"In the Tomb of Semenses" by Frank Belknap Long

4 months ago
28

Published in 1921

Semenses: this appears to be a made up name. Which means I get to make up a pronunciation, given the author didn't give us one.

Amenses: same as for Semenses

Ammon: finally, a real historical name! An ancient Semitic-speaking kingdom occupying the east of the Jordan River, between the torrent valleys of Arnon and Jabbok, in present-day Jordan. I don't know if the usage here is meant to refer to this historical kingdom, it might be, but it might well not be. Hard to be sure, given how all the other names seem to be made up for this story. My pronunciation here follows the Arabic pronunciation of the word.

Queen Asamia: as best I can tell, there is no such person with this name, at least not using this spelling. But as mentioned, I expect almost all the names in this story to be made up names anyways, so I would not expect to find this name in some other tongue, like Arabic.

Ammon: used here in this context it is clearly referring to a god, and there is an Egyptian god Amun.

Month: There is an Egyptian god named Montu, but Month is not among the many Latinizations of the name. Still, it could be... Especially considering Montu would be replaced by Amun in the 11th Dynasty.

double crown: or the pschent or sekhemty. It combined the White Hedjet Crown of Upper Egypt and the Red Deshret Crown of Lower Egypt, thus symbolizing the pharaoh's power over all of unified Egypt.

ka: Ancient Egyptian beliefs about the body and soul are... complex. The ka is the "vital essence" that distinguishes the living from the dead. Upon birth, ka was breathed into the body to give it life, and upon death the ka leaves the body to travel to the afterlife.

Eras, Hos, and Sesbet: I can't find any reference to these in ancient Egyptian mythology. If you know the lore better than me, leave a comment below!

Miu, Nechbet, and Neith: I can find references to Nekhbet and Neith in the Egyptian mythos, but not Miu. Although apparently miu is the ancient Egyptian word for cat, and the ancient Egyptian attitude towards cats is famous!

Ammon, Isis, Hathor, Man, Osiris, Set: If we take Ammon as Amun, then Amun, Isis, Hathor, Osiris, and Set are certainly all well known in Egyptians mythology. Not so sure about Man? There is a god Min?

Cyran Sasania: I can't find any reference to such a prophet, so presumably made up for the story

Phar Monsemenses: Again a presumably made up name for the story.

fish-pools of Eldenheim: Another reference I can't dig up. Eldenheim is obviously a German name, not Arabic or Egyptian, so no idea what such a name is doing in here. If you've a thought whether this might be a genuine reference to some real-world myth or history, please leave a comment below.

Hypatia: A real person! A Neoplatonist philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician who lived in Alexandria, Egypt. Unfortunately, it seems like everybody uses a different pronunciation for the name, so I don't know what it actually should be. I can't stand it when nobody agrees on a pronunciation of a name, especially a famous person like this. Really? REALLY? Even different university professors in relevant disciplines can't agree on a pronunciation. *cries* Given even the experts are in disagreement, I don't want anybody complaining that I'm using a wrong pronunciation. It appears there is no agreed upon correct one, so just about anything goes here.

The picture used is "Tomb of Ramses V and Ramses VI, Valley of the Kings, Luxor, Egypt" by Diego Delso, delso.photo, License CC-BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode).

Loading comments...