Sheet from the Tale of Two Brothers, Papyrus D'Orbiney

The Papyrus D'Orbiney contains a style of story that became popular in New Kingdom Egypt (1550-1070 BC). It features two semi-divine protagonists and their adventures, from which it derives its modern title 'The Tale of the Two Brothers'. Highly entertaining but also sophisticated, the tale is one of the more famous of Egyptian compositions, variously interpreted in modern times as a fairy tale, a historical allegory and a political satire, among others.
The story begins by presenting an idyllic household, consisting of Anubis, his wife, and his brother, Bata. Their pleasant lifestyle is disrupted when the wife of Anubis tries unsuccessfully to seduce her brother-in-law. She then claims that Bata attacked her. Believing his wife, Anubis initially turns against his brother and forces him to leave the family. Anubis later discovers his wife's disloyalty and kills her. The brothers are reunited. Meanwhile, the gods have fashioned a wife for Bata. Unfortunately, she rejects him in favour of the king. To regain her, Bata assumes a sequence of different forms, the last being a persea tree. Bata's wife orders the tree to be cut down. A splinter from the tree flies into her mouth, 'she swallowed it and in a moment she became pregnant'. Bata is reborn, now as her son, and becomes king of Egypt. He elevates his brother, Anubis, to succeed him, overcoming the catastrophes that had beset the pair.
The papyrus is furthermore unique in specifying the owner and the scribe Inena, which was unusual in Ancient Egypt. The text was written while Seti II (1214- 1204 BC) was still crown prince. Inena is thus a near-contemporary of the Theban Qenherkhepeshef (EA10683,1-4). The papyri probably all came from a single find at Saqqara, either from the tomb of Inena himself, or from a semi-official archive that had been stored in the necropolis.