fuzzyspork: (Default)
fuzzyspork ([personal profile] fuzzyspork) wrote2011-10-26 12:33 pm

Myshuno! prompt: The Ritual of the Opening of the Mouth

Prompt:  The Ritual of the Opening of the Mouth
Rating: Everyone
Note:  A situation from my unpublished Egyptian legacy.  I know this is very short, but I realized the more I wrote the more I was giving plot away!  SO, have a slightly less spoiler'y snippet of what is to come.  (Though anyone who knows even a little bit about ancient Egyptian history will recognize the character right away.)
Word Count:
200
My Card

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Hatshepsut stood on the side of the causeway with the other women from the royal harem.  Her mother was clinging to her left arm and weeping openly, wiping away real tears.  All the women wept, though some shed actual tears most of them simply affected respectful wailing for the dead king.  Hatshepsut did not lament.  She spilled not one tear.  She simply stood like a temple statue devoid of all emotion, and watched as the young boy Thutmose approached her father’s mummy.

Thutmose was dressed as a Sem Priest and carried the ritual adze that would open her father’s mouth to allow life to flow back into his body once he reached the afterlife.  The vizier even had to place a stool on the ground so Thutmose could reach the mummy’s mouth.  The boy was named heir, so it was his duty to perform this ritual.  This was a fact that boiled Hatshepsut’s stomach bile.  Had she been born a male, it would be herself assisting her father’s passage into the afterlife.  She was the eldest, after all.  She was the one with the knowledge to run a kingdom.  Unlike this child who was barely off his wet nurse’s teat.


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Prompt given by [info]dicreasy

[identity profile] dicreasy.livejournal.com 2011-10-27 12:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh my, this is perfect. One of the most fascinating rituals of the Ancient Egyptians, and it involves my absolute favourite Pharaoh, Hatshepsut. Her rise to power, and how she kept hold of it, fascinates me, as well as inspires me. I hope we get to see more of her in your legacy.

Brilliant Fuzzy. :D

[identity profile] fuzzy-spork.livejournal.com 2011-10-27 02:46 pm (UTC)(link)
This was probably a huge spoiler because Hatshepsut is my favorite pharaohs and I couldn't leave her out of the story! :D She WILL be an heir (despite this being a patriarchy... but she managed to get around that didn't she? lol), so there will be an entire generation based on her story. I'm going to have to change things up a little where actual facts are concerned (mostly concerning who her father was, her lover *shifty* and her offspring), but I've got to condense 3000 years and 31 dynasties into just 10 generations. D: So I've picked a few (okay, 10) of the pharaohs who I felt had an interesting story to tell, and have meshed them into one unbroken family line. :)

Anyway! I'm excited about it (hence the rambling) so I can't wait to show it to the world. Thanks Di! *HUG*