Word: menenhetet
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...curator." His liberties include the ancient Egyptians' belief in physical reincarnation and mental telepathy (they held neither tenet). One Egyptologist gives Mailer mixed marks on his homework, particularly criticizing "his cannibalized or bastardized forms of good ancient Egyptian names." Two of Mailer's main characters are named Menenhetet I and II; according to the specialist, the names should have been Mentuhotep or Amenemhat...
...lengthy journey begins with the agonies of death ("Volcanic lips give fire, wells bubble. Bone lies like rubble upon the wound"). Surviving this fiery purgation is the ka (diminished soul) of an Egyptian named Menenhetet II. After experiencing the mummification of his discarded body, this ghost meets the kindred spirit of his great-grandfather Menenhetet I. The old ghost agrees to guide his descendant out of the necropolis at Memphi, a task that begins with a lesson in the creation of the Egyptian deities. Toward the end of this recitation, the young shade's attention drifts into the eddy...
...Night of the Pig, when the truth is to be spoken by all parties regardless of rank and with no fear of the consequences that could make honest talk fatal the rest of the year. What the Pharaoh wants to hear is the life stories of the elder Menenhetet, who has discovered a means of self-propagation by dying during the act of intercourse and transferring himself to his lover's womb. Menenhetet warns: "My story must be long like the length of the snake." The Pharaoh has no other plans for the rest of the night and encourages...
...book is already some 230 pages old when Menenhetet I eases into this narration, and none of the characters seems in any hurry to pick up the pace. Worse, Mailer shuns the devices that can make long pieces of fiction irresistible. Suspense is banished: everything has already happened in Ancient Evenings, not only historically, but also in the lives of its people. Nothing is surprising, except perhaps how polymorphously perverse and consistently swinish the ancients were, according to their newest historian...