The Scorpion God (novella)

"The Scorpion Gods" is a 1971 novella by William Golding originally published in his collection The Scorpion God: Three Short Novels. It is a historical tale set in pre-Dynastic Egypt.

Plot
After the king Great House trips twice on his daily run around his kingdom, and then refuses to have sex with his daughter, he and his servants drink poison and prepare to be embalmed. The only one who refuses is his jester and storyteller, Liar. Liar is widely traveled in regions far outside the small kingdom, and his true tales of things like snow, light skinned people, and the ocean, are ridiculed by the people as ludicrous lies. The people of the kingdom in general hold ideas that we would call absurd, such as that all games of skill involve cheating, and that incest is healthy. Liar, meanwhile, is a reasonable man from our perspective, but he is insulted as a lying madman by his peers. Liar's refusal to die and his interactions with Great House's daughter inadvertently upends his society.