Saturday, March 31, 2018

EGYPT and the FATAL FEMALE in Literature




For me, as an author of fiction, ancient Egypt is inextricably bound up with the fatal female.

The mysterious, alluring female of Egypt was the most deadly and ruthless of the species and had a long history to prove it. 

The tradition of dangerous ancient Egyptian womanhood in literature goes back to ancient Egyptian texts such as the Tale of Setne-Khamwas. 

In the story, the young prince broke into the tomb of a magician and stole the forbidden Book of Thoth. Then he meets the seductress Tabubu, a great beauty who demands that he forsake his family before being allowed to enjoy her charms.

Setne said to Tabubu: "Let us accomplish what we have come here for! All the things that you have said, I have done them all for you."
She said to him:
"Come now to this storehouse."
Setne went to the storehouse.
He lay down on a couch of ivory and ebony, his wish about to be fulfilled.
Tabubu lay down beside Setne.
He stretched out his hand to touch her, and she opened her mouth wide in a loud cry.
Setne awoke in a state of great heat, his phallus in a (corpse) and there were no clothes on him at all...

Another example is the treacherous wife of Potiphar who tempts Joseph in the biblical story.

The narrative thread of dangerous females twists like a serpent down the length of Egypt's long history.

An early queen Nitocris, who was possibly the first female pharaoh, set a trap for her enemies by inviting them to a feast in a subterranean banquet hall secretly linked to the Nile, which, at the height of celebrations, she flooded, drowning them all. 

The snaky schemer Cleopatra continued the tradition of seduction and perfidy.

Then there is the mysterious Egyptian feminine in modern fiction.

I first discovered the fatal female of ancient Egypt in literature in Sinuhe, The Egyptian by Mika Waltari.

Her name was Nefernefernefer, a name that no man could hear without saying again...

I suppose I owe a great debt to the tradition of Egypt's fatal females in my own fiction - including the mysterious Sesheshet in HUNTING HATHOR and Isis in THE EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY MURDERS.



Saturday, March 24, 2018

THE SARCOPHAGUS. Egypt archaeology adventure, mystery, fantasy.

New issue on AMAZON KINDLE




Adventure, mystery, fantasy. An archaeologist with a bow shoots an arrow into adventure...
In the modern age, Ryder an archaeologist in Egypt discovers a mysterious empty sarcophagus in a tomb.
Then his Egyptologist partner Janet goes missing.
He vows to go after her, even if it means journeying across the boundaries of reason and existence. Ahead of Ryder and his dog lies a pre-dynastic realm of myth: the mysterious Mistress of the Bow and Ruler of Arrows, the evil Lord Set, legions of animal-headed creatures, the venerable bird-man, the child Horus. And key to it all is the quest for the magical amulets of power. A life-and-death struggle is on at the edge of time. And the universe watches - and waits.

Monday, March 19, 2018

The pleasure of ruins for an Egypt mystery writer


Fringes of Karnak Temple, Egypt. 

One of my 'pleasure of ruins' photos taken in Egypt that get my mystery thriller writer's juices going!

Monday, March 5, 2018

Hathor-Sekhmet, ancient Egypt's Lady of Destruction and Love, in "Hunting Hathor"




They ate. She ate lustily, like one fighting to regain her strength. He wondered if she brought the same amiable appetite to all her pleasures. She drained her cup twice and refilled it and filled it again. She drank that too and offered him more, but he covered the mouth of his cup.

 She looked disappointed.

“Does the good bowman not unstring his bow at night to relax it?”

“I must stay alert,” he said.

“Do you hunt at night?”

“Sometimes. But I must always take care I am not the hunted one.”

“What is it that you hunt, beautiful man? Other than poor helpless girls in the reeds who cannot hide their nakedness."

“I'm hunting for the cat of destruction,” he said. “I am here to end her rampage.”

“You - hunting a goddess?” She was astonished. “With a bow and arrow? You come to hunt a goddess and you ended up bagging me. Don't be disappointed though. Maybe you found her after all. Maybe I am the goddess. Who knows what she looks like? Who has seen her and lived?” She gave a playful growl, pretending to be Sekhmet Hathor.

She was tiddly, strong beer acting on an empty stomach, he guessed.

“Don't joke about the cat of destruction.”