INTRODUCTION: EGYPTIAN INSPIRATIONS IN GOLDING'S OEUVRE

William Golding's fascination with ancient Egypt originated in his childhood and continued throughout his life. Despite the fact that Golding was well-read in the topic, his interest in ancient Egypt was not primarily that of a historian or an antiquarian, but rather that of a creative writer. At the beginning of his essay titled “Egypt from My Inside,” included in his collection The Hot Gates, he admits that at the age of seven he was planning to write a play about “the Egypt of mystery, of the pyramids and the valley of Kings” (Golding, “Egypt from My Inside” 71), but that he decided against this idea on realising that he knew nothing about the language of those times. Golding never wrote the aforementioned play, but he did express his passion for Egyptian history in his oeuvre. The group of works in which the topic of Egypt is central include the essay “Egypt from My Inside,” with the complementary essay “Egypt from My Outside,” and An Egyptian Journal, based on Golding's voyage down the river Nile. While these texts will form an important point of reference in this article, by far the most important of Golding's works will be The Scorpion God, a story set in the court of an Egyptian king in Pre-Dynastic Egypt. Since Golding was well-read in the history and mythology of this country, a discussion of his story will be preceded by a note on the numerous historical and mythological references in this work. Nonetheless, it should be stated that the aim of this article is not to consider Golding's story exclusively against the background of historical data, but rather to interpret it as a work of vivid and fertile imagination. Indeed, The Scorpion God is a work of genius not only because it appeals to all the senses, transporting the readers to an unknown and intriguing reality, but also because it is a compelling commentary on imagination and myth.