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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does the audience accept the bloody, gaudy pageant?

2. What does Taita do the night Lostris is first called in to visit Pharaoh?

3. Why does Tanus send Taita away before the second battle?

4. What are the ushabti that would be buried with Pharaoh when he died?

5. How does Lostris treat the common people in the city?

Short Essay Questions

1. What will be the crowning moment of Pharaoh's life? What is Taita's reaction to this moment and how does the reaction seem contrary to Egyptian thought?

2. What power does Pharaoh's seal have? Why must a man acknowledge it, as Tanus does when Neter comes to arrest him? Is this seal a sign of power or of weakness?

3. What happens in the tombs during the three-day sandstorm? How does Taita reveal the deepest sadness that is in his heart? What does this say about his character?

4. What is the significance of the double crown of Egypt? Why might Taita mention it so often when he describes Pharaoh?

5. How does Lostris interact with Pharaoh during their first three months of marriage? Though Smith does not say this is so many words, how does Pharaoh reveal his true character during this time?

6. When the people cry out to Pharaoh to give Tanus mercy from the death sentence, what does Pharaoh do? What leads to this decision? Does it show Pharaoh's mercy or his weakness?

7. What are Taita's emotions during and after the battle with the Shrikes? How do these emotions explain several facets of his personality? What does this say for Smith's ability to create a complex character?

8. What account does Taita give of the girl he loved when he was sixteen? How does his telling of it, half his lifetime later, show the changes he has gone through? Is he more cynical or more understanding of what happened?

9. How does Taita describe the hippo hunt? How does he see the animal in relation to divinity? What is the effect of the hippo hunt on Taita?

10. What is the significance in the fact that Tanus is nicknamed Akh-Horus? Is it important that Hui, a boy who defected from the Shrikes in exchange for his life, gives him this name?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What role do animals play in Egyptian culture? How are animals tied closely to the gods? How does this change when they encounter unknown animals? Do they continue to deify or vilify them?

Essay Topic 2

What is the question of slavery in Taita's mind? Despite his position in life, why does he justify it? How does his opinion fit with ancient Egyptian culture? Reference pages 118 and 432, among others, for Taita's words.

Essay Topic 3

What value of the story comes in its historical background? Does the story become any richer or more plausible because of the history? How might you read the novel if you knew it was completely fictional?

(see the answer keys)

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