Three Novels of Ancient Egypt

The surprise shook her to the core and she was totally overcome. She thought for a second it might be a dream, but there was no mistaking the dark face, the fine proud nose. She could never forget him. She had seen him twice before and he had found his way into her memory and engraved upon its tablet deep impressions that would never fade. But she had not reckoned on this meeting. She had not prepared for it or drawn up one of her ingenious plans. Here was Rhadopis meeting Pharaoh, completely out of the blue, when she had prepared herself to receive merchants from Nubia. She was taken unawares, overwhelmed, totally defeated, and for the first time in her life, she bowed and said, “Your Majesty.”

His eyes surveyed her intently, then settled on her gorgeous face, and he noticed her bemusement with a strange pleasure, as he watched the magic effusing seductively from her features. When she greeted him, he spoke to her in a voice possessed of clear tones and refined accent. “Do you know who I am?”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” she said in her sweet musical voice. “It was my happy fortune to see you yesterday.”

He could not look at her face enough, and he began to feel a drowsy numbness come over his senses and his mind, and he no longer paid heed to his will. “Kings have authority over people,” he began suddenly. “They watch over their souls, and their belongings. That is why I have come to you, to bring back something precious that came into my possession.”

The king put his hand under the sash and pulled out the sandal. “Is this not your sandal?” he said as he handed it to her.

Her eyes followed Pharaoh's hand and watched incredulously as the sandal appeared from under the sash. “My sandal,” she stammered.

The king laughed kindly, and without taking his eyes off her, said, “Yours, Rhadopis. That is your name, is it not?”

She lowered her head, and mumbled, “Yes, Your Majesty.” She was nervous and did not say more. Pharaoh went on, “It is a beautiful sandal. The most wonderful thing about it is the picture engraved on the inside of its sole. I thought it a beautiful illustration until I set eyes on you, for now I have beheld true beauty, and I have learned a higher truth as well, that beauty, like fate, takes people unawares in ways of which they have never conceived.”

She clasped her hands together and said, “My lord, I never dreamed that you would honor my palace with your presence. And as for the fact that you would bear my sandal… Lord, what can I say? I have lost my mind. Please forgive me, my lord. I forgot myself and left you standing.”

She rushed over to her throne and, pointing to it, bowed respectfully, but he chose a comfortable couch and sat down upon it. “Come here, Rhadopis. Sit next to me,” he said.

The courtesan approached until she stood in front of him, struggling to overcome her perturbation and surprise. He took her wrist in his hand, it was the first time he had touched her, and sat her down next to him. Her heart beat wildly. She put the sandal to one side and lowered her eyes. She forgot that she was Rhadopis, the one they all worshipped, who dallied with the hearts of men as she pleased. The shock had taken her completely unawares — the divine incarnation had shaken her to the core, as if a blazing light had suddenly been shone into her eyes, and she cowered like a virgin resisting her man for the first time. But then her awesome beauty entered the fray, unbeknownst to her, stronghearted and supremely confident, and shed its enchanting radiance on the astonished eyes of the king, as the sun shines its silver rays on a sleeping plant, arousing it from its slumber to glisten enchantingly. Rhadopis's beauty was overpowering and irresistible, it burned whomever came near it, sowing madness in his mind and filling his breast with a desire that could never be quenched or satisfied.

There could not have been two people on that immortal night — Rhadopis stumbling in her confusion, and the king lost in her beauty — more in need of the mercy of the gods in all the world.

The king, desperate to hear her voice, asked her, “Why do you not ask how the sandal came into my hands?”

“Your presence has made me forget all matters, my lord,” she said anxiously.

He smiled. “How did you lose it?”

The tenderness in his voice soothed her fears. “A falcon flew off with it — while I — was bathing.”