Westcar Papyrus
Magic performed before a king is also political theater, and its greatest wonder is a prophecy that quietly justifies a coming change of dynasty.
- a frame narrative of tales told within a royal court
- magic used as political legitimation for a new dynasty
- the earliest substantial Egyptian narrative fiction
- prophecy folded into royal entertainment
A cycle of five tales told to King Khufu by his sons about wonder-working magicians of earlier reigns, preserved on a single Second Intermediate Period papyrus in Berlin. The final and longest tale, of the magician Djedi, predicts the birth of triplets to a priest's wife who will become the first three kings of the Fifth Dynasty, casting a coming change of royal line as divinely foreordained. The collection is prized as the earliest sustained work of Egyptian narrative fiction built around a frame story.
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