The Princes of Egypt

The New York Times ran an article this week revisiting the ancient tomb of two men who held the role of royal manicurists. The last time we met these Egyptian spa gods, the hubbub surrounding the discovery of their tomb was that they were possibly a gay couple - the first gay couple in fact to have such prime real estate literally and historically. This thoery would answer questions left unexplained by the prevailing idea that they were just twins (very close twins). The gay world breathed a sigh of victory and snickered at the stereotypical fact that they did indeed do fierce nails.

The new theory brings back the twin thing but suggests that they were conjoined twins which would explain some of the closeness in the pictographs. And while it all makes sense to me, I have to say that I was a bit disappointed by the ease at which archeologists were willing to dismiss the gay thing. In fact, the article quotes the scientists as considering homosexual royal manicurists as the least plausible possibility. I mean, couldn't they just leave well enough alone? But one of the scientists said something about how the ancient Egyptians viewed the differences in people. It inspired me and I think it is somewhat timely in our fundamentalist era. "Such attributes were often seen as fabulous rather than monstrous, and positive rather than negative," Dr. O'Connor said. "They attested the creator god's ability, if he wished, to bring wondrous changes upon the norms he himself had established." It is the scientist's take on the age old phrase 'God don't make no junk.' Take that, Religious Right.

Essentially, I agree that in the interest of science and history and anthropology, one needs to consider all scenarios in order to get it right. I guess I just want to believe that through the ages there was boy on boy love and it was a good thing, maybe even celebrated. That somewhere in the desert Whitney and Mariah are really singing "there can be miracles, if you believe" in an ancient Disney soundtrack (how gay would that be). That Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum locked in a lover's embrace, were buried, only to be found centuries later in order to give us inspiration to keep on fighting for our lives, for our relationships, and for our cuticles.