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Ancient Egypt
Facts and Fictions
Stephen E. Thompson
Historical Facts and Fictions
Copyright © 2020 by ABC-CLIO, LLC
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior
permission in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Thompson, Stephen E., author.
Title: Ancient Egypt : facts and fictions / Stephen E. Thompson.
Description: First edition. | Santa Barbara : ABC-CLIO, 2020. | Series:
Historical facts and fictions | Includes bibliographical references and
index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019027447 (print) | LCCN 2019027448 (ebook) | ISBN
9781440854934 (print) | ISBN 9781440854941 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Egypt—Civilization. | Egypt—History—To 332 B.C. |
Egypt—Civilization—Sources. | Egypt—History—To 332 B.C—Sources.
Classification: LCC DT61 .T48 2020 (print) | LCC DT61 (ebook) | DDC
932—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019027447
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019027448
ISBN: 978-1-4408-5493-4 (print)
978-1-4408-5494-1 (ebook)
24 23 22 21 20 1 2 3 4 5
This book is also available as an eBook.
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This book is printed on acid-free paper
Manufactured in the United States of America
Every reasonable effort has been made to trace the owners of copyright materials in this
book, but in some instances this has proven impossible. The editors and publishers will
be glad to receive information leading to more complete acknowledgments in subsequent
printings of the book and in the meantime extend their apologies for any omissions.
For my children, Rachel and Jacob, and for
my grandchildren, present and future.
Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction xiii
1. Hieroglyphs Were a Secret Code Created to Conceal the
Wisdom of Ancient Egypt 1
2. The Egyptians Worshipped Animals and Gods with
Animal Heads 29
3. Ancient Egyptians Considered the Pharaoh to Be a God 57
4. The Pyramids Were Built as Storehouses, Work Projects for
the Egyptian People, or Repositories of Knowledge 85
5. Ancient Egyptian Society Was Heavily Dependent on
Slave Labor 109
6. Curses or Booby Traps Protected Egyptian Tombs 139
7. Cleopatra Was Responsible for Mark Antony’s Defeat by
Octavian (Augustus Caesar) 169
8. The Myths of Osiris, Isis, and Horus Were the Basis for the
Accounts of Jesus Found in the Christian New Testament 193
Bibliography 225
Index 229
Preface
Ancient Egypt—its monuments, artifacts, language, and religion—have
long been a source of fascination to many. In fact, there is a special term,
Egyptomania, to describe the avid curiosity, bordering on obsession, that
many have experienced with regard to ancient Egypt. Over the hundreds
of years during which scholars have been writing about Egypt, numerous
misconceptions and errors have crept into common perceptions of ancient
Egypt. Popular culture, through short stories, novels, and movies, has
also contributed to the spread of such misconceptions. In the pages that
follow, eight popular misconceptions about ancient Egypt (here labeled
fictions) will be examined through primary sources. Each chapter begins
with a brief statement of the erroneous belief held by many (“what people
believe happened”) and a discussion of how that false belief became wide-
spread (“how the story became popular”). After this account is a selection
of primary sources illustrating the erroneous belief. This is then followed
by an explanation of the correct understanding (“what really happened”)
and a selection of primary sources, mostly translated from the Egyptian
language in its various forms, supporting this corrected view.
Many of the translations of the Egyptian sources are my own, and
I readily acknowledge my debt to previous translators of the various pas-
sages under discussion. Whenever possible, I have included references to
these previous translations in the selections for further reading at the end
of each chapter. The Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae ( http:// aaew2 . bbaw . de
/ tla / index . html) has also served as an incredibly useful tool when trans-
lating Egyptian texts. The dates given for the lengths of the reigns of the
