The "Tale of Two Brothers" is an ancient Egyptian story that dates from the reign of Seti II, who ruled from 1200 to 1194 BC during the 19th Dynasty of the New Kingdom.

When he strongly rejects her advances, the wife tells her husband that his brother attempted to seduce her and beat her when she refused.

Khnum, the god frequently depicted in Egyptian mythology as having fashioned humans on a potters' wheel, creates a wife for Bata.

Also, the divine aspect of his wife's creation could be seen to serve as legitimacy for the kingship of Bata, especially since he was not actually the child of the pharaoh.

"[4] Additionally, whenever one of the brothers becomes angry, they are said to behave like an "Upper Egyptian panther," or, in another translation, like "a cheetah of the south.

[8] With relation to the Tale of Two Brothers, Susan Tower Hollis also advocates this approach, saying that the story might "contain reflexes of an actual historical situation.

"[9] Specifically, Hollis speculates that the story might have had its origins in the succession dispute following Merneptah's reign at the end of the 13th century BC.

[10] According to folklorist Stith Thompson, the story is the predecessor to the Aarne–Thompson–Uther tale type ATU 318, "The Faithless Wife" or "Batamärchen".

[11][12][13][14] Czech scholar Karel Horálek [cs] provided the "European redaction", that is, how the variants appear in European sources: the hero dies, resurrects as a horse; the horse is killed and from its blood a beautiful tree is born; the hero's unfaithful wife cuts down the tree; a woodchip remains and becomes a bird ("usually a drake").

[15] Parallels have also been argued between the resurrection cycle motif and tales that appear in later literary tradition, such as The Love for Three Oranges (or The Three Citrons),[16][17] as well as mediaeval hagiographic accounts.