Bentresh Stela
Unknown · Text set under Ramesses II; carved later, probably Persian or Ptolemaic period (museum dating Twenty-first Dynasty, 1069-943 BC)
Over two metres of sandstone carry one of the best stories in the Louvre. In the rounded top a winged sun disc hovers over two mirror image scenes. On the right, the king in the blue crown burns incense before a sacred boat carried on the shoulders of priests; its prow and stern end in falcon heads crowned with the lunar disc, the sign of the moon god Khonsu. On the left a priest with a shaved head does the same before a second boat carried by four priests. Two boats, two forms of Khonsu: the great Khonsu of Thebes and Khonsu the Provider, who could be sent on missions. Below runs the text in tight columns of hieroglyphs.
The story is set under Ramesses II. The king has married the daughter of the prince of Bakhtan, a distant land. Her younger sister Bentresh falls ill, and an envoy comes to Egypt begging for help. Ramesses sends a learned scribe, who finds that a spirit possesses her, beyond his skill. So the king consults Khonsu of Thebes, who nods his assent, and the statue of Khonsu the Provider sets out on a journey of seventeen months. The god confronts the spirit, which submits and asks only for a feast before leaving. The princess is cured. The prince, however, keeps the god, and only after dreaming of Khonsu as a golden falcon flying back to Egypt does he send him home laden with gifts.
Notice the dates in the text: years fifteen, twenty six and thirty three of the reign. They lend the tale the look of an official record, but Egyptologists agree it was composed centuries later, probably in the Persian or Ptolemaic period, by the priests of Khonsu at Karnak, who wanted to advertise the healing power of their god and his right to travel abroad. It stood in the small temple of Khonsu at Karnak. Emile Prisse d'Avennes brought it to France in 1843 and gave it to the Cabinet des Médailles in 1845; it was assigned to the Louvre in 1907 and arrived here in 1919.
Did You Know? The god was kept abroad for three years and nine months until the prince dreamed of him flying home as a golden falcon and finally let him go.
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