Rhodopis

Rhodopis was a young girl from Egypt. She was a clever and good girl and used all her talents to help people. She was also very beautiful.

One day as she was about to swim in the Nile, she placed her clothes on the banks of the river and she also kept her sandals near her dress.

Her sandals were unique. Rhodopis had small feet and her sandals were small and cute and her sandals were covered by a thin layer of gold.

Even as Rhodopis was swimming in the Nile, a falcon swooped down and took one of her sandals and flew away towards Ra, the Sun God.



Far away the Pharaoh of Egypt was settling disputes between his people.

In one particular case the pharaoh punished the tax collector for collecting unjust tax from a peasant and his entire family. The peasant and his family had been imprisoned by the tax collector and the Pharaoh also set the family free. As the Pharaoh looked at the now-happy family of peasants the Pharaoh realized that he did not have a family of his own. He had not yet found the woman who could be the Queen of Egypt.

That was when a falcon came and dropped a sandal on the throne of the Pharaoh.

The Pharaoh looked at the sandal and felt that this was a sign of the Gods. He had to find the woman who had such beautiful sandals. So he sent his people all over Egypt so that they could find the owner of the sandals.

A few days later the Pharaoh was in despair. None of the women in Upper and Lower Egypt were able to put their feet into the single sandal. So he ordered his soldiers to cross the banks of the Nile in an attempt to find the woman with the sandal.

That was when the Pharaoh saw Rhodopis for the first time. Upon seeing her the Pharaoh fell in love with her immediately.

Realizing that the Gods themselves wanted the Pharaoh to marry Rhodopis by bringing hrt sandal to him, the Pharaoh approached her to marry him.

Rhodopis readily agreed.

She happily reigned over Egypt along with her husband for the rest of her days.

(Some of the versions of the story say that the sandal were carried away by an eagle.

Horus is one of the deities of Egypt and Horus is represented as a Falcon.

The story of Rhodopis was first recorded by Strabo who was a Greek historian. It is believed that this story was based on a real person from Egypt.)

Egyptian folk stories