Living your heart’s desire: The Tale of the Doomed Prince

“I am destined to die either by a crocodile, a serpent, or a dog; it is the will of the gods. Then let me go forth and follow my heart’s desire while I live.”.

2023 is drawing to a close. “The Tale of the Doomed Prince,”  a fairy tale found in ancient Egyptian papyri from 1550 BCE or so, is an interesting companion to year end (year round?) reflections on what you’re doing with your life.

Are you following your heart’s desire?

Transcript of Living your heart’s desire: The Tale of the Doomed Prince

Hello, and welcome to Myth Matters, storytelling and conversation about mythology and what myth can offer us today. I’m your host and personal mythologist Dr. Catherine Svehla. Wherever you may be in this wide, beautiful, crazy world of ours, you are part of this story circle. 

And here we are, December already anticipating the end of the year, which is always a time to take stock, right? It’s a time when we ask ourselves what we’re doing. What we’re building, what we’re nurturing, what we’re creating. What we’ve been doing with ourselves and whether or not we want to stay on the same trajectory in the year to come. 

All of those considerations take on a measure of extra gravity when you hear the ticking clock of your mortality, something that happens more and more frequently I’m learning, as you add on the years. The question of how much time you have left, well, that inspires considerations of legacy, and questions about what is the best use of life. 

In the wisdom traditions, we are encouraged to think about this and it’s often said that there’s a particular opportunity and challenge in a human life, that it’s special and important to be a human being. Why is that? Is it because we have opposable thumbs? No, it’s because we are conscious of our mortality. And ideally, this awareness motivates us to go for the golden ring, which is spiritual freedom. As Kabir says, “If you don’t break your ropes while you’re alive, do you think ghosts will do it after?”

In many cultures, the one I’m living in, for example, too much thought about death is labeled morbid. And a lot of what we think about death in such a culture is morbid. And yet, going back to those wisdom traditions, living with an awareness of death breaks the spell of complacency and prevents us from sleepwalking through life. From going through the day to day without appreciating what a gift it is to be here, and without taking up the challenge of living our own individual personal, unique lives rather than following the conforming crowd. 

I want to continue this end of year reflection with the aid of a story from ancient Egypt called “Tale of the Doomed Prince.” This is a really old story. It dates back to the 18th dynasty in ancient Egypt, that 1550 to 1295, BCE. It’s the oldest known recorded fairy tale that we have today. I’m going to tell you the story following a translation by Donald Mackenzie in his collection, Egyptian Myth and Legend. I’ll post a link to the free digital version of Mackenzie’s book, in the transcript of this episode. 

Now, I invite you to relax and listen. If there is a moment or detail in the story that particularly grabs your attention, make a note of it.  I encourage you to reflect on it later. Let it be an opening for you into the story right now. 

“Tale of the Doomed Prince”

Once upon a time there was a king in Egypt whose heart was heavy because that he had no son. He called upon the gods, and the gods heard, and they decreed that an heir should be born to him. In time the child was born, and on that day the seven Hathors, goddesses who know the fate of every living being,  greeted the prince. They pronounced his destiny. He would meet with a sudden death, they said, either by a crocodile, or a serpent, or a dog.

The nurses informed the king what the Hathors had said, and His Majesty’s heart was troubled. He commanded that a house should be erected in a lonely place, so that the child might be guarded well. He provided servants and all kinds of luxuries, and gave orders that the prince should not be taken outside his safe retreat. 

Time passed and the boy grew strong and big. One day he climbed to the flat roof of the house. He looked down and saw a dog following a man, and wondered greatly at this. He spoke to one of the servants. “What is that following the man walking along the road?”

“That,” answered the servant, “is a dog.” The boy said: “I should like to have one for myself. Bring a dog to me.”Well, the servant informed the king. His Majesty said: “Let him have a young boar hunter, so he won’t fret.” So, the prince was given a dog as he had desired. 

The boy grew into young manhood and his limbs were stout. He was indeed a prince of the land. He grew restless in the lonely house and sent a message to his royal father. “Hear me. Why am I kept a prisoner here? I am destined to die either by a crocodile, a serpent, or a dog. It is the will of the gods. Then let me go forth and follow my heart’s desire while I live.”

His Majesty considered the matter and decided to grant the lad’s wish. He provided his son with all kinds of weapons and consented that the dog should follow him. A servant of the king conducted the young prince to the eastern frontier, and said: “Now you may go wherever you desire.”

The lad called his dog, and set his face toward the north. He hunted on his way and fared well. In time he reached the country of Naharina  (which is Syria today), and went to the house of a chief.

Now the chief was without a son, and he had but one daughter. She was very fair. He had erected a stately tower with seventy windows for her on the summit of a cliff 700 feet from the ground. The fame of the girl went far and wide. Her father sent for all the sons of chiefs in the land and told them: “My daughter will be given in marriage to the youth who can climb up to her window.” 

Day after day the lads tried to scale the cliff. One afternoon when they were engaged in this effort, the young prince arrived and saw them. He was given hearty welcome. They took him to their house, cleansed him with water and gave him perfumes. Then they set food before him and gave fodder to his horse. They showed him great kindness and brought sandals to him.

Then they said: “Where are you from young man?”

The prince answered: “I am the son of one of the Pharaoh’s charioteers. My mother died and my father then took another wife, who hates me. I have run away from home.” He said no more. They kissed him as if he were a brother, and prevailed upon him to stay with them a while.

“What can I do here?” asked the prince. The young men said, “Each day we try to scale the cliff and reach the window of the chief’s daughter. She is very fair, and will be given in marriage to the fortunate one who can climb up to her.”

On the next day they resumed their task and the prince stood apart, watching them. Day after day, they tried in vain to reach the window, while he looked on. One day, the prince said to the others: “If you consent, I will also attempt to reach the window. I’d like to climb among you.” They gave him leave to join them in the daily task. 

Now it just so happened that the beautiful daughter of the chief in Naharina looked down from her window in the high tower and gazed upon the young men. The prince saw her. He began to climb with the sons of the chiefs. He went up and up until he reached the window of the great chief’s beautiful daughter. She took him in her arms and she kissed him.

Someone who was nearby watching rushed off to the girl’s father bearing the good news. “At last, one of the youths has reached the window of your daughter,” he told him. The great chief asked: “Whose son is he?”

“The youth is the son of one of the Pharaoh’s charioteers, who fled from Egypt because of his stepmother,” he was told. This made the great chief very angry. He said: “Am I to give my daughter in marriage to an Egyptian fugitive?” he said. “Order him to return at once to his own land.”

Messengers were sent to the youth in the tower, and they said to him: “Begone! You must return to the place whence you came.” But the fair maid clung to him. She called upon the god and swore an oath, saying: “By the name of Ra who raises and sets as the sun, if he is not to be mine, I will neither eat nor drink again.”

When she spoke these words she grew faint, as if she were about to die. A messenger hurried back to her father and told him what the girl had vowed and how she  sank down fainting straightaway. The great chief sent men to put the stranger to death if he remained in the tower. But when they came close the girl cried, “By the god, if you slay my chosen one, I will die also. I will not live a single hour if he is taken from me.”

The girl’s words were repeated to her father. The great chief said, “Let the young man, this stranger, be brought into my presence.” The prince was taken before the great chief. He was stricken with fear, but the girl’s father embraced him and kissed him, saying, “You are indeed a noble youth. Tell me who you are. I love you as if you were my own son.”

“My father is a charioteer in the army of the Pharaoh” said the prince. “My mother died, and my father then took another wife, who hates me. I have run away from home.”

The great chief gave his daughter to the prince for wife, and provided a solid and pleasant dwelling, with servants, a portion of land, and many cattle. They were set. Some time after this, the prince told his wife about the prophecy. “It is my destiny to die one of three deaths – either by a crocodile, or a serpent, or a dog,” he said.

“Let the dog be slain at once,” urged the wife. “I will not permit my dog to be killed,” the prince told her. “Besides, he would never do me harm.” His wife was very concerned for his safety. For his part, the prince would not let the dog go out unless he went with it. 

It came to pass that the prince travelled with his wife to the land of Egypt, and visited the place where he had formerly dwelt. A giant was with him there. The giant would not allow him to go out after dark because a crocodile came up from the river each night. But the giant himself went out, and the crocodile sought in vain to escape him. He bewitched the crocodile. The giant continued to go out each night, and when dawn came the prince went abroad, and the giant lay down to sleep. This continued for two months. 

Now, on a certain day the prince made merry in his house. There was a great feast. When darkness fell he lay down to rest and fell asleep. His wife busied herself cleaning and anointing her body. Suddenly she saw a serpent creep out of a hole to sting the prince. She was sitting beside him and she called the servants to fill a bowl with milk and honeyed wine for the serpent.

The serpent drank milk and honeyed wine and was intoxicated. It rolled over, helpless. The wife seized her dagger and killed the serpent, which she flung into her bath. When she had finished, she awoke the prince, who was amazed to learn that he had escaped. “Behold,” said his wife, “the god has given me the chance to remove one of your dooms. He will let me strike another blow.” The prince made offerings to the god, and prostrated himself, and he continued so to do every day. 

Many days afterwards, the prince went out to walk some distance from his house. He took his dog, who followed him. The dog scented prey and seized an animal in flight. The prince followed the chase, running. He reached a place near the bank of the river and went down after the dog. 

Now the dog was beside the crocodile, who led the prince to the place where the giant was. The crocodile said: “I am your doom and I follow you /////// (I cannot contend) with the giant, but, remember, I will watch you. /////// You may bewitch me (like) the giant, but if you see (me coming once again you will certainly perish).”

Now it came to pass, after the space of two months, that the prince went ///////////////////

That the prince went– and there, the story ends. That’s it, because the ending was lost when the papyrus containing the story was burned in an explosion. The surviving fragments, the basis for this translation and others, are currently housed at the British Museum. 

So, what is your version of the rest of the story? Will the prince be saved? Saved by his wife, maybe? Will he meet death by crocodile, another serpent or his dog?

The story is also known as “The Prince Who Was Threatened by Three Fates” because some scholars speculate that this story, like the overwhelming majority of fairy tales known today must have had a happy ending. And one thing that’s fascinating about this story is that you can craft a plausible ending to it because you recognize the motifs. It’s amazing, the longevity of this recognizable fairy tale structure. You may have recognized plot elements in this story that appear in “Sleeping Beauty,” “Rapunzel,” “Iron John,” and many other fairy tales. And here they are in this very old story. 

I don’t subscribe to one theory in particular about the shared nature of the fairy tale structure across time and place and culture. Whether or not there are archetypal structures as part of psychic reality or if it’s all about the migrations of peoples. I don’t know what the familiarity of the story suggests about the nature of psychic reality. But the fact that people told stories like this one and wrote them down three millennia ago, does suggest something about the human imagination, and the questions surrounding existence that engage us.

The Seven Hathors sound like the Norse Norns or the 13th fairies who attend the christening of the princess Sleeping Beauty. Hathor was a very famous and popular goddess in ancient Egypt. She was important in every area of life. She was connected with mothers, fertility, childbirth, children, sex, beauty, the arts. She was originally the personification of the Milky Way. This connection with the milkiness of the night sky, led to the association with cows, and Hathor had a cow head. It also connected her to fate and fortune telling. The Seven Hathors refers to seven versions of this goddess located in seven of the major cities in ancient Egypt. It’s also a reference to the Pleiades and the notion that your destiny depended on the hour of your birth. And yes, we are connecting here to a very early form of astrology. 

So, the Seven Hathors knew the length of every life and apparently, they also knew how each life was going to end. The Fates know but of course, we usually don’t. Now in the story, the prince is told, however, not when he’s going to die, but how he’s going to die. And we have these three creatures, the crocodile, the serpent and the dog, who draw our attention. Three of course, but why are these animals and what might they signify? 

A survey of the mythology of the ancient Egyptian reveals a number of deities that took the form of a crocodile, a serpent, or a dog. The crocodile, for example, could be a reference to Geb, who was the earth god, although the fact that he appears on a riverbank may link him to the Divine crocodile Sobek. Sobek was known as the Lord of the Water and he lived on the riverbanks. He was often very friendly and helpful to people, but he could also kill you. Crocodiles were sometimes mummified in order to bring Sobek on the underworld journey, with the expectation that Sobek would protect the deceased in the afterlife, from other monsters there. 

Now, what other monsters, what other creatures could there have been? Well, there could have been serpents. Maybe we are supposed to think about the serpent Apep, who threatens Ra, that is the sun, every night as Ra makes his journey under the earth, from west to east in preparation to rise again, in the east. But the serpent could also refer to a slightly more domestic and friendly snake deity, the goddess Renenutet, who protected the harvest by killing rodents. She also is part of the underworld journey where her, death dealing gaze could come to the aid of the soul who was trying to get past the various obstacles down there. 

As for the dog, well, maybe that’s Anubis, the dog-headed deity who was a guide in the underworld and a protector of all of the funerary rites. Or, again, the dog could refer to an any one of a number of minor deities, or mummified dogs who were sent as companions to the soul in the underworld. 

Each of these figures– the crocodile, the serpent and the dog– figure in the very elaborate ancient Egyptian mythology of the afterlife and the journey of the soul. They’re important mythological creatures. At the same time, the fact that they are in the mythology to the degree that they are, in combination with the literal, historical facts of life at that time in ancient Egypt, reveal to us the ubiquity of these animals. It wasn’t rare to meet a crocodile, or a serpent, or a dog, and certainly not rare to have a dog. Death by crocodile, snake or dog may not have been particularly common. Archaeological evidence suggests that far more people were killed by smallpox. But I wonder if thinking about how the prince is going to die is missing the point of the story and the ending that we might construct. 

One thing we know for certain is that if the story has a happy ending, it’s not going to include an avoidance of death forever, because death is inevitable. So maybe this story tells us something about living with some knowledge of your death. One thing we notice is that the prince doesn’t hide. He doesn’t stay in the tower. And it’s clear that he knows from a fairly early age about the prophecy. He says to his father, “I am destined to die either by a crocodile, a serpent or a dog. It is the will of the gods, then let me go forth and follow my heart’s desire while I live.”

The young man’s heart’s desire is apparently a maiden, ensconced in a tower that soars 700 feet above the cliffs. And when she sees him, he becomes hers. In that part of the story, they’re willing to die for each other. And I found myself thinking about how it is, when we pursue our heart’s desire in youth. Not only the love angle, but the need for strength and beauty. And that kind of courage which, let’s be honest, is born as much out of a naivete about the end of life, as it is anything else. 

So, what happens to the prince as he gets older? It appears that one by one helpers are appearing to eliminate the threats to the end of his life. What then, will become his heart’s desire? And what will be required to live it? Are these pertinent questions for us as we step today into this story, one without a known ending?

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If we have a better understanding of our need for myth, and all that our old stories offer, we can live more satisfying lives. We can inhabit a better story and create a more beautiful, just and sustainable world. 

And that’s it for me, Catherine Svehla and Myth Matters at the beginning of a very snowy December here in Colorado. Thank you so much for listening. Take good care of yourself and until next time, keep the mystery in your life alive.