Daughters of Eve

Nitocris –

The Nile is quiet tonight. 
It was not always so.

Its life-giving water holds my first wail and my last gasp.  It holds the vengeance that was mine and sustains me as it did the great civilization that once thrived here.  I am Nitocris, Daughter of the Nile, Queen of Egypt.

Pepi II, my father, ruled Egypt for ninety-four years and still had not reached his centennial when Osiris sent Thoth for him.  I have heard the slanderous charges made by so-called scholars that he weakened during his long reign and senility did much to destroy the dynasty.  It is not so.  My father may have become wizened with his years but he was wise to the end.  His only fault, perhaps, was that he was too indulgent and others took advantage of this.  But who am I to say; it is not easy to rule.

In the course of his long life, the Pharaoh had seven wives.  My mother was his last and I was his last child.  He was eighty-two when I was born, still strong and virile.  I remember, for one of my happiest memories is of his carrying me on his shoulders. 

By the time I had reached this age of first remembering, all but one of the wives

preceding  my mother had died from childbirth or disease, though there were always many whispers of intrigues and unnatural happenings when the harem was large.  Fifteen children survived from the earlier marriages.  I knew little of these brothers and sisters, for my father, in his great wisdom, had given them kingdoms within our kingdom to rule.  It was his intent to choose the greatest of his children to succeed him.

So, through the goodness of Osiris and the wisdom of my father, our palace family was small¾my mother and me, the sixth wife Nefri and her son Neferkare, and the great Pharaoh, my father...five in all.  We became centered around one another and a great love grew between us; it was a happy time.  But then, when I was ten and Neferkare eleven, our father announced the momentous decision which ended that part of our lives and directed our course anew.

Do not be too quick to suggest that perhaps this great love we shared had blinded my father to all else, that in his wisdom, he should have realized his pronouncement would not be as pleasing to others as it was to our little family.  He was Pharaoh, the king-god; his word was infallible.  Just the thought that anyone might intrigue against his bidding would never have occurred to him.  However, I will admit that, because of the tragedy of our dynasty, he was the last Pharaoh to take such things for granted--..

Bathsheba -

Then David sent messengers and had her brought.  She came to him,
and he slept with her--.
2 Samuel 11:4

He slept with her many nights, and when they were free to marry, he made her a place right next to his own, away from the harem, where he slept with her many more.  She became his favored wife, and on one of those blissful nights they, in their love, begot Solomon.  God made her the mother of kings, and centuries later when the time was right, their royal lineage gave birth in an obscure manger in Bethlehem to one who would be called the Messiah, the King of Kings.

That is the truth of it.  I should know for I am she...Bathsheba. 

Yes, I am Bathsheba, the temptress who caused David, King of Israel, to sin against his God just as Eve seduced Adam to the First Sin. 

How gullible man is to believe that a woman could cause such profound things if God had not willed it so.  Think on it.  If Adam had not eaten of the forbidden fruit, there would have been no Fall; Adam would still be in Paradise, and we would have no reason to be anywhere.  All mankind should be on his knees thanking Eve, Mother of All, for giving him life.  And for that matter, if I had not slept with King David, there would have been no royal lineage to spark the blood of Jesus of Nazareth.

I did not sleep with David so quickly nor did either of us take my marriage to Uriah the Hittite as lightly as the scribes lead one to believe.  The few facts set down to document my existence do not attempt to know the complicated relationship that existed between David and me, nor the depth of it.  History only records.

It was easy to fall in love with David.  Like most girl