Tuesday, December 1, 2015
The Story Of The Egyptian Gods
The principal creator god in Ancient Egyptian religion is the sun-god; in the Egyptian language, the word for sun is Ra, and this was one name for the sun-god, but he was also regularly called Atum, from the word tm 'complete'. The name Atum seems intended to evoke all matter as concentrated in the creator, before creation emerged. Creation is a process of unfurling, with the undivided All gradually fissioning into separable entities.
Atum already exists at least in potential within the primeval nothingness before creation. In some religious compositions, it is stated that his first offshoots were also already present. These are in the terms of human society his 'son' and 'daughter'; the male has the name Shu, from Sw 'to be dry', and the female is called Tefnet, from a rare word tfn 'to corrode' (so, in opposition to Sw, to be moist). The Coffin Texts also equate Shu with the grammatically masculine Egyptian word for life, Ankh, and Tefnet with the grammatically feminine Egyptian word for What is Right, Maat. In other writings, the crucial element that enables the creator to emerge is the female contribution - in different guises this can be not only Tefnet or Maat, but Hathor or the deified principle Iusaas (a name meaning 'she grows as she arrives')
The emergence of the creator is given various verbal and visual expression, predominantly associated with the new land emerging from the annual flood:
a heron alights on the first dry ground - this heron may be called bnw, the Egyptian equivalent and perhaps origin of the classical Greek phoenix a lotus flower emerges out of the water - in the New Kingdom (about 1550-1069 BC) and later, this motif is assigned to Nefertem, god of scented oils, lotus at the nose of Ra the mound itself offers the original sacred ground - temples are said to be sited on the primeval mound of the first time of creation
The various references to the emergence of the sun-god from the flood waters, and the following generations down to Osiris, are often called in Egyptolgy the 'Heliopolitan Theology' (Heliopolis being the Greek for 'city of the sun-god', the place with the Egyptian name Iunu in Lower Egypt province 13). As with the 'Hermopolitan Theology', this assumes much that we do not know - we do not know when or where these ideas developed, and they do not stand in absolute opposition to the ideas of the Eight forces existing before creation, but contain the continuation of the story beyond creation.
From Ra to Osiris and Horus
On 'myth'
There is no single Ancient Egyptian narration combining all the different motifs and expressions of the mysteries of creation and the origins of the present world. We have to summarise the episodes and references of numerous different sources. It is important to be aware that such a summary may be an entirely non-Egyptian, modern analytical response to the question of creation; the Egyptian response seems to have been not to tell stories (these emerge much later in the surviving record) but to express relations between different divine forces in groups like 'constellations' (this is the term Assmann has used for the Egyptian material).
The reign of Ra and its end
The sun-god is the first creator and ruler of creation. In references to his rule, more particularly in New Kingdom tales of the end of his reign, the world already seems to exist in the form it now has. There is no separate Ancient Egyptian composition describing the creation of mankind: they are already in existence early in the story of the world - in some accounts said to be from the tears of the sun-god (in Egyptian the word rmT 'people' evokes the word rmt 'to weep').
The first offshoots of Ra are Shu and Tefnet; they then produce two 'children' of their own - the earth god Geb and the sky goddess Nut. In the language of natural science, we might say that the principles of dry and moist crystallised into the more solid dryness of the earth, and the expanse of sky that the Egyptians considered watery.
A New Kingdom religious composition records rebellion against Ra, prompting him to withdraw to the sky. This 'Tale of the Heavenly Cow' includes the story of Ra sending his eye out from his body, so as a separate offshoot, a 'daughter', to punish mankind. As Sekhmet (meaning 'the mighty goddess') she almost annihilates mankind; the gods trick her into becoming sweetly drunk, by colouring a lake of beer red to look like human blood - she reverts to her sweet character as the loving and maternal Hathor.
The children of Geb and Nut
Ra withdraws to the sky in this tale; this implies that creation has already reached the point where Geb and Nut, earth and sky, have been separated by Shu. The various scattered references indicate that this separation had to be enforced, to prevent the two from producing more divine offspring. However, they managed to win from Thoth (god of knowledge including the calculation of time) an extra five days at the end of the year, and on these extra days Tefnet gave birth to the gods Osiris and Seth, and the goddesses Isis and Nephthys. The elder son Osiris is the quintessential good god; he incurs the jealousy of his anarchic brother Seth, who murders him, dismembers him, and takes his place as the new king of the world. The sister-wife of Osiris is Isis, the great healer; she collects the limbs, revives the body enough to conceive a child, Horus. While the transfigured Osiris withdraws to the underworld to rule the dead, Isis protects Horus in the marshes of the Nile Delta until he is old enough to challenge his uncle. The battles of Horus and Seth are known from numerous sources, the most extended Ancient Egyptian source being a composition on a Ramesside papyrus from Thebes (now in the Chester Beatty collection in Dublin). Eventually in physical combat and in the courts of the gods Horus proves his case and wins his rightful place as heir of Osiris and king. In some versions Seth is given the deserts as his area of authority.
With the kingship of Horus, the unfurling of creation has reached its current stage of development. There is a Horus king on earth, latest 'son' of the sun-god; Ra rules the heavens from his daily boat journey around the world in the day and night skies, and Osiris rules the dead below. This is not a nature religion in the sense that the trees, rivers or mountains are personified divine beings, but there is divine force within the river (the flood, Hapy), and the gods are in one sense in the world as the sun (Ra), the earth (Geb), the sky (Nut).
Together the gods from Ra to Horus make up a group that can be calculated as nine deities - the Nine is the most common means of reference to larger groups of gods in Ancient Egyptian writings. Rituals preserved in funerary literature refer to a Great and a Small Nine (Egyptologists often use the Greek form Ennead). The Nine are not listed by name, but might be Ra, Shu and Tefnet, Geb and Nut, Osiris and Isis, Nephthys and Horus, omitting the disruptive presence of Seth.
It is not known when these stories were developed; in the Early Dynastic Period, Horus and Seth are prominent opposites, but without the presence of Isis or Ra or Osiris. Therefore our image of Egyptian religion may be an amalgam of episodes that took form during the third millennium BC. It is also not known where the stories developed, though it seems likely that the centralised royal court offered the most intense focus for religious and ritual composition.
Other episodes in the generations from Ra to Horus
The rebellion against Ra is not the only one in the story of the gods: one temple shrine now preserved in Ismailiya bears a Late Period hieroglyphic inscription recording the rebellion of Geb against his father Shu. The intrigues in the inscription can be interpreted as veiled references to disturbances in the political history of Egypt from the Late Period to Late Dynastic Period, but they may also present religious narrative elaborating on the otherwise bare succession of events in the mythic period of rule by the gods on earth.
Other aspects of creation
Ra the sun-god, source of light and energy, is only the most prominent and powerful among various aspects of creative power. Two prominent other aspects given name in Ancient Egyptian religious writing include:
Ptah - creation as intervention in and transformation of existing material, whether metal and stone (craft, art) or word (the Logos of Greek philosophical theology)
Khnum - creation as moulding of a physical form, as a potter moulds ceramic on the wheel, changing its shape but not its substance
Within the created world, prominent features given name in Ancient Egyptian religious writing include:
Thoth - knowledge, writing, calculation (and the moon - another prominent moon-god without the sphere of writing is Khons)
Bast - originally the power of ointment to heal and make beautiful, in some ways a milder, defensive version of the aggressive Sekhmet; until the first millennium BC depicted as lion(ess), from the Twenty-second Dynasty as cat
Ipy and Aha (later called Taweret and Bes) - protectors of mother and child at birth
Sobek - voracity, incarnate in the crocodile
Renenutet - abundance, protector of the harvest, depicted as serpent
There are also forces protecting the divine king, with great impact on development of local religious form:
Wadjyt - protecting the north, depicted as rearing cobra, main goddess at Buto in the Delta
Nekhbet - protecting the south, depicted as vulture with outstretched wings, main goddess at Elkab in southern Upper Egypt
Wepwawet - protecting movement by the king (the name means 'opener of the ways'), depicted as a standing jackal
Anubis, god of embalming, may in origin be related to the power of the divine child as king, since the word inp means 'king-child' in Egyptian. Kingship is at the centre of the expression of the divine, and the development of that expression, in Ancient Egypt; there is no visible impact from other areas of society, and the term 'popular religion' in Egyptology covers the areas of birth, harvest and law as experienced as much by the king and elite as by rural or urban workers.
Ancient Egyptian Mythology
Gods of Egypt (film)
Gods of Egypt is an upcoming American fantasy film featuring ancient Egyptian deities. The film is directed by Alex Proyas and stars Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Brenton Thwaites, Gerard Butler, and Geoffrey Rush. Butler plays the god of darkness Set who takes over the Egyptian empire, and Thwaites plays the mortal hero Bek who partners with the god Horus, played by Coster-Waldau, to save the world and to rescue his love.
Filming took place in Australia under the studio Summit Entertainment. While the film's production budget was $140 million, the parent company Lionsgate's financial exposure was less than $10 million due to tax incentives and pre-sales. When Lionsgate began promoting the film in November 2015, it received backlash for its predominantly white cast playing Egyptian characters. In response, Lionsgate and director Alex Proas apologized for the lack of casting diversity. Lionsgate plans to release Gods of Egypt in theaters on February 26, 2016. The film will be released in 2D and RealD 3D.
In this spectacular action-adventure inspired by the classic mythology of Egypt, the survival of mankind hangs in the balance as an unexpected mortal hero Bek (Brenton Thwaites) undertakes a thrilling journey to save the world and rescue his true love. In order to succeed, he must enlist the help of the powerful god Horus (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) in an unlikely alliance against Set (Gerard Butler), the merciless god of darkness, who has usurped Egypt's throne, plunging the once peaceful and prosperous empire into chaos and conflict. As their breathtaking battle against Set and his henchmen takes them into the afterlife and across the heavens, both god and mortal must pass tests of courage and sacrifice if they hope to prevail in the epic final confrontation.
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Osiris, Set, and Queen Aso.
But Seth the Evil One, their brother, envied Osiris and hated Isis. The more the people loved and praised Osiris, the more Seth hated him; and the more good he did and the happier mankind became, the stronger grew Seth's desire to kill his brother and rule in his place. Isis, however, was so full of wisdom and so watchful that Seth made no attempt to seize the throne while she was watching over the land of Egypt. And when Osiris returned from his travels Seth was among the first to welcome him back and kneel in reverence before "the good god Pharaoh Osiris".
Yet he had made his plans, aided by seventy-two of his wicked friends and Aso the evil queen of Ethiopia. Secretly Seth obtained the exact measurements of the body of Osiris, and caused beautiful chest to be made that would fit only him. It was fashioned of the rarest and most costly woods: cedar brought from Lebanon, and ebony from Punt at the south end of the Red Sea for no wood grows in Egypt except the soft and useless palm.
Then Seth gave a great feast in honour of Osiris; but the other guests were the two-and-seventy conspirators. It was the greatest feast that had yet been seen in Egypt, and the foods were choicer, the wines stronger and the dancing girls more beautiful than ever before. When the heart of Osiris had been made glad with feasting and song the chest was brought in, and all were amazed at its beauty.
Osiris marveled at the rare cedar inlaid with ebony and ivory, with less rare gold and silver, and painted inside with figures of gods and birds and animals, and he desired it greatly.
"I will give this chest to whosoever fits it most exactly!" cried Seth. And at once the conspirators began in turn to see if they could win it. But one was too tall and another too short; one was too fat and another too thin - and all tried in vain.
"Let me see if I will fit into this marvelous piece of work," said Osiris, and he laid himself down in the chest while all gathered round breathlessly.
"I fit exactly, and the chest is mine!" cried Osiris.
"It is yours indeed, and shall be so forever!" hissed Seth as he banged down the lid. Then in desperate haste he and the conspirators nailed it shut and sealed every crack with molten lead, so that Osiris the man died in the chest and his spirit went west across the Nile into Duat the Place of Testing; but, beyond it to Amenti, where those live for ever who have lived well on earth and passed the judgments of Duat, he could not pass as yet. Seth and his companions took the chest which held the body of Osiris and cast it into the Nile; and Hapi the Nile-god carried it out into the Great Green Sea where it was tossed for many days until it came to the shore of Phoenicia near the city of Byblos. Here the waves cast it into a tamarisk tree that grew on the shore; and the tree shot out branches and grew leaves and flowers to make a fit resting place for the body of the good god Osiris and very soon that tree became famous throughout the land.
Thoth, the heart and tongue of Ra
Thoth, was one of the deities of the Egyptian pantheon. In art, he was often depicted as a man with the head of an ibis or a baboon, animals sacred to him. His feminine counterpart was Seshat, and his wife was Ma'at.
Thoth's chief temple was located in the city of Khmun, later called Hermopolis Magna during the Greco-Roman era (in reference to him through the Greeks' interpretation that he was the same as their god Hermes) and Shmounein in the Coptic rendering. In that city, he led the Ogdoad pantheon of eight principal deities. He also had numerous shrines within the cities of Abydos, Hesert, Urit, Per-Ab, Rekhui, Ta-ur, Sep, Hat, Pselket, Talmsis, Antcha-Mutet, Bah, Amen-heri-ab, and Ta-kens.
Thoth played many vital and prominent roles in Egyptian mythology, such as maintaining the universe, and being one of the two deities (the other being Ma'at) who stood on either side of Ra's boat. In the later history of ancient Egypt, Thoth became heavily associated with the arbitration of godly disputes, the arts of magic, the system of writing, the development of science, and the judgment of the dead.
He was considered the heart and tongue of Ra as well as the means by which Ra's will was translated into speech. He has also been likened to the Logos of Plato and the mind of God (The All).
Thoth, like many Egyptian gods and nobility, held many titles. Among these were "Scribe of Ma'at in the Company of the Gods," "Lord of Ma'at," "Lord of Divine Words," "Judge of the Two Combatant Gods," "Judge of the Rekhekhui, the pacifier of the Gods, who Dwelleth in Unnu, the Great God in the Temple of Abtiti," "Twice Great," "Thrice Great,"" and "Three Times Great, Great."
Thoth has been involved in arbitration, magic, writing, science and the judging of the dead.
In the Egyptian mythology, he has played many vital and prominent roles, including being one of the two deities (the other being Ma'at) who stood on either side of Ra's boat. In the underworld, Duat, he appeared as an ape, A'an, the god of equilibrium, who reported when the scales weighing the deceased's heart against the feather, representing the principle of Ma'at, was exactly even.
Thoth has played a prominent role in many of the Egyptian myths. Displaying his role as arbitrator, he had overseen the three epic battles between good and evil. All three battles are fundamentally the same and belong to different periods. The first battle took place between Ra and Apep, the second between Heru-Bekhutet and Set, and the third between Horus and Set . In each instance, the former god represented order while the latter represented chaos. If one god was seriously injured, Thoth would heal them to prevent either from overtaking the other.
Thoth was also prominent in the Asarian myth, being of great aid to Isis. After Isis/Aset gathered together the pieces of Asar's dismembered body, he gave her the words to resurrect him so she could be impregnated and bring forth Horus. After a battle between Horus and Set in which the latter plucked out Horus' eye, Thoth's counsel provided him the wisdom he needed to recover it. Thoth was the god who always speaks the words that fulfill the wishes of Ra.
This mythology also credits him with the creation of the 365 day calendar. Originally, according to the myth, the year was only 360 days long and Nut was sterile during these days, unable to bear children. Thoth gambled with the Moon for 1/72nd of its light (360/72 = 5), or 5 days, and won. During these 5 days, Nut gave birth to Kheru-ur (Horus the Elder, Face of Heaven), Osiris, Set, Isis, and Nephthys.
Warlord Set
Set or Seth (also spelled Setesh, Sutekh, Setekh, or Suty) is a god of the desert, storms, disorder, violence and foreigners in ancient Egyptian religion. In Ancient Greek, the god's name is given as Sēth. Set is not, however, a god to be ignored or avoided; he has a positive role where he is employed by Ra on his solar boat to repel the serpent of Chaos Apep. Set had a vital role as a reconciled combatant. He was lord of the red (desert) land where he was the balance to Horus' role as lord of the black (soil) land.
During the Second Intermediate Period (1650–1550 BC), a group of Asiatic foreign chiefs known as the Hyksos (literally, "rulers of foreign lands") gained the rulership of Egypt, and ruled the Nile Delta, from Avaris. They chose Set, originally Upper Egypt's chief god, the god of foreigners and the god they found most similar to their own chief god, as their patron, and then Set became worshiped as the chief god once again.
Jan Assmann argues that because the Ancient Egyptians could never conceive of a "lonely" god lacking personality, Seth the desert god, who was worshiped exclusively, represented a manifestation of evil.
When Ahmose I overthrew the Hyksos and expelled them from Egypt (c. 1522 BC), Egyptian attitudes towards Asiatic foreigners became xenophobic, and royal propaganda discredited the period of Hyksos rule. Nonetheless, the Set cult at Avaris flourished, and the Egyptian garrison of Ahmose stationed there became part of the priesthood of Set.
The founder of the Nineteenth Dynasty, Ramesses I came from a military family from Avaris with strong ties to the priesthood of Set. Several of the Ramesside kings were named for Set, most notably Seti I (literally, "man of Set") and Setnakht (literally, "Set is strong"). In addition, one of the garrisons of Ramesses II held Set as its patron deity, and Ramesses II erected the so-called Four Hundred Years' Stele at Pi-Ramesses, commemorating the 400 year anniversary of the Set cult in the Delta.
Set also became associated with foreign gods during the New Kingdom, particularly in the Delta. Set was also identified by the Egyptians with the Hittite deity Teshub, who was a storm god like Set.
According to Herman te Velde, the demonization of Set took place after Egypt's conquest by several foreign nations in the Third Intermediate and Late Periods. Set, who had traditionally been the god of foreigners, thus also became associated with foreign oppressors, including the Assyrian and Persian empires. It was during this time that Set was particularly vilified, and his defeat by Horus widely celebrated.
Set's negative aspects were emphasized during this period. Set was the killer of Osiris, having hacked Osiris' body into pieces and dispersed it so that he could not be resurrected. The Greeks later linked Set with Typhon because both were evil forces, storm deities, and sons of the Earth that attacked the main gods.
Nevertheless, throughout this period, in some outlying regions of Egypt Set was still regarded as the heroic chief deity.
Set has also been classed as a Trickster deity who, as a god of disorder, resorts to deception to achieve bad ends.
Horus - Attacked [hunting?] by Hippo!
Thus he became a symbol of majesty and power as well as the model of the pharaohs. The Pharaohs were said to be Horus in human form.
Furthermore, Nemty, another war god, was later identified as Horus.
Since Horus was said to be the sky, he was considered to also contain the sun and moon. It became said that the sun was his right eye and the moon his left, and that they traversed the sky when he, a falcon, flew across it. Later, the reason that the moon was not as bright as the sun was explained by a tale, known as the The Contendings of Horus and Seth. In this tale, it was said that Set, the patron of Upper Egypt, and Horus, the patron of Lower Egypt, had battled for Egypt brutally, with neither side victorious, until eventually the gods sided with Horus.
As Horus was the ultimate victor he became known as Harsiesis, Heru-ur or Har-Wer (ḥr.w wr 'Horus the Great'), but more usually translated as Horus the Elder. In the struggle Set had lost a testicle, explaining why the desert, which Set represented, is infertile. Horus' left eye had also been gouged out, then a new eye was created by part of Khonsu, the moon god, and was replaced.
Horus was occasionally shown in art as a naked boy with a finger in his mouth sitting on a lotus with his mother. In the form of a youth, Horus was referred to as Neferhor. This is also spelled Nefer Hor, Nephoros or Nopheros (nfr ḥr.w) meaning 'The Good Horus'.
Wedjat, Eye of Horus
The Eye of Horus is an ancient Egyptian symbol of protection and royal power from deities, in this case from Horus or Ra. The symbol is seen on images of Horus' mother, Isis, and on other deities associated with her.
In the Egyptian language, the word for this symbol was "Wedjat". It was the eye of one of the earliest of Egyptian deities, Wadjet, who later became associated with Bast, Mut, and Hathor as well. Wedjat was a solar deity and this symbol began as her eye, an all seeing eye. In early artwork, Hathor is also depicted with this eye. Funerary amulets were often made in the shape of the Eye of Horus. The Wedjat or Eye of Horus is "the central element" of seven "gold, faience, carnelian and lapis lazuli" bracelets found on the mummy of Shoshenq II. The Wedjat "was intended to protect the king [here] in the afterlife" and to ward off evil. Ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern sailors would frequently paint the symbol on the bow of their vessel to ensure safe sea travel.
Bastet ( or Bast )
Bastet first appears in the 3rd millennium BC, where she is depicted as either a fierce lioness or a woman with the head of a lioness. Images of Bast were often created from a local stone, named alabaster today. The lioness was the fiercest hunter among the animals in Africa, hunting in co-operative groups of related females.
Originally she was viewed as the protector goddess of Lower Egypt. As protector, she was seen as defender of the pharaoh, and consequently of the later chief male deity, Ra, who was also a solar deity, gaining her the titles Lady of Flame and Eye of Ra.
Her role in the Egyptian pantheon became diminished as Sekhmet, a similar lioness war deity, became more dominant in the unified culture of Lower and Upper Egypt known as the Two Lands.
In the first millennium BC, when domesticated cats were popularly kept as pets, Bastet began to be represented as a woman with the head of a cat. In the 2nd millennium, domestic cats appeared as Bastet's sacred animal. After the 11th century BCE, Bast was commonly depicted as a woman with the head of a cat or lioness, often carrying a sistrum (sacred rattle) and an aegis. When the Greeks started to settle in Egypt, around the 5th century BCE, Bastet started to gain some of the characteristics of Artemis, such as transitioning from a sun goddess to a moon goddess.
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