Irti is an Egyptian man of mixed descent, a veteran of excavations who works as a hired protector for foreign expeditions. In the winter of 1928–1929 he protects Camille Colbert. His blue eyes earned him an epithet that is linked to the Blue Crown.
| Type | Character |
| Chronicle | LDC |
| Era | Winter of 1928–1929 |
| Location | Siwa (maternal origin); Cairo; the Red Desert |
| Spanish entry | Irti |
Background
He was fathered by a European who visited Egypt years before and never acknowledged him. He is called “a kind of mechay”: half Egyptian, half Western, “one foot in one world and the other foot in the other”.
Description
He is big and imposing, larger even than Teddy Bennet, with white skin, Egyptian features and a marked brow. His most striking feature is his prominent light-blue eyes, which gave him the epithet of the blue eyes. He wears a safari-style shirt, but no hat.
Career
He has real excavation experience and was present in the Valley of the Kings during the first campaigns that found “the only intact, almost intact, tomb of a pharaoh”. He now works as a protector under contract, offering field knowledge and guard to successive American and European excavators. His current employer is Mrs. Camille Colbert.
The Blue Crown and the dagger of Thoth
His epithet is tied to the Blue Crown: «por algo te pusieron ese nombre, de los ojos azules, porque la corona, podría estar» (“there is a reason they gave you that name, of the blue eyes, because the crown, it could be”). His fate is also bound to the dagger of Thoth. The nature of both links is not established.
Open questions
- His age, home, Egyptian family and pay are not recorded, nor whether he knows or seeks his father.
- His name circulates in variant spellings: Hirth, Hirtiu, Irtyu, Irkiu.
- Whom else he serves is unclear; he once said «por lo menos hoy estoy al servicio de mil» (“at least today I am in the service of a thousand”).
- In the gloss “el Irtiu, que es el nombre de la corona la Kepes”, it is unknown whether “Irtiu” names the man or a crown, and what “Kepes” is.