This reminds us the child Kamose, abandoned by his mother (the future Queen Ahhotep) and rescued by his grandmother Queen Teti-scheri who pretended the baby was her own son to protect him against her husband King Apophis who wanted to kill him. Because of his infirmity Kamose become an adult would have to wear boots to compensate his disability to walk. This remarkable feature had resulted in the figure of "the Booted Cat", a modern avatar of Kamose conqueror of Kerabas (current State Butana in North Sudan) on behalf of his half-brother Pharaoh Ahmose (become in the tale, the Marquis of Carabas).
Several literary traditions, from ancient times to the present day, seem to reflect this physical defect attributed to various mythical characters: from the Greek god Hephaestus (Roman Vulcan), through Oedipus with swollen feet, as far as "the Booted Cat" of Charles Perrault, that seems directly inspired by the life course of Kamose. Indeed this one could spend his youth in Keraba (present district of North Sudan) and was later brought to pacify Nubia on behalf of Pharaoh Ahmose. He was then the first Egyptian to rule the Land of Kush on which he reigned for nearly half a century (including 30 years as viceroy under the name Djehuti and 13 years as a pharaoh in Thebes under the name of Tuthmose I).
On the other hand, Kamose had received the nickname of Aegyptus as according to a tradition reported by Diodorus (I, 51, 3) "The father of Pharaoh Aegyptus was the Nile River in the form of a bull*, and the land of Egypt was named after him".** In fact, Aegyptus could come from the Greek form αιγου πους (aigou pous) or αιγι πους (aigi pous) meaning "goat foot" corresponding to the fact that Kamose walked on tiptoe.
* Remember that the name of Kamose meant "generated by a bull".
**And obviously it is to Pharaoh Aegyptus that Egypt could owe its name.
The reason for these malformations was probably a very high rate of consanguinity among the rulers of the 18th dynasty as marriages between brothers and sisters had been common since the 17th dynasty. If this disability was genetic, it would not be surprising that an ancestor of Tutankhamun was also a carrier of this defect. Moreover there is every reason to believe that if King Kamose-Tuthmose I (last ruler of the 17th dynasty and the third ruler of the 18th dynasty) was abandoned by his mother at birth, the reason was he had abnormal feet. Plutarch, himself, described the god Harpocrates (in Egyptian "Hor pa khered" child Horus with a lunar connotation) as prematurely born and weak of his lower limbs (De Iside, 19, 1).
The life course of Kamose, conqueror of Nubia as far as Kerabas on behalf of his half brother Pharaoh Ahmose, had inspired an Oriental legend behind the tale of "the Booted Cat" published by the French author Charles Perrault in 1697. The Cat is seen there as a creature who has mastered the art of persuasion and rhetoric to get power and wealth.
It seems now obvious that Pharaoh Toutankhamon 9th successor of Kamose-Thouthmose Ist on the Theban throne had a deformed feet which obliged him to wear special shoes. Indeed, the second toe in King Tut's right foot lacked the middle bone, making it shorter, while the left foot was clubbed, rotating internally at the ankle*. This is confirmed by images that show him sitting while shooting an arrow, which normally would have been done standing up. Indeed, more than hundred canes were found in the tomb when Tut's mummy was found in 1922, some of them showing signs of use. (http://news.discovery.com/history/king-tut-sandals-orthopedic.html) *This aspect suggests a talipes equinovarus (walking on the outer edge of the metatarsal and phalanges).
The handicap of Kamose was a particularly well hidden familial secret, but it would explain why Kamose could not succeed Pharaoh Seqenenre on the throne of Thebes, although the eldest of his half-brother Ahmose. As in antiquity, physical defects involved the irremediable exclusion of any noble function as royalty, since any deformity was considered a sign of a curse sent by the gods, even revealing the bastardy of the individual. And there was also the fear that the tare be transmitted to the offspring. Plato himself in his "Republic" (VIII, 535d) often associated physical tare with psychic tare as well as lameness with bastardy . Also the story of Oedipus conflates the notions of lameness, and convicted lineage, in a child rejected as a bastard and wearer of the most monstrous errors.
Egyptian representation of the sky, supported by two
"was" scepters
On this Greek vase, Hephaestus (center) wears boots held by straps and seems to walk on tiptoe, while other gods wear sandals with feet flat on the floor.
As for the blacksmith god Hephaestus, he had built two golden robots, representing two beautiful girls on whom he relied to walk in his palace. These servants in gold were to be absolutely vital for his disabled body (cf. Iliad 18, 417, compared with 18, 411 and 20, 37). These luxury crutches were substituted for "the spindly legs" of the god to support his body and allow him to move.
The singular fate of Tuthmose I-Kamose is also found in the Greek character of Oedipus. Abandoned child with feet deliberately mutilated at birth, he killed his father unknowingly, as Kamose was led to kill the husband of his mother, Pharaoh Seqenenre, probably in self-defense without knowing who he was. And Kamose had have a relationship with his own mother (Queen Ahhotep) during a first meeting where both were unable to recognize each other. Finally, Kamose-Tuthmose I become blind at the end of his life had disappeared in the swamps of Thebes, as King Oedipus who according the legend had gouged out his eyes, was engulfed in a crevasse during an earthquake.
Similarly, the Greek god Hephaestus (Ptah in Egypt) was crippled in both feet "with deformed feet, twisted"" (κυλλοποσιον, Iliad 18, 371, 20, 270, 21, 331). At birth, his mother Hera, disgusted with this disabled son, threw him down from Olympus. He was rescued by goddess Thetis, who reared him for nine years on the island of Rhodes where he acquired a taste for the arts of forge among Telchines.
kamose the prince with club feet
OR "THE BOOTED CAT" IN EGYPT