Shu (/ʃuː/; meaning "emptiness" and "he who rises up") was one of the primordial gods in Egyptian mythology, a personification of air, one of the Ennead of Heliopolis.
Family
He was created by Atum, his father and Iusaaset, his mother in the city of Heliopolis. With his sister Tefnut (moisture), he was the father of Nut and Geb. His daughter, Nut, was the sky goddess whom he held over the Earth (Geb), separating the two. The Egyptians believed that if Shu didn't hold his son and daughter (the god of the earth and the goddess of the sky) apart there would be no way life could be created.
Shu's grandchildren are Osiris, Isis, Set and Nephthys. His great-grandsons are Horus and Anubis.
Myths
As the air, Shu was considered to be cooling, and thus calming, influence, and pacifier. Due to the association with air, calm, and thus Ma'at (truth, justice and order), Shu was portrayed in art as wearing an ostrich feather. Shu was seen with between one and four feathers.
In a much later myth, representing the terrible weather disaster at the end of the Old Kingdom, it was said that Tefnut and Shu once argued, and Tefnut left Egypt for Nubia (which was always more temperate). It was said that Shu quickly decided that he missed her, but she changed into a cat that destroyed any man or god that approached. Thoth, disguised, eventually succeeded in convincing her to return.
He carries an ankh, the symbol of life
God Atlas look like God Shu
God Atlas
Gandhara Atlas
In Greek mythology, Atlas (/ˈætləs/; Ancient Greek: Ἄτλας) was the primordial Titan who held up the celestial sphere. He is also the titan of astronomy and navigation. Although associated with various places, he became commonly identified with the Atlas Mountains in northwest Africa (Modern-day Morocco and Algeria).[1] Atlas was the son of the Titan Iapetus and the Oceanid Asia[2] or Klyménē (Κλυμένη):[3]
Now Iapetus took to wife the neat-ankled maid Clymene, daughter of Ocean, and went up with her into one bed. And she bare him a stout-hearted son, Atlas: also she bare very glorious Menoetius and clever Prometheus, full of various wiles, and scatter-brained Epimetheus.
—Hesiod, Theogony 507–11
In contexts where a Titan and a Titaness are assigned each of the seven planetary powers, Atlas is paired with Phoebe and governs the moon.[not in citation given][4]
Hyginus emphasises the primordial nature of Atlas by making him the son of Aether and Gaia.[5]
The first part of the term Atlantic Ocean refers to "Sea of Atlas", the term Atlantis refers to "island of Atlas
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
The Temple of Kalabsha in Nubia was dedicated to Mandulis which was a Nubian form of Horus.[1] A cult dedicated to Mandulis can also be found in Egypt, at Philae.
Mandulis was often depicted wearing an elaborate headdress of ram's horns, cobras and plumes surmounted by sun discs.[2] He was sometimes shown in the form of a hawk, but wearing a human head.[
Marul also Merwel, Mandulis
The temple of Debod, rebuilt in Madrid Marul or Merwel (Greek Mandulis) was a Lower Nubian sun god identified with Re and venerated by the nomads of the country. The temple of Debod. Its original site was near the Isis temple at Philae. It was dismantled before the flooding of the Nile valley because of the Aswan dam and rebuilt in Madrid.
At Debod Mandulis was associated with Geb and Nut.[1] As a child and as a sun god he appeared in the form of Mandulis the Child and Mandulis the Elder respectively, two falcons bedecked with flowers.[3] He was represented in human shape wearing a hemhem crown, a headdress of horns, cobras and plumes, topped by sundisks. He was associated with Horus. A first temple in his honour was built at Kalabsha 50 km south of Aswan during the 18th dynasty and replaced under the Ptolemies and later the Roman emperor Augustus by the largest free standing temple in Nubia which attracted Greek and Roman pilgrims and soldiers from afar. To these believers he was a form of the god Aion from Alexandria, while to the nomads he was the son of Horus, the merging of the two deities being a deliberate act of syncretism on behalf of the authorities, intended to unite nomads and soldiers in the worship of a common god. Marul Marul, temple at Kalabsha
Marul also had a chapel at Philae, close to the Isis temple and was possibly closely asociated with the goddess.[2]
The last dated hieroglyphic inscription written in Egypt was dedicated to this god and inscribed in the Isis temple at Philae in the year 394 CE: Before Mandulis, son of Horus, made by Esmetakhom, son of Esmet, the second priest of Isis, for ever and eternally. Words to be spoken by Mandulis, Lord of the Abaton, the great god. The rest of the inscription was written in demotic, possibly because the writer's knowledge of hieroglyphs was limited living in these last years of the dying ancient Egyptian culture
Mandulis
Manulis was a sun god of Lower (northern) Nubia. He is usually depicted wearing a crown of ram horns surmounted by high plumes, sun disks and cobras. His name in Egyptian inscriptions is "Merwel" but the Greek version, as found in the text known as the "Vision of Mandulis" is used almost universally
A chapel to Mandulis existed on the island of Philae off the eastern colonnade approaching the temple of Isis, a goddess who seems to be regarded at least as his close companion. But it is in the temple of Kalabsha (now moved to a location just above the High Dam at Aswan), the most impressive monument in Lower Nubia from the Graeco-Roman period, that the best evidence of the cult of Mandulis can be found. Constructed on the site of an earlier New Kingdom sanctuary, Kalabsha (ancient Talmis) took its present form during the reign of the Roman emperor Augustus. Mandulis, as represented on its walls, does not seem at all out of place among the other members of the Egyptain pantheon placed in his company. From the "Vision of Mandulis" we find the unforced equation of this Nubian solar deity to Egyptian Horus and to the Greek Apollo
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
Heka (/ˈhɛkə/; Egyptian: Ḥkȝ; also spelt Hike) was the deification of magic in Egyptian mythology, his name being the Egyptian word for "magic". According to Egyptian writing (Coffin text, spell 261), Heka existed "before duality had yet come into being." The term "Heka" was also used for the practice of magical ritual. The Coptic word "hik" is derived from the Ancient Egyptian.
Heka literally means activating the Ka, the aspect of the soul which embodied personality. Egyptians thought activating the power of the soul was how magic worked. "Heka" also implied great power and influence, particularly in the case of drawing upon the Ka of the gods. Heka acted together with Hu, the principle of divine utterance, and Sia, the concept of divine omniscience, to create the basis of creative power both in the mortal world and the world of the gods.
As the one who activates Ka, Heka was also said to be the son of Atum, the creator of things in general, or occasionally the son of Khnum, who created specific individual Ba (another aspect of the soul). As the son of Khnum, his mother was said to be Menhit.
The hieroglyph for his name featured a twist of flax within a pair of raised arms; however, it also vaguely resembles a pair of entwined snakes within someone's arms. Consequently, Heka was said to have battled and conquered two serpents, and was usually depicted as a man choking two giant entwined serpents. Medicine and doctors were thought to be a form of magic, and so Heka's priesthood performed these activities.
Egyptians believed that with Heka, the activation of the Ka, an aspect of the soul of both gods and humans, (and divine personification of magic), they could influence the gods and gain protection, healing and transformation. Health and wholeness of being were sacred to Heka. There is no word for religion in the ancient Egyptian language, mundane and religious world views were not distinct; thus Heka was not a secular practice but rather a religious observance. Every aspect of life, every word, plant, animal and ritual was connected to the power and authority of the gods.[1]
In ancient Egypt, medicine consisted of four components; the primeval potency that empowered the creator-god was identified with Heka, who was accompanied by magical rituals known as Seshaw held within sacred texts called Rw. In addition Pekhret, medicinal prescriptions, were given to patients to bring relief. This magic was used in temple rituals as well as informal situations by priests. These rituals, along with medical practices, formed an integrated therapy for both physical and spiritual health. Magic was also used for protection against the angry deities, jealous ghosts, foreign demons and sorcerers who were thought to cause illness, accidents, poverty and infertility
In Ancient Egypt Heka (Hike) was the patron of magic and therefore also of medicine. The Egyptian word for magic was "heka" (which literally means "using the Ka") and Heka was the personification of magic. His name (and the word magic) were depicted as a twist of flax and a pair of raised arms. The flax was often placed with the arms, and was thought to resembles two snakes. According to myth, Heka fought and conquered two serpents, and so two intertwined serpents became symbolic of his power. This symbol is still associated with medicine today.
He was generally considered to be the son of Menhet and Khnum and the three formed the triad of Latopolis (Esna) in Upper Egypt. He was also popular in Heliopolis where he was described as the son of Atum because of the latter´s association with Khnum.
The concept of Heka was central to the Egyptian way of life, and death. Ritual implements were used to help the deceased pass safely to the afterlife, but Heka was the means of accomplishing this task. Heka also helped Ra on his daily journey across the sky by warding off evil spirits and demons.
Although Heka had no formal worship, doctors and other healers were called "priests of Heka" and often sought his assistance. He was generally depicted as a man carrying a magic staff and a knife, the tools of a healer. He occasionally appears as a man holding two entwined serpents
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
Wadjet (/ˈwɑːdˌdʒɛt/ or /ˈwædˌdʒɛt/; Egyptian wꜣḏyt, "green one"),[1] known to the Greek world as Uto /ˈjuːtoʊ/ or Buto /ˈbjuːtoʊ/ among other names, was originally the ancient local goddess of the city of Dep (Buto),[2] which became part of the city that the Egyptians named Per-Wadjet, House of Wadjet, and the Greeks called Buto (Desouk now),[3] a city that was an important site in the Predynastic era of Ancient Egypt and the cultural developments of the Paleolithic. She was said to be the patron and protector of Lower Egypt and upon unification with Upper Egypt, the joint protector and patron of all of Egypt with the "goddess" of Upper Egypt. The image of Wadjet with the sun disk is called the uraeus, and it was the emblem on the crown of the rulers of Lower Egypt. She was also the protector of kings and of women in childbirth.
As the patron goddess, she was associated with the land and depicted as a snake-headed woman or a snake—usually an Egyptian cobra, a venomous snake common to the region; sometimes she was depicted as a woman with two snake heads and, at other times, a snake with a woman's head. Her oracle was in the renowned temple in Per-Wadjet that was dedicated to her worship and gave the city its name. This oracle may have been the source for the oracular tradition that spread to Greece from Egypt.[4]
The Going Forth of Wadjet was celebrated on December 25 with chants and songs. An annual festival held in the city celebrated Wadjet on April 21. Other important dates for special worship of her were June 21, the Summer Solstice, and March 14. She also was assigned the fifth hour of the fifth day of the moon.
Wadjet was closely associated in the Egyptian pantheon with Bast, the fierce goddess depicted as a lioness warrior and protector, as the sun goddess whose eye later became the eye of Horus, the eye of Ra, and as the Lady of Flame. The hieroglyph for her eye is shown below; sometimes two are shown in the sky of religious images. Per-Wadjet also contained a sanctuary of Horus, the child of the sun deity who would be interpreted to represent the pharaoh. Much later, Wadjet became associated with Isis as well as with many other deities.
In the relief shown to the right, which is on the wall of the Hatshepsut Temple at Luxor, there are two images of Wadjet: one of her as the uraeus sun disk with her head through an ankh and another where she precedes a Horus hawk wearing the double crown of united Egypt, representing the pharaoh whom she protects.
Etymology
The name Wadjet[5] is derived from the term for the symbol of her domain, Lower Egypt, the papyrus.[6]
Her name means "papyrus-colored one",[7][8] as wadj is the ancient Egyptian word for the color green (in reference to the color of the papyrus plant) and the et is an indication of her gender. Its hieroglyphs differ from those of the Green Crown (Red Crown) of Lower Egypt only by the determinative, which in the case of the crown was a picture of the Green Crown[9] and, in the case of the goddess, a rearing cobra
Protector of country, pharaohs, and other deities
Eventually, Wadjet was claimed as the patron goddess and protector of the whole of Lower Egypt and became associated with Nekhbet, depicted as a white vulture, who held unified Egypt. After the unification the image of Nekhbet joined Wadjet on the crown, thereafter shown as part of the uraeus.
The ancient Egyptian word Wedjat signifies blue and green. It is also the name for the well known Eye of the Moon.[10] Indeed, in later times, she was often depicted simply as a woman with a snake's head, or as a woman wearing the uraeus. The uraeus originally had been her body alone, which wrapped around or was coiled upon the head of the pharaoh or another deity
Wadjet was depicted as a cobra. As patron and protector, later Wadjet often was shown coiled upon the head of Ra; in order to act as his protection, this image of her became the uraeus symbol used on the royal crowns as well.
Another early depiction of Wadjet is as a cobra entwined around a papyrus stem, beginning in the Predynastic era (prior to 3100 B.C.) and it is thought to be the first image that shows a snake entwined around a staff symbol. This is a sacred image that appeared repeatedly in the later images and myths of cultures surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, called the caduceus, which may have had separate origins.
Her image also rears up from the staff of the "flag" poles that are used to indicate deities, as seen in the hieroglyph for uraeus above and for goddess in other place
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
Nekhbet (/ˈnɛkˌbɛt/;[1] also spelt Nekhebit) was an early predynastic local goddess in Egyptian mythology who was the patron of the city of Nekheb, her name meaning of Nekheb. Ultimately, she became the patron of Upper Egypt and one of the two patron deities for all of Ancient Egypt when it was unified
Egypt’s oldest oracle was the shrine of Nekhbet at Nekheb, the original necropolis or city of the dead. It was the companion city to Nekhen, the religious and political capital of Upper Egypt at the end of the Predynastic period (c. 3200–3100 BC) and probably, also during the Early Dynastic Period (c. 3100–2686 BC).[2] The original settlement on the Nekhen site dates from Naqada I or the late Badarian cultures. At its height, from about 3400 BC, Nekhen had at least 5,000 and possibly as many as 10,000 inhabitants.
The priestesses of Nekhbet were called muu (mothers) and wore robes of Egyptian vulture feathers.
Nekhbet was the tutelary deity of Upper Egypt. Nekhbet and her Lower Egyptian counterpart Wadjet often appeared together as the "Two Ladies". One of the titles of each ruler was the Nebty name, which began with the hieroglyphs for [s/he] of the Two Ladies....[2]
In art, Nekhbet was depicted as a vulture. Alan Gardiner identified the vulture that was used in divine iconography as a griffon vulture. Arielle P. Kozloff, however, argues that the vultures in New Kingdom art, with their blue-tipped beaks and loose skin, better resemble the lappet-faced vulture.[3]
In New Kingdom times, the vulture appeared alongside the uraeus on the headdresses with which kings were buried. The uraeus and vulture are traditionally interpreted as Wadjet and Nekhbet, but Edna R. Russmann has suggested that in this context they represent Isis and Nephthys, two major funerary goddesses, instead.[4]
Nekhbet usually was depicted hovering, with her wings spread above the royal image, clutching a shen symbol (representing infinity, all, or everything), frequently in her claws.[2] As patron of the pharaoh, she was sometimes seen to be the mother of the divine aspect of the pharaoh, and it was in this capacity that she was Mother of Mothers, and the Great White Cow of Nekheb.
In some late texts of the Book of the Dead, Nekhbet is referred to as Father of Fathers, Mother of Mothers, who hath existed from the Beginning, and is Creatrix of this World.
Bat was a cow goddess in Egyptian mythology depicted as a human face with cow ears and horns. By the time of the Middle Kingdom, her identity and attributes were subsumed within the goddess Hathor
Worship
The worship of Bat dates to earliest times and may have its origins in Late Paleolithic cattle herding. Bat was the chief goddess of Seshesh, otherwise known as Hu or Diospolis Parva, the 7th nome of Upper Egypt
Depictions in ancient Egyptian culture
Although it was rare for Bat to be clearly depicted in painting or sculpture, some notable artifacts (like the upper portions of the Narmer Palette) include depictions of the goddess in bovine form. In other instances she was pictured as a celestial bovine creature surrounded by stars or as a human woman. More commonly, Bat was depicted on amulets, with a human face, but with bovine features, such as the ears of a cow and the inward-curving horns of the type of cattle first herded by the Egyptians.
Bat became strongly associated with the sistrum, and the center of her cult was known as the 'Mansion of the Sistrum'.[2] The sistrum is a musical instrument, shaped like an ankh,[1] that was one of the most frequently used sacred instruments in ancient Egyptian temples. Some instruments would include depictions of Bat, with her head and neck as the handle and base and rattles placed between her horns. The imagery is repeated on each side, having two faces, as mentioned in the Pyramid Texts:. I am Praise; I am Majesty; I am Bat with Her Two Faces; I am the One Who Is Saved, and I have saved myself from all things evil.
Relation to Hathor
The imagery of Bat as a divine cow was remarkably similar to that of Hathor, a parallel goddess from Lower Egypt. In two dimensional images, both goddesses often are depicted straight on, facing the onlooker and not in profile in accordance with the usual Egyptian convention. The significant difference in their depictions is that Bat's horns curve inward and Hathor's curve outward slightly. It is possible that this could be based in the different breeds of cattle herded at different times.
Hathor's cult center was in the 6th Nome of Upper Egypt, adjacent to the 7th where Bat was the cow goddess, which may indicate that they were once the same goddess in Predynastic Egypt. By the Middle Kingdom, the cult of Hathor had again absorbed that of Bat in a manner similar to other mergers in the Egyptian pantheon
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
Set /sɛt/ or Seth (/sɛθ/; also spelled Setesh, Sutekh,[1] Setekh, or Suty) is a god of the desert, storms, disorder, violence and foreigners in ancient Egyptian religion.[2] In Ancient Greek, the god's name is given as Sēth (Σήθ). 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.[3] Set had a vital role as a reconciled combatant.[4] He was lord of the red (desert) land where he was the balance to Horus' role as lord of the black (soil) land.[5]
In Egyptian mythology, Set is portrayed as the usurper who killed and mutilated his own brother Osiris. Osiris' wife Isis reassembled Osiris' corpse and resurrected him long enough to conceive his son and heir Horus. Horus sought revenge upon Set, and the myths describe their conflicts. The death of Osiris and the battle between Horus and Set is a popular theme in Egyptian mythology
God Set
God Set
God Heru and Set
God Saturn
Saturn (Latin: Saturnus) is a god in ancient Roman religion, and a character in myth. Saturn is a complex figure because of his multiple associations and long history. He was the first god of the Capitol, known since the most ancient times as Saturnius Mons, and was seen as a god of generation, dissolution, plenty, wealth, agriculture, periodic renewal and liberation. In later developments he came to be also a god of time. His reign was depicted as a Golden Age of plenty and peace. The Temple of Saturn in the Roman Forum housed the state treasury. In December, he was celebrated at what is perhaps the most famous of the Roman festivals, the Saturnalia, a time of feasting, role reversals, free speech, gift-giving and revelry. Saturn the planet and Saturday are both named after the god
Temple
The temple of Saturn was located at the base of the Capitoline Hill, according to a tradition recorded by Varro[12] formerly known as Saturnius Mons, and a row of columns from the last rebuilding of the temple still stands.[13] The temple was consecrated in 497 BC but the area Saturni was built by king Tullus Hostilius as confirmed by archaeological studies conducted by E. Gjerstad.[14] It housed the state treasury (aerarium) throughout Roman history
God Saturn, God of the Roman capitol, God of the Roman treasury.
God Saturn, god of death, law and education.
God Saturn and moloch
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
Satan (Hebrew: שָּׂטָן satan, "adversary,"[1]) is a term, later a character appearing in the texts of the Abrahamic religions[2][3] who personifies evil and temptation, and is known as the deceiver that leads humanity astray. The term is often applied to an angel who fell out of favor with God, seducing humanity into the ways of sin, and who now rules over the fallen world.
Satan is primarily understood as an "accuser" or "adversary" in the Hebrew Bible, and is not necessarily the personification of evil that he would become in later Abrahamic religions. In the New Testament, Satan is a name that refers to a decidedly malevolent entity (devil) who possesses demonic god-like qualities. In Theistic Satanism, Satan is considered a positive force and deity who is either worshipped or revered. In LaVeyan Satanism, Satan is regarded as holding virtuous characteristics
God Moloch
God Moloch
Moloch, also rendered as Molech, Molekh, Molok, Molek, Molock, Moloc, Melech, Milcom, or Molcom (representing Semitic מלך m-l-k, a Semitic root meaning "king") is the name of an ancient Ammonite god.[1] Moloch worship was practiced by the Canaanites, Phoenicians, and related cultures in North Africa and the Levant.
As a god worshipped by the Phoenicians and Canaanites, Moloch had associations with a particular kind of propitiatory child sacrifice by parents. Moloch figures in the Book of Deuteronomy and in the Book of Leviticus as a form of idolatry (Leviticus 18:21: "And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Moloch"). In the Old Testament, Gehenna was a valley by Jerusalem, where apostate Israelites and followers of various Baalim and Caananite gods, including Moloch, sacrificed their children by fire (2 Chr. 28:3, 33:6; Jer. 7:31, 19:2–6).
Moloch has been used figuratively in English literature from John Milton's Paradise Lost (1667) to Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" (1955), to refer to a person or thing demanding or requiring a very costly sacrifice
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
Banebdjedet (Banebdjed) was an Ancient Egyptian ram god with a cult centre at Mendes. Khnum was the equivalent god in Upper Egypt. His wife was the goddess Hatmehit ("Foremost of the Fishes") who was perhaps the original deity of Mendes.[2] Their offspring was "Horus the Child" and they formed the so called "Mendesian Triad".[3]
The words for "ram" and "soul" sounded the same in Egyptian so ram deities were at times regarded as appearances of other gods.[2]
Typically Banebdjedet was depicted with four rams' heads to represent the four Ba's of the sun god. He may also be linked to the first four gods to rule over Egypt (Osiris, Geb, Shu and Ra-Atum), with large granite shrines to each in the Mendes sanctuary.[2]
The Book of the Heavenly Cow describes the "Ram of Mendes" as being the Ba of Osiris but this was not an exclusive association. A story dated to the New Kingdom describes him as being consulted by the "Divine Tribunal" to judge between Horus and Seth but he proposes that Neith do it instead as an act of diplomacy. As the dispute continues it is Banebdjedet who suggests that Seth be given the throne as he is the elder brother.[2]
In a chapel in the Ramesseum, a stela records how the god Ptah took the form of Banebdjedet, in view of his virility, in order to have union with the woman who would conceive Rameses II. It was the sexual connotations associated with his cult that led early Christians to demonise Banebdjedet
God Baphomet
Baphomet (/ˈbæfɵmɛt/; from medieval Latin Baphometh, baffometi, Occitan Bafometz) is a term originally used to describe an idol or other deity which the Knights Templar were accused of worshiping, and subsequently incorporated into disparate occult and mystical traditions. It appeared as a term for a pagan idol in trial transcripts of the Inquisition of the Knights Templar in the early 14th century,[1] The name first came into popular English usage in the 19th century, with debate and speculation on the reasons for the suppression of the Templars.[2]
Since 1856, the name Baphomet has been associated with a "Sabbatic Goat" image drawn by Eliphas Lévi,[3] which contains binary elements representing the "sum total of the universe" (e.g. male and female, good and evil, etc.).[4] However, Baphomet has been connected with Satanism as well, primarily due to the adoption of its symbol by the Church of Satan
God Baphomet
god Baphomet
Who is Baphomet?
Baphomet is an enigmatic, goat-headed figure found in several instance in the history of occultism. From the Knights Templar of the Middle-Ages and the Freemasons of the 19th century to modern currents of occultism, Baphomet never fails to create controversy. But where does Baphomet originate from and, most importantly, what is the true meaning of this symbolic figure? This article looks at the origins of Baphomet, the esoteric meaning of Baphomet and its occurrence in popular culture.
Throughout the history of Western occultism, the name of the mysterious Baphomet is often invoked. Although it became commonly know name in the twentieth century, mentions of Baphomet can be found in documents dating from as early as the 11th century. Today, the symbol is associated with anything relating to occultism, ritual magic, witchcraft, Satanism and esoterica. Baphomet often pops up in popular culture to identify anything occult.
The most famous depiction of Baphomet is found in Eliphas Levi’s “Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie“, a 1897 book that became a standard reference for modern occultism. What does this creature represent? What is the meaning of the symbols around it? Why is it so important in occultism? To answer some of these questions, we must first look at its origins. We’ll first look at the history of Baphomet and several examples of references to Baphomet in popular culture.
Origins of the Name
There are several theories concerning the origins of the name of Baphomet. The most common explanation claims that it is an Old French corruption of the name of Mohammed (which was Latin-ized to “Mahomet”) – the Prophet of Islam. During the Crusades, the Knights Templar stayed for during extended periods of time in Middle-Eastern countries where they became acquainted with the teachings of Arabian mysticism. This contact with Eastern civilizations allowed them to bring back to Europe the basics of what would become western occultism, including Gnosticism, alchemy, Kabbalah and Hermetism. The Templars’ affinity with the Muslims led the Church to accuse them of the worship of an idol named Baphomet, so there are some plausible links between Baphomet and Mahomet. However, there are other theories concerning the origins of the name.
Eliphas Levi, the French occultist who drew the famous depiction of Baphomet argued that the name had been derived from Kabbalistic coding:
“The name of the Templar Baphomet, which should be spelt kabalistically backwards, is composed of three abbreviations: Tem. ohp. AB., Templi omnium hominum pacts abbas, “the father of the temple of peace of all men”. 1
Arkon Daraul, an author and teacher of Sufi tradition and magic argued that Baphomet came from the Arabic word Abu fihama(t), meaning “The Father of Understanding”. 2
Dr. Hugh Schonfield, whose work on the Dead Sea Scrolls is well-known, developed one of the more interesting theories. Schonfield, who had studied a Jewish cipher called the Atbash cipher, which was used in translating some of the Dead Sea Scrolls, claimed that when one applied the cipher to the word Baphomet, it transposed into the Greek word “Sophia”, which means ” knowledge” and is also synonymous with “goddess”.
Possible Origins of the Figure
The modern depiction of Baphomet appears to take its roots from several ancient sources, but primarily from pagan gods. Baphomet bears resemblances to gods all over the globe, including Egypt, Northern Europe and India. In fact, the mythologies of a great number of ancient civilizations include some kind of horned deity. In Jungian theory, Baphomet is a continuation of the horned-god archetype, as the concept of a deity bearing horns is universally present in individual psyches. Do Cernunnos, Pan, Hathor, the Devil (as depicted by Christianity) and Baphomet have a common origin? Some of their attributes are strikingly similar.
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
Heryshef (Herishef, Heryshaf, Hershef) was an ancient creator and fertility god and god of the riverbanks whose name translates as "he who is on his lake". His cult was located at Hwt-nen-nesu (Hnes, Herakleopolis Magna) but he was also referred to as the ruler of Iunu (Heliopolis).
The Palermo Stone records that his cult dated back to the first dynasty of Ancient Egypt (the Early period) but the earliest known temple dedicated to him at Hwt-nen-nesu is dated to the Middle Kingdom. However, we know that he was fairly powerful during the First intermediate Period when Hwt-nen-nesu briefly became the capital of Lower Egypt.
Heryshef The Temple of Heryshef was expanded during the New Kingdom by Ramesses II who added a number of huge granite columns with palm leaf capitals and remained active until well into the Ptolemaic Period.
In Ancient Egypt he was associated with Ra and Osiris and was sometimes described as the "Ba" (soul) of these gods. He was also associated with Atum because of his connections with the sacred naret tree of Hwt-nen-nesu. However, the Greeks called him Harsaphes or Arsaphes (which means "manliness") and identified him with Heracles, perhaps in part because his name could also mean "He who is over strength". Heryshef
He appears on a stele found in the Temple of Isis in Pompeii (but originally from his temple in Hwt-nen-nesu) in which Heryshef assures Somtutefnakht (a priest during the late Period) that he will not be harmed and advises him to return to his home town of Hwt-nen-nesu to serve in the temple. In this stele Heryshef is described as "king of the Two Lands" and "ruler of the riverbanks". He is also referred to in the "Tale of the Eloquent Peasant" in which the peasant goes to register his complaint in the Temple of Heryshef. Heryshef was often depicted on ivory wands from the Middle Kingdom and amulets from later periods.
He took the form of a king with the head of a long-horned ram. He wore the Atef when he is associated with Osiris and the sun disc when he is associated with Ra.
In Egyptian mythology, Heryshaf, or Hershef, (Egyptian Ḥry-š=f "He who is on his lake"),[1] transcribed in Greek as Arsaphes or Harsaphes (Ἁρσαφής) was an ancient ram-god whose cult was centered in Herakleopolis Magna (now Ihnasiyyah al-Madinah). He was identified with Ra and Osiris in Egyptian mythology,[2] as well as Dionysus [3] or Heracles in Greek mythology. The identification with Heracles may be related to the fact that in later times his name was sometimes reanalysed as Ḥry-šf.t "He who is over strength." One of his titles was “Ruler of the Riverbanks.” Heryshaf was a creator and fertility god who was born from the primeval waters. He was pictured as a man with the head of a ram, or as a ram
God Hercules (Irak)
God Hercules
God Herakles
God Hercules
Hercules
Hercules is the Roman name for the Greek divine hero Heracles, who was the son of Zeus (Roman equivalent Jupiter) and the mortal Alcmene. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures.
The Romans adapted the Greek hero's iconography and myths for their literature and art under the name Hercules. In later Western art and literature and in popular culture, Hercules is more commonly used than Heracles as the name of the hero. Hercules was a multifaceted figure with contradictory characteristics, which enabled later artists and writers to pick and choose how to represent him.[1] This article provides an introduction to representations of Hercules in the later tradition
Labours
Labours of Hercules
Hercules is known for his many adventures, which took him to the far reaches of the Greco-Roman world. One cycle of these adventures became canonical as the "Twelve Labours," but the list has variations. One traditional order of the labours is found in the Bibliotheca as follows:[2] 1.Slay the Nemean Lion. 2.Slay the nine-headed Lernaean Hydra. 3.Capture the Golden Hind of Artemis. 4.Capture the Erymanthian Boar. 5.Clean the Augean stables in a single day. 6.Slay the Stymphalian Birds. 7.Capture the Cretan Bull. 8.Steal the Mares of Diomedes. 9.Obtain the girdle of Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons. 10.Obtain the cattle of the monster Geryon. 11.Steal the apples of the Hesperides. 12.Capture and bring back Cerberus
Hercules fighting Antaeus
Antaeus: Greeks of the sixth century BC, who had established colonies along the coast, placed Antaeus in the interior desert of Libya.[2]
He would challenge all passers-by to wrestling matches, kill them, and collect their skulls, so that he might one day build out of them a temple to his father Poseidon. He was indefatigably strong as long as he remained in contact with the ground (his mother earth), but once lifted into the air he became as weak as other men.
Antaeus had defeated most of his opponents until it came to his fight with Heracles (who was on his way to the Garden of Hesperides for his 11th Labour). Upon finding that he could not beat Antaeus by throwing him to the ground as he would reheal due to his parentage (Gaia), Heracles discovered the secret of his power. Holding Antaeus aloft, Heracles crushed him in a bearhug.[3] The story of Antaeus has been used as a symbol of the spiritual strength which accrues when one rests one's faith on the immediate fact of things.[clarification needed] The struggle between Antaeus and Heracles is a favorite subject in ancient and Renaissance sculpture
God Herakles
Heracles (/ˈhɛrəkliːz/ HERR-ə-kleez; Ancient Greek: Ἡρακλῆς, Hēraklēs, from Hēra, "Hera", and kleos, "glory"[1]), born Alcaeus[2] (Ἀλκαῖος, Alkaios) or Alcides[3] (Ἀλκείδης, Alkeidēs), was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon[4] and great-grandson (and half-brother) of Perseus. He was the greatest of the Greek heroes, a paragon of masculinity, the ancestor of royal clans who claimed to be Heracleidae (Ἡρακλεῖδαι) and a champion of the Olympian order against chthonic monsters. In Rome and the modern West, he is known as Hercules, with whom the later Roman Emperors, in particular Commodus and Maximian, often identified themselves. The Romans adopted the Greek version of his life and works essentially unchanged, but added anecdotal detail of their own, some of it linking the hero with the geography of the Central Mediterranean. Details of his cult were adapted to Rome as well.
Extraordinary strength, courage, ingenuity, and sexual prowess with both males and females were among his characteristic attributes. Heracles used his wits on several occasions when his strength did not suffice, such as when laboring for the king Augeas of Elis, wrestling the giant Antaeus, or tricking Atlas into taking the sky back onto his shoulders. Together with Hermes he was the patron and protector of gymnasia and palaestrae.[5] His iconographic attributes are the lion skin and the club. These qualities did not prevent him from being regarded as a playful figure who used games to relax from his labors and played a great deal with children.[6] By conquering dangerous archaic forces he is said to have "made the world safe for mankind" and to be its benefactor.[7] Heracles was an extremely passionate and emotional individual, capable of doing both great deeds for his friends (such as wrestling with Thanatos on behalf of Prince Admetus, who had regaled Heracles with his hospitality, or restoring his friend Tyndareus to the throne of Sparta after he was overthrown) and being a terrible enemy who would wreak horrible vengeance on those who crossed him, as Augeas, Neleus and Laomedon all found out to their cost
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
Horus is one of the oldest and most significant deities in ancient Egyptian religion, who was worshipped from at least the late Predynastic period through to Greco-Roman times. Different forms of Horus are recorded in history and these are treated as distinct gods by Egypt specialists.[1] These various forms may possibly be different perceptions of the same multi-layered deity in which certain attributes or syncretic relationships are emphasized, not necessarily in opposition but complementary to one another, consistent with how the Ancient Egyptians viewed the multiple facets of reality.[2] He was most often depicted as a falcon, most likely a lanner or peregrine, or as a man with a falcon head.[3]
The earliest recorded form of Horus is the patron deity of Nekhen in Upper Egypt, who is the first known national god, specifically related to the king who in time came to be regarded as a manifestation of Horus in life and Osiris in death.[1] The most commonly encountered family relationship describes Horus as the son of Isis and Osiris but in another tradition Hathor is regarded as his mother and sometimes as his wife.[1] Horus served many functions in the Egyptian pantheon, most notably being the god of the sun, war and protection
Horus is recorded in Egyptian hieroglyphs as ḥr.w; the pronunciation has been reconstructed as *Ḥāru, meaning "falcon". Additional meanings are thought to have been "the distant one" or "one who is above, over".[4] By Coptic times, the name became Hōr. It was adopted into Greek as Ὧρος Hōros. The original name also survives in later Egyptian names such as Har-si-ese literally "Horus, son of Isis".
Horus was also known as Nekheny, meaning "falcon". Some have proposed that Nekheny may have been another falcon-god, worshipped at Nekhen (city of the hawk), with which Horus was identified from early on. Horus may be shown as a falcon on the Narmer Palette dating from the time of unification of Upper and Lower Egypt
In early Egypt, Horus was the brother of Isis, Osiris, Set and Nephthys. As different cults formed, he became the son of Isis and Osiris. Isis remained the sister of Osiris, Set, and Nephthys
2400-2300 BCE[5] describe the nature of the Pharaoh in different characters as both Horus and Osiris. The Pharaoh as Horus in life became the Pharaoh as Osiris in death, where he was united with the rest of the gods. New incarnations of Horus succeeded the deceased pharaoh on earth in the form of new Pharaohs.
The lineage of Horus, the eventual product of unions between the children of Atum, may have been a means to explain and justify Pharaonic power; The gods produced by Atum were all representative of cosmic and terrestrial forces in Egyptian life; by identifying Horus as the offspring of these forces, then identifying him with Atum himself, and finally identifying the Pharaoh with Horus, the Pharaoh theologically had dominion over all the world.
The notion of Horus as the Pharaoh seems to have been superseded by the concept of the Pharaoh as the son of Ra during the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt
Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ
Jesus last supper
Jesus last supper
Jesus (/ˈdʒiːzəs/; Greek: Ἰησοῦς (Iesous), Classical Syriac: ܝܫܘܥ (Isho); 7–2 BC to 30–33 AD), also referred to as Jesus of Nazareth, is the central figure of Christianity,[12] whom the teachings of most Christian denominations hold to be the Son of God. Christianity regards Jesus as the awaited Messiah of the Old Testament and refers to him as Jesus Christ, a name that is also used in non-Christian contexts. He is also a major figure in Islam.[12]
Virtually all modern scholars of antiquity agree that Jesus existed historically,[e] although the quest for the historical Jesus has produced little agreement on the historical reliability of the Gospels and how closely the biblical Jesus reflects the historical Jesus.[19] Most scholars agree that Jesus was a Jewish rabbi from Galilee who preached his message orally,[20] was baptized by John the Baptist, and was crucified in Jerusalem on the orders of the Roman prefect, Pontius Pilate.[21] Scholars have constructed various portraits of the historical Jesus, which often depict him as having one or more of the following roles: the leader of an apocalyptic movement, Messiah, a charismatic healer, a sage and philosopher, or an egalitarian social reformer.[22] Scholars have correlated the New Testament accounts with non-Christian historical records to arrive at an estimated chronology of Jesus' life. The most widely used calendar era in the world (abbreviated as "AD", alternatively referred to as "CE"), in which the current year is 2014, counts from a medieval estimate of the birth year of Jesus.
Christians believe that Jesus has a "unique significance" in the world.[23] Christian doctrines include the beliefs that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, was born of a virgin, performed miracles, founded the Church, died by crucifixion as a sacrifice to achieve atonement, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven, whence he will return.[24] The great majority of Christians worship Jesus as the incarnation of God the Son, the second of three persons of a Divine Trinity. A few Christian groups reject Trinitarianism, wholly or partly, as non-scriptural.
In Islam, Jesus (commonly transliterated as Isa) is considered one of God's important prophets and the Messiah, who was sent to guide the Children of Israel. To Muslims, Jesus is a bringer of scripture and the child of a virgin birth, but neither divine nor the victim of crucifixion. According to the Quran, Jesus was not crucified but was physically raised into the heavens by God. It only appeared to those who tried to crucify him that he was.[25] His ascension and elevation to God was part of his vindication as a prophet, and in line with other prophecies found in the Quran. Thus to Muslims it is the ascension rather than the crucifixion that constitutes a major event in the life of Jesus.[26] Judaism rejects the belief that Jesus was the awaited Messiah, arguing that he did not fulfill the Messianic prophecies in the Tanak.
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
posted
A painted scene of the goddesses Neith and Nut, protecting the canopic shrine of the pharaoh Woseribre Senebkay. Image credit: Jennifer Wegner, Penn Museum.
Posts: 42920 | From: , | Registered: Jan 2010
| IP: Logged |
Isis (Ancient Greek: Ἶσις, original Egyptian pronunciation more likely "Aset" or "Iset") is a goddess in Ancient Egyptian religious beliefs, whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. She was worshipped as the ideal mother and wife as well as the patroness of nature and magic. She was the friend of slaves, sinners, artisans, the downtrodden, but she also listened to the prayers of the wealthy, maidens, aristocrats, and rulers.[1] Isis is often depicted as the mother of Horus, the hawk-headed god of war and protection (although in some traditions Horus's mother was Hathor). Isis is also known as protector of the dead and goddess of children.
The name Isis means "Throne".[2] Her headdress is a throne. As the personification of the throne, she was an important representation of the pharaoh's power. The pharaoh was depicted as her child, who sat on the throne she provided. Her cult was popular throughout Egypt, but her most important temples were at Behbeit El-Hagar in the Nile delta, and, beginning in the reign with Nectanebo I (380–362 BCE), on the island of Philae in Upper Egypt.
In the typical form of her myth, Isis was the first daughter of Geb, god of the Earth, and Nut, goddess of the Sky, and she was born on the fourth intercalary day. She married her brother, Osiris, and she conceived Horus with him. Isis was instrumental in the resurrection of Osiris when he was murdered by Set. Using her magical skills, she restored his body to life after having gathered the body parts that had been strewn about the earth by Set.[3]
This myth became very important during the Greco-Roman period. For example it was believed that the Nile River flooded every year because of the tears of sorrow which Isis wept for Osiris. Osiris's death and rebirth was relived each year through rituals. The worship of Isis eventually spread throughout the Greco-Roman world, continuing until the suppression of paganism in the Christian era.[4] The popular motif of Isis suckling her son Horus, however, lived on in a Christianized context as the popular image of Mary suckling the infant son Jesus from the fifth century onward
Mary and baby Jesus
Mary and baby Jesus
Mary and baby Jesus
Mary
According to the Bible, Mary (מרים; c. 18 BC – c. 41 AD), also known as Saint Mary or Virgin Mary, was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee. She is identified in the New Testament[Mt 1:16,18-25][Lk 1:26-56][2:1-7] as the mother of Jesus through divine intervention. Mary (Maryam) also has a revered position in Islam, where a whole chapter of the Qur'an is devoted to her. Christians hold her son Jesus to be Christ (i.e., the messiah) and God the Son Incarnate. By contrast, Muslims regard Jesus as one of the prophets of God sent to humanity; not as God himself nor the Son of God.
The canonical gospels of Matthew and Luke describe Mary as a virgin (Greek παρθένος, parthénos).[1] Traditionally, Christians believe that she conceived her son miraculously by the agency of the Holy Spirit. Muslims believe that she conceived her son miraculously by the command of God. This took place when she was already betrothed to Saint Joseph and was awaiting the concluding rite of marriage, the formal home-taking ceremony.[2] She married Joseph and accompanied him to Bethlehem, where Jesus was born.[3] In keeping with Jewish custom, the betrothal would have taken place when she was around 12, and the birth of Jesus about a year later.[4]
The Gospel of Luke in the New Testament begins its account of Mary's life with the Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel appeared to her and announced her divine selection to be the mother of Jesus. Although she does not seem to have been present in Jesus' public ministry, Mary was present at the crucifixion and is depicted as a member of the early Christian community in Jerusalem. Apocryphal writings tell that she never died but assumed into Heaven, both her body and soul in the assumption.
Mary is the most respected female figure in Christianity, venerated since early times,[5][6] and is considered by millions to be the most meritorious saint of the Church. Christians of the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, and Lutheran churches believe that Mary, as Mother of Jesus, is the Mother of God and the Theotokos, literally "Bearer of God". There is significant diversity in the Marian beliefs and devotional practices of major Christian traditions. The Catholic Church holds distinctive Marian dogmas; namely her status as the mother of God, her Immaculate Conception, the perpetual virginity of Mary, and the Assumption of Mary into Heaven.[7] Many Protestants see a minimal role for Mary within Christianity, based on the argued brevity of biblical references.[8]
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
Dedun (or Dedwen) was a Nubian god worshipped during ancient times in that part of Africa and attested as early as 2400 BC. There is much uncertainty about his original nature, especially since he was depicted as a lion, a role which usually was assigned to the son of another deity. Nothing is known of the earlier Nubian mythology from which this deity arose, however. The earliest known information in Egyptian writings about Dedun indicates that he already had become a god of incense by the time of the writings. Since at this historical point, incense was an extremely expensive luxury commodity and Nubia was the source of much of it, he was quite an important deity. The wealth that the trade in incense delivered to Nubia led to his being identified by them as the god of prosperity, and of wealth in particular.
He is said to have been associated with a fire that threatened to destroy the other deities, however, leading many Nubiologists to speculate that there may have been a great fire at a shared complex of temples to different deities, that started in a temple of Dedun, although there are no candidate events known for this.
Although mentioned in the pyramid texts of Ancient Egypt as being a Nubian deity,[1] there is no evidence that Dedun was worshipped by the Egyptians, nor that he was worshipped in any location north of Swenet (contemporary Aswan), which was considered the most southerly city of Ancient Egypt. Nevertheless, in the Middle Kingdom of Egypt, during the Egyptian rule over Kush, Dedun was said by the Egyptians to be the protector of deceased Nubian rulers and their god of incense, thereby associated with funerary rites
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
Hundreds of kilometers south of the Sphinx, exist Nubia, in what is today called Sudan. Apedemek, "the lord of royal power," was a Nubian lion god, and at the Apedemek Temple at Naqa, south of Meroe, relief's show Apedmek worshiped by the royal family. The kings were always seated upon lion thrones. Temple relief's show the enemies of the king subdued by, and in some cases devoured by, lions. It has been stated that lions were kept in the Lion Temple, as living symbols of Apedemek. Interestingly, research has revealed that the worship of the ancient Egyptian lioness goddess, Sekhmet, could have been originally introduced into Egypt from Sudan. One wonders what other leonine-related mysteries exist unrevealed and unknown at the sites of the civilization of Nubia.
The lion of ancient times was also a symbol of wisdom. King Solomon was at times symbolized as a lion. In first Book of Kings (10: 19-20) Solomon's throne is described: "The throne had six steps, and the top of the throne was round behind: and there were stays [handrests] on either side on the place of the seat and two lions stood beside the stays. And twelve lions stood there on the one side and on the other upon the six steps there was not the like made in any kingdom."
The lion was the emissary of the sun, symbolizing light, truth, regeneration, and a god of fertility
Apedemak, alt Apademak, was a lion-headed warrior god worshiped in Nubia by Meroitic peoples. A number of Meroitic temples dedicated to Apedemak are known from the Butana region: Naqa, Meroe, and Musawwarat es-Sufra, which seems to be his chief cult place. In the temple of Naqa built by the rulers of Meroe he was depicted as a three-headed leonine god with four arms,[1] but he is also depicted as a single-headed leonine deity.
Apedemak played little role in Egyptian religion, being a product of the Meroitic culture
In Egyptian mythology, Sopdet was the deification of Sothis, a star considered by almost all Egyptologists to be Sirius. The name Sopdet means (she who is) sharp in Egyptian, a reference to the brightness of Sirius, which is the brightest star in the night sky. In art she is depicted as a woman with a five-pointed star upon her head.[1]
Just after Sirius appears in the July sky, the Nile River begins its annual flood, and so the ancient Egyptians connected the two. Consequently Sopdet was identified as a goddess of the fertility of the soil, which was brought to it by the Nile's flooding. This significance led the Egyptians to base their calendar on the heliacal rising of Sirius.[1]
Sopdet is the consort of Sah, the constellation of Orion, near which Sirius appears, and the god Sopdu was said to be their child. These relationships parallel those of the god Osiris and his family, and Sah was linked with Osiris, Sopdet with Isis, and Sopdu with Horus.
Sopdet is the Egyptian Goddess of Sirius, the Dog Star. She was also a Goddess of fertility, because the appearance of Sirius in the sky at dawn marked the beginning of the annual Nile floods, and therefore the beginning of the agricultural year. Sopdet was said to be the wife of Sahu, God of the constellation we know as Orion, and mother of Sopdu, God of the planet Venus. As the Orion constellation and its God became associated with the God Osiris, Sopdet, as his wife, became associated with Osiris’s wife, Isis. She is usually depicted as a woman wearing a tall crown with upswept horns at the sides and a five-pointed star on top. In later years, especially after her identification with Isis, she was often shown riding on a large dog. Sopdet’s name, which means “she who is skilled,” is also seen as Sepdet and Sothis (the Greek version of her name), and the epithets Bringer of the New Year and Bringer of the Nile Flood were associated with her.
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
The god Sah personified the constellation of Orion - the most distinctive of all the constellations in the night sky. While not part of the 'imperishable' circumpolar stars, the constellation became important in Egyptian mythology especially as it rose directly before the adjacent star Sirius (the Egyptian Sothis) - the brightest fixed star which was utilized in the calculation of the Egyptian calendar. The constellation god was thus connected with the start Sothis from an early date and the two came to be viewed as manifestations of Osiris and Isis respectively.
Sah is mentioned quite frequently in the Pyramid Texts where he is called 'father of the gods' (PT 408), and the deceased king is said to enter the sky 'In the name of the Dweller in Orion, with a season in the sky and a season on earth' (PT 186). The association of Sah with Sothis is also clear in these early texts where the king is told, 'You shall reach the sky as Orion, your soul shall be as effective as Sothis' (PT 723). In the funerary texts ofthe New Kingdom Orion is said to row towards the stars in a boat and Sah is sometimes depicted in this manner in representations found in temples and tombs - as a god surrounded by stars who sail across the sky in a papyrus skiff.
In ancient Egyptian religion the "sahu" was the incorruptible soul, but the god Sahu ("the hidden one") was also the personification of the constellation Orion. His consort Sopdet (or Sothis), represented the star Sirius (the "dog star") and his son, Sopdu represented Venus. According to ancient Egyptian myths, Sahu (Orion) was swallowed by the underworld at dawn, but arose again every night. Clearly, he was a stellar not solar god. Sahu was associated with the god Osiris because every year Sopdet (Sirius) appeared again after a seventy day absence just before the inundation which was associated with the resurrection of Osiris. This association was strengthened by the association of Sopdet with the goddess Isis, the wife of Osiris. However, the pyramid texts suggest that Sahu was the father of the gods (including Osiris) yet state that his wife Sopdet was the daughter of Osiris
God Sopdu
God Sopdu
Sopdu (also rendered Septu or Sopedu) was a god of the sky and of eastern border regions in ancient Egyptian religion.[1]
As a sky god, Sopdu was connected with the god Sah, the personification of the constellation Orion, and the goddess Sopdet, representing the star Sirius. According to the Pyramid Texts, Horus-Sopdu, a combination of Sopdu and the greater sky god Horus, is the offspring of Osiris-Sah and Isis-Sopdet.[1]
Sopdu As a god of the east, Sopdu was said to protect Egyptian outposts along the frontiers and to help the pharaoh control those regions' foreign inhabitants. He was referred to as Lord of the East, and had his greatest cult centre at the easternmost nome of Lower Egypt, which was named Per-Sopdu, meaning place of Sopdu. He also had shrines at Egyptian settlements in the Sinai Peninsula, such as the turquoise mines at Serabit el-Khadim.[1]
Sopdu's name is composed of the hieroglyph for sharp, a pointed triangle, and the 3rd person plural suffix (a quail); thus a literal translation of his name is sharp ones.[2] He was said, in the Pyramid Texts, to protect the teeth of the deceased pharaoh.[1]
Sopdu was depicted as a falcon sitting on a religious standard, often with a two-feathered crown on his head and a flail over his shoulder. In his border-guarding role he was shown as a Near Eastern warrior, with a shemset girdle and an axe or spear
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
The Bennu is an ancient Egyptian deity linked with the sun, creation, and rebirth. It may have been the inspiration for the phoenix in Greek mythology
Roles
According to Egyptian mythology, the Bennu was a self-created being said to have played a role in the creation of the world. It was said to be the ba of Ra and enabled the creative actions of Atum.[1] It was said to have flown over the waters of Nun that existed before creation, landing on a rock and issuing a call that determined the nature of creation. It was also a symbol of rebirth and was therefore associated with Osiris.[2]
Some of the titles of the Bennu bird were "He Who Came Into Being by Himself",[1] and "Lord of Jubilees"; the latter epithet referred to the belief that the Bennu periodically renewed itself like the sun.[2] Its name is related to the Egyptian verb wbn, meaning "to rise in brilliance" or "to shine
Worship
Like Atum and Ra, the Bennu was probably worshipped in their cult center at Heliopolis.[2] It also appears on funerary scarab amulets as a symbol of rebirth.[1]
Connection with the phoenix
The Greek historian Herodotus, describing Egypt in the fifth century BC, wrote that the priests at Heliopolis described the phoenix to him. They said it lived for 500 years before building its own funerary pyre and setting it alight. The newborn offspring of the previous phoenix rose from the ashes of this fire and carried them to Heliopolis, depositing them on the temple's altar. Greek descriptions of the phoenix liken it to an eagle with red and gold plumage, reminiscent of the sun or of flames.[2] The name of the phoenix could be derived from "Bennu", and its rebirth and connections with the sun resemble those of the Bennu bird, although Egyptian sources do not mention the bird's death.[1]
God Phoenix
God Phoenix
God Phoenix
In Greek mythology, a phoenix or phenix (Ancient Greek φοίνιξ phóinīx) is a long-lived bird that is cyclically regenerated or reborn. Associated with the sun, a phoenix obtains new life by arising from the ashes of its predecessor. The phoenix was subsequently adopted as a symbol in Early Christianity. While the phoenix typically dies by fire in most versions of the legend, there are less popular versions of the myth in which the mythical bird dies and simply decomposes before being born again.[1] Herodotus, Lucan, Pliny the Elder, Pope Clement I, Lactantius, Ovid, and Isidore of Seville are among those who have contributed to the retelling and transmission of the phoenix motif.
In his study of the phoenix, R. van der Broek summarizes, that, in the historical record, the phoenix "could symbolize renewal in general as well as the sun, time, the empire, metempsychosis, consecration, resurrection, life in the heavenly Paradise, Christ, Mary, virginity, the exceptional man, and certain aspects of Christian life
Etymology
The modern English noun phoenix derives from Middle English phenix (before 1150), itself from Old English fēnix (around 750). Old English fēnix was borrowed from Medieval Latin phenix and, later, from Latin phoenīx, deriving from Greek φοίνιξ phóinīx.[3]
During the Classic period, the name of the bird, φοίνιξ, was variously associated with the color purple, 'Phoenician', and the date palm.[4] According to an etymology offered by the 6th- and 7th-century archbishop Isidore of Seville, the name of the phoenix derived from its purple-red hue, an explanation that has been influential into the medieval period, albeit in a different fashion; the bird was considered "the royal bird".[4]
With the deciphering of the Linear B script in the 20th century, however, the ancestor of Greek φοίνιξ was confirmed in Mycenaean Greek po-ni-ke, itself open to a variety of interpretations.[5]
Relation to the Egyptian benu
Classical discourse on the subject of the phoenix points to a potential origin of the phoenix in Ancient Egypt. In the 19th century scholastic suspicions appeared to be confirmed by the discovery that Egyptians in Heliopolis had venerated the benu, a solar bird observed in some respects to be similar to the Greek phoenix. However, the Egyptian sources regarding the benu are often problematic and open to a variety of interpretations. Some of these sources may have been influenced by Greek notions of the phoenix.[6]
Appearance
In terms of physical appearance, the phoenix, when pictured or described in antique and medieval artwork and literature, will sometimes have a nimbus (a physical feature that emphasizes the phoenix’s connection with the sun).[7] Quite often, the oldest images of phoenixes on record would have nimbuses with seven rays, just like Helios (the personified sun in Greek mythology).[8] Pliny also describes the bird as having a crest of feathers on its head[7] and Ezekiel the Dramatist compared it to a rooster.[9] The phoenix is also commonly associated with royalty and the color purple.
Analogues
Scholars have observed analogues to the phoenix in a variety of cultures. These analogues include the Persian anka, the Hindu garuda and gandaberunda, the Russian firebird, the Persian simorgh, the Turkish kerkes, the Tibetan Me byi karmo, the Chinese fenghuang, and the Japanese hō-ō.[17
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
In Egyptian mythology, Aker (also spelt Akar) was one of the earliest gods worshipped, and was the deification of the horizon. There are strong indications that Aker was worshipped before other known Egyptian gods of the earth, such as Geb.[citation needed] Aker itself means (one who) curves because it was perceived that the horizon bends all around us. The Pyramid texts make an assertive statement that the Akeru (= 'those of the horizon', from the plural of aker) will not seize the pharaoh, stressing the power of the Egyptian pharaoh over the surrounding non-Egyptian peoples.
As the horizon, Aker was also seen as symbolic of the borders between each day, and so was originally depicted as a narrow strip of land (i.e. a horizon), with heads on either side, facing away from one another, a symbol of borders. These heads were usually those of lions. Over time, the heads became full figures of lions (still facing away from each other), one representing the concept of yesterday (Sef in Egyptian), and the other the concept of tomorrow (Duau in Egyptian).[2]
Consequently, Aker often became referred to as Ruti, the Egyptian word meaning two lions. Between them would often appear the hieroglyph for horizon, which was the sun's disc placed between two mountains. Sometimes the lions were depicted as being covered with leopard-like spots, leading some to think it a depiction of the extinct Barbary lion, which, unlike African species, had a spotted coat.
Since the horizon was where night became day, Aker was said to guard the entrance and exit to the underworld, opening them for the sun to pass through during the night. As the guard, it was said that the dead had to request Aker to open the underworld's gates, so that they might enter. Also, as all who had died had to pass Aker, it was said that Aker annulled the causes of death, such as extracting the poison from any snakes that had bitten the deceased, or from any scorpions that had stung them.
As the Egyptians believed that the gates of the morning and evening were guarded by Aker, they sometimes placed twin statues of lions at the doors of their palaces and tombs. This was to guard the households and tombs from evil spirits and other malevolent beings. This practice was adopted by the Greeks and Romans, and is still unknowingly followed by some today. Unlike most of the other Egyptian deities, the worship of Aker remained popular well into the Greco-Roman era. Aker had no temples of his own like the main gods in the Egyptian religion, since he was more connected to the primeval concepts of the very old earth powers.
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
In late Greek mythology as developed in Ptolemaic Alexandria, Harpocrates (Ancient Greek: Ἁρποκράτης) is the god of silence. Harpocrates was adapted by the Greeks from the Egyptian child god Horus. To the ancient Egyptians, Horus represented the newborn Sun, rising each day at dawn. When the Greeks conquered Egypt under Alexander the Great, they transformed the Egyptian Horus into their Hellenistic god known as Harpocrates, a rendering from Egyptian Har-pa-khered or Heru-pa-khered (meaning "Horus the Child").
Horus
In Egyptian mythology, Horus was conceived by Isis, the mother goddess, from Osiris, the original god-king of Egypt, who had been murdered by his brother Set,[1] and thus became the god of the underworld. The Greeks melded Osiris with their underworld god, Hades, to produce the essentially Alexandrian syncretism, Serapis.
Among the Egyptians the full-grown Horus was considered the victorious god of the Sun who each day overcomes darkness. He is often represented with the head of a sparrowhawk, which was sacred to him, as the hawk flies high above the Earth. Horus fought battles against Set, until he finally achieved victory and became the ruler of Egypt. All the Pharaohs of Egypt were seen as reincarnations of the victorious Horus.
Stelae depicting Heru-pa-Khered standing on the back of a crocodile and holding snakes in his outstretched hands were erected in Egyptian temple courtyards, where they would be immersed or lustrated in water; the water was then used for blessing and healing purposes as the name of Heru-pa-Khered was itself attributed with many protective and healing powers.
In the Alexandrian and Roman renewed vogue for mystery cults at the turn of the millennium — mystery cults had already existed for almost a millennium — the worship of Horus became widely extended, linked with Isis (his mother) and Serapis (Osiris, his father).
In this way Harpocrates, the child Horus, personifies the newborn sun each day, the first strength of the winter sun, and also the image of early vegetation. Egyptian statues represent the child Horus, pictured as a naked boy with his finger on his chin with the fingertip just below the lips of his mouth, a realization of the hieroglyph for "child" that is unrelated to the Greco-Roman and modern gesture for "silence". Misunderstanding this sign, the later Greeks and Roman poets made Harpocrates the god of Silence and Secrecy, taking their cue from Marcus Terentius Varro, who asserted in De lingua Latina of Caelum (Sky) and Terra (Earth)
"These gods are the same as those who in Egypt are called Serapis and Isis,[2] though Harpocrates with his finger makes a sign to me to be quiet. The same first gods were in Latium called Saturn and Ops
Modern occultist uses
Modern occultists display his image, loosely connected now with Hermetic gnosticism. Typically, "Harpocrates is the Babe in the Egg of Blue that sits upon the lotus flower in the Nile". He may be termed the 'God of Silence' and said to represent the Higher Self and be the 'Holy Guardian Angel' and more in similar vein, adapted from Aleister Crowley's often-reprinted Magick.
Many Discordians consider Harpo Marx to have been a contemporary avatar of Harpocrates. Because of this, Discordians often invoke Harpocrates as a Trickster god or God of Humor in addition to his classical attribution of God of Silence
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
In early Egyptian mythology, Anhur (also spelled Onuris, Onouris, An-Her, Anhuret, Han-Her, Inhert) was originally a god of war who was worshipped in the Egyptian area of Abydos, and particularly in Thinis. Myths told that he had brought his wife, Menhit, who was his female counterpart, from Nubia, and his name reflects this—it means (one who) leads back the distant one.[2]
One of his titles was Slayer of Enemies. Anhur was depicted as a bearded man wearing a robe and a headdress with four feathers, holding a spear or lance, or occasionally as a lion-headed god (representing strength and power). In some depictions, the robe was more similar to a kilt.[3]
God of war
Due to his position as a war god, he was patron of the ancient Egyptian army, and the personification of royal warriors. Indeed, at festivals honoring him, mock battles were staged. During the Roman era the Emperor Tiberius was depicted on the walls of Egyptian temples wearing the distinctive four-plumed crown of Anhur.
The Greeks equated Anhur to their god of war, Ares. The Olympian gods fled from Typhon and took animal form in Egypt, Ares was said to have taken the form of a fish as Lepidotus or Onuris.[4]
Sky Bearer
Anhur's name also could mean Sky Bearer and, due to the shared headdress, Anhur was later identified with Shu, becoming Anhur-Shu. He is the son of Ra
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
Renenutet (also transliterated as Ernutet, and Renenet) was a goddess of nourishment and the harvest in ancient Egyptian religion.[1] The importance of the harvest caused people to make many offerings to Renenutet during harvest time. Initially, her cult was centered in Terenuthis. Renenutet was envisioned, particularly in art, as a cobra, or as a woman with the head of a cobra.
Sometimes, as the goddess of nourishment, Renenutet was seen as having a husband, Sobek. He was represented as the Nile River, the annual flooding of which deposited the fertile silt that enabled abundant harvests. More usually, Renenutet was seen as the mother of Nehebkau, who occasionally was represented as a snake also. When considered the mother of Nehebkau, Renenutet was seen as having a husband, Geb, who represented the Earth.
Later, as a snake-goddess worshiped over the whole of Lower Egypt, Renenutet was increasingly associated with Wadjet, Lower Egypt's powerful protector and another snake goddess represented as a cobra. Eventually Renenutet was identified as an alternate form of Wadjet, whose gaze was said to slaughter enemies. Wadjet is the cobra on the crown of the pharaohs
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
Geb was the Egyptian god of the Earth and a member of the Ennead of Heliopolis. It was believed in ancient Egypt that Geb's laughter were earthquakes and that he allowed crops to grow
As the God of the earth, Geb was one of the most important of ancient Egypt's gods. According to the Heliopolis doctrine, he came from a line of important gods. His parents were Shu, the god of air, and Tefnut, the goddess of moisture, who were in turn the children of Atum. Osiris, Isis, Seth and Nephthys were the children of Geb and Nut, and together these gods made up the Heliopolitan Ennad. However, it should be noted that Geb may also be referred to in various literature as Seb, Keb, Kebb or Gebb. After Atum, the four deities (Shu, Tefnut, Geb, and Nut) established the Cosmos, whereas the second set of deities (Osiris, Isis, Seth and Nephthys) mediated between humans and the cosmos
Geb is usually represented in the form of a man who who wears either the white crown to which is added the Atef crown, or a goose. The Goose was his sacred animal and symbal. As the God of earth, the earth formed his body and was called the "house of Geb," just as the air was called the "house of Shu," and the heaven the "house of Ra," Hence,. he was also often portrayed laying on his side on the earth, and was sometimes even painted green, with plants springing from his body. Earthquakes were believed to be the laughter of Geb.
In hymns and other compositions he is often portrayed as the erpat, i.e., the hereditary, tribal chief of the gods, and he plays a very important part in the Book of the Dead. Therefore he is one of the gods who watch the weighing of the heart of the deceased in the Judgement Hall of Osiris.. The righteous who were provided with the necessary words of power were able to make their escape from the earth but the wicked were held fast by Geb.
Religious texts show that there was no special city or district set apart for the god Geb, but a portion of the temple estates in Apollinopolis Magna were called the "Aat of Geb," and a name of Dendera was "the home of the children of Geb,". The chief seat of the god appears to have been at Heliopolis, where he and his female counterpart Nut produced the great Egg from which sprang the Sun-god under the from of a phoenix. In ancient Egypt, the egg is a symbol of renewal, and even today, this symbolism appears in our traditions surrounding Easter.
It was claimed that Heliopolis was the birthplace of the company of the gods, and that in fact the work of creation began there. In several papyri we find pictures of the first act of creation which took place as soon as the Sun-god, by whatsoever name he may be called, appeared in the sky, and sent forth his rays upon the earth. In these papyri, Geb always occupies a very prominent position. He is seen lying upon the ground with one hand stretched out upon it, and the other extended towards heaven Shu stands by his side, and supports on his upraised hands the heavens which are depicted in the form of a women whose body is covered with stars. She is the goddess Nut.
In Greek (Ptolemaic) times, Geb became identified with the Greek god Kronos
•Cult Center: Throughout Egypt.
•Attributes: Geb was thought to represent the earth, he is often seen reclining beneath the sky goddess Nut. Geb was called 'the Great Cackler', and as such, was represented as a goose. It was in this form that he was said to have laid the egg from which the sun was hatched. He was believed to have been the third divine king of earth. The royal throne of Egypt was known as the 'throne of Geb' in honor of his great reign.
•Representation: As a vegetation-god he was shown with green patches or plants on his body. As the earth, he is often seen lying beneath Nut, leaning on one elbow, with a knee bent toward the sky, this is representive of the mountains and valleys of the earth. He was often pictured with a goose on his head or as a goose.
•Relations: Son of Shu and Tefnut, twin brother of Nut, husband of Nut, father of Osiris and Isis, Seth, Nephthys.
Meret is an Egyptian goddess of song and rejoicing. She is credited as having helped to establish cosmic order through her music, song, and the gestures of musical direction. She is the wife of Hapy, God of the Nile, and the bowl that she holds signifies the reception of his bounty. On her head she wears a papyrus plant, the symbol of Lower Egypt, although some depictions show her with a blue lotus, which symbolizes Upper Egypt. Her name, which means “beloved,” is also seen spelled as Merit or Mert
Merit
Merit was a minor goddess of music who was nevertheless credited as having helped in the establishment of cosmic order by means of her music, song and gestures associated with musical direction
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
The chief deity in Egyptian mythology, Ra, when considered as a sun god, was thought to traverse the daytime sky in a boat, and cross the underworld at night in another one, named Meseket. As the mythology developed, so did the idea that the boat Meseket was controlled by a separate ferryman, who became known as Aken.
In Egyptian mythology, the underworld was composed of the general area, named Duat, and a more pleasant area to which the morally righteous were permitted, named Aaru. At the point in history at which Aken arose, Anubis had become merely the god of embalming, and Osiris, though lord of the whole underworld, dwelt specifically in Aaru. Consequently, Aken was identified as the ruling the area outside of Aaru, Duat in general, on Osiris' behalf.
The Egyptian word for part of the soul Ba was also used as a word meaning ram, therefore, Aken was usually depicted as being ram-headed. As both an underworld deity, and subservient to Osiris, Aken became known as Cherti (also spelt Kherty), meaning (one who is) subservient. The main center of his cult became Letopolis, and it is considered a possibility that his cult caused the development of the myth of the ferryman in other Mediterranean mythologies, such as that of Charon
God Charon
Charon
A 19th-century interpretation of Charon's crossing by Alexander Litovchenko. In Greek mythology, Charon or Kharon (/ˈkɛərɒn/ or /ˈkɛərən/; Greek Χάρων) is the ferryman of Hades who carries souls of the newly deceased across the rivers Styx and Acheron that divided the world of the living from the world of the dead. A coin to pay Charon for passage, usually an obolus or danake, was sometimes placed in or on the mouth of a dead person.[1] Some authors say that those who could not pay the fee, or those whose bodies were left unburied, had to wander the shores for one hundred years. In the catabasis mytheme, heroes – such as Heracles, Orpheus, Aeneas, Dante, Dionysus and Psyche – journey to the underworld and return, still alive, conveyed by the boat of Charon
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
Reshep Reshep; Reshpu Reshep (Rahshaf, Rasap, Rashap, Resep, Reshef, Reshpu) was a Syrian plague and war god whose worship in Egypt dates from around the Eighteenth Dynasty. Because of his martial skills, he was closely associated with the pharaoh in battle. Amenhotep II established a stelae near the Sphinx at Giza depicting Reshep and Astarte watch over him as he prepares his horses for war. However, he could also use his skills to protect the common people from disease. In particular, he was thought to be able to repell the "akha" demon who was thought to cause stomach pains.
Resheph was often considered to be the husband of Qadesh (another goddess imported from Syria) and the father of Min. However, he is also described as the husband of Itum in connection with his power to control disease. He was linked to Set because they were both associated with the antelope, but he was also associated with the Theban war god Montu. The Greeks associated him with Apollo and to the Vedic Rudra. He was also associated with the Babylonian death god Nergal and ocassionally with Mars (again because of the military connection).
He was known thoughout the ancient near east and Egypt as Reshep-Shulman. However, he also had specific epithets in different locations. The Phoenicians referred to him as "Reshep gen" (Resheph of the Garden) and "bal chtz"('lord of the arrow') while the Hittites described him as a "deer god" or "gazelle god". In Egypt he was known as "Lord of the Sky" or "Lord of Eternity" and an area of the Nile valley was renamed the "Valley of Reshep". It is thought that his name originally derived from the hebrew for "flame" or "plague". Reshep was depicted as a man with a Syrian style beard brandishing a mace or axe above his head. He generally wears the crown of Upper Egypt with the addition of a gazelle skull at the front and a ribbon at the back
Resheph
Resheph (Rašap, Rešef, Reshef; Canaanite/Hebrew ršp רשף) was a Canaanite deity of plague and war. In Egyptian iconography Resheph is depicted wearing the crown of Upper Egypt (White Crown),
surmounted in front by the head of a gazelle. He has links with Theban war god Montu and was thought of as a guardian deity in battle by many Egyptian pharaohs. Although the iconography of Resheph shares the gazelle with that of the Egyptian-Canaanite Shed, Izak Cornelius writes that "the rest of the attributes are totally different." [1] According to myth, Resheph exerted a benign influence against disease.
Resheph is mentioned in Ugaritic mythological texts such as the epic of Kirta[3] and The Mare and Horon.[4] In Phoenician inscriptions he is called rshp gn 'Resheph of the Garden' and b`l chtz 'lord of the arrow'. Phoenician-Hittite bilinguals[citation needed] refer to him as 'deer god' and 'gazelle god'.
In Kition, Cyprus, Resheph had the epithet of ḥṣ, interpreted as "arrow" by Javier Teixidor,[2] who consequently interprets Resheph as a god of plague, comparable to Apollo whose arrows bring plague to the Danaans (Iliad I.42-55).
Resheph became popular in Egypt under Amenhotep II (18th dynasty), where he served as god of horses and chariots. Originally adopted into the royal cult, Resheph became a popular deity in the Ramesside Period, at the same time disappearing from royal inscriptions. In this later period, Resheph is often accompanied by Qetesh and Min.
The ancient town of Arsuf in central Israel still incorporates the name Resheph, thousands of years after his worship ceased.
In Eblaite Texts[edit]
Resheph is found in the third millennium tablets from Ebla (Tell Mardikh) as Rasap or Ra-sa-ap. He is listed as the divinity of the cities of Atanni, Gunu, Tunip, and Shechem. Rasap is also one of the chief gods of the city of Ebla having one of the four city gates named in his honor.[5]
In Hebrew Bible[edit]
The Hebrew of Habakkuk 3:5 names Dabir and Resheph marching defeated before El's parade from Teman and Mount Paran. Dabir and Resheph are normally translated as Pestilence and Plague. Due to the literary discoveries at Tell Mardikh, for the first time Dabir is attested as a divinity outside the Hebrew Bible.[6]
The name Resheph appears as a word in Classical Hebrew with the meaning "flame, lightning" (Psalm 78:48) and "a burning fever, a plague" by which the body is "inflamed", Deuteronomy 32:24 but could be understood as archaic language in some instances as a proper name such as in Hab. 3:5 and Job 5:7 in the phrase "sons of Resheph soar in flight".
Resheph as a personal name, a grandson of Ephraim, occurs in 1 Chronicles 7:25.
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
Tefnut (/ˈtɛfˌnʊt/; Egyptian: Tefenet) is a goddess of moisture, moist air, dew and rain in Ancient Egyptian religion.[1] She is the sister and consort of the air god Shu and the mother of Geb and Nut
Etymology[edit]
Literally translating as "That Water",[2] the name Tefnut has been linked to the verb 'tfn' meaning 'to spit'[3] and versions of the creation myth say that Ra (or Atum) spat her out and her name was written as a mouth spitting in late texts.[4]
Unlike most Egyptian deities, including her brother, Tefnut has no single ideograph or symbol. Her name in hieroglyphics consists of four single phonogram symbols t-f-n-t. Although the n phonogram is a representation of waves on the surface of water, it was never used as an ideogram or determinative for the word water (mw), or for anything associated with wa
Tefnut (Tefenet, Tefnet) was an ancient Egyptian goddess of moisture, but was strongly associated with both the moon and the sun. She was known as both the left (moon) and the right (sun) "Eyes of Ra" and represented moisture (as a lunar goddess) and dryness (or the absence of moisture, as a solar goddess). Her name means "She of moisture" and its root can be found in the Egyptian words for "moist" and "spit".
Tefnut was generally depicted as a lioness or a woman with a lion's head. Less often, she was depicted as a woman. She always wears a solar disk and Uraeus, and carries a sceptre (representing power) and the ankh (representing the breath of life). She also occasionally took the form of a cobra. She was originally considered to be the lunar "Eye of Ra" linking her to the night sky as well as to dew, rain and mist. However, she also took on the aspect of the sun as the solar "Eye of Ra", the protector of the sun god (also known as the "Lady of the Flame" and the "Uraeus on the Head of all the Gods"). She shared this role with a number of other goddesses including Sekhmet, Hathor, Mut, Bast, Isis, Wadjet and Nekhbet
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
Nice thread on how ancient belief systems influenced modern day religions.
But how about the root word, "god"?
quote:
"god (gρd). Also 3-4 godd. [Com. Teut.: OE. god (masc. in sing.; pl. godu, godo neut., godas masc.) corresponds to OFris., OS., Du. god masc., OHG. got, cot (MHG. got, mod.Ger. gott) masc., ON. goð, guð neut. and masc., pl. goð, guð neut. (later Icel. pl. guðir masc.; Sw., Da. gud), Goth. guÞ (masc. in sing.; pl. guÞa, guda neut.). The Goth. and ON. words always follow the neuter declension, though when used in the Christian sense they are syntactically masc. The OTeut. type is therefore *guđom neut., the adoption of the masculine concord being presumably due to the Christian use of the word. The neuter sb., in its original heathen use, would answer rather to L. numen than to L. deus. Another approximate equivalent of deus in OTeut. was *ansu-z (Goth. in latinized pl. form anses, ON. ρss, OE. Ós- in personal names, ésa genit. pl.); but this seems to have been applied only to the higher deities of the native pantheon, never to foreign gods; and it never came into Christian use.
The ulterior etymology is disputed. Apart from the unlikely hypothesis of adoption from some foreign tongue, the OTeut. *gubom implies as its pre-Teut. type either *ghudho-m or *ghutó-m. The former does not appear to admit of explanation; but the latter would represent the neut. of the passive pple. of a root *gheu-. There are two Aryan roots of the required form (both *glheu, with palatal aspirate): one meaning ‘to invoke’ (Skr. hū), the other ‘to pour, to offer sacrifice’ (Skr. hu, Gr. χέειν, OE. yéotan YETE v.). Hence *glhutó-m has been variously interpreted as ‘what is invoked’ (cf. Skr. puru-hūta ‘much-invoked’, an epithet of Indra) and as ‘what is worshipped by sacrifice’ (cf. Skr. hutá, which occurs in the sense ‘sacrificed to’ as well as in that of ‘offered in sacrifice’). Either of these conjectures is fairly plausible, as they both yield a sense practically coincident with the most obvious definition deducible from the actual use of the word, ‘an object of worship’.
Some scholars, accepting the derivation from the root *glheu- to pour, have supposed the etymological sense to be ‘molten image’ (= Gr. χυγόν), but the assumed development of meaning seems very unlikely.
Oxford English Dictionary:
transcribed from The Oxford English Dictionary
quote: \God\ (g[o^]d), n. [AS. god; akin to OS. & D. god, OHG. got, G. gott, Icel. gu[eth], go[eth], Sw. & Dan. gud, Goth. gup, prob. orig. a p. p. from a root appearing in Skr. h[=u], p. p. h[=u]ta, to call upon, invoke, implore. [root]30. Cf. {Goodbye}, {Gospel}, {Gossip}.]
Webster's 1913 Dictionary:
Source:
--Sonya T. Anderson, Hallowed Be Thy Name
quote: In common Germanic, also called Teutonic language, (before 800 AD) there was a word ‘gutha’ that was used for ‘god.’ It meant the invoked being, guth (single) and gutha (plural). Pagans also used the word guth/gutha for god/gods. It was formed from the root verb ghu (to invoke), and ghu was a variation of its ancestor hu (to call, to invoke). Gutha word was later called gud in Swedish, Danish and old Norse; and in Old High German and Middle High German it was written as gut. In the modern High German it was written as Gott. The same is in modern German; and in English it is ‘God’ which is singular masculine. In the beginning ‘Gott’ was neutral gender (it), then it began to be used as a singular masculine noun. Plural for Gott is Götter, and its feminine word is Göttin/Göttinen for goddess/goddesses. The word Gott means: (1) The Greek or Roman god. (2) The highest being with superhuman and supernatural powers and the object of religious faith and worship. (3) The creator and maintainer of the world (in Christian faith).
Catholic Encyclopedia
Posts: 22234 | From: האם אינכם כילדי הכרית אלי בני ישראל | Registered: Nov 2010
| IP: Logged |
Khepri (also spelled Khepera, Kheper, Khepra, Chepri) is a god in ancient Egyptian religion
Symbolism
Khepri was connected with the scarab beetle (kheprer), because the scarab rolls balls of dung across the ground, an act that the Egyptians saw as a symbol of the forces that move the sun across the sky. Khepri was thus a solar deity. Young dung beetles, having been laid as eggs within the dung ball, emerge from it fully formed. Therefore, Khepri also represented creation and rebirth, and he was specifically connected with the rising sun and the mythical creation of the world. The Egyptians connected his name with the Egyptian language verb kheper, meaning "develop" or "come into being".[1]
Religion
There was no cult devoted to Khepri, and he was largely subordinate to the greater sun god Ra. Often, Khepri and another solar deity, Atum, were seen as aspects of Ra: Khepri was the morning sun, Ra was the midday sun, and Atum was the sun in the evening.[1]
Appearance
Khepri was principally depicted as a scarab beetle, though in some tomb paintings and funerary papyri he is represented as a human male with a scarab as a head. He is also depicted as a scarab in a solar barque held aloft by Nun. The scarab amulets that the Egyptians used as jewelry and as seals represent Khepri.
Khepera (Khepra, Khepri) Symbols: scarab beetle Cult Center: Heliopolis Links: Scarabaeus - a game in which you are a dung beetle.
Khepera is a form of the sun-god Re. Khepera was specifically the god of the rising sun. He was self-produced and usually depicted as a human with a beetle on his head, or sometimes with the beetle as his head. His name comes from the Egyptian word, kheprer or "to become". Dung beetle pushing a ball of dung Khepera is the manifestation of the rising sun. Khepera would roll the sun along the sky, much as the dung beetle rolls a ball of dung in front of him (sometimes the Khepera was also shown pushing the moon through the sky). This ball of dung is what it lays its eggs in. The beetle larvae eat the ball of dung after they hatch. The Egyptians would see the beetle roll a ball of dung into a hole and leave. Later, when many dung beetles emerged from the hole, it would seem as though they created themselves. Khepera also had this attribute of self-generation and self-renewal.
The particular dung beetle the Egyptians identified with Khepera was the Scarabaeus sacer.
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
Serqet /ˈsɜrˌkɛt/, also known as Selket, Serket or Selcis /ˈsɛlsɨs/, is the goddess of healing poisonous stings and bites in Egyptian mythology, originally the deification of the scorpion.[2]
Scorpion stings lead to paralysis and Serket's name describes this, as it means (she who) tightens the throat, however, Serket's name also can be read as meaning (she who) causes the throat to breathe, and so, as well as being seen as stinging the unrighteous, Serket was seen as one who could cure scorpion stings and the effects of other poisons such as snake bites.
In Ancient Egyptian art, Serket was shown as a scorpion (a symbol found on the earliest artifacts of the culture, such as the protodynastic period), or as a woman with a scorpion on her head. Although Serket does not appear to have had any temples, she had a sizable number of priests in many communities.
The most dangerous species of scorpion resides in North Africa, and its sting may kill, so Serket was considered a highly important goddess, and was sometimes considered by pharaohs to be their patron. Her close association with the early kings implies that she was their protector, two being referred to as the scorpion kings.
As the protector against poisons and snake bites, Serket often was said to protect the deities from Apep, the great snake-demon of evil, sometimes being depicted as the guard when Apep was captured.
As many of the venomous creatures of Egypt could prove fatal, Serket also was considered a protector of the dead, particularly being associated with poisons and fluids causing stiffening. She was thus said to be the protector of the tents of embalmers, and of the canopic jar associated with poison—the jar of the intestine—which was deified later as Qebehsenuf, one of the Four sons of Horus.
As the guard of one of the canopic jars and a protector, Serket gained a strong association with Aset (Isis), Nebet Het (Nephthys), and Neith who also performed similar functions. Eventually, later in Egyptian history that spanned thousands of years and whose pantheon evolved toward a merger of many deities, Serket began to be identified with Isis, sharing imagery and parentage, until finally, Serket became said to be merely an aspect of Isis, whose cult had become very dominant
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
In Egyptian mythology, Buchis (also spelt Bakh, Buchis, and Bakha) was the manifestation of the deification of Ka (power/life-force) of the war god Montu,[1] worshipped in the region of Hermonthis.
A wild bull was chosen and said to be the Buchis incarnation of Montu, in which role it was worshipped as such. Over time, the criteria for choosing the bull became more rigid, fixing themselves on what had been simply the general appearance of bulls in the region, being a white body and black face.
When these bulls, or their mothers, died, they were mummified, and placed in a special cemetery known as the Bucheum. The mothers of these bulls were considered aspects of Hathor, the mother of these deities.
Eventually, the Bakha was identified as a form of the Apis, and consequently became considered an incarnation of Osiris. The last burial of a Buchis bull in the Bucheum at Hermonthis occurred in 340 A.D.[2][3] The worship of the bull in this form lasted until about 362 AD, when it was destroyed by rising Christianity in the Roman Empire
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
In late Egyptian mythology, Wepwawet (hieroglyphic wp-w3w.t; also rendered Upuaut, Wep-wawet, Wepawet, and Ophois) was originally a war deity, whose cult centre was Asyut in Upper Egypt (Lycopolis in the Greco-Roman period). His name means, opener of the ways and he is often depicted as a wolf standing at the prow of a solar-boat. Some interpret that Wepwawet was seen as a scout, going out to clear routes for the army to proceed forward.[1] One inscription from the Sinai states that Wepwawet "opens the way" to king Sekhemkhet's victory.[2]
Wepwawet originally was seen as a wolf deity, thus the Greek name of Lycopolis, meaning city of wolves, and it is likely the case that Wepwawet was originally just a symbol of the pharaoh, seeking to associate with wolf-like attributes, that later became deified as a mascot to accompany the pharaoh. Likewise, Wepwawet was said to accompany the pharaoh on hunts, in which capacity he was titled (one with) sharp arrow more powerful than the gods.
Over time, the connection to war, and thus to death, led to Wepwawet also being seen as one who opened the ways to, and through, Duat, for the spirits of the dead. Through this, and the similarity of the jackal to the wolf, Wepwawet became associated with Anubis, a deity that was worshiped in Asyut, eventually being considered his son. Seen as a jackal, he also was said to be Set's son. Consequently, Wepwawet often is confused with Anubis.[2] This deity appears in the Temple of Seti I at Abydos.[2]
In later Egyptian art, Wepwawet was depicted as a wolf or a jackal, or as a man with the head of a wolf or a jackal. Even when considered a jackal, Wepwawet usually was shown with grey, or white fur, reflecting his lupine origins. He was depicted dressed as a soldier, as well as carrying other military equipment—a mace and a bow.
For what generally is considered to be lauding purposes of the pharaohs, a later myth briefly was circulated claiming that Wepwawet was born at the sanctuary of Wadjet, the sacred site for the oldest goddess of Lower Egypt that is located in the heart of Lower Egypt. Consequently, Wepwawet, who had hitherto been the standard of Upper Egypt alone, formed an integral part of royal rituals, symbolizing the unification of Egypt.
In later pyramid texts, Wepwawet is called "Ra" who has gone up from the horizon, perhaps as the "opener" of the sky.[2] In the later Egyptian funerary context, Wepwawet assists at the Opening of the mouth ceremony and guides the deceased into the netherworld
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
Satet (also spelt Satis, Satjit, Sates, and Sati) was the deification of the floods of the Nile River. Her cult originated in the ancient city of Swenet, now called Aswan on the southern edge of Egypt. Her name means she who shoots forth referring to the annual flooding of the river. She was an early war, hunting, and fertility deity who was seen as the mother of the goddess Anuket and a protector of southern Egypt.
One of her titles was She Who Runs Like an Arrow, which is thought to refer to the river current, and her symbols became the arrow and the running river. Satet was pictured as a woman wearing the conical crown of Upper Egypt, the Hedjet, with gazelle or antelope horns, or as an antelope, a fast moving creature living near the banks of the river in the southern portion of Ancient Egypt. She also was depicted with a bow and arrows.
Other interpretations say her primary role was that of the war goddess, a guardian of Egypt's southern (Nubian) frontier and killing the enemies of the Pharaoh with her arrows.
She usually is depicted as holding an ankh also, due to her association with the life giving flooding of the Nile. Consequently, Satet acted as a fertility goddess, thus granting the wishes of those who sought love. Satet is also described as offering jars of purifying water.
Later she became regarded as one of the consorts of Khnum, the god identified as the guardian of the source of the Nile, with whom she was worshipped at Elephantine (the First nome of Egypt), indeed the centre of her cult was nearby, at Sahal, another island of the Nile. Since she was most dominant at the southern end of Egypt, she became regarded as the guard of Egypt's southern border with Nubia.
Satet's child was Anuket, goddess of the Nile River herself, who formed the third part of the Elephantine triad of deities when formed.
Satet was also connected with the Eye of Ra.[1]
Satet (Setet, Sathit, Satit, Sati, Setis, Satis) was the archer-goddess of the Nile cataracts, her name linking her to Setet Island (Sehel Island) and the area around it. She was also a fertility goddess, due to her aspect as a water goddess and a goddess of the inundation, and a goddess who purified the dead with her water. She was a goddess of the hunt who protected Egypt and the pharaoh with her bow and arrows.
Close Up of the Goddess Satet
Depicted as a woman, Satet was often shown wearing the crown of the south - Upper Egypt - and a pair of long antelope horns. She was originally worshiped as an antelope goddess. She was sometimes shown carrying a bow and arrows. More often she was shown carrying a sceptre and the ankh symbol.
As a goddess of the hunt, she was also believed to be a protector of Egypt and of the pharaoh. It was her arrows that protected the southern border, keeping the enemies at bay. Yet she was more closely linked to water than to the bow and arrow. There may be a connection between water and the bow and arrows she sometimes was shown to wield:
The name probably means 'to pour out' or 'to scatter abroad', so that it might signify a goddess who wielded the powers of rain. She carries in her hands a bow and arrows, as did Neith, typical of the rain or thunderbolt.
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
Arensnuphis (in Egyptian: Iryhemesnefer, ỉrỉ-ḥms-nfr, "the good companion") is a deity from the Kingdom of Kush in ancient Nubia, first attested at Musawwarat el-Sufra in the 3rd century BC. His worship spread to the Egyptian-controlled portion of Nubia in the Ptolemaic Period (305–30 BC). His mythological role is unknown; he was depicted as a lion and as a human with a crown of feathers and sometimes a spear.[2]
Arensnuphis was worshipped at Philae, where he was called the "companion" of the Egyptian goddess Isis, and at Dendur. The Egyptians syncretized him with their gods Anhur and Shu.
Arensnuphis was an anthropomorphic Nubian deity wearing a plumed crown who occurred in southern temples during the Graeco-Roman period, coeval with the Meroitic civilization based around the mid fifth to sixth cataract region of the Nile river. Sometimes he was also represented as a lion.
The Egyptian rendering of his name, which is 'Ari-hes-nefer' gives us little indication to his nature, other than being a benign deity. A small kiosk style temple was built in his honor on the island of Philae during the reign of Ptolemy IV Philopator in about 2250 BC. The blocks from the southern enclosure wall show that it was a joint project with the Meroitic King Arqamani (Ergamenes II). However, only the fact that he is a "companion" of the goddess Isis, pre-eminent deity of Philae, can be elucidated from the inscriptions. He is also represented on a wall at the Dendur temple (originally sited above the first cataract of the Nile, now re-erected at the Metropolitan Museum of Att in New York. There, he accompanies the local deified heroes Peteese and Pihor being worshiped by the Roman emperor Augustus.
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
Hatmehit, or Hatmehyt (reconstructed to have been pronounced *Hāwit-Maḥūyat in Egyptian) in the ancient Egyptian religion was a fish-goddess in the area around the delta city of Per-banebdjedet, Mendes. In ancient Egyptian art Hatmehit was depicted either as a fish, or a woman with a fish emblem or crown on her head. She was a goddess of life and protection.
Name
Her name translates as Foremost of Fish or Chief of Fish. She may have some connection to Hathor, one of the oldest deities of Egypt who also went by the name Mehit, meaning great flood. This may possibly be due to being seen as a remnant of the primal waters of creation from which all things arose. Other goddesses associated with the primal waters of creation are Mut and Naunet.
When the cult of Osiris arose, the people of Mendes reacted by identifying Osiris as having achieved his authority by being the husband of Hatmehit. In particular, it was the Ba of Osiris, known as Banebjed (literally meaning Ba of the lord of the djed, referring to Osiris), which was said to have married Hatmehit.
When Horus became considered the son of Osiris, a form known as Harpocrates (Har-pa-khered in Egyptian), Hatmehit was consequently said to be his mother. As wife of Osiris, and mother of Horus, she eventually became identified as a form of Isis
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
Aten (also Aton, Egyptian jtn) is the disk of the sun in ancient Egyptian mythology, and originally an aspect of Ra. The deified Aten is the focus of the monolatristic, henotheistic, or monotheistic religion of Atenism established by Amenhotep IV, who later took the name Akhenaten in worship and recognition of Aten. In his poem "Great Hymn to the Aten", Akhenaten praises Aten as the creator, and giver of life. The worship of Aten was eradicated by Horemheb
Overview
The Aten, the sun-disk, is first referred to as a deity in The Story of Sinuhe from the 12th dynasty,[1] in which the deceased king is described as rising as god to the heavens and uniting with the sun-disk, the divine body merging with its maker.[2] By analogy, the term "silver aten" was sometimes used to refer to the moon.[3] The solar Aten was extensively worshipped as a god in the reign of Amenhotep III, when it was depicted as a falcon-headed man much like Ra. In the reign of Amenhotep III's successor, Amenhotep IV, the Aten became the central god of Egyptian state religion, and Amenhotep IV changed his name to Akhenaten to reflect his close link with the new supreme deity.[1]
The full title of Akhenaten's god was "Ra-Horakhty who rejoices in the horizon, in his Name as the Light which is in the sun disc." (This is the title of the god as it appears on the numerous stelae which were placed to mark the boundaries of Akhenaten's new capital at Akhetaten, modern Amarna.) This lengthy name was often shortened to Ra-Horus-Aten or just Aten in many texts, but the god of Akhenaten raised to supremacy is considered a synthesis of very ancient gods viewed in a new and different way. The god is also considered to be both masculine and feminine simultaneously. All creation was thought to emanate from the god and to exist within the god. In particular, the god was not depicted in anthropomorphic (human) form, but as rays of light extending from the sun's disk.
Furthermore, the god's name came to be written within a cartouche, along with the titles normally given to a Pharaoh, another break with ancient tradition. Ra-Horus, more usually referred to as Ra-Horakhty (Ra, who is Horus of the two horizons), is a synthesis of two other gods, both of which are attested from very early on. During the Amarna period, this synthesis was seen as the invisible source of energy of the sun god, of which the visible manifestation was the Aten, the solar disk. Thus Ra-Horus-Aten was a development of old ideas which came gradually. The real change, as some see it, was the apparent abandonment of all other gods, especially Amun, and the debatable introduction of monotheism by Akhenaten.[4] The syncretism is readily apparent in the Great Hymn to the Aten in which Re-Herakhty, Shu and Aten are merged into the creator god.[5] Others see Akhenaten as a practitioner of an Aten monolatry,[6] as he did not actively deny the existence of other gods; he simply refrained from worshipping any but the Aten
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
Seker (/ˈsɛkər/; also spelled Sokar) is a falcon god of the Memphite necropolis. Although the meaning of his name remains uncertain, the Egyptians in the Pyramid Texts linked his name to the anguished cry of Osiris to Isis 'Sy-k-ri' ('hurry to me'),[1] in the underworld. Seker is strongly linked with two other gods, Ptah the chief god of Memphis and Osiris the god of the dead. In later periods this connection was expressed as the triple god Ptah-Seker-Osiris.
Seker was usually depicted as a mummified hawk and sometimes as mound from which the head of a hawk appears. Here he is called 'he who is on his sand'. Sometimes he is shown on his hennu barque which was an elaborate sledge for negotiating the sandy necropolis. One of his titles was 'He of Restau' which means the place of 'openings' or tomb entrances.
In the New Kingdom Book of the Underworld, the Amduat, he is shown standing on the back of a serpent between two spread wings; as an expression of freedom this suggests a connection with resurrection or perhaps a satisfactory transit of the underworld.[1] Despite this the region of the underworld associated with Seker was seen as difficult, sandy terrain called the Imhet (meaning 'filled up').[2]
Seker, possibly through his association with Ptah, also has a connection with craftsmen. In the Book of the Dead he is said to fashion silver bowls[1] and a silver coffin of Sheshonq II has been discovered at Tanis decorated with the iconography of Seker.[3] In the 1956 movie The Ten Commandments, the Pharaoh Rameses II invokes the same deity to bring his deceased firstborn son back to life, while portrayed as wearing dark blue robe with a silver bow.
Seker's cult centre was in Memphis where festivals in his honour were held in the fourth month of the akhet (spring) season. The god was depicted as assisting in various tasks such as digging ditches and canals. From the New Kingdom a similar festival was held in Thebes.
Sokar, an Egyptian God of the Underworld
In ancient Egypt, Sokar is really one of the more complex Egyptian gods to understand. He is often equated with Osiris, or as the resurrected Osiris though his scope stretches well beyond that over time. Even his name is shrouded in scholarly controversy. One theory is that his name is derived from and based on the term sk r ("cleaning of the mouth") found in Coffin Text Spell 816 and a 12th dynasty papyrus
This term is used in the context of the Opening of the Mouth ceremony in which Sokar does play a part. Another theory is that the etymology of the god's name comes from one of the Pyramid Texts where Osiris said, as a cry of help to his wife and sister, "Sy k ri", or hurry to me. Sokar was an ancient falcon god in the environs of Memphis who perhaps was originally associated with craftsmanship. However, he came to be a god of the necropolis of that area and rose, in time, to considerable importance as a chthonic and afterlife deity. The Pyramid Texts frequently mention the god in an afterlife context where the deceased king is said to be raised into the "henu barque" of Sokar and equated with Osiris, but only after the rise of Osiris to importance.
The Pyramid Texts describe Sokar as a god active in the rebirth of the king and in the ceremonies of confirmation and transfer of royal power. However, Sokar was associated with the Memphite god Ptah as the synchronistic Ptah-Sokar even before Sokar's association with Osiris. This was perhaps an easy link because Ptah too was a god of craftsmanship. In fact, Sokar took Ptah's consort, Sekhmet as his own. In this form, Ptah-Sokar associates the wealth of the soil and its power of growth. By the Middle Kingdom, all three of the gods were combined into the tripartite deity, Ptah-Sokar-Osiris, who remained an important funerary deity for most of the remainder of Egypt's dynastic history. Then, he assumes a specific role in the transfiguration at death and in the Opening of the Mouth ceremony.
During the New Kingdom Period, the Book of the Dead presents Sokar as an image of the world unified in Osiris. The terrestrial Ptah-Sokar became Sokar-Osiris, the nocturnal incarnation of the sun during the fourth and fifth hours of the Amduat. He allowed the sun to complete its course during the night and to be reborn in the morning.
It should be noted that during the New Kingdom, the priests of Sokar have the same titles as the Memphite clergy of Ptah did in the Old Kingdom, but now they almost always refer to the high priests of Heliopolis. Sokar is also related to two groups of deities, including the Memphite group which included Khnum and a solar group that consisted of Nefertem and the five divine daughters of Re. The "Memphite Khnum is among the deities listed in the Sokar chapel and the hall of Sokar and Nefertem in the temple of Seti I at Abydos. Nephthys could also be his companion. Called "father and mother", Sokar really has no family as such, though Redoudja is identified as "son of Sokar" in Spell 941 of the Coffin Text. Sokar had a number of epithets, such as "he of Rosetau", which refers to a site near the Sphinx of Giza, though ultimately indicated any necropolis. This also came to represent the mouth of the passages into the Underworld. He is also the "lord of the mysterious region", also referring to the underworld. Another is the "great god with his two wings opened, which emphasizes his unrestricted movement and power in the afterlife.
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
To the Egyptians, the frog was a symbol of life and fertility, since millions of them were born after the annual inundation of the Nile, which brought fertility to the otherwise barren lands. Consequently, in Egyptian mythology, there began to be a frog-goddess, who represented fertility, referred to by Egyptologists as Heqet (also Heqat, Hekit, Heket etc., more rarely Hegit, Heget etc.),[1] written with the determinative frog.[2
Name and depiction
Her name was probably pronounced more like *Ḥaqā́tat in Middle Egyptian, hence her later Greek counterpart Ἑκάτη (see Hecate).[3] Heqet was usually depicted as a frog, or a woman with a frog's head, or more rarely as a frog on the end of a phallus to explicitly indicate her association with fertility. She was often referred to as the wife of Khnum
Worship of Heqet
The god Khnum, accompanied by Heqet, moulds Ihy in a relief from the mammisi (birth temple) at Dendera Temple complex, Dendara, Egypt The beginning of her cult dates to the early dynastic period at least. Her name was part of the names of some high-born Second Dynasty individuals buried at Helwan and was mentioned on a stela of Wepemnofret and in the Pyramid Texts. Early frog statuettes are often thought to be depictions of her.[5]
Later, as a fertility goddess, associated explicitly with the last stages of the flooding of the Nile, and so with the germination of corn, she became associated with the final stages of childbirth. This association, which appears to have arisen during the Middle Kingdom, gained her the title She who hastens the birth.[6] Some claim that—even though no ancient Egyptian term for "midwife" is known for certain—midwives often called themselves the Servants of Heqet, and that her priestesses were trained in midwifery.[7] Women often wore amulets of her during childbirth, which depicted Heqet as a frog, sitting in a lotus.
Heqet was considered the wife of Khnum, who formed the bodies of new children on his potter's wheel.[8]
In the myth of Osiris developed, it was said that it was Heqet who breathed life into the new body of Horus at birth, as she was the goddess of the last moments of birth. As the birth of Horus became more intimately associated with the resurrection of Osiris, so Heqet's role became one more closely associated with resurrection. Eventually, this association led to her amulets gaining the phrase I am the resurrection, and consequently the amulets were used by early Christians
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
The earliest references to Mehen occur in the Coffin Texts.[2] Mehen is a protective deity who is depicted as a snake which coils around the sun god Ra during his journey through the night, for instance in the Amduat.[3]
In the German-Egyptian dictionary by R. Hannig[4] it is said that the Mehen (mḥn) or the Mehenet (mḥnt) snake is equivalent to the Ouroboros.
Relationship between snake-god and Mehen game
The precise relationship between the deity and the Mehen game is unknown. For instance it is not known whether the game derives from the mythological character, or the character derives from the game.
It is known that the object known as mehen depicts a game rather than a religious fetish as studies of paintings in tombs and game boards and equipment demonstrate this. The rules and method of playing the game are unknown, although rules have been created in modern times based on assessments of how it may have been played
History
Evidence of the game of Mehen is found dating from approximately 3000 BC and continues until 2300 BC. Some of the best evidence appears during the Old Kingdom, in a picture in the tomb of Hesy-Ra. It is depicted in tombs of about 700 BC, but the board seems to have been misinterpreted as a vase, presumably because an Old Kingdom relief was copied by someone not familiar with the game itself.
It is known that the board depicts a game rather than being a religious object due to studies of paintings in tombs, and game boards and equipment found. None of the associated objects fit neatly within the segments of the snake. The rules and methods of play are completely unknown.
Game board and pieces
The board depicts a coiled snake whose body is divided into rectangular spaces. Several boards have been found with different numbers of segments, without distinguishing marks or ornamentation. The variability suggests that the number of segments was of little importance to the game. Objects associated with the board may or may not be playing pieces. From archaeological evidence, the game seemed to have been played with lion- or lioness-shaped game pieces, in sets of 3 or as many as 6, and a few small spheres (marbles/balls).
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
In Egyptian mythology, Babi, also Baba,[1][2] was the deification of the baboon, one of the animals present in Egypt. His name is usually translated as Bull of the baboons, and roughly means Alpha male of all baboons, i.e. chief of the baboons.[3] Since Baboons exhibit many human characteristics, it was believed in early times, at least since the Predynastic Period, that they were deceased ancestors. In particular, the alpha males were identified as deceased rulers, referred to as the great white one (Hez-ur in Egyptian), since Hamadryas baboon (the species prevalent in Egypt) alpha males have a notable light grey streak. For example, Narmer is depicted in some images as having transformed into a baboon.
Since baboons were considered to be the dead, Babi was viewed as an underworld deity. Baboons are extremely aggressive, and omnivorous, and so Babi was viewed as being very bloodthirsty, and living on entrails.[3][4] Consequently, he was viewed as devouring the souls of the unrighteous after they had been weighed against Ma'at (the concept of truth/order),[5] and was thus said to stand by a lake of fire, representing destruction. Since this judging of righteousness was an important part of the underworld, Babi was said to be the first-born son of Osiris,[6] the god of the dead in the same regions in which people believed in Babi.
Baboons also have noticeably high sex drives, in addition to their high level of genital marking, and so Babi was considered the god of virility of the dead. He was usually portrayed with an erection, and due to the association with the judging of souls, was sometimes depicted as using it as the mast of the ferry which conveyed the righteous to Aaru, a series of islands.[3] Babi was also prayed to, in order to ensure that an individual would not suffer from impotence after death Babi was a fierce, bloodthirsty baboon god who was ancient even in the realm of Egyptian gods. We find him mentioned as early as the Old Kingdom, when Babi "bull (i.e. dominant male) of the baboons" with his supernatural aggression is an attribute to which the monarch aspires. He controls the darkness and will open up the sky for the king since his phallus is the bolt on the doors of heaven. This virility symbol is carried over into a later spell where in order to ensure successful sexual intercourse in the Afterlife a man identifies his sexuality with Babi. Perhaps it is not entirely fortuitous that the Underworld ferryboat uses Babi's phallus as its mast
This dangerous god lives on human entrails and murders on sight. Hence spells are needed to protect oneself against him, particularly during the weighing of the heart ceremony in the Hall of the Two Truths. where a person's fitness for paradise is determined. Naturally this hostile aspect of Babi leads to an identification with Seth. Conversely Babi can use his immense power to ward off dangers like snakes and control turbulent waters. Understandably in the Book of the Dead the deceased makes the magical progression to become Babi who in turn transforms into the "eldest son of Osiris".
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
The earliest references to Mehen occur in the Coffin Texts.[2] Mehen is a protective deity who is depicted as a snake which coils around the sun god Ra during his journey through the night, for instance in the Amduat.[3]
In the German-Egyptian dictionary by R. Hannig[4] it is said that the Mehen (mḥn) or the Mehenet (mḥnt) snake is equivalent to the Ouroboros.
Relationship between snake-god and Mehen game
The precise relationship between the deity and the Mehen game is unknown. For instance it is not known whether the game derives from the mythological character, or the character derives from the game.
It is known that the object known as mehen depicts a game rather than a religious fetish as studies of paintings in tombs and game boards and equipment demonstrate this. The rules and method of playing the game are unknown, although rules have been created in modern times based on assessments of how it may have been played
History
Evidence of the game of Mehen is found dating from approximately 3000 BC and continues until 2300 BC. Some of the best evidence appears during the Old Kingdom, in a picture in the tomb of Hesy-Ra. It is depicted in tombs of about 700 BC, but the board seems to have been misinterpreted as a vase, presumably because an Old Kingdom relief was copied by someone not familiar with the game itself.
It is known that the board depicts a game rather than being a religious object due to studies of paintings in tombs, and game boards and equipment found. None of the associated objects fit neatly within the segments of the snake. The rules and methods of play are completely unknown.
Game board and pieces
The board depicts a coiled snake whose body is divided into rectangular spaces. Several boards have been found with different numbers of segments, without distinguishing marks or ornamentation. The variability suggests that the number of segments was of little importance to the game. Objects associated with the board may or may not be playing pieces. From archaeological evidence, the game seemed to have been played with lion- or lioness-shaped game pieces, in sets of 3 or as many as 6, and a few small spheres (marbles/balls).
In Ancient Egyptian religious art, Kneph refers to a motif, variously a winged egg, a globe surrounded by one or more serpents, or Amun in the form of a serpent called Kematef.[1] Some Theosophical sources tried to syncretize this motif with the deity Khnum, along with Serapis and Pluto.[
Kneph
In Egyptian mythology Kneph was originally the breath of life, his name meaning soul-breath. Indeed, according to Plutarch and Diodorus, Kneph was identical with the Greek pneuma. Kneph in this context was a spirit that breathed life into things, giving them form. Kneph eventually became considered to be the creator god himself, in Elephantine, although his identity was finally assimilated into the more important god Amun.
In art, Kneph was depicted as a ram, the animal symbolic of the ba, a major aspect of the Egyptian notion of the soul; the Egyptian word for "ram" was "ba". He was also depicted wearing a uraeus, symbolic of his authority, as creator. In his hand he always bears the ankh, symbol of life
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
Goddess Isis giving birth supported by two divine wives.
In Ancient Egyptian mythology, Meskhenet, (also spelt Mesenet, Meskhent, and Meshkent) was the goddess of childbirth, and the creator of each child's Ka, a part of their soul, which she breathed into them at the moment of birth. She was worshipped from the earliest of times by Egyptians.
In ancient Egypt, women delivered babies while squatting on a pair of bricks, known as birth bricks, and Meskhenet was the goddess associated with this form of delivery. Consequently, in art, she was sometimes depicted as a brick with a woman's head, wearing a cow's uterus upon it. At other times she was depicted as a woman with a symbolic cow's uterus on her headdress.[1]
Since she was responsible for creating the Ka, she was associated with fate. Thus later she was sometimes said to be paired with Shai, who became a god of destiny after the deity evolved out of an abstract concept.[1]
Meskhenet features prominently in the last of the folktales in the Westcar Papyrus. The story tells of the birth of Userkaf, Sahure, and Neferirkare Kakai, the first three kings of the Fifth Dynasty, who in the story are said to be triplets. Just after each child is born, Meskhenet appears and prophesies that he will become king of Egypt
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
Khnum (/kəˈnuːm/; also spelled Khnemu) was one of the earliest Egyptian deities, originally the god of the source of the Nile River. Since the annual flooding of the Nile brought with it silt and clay, and its water brought life to its surroundings, he was thought to be the creator of the bodies of human children, which he made at a potter's wheel, from clay, and placed in their mothers' wombs. He later was described as having moulded the other deities, and he had the titles Divine Potter and Lord of created things from himself
General information
Khnum is the third aspect of Ra. He is the god of rebirth, creation and the evening sun, although this is usually the function of Atum. The worship of Khnum centered on two principal riverside sites, Elephantine Island and Esna, which were regarded as sacred sites. At Elephantine, he was worshipped alongside Anuket and Satis as the guardian of the source of the Nile River. His significance led to early theophoric names of him, for children, such as Khnum-Khufwy – Khnum is my Protector, the full name of Khufu, builder of the Great Pyramid.[1]
Khnum has also been related to the deity Min.[2]
Temple at Elephantine
The temple at Elephantine was dedicated to Khnum, his consort Satis and their daughter Anukis. The temple dates back to at least the Middle Kingdom. By the 11th dynasty Khnum, Satis and Anukis are all attested at Elephantine. During the New Kingdom finds from the time of Ramesses II show Khnum was still worshipped there.[3]
Opposite Elephantine, on the east bank at Aswan, Khnum, Satis and Anukis are shown on a chapel wall dating to the Ptolemaic time.[3]
Temple at Esna
Cnouphis-Nilus (Jupiter-Nilus, Dieu Nil), N372.2, Brooklyn Museum In Esna (Latopolis), known as Iunyt or Ta-senet to the Ancient Egyptians, a temple was dedicated to Khnum, Neith and Heka, and other deities.[3] The temple dates to the Ptolemaic period. Khnum is sometimes depicted as a crocodile-headed god. Nebt-uu and Menhit are Khnum's principal consorts and Heka is his eldest son and successor. Both Khnum and Neith are referred to as creator deities in the texts at Esna. Khnum is sometimes referred to as the "father of the fathers" and Neith as the "mother of the mothers". They later become the parents of Re, who is also referred to as Khnum-Re
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
"... to the belief that the Bennu periodically renewed itself like the sun.[2] Its name is related to the Egyptian verb wbn, meaning "to rise in brilliance" or "to shine".
But this is my translation of wbn:
wbn(Anc.Egypt) woven (NOT "to shine" but to reflect sunshine/rain as ancestors' domes did)/webbing = dome hut construction = mongolu/bungalow/iglu/
~ w.omb.ng.lu = wuamuabuanuagualua = wovenbell = womb+belly(shape of pregnancy/embarazado(Sp))
Egyptians changed the physical form from dome/bell to pyramid due to social rectilinearization/hierarchical structuring due to high populations concentrated by the Nile of sedentary settlements using "industrial-style" of agriculture, from ancestral gathering to gardening to agriculture of the Old Kingdom.
Posts: 2021 | From: Miami | Registered: Aug 2014
| IP: Logged |
Isis (/ˈaɪsɪs/; Ancient Greek: Ἶσις; original Egyptian pronunciation more likely "Aset" or "Iset") is a goddess from the polytheistic pantheon of Egypt. She was first worshiped in Ancient Egyptian religion, and later her worship spread throughout the Roman empire and the greater Greco-Roman world. Isis is still widely worshiped by many pagans today in diverse religious contexts; including a number of distinct pagan religions, the modern Goddess movement, and interfaith organizations such as the Fellowship of Isis.
Isis was worshipped as the ideal mother and wife as well as the patroness of nature and magic. She was the friend of slaves, sinners, artisans and the downtrodden, but she also listened to the prayers of the wealthy, maidens, aristocrats and rulers.[1] Isis is often depicted as the mother of Horus, the falcon-headed deity associated with king and kingship (although in some traditions Horus's mother was Hathor). Isis is also known as protector of the dead and goddess of children.
The name Isis means "Throne".[2] Her headdress is a throne. As the personification of the throne, she was an important representation of the pharaoh's power. The pharaoh was depicted as her child, who sat on the throne she provided. Her cult was popular throughout Egypt, but her most important temples were at Behbeit El-Hagar in the Nile delta, and, beginning in the reign with Nectanebo I (380–362 BCE), on the island of Philae in Upper Egypt.
In the typical form of her myth, Isis was the first daughter of Geb, god of the Earth, and Nut, goddess of the Sky, and she was born on the fourth intercalary day. She married her brother, Osiris, and she conceived Horus with him. Isis was instrumental in the resurrection of Osiris when he was murdered by Set. Using her magical skills, she restored his body to life after having gathered the body parts that had been strewn about the earth by Set.[3]
This myth became very important during the Greco-Roman period. For example it was believed that the Nile River flooded every year because of the tears of sorrow which Isis wept for Osiris. Osiris's death and rebirth was relived each year through rituals. The worship of Isis eventually spread throughout the Greco-Roman world, continuing until the suppression of paganism in the Christian era.[4] The popular motif of Isis suckling her son Horus, however, lived on in a Christianized context as the popular image of Mary suckling her infant son Jesus from the fifth century onward
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
Bes (/bɛs/; also spelled as Bisu) is an Ancient Egyptian deity worshipped as a protector of households, and in particular, of mothers and children and childbirth. Bes later came to be regarded as the defender of everything good and the enemy of all that is bad. While past studies identified Bes as a Middle Kingdom import from Nubia, more recent research indicates that he was present in Egypt since the start of Old Kingdom. Mentions of Bes can be traced to pre-dynastic Nile Valley cultures; however his cult did not become widespread until the beginning of the New Kingdom
Modern scholars such as James Romano claim that in its earliest inceptions, Bes was a representation of a lion rearing up on its hind legs.[1] After the Third Intermediate Period, Bes is often seen as just the head or the face, often worn as amulets.
Dawn Prince-Hughes lists Bes as fitting with other archetypal long-haired Bigfoot-like ape-man figures from ancient Northern Africa, "a squat, bandy-legged figure depicted with fur about his body, a prominent brow, and short, pug nose
Images of the deity were kept in homes and he was depicted quite differently from the other gods. Normally Egyptian gods were shown in profile, but instead Bes appeared in portrait, ithyphallic, and sometimes in a soldier's tunic, so as to appear ready to launch an attack on any approaching evil. He scared away demons from houses, so his statue was put up as a protector.
Bes was a household protector, throughout ancient Egyptian history becoming responsible for such varied tasks as killing snakes, fighting off evil spirits, watching after children, and aiding (by fighting off evil spirits) women in labour (and thus present with Taweret at births).
Since he drove off evil, Bes also came to symbolize the good things in life - music, dance, and sexual pleasure. Later, in the Ptolemaic period of Egyptian history, chambers were constructed, painted with images of Bes and his wife Beset, thought by Egyptologists to have been for the purpose of curing fertility problems or general healing rituals.
Many instances of Bes masks and costumes from the New Kingdom and later have been uncovered. These show considerable wear, thought to be too great for occasional use at festivals, and are therefore thought to have been used by professional performers, or given out for rent.
In the New Kingdom, tattoos of Bes could be found on the thighs of dancers, musicians and servant girls.
Like many Egyptian gods, the worship of Bes was exported overseas, and he, in particular, proved popular with the Phoenicians and the ancient Cypriots.
The cult of Saint Bessus in northern Italy may represent the Christianization of the cult associated with Bes; St. Bessus was also invoked for fertility, and Bessus and Bes are both associated with an ostrich feather in their iconography.[3]
The Balearic island of Ibiza derives its actual name from this God, brought along with the first Phoenician settlers 654 BC. These settlers, amazed at the lack of any sort of venomous creatures on the island thought it to be the island of Bes (<איבשם> ʔybšm *ʔibošim). Later Romans called it Ebusus
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
posted
God Osiris The god of resurrection, Osiris reigned supreme in the underworld. He combined the elements of death, regeneration, and fertility in his mythology. He was also connected with crops and the annual floods, Osiris took on funerary associations when he was linked with other underworld gods as his cult spread across the land. This combination of fertility and funerary aspects made Osiris the principal god of the dead. One of his titles is "chief of the westerners," the west being the domain of the dead. Here, the god is shown in his standard iconography, attired in a mummiform garment, his hands projecting from the wrappings to hold the royal insignia of crook and flail. He wears the elaborate atef crown-composed of the tall "white crown," double plumes, ram horns, and uraeus (sacred cobra)-as well as a ceremonial braided beard. This statue is of extraordinary size. …
Priest with God Osiris
Pharaoh Psamtek II with God Osiris
Osiris (/oʊˈsaɪərɨs/, or Usiris; also Ausar), is an Egyptian god, usually identified as the god of the afterlife, the underworld and the dead. He was classically depicted as a green-skinned man with a pharaoh's beard, partially mummy-wrapped at the legs, wearing a distinctive crown with two large ostrich feathers at either side, and holding a symbolic crook and flail.
Osiris was at times considered the oldest son of the earth god Geb,[1] and the sky goddess Nut, as well as being brother and husband of Isis, with Horus being considered his posthumously begotten son.[1] He was also associated with the epithet Khenti-Amentiu, which means "Foremost of the Westerners" — a reference to his kingship in the land of the dead.[2] As ruler of the dead, Osiris was also sometimes called "king of the living", since the Ancient Egyptians considered the blessed dead "the living ones".[3] Osiris was considered the brother of Isis, Set, Nephthys, Horus the Elder and father of Horus the younger. [4] Osiris is first attested in the middle of the Fifth dynasty of Egypt, although it is likely that he was worshipped much earlier;[5] the term Khenti-Amentiu dates to at least the first dynasty, also as a pharaonic title. Most information available on the myths of Osiris is derived from allusions contained in the Pyramid Texts at the end of the Fifth Dynasty, later New Kingdom source documents such as the Shabaka Stone and the Contending of Horus and Seth, and much later, in narrative style from the writings of Greek authors including Plutarch[6] and Diodorus Siculus.[7]
Osiris was considered not only a merciful judge of the dead in the afterlife, but also the underworld agency that granted all life, including sprouting vegetation and the fertile flooding of the Nile River. He was described as the "Lord of love",[8] "He Who is Permanently Benign and Youthful"[9] and the "Lord of Silence".[10] The Kings of Egypt were associated with Osiris in death — as Osiris rose from the dead they would, in union with him, inherit eternal life through a process of imitative magic. By the New Kingdom all people, not just pharaohs, were believed to be associated with Osiris at death, if they incurred the costs of the assimilation rituals.[11]
Through the hope of new life after death, Osiris began to be associated with the cycles observed in nature, in particular vegetation and the annual flooding of the Nile, through his links with the heliacal rising of Orion and Sirius at the start of the new year.[9] Osiris was widely worshipped as Lord of the Dead until the suppression of the Egyptian religion during the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire.[12
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
two vertical plumes, the ram-headed Sphinx (Criosphinx)
Consort
Amunet Wosret Mut
Offspring
Khonsu
Greek equivalent
Zeus
Amun (also Amon (/ˈɑːmən/), Amen; Ancient Greek: Ἄμμων Ámmōn, Ἅμμων Hámmōn) was a local deity of Thebes. He was attested since the Old Kingdom together with his spouse Amaunet. With the 11th dynasty (c. 21st century BC), he rose to the position of patron deity of Thebes by replacing Monthu.[1]
After the rebellion of Thebes against the Hyksos and with the rule of Ahmose I, Amun acquired national importance, expressed in his fusion with the Sun god, Ra, as Amun-Ra.
Amun-Ra retained chief importance in the Egyptian pantheon throughout the New Kingdom (with the exception of the "Atenist heresy" under Akhenaten). Amun-Ra in this period (16th to 11th centuries BC) held the position of transcendental, self-created[2] creator deity "par excellence", he was the champion of the poor or troubled and central to personal piety.[3] His position as King of Gods developed to the point of virtual monotheism where other gods became manifestations of him. With Osiris, Amun-Ra is the most widely recorded of the Egyptian gods.[3] As the chief deity of the Egyptian Empire, Amun-Ra also came to be worshipped outside of Egypt, in Ancient Libya and Nubia, and as Zeus Ammon came to be identified with Zeus in Ancient Greece.
Early history
Amun and Amaunet are mentioned in the Old Egyptian pyramid texts.[4] Amun and Amaunet formed one quarter of the ancient Ogdoad of Hermopolis, representing the primordial concept or element of air or invisibility (corresponding to Shu in the Ennead), hence Amun's later function as a wind deity, and the name Amun (written imn, pronounced Amana in ancient Egyptian [5]), meaning "hidden".[6] It was thought that Amun created himself and then his surroundings.[1]
Amun rose to the position of tutelary deity of Thebes after the end of the First Intermediate Period, under the 11th dynasty. As the patron of Thebes, his spouse was Mut. In Thebes, Amun as father, Mut as mother and the Moon god Khonsu formed a divine family or "Theban Triad".
The history of Amun as the patron god of Thebes begins in the 20th century BC, with the construction of the Precinct of Amun-Re at Karnak under Senusret I. The city of Thebes does not appear to have been of great significance before the 11th dynasty.
Major construction work in the Precinct of Amun-Re took place during the 18th dynasty when Thebes became the capital of the unified Ancient Egypt. Construction of the Hypostyle Hall may have also began during the 18th dynasty, though most building was undertaken under Seti I and Ramesses II. Merenptah commemorated his victories over the Sea Peoples on the walls of the Cachette Court, the start of the processional route to the Luxor Temple. This Great Inscription (which has now lost about a third of its content) shows the king's campaigns and eventual return with booty and prisoners. Next to this inscription is the Victory Stela, which is largely a copy of the more famous Israel Stela found in the West Bank funerary complex of Merenptah.[7] Merenptah's son Seti II added 2 small obelisks in front of the Second Pylon, and a triple bark-shrine to the north of the processional avenue in the same area. This was constructed of sandstone, with a chapel to Amun flanked by those of Mut and Khonsu.
The last major change to the Precinct of Amun-Re's layout was the addition of the first pylon and the massive enclosure walls that surrounded the whole Precinct, both constructed by Nectanebo I.
When the army of the founder of the Eighteenth dynasty expelled the Hyksos rulers from Egypt, the victor's city of origin, Thebes, became the most important city in Egypt, the capital of a new dynasty. The local patron deity of Thebes, Amun, therefore became nationally important. The pharaohs of that new dynasty attributed all their successful enterprises to Amun, and they lavished much of their wealth and captured spoil on the construction of temples dedicated to Amun.
The victory accomplished by pharaohs who worshipped Amun against the "foreign rulers", brought him to be seen as a champion of the less fortunate, upholding the rights of justice for the poor.[3] By aiding those who traveled in his name, he became the Protector of the road. Since he upheld Ma'at (truth, justice, and goodness),[3] those who prayed to Amun were required first to demonstrate that they were worthy by confessing their sins. Votive stelae from the artisans' village at Deir el-Medina record:
Atenist heresy
During the latter part of the eighteenth dynasty, the pharaoh Akhenaten (also known as Amenhotep IV) disliked the power of the temple of Amun and advanced the worship of the Aten, a deity whose power was manifested in the sun disk, both literally and symbolically. He defaced the symbols of many of the old deities, and based his religious practices upon the deity, the Aten. He moved his capital away from Thebes, but this abrupt change was very unpopular with the priests of Amun, who now found themselves without any of their former power. The religion of Egypt was inexorably tied to the leadership of the country, the pharaoh being the leader of both. The pharaoh was the highest priest in the temple of the capital, and the next lower level of religious leaders were important advisers to the pharaoh, many being administrators of the bureaucracy that ran the country.
The introduction of Atenism under Akhenaton constructed a "monotheist" worship of Aten in direct competition with that of Amun. Praises of Amun on stelae are strikingly similar in language to those later used, in particular the Hymn to the Aten:
"When thou crossest the sky, all faces behold thee, but when thou departest, thou are hidden from their faces ... When thou settest in the western mountain, then they sleep in the manner of death ... The fashioner of that which the soil produces, ... a mother of profit to gods and men; a patient craftsmen, greatly wearying himself as their maker..valiant herdsman, driving his cattle, their refuge and the making of their living..The sole Lord, who reaches the end of the lands every day, as one who sees them that tread thereon ... Every land chatters at his rising every day, in order to praise him."[11]
When Akhenaten died, the priests of Amun-Ra reasserted themselves. His name was struck from Egyptian records, all of his religious and governmental changes were undone, and the capital was returned to Thebes. The return to the previous capital and its patron deity was accomplished so swiftly that it seemed this almost monotheistic cult and its governmental reforms had never existed. Worship of Aten ceased and worship of Amun-Ra was restored. The priests of Amun even persuaded his young son, Tutankhaten, whose name meant "the living image of Aten"—and who later would become a pharaoh—to change his name to Tutankhamun, "the living image of Amun".
Posts: 1115 | From: GOD Bless the USA | Registered: May 2006
| IP: Logged |
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic