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Critics have analyzed Arthur Miller's use of classical mythology in Death of a Salesman,1 but no scholar has pointed out that he has employed Egyptian mythology in his depiction of Happy. The first indication of the presence of Egyptian myth is his name Happy, or in its shortened form Hap.2 Why does Miller give him this name? He is not happy with his business career, and he rarely contributes to his family's happiness (Abbotson 37, 51). Moreover, he is selfish, uncaring about his father's deteriorating condition, despite his protestations of filial piety, and is devoted to sterile sexual conquests. With these negative characteristics, Happy represents an inverted parallel to his divine Egyptian namesakes, the two Egyptian gods named Hapy, also spelled Hapi, Hape, and Hap, who are associated with filial piety and fertility.
In Egyptian religion and mythology, Hapy, a mummiform spirit with the head of a dog, was one of the four sons of Horns and Isis who were in charge of caring for the dead (Mercatante 52). They stood on a lotus flower before the throne of Osiris during the judgment of the dead and were appointed by Horus to guard the four cardinal points and to watch over the heart and entrails of Osiris and protect him from hunger and thirst {Larousse Encyclopedia 40). Hapy's particular task was to protect the lungs of the dead in devotion to his father's command ("Hapy or Hapi" 480).
Hapy was also the name of the Egyptian god of fertility, who represented the Nile River as the sustainer of the land. He was depicted as a bearded obese man with huge breasts and a lotus or papyrus on his head as symbols of his fertility ("Hapy or Hapi" 480). Hapy also was connected with the Roman bull god Apis or Serapis, the composite god worshipped for his sexual prowess by the Egyptians and Greeks , who was also known as Asar-Hapi, HapiAsar, and Asar-Hap (Mercatante 142-43). These gods provided positive symbols as the nurturers of the people and the land.
Hapy was especially identified with the annual inundation of the Nile and local Nile-gods, who were traditionally depicted carrying plants (World...