Lives of Alcyone

Life XXXIX
As our hero had now had seven successive lives in male
bodies, a change of sex takes place. We find Alcyone born this time
in the year 6986 B.C. in the mighty kingdom of Egypt. Her name was
Sebek-neferu-ra, and her father Sirius was the governor of a
province and a man of importance in the country; he was of an old
family, and stood high at Court and in the confidence of the
Pharaoh, Mars, whose son Herakles was all his life his closest
friend. Indeed, upon the death of Lutea, to whom Herakles had been
married in his youth, it was Naga, the elder sister of his bosom friend
Sirius, whom the heir to the throne chose as his second wife. Thus
in due course of time Naga became Queen of Egypt, and Sirius and
Alcyone thus found themselves in very close association with the
throne. Alcyone’ s mother, Ursa was a white woman—the daughter
of a chieftain near the Atlas Mountains; but as he had been only a
semi-civilised person no reference was usually made to this side of
her ancestry.
Ursa was only tepidly affectionate to Alcyone, because she
had hoped for a son, and was much disappointed; but the father
loved the child dearly. When a son (Egeria) arrived eighteen months
later, the mother was entirely wrapped up in him and therefore
neglected the daughter somewhat; but the father and the daughter
were only drawn the closer together by that. Ursa was very
imperious and impulsive, but was evidently trying hard to control and