History Literature / Pyramids

** Quite a lot of elements in this novel are ''Literature/{{Gormenghast}}'' references, particularly Teppic's parents and how Dios's endlessly-repeated daily activities have worn depressions in stone, he's retraced his daily path so perfectly so many times.

*** Also a ''ShoutOut'' to the Greek historian Creator/{{Herodotus}}, who referred to Egypt as "the gift of the Nile"

* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: In-universe, after the old pharoah dies, the people doing his tomb have to take severe artistic license with the frescoes of his mighty deeds because he didn't have any to his name. Or any great screw-ups, for that matter.

* MixAndMatchCritters: The plight of the Sphinx, being a mix up of human, lion and eagle will give a creature one hell of an identity crisis, and a perpetual bad mood.

** A group of unlicensed thieves trying mugging Teppic, Chidder and a friend of theirs when they graduate. It doesn't work out well for them.

* SadistTeacher: Mericet has this reputation among the would-be Assassins (potentially literally - this ''is'' a school for assassins, after all), although he ''does'' give Teppic a Pass after a really gruelling test.

* SeniorYearStruggles: The last year at the Assassins' School (Upper Sixth, analogous to real-world senior year) in Ankh-Morpork is literally a matter of life and death, as the Final Exam involves a very real threat of flunking out - terminally — if they fail the exam.

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: In-universe. Teppic drops the silent P from his name in Ankh-Morpork, but has to go back to keeping it in Djelibeybi.

*** Unfortunately, most British readers like this Troper read that as Her-She-Ba' (Queen of Sheba, Bathsheba, etc). It can also go over the heads of Americans, since the joke is based on a British tendency to pronounce an ''"r"'' sound on words ending in a vowel, hence, "Hershebar".

* RoyalWe: Dios occasionally uses this on Teppic's behalf, leading to some WhoseOnFirst situations when he suggests "We" will have to get married - meaning Teppic, as the new pharaoh, will have to get married to ensure a royal lineage.

* MisplacedSorrow: One of the surviving student assassins mourns the one who didn't make it, noting, "He still owed me money".

* AllMythsAreTrue:
** Like the real Egypt, Djelibeybi has several different gods for the same thing (in the real world, this was due to Egyptian culture existing and evolving for millennia and assimilating Greek, Hittite etc gods alongside their original ones). This means that, among other things, they all fight for who gets the job of moving the sun around, with a nearby priest acting as a sports commentator to describe it.
** Subverted when Teppic's father meets [[GrimReaper Death]], and is confused because he does not look like a giant scarab. Apparently, Death ''used'' to look like whatever people expected the personification of death to look like, until it became too tiresome and he decided to settle for the "[[DemBones skeleton with a scythe]]" look.

* AnArmAndALeg: Teppic shakes the hand of an unfortunate stonemason. Since he's considered to be a living god by his subjects, the man can no longer use his hand without defiling it, and has to have it amputated.

%% * Getting Crap Past The Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* AmphibianAtLarge: Djelibeybi is so impoverished they couldn't even manage a plague of frogs, merely a plague of ''frog''. It was, however, a particularly big frog, which stunk up the palace when it died.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

** Pretty much all of the Ephebeans are shoutouts to various Ancient Greeks, including {{Aesop}}, Zeno (who also mentions Aesop's tortoise/hare fable), Pythagoras, Homer, and Creator/{{Aristophanes}}.

** The pyramid that the very first king of Djelibeybi had built [[spoiler:for Dios]] carries the inscription [[AC:Khuft had me Made]], a reference to an Anglo-Saxon artefact known as the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Jewel Alfred Jewel]].

* SuperOCD: Dios has a routine that he has been practicing for [[spoiler:''at least'' seven thousand]] years. When it is unquestionably ruined beyond salvage, he still feels his body begin to urge him toward whatever task he 'should' be doing at this time of day.