R: Ragnarok to Ruty 237
to as Neteru, defining a sacred place; Plato likewise characterized Atlantis as “sacred.”
The Medinet Habu account is accompanied by various scenes from these events,
including realistic representations of enemy warships and the Sea People them-
selves in various poses of defeat and captivity. They are the only portraits from
life of Atlanteans soon after their capital was engulfed by the ocean.
Ramses displayed his military genius and personal courage in terrible adversity.
The navy of Atlantis had brushed aside the Egyptians’ defenses at the mouth of
the Nile Delta, and its troops of invading marines stormed ashore. They overcame
all initial resistance to capture major cities, such as Busiris. Ramses withdrew his
forces and regrouped, observing how the invaders advanced concurrently with
their ships, which they relied on for support. At the southernmost end of the Nile
Delta, he threw virtually all of his surviving naval units against the Sea People.
The much smaller Egyptian crafts were not only out-classed, but out-numbered,
as well. On the verge of being overwhelmed, Pharaoh’s warships suddenly turned
and fled in retreat, with the whole invading fleet in hot pursuit.
Ramses had his littler vessels lure their cumbersome enemies into narrower,
shallower areas of the river familiar to the Egyptian captains, but unknown to the
Sea People. The Atlanteans suddenly found themselves unable to freely maneuver
and began grounding on unseen shoals. The Egyptians now plied the big warships
with a barrage of fire-pots, just as thousands of archers abruptly appeared along
the shore to launch endless flights of arrows at the outmaneuvered invaders. Cut
off from their floating supplies, the Sea People were routed back up the delta
toward its Mediterranean shores, where they disembarked in their remaining ships.
But the war was far from over. The invasion had consisted of a three-pronged
attack from the north against the Delta, westward across Libya, and at the Egyptian
colony of Syria, in the east. Infantry held the Libyan assault at Fortress Usermare,
near the Egyptian frontier, until Ramses was able to bring up his forces, enduring
almost annihilating losses in the process of defense. Pharaoh never spared a moment
for celebration. He moved with great speed. Before they could effect a landing,
he met the Sea People on the beaches at Amor, where they suffered their final
defeat. Ramses personally participated in this last battle, drawing his great bow
against the invaders.
The wall texts at Medinet Habu record that the captive Sea People warriors
were bound at the wrists behind their backs or over their heads, together with
their allies, including Trojan War veterans from Libya, Etruria, Sicily, Sardinia,
and other parts of the Mediterranean. They saw the Atlantean invasion as an
opportunity for plunder, and had joined as pirates. Thousands of these unfortunate
prisoners-of-war were paraded before the victorious Ramses III and his court.
After interrogation by his scribes, they were castrated, then sent to work for the
remainder of their lives as slave laborers at the Tura limestone pits. Thus ended
the imperial ambitions of Atlantis in the eastern Mediterranean.