Who is the African Despot in Etteilla Tarot Decks?

I love the wildness and oddness of Etteilla style decks compared to newer ones. They carry the atmosphere of traditional fortune telling rather than the esoteric society vibes of both Waite and Crowley. One card which can give people difficulties is Le Despote Africain, number 21, because while it is obviously related to the Chariot it's well off the wall.

I have three in my collection. A standard Grimaud Grand Etteilla (centre), the Lo Scarabeo Book of Thoth Etteilla tarot (left) and the Lo Scarabeo Tarots Egyptiens from the Anima Antiqua series (right). I am not equipped to tell you clearly what order they were originally published in but can tell you for certainty that none of them was actually designed by Etteilla himself. I love tarot history, don't you?

My investigation is also solely based on the resources available to me - I find the French of Etteilla's own writing to be so old fashioned it is well beyond my schoolboy French. But let's start off anyway. I have three prime candidates to be the African Despot.

The text on the right hand deck identifies him as Busiris, who it turns out was a probably legendary founder of Egypt featuring in some Greek legend:

a son of Poseidon and Libya or Lysianassa,^[4]was the ancient founder of Egyptian civilization, with an imagined "model constitution" that Isocrates sets up as a parodic contrast to the Republic by Plato. Plutarch says that his mother is Anippe,^[5]daughter of the river-god Nilus.^[6] The monstrous Busiris sacrificed all visitors to his gods. Heracles defied him, broke his shackles at the last minute and killed Busiris.

In Diodorus Siculus, Busiris appears as the founder of the line of kings at Thebes, which historically would have been the 11th Dynasty.

According to Hyginus, Busiris was the father of Melite who became the mother of Metus by her grandfather Poseidon.^[7]

This part of the mythology concerning Herakles appears to have origins in a corruption of an Egyptian myth concerning Osiris' sacrifice by Set, and subsequent resurrection (see Legend of Osiris and Isis). Source

Theck does give mythological names to the various characters, which was very common at the time. Busiris has the advantage of being African and also connected to the notional Egyptian origin of the tarot.

The LWB of the central fecd identifies the despot clearly as Rehoboam. I would note that that deck tends to take a more biblical approach to the characters depicted, and sure enough Rehoboam was a rather hopeless king of Judah. You can read more about Rehoboam here. I personally don't think he comes across as that much of a despot - certainly not in the Mugabe mould.

So what I have actually found out is that there are two streams contributing to the modern 'Etteilla' decks, one more biblical and the other a mythological reading of Egypt through Greek eyes. Since Etteilla's main thing was that the tarot was supposed to be Egyptian I feel Busiris fits better with the myth.