I recently read a pretty crazy story from the introduction of a history book that I wanted to share with you because … why not?
I learned about Nitocris from the intro of a book called When Women Ruled the World by Kara Cooney.
Here is a crazy little story from history:
In the fifth century B.C, thousands of years after her lifetime, a Greek historian wrote about the life of the Egyptian queen Nitocris, a woman whose brother-husband (yuck!) had been murdered by conspirators.
Nitocris planned her revenge by feigning forgiveness and inviting the perpetrators along to a grand banquet in a new, fancy hall she’d just commissioned. When everyone was having a nice time eating and drinking, Nitocris opened some flood gates and the whole chamber flooded with water from the Nile.
She drowned them all.
Then drowned herself.
Remind anyone else of the ‘Red Wedding’ scene from Game of Thrones?
Anyway, about 2 thousand more years after the Greek historian wrote that first account of Nitocris, someone else wrote another. This new account said she reigned alone as queen for 12 years and had a pyramid built in her honour.
Pretty epic. Except … probably all untrue apparently.
Turns out there is no evidence of Nitocris having ever existed, besides these accounts written thousands of years after her supposed death.
I don’t know, I find that crazy fascinating.
Written history really is a bunch of stories pieced together, made up or misunderstood, or just lost to time. This particular tale really shows how much of what we know might be romanticised half-truths based on (maybe) a kernel of truth.
Real or not, Nitocris has a pretty epic story, though. Except for that whole brother-husband bit.
Yuck.
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PJ Nwosu writes dark mystery novels set in epic fantasy worlds.
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