The Bentresh Stela

Author: Traditional

Time Period: 999 BCE–1 BCE

Country or Culture: Egypt

Genre: Myth

PLOT SUMMARY

The Bentresh stela is a stone monument that was discovered near the site of the temple of Khonsu in Karnak. It is carved with the myth of the princess and the demon. In this story, Ramses II travels to Mitanni, which the ancient Egyptians call “Naharin,” to receive royal tribute. There, the prince of Bekhten presents him with many gifts, the greatest among them being his eldest daughter. The king, pleased with her beauty, gives her the name Neferure (Neferu-Ra), which means “the beauty of Ra (Re),” and the title of Great Royal Wife. Ramses then returns to Egypt.

Soon after his return, a messenger from the prince of Bekhten arrives. He informs Ramses that Neferure’s younger sister, Bentresh (Bent-reshy), is very ill and beseeches the king to send a wise man to help her. Ramses dispatches a learned man known as Tehuti-em-heb from the House of Life; however, upon arriving and seeing Bentresh, Tehuti-em-heb realizes that she is possessed by a hostile spirit and is far beyond his power to heal. He sends a message to the king that he needs the power of the god Khonsu, known as the Expeller of Demons.

Ramses heeds his words and goes to the temple of Khonsu in Thebes to perform a ritual. He and his courtiers take the statue known as Khonsu in Thebes Neferhotep, the leading manifestation of the god Khonsu, and set it in front of the statue known as Khonsu the Expeller of Demons (also called Khonsu the Plan Maker or Khonsu the Provider). Ramses instructs the statue of Khonsu in Thebes Neferhotep to send Khonsu the Expeller of Demons to Bekhten to assist Bentresh, and the statue nods twice in assent. Ramses asks Khonsu in Thebes Neferhotep to grant Khonsu the Expeller of Demons his protection, and again the statue nods twice. The king sends the statue of Khonsu the Expeller of Demons to Bekhten, accompanied by a royal retinue.

The statue of Khonsu arrives in Bekhten and is immediately taken to Bentresh. The statue performs a protection spell over her, and the demon that has been possessing Bentresh is cast out of her body. The demon acknowledges Khonsu as his master and tells Khonsu that he will bow to Khonsu’s wishes and leave if the prince of Bekhten holds a holy day with a feast and sacrifice. Khonsu agrees, and the prince of Bekhten throws a lavish celebration in honor of the demon. The demon is satisfied and leaves.

The prince of Bekhten, however, is worried that the demon could return and that he may need Khonsu’s impressive power again, so he keeps the statue rather than send it back to Khonsu’s temple in Egypt, where it belongs. Over three years pass, until one night, the prince has a dream in which the god Khonsu emerges from his shrine in the form of a hawk and flies off in the direction of Egypt. The prince of Bekhten awakens and realizes that his dream was a sign that Khonsu wants the statue returned to Egypt. He swiftly sends the statue back, along with many gifts to appease the gods. Khonsu the Expeller of Demons returns to Thebes and gives Khonsu in Thebes Neferhotep all of the riches he acquired in Bekhten.

SIGNIFICANCE

This Egyptian myth is from a sandstone tablet known as the Bekhten stela, which was discovered in 1829. While the stela used in translations of the myth was likely carved around 300 BCE, traces of an earlier version have been unearthed in the courtyard of the Temple of Khonsu in Karnak. The king in this story has not been historically identified, but King Ramses in the myth is believed to be Ramses II, also called Ramesses the Great, who reigned as the third pharaoh of Egypt from 1279 BCE until 1213 BCE. The figure of Neferure is likely based on Ramses II’s wife Maat-hor-neferure, a Hittite princess. There is also significant evidence that Egypt and its neighbors often exchanged physicians and healing statues; at one point, Maat-hor-neferure’s father, Hattusili III, requested that Ramses II send him a physician, though it was in order to help the king’s sister become pregnant rather than to free his daughter from a demon.

It is widely believed that the myth recorded on the Bentresh stela is a product of the priests of Khonsu, who devised this story as a means to increase the perceived influence of the god Khonsu and spread his worship. Khonsu was a god of the moon and was often considered the son of the god Amen (Amun) and the goddess Mut. Khonsu was associated with fertility, virility, and youth, and he was often depicted as a mummified youth. He was also known for bestowing prophecies and visions and was sometimes known as the Lord of Truth. A carving from the Bentresh tablet shows the two shrines of Khonsu facing each other as part of the ritual described in the myth. The statue of the god Khonsu the Expeller of Demons referred to in this myth was likely one of two alternative aspects of the main god, the other one being Khonsu Who Was a Child. In other sources, these aspects of Khonsu are depicted as baboons seated on either side of Khonsu in Thebes Neferhotep. Thus, the statue of Khonsu sent to Bekhten in this myth was likely one of the small baboon images that would have flanked Khonsu in Thebes Neferhotep in the original temple. Fragments of such a statue have been excavated from the temple’s courtyard. These two aspects of Khonsu were also said to write books that told of a person’s fate. As seen in this myth, he was also known for his power over evil spirits, and people afflicted with symptoms similar to those of Bentresh could pray to Khonsu for help.

The learned man mentioned in the myth, Tehuti-em-heb, was a scribe from the House of Life. The House of Life was a religious institution responsible for the creation and propagation of sacred texts. Scribes of the House of Life were specifically trained in medicine and magic and frequently worked for the king, which explains why Ramses II would send such a man to help Bentresh.

The myth of Bentresh and the demon illustrates the importance of magic and ritual in ancient Egyptian religion. The myth provides repetitive elements throughout the story such as when the statues are turned to face each other, when the invocation is repeated twice, and when the statue nods twice each time. Repetition serves to help guarantee the efficacy of the ritual, and the myth stresses ancient Egyptians’ belief in the importance of seeking direct divine intervention and in the power of the gods to help humans emerge from seemingly dire situations.

The fact that religion and medicine were so intertwined is also very important. The human body was considered sacred, and dissecting a dead body was considered a crime. Hence, Egyptian physicians were not skilled in identifying disease, and their treatments were often based on magic rather than anatomy or medicine.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Ritner, Robert K., trans. “The Bentresh Stela (Louvre C 284).” The Literature of Ancient Egypt: An Anthology of Stories, Instructions, Stelae, Autobiographies, and Poetry. Ed. William Kelly Simpson. 3rd ed. New Haven: Yale UP, 2003. 361–66. Print.

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