INSPIRATIONS FROM ANTIQUITY by Anna Patricio
Hardly anyone knows about Asenath, the Egyptian priestess who married Joseph the dreamer. Thus when writing my novel on her, I felt free to stretch my imagination to no end. I did, however, derive inspiration not only from Genesis (obviously) but also from some interesting tales outside the Biblical narrative.
One such tale would be Joseph
and Asenath, which apparently dates to 1st century Alexandria.
This story is like a fantasy; it involves Asenath seeing an angel who looks
like Joseph and partaking of sacred honey which some “magical” bees feed her.
In my novel, I wanted to give a nod to this story but wasn’t sure
how. When going through the last draft with my editor, she suggested that for a
certain garden scene, I replace the butterflies with bees. I really like
butterflies, but I also saw this as the perfect opportunity to acknowledge Joseph and Asenath. I wholeheartedly agreed.
In my novel, I took liberties with Asenath's parentage as well. I got
the idea from a Jewish folktale which has Asenath as Dinah's daughter.
Apparently, some folks didn't like the idea of Joseph marrying outside his
people. Hence they made up a story in which Asenath was secretly Hebrew.
According to this tale, Asenath was born as a result of Dinah’s
unfortunate incident at Shechem, where the latter was violated by a prince.
After Dinah gave birth to Asenath, her brothers abandoned the baby in the
wilderness.
The infant Asenath was rescued by an eagle who took her to the
temple at Heliopolis. There, she was adopted by the high priest. Many years
later, Joseph would recognise his long-lost niece by a medallion she wore which
was engraved with Hebrew letters.
When writing on a little-known character, there truly is no limit to
how you can imagine his or her life!
ASENATH is available in both ebook and paperback at Amazon.
For those in Sydney, Australia, the paperback edition is also
available at Abbey's Bookshop
(across Queen Victoria Building in the city).
That's how legends are made... adding details to little known facts. You are adding to the lore, Anna.
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