The Wars of King Kamose, Kamose´s Stelae, and the Flies of Valour

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Kamose´s exploits against the Hyksos and the Kushites were inscribed in unusually vivid and personal detail on two stelae set up inside the temple of Amun at Karnak. The war narrative begins at a meeting of the king´s privy council, at which Kamose contemptuously rejects his advisors´ urgings to continue his predecessors´ policy of cooperation with the Hyksos regime. Kamose sails north, plundering the towns of Hyksos vassals that "had betrayed Egypt their mistress".

http://www.pbs.org/empires/egypt/special/hieroglyphs/kamose.html

Kamose then beards his Hyksos opponent in his capital of Avaris, "as if a kite were preying on the territory of Avaris, I caught sight of his women on the top of his palace... as they peeped out of their loopholes on their walls, like the young of the lizards". The greatest humiliation for King Apopi is the capture of his messenger, on his way south to rouse the Nubians against Kamose. Apopi´s message to his ally is brusque: "Do you see what Egypt has done against me? ... Come, travel north. Do not grow pale! Behold, he is here in my grasp," he boasts, somewhat prematurely. Kamose in turn boasts that "I caused to be taken back to him... so that my victory should invade his heart and his limbs should be paralyzed."

The upper half of one of the stelae. http://www.ancient-egypt.org/index.html

Kamose is wise enough not to overstretch himself and withdraws to Thebes. He arrives with the rising waters of the Nile flood and receives a warm reception: "women and men came out to see me, every woman embracing her companion." The king then repair to Karnak to offer thanks to Amun. Such a thanksgiving is the usual, even stereotypical, ending to a war narrative in ancient Egypt.

The gold "Flies of Valour", a military decoration for bravery, presented by Kamose or his brother Ahmose to their mother, Queen Ahhotep. She played an active role in the anti-Hyksos wars of her husband King Seqenere Tao and their two sons, serving as regent for Ahmose when he was in the field.

Some extracts from D. P. Silverman (Ancient Egypt, 1997)