244: B(a)y Your Command

Siptah & Chancellor Bay. The last years of Dynasty 19 are murky, with hints of disorder and violence. At the centre of affairs, the courtier Bay directed policy and controlled access to King Siptah. Pharaoh himself was sickly, possibly disabled. The power-shift culminated in a rather dramatic break... Music: Keith Zizza and Luke Chaos. Logo image: Siptah, from his tomb KV47 (Davis 1908). Bibliography Bierbrier, M. (2011). Bye-Bye Bay. In M. Collier & S. Snape (Eds.), Ramesside studies in honour of K. A. Kitchen (pp. 19–21). Rutherford. Černý, J. (1966). A note on the chancellor Bay. Zeitschrift Für Ägyptische Sprache Und Altertumskunde, 93, 35--39. Cooney, K. M. (2022). The New Kingdom of Egypt Under the Ramesside Dynasty. In D. T. Potts, N. Moeller, & K. Radner (Eds.), The Oxford History of the Ancient Near East, Volume III: From the Hyksos to the Late Second Millennium BC (pp. 251--366). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190687601.003.0027 Dodson, A. (2011). Fade to grey: The chancellor Bay, Éminence Grise of the late Nineteenth Dynasty. In M. Collier & S. Snape (Eds.), Ramesside Studies in Honour of K. A. Kitchen (pp. 145--158). Rutherford. Dodson, A. (2016). Poisoned Legacy: The Decline and Fall of the Nineteenth Egyptian Dynasty (Revised edn). American University in Cairo Press. Dodson, A. (2025). Siptah’s leg and other stories. In A. F. Morris & H. Vogel (Eds.), Disability in ancient Egypt and Egyptology: All our yesterdays (pp. 214--220). https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003440369-17 Drenkhahn, R. (1980). Die Elephantine-Stele des Sethnacht und ihr historischer Hintergrund. Harrassowitz. Galassi, F. M., Habicht, M. E., & Rühli, F. J. (2017). Poliomyelitis in ancient Egypt? Neurological Sciences, 38, 375. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-016-2720-9 Goedicke, H. (1979). “Irsu, The Kharu” in Papyrus Harris. Wiener Zeitschrift Für Die Kunde Des Morgenlandes, 71, 1--17. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23858901 Grandet, P. (2000). L’execution du chancelier Bay: O.IFAO 1864. Bulletin de l’Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale, 100, 339--345. https://www.ifao.egnet.net/bifao/100/14/ Habicht, M. E., Varotto, E., Galassi, F. M., & Pate, F. D. (2022). The elusive disease of pharaoh Siptah (19th dynasty, ca. 1200 BC): Old problems and future perspectives. Neurological Sciences, 43, 747–748. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-021-05649-6 Johnson, K. (2012). Transition and Legitimation in Egypt’s Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties: A Study of the Reigns of Siptah, Tausret, and Sethnakht [Unpublished PhD. Thesis, University of Memphis]. https://digitalcommons.memphis.edu/etd/498 Johnson, K. L., & Brand, P. (2013). Prince Seti-Merenptah, Chancellor Bay, and the Bark Shrine of Seti II at Karnak. Journal of Egyptian History, 6, 19--45. https://doi.org/10.1163/18741665-12340001 Kahn, D. (2010). Who is meddling in Egypt’s affairs? The identity of the Asiatics in the Elephantine Stele of Sethnakhte and the historicity of the Medinet Habu Asiatic war reliefs. Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections, 2(1), 14--23. http://jaei.library.arizona.edu Leprohon, R. J. (2013). The Great Name: Ancient Egyptian Royal Titulary. Society of Biblical Literature. Lesko, L. H. (1966). A little more evidence for the end of the Nineteenth Dynasty. Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, 5, 29–32. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40000169 Safronov, A. (2013). New titles of the Great Chancellor Bay. Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 99, 290--295. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24644942 Schneider, T. (2003). Siptah und Beja: Neubeurteilung einer historischen Konstellation. Zeitschrift Für Ägyptische Sprache Und Altertumskunde, 130, 134--146. Servajean, F. (2014). Mérenptah et la fin de la XIXe dynastie. Pygmalion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices