The+Tale+of+Wen-Amon

Who: Wen-Amon of Egypt, Zakar Baal (prince of Byblos), What: A story depicting the journey of Wen-Amon, an official of the Temple of Amon at Karnak going to Byblos to get lumber for the ceremonial barge of their god. Once there, Wen-Amon's silver is stolen, and Wen-Amon demands that Zakar Baal must help him find the looter. Zakar Baal precedes to steal silver from Tjeker and gives it to Wen-Amon, who hides the silver in the portable Amon-of-the-road god. Wen-Amon plans to leave, but is stopped after Zakar Baal believes Amon cast a demon into one of his servants. Eventually, Wen-Amon realizes he's been in Byblos for a very long time, weeps with Zakar Baal. Tjeker then demands that Wen-Amon be arrested for stealing silver, but Zakar Baal doesn't want to arrest the messenger of a god, but he says once Wen-Amon leaves his territory there's nothing he can do, so basically he lets Wen-Amon go only to eventually be caught by Tjeker. When: Around 1100 BCE Where: Karnak in Egypt, Byblos in Phonecia Why: Important because it depicts the falling power of the Egyptians after the disintegration of its powerful united Egyptian monarchy. As Wen- Amon travels under the name of Egypt, the leaders of the other countries no longer see Egypt as the once great power it once was and refused to give service for free. Wen-Amon is now only doing the bidding of the local rulers of the particular area of Egypt and no longer has the resources of the kingdom of Egypt to get what he needs. While there is still some respect for Wen-Amon's ideological power, it still proves futile to the influences of economic, military, and political power.