Setnau's Triumph

After the pharoah Amysis died
a priest of Vulcan named Setnau became Pharaoh...
He treated the army with contempt and disdain
not always a good idea for a King

Now it came to pass that when Sennacherib, King of the Arabs and Assyrians, led his hosts against Egypt, the soldiers of the Egyptian army refused to fight and repel them. The Pharaoh Setnau, thus reduced to powerlessness, went to the temple and prayed to the Gods to help him in his dire straits.

While thus troubled a sleep fell upon him, and in a dream it seemed that the God himself appeared and exhorted him to courage, saying that all would fall to his advantage in the campaign against the Assyrians. Greatly cheered by this dream, Setnau called upon those of the army who would follow him, and they camped at Peluce, a main approach into Egypt.

During the night as the Assyrians lay encamped about the field, rats gnawed and devoured all the quivers, bows, and fittings of shields of the invaders, so that, on the morrow, when they would have given battle, behold! they were weaponless.

Thus disarmed, the Assyrians fled and many perished. And now in the temple of Vulcan stands a stone image of the god, bearing in his hand the figure of a rat. And the legend thereon runs,

"Who beholds me, beholds God."