Week 4, Storytelling, Book of Thoth, Portfolio

Vatican Library libguides.slu.edu

Before the time of the fall of Atlantis, there were many gods and goddesses that roamed the earth, or so we are told in many old documents. Many of these old documents, are hard to find. Most were burned in the great fires of Alexandria. Some books remain yet to be found, but certain ones are held by the Library of the Catholic Church. The book Nathan wanted to find was about the ibis-headed god Thoth and his emerald tablets. The ancient Egyptians held him sacred in their myths as a scribe, and deity of the moon and magic.

Nathan had spent his life almost like the character in the movies called Indiana Jones. He traveled around searching for the treasures of antiquity to learn more about the culture and lives of the amazing people that lived before us. He was obsessed with finding what seemed to be the key to what he was searching for, the Emerald Tablets, the philosopher's stone. He had traced the clues all the way to Rome. Looking around the dizzying sights of the repository of knowledge, he heard a hearty chuckle, and he turned around.

"Why are you laughing at me?" said Nathan.

"Because you read these worthless writings," answered the priest. "If you would read writings that are worth the reading, I can tell you where the Book of Thoth lies hidden."

Nathan was shocked to hear the old man claim to know such esoteric facts, much less say them out loud. Well, whispered really, because they were sitting in the musty old Vatican Library, after all. Nathan was there to procure information on a most sought after relic, but he was puzzled at how an old leathery Catholic priest would come to hold this sort of knowledge. Some things we just never get to know.

"How do I know that what you say is true?" Nathan queried.

Image of a box philipcoppens.com

When the priest had taken the money that was agreed upon before the clandestine meeting, he said ominously to Nathan, "Be suspicious of anything that fulfills all our heart's desires."

The Book is at Koptos in the middle of the river.
In the middle of the river is an iron box,
In the iron box is a bronze box,
In the bronze box is a keté-wood box,
In the keté-wood box is an ivory-and-ebony box,
In the ivory-and-ebony box is a silver box,
In the silver box is a gold box,
And in the gold box is the Book of Thoth.
Round about the great iron box are snakes and scorpions and all manner of crawling things, and above all there is a snake which no man can kill. These are set to guard the Book of Thoth.

The old man handed the information on the paper to Nathan. Tingling with excitement, Nathan headed out to find the lost box and bring this all-encompassing search for immortality to an end. Against the wishes of his wife and family, he would not stop until he accomplished this near impossible mission. But he had prayed too long and hard, and had too much success already to believe he should abandon his fool's task. Indeed, he felt that his God was on his side because of all the sacrifices and promises he made to God if he would just let him find this one thing. Feeling as if his life's work was the single most important thing in the world, Nathan should take the time to quickly call his wife from the airport in Rome, before he makes a quick trip to Egypt to fetch his treasure, to share his great news, but maybe he should wait until he had even better news to share with his gorgeous wife, Melusina.

Thoth, a god of ancient Egypt.  www.ancientegyptonline.co.uk

Author's note: The original story The Book of Thoth: Part One is exciting to me because I have always been fascinated by the Egyptian God Thoth and his Emerald Tablets.Thoth is  the ibis-headed deity that is a scribe and known for his great knowledge that he brought to earth. In my story I inserted the directions to find the tablets and used the exact wording of the Book of Thoth used in the original version. I also find it interesting that there are so many myths using the symbol of a magical box, or an ark that may or may not hold sacred tablets, such as the Ark of the Covenant that holds the Tablets of Moses, the famous box of Pandora that held all sorts of things, etc. it must be an ancient archetype.

 I am having fun lately telling  old stories in a modern twist, which is what I tried to do by updating the when of this story. In the original version there is a character named Nefer-ka-ptah that I have renamed Nathan, and his wife Melusina is Ahura in the original story. There are three parts to this story, and I only concentrated on the first part of the story, how Nathan finds the information of how to find the emerald tablets. Nefer-ka-ptah finds the tablets in the original tale, and when Thoth finds out that they are stolen he seeks revenge on Nefer-ka-ptah and his family. I aim to change the fate of the seeker Nathan so that his meeting with the magician Thoth will be more colorful. More like time travel. Death ends the adventure too soon.

Stay tuned for more episodes of what adventures lay in wait for Nathan. I really like the character Nathan, the Seeker. I would like to use him throughout the portfolio assignment in his many travels across space, time and adventure! He is THE fallen master (the name of my blog).






Bibliography:
Egypt: The Book of Thoth: Part One


This story is part of the Ancient Egypt unit. Story source:Egyptian Myth and Legend by Donald Mackenzie (1907).