Setne Khamwas & Naneferkaptah
Manon Green
Blog Entry #2:


The story of Setne Khamwas was written in the Ptolemaic Period (332–30 B.C.E. ). It tells the story of the struggle between Setne Khamwas and the magician Nneferkaptah for possession of a book of magic written by the god Thoth. Naneferkaptah had taken the book with him to his grave. Setne Khamwas in desperation stole the book from Setne tomb. The story elaborates the fact that man had access to magic, but however only the gods know the secrets of life. Although Setne was warned before his attempt to gain more knowledge through magic about the afterlife, he then suffered the consequence of his children dying. This was a punishment from the god in consequence of him trying to know what should not be known to mankind. Because Setne was exploring a book said to be written by Thoth, it connects with Greek ideas that Egyptian magic stems from the god they believed was Thoth’s equivalent in their own culture, Hermes Trismegistus. Greek writer’s regularly misinterpreted Egyptian stories to create a philosophy called Hermeticism that they believed was Egyptian, but in fact was a Greek misinterpretation of Egyptian culture. What confused me a little is the powerful man that Setne had been why he found it necessary to be more rich and powerful than he already was. In conclusion the incidents in the story that occurred only reflects to me as consequence of greed.