In the ancient days of the XIX Dynasty, there lived a son of Ramesses the Great named Setne Khamwas, a man who was not only a prince but the greatest scribe and magician in all the Two Lands. Setne spent his days and nights in the libraries of the House of Life, poring over ancient papyri and seeking the deepest secrets of the gods. He was obsessed with finding the Book of Thoth, a legendary scroll written by the god of wisdom himself. It was said that this book contained two spells: one that could enchant the sky, the earth, the abyss, the mountains, and the sea, allowing a mortal to understand the language of the birds and the fish; and a second spell that allowed one to see the sun shining in the underworld and the gods in their true forms.
His search led him to the tomb of a long-dead prince named Neferkaptah in the city of Memphis. When Setne broke into the tomb, he found it filled with a strange, shimmering light that emanated from the Book of Thoth, which lay beside the mummy of Neferkaptah. But the book was not guarded by mere stone and mortar; it was protected by the spirits of Neferkaptah, his wife Ahwere, and their young son Merab. Though Neferkaptah’s body lay in Memphis, the ghosts of his family were bound to him, and Ahwere rose to warn Setne of the terrible price they had paid for the knowledge he now sought.
Ahwere began her tale by describing how Neferkaptah, a prince of a previous age, had been just as obsessed with the book as Setne was now. Neferkaptah had learned from an old priest that the Book of Thoth was hidden at the bottom of the Nile near the city of Coptos. It was encased in a series of boxes: an iron box, within which was a bronze box, then a box of sycamore wood, then ivory and ebony, then silver, and finally a box of pure gold. This nested treasure was further protected by a swarm of serpents and scorpions, including an eternal serpent that could not be killed.
Driven by a hunger for power, Neferkaptah took Ahwere and their son Merab on a royal barge to Coptos. Upon arriving, he used his own magic to create a wax boat and wax crewmen, breathing life into them to dive into the depths of the river. For three days and nights, they labored until they found the iron box. Neferkaptah used his magic to part the waters and descend to the riverbed. He fought the serpents and eventually came to the eternal serpent. Though he sliced the creature in half twice, it joined its body back together. On the third attempt, Neferkaptah threw sand between the severed halves, preventing the beast from reforming. He then opened the boxes one by one until he held the golden scroll of Thoth.
As soon as Neferkaptah read the first spell, he understood all the secrets of the natural world. When he read the second, he saw the gods and the very mechanics of the cosmos. However, the god Thoth was not blind to this theft. He went before the sun god Ra and demanded justice, for a mortal had stolen his divine wisdom. Ra decreed that Neferkaptah and his family should not return to Memphis in peace. As the barge sailed back from Coptos, a divine power seized the young Merab and pulled him into the Nile. He drowned instantly. Neferkaptah used the book to call Merab’s spirit back to tell them what had happened, and the boy’s ghost revealed that Ra had cursed them.
Heartbroken, they buried Merab in Coptos, but as they attempted to continue their journey, the same power seized Ahwere. She, too, fell into the river and was lost to the depths. Neferkaptah, now alone and filled with an unbearable grief and the weight of the curse, tied the Book of Thoth to his body and threw himself into the Nile, choosing to die rather than live without his family or the scroll. The Pharaoh’s men eventually found his body caught in the rudder of the ship and brought him to Memphis for burial, but the ghosts of Ahwere and Merab remained with him in the tomb, mourning their lost lives and guarding the book so that no other mortal would suffer their fate.