Okay, not exactly "random," but...I admit that it's a pretty weird choice. Only strangely enough I don't have very many characters of any note whose names start with R.
He's also a weird choice in that most people would not put the Trojan War as during the reign of Ramses II, but I do. Or rather, I did for the Atalanta and Ariadne books, which then bled over into Are You A Better General Than Agamemnon?, albeit only slightly. (He sends troops to aid the Trojans in year...seven or eight I think, though he's only identified as "Ramses" so it could be Ramses III, who's more in the time frame typically associated with the Trojan War. In any case, it's a one-time event with minimal repercussions no matter what you do...unless the feud between Odysseus and Palamedes is still going on at the time...) There are reasons for my placing the date of the Trojan War when I did, and as I'm trying to be more relaxed about these posts now, I'm just going to quote what I had to say on the subject in the timeline section available at the end of the interactive version of Scions of Troy:
So, there’s a lot to say here, and much of it could be spoilers for later books in the series, meaning I can’t say a lot of what I would ideally want to. There is a “traditional” date for the Trojan War: 1184 BCE. This would have the war either beginning or ending (depending on whether you see that as the start date or finish date!) less than a decade before the Bronze Age Collapse.
I couldn’t use that for obvious reasons! Even more so than the “having the girls travel through what would be their equivalent of a post-apocalyptic wasteland is not what I wanted” reason, there’s also the fact that the myths firmly establish that a good deal of time passes between the fall of Troy and the fall of the other citadels. (Though the ancient texts are not consistent about just how much time, to be honest. And of course they had them all fall to Dorian invaders when most of them seem to have fallen more to earthquakes than to warfare.)
My original drafts had assumed "about 1250" for the fall of Troy, but that meant that the girls were going to arrive in one of the locations for the later books at a time of great upheaval, and I preferred to avoid that. So I shifted things around a little more, and put the start of the Trojan War at around 1267 BCE...which is about the same time that the Hittite Empire was going through upheavals as Hattusili III was overthrowing his nephew, Mursili III. Meaning that the Hittites would have been much too busy to send aid to Troy! I was so pleased by that coincidence that I decided that, as far as my personal headcanon is concerned, that simply was the date of the Trojan War. (The deposed Mursili III fled to Egypt, btw, and the political wrangling and threats of war as Hattusili III demanded he be returned lasted for nine years, thus handily both proving that the Hittites had too much else on their minds and that Ramses would have been unlikely to get involved.)
Even better than the upheaval among the Hittites was the earthquake that struck around Mycenae in about 1250. This earthquake forced the rebuilding of the citadel walls and was when the grave circles famously looted excavated by Schliemann were brought inside the walls. Which made for a perfect time for, say, Orestes to carry out his act of vengeance for his father's murder. And more importantly made an excellent opportunity for Korythos to oust Aineias as the post-war king of Troy.
In other words, I ended up with a time that fits the larger picture of the war's place in the Late Bronze Age world really well (aside from making the Dorian invasion take place several decades before the Bronze Age Collapse 😰), so I was extremely pleased with it.
Corollary to all this, because Ramses II had an incredibly long reign (1279-1213 BCE), that means he's still seated on the Egyptian throne when Atalanta and Ariadne first escape slavery around 1239 BCE. And that means if I wanted them to visit Egypt--and of course I wanted them to visit Egypt!--then he's the man in charge when they get there.
And when they get there is in book five, so it'll be a while before it's been rewritten...and it's probably going to change a lot in the rewrite. (Partially because I didn't put in as much research as I should have at the time. 😅)
That's not the only reason, but I'm going to talk about that after I address how I characterized Ramses in the original draft. (Which will probably not change too much in the final draft...) Obviously, it's a tricky thing, trying to write fiction involving a real historical personage. Even more so considering that the ancient Egyptians did not keep the kind of records that tell us much about what their rulers were actually like as people.
So I had to extrapolate a personality that felt like it made sense for him based on what we know. He lived to be 90 in an age where the average life expectancy would be more like 40-50 if you were lucky, he ruled for 66 years (which is not exactly shabby even by modern standards!), and not only fought numerous wars with mostly successful results but also had extensive building campaigns, leaving Egypt a stronger and more stable country than it was when he inherited it. There's clearly a reason that he's also called Ramses the Great.
That long life is especially telling. He had to be smart enough to survive any assassination attempts (of which there likely were some, considering his dynasty was very new, he being only the third in the dynasty, so there would have been less likelihood of the upper echelons of society thinking there was anything holy about them yet (if they ever actually thought that at all)), and savvy enough to deal with decades of political wrangling. He was also tough enough to lead his own troops into battle (or so his own records claim, anyway) and come out the other side not only alive but usually victorious. (Uh, again, according to his own records. Which are not necessarily honest all the time, but it's impossible to know for sure without records from the opponents that seem plausibly "more honest.")
Moreover, in my version of the post-war events, this is a man who held Menelaos and Helen at his court for eight years after the war ended. Successfully. Without prompting a war. That means he was able to resist Helen's divine charms, and also to be a suitable host to both her and her husband, for an extended period of time. So he has to have poise, intellect and a certain amount of charm. Though I think the current draft does not quite have enough charm, to be honest. Although he's hardly trying to charm our young trio, and is actually pretty ticked at them, so maybe that's all right. 😅
Here's his introduction as a character in the current (ten year old) draft:
The audience chamber had been equipped with a throne—though Ariadne suspected that the king had brought it with him—which was painted entirely with gold, and decorated with [probably snakes, but I’ll have to check what the motif would have been for the19th dynasty]. The king himself sat upon the throne, wearing a golden headdress that seemed to imitate massive locks of hair to either side of his face, and also wearing a golden object strapped to his chin, in imitation of a narrow, rectangular beard.[is this accurate? should look that up] The overall impact was impressive, but also rather odd. Ariadne wasn’t entirely sure how old the man was by looking at his face; he was probably in his sixties, but he might have been older or younger. She didn’t see too many wrinkles, and without hair to see if he was going gray or not, it was decidedly difficult to judge his age.
A number of other men in elegant Egyptian garb stood to either side of the room, though Ariadne noticed that they were not all Egyptians. In fact, the one who stood closest to the king’s throne appeared to be Phoenician, [though i'm not sure how she can tell this, maybe he's dressed differently?]. He was the one who spoke as the trio approached the throne.
“Kneel, foreigners, before his supreme majesty, the Pharaoh Usermaatre Setepenre, ruler of the Upper and Lower Nile, speaker for Ra and Horus!” the Phoenician commanded them.
Ariadne wasn’t quite sure what the procedure was, but Eurysakes so quickly assumed a one-knee kneel that she assumed that was the standard attitude, and mimicked the pose with due speed. On his other side, Atalanta didn’t do so well; she lost her balance and ended up on her face, making the entire Egyptian court—including the king!—chuckle as she righted herself.
The king gestured lazily towards Eurysakes, and spoke something in Egyptian. “It pleases us that you have come to speak with us, for we have many words for the Tanaja,” the Phoenician said, which presumably meant that he was the king’s official translator for dealing with Hellenes. “The Pharaoh’s ships have been assaulted by sea-borne bandits. The Tanaja number among those people. These are the words of the Pharaoh, the great Usermaatre Setepenre,” the translator said, his voice loud. Ariadne didn’t think he was a very accurate translator; he seemed to be have said a lot more than the king did. But perhaps Egyptian was a more efficient language?
So....the bracketed "look up what this should look like" parts are obviously pathetic, but it is just a draft after all. 😅 Of more concern is the fact that he's complaining to Eurysakes about the Sea Peoples, who wouldn't be a problem until about a hundred years later. Artifact left over from an even earlier draft when this was Ramses III, and the Trojan War was placed more at its traditional date. But...that's not going to change too much in the final draft, because there actually are a lot of pirates on the Mediterranean during this book, only they're not the Sea Peoples. Of more concern here is, well, something I'll talk about later.
Towards the end of the audience, Eurysakes says something he shouldn't have, not that he had any way of knowing his words would provide offense. This is what happens when his words are translated...
The translator looked frightened as he repeated Eurysakes’ words. But Ariadne noticed that the king already looked angry before the translator even started. Towards the end of the translation, the other men of the court began to look horrified. The king got to his feet and began shouting angrily, gesturing towards the three of them.
Soldiers ran into the room and restrained the trio before they could even get to their feet.
“Get your hands off me!” Atalanta shouted.
“Don’t struggle,” Eurysakes told her.
“But they—”
“He’s right. Let’s not make a scene,” Ariadne said, even as the soldiers began to drag them out of the room. “That will only make things the worse on us.”
Yup. In my novel, Ramses II can speak Greek. (Which the real one undoubtedly could not, but then again the fictional version did keep the king and queen of Lacedaimon as his guests for eight years. And you know Menelaos does not speak Egyptian.) In a later, private audience, he explains why he won't admit to being able to understand them. After Ariadne has had the nerve to contradict him (politely!), he says this...
“Very bold indeed. Are all Tanaja women so direct?” Though she had heard it before, Atalanta was a little perplexed by the name ‘Tanaja.’ She could only assume that it was the Egyptian for Danaan…
Ariadne chuckled. “My cousin and I are very unusual, sire.”
“For the sake of the Tanaja men, I am glad to hear it,” the king—Pharaoh?—replied with a laugh.
“I still don’t see why that annoying translator was necessary,” Atalanta muttered. The way he always repeated the same ‘these are the words of ‘ bit at the end of every single thing he said had been exceptionally aggravating.
“My people believe me to be a god in mortal form,” the Pharaoh told her. “If I descended to learn the words of foreign peoples, how godly would I seem then? It was not long before my father’s reign that this land suffered greatly because of the selfish actions of one ruler. I have maintained peace in my realm not only through a force of arms, but also through wit. That is why I have carefully learned the language of those I trade with most frequently, and also why I do not allow any to know of my skill. If I must accuse my translators of lying, then it is best if they think the gods themselves have informed me of their falsehood.”
Probably a little on the nose, there. I'll hopefully make it less blunt in the final draft. Anyway, there's not much more I can say about his role in the novel, since it's wrapped up not just in the novel's plot, but in the overarching plot for the series.
So instead I'm going to talk about the other problem that's blaring out of these passages.
"Pharaoh."
To quote the Wikipedia article on the term:
The word pharaoh ultimately derives from the Egyptian compound pr ꜥꜣ, */ˌpaɾuwˈʕaʀ/ "great house",
[snip]
From the Nineteenth dynasty onward pr-ꜥꜣ on its own, was used as regularly as ḥm, "Majesty".[18] The term, therefore, evolved from a word specifically referring to a building to a respectful designation for the ruler presiding in that building, particularly by the time of the Twenty-Second Dynasty and Twenty-third Dynasty.[citation needed]
In other words, the term on which pharaoh was based only became the common form of address/title for the ruler somewhere in the Ramesside dynasty. (Also there's the fact that the modern scholarly spelling of his name is Ramesses, not Ramses. Though that may become much like the Achilles/Achilleus or Alexander/Alexandros issue, one of "my fingers are too familiar with the actually-wrong spelling to use the actually-right one.") So it was not, necessarily, in use during this particular part of Ramses' reign. Plus the spelling in question (and its associated pronunciation) come to English by way of Hebrew. So they're not even accurate to the actual Egyptian term, even if the usage is not necessarily wrong for this period. (One other option would be to adopt the mythic name for the Egyptian king at this time (which I think may have been derived from the same Egyptian original as "pharaoh" was) and use that as the Mycenaean Greeks' version of the king's title, but...🤷🏻♀️)
On top of that, there's the problematic fact that the current draft uses all the names of cities that we use (Memphis, Thebes, etc), which are of course what the Greeks called those cities.
It would be better to use the Egyptian names, right?
Except the POV characters (aside from one brief foray into an Egyptian's POV) are all Greeks, so maybe I should use the Greek names after all? Only they're Mycenaean Greeks, not Classical Greeks, so they would likely have had different terms for these foreign cities, if in fact they had given them different names at all.
A further problem arises in the form of "would the nobility of other states at his time even call him Ramses?" I'm not well-versed enough in the detailed working of the ancient Egyptian monarchy to know precisely where our concepts of their names comes from. I do know that Usermaatre Setepenre is his proper throne name (or was the "proper" spelling for it in 2014; I'll have to double-check that it hasn't been changed whenever I get to the rewrite) but that name is obviously not where Ramses/Ramesses comes from, so where does it come from? How would people of other cultures have spoken of him at the time? I think before I get to the rewrite of book five, I'll have to do some research into translations of all surviving Hittite texts, because there must be mention of him in there somewhere, given that he had two Hittite wives, fought at least one war against them, and spent nearly a decade in political wrangling and threats of war after the Hittite coup left a deposed leader fleeing to his court. So if the Hittites called him something based on this throne name, then it seems likely that the Greeks would have, too, whereas if they called him something based on Ramesses, then that seems plausible for the Mycenaean Greeks as well. And if they just called him "our brother king in Egypt" then I'm outta luck on that score. 😅 And, of course, even if I find that it's implausible for them to speak of him by the name Ramses/Ramesses, then do I abandon that name and merely identify him in the glossary, or do I use it anyway for the sake of enhancing the reader's understanding and/or comfort level?
I don't even know how to research the answers to any of those questions. 😭 I mean, I already have some Greek v. non-Greek naming issues in place names--the Greek characters use Troy or Ilios, whereas the Trojans speaking in the Hatti tongue use Wilusa--but this is on a whole other level. I'll have to go through similar decisions in handling their visits to Tarsus and Babylon in book four, of course, so I suppose I'll have a precedent to follow by the time I get there, but the concern is that people already know and expect "pharaoh" whereas any names in association with those other places aren't so well known. 😩 It is not a problem with an easy and obvious solution.
(In other thoughts, am I the only person grossed out by the fact that the Wikipedia article on Ramses II includes photos of his corpse? I mean, yeah, mummies etc, but still! Dead guy! Not cool! Let the dead have some freakin' privacy, for pity's sake!)
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