This is going to be a short review because The Tears of Re by Gene Kritsky is a short book, which also happens to be boring.
The Tears of Re is about beekeeping in ancient Egypt, which sounds like a really interesting topic. I like bees! I like ancient Egypt! I like both niche historical facts and niche animal/insect facts! The problem is, we don’t actually know a lot about beekeeping in ancient Egypt, so this book is mostly Kritsky describing various inscriptions that include bees, hives, and honey.
My biggest disappointment with this book is that Kritsky is constantly going into great detail about the shape of hives and honey containers and other minutia of inscriptions, but when discussing a reliefs about honey offerings to the fertility god Min (who has a lot in common with Priapus, if you know what I mean*) he simply says they “are accompanied by inscriptions that are rather sexual in nature.” C’mon Kritsky, give me the dirty deets. We’re all adults here. I guarantee that even child me who read cereal boxes for fun and was fascinated by Egypt would have gotten bored well before page 99 of this tome.
I say that’s my biggest disappointment, but actually, my biggest disappointment is being reminded of how many ancient Egyptian artifacts are housed in museums that are not in Egypt, and they’re called thing like “the Craft papyrus” after the white guys who looted them. The only artifacts Kristsky describes that are in Egypt are the ones that are lucky enough to still be physically attached to the buildings they were carved into.
Oh, another disappointment is that Kritsky repeatedly refers to Hatshepsut as “Queen Hatshepsut” when she reigned as a PHARAOH and wore masculine pharaoh garb! I know he’s an entomologist, not an Egyptologist, but c’mon. Have some respect.
I honestly can’t recommend this book to anyone unless it’s related to specific research you’re doing for school or work. It makes for pretty dry reading as a layperson and you won’t even get a whole lot of fun facts.
CWs and TWs: Just the general reminder of how white people have looted the shit out of Egypt, and one carving with a phallus.
Source and Format: My spouse gifted me with a hardback copy of this book. I can’t even remember how long I’ve had it. Did they give it to me after we moved up here, or did it move with me from AZ? What is time even?
*You might not actually know what I mean. A weirdly common theme for my spouse and I this year is that we each separately constantly assume people outside of our household know way more about mythology than they actually do. This is what happens when you spend 25+ years with someone, your perception of normal gets warped. Anyway, Priapus and Min both have big ol’ boners. So now you know.
Book Bingo Prompts
This book was not associated with any book bingo prompts! It was, however, the last book I needed to read for my Physical TBR Challenge. I have now read 12 physicals books that I owned prior to January 1, 2024! It’s pretty unlikely that I’ll exceed this goal, as there are just a few days left in the year and I think I’m going to catch up on some graphic novels I bought this year so I don’t carry them into 2025’s TBR.
Because it was part of the Physical TBR Challenge, I have also made a donation to a family in Palestine. This time I have chosen to donate to Haya and her family. You can read this post for more information on my challenge and links to all of the campaigns I donated to. I’ll be posting about my 2025 Physical TBR Challenge (and book bingos…) sometime early in the New Year.