ABSTRACT
THIS story is inscribed in hieroglyphs upon a stone stele which was found in a small temple of the god Khonsu at Thebes; the stele is preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, and the text was published by Prisse d'Avennes (Choix de Monumens Égyptiens, pl. 24); and E. de Rougé (Œuvres diverses,p. 3, pl. 139). A transcript of it will be found in my Egyptian Reading Book, p. 40 f. Many translations of it have been published in English, French and German. The stele was set up by the priests of Khonsu with the view of glorifying their god, and the inscription was written at some period under the New Kingdom which was subsequent to that of the reign of Rameses II, whose “strong names” are cut on it. It is a historical fact that Rameses II married Maat-neferu-Ra, the daughter of the king of the Hittites, in the thirty-fourth year of his reign. We may regard the story as belonging to the literature of Egyptian Historical Romance.
