Some said she was haunted by the Erinnyes for cruelty to a lover; others, that she was stricken by some god envious of Oraetes.

Whatever the cause of her decline, the charms of the magicians availed not to restore her, and the prescript of the doctor was equally without virtue.
Ne-ne-hofra was given over to die.
"Oraetes chose a crypt for her up in the tombs of the queens; and, calling the master sculptors and painters to Memphis, he set them to work upon designs more elaborate than any even in the great galleries of the dead kings.
"'O thou beautiful as Athor herself, my queen!' said the king, whose hundred and thirteen years did not lessen his ardor as a lover, 'Tell me, I pray, the ailment of which, alas! thou art so certainly perishing before my eyes.' "'You will not love me any more if I tell you,' she said, in doubt and fear.
"'Not love you! I will love you the more.

I swear it, by the genii of Amente! by the eye of Osiris, I swear it! Speak!' he cried, passionate as a lover, authoritative as a king.
"'Hear, then,' she said.

'There is an anchorite, the oldest and holiest of his class, in a cave near Essouan.

His name is Menopha.
He was my teacher and guardian.