Page Content (OCR)
234 orders of their gods—no wonder that in that meeting and melting zone the omen-dreams also reflected the clash of cultures and mixing of omens. Egyptian records of royal omen-dreams include a_ text known to scholars as the Legend of the Possessed Princess— one of the oldest records, inter alia, of exorcism. Written on a stela that is now in the Louvre Museum in Paris, it tells how the Prince of Bekhten (the land Bactria on the Upper Euphrates), who had married an Egyptian princess, sought the help of the Pharaoh Ramses II to cure the princess of the "spirits that possessed her." The Pharaoh sent over one of his magicians, but to no avail. So the Prince of Bekhten asked that an Egyptian god "be brought to contend with this spirit." Receiving the petition in his capital Thebes during a reli- gious festival, the Pharaoh went to the temple of the god Khensu, described as a son of Ra and usually depicted with a falcon's head on which the Moon rests in its crescent. There the king related to the god, "the great god who expels dis- ease-demons," what the problem was, and requested divine help. As he spoke, "there was much nodding of the head of Khensu," indicating a favorable hearing. So the king put together a great caravan that went to Bekhten accompanying the god (or his "prophet, the carrier of the plans," or the god's statue—as some scholars suggest). And using the di- vine magical powers, the "evil spirit" was exorcised. Witnessing the magical powers of Khensu, the Prince of Bekhten "then schemed in his heart, saying: ‘I will cause this god to stay here in Bekhten.' " But having caused a delay in the god's return to Egypt, while "the Prince of Bekhten was sleeping in his bed," he had a dream. In the dream he saw "this god coming to him outside the shrine. He was a falcon of gold, and he flew to the sky and off to Egypt." The prince "awoke with panic," and realized that the dream was a divine omen, instructing him to let the god return to Egypt. So the prince "let this god proceed to Egypt, after he had given him much tribute of every good thing." Farther north of Bactria, in the Land of the Hittites in Asia Minor, the conviction that royal dreams were divine revelations was also firmly held. One of the longest extant text DIVINE ENCOUNTERS