The Egyptian Cinderella - The Story of Rhodopis

Certainly, you know the fairy tale that tells the story of Cinderella, the most famous Disney princess. But did you know that the original story of Cinderella goes back to Egypt and ancient Greece? Once upon a time, there was a young Greek girl named Rhodops. With her green eyes that shone like emeralds and golden hair like the fields of wheat to the sun, Rhodops had a beauty that some said rivalled only Aphrodite herself. However, such beauty would also cause her a lot of pain. Rhodops was kidnapped by pirates known as the People of the Sea, who looted the coastal cities and took the beautiful maidens as slaves. Rhodops would be taken to the rich lands of the pharaohs, where the pirates hoped to get a good price for such a precious lady. The young girl was scared and at the same time enchanted by the grandeur and wealth of the people who lived in Egypt. Despite everything, the gods did not seem to have abandoned the young girl and, by fate, she would be bought by a Greek merchant who could not bear to see such a beautiful compatriot be subjected to slavery in foreign lands. Rhodops began to live among the daughter of the merchant and his Egyptian wife, who was jealous of the beauty of the young Greek who worked as a maid of the family. Rhodops loved to spend his free time singing on the banks of the Nile River, where most of the fauna of the region gathered to hear her sing. Rhodops rested by the river while a hawk flew over her. Suddenly, he dived and grabbed one of Rhodops' red sandals. The bird flew to the pharaoh's palace. This was not an ordinary hawk. He was the god Horus, the protector of Egypt. The pharaoh received that female sandal from the hawk's claws and understood the message of God. The young ruler was not yet married and knew that Horus wanted the owner of that sandal to be his wife. The pharaoh and his men began to search Egypt for the woman who would be the future queen of Egypt. When the pharaoh arrived at the Greek merchant's house, the merchant's daughters, seeing Rhodops' sandal in their hands, tried to hide the young woman. But the fate of Rhodops was to find happiness in the arms of the pharaoh, who fell in love with her immediately and became deaf to the protests of the sisters who said that he could not marry a slave. Rhodops became the first Greek blood queen to sit on the throne of Egypt and, in the future, several Greek queens of Macedonian origin reigned over Egypt, sitting on the throne that one day belonged to Rhodops.