Rhodopis, otherwise known as the Egyptian Cinderella, was an enslaved Greek girl who
ended up marrying the Pharoah of Egypt. Her tale is the earliest known version of the
story made famous in the modern world by Disney. Let’s dive straight in…
Long ago in the land of Egypt, land of the green Nile and the blue Mediterranean and
the rising sun, there lived a slave girl named Rhodopis. Rhodopis was born in Greece, but
had been kidnapped by pirates and sold into Egyptian slavery. The man who bought her was
a kind old man, but he spent most of his time sleeping and never saw how much Rhodopis suffered
at the hands of his other servants, who teased her endlessly. Their hair was straight and
black and elegant; her hair was golden, curly and coarse. Their eyes were brown and black
and deep, but hers were green and bright. Their skin glowed like copper and bronze and
sand, but Rhodopis had fair skin that burnt in the sun. They made her do all their work
while the old man slept. “Go to the river and wash the clothes,”
“Mend my robe,” “Chase the geese from the garden,: “Bake the bread,” they would
shout at her. Rhodopis had only animals for friends. She
had trained the birds to eat from her hand, a monkey to sit on her shoulder, and the old
hippopotamus would slide up on the bank out of the mud to be closer to her. At the end
of the day if she wasn’t too tired she would go down to the river to be with the animals,
and if she had any energy left from the hard day’s work she would dance and sing for
them. One evening she had more energy than usual,
as the day had been particularly cool. Even her master had been enjoying the fine weather,
and had fallen asleep under a tree near the river. When the day was done, Rhodopis went
down to the river near her animals, and danced and sang so lightly and so well that her feet
barely touched the ground, and the old man woke from his sleep and listened to her singing.
He admired her dancing, and felt that one so talented should not be without shoes. He
ordered her a special pair of slippers. They were soft and a delicious rose-red color.
Now the servant girls teased her even more, so jealous they were of her beautiful red
slippers. A little while after this, word arrived that
the Pharaoh was holding court in Memphis and all in the kingdom were invited. There was
to be dancing and singing and feasting for days on end, and naturally Rhodopis wanted
to go, to dance and sing with the others. But it was not to be. For as the servant girls
prepared to leave in their finest clothes they turned to Rhodopis and gave her more
chores to do before they returned, and it would be impossible for her to get them all
done before the court began. They poled their raft away leaving a sad Rhodopis
on the bank. As she began to wash the clothes in the river she sang a sad little song–”wash
the linen, weed the garden, grind the grain.” Rhodopis washed and beat the clothes harder
than she ought, for she was very disappointed not to be going. The splashing of the water
wet Rhodopis’s slippers. She quickly grabbed them up, took them off and placed them in
the sun to dry. As she was continuing with her chores the sky darkened and as she looked
up she saw a falcon sweep down, snatch one of her slippers, and fly away. Rhodopis was
in awe for she knew it was the god Horus who had taken her shoe. Rhodopis tucked the other
slipper away in her tunic and went back to work, wondering what Horus’ appearance could
mean. Now the Pharaoh, Amasis, Pharaoh of all Egypt
was just beginning to hold court, sitting on his throne looking out over the people,
and feeling very bored. He much preferred to be riding across the desert in his chariot,
and the dancing was uninspired. He longed for a distraction.
Suddenly the falcon swooped down and dropped the rose-red golden slipper in his lap. The
Pharaoh caught up the slipper and examined it closely, for he knew this was a sign from
the god Horus. He stared at the slipper until he had deciphered its meaning, and then sent
out a decree that all maidens in Egypt must try on the slipper, and that he would take
the owner to be his Queen, for so Horus had decreed. And so it happened that by the time
the servant girls arrived the celebrations had ended, and Pharaoh had left by chariot
in search of the owner of the red-rose slipper. After searching all through the large cities
and not finding the owner, the Pharaoh called for his barge and began to travel the Nile
pulling into every landing, ordering maidens to try on the slipper. Soon he came to the
house of Rhodopis’ master, and when Rhodopis heard the sounds of the gong, the trumpets
blaring, and saw the purple silk sails, she hid, fearful of what it could mean. The other
servant girls ran to the landing to try on the shoe while Rhodopis hid in the rushes.
Of course, the moment that the other servant girls saw the shoe they recognized that it
belonged to Rhodopis, but said nothing, such was their envy and hatred of her. Yet try
as they might, they could not force their feet into the slipper. While they were failing
and pretending to succeed, the Pharaoh spied Rhodopis hiding in the rushes and asked her
to try on the slipper. She slid her tiny foot into the slipper and then pulled the other
from her tunic. In this moment, the Pharaoh knew that she
had been decreed to be his wife by the Gods, and pronounced that she would be his queen.
The servant girls cried out that she was a slave and not even Egyptian, and that her
hair, eyes, skin and clothes were unsuitable; any of them would be a more fitting Queen.
But the Pharaoh said: “She is the most Egyptian of all…for her eyes are as green as the
Nile, her hair like papyrus, and her skin as pink as the lotus flower.”
She was taken to Memphis where she would marry the Pharoah and to use the famous Disney fairytale
line, they lived happily ever after.