to sing a love song he had composed. I was so moved by the lyrics and their cadence that, as I finished my dinner, I went to him and asked if he repeat for me those lyrics so I could write them down. This he did while feeling himself so proud to have pleased such an important guest with his art. I pulled out from my purse a papyrus scroll, my quill pen and ink. He again played through that music as I scribbled the verses down. (With humor:) Having paid so much attention to it since then, I have almost memorized it. (Pointing at the solar disk, he says:) So many times the Solar Essence expresses itself through the hearts and minds of the humble people!

SABBER:
Yes, indeed.

KONOZER:
This is an example. Would you like to hear it, dear Sabber?

SABBER:
Please do so, Konozer. (Sabber sits on the steps of the temple by the East to listen).

KONOZER:
Hopefully the gods will clear my voice after all the chanting I have been doing to them in the Temple of the Sun. (This he says with a little humor while moving to the lectern.)

SABBER:
So ... are you still holding the Hery-Khebs(6) position of chanter and orator of the temple hierarchy?

KONOZER:
Yes, I am, until next midsummer.

(Music plays as Konozer sings this song:)

Rosa

Rosa, as is the color that adorns your hair at the break of dawn.
Rosa, the rose, your name, the color and life are all like you.
Rosa, as was the stroke of that first light that painted land and sea.
Color of time and sacred fire, of ancient lands across the sea,
of heavens broken up ... of immensity!

(Pitch change:)

Rosa, afterglow o'er the pyramids and on the Egyptian land.
Rosa, to think 'bout you is to feel that joy ... of felicity!
Rosa, a song that through any desert land just goes along with me,
unhindered heart like is the wind, feeling an inner joy and peace,
with Goddess Nut ... up in the nights ... I see my star.
Beloved lady of my heart, why are not you with me tonight
to see that star ... and feel the throb ... of my heart for you!

(Music)

Rosa, in all the temples and sandy dunes I always search for you.
I call to you, you hear my plea when I'm afar, away from you,
what is the star ... that now you are ... gazing up?
Unfolding soul of love and peace ... of misty immortality,
the rose, your name and the color, always you!
Color of time and sacred fire, of ancient lands across the sea,
of heavens broken up ... of immensity!

Too-roo-roo humm humm... too-roo-roo humm humm ... too-roo-roo humm humm ... (7)

(Humming to music as it fades away.)

SABBER:
That was good!

KONOZER:
Well, it's the song, I told you, it is good. (He expresses it modestly.)

SABBER:
The song and your talent.

KONOZER:
(Konozer joins Sabber by sitting on the stairs.)

When we leave the temple I will send an acolyte to my home to tell my wife of your arrival. Will you join our family for dinner, so I may ask her to prepare a baked fish with boiled squash and onions as you like. And date cake for dessert! Will you? ... we purchased yesterday several vessels of good date wine ...

SABBER:
That sounds delicious. Certainly I will. And I may tell your family stories of those far lands I just visited.

KONOZER:
Aha!, (pause ... says pensively:) Sabber, tell me a story on the life of Imhotep, you know how much I enjoyed learning from you about such a great sage of a bygone time. In the past, you used to tell me about him, about his skills in constructing the ren of Djoser or step pyramid at Saqqarah ... about the techniques he used to build the underground labyrinth of galleries and corridors to keep the king's burial site secret ... about his miraculous healing powers ...

SABBER:
Certainly. (Inspired he says:) Imhotep was born as any other child, but when very young was taken by the gods away. After many years and during the third year of the reign of Djoser, Imhotep returned from the abode of the gods. His family rejoiced. His skin had turned very dark and he had dark-blue symbols at the back of his head, some say these symbols gave him his divine powers.

After his return, Imhotep asked and insisted for an audience with the King. At that time, the Pharaoh Djoser was in a bad mood, since he was troubled by festering teeth and had lost many of them through decay making it almost impossible to eat. Since Imhotep's appearance was strange, the king did not beat him or even kill him for daring to insist in a royal audience when the king was in such a mood. Imhotep asked to be left alone with the Pharaoh. When the court returned, they found the king in good spirit, his bad teeth were no longer bothering him and within a week he grew another full set of teeth.(8)

KONOZER:
A new set of teeth? Wow! ... Wow! (Konozer touches his cheeks while moving his lower jaw and says:) I wish Imhotep were still around to work on mine!

SABBER:
Since that incident, Imhotep and King Djoser were hardly ever separated. He gained such ascendancy before the Pharaoh that he dared to tell the king that he could not and would not perform his magic at the king's command. He was honored with the titles of First of the King's Household and Grand Vizier.

Let me recite for you this hymn to Imhotep, an archaic composition written in a new style and engraved in Temple of Ptah in Karnak.
(He stands up and says with eloquence:)

And for now, don't forget your promise of the dinner. I think I need it (he places an open hand on his stomach.)

KONOZER:
O certainly not! (Konozer raises followed by Sabber and moves to put his sandals back on while speaking:) Let's go to the room annex to the hypostyle hall. I will show you the script of a drama I am writing for the coming series of initiation ceremonies in the Temple of On while we wait to be called for dinner. I have been told that a good number of postulants are pleading admittance into our mysteries ... some are coming from as far as the Helens and Summer. (As they walk to the West door the spot light follows them and exit music sounds. They open the door and enter into the antechamber.)

The vestal virgin approaches the left of the table and takes the water basin and the towel cloth. She holds them with her left hand while pressing the basin against her hip and walks toward the West portal. She enters the antechamber. Exit music may continue while actors return to stage to bow and acknowledge the audience applause.

END OF THE EGYPTIAN PLAY

1. Also known as An, the City of the Sun, called Heliopolis by the Greeks. The Temple of the Sun was called in Egyptian Hwt-Benben.
2. Five Fascinating Artifacts, by Lynn Holden, Egyptologist and Ex-curator of the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, published by the Rosicrucian Digest, 1996, No. 3. Here I have paraphrased the famous Hotep-di-Nesu formula. The second Hotep-di-Nesu formula in Egyptian and its translation was given to me by Dr. Holden. Here I want to express special thanks to him for his historical contributions to this play.
3. Interactive Ancient Egypt, in CD-ROM by Lynn Holden. The translation here is by Dr. Holden.
4. Memphis.
5. Hermopolis.
6. Arcadia, Studies in Ancient Wisdom, by Peter Dawkins, published by The Francis Bacon Research Trust. See Part I: Chapter The Egyptian Mysteries of Initiation, Section "The Offices", pages 62 through 66. In this book the chanter position is called Odos, here I am using its equivalent Egyptian name.
7. This song uses the music of the Spanish song "Rosa" sang by the Italian singer Nicola Di Bari. The star referred to here is Septet or Sopdet (Sirius).
8. ET Connections Through Alien Eyes, Part 3, by Wesley H. Bateman, Federation Telepath, Chapter Imhotep, published by in the magazine Sedona, Journal of Emergence, Vol. 6, No. 6, June 1996, P.O. Box 1526, Sedona, AZ 86339, U.S.A.
9. Ancient Egyptian Literature, Vol. III, by Miriam Lichtheim, published by the University of California Press, Berkeley, 1980, Part I, Chapter IV: "Hymns and Lamentations", page 105. The text given here was adapted by Lynn Holden from various places of Lichtheim's translation.