In the ancient days of the Pharaohs, when the gods still walked among the shadows of the temples, there were two brothers named Anpu and Bata. Anpu, the elder, was a man of the house, a provider who lived with his wife and maintained a prosperous farm. Bata, the younger, was a youth of extraordinary strength and grace, possessing the ability to communicate with the cattle he tended. They lived in harmony, with Bata following his brother like a son, until a dark shadow of jealousy and deceit fell over their household. Anpu's wife, consumed by a forbidden desire for the young Bata, attempted to seduce him while he was fetching seed from the granary. When Bata, a man of unshakable virtue, rejected her advances, she grew fearful of his honesty. She bruised herself and cast dust upon her head, telling Anpu a treacherous lie—that Bata had beaten her and sought to dishonor him.
Fueled by a blind rage, Anpu sharpened his spear and waited behind the stable door to slay his brother. However, as Bata returned from the fields, his faithful cows spoke to him, warning him of the danger that lurked within. Bata fled toward the desert, with Anpu in hot pursuit. In his desperation, Bata cried out to the sun god, Re-Horakhty, to judge between the righteous and the guilty. The great god heard his plea and caused a wide body of water, teeming with hungry crocodiles, to spring up between the two brothers. Across the churning waters, Bata shouted the truth of his innocence. To prove his sincerity and sever his ties to the world of men, Bata performed a ritual of self-sacrifice and declared that he would depart for the Valley of the Pine, a distant land in the mountains of Lebanon. He told Anpu that he would place his heart upon the highest flower of a great tree, and if that tree were ever cut down, Bata would die. He gave Anpu a sign: 'If you ever take a jug of beer and find it foaming, or a jar of wine and find it dregs, you must come to the Valley of the Pine to seek me.'
Anpu, now realizing the terrible deception of his wife, returned home in mourning. He dealt with the treachery of his spouse and began a life of solitude, watching his vessels of beer and wine every morning with a heavy heart. Meanwhile, Bata reached the lush, resin-scented slopes of Mount Lebanon. There, he lived as a hunter, building a tower for himself and spending his days among the towering pines and cedars. The Ennead, the great council of gods, looked down upon the lonely Bata and felt pity. They commanded Khnum, the divine potter, to fashion a wife for Bata, a woman more beautiful than any mortal. However, the Seven Hathors prophesied a tragic end for her, for she was destined to die by the sword. Despite this, Bata loved her deeply and warned her never to go near the sea, lest the waters steal her away. One day, while she walked near the shore, the sea chased her and snagged a lock of her hair, which was carried by the waves all the way to the laundry of the Pharaoh in Egypt. The scent of the hair was so divine that the Pharaoh's magicians declared it belonged to a daughter of the gods. The Pharaoh sent his armies to find her, and eventually, through gifts and persuasion, Bata’s wife was taken to Egypt to become a queen.
To ensure Bata could not reclaim her, the treacherous wife told the Pharaoh the secret of her husband’s life: he could only be killed if the tree holding his heart was cut down. The Pharaoh’s men journeyed to the Valley of the Pine and felled the great tree. As the blossom containing Bata’s heart fell to the earth, Bata collapsed and died in his lonely tower. Back in Egypt, Anpu went to his cellar and saw that his jug of beer was a mass of overflowing foam. He knew instantly that the prophecy had come to pass. Without hesitation, he gathered his staff and sandals and began the long journey across the deserts and through the coastal plains until he reached the majestic mountains of Lebanon. When he arrived at Bata's tower, he found his brother's lifeless body lying upon a mat. For three years, Anpu searched the forest for the heart of his brother. He looked beneath every stone, climbed every crag, and sifted through the needles of a thousand trees, but his search was in vain.