The Tale of King Rhampsinitus:
This story is filled with continuous crime at the result of people being advised by someone of higher order to commit them. The description in the first paragraph of King Rhampsinitus's statues exemplifies the detail the Ancient Egyptians devoted to architecture, temples, and worship places. The statues and stonework had a lot of symbolism and were often placed in a way to compliment whatever was below, in this story's case, treasure. The father purposefully misplaced the stones so his children could live off the riches. Because the father was dead when he revealed this, this shows the great selfless love he had for his sons. So, regarding the moral implications of these choices, I wonder if the treasures inside were necessary for the boys' survival? Or was this all out of greed? This selfless, sacrificial action of the father is essentially replicated when one of the boys sacrifices his body caught in the trap when he orders the other boy to cut off his head to conceal the other brothers identity. The king realized that a brother willing to sacrifice the way he did would most likely result in the other sibling or accomplice dwelling in great despair and sorrow from the loss. The king, fixated on his treasures, was willing to offensively hang the other headless body in public, than let the crime go and move on. For this reason, I found the king, more than the family, antagonistic. The mother, now introduced, has a sense of innocence to her. Because she threatens to reveal them ("she threatened to inform the king regarding all that had happened"), one can infer she had nothing to do with any of these crimes. She is the only character in their family, caught in the middle of it all, who has remained in good standing with the law, and she had to watch her husband and now other son die. The mother then orders the other son to take down the sons body.
Ancient Egypt Architecture, Pxhere
Bibliography: D. Mackenzie, Egypt: The Tale of King Rhampsinitus, (link)
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