Daughter of the Gods: A Novel of Ancient Egypt by Stephanie Thornton
by
Natasa Djordjevic
- 10:24 AM
“Years ago, Re had raged against humans for violating Ma’at, so he had sent Hathor to destroy mankind. She transformed into the lion goddess Sekhmet and Egypt’s fields ran red with the blood of her rampage. Seeing this, Re realized his mistake and ordered Sekhmet to stop, but she was too gone with bloodlust to listen. Knowing he had to halt her some other way, Re stained seven thousand jugs of beer with pomegranate juice and poured the red liquid into her path. Believing the beer to be blood, Sekhmet gorged herself and passed out in a drunken stupor. When she awoke, her bloodlust had passed and she returned to being Hathor. Thus the goddesses of love and violence shared a common history.”
A fast-paced journey through Ancient Egypt in the time of the great female Pharaoh Hatshepsut. A story was rich with gods, lust, and love...
Hatshepsut is the second daughter of Thutmose II and not expecting much more from her life other than to do as she pleases but then her sister dies and she suddenly finds herself as a bride to her brother as tradition demands. Her only job now is to produce a son to carry on the bloodline. But she is too intelligent to be caged in the women’s quarters and she finds ways to co-rule with her brother who cares little for Egypt and truly cannot make a good decision. When her brother Thutmose III, dies, Hatshepsut finds herself as regent for her stepson and she comes alive as steers Egypt through a major crisis and brings her into a time of prosperity and peace.
I loved her take on Hatshepsut in this novel and how real she made her. She was not always a self-assured woman; she struggled with her life both publicly and privately and had to deal with more than her fair share of heartache and betrayal. She had many obstacles to overcome, and I felt for her. She could come across as being spoiled sometimes, yet others she was so informal it seems like it was so easy for her to turn off her public face and it was nice to see her age in the novel, and I enjoyed the breaks in the story where it would go forward several years to a different period to her life.
I especially liked this look into ancient Egyptian religion, the role it played in society, and society. The Gods had an almost physical presence in the story with how closely they were incorporated into the narrative, a fact that was very true in ancient Egypt from what I’ve read. The look into the ancient Egyptian royal court and the life of the royal family was also fascinating. I had never heard of certain facts like the Hall of Women and how limited the correct position of women was in this society, at least those in the royal lineage. The author does a fantastic job of incorporating historical and cultural details throughout the story that brings this all to life without detracting from the engrossing story.
This is another enjoyable book by Stephanie Thornton. She is one of those historical writers that makes her readers experience the past through details that appeal to all the senses. She tells a gripping story about a woman who was large in history and whose name still lives today, thousands of years later. Yet, the reader gets to know this woman intimately, feeling her emotions and thinking her thoughts with her.
