18/08/2024
The original Cinderella.
Its story was brought to us by Walt Disney and is based on a folk tale written by the Brothers Grimm and the Frenchman Perrault in their books.
However, the roots of the tale seem to go back much further.
It was originally passed down orally and was first recorded by the Greek Strabo in his Geographica (Book 17, Section 33).
However, the real legend takes place in ancient Egypt.
The main character was called Rodopé, which means "rosy-faced" in Greek.
She was a beautiful girl born in Greece who was kidnapped by pirates and sold into slavery in Egypt.
Her master was an old man who did not know that the servants in his house made fun of Rodope because of the color of her blond hair and green eyes.
In addition, the servants' skin was a copper color, while his was pale, and his face flushed easily in the sun.
It was nicknamed Rhodope and thus went down in history.
His only friends were the animals of the house and the banks of the Nile, who entrusted him with the most difficult housework.
One day his master saw him dancing beautifully on his way to the river and, amazed at his talent, gave him a pair of red and gold sandals to cover his feet.
This made her the envy of the other girls.
After a while, when the pharaoh was in the city of Memphis, he called all his subjects together for a great feast.
The invited old lord brought all his servants with him, including Rodopé, who were dressed for such a majestic event.
However, when it was time to leave, the servants cruelly forced Rodope to stay behind and finish the chores around the house, so he missed the opportunity to go to the Pharaoh's great feast.
Desperate, he went to the river to visit his animal friends.
He took off his shoes to bathe in the river, and when he left his sandals on the shore, a hawk flew up and stole one of them.
Rodope wept bitterly for the loss, the shoe was the only thing of value she had, so she returned to the house, keeping the remaining sandal in her dress.
Now he had no doubt that the taunts from his peers would get even worse.
However, he did not know that the falcon that stole his sandals was the god Horus himself.
Meanwhile, in Memphis, the pharaoh was looking bored at the feast when a hawk dropped a pair of red and gold sandals into his lap.
Believing that Horus himself had sent him a sign, he put on the sandal and was immediately seized with curiosity to find its owner.
So he began to look for him all over Egypt.
The pharaoh sent messengers everywhere to find the owner of the sandal.
He himself traveled along the Nile in his boat to find the unknown girl.
It was not even a day before he arrived at the house where Rodope lived.
When she saw the pharaoh with the sandal, the attendants knew at once that it was a Rhodope sandal, but they did not say it, and she did not dare to go near him to take the sandal, for they forced her to hide among some reeds, and tried it on in the process the sandals, but none of them fit.
When he finished, the pharaoh was about to leave, but he saw Rodope hiding in the reeds, called her closer and invited her to try on the shoes.
She picked it up without a problem and showed him the other she had hidden in her clothes, making it clear that Rodope owned it.
The pharaoh exclaimed that he would make the girl his queen.
Some told him that she was a foreigner, to which he replied that Rhodope was the most Egyptian of all, for her eyes were as green as the river Nile, her hair was the color of papyrus, and her skin was as pink as lotus flower.
This is how she became the queen of Egypt.
