Pagan Parallels: The Ultimate Source Guide

The Perennial Gospel: A Source Guide for Defending the Gospel of Our
Faith against the Heathen

2014 by D.N. Boswell
I believe in God,
The Father almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth,
And in the Qrst, His begotten son, our Lord,
Who was conceived by a holy spirit,
Born of a virgin meri,
Suffered under the pompous Typhon,
Was killed, crucified, and was buried;
On the third day he rose again from the dead;
He ascended into heaven,
And was seated at the hand of God the Father almighty;
He descended into hell;
From there he will judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the holy congregation,
The communion of saints,
The forgiveness of sins,
The resurrection of the body,
And life everlasting.
Amen.
- Author unknown
3
Table of Contents
Introduction
Faith under Fire....................................................8
Understanding Progressive Revelation ........................... 9
Concerning the Holy Scriptures of the Funerary Literature .... 18
Chapter 1: I Believe in God, the Father Almighty,

Creator of Heaven and Earth
Who Is God?...................................................... 37
God in Three Persons, Blessed Trinity .......................... 42
He that Hath Seen the Son Hath Seen the Father ............. 44
The Firstborn of All Creation ..................................... 48
Behold, a Virgin Shall Conceive ................................. 54
There is but One God, the Father, of Whom are All Things ... 73
Chapter 2: And in the Qrst, His Begotten

Son, our Lord
In the Beginning ................................................ 103
The Ennead..................................................... 113
King of Kings and Lord of Lords ............................... 117
God was Manifest in the Flesh ................................ 124
Is not this the Carpenters Son? ............................... 134
Chapter 3: Who was conceived by a Holy Spirit,

Born of a Virgin Meri
Like Father, like Son ........................................... 142
His Glory is like the Firstling of His Bullock ................... 146
The Firstling of a Cow They are Holy ....................... 161
Egypt is like a very Fair Heifer ................................. 164
....................................................... 175
Touch-Born ..................................................... 184
There shall the Vultures be Gathered ......................... 199
Chapter 4: Suffered under the evil Typhon, was

Killed, Crucified, and was Buried
And the Brother shall Deliver up the Brother to Death ....... 203
4
Seventy-Two.................................................... 208
Baptized into His Death ........................................ 209
And the Sun was Darkened.................................... 217
Thou Shalt Surely Die .......................................... 218
By this Time He Stinketh ....................................... 234
This is My Body, Which is Broken ............................. 240
This is My Blood ................................................ 261
..................... 274
This is My Body, Which is Given for You
He was Known of Them in Breaking of Bread ................ 284
He that Eateth My Flesh, and Drinketh My Blood,
Hath Eternal Life ............................................... 288
By the Blood of the Lamb ...................................... 294
Whom They Slew and Hanged on a Tree .................... 301
The Tree Grew, and Was Strong .............................. 303
She is a Tree of Life to Them that Lay Hold upon Her ....... 305
Hew Down the Tree, and Cut Off His Branches .............. 308
Take Up the Cross ............................................. 312
They Took Him Down from the Tree, and
Laid Him in a Sepulchre ....................................... 341
Chapter 5: On the Third Day He Rose
Again from the Dead
He was Buried, and that He Rose Again the Third Day ...... 346
The Moon shall be Darkened .................................. 353
They knew not the Scripture,
That He must Rise Again from the Dead ..................... 357
Bring up Flesh upon You, and Cover You with Skin,
and Put Breath in You, and Ye shall Live ..................... 366
I Shall Give Up the Ghost ...................................... 368
He Was Transfigured Before Them ........................... 405
He is Like unto a Man
Beholding his Natural Face in a Mirror ........................ 410
Handle Me and See; for a Spirit hath not Flesh and Bones,
as Ye See Me Have ............................................ 429
Ye are Risen with Him through the Faith of the Operation ... 467
Came Out of the Grave after His Resurrection,
5
and Went into the Holy City .................................... 478
That He May Depart from Hell Beneath ....................... 501
Chapter 6: He Ascended into Heaven

He Descended into Hell
He that Descended is the same also that Ascended ......... 507
Are there not Twelve Hours in the Day? ...................... 520
And in the Evening He Cometh with the Twelve ............. 524
Chapter 7: He will Judge the Living and the Dead

Thou art Weighed in the Balances ............................ 552
He that Judgeth Me is the Lord. ............................... 558
The Lake of Fire ................................................ 564
He shall Save His People from their Sins ..................... 568
The End of the World .......................................... 576
Chapter 8: The Bright and Morning Star

Even as We are One ........................................... 580
These also Doeth the Son likewise ........................... 582
In Winter shall It Be ............................................ 590
We have Seen His Star in the East ........................... 600
In the Reeds by the Rivers Bank ............................. 609
Ye must be Born Again ........................................ 612
How shall this Be, Seeing I Know not a Man? ................ 615
I may Present You as a Chaste Virgin ........................ 630
They Saw the Miracles which He Did ......................... 642
One King shall Be King to them All ............................ 647
Twelve Apostles ................................................ 657
He is Risen from the Dead ..................................... 662
The Lord hath Reigned from the Wood ....................... 673
My Flesh is Meat indeed, and My Blood is Drink indeed ..... 675
Summary ....................................................... 681
Chapter 9: I will Be Exalted among the Heathen

By my Name the Lord was I not Known to Them ............. 683
When the Feast of Bacchus was Kept ........................ 688
Behold Women Sat there Mourning for Adonis ............... 774
6
Let the Eunuch Say, Behold, I Am a Dry Tree ................ 820
The Sun Shineth in His Strength .............................. 858
Who Maketh Thee to Differ from Another? ...................942
Bibliography ................................................. 983
List of Illustrations ...................................... 1050
7
Introduction
Faith under Fire
In these latter days of the age of grace, lawlessness and iniquity

abound, and in seemingly greater abundance than at any other time in
history. Our faith is being tested like never before, as we are being
attacked on all fronts by the blasphemy of unbelieving heathen. It seems
as though everywhere we turn we are bombarded by their persistent and
obstinate denial of the most foundational tenets of our faith as outlined in
the creed of the Perennial Gospel (see p. 4), including everything from
the virgin birth of Gods chosen son to his death & resurrection. Be it
laymen on the internet or revered scholars and university professors, we
are constantly met with skeptics from all walks of life and their incessant
demands for evidence from primary source material and support from
modern scholarship that affirms the tenets of our Lords Creed. In
particular, they have a fixation on demanding that the evidence either
pre-dates, or is at least no later than, the first century of the Common
Era. Some even go one step further than merely demanding the evidence,
and will go so far as to outright deny that such evidence even exists, in
spite of the abundance and ever increasing availability of such evidence
to the general public.
I have also observed, much to my disappointment, that in spite of
such abundant evidence and its increasing accessibility, defenders of the
tenets of the Perennial Gospel often fail to meet the demands of the
nonbelievers. This usually serves only to further assure the heathen of his
or her skepticism and blasphemy. Hence is the need for a work such as
this. My objective will be, as best I can, to meet the demands of the
heathen and to refute their errors, by providing and organizing all of the
evidence from primary sources and scholarly literature which I have
accumulated over the years in my personal research. However, before
diving into this evidence, it is necessary to cover some preliminary
concepts necessary for properly understanding the nature of some of the
evidence, and also for understanding why many of the contentions of the
heathen are in error.
8
Understanding Progressive Revelation
Unfortunately, it is not the case that God just handed down the creed
of His gospel to mankind directly from His own hand, in complete form
all at one and the same moment. It is also unfortunate that the
nonbelievers are apparently ignorant of that fact. Many of them seem to
expect that the revelation of the Lords gospel & creed came by way of
one single consolidated source that was written down at the beginning of
time, which remained perfectly preserved and was passed down in
exactly the same form from generation to generation on down until
today. The reality, however, is that, as is the case with all areas of
knowledge for mankind, the truth was realized progressively in stages
through out history. The collective knowledge that has come down to us
today passed through various locations and cultures, with each
generation building upon and refining the material left behind by the
previous generation, until finally the full revelation of Gods truth was
realized and perfected. This is what is meant here by progressive
revelation.
This understanding of progressive revelation for all areas of
knowledge, be it math, science, or art, etc., is so obvious that theists of
many various faiths and religions have acknowledged it. As scientist and
Stanford University emeritus professor, Dr. Richard H. Bube, once
wrote:
Progressive revelation means that God has given His revelation
of Himself to men in ever increasing clarity, fullness, specificity,
and detail, adopting at each stage of mans development that form
of the revelation and that content of the revelation which is the
most meaningful and the most useful. 1
Or as psychologist Dr. Ronan M. Kisch has observed:
It is based on a concept called progressive revelation. God
presents himself to man as man is able to understand God. It
1
Richard H. Bube, A Perspective on Scriptural Inerrancy, Journal of the
American Scientific Affiliation 15.3 (1963): 86-92.
9
started a long long time ago with tribal religion because the human
psyche could only understand God in those ways. 2
Thus the fact of progressive revelation is clearly evident, and
especially so for anyone familiar with the history of Gods chosen
people. The Lord unveiled His wisdom to His servants incrementally
throughout the centuries as necessary for each particular dispensation.
Further and more precise truths were given only as the peoples hearts
and minds became ready to receive it. In those dispensations of the past,
the Father winked at such ignorance, but now commands all people
everywhere to repent.
For the reader who might be unaware, there were indeed various
dispensations by which the history of Gods chosen people are now
almost universally categorized. The dispensational eras covered under
the time period most relevant to this current work are as follows:
The Predynastic Period c.5000-3100 BCE
The Early Dynastic Period c.3100-2686 BCE
The Old Kingdom c.2686-2181 BCE
The First Intermediate Period c.2181-2040 BCE
The Middle Kingdom c.2040-1795 BCE
The Second Intermediate Period c.1782-1550 BCE
The New Kingdom c.1550-1069 BCE
The Third Intermediate Period c.1069-656 BCE
The Late Period c.664-332 BCE
The Macedonian and
Ptolemaic Dynasties c.332-30 BCE
The Roman and
Byzantine Period c.30 BCE-639 CE3
Therefore, the primary source materials referred to in this book often
come from a wide variety of dates, locations, and cultures, and thus
2
Ronan M. Kisch, The Miraculous Achievements Of Bodywork: How Touch Can
Provide Healing For The Mind, Body, And Spirit (Bloomington: iUniverse, 2011),
197.
3
Robert G. Morkot, Egypt: Land of the Pharaohs, (Hong Kong: Odyssey Books &
Guides, 1989-2005), 37-53.
10
many of the details contained in them also vary significantly. Sometimes
the differences are even logically irreconcilable with each other.
Progressive revelation therefore often requires the separating of wheat
from among the tares. Nevertheless, I assure you, there is an abundance
of wheat to be found. There are large areas of overlap among primary
sources. There is still a common thread running through the material
from all of these dispensational eras. I simply bring up the fact that
differences can be found in order to inform the reader and help avoid
confusion. The fact that differences exist is one of the major reasons for
the folly of the skeptics among the heathen. All too often I have
witnessed ill-informed antagonists citing only one version of a particular
story and prop it up as though it is the only version there ever was, and
thus in their mind anyone presenting an alternative version of the story
must be mistaken and repeating something that is false. The fact of the
matter is that the versions which will be presented in this book do exist
and are supported by primary source material and scholarly testimony,
and the existence of different versions does not negate the existence of
the ones that will be presented in support of the Perennial Gospel, nor
does it somehow invalidate them or make them non-canonical. Such
thinking is an anachronistic projection into the past, and such a
projection is unwarranted when dealing with the culture and mythology
of such a highly syncretistic population as that of the ancient
Mediterranean world. Differences and even logically irreconcilable
contradictions were not necessarily viewed as antithetical.
As historian Dr. Elizabeth Vandiver has stated in one of her lectures
on mythology:
First of all, lets think about literature. Even in as well
documented and well studied a society as classical Greece, the
written versions of myths involve several problems for a scholar of
myth. First of all, most obviously, written myths are frozen. By that
I mean that once a version of a myth is written down, its fixed,
there it is. And we, literate people, have a strong tendency to
assume that that means that version is somehow the myth, the real
myth, the only way the myth was ever told. But thats not how
traditional tales work, in any oral setting. If I asked every one of
you watching this lecture to tell me the story of Little Red Riding
Hood, I would get as many slightly different versions as there are
people watching this lecture. Thats how a living oral tradition
11
works. Once a story is written down, when our only access to it is
through writing, we tend to assume thats the real story.
I can give a clear example of what I mean by this. Everyone
knows the story of Oedipus the King, how he killed his father,
married his mother, without knowing who they were. When he
discovered the terrible thing that he had done, after his mother
hanged herself, Oedipus blinded himself, went into exile, never
returned home to Thebes again, right?
Well, right according to Sophocles, who wrote the play
Oedipus the King. In Homer, in The Odyssey, theres a very brief
reference to Oedipus which agrees that, yes, he killed his father
and married his mother. Yes, his mother killed herself after the
truth came out, but Oedipus, says Homer, continued to rule in
Thebes many years thereafter.
Which is the real version of the Oedipus myth?
They both are.
Sophocles version dominates our understanding of the myth
because it is such a marvelous play, and because its so famous.
And this is the kind of thing we have to guard against. Often we
have only one version of a myth. We have to remember there
probably were others.4
So ancient peoples (here specifically, the Greeks) apparently did not
have a dichotomy of either right or wrong when it came to variations in
mythology. Both versions of the Oedipus tale are considered the real
version. Thus it would be unjustified to prop up one version to the
exclusion of the other as though the other either did not exist or was
somehow invalid or does not count. Vandiver goes on to state:
Another problem is that only a fraction of ancient Greek
literature has survived. Most of what was written is now lost, and
often the things that survived do not tell us what we would
particularly like to know. They werent written for us, so they dont
give us the details that would be most helpful to us. One book we
will use a great deal in this course is called The Library of Greek
Mythology. It was written by a man named Apollodorus, about
whom we know absolutely nothing except that he wrote this book.
He lived in the first or second century AD, probably, and he
compiled brief summaries of all the myths he knew at a time when
4
Elizabeth Vandiver, Classical Mythology (Chantilly: The Teaching Company
LLC, 2000), Lecture 1. (Emph. added.)
12
some of those myths were starting to fragment or be forgotten. So
thats very useful for us. Well use Apollodorus as a sourcebook,
but even there we have to remember that hes giving usually only
one or at most two versions of myths, and that there may have been
myths he chose not to recount or didnt know, and there may have
been other versions of the ones he did recount. So much for
literature.
Later, Dr. Vandiver concludes:
So where does this leave us? Is this a hopeless endeavor?
Should we just give up at this point and say theres no way to study
classical mythology? Obviously, I dont think so, but I think we
need to bear these difficulties in mind as we start our survey of
classical mythology. We need to remember that we are studying
only particular variants of the myths. Sometimes we can reconstruct
a fairly full version of how the myth must have operated in its
original society when we have all sorts of variants to work from.
Other times we cant. Other times well have only one version of a
myth and no others. Some references remain tantalizingly obscure.
Sometimes we really just dont know what a characters name or
what a snippet of a story refers to.
Occasionally a work of art preserves what is clearly a very
different version from the only ones known to us by literature.
Theres a beautiful classical Greek painting, vase painting, of a
character who is quite clearly Jason, Jason who got the golden
fleece after his voyage on the Argo. The golden fleece is there on a
tree behind Jason; the tree is guarded by a dragon. All of these
elements point to the fact that this is very clearly Jason, and yet in
this painting the dragon is either swallowing Jason or spitting him
back out again. Jason is halfway out of the dragons mouth. His
arms and head are visible outside the dragons mouth.
In no written version of Jasons story that has survived for us
does the dragon eat Jason, or attempt to eat Jason. The whole point
is that Jason is helped by Medea, who gives him magic potion so
that he can overcome the dragon without being eaten. If this vase
painting had not survived, we would not know that there had ever
been a variant in which Jason was eaten by the dragon. Because we
have the painting, we know this variant existed, but thats all we
know about it. We have no written description of that version of
Jasons story.5
To make this point more relevant specifically to Gods chosen
people of Kemet, we have the following statements from Egyptologist
5
Ibid.
13
Dr. Joann Fletcher, in her book Exploring the Life, Myth, and Art of
Ancient Egypt:
Egyptian religion was highly complex and involved the
worship of the many gods and goddesses whose painted, incised,
and sculpted images can still be seen today adorning tombs and
temples and a great range of everyday artifacts. It was above all,
except during the Amarna period, a tolerant, all-encompassing
belief system, which was able to embrace apparently contradictory
myths and legends. Every story about the gods had its local
variations, but each was regarded as no less valid than the next.
Even such a fundamental myth as the story of the creation of the
world came in three strikingly differentbut equally accepted
versions.6
Further corroborating with that is the following from Egyptologist
Edmund S. Meltzer, in the entry for Horus in The Oxford Encyclopedia
of Ancient Egypt, Vol. 2:
The roles, local cult foundations, and titles or epithets of
Horus are sometimes correlated with distinct or preferred forms in
iconography: for example the falcon, the falcon-headed man, the
winged disk, and the child with a sidelock (sometimes in his
mothers arms). Egyptologists therefore often speak of distinct,
sometimes originally distinct, Horuses or Horus-gods.
Combinations, identifications, and differentiations were, however,
possible for Horus, and they are complimentary rather than
antithetical. A judicious examination of the various Horuses and
the sources relating to them supports the possibility that the roles in
question are closely interrelated, and so they may be understood as
different aspects, or facets, of the same divine persona.7
Dr. John G. Griffiths also comments:
The proliferation of Horus-forms, for instance, is a complexity
which arises, as far as cult is concerned, from the identification of
various falcon-gods with the original Horus-falcon who was
associated with the King.8
6
Joann Fletcher, Exploring the Life, Myth, and Art of Ancient Egypt, (New York:
The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc., 2010), 37.
7
Edmund S. Meltzer, Horus, in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, ed.
D.B. Redford, Vol. 2 (New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 2001), 119.
8
John G. Griffiths, The Origins of Osiris and His Cult (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1980), 17.
(Emph. added.)
14
As for the following final quotation concerning this point, it should
be noted that, due to the date of publication (1918), the book wherein it is
contained is now considered out-dated as far as academic value is
concerned. However, this specific quotation is being included here
because I think that it sums up this point the most explicitly. It is from
Dr. Wilhelm Max Mller, in the 12th volume of The Mythology of all
Races:
As for the kaleidoscopic character of the mythology, there
never was a rationalizing wish to change it. We children of an over-
rationalistic age too easily forget that most mythologies once had
this indistinctness of character and that to the ancient mind it was
not a disadvantage, but a beauty . In like manner the Egyptians,
proud of the wealth of fanciful variants which distinguished their
mythology above those of all the neighboring countries were careful
not to correct this mystic confusion , which we find so bewildering.
Even in Plutarchs systemizing account of the Osiris-myth we see
how seldom the necessity of harmonizing contradictory variants was
felt.9
So, to summarize again: scholars acknowledge that many variations
of myths exist, even some with logically irreconcilable contradictions,
yet no one particular variant was considered more canonical than the
others. The ancient Egyptians did not see this as a problem demanding a
resolution. It almost seems as though even back then they were aware on
some level, even if only subconsciously, of the principle of progressive
revelation. Thus they were open to receiving variants from other
locations which might contain certain truths that the traditions of their
own location did not, and vice-versa. Also, if even the Egyptians
themselves did not utilize only one variant exclusively and deny all of
the others, then it is wrong for anyone today to try and do so, as we see
many among the heathen attempt to do.
Although, I have witnessed some antagonistic heathen going to the
opposite extreme and accuse their opponents of taking advantage of the
availability of so many variations of certain myths, picking and choosing
from one or another as they please, in order to present a custom made
version of characters such as Horus or others. Yet, as Dr. Meltzer stated
9
W. Max Mller, Development and Propagation of Egyptian Religion, in The
Mythology of all Races Vol. XII, eds. L.H. Gray and G.F. Moore (Boston: Marshall
Jones Co., 1918), 216-17.
15
in the afore-cited quotation, the Egyptians themselves often took
originally distinct versions of Horus and subjected them to various
combinations and identifications. So actually, that is exactly what
they did; they picked and chose from different versions and combined
them to make new custom versions. Ancient peoples clearly had no
problem playing Mr. Potato Head with their gods and mythical figures.
For example, this is how gods such as the Hellenized Serapis evolved.
The Ptolemies, so the story goes10, essentially picked & chose aspects of
Egyptian gods such as Osirisas the Apis (Osorapis)11and Greek gods
such as Hades, et al., and combined them to form what can be considered
a new version of each.12 So while Serapis can be correctly said to be a
distinct god with his own cult, at the same time it is equally correct that
the people of the Hellenistic Era still identified Serapis with his original
source gods such as Osiris and Hades.13
Osiris has been given the name Sarapis by some and some
say that Sarapis is the god whom the Greeks call Pluto.
Diodorus of Sicily, Library of History 1.25.2 (1st cen. BCE.) 14
In fact, men assert that Pluto is none other than Serapis and
that Persephone is Isis, even as Archemachus of Euboea has said,
and also Heracleides Ponticus who hold the oracle in Canopus to
be an oracle of Pluto. It is better to identify Osiris with Dionysus
and Serapis with Osiris, who received this appellation at the time
when he changed his nature.
Plutarch, Moralia 361F, 362E (1st cen. CE15) 16
10
Stefan Pfeiffer, The God Serapis, His Cult and The Beginnings of the Ruler
Cult in Ptolemaic Egypt, in Ptolemy II Philadelphus and his World, eds. P.
McKechnie and P. Guillaume (Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV, 2008), 387-408.
11
Ibid. 389-90.
12
Ibid. 392-93, 407.
R. G. Morkot, The Egyptians: An Introduction (New York: Routledge, 2005), 55.
13
Pfeiffer (2008), 391-92.
14
Diodorus of Sicily, Library of History, in Diodorus Siculus: Library of History,
Books 1-2.34, trans. C.H. Oldfather (London: William Heinemann Ltd., and
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1933-67), 79.
15
Matthew Bunson, Encyclopedia of the Roman Empire, Revised Edition (New
York: Facts On File, Inc., 1994-2002), 437.
16
It is worth pointing out that Plutarch cited Archemachus and
Heraclides as his sources; the former being dated to 3rd cen. BCE, and the
latter being dated to the fourth. Therefore, even as early as the 4th cen.
BCE, Serapis was simultaneously distinct from, yet also identical with,
the source gods from which he was derived.17 Such is also the case for
Mercurius Ter Maximus, a very popular god during the Roman era who
was a combination of older gods such as Hermes, Asclepius, Thoth,
Anubis, etc.18 This is akin to how a certain popular shepherd god from
the Levant, henceforth referred to as The Good Shepherd,19 was
considered both a distinct entity and yet also the same entity as other
heathen deities of the Fertile Crescent such as Eloh, 20 Yaho,21 and
Elyon,22 or even Greek deities such as Logos23 and Zeus,24 etc.
David Furley, Cosmology, in The Cambridge History of Hellenistic Philosophy,

eds. K. Algra et al. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999-2002), 433.
Gary B. Miles, Livy: Reconstructing Early Rome (Ithaca: Cornell University Press,
1996), 105.
Beverley C. Southgate, History: What and Why? Ancient. Modern, and
Postmodern Perspectives (London: Routledge, 1996-2001), 40.
Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood, Textiles, in Ancient Egyptian Materials and
Technology, eds. P.T. Nicholson and I. Shaw (Cambridge: Cambridge Univesity
Press, 2000-06), 269.
16
Plutarch, Moralia, in Plutarchs Moralia: Volume V, trans. F.C. Babbitt,
(London: William Heinemann Ltd., and Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University
Press, 1936-62), 67. (Emphasis added.)
17
John E. Stambaugh, Sarapis Under the Early Ptolemies, (Leiden: E.J. Brill,
1972), 1, 4, 10, 29. 34.
18
Reginald E. Witt, Isis in the Ancient World (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins
University Press, 1971-97), 208.
19
Cf. Book of the Dead, Spell 142 S 2.
20
Recall The Good Shepherds famous cry to Eloh during his crucifixion- Eloh,
Eloh, lama sabachthani.
"I and my Father are one. ... Thou, being a man, makest thyself God."
"He that hath seen me hath seen the Father ... I am in the Father, and the
Father in me."
21
Yaho is my strength and song, and is become my salvation.
22
They remembered that Elyon was their redeemer.
23
In the beginning was Logos, and Logos was with God, and Logos was God.
And Logos was made flesh, and dwelt among us.
17
Thus Serapis stands as one of the more shining examples, among
many, which demonstrates this point that ancient peoples, especially the
Egyptians and Greeks, were known to select different aspects from
various myths & traditions and merge them to form new custom
versions. Like an all-you-can-eat buffet, everything on the table was
available for them to choose from, regardless of how many options there
were or how much those options differed from each other. Likewise,
such a buffet was also available for much later cultures to choose from to
form their own custom traditions as well, such as (just to throw out a
completely random example) the traditions revolving around The Good
Shepherd. Such a highly syncretistic environment was perfect for
allowing a natural flow of progressive revelation throughout the various
dispensations, which would ultimately lead to the realization of the
complete creed of the Perennial Gospel.
Concerning the Holy Scriptures of the Funerary Literature
The next preliminary concept necessary for understanding the nature

of some of the evidence that will be presented in this book concerns the
holy scriptures of the funerary literature as primary sources for ancient
Egyptian mythology, and especially for the mythology of the god Osiris.
In particular, the main three sources I will be drawing from most often
will be the big three, the three most famous collections within the
corpus of the funerary literature- and they are the Pyramid Texts, the
Coffin Texts, and the Book of the Dead.25
The Pyramid Texts date to the Old Kingdom, beginning in the latter
Fifth Dynasty with Pharaoh Unas, who reigned from around 2375-45
BCE26 (although some authorities place him at around 2353-23 BCE27).
24
For in him (Zeus) we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of
your own poets have said, For we are also his (Zeus) offspring.
25
A. Rosalie David, The Experience of Ancient Egypt (New York: Routledge,
2000), 43-44.
26
Lorna Oakes and Lucia Gahlin, Ancient Egypt: An Illustrated Reference to the
Myths, Religions, Pyramids and Temples of the Land of the Pharaohs (London:
Anness Publishing Ltd, 2002-05), 400.
18
They are the oldest extant religious writings from Ancient Egypt, and
interestingly enough, they are also the best preserved.28 The Pyramid
Texts were a series of magical spells, rituals, hymns, prayers, etc., that
were inscribed on the walls of the pyramids of some deceased kings
during the late Old Kingdom and on into the First Intermediate Period,
and their intended function was to ensure a kings bodily resurrection and
then his safe passage to the Egyptian netherworld.29
The purpose of these royal texts then was to guarantee the
deceased kings resurrection and new birth, his transfiguration and
divinity, his successful journey to heaven, and his immortality there
with other gods.
Dr. Samuel A.B. Mercer, The Pyramid Texts in Translation and
Commentary, Vol. 1 30
While they are relatively complex, the primary mechanism by which
the texts were thought to achieve their purpose was that of identification
of the deceased king with the god Osiris. By becoming one with Osiris,
the kings were then believed to have shared in Osiris power.
The first, the Pyramid Texts, are texts found inscribed on the
walls of pyramids from the Old Kingdom (2686-2125 BCE). The
inscriptions include instructions to guide the dead king to the
afterlife, and magic spells to assist and protect him. In the afterlife
the king will share the role of Osiris , who ruled over the kingdom
of the dead.
Dr. Glenn S. Holland, Gods in the Desert: Religions of the
Ancient Near East 31
27
James P. Allen, The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts (Atlanta: Society of
Biblical Literature, 2005), 15.
28
Raymond O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts (London: Oxford
University Press, 1969), v.
29
A. Rosalie David, The Ancient Egyptians: Beliefs and Practices (Brighton:
Sussex Academic Press, 1998), 106-07.
A. Rosalie David, Pyramid Builders of Ancient Egypt: A Modern Investigation of
Pharaohs Workforce (London: Routledge, 1986-96), 33-34.
Bob Brier and A. Hoyt Hobbs, Daily Life of the Ancient Egyptians (Westport:
Greenwood Press, 2008), 45.
Morkot (1989-2005), 139.
30
Samuel A.B. Mercer, The Pyramid Texts in Translation and Commentary, Vol.
1 (New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1952), 3.
19
First, since the deceased had become one with Osiris, he or
she would have some of the power of the gods.
Patricia Remler,32 Egyptian Mythology: A to Z 33
In the Pyramid Texts, the dead king is frequently identified
with Osiris or his stellar counterpart, Sah (Orion).
Dr. Geraldine Pinch, Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the
Gods, Goddesses, and Traditions of Ancient Egypt 34
In the latter part of the Old Kingdom the deceased king
became identified with Osiris, a god of the dead standing in a
special relationship to the kingship.
Dr. Barry J. Kemp, in Ancient Egypt: A Social History 35
The king identified himself at death with Osiris , and his heir
became Horus, the son and avenger of Osiris.
Dr. Ann Rosalie David, The Ancient Egyptians: Beliefs and
Practices 36
Each successive pharaoh was Horus in life and became one
with Osiris in death.
Dr. Walter M. Ellis, Ptolemy of Egypt 37
The ideology of kingship not only encompasses the world of
the living but also gives the king a critical function beyond the
grave: the living king is the embodiment of Horus and rules the
living; the deceased king is Osiris, king of the dead .
Dr. Ian Shaw, The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt 38
31
Glenn S. Holland, Gods in the Desert: Religions of the Ancient Near East
(Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2009), 66. (Emph. added.)
32
Far Horizons Archaeological and Cultural Trips Inc., Our Scholars,
http://www.farhorizons.com/scholars/bob-brier.php (accessed April 17, 2013).
33
Patricia Remler, Egyptian Mythology: A to Z (New York: Chelsea House, 2000-
10), 109. (Emph. added.)
34
Geraldine Pinch, Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Goddesses, and
Traditions of Ancient Egypt (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002-04), 178.
(Emph. added.)
35
Barry J. Kemp, Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate
Period c. 2686-1552 BC, in Ancient Egypt: A Social History, eds. B.G. Trigger et
al., (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983-2001), 72. (Emph. added.)
36
David (1998), 76. (Emph. added.)
37
Walter M. Ellis, Ptolemy of Egypt (London: Routledge, 1994-2005), 28. (Emph.
added.)
20
His renewed life is indeed the theme of numerous allusions,
and they are often related to the dead King who assumes the
blessings experienced by Osiris through direct identification with
the god. ... Osiris was certainly identified with the dead Pharaoh ...
That idea is most effectively explained by seeing him as a king of
the dead with whom the dead Pharaoh was equated.
Dr. John G. Griffiths, The Origins of Osiris and His Cult 39
An interchange of purely Osirian and general funerary usage
is, at the same time, natural, since the deceased was identified with
Osiris.
Dr. John G. Griffiths, Apuleius of Madauron: The Isis-Book
(Metamorphosis, Book XI) 40
The identification of the dead with Osiris even goes so far that
finally the name of the God becomes a common indication, a title
of each person deceased. 'Osiris N.N.' is the deceased who
possesses the power of resurrection which Osiris has. The mystery
of eternal life is identical for men and gods in every respect.
Dr. Jan Zandee, Death as an Enemy: According to Ancient
Egyptian Conceptions 41
Now to bring this point back around specifically to the holy
scriptures of the funerary literature such as the Pyramid Texts, Dr.
Harold M. Hays writes:
There is no doubt but that, in the Old and Middle Kingdoms,
the dead expected to assume the role of Osiris . This is clear from
sacerdotal and personal texts alike, in both Pyramid and Coffin
Texts, where the text owner is several times identified as this god by
statements of a predicative kind. The predicative statements are not
susceptible to reinterpretation of ambiguous grammatical syntax.
(And, conversely, there are no statements to corroborate a genitival
interpretation, nor would there be for another twelve centuries.) In
38
Ian Shaw, The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2000-03), 371. (Emph. added.)
39
Griffiths (1980), 2, 4.
40
John G. Griffiths, Apuleius of Madauron: The Isis-Book (Metamorphosis, Book
XI) (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1975), 316-17.
41
Jan Zandee, Death as an Enemy: According to Ancient Egyptian Conceptions,
trans. W.F. Klasens (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1960), 7.
21
short, the predicative statements, along with other details, indicate
that the formula was appositival at its advent .42
As stated previously, having become one with Osiris, the dead
acquired the divine powers of the god as well. This would, by default,
include the power to resurrect the flesh, since Osiris, as the first to bodily
return from the dead, was the primary god of resurrection and afterlife.
Therefore, like Osiris, these deceased kings also rose from the dead and
were raptured away to Osiris kingdom where they live & reign with him
for all of eternity. This was accomplished by placing the deceased in the
role of Osiris and then reciting & re-enacting the myths of Osiris
vicariously.
In his essay Saviour and Judge: Two Examples of Divine
Ambivalence, religious scholar Reverend Samuel G.F. Brandon
explained:
We shall begin our enquiry by investigating the Egyptian
evidence, which incidentally comprises some of the earliest
religious texts that have been preserved to our time. These are the
Pyramid Texts, which were inscribed on the interior walls of the
pyramid-tombs of certain pharaohs of the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties
(c. 2425-2300 B.C.), for the purpose of facilitating the passage of
the dead kings to the next world. In these texts Osiris appears as
the focal figure in a complex mortuary ritual designed to save the
deceased from the physical disintegration of death and to raise
them to a new life. This salvation was achieved by a technique of
ritual assimilation whereby the dead kings were identified with
Osiris in terms of a mythos which told of the death and
resurrection of Osiris at some undefined time in the past. The
origin of this mythos has been the subject of much scholarly
discussion, which is likely to remain inconclusive in view of the
nature of the extant evidence. But what is certain is that Osiris was
believed to provide, by virtue of his own resurrection, the means or
opportunity for others to obtain immunity from the dread
consequences of death and enjoy immortal life. In this ritual
process of vicarious salvation Osiris appears to play a passive role.43
42
Harold M. Hays, The Organization of the Pyramid Texts: Typology and
Disposition, Vol. 1 (Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV, 2012), 168. (Emph. added.)
43
Samuel G.F. Brandon, Saviour and Judge: Two Examples of Divine
Ambivalence, Liber Amicorum: Studies in Honour of Professor Dr. C.J. Bleeker,
ed. C.J. Bleeker (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1969), 44-45. (Emph. added.)
22
Elsewhere, the late professor stated:
This ritual technique of salvation was an amalgam of two
processes: a process of chemical embalmment designed to prevent
or arrest the physical decomposition of the corpse; and a ritual
process based on the principle of sympathetic magic , reinforced by
invocations for divine assistance. The rationale of this complex of
practical and ritual action was the mythos of Osiris, which both
authorized and explained the faith and practice involved.44
Further down, Brandon continued:
Further on in the liturgy, although he remains a passive agent
in the achievement of the pharaohs resurrection, Osiris is
requested to direct his attention to Unasthe request appears as a
kind of afterthought, suddenly felt to be necessary since Osiris,
though passive, is the pivotal agent of the transaction . Then, as if to
leave nothing uncertain, Osiris is reminded of the implication of
the assimilation of the dead Unas to himself:
In the royal mortuary ritual, preserved on the Pyramid Texts,
Osiris thus appears as the focal figure in a soteriological scheme
calculated to save the dead king from the consequences of death,
and to endow him with immortality. Osiris may, accordingly, be
described as a passive Saviour. His death and resurrection invested
him, as it were, with the power to communicate a like resurrection
to one ritually assimilated to him.
Osiris gradually became the savior of all who could afford to
be buried with at least the minimum requirements of the Osirian
obsequies. The original pattern of ritual assimilation of the
deceased to Osiris continued, becoming so fundamental a concept
that in the funerary literature the dead person was automatically
designated Osiris so-and-so.
In the extant literature Osiris appears suddenly to acquire the
role of the awful post-mortem judge, and he exercises it while still
remaining the savior he had originally been, through assimilation
with whom the dead are resurrected to a new eternal life.
There are no references to Osiris as the post-mortem judge;
but in the Pyramid Texts he does appear to play the passive role of
the prototype of the innocent one, unjustly accused, who is
vindicated after death by a divine tribunal, after the manner of his
passive role of prototype of the resurrected dead. Once more the
rationale is provided by the Osirian mythos.45
44
Ibid. 46. (Emph. added.)
45
Ibid. 46-49. (Emph. added.)
23
In a separate essay, Brandon again reiterated the point:
As we have already noted, the salvation which Osiris afforded
to his devotees was salvation from death and its consequences , and
this situation has to be taken quite literally. As the mythos of Osiris
told how the physical decomposition of his corpse had been
reversed and he had been revivified physically, so was a like
restoration looked for by his devotees. This restoration, in a
practical manner, was achieved by the Egyptian ritual of
embalmment. The ritual was patterned upon what was believed to
have been done originally by Isis and Nephthys and other deities
such as Anubis and Horus, for Osiris, in order to preserve his body
and raise him from the dead. In fact, the whole mortuary ritual was
presented as a re-enactment of the transactions that secured the
resurrection of Osiris, and in this re-enactment the deceased was
ritually identified with, or assimilated to, Osiris . In other words, the
principle of the Osirian ritual technique of salvation was that of
sympathetic magic.
How far any doctrine of intention was involved here, either on
the part of the dead or of the officiant of the rite is unknown. It is
more likely that the efficacy of the ritual was imagined, in so far as
there was conscious thinking about the matter, as functioning ex
opera operato, i.e. by virtue of its actual performance. However,
since reference is continually made to Osiris, and either he, or
Atum-Re, or other deities are invoked in the utterances, we may
safely conclude that the Egyptians believed that the saving efficacy
of this Osirian mortuary ritual ultimately stemmed from the divine
savior himself, whose primordial experience made such salvation
possible.46
To return again to Mercer concerning the Pyramid Texts:
And while there are clearly three outstanding elements in
them, namely, solar theology, religion and myths of Osiris, and the
political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt, yet the following
seven points may be taken to represent the whole collection with
fair general accuracy: 1) A funerary ritual of mortuary offerings,
connected with the corporeal reconstitution and resurrection of the
deceased king, 2) Magical formulae to ward against harm and evil,
3) A ritual of worship, 4) religious hymns, 5) Mythical formulae,
identifying the deceased king with certain deities , 6) Prayers and
46
Samuel G.F. Brandon, Redemption in Ancient Egypt, in Types of
Redemption: Contributions to the Theme of the Study-Conference held at
Jerusalem, 14th to 19th July, 1968, ed. C.J. Bleeker and R.J.Z. Werblowsky
(Supplements to Numen 18; Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1970), 39. (Emph. added.)
24
petitions on behalf of the deceased king, and 7) The greatness and
power of the deceased king in heaven.47
So the point is madein these funerary texts, the deceased is ritually
identified with Osiris by vicariously fulfilling the role of Osiris in
retelling and re-enacting the myths of Osiris, and hence, these texts do
indeed serve as primary sources for the mythology of Osiris. As in the
previous comment by Rev. Brandon, this was part of the principle of
sympathetic magic. Egyptologist Dr. Bob Brier elaborates:
This was sympathetic magic in which the deceased was
associated with Osiris. By sympathetic magic, the figure took the
place of the person it represented.48
Magic is an important key to properly understanding the nature of
Egyptian resurrection as well as the nature of the gods. It will come up
again later throughout this book. One of the primary components by
which magic operated in ancient Egyptian culture was via the spoken
word. As Brier also points out:
Three elements are essential to the magical act: the spell, the
ritual, and the magician. The spell is what must be said for the act
to have its desired effect. It may be crucial that the words be uttered
properly, with a certain intonation. To the ancient Egyptian, words
were extremely powerful: The word was the deed; saying
something was so made it so.49
Elsewhere he wrote:
Our earliest known writings about resurrection were found on
the walls of the royal pyramid of Unas, the last king of the Fifth
Dynasty, and include hundreds of magical inscriptions in vertical
lines running from ceiling to floor. These hieroglyphic
utterances, referred to as the Pyramid Texts, detail the three
stages of a pharaohs transition to the next world: The principle
behind all the spells is the same: the word is deed. Saying
something, or having it inscribed on a pyramid wall, made it so. 50
Dr. Robert. K. Ritner likewise affirms:
47
Mercer (1952), 2. (Emph. added.)
48
Bob Brier, Ancient Egyptian Magic (New York: Quill, 1980-2001), 86, 169.
49
50
Brier and Hobbs (2008), 42.
25
In the Metternich Stela, Isis conjoins the terms in what may
allude to the best explanation of their ultimate relationship:
ink As.t ntr.t nb(.t) HkAir HkA Ax Dd mnx mdw
I am Isis the goddess, the possessor of magic, who performs
magic, effective of speech, excellent of words.
Expressing the notion of effectiveness, Ax serves as an
attribute of magical speech; as the noun Axw, it embodies that
attribute in a literary synonym for the basic term HkA. The quality of
effectiveness is thus seen as fundamental to magic, and the
equation is often emphasized by textual statements that spells,
amulets, and rites are Ax-effective for the one who does them.
MAGIC AS SPEECH, PROPERTY, AND RITE
The preceding statement of Isis is also of value for its clear
declaration of the tripartite nature of magic, being viewed as an
inherent quality or property to be possessed, an activity or rite to
be performed, and as words or spells to be spoken.
Interestingly, to each of these aspects corresponds an element in
the Egyptian creation myths: the spoken evocation of the cosmos,
the physical separation of heaven and earth, and the origin of man
as the tears of the sun god. The intrinsic association of magic and
word is noted above, and lies at the heart of modern Egyptologys
obsession with the spell as the sine qua non of magic. This almost
exclusive interest in the spoken and written spell is quite
understandable in view of the many Egyptian statements which also
stress this aspect of HkA.51
To include a primary source, there is Coffin Text Spell 298 IV, 51:
A god says what he desires, and coming into being is brought about by
it.52 So in ancient Egypt, saying that something was so made it so. In
other words, the gods and magicians could calleth those things which be
not as though they were, even to the point of quickening the dead.
Hence the declarations repeated throughout the funerary texts such as
Rise up, O King, for you have not died.53 Verbally denying death
rebuked death and thus made the king alive again, just like Osiris. And
therefore one can see now why the procedure was necessary, within these
51
Robert K. Ritner, Mechanics of Ancient Egyptian Magical Practice (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1993-2008), 34-35.
52
Raymond O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts, Vol. I (Warminster:
Aris & Phillips, Ltd, 1973), 221. (Emph. added.)
53
Faulkner (1969), 124 (Utt. 373 657).
26
funerary spells & rituals, to repeat the mythological narratives of Osiris
with the deceased in the place of Osiris. Verbally calling the deceased
Osiris is what made it so and therefore passed on the attributes of
Osiris onto the deceased, the most important of which were bodily
resurrection and eternal life.
Explaining all of this is necessary in order to avoid confusion when
citing these funerary texts as primary sources for the mythology of
Osiris. For, no doubt, some people who read this book will wish to check
the references, such as the Pyramid Texts, for example. When doing so,
if some should end up using a version such as that of James P. Allen
(which retains the names of the deceased), they will find that for some of
the utterances cited the fuller context uses the name Unas, or Pepi, or
Teti, etc., instead of just explicitly Osiris. Therefore, no doubt, such
readers might become confused and perhaps even claim that such a
passage is not about Osiris and thus is being misquoted and cannot be
used as a source for the Osirian mythos. However, the scholarly citations
already given h previously have demonstrated beyond dispute that in
such passages the deceased is being used in the place of Osiris in order to
gain his power. Although, even without such scholarly explanations,
simply reading the texts from beginning to end will make it abundantly
clear that such is the case, for many of the attributes mentioned in such
passages are attributes primarily, or even exclusively, identified with
Osiris himself. Such texts include those which refer to the deceased in
the following ways (as per Dr. R.O. Faulkner,54 emphasis added):
as the brother of Isis and Nephthys,
O King, I have given to you your sister Isis, P.T. Utterance 4,
O King, I have given to you your sister Nephthys, Utt. 5;
as the father of Horus,
O King, I am your son, I am Horus, Utt. 106 69;
as the firstborn son of Nut,
The King is my eldest son who split open my womb,
Utt. 1 1;
as rent to pieces by Seth,
O King, Isis has reassembled you, it is Horus who will
make good what Seth has done to you, Utt. 357 590, 592;
54
Faulkner (1969).
27
or as the king of the netherworld,
May you arise, O King, protected and provided as a god,
equipped with the form of Osiris upon the throne of the
Foremost of the Westerners (the Egyptians having believed that
the primary entrance to the netherworld was in the West where
the sun set), Utt. 421 759.
Moreover, if one simply reads all of the texts, one will inevitably
come across the passages (and notes, etc.) in which the deceased is
explicitly identified as Osiris himself (also per Faulkner, emphasis
added):
The King is Osiris in a dust-devil, Utt. 258 308,
Utt. 259 312;
This King is Osiris, whom [Nut] bore, Utt. 650 1833;
Behold, the King is at the head of the gods and is provided as a
god, his bones are knit together as Osiris, Utt. 687 2076-77;
The king as Osiris is adjured to join his son and protector
Horus, Utt. 214, n.3;
The king takes over the role of Osiris as king of the dead, Utt.
218, n.5;
The king is identified with Osiris, Utt. 219, title;
Osiris and the king are associated, Utt. 577, title;
Osiris=the King, Osiris=the dead king, Utt. 670, n.13, n.21.
The same can also be seen in the Coffin Texts of the Middle
Kingdom, which descend from the Pyramid Texts,55 as well as in The
Book of the Dead of the New Kingdom, which descends from both.56
One brief example being Coffin Text Spell 227:
BECOMING THE COUNTERPART OF OSIRIS. I indeed
am Osiris, I indeed am the Lord of All, I am the Radiant One, the
brother of the Radiant Lady; I am Osiris, the brother of Isis. My
son Horus and his mother Isis have protected me from that foe
who would harm me; they have put cords on his arms and fetters
55
Oakes (2002-05), 402.
56
Ibid. 404.
28
on his thighs because of what he has done to me. I indeed am
Osiris.57
Dr. Thomas G. Allen states the following in regards to the Book of
the Dead:
To insure application to the person for whom it was intended,
each spell had to contain the beneficiarys name. This was usually
preceded by Osiris, the name of the god of the dead with whom
the deceased person had already tended to become identified in
the Coffin Texts. The beneficiary was usually further defined by
parentage, titles, or both.58
Therefore, one should not become confused by references to the
deceased within these scriptures. This does not detract from the fact that
they do indeed tell the tales of Osiris. However, readers shouldnt let this
fact convolute their understanding into yet more confusion when they
encounter passages that refer to the deceased as still distinct from Osiris.
This likewise does not detract from the fact that the deceased is playing
the role of Osiris in these texts. Dr. Hays clarifies:
But above all the text owner is identified as the god Osiris . It is
important to consider their relationship because, as has been
indicated, some sacerdotal texts in their prior forms were personal
services to a deity, composed so as to be performed by the text
owner. Thus in some texts the text owner is found as Osiris , and in
others one may expect him to interact with Osiris as an entity
separate from him, as was also seen in the Book of the Dead.
Alongside the statements of identity and the appositival
formula Osiris NN, in the Pyramid Texts the name wsir Osiris
often stands as an entity separate from the text owner. The tension
between identity and distinction created a fluid situation,
contributing to the role transplantation of PT 477 discussed above.
It was mentioned that there are other texts exhibiting this kind of
transformation, where the text owner as officiant is moved into the
role of Osiris as beneficiary.59
So the places where the two are distinct pose no problem
whatsoever, and are still fluid with the nature of the texts. This is one
57
Faulkner (1973), 179.
58
Thomas G. Allen, The Book of the Dead or Going Forth by Day (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1974), 3.
59
Hays (2012), 167-68. (Emph. added.)
29
reason why I will be primarily using Raymond Faulkners English
translation of the Pyramid Texts, as opposed to Samuel Mercers or
James P. Allens translations. Faulkners is more recent than Mercers,
and Mercer uses a more archaic style of English. As for Allens, while
the most recent English translation, his layout is personally less
appealing and reader friendly than Faulkners. Allen presents his texts
king by king, and he preserves the names of the kings, and thus is often
very redundant. Whereas Faulkner refers to the deceased by the generic
term King, and presents the texts in a structure that reads much more
like one consistent narrative, one in which Osiris is the protagonist.
Faulkner admitted in his preface that this was part of his intention with
his layout:
The cartouches of the royal dead have been rendered simply
as King or the King; to write King W.T.M.N and the like is ugly
and clumsy, while King X is not much better. Confining myself to
the simple title has the advantage of stressing the fact that these
texts have in origin no personal application to one particular king,
but are chosen out of an existing corpus. In arranging the
translation I have not split it up into short sentences corresponding
to the numbered sections of Sethes text as did Sethe himself and
Mercer; I have reproduced the prose passages in a continuous text
and have confined short lines to poetical texts and litanies, the
section numbers being noted in the margin in all cases. My hope is
that this procedure will not only make the translation easier to read
but will also give some notion of the literary character of a text.60
Furthermore, Allen translates certain words that traditionally are only
transliterated, and vice-versa. For example, in texts using the name of the
sun god Re, Allen translates every instance as the Sun. Therefore, if
one were to do a word search in his translation for texts concerning Re,
the search will yield zero results, which from personal experience can be
said to quickly become very frustrating.
Also, at the time of the writing of this book, Allens translation was
still relatively new (2005), and thus Faulkners translation is still the one
(of these three) most often cited in English-written scholarship of the last
quarter to half century, and it is the one that is personally most familiar.
All around, it is simply more convenient at this current time to use
Faulkners translation. This book will also be using Faulkners
60
Faulkner (1969), vii.
30
translation of the Coffin Texts as well, and the reason is obvious, because
it is the only complete English translation currently available.
As for the Book of the Dead, I will be breaking form and will be
using Thomas George Allens The Book of the Dead or Going Forth by
Day, as opposed to Faulkners translation. Not only is this volume by
T.G. Allen more recent (albeit only slightly), but it is far more complete,
including several spells that are not found in Faulkners version. Plus I
have also encountered several statements by scholars which prefer T.G.
Allens over Faulkners, such as Dr. Edmund S. Meltzer61 or Carleton T.
Hodge.62
That aside, another potential point of confusion that should be
addressed is a particular power possessed by the gods, including Osiris
and the deceased who emulate him, and that is their power to shape-shift.
Renowned Egyptologist Erik Hornung explains:
In addition, transformation spells (inter alia, spells 268-
295) dealt with the deceased kings ascent to the sky in the
desirable form of a bird but also served to transform the deceased
into various deities (spell 290: into every god into which one might
desire to transform); into fire, air, or grain; or into a child or
crocodile. Indeed, in this period, the most popular amulet was the
scarab beetle, the hieroglyphic symbol for transformation.
spells 76-88, which serve to transform the deceased into various
forms, such as a falcon (77-78), the god Atum (79) or the god Ptah
(82), a lotus blossom (81), a benu-heron (83), the ba (soul) of Re
(85), a swallow (86), a serpent (87), and a crocodile (88). 63
Returning again to Dr. Brier:
One of the puzzling sections in the Book of the Dead deals
with magical transformation. This section consists of about a dozen
magical spells that, if recited, will cause the deceased to change into
various gods, animals, plants, or other animate things. All the spells
have the same basic format. The deceased is told to say that he is
the god, animal, or plant he desires to be, and then he lists the
61
Edmund Meltzer, Book of the Dead: Faulkner vs. Budge, Glyphdoctors (May
1, 2005), http://www.glyphdoctors.com/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=71#p306.
62
Calvin W. Schwabe, Joyce Adams and Carleton T. Hodge, Egyptian Beliefs
about the Bulls Spine: An Anatomical Origin for Ankh, Anatomical Linguistics
24, no. 4 (1982): 447.
63
Erik Hornung, The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife, trans. D. Lorton
(Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999), 9, 19.
31
attributes he especially wishes to have. For example, if the deceased
wants to be Sobek, the crocodile god, he says:
I am the crocodile who is terrifying. I am the crocodile god. I
bring destruction. I am the great fish in Qemay. I am the lord of
homage in Sekhem; lord of homage in Sekhem.
In all these spells, the basic principle is that the word is the
deed. Saying it makes it so. What is curious in this particular group
of spells is that the deceased should want to be all of these things.
His prime concern is immortality. While being terrifying as a
crocodile might help him survive the rigors of entering the
netherworld, one of the spells is for transformation into a lotus
flower, and how this could help is difficult to see. The only possible
explanation lies in the property associated with being a lotus in the
spell. Since the lotus was a sign of purity, perhaps this would help
the deceased pass the test in the Hall of the Double Truth.64
There is also the following from Dr. A. Jeffrey Spencer:
There are also a large number of transformation spells by
which the deceased could assume the form of various divinities or
animals. Spell 290 contains the ultimate assurance in this respect,
for it concludes with the words: The man shall be transformed into
any god the man may wish to be transformed into.65
So the gods, including Osiris, as well as the divinized deceased who
are identified with him, can transform themselves into any form
whatsoever that they desire. That form can be any animal or plant,66 and
inanimate objects such as stars,67 water, or even the intangible subtle
elements.68 This also included the power to shape-shift into the form of
any god that they desired to. As indicated by Brier above, changing into
these various forms was in order to gain a particular power or quality of
that form, such as changing into a bird to gain the power of flight. And
64
Brier (1980-2001), 139-40.
65
A. Jeffrey Spencer, Death in Ancient Egypt (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books,
1982), 142.
66
T.G. Allen (1974), Spell 20 T1, 86 b T, 99 c S3 & T, 142 P1, Pleyte 166 S3.
67
Faulkner (1969), Utt. 215, 216, 248, 265 357, 269 380, 302, 320, 328, 412
723 732, 432, 437 802 805, 441 818, 442, 461, 464, 466, 467 889, 473
930, 474 940, 480 998 n.5, 481 1000-01, 503 1080, 509 1123, 515
1182, 519 1207 1216, 520 1223, 536 1295, 537 1301, 554, 570 1454-
58, 571, 609 1707, 624 1760, 676 2014, 739.
68
For water (Nile), see Faulkner (1973), CT Spell 317; for fire, see Spell 284; for
air, see Spell 223 n.1 and Spell 288.
32
so, taking on the form of a god gives the shape-shifter the power of that
god. As Coffin Text Spell 30: I, 86-88 affirms: when they see N69
proceeding peacefully on the beautiful paths of the West in his god-like
shape,70 having acquired all powers when the great ones who preside
over the horizon spoke to him.71 For instance, in the example Brier
quoted above, the deceased can change into the form of the god Sobek,
and according to Coffin Text Spell 285, since he is lord of the waterway,
becoming Sobek gives the shape-shifter power over the waters of Egypt:
BECOMING SOBK, LORD OF THE WINDING
WATERWAY. I am the throwstick of the fen, I traverse the lakes,
I am alert when I traverse the shores, There have been given to
me the northern swamp-lands for my waterside settlements the
Xdw-fish which are in the water protect me, I am he who
emerges, the Lord of water.72
Or as Spells 75-83 indicate, one could shape-shift into the form of
Shu, god of the air, in order to gain his power to control the wind:
SPELL FOR THE [BA] OF SHU AND FOR BECOMING
SHU. I am merged in the god, I have become he. I am he who
calmed the sky for himself, I am Shu, Come joyfully at
meeting the god in me, for I am Shu whom Atum fashioned, and
this garment of mine is the air of life . A cry for me went forth(?)6
from the mouth of Atum, the air opened up upon my ways. THAT
A MAN MAY HAVE POWER OVER THE WINDS OF
HEAVEN.73
Throughout Egyptian history we find a common practice of
persons identifying themselves with other beings as a way of taking
on the desired qualities of those beings. For example, if one were
bitten by a snake, one might invoke a spell that insists that the
person bitten by the snake has become Horus. This identification
is valuable since Horus was believed to have survived a poisonous
snake bite. By becoming Horus, a person hoped to take on his
ability to survive what is normally a deadly experience. This
tendency toward identifying oneself with the preternatural is
69
A generic term for the coffin owner who has been identified with Osiris, see
Faulkner (1973), NOTES TO READERS.
70
Ibid. 19 n.7. (Emph. added.)
71
72
Faulkner (1973), 213. (Emph. added.)
73
33
expressed in desires to be identified with both divine and famous
figures.
Dr. Kerry Muhlestein, Journal of the Book of Mormon 74
Therefore, in order to gain various powers, gods can sometimes take
on the forms of other gods, such as in Spell 333, where the bA of Shu
shape-shifts into Re, and Re does vice-versa.75 This is important to
understand, so that one will not get confused when one is told that the
deceased is Osiris, and yet comes across passages where the deceased is
also referred to with the names or attributes of other gods. For example,
Pyramid Text Utterance 650 identified the king as Osiris, yet also called
him Anubis, and Utt. 734 described the king as having the face of a
canine like Wepwawet.76 This is merely shape-shifting, e.g. Book of the
Dead Spell 179 a S: (I take) the Form (of Anubis).77 Dr. Rune Nyord
remarks:
3.3.3. Identifications of the face of the deceased
In a manner similar to the ideas discussed in the previous
section, a large number of examples are found where the face of
the deceased is identified with (that of) various other beings. In
transformation spells, the status of the face of the deceased is
sometimes stressed, so that when becoming Shu, the face of the
speaker is identified with HD-wrt var. mHt-wrt. In a Sobek spell, the
face is that of a crocodile, and in a spell for transformation to a
falcon, the face is accordingly said to be knit on as (that of) a
falcon. Other divine identifications of the face of the deceased
include Re-Atum, Nun, the unique akh with centipede-face,
74
Kerry Muhlestein, The Religious and Cultural Background of Joseph Smith
Papyrus I, in Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration Scripture
22, no. 1 (2013): 24.
75
Ibid. 257.
76
Faulkner (1969), 268, 314. These might also be references to the usage of a
jackal-shaped mask, perhaps to aid in the spell. See Terence DuQuesne, The
Egyptian Attitude to Animals, in Anubis, Upwawet, and Other Deities: Personal
Worship and Official Religion in Ancient Egypt, eds. W. El Sadeek and S.A. Razek
(Cairo: Supreme Council of Antiquities Press, 2007), 12, 14.
77
T.G. Allen (1974), 190. (Emph. added.)
34
Khensut, Wepwawet, Horus the Elder, Re, Sakhmet, the Great
One, and Horus.78
So referring back to the canine form mentioned above, this
corroborates with what Diodorus of Sicily wrote in his Library, 1.88.6:
Osiris came from Hades to help his son and his wife, having
taken on the guise of a wolf; and so, upon the death of Typhon, his
conquerors commanded men to honour the animal upon whose
appearance victory followed.79
Dr. Griffiths also adds:
There is some tangible evidence that Osiris too, in his
Abydene form, was theriomorphic and was imagined as a jackal. In
a spell addressed to the deceased King, found only in the pyramid
of Neferkare, occur these words:
[Hail, O King], equipped as a god, thy face is (that of) a
jackal, like Osiris; this ba which is in Nedyet, he is the
power who is in the Great City. (Pyr. 2108a-b. N.)
Hence must mean thy face is (that of) a jackal, like Osiris,
implying that the King has become identified with Osiris and so
now possesses the gods jackal-face. Professor L. Kkosy calls my
attention to the representation of Osiris as a jackal in the temple of
Hibis: see Norman de Garis Davies, The Temple of Hibis in el
Khrgeh Oasis, III. The Decoration (New York, 1953), pl. 4, reg.
5. There is indubitably an Osiris in the form of a jackal. 80
So these descriptions of Osiris and the deceased as having attributes
of other gods in no way detract from the fact that here the deceased is
Osiris, and that these texts are relaying the mythology of Osiris. As
Osiris, the deceased likewise has that gods power of shape-shifting. Its
as simple as that. Osiris still remains the primary identification for the
deceased and thus remains the primary protagonist. Returning to
Griffiths, he wrote:
Since the name of Osiris is the only name joined with that of
the deceased King in the Pyramid Texts to imply identification or
close association, he is the funerary god par excellence in these
texts. ... The identification with Osiris stands out . Its thoroughness
78
Rune Nyord, Breathing Flesh: Conceptions of the Body in the Ancient Egyptian
Coffin Texts (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2009), 169.
79
Diodorus of Sicily, in OIdfather (1933-67), 303. (Emph. added.)
80
Griffiths (1980), 143-46.
35
contrasts with the many other identifications made, and three ways
of establishing it are followed. The Kings actions are said to be like
those of Osiris; and in all religions the power of ergon is stronger
than that of logos.81
With all of those preliminary points having been addressed in this
introduction, it is now possible to move on to the creed of the Perennial
Gospel itself.
81
Ibid. 44, 218. (Emph. added.)
36
Chapter One
I believe in God,
The Father Almighty,
Creator of Heaven and Earth
Who is God?
From the earliest ages of recorded history on down to our own time,
if mankind has been able to seemingly agree on at least one thing,
regardless of differences in language, culture, race, or environment, etc.,
that one thing, that one axiomatic universal truth, is that there is a God.
The specific characteristics of this God have certainly been subject to
countless different interpretations throughout the ages. However, it
would appear that the most consistently recurring theme concerning
interpretation of the divine is that there is at least one God that is the
progenitor of all that exists.
For the chosen people of the Holy Land of Kemet, from at least the
New Kingdom onward, this God was understood to be the unseen,
hidden force that is transcendent and yet animates the entire universe. In
effect, one might say of Him that verily thou art a hidden God, the God
of Kemet, and that He is before all things, and by Him all things consist
and are held together, that He is the King eternal, immortal, invisible,
the wise God to whom be honor and glory forever and ever, Amen. And
such is His name, Amen, an Egyptian word meaning hidden.
Such is affirmed by the famous Egyptian priest of the 3rd century
BCE,82 Manetho in regards to this name:
But Manetho of Sebennytus thinks that the meaning
concealed or concealment lies in this word.
Plutarch, Moralia 354E-D 83
82
Gerald P. Verbrugghe and John M. Wickersham, Berossos and Manetho:
Native Traditions in Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt (Ann Arbor: The
University of Michigan Press, 1996-2003), 96.
83
Plutarch, in Babbitt (1936-62), 25.
37
The name Amen, meaning hiddeness, indicated the
unknowable essence of the god, whose power and authority were
far beyond human understanding.
Dr. Glenn Holland, Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean
World 84
Thebes celebrated a different major godAmun, the Hidden
Onewith powers so great he could not be visualized.
Dr. Bob Brier and Dr. A. Hoyt Hobbs, Daily Life of the
Ancient Egyptians 85
Amuns name seems to be connected with the word meaning
to conceal and it is indicative of the Egyptians own ideas on the
gods nature to interpret it as the hidden one. Thus the Greek
writer Plutarch appears on target when he quotes from the Egyptian
priest-chronicler Manetho the name Amun as meaning what is
concealed or invisible. Another possibility is that the gods name
comes from the ancient Libyan word aman meaning water. But
except for vague references to the Nile or Mediterranean Sea this is
not a prominent facet of the gods nature. For the Egyptians Amun
could only be understood as permeating the cosmos, occasionally
illuminated by an epithet that attempts to conceptualise his
universality. Since they were unable to pin the god down to one
explanatory nomen, the Egyptians stressed his complexity by
calling him asha renu or rich in names.
Similarly the human iconography of the god is really an
admission by the Egyptians that his true shape eludes visual
representation hidden of aspect, mysterious of form is one
description of the god. According to hymns even other deities are
unaware of his true appearance, none of them being in existence
before him. It is also stated that his image is absent from the
hieroglyphs which only give the phonetic signs comprising his
name; other gods often have their names involving a major
manifestation, e.g. an ibis or crocodile, but the stark consonantal
structure of Amuns name offers no such visual clue. The concept
of the gods invisibility admirably suits his association with the
breeze or the notion of Amun as an unseen demiurge.
Dr. George Hart, The Routledge Dictionary of Egyptian Gods
and Goddesses 86
84
Glenn S. Holland, Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean World (Chantilly: The
Teaching Company LLC, 2005), Lecture 7.
85
38
Referring now to Dr. James P. Allens guide to Middle Egyptian
hieroglyphs:
The name Amun ( jmn, more fully

jmnw) means hidden. Unlike all the other Egyptian gods, who
were immanent in the phenomena of nature, Amun was
transcendent; he existed above and apart from the universe,
hidden from the created world. This quality of Amun is
sometimes reflected in an epithet jmn(w)-rn.f He
whose identity (literally, name) is hidden (a nfr Hr construction:
6.5) and it is occasionally referred to in religious texts of the New
Kingdom. The clearest statement of Amuns transcendence,
however, comes from an essay on the god that was written in the
th
19 Dynasty, probably during the reign of Ramesses II, on a
papyrus that is now in the Netherlands National Museum of
Antiquities in Leiden.87
The Book of the Dead, written during the New Kingdom, states in
Spell 165 S 1:
O Amon, thou hidden of aspect, mysterious of form.88

That papyrus is the Leiden Papyrus I 350, dated to the 13th century
BCE or so.89 In chapter 80 it reads:
You being Single.
Secret was Your body among the elders,
and You kept Yourself hidden as Amun,
at the head of the gods.90
Then in chapter 90 it says:
86
George Hart, The Routledge Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses (New
York: Routledge, 1986-2005), 14.
87
James P. Allen, Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture
of Hieroglyphs (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000-10), 186.
88
T.G. Allen (1974), 161.
89
Jacobus J. Janssen, Two Ancient Egyptian Ships Logs: Papyrus Leiden I 350
Verso and Papyrus Turin (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1961), 4.
90
Wim van den Dungen, Ancient Egyptian Wisdom Readings (Antwerp: 2011),
181. Available online at
http://www.sofiatopia.org/maat/Ancient_Egyptian_Wisdom_Readings.pdf.
(Emph. added.)
39
You emerged first, You inaugurated from the start.
Amun, whose name is hidden from the gods.
Oldest elder, more distinguished than these. 91
In chapter 100:
The One who initiated existence
on the first occasion,
Amun, who developed in the beginning,
whose origin is unknown.
No god came into being prior to Him.
No other god was with Him
who could say what He looked like.92
In chapter 200:
Secret of manifestation and sparkling of shape.
One is Amun,
who keeps Himself concealed from them,
who hides Himself from the gods,
no one knowing His nature.
He is more remote than the sky,
He is deeper than the netherworld.
None of the gods knows His true form.
His image is not unfolded in the papyrus rolls.
Nothing certain is testified about Him.
He is too secretive
for His Majesty to be revealed,
He is too great to be enquired after,
too powerful to be known.
People immediately fall face to face into death
when His Name is uttered
knowingly or unknowingly.
There is no god able to invoke Him by it.
He is Soul-like, hidden of name,
like His Secrecy.93
From chapter 300:
91
92
93
40
His identity is hidden as Amun.94
Dr. Allen also states:
Unlike the other gods, Amun is not part of the created world
(He is farther than the sky, he is deeper than the Duat) and is
therefore hiddennot just from human understanding but even
from the knowledge of the gods themselves, who are also part of
the created world. Although Amun himself cannot be known,
however, his existence can be deduced from the very fact that the
world exists.95
Another primary source affirming the hidden nature of Amen as
being beyond both human and divine perception is the Great Amen
Hymn at the Temple of Hibis, constructed during the 27th Dynasty in
around the 6th century BCE.96 As translated by Egyptologist David
Klotz:
O Amun-Re,
Who hides himself in his iris!
Ba who illumines by means of his oracular wedjat-eyes.
who manifests a manifestation:
sacred one, who cannot be known.
Brilliant of visible forms,
who hides himself with his mysterious akh-eyes.
mysterious one, whose secrets cannot be known.97
There is also the Invocation Hymn, which states:
[Leading] the secret [rit]es of Amun which are upon the slates of
zizyphus.
Words spoken by (one),
Horus having [purified] him, and Thoth having censed him,
in order to do everything good and pure
for Amun-Re Lord of the Thrones of the Two Lands,
for Amun-Re, Lord of Hibis, mighty of scimitar,
[according to] all his mysterious titularies,
94
95
J.P. Allen (2000-10), 186. (Emph. added.)
96
David Klotz, Adoration of the Ram: Five Hymns to Amun-Re from Hibis
Temple, Yale Egyptological Studies 6 (New Haven: Yale Egyptological Seminar,
2006), 1-2.
97
41
which are hidden from his children.
At this point, Klotz references note D, which reads:
Amun (Imn) is commonly referred to as hidden; covered;
remote (imn qAi sSm) or as one who actively covers himself, with
the result that nobody might know his form or color (imn, HAp,
StA). Sethes discussion of the invisibility of Amun, he notes that
this additional epithet, hidden of name, heightens the
transcendence of Amun by making him both a dues invisibilis and
a dues ineffabilis. Thus Amun is ineffable, incomprehensible, as
well as indomitable, given the power the Egyptians attributed to
knowing a certain deitys name.98
The Hibis Hymn to the Bas of Amen states: His voice is heard, but
he is not seen.99
Theres also the following from the Decree of Amen for Princess
Neskhons, dated to the early 21st dynasty (11th to early 10th cen. BCE100):
Amon-Re
Secret of form, who is unknown,
Who has hidden himself from all the gods,
Who has set himself apart as the solar disk, yet who is unknown,
Who has concealed himself from what has come forth from
him.101
God in Three Persons, Blessed Trinity
The mention of the sun as His visible representation leads into the
next point. Although the true God is one God (as cited earlier- You
being Single), He is one God revealed in three persons. To return to the
Leiden Papyrus I 350, chapter 300:
All gods are three: Amun, Re, Ptah, without their equal.
His identity is hidden as Amun,
he is Re in appearance,
98
99
Ibid. 195.
100
Robert K. Ritner, The Libyan Anarchy: Inscriptions From Egypts Third
Intermediate Period (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2009), 145.
101
Ibid. 151-153 .
42
and his body is Ptah.102
The Great Amen Hymn also affirms:
So did you establish your throne in Ankhtawy,
As Amun-Re, Ba Lord of the firmament,
These (both) mean: your form in the initial moment,
When you arose as Amun-Re-Ptah.103
Klotz also adds the following:
This is another example of a three-tier world or, more
appropriately, of a trinity. These three deities appear together at
Hibis as recipients of a Maat-offering scene. Noting the Graeco-
Roman correspondances of Egyptian deities (Amun = Zeus, Osiris-
Ptah = Hades, Re = Helios) one should compare the following
Orphic statement quoted by both Macrobius and Julian: Zeus,
Hades, Helios Serapis: three gods in one godhead! More explicitly
dealing with Egyptian religion, Iamblichus aptly described the
various aspects of the demiurge (Kneph):
The demiurgical intellect, master of truth and wisdom, when
he comes in the creation and brings to light the invisible power
of hidden words, is called Amun , but when he infallibly and
artistically, in all truth, creates every thing, he is called Ptah (a
name which the Greeks translate Hephaistos, only observing
his ability as an artisan).104
Amen is the one true God. Yet He is revealed in three persons
through which He can physically interact with, and be perceived by, the
natural world.
102
Klotz (2006), 123. Dungen (2011), 191.
103
Klotz (2006), 207.
104
43
Fig. 1: The Holy Trinity of God, depicted here as Ptah, Re-Horakhti, and Amen-Re;
Stela of Chia, dated to the New Kingdom, currently at the Louvre Museum in Paris.
He that Hath Seen the Son Hath Seen the Father

He is Re in appearance. Re was the primary god of the sun in
ancient Egypt. So although as Amen this God is hidden, as Re He can be
visibly seen through His sun disk. Hence the sun is often likened to an
eye, in particular that of Amen-Re Himself, such as in the Great Amen
Hymn quoted earlier which references how His eyes both hide Himself
and illuminate the world. Klotz again elaborates:
Amun hiding himself in his iris is a perfect expression of the
differences between Amarna and Ramesside solar theology.
Whereas Akhenaten worshipped the sun disk (Aten) itself, the later
theology stresses the hidden and imperceivable aspect of Amun-Re.
Amun-Re is not the physical sun that one perceives, but the
44
hidden Ba, who travels within the sun disk, radiating his divine
power throughout the universe.105
The sun is the eye of Amen-Re, it is the visible image of the
unseen God. This only makes sense, given that the eye is the organ of
sight, and sight is made possible by the light of the sun. It would seem
such an observation was also later acknowledged by the famous Greek
philosopher Socrates, in a dialogue he allegedly had with Glaucon. As
recorded by his protg, Plato, in Republic 508a:
Whose is that light which makes the eye to see perfectly and the
visible to appear?
You mean the sun, as you and
all mankind say.
May not the relations of sight to
this deity be described as follows?
How?
Neither sight nor the eye in which
sight resides is the sun?
Fig. 2
No. For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro
throughout the whole earth.
Yet of all the organs of sense the
eye is the most like the sun?
By far the most like.
And the power which the eye possesses is a sort of effluence which
is dispensed from the sun?
Exactly.
Then the sun is not sight, but the author of sight who is recognized
by sight?
True, he said.
And this is he whom I call the child of the good, whom the good
begat in his own likeness, to be in the visible world , in relation to
105
Ibid. 176.
45
sight and the things of sight, what the good is in the intellectual
world in relation to mind and the things of mind.106
So the sun is the likeness of the Good (i.e. the true God107) in this
visible world, just as the hymns to Amen declare. Not only is the sun the
brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, but
Socrates also observed that the sun is the child of the true God. So the
sun of God is also the Son of God, and the Son is the very image of the
Father. The Father is revealed in the Son. He that hath seen the Son
hath seen the Father, for the Son is in the Father, and the Father is in
the Son. He and His Father are one. Re is indeed one with Amen and is
Amen Himself, and not only is He also the sun god of Amen, as has been
demonstrated, but Re is also the Son of Amen. Hence He is His own
Father and His own Son, the self-created God. As Coffin Text Spell 133
II, 158 declares: I am Re, the father of Re. The Invocation Hymn at
Hibis likewise affirms:
Amun
the one most-secret of visible forms,
in his manifestations of Re.
Transforming into Re,
Having been ma[de as the god] who came about by himself. 108
In the Creator Hymn, columns 8-9 read:
He [came forth?] as a child, who rejuvenates himself at his proper
time
As a youth [who b]ore the Ogdoad,
A baby who radiates [morning-light?].109
The Hymn to the Bas of Amen states:
You are Amun,
you are Atum,
106
Plato, Republic, in The Dialogues of Plato Vol. II, trans. B. Jowett (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1871-2010), 343. (Emph. added.)
107
Corpus Hermeticum XI., Nous to Hermes, in Hermetica: The Greek Corpus
Hermeticum and the Latin Asclepius in a New English Translation with Notes
and Introduction, trans. by B.P. Copenhaver (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1992), 37. The essence (so to speak) of god is the good. (Emph.
added.)
108
Klotz (2006), 196-97.
109
Ibid. 213.
46
you are Khepri,
you are Re.
You are the one who built his body with his own hands, in
every form of his desire.110
Here we have reference to Re by His morning and evening names as
well. The Pyramid Texts confirm this, in Utterance 606 1695:
Re in this his name of Khoprer; Re in this his name of Re;
Re in this his name of Atum.111
In The Legend of Isis and the Name of Re from the Turin Papyrus
(19th Dynasty, 13th-12th cen. BCE), Re says to Isis:
I am Khepri in the morning, Re at noon, and Atum who is in
the evening.112
Chapter 200 of P. Leiden I 350 states:
Amun, begetter of Re. He completed himself as Atum,
being of one body with him.113
Since Atum is another name for Amen-Re, His evening name, and as
covered earlier, since Amen-Re is also Ptah, for He is a trinity, this leads
to another text affirming that God the Son is His own Father who begat
Himself. That text is known as The Memphite Theology, originally dated
to the Old Kingdom Period.114 Beginning at section 48, it reads:
The gods who came into being in Ptah:
Ptah-on-the-great-throne ------.
Ptah-Nun, the father who made Atum.115
The Son of God also is God. Amen is both the God of the sun and
also Father of the sun. Hence it is the case that the Lord God is a sun and
yet at the same time He is the Lord which giveth the sun for a light by
day. He shall be as the light of the morning, when the sun riseth, and
110
111
Faulkner (1969), 251.
112
Robert K. Ritner, The Legend of Isis and the Name of Re {1.22} (P. Turin
1993), in The Context of Scripture: Canonical Compositions from the Biblical
World, Vol. 1, eds. W.W. Halo and K.L. Younger (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1997), 34.
113
Dungen (2011), 187. (Emph. added.)
114
Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature Volume I: The Old and Middle
Kingdoms (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973-2006), 51.
115
Ibid. 54.
47
shall shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of the Father. His face doth
shine as the sun, and His countenance was as the sun shineth in His
strength.
The Firstborn of All Creation
So the fact is firmly established from the evidence that long before
the Common Era this God was known to be one God in three persons,
who is both His own Father and His own Son. Not only that, but it is also
the case that His mother is His own daughter. Thats rightas Re, He
had a mother. In fact, Re had two mothers, one for the inaugural birth,
the other for His rebirth, but more on that later.
Now, before going over Res first birth and His mother who
delivered Him, I would first like to cover some genealogy. After bringing
Himself into existence, according to several traditions, the first thing
Amen created was the Nun, which is the living ocean of the primordial
chaos. It is the source of the material world, from which the rest of the
cosmos was created. Amen is the Father which brought forth the Nun
from within Himself, hence it is a part of Him, a manifestation of His
power.
An inscription from the sanctuary of the Small Temple of Medinet
Habu illustrates this fact in the following manner: Amun-Re of Medinet
Habu, Nun the Elder who came about in the beginning, Bull who
ejaculates Nun. This expression is paralleled at the temple of Deir el-
Shelwit: One who begets gods, bull who ejaculates Nun.116
Dr. Klotz adds that:
The bull is an ideal hypostasis of Amun-Re to ejaculate Nun;
not only because of his virility, but also because of the connection
between bulls and water. thus we have Re the bull, who
ejaculates light as well as the primeval waters from which he will
ultimately be reborn. As noted above, this is closely related with the
engendering form of Amun-Kamutef (Bull of his Mother), the
ejaculating bull who begets himself. This mytheme, as found at
Hibis, is not a far cry from the Ptolemaic Ogdoad theology: in both
cases, Amun himself creates the primordial chaos (Hibis: the Nun-
116
Klotz (2006), 24.
48
waters; Ptolemaic: the Ogdoad), which in turn gives birth to the
sun, which in both cases is Amun himself. 117
The Hibis Creator Hymn states:
He [founded] this great land, with Nun, the Great Circular Sea
and the Surrounding Seas surrounding it. The one whom [the
Nile] brings, having opened the two caverns, having shot out Nun-
waters from his grotto.118
A hymn to Amen-Re in the Hunefer Papyrus reads:
It is you who created the primeval waters, fashioned the
Nile, Who created the floods, caused those who are in them to live,
Praises to you, Amun-Re! resting in Maat as you ferry across
above.119
Returning to Leiden Papyrus I 350, this time from chapter 600, it
says:
His belly is Nun, and that which is in it is the Nile, giving birth
to all things that are, and making to live all that exists. He blows
breath into every nose.120
So out of Amens belly flow rivers of living water, or as Samuel
Mercer put it: his belly is the heavenly ocean.121 Those are the life-
giving waters of Nun which give birth to all that exists, and Amen
breaths into our nostrils the breath of life. So this text demonstrates the
point that it was through the living waters of the Nun that the rest of
creation arose.
The first beings to arise from the Nun were the many creator gods
who became the agents of Amens creative power and finished producing
117
Ibid. 24-25.
118
119
John. L. Foster, Hymns, Prayers, and Songs: An Anthology of Ancient
Egyptian Love Poetry (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995), 86. (Emph. added.)
120
Ibid. 45 n.255.
Adolf Erman, The Literature of the Ancient Egyptians, trans. Aylward M.
Blackman (New York: Benjamin Blom Inc., 1927-71), 301.
Alexandre Piankoff, The Litany of Re, Bollingen Series XL.4 (New York: Pantheon
Books, 1964), 44-45.
121
Samuel A.B. Mercer, The Religion of Ancient Egypt (London: Luzac & Co.,
1949), 308.
49
the rest of the cosmos with Him. Examples of such creator gods include
Khonsu122, the Ogdoad123, and above all, the Holy Mother goddess Neith.
Just as Amen is the Father of all creation, Neith is the Mother of all
creation, who formed herself within the waters of the Nun. Professor
Harold Scheub writes:
Neith (Net) was the mother goddess, She was a creator
goddess who formed all things. In the beginning, she found herself
in the watery waste of Nun, and she formed herself when the world
was still in shadow and when there was no earth on which to rest,
when no plant grew.124
As revealed in traditions such as those of Sais and Esna, Neith was
the first being to emerge from Nun.125 In a New Kingdom text known
as The Contendings of Horus and Seth, the scribal god Thoth wrote a
letter to Neith in which he addressed her as Neith, the eldest,
the Mother of the gods, who shone in the primeval time.126 Seeing as
how Amen was imperceptible and hidden from even the gods
themselves, it is only natural that some came to believe instead that Neith
was the eldest. She was the eldest of those who arose out of the Nun.
As Thoth stated, Neith is indeed the blessed Mother of the gods.
Now concerning her first-born child, there is a statue currently at the
Vaticans Gregorian Egyptian Museum which dates to the time of the
Persian rule of Egypt, specifically the early reign of King Darius I, c. 519
122
Lszl Kkosy, Egyptian Healing Statues in Three Museums in Italy, Serie I
Monumenti e Testi 9 (Turin: Ministero per I Beni e le Attivit Culturali
Sopintendenza al Museo delle Antichit Egizie, 1999), 76, 86, 106.
123
J.P. Allen (2000-10), 130-31.
124
Harold Scheub, A Dictionary of Mythology: The Mythmaker as Storyteller
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 172.
125
Edward Bleiberg, Arts & Humanities Through the Eras: Ancient Egypt 2675-
322 B.C.E. (Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2005), 216. (Emph. added.)
Klotz (2006), 41.- "223 el-Sayed, RdE 26 (1974): 76, n. 12; this play on words is
particularly striking in Esna III, 305,18 (= Sauneron, Esna V, 202): ink (N.t) nt ir
nty omA wnn.t nb I (Neith) am the water surface, who made what is and
created all that exists."
126
R.T. Rundle Clark, Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt (New York: Thames &
Hudson Inc., 1959), 198. (Emph. added.)
50
BCE.127 It is a depiction of Udjahorresnet, a Saitic physician and priest of
Neith (Fig. 4). The inscriptions on this statue contain several adorations
to Neith, and one line in particular, located under the right arm, reads:
I let his majesty know the greatness of Sais, that it is the seat of
Neith-the-Great, the mother who bore Re and inaugurated birth
when birth had not yet been.128
So, the first-born Son of Neith, the first-born of all creation, was
none other than Re, who is also Amen Himself, who created the Nun
from which Neith created her self. Therefore, as stated earlier, Amen is
not only His own Father and Son, but His mother is also His daughter.
127
Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature Volume III: The Late Period
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980-2006), 36-7.
A. Rosalie David, Religion and Magic in Ancient Egypt (New York: Penguin
Books, 2002), 313.
128
Lichtheim (1980-2006), 38. (Emph. added.)
51
Fig. 3
52
Fig. 4
53
Behold, a Virgin Shall Conceive
Another interesting fact pointed out by the aforementioned

inscription is that this was the first birth in history. Therefore Neith was
all alone. No one else had yet been born. No one else was there with her
yet- no one except for Amen, who was hidden from her. Therefore she
had no one to mate with. There could be no copulation to bring about this
birth when the only potential mate is entirely imperceptible to her. This
conception and birth of Re from His mother Neith, the first birth ever,
came about by parthenogenesis. In other words, this was a virgin birth.
Neith was a creator goddess, and she did not need a partner in
order to conceive and give birth.
Dr. Olaf E. Kaper, The Egyptian God Tutu 129
In Sais in the Delta, for example, there was a virgin goddess
who gave birth to the sun at the beginning of time by some form of
parthenogenesis.
Dr. John D. Ray, Reflections of Osiris: Lives from Ancient
130
Egypt
Neith did not depend on a male partner for her creative
powers, which encompassed the entire universe of gods, animals,
and humans.
131
Dr. Barabara S. Lesko, The Great Goddesses of Egypt
Another primary source affirming that Re was born of a virgin is a
statue of His mother Neith that was once located at her temple in Sais.
Though it is now no longer extant, its existence and inscription was
documented by a couple of writers from antiquity. Reconstructing it from
quotes by Plutarch132 and Proclus,133 the inscription said:
129
Olaf E. Kaper, The Egyptian God Tutu: A Study of the Sphinx-God and Master
of Demons with a Corpus of Monuments (Leuven: Peeters Publishers, 2003),
105.
130
John D. Ray, Reflections of Osiris: Lives from Ancient Egypt (New York:
Oxford University Press, 2002), 63.
131
Barbara S. Lesko, The Great Goddesses of Egypt (Norman: University of
Oklahoma Press, 1999), 50.
132
Plutarch, Moralia, 354C.
54
I am what is, and what will be, and what has been,
No one has lifted my veil.
The fruit I bore was the sun.134
Dr. Erik Hornung comments that the veil having never been lifted
clearly refers to sexual union,135 and the obvious lack thereof.
Egyptologist Jan Assmann states, concerning the inscription:
It refers not to an epistemological dilemma, the absolute
unattainability of truth, but to the parthenogenesis of the sun out of
the womb of a maternal All-Goddess.136
So intimately linked was Neiths identity with parthenogenesis/virgin
motherhood that eventually she became widely identified with the
Greco-Roman patron deity of virginity itselfthe celibate warrior
goddess known as Athena (Minerva to the Romans137). Plato recorded
the words of Critias in Timaeus 21E, c. 360 BCE138, in regards to Sais:
This city was founded by a goddess whose name was Neith in
Egyptian and (according to the people there) Athena in Greek.
They are very friendly to Athens and claim to be related to our
people somehow or other.139
Cicero (c. mid-1st century BCE), writing of various versions of the
Athena/Minerva mythology, states:
133
Proclus, On the Timaeus of Plato, I.98.
134
Erik Hornung, The Secret Lore of Egypt: Its Impact on the West, trans. D.
Lorton (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2001), 134.
135
Ibid.
136
Jan Assmann, Periergia: Egyptian Reactions to Greek Curiosity, in Cultural
Borrowings and Ethnic Appropriations in Antiquity, ed. Erich S. Gruen (Stuttgart:
Franz Steiner Verlag, 2005), 47.
137
Michael Gagarin, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece & Rome, Vol. 1
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), P-Q.97.
138
David T. Runia, Philo of Alexandria and The Timaeus of Plato (Leiden: E.J.
Brill, 1986), 3, n.1.
139
Plato, Plato: Complete Works, ed. J.M. Cooper and D.S. Hutchinson, trans.
Donald J. Zeyl (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 1997), 1229.
55
As for Minervas, the first is the one who we said was the
mother of Apollo. The second, the daughter of the Nile, is
worshipped by Egyptians at Sais.140
It is interesting that Cicero also notes there was a tradition in which
Athena was also the mother of Apollo, who was one of the solar deities
of the Greco-Roman world.141 In that respect, such a fact adds to the
parallels between Athena and Neith, for as already covered, Neith was
also the mother of a sun god. Other parallels supporting the identification
between Neith and Athena include the fact that both were believed to
have been born in sacred waters (Neith from out of the Nun of Amen, as
stated earlier, and Athena, in one version, was born in the Lake Tritonis
of Poseidon142), and both were depicted as warrior goddesses.143 Both of
them were also begotten by the Most High god. As already covered,
Neith was ultimately begotten of Amen, and Athena was begotten of
Zeus, a.k.a. Jupiter or Jove, the king of the gods and of heaven, who was
identified by the ancient Greeks and Romans with Amen Himself.144
The most relevant parallel, for the point at hand, is that they were
both virgin mothers of a divine serpent. One of the more essential
physical manifestations or hypostases of Amen-Re was that of the
chthonic serpent Kematef.145 It is by way of this ophidian form that Lord
140
Cicero, The Nature of the Gods, trans. P.G. Walsh (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1998), 3.59/129.
141
Fritz Graf, Apollo (London: Taylor & Francis, 2008-09), 121-23.
142
Herodotus, Histories, in The Landmark Herodotus: The Histories, ed. R.B.
Strassler, trans. A.L. Purvis (New York: Anchor Books, 2009), 356.
Homer, The Odyssey, in The Odyssey of Homer, trans. T.E. Lawrence (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1932-91), 39.
143
B.S. Lesko (1999), 50.
Susan Deacy, Athena (London: Taylor & Francis, 2008), 3, 7-10, 18, 28, 30, 32,
35-44, 58, 82, 90, 112, 118, 120-21, 131, 135, 148, 158.
144
Herodotus, in Strassler (2009), 129 n.2.29.7b, 134, 142. The Egyptians call
Zeus by the name of Ammon.
Plutarch, in Babbitt (1936-62), 25. Moreover, most people believe that Amoun
is the name given to Zeus in the land of the Egyptians, a name which we, with a
slight alteration, pronounce Ammon.
145
Klotz (2006), 3, 31, 49, 144.
Hart (1986-2005), 20-21.
Oakes (2002-05), 306.
56
Amen rejuvenates Himself, and His Ogdoad as well, thereby sustaining
the universe which He created.146 The scriptures tell mankind of that
fiery serpent, that when he looketh upon it, shall live: Everyone lives
by seeing his rays.147 It is no wonder then that ancient Egyptians used
the image of a serpent, and in particular a serpent lifted up on a staff, in
association with resurrection and eternal life (Fig. 6 & 7), and even today
is still being used as a symbol for life and healing (Fig. 8).
Fig. 5: The Creator in hypostasis as both primeval serpent and newborn sun
god; based on a vignette of the Brooklyn Magical Papyrus 47.218.156, c. 5 th century
BCE. He came forth as a child, who rejuvenates himself at his proper time as a
youth who bore the Ogdoad, a baby who radiates morning-light, who shines in his
mHn.t-serpent which encloses him.148
146
Lanny Bell, The New Kingdom Divine Temple: The Example of Luxor, in
Temples of Ancient Egypt, ed. B.E. Shafer (Ithaca: Cornell University Press,
1997), 178.
Lszl Trk, The Image of the Ordered World in Ancient Nubian Art: The
Construction of the Kushite Mind (800 BC 200 AD) (Leiden: Koninklijke Brill
NV, 2002), 36.
Dieter Arnold, The Encyclopedia of Ancient Egyptian Architecture (New York:
I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd, 2003), 144.
147
Dirk van der Plas, The Veiled Image of Amenapet, in Effigies Dei: Essays on
the History of Religions, ed. Plas (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1987), 3-4.
148
Klotz (2006), 144.
57
Fig. 6: Based on a relief block from a building of Amenemhat I, c. 1981-1952 BCE,
currently at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The scene depicts Horus giving an ankh
cross, the symbol for life, to the king (or his bA) in the form of a falcon. To the right is a
serpent lifted up on a staff (i.e. the was-scepter) and bearing a shen ring around its neck,
the symbol for eternity. Thus the cross and the serpent on the staff give eternal life.
Fig. 7: Statue of Anubis, c. 1st century CE, currently located at the Vaticans Gregorian
Egyptian Museum. Anubis is an Egyptian mortuary god who oversees the process of
mummification & resurrection. He is depicted here holding a staff entwined with two
serpents, no doubt to aid in restoring life to the deceased.
58
Fig. 8: The caduceus insignia for the United States Navy Hospital Corpsmen. Even in
our own time the image of the serpent on the staff remains a symbol for the restoration of
life & health. The legacy of Kemet lives on.
Fig. 9: Based on a Luna marble relief from a temple of Hephaistos, currently at the
Museum of Ostia. The scene depicts the virgin birth of Erichthonius in the form of a
serpent accompanied by his parents, Athena and Hephaistos (the head is damaged).
59
May that life-giving serpent of God be exalted and lifted up: that
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.
Since Neith is the Holy Mother of God, Amen-Re, she is by default the
mother of His hypostases as well. Thus by extension Neith was the virgin
mother of a divine serpent.
In the Greek mythology of Athena, there existed a version in which
she was the mother of Ericthonius, sometimes called Erechtheus. This
myth is referenced to at least as far back as Homer (8th cen. BCE).149 The
two most detailed accounts include the version preserved in the work
known as The Library of Apollodorus (1st cen. CE150), 3.14.6, as well
as the version of Euripides (5th cen. BCE151), as preserved by Hyginus in
Astronomica 2.13, and alluded to in Euripides own work Ion, 1.20-26,
268-74, 999-1009, & 1428-29. Based on those accounts, the story goes
that Hephaistos/Vulcan attempted to rape Athena, but in an effort to
preserve her virginity, she fought him off, and he ejaculated on her thigh.
She wiped away the seed and buried it in the earth. Apparently, the
mingling of her skin flakes with the seed of Hephaistos gave rise to
Ericthonius, who sprang forth out of the earth.
Because he came forth from the earth, some versions depict the earth
goddess, Gaia, acting as Athenas surrogate, returning Ericthonius back
to his true mother as soon as he is born.152 In other versions, he arises
149
Homer, The Iliad, trans. Ian Johnston (Arlington: Richer Resources
Publications, 2006-07), 45. Athens, land of proud Erectheus, whom Athena
raised, after he was born out of the harvest land.
150
Michael Simpson, Gods & Heroes of the Greeks: The Library of Apollodorus
Translated with Introduction and Notes (Amherst: University of Massachusetts
Press, 1976), 1.
Luke Roman, Monica Roman, Encyclopedia of Greek and Roman Mythology
(New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2010), 301.
Wendy Cotter, Miracles in Graeco-Roman Antiquity: A Sourcebook (New York:
Taylor & Francis, 1999-2003), 13, 26.
151
Giannis Stamatellos, Introduction to Presocratics: A Thematic Approach to
Early Greek Philosophy with Key Readings (Oxford: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.,
2012), 119.
152
Larissa Bonfante, Nursing Mothers in Classical Art, in Naked Truths:
Women, Sexuality, and Gender in Classical Art and Archaeology, eds. A.O.
Kolowski-Ostrow and C.L. Lyons (London: Taylor & Francis, 1997-2004), 189 n.4.
60
directly from out of the soil in the form of a serpent (Fig. 9), thus serving
as somewhat of a parallel to Neiths virgin motherhood of Amen-Re and
his hypostasis as the Kematef serpent. This can be seen in the statue
known as Athna la ciste, located in the Louvre Museum in Paris,
France (Fig. 10). It is a Roman replica of a late 5th century BCE Greek
original, in the style of the artist Cephisodotus. The statue depicts Athena
standing upright, while holding in her left arm a basket, or ciste, which
contains an infant serpent. The basket along with the state of infancy
makes the identity obviousthe serpent here is Erichthonius, as the
museum affirms.153 The serpent form of the son of Athena is also verified
by the giant statue once located at the Parthenon commonly referred to as
the Athena Parthenos. The original was sculpted by the famous artist
Pheidias in around 438 BCE.154 While this work is no longer extant, its
general appearance has been preserved through descriptions in texts and
replications on coins, plates, statues, and other works. It depicts Athena
in warrior mode, clad in armor, with shield and spear, accompanied by
her serpent child. Among the earliest examples of such a replica is a
terracotta disk (Fig. 11), dated to around 400-375 BCE.155 As Dr. Jeffrey
M. Hurwit describes it:
Camp, 1996, announced the discovery in the Agora of an early
fourth-century terracotta token or disk with a small version of the
Athena Parthenos in relief. This image one of the earliest extant
representations of the statue shows the Athena without a
Liz Locke, Eurydices Body: Feminist Reflections of the Orphic Descent Myth in
Philosophy and Film (Bloomington: Indiana University, 2000), 126.
153
Muse du Louvre, Athna la
ciste, http://cartelfr.louvre.fr/cartelfr/visite?srv=car_not&idNotice=847
(accessed October 14, 2012).
Pierre Brl, La fille dAthnes: La religion des filles Athnes lpoque
classique (Paris: Mythes, cultes et socit, 1987), 69-70.
154
Jenifer Neils, Phidias, in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and
Rome Vol. 4, eds. M. Gagarin and E. Fantham (New York: Oxford University
Press, 2010), 242.
155
John M. Camp, The Archaeology of Athens (New Haven: Yale University
Press, 2001), 80.
61
supporting column beneath the outstretched right hand; instead,
the snake appears there.156
Another early depiction of the Athena Parthenos can be seen in
Figure 12. It illustrates a proxeny decree in honor of Philiskos Lykou of
Sestos, is currently at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens,
and dated to around 354 BCE.157 Although significantly damaged, the
serpent can still be seen behind the shield of Athena, beneath her left arm
where she is holding a figure of Nike, Athena herself being positioned in
the center of the scene.158 A more detailed replica of Pheidias statue is
also to be found at the aforementioned museum. It is known as the
Varvakeion Athena and it is a Roman reproduction dated to the 2nd
century CE,159 illustrated in Fig. 13. Once again, the serpent can be seen
located behind the shield. The identity of Pheidias serpent was
preserved by Pausanias, and it was indeed explicitly known to be that of
her son, Ericthonius:
As you enter the temple that they name the Parthenon, The
statue of Athena is upright, with a tunic reaching to the feet, and on
her breast the head of Medusa is worked in ivory. She holds a
statue of Victory about four cubits high, and in the other hand a
spear; at her feet lies a shield and near the spear is a serpent. This
serpent would be Erichthonius.160
While the means by which Athena produced Ericthonius might at
first glance seem slightly convoluted when reading accounts of it, the
fact that this ancient myth was indeed understood to be a virgin birth by a
celibate goddess is affirmed by the 1st century sage, Apollonius of Tyana.
156
Jeffrey M. Hurwit, The Athenian Acropolis: History, Mythology, and
Archaeology from the Neolithic Era to the Present (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1999), 330 n.78.
157
Carol L. Lawton, Athenian anti-Macedonian sentiment and democratic
ideology in Attic document reliefs in the second half of the fourth century B.C.,
in The Macedonians in Athens: 322-229 B.C., eds. O. Palagia and S.V. Tracy,
(Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2003), 119.
158
Hurwit (1999), 53, 330 n.78.
159
John Freely, Strolling Through Athens: Fourteen Unforgettable Walks
Through Europes Oldest City (London: I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd, 1991-2004), 290.
160
Pausanias, Description of Greece: Books 1-2, trans. W.H.S. Jones (London:
William Heinemann Ltd., and Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press,
1918-92), 123-25. (Emph. added.)
62
Fig. 10: Athna la ciste, on her left bosom can be seen her infant son Erichthonios,
again in serpent form.
Fig. 11
63
Fig. 12
Fig. 13
64
According to his disciple Damis,161 as later preserved by Philostratus,
the following conversation occurred while Apollonius was in prison:
Another man said that he was under indictment because when
sacrificing in Tarentum, where he was a magistrate, he had not
added to the public prayers the fact that Domitian was the son of
Athena. You, said Apollonius, thought that Athena could not
have children as a perpetual virgin, but you seem to have forgotten
that this goddess once gave birth to a snake for the Athenians.162
So not only was Athena considered a virgin mother of a divine
serpent as early as the 5th century BCE, but even during the 1st century
CE there was a belief that she also gave virgin birth to human kings as
well. Also, in his letter to Sais, this same Apollonius affirmed that
Athena was identical to Neith:
To the people of Sais: You are descendants of the Athenians,
so Plato says in the Timaeus. They however banish from Attica the
goddess whom they share with you, called Neith by you and
Athena by them.163
Thus, by extension, he affirmed that Neith was indeed a virgin mother,
the very same whom he claimed had borne a serpent child.
The association between serpents, parthenogenesis, and divine birth
is a recurring theme in mythology, several examples of which will come
up again throughout this book. One possible origin for this serpentine
connection to virgin birth is nature itself. In fact, just recently the
scientific journal Biology Letters, of The Royal Society, published a
paper affirming the occurrence of facultative parthenogenesis in snakes
in the wild.164 Of course, this had already been observed among snakes
161
Philostratus, Apollonius of Tyana, Volume II: Life of Apollonius of Tyana,
Books 5-8, ed. and trans. Christopher P. Jones (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, 2005), 261.
162
163
Apollonius of Tyana, Apollonius of Tyana, Volume III: Letters of Apollonius,
Ancient Testimonia, Eusebius Reply to Hierocles, ed. and trans. Christopher P.
Jones (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2006), 65.
164
Warren Booth et al., Facultative Parthenogenesis Discovered in Wild
Vertebrates, Biology Letters 8, no. 6 (2012): 983-5.
65
in captivity.165 Thus it is not unreasonable to suspect that ancient people
far preceding the Common Era likewise observed this phenomenon, and
hence why imagery of the serpent was so often used in myths involving
miraculous conception and birth. For example, the Latin poet Ovid,
writing at the turn of the Common Era, recorded a legend in which
serpents were born from the drops of blood that fell from Medusas
severed serpentine head as Perseus carried it across Libya.166 Ovid, as
well as the 1st century historians Pliny the Elder and Plutarch, also wrote
of a belief in which serpents were born from the coagulating marrow of
human corpses.167 Pliny also reported of serpents allegedly born from the
blood of birds, and others born from the viscera of sacrificial victims,
and of a particular breed from Tiryns which was said to be born from the
earth itself.168 Plutarch likewise documented the belief that serpents were
born in full form from out of the earth,169 as did Herodotus (circa 5th
century BCE).170 An obviously related variant, also recorded by Ovid,
told of how the first serpent, Python, was produced parthenogenetically
from the earth goddess, Gaia, when she was impregnated by the heat
from the rays of the sun:
165
Ibid.
Warren Booth et al., Consecutive Virgin Births in the New World Boid Snake,
the Colombian Rainbow Boa, Epicrates maurus, Journal of Heredity 102, no. 6
(2011): 759-63.
Michael Kearney, Matthew K. Fujita, Jessica Ridenour, Lost Sex in the Reptiles:
Constraints and Correlations, in Lost Sex: The Evolutionary Biology of
Parthenogenesis, eds. I. Schn and K. Martens (Berlin: Springer, 2009), 447-474.
166
Ovid, Metamorphoses, trans. Stanley Lombardo (Indianapolis: Hackett
Publishing Company, Inc., 2010), 111.
167
Ibid. 429.
Plutarch, Lives, in Plutarchs Lives: Volume X, trans. B. Perrin (London: William
Heinemann Ltd. and Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1921-59),
141.
Pliny the Elder, Natural History, in Pliny: Natural History, Books 8-11, trans. H.
Rackham, (London: William Heinemann Ltd., and Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, 1940-67), 411-13.
168
Ibid. 159, 381, 555.
169
Plutarch, Moralia, in Plutarchs Moralia: Volume VIII, trans. P.A. Clement and
H.B. Hoffleit (London: William Heinemann Ltd., and Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
170
Herodotus, in Strassler (2009), 45.
66
So when Mother Earths diluvian mud
Again grew warm under the rays of the sun,
She brought forth innumerable species, restoring some
Of the ancient forms, and creating some new and strange.
She would have rather not, but Earth begot you then,
O Python, greatest of serpents and never before seen,
And a terror to the new people, sprawling over
Half a mountainside.171
Very interesting, given that, as mentioned previously, some myths
portray Gaia as also involved in the virgin birth of Athenas serpent
child. There was also reference here to light from heaven as the
mechanism for conception, which is another recurring motif that will
come up again later on. Like Athena, Gaia also shares a few noteworthy
parallels with Neith. Gaia too was the first female, brought forth at the
beginning of time from the primordial chaos. Since this was at the
beginning, much like Neith, Gaia had no suitable mate with which to
procreate, therefore she brought forth her first children on her own. In
other words, it was yet another legend of virgin birth of divine children.
As per Hesiods Theogony, c. 8th century BCE:
Sing the glories of the holy gods to whom death never comes,
the gods born of Gaia and starry Ouranos,
Chaos was born first and after it came Gaia
the broad-breasted, the firm seat of all
the immortals who hold the peaks of snowy Olympos,
Gaia now first gave birth to starry Ouranos,
her match in size, to encompass all of her,
and be the firm seat of all the blessed gods.
She gave birth to the tall mountains, enchanting haunts
of the divine nymphs who dwell in the woodlands;
and then she bore Pontos, the barren sea with its raging swell.
All these she bore without mating in sweet love.172
It should be noted here, in anticipation of what some antagonistic
heathen might try to retort with, that the translator here, Dr. Apostolos
171
Ovid, in Lombardo (2010), 18.
172
Hesiod, Theogony, in Hesiod: Theogony, Works and Days, Shield, trans. A.N.
Athanassakis (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1983-2004), xii,
14. (Emph. added.)
67
Athanassakis, clarified that To Hesiod, Earth (Gaia), Sky (Ouranos),
and Sea (Pontos) are not mere elements but gods.173 Therefore any
attempts to try and dismiss this tale of virgin-born gods, far predating the
Common Era, by claiming that these primordial deities of Hesiod are just
abstract elements and thus not comparable to other virgin-born gods
are futile attempts. Regardless, getting back to the point, this is explicitly
stated by Hesiod to be conception without mating. It is only later, after
Gaia has produced several children by herself, does she then select a
mate to further reproduce with. That mate being her first born son,
Uranus, god of the stars, with whom she bore the famous twelve
Titans.174 In that respect, Neith has a similarity with Gaia that she does
not have with Athena, since Neith also did not remain perpetually a
virgin forever,175 unlike Athena, who was typically regarded as eternally
celibate, as previously quoted from Apollonius of Tyana. Neith too was
in some traditions believed to have later taken up consorts.176
Nevertheless, their sexual activity later on in their mythology does not
negate the fact that very ancient sources explicitly regarded these
goddesses as having given virgin births to their first offspring.
Another fact about Neith that is relevant here is that her symbol was
originally the click beetle177 (although later on, due to the similarity of
shape, it came to be identified as a shield).178 Click beetles are now
known to bury their eggs in soil, and once they hatched, the larvae
remain underground for years. It is only when they have matured into
173
174
Ibid. 14.
175
B.S. Lesko (1999), 58.
176
Ibid. 270.
Faulkner (1969), 232 (Utt. 577 1521).
177
Diana C. Patch and Marianne Eaton-Krauss, Dawn of Egyptian Art (New York:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2011), 150-51, 198-200.
Hans W. Mller and Eberhard Thiem, Gold of the Pharaohs (Ithaca: Cornell
Erik Hornung and Betsy M. Bryan, The Quest for Immortality: Treasures of
Ancient Egypt (New York: Prestal-Verlag, 2002), 106.
178
Patch (2011), 200.
Pinch (2002-04), 170.
B.S. Lesko (1999), 46, 50.
68
adults that they emerge from the ground.179 Therefore, to the unaware
observer, it can appear as though the beetles were being born from the
earth itself, without the need for copulation. In other words, click beetles
were likely perceived to be autogenic/parthenogenetic, and thus it is no
wonder that this animal came to be associated with Neith, who also had
these properties.180 Just as Neith was associated with a self-regenerating
beetle, so too was her Son Re, which further corroborates with the fact of
her virgin motherhood. As established earlier, one of Res alter egos was
that of Khepri. As Khepri, Re took on the form of a scarab beetle (Fig.
16), or alternatively, a scarab-headed human (Fig. 17).181 The Egyptians
believed the scarab was androgynous or unisex, and thus by necessity, it
reproduced parthenogenetically. As Plutarch stated in reference to Egypt,
there is no such thing as a female beetle, but all beetles are male.182
This translation specifies in note 51 that this is in reference to The
Egyptian scarab, or sacred beetle. Dr. Bob Brier also affirms this:
Another reason the scarab was held in special regard is that the
ancient Egyptians believed that the beetle had offspring without the
union of male and female. This false belief arose simply because
the Egyptians never saw them copulating. 183
Regarding a depiction of divine birth in a vignette of the corpus
known as the Book of the Earth from the tomb of Ramesses VI (12th cen.
BCE), Dr. Joshua Roberson writes:
Two goddesses minister to an irregularly shaped oval The
oval is identified as nnw.t, a word that originally signified the dung
ball of the scarab beetle. Its use here was doubtless to evoke the
beetles own (perceived) parthenogenesis, and the associated
concepts of solar re-birth.184
179
Maurice Burton and Robert Burton, International Wildlife Encyclopedia, 3rd
Edition (New York: Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 2002), 466-67.
180
Susan T. Hollis, 5 Egyptian Goddesses in the Third Millenium BC: Neith,
Hathor, Nut, Isis, Nephthys, KMT: A Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt 5, no. 4
(1994-95): 46-51, 82-85.
181
Holland (2009), 27, 69.
182
183
Brier (1980-2001), 146.
184
Joshua Roberson, The Book of the Earth: A Study of Ancient Egyptian
Symbol-Systems and the Evolution of New Kingdom Cosmographic Models
(PhD diss., University of Pennsylvania, 2007), 148-50. (Emph. added.)
69
It only makes sense then that Re would take on the form of an animal
that was likewise thought to be virgin born, and that He would do so at
dawn, the time of day when He was born again. So Neith was associated
with a parthenogenetic beetle, and her virgin born Son was also
associated with a parthenogenetic beetle.
So the Lord God Amen-Ra created Himself through the agency of a
divine virgin, whom He also created, and thus He is His own Father.
However, this is not the only thing He created. As the Perennial Gospel
declares, He is the almighty Creator of heaven and earth.
Fig. 14: A pair of click beetles, an ancient emblem of Neith, signifying her virgin
motherhood; based on a corner fragment of a cosmetic palette dated to the early 3 rd
millennium BCE, currently at the Cinquantenaire Museum.
70
Fig. 15: The virgin birth of the scarab from the sun disk of its dung ball (as the
ancient Egyptians perceived it, hence one reason it became a symbol of Re-Khepri).
Fig. 16: A pendant of Khepri from the tomb of Tutankhamun.
71
Fig. 17
72
There is but One God, the Father, of Whom are All Things
Amen created the cosmos. He is the omnipotent progenitor of all that
exists. He also created the other gods, who in turn helped contribute to
the act of creation, including the forming of mankind. Thus Amen-Re is
ultimately the all powerful Father of us all, of both god and man alike.
The Great Cairo Hymn to Amen-Re, dated as early as the Second
Intermediate Period,185 declares:
Hail to you, Amon-Re,
Oldest One of heaven, Eldest of earth,
Lord of what exists, enduring all things.
Unique One, like whom among the gods?
Goodly bull of the Ennead,
Chief of all the gods,
Lord of Truth, Father of the gods,
Who made mankind, who created the flocks,
Lord of what exists, who created the tree of life,
Who made the herbage, who vivifies the herd,
Goodly Power, whom Ptah engendered,
Youth, beautiful of love,
To whom the gods speak praise,
Who made what is below and what is above,
illuminating the Two Lands,
Ferried across the sky in peace,
King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Re,
triumphant, Chief of the Two Lands,
Great of strength, Lord of respect,
Chief who made the land in its entirety .
Whose plains are more exalted than those of any god,
At whose beauty the gods rejoice.
Further along in the hymn, it reads:
Jubilation to you, who made the gods,
Who suspended heaven, who laid down the ground !
Awake soundly, Min-Amon,
185
Robert K. Ritner, The Great Cairo Hymn of Praise to Amun-Re {1.25} P. Cairo
58038 (P. Bulaq 17), in The Context of Scripture: Canonical Compositions from
the Biblical World, Vol. 1, eds. W.W. Halo and K.L. Younger (Leiden: E.J. Brill,
1997), 37.
73
Lord of eternity, who made endlessness,
Lord of praise, foremost of the [Ennead].
Whose horns are firm, whose face is beautiful,
Lord of solar rays, who made brightness,
To whom the gods speak jubilation,
Who extends His arms to the one He loves,
Hail to you, Re, Lord of the Two Truths,
Whose shrine is hidden, Lord of the gods,
Khepri in the midst of His bark,
Who issued command that the gods might be,
Atum, who made the common man,
Who distinguished their forms, who made their lives,
Who separated the races, one from another,
Who hears the prayer of the one who is in distress,
Graciously disposed when He is entreated.
Who rescues the fearful from the hand of the brazen,
Who judges the wretch and the ruined,
Lord of perception, with effective utterance on his mouth,
Lord of sweetness, rich in love,
Coming so that the common man might live,
Who gives movement to every eye,
Formed in the Abyss,
Whose grace created brightness,
At whose beauty the gods rejoice,
Their hearts living when they see him.
Re, revered in Karnak,
Sovereign life, prosperity, health! Lord of all the gods,
Falcon(?) in the midst of the horizon,
Chief of patricians of the Land of Silence,
Whose name is hidden from His children
In this His name of Amon.
So here is yet another scripture that affirms that Re is Amen, just as
He is Ptah. They are merely different names for the One True God. Here
it is also mentioned that Amen separated the races, i.e., Amen hath
made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the
earth, and has determined the times before appointed, and the bounds
of their habitation. The hymn continues:
Hail to you who are in peace,
Lord of joy, powerful in appearances,
Lord of the uraeus, lofty of plumage,
74
With beautiful fillet, lofty of White Crown,
You, whom the gods love to see,
The Double Crown fixed on Your brow,
Love of You pervading the Two Lands,
Your rays shining in the eyes.
The patricians are happy when You rise;
The flocks languish when You shine,
Love of You is in the southern heaven,
Your sweetness in the northern heaven.
Your beauty captivates hearts,
Love of You wearying the limbs,
Your beautiful form relaxing the hands.
Thoughts go astray at the sight of you,
You are the Sole One, who made [all] that exists,
One, alone, who made that which is,
From whose two eyes mankind came forth,
On whose mouth the gods came into being .186
Not only does this hymn declare that Amen-Re created all that exists,
and is the Father of the all the gods, but it makes known that He created
everything by the power of His Word. It was upon His mouth that the
gods came into being, for He has effective utterance on His mouth.
He spoke creation into existence. In the beginning was His Word. When
He says Let there be light, there shall be light, for He is Lord of solar
rays, who made brightness.
Returning to the aforementioned Funerary Decree of Amen for
Princess Neskhons, it states:
This noble god, lord of all the gods,
Amon-Re, Lord of the Thrones of the Two Lands, Foremost of
Karnak,
The noble ba-spirit who came into being in the beginning,
The great god who lives on Maat,
The first primeval one, who bore the primeval ones,
From whom every god came into being,
The singly unique one who made what exists,
Who began the earth in the first instant .
Secret of birth and numerous of forms,
Whose hidden image is unknown,
186
75
August power, beloved and revered,
Mighty in his glorious appearances,
Lord of magnificence, powerful of form,
From whose form all forms were formed,
Who began formation, when there was nothing but him ,
Who enlightened the earth in the first instant.
Great solar disk, with streaming rays,
Presenting himself so that everyone might live,
He who crosses the firmament without wearying,
Morning by morning, his custom is fixed.
Elderly one, rising as a youth in the early morning,
Who attains the limits of eternity,
Encircles the firmament and traverses the underworld,
To enlighten the Two Lands, which he has created.
Divine god, who fashioned himself,
Who made heaven and earth in his heart,
Greatest of the great, grandest of the grand,
Great one, greater than the gods,
Youthful bull, with sharp-pointed horns,
At whose great name the Two Lands tremble,
Under whose might eternity comes about,
Who brings an end to infinity,
Great god, who began creation,
Who seized the Two Lands with his strength.
Elsewhere in the text, the decree states:
Lord of strength, sacred of dignity,
Whose body his radiance has hidden,
Whose right eye and left eye are the solar disk and the moon,
Heaven and earth being compounded with his radiant beauty,
Excellent King, who does not slack,
Concerned for rising and setting,
From whose two divine eyes mankind came forth,
And the gods from the utterances of his mouth,
Who made foodstuff, who initiated nourishment,
Who created all that exists.
Eternal one, who traverses the years,
Without limits to his lifespan,
Aged and rejuvenated, who traverses eternity,
Elderly one, who begets his youth,
76
Who grants the lifetime and doubles the years for the one in his
favor,
A good helper for the one who places him in his heart ,
A protector forever and ever,
The King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Amon-Re, King of the Gods,
Lord of heaven, earth, water, and the mountains,
Who began the earth by his transformation ,
Greater is he, more distinguished is he, than all the gods of the first
primeval time.187
Along with yet more affirmation of Gods role as creator of all
existence, there is also mention here once again of the creative power of
His spoken Word, having brought forth the gods with the utterances of
His mouth. It is also important to note here that this scripture makes it
known that in order to receive the Lords help one must invite Amen-Re
into his or her heart. Only then will He become ones personal Lord and
Savior. This can also be seen in the Hymn to Ptah on the Votive Stela of
Neferabu from the New Kingdom Period:
May he give life, prosperity, health,
Alertness, favors, and affection,
And that my eyes may see Amun every day,
As is done for a righteous man,
Who has set Amun in his heart !
Beware of Ptah, Lord of Maat!
Behold, he does not overlook anyones deed!
Refrain from uttering Ptahs name falsely,
Lo, he who utters it falsely, lo he falls!
He caused me to be as the dogs of the street,
I being in his hand;
He made men and gods observe me,
I being as a man who has sinned against his Lord .
Righteous was Ptah, Lord of Maat, toward me,
When he taught a lesson to me!
Be merciful to me, look on me in mercy!188
187
Ritner (2009), 151-54. (Emph. added.)
188
Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature Volume II: The New Kingdom
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1976-2006), 104, 109-10. (Emph.
added.)
77
So in His role as Ptah, it is Amen alone Who grants mercy to sinners,
and grants life to those that have invited Him into their hearts. This
scripture also establishes that it is a sin to take the name of the Lord our
God in vain.
Getting back to the point of His role as creator, there are the Karnak
inscriptions of Roma-Roy, a high priest of Lord Amen during the reign
of Ramesses II in the 13th century BCE189:
Giving praise to Amun-Re,
kissing the ground before his perfect face,
by the high priest of Amun,
Roma, true of voice;
He says: I have come before you, lord of the gods, Amun,
who came into being first,
divine god, creator of what exists.190
Dr. Jan Assmann offers the following text from Thebes:
The exalted ba as king of the gods continues
to spend endless time,
while endless duration is before you.
He is the exalted ba, who arose at the beginning
The creator of heaven, earth and the underworld
Who creates life, namely, wind, light, water
and fire of life, from which everything lives.191
Referring again to The Legend of Isis and the Name of Re of the 19th
dynasty, Amen as Re tells the following to Isis:
I am the one who made heaven and earth, who knit together
the mountains, who created that which exists upon it. I am the
one who made the hours so that the days came into being. I am the
one who divided the year, who created the river. I am the one who
made living fire, in order to create the craft of the palace. 192
189
Elizabeth Frood, Biographical Texts from Ramessid Egypt (Atlanta: Society of
Biblical Literature, 2007), 46.
190
191
Jan Assmann, Egyptian Solar Religion in the New Kingdom: Re, Amun and the
Crisis of Polytheism, trans. A. Alcock (London: Routledge, 1995-2009), 188-89.
(Emph. added.)
192
Ritner (1997), 34.
78
The Coffin Texts, Spell 1130:
Words spoken by Him whose names are secret, the Lord of
All, I made the four winds that everyone might breathe in his
time. I made every man equal to his fellow, and I forbade them
to do wrong, but their hearts disobeyed what I had said. I created
the gods from my sweat, and mankind from the tears of my eye.193
Aside from acknowledging Him as our Creator, and thus our Father,
this scripture also notes that the Lord made every human being to be
equal. Discrimination and prejudice towards our fellow man is not of
God. Moreover, this scripture also teaches that the Lord condemns sin,
yet mans heart, or his very nature, is already inclined to disobey. It is as
though the heart of the sons of men is full of evil and they are by nature
the children of wrath.
The Instruction to King Merikare, dated to somewhere between the
21st to 20th centuries BCE,194 states:
Well tended is mankindgods cattle,
He made sky and earth for their sake,
He subdued the water monster,
He made breath for their noses to live.
They are his images, who came from his body,
He shines in the sky for their sake.195
It is interesting to learn here that God made heaven and earth for us,
for mankind. We are His cattle, and He is our Pastor. He also subdued
the water monster, so the Lord shall punish leviathan the piercing
serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and He shall slay the
dragon that is in the sea. It is also affirmed here that God created man
in His image, in the image of God created He him, and (once again) that
He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. This scripture was
written in the 2nd millennium BCE, long before any other such text from
193
Raymond O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts, Vol. III
(Warminster: Aris & Phillips, Ltd, 1978), 167. (Emph. added.)
194
Harco Willems, The First Intermediate Period and the Middle Kingdom, in
A Companion to Ancient Egypt Vol. 1, ed. A.B. Lloyd (Oxford: Blackwell
Publishing Ltd., 2010), 83-84.
195
79
the Mediterranean coastal lands containing similar statements was ever
written.
Fig. 18: Slaying the sea monster, that great leviathan, by the command of the Lord.
Fig. 19
80
Returning to The Memphite Theology of the Old Kingdom Period,
the Lord Amen, in his identity as Ptah, is thus described beginning with
section 53:
For the very great one is Ptah, who gave [life] to all the gods
and their kas through this heart and through this tongue, Sight,
hearing, breathingthey report to the heart, and it makes every
understanding come forth. As to the tongue, it repeats what the
heart has devised. Thus all the gods were born and his Ennead was
completed. For every word of the god came about through what
the heart devised and the tongue commanded .
Thus all the faculties were made and all the qualities
determined, they that make all foods and all provision, through this
word. Thus justice is done to him who does what is loved, and
punishment to him who does what is hated. Thus life is given to
the peaceful, death is given to the criminal. Thus all labor, all crafts
are made, the action of the hands, the motion of the legs, the
movements of all the limbs, according to this command which is
devised by the heart and comes forth on the tongue and creates the
performance of every thing.
Thus it is said of Ptah: He who made all and created the
gods. And he is Ta-tenen, who gave birth to the gods, and from
whom every thing came forth, foods, provisions, divine offerings,
all good things. Thus it is recognized and understood that he is the
mightiest of the gods. Thus Ptah was satisfied after he made all
things and all divine words.196
Here it is seen yet again that the Lord created everything by His will
(devised by the heart) through His spoken Word. It can be said that in
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things
were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was
made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men.197
196
Ibid. 54-55.
197
James P. Allen, The Celestial Realm, in Ancient Egypt, ed. D.P. Silverman
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1997-2003), 124-25. THE WORD OF GOD
When the creator utters his command, Ptah transforms it into the reality of
the created world This concept of a divine intermediary between creator and
creation is the unique contribution of the Memphite Theology. It preceeded
the Greek notion of the demiurge by several hundred years; it had its ultimate
81
It is also shown here that all good things are from God, who is also
Amen-Re, God of the sun. Since the Lord God is a sun and no good
thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly, it may thus be
said that every good and perfect gift is from above, and comes down
from the Father of lights (Fig. 20). As the very next scripture declares,
He is Maker of light for mankind. This is from The Prayers of Paheri,
from around the 15th century BCE,198 which also states:
Amun, Lord of Thrones-of-the-Two-Lands,
King of eternity, lord of everlastingness,
Ruler, lord of the two great plumes,
Sole one, primordial, eldest,
Primeval, without [equal],
[Creator] of men and gods,
Living flame that came from Nun,
[Maker] of light for mankind.199
Fig. 20: Every good & perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights.
expression a thousand years later: In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was God.
198
Lichtheim (1976-2006), 15.
199
82
A statue of Montemhet at Karnak of the 7th cen. BCE200 contains the
following inscription:
Hail to you, Amun,
Maker of mankind,
God who created all beings!
Beneficent king,
First one of the Two Lands,
Who planned the eternity he made.
Great in power,
Mighty in awe,
Whose forms are exalted above other gods.
Mighty of strength.201
This inscription contains even more affirmation of God as the Maker
of man, and of all creatures, thus He is Father of all. What is also
recorded here is the fact that the Lord had planned out all eternity before
He made it, i.e., it was foreordained before the foundation of the world,
Amen having declared the end from the beginning, and from ancient
times the things that are not yet done. As that Maker of mankind, it is
revealed that Lord Amen-Re took on His form known as Khnum, in
which state He fashioned man on His potters wheel (Fig. 21). Amen-
Re can be seen identified as Khnum in one of the creator hymns at Hibis
Temple of the 6th cen. BCE, which states:
Great, Secret Hymn to Amen-Re,
Most primeval of the gods,
Eldest of the primeval ones,
Builder of builders,
Renenet of Reneneta,
Khnum, who made the Creator Gods,
effective counsel,
open (?) and sharp of face,
lord of all that exists, who predetermined every event .202
Along with the identification of Khnum as a form of Amen-Re, here
is another reference to divine predestination. Dr. Klotz also comments
that a large portion of this hymn describing Amun-Re as creator
200
Lichtheim (1980-2006), 29.
201
Ibid. 30.
202
Klotz (2006), 136, 142. (Emph. added.)
83
reappears in various hymns to the similar Khnum-Re of Esna.203 So
turning to those hymns, dated to the Ptolemaic Period,204 the Morning
Hymn to Khnum reads:
Wake well in peace, wake well in peace,
Khnum-Amun, the ancient.205
Now moving to The Great Hymn to Khnum, it states:
Another hymn to Khnum-Re,
God of the potters wheel,
Who settled the land by his handiwork;
Who joins in secret,
Who builds soundly,
He has fashioned gods and men,
He knotted the flow of blood to the bones,
Formed in his workshop as his handiwork,
So the breath of life is within everything,
Blood bound with semen in the bones,
To knit the bones from the start.
Formed all on his potters wheel,
For the lord of the wheel is their father too,
Tatenen who made all that is on their soil.
All your creatures give you thanks,
You are Ptah-Tatenen, creator of creators,
Who is Iunyt brought forth all that is.
He made mankind, created gods,
Beneficient god,
Contenting god,
God who forms bodies,
God who equips nostrils,
God who binds the Two Lands,
So that they join their natures.
They206 are concealed among mankind,
Creating all beings since gods time,
They are alive and abiding,
203
Ibid. 135.
204
Lichtheim (1980-2006), 109-10.
205
206
Ibid. 115 n.14. Lichtheim clarifies: As above, Their and They refer to the
manifestations of Khnum.
84
Like Re rising and setting.207
As the 25th chapter of The Instruction of Amenemope (13th-11th cen.
BCE208) observes:
Man is clay and straw,
The god is his builder.209
Fig. 21: We are the clay, and He our Potter.
207
208
Lichtheim (1976-2006), 147.
209
Ibid. 160.
85
Therefore, it is fitting to say of Lord Amen-Re that He is our
Father; we are the clay, and He our Potter, and we all the work of His
hand. Remember, I beseech you, that He hast made us as the clay. For
the Lord God formed man of the clay of the earth, and breathed into
his nostrils the breath of life. I also am formed out of the clay. So
cannot He do with you as this potter? Behold, as the clay is in the
potters hand, so are you in His hand. Hath not the potter power over
the clay? Thus we have this treasure in clay vessels, that the excellency
of that power may be of God, and not of us.
The next scripture is The Instruction of Insinger, also dated to the
Ptolemaic Period.210 Beginning in the 24th instruction, it states:
The teaching of knowing the greatness of the god, so as to put it in
your heart.
Heart and tongue of the wise man, the greatness of their dwelling-
place is being that of the god.
He who says It cannot happen should look to what is hidden.
How do the sun and moon go and come in the sky?
Whence go and come water, fire, and wind?
Through whom do amulet and spell becomes remedies?
The hidden work of the god, he makes it known on the earth daily.
He created light and darkness in which is every creature.
He created the earth, begetting millions, swallowing (them) up and
begetting again.
He created day, month, and year through the commands of the
lord of command.
He created summer and winter through the rising and setting of
Sothis.
He created food before those who are alive, the wonder of the
fields.
He created the constellation of those that are in the sky, so that
those on earth should learn them.
He created sweet water in it which all the lands desire.
He created breath in every egg though there is no access to it.
He created birth in every womb from the semen which they
receive.
He created sinews and bones out of the same semen.
I have not burned to do evil , my heart, the god knows [it].
210
Lichtheim (1980-2006), 184.
86
I have not taken vengeance on another; another has not suffered
on my account.
The sin which I have committed unwittingly, I beg [forgiveness for
it].
I call to the god to have mercy on me and give me sweetness ---.
He removes the worry about prosperity, without there being a
reserve.
He gives lifetime without despair and a [good] burial.
He relies on your heart on its way in its time ---.211
He created birth in every womb, this might remind one of a text on
the stela of Pianchi (8th cen. BCE). In it, Amen says:
It was in the belly of your mother that I said concerning you
that you were to be ruler of Egypt; it was as a seed and while you
were in the egg, that I knew you, that (I knew) you were to be
Lord.212
Therefore before He formed us in the belly He knew us; and before
we came forth out of the womb He sanctified us. The Lord has called
us from the womb; from the bowels of our mother has He made
mention of our name. Amen is He that took me out of the womb: He
didst make me hope when I was upon my mothers breasts. I was cast
upon Him from birth: He is my God from my mothers womb. By Him
have we been held up from the womb: it is He that took us out of our
mothers bowels: our praise shall be continually of Him. His eyes did
see our unformed fetus, yet being unperfect; and in His book all our
members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as
yet there was none of them. When it pleased Amen, He separated us
from our mothers womb, and called us by His grace.
That is why He is the heavenly Father, our Father, of both men and
gods, and of all that He has made. Hence the Berlin Hymn to Ptah (10th-
211
Ibid. 209-213.
212
Gregory Glazov, The Bridling of the Tongue and the Opening of the Mouth in
Biblical Prophecy (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press Ltd, 2001), 185.
87
8th, but possibly 13th-11th, cen. BCE213) declares of the Lord in His name
of Ptah:
Greetings, Ptah, father of the gods,
Ta-tenen, eldest of the originals,
who begot himself by himself, without any developing having
developed;
who crafted the world in the design of his heart,
when his developments developed.
Model who gave birth to all that is,
begetter who created what exists.214
A cartouche from Amarna of the 14th century BCE likewise says of
Lord Amen-Re, in his form as the sun disk or Aten:
Life to Re, ruler of the two horizons, who rejoices in the
horizon in his name Re, the father who is come as Aten.215
Chapter 80 of the previously cited Papyrus Leiden I 350 says of
Father Amen:
You returned in fathers, maker of their sons,
to make an excellent heritage for your children.216
Our Begetter, our Father is He, just as the Perennial Gospel hath
declared. His essence is made manifest in His offspring. Returning to the
Decree for Neskhons:
Secret of birth and numerous of forms,
From whose form all forms were formed,
He of ba-spirit, who became manifest forms,
His distinctive essence in every god.217
213
James P. Allen, Genesis in Egypt: The Philosophy of Ancient Egyptian
Creation Accounts, Yale Egyptological Studies 2 (New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1988), 38.
214
215
Peter R.S. Moorey, Ancient Egypt (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum Publications,
1970-92), 27. (Emph. added.)
Erik Hornung, Akhenaten and the Religion of Light, trans. D. Lorton (Ithaca:
Cornell University Press, 1995-99), 76-77.
Hart (1986-2005), 39.
216
217
Ritner (2009), 151-153. (Emph. added.)
88
Dr. Glenn Holland comments:
Amun became the dominant god of Egypt during the five
hundred years of the New Kingdom, and among his other
attributes he was designated the transcendent creator . As with
Atum in the Heliopolis creation story, Amun (Hiddenness or
the one who conceals himself) was believed to be the divine
essence present in all the gods , making all the gods essentially
projections or manifestations of Amun .218
Elsewhere Holland adds:
Another sun god was Amen, a primeval deity who was
originally part of the Ogdoad, but who later gained supremacy as
Amen-Re and became the object of widespread, almost exclusive
worship. Amen was very early on a god of Thebes, as weve seen,
together with the god Mantu, the god of war. As Thebes became
politically prominent at the end of the First Intermediate Period,
Amen also became more powerful, and before 2000 BCE, he was
already given the name Amen-Rea composite name that
represented the two aspects of the god.
The name Amen, meaning hiddeness, indicated the
unknowable essence of the god, whose power and authority were
far beyond human understanding. The name Re indicated the
revealed aspect of the god, who shone over the two kingdoms in
the shining radiance of the sun.
After the establishment of the native dynasty following the
expulsion of the Hyksos, the worship of Amen-Re became an
expression of Egyptian power. And two new major shrines were
built for Amen-Re at this time, one at Luxor and the other at
Karnak. During the New Kingdom, Amen-Re was designated king
of the gods, and the other gods were often presented as personified
facets of his divine being. So at times, the worship of Amen-Re
came close to monotheism in practice, if not in theory, as his
worship became almost exclusive and the gods, the other gods that
is, were understood as manifestations of Amen-Re himself.219
218
Holland (2009), 35. (Emph. added.)
219
Holland (2005), Lecture. (Emph. added.)
89
Dr. James P. Allen concurs:
As the only god who is independent of the universe, he is the
true creator: the pre-existing god who thought of the world
through the heart and commanded it to be through the tongue.
For this reason, all other gods of creationAtum and his Ennead,
Ptah-Tatenen, and even the Ogdoad of Hermopolisare really just
aspects of Amun himself.220
Allen also comments on P. Leiden I 350:
Chapter 90 continues the theme of Amuns preeminent
causative role by explaining how the various developments of the
creation in fact derive from, and are manifestations of, Amun
himself. The entire pantheon is nothing more than the sum total
and image of the creator, whose existence precedes theirs (lines C2-
6). The first elements of the creationthe Primeval Mound and the
sunas well as the pre-creation universe that surrounded them, all
emanate from the creation (lines C7-9). The primordial Monad,
and its first development into the void and the sun, are also his
manifestations (lines C10-17). And his was the voice that
pronounced the first creative utterance , shattering the stillness of
nonexistence and setting the entire process of creation in motion
(lines C18-26).221
He elsewhere remarks of the same papyrus:
As he exists outside nature, Amun is the only god by whom
nature could have been created. The text recognizes this by
identifying all the creator gods as manifestations of Amun , the
supreme cause, whose perception and creative utterance, through
the agency of Ptah, precipitated Atums evolution into the world.
The consequence of this view is that all the gods are no more than
aspects of Amun.222
Egyptologist Vincent A. Tobin writes:
During the New Kingdom, the theology of Amun-Re at
Thebes became very complex. His position as king of the gods
increased to a point that approached monotheism . In Amun-Res
220
J.P. Allen (2000-10), 186.
221
J.P. Allen (1988), 51-52. (Emph. added.)
222
J.P. Allen (1997-2003), 127.
90
most advanced theological expressions, the other gods became
symbols of his power or manifestations of him he himself being
the one and only supreme divine power. This absolute supremacy
of Amun-Re was eloquently expressed in the sun hymns found in
the eighteenth dynasty tombs at Thebes. As Amun, he was secret,
hidden, and mysterious; but as Re, he was visible and revealed.
Although for centuries Egyptian religion had been flexible and
open to contradictory mythological expressions, the Theban
theology of Amun-Re came close to establishing a standard of
orthodoxy in doctrine.223
So getting back to that text, Leiden I 350, chapter 80 reads:
The Eight were your first manifestation,
until You completed these,
You being Single.224
In chapter 90:
The Ennead combined is your body:
Every god joined in your body is your image .
You emerged first, You inaugurated from the start.
Amun,
ta-Tenen, who formed [Himself] by Himself as Ptah:
The toes of His body are the Eight.
He appeared as Re,
His are the effective forms of the Ennead. 225
Chapter 200 adds:
Re himself is united with His body.
He is the Great One in Heliopolis.
He is called ta-Tenen.
Amun, who comes out of the Nun,
to guide the peoples.
Another of His forms are the Eight ,
primeval one of the primeval ones,
begetter of Re.
223
Vincent A. Tobin, Amun and Amun-Re, in The Oxford Encyclopedia of
Ancient Egypt: Volume 1, ed. D.B. Redford (New York: Oxford University Press,
2001), 84.
224
225
91
He completed himself as Atum,
being of one body with him. 226
Also recall the previously quoted passage from chapter 300:
All the gods are three:
Amun, Re and Ptah, without their seconds. 227
Thus far it has been shown that the eight gods of the Ogdoad, the
nine gods of the Ennead, and indeed, all the gods, are part of the body of
Amen and are made in His image. All gods are but parts of the whole,
that Whole being the Triune Godhead- Lord Amen-Re-Ptah.
Now returning yet again to the hymns from the Hibis temple, the
Hymn to the Bas of Amun states:
You are Amun,
you are Atum,
you are Khepri,
you are Re.
Sole one who made himself into millions,
Tatenen who came about in the beginning.
You are the one who built his body with his own hands,
In every form of his desire.
You are the great winged-scarab within Nut.228
The Creator Hymn likewise declares:
Great, secret hymn to Amun-Re.
The Ogdoad says:
Greetings.
o sole god, who made himself into millions,
whose length and breadth are [without limit. 229
Dr. Klotz adds:
This description of Amun-Re whose length and width are
without boundaries, yet who is also remote and mysterious of
visible form, as the source of millions should be compared with
the following Hermetic description of god:
226
227
228
Klotz (2006), 191. (Emph. added.)
229
92
For this is his body, neither tangible nor visible nor measurable
nor dimensional nor like any other body; it is not fire nor
water nor air nor spirit, yet all things come from it .230
Returning to The Legend of Isis and the Name of Re, Re speaks the
following words:
I am a noble, son of a noble, the fluid of a god come forth
from a god. I am a great one, son of a great one. My father thought
out my name. I am one who has numerous names and numerous
forms. My form exists as every god.231
230
231
Ritner (1997), 33. (Emph. added.)
93
Fig. 22: A pillar from the tomb of Thutmose III, 15th cen. BCE, depicting several
different gods. The accompanying texts reveal that all are just manifestations of Re
Himself.
A few examples of those forms, aside from those already mentioned,

such as Khnum, are named in the following portion of The Great Hymn
to Khnum:
94
The diverse forms of Khnum
In First-of-towns he is Ba-of-Re,
At Iunyt he is Ba-of-Shu,
In Shah-hotep he is Ba-of-Osiris,
In Herwer he is Ba-of-Geb,
He is Horus-Metenu in Semenhor,
He changes his form to Lord-of-the-booth,232
He changes his form to Suwadjenba of Pi-neter,
He alters his form to beneficient Nourisher. 233
Other forms are also named here in The Memphite Theology of the
Old Kingdom Period, which states:
The gods who came into being in Ptah:
Ptah-on-the-great-throne ------,
Ptah-Nun, the father who [made] Atum.
Ptah-Naunet, the mother who bore Atum.
Ptah-the-Great is heart and tongue of the Nine [Gods].
[Ptah] ------ who bore the gods.
[Ptah] ------ Nefertem at the nose of Re every day.
There took shape in the heart, there took shape on the tongue
the form of Atum. For the very great one is Ptah, who gave [life] to
all the gods and their kas through this heart and through this
tongue, in which Horus had taken shape as Ptah, in which Thoth
had taken shape as Ptah.
Thus heart and tongue rule over all the limbs in accordance
with the teaching that it (the heart, or: he, Ptah) is in every body
and it (the tongue, or: he, Ptah) is in every mouth of all gods, all
men, all cattle, all creeping things, whatever lives, thinking whatever
it (or: he) wishes and commanding whatever it (or: he) wishes.
His (Ptahs) Ennead is before him as teeth and lips. They are
the semen and the hands of Atum. For the Ennead of Atum came
into being through his semen and his fingers. But the Ennead is the
teeth and lips in this mouth which pronounced the name of every
thing, from which Shu and Tefnut came forth, and which gave birth
to the Ennead.234
232
Anubis.
233
Lichtheim (1980-2006), 114.
234
Lichtheim (1973-2006), 54.
95
Here can be seen yet more affirmation that the nine gods of the
Ennead are manifestations of aspects of the Lord Himself. It is also
added that Horus and Thoth are also manifested forms of the One True
God as well. This scripture teaches that His Heart is in every body and
that the Word of God is in the mouth of all living creatures. It relates
how all created things are but manifestations of the wishes and thoughts
of His Heart and are given form by His spoken Word. This was also
stated previously from another portion of the Memphite theology, which
declared that everything that takes place is devised by the heart of God
and comes forth on the tongue and creates the performance of every
thing. In other words, it might be said that all things begin as, and are
merely images of, Ideas in the realm of the Intellect of The Good. All
creation emanates from God Himself and thus part of His substance is
within us all. This notion is also expressed in the Harris Magical
Papyrus (c. 13th cen. BCE235):
Greetings, you sole one who makes himself into millions,
who extends in length and breadth without bounds,
equipped power that created itself,
King Amun-Re, may he live, prosper, and be healthy, the self-
created,
Akhty, the eastern Horus,
The one who rises blazing with light,
the light that shines upon the gods.
You have hidden yourself as Amun, the great one,
you have distanced yourself in your embodiment as sun,
Tanen, who elevates himself above the gods:
the self-rejuvenating old one who traverses neheh,
Amun, who abides in all things,
this god who founded the earth through his decision. 236
It cannot be stated any more explicitly than that- Amen abides in all
things. So obvious is this truth that even among those nations outside of
Gods chosen people of Kemet this fact was acknowledged. First, recall
235
Jan Assman, Magic and Theology in Ancient Egypt, in Envisioning Magic: A
Princeton Seminar and Symposium, eds. P. Schfer and H.G. Kippenberg
(Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV, 1997), 10.
236
Jan Assmann, The Search for God in Ancient Egypt, trans. D. Lorton (Ithaca:
Cornell University Press, 1984-2001), 243. (Emph. added.)
96
how on page 51 it was established that in the ancient Mediterranean
world Lord Amen was identified with the Greco-Roman king of the gods
and of heaven- Zeus, a.k.a. Jupiter, Jove, etc., often times even referred
to collectively as Zeus-Ammon (Fig. 23). That being the case, the Greek
playwright Aeschylus of the 5th century BCE, in his play known as
Daughters of Helios, wrote the following:
Zeus is sky, Zeus is earth, Zeus is heaven;
Zeus is everything and all that is beyond these things. 237
Fig. 23
The Stoic Cleanthes of Assos expressed similar sentiments in his
famous Hymn to Zeus (c. 3rd cen. BCE). For this translation, the editors
begin by adding the following commentary:
The Hymn to Zeus, the longest and most famous of these
fragments, shows how Cleanthes unites philosophical material with
traditional Greek theology and myth by equating Zeus with logos
(reason, the divine power that, according to Stoic cosmology,
permeates the whole universe and orders and controls all things.
Also important for this poem is the Stoic idea of divine providence,
whereby all things in the world are predetermined. Even morally
base actions (and their punishments) have a part in the divine plan.
237
Stephen M. Trzaskoma et al., Anthology of Classical Myth: Primary Sources
in Translation (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2004), 5. (Emph.
added.)
97
Thus, to Cleanthes mind, Zeus is nothing other than this logos, the
supreme divine force guiding our world, put into mythical form.
The text itself reads:
Most honored of immortals, many-named, all-powerful always,
Zeus! Source of all things, directing all things according to law,
hail! It is right for all mortals to address you
since you provided the power of speech to them
alone of all things that live and crawl along the earth.
For this I will hymn you without end and sing of your power.
This whole universe spinning about the earth
obeys you, wherever you lead it, and meekly accepts your mastery.
Such is the servant you hold in your unconquerable hands,
the double-edged, fiery, everlasting thunderbolt.
Everything is brought to pass beneath its threat.
With it you guide the universal force that pervades everything ,
intermixed with both great and small lights.
With it you have become the supreme king for time eternal.
Nothing happens apart from you, God,
on earth or in the divine vault of heaven or the sea,
save for what wicked men do in their folly.
But yours is the skill to make the uneven even,
the disorderly orderly and the unpleasing pleasing to you.
Thus you have harmonized all goodness and wickedness into one,
so that there is for all things a single, everlasting force,
which every wicked mortal flees and rejects. 238
Other ancient Stoics shared in such views, such as Zeno of Citium
(4 cen. BCE), Chrysippus of Soli (3rd cen. BCE), Antipater of Tarsus
th
(2nd cen. BCE), Posidonius (2nd-1st cen. BCE), and Bothus of Sidon (2nd
cen. BCE),239 as preserved by the 3rd century historian Diogenes Lartius.
In his seventh book on the Lives and Opinions of the Eminent
Philosophers, section 147, he wrote:
The deity, say they, is a living being, immortal, rational, perfect
or intelligent in happiness, admitting nothing evil [into him], taking
providential care of the world and all that therein is, but he is not of
238
239
John Sellar, Stoicism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006), 159-
161.
98
human shape. He is, however, the artificer of the universe and, as it
were, the father of all, both in general and in that particular part of
him which is all-pervading, and which is called many names
according to its various powers. They give the name Dia ()
because all things are due to () him ; Zeus () in so far as he
is the cause of life () or pervades all life ; the name Athena is
given, because the ruling part of the divinity extends to the aether ;
the name Hera marks its extension to the air ; he is called
Hephaestus since it spreads to the creative fire ; Poseidon, since it
stretches to the sea ; Demeter, since it reaches to the earth.
Similarly men have given the deity his other titles, fastening, as best
they can, on some one or other of his peculiar attributes.
The substance of God is declared by Zeno to be the whole
world and the heaven, as well as by Chrysippus in his first book Of
the Gods, and by Posidonius in his first book with the same title.
Again, Antipater in the seventh book of his work On the
Cosmos says that the substance of God is akin to air, while Bothus
in his work On Nature speaks of the sphere of the fixed stars as the
substance of God.240
Next will be the 1st century BCE241 Latin poet Publius Vergilius
Maro, or simply Virgil. In his work known as the Ecalogues, beginning
at 3.60, it is declared that all things are full of Jove. He cares for the
earth, and my songs are dear to him.242 Then in Georgics 4.221-27,
Virgil writes:
For God (they hold) pervades
All lands, the widespread seas, the abysms of unplumbed sky:
From Whom flocks, herds, men, every wild creature in its kind
Derive at birth the slight, precarious breath of life:
To Him, therefore, all things return at last and in Him
Are reabsorbedno room for deathand they soar to join
240
Lois P. Pojman and Michael Rea, Philosophy of Religion: An Anthology, Sixth
Edition (Boston: Wadsworth, 2003-12), 10. (Emph. added.)
241
Thomas K. Hubbard, The Pipes of Pan: Intertextuality & Literary Filiation in
the Pastoral Tradition from Theocritus to Milton (Ann Arbor: The University of
Michigan Press, 1998 ), 85.
242
Ibid. 73, 170-71. (Emph. added.)
99
The stars immortal muster, and reach the heights of heaven. 243
Hence it can be said that in Amen we revere that Jupiter of whom
Virgil says that All things are full of Jove, that is to say, the spirit of
life that vivifies all things. It is not without reason, therefore, that
Varro believed that this same God was worshipped, although called
by another name, even by those who worship one God alone without
any image (after all, Amen is hidden) ... and he judged that it
mattered not what name was employed, provided the same subject was
understood under it. It might also be said that the same almost are the
opinions also which are ours, for we both know and speak of a God,
Amen, who is parent of all. Just as certain also of other poets have said,
For we are also His offspring, For in Him we live, and move, and
have our being.
These poets are, of course, Aratus and Epimenides, the former of
which wrote Phaenomena in the 3rd century BCE, and it states:
From Zeus let us begin; him do we mortals never leave
unnamed; full of Zeus are all the streets and all the market-places
of men; full is the sea and the havens thereof; always we all have
need of Zeus. For we are also his offspring .244
Epimindes wrote Cretica in around the 6th century BCE.245 In it, the
character Minos offers the following rebuke to the Cretans and their
claims that, much like in the tales of Attis and Adonis, Zeus was once a
mortal human who was killed by a boar, and that his dead body was
buried there in Crete:
The Cretans carve a Tomb for thee, O holy and high! liars!
evil beasts, and slow bellies; for thou art not dead for ever; thou art
243
Virgil, in Virgil: The Eclogues, The Georgics, trans. C.D. Lewis (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1940-83), 116. (Emph. added.)
244
Aratus, Phaenomena, in Callimachus: Hymns and Epigrams, Lycophron,
Aratus, trans. G.R. Mair (London: William Heinemann Ltd., and Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1921-89), 207. (Emph. added.)
245
Hugh Bowden, Classical Athens and the Delphic Oracle: Divination and
Democracy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 110.
100
alive and risen; for in thee we live and are moved, and have our
being.246
Thus even the heathen have confessed, albeit by various names, that
He be not far from every one of us, for all things are full of Him. Amen
is before all things, and by Him all things consist. Can any hide
himself in secret places that Amen shall not see him? Does not He fill
heaven and earth? Whither shall we go from His spirit? Or whither
shall we flee from His presence? If we ascend into heaven, He is there:
if we make my bed in hell, behold, He is there. If I take the wings of the
morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall
His hand lead me, and His right hand shall hold me.
He is that one to whom, in the midst of Mars hill at Athens, was
dedicated an altar with this inscription- To The Unknown God.
Whom therefore the heathen did ignorantly worship, Him declare I
unto you. This Unknown God, attested to by Apollonius, Pausanias,
and Lucian,247 is none other than Lord Amen, for as already shown, his
very name means hidden, which indicated the unknowable essence of
the god. It is Amen who the scriptures declare is secret of form, who is
unknown, who has hidden himself from all the gods, who has set himself
apart as the solar disk, yet who is unknown and secret of birth and
numerous of forms, whose hidden image is unknown and whose origin
is unknown.
It is that Unknown God, Amen, that created all things from out of
His own self, and thus we each have a portion of Him within us.
Therefore it is through Amen that all of the gods are ultimately
246
Epimenides, Cretica, in The Commentaries of Ishodad of Merv, Bishop of
Hadatha (c. 850 A.D.) In Syriac and English Vol. 4, ed. M.D. Gibson (Cambridge:
247
Jones (2005), 101.
Jones (1918-92), 7.
Pausanias, Description of Greece: Books 3-5, trans. W.H.S. Jones and H.A.
Ormerod (London: William Heinemann Ltd., and Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
Lucian, Philopatris, in Lucian: Volume VIII, trans. M.D. MacLeod (London:
1967-79), 465.
101
connected, and not only the gods, but all of us are connected by Amen
our Father as well. Just like the scriptures testify that the Ennead, the
Ogdoad, and even every god is joined in [Amens] body, so also we
are members of His Body, of His Flesh, and of His Bones. What?
Know ye not that your body is the temple of His Holy Spirit which is in
you, which ye have of Amen, and ye are not your own? Now ye are the
Body of Amen, and members in particular. Amen, I say unto you, for
the sake of the race of men, because it is material, has torn Himself
asunder and brought unto them all the mysteries of the Light, that He
may purify them. May He gather that torn Body together; gather His
children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her
wings. May Amen save all His Members (Limbs), which since the
foundation of the world have been scattered abroad in all the rulers,
ministers, and workmen of this on, and gather them all together and
receive them into the Light, so that in the dispensation of the fullness
of times He might gather together in one all things in Himself, both
which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in Him.
So we should all pray that He should gather together in one the
children of God that were scattered abroad. Pray that He gather
together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the
other. Just as bread, even the bread of our holy communion, was once
grain that was dispersed over the mountains, and being collected
became one, so may His congregation be gathered together from the
ends of the earth into His kingdom. That we all may be one; as Thou,
Father, art in Your Son, and Your Son in You, that we also may be one
in You, that we may be one, even as You both are One. For as the body
is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body,
being many, are one body: so also is Amen.
Let us pray that God hath tempered the Body together, having given
more abundant honor to that part which lacked, that there should be
no schism in the Body; but that the members should have the same
care one for another. Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit of
Amen in the bond of peace. There is one Body, and one Spirit, even as
ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one
baptism, One God and Father of all- Amen, Who is above all, and
through all, and in you all.
102
Chapter Two
And in the Qrst,248
His Begotten Son, our Lord
In the Beginning
These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when
they were created, in the time that the Lord God Amen made the earth
and the heavens. In the beginning God created the heavens and the
earth. Amen-Re-Ptah is His name.249 He became Ogdoad, the Eight.250
The One gives way to four pairs of primordial creatures, the
Ogdoad, whose names indicate that they belong to the realm of the
uncreated: primeval flood, hiddenness, endlessness, the
undifferentiated ones.
Dr. Erik Hornung, Idea Into Image: Essays on Ancient
Egyptian Thought 251
Ultimately, according to the account of P. Berlin 13603, all
eight members of the Ogdoad are assimilated within a single being
who incorporates both the male and the female members. That
being in question is Amun. One finds this identification already in
the hymn to that god preserved in P. Leiden I 350 (temp.
Ramesses II), where he is told Xmny.w Xprw=k tpy r km=k nn iw=k
waty, The Ogdoad were your initial form, until you completed
these, being one. Elsewhere in the same papyrus, it is said of the
god: ky Xprw=fm Xmny.w, Another of his forms is the Ogdoad.
In a further passage, Amun is called wa waw nTri imn rn=f imy nTr
A, the sole unique one, divine, who concealed his name among the
eight gods.
Dr. Mark J. Smith, On the Primeval Ocean 252
248
See p.329, n.994.
249
See pp.42-44, 88-92.
250
See p.90-91.
J.P. Allen (2000-10), 186.
Dungen (2011), 187.
251
Erik Hornung, Idea Into Image: Essays on Ancient Egyptian Thought, trans. E.
Bredeck (New York: Timken Publishers, Inc., 1989-92), 41. (Emph. added.)
103
They were called the [Ogdoad] Here are their names:
Amun, Amaunet, Heh, Hauhet, Kek, Kauket, Nun, [and Naunet].
These again are [the names] of the eight divinities.
Papyrus Carlsberg 302 (1) 253
Amun and Amaunet were hiddenness, Huh and Hauhet were
formlessness, Kuk and Kauket were darkness, and Nun and
Naunet were the watery abyss.
Dr. Leonard H. Lesko, in Religion in Ancient Egypt: Gods,
Myths and Personal Practice 254
O you Eight Chaos-gods, being veritable Chaos-gods in
chaos, in the Abyss, in darkness and in gloom.
Coffin Texts, Spell 80 I, 27 255
This pre-creation universe was the subject of speculation quite
early in Egyptian history. Viewing it as the opposite of the known,
created world, theologians codified several of its essential features,
in a series of abstract concepts: wateriness ( nwj), or inertia (nnw),
the most basic qualities, enshrined in the names of the waters (Nu,
Nun); infinity (hhw); darkness (kkw); uncertainty (tnmw, literally
lostness) or hiddenness (jmnw). These four qualities first appear
as a group in the funerary Coffin Texts ca. 2000BCE and two of
its divine pairs (Nun and Naunet, Amun and Amaunet) appear in
the Pyramid Texts from ca. 2350BCE.
Together with the universal waters, the gods of the Ogdoad
were thought to have existed before the creation. The theologians
of Hermopolis viewed the qualities that they represented as a
negative image of the created world. The pre-creation universe was
watery, inert, infinite, dark and uncertain or hidden, in contrast to
the created world, which was dry, active, limited, light and tangible.
These contrasts formed a dynamic tension between the negative
potentiality of the universe before creation and the positive reality
of the created world. To the theologians of Hermopolis, this
tension contributed to the inevitability of creation itself. As a result,
the gods of the Ogdoad were venerated as creator-deities: the
252
Mark J. Smith, On the Primeval Ocean (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum
Press, 2002), 51. (Emph. added.)
253
Ibid. 32.
254
Leonard H. Lesko, Ancient Egyptian Cosmogonies and Cosmology, in
Religion in Ancient Egypt: Gods, Myths, and Personal Practice, ed. B.E. Shafer
(Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991), 95.
255
104
fathers and mothers who were before the original gods, who
evolved first, the ancestors of the sun.
Dr. James P. Allen, in Ancient Egypt 256
In the Middle Egyptian city of Hermopolis (Khemenu), an
emphasis was placed on the great abyss of nothingness out of which
creation came. This primordial chaos, the primeval waters or abyss,
was made up of the four pairs that together were the Hermopolitan
pantheon of eight, the Ogdoad.
Dr. David A. Leeming, Jealous Gods and Chosen People: The
Mythology of the Middle East 257
Now the important thing about this myth is to gather what, just
what, are the Egyptians trying to tell us. Eight gods in the water?
No, theyre telling us more. Think about the attributes-
formlessness, darkness, hiddenness. In the beginning was chaos.
These are not, sort of, user friendly termshiddenness, darkness,
formlessnesstheyre not positive attributes. Theyre negative. So in
the beginning we have chaos, and thats the Eight. Thats the
beginning of the universe.
Dr. Bob Brier, History of Ancient Egypt 258
256
J.P. Allen (1997-2003), 120-21.
257
David A. Leeming, Jealous Gods and Chosen People: The Mythology of the
Middle East (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 69-70. (Emph. added.)
258
Bob Brier, History of Ancient Egypt (Chantilly: The Teaching Company LLC,
1999), Lecture 3.
105
Fig. 24: Illustrating Amen as the Primordial Chaos
So all was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face
of the deep. And the breath of God moved upon the face of the waters.
From those living waters rose Neith, the Mother of God.259 The Lord
divided the waters and let the dry land appear. Thus arose the primeval
mound, that great pyramidion- the Benben stone.260 There that blessed
virgin delivered Re, God the Son, begotten of Amen,261 who became Re-
259
See pp.50-72.
260
Nicolas Grimal, A History of Ancient Egypt (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd,
1988-2001), 42, 124, 127, 396, 401.
Charlotte Booth, Travellers Guide to the Ancient World: Egypt in the Year 1200
BCE (Hove: Quid Publishing, 2008), 74, 82, 150, 152.
Remler (2000-10), 28-29, 138, 154, 156, 157.
Pinch (2002-04), 180, 227.
Morkot (2005), 39.
261
See pp.44-48, 89-90.
106
Atum.262 Atum, the eldest of the Ennead and Father of the gods, hatched
forth from that great Benben stone.
O Atum-Khoprer, you became high on the height, you rose up
as the bnbn-stone in the Mansion of the Phoenix in On.
Pyramid Texts, Utterance 600 1652 263
Among the many forms of the Egyptian cosmogonies is the
familiar figure of the cosmic egg, a substitute for the primeval
waters or the primeval mound. There were people who believed in
the cosmic egg as the soulperhaps the male soul, Atum or Shuof
the original maternal waters One variant of the cosmic egg
version teaches that the sun god, as primeval power, emerged from
the primeval mound, which itself stood in the chaos of the primeval
sea.
In spite of a constant development over the centuries, certain
aspects of an Egyptian creation myth can be said to be relatively
constant. These include a source of all things in the primeval
waters, themselves a remnant of the Great Mother , and the
presence of an Eye, the sun, that creates cosmos within the chaos
of the surrounding waters. The sun, whether Atum, Re, or Ptah, is
also associated with a primeval mound or hill, much like the little
fertile mounds left by the receding Nile after the annual floods and
perhaps like the early sun coming over the horizon. The mound
was symbolized by the great pyramids. The people of Heliopolis
said their city was the primal mound; the center of creation.
Some ancient Egyptians considered the cosmic egg to be the
soul of the original primeval waters of creation. One story has it
that the sun god, as ultimate power, emerged from the primeval
mound, itself a version of the cosmic egg resting in the chaos of the
primeval sea.
Dr. David A. Leeming, Creation Myths of the World:
An Encyclopedia 264
In the Neith cosmogony at Esna, the sun god is said to emerge
from an egg fertilized in the Primeval Ocean, one which contains
the exudations of the body of Neith.
262
Ibid.
263
Faulkner (1969), 246.
264
David A. Leeming, Creation Myths of the World: An Encyclopedia (Santa
Barbara: ABC-CLIO, LLC, 1994-2009), 104-05, 313. (Emph. added.)
107
You are Amun,
you are Atum
while rising from Nun within the primeval mound.
Your ancient throne is the mound of Hermopolis,
It is from the lake of Two Knives that you reach land.
It is from the water surface that you appear in the hidden egg,
Amunet being with you.
The Hibis Hymn to the Bas of Amun 266
At Hermopolis, four male and female pairs of divine beings
representing aspects of the cosmos before creation comprised an
ogdoad (eight gods), which produced an egg that developed on an
island that appeared in the middle of the Nile as the flood receded;
from this egg, the creator god was born.
Dr. Leonard H. Lesko, in Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of
Ancient Egypt 267
The Primeval Mound was the first land to rise above the
primeval ocean at the dawn of time. The Primeval Mound was the
place where the spirit of the creator could take on a form and begin
the work of creation. The mound remained the center of the
cosmos and a place of continuous creation. It could be shown as a
rounded or stepped mound. The pyramidion-shaped benben stone
of Heliopolis may also have been an image of the Primeval
Mound. The god who embodied the Mound was Tatjenen
[Tatenen].
Mounds featured in many different creation myths. In
Memphis, Tatjenen was worshipped as a form of the creator god
Ptah. At Thebes he became a form of Amun. A high hill of sand is
mentioned in the cosmology of Heliopolis. Atum, or his erect
penis, was sometimes identified with this hill. At Hermopolis, the
primeval forces known as the Ogdoad came together to form a
mound or an island as a place for the primeval egg.
265
Smith (2002), 60. (Emph. added.)
266
Klotz (2006), 191, 203.
267
Leonard H. Lesko, Mythology, in Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of
Ancient Egypt, ed. K.A. Bard (London: Routledge, 1999), 663.
108
Dr. Geraldine Pinch, Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the Gods,
Goddesses, and Traditions of Ancient Egypt 268
For Egyptians creation was imagined in terms of the inundating
waters of the Nile as they receded each year to reveal hillocks of
mud that quickly teemed with life under a tropical sun. The
moment when existence differentiated itself from nonexistence was
termed the first time and was represented as a mound or hill
emerging from the watery void. On this hill the creator first
manifested himselfan event that could be represented
iconographically as a child emerging from an egg or from an
opening bud of a lotus flower, or as a bird perched upon the
moundthen he created the world as well as the divine pantheon.
The place where creation began was given various names
primeval hill, sacred mound, place of coming forth,and its
symbolism was potent and ubiquitous in Egyptian writing as well as
in artistic representation. The pyramid was intended to
reproduce not only the shape of the primeval hill, but also its ability
to rejuvenate. The hill was early fetishized as a conical stone, called
bn-bn. Via a series of verbal and iconic similarities the bn-bn
could be associated with the sun-god: wbn means to shine, and
the stone emerging from the waters resembled the sun rising on the
eastern horizon. The sun-god, too, could be portrayed as emerging
from an egg that sat upon this hill, or as the bnw-bird (probably a
heron) perched upon the bn-bn.
Dr. Susan A. Stephens, Seeing Double: Intercultural Poetics
in Ptolemaic Alexandria 269
The creator drifts in this primeval morass without finding a fast
hold. But gradually the mud of the primordial flood becomes a
single mass and rises as a hillan image that the Egyptians had
before their eyes every autumn, when the annual Nile floods
receded. Firm ground separates itself from the watery mass; the
creator can stand on such ground, and his work can begin. The
sun emerges from the center of these beings, and as it rises for the
first time it signals the beginning of the world. The motif of
emergence, associated with the image of a mound of earth, is
reflected in the pyramids.
268
Pinch (2002-04), 180.
269
Susan A. Stephens, Seeing Double: Intercultural Poetics in Ptolemaic
Alexandria (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003), 59. (Emph. added.)
109
Dr. Erik Hornung, Idea Into Image: Essays on Ancient
At one particular moment, the eight components of the
Ogdoad interact to break the laws governing chaos and out of the
new order they generate the primeval mound of silt on which the
sun god, Amun, in a new role, is to be born from a cosmic egg.
This mound later becomes Hermopolis.
Dr. William G. Doty, Myth: A Handbook 271
Thus the first male born in creation arose from the land or earth
and was named Atum. That sounds somewhat similar to other legends of
creations first-born male arising from the earth, and had a similar
sounding name. It would also seem that similar legends of a creator
gathering the primordial waters together to cause dry land to form were
inspired by Gods natural metaphor of the receding of the Nile (or other
inundating bodies of water) after the flood season.
270
Hornung (1989-92), 41.
271
William G. Doty, Myth: A Handbook (Westport: Greenwood Press, 2004), 56.
(Emph. added.)
110
Fig. 25: The birth of the sun upon the primeval mound, surrounded by the waters of the
Nun. The Ogdoad can be seen terraforming the mound; from the Book of the Dead of
Khensumose, 11th-10th century BCE.
After His own birth, Re-Atum took His creative organ in His hand
and drank of His own divine seed, then spit it out into the void. From that
spittle He begot Shu and Tefnut, god of the air and goddess of moisture.
Thus the atmosphere was born. (Also born was the motif of divine spittle
having creative and regenerative powers.) As the scriptures have
declared:
O Atum you spat out Shu, you expectorated Tefenet, and
you set your arms about them as the arms of a ka-symbol, that your
essence might be in them.
Pyramid Texts, Utterance 600 1652-3 272
272
Faulkner (1969), 246.
111
Atum is he who (once) came into being, who masturbated in
On. He took his phallus in his grasp that he might create orgasm by
means of it, and so were born the twins Shu and Tefenet.
Shu then separated the Ogdoad of Amen and gave them form.
O you Eight Chaos-gods, being veritable Chaos-gods, who
encircle the sky with your arms, who gather together sky and earth
for Geb, Shu fashioned you in chaos, in the Abyss, in darkness and
in gloom.
Coffin Texts, Spell 80 I, 27-8 274
In the beginning, the Ogdoad existed only as a force of power
but then took the form of frogs and serpents.
Patricia Remler, Egyptian Mythology: A to Z 275
These deities were represented anthropomorphically at a
much later date, but in their original conception seem to have been
chthonic at least and perhaps better considered as elements of pre-
creation chaos.
Dr. Leonard H. Lesko, in Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of
Ancient Egypt 276
Shu also begot by Tefnut his children Nut and Geb. The Lord then
made there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide
the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided
the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which
were above the firmament: and it was so.277 And God called the
273
Ibid. 198.
274
275
Remler (2000-10), 140. (Emph. added.)
276
L.H. Lesko (1999), 663.
277
Book of the Dead, Spell 17 a S 12.
J.P. Allen (1988), 1, 4-5, 7, 19-20, 56-58.
J.P. Allen (2000-10), 21-22, 148.
Eliana M. Laborinho, Nun, The Primeval Water According to the Coffin Texts,
in Lacqua nellantico Egitto: Proceedings of the First International Conference
for Young Egyptologists, eds. A. Amenta, M.M. Luiselli, and M.N. Sordi (Rome:
Lerma di Bretschneider, 2005), 221.
112
firmament Heaven, or sky. He made Nut to be goddess over the sky,
and He made Geb to be god over the earth. Thus the heavens and the
earth were finished, and all the host of them.
Fig. 26: Shu raising the sky of Nut, seen here in bovine form, and sets it in place as a
firmament separating the waters above from the waters below. Assisting him are the
eight members of the Ogdoad, now separated and given anthropoid forms. Along the
belly sails the barque of the sun god; based on the Book of the Celestial Cow, 14th-11th
century BCE.
The Ennead
These are the generations of the Great Ennead.
The best-known and most important such group is the ennead

of Heliopolis, which has a clear genealogical structure spanning
four generations. At the top is Atum, the sun-god of Heliopolis,
who created his progeny Shu, god of air, and Shus wife Tefnut out
of himself. The third generation consists of Geb, god of the earth,
and Nut, goddess of the sky. Together with the fourth generation
113
Osiris, Seth, Isis, and Nephthysthey make up a group that does in
fact consist of nine members.
Dr. Christian Leitz, in Religions of the World: A Guide 278
O you Great Ennead which is on On, (namely) Atum, Shu,
Tefenet, Geb, Nut, Osiris, Isis, Seth, and Nephthys; O you
children of Atum.
For the Ennead of Atum came into being through his semen
and his fingers. But the Ennead is the teeth and lips in this mouth
which pronounced the name of every thing, from which Shu and
Tefnut came forth, and which gave birth to the Ennead.
The Memphite Theology, 55-56 280
I am Shu who came forth from Atum.
O Geb, son of Shu, this is Osiris the King; may your mothers
heart quiver over you in your name of Geb, for you are the eldest
son of Shu, his first-born.
Nut the great Your father Shu knows that you love the King
more than your mother Tefenet.
Recitation by Nut, the greatly beneficent: The King is my
eldest son who split open my womb; he is my beloved, with whom
I am well pleased.
278
Christian Leitz, Deities and Demons: Egypt, in Religions of the Ancient
World: A Guide, ed. S.I. Johnston (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press,
2004), 394.
279
Faulkner (1969), 247.
280
Lichtheim (1973-2006), 54.
281
Faulkner (1969), 117.
282
Ibid. 243
283
Ibid. 2.
114
O Osiris the King, Your mother Nut has borne you.
O Osiris the King, you are the eldest son of Geb, his first-born
and his heir.
[I have protected] Osiris from his brother Seth.
Pyramid Texts, Utterance 485B 1034-5 287
Geb has brought your two sisters to your side for you, namely
Isis and Nephthys.
Osiris The two sisters who love you are Isis and Nephthys.
Pyramid Texts, Utterance 691B 2127 289
O Geb, this one here is your son Osiris
O Nut, this one here is your son Osiris
O Isis, this one here is your brother Osiris
O Seth, this one here is your brother Osiris
O Nephthys, this one here is your brother Osiris.
Thus concludes the generations of the Great Ennead, and of Osiris,

being (as was supposed) the son of Geb, the son of Shu, the son of
Atum, who was also Re, the Son of God.
284
285
Ibid. 120.
286
Ibid. 265.
287
Ibid. 172.
288
Ibid. 114.
289
Ibid. 301-02.
290
Ibid. 46-47.
115
Fig. 27
116
King of Kings and Lord of Lords
As the One True God, Amen is naturally the Lord and King of all
creation. As the hypostasis and first begotten Son of God, Re-Atum
shares this authority with His Father Amen, ruling with Him upon His
throne as coregent.
So did you establish your throne in Ankhtawy,
As Amun-Re, Ba Lord of the firmament.
The Great Amen Hymn at Hibis 291
Hail to you, Amon-Re,
Lord of what exists, enduring all things.
Chief of all the gods,
Lord of Truth, Father of the gods,
Who made mankind, who created the flocks,
Lord of what exists, who created the tree of life.
Lord of eternity.
Hail to you, Re, Lord of the Two Truths,
Whose shrine is hidden, Lord of the gods,
Khepri in the midst of His bark,
Who issued command that the gods might be,
Atum, who made the common man, ...
Sovereign life, prosperity, health! Lord of all the gods.
The Great Cairo Hymn to Amen-Re 292
This noble god, lord of all the gods,
Amon-Re, Lord of the Thrones of the Two Lands.
The King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Amon-Re, King of the Gods,
Lord of heaven, earth, water, and the mountains.
The Funerary Decree of Amen for Princess Neskhons 293
I have come before you, lord of the gods, Amun.
Inscriptions of High Priest Roma-Roy at Karnak 294
Words spoken by Him whose names are secret, the Lord of All.
Coffin Texts, Spell 1130 VII, 461 295
291
See p.43.
292
See pp.74.
293
See p.75, 77.
294
See p.78.
295
See p.79.
117
Amun, Lord of Thrones-of-the-Two-Lands,
King of eternity, lord of everlastingness,
Ruler, lord of the two great plumes.
The Prayers of Paheri 296
lord of all that exists, who predetermined every event.
The Creator Hymn at Hibis 297
Re-Horakhty, great god, lord of the sky.
Giza Stela of Tia, overseer of the treasury, Face 1 298
Re-Horachty-Atum, Lord of the Two Lands, the Heliopolitan,
the Great God, Lord of heaven.
Gebel Es-Silsilah Quarry Stela No. 100, 19-22 299
Atum, Lord of Heliopolis, great god, Lord of heaven.
Bubastis Temple Inscriptions: Bastet Temple,
Label for Atum 300
Lord Re-Atum eventually chose a successor of His own to pass on
His authority to. That successor was Geb, the god of the earth.
O Geb, son of Shu you are the sole great god. Atum has
given you his heritage, he has given to you the assembled Ennead,
and Atum himself is with them, whom his eldest twin children
joined to you; he sees you powerful chiefest of the gods, you
standing on earth that you may govern at the head of the Ennead.
May you have power over the Ennead and all the gods you
having appeared as King of Upper and Lower Egypt and having
power over all the gods.
296
See p.82.
297
See p.83.
298
Frood (2007), 162-63.
299
Ritner, (2009), 189.
300
Ibid. 245.
301
Faulkner (1969), 243.
118
In turn, Geb then chose a successor of his own as well, which was
his eldest son Osiris- the Qrst.302
O Osiris the King, you are the eldest son of Geb, his first-born
and his heir. O Osiris the King, you are he who succeeded him,
and the heritage was given to you by the Ennead, for you have
power over the Ennead and every god. [I give you the crown of
Upper Egypt, the Eye which went up from your head; I give you
the crown of Lower Egypt, the Eye] which went up from your head.
Stand up in front of the gods, O eldest son, as heir, as one
upon the throne of Geb.
Recitation by Nut the great who dwells in the Lower Mansion:
The King is my beloved son, my first-born upon the throne of Geb,
with whom he is well pleased, and he has given to him his heritage
in the presence of the Great Ennead.
Rise early in the morning, for the noble one appears, the heir
of the Two Lands. There is given [] all of it, the thrones of Geb.
Osiris was established on the throne of Geb.
The Saqqara Tomb of the Chief Goldsmith, Amenemone, 20A 307
After having inherited the earthly throne of Geb, Osiris was
said to have civilized Egypt and then went out to do the same to the
rest of the world.
Noreen Doyle, in National Geographic: Essential Visual History of
World Mythology 308
302
See p.329, n.994.
303
Faulkner (1969), 265.
304
Ibid. 234.
305
Ibid. 1.
306
Faulkner (1973), 53. Faulkner adds in note 2 that the reference to the heir
of the Two Lands in the next clause suggests that here Osiris as heir of Geb is
meant.
307
Frood (2007), 131.
119
Touching on that last point there, one often overlooked, and sparsely
attested to, feature of Osiris is that he was a travelling teacher, an
itinerant sage of sorts. It was reported that he brought wisdom, morality,
and religion to mankind.
After Osiris married Isis and succeeded to the kingship he did
many things of service to the social life of man. He also made
golden chapels for the rest of the gods mentioned above, allotting
honours to each of them and appointing priests to have charge over
these thus in eager rivalry brought the country under cultivation,
and they made images to the gods and magnificent golden chapels
for their worship.
Osiris, they say, was also interested in agriculture the
discovery of the vine, they say, was made by him near Nysa, and
that, having further devised the proper treatment of its fruit, he was
the first to drink wine and taught mankind at large the culture of
the vine and the use of wine, as well as the way to harvest the grape
and to store wine.
Of Osiris they say that, being of a beneficent turn of mind, and
eager for glory, he gathered together a great army, with the
intention of visiting all the inhabited earth and teaching the race of
men how to cultivate the vine and sow wheat and barley; Osiris
in this way visited all the inhabited world and advanced community
life by the introduction of the fruits which are most easily
cultivated. And if any country did not admit of the growing of vine
he introduced the drink prepared from barley, which is little
inferior to wine in aroma and strength. On his return to Egypt he
brought with him the very greatest presents from every quarter and
by reason of the magnitude of his benefactions received the gift of
immortality with the approval of all men and honour equal to that
offered to the gods of heaven.
Diodorus of Sicily, Library of History 1.13.5-20.5 309
One of the first acts related to Osiris in his reign was to deliver
the Egyptians from their destitute and brutish manner of living.
This he did by showing them the fruits of cultivation, by giving
308
Noreen Doyle, Egyptian Mythology, in National Geographic: Essential
Visual History of World Mythology, ed. J. von Laffert et al. (Washington:
National Geographic Society, 2008), 76.
309
Diodorus, in Oldfather (1933-67), 48-65. (Emph. added.)
120
them laws, and by teaching them to honour the gods. Later he
travelled over the whole earth civilizing it without the slightest need
of arms, but most of the peoples he won over to his way by the
charm of his persuasive discourse combined with song and all
manner of music.
Plutarch, Moralia 356A-B 310
In that respect, Osiris might be called a prince of peace, for he
converted people to his way not by the sword, but by his words, by his
preaching or persuasive discourse. It is also interesting that much of
his teaching revolved around agriculture of grain and the grape vine.
Getting back on track, since Osiris inherited the throne of Geb, which
Geb had inherited from Re-Atum, by extension Osiris inherited the
throne of Amen-Re himself. Thus Osiris received the authority of Amen-
Re, which is the highest authority, making Osiris Lord of all. Osiris
became King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He was seated next to Amen-
Re, ruling at His side as coregent. Him hath God exalted with His right
hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, Who is gone into heaven, and is on
the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made
subject unto him. As the Amen Hymn hath declared, he is Osiris Sokar,
our Lord.
Worship of Osiris Wennefer,
the Great God who dwells in the Thinite Nome,
King of Eternity, who passes millions of years in his lifetime;
All that exists is ushered in to him in his name of
Face-to-whom-men-are-ushered;
the Two Lands are marshaled for him as leader in this
his great name of Seker;
his might is far-reaching,
one greatly feared in this his name of Osiris;
he passes over the length of eternity in his name Wennefer.
Hail to you, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Ruler of Rulers .
Papyrus of Ani, Introductory Hymn to Osiris 311
310
Plutarch, in Babbitt (1936-62), 35. (Emph. added.)
311
Nicolas Wyatt, Space and Time in the Religious Life of the Near East, trans.
R.O. Faulkner (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2001), 248. (Emph. added.)
121
Osiris presiding over the west O my Lord, living through
eternity, thou who shalt exist forever; Lord of Lords, king of kings.
Book of the Dead, Spell 185E b S 1 312
There is yet another oriental civilization where the title was in
common use - ancient Egypt. ... The earliest example known to me
is from the nineteenth dynasty, when Osiris is described on a
Theban tomb as King of Kings, Chief of Chiefs.
Dr. John G. Griffiths, in Classical Philology 313
Isis moaning greatly and Nephthys weeping because of this
god, Lord of the gods.
O you gods, come with these kindred of mine, be vigilant as
regards this god who is unconscious this god, the Lord of the
gods.
I cry out in [the Sacred Booth] because of this god, the Lord
of the gods. See, you are more soul-like, effective and powerful
than all the gods.
He puts his hands on the Lord of the gods, who is joyous of
appearing on the thrones of Geb and to whom is given praise in
Djedu. Horus, pre-eminent in Khem, rejoices at Osiris Onnophris
who has come safely to the West with all the gods in his train. See,
you are at the bow of the Bark, and a throne in the shrine is given
to you; see, you are king of the sky. Those who are on their thrones
shall come to you, for it is you who rule them.
312
313
John G. Griffiths, Remarks on the History of a Title, in Classical Philology
48.3 (Jul., 1953), 150-51. (Emph. added.)
314
315
316
317
122
O Osiris this King they tell Re that you have come, O King,
as the son of Geb upon the throne of Amun.
I sit upon the throne of Re.
I am heir(?) of Re-Atum. I act on behalf of his desire.
Coffin Texts, Spell 212 III, 169-70 320
I am Osiris, son of Geb, the successor to Re.
Coffint Texts, Spell 313 IV, 92 321
He exalts my shape above the gods, he has set me at the head
of his Enneads in my dignity of successor to Re.
Coffin Texts, Spell 317 IV, 120 322
You have appeared as Lord of the West at the head of all the
gods, oblations are given to you as to Re. Spacious is your seat
within the Disk, you weigh in the balance like Thoth, your
character is recognized by Him who is in his Disk as that of a god
who is in his presence.
I eat of what Re bites, I sit on the thrones of the sunshine.
Coffin Texts, Spell 177 III, 63 324
Re has commanded that you shall be there as ruler of his
thrones, for he is the chiefest of his nobles.
Coffin Texts, Spell 763 VI, 393 325
318
319
Ibid. 303.
320
Faulkner (1973), 170.
321
Ibid. 235.
322
Ibid. 242.
323
324
325
Raymond O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts, Vol. II (Warminster:
Aris & Phillips, Ltd, 1977), 294. (Emph. added.)
123
The face of the god is open to me, and I sit on the great throne
beside the god.
I sit on your great throne, you gods, and I am side by side with
Atum between the Two Wands.
O my father Osiris the King, upon the throne of Re-Atum, that
you may lead the sun-folk. Take possession of the heritage of
your father Geb. They guide you to these fair and pure seats of
theirs which they made for Re when they set him on their thrones.
They will install you upon their thrones at the head of all the
Ennead(s) as Re and as his representative.
God was Manifest in the Flesh

So the scriptures refer to Osiris explicitly as the representative of
Re, and he rules in Res stead with all the authority of the Most High. It
may thus be said that Osiris is a vicarius Filii Dei, a vicar of the Son of
God. In this role, Osiris has a very special and most important function,
which is to be an avatar for Lord Amen-Re when He traverses the
netherworld. After each sunset when Re descends beyond the horizon, at
a certain point He literally merges with Osiris to become one single
being. The reason for why this takes place will be expounded upon in a
later chapter, but for now the point is that during this time Osiris is the
embodiment of Amen-Re. Osiris becomes an incarnation of God Himself
in the flesh. As just previously quoted from the Pyramid Texts, Osiris
rules over the Enneads as Re. In fact, the same utterance also tells
Osiris sit on the throne of Re that you may give orders to the gods,
because you are Re.
326
327
328
124
Fig. 28: The union of Re and Osiris into a single form; from the Litany of Re in the tomb
of Nefertari, 13th century BCE.
Fig. 29: Another fusion of Osiris and Re, in the fifth hour of the Amduat, as seen in the
tomb of Thutmose III, 15th century BCE.
125
It is Re alone who sets as Osiris and Osiris who sets as Re.
Book of the Dead, Spell 15B3 var. i S 329
I cause Re to set as Osiris, Osiris having set as Re.
Book of the Dead, Spell 182 a S 2 330
O Osiris, art thou in the Sky? Come in thy Glory as Re,
equipped (as) the God.
Book of the Dead, Spell 142 T var. 331
Come, [Osiris], lord of the throne (of) the Sky. Nut bears
thee as Re. Osiris who came forth at the beginning.
Book of the Dead, Spell Pleyte 168 S 1, 33-4 332
My head is (that of) Re; the total of me is Atum. I have
recalled the words of Atum my Father in my utterance.
Book of the Dead, Spell 82 d S 333
You are Re.
He shall not perish for many millions of eternities,
while sailing the heavens,
and going through the Netherworld daily,
(from) the desire to unite with Osiris as Ruler of Igaret,
You are Amun,
you are Atum,
you are Osiris.
The Hibis Hymn to the Bas of Amun 334
I have become the essence of Re.
329
T.G. Allen (1974), 25.
330
Ibid. 196.
331
332
333
Ibid. 71.
334
Klotz (2006), 191-93. (Emph. added.)
335
Faulkner (1973), 242.
126
O Osiris, foremost in the West, you endure in the sun disk in
the sky every day. O Osiris, foremost in the West, you will enter
the sound eye daily.
Papyrus BM 10507, I, 11-12 336
O Osiris, foremost in the West, raise yourself up (twice). Do
not be weary, for your son Horus overthrows your enemies so that
you might rise up to the sky and unite with Re.
Papyrus BM 10208, II, 9-10 337
Namely, the sun whom they called respectively Osiris

Osiris has been given the name ... Ammon by others.
Diodorus of Sicily, Library of History 1, 11.1, 25.2 338
Father Phoebus339 bestow your love and favour upon Junos
fields, whether tis best to call you rosy Titan in the fashion of the
Achaemenian race, or Osiris the grain-bringer.
Statius, Thebaid 1.696, 715-19 340
There are some who without reservation assert that Osiris is

the Sun.
Plutarch, Moralia 372D 341
It is no secret that Osiris is none other than the sun.
Macrobius, Saturnalia 342
336
Smith (2002), 121.
337
Ibid.
338
Diodorus, in OldFather (1933-67), 37, 79.
339
Phoebus was an epithet for the sun god, meaning the shining one. See
Fernando N. Antolin, Lygdamus, Corpus Tibullianum III.I-6: Lygdami Elegiarium
Liber (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1996), 291-92.
340
Statius, Thebaid, in Statius: Thebaid, Books 1-7, trans. D.R.S. Bailey
(Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2003), 91-93. Bailey comments in
n.76 that Osiris too appears here as a sun god by conflation with Re-Horus.
(Emph. added.)
341
342
Macrobius, The Saturnalia, trans. P.V. Davies (New York: Columbia
127
In the middle of the night the Sun merged with Osiriss body;
through this union, the Sun received the power of new life while
Osiris was reborn in the Sun.
Dr. James P. Allen, The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts 343
In a longer prayer, Osiris is invoked as the sun; his essence has
merged fully with that of the sun god Re, for his disk is your disk,
his image is your image, his majesty (shefyt) is your majesty. This
solution builds on intimations in the Litany of Re, and it would
result in a total amalgamation of the two gods on the coffins of
Dynasty 21.
Dr. Erik Hornung, Akhenaten and the Religion of Light 344
Thus the union of Osiris (Sokar was seen as another aspect of
him) and Re, already anticipated, is performed in the oval
netherworld. According to the text, in the well-protected cave of
Sokar we find the feet of Sokar (= Osiris, No. 393) illuminated by
the light of the eyes of the great god (= Re, No. 394), the three-
headed multicoloured serpent, as the text says. This first union of
Sokar-Osiris with Re brings back the very first indication of light
and new life.
Dr. Erik Hornung & Dr. Theodor Abt, Knowledge for the
Afterlife: The Egyptian Amduat A Quest for Immortality 345
Assailed by dangerous negative forces, Ras task is to unite
himself with Osiris, allowing him to be regenerated and reborn
come the dawn.
Dr. Steven Snape, Ancient Egyptian Tombs: The Culture of
Life and Death 346
Some compositions depict how, in the middle of the night, the
sun god descends into the deepest regions of the underworld and is
343
J.P. Allen (2005), 8.
344
Hornung (1995-99), 98.
345
Theodor Abt and Erik Hornung, Knowledge for the Afterlife: The Egyptian
Amduat A Quest for Immortality (Zurich: Living Human Heritage Publications,
2003), 71.
346
Steven Snape, Ancient Egyptian Tombs: The Culture of Life and Death
(Chichester: Blackwell Publishing, 2011), 182.
128
fused with its ruler Osiris. The resulting image is captioned both
Ra who sets in Osiris and Osiris who rests in Ra.
Dr. John Baines & Dr. Geraldine Pinch, in World Mythology 347
The Book of Caverns depicts Osiris as the giant eastern

mummy with the solar falcons head, the unified Re and Osiris
about to be reborn.
The large, central figure on the first side of the shrine, Osiris in
appearance and labeled as Re, is a depiction of the unified Re-
Osiris, and image of the gods Re and Osiris at the moment of their
combining at the eastern horizon.
He is an omnipresent, universal deity, an important aspect of
Re-Osiris filling the eastern horizon.
With Hry.t the sky of day and Htmy.t the lower world in its
entirety, the annotation to the figure of the giant deity on the
enigmatic wall in the tomb of Ramesses IX is a description of the
unified Re-Osiris as the highest deity of the cosmos.
Like the ancient solar mystery of Osiris and Re becoming one
the Incarnation and the Resurrection were appropriate to the
luminal nature of cryptography.
Dr. John C. Darnell, The Enigmatic Netherworld Books of the

Solar-Osirian Unity 348
In the New Kingdom (1550-1069 BC) the cult of Osiris

developed in unprecedented ways. This ushered in a religious
innovation: monotheism. For the first time in history the idea was
expressed that there was only one god. Monotheism changed
religion forever. In the aftermath of the monotheistic revolution,
the myth of Osiris merged with the religion of Ra, and Osiris
became an enlightened savior-god. Once again, history shaped the
fate of the myth.
347
John Baines and Geraldine Pinch, Solar Myths: The eternal cycle of
renewal, in World Mythology, ed. R.G. Willis (New York: Henry Hok and
Company, LLC, 1993), 47.
348
John C. Darnell, The Enigmatic Netherworld Books of the Solar-Osirian Unity:
Cryptographic Compositions in the Tombs of tutankhamun, Ramesses VI and
Ramesses IX (Fribourg: Academic Press Fribourg, 2004), 73, 81, 374, 378, 481.
129
In the sixth hour Ra encountered Osiris in the judgment hall.
He permeated the body of Osiris and the two gods became the
United One, a single deity that transcended all divisions.
Dr. Bojana Mojsov, Osiris: Death and Afterlife of a God 349
The main theme of the Litany of Re is the meeting of
opposites, Re and Osiris, who become united and form an entity.
Dr. Alexandre Piankoff, The Litany of Re 350
Horemhebs hymn differs widely from all other hymns to
Osiris known from the period before the Nineteenth Dynasty in
that it describes Osiris as the nocturnal manifestation of Re, and
gives a cosmic interpretation of the myth of Osiris. The theme itself
is not new: it is already present in the Coffin Texts and the Book of
the Dead. Thus Osiris becomes Re, and illumines the darkness
of the Duat as nocturnal sun god.
Dr. Jacobus van Dijk, in The Memphite Tomb of Horemheb,
Commander-in-chief of Tutankhamn, Vol. I 351
It is amusing to discover that there exist many heathen who believe
that they know better than these scholars and their sources.352 Anyway, it
was established previously (ch. 1) that the Triune God included Amen,
Re, and Ptah as well. That being the case, the union of Osiris with Lord
Amen-Re naturally led to the Lord as Ptah also being identified with
Osiris and as his Father (Songs of Isis and Nephthys 16:24). Therefore
such sources attesting to this identification further affirm Osiris role as a
primary avatar for the One True God.
My head is (that of) Re; the total of me is Atum. I have
ascended, my tongue is that of Ptah.
Book of the Dead, Spell 82 d S 353
Osiris Ptah the Lord of Life.
349
Bojana Mojsov, Osiris: Death and Afterlife of a God (Malden: Blackwell
Publishing, 2005), 54, 86.
350
Piankoff (1964), 10.
351
Jacobus van Dijk, An early hymn to Osiris as nocturnal manifestation of Re,
in The Memphite Tomb of Horemheb, Commander-in-chief of Tutankhamn,
Vol. I, ed. G.T. Martin (London: Egypt Exploration Society, 1989), 62.
352
https://goo.gl/Q6d9WR.
353
130
Book of the Dead, Spell 142 S 1 354
Ptah-Osiris, ruler of eternity, king of Busiris, lord of Abydos.
Tomb of Ptahmes, Pl. XXIX b 4 355
Further, accomplishing the rites. Litany of offerings to Ptah-
Sokar-Osiris in all his names..Ptah, beautiful of face, who is on
his great throne, Ptah-Sokar-Osiris..Ptah-Osiris.
Papyrus Louvre N. 3176, III 19 sqq. 356
Ptah-Osiris has become one god and Osiris has been
especially identified with the Memphite mortuary god Sokar. The
same is the case in BD 15, Budge 37.11, Osiris, Ptah-Sokar, Atum
in Heliopolis, lord of the Memphitic necropolis (ityt), he joins 1t-
kA-PtH (= Memphis). As time went on Ptah became a mortuary
god. That brings him near to Osiris. Ptah has been also
identified with the local mortuary god Sokar and has developed
into the combination Ptah-Sokar-Osiris. Louvre N 3176 (P.
Barguet, Le Papyrus N. 3176 (S) du musee du Louvre, Le Caire
1962) dates from the end of the 4th century B.C. It contains among
other things The coming in procession of Ptah-Sokar-Osiris. The
text is directed sometimes to Osiris, sometimes to Ptah, but it is
clear that the three gods have undergone a complete fusion.
Dr. Jan Zandee, in Ex Oriente Lux, XV 357
By the Middle Kingdom, prayers are addressed to the tripartite
deity Ptah-Sokar-Osiris.
and Goddesses 358
During the Old Kingdom (c.2686-c.2181 BC) Ptah was
merged with the Memphite hawk-headed funerary deity Sokar,
354
Ibid. 118.
355
Jan Zandee, An ancient Egyptian crossword puzzle: An inscription of
Nebwenenef from Thebes, Mededelingen en verhandelingen van het
Vooraziatisch-Egyptisch Genootschap Ex Oriente Lux, XV (Leiden: E.J. Brill,
1966), 47.
356
Ibid. 47-48.
357
Ibid. 47.
358
Hart (1986-2005), 149.
131
creating the god Ptah-Sokar. This composite deity went on to
become Ptah-Sokar-Osiris in the Late Period.
Dr. Lorna Oakes and Lucia Gahlin, Ancient Egypt 359
Ptah and Sokar could be paired as creator deity and god of the
dead as Ra and Osiris often were. As early as the Old Kingdom,
Sokar was said to be the name of Osiris after he was murdered by
his brother Seth. Statuettes of Ptah-Sokar-Osiris placed in tombs
sometimes contain copies of the Book of the Dead.
Fig. 30: Painting of Osiris Sokar merged with Ptah and receiving libation from Ramesses
III, based on a scene from his tomb, KV11, 12th century BCE.
359
Oakes (2002-05), 292.
360
Pinch (2002-04), 203. (Emph. added.)
132
Fig. 31: Gilded statue of Ptah-Sokar-Osiris.
The One True God became embodied in Osiris. Therefore let this
mind be in you, which was also in Sokar Osiris: Who, being in the form
of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: and took upon
him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And
being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became
obedient unto death. Without controversy great is the mystery of
godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of
angels, preached unto the masses, believed on in the world, received up
into glory.
133
Is not this the Carpenters Son?
It was covered in the previous chapter that the triune Lord God is the
creator of all that exists. Therefore He is the master builder, the celestial
architect and carpenter who designed and constructed the entire universe.
Most primeval of the gods,
Eldest of the primeval ones,
Builder of builders.
The Hibis Creator Hymn 361
May the divine words purify you,
may your mouth be opened by the chisel of Ptah.
May the pieces of carpentry be granted to you by Ptah.
Theban Tomb 23 362
Even in his earliest attestations, Ptah is associated with the
mineral elements of the created worldmetal ores and stoneand
with the art of fashioning these elements into artifacts. He is shown
with the same close-fitting skullcap that craftsmen wear in Old
Kingdom tomb reliefs, and his high priest has the title wr x rp H
mwt the chief one who manages craftsmanship. Ptah was
especially revered as the patron of metal-workers, sculptors, and
architects.
Dr. James P. Allen, Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the
Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs 363
The god Ptah is well attested in the role of creator. His creative
activity is said to take various forms in Egyptian sources. Some
texts, notably the so-called Memphite Theology, characterize it as
an intellectual process, what exists coming into being as the result
of a thought conceived by the deitys heart and expressed by his
tongue. Others describe the god as a master craftsman, forming or
fashioning all things.
361
Klotz (2006), 136, 142. (Emph. added.)
362
Jan Assmann, Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt (Ithaca: Cornell
363
J.P. Allen (2000-10), 176. (Emph. added.)
134
Typically, the Memphite Theology also mentions other
models of creation, such as the concept of the creator as Divine
Craftsman or as the biological source of all life.
The Divine Craftsman. Two deities, Ptah and Khnum, were
sometimes credited with physically fashioning the world and its
inhabitants. Ptah was the patron god of craftsmen and artists. He
was particularly associated with sculpture and metalworking. Ptah
was said to have invented the Opening of the Mouth ritual in which
an adze and other tools were used to bring to life statues and
mummies. Hymns to Ptah speak of him designing and crafting the
world and smelting the Two Lands (Egypt).
As also covered in the previous chapter, because of His role as
Creator of all that is, ultimately He is Father to us all and we are all His
offspring, both gods and men. Behold, what manner of love the Father
hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.
Historically, many cultures apparently have had no problem referring
to extended family by terms that in our culture today are thought of as
exclusive to immediate family.366 There are numerous examples of
ancient authors referring to distant ancestors as their fathers, and
referring to themselves as the sons of their ancestors, e.g., Art thou
greater than our father So-and-so, which is dead, or whatever else. Even
today there are certain cultures that still practice this, and even have
childrens songs to the effect of- Father So-and-so had many sons, many
sons had Father So-and-so, I am one of them and so are you! Likewise,
sometimes the sacred texts of such cultures refer to cousins, nieces,
nephews, aunts, and uncles as brothers and sisters, e.g., he brought back
all the goods, and also brought again his brother So-and-so. Some
societies had no choice since they did not yet have distinct words for
such specific family relations like nephew.367
364
365
Pinch (2002-04), 62.
366
Jack D. Eller, Cultural Anthropology: Global Forces, Local Lives (New York:
Routledge, 2009), 195-98.
367
Ibid.
135
The ancient Egyptians were no exception to this practice. For
example, in the Pyramid Texts, the god Seth is referred to as a brother of
Horus,368 even though he is the uncle of Horus.369 Nephthys is referred to
as one of Horus mothers alongside Isis, even though she is actually his
aunt (although, to be fair, she is also his nurse, which is certainly a
motherly duty).370 Also, Osiris is referred to as the son of Shu and
Tefnut,371 even though they are the grandparents of Osiris generation.372
That having been clarified, one should not become confused when
reading references to a character as both an uncle and a brother to
another character, or references to a single character having multiple
other characters named as his or her father, etc. Such terms were simply
used as generic terms to indicate either preceeding, contemporary, or
succeeding generations of extended family.373 Hence we may all be
called sons of God.
For Osiris, however, the situation was different. Not in that he wasnt
also a descendent of God, in fact, its just the opposite. Osiris is special
in that he is one of the few who is an immediate offspring of God
Almighty. Thus to call Osiris a son of God is not to merely indicate a
generic kinship to God in the same sense as we are ultimately descended
from the Creator, but rather it means that Osiris was indeed begotten
directly from God Himself. Thats right. Osiris true father was Re
Himself. Also, the deceased who emulated Osiris sought to inherit this
attribute of Osiris and be treated as the son of Re.
Hail, Re! Osiris King N is thyself, and reciprocally.
Hail, Re! Thy Soul is the Soul of Osiris King N, thy going is
his going in the Netherworld. Hail, Re! His resting place is the
Netherworld; what he traverses is the Beautiful West. Such as thou
art, such is Osiris King N; thy glory, O Re, is the glory of Osiris
King N. Osiris King N adores those of the West, he exalts their
souls. Thy course is indeed the course of Osiris King N, thy
368
Faulkner (1969), 256.
369
Ibid. 193.
370
Joris F. Borghouts, The Magical Texts of Papyrus Leiden I 348 (Leiden: E.J.
Brill, 1971), 37-39.
371
Faulkner (1969), 46.
372
See pp.111-16.
373
Eller, loc. cit.
136
passing is indeed the passing of Osiris King N. the Great God, he
at the head of the Netherworld. O, One of the Disk, great of rays!

Thou indeed, O Re, givest birth to King N , thou Greatest King
N like thyself, O One of the Horizon. The births of King N are the
births of Re in the West, and reciprocally. The births of King N on
high are the births of the Soul of Re on high, and reciprocally. The
lives of King N are the lives of the Soul of Re, and reciprocally.
The breathing of his bodies is the breathing of the bodies of Re,
and reciprocally. Re conceived, Atum gives birth to King N, the
suckling, the Becoming One of Nut. She tends King N, she rears
King N as the Soul of Re who is in her.
Litany of Re, Ch.I 77; IV 1.1 374
It was Re who created me as his son, he modeled me in
stonework(?). He exalts my shape above the gods, he has set me at
the head of his Enneads in my dignity of successor to Re.
Coffin Texts, Spell 317 IV, 119-20 375
The shroud of Osiris was ordered by his father Re.
Coffin Texts, Spell 335 (b) Part II, IV, 315 376
O Father, Most Hidden of the Hidden Ones, Father who art
in heaven, watch over this corpse of thy Son Osiris N., that thou
keep him sound in the gods domain.
Book of the Dead, Spell 162 T 4 377
O my Father Osiris, mayest thou do for me what thy Father Re
did for thee.
Book of the Dead, Spell 175 b S 3 378
Come, [Osiris], lord of the throne (of) the Sky. Thou shalt
be son of the United One, sprung from Re whom Re begot in
the Bnbn-House.
Book of the Dead, Spell Pleyte 168 S 1, 43 379
374
Piankoff (1964), 30, 35. (Emph. added.)
375
Faulkner (1973), 241-42.
376
Ibid. 265.
377
T.G. Allen (1974), 158.
378
Ibid. 184.
137
I am Osiris I am Orion to Osiris Orion Orion the son
of Re and Nut who bore the gods.
Book of the Dead, Spell 69 a S 2, 3; 142 S 1; 172 S 6 380
O Osiris who has brought his attributes unto the nether
world and traverses what is there in, son of Re, who came forth
from Atum.
I come to thee, son of Nut, Osiris, ruler of eternity thy
father Ptah-(Ta)tenen Thy father Re makes sound thy body,
while thy Ennead gives thee praise.
Book of the Dead, Spell 183 a S 1, 2, 4 382
Osiris presiding over the west, Unnofer The Two Lands
have been given thee in the presence of thy father Atum.
Book of the Dead, Spell 185E b S 1 383
Unnofer (whom Re begot after wrath,) while thou continue
to abide in the womb of Nut.
Book of the Dead, Spell 182 c S 2 384
Osiris presiding over the west, Osiris N., beside Re beautiful
art thou on the shoulders of the Sky with the ornaments of thy
Father Re.
Book of the Dead, Spell Pleyte 169 a S 1, 2 385
O King, your messengers go, your heralds run to your father,
to Atum.
It is pleasant for me and for them,
379
Ibid. 218-19.
380
Ibid. 63, 118, 180.
381
Ibid. 191.
382
Ibid. 200-01.
383
Ibid. 206.
384
Ibid. 197.
385
Ibid. 220.
386
138
Within the arms of my father,
Within the arms of Atum.
Pyramid Texts. Utterance 216 151 387
O Re-Atum, your son comes to you, the King comes to you;
raise him up, enclose him in your embrace, for he is the son of
your body for ever.
The glory of the King is in the sky,

His power is in the horizon
Like his father Atum who begot him.
He begot the King,
And the King is mightier than he.
Pyramid Texts, Utterance 273-4 395 389
O my father Atum in darkness!
You shall reach the sky as Orion there is a welcome for you.
O King, by your father, there is a welcome for you by Re.
Pyramid Texts, Utterance 412 723, 726-27 391
I am the well-beloved son of Re;
I was begotten for Re;
I was conceived for Re;
I was born for Re.
The Kings mother was pregnant with him, (even he) who was
in the Lower Sky, the King was fashioned by his father Atum.
387
Ibid. 44.
388
Ibid. 45.
389
Ibid. 80.
390
Ibid. 118.
391
Ibid. 135.
392
Ibid. 207.
139
O my father Re, this is what you have said: O for a son,
glorious, shining, besouled, strong, mighty, far-reaching, far-
striding! Here am I, I am your son; here am I, I am the King.
Osiris your father Atum; he causes you to be well-provided
among the gods.
Zeus who is called Ammon by some Osiris, they say, was
also interested in agriculture and was reared in Nysa, a city of
Arabia Felix near Egypt, being a son of Zeus. The fatherhood of
the child he attributed to Zeus, in this way magnifying Osiris.
Diodorus of Sicily, Library of History 1, 13.2, 15.6, 23.6 396
There is also a tradition that Osiris and Arueris were sprung
from the Sun.
Plutarch, Moralia 356A 397
Now, this might confuse some readers, since it has already been
mentioned that Geb is also referred to as the father of Osiris. However, in
much the same manner as Horus aunt Nephthys is also called his mother
alongside Isis, so too Geb is referred to as the father of Osiris right
alongside Re as well. Clearly their mutual parenthood was no problem
for the ancient Egyptians.
Hail to thee, Osiris, thou first son of Geb, eldest of the 5 gods,
who came forth from Nut; great first-born of his father Re.
Book of the Dead, Spell 185B a S 1 398
Thy father Re makes sound thy body, There has been
given thee the kingship of Geb. He is thy father, Sokar-Osiris,
thou first Son of Geb, great First-born of his Father Re.
Book of the Dead, Spell 183 a S 4; c S 1 399
393
Ibid. 226.
394
Ibid. 300-01.
395
Ibid. 303.
396
Diodorus, in Oldfather (1933-67), 47, 51, 75
397
398
T.G. Allen (1974), 205.
140
[ I have come to you, my father,] I [have come] to you, O
Re, I have come to you, my father, I have come to you, O Geb.
Pyramid Texts, Utterance 485A 1029-31 400
Obviously, Geb was a father of Osiris by way of marriage to his
mother Nut. Geb might be described as a sort of step-father, or perhaps
an adoptive father. Although, later in the story, Osiris ends up born
from Geb, in a manner of sorts, and thus technically becomes his bodily
son. That, however, will be covered in chapter 5. The point for now is
that references to both Re and Geb as the fathers of Osiris should be no
cause for confusion. One is a father by blood, while the other is a father
by marriage. It is as simple as that. One might be reminded of other
examples in Near Eastern folklore in which a god or demigod is said to
be both a son of God and son of man, because such characters likewise
have one father by blood and another by marriage. Also, sometimes such
characters are made out to have a second father by marriage in order to
place them in a royal lineage and give them a lawful claim to a throne.
For instance, certain characters might have been considered the son of
God while also being (as was supposed) the son of a human carpenter
who descended from an ancient king. Just as Osiris being the son of Geb
made him the lawful successor to Gebs throne, in the lineage of Lord
Amen Himself.
Regardless of the relationship of Osiris to Geb, the fact remains that
Re is his biological father, his true father. He was begotten directly from
Re Himself. Of course, it only makes sense that Re wished to handle the
matter personally and bring about the birth of Osiris by His own hand.
This was of special interest to Lord Amen-Re, since it was the making of
His very own avatar through which He would accomplish His most
dangerous and most vitally important task. Now, as for how this
begetting of Osiris Sokar, His begotten son, our Lord came about, that
will be covered in the next chapter.
399
Ibid. 201-02.
400
Faulkner (1969), 172.
141
Chapter Three
Who was Conceived by a Holy Spirit,
Born of a Virgin Meri
The so-called Osiris is produced without intercourse.

Theophrastus of Eresus, Fr. 380: On Living Creatures,
Book 5 (4th cen. BCE) 401
Like Father, like Son
It is common knowledge that progenitors pass on their traits to their

progeny. A child is often described as a reflection or spitting image
of its parents, both in appearance and in personality or behavior. This
often results in not only physiological parallels, but also in parallel life
experiences between ancestor and descendant as well. Parallel fates or
destinies, if you will. This could be likened, perhaps, to the concept of
ancestral archetypes, like those proposed by the psychologist Carl Jung.
In ancient Egypt, there was a similar sort of belief in an archetypal
essence402 or reflection between members of a family bloodline. This
concept was known as ones ka.403
Ka/kA was used in reference to both the source of ones ancestral
essence as well as ones individual share which he or she inherited from
said source.404 This individual portion was typically depicted as an exact
refkection, or double,405 of its owner (Fig. 32), indicated with its
hieroglyphic symbol- a pair of raised arms.406 Just as a persons arms are
mirror images of each other, so also are the kA and its owner. To a certain
401
See pp.173-5.
402
Faulkner (1969), vii.
403
Assmann (2001-05), 44, 101, 351.
David O. Connor, Abydos, North, ka chapels and cenotaphs, in Encyclopedia
of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt, ed. K.A. Bard (London: Routledge, 1999),
110.
404
Ibid. 100.
405
Faulkner, loc. cit.
406
Assmann (2001-05), 44.
142
extent, so also was a son considered to be a mirror image of his father.
Often times a father or other ancestor was likewise referred to as the
offsprings kA, since that ancestor was a source that passed on the kA to
that offspring.407 Thus Osiris is sometimes referred to as the kA of his son
Horus, since he is the source from which Horus inherited his own kA.408
In turn, Re is likewise referred to as providing the kA of His chosen son
Osiris the King.409 Hence both Osiris and Horus proclaim I am the
image of my father, Re.410 This kA was believed to influence the
owners fate or destiny.
The origin of the ka seems to have been as a persons inner
force, yet was also connected to their essential personality or even
their destiny.
Life and Death 411
The ka became closely connected with the idea of destiny.
Dr. Rogrio Ferreira de Sousa, in Egyptology at the Dawn of the
Twenty-First Century, Volume 3 412
The offerings for the deceased are meant for the ka, that is, for
his or her individual destiny (another meaning of ka) granted by the
godhead.
407
Mark Lehner, The Fractal House of Pharaoh: Ancient Egypt as a Complex
Adaptive System, a Trial Formulation, in Dynamics in Human and Primate
Societies: Agent-Based Modeling of Social and Spatial Processes, eds. T.A.
Kohler & G.J. Gumerman (New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 2000), 319.
408
Pyramid Texts, Utt. 364 610-11, 356 582, 370 647, 589 1609, 649
1831-32.
409
Ibid. Utt. 50 37, 214 136-37.
410
Papyrus Louvre N. 3279, II. xxx-xxxvi, trans. T.M. Dousa, in The Orphic Gold
Tablets and Greek Religion: Further Along the Path, ed. R.G. Edmonds III
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 155. (Emph. added.)
411
Snape (2011), 20. (Emph. added.)
412
Rogrio Ferreira de Sousa, The Notion of the Heart and the Idea of Man:
The Effect of Anthropological Notions of Medical Practices, in Egyptology at
the Damn of the Twenty-First Century, Volume 3: Language, Conversation,
Museology, ed. Z. Hawass (Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 2003),
192.
143
Dr. Andreas Schweizer, The Sungods Journey through the
Netherworld: Reading the Ancient Egyptian Amduat 413
Osiris is the Ka of Horus because he is his father and the
source of his fortune. In the ritual, however, Horus puts his arms
around Osiris body, thus acting as his fathers Ka. Each is, or
mediates, the Ka of the other. This is why, on paintings in
Tutankhamuns tomb, Osiris and the late king embrace one
another, and, in the pyramids: King Pepi has come to you, his
father ... Osiris! he has brought you this Ka of yours, while
elsewhere: Horus has not kept away from you, for you are his Ka.
R.T. Rundle Clark, Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt 414
413
Andreas Schweizer, The Sungods Journey through the Netherworld: Reading
the Ancient Egyptian Amduat (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994-2010), 216.
(Emph. added.)
414
Rundle Clark (1959), 234. (Emph. added.)
144
Fig. 32: Tutankhamun (center) posthumously going to his kA (right) to retrieve it from
the original source from which it came- his ancestor Osiris (left), whom he embraces;
from the rear wall of his burial chamber, KV62, 14 th cen. BCE.
145
Fig. 33: Osiris Sokar (right) is a reflection or spitting image of his father, Re (left);
taken from the Papyrus of Ani (right) and the stela of Djed-Djehuty-ef-Ankh (left).
Given that the kA is inherited from ones ancestors and has an

influence on the fate/destiny/fortune of the owner, it is only natural that
fathers and sons who share in the same kA likewise share similar fates or
destinies. Hence when researching the legends of many ancient gods and
heroes, several recurring parallels begin to emerge. The stories of Re and
His son Osiris are no exception. One of the more significant archetypes
shared between these two is that which first came up on pp.48-72 of ch.1
concerning Lord Re. It is the archetype of the virgin birth.
His Glory is like the Firstling of His Bullock
Countless characters in folklore are said to have theriomorphic forms

or hypostatic manifestations. Some are born that way, others obtain it
through supernatural means such as magical shape-shifting abilities, like
that possessed by Egyptian gods and the divinized deceased who emulate
Osiris (see pp.31-36). For Osiris himself, it was both. While he is
typically recognized and depicted in anthropoid form, it turns out that
Osiris often manifests in, and was apparently born in, the form of a bull.
146
It is his shape-shifting ability that allows him to change into a human
form, and back again.
Going out into the day and assuming human shape. O Bull, I
lift up your bonds; O Bull, I give you your loosened fetters.
Coffin Texts, Spell 105 II, 112 415
Sometimes a theriomorphic manifestation was referred to as ones
ba. The concept of the ba/bA will be elaborated upon in greater detail in
chapter 5. For now, the bA that is of interest here is the bA of Osiris- his
bovine form, known as Apis (whose mascot on earth was the bull in
Memphis).
Ba was also the term used for what might be described as the
physical manifestations of certain gods, so that the Memphite Apis
bull was the ba of Osiris.
Dr. Ian Shaw, Exploring Ancient Egypt 416
The term bA often denotes the theriomorphic incarnation of a
god, e.g. the Apis is the bA of Osiris.
Dr. Alan B. Lloyd, in Hommages a Maarten J. Vermaseren
Vol. II 417
The Ba of Osiris is the Apis-Bull.
Dr. John G. Griffiths, in Lexikon der gyptologie: Band IV
Meggido-Pyramiden 418
The Ptolemies placed the animal cult at the very inmost heart
of Egyptian religions. Every cult now had a triangular base:
cosmic/solar manifestation
(Re form)
e.g., Apis-Osiris
living incarnation transfigured immortalization
415
416
Ian Shaw, Exploring Ancient Egypt (New York: Oxford University Press,
2003), 21.
417
Alan B. Lloyd, Strabo and the Memphite Tauromachy, in Hommages a
Maarten J. Vermaseren, Vol. II, eds. M.B. de Boer and T.A. Edridge (Leiden: E.J.
Brill, 1978), 618.
418
John G. Griffiths, Osiris, in Lexikon der gyptologie:Band IV Megiddo-
Pyramiden, eds. W. Helck and W. Westendorf (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz
GmbH & Co. KG, 1982), 629.
147
(animal form) (mummy as Osiris figure)
e.g., Apis bull e.g., Osiris-Apis
Dr. Jan Assmann, The Mind of Egypt: History and
Meaning in the Time of the Pharaohs 419
In life, the Apis bull was honored as the physical manifestation
of Ptah; in death he was worshipped as a form of Osiris.
420
Gods, Goddesses, and Traditions of Ancient Egypt
Originally the Apis bull was a symbol of fertility. It was sacred
to the lunar deity Ptah-Seker-Osiris, god of the necropolis of
Memphis and the local form of Osiris; and for this there is
abundant evidence in the Egyptian sources expressed in the form
of the names Apis-Osiris and Osiris-Apis. From the latter name
comes the form Sarapis.
Dr. Anne Burton, Diodorus Siculus, Book 1: A Commentary 421
The fertility aspect was emphasized by the association of Osiris
at Memphis with the Apis bull, an association that developed in the
Ptolemaic and Roman periods into the cult of Serapis, a
combination of Osiris and Apis.
Dr. David A. Leeming, Creation Myths of the World:
An Encyclopedia 422
The kings power animal, associated with Osiris in the
netherworld ... Osiris-Apis, a composite god promoted by the
Ptolemies. ...
In time, the cults of Apis, Ptah, and Osiris merged and Apis
was seen as the divine incarnation (ka) of Ptah. ... After death the
bulls were mummified and buried with pomp like Osiris and their
bandages inscribed with the title of Osiris-Apis.
The Apis was an avatar of Egyptian Osiris.
419
Jan Assman, The Mind of Egypt: History and Meaning in the Time of the
Pharaohs, trans. A. Jenkins (New York: Henry Holt and Company, LLC, 1996-
2002), 374-75.
420
Pinch (2002-2004), 105.
421
Anne Burton, Diodorus Siculus, Book 1: A Commentary (Leiden: E.J. Brill,
1972), 242, n.2.
422
Leeming (1994-2009), 405.
423
Mojsov (2005), xiv, xvii, 24.
148
Dr. Benjamin Acosta-Hughes and Dr. Susan A. Stephens,
Callimachus in Context: From Plato to the Augustan Poets 424
The Apis was a specially marked bull, who was worshipped as
the incarnate manifestation of Osiris.
Dr. Susan A. Stephens, in Callimaque: Sept exposs suivis de
discussions 425
The Nile River god Osiris was worshipped in the form of a

bull, called Apis.
Dr. William W. Batstone, in Latin Lyric and Elegiac Poetry:
An Anthology of New Translations 426
Tibullus avowed reverence for the Nile coexists alongside his
assessment of Egyptians as barbarian worshippers of Osiris
incarnation, the bull god Apis.
Dr. Eleni Manolaraki, Noscendi Nilum Cupido: Imagining
Egypt from Lucan to Philostratus 427
Apis is associated with Osiris Lunatus, the big Black Bull,
who was identified with the Nile and inundation.
Dr. Ren L. Vos, in Egyptian Religion: The Last Thousand
Years, Part 1 428
Sarapis was promptly identified with the Osiris-Apis which had
been worshipped there by Egyptians for centuries, and by Greeks
in the fourth century.
Dr. John E. Stambaugh, Sarapis Under the Early Ptolemies 429
424
Benjamin Acosta-Hughes and Susan A. Stephens, Callimachus in Context:
From Plato to the Augustan Poets (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2012), 186.
425
Susan A. Stephens, Egyptian Callimachus, in Callimaque: Sept exposs
suivis de discussions, eds. F. Montanari and L.A. Lehnus (Geneva: Fondation
Hardt, 2002), 249.
426
William W. Batstone, Notes and Comments: Tibullus, in Latin Lyric and
Elegiac Poetry: An Anthology of New Translations, eds. D.J. Rayor and W.W.
Batstone (New York: Garland Publishing Co., 1995), 205.
427
Eleni Manolaraki, Noscendi Nilum Cupido: Imagining Egypt from Lucan to
Philostratus (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, 2013), 34.
428
Ren L. Vos, Varius coloribus. Some remarks on the colours of Apis and
other sacred animals, in Egyptian Religion: The Last Thousand Years, Pt. I, eds.
W. Clarysse, A. Schoors, H. Willems (Leuven: Peeters Publishers, 1998), 716.
149
The Apis bull represents the divine and ever renewing force of
Osiris. And ever since the Ptolemies both forces of Osiris and Apis
were united and combined into the new Hellenistic divinity Sarapis
who with Isis conquered the whole Mediterranean world and later
on the whole Roman Empire.
Bronze statuette (H. 0.19): head of Apis, sun-disc with uraeus
between the horns, triangle on the forehead, on a human body, left
leg forward, standing on a quadrangular base with an Egyptian
inscription: Osiris-Apis. 26th dynasty (633-525 B.C.).
Cairo, Egyptian Museum, inv. no 38589.
G. J.F. Kater-Sibbes and Dr. Maarten J. Vermaseren, Apis, I: The
Monuments of the Hellenistic-Roman Period from Egypt 430
Your folk, who for the bull of Memphis weep,
Worship you in the god Osiris shape.
Tibullus, Poem I.7.27-28 (1st cen. BCE) 431
Memphis itself, the royal residence of the Aegyptians, is also
near Babylon; for the distance to it from the Delta is only three
schoeni. It contains temples, one of which is that of Apis, who is
the same as Osiris; it is here that the bull Apis is kept in a kind of
sanctuary, being regarded, as I have said, as god.
Strabo, Geography XVII, 1.31 (1st cen. BCE-CE) 432
Most of the priests say that Osiris and Apis are conjoined into
one, thus explaining to us and informing us that we must regard
Apis as the bodily image of the soul of Osiris.
Enacting the opening of the mouth ritual for his father Osiris-
Apis by the pillar of his mother-priest, the pure one in the great
house [...]
429
Stambaugh (1972), 91.
430
Gertruda J.F. Kater-Sibbes and Maarten J. Vermaseren, Apis, I: The
Monuments of the Hellenistic-Roman Period from Egypt (Leiden: E.J. Brill,
1975), ix, 9.
431
Tibullus, Poem I.7., in Latin Lyric and Elegiac Poetry: An Anthology of New
Translations, trans. Rachel Hadas, eds. D.J. Rayor and W.W. Batstone, (New
York: Garland Publishing Co., 1995), 41. (Emph. added.)
432
Strabo, Geography, in The Geography of Strabo Vol. VII, trans. H.L. Jones
Press, 1932-82), 87. (Emph. added.)
433
150
Anubis, who is in the mummy bandages, foremost of [the
divine embalming booth.] Performing ministrations for Osiris-Apis,
four times.
Gebel Es-Silsilah Quarry Stela No. 100, Label for the
Memphite High Priest, Label for Anubis 434
Osiris-Apis, Foremost of the West, the (great) god.

Third Serapeum Votive Stela of Padiese, Louvre Stela IM
3736, Label for Apis 435
O Osiris-Apis, Foremost of the West, (great) god, may he

cause that there remain the name of the Gods Father of Ptah.
Serapeum Votive Stela of Gods Father Padja, Louvre Stela
IM 3441, Main Text 436
An Offering that the king gives (to) Osiris-Apis, Foremost of
the West, who gives life (to) the Gods Father and kings
acquaintance.
Serapeum Votive Stela of Painmu, Louvre Stela IM 3424,
Main Text 437
The living Apis, Osiris, Foremost of the West. Thus I have
given to you all life and dominion.
First Serapeum Stela, Louvre SIM 3733, Label for Apis 438
[... I have come to you, my father,] I [have come] to you, O
Re, a calf of gold born of the sky, a fatted calf of gold which HzAt
created. ... I may ascend to the sky to my mother Nut.
Cross the Milky Way(?), smite the ball in the meadow of Apis!
Oho! Your fields are in fear, you iAd-star, before the Pillar of the
Stars, for they have seen the Pillar of Kenzet, the Bull of the sky, 440
and the Ox-herd is overwhelmed before him.
434
Ritner (2009), 187.
435
Ibid. 397.
436
Ibid. 400.
437
Ibid. 445.
438
Ibid. 588.
439
440
Ibid. 65, n.14, Again the king.
151
The King is the Bull of the sky.
Behold, you have become the enduring Bull of the wild bulls
against him.
I who have no equal, the heir of my father Geb ... I have come
for you, for I am the wild bull of the wild grassland, the great-faced
bull which came out of On; I have come for you, a wild bull of the
wild grassland.
Pyramid Texts, Utterance 307 483, 486 444
The King is the Bull with radiance in the midst of his eye.
Turn, turn yourself about, O Great Bull!
The King is the Bull of the Ennead.
I am the Great Wild Bull.
The King is established at your head as the enduring bull of

the Wild Bulls.
I am the Great wild Bull who went forth as Foremost of the

Westerners.
441
442
Ibid. 80.
443
Ibid. 94.
444
Ibid. 95.
445
Ibid. 101.
446
Ibid. 129.
447
Ibid.
448
Ibid. 159.
449
Ibid. 168.
152
O my father Osiris this King, I have smitten for you him who
smote you as an ox; I have killed for you him who killed you as a
wild bull.
O Osiris the King ... wake up and hear [what] Horus [has done
for] you. He has smitten him who smote you as [an ox], he has
slain for you him who slew you as a wild bull.
The King is a bull [...] the King is a bull.
O you whom the Bull begot, O you whom the Bull begot, pull
off the bonds of the Bull.
(The Bull is presumably Osiris, whom his son Horus is
summoned to rescue.)454
Your cleanliness is by means of natron and incense, milk of
the mother of Apis.
I will cause N to see the birth of the Apis-bull in the byres of
the dappled cattle, I will cause N to see Osiris in Djedu in his
dignity of Bull of the West.
O Osiris, Bull of the Great ones, controller of the living.
450
Ibid. 186.
451
Ibid. 234.
452
Ibid. 285.
453
Ibid. 303.
454
Faulkner (1973), 9, n.1.
455
Ibid. 9.
456
Ibid. 12.
457
Ibid. 20.
458
Ibid. 25.
153
Hail to you, Osiris in Djedu, in your dignity of Bull of the
West.
O Osiris, son of Nut, Bull of the West, Foremost of the Great
Ennead.
Coffin Texts, Spell 42-43 I, 179 460
You shall have life, O Lord of the West, you son of Harakhti,
Bull of his mother Nut.
I am Apis who is in the sky, long of horns, fair of names.
I am the bull of the dappled cows.
I am the Bull of the Ennead who goes forth from the horizon.
I have become the Bull of the Conclaves; because I am at the
head of the Westerners.
I am the curly-haired bull who guides the sky.
Hail to you ... offspring of Osiris in the Pure Place who
mourns the Bull of the West.
Hail to you, Mourner of Osiris, Companion of the Bull of
Nedit.
459
Ibid. 28.
460
Ibid. 34.
461
Ibid. 50.
462
463
Ibid. 169.
464
Ibid. 170.
465
Ibid. 171.
466
Ibid.
467
Ibid. 182.
154
I am Osiris, Bull of the West, King of those who are not.
O Osiris, Bull of the West at the head of the Great Ennead!
I have come here from the land of the living to my place of
vindication, says Osiris the Bull of the West.
Here comes my son the Bull of the sky, the Bull of the eye-
painted bulls, Lord of the West!
I am the bull presiding over the fields; I am he. I am Osiris.
Book of the Dead, Spell 31 b S 473
I am the horned bull who rules the sky.
Book of the Dead, Spell 53 a S 474
I am the (white) bull in the field. It is I, Osiris.
Osiris ... thou abidest as bull of the west.
Osiris the black bull dwelling in Athribis.
Book of the Dead, Spell 142 S var. 2 477
Lord of the sacred land, Osiris, bull of the west ... Raise
thyself, bull of the west.
468
Ibid. 186.
469
Ibid. 235.
470
Faulkner (1977), 166.
471
Ibid. 197.
472
Ibid. 202.
473
T.G. Allen (1974), 41.
474
Ibid. 52.
475
Ibid. 63.
476
Ibid. 69.
477
Ibid. 119.
155
Book of the Dead, Spell 182 b S 1, c S 2 (18 th-21st Dyn.) 478
Hail to Thee, Sokar-Osiris, thou first Son of Geb ... Hail to
Thee, Bull of the West.
Book of the Dead, Spell 183 c S 1-2 479
[Hail to thee Osiris-Unnofer] presiding over the west ... bull of
the nether world.
Book of the Dead, Spell 185F a S 480
Hail to thee, Osiris, bull of the west.
Book of the Dead, Spell 185H S 481
Fig. 34: Depiction of Fig. 35: stela of Apis from Saqqara, 26th Dynasty,
Osiris in his form of Apis. currently at the Louvre Museum.
478
Ibid. 197.
479
Ibid. 202.
480
Ibid. 207.
481
Ibid. 208.
156
Fig. 36: Osiris as Apis.
Fig. 37: Osiris-Apis, based on a replica currently at the Cond Museum in Chantilly;
original from Hadrians Villa, currently at the Vaticans Gregorian Egyptian Museum.
157
Fig. 38: Antinous portrayed as Osiris-Apis (see p.211-12) emerging from a lotus flower;
from the Serapaeum of the Canope (also located at Hadrians Villa), currently at the
Vaticans Gregorian Egyptian Museum.
158
Fig. 39: Bust of Apis from Memphis, 3rd - 2nd cen. BCE.
159
Fig. 40: Statues of Apis; left- currently at the Louvre Museum, right- based on a bronze
statue from the Saqqara Serapeum, Old Kingdom Period.
160
Fig. 41: Ushabti figurines of Apis, 19 th Dynasty, currently at the Louvre Museum.
The Firstling of a Cow They are Holy
So Osiris is a bull, and in that form is known as Apis (and the

deceased who identify with Osiris by extension identify as Apis as well).
This is yet another point of comparison to The Good Shepherd, for the
scriptures about him state that The calf is The Good Shepherd; the
sinful men offering it are those who brought him to be slain. Anyway,
this bovine form of Osiris only makes sense, given that his mother was
known as the Celestial Cow. Even his fathers Re and Geb were at times
granted bovine epithets as well.
O Geb, Bull of the sky, I am Horus, my fathers heir.
An address to the sun-god: Hail to you, Bull of bulls, when
you rise!
O Re ... the Bull of the sunshine.
482
483
Ibid. 108.
161
If the Apis bull was so highly revered, it is not surprising that
his mother, the cow, would enjoy similar veneration. The sacred
cow was identified with ... Nut.
Dr. Arthur C. Aufderheide, The Scientific Study of Mummies 485
I have joined my mother the Great Wild Cow. O my mother,
the Wild Cow which is upon the Mountain of Pasture.
Your mother is the great wild cow who dwells in Nekheb.
You are a son of the Great Wild Cow.
It is my mother the great Wild Cow ... who has lifted me up to

the sky.
Nut the Great puts her hands on him, (even) she the long-
horned, the pendulous of breast. She suckles this King and does
not wean him.
O King, you have no human father who could beget you, you
have no human mother who could bear you; your mother is the
Great Wild Cow who dwells in Nekheb.
Bring me this [...] son of the Cow-goddess [...].
484
Ibid. 156.
485
Arthur C. Aufderheide, The Scientific Study of Mummies (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2003), 399.
486
487
Ibid. 135.
488
Ibid. 214.
489
Ibid. 236.
490
491
Ibid. 289.
162
[And so] Nut became [a cow].
Book of the Heavenly Cow, 30-34 493
Nut had several important associations. In the earliest texts,
she was seen as having power over the gods. In some instances she
is portrayed as cow goddess of the sky.
The Egyptians visualized her mainly as human in form but she
can appear as the Sky Cow.
Dr. George Hart, Routledge Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and
Goddesses 495
Nut takes the form of a cow to carry Ra up into the heavens.
Fig. 42: Nut, sky goddess and mother of Osiris, is seen here in the form of a cow; from
the Book of the Celestial Cow in the tomb of Seti I, KV17, 13 th cen. BCE.
492
Ibid. 304.
493
Edward F. Wente Jr., The Book of the Heavenly Cow, in The Literature of
Ancient Egypt: An Anthology of Stories, Instructions, Stelae, Autobiographies,
and Poetry, ed. W.K. Simpson (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003), 292.
494
Remler (2000-10), 137.
495
Hart (1986-2005), 110.
496
Pinch (2002-04), 174.
163
Fig. 43: Nut the Great she the long-horned; scene from the Temple of Kom Ombo.
Egypt is like a very Fair Heifer
Traditionally, the term heifer implied that a cow was a young virgin.
Not always, but generally that was the inference made. Anyway, along
with being known as the Celestial Cow, Nut had another very important
epithet that is relevant to this chapter. It is the title of Hwn.t wr.t, that is
to say- The Great Virgin.
We find the expression the great virgin to denote the kings
mother already in the Pyramid Texts.
Dr. Anders Hultgrd, Leschatologie des Testaments des Douze
Patriarches I: Interprtation des textes 497
497
Anders Hultgrd, Leschatologie des Testaments des Douze Patriarches I:
Interprtation des texts, Acta Universitatis Upsalienses: Historia Religionum 6
(Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell Int., 1977), 219. (Emph. added; trans. by Google
Translate.)
164
The Egyptian words for girl, virgin, are dd.t, rnn.t, and
especially Hwn.t. This last word is already attested to in the
Pyramid Texts, including the expression, the girl in the eye, i.e.,
the pupil. It means girl, virgin, in a general sense, but can also
denote the young marriageable woman in particular. The Pyramid
Texts speak of the great virgin (Hwn.t wr.t) three times (682c,
728a, 2002a, cf. 809c); she is anonymous, appears as the
protectress of the king, and is explicitly called his mother once
(809c).
Dr. Jan Bergman and Dr. Helmer Ringgren, in Theological
Dictionary of the Old Testament, Vol. 2 498
1wn.t girl, virgin.
Dr. Aharon Dolgopolsky, The Nostratic Macrofamily and
Linguistic Palaeontology 499
(Hwnt wrt). An epithet of Nut.

The Great Maiden [Hwn.t wr.t] who dwells in On has placed
for you her hands on you, because there is no mother of yours
among men who could bear you, because there is no father of
yours among men who could beget you. Your mother is the great
wild cow who dwells in Nekheb.
You have no human fathers and you have no human mothers;
your father is the Great Wild Bull, your mother is the Maiden
[Hwn.t].
498
Jan Bergman and Helmer Ringgren, bethlh, bethlm, in Theological
Dictionary of the Old Testament, Volume II, eds. G.J. Botterweck, H. Ringgren,
trans. J.T. Willis (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1972-99),
338-39. (Emph. added.)
499
Aharon Dolgopolsky, The Nostratic Macrofamily and Linguistic
Palaeontology (Cambridge: The McDonald Institute for Archaeological
Research, 1998), 89.
500
J.P. Allen (2005), 431.
501
502
165
Now, at this point some antagonistic readers might be thinking
something to the effect of Aha! You just debunked your own point! The
four previous passages just quoted didnt use virgin! So ha! But alas,
there is no dichotomy or contradiction here. In language, there exists a
concept known as synonyms, i.e. words that can be exchanged with one
another yet still convey the same meaning. Such an example would, of
course, be the English terms virgin and maiden, as the following
dictionaries affirm.
Definition of maiden
noun
1 archaic an unmarried girl or young woman:
two knights fought to win the hand of a fair maiden
a virgin.
Oxford Dictionaries Online (US) 503
maid \md\ n [ME maide, short for maiden] (13c) 1: an unmarried
girl or woman esp. when young : VIRGIN 2 a: MAIDSERVANT
b: a woman or girl employed to do domestic work
maiden adj (14c) 1 a (1): not married a aunt (2): VIRGIN b
of a female animal (1): never yet mated (2): never having borne
young 2: of, relating to, or befitting a maiden 3: FIRST,
EARLIEST a ships voyage the flight of a spacecraft
maid-en-head \m-dn-hed\ n [ME maidenhead, fr. maiden + -hed
hood; akin to ME hod hood] (13c) 1: the quality or state of
being a maiden : VIRGINITY 2: HYMEN
Merriam-Websters Collegiate Dictionary 504
celibate adj *unmarried, single, virgin, maiden
maiden adj 1 *unmarried, single, celibate, virgin
Ana *youthful, virginal, juvenile
2 *youthful, juvenile, virgin, virginal, puerile, boyish
Maiden holds much the same implications as virgin
virgin adj 1 *unmarried, single, celibate, maiden
503
Oxford Dictionaries Online (US),
http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/maiden (accessed June 10,
2013). (Emph. added.)
504
Merriam-Websters Collegiate Dictionary: Eleventh Edition, ed. F.C. Mish et
al. (Springfield: Merriam-Webster, Inc., 2004), 748-49. (Emph. added.)
166
2 also virginal maiden, boyish, *youthful, juvenile, puerile
Maiden in its extended sense carries an even stronger suggestion
than virgin or virginal of youthful lack of experience.
Merriam-Websters Dictionary of Synonyms 505
maiden adjective
2 never having had sexual relations only maiden girls were
allowed to serve as priestesses in that temple in ancient Roman
times
Synonyms maiden, virginal
Dictionary and Thesaurus - Merriam-Webster Online 506
maiden [meIdn] n 1. Archaic or literary a. a young unmarried
girl, esp when a virgin
Collins English Dictionary 507
maid (md) n. 1a. An unmarried girl or woman. b. A virgin.
maiden (mdn) n. 1a. An unmarried girl or woman. b. A virgin.
maidenhead (mdnhd) n. 1. The condition or quality of being
a maiden; virginity.
virgin (vrjn) n. 1. A person who has not experienced sexual
intercourse. 2. A chaste or unmarried woman; a maiden.
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English
Language 508
maid md, n an unmarried woman, esp one who is young (archaic
and poetic); a virgin (archaic);
maiden mdn, n a maid; adj unmarried; virgin; female; relating
to a virgin
505
Merriam-Websters Dictionary of Synonyms, ed. P.B. Gove et al. (Springfield:
Merriam-Websters, Inc., 1984), 133, 515, 846, 862, 885. (Emph. added.)
506
Dictionary and Thesaurus - Merriam-Webster Online, http://www.merriam-
webster.com/thesaurus/maiden[adjective] (accessed June 10, 2013).
507
Collins English Dictionary: Complete and Unabridged, 6th Edition, ed. J.
Butterfield et al. (Glasgow: HarperCollins Publishers, 2003). (Emph. added.)
508
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition,
ed. M.S. Berube et al. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000-09), 1054,
1921. (Emph. added.)
167
The Chamber Dictionary 509
MAIDEN, ma-dn, s. (A.S.) A maid. a. Pertaining to a young
woman or virgin
Comprehensive Dictionary of the World 510
So the term maiden can and has been employed to convey never
having had sexual relations, just as the term virgin can be. Hence the
example given by the dictionaries cited above, a common expression still
used today, in which a virgin ships first time at sea is called the
maiden voyage- analogous to a maidens first time at intercourse. The
same application to sexual virginity extends to related terms as well, such
as maidenhead, as shown earlier, which can refer to an intact hymen.
Even certain characters venerated by our heathen opponents are referred
to as maidens to indicate the belief that they were virgin mothers, e.g.,
ever maiden and maiden before conception, maiden in conception,
maiden after conception.
Given that Hwn.t can be used (as per Bergman and Ringgren) to refer
to virgin in a general sense (i.e. sexual inexperience), and/or to a
young marriageable woman, and/or to potential motherhood,511 how
then can one determine what combinations of these traits are being
invoked when using Hwn.t? Its simple- by context. While there certainly
exist many alternative versions of Osirian mythology, as covered on
pp.9-18, differing versions do not cancel each other out, and not every
version is canon. So while different stories might exist about Osiris
lineage and how he was conceived, the context that is of interest here is
the context of the particular version already referenced- the tradition in
which Nut was called the Great Virgin. Much like how there exist
different versions of heathen myths as well, even versions in which their
venerated ever maiden virgin mothers were depicted not as conceiving
via parthenogenesis, but rather through sex with men, angels, or gods.
Such versions do not deter the faith and creeds of the heathen, and the
same goes for us.
509
The Chambers Dictionary, ed. E. Higgleton et al. (Edinburgh: Chambers
Harrap Publishers Ltd., 1998-2006), 968. (Emph. added.)
510
Comprehensive Dictionary of the World: Vol. III, Part 2, ed. T. Wright (New
Delhi: Mittal Publications, 1992), 698. (Emph. added.)
511
Bergman, loc. cit.
168
Therefore, when examining the context of the tradition in which the
mother of Osiris is the Great Virgin, which application of Hwn.t is
indicated? It may be ruled out that it refers to potential motherhood,
since Nut has already obtained motherhood. Nor can Hwn.t here be
referring to a young marriageable woman, since Nut is married to Geb
and thus no longer marriageable.
And on that point, there are some heathen who have contended that
since in this context Nut is married, that somehow by default
incontestably renders Osiris ineligible for classification as virgin-born.
Mere marriage in itself does no such thing, and many of the same
heathen who make such an objection unwittingly admit that it does no
such thing. First of all, the Merriam-Websters Dictionary of Synonyms
cited earlier also states:
Virgin tends to stress a pure unsullied state of chastity. It
usually applies to the unmarried but it may also be referred to the
married when the marital relation has not been consummated,
usually on grounds of choice.512
Second of all, most of those heathen believe in similar stories from
the Fertile Crescent which also claim that a virgin was married and yet
was still a virgin when she bore her first child. That aside, even staying
within the context of ancient Egypt, there is the example of Queen
Ahmose. Returning to Bergman and Ringgren, they wrote:
In the Legend of the Birth of Hatshepsut, Queen Ahmose is
characteristically presented to Amon as a virgin (Hwn.t) and the
most beautiful of all women. In this context it is to be observed
that her husband is called a young child, which apparently means
that the young king was not able to consummate the marriage; thus
the queen, although married, is a virgin. Therefore, the sole
fatherhood of Amon cannot be doubted. 513
Marriage in itself did not void the virgin status of Ahmose, nor void
that of certain virgin mothers in heathen myth. Likewise, Nuts status as
the Great Virgin was not annulled by her marriage to Geb. The usage
of marriage as an objection fails.
512
Gove (1984), 846. (Emph. added.)
513
Bergman, loc. cit. (Emph. added.)
169
It is perhaps also proper here to briefly address the other portion of
Nuts epithet in the Perennial Gospel- virgin meri. This is simply an
ancient Egyptian word often translated as beloved.
I have become new (mA), young (rnp), swift (wn), akh, ba [...]
mighty (wsr), favoured (Hsi), beloved (mri), endowed (mTn),
protected (mki), saluted (tri), and have appeared (xai) as a young
god.
mr-Imn ... beloved of Amon.
Theban Nile Level Records, Osorkon I, Text No. 2 515
Sxm.y aA.(t) mr.(t) PtH
Sakhmet the great, beloved of Ptah.
A Memphite Land Sale Under Siamon, Label for Sakhmet 516
Nut is certainly beloved by many. A virgin meri is she. Returning to
the main point, since it is impossible that the aforementioned usage of
Hwn.t in reference to Nut means potential motherhood or young
marriageable woman, what other meaning is left? The very first one
Bergman and Ringgren mentioned, which was girl, virgin, in a general
sense.
Is there evidence to indicate this is the intended meaning of Hwn.t
here? Indeed there is. First, recall the images in Fig. 26 & 42 on pp.113
& 163. They depict the classic scene of Shu, god of the air, holding up
the XAt (khat), or body, of his daughter Nut, goddess of the sky. Much
like Greek tales of Atlas and Hercules, Shu and Nut must forever hold up
the firmament above the sky. In fact, the Greeks often identified Shu
with their own Hercules/Herakles.517 Shu is also often depicted as
supported from beneath by the body of his son Geb, god of the earth. Shu
remains in between, keeping them forever separated, never the twain
514
Nyford (2009), 518. (Emph. added.)
515
Ritner (2009), 35.
516
Ibid. 162.
517
Herodotus, in Strassler (2009), 136, n.2.43.3a
A. Burton (1972), 79-80.
Keyne Cheshire, Alexander the Great - Greece & Rome: Texts and Contexts
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 121.
170
shall meet. This reflects how the atmosphere is always affixed in its
position between the sky above and the earth below, and never can the
sky come down and make direct contact with the earth.518 Nuts
khat/body must maintain its position, unable to even lift her arms, always
aiding Shu in holding up the firmament above. This circumstance
unfortunately forced Nut into a period of celibacy, as stated by the holy
scriptures.
I am the well-beloved son of Re ...
I was conceived for Re ...
Nut: she can neither copulate nor use her arms;
I will ascend and rise up to the sky.
Geb: he cannot overleap his path(?);
I will ascend and rise up to the sky.
Pyramid Texts, Utterance 539 1316-17, 1321 519
There is no ambiguity there or room for personal interpretation. The
scriptures explicitly declare that Nut can NOT copulate, therefore her
epithet of Hwn.t wr.t/the Great Virgin means exactly that- virgin. Osiris
was born of a virgin mother. So how then did Nut become pregnant if
she was a celibate virgin? She was impregnated by the power of Re,
through the holy spirit or Ax520 that was in her.
O Re, make the womb of Nut pregnant with the seed of the
spirit which is in her.
It can now be seen why it is the case, as covered in the previous
chapter, that it is actually Re who is the true biological father of Osiris,
and also why the kings of Egypt who succeeded Osiris and became
identified with Osiris upon their death likewise identified themselves as
sons of Re and Nut. So having established the fact that Osiris is the Apis
bull (whose earthly mascot resided in Memphis), and that Nut was his
mother cow and a virgin, and having established the fact that Re is his
518
Stephens (2003), 199.
Diodorus, in Oldfather (1933-67), 25.
519
520
The nature of the Ax(akh) concept will be addressed in further detail in ch.5.
521
Faulkner (1969), 167.
171
father- it is now time to cover the mechanism by which the triune Lord
God impregnated this celestial cow.
This Apis is the calf of a cow which is never afterwards able to
have another. The Egyptian belief is that a flash of light descends
upon the cow from heaven, and this causes her to receive Apis.
Herodotus, Histories 3.28.2 522
Thats five centuries before the Common Era. Also, it is entirely
corroborative with the holy scriptures.
Here am I, O Re; I am your son ... (even I) a star of gold, the
flash of the Bull of the sunshine.
Apisa black bull, marked by particular spots and different
from other bulls in his tail and in his tongueis the divinity of all
the Aegyptian peoples. He is born only rarely, conceived not from
mating cattle, as they say, but miraculously in a celestial fire. The
day of his birth is particularly festive to the whole people.
Pomponius Mela, Description of the World, 1.9.58 (mid 1st
cen. CE) 524
The Apis, they say, is the animate image of Osiris, and he
comes into being when a fructifying light thrusts forth from the
moon and falls upon a cow in her breeding-season
Plutarch, Moralia, 368C 525
Among the Egyptians Apis is believed to be the god whose
presence is most manifest. He is born of a cow on which a flash of
light from heaven has fallen and caused his engendering.
Aelian, On the Characteristics of Animals, 11.10 526
Apis was believed to be incarnate in a bull, born to a virgin
cow which was supposed to have been impregnated by Ptah
522
Oakes (2002-05), 102. (Emph. added.)
523
524
Pomponius Mela, Description of the World, trans. F.E. Romer (Ann Arbor:
University of Michigan Press, 1998), 51, 3. (Emph. added.)
525
526
Aelian, On the Characteristics of Animals, in Aelian: On Animals, Books 6-11,
trans. A.F. Scholfield (London: William Heinemann Ltd., and Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 1959), 367. (Emph. added.)
172
through the agency of fire from heaven (perhaps a bolt of
lightning).
Dr. John H. Taylor, Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt 527
Said to be the calf of a virgin cow, engendered by a flash of
lightning, Apis was distinguished by special markings on his black
hide.
Dr. Abdel H. Zayed, Egyptian Antiquities 528
Apis became incarnate in a specially chosen bull after the god
Ptah impregnated a virgin cow with the power of his lightning.
Dr. Donald K. Sharpes, Sacred Bull, Holy Cow: A Cultural Study
of Civilizations Most Important Animal 529
Herod., III, 28 shows acquaintance with the Egyptian tradition
according to which the holy bull of Apis was born of a virgin cow,
which was fructified by a beam of light from heaven (or the moon).
Dr. Hermann Kleinknecht, in Theological Dictionary of the New
Testament 530
It is incontestable. Apis, who is also Osiris, was born of a virgin after
the Lord God impregnated his mother with flaming light from heaven.
The most explicit statement, however, from an ancient source that attests
to this aspect of Osiris was recorded by Theophrastus of Eresus, in the 4th
century BCE. It is preserved in Fragment 380, in an epitome on
Aristotles History of Animals by Aristophanes of Byzantium (3rd-2nd cen.
BCE). It reads as follows:
Woman alone of two-footed creatures brings forth live young;
other two-footed creatures produce eggs. Woman alone of
creatures that bring forth live young (rather than eggs) produces
offspring without being impregnated. Theophrastus bears witness
527
John H. Taylor, Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt (London: British
Museum Press, 2001), 247.
528
Abdel H. Zayed, Egyptian Antiquities (Cairo: Le Scribe gyptien S.A.E., 1962),
72-73.
529
Donald K. Sharpes, Sacred Bull, Holy Cow: A Cultural Study of Civilizations
Most Important Animal (New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 2006), 58-59.
530
Hermann Kleinknecht, , A I-IV, in Theological
Dictionary of the New Testament: Abridged in One Volume, eds. G. Kittel & G.
Friedrich, trans. G.W. Bromiley (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.,
1968-95), 342.
173
that Aristotle said that the so-called Osiris is produced without
intercourse, in the fifth book of On Living Creatures. 531
There it is, clear as crystal. If the previous material in this chapter
wasnt already enough (which it is) to establish the fact, the quotation
above has summed it all up the most concisely. Osiris was produced
without intercourse. No ambiguity there, no room for misinterpretation.
The Egyptians (and Greeks) knew it, at least four centuries before the
Common Era- Lord Osiris had a virgin birth.
While there is no dispute over the citation of Theophrastus as the
source here, it is worth noting the commentary of one of the editors of
this translation. In a subsequent volume in this series on Theophrastus,
Dr. Robert W. Sharples explained his reasons for suspecting that the
citation of Theophrastus comment on Osiris was not made by
Aristophanes himself, but instead was actually a scribal gloss.532 That is
to say, it was an explanatory footnote added by a copyist which later
became integrated into the main body of the text. Sharples traces its
terminus ante quem back to the time of Pamphilus of Alexandria533 in
the mid 1st century CE.534 So while the alleged insertion of this so-called
scribal gloss still (just barely) predates certain other texts that also
contain rival legends of a virgin birth, even if it didnt, the main point
here is that it still cites Theophrastus as its source. The attribution to
Theophrastus is one thing the editors of this translation did not contest,
and Theophrastus far predates Pamphilus of Alexandria.
Sharples also clarifies that it is likely that Theophrastus intent was
just to note that Aristotle was merely reporting that such a belief existed,
rather than Aristotle endorsing the belief itself. The very preface of so-
531
Aristiphanes of Byzantium, Epitome, in Theophrastus of Eresus: Sources for
his Life, Writings, Thought & Influence, Part Two, eds. W.W. Fortenbaugh et al.
(Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1992), 185. (Emph. added.)
532
Robert W. Sharples, Theophrastus of Eresus: Sources for his Life, Writings,
Thought & Influence, Commentary Volume 5, Sources on Biology (Leiden, E.J.
Brill, 1995), 115-17.
533
Ibid. 119.
534
Frederick G. Meyer, Appendix 9: Fuchs Literary Sources, in The Great
Herbal of Leonhart Fuchs: De Historia Stirpium Commentarii Insignes, 1542, eds.
and trans. F.G. Meyer, E.E. Trueblood, J.L. Heller (Stanford: Stanford University
Press, 1999), 792.
174
called before the name of Osiris does seem to indicate a cautionary
skepticism to the claim. This would be more in line with Aristotles more
scientifically oriented worldview.535 Dr. Sharples does, however,
acknowledge that there was absolutely an ancient Egyptian belief in the
parthenogenetic birth of Osiris- A so-called Osiris was indeed said to
be born without intercourse.536
What is also relevant here is that not only was Nut associated with
virgin motherhood and with bovine, but also with bees. This is
particularly interesting in light of the phenomenon traditionally known as
bougonia, meaning ox-born (a description that would certainly seem to
apply to Osiris as well.) Bougonia was believed to be the spontaneous
generation of bees from the bodies of bulls and cows. Therefore, in
ancient times, bees were believed to be produced without intercourse, i.e.
parthenogenetically. Given this belief that cows could literally produce a
type of offspring without mating, it is no wonder that the story of a cow
goddess giving virgin birth can be found in the literature of ancient
Egypt. This is yet another natural metaphor the Lord has used to reveal
part of His gospel.
There are also peculiarities concerning the similarities and
differences in animal species, and in the manner of their births,
such as the fact that in Egypt if you bury an ox in certain places, so
that their horns emerge above the surface, and then later saw them
off, they say that bees will fly forth. For these creatures are the
result of the oxs decomposition. And this is a subject that seems to
have interested Philitas, who was of a particularly enquiring cast of
mind, since he calls them born of an ox when he says:
With long strides first you reach the ox-born bees.
Antigonus of Carystus, Collection of Wonderful
Tales (3rd cen. BCE) 537
535
Sharples (1995), 116.
536
Ibid. 117 and n.359.
537
Antigonus of Carystus, Collection of Wonderful Tales, in Hellenistic
Collection: Philitas, Alexander of Aetolia, Hermesianax, Euphorion, Parthenius,
175
Bees were born from the carcass of a calf that had fallen dead
in the glades.
Nicander of Colophon, Theriaca 445-50 (2nd cen. BCE) 538
It was from the putrefied body of this animal that there spring
the sweetest bees, those honey-mothers from which the Greeks
therefore call bees the ox-sprung ().
Varro, On Agriculture, 2.5.5 (1st. cen. BCE) 539
Four bulls of excellent body
With as many heifers whose necks have never felt the yoke:
When the ninth day has dawned,
Sends funeral gifts to Orpheus and goes to the thicket again.
Here, to be sure, a miracle sudden and strange to tell of
They behold: from the oxens bellies all over their rotting flesh
Creatures are humming, swarming through the wreckage of their
ribs
Huge and trailing clouds of bees, that now in the treetops
Unite and hang like a bunch of grapes from the pliant branches.
Virgil, Georgics, 4.50-58 540
Havent you seen that whenever corpses
Putrefy over time or in liquefying heat
They turn into tiny creatures? Bury the corpses
Of slaughtered bulls (this is well-known)
Down in a ditch, and honeybees will be born
From the rotting entrails. Like their parents
They are busy in the fields and hope for harvest.
Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book 15 541
He orders every sacrifice to be offered without honey or
leaven. Both these substances he considers unfit to be brought to
the altar: honey perhaps because the bee which collects it is an
ed. J.L. Lightfoot (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2009), 53-55. (Emph.
added.)
538
Nicander of Colophon, Theriaca, in Poems and Poetical Fragments, eds.
A.S.F. Gow and A.F. Scholfield (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1953-
2010), 123, 125.
539
Varro, On Agriculture, in Cato and Varro on Agriculture, trans. W.D. Hooper,
H.B. Ash (London: William Heinemann Ltd., and Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
540
Virgil, in Lewis (1983), 127.
541
176
unclean animal, bred from the putrescence and corruption of dead
oxen, we are told.
Philo of Alexandria, On Those Who Offer
Sacrifice VI (1st cen. CE) 542
Now Democritus, Mago and likewise Vergil have recorded
that bees can be generated at this same time of year from a slain
bullock. Mago indeed also asserts that the same thing may be done
from the bellies of oxen.
Columella, On Agriculture 9.19.6 (1st cen. CE) 543
Fig. 44: Bougonia.
542
Philo of Alexandria, On Those Who Offer Sacrifice, in Philo: Volume VII, trans.
F.H. Colson (London: William Heinemann Ltd., and Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
543
Columella, On Agriculture, in Columella: On Agriculture, Books 5-9, trans.
E.S. Forster, E.H. Heffner (London: William Heinemann Ltd., and Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1954), 485.
177
Fig. 45: Bodies of cows producing offpring (bees) parthenogenetically.
Aristotle knew not only that bees can reproduce without

copulation but also that the offspring so produced was unlike the
mother. The difference refers to the sex of the parthenogenetic
offspring.
Dr. Ursula Mittwoch, in New Scientist 544
Pliny refers to kings (reges), and like Aristotle uses the simplex
bee to denote the worker; indeed his reference to true bees
(verae apes) in the above passage underlines the impression that
they are bees par excellence. As to the manner of reproduction,
Plinylike Aristotlerefers to belief by some in a type of
parthenogenesis, and by others in bisexual reproduction.
D.E. Le Sage, in Bee World 545
On the subject of the generation of bees there is by no means
unanimity of opinion. Some maintain that bees neither copulate
nor bring forth young: they fetch them in, so it is alleged ... Others
maintain that the bees fetch in the brood of drones from one of
the plants mentioned above, while the brood of bees is generated
from the leaders.
544
Ursula Mittwoch, Virgin Birth, New Scientist 78, no. 1107.35 (1978): 751.
545
D.E. Le Sage, Bees in Indo-European Languages, Bee World 55, no. 1
(1974): 22.
178
Aristotle, History of Animals, 5.21 (4th cen. BCE) 546
Bees were believed to be parthenogenetic ... Belief in the bees
parthenogenesis led to its being a symbol of the Virgin.
Dr. Hope. B. Werness, The Continuum Encyclopedia of Animal
Symbolism in World Art 547
So the bee was a symbol of virginal generation from sacred bovine.
Such being the case, Nut was not only portrayed as a parthenogenetic
cow, but was also depicted as a sacred bee. This detail further
strengthens her identity as a virgin mother.
The Egyptians visualised her mainly as human in form but she
can appear as the Sky Cow. In an early text Nut is imagined as a
bee wielding great power over the gods.
and Goddesses 548
O Nut, you have appeared as a bee; you have power over the
gods.
O Nut ... You are the daughter, mighty in her mother, who
appeared as a bee.
Pyramid Texts, Utterance 429-31 779-81 550
Adding all of this together, it is only natural that Nuts association

with parthenogenetic bee bougonia extends to her bougens son, Osiris-
Apis. Likewise, these details further strengthen his identity as a virgin-
born god.
546
Aristotle, History of Animals, in Aristotle: History of Animals, Books 4-6,
trans. A.L. Peck (London: William Heinemann Ltd., and Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 1970-93), 187-89. (Emph. added.)
547
Hope. B. Werness, The Continuum Encyclopedia of Animal Symbolism in
World Art (New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc.,
2006), 17, 40.
548
Hart (1986-2005), 110. (Emph. added.)
549
Faulkner (1969), 148.
550
Ibid. 142.
179
Figures of Bes and Beset (in high relief) were discovered in a
room at the right of the entrance to the Necropolis of Memphis
(H.I.50). At the left of these figures a female figure of much smaller
proportions is standing, above the head of which is a painting. Of
the representation only the tail and the hindlegs of an Apis bull are
preserved. The bull is standing to the left before an altar, probably
in a naos, amid a decoration of bees on a vine.
G. J. F. Kater-Sibbes and Dr. Maarten J. Vermaseren, Apis, I: The
Monuments of the Hellenistic-Roman Period from Egypt 551
In 1653 the tomb of Childric, a Merovingian king who died
in 481, was opened in Tournai. The burial deposit included a
bulls head adorned with a solar disk and more than three hundred
gold bees that had been used to decorate his equipage. ... The
bulls head with the solar disk is Apis. But the bees are a different
matter. In this context they are not obviously markers of kingship,
but symbols of rebirth linked to the Apis bull through an etymology
of Apis/apis. The bees reflect a belief in the spontaneous creation
of bees from the carcass of a dead bull, the so-called bougonia.
Dr. Susan A. Stephens, Seeing Double: Intercultural Poetics
in Ptolemaic Alexandria 552
Fig. 46: Depiction of the golden bees of the Apis bull from the tomb
of King Childric.
551
Kater-Sibbes (1975), 12. (Emph. added.)
552
Stephens (2003), 4.
180
The Egyptians said that the bee arose from Apis, the sacred
bull of Egypt and embodiment of Osiris, god of resurrection. A
buried bull (or one suffocated and shut in a sealed room) was
thought to engender new bees.
Dr. Claire Preston, Bee 553
The Bougonia at the end of book 4, which begins with the
violent death of cattle and the disfigurement of their corpses, and
culminates in the miracles of new life, is strikingly similar to the
death of Osiris, his mangled corpse, and his eventual restoration as
ruler of the dead and giver of the means of sustaining life. And of
course, this method of acquiring a new hive of bees, Vergil tells us,
is Egyptian.
Dr. Patricia A. Johnston, in Mystic Cults in Magna Graecia 554
What for Greeks fell into the category of marvel in Virgil takes
on characteristics of an expiatory rite. He claims that omnis in hac
certam regio (Egypt) iacit arte salutem (4.294). As Virgil describes
it, the bulls death comes to resemble a famous religious ritual that
functioned to insure the fertility of Egypt: the commemoration
doubtless bizarre to the Romansof the death, mummification, and
rebirth of the Apis bull. The death of the bull was an occasion for
national mourning; the new Apis was regarded as a rebirth of the
old, whose wellbeing was linked to that of the land itself. Virgils
first bugonia is rather like mummificationthe animals orifices are
closed up and he is enclosed in a small sarcophagus-like space and
covered with fragrant herbs. A connection between bougens and
the Apis was not unprecedentedit had already been made by
Callimachus.
Dr. Susan A. Stephens, in Rituals in Ink: A Conference on
Religion and Literary Production in Ancient Rome 555
In Egypt, the bull god Apis was associated with bees, and the
Latin word for bee, apis, derives from that source. Bees were also
a symbol in Egypt of Osiris, the sun god.
553
Claire Preston, Bee (London: Reaktion Books LTD, 2006), 86.
554
Patricia A. Johnston, The Mystery Cults and Vergils Georgics, in Mystic
Cults in Magna Graecia, eds. G. Casadio and P.A. Johnston (Austin: University of
Texas Press, 2009), 264-65.
555
Susan A. Stephens, Whose Rituals in Ink?, in Rituals in Ink: A Conference on
Religion and Literary Production in Ancient Rome, eds. A. Barchiesi, J. Rpke,
and S.A. Stephens (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2004), 159.
181
Katherine Correa, in Symposium: The Adelphi Honors College
Journal of Ideas 556
Now, in view of all of this multifarious concern on the part of
men of all ages with the affairs of bees, it is utterly
incomprehensible that the same people could profess belief in the
spontaneous generation of bees from the carcass of a defunct ox;
yet such was indeed the case. In Greece these bees were called
bugonia, from bous, ox, and gony, progeny; the Latin terms were
Bugenes melissa or Taurigena apes (taurus, bull). Wheeler traces
this myth back to Egypt, and in this land Apis denoted a bull
instead of a bee; so at the start of our account we meet with this
strange affinity between bees and bulls, which rapidly transcends
the merely philological and becomes intimately biologic.
The Egyptian god, Apis, in the form of a bull, was a
reincarnation of Ptah, and later of Osiris, the sun god, one of those
symbols was the bee. ... A living bull was selected by the priest caste
to serve as Apis during its life; as each Apis died another was
chosen for the role.
Elsewhere in the article, the author continues:
Apis was produced by an immaculate conception that
foreshadowed the human counterpart ... According to one account
the mother cow was fertilized by a ray from heaven, and the calf,
always a black male, was found by means of certain cryptic
markings (and much priestly hokum). ... Because of the cult of
Apis-worship, all bulls came to take on a significance denied to
other animals. The bull was the supreme sacrificial beast, and the
slaying of a bull, at first an act denoting strength and courage,
became more and more formalized and survives as the great sport
and spectacle of Spanish peoples everywhere, the corrida de toros,
or bullfight, with its elaborate pageantry.
So when valuable honeybees were seen issuing from the body
of a slain bull, it was an easy matter for the priests, and through
them the populace, to believe that they had been sent by a divine
providence to furnish honey, a dietary item always rated as a great
luxury. Life from deatha dim foreshadowing of the now
commonly known nitrogen and carbon cycles in naturewas a
concomitant to the familiar ashes-to-ashes philosophy. Like the
periodical flooding and retreat of the Nile, like the fleur-de-lis, the
bugonia came to stand as a symbol of resurrection.
556
Katherine Correa, Artemis Ephesia and Sacred Bee Imagery in Ancient
Greece, in Symposium: The Adelphi Honors College Journal of Ideas, Vol. 12,
eds. K. Correa et al. (Garden City: Adelphi University, 2012), 75.
182
Numerous writers in ancient and medieval times have
described the ritualistic performance that grew into standard
practice if a swarm of bees was desired through the sacrifice of an
ox. ... From Egypt, the bugonia legend spread throughout the
ancient world, becoming more elaborate and formalized as time
passed. The Greeks, Carthaginians, and Romans all speak of
producing bees in this manner as a commonplace occurrence.
Dr. Julian D. Corrington, in Bios 557
The bee as a magico-religious figure can be found as far back
as ancient Egypt. Many Egyptian texts and tomb monuments show
the bee as a common hieroglyph for the Pharaoh as king of Lower
Egypt from ca. 3500 B.C. until Roman times. ... Various
Alexandrian writers such as Callimachus, Philetos, Nicander, and
Antigonos of Karystos mention the bougonia, Antigonos in
particular placing it in Egypt. From Herodotus II.41 we hear that
when cattle died in Lower Egypt the females, sacred to lsis, were
thrown back into the river, while the males were buried in the
suburbs with one or both horns appearing above the ground to
mark the place. When the bodies decayed a boat came from
Prosopitis on the Delta to collect the ox bones. In V.114
Herodotus tells how the severed head of Onesilus became
occupied by a swarm of bees who filled it with a honeycomb. In
consequence of this the townspeople felt it necessary to consult an
oracle. From tales of this sort it seems natural to deduce that, when
native Egyptians found insects, particularly bees, beginning to breed
in dead bodies, being unacquainted with principles of animal
generation, they assumed that the bees, symbols of the king of the
Delta, had arisen by some mysterious, magical means. lf the dead
body were that of an ox or bull a possible mental connection with
the sacred Apis bull could only heighten an assumption of
spontaneous, divine generation. So the tale of the miracle must
have passed throughout Egypt to the lands beyond the Delta. Thus
the bougonia was a familiar part of traditional, Mediterranean lore
available to Virgil from a variety of sources.
Dr. Geraldine T. Thomas, in Vergilius 558
557
Julian D. Corrington, Bees, Bulls and Bugonia, Bios 27, no. 2 (1956): 99-
101.
558
Geraldine T. Thomas, Religious Backgrounds for Virgils Bee Symbol in the
Georgics, in Vergilius, Vol. 24, ed. J.M. Benario (Wallingford: The Vergilian
Society, 1978), 34.
183
Touch-Born
Another detail that further strengthens the fact that Osiris was
understood to have had a virgin birth from a celibate cow is his
syncretism with other characters of myth & legend born of
parthenogenesis. This would include the ancient Greek character known
as Epaphus. Firstly, at least as early the 5th century BCE, the Apis was
conflated with Epaphus, as can be seen in the testimony of Herodotus
and Aristogoras (as preserved by Aelian).
Apis in Greek is Epaphos. ... After Cambyses had arrived back
at Memphis, an epiphany of Apis, who is called Epaphos by the
Hellenes, occurred among the Egyptians.
Herodotus, Histories 2.153, 3.27.1 559
Among the Egyptians Apis is believed to be the god whose
presence is most manifest. He is born of a cow on which a flash of
light from heaven has fallen and caused his engendering. The
Greeks call him Epaphus and trace his descent from his mother
the Argive Io, daughter of Inachus. ... Herodotus and Aristogoras
adduce evidence and tokens of this.
Aelian, On the Characteristics of Animals, 11.10 560
Like other Egyptian gods, Apis had his Greek equivalent. He
was equated with the Greek hero Epaphos. The Greeks believed
Epaphos was one of the mythical pharaohs of Egypt and the
founder of the pharaonic capital of Memphis.
Dr. Michael Pfrommer, Greek Gold from Hellenistic Egypt 561
Io, supposed to be an ancestress of Kadmos, was turned into a
cow and bore Epaphos, who was identified with the Egyptian Apis-
bull.
Dr. Cora A. Sowa, Traditional Themes and the
Homeric Hymns 562
559
Strassler (2009), 189, 219.
560
Aelian, in Scholfield (1959), 367. (Emph. added.)
561
Michael Pfrommer, Greek Gold from Hellenistic Egypt (Los Angeles: Getty
Publications, 2001), 30.
562
Cora A. Sowa, Traditional Themes and the Homeric Hymns (Wauconda:
Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, Inc., 1984-2005), 29.
184
It may not be irrelevant that the Apis calf was identified by the
Greeks with Epaphus, the child of Io who combines human and
bovine forms.
Dr. Robert W. Sharples, Theophrastus of Eresus: Sources for his
Life, Writings, Thought & Influence, Commentary Volume 5,
Sources on Biology 563
Epaphos, son of Io and Zeus, is evidently the Egyptian bull-
god Apis.
Dr. Barry B. Powell, Writing and the Origins of
Greek Literature 564
Secondly, since Apis is a form of Osiris, this by extension identifies
Epaphus with Osiris as well. That alone is satisfactory enough. However,
by the 3rd century BCE, the conflation is made even more explicit when
Epaphus is directly identified with Osiris himself, rather than by
extension via his theriomorphic form as Apis. This was recorded by
Mnaseas of Patrae, as attested to by Plutarch.
I leave out of account Mnaseass annexation of Dionysus,
Osiris, and Serapis to Epaphus ... The fact is that the peculiarities
already mentioned regarding the festival and sacrifices carry a
conviction more manifest than any testimony of authorities.
Plutarch, Moralia 365F 565
Osiris or Egyptian Dionysos, Sarapis, and Egyptian Epaphos
were a single being.
Dr. Sydney H. AuFrre, in Light Against Darkness: Dualism in
Ancient Mediterranean Religion and the Contemporary
World 566
563
Sharples (1995), 118.
564
Barry B. Powell, Writing and the Origins of Greek Literature (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2002-07), 41.
565
566
Sydney H. AuFrre, Dualism and Focalization in Alexandrian Religious
Thought in Egypt at the Beginning of the Ptolemaic Period: Manetho of
Sebennytos and the Argive Myth, in Light Against Darkness: Dualism in
Ancient Mediterranean Religion and the Contemporary World, eds. A. Lange
and E.M. Meyers (Gttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. HG, 2011),
52 n.66. (Emph. added.)
185
Some (e.g. Ovid, Apollodorus, Eusebius and other later
writers) regarded him both as son of Io and founder of Memphis,
and as Pharaoh. According to Mnaseas (quoted by Plutarch) he was
... Osiris.
Dr. Reginald E. Witt, Isis in the Ancient World 567
So Osiris was conflated with Epaphus. The significance of this is that
Epaphus mother, Io, was a virgin at the time of his conception & birth.
Not only that, but like Osiris virgin mother, Io was also impregnated
while in the form of a cow.
Enter Io, a young woman transformed into a cow. ... [564-65]
Do you hear my voice, the voice of the cow-horned girl? ... [601]
You lucky, lucky girl, why stay a virgin, when you have the chance
to make the greatest marriage? Zeus is inflamed by the arrow of
desire to join with you in love. Dont reject his bed, child, but go
out to Lernas deep meadow and your fathers herds, so the eye of
Zeus may gain relief from longing. ... [664-69]
Theres a city, Canopus, at the edge of the land,
by the Niles mouth, where the river drops its silt.
There Zeus will bring you to your senses, with
a gentle touch, a hand you need not fear.
Your son, dark Epaphus, born from that touch
and named for it, will harvest all the land
irrigated by the broadly flowing Nile. ... [850-56]
Never, never, long-lived Fates,
may you see me sharing the bed of Zeus.
No marriage with one of the heavenly sort for me.
Im frightened when I see Io,
a virgin who shunned a husband,
destroyed by Heras hard traveling. [901-06]
Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 568
Here Io is still referred to as a celibate virgin. This being done even
after she was already said to have borne a son around fifty lines earlier in
the play.
567
Witt (1971-97), 320. (Emph. added.)
568
Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound, in Aeschylus: Prometheus Bound, trans. D.H.
Roberts (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2012), 27, 28, 34, 42-
44. (Emph. added.)
186
The Danaids merge Ios impregnation and her childbirth
because they want to suggest the impossible: that Io had conceived
their ancestor already in Argos but also that she was a virgin
throughout her wanderings. The first contention makes their tie
with the host city stronger; the second bears out their advocacy of
virginity. In contrast to the Suppliants, Prometheus Bound
emphasizes Ios rejection of marriage as the only cause of her
wanderings. Io wanders because she remains a virgin when she is
ripe to become a wife and a mother.
Dr. Silvia Montiglio, Wandering in Ancient Greek Culture 569
Io is not just in the service of Hera, she is the first priestess of
Hera, beginning a succession that led down to historical times - the
same list that provided the backbone of Hellanikos work and was
considered by Thucydides. But the priestess at Argos was not a
young maiden: she was a woman, presumably a virgin, who held
the post for life.
Dr. Ken Dowden, The Uses of Greek Mythology 570
The miraculous, non-sexual conception of Ios divine child came
about by a mere touch of the lightning-bearing hand of Zeus, akin to
Osiris conception through a touch of lightning. As mentioned in some of
the previous quotations, this detail is where Epaphus got his name. It is
from the Greek word epaph, meaning touch. Even his name serves as
a perpetual reminder of the legend of his virgin birth, yet another virgin
birth that far predates the Common Era.
The name Epaphus is treated as a pun on the verb epaphao,
meaning to touch lightly. Ios son is sometimes identified with the
Egyptian god Apis, who took the form of a bull.
Dr. Deborah H. Roberts, Aeschylus: Prometheus Bound 571
Epaphus was named from his being fathered by Zeus with a
touchonly.
569
Silvia Montiglio, Wandering in Ancient Greek Culture (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 2005), 23. (Emph. added.)
570
Ken Dowden, The Uses of Greek Mythology (London: Routledge, 1992-2005),
78. (Emph. added.)
571
Roberts (2012), 42 n.62.
187
Io conceived Epaphos through the touch and breath of Zeus.
Dr. Froma L. Zeitlin, in Cabinet of the Muses 573
It must be significant also that the touch () of Zeus by
which Io conceived Epaphus, so far from implying violence, could
be imagined by Aeschylus (Supp. 40-48, 315) as a breath (
).
Dr. Leonard Woodbury, Transactions and Proceedings of the
American Philological Association 574
The story of the virginal Io, whose son was begotten by
Zeus mere caress, is a sacred myth to the suppliants, a holy
miracle. It is never allowed to sink from the consciousness of the
audience. Twice the story is actually told (although it is a familiar
one), once during the conversation with Pelasgus and the second
time in a detailed version during the second stasimon. The
passages By the breathing caress of Zeus; by gentle touch;
held by the breath of Zeus; seeds mighty of solemn mother;
the several mentions of the name of Epaphus; the appeals to
Zeus, the ancestor; in fact, the very name of Zeus, forever
recurring, act as a leitmotif throughout, bringing to mind the
origin of this claim to virginity.
Their hubris is their claim to virginity. This claim of a fate
that sets them apart from womanhood is arrogance indeed. It
stems from their own interpretation: Calf of Zeus born with a
fateful name: Epaphus, Caress.
Dr. Hedwig Spier, in the Classical Journal 575
Another point of parallel with Egyptian lore is to be found in the
imagery of this scene of the conception of Epaphus. Recall the fact that
the Greeks identified Zeus with Lord Amen.576 Given that fact, it is
interesting to find that Egyptian imagery likewise depicts Amen as
impregnating virgins with a mere touch of a hand. This can be seen in
572
Sharples, loc. cit.
573
Froma L. Zeitlin, Patterns of Gender in Aeschylean Drama: Seven against
Thebes and the Danaid Trilogy, in Cabinet of the Muses , eds. M. Griffith and
D.J. Mastronarde (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1990), 111.
574
Leonard Woodbury, Apollos First Love, Transactions and Proceedings of
the American Philological Association 103 (1972): 565.
575
Hedwig Spier, The Motive for the Suppliants Flight, The Classical Journal
57, no. 7 (1962): 316.
576
See pp.56 (and n.144), 97-100, and 140.
188
Figures 47 and 48. The first of these is a drawing of a vase dated to the
5th century BCE, currently at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. It
depicts Zeus impregnating Io through the touch of his hand. As can be
seen, there is nothing sexual about this touch. The second illustration is
of a scene from the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, 15th cen. BCE,
which depicts the alleged conception of Hatshepsut Makara (or Ramaka).
Lord Amen is seen impregnating her mother with but a touch, as he holds
an ankh, the Egyptian symbol for life, up to the mothers nose. Since
Zeus was considered to be Amen, the similarity seen in these two
illustrations is conspicuous, and further strengthens the fact of their
syncretism.
Fig. 47: Zeus impregnating a virgin with a mere touch of his thunder-weilding hand as
Hermes kills her captor Argus.
189
Fig. 48: Amen impregnating a virgin with a touch of the hand.
Along with conception by a touch of the hand, another parallel is that

each of these touch-born children had a cow for a mother. Naturally,
for Epaphus, this was Io. For Hatshepsut Makara, this bovine mother was
one of the Seven Hathors, possibly even Nut, as the texts call this Hathor
lady of the sky. One might be prompted to ask that if the queen of
Egypt gave birth to Hatshepsut, how then can a cow goddess be her
mother too? The answer is because she was believed to have been born
again, this time from a Hathor cow. This was perhaps a memory of the
Opet Festival, instituted during her reign,577 or one of the several other
577
Hosam Refai, Notes on the Function of the Great Hypostyle Hall in the
Egyptian Temple: A Theban Approach, in Egyptology at the Dawn of the
Twenty-First Century, Volume 1: Archaeology, ed. Z. Hawass (Cairo: The
American University in Cairo Press, 2003), 394.
Peter I. Bogucki, Encyclopedia of Society and Culture in the Ancient World:
Volume 1 (New York: Facts on File, Inc., 2008), 464.
190
festivals which involved a ritual rebirth of the reigning king. 578 From
then on, she (or more likely, her ka, of which the Hathor had become the
source) was said to be reborn and rejuvenated on a daily basis. Therefore,
similar to how Osiris had two fathers, Hatshepsut Makara had two
mothers. One of those mothers having been a cow, also like Osiris, and
Epaphus as well.
Hathor, she reneweth her birth. Thebes is in joy. Ramaka, while
endures the sky, thou endures.
A gift to thy ka, Hathor, queen of the gods, giving life, by the King
Ramaka and the King Menkheperra, like Ra, eternally.
Said by Hathor, the lady of Hermonthis, the lady of heaven, queen
of the gods, who resides in Serui; my daughter, the beloved
Ramaka, I have come my daughter of my bowels, Ramaka,
my (child) of gold. I am thy mother with a sweet milk. I have
suckled thy Majesty with my breasts; they impart to thee life
and happiness. I kiss thy hand, I lick thy flesh with my gentle
tongue coming out of my mouth. Thou art born and renewed
every day, on the arms of thy father Amon, who grants that all
the lands may be under thy feet.
Said by Hathor, the protectress of Thebes, the divine cow, the
divine mother, the lady of the sky, the queen of the gods, who
looks at her (child), who licks the [child] she brought forth. I
have come to thee, my daughter, my beloved king Ramaka.
I am thy mother, who formed thy limbs and created thy
beauties.
Ann M. Roth, Hatshepsuts Mortuary Temple at Deir El-Bahri: Architecture as

Political Statement, in Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh, eds. C.H. Roebrig,
R. Dreyfus and C.A. Keller (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005),
151 n.3.
Lana Troy, Religion and Cult during the Time of Thutmose III, in Thutmose III:
A New Biography, eds. E.H. Cline and D.B. OConnor (Ann Arbor: The University
of Michigan Press, 2006), 140.
578
Betsy M. Bryan, Antecedents to Amenhotep III, in Amenhotep III:
Perspectives on His Reign, eds. D.B. OConnor, E.H. Cline (Ann Arbor: The
University of Michigan Press, 1998-2004), 30.
Bell (1997), 157, 179.
Remler (2000-10), 141.
191
Shrine of Hathor at Deir El Bahari 579
Fig. 49: The touch-born Hatshepsut being nursed by her cow mother, much like the
touch-born Epaphus and his cow mother, both of whom had connections to Osiris.
In addition to nonsexual hand-touch conception and bovine birth, yet

another parallel here is that the mothers of both Epaphus and
Hatshepsutat least up to this point in their respective storieswere
identified as virgins. Thats right. Hatshepsuts mother was none other
than Queen Ahmose, the very same Ahmose mentioned on p.169. And as
the scholars Dr. Bergman and Dr. Ringgren stated there, Ahmose was
explicitly referred to as a virgin, in spite of having been married. They
also explained that this is further evidenced by the fact that her husband
was referred to as a young child, too young to consummate. Bergman
579
Edouard Naville, The Temple of Deir El Bahari: Part IV (London: Egypt
Exploration Fund, 1901), 2-4. (Emph. added.)
192
and Ringgren also pointed out that these details were included in the
narrative so that the claim of the sole fatherhood of Amen cannot be
disputed. The mother was a virgin at the time of conception.
(Amon, king of the gods of Thebes, sends the messenger god
Thoth to the Temple of Karnak to search for the virgin that was
noticed by him because of her beautiful nature.)
Then Thoth went away.
And he reported to the king of the gods:
This virgin you spoke of, she that shines among the nobles, is
called Ahmose (born of the Moon).
She is more beautiful than all the women in the whole country.
She is the exalted lady of king Thutmose I.
His Majesty is just a boy.
(Thoth leads the king of the gods to the queen.)
There came this glorious God Amon, Lord of the Thrones of the
Two Lands, after he took the form of her husband.
They found her in the beauty of her palace in repose.
She awoke from the scent of God and laughed before his majesty.
He immediately went to her and burned for her.
He lost his heart to her.
She could see him in the form of a god, after he was come near to
her.
She cried to see his beauty.
His love penetrated her limbs.
The palace was flooded by the smell of God.
All of his fragrances were (fragrances) of Punt.
The majesty of this god did to her everything he wanted.
She pleased him by herself, and kissed him.
The Legend of the Birth of Hatshepsut 580
Now, there are several scholars out there who are of the opinion that
this narrative also indicates copulation took place at some point between
Ahmose and Amen (in the form of her husband). While some of the
phrases used in the narrative are certainly ambiguous enough to allow for
such a conclusion if one were so inclined, there are some things to bear
in mind here. First, regardless of whatever the text might allude to, the
imagery that depicts the actual conception itself in a visual manner
obviously does not contain any sexual phenomena whatsoever, as can
clearly be seen in Fig. 48. Secondly, one must also take note of a few
580
Siegfried Schott, Altgyptische Liebeslieder: Mit Mrchen und
Liebesgeschichten (Zrich: Artemis-Verlag, 1950), 89-90. (Emph. added.)
193
statements recorded by Plutarch that elaborate upon the Egyptian views
of reproduction between gods and humans. At the very least, they were
the views of the Egyptians by his time- the 1st century CE.
That an immortal god should take carnal pleasure in a mortal
body and its beauty, this, surely, is hard to believe. And yet the
Aegyptians make a distinction here which is thought plausible,
namely, that while a woman can be approached by a divine spirit
and made pregnant, there is no such thing as carnal intercourse and
communion between a man and a divinity.
Plutarch, Lives: Numa 4.4 581
To this Tyndares the Spartan subjoined: it seems no
incredible thing, that the deity, though not after the fashion of a
man, but by some other certain communication, fills a mortal
creature with some divine conception. Nor is this my sense; but the
Egyptians who say Apis was conceived by the influence of the
moon, and make no question but that an immortal god may have
communication with a mortal woman. But on the contrary, they
think that no mortal can beget any thing on a goddess, because they
believe the goddesses are made of thin air, and subtle heat and
moisture.
The touch of Zeus hand is indeed a different matter from
impregnation by celestial light; but it may be noted that Plutarch,
referring to gods begetting children on mortal women, refers to
them doing so not as a mortal man would but through other
touchings, haphai, and shortly afterwards refers to Apis being
produced by the touch, epaph, of the moon.
Plutarch reported that the Egyptians believed there was no such thing
as sexual intercourse between gods and humanity, and that a human can
581
Plutarch, Lives, in Plutarchs Lives: Volume I, trans. B. Perrin (London:
1914-59), 319. (Emph. added.)
582
Plutarch, Moralia, in Plutarchs Lives and Writings VIII: Essays and
Miscellanies Volume Three, eds. A.H. Clough and W.W. Goodwin (Boston: Little,
Brown, and Co., 1909), 401-02. (Emph. added.)
583
Sharples, loc. cit. (Emph. added.)
194
only be impregnated by a god through some other type of contact, e.g., a
touch of the hand to the nostrils, etc. Part of the reason for this was
because certain deities were believed to have bodies made of air, fire,
and water, making copulation with a solid human impossible. This would
seem to include gods such as Shu- god of the wind, or Tefnut- goddess of
moisture, although it would obviously exclude gods such as Geb, whose
very body forms the earth itself. This, however, does seem to apply to
Lord Amen as well, whose true form is hidden and invisible, just like
the wind. Hence Ahmose could only see Him when He was in disguise,
and He only manifests tangibly to the world as Ptah or Re and their
various forms/hypostases. This leads right into another detail worth
touching upon here, which is the reference to Zeus impregnating the
virgin with a breathing caress, i.e. with both his touch and his breath
(see Aeschylus, Suppliants 41-47). Generation by means of divine breath
is another recurring theme to be found in stories about Lord Amen-Re. In
fact, recall His impregnating the virgin cow with a flash of His light/fire.
Well, sources have recorded that His light/fire exudes from His breath,
and that His fiery breath/wind produces life.
This god is in this fashion:
When Re calls out to him,
there comes forth the flame which is in his mouth,
he lighting up by means of that which is in his mouth.
Book of the Solar-Osirian Unity, pl. 20C 584
One of the most important elements in this annotation is the
equation of light and breath; these two life-giving elements are the
results of the call of Re in the fourth scene of the third register in
the Sixth Division of the Book of Caverns, and in the Seventh
Address to Re in the Great Litany. The call of the sun brings light,
for it is the Ax.t-eye of the sun which calls out. The second scene in
the third register of the Second Division of the Book of Caverns,
which parallels this scene in the presence of the sun depicted within
the hn-chest of Osiris, also stresses the breath-giving call of the sun:
Oh divine eye ... whom the Datians see, with the
result that they breathe ...
The breath of the divine mouth can be the light of the sun ,
whose flaming breath the Second Shrine shows pouring into the
necks of the headless mummies. ... Speaking and fire are found in
584
Darnell (2004), 457. (Emph. added.)
195
association: of the sun god it is said md.wt=f m Hdy.t, his speech is
light.
You have made heaven remote, so that you can ascend to it
and see all that you have created, you who are a unique one,
but millions of lives are in you for you to animate them,
for the breath of life to their nostrils is the sight of your rays.
Amarna Short Hymn 586
Your skin is the light,
your breath is the fire of life (enxt),
all precious stones are united on your body.
Your limbs are the breath of life to every nose,
inhaling you brings life.
Hymn of Ramesses III 587
These gods in this form,
their corpses upon the mound,
they, placing their heads in front of the mysteries,
receiving the light of the Re,
and breathing by means of its ray(s):
It is, however, by means of Res voice when he calls to them, that
they become bright.
Book of the Earth, R6.B.1.73, Text 36 588
The Eye of Re Burns in Its Coffin
An oval containing a disc just above the register line. A tongue
of flame, designated brilliance (Ax), emerges from the center of
the oval, with two smaller tendrils, represented as dotted lines,
spreading outward from it. Four gods flank the oval, with their arms
extended downward, toward it. The text explains that the gods hold
their hands above the eye of Re and the mysterious sarcophagus,
which is beneath the brilliance of his eye, and that the flame
(rkH) rises up from the sarcophagus, after the gods have been
permitted to breath that which is inside of it.
585
Darnell (2004), 100-01, 113, 365. (Emph. added.)
586
Assmann, (1995-2009), 81. (Emph. added.)
587
588
Roberson (2007), 639. (Emph. added.)
196
Dr. Joshua Roberson, The Book of the Earth: A Study of Ancient
Egyptian Symbol-Systems 589
Amen-Re can even transmit this breath through His Mehen serpent,
the ouroboros-snake that protrudes from the solar-halo on Res head.590
The blessed dead can be said to be reborn from the coils of
the Mehen-snake, and from the fiery breath of the serpent as well.
For this reason fire emanates from the noses of the snakes, for this
flaming breath appears to have been expelled through the serpents
nostrils. Before each of the rising, mummiform beings is a disk
shining light onto the foreheads of the mummies.
The fiery breath of Amen-Re is light, and it is life, even causing the
dead to be reborn into life. If His breath can cause re-birth, then it stands
to reason that it can cause birth as well. Of course, it has already been
shown that it can, given the fact that His flashing light caused the birth of
Osiris-Apis. Yet this generative property of His breath is attested to
elsewhere as well.
The disks in the bellies of the goddesses and the light entering
their mouths recall a portion of the Coffin Texts chapter 1099:
Dr ntt rn n Ra m Xt nt N tn saH=f rn=s
for the name of Re is in the belly of this N, and his
honor in her mouth
The goddesses represent the Netherworld as the womb of the
sun, impregnated through their mouths by the rays of the sun.
Book of the Solar-Osirian Unity, pl. 13B 592
Compare the hymn to Amun at Hibis temple where the
Ogdoad say of that deity: Ha.w=f m swH, His limbs are the wind.
Similarly, in the hymn to Amun-Re in the temple of Ramesses III
at Karnak, that king says to the deity: ha.w=k tAw r fnd nb, Your
limbs are the breath for every nose. ...
The egg in our text is mentioned in conjunction with the wind,
which is well attested in Egyptian sources as a prerequisite of life. A
589
590
Hornung (1999), 78.
591
Darnell (2004), 122.
592
Ibid. 148.
197
number of texts refer to the generative or life-quickening powers
believed to be inherent in that element. See, for example, the
account of the birth of the divine child as a result of the union of
wind and fire preserved in the mammisi of Kom Ombo. In the
mammisi at Edfu, Khnum is said to be sipy sA m X.t nf nfr m rA=f,
the one who fashions the son in the womb (with) the fair breath
from his mouth. ...
Of the deities mentioned thus far in our cosmology, Amun is
the one most closely associated with the wind. He can be identified
with the four winds, or they can be said to constitute his diadem.
Numerous Egyptian sources attest to his role as the incarnation of
this element or the god who dispenses its life-giving power. In the
mammisi of Nekhtnebef at Dendera, for example, Amun is
addressed thusly: ntk di TAw r fnD nb .... ntk sanX TA m-Xn StA.t=f,
It is you who gives breath to every nose ...., it is you who causes the
fledgeling to live within its egg. Similarly, in the New Kingdom
hymn to that god in P. Boulaq 17, he is called rdi Taw.w n nty m
swH.t, giver of breath to the one who is in the egg. Among other
epithets, Amun is addressed as swH mn m x.t nb, the wind that
endures in all things.
The Egyptians apply the name Zeus to the wind.
Plutarch, Moralia 365E 594
Conception of life through divine breath seems to be indicated in the
story of Hatshepsuts conception as well, via the repeated references to
her virgin mother Ahmose breathing in the fragrance of Amen, being
awakened by it, feeling it. The visual depiction shows Amen (whose
limbs are the wind) impregnating her by touching His limb to her nose,
an appendage responsible for breathing, further indicating that Ahmose
was impregnated by inhaling the life-giving breath/vapors of Amen into
her nostrils. No copulation was even necessary.
So given all of this, had Plutarch or anyone else living in the 1st
century CE inquired of Egyptians as to the conception of Hatshepsut by
Amen, no doubt such a person would have been told that Hatshepsut was
indeed born of a virgin, regardless of however Hatshepsuts scribes
might have originally intended the text to come across. Moreover, the
ancient Egyptians were not bashful about sex, so one has to wonder why
593
Smith (2002), 59, 60, 63. (Emph. added.)
594
198
there would even be any ambiguity in the text, especially when the
accompanying picture has no ambiguity at all- it is entirely nonsexual. So
corroborating that ambiguity in the text with-
Plutarchs testimony,
the accompanying picture of the conception,
the idea that inhaling divine breath/wind could impregnate,
the idea that Amens limbs were made of wind,
Ahmoses inhalation of Amens fragrance,
the explicit reference to Ahmose as a virgin,
and the Hatshepsut-Epaphus birth parallels
-then one is well justified in interpreting Hatshepsuts birth here as a
virgin birth, even if the matter is not absolutely conclusive beyond all
dispute. At the very least, it can be said with absolute certainty that
Hatsheput did indeed have a nonsexual conception by a virgin mother,
even if ones opinion is that Ahmose was subsequently deflowered by
this form of Amen prior to Hatshepsuts actual birth. So yes, this legend
is definitely a virginal conception, but only likely to be a virgin birth (yet
definitely understood as a virgin birth by at least the 1st century CE).
There shall the Vultures be Gathered
Another piece of evidence to corroborate with all of this is the fact

that Ahmose is shown in Figure 50 wearing the vulture cap. This is
significant because of certain alleged Egyptian beliefs about the
reproductive qualities of vultures.
The Egyptians fable the whole species [of vultures] is female,

and they conceive by receiving the breath of the East Wind, even as
the trees do by receiving the West Wind.
Plutarch, Moralia 286C 595
595
Plutarch, Moralia, in Plutarchs Moralia: Volume IV, trans. F.C. Babbitt
Press, 1936-99), 141. (Emph. added.)
199
The belief that the vulture represented femininity and
motherhood, and the related ideas that there were only female
vultures and that they were virgin born, without a male begetter,
thus appears to come from Egypt. In an Egyptian Demotic papyrus
from the second century CE, we can read the following words of
the goddess Mut: I am the noble vulture (nryt) of the male
brother, the lord of Thebes, i.e. the noble vulture of which no male
exists. This Egyptian statement that there were only female
vultures is confirmed by various Graeco-Roman writers.
Dr. Herman Te Velde, in Servant of Mut: Studies in Honor of
Richard A. Fazzini 596
They say, too, that among vultures there are only females,
which become parents alone.
Tertullian of Carthage, Adversus Valentinianos 4.10 597
It is said that no male vulture is ever born: all vultures are
female. And the birds knowing this and fearing to be left childless,
take measures to produce them as follows. They fly against the
south wind. If however the wind is not from the south, they open
their beaks to the east wind, and the inrush of air impregnates
them, and their period of gestation lasts for three years.
Aelian, On the Characteristics of Animals 2.46 598
I have to say that the Creator showed in the birth of various
animals that what He did in the case of one animal, He could do, if
He wished, also with others and even with men themselves. Among
the animals there are certain females that have no intercourse with
the male, as writers on animals say of vultures; this creature
preserves the continuation of the species without any copulation.
Why, therefore, is it incredible that if God wished to send some
divine teacher to mankind He should have made the organism of
him that was to be born come into being in a different way instead
of using generative principle derived from sexual intercourse of
596
Herman Te Velde, The Goddess Mut and the Vulture, in Servant of Mut:
Studies in Honor of Richard A. Fazzini, ed. S.H. DAuria (Leiden: Koninklijke Brill
NV), 244. (Emph. added.)
597
Tertullian of Carthage, Adversus Valentinianos, in The Ante-Nicene Fathers:
Volume III, eds. A. Roberts and J. Donaldson, trans. A. Roberts (Peabody:
Hendrickson Publishers, 1885-1994), 509.
598
Aelian, On the Characteristics of Animals, in Aelian: On Animals, Books 1-5,
trans. A.F. Scholfield (London: William Heinemann Ltd., and Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 1958), 145.
200
men and women? Moreover, according to the Greeks themselves
not all men were born from a man and a woman.
Origen Adamantius, Contra Celsum 1.37 599
Amen, Mr. Adamantius, amen; it couldnt have been stated any
better. The Lord God provided a natural metaphor for the miracle of
virgin birth in the example of the vulture. Since it was believed to be
exclusively female, by default it could only reproduce
parthenogenetically, as per that belief. As Dr. Te Velde affirmed, this
means that for the Egyptians the vulture was a symbol of femininity and,
of course, virgin motherhood. Thus it is fitting to see the virgin Ahmose
donning the cap of the vulturethe symbol for parthenogenesis, for
virgin motherhoodduring the moment of her impregnation. Also, just
as vultures were believed to have been impregnated by inhaling
breath/wind, Ahmose was impregnated by inhaling through her nostrils
the breath/wind of the limbs of Amen. These facts combined with all the
material just previously covered concerning the birth legend of
Hatshepsut even further strengthens the idea that this legend was meant
to be understood as a virgin birth.
Now, to bring this back around to the virgin birth of Osiris, do recall
the image in Fig. 42 on p.163. It shows the mother of Osiris, Nut,
likewise wearing the vulture cap. The reason is obvious- it is because
Nut too was understood, in at least some traditions, to have given virgin
birth just as vultures were believed to have done. And the mechanism for
her impregnation was a flash of light from the fiery breath of Re, just as
virgin vultures were said to be impregnated by breath. It should surprise
no one then to read the following scripture:
A vulture has become pregnant with the King in the night at
your horn, O contentious(?) cow.
This Utterance brings it all together- the King, the cow, the vulture,
and pregnancy. The mother of the King, who represents Osiris, was
599
Origen Adamantius, Contra Celsum, trans. Henry Chadwick (Cambridge:
600
Faulkner (1969), 112.
201
already identified as early as Utterance 1 as Nut, who is the Great Wild
Cow. The King split open her womb. As Griffiths states:
Since it is Osiris who was the son of Nut and Geb, the King
here enjoys another transferred blessing ... Cf. Pyr. 1428d-e: This
King does not know his first mother whom he has known. It was
Nut who bore both this King and Osiris. 601
Here his mother Nut is also likened to a vulture, and in the context
of pregnancy. In fact, this Pyramid Text sounds just like a description of
Fig. 43- the vulture is said to be at the horns of the cow, and that is
exactly what is seen in Fig. 43 where the vulture of Nuts headdress is
situated directly beneath her horns. Thus this is apparently a reference to
a pregnant long-horned Nut wearing the vulture cap, a symbol of virgin
birth, which further indicates that her conception of Osiris should be
understood as parthenogenetic just like a vulture. This was another
Osirian attribute the deceased wished to emulate. Just as Nut was
associated with the bee, another symbol of parthenogenesis, Nut the
long-horned, Great Virgin who cannot copulate also dons the
vulture upon her head as a sign of her virgin motherhood.
Some antagonists might wish to complain about quoting Plutarch
because he wrote in the 1st century CE, which was very late in respect to
ancient Egyptian history. However, it should be kept in mind that
because Plutarch lived during that time, the same sources available to
him were also available to any other authors who might have written of a
virgin birth in the 1st century. This would include certain virgin birth
legends revered by many of those same antagonists. And unlike those
heathen, we still have plenty of sources, many of which have already
been referenced, that far pre-date Plutarch and yet corroborate with him.
601
Griffiths (1980), 48, n.39.
202
Chapter Four
Suffered under the pompous Typhon,
Was Killed, Crucified, and was Buried
And the Brother shall Deliver up the Brother to Death
Once the chosen son of Lord Amen-Re came into this world, a
mysterious voice was heard proclaiming The Lord of All advances to
the light.602 The scriptures tell that his mother Nut, goddess of Heaven,
spoke (from Heaven, naturally) the words The King is my eldest son
who split open my womb; he is my beloved, with whom I am well
pleased.603 Time passed and the virgin-born child increased in wisdom
and stature, and in favour with God and man. At the age of 28, he
ascended to the throne of Egypt and had a glorious reign of 28 years,
paralleling the ~28 day orbit or life cycle of the moon.604 He went on
to do many great things, such as traveling the world teaching mankind
about religion, law, sowing and reaping of grain and wine, etc., etc.605 It
was a golden age. However, not everyone was happy about that. In a tale
as old as time, the eldest son was made heir to the fathers estate,
provoking jealousy in the younger sibling, who sought out to usurp his
brothers birthright. Seth, known to the Greeks as Typhon, is the younger
brother of Osiris. It is said that he came out red, all over like an hairy
garment, like an ass, so it could be said he was as a wild ass among
men;606 these being two recurring details in the archetypal stories of the
striving brothers. Seth was next in line to inherit the throne after his
brother Osiris, and it seems that envy and impatience got the better of
him as he plotted a conspiracy to assassinate Osiris.
Typhon contrived a treacherous plot against him and formed a
group of conspirators seventy-two in number. He had also the co-
602
603
604
Plutarch, in Babbitt (1936-62), 37, 103.
605
See pp.120-21.
606
Plutarch, in Babbitt (1933-62), 73-75.
203
operation of a queen from Ethiopia who was there at the time and
whose name they report as Aso. Typhon, having secretly measured
Osiriss body and having made ready a beautiful chest of
corresponding size artistically ornamented, caused it to be brought
into the room where the festivity was in progress. The company was
much pleased at the sight of it and admired it greatly, whereupon
Typhon jestingly promised to present it to the man who should
find the chest to be exactly his length when he lay down in it. They
all tried it in turn, but no one fitted it; then Osiris got into it and lay
down, and those who were in the plot ran to it and slammed down
the lid, which they fastened by nails from the outside and also by
using molten lead. Then they carried the chest to the river and sent
it on its way to the sea through the Tanitic Mouth.
They have found Osiris, his brother Seth having laid him low
in Nedit; when Osiris said Get away from me, when his name
became Sokar.
You shall obey Horus.
It is he who has restored you. ...
It is he who saved you from every ill
Which Seth did to you.
Has [Seth] slain you or has his heart said that you shall die
because of him?
It is Horus who will make good what Seth has done to you.
Hear [what] Horus [has done for] you ... he has slain for you
him who slew you.
607
608
609
610
Ibid. 94.
611
Ibid. 115.
612
204
You have relieved Horus of his girdle, so that he may punish
the followers of Seth. Seize them, remove their heads.
O Osiris the King, take the severed(?) heads of the followers
of Seth.
Pyramid Texts, Utterance 136 614
Isis moaning greatly and Nephthys weeping because of this
god, Lord of the gods, conspiracy being in seeing him in the Great
Place by him who would harm him ... Injury has been done to him
in his castle by him who would harm him . Seize the Evil One who
is in darkness, execute sentence upon his confederates ... and
execute sentence on him who harmed you.
Coffin Texts, Spell 49 I, 215, 220-21 615
O my father Osiris, here am I; I have come to you, for I have
smitten Seth for you, I have slain his confederacy, I have smitten
them who smote you, I have cut down them who cut you down.
I have felled your foes for you, I have driven off for you
those who rebelled against you, I have warded off Seth for you, I
have spat on his confederacy for you.
Coffin Texts Spell 315 IV, 97 617
Seth has fallen because of me, I have made his confederacy
slip(?) because of that on account of which he wandered.
I have set a limit to the confederacy of Seth, I have effected
their slaughtering, I have put them in the place of execution.
Coffin Texts Spell 595 VI, 213 619
Horus who is at the head of the living protects his father
613
614
615
Faulkner (1973), 45-46. (Emph. added.)
616
617
618
619
205
Osiris, he has stopped the movements of him who slew his father.
Coffin Texts Spell 16 and 17 I, 51-52 620
What he shall kill is Seth the enemy of his father Osiris.
Coffin Texts Spell 148 II, 213 621
Horus has caused the Children of Horus to muster for you at
the place where you drowned. O Osiris the King , take your natron
that you may be divine.
Horus has mustered the gods for you, and they will never
escape from you in the place where you drowned.
Your eldest sister is she who ... found you on your side in the
river-bank of Nedit.
[...] says Isis; I have found, says Nephthys, for they have seen
Osiris on his side on the bank [...]. Arise [...] my brother, for I have
sought you.
O Thoth, vindicate Osiris against his foes in ... The great
tribunal which is in the Two Banks of the Kite(?) on that night of
the drowning of the great god in Andjet.
He (Seth) let him (Osiris) be drowned.
Coffin Texts Spell 227 III, 261 b 627
May I have power over the water as Seth had power when he
620
621
Ibid. 125.
622
623
624
625
626
627
Herman Te Velde, Seth, God of Confusion: A Study of His Role in Egyptian
Mythology and Religion, trans. G.E. van Baaren-Pape (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1967-
77), 85.
206
harmed (awA) Osiris in that night of the great confusion.
Coffin Texts Spell 353 IV, 396 a, b 628
Gebs words to Horus: Go to the place in which your father
was drowned. ... Osiris was drowned in his water. Isis and
Nephthys looked out, beheld him, and attended to him. Horus
quickly commanded Isis and Nephthys to grasp Osiris and prevent
his drowning (i.e., his submerging).
The Memphite Theology, 11a, 62 629
Oh, fair youth, who departed at the wrong time; young man,
whose time it was not! ... Ihay! You are protected, you who were
drowned in the nome of Aphroditopolis!
Bremner-Rhind Papyrus, Songs of Isis and Nephthys
1.14-15 & 6.2 630
Osiris, drowned one, Ptah, Nut ... Isis.
Greek Magical Papyrus XII.80 631
Are you the byssus robe of Osiris, the divine Drowned, woven
by the hand of Isis, spun by the hand of Nephthys?
Demotic Magical Papyrus xiv. 160 632
According to another tradition, Osiris drowned in the Nile.
Dr. George Hart, Egyptian Myths 633
He was shut in a chest or sarcophagus and dumped in the Nile
628
Ibid. (Emph. added.)
629
Lichtheim (1973-2006), 52, 55.
630
Steve Vinson, Through a Womans Eyes, and in a Womans Voice: Ihweret
as Focalizor in the First Tale of Setne Khaemwas, in Ptolemy II Philadelphus
and his World, ed. P. McKechnie & P. Guillaume (Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV,
2008), 328.
631
Papyri Graecae Magicae, XII.14-95, in The Greek Magical Papyri in
Translation Including the Demotic Spells, Volume One: Texts, Second Edition,
ed. H.D. Betz, trans. H. Martin, Jr. (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press,
1986-96), 156 n.21.
632
Papyri Demoticae Magicae, xiv. 150-231, in The Greek Magical Papyri in
ed. H.D. Betz, trans. J.H. Johnson (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press,
1986-96), 204. (Emph. added.)
633
George Hart, Egyptian Myths (Austin: University of Texas, 1990-97), 39.
207
by his brother Seth. The drowned one floated down the river
through one of the mouths of the delta into the Mediterranean Sea.
Arthur Cotterell, Oxford Dictionary of World Mythology 634
In the Pyramid Texts, Osiris is said to have been smitten by his
brother Seth in a place called Nedyet or Gehestey; the episode
should perhaps be connected with the traditions that Osiris was
then drowned by Seth.
Dr. John G. Griffiths, in The Oxford Encyclopedia of
Ancient Egypt: Volume 2 635
Seventy-Two
Okay, so there are a couple of points to touch upon here. The first
one is that the numbering of the assassins who conspired with Seth was
72. There are many natural metaphors to the gospel story which have
been, and will be, mentioned in this book, and there is likewise one that
involves the number 72.
Moreover also the parts of some constellations have an
influence of their own ... being divided at an enormous height into
72 signs, that is, shapes of things or of animals into which the
learned have mapped out the sky. In them they have indeed noted
1600 stars as being specially remarkable for their influence or their
appearance.
Pliny the Elder, Natural History, 2.41 636
The ancients of the Mediterranean world divided the 1,600 stars of
special significance documented up to that point into 72 constellations.
The parallels between the story of Osiris and certain stellar phenomena
will be covered later, but the fact that there are such correlations supports
the notion that this parallel is significant and deliberate as well. It also
634
Arthur Cotterell, Oxford Dictionary of World Mythology: The Ideal Quick
Reference Guide to Deities, Spirits, and Myths (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1979-97), 41.
635
John G. Griffiths, Isis, in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt: Volume
2, ed. D.B. Redford, (New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 2001), 188.
636
Pliny the Elder, Natural History, in Pliny: Natural History, Books 1-2, trans. H.
Rackham (London: William Heinemann Ltd., and Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, 1938-67), 251-53.
208
suggests that the occurrence of this number in other legends and myths of
the ancient world might also be due to an association with the 72
constellations. This would include other myths from the Fertile Crescent
area which tell of a god or demigod who was betrayed and killed in a
conspiracy involving a group of 72 members (although sources vary,
some claiming 71 members), and/or a god or demigod, perhaps even the
same one, likewise having a group of 72 followers of his/her own.
Baptized into His Death
The second point to touch on concerning this portion of the gospel

tale is the fact that the death of Osiris came by way of drowning, i.e. by
submersion in water. Because of Osiris role as the way to resurrection
and afterlife via identification with and emulation of him, the way in
which he died was considered a special, sacred type of death which was
revered. Death by drowning, or even posthumous submersion, was
believed to be one method for divinizing the deceased and raising them
to new life.
The Lower Register637
The Rescue of the Drowned Ones
In the water rectangle, bodies in various positions are floating
in the water, until Horus helps them to come ashore, and prevents
them from decomposing and decaying, although they have not
been given a regular burial. They share the fate of Osiris, who was
dismembered and thrown into the water by his murderer Seth,
before being rescued by Isis. Here we have the consoling part of
the Amduat, that even those whoby a natural accidentdo not
have the benefit of ritual preparation for the afterlife are preserved
by the divine intervention of Horus.
Dr. Erik Hornung & Dr. Theodor Abt, Knowledge for the
Afterlife: The Egyptian Amduat A Quest for Immortality 638
A special problem was posed by people who drowned in the
Nile and were devoured by crocodiles. In such cases, probably not
very rare, the body was lost and could not be mummified; the
deceased was deprived of the protective mummy form. Several
637
Of KV34 Amduat Hour 10- see Fig. 50.
638
Abt (2003), 122. (Emph. added.)
209
passages in the Books of the Netherworld show that the drowned
reached the shores of the Beyond directly from the Nile, arriving
from the primeval waters and thus into the depths of the world. In
Roman Egypt the drowned were revered and considered especially
blessed, and here the analogy to Osiris, who was thrown into the
water, played an important role. Parts of the tenth hour of the
Amduat and the ninth hour of the Book of Gates resemble one
another in their detailed treatment of this theme. In a large
rectangular poolrepresenting the primeval water, Nunswim
several groups of naked drowned, in quite different positions: some
on their backs, others on their bellies, still other on their sides. In
the Amduat, Horus calls to them from the riverbank, while in the
Book of Gates it is the passing sun god himself who promises that
they will be able to breathe in the water and that their bodies will
not decompose: Your members are not putrefied, your flesh is not
decomposed! Their souls are also provided for, and their bodies
can land uninjured on the shores of the Netherworld, where they
may benefit from all the Beyond has to offer, even without the
ritual burial ceremonies. ... The tomb of Ramesses VI contains a
scene of the deification of the drowned that is similar to that in the
Amduat.
Dr. Erik Hornung, Valley of the Kings: Horizon of Eternity 639
At the beginning of the lower register, we see the falcon-
headed Horus presiding over the scene of apotheosis by
drowning, as Egyptologists call it. The corpses of the drowned are
depicted floating in the primeval waters of Nun. The intent of the
scene is to affirm that despite their unusual fate, these deceased
individuals are among the blessed dead. The mythological model
for death by drowning is Osiris, who was slain by Seth and cast into
the waters of the Nile. The text accompanying the scene states:
Words spoken by Horus to the drowned,
to the upturned, to the outstretched
who are in Nun and belong to the netherworld:...
Rowing for your arms without your being held back!
You prepare the way in Nun with your legs,
without your knees being hindered.
You go forth to the flood and come near to the
waves.
You float [to] the great inundation, that you moor
(or: land) at its shores.
639
Erik Hornung, Valley of the Kings: Horizon of Eternity, trans. D. Warburton
(New York: Timken Publishers, Inc., 1982-90), 138, 145. (Emph. added.)
210
Your body has not decayed, your flesh has not
decomposed. ...
You are those who are in (the waters of) Nun,
floating in the following of my father,
so that your ba-soul may live!
It is legitimate to associate with this tradition the belief of a
later period that death by drowning was blessed because it was like
the death of Osiris. In the Pyramid Texts the rite of carrying Osiris
in the water is sometimes mentioned, and as Seth is made to do
this, it is reasonable to infer that he is regarded as the enemy who
not only smote Osiris on the bank of Nedyet but also drowned him
in the same place. ... The death by drowning, which is stressed in
the Memphite Theology, seems to be connected with the funerary
rite of carrying the corpse on the Nile, a task which is assigned to
Seth as a punishment, Seth being viewed as embodied in the
barque which bears the shrine and sarcophagus.
641
Dr. John G. Griffiths, The Origins of Osiris and His Cult
The most significant testament to the journey was the founding
of the Greek city of Antinoopolis, memorializing the drowning of
Hadrians youthful lover, Antinous. According to Egyptian
theology, such a death entailed a special identification with the
drowned Osiris, god of the underworld. Under Augustus,
deification by drowning had provided the rationale for the native
hero cults at the remote temple of Dendur, but Hadrians
Egyptianizing cult of Antinous was extended throughout the
empire.
Dr. Robert K. Ritner, in The Cambridge History of Egypt:
Volume One 642
During the Late period (747-332 B.C.), drowning in the Nile
was sometimes reason enough for deification, as was the case with
Pehor and Pehesi, who drowned in the Nile in Nubia at Dendur.
Antinous, the companion of the emperor Hadrian, also was deified
after he drowned in the Nile, and the town of Antinoopolis, the cult
640
Schweizer (1994-2010), 168-69. (Emph. added.)
641
Griffiths (1980), 9, 22. (Emph. added.)
642
Robert K. Ritner, Egypt under Roman rule: the legacy of Ancient Egypt, in
The Cambridge History of Egypt: Volume One, ed. C.F. Petry (Cambridge:
211
center for the worship of Antinous, was built on the banks of the
Nile where he died.
Did this life-giving power of the Nile extend to the gift of
eternal life? For dynastic Egypt the answer must be yes. ... A
second set of data requiring attention in this connection are those
texts which speak of apotheosis by drowning in the Nile .
According to a variety of Pharonic and even late Egyptian sources,
anyone who drowned in the Nile was divinized in a very special
way. Such a person became a Hsy, a Blessed Drowned Osiris.
Dr. Robert A. Wild, Water in the Cultic Worship of Isis
and Sarapis 644
In Egyptian culture, death by drowning had long been
associated with the mythology of Osiris, and conferred special
status on the deceased as a praised one (Egyptian hesy).
Herodotus reports that those who drowned in the Nile were treated
as a special category of dead, as though something more than
human. ...
Herodotus 2.90: When anyone, be he
Egyptian or stranger, is known to have been carried
off by a crocodile or drowned in the river itself, such
a one must by all means be embalmed and tended
as fairly as may be and buried in a sacred coffin by
the townsmen of the place where he is cast up; nor
may any of his kinsmen or his friends touch him, but
his body is deemed something more than human,
and is handled and buried by the priests of the Nile
themselves.
Dr. Ian Moyer, in Initiation in Ancient Greek Rituals and
Narratives: New Critical Perspectives 645
The Nile waters provide life. Thus for the dead to be submerged, i.e.
baptized, in those waters could preserve and regenerate their bodies, raise
643
Remler (2000-10), 49-50.
644
Robert A. Wild, Water in the Cultic Worship of Isis and Sarapis (Leiden: E.J.
Brill, 1981), 97-98. (Emph. added.)
645
Ian S. Moyer, The Initiation of the Magician: Transition and Power in
Graeco-Egyptian Ritual, in Initiation in Ancient Greek Rituals and Narratives:
New Critical Perspectives, eds. D.B. Dodd and C.A. Faraone (London: Routledge,
2003), 221, 232 n.12.
212
them from the dead, and grant them eternal life. All of this occurs in
emulation of Osiris, who was killed and buried in those waters, only to
later rise to eternal life. This baptism of the dead represents the death,
burial, and resurrection of a son of God. The sources quoted above
prove that, thus silencing the filthy tongue of the heathen who try to
belittle any significance of baptism in ancient Egypt. Many of them try to
claim that there only existed washings for purification rituals (Fig. 53)
which were so generic that most cultures had similar rites, thus making
such Egyptian rites of no significance. They also deny that any such rites
had a meaning behind them which involved death, burial, and
resurrection. But alas, that was exactly the meaning which the Egyptian
baptism of the dead entailed (and it also far predated the Common Era
and even the 14th cen. BCE). Therefore it may be said that so many of
us as were baptized into Osiris were baptized into his death. Therefore
we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Osiris was
raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also
should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in
the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his
resurrection: Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen
with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised
him from the dead.
213
214
Fig. 50: Twelve followers of Osiris baptized into his death and then received into
eternal life by Horus; based on the tenth hour of the Book of Amduat as seen in the tomb
of Thutmose III, KV34, 15th century BCE.646
646
See p.209, n.637.
215
Fig. 51: Horus posthumously baptizing Osiris. The waters bear ankh and was symbols,
representing life and power, thus this baptism aids in restoring Osiris to fullness of
life after death. Horus has cleansed you with cold water.647
Fig. 52: The anointing of Ramesses IV, from the Temple of Khonsu at Karnak, 12th
century BCE, invigorating him with holy water.
647
Faulkner (1969), 150.
216
And the Sun was Darkened
Continuing with the death of Osiris, recall how earlier it was

mentioned that there are stellar phenomena that parallel certain details of
the gospel story. Well, after Osiris had died it was as though nature itself
cried out in mourning. The scriptures report that at some point even the
sun itself turned dark after Osiris died and made his journey to the West.
It would continue to do so in cycles thereafter, as it still does even today.
No doubt this was a gesture from Lord Re in homage to His son. And so
this was yet another Osirian detail which the deceased tried to emulate.
May the dark(ened sun) make Osiris blessed on earth and
powerful in the west.
Book of the Dead, Spell 168 A b S 10 648
Fig. 53: The dark sun mourning over Egypt, in remembrance of the death of Osiris.
648
T.G. Allen (1974), 164-65. (Emph. added.)
217
Thou Shalt Surely Die
When the topic of the death and resurrection of Osiris is discussed

with the heathen, often times they will try their best to deny this. While
there are several different arguments in circulation which they employ in
their blasphemy against this fact, the argument of relevance at the
moment is the bizarre claim that in Egyptian lore Osiris never died at
all.649 And since he never died then obviously he never resurrected, thus
this claim undermines the most important tenet of the Perennial Gospel
and of our faith- the hope of bodily resurrection from death and eternal
life. The scriptures, however, utterly refute this falsehood of the heathen.
Nut puts her hand on me just as she did for Osiris on the day
when he died.
An offering text in which the sacrificial ox represents Seth
Address to the ox by the priest impersonating Horus
O you who smote my father, who killed one greater than you,
you have smitten my father, you have killed one greater than you.
Address to the dead king
O my father Osiris this King, I have smitten for you him who
smote you as an ox; I have killed for you him who killed you as a
wild bull.
O Osiris the King, you have gone, but you will return, you
have slept, [but you will awake], you have died, but you will live.
Stand up and see what your son has done for you, wake up and
hear [what] Horus [has done for] you. He has smitten for you him
649
F. Harold Smith, Article V, The Church Quarterly Review 95, no. 189 (1922):
95. But Osiris was not really dead.
Kleo Kay, The Gods & Goddesses of Ancient Egypt,
http://www.godsandgoddessesforyou.co.uk/excerpts/the-gods-and-
goddesses-of-ancient-egypt/ (accessed July 13, 2013).
undo,Did Osiris really die? Above Top Secret (September 22, 2006),
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread226939/pg1.
650
651
218
who smote you as [an ox], he has slain for you him who slew you as
a wild bull.
Is there someone who would carry off his brother after the
Great Mooring?* See, Seth has come in his own shape and has
said: I will cause the gods body to fear, I will inflict injury on him, I
will slaughter him.
*I.e. death; perhaps more specifically the death of Osiris.
O you gods, come with these kindred of mine, be vigilant as
regards this god who is unconscious.*
*Here a euphemism for dead.
I live and I die, I am Osiris.
I died yesterday, I raised myself today, I returned today, and a
path has been prepared for me.
I have died the death, (yet) I am more alive than the Ennead.
I died yesterday; (I raised myself today) and have returned
today.
Give your whole attention to the Mourned One, now that he is
dead for lack (of breath after) his Brother slew (him). Geb made
him (i.e., the brother, Seth) into a kT-crocodile with not one to
lament him.
Book of the Dead, Spell Pleyte 166 S 1 659
652
653
Faulkner (1973), 47, 49 n.29. (Emph. added.)
654
Ibid. 51, n.2. (Emph. added.)
655
656
Faulkner (1977), 145. (Emph.added.)
657
658
219
That last text obviously is referring to Seth murdering Osiris by
drowning him in the Nile. So that covers the fact that Osiris was indeed
believed to have died, in just the same sense as the pharaohs or any other
creature had died. And in some of those texts quoted, his death was
juxtaposed with the fact that he lived again, showing that there was a
perceived contrast between the two; they were not the same state. They
were clearly understood to be two entirely distinct, and in fact opposite,
states of being.
However, some antagonists in their obstinacy will dig in their heels
and rebut with something to the effect of yeah, yeah, we know that there
are texts that use the word dead in reference to Osiris, but what we
mean is that he did not really die in the truest sense of the word, you
know, the way we mean it when we talk about mortals dying. This they
claim on basis of yet another claim that the gods of ancient Egypt were
immortal, and thus their bodies were allegedly impervious to change.
Some argue as though Osiris was merely called dead in word only, as
sort of a citizenship status required for residency in the netherworld.
They claim he was merely rendered temporarily incapacitated after being
dismembered by Seth, since he could not move, but was still clinically
alive the entire time and immediately regained control of his faculties
upon being reconstituted. Somewhat like the popular novel series
Twilight, in which the vampires are likewise only incapacitated by
dismemberment and can only be truly destroyed by being burned to
ashes to avoid reconstitution. A few heathen have even likened Osiris to
a Lego set and Frankensteins monster in this regard.660 Since, as per this
argument, his dead status was in word only, he never actually
biologically died in the same sense as mortals do, but rather his so-called
death was more like a state of suspended animation similar to when
Captain America was frozen for several decades in the recent film The
Avengers. As evidence for such alleged distinctions it has even been
claimed that Osiris dead body neither rotted nor decomposed.661 And
that statement right there truly reveals the foolishness of the heathen, for
that claim is, as they say, complete and utter bulls**t.
659
660
https://archive.is/yOprn.
661
220
Now, it may be that such foolishness happens on account of
ignorance more than deliberation, since, as covered on pp.9-18 & 168,
there are variations in Egyptian lore, just as heathen lore has been no
exception to variation and alteration either. Egyptian lore is also so
extensive that it is understandable that one cant keep up with it all. Just
as many of these same heathen would admit that many people are
misinformed about their own religion on account of such variations,
variations have also led to much confusion and disagreement about
Egyptian lore and religion as well. So while there might exist a story or
two out there somewhere that gives an impression in line with some of
these heathen arguments- to go so far as to claim that no source exists
that confirms the contrary is fallacious, e.g. to think that Osiris never
died, or rotted, or decomposed, etc., when there are a multitude of
scriptures that explicitly state just the opposite.
Anyway, as for the aforementioned heathen arguments, the first to be
addressed will be the assertion that Osiris was only ever called dead in
word only, even though all the while he has been what mortals would
consider alive. Some have even explained it as though residency in the
realm of the dead as judge of the dead was allegedly conditional
upon having died, so Osiris simply had his citizenship status marked as
dead and has kept it as such ever since, in spite of physically being
quite alive and well and healthy same as any other god. I have even
observed a satire video by a certain Carpenter apologist662 state: But
strangely, Osiris family makes an unusual request of Dr. E, and it
astonishes her. If you can believe it, the family tells me they want Osiris
declared dead. Hes walking around and talking, and they want him
declared dead? Unbelievable! The mystery is explained when Osiris
reveals that upon his death he was offered a job as the judge of the
dead, contingent upon him being dead. Bewildered, Dr. E signs Osiris
death certificate, and the case is closed with no autopsy. The so called
resurrection of Osiris isnt a resurrection at allin other words, it is
not the restoration of a formerly dead body to a glorified state.663
Oh, but indeed it was. The subsequent glorified state will be
addressed in the next chapter, but it is indeed attested to in ancient
662
https://goo.gl/RxBFu9.
663
https://goo.gl/XJkhNz.
221
Egyptian sources and by scholarly literature. For the current chapter, the
concern is with the false claims that it is not a restoration of a formerly
dead body and thus merely declared dead. In particular the latter, to
which the video also added that Osiris was actually still reckoned to be
dead even after his reanimation Dr. E closes the case of Osiris with
some final thoughts. You know, this is the first time Ive ever had
someone walk out of my morgue declared dead. And he actually
seemed happy about it.664
Actually, things were just the opposite. Osiris death was considered
a taboo topic in ancient Egyptian society. Now his resurrection, that was
a good thing and something they repeatedly mentioned to no end. But his
death, this was regarded as somewhat of a dark and closely guarded
secret. Not that it wasnt common knowledge, but rather the fact that it
was something they did not wish to give any credence to, and death in
general was something they did not wish to even give any power to
(unless it was towards their enemies, of course). In this respect one might
liken it to how saying the name of Voldemort in the popular Harry
Potter novels and films was likewise taboo. There was a certain dark
magic that was associated with saying his name, and the protagonists of
the series did not wish to lend any power to that magic, so they avoided
saying his name and substituted it with he who must not be named.665
Everyone certainly knew Voldemorts name, they just refused to give it
any acknowledgement. This was similar to how the Egyptians treated
death and especially the death of Osiris in particular.
This is rooted in the concepts covered on pp.23-26, that of
sympathetic magic and the power of the spoken word. To repeat Dr. Bob
Brier once again:
Three elements are essential to the magical act: the spell, the
ritual, and the magician. The spell is what must be said for the act
to have its desired effect. It may be crucial that the words be uttered
properly, with a certain intonation. To the ancient Egyptian, words
were extremely powerful: The word was the deed; saying
something was so made it so.666
664
665
J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (New York: Scholastic
Inc., 2007), 273, 280, 312, 389, 445, 448-49.
666
Brier (1980-2001), 11. (Emph. added.)
222
Words have power, thus even the mere acknowledgement of death
lent power to death, however minute, and that was something the ancient
Egyptian wished to avoid. Likewise, the denial of death removed death,
while the acknowledgment of life, resurrection, immortality, etc. lent
power to those things and aided in making them a reality. Perhaps one
could liken such a belief to, in a very broad sense, the so-called law of
attraction that is popular today in certain schools of thought, such as the
New Age movement, and promoted in best-selling books like The Secret.
Or one might also liken it to certain religious ideas about faith vs. doubt.
Having faith even the metaphorical size of a mustard seed can manifest
something into reality, so it is claimed, or cause one to literally walk on
water. Yet even the slightest of doubt can quickly cause one to sink
beneath the waves. Because of this belief that words and images have
such power, there are only a handful of ancient Egyptian texts that ever
explicitly acknowledge the death of Osiris while there are literally
countless passages that acknowledge his resurrection and subsequent
immortality, as well as that of the deceased who identified with him.
Death is an undesired situation which stands in contrast with
the good life on earth (anx). The texts which are sent along with the
dead into his tomb, deny with the greatest emphasis that he has
died. These texts have a magical effect. By denying death they
annihilate him and revive the dead. In the meantime these texts
show that death as an absolute destruction is feared.
The essential feature of Egyptian mortuary beliefs and customs
was the denial of death and the continued affirmation of eternal
existence.
Dr. Ann Rosalie David, in Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of
Ancient Egypt 668
Death as termination of life is denied and the king is with Nut
living in the sky. In his primary raison dtre he is king of those
who are not, namely the dead envisaged as living in Duat. In the
New Kingdom we meet more and more with Osiris as Lord of the
667
Zandee (1960), 46. (Emph. added.)
668
A. Rosalie David, mortuary beliefs, in Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of
Ancient Egypt, ed. K.A. Bard (London: Routledge, 1999), 644. (Emph. added.)
223
Living (in this case clearly emphasizing the Egyptian denial of
death since it refers to those in the Underworld), Lord of the
Universe and Ruler of Eternity.
and Goddesses 669
The construction of graves in cemeteries, aimed at defeating
the annihilation of individuals, contributed to a collective denial of
death, the termination of physical existence in the here and now, as
the epitome of chaos.
Dr. Janet Richards, Society and Death in Ancient Egypt:
Mortuary Landscapes of the Middle Kingdom 670
Afterlife in the kingdom of Osiris received much greater
emphasis in a later period, but the Egyptian denial of the finality of
death is apparent even at this early stage. A well-known utterance of
the Pyramid texts states O King, you have not departed dead, you
have departed alive (Faulkner, 1969, p.40). Such denial, however,
should not be understood as a simplistic negation of the fact of
death but as an orientation towards the notion that the chaos of
death could not overrule the order of life . The myth of Osiris
showed how death could be reordered and rearranged so as to
reconstitute life; not ordinary life, but transfigured, divine life.
Dr. Angela Sumegi, Understanding Death 671
To the end of affirming mans hope of immortality, the
Egyptian texts often appear to deny the reality of death itself. The
dead are even spoken of as being the living ones (anxw). For
example, Spell 36 of the Coffin Texts says of the deceased: Today
he has arrived in the land of the living. In like manner, Spell 76
has in one version the title of Becoming a living god (pr m ntr
nfi). Other texts also quite clearly deny the very fact of death, Spell
144 having two such denials within its text:
You have departed living: you have not departed dead.
Rise up to life, for you have not died.
669
Hart (1986-2005), 112, 118. (Emph. added.)
670
Janet Richards, Society and Death in Ancient Egypt: Mortuary Landscapes of
the Middle Kingdom (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 61.
(Emph. added.)
671
Angela Sumegi, Understanding Death: An Introduction to Ideas of Self and
the Afterlife in World Religions (Chichester: Wiley Blackwell, 2014), 57.
224
This denial of the effective power of death indicates that in the
mind of the Egyptian death was in fact the beginning of life.
Dr. Vincent A. Tobin, Theological Principles of Egyptian
Religion 672
The violent death of Osiris at the hands of Seth is so well
known that we may happily omit to document it in detail. But
references to it are characteristic of the restraint with which the
Egyptians report the death of their gods . Texts speak of the tomb
and the resurrection of Osiris, and both are even depicted
pictorially; there are allusions to what his enemies did to him, his
deathly tiredness, and the laments of his sisters, Isis and
Nephthys, are mentionedbut Egyptian texts of the pharaonic
period never say that Osiris died. In the cult celebration of the
Osiris myth at the festival at Abydos this detailthe gods violent
deathremains unmentioned. Again and again we find this
avoidance of explicit statements that a god died , whoever the god
may be; for the text, and still more the image, would fix the event
and even render it eternal. In the Egyptian view it is unthinkable
that the death of Osiris or his dismemberment by Seth should be
represented pictorially and thus be given a heightened, more
intense reality. So we must content ourselves with allusionswhich
are, however, clear enough. Plutarchs De Iside et Osiride, which is
free from Egyptian restraint, informs us even about the gory details
of the story; a century before him Diodorus (I, 22) mentioned the
burial of Isis.
Dr. Erik Hornung, Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt 673
Although the Egyptian texts do not ever specifically say that
Osiris diedalmost certainly because such a statement would be
believed to magically preserve the reality of the gods deaththey,
and later Classical commentators, do clearly show that Osiris was
slain at the hands of his antagonist Seth, and was mummified and
buried.
Dr. Richard H. Wilkinson, The Complete Gods and
Goddesses of Ancient Egypt 674
672
Vincent A. Tobin, Theological Principles of Egyptian Religion (New York:
Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 1989), 130. (Emph. added.)
673
Erik Hornung, Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: The One and the Many,
trans. by J. Baines (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1971-96), 152-53. (Emph.
added.)
225
Egypt was one of the cultures of denial, one of the societies
that do not accept death and thus, in their concept of man, draw a
sharp boundary between the spirit, immortality, uniqueness, and
the remainder of nature. Egyptians certainly did not accept
death, but they also did not repress it. It was on their minds in
many ways, unlike us, who also do not accept it. In Egyptian
culture, as in no other, we may observe what it means not to accept
death and yet to place it at the center of every thought and deed,
every plan and act, to make it in every possible way, the theme of
the culture they created. The Egyptians hated death and loved life.
In ancient Egypt, more so than in any other culture, we
encounter death in many forms, in mummies, statues, reliefs,
buildings, and texts; but these were not images of death , they were
counterimages, articulations of its negation, not of its affirmation.
This is my second thesis. If we wish to learn something about the
experience of death in Egypt, we must turn these images inside out.
They depict the deceased as he appeared in life the Egyptians
assumed toward this experience an attitude based on trust in the
power of counterimages, or rather in the power of speech, of
representation, and of ritual acts, to be able to make these
counterimages real and to create a counterworld through the
medium of symbols.
The world of Egyptian mortuary religion was indeed a
counterworld. Egyptian culture was one of those societies that do
not accept death but rather rebel against death as an empirical fact
with all the power at their disposal. This rebellion assumed the
form of religion, that is, the creation of a counterworld.
Dr. Jan Assmann, Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt 675
Therefore, much like how the name of Voldemort was substituted to
avoid actually saying it, so also the death of Osiris was substituted with
analogous concepts to avoid acknowledging it as much as possible. Most
of all this included the analogy of sleep, an analogy also often employed
in the religious literature of the heathen.
Death indeed is not usually admitted. As Osiris, the tired god,
was able to revive from his sleep, so the King will awake and stand
and take possession of the body which temporarily had left his
control. Death is really only a sleep, then, a phase of tiredness; and
the firm denial of it in other references shows that it is denied both
674
Richard H. Wilkinson, The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt
(New York: Thames & Hudson Inc., 2003), 20. (Emph. added.)
675
Assmann (2001-05), 17-19. (Emph. added.)
226
as a state and as an occurrence. Awake, thou that sleepest and
arise from the dead.
This cyclical concept reflects the unending process of the
bodys life in death as though in sleep. As Osiris is revived in sleep,
so is the king, in this denial of death.
Dr. Frederick E. Brenk, in Illinois Classical Studies 677
Death and sleep concur in many respects: in lying down
without motion, the unconsciousness. The ancients saw
congeniality in them: full life was suspended. The position of the
corpse, on its side or squatting, was the position of sleep. Turning
to the other side is awakening, resurrection.
A.8.a. wrD, to be tired.
The title of a spell reads: In order not to allow to be tired of
heart in the realm of the dead. About the dead Osiris it is said:
Tiredness, tiredness in Osiris, tiredness of limbs in Osiris. They
are not tired. They do not waste away. The deceased does not
remain dead: Osiris N.N. does not hasten. He does not become
tired in this country for ever. The dead Osiris is called wrD ib,
tired of heart. WrD as an equivalent of death occurs in the
Lebensmde. I alight, after you have got tired (i.e., are deceased),
the soul says to the man. In a song of the harpers it is said about the
dead: How tired is this just, noble one.
A.8.a. bAn, to sleep.
How near is sleep, how far is the passing away. Kd is
favourably used here of a sleep, from which one can awake, bAn is
unfavourable. This great (Osiris) lies down, while he has passed
away. Oh N.N., great of sleep, great of lying down. This great one
lies down, while he has passed away. The dead are spoken of as
the tired ones. Oh tired one, oh tired one, who sleeps, oh tired
one in this place, which you do not know.
The ancient Egyptians despised death and sought any means they
could to avoid it. They cherished life and wanted it to last forever. They
refused to give death any validity and little-to-no acknowledgement.
676
Griffiths (1980), 66-67.
677
Frederick E. Brenk, A Gleaming Ray: Blessed Afterlife in the Mysteries,
Illinois Classical Studies 18 (1993): 154.
678
Zandee (1960), 81-83.
227
They certainly did not wish to lend it any of the power they believed was
contained in words and images. Hence, in quite the contrary fashion to
the afore-cited satire video, the holy scriptures record how Osiris death
was actually once considered a closely guarded secret and that all who
found out about it must themselves be put to death.
This is Horus who has come that he may recognize his father
Osiris the King. It is dangerous to him that the Kings death should
be proclaimed(?) in the establishments of Anubis, and no one who
hears this shall live. O Thoth, have no pity on anyone who hates
the King. O Thoth, go and see if the King is proclaimed as dead(?),
for it is dangerous to him.
Although the priests of Osiris had from the earliest times
received the account of his death as a matter not to be divulged, in
the course of years it came about that through some of their
number this hidden knowledge was published to the many.
Diodorus of Sicily, Library of History 1.21.1 680
The taboo subject of the murder of Osiris could be alluded to
by saying that Seth had laid the djed on its side.
681
Gods, Goddesses, and Traditions of Ancient Egypt
The Mystery of Osiris
Every reader of Herodotus Histories has been struck by the
extreme care with which this author avoids mentioning the name of
Osiris. He imposes no comparable taboo on any other divine name
or any other religion, only on Osiris and only on Egyptian religion.
Neither the other classical writers nor the Egyptian texts themselves
know of such a taboo regarding a divine name. It is evidently a
matter of a misunderstanding. Nevertheless, Herodotus was
entirely correct in surrounding this particular god with the aura of
special mystery. While the cult of Osiris knew no taboo regarding
the gods name, it was filled with other taboos. One, the most
important, we have already encountered in a Coffin Text: outcry,
679
680
Diodorus, in Oldfather (1933-67), 65. (Emph. added.)
681
Pinch (2002-04), 128. (Emph. added.)
228
Osiris was lord of silence, and no one was to raise his voice in his
vicinity.682
So it is seen here that even outside of Egypt it was understood that
there was a special air of secrecy regarding Osiris.
All the taboos and mysteries surrounding the god Osiris had
something to do with death. There were many of these in the
institution of the Abaton, a sacred grove containing a tomb of
Osiris, which was so inaccessible that even birds could not alight on
its trees. In the later periods of Egyptian history, all the larger
temples seem to have had such an Abaton. It was the locus of the
reliquary cult of the parts of Osiris body, which had been torn
asunder by Seth and then buried by Isis in each of the nomes. In
this connection, Diodorus relates a story that anticipates Lessings
parable of the ring. Isis desired that Osiris tomb be secret and yet
revered by all the inhabitants of Egypt. She therefore created a
corpse in the form of Osiris around each individual limb and
prepared the priesthood of each nome by disclosing that she had
entrusted to them alone the burial of her husband under conditions
of strictest secrecy. Each nome thus believed it possessed the true
corpse and guarded this knowledge as a great mystery. It is not the
name but the death of Osiris that Diodorus designates as
aporrhetos, a mystery not to be spoken of. This word is aptly
chosen. The rituals that had to do with the death and
resurrection of Osiris were shrouded with mystery, for the corpse
had to be protected from attacks by Seth (Greek Typhon). The
mystery of Osiris was the fact of his death. In this connection,
death and mystery obviously went hand in hand. The condition of
Osiris demanded the strictest secrecy.
Everything on the last several pages completely contradicts the
aforementioned heathen assertion that Osiris was merely declared dead
in word only. It was the exact opposite- declaring him dead was
forbidden and the fact that he had ever been dead at all was a forbidden
secret not to be declared, on penalty of execution. While he most
certainly did physically, biologically die just the same as any other living
organism, and while that fact was well known in ancient Egypt, it was to
be treated as a sacred mystery. And as shall be seen in the next chapter,
682
683
229
after returning from the deadquite contrary to still being declared
dead thereafterOsiris was in fact referred to as the Living One and
lord of the living.
Next in debunking the heathen dismissal of the death of Osiris is to
address the nature of the mortality and immortality of the ancient
Egyptian gods. As mentioned previously, there are some antagonists who
argue that the Egyptian gods were all immortal by nature, and thus could
never and have never died, at least, not in the same sense as humans and
other organisms do. Needless to say, without a true death, there can be no
resurrection.
The trouble with this argument is that while the gods of ancient
Egypt were indeed understood to have possessed what we would
consider immortality, they were not innately immortal. They had to
obtain immortality, same as mankind. Thats right, the gods entered into
existence just as mortal and temporal as humans. Perhaps less fragile and
vulnerable, but they were still just as susceptible to death. The only
exception one could argue for is Lord Amen, as His true self, but since
He manifests as Re and Ptah, He too experiences mortality.
The gods are mortal, but the ultimate forces of disorder stand
outside space and time and might be termed immortal.
Dr. John Baines, in Ancient Egyptian Kingship 684
Old age and death
The example of the murder of Osiris taught earlier students of
religion that Egyptian gods can be mortal. This phenomenon fitted
badly with ideas about the nature of gods which were then current
gods simply had to be immortal.
Chapter 17 of the Book of the Dead states that every god must
go down into the west, the realm of the dead, on the orders of Re--
who is himself mortal. New Kingdom texts, which place gods and
men on a par by stating that both must go down into the realm of
Osiris, show that the gods in such statements are not just the
blessed dead. In chapter 154 of the Book of the Dead the fate of
death, which is referred to as decay and disappearance, is
claimed to await every god, every goddess, all animals, and all
insects, and there is a similar statement at the beginning of the
684
John Baines, Kingship, Definition of Culture, and Legitimation, in Ancient
Egyptian Kingship, eds. D.B. OConnor, D.P. Silverman (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1995),
11. (Emph. added.)
230
Book of Gates, in which the sun god assigned (mankind) to the
hidden place, to which men and gods, all animals and all insects
whom this god created betook themselves.
It has become clear that the Egyptian gods are indeed, as
Plutarch maintained, neither unbegotten nor imperishable. They
begin with time, are born or created, are subject to continuous
change, age, die, and at the end of time sink back into the chaotic
primal state of the world. The nature of the Egyptian gods, whose
temporal limitations we have just learned, is finite in other respects
too.
Even gods can die
A number of Egyptian texts show that although the gods were
not considered to be mortal in the usual sense, they could
nevertheless die. This is clearly implied in the so-called Cannibal
Hymn of the Pyramid Texts, and is of great importance in the
development of even some of the greatest cults of Egyptian religion-
particularly those of the netherworld god Osiris and the sun god
Re.
Divine Demise
The principle of divine demise applies, in fact, to all Egyptian
deities. Texts which date back to at least the New Kingdom tell of
the god Thoth assigning fixed life spans to humans and gods alike,
and Spell 154 of the Book of the Dead unequivocally states that
death (literally, decay and disappearance) awaits every god and
every goddess. Thus, when the New Kingdom Hymn to Amun
preserved in Papyrus Leiden I 350 states that his body is in the
west, there can be no doubt that this common Egyptian
metaphorical expression refers to the gods dead body. From the
Egyptian perspective life emerged from death just as death surely
followed life and there was no compelling reason to exempt the
gods from this cycle. This idea was aided by the fact that the
Egyptians distinguished two-views of eternity: eternal continuity
(djet) and eternal recurrence (neheh). This is clear in statements
such as that found in the Coffin Texts, I am the one Atum created
- I am bound for my place of eternal sameness - It is I who am
Eternal Recurrence (CT 15). The gods could thus die and still
remain in the ongoing progression of time.
685
Hornung (1971-96), 151, 157, 165. (Emph. added.)
231
Dr. Richard H. Wilkinson, The Complete Gods and
Goddesses of Ancient Egypt 686
Notice that Hornung explicitly stated there that the gods are subject
to continuous change, which is exactly the opposite of being
impervious to change.687 However, the claim that the gods were
immortal and had bodies impervious to change688 is not entirely
inaccurate, but it is only made possible through the same mechanism that
likewise grants humans immortality and divine bodies- magic. And if our
opponents would read the sources they cite carefully, and pay attention,
they would realize that said sources corroborate689 with this and thus
pose no contradiction to what we preach about mortality.
As for Isis, the Egyptians say that she was the discoverer of
many health-giving drugs and was greatly versed in the science of
healing; consequently, now that she has attained immortality, she
finds her greatest delight in the healing of mankind she
discovered also the drug which gives immortality, by means of
which she also made [Horus] immortal.
Diodorus of Sicily, Library of History 1.25.2-6 690
Thus Isis and Horus were not born immortal; they had to become
immortal after Isis discovered a magical means to do so. Only then were
their bodies made impervious to change. Only then, after having
obtained eternal life, were they able to survive such experiences cited by
686
Wilkinson (2003), 20-21.
687
Holding, op. cit.
688
Dimitri Meeks and Christine Favard-Meeks, Daily Life of the Egyptian Gods,
trans. G.M. Goshgarian (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993-96), 57. Thus
divine bodies were thought to be impervious to change: that is why even Osiris
dead body could not really rot or decompose.
689
Ibid. 80. This reconstitution did not bring the corpse back to life. To
accomplish that, all Thoths knowledge and Isiss magic had to be brought into
play. Compare to the previous quote from Meeks p.57. Magic was the
necessary mechanism to reverse the death of Osiris and render him
impervious to change thereafter. See also p.451 of the present work. It
should also be noted that Meeks pp.4-5 confesses to attempting to reconcile
admittedly different & diverse texts into one somewhat cohesive portrayal of
Egyptian mythology. While thats his prerogative, as explained on pp.9-18 of
the present work, such attempts are unnecessary and ultimately unsuccessful.
690
232
the heathen as examples of this magical imperviousness. Most
commonly this includes non-canonical tales of surviving head
transplants.691 Some even involve Horus and Isis as the recipients, which
of course should be no problem since both had partaken of Isis magic
potion of immortality as shown above. Oddly enough though, some of
the other examples cited by our antagonists arent even circumstances
that are necessarily fatal, and thus being impervious to change would
not even be necessary, such as the castration of Seth.692 Humans have
survived castrations just fine for millennia, so it shouldnt require
anything more impressive for gods to do the same. Another such
example is one that shall come up again later, and that is when Seth
plucked out Horus eye and Horus later retrieved it. First of all, again this
needs no supernatural power since even humans have survived losing
eyeballs and having eye transplants, etc. Second of all, this is a story that
shows how Horus was indeed susceptible to change at one point. And
again, he needed the use of magic to rectify the situation. The scriptures
state how Horus needed King Osiris (portrayed here by the deceased
king) to heal his damaged eye for him.
O King Spit on the face of Horus for him, that you may
remove the injury which is on him; pick up the testicles of Seth,
that you may remove his mutilation.
Horuss eye and Seths testicles were injured in their struggle
against one another for the throne of Osiris. Spitting was
considered an effective method for preventing or removing injuries.
The power transmitted by such purifications may also cure and
resuscitate. Examples of medical spitting are common
throughout the funerary literature , being used within mythological
contexts to cure baldness and weak vision, injuries of the shoulders,
arms and legs, wounds from animal bites, and even instilling breath
in a newborn child. Within these texts, the use of curative spittle is
691
Holding, op. cit.
692
Ibid.
693
694
J.P. Allen (2005), 62. (Emph. added.)
233
not limited to the primary gods, but may be applied toand bythe
divinized deceased.
May you spit on the face of Horus for him so that you
may remove the injury which is upon him.*
*Compare also the Abydos stela of Ramses IV, 1.20 (Kitchen
1983b, p.24/2): O Horus, I have spit on your eye after it was taken
by its conqueror.
Dr. Robert K. Ritner, The Mechanics of Ancient Egyptian
Magical Practice 695
So here sight is restored to a blinded eye through the use of spittle.
And this was recorded millennia before the Common Era. This was
actually quite a common motif in ancient Egypt.696 More importantly,
Horus and Seth here were physically damaged, susceptible to injury, and
needed to be healed by an external agent, and through the use of magic.
This proves that they were not understood as innately immortal and
impervious to change, in spite of being born as gods. In fact, both Horus
and Seth even went on to be killed. While thats a story for another time,
this was the case with many gods, because all of them are born mortal.
As cited previously by Hornung and Wilkinson, the Book of the Dead
Spell 154 S 2 states:
Thou hast made to (decay) every God and every goddess, all
quadrupeds, and all worms.697
By this Time He Stinketh
This leads right into the next antagonistic argument that was
mentioned earlier, which is that the supposed evidence that Osiris never
really died is that Osiris body allegedly neither rotted nor
decomposed. As the kids say these days- Epic Fail. Unlike the mere fact
of death itself, which the ancient Egyptians avoided acknowledging, the
rot & decay of Osiris (and of the deceased humans & gods who emulated
him) is very widely attested. In fact, opposite to death itself, rot was
actually considered a type of bitter sweet because the emissions of
695
Ritner (1993-2008), 79, n.358. (Emph. added.)
696
Ibid. 73-110.
697
234
putrefaction were considered to have beneficial properties that brought
forth new life and rebirth. No doubt this was observed from natural
metaphors such as the alleged spontaneous generation of various
creatures from decaying corpses, such as the ox-born bees mentioned on
pp.175-83. I will circle back around to this point eventually, but for now
its time to proceed to the holy scriptures.
You shall not tread on the corruption of Osiris.
Your efflux which issued from the putrefaction of Osiris is yours.
I have immersed the waterways as Osiris, Lord of corruption.
Coffin Texts, Spell 467 V, 374; 468 V, 385 700
Those waters in which it is dragged are the final putrefaction
from under the ribs of my father Osiris.
My dissolution* was caused yesterday, I have returned today
I am the Red One.702
*WsT, lit. dilapidation.
I am Anubis as one who fosters the place of embalming, who
embalmed the god in the hidden place. I have come that I may
cover up corruption and deal with the mummy wrappings, and that
I may pour away the putrefaction after death.
You have your cold water the putrescence which issued
from Osiris.
698
699
700
Faulkner (1977), 96, 99. (Emph. added.)
701
702
An epithet for the unified Re-Osiris. See Darnell (2004), 199.
703
Faulkner (1977), 145, n.1. (Emph. added.)
704
235
Osiris indeed(?) is devoid of his flesh, and Isis has stopped for
herself his flesh and his efflux from falling to the ground.
This is Osiris. The gods come [to you ] in putrescence.
Coffin Texts, Spell 839 VII, 707
Your mother comes to you; see, Nut has come so that she may
join your bones together, knit up your sinews, make your members
firm, take away your corruption.
I have come that I may see Osiris, and I will live beside him
and putrefy beside him.
Give me a good road to the gate of the nether world, (for I) am
acting in behalf of him who is yonder, exhausted, so that he who is
full of pus may reconstitute himself.
Horus came from his Fathers seed while the former was
undergoing decay.
Bring me the putrid effluent of Osiris.
Book of the Dead, Spell 94 712
I have plunged into [the lakes] like [Osiris], lord of decay.
Book of the Dead, Spell 110 a 6 S 1 713
I come unto thee, son of Nut, Osiris [Thoth] does away with
the evil that clings to thy body by the spells he utters.
705
706
707
708
709
710
711
712
713
236
O corpse of He-hidden-of-ba, Osiris, ruler of the West,
secret of flesh, hidden of efflux,
whom the dead cannot approach,
who enlivens those within the West by inhaling its (scil.
the corpses) putrefying stench.
Book of Caverns, Division 3 715
To think that Osiris never rotted or decomposed is untenable, and
laughable. The scriptures cant paint any more explicit an image than to
state that his flesh was leaking pus and falling off of his bones. Thus
when the antagonists cite a source claiming that Osiris did not really rot
or decompose,716 emphasis on really, their source does not contradict
the numerous primary sources quoted above but actually corroborates
with them,717 because it is true that Osiris did not completely rot away to
nothing. The rotting that he most certainly did undergo was eventually
reversed and then permanently removed thereafter- all thanks to the use
of magic, such as mummification rituals or the following magical spells
specifically designed for that vey purpose.
Not to rot and not to do work in the realm of the dead.
Coffin Texts, Spell 432 V, 280; 433 V, 281 718
A MAN IS NOT TO PUTREFY IN THE REALM OF THE
DEAD. The members of Osiris are inert, but they shall not be
inert, they shall not putrefy or shake. [May the putrefaction] of
Osiris [be stopped(?)].
Coffin Texts, Spell 755 VI, 384-85 719
N has made Osiris grow, he has seen his seats which are in the
upper sky, he has purged his efflux.
714
715
Colleen Manassa, The Late Egyptian Underworld: Sarcophagi and Related
Texts from the Nectanebid Period (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz GmbH & Co.
KG, 2007), 40, 47. (Emph. added.)
716
Meeks (1993-96), 57. (Emph. added.)
717
See p.237-38.
718
719
Ibid. 288-89.
720
Ibid. 295.
237
Remove the efflux which exuded(?) from your flesh, you being
filled and provided with the eye of Horus.
N is Osiris, Lord of burial, N will not putrefy.
[SPELL FOR NOT LETTING] CORPSES PERISH IN
THE EARTH. [My] corpse will not putrefy in the earth.
No harm shall happen to thy body, for though art sound; thy
flesh shall not decay.
Book of the Dead, Spell 6C S 1 724
Does a member weary, namely (a member of) Osiris? It has
not wearied, it has not rotted. AS FOR THE ONE WHO
KNOWS THIS SPELL, HE SHALL NOT ROT IN the gods
domain.
Book of the Dead, Spell 45 S, T 725
Hail to thee, my father Osiris. Thy members shall continue to
exist. Thou hast not decayed, thou hast not rotted, thou hast not
turned to dust, thou hast not smelled, thou has not decomposed.
Thou shalt not become rotten.
Again, through the magic power of the spoken word one could
calleth those things which be not as though they were, and make it so.
Denial of the decay of Osiris reversed the decay of Osiris, which of
course would only have been necessary if Osiris actually decayed in the
first place. Which he did, and many a scholar has testified as much.
Isis is able to reverse the decomposition of Osiris body, and
she uses magical spells and breathes life into Osiris.
Dr. Rivka Ulmer, Egyptian Cultural Icons in Midrash 727
721
Ibid. 307.
722
Faulkner (1978), 6.
723
Ibid. 13.
724
T.G. Allen (1974), 9.
725
Ibid. 50.
726
Ibid. 154.
238
Osiris rested close to a desert dune, where the burning sun
caused his body to decompose. As decomposition progressed,
parts of Osiris body fell away and floated to the north.
Dr. Martin Bommas, in The Oxford Handbook of
Roman Egypt 728
The Osiris myth conjures up the terrors of death only to
conjure them away; the worst forms of decay, after all the worms
have finished their work (Book of the Dead, spell 154), become
an essential condition for resurrection. When the late books
concerning the Netherworld deal with the decay and putrefaction
of Osiris, referring to him as corrupt, the lord of stench, this is
understood in a positive fashion, and the oozing secretions of the
corpse are assumed to be particularly powerful.
Dr. Erik Hornung, The Valley of the Kings: Horizon of
Eternity 729
The unifying element of the scenes and annotations on the
type I sarcophagi is the reconstitution of disparate parts, and since
no ancient title is known, this decorative scheme is here entitled the
Book of Resurrection through Decomposition.
Numerous religious allusions appear in the scenes and texts
surrounding the sarcophagus, but the disparate images all converge
at a central theme: decompositionof the eye of Horus, of the
Osirian corpse, and even of time itselfas a prerequisite to
regeneration and resurrection.
The annotation to an ithyphallic Osiris in the Third Division
of the Book of Caverns describes inhaling the stench of the rotting
Osirian corpse
The scenes on Sides Two and Three apply these cosmic cycles
to the deceased himself through the archetype of Osiris and two
specific processes: the decomposition of the body as a prerequisite
to its resurrection, and the union of the ba and shade with the
corpse.
727
Rivka Ulmer, Egyptian Cultural Icons in Midrash (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
GmbH & Co. KG, 2009), 118. (Emph. added.)
728
Martin Bommas, Isis, Osiris, and Serapis, in The Oxford Handbook of
Roman Egypt, ed. C. Riggs (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 424.
729
Hornung (1982-90), 116. (Emph. added.)
239
The rotting corpse of Osiris is often said to have beneficial
results the corpse of Osiris is said to already be rotting when
Horus is born
The long walls (Sides Two and Three) portray and describe
the decomposition and reunification of the body of Osiris.
Dr. Colleen Manassa, The Late Egyptian Underworld 730
Osiris is present in several different forms at once, as will often
be the case in subsequent phases of the journey. His
dismemberment, decomposition, and rebirth are summarized here
by a round object containing a relic of his body, a god personifying
his rotting corpse
In it lies the rotting body of a god who is at one and the same
time Osiris, the sun, and even the deceased king.
The accompanying text explains that this is the corpse of
Osiris ruler of the West, whose decay(ing flesh) is mysterious,
whose decomposition is hidden, whom the dead may not
approach, although those who dwell in the West live on the odor of
his decay.
Dr. Dimitri Meeks and Dr. Christine Favard-Meeks , Daily
Life of the Egyptian Gods 731
This is My Body, Which is Broken
The woes of Osiris were not over yet, however. Isis eventually
recovered his corpse which Seth buried in the waters and reversed its
decomposition. Getting wind of what was going on and what it was
leading to, Seth tracked down the whereabouts of the corpse and, to
ensure that there could be no resurrection, he tore the body into pieces
and scattered them across the earth. His sisters Isis and Nephthys
searched for and collected the dismembered fragments of his broken
body. Then with the aid of the other gods, Isis managed to reassemble
the corpse and make it whole again, preserving it through
mummification.
O King, your head is knit to your bones for you, and your
bones are knit to your head for you.
730
Manassa (2007), 5, 15, 45, 65, 66, 140, 442. (Emph. added.)
731
Meeks (1993-96), 153, 155, 156. (Emph. added.)
240
O Osiris the King, Geb has given you your eyes Horus has
reassembled you Isis has reassembled you.
O Osiris the King the gods have knit up your face for you.
Pyramid Texts, Utterance 364 609-10, 369 640-43 734
Horus has reassembled your members for you, and he will
not let you perish; he has put you together.
Horus has reassembled your limbs and he has put you
together, and nothing in you shall be disturbed.
O King; receive your head, collect your bones, gather your
limbs together.
Your mother comes she will give you your head, she will
reassemble your bones for you, she will join together your
members for you, she will bring your heart into your body for you.
Pyramid Texts, Utterance 447 827-28, 450 834-35 738
O Nut, set your hand on me with life and dominion, that you
may assemble my bones and collect my members. May you gather
together my bones at(?) [ there is no limb of mine] devoid of
God.
Pyramid Texts, Utterance 485C 1036-38 739
I have put my brother together, I have reassembled his
members.
732
Faulkner (1969), 113.
733
Ibid. 114-15.
734
Ibid. 118, 122.
735
Ibid. 119.
736
Ibid. 121
737
Ibid. 123.
738
Ibid. 148-49.
739
Ibid. 173.
740
Ibid. 262.
241
Osiris has filled himself with the Eye of Him whom he begot.
It will raise up your bones, it will reassemble your members for
you, it will gather together your flesh for you.
O Osiris the King, knit together [your] limbs, reassemble your
members, set your heart in its place!
O King, gather your bones together, resume your members!
Pyramid Texts, Utterance 665A 1908 743
O King, collect your bones, assemble your members, whiten
your teeth, take your bodily heart.
O King, collect your bones, gather your members together.
Pyramid Texts, Utterance 667C 1952 745
Osiris A libation for you is poured out by Isis, [Nephthys
has cleansed you, even your two] great and mighty sisters who
gathered your flesh together, who raised up your members, and
who caused your eyes to appear in your head.
Gather together your bones, make ready your members, throw
off your dust O Osiris.
Behold, the King is at the head of the gods and is provided as
a god, his bones are knit together as Osiris.
This King comes provided as a god, his bones are knit
together as Osiris.
741
Ibid. 263-64.
742
Ibid. 274.
743
Ibid. 275.
744
Ibid. 277.
745
Ibid. 282.
746
Ibid. 286.
747
Ibid. 289.
748
Ibid. 296.
242
My sister, says Isis to Nephthys, this is our brother. Come, that
we may raise his head. Come, that we may reassemble his bones.
Come, that we may rearrange his members.
I reassemble the limbs of Osiris, I gather his bones together I
gather the bones of Osiris together and I make his flesh to flourish
daily.
Coffin Texts, Spell 80 II, 38, 41-42 751
I am Horus who gathered together these bones of Osiris.
Hail to you, Lady of offerings at whom Osiris rejoices who
gathered together his arms and legs, who laid Osiris down I am
Osiris my members are gathered together.
I am Osiris O you who split open my mouth for me and
gathered together for me what issued from my flesh, grant to me
offerings.
Coffin Texts, Spell 828 VII, 28-29 754
My members are gathered together Join my members
together.
Take the Eye of Horus which combines your flesh and pulls
together your members.
I was with the mourners of Osiris I was with Horus on the
day of wrapping the Dismembered One.
749
Ibid. 298.
750
751
Ibid. 84-85.
752
Ibid. 150.
753
Ibid. 189-90.
754
755
Ibid. 20.
756
Ibid. 41.
757
243
I am put together, renewed, and rejuvenated. I am Osiris.
Book of the Dead, Spell b S 758
I have come unto thee, Osiris (I have) united (for him) his
bones and assembled (for him) his members.
Book of the Dead, Spell 147 g S 5 759
When Osiris was ruling over Egypt as its lawful king, he was
murdered by his brother Typhon, a violent and impious man;
Typhon then divided the body of the slain man into twenty-six
pieces and gave one portion to each of the band of murderers,
since he wanted all of them to share in the pollution and felt that in
this way he would have in them steadfast supporters and defenders
of his rule.
As they relate, Isis proceeded to her son Horus, who was being
reared in Buto, and bestowed the chest in a place well out of the
way; but Typhon, who was hunting by night in the light of the
moon, happened upon it. Recognizing the body he divided it into
fourteen parts and scattered them, each in a different place. Isis
learned of this and sought for them again, sailing through the
swamps in a boat of papyrus. This is the reason why people sailing
in such boats are not harmed by the crocodiles, since these
creatures in their own way show either their fear or their reverence
for the goddess. The traditional result of Osiriss dismemberment
is that there are many so-called tombs of Osiris in Egypt; for Isis
held a funeral for each part when she had found it.
758
759
Ibid. 139.
760
761
244
Fig. 54: Depiction of the death and dismemberment (upper-left corner) of Osiris.
Typhon kills Osiris by a ruse, after which he scatters his limbs far and wide, but the
famous Isis collects them.762
762
H.M.E. de Jong, Michael Maiers Atalanta Fugiens: Sources of an Alchemical
Book of Emblems (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1969), 273.
245
Fig. 55: Reassembling the broken body of Osiris; from the Temple of Isis at Philae.
While Isis and her search party managed to recover and reconstruct
Osiris sufficiently for resurrection, she still failed to recover one final
portion of his corpse- the phallus. As the symbol of creative power and
manhood, this was unacceptable. Isis therefore fashioned a prosthetic
replica. No doubt this was related to the aforementioned principle of
sympathetic magic in ancient Egypt, but more on that in chapter 8.
Now Isis recovered all the pieces of the body except the
privates but the privates, according to them, were thrown by
Typhon into the Nile because no one of his accomplices was
willing to take them. Yet Isis thought them as worthy of divine
honours as the other parts, for, fashioning a likeness of them, she
set it up in the temples, commanded that it be honoured, and
made it the object of the highest regard and reverence in the rites
and sacrifices accorded to the god. Consequently the Greeks too,
inasmuch as they received from Egypt the celebrations of the orgies
and the festivals connected with Dionysus, honour this member in
both the mysteries and the initiatory rites and sacrifices of this god,
giving it the name phallus.
Diodorus of Sicily, Library of History 1.21.5, 22.6-7 763
763
Diodorus, op. cit. 67, 71.
246
Of the parts of Osiriss body the only one which Isis did not
find was the male member, for the reason that this had been at
once tossed into the river, and the lepidotus, the sea-bream, and
the pike had fed upon it; and it is from these very fishes the
Egyptians are most scrupulous in abstaining. But Isis made a
replica of the member to take its place, and consecrated the
phallus. In fact, the tale that is annexed to the legend to the
effect that Typhon cast the male member of Osiris into the river,
and Isis could not find it, but constructed and shaped a replica of it,
and ordained that it should be honoured and borne in
processions, plainly comes round to this doctrine, that the creative
and germinal power of the god, at the very first, acquired moisture
as its substance, and through moisture combined with whatever was
by nature capable of participating in generation.
Plutarch, Moralia 358B, 365C 764
Uncover for him my injured privy parts, let him see my
woundsso says Osiris.
So all of the pieces of Osiris, in one way or another, were accounted
for and the corpse was completed, ready for resurrection. But the
breaking of the body of our Lord Osiris was not just a side detail
included only for dramatic effect, it had great significance. First, there is
the natural metaphor to it which God placed in the cycles of the moon.
Hence Osiris is often likened to the moon, and like his Father Re, he is
occasionally referred to as both the sun766 and the moon- for the moon
reflects the light of the sun, acting as the sun of the night.767
The moon is the Ba of Osiris.
Dr. Louis V. abkar, A Study of the Ba Concept in Ancient
Egyptian Texts 768
O King you are born in your months as the moon.
764
Plutarch, op. cit. 47, 89.
765
766
This is due to his fusion with Re during nighttime as Res avatar for the
netherworld. See pp.124-30.
767
Ulmer (2009), 277.
768
Louis V. abkar, A Study of the Ba Concept in Ancient Egyptian Texts
(Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1968), 14.
247
Osiris the King may you be manifest at the New Moon.
O you Sole One who shines as the moon.
O you Sole One who rises in the moon, O you Sole One who
shines in the moon.
KNOWING THE SOULS OF THE NEW MOON,
ENTERING INTO THE HOUSE OF OSIRIS OF DJEDU.
(O) Osiris (Where, pray, art thou on blacked-out-moon day
while the corpse is silent?)
Book of the Dead, Spell 64 variant S 18 774
Hi, Osiris. Thou dawnest as the Moon.
August Mummy, Osiris Raise thyself, Moon that circles the
Two Lands.
Ho you of On, you rise for us daily in heaven!
We cease not to see your rays!
Thoth, your guard, raises your ba,
In the day-bark in this your name of Moon.
You come to us as child in moon and sun,
We cease not to behold you!
Lamentations of Isis and Nephthys 4 777
769
Faulkner (1969), 135.
770
Ibid. 170.
771
772
Ibid. 131.
773
Ibid. 133.
774
T.G. Allen (1974), 59.
775
Ibid. 158.
776
Ibid. 219-20.
777
248
In this section Osiris is viewed as a cosmic god manifest in
both sun and moon.
Dr. Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature Volume
III: The Late Period 778
The wood which they cut on the occasions called the burials
of Osiris they fashion into a crescent-shaped coffer because of the
fact that the moon, when it comes near the sun, becomes crescent-
shaped and disappears from our sight.
Fig. 56: Coffer barque of Osiris, crescent-shaped like the waning moon; from the Temple
of Seti I at Abydos, 13th century BCE.
Wherefore there are many things in the Apis that resemble

features of the moon, his bright parts being darkened by the
shadowy. Moreover, at the time of the new moon in the month of
Phamenoth they celebrate a festival to which they give the name of
Osiriss coming of the Moon, and this marks the beginning of the
spring. Thus they make the power of Osiris to be fixed in the
Moon, and say that Isis, since she is generation, is associated with
him. There are some who would make the legend an allegorical
reference to matters touching eclipses; for the Moon suffers eclipse
only when she is full, with the Sun directly opposite to her, and she
falls into the shadow of the Earth, as they say Osiris fell into his
coffin.
Plutarch, Moralia 368A-E 779
778
779
249
Fig. 57
Also, during the new moon phase of the lunar cycle, the sun and
moon appear as though they merge into one entityespecially during
solar eclipsesjust as Osiris repeatedly merges with Re into one entity
as covered earlier. Another interesting point of union between the sun
and moon is that the lunar year synchronizes with solar year in cycles of
33 years.
The lunar year recedes approximately 11 days each solar year,
with the result that in each 33 years it passes through all the solar
seasons.
Dr. Ziauddin Sardar, in New Scientist 780
Some means of coordinating the lunar and solar cycles was
necessary. Otherwise, these festivals would soon become divorced
780
Ziauddin Sardar, The astronomy of Ramadan, in New Scientist 94, no. 1311
(June 24, 1982): 854.
250
from their original agricultural contexts and run throughout the
year every 33 years or so.
Dr. Robert Hannah, Time in Antiquity 781
With a 354-day year, the same day of the monthly calendar
would fall on the same day of the solar year once every 33 years.
Dr. Nicholas Postgate, Bronze Age Bureaucracy: Writing and the
Practice of Government in Assyria 782
Lunar cycles ... fall about 10 days earlier on the Western
calendar than they did the previous year, and complete an entire
circuit on the Western calendar every 33 years.
Dr. Carol Delaney, Investigating Culture: An Experiential
Introduction to Anthropology 783
Every sequence of 12 consecutive months (technically known
as "lunar year") which then rotates through all seasons, accumulating
in about 33 years a deficit of about one solar year.
Dr. Otto E. Neugebauer, A History of Ancient Mathematical
Astronomy 784
Lunar years of 354 days, each consisting of 12 lunar months,
which in 33 years run through all the seasons.
Dr. Anton Pannekoek, A History of Astronomy 785
How fascinating. After thirty-three years the life cycle of the moon
reunites with the life cycle of the sun. In terms of Egyptian
astrotheology, it would appear as though Osiris returned to live along
side his Father Re at the end of thirty-three years, just as the heathen god
The Good Shepherd was later said to have returned to his father to live
alongside him after having departed thirty-three years earlier. Anyway,
there is great overlap in the cycles of the moon and the sun, hence there
781
Robert Hannah, Time in Antiquity (London: Routledge, 2009), 31.
782
Nicholas Postgate, Bronze Age Bureaucracy: Writing and the Practice of
Government in Assyria (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 52 n.27.
783
Carol Delaney, Investigating Culture: An Experiential Introduction to
Anthropology (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2004-11), 88.
784
Otto E. Neugebauer, A History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy (Berlin:
Springer-Verlag, 1975), 354.
785
Anton Pannekoek, A History of Astronomy (New York: Dover Publications,
Inc., 1951-89), 27.
251
is no conflict in regarding the same deity as both a solar and a lunar god.
These two celestial bodies are some of the signs God placed in the
heavens to tell the gospel story of Osiris.
It was already touched upon earlier on p.203 how the 28 years of the
reign of Osiris as king over Egypt, beginning when he was 28 years old,
is paralleled by the ~28 day orbit786 of the moon. Thus it is
approximately 14 days787 from full moon to new moon and vice versa.
Fourteen days from a complete moon until there is no moon left in the
sky at all. One piece of the moon is metaphorically broken off each day
until finally no more pieces remain- the moon has vanished, buried in the
darkness of the night. So also the body of Osiris was broken into 14
pieces and scattered until there was no more Osiris left, he too had
vanished, by the hand of his brother Seth. And just as Isis and the gods
sought out the pieces, collected them and put them back together one by
one until Osiris was made whole again, the moon is reassembled piece
by piece, one piece a day everyday until all 14 pieces have been put back
together and made whole again. Hence the following from Plutarch in
Moralia 368B:
The dismemberment of Osiris into fourteen parts they refer
allegorically to the days of the waning of that satellite from the time
of the full moon to the new moon. And the day on which she
becomes visible after escaping the solar rays and passing by the sun
they style Incomplete Good; for Osiris is beneficent, and his
name means many things, but, not least of all, an active and
beneficent power, as they put it. The other name of the god,
Omphis, Hermaeus says means benefactor when interpreted. 788
A similar numerical parallel seems to be implied by Diodorus, in this
case correlating to the full ~28 days rather than just ~14 (26 pieces
shared by the conspirators + 1 piece for Seth + 1 discarded phallus = 28).
Other texts also vary in the exact number of pieces, but 14 does appear to
786
It is 27.33 to be more precise, although it is common knowledge that
traditionally this has been rounded up to an even 28 days.
787
Peter T. Wlasuk, Observing the Moon (London: Springer-Verlag London Ltd.,
2000), 5.
788
252
be the most commonly given, as seen in sources such as the Dendera
Temple inscriptions789 or the Jumilhac Papyrus.790
A list in the temple of Denderah gives the parts together with
the nomes to which they were distributed, and agrees with Plutarch
in numbering them as fourteen.
Dr. John G. Griffiths, Plutarchs de Iside et Osiride 791
During the festival of Choiak such a dramatic performance
took place. It is described, not in its entire ritual context, but in
certain directions for the moulding of an image of Osiris,
reproduced on the walls of an Osiris chapel in Dendera. The
image, which is called Sokaris (in Dendera rituals this god is often
identified or intermingled with Osiris) is made of various
substances and moulded into a form. The various ingredients have
to be carefully measured in fourteen parts of the divine body:
head feet arm heart breast thigh [eye?] hand
finger phallus vertebrae ears neck shinbones

The preparation of the image of Sokaris was thus a ritual
reenactment of the gathering of the limbs of Osiris.
Dr. J. Podemann Srensen, in Rethinking Religion: Studies in
the Hellenistic Process 792
The 14 pieces of the body of Osiris sound like the 14 days of
the waning, or dying moon, and on the main ceiling of the
Dendera temple are inscriptions and pictorial reliefs that leave no
789
mile Chassinat, Le Mystre dOsiris au mois de Khoiak (Cairo: French
Institute for Oriental Archaeology, 1966-68), 493, col. 55-56.
790
Jacques Vandier, Le Papyrus Jumilhac (Paris: Centre National de la
Recherche Scientifique, 1961) 136-37.
791
John G. Griffiths, Plutarchs de Iside et Osiride: Edited with an Introduction,
Translation and Commentary (Cambridge: University of Wales Press, 1970),
338.
792
J. Podemann Srensen, Attis or Osiris? Firmicus Maternus, De errore 22, in
Rethinking Religion: Studies in the Hellenistic Process, ed. J.P. Srensen
(Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 1989), 83-84.
253
doubt. In one panel,793 an eye, installed in a disk, is transported in
a boat. The eye, we know, was a symbol of the sun or moon.
Thoth, the ibis-headed scribe god of wisdom and knowledge, pilots
the barge. Thoth was closely associated with the moon and counted
the days and seasons. The text for this panel refers to the period
after full moon, and 14 gods accompany the eye in the disk. Next
to the portrayal of the waning moon, another carved panel794
represents the 14 days of the waxing moon. A staircase with 14
steps, a god on each, leads up to the same eye and disk, and
hieroglyphics verify the gods association with days of the growing
moon. Osiris, it is written, is luminous, as the god of the moon.
Finally, a third, adjacent panel795 shows Osiris in a boat with lsis
and her sister Nephthys. Goddesses of the four cardinal directions
support the sign of heaven, on which the boat floats, and
the inscription says Osiris is the moon.
Dr. Edwin C. Krupp, Echoes of the Ancient Skies: The
Astronomy of Lost Civilizations 796
Dr. Mark J. Smith explains it all quite nicely:
The full moon is connected with the body of Osiris, which was
dismembered into fourteen parts by Seth and subsequently made
whole again. Osiris may be said to enter the sound eye in two
distinct but related senses. According to the Egyptian view, on each
of the fourteen successive days during the period of the moons
waxing, a different divinity was thought to merge with that celestial
body and restore one of its missing parts. 797 These divinities
constitute the Greater and Lesser Enneads which are said to have
been created and equipped by Isis for the benefit of the sound eye
in the passage from P. BM 10208 cited three paragraphs above.
The parts or components which they supply are called dbH.w, a
term used indifferently of the constituent elements of the moon
and those of the body of Osiris. The work of these deities is
completed by Thoth on the fifteenth day of the lunar month. 798 At
this time, restored to a state of wholeness through their actions,
Osiris may be said to enter the sound eye.
793
Fig. 58.
794
Fig. 59.
795
Fig. 60.
796
Edwin C. Krupp, Echoes of the Ancient Skies: The Astronomy of Lost
Civilizations (Mineola: Dover Publications, Inc., 1983-2003), 18-19.
797
Fig. 61-62.
798
Ibid.
254
In astronomical terms, full moon day is when the sun and the
moon are in opposition. The Egyptians referred to this as the
union of the two bulls (snsn kA.wy). They believed that, on the
day in question, the rays of the two celestial bodies mingled
together. More specifically, the greater light of the sun was thought
to enter and illuminate the moon. Thus, texts speak of the latter as
receiving (Ssp) the former or being supplied with (aprm) its rays.
The moon is said to be illuminated (Ssp.ti) by the sun, or the rays
of the latter to pervade (Abx) the former.799
Fig. 58: The far north panel of one of the registers on the ceiling of the Temple of
Hathor at Dendera illustrates the 14 days of the waning moon as the 14 seated figures
that accompany the celestial eye in the lunar disk.800
799
Smith (2002), 122-23.
800
Krupp (1983-2003), 19.
255
Fig. 59: On the same register that portrays the waning moon, the middle panel
represents the 14 days of the waxing moon as 14 gods, each positioned upon a stairway
that ascends to the disk of the moon. 801
Fig. 60: Osiris is identified unambiguously with the moon in the third and southernmost
panel from the ceiling of the main hall at Dendera. He is joined in a celestial boat by the
goddesses Isis and Nephthys, and the boat is sailing upon a symbol for the sky, itself
supported by four goddesses. The accompanying texts say that Osiris has stepped into the
full moon and that he is the moon.802
801
Ibid.
802
Ibid. 20. Cf. Fig. 57, Plutarchs Moralia 368A.
256
Fig. 61: From the Temple of Khnum at Esna, a group of 14 gods are accompanied by 14
circles which no doubt represent the aforementioned 14 pieces of the moon and body of
Osiris.
Fig. 62: Also from the Esna Temple of Khnum, the scene directly to the right of Fig. 61
shows the moon fully reconstructed and merging with the sun disk, inside of which
stands the sun god in the form of Re-Khnum, thus a version of the solar-Osirian unity.
Dr. Smith continues:

This belief is given visual expression in Egyptian paintings and
reliefs which show the disk of the full moon with the right, or solar
eye, representing the suns light, inside it. In the Later Period,
Osiris was frequently identified with the sun as well as with the
moon. There is a marked emphasis upon this solar aspect in texts
and representations concerned with his entry into the sound eye
when the moon is full. It is as a solar deity, therefore, as well as in
his capacity as a resurrected god, that Osiris can be said to enter the
eye on the fifteenth day of the lunar month.
As Gutbub had noted, the effect of the entrance of a divinity
into a celestial body is to enhance its light. Accordingly, other
deities apart from Osiris can be said to enter or unite with the
moon if they perform such a function for it. Thus, the divinities
who progressively restore that celestial body to fullness during the
period of its waxing are described in some sources as entering it
(ao). Thoth, who completes their work, can be said to enter the
sound eye (ao r tA wDy) and become one with the moon. The same
action can be predicated of sacred animals. Finally, the sun god
257
himself, for reasons explained in the preceding paragraph, can be
said to enter and become one with the full moon. 803 In a text from
the temple of Edfu describing the phases of the moon, for instance,
it is said with respect to Horus-Re: imA=f iaH m snsn kA.wy, He
merges with the lunar disk at the union of the two bulls (= full
moon day). The god who enters the sound eye/full moon
possesses all the powers and attributes of a lunar deity.804
So in merging with these celestial bodies, the gods perpetually
reenact stories such as the passion of Osiris, on the stage of the heavens,
forever perennially retelling the gospel to their audience below.
Conspicuously, some of the lunar aspects in this story also show up in
some heathen myths as well, such as certain gods/demigods whose
passion allegedly also culminated on the fourteenth day of their lunar
month. Regardless of that, the broken body of Osiris contains other
symbolism as well, beyond just the celestial associations.
When the pieces of his body were scattered by Seth, each piece was
hidden in a different territory or sepat of the land of Kemet, or as they
are known today- the nomes of ancient Egypt. As Isis & her crew
discovered each piece, she had a false tomb set up in that nome where it
was found so that the true and final burial place would be kept a secret
from Seth and prevent him from desecrating the corpse again. Because of
this, there developed a close association between the nomes of Egypt and
the pieces of the body of Osiris. While differing traditions vary in the
exact number of nomes involved, the tale of his dismemberment and
reconstitution also came to be thought of as analogous to the division and
unification of the various nomes into one united kingdom of ancient
Egypt.
When Osiris was later dismembered, his limbs were
distributed among the members of Typhons gang who scattered
them throughout the 14 or 16 nomes of Egypt.
Dr. Russell E. Gmirkin, Berossus and Genesis, Manetho and
Exodus: Hellenistic Histories and the Date of the Pentateuch 805
803
Fig. 62.
804
Ibid. 123-24.
805
Russell E. Gmirkin, Berossus and Genesis, Manetho and Exodus: Hellenistic
Histories and the Date of the Pentateuch (New York: T & T Clark International,
2006), 202. (Emph. added.)
258
The body of Osiris was divided into fourteen parts; and a list
in the temple of Dendea confirms that the number of parts and the
nomes in which they lay was fourteen.
Ptolemaic temples provide texts mentioning fourteen, sixteen
and forty-two parts the latter enabling a part of the gods body to
rest in every nome or administrative district of Egypt. Sites claiming
pieces of Osiris include:
Sebennytos upper and lower leg
Herakleopolis thigh, head, two sides
and two legs
Athribis heart
Abydos head
Edfu leg
Biga Island left leg
and Goddesses 807
They interpret the body parts as representations of the nomes
or nome capitals, so that the ritual restoration of Osiris physical
and spiritual integrity also symbolizes the reunification of the entire
land. The Egyptians equated the dismembered body of Osiris
with the multiplicity of the nomes, in order to celebrate the
wholeness and integrity of the land in a ritual of reconstitution. The
motive was concern for the continuing existence of Egyptian
civilization in the face of a crisis that was interpreted and ritually
enacted as a disintegrating force.
Dr. Jan Assmann, The Mind of Egypt: History and Meaning in
the Time of the Pharaohs 808
The offering is subjected to a double sacramental explanation.
One explanation refers the offering to the specific limb of Osiris
body that is brought in it as a contribution by the respective nome
to the restoration of the gods body. On the second level, the limb
is explained as the nome and its capital, with the result that the
body of Osiris, restored and brought back to life, represents the
entirety of the land of Egypt. This point is expressed clearly in the
speeches of the king, who accompanies this procession:
806
Burton (1972), 89. (Emph. added.)
807
Hart (1986-2005), 124. (Emph. added.)
808
Assmann (1996-2002), 410-11.
259
I bring you the cities and nomes as your limbs.
The gods are assigned to your body as your mystery.
The divine limbs are the nome gods in their true form.
I bring you the company of the gods of Upper Egypt in their
entirety:
Your divine limbs are gathered in their place.
I bring you the capitals of the nomes: they are your limbs,
they are your ka, which is with you.
I bring your name, your ba, your shadow, your form (oj=k),
your image, and the cities of your nomes.
I bring you the chief gods of Lower Egypt, united together.
All the limbs of your body, they are united.
So in a metaphorical and spiritual sense, the body of Lord Osiris is
his Kingdom, and the limbs or members that compose that body are the
members of his kingdom- the chosen people of the holy land of Kemet.
Therefore, much like how we are all members composing the body of
God the Father (see pp.96-102), so also, as concerns Lord Osiris, the
chosen people are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
They are the body of Osiris, and members in particular. They being
many, are one body in Osiris, and every one members one of another.
And although Seth said I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the
flock shall be scattered abroad, God said I have gathered thy
children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her
wings! Even as this broken body was scattered over the hills, and was
gathered together and became one, so let thy congregation be gathered
together from the ends of the earth into thy kingdom. For as the body
is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body,
being many, are one body: so also is Osiris, and his kingdom.
God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant
honor to that part which lacked, that there should be no schism in the
body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.
For Osiris did pray save all my members (limbs), which have been
scattered abroad in all the rulers, ministers, and workmen of this on,
and gather them all together and receive them into the Light. I have
recognized myself and gathered myself together from all sides. I have
809
Assmann (2001-05), 364.
260
gathered together my limbs that were scattered abroad, and I know thee
who thou art. Thus the body of Osiris is not only analogous to the
moon, but also to the land of Egypt as well. Or as Dr. Assmann put it,
this aspect of Osiris is like the Pauline concept of the church as the body
of 810 The Good Shepherd, of whom it is said the Lamb of God is
dismembered and distributed, he that is dismembered yet not divided,
who is always eaten yet never consumed, but sanctifies those who
partake.
This is My Blood
As covered earlier, upon drowning in the Nile waters, Osiris dead

body began to decompose. As is well known, when as a corpse putrefies,
it begins to leaks out bodily fluids such as pus, and of course, blood.
Being a god, Osiriss body had divine properties. Therefore when his
bloody emissions leaked into the Nile, those fluids caused the waters of
the Nile to rise significantly. They rose so much, in fact, that the Nile
began to flood the arable lands flanking its banks. This was the inaugural
Nile inundation season.
You have your water, you have your flood, the fluid which
issued from the god, the exudation which issued from Osiris.
O King, your cool water is the great flood which issued from
you.
Your water is yours, your flood is yours, your efflux which
issued from Osiris is yours.
Your water is yours, your flood is yours, your efflux which
issued from the putrefaction of Osiris is yours.
810
Assmann (2001-05), 361.
811
Faulkner (1969), 143.
812
Ibid. 153.
813
Ibid. 205.
261
When the season of Inundation comes, provide the efflux
which issued from Osiris
You have your water, you have your flood, you have your
efflux which issued from Osiris.
The king possesses his bodily fluids
You have your water, you have your efflux, you have your
flood which issued from Osiris.
I have quenched my thirst with the efflux of my father Osiris.
O Isis, [I have quenched] my thirst with the high Nile, with the
flood of Osiris.
Coffin Texts, Spell 362 V, 22 818
Those waters in which it is dragged are the final(?) putrefaction
from under the ribs of my father Osiris.
The waters have overflowed for him the efflux of Osiris
flooded out when he was buried, and N is one who turned aside
toward it for life, welfare and health.
You have your water, you have your cold water, the efflux
which issued from the god, the putrescence which issued from
Osiris.
The river is (as) filled (with) thickets as (is) the flood with the
efflux that came forth from Osiris. May I gain access to water, may
814
Ibid. 213.
815
Ibid. 281.
816
Ibid. 289.
817
Ibid. 292.
818
Faulkner (1977), 5.
819
Ibid. 121.
820
Ibid. 245.
821
262
I have abundance of water, like this god who is in the mound of
water.
Book of the Dead, Spell 149 n S 1 822
Hi, Osiris. Thou comest as the inundation that waters; thou
providest for the fields.
Raise thyself, Inundation, Osiris who came forth at the
beginning and fills the earth with his efflux. Raise thyself, thou
who hast dawned as the inundation Raise thyself, (Inundation),
Great Green (Sea).
Book of the Dead, Spell Pleyte 168 S 34, 38, 42 824
O Osiris N.,
take this libation
that comes from Elephantine,
this discharge that comes from Osiris,
which Sothis (the goddess of the new year) brings with her own
arms
as she associates Khnum with you.
A great Nile inundation has come to you,
its arms filled with rejuvenated water,
to bring you gifts
of all fresh things at their time,
with no delay.
Libation Situla of High Priest Wsjr-wr 825
The efflux of the body of Osiris, in its turn, was nothing less
than the inundating Nile.
Dr. Harco Willems, The Coffin of Heqata 826
His body was the land of Egypt, which was divided into
provinces, each containing a relic of his limbs. He was also present
in the waters of the Nile, which flooded and gave life each year to
the earth of the Nile valley.
822
T.G. Allen (1974), 146.
823
Ibid. 158.
824
Ibid. 219.
825
Assmann (2001-05), 359-60.
826
Harco Willems, The Coffin of Heqata (Cairo JdE 36418): A Case Study of
Egyptian Funerary Culture of the Early Middle Kingdom (Leuven: Peeters
Publishers, 1996), 138.
263
Dr. John D. Ray, Reflections of Osiris 827
The rotting corpse of Osiris is often said to have beneficial
resultsthe rDw-fluids are even the source of the life-giving
inundation waters. These floodwaters are not only the place in
which the sun is born each day, but may also be an allusion to the
putrefaction of Osiris as the source of the inundation. The mummy
not only creates the space for the floodwaters, but also could be the
source of the precious liquid.
According to the myth, the Nile inundation had its origin in
the exudations of the corpse of Osiris. The inundation is called
rejuvenated water, and the passage ends by making this
expression a name of the deceased himself, for he is indeed Osiris,
from whose corpse the inundation flowed. The idea of a cycle is
crucial to this association of ideas. With the water, life-fluid is
returned to the deceased, life-fluid that has flowed out of him, out
of Osiris. The water is a discharge that is returned in the offering.
The concept of rejuvenation results from this idea of a cycle.
Egypt symbolized the body of Osiris. When the reuniting and
revivification of Osiris were celebrated during the annual Osiris
mysteries, Egyptians were reassured of the unity of the land. In this
mythic concept, all Egypt constituted the body from which the Nile
inundation gushed forth like a bodily humor that brought life. We
thus see that a correspondence of microcosm and macrocosm
underlay the designation of water as the discharge of Osiris. The
world--or Egypt, at least--was conceived of as a body, and the water
of the Nile as an elixir of life that gushed forth from it. In this
system of assigning body parts to parts of the land, the wounded leg
belonged to elephantine. This was the place where the life juices
flowed out of Osiris and flooded Egypt, giving rise to all the means
of life. When it was offered to him in the cult, the water of the
inundation, which had flowed out of the body of the slain god,
made it possible to restore life to him, as well as to all the dead,
who were equated with him.
As for the next text, although it does not concern the inundation, it
still demonstrates that the blood and pus of Osiris were understood to
give rise to bodies of water.
827
Ray (2002), 156.
828
Manassa (2007), 66, 373.
829
Assmann (2001-05), 358, 361.
264
Then Suty came, his head bowed, forehead touching the earth,
(for) he saw what [...] had done against him [... the blood] that
dripped from his nose. Then Osiris fertilized (the earth with) the
blood that came forth in Heracleopolis.
[...] to see Osiris, he found him seated in his house, his head
swollen, because of the burning (of) [...Then said Osiris]:
Put pressure on these swellings, forcing blood and putrid pus out of
them in the marshland.
Book of the Dead, Spell 175 c S 1-2 830
Blood and pus together appear in a positive context in Book of
the Dead Chapter 175, which describes the atef-crown injuring the
head of Osiris; Re takes the blood and pus from this injury to
create the waters of the Faiyum.
The newfound excess of water provided abundant irrigation never
before seen in Egypt. And since pus & blood contain organic minerals,
the divine emissions provided nourishing fertilization as well. All of this
resulted in a surplus of new botanical growth throughout the land, the
most desired of which was arguably that of the grapevine. The reason for
that is obvious- wine. As such, Osiris was credited as being responsible
for this bounty, and as being the source of wine.
Osiris appears The Lord of wine in flood, his seasons have
recognized him, his times have remembered him, and the King is
recognized by his seasons with him, his times with him have
remembered him.
Behold, Osiris has come as Orion, Lord of Wine in the WAg-
festival.
Wine was often an important item in funerary and temple
cults. From as early as the Old Kingdom, wine was regularly
mentioned in offering lists as part of the funerary establishment. In
temple rituals, wine was also often offered to various deities. In the
830
T.G. Allen (1974), 184-85.
831
Manassa (2007), 47 n.244.
832
833
265
pyramid temple of Fifth Dynasty king Sahura, for example, the king
was shown offering wine to the goddess Sakhmet. Besides its
general significance as an item that pleased the deities, the offering
of wine took on certain specific religious and mythological
associations. Already in the Pyramid Texts, Osiris was mentioned
as the Lord of Wine in the Wag Festival (PT Spell 442: 820a).
The Wag Festival was celebrated at the beginning of the
inundation, on the 17th, 18th, or 19th of Thoth, the first month of
inundation. The festival itself was a funerary feast that was probably
aimed at the celebration of the resurrection of life that the
inundation brought. Since Osiris epitomized resurrection, there
may be a certain connection between Osiris as the god of
vegetation and rejuvenation and the symbolic coming to life of the
grapevine. The fact that wine production depended upon the
coming of the inundation might therefore have fostered the
meaning of wine as a symbol of life and rejuvenation. A text in the
Ptolemaic temple of Edfu contains the following sentence: The
vineyard flourishes in Edfu, the inundation rejoices at what is in it.
It bears fruit with more grapes than [the sand of] the riverbanks.
They [the grapes] are made into wine for your storage . . . .
(Chassinat and Rochemonteix: Edfou VII: 278). Thus the
relationship between the inundation and the production of wine is
clearly stated.
Dr. Mu-chou Poo, in UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 834
Also, when the bloody fluids of Osiris corpse leaked into the Nile,
they changed the color of the water into a shade of red, like that of wine.
The Lord left a memorial of this life-giving event by causing the annual
inundation thereafter to also turn the Nile waters red every year. Much
like how Osiris bloody fluids saturated the water with nourishing
minerals, the subsequent inundations likewise cause a surplus of minerals
to permeate the Nile as mountain streams located further south wash
sediment downstream. The iron-rich soil from which the sediment came
imbues the Nile with a reddish hue, like blood, and of course, like wine.
This led to the belief that the blood of Osiris turned water into wine.
Hence the deceased, identified with Osiris, says in Pyramid Text
Utterance 210 130:
You gods, my water is wine like that of Re.835
834
Mu-chou Poo, Liquids in Temple Ritual, in UCLA Encyclopedia of
Egyptology, ed. W. Wendrich (Los Angeles: 2010), 1-2.
http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/7gh1n151.
266
This is echoed in the Book of the Dead:
N.s flood is in the Field of Offerings. His gifts are among
(you, O) gods; N.s water is wine like Re(s). Triumphant is
Osiris N.
Book of the Dead, Spell 178 f S 2 836
Not only the Nile, but every form of moisture they call simply
the effusion of Osiris; and in their holy rites the water jar in honour
of the god heads the procession. They regard the Nile as the
effusion of Osiris
Waters that flow through a mountainous and stony country are
clearer than those of the marshes and plains, since they do not
carry off much earth. The Nile, encompassed by soft terrain, or
rather interspersed through it as blood is through flesh, has the
benefit of its sweetness, and is filled with fluids that are heavy and
nourishing; but in its flow it is impure and turbid. If it is roiled, this
is even more the case, for motion mixes mud and liquid, but when
the river is quiet the mud sinks and disappears, because of its
weight. This is why they draw water at night, but also in order to
anticipate the sun, which by continually evaporating the finest and
lightest element in the liquid, causes deterioration.
Plutarch, Moralia 365B, 366A, 725 837
Even the heathen have acknowledged the reality of this phenomenon.
The inhabitants of Egypt worship water, supplicate water,
venerate water with an everlasting series of superstitious vows.
Osiris is worshipped and Typhon is shunned. Vain is your
supposition that this water which you worship is at times of benefit
to you. Quite another thing is the water by which human beings are
renewed and reborn. This water which you worship every year
why, a different power dries it up by overheating the channels of its
veins; or at any rate the calamitous blood of your king [Osiris]
befouls it.
Firmicus Maternus, The Error of the Pagan Religions 2.1-5 838
835
836
837
Plutarch, in Babbitt (1936-62), 87, 93. (Emph. added.)
Plutarch, Moralia, in Plutarchs Moralia: Volume IX, trans. P.A. Clement and
H.B. Hoffleit (London: William Heinemann Ltd., and Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, 1969), 157. (Emph. added.)
267
When the water was made wine, was performed on about the
same eleventh day thirty years later. And even to this day this
happens in many places as a testimony to unbelievers because of
the miracle which was wrought at that time, as streams and rivers in
many localities testify by being changed to wine. The stream at
Cibyre, the chief city of Caria [bears witness] at the same time of
day at which the servants drew the water And the stream at
Gerasa in Arabia testifies in the same way. I have drunk from the
one at Cibyre myself, and my brethren have drunk from the
stream in the martyrium at Gerasa. And in Egypt too many give
this testimony of the Nile. Thus in Egypt itself, and in many
countries, everyone draws water on the eleventh of the Egyptian
month Tybi, and stores it up.
Epiphanius of Salamis, Panarion 51, 29.7-30.3 839
And academia affirms it all as well, of course.
The inundation of the Nile, which made the Nile so crucial to
the survival of Egypt, is caused by rains which fall in Central Africa
and by the melting snow and the rainfall from the Ethiopian
highlands. By the end of May, the river Nile was at its lowest level
in Egypt. During the month of June the Nile, between the first
cataracts and Heliopolis, began to rise and some greenish water
appeared at this time. During later July and August the river rose
rapidly and its waters assumed a reddish, muddy color, which was
due to the presence of red earth brought into the Nile by two
rivers, the Blue Nile and the Atbara River.
Wine was a prestigious drink; it was used in religious rituals as
an offering to Egyptian deities, and scenes of wine-offerings are
ubiquitous on temple walls of all periods. In the Pyramid Texts,
Osiris was mentioned as the Lord of Wine, presumably from his
relationship with the annual inundation of the Nile, the seasonal
revival of vegetation in general, and the vine in particular . Many
Greco-Roman authors noted that the color of the Nile was red
during the inundation, and a story mentioned that the Nile water
838
Firmicus Maternus, The Error of the Pagan Religions, trans. C.A. Forbes (New
York: Newman Press, 1970) 44-45, 146 n.30. (Emph. added.)
839
Epiphanius of Salamis, Panarion, in The Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis,
Books II and III. De Fide, trans. F. Williams (Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV, 1994-
2013), 62. (Emph. added.)
840
Ulmer (2009), 52. (Emph. added.)
268
once turned into winemost likely a mythological interpretation of
a natural phenomenon caused by the iron-rich red alluvium washed
into the Nile from the Atbara branch during the flood season.
Wine in daily life was an enjoyable drink, whereas in myth and
theology it was symbolic of blood and the power of rejuvenation .
Dr. Mu-chou Poo, in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient
Egypt: Volume 3 841
As Greek and Roman authors noted, the Nile water turned
red during the inundation, which suggests the color of wine. The
color of wine, when it was red, and even disregarding its association
with the mythological story, already suggested an association with
blood and the life-giving force of nature. As this association was not
limited to ancient Egyptian culture, it is all the more possible to
believe that the symbolic association of wine and blood did exist in
Egypt.
Dr. Mu-chou Poo, in UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 842
The grape harvest started just before the summer flooding
season (Akhet) which occurred in the middle of July. The
reappearance of the star Sothis in the sky (about 18 th of July)
announced that soon the Nile flooding, which would give great
fertility to the land was going to arrive. For this reason, ancient
Egyptians related the grape harvest and the new seasons
winemaking with the Nile flooding. At these times the Nile water
acquired a reddish colour due to the ferrous alluvium of the Blue
Nile and the Atbara rivers coming from the Ethiopian land. The
Nile flood was related to the resurrection of the god Osiris who,
according to mythology was found dead in the Nile after being
killed by his brother Seth. The blood of Osiris was related with the
new seasons wine. Wine symbolism is first documented in the
Pyramid Texts of the Fifth Dynasty. Osiris was the first god who
returned to life and like him Egyptians had to be resurrected after
death in order to progress to the afterlife. As can be seen in the
Theban tomb of Sennefer, the tomb ceiling has been decorated
with a painted vine symbolizing the rebirth of the dead. The grapes
and the wine were considered the symbol of resurrection.
Dr. Maria R. Guasch et al., in Proceedings of the Ninth
International Congress of Egyptologists: Volume 1 843
841
Mu-chou Poo, Wine, in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt: Volume
3, ed. D.B. Redford (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 503. (Emph.
added.)
842
Poo (2010), 2. (Emph. added.)
269
When the inundation arrives the water becomes reddish and
assails these dykes like a young man in love, as the texts put it. At
particular spots all along the river, cuttings are made to allow the
silt-charged water to spread over the plain. Plutarch remarked that
the waters of the flood mingle with the soil like blood with flesh.
Like a living body, the Nile is bled throughout its length, a kind of
pelican that pierces its own flanks to feed its young.
Dr. Jean L. Krisel, The Nile and Its Masters: Past, Present,
Future 844
The annual inundation amazed the Egyptians, who had no
explanation for the rivers sudden great swelling, nor the change in
its color from red to green. At first the silt suspended in the water
caused the Nile to look red, and the slow moving vegetation
floating on top made it look green.
The water of the inundation was also association with red wine.
Dr. Lszl Trk, Between Two Worlds 846
It is the dismemberment of the body of Osiris and its
scattering all over Egypt that conveys associations with ritual
fertilizing of the land. Blood was transubstantiated into water and
water enveloped the earth to penetrate it and create new life. The
red hue of the river, brought on by oxide sediments during the
inundation, to this day is compared with blood. Was this the blood
of Osiris? Life was reborn from the saturated, black earth. Osiris
came back, his flesh as green as the plants in the valley. The
mystery of creation was enacted every year since the beginning of
time. This was the form of Him whom one may not name, Osiris
of the Mysteries, who springs from the returning waters.
843
Maria R. Guasch et al., Scientific Research on Archaeological Residues from
Ancient Egyptian Wines, in Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta: Proceedings of the
Ninth International Congress of Egyptologists: Volume 1, eds. J.C. Goyon, C.
Cardin (Leuven: Peeters Publishers, 2007), 851-52. (Emph. added.)
844
Jean L. Krisel, The Nile and Its Masters: Past, Present, Future, trans. P.
Cockle (Rotterdam: A.A. Balkema Publishers, 1999-2001), 38. (Emph. added.)
845
Remler (2000-10), viii.
846
Lszl Trk, Between Two Worlds: The Frontier Region between Ancient
Nubia and Egypt 3700 BC 500 AD (Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV, 2009), 4.
847
Mojsov (2005), 7-8.
270
Wine is called the blood of Osiris, a process of
transubstantiation.
Dr. John G. Griffiths, Apuleius of Madauron: The Isis-Book 848
This natural metaphor of sediment runoff giving water a blood red
color is not unique to just the Nile.
A certain Byblian who seemed to be telling the truth gave
another explanation. His account was this: The river Adonis,
stranger, passes through Lebanon, and Lebanon has very yellow
soil. Strong winds which arise on those days carry the earth, which
is red in the highest degree, into the river, and it is the earth that
makes it bloody. So the reason for the phenomenon is not the
blood, as they say, but the terrain. So said the man of Byblos; but
even if what he said was right, the winds timing seemed to me to be
miraculous indeed.
Lucian of Samosata, On the Syrian Goddess 8 849
Then did Athene, the clear-eyed, summon up for them a
favouring breeze, a brisk following West Wind which thrummed
across the wine-dark sea.
Homer, The Odyssey 2.461-62 850
In summary, it was believed that the blood of Osiris turned water
into wine, and that, as the source of water for the grapevine, ultimately
his blood literally became wine as well. Thus wine became a symbol for
his blood. And not only was his bloody inundation considered the source
for the wine of grapes, but also for the wine made from Egypts other
staple crop, as Herodotus put it- the wine of grain, i.e. beer.
These Egyptians eat bread made from spelt, and they call
these loaves kyllestis. The wine they drink is made from barley.
Herodotus, Histories 2.77.4 851
Their beer is wine.
Book of Gates, 7th Hour, Scene 43 (16th-11th cen. BCE) 852
848
Griffiths (1975), 316-17.
849
Lucian of Samosata, On the Syrian Goddess, in Lucian: On the Syrian
Goddess, trans. J.L. Lightfoot (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 251-53.
850
Homer, in Lawrence (1932-91), 26. (Emph. added.)
851
Strassler (2009), 150, n.2.77.4b.
271
O Flood, I have come to you that you may give me bread
when I am hungry and give me beer when I am thirsty.
You have your water, you have your inundation, you have your
bzngrain.
O Osiris the King, take the ferment(?) which issued from you
beer.
Your beer has flooded in, even the efflux of which came out of
Osiris.
At times this grain and beer was said to be red in color, just like
wine, also likely signifying the color of the very blood from which it was
produced.
May you swallow beer of red emmer at the pure place.
My beer is of red barley.
[I] sip beer [of] red [wheat] of the Inundation in the pure
place.
The color of the Nile during inundation, furthermore, suggests
the color of wine, or the red-colored beer.
Dr. Muchou Poo, Wine and Wine Offering in the Religions
of Ancient Egypt 860
852
Erik Hornung and Theodor Abt, The Egyptian Book of Gates (Zurich: Living
Human Heritage Publications, 2014), 140.
853
854
855
856
857
858
859
272
The yearly celebration at Dendera coincided with the
inundation of the Nile during the summer, when reddish, iron-rich
soils were washed down from the Atbara River in the Sudan, giving
the waters the appearance of red beer. Papyri and inscriptions
refer to many different kinds of ancient Egyptian beer, including
dark beer, sweet beer, iron beer (perhaps distinctively colored
red?).
Dr. Patrick E. McGovern, Uncorking the Past: The Quest for
Wine, Beer, and Other Alcoholic Beverages 861
Egyptian texts speak of sweet beer, red beerthe most
commonand black beer, which must have been the most
alcoholic.
Dr. Edda Bresciani, in Food: A Culinary History from
862
Antiquity to the Present
Both barley and wheat beers were brewed in this manner,
sometimes with such additives as date juice for a sweetener or red
dye for special holidays.
Fig. 63: Wine made from grapes watered by the inundating blood of Osiris.
860
Muchou Poo, Wine and Wine Offering in the Religions of Ancient Egypt
(London: Kegan Paul International, 1995-2009), 157. (Emph. added.)
861
Patrick E. McGovern, Uncorking the Past: The Quest for Wine, Beer, and
Other Alcoholic Beverages (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009), 246.
(Emph. added.)
862
Edda Bresciani, Food Culture in Ancient Egypt, in Food: A Culinary History
from Antiquity to the Present, eds. J.L. Flandrin, M. Montanari, and A.
Sonnenfeld, trans. C. Botsford et al. (New York: Columbia University Press,
1996-99), 40. (Emph. added.)
863
Brier and Hobbs (2008), 112. (Emph. added.)
273
Fig. 64
This is My Body Which is Given for You
The growth of grain and other vegetation which resulted from the
death of Osiris not only came about through the inundation caused by his
bloody fluids, but grain also came directly from his person. Time and
time again ancient Egyptian scriptures and other sources declare that ears
of grain were known to have sprung forth and grown directly from the
dead body of Osiris himself.
May you cause me to eat of the grain which grew there, like
Osiris on the Great Flood.
I am the living one who is on his neck and my throat is made
to flourish, (even I) whom Atum made into the Grain-god when he
caused me to go down into this land, to the Island of Fire, when I
became Osiris the son of Geb.
Coffin Texts, Spell 80 II, 40-41 865
It is this god of smoked(?) grain who lives after his death.
864
Faulkner (1969), 175.
865
274
BECOMING BARLEY OF LOWER EGYPT. N is the bush
of life which went forth from Osiris to grow on the ribs of Osiris.
BECOMING NEPER [the grain] I live and I die, I am
Osiris I live and I die, for I am emmer.
Osiris pre-eminent in goodly grain, Osiris the lord of grain.
Brilliance for your barley when grain grows, Osiris emerges.
Osiris is being buried at the time when the grain is sown and
covered in the earth and that he comes to life and reappears when
plants begin to sprout.
Plutarch, Moralia 377B871
In a scene from a Third Intermediate Period coffin, the light
of the disk causes grain to spring forth from the mummy of Osiris.
Thriving are the fields of the Netherworld,
As Re shines over the body of Osiris.
At your rising the plants appear.
These verses are well illustrated on a painted coffin of Dynasty
21 showing ears of grain ripening out of Osiriss body873 below a
solar disk embraced by a pair of arms.
Dr. Erik Hornung, The Valley of the Kings: Horizon of Eternity 874
866
Ibid. 97.
867
868
869
870
Hornung and Abt (2014), 258-59.
871
872
Manassa (2007), 416 n.37.
873
Fig. 67.
874
275
The libation is mentioned in the former as the cause of the
growth of barley and emmer, exactly the types of corn stored in the
granaries on F of A1C, and which, in their turn, can of course be
regarded as a manifestation of Osiris.
The efflux of the body of Osiris, in its turn, was nothing less
than the inundating Nile, on which the growth of barley and emmer
was dependent. As a corollary to providing the deceased with his
efflux, he therefore also received an offering of grain, and this is
rendered by the granaries depicted on F.
This happened when the Nile became lower in February and
March, a natural feature that symbolized the death of Osiris. It is
probably significant that this was also the time when barley and
emmer - the cereals symbolizing Osiris - were harvested. Possibly, a
Ssp.t itrw was also celebrated at other times of the year, such as the
period when the Nile rose again in summer.
Some scholars have argued that the Osirian deceased who
washes the quay is here compared with the Nile. Although this
does not remove all the obstacles to our understanding of this
passage, the succeeding remark that the speaker lives on white
emmer affords some support, for elsewhere on the southern
Egyptian coffins, emmer and barley have turned out to be related
to libation offerings symbolizing the efflux of Osiris body, i.e., the
fertilizing inundation of the Nile.
From at least as early as the Middle Kingdom, the death and
regeneration of Osiris had been specifically linked to the annual
cycle of the sowing and harvesting of food crops. Barley was said to
spring from the ribs of his body, and the donkies who threshed
corn with their hooves and carried grain on their backs were reviled
as creatures of Seth. The use of the wedjat eye measurement for
grain ties in with the idea that crops came from the body of Osiris
after it was regenerated through the presentation of the eye of
Horus.
Dr. Geraldine Pinch, Egyptian Myth: A Very Short
Introduction 876
In Egypt the dead were purified so that they could enter a new
life in the underworld. The dead Osiris is sprinkled causing blades
of grain to sprout from his body. Like Osiris, to be drowned in the
875
Willems (1996), 130, 138, 221, 245. (Emph. added.)
876
Geraldine Pinch, Egyptian Myth: A very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford
276
river is to enter into connection with the god and thus to be
divinised.
Dr. Hannah K. Harrington, Holiness: Rabbinic Judaism and
the Graeco-Roman World 877
In the early dynastic period, Osiris also became identified with
the new grain that rises from the earth, fructified by the Niles
waters. He is pictured lying as a mummy beneath the grain, which
sprouts from his body, while a priest pours water on him. Mats of
earth with sprouting grain were placed in tombs of the dead, thus
making the connection between the grain that rises yearly from the
earth and immortal life that rises in the resurrected Osiris.
In a story found in the theology of Memphis, Osiris falls into
the risen Nile and drowns. The young Horus entreats the
Goddesses Isis and Nephthys to rescue Osiris. They draw him
from the waters and install him in the Great Seat, the temple of
Ptah at Memphis, called the mistress of all life, the Granary of the
God through which the sustenance of the Two Lands is prepared.
Here, Osiris is explicitly identified with the grain drowned in the
waters of the Nile and then risen to new life.
Dr. Rosemary R. Ruether, Goddesses and the Divine Feminine: A
Western Religious History 878
Osiris, as is evident in so many of the mortuary texts, was
manifest in the phenomena of the life of nature. He was seen in the
growing grain and the vegetation of the land; he was seen also in the
waters of the Nile, for it was these waters, the great efflux of Osiris,
which brought fertility to the land and allowed it to produce its
crops.
Dr. Vincent A. Tobin, Theological Principles of Egyptian
Religion 879
New life, in the form of a crop of grain, sprouts from the body
of the dead Osiris and completes another cycle in the circuit order.
Osiris embodies the principle of rebirth and resurrection and is
associated with everything that follows the pattern: the sun, the
877
Hannah K. Harrington, Holiness: Rabbinic Judaism and the Graeco-Roman
World (London: Routledge, 2001), 178. (Emph. added.)
878
Rosemary R. Ruether, Goddesses and the Divine Feminine: A Western
Religious History (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005), 63-64. (Emph.
added.)
879
Tobin (1989), 111.
277
moon, the stars, the river, the plants, and the soul. He is Lord of
Everything.
Fig. 65: Based on a limestone bas-relief from Karnak, 15th century BCE.
Fig. 66: Grain sprouting from the body of Osiris; from the Jumilhac Papyrus, currently
at the Louvre Museum.
880
Krupp (1983-2003), 21. (Emph. added.)
278
Fig. 67: Another scene showing ears of grain growing from the corpse of Osiris; from the
coffin of Nespawershepi, 10th century BCE.
This feature of Osiris body was the inspiration for the ancient
customs known as Osiris beds and corn mummies. These involved
making effigies of Osiris composed of grain. These effigies were
regularly watered (i.e. baptized), eventually causing new ears to sprout
forth from the effigies, just as they sprouted forth from the body of Lord
Osiris.
From the New Kingdom onwards, Osiris beds (wooden
outlines of the god filled with soil) and corn mummies were also
placed in tombs. They were sometimes watered during the funeral
so that the seeds would sprout after the tomb was closed. Such
symbolism helped to incorporate the human dead in a great cycle
of death and regeneration that encompassed all created beings and
things. The human dead were also expected to play an active role
in the maintenance of the cycle initiated by the creator.
Dr. Geraldine Pinch, Egyptian Myth: A very Short
Introduction 881
One of the most interesting magical objects in this room was a
wooden mold in the shape of Osiris. This mold was lined with
linen and filled with rich topsoil deposited by the Nile. Seeds,
mostly for grain, were planted in the topsoil. When they sprouted,
they would be a green, living representation for Osiris, symbolizing
resurrection. Tutankhamen had sought to identify himself with
Osiris in that way and bring about his resurrection.
Dr. Bob Brier, Ancient Egyptian Magic 882
881
Pinch (2004), 117.
279
During the Khoiak-festival, a snw-vase was placed under the
Osirian corn-mummy. The mummy was daily sprinkled with water
to make the corn grow. Some of it trickled down through the clay
figure and dripped into the vessel. In a religious sense, this was, of
course, not just water. It was nothing less than the bodily efflux of
Osiris, interpreted as a source of fertility and life.
Further references to Osiriss vegetative power are found in the
Osiris beds of royal and private burials in the Valley of the Kings.
These consisted of a wooden base in the form of the gods
silhouette covered with fertile soil and sown with grain, the green
shoots bringing to life the mythical revival of the lord of the
Beyond, and vicariously that of the deceased himself.
Eternity 884
Beginning in the late Third Intermediate Period (the second
half of the eighth century B.C.) a specific subcategory of corn
mummies emerged: figures placed in hawk-headed coffins. After
the figure had been formed, a coating of oils, resins, wax, and gum
was applied to the bandages or cover shroud to more closely
simulate a genuine mummy. Representations of and references
to corn mummies have been found on coffins of genuine
mummies, and the process of their manufacture during the Khoiak
festival, as well as their subsequent burial, is described and depicted
on temple walls.
Dr. Regine Schulz, in The Walters Art Museum Journal 885
882
Brier (1980-2001), 197.
883
Willems (1996), 119.
884
Hornung (1982-90), 118.
885
Regine Schulz, A Corn Mummy Decoded, in The Walters Art Museum
Journal 63 (2005): 5.
280
Fig. 68: An Osiris bed used for sprouting grain in the form of Osiris; from Thebes, 6 th
century BCE.
281
Fig. 69: Another example of an Osiris bed; from the tomb of Horemheb, KV57, 13 th
century BCE.
282
Fig. 70: An Osiris bed after sprouting, illustrating how the flesh of Osiris became grain;
from the tomb of Maiherpri, KV36, 14th century BCE.
Fig. 71: A grain-mummy effigy of Osiris, currently at the National Museum of

Antiquities in Leiden.
283
Fig. 72
Fig. 73: Another Osirian grain-mummy with sarcophagus (the lid is seen in Fig. 72), from
the Late Period; currently at the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose.
He was Known of Them in Breaking of Bread
So his inundating blood produced the grain which fed all of Egypt,
but also, even part of the very flesh of Osiris himself was transformed
into grain. How did this Osirian grain feed the chosen people of ancient
Kemet? Well, as shown earlier, one medium was beer. The other medium
is known as the most popular dietary staple in the history of human kind-
bread.
284
BECOMING BARLEY OF LOWER EGYPT. N is this bush
of life which went forth from Osiris to grow on the ribs of Osiris
and to nourish the plebs, which makes the gods divine and
spiritualizes the spirits[Axw],886 which provisions the owners of
doubles and the owners of property, which makes cakes for the
spirits[Axw], which causes the living to grow, and which makes firm
the bodies of the living.
There it is, right there straight from the holy scriptures- the grain
which grew from the body of Osiris was used to make cakes of bread, i.e.
part of his flesh literally became bread and was eaten. The body of Osiris
was transubstantiated into bread, bread which imparted divine power and
life.
The term corn in Egyptology (as in English biblical usage)
designates grain in general. Botanical analysis of a group of corn
mummies in a Polish collection has identified the grain used as
emmer or barley, which formed the basis of the most important
foods of the Egyptians: bread and beer.
Dr. Regine Schulz, in The Walters Art Museum Journal 888
Barley was said to spring from the ribs of his body ... Since
bread made from corn and beer made from barley were the basic
foodstuffs for all Egyptians, the regeneration of Osiris was
important to the whole nation.
Dr. Geraldine Pinch, Egyptian Myth: A very Short
Introduction 889
Moret discusses the Heliopolitan and Osirian connotations
possible for the term DfAw; DfA and kA.w foodstuffs are said to have
been made by Osiris, and to consist of his body Osiris is called
Df(A) kAw xn.ty psD.t, Provision, Food, Foremost of the Ennead.
886
Akhs- see chapter 5 for more details.
887
888
Schulz, loc. cit. (Emph. added.)
889
Pinch, loc. cit.
890
285
Such being the case, it became customary at certain festivals to bake
loaves of bread in the shape of the body of Osiris, and then divide, or
break, the bread into individual body parts in remembrance of how his
body was broken by Seth.
It so happens that scented loaves of bread accompany the
Sokar figure in the Osirian mysteries described at Dendera. Called
qfnloaves, they are baked in special molds that mark them as
representations of Osiris body parts, and they too are made of
wheat flour (bdt, emmer wheat) mixed with aromatic substances
(listed in columns 47-48).
Dr. Joseph D. Reed, in Transactions of the American
Philological Association 891
1.8. I bring together to you the gods of the North and present
to you all of the parts of your divine body, assembled in their
place (Dendera, translated from Chassinat (1966-68: II, 624)).
1.9. The bread mold... made of wood... The sixteen
members are carved on it, each of them designated by its name ...
his shin-bones [qs.w]... his phallus [D.t], his spinal column [pst]...
his neck [At] (Dendera, translated from Chassinat. (1966-68: II,
365)). This graphic portrayal of the assemblage of parts is repeated
at Dendera with the mold of Sokaris, which has fourteen segments.
Of these one is psd (Chassinat lchine, earlier medical usage back,
another At (Chassinat la nuque, earlier medical usage spine (1966-
68: II, 493-7)).
Dr. Calvin W. Schwabe, Dr. Joyce Adams, and Dr. Carleton
T. Hodge, in Anthropological Linguistics 892
Each vase contains a limb from the body of the slain Osiris,
out of which the body will be ritually put back together. Among the
directions for carrying out the festival of Khoiak, there are exact
instructions for preparing the limbs of Osiris body. They were
made of a special dough that was baked in wooden molds. We may
thus presume that along the Nile water, each of the vases contained
one of these limbs. The accompanying texts repeatedly make
mention of the discharges of Osiris.
891
Joseph D. Reed, Arsinoes Adonis and the Poetics of Ptolemaic
Imperialism, Transactions of the American Philological Association 130 (2000):
331. (Emph. added.)
892
Schwabe (1982), 448. (Emph. added.)
286
Fig. 74: The broken body of a bread man, analogous to the ritual
breaking of the bread body of Osiris.
Fig. 75: The harvesting of grain, which of course grows from the inundating blood
of Osiris; from the tomb of Nakht, TT52, 14th century BCE.
893
Assmann (2001-05), 364. (Emph. added.)
287
Fig. 76: The making of bread from grain, which, like all grain, was produced by the
flesh and blood of Osiris; based on a scene from the tomb of Ramesses III, KV11, 12 th
century BCE.
He that Eateth My Flesh, and Drinketh My Blood, Hath Eternal Life
So it has now been proven beyond all possibility of dispute that the
blood of Osiris became wine and part of his broken body became bread.
As such, his body was consumed to sustain life, not only life in Egypt
(makes firm the bodies of the living), but also life beyond earth
(makes the gods divine and akhifies the akhs). The growth of grain and
grape after Osiriss death demonstrated that there could in fact be life
after death, and that the substance of Osiris body aided in providing it.
Thus it became a necessary part of funerary rituals to eat his flesh and
drink his blood in the form of specially consecrated bread and wine/red
beer. Even Osiris himself engaged in this act, in order to restore his life
essence which had been transferred into the grain and grape,
strengthening his body after resurrection. The deceased who sought to
identify with him in death also emulated this act, in remembrance of him,
that they too might have life restored to their bodies after death. This also
aided in identification with Osiris, for consuming his flesh meant that
they literally had a part of him inside themselves. They had literally
288
become one with Osiris. All of this was done in an effort to obtain
eternal life like him.
O Osiris the King, your mouth is split open with that of which
you have full measure--wine, a hATs-jar of white mnw-stone.
O Osiris the King, take the ferment(?) which issued from you--
beer, a Hnt-bowl of black mnw-stone.
O you who are put under the earth and are in darkness!--an AH-
cake.
O King, take the ferment(?) which issued from Osiris--beer, a
Hnt-bowl of black mnw-stone.
I provide you with the ferment(?) which issued from you--a jar
of beer.
O Osiris the King, take that which should be on you--2 HT-
loaves.
O Osiris the King, I bring to you that which resembles(?) your
face--2 nHr-loaves.
O Osiris the King, I have set your eye in place--4 dpt-loaves.
894
895
896
897
898
899
900
901
289
O Osiris the King, receive what should be on you--4 Sns-
loaves.
O Osiris the King, take your eye, take possession of it--4 imy-
tA-loaves.
O Osiris the King, provide yourself with the ferment(?) which
issued from you--2 bowls of beer.
issued from you--2 bowls of sxpt-drink.
issued from you--2 bowls of px(A)-drink.
issued from you--2 bowls of Nubian beer.
O Osiris the King, your mouth is split open by means of it--2
bowls of Lower Egyptian wine.
O Osiris the King, open your eyes that you may see with them-
-2 bowls of zizyphus-bread.
Geb has given you your eyes, that you may be content--a table
of offerings. O Osiris the King, you are his double--a qHA-loaf.
902
903
904
905
906
907
908
909
290
Take the ferment(?) which issued from Osiris --2 jars of Hbt-
drink.
O Osiris the King, take the water which is in you--I give Horus
to you--[2(?)] jars of Tnm-beer.
O my father the King, take the ferment(?) which issued from
Osiris.
Raise yourself to this bread of yours which knows no
mouldiness and your beer which knows no sourness, that you have
a soul thereby, that you may be effective thereby, that you may be
powerful thereby.
You eldest son of Geb He who presides over Khem raises
you and has given a t-wr loaf and this grape-juice.
The Valley gives you bread from the burial of her father
Osiris.
Your xnfwloaves are Osiris.
May you live on bread of red emmer, may you swallow beer of
red emmer at the pure place.
910
911
912
913
914
915
916
917
Ibid. 62.
918
Ibid. 177.
291
I write the news: a thousand of bread and beer on the altars of
my father Osiris.
I am Osiris the gods live on me. I am emmer.
My blood is drunk, (even) my redness.
My bread is in Pe and my beer in Dep, 922 and this power of
mine belongs to me. My power is bread and beer, my power is life,
prosperity, and health.
I live on bread of white wheat, and my beer is of red barley.
Book of the Dead, Spell 52 b 2 924
I live in bread of red wheat of the Inundation in the pure
place; [I] sip beer [of] red [wheat] of the Inundation in the pure
place.
Because my bread is of white wheat and (my) beer of red
barley.
Because (my) bread is of white wheat and my beer of red
barley.
919
920
921
922
See BOTD Spell 173 b 4.
923
924
T.G. Allen (1974), 52.
925
926
Ibid. 83.
927
Ibid. 96.
292
O Osiris, I am thy son Horus. I have come; I have made thy
bread in Pe of red wheat. O Osiris, I am thy son Horus. I have
come; I have made thy beer in Dep of white barley.
I live on bread of white wheat and beer of red barley.
While the next two spells are not funerary texts and are from late
papyri (though the contents are earlier930), they likewise continue in the
tradition of all the afore-cited scriptures of equating wine with the blood
of Osiris at his death. And they do so most explicitly.
I am this figure of One drowned, that testifieth by writing, that
resteth on the other side [?] here under the great offering-table of
Abydos; as to which the blood of Osiris bore witness to her [?]
name of Isis when it was poured into the cup, this wine . Give it,
blood of Osiris that he gave to Isis to make her feel love in her
heart for him night and day at any time, there not being time of
deficiency. Give it, the blood of [name] born of [name] to give it to
[name] born of [name] in this cup, this bowl of wine to-day, to
cause her to feel love for him in her heart, the love that Isis felt for
Osiris, when she was seeking him everywhere.
The London-Leiden Magical Papyrus, Col. XV 12-17 931
You are wine; you are not wine, but the guts of Osiris.
Greek Magical Papyrus VII.645-46 932
928
Ibid. 182.
929
Ibid. 211.
930
This especially applies to the first one, The London-Leiden Magical Papyrus.
See Dr. John M. Hull, Hellenistic Magic and the Synoptic Tradition (London: SCM
Press, 1974), 25-26. Behind the Greek lay an even older Egyptian original.
The written forms lying behind the present redaction of the papyrus are
therefore roughly late first century AD with older fragments, and the magical
procedures are very much older in some cases. (Emph. added.)
931
Brier (1980-2001), 288. (Emph. added.)
932
Papyri Graecae Magicae, VII.643-51, in The Greek Magical Papyri in
ed. H.D. Betz, trans. E.N. ONeil (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1986-
96), 136.
293
By the Blood of the Lamb
Now as for the next scripture from the Coffin Texts, Spell 226, a
brief preface is in order.
Osiris, foremost of the West, perfect of face, high of Atef-
crown; lord of the two horns mysterious ram-form.
Tomb of Imiseba, TT65, pl. 38A (12th cen. BCE) 933
Osiris was to remain the Mendesian bAi, the precious deity
rejuvenated as the ram (Dendera X, 288:12) and Banebdjed to
become, through Osiris, the living bai of the gods. In the
beatification text on the only inscribed ram-sarcophagus lid yet to
be found at Mendes, Banebdjed as Osiris is described in a
distinctly solarized form.
Dr. Susan Redford and Dr. Donald B. Redford, Divine
934
Creatures: Animal Mummies in Ancient Egypt
Ram gods were often regarded as manifestations of other
deities. Banebdjedet could be shown with four rams' heads
representing the four bas of the creator sun god. This linked
Banebdjedet with Osiris, who was often named as a ba of the sun
god.
Another funerary god who appeared in the scenes was
Banebdjedet. This god was the local deity of the Delta city of
Mendes, called Pr Banebdjedet, the capital of the Sixteenth Lower
Egyptian Nome. He was represented as a ram with a strong body
and long curved horns. His name meant the soul of the lord of
djedt. This god was also called the lord of Djedet and was regarded
as the ba of the god Osiris.
Dr. Abeer el-Shahawy, The Funerary Art of Ancient Egypt: A
Bridge to the Realm of the Hereafter 936
933
Darnell (2004), 398.
934
Susan Redford and Donald B. Redford, The Cult and Necropolis of the
Sacred Ram at Mendes, Divine Creatures: Animal Mummies in Ancient Egypt,
ed. S. Ikram (Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 2005), 165.
935
Pinch (2002-04), 114.
294
So in addition to the animal forms of Osiris such as the bovine Apis
and the avian Sokar, he also had an ovine form- the sheep Banebdjed(et),
which indicated his union with his Father, Lord Amen-Re. And just as
the earthly mascot of Osiris-Apis was the bull of Memphis, the earthly
mascot of Banebdjed was the ram937 in Mendes. This is much like how,
aside from the red calf and the dove,938 the earthly mascot of The Good
Shepherd was the lamb of Salem sacrificed each spring.
The ram of Mendes is the ba of Osiris.
Book of the Heavenly Cow, 85-90 939
A god is manifested in sacred animals. The ram of Mendes is
the Ba of Osiris. Sokar, Harsaphes, the ram of Mendes, and the
sacred bull Apis, all of them, under different aspects, represent the
Ba of Osiris.
Egyptian Texts 940
There is a hymn to the Mendesian Ram (the bAram form of
Re-Osiris941), at the conclusion of which the speaker identifies
himself with this deity.
Dr. David Klotz, Adoration of the Ram: Five Hymns to
Amun-Re from Hibis Temple 942
936
Abeer el-Shahawy, The Funerary Art of Ancient Egypt: A Bridge to the Realm
of the Hereafter (Cairo: Farid Atiya Press, 2005), 70. (Emph. added.)
937
There is little doubt today that the Mendesian animal was a sheep.
Redford (2005), 169.
See also Salima Ikram, Choice Cuts: Meat Production in Ancient Egypt (Leuven:
Peeters Press, 1995), 17.
938
See p.161, and Fig. 147.
939
Wente (2003), 296.
940
abkar (1968), 13. (Emph. added.)
941
See Fig. 28, p.125.
942
Klotz (2006), 33.
295
Fig. 77: Banebdjed, the sheep form of Osiris; relief from the temple of Esna.
296
Fig. 78: Banebdjed surrounded & worshipped by four beasts (strikingly similar to a
scene later attributed to The Good Shepherd); from the Hypocephalus of Tasheritkhons
of the Ptolemaic Period, currently located at the British Museum.
That Osiris manifested as a ram, i.e. a male sheep, and that his
mascot was in Mendes in particular is interesting in light of a comment
made by Herodotus in Histories 2.42.2:
Egyptians do not all worship the same gods in the same way.
Only the gods Isis and Osiris are worshiped in the same manner
by all Egyptians. For example, those who have a sanctuary of
Mendes or are of the Mendesian district sacrifice sheep but not
goats.943
He notes that in Mendes they sacrificed sheep, and this right after
mentioning the universal worship of Osiris, who himself was worshipped
as a sheep in Mendes. How conspicuous. It seems as though this slaying
of sheep in Mendes was done in remembrance of the slaying of the sheep
Banebdjed- Osiris himself. Thus it may be said that Osiris was the lamb
of God that was slain, but through his shed blood death will passover us,
so that we may passover into the kingdom of everlasting life. Lo, in the
midst of the throne and of the four beasts,944 sat a Lamb as it had been
slain, having eight horns and eight eyes.945 Worthy is the Lamb that
was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and
honour, and glory, and blessing. Let every creature which is in heaven,
and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and
all that are in them, be heard saying: Blessing, and honour, and glory,
and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the
Lamb for ever and ever. May we overcome death by the blood of the
943
Strassler (2009), 136.
944
Fig. 78.
945
Ibid. See also Fig. 77.
297
lamb, and by the word of our testimony. And speaking of his shed
blood, the point in even bringing up this fact about Osiris identity as a
ram is because of Coffin Text Spell 226. Concerning this spell,
Egyptologist Dr. William Ward wrote the following:
The emphasis on ram-gods here suggests that the Great God
whose name is unknown is none other than the Ram of Mendes
which did not possess a name but was known only as the Ram. 946
It being the case that the ram of this spell is indeed the ram of
Mendes, i.e. the symbol of Osiris ovine form, then this is yet another
text which involves drinking the blood of Osiris and eating his bread.
Eat your portion, consisting of this pure bread which is issued,
namely the collected loaves of this great god whose name is
unknown.
Ho N! Drink your portion, consisting of this pure water which
issued upon this plateau of the citizens, for that Ram who is in his
blood has given to you what is in his redness. May you eat bread
and drink beer.
Yet in spite of the irrefutable amount of evidence presented here,
both from primary texts and scholarly literature, the heathen remain
ignorant and/or obstinate. I have witnessed several of them claiming that
all cultures eat grain and drink juice and fermented beverages, and
therefore this is something generic. Some have even alleged that these
Egyptian rituals have no significance and certainly no association with
the flesh and blood of a dying god, and that any of us who claim such an
association are repeating a lie. I recall one heathen in particular alleging:
Okay, now Ive already mentioned the whole thing about the, um, that
yes there were in fact ritual meals all over the world so its not really an
issue. Now the whole thing about the body and blood of Osiris-
wrong! Youre just flat out wrong. The source for that, again, is Gerald
Massey who made it up. [I] defy you to find an Egyptologist that will, a
current Egyptologist that will, back that. It is complete and utter
946
William Ward, The Four Egyptian Homographic Roots B-A: Etymological and
Egypto-Semitic Studies (Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 1978), 159. (Emph.
added.)
947
298
nonsense. The only source you find is Massey. There are no primar
there is no primary source evidence for it. The earliest source that Im
aware of is Massey. I may be able to find it in an earlier person into
pagan parallels, but [who] actually pre-dates the Rosetta Stone, but the
only one Ive been able to find it in so far is Massey. Its the earliest one.
And it has no basis- end of story.948
Elsewhere, the same source claimed: Lots of religions had feasts,
meals, meals [that the] people in that religion [would] engage in, um, and
one of them with Osiris had bread and beer. Uh, but theres no evidence
of anything about it being his body and blood and some of his uh,
Ive said Id like to see this evidence. They never produce it.949
Until today, until here in this present work- however, the evidence
produced herein has been progressively made available in literature and
media across the last century or more. The foolishness of the previous
heathen statements has already been exposed in this chapter, but as one
final courtesy regarding this topic (since the heathen defied us to find a
current Egyptologist that will back that), I return again to Dr. Mojsov,
as interviewed by Dr. Robert Beckford:
Beckford: Egyptologist Dr. Bojana Mojsov is an expert in the
ancient cult of Osiris. I met her in Abydos, in Upper Egypt,
at the 3,300 year old temple dedicated to the cult of Osiris.
Can you tell me what happened here?
Mojsov: The eating of corn bread as the body of Osiris, because
corn came about through the sacrifice of Osiris, so this whole
eating of bread and drinking of beer that issued from the risen
god is also paralleled
Beckford: So the corn bread and the beer are paralleled today by
having the bread and the wine?
Mojsov: Exactly.950
948
http://sendvid.com/1rcuzg7z.
949
https://goo.gl/4zPhuv. (Emph. added.)
950
Bojana Mojsov, in Egyptologists prove zeitgeist is right, video, 9:05, posted
by micap20078, June 19, 2010, dir. David Batty (London: Juniper
Communications, 2007), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_X1hdCUqf8.
299
So as has been seen, there are current Egyptologists and other
scholars who back that, and for good reason- because there are primary
sources that corroborate with it. Also, as has been seen, this eating of
bread and wine/red beer in these texts was not mundane or generic- it
had a very specific meaning. This bread and wine/beer both literally and
symbolically contained the flesh and blood of the broken body of the god
for which it was eaten in remembrance of. They are also consumed in an
attempt to gain eternal life. And while various other festivals and
funerary rituals involve the eating of various other kinds of foods beyond
just bread and wine, it is the bread and wine/beer which is given special
significance, and which is used the most frequently.
The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the
blood of Osiris? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of
the body of Lord Osiris? For we being many are one bread, and one
body: for we are all partakers of that one bread. For as often as ye eat
this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lords death till he come.
Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the
Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But
let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink
of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and
drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lords body. Except
ye eat the flesh of the son of Re, and drink his blood, ye have no life in
you. Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to
the glory of God.
300
Fig. 79
Whom They Slew and Hanged on a Tree
After having been slain, at some point in the story between death and
resurrection, it is said that the corpse of Osiris was hung on a tree. The
chronology given by Plutarch has the suspension in a tree taking place
prior to the dismemberment of Osiris, and thanks to Plutarch this is the
most often repeated chronology in modern publications. However, the
Egyptian sources I have so far encountered, which predate Plutarch,
indicate that this hanging upon a tree took place after the
dismemberment and reassembling of the corpse yet just prior to the
resurrection. In fact, this even seems to have been a necessary phase in
preparing the body to be resurrected. Rituals such as those at Dendera
and Edfu were performed to reenact this event by hanging an effigy of
Osiris upon a sycamore tree.
301
The one who is upon his sycamore,
O brightness of the banks, the one who is upon his imA tree,
O Lord of green fields.
On Khoiak 24th is the [day] when Osiris is buried in the
embalming workshop ... As for the [last day] of Khoiak, erection of
the djed pillar at Busiris, the day of the funeral of Osiris ... From
Khoiak 24th until the last day (of the month), the god is lain on the
branches of a sycamore at the door of the High Busiris.
The Dendera Chapel of Osiris, Col. 94-96 952
On the twenty-fourth day [of Khoiak] when the boats returned
the effigy of Osiris was removed, placed in a coffin of mulberry
wood, and laid in a grave two hours after sunset. At the ninth hour
of the night the image of the previous year was put in the branches
of a sycamore tree. On the thirtieth day of the month, when the
inundation was due to subside and the sowing of the grain to begin,
the effigy in its box was taken to a subterranean chamber and
placed on a bed of sand, there to rest until the ceremony was re-
enacted the following year with its successor.
Dr. Edwin O. James, Seasonal Feasts and Festivals 953
A text from Dendera speaks of placing the statue of Osiris
on branches of sycamore for seven days, to symbolize seven
months.
951
Tobin, loc. cit. (Emph. added.)
952
Sylvie Cauville, Le Temple de Dendera: Les chapelles osiriennes, Bibliothque
dtude 118 (Cairo: French Institute for Oriental Archaeology in Cairo, 1997),
223. (Emph. added.)
953
Edwin O. James, Seasonal Feasts and Festivals (London: Thames & Hudson
Inc., 1961-93), 56-57. (Emph. added.)
954
Griffiths (1975), 36.
302
Fig. 80
The Tree Grew, and Was Strong
His mummy hung upon the tree for so long (seven months) that the
tree began to grow around Osiris, embracing him within its self.
Hail to you, you tree which encloses the god which sends
out the pains of death.
955
303
I am the tousled one who came forth from his iAttree (I
am) Osiris.
Book of the Dead, Spell 179 a S, b S 2 956
Osiris is often represented wrapped as a mummy with a green
face. In tomb 373, he is represented as a human being. In another
scene of the same tomb (P1.63) he is represented standing within a
tree, to whom the deceased is giving praise. His body is destroyed,
but his green face is still preserved.
Dr. M. Abdul-Qader Mohammed, The Development of the
Funerary Beliefs and Practices Displayed in the Private Tombs of
the New Kingdom at Thebes 957
The coffin enclosing his corpse had lodged itself in the
branches of an Erica tree, which had then quickly grown up around
it and enclosed it.
Dr. Patricia A. Johnston, in Mystic Cults in Magna Graecia 958
The chest washes ashore in Byblos; and it is blown by a storm
into the branches of a tree. The tree grows to tremendous
proportions, encompassing the chest in the trunk.
This erica (Plutarchs ) cedar, or Sycamore tree is said to
enclose or enfold Osiris (PT 1485).
Dr. Samuel A.B. Mercer, The Religion of Ancient Egypt 960
The body of Osiris could also be shown regenerating inside a
tree.
961
Goddesses, and Traditions of Ancient Egypt
956
957
M. Abdul-Qader Mohammed, The Development of the Funerary Beliefs and
Practices Displayed in the Private Tombs of the New Kingdom at Thebes (Cairo:
General Organization for Government Printing Offices, 1966), 196. (Emph.
added.)
958
Johnston (2009), 258.
959
Ulmer (2009), 117.
960
Mercer (1949), 104.
961
Pinch (2002-04), 179.
304
She is a Tree of Life to Them that Lay Hold upon Her
The aspect of regeneration mentioned there by Pinch leads right into

the next point. This embrace occurred because apparently the one who
placed the corpse of Osiris upon this tree was his mother Nut, who
manifested hypostatically as the tree (as she was often known to do 962)
specifically for this purpose. This was an act of the mother embracing
her child, and then resealing him inside of her womb so that he could
once again gestate within her. This allowed for healing and restoration of
the body, making it ready to, quite literally, be born again after death.
This too was another thing emulated in funerary ritual by the deceased.
I have embraced the sycamore, and the sycamore has
sheltered me.
A text from Denderah speaks of placing the statue of Osiris
on branches of sycamore for seven days, to symbolize seven
months in the womb of Nut, goddess of the sycamore . Here, at any
rate, is the symbolic equation of days and months.
Yes, the tree is frequently connected with the mother-goddess,
who is often worshipped as a tree, but there is an even closer
relationship: for instance Osiris who hung in his coffin in a tree.
There the tree is what one generally in mythology calls the death-
mother. The coffin in the tree, and the dead person being put in
the coffin, was interpreted as being given back to the mother, put
back into the tree, the death-mother.
Dr. Marie-Louise von Franz, The Problem of the Puer
Aeternus 965
962
See Fig. 81-82.
963
T.G. Allen (1974), 58.
964
Griffiths, loc. cit. (Emph. added.)
965
Marie-Louise von Franz, The Problem of the Puer Aeternus (Toronto: Inner
City Books, 1970-2000), 59.
305
Fig. 81: Nut in hypostasis as a sycamore tree, nursing the royal child; from the tomb of
Thutmose III, KV34, 15th century BCE.
306
Fig. 82
Nut had the symbolic form of a sycamorethe tree into which

was laid, and subsequently buried, a figure of Osiris, made of earth
mixed with grain.
Dr. Karol Myliwiec, Eros on the Nile 966
According to the Dendera Text, the god would lay in state
during the remaining week of the year, until new spring, that is for
the seven days of Osiris stay in the womb of his mother Nut,
when she was pregnant with him. A day stands for a month: the
sycamore boughs represent Nut.
Dr. Christian Roy, Traditional Festivals: A Multicultural
Encyclopedia, Volume 1 A-L 967
966
Karol Myliwiec, Eros on the Nile, trans. G.L. Packer (Ithaca: Cornell
967
Christian Roy, Traditional Festivals: A Multicultural Encyclopedia, Volume 1
A-L (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, Inc., 2005), 226.
307
The sycamore tree was a manifestation of Nut. The leaves
shielded the dead Osiris and the branches were said to have
restored his soul.
Charles R. Coulter and Patricia Turner, Encyclopedia of
Ancient Deities 968
It is expressly stated that the seven days during which the old
corn-mummies lay on sycamore branches stood for the seven
months Osiris lay in his mothers womb. If we leave aside the
significance of the number seven for Osiris, it seemed, at least to a
late Egyptian theologian, that to lie on sycamore branches was to be
reborn of Nut: for the sycamore of the underworld was the tree of
Nut, heavenly mother though she might be. For Osiris the
equation chest = coffin = tree = mothers womb and means of
rebirth, seems virtually certain.
N.M. Holley, in The Journal of Hellenic Studies 969
The hanging of Osiris upon this tree was done to further regenerate
his body and thus, to borrow the words of one heathen, this event most
indubitably sets the stage for the resurrection.970 What initially
appeared to be a tree of woe actually became a tree of life. Thus it may
be said of the Great Mother Nut that she is a tree of life to them that lay
hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her. Length of
days is in her right hand.
Hew Down the Tree, and Cut Off His Branches
A symbol came to be used to represent this tree upon which Osiris

hung, which is known today as the djed, or tet. This symbol was a cross,
a cross composed of a vertical beam with four horizontal beams (Fig. 85
& 86). These are said to represent the trunk and branches. Some even
claim that the tree itself, the very same one in which Nut manifested and
968
Charles R. Coulter and Patricia Turner, Encyclopedia of Ancient Deities (New
York: Routledge, 2000-12), 353.
969
N.M. Holley, The Floating Chest, The Journal of Hellenic Studies 69 (1949):
44. (Emph. added.)
970
Albert, crucifixion dodgeball, King David 8 .com (April 13, 2012),
http://www.kingdavid8.com/_full_article.php?id=d09704b1-70f3-11e1-b1f8-
842b2b162e97.
308
her son was rejuvenated, was hewn down and carved into the very first
djed.
Hail to you tree which encloses the god Your top is beside
you for Osiris when the Ddpillar of the Great One is loosed.
DJED-PILLAR: Cult object resembling a tree trunk with
lopped-off horizontal branches, sacred to Osiris, Ptah, and Sokar.
Dr. Eva Von Dassow, in The Egyptian Book of the Dead: The
Book of Going Forth by Day, Being the Papyrus of Ani 972
The sacredness of vegetation in Egypt is expressed
mythologically and ritually in the characterization of Osiris, who is
perhaps basically a water deity in the special sense of the water as
source of fertility for the soil. In this way he becomes associated
intimately with vegetative life itself and variously is linked with
grain, with the persea and the sycamore, and with the acacia trees
that grow in the eastern Delta. The most ancient symbol of this
deity, who can almost be called a tree god, is the so-called Djed or
Stability column. This emblem, presumably arising in the Delta
home of Osiris, was perhaps his only embodiment in the earliest
periods.
The Djed symbol represents the transformation of a tree to a
sacred post. In its classic form, supposedly representing a tree with
lopped-off branches, it has the appearance of a pillar with four
superimposed ledges or capitals, one above the other.
Dr. Carol L. Meyers, The Tabernacle Menorah: A Synthetic
Study of a Symbol from the Biblical Cult 973
One amulet found on almost every mummy and made from
materials as varied as precious metal, stone, glazed composition,
glass and wood was the curiously shaped djed-pillar with its
distinctive four short cross-bars at the top. One suggestion is that
originally it represented a stylized tree trunk with its branches
lopped off.
971
972
Eva Von Dassow, A Glossary of Common Terms and Concepts, in The
Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Book of Going Forth by Day, Being the Papyrus
of Ani, ed. E. Von Dassow (San Francisco: Chronicle Books LLC, 1994-2008), 173.
973
Carol L. Meyers, The Tabernacle Menorah: A Synthetic Study of a Symbol
from the Biblical Cult (Piscataway: Gorgia Press LLC, 2003), 109-10. (Emph.
added.)
309
Dr. Carol Andrews, Egyptian Mummies 974
In its nature and origin the Ddpillar is no doubt the leafless
tree, the tree or plant of life corporalizing the vegetation deity
Osiris and the king, who is identical with him.
Dr. Ivan Engnell, Studies in Divine Kingship in the Ancient
Near East 975
The Djed may have well originated as a kind of lopped tree, so
that the verdant colours green and blue are appropriate.
Dr. John G. Griffiths, in Ex Orbe Religionum 976
Fig. 83: Representations of the djed cross of Osiris. The left is based on a painted wooden
stela of the Ptolemaic Period. The right is from the reign of Ramesses IX, 12 th century
BCE, from the Saqqara Serapeum and currently at the Louvre Museum.
974
Carol Andrews, Egyptian Mummies (Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
1984-2004), 41. (Emph. added.)
975
Ivan Engnell, Studies in Divine Kingship in the Ancient Near East (Oxford:
Basil Blackwell, 1943-67), 10-11.
976
John G. Griffiths, The Symbolism of Red in Egyptian Religion, in Ex Orbe
Religionum: Studia Geo Widengren Oblata I, ed. B. Layton (Leiden: E.J. Brill,
1972), 86.
310
Fig. 84: The cross of The Good Shepherd is often portrayed in a form comparable to the
much older djed cross of Osiris. The left djed is from the 6th century BCE and the right is
from the New Kingdom Period, both are currently at the Walters Art Museum.
311
Therefore the tree from which Osiris hung was turned into a cross.
Take Up the Cross
So that being the case that the djed was the symbol (and final form)
of the tree of Osiris, the tree which regenerated his body and aided in his
resurrection, it became customary to annually raise a djed on the day
when Osiris was resurrected in remembrance of him. Hence this cross
was a symbol for both death and resurrection.
The ritual of erecting the Djed (9d) was an annual event
included in Egyptian temple calendars dating from the New
Kingdom to the Ptolemaic and Roman periods. This ritual episode
took place on the last day of the ten-day Osiris festival held from
the 21st to the 30th of the Egyptian month Khoiak, and in this
context, the rite was equated with the resurrection of Osiris and his
ultimate triumph over his enemies.
Dr. Ian S. Moyer, Egypt and the Limits of Hellenism 977
The scenes on the walls in this area depict the rites which
culminated in the raising of the djed-pillar, which probably
symbolized the climax of the festival, when the god was believed to
return to life. The djed-pillar came to represent strength and
permanence to the Egyptians and to be an essential symbol of the
gods resurrection.
Dr. Ann Rosalie David, The Ancient Egyptians: Beliefs and
Practices 978
In Busiris, these funeral services were accompanied by another
important ceremony, the erecting of the divine column, or Djed,
that signaled the gods resurrection.
Dr. Dimitri Meeks and Dr. Christine Favard-Meeks, Daily
Life of the Egyptian Gods 979
The idea it presents is that in standing firmly upright, it affirms
the existence of living plants and of all life; to be upright is to be
alive, to defy the inert forces of death and decay. The cultic setting
of the Djed symbol is related closely to the myth of Osiris; the Djed
977
Ian S. Moyer, Egypt and the Limits of Hellenism (Cambridge: Cambridge
978
David (1998), 109.
979
Meeks (1993-96), 173. (Emph. added.)
312
is set upright on the day of his rebirth, at the time of the annual
renewal of nature.
Dr. Carol L. Meyers, The Tabernacle Menorah: A Synthetic
Study of a Symbol from the Biblical Cult 980
In Egypt the oldest emblem of Osiris, the Djed-column, has
the appearance of the pillar, either as a tree with the branches
lopped off, probably a conifer The probability is that originally it
was a sacred tree devoid of its branches, and that its ceremonial
raising at the autumnal festival indicated his restoration from the
grave at the Season of Coming Forth when the fructifying waters
of the Nile were beginning their annual renewal of the soil and its
products.
Dr. Edwin O. James, The Tree of Life: An Archaeological
981
Study
The raising of the Ddpillar thus denotes the resurrection of
Osiris, and thereby also the kings restoration to life, his
enthronement.
Dr. Ivan Engnell, Studies in Divine Kingship in the Ancient
Near East 982
The taking up of said djed cross resulted in imagery comparable to
that seen in the raising of Roman crosses. In fact, even to this day it is a
common practice to erect a cross at ones burial, which is likewise
comparable to the erecting of the djed to commemorate the burial (and
resurrection) of Osiris.
980
Meyers, (2003), 110. (Emph. added.)
981
Edwin O. James, The Tree of Life: An Archaeological Study (Leiden: E.J. Brill,
1966), 38, 40. (Emph. added.)
982
Engnell (1943-67), 11. (Emph. added.)
313
Fig. 85: Taking up the cross of the djed in rememberence of Osiris; from the chapel of
Osiris at the Temple of Seti I in Abydos, 13 th century BCE.- similar to the much later
scenes of the taking up of The Good Shepherds cross.
Fig. 86: Another depiction of taking up the djed cross of Osiris; based on a scene from
the tomb of Kheruef, TT192, 14th century BCE.
314
Fig. 87: Taking up the Roman cross, in The Crucifixion of Philip by Filippino Lippi.
315
Fig. 88: Even today, crosses are taken up at burial sites to commemorate death and the
hope of resurrection.
316
Fig. 89: The djed cross of Osiris flanked by circular ankh crosses (c. 1350 BCE)
compared to the Roman cross of The Good Shepherd flanked by circular Coptic crosses.
317
As a form of the tree from which he hung, sometimes images of
Osiris were placed upon the djed cross, with the cross positioned along
the back of Osiris. The resulting image was somewhat comparable to
Roman crucifixion, which likewise involved affixing a person to a cross
vertically along the back. Because of this, the djed eventually came to
also represent the backbone of Osiris, and by extension, stability. Also,
yet again, the deceased who identified with Osiris emulated this feature,
so that they too could be on the cross with him.
Kindle flame in secret, that the darkness may depart from
before thee, while the hand that it conceals erects the 9dPillar
behind thee.
Book of the Dead, Spell Pleyte 171 S 983
Represented as the bare trunk of a tree stripped of its leaves
the pillar might well be interpreted as the back-bone of Osiris and
its raising on New Years Eve the enactment of his resurrection.
Dr. Edwin O. James, The Tree of Life: An Archaeological
984
Study
The tree trunk origin seems highly likely. Later, however,
Osiris, god of the dead, adopted the djed as one of his symbols and
from that time onwards it was looked upon as a stylized
representation of the gods backbone.
Dr. Carol Andrews, Egyptian Mummies 985
The coffin is mummiform but is placed on a pedestal, as if the
mummy had been converted into an image that was mounted on a
base. It is supported by a pillar along the back, just as is found in
statuary. Once again, the deceased is transformed into an image of
a sah. The pillar was painted with a djed and emphasized the
deceaseds relationship with Osiris.
Dr. Salima Ikram, Death and Burial in Ancient Egypt 986
The headless statuette987 MMA 30.8.74 (pl. IV, 1-2) is another
of this type in dark serpentine, where in jubilee/Amarna attire, his
983
984
James (1966), 40.
985
Andrews (1984-2004), 42.
986
Salima Ikram, Death and Burial in Ancient Egypt (London: Longman, 2003),
123. (Emph. added.)
987
Fig. 92.
318
hands clasped before him, Amenhotep III with the djed-pillar at
his back is associated with the god Osiris.
Dr. W. Raymond Johnson, in The Journal of Egyptian
Archaeology 988
One special festival depicted on the walls of the Abydos
temple is that of Raising the Djed-pillar. The ceremony referred
to the resurrection of Osiris and the djed motif is often found
painted on the bottom of coffins so that the backbone of the
deceased would rest on the image of the backbone of Osiris. Its
restorative power would then ensure that the dead would return to
life, just as Osiris had in mythology.
By the New Kingdom, the djed was closely associated with the
mythology of Osiris. The taboo subject of the murder of Osiris
could be alluded to by saying that Seth had laid the djed on its
side. Scenes in temples or royal tombs show the god Horus (or
the king playing the role of Horus) raising the djed column to help
his father Osiris to rise from the dead. The Book of the Dead
contains a spell to be spoken over a gold djed amulet hung round
the neck of a mummy. This spell promises that the dead person
will get back the use of his or her spine and be able to sit up again
like Osiris. A djed column was sometimes painted on the bottom
of coffins for the same reason.
990
988
W. Raymond Johnson, Amenhotep III and Amarna: Some New
Considerations, The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 82 (1996): 70.
989
Oakes (2002-05), 165. (Emph. added.)
990
Pinch (2002-04), 128. (Emph. added.)
319
Fig. 90: Osiris affixed to his djed cross, representing the tree on which he was hung;
based on a bronze statuette from the 6 th-5th century BCE, currently featured by The
California Institute of World Archaeology in Santa Barbara.
320
Fig. 91: Another such statue depicting Osiris with a djed cross upon his back.
321
Fig. 92: Amenhotep III likewise portrayed with the djed cross of Osiris affixed to his
back, in an attempt to identify himself with the god;991 based on a damaged statue of the
14th century BCE, currently at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
991
See p.318-19 above.
322
Fig. 93: Ptah-Osiris992 affixed to the djed cross; based on a scene from the rear north
wall of the tomb of Horemheb, KV57, 13th century BCE.
992
See pp.130-33.
323
Fig. 94: Ptah, seen here again with a djed cross placed at his back like Osiris; from the 5 th
century BCE, currently at the Walters Art Museum.
324
Fig. 95: Depictions of coffins with the djed cross along the back, in emulation of Osiris.
Fig. 96: Another example of the djed cross placed along the back of a coffin, this time on
the interior; currently at the Louvre Museum.
325
This placing of the djed cross on ones coffin or sarcophagus is
somewhat reminiscent of the tradition, still practiced today, of placing
Roman, Celtic, and other crosses on coffins and sarcophagi.
Fig. 97
Fig. 98
326
Fig. 99
Fig. 100
327
Fig. 101
328
So the effigy of Osiris was literally affixed to a cross and by
definition was indeed crucified. The Osirified deceased who emulated
this on their coffins and sarcophagi were, in effect,993 being crucified
with him in burial. Thus they may say I am crucified with Qrst:994
nevertheless I live.
Some worshippers of Osiris, however, quite literally took up their
crosses, when they were persecuted by the Romans and martyred via
crucifixion.
When Tiberius had fully informed himself by examining the
priests, he crucified both them and Ida, for the hellish thing was
her doing and it was she who had contrived the whole plot against
the lady's honor. Moreover, he razed the temple and ordered the
statue of Isis to be cast into the Tiber River.
Flavius Josephus, Antiquities 79 (1st cen. CE) 995
There are heathen who try to object to the usage of the word
crucifixion to describe the relationship of Osiris and the djed and his tree.
For some reason, many of them seem nervous about the idea that such a
story existed centuries or even millennia prior to the Common Era, and
even more nervous at the suggestion that this imagery is comparable to
993
Recall the use of sympathetic magic; see pp.23-26, 222, and 246.
994
An Egyptian word meaning burial, coffin, or sarcophagus (quite
appropriate here), and thus it was also a special epithet for Osiris Sokar as Lord
of Burial. See also p.575.
See also Edward Brovarski, Sokar, in Lexikon der gyptologie: Band V
Pyramidenbau-Steingefe, eds. C. Meyer and R. Schichting (Wiesbaden: Otto
Harrassowitz GmbH & Co. KG, 1984), 1058.
Mark Collier and Bill Manley, How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs: A Step-by-Step
Guide to Teach Yourself (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), 12, 64,
166.
Hedvig Gyry, The Story of the Gamhud Excavations, in Orientalia
Lovaniensia Analecta: Proceedings of the Ninth International Congress of
Egyptologists: Volume 1, ed. J.C. Goyon, C. Cardin (Leuven: Peeters Publishers,
2007), 914.
Assmann (1984-2001), 85.
Assmann (1995-2009), 107, 184, 196.
J.P. Allen (2000-10), 366.
995
Flavius Josephus, Antiquities, in Josephus: Antiquities, Books 18-19, trans.
H.St.J. Thackeray (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1965-96), 57.
329
that of Roman crucifixion. Why that makes them so nervous is anyones
guess, but regardless, the fact remains that such is the case. Crucifixion
simply means to affix to a cross.996 And back during the infancy of the
Common Era, the period which these heathen seem so concerned about,
the popular terms for crucifixion in use back then, such as ,
had an even broader definition. Such words were used to refer to
Carthaginian crucifixion997 and to things such as the posthumous
hanging of a corpse upon a tree in Egypt.998 The latter, of course, also
being what happened to the body of Osiris. Thus in such a context as the
Mediterranean world of the 1st century CE, both the hanging of Osiris
body on a tree and the placing of his effigy upon the djed cross could
equally be referred to as crucifixion. In fact, there were even several
instances of Roman crucifixion having taken place upon trees that were
still rooted into the ground999 instead of a manufactured cross (Fig. 104).
996
Larry Sibley, Luke: Gospel for the City (Elgin: David C. Cook Publishing Co.,
1988), 76.
John F. Collins, A Primer of Ecclesiastical Latin (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic
University of America Press, 1985), 130.
Randolph O. Yeager, The Renaissance New Testament (Gretna: Pelican
Publishing Co., Inc., 1985), 205.
997
Plutarch, Lives, in Plutarchs Lives: Volume III, trans. B. Perrin (London:
1916-58), 136-37.
998
Flavius Josephus, Antiquities, in Josephus: Antiquities, Books 1-3, trans.
H.St.J. Thackeray (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1930-98), 199-201.
999
Tertullian of Carthage, Apologeticus IX.2, in Tertullian: Apology, De
Spectaculis, trans. T.R. Glover (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1931-98),
47.
330
Fig. 102: Examples of the kinds of trees used by ancient Romans for crucifixion.
331
Fig. 103: More illustrations of Roman crucifixion upon trees.
332
Fig. 104
Fig. 105
333
As a bystander, I have also observed heathen who, while conceding
the previous points just made, still try to deny that the term crucifixion is
applicable to Osiris in any way, shape, or form by claiming that Osiris
was not hung on a tree, but rather inside of the tree.1000 This is ignorant,
not only because of the sources already covered on the previous pages
here, but also because while Osiris certainly did end up inside of the tree,
he only ended up in that circumstance because he first hung on the tree,
and hung on it for so long that the tree grew around him. This is not an
uncommon occurrence; many objects that remain suspended upon or
bound to trees for an extended period of time become embedded within
the body of the tree itself (Fig. 106).
Fig. 106: An example of an object (a stone cross) which remained on a tree for so long
that the tree has grown around it.
1000
KingDavid8, Re: KingDavid8.com Exposed, Freethought Nation (March 18,
2012), http://freethoughtnation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=25198#p25198.
334
I recall seeing one heathen in particular who even claimed that there
is a version of the Osiris story in which, after being killed by Seth, his
dead body is put inside a wooden pillar. Mythicists refer to this as a
crucifixion, when it clearly is not - in fact its far closer to a modern
burial, in which someones body is enclosed in a wooden casket!1001
The ludicrousness of this has been thoroughly exposed in this chapter.
What happened to Osiris with the tree was not closer to being enclosed
in a wooden casket, because he had already been placed in such a
chest prior to having been hung upon the sycamore tree. And it is that
chest which Seth had his body stuffed inside of, rather than inside a
wooden pillar. Osiris was indeed hung on a tree, which was
subsequently made into a cross upon which his effigy was placed. And,
unlike that heathen, this chapter here actually provides the imagery of
this to show that it is definitely comparable to imagery of Roman
crucifixion, much more so than it is to being enclosed in a wooden
casket. It is also certainly more similar to Roman crucifixion than
comparisons made by the heathen themselves, such as placing a
sculpture of a snake upon a pole.
In fact, the similarity is further strengthened when the djed cross is
merged with the other popular Egyptian cross known as the ankh, which
was often done in ancient Kemet. As seen in Fig. 110 & 111, the
resemblance is undeniable.
1001
David Anderson, Mythicists and Crucifixion, King David 8 .com (accessed
August 23, 2013), http://www.kingdavid8.com/_full_article.php?id=d09704b1-
70f3-11e1-b1f8-842b2b162e97.
335
Fig. 107: Illustrations of djed-ankh crosses. The left is based on a votive faience amulet
from the 8th7th century BCE, currently located at the British Museum. The right is
likewise based on a faience amulet from the Third Intermediate Period.
Fig. 108: An illustrated example of Roman crosses in Egypt, cf. Fig. 107.
336
Not only is this form of the djed cross even more conspicuously
parallel to the Roman cross, but it also has a strong similarity to certain
styles of early Celtic and Ethiopian crosses as well, some of which even
have multiple cross-bars just like the djed itself. The latter is particularly
interesting given that since ancient times Ethiopia was known to indulge
in the worship of Osiris.1002
Fig. 109: Some ancient Celtic crosses.
1002
Herodotus, Histories 2.29.7, in Strassler (2009), 129, n.2.29.7b.
337
Fig. 110: An assortment of Ethiopian crosses, conspicuously similar to the shapes of the
djed and djed-ankh cross. Simply remove the main horizontal cross-bar, and what
remains essentially is a standard djed.
338
Having previously established that there was a tradition of placing
images of Osiris (and those identified with him) upon djed crosses, just
imagine the result when such a custom is done with the above form of
the djed from Fig. 110.
Fig. 111
339
One final thing to note here concerning the cross is that it is now
known that some of the mummy effigies are made of wooden crosses.
At times the effigies used for magical spells were rather
elaborate. One which [Dr. Brier] recently unwrapped was made of
two sticks tied together to form a cross. These sticks were padded
with course cloth to give them the general shape of a person, and
then three small tunics of three different kinds of cloth were tied on
the figure.
Fig. 112: An example of the cruciform mummy effigies mentioned by Dr. Brier above.
So not only did the ancient Egyptians place effigies in trees and upon
crosses, but at times the effigy itself was a cross made from a tree as
well. No wonder Tertullian of Carthage once wrote in Apologeticus 16.7:
We have said that in the first instance your gods are moulded
by the sculptors on a cross.1004
And likewise Minucius Felix, in The Octavius 29.6, stated:
It is very possible that as you consecrate gods of wood, you
adore crosses of wood because they form part of your gods.1005
Alas, the heathen arguments previously mentioned affirm that the
preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. They are the
1003
Brier (1980-2001), 127. (Emph. added.)
1004
Tertullian, in Glover (1931-98), 83.
1005
Minucius Felix, The Octavius, trans. G.W. Clarke (New York: Paulist Press,
1974), 106.
340
enemies of the cross. But unto us which are saved, it is the power of
God.
They Took Him Down from the Tree, and Laid Him in a Sepulchre
Eventually the corpse of Osiris finally came to rest in his tomb and
was buried. This, of course, is not something typically contested by the
heathen, but nevertheless, it is the final clause of this particular portion of
the Perennial Gospel covered in this chapter.
O you who are put under the earth and are in darkness!
O Osiris the tomb is your barrier against me.
Your tomb(?), O Osiris, your shade which is over you, O
Osiris.
O Osiris I have mourned you at the tomb.
I am your son, O you who are greatly sleepy and mightily
weary, who buried his father, Lord of the West. I am your son
Horus.
1010
Coffin Texts, Spell 44 I, 183, 190
As for the Tnntshrine, it is the tomb of Osiris.
Coffin Texts, Spell 335 (b) IV, 325 1011
They were stationed by Anubis as magical protection of
[Osiris] coffin. VARIANT: back of Osiris tomb. The Tnnt
sanctuary is Osiris tomb.
1006
1007
Ibid. 52.
1008
Ibid. 229.
1009
Ibid. 299.
1010
1011
Ibid. 266.
341
Book of the Dead, Spell 17 S 13, b S 5 1012
Hail to thee, Osiris Unnofer lord of the tomb.
Come, [Osiris] great one (aA) of the Crypt, tomb-dweller.
Fig. 113: The corpse of Osiris at rest in his tomb; from the Temple of Hathor in Dendera.
Fig. 114
1012
T.G. Allen (1974), 29, 31.
1013
Ibid. 104.
1014
Ibid. 218.
342
Fig. 115
Fig. 116
343
Fig. 117
Fig. 118
344
Fig. 119
Thus concludes this chapter. But alas, though they came and took up
his corpse, and laid it in a tomb, God hath said O death, I will be thy
plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction. For He hath brought to
pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O
death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
345
Chapter Five
On the Third Day He Rose Again from the Dead
He was Buried, and that He Rose Again the Third Day
Even in death, the body of Osiris could not rest in peace; it endured
many trials- decomposition, dismemberment, reconstitution, seventy
days of mummification, suspension upon a tree for seven months, etc.
But eventually, after going through all of that, Osiris was finally laid to
rest in his tomb. This involved many funerary rites, such as a great
procession with the singing of lamentation hymns, and most importantly,
the reciting of the magical spells of the holy scriptures which were
inscribed on the tomb walls.
We must assume that the Pyramid Texts are an exact replica,
on the subterranean walls of the tomb, of the texts recited during
the mummification and burial rituals.
Dr. Jan Assmann, The Mind of Egypt: History and
Meaning in the Time of the Pharaohs 1015
The texts were inscribed to be read from the burial chamber
to the antechamber, understood as the horizon, and would have
accompanied the deceased pharaoh from the tomb to the sun, a
journey also symbolized by the architecture.
Dr. Andrea Vianello, in Cognitive Archaeology as Symbolic
1016
Archaeology
2371-2350 King Unas includes the first known Pyramid Texts
(spells recited during the royal funeral) carved inside his pyramid at
Saqqara.
Dr. Edward Bleiberg, Arts & Humanities Through the
Eras: Ancient Egypt 2675-322 B.C.E. 1017
1015
Assman (1996-2002), 89. (Emph. added.)
1016
Andrea Vianello, The Ship and Its Symbolism in European Prehistory, in
Cognitive Archaeology as Symbolic Archaeology, eds. F. Coimbra and G.
Dimitriadis (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2008), 29. (Emph. added.)
1017
Bleiberg (2005), 2. (Emph. added.)
346
Most believe that the spells are intended to be read from the
antechamber inward, concluding with the burial chamber. This
order is logical if the spells were to be recited by the priests at the
time that the body of the pharaoh was carried into the burial
chamber.
The day of the burial was traditionally the day the magical spells and
rituals of the tomb were performed. Osiris did not remain in this tomb for
long, however, for the primary objective of these spells was to raise him
(and those later identified with him) from the dead. The texts state that
this occurred on the third day after this burial.
Raise yourself as Osiris the three-day festival is celebrated
for you, you are pure for the New Moon, your appearing is for the
monthly festival.
Raise yourself, Osiris the King May you be pure at the
monthly festival, may you be manifest at the New Moon, may the
three-day festival be celebrated for you.
O my father Osiris the King Awake, [stand up(?) at yonder]
eastern [side] of the sky at this place [where the gods] are born,
[when there comes this time of tomorrow and this time of the third
day; my father the King] will be born [on] yonder eastern side of
[the sky] where the gods are born, when there comes this time of
tomorrow and this time of the third day.
Raise yourself, you eldest son of Geb for whom the three-
day festival is celebrated! May you appear for the monthly festival,
may you be pure for the New Moon festival.
1018
Brier (1980-2001), 113.
1019
1020
1021
1022
347
O King, there comes this time of tomorrow and this time of
three days; a stairway to the sky is [set up] for you among the
Imperishable Stars.
These three days were remembered in ritual, as recorded on the Stela
of Ikhernofret, 19th century BCE. On the day of the Great Procession,
Osiris was buried in his tomb. There he remained through the next day,
the night of the Haker Festival, when Horus finally defeated Seth. And
there Osiris continued to remain on into the following day after that, the
third day of burial- the day on which he was resurrected and brought into
his temple.
The text is of unusual interest because it provides an account,
albeit a veiled one, of the annually performed mysteries of Osiris.
Holding high office under Sesostris III, Ikhernofret was charged
with the organization of the annual festival of the god in which the
statue of Osiris journeyed between his temple and his tomb amid
scenes of combat which reenacted the gods kingship, death, and
resurrection.
Dr. Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature Volume I:
The Old and Middle Kingdoms 1024
I acted according to everything His majesty commanded in
making effective what my lord commanded for his father, Osiris-
Foremost-of-the-Westerners, lord of Abydos, the great powerful
one within the Thinite Nome. I performed (the duty of) his
beloved son for Osiris-Foremost-of-the-Westerners, I making
effective (for him?) the great (barque?), eternal and enduring. I
assigned the hourly priests of the temples to carry out their duties
and I had them know the rituals of each day and the festivals of the
beginnings of the year.
Stela of Ikhernofret 10-14 1025
1023
1024
1025
William K. Simpson, The Stela of Iykhernofret, in The Literature of Ancient
Egypt: An Anthology of Stories, Instructions, Stelae, Autobiographies, and
Poetry, ed. W.K. Simpson (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003), 426.
(Emph. added.)
348
Ikhernofret mentions the rituals that pertain to each day and
the festivals at the start of the seasons. Each day evidently had its
ritual requirements.
Dr. Martyn Smith, Religion, Culture, and Sacred Space 1026
I conducted the great procession following the god at his
footsteps. I caused the gods barque to sail on, with Thoth leading
the voyage. I cleared the gods paths to his cenotaph tomb in
front of Poqer.
II. The Great Procession in the Neshmet-barque: What is
described here is the funeral procession of Osiris.
I avenged Wen-nofer on that day of the great fighting, and I
felled all his enemies on the sand banks of Nedit.
Stela of Ikhernofret 21 1029
That day of battle alludes to the contending of Horus and
Seth, that part of the festival drama which is called the night of the
battling Horus or the night of the Haker festival in other texts.
In the mortuary cult, this night corresponds to the night of
vindication, when the Judgment of the Dead occurred at the
conclusion of the embalming process. On this night, a wake was
held.
Dr. Assmann, op cit. 1030
I had him proceed within the Great Barque and it carried his
beauty, gladdening the eastern deserts and [creating] joy in the
heart of the western deserts when they saw the beauties of the
neshmet-barque as it put to land at Abydos and as it brought back
[Osiris-Foremost-of-the-Westerners, lord of] Abydos to his palace.
And I followed the god into his temple, his purication done, his
throne widened.
1026
Martyn Smith, Religion, Culture, and Sacred Space (New York: Palgrave
Macmillan, 2008), 54. (Emph. added.)
1027
Simpson (2003), 427. (Emph. added.)
1028
Assmann (2001-05), 228.
1029
Simpson, loc. cit. (Emph. added.)
1030
Assmann, op. cit. 228-29.
349
The last act of the festival was the return of the god to the
temple. Just as the procession to U-poqer was celebrated as a
funeral procession and the night spent there as the night of
vindication, so the return was interpreted as a triumphal entry of
the vindicated and resurrected Osiris into his palace.
Assmann, op cit. 1032
A series of processions at Abydos was carried out in proper
order: I conducted the Great Procession, following the god in his
steps in his beautiful regalia he proceeded to the domain of
Peqer I made him enter the Great Barque it brought [Osiris]
to his palace. This ritual sequence, often referred to as the
Mysteries of Osiris, appears to be a form of passion play, re-
enacting the death and rebirth of Osiris in a mythical environment.
Life and Death 1033
After the chest was buried the death of the god was mourned
for three days and nights. The festival culminated with the
celebration of the resurrection. The pillar of Osiris the ancient
symbol of the harvesters was erected in the temple court to the
jubilant rejoicing of the assembled crowds and the living image of
the resurrected one brought out on a portable boat and displayed.
The Egyptian phrase for a religious festival was gods appearance.
Merriment and dancing concluded the weeklong gathering.
Ikernofret, an official at the court of Senusret III, wrote the earliest
account of the festival.
An orgy lasting for three days was centered around a funerary
feast to Osiris, who was called The Lord of wine through [or
during] the inundation, a title that had first been applied to this
resurrection and fertility god in the Old Kingdom Pyramid Texts.
Dr. Patrick E. McGovern, Ancient Wine: The Search for the
Origins of Viniculture 1035
1031
Simpson, loc. cit.
1032
Assmann, op. cit. 229. (Emph. added.)
1033
Snape (2011), 129. (Emph. added.)
1034
Mojsov (2005), 51-52. (Emph. added.)
1035
Patrick E. McGovern, Ancient Wine: The Search for the Origins of Viniculture
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003), 135. (Emph. added.)
350
Further corroborating with this is the fact that Egyptian barley, which
symbolized the body of Osiris,1036 was said to likewise rise from out of
the earth on the third day after being buried- just like Osiris.
Barley in Egypt is said to come up on the third day.
Theophrastus of Eresus, Enquiry into Plants 8.1.6 (4th cen. BCE)
In Egypt leguminous plants emerge on the third day. In barley
one end of the grain sends out a root and the other a blade, which
flowers before the other corn.
Pliny the Elder, Natural History 28.10 (1st cen. CE) 1037
Brilliance for your barley when grain grows, Osiris emerges.
Plutarch, Moralia 377B1039
This is quite similar to the holy feasts of The Good Shepherds
religion, especially those which allegedly symbolize his death &
resurrection. His ancestors had a feast celebrating the day they were
passed over by Death, which was also the day on which Mr. Good
Shepherd later died. Then on the third day his ancestors celebrated the
Feast of First-Fruits, in which they reaped their first growth of grain as
an offering to begin the harvest season.
Now at this point it is perhaps necessary to address the likelihood
that some antagonists will attempt to claim that this does not count as
three days since it not a full 72 hours. Such an objection is ignorant of
the method of time measurement known as inclusive reckoning, which
was in heavy use in ancient times, and is still used in certain areas of the
world even today. Inclusive reckoning includes a unit of time in the sum
total so long as any portion of the unit falls within the stretch of time
1036
See pp.274-88.
1037
Pliny the Elder, Natural History, in Pliny: Natural History, Books 17-19,
trans. H. Rackham (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1961), 223. (Emph.
added.)
1038
1039
351
being measured. Thus an event that overlaps 3 calendar days is counted
as three days, even if the overlap does not include all 24 hours of the first
or last day. By inclusive reckoning, a newborn infant is classified as a 1
year old, since the child is already in the first year of his/her life, even
though it is only the 1st rather than the 365th day of said year. As a matter
of fact, many heathen even believe in stories which likewise use
inclusive reckoning to claim that demigods rose from the dead after three
days, since such demigods were buried on a Friday- day 1, remained
there through Saturday- day 2, and then resurrected on Sunday- day 3.
Inclusive reckoning noun a method of counting in which
both the first and last term is counted by inclusive reckoning,
Easter Sunday is the third day after Good Friday.
Chambers 21st Century Dictionary 1040
There are also stories in heathen folklore in which the inclusive
reckoning method is laid out in unambiguous terms, to the effect of- I
cast out devils, and I do cures to day and to morrow, and the third day I
shall be perfected. Elsewhere are words along the lines of- he hath
smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us: in the
third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. In the same
manner, the holy scriptures of ancient Kemet used such unambiguous
language to indicate inclusive reckoning, and did so much earlier than
the aforementioned heathen stories.
Come and pass the day in happiness,
Tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow,
Even for three days, sitting beneath my shade.
The Turin Love Songs: Songs of the Orchard 1041
So today + tomorrow + the day after = three days. The afore-
cited Pyramid Texts were just as clear, explicitly stating this time of
tomorrow and this time of the third day. To bring this point to a close,
1040
Chambers 21st Century Dictionary, eds. M. Robinson and G. Davidson et al
(London: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd., 1996-2008), 684.
1041
Vincent A. Tobin, Love Songs and the Songs of the Harper, in The
Literature of Ancient Egypt: An Anthology of Stories, Instructions, Stelae,
Autobiographies, and Poetry, ed. W.K. Simpson (New Haven: Yale University
352
the ancient usage of inclusive reckoning can also be seen in the following
scholarly examples.
26 Post diem tertium: 17 March (see Phil. 1.1. die n.), which
was the third day after the murder of Caesar on the 15th by
inclusive reckoning, two days later in our parlance.
Dr. John T. Ramsey, Cicero: Philippics I-II 1042
I think its pretty remarkable that so many men of such
intelligence, after so many years, still cant make up their minds
whether to say on the third day* or the day after tomorrow
*The Romans used inclusive reckoning; we would say on the
second day.
Cicero and Dr. James E.G. Zetzel, in Cicero: Ten Speeches 1043
Celsus draws attention to the use of inclusive reckoning
when he states that the 11th day is not the fourth but the fifth after
the 7th .
Dr. William F. Richardson, Numbering and Measuring in the
Classical World: An Introductory Handbook 1044
By the system of inclusive reckoning, when one states two
years ago one means, in effect, last year.
Dr. Tim G. Parkin, Old Age in the Roman World: A Cultural
and Social History 1045
The Moon shall be Darkened
The fact of the three days of burial preceding the resurrection is yet
another event for which the Lord God has given a natural metaphor in
the heavens. Recall how on pp.247-58, it was established that Osiris was
1042
John T. Ramsey, Cicero: Philippics I-II (Cambridge: Cambridge University
1043
Cicero, Pro Murena 28, in Cicero: Ten Speeches, trans. J.E.G. Zetzel
(Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2009), 138, n.37. (Emph.
added.)
1044
William F. Richardson, Numbering and Measuring in the Classical World: An
Introductory Handbook (Auckland: St. Leonards Publications, 1985), 11.
1045
Tim G. Parkin, Old Age in the Roman World: A Cultural and Social History
(Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003), 28.
353
foremost of the lunar gods of Egypt. The moon, the night-time sun,1046
was one of his bA manifestations. Thus many attributes of the moon
parallel events in the life of Osiris, perennially preaching his gospel
story in the skies. Just as Osiris was buried in the darkness of his tomb
and was not seen for three days, so too the moon is buried in darkness
and is not seen by the naked eye for three nights during the transition
from old moon to new moon.
When the moon first appears on the third day, it becomes
visible as full moon on the sixteenth. It wanes the remaining time
(of the month) during 13 days.
Heraclitus of Ephesus, Commentary on Odyssey XX,
Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 3710 col. iii, 7-11 (6th-5th cen. BCE) 1047
It indicates fair weather if the outline of the moon on the third
day is bright.
Theophrastus of Eresus, On Weather Signs 51 (4th cen. BCE) 1048
From them thou canst learn touching the month that is begun.
If she is slender and clear about the third day, she heralds calm: if
slender and very ruddy, wind; but if thick and with blunted horns
she show but a feeble light on the third and fourth night, her beams
are blunted by the South wind or imminent rain. If on the third
night neither horn nod forward or lean backward, if vertical they
curve their tips on either side, winds from the West will follow that
night. The signs of the half Moon are followed by those of the
fourth day from the end of the waning month, and they in their
turn by those of the third day of the new month.
Aratus of Soli, Phaenomena 780-810 (3rd cen. BCE)1049
Numerous reports trace the day on which the moon
disappears (UD.N.A, m bubbuli). According to SAA VII 346,
1046
Ulmer (2009), 277.
1047
Andrei V. Lebedev, The Logos of Heraclitus: a Reconstruction of his Thought
and Word (St. Petersburg: Nauka Publishers, 2014), 31. (Emph. added.)
1048
Theophrastus of Eresus, On Weather Signs 51, in Theophrastus: Enquiry Into
Plants and Minor Works on Odours and Weather Signs, Vol. II, trans. A. Hort
(London: William Heinemann, 1916), 427. (Emph. added.)
1049
Lycophron, Alexandria, in Callimachus, Lycophron, Aratus, trans. A.W. Mair
(London: William Heinemann, 1921), 441-43. (Emph. added.)
354
the moon ideally vanishes on day 27 and remains covered for a
maximum period of three days.
Dr. Jonathan Ben-Dov, Head of All Years: Astronomy and
Calendars at Qumran in Their Ancient Context 1050
The Sun is always the same, but the Moons appearance to us
on Earth changes waxing, waning, disappearing, then returning
after three nights.
Hamish Lindsay, Tracking Apollo to the Moon 1051
The Moon then disappears for about three days, lost in the
light of the Sun at the new moon.
Robin Heath, Sun, Moon, & Earth 1052
The Moon is in turn a symbol of death and resurrection, the
eternal recurrence. The Moon remains the high symbol of the
dead and resurrecting god three days in the tomb, just as the
Moon is three days dark.
Joseph Campbell, Myths of Light: Eastern Metaphors of the
Eternal 1053
Observation of the four pillars on mountain Picchu enabled
the Incas to define the day when the sun sets in the anti-Zenith
position and a monthlong period around the date of August 18.
With this observation they fixed within the solar year a synodic
lunar year of twelve months counted from June 6, starting with
three days of invisible moon.
Dr. R. Tom Zuidema, in Archaeoatronomy in the New
World: American 1054
1050
Jonathan Ben-Dov, Head of All Years: Astronomy and Calendars at Qumran
in Their Ancient Context (Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV, 2008), 179.
1051
Hamish Lindsay, Tracking Apollo to the Moon (London: Springer-Verlag
London Limited, 2001), 1.
1052
Robin Heath, Sun, Moon, & Earth (Markham: Fitzhenry and Whitside, 1999-
2001), 14.
1053
Joseph Campbell, Myths of Light: Eastern Metaphors of the Eternal (Novato:
New World Library, 2003), 16.
1054
R. Tom Zuidema, The Sidereal Lunar Calendar of the Incas, in
Archaeoatronomy in the New World: American Primitive Astronomy, ed. by A.F.
Aveni (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982-2009), 103. (Emph.
Added.)
355
The Yolngu people call the Moon Ngalindi and he too travels
across the sky. Originally, he was a fat lazy man (corresponding to
the full Moon) for which he was punished by his wives, who
chopped bits off him with their axes, producing the waning Moon.
He managed to escape by climbing a tall tree to follow the Sun, but
was mortally wounded, and died (the new Moon). After remaining
dead for 3 days, he rose again, growing round and fat (the waxing
Moon), until, after two weeks his wives attacked him again. The
cycle continues to repeat every month. Until Ngalindi first died,
everyone on Earth was immortal, but he cursed humans and
animals so that only he could return to life. For everyone else,
death would thereafter be final.
The Arnhem Land stories go much further, even explaining
why the Moon is associated with tides. When the tides are high,
water fills the Moon as it rises. As the water runs out of the Moon,
the tides fall, leaving the Moon empty for three days. Then the tide
rises once more, refilling the Moon. So, although the mechanics
are a little different from our modern version, the Yolngu people
obviously had an excellent understanding of the motions of the
Moon, and its relationship to the tides.
Dr. Ray P. Norris, in Astronomy and Cosmology in Folk
Traditions and Cultural Heritage 1055
May I renew my youth like the moon.
Inscription of the Statue of Montemhet from Karnak 11 (7th
cen. BCE) 1056
Hence the Pyramid Texts state, as quoted earlier- Raise yourself,
Osiris the King may you be manifest at the New Moon, may the
three-day festival be celebrated for you. Because of this feature of the
moon, it became a universal symbol for resurrection/rebirth/renewal.
Through his identity as the moon, even the heathen have unwittingly
acknowledged Osiris resurrection from the dead.
If you wish to behold a still more marvelous sight, taking place
to provide proof of resurrection not only from matters on earth but
also from those in heaven, consider the monthly resurrection of the
moon, how it wanes, dies, and rises again.
1055
Ray P. Norris, Searching for the Astronomy of Aboriginal Australians, in
Astronomy and Cosmology in Folk Traditions and Cultural Heritage, ed. J.
Vaiknas (Klaipda: Klaipda University Press, 2009), 248. (Emph. added.)
1056
356
Theophilus of Antioch, Ad Autolycum 1.13 1057
Readorned also are the mirrors of the moon, which her
monthly course had worn away. The whole, therefore, of this
revolving order of things bears witness to the resurrection of the
dead.
Tertullian of Carthage, De Resurrectione Carnis XII 1058
Take further a manifest proof of the resurrection of the dead,
witnessed month by month in the sky and its luminaries. The body
of the moon vanishes completely, so that no part of it is any more
seen, yet it fills again, and is restored to its former state; and for the
perfect demonstration of the matter, the moon at certain
revolutions of years suffering eclipse and becoming manifestly
changed into blood, yet recovers its luminous body: God having
provided this, that thou also, the man who art formed of blood,
mightest not refuse credence to the resurrection of the dead, but
mightest believe concerning thyself also what thou seest in respect
of the moon.
Cyril of Jerusalem, Lecture XVIII.10 1059
They knew not the Scripture, that He must Rise Again from the
Dead
Just as the moon comes back from the dead, so too did Osiris. The
moon does not stay dead. It does not go away permanently never to
return again. It does not discard its former body and merely continue on
as some incorporeal ghost. And neither did Osiris, yet the heathen would
have us all believe just the opposite. Of all the tenets of the Perennial
Gospel, none do they oppose more vehemently than the most important
tenet of them all- the resurrection.
1057
Theophilus of Antioch, Ad Autolycum, trans. R.M. Grant (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1970), 1.13.
1058
Tertullian of Carthage, De Resurrectione Carnis, in The Ante-Nicene Fathers:
Volume III, eds. A. Roberts and J. Donaldson, trans. P. Holmes (Peabody:
Hendrickson Publishers, 1885-1994), 553.
1059
Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures, in Nicene & Post-Nicene Fathers,
2nd Series: Volume VII, eds. P. Schaff and H. Wace, trans. E.H. Gifford
(Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1894-1996), 136.
357
It was covered in the previous chapter how some heathen try to
undermine the fact of Osiris resurrection from the dead by attempting
(and failing) to argue that Osiris never truly died, as though without a
real death there can be no resurrection. Once that ridiculous argument
fails themas it inevitably always willsome antagonists shift gears
and argue instead that while Osiris did die, every bit as much as mortal
humans die, he also stayed dead like mortal humans do too. They claim
he was not a resurrected god, just a dead god- an outdated notion that
only persists by repeating the errors of obsolete 19th century literature
(sadly a problem that even plagues some scholars of today). But as Dr.
Jan Assmann explicitly states- he is not dead.1060 Dr. John G. Griffiths
likewise explains:
Osiris was certainly identified with the dead Pharaoh; but it
does not follow that he himself was a dead king. 1061
Indeed, Osiris did not remain a dead god. It was even covered in
the previous chapter how the occurrence of the death of Osiris was a
closely guarded secret not to be mentioned, and that the power of death
was to be explicitly denied in word and deed in order to bring about
resurrection. The scriptures state in no ambiguous terms that Osiris most
indubitably did resurrect from the dead back to life. Few other things in
all of scripture are more widely attested.
The king is identified with Osiris
O Atum, this one here is your son Osiris whom you have
caused to be restored that he may live. If he lives, this King will live;
if he does not die, this King will not die; if he is not destroyed, this
King will not be destroyed.
O Osiris the King, arise, lift yourself up!
O Osiris the King Horus will not let you perish, for Horus
has set your foe under your feet for you; may you live.
1060
1061
Griffiths (1980), 4. (Emph. added.)
1062
1063
358
O Osiris the King, awake!
O Nut, cause the King to be restored, that he may live.
O Nut, if you live, then the King will live.
As just seen, Osiris is every bit as much alive as Nut is alive. He is
no more a dead god than Nut is a dead goddess, which she isnt.
The king is restored to life Stand up! Raise yourself!
A resurrection text
O King, mighty in waking and great in sleeping, for whom
sweetness is sweet, raise yourself, O King, for you have not died.
A resurrection text
Raise yourself, Osiris the King, you first-born son of Geb, at
whom the Great Ennead tremble!
An Osirian text adapted for the king
If he lives among the living, then will Sokar live among the
living; if he lives among the living, then will the King live among the
living. O King, come, live your life here from season to season in
these years when you are content and your desire is at ease.
1064
1065
Ibid. 123.
1066
1067
1068
Ibid. 153.
1069
Ibid. 154.
1070
Ibid. 170.
359
O my father Osiris the King, raise yourself up to me. O Osiris
the king, betake yourself to me.
May you live for me, O King, for ever!
A resurrection text
O my father Osiris the King, to 1m and 4mt, that they may
ferry my father the King. Awake, [stand up(?) at yonder] eastern
[side] of the sky at this place [where the gods] are born.
Osiris and the king are associated
Possessing life; you live because the gods have ordered that
you shall live.
The king is summoned to rise
I am Horus, O Osiris the King, I will not let you suffer. Go
forth, wake up for me and guard yourself!
The dead king is summoned to rise again
Wake up, wake, O King, wake up for me! I am your son; wake
up for me, for I am Horus who wakes you. Live, be alive.
O Osiris the King, you have gone, but you will return, you
have slept, [but you will awake], you have died, but you will live.
1071
1072
Ibid. 211.
1073
Ibid. 212.
1074
Ibid. 215-16.
1075
Ibid. 233.
1076
Ibid. 257.
1077
Ibid. 274.
1078
360
Die and live are contrasted against each other here, so they are
clearly not the same state, thus Osiris does not remain dead.
A resurrection text
O King, you have your soul with you [...] as Osiris. O King,
live, for you are not dead.
Raise yourself, that you may be vindicated against your foes.
As for anyone who shall commit any evil robbery against N, N
will use an arm upward and downward against their great ones in
On in the presence of the risen Osiris.
O Osiris, Bull of the Great Ones, controller of the living,
behold N has come to you.
You have departed living, you have not departed dead. You
have appeared as Lord of the West, having ruled the Egyptians
who are on earth. Rise up to life, for you have not died. I am
your son Horus, and I enclose you within the arms of your mother
Nutmay you live for ever!
Coffin Texts, Spell 44 I, 187, 189-90 1083
You have appeared as Lord of the West Raise yourself to
life for ever!
Coffin Texts, Spell 47 I, 205, 211 1084
Thus said Anubis to Osiris: Awake to life, observe your
accession, and execute sentence on him who harmed you.
You shall have life, O Lord of the West, you son of Harakhti,
Bull of his mother Nut. Awake to life, for you have not died!
1079
Ibid. 306.
1080
Faulkner (1973), 1.
1081
1082
1083
Ibid. 36-37, n.11.
1084
Ibid. 42-43.
1085
Ibid. 46.
361
O my lord, [stand up] to life; behold, the earth is bright.
O my father Osiris, raise yourself.
O Osiris, live, O Osiris!
It is this grain-god who lives after death.
Going forth into the day and living after death. O you Sole
One who rises in the moon.
Coffin Texts, Spell 152 II, 260, 265 1091
NOT DYING ANOTHER TIME.
Since the dead are already dead and thus cannot die again, for one to
prevent dying another time one must by default not be dead currently.
Also, the fact that a magical spell must here be invoked in order to
prevent any more deaths in the future once again proves the point made
in the previous chapter, which is that the gods are not innately immortal
but instead must become immortal through magic. This is also seen in
spells such as 402 & 423:
Not dying again and giving a mans magic to him.1093 NOT
DYING A SECOND DEATH.1094
Continuing:
1086
Ibid. 50.
1087
Ibid. 54.
1088
Ibid. 67.
1089
Ibid. 69.
1090
Ibid. 99.
1091
Ibid. 131.
1092
1093
1094
362
The north-wind east-wind west-wind south-wind is the
breath of life, and what it has granted to me is that I may live by
means of it.
I have gone forth from Sehel exercising authority over the two
she-asses of Shu I eat life, I live by air, I live again hereafter.
Coffin Texts, Spell 173 III, 52, 57 1096
So it seems there was a triumphant ride upon two asses after the
triumph over death.
I spend eternity alive Raise me up [] live for ever, because
I am one powerful of speech who came forth from Geb.
NOT DYING AGAIN. O you great living one who are
detained on your staff, throw out the bow-warps of the
Netherworld.
O you who hate sleep but who were made limp, arise, O you
who were in Nedit! 1099
I am one beloved of my father, whom my father greatly loves. I
am he who awoke my sleeping father.
SPELL FOR LIVING AFTER DEATH. I am the Double
Lion, older than Atum, having received the throne of the West I
live again after death daily like Atum. May I be one alive among
those who have died again; I come into being as Re, 1102 and I live
after death.
1095
Faulkner (1973), 140.
1096
1097
Ibid. 188.
1098
1099
See pp.204, n.608, 206, n.624, 349, n.1029, 462 n.1374, 478-81.
1100
Faulkner, op. cit. 283. (Emph. added.)
1101
Faulkner (1977), 24, n.6.
1102
See pp.121-27.
363
Coffin Texts, Spell 438 V, 290-91 1103
My dissolution was caused yesterday, I have returned today
I died yesterday, I raised myself today, I returned today.
Coffin Texts, Spell 513 VI, 98, 100 1104
May you breathe and exchange greetings; raise yourself, O my
father Osiris.
Coffin Texts, Spell 603 1105
[O Osiris], make me hale even as you make yourself hale;
may you release, may you loose me.
Rise up, Osiris Live, Osiris!
Coffin Texts, Spell 837 VII, 37-38 1107
Stand up, Osiris, living for ever and ever!
You being renewed and young in this your name of Fresh
Water, you being raised up on this happy day in which you
appeared in glory. Your mother Nut comes to you in it with your
sister Nephthys.
NOT TO DIE AGAIN. O you living one who are in the
horizon, O Osiris!
I have restored Osiris to health.
Coffin Texts, Spell 1036 VII, 284; 1073 VII, 343 1111
I have come that I may remove the humiliation from upon
Osiris.
1103
Ibid. 76.
1104
Ibid. 145.
1105
Ibid. 194.
1106
1107
1108
Ibid. 28.
1109
1110
1111
Ibid. 132, 146.
364
Coffin Texts, Spell 1075 VII, 346; 1184 VII, 521 1112
Rise up that you may live.
It was I who restored Osiris to health
I will restore Osiris to health I am he who saved Osiris.
I have come that I may drive out pain, ease the suffering of
Osiris, and establish offerings in Abydos.
I am risen as King of the gods; I shall not die again.
SPELL FOR NOT PERISHING BUT EXISTING ALIVE
IN THE GODS DOMAIN.
Book of the Dead, Spell 46 P 1 1118
Behold, I am come unto thee risen.
O Osiris, I have come unto thee; I am (thy son) Horus. (I)
have saved thee alive on this day Pray raise thyself, Osiris.
Raise thyself, that thou mayest become mighty, Osiris, in
Abydos.
1112
Ibid. 146, 189.
1113
Ibid. 165.
1114
Ibid. 180.
1115
Ibid. 189.
1116
Ibid.
1117
T.G. Allen (1974), 50.
1118
1119
Ibid. 84.
1120
Ibid. 104.
1121
Ibid. 137.
365
To be said by Nephthys: I have encircled my brother Osiris; I
have come that I may be thy magical protection. (Thou) hast
been vindicated by the gods; raise thyself.
Book of the Dead, Spell 151 c P, S 1-2 1122
Spell for a headrest (to be put under the head of Osiris N.).
Doves awake thee from sleep Raise thyself, (for) thou dost
triumph over what was done against thee.
Book of the Dead, Spell 166 P, S 1-2 1123
[I am] Nut. Rise, Osiris N. Thou art the Son of Geb, first
(son) of his father.
Book of the Dead, Spell 168 B MMA 35.9.19 a S 3 1124
O Nut, raise me (who am) Osiris N.
Book of the Dead, Spell 168 B c S 1 1125
Thy face is (toward the sky), Unnofer. Raise thyself, bull of the
west. Osiris has endured as a living one.
Book of the Dead, Spell 182 c 2-4 1126
O Osiris N., raise thyself.
Book of the Dead, Spell Pleyte 167 e S 1 1127
Raise thyself, awake, Osiris lord of life.
Book of the Dead, Spell Pleyte 168 S 13 & 27 1128
Bring up Flesh upon You, and Cover You with Skin, and Put Breath
in You, and Ye shall Live
The scriptural fact of the resurrection of Osiris from death to life is

irrefutable. Yet in spite of the overwhelming amount of primary sources
(of which the previous eight pages worth are but an infinitesimal
sample), and in spite of how undeniably clear they all are, there are still
1122
1123
Ibid. 162.
1124
1125
Ibid. 173.
1126
Ibid. 197.
1127
Ibid. 217.
1128
366
many people who are ignorant enough and/or obstinate enough to try and
deny the resurrection anyway. The most common approach to attempt
such denial is to treat the afore-cited texts with hand-wave dismissals,
sometimes even rolling their eyes, and retorting to the effect of: Yeah,
yeah, yeah, we all know there were such texts that said things like that,
which sound similar to resurrection. But thats really not resurrection at
all, because what were talking about is physical resurrection of the
body! And there is absolutely nothing whatsoever in any of those quoted
passages which indicate that Osiris physical body, the exact same body
which had died, came back to life in the exact same way it was before it
had died! Such persons are merely following in the erroneous footsteps
of the likes of Bart Ehrman, Jonathan Z. Smith, Gary Habermas, and
many an outdated 19th century author whose legacy of ignorance lives
on in the ever dwindling number of publications that naively continue to
parrot them rather than look to the more updated data within the field of
Egyptology, and even more importantly, to the unambiguous words of
the primary sources. The errors of these antagonists and those they are
parroting extend from two major problems which will each be dealt with
in greater detail in the following order.
1. First & foremost, the biggest & most common mistake lay persons
and certain scholars not specializing in Osirian religion make is the
assumption that the Egyptians even believed in a spirit or a soul. They
did not. They didn't even believe in any parallel concepts. The terms
often translated by outdated scholarship as spirit and soul are
actually uniquely Egyptian concepts (bA, kA, Ax/akh) that
do not correspond to the functions of our concept of a soul or spirit. The
ancient Egyptians did not even have the concept of a body-soul or
corporeal-incorporeal dichotomy. They were entirely monistic in their
conception of man and his existence. The Western Greco-Roman concept
of the spirit & soul were anachronized backwards onto indigenous
Egyptian culture by foreign civilizations who conquered Egypt after
its Late Period era, a bit of Egyptosophy if you will (to borrow a
phrase from Dr. Erik Hornung). Hence any continued life after death for
an ancient Egyptian would by default be physical, bodily life, for they
could conceive of no other mode of existence for man.
2. The second problem is, quite frankly, just flat out ignorance of the
indigenous Egyptian primary source texts (and of their operation under
367
the concept of sympathetic magic1129). Most people who likewise commit
the errors of these aforementioned apologists rely exclusively on the
interpretation of much later foreign sources outside of Egypt such as
Greek and Roman writers of Antiquity, without cross referencing them
with authentic ancient Egyptian sources to cut away the dross. On the
one hand, I can cut them a little bit of slack because the corpus of ancient
Egyptian literature is so overwhelmingly vast that no mortal could
possibly be familiar with all of it. But on the other hand, the resurrection
of Osiris is arguably the most widely attested mythological/religious
motif within ancient Egyptian literature. (As Herodotus observed, only
the gods Isis and Osiris are worshiped in the same manner by all
Egyptians.1130) The wording in the primary sources leave absolutely no
ambiguity or room for interpretation, they are utterly explicit in their
portrayal of the resurrection of Osiris, and of those deceased who
emulated him, as a bodily, physical, corporeal resurrection of the same
body that died & began to decompose, a resurrection which occurred in
their tombs here on earth in the world of the living, and which was
followed by a transfiguration & ascension into heaven.
I Shall Give Up the Ghost
Fig. 120
1129
See pp.23-26, 222.
1130
Herodotus, in Strassler (2009), 136.
368
So first things first, when approaching the subject of ancient
Egyptian Osirian/funerary lore, you have to give up the ghost- the
concept of it, that is. They didn't have it. No doubt a few of you will run
to the stacks of books or Google snippets of past scholars & translations
throwing around such English terms as spirit, soul, ghost,
spiritual, etc, when writing about ancient Egypt. But such terms are
misnomers in that context, misnomers popularized by 18th & 19th
century scholars who had an inferior understanding of ancient Egypt than
we do today (their field was still in its infancy) and had the bias of
viewing things through their filter of Western, Romanized thinking.
Folks who continue employing such misnomers are keeping company
with long since discarded & debunked authors such as E.A. Wallis
Budge or Gerald Massey, etc. While there were a handful of scholars
from that era who already began to see the problems with using such
terms for ancient Egyptian thought, the tide really began to turn with the
monumental work of the late great Dr. Louis V. abkar titled A Study of
the Ba Concept in Ancient Egyptian Texts, dealing especially with the
most abused Egyptian term concerning this subject- the bA.
It appears that both Spiegel and Fairman consider Unas burial
ritual as a resurrection ritual. Spiegel often speaks of the
resurrection of the soul, but on closer inspection it becomes
evident that by that term he means the coming-forth of the soul
from the grave. It seems to us that he should have used
the latter term throughout his description and avoided the
expression resurrection of the soul. First of all, the soul
or, more correctly, the Ba never died, and without death there can
be no resurrection. But there is another problem here. The
Pyramid Texts state emphatically that the king never died: (Unas)
did not die, he departed alive. Unas certainly died, but to the
Egyptian mythopoeic mind his death was but a transition to a new
life: Thou sleepest, thou awakest; thou diest, thou livest. This is
the idea that lies behind the statement: Atum, that son of yours is
this here, Osiris ... he lives and this Unas lives; he did not die, and
this Unas did not die. Spiegel understands these words as being
addressed to the Ba of the king, but the Ba is not mentioned at all.
The comparison is between the dead king and Osiris. Just
as Osiris was killed and rose to new life, so the dead king, identified
with Osiris, through the recitation of the spell is made alive again.
369
In other words, what we have here is the bodily resurrection of the
dead king and not the resurrection of his Ba, which never died.1131
Here I must interrupt and say it astounds me when I not only see
people deny that last statement by Dr. abkar there, that what we have
here is bodily resurrection, but I've even seen attempts to quote this very
work of abkar to support such a denial! E.g. one Edwin Yamauchi, who
cited abkar in support of his statement that the Egyptians did not
believe in a bodily resurrection from the dead.1132 Wow, that could only
be done by someone has not read abkar's book here (which apparently
would also include our apologist friends as well). Anyway, continuing
where we left off, with Dr. abkar stating the exact opposite of
Yamauchi or our apologist pals:
In other words, what we have here is the bodily resurrection of
the dead king and not the resurrection of his Ba, which never died.
To be sure, the body was in the grave, but it did not remain there
inert or inanimate; special spells were recited to call it back to life:
His limbs which were in the secret place when he joined those
who are in Nun are (now) united; he spoke his last words in
Heliopolis. Unas comes forth on this day in the real form of a
living Akh in order that he may break up the fight and punish the
quarrel. Unas comes forth as a guardian of Maat; he brings her, as
she is in his possession. The same idea of bodily resurrection lies
behind another statement: Thy body is the body of this Unas,
thy flesh is the flesh of this Unas, thy bones are the bones of this
Unas; thou goest and this Unas goes, thus Unas goes and thou
goest. This passage refers to Osiris, with whom the pharaoh is
identified, as Sethe observed. Through the recitation of these spells
and the effectiveness of the ritual, Unas becomes alive in his
true physical corporeality. Only as such can he be transformed
into a Ba or an Akh, traverse the earth and the heaven, find his
place among the stars, and be in command of other glorified dead
(Akhs).1133
1131
abkar (1968), 81-82. (Emph. added.)
1132
Edwin M. Yamauchi, Life, Death, and the Afterlife in the Ancient Near
East, in Life in the Face of Death: the Resurrection Message of the New
Testament, ed. R.N. Longenecker (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Co., 1998), 27.
1133
370
So what we see here is that it is the physical body which must be
resurrected, and after such corporeal resurrection that same body is
transformed into a bA and Ax. BA and Ax therefore are not one's soul and
spirit, they are forms the body changes into after it has been
resurrected. They do not represent immaterial disembodied vehicles of
consciousness, they are not incorporeal ghosts, they are physical states of
ones physical body which give that body new physical powers. As shall
be demonstrated later, they are a transfiguration & shape-shifting of
one's body. In Egyptian thought, your bA is you, not a part of you, it
is you. Your bA is your alter ego, so to speak, not your soul.
It is also amusing here that Dr. abkar yet again directly contradicted
the aforementioned fellow who cited him when that fellow also wrote in
that same place that the persons corpse remained in the tomb. abkar
had stated that the corpse did not remain there in the grave and that
once resurrected & transformed, it could traverse the earth and the
heaven. Anyway, continuing:
With this idea of bodily resurrection we reach perhaps the
most ancient stratum of the Egyptian conception of the afterlife,
that is, a continuation of life as a physical corporeality - a
conception common to other religions at the earliest stage of their
belief in survival. Certainly long before the period of the Pyramid
Texts speculative theologians first attempted to elaborate this
primitive belief in bodily survival by differentiating more precisely
between various forms of existence in the hereafter: an
effective body, an Akh, a Ba as well as other transformations the
deceased could undergo. The Akh (belongs) to heaven, the corpse
(belongs) to the earth is an emphatic statement indicating an
advanced stage of this differentiation. It is to be remembered,
however, that at all stages the body of the deceased was
considered not as inert and lifeless matter but as a living entity
which, with all its physical and psychic faculties, fully lived in all
other forms of transformation and without the effective role of
which no continuation of life could be conceived. Truly, then, the
Egyptian concept of man in his afterlife knew nothing of his
spiritual constituents as opposed to his physical ones.1134
So again, no dichotomy of physical/spiritual, thus a resurrection
could only ever be a bodily resurrection. Continuing in that line of
thought, abkar wrote:
1134
371
The corpse (At) is just as alive and active as the Ba, the
Shadow, the Ka, etc. The texts repeatedly promise that the
deceased will have power over his entire body, especially over
his legs, in order that he may achieve fullness of movement and
life. Not only the body but also the Ba and cognate entities (Ka,
Akh, Shadow) are endowed with physical vitality: Thou (i.e.,
Anubis) hast caused my Ba, my Shadow, and my form to go with
their feet to the place wherein that man is (CT V 242 d to 243 a).
The fact that in each of these forms (body or corpse, Ba, Ka, Akh,
Shadow) the deceased acts and lives as a full individual points to
a monistic concept of man as opposed to the idea, traditionally
attributed to the Egyptians, of a man as a composite of a material
and a spiritual element. Even though the Ka and some of these
other entities coexisted with the individual during his lifetime, they
were, each one of them, considered to
be full physical entities and not spiritual components of a human
composite.1135
So even the other concepts such as kA are physical forms, unlike
the traditional Greco-Roman notion of spirit & soul, but we'll circle back
around to that later on. Anyway, elsewhere abkar added:
Man is not a composite of the body and soul, and
death does not mean a separation of the soul from the body. Here
Herodotus, like some early and late Egyptologists, falls
into error. References have often been made to a number of
Egyptian texts to prove the dualistic concept of man in ancient
Egypt, and to distinguish between the spiritual and material or
physical elements in man. Akh to heaven, corpse to the earth, a
spell to remove the ba from the corpse, the expression heaven
to thy ba, the underworld to thy corpse occurring in its many
versions in the New Kingdom tombs, and the wish that the ba may
not depart from the body but reach the corpse or rest upon it,-
these are the favorite examples of those who propound the dualistic
interpretation of Egyptian mortuary texts. We take a definite
exception to such an understanding of Egyptian religious texts. As a
closer study of Spell 94 as well as the other Coffin Texts will reveal,
the expression to remove the ba from the corpse means to make
it emanate from the corpse, to make it come into existence, and
represents one of the several answers which speculative theologians
gave to the question of the origin of the ba. The Egyptian scribe or
theologian himself interpreted the first part of the title of Spell 94
by saying that it was just another book or version of coming forth
1135
372
by day, a technical term which in the Coffin Texts and the Book
of the Dead signifies unlimited freedom of movement and action
performed interchangeably by the individual dead or his ba.1136
Take note here that a bA comes into existence by emanating from the
corpse, i.e. the bA is actually a form of, and thus a part of, the biological
body. The bA is the deceased himself- it is his alter ego (see abkar et al.
below). In terms of modern culture, the bA of Clark Kent is Superman,
the bA of Bruce Banner is the Hulk, etc. This will come up again a little
later. Continuing:
The expression akh or ba to heaven, corpse to the
underworld does not stress the dualistic view of man either. As an
akh the deceased may belong to heaven; as a ba to heaven, this
earth, and even, though rarely, to the underworld; as a corpse he
belongs to the underworld. But the heaven is not the only abode of
the ba or akh. We read in the Spell 163, vs. 7 of the Book of the
Dead that heaven holds his (scil. Osiris) ba, the earth his form,
while vs. 3 of the same spell tells us that his ba rests within his
corpse. Numerous tomb inscriptions and vignettes of the Book of
the Dead represent the ba alighting on the branches of the trees
and enjoying the amenities of a cool pool in a garden, while the
stelas of all periods implore that the ba may come forth by day to
see the sun, follow the sun-god on his journey across the sky, alight
upon the corpse, go in and come out in the underworld. Thus the
expression the ba to heaven does not indicate that the ba as the
spiritual element goes to heaven as the permanent abode of the
soul upon the separation from the body, but merely reveals an
aspiration on the part of the deceased that his ba may enjoy
unlimited freedom of movement in the sky in the company of the
sun-god- an action for which it is, in its quality of a ba-bird, perfectly
fit. Furthermore, the deceased is just as living and active in
his corpse as he is in his ba, ka, shadow, and other manifestations
in which he may appear.1137
Returning to the previous work:
The Ba is not a soul, neither an internal nor an external one.
There is no internal dualism in man, opposing the spiritual element
to the material, and consequently there is no internal soul. The Ba
does not exist as a separate external entity during the life of an
1136
Louis V. abkar, Herodotus and the Egyptian Idea of Immortality, Journal
of Near Eastern Studies 22, no. 1 (1963): 60-61. (Emph. added.)
1137
373
individual, for is it a spiritual entity after his death, and there it is
not an external soul.
The dualistic view that man is constituted of two distinct elements,
in the sense of the Orphic, Platonic, Gnostic, and Scholastic
philosophies, is alien to the Egyptian concept of man. Though the
ancient Egyptian was thought to live after death in a multiplicity of
forms, each of these forms was the full man himself. For this
reason we consider the Egyptian concept of man to
be monistic. Thus the Ba is not a part nor an element of a man but
is one of the forms in which he fully lives after death; the Ba is the
man himself, his personified alter ego.1138
Ultimately, Dr. abkar concluded:
The dead lives a full life as a ba, ka, akh-or any other form he
may wish to assume- just as he does as a living body, capable
of all physical functions in a glorified and blessed existence. This is
what we call a monistic concept of man, specific to the Egyptian
doctrine of the after-life, and its corollary is, that the Egyptian
notion of paradise or hell knew nothing of the disembodied
spirit of a man. It is impossible to identify the ba, ka, or akh with
the spiritual element, in opposition to the body as its material or
physical element. The Egyptian concept of man knows no such
distinction. Not only are these terms not described in the texts as
spiritual elements, but in the Coffin Texts and elsewhere we see
them performing certain functions typical
of physical and not spiritual agents. To translate the ba or any of
the words here discussed as soul, or to speak of multiple
souls would be a matter of grave inaccuracy and misconception; it
would mean reading into the Egyptian concept of man notions
which were foreign to it. If we carefully read the transformation-
spells we will notice that they do not speak of the soul which at the
death leaves the body, but of the man himself, who, even though
being a corpseafter an authoritative and efficacious ritual has been
performedis risen and made whole, as Spell 77 of the Book of
the Dead states. He becomes an effective being, an akh, externally
manifested as the ba-bird, phoenix, heron, golden falcon, lotus-
flower, man or god. In full possession of all his physical qualities,
effective in any animal, human or divine form, he enters upon a
new glorified life, conceived in purely physical termsfrom this an
Egyptian could hardly ever dissociate himself, and this he
could never sublimate or spiritualize.1139
1138
1139
374
Now before any antagonistic readers start to murmur that this is the
word of only one scholar, this conclusion is not unique to just abkar. As
I stated previously, this work of his really began to turn the tides and
since his time many other prominent scholars have followed in his wake.
And of course, they have no choice but to do so, for that is where the
research leads. First up are the testimonials affirming the absence of a
physical/spiritual-corporeal/incorporeal dichotomy.
The Egyptians did not know the western opposition of body and
soul.
Dr. Erik Hornung, History of Ancient Egypt: An
Introduction1140
The interpretation of the ba being particularly controversial.
Not infrequently it has been translated into English as 'soul', but this
rendering is seriously misleading in that it ignores the fact that the
Egyptians did not think in terms of body and spirit ... in their
conceptual world all things were material and perceived as
concrete.
Dr. Alan B. Lloyd, Ancient Egypt: State and Society1141
According to Herodotus, Pythagoras and the Orphics obtained
their doctrine of from Egypt (II, 123). This is
certainly incorrect. Not only is there no evidence of this idea in
Egypt but it is fundamentally opposed to the Egyptian mentality.
The idea of metempsychosis is inseparably linked with the concept
of the dual nature of man--body and soul--and the idea that the soul
is required to purify itself from corporeal dross in a series of re-
incarnations until it can be released from the cycle of births. The
Egyptian concept was very different. Certainly man is composed of
several ingredientsbody, b, kbut there is no fundamental
dualism between body and spirit and they can never be
permanently separated.
Dr. Alan B. Lloyd, Herodotus Book II: Introduction1142
1140
Erik Hornung, History of Ancient Egypt: An Introduction, trans. D. Lorton
(Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1978-99), 36. (Emph. added.)
1141
Alan B. Lloyd, Ancient Egypt: State and Society (Oxford: Oxford University
1142
Alan B. Lloyd, Herodotus Book II: Introduction (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1975-94),
375
To understand why the life, death, and resurrection
of Osiris were so significant, one must first grasp how the ancient
Egyptians conceived of the human being. Their conception was
essentially a monistic one. They did not divide the person into a
corruptible body and immortal soul. They did, however, perceive
each individual as having a corporeal self and a social self. For
both, connectivity was an essential prerequisite. Just as the
disparate limbs of the human body could only function effectively
as parts of a properly constituted whole, so too could the individual
person only function as a member of a properly structured society.
Dr. Mark J. Smith, in UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology1143
It was stressed above that the Egyptian conception of the
human being was a monistic one. The Egyptians did not divide the
individual into separate components like a body and a soul. But the
references in the preceding paragraphs to terms like akh, ba, ka,
and Osirian form, may appear to contradict this statement. In fact,
there is no contradiction. It must be emphasized that terms like ba,
ka, and so on do not denote constituent parts of a complete
person. Rather, each denotes the complete person, only viewed
from a slightly different aspect to the others. These aspects do not
split the individual into smaller units. What they really do is
connect the individual to groups of other beings or other spheres of
existence within the cosmos.
Instead of fragmenting the self, they extend it. This illustrates
once again the importance of social integration in the Egyptian
conception of resurrection. The principle of connectivity was just
as central in the next world as it was in this one.
Dr. Mark J. Smith, in The Human Body in Death and
Resurrection1144
1143
Mark J. Smith, Osiris and the Deceased, in UCLA Encyclopedia of
Egyptology, ed. W. Wendrich (Los Angeles: 2008), 2.
http://escholarship.org/uc/item/29r70244. (Emph. added.)
1144
Mark J. Smith, Resurrection and the Body in Graeco-Roman Egypt, in The
Human Body in Death and Resurrection, eds. T. Nicklas, F.V. Reiterer, and J.
Verheyden (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, 2009), 35-36. (Emph.
added.)
376
Fig. 121: Diagram inspired by Dr. Mark J. Smith1145 illustrating that bA, kA, and AX, are
not pieces of a person, but rather forms or roles that a person fulfills as they participate
in various realms. Therefore...
1145
Ibid.
377
Fig. 122
As the Egyptians conceived it, there was a crucial aspect of

human personality that did not develop from the inside to the
outside, but in the opposite direction, from the outside to the
inside. They made the essential distinction within the totality of a
person not that between the body and the soul , but that between
the individual self and the social self.
When god is designated ba, he is seen as a dynamic being in
the act of manifesting himself - the god who comes into
being. This ba-power can manifest itself as animate and inanimate
objects, as well as other gods. In the cosmogony the ba of Horus
appears as the Winged Disk (Cpj): it is the Flying Ba (B-dd).
This feature points to another aspect of ba: ba links the god
with his own pre-being. It is the ba that effects the transition from
the underworld (dt). Structurally, ba therefore corresponds to the
transcendent soul of dualistic systems, and this is why the word
sometimes has been translated soul. However, the translation
is not satisfactory because ba is not equivalent to soul in modern
European sense. Egyptian anthropology conceives of god (and
man) as a unit of faculties that can be classified as psychical and
physical. The dualistic paradigm of a being constituted by the
complementary soul and body has no place in Egyptian thought.
Thus, ba (and ka - which is also sometimes translated soul) refers
to the entire personality, and person or self might in many
cases be the nearest equivalents to the terms. The ba can be
invisible (namely, in the underworld ( dt) where it is not seen) or
manifested (the perceptible, cosmic phenomenon), but this
distinction does not coincide with the categories of soul and body.
Dr. Ragnhild B. Finnestad, Image of the World and Symbol of the
Creator1147
The Egyptians did not embrace the Cartesian dichotomy of
body and soul as separate and distinct spheres. They
did not subscribe to a rationalization, comparable to the Western
concepts of internal and external, in respect to the origins of
thoughts and emotions, spirituality or self-determination.
1146
1147
Ragnhild B. Finnestad, Image of the World and Symbol of the
Creator (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz GmbH & Co. KG, 1985), 135. (Emph.
added.)
378
Dr. Lynn Meskell, Private Life in New Kingdom Egypt 1148
And for good measure, theres the testimony of an actual Egyptian
priest, Chaeremon of Alexandria (1st cen. CE):
We had Chaeremon as a witness that the Egyptians believed in
nothing prior to the visible world nor in any other gods than the
planets and the other stars, and that they interpreted all things as
referring to the visible parts of the world and nothing in reference
to incorporeal and living beings. ... Chaeremon and most of the
others believed in nothing else prior to the visible worlds and gave
the Egyptians pride of place, for these interpreted all things as
referring to the physical world and nothing in reference to
incorporeal and living beings.
Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelica 3.9, 13 1149
Chaeremon and the others do not believe in anything prior to
the visible worlds, stating that the basic principles are the gods of
the Egyptians ... they interpret everything as referring
to physical things and nothing reference to incorporeal or living
beings.
Porphyry, Epistula ad Anebonem 2.12-13 1150
Next up are the testimonials affirming the physical, biological,
bodily nature of the bA.
Ba. One of several Egyptian words associated with our concept
of soul, but It maintains a physical existence, and thus is not a
real soul.
Eternity 1151
A further consequence of the rites of mummification was the
awakening or animating of the ba of the deceased. The word ba
means literally what is immanent, i.e. visible manifestation. In
Greek, it can be rendered . Egyptian texts often contrast
1148
Lynn Meskell, Private Life in New Kingdom Egypt (Princeton: Princeton
1149
Chaeremon of Alexandria, in Chaeremon, Egyptian Priest and Stoic
Philosopher: The Fragments Collected and Translated with Explanatory Notes,
trans. P.W. Van Der Horst (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1984), 15. (Emph. added.)
1150
Ibid.
1151
Erik Hornung, Valley of the Kings: Horizon of Eternity, trans. D. Warburton
(New York: Timken Publishers, Inc., 1982-90), 206. (Emph. added.)
379
the ba of a deceased person and his body, but one
should not conclude from this that the former was regarded as a
soul or disembodied spirit. The ba is not an element or component
of an individual. Rather, it is the whole person, but as seen from a
particular aspect: the form in which the deceased was manifested in
the physical world.
As a ba, the deceased could leave the realm of the dead and
travel anywhere on earth or in the sky. In fact, mobility was one of
the most salient characteristics of this aspect of an individual. Bas
were corporeal; they ate and drank and could even engage in sexual
activity. They also had the capacity to assume non-human
forms. This not only enhanced the deceaseds power, but brought
them into closer communion with the gods as well, since by
assuming the form of a particular creature they could join the
following of the deity with whom it was associated. The belief that
the ba could adopt multiple modes of appearance probably
explains why, in some sources, an individual is said to possess more
than one. After undergoing a transformation of the type described
above, or engaging in other sorts of activity, the ba of a dead person
was believed to merge with his body in the underworld each night,
alighting and breathing upon it, thereby maintaining it in a state of
life.
Resurrection 1152
The ba is, however, not exclusively a spiritual-psychic being.
The translation psyche is not really possible then: revelation or
manifestation is more acceptable. The ba is an alter ego of humans
both in a psychic and in a corporeal sense.
Dr. Herman Te Velde, in Concepts of Person in Religion and
Thoughts 1153
To the physical sphere belonged, naturally, the concepts of
body, limbs, and corpse, as well as ba and shadow.
1152
Smith (2009), 33-34. (Emph. added.)
1153
Herman Te Velde, Some remarks on the concept person in the ancient
Egyptian culture, in Concepts of Person in Religion and Thoughts, ed. H.G.
Kippenberg, Y.B. Kuiper, A.F. Sanders (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co.
KG, 1990) 92. (Emph. added.)
1154
380
The fact of death did not make man immortal. A soul was
made, not born. Strictly speaking, there is no concept in ancient
Egypt which corresponds to our idea of the soul: an invisible,
nonmaterial dweller within the flesh which animates the body
during life and leaves it after death to seek whatever fate its owners
deeds and beliefs have destined it for. The word ba is often
translated as soul; but as a rule it did not come into existence
until after death, and even then only as a result of special
ceremonies which were designed to make a man into a ba.
Dr. Barbara Mertz, Red Land, Black Land: Daily Life in Ancient
Egypt 1155
The ba, although translated as soul, represents
the physical manifestation and power of the god. Thus, the bas of
the sun god were the many forms he could take, one of which was
the phoenix, which is called the ba of Re and into which the
deceased wished to transform by means of BD spell 83.
Dr. Foy Scalf, in Between Heaven and Earth: Birds in Ancient
Egypt 1156
Equating the ba-bird with the 'soul' of the deceased would be
misleading. Interpretations of the ancient texts point to a different
meaning ... and to the ancient Egyptians represented the complete
whole of the deceased and not a being separate from the body.
Dr. Elaine A. Evans, McClung Museum: Research Notes 1157
Now back to abkar:
It would be difficult to find a text which would better indicate
that the deceased enjoyed the afterlife both as a Ba and as a
revivified body, or indeed, as any form he might assume, than does
a well-known inscription in the tomb of Paheri: (Thou shalt)
transform into a living Ba and truly it will have power over bread,
water, and air; (thou shalt) make transformation into a phoenix, a
swallow, a falcon, a heron, as thou pleases. Thou shalt cross in the
ferry boat without being turned back. Thou shalt sail on the waters
of the flood and thy life shall begin anew. Thy Ba shall not depart
1155
Barbara Mertz, Red Land, Black Land: Daily Life in Ancient Egypt (New York:
HarperCollins Publishers, 1966-2008), 312-13. (Emph. added.)
1156
Foy Scalf, The Role of Birds within the Religious Landscape of Ancient
Egypt, in Between Heaven and Earth: Birds in Ancient Egypt, ed. R. Bailleul-
Lesuer (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012), 35. (Emph. added.)
1157
Elaine A. Evans, Ancient Egyptian Ba-Bird, in McClung Museum: Research
Notes (Knoxville: University of Tennessee), 1993. (Emph. added.)
381
from thy corpse, thy Ba shall be divine with the Akhs. The
excellent Bas shall speak to thee; thou shalt be equal amongst
(them) in receiving what is given upon earth. Thou shalt have
power over water, breathe air, and drink according to the wish of
thy heart. Thine eyes shall be given to thee to see, thine ears to
hear what is said, thy mouth speaking, thy feet walking. Thine
arms and thy shoulders shall move for thee, thy flesh shall be firm
and thy muscles shall be strong and thou shalt have enjoyment
of all thy limbs. Thou shalt examine thy body (which will
be) whole and sound, without any evil whatsoever being attached to
thee. Thy heart will truly be with thee, thy former heart will belong
to thee. Thou shalt go forth to heaven, thou shalt penetrate the
underworld in any form that thou pleasest. ... In the mortuary
texts of these periods the meaning of the Ba is predominately that
of the alter ego of the deceased. ... This Ba is the personification of
the vital forces, physical as well as psychic, of the deceased, his alter
ego, one of the modes of being in which and as which he continues
to live after death. This Ba comes into existence at or after death,
is corporeal in nature, performs physical activities such as eating,
drinking, and copulating, and has wide-ranging freedom of
movement through the realms of the afterlife. Moreover, this Ba is
not a part of the deceased but is in effect (as referred to in some
texts) the deceased himself in the fullness of his being, physical as
well as psychic. All these characteristics make it obvious that the Ba
was not a soul in any of the connotations associated with this
word.1158
So as seen above, a bA has to be deliberately created, rather than it
coming into being spontaneously. And just what is it that gets created?
An alter ego. And how is one made? Through magic, in particular, spells
which transform the man himself into a bA. As stated, the bA comes into
existence as an emanation from the body. In other words, the bA is a
form of, a hypostasis of, and a part of, the biological body itself after the
magical spells transform that physical, biological body into a bA, into its
alter ego. Hence, as stated earlier, if applied to modern mythology,
the bA of Clark Kent would be Superman. The bA of Bruce Banner would
be the Hulk. The bA of Billy Batson would be Captain Marvel, etc. and so
on. Using magical spells to transform the deceased into his bA are like
using the magical spell Shazam! to transform Batson into Captain
Marvel, or like when Clark jumps into a phone booth to transform into
1158
abkar (1968), 155-56, 160, 162. (Emph. added.)
382
Superman. Superman is a form of Clark. He is not Clark's soul, he is
Clark's hypostasis, he is Clark's true form & identity- the state in which
his power is manifest. They inhabit the same body, for they are one & the
same entity. Hence the Egyptian expression bA to heaven, body to earth
would be Superman to heaven, Clark Kent to earth. When Clark
ascends to heaven like the gods, he does so in the form of his bA, in the
form of Superman- his alter ego. Superman is just as physical, corporeal,
and alive as Clark, because he is Clark. And just as Superman or Captain
Marvel or the Hulk all emanate from the same physical, biological bodies
of their human alter egos, so too the bA of an Egyptian human or god
emanates from his/her physical, biological body. Hence images in
Egyptian artwork depicting a person and his bA in the same scene should
not be any more confusing for us than when we see the same spacial
constraints used in comic books which portray both a human and his
superhero alter ego in the exact same scene. As seen below, the Hulk is
not some disembodied soul of Banner leaving Banner's corpse, he is a
physical form of Banner himself emanating from that same body, as is
often seen of the Hulk in his comic book series1159 or of Superman in his
respective series as well.1160
1159
https://goo.gl/eL6zTK.
https://goo.gl/YkO0AQ.
1160
https://goo.gl/LxgRGU.
383
Fig. 123: Bruce Banner and his bA, the incredible Hulk. The Hulk is not Banners soul or
spirit, but merely his alter ego.
384
Fig. 124: Steve Rogers looks back at his bA, Captain America.
Fig. 125: Dr. Jekyll transforms into his bA/alter ego, Mr. Hyde.
385
Fig. 126: Billy Batson transforming into his bA, Captain Marvel, through the use of
magical incantation, much like what the ancient Egyptians believed. Billy and his bA are
still one & the same corporeal entity, in spite of often being visually depicted visvis
one another.1161
1161
https://web.archive.org/web/20160410060441/http://www.flickeringmyth.
com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Billy_Batson_001.jpg.
https://web.archive.org/web/20160216211013/http://wac.450f.edgecastcdn.n
et/80450F/comicsalliance.com/files/2012/01/shazam1.jpg.
https://web.archive.org/web/20160422165632/https://upload.wikimedia.org/
wikipedia/en/b/be/Whiz-comics-22-capt-marvel.jpg
386
Fig. 127: And the same goes for Clark Kent and his bA, Superman. (And just as the
aforementioned Egyptian phrase declares: the bA Supermanis up in heaven, and the
bodyClark Kentis down on earth.)
387
Fig. 128: And the same goes for Nefertari and her bA.
Fig. 129: And the same goes for Ani & his wife Thuthu and their bA, just as it goes for
any ancient Egyptian.
388
Fig. 130: Thetis vs. Peleus; based on an Athenian red-figure kylix, 6th-5th century BCE,
currently at the Staatliche Museum in Berlin. As per the myth, 1162 to escape the lustful
embrace of Peleus, Thetis shape-shifts into various forms- a lion, a serpent, a bird, a tree,
water, fire, etc. Here Peleus embraces Thetis in her human form, yet is also attacked by
her in lion form and serpent form. All of these are forms of Thetis herself which occur at
later moments in chronological sequence, yet in this depiction they all appear
simultaneously due to spatial limitations. The sequence of different metamorphoses the
goddess undertakes in the myth is visualized by the simultaneous appearance of several
different animals.1163
1162
Sophocles, Fr. 150, 618, in Sophocles: Fragments, trans. H. Lloyd-Jones
(Harvard: Harvard University Press, 1996-2003), 61, 306.
Apollodorus, in Simpson (1976), 177.
1163
Annetta Alexandridis, Shifting Species: Animal and Human Bodies in Attic
Vase Painting in the 6th and 5th Centuries B.C., in Bodies and Boundaries in
Graeco-Roman Antiquity, eds. T. Fgen, M.M. Lee (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
See also Beth Cohen, The Colors of Clay: Special Techniques in Athenian Vases
(Los Angeles: Getty Publications, 2006), 322.
Thomas Mannack, The Late Mannerists in Athenian Vase-Painting (Oxford:
389
Spell for going forth by day ... letting him enter and leave the
god's domain and assuming the form of a living b.
In this respect, perhaps the best illustration of the bA concept is that
of the character Tyler Durden in the film Fight Club, directed by David
Fincher. In this story, Tyler Durden (played by Brad Pitt) is merely the
alter ego of the narrator & main protagonist, Jack (played by Edward
Norton). Jack often sees and interacts with Tyler as though he is a
physically distinct entity, occasionally even physically interacting with
Tyler via fist fights or sharing beers, etc. Yet they are one in the same
person, the very same physical body. Tyler is not Jack's soul or
spirit. When Jack is physically harmed, so is Tyler. If Jack dies, Tyler
dies. Tyler does not live on in some disembodied state like a ghost
should Jack die. Tyler has no existence apart from Jack, in any capacity.
The only way for Tyler to live again is for Jack to live again, since
Tyler is Jack. In fact, Tyler is even more mortal than Jack, because Jack
is actually the one who lives on (physically, of course) after Tyler dies.
For Tyler is merely his alter ego.1165
Fig. 131: Tyler Durden interacts with Jack, in spite of being literally the same
person as Jack. Seeing Tyler interact with Jack externally does not mean Tyler is Jacks
disembodied soul in some state of astral projection or other o.b.e., etc. Such is also the
case when Egyptians portray their bA. Tyler is not Jacks soul or spirit at all, he is Jacks
alter ego, he is Jacks bA.
1164
1165
https://goo.gl/QNIv9N.
390
As Dr. abkar wrote, the deceased thus is a bA and owns a bA.1166
You have your b, you being a b.
Fig. 132: Inherkhau interacting with his bA, in spite of the fact that he actually is that
very bA, just as Jack can still interact or even fight with Tyler Durden and at the same
time still be Tyler Durden.
Fig. 133: Ani interacting with his bA, yet at the same time he is that bA.
1166
1167
Faulkner (1973), 210. (Emph. added.) See also Spell 216, n.1.
391
This can be seen illustrated in Fig. 134-35, in which Osiris is
seen as his bA -form, Apis,1168 and yet elsewhere is seen with his bA,
Apis. The same occurs in Fig. 136-37, where Osiris appears as his bA-
form of Sokar,1169 but in another instance is shown with his bA in the
form of Sokar. In fact, in Fig. 138, Osiris is actually manifested as
both bA-forms simultaneously, appearing as Sokar and Apis at the same
time. In Fig. 139-40, Isis is off to the left in human form (always
identifiable by her trademark throne-shaped crown), yet the kite hovering
above the mummy is also Isis, thus clearly a usage of the bA. The fact
that a living body can be portrayed in a distinct location from its bA even
further distances the bA from the Greco-Roman idea of soul/spirit, which
allegedly animates the body and thus would render the body comatose or
dead upon its departure.
Fig. 134: Osiris as his bA (Apis).
1168
See pp.147-61.
1169
abkar (1968), 13, 84-85.
Pyramid Texts, Utterance 532 1256.
Book of the Dead, Spell 183 c S 1-2.
392
Fig. 135: Osiris seen here with his bA, Apis, as Horus takes vengeance on Seth.1170
Fig. 136: Osiris seen here in the form of his bA known as Sokar.
1170
Joseph Campbell, The Mythic Image (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1974), 24.
393
Fig. 137: Osiris seen here with his bA- Sokar.
Fig. 138: Osiris seen both as his ba, Sokar, and yet also with his bA, Apis. Recall-
You have your b, you being a b.
394
Fig. 139: To the left stands Isis in human form, while simultaneously she is hovering
above Osiris in bird form, thus clearly a usage of her bA.
Fig. 140: Same as before- Isis is to the left in human form, yet is also above Osiris in
avian form.
395
Fig. 141: Recall Dr. Smith's diagram above (Fig. 121).
Now continuing with the above analogy, there have been plenty of
instances in the corpus of Marvel & DC Comics in which superheroes
have in fact occasionally had their alter egos physically split apart from
the original body, thus causing the heroes to occupy two different points
in space simultaneously, and even physically interacting with their
alternate selves (such as fighting each other), yet they both still split from
& merge back into one & the same physical body. This is often seen in
396
official Marvel & DC media concerning Superman & Clark Kent1171 or
the Hulk & Bruce Banner,1172 etc.
Fig. 142: Clark Kent and his bA, Superman, physically manifest in different locations
simultaneously, in spite of being one & the same entity, as seen in the film Superman III.
Fig. 143: Clark Kent physically interacts with his bA, Superman, in spite of being one &
the same entity composed of the same flesh & blood.
1171
https://goo.gl/xYKH8Q.
https://goo.gl/a6OGaA.
1172
https://goo.gl/aQdSgw.
https://goo.gl/f4TDTQ.
397
Likewise, an Egyptian's bA/alter ego could temporarily split off a
portion from the original body thus allowing that person to occupy
multiple locations simultaneously, even though both are still using the
same physical body. This is seen in the many instances in which an
Egyptian god will maim himself and cut off an appendage from his body,
such as an eye, and then shape-shift that appendage into a different form
& send it out to do that god's bidding.1173 So too can a divine Egyptian,
through the use of magic, remove portions of his own flesh and mold it
into certain forms, or even into an exact replica of himself, and send it
out to act on his own behalf as though it were himself, since, as his alter
ego and his own flesh, it literally is still himself. And in cases when
bodies of different persons merge into one, like during the
aforementioned henosis of Osiris with Re, each body involved may be
referred to as the others bA or alter ego.
Hail to you, Osiris ... Ba of Re, his very body.
Stela of Amenmose 1174
And once again here the bA is explicitly equated with the body, and
not some incorporeal soul or spirit.
O great one who issues from the efflux which comes into being
from the human body. Go, go yonder bA of mine, that yonder
god may see you wherever he is in my form, my shape and my
wisdom you go by means of the efflux of my flesh and the sweat
of my head.
Coffin Texts, Spell 102 II, 106-08 (22nd cen. BCE)1175
In the Coffin Texts, there are portions of a liturgy whose aim
was to enable the ba to separate itself from the corpse and to exit
the netherworld unhindered. Spells 94-96 and 488-500 are part of
this liturgy. Spell 94 is entitled Causing the Ba to Depart from the
Corpse, a sentiment that runs counter to the fear, frequently
expressed in later texts, that the ba might distance itself from the
corpse. In this spell, the ba is still in close contact with the
body. Osiris has created it out of the discharges of his flesh and
1173
Edward F. Wente, Destruction of Mankind, in The Oxford Encyclopedia of
Ancient Egypt: Volume 1, ed. D.B. Redford (New York: Oxford University Press,
2001), 389.
1174
1175
398
the semen of his phallus; it is the ba in its blood. From
his bodily fluids, Osiris creates a ba that is to emerge into the light
of day and take sexual pleasure in the world above. This was a role
the deceased wished to play. In spell 96, the deceased calls himself
that great ba of Osiris, on whose behalf the gods have ordained
that he copulate by means of (etc.). The corresponding divine
commandment reads, Come out and copulate by means of
your ba. This concept shows clearly that the ba belonged to
the physical sphere. The ba belonged to the physical sphere of
the deceased, restoring his movement and his ability to take on
form. Here we are clearly in the horizon of the image of death as
corporal vulnerability. This much is shown by the list
of body parts enumerated in the spell: eyes, knees, jb-heart, HA.tj-
heart, ba, corpse, body, throat, and nose. The unity of the person
has collapsed, and it must be restored to the deceased. Even the ba
belongs to this group of physical aspects and elements; it is one of
the personal items that must be returned to the deceased.
As just seen, ones bA is a form of & part of the body every bit as
much as the eyes, ears, hands, legs, head, heart, fluids, etc. It is a portion
of the flesh & blood of the deceased. So it makes sense that it needs to
perpetually reunite with the original body from which it came, or as
Assmann said, it must be returned to the deceased, just as Superman had
to reunite with Clark in the scene referenced in Fig. 142-43 above.
The bA is the physical, biological body. It is both the whole body of the
deceased himself after being transformed, and it is any portion of flesh
taken from that same body, which allows the deceased to exist in various
locations and forms all simultaneously. Hence the bA is a consubstantial
hypostatic projection of identity and power.1177 Thus the Egyptian can
be in heaven, on earth, and below the earth, all at the same time- one of
the many perks of the magical power they acquire after being divinized
post-resurrection. Much like the god Osiris whom they emulate to obtain
that resurrection & transfiguration:
Osiris is present in several different forms at once, as will often
be the case in subsequent phases of the journey.
1176
Assmann (2001-05), 93-94, 97, 292. (Emph. added.)
1177
Redford (2005), 165.
399
Dr. Dimitri Meeks and Dr. Christine Favard-Meeks , Daily Life of
the Egyptian Gods 1178
Thats not unlike certain other Near Eastern gods like The Good
Shepherd1179 & his father, who claim to have the same ability, declaring
that The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool.
Another analogy to help illustrate this aspect of the bA is seen in
the Shonen Jump manga known as Naruto, by Masashi Kishimoto. The
title characters special skill is a magical spell known as kage bunshin
no jutsu. It allows the caster to split himself into multiple perfect
biological replicas of himself which are exactly the same as the caster in
every way. Bunshins can fight on the casters behalf when outnumbered
by the enemy, or they can perform any other task the caster is also
capable of. Once the spell has fulfilled its purpose, the bunshins are then
reabsorbed into the original body, transferring all of the energy,
memories, and experience to the caster. Whenever other characters in the
series interact with one of Narutos kage bunshins, even when they are
aware that it is a bunshin, they treat the bunshin exactly as they would
Naruto himself- because it is Naruto himself.1180 The only difference is
location. The kage bunshin is a consubstanial hypostasis of the caster,
just like the Egyptian bA. And like the bA, a kage bunshin can, through
the spell henge no jutsu, shape-shift into just about any form Naruto
desires, including inanimate objects.1181 Also like Narutos bunshins,
ones bA can be duplicated (I have duplicated your b for your power-
Coffin Texts, Spell 10061182) so that one can manifest multiple bA forms
at once, e.g. Re has at least seven.1183
1178
Meeks (1993-96), 153.
1179
See p.17.
1180
https://goo.gl/732BgF
1181
https://goo.gl/wNqNe5
https://goo.gl/opm5Po
1182
Faulkner (1978), 108.
1183
abkar (1968), 11.
400
Fig. 144: Through the kage bunshin concept, Naruto can manifest his body in multiple
locations simultaneously, and can even physically interact with himself, and shape-shift
into different forms- which are many of the same powers achieved through the
Egyptian bA concept.
Fig. 145: Re himself begins the middle register as the Eldest One, leaning on a staff. He
encounters four forms of Osiris, the 'lords of the Duat,' and addresses them.1184 Based
on the 3rd tableau of the Book of Caverns, from the cenotaph of Seti I, 13 th century BCE.
1184
Hornung (1999), 87. (Emph. added.)
401
Fig. 146: A certain other Near Eastern god physically interacts with his own alter
ego/hypostasis, allowing him to be present in several different forms at once just like
Osiris and other Egyptian gods.
Fig. 147: Once again The Good Shepherd is seen physically interacting with his own
hypostasis/alter ego, this time in the form of a bird, as can also be seen of many an
Egyptian bA (see Fig. 135-40).
402
The ability to become a bA is how a deity like Nut can be in heaven
forever holding up the firmament, and at the same time can manifest on
the earth or in the netherworld as a sycamore tree.1185 And it is how any
of the resurrected and glorified deceased can physically inhabit the
heavens, the earth, and the netherworld all simultaneously. Also recall
how at night Re becomes the bA of Osiris, and vice-versa,1186 yet both are
still corporeal- Hail to you, Osiris BA of Re, his very body.1187
Exultation and rejoicing (are made) for Osiris N., the divine body of
Re.1188
Once a bA of one person merges with a different body, that other
body too can now be referred to as a bA and serve the exact same
function as that bA and with all of the same abilities, since it now is the bA
during this period of unification. Hence Re & Osiris are referred to as
each others bA, the pharaohs were said to be the bas of Horus and Osiris,
and even an entire army could be called the bA of the pharaoh himself.
For another example, as established earlier, the moon is yet another bA
form of Osiris and yet it can also merge with the other lunar gods such as
Khonsu, Min, Ptah, Ra-Horakhti, etc. In Coffin Text Spell 80, the bA of
Shu says I became Osiris,1189 yet in Spell 333 Shus bA says I became
Re.1190 Then in Spell 312 Horus chooses an unnamed son of Atum
(Shu?) to act as his vicar in the netherworld, whom Horus endows with
his bA. This transforms the vicar into an exact replica of Horus, both in
physical appearance and authority. I have made his form as my form,
his gait as my gait, that he may go and come to Djedu, being invested
with my bA, that he may tell you my affairs.1191 On and on it could go
like this with such examples.1192
1185
See pp.305-08.
1186
See also pp.124-30.
1187
1188
Book of the Dead, Spell 133 b S, in T.G. Allen (1974), 108. (Emph. added.)
1189
1190
Ibid. 257.
1191
Ibid. 229-30, n.2.
1192
abkar (1968), 12.
403
Anyway, the point of all of this is that from now on, when reading a
translation of an ancient Egyptian text, understand that the words
typically translated as soul or spirit are actually bA and Ax, which
means that the text is referring to a corporeal, consubstantial hypostasis
of the deceased, to the deceased himself as his alter ego. Even the main
translations used throughout this book admit as much.
Soul (bA) Ax, blessed one, passim; magic power bA (for a
recent discussion of meaning see Louis V. abkar, A study of the
Ba Concept in Ancient Egyptian Texts.
Dr. Thomas G. Allen, The Book of the Dead or Going
Forth by Day 1193
I am a soul 1. Read bA.
Dr. Raymond O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Coffin
Texts, Vol. I 1194
Join spirit with spirit 2. Ax spirit.
Dr. Raymond O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Coffin
Texts, Vol. II 1195
For they have seen the King appearing in power BA, old
perfective of bA be a soul, have power the noun bA certainly
means power or might.
Dr. Raymond O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid
Texts 1196
A bA is a form of a corporeal body made of flesh, not some ethereal
soul, spirit, or ghost, etc.
1193
T.G. Allen (1974), 277, 283, 289.
1194
Faulkner (1973), 172-73.
1195
Faulkner (1977), 168.
1196
Faulkner (1969), 80, 83.
404
And He was Transfigured Before Them
Fig. 148
The bA was not the only form the body of the deceased could obtain
after its resurrection. There was an even better form, an immortal form, a
divine form. To obtain this form, those resurrected from the dead must
also undergo a transfiguration. This transfigured, glorified state is known
as Ax. Again, like the case with the bA, the Ax is not a soul or spirit. It is
still very much physical because it is a form of your body.
The Egyptians believed that by creating a mummy,
the corpse (khat) was able to achieve the ultimate transfigured state
known as akh and thus become like Osiris.
Dr. Lidija M. McKnight, in Mummies Around the World: An
Encyclopedia of Mummies in History, Religion, and Popular
Culture 1197
1197
Lidija M. McKnight, Religion and mummies, in Mummies Around the
World: An Encyclopedia of Mummies in History, Religion, and Popular Culture,
ed. M. Cardin (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2015), 352. (Emph. added.)
405
It was the au (Axw), or spiritualized, transfigured body (Xet)
which went to heaven (PT 474, cf. 318), a word which is often
translated soul or spirit, but without justification.
Performing the rites of mummification was believed to restore
the deceased to life, but this was not their only result. Another
consequence was that they elevated him or her to a new, exalted
status, that of akh. The root from which this word is derived refers
to a power or force which operates without visible connection
between cause and effect.
How was this power mobilized in the mummification ritual? It
could be harnessed through the medium of the spoken or recited
word, specifically through a category of spells known
as glorifications or transfigurations. The Egyptian word for
these, sakhu, is derived from the same root as the noun akh and
means literally making or transfiguring into an akh. One becomes
an akh as a result of their recitation. It was precisely spells of this
nature that Isis uttered to restore Osiris to life. Here we have the
answer to our question, how could the deceased hope to emulate
that god? By being glorified or transfigured in the same manner as
he was.
Resurrection 1199
The Egyptians considered their blessed, efficient, and
influential dead (i.e., the akhu) as living, that is, as resurrected.
According to Egyptian ideas on life, death, and resurrection, a
person did not have an akh, he or she had to become one.
Moreover, this posthumous status was not reached automatically.
Human beings had to be admitted and become transfigured or
elevated into this new state. The dead became blessed or
effective akhu only after mummification and proper burial rites
were performed on them and after they had passed through
obstacles of death and the trials of the underworld. Thus, only a
person who lived according to the order of maat, who benefited
from rituals or spells called the sakhuthose which cause one to
become an akh or the akh-ifiersand was subsequently buried,
could be glorified or become transfigured into an akh. Late Old
Kingdom and First Intermediate Period offering formulae attest the
idea that a person was made akh by the lector priest and the
embalmer. After reaching this status, the dead were revived and
1198
1199
406
raised to a new plane of existence. The positive status of the mighty
and transfigured akhu was mirrored by a negative concept of
the mutu who represented those who remained dead, i.e., the
damned.
As early as in the Pyramid Texts (PT 584 - 585, 612, 636,
648, 1712, 2264), Osiris is said to have become an akh (blessed,
justified, glorified, resurrected, mighty, etc.) through the deeds of
his son Horus; in the same way, Horus was believed to have
become akh-effective and was legitimized by his father Osiris.
Dr. J Jank, in UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 1200
A preliminary offering ritual is performed, the numerous rites
of which are called glorifications, or, literally, that which makes
one into an akh (s3w).
Dr. Harold Hays, in UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 1201
The goddesses Isis and Nephthys mourn and praise the
deceased, while glorification texts proclaimand thus enablethe
dead persons successful transition to a transfigured state of being.
Dr. Christina Riggs, in UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 1202
The akh is the human being as a glorified departed one, who
resides in the grave or the realm of the dead, but can also intervene
in life upon earth.
Thoughts 1203
Let me interject here briefly and point out how the fact that, once
transfigured, a resurrected Egyptian could still intervene in life upon
earth contradicts the common dubious objection from apologists which
asserts that after Osiris' death he was forever bound to the netherworld
never to return to the world of the living here on earth. However, this
1200
J Jank, Akh, in UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, ed. W. Wendrich (Los
Angeles: 2013), 2-3, 4. http://escholarship.org/uc/item/7255p86v. (Emph.
added.)
1201
Harold Hays, Funerary Rituals (Pharaonic Period), in UCLA Encyclopedia of
Egyptology, ed. W. Wendrich (Los Angeles: 2010), 8.
http://escholarship.org/uc/item/1r32g9zn. (Emph. added.)
1202
Christina Riggs, Funerary Rituals (Ptolemaic and Roman Periods), in UCLA
Encyclopedia of Egyptology, ed. W. Wendrich (Los Angeles: 2010), 2.
http://escholarship.org/uc/item/1n10x347. (Emph. added.)
1203
Te Velde (1990) 92. (Emph. added.)
407
ludicrous objection is even further destroyed on pp.478-86 in vivid detail
with countless scholars & primary sources. Now getting back on track:
They hoped for a transfigured body that resembled its earthly
counterpart yet surpassed it in both size and abilities. Although
once again fully functional, this afterlife body would be free of all
earthly shortcomings; it would even repeatedly rejuvenate itself in
the tomb. All the physical infirmities normally associated with old
age would be overcome in the renewed body. Missing limbs
would regenerate themselves, a severed head even rejoin its torso.
The unlimited capacity for change and regeneration is the
foundation for all ancient Egyptian beliefs about the hereafter.
It is shown always as a mummy, which indicates not merely the
physical body, but the more general concept of divine life-form in
the hereafter. A person can become an akh only after death, and
descriptions of the afterlife differentiate clearly between akhsthe
blessed deadand those dead persons who have been judged and
condemned. Related to the Egyptian verb meaning to illuminate,
the term akh is usually translated as transfigured one, for it is
through a process of ritual transfigurations that the deceased
becomes an akh.
Dr. Erik Hornung, Idea into Image: Essays on Ancient
The Pyramid Texts contain the oldest available references to
mouth-opening rites in Egypt. These are royal texts dating from the
Old Kingdom composed of a funerary ritual of mortuary offerings,
connected with
the corporeal reconstitution, resurrection, spiritualization and
deification of the deceased king, and involving magical apotropaic
formulae, mythical formulae identifying the deceased king with
certain deities, prayer and petitions on behalf of the deceased king
and proclamations of his heavenly transfiguration and greatness.
It is succeeded by a multitude of Utterances, for example,
endowing the deceased with charms to ward off serpents on his way
through the chthonic realm (Ut. 226-43), powers and aids in the
encounter with the ferryman (Ut. 300-311, 503-522), celebrating his
rebirth, resurrection, ascension, transfiguration and life as a God in
Heaven (Ut. 529-90), trailing off with addresses to the deceased
king as a God (Ut. 690; cf. Mercer 1952: I, ix-xi).
Dr. Gregory Yuri Glazov, The Bridling of the Tongue and the
Opening of the Mouth in Biblical Prophecy 1205
1204
Hornung (1989-92), 104, 184. (Emph. added.)
408
Egyptian thinking deemed that the corporeal self should have
integrity in death. The body wrappings and coffins
were regenerative casings that would allow the transfigured body to
emerge free from earthly imperfections.
Dr. Lynn Meskell, Private Life in New Kingdom Egypt 1206
The akh was the deceased transfigured into an eternal and
unchanging living being of light, frequently associated with the stars.
Elaborate ritual sequences formed a central part of the system
designed to bring the deceased back to life and keep them
there, i.e. to convert them to akhs, 'luminous ones', members of
the resurrected and transfigured dead.
Dr. Alan B. Lloyd, Ancient Egypt: State and Society 1208
Ritual of the glorification of Osiris
that his ba might become glorified, his corpse become stable,
that his ba might shine in heaven,
that his corpse might endure in the Underworld,
that he might rejuvenate each day of the month,
that his son, Horus, might be secure upon his throne,
being in his office forever.
Ritual for the Glorification of Osiris 1209
The glorified bodies (sw) are rejuvenated.
Temple of Edfu, V 29, line 13 1210
So even with unjustified ad hoc stipulations like the

aforementioned1211 by Mr. Carpenterresurrection is a very specific
idea of a dead person returning in a glorified body. There is no other type
of resurrection if we use the term properly1212which he uses to try
1205
Glazov (2001), 364, 367. (Emph. added.)
1206
Meskell (2002), 184. (Emph. added.)
1207
Ikram (2003), 31. (Emph. added.)
1208
Lloyd (2014), 226. (Emph. added.)
1209
Manassa (2007), 419. (Emph. added.)
1210
abkar (1968), 44, n.285. (Emph. added.)
1211
See p.221.
1212
https://archive.is/Rl4jG.
409
and distance the resurrection of The Good Shepherd1213 from the much
earlier bodily resurrection of Osiris still fails him in that purpose.
Carpenter man declares: Osiris resurrected? Not if resurrection is
defined as coming back in a glorified body.1214 Actually, as we just saw
in the sources quoted above, yes he was. Osiris, and the deceased
Egyptians who emulated him, most certainly were believed to have been
resurrected in a glorified body, which they called the AX.
He is Like unto a Man Beholding his Natural Face in a Mirror
Fig. 149: KA.
Just like the case with bA & Ax, the word kA too has often been
mistranslated as soul or spirit, and so there is no shortage of books
for obstinate antagonists to run to and say see! Here it says
'soooooouuuuul'!!1! But alas, as with bA & Ax, those too are inadequate,
outdated misnomers to use for kA. Double has likewise been a
traditional translation and is slightly more accurate, but still does not do
it justice. As previously touched upon briefly at the beginning of chapter
3, the kA is your reflection, your image (or appearance), and by
extension (especially in the familial context) your likeness. Just as you
1213
See p.17.
1214
410
look at the ground in the sunlight and see your shadow, you look in a
mirror or water etc. and you see your kA, your double, your image.
Hence why the hieroglyph for the kA is a pair of arms, since a person's
arms are mirror images of one another.
Like the shadow which cannot be detached from the object,
so, too, the Ka or Double is the reflection of the object as it is
conceived in the mind.
Dr. Andrey O. Bolshakov, Man and his Double in Egyptian
Ideology of the Old Kingdom1215
A mirror can enclose one's double (for example, the
Egyptian Ka).
Dr. Rabun M. Taylor, The Moral Mirror of Roman Art 1216
1215
Andrey O. Bolshakov, Man and his Double in Egyptian Ideology of the Old
Kingdom (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 1997), 126.
1216
Rabun M. Taylor, The Moral Mirror of Roman Art, (Cambridge: Cambridge
411
Fig. 150: A maid servant brings a mirror (and ointment) to Senet, which she describes as
For your kA; based on a relief from the tomb of Senet at Thebes, TT60, 20th century
BCE.
Hence why statues made of yourself are likewise called your kA, they
are images or likenesses of you, just as your reflection in a mirror is.
The external ka is any representation of the person in a graphic
image.
1217
Holland (2009), 59.
412
The k is the Double manifesting itself in representations ...
The Double exists only in the unity with its manifestations. ... This
is supported by the interpretation of purchasing servants
representations as buying their k.w.
Fig. 151: This statue is an image of Hor Awibre (18th cen. BCE), made in his likeness,
and as such it is his kA, as explicitly identified by the double-arm kA symbol upon his
head.
1218
Bolshakov (1997), 157, 262.
413
Fig. 152: Based on a KA statue of Amenemhet III, 19th cen. BCE.
414
Fig. 153: KA statue of Djoser, 27th cen. BCE, currently at the Cairo Museum.
Fig. 154: KA statue of Overseer of Works, Middle Kingdom period, currently at the
Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose.
415
Fig. 155: KA statue of a vizier, 18th cen. BCE, currently at the Walters Art Museum in
Baltimore.
Fig. 156: KA statue of Nehy, 13th cen. BCE, currently at the Walters Art Museum.
416
And just as children/offspring resemble their parents & ancestors,
bearing their likeness, or as we often call it, a spitting image of an
ancestor, children/offspring & their ancestors are referred to as kA of
each other, for they bear each other's likeness. Hence why kA was used
as an ancestral term for hereditary traits in Egypt. In the ancestral
context, the Egyptian kA was simply what we today understand as
genetics, as the hereditary traits passed on from generation to generation
through DNA. The Egyptians obviously were not aware of DNA yet, so
they utilized the kA/reflection concept to express that. Thus the Pyramid
Texts speak of Osiris as the kA of his father Geb:
O Osiris the King, you are his k.
Each ka was individual, but also, according to Lanny Bell, the
manifestation of a primeval ancestral ka moving from one
generation to another of each family line.
Dr. David O. Connor, in Encyclopedia of the
Archaeology of Ancient Egypt 1220
Summing up, one might call the ka the vital energy of men or
gods or the ability to function as a person. It must be remarked
here that the emphasis is not upon the person as an individual but
on the person as a type, entirely in accordance with the fact that in
Egyptian literature and art and other Egyptian phenomena it is not
the individual but the typical which is stressed. Men and gods have
a ka, have a personality structure that they have usually inherited or
received from their ancestors. In so far as one would wish to go on
ranking the ka among the various conceptions of the soul, the ka is
the ancestral soul, the total of hereditary qualities that an individual
human has received from the ancestors, his typical personal
structure. Hence we can understand that the offering to the dead
made especially by the eldest son and members of the family are
addressed to the ka of the departed. Children resemble their
parents in the structure of their personality. ... Elsewhere
also ka and ancestor are connected with one another. A wish
expressed for the departed is 'that his hand may be taken by his ka-
s, by his fathers'. Gardiner's descriptions of the ka as 'fortune' and
'position' become clearer if one considers the ka as ancestor-soul or
hereditary structure of the person.
1219
1220
Connor (1999), 100.
417
Thought 1221
When a man sees his likeness in a mirror, he is seeing his kA. When a
man sees his likeness in his son and/or his father, he is seeing his kA.
When he sees his profile painted by an artist, or a statue of himself
carved by a sculptor, he is looking at his own kA. When he sees his
picture on his driver's license, he looking at his kA, etc. and so on. Hence
the tradition of providing a kA with sustenance. If you happened to walk
by a mirror or a pool while eating an apple, you would likewise see your
reflection/kA eating an apple as well. Hence it was only natural to
conclude that if you ate food then so did your kA. And if the apple you
were eating likewise has a kA/reflection seen in the mirror, then providing
an apple at the tomb of the deceased provided a kA/reflection of that
apple for the deceased person's kA/reflection to eat.
Besides the owners Double, the Doubles of the chair he sits
on, of the table placed before him and of the food lying on it must
exist as well. Does it mean, however, that all the objects on the
earth plane have their Doubles? We have already touched upon
this question in the preceding chapters and the answer quite
logically following from our observations seems to be positive.
The words for your ka are associated both with offering
alcohol and with offering mirrors. The phrase for your ka might
be taken literally, with the mirror being the depository of the soul.
Each person has his ka a part of his soul and he goes to it when
he dies.
Dr. Carolyn Graves-Brown, Dancing for Hathor: Women in
Ancient Egypt1223
This is observed in a relief from the sarcophagus of Queen Kawit at
Deir El-Bahari in which a servant pours her a bowl of milk while
declaring that it is For your kA, O mistress. Kawit then drinks said
milk herself, but does so while looking into a mirror in her left hand.
1221
Te Velde (1990) 95-96. (Emph. added.)
1222
Bolshakov (1997), 262.
1223
Carolyn Graves-Brown, Dancing for Hathor: Women in Ancient
Egypt (London: Continuum UK, 2010), 167-168. (Emph. added.)
418
Fig. 157: When Kawit drinks milk, her kA/reflection in the mirror drinks that milk's
reflection too.
Thus it is no wonder that kA was described with exactly the same

physical, bodily, corporeal language as the body was, for it was a
reflection of that body. And thus it makes sense for scholars like Dr.
Smith to say that the kA denotes the complete person, only viewed from
a slightly different aspect, in this case, the different aspect being viewed
is that aspect in a mirror and the like.
The double is no incarnation of a certain component of a
man, but a complete copy of him as an individual.
You shall not perish and your ka shall not perish, for you are a kA.
The king is Ka.
The Loyalist Instruction of the Sehetepibre Stela II.15 1226
And that was written in reference to the then reigning, living king
Amenemhat III (19th cen. BCE) who, still being alive, was clearly not
some incorporeal ghost, yet was still a kA. His kA was himself, and not a
1224
1225
1226
William K. Simpson, The Loyalist Instruction of the Sehetepibre Stela,
in The Literature of Ancient Egypt: An Anthology of Stories, Instructions, Stelae,
Autobiographies, and Poetry, ed. W.K. Simpson (New Haven: Yale University
Press, 2003),173. (Emph. added.)
419
certain component of him. When you see your own reflection, you do
not interact with it as though it is a constituent part of you. You do not
interact with it as though it is some separate entity apart from you. And
you certainly do not interact with it as though it is your soul or spirit.
You interact with your reflection as though it is you, your self, your
complete self, the same self that the rest of the world knows you as. You
don't comb your mirror to change your reflection's hair, instead you
comb your hair. You don't shave the mirror or scrub toothpaste on the
mirror, etc. You do these things to yourself, because that reflection, that
image, that kA, is you.
The human ka was never represented as a separate figure,
because any representation itself is the ka.
Dr. Andrey O. Bolshakov, in The Oxford Encyclopedia
of Ancient Egypt, Vol. 2 1227
Just as a dead person casts no shadow, so also a dead person casts no
reflection in a mirror, i.e. no kA. These things were not other modes of
existence for a deceased person, they were indicators that they were in
fact still alive & kicking. If you still cast a shadow, you by default must
be alive & moving, rather than decomposed or sealed away in the
darkness of a tomb. If you still cast a reflection, you by default must be
alive & moving rather than rotted away or locked up in the darkness of a
sarcophagus, etc. This is somewhat reminiscent of the more modern
legends about how vampires lack a reflection because technically they
are dead. Hence an important part of the process of resurrection in
ancient Egypt was known as going to your kA to retrieve it- Someone
has gone to his kA, Osiris has gone to his kA.1228 (And that usually
involved going to one's previously departed ancestors to retrieve it,1229
since they were, after all, the genetic source from which you inherited
that kA and thus the source to which it returned when released by
1227
Andrey O. Bolshakov, Ka, in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt,
Vol. 2, ed. D.B. Redford (New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 2001), 216.
(Emph. added.)
1228
Pyramid Texts, Utt. 447 826 & 450 832.
1229
Assmann (2001-05), 99-100.
420
death.1230) If you have no kA/reflection then you're not truly alive, just
like a vampire. Hence also why Khnum is portrayed as endowing
newborn humans with a reflection/kA when they are created, for without a
reflection/kA, life cannot begin and birth cannot take place.
The Ka corresponded with the shadow in the visible world.
Like the shadow which cannot be detached from the object, so,
too, the Ka or Double is the reflection of the object as it is
conceived in the mind. But the Egyptian did not realize that it was
only a product of the mind. For him, it was as real and material as
the shadow itself; indeed, it was much more material, for it had an
independent existence of its own. It could be separated from the
object of which it was a facsimile and presentment, and represent it
elsewhere. Nay, more than this, it was what gave life and form to
the object of which it was the image; it constituted, in fact, its
essence and personality.
Ideology of the Old Kingdom 1231
The word mirror in ancient Egyptian is the same as that for life.
Dr. Emily Teeter and Courtney DeNeice Kleinschmidt-Jacobsen,
in The Life of Meresamun: A Temple Singer in Ancient Egypt 1232
1230
The ka returns to the social sphere from which it came, to the ancestors
who have already died- Assmann (2001-05), 101.
At death ones ka went to rest, subsumed back into its generic folds, a return
to commonality.- Mark Lehner, Fractal House of Pharaoh: Ancient Egypt as a
Complex Adaptive System, a Trial Formulation, in Dynamics in Himan and
Primate Societies: Agent-Based Modeling of Social and Spatial Processes, eds.
T.A. Kohler and G.J. Gumerman (Oxford: Oxford University Press, Inc., 2000),
319.
1231
Bolshakov (1997), 126. (Emph. added.)
1232
Emily Teeter and Courtney DeNeice Kleinschmidt-Jacobsen, 26. Mirror,
in The Life of Meresamun: A Temple Singer in Ancient Egypt, eds. E. Teeter and
J.H. Johnson (Chicago: The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago,
2009), 63.
421
Fig. 158: Khnum fashions the infant Hatshepsut and her kA/reflection upon his potter's
wheel, after which Heqet endows her with the breath of life; based on a scene from the
Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir El-Bahri, 15th cen. BCE.
422
Fig. 159: The new born prince is presented to Amen after being endowed with his
own kA/reflection, which is identified as such by the standard above its head (left) bearing
the double-arm kA symbol; based on a scene from the Temple of Luxor, 18th Dynasty.
KA doesn't merely mean your physical likeness, it can also extend to

a likeness of your personality/behavioral traits. Again, this is seen when
family members resemble each other in behavior, e.g. when a mother,
exasperated with the stubbornness of her son, tells him you're just like
your father! That is again because he is a kA or reflection of his father.
This goes back to the genetic link mentioned earlier. The DNA we
inherit from our ancestors not only determines the appearance of our
bodies, it also determines the structure of our brains, i.e. our minds.
Hence we will inherit the behavioral traits or reflections/kA of our
ancestors' personalities as well. When you look like your ancestors and
act like ancestors and live in the same environment as your ancestors, the
odds are good that your life will end up following a similar path as your
ancestors. Hence the Egyptians often used the word kA in relation to what
we would call destiny, fate, fortune, luck, etc. It's only natural that a
king's son was expected or destined to be king of Egypt just like he
was. And similar occupations have similar hazards, hence both a father
and a son who are king of Egypt might both end up as warmongers, or
423
victims of conspiracies & assassination attempts, etc. That similar life
story or destiny of one generation and the next was likewise credited to
the transference of the same kA from one generation to the next.
KA could designate human individuality as a whole, and in
different contexts it could be translated as character, nature,
temperament, or disposition. Since character to a great extent
preordains the life of an individual, k also means destiny, or
providence.
Dr. Andrey O. Bolshakov, in The Oxford Encyclopedia of
Ancient Egypt, Vol. 2 1233
The ka is the most complex concept in the Egyptian idea of
the person. The ka has to do with the individual identity of a
person, his or her character, and the way character determines the
shape and ultimate nature of a person's life.
Ancient Near East1234
By extension of this aspect of the kA as the source of one's behavioral
traits, phenomena at large were sometimes associated with a particular
person's kA, because the phenomena was reminiscent or reflective of that
person's behavior. For instance, if a king was a very aggressive
warmonger hell-bent on conquest, then his army or an act of war or a
natural disaster might be associated with that particular king's kA, because
of the resemblance (or reflection) between his aggressive, destructive
nature and destruction caused by those phenomena. Hence the
phenomena of strength, prosperity, nourishment, glory, respect,
effectiveness, permanence, creativity, magical power, etc. were all said
to each be a kA of the god Re.1235 The king was said to be a kA of all the
gods,1236 for he too is divine and thus shares in their nature or likeness.
Likewise, all of creation could even be referred to as the king's kA, since
the chief trait of an Egyptian king was his alleged authority over all
creation. If the king rules over all creation, and arranges it by his
command, then by default that same creation he rules over reflects his
1233
1234
Holland (2009), 59.
1235
Hornung (1978-99), 175.
1236
424
traits, just as the America under George W. Bush was a reflection of his
leadership and thus was regarded by its citizens as quite a different
America than the one under Bill Clinton. Just as popular culture might
regard the phrase America invaded Afghanistan as essentially
synonymous with the phrase Bush invaded Afghanistan, so too the
ancient Egyptians would've regarded a phrase like the king rules over
all creation as synonymous with all of creation is his kA. E.g.:
What you have commanded is everything that occurs.
Marriage Stela of Ramesses II1237
His ka is everything that exists.
Luxor Inscription of Ramesses II1238
Is everything that exists some incorporeal soul or spirit? Hardly. Just
reach out & touch the corporeal book or screen you're reading from right
now with your corporeal hand of flesh to see that. In an oversimplified
nutshell, the kA concept was an attempt to explain the observed similarity
between things, be it physical or abstract. The primary examples of
course being the similarity between you & images of you such as your
reflection or your profile in artwork, or the similarity between you and
your family members. In effect, your kA was you as an archetype.1239
The ka is the divine counterpart of the deceased, holding the
same relation to him as a word to the conception which it
expresses, or a statue to the living man. It was his individuality as
embodied in the mans name, the picture of him which was, or
might have been, called up in the minds of those who knew him at
the mention of that name
So knowing all of this, you can see the folly in the apologetic claim
against Osiris that his kA went on to rule the underworld ... when it was
1237
Assmann (1996-2002), 244.
1238
Ibid.
1239
Te Velde (1990) 95-96. Recall- It must be remarked here that the emphasis is
not upon the person as an individual but on the person as a type.
1240
Ibid. 125.
425
over he was still dead. However, his kA was preserved because his body
was preserved.1241 And yet, as quoted earlier:
Someone has gone to his ka, Osiris has gone to his ka.
Pyramid Texts, Utt. 447 826 & 450 832.1242
If Osiris is dead yet he is going to his kA, then what, pray tell, is
doing the going then? The kA is his reflection, not his soul or spirit. Thus
if Osiris is dead, then when you hold a mirror up to his corpse, his
reflection/kA will likewise be a dead corpse. This was covered earlier
when it was shown that a kA likewise needs to eat and eats whenever its
owner eats. If someone starves and emaciates, then when he looks in a
mirror his reflection/kA will also be starved and emaciated. If he is dead,
his reflection will be dead. If he rots away into nothing, his reflection
will likewise vanish as well, and vice-versa (hence the attempts in
ancient Egypt to erase certain persons from existence itself by erasing
anything that bore their image/kA or even their name, e.g. Hatshepsut or
Akhenaten, etc.1243). However, on that same point, if your reflection is
still alive, then you by default must still be alive. The perpetual existence
of one's kA/reflection served as proof that the person's xet/khet or body
which cast that reflection was still alive. As seen in the images of infants
being created & given a reflection by Khnum, the reflection was likewise
an infant- it was in the same state as the xet, just as when you look in a
mirror and your reflection is the same age & same state of health as you.
Osiris' kA/reflection most certainly did live on after death, but that is only
because Osiris himself lived on after death when he was physically,
bodily resurrected and transfigured into immortality. Hence the reflection
cast by that resurrected living body would be living as well. Of course,
no doubt obstinacy may drive some antagonistic readers here to resort to
toggling definitions & attempting to pigeonhole kA into the
children/family are also kA bit expounded upon earlier, but that was
hardly the usage of the word as employed in the apologetic contention
quoted above. But even when humoring that fallacious toggling, is
Horusin his role as a kA/reflection/likeness of his father Osirissome
1241
https://goo.gl/d2DZ7X.
1242
Faulkner(1969), 148-49.
1243
Ikram (2003), 25-26.
426
incorporeal ghost? The afore-quoted apologist has stated elsewhere that
Horus was supposed to be the archetype of the living king reigning on
earth,1244 rather than some immaterial kA [that] went on to rule the
underworld. No matter how they try to slice it, they just cannot escape
the fact that kA does not equate to a ghost/soul/spirit or some other non-
bodily posthumous mode of existence. And the same goes for bA & Ax as
well.
Now, since the idea itself of an alter-ego (bA) or a likeness (kA) is
abstract (like all ideas are), then as an idea it is technically non-
physical in that respect, and thus in certain contexts it may be fairly
referred to as such without contradiction with all of the above. To help
grasp this point, the same may be said of a person's name, for example,
the name Rameses. A name itself is abstract, it is an idea, and as such
is something non-physical, and yet if I say Rameses was king of Egypt,
I am not saying that a non-physical entity such as a name or a
disembodied ghost etc. was the king of Egypt. Rameses was very much a
corporeal entity with a living, physical, biological body.
In synopsis:
Ba is an alter ego/form/hypostasis in which a person is
physically manifest and executes his power, e.g. Superman is
the ba of Clark Kent.
Ka is ones image/reflection, which is observed in anything
bearing his likeness, be it his reflection in a mirror, his profile in
artwork (statues, paintings, etc.), photographs or video footage of
him, or family members who look and/or act like him, etc.
Shwt is shadow.1245
Haty is ones heart (as the seat of the cardiovascular system).1246
Ib is ones heart (as the seat of emotion, which is symbolized
today with this- . E.g. she loves him with all her heart, i.e.
she loves him with all her ib).1247
1244
http://sendvid.com/t6zvybig.
1245
abkar (1968), 135 n.63.
1246
Chester Beatty Papyrus VII.4-6.
1247
Remler (2000-10), 78.
427
Khet is ones body before death.1248
Khat is ones body after death.1249
Sah is ones body after mummification.1250
Akh is ones body after resurrection & subsequent transfiguration
into a divine state.
None of the above=a soul or spirit.
The above concepts were merely mistranslated as such by the
Egyptologists living in the immediate wake of the decipherment of the
Rosetta Stone (setting that trend of mistranslation for the next few
generations that followed), because before that the knowledge to
translate ancient Egyptian texts had been lost for around two millennia.
Thus the only point of reference those Egyptologists had for interpreting
these strange new (to them) concepts was their Western Romanized
thinking in which they were born, raised, & educated. But a long time
has passed since the Rosetta Stone and now scholars in the field know
better. So with all of that out of the way, we can now finally proceed on
to Osirian resurrection.
Handle Me, and See; for a Spirit hath not Flesh and Bones,
as Ye See Me Have
1248
Ikram (2003), 24.
1249
Ibid.
1250
Ibid.
428
Fig. 160: Pharaoh Tutankhamun handles the living body of his ancestor Osiris.
Because of the widespread ignorance of the above facts and the

reliance on outdated translations for these uniquely Egyptian concepts,
antagonists often claim that Egyptians did not believe in physical
resurrection. They say that ancient Egyptians believed instead that the
dead simply lived on as disembodied ghosts, and that the same was true
for Osiris. All of the previous material in this chapter debunks that
notion. Yet even in the rare instances when some of these fools
begrudgingly acknowledge that fact, they will still have a tendency to fall
into kettle logic and claim that while Osiris mightve had some manner
of physicality in his posthumous existence, it was all exclusively
confined to the underworld. And in that underworld Osiris & the
deceased were to forever remain with no possibility of escape, and
certainly never to return to this world of the living, and most definitely
never to return here in their physical bodies- so goes the claim. But alas,
this too is debunked by the primary sources and more updated
429
scholarship, as shall be seen. The sequence of resurrection in ancient
Egypt was firstly mummification of the corpse, followed by burial in a
tomb here on earth that involved magical rituals, then physical
resurrection of that same mummified corpse which had died (a
resurrection which thus took place within that tomb here on earth), and
finally the magical departure of that same body from its tomb here on
earth where it resurrected to ultimately ascend into Heaven & pass over
into the netherworld.
These inscriptions are called the Pyramid Texts. They are
spells that deal primarily with three stages in a kings resurrection:
(1) his awakening in the pyramid; (2) his ascending through the
sky to the netherworld; and (3) his admittance into the company of
the gods.
The deceased kings resurrected in their tombs/pyramids, and it is
common knowledge that those tombs & pyramids, many of which are
still standing today, were located right here on earth. Only
then, after they had already resurrected here, do they then travel to the
netherworld, wherein they dwelled by choice and not by duress. For
contrary to what antagonists allege, Osiris & the deceased could and did
return to the world of the living here on earth, as I cover thoroughly
on pp.478-92. So it is quite amusing to see such antagonists stick their
feet in their mouths with dubious statements like the following (sadly,
some of these are actually from competent scholars in other fields
irrelevant to Egyptology):
Osiris died and stayed dead.1252
A bodily resurrection for Osiris had been exposed as erroneous. 1253
The traditional Egyptian belief was that the body must be preserved
and/or an icon of the body provided in order to assure they would
continue their journey to the afterlife. There was, however, no belief
they would one day return to reclaim their restored body.1254
1251
Brier (1980-2001), 113. (Emph. added.)
1252
https://archive.is/xpup8.
1253
https://goo.gl/q7z2XV.
1254
https://goo.gl/7ZBuJW. http://goo.gl/KNq2JD.
430
Osiris doesnt get resurrected. He doesnt rise from the dead.
Osiris doesnt come back among the living. Horus- he doesnt raise
him from the dead. It has nothing to do with him rising again, it
doesnt happen that way. So Osiris does not join the living, he stays
dead.1255
Osiris didnt actually raise [sic] from the dead but remained burried
[sic] and ruled in the abode of the dead.1256
He was a dead god, not a living/resurrected one.1257
Osiris did not return to earth IN HIS RESURRECTED BODY.
Osiris body was dismembered and REMAINED IN PIECES, while his
DISEMBODIED SOUL sometimes came to earth.1258
Osiris did NOT resurrect back to earth according to the myth
We discovered that there is no tradition to support Mr. Tills thesis that
Osiris followers believed that he bodily rose for a period of time here on
earth. All indications are that Osiris reanimation was limited to the land
of the dead (duat) in the minds of his followers.1259
Osiris did not rise ... His body did not rise from the dead.1260
The Egyptians did not believe in a bodily resurrection from the
dead. Nonetheless, separate aspects of a persons personalityor, as
some have interpreted them, separate modes of a personwere believed
to remain active after death, even though the persons corpse remained in
the tomb.1261
What, for example, is the proof that Osiris returned to life on
earth by being raised from the dead? In fact no ancient source says any
such thing about Osiris.1262
1255
http://sendvid.com/s672vc0p.
1256
https://goo.gl/FB4thD.
1257
Ibid.
1258
https://goo.gl/1sGCwo.
1259
https://goo.gl/4MRLfE.
1260
1261
https://goo.gl/V61goz.
https://archive.is/EdGo9.
1262
https://goo.gl/boHSwD.
431
In my reading of the myth of Osiris, he does not rise from the dead
back to life here on earth. Literally, he came from Hades. But this is
not a resurrection of his body. His body is still dead.1263
How do we know Osiris is not raised physically? His body is still a
corpse, in a tomb.1264
My views do not rest on having read a single article by Jonathan Z.
Smith and a refusal to read the primary sources. As I read them, there is
no resurrection of the body of Osiris. And that is the standard view
among experts in the field.1265
Oh, really? Lets just take a look at what many experts in the field
have to say on the matter of Osiris and Egyptian resurrection of the body.
One of the afore-cited heathen was so kind as to define for us just what a
real resurrection entails- the body which DIED was the same body
which was RAISED, and that the person returned to life IN THEIR
ORIGINAL BODY [sic].1266 I have no problem with that, nor would
any ancient Egyptian, and thus nor should any experts in the field. That
being the case, I shall begin first with the physical, corporeal, biological,
bodily nature of this resurrection, and afterwards shall cover the location
of occurrence (i.e. here on earth). To start us off, there is the
aforementioned Egyptologist, Professor Bob Brier, also known as Mr.
Mummy. In 1994, Dr. Brier became the first person in 2,000 years to
mummify a human cadaver in the ancient Egyptian style.1267 He is one
of the worlds foremost experts on the subject of ancient Egyptian
mummification.1268 So if there is anyone who can explain
mummification, what the Egyptians believed about it, and why they
practiced it, that person is Dr. Brier. He states:
1263
Ibid.
1264
Ibid.
1265
Ibid.
1266
https://goo.gl/1sGCwo.
1267
The Great Courses, Bob
Brier, http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/professors/professor_detail.aspx
?pid=101 (accessed September 29, 2013).
1268
Long Island University, Bob Brier,
http://www.liu.edu/CWPost/Academics/Research/Scholars/Bob-Brier
(accessed April 17, 2013).
432
The Book of the Dead is the most important of all Egyptian
religious texts. Its main goal was to protect
and reanimate the mummy for continued existence in the next
world. It was actually called The Going Forth by Day because it was
intended to enable the deceased to get up again and resume
activities. ... Aside from general hymns, specific spells described
words to be spoken over the mummy at the time of burial, and
because the Egyptians were resurrectionists, it was important that
the body was intact and functioning. Of all the
spells reanimating the body , perhaps the most important was the
Opening of the Mouth ceremony.
Dr. Bob Brier, in Mummies Around the World: An Encyclopedia
of Mummies in History, Religion, and Popular Culture 1269
Because the next world was going to be a continuation of this
one, you would need pretty much the same stuff you had in this
worldclothing, food, furniture, even your dog. In 1906, the great
Italian Egyptologist Ernesto Schiaparelli discovered the intact tomb
of the architect Kha and his wife Merit. There, neatly folded, were
all the clothes the couple would need for their journey to the
afterlife complete with patches sewn on by Khas wife. In one
corner of the tomb was the board game that Kha and Merit played
in the evenings, and with it the stools they sat on. Because Kha was
an architect, he couldnt think of going to the next world without
the cubit stick he used to measure his building projects. Its all
there in the Egyptian Museum in Torino, Italy, packed by Kha and
Merit for the future. They were literally going to take it with them.
But what good were all the clothes you had packed for eternity if
you couldnt wear them? You needed your body. Enter
mummification.
Dr. Bob Brier and Dr. Jean-Pierre Houdin, The Secret of the
Great Pyramid: How One Mans Obsession Led to the Solution of
Ancient Egypts Greatest Mystery 1270
There were two aspects to the preparation of a body for
eternitythe physical and the magical. At the same time
various physical stages of preparation were being completed,
magical rites were enacted. Only a prescribed combination of the
1269
Bob Brier, The Book of the Dead (anthology), in Mummies Around the
ed. M. Cardin (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2015), 36, 38. (Emph. added.)
1270
Bob Brier and Jean-Pierre Houdin, The Secret of the Great Pyramid: How
One Mans Obsession Led to the Solution of Ancient Egypts Greatest Mystery
(New York: HarperCollins Publishers LLC, 2008), 13. (Emph. added.)
433
two could preserve the body for eternity. To fully understand the
rites of mummification, one must know the Egyptian myth of the
god Osiris, who is the archetype of all mummies .
So now this comes back around to Osiris specifically.
[Isis] hovered over Osiris body and brought him back to life
by saying magical words. From this myth came the practice of
mummification. The Egyptians were preoccupied with the dead
body and with the notion that it must be intact and have a proper
burial for resurrection. Even the practice of burying the dead in
anthropoid coffins may have come from the part of the myth about
the chest constructed to Osiris measurement. Osiris, who achieved
immortality, became the god of the dead, and all Egyptians wished
to join him. This is why in the Book of the Dead and in other
magical spells dealing with the dead the deceased is often called
Osiris or his name is joined with that of Osiris (for example, Osiris-
Ani). This is so that the deceased, too, will resurrect.
Ibid.
So again, as covered in the previous chapter, Osiris was not innately
immortal. He had to acheive immortality, hence why he even died in the
first place.
Isis hovers over a complete body. Finally, and most important,
she speaks the proper words and he resurrects. He retains the
same body he inhabited while alive.
Dr. Bob Brier, Egyptian Mummies: Unraveling the Secrets of
an Ancient Art 1272
Read that again. Let it really sink in.
He retains the same body he inhabited while
alive. Mummification thus becomes essential to immortality;
the body must be preserved for the afterlife.
Ibid.
It doesnt get any more explicit than that. What was that again which
one of the afore-cited antagonists claimed? Ah yes, it was there
1271
Brier (1980-2001), 68. (Emph. added.)
1272
Bob Brier, Egyptian Mummies: Unraveling the Secrets of an Ancient
Art (New York: William Morrow & Co., 1994), 23. (Emph. added.)
434
is no resurrection of the body of Osiris. And that is the standard view
among experts in the field. Yet here we have a bona fide expert in the
field stating precisely the opposite. Osiris, and the deceased who
identified with him, did indeed resurrect bodily from the dead. Some
readers might retort but thats only one scholar- big deal. Very well
then, as the old saying goes- theres plenty more where that came
from.
Once at the tomb the major rite performed was the ritual of
the Opening of the Mouth. This was designed originally to activate
statues and bring them to life but was later also transferred to the
treatment of coffins and mummies, which, for ritual purposes,
amounted to the same thing. Its function in the mortuary cult was
the all-important restoration of bodily functions to the deceased
such as speech, sight, hearing, and smell so that the inanimate
corpse was converted once more into a living
being. From this point it enjoyed the corporeal attributes needed
to take the deceased through the journey to the afterlife and
maintain them there in the fullness of their earthly being.
Dr. Alan B. Lloyd, Ancient Egypt: State and Society 1273
So again, bodily resurrection occurred in the tomb, which was here
on earth, and then from that point they journeyed to the afterlife.
Keeping with that theme:
The mummy rite turned around two themes: the animation
or reanimation of the statue or mummy (opening the mouth, eyes,
ears and nose, knitting together the bones, assembling the limbs,
attaching the head, establishing the heart in its place), and
purification and presentation of offerings (food, drink, clothing) to
ensure the continued survival of the newly (re)animated being.
The bodily members of the deceased were believed to be
reconstituted and revivified and he was allowed to travel to the
Land of the Dead.
Dr. Gregory Glazov, The Bridling of the Tongue and the Opening
of the Mouth in Biblical Prophecy 1274
In the Egyptian funerary world, the dead can retain frequent
contact with the world of the living through post-funerary rites,
1273
Lloyd (2014), 227. (Emph. added.)
1274
Glazov (2001), 363-64. (Emph. added.)
435
since he can be resurrected within his body. In general, death and
resurrection are two basic components of the Egyptian culture.
There is nothing in the Alexandrian hypogea that implies a
change in the ideas about the fate of the deceased. The treatment
of the body remains Greek: hence, unlike the Egyptian tradition,
there is no resurrection within the actual body of the dead. The
meeting between the two worlds concerns issues of memory and
ancestry rather than actual communication with the resurrected
dead, as is the case with Egyptian funerary practices.
Dr. Kyriakos Savvopoulos, Alexandrea in Agypto: The Role of the
Egyptian Tradition in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods 1275
Now recall what I had stated earlier about how resurrected
Egyptiansincluding Osiris, whom they emulatedwere in fact
believed to be able to leave the netherworld and physically return to the
world of the living here on earth. Continuing:
Horus, having resurrected his father, adorned him with the
fillet, and defeated his enemies; Osiris is free to leave the
Underworld. ... The ba of Osiris enters into the disk, which in turn
illuminates and revivifies the corpse of Osiris. The proper use of
the Great Decree will enable Osiris to manifest over his own
corpse, an allusion to this ability of Re
to resurrect his physical remains through the light of his disk.
Dr. Colleen Manassa, The Late Egyptian Underworld: Sarcophagi
and Related Texts from the Nectanebid Period 1276
Osiris comes back to life to become not only the ruler of the
underworld but also a model for all the deceased. Osiriss fate
incorporates both the weakness and the triumph of the
physical. The material body disintegrates into dust, but the annual
rebirth seen in nature each spring bears witness to the bodys
ultimate triumph over death. The belief that the body lives on after
death is one of the most salient features of Egyptian conceptions of
the hereafter.
1275
Kyriakos Savvopoulos, Alexandrea in Aegypto: The Role of the Egyptian
Tradition in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods- Ideology, Culture, Identity, and
Public Life (Leiden: Leiden University, 2011), 267, 324. (Emph. added.)
1276
Manassa (2007), 316, 415. (Emph. added.)
1277
436
At the beginning of the upper register, Isis and Nephthys
lift the body of Osiris to initiate his resurrection.
Dr. Erik Hornung, The Ancient Egyptian Books of the
Afterlife 1278
The idea that the sun god Re becomes a ba offered New
Kingdom theologians a new solution to a long-standing problem:
how to explain adequately the relation between Re, who as the
nocturnal sun spends time in the underworld, and Osiris, the ruler
of this same underworld. According to the newfound explanation,
Re himself becomes the ba of Osiris. Uniting with the body of the
underworld god each night, he penetrates him completely with his
light and thereby awakens new life. The suns journey gives
visible proof that light can be reborn in darkness, and the body in
death.
Here at Abydos, for the first time we see the idea
of resurrection. They had an idea already developed
of physical resurrection, which became so important.
Dr. Gnter Dreyer, in National Geographic Special: Egyptian
Underworld 1280
It is well known that the concept of life in the hereafter is
based on the physical resurrection of the mummy, the preservation
of the individual consciousness, (called by the Book of the Dead
knowing ones name) and of the family.
Dr. Maya Mller, in Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta: Proceedings
of the Ninth International Congress of Egyptologists, Volume II
1281
The ancient Egyptians carried out mummification, the artificial

preservation of the body, to ensure the survival of the body after
death. They believed that the dead body could be reanimated.
1278
1279
Hornung (1989-92), 107-10, 168. (Emph. added.)
1280
Gnter Dreyer, in National Geographic Special: Egypt Underworld, dir. N.
Donnelly (Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Television, 2009).
1281
Maya Mller, Braids for Paradise from Dynastic Egypt to the Islamic
Middle Ages, in Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta: Proceedings of the Ninth
International Congress of Egyptologists, Volume II, ed. J.C. Goyon and C. Cardin
(Leuven: Peeters Publishers 2007), 1345. (Emph. added.)
437
Dr. Salima Ikram, in UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 1282
Pyramid Texts are carved in vertical columns in sunk relief.
They are frequently painted green or blue-green, alluding to the
Osirian colour of rebirth, as well as to the sky to which the king
ascends when he enters the eternal divine realm and
becomes identified with Osiris. The spells are to aid the king in his
ascent to the sky and to his reception into the kingdom of the gods.
There are three main types of utterances: protective spells that
keep the king safe from scorpions, snakes and other dangerous
creatures; spells for the deceased to use in the Afterworld when
using boats, ladders, etc. to travel safely; and the last set of
incantations which is associated with the execution of funerary
rituals, such as the Opening of the Mouth, a ritual
that reanimates the mummy and restores its senses. ... The lector
priest would recite magical spells and prayers, while touching the
mummy's nose, mouth, eyes, ears and chest, thereby restoring its
five senses. Once the mummy was reanimated it joined the
mourners for one last time in a funerary feast, equivalent to a wake.
...
Opening of the Mouth: Ceremony which served
to reanimate the corpse.
It was essential that the mummies of the deceased continued
to function just as they had in life. ... The Opening of the Mouth
ritual continues to be a fascinating topic of study, as it reveals much
about the religion of the ancient Egyptians. It shows their desire
to reanimate the body to provide the deceased with offerings in the
afterlife.
Marissa A. Stevens, Mummies Around the World: An
Encyclopedia of Mummies in History, Religion, and Popular
Culture 1284
Isis, the devoted wife of Osiris whose body she
reconstituted and restored after death, was the divine patroness of
magicians.
1282
Salima Ikram, Mummification, in UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, ed. W.
Wendrich (Los Angeles: 2010) 2. http://escholarship.org/uc/item/0gn7x3ff.
(Emph. added.)
1283
Ikram (2003), 39, 186, 206. (Emph. added.)
1284
Marissa A. Stevens, Opening of the Mouth, in Mummies Around the
ed. M. Cardin (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2015), 331-32. (Emph. added.)
438
Dr. Ann Rosalie David, in Egyptian Mummies and Modern
Science 1285
It was the power of Ras name that allowed Isis to return
Osiriss reassembled body to life. The body was preserved so
that the entire personbody, name, shadow, ba, and kawould
survive and enjoy blessedness in the realm of the dead. Part of
the preparation of the tomb, at least from the New Kingdom
onward, was the Opening of the Mouth ceremony. This ritual
was among the most ancient and important in Egypt, since it made
it possible for something to live, or in the case of the dead body, to
live again. Belief in divine recompense after death also
necessitated a belief in resurrection, the return of the body to
life. The Egyptians believed the self could not exist in any real
sense apart from the bodythis was why those in Sheol were mere
shadows. Life in any real sense necessarily meant the life enjoyed
as an embodied person. In the resurrection, the shades of those
chosen to awake to everlasting life would be reunited with their
dead bodies, bodies given life once again by the divine
breath/spirit. But what can we say about the religious influence of
Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Syria-Palestine at the beginning of the
first century BCE, before the Roman conquest? Perhaps most
important, the goddess Isis became the central deity of a mystery
religion more widespread than any other in the ancient
Mediterranean world. The relevant aspects of Isiss divine character
for her mystery rituals were first her role in Osiriss death
and resurrection and second her protection of Horus, both as a
child and in his contests with Seth. Together these mythic roles
represented Isiss power over life and death.
The corporeal resurrection of the deceased comes about when
the ba visits the tomb and unites itself with the mummy. When
the sun-god shines in the darkness and speaks his creative word the
sarcophagi or shrines are opened and the mummies arise from
their sleep of death. They throw off the mummy-bandages that had
protected them and take food and clothing and all that was
necessary in the new life. Mummy-bindings had to be removed
at the moment of resurrection. Mummification prepared
1285
A. Rosalie David, The ancient Egyptian medical system, Egyptian
Mummies and Modern Science, ed. A.Rosalie David (Cambridge: Cambridge
1286
Holland (2009), 49, 59, 64, 256, 282-83. (Emph. added.)
439
the body for resurrection in the Underworld and protected it in
its journey to that mysterious space. Mummy-bindings were both
protective attire for the space traveler and, at the same time, the
bonds of death. They may be called the bonds of Seth, because
Seth was the god of death, who brought death into the world by
murdering Osiris. The thoroughness with which the Egyptians are
wrapped makes understandable such special prayers as the one
written on a coffin in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New
York, directing the goddess Isis to free the mummy from its
wrappings at the moment of resurrection.
Corporeal resurrection was not restricted to the privileged
members of the elite who were buried with all the ritual pomp and
circumstance on earth and who were mummified. Textual
evidence indicates that those who were not mummified on earth
could also repeat life in the Underworld. At the word of the sun-
god they also arose bodily from the dead.
Dr. Herman Te Velde, in Mummies & Magic: The Funerary
Arts of Ancient Egypt 1287
Osiris provided a model whereby the effects of the rupture
caused by death could be totally reversed, since that deity
underwent a twofold process of resurrection.
Mummification reconstituted his corporeal self and justification
against Seth his social self, re-integrating him and restoring his
status among the gods. Through the mummification rites, which
incorporated an assessment of the deceaseds character, the
Egyptians hoped to be revived and justified like Osiris. These rites
endowed them with their own personal Osirian aspect or form,
which was a mark of their status as a member of the gods
entourage in the underworld. Thus the deceased underwent a
twofold resurrection as well. Not only were their limbs
reconstituted, and mental and physical faculties restored, but they
entered into a personal relationship with Osiris that simultaneously
situated them within a group. On the one hand, he joins the
retinue of Osiriss worshipers; on the other, through the efficacy of
the mummification rites, which reconstitute his corporeal and
social selves, he follows in Osiriss footsteps by undergoing
the same twofold process of resurrection previously undergone by
that god.
The Egyptian conception of the individual, although
essentially monistic, nevertheless comprised two elements:
1287
Herman Te Velde, Funerary Mythology, in Mummies & Magic: The
Funerary Arts of Ancient Egypt, eds. S. DAuria, P. Lacovara, C.H. Roehrig
(Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1988), 29, 33-36. (Emph. added.)
440
a corporeal self and a social self. Death destroyed the integrity of
both, and in order for the deceased to return to full life, both had
to be reconstituted. It was not sufficient for a dead person
to recover the use of his mental and physical faculties; he had to
undergo a process of social reintegration as well, being accepted
among the hierarchy of gods and blessed spirits in the afterlife.
With corporeal and social connectivity thus restored, he acquired
a new Osirian form. In this form the deceased enjoyed not only the
benefits of bodily rejuvenation, but also the fruits of a relationship
with a specific deity that simultaneously situated him within a
group.
Dr. Mark J. Smith, in UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology 1288
Three basic conceptions underlie all ancient Egyptian beliefs
and practices concerning the afterlife. This applies to the Graeco-
Roman Period as well as earlier periods of Egyptian history .1289
The first conception is that of the continued survival of those who
die as physical or corporeal entities.
The first of these conceptions explains why the Egyptians were
so concerned to preserve the bodies of their dead. By themselves,
the sands and the hot, dry climate of Egypt were effective
preserving agents. However, the Egyptians developed elaborate
techniques of embalming or mummification to further the desired
end.
Because the Egyptians believed that the deceased survived
in corporeal form, they felt it necessary to make provision for their
daily needs. From their point of view, the nature of posthumous
existence was the same, in its practical aspects at least, as that of life
before death. Resurrection in Graeco-Roman Egypt was a bodily
resurrection, and it was accomplished chiefly by means of rituals
and operations actually performed on the body.
It will be clear from the survey presented above that body and
resurrection were closely linked in Graeco-Roman Egypt.
The resurrection in which the Egyptians believed was a bodily
resurrection, involving a physical entity which had been justified,
that is examined and declared to be free of sin.
Resurrection1290
1288
1289
Be sure not to miss that point, what follows also applies to earlier periods
of Egyptian history, not just the Greco-Roman Period.
1290
441
In Egyptian mortuary belief, Osiris was the proto-type
of every deceased individual. Everyone would become Osiris in
death and be endowed with life by Isis. Isis was the goddess
of physical restoration. All her life-giving actions were aimed
at the body and its vitality with the result that the body of
Osiris, restored and brought back to life.
The ancient solar mystery of Osiris and Re becoming one
[was] the prototype of human resurrection.
Dr. John C. Darnell, The Enigmatic Netherworld Books of
the Solar-Osirian Unity1292
This union of ba and corpse produced resurrection, just as the
uniting of the sun god and Osiris in the underworld each night
rejuvenated both gods. On account of this doctrine, it was essential
that the corpse should be transformed through mummification
into an eternal, perfect body which could be reunited with the ba.
Dr. John H. Taylor, Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt
1293
The three sarcophagi all display essentially the same design

scheme, with a uniform distribution of texts that tell of the function
of the sarcophagus as an agent of bodily resurrection. The texts
from the three sarcophagi, largely parallel in both content and
placement, stress themes that enhance the process
of physical resurrection. Mummification in itself entailed a
mythological reference to the resurrection of Osiris.
Dr. Lana Troy, in Thutmose III: A New Biography1294
In mythology, Isis, the wife of Osiris, and Nephthys, his sister,
searched for the body of Osiris after he had been murdered by
Seth. When they had found it, they restored Osiris to life.
Dr. Lorna Oakes and Lucia Gahlin, Ancient Egypt1295
Since Isis and Nephthys mourned the dead Osiris
before bringing him back to life, the presence of these
goddesses identified the deceased with Osiris, thus guaranteeing his
1291
Assmann (2001-05), 33-35, 66, 116, 364. (Emph. added.)
1292
1293
Taylor (2001), 23. (Emph. added.)
1294
Troy (2006), 155, 156, 164. (Emph. added.)
1295
Oakes (2002-05), 227. (Emph. added.)
442
resurrection Tutankhamuns successor, King Ay, is shown
performing the opening of the mouth ritual on the royal mummy
in order to reanimate the body.
Dr. Gay Robins, The Art of Ancient Egypt: Revised
Edition1296
Just as Osiris was killed and rose to new life, so the dead king,
identified with Osiris, through the recitation of the spell is made
alive again. In other words, what we have here is
the bodily resurrection of the dead king.
The mythological revivification of Osiris by the goddess Nut,
known from the Pyramid Texts, is here applied to the deceased
Nebseny, the gesture of spreading over the body of the deceased
indicating the act of revivification. Other texts, especially those of
the later period, speak of making to live, animating (sanx),
the corpse, just as they speak of animating the Ba, the Akh, the
heart, the Ka, and the Shadow. Thus it can be said that the
Egyptian believed that the corpse could be revivified, a belief which
was undoubtedly based upon a ritual identification with the
revivification of Osiris. If in its transit from the temporal
existence the body was ritually revivified, the Egyptian knew no
final death. Should this restoration of the body fail to be achieved,
the body would remain an inanimate corpse and would suffer the
fatal second death. A special spell, chapter 44 of the Book of the
Dead, was provided to save the deceased from this final
destruction. A passage in the Coffin Texts read: I am risen as king
of the gods and I shall not die again. Primitive man never
considered death a natural or normal event. The Egyptian of the
mortuary literature denied the sting of death and continued to
live not because he believed in the existence of an immortal soul,
a thought which could appeal to the Greek mind but
could not satisfy the aspirations of the man on the Nile, but
because all of his faculties, physical as well as psychic, continued to
exist; he lived eternally as a man, in the fullest meaning of the word.
Egyptian Texts1297
After the resurrection the body can function again and eat the
food. Without this resurrection the body is powerless and suffers
hunger and thirst. The rigidity of death is
finished. The body functions again. The dead wishes the
1296
Gay Robins, The Art of Ancient Egypt: Revised Edition (London: The British
Museum Press, 1997-2008), 115, 158. (Emph. added.)
1297
abkar (1968), 82, 155-56. (Emph. added.)
443
mummy bandages to be loosed in order to be free to execute the
functions of his body. The bandages which are on my intestines
are opened. The mummy bandage is thrown off, so that the dead
may rise.
Egyptian Conceptions1298
So no, clearly it is not the case that there is no resurrection of the
body of Osiris. And that is the standard view among experts in the
field. Things are quite the opposite, in fact. And these scholars have no
choice but to acknowledge that Osirian resurrection in ancient Egypt was
believed to be a physical, corporeal, biological resurrection of the same
body which had died and which took place in the tomb here on earth-
for the primary sources time & time again declare as much, with
absolutely no ambiguity or room for interpretation.
Fig. 161: If the so-called soul is roosting in the tree to the left, then clearly what is
rising from the bier to new life is not the soul, but is actually the body.
1298
Zandee (1960), 13, 80, 108. (Emph. added.)
444
Fig. 162
Fig. 163: The resurrected Osiris regains his bodily senses, such as smell.
445
Fig. 164: The resurrected Osiris getting ready to lift himself up off his bier.
Fig. 165: Osiris rises, yet there's no inert body still lying on the bier beneath him as he
rises, because this is not some soul leaving a body- it is Osiris rising in his body.
446
Fig. 166
447
Fig. 167
Fig. 168: Horus helps the fully risen Osiris stand up on his feet, an odd thing to do if
Osiris were just some incorporeal ghost here, which, of course, he is not.
448
Now shall be quoted the primary sources concerning the physical,
bodily nature of Osirian resurrection, and then afterwards even more
sources demonstrating that the location of that bodily resurrection
was here on earth. I reiterate that the setting was here on earth, so that
you the reader will bear that in mind as you read the following texts.
Osiris awakes, the languid god wakes up, the god stands up,
the god has power in his body.
That's quite explicit and concise. No ambiguity about it. In fact, other
religions have claimed bodily resurrection of their own deity based on
scriptures even less explicit than that. For example, in The Good
Shepherds religion, the most explicit scripture (of the very few
examples) I've been able to find so far which specifically portrays him as
resurrecting in his body is the one which says- Destroy this temple, and
in three days I will raise it up. But he was speaking of the temple of his
body. O how members of that religion would love to have a passage in
their canon so explicit as The Lord awakes, the languid one wakes up,
the Son of God stands up, the Lord has power in His body. But alas,
there is no passage in their canon of such quality to compete with PT
2092 and many of the other funerary texts that shall be presented. And if
they were so fortunate as to have a passage like that in their scriptures,
there is no doubt that they would take it to mean exactly what it says it
means and use it as evidence of The Good Shepherds bodily
resurrection (as they should), rather than ignore it and claim that his body
was merely preserved while his disembodied soul went on to reign in the
afterlife (as they've dubiously claimed of Osiris).
Both in quality and in quantity, the scriptures about The Good
Shepherds bodily resurrection are far inferior to the ancient Egyptian
primary texts about Osiris bodily resurrection here on earth. If someone
proposed something as ridiculous as (akin to what antagonists have
claimed) The Good Shepherds dead body just needed to be protected so
that he could be raised over in the afterlife rather than here on earth- that
person should be expected to show where in this his scriptures they are
getting such a strange idea from & how they reconcile that with passages
1299
449
like the one quoted above (temple of his body) which unambiguously
describe a bodily resurrection here on earth. Likewise, antagonists should
be expected to do the same with their equally dubious claims about
Osirian resurrection.
Anyway, to really get this section rolling, I think it'll be most
amusing to start with the texts that most directly contradict statements
from the antagonists quoted earlier, such as Mr. Chi-Rhos Osiris does
not rise to his former state and go on living.1300
O Osiris the King, stand up! Horus has caused you to stand up
You shall come to your former condition, for the gods have knit
together your face for you.
So evidently, Osiris most certainly did rise to his former state. This
is also seen The Songs of Isis and Nephthtys 2.5:
Mayest thou travel around heaven and earth in thy former
shape.1302
The Coffin Texts likewise stated-
Geb will open for you your blind eyes, he will straighten for
you your bent knees, there will be given to you your heart (ib)
which you had from your mother, your heart (HAty) which belongs
to your body, your bA which was upon earth, your corpse which
was upon the ground. There will be bread for your body, water for
your throat, and sweet air for your nostrils. The owners of tombs
will be kindly to you, the owners of coffins will come to you, they
will bring to you your members which were far from you, when you
are re-established in your original shape.
So that leaves no ambiguity. The former shape, the former
condition, the original shape Osiris had prior to death is that of his
living physical body. A body complete with eyes that can see, knees that
can walk, a heart that beats, a body that eats bread, a throat that drinks
1300
https://goo.gl/d2DZ7X.
1301
1302
Raymond O. Faulkner, The Bremner-Rhind Papyrus: I. A. The Songs of Isis
and Nephthys, The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 22, no. 2 (1936): 126.
(Emph. added.)
1303
450
water, nostrils that breathe, etc. Of course, its more concisely stated
again in the following:
Raise yourself [in] your shape, for that is your body.
Hi, Osiris. Thou renewest thy youth, thou renewest thy youth,
forever and ever in thy rejuvenation, in thy rejuvenation, Osiris, in
the sky. Thou dawnest in the eastern Horizon of the Sky. Thou
resumest thy form of yesterday.
This spell restores Osiris to his youth. In his youth, was Osiris an
inert lifeless mummy? Of course he wasnt. In his youth, was Osiris an
incorporeal ghost? Of course not, and besides that, it has always been my
understanding that traditionally ghosts do not age, and hence would have
no need for a spell like this. Osiris here resumes the form he had
yesterday, just like the sun which dawns in the east- the same today
and tomorrow just as it was yesterday. The sun was physically active
yesterday and is still physically active today, so likewise yesterday (i.e.
the past) Osiris was alive and healthy in his physical body. This also
maintains the theme that Osiris was restored to his form of
yesterday/former shape/former condition/original shape he had
before death, which was his living body. But he was not merely restored
to his original state, he also went on to surpass it-
The (re)assembled (members) (of Osiris N.) surpass,
they surpass his original state.
Book of the Dead, Spell 161 S 41306
And this makes sense, for as covered earlier, after resurrection the
body is transfigured to a glorified, divine state. Anyway, continuing
Usher him in to me, uncover for him my injured privy parts, I
let him see my woundsso says Osiris.
Coffin Texts, Spell 36 I, 1421307
1304
1305
1306
1307
451
The talk of showing the wounds of Osiris' slain body reminds me of
a story in which The Good Shepherd1308 likewise told a certain
doubting follower of his to come and see the wounds of his risen body
as firsthand proof that his resurrection actually occurred, and that he was
not just some disembodied ghost.
Come, let us lament Osiris since he is far from us. Rise, rise in
the morning now that you are a mummy.
So, yet again, it is the mummy that rises- the physical body which
had died.
I bring for you your heart into your body.
You have your heart, and it will not be seized among those
who are in strife.
Hail to you, my father Osiris I put your heart into
your body for you, that you may remember what you have
forgotten.
Coffin Texts, Spell 62, I 2651312
Awake, Osiris Raise yourself in your name of Raiser, stand
up in your name of Stander, receive your head and be glad.
Coffin Texts, Spell 67, I 282-871313
The heads a body part.
Stand up on your intact feet Live, Osiris!
Coffin Texts, Spell 74 I, 312-131314
I gather the bones of Osiris together and I make his flesh to
flourish daily, I make his limbs hale daily.
1308
See p.17.
1309
1310
1311
1312
1313
1314
452
Coffin Texts, Spell 80 II, 421315
May you have power in your heart (ib), may you have power in
your heart (HAty), may you have power in your arms, may you have
power in your legs.
Coffin Texts, Spell 225 III, 222-241316
They remove the dimness of your sight and the wrinkles which
are on your limbs; they open your blind eyes, they extend your
contracted fingers.
May your head be raised, may your heart live, may you possess
your flesh ... on your body, may you ever be in the Following, may
you live.
Coffin Texts, Spell 230 III, 2981318
May your head be raised, may your brow be made to live,
may you speak for your own body, may you be a god, may you
always be a god.
You have your legs; lift up your body, gather
your members together, that you may tread out the paces to the
tribunal, to the place where the gods are, that they may give you
the fluid which issued from you. May you never be inert, having it.
All the lower portions of the gods-offerings have come to me,
(even) the due of Her who is behind her lord, the Companion of
the Bull of Nedit who makes his body to breathe.
I have come that I may restore my body, ease
my wounds and cover up my portal because of what is in it.
1315
1316
1317
1318
1319
1320
1321
453
My bA is with me, I have power in my body.
I am Osiris; I have come to Rostau in order to know the secret
of the Netherworld into which Anubis is initiated. My mouth is
split open, my eyes are split open, I am made a sAXtwi,
my members are gathered together.
Come, raise yourself, O Lord of walls, seek out the Lady of
Dep, stir up the living body, go to and fro in the sight of the plebs.
Coffin Texts, Spell 379 V, 431325
So again, Osiris & the resurrected deceased were not confined to the
netherworld. Here it is stated that he could & did travel about in in the
city of Dep (a city here, on earth, in the world of the living1326) in plain
sight of its plebs, and in his living body, of course.
My head has been brought to me, my bones have been
gathered together, my members have been made hale for me, and
my great magic power has been brought to me with it, I being hale;
the offerings for the mouth have been made, the hair has been put
together.
There again it is confirmed that magic is necessary for the physical
resurrection of the corpse.
May you make me hale, may you make my flesh hale, may you
make my members hale, may you grant supports for my bones.
Coffin Texts, Spell 407 V, 222-241328
1322
1323
1324
1325
Faulkner (1977), 13. (Emph. added.) The translator's commentary for this
utterance states that Lord of walls means the occupant of the walled tomb-
chamber and clarifies that it is the deceased himself who is being roused to
activity in the living body. So once more it is seen that the resurrection
occurs in the tomb here on earth and that it was expected that the physical,
biological body of the deceased/Osiris got up and literally walked out of the
tomb, going to and fro.
1326
Allen (2005), 352-53.
1327
454
Raise yourself upon your iron bones and [golden] flesh, for
this [body] of yours belongs to a god; it will not grow mouldy, it will
not putrefy, it will not be destroyed. [The warmth which is on
your mouth is] that which issued from the nostrils of Seth, and the
winds of the sky will be destroyed if the warmth which is on your
mouth is destroyed; [The sky] will be deprived [of] the stars if the
warmth which is on your mouth is lacking. May your flesh be born
to life, and may your life be [more than] the life of the stars in their
season of life.
Coffin Texts, Spell 519 VI, 108-091329
I am Isis, and I have come that I may lay hold of you and that
[I] may place your heart in your body [for] you.
Coffin Texts, Spell 526 VI, 118-191330
I possess my heart, [I have] power [in it], and it will forbid
what has been done to me. I am one having strength in my own
members, and my heart will obey me, [for I am] its [lord], and it is
in [this] body of mine.
Coffin Texts, Spell 715 VI, 3451331
Your libation is poured by Isis, Nephthys cleanses you, (even)
your two sisters great of magic. Your bones are knit together for
you, your members are collected for you, your eyes are set in
your face for you.
The members in Osiris are inert, but they shall not be inert.
Isis has come so that she may cause air to go forth, for she
wants it to enter into the holes which are in your head, so that you
may live and speak to her.
1328
1329
1330
1331
1332
1333
1334
455
My heart is assessed, my members are gathered together; I
am raised up thereby, you being alive for ever(?). I am one
profitable of speech who went forth from Geb.
Your father Geb will open his doors for you. You shall
have power in your body, the doors shall be turned back, and the
gates of the tomb shall be opened.
Kick him in your name of Orion, for Horus will capture Seth
in order to raise up your [corpse] bearing this staff(?).
Your soul being within you and your feet being in your place,
you being renewed and young.
Your mother comes to you; see, Nut has come so that she may
join your bones together, knit up your sinews, make
your members firm, take away your corruption and take hold of
your hand, so that you may live in your name Living One. May
you live for ever!
Take the Eye of Horus which combines your flesh and pulls
together your members take what is in the Mansion of Ptah, for
it will join you together; may your limbs not be weak, may the
languor of faintness not be in you.
Coffin Texts, Spell 862 VII, 65-661340
TO MAKE OSIRISS NECK FIRM FOR HIM. Hail to you,
my father Osiris Onnophris! I have come so that I may protect you,
that I may make [your] members comfortable for you, that I may
knit on [your face for you(?)], that I may make your [neck firm for]
you, that I may make your flesh strong, that [I may cause]
your skin [to be permanent(?) your neck] will be made firm
[your flesh] is hale.]
1335
1336
1337
1338
1339
1340
456
Coffin Texts, Spell 876 VII, 85-871341
I place your heart in your body for you, for you are Osiris
and you are powerful and able(?).
O Osiris I will come and bring you your feet and
your testicles; I give you the efflux which issued from you, and by
means of it you will not be inert.
Your breathing has come to an end(?), the garment of
darkness is [your(?)] garment []. You shall have air for what is in
my body.
Coffin Texts, Spell 1025-26 VII, 247 1344
I have restored Osiris to health. I have seen what I
have restored to health in Osiris, so do not mourn(?) over his flesh.
Coffin Texts, Spell 1036-37 VII, 284-86, Spell 1148 VII, 498-
991345
As for Osiris every limb of his is in the place which they
reached. The limb of his which he allots to his semblance(?) are
necessary.
Coffin Texts, Spell 1119, VII 451-521346
Breathe the refreshing breath of the north wind, having
ascended in the sky in attendance on the living disk,
thy body protected and thy heart glad. No harm shall happen to
thy body, for thou art sound; thy flesh shall not decay. Follow the
disk (from the time) when he dawns in the morning until his setting
in life takes place. (There shall be) water for thy heart, bread for
thy belly, raiment to clothe thy body.
Book of the Dead, Spell 6C S 11347
He opens my closed eyes, he straightens my crooked feet.
Anubis has strengthened my knees that indeed support me. I
1341
1342
1343
1344
1345
1346
1347
457
perceive with my heart, I control [my breast]. I control my hands, I
control my feet.
Book of the Dead, Spell 26 b S 2-41348
I have my heart and control it. It shall not tell what I have
done. I am one who controls his own members. Obey me,
my heart, (for) I am thy lord while thou art in my body.
I am put together, renewed, and rejuvenated. I am Osiris.
Book of the Dead, Spell 43 b S1350
(I) am acting in behalf of him who is yonder, exhausted, so that
he who is full of pus may reconstitute himself.
I control my heart, [I] control my breast. I control my hands, I
control my feet. I control mortuary offerings. I control water, I
control [air]. I control the flood, I control the river, I control the
shores. I control them that act against me, both male and female, in
the gods domain; I control them that commanded to act against
me (on earth). (I) lift (myself) from (my) left side, (I put myself) on
(my) right side; (I) lift myself from (my) right side and put myself in
a sitting position, that (I) may stand and shake off my
dust. My tongue (adheres) to me as a clever guide.
Book of the Dead, Spell 68 S 5-61352
Thy head is attached to thee, Osiris; made fast to thee is
thy neck, Osiris. Thy heart rejoices, since thy wish abides.
Behold ye my members which he has given; watched over are
all my limbs, which they (i.e., the Ennead) have caused to flourish.
Book of the Dead, Spell 140 P 2, S 2 1354
O Osiris Come at thy setting, powerful in thy Body.
1348
1349
1350
Ibid. 50.
1351
1352
1353
1354
458
Book of the Dead, Spell 142 T var.1355
I may perform the purification of Osiris. (I) have saved him as
a justified one; (I have) united (for him) his bones and assembled
(for him) his members.
Book of the Dead, Spell 147 g S 4-51356
His members may live and his body stay healthy forever.
Book of the Dead, Spell 168 A b S 9 1357
Raise thyself from thy right side, raise thyself from thy left
side. Geb opens for thee thy blind eyes, he straightens thy crooked
feet. Given thee is thy heart of (thy) mother, thy breast of thy body.
Thou hast stayed alive, thy soul has stayed sound, thy corpse
endures and waxes. Thou seest the torch, thou breathest air, thy
face has been opened in the house of darkness.
Book of the Dead, Spell 169 a S 2-b S 1, h S 1358
(O) Osiris N., (I) have given thee thy flesh, (I have) put
together for thee thy bones, I have assembled for thee
thy members. (Shake off) for thyself the earth that adheres to
thy flesh.
Setting upright the corpse, [opening] the eyes, strengthening
the ears, and making fast the head put in its place.
Book of the Dead, Spell 178 P1360
Thy son Horus is thy savior. He does away with all the evil that
clings to thee, binding to thee thy flesh, assembling for thee
thy members, uniting for thee thy bones, bringing thee
[thy heart from the gods that are in the nether world]. Pray raise
thyself, Osiris. (I) have given thee thy arms; I cause thee to stand,
alive forever, and Geb wipes for thee thy mouth. The great Ennead
has saved thee.
Book of the Dead, Spell 181c S 31361
1355
1356
1357
1358
1359
1360
1361
459
(Book) for causing Osiris to endure, giving breath to the
Weary-hearted One I have given the refreshing breath of the
north wind to Osiris-Unnofer as when he came forth from the
womb of (her) who bore him. I cause Re to set as Osiris, Osiris
having set as Re. I cause him to enter the secret pit to revive the
breast of the Weary-hearted One.
Book of the Dead, Spell 182 18th-21st dynasties P 1, a S 2 1362
This spell restarted Osiris heart beat and caused him to breathe
again just as when he first started breathing on the day he was born. So
as a newborn baby, was Osiris an incorporeal ghost? Of course not, and
as stated before, ghosts have no need for things like a circulatory system
anyway.
O Osiris, may thy Heart be joyous, (thou) whom his begetter
has loved. Be thou healthy, live thou, be thou sound Atum keeps
sound thy flesh.
Book of the Dead, Spell 182 d S 1, 31363
I come unto thee, son of Nut, Osiris, ruler of eternity. I am a
follower of Thoth, rejoicing in all that he has done. He brings for
thee refreshing breath to thy nose, life and dominion to thy
beautiful face, and the north wind that came forth from Atum to
thy nostrils, lord of the sacred land. He lets the light shine on thy
breast; he illumines for thee the way of darkness. He does away for
thee with the evil that clings to thy body by the spells he utters.
Thy father Re makes sound (thy) body .
Book of the Dead, Spell 183 S 1, 41364
Hail to thee, Osiris, lord of eternity, king of the gods;
numerous of names, sacred of form blessed mummy presiding
over the mummies, enduring of office.
Book of the Dead, Spell 185A S 1 1365
[Raise thyself], (god) who is on his bier. The Disk, passing by
[..., lifts on high thy Mummy]. Stand thou, August Mummy,
Osiris.
1362
1363
1364
1365
460
Ascend with Isis, rise with the Day-bark. May you have power
in your body.
Pyramid Texts, Utterance 222 210-111367
Horus will rub your flesh, O King; Thoth will rub your feet. O
Shu, raise up the King; O Nut, give your hand to the King.
Receive me, for I belong to you, and your heart is glad. As
for my corpse, it is rejuvenated.
A resurrection text
O King, your head is knit to your bones for you, and
your bones are knit to your head for you.
A series of four resurrection texts
O Osiris the King, stand up! Horus comes and claims you
from the gods, for Horus has loved you, he has provided you with
his Eye, Horus has attached his Eye to you; Horus has split open
your eye for you that you may see with it, the gods have knit up
your face for you, for they have loved you, Isis and Nephthys have
made you hale, and Horus is not far from you, for you are his
essence. May your face be well-disposed to him; hasten, receive the
word of Horus, with which you will be well pleased. Listen to
Horus, for it will not be harmful to you; he has caused the gods to
serve you. O Osiris the King, awake!
Horus replaces one of Osiris eyes with his own, and Osiris sees with
it. Is Horus just a disembodied ghost too, as antagonists try to claim of
post-mortem Osiris? They are often willing to admit Horus was regarded
as a living flesh & blood king of Egypt, so clearly his eye is an eye of
flesh & blood, which is now used by the resurrected Osiris. Hence Osiris
here is still flesh & blood as well.
1366
1367
1368
1369
1370
1371
461
Horus has revived you in this your name of Andjeti
Nephthys has collected all your members for you in this her name
of Seshat, Lady of Builders. She has made them hale for you.
Horus has reassembled your members for you, and he will not let
you perish; he has put you together, and nothing shall be disturbed
in you; Horus has set you up, and nothing shall be disturbed in
you; Horus has set you up, and there shall be no unsteadiness(?).
Oho! Oho! Raise yourself, O King; receive your head, collect
your bones, gather your limbs together, throw off the earth from
your flesh Rise up, O King, for you have not died!
More language there irrefutably describing the resurrection of Osiris
physical, biological bodybones & alland it has to be dusted off after
lying in the tomb.
A resurrection text
The Great One falls upon his side, He who is in Nedit quivers,
his head is lifted by Re; he detests sleep, he hates inertness. O flesh
of the King, do not decay, do not rot, do not smell unpleasant. ...
Your bones shall not perish, your flesh shall not sicken, O King,
your members shall not be far from you, because you are one of
the gods.
Raise yourself, O King! This Great One spends the night
fast asleep; awake, O King, raise yourself, receive your head, gather
your bones together, shake off your dust, and sit on your iron
throne.
O King, awake! Raise yourself! Stand up O King, gather
your bones together and take your head, says Geb.
1372
1373
1374
1375
1376
462
Raise yourself, O King, receive your water, gather together
your bones, stand on your feet.
Osiris is raised from the dead
The sky reels, the earth quakes, Horus comes, Thoth
appears, they raise Osiris from upon his side and make him stand
up in front of the Two Enneads.
A resurrection text
They say to Osiris: Go and come, wake up and sleep, for you
are enduring in life! Stand up and see this, stand up and hear this
which your son has done for you, which Horus has done for you.
Your eldest sister is she who gathered up your flesh, who closed
your hands, who sought you and found you on your side on the
river-bank of Nedit, so that mourning might cease in the Two
Conclaves.
A resurrection text
[O King, stand up] and sit down, throw off the earth which is on
you!
Awake, Osiris! awake, O King! stand up and sit down, throw
off the earth which is on you!
Stand up! You shall not perish, you shall not be destroyed, but
live, O King! Your mother Nut lays hold of you that she may
enfold you, and Geb takes your hand; Welcome! say your
forefathers. May you have power in your body, may
your body be clothed.
1377
1378
1379
1380
1381
1382
463
Raise yourself, throw off your dust, remove the mask(?) which
is on your face, loosen your bonds, for they are not bonds, they are
the tresses of Nephthys.
Loose your bonds being said to someone resurrecting from the
dead sure sounds familiar (e.g. The Good Shepherds phrase Loose
him, and let him go). Moreover, why would bonds need to be loosed if
the body was just going to keep lying there motionless as the antagonists
assert?
A resurrection text
Raise yourself, O my father the King, knit your head, gather
together your members, lift yourself up on your feet.
Stand up for me, O my father; stand up for me, O Osiris the
King, for I am indeed your son, I am Horus. I have come for you
that I may cleanse you and purify you, that I may bring you to life
and collect your bones for you, that I may gather together your soft
parts for you and collect your dismembered parts for you, for I am
Horus who protected his father O my father Osiris the
King. Raise yourself, O my father Osiris the King, for you are alive.
Pyramid Texts, Utterance 606 1683-85, 17001385
Nephthys restores the king to life
Rouse yourself, O King! Turn yourself about, O King! I am
Nephthys, and I have come that I may lay hold of you and give to
you your heart for your body.
Restoration of the circulation of the blood
O Osiris the King, a current courses round in you, surging and
dripping.
1383
1384
1385
1386
1387
464
Here is yet another undeniable indication of biological, physical,
bodily resurrection- neither ghosts or dead corpses have need for blood
and a working circulatory system.
The kings body is restored

I have put my brother together, I have reassembled his members.
O Osiris the King, knit together [your] limbs, reassemble your
members, set your heart in its place! O Osiris the King, do not be
lacking [... O Osiris] the King, I have brought for you your heart
into your body, I have set it in its place for you. What it asks from
you is protection [... O Osiris] the King, I am Horus, I have come
that I may guard you [...] because of what he did to you. O Osiris
the King, command [...] she [raises] you. O Osiris the King, I have
come that Nut may protect you, for Nut has embraced [you] and
the Children of Horus raise [you...]. Osiris the King, I am Nut, I
have fashioned ... and the mouth of Osiris the King is wiped.
A resurrection text
Raise yourself, O King, gather your bones together, resume
your members!
A resurrection text
O King, collect your bones, assemble your members, whiten
your teeth, take your bodily heart, throw off this earth which is on
your flesh.
A resurrection text
Raise yourself, O King, collect your bones, gather your
members together. Raise yourself, O King, take your head.
The king is reborn
1388
1389
1390
1391
1392
465
The god has power in his body; (so) the two mountains are
split apart, this King comes into being, this King has power in his
body.
O my father the King, raise yourself on your right side, lift
yourself upon your left side, gather your flesh together [... ...] that
you may be pure thereby as a god.
O King, raise yourself upon your iron bones and golden
members, for this body of yours belongs to a god May your flesh
be born to life, and may your life be more than the life of the stars
when they live.
Recall how on p.232 and footnote 689 it was mentioned that some
heathen have tried to invoke a particular statement from Dr. Dimitri
Meeks1396 which relates to this utterance, as though it somehow proves
that Osiris never died nor was even pervious to injury. But alas, as seen
here, especially in Faulkners header, this is a resurrection spell. Thus,
as I pointed out there, especially on p.232, this transfigured body that is
likened to iron and gold is a post-resurrection attribute of the newly
risen body, which is obtained through the magic of this spell- magic
being the very mechanism which even Meeks confessed is necessary to
make such changes.1397 Osiris did not already have this kind of body
prior to his death and resurrection. This was no doubt a quality obtained
as part of the transfiguration/glorification of the deceased which takes
place after resurrection.
[Amen] shall not perish for many millions of eternities,

while sailing the heavens,
and going through the Netherworld daily,
(from) the desire to unite with Osiris as Ruler of Igaret,
while renewing his body again within his shrine,
1393
1394
1395
1396
Meeks (1993-96), 57.
1397
Ibid. 80.
466
so that the mother of his son, Horus, is pleased.
Hymn to the Bas of Amun at Hibis Temple 1398
Here begins the Breathing Permit, which Isis made for her
brother Osiris in order to revive his bA, to revive his corpse, and
to make his entire body young again, so that he might enter the
horizon with his father Re, that his bA might appear gloriously in
heaven in the disk of the moon, and that his corpse might shine
in Orion in the belly of Nut
The Hr Book of Breathings, Col. III.1-21399
Once again, his body is revived and made young, and then that body
ascends into heaven (specifically- the constellation Orion), etc. and so
on.
Ye are Risen with Him through the Faith of the Operation
Now as pointed out previously by Dr. Mark J. Smith & others, this
bodily resurrection was believed to extend to those deceased who
emulated Osiris. (This is much like how followers of The Good Shepherd
believe that by emulating him they too will be physically resurrected just
as he was, e.g. buried with him by baptism into death: that like as he
was raised up from the dead, even so we also should walk in newness
of life, e.g. we must labor to be united to The Good Shepherd, that we
may be bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh.) In fact, that's actually what
the purpose & premise of the funerary texts & rituals were- sympathetic
magic aimed at identifying the deceased with Osiris in order to inherit
his power & resurrection, i.e. a passion play1400 of sorts in which the
story of Osiris is reenacted with the deceased playing the part of
Osiris.1401 But that has been covered sufficiently on pp.19-29. Anyway:
1398
Klotz (2006), 193. (Emph. added.)
1399
Robert K. Ritner, The Joseph Smith Egyptian Papyri: A Complete Editon,
trans. K. Baer (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2013). (Emph. added.)
1400
Snape (2011), 129.
1401
Coffin Texts, Spell 227 III, 260-63.
Griffiths (1975), 316-17.
467
The king is identified with Osiris
O Atum, this one here is your son Osiris whom you have
caused to be restored that he may live. If he lives, this King will live;
if he does not die, this King will not die; if he is not destroyed, this
King will not be destroyed.
If he lives, this King will live, etc. Your body is the body of this
King, your flesh is the flesh of this King, your bones are the bones
of this King.
Pyramid Texts, Utterance 219 167, 1931402
O King, O King, see! O King, O King, behold! O King, O
King, hear! O King, O King, be yonder! O King, O King, raise
yourself on to your side and do my command.
Commenting on this utterance, Dr. Faulkner wrote: It seems that we
have here a series of imperatives, the dead king being called upon to re-
exercise his bodily senses and to rise again.1404 So the seeing and
hearing of this utterance is performed with the eyes and ears of the body,
the resurrected body.
Raise yourself, loose your bonds, throw off your dust, sit on
this your iron throne He has come to you his father, he has
come to you, O Geb; do for him this which you did for his
brother Osiris on that day of your complete fishing out of the water
for the putting of bones in order and for
the making firm of soles and the cleansing of his upper and
lower nails.
Pyramid Texts, Utterance 536 1292, 12971405
Again, talk of loosening bonds similar to The Good Shepherds
Loose him, and let him go.
Hays (2012), 167-68.

Brandon (1969), 44-49. (Emph. added.)
Brandon (1970), 39, 42-43. (Emph. added.)
Allen (1974), 3.
1402
Faulkner (1969), 46, 48. (Emph. added.)
1403
1404
1405
468
This Kings bones shall be reassembled, his members shall be
gathered together, this King shall sit on his throne, and he will not
rot, he will not putrefy, the King will not be cursed by your wrath,
you gods.
A resurrection text
They have indeed raised up for themselves those who are in
the tombs, whose seats are hidden. Awake! Raise yourself! Your
hands on your possessions!
You have your efflux which issued from Osiris; gather together
your bones, make ready your members, throw off your dust, loosen
your bonds. The tomb is opened for you, the doors of the coffin
are drawn back for you Do for him what you did for his
brother Osiris on that day of putting the bones in order, of making
good the soles, and of travelling the causeway.
Pyramid Texts, Utterance 676 2007-09, 20161408
Horus comes to you, O King, that he may do for you what he
did for his father Osiris so that you may live as those who are in the
sky live, that you may be more extant than those who exist on
earth. Raise yourself because of your strength, may you ascend to
the sky, may the sky give birth to you like Orion, may you
have power in your body.
I have seen what was restored for me as Osiris, may there not
be distension(?) in my flesh.
My bones have been given to me by those who are in Djedu,
my members have been strengthened by those who are in Khem,
my bones have been brought to me, my members have been raised
up.
Coffin Texts, Spell 456 V, 328-291411
1406
1407
1408
1409
1410
469
Djedu and Khem were cities in Egypt, here on earth in the world of
the living,1412 and thus it was in this world of the living that Osirian
resurrection of the body was thought to have taken place.
I am Osiris I wish that you would give me a god-like body.
Your head is censed with sweet-smelling incense, you are
made strong by means of incense, the fragrance of a god is on your
flesh there comes the spinal cord which issued from the
backbone of Osiris, there comes the marrow, there comes the
marrow, there come the limbs which issued from Osiris, and
Horus censed him because of his Eye.
Coffin Texts, Spell 530 VI, 121-22 1414
I am he whom Hetep equips. This great magic of mine is
powerful within this body of mine.
Hail to you, O heart of mine (ib and HAty) of my bodily
essence; it will not forsake me. GIVING A MANS HEART TO
HIM.
SPELL FOR ARRIVING AT THE FIRST PORTAL OF
THE FIELD OF RUSHES. WHAT IS TO BE SAID TO THE
GATEKEEPER
So this is a posthumous spell, to be used in the netherworld after
death.
As for anyone who knows this spell, he will go down into the
Field of Rushes He will chew this barley and this emmer and he
shall rub his flesh with it, and his body will be [hale] like that of
these gods, and he shall go out into the Field of Rushes in any
shape that he wishes to assume.
Coffin Texts, Spell 404 V, 181, 199-200 1417
1411
Ibid. 86-87, n.4. (Emph. added.)
1412
Hart (1986-2005), 96, 164.
1413
1414
1415
1416
470
My bones are stretched out and my limbs are extended, and I
walk on my feet like Osiris.
I have entered into the finger and toe of Osiris and the body of
Osiris, into the strong arm, into the knee and into the head the
Great One who has power in his body, that god who cannot die.
Hail to you, Lady of Goodness, at seeing whom those are in
the Netherworld rejoice, who removes the limpness of the Inert
One, because of whom Osiris has trodden, who made for him
the stride of those who walk in his moment of interment, in this
your name of Dam which is under the feet. May you give me
my legs that I may walk on them, may there be joined together for
me what is in the movement of my legs, for I am one who strides
far to the limit of my desire, I shall not be turned back at the gates
of the Netherworld.
So he hasn't even gotten to the Netherworld yet, and in fact, he first
needs his physical body to be resurrected so that he can use its legs to
walk to those gates of the netherworld, and anywhere else in the limit of
my desire, just as was done for Osiris. So again, Osirian resurrection
occurred here on earth prior to journeying to the netherworld.
The young god is born of the beautiful West, having come
here from the land of the living; he has got rid of his dust, he has
filled his body with magic, he has quenched his thirst with it.
Coffin Texts, Spell 30 I, 86-901421
You shall have power in your body You shall not perish,
your members shall not be destroyed, your [members] shall not
suffer, and you shall not be wiped out for ever and ever. May you
live, grow old, have dominion, have permanence in your (sic)
1417
1418
1419
1420
1421
471
presence, and live after old age through what Horus himself has
done for you.
Coffin Texts, Spell 29, I 811422
Re has made you lift up your limbs, so raise yourself up, O N.
O N, the earth opens its mouth for you, Geb throws open his
jaws on your account. May you kindle your warmth upon earth,
may you become Osiris.
Coffin Texts, Spell 4, I, 11-14 11921424
Dr. Faulkner noted here that the earth opens to let the deceased
leave his grave and that the warmth upon earth refers to the erstwhile
warmth of his living body.1425 Also worth noting here is that this is how
Osiris is the biological son of Re & Nut yet is also the bodily son1426 of
Geb as mentioned on p.141. It is because Osiris was born again from the
body of Geb, i.e. the earth, when he was buried in the earth via his
grave and then emerged alive and reborn from said earth. Just as the
grain needs both the soil of the earth and the light of the sun to be made
alive, Osiris has two fathersthe sun (Re) and the earth (Geb)who
give him life.
Osiris N. SHALL SAY:
O thou disk, lord of rays, who rises from the horizon every day
I HAVE COME unto thee and am with thee to see thy disk
every day, unrestrained, unhindered. My body becomes new at
beholding thy beauty, like (the bodies of) all thy favored ones.
Book of the Dead, Spell 15 a P 2-S, b S 2 1427
The beautiful west has extended her hands to me; she receives
my corpse unto herself in peace. I endure in her endlessly in the
retinue of Osiris, without being repulsed or perishing forever. My
seat and my throne, come to me; circle for me, (O) gods. I am such
a mummy as ye cause to be in the retinue of the great God.
1422
1423
1424
1425
Ibid. n.1-2. (Emph. added.)
1426
Faulkner (1968), 1.
1427
472
Book of the Dead, Spell 47 S var. 1428
I have come that I may save my own body. I sit on the Resting-
Place of Osiris; I do away with what he suffered when he was sick, I
being powerful and divine on the Resting-Place of Osiris, for I have
been (re)born with him, the [ever] youthful.
It is the corpse herethe mummy, the physical bodywhich
departs to the netherworld, not just some ghost. The body can only do
this if it leaves the tomb, which it does- after resurrecting.
Osiris N., (the initiate) who erects the pillar and sets up the tie-
amulet, he sails (facing Re) whithersoever he would. The corpse
remains on its seat.
Book of the Dead, Spell 100 T 5-6 1430
In this spell Osiris/the deceased sails with Re on His barque. And
what sails with Re? Is it some disembodied ghost? No, it explicitly says
the corpse, i.e. the physical body, is what remains seated on the barque,
going whithersoever Re goes. This means the body does not stay in the
tomb.
I am thy son, (O) Osiris N. I have come to be thy magical
protection. (I) unite for thee thy bones and assemble for thee thy
members. (I have brought thee thy heart; I put it for thee in its seat
in thy body. I have preserved thy house after thee,) while thou art
alive forever.
Book of the Dead, Spell 151 k S 1431
As for every mummy for whom (the instructions) are carried
out over his inner coffin, the 4 openings in the Sky are opened for
him: one for the north wind, that is, Osiris; another for the south
wind, that is, the Moon; another for the west wind, that is, Isis;
another for the east wind, that is, Nephthys. As for each one of
these winds in its (respective) opening, it is its duty to enter his
nose.
Book of the Dead, Spell 161 S 4-T 4 1432
1428
1429
1430
1431
473
SPELL FOR NOT LETTING a mans corpse PERISH in
the gods domain, to rescue him from the eater of souls who
imprisons (human beings) in the nether world, also for not letting
his crimes upon earth be brought up against him, for keeping his
flesh and his bones sound against worms and any God who may
transgress in the gods domain, for letting him ascend or descend at
will, and for doing whatever he desires without his being hindered.
Inscribe with dry myrrh and (sweet wine), and retrace with
green stone of Upper Egypt and water of the western well of Egypt,
on a bandage of green linen which a man shall wrap around all his
limbs. (So) shall he not be kept away from any gate of the nether
world, and he shall eat and drink and urinate (and excrete) from
his posterior as (he did) when he was upon earth.
Book of the Dead, Spell 163 P 1, T 2 1433
All of those functions described at the end are biological functions,
which a bodiless ghost should not need to do or even be capable of
doing, and this resurrected person does them with his body he had when
he was upon earth.
Thou art [as] everyone (in) the house of Osiris the true of
speech, (for) A PORTION IS [OFFERED] TO THEM ON
(EARTH) BY Osiris (N.), sound on earth while (his) corpse lives
in the gods domain, (even) Osiris N. A PORTION IS
OFFERED TO THEM ON (EARTH) BY one whose body lives,
whose members stay healthy, Osiris N.
Book of the Dead, Spell 168 B MMA 35.9.19 b S 2, 15 1434
SPELL FOR GOING YESTERDAY AND RETURNING
TODAY, WHEN ONE ASKS IT OF HIS LIMBS. I died
yesterday; (I raised myself today) and have returned today. (I am)
Osiris.
Book of the Dead, Spell 179 P 1, a S, b S 2 1435
May your corporeal remains (nfrw.t) smell sweet!
May your mummy wrappings open!
May your legs stretch out,
so that you might travel upon them!
May your arms be outstretched/ strides be wide!
1432
1433
1434
1435
474
To you belong your bas, they shall never be far from you!
May your visible forms live,
so that they may utter your efficacious spells.
The Sarcophagus of Nectanebo II 1436
At the hands of specifically educated funerary priests, the
physical remains of the body were prepared for the long and
dangerous journey into the Beyond; the Egyptians considered their
bodies essential for the life in the Beyond. The mummy serves
merely as a protective cover for the sleep of death, and the
deceased has no intention of retaining this constraining form
associated with so much unpleasantness: the body is bound by
cloth and unable to move; bodily functions are inhibited, while
essential organs, such as eyes, are lacking and must be reopened.
In scene 40 of the Book of Gates, the sun god addresses the
deceased lying as mummies on a serpent-formed bier:
Your flesh shall rise up for you,
Your bones shall fuse themselves for you,
Your members shall collect themselves for you,
Your flesh shall reassemble for you!
Sweet be the breath of your noses,
Unraveled be your mummy cloths,
Unveiled be your mummy masks!
Sunlight for your divine eyes,
That with them you shall see the Light!
Lift yourselves from your weariness,
That you may receive your fields!
Stretching and reawakening of the body, inspired by the divine
word, requires several phases until all restrictions are removed.
Initially, the mummies lie rigid on their biers or stand stiffly in
shrines whose doors are released at the call of the sun god, that his
light may enter and drive away the darkness. In the next stage they
are almost half erect, appearing to be seated or engaged in
gymnastic exercises.
The mummy wrappings are unbound and removed: the face is
rid of the protective mask and the extremities are free to move.
The legs spring apart and the erect phallus demonstrates returning
virility. All bodily functions recover, and an enlightened body of
the Beyond emerges from the bandaged mummy; the other
elements of the human being, primarily the soul and the shadow,
join the newly risen body, to worship joyfully the sun god who has
awakened it from the sleep of death. The flesh of this new body is
1436
475
firm; the eyes, ears, and heart have been returned to the
deceased, that they may perform their respective functions. Uniting
with the ba brings life, breath, and movement.
Eternity 1437
For one to lead a full existence in the afterlife, the Egyptians
deemed it essential that ones body be physically intact. They
hoped that out of the protective mummy case there would emerge
a new transfigured1438 body, free of all earthly imperfections. Even
those large segments of the population unable to afford the
elaborate immortalization technique of mummification were
confident that in the hereafter, physical existence would continue,
although in a different way. As described in detail in the New
Kingdom Books of the Netherworld, resurrection was believed to
occur in several stages, until finally the deceased emerged with a
completely new, regenerated body capable of performing all
functions. In this connection we find certain spells in the Book of
the Dead intended to guarantee the return of the eyes, mouth,
heart, and even the head of the deceased in the hereafter; other
spells make it possible for the deceased to stride forth unimpeded.

One of the most important aspects of the Egyptian conception
of the body is that its resurrection does not occur only on Judgment
Day at the end of time. Rejuvenation and resurrection take place
every night in the depths of the underworld, where the deceased
once again exercise full power over their bodies. The ascent of
the deceased into the world of the gods takes place through the
physical body.
The physical body attains divinity only when confronting the
ultimate threat to its integrity: disfigurement in death. The
earthbound body either remains in its place or, united with the ba,
wanders through the underworld.
The effectiveness of mourning, specifically the nwn-gesture, in
the resurrection of the corpse is evident in a passage from the
1437
Hornung (1982-90), 135, 137. (Emph. added.)
1438
Merriam-Webster Online defines it as to change the appearance of
something or someone. What gets changed? That would be the old body, the
one kept physically intact via the protective mummy case.
1439
Hornung (1989-92), 169-70, 172-74, 182. (Emph. added.)
476
Litany of Re. The movement of the legs may be considered the
first step towards setting upright (saHa) Osiris, an important aspect
of Osirian resurrection. Scenes on Sides Two and Three apply
these cosmic cycles to the deceased himself through the archetype
of Osiris and two specific processes: the decomposition of the body
as prerequisite to its resurrection, and the union of the ba and
shade with the corpse. Texts indicate that the rotting stench
might cause Re to keep his distance in the Underworld, but his life-
giving voice still aids these awakening mummies, forms of Re
himself, in their resurrection. Vindication of the solar deity at the
court of Osiris may also be seen as the prerequisite for the proper
resurrection of the solar corpse. The allusion to Isis in
combination with bodily renewal within the Underworld in the
Hymn to the Bas of Amun appears to be a reference to the Fifth
Hour of the Book of Amduat. The parts of the corpse, by their
nature Osirian, are surmounted by sun disks in order to solarize
and thereby resurrect each part. The reason for the solar journey
is not only the rejuvenation of the bodies and souls of the
Underworldly inhabitants, but also the visitation of the corpse of
Osiris, the physical remains of the solar god himself.
The Pyramid Texts contain the oldest available references to
mouth-opening rites in Egypt. These are royal texts dating from the
Old Kingdom composed of a funerary ritual of mortuary offerings,
connected with the corporeal reconstitution, resurrection,
spiritualization and deification of the deceased king, and involving
magical apotropaic formulae, mythical formulae identifying the
deceased king with certain deities, prayer and petitions on behalf of
the deceased king and proclamations of his heavenly transfiguration
and greatness. These sections represent only the beginning of the
ritual of offerings and the bodily restoration of the deceased (Ut.
12-203).
The deceased thus became a being endowed with
consciousness and physical strength, capable of returning to life in a
number of forms. One of these many different forms was the
mummy, the reintegrated body, the corpus into which the gathered
membra disiecta of the deceased were united. By means of these
1440
Manassa (2007), 31, 38 n.189, 65, 95, 118, 238, 292, 322, 415-16. (Emph.
added.)
1441
Glazov (2001), 363-64, 367. (Emph. added.)
477
transfiguring recitations, the limbs of the body, which were
conceived of as scattered, were gathered, as it were, into a single
text, which described them as a new entity.
The verbal accompaniment to the embalming process
centered on the theme of reuniting what had been torn apart. One
by one, limbs and organs were given back to the deceased. He got
back his eyes so as to see, his mouth so as to speak, his arms so as
to receive what was given to him, his heart so as to recollect who he
was and what his name was, his legs so as to walk, and so forth. In
these spells, it is recounted how the missing connectivity could be
restored.
Came Out of the Grave after His Resurrection, and Went into the
Holy City
Now, finally, we come to the sources which drive home the point
already firmly established earlier throughout this chapter- that Osirian
resurrection was believed to have taken place in the tomb here on earth
in the world of the living. For Osiris in particular, this location was most
popularly believed to be in the area of the Thinite nome known as Nedit
(where he was also killed by Seth), located at Abydos,1443 a city in
Egypt here on earth, which you can still visit even to this day.1444
1442
1443
Pyramid Texts Utt. 437 79899, 610 1716; Stela of Ikhernofret 3, 10;
Pyramid Texts Utt. 422 754.
1444
http://www.britannica.com/place/Abydos-ancient-city-Egypt.
478
Fig. 169: Tomb remains at Abydos which were for centuries believed to literally be the
emptied grave of the resurrected Osiris,1445 not unlike the many empty tombs which are
alleged to belong to the resurrected The Good Shepherd.
Abydos became important in the history of Egyptian kingship

not because it was the historical necropolis of the first rulers of a
unified Egypt, but because it was regarded as the resting-place of
Osiris.
Life and Death 1446
The most important tenet of the religion of Osiris was the
belief in his resurrection. A whole section of the Pyramid Texts is
devoted to the subject, and there are many references to it in other
parts. Just as Abydos was considered to have been the scene of the
death of Osiris, so it was the spot where his resurrection took place.
1445
Ian Shaw, Ancient Egypt: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford
Mojsov (2005), 15.
Hart (1986-2005), 122.
Remler (2000-10), 3.
Snape (2011), 120.
1446
Ibid.
1447
479
Texts from later periods describe the commemoration of
Osiriss death and resurrection at Abydos with lamentations for
Osiris and jubilation at his resurrection.
Dr. Barbara S. Lesko, The Great Goddesses of Egypt 1448
The Djehutynakhts themselves would have travelled in
comfort in a boat equipped with a cabin and awning for shade.
The Djehutynakhts' flotilla provided for their needs in the afterlife
as well, including a trip to Abydos, burial place of the funerary god
Osiris, and the site of his resurrection.
Dr. Rita Freed, in Minerva 1449
During the late Old Kingdom (2625-2130 BCE), Abydos,
which was associated with the death and resurrection of Osiris, rose
to prominence as a major cult centre for the worship of that god.
Dr. Bridget McDermott, Decoding Egyptian Hieroglyphs 1450
Nedyt, literally the striking place, was a town in the Abydos
province.
Dr. Joyce Tyldesley, Myths and Legends of Ancient Egypt 1451
He is described as falling on his side on the river bank
at Nedyet in the district of Abydos.
Dr. George Hart, Egyptian Myths 1452
Whatever the origin of the name Nedyetand it has been
suggested above that paronomasia had a part in itits inclusion as a
cult scene within the nome of Abydos seems established not only
by the parallelismus membrorum, but also by the presence of the
name in the Abydene ritual drama of Ikhernofret in the Twelfth
Dynasty.
Dr. John. G. Griffiths, The Origins of Osiris and His Cult 1453
1448
B.S. Lesko (1999), 172. (Emph. added.)
1449
Rita Freed, The Secrets of Tomb 10A, Minerva 20, no. 6 (2009): 17.
(Emph. added.)
1450
Bridget McDermott, Decoding Egyptian Hieroglyphs (San Francisco:
Chronicle Books LLC, 2001), 13031. (Emph. added.)
1451
Joyce Tyldesley, Myths and Legends of Ancient Egypt (London: Penguin
Books Ltd, 2010), 103.
1452
Hart (199097), 3031. (Emph. added.)
1453
480
Isis, Osiris wife, then began a quest for his body. In one
Egyptian version, she found it dead on the shore of Nedit near
Abydos.
Dr. Milton Covensky, The Ancient Near Eastern Tradition
1454
Nedit was considered near Abydos as early as the Pyramid Texts.

He who is in Nedit quivers, his head is lifted by Re;
he detests sleep, he hates inertness. O flesh of the King,
do not decay, do not rot, do not smell unpleasant.
May you ascend from the Thinite nome, may you descend
into the Great Valley. Stand up! Raise yourself!
A resurrection text
They say to Osiris: Go and come, wake up and sleep, for you
are enduring in life! Stand up and see this, stand up and hear this
which your son has done for you, which Horus has done for you.
Your eldest sister is she who gathered up your flesh, who closed
your hands, who sought you and found you on your side on the
river-bank of Nedit, so that mourning might cease in the Two
Conclaves.
A resurrection text
Osiris was laid low by his brother Seth, but He who is in
Nedit moves, his head is raised by Re; he detests sleep and hates
inertness, so the King will not putrefy, he will not rot, this King will
not be cursed by your anger, you gods. May you wake in
peace, may you wake, Osiris, in peace, may you wake, O you who
are in Nedit, in peace. His head is raised by Re.
1454
Milton Covensky, The Ancient Near Eastern Tradition (New York: Harper &
Row, 1966), 76. (Emph. added.)
1455
1456
1457
1458
481
So as covered earlier by the likes of Dr. Brier & others, the
chronology is first a resurrection here on earth, then ascension to
heaven from that earth (the Thinite nome), and then descent into the
netherworld. The deceased later journeys to the netherworld after his
resurrection. Anyway, continuing- as was shown earlier throughout this
article, Osirian resurrection is also explicitly described as taking place
within the tomb, which for Osiris was, of course, believed to be located
at Abydos.
The doors of the sky are opened for you, the doors of the
firmament are thrown open for you, the doors of the tomb are
opened for you.
The tomb is opened for you, the doors of the tomb-chamber
are thrown open for you, and you find your abundance meeting
you.
Gather together your bones, make ready your members, throw
off your dust, loosen your bonds. The tomb is opened for you, the
doors of the coffin are drawn back for you.
Your father Geb will open his doors for you. You shall
have power in your body, the doors shall be turned back, and the
gates of the tomb shall be opened.
I am carrying the mummy of Osiris, I am proceeding to take
it to Abydos to cause it to rest in Alkhah.
The London-Leiden Magical Papyrus, Col. XVI 29-301464
1459
1460
1461
1462
1463
1464
Francis L. Griffith and Herbert Thompson, The Demotic Magical Papyrus of
London and Leiden (London: H. Grevel & Co., 1904), 109. (Emph. added.)
482
One of the passages in Greek in London and Leiden concerns
the purely Egyptian divinity Osiris and his burial in Abydos.
Dr. Janet H. Johnson, in The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation
Including the Demotic Spells, Volume One: Texts, Second Edition
1465
Alkai is the name of the shrine-precinct at Abydos in which

the mummy of Osiris was supposed to rest.
Dr. Mark J. Smith, in Egyptian Religion: The Last Thousand
Years, Part 1 1466
Ancient Egyptians also tried their best to be buried as close as
possible to the recognized tomb of Osiris in Abydos.
Dr. Christian Roy, Traditional Festivals: A Multicultural
Encyclopedia, Volume 1 A-L 1467
Many pilgrimages were made to the tomb of Osiris at Abydos.
Dr. Frederick E. Brenk, in Sage and Emperor: Plutarch,
Greek Intellectuals, and Roman Power in the Time of Trajan 1468
Also at Abydos, but in documents of a much later age, the
Songs of Isis and Nephthys were sung by two priestesses
impersonating those goddesses.
Dr. G. Ali Gaballa and Dr. Kenneth A. Kitchen, in Orientalia
1469
A passage from the Festival Songs of Isis and Nephthys in the

Bremner-Rhind papyrus (at the latest dating from towards the end
of the 4th century B.C.E.) helps to guide us in the right direction.
1465
Janet H. Johnson, Introduction to the Demotic Magical Papyri, in The
Greek Magical Papyri in Translation Including the Demotic Spells, Volume One:
Texts, Second Edition (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 198696), lviii
n.8. (Emph. added.)
1466
Mark J. Smith, A Demotic Coffin Inscription: Berlin G. Inv. 7227,
in Egyptian Religion: The Last Thousand Years, Part 1, eds. A. Schoors and H.
Willems (Leuven: Peeters Publishers, 1998), 434. (Emph. added.)
1467
Roy (2005), 227. (Emph. added.)
1468
Frederick E. Brenk, Plutarchs Description of Egyptian Religion, Osiris, and
the Contemporary Scene, in Sage and Emperor: Plutarch, Greek Intellectuals
and Roman Power in the Time of Trajan, eds. P.A. Stadter and L. Van der Stockt
(Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2001), 81. (Emph. added.)
1469
Gaballa Ali Gaballa and Kenneth A. Kitchen, The Festival of
Sokar, Orientalia 38, fasc. 1 (1969): 39. (Emph. added.)
483
These songs were chanted by two priestesses in the course of rites
(prototypes of the Graeco-Roman mysteries of Isis and Osiris)
celebrated in the temple of Osiris at Abydos and designed to call
the god back after his sad and long departure.
Dr. Howard M. Jackson, in Chronique d'Egypte 1470
O fair Stripling, come to thine house;
For a very long while we have not seen thee.
O fair Sistrum-player, come to thine house

Come hither to thy songstresses,
And drive care from out of our house;
Come hither to thy songstresses,
For it is not fitting for thee to dwell alone.
Our Lord is in peace in his place!

Mayest thou alight on earth at the hall of the Great Temple,
The Two Ladies serving thee.
Raise thee up! Raise thee up!
Behold Seth is in the place of execution, and he who rebelled
against thee shall not be.
Come thou to thine house, O Osiris, thy place where men seek to
see thee;
Hear thou the plaint of Horus in the arms of his mother Isis.
But thou art repulsed, being scattered through all lands, and he
who shall reunite thy body, he shall inherit thine estate.
O great god, provide thyself with thy shape,
Forsake not thine house, O Osiris!
Come thou in peace to thy place

Come thou to thine house without fear.
RECITATION BY THE LONG-HAIRED ONES:
O fair Sistrum-player, come to thine house,
Be thou exalted, exalted, thy back to thine house

Come thou in peace to thy place;
O fair Sistrum-player, come to thine house; it is long indeed that
thou hast been in cessation.

O fair Sistrum-player, come to thine house;
Be exalted, be exalted, thy back to (?) thine house , the gods being
on their thrones.
1470
Howard M. Jackson, Isis, Pupil of the Eye of the World, Chronique
d'Egypte 61, no. 121 (1986): 129. (Emph. added.)
484
Ho! Come in peace! O King of Lower Egypt, come in peace!
Men and women in the city are seeking our Lord,

Who (?) walked the earth in the time of our Lord.
Come to me! Heaven is felled (?) to earth
And the god is caused to come to his place.
Snuff the wind to thy nose!
The Lord is gone into his palace.
Ho! Ho! Our Lord comes to his house;

They place protection about his temple,
And our Lord comes in peace upon his throne.
Be established in thine house without fear!
thy temple is illumined with thy beauty,

The Ennead is in fear through thy majesty,
the earth quakes through dread of thee;
I am thy wife, who acts on thy behalf,
A sister beneficial to her brother
She makes hale for thee thy flesh on thy bones
Come to thine house, O Osiris, who judgest the gods;

Open thine eyes, that thou mayest see with them;
Drive thou away the clouds,
Give thou light to the earth in darkness;
Come to thine house, O Osiris, First of the Westerners, come
to thine house.
O Thou who camest forth from the womb with the uraeus on thine
head,
Thine eyes illumine the Two Lands and the gods.
Raise thee, raise thee up, O Sovereign our Lord!
He [Seth] who rebelled against thee is at the execution-block, and
shall not be.
Be stable, be stable, in thy name of Stable One;
Thou hast thy body, O (King) Onnophris;
Thou hast thy flesh, O thou who art weary of heart.
Go thou in peace to Busiris!

Raise thee up, O Osiris!
Raise thee, raise thee up in peace!
485
Bremner-Rhind Papyrus, Songs of Isis and Nephthys 1.10-
17.21471
The point is made clear beyond dispute. The location of Osiris
resurrection was the same as that of his death- here on earth, the world of
the living, in Nedit of Abydos. He was called back to life by Isis &
Nephthys (w/the other gods) there. They bid him to return to life in
his body and raise himself up there at his house, at his tomb in Abydos.
They bid him to alight on earth at the hall of the Great Temple, a place
which they described as being here, a place where men (i.e. human
mortals who walk on earth) come to see him, a city where
men and women seek their Lord. It was there in Nedit where Re lifted
Osiris head and caused his inert body to quiver & move and wake in
peace, thus freeing him from the decay, rot, unpleasant odor, and
inertness of death. Primary sources have indeed attested to a tradition in
which Osiris indubitably underwent a physical, bodily resurrection here
on earth before ascending to heaven and passing over to the netherworld.
Osiris is entirely at the disposal of others to be scattered,
gathered, revived, and ultimately to descend to the Underworld.
The bodily members of the deceased were believed to be
reconstituted and revivified and he was allowed to travel to the
Land of the Dead.
But that will be covered in more depth in the forthcoming pages. For
now, that's it for the antagonists, their position has been utterly destroyed
to the point beyond any possibility of rebuttal.
Aside from mistranslation, another factor that has led to the error of
misidentifying the dead of ancient Egypt as incorporeal ghosts is the
aforementioned divine ability to shape-shift into whatever forms the
owner desires. The gods and resurrected deceased in their bA-state can
therefore also transform into pure elements such water or earth. This
1471
1472
Holland (2009), 43. (Emph. added.)
1473
Glazov (2001), 363. (Emph. added.)
486
includes what other cultures considered to be the subtle substances,
such as air, fire, and light.
Bas were corporeal; they ate and drank and could even engage
in sexual activity. They also had the capacity to assume non-human
forms. the ba could adopt multiple modes of appearance.
Resurrection 1474
If we carefully read the transformation-spells we will notice
that they do not speak of the soul which at the death leaves the
body, but of the man himself, who, even though being a corpse
after an authoritative and efficacious ritual has been performedis
risen and made whole, as Spell 77 of the Book of the Dead
states. He becomes an effective being, an akh, externally
manifested as the ba-bird, phoenix, heron, golden falcon, lotus-
flower, man or god. In full possession of all his physical qualities,
effective in any animal, human or divine form, he enters upon a
new glorified life, conceived in purely physical termsfrom this an
Egyptian could hardly ever dissociate himself, and this he
could never sublimate or spiritualize.
Egyptian Texts 1475
Recitation: Becoming air, breathing air in the realm of the
dead.
Coffin Texts, Spell 223 Var. 1476
BECOMING FIRE IN THE REALM OF THE DEAD IN
EVERY PLACE OF THE WEST.
He has become a flame, he has come into the Island of Fire.
The king becomes a flash of lightning
1474
1475
1476
1477
Ibid. 213.
1478
Ibid. 238.
487
The King is a heart-tosser(?), the favourite son of Shu, long-
extended, fierce of brilliance; the King is a flame (moving) before
the wind to the end of the sky and to the end of the earth when the
hand of the lightning is voided of the King.
The Egyptians believe the goddesses are made of thin air,
and subtle heat and moisture.
With such abilities, the deceased could even become intangible and
phase through solid matter, such as they did on a nightly basis when they
passed through the sealed false doors in order to leave their tombs and
return again to let the body sleep during the day. Since Greco-Roman
culture traditionally associated such properties with entities like
ghosts/spirits, it is perhaps understandable that in times past there were
instances when the deceased Egyptian in bA-form couldve been
misidentified by a foreigner as a so-called disembodied soul. Since
there were even instances among the heathen when beings in solid form,
walking on top of water, were mistaken for being ghosts, how much
more could someone who had temporarily shape-shifted into a subtle
element likewise have been misidentified?
Anyway, speaking of the false door, this also answers questions
some may have concerning how the mummies could physically resurrect
and leave their tombs with so few, if any, Egyptians throughout history
actually seeing1481 them do so. For one thing, the mummies only left their
tombs at night (well, nighttime for the surface world, daytime for the
netherworld), so the citizens of Egypt would already be asleep. Few, if
any, would be awake to even witness the event, plus it would be dark
outside. But moreover, the deceased departed from their tombs through
the magical false doors, which not only served as a general exit, but also
had the power to act as a direct portal to the netherworld.
It is well known that the concept of life in the hereafter is
based on the physical resurrection of the mummy , the preservation
of the individual consciousness, (called by the Book of the Dead
1479
1480
Plutarch, Moralia, in Clough & Goodwin (1909), 401-02.
1481
Although, do recall the Coffin Text Spell 379 V, 43 as quoted on p.454.
488
knowing ones name) and of the family. One will drink, eat, and
have sexual relations. The main representations of the afterlife are:
the false door (as an open gate to the hereafter), eating at a table,
and sitting or standing before Osiris or the Tree Goddess.
Dr. Maya Mller, in Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta:
Proceedings of the Ninth International Congress of Egyptologists,
Volume II 1482
The passageway between the world of the dead and that of the
living, the false door can be considered a miniature model of the
tomb.
Dr. Christiane Ziegler, in Egyptian Art in the Age of the
Pyramids 1483
This is the obligatory passage between the Hereafter and the
earthly world: the false door stela.
Dr. Robert Hari, Iconography of Religions XVI, 6: New
Kingdom Amrna Period 1484
False door A carved image of a door in stone or wood usually
found in tombs, a symbolic threshold to the next world.
False door. Stone, sometimes wooden, imitation of a door with
a closed-off entrance. False doors mark the division between this
world and the hereafter.
Dr. Matthias Seidel and Dr. Regine Schulz, Egypt: Art &
Architecture 1486
The false door was placed in the chapel of the tomb facing
west, and represented the point of contact between the worlds of
the living and the dead. Having crossed the threshold, the deceased
could return from the kingdom of the dead to take the offerings
that were placed at his feet in the tomb.
1482
Mller (2007), 1345. (Emph. added.)
1483
Christiane Ziegler, 155. False-Door Stela from the Tomb of Metjetji, in
Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids, eds. J.P. ONeill and C. Fuerstein (New
York: Mentropolitan Museum of Art, 1999), 414.
1484
Robert Hari, Iconography of Religions XVI, 6: New Kingdom Amrna Period
(Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1985), 12.
1485
Mojsov (2005), 135.
1486
Matthias Seidel and Regine Schulz, Egypt: Art & Architecture (Knigswinter:
Tandem Verlag GmbH, 2005), 587.
489
Dr. Hanifa Moursi S.A., in The Horizon: Studies in
Egyptology in Honour of M.A. Nur El-Din 1487
Throughout Egyptian history, in Egyptian architecture doors
represented a magic place where the deceased, gods and kings
could appear through a sealed passageway.
Dr. Dieter Arnold, The Encyclopedia of Ancient Egyptian
Architecture 1488
I attach to thee (thy) head and thy members. (O) adorers, ye
shall not keep (Osiris N.) away from the portals of the nether
world, that is, the corpse of Osiris N., (for) A PORTION IS
OFFERED TO THEM ON (EARTH) BY Osiris N.
Book of the Dead, Spell 168 B MMA 35.9.19 c S 2, 7 1489
Fig. 170: The Old Kingdom false door of Imhotep.
1487
Hanifa Moursi S.A., The Family Love in Ancient Egypt, in The Horizon:
Studies in Egyptology in Honour of M.A. Nur El-Din, ed. B. El-Sharkaway (Cairo:
The American University in Cairo Press, 2009), 359.
1488
Arnold (2003), 89.
1489
490
Fig. 171: The false door of Manefer, 5th dynasty.
491
Fig. 172: The false door of Ihy, 12th dynasty.
Thus the resurrected deceased never had to step out into open view
where surface dwellers could see them (although occasionally they were
seen alive again here on earth- recall CT Spell 3791490). The departure to
the netherworld could take place entirely within the tomb itself. Just as
we awake and live our lives while the sun is in our sky, and sleep at night
after the sun sets, so also the deceased awake when the sun rises in the
netherworld, at which point they enter the false doors and live out their
1490
Faulkner (1977), 13. Come, raise yourself, O Lord of walls, seek out the
Lady of Dep, stir up the living body, go to and fro in the sight of the plebs.
(Emph. added.)
492
blessed existence in the kingdom of Osiris. This is reminiscent of the
words of Amenhotep IVs short hymn to the sun:
When you set in skys western lightland,
They lie down as if to die,
Their heads covered, their noses stopped,
Until you dawn in skys eastern lightland.1491
The same being the case for the netherworld, except with East &
West reversed. When the sun sets in the netherworld in the east, the
deceased pass back through the false doors and return to their tombs to
sleep during their own nighttime.
Although once again fully functional, this afterlife body would
be free of all earthly shortcomings; it would even repeatedly
rejuvenate itself in the tomb.
Dr. Erik Hornung, Idea into Image: Essays on Ancient Egyptian
Thought 1492
Hence surface dwellers could sometimes visit an unsealed tomb and
find the mummy sleeping there, having returned to rejuvenate itself,
even though it was believed to have already undergone bodily
resurrection. But while the resurrected bodies are awake in the
netherworld, time passes on a different scale than it does here on the
surface world. A full lifetime (110 years) can be lived there while only
an hour goes by here on the surface.
I had one hundred and ten years of life.
Instruction of Ptahhotep 19, 7 1493
They view a lifetime in an hour!
When a man remains over after death,
His deeds are set beside him as treasure,
And being yonder lasts forever.
Instruction to King Merikare 55 1494
Time in the hereafter is different from time on earth. One
hour in the Underworld is the equivalent of a lifetime (aHaw) during
1491
1492
1493
Lichtheim (1973-2006), 76.
1494
Ibid. 101.
493
which the resurrected live their life and cultivate the fields that are
allotted to them, and enjoy the light of the sun.
Dr. Herman Te Velde, in Mummies & Magic: The Funerary
Arts of Ancient Egypt 1495
A single hour in the afterlife corresponds to an entire lifetime
on earth, and during this time the dead are awakened by the
creative word of the god. They arise from their biers, accept
clothes, food offerings, and other necessities of life, and are able to
use their feet and other limbs.
According to the texts, 110 years represent the ideal length of
time the Egyptians, in their quest for additional time, wished to
spend on earth before dying and proceeding to the afterlife. Yet,
compared with the inexhaustible supply of time in the other-
worldly existence, this worldly existence is extremely brief. The
transitoriness of a human lifetime, which is said to be equivalent to
a single hour in the afterlife, constitutes a well-known literary
theme.
Dr. Patricia A. Bochi, in Journal of the American Research
Center in Egypt 1497
While on the subject of tombs, it is amusing that one of the afore-
quoted antagonists has asserted that Osiriss body does not come back
to life. Quite the contrary, it remains a corpse. There are debates, in fact,
over where it is buried, and different locales want to claim the honor of
housing it. Note: whatever his revivification involves, it is not a
return to his physical body, which remains in a tomb someplace. It is his
soul that lives on.1498 So the reference to various cities having claimed
to contain the tomb of Osiris was apparently a significant factor that led
this antagonist to conclude that the Egyptians thought Osiris was still
physically dead & buried somewhere.
First of all, I find this a bit odd given that this particular antagonist is
a well-respected scholar of certain Near-Eastern religions (ancient
1495
Te Velde (1988), 33.
1496
Hornung (1989-92), 63.
1497
Patricia A. Bochi, Images of Time in Ancient Egyptian Art, Journal of the
American Research Center in Egypt 31 (1994): 56.
1498
Ehrman, op. cit. (Emph. added.)
494
Egyptian religion obviously not being one of them), and one particular
heathen cult he specializes in has likewise throughout its history claimed
various tombs as the location where their slain deity, The Good
Shepherd1499 was buried. Some of these sites are still tourist attractions to
this day. And yet, this same cult also claims that this The Good Shepherd
was bodily resurrected and departed from its tomb. Therefore the fact
that there have been many claims over the years that various tombs were
the real tomb where this deity was buried does not serve as evidence
that this cult had no belief that a bodily resurrection had occurred. And
this scholar is no doubt aware of this, given his extensive knowledge.
Therefore the fact that various cities claimed to have contained the real
tomb where Osiris was buried likewise serves as no evidence whatsoever
that Egyptians lacked a belief that Osiris was bodily resurrected. This is
all the more apparent in light of the many primary sources and scholarly
quotations provided previously in this chapter.
Second of all, the one & only source which antagonists have cited for
this claim against the bodily resurrection of Osiris is Plutarch. But does
the passage cited (Moralia 358A-B) even provide such support that
claim? Well, not really. In the very same passage, Plutarch himself
provides the explanation for why so many cities claimed to contain the
true tomb of Osiris, and it wasnt because Osiris was still dead & buried
there.
The traditional result of Osiriss dismemberment is that there
are many so-called tombs of Osiris in Egypt; for Isis held a funeral
for each part when she had found it. Others deny this and assert
that she caused effigies of him to be made and these she distributed
among the several cities, pretending that she was giving them his
body, in order that he might receive divine honours in a greater
number of cities, and also that, if Typhon should succeed in
overpowering Horus, he might despair of ever finding the true
tomb when so many were pointed out to him, all of them called the
tomb of Osiris.1500
Over a century earlier, Diodorus wrote:
privates, and wishing that the burial-place of her husband should
1499
See p.17.
1500
Plutarch, in Babbitt (1936-62), 45-47. (Emph. added.)
495
remain secret and yet be honoured by all the inhabitants of Egypt,
she fulfilled her purpose in somewhat the following manner. Over
each piece of the body, as the account goes, she fashioned out of
spices and wax a human figure about the size of Osiris; then
summoning the priests group by group, she required all of them an
oath that they would reveal to no one the trust which she was going
to confide to them, and taking each group of them apart privately
she said that she was consigning to them alone the burial of the
body, and after reminding them of the benefactions of Osiris she
exhorted them to bury his body in their own district and pay
honours to him as to a god, and to consecrate to him also some
one that they might choose of the animals native to their district,
pay it while living the honours which they had formerly rendered to
Osiris, and upon its death accord it the same kind of funeral as they
had given to him. And since Isis wished to induce the priests to
render these honours by the incentive of their own profit also, she
gave them the third part of the country to defray the cost of the
worship and service of the gods. And the priests, it is said, being
mindful of the benefactions of Osiris and eager to please the
queen who was petitioning them, and incited as well by their own
profit, did everything just as Isis had suggested. It is for this reason
that even to this day each group of priests supposes that Osiris lies
buried in their district.1501
So what actually took place is that Isis recovered the entire body, and
left an effigy of Osiris behind in each spot where a piece was found,
holding a funeral & burial for the effigy instead. None of these were the
actual burial sites. The fact that even foreigners like Diodorus and
Plutarch knew this truth shows that their Egyptian sources clearly knew
this truth as well. It was just a legend- it was not actually believed that
Osiris was literally still dead in a tomb. And they knew these were
effigies being buried because they continued to make such effigies to be
buried in some of these locations during the annual re-enactments of the
passion of Osiris.
His body Typhon oftentimes dismembers and causes to
disappear.
1501
Diodorus of Sicily, Library of History 1.21.5, in Oldfather (1933-67), 67.
(Emph. added.)
1502
496
As mentioned on pp.274-88, some of the effigies were made of
grain/bread. Others were made of stone or bronze,1503 or as Diodorus
mentioned, out of wax. But all were made deliberately, and thus with the
full knowledge that these were in fact just images and not the biological
body of the god himself. Isis instituted these rituals and false burial sites
as a way to throw Seth (Typhon) off track and prevent him from finding
Osiris true body before it could be resurrected. The whole scenario was
just a ruse; Plutarch and Diodorus clearly knew this, and therefore the
Egyptians who told them so clearly knew this. Yet antagonists miss that
fact and they even use the very passage in which Plutarch explained that
it was all a ruse to say it was in fact not a ruse, but instead somehow
means that Osiris was still dead & buried. How very astonishing.
Especially since Plutarch himself made it clear that Osiris does not stay
dead & buried:
Moralia 377B1504
Moreover, sans any obstinate denial of bodily resurrection, it is not
entirely inaccurate to say that Osiris still inhabited (part-time at least)
certain tombs and temples here on earth since he could regularly return to
them, especially when they contained a false door to act as a direct portal
to the gates of his netherworld home.
A small two-room chapel was built for Osiris-Heka-djet, the
"ruler of eternity," 100 m northeast of the Amun temple at Karnak.
An interesting feature is a huge false door, inserted into the facade
of the chapel. Its cavetto moldings depict seven
superimposed chapel facades.
Dr. Dieter Arnold, Temples of the Last Pharaohs 1505
[Osorkon III] erected another chapel, this time dedicated to
Osiris Heka-Djet (Ruler of Eternity), which is still quite well
preserved. On what would have been the faade of the original
1503
Robins (1997-2008), 105, 214.
1504
1505
Dieter Arnold, Temples of the Last Pharaohs (Oxford: Oxford University
497
building is an eye-catching false-door which is carved as a series of
seven doors one within the other, giving a remarkable three-
dimensional effect.
Elizabeth Blyth, Karnak: Evolution of a Temple 1506
THIS FLAME MAKES THE BLESSED ONE FLOURISH
LIKE OSIRIS PRESIDING OVER THE WESTERNERS.
A TRULY EXCELLENT SPELL (PROVED) MILLIONS OF
TIMES.
BE VERY CAREFUL NOT TO USE IT FOR ANYONE
EXCEPT THY OWN SELFEVEN THY FATHER OR THY
SONINASMUCH AS IT IS A GREAT SECRET OF THE
WEST, A MYSTERY OF THE NETHER WORLD.
SINCE THE GODS AND THE BLESSED AND THE DEAD
SEE HIM IN THE FORM OF THE PRESIDER OVER THE
WESTERNERS, HE PREVAILS LIKE THIS GOD.
THOU SHALT CAUSE THE SPELL OF THESE 4 FLAMES
TO BE USED FOR HIM WHENEVER HIS IMAGE IS
CAUSED TO ARRIVE AT ANY GATE OF THESE 7 GATES
OF OSIRIS. IT MEANS EXISTING AS A GOD AND
PREVAILING TOGETHER WITH THE GODS AND THE
BLESSED FOREVER AND EVER.
ENTERING THROUGH THE SECRET PORTALS
WITHOUT ONES BEING KEPT AWAY FROM OSIRIS.
ONE FOR WHOM THIS IS USED SHALL GO IN AND OUT
WITHOUT BEING KEPT AWAY AND WITHOUT BEING
STOPPED.
Book of the Dead, Spell 137A T 6-10 1507
To be said on arrival (at) the 7 gates. It (enables) this blessed
one to enter through the portal without his being turned away or
kept from Osiris.
Book of the Dead, Spell 147 g T 1 1508
1506
Elizabeth Blyth, Karnak: Evolution of a Temple (Abingdon: Routledge, 2006),
1507
1508
Ibid. 139.
498
Fig. 173: A false door portal leading from Karnak to the seven gates of the House of
Osiris in the netherworld.
499
Fig. 174: Ani and his wife begin passing through the seven gates of the House of Osiris,
from the Papyrus of Ani, 13th century BCE.
500
So those with access to these portals, which obviously would include
Osiris himself, could pass back and forth between such tombs & temples
here on earth and the House of Osiris in the netherworld. Therefore
Osiris was still able to return to such locations anytime he wished, and
technically could still be said to inhabit them, just as the resurrected
deceased dwelled both in their tombs and in the netherworld thanks to
the false door portals.
That He May Depart from Hell Beneath
This fact also happens to refute the erroneous claim that Osiris was
trapped in the netherworld, never able to return here to the surface world
of the living, which antagonists seem to think thatif trueit would
somehow invalidate Osiris resurrection. But alas, Osiris clearly takes
residence in the netherworld by choice, not by obligation or duress. This
is very much like heathen myths in which their own gods have willingly
departed to afterlife realms and still have yet to return to this world, but
nevertheless were still physically resurrected from the dead. To state that
Osiris is unable to return among the living is wrong and is to overstate
his actual relationship with the netherworld. To say that Osiris remained
in the netherworld is, by analogy, akin to saying the netherworld is his
permanent address, not a permanent confinement as though hes in
prison. Even today, if someone says Ive lived in New York all of my
life, no one would take that to mean that this person never once left the
boundaries of the city. It simply means that New York has been their
permanent place of residence. It would not be inaccurate to say that such
a person remained in New York their entire life and to also state that this
same person took annual vacations to Hawaii or elsewhere, and took out-
of-state trips every holiday to visit family members. Nor is it inaccurate
to say that Osiris remained in the netherworld yet to also point out that
he could and did regularly leave the netherworld to visit both earth and
heaven. But it is inaccurate to go so far as to claim: he will never again
come among the living.1509
1509
MacLeod (1998), 169. (Emph. added.)
501
Horus, having resurrected his father, adorned him with the
fillet, and defeated his enemies; Osiris is free to leave the
Underworld.
That bears repeating one more time- Osiris is free to leave the
Underworld. It doesnt get any more explicit than that. And by
emulating Osiris, the resurrected deceased also gains such freedom.
Although a deceased individuals home was his tomb, and this
was contiguous with the realm of Osiris, the dead were not
imagined to spend the whole of their posthumous existence there.
Rather, in the right circumstances, they were supposed to have
unrestricted freedom of movement, thus enabling them to leave
and return to the realm of the dead at will. They could travel
through the sky with the sun, moon or stars, go wherever they liked
on earth, and even move about underwater. The idea of leaving the
underworld in order to return to the land of the living, otherwise
known as going forth by day, becomes increasingly important
from the New Kingdom (roughly 1550-1070 B.C.) onward.
The Egyptian word for these, sakhu, is derived from the same
root as the noun akh and means literally making or transfiguring
into an akh . One becomes an akh as a result of their recitation. It
was precisely spells of this nature that Isis uttered to restore Osiris
to life. Here we have the answer to our question, how could the
deceased hope to emulate that god? By being glorified or
transfigured in the same manner as he was.
Thus, after death, they were transfigured or glorified, and
raised to a new plane of existence. In this form, they were able to
transcend the boundary between visible and hidden, and move
freely from one sphere to the other. Consequently, akhs could go
wherever they wished and do whatever they desired.
Transfigured and raised by these means to a new plane of
being, the deceased were not confined to their tombs or to the
underworld. For them, the cemetery was only a resting place; their
sphere of existence encompassed the whole of the cosmos.
Resurrection 1511
1510
1511
Smith (2009), 29, 32, 33, 40. (Emph. added.)
502
The akh is the human being as a glorified departed one, who
resides in the grave or the realm of the dead, but can also intervene
in life upon earth.
Thoughts 1512
In the Egyptian funerary world, the dead can retain frequent
contact with the world of the living through post-funerary rites,
since he can be resurrected within his body. In general, death and
resurrection are two basic components of the Egyptian culture.
There is nothing in the Alexandrian hypogea that implies a
change in the ideas about the fate of the deceased. The treatment
of the body remains Greek: hence, unlike the Egyptian tradition,
there is no resurrection within the actual body of the dead. The
meeting between the two worlds concerns issues of memory and
ancestry rather than actual communication with the resurrected
dead, as is the case with Egyptian funerary practices.
Dr. Kyriakos Savvopoulos, Alexandrea in Agypto: The Role of the
Egyptian Tradition in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods 1513
Your son Horus has acted on your behalf, and the Great Ones
tremble when they see the sword which is in your hand when you
ascend from the Netherworld.
You shall go to Pe and find him whom you will meet there;
you shall return to Nekhen1515 and find him whom you will meet
there; you shall do what Osiris did you will not be opposed in
any place where you walk, your foot will not be obstructed in any
place where you desire to be.
The king is free to come and go
O Osiris the King, behold you are protected and alive, so that
you may go to and fro daily, and none will interfere with you.
1512
Te Velde (1990), 92. (Emph. added.)
1513
Savvopoulos (2011), 267, 324. (Emph. added.)
1514
1515
Pe and Nekhen were cities and major religious centers in ancient Egypt.
That means here, on earth, hence the deceased shall do what Osiris did and
return here to the world of the living.
1516
Ibid 120. (Emph. added.)
503
They come to Osiris the King at the sound of the mourning of
Isis, at the cry of Nephthys, at the wailing of these two spirits [over
this great one who has come forth] from the Netherworld.
You are a god and you shall be a god, you shall have no foes
or opponents with Re who is in the sky or with Osiris the great god
who is in Abydos.
I will cause you to see Osiris in Djedu, and you shall travel
with him to Abydos, for the young god is like you.
Those are locations here on earth, in the land of the living.
I shall not perish, I shall not pass away, I shall not die because
of them, I shall not die suddenly. O you Kindly Ones whose
speech is not known, who are held in veneration, command that I
endure upon earth at my desire(?), for I am one who eats his meals
in this land of the living.
Commenting on that last sentence, Dr. Faulkner states that the
deceased returns to the present world to consume the offerings
presented at his tomb.1522
I am Osiris, I am bound for Abydos.
Osiris: Come [in] peace, O my son Horus I have appeared
as ruler [of the sky] and king of the earth.
Spell for entering into the beautiful West Make a path for
me, that I may enter and worship Osiris, the Lord of Life. A man
1517
1518
1519
1520
1521
1522
1523
1524
504
shall say this spell when he goes in after he comes out from the
West. As for him who is ignorant of this spell, together with the
knowledge of how to go out into the day, he shall not go in after
[coming out ...].
So not only does this spell allow the deceased to leave the
netherworld, but without this spell the deceased can not return to the
netherworld. In fact, magical spells are necessary for even gaining
access to the underworld in the first place, as is seen in the Book of the
Dead Spell 115.1526
BEGINNING OF THE SPELLS FOR GOING FORTH BY
DAY, THE EXTOLLINGS AND BLESSINGS (connected with)
ASCENDING (FROM) AND DESCENDING INTO THE
GODS BLESSED DOMAIN IN THE BEAUTIFUL WEST.
TO BE SAID ON THE DAY OF BURIAL, OF ENTERING
AFTER GOING FORTH.
Hail to Thee, preside over the Westerners, Osiris lodging in the
Abydos nome. Thou lettest me proceed in peace to the west.
I ascend to the presence of Unnofer. I follow Horus in Rosetau
and Osiris in Mendes.
Book of the Dead, Spell 1 P 1 var., S 7 1527
So the deceased ascends from Osiris domain in order to ascend to
Osiris himself (Unnofer) in Abydos, a city here on earth, and then
follows Osiris to Mendes, yet another city here on earth in the world of
the living, just like Pe, Nekhen, and Abydos.
Lo, N. is gone forth by day to do whatever he may wish among
the living.
I have ascended (from the nether world; I have come) from
the realm of earth.
1525
1526
1527
1528
1529
505
Knowing the Names of Osiris in his every seat where he may
desire to be to Osiris in Pe, to Osiris in Aswan, to Osiris in
Lahun to Osiris in Dep, to Osiris in Upper Sais.
O Osiris, art Thou in the Sky? Come in thy Glory. Art Thou
in the earth? Come to thy Blessed One. Art Thou (in) the south,
north, west, or east? Come at thy setting, powerful in thy Body.
Book of the Dead, Spell 142 P 2-S 1, T var. 1530
Those are all locations that I was able to verify for certain existed in
ancient Egypt (as opposed to having been lost to the realm of myth).
Therefore these were places here on earth in the world of the living. And
Osiris comes to these places powerful in his body, so no, it was not the
case that his DISEMBODIED SOUL sometimes came to earth.
They that are with Head-up, may they grant entrance and exit
to Osiris (N.), that he may move about freely like the lords of the
nether world, (for) A POTRION HAS BEEN OFFERED TO
THEM ON EARTH BY Osiris (N.).
Book of the Dead, Spell 168 A d S 13 1531
The deceased has been identified with Osiris and is allowed to exit
the nether world and return to earth just like the lords of the nether
world, chief of whom is, of course, Osiris himself. The deceased returns
to earth because Osiris can return to earth.
All the suppliants (of) the Goddess that is in the nether world,
[may they let] Osiris N. pass, (for) A PORTION IS OFFERED
TO THEM ON (EARTH) BY one who moves about freely
among [the God]s, Osiris N.
Book of the Dead, Spell 168 B MMA 35.9.19 a S 6 1532
Mayest thou travel around heaven and earth in thy former shape.
Bremner-Rhind Papyrus, Songs of Isis and Nephthys 2.5 1533
This ability of Osiris and his resurrected followers to leave the
Underworld and go wherever they wished, not just upon earth, but
also in the whole of the cosmos, leads seamlessly into the next chapter.
1530
1531
1532
1533
506
Chapter Six
He Ascended into Heaven
He Descended into Hell
He that Descended is the same also that Ascended
The fact that Osiris (and the resurrected deceased identified with
him) at some point after resurrection descended beyond the horizon to
the gates of the netherworld is a fact that is hardly contested by the
antagonists of our faith. In fact, many of them actually seize upon that
fact to build arguments against the resurrection of Osiris, arguments
already debunked in the previous chapter. Since the heathen do not
contest that particular tenet of the Perennial Gospel concerning the
descent, this chapter will not focus on establishing that tenet from the
primary sources. It will only be mentioned in passing when it also
happens to appear in those same passages quoted in support of the
ascension. And that ascension will be the focus of this chapter. For not
only are Osiris and the deceased able to leave and return to the world of
the living, but they are also able to ascend to heaven and commune with
the gods. This not only further refutes the error of the heathen who claim
that Osiris was forever trapped in the netherworld and unable to leave,
but it also establishes yet another similarity to their own deities who
likewise allegedly descended into the underworld and ascended into
heaven on a cloud to be with other gods. But since Osiris and his
followers did so millennia earlier, such a heathen deity is really just a
Johnny-come-lately.
The King has ascended on a cloud.
So he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.
The king ascends to the sky as a star
You demand that you ascend to the sky and you shall ascend
Your feet are Imsety and Kebhsenuf
1534
Faulkner (1969), 260.
507
You demand that you descend to the Lower Sky and you shall
descend.
Grant that I may seize the sky and take possession of the
horizon. Ascend and descend; descend with Re, sink into
darkness with Ndi. Ascend and descend; ascend with Re, rise with
the Great Float-user. Ascend and descend; descend with Nephthys,
sink into darkness with the Night-bark. Ascend and descend;
ascend with Isis, rise with the Day-bark.
Your son Horus has acted on your behalf, and the Great Ones
tremble when they see the sword which is in your hand when you
ascend from the Netherworld.
The King takes possession of the sky, he cleaves its iron; the
King is conducted on the roads to Khoprer, the King rests in life
in the West, and the dwellers in the Netherworld attend him.
The king leaves the earth for the sky
The King is Osiris the King is bound for the sky, the
King is bound for the sky on the wind, on the wind!
The king becomes a flash of lightning
The King is a heart-tosser(?), the favorite son of Shu, long-
extended, fierce of brilliance; the King is a flame (moving) before
the wind to the end of the sky and to the end of the earth when the
hand of the lightning is voided of the King. The King travels the air
and traverses the earth, he kisses the Nt-crown, (even he) whom the
god cast forth. Those who are in the firmament(?) open their arms
to him, the King stands on the eastern side of the celestial vault,
there is brought to him a way of ascent to the sky, and it is he who
1535
1536
1537
1538
1539
508
performs the errand of the storm.
For the phrase cast forth, Dr. Faulkner clarifies in footnote 4- As
a lightning flash, and for a way of ascent he adds- i.e. the storm-
clouds on which the dead king rides.1541 So in this scene, Osiris the
King ascends to the eastern sky and, as the lightning cometh out of the
east, and shineth even unto the west, he cometh with clouds; and every
eye shall see him. The earth is visited of the Lord with thunder, and
with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the
flame of devouring fire.
Behold, I have come; behold, I have gone up on high
Behold, I have reached the height of heaven.
The king ascends to the sky
Here comes the ascender, here comes the ascender!
Here comes the climber, here comes the climber!
Here comes he who flew up, here comes he who flew up!
An ascension text
I ascend on this ladder which my father Re made for me.
Horus and Seth take hold of my hands and take me to the
Netherworld.
My seat is with you, O Re, and I will not give it to anyone else;
I will ascend to the sky to you.
These four pure reed-floats which you set down for Osiris
when he ascended to the sky, so that he might ferry over to the
firmament with his son Horus beside him so that he might bring
1540
1541
1542
1543
1544
1545
509
him up and cause him to appear as a great god in the firmament
set them down for me!
How lovely to see! How pleasing to behold! say they, namely
the gods, when this god ascends to the sky, when you ascend to the
sky with your power upon you may you ascend to the sky and
mount up on it in this its name of Ladder. The sky is given to
you, the earth is given to you.
The King is bound for the sky.
I ascend to the sky upon the SdSd.
I have ascended in a blast of fire, having turned myself about.
The two skies go to me I have travelled the roads of Nut.
I will ascend to the sky among my brethren the gods.
An ascension text
The sky thunders, the earth quakes, because of dread of you,
O Osiris, when you ascend. Mourn him when he ascends and
goes to the sky among his brethren the gods.
Grasp the King by his hand and take the King to the sky, that
he may not die on earth among men.
1546
1547
1548
1549
1550
1551
1552
1553
510
May you give order to the gods, may you grasp for yourself the
hand of the Imperishable Stars, may you ascend from the Thinite
nome, may you descend into the Great Valley.
They recite for me The Spell of Him who ascends, and I
ascend to the sky.
O my father the King, the doors of the sky are opened for you,
the doors of the celestial expanses are thrown open for you. The
gods of Pe are full of sorrow, and they come to Osiris You shall
ascend to the sky.
Raise yourself, Osiris the King, you first-born son of Geb
May you remove yourself to the sky upon your iron throne, may
you cross the lake, may your face be [2Awi] in the north of the sky,
may Re summon you from the zenith(?) of the sky.
I am the Great One who ascends to the sky.
I have come to you, my father, I have come to you, O Geb;
may you give me your hand, so that I may ascend to the sky to my
mother Nut.
An ascension text
O Horus who is upon the SdSd, give me your hand that I may
ascend to the sky, to Nut. O Nut, set your hand on me with life
and dominion, that you may assemble my bones and collect my
members. May you gather my bones at(?) [ there is no limb of
mine] devoid of God. May I ascend and lift myself up to the sky as
the great star in the midst of the East.
1554
1555
1556
1557
Ibid. 170-71, n.3. (Emph. added.)
1558
1559
511
Ascending like a star in the east- thats the place where the sun rises
in the morning. So here Osiris could be likened to another famous god
who is known as the bright and Morning Star. And who is this famous
god, exactly? Well, that goes without saying, since I am sure many
readers have already correctly guessed his name by now. The Morning
Star is, of course, none other than Osiris own son, Horus, as seen in
Pyramid Text Utt. 519 1207.1561 Anyway, continuing:
An ascension text
O King, free course is given to you by Horus, you flash as the
Lone Star in the midst of the sky.
I ascend to the sky I am back to back with those gods in the
north of the sky, the Imperishable Stars; (therefore) I will not
perish.
The king ascends to the sky in an earthquake.
I ascend to the sky, I cross over the iron (firmament) I
ascend to the sky among the Imperishable Stars.
The king ascends to the sky in an earthquake.
Nut shouts for joy before me when I ascend to the sky. The
sky thunders for me, the earth quakes for me Those who are in
charge of the parts of the sky open the celestial doors for me, and I
stand on the air, the stars are darkened for me with the fan of the
gods water-jars. I traverse the sky like ZwnTw.
The Followers of Horus will cleanse you, they will recite for
you the Spell for Him Who Ascends, they will recite for you (the
Spell for) Him Who Travels.
1560
1561
O Morning Star, Horus of the Netherworld, divine Falcon- ibid. 192.
1562
1563
1564
1565
512
Go aboard this bark of Re which the gods row; rise up, for
they will rejoice at meeting you just as they rejoice at meeting Re
when he ascends in the east, having been lifted up, lifted up.
May the King ascend to the sky, may the King descend to the
earth.
Set your hand on me that I may sit between the two great gods,
that my seats may be pre-eminent, that my hand be taken at the
Field of Offerings, and that I may sit among the stars which are in
the sky.
An ascension text
I am pure, I am conveyed to the sky thereby, I remain more
than human, I appear in glory for the gods. I have appeared with
Re at his appearing.
This King goes to his double, to the sky. A ladder is set up for
him that he may ascend on it in its name of Ascent to the sky.
How lovely to see, how pleasing to behold! says Isis, when
you ascend to the sky, your power upon you. They make a
ladder for you that you may ascend on it to the sky, the doors of
the sky are opened for you, the doors of the starry firmament are
thrown open for you.
Behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to
heaven: and behold the children of God ascending and descending on
it.
1566
1567
1568
1569
1570
1571
513
Anubis who claims hearts, he claims Osiris the King from the
gods who are on earth for the gods who are in the sky.
Bring to the King [the ladder] which Khnum made that the
King may ascend on it to the sky and escort Re in the sky.
The aperture of the sky-window is opened for you and your
sunshine-stride is extensive.
An ascension text
May you set me among those gods the Imperishable Stars that
I may fall among them; I will never perish nor be destroyed.
An ascension and rebirth text
The prince(?) ascends in a great storm from the inner horizon.
Horus comes to you, O King, that he may do for you what he
did for his father Osiris so that you may live as those who are in the
sky live, that you may be more extant than those who exist on
earth. Raise yourself because of your strength, may you ascend to
the sky, may the sky give birth to you like Orion, may you have
power in your body.
The eastern door of the sky is opened for you by him whose
powers endure; Nut has laid her hands on you, O King, even she
whose hair is long and whose breasts hang down; she carries you
for herself to the sky.
1572
1573
1574
1575
1576
1577
1578
514
Lift the King and set him at the eastern side of the sky.
An ascension text.
The sky thunders, the earth quakes, [] O King, Geb has
given you up and Nut has accepted you; ascend to the sky, for the
doors of the sky are opened for you They commend you to Him
who presides over the Enneads as lord of the heritage of Geb
which Nu places under your feet for you [] as [Lord(?)] of the
sky.
The doors of the sky are opened because of your goodness;
may you ascend and see Hathor You have appeared as Lord of
the West, having ruled the Egyptians who are on earth.
You have appeared as Lord of the West at the head of all the
gods, oblations are given to you as to Re you ascend to the sky.
Horus, pre-eminent in Khem, rejoices at Osiris Onnophris
who has come safely to the West with all the gods in his train. See,
you are at the bow of the Bark, and a throne in the shrine is given
to you; see, you are king of the sky.
Hail to you, my father Osiris A ladder to the sky shall be put
together for you and Nut will extend her hands towards you.
You shall ascend to the sky among the stars which do not
perish.
1579
1580
1581
1582
1583
1584
1585
515
TO KNOW THE PATHS TO THE SKY. I have opened
the paths in the sky.
The god comes in peace, say they who are in the full moon;
they have given to me appearings in glory with Re. ASCENDING
TO THE SKY, TO THE PLACE WHERE RE IS.
Coffin Texts, Spell 176 1587
I will never bow down to kiss my father Geb I fly up on to
the eastern side of the sky, I alight on the western side of the sky, I
cross the sky like Re.
I will knot the ropes for Re in the sky, I will bring him to land
in the beautiful West. I will knot my ropes in the sky, like Re, I will
land in the beautiful West.
A way to the sky is made for me, and I am king of those who
are yonder.
1590
There are opened to me the gates of the horizon, the good
place of the sky wherein I would dwell.
I am the third of these gods who ascend to the sky as falcons,
and I ascend on their wings.
Coffin Texts, Spell 1592
I am Apis who is in the sky, long of horns, fair of names.
1586
Ibid. 113.
1587
1588
1589
1590
1591
1592
1593
516
I am at the head of the Westerners I will be with you at the
southern part of the northern sky.
[SPELL FOR] BECOMING THE KING OF THE SKY. I
have assaulted(?) and conquered the horizon by my own hand, the
Netherworld by the hand of Re, and the wrrt-crown by the hand of
the Ennead.
O Nut, spread yourself over me when you enfold me with the
life which belongs to you; may you fold your arms over this seat of
mine, for I am a languid Great One. Open to me, for I am Osiris;
do not close your doors against me, so that I may cross the
firmament and be joined to the dawn, and that I may expel what Re
detests from his bark. I have come that I may drive off Apep and
that I may make known the course of the northern sky.
I travel around in the northern sky, and praise is given to me, a
stairway to the sky is set up for me; all the gods go about in my
retinue.
Stand up, O Ladder of Horus! Stand up, O Ladder of Seth!
Stand up, O great and mighty ladder which was made for Osiris, so
that he might ascend on it to the sky.
I have restrained the foes of Osiris, and I worship him in the
pure firmament which Re gave to him.
How lovely to see! How pleasant to hear! so says Isis the
divine. This god ascends to the sky with his soul at his head, the
dread of him at his mouth and his magic on his hands.
1594
1595
Ibid. 197.
1596
1597
1598
1599
517
Hail to you, my father Osiris Onnophris! [May you] cross
the [sky].
Coffin Texts, Spell 876 VII, 85, 89 1601
These are the paths of Osiris; they are in the limit of the sky.
The sky is opened for Osiris before me as a noble.
Osiris in the southern sky, Osiris in the northern sky, Osiris in
the western wky, Osiris in the eastern sky.
Come, [Osiris], lord of the throne (of) the Sky.
Book of the Dead, Spell Pleyte 168 S 1 1605
After death, Osiris removed from earth to the sky. He was the
first who passed from the gods of the earth to the gods of heaven.
Dr. el-Sayed el-Aswad, in Anthropos 1606
The gods of the four cardinal points are told to make
obeisance before Osiris when he ascends to heaven (Pyr. 464a-c).
When the king is said to come to the lord of heaven, it transpires
that this celestial sovereign is none other than Osiris.
The Coffin Texts like the Pyr. Texts testify to a celestial
dwelling place of Osiris. In Pyr. Par. 464 the same is said
concerning Osiris as concerning the dead king. Reed-floats are
given to him in order to ascend to heaven Osiris rules the dAt
and heaven as well.
Dr. Jan Zandee, in Ex Oriente Lux, XV 1608
1600
1601
1602
1603
1604
T.G. Allen (1974), 119.
1605
Ibid. 218.
1606
el-Sayed el-Aswad, Archaic Egyptian Cosmology, Anthropos 92 (1997): 73.
1607
1608
Zendee (1966), 39.
518
Well, that was quite straightforward. What more need be said? Now
as for the other portion of this tenet of the Perennial Gospel- And was
seated at the hand of God the Father almighty, that was already
covered sufficiently on pp.118-21.
Fig. 175: Osiris, having ascended to heaven, sails upon the starry sky and seeks to join
the moon; from the Temple of Hathor in Dendera.
Fig. 176: Osiris sails to heaven to make an abode in the stars, in particular, the
constellation Orion; also from the Temple of Hathor in Dendera.
519
Are there not Twelve Hours in the Day?
Another common motif worth mentioning here that is related to

traversing the sky is that of divisions/groupings of 12. First of all, as
covered earlier, the moon divides the solar year into twelve months.
They said that the Egyptians were the first of all peoples to
discover the year, by dividing up the seasons into twelve parts to
total one year, and that they discovered how to do this from the
stars. The Egyptians seem to me to be much wiser than the
Hellenes in the way they regulate the timing of the seasons. While
the Hellenes attempt to preserve the timing of the seasons by
inserting an intercalary month every other year, the Egyptians
divide the year into twelve months of thirty days each and add just
five days each year beyond that number, and thus their seasons do
return at the same periods in the cycle from year to year. They said
that the Egyptians were also the first to establish the tradition of
identifying names for the twelve gods, and that the Hellenes
adopted this practice from them.
Now let me relate what others told me, with the agreement of
the Egyptians, about what happened in Egypt; and I will again add
something of my own observations. After being liberated from
Ethiopian rule and following the reign of the priest of Hephaistos,
the Egyptians, who could not live without a king, divided all Egypt
into twelve districts and appointed twelve kings to rule them.
They also decided that a memorial should be left to commemorate
them all collectively, and so they had a labyrinth constructed a
short distance south of Lake Moeris near the city that is named
after crocodiles. Of all the wonders I have seen, this labyrinth truly
beggars description. It has twelve roofed courtyards with gates;
six of the gates are situated in a row facing north, the other six
exactly opposite them facing south.
Herodotus, Histories 2.4.1-2, 2.147.1-4 (5th century BCE)1609
In addition to this, apparently the sky itself, represented by the XAt
(body) of Nut, is likewise divided into 12 parts. These parts mark the 12
hours of the day, the time it takes for Re and His company to cross the
sky from one horizon to the other. They also mark the 12 hours of night,
the time it takes (from our perspective) for Re to traverse the
netherworld.
1609
Herodotus, in Strassler (2009), 118, 186-87. (Emph. added.)
520
The Egyptians seem to have been the first people to divide the
day into twenty-four hours: twelve for the day and twelve for the
night.
1610
For the early Egyptians nighttime and daylight were each
divided into twelve hours It seems certain that the division of the
night into twelve hours arose from the 12-month year.
Dr. Marshall Clagett, Ancient Egyptian Science: Calendars,
Clocks, and Astronomy 1611
Ancient Egyptians also invented the twenty-four-hour day by
dividing the night into twelve hours and the day into twelve more.
Dr. Bob Brier and Dr. A. Hoyt Hobbs, Daily Life of the Ancient
Egyptians 1612
Likewise, the netherworld was divided into twelve regions or
caverns to correspond to the nights 12 hours.
In the Underworld there are at least twelve caverns of the west
in which fierce gods and goddesses dwell.
and Goddesses 1613
In the Book of the Dead of the New Kingdom, this literature
consisted of all the spells that furnished the deceased with
topographical knowledge of the world beyond, including the twelve
caves (chapter 168).
The Coffin Texts Book of Two Ways gave rise to several
similar Netherworld Guides, most of which are inscribed in the
royal tombs of the New Kingdom and Ramesside Period. These
include the composition Egyptologists call the Amduat (from the
Egyptian jmj dwAt he who is in the Duat) and several texts
dividing the netherworld into twelve separate sections (for the
1610
Pinch (2002-04), 52.
1611
Marshall Clagett, Ancient Egyptian Science: Volume II Calendars, Clocks, and
Astronomy (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1995), 48-49.
1612
1613
Hart (1986-2005), 51.
1614
Assmann (2001-05), 206.
521
hours of the night), such as the Book of Gates and the Book of
Caverns.
Dr. James P. Allen, Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the
Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs 1615
The secret cavern of the west over which the great god passes in his
bark, while the gods who are in the Netherworld haul him.
Osiris N knows the names of the twelve portals
and the twelve caverns that are in this locale.
Book of Amduat, Hour 8 1616
Fig. 177: The twelve stages of the suns voyage across the sky; based on a relief from the
Hall of the New Year at Edfu.
1615
J.P. Allen (2000-10), 323.
1616
Manassa (2007), 157.
522
Fig. 178: On the right side of Nut are the twelve goddesses of the daylight hours and to
her left are the twelve goddesses of the nighttime hours; based on the coffin of
Peftjauneith of the Ptolemaic Period. This scene is akin to words later found in heathen
scripture- And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun.
523
Fig. 179: The twelve caverns of the Netherworld, corresponding to the twelve hours of
the night; based on the Egyptian Book of Amduat, as seen in tombs of the New Kingdom
Period.
And in the Evening He Cometh with the Twelve
As a consequence of this, there can be seen all throughout the

netherworld various groups of 12 which aid Re in some capacity during
His nightly voyage through the 12 caverns.
Each of the twelve gates of the underworld has a snake
guardian.
524
1617
A semi-circle of alternating discs and stars (twelve of each,
twenty-four total) extends from the central mummy's head to the
outstretched hands of two goddesses, on either side of the tableau.
The twelve discs and twelve stars together represent the twenty-four
hours of the day and night, respectively.
In the first scene of the Eighth Hour (Scene 48), twelve deities
grasp a rope from which emerge human and falcon heads as well as
dmD-signs; they are labeled Xry.w nwH msi sStAw those who carry
the rope which gives birth to the mysteries.
The names of the twelve goddesses indicate that they are
personifications of the hours of the night, the very goddesses who
lead Re through their own space-time dominion.
The middle register of the Ninth Hour mentions rowers,
and a series of twelve deities holding oars are indeed depicted
before the solar bark.
The twelve gods with various attributes and forms described in
this annotation all have a single overriding purpose: to convey the
mysteries of the solar deity to the appropriate sacred place,
described as the bw Dsr and a.t imn.t. These deities find their
closest parallels in another group of twelve gods who appear in the
middle register of the Sixth Hour of the Book of Gates.
1617
Pinch (2002-04), 200. (Emph. added.)
1618
Roberson (2007), 215. (Emph. added.)
1619
Manassa (2007), 34, 200, 347, 356. (Emph. added.)
525
Fig. 180: From the 1st Hour of the Book of Amduat.
526
Fig. 181: Likewise from Hour One.
527
Fig. 182: Twelve deities, walking on water (cf. Fig. 183, 272-73), who have been
commissioned to battle the enemy of Re so that the Nile may flow; from the 3rd Hour of
the Book of Amduat.
Fig. 183: Twelve goddesses walking on water as they guide the barque of Re through the
fourth cavern of the Netherworld. The inscription explicitly states that they are
standing upon their lake;1620 based on the 4th Hour of the Book of Gates as seen in the
tomb of Ramesses I, KV16, 13th century BCE.
1620
Hornung and Abt (2014), 120. (Emph. added.)
528
Fig. 184: Twelve gods of the crew of the bark of Re, rowing Him who is in the horizon
until he set in the eastern gateway of the sky;1621 based on the 9th Hour of the Book of
Amduat as seen in the tomb of Thutmose III, KV34, 15 th century BCE.
Fig. 185: Twelve followers of Re, armed for battle, are commanded to destroy His enemies
and meet Him at the horizon portal so that they may follow Him to heaven; from the 10th
Hour of the Book of Amduat.
As just seen in above, Re even has groups of 12 followersyes,

followerswho follow Him beyond the netherworld and into the
heavens.
The lower register contains twelve gods. These gods are
labeled nTr.w imy-xt Ra m p.t mHty and nTr.w im-xt Ra m p.t rsy.t
The gods who are in the following of Re in the northern/southern
sky.
Fig. 186: Twelve followers of Re who carry the World-Encircler of the earth upon them
to this place, and they proceed in the following of Re to the eastern horizon of the
1621
1622
529
sky;1623 from the 11th Hour of the Book of Amduat as seen in the tomb of Thutmose III,
KV34, 15th century BCE.
Fig. 187: Twelve gods lifting the mystery of this great god to the Hidden Chamber, day
after day. They go forth with this great god to the sky;1624 based on the 11th Hour of the
Book of Amduat as seen in the tomb of Thutmose III, KV34, 15 th century BCE.
Fig. 188: Twelve gods who elevate the great sun disc in the eastern horizon of the sky,
day after day;1625 based on the 12th Hour of the Book of Amduat as seen in the tomb of
Thutmose III, KV34, 15th century BCE.
1623
1624
Ibid. 335.
1625
Ibid. 375.
530
Fig. 189: A) Twelve goddesses with fire-breathing uraei protect Re from Apophis and
follow Him to heaven; B) twelve gods worship Re and sing to Him as He ascends from the
eastern horizon; C) twelve gods tow the barque of Re through the tail of a giant serpent
to regenerate within its bowels; from the twelfth and final hour of the Book of Amduat.
Fig. 190: Twelve gods who possess the Eye of Re, whom he has hidden from those who
are upon earth;1626 based on the 1st Hour of the Book of Gates as seen on the
sarcophagus of Seti I, 13th century BCE.
1626
Hornung and Abt (2014), 23.
531
Fig. 191: Twelve gods who have adored Re on earth, (and) have enchanted Apophis,1627
based on the 2nd Hour of the Book of Gates as seen on the sarcophagus of Seti I, 13th
century BCE.
Fig. 192: Twelve followers of Re whom he bodily resurrects from out of their shrines,
based on the 3rd Hour of the Book of Gates as seen on the sarcophagus of Seti I, 13th
century BCE. Opening be for your shrines, so that my light may enter your darkness. I
found you when you were in mourning and your shrines were closed upon you. (But now)
I give breath to your noses those who are before him and behind, (his) retinue.1628
1627
Ibid. 32.
1628
Ibid. 63-64.
532
Fig. 193: The twelve Jackals who are in the Lake of Life',1629 based on the 4th Hour of
the Book of Gates as seen in the tomb of Horemheb, KV57, 13th century BCE..
Fig. 194: Twelve gods who have gone to their kA,1630 based on the 4th Hour of the Book
of Gates as seen in the tomb of Horemheb, KV57, 13th century BCE.
1629
Ibid. 106.
1630
Ibid. 102.
533
Fig. 195: The twelve AXs who make jubilation for Re in the West,1631 based on the 5th
Hour of the Book of Gates as seen on the sarcophagus of Seti I, 13th century BCE.
Fig. 196: Twelve bA who have spoken Maat on earth,1632 based on the 5th Hour of the
Book of Gates as seen on the sarcophagus of Seti I, 13th century BCE.
1631
Ibid. 148.
1632
Ibid. 164.
534
Fig. 197: The twelve gods and goddesses who are in this gate,1633 based on the 5th Hour
of the Book of Gates as seen on the sarcophagus of Seti I, 13th century BCE.
1633
Ibid. 182.
535
Fig. 198: The twelve captors of Apophis who punish Evilface, and overthrow the
enemies of Re. It is they who seize the rebel, and let emerge the heads of those who are in
him,1634 based on the 6th Hour of the Book of Gates as seen on the sarcophagus of Seti I,
13th century BCE.
Fig. 199: The twelve armed gods whose forked sticks, Re, are (planted) into the
Devourer, our strings are on the Evil Serpent,1635 based on the 6th Hour of the Book of
Gates as seen on the sarcophagus of Seti I, 13th century BCE.
Fig. 200: The twelve gods of Aqen who carry the double-twisted (rope) out of which the
hours emerge,1636 based on the 6th Hour of the Book of Gates as seen on the
1634
Ibid. 202-03.
1635
Ibid. 200.
1636
Ibid. 206.
536
Fig. 201: The twelve gods of Ikeki who carry the Devourer whom they grasp,1637 based
on the 8th Hour of the Book of Gates as seen on the sarcophagus of Seti I, 13th century
BCE.
Fig. 202: The twelve gods of the council of gods which surrounds the Island of Fire,1638
based on the 9th Hour of the Book of Gates as seen on the sarcophagus of Seti I, 13th
century BCE.
Fig. 203: The twelve goddesses who tow Re and who guide (him) on the ways in
heaven,1639 based on the 11th Hour of the Book of Gates as seen on the sarcophagus of
Seti I, 13th century BCE.
1637
Ibid. 278.
1638
Ibid. 309.
1639
Ibid. 397.
537
Fig. 204: The twelve gods who transform for the (re)birth of Re in heaven gods who
know no decay,1640 based on the 11th Hour of the Book of Gates as seen on the
Fig. 205: The twelve divine baboons worshiping the rising sun in his form as Khepri;
based on a scene from the tomb of Tutankhamen, KV62, 14th century BCE.
Since Osiris is Res avatar for the netherworld, this motif of having
12 followers was naturally transferred over to him as well.
1640
Ibid. 394-95.
538
Fig. 206: The twelve followers of Osiris & Re, from the Book of the Dead as seen in the
Papyrus of Ani, 13th century BCE.
Then come the four steering oars, with full legends, and four
groups of three genii each, addressed respectively as follows: O
gods who are above the earth but guide the nether world, O
fathers and mothers of the gods who are above the earth, (who are)
in the gods domain in the house of Osiris, in the house of Osiris,
O gods who guide the sacred land, who are above the earth but
guide the nether world, and O (gods) who follow Re who is in the
train of Osiris.
Dr. Thomas G. Allen, The Book of the Dead or Going Forth
by Day 1641
1641
539
Fig. 207: Osiris with twelve followers; from the 2nd Hour of the Book of Amduat.
Fig. 208: The twelve goddesses of the night hours gather at the coffin of Osiris, which is
guarded by a crocodile; from the seventh hour of the Book of Amduat.
540
Fig. 209: Twelve servants of Osiris; from the ninth hour of the Book of Amduat as seen in
the tomb of Thutmose III, KV34, 15th century BCE. Perform your duties for Osiris,
that you adore the Lord of the West.1642
Fig. 210: Twelve female followers of Osiris walking in his train; based on the 9th Hour of
the Book of Amduat as seen in the tomb of Thutmose III, KV34, 15th century BCE.
These are the goddesses walking in the following of Osiris.1643
1642
1643
541
These goddesses follow after Osiris when he enters into the
Underworld.
Book of Amduat, Hour 9 1644
The description of the twelve standing goddesses in the upper
register of the Ninth Hour as sSm ir.n 1r images that Horus
made is reminiscent of Eighth Hour of Amduat. Interestingly,
the goddesses do not follow Re, but Osiris.
Fig. 211: Twelve seraphim who spit fire for Osiris, Foremost of the Netherworld,1646
based on the 9th Hour of the Book of Amduat as seen in the tomb of Thutmose III, KV34,
15th century BCE.
Fig. 212: The twelve Gods of the Western Desert,1647 based on the 1st Hour of the Book
of Gates as seen on the sarcophagus of Seti I, 13th century BCE.
1644
1645
1646
1647
542
Fig. 213: The twelve justified who are in the Duat Those who have spoken Maat on
earth, who have kept afar from doing wrong,1648 based on the 2nd Hour of the Book of
Fig. 214: The twelve Gods who are in the Lake of Fire Its water belongs to you,
without its heat being against you, without its fiery blast being against your bodies.1649
based on the 3rd Hour of the Book of Gates as seen on the sarcophagus of Seti I, 13th
century BCE.
1648
Ibid. 35.
1649
543
Fig. 215: The twelve followers of Osiris who surround his shrine; based on the 4th Hour
of the Book of Gates, as seen in the tomb of Ramesses I, KV16, 13th century BCE.
Horus says to those gods who surround the shrine: You have been allotted to me, gods
who are in the retinue of the Foremost of the Westerners!1650
The sun god, who has descended as the nocturnal sun to the
deceased in the netherworld, addresses twelve mummies lying on a
serpent-shaped bier:
O you followers of the one who rules the West,
who lie outstretched on your bier
your flesh is to be exalted.
Fig. 216: The twelve gods of Osiris who carry the (measuring-)rope in the fields of the
Duat,1652 based on the 5th Hour of the Book of Gates as seen on the sarcophagus of Seti
I, 13th century BCE.
1650
1651
1652
544
Fig. 217: Twelve gods are carrying the serpent of time and who carry the lifetime in
the West. They are those who establish the lifetime and fix the days,1653 based on the 5th
Fig. 218: The twelve followers of Osiris are bodily resurrected by the Sungod (just as
Osiris & Horus were); based on the 6th Hour of the Book of Gates as seen in the tomb of
Seti I, KV17, 13th century BCE. He inspects a long bier, shaped like a serpent named
Nehep, with twelve mummies lying on it.- Dr. Erik Hornung.1654 Followers of Osiris, the
sleeping ones who are in a state of weariness. Duati says to them: O gods in the Duat,
Followers of the Ruler of the West, who are stretched out on their side, lying on their
biers- May your flesh rise up, may your bones be put together, may you embrace your
limbs, may your flesh be united! Sweet breath for your noses, loosening for your mummy-
wrappings, uncovering for your headclothes! Light be for your divine eyes, that you may
see the light through them. Raise yourself from your weariness.1655
Fig. 219: The twelve gods with hidden arm who carry the mystery,1656 based on the 6th
1653
Ibid. 174.
1654
Ibid. 218.
1655
1656
Ibid. 212.
545
Fig. 220: The twelve gods of Osiris who guard the Lake of Fire; based on the 6th Hour of
the Book of Gates as seen in the tomb of Horemheb, KV57, 13th century BCE. Hail to
you gods who guard the unapproachable pit the water of the fiery pit belongs to
Osiris.1657
Fig. 221: The twelve followers of Osiris who practiced Maat on earth; based on the 7th
Hour of the Book of Gates as seen in the tomb of Ramesses III, KV11, 12th century BCE.
Who have practiced Maat when they were (still) on earth, Osiris says to them: Maat
belongs to you, who are truthful! You are satisfied with what you have done, as those
who have become my retinue.1658
Fig. 222: The twelve grain gods of Osiris, through whom he feeds bread to those in his
kingdom; based on the 7th Hour of the Book of Gates as seen in the tomb of Ramesses
III, KV11, 12th century BCE. Those who generate food from Lower Egyptian barely in
the fields of the Netherworld. The greenery of these, among whom you are, belongs to
Osiris that he is content with it.1659
1657
Ibid. 226.
1658
1659
546
Fig. 223: Twelve gods of Osiris carry twelve baskets of bread1660 to feed the gods and their
kA; based on the 7th Hour of the Book of Gates, as seen in the tomb of Ramesses III,
Interesting, this reminds me of a much later story involving The

Good Shepherd and his twelve followers likewise feeding bread to
members of his kingdom and they took up of the fragments that
remained twelve baskets full.
Fig. 224: The twelve gods who carry the rope which gives birth to mysteries,1661 based
on the 8th Hour of the Book of Gates as seen on the sarcophagus of Seti I, 13th century
BCE.
1660
Ibid. 238.
1661
Ibid. 274.
547
Fig. 225: The twelve sphinx mummies of He with hidden mysteries,1662 based on the 8th
Fig. 226: The twelve Masters of provision in the West,1663 based on the 8th Hour of the
Fig. 227: The twelve Gods who cut off throats who bear the chain of He with hidden
body,1664 based on the 11th Hour of the Book of Gates as seen on the sarcophagus of Seti
1662
Ibid. 290.
1663
Ibid. 284.
548
So while many heathen do not like it, Osiris and Re do have groups
of twelve followers. And in spite of the common heathen objection to the
evidence for this fact, no, this is not a case of cherry-picking disparate
pieces of data from a wide spectrum of differently numbered groups
(some might even retort see, even you showed images that also had
groupings of nine!). Rather, this is actually a very conspicuous
archetype with a very specific and sacred meaning behind it. The motif is
so conspicuous and prevalent that even the aforementioned scholars
could not ignore it and were sure to make note of it. And in spite of there
being groupings of various other numbers found in the netherworld, it is
the grouping of twelve that is the most commonly repeated throughout
the Amduat texts.
I also find such an objection hypocritical when coming from certain
heathen. This is because they likewise place a special emphasis on a
divinely selected group of twelve followers in spite of the fact that their
own scriptures also make mention of several other groupings with
different numbers, such as 7 and 70 (which also happen to be sacred
archetypal numbers found in ancient Egyptian religion). But the heavy
usage of the motif of the twelve in ancient Egypt far predates its usage in
the religion of these heathen, and even predates its usage in the religion
of their predecessors. And given that the scriptures of that preceding
religion claim that said religion was founded in Egypt during the New
Kingdom Period, when we come across this motif in these heathen
scriptures, for example-
12 princes of a rival nation,
12 patriarchs,
12 tribes,
12 water wells,
12 pillars,
12 gems of the priestly breastplate,
12 offering cakes,
12 tribal princes,
12 oxen of the tabernacle,
12 chargers of silver,
1664
Ibid. 372.
549
12 silver bowls,
12 spoons of gold,
12 sacrificial bullocks,
12 sacrificial rams,
12 sacrificial lambs
12 sacrificial kids,
12 royal rods,
12 memorial river stones,
12 cities of a sub-clan of the priestly tribe,
12 national judges,
12 dismembered body parts of a murdered concubine,
12 war heroes of the 2nd king,
12 officers of the 3rd king,
12 lions on the stairs of the kings palace,
12 pieces of a rent garment as an omen of doom,
12 blessed stones which composed the altar contra Baal,
12 bronze bulls of the temple,
12 books of the 12 minor prophets,
12 judges upon 12 thrones passing judgment in the afterlife
-it is very reasonable to conclude that this was influenced to at least some
degree by the motifs previous usage in Egypt. That last group of twelve
there, the twelve judges upon twelve thrones in the afterlife, is especially
interesting and makes for a nice segue into the next chapter. That is
because such a scene fitting that description can also be found in a much
older source. That scene is, of course, the Judgment Hall of Osiris.
In the Papyrus of Ani, the purpose of the depiction was to
show that the weighing of his heart had vindicated the dead scribe
Ani. Thus, Thoth is shown reporting the verdict of the scales to the
twelve gods who serve as assessors.
Dr. Samuel G.F. Brandon, in Ex Orbe Religionum: Studia
Geo Widengren Oblata I 1665
1665
Samuel G.F. Brandon, The Proleptic Aspect of the Iconography of the
Egyptian Judgment of the Dead, in Ex Orbe Religionum: Studia Geo
Widengren Oblata I, ed. B. Layton (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1972), 23. (Emph. added.)
550
The judgment scene from the Ani Papyrus is the best known
and most frequently reproduced of these illuminations. Ani stands
before the judgment seat with his wife behind him. Before them
stands the balancing scales Above is the jury of twelve gods who
hear the confession of the deceased.
Dr. F. Gladstone Bratton, A History of Egyptian Archaeology 1666
Fig. 228: The twelve members of the divine tribunal of Osiris; from the Papyrus of Ani,
13th cen. BCE.
Even today, it is still a tradition to pass judgment only after a trial

has been presented before a jury of twelve peers. As for Osiris himself,
he is the one sitting upon the judgment throne itself, doing the actual
judging, as shall be seen in the following chapter.
1666
F. Gladstone Bratton, A History of Egyptian Archaeology (New York: Thomas
Y. Crowell Company, 1968), 242. (Emph. added.)
551
Chapter Seven
He will Judge the Living and the Dead
Though art Weighed in the Balances
It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.
The dead are judged out of those things which are written in the books,
according to their works, so that every one may receive the things done
in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
There is none to plead thy cause. Therefore one must plead his own
case. One must give an account of every single deed committed on earth
before the forty-two gods of the forty-two cardinal sins,1667 and before
the jury of the twelve gods of the Great Tribunal.
The judges shall make diligent inquisition: and, behold, if the
witness be a false witness, and hath testified falsely, then his heart shall
be removed and weighed in the balances against the feather of Maat, the
feather of truth, to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart.
Every sin weighs down the heart and causes it to sink on the scale, while
every righteous act committed causes it to rise. Ones own heart shall
testify for or against him. Thus ye are witnesses against yourselves that
ye have chosen you the Lord, to serve him, or that ye were the servants
of sin. Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is
the transgression of the law. Whosoever is born of God doth not
commit sin; for His seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because
he is born of God. A true witness delivereth souls: but a deceitful
witness speaketh lies. A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he
that speaketh lies shall not escape. A false balance is abomination to
the Lord: but a just weight is his delight. A just weight and balance are
the Lord's: Let me be weighed in an even balance that God may know
mine integrity.
The idea of a Day of Judgement, of being weighed on the
moral scales of God, is a feature of both Egyptian and Persian
religion. Various Egyptian texts, spread over many centuries,
show the evolution of this thanatology, with a clear sense of death
1667
Taylor (2001), 37.
552
being an occasion for judgement with, of course, the implicit
danger of punishment for those who were unfamiliar with the
words of the Books of Going out into the Day.
Dr. Jon Davies, Death, Burial, and Rebirth in the
Religions of Antiquity 1668
Although Egyptian tradition, especially in the non-royal
sphere, often shows concern with rewards and punishments in this
life, there can be no question that its emphasis on judgement after
death became more conspicuous from the New Kingdom onwards.
As far as influence is concerned, it is certainly in this area that
Egypt made its greatest impact. Two main reasons may be
suggested for this phenomenon. First is the fact that Egyptian belief
in life after death was much more firmly based. The second
reason derives largely from iconography. In the developed
pictorialism of the weighing of the heart the Egyptian tradition
assumed a paramount appeal; and the accompanying texts reflect a
strongly moral ambience even if a magical element was often
present.
Before the emergence of the belief in a trial that awaited every
man and woman after death we find evidence of belief in a variety
of judicial procedures that were possible at that stage. In general,
following the conviction that life in the hereafter continued the
features of this life, the Egyptians believed that litigation was
possible after death.
Dr. John G. Griffiths, The Divine Verdict: A Study of Divine
Judgement in the Ancient Religions 1669
The emergence of a Judgment of the Dead from the archaic
image of death as an enemy was one of the most significant
developments in the history of Egyptian religion, and the idea of
such a judgment was one of the central religious ideas of Egypt, one
whose influence would spread far beyond that land. The concept of
the Judgment of the Dead came to acquire a towering importance
among the image of death that influenced the reality of life for the
ancient Egyptians.
The deceased was not the plaintiff but rather the defendant,
and he had to vindicate himself before the divine judges, reciting a
long list of potential transgressions and testifying that he had not
committed them. In the process, his heart was placed on a scale
1668
Jon Davies, Death, Burial, and Rebirth in the Religions of Antiquity (London:
Routledge, 1999-2002), 7, 31.
1669
John G. Griffiths, The Divine Verdict: A Study of Divine Judgement in the
Ancient Religions (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1991), 202-03.
553
and weighed against a feather, the symbol of maat
(truth/justice/order). With every lie, the pan in which his heart lay
would have sunk, and his lying heart would have been swallowed by
a monster. In this monster, we are to see a personification of the
second death. This monster, though, did not stand for evil, but
rather, defense against evil. It acted on the side of Osiris, not Seth.
If the deceased was swallowed, it was because he had been exposed
as an element of evil, a follower of Seth. With this increasing
moralization, the afterlife became ever more ambivalent and
threatening. It was divided not into a physical heaven and hell but
into two aspects, one of which spelled annihilation for evildoers,
and the other, salvation for the righteous. It was entirely clear
that the Judgment of the Dead was regarded as general and
inescapable. Everyone had to pass over this threshold.
The Egyptians believed in a judgment; the test for admittance
into the next world was crucial. Actually, there were two judgments,
one impartial and objective, the other somewhat subjective and
depending upon the theatrical and oratorical abilities of the
deceased.
In the objective test the heart of the deceased is weighed
against a feather. The hieroglyph designated the word maat, or
truth. Thus the heart was being examined to see how truthful the
individual was. The use of the balance scale is purely objective, the
implication being that if this life has been unjust to you, the
judgment in the next life will be the equalizer.
To enter the afterlife it was not enough that proper funerary
preparations be made. The deceased also had to demonstrate that
he was of good character, as evidenced by proper conduct during
his life on earth. Many tombs contain biographical inscriptions
intended to demonstrate that the deceased was of upright character,
by emphasizing good deeds and the avoidance of evil acts, in
general conformity to what were regarded as acceptable standards
of behavior. This was living according to maat, conceived by the
ancient Egyptians as the basis for all order in the universe. Maat
was what is right and embraces the notions of truth and justice.
The deceased stood before a balance. His heart was placed on
one of the scale pans, to be weighed against the image of maat
1670
Assmann (2001-05), 73, 75, 77.
1671
Brier (1980-2001), 136-37.
554
(either personified as a goddess figure wearing and ostrich feather,
or the feather alone). The heart, as the seat of the intelligence and
memory, contained a record of the deceaseds actions in life. The
symbolic weighing revealed the nature of the deceaseds
relationship with maat. An even balance signified a life in
conformity with maat, whereas wrongdoing caused the heart to
weight heavier than the image. The monster Ammut crouches
beneath the balance, so as to swallow the heart should the weighing
indicate a life of wickedness.
His heart weighed in the balance against the feather
representing truth, and if he lied his heart would weigh against him.
If he was innocent and his heart balanced the feather he was
declared true of voice and, reunited with his soul, passed into the
eternal kingdom of Osiris. If found guilty his heart would be
thrown to a composite creature called Devourer and he lost any
chance of immortality.
Dr. Ann Rosalie David, Handbook to Life in Ancient Egypt 1673
To the conceptions about the hereafter also those of the
judgment of the dead belong. Ethical considerations play a part
here. Man is judged according to his actions. He may be
condemned on account of offences against his fellow-men, but also
on account of sins against a god and cultic transgressions. One of
the most well-known places in literature, where this judgment of the
dead occurs, is B.D. 125. The judgment is twofold; the righteous
have a favourable fate, the sinners are condemned, in order to put
the spirits in their places and to deliver the dead to their sentence.
My heart of my mother, my heart of my mother, my breast of
my being, stand not against me as witness, oppose me not in the
Council. Outweigh me not before the keeper of the balance.
Book of the Dead, Spell 30B S 1 1675
1672
Taylor (2001), 35-37.
1673
Ann Rosalie David, Handbook to Life in Ancient Egypt (New York: Oxford
1674
Zandee (1960), 31, 34-35.
1675
T.G. Allen (1974), 40.
555
Thou who weighest in the balance, may truth rise to the nose
of Re on that day (of judgment).
I have come hither to testify to the truth and to equilibrate the
balance among the silent ones.
Book of the Dead, Spell 125 c S 4 1677
The balance is in equilibrium because of thy character.
Book of the Dead, Spell 178 l S 1678
Thy august (lady), Truth, is before thee, judging hearts on the
balance. I am in thy presence, my heart bearing truth, my breast
with no lie therein.
Book of the Dead, Spell 185E c S 1679
The fire which went forth is quenched, the anger in the
presence of the Tribunal of the God is calmed, and it sits to give
judgement in the presence of Geb. Hail to you, magistrates of the
gods!
Hail to you, Tribunal of the God who shall judge me
concerning what I have said, I being ignorant, at ease and having no
care. O you who surround me and stand at my back, may I be
vindicated in the presence of Geb, chiefest of the gods. Yonder god
shall judge me according to what I know.
You weigh in the balance like Thoth, your character is
recognized by Him who is in his Disk.
1676
Ibid. 84.
1677
Ibid. 99.
1678
Ibid. 188.
1679
Ibid. 207.
1680
1681
1682
Ibid. 43.
556
Fig. 229: The weighing of the heart against the feather of truth while the Two Truths
(hypostases of Maat) look on, bearing serpents turned into staffs; based on a vignette
from Spell 125 of the Book of the Dead.
Fig. 230: Again, the weighing of the heart against the feather of truth, this time borne by
an image of Maat herself. And once more, her hypostatatic forms look on while bearing
serpents turned into staffs.
557
Fig. 231: An alternate depiction of the weighing scene.
He that Judgeth Me is the Lord
Presiding over this judgment as the supreme chief justice is, of

course, Lord Osiris. The judgment seat being yet another thing he
inherited from his father Geb,1683 for the father judgeth no man but hath
committed all judgment unto the son, for true and righteous are his
judgments.
Resurrected, Osiris became king and judge of the dead in his
underworld realm.
The gods eventually decreed that Osiris should be resurrected
as king and judge of the dead.
1685
1683
See pp.114-16, 119, 556.
1684
David (1998), 157. (Emph. added.)
558
In versions dating to the New Kingdom the judgement is
usually presided over by Osiris, accompanied by Isis and Nephthys
and the Sons of Horus.
The gods which mostly act as judges of the dead are Re and
Osiris. Sometimes these two are even combined, 1687 probably
because both of them are eligible.
To go into the next life was to stand before Osiris for
judgement, and to be vindicated against death and other enemies in
the way that he had been.
Osiris presided over the Day of Judgement, with each
incoming person being weighed against a feather. Failure would
result in being eaten by the Eater of the Dead, the crocodile-
headed Ammit, and thus sent to the second death, to the total
oblivion and chaos beyond the grave which was the greatest dread
of the Egyptians.
Osiris is usually depicted presiding over the judgement to
ensure fairness while the god of writing, Toth, records the result.
Osiris had acquired a completely different role, although he
still continued in his earlier one of the dying-rising savior. In the
funerary literature, particularly in the so-called Book of the Dead,
he now appears as presiding at the judgment of the deceased. He
sits, wearing his characteristic regalia, before the scales in which the
1685
Pinch (2002-04), 178. (Emph. added.)
1686
1687
See pp.121-30.
1688
Zandee (1960), 34. (Emph. added.)
1689
Ray (2002), 154. (Emph. added.)
1690
Davies (1999-2002), 31. (Emph. added.)
1691
559
heart of the dead man or woman is weighed against the feather-
symbol of Maat, the goddess of truth.
Dr. Samuel G.F. Brandon, in Types of Redemption:
Contributions to the Theme of the Study-Conference held at
Jerusalem, 14th to 19th July, 1968 1692
The ruler of the Underworld naturally ensures that the souls of
the wicked and undesirable do not survive to live in his realm. In
the law court Osiris sits on his throne holding his scepters and
supervises the judgement of the new applicants for Paradise. Osiris
in a judicial connection, or at least as upholder of honesty and
upright behavior, is attested as early as the Pyramid Era where he is
called lord of MAAT, i.e. the goddess of cosmic order who later
represents the truth against which all answers must be weighed in
the aggressive interrogation of the dead persons soul.
and Goddesses 1693
I have come to you, knowing your will
and aware of your role in the netherworld.
You sit (in judgment), maat before you,
and judge the hearts on the scale.
Ramesside Hymn to Osiris, Louvre Stela C 218 1694
O Ennead of Osiris, who judge on behalf of He of the
Underworld, Osiris, foremost of the West.
Book of Caverns, 1st Division 1695
1692
Brandon (1970), 43. (Emph. added.)
1693
Hart (1986-2005), 122. (Emph. added.)
1694
1695
560
Fig. 232: Osiris judges the deceased; based on a vignette from the Book of the Dead.
Fig. 233: The same as above; from the First Book of Breathings of Ousirour from the
Ptolemaic Period.
561
Fig. 234: A judgment scene from the Papyrus of Ani, 13th cen. BCE.
Fig. 235: Another judgment scene.
562
Fig. 236: From the Book of the Dead of Neskhons, 11-10th century BCE.
Fig. 237: Based on a scene from the Book of Gates. On the right the condemned is cast
away in the form of a swine, somewhat reminiscent of heathen tales in which condemned
spirits are cast away in the bodies of swine, as well as CT Spell 440 V, 293- SPELL FOR
DRIVING OFF PIGS.1696
1696
563
The Lake of Fire
When a heart is weighed in the balances and found wanting, it is

consumed by the demon Ammut. But as for the owner of that heart, he is
damned to burn in the flames of Hell. All manner of sinners, even
the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and
whoremongers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the
lake which burneth with fire: which is the second death.
As for the Lake of Fire, it is the one that lies between

Naref and the court. Everyone who treads on [it] while unclean
succumbs to terror.
In the Book of Gates the Lake of Fire is the preferred place of
punishment for the damned xfty.w.
Dr. Richard Jasnow and Dr. Karl-Theodor Zauzich, The
Ancient Egyptian Book of Thoth 1698
In the hereafter the dead is threatened with fire. In the
Zweiwegebuch the pathway and the waterway lead along a red strip
in the middle. This is a pool of fire, which the dead has to avoid.
The notion of a fiery hell is wide-spread in Egypt. The fire means
total destruction for the dead. Total destruction through death by
fire is the punishment of sinners.
The Egyptians also conceived of an eternal unquenchable
fire as belonging to the punishments of this hell. At the center
of the infernal punishments is the Lake of Fire, whose very water is
fire, pictured with red waves occasionally adorned with beheaded
sinners swimming among them.
Eternity 1700
1697
T.G. Allen (1974), 31.
1698
Richard Jasnow and Karl-Theodor Zauzich, The Ancient Egyptian Book of
Thoth, Volume 1: Text (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz GmbH & Co. KG, 2005),
196.
1699
Zandee (1960), 133, 139.
564
This lake, located in the Duat, executed a kind of judgement
on those who approached it: the evil were burned in its flames, but
the blessed dead received nourishment from it.
Dr. John H. Taylor, Journey Through the Afterlife: Ancient
Egyptian Book of the Dead 1701
Beneath the cavern of Sokar, spreading over the whole lower
register, is the lake of fire, indicated with waves. Its waters must
not touch the barque. The Book of Gates (third hour, tenth scene)
declares that this lake supplies refreshment and grain to the blessed
dead, while the damned are burned in its blaze. This is the
second death, the lake of fire.
According to the Coffin Texts and other works, the
underworld contained fiery rivers and lakes as well as fire demons
(identified by fire signs on their heads) which threatened the
wicked. Representations of the fiery lakes of the fifth "hour" of the
Amduat depict them in the form of the standard pool or lake
hieroglyph but with flame-red "water" lines, and surrounded on all
four sides by fire signs which not only identify the blazing nature of
the lakes, but also feed them through the graphic "dripping" of their
flames. In a similar manner, in the scene from the funerary Book
of Gates, the damned are subjected to the fiery breath of a huge
serpent, Amemet, and this and other mythological serpents are
often depicted in the vignettes of Late Period papyri- bearing fire
signs to identify them. However, the flames of the underworld were
not necessarily to be feared by the righteous who might drink from
the lake of fire and be refreshed, or change themselves into
shooting flames to destroy their demonic enemies.
Dr. Richard H. Wilkinson. Reading Egyptian Art, A Hieroglyphic
Guide to Ancient Egyptian Painting and Sculpture 1703
It is Atum who offers protection to the deceased on his
journey through the Underworld to paradise, ensuring a safe
1700
Hornung (1982-90), 155-56.
1701
John H. Taylor, Journey Through the Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Book of the
Dead (London: British Museum Press, 2010), 217.
1702
Schweizer (1994-2010), 113.
1703
Richard H. Wilkinson, Reading Egyptian Art, A Hieroglyphic Guide to Ancient
Egyptian Painting and Sculpture (London: Thames & Hudson Inc., 1992), 161.
565
passage past the Lake of Fire where there lurks a deadly dog-
headed god who lives by swallowing souls and snatching hearts.
and Goddesses 1704
Fig. 238: The Lake of Fire, guarded by eight serpents and four simian gods. Between
them on each side is the symbol for fire; based on a vignette from the Book of the Dead.
1704
Hart (1986-2005), 42. (Emph. added.)
566
Fig. 239: The Lake of Fire awaits the condemned sinners, while in the foreground the
demon Ammut waits to devour their hearts.
Fig. 240: Sinners being tormented in the Lake of Fire.
567
Fig. 241: An alternate depiction of the condemned burning in the Lake of Fire, while fire-
breathing goddesses feed the flames.
He shall Save His People from their Sins
With the threat of such severe damnation and such a strict standard
of judgment literally hanging in the balance, the prospect of a prosperous
afterlife might seem bleak at best. But all is not lost, God has given us
hope. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain
salvation. For God so loved the world, that He gave His begotten son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth
not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of
the begotten son of God. Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin
and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men.
Recall how on pp.19-29 the fact was established that for the
deceased to experience resurrection and immortality, they must become
one with Osiris. Through doing such they identify themselves with Osiris
and thus activate the principle of sympathetic magic, which brings all the
same powers and blessings of their Lord upon themselves as well.
Whatever Osiris has done, they can do, whatever he has, they may have
has well. So by default, this extends to the judgment. After his
resurrection, Osiris likewise stood before a divine tribunal, presided over
by his father Geb, and was justified and vindicated before his enemies.
By becoming one with our Lord Osiris, and identifying ourselves as such
568
at the judgment, we may likewise be justified and may be found of him
in peace, without spot, and blameless. Only through Osiris may we
receive salvation. Only by becoming one with him can we be forgiven
and freed from sin, and confidently declare as much before his judgment
seat.
According to the witness of the extant Egyptian documents,
Osiris was connected with salvation long before became the judge
of the dead. The ritual identification of the deceased with Osiris
is now extended to include his identification with Osiris in terms of
his vindication by the divine tribunal of Heliopolis. And so, as
Osiris had there been judged and proclaimed maa kheru (justified),
the dead devotee of Osiris vicariously assumed this title, doubtless
in the hope that as he participated in the resurrection of Osiris, so
would he also share in his post-mortem justification.
Dr. Samuel G.F. Brandon, in Types of Redemption:
Contributions to the Theme of the Study-Conference held at
Jerusalem, 14th to 19th July, 1968 1705
Most Egyptian gods and goddesses were believed to play some
part in the afterlife; however, a few have more significant roles than
others. For the greater part of Egyptian history, the most important
divinity in this sphere was Osiris, the ruler of the realm of the dead.
Osiris presided over the judgement of the deceased. Each person,
at death, had to go before a tribunal where his or her conduct was
weighed in a balance against the standard of righteousness. This
took place in a venue called the hall of the two truths, also known
as the hall of the righteous or hall of the blessed. Those who
received a favourable judgement were acclaimed with the epithet
justified, blessed and accepted into Osiris following.
These two concepts, mummification and justification, are
intimately linked. The latter has been described, with good reason,
as moral mummification. In obtaining justice against Seth, Osiris
regained full life, since his death was an injustice. By his
justification, he gained total mastery over death. In the same way
that Osiris was restored to life and declared free of wrongdoing, so
all who died hoped to be revived and justified, as a result of the
mummification process and its attendant rituals. These actually
incorporated an assessment of the deceaseds character, which
prefigured the one conducted in the underworld. A favourable
assessment helped to ensure their integration into the society of
gods and blessed dead in the afterlife, just as the embalming itself
1705
Brandon (1970), 42-43. (Emph. added.)
569
restored their corporeal integrity. At the conclusion of the
embalming rites, having been returned to life and freed from
imputation of wrongdoing like the god Osiris, the deceased could
be said to possess an Osiris-aspect.
Resurrection 1706
Osiris provided a model whereby the effects of the rupture
caused by death could be totally reversed, since that deity
underwent a twofold process of resurrection. Mummification
reconstituted his corporeal self and justification against Seth his
social self, re-integrating him and restoring his status among the
gods. Through the mummification rites, which incorporated an
assessment of the deceaseds character, the Egyptians hoped to be
revived and justified like Osiris. These rites endowed them with
their own personal Osirian aspect or form, which was a mark of
their status as a member of the gods entourage in the underworld.
Thus the deceased underwent a twofold resurrection as well. Not
only were their limbs reconstituted, and mental and physical
faculties restored, but they entered into a personal relationship with
Osiris that simultaneously situated them within a group.
1707
Dr. Mark J. Smith, in UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology
There were several rites connected with the cult of Osiris
which undoubtedly had the effect of linking the worshipper
intimately with the god who could promise him triumph in the
tribunal to come; and it must be remembered that the believers
identification with Osiris was the key to this triumph.
Dr. John G. Griffiths, in La Soteriologia dei Culti Orientali
NellImpero Romano 1708
Innocentia was certainly demanded of the Isiac initiate; and
personal guilt was believed to be deleted only through identification
with Osiris.
1706
Smith (2009), 28, 30-31. (Emph. added.)
1707
1708
John G. Griffiths, The concept of divine judgement in the mystery
religions, in La Soteriologia dei Culti Orientali nellImpero Romano: Atti del
Colloquio Internazionale su La soteriologia dei culti oriental nell Impero
Romano, Roma 24-28 Settembre 1979, eds. U. Bianchi and M.J. Veermaseren
1709
570
The second and third ritual strategies for dealing with guilt at
the time of death are directly related to the concept of the
judgment. One of these involves vicarious justification through
identification with Osiris.
Dr. Merold Westphal, God, Guilt, and Death: An Existential
Phenomenology of Religion 1710
To go into the next life was to stand before Osiris for
judgement, and to be vindicated against death and other enemies in
the way that he had been. To be immortal was to become Osiris,
and from this it followed that life with the god must be something
to be desired.
The wooden false beard and uraeus (snake) on the forehead
indicate the status of the deceased as an Osiris. This meant that
he had passed the moral examination at the Day of Judgement and
was therefore regarded as an embodiment of Osiris, god of the
dead.
In the Book of the Dead, Osiris was shown enthroned in the
Hall of the Two Truths overseeing the judgment of the dead. A
New Kingdom prayer states that Osiris is the greatest of the gods
because all Egyptians have to come to him in the end. The idea of
Osiris as a just judge and savior of the dead was prominent during
the last stages of Pharaonic culture.
1713
Successful passing of judgement meant that the deceased was
declared maa-kheru true of voice or justified. His eternal salvation
was confirmed, and he was assured of perpetual sustenance.
It was by becoming Osiris, and through the salvific intercession
of and reflexive identification with Osiris, that Egyptians of all status
would experience a going out into the day, something which made
1710
Merold Westphal, God, Guilt, and Death: An Existential Phenomenology of
Religion (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984), 216.
1711
Ray (2002), 154.
1712
David (1998), 152.
1713
Pinch (2002-04), 179. (Emph. added.)
1714
571
their funerals an experience of hope and rebirth. Death is
followed by a journey; this journey after death, through a series of
tests and trials, was aimed at passing the Judgement, at becoming
Osiris, at salvation. In the Judgement Hall of Osiris lay eternal life.
As Osiris, the deceased was fully vindicated against Seth, that
is, death, in this lawsuit. In the myth, Osiris became king of the
netherworld and ruler of the dead. The ordinary deceased was a
follower of Osiris, was called Osiris and compared to him, and
became a member of his following. He came into possession not
only of life but also of personal status and recognition. He bore the
name of the god, along with his own titles and his personal name,
as well as the epithet justified/vindicated. Just as Osiris was
vindicated against Seth, and just as Horus triumphed over him in
the tribunal of Heliopolis, so shall the deceased N. now be
vindicated before the divine judge who will call him to account for
what he knows, and even for transgressions committed
unknowingly in childhood.
May your sin be erased by those who weigh in the balance on
the day of reckoning characters.
As for every blessed one for whom this roll is used, (his) Soul
goes forth with men and Gods; it goes forth by day in any form it
wishes to assume. It is not kept away from any gate of the west in
going in or out. It prevails among the gods of the nether world,
(for) it is one who cannot be repelled. These Gods surround it and
recognize it. Then it exists like one of them. It goes in and out
through the secret portals; it goes in mighty through the gates of the
judgment hall. It knows what befalls it in the light; it exists as a
blameless soul. No distinction shall be made between his soul and
the God. He is one who prevails over his enemies, being come in
his many forms.
Book of the Dead, Spell 15B3 a P 2 1718
1715
Davies (1999-2002), 30-31. (Emph. added.)
1716
Assmann (2001-05), 74, 285.
1717
1718
572
Hail to you, lords of truth, Council around Osiris, who inspire
terror in sinners, Attendants of 1tp.s-xw.s. Behold, I am come
unto you that ye may do away with all the evil that adheres to me,
just as ye did for these 7 blessed ones who were in the Retinue of
the lord of nomes.
O swallower [of sinner]s, greedy seizer, there are no sins of

mine on (the docket of) the scribe of evil deeds, there are no [sins
of mine (on record) in the Council].
I am one who goes in counted and comes out numbered
(through) the gate of the Lord of the Universe. (I) have purified
myself in this great district; I (have) done away with my
uncleanness. I have blotted out (my) sins. I have cast aside the
uncleanness that adhered to my flesh.
I am an initiate, void of sins. There is nothing (I) do not know
about truth.
Book of the Dead, Spell 100 T 5 var. 1722
What to say on arriving at this broad hall of the Two Truths,
cutting N. off from all the forbidden things he has done
To be said by N.:
Hail to you, ye gods. I know you, I know your names. I shall
not fall to your swords. Ye shall not report my wickedness to this
god in whose train ye are. No affair of mine shall come before you.
(Ye) shall not tell lies against me in the presence of the Lord of the
Universe, because I have done what was right in Egypt. (I) have not
reviled the God. No affair of mine has come before the King who
was in his day.
Behold, I am come unto you. I am without sin, I am without
guilt, I am without evil, I am without a witness. There is none
against whom I have done anything. I live on truth, (I) sip of the
truth of my heart. I have done what men request and what the gods
1719
1720
1721
1722
573
are pleased with. I have gladdened the God with what he desires. I
have given bread to the hungry, water to the thirsty, clothing to the
naked, (a ferryboat to the boatless). I have made offerings to the
gods and mortuary offerings to the Blessed.
Rescue me indeed, protect me indeed. (Ye) shall not complain
(against) me before the great god, (for) I am one clean of mouth
and clean of hands to whom is said Welcome in peace by them
that see him.
Book of the Dead, Spell 125 a P, c P-S 4 1723
Kindle this flame for the blessed one in the gods domain in
the presence of Osiris the great God. The gods and the blessed see
him in the retinue of the Presider over the Westerners. Nothing
(adverse) happens on his account on the day of judgment. His
justification shall continue forever. A truly excellent spell.
1724
Book of the Dead, Spell 137A T var. 6-9
Sin is my abomination. I am Osiris, who makes truth.
Book of the Dead, Spell 153B c S 2 1725
SPELL FOR NOT LETTING a mans corpse PERISH in the
gods domain, to rescue him from the eater of souls who imprisons
(human beings) in the nether world, also for not letting his crimes
upon earth be brought up against him.
May he (i.e., Osiris) grant exit (from) and entrance into the
gods domain, without being kept away from the gates of the nether
world, to the spirit of Osiris N. (So says) N.
N. says:
I have come unto thee, that thou mayest carry out thy plans,
that thou mayest provide (me) with thy nether-world form. Thy
august (lady), Truth, is before thee, judging hearts on the balance. I
am in thy presence, my heart bearing truth, my breast with no lie
therein. I adore thy renown just as thou makest powerful the
Ennead dwelling in the gods domain. I give thee praise.
Book of the Dead, Spell 185E c S 1727
1723
1724
1725
1726
1727
574
So as just seen, the greatest role of our Lord Osiris is to give
knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins.
Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name
under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. These
things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the son of
God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may
believe on the name of the son of God. And that glorious name is Osiris
Sokar, the Lord of Burial, our Nb Qrst.1728 No, he is not just any old
generic qrst, he is the Nb Qrst, the Lord of Qrst, the greatest Qrst of all
and the only one truly worthy of that name. And by becoming one with
this Qrst, accepting him into our hearts as our Lord & Savior, and
entering into a personal relationship with him, we can be saved.
Therefore ye are all one in Qrst, and ye are the body of Qrst. Know
ye not your own selves, how that Qrst is in you? Even the mystery
which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made
manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the
riches of the glory of this mystery among the 2As.wt; which is Qrst in
you, the hope of glory. The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, let
every one that nameth the name of Qrst depart from iniquity; that Qrst
may dwell in your hearts by faith. I am not ashamed of the gospel of
Qrst: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that
believeth. God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He
loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together
with Qrst, (by grace ye are saved) And hath raised us up together, and
made us sit together in heavenly places in Qrst, and hath translated us
into the kingdom of His dear son: In whom we have redemption
1728
See p. 330.
Coffin Texts, Spell 810 VII, 12: Osiris, Lord of burial, Faulkner (1978), 6.
Werner Vycichl, Magic, in The Coptic Encyclopedia: Vol. 5, ed. A.S. Atiya (New
York: Macmillan, 1991), 1503-04.
Susan Walker, 85 Mummy of a woman named Artemidora, Ancient Faces:
Mummy Portraits from Roman Egypt, ed. S. Walker (New York: The
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000), 133.
Christiane Ziegler, 152. Fragment from the Right Side of the Faade of the
Tomb of Metjetji, in Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids, eds. J.P. ONeill
and C. Fuerstein (New York: Mentropolitan Museum of Art, 1999), 411.
Piankoff (1964), 165.
575
through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. That being justified by
his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal
life.
The End of the World
Recall the title of this chapter- he will judge the living and the
dead. The divine judgment of Lord Osiris is not reserved only for the
dead in the netherworld, but there shall also come a day, unexpectedly as
a thief in the night, when the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his
saints, To execute judgment upon all. All- that means even those here
in the world of the living, in fact, especially this world of the living. It
has been prophesied in our scriptures that one day King Osiris, along
with his true Fatherthe Triune God and Creator of this world, Lord
Amen-Reshall take back the earth which God created and rightfully
belongs to Him. They shall pass judgment and restore the divine order
which has been lost.
The sky is overcast,
The stars are darkened,
The celestial expanses quiver,
The bones of the earth-gods tremble,
The planets(?) are stilled,
For they have seen the King appearing in power
For it is the King who will give judgement
In the company of Him whose name is hidden.
Pyramid Texts, Utterance 273-74 393-94, 399 1729
Dr. Faulkner comments in the footnotes that the future tense is
enforced both by the construction with sDm-f and by the sense;
judgement will take place on a day now to be named.1730 So one day
King Osiris will indeed come again in the sky to pass judgment upon this
world of the living, not just upon the dead in the afterlife. And do recall
from p.509 that Utterance 261 says that when he comes he does so while
riding on a cloud, appearing like lightning in the east which shines unto
the west. Hence, on that day of the final judgment, Qrst shall be revealed
1729
Faulkner (1969), 80-81.
1730
Ibid. 83.
576
from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance
on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord. It
is interesting that our King ascended to heaven on a cloud (p.507), and
then returns to earth coming on the clouds. So it may said that this same
Qrst, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like
manner as ye have seen him go into heaven. The description of such a
coming in these utterances reminds me of some heathen texts which
likewise claim that one of their gods will one day come again in the sky
on a cloud like lightning, and will pass judgment upon this world and
bring terrible cataclysms such as earthquakes and the darkening of
celestial bodies.
The end of the world will come about because of quarrels
among deities or rebellions by humanity. The creator will become
weary, and the world will return into the dark primeval waters from
which it came.
In Coffin Texts spell 1130, after the creator has described the
gifts he has given to humanity, he goes on to say that after millions
of years he will become one with Osiris. When this happens, there
will no longer be a division between life and death, and everything
on earth will go through a period of catastrophic change. In Book
of the Dead spell 175, Atum declares that after millions of years he
will destroy everything he has made and the land will return into
the Deep, into the Flood, as it was before (creation).
This strain of thought seems to be reflected in the Roman
Period Hermetic text known as the Asclepius. In this dialogue,
Hermes Trismegistus warns that in the old age of the world the
gods will go back to heaven, Egypt will be deserted, and all the
people will die. References to an absolutely final destruction are
rare in Egyptian or Egyptian-based texts. Even the Asclepius
promises that the supreme god will remake the world. The
eschatology of Egypt is most truly represented by the cycles of
destruction and renewal expounded in the New Kingdom
Underworld Books.
1731
The Book of Two Ways [contains] the first clear statement
about the end of all time (spell 1130). The anonymous lord of
all, by which is meant Atum, speaks to the crew of the solar bark:
I made millions of years into something between me and that
1731
Pinch (2002-04), 89. (Emph. added.)
577
weary-hearted one, the son of Geb (that is, Osiris). Then I shall
dwell with him in one place. Mounds will become cities and cities
mounds, and estate will destroy estate (CT VII, 467e-468b). After
the millions of years of differentiated creation the mayhem
before creation will return; only the primeval god (Atum) and
Osiris will remain in one placeno longer separated in space and
time.
The later Book of the Dead, chapter 175, describes this final
state of affairs still more clearly: This earth will return to the
primeval water (Nun), to endless (flood) as in its first state. I shall
remain with Osiris after I have transformed myself into another
snake which men do not know and the gods do not see. At the
end of the world there will no longer be men and gods, as is clear
from a Ptolemaic parallel text in the temple of Opet at Karnak,
which was identified by Eberhard Otto: There is no god, there is
no goddess, who will make himself/herself into another snakeor,
as Otto paraphrased: The transformed primeval god is alone and
no longer has any witnesses to his existence. Only he and Osiris
can change back into the enduring, original form of a snake, that is,
into the same formor rather formlessness also visible in the
Ouroboros, the snake biting its own tail, as the regenerating
nonexistence that encircles the world. The snake remains, but the
world it encloses sinks away into the primeval water and vanishes
with the gods and all living beings; the state of things before
creation returns.
Few Egyptian texts deal with the end of time. Those that do,
however, envisage it as a cataclysmic destruction followed by a
return to the state of the universe as it was before creation. In Spell
175 of the Book of the Dead, the creator god Amun describes
how, after millions of millions of years, I will destroy all that I
have made: this world will return to Nu, to the limitless waters, like
its original state. Following this apocalypse, only two cosmic forces
will survive: I and Osiris will be the remainder then I will come
to sit with him in one place (Spell 1130 of the Coffin Texts).
According to Egyptian cosmology, Amun was the original source of
all the worlds elements and forces (dt eternity), while Osiris
embodied the principle of daily rebirth (nhh eternity). The vision of
their joint survival after the end of the world thus carries with it the
promise of a new creation and the beginning of a new eternity.
Dr. James P. Allen, in Ancient Egypt 1733
1732
Hornung (1971-96), 163-64. (Emph. added.)
578
So our holy scriptures, which far predate the texts of certain heathen
cults and their predecessors, let us know that the Lord will bring
a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the
breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth
shall die. So shall also the coming of the son of Amen-Re be. For as in
the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking,
marrying and giving in marriage, and knew not until the flood came,
and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the son of Amen-
Re be. Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth
come. He shall spare not the old world, bringing in the flood upon the
world of the ungodly. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof:
but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. Nevertheless we,
according to His promise, look for a new earth, wherein dwelleth
righteousness. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things,
be diligent that ye may be found of Him in peace, without spot, and
blameless. And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation.
Amen. Even so, come Lord Osiris.
1733
James P. Allen, The Human Sphere, in Ancient Egypt, ed. D.P. Silverman
(New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1997-2003), 131. (Emph. added.)
579
Chapter Eight
The Bright and Morning Star
Even as We are One
As covered on pp.9-18, the Lord revealed his gospel story through

progressive revelation over time. Different nomes and cities of Egypt
often had different versions of one particular god. Such was the case with
the god Horus, the son of Osiris. Over time, knowledge of these variants
became transferred between the different cities and so they naturally
became syncretistic & interchangeable with each other. It was through
such progressive revelation that God made it known to us that ultimately
there is only one Horus, and all of the different versions were exactly
that- just different roles and hypostatic manifestations of one and the
same god.
The proliferation of Horus-forms, for instance, is a complexity
which arises, as far as cult is concerned, from the identification of
various falcon-gods with the original Horus-falcon who was
associated with the King.
The roles, local cult foundations, and titles or epithets of
Horus are sometimes correlated with distinct or preferred forms in
iconography: for example the falcon, the falcon-headed man, the
winged disk, and the child with a sidelock (sometimes in his
mothers arms). Egyptologists therefore often speak of distinct,
sometimes originally distinct, Horuses or Horus-gods.
Combinations, identifications, and differentiations were, however,
possible for Horus, and they are complimentary rather than
antithetical. A judicious examination of the various Horuses and
the sources relating to them supports the possibility that the roles in
question are closely interrelated, and so they may be understood as
different aspects, or facets, of the same divine persona .
Dr. Edmund S. Meltzer, in The Oxford Encyclopedia of
Ancient Egypt 1735
1734
1735
Meltzer (2001), 119.
580
Then we have Horus, who was the son of Isis and Osiris, who
combined the attributes of all the other forms of Horus gods.
Dr. Marian Hillar, From Logos to Trinity: The Evolution of
Religious Beliefs from Pythagoras to Tertullian 1736
Horus, son of Isis, son of Osiris (), after the death of
his father Osiris at the hand of Set, avenged him by conquering Set
and taking his kingdom from him. With this Horus were identified
at one time or another all the various Horus gods, beginning with
Horus the Elder and ending with the least important Horus of a
small provincial town.
This scholarly fact also happens to refute the following antagonistic
contention that often comes up when discussing attributes of Horus:
Nearly all of the Horus junk is fabricated unfortunately. Find me
scholarly articles with the same information on it they're few and far
between. The main issue is that there are numerous 'Horus stories' out
there and people mix and match parts. Say for example
Story A: Horus was born of a virgin
Story B: Horus died for the sins of the world
Story C: Horus was a carpenter
Story D: Horus blahblah turned into a bird.
We then get fabricated information. The stories are unrelated but the
information online will slant it in the other direction to fit an agenda.1738
Advocates of the view must cherry-pick bits of myth from different
epochs of Egyptian history.1739
[They] take these very broad sort of gods like Horus that have, you
know, dozens or more completely different stories, they sort of melt
them all into sort of one pot and say this is the story Horus.1740
1736
Marian Hillar, From Logos to Trinity: The Evolution of Religious Beliefs from
Pythagoras to Tertullian (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 292.
1737
Mercer (1949), 73.
1738
https://goo.gl/OxQNxD.
1739
https://goo.gl/wiwZRL.
1740
https://goo.gl/4zPhuv.
581
Such statements imply that one should not heed the wisdom of the
scholars quoted above, but should instead treat the different hypostases
of Horus as though they were oil & water which never mixed, separated
by some imaginary uncrossable barrier. Yet the ancient Egyptians
themselves did not do so, nor did the other nations they interacted with.
These also Doeth the Son likewise
Now, as a direct descendant of Osiris and Re, naturally Horus

inherited part of their kA (see pp.142-46) and thus part of their destiny.
Sharing in their destiny meant, of course, that the events of his life would
share several similarities with the lives of Osiris and Re. For example,
like Osiris, Horus became an avatar for Re during part of His daily cycle.
Just as Re unites with Osiris during the night as the sun approaches its
zenith in the netherworld, Re also unites with Horus as the sun
approaches its zenith here in our world during the day.
In combination with a form of Horus known as the horizon
dweller, the sun god Re became Re-Horakhty.
Dr. Carol Andrews, Amulets of Ancient Egypt 1741
Re-Horakhty is the sun god Re united with Horus of the
Horizon.
Dr. William K. Simpson, in The Literature of Ancient Egypt:
An Anthology of Stories, Instructions, Stelae, Autobiographies, and
Poetry 1742
One of Ras names, Ra-Horakhty, Ra, Horus of the
Horizon, indicates Ras special relationship with the king through
the dynamic union of Ra with Horus, the god of kingship.
1741
Carol Andrews, Amulets of Ancient Egypt (London: British Museum Press,
1994), 29.
1742
William K. Simpson, The Hymn to the Aten, in The Literature of Ancient
Egypt: An Anthology of Stories, Instructions, Stelae, Autobiographies, and
Poetry, ed. W.K. Simpson (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003), 279.
1743
Holland (2009), 28.
582
The solar cycle could be summarized by showing Khepri (the
scarab beetle), Ra-Horakhty (a falcon-headed man), and Ra-Atum
(a mature man wearing the Double Crown) together in the solar
barque. Ra-Horakhty was the solar falcon who represented the
sun god at the zenith of his power.
BECOMING HORUS. There is tumult in the sky, and we see
something new, say the primeval gods. Re shines as Horus Lord of
the sunlight.
Fig. 242: Horus united with Re as Re-Horakhti; from the Stela of Lady Taperet, 9 th-7th
century BCE, currently at the Louvre Museum.
Therefore, like his father Osiris,1746 Horus too served as a bodily

incarnation for God the Son. He too was a means by which God was
manifest in the flesh. This union with Lord Re also means that Horus,
1744
Pinch (2002-04), 184-85. (Emph. added.)
1745
Faulkner (1973), 253 n.4. (Emph. added.)
1746
See pp.121-30.
583
again like his father Osiris, was a sun god as well (as clearly illustrated in
Fig. 242). Yet many antagonists have denied this fact about him. E.g.:
Horus is not a sun god, that's Ra.1747
Horus is not a solar deity.1748
From what I have found Horus was not a sun God.1749
Horus was not a solar messiah to anyone, particularly Egypt's
people.1750
Can I stop you there? Horus isnt a sun god. Hes the god of the
sky. Ra is the Sun God.1751
First of all, Horus wasnt a sun god. That was Amun-Ra. Horus
was a sky god, as much associated with the moon as he is with the
sun.1752
First of all, Re too was associated with both the moon and the sun1753
and yet, by this heathens own admission, is still a sun god. Second of
all, Horus was often called Lord of the Sky,1754 as were Osiris and Re,
etc., but the deity of sky was, of course, the goddess Nut, as
1747
Vancity89, I Tried To Watch Zeitgeist, experience project (February 9,
2010), http://www.experienceproject.com/stories/Tried-To-Watch-
Zeitgeist/901846.
1748
Ivar Nielsen, COMMON CREATION STORIES - AN EGYPTIAN EXAMPLE,
Native Science, http://www.native-science.net/Common_Creation_Stories.htm
(accessed December 14, 2013).
1749
reed67, Zeitgeist- The greatest story ever told, SodaHead (September 4,
2009) http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/zeitgeist--the-greatest-story-
ever-told/blog-147163/comment-3204167/
1750
R. Christopher, THE DEBUNKING OF ZEITGEIST MYTHOLOGY, ZEITGEIST
RESPONSE (May 24, 2009),
http://web.archive.org/web/20090803141924/http://www.zeitgeistresponse.i
nfo/.
1751
Chris Forbes, in Zeitgeist refutado em 7 minutos! video, 6:36, posted by
Alex Nasc, February 13, 2010, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-
2HBSfPZpU.
1752
David Anderson, Section 1 - Horus, King David 8 .com (accessed
December 6, 2011), http://kingdavid8.com/ApologeticsPt3Sec1.html.
1753
See pp.257-58.
1754
584
demonstrated numerous times throughout this book. And as for Horus
explicitly being referred to as a sun god, there is the following:
Now Horus appears to have been the earliest of the sun gods,
and he was also, as you know, the chief god of Lower Egypt. Later
Horus becomes the patron of the pharaoh of both Upper & Lower
Egypt, the two kingdoms. And Horus is, in general, one of the
longest lived of the Egyptian gods- not in the sense that in the
divine world he lives millions of years, but in the sense that he
appears very early and continues to have an influence for centuries
& centuries. Now the name 'Horus' is generally believed to mean
the distant one, very appropriate for a god of the sun.
Although the association between Horus & the royal authority of
the pharaoh largely overshadows Horus's identity as a sun god, the
identity of Horus as a sun god is the primary identity. It becomes
less important over time, but it is still his primary identity.
Dr. Glenn S. Holland, Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean
World 1755
Horus is one of the earliest attested of the major ancient
Egyptian deities, becoming known to us at least as early as the late
Predynastic period Horus the falcon was predominantly a sky
god and a sun god.
Dr. Edmund S. Meltzer, in The Oxford Encyclopedia of
Ancient Egypt 1756
The sun-god is the original Horus and the Horus-King on
earth is playing the role of the sun-god Horus.
Dr. Rolf Gundlach, in Egyptian Royal Residences 1757
The Sun was the original and daily source of all life: his
appearance at the creation and at every sunrise thereafter made life
possible in the world. Newly born at dawn, he was often called xprr
Beetle by analogy to the verb xpr come into existence or
evolve; from the latter root he was also known as xprj Evolver.
Ruling over the universe by day, the Sun was identified with Horus,
the god of kingship; at sunset he was seen as Atum, the oldest of all
1755
Holland (2005), Lecture. (Emph. added.)
1756
Meltzer (2001), 119-20. (Emph. added.)
1757
Rolf Gundlach, Horus in the Palace: The centre of state and culture in
pharaonic Egypt, in 4th Symposium on Egyptian Royal Ideology: Egyptian Royal
Residences, eds. R. Gundlach and J.H. Taylor (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz
GmbH & Co. KG, 2009) 46.
585
the gods. The Sun was often called Horus of the Duat or Horus
of the Akhet.
Many Egyptian gods can be the sun god, especially Re, Atum,
Amun, and manifestations of Horus. Even Osiris appears as the
night form of the sun god in the New Kingdom.
Harpokrates (Horus the child) typically is portrayed with a
finger of his right hand to his mouth, and he also may hold a crook
and flail in his left hand. Harpokrates is the son of Isis and Osiris
and is identified with the rising sun.
Dr. Hans Dieter Betz, The Greek Magical Papyri in
Translation Including the Demotic Spells, Volume One: Texts,
Second Edition 1760
Harpocrates in the lotus chalice or on the lotus capsule was
identified in Ptolemaic and Roman Egyptian iconography with the
new-born Sun emerging from the primeval ocean.
Dr. Lszl Trk, Hellenistic and Roman Terracottas
from Egypt 1761
The sun is on this account called Horus.
Porphyry, Concerning Images Fr. 8 1762
1758
J.P. Allen (2005), 8-9. (Emph. added.)
1759
1760
Hans Dieter Betz, The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation Including the
Demotic Spells, Volume One: Texts, Second Edition, trans. H. Martin, Jr.
(Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1986-96), 334. (Emph. added.)
1761
Lszl Trk, Hellenistic and Roman Terracottas from Egypt (Rome: L'Erma
di Bretschneider, 1995), 70.
1762
Porphyry, Concerning Images, in Eusebii Pamphili: Evangelicae
Praeparationis, Libri XV, trans. E.H. Gifford (Oxford: Oxford University Press
1903), 122.
586
Fig. 243: Horus the Child (Harpocrates)1763 as sun god within the solar disc, surrounded
by an ouroboros; from the Papyrus of Dama-Heroub, 11th-10th century BCE.
1763
Pinch (2002-04), 146.
Hart (1986-2005), 70.
Holland (2009), 44.
587
Fig. 244: Horus of the Two Horizons as the sun god within the solar disc sails the sky in
the day barque; based on the Stela of Wenenkhu, 13th century BCE.
Fig. 245: Horus as the sun god within the solar disc sails the sky in the day barque; based
on a 19th Dynasty wooden stela from Deir el-Medina, 13th century BCE.
588
Fig. 246: Horus the Child as sun god within the solar disc, seated on the prow of the
barque of Maat; based on a relief at the Temple of Dendera.
Fig. 247: Horus the Child as sun god within the solar disc, seated on the prow of the
Sektet barque; based on a relief at the Temple of Dendera.
589
As this Lord of the Sunlight, Horus can truly say, quite literally, I
am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in
darkness, but shall have the light of life. I must work the works of him
that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.
As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. Are there not
twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not,
because he seeth the light of this world. But if a man walk in the night,
he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.
In Winter shall It Be
Another archetype inherited by Horus due to his identity as a sun god

is that of the date of his birth (and later his posthumous rebirth1764). Do
bear in mind that, as mentioned several times throughout this book, there
were variances in myth and the birth of Horus is no exception. Yet such
variances pose no problem for us (see pp.11-15 for example). So again,
do not become confused when antagonists try to cite an alternate myth.
Plus, even the version of Horus that concerns us here has several dates
associated with him as a type of birthday. For example, there is the date
he was actually physically born (prematurely), the date he was supposed
to be born, and the date of the birth of his eyes,1765 etc.
Another potential point of confusion is the fact that the ancient
Egyptian civil calendar had no leap years. It was divided into an even 12
months of exactly 30 days, totaling 360 days, with an extra five
intercalary daysor epagomenal daysbetween one year and the next.
It was on these days that the original children of Nut were born. The first
civil year was said to have begun on the day of the heliacal rising of
Sothis (the star Sirius) in the summer time, on the 1st of the month of
Thoth. Because the natural year is actually ~365.24220 days long, the
civil calendar slipped out of sync with the natural year by one day every
four years. Hence this calendar is also called the wandering calendar.
After ~1460 years, the calendar had wandered so many days that it would
actually come around full circle back into synchronization with the
natural year; and thus once again the rising of Sothis occurred on the 1 st
1764
See p.598-99, 662-73.
1765
Plutarch, Moralia 372B.
590
of Thoth. This was known as the Sothic cycle. Therefore, for the better
part of the Pharaonic Era of ancient Egypt, any particular annual event in
the natural year would eventually fall on every day of the civil
calendar.1766 (That is, until the 1st century BCE when a leap day every 4
years was implemented via the Alexandrian Calendar, which thus put a
stop to the excessive wandering of the traditional civil dates and giving
them fixed correspondences to the dates of the Julian Calendar.1767)
So for example, the vernal equinox could occur on the 1st of Thoth
on a particular year, and then four years later, would occur on the 2 nd of
Thoth and centuries after that could occur on the 1st of Pachon, and so
on. The same is true for the winter solstice. Over the course of a
complete 1460 year Sothic cycle, the winter solstice likewise fell on
every single day of the civil calendar throughout Egypts history. Hence
it should be neither surprising nor confusing to come across various texts
claiming different dates for the winter solstice, i.e. the birthday of the
daytime sun- Horus.
Isis, when she perceived that she was pregnant, put upon
herself an amulet on the sixth day of the month Phaophi; and
about the time of the winter solstice she gave birth to Harpocrates,
imperfect and premature.
The winter solstice is the first day of the new sun, the last of
the old. Phoebus and the year take the same starting point.
Ovid, Fasti 1.163-64 (1 CE) 1769
In case any readers fail to see the relevance of that reference:
Three stelai from Hassaia, the necropolis of Apollonopolis
Magna near Edfu, preserve funerary epigrams, all composed by a
certain Herodes, and all related to one small family (IMEG 5, 6,
35). The texts, which date to the late second century BCE, are
1766
Leo Depuydt, Civil Calendar and Lunar Calendar in Ancient Egypt (Leuven:
Peeters Publishers, 1997), 1, 9, 14-15, 32, 138.
1767
Ibid. 12-13, 189.
1768
1769
Ovid, Fasti, trans. A. Wiseman and P. Wiseman (Oxford: Oxford University
591
composed in elegiac couplets Their home, the steep, sacred city
of Phoebus (IMEG 5.10) is Edfu, the city of Horus.
Dr. Jacco Dieleman and Dr. Ian S. Moyer, in A Companion
to Hellenistic Literature 1770
(I. Mtr. 35, lines 7-10): My name, O stranger, is Aphrodisia,
whom Ptolemaios wedded, who was excellent in counsel and with
his spear, and who always showed a pure light in the army of
Phoebus, bearing the heavenlike reputation of a kinsman.
(Phoebus is a metonym for Edfu, whose god Horus was
identified with Greek Apollo).
Dr. Jane Rowlandson, in Perspectives Juives sur Rgles
Hellnistiques 1771
Alongside the temenos of the great temple of Pan and
extending onward to the sacred lake of Phoebus (Horus) was a fine
garden.
Dr. William H. Willis and Dr. Klaus Maresch, in The Archive
of Ammon Scholasticus of Panopolis (P. Ammon) Volume I: The
Legacy of Harpocration 1772
Now getting back on point:
Some make the natural year commence at the Birth of the
Sun, that is to say, at Brumalia.1773
Censorinus, The Natal Day 21 1774
1770
Jacco Dieleman and Ian S. Moyer, Egyptian Literature in the Hellenistic and
Roman Period, in A Companion to Hellenistic Literature, eds. J.J. Clauss and M.
Cuypers (Malden: Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2010), 445-46. (Emph. added.)
1771
Jane Rowlandson, The Character of Ptolemaic Aristocracy: Problems of
Definition and Evidence, in Perspectives Juives sur Rgles Hellnistiques, eds.
T. Rajak, S. Pearce, J. Aitken, and J. Dines (Berkeley: University of California
Press, 2007), 48 n.38.
1772
William H. Willis and Klaus Maresch, Introduction, The Archive of Ammon
Scholasticus of Panopolis (P. Ammon) Volume I: The Legacy of Harpocration,
eds. W.H. Willis and K. Maresch (Wiesbaden: Westdeutscher Verlag, 1997), 4.
(Emph. added.)
1773
Bruma/Brumalia is a Latin term for the winter solstice. See Steven J. Green,
Ovid, Fasti I: A Commentary (Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV, 2004), 90.
Michael Maas, Readings in Late Antiquity: A Sourcebook (Abingdon: Routledge,
2003-10), 45.
Prudence Jones and Nigel Pennick, A History of Pagan Europe (Abingdon:
Routledge, 1995-2009), 76.
592
The Egyptians at the winter solstice bring the [sun] god from
the shrine on a certain day as an infant.
Macrobius, Saturnalia, Book I 1775
According to one Egyptian tradition, the solar deity was born
at the winter solstice. Plutarch identifies that day as the one on
which Isis gave birth to Harpocrates.
Dr. Mark J. Smith, in A Micellany of Demotic Texts and
Studies 1776
December 25 proper was the date of the Kikellia, the
celebration of the birth of Horus, the son of Isis and Osiris.
Dr. Giovanni Ruffini, Medieval Nubia: A Social and
Economic History 1777
The Kikellia were celebrated at Alexandria on the day of the
Kronia, Dec. 25. The Kikellia, mentioned in the decree of
Canopus,1778 were a festival in honour of Isis, incorporated in a
festal cycle of Osiris and celebrated immediately before and on the
same day as a procession in his honour. They fell on Choiak 29,
and since that day corresponded to Dec. 25 of the Julian calendar
at the date (26-25 B.C.) of its adoption in Alexandria, Dec. 25
remained the fixed date of the Kikellia in Roman times.
Dr. Raffaele Pettazzoni, Essays on the History of Religions 1779
The 1st century BCE (e.g. Ovid, Alexandrian Calendar, etc.) might
seem rather late (although still prior to the Common Era), but evidently
1774
Censorinus, The Natal Day, trans. W. Maude (New York: The Cambridge
Encyclopedia Co., 1900), XXI.
1775
Macrobius, Saturnalia, in Macrobius, or Philosophy, Science and Letters in
the Year 400, trans. by T. Whittaker (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1923), 24.
1776
Mark J. Smith, P. Carlsberg 462: A Fragmentary Account of a Rebellion
Against the Sun of God, A Micellany of Demotic Texts and Studies, eds. P.J.
Frandsen and K.S.B. Ryholt (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2000),
106.
1777
Giovanni Ruffini, Medieval Nubia: A Social and Economic History (Oxford:
1778
Dated to 238 BCE, see Moyer (2011), 260.
1779
Raffaele Pettazzoni, Essays on the History of Religions (Leiden: E.J. Brill,
1954), 178 n.34. (Emph. added.)
593
the association between Horus and the winter solstice can be traced back
at least as far as ~2000 BCE.
A further temple on the west bank, already existing and
devoted to Horus, was completely reconstructed. It is located on a
spur to the north usually called Thoth Hill. The place is a little
tricky to negotiate, but the stupendous view over the Nile Valley
more than makes up for it. Excavations have shown that a first
temple had already been built here in the Early Dynastic period,
but the building visible today dates from the eleventh dynasty and
was constructed by Mentuhotep III. The temple is probably one
of the first instances of Theban monuments oriented to the winter
solstice sunrise.
Dr. Giulio Magli, Architecture, Astronomy and Sacred
Landscape in Ancient Egypt 1780
A splendid light hierophany at sunrise at the winter solstice at
the temple of Sobek-Re in Qsar Qarun The winged-disc symbol
of Horus Behedety blossoms above the first gate at the pale yellow
light of the first rays of his physical counter-part, the solar disk.
Dr. Juan Antonio Belmonte, Dr. Mosalam Shaltout, and Dr.
Magdi Fekri, In Search of Cosmic Order: Selected Essays on
Egyptian Archaeoastronomy 1781
At the northern end of the temple at Abu Simbel is the little
chapel of Re Horakhti. Its axis is pointed nearly 30 degress south
instead of at right angles to the terrace. The author believes that the
chapel is oriented in such a way that a priest posted in the center
would, at the moment of the winter solstice, see the rising sun
exactly in its axis. The solstice is identified with the rebirth of the
sun god. Thus religion and astronomy were closely intertwined in
Egypt. The pylon embodies an ancient Egyptian myth about the
creation of the world and does so to celebrate the winter solstice
and the rebirth of the young sun-god who succeeds Osiris.
Dr. Jan K. van der Haagen, in Science Digest 1782
1780
Giulio Magli, Architecture, Astronomy and Sacred Landscape in Ancient
Egypt (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 161-63. (Emph. added.)
1781
Juan Antonio Belmonte, Mosalam Shaltout, and Magdi Fekri, Astronomy,
landscape and symbolism: a study pf the orientation of ancient Egyptian
temples, In Search of Cosmic Order: Selected Essays on Egyptian
Archaeoastronomy, J.A. Belmonte and M. Shaltout (Cairo: Supreme Council of
Antiquities Press, 2009), 226. (Emph. added.)
594
So an 11th Dynasty (or older) temple to Horus was aligned to the date
of his birth, as was the shared chapel of Horus & Re at Abu Simbel (13th
cen. BCE), and even at another gods temple it was the image of Horus
(as the winged sun-disk) which was the first thing to receive the sunlight
of the winter solstice. That all seems sufficient enough to conclude that
the association of the winter solstice with the birth of Horus far predates
the 1st century BCE.
Fig. 248: Ruins of an ancient (c. 2000 BCE) temple of Horus on Thoth Hill which was
aligned to the winter solstice sunrise.
Fig. 249: Sunrise on the winter solstice.
1782
Jan K. van der Haagen, Sunlight Creates a God, Science Digest 53 (1963):
54, 58. (Emph. added.)
595
Fig. 250: Depiction of the winter solstice, portrayed as the rising newborn sun being
delivered by his mother Isis (right) and nurse Nephthys (left), Ramesside Period.
Fig. 251
One objection Ive seen put forward by the heathen in regards to the
date of Horus birth is to point out that there is a discrepancy in the
596
Julian dates cited. It is pointed out that when the civil year stopped
wandering (via the Alexandrian Calendar) and finally had reliable
correspondence with the Julian Calendar, the winter solstice fell on the
Julian date of December 22nd rather than December 25th. Yet some
sources still cite December 25th in association with the winter solstice of
that time period.1783 So why was there such a discrepancy? Fortunately,
the ancients themselves already addressed the matter.
Our forefathers, from the time of the most divine king Numa,
paid still greater reverence to the god Helios. They ignored the
question of mere utility, I think, because they were naturally
religious and endowed with unusual intelligence; but they saw that
he is the cause of all that is useful, and so they ordered the
observance of the New Year to correspond with the present season;
that is to say when King Helios returns to us again, and leaving the
region furthest south and, rounding Capricorn as though it were a
goal-post, advances from the south to the north to give us our share
of the blessings of the year. And that our forefathers, because they
comprehended this correctly, thus established the beginning of the
year, one may perceive from the following. For it was not, I think,
the time when the god turns, but the time when he becomes visible
to all men, as he travels from south to north, that they appointed
for the festival. For still unknown to them was the nicety of those
laws which the Chaldaeans and Egyptians discovered, and which
Hipparchus and Ptolemy perfected: but they judged simply by
sense-perception, and were limited to what they could actually see.
But the truth of these facts was recognised, as I said, by a later
generation. Before the beginning of the year, at the end of the
month which is called after Kronos, we celebrate in honour of
Helios the most splendid games, and we dedicate the festival to the
Invincible Sun.
Emperor Julian, Oration 4 1784
1783
Pliny the Elder, Natural History 18.59.221.
Daryn Lehoux, Astronomy, Weather, and Calendars in the Ancient World:
Parapegmata and Related Texts in Classical and Near-Eastern Societies
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 254.
Robert Hannah, Greek and Roman Calendars: Constructions of Time in the
Classical World (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2005), 151.
1784
Julian, Oration, in Julian: Volume I, trans. W.C. Wright (Cambridge: Harvard
597
So as Julian explained, the discrepancy of there being two dates
traditionally acknowledged as the winter solstice (the time when the path
of the sun/Helios stops moving south and begins to move north again)
was due to there being two different methods for determining the date,
with one being more precise than the other. Going back allegedly as far
as the legendary Numa Pompilius in the 8th-7th cen. BCE, people would
determine the time of the winter solstice by simply eye-balling it, or as
Julian put it simply by sense-perception and what they could actually
see. And that which they could actually see was the time when [the
sun] becomes visible to all men, or as another source (soon to be
quoted) put it- when the light increases. So when people could actually
visibly notice an increase in daylight with the naked eye was the day that
they recognized as the winter solstice in those early times. Later on,
when more precise astronomical calculations were discovered, the true
winter solstice was determined to be the shortest day and longest night of
the year, when daylight was at its lowest and the path of the sun was at
its absolute furthest point south. The subsequent movement northward
only increases the daylight ever so slightly each day, thus a noticeable
differences in daylight time isnt observable to the sense perceptions of
the common folk until a few days after the true winter solstice.
This discrepancy thus wouldve existed at least as early as the
nicety of those laws which the Chaldaeans and Egyptians discovered,
which would thus result in two different dates for celebrating the winter
solstice centuries prior to the Common Era. While some heathen might
complain that Julian wrote in the 4th century CE, the discrepancy is still
explicitly attested to at least as early as the 1st century BCE,1785 in a
source which in turn attests that this discrepancy already existed in the
5th-4th centuries BCE1786:
The sun traverses Capricorn in twenty-nine days.
On the 1st day: The winter solstice according to Euctemon, there is
a change in the weather. According to Callippus Sagittarius
finishes rising, winter solstice, it is stormy.
On the 2nd: According to Euctemon Delphinus rises, it is stormy.
On the 4th: Winter solstice according to Eudoxus, it is stormy.
1785
Lehoux (2007), 57.
1786
Ibid. 493.
598
Parapegma of Geminus of Rhodes 1787
With two different dates having been used to celebrate the same
event, eventually the conclusion was reached that both dates are
significant to the life of the sun god. The true winter solstice came to be
understood as the day of the sun gods original birth & death (hence his
light was at its weakest state), then three days after that death came the
secondary, traditional solstice wherein he was posthumously reborn.
Month of December
22: Winter Solstice.
23: Procyon sets in the morning.
25: The birth of the sun, light increases.
Parapegma of Antiochus of Athens (1st cen. BC-CE1788) 1789
As a sun god of the ancient world, even to the Greeks & Romans
(e.g. Phoebus), Horus was therefore understood to have died and been
reborn three days later. But that will be made relevant later. For now, the
focus is on the original birth.
1787
1788
Jean Rhys Bram, Ancient Astrology: Theory and Practice (Noyes Classical
Studies: Park Ridge, 1975), 323.
Florian Ebeling, The Secret History of Hermes Trismegistus: Hermeticism from
Ancient to Modern Times, trans. D. Lorton (Cornell University Press: Ithaca,
2005-07), 143.
Garth Fowden, The Egyptian Hermes: A Historical Approach to the Late Pagan
Mind (Princeton University Press: Princeton, 1986), 3.
Tobias Churton, The Golden Builders: Alchemists, Rosicrucians, and the First
Freemasons (Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC: Boston, 2002-05), Pt. 1 n.1.
Paul A. Himes, Foreknowledge and Social Identity in 1 Peter (Pickwick
Publications: Eugene, 2014), 100.
1789
Ibid. 162, 343.
599
We have Seen His Star in the East
Recall how Plutarch mentioned that Horus was born prematurely.

Well, he also recorded other enlightening details of relevance to the
subject here.
About the time of the winter solstice she gave birth to
Harpocrates, imperfect and premature, amid the early flowers and
shoots. For this reason they bring to him as an offering the first-
fruits of growing lentils, and the days of his birth they celebrate after
the spring equinox.
Fig. 252: Statue of the premature infant Horus, 20 th-15th century BCE, currently at the
Walters Art Museum.
1790
600
Fig. 253: Another such statue, currently at the Louvre Museum.
So since Horus was born prematurely on the winter solstice, his

birthday was actually celebrated on the spring equinox approximately
three months later- indicating the time he actually should have been
born, had he not been delivered prematurely. Given that a normal healthy
pregnancy typically lasts ~9 months, Horus having been born 3 months
early means he was conceived around 6 months earlier, about the time of
the summer solstice. This corroborates with what is written elsewhere.
Moreover, at the time of the winter solstice they lead the cow
seven times around the temple of the Sun and this
circumambulation is called the Seeking for Osiris, since the
Goddess in the winter-time yearns for water; so many times do they
go around, because in the seventh month the Sun completes the
transition from the winter solstice to the summer solstice.
So the motif of marching around a building seven times is connected
to the sun and the changing of seasons. How fascinating. But getting
back on topic, the search for the missing corpse of Osiris began the
1791
601
previous winter solstice, and it was finally found around the summer
solstice ~6 months later (Plutarch saying seventh because of the
ancient habit of inclusive reckoning covered on pp.351-53). And of
course, Horus was not conceived until Isis recovered the body of his
father Osiris in order to extract Osiris DNA. The signs given in nature of
this, as referenced several times throughout this book, are seen even still
to this day in the phenomena of the holy Nile. Hence the missing body of
Osiris was likened to the yearning for water that occurs during the dry
season when the Niles water is in recession. No body of Osiris means no
inundation, and vice-versa.
As they regard the Nile as the effusion of Osiris, so they hold
and believe the earth to be the body of Isis, not all of it, but so
much of it as the Nile covers, fertilizing it and uniting with it. From
this union they make Horus to be born.
The Nile begins to swell at the summer solstice
To reiterate, the search for Osiris began on the winter solstice, and
the Nile waters receded. 6 months later at the time of the summer
solstice, Isis recovers his body and is able to conceive Horus, a
conception which was signaled by the beginning of the inundation of the
Nile waters (via the bloody fluids of Osiris, see pp.261-74). The point of
covering all of this is because in ancient Egypt these eventsthe
summer solstice, the inundation, and the conception of Horuswere all
signaled to the world by the appearance of a star in the east, which thus
heralded Horus coming birth as well. In particular, it was the star-bA of
his mother Isis, Sothis/Sopdet (Sirius), the brightest star in the entire
night sky.
Of the stars the Egyptians think that the Dog-star is the star of
Isis, because it is the bringer of water.
I am the mother of King Horus.
1792
1793
1794
602
I am the one who rises in the Dog-star.
Memphite Hymn to Isis in the Aretology of Kyme 8-9 1795
Co[me to me, Isis, like (to) the stars:] you appear as Sothis
among them.
Heidelberg Demotic Paprus 736 verso 6-7 1796
He created summer and winter through the rising and setting
of Sothis.
Instruction of Papyrus Insinger 32.3 1797
(O) you who pour out the Nile so that it overflows the two
lands in that your name of Sothis/Satis.
Hymn to Isis at the Temple of Aswan 1798
Har-Sopd has issued from you as Horus who is in Sothis.
[I cut out my living body] (from between) the thighs of Sothis.
A child, a child, (in peace,) say they, the Gods, (concerning
me).
In ancient Egypt this annual reappearance of Sirius fell close to
the summer solstice and coincided with the time of the Niles
inundation.
1795
Louis V. abkar, Hymns to Isis in Her Temple at Philae (Hanover: University
Press of New England, 1988), 140.
1796
Holger Kockelmann, Praising the Goddess: A Comparative and Annotated
Re-Edition of Six Demotic Hymns and Praises to Isis (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
GmbH & Co. KG, 2008), 8.
1797
Lichtheim (1980-2006), 210.
1798
Thomas M. Dousa, Imagining Isis: On some continuities and discontinuities
in the image of Isis in Greek Isis hymns and Demotic texts, Acts of the Seventh
International Conference of Demotic Studies: Copenhagen, 23-27 August 1999,
ed. K. Ryholt (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2002), 155.
1799
Faulkner (1969), 244.
1800
T.G. Allen (1974), 60.
1801
Krupp (1983-2003), 21.
603
They would certainly have noticed that the beginning of the
flooding of the Nile, though a gradual and variable phenomenon,
usually occurred in concomitance with two astronomical events that
could be measured with relatively good precision (say a few days):
the heliacal rising of Siriusthe brightest star and the brightest
celestial object after the sun, the moon and Venusand the
summer solstice.
Dr. Giulio Magli, Architecture, Astronomy and Sacred
Landscape in Ancient Egypt 1802
A prehistoric palette used for grinding green malachite for
makeup, made around 3500 BC, illustrates the rising of the star
Sirius in midsummer (figure 1.1). The brightest of all the fixed
stars, Sirius appears on the eastern horizon just before sunrise
about the time of the summer solstice.
In the Old Kingdom (ca. 3000 B.C.), the flooding of the Nile
around the summer solstice kicked off the agricultural season
Hydrologists looked upward to recognize a telltale sign in heaven:
Sothis, the brightest star in the sky.
Dr. Anthony F. Aveni, The Book of the Year: A Brief History
of Our Seasonal Holidays 1804
I conclude that in the third millennium BC on or about 16 or
17 July (Julian), the Summer Solstice occurred, Sirius (Sothis)
made its heliacal rising and that the Nile at Memphis was usually
about to begin its rise.
William M. ONeil, Time and the Calendars 1805
It would have coincided with the heliacal rising of Sirius at
summer solstice at ~2300 B.C.
Dr. David H. Kelly and Dr. Eugene F. Milone, Exploring
Ancient Skies: A Survey of Ancient and Cultural Astronomy 1806
1802
Magli (2013), 54.
1803
Mojsov (2005), 6.
1804
Anthony F. Aveni, The Book of the Year: A Brief History of Our Seasonal
Holidays (Oxford: Oxford University Press, Inc., 2003-04), 13.
1805
William M. ONeil, Time and the Calendars (Manchester: Manchester
604
Sirius was known in the days of the Old Kingdom as the Nile
Star. The heliacal rising of Sirius announced the eminent dispersal
of that yearly gift. The Sirius-Nile River connection was a
temporary coincidence. It no longer exists today. The heliacal
rising of Sirius has moved from the time of the summer solstice to
the middle of August due to the precessional motion of the earths
axis.
Dr. George Reed, Dark Sky Legacy: Astronomys Impact on
the History of Culture 1807
Fig. 254: Sirius-Sothis, the star of Isis.
1806
David H. Kelly and Eugene F. Milone, Exploring Ancient Skies: A Survey of
Ancient and Cultural Astronomy (New York: Springer Science+Business Media,
LLC, 2011), 209. (Emph. added.)
1807
George Reed, Dark Sky Legacy: Astronomys Impact on the History of
Culture (New York: Prometheus Books, Inc., 1989), 105. (Emph. added.)
605
Fig. 255: Based on various Phoenician scarab gems (6 th-4th century BCE) depicting the
infant Horus accompanied by a star, similar to much later imagery of heathen deities.
The presence of an incense burner to the right in Fig. 255-B brings

up another motif worth noting. Apparently Horus started a tradition of
offering three different gifts of incense to Lord Re at three times during
the day. Frankincense was burned in the morning, myrrh in the
afternoon, and kyphi in the evening. These were often offered upon altars
and censers of gold.
It is said also that Horus, the son of Isis, offered sacrifice to the
Sun first of all on the fourth day of the month, as is written in the
records entitled the Birthdays of Horus. Every day they make a
triple offering of incense to the Sun, an offering of resin at sunrise,
of myrrh at midday, and of the so-called cyphi at sunset.
Plutarch, Moralia 372C-D 1808
1808
606
She acted according to everything which he had commanded
[to her]. She put myrrh, frankincense, and kyphi, [on the brazier],
and she said: My brother, Petese. Do you watch out for yourself?
O, son of Petetum. [I pray that] Re will rescue you with the
remedies which you are making. Re spoke [with] her. He answered
[her with the] voice of Petese. It reached her heart.
Story of Petese, Col. 5 27-30 (4th cen. BCE) 1809
Plutarch states that incense was offered to the sun three times a
day; frankincense in the morning, myrrh at noon, and kyphi at
sunset. It can hardly be a coincidence that it is the burning of
exactly these three substances that are used to cure Petese.
Dr. Kim Ryholt, The Story of Petese Son of Petetum and
Seven Other Good and Bad Stories 1810
His Majesty gave to the estate of Amon-Re, King of the Gods:
His Majesty fashioned a censing statue bearing their offerings
(?), its body being of hammered fine gold and silver its shrine
and censer of [hammered (?)] fine gold.
Bubastis Temple Inscriptions: Atum Temple 1811
Regnal year 8 (of) the King of Upper and Lower Egypt,
Taharqa, living forever. As his monument for Amon-Re, Lord of
Gematon, he made:
1 gold incense measure,
1 gold incense burner.
Kawa Stela III 15 1812
In the Hall of Barques the kings holding three censers as he
burns incense in front of Amun-Res barque.
Dr. Katherine Eaton, in The Archaeology and Art of Ancient
Egypt 1813
1809
Kim Ryholt, The Story of Petese Son of Petetum and Seven Other Good and
Bad Stories (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 1999), xiii, 11, 88, 57.
(Emph. added.)
1810
Ibid. 80.
1811
Ritner (2009), 253. (Emph. added.)
1812
1813
Katherine Easton, Memorial Temples in the Sacred Landscape of
Nineteenth Dynasty Abydos: An Overview of Processional Routes and
Equipment, The Archaeology and Art of Ancient Egypt: Essays in Honor of
607
Fig. 256: Three censer bowls offering up three different gifts of incense to the sun;
based on a scene from the Tomb of Meryra, 18th Dynasty.
So they presented unto Him gifts; gold, and frankincense and

myrrh, at three times a day. The number three there most likely
represents the three forms of Re during those corresponding times of the
day,1814 one of which, do recall, was a fusion with Horus and thus
includes Horus. But Horus not only received gold, frankincense, and
myrrh, he also gave gold, myrrh, and frankincense to his father Osiris.
Extensive are the movements of my father Osiris [] to whom
are brought gold of the deserts, myrrh of Gods-land I am your
son Horus; I have come and I bring you incense.
Coffin Texts, Spell 594, 597 VI, 212-14 1815
David B. OConnor, Volume I, eds. Z.A. Hawass and J. Richards (Cairo: Supreme
Council of Antiquities Press , 2007), 237.
1814
Those forms are Re-Khepri in the morning, Re-Horakhti in the afternoon,
and Re-Atum in the evening. See pp.46-47.
1815
Faulkner (1977), 192-93.
608
This theme might possibly have some correlation to the recurring
motif of the infant Horus being visited by three kings, or rather, three
divine mascots the kingship.
Fig. 257: Based on various scarab gems and talismans from the Hellinistic Era depicting
sacred animal bAw of the kingship & sun cult, in groups of 3 (in effect- three kings each),
following the star to the location of the infant Horus.
As seen in Fig. 257, the Horus babe is accompanied by three uraei

serpents, three crocodiles, three rams, three scarabs, and of course, three
falcons. Each type of animal shown was associated with both the
kingship and the sun cult of ancient Egypt. That these animals are to be
understood as representing the kingship in this motif is most
conspicuously evident in Fig. 257 B, C & D, where the three falcons are
each wearing the kings deshret crown.
She Put the Child in It, and Laid It in the Reeds by the Rivers Bank
Heralded by the rising of the star Sirius in the east, the conception of
Horus took place when the Nile waters began to rise. In contrast, his
birth occurred in winter, as the waters were now receding. The soil
609
having been fertilized and moisturized by the flood, the receding of the
Nile now exposed this rich fertile new earth to the air and sunlight also
necessary for new plant-life to grow. Hence this was the sowing season,
or Season of Emergence (Peret), naturally because of the subsequent
emergence of the vegetation.1816 Therefore, as Plutarch indicated, the
birth of Horus correlates to the birth of new plant life upon the earth.
About the time of the winter solstice she gave birth to
Harpocrates, imperfect and premature, amid the early flowers and
shoots. For this reason they bring to him as an offering the first-
fruits of growing lentils, and the days of his birth they celebrate
after the spring equinox. When the people hear these things, they
are satisfied with them and believe them, deducing the plausible
explanation directly from what is obvious and familiar.
This association with seasonal fertility is also seen in the fact that
Isis gave birth to Horus on the marshy earth of Chemmis. The extra
moist soil there was blooming with newborn papyrus shoots just as Isis
was blooming with her newborn babe. Isis also chose this location to
serve as a hiding place from Seth, who sought to eliminate the son of
Osiris since he was the rightful heir to the throne of Egypt. Thus she hid
the chosen baby in the bulrushes of the Nile to avoid the persecution of
the reigning pharaoh, and long before a similar story would turn up in
heathen literature.
Your mother Isis has borne you in Chemmis.
You are pregnant and you are hidden, girl! You will give birth,
being pregnant for the gods, seeing that(?) he is the seed of Osiris.
May that villain who slew his father not come, lest he break the egg
in its early stages.
Look on me, the son of Isis; I was conceived in Pe and born in
Chemmis.
1816
Clagett (1995), 5, 453 n.23-24.
1817
1818
Faulkner (1969), 252.
1819
610
Behold, thy son Horus will drive back TEBHA TO THE
EXECUTION-BLOCK.
I hid me in the bulrushes to conceal thy son in order to avenge
thee,
Because it is a very evil state of affairs, the being far from thee,
And it is not fitting for thy flesh.
I walk alone, wandering in the bulrushes,
And many (?) are enraged against thy son.
7.13-18 1821
Horus was born the papyrus, he in the papyrus with him.
Carlsberg Papyri 5, Fr. 12 Col. I 12-14 1822
Fragment 12 is concerned with the birth of Horus in the
papyrus marshes of Khemmis in the delta and how he was
concealed there by his mother Isis.
Horus in the papyrus thickets at Chemmis is an old theme
reaching back to the Pyramid Texts.
Dr. E.J. Walters, in Egyptology at the Dawn of the Twenty-
First Century, Volume 2: History, Religion 1824
1820
1821
1822
Smith (2002), 97.
1823
Ibid. 195.
1824
E.J. Walters, Women in the Cult of Isis at Hierakonpolis, in Egyptology at
the Dawn of the Twenty-First Century, Volume 2: History, Religion, ed. Z.
Hawass (Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 2003), 565 n.20.
611
Fig. 258: The infant Horus being hidden in the bulrushes; from the Temple of Edfu.
Fig. 259: Based on an image from the mammisi at the Temple of Philae.
Ye must be Born Again
Just as the new crops reached maturity in the spring, so also the
prematurely born Horus finished his gestation at the spring equinox and
completed his development into a normal healthy child as he shouldve
been. Recall that he was evidently born approximately three months too
early on the winter solstice even though he shouldve been born on the
612
spring equinox, and therefore thats when his birthday was actually
celebrated. His body was underdeveloped as a result of the prematurity.
Well, apparently, as indicated by at least one other important piece of
evidence, Horus completed those last three months of gestation and
experienced a second birth. This he did within the body of his dead father
Osiris. This is found in a scene from the Book of the Earth. This is
actually a recurring archetype- that of the pregnant male covered by Dr.
David D. Leitao. This will be seen again in the next chapter in the myth
of another deity who likewise was born three months premature and
finished his gestation within the body of his father,1825 and thus was quite
literally born again, just like the son of Osiris.
Fig. 260: Horus being born again from the corpse of his father Osiris; from the Book of
the Earth in the tomb of Ramesses VI, KV9, 12 th century BCE.
This god is in this fashion in his oval which is in the Underworld:

Horus emerges from the corpse of his father,
as he praises the one who engendered him.
Book of the Earth D 2 1826
1825
See p.709-12.
1826
Manassa (2007), 139.
613
[O Osiris the King, I conduct you to your son] Horus; put him
within yourself.
I am Isis. Osiris, take your son, put him within yourself.
Horus rises from the body of his father Osiris in the presence
of Atum; the annotation to this scene explicitly describes the
emergence of the child from the corpse of the father. Horus
rising from the putrefying body of Osiris recalls the phoenix that is
reborn from the corpse of his predecessor.
A hawk-headed deity with a small disc behind his head
emerges from the center of the god's body. Regarding the figure,
the text states unambiguously: the Behedite (i.e. Horus) emerges
from the corpse of his father.
The solar deitys rebirth is illustrated in a subsequent vignette
which shows a falcon headed divinity with a sun disk behind him
emerging from the body of Osiris. The accompanying legend
explains this with the words: 1r pr=f m XA.t it=f, Horus issues forth
from the body of his father.
Dr. Mark J. Smith, in A Miscellany of Demotic Texts and
Studies 1831
Solar-Osirian theology made it perfectly reasonable to equate a
wrapped mummy (Osiris) with the egg from which would emerge
the newborn sun.
Dr. David Klotz, Adoration of the Ram: Five Hymns to
Amun-Re from Hibis Temple 1832
1827
1828
1829
Ibid. 139, 140 n.342.
1830
Roberson (2007), 149.
1831
Smith (2000), 106.
1832
Klotz (2006), 144 n.50.
614
This scene of Horus sprouting forth from the corpse of Osiris
conspicuously parallels the scenes of grain sprouting forth from the
corpse of Osiris shown in Fig. 65-67 on pp.278-79. This further drives
home the point made earlier that the birth of Horus correlates with the
birth of the new crops during the Season of Emergence. Having gestated
within the body of his father, the father and son were one, quite literally.
Thus Horus could truly say believe me that I am in the father, and the
father in me.
How shall this Be, Seeing I Know not a Man?
Perhaps the most important aspect of the conception of Horus

concerns that of . Recall from pp.199-202 that in ancient Egypt
vultures were believed to reproduce without sexual intercourse, and
instead they became impregnated through the wind. Similarly, all
throughout the ancient Mediterranean world birds of various types, not
just vultures, were believed to be able to conceive offspring by way of
the wind.
Ancient writers, among them Varro, believed that in those
instances where eggs were not fecundated or fertilized by a cock,
the hen conceived from the wind. Such eggs were called by the
Greeks, in consequence, hypenemia oa or wind-eggs.
Dr. Page Smith and Dr. Charles Daniel, The Chicken Book:
Being an Inquiry into the Rise and Fall, Use and Abuse, Triumph
and Tragedy of Gallus Domesticus 1833
The wind was also thought by the ancients to have procreative
power. Mares were reported to become impregnated by facing their
hind quarters into the wind The wind-egg is an imperfect or soft-
shelled egg that is unproductive.
Dr. Sidney Ochs, A History of Nerve Functions: From Animal
Spirits to Molecular Mechanisms 1834
1833
Page Smith and Charles Daniel, The Chicken Book: Being an Inquiry into the
Rise and Fall, Use and Abuse, Triumph and Tragedy of Gallus Domesticus
(Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1975-2000), 21.
1834
Sidney Ochs, A History of Nerve Functions: From Animal Spirits to Molecular
Mechanisms (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 4, n.18.
615
The Greek word hypnemios has a technical sense that is
applied to wind eggsthat is, eggs that are unfertilized, such as are
produced by certain domesticated birds, and which some biologist
contemporaries of Aristotle considered to prove that females could
produce seed without any intervention from males.
Marcel Detienne, The Writing of Orpheus: Greek Myth in
Cultural Context 1835
Evidence based on observation of wind eggs ( hupenemia)
eggs that are seemingly produced without the power of the male but
that are consequently not fertileand of molamonstrous products
of the womb attributed to self-inseminationseemed to bear
testimony to the hierarchical ordering of the one sex.
Dr. Thomas W. Laqueur, Making Sex: Body and Gender
from the Greeks to Freud 1836
The present text first notes that woman is the only two-footed
creature that brings forth live young, rather than eggs like the birds,
and then goes on to assertapparentlythat woman is the only
creature, bringing forth live young rather than eggs, that can bring
forth without being impregnated. So interpreted, the text indicates
two ways in which woman is like the birds, in being two-footed and
in bringing forth without impregnation.
Dr. Robert W. Sharples, Theophrastus of Eresus: Sources for
his Life, Writings, Thought & Influence, Commentary Volume 5,
These horses Podarge, the harpy, had conceived with West
Wind, as she grazed in a meadow beside the stream of Oceanus.
Homer, The Iliad 16.149-51 (8th cen. BCE) 1838
In the boundless bosom of Erebus did black-winged Night at
the very start bring forth a wind egg, from which as the seasons
revolved came forth Eros the seductive, like to swift whirlwinds, his
back aglitter with wings of gold.
Aristophanes of Athens, Birds 694-97 (5th cen. BCE) 1839
1835
Marcel Detienne, The Writing of Orpheus: Greek Myth in Cultural Context,
trans. J. Lloyd (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989-2003), 53.
1836
Thomas W. Laqueur, Making Sex: Body and Gender from the Greeks to
Freud (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1990-2003), 58.
1837
Sharples (1995), 115-16.
1838
Homer, in Johnston (2006-07), 348. (Emph. added.)
616
In those animals where generation takes place from animals of
the same kind, where there are the two sexes, generation is the
result of copulation; in the group of fishes, however, there are some
which are no male and female; they are identical generically with
other fishes, but differ from them specifically; others again are
entirely peculiar to themselves. There are yet others which are
female and have no male: these produce eggs just as birds produce
wind-eggs.
When female partridges stand to leeward of the males, they
become impregnated; they often do so too when they hear the
voice of the male, if they are on heat, or when the male flies over
them and breathes down on them.
Some people allege that wind-eggs are the remains of eggs
previously produced by copulation. They are wrong, because we
have sufficient observations to establish that chickens of the
domestic fowl and of geese lay wind-eggs though they have never
copulated. Wind-eggs are smaller in size than fertile ones Wind-
eggs are produced by many kinds of birds, e.g., domestic hens,
partridges, pigeons, peahen, geese, vulpansers.
Aristotle, History of Animals 5.538-40, 6.559-60 (4th cen. BCE) 1840
Interesting that in this case the male bird can fly over the female, or
overshadow her, to impregnate her (just as would later turn up in a
heathen tale of a bird-form deity overshadowing a female while inducing
sexless impregnation via spirit or breath).
Woman alone of two-footed creatures brings forth live young;
other two-footed creatures produce eggs. Woman alone of
creatures that bring forth live young (rather than eggs) produces
offspring without being impregnated.
Aristophanes of Byzantium, Epitome on the History of
Animals 1.98 (2nd cen. BCE) 1841
Certain mares on Mount Tagrus, at a particular time of year,
are impregnated by the wind; just as in this country frequently
occurs in the case of those hens the eggs of which are called
hypenemia.
1839
Aristophanes of Athens, Birds, in Aristophanes: Birds, Lysistrata, Women at
the Thesmophoria, trans. J. Henderson (Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
2000), 117. (Emph. added.)
1840
Aristotle, in Peck (1970-93), 99-101, 111, 227-29. (Emph. added.)
1841
Aristiphanes of Byzantium, in Fortenbaugh (1992), 185. (Emph. added.)
617
Varro, On Agriculture, 2.1.19 (1st. cen. BCE) 1842
They snuff the light airs and often without being mated
Conceive, for the windastounding to tellimpregnates them.
Virgil, Georgics 3.274-75 (1st cen. BCE) 1843
In the absence of a cock wind-eggs are conceived by the hen
birds mating together in a pretence of sexual intercourse, or else
from dust, and not only by hen pigeons but also by farmyard hens,
partridges, peahens, geese and ducks. But these eggs are sterile,
and of smaller size and less agreeable flavor, and more watery.
Some people think they are actually generated by the wind, for
which reason they are also called Zephyrs eggs.
There is, moreover, a kind of egg which very famous in the
Gauls, but not mentioned by the Greeks. Snakes intertwined in
great numbers in a studied embrace make these round objects with
the saliva from their jaws and the foam from their bodies. It is
called a wind egg.
Pliny, Natural History 10.79.166, 29.9.52 (1st cen. CE) 1844
The Egyptians fable the whole species [of vultures] is female,
and they conceive by receiving the breath of the East Wind, even as
the trees do by receiving the West Wind.
The hen knows not the passing of the winds,
Except when brooding-time is near.'
And I do not find it strange if it is not by a physical approach,
like a man's, but by some other kind of contact or touch, by other
agencies, that a god alters mortal nature and makes it pregnant with
a more divine offspring.
Tyndares the Spartan, in Moralia 717-18 (1st cen. CE) 1846
It is said that no male vulture is ever born: all vultures are
female. And the birds knowing this and fearing to be left childless,
1842
Varro, in Hooper, (1934-93), 325.
1843
1844
Pliny, in Rackham (1940-67), 399. (Emph. added.)
In Pliny: Natural History, Books 28-32, trans. H. Rackham (London: William
Heinemann Ltd., and Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1963), 217.
1845
1846
Plutarch, in Clement (1969), 117.
618
take measures to produce them as follows. They fly against the
south wind. If however the wind is not from the south, they open
their beaks to the east wind, and the inrush of air impregnates
them, and their period of gestation lasts for three years. The
Peacock, like other birds, may from time to time lay a wind-egg.
Aelian, On the Characteristics of Animals 2.46, 4.7 1847
Many kinds of birds do not need the union with the males for
conception; but, in other kinds, eggs produced without copulation
[wind eggs] are sterile. It is said that the vultures hatch without
coition a very great number of young, and this, although they are
especially long-lived; in fact, their life generally continues for a
hundred years. Consider this as my special observation from the
history of the birds, in order that if ever you see any persons
laughing at our mystery, as though it were impossible and contrary
to nature for a virgin to give birth while her virginity itself was
preserved immaculate, you may consider that God, who is pleased
to save the faithful by the foolishness of our preaching, first set
forth innumerable reasons from nature for our beliefs in His
wonders.
1848
Basil of Caesarea, Exegetic Homilies, Homily 8 6
This is corroborative with the scientifically verified fact of
parthenogenesis by certain species of birds.
Parthenogenesis, production of an embryo from an
unfertilized egg, occurs widely in plants and animals. One way to
classify parthenogenesis is according to the mechanism of sex
determination:
Arrhenotoky unfertilized eggs develop parthenogenetically into
males and fertilized eggs develop into females (many bees, wasps,
and mites)
Thelytoky unfertilized eggs develop into females (aphids, a few
lizards, snakes, frogs, salamanders, birds, and plants)
Deuterotoky unfertilized eggs develop into either females or
males (aphids, some mites)
Apomoxis. Females reproducing by apomoxis naturally clone
themselves, because meiosis is slipped and therefore all the eggs
are genetically identical (barring mutation) and diploid. Apomixis is
1847
Aelian, in Scholfield (1958), 145, 325.
1848
Basil of Caesarea, Exegetic Homilies, trans. A.C. Way (Washington D.C.: The
Catholic University of America Press, Inc., 1963-2003), 128. (Emph. added.)
619
found in diatoms, aphids, crustaceans, mites, ticks, lizards, frogs,
salamanders, birds, and plants.
Dr. John Ringo, Fundamental Genetics 1849
The process by which an individual female organism is able to
reproduce itself without fertilization of its eggs is known as
parthenogenesis (Gr. Parthenos, virgin; genesis, birth).
Parthenogenesis is more common in lower animals than
vertebrates. Among vertebrates, this form of reproduction is seen
in some fishes, amphibians, reptiles and a few birds.
Dr. Seth M. Kisia, Vertebrates: Structures and Functions 1850
In many animals including certain birds females can
reproduce without sex, with no contribution from the male
whatsoever, a phenomenon referred to as parthenogenesis. The
Swiss naturalist Charles Bonnet discovered parthenogenesis in the
mid-eighteenth century during his studies of aphids. He was one of
several researchers to realize that even in species that normally
needed sperm, eggs could often be induced to start development
on their own.
Although long since isolated from any males, the eggs of some
of these female turkeys appeared to be fertile. It was not so much
that some eggs had started to develop parthenogenesis in
chickens had been discovered in the nineteenth century by the
embryologist J. Oellacher and, although extremely rare, was well
known it was the high incidence of apparently fertile eggs among
his turkeys that Olsen found surprising. A bird that can
reproduce without sex: the turkey is one of just a handful of birds
in which parthenogenesis (virgin birth) is known to occur.
Dr. Tim Birkhead, The Wisdom of Birds: An Illustrated
History of Ornithology 1851
By this point, one might be wondering what relevance this has to the
conception of Horus. Well, first of all, note the following tradition
regarding the dismemberment and reconstitution of Osiris:
privates.
1849
John Ringo, Fundamental Genetics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2004), 210-11. (Emph. added.)
1850
Seth M. Kisia, Vertebrates: Structures and Functions (Enfield: Science
Publishers, 2010), 248-49. (Emph. added.)
1851
Tim Birkhead, The Wisdom of Birds: An Illustrated History of Ornithology
(London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2008-11), 287-89. (Emph. added.)
620
Of the parts of Osiris's body the only one which Isis did not
find was the male member, for the reason that this had been at
once tossed into the river, and the lepidotus, the sea-bream, and
the pike had fed upon it; and it is from these very fishes the
Egyptians are most scrupulous in abstaining.
Plutarch, Moralia 358B 1853
Isis is unable to find Osiriss phallus, which has been eaten by
a fish.
In the end after long search she finds all the missing parts save
onethe phallus.
The penis of Osiris was eaten by fishes of the Nile and lost
forever.
Dr. Pierre Soli, in Symbolic and Clinical Approaches in
Practice and Theory 1856
With no phallus, how can a male such as Osiris possibly beget a
biological heir to inherit his throne? What was Isis to do? Being a master
magician, apparently she invoked some good ol sympathetic magic.1857
Now the parts of the body of Osiris which were found were
honoured with burial, they say, in the manner described above, but
the privates, according to them, were thrown by Typhon into the
Nile because no one of his accomplices was willing to take them.
Yet Isis thought them as worthy of divine honours as the other
parts, for, fashioning a likeness of them, she set it up in the
temples, commanded that it be honoured.
1852
1853
1854
Holland (2009), 43.
1855
Witt (1971-97), 27.
1856
Pierre Soli, On the Role of the Isis/Osiris Myth and of the Egyptian Book
of the Dead in the Treatment of a Case of Pathological Mourning, in Symbolic
and Clinical Approaches in Practice and Theory, ed. L. Zoja and R. Hinshaw
(Zrich: Daimon Verlag, 1986), 62.
1857
See pp. 23-26, 222, 246.
621
But Isis made a replica of the member to take its place, and
consecrated the phallus, in honour of which the Egyptians even at
the present day celebrate a festival. Typhon cast the male
member of Osiris into the river, and Isis could not find it, but
constructed and shaped a replica of it, and ordained that it should
be honoured.
Plutarch, Moralia 358B, 365C 1859
Isis recovered all the pieces but one, the phallus, which had
been thrown into the river and eaten by the fish. She reassembled
her deceased husband, fashioning an artificial phallus for him.
Only one part of his body was never found, and that was his
penis, which had been swallowed by a fish. In order to ensure the
correct burial of Osiriss entire body, his dutiful wife made him an
artificial penis.
The only part Isis did not find was his male member; for no
sooner was it thrown into the river than the lepidotus, phagrus, and
oxyrynchus fish ate of it. Ever since, these fish were an abomination
to every civilized Egyptian. In its place, Isis fashioned a likeness of
it and consecrated the phallus, in honor of which festivals were held
in Egypt.
This motif apparently was attested much further back in time than
Diodorus. In fact, evidently it was in use even as far back as the 4th
millennium BCE.
Several mummies have been found to have an artificial
phallus, made of similar substance, in an erect state. By this means,
the deceased conformed to the mummified shape of the god
Osiris, ruler of the underworld, symbolizing simultaneously
regeneration and its mirroring nature.
1858
1859
Plutarch, in Babbitt (1936-62), 47, 89.
1860
Brier (1980-2001), 68.
1861
Oakes (2002-05), 309.
1862
Mojsov (2005), xx.
622
Dr. Karol Myliwiec, Eros on the Nile 1863
A phallus substitute seems to have been attested on the
mummy of Padineit1864 at Sakkara (a small golden amulet in the
form of a phallus placed between the legs).
Dr. Andrzej Niwiski, in Egyptian Religion: The Last
Thousand Years, Pt. I 1865
3-D reconstruction of Padi-Herus1866 pelvis showing the reed-
like artificial phallus in relation to the hands.
Dr. Carter Lupton, in Human Remains: Conservation,
Retrieval and Analysis 1867
During the Archaic period,1868 when preservation of the
identity of the dead man was deliberately desired and attempted,
cadavers (away from contact with the hot desiccating sand) were
poorly preserved. Preservation of identity was largely achieved by
moulding bandages and white gypsum to reproduce the form of the
dead person. Particular attention was paid to the genetalia and an
artificial phallus was sometimes fashioned from resinous linen.
1863
Myliwiec (1998-2004), 9. (Emph. added.)
1864
30th Dynasty, 4th century BCE.
See Alexander Schtze, Collection online: sarcophagus, The British Museum
(accessed December 13, 2013),
http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_
details.aspx?objectId=122738&partId=1.
1865
Andrzej Niwiski, Some unusual amulets found on the Late Period
mummies in Warsaw and Cracow, in Egyptian Religion: The Last Thousand
Years, Pt. I, eds. W. Clarysse, A. Schoors, H. Willems (Leuven: Peeters
1866
Ptolemaic Period, 3rd-2nd century BCE.
See Milwaukee Public Museum, Collection Highlights: 130 Objects, 130 Years,
accessed December 13, 2013, http://www.mpm.edu/research-
collections/collection-highlights?page=6.
1867
Carter Lupton, An Historical Study of Two Egyptian Mummies in the
Milwaukee Public Museum, in Human Remains: Conservation, Retrieval and
Analysis, ed. E. Williams (Oxford: Archaeopress, 2001), 224.
1868
Aka the Early Dynastic Period, c.3100-2686 BCE. See p.10.
623
Dr. A.T. Sandison, in Science in Egyptology: Proceedings of
the Science in Egyptology Symposia 1869
So several deceased persons were posthumously castrated to further
emulate Osiris, the god through which they gain resurrection and
ascension to heaven. In that respect, it may be said that there be
eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of
heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it. Anyway,
as covered on pp.23-26, 222, 467, etc., sympathetic magic was the idea
that emulating & identifying with a particular thing (when combined
with a spoken/written spell) would replicate the desired qualities of that
thing. Hence, as seen above, since Egyptian mummification was itself
sympathetic magic done in emulation of Osiris, some mummies were
found with a prosthetic replica en lieu of the original, just like Osiris.
Several other mummies likewise had prosthetic replicas in place of
missing or damaged organs, such as eyes, hearts, arms, etc.1870 This is
clearly what Isis attempted to do in this scenario. With no access to the
true phallus, she simply emulated it via prosthesis in order to try and
replicate the phallic ability of procreation. But how is that so? Just how
exactly was a prosthetic replica going to serve as a sympathetic medium
for a phallus if it cant even produce semen? Not to mention the fact that
Osiris was still dead, even if he still had a functioning organic phallus.
Well, take a look at a typical depiction of this moment of magical
conception illustrated below.
1869
A.T. Sandison, Human Mummification Technique in Ancient Egypt, in
Science in Egyptology: Proceedings of the Science in Egyptology Symposia, ed.
A.R. David (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1986), 1. (Emph. added.)
1870
Salima Ikram and Aidan Dodson, Royal Mummies in the Egyptian Museum
(Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 1997), 46-47.
Robert K. Ritner, The Cult of the Dead, in Ancient Egypt, ed. D.P. Silverman
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1997-2003), 146. (Emph. added.)
Bruno Halioua and Bernard Ziskind, Medicine in the Days of the Pharaohs,
trans. M.B. DeBevoise (Cambridge: Belknap Press, 2002-05), 155.
Aufderheide (2003), 244, 257, 422.
Holland (2009), 86.
624
Fig. 261: The conception of Horus by Isis; based on a relief at Dendera.
Isis performed the conception in the form of a bird. Fanning her

wings directly over the prosthesis, she naturally creates a breeze. A
female bird without a functioning male to mate with seeks to reproduce,
and then creates a gust of wind. Is the picture starting to come together
now? If it is not clear enough yet, it will become so upon reading a
particular version (there were several) of Spell 185 in the Book of the
Dead.
Blessed Isis, who saved her brother, who sought him
unwearingly, who went about this land as a HAyt-bird, not alighting
before she found him; who made shade with her plumage, who
created breeze with her wings; who rejoiced when her brother
berthed (in death), who refreshed the torpidity of the weary-hearted
one; who inhaled his seed and bore (his) heir and nursed the child
in privacy, none knowing where he was; who inducted him, when
his arm was grown strong, into the broad hall of Geb while the
Ennead rejoiced.
Book of the Dead, Spell 185A S 3 1871
This corroborates with the following text as well:
Seth was vexed at the wind for its bringing life to him who
was in (his) egg and rescuing him who was in the womb, namely
Horus.
Book of the Dead, Spell 110 a 1 S 1 1872
Wow. What more can be said? Isis received the seed of Osiris by
inhaling it from the breeze she created as a bird, and then bore his son
Horus from an egg made by the wind. Ah, and now the relevance of the
subject of to the conception of Horus finally becomes crystal
1871
1872
625
clear. Following Occams Razor, and given her predicament with Osiris,
it becomes undeniably obvious that Isis produced an heir for the dead &
castrated Osiris by means of hupenemia. She was impregnated by the
wind, just like the virgins Ahmose and Io. 1873 Hence the birth of Horus
was parthenogenetic. Just as Spell 110 indicates, Horus was hatched
from a wind-egg. Since, as covered earlier, wind-eggs are small and
underdeveloped compared to normal eggs, it is no wonder that Horus
was said to be born imperfect and premature.
And hence it is no wonder that Isis manifested in the form of a bird
during the conception, so that (as covered on pp.31-35, 403, 486-88, etc.)
she could obtain the abilities of that form. More specifically, it was the
ability of birds to become impregnated by the wind. Just as was written
earlier of partridges and vultures, Isis inhaled the wind as it blew over
the body of the male, delivering part of his essence into her. This is
similar to how the wind carries the seed and pollen of plants so that they
too can reproduce without intercourse, hence why Plutarch compared the
hupenemia of vultures to the reproduction of trees. This also reinforces
the theme established earlier in which the conception and birth of Horus,
much like the life of Osiris, parallels the agricultural cycles of the Nile
Valley. The time of the conception of Horus was not only the time of the
summer solstice, the recovery of Osiris corpse, the rising of
Sirius/Sothis, the beginning of the inundation and the sowing of new
crops, but it was also the time when Isis summoned forth the generative
summer winds which were believed to aid in these seasonal changes.
In Egyptian texts both mHt.t, north wind, and y(a)tA.t, dew,
stand in close relation to the Nile flood and to the growing of crops
and plants. The north wind dams up the waters of the Nile,
flooding the fields and making them green. In the demotic papyrus
pBerlin P. 6750 Isis gives (apart from other goods) the inundation
and the north wind. Merkelbach suggests that also in the Greek
aretalogies the role of Isis as the lady of the winds might point to
her function as a guarantor of the inundation. The goddess herself
is identified with the good north wind in temple texts. Besides, she
is given the epithet living north wind in the Book of Hours.
Like the north wind, the dew lets the Nile overflow and causes
the growth of plants. Both in her aspect as Sothis and as lady of the
dew Isis initiates the inundation and fructifies the plants. In one
1873
See pp.169, 188, 192-99.
626
hieroglyphic epiklesis she is simultaneously called creator of dew
which (or: who) causes the plants to grow, Sothis, and the good
north winda combination, which demonstrates very clearly the
common background of all these epithets.
Dr. Holger Kockelmann, Praising the Goddess: A Comparative
and Annotated Re-Edition of Six Demotic Hymns and Praises
to Isis 1874
The whole Nile valley is indeed a huge oasis, a refuge between
wildernesses on either side. Its good earth is the product of the
annual inundation, the resurrection ushered in by Isis shedding her
tears and beating her wings to bring the Etesian winds. She poured
the air from the north into the nostrils of the dead Osiris. It was to
the loneliness of the marshes in the Delta that Isis fled with her
baby Horus.
The etesian winds are annually recurring (hence their name)
north winds that blow in the Mediterranean in the summer, giving
some relief from the heat. Aristotle (Meteorology 361b36-262a2)
says that the etesian winds blow after the summer solstice and the
rising of the Dog star, and that they blow in the daytime but fall off
at night.
Dr. James Evans and Dr. J. Lennart Berggren, Geminoss
Introduction to the Phenomena: A Translation and Study of a
Hellenistic Survey of Astronomy 1876
Aratus includes some astrometeorological information, such
as that the Etesian winds begin just after the rising of Sirius.
Daryn Lehoux, Astronomy, Weather, and Calendars in the
Ancient World: Parapegmata and Related Texts in Classical and
Near-Eastern Societies 1877
The north wind was supposed to bring the inundation to fields
and fertilise them.
1874
Kockelmann (2008), 62-63. (Emph. added.)
1875
Witt (1971-97), 16. (Emph. added.)
1876
James Evans and J. Lennart Berggren, Geminoss Introduction to the
Phenomena: A Translation and Study of a Hellenistic Survey of Astronomy
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006), 232 n.5.
1877
Lehoux (2007), 206.
627
O you who are in [the riv]ers. Pray to Isis, and she brings you
to the bank [ O Invoke her and] she brings you [in]to Egypt!
O cattle, the [the lady(?)] of everything. Invoke Isis, [the one
who] creates prosperity after [poverty(?)] who brings the good
north wind in order to create the dew.
Papyrus Tebtunis, x + 1-3 1879
Who creates the dew and lets grow the dj-plants Sothis, lady
of the beginning of the year, good north wind.
Temple of Dendera, Text II 15, 17-16 1880
These winds have been given to me by these maidens. Such is
the north-wind which circulates about the Isles, which opens its
arms to the limits of the earth and which rests when it has brought
the things which I daily desire. The north-wind is the breath of life.
Hail to you, Lady of offerings at whom Osiris rejoices when

he sees her, whose great wall is an owner of possessions; who
brings air.
I am mistress of the winds in the Island of Joy. I am Isis.
To be said by Isis: I have wafted breath to thy nose, the
north wind that came forth from Atum.
1884
Book of the Dead, Spell 151 b P-S 2
Brought to him is barley by the north wind, brought to him is
wheat which the earth brings to fruition.
1885
Hail to thee, Osiris, lord of eternity, king of the gods (god)
for whom the north wind blows upstream, at whose nose the night
1878
1879
1880
Kockelmann (2008), 62-63 n.255. (Emph. added.)
1881
1882
1883
1884
1885
628
wind is born, until his heart is contented; at whose will plants grow,
for whom the inundation season bears her produce. What the
disk has circled is under his supervision: the north wind, the Nile,
the flood, the plants (that constitute) the staff of life, all that the
Grain-God renews.
1886
Book of the Dead, Spell 185A S 1, 4
Thats quite an explicit affirmation that the northern summer winds
are indeed connected with the inundation and sowing season.
The sun traverses Cancer in thirty-one days.
th
27 : According to Euctemon Sirius rises. According to Eudoxus
Sirius rises in the morning, and for the next fifty-five days the
Etesian winds blow.
Parapegma of Geminus of Rhodes 1887
So at the rising of Sirius/Sothis, Isis summoned forth the summer
winds, bringing with it misty dew which aided in crop production.
Moisture in the wind- how convenient, given that every form of
moisture they call simply the effusion of Osiris,1888 and then around that
same time Horus was conceived through wind carrying the seed of
Osiris. It seems rather obvious here that those moist summer winds
brought forth by Isis to help impregnate the soil with new plant-life were
also the same winds which she fanned upon the corpse of Osiris and
received back again to impregnate herself with Horus.
[Isis] herself in turn emits and disseminates into the air
generative principles.
Thus air of this type was believed to be named after Horus himself,
since he was a product of it.
From this union they make Horus to be born. The all-
conserving and fostering Hora, that is the seasonable tempering of
the surrounding air, is Horus.
1886
1887
Lehoux (2007), 73, 233.
1888
1889
Ibid. 105.
629
I may Present You as a Chaste Virgin
So with Horus having clearly been born parthenogenetically through

avian hupenemia, this naturally means that his mother Isis reproduced
without sexual copulation. And that being the case, it is no wonder then
that, just like her mother Nut, Isis too was referred to as Hwn.t wr.t- the
Great Virgin. The phrase Hwn.t wr.t was already sufficiently addressed
on pp.164-71, so I simply refer the reader to there for the topic to avoid
some redundancy. The subject at hand right now is Isis claim to that
title. In Fig. 262-63 are images of the south gate in the west wall of the
chapel of Osiris at the Temple of Seti I at Abydos. On the bottom of the
left side is a section depicting Isis kneeling while holding bowls filled
with ankhs and knots, and an accompanying text of her words.
1890
Ibid. 93.
630
Fig. 262: The south gate in the west wall of the chapel of Osiris at the Temple of Seti I at
Abydos, 13th century BCE.
631
Fig. 263: Isis declares herself to be the Great Virgin.
In particular, in the columns numbered 1-3 in Fig. 263 above, Isis

states the following:
So I am Isis.
So I am a flame goddess.
You are Osiris.
I am mother to Horus.
I am sister to the god.
I am Hmmy.t.1891
I am the Great Virgin.
Temple of Seti I, Chapel of Osiris, West Wall-South Gate 1892
1891
These lines were all translated with assistance from Allen (2000-10).
1892
See Amice M. Calverley and Myrtle F. Broome, The Temple of King Sethos I
at Abydos: Volume I, The Chapels of Osiris, Isis and Horus, ed. A.H. Gardiner
(London: The Egypt Exploration Society, 1933), pl.9.
Cf. goo.gl/PBSR5C, quoted below, rightfully compared with the Isis
aretalogies.
632
The words of Isis on this wall have a familiar tone also seen in the
words of another divine virgin mother, as later recorded in the scriptures
belonging to the religion of The Good Shepherd:
I am the wife and the virgin.
I am the mother and the daughter.
I am the members of my mother.
I am the barren one and many are her sons.
I am she whose wedding is great,
and I have not taken a husband.
I am the midwife and she who does not bear.
I am the solace of my labor pains.
I am the bride and the bridegroom,
and it is my husband who begot me.
I am the mother of my father
and the sister of my husband
and he is my offspring.
In Egypt the epithets add.t, rnn.t and Hwn.t, girl; young

woman; virgin, are applied to many goddessese.g. Hathor and
Isiswho had not yet had sexual intercourse.
Dr. Bob Becking, in Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the
Bible 1893
It is interesting that Isis is addressed as Hwn.t in a sarcophagus
oracle that deals with her mysterious pregnancy. In a text in the
Abydos Temple of Seti I, Isis herself declares: I am the great
virgin. In the Late Period in particular, goddesses are frequently
called (beautiful) virgins, especially Hathor, Isis, and Nephthys.
Dr. Jan Bergman and Dr. Helmer Ringgren, in Theological
Dictionary of the Old Testament, Vol. 2 1894
Isis had been called both the Mother of the God, meaning
the mother of the divine Horos (Harpocrates), and the Great
Virgin.
1893
Bob Becking, VIRGIN, in Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible,
eds. K. Van Der Toorn, B. Becking, and P.W. Van Der Horst (Leiden: Koninklijke
Brill NV, 1995-99), 891. (Emph. added.)
1894
Bergman (1972-99), 339. (Emph. added.)
633
Dr. Thomas F. Mathews and Dr. Norman Muller, in Images of the
Mother of God: Perceptions of the Theotokos in Byzantium 1895
Isis came to be worshipped as the Primordial Virgin and their
child as the Savior of the World. Her titles included those of
Mother of God, Great of Magic, Mistress of Heaven and the New
Year, Star of the Sea (in Alexandria), Virgin of the World (in the
Hermetic tradition).
Horus was born of the Virgin Isis The Egyptian goddess
who was equally the Great Virgin (Hwnt) and Mother of the God
was the object of the very same praises bestowed upon her
successor.
As Dr. Bergman et al. stated above, Isis was also referred to as the
beautiful virgin as well. This can especially be seen in several
inscriptions, recorded by Dr. Sylvie Cauville, from the Temple of
Dendera, e.g.: Hwnt nfrt bnrt mrwt (beautiful virgin, sweet &
lovely). 1898
One recent comment Ive seen from a heathen in regards to this
matter of Isis virgin motherhood has claimed that his opposition
produces several references to Isis as a virgin but doesnt show that
any of them were from after the time when Horus was born in Isis
personal timeline. Youd think thatd be pretty important!1899 To find
such affirmation that Horus had already been born at the time Isis
confirmed that she was in fact still a virgin, one only need refer back to
the text from the Temple of Seti I quoted previously on p.632. Even
chronologically, she first stated I am the mother of Horus, establishing
that shed already given birth, and then, after having stated this, she later
followed it up with I am the Great Virgin. So that settles that. One can
1895
Thomas F. Mathews and Norman Muller, Isis and Mary in early icons, in
Images of the Mother of God: Perceptions of the Theotokos in Byzantium, ed.
M. Vasilak (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2005), 4.
1896
Mojsov (2005), xii, xvi. (Emph. added.)
1897
Witt (1971-97), 218, 273.
1898
Sylvie Cauville, Dendera III: Traduction (Leuven: Peeters Press, 2000), 72.
1899
https://goo.gl/FmgssD.
634
even look further up on that same gate of the west wall, in the upper left
hand corner of Fig. 262, to see Horus there already born and full grown.
Then there is the concern over Isis marriage to Osiris. But as
covered on pp.169, 192-99, marriage does not disqualify one from being
a virgin, for the young Queen Ahmose was married and yet was
explicitly called a virgin. Ahmoses husband was still too young to
consummate the marriage anyway. Likewise, Osiris died before he could
consummate his marriage to Isis and take her virginity:
The marriage of Isis and Osiris was a very brief one, so brief,
indeed, that they were not able to consummate their union while
Osiris was alive. "Come to me, far face who passed beyond without
my having seen him," Isis says after the death of her husband,
leading one to suppose that he was murdered before their wedding
night.
Dr. Dimitri Meeks and Dr. Christine Favard-Meeks , Daily Life of
the Egyptian Gods 1900
Finally, theres the text contained within the Bremner-Rhind Papyrus
th
(4 cen. BCE) known as the Songs of Isis and Nephthys. This text was
part of a ritual reenactment of the mourning for Osiris. In the instructions
for this dramatization, it is stated in the most unambiguous of terms that
Isis (w/Nephthys) was to be portrayed as a virgin whose nether-region
had never been opened.
HERE BEGIN THE STANZAS OF the Festival of the Two
Kites which is celebrated in the temple of Osiris, First of the
Westerners, the great god, Lord of Abydos, in the fourth month of
Inundation, from the twenty-second day down to the twenty-sixth
day. THE ENTIRE TEMPLE SHALL BE SANCTIFIED, AND
THERE SHALL BE BROUGHT IN [TWO] women pure of
body and virgin [who have not been opened], with the hair of their
bodies removed, their heads adorned with wigs, [.....] tambourines
in their hands, and their names inscribed on their arms, to wit Isis
and Nephthys, and they shall sing from the stanzas of this book in
the presence of this god.
1.1-5 1901
1900
Meeks (1993-96), 69. (Emph. added.)
1901
Faulkner (1936), 122, 132 n.1-3. (Emph. added.)
635
But then further on in the text, it is made clear that Horus has already
been born.
Raise thee up! Raise thee up! Behold SETH is in the place of
execution, AND HE WHO REBELLED AGAINST THEE shall
not be. Come thou to thine house, O Osiris, thy place where men
seek to see thee; Hear thou the plaint of Horus in the arms of his
mother Isis.
Songs 5.16-19 1902
So even though, just like in the Abydos text, Isis had already given
birth to Horus by this point, she was still portrayed as an unopened
virgin. There absolutely existed a tradition in ancient Egypt in which
Horus was known to have been conceived & delivered by a virgin
without the use of sex. But moreover, take a look at the following
depictions of his conception, beginning with Fig. 264. In the center is the
familiar scenery of the corpse of Osiris upon the bier in his tomb, while
Isis flutters over him in the form of a bird. At his feet stands Heket, and
his head standsalways identifiable by her throne crownIsis herself,
yet again. So Isis is the bird above Osiris conceiving Horus, but at the
same time she is also the mourning widow standing at his head? This
same situation is repeated in Fig. 265.
Fig. 264: Flying over Osiris, Isis impregnates herself in the form of a bird yet meanwhile
she also stands to the left in her normal form.
1902
636
Fig. 265: Again, Isis is simultaneously a bird in the act of conception and a woman in the
act of mourning.
In both of these images, Isis is simultaneously the mother bird in the

act of conception located above Osiris and also the mourning widow
located off to the side. So shes in two places at once, and in two
different forms. How can this be? Well, thats quite simple actually. Just
go back and read pp.143-44 & 368-404, it was all thoroughly explained
there. This situation was clearly a case of Isis employing her bA as the
medium for the magic. So it was actually her bA (her theriomorphic
hypostasis) which received the seed of Osiris and conceived Horus,
rather than her xAt (her original body) which stood aside and merely
oversaw the proceedings. Therefore, to humor the opposition for a
moment, even if that were a real organic phallus Isis was interacting
with, and even if that interaction was intercourse rather than magical
hupenemia, that interaction was all with Isis bA. This allowed her
original body to remain untouched and kept her virgin hyman intact.
Therefore those texts often interpreted as reflecting an alternative
tradition, such as Pyramid Text Utterance 366 632, still fail to
invalidate Isis claim of being both the Great Virgin and the mother of
Horus. Her bA acted as her surrogate during the conception. Another
amusing thing about this scene of the avian conception of Horus is that it
is conspicuously similar to much later heathen depictions of the
conception of one of their demigods by a virgin mother, who was
likewise impregnated by a god who took the form of a bird. So-called
637
non-canonical texts of the heathen also explicitly refer to this virgin
mother as if she were a dove.
Since Isis was indubitably a virgin mother to Horus, just like her
mother Nut and the virgin Ahmose, Isis too is often depicted as donning
the iconic vulture crown (Fig.194), the emblem of virgin motherhood. In
fact, the vulture was even one of the avian forms Isis and/or her bA would
manifest as, further cementing her association with virgin motherhood.
Fig. 266: Statue of the virgin mother Isis donning the vulture cap, 7 th century BCE.
638
Fig. 267: Isis greets Nectanebo II while wearing her vulture headdress; from the Saqqara
Serapaeum, 4th century BCE.
Fig. 268: Limestone relief, 4th-1st century BCE, currently at the Brooklyn Museum.
639
Fig. 269: Isis dons the vulture cap; a relief from the Temple of Philae, 3rd cen. BCE.
640
Fig. 270: The virgin-born infant Horus flanked by Isis & Nephthys in the forms of
vultures, the very emblem of parthenogenesis and motherhood; based on a damaged
Assyrian furniture plaque, 8th-7th century BCE.
Fig. 271: Osiris flanked by Isis & Nephthys- Isis stands to the left in the form of a vulture;
based on a pectoral from the tomb of Tutankhamun, 14 th century BCE.
One explanation of the specifically funerary connotations of

the vulture and cobra in the dead kings tomb is suggested by
another object from Tutankhamuns burial. It is a naoform
pectoral, on which the king, as Osiris, stands flanked by a vulture
wearing a White Crown with plumes, and a winged cobra in a Red
Crown. The two stand on neb-baskets, extend shen-signs towards
Osiris, and in every way look exactly like Nekhbet and Wadjet. But
641
their inscriptions say otherwise: the vulture is named as Isis, and
the cobra as Nephthys.
Given the frequency of such representations, it is not
surprising that Isis and Nephthys should sometimes be represented
as a vulture and a cobra, nor, given her association with the White
Crown, that it was Isis who was identified with the vulture. It is
this image that seems to be invoked by Spell 157 of the Book of
the Dead, which explicitly associates the vulture of gold at the
throat of the deceased with Isis.
Dr. Edna R. Russmann, Chief of Seers: Egyptian Studies in
Memory of Cyril Aldred 1903
Spell for the vulture of gold put at the throat of the blessed
one.
To be said by Osiris N.: Isis has returned after alighting at the
cities and seeking places of concealment (for) Horus at (his) going
forth from the swamps.
Book of the Dead, Spell 157 P 1-S 1904
They Saw the Miracles which He Did
Isis mastery of magic, however, is hardly limited to shape-shifting

and parthenogenesis. She was skilled in all manners of miracles, from
healing simple ailments to even granting immortality.
As for Isis, the Egyptians say that she was the discoverer of
many health-giving drugs and was greatly versed in the science of
healing; consequently, now that she has attained immortality, she
finds her greatest delight in the healing of mankind and gives aid in
their sleep to those who call upon her, plainly manifesting both her
very presence and her beneficence towards men who ask her
help. In proof of this, as they say, they advance not legends, as the
Greeks do, but manifest facts; for practically the entire inhabited
world is their witness, in that it eagerly contributes to the honours
of Isis because she manifests herself in healings. For standing above
the sick in their sleep she gives them aid for their diseases and
works remarkable cures upon such as submit themselves to her;
and many who have been despaired of by their physicians because
1903
Edna R. Russmann, Vulture and Cobra at the Kings Brow, Chief of Seers:
Egyptian Studies in Memory of Cyril Aldred, eds. E. Goring, N. Reeves, and J.
Ruffle (Abingdon: Routledge, 1997-2009), 271-72. (Emph. added.)
1904
642
of the difficult nature of their malady are restored to health by her,
while numbers who have altogether lost the use of their eyes or of
some other part of their body, whenever they turn for help to this
goddess, are restored to their previous condition. Furthermore, she
discovered also the drug which gives immortality.
These skills she passed on to her son Horus.
Moreover, they say that the name Horus, when translated, is
Apollo, and that, having been instructed by his mother Isis in both
medicine and divination, he is now a benefactor of the race of men
through his oracular responses and his healings.
Library 1.25.7 1906
So Horus was a preacher and miraculous healer. Having inherited the
aforementioned abilities of Isis, Horus too caused the dumb to speak, the
maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see. It is
therefore quite fitting that Horus, as per Turin Papyrus 124 (20th
Dynasty), was called Horus, the Foremost One of Letopolis, the great
physician in Re's house.1907
Another miracle in Horus repertoire is that he walked on the water,
as can be seen in the Amduat inscriptions of the New Kingdom,
illustrated below.
Fig. 272: Horus (w/Sekhema-Kheftiu) walking on water in the netherworld (cf. Fig. 182-
83), while behind him sails the barque of the full moon; based on the second hour of the
Book of Amduat as seen in the tomb of Thutmose III, KV34, 15th century BCE.
1905
1906
1907
Borghouts (1971), 124. (Emph. added.)
643
Fig. 273: Horus (w/Seth) once again walking on water in the netherworld; likewise based
on the Book of Amduat Hour 2 from KV34.
This motif was not unique to Horus. Several gods have been
portrayed performing this miracle, such as the twelve servants of Re in
Fig. 183. Even a few heathen deities were said to have walked on water.
One in particular stands out above all the others. He was likewise from
the ancient Mediterranean world and commonly associated with solar
attributes. He really needs no introduction, and no doubt most readers
have already guessed his name by now. I have deliberately been avoiding
any mention of his name throughout this entire book so that I could save
it for this very moment. This god was, of course, none other than Usil-
the Etruscan sun god.
644
Fig. 274: The Etruscan sun god Usil walking on water; based on an Etruscan bronze
mirror, 6th century BCE.
Fig. 275: The Etruscan sun god Usil dashes across the breaking waves; 1908 based on an
Etruscan cista ornament, 5th century BCE.
1908
The Art Institute of Chicago, "Collections," accessed January 16,
2014, http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/154054/.
645
Fig. 276: Usil parting the waters; based on an Etruscan bronze mirror, 6th century BCE.
This is very reminiscent of another famous instance of parting waters to make dry land
appear. Of course that would be the miracle of the parting of waters by the chief lector-
priest Djadja-em-ankh allowing him to walk on dry land, as recorded in the Westcar
Papyrus (Berlin 3033) , 18th century BCE.1909
But once again, since Horus walking on water came much earlier,
these later depictions of Usil and any other such heathen gods famous for
walking on water (e.g. Orion,1910 Euphemus,1911 Poseidon,1912 and of
course, The Good Shepherd1913 are the Johnny-come-latelys, just as
they are when matching various other archetypes.
1909
Lichtheim (1973-2006), 217.
1910
Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1.4.3-5, in Simpson (1976), 17.
1911
Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautika, trans. P. Green (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1997-2007), 47-48.
1912
Homer, The Iliad 13.26-31, in Johnston (2006-07).
1913
He cometh unto them, walking upon the sea.
646
One King shall Be King to them All
One such archetype, far more prevalent, is that of the brothers

striving for their fathers inheritance. Typically this involves the archaic
tradition of the eldest son being designated the primary or even the sole
heir. This naturally incites envy in the younger brother, who then plots to
usurp the elder out of his birthright. This archetype occurs in the already
mentioned tale of Osiris & Seth in Egypt, the tale of the half-brothers
Enki & Enlil in Sumeria, or the half-brothers (see p.67) Ouranos &
Cronus in Greece, as well as various stories from the Fertile Crescent
like those of heel-grabbers usurping hairy red hunters out of their
birthright, etc. The list could go on & on.
The archetype also sometimes involves a child of the next
generation, typically a son, rising up to avenge the strife of the previous
generation. Cronus son Zeus rises up to reclaim the throne, Enkis son
Marduk usurps the throne from Enlil, and of course- Horus rises up to
reclaim the throne of Geb which Seth had usurped from Osiris. So
prevalent and archetypal was this classic tale of Osiris/Horus vs. Seth
that it ranks among the most popular myth[s] of all times.1914 In fact,
its influence can still be seen even in the culture of todays generation.
When reflecting upon popular films of the last 25 years, are there any in
particular that come to mind in which:
an elder brother reigns over a kingdom in Africa,
and is assassinated by his envious younger brother,
whose son is then persecuted by this younger brother,
whose throne is then usurped by his younger brother,
whose son must then rise up and battle with the younger
brother in order to rightfully reclaim the throne on behalf of
the fallen father,
who ascended to heaven after death to dwell among the stars
while a part of his spirit continued to live on in his son?
Obviously, this describes the 1994 hit Disney film The Lion King, a
film which conspicuously took cues from the story of Horus.
Interestingly enough, Horus is also occasionally portrayed with the body
1914
Grant L. Voth, Myth in Human History (Chantilly: The Teaching Company
LLC, 2010), Lecture 15. See p.684.
647
of a lion (Fig. 277). So in that respect, he could be called the Lion of the
tribe of Ta Mehu.
You are the Lion, you are the Double Lion, you are Horus,
Protector of his father.
1915
Faulkner (1973), 1.
648
Fig. 277: Horus as a lion; from the Temple of Edfu, 3 rd century BCE.
649
Ta Mehu was a term for Lower Egypt1916 (lower as in further
downstream as per the Niles current, even though it was located to the
north). The war between Horus and Seth apparently became so severe
that the other gods sought out a resolution to end the conflict. Thus the
land of Kemet was divided into two kingdoms between them.
[Geb, lord of the gods, commanded] that the Nine Gods
gather to him. He judged between Horus and Seth; he ended their
quarrel. He made Seth king of Upper Egypt in the land of Upper
Egypt, up to the place in which he was born, which is Su. And Geb
made Horus king of Lower Egypt in the land of Lower Egypt, up to
the place in which his father was drowned which is Division-of-the-
Two-Lands. Thus Horus stood over one region, and Seth stood
over one region. They made peace over the Two Lands at Ayan.
That was the division of the Two Lands.
The Memphite Theology, 7-9 1917
This seems akin to another familiar yet much later heathen tale from
the Fertile Crescent that likewise involved a divinely established nation
being divided into two kingdoms from north to south, and which awaited
a prophesied king to one day arise and reunite its chosen people into one
nation again. For ancient Kemet, that unifying king was Horus himself.
Then it seems wrong to Geb that the portion of Horus was like
the portion of Seth. So Geb gave to Horus his inheritance, for he is
the son of his firstborn son.
Gebs words to the Nine Gods: I have appointed Horus, the
firstborn. Gebs words to the Nine Gods: Him alone, Horus, the
inheritance. Gebs words to the Nine Gods: To this heir, Horus,
my inheritance. Gebs words to the Nine Gods: To the son of my
son, Horus, the Jackal of Upper Egypt ---. Gebs words to the
Nine Gods: The firstborn, Horus, Horus, the Opener-of-the-
ways. Gebs words to the Nine Gods: The son who was born ---
Horus, on the Birthday of the Opener-of-the-ways.
Then Horus stood over the land. He is the uniter of this land,
proclaimed in the great name: Ta-tenen, South-of-his-Wall, Lord of
Eternity. Then sprouted the two Great Magicians upon his head.
He is Horus who arose as king of Upper and Lower Egypt, who
1916
Morkot (2005), 5.
Oakes (2002-05), 336.
Shaw (2000-03), 94.
1917
Lichtheim (1973-2006), 52.
650
united the Two Lands in the Nome of the Wall, the place in which
the Two Lands were united.
The Memphite Theology, 10c-14c 1918
Fig. 278: Horus conquering Seth, who has taken the form of a hippopotamus; from the
Temple of Edfu.
1918
Ibid. 53.
651
Fig. 279: Horus conquering the celestial bull of Seth while guarded by Sagittarius; from
the ceiling of the Temple of Dendera. Notice how Sagittarius here has taken on the form
of Apollyon, his shape being like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads
were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men. And they had hair
as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. And they had breastplates,
as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of
many horses running to battle. And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings
in their tails.
652
Fig. 280: Horus reuniting the two kingdoms with the defeated Seth, just as Geb had
commanded; based on a relief from the throne of Senusret I, 20 th century BCE.
Thus it couldve been said of Horus that he will make them one
nation in the land upon the mountains of Kemet; and one king shall be
king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall
they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all.
The image of Horus conquering Seth in Fig. 281 is of particular
interest because of how that same scene was replicated later on by the
Romans, examples of which are provided in Fig. 282-85. In this version
653
Horus is mounted on a horse while Seth has taken the form of a crocodile
rather than a hippopotamus, thus giving Seth a reptilian appearance.
Fig. 281: A Roman depiction of Horus conquest over Seth, Imperial Era, currently at
the Louvre Museum.
Now take a look at some later depictions of a heathen by the name of

George of Lydda.
654
Fig. 282: Statue of George of Lydda slaying the dragon, in Marckolsheim, France.
Fig. 283: Medieval tympanum from Brinsop, UK.
655
Fig. 284: Medieval steatite Byzantine sculpture from Egypt.
Fig. 285: Medieval limestone sculpture, currently at the Muse de la Guerre au Moyen-
ge, Chteau de Castelnaud, Dordogne, France.
656
Many heathen complain that comparisons like this are irrelevant
because the heathen artifacts above are of such a late date. They seem
concerned only with the 1st to early 2nd centuries of the Common Era.
This comparison with George here is indeed not the most significant of
comparisons to be made, but it does further demonstrate the pattern of
ancient Egyptian motifs having parallels in much later heathen
mythology. This comparison here merely reaffirms that fact, it doesnt
set the precedent. True to form is the expression that comes to mind.
Twelve Apostles
Another such parallel or archetype Horus shares not only with

various heathen deities but also with his ancestors Osiris and Re is that of
keeping company with 12 followers/servants. Recall Fig. 208 on p.540,
which depicts the 12 female deities of the 12 hours of the night, all
facing to the right where the coffin of Osiris is being guarded by a
crocodile. So there we see a group of 12 followers of Osiris. But directly
opposite of that scene are the 12 male gods of the night stars, facing to
the left, where there is seated a god who directs their way. That god is
Horus. Twelve followers of Osiris are on the right, and twelve followers
of Horus are on the left- like father, like son.
Fig. 286: Horus with his twelve apostles, the gods of the night stars; from the seventh hour
of the Book of Amduat from the tomb of Thutmose III, 15th century BCE.
657
Fig. 287: Based on the 7th Hour of the Book of Amduat as seen in the tomb of
Amenhotep II, KV35, 15th century BCE.
Fig. 288: Based on the tomb of Ramesses III, KV11, 12th century BCE.
Fig. 289: Based on the tomb of Ramesses VI, KV9, 12th century BCE.
658
The incipient renewal of life is beautifully illustrated in the
lower register of the seventh nocturnal hour. It begins with an
image of the falcon-headed Horus, who holds the was-scepter
(symbolizing well-being and happiness) and the ankh-hieroglyph
(symbolizing life) in his hands and bears a sun disk on his head. In
this subterranean form, he watches over twelve male and twelve
female deities, each of them carrying a star on his or her head. The
accompanying texts reveal their meaning and function. Above
Horus and the star gods, we read of their meaning:
What he (Horus) has to do in the netherworld:
To make the star gods move
And to set the positions of the hours in the netherworld.
Clearly, the gods represent the totality of all the stars
wandering over the night sky; they are, so to speak, an ordering
principle of the world above. The goddesses, for their part,
symbolize the twelve nocturnal hours.
In the lower register, the sun god is enthroned as "Horus of the
Netherworld" in order to ensure the correct movement of the
celestial bodies, the personification of which fill the rest of the
register; twelve gods and twelve goddesses all have a star above their
heads.
Dr. Erik Hornung and Dr. Betsy M. Bryan, The Quest for
Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt 1920
Since Horus directs their activities, they 12 serve as his apostles.
Also on p.215 is Fig. 50, which depicts Horus receiving followers of his
father Osiris into the afterlife after their baptism into Osiris death,1921
and this he did by groups of 12 at a time. Also recall from Fig. 51 on
p.216 (also see CT Spell 346 IV, 377) that Horus himself performed a
baptism on Osiris and the deceased to aid in restoring them all to back to
life. Thus Horus was associated with both the archetype of the twelve
and the archetype of baptism into new life.
1919
Schweizer (1994-2010), 147-48. (Emph. added.)
1920
1921
See pp.209-13.
659
Fig. 290: Those deceased who are buried in the Nile are thus baptized into the death of
Osiris and then received into eternal life by Horus, who does so in groups of twelve at a
time; from the tenth hour of the Book of Amduat as seen on the Papyrus of Amenophis,
priest of Amun, 11th century BCE (cf. Fig. 50).
660
Fig. 291: The same scene, based on the Papyrus of Henettawy, 10th century BCE.
661
Fig. 292: Horus takes the twelve enemies of his father Osiris to the Lake of Fire; based on
the 9th Hour of the Book of Gates as seen in tombs of Ramesses V & VI, KV9, 12th
century BCE. Enemies of Osiris, to be burned. What Horus has done for his father
Osiris.1922
He is Risen from the Dead
And speaking of new life, this is another experience Horus has in

common with Osiris. Yet it is arguably the one motif in the legend of
Horus that is the most contested by the heathen. E.g.:
No Heru (Horus) was never resurrected because he never died in
the first place.1923
Horus never died.1924
As Horus never died, HE WAS NEVER RESURRECTED
BECAUSE YOU CAN'T RESURRECT ANYTHING THAT HASN'T
BEEN KILLED. 1925
1922
1923
Djehuti, Was Horus resurrected?, EgyptSearch.com (September 26,
2007),
http://www.egyptsearch.com/forums/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=005
603;p=1#000002.
1924
ArtistFormerlyKnownAsHeru, Was Horus resurrected?, EgyptSearch.com
(February 3, 2009),
http://www.egyptsearch.com/forums/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=005
603;p=1#000023.
662
Horus never walked on water. He was thrown into it. And Horus
was not resurrected.1926
Horus had no star in the east, wasn't adored by 3 kings and was
never resurrected.1927
Horus didnt die.1928
In myth, Horus never died.1929
In fact, Horus never died and therefore could not have been
buried for 3 days and resurrected.1930
To experience new life, naturally the old life must come to an end.
And as just seen, like they did with Osiris (see pp.218-222), several
heathen have gone so far as to claim that Horus never died at all and thus
by default had no resurrection. But die Horus most certainly did.
Horus, who had been the object of plots on the part of Titans
and had been found dead under the water was the last of the
gods to be king after his father Osiris.
This can be traced even further back, as far as the 24th century BCE.
1925
George Yama Maharaja Ricks, The Conspiracy Archives, Facebook
(October 20, 2013),
https://www.facebook.com/GeorgeIrvingRicks/posts/10201917431238570.
1926
OnceWasLost, Horus: The myth the legend, Rapture Ready (September
23, 2009), http://rr-bb.com/showthread.php?109818-Horus-The-myth-the-
legend.
1927
David Anderson, Zeitgeist On Horus, King David 8 .com (accessed
December 18,
2012), http://www.kingdavid8.com/_full_article.php?id=100edae6-626c-11e1-
be10-176ee32615f7.
1928
Ask, When Did Horus Die?, accessed December 18.
2012, http://www.ask.com/question/when-did-horus-die.
1929
Greeksays, When did Horus die?, Answers (November 22, 2008),
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Where_did_Horus_die?.
1930
Edward L. Winston, Zeitgeist Part I: The Greatest Story Ever
Told, Skeptic Project (November 29, 2007),
http://conspiracies.skepticproject.com/articles/zeitgeist/part-one/.
1931
663
May [your tomb(?)] be as well-founded as the tomb of Horus.
You have taken the Eye of Horus. These four paths of yours
are those which are in front of the tomb of Horus, on which the
god has walked since the going down of Re.
This fact is even visually illustrated in the Book of the Earth (Fig.
293):
Four occurrences: Ramesses VI; funerary papyri of
Djedkhonsuiusankh and Khonsumes; Murtidis The present
tableau depicts the funerary barges of Osiris and the falcon-headed
Horus-of-the-Duat. Two goddesses, Isis and Nephthys attend to
the mummies of Osiris and Horus, respectively.
1932
1933
1934
Roberson (2007), 202-03. (Emph. added.)
664
Fig. 293: A dual image featuring the funeral barque of the dead & mummified Horus,
who was likewise murdered by Seth just like his father Osiris before him; based on the
Book of the Earth as seen in the tomb of Ramesses VI, KV9, 12 th century BCE.
665
Fig. 294: Horus mummified, i.e. dead, based on a funerary statuette from the 11 th-4th
century BCE.1935
As covered in ch. 5, mummification by default indicates a death has

taken place.
The west wall of the sarcophagus chamber of Parahirwenemef
(QV 42) contains a scene showing the king and prince before back-
to-back figures of the mummiform Osiris/Ramesses III and a
mummiform figure of Horus.
Dr. Heather L. McCarthy, in Sex and Gender in Ancient
Egypt 1936
She was persecuted by Set, who caused the death of Horus.
1935
Live Auctioneers, An Egyptian Pseudo-Mummified Horus Figure, accessed
November 16, 2013, http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/15656573_an-
egyptian-pseudo-mummified-horus-figure.
1936
Heather L. McCarthy, Rules of Decorum and Expressions of Gender Fluidity
in Tawosret's Tomb, Sex and Gender in Ancient Egypt: Don your wig for a
joyful hour, ed. C. Graves-Brown (Swansea: Classical Press of Wales, 2008), 106
n.31. (Emph. added.)
666
Horus was murdered by Seth.
Dr. Mary K. Wakeman, Gods Battle with the Monster 1938
The fact that the mummified corpses of both Horus and Osiris are
juxtaposed as they are in the Book of the Earth (Fig. 293) makes it quite
apparent that the artist was trying to portray them as parallel to each
other. In other words, it is being pointed out how in death Horus is again
emulating his father Osiris. Evidently, he even died in the same manner
as Osiris, by having been drowned in the Nile by Seth (see Diodorus
above) and his corpse dismembered (apparently by Isis, perhaps in
deliberate emulation of Osiris).
These are nearly all the important points of the legend, with
the omission of the most infamous of the tales, such as that about
the dismemberment of Horus.
Ch. CXIII of the Book of the Dead refers to the legend of
the drowning of Horus and the recovery of his body (apparently in
fragments) by the crocodile-god Sobek.
I know the secrets of Hieraconpolis. They are (the hands of)
Horus and this which his mother did, throwing (them) on the water
as she said: Ye shall {say} be for me (hands) amputated from me
and far away when ye are found. Said Re: This son (of) Isis has
been mutilated by this which his mother herself did against him.
Pray let him be brought to us, (namely) Sobk, lord of the farthest
marshes, that he may fish them out. When he had found them,
his mother Isis (caused) them to grow (back to their proper place).
Then said Sobk, lord of the farthest marshes: I sought and found
(them, but) they kept slipping out from under my fingers at the
waters edge. (So finally) I netted them with a net. That is how the
net originated.
1937
Hillar (2012), 292. (Emph. added.)
1938
Mary K. Wakeman, Gods Battle with the Monster: A Study in Biblical
Imagery (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1973), 33.
1939
1940
Burton (1972), 109. (Emph. added.)
667
I am Horus, my fathers heir. My limbs which were in
concealment are reunited.
Thus Horus himself was the first to set the precedent seen and
discussed on pp.207-15 & 668-70. Horus was the first to be literally
baptized into the death of Osiris, buried in the waters but later raised to
walk in the newness of life. In fact, as the first legitimate king to succeed
Osiris, it was also Horus who set the precedent discussed primarily on
pp.18-29. This was the tradition among the kings of Egypt to emulate
and identify with Osiris in death so that, through the principle of
sympathetic magic, they might also be able to emulate his resurrection as
well. And Horus was the first- in death, he too emulated & identified
himself with Osiris, as would essentially all the Egyptian kings
thereafter.
Horus in death becomes Osiris.
1943
Dr. John G. Griffiths, The Origins of Osiris and His Cult
In some accounts Horus merges with Osiris.
Dr. Kenneth L. Campbell, Western Civilization: A Global and
Comparative Approach, Volume I 1944
Osiris was the king: he reigned and died. But there was, after
all, still a living king, the son Horus. But since the king was Osiris,
Horus had become Osiris.
Dr. J. Russell Major et al., Civilization in the Western World:
Ancient times to 1715 1945
The interests of Horus were common with those of almost all
the gods of Egypt, but there were many deities with whom he was
especially associated. Besides Set, who will be discussed separately
1941
T.G. Allen (1974), 92.
1942
1943
1944
Kenneth L. Campbell, Western Civilization: A Global and Comparative
Approach, Volume I: To 1715 (New York: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 2012), 20.
1945
J. Russell Major, Robert Scranton, and George P. Cuttino, Civilization in the
Western World: Ancient times to 1715 (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co., 1967),
43. (Emph. added.)
668
with Horus in chapter V, the chief among them was Osiris, his
father. Indeed, Horus was almost identified with Osiris, for he was
regarded as Osiris re-born, and Osiris-Horus was considered a
form of the rising sun.
Through his father Osiris, king of the dead, Horus the Son
also acquired a chthonic aspect.
Dr. Marti L. Allen, in The Gods of Egypt in the Grco-
Roman Period 1947
Thou followest Osiris-Horus, Lord of the (boat) Hennu; thou
art as the great god, head of the gods.
The Book of Breathings 1948
They prevent the smell of your corpse from becoming foul in
accordance with this your name of Horus of 3Aty. They prevent
Horus of the East from putrefying; they prevent Horus Lord of
Patricians from putrefying; they prevent Horus of the Netherworld
from putrefying; they prevent Horus Lord of the Two Lands from
putrefying, and Seth will never be free from carrying you, O Osiris.
Youhave appeared as Lord of the West you have appeared
as Horus of the distant ones(?). Arise, raise yourself to life, for you
have not died.
Live, Osiris! The Great Inert One stands up from upon his
side. I am Isis, I am Nephthys; you are happy now that you have
arisen today as Horus of the Netherworld.
1946
1947
Marti L. Allen, Horus/Harpocrates, in The Gods of Egypt in the Grco-
Roman Period, ed. A.E. Haeckl (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press,
1977), 31. (Emph.added.)
1948
W. Edward Brown, The Book of Breathings: The Lafayette College Papyrus
(Easton: Lafayette College Press, 1934-2009), 3. (Emph. added.)
http://sites.lafayette.edu/papyrus/files/2009/11/Browns-book-of-breathings-
translations-updated.pdf.
1949
Faulkner (1969), 200.
1950
1951
669
BECOMING THE COUNTERPART OF OSIRIS. I indeed
am Osiris, I indeed am the Lord of All, I am the Radiant One, the
brother of the Radiant Lady; I am Osiris, the brother of Isis. My
son Horus and his mother Isis have protected me from that foe
who would harm me I am Horus on the day of his accession.
Evidently, this sympathetic magic worked, since, just like his father
Osiris whom he emulated, Horus experienced bodily resurrection. Hence
in the Book of the Earth, just as the funerals of the dead Osiris and Horus
are juxtaposed to emphasize the parallels (Fig. 293), there is also an
image (Fig. 295) which juxtaposes Osiris and Horus after rising from the
dead. Each one is still mummified, indicating that they were both
recently dead just prior to their respective scenes here. Yet each one is
standing upright (recall Awake, Osiris! Awake, O King! Stand up1953)
and accompanying other chthonic godsJmna and 5tAaencased within
their sarcophagi. The contrast there of two gods standing upright vs. two
gods lying prostrate within sarcophagi clearly indicates two different
states and thus further affirms that Osiris and Horus in this scene are in
fact not still dead like Jmna & 5tAa, but are indeed alive again.
1952
Ibid. 179-80. (Emph. added.) In case the four different references to Horus
confuse any readers into thinking this indicates four different gods, see PT Utt.
519 1207, which states that Horus has four faces.
1953
Faulkner (1969), 177.
670
Fig. 295: The mummified Horus (left) is now risen from the dead, just like his father
Osiris (rightas Ba of the Netherworld)1954 did before him; from the Book of the Earth
as seen in the tomb of Ramesses VI, KV9, 12th century BCE.
Furthermore, she discovered also the drug which gives

immortality, by means of which she not only raised from the dead
her son Horus, who had been the object of plots on the part of
Titans and had been found dead under the water, giving him his
soul again, but also made him immortal. And it appears that Horus
was the last of the gods to be king after his father Osiris departed
from among men.
Diodorus of Sicily, Library of History 1.25.6-7 (1st cen. BCE) 1955
Isis has delivered Osiris, has delivered Horus from the evil
things which his brother Set had done him by killing his father
Osiris. O Isis, Great Goddess of incantations, deliver me from all
bad, evil and cruel things, deliver me from the God of pain, from
the Goddess of pain, from a death, from the penetrating which
penetrates me, in the same way as thy son Horus was delivered and
freed. Now thou hast delivered me from every bad, evil and
cruel thing, from the God of pain, from the Goddess of pain, from
death.
Ebers Papyrus (16th cen. BCE) 1956
I am Horus, my fathers heir. My limbs which were in
concealment are reunited.
1954
Roberson (2007), 196.
1955
1956
C.G. Cumston, The History of Medicine: From the Time of the Pharaohs to
the End of the XVIIIth Century (Abingdon: Routledge, 1926-98), 37-38. (Emph.
added.)
671
I am Horus, son of Osiris. I will not die a second time, and the
dwellers in the Netherworld have no power over me. I will not eat
their fish, their fowl shall not scream over me, for I am Horus, son
of Osiris. NOT TO DIE A SECOND TIME IN THE REALM
OF THE DEAD.
The earth has opened its mouth for me, Geb has loosened his
jaws on my account,1959 I have risen up as Horus pre-eminent in
Pe I have died the death, I have returned alive.
Thou madest great Osiris immortal, and deliveredst to every
country religious observances; likewise thou madest immortal
Horus who showed himself a benefactor.
Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 1380, Invocation of Isis 241-51 (1st
cen. CE) 1961
One tradition speaks of Isis, who raised her son Horus from
the dead and made him immortal.
Dr. Craig A. Evans, in The Routledge Companion to
Philosophy of Religion 1962
Upon her return with the body of Osiris, again Set connives
against her not only to kill Horus but also to segment the body of
Osiris. The collection of the pieces of the body of Osiris, its
restoration and the resurrection of Horus, shown often as a young
cupid-like figure in Greek called Harpocrates, usually represented
with a finger to his mouth, symbolize the annual inundation of the
Nile over the land, returning the land to fertility and assuring
sustenance to the people.
Dr. George R.H. Wright, in Archaeological Research in
Roman Egypt 1963
1957
1958
1959
Recall Faulkners note for this same expression in Spell 4 (see p.472): I.e.
the earth opens to let the deceased leave his grave.
1960
1961
Bernard P Grenfell and Arthur S. Hunt, The Oxyrhynchus Papyri: Part XI
(London: Oxford University Press, 1915), 202. (Emph. added.)
1962
Craig A. Evans, Resurrection, The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of
Religion, eds. C. Meister and P. Copan (Abingdon: Routledge, 2007-10), 569.
672
She was persecuted by Set, who caused the death of Horus.
Horus, however, was resurrected.
Horus died and rose from the dead, and that fact was explicitly
attested to prior to the Common Era- end of discussion. And since Horus
was a sun god to both Egyptians and non-Egyptians alike, evidently
Horus eventually died on his birthday and then returned from the dead
after three days (see pp.598-99), which was celebrated annually
thereafter. This is quite reminiscent of his fathers own resurrection on
the third day after Osiris burial in the tomb, which is reflected in lunar
phenomena (pp.346-57) while Horus resurrection is reflected in solar
phenomena.
The Lord hath Reigned from the Wood
Also like his father Osiris, apparently at some point in this venture
Horus too was regenerated within a tree. In particular it was an acacia
tree, a tree which was revered for its regenerative/medicinal properties
and often incorporated into magical spells for healing.
I am Horus who came forth from the acacia, who came forth
from the acacia.
Acacia nilotica (L.) Delile, Nile acacia
Predynastic, (native) tree along water courses
Uses: timber, medicinal
Dr. M. Nabil El Hadidi, in Encyclopedia of the Archaeology
1963
George R.H. Wright, The works organisation of a major building project in
Roman Egypt, Archaeological Research in Roman Egypt: The Proceedings of
the Seventeenth Classical Colloquium of the Department of Greek and Roman
Antiquities, British Museum, Held on 1-4 December, 1993, ed. D.M. Bailey
(Dexter: Thomson-Shore, 1996), 247. (Emph. added.)
1964
Hillar (2012), 292. (Emph. added.)
1965
673
Acacia nilotica is the best known for its medicinal value.
Different parts of this tree are used in traditional medicine,
particularly in Upper Egypt.
Dr. Ahmed Belal et al., Bedouins by the Lake: Environment,
Change, and Sustainability in Southern Egypt 1967
A remedy to heal a wound: acacia leaves 1; are pounded,
mixed with oil or fat and applied to the wound.
Ebers Papyrus 527 (16th cen. BCE) 1968
A remedy to soothe the bone when it is broken: acacia leaves
1; gum 1; water 1; is combined and used as a bandage for four
days.
Hearst Papyrus 223 (16th cen. BCE) 1969
A remedy to cool the vessels and make stiff what is weak: fresh
acacia leaves 1; ox fat 1; sawdust of fir; grind together and use as a
bandage for four days.
Ramesseum Papyrus V, No. XIII (18th cen. BCE) 1970
A remedy for swollen legs: acacia leaves; zizyphus leaves;
ochre; honey; is applied as a poultice.
A remedy to stop the blood which has been taken to the heart
and has spread: dried acacia leaves; are ground and mixed with oil
or fat. Heat to finger warmth and use as a bandage.
Berlin Papyrus 131, 151 (14th cen. BCE) 1971
An eye remedy: opium; acacia leaves, acacia juice; copper;
gum; grind equal quantities of each, make it into an eye ointment
and apply externally.
1966
M. Nabil El Hadidi, plants, wild, in Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of
Ancient Egypt, ed. K.A. Bard (London: Routledge, 1999), 754. (Emph. added.)
1967
Ahmed Belal, John Briggs, Joanne Sharp, and Irina Springuel, Bedouins by
the lake: Environment, Change, and Sustainability in Southern Egypt (Cairo: The
American University in Cairo Press, 2009), 80.
1968
Lise Manniche, An Ancient Egyptian Herbal (Austin: University of Texas
Press, 1989-99), 67.
1969
Ibid.
1970
Ibid.
1971
Ibid.
674
A remedy for pains in the eye and head: opium; acacia leaves;
is ground and kneaded with water applied. It will heal.
A remedy for someone who spits blood out of his mouth:
acacia leaves 2 drachma; pomegranate rind 1 drachme; hazelnut 1
obolos; chicory 2 drachma; wild fennel 1 drachme; flowers of
safflower 6 drachma; is ground well, kneaded with honey and the
patient made to eat as much as he can.
Chassinat Papyrus 50, 85, 233 1972
Fig. 296: An acacia tree, upon which Horus was regenerated, i.e. his tree of life.
My Flesh is Meat indeed, and My Blood is Drink indeed
The final archetype worth mentioning here which Horus shares with
his father Osiris is that of the consumption of his flesh & blood in the
form of bread & wine/beer. Most importantly, part of Horus flesh &
blood was consumed by Osiris himself (just as he did with his own flesh
& blood) as part of the process for completing the resurrection.
A special group of examples concern the notion of eating an
eye, especially that of Horus. The clearest container structure is
found in offering texts, when the officiant puts the eye of Horus in
the mouth of the recipient.
1972
Ibid.
675
Dr. Rune Nyord, Breathing Flesh: Conceptions of the Body in
the Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts 1973
What came out from the eye is the divine blood of Horus.
The rejuvenating and creative power that wine symbolizes,
moreover, is reflected in the designation of wine as Green Horus
Eye. The term Green Horus Eye, which combines the Eye of
Horus (or the deed of Horus) with the green papyrus plant,
implies a rejuvenating power that creates prosperity. All these
symbolic associations, therefore, point to a basic fact concerning
the significance of wine in the offering ritual, namely that wine was
a creative and rejuvenating power. This is further confirmed in the
mythological roleswines association with the inundation and the
blood, both different manifestations of the creative and life-giving
power.
Dr. Mu-Chou Poo, Wine and Wine Offering in the Religion
O Osiris the King, take the Eye of Horus, your pAt-cake, that
you may eat--a pAt-cake of the offering.
O Osiris the King, take the Eye of Horus which was wrested
from Seth and which you shall take to your mouth, with which you
shall split open your mouth--wine, a hATs-jar of white mnw-stone.
O King, take the Eye of Horus which you shall taste--a dpt-
cake.
O King, take the Eye of Horus, which was wrested from Seth
and saved for you; your mouth is split open with itwine, 1978 a Hnt-
bowl of white mnw-stone.
1973
Nyord (2009), 183.
1974
Poo (1995-2009), 163. (Emph. added.)
1975
Faulkner (1969), 9.
1976
Ibid. 10.
1977
Ibid.
1978
Ibid. 11 n.1.
676
O King, take the Eye of Horus, rescued for you; it will never
escape from you--beer, an iron hnt-bowl.
O King, take the Eye of Horus, provide yourself with it--beer, a
Hnt-bowl of Htm-material.
O Osiris the King, take the Eye of Horus and absorb it into
your mouth--the morning meal.
Pyramid Texts, Utterance 87 60, 110 72 1981
O Osiris the King, take the Eye of Horus, prevent him from
trampling it--a tw-loaf.
O Osiris the King, take the Eye of Horus which he has pulled
out--a itH-loaf.
O Osiris the King, take the Eye of Horus, for little is that
which Seth has eaten of it--a jar of strong ale.
O Osiris the King, take the Eye of Horus which they have reft
from him--a jar of xnms-drink.
O Osiris the King, take the Eye of Horus, I lift it to your face
for you--the lifting up of a Hnt-bowl of bread.
O King, take this bread of yours which is the Eye of Horus.
1979
Ibid. 11.
1980
Ibid.
1981
Ibid. 20, 24.
1982
Ibid.
1983
Ibid. 21.
1984
Ibid.
1985
Ibid.
1986
Ibid.
677
O Osiris the King, take the Eye of Horus with which you have
refreshed yourself--a Sns-loaf.
O Osiris the King, take the Eye of Horus which Seth has
trampled--a tw-loaf.
out--a itH-loaf.
O Osiris the King, take the Eye of Horus and prevent him
from suffering because of it--4 pzn-loaves.
O Osiris the King, take the Eye of Horus which he has
baked(?)--4 Xnfw-loaves.
O Osiris the King, take the Eye of Horus, do not let it spring
up(?)--4 Hbnnt-loaves.
out--4 qmH-loaves.
O Osiris the King, take the Eye of Horus which I put in your
mouth for you--your 4 idtt-loaves.
1987
Ibid.
1988
Ibid. 22.
1989
Ibid.
1990
Ibid.
1991
Ibid. 25.
1992
Ibid.
1993
Ibid.
1994
Ibid.
1995
Ibid. 26.
678
O Osiris the King, take the Eye of Horus, your pAt-cake, that
you may eat--4 pAt-loaves.
out--a zif-loaf.
O Osiris the King, take the Eye of Horus, for it will not be
sundered from you--2 Sat-cakes.
O Osiris the King, the Eye of Horus is alloted to you--2 npAt-
cakes.
O Osiris the King, take the Eye of Horus, the water which he
has squeezed out--2 mzt-cakes.
O Osiris the King, take the Eye of Horus for little is that which
Seth has eaten of it--2 bowls of strong ale.
O Osiris the King, take the Eye of Horus which they have
reft(?) from him--2 bowls of xnms-drink.
O Osiris the King, take the Eye of Horus which they have spat
out; prevent him from swallowing it--2 jars of abS-wine.
O Osiris the king, take the pupil which is in the Eye of Horus,
for your mouth is split open by means of it--2 bowls of imt-wine.
1996
Ibid.
1997
Ibid. 28.
1998
Ibid.
1999
Ibid.
2000
Ibid.
2001
Ibid. 29.
2002
Ibid.
2003
Ibid. 30.
679
O Osiris the King, take the Eye of Horus which he has fished
up, for your mouth is split open by means of it--2 bowls of HAmw-
wine.
O Osiris the King, take the Eye of Horus; it will not be loosed
from you--2 bowls of snw-wine.
O Osiris the King, take the Eye of Horus when it springs
up(?)--2 bowls of Hbnnt-loaves.
O Osiris the King, take the Eye of Horus which he has
baked(?)--2 bowls of xnfw-loaves.
from tearing it out--2 bowls of bruised(?) wheat.
from tearing it out--2 bowls of bruised(?) barley.
Take the Eye of Horus and split open your mouth with it--
[2(?)] bowls of Lower Egyptian wine.
O Osiris the King, take the green Eye of Horus of which he
has taken possession--I give Horus to you--[2(?)] bowls of new
bread.
2004
Ibid.
2005
Ibid.
2006
Ibid.
2007
Ibid.
2008
Ibid. 31.
2009
Ibid.
2010
Ibid.
2011
Ibid. 34.
680
Take the Eye of Horus when it springs up(?)--I give Horus to
you--2 bowls of Hbn(n)t-loaves.
Take the Eye of Horus which he has baked(?)--I give Horus to
you--2 bowls of xnfw-loaves.
Take the Eye of Horus which was allotted to him--I give Horus
to you--[2 bowls of] npAt-cakes.
O Osiris the King, turn yourself on account of this bread of
yours, accept it from me. Recite four times: May the Eye of Horus
belong(?) to you--the reversion of the god's offering.
O my father the King, take the Eye of Horus, the pAt-cake of
the gods, for they feed thereon.
I give you the Eye of Horus, I have allotted it to you; may it
belong(?) to you. O King, arise, receive this your bread from my
hand.
Summary
So while there are a variety of claims regarding Horus and which

archetypes are to be found within his mythos, some true and some false,
those demonstrated in this chapter to have been documented by the 1st
century CE or (usually much) earlier include:
2012
Ibid.
2013
Ibid.
2014
Ibid.
2015
Ibid. 35.
2016
Ibid. 36.
2017
Ibid. 37.
2018
Ibid. 52.
681
Divine avatar, i.e. God manifest in the flesh
Being the Sun of God and light of the world
Born of a virgin
Born on the winter solstice
Conception/birth heralded by the appearance of a star in the
east
Visited as a babe by three kings (or hypostases of the king)
Hidden in the rushes of the Nile from a persecuting tyrant
Became one with his father
Experienced a rebirth on the spring equinox
Was called the Great Physician and healed the sick, blind,
and lame, etc.
Walked on water
Portrayed as a divine lion
Was a king who reunited a divided nation as foretold by a
god
Participated in baptism, which represented death, burial,
resurrection, and purification
Was killed and resurrected from the dead after three days
Was suspended in a tree to regenerate within it
Body was broken/dismembered
Broken flesh & blood were consumed as bread & wine as a
necessary step for restoring life after death
And with that, so concludes this chapter. But the influence of Osiris
was not exclusive to his son Horus. In fact, his influence extended far
beyond the borders of Egypt.
682
Chapter Nine
I will Be Exalted among the Heathen
By my Name the Lord was I not Known to Them
If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is

given me to you-ward: How that by revelation He made known the
mystery that the 2As.wt (the uncircumcised2019 foreigners from those
nations beyond the holy land of Kemet2020) should be fellowheirs, and of
the same body, and partakers of His promise in Qrst by the gospel and
that the 2As.wt might glorify God for His mercy; as it is written, For
this cause I will confess to thee among the 2As.wt, and sing unto thy
name. And again he saith, Rejoice, ye 2As.wt, with His people. And
again, Praise the Lord, all ye 2As.wt; and laud Him, all ye people.
And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen
through faith, preached before the gospel unto Kemet, saying, In thee
shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed
with faithful Kemet. Qrst was a minister of the circumcision for the
truth of God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers. Cometh
this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the
uncircumcision also? God shall be the Father of all them that believe,
though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed
unto them also: And the father of circumcision to them who are not of
the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith.
2019
The Egyptians practice circumcision, while all other peoples (except
for those who have learned it from the Egyptians) let their genitals remain
as they are at birth. Herodotus, Histories 2.36.3, in Strassler (2009), 134.
2020
Trk (2009), 59, 71, 104, 171.
Ritner (2009), 205, 228, 526.
Kaper (2003), 274.
683
Continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away
from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was
preached to every creature which is under heaven; according to the
commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for
the obedience of faith.
What can we say about the religious influence of Egypt,
Mesopotamia, and Syria-Palestine at the beginning of the first
century BCE, before the Roman conquest? Perhaps most
important, the goddess Isis became the central deity of a mystery
religion more widespread than any other in the ancient
Mediterranean world.
The most complete version of the Isis and Osiris story comes
actually from Plutarch, a Roman writer of the first century CE. It
seems odd to us that in thousands of years no one in Egypt
bothered to write down the most popular myth of all times, but its
possible [that] because it was so well known, there was never any
need to write it down. Its alluded to in hundreds of places, and so
everyone seems to have known it, so why bother to write it out?
Dr. Grant. L. Voth, Myth in Human History 2022
The most popular mystery religions were the Egyptian cults of
Serapis (suh-RAY-puhs) and Isis.
Dr. John Buckler, in Understanding Western Society: A Brief
History 2023
The most popular new cults were known as mystery religions
the most popular was that of the Egyptian goddess Isis, who
achieved a remarkable universality.
Dr. Dennis Sherman and Dr. Joyce Salisbury, The West in
the World, Volume I: To 1715 2024
2021
Holland (2009), 49, 59, 64, 256, 282-83. (Emph. added.)
2022
Voth (2010).
2023
John Buckler, The Hellenistic World, 336-30 B.C.E., in Understanding
Western Society: A Brief History, eds. J.P. McKay et al (Boston: Bedford/St.
Martins, 2012), 102.
2024
Dennis Sherman and Joyce Salisbury, The West in the World, Volume I: To
1715 (New York: McGraw Hill Companies, Inc., 2007), 99.
684
They said that the Egyptians were also the first to establish the
tradition of identifying names' for the twelve gods, and that the
Hellenes adopted this practice from them. They were also the first
to assign altars, statues, and temples to the gods and to carve their
figures in relief on stone. The priests in fact demonstrated with
proofs that these claims were valid The Egyptians were the first
of all peoples to hold public religious festivals, pageants, and
processions escorting divine images, and the Hellenes learned
about these rituals from them.
Herodotus, Histories 2.4.2, 2.56 2025
One of the first acts related to Osiris in his reign was to deliver
them laws, and by teaching them to honour the gods . Later he
manner of music.
But alas, though the true religion of the holy land of Kemet spread
far and wide, much of the world still remained ignorant of important
things, and continued to look upon the truth through the veil of their
2As.wt cultures. God hath made it clear that by my name the Lord was
I not known to them. Hence the gods were often known by various
other names throughout the 2As.wt nations. As mentioned on p.101, even
in Athens, Greece there was an altar at Mars Hill for worshipping the
unknown god, who must be Lord Amen- the unknowable and hidden.
This brings us to the subject of syncretism.
syncretism noun \si-kr-ti-zm, sin-\
Definition of SYNCRETISM
1 : the combination of different forms of belief or practice
2 : the fusion of two or more originally different inflectional
forms
Dictionary and Thesaurus - Merriam-Webster Online 2027
2025
Strassler (2009), 118, 144. (Emph. added.)
2026
685
The notion of syncretism is depicted as a generalization about
the blending or melding of different religious traditions. It refers to
the systematization of diverse elements incorporated into some
target religion from external religious or secular source or sources.
Syncretism, consequently, is about the negotiation and interaction
of new elements into a particular group or domain that stem from
essentially different groups or domains. As such the phenomenon
of syncretism suggests a universal mode of transformation of
religion that is common to all world religions, because it merely
indicates the fact that all religions are the product of history, i.e. the
diffusion of religious elements through the encounter of cultures
and religions.
Anita Maria Leopold, The Worlds Religions: Continuities
and Transformations 2028
Identification of gods with each other is known as syncretism.
Dr. Ken Dowden, Zeus: Gods and Heroes of the Ancient
World 2029
Magical spells sometimes seem to be almost plays acted out, as
does life in the communities of divine persons. In a syncretistic
world, the stories of one community get taken over by the authors
of another community as Herodotus 2:15 tells. One may even
argue for a cathartic Egyptian temple liturgy-magic as an origin of
Greek tragedies which borrowed plots from Egypt.
Dr. Anitra B. Kolenkow, in Magic and Divination in the Ancient
World 2030
The new Hellenistic culture which emerged was highly
syncretistica blend of Greek culture with the indigenous cultures
of the ancient Near East and Rome.
Dr. Patrick V. Reid, in Readings in Western Religious
Thought: The Ancient World 2031
2027
Dictionary and Thesaurus - Merriam-Webster Online, http://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/syncretism (accessed December 8, 2013).
2028
Anita Maria Leopold, Syncretism, in The Worlds Religions: Continuities
and Transformations, eds. P.B. Clarke and P. Beyer (Abingdon: Routledge,
2009), 695-96.
2029
Ken Dowden, Zeus: Gods and Heroes of the Ancient World (Abingdon:
Routledge, 2006), 106.
2030
Anitra B. Kolenkow, Persons of Power and their Communities, in Magic
and Divination in the Ancient World, eds. L.J. Ciraolo and J.L. Seidel (Leiden:
Koninklijke Brill NV, 2002), 139.
686
Outside Alexandria, Greeks worshipped traditional Egyptian
gods such as Isis and Osiris. The centuries-old Greek practice of
identifying their own gods with those of other peoples (syncretism)
encouraged acceptance of these strange deities, but the process of
identification itself entailed losses as well as gains.
Dr. Stanley M. Burstein, The Reign of Cleopatra 2032
It is through such syncretism that many gods of old ended up with
several interchangeable names, for example Zeus=Jupiter=Jove,
Hera=Juno, Poseidon=Neptune, Ares=Mars, Diana=Artemis,
Venus=Aphrodite, Hades=Pluto, Dionysus=Bacchus=Liber, Eros=Cupid,
and Helios=Sol.2033
For both Plutarch and Xenophanes, all peoples experience the
same numinous entities but describe them and act toward them in
different ways. Both Greek and Egyptians, to borrow Plutarchs
image, sit on the shores of the same Mediterranean Sea; the fact
that the Greeks have one name for it and the Egyptians another
does not alter the fact that the sea is the same. Similarly, both
Greeks and Egyptians know the same gods by different names
The question that Herodotus asked of the Egyptian priests was not
who is Osiris, but rather, which one of the gods do you call
Osiris?
Dr. Daniel S. Richter, Cosmopolis: Imagining Community in
Late Classical Athens and the Early Roman Empire 2034
It became a general practice among Classical writers to use
Greek names for Egyptian deities.
2035
Hence not only did Zeus=Jupiter, but also Zeus=Jupiter=Amen (see
pp.56, 97-101, 140). Similarly, Neith=Athena=Minerva (see pp.55-65),
2031
Patrick V. Reid, Readings in Western Religious Thought: The Ancient World
(Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1987), 159.
2032
Stanley M. Burstein, The Reign of Cleopatra (Norman: University of
Oklahoma Press, 2004-07), 51.
2033
Kathleen N. Daly, Greek & Roman Mythology: A to Z (New York: Facts On
File, Inc., 1992-2004), xi, xii, 22, 47, 74-75, 119.
2034
Daniel S. Richter, Cosmopolis: Imagining Community in Late Classical Athens
and the Early Roman Empire (Oxford: Oxford University Press, Inc., 2011), 209.
2035
Pinch (2002-04), 34.
687
Ptah=Hephaistos=Vulcan in His role as cosmic craftsman/architect,2036
Geb=Kronus=Saturn,2037 Nut=Rhea=Cybele, Isis=Demeter=Ceres,
Horus=Apollo, Seth=Typhon, Thoth=Hermes=Mercury,2038 etc. But the
most relevent to this chapter is the Greco-Roman god Dionysus/Bacchus,
son of Zeus, for he was identified with, of course, none other than our
Lord and Savior- Osiris.
When the Feast of Bacchus was Kept
More than any other god of the 2As.wt world, it was Dionysus who
was identified with Osiris the most. This identification was already
complete and firmly established by the 5th century BCE, and thus likely
began happening even earlier than that.
For Egyptians do not all worship the same gods in the same
way. Only the gods Isis and Osiris (the latter of whom they say is
Dionysos) are worshiped in the same manner by all Egyptians.
The Egyptians say that Demeter and Dionysos reign over those in
the underworld.
The last of these to reign over Egypt was Horus son of Osiris,
whom the Hellenes name Apollo. It was he who had subdued
Typhon and became the last of these divine kings of Egypt. His
father Osiris is called Dionysos by the Hellenes. They say
Apollo and Artemis are the children of Dionysos and Isis, and that
Leto became their nurse and savior. Apollo in Egyptian is Horus,
Demeter is Isis, and Artemis is Boubastis.
2039
Herodotus, Histories 2.42, 123, 144, 156
Herodotus here equates Demeter and Dionysos with the
Egyptian Isis and Osiris.
2036
Daly (1992-2004), xii.
Burton (1972), 71.
Karl Schefold, Gods and Heroes in Late Archaic Greek Art (New York: Cambridge
Also recall from pp.59-60 that in Greek mythology Hephaistos was the father of
Athenas virgin born child, cf. Ptah was one with Amen who was the father of
Neiths virgin born child (Himself reborn as His own Son Re), Neith & Athena
having also been syncretic just like Hephaistos & Ptah.
2037
2038
Pinch (2002-04), 34, 151, 174, 193, 211.
2039
Strassler (2009), 136, 172, 185, 192. (Emph. added.)
688
Dr. Robert Strassler, The Landmark Herodotus: The
Histories 2040
We have a host of gods called Dionysus. The first is the son of
Jupiter and Proserpina, the second the son of the Nile.
Cicero, The Nature of the Gods 3.23/58 2041
And of the ancient Greek writers of mythology some give to
Osiris the name Dionysus. Osiris, they say, was also interested in
agriculture and was reared in Nysa, a city of Arabia Felix near
Egypt, being a son of Zeus; and the name which he bears among
the Greeks is derived both from his father and from the birthplace,
since he is called Dionysus.
The discovery of ivy is also attributed to Osiris by the
Egyptians and made sacred to this god, just as the Greeks also do in
the case of Dionysus. For the rite of Osiris is the same as that of
Dionysus and that of Isis very similar to that of Demeter, the names
alone having been interchanged.
Diodorus of Sicily, Library of History 1.11.3, 15.6, 17.4, 96.5 2042
One of the first acts related of Osiris in his reign was to deliver
them laws, and by teaching them to honour the gods. Later he
manner of music. Hence the Greeks came to identify him with
Dionysus.
It is better to identify Osiris with Dionysus. Dionysus also
they call Hyes since he is lord of the nature of moisture; and he is
no other than Osiris. That Osiris is identical with Dionysus who
could more fittingly know than yourself, Clea? For you are at the
head of the inspired maidens of Delphi, and have been
consecrated by your father and mother in the holy rites of Osiris.
Plutarch, Moralia 356A-B, 362B, 364D, 364E 2043
Due to this syncretism, naturally elements from the much older
Osiris were incorporated into the mythos of Dionysus. For example, both
2040
Ibid. 172 n.2.138.1b.
2041
Walsh (1998), 128. (Emph. added.)
2042
Diodorus, in Oldfather (1933-67), 39, 51, 57, 327.
2043
Plutarch, in Babbitt (1936-62), 35, 69, 83, 85.
689
were strongly affiliated with, and often manifested as, a bull. For Osiris,
that was covered on pp.146-61. As for Dionysus, of him it is written:
Brought to birth then in the fullness of the fates, horn-bearing bull
god.
Pentheus: Indeed, it seems to me I see two suns
and a double Thebaian city seven-mouthed,
and that you are a bull, my guide before me,
and that horns are implanted on your head.
Are you an animal, then? Youre very like a bull.
[Bacchae:] Be manifest a bull!
Euripides, Bacchae 99-100, 920-22, 1017 (5th cen. BCE) 2044
As a special symbol and token the painters and sculptors
represented him with horns, at the same time making manifest
thereby the other nature of Dionysus.
The public ceremonies which the priests perform in the burial
of the Apis, when they convey his body on an improvised bier, do
not in any way come short of a Bacchic procession For the same
reason many of the Greeks make statues of Dionysus in the form
of a bull; and the women of Elis invoke him, praying that the god
may come with the hoof of a bull; and the epithet applied to
Dionysus among the Argives is Son of the Cow.
Plutarch, Moralia 364E-F 2046
Dionysus is god, man and also animal. He can conjure up
phantom bulls and appear himself as a bull to the maddened
Pentheus.
Dr. Sophie Mills, Euripides: Bacchae 2047
2044
Euripides, Bacchae, trans. M.A. Neuburg (1988), 33, 91, 101. (Emph.
added.)
2045
Diodorus of Sicily, Library of History, in Diodorus Siculus: Library of History,
Books 2.35-4.58, trans. C.H. Oldfather (1935-67), 295.
2046
Kroly Kernyi, Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life, trans. R.
Manheim (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1976), 180 n.152. (Emph.
added.)
2047
Sophie Mills, Euripides: Bacchae (London: Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd.,
2006), 52.
690
Dionysus was a bull-god, god of annual renewal, imbued with
all the urgency of nature.
Dr. Marija Gimbutas, The Gods and Goddesses of Old
Europe 7000 to 3500 BC: Myths, Legends & Cult Images 2048
Dionysus, called healer, was often represented as a bull or with
bulls horns. The women of Elis thus sung to him: Come hither,
Dionysus, to thy holy temple by the sea; come with the Graces to
thy temple, rushing with the bulls foot, O goodly bull, O goodly
bull.
Dr. Calvin W. Schwabe, Cattle, Priests, and Progress in
Medicine 2049
2048
Marija Gimbutas, The Gods and Goddesses of Old Europe 7000 to 3500 BC:
Myths, Legends & Cult Images (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974),
227.
2049
Calvin W. Schwabe, Cattle, Priests, and Progress in Medicine (Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 1978), 25.
691
Fig. 297: To the left, Osiris-Apis emerges from a lotus bearing bull horns upon his head;
based on a Roman statue at the Vaticans Gregorian Egyptian Museum.2050 On the right
is Dionysus, who likewise has bull horns protruding from his head; based on a bronze
Bacchic mask, 3rd-2nd century BCE, currently at the British Museum.
2050
The feminine torso has resulted in various websites misidentifying this
statue as Isis. The Vatican Museums own website explicitly states: Bust of
Osiris who is born from the lotus flower, erroneously restored in 700 with the
lower part female, http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/x-
Schede/MEZs/MEZs_Sala03_01_01_009.html.
692
Fig. 298: On the top, Isis and Ptah escort the Apis bull of Osiris to an altar before Maat
to receive an offering from the pharaoh; limestone relief, 7 th-4th century BCE, currently
at the Walters Art Museum. On the bottom, a bull representing Dionysus is escorted by
the Bacchae/Maenads to an altar for the Bacchanalia rituals; based on a Neo-Attic relief
currently at the Vatican Museum.2051
For the next commonality between Dionysus and Osiris, take a look
at Fig. 299. There Dionysus is seen driving a chariot, which is pulled by,
of course, a bull. But in addition to the bull, there is also a lion and a
2051
Due to various websites claiming that this scene portrays Europa riding the
bull, some affirmation that this is in fact a Bacchic scene seems necessary. The
museums own annotation states- This relief is interpreted as portraying
two maenads leading a bull to be sacrificed to Dionysus,
http://web.archive.org/web/20140216090705/http://farm7.staticflickr.com/60
57/5885197010_fb99a21087_o.jpg.
693
griffin. Taken altogether, this motif has noticeable similarity to the far
more ancient four sons of Horus in the Osirian religion, pictured in Fig.
300. In both scenes there is one figure to the right in human form, and
there is also one with a feral form, one with an avian form, and one beast
with two pointed protrusions upon its head. The context of the vase scene
of Dionysus is unknown, but what is obvious is that the role of his beasts
is to transport Dionysus to his destination. While the duties of the sons of
Horus are many, one such duty likewise consists of transporting Osiris to
his destination, apparently carrying him along in the barque of Sokar2052
similar to Dionysus being carried along in his chariot.
Fig. 299: A Greek vase depicting the chariot of Dionysus being pulled by a bull, a griffin,
and a lion, 4th century BCE, currently at the Louvre Museum.
2052
Pyramid Texts, Utt. 644 1803 through 648 1829, see Faulkner (1969),
266-67. See also Assmann (2001), 328.
694
Fig. 300: The four sons of HorusImsety (human), Hapy (baboon), Kebhsenuf (falcon),
and Duamutef (jackal)whose duty it was to carry Osiris in his barque of Sokar; a relief
from the tomb of Paatenemheb, 14th century BCE.
An even closer resemblance to Dionysus and the beasts of his chariot

can be seen in other heathen religious artwork. In particular, it is a well
known motif commonly referred to as the tetramorph beasts. This
motif typically consists of an arrangement of four beasts with the forms
of a human, a lion, a bull, and an eagle. This is undeniably parallel to the
vase scene of Dionysus with his chariot beasts, which is much older (and
the sons of Horus are even older than that).
695
Fig. 301: A 9th century portrait of the heathen tetramorph beasts in the forms of a
human, lion, bull, and bird- cf. Fig. 299.
This would not be the only time in which the chariot of Dionysus
was pulled by exotic animals. It was also commonly portrayed as being
pulled by a pair of panthers, or tigers, or leopards, etc, especially when
returning in triumph after his global conquests. In yet another similarity
to Osiris (pp.120-21), Dionysus was said to have traveled the world and
696
conquered it peacefully. He civilized the peoples of the lands and taught
them agriculture, government, and religion.
I, Zeus son, am come to this land of Thebai,
Dionysos
I left Lydias gold-rich acreage,
and Phrygias, and Persias sun-blasted flats
and Bactrias walls and the hard-wintered land
of Media I came upon, and happy Araby,
and all of Asia that by the salt sea
lies, its fair-citadeled cities filled
with Greeks and foreigners together mingled;
my choruses and rites are now set up there,
to manifest to mortals my divinity.
Euripides, Bacchae 1-2, 13-22 2053
In the earliest times, when the inhabitants of their land were
still dwelling in scattered clan-villages, Dionysus came to them from
the regions to the west of them with a notable army; and he
traversed all India, since there was as yet no notable city which
would have been able to oppose him. But when an oppressive heat
came and the soldiers of Dionysus were being consumed by a
pestilential sickness, this leader, who was conspicuous for his
wisdom, led his army out of the plains into the hill-country; here,
where cool breezes blew and the spring waters flowed pure at their
very sources, the army got rid of its sickness. The name of this
region of the hill-country, where Dionysus relieved his forces of the
sickness, is Meros.
After this he took in hand the storing of the fruits and shared
this knowledge with the Indians, and he communicated to them the
discovery of wine and of all the other things useful for life.
Furthermore, he became the founder of notable cities by gathering
the villages together in well-situated regions, and he both taught
them to honour the deity and introduced laws and courts; and, in
brief, since he had been the introducer of many good works he was
regarded as a god and received immortal honours.
He who taught how to make wine and to gather "the fruits of
the trees," as they are called, he who led an army over all the
inhabited world, and he who introduced the mysteries and rites and
Bacchic revelries were one and the same person. Now this
Dionysus visited with an army all the inhabited world and gave
instruction both as to the culture of the vine and the crushing of the
clusters in the wine-vats (lenoi), which is the reason why the god
2053
Euripides, in Neuburg (1988), 26-27.
697
was named Lenaeus. Likewise, he allowed all people to share in his
other discoveries, and when he passed from among men he
received immortal honour at the hands of those who had received
his benefactions.
Diodorus of Sicily, Library of History 2.38.3-5, 3.63.1-4 2054
When he arrived and became master of India, he founded
cities, gave them laws, bestowed wine on the Indians as on the
Greeks, and taught them to sow their land, giving them seed.
(Either Triptolemus did not come this way when he was sent out by
Demeter to sow the entire earth, or it was earlier than Triptolemus
that this Dionysus, whoever he was, traversed India and gave the
Indians seeds of domesticated plants.) Dionysus first yoked oxen to
the plough and made most of the Indians agriculturalists instead of
nomads, and equipped them also with the arms of warfare. He also
taught them to reverence various gods, but especially of course
himself, with clashings of cymbals and beating of drums; he
instructed them to dance in the Satyric fashion, the dance called
among the Greeks the cordax, and showed them how to wear long
hair in honour of the god with the conical cap, and instructed them
in the use of perfumed ointments.
Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander 7.7.5-9 2055
Having spread his religion across the world, Dionysus, like Osiris,
could also be described as an itinerant preacher or evangelist of sorts.
After such great exploits, he returned home in a glorious triumphant
procession, as depicted in Fig. 302-03. There was also another
triumphant return of Dionysus which became popular in iconography as
well, and that was his return to Olympus after capturing
Hephaistos/Vulcan.2056 This is worth mentioning because the scene
2054
Diodorus, in Oldfather (1935-67), 15, 291-93. (Emph. added.)
2055
Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander, in Arrian: Anabasis of Alexander Books V-VII,
Indica, trans. P.A. Brunt (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1983-2000),
2056
Pausanias, Description of Greece 1.20.3.
Hyginus, Fabulae 166.
William D. Furley, Homeric and Un-Homeric Hexameter Hymns: A Question of
Type, The Homeric Hymns: Interpretive Essays, ed. A. Faulkner (Oxford: Oxford
Richard P. Martin, Myths of the Ancient Greeks (New York: New American
Library, 2003), 90-91.
698
portrays Dionysus riding in triumph upon an ass (Fig. 304-307). This is
reminiscent of how Osiris (and the deceased) rides upon the 2 she-asses
of Shu in the afterlife, as per Coffin Text Spell 173 (see p.363). There
was also a tale of The Good Shepherd who allegedly had a triumphant
procession into his capital city while riding upon two asses, which came
much later.
Fig. 302: Dionysus returns in triumphant procession after his evangelistic conquests,
being pulled in his chariot by a pair of panthers; marble relief from Athens, Roman
Imperial Era, currently at the Walters Art Museum.
699
Fig. 303: The triumphant return of Dionysus in a chariot being pulled by tigers; Roman
mosaic, Imperial Era, currently at the Sousse Archaeological Museum.
700
Fig. 304: The triumphant return of Dionysus upon an ass, as he escorts the captured
Hephaistos back to Olympus; based on an Attic Greek vase, 5th century BCE, currently
at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
701
Fig. 205: The triumphant return of Dionysus upon an ass; based on an Attic Greek jar,
5th century BCE, currently at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
702
Fig. 306: Dionysus riding upon a mule; based on an Attic Greek vase, 5 th century BCE,
currently at the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam.
703
Fig. 307: Dionysus riding upon an ass while drinking wine; based on various privately
collected Macedonian coins, all from the 5th century BCE.
Moving along, not only was Dionysus born with bovine features and
could manifest as a bull just like Osiris, but Dionysus was also born via a
bolt of lightning striking his mother, just like Osiris (see pp.172-73). As
the story goes, while his mother was pregnant with him, his father Zeus
struck her with a lightning bolt and she burst into flames. Various
sources differ as to the reason why this happened, some claiming it was
deliberate while others claim it was just an accident. In any case, Zeus
quickly snatched the infant from the burning corpse and thus was
Dionysus delivered prematurely.
704
I, Zeus son, am come to this land of Thebai,
Dionysos, brought to birth of Cadmos daughter
Semele, midwived by the lightning-borne fire;
my godly form I have given over for a mortal one,
and I am here, at Dirkes river and Ismenos water.
I see the memorial of my mothers thunderbolt
nearby, the house and home in ruins,
smouldering the still-living flame of Zeus fire.
[Pentheus:] If I can just catch him under this roof,
Ill stop his banging thyrsus, his bouncing
hair: Ill separate his shoulders from his neck.
The child who burned by the lightning torch with his mother,
because she lied about her union with Zeus,
he says that child was Dionysos, a god.
[Teiresias:] Zeus snatched him out of the lightning fire
and to Olympus took the baby god.
Euripides, Bacchae 1-8, 239-244, 288-89 2057
She it was who first of all, in Abantian Euboia,
took to her breast Zeuss Nysaian child, and smeared
its dry cracked lips with honey, as soon as Hermes
had rescued it from the fire.
Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautika 4.1134-37 (3rd cen. BCE) 2058
Semel, who was pregnant and unable to endure the majesty of
the divine presence, brought forth the babe untimely and was
herself slain by the fire. Thereupon Zeus, taking up the child,
handed it over to the care of Hermes and ordered him to take it to
the cave in Nysa, which lay between Phoenicia and the Nile, where
he should deliver it to the nymphs that they should rear it and with
great solicitude bestow upon it the best of care. Consequently, since
Dionysus was reared in Nysa, he received the name he bears from
Zeus and Nysa. He has been called Baccheius from Bacchic
bands of women who accompanied him, Lenaeus from the custom
of treading the clusters of grapes in a wine-tub (lenos), and Bromius
from the thunder (bromos) which attended his birth; likewise for a
similar reason he has been called Pyrigenes ("Born-of-Fire").
Diodorus of Sicily, Library of History 4.2.3-4, 5.1 2059
Burn incense and summon Bacchus, calling him
2057
Euripides, in Neuburg (1988), 26, 43, 45.
2058
Green (1997-2007), 181.
2059
Diodorus, in Oldfather (1935-67), 345, 353-55.
705
Bromius, Lyaeus, son of heavens fire, twice-born.
Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.14-15 2060
Fig. 308: The mother of Dionysus, Semele, flees from Zeus as he prepares to strike her
with lightning; based on a Greek vase, 5th-4th century BCE.
Fig. 309
2060
706
Fig. 310
707
Fig. 311
708
Fig. 312
Fig. 313: An illustration of Zeus removing the fetus of Dionysus from the womb of
Semeles burning corpse.
Speaking of Dionysus being twice-born, as Ovid mentioned, that is

yet another motif found in the mythos of both Dionysus and Osiris.
Recall from pp.600-02, 610, and 612-15 that Osiris son Horus was
likewise born prematurely like Dionysus. Because of that, the fetus of
Horus was placed within the body of his father and allowed to finish
developing until his original expected due date. In the stories of
Dionysus, he too was said to have been placed in the body of his father
and allowed to finish germinating. Such being the case, Dionysus, as
709
well as Osiris son, literally became one with his father in order to be
born again.
Antistrophe I
Whom in the time of her travail, in straits of labours pain, at
the flight of Zeus thunder,
his mother, jetsam of her womb, brought to birth, departing
life in the clap of lightning-bolt;
into chamber of childbirth then accepted him Cronos son
Zeus, in his thigh-bone he conceald him, and with fastners he
enfolds him made of gold, hidden from Hera:
brought to birth in the fullness of the fates.
[Pentheus:] The child who burned by the lightning torch with
his mother,
because she lied about her union with Zeus,
he says that child was Dionysos, a god;
he says he was sewn up in Zeus thigh.
Euripides, Bacchae 88-100, 242-45 2061
The tender babe, still unformed, was snatched
From his mothers womb, and, if it can be believed,
Sewn into his fathers thigh, where he was brought to term.
Most people assign to India the city of Nisa and Mount Merus
which is sacred to father Liber, this being the place from which
originated the myth of the birth of Liber from the thigh of Jove.
Pliny the Elder, Natural History 6.78 2063
Semele thereupon died from fright but Zeus snatched from
the fire the baby with which she was six months pregnant and
sewed it up in his thigh. When the baby was due Zeus removed
the stitches, gave birth to Dionysus, and gave him to Hermes who
brought him to Ino and Athamas and persuaded them to rear him.
Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.4.3 2064
2061
Euripides, in Neuburg (1988), 33, 43.
2062
2063
Pliny the Elder, Natural History, in Pliny: Natural History, Books 3-7, trans.
H. Rackham, (London: William Heinemann Ltd., and Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
710
Fig. 314: Dionysus emerges from the body of his father (above), just as the son of Osiris
did before him (below, Fig. 260); based on a proto-Apulian krater, 5th century BCE,
currently at the National Archaeological Museum of Taranto.
2064
711
Fig. 315: The reborn son is presented to his father, in whose body he completed gestation.
712
This also means that Osiris son and Dionysus were both born from a
corpse (the dead Osiris and the burning Semele). Death gives birth to
new life, just like the rebirth of the phoenix, as noted by Dr. Manassa. 2065
Anyway, note how Apollodorus (1st cen. CE2066) mentioned that
Semele was six months pregnant at the time of her death. Therefore,
also like the son of Osiris (pp.600-02, 612-14), Dionysus was first
delivered three months premature. As it turns out, his second birth
occurred in the spring, indicating that the first birth took place in the
winter three months earlier, also like Horus (ibid).
After three months passed, he (scil. Zeus) releases (him, scil.
Dionysos) from his thigh.
The Green Collection, Treatise on Dionysica, Fr. 1 Col.
II (3rd cen. BCE) 2067
Come, O Dithyrambos, Bacchus, Euoi, Taursus, ivy-crowned
Bromius, come in this holy spring season.
Ie Paean, come saviour, in your benevolence preserve this city
with happy prosperity whom once upon a time in ecstatic
Thebes Thyone bore to Zeus, becoming the mother of a beautiful
child. And all the immortals danced and all the mortals rejoiced,
Bacchus, at your birth.
Philodamus of Scarphea, Delphic Paean to Dionysus (4th
cen. BCE) 2068
As Bacchylides and Plutarch attest, dithyrambs were sung at
Delphi in honor of Dionysus only during the winter months, when
Apollo visits the Hyperboreans. The song subverts this traditional
association by linking from the outset Dionysus Dithyrambus not
with winter but with spring the poet might be referring to the
problematic double birth of Dionysus Di-thyrambus.
Dr. Pauline A. LeVen, The Many-Headed Muse: Tradition
and Innovation in Late Classical Greek Lyric Poetry 2069
2065
Manassa (2007), 140 n.342.
2066
See pp.12-13, 60 n.150.
2067
Dirk Obbink, Dionysos in and out of the Papyri, in A Different God?:
Dionysos and Ancient Polytheism, ed. R. Schlesier (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
GmbH & Co. KG, 2011), 293.
2068
Pauline A. LeVen, The Many-Headed Muse: Tradition and Innovation in Late
Classical Greek Lyric Poetry (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014),
713
The dithyramb represented more than a chant to drive the
sacred animal. The song also celebrated the new birth of the god,
Dionysus. However, Dionysus was not represented as an infant, but
as a young man. Therefore, the emphasis is as the etymology of the
word, Dithyrambos, indicates, on the second birth of Dionysus, his
adoption by Zeus. He was twice-born, once of his mother, like all
men, once of his fathers thigh, like no man. This aspect of the
dithyramb is shown clearly in a paean to Dionysus discovered at
Delphi. Therefore, one can see that the birth of Dionysus and
the coming of spring are intimately connected. As Jane Harrison
summarizes: The Dithyramb is not only a song of human
rebirth: it is the song of the rebirth of all nature, all living things; it is
a Spring song for the Year-Feast.
Dr. Nelvin Vos, Inter-Actions: Relationships of Religion and
Drama 2070
Therefore the two great festivals of Dionysus, the Dionysia
(Bacchanalia), took place during the time surrounding the winter solstice
and the time surrounding the spring equinox.
The Dionysian period was extended to Elaphebolion, our
March, the month of the Great Dionysia. The month of
Poseideon, our December, was filled with the Dionysian activities
of the Attic peasants. These rites were known as the rural
Dionysia, as opposed to the city, or Great Dionysia.
According to one testimony, the rural Dionysia was even called
Lenaia. It was a prolonged anticipatory celebration of the birth of
Dionysos.
Dr. Kroly Kernyi, Dionysos: Archetypal Image of
Indestructible Life 2071
A premature birth in relation to his birth at the winter solstice
when the Lenaia was celebrated in Athens ... A premature birth was
a familiar element to the Dionysos religion; it preceded the true
birth.
Dr. Kroly Kernyi, Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and
Daughter 2072
2069
Ibid. 306-07.
2070
Nelvin Vos, Inter-Actions: Relationships of Religion and Drama (Lanham:
University Press of America, Inc., 2009), 44-45. (Emph. added.)
2071
Kernyi (1976), 296. (Emph. added.)
714
The comedies of Aristophanes especially those who they have
been taught at Lenaia they often invoke the presence of the
Halcyon days..
Christina Chronopoulou and Dr. Anastasios Mavrakis, in
Advances in Meteorology, Climatology and Atmospheric Physics:
Volume 2 2073
This bird breeds at the time of the winter solstice. Hence when
calm weather occurs at this period the name halycon days is given
to the seven days preceding and the seven days following the
solstice, as Simonides says in his poem: As when in the wintry
month Zeus admonishes the fourteen days and men on earth name
it the windless, the holy season, the season when the many-hued
halcyon nurtures her young. And these days are calm when it so
happens that southerly winds blow at the solstice.
Aristotle, History of Animals, 5.21 (4th cen. BCE) 2074
The Lesser Dionysia were a rustic festival in December,
performed in the villages; the Greater Dionysia (in March) were the
main festival of Dionysus in Athens.
Dr. Sarah I. Johnston, Religions of the Ancient World: A
2075
Guide
The Rural Dionysia [is] in December.
Theophrastus of Eresus, Characters: The Chatterbox 3 (4th
cen. BCE) 2076
As befits a festival for Dionysus and the birth of wine, the
women who had been called in from the nearby farms to lend a
hand cast glances as Daphnis and praised him as the equal of
Dionysus in beauty the winter was more bitter than the war, for a
2072
Kroly Kernyi, Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter, trans.
R. Manheim (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967), 156. (Emph. added.)
2073
Christina Chronopoulou and Anastasios Mavrakis, Indications of stability of
occurrence of Halcyon days in the ancient Greek drama, in Advances in
Meteorology, Climatology and Atmospheric Physics: Volume 2, eds. C.G. Helmis
and P.T. Nastos (Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 2012), 408. (Emph. added.)
2074
Aristotle, in Peck (1970-93), 119. (Emph. added.)
2075
Sarah I. Johnston, Dictionary of Religious Festivals, in Religions of the
Ancient World: A Guide, ed. S.I. Johnston (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University
Press, 2004), 285.
2076
Theophrastus of Eresus, Characters, trans. J. Diggle (Cambridge: Cambridge
715
sudden heavy snowfall had closed all the roads and shut in all the
farmers. When day came it was extraordinarily cold, and a
northerly wind was parching everything. They got up and sacrificed
a yearling ram to Dionysus, then built a big fire and began to
prepare a meal.
Longus, Daphnis and Chloe 2.2, 3.10 2077
The rural Dionysia brings the rustics together in joyous
community, and the private winter Dionysia (3.10) gathers Chloes
family together along with Daphnis as they look forward to spring.
Dr. Jean Alvares, in A Companion to the Ancient Novel 2078
This treaty was made in the spring, just at the end of winter,
directly after the city festival of Dionysus.
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, 5.20.1 (5th
cen. BCE) 2079
The festival of Dionysus heralds the start of the sailing season;
more rain would be good for the crops.
Theophrastus of Eresus, Characters: The Chatterbox 3 2080
March
(IV.51) (The sixteenth day before the Kalends of April) On the
day of the Bacchanalia, Democritus says Pisces sets.
Johannes Lydus, De Mensibus 2081
Given that the myth of Dionysus often correlates to stages in the life
cycle of the grapevine, the first birth of Dionysus on the winter solstice
when he was plucked from the womb of his mother was when he was
pruned from his own vine, so to speak. This correlates to the viticulture
2077
Longus, Daphnis and Chloe, trans. J. Henderson (Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 2009), 59, 115. (Emph. added.)
2078
Jean Alvares, Daphnis and Chloe: Innocence and Experience, Archetypes
and Art, in A Companion to the Ancient Novel, eds. E.P. Cueva, S.N. Byrne
(Malden: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2014), 32. (Emph. added.)
2079
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, in The Landmark
Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War, trans. R.B.
Strassler (New York: Free Press, 1996), 314. (Emph. added.)
2080
Theophrastus, loc. cit.
2081
Lehoux (2007), 390.
716
custom of pruning weak grapevines directly following the winter
solstice.
Prune a weak vineyard, in lean and dry land, immediately after
the winter solstice.
Columella, On Agriculture 12.10 (1st cen. CE) 2082
With this being the timing of the birth and rebirth of Dionysus, then
logically he too, like the son of Osiris (pp.601-05), wouldve been
conceived in the summer time right around the heliacal rising of Sirius.
Hence the conception of Dionysus was likewise heralded by the
appearance of a star in the east. With so much in common with the Osiris
mythos, are there any other significant archetypes of divine birth to be
found in the mythos of Dionysus? For example, is there a virgin birth of
Dionysus?
Well, disappointingly, there is no story yet known within the corpus
of extant Greek literature which explicitly describes a virgin birth of
Dionysus prior to the 2nd century of the Common Era. However, do recall
from ch.3 the story of the birth of Epaphus. His mother was referred to as
a virgin, both before and after his conception (pp.184-87). And that
conception was brought about when Zeus merely touched the mother
upon her head with his thunder-wielding hand (Fig. 47) and then
breathed upon her (pp.188, 194). The very name of Epaphus means
touch-born. Also, Epaphus, like Dionysus, was born with a bovine
form.2083 Epaphus, like Dionysus, also had Zeus for a father. And
Epaphus, like Dionysus, was identified with Osiris (pp.184-86). This
naturally led to Epaphus being identified with Dionysus himself.
I leave out of account Mnaseass annexation of Dionysus,
Osiris, and Serapis to Epaphus.
Therefore, by extension, at least as early as the 3 rd century BCE (via
Mnaseas), there indeed existed a tradition in which Dionysus was
thought to have been conceived parthenogenetically by a virgin mother
when she was touched by the lightning-bearing hand of Zeus. Moreover,
2082
Columella, On Agriculture, trans. A. Millar (London: 1745), 585.
2083
Aeschylus, Suppliants 40-47, 313-15.
2084
717
as already firmly established, Dionysus was already identified with
Osiris even earlier than that. Thus by default he had already inherited
Osiris lightning-touch conception and virgin birth (see ch.3) by that time
as well.
Another significant archetype to be found in the birth myth of
Dionysus was a miracle well known in the mythos of Osiris (pp.261-71),
and that is the transmutation of water into wine.
The Teans advance as proof that the god was born among
them the fact that, even to this day, at fixed times in their city a
fountain of wine, of unusually sweet fragrance, flows of its own
accord from the earth.
Diodorus of Sicily, Library of History 3.66.2 (1st cen. BCE) 2085
It is accredited by the Mucianus who was three times consul
that the water flowing from a spring in the temple of Father Liber
on the island of Andros always has the flavor of wine on January
5th: the day is called Gods Gift Day. 2086 Theopompus says that
drunkenness is caused by the springs that I have mentioned, and
Mucianus that at Andros, from the spring of Father Liber, on fixed
seven-day festivals of this god, flows wine, but if its water is carried
out of sight of the temple the taste turns to that of water.
Pliny the Elder, Natural History 2.106, 31.16 (1st cen. CE) 2087
In the 1st century, Heron reported of a theater which contained a
statue of Dionysus which at set times would appear to magically turn
water into wine.
When the altar comes in front of Dionysus again, it will once
again ignite, and liquid will squirt from his scepter as will wine pour
from his cup.
Heron of Alexandria, Automata 4.2-3 2088
A jar can be made receiving and discharging a greater quantity
of liquid at one time than at another, and in such a way that, when
wine and water are poured into it, it shall discharge at one time
2085
2086
Pliny, in Rackham (1938-67), 357-59.
2087
Pliny the Elder, Natural History, in Pliny: Natural History, Books 28-32,
trans. W.H.S. Jones (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1963), 389.
2088
Stephen Bertman, The Genesis of Science: The Story of Greek Imagination
(Amherst: Prometheus Books, 2010), 86.
718
pure water, at another time unmixed wine, and, again, a mixture of
the two.
Heron of Alexandria, Pneumatica VIII 2089
Occasionally Dionysus even bestowed this power upon his
worshippers.
These daughters lusty Problastus2090 taught to be skilled in
contriving milled food and to make wine and fatty oileven the
dove grand-daughters of Zarax, skilled to turn things into wine.
Lycophron, Alexandria 577-80 (3rd cen. BCE) 2091
Bacchus gave my daughters quite other gifts,
Greater than any they could have ever hoped for.
Everything they touched turned into grain or wine.
Ovid, Metamorphoses 13.786-88 (1st cen. BCE-CE) 2092
Not only could they turn anything (including water) into bread and
wine, they could even cause the earth to literally flow with milk and
honey (and wine, of course).
One took a thyrsus and beat against a rock,
and from it sprang the dewy wet of water;
another sank her wand into the soil,
and there the god sent up a fount of wine;
and some, smitten with the white drinks desire,
scratched at the soil with their fingertips
till jets of milk appeared; and from their ivy
thyrsus were sweet streams of honey dripping.
Euripides, Bacchae 704-11 2093
He even granted some of them tongues of fire upon their heads.
In their hair they carried fire and did not burn.
Ibid. 757-58 2094
2089
Heron of Alexandria, in The Pneumatic of Hero of Alexandria from the
Original Greek, trans. B. Woodcroft (London: Charles Whittingham, 1851), 22.
2090
Dionysus.
2091
Lycophron, Alexandria, in Callimachus, Lycophron, Aratus, trans. A.W. Mair
(London: William Heinemann, 1921), 543. (Emph. added.)
2092
Ovid, in Lombardo (2010), 371. (Emph. added.)
2093
Euripides, in Neuburg (1988), 73-74. (Emph. added.)
2094
Ibid. 75-76.
719
But the most impressive of Dionysus miracles would have to be
bringing the dead back to life. One time he descended into Hell and
brought the poet Aeschylus back to Athens.
PLUTO. Will you not finish what you came to do?
DIONYSUS. I must decide?
PLUTO. And take the one that you
Decide on, lest your journey be in vain.
DIONYSUS. Thank you, thank you. But let me tell you plain;
I came to fetch a poet. Why? To save
The city and restore my dances grave.
Aeschylus Ill take!
PLUTO. Farewell, good Aeschylus. Depart.
Save our citys failing heart
With counsels sage and educate
The foolish ones; theres quite a spate!
Raise the sacred torches high!
Escort our poet on his way!
Let his songs and dances fly
Before him to the light of day!
CHORUS.
First to our poet departing and journeying up to the light
Vouchsafe a well-omened starting. Ye spirits of our world of
night!
Bless with good his city and grant it great good things to come!
Aristophanes, Frogs 1414-19 1500-03 1524-30 (5th cen.
BCE) 2095
Aristophanes Frogs focuses not on Dionysus passage from
immaturity to maturity, but on his katabasis, his quest to return to
the world of the living with a poet from the world of the dead, to
save Athens from its dearth of cultural life. No more good poets
remain in the city of Athens, and Dionysus wants to bring a clever
(dexios) poet to fill the gap in Athenian life.
Dr. Radcliffe G. Edmonds III, in Initiation in Ancient Greek
Rituals and Narratives 2096
2095
Aristophanes, Frogs, in Classics in Translation, Volume I: Greek Literature,
eds. P. MacKendrick and H.M. Howe, trans. J.G. Hawthorne (Madison: The
University of Wisconsin Press, 1952-80) 219-20.
720
Dionysus chooses Aeschylus, and Pluto tells him that he may
take Aeschylus with him back to Athens the resurrection of
Aeschylus from the dead is both pessimistic and optimistic: if there
were no longer any living poets who could inspire the Athenians to
greatness, at least the works of Aeschylus lived on, and might
inspire the Athenians to recapture the virtues that had made their
city preeminent in his day.
Dr. Jeffrey Henderson, Aristophanes: Frogs, Assemblywomen,
Wealth 2097
The resurrection of Aeschylus and the katabasis of the wicked
reflects the idea that initiation involved a symbolic death and
rebirth which is common in ancient mystery cults.
Dr. Angus M. Bowie, Aristophanes: Myth, Ritual, and
Comedy 2098
A more famous example, however, is the time when Dionysus
descended into Hell and brought back his mother Semele, after which he
transfigured her into a goddess- Thyone. Thus she obtained a new body,
an immortal body.
The myths relate that Dionysus brought up his mother Semel
from Hades, and that, sharing with her his own immortality, he
changed her name to Thyon.
He brought up his mother from Hades, named her Thyone,
and ascended into heaven with her.
Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.5.3 (1st cen. CE) 2100
There are special Dionysian scenes in the private world of
Etruscan mirrors. An inscribed one from the second quarter of the
fourth century BCE in Berlin shows Apollo (Apulu) with a laurel
2096
Radcliffe G. Edmonds III, Who in hell is Heracles? Dionysus disastrous
disguise in Aristophanes Frogs, in Initiation in Ancient Greek Rituals and
Narratives: New Critical Perspectives, eds. D.B. Dodd and C.A. Faraone (London:
Routledge, 2003) 189-90.
2097
Jeffrey Henderson, Aristophanes: Frogs, Assemblywomen, Wealth
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002), 5. (Emph. added.)
2098
Angus M. Bowie, Aristophanes: Myth, Ritual, and Comedy (Cambridge:
2099
2100
721
staff and Dionysos (Fufluns) who is embraced by his mother
Semele (Semla). A satyr boy plays a double pipe at Apollos side.
This god and Dionysos had near relations in Delphi and Delos,
where they owned the same temple. At the Delphic festival Herois
Semeles resurrection from Hades was celebrated. It is represented
on the mirror in a frame of Dionysian ivy.
Dr. Erika Simon, in The Etruscan World 2101
Fig. 316: Dionysus in the embrace of his mother Semele, who has clearly been
resurrected from the dead (given that she died when he was an infant); based on a bronze
Etruscan mirror, 4th century BCE, currently at the Staatliche Museum in Berlin.
2101
Erika Simon, Greek myth in Etruscan culture, in The Etruscan World, ed.
J.M. Turfa (Abingdon: Routledge, 2013), 506.
722
Fig. 317: Print of the Decoration on a black-figure Greek Ceramic, showing the
Resurrection of Semele;2102 based on an Attic black-figure hydria, 5th century BCE,2103
currently at the Staatliche Museum in Berlin.
The most important of all resurrections Dionysus participated in was,

of course, none other than his own. In spite of the many antagonists who
try to deny it, Dionysus, just like Osiris and Horus, was believed to have
died, been dismembered (i.e. his body was broken in pieces), then was
reconstituted and physically resurrected from the dead in the same body
which had been killed. Afterwards he was made immortal and ascended
to heaven to join the ranks of the gods on Olympus. And yes, this bodily
resurrection is verified in sources pre-dating the Common Era. This
makes it all the more hilarious when the heathen rage and claim that no
such sources exist that are dated so early, such as the following gem from
2102
Ashmolean Museum, Print of the Decoration on a black-figure Greek
Ceramic, showing the Resurrection of Semele, accessed January 8, 2014,
http://ruskin.ashmolean.org/collection/8979/object/14438.
See also Susanne Moraw, Visual Differences: Dionysos in Ancient Art, in A
Different God?: Dionysos and Ancient Polytheism, ed. R. Schlesier (Berlin:
Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, 2011), 236.
2103
Scala Archives, B012809, accessed January 8, 2014,
http://www.scalarchives.com/web/dettaglio_immagine.asp?numImmagini=13
4&posizione=21&prmset=on&ANDOR=&xesearch=hydria&xesearch_ita=idria&
xesearch_fra=hydrie&ricerca_s=hydria&SC_PROV=RR&SC_Lang=eng&Sort=9&l
uce=.
723
one infamous Gary Habermas concerning Dionysus: There are no
resurrected gods for which we have influence, for which we have data
prior to the 2nd century like I said. But the point, the question isis
there a resurrection? And since we dont have any resurrection pre-dating
the 2nd century (all the way to the 4th century are the earliest ones- 2nd to
4th), we can say well maybe theres a resurrection there, but theres no
data. Theres absolutely no evidence for that position.2104 But alas, there
is indeed the following:
The first of these (sc. Births) is the one from his mother, the
second from Zeus thigh, the third when he was torn apart by the
Titans, reassembled by Rhea, and brought back to life. In the
Mopsopia Euphorion agrees on these matters (or, with these
people2105); the Orphics as a whole dwell on (these myths).
Philodemus, On Piety 192-93 (1st cen. BCE) 2106
At least as early as Euphorion, there was a story that Rhea
revived Dionysus after his dismemberment. Rhea reassembled
the pieces of the dismembered god and restored him to life. Our
earliest evidence for this tradition comes from Euphorion (mid-
third century BCE).
Dr. Fritz Graf and Dr. Sarah I. Johnston, Ritual Texts for the
Afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets 2107
The Sons of Gaia tore to pieces the god, who was a son of
Zeus and Demeter, and boiled him, but his members were brought
together again by Demeter and he experienced a new birth as if for
the first time his members, which the "earth-born" treated with
despite, being brought together again and restored to their former
natural state.
2104
Gary Habermas, in Faith Under Fire: The Resurrection: Fact or Fiction?
Gary Habermas vs. Tim Callahan, video, 11:37, posted by ThomisticTheist,
December 29, 2013, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbExDzozUxU.
2105
The other sources on the resurrection cited in the lost preceding column.
Philodemus, On Piety, in Hellenistic Collection: Philitas, Alexander of Aetolia,
Hermesianax, Euphorion, Parthenius, trans. J.L. Lightfoot (Cambridge: Harvard
2106
2107
Fritz Graf and Sarah I. Johnston, Ritual Texts for the Afterlife: Orpheus and
the Bacchic Gold Tablets (Abingdon: Routledge, 2007), 76, 203. (Emph. added.)
724
The mythic story is told that after being torn asunder by the
Titans he was put back together again by Rhea.
Lucius Annaeus Cornutus, Compendium of Greek Theology
30 (1st cen. CE) 2109
They say that Dionysus was born of Zeuss union with Semele,
and narrate that he was the discoverer of the vine, and that, after he
was torn to pieces and died, he arose again and ascended into
heaven.
Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 69.2 2110
Dionysus, likewise, was torn asunder, reassembled and
brought back to life.
Dr. Walter M. Ellis, Ptolemy of Egypt 2111
Dionysus is first killed and dismembered by the Titans, then
later restored and reborn.
Dr. Corinne O. Pache, in The Oxford Encyclopedia of
Ancient Greece and Rome: Volume 1 2112
The pattern of death and decay followed by germination and
rebirth that is associated with Dionysos is appropriate to his role as
an earth god, a nature god. Dionysos is often depicted as a
newborn Divine Child nursed by Persephone herself or wild
female followers called the maenads. According to some, it was as a
child that he became the sacrificial victim, the Dying God. This is
his many-faceted story, which includes the Orphic myth of his
death, dismemberment, and resurrection.
Dr. David A. Leeming and Jake Page, God: Myths of the Male
Divine 2113
2108
Diodorus, in Oldfather (1935-67), 287-89.
2109
Cornutus, Compendium of Greek Theology, ed. C. Lang (Leipzig: Teubner,
1881), 62. (Emph. added.) The quoted portion was translated by Jordan Day,
August 14, 2012. https://plus.google.com/u/0/+JordanDaygreek/about.
http://www.youtube.com/user/NonReductionist/about.
2110
Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, trans. T.B. Falls (Washington, D.C.: The
Catholic University of America Press, 2003), 107. (Emph. added.)
2111
Walter M. Ellis, Ptolemy of Egypt (London: Routledge, 1994-2005), 28.
(Emph. Added.)
2112
Corinne O. Pache, The Olympian Gods, in The Oxford Encyclopedia of
Ancient Greece and Rome: Volume 1, ed. M. Gagarin (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2010), 314-16. (Emph. added.)
725
The revived Dionysos who died and came back to life again
was regarded as a divine role model for the Dionysac initiates and
their expectations of a happy after life.
Dr. Albert Henrichs, in Tracing Orpheus: Studies of Orphic
Fragments 2114
Fig. 318: The Infant Bacchus Killed by the Titans and Restored to Life by Rhea by Taddeo
Zuccaro.
2113
David A. Leeming and Jake Page, God: Myths of the Male Divine (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1996), 99. (Emph. added.)
2114
Albert Henrichs, Dionysos Dismembered and Restored to Life: The Earliest
Evidence (OF 59 I-II), in Tracing Orpheus: Studies of Orphic Fragments, eds.
M.H. de Juregui, A.I.J. San Cristbal, M.A. Santamaria et al. (Berlin: Walter de
Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, 2011), 66. (Emph. added.)
726
So in response to Dr. Habermas request that youre going to have
to give me a date for the earliest inscription,2115 the answer is the 3rd
century before the Common Era, in Euphorions Mopsopia. But even
when the heathen are made aware of sources on the resurrection of
Dionysus which predate the Common Era, they still, in their obstinacy,
attempt to conjure up excuses to try and side-step the facts. They claim
that the death & resurrection of Dionysus has no comparison to the
death and resurrection of their own gods, heroes, or demigods. They
claim this on the basis that the myth of their religion was regarded as a
concrete, historical event that happened at a specific place and time, with
no immediate link to yearly cycles or agriculture.2116
First of all, the Egyptians likewise regarded the life of Osiris to be a
concrete, historical event that happened at a specific place and time.
Nevertheless, as covered earlier, from at least the 5th century BCE
onward the Mediterranean world believed that the death & resurrection
of Dionysus most certainly did have a comparison to the death and
resurrection of Osiris, so much so that these two deities were treated as
identical persons, but simply viewed from two different cultural
perspectives. This intimate identification occurred regardless of the fact
that many Greeks regarded Dionysus as allegorical myth while Egyptians
regarded Osiris as historical fact. This is just a rehashing of the tired old
failed argument of the differences outweigh the similarities, which will
be refuted much more thoroughly in the last section of this chapter.
Second of all, this heathen dismissal of any relationship between
their own resurrection myth and yearly cycles or agriculture is just
fallacious, and their own predecessors within the same religion would
disagree with them.
Let us consider, beloved, the kind of resurrection that occurs
at regular intervals. Day and night give us examples of resurrection.
The night sleeps, the day rises; the day departs, the night comes on.
Let us take the crops. The sowinghow and in what manner does it
take place? The sower goes out and puts each of the seeds into the
soil: when they fall on the soil, they are dry and bare, and decay.
But once they have decayed, the Masters wondrous Providence
2115
Habermas, op. cit.
2116
willard 24, Zeitgeist, The Lounge (February 20, 2009),
http://lounge.moviecodec.com/religion/zeitgeist-63530/.
727
makes them rise, and each one increases and brings forth multiple
fruit.
Clement of Rome, Epistle to the Corinthians 24.3 (1st cen. CE)
2117
Suppose I should show you a dead man raised and alive, even
this you would disbelieve. God indeed exhibits to you many proofs
that you may believe Him. For consider, if you please, the dying of
seasons, and days, and nights, how these also die and rise again.
And what? Is there not a resurrection going on of seeds and fruits,
and this, too, for the use of men? A seed of wheat, for example, or
of the other grains, when it is cast into the earth, first dies and rots
away, then is raised, and becomes a stalk of corn. And the nature of
trees and fruit-trees,is it not according to the appointment of God
they produce their fruits in their seasons out of what has been
unseen and invisible? Moreover, sometimes also a sparrow or
some of the other birds, when in drinking it has swallowed a seed
of apple or fig, or something else, has come to some rocky hillock
or tomb, and has left the seed in its droppings, and the seed, which
was once swallowed, and has passed through so great a heat, now
striking root, a tree has grown up. And all these things does the
wisdom of God effect, in order to manifest even by these things,
that God is able to effect the general resurrection of all men. And if
you would witness a more wonderful sight, which may prove a
resurrection not only of earthly but of heavenly bodies, consider
the resurrection of the moon, which occurs monthly; how it wanes,
dies, and rises again.
Theophilus of Antioch, Ad Autolycum 1.13 2118
We therefore have formed the belief that [our] bodies also do
rise again. For although they go to corruption, yet they do not
perish; for the earth, receiving the remains, preserves them, even
like fertile seed mixed with more fertile ground. Again, as a bare
grain is sown, and, germinating by the command of God its
Creator, rises again, clothed upon and glorious, but not before it
has died and suffered decomposition, and become mingled with
2117
Clement of Rome, Epistle to the Corinthians, in The Epistles of St. Clement of
Rome and St. Ignatius of Antioch, trans. J. Quasten and J.C. Plumpe (Mahwah:
Paulist Press, 1946), 25. (Emph. added.)
2118
Theophilus of Antioch, Ad Autolycum, in The Ante-Nicene Fathers: Volume
II, eds. A. Roberts and J. Donaldson, trans. A. Roberts (Peabody: Hendrickson
Publishers, 1885-1994), 93. (Emph. added.)
728
the earth; so [it is seen from this, that] we have not entertained a
vain belief in the resurrection of the body.
Pseudo-Irenaeus, Fr. XII 2119
Consider now those very analogies of the divine power (to
which we have just alluded). Day dies into night, and is buried
everywhere in darkness. The glory of the world is obscured in the
shadow of death; its entire substance is tarnished with blackness; all
things become sordid, silent, stupid; everywhere business ceases,
and occupations rest. And so over the loss of the light there is
mourning. But yet it again revives, with its own beauty, its own
dowry, its own sun, the same as ever, whole and entire, over all the
world, slaying its own death, nightopening its own sepulchre, the
darknesscoming forth the heir to itself, until the night also
revivesit, too, accompanied with a retinue of its own. For the
stellar rays are rekindled, which had been quenched in the morning
glow; the distant groups of the constellations are again brought back
to view, which the days temporary interval had removed out of
sight. Readorned also are the mirrors of the moon, which her
monthly course had worn away. Winters and summers return, as
do the spring-tide and autumn, with their resources, their routines,
their fruits. Forasmuch as earth receives its instruction from heaven
to clothe the trees which had been stripped, to colour the flowers
afresh, to spread the grass again, to reproduce the seed which had
been consumed, and not to reproduce them until consumed. All
things return to their former state, after having gone out of sight; all
things begin after they have ended; they come to an end for the
very purpose of coming into existence again. Nothing perishes but
with a view to salvation. The whole, therefore, of this revolving
order of things bears witness to the resurrection of the dead. In His
works did God write it, before He wrote it in the Scriptures; He
proclaimed it in His mighty deeds earlier than in His inspired
words. He first sent Nature to you as a teacher, meaning to send
Prophecy also as a supplemental instructor, that, being Natures
disciple, you may more easily believe Prophecy, and without
hesitation accept (its testimony) when you come to hear what you
have seen already on every side; nor doubt that God, whom you
have discovered to be the restorer of all things, is likewise the
reviver of the flesh. And surely, as all things rise again for man, for
whose use they have been providedbut not for man except for his
flesh alsohow happens it that (the flesh) itself can perish utterly,
2119
Fragments from the Lost Writings of [Pseudo] Irenaeus, in The Ante-Nicene
Fathers: Volume I, eds. A. Roberts and J. Donaldson, trans. A. Roberts (Peabody:
Hendrickson Publishers, 1885-1994), 570. (Emph. added.)
729
because of which and for the service of which nothing comes to
nought?
Tertullian of Carthage, De Resurrectione Carnis XII 2120
But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? And
with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is
not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat,
or of some other grain; but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased
Him, and to every seed his own body. Now, observe how in these
words he says that there is sown, not that body that shall be; but
that of the body which is sown and cast naked into the earth (God
giving to each seed its own body), there takes place as it were a
resurrection: from the seed that was cast into the ground there
arising a stalk, e.g., among such plants as the following, viz., the
mustard plant, or of a larger tree, as in the olive, or one of the fruit
trees. God, then, gives to each thing its own body as He pleases: as
in the case of plants that are sown, so also in the case of those
beings who are, as it were, sown in dying, and who in due time
receive, out of what has been sown, the body assigned by God to
each one according to his deserts.
Origen Adamantius, Contra Celsum 5.18-19 2121
Notice how the whole of nature brings us comfort by
rehearsing our future resurrection. The sun sinks down and is
reborn, the stars slip away and return, flowers fall and come to life
again, shrubs decay and then burst into leaf, seeds must rot in order
to sprout into new growth. As trees are in winter, so are our bodies
in this world; they keep their verdure concealed beneath deceptive
barrenness. Why be impatient for the body to come to life again
and to return when it is still the depths of winter? We, too, must
await the springtimethe springtime of the body.
Minucius Felix, The Octavius 34.11 2122
In winter a plant is rooted in the soil but no fruit appears on it;
as you look at trees in winter time they seem to have dried up.
Anyone who does not know how to look will think a vine has
shriveled, and perhaps there is another alongside this one that
really is shriveled and dead. Throughout the winter the two can
scarcely be distinguished, yet one is alive and the other is dead.
2120
Tertullian, in Holmes (1885-1994), 553-54. (Emph. added.)
2121
Origen Adamantius, Contra Celsum, in The Ante-Nicene Fathers: Volume IV,
eds. A. Roberts and J. Donaldson, trans. A. Roberts (Peabody: Hendrickson
Publishers, 1885-1994), 551. (Emph. added.)
2122
Minucius Felix, in Clarke (1974), 116. (Emph. added.)
730
The life of the one and the death of the other are still concealed,
but when summer comes both life and death manifested. The glory
of leaves and the abundance of fruit adorn the living vine. What
was present all the time in its root now clothes it visibly. It is the
same with us, brothers and sisters. For the time being we are just
like everybody else. As other people are born, eat, drink, wear
clothes, and lead their lives, so too do the saints.
Augustine of Hippo, Expositions of the Psalms 148.16 2123
Does a tree after it has been cut down blossom again, and shall
man after being cut down blossom no more? And does the corn
sown and reaped remain for the threshing floor, and shall man
when reaped from this world not remain for the threshing? And do
shoots of vine or other trees, when clean cut off and transplanted,
come to life and bear fruit; and shall man, for whose sake all these
exist, fall into the earth and not rise again? Comparing efforts,
which is greater, to mould from the beginning a statue which did
not exist, or to recast in the same shape that which had fallen? Is
God then, who created us out of nothing, unable to raise again
those who exist and are fallen? But thou believest not what is
written of the resurrection, being a Greek: then from the analogy of
nature consider these matters, and understand them from what is
seen to this day. Wheat, it may be, or some other kind of grain, is
sown; and when the seed has fallen, it dies and rots, and is
henceforth useless for food. But that which has rotted, springs up
in verdure; and though small when sown, springs up most beautiful.
Now wheat was made for us; for wheat and all seeds were created
not for themselves, but for our use; are then the things which were
made for us quickened when they die, and do we for whom they
were made, not rise again after our death?
The season is winter, as thou seest; the trees now stand as if
they were dead: for where are the leaves of the fig-tree? Where are
the clusters of the vine? These in winter time are dead, but green in
spring; and when the season is come, there is restored to them a
quickening as it were from a state of death. For God knowing thine
unbelief, works a resurrection year by year in these visible things;
that, beholding what happens to things inanimate, thou mayest
believe concerning things animate and rational. Further, flies and
bees are often drowned in water, yet after a while revive
Year by year- that sounds very much like a link to yearly cycles.
And bees are being used here as a symbol for new life arising out of
2123
Augustine of Hippo, Expositions of the Psalms 121-150, trans. M. Boulding
(Hyde Park: New City Press, 2004), 489. (Emph. added.)
731
death? And their death by drowning in water, i.e. baptism, leads to a
resurrection? Doesnt that all sound familiar?2124 Continuing:
and species of dormice, after remaining motionless during
winter, are restored in the summer (for to thy slight thoughts like
examples are offered); and shall He who to irrational and despised
creatures grants life supernaturally, not bestow it upon us, for
whose sake He made them?
Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures 18.6-7 2125
This discussion of grain, fruit, and trees makes for a perfect segue
into the next motif in common between Dionysus and Osiris- the
ritualistic consumption of bread & wine/grain & grapes, representing the
body and blood of the god.
And he poured in one ivy-wood cup teeming with the foam of
the dark immortal drops, and poured in on top twenty measures,
and mixed the blood of Bacchus with the fresh-flowing tears of the
nymphs.
Timotheus of Miletus, Fr. 780 (5th-4th cen. BCE) 2126
The word Dionysus means only "the gift of wine" (oinou
dosis). For this reason we shall endeavour to run over briefly only
the main facts as they are given by each writer. Those authors, then,
who use the phenomena of nature to explain this god and call the
fruit of the vine "Dionysus" speak like this: The earth brought forth
of itself the vine at the same time with the other plants and it was
not originally planted by some man who discovered it. And they
allege as proof of this fact that to this day vines grow wild in many
regions and bear fruit quite similar to that of plants which are
tended by the experienced hand of man. Furthermore, the early
men have given Dionysus the name of "Dimetor," reckoning it as a
single and first birth when the plant is set in the ground and begins
to grow, and as a second birth when it becomes laden with fruit and
ripens its clusters, the god, therefore, being considered as having
been born once from the earth and again from the vine.
2124
For bees, see pp.175-83. For drowning/baptism/resurrection see pp.206-
16, 276-77, 293, 650, 667.
2125
Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures, in Nicene & Post-Nicene Fathers,
2nd Series: Volume VII, eds. P. Schaff and H. Wace, trans. E.H. Gifford
(Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1894-1996), 135. (Emph. added.)
2126
Timothy of Miletus, in The Fragments of Timotheus of Miletus, ed. J.H.
Hordern (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 110. (Emph. added.)
732
The vine gets its growth both from the earth and from rains
and so bears as its fruit the wine which is pressed out from the
clusters of grapes; and the statement that he was torn to pieces,
while yet a youth, by the "earth-born" [Sons of Gia(Earth) - Titans]
signifies the harvesting of the fruit by the labourers, and the boiling
of his members has been worked into a myth by reason of the fact
that most men boil the wine and then mix it, thereby improving its
natural aroma and quality. Again, the account of his members,
which the "earth-born" treated with despite, being brought together
again and restored to their former natural state, shows forth that the
vine, which has been stripped of its fruit and pruned at the yearly
seasons, is restored by the earth to the high level of fruitfulness
which it had before. For, in general, the ancient poets and writers
of myths spoke of Demeter as G Meter (Earth Mother). And with
these stories the teachings agree which are set forth in the Orphic
poems and are introduced into their rites, but it is not lawful to
recount them in detail to the uninitiated.
In the same manner the account that Dionysus was born of
Semel they trace back to natural beginnings, offering the
explanation that Thuon was the name which the ancients gave to
the earth, and that this goddess received the appellation Semel
because the worship and honour paid to her was dignified (semn),
and she was called Thuon because of the sacrifices (thusiai) and
burnt offerings (thuelai) which were offered (thuomenai) to her.
Furthermore, the tradition that Dionysus was born twice of Zeus
arises from the belief that these fruits also perished in common
with all other plants in the flood at the time of Deucalion, and that
when they sprang up again after the Deluge it was as if there had
been a second epiphany of the god among men, and so the myth
was created that the god had been born again from the thigh of
Zeus. However this may be, those who explain the name Dionysus
as signifying the use and importance of the discovery of wine
recount such a myth regarding him.
I can cite also a scolion which mentions an earthen vessel
closed with celery. The words run as follows:
The Attic potters clay, baked in the fire,
Conceals the rushing wine-gods dark red blood,
And bears the Isthmian sprigs inside its mouth.
2127
733
The Liberalia Festival of Liber, because on that day old
women wearing ivy-wreaths on their heads sit in all parts of the
town, as priestesses of Liber, with cakes and a brazier, on which
they offer up the cakes on behalf of any purchaser.
Varro, On the Latin Language 6.14 2129
Yes, wherever the Wine-god has turned his handsome head.
So let us duly pay to that god the homage we owe him
In anthems our fathers sang, in offerings of fruit and cake.
The purpose of this song is to set out the reasons why the
Wine-planter calls the peoples to his own cakes. Before your birth,
Liber, the altars were without honour, and grass was found on cold
hearths. They say it was you, after Ganges and all the east had been
subdued, who set aside first-fruits for great Jupiter. You were the
first to give cinnamon and captured incense and the roasted entrails
of a bull that had been led in triumph. Libations and cakes [liba]
take their name from their inventor, because they are part of what
is offered on the sacred hearths, Cakes are made for the god
because he delights in sweet juices, and they say that honey was
discovered by Bacchus.
Ovid, Fasti 3.725-36 2131
Are they not sesame cakes, and pyramidal cakes, and globular
and flat cakes the symbol of Dionysus Bassareus?
Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Heathen Ch. 2 2132
2128
Plutarch, in Clement and Hoffleit (1969), 397. (Emph. added.)
2129
Varro, On the Latin Language, trans. R.G. Kent (London: William Heinemann
Ltd., and Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1938), 187. (Emph.
added.)
2130
2131
Ovid, Fasti, trans. A. Wiseman and P. Wiseman (Oxford: Oxford Unversity
2132
Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Heathen, in The Ante-Nicene
Fathers: Volume II, eds. A. Roberts and J. Donaldson, trans. A. Roberts
(Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, 1885-1994), 177, . (Emph. added.)
734
Fig. 319: Grape vines spring forth from the side of Dionysus body as he sits beneath the
cross of the ships mast2133 holding a wine cup & is surrounded by seven dolphins, thus
further affirming the connection between his flesh & blood and the grape vine; from a
wine kylix by Exekias, 6th cen. BCE, currently at the Staatliche Antikensammlungen in
Munich.
2133
They imitate being crucified; for it was not understood by them, all the
things said of it having been put symbolically. For the sea is not traversed
except that trophy which is called a sail abide safe in the ship this shows no
other form than that of the cross.- Justin Martyr, First Apology 55.1-2.
735
Fig. 320: Grape vines spring forth from the side of The Good Shepherds body as he sits
beneath a cross & is surrounded by seven lambs, squeezing his blood/wine into a cup,
thus further affirming the connection between his flesh & blood and the grape vine.
736
Since grapes and various other fruits could also be produced upon
trees, naturally trees were incorporated into the worship of Dionysus as
well.
In the wild, Vitis vinifera L. is a vigorous climbing plant of
deciduous forest. Its trunk and branches are flexible, and the plant
is supported by the trees on which it grows. The climbing habit of
the grapevine is reflected in the occurrence of pressure-sensitive
tendrils; wild vines climb into the forest canopy to a height of 20-30
m.
Dr. Michael G. Mullins, Dr. Alain Bouquet, and Dr. Larry E.
Williams, Biology of the Grapevine 2134
The characteristic vine-growing method of the Minho is to
plant vines at the edges of fields with trees providing a natural
trellis.
Jacques Fanet, Great Wine Terroirs 2135
The fact that the grapevine is a climbing plant lends it an
unusual plasticity of form. At first, grapes (V. vinifera spp. sativa)
were probably gathered from the wild, with the vines growing up
into the trees. The association of grapes with oak, now used in the
winemaking process in the form of barrels in which the wine is
aged, may have begun with the vine using the oak trees as support,
since Saccharomyces cerevisiae (or the winemaking yeast) strains
have been isolated from oak trees.
Dr. Glen L. Creasy and Dr. Leroy L. Creasy, Grapes 2136
Another common practice in Vinho Verde is to allow
grapevines to climb up into tall trees. Traditional Greek varities
are usually bush pruned or allowed to grow into trees.
Alan Boehmer, Wine Basics: A Complete Illustrated Guide to
Understanding, Selecting, & Enjoying Wine 2137
2134
Michael G. Mullins, Alain Bouquet, and Larry E. Williams, Biology of the
Grapevine (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992-2003), 37.
2135
Jacques Fanet, Great Wine Terroirs, trans. F. Brutton (Berkeley: University
of California Press, 2004), 186.
2136
Glen L. Creasy and Leroy L. Creasy, Grapes (Wallingford: CABI, 2009), 1.
2137
Alan Boehmer, Wine Basics: A Complete Illustrated Guide to Understanding,
Selecting, & Enjoying Wine (Guilford: Morris Book Publishing, LLC, 2009), 170,
188. (Emph. added.)
737
Among the Greeks the grape-vine was called hermeris, the
tame, because they knew how grapes grew in the woods. There
the plant could develop into a thick tree.
Dr. Kroly Kernyi, Dionysos: Archetypal Image of
Indestructible Life 2138
The ancients came to dedicate the pine to Poseidon and
Dionysus. To us there seemed nothing illogical in this, because
both gods are by common acceptance sovereign over the domains
of the moist and the generative. Practically all Greeks sacrifice to
Poseidon the Life-Giver and to Dionysus the Tree-god. The
pine has been dedicated to Dionysus because it is thought to
sweeten wine; for they say that country abounding in pines
produces sweet-wine grapes.
Plutarch, Moralia 675E-676A 2139
May gladsome Dionysus swell the fruit upon the trees,
The hallowed splendour of harvest time.
Pindar, Fr. 153 (5th cen. BCE) 2140
2138
Kernyi (1976), 57. (Emph. added.)
2139
Plutarch, in Clement and Hoffleit (1969), 391-93. (Emph. added.)
2140
738
Fig. 321: The symbol of Dionysusthe grapevinehanging on a tree (Field Maple).
739
Fig. 322: A grapevine suspended upon an oak tree.
Fig. 323: A grapevine which has grown to the size of a tree, allegedly 240 years old.
740
Fig. 324: The Good Shepherd emerges from a grape vine which has grown to the size of a
tree.
741
Fig. 325: The Good Shepherd and his 12 followers sit upon a grape vine which has grown
to the size of a tree.
742
Fig. 326
By extension of this, just like Osiris (pp.301-340), evidently at some

point Dionysus was hung upon a tree as an archetypal sign of natures
rebirth. In memoriam of this, his worshippers would hang images of him
743
upon trees in order to bless the bounty of their orchards, vineyards, and
other crops.
They wear the most hideous wooden
Masks, and address the Wine-god in jovial ditties, and hang
Wee images of the god to sway from windy pine-boughs.
Thus will every vine advance to full fruition
And valleys will teem and dells and dingles and combes deep-
wooded
Yes, wherever the Wine-god has turned his handsome head.
So let us duly pay to that god the homage we owe him
In anthems our fathers sang, in offerings of fruit and cake.
Virgil, Georgics, 2.387-94 (1st cen. BCE) 2141
No doubt this also brought to mind the imagery of wild grapevines
also hanging upon trees as their natural trellises. And in Fig. 327-30,
there can be seen illustrations of all three elements here being brought
together in one scene- bread, wine, and the god hanging upon a tree.
Fig. 327: An image of Dionysus hangs on a tree as the Bacchae serve sacramental bread
& wine; based on an Attic vase, 5th century BCE, currently at the Museum of Fine Arts
in Boston.
2141
744
Fig. 328: Alternate depiction of the same scenario; based on an Attic vase, 6th century
BCE.
Fig. 329: Based on an Attic vase, 5th century BCE, currently at the Naples National
Archaeological Museum.
745
Fig. 330: Based on an Attic cup by Makron, 5th century BCE, currently at the Staatliche
Museum in Berlin. In the center, a satyr honors Dionysus with music. On the exterior,
the Bacchae worship Dionysus as he hangs upon a tree before an altar, cakes of bread
having been skewered upon the branches, and a jar of wine sits below the left handle.
746
Fig. 331: The heathen god The Good Shepherd is likewise portrayed as hanging upon a
tree just as Dionysus was long before him.
747
Fig. 332
748
Fig. 333
749
Fig. 334
750
Not only did grapevines hang from trees for support, farmers have
also been known to hang grapevines upon trellises. Oftentimes it is the
case that these trellises are in the shape of a cross. This was also a
common type of trellis employed in ancient times as well.2142
It has been my observation that, for the most part, a young
vine is better satisfied with a support of moderate size than with a
stout prop. And so we shall attach each young vine either to two old
reeds, lest new ones strike root; or, if local conditions allow it, to
brier canes, to which single cross-bars may be tied along one side of
the rowa kind of frame which farmers call a canterius or "horse."
It is of the greatest importance that this be such that the young vine-
shoot, as it creeps forth, shall immediately grasp it a little below the
point of its bending and spread out on the cross-bars rather than on
the uprights, and so, resting upon the "horse," may more easily bear
up against the winds.
Columella, On Agriculture 4.12 (1st cen. CE) 2143
After the management of the nursery follows the arrangement
of the vineyards. These are of five kindswith the branches
spreading about on the ground, or with the vine standing up of its
own accord, or else with a stay but without a cross-bar, or propped
up with a single cross-bar, or trellised with four bars in a rectangle.
It will be understood that the same system that belongs to a
propped vine is that of one in which the vine is left to stand by itself
without a stay, for this is only done when there is a shortage of
props. A vineyard with the single cross-bar is arranged in a straight
row which is called a canterius; this is better for wine, as the wine so
grown does not overshadow itself and is ripened by constant
sunshine, and is more exposed to currents of air and so gets rid of
dew more quickly, and also is easier for trimming and for
harrowing the soil and all operations; and above all it sheds its
blossoms in a more beneficial manner. The cross-bar is made of a
stake or a reed, or else of a rope of hair or hemp, as in Spain and at
Brindisi.
Pliny the Elder, Natural History 17.35.164-66 (1st cen. CE) 2144
2142
Wilhelmina F. Jashemski, The Discovery of a Large Vineyard at Pompeii:
University of Maryland Excavations, 1970, in American Journal of Archaeology
77, no. 1 (1973): 33-34.
https://web.archive.org/web/20140829002621/http://latinlexicon.org/definiti
on.php?p1=2008304.
2143
Columella, On Agriculture, in Columella: On Agriculture, Books 1-4, trans.
H.B. Ash (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1941), 379-81. (Emph. added.)
751
Fig. 335: The grapevinethe symbol of the body of Dionysus (Pompeii, c. 1st cen. CE)
was often hung on a cross in Roman times, just as it still is to this day.
2144
Pliny the Elder, in Rackham (1961), 113-15.
752
Given the culture of the times, the sight of fields filled with
grapevines hanging from crosses would no doubt remind on-lookers of
the very similar image of Roman crucifixion. In a strictly dictionary-
definition sense, the symbol of the body of Dionysus was quite literally
crucified. And it was done for the purpose of bringing new life to the
vine and to those who lived on its blood. Thus the cross was a sacred
symbol both for the cult of Dionysus and for the heathen who would later
incorporate it via Roman crucifixion, even calling their allegedly
crucified hero the true vine (a title that is actually more fitting for
Dionysus).
Fig. 336: True to form, and always a step behind, the cult of The Good Shepherd also
went on to employ the iconography of a grapevine hanging upon a cross.
753
See how appropriately the trellis-work frame, on which vines
are usually trained, signifies the Cross. For they are interlaced, that
is, formed by cross-pieces; and so on these the vine is more
conveniently raised up and stretched out. The wood of the Cross is
interlaced, the good [Shepherd], our Vine, is lifted up upon it, and
is stretched out by His arms and His whole Body.
St. Bonaventure, Vitis Mystica, Ch. VII 2145
The grape trellis was not the only cross used in the iconography
associated with Dionysus. His cult also incorporated a certain style of
statue which, as the legend goes, was actually first popularized by the
Pelasgian cult of Hermes in Athens.2146 The herm was so intimately
connected with the cults of both of these gods during the classical period
that it has at times been difficult for scholars to determine whether
certain hermae depict Dionysus or Hermes,2147 and sometimes they were
even portrayed on the same herm simultaneously (Fig. 338). In later
times the herm style became so popular it that was utilized to make
statues of just about anyone. Nevertheless, it was Hermes and Dionysus
who made use of it first. The herm consists of a detailed head of a
particular person atop a very primitive body consisting only of a
rectangular torso and a cross-piece at shoulder height for the arms. The
resulting image is typically a head with a cross for a body.
2145
St. Bonaventure, Vitis Mystica, trans. W.R.B. Brownlow (London: R.
Washbourne, 1873), 62.
2146
Herodotus, Histories 2.51, in Strassler (2009), 141.
2147
Gillian Braithwaite, Faces from the Past: A Study of Roman Face Pots from
Italy and the Western Provinces of the Roman Empire (Oxford: Archaeopress,
2007), 412.
Verity J. Platt, Facing the Gods: Epiphany and Representation in Graeco-Roman
Art, Literature and Religion (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 34.
754
Fig. 337: Dionysus as the cross-shaped herm statue; based on a replica of a damaged
herm recovered from the shipwreck of Mahdia in the 2nd century BCE, currently at The
Getty Villa Malibu.
755
Fig. 338: A double-herm featuring Dionysus on one side (shown on the left) and Hermes
on the reverse side (shown on the right), the two gods traditionally associated with the
herm are brought together into one cruciform piece; based on a marble herm statue from
the early Roman Imperial Era, 1st century BCE-CE, currently at the Museum of Fine
Arts in Boston.
756
Fig. 339: Another cruciform herm of Dionysus stands upon a pillar in the center; based
on an Arretine bowl, 1st century BCE-CE.
Fig. 340: This one is a rather interesting illustration, for not only does it include cross
imagery via the cruciform herm of Dionysus (left), but on the reverse side it includes a
pair of fish (right). The obvious correlation to Pisces aside, this combination of a
cruciform image of a dying & rising god along with fish is also conspicuously similar to
imagery later employed by the heathen; based on a Heraclean coin, 2 nd-1st century BCE,
currently at the British Museum.
757
Fig. 341: Yet another cruciform image of Dionysus; based on a mosaic from the House of
Bacchus and Ariadne in Ostia, Roman Imperial Era.
758
Fig. 342: Various depictions of Dionysus as a herm-cross; based on bronze coins of
Prince Machares, 1st century BCE.
So when other heathen cults eventually assimilated the sign of the

cross into their religion, it was nothing unique. Passers-by would have
already been well familiar with cross symbolism via earlier cults such as
that of Dionysus (and Osiris- pp.308-40), having frequently come across
many a cross-shaped herm and cross trellis of grape-farms, etc. In fact, as
seen in Fig. 343, certain factions of these heathen cults would go on to
make crucifixes which likewise portrayed their crucified heroes such as
The Good Shepherd with the body of a cross rather than the more
traditional image of being suspended upon a cross.
759
Fig. 343: The Riasg Buidhe Cross of Colonsay, 8 th cen., depicts The Good Shepherd in the
form of a cross instead of hanging from a cross.
Herms were also ithyphallic, i.e. they typically included an erect

phallus at mid torso. While difficult to see (or completely omitted) in
most of the illustrations above, the outline can still be seen Fig. 337, 340-
41, and 342 C. It can be most clearly seen in Fig. 344 down below. This
phallic quality perhaps had some influence upon the decision to
incorporate the herm style into Dionysian iconography by those who first
did so. That is because, just like with Osiris (pp.246-47, 620-25), the
phallus of Dionysus was at some point castrated and replaced, and thus
revered within his cult.
760
Fig. 344: Before an altar stands a herm of Dionysus displaying its erect phallus, as was
typical for hermae; based on an Attic amphora, 5 th century BCE.
761
Fig. 345: Statue of Dionysus with a hole for a removable phallus; currently on display at
the Banca dItalia in Rome, Roman Imperial Era.
762
Fig. 346: Idols of the severed phallus of Dionysus at the ruins of his temple in Delos, 4 th
century BCE.
763
Fig. 347: The apotheosized phallus of Dionysus; based on a phallic idol from Delos, 4th
century BCE.
764
Fig. 348: A Bacchic hetaerae carries a giant replica of Dionysus severed phallus; based
on a wine pitcher, 5th century BCE, currently at the Staatliche Museum in Berlin.
In the worship of Dionysus the phallus became a symbol of

the power to give life, and in the cult to this god the phallus was
revealed and carried in procession with appropriate hymns intoned
to it. In the Serapeum in Thessalonica archaeologists discovered a
small image of Dionysus that accommodated a removable phallus.
Dr. Gene L. Green, The Letters to the Thessalonians 2148
2148
Gene L. Green, The Letters to the Thessalonians (Grand Rapids: Wm. B.
Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2002), 36. (Emph. added.)
765
If it were not for Dionysus that they hold procession and sing
hymns to the shameful parts [phalli], it would be a most shameless
act.
Heraclitus, Fr. 15 (5th cen. BCE) 2149
The Egyptians celebrate the festival of Dionysos in nearly the
same way as the Hellenes do, except they do not have choral
dances. And instead of phalluses they have their own invention-
marionettes as tall as one and a half feet, which the women carry
around through the villages; these marionettes have genitals that
move up and down and are not much smaller than their entire
bodies. A flute player leads the way, and the women follow, singing
praises of Dionysos. There is a sacred story which explains why the
genitals are so large and why they are the only part of the
marionettes that move.
Now it seems to me that Melampous son of Amythaon was not
ignorant of this sacrificial ritual. I think, rather, that he was actually
quite familiar with it, for it was Melampous who disclosed the name
of Dionysos to the Hellenes, and who taught them how to sacrifice
to him and perform his phallic procession. Strictly speaking, he did
not reveal everything to them, but the sages who were his
descendants completed the revelation. And so it is Melampous
who taught the Hellenes the phallic procession for Dionysos which
they practice today.
Herodotus, Histories 2.48.2-49.1 (5th cen. BCE) 2150
[During the days of the festival of Liber, this obscene member,
placed on a little trolley, was first exhibited with great honour at the
crossroads in the countryside, and then conveyed into the city itself.
In the town of Lavinium, the whole of one month was assigned to
Liber, during the days of which all men made use of the most
obscene language, until the member was carried through the forum
and brought to rest in its own place; and upon this dishonourable
member it was necessary that the most honourable matron should
publicly place a crown. In this way, it seems, the god Liber was to
be propitiated, in order to secure the growth of seeds and to repel
enchantment from the fields.]
Varro, Antiquitates Rerum Divinarum Fr. 262 (1st cen. BCE) 2151
2149
William K.C. Guthrie, A History of Greek Philosophy: The Earlier Presocratics
and the Pythagoreans (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1962-2000),
475.
2150
Strassler (2009), 139. (Emph. added.)
766
The symbol of the Bacchic orgies is a consecrated serpent.
And the following is the token of the Eleusinian mysteries: I have
fasted, I have drunk the cup; I have received from the box; having
done, I put it into the basket, and out of the basket into the chest.
Having abstracted the box in which the phallus of Bacchus was
deposited, took it to Etruriadealers in honourable wares truly.
What are these mystic chests?for I must expose their sacred
things, and divulge things not fit for speech. Are they not sesame
cakes, and pyramidal cakes, and globular and flat cakes, embossed
all over, and lumps of salt, and a serpent the symbol of Dionysus
Bassareus? And besides these, are they not pomegranates, and
branches, and rods, and ivy leaves?
In addition to its regenerative, numinous powers, the serpent is
an intimate denizen of the earth and a symbol of the ever-fertilizing
phallus.
Dr. Anthony Stevens, Ariadne's Clue: A Guide to the Symbols
of Humankind 2153
Fig. 349: Roman coin portraying Dionysus on top of the casketthe Cista Mystica
containing his phallus, while flanked by phallic serpents, c.39 BCE.
2151
Varro, Antiquitates Rerum Divinarum, in Augustine of Hippo, The City of
God against the Pagans, trans. R.W. Dyson (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1998-2002), 292. (Emph. added.)
2152
Clement, in Roberts and Donaldson (1885-1994), 175-77. (Emph. added.)
2153
Anthony Stevens, Ariadne's Clue: A Guide to the Symbols of Humankind
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998-2001), 192. (Emph. added.)
767
Fig. 350: Dionysus bearing his ivy crown on the right, while on the left the Bacchic
serpent representing his phallus slithers into the Cista Mystica, behind which leans his
thyrsus rod; based on various Roman coins, 2 nd-1st century BCE.
768
Fig. 351: On the left the phallic serpent slithers into the Cista Mystica while surrounded
by the ivy crown of Dionysus, on the right the serpents flank a box while Dionysus stands
off to the right bearing his thyrsus rod; based on a Greek coin, c.133 BCE.
So as per Varros testimony, these phallic ceremonies were to ensure

the renewal of agriculture. The implication appears to be that Dionysus
sacrificed his original phallus in order to produce life, both for nature and
for mankind. How fitting then that the serpent is its symbol, not only for
the obvious physical resemblance, but also because the serpent sheds its
skin in whole, leaving behind a lifeless image of its former self. This
gives the appearance of death and rebirth, just as happens with nature
from season to season, and just as happened to Dionysus himself as
covered earlier. This continues the theme already established (pp.246-47,
620-25) which associates castration with renewed life. And because
sacrificing his phallus caused the seeds and fields to grow, including
grain & sesame, it is no wonder then that Clement listed cakes of bread
made of sesame seeds and various grains as likewise being a symbol of
Dionysus right along with the phallic serpent. Especially interesting is
the reference to pyramidal cakes, which sound like they would be
somewhat similar in shape to a phallus (and keeping in that theme, the
globular cakes might very well have represented the testicles). So once
again, bread appears to represent part of the broken body of Dionysus.
The final archetype shared between Dionysus and Osiris worth
mentioning in this chapter is that of the group of 12. In the case of
Dionysus, his group of twelve was the Twelve Olympians. While sources
vary as to the exact list, there was indeed a tradition in which Dionysus
769
was counted as a member of the Twelve Olympians. Such can be seen on
a frieze from the Parthenon which portrays the Twelve Olympians seated
on twelve thrones, surrounded by various servants and lesser gods.
There were traditionally twelve Olympian deities: Zeus,
Poseidon, Hermes, Ares, Apollo, Hephaistos, Dionysos; Hera,
Artemis, Aphrodite, Athena, Demeter. Of these Demeter is
probably a latecomer to this group, being in origin a realization of
the Earth-goddess; and Dionysos had always been considered a
very late introduction, until the revelation of his name on two Pylos
tablets upset this comfortable belief.
Dr. John Chadwick, The Mycenaean World 2154
The familiar twelve Olympian deities of Zeus, Hera, Athena,
Dionysus, Hermes, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Demeter, Apollo,
Artemis, Ares, and our Poseidon each shared this dual naturea
panhellenic type in literature but also, probably in every city-state, a
local form, with its own individual cult, myth, ritual, and sometimes
even function.
Dr. Jon D. Mikalson, Ancient Greek Religion 2155
Although at the local level the Greeks worshipped their gods
in various configurationsin groups, pairs, or individuallythe most
common group found consistently throughout the Greek world is
the so-called Twelve Gods, which included the most important
members of the Olympian family. As they are depicted on the
frieze of the Parthenon in Athens, the Twelve Gods are Zeus,
Hera, Poseidon, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Aphrodite, Hermes,
Demeter, Dionysus, Hephaestus, and Ares.
Dr. Corinne O. Pache, in The Oxford Encyclopedia of
Ancient Greece and Rome: Volume 1 2156
On the east frieze of the Parthenon, the gods are portrayed as
having come down from Mount Olympus to help celebrate the
quadrennial Panathenaic festival. Waiting to receive the worship of
city officials and citizens from their vantage point high on the
Acropolis overlooking Athens are the Olympian gods, the Twelve:
2154
John Chadwick, The Mycenaean World (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1976-2003), 85. (Emph. added.)
2155
Jon D. Mikalson, Ancient Greek Religion (Malden: Wiley-Blackwell, 2005-
10), 36. (Emph. added.)
2156
Pache (2010), 314-16. (Emph. added.)
770
Zeus, Poseidon, Hephaestus, Hermes, Ares, Apollo, Dionysus,
Hera, Athena, Artemis, Aphrodite, and Demeter.
Dr. Philip Mayerson, Classical Mythology in Literature, Art,
and Music 2157
Fig. 352: Dionysus seated upon his throne in his rightful place as one of the Twelve
Olympians; based on the east frieze of the Parthenon, 5 th century BCE.
In addition to this, Dionysus also instructed his disciples to construct

twelve altars to him at his holy mountain.
They led three companies up to the mountain. There they cut
leaves from the dense growth of the wild oak, and living ivy and
creeping asphodel, and in a sacred open field they built twelve
altars: three for Semele, and nine for Dionysus. From a chest they
lifted out the sacred offerings thy had shaped, and in holy silence
laid them on the new-built altars, just as the god had taught them;
for this was Dionysus' pleasure.
Theocritus of Syracuse, Idyll 26 (3rd cen. BCE) 2158
2157
Philip Mayerson, Classical Mythology in Literature, Art, and Music
(Newburyport: Focus Classical Library, R. Pullins and Company, 2001), 88.
(Emph. added.)
771
With Dionysus having all of these classic archetypes prior to the
Common Era, it is no wonder that certain other heathen cults saw the
appeal and began to incorporate the worship of Dionysus into their own
religion. Even the scriptures of the heathen themselves admit as much.
They confess that in the hundred and thirty and seventh year of the
kingdom of the Greeks, in those days went there out wicked men, who
persuaded many, saying, Let us go and make a covenant with the
heathen that are round about us: for since we departed from them we
have had much sorrow. So this device pleased them well. Then certain
of the people were so forward herein, that they went to the king, who
gave them licence to do after the ordinances of the heathen:
Whereupon they built a place of exercise according to the customs of
the heathen: And made themselves uncircumcised, and forsook the
holy covenant, and joined themselves to the heathen, and were sold to
do mischief.
Not long after this the king sent an old man of Athens to pollute
also the temple, and to call it the temple of Jupiter Olympius; and
elsewhere that of Jupiter the Defender of strangers, as they did desire
that dwelt in the place.
And when the feast of Bacchus was kept, they were compelled to
go in procession to Bacchus, carrying ivy. Moreover there went out a
decree to the neighbour cities of the heathen, by the suggestion of
Ptolemee, that they should observe the same fashions, and be partakers
of their sacrifices.
Those who spoke against it should be taken by force and put to
death; and that those who were registered should even be branded on
their bodies with an ivy-leaf, the emblem of Dionysus, and be reduced
to their former limited status. But that he might not appear an enemy to
all, he added, But if any of them prefer to join those who are initiated
into the mysteries, they shall have equal rights with the citizens of
Alexandria. Some obviously hating the price paid for the religion of
their city readily gave themselves up, expecting to gain great glory from
their association with the king.
2158
Theocritus of Syracuse, Idylls, trans. Verity (2002), 77. (Emph. added.)
772
In corroboration with this, Plutarch recorded the following from a
response of Moeragenes to Symmachus and Lamprias concerning
whether or not this heathen cult worshipped Dionysus:
When they celebrate their so-called Fast, at the height of the
vintage, they set out tables of all sorts of fruit under tents and huts
plaited for the most part of vines and ivy. They call the first of the
two days Tabernacles. A few days later they celebrate another
festival, this time identified with Bacchus not through obscure
hints, but plainly called by his name, a festival that is of a sort of
Procession of Branches or Thyrsus Procession, in which they
enter the temple each carrying a thyrsus. What they do after
entering we do not know, but it is probable that the rite is a Bacchic
revelry, for in fact they use little trumpets to invoke their god as do
the Argives at their Dionysia. Others of them advance playing
harps.
I believe that even the feast of the Sabbath is not completely
unrelated to Dionysus. Many even now call the Bacchants Sabi and
utter that cry when celebrating the god. Testimony to this can be
found in Demosthenes and Menander they keep the Sabbath by
inviting each other to drink and to enjoy wine; when more
important business interferes with this custom, they regularly take at
least a sip of neat wine. Now thus far one might call the argument
only probable, but the opposition is quite demolished, in the first
place by the High Priest, who leads the procession at their festival
wearing a mitre and clad in a gold-embroidered fawnskin, a robe
reaching to the ankles, and ringing below him as he walks. All this
corresponds to our custom. In the second place, they also have
noise as an element in their nocturnal festivals, and call the nurses
of the god bronze rattlers. The carved thyrsus in the relief on the
pediment of the Temple and the drums (provide other parallels).
All this surely befits (they might say) no divinity but Dionysus.
Plutarch, Moralia 671D-672C 2159
The multiple references to this heathen cults temple still standing
show that this conversation took place prior to that temples destruction
in the 1st century. So it has been established from these texts that these
particular heathen were already worshipping a famous dying &
resurrecting god (who had many other recurring archetypes as well),
prior to their creation of an offshoot cult in the 1st century which claimed
to have its own unique dying and resurrecting god also strongly
2159
773
associated with wine and crosses and the whole shebang. Of course,
these same heathens ancestors likely already engaged in such worship
even earlier via the worship of Osiris so heavily practiced in Egypt,
where those ancestors allegedly emigrated from.
Behold Women Sat there Mourning for Adonis
Along with Dionysus, another character of heathen lore which was

conflated with Osiris (and with Dionysus) was Adonis. Indications of
this can apparently be traced back to as early as the Hellenistic Era, and
seems to be positively confirmed by the 1st century BCE via Parthenius
of Nicaea.2160
It is not surprising that Osiris is often identified with Adonis,
first that we know of in the time of the second Ptolemy, when poets
attach to the state-sponsored Adonia an Osirian procession down
to the sea with an effigy of the god. Most germane to our inquiry is
Parthenius' reference to "Adonis of Canopus," which locates Adonis
at the site of the most famous Ptolemaic cult of Osiris-Serapis.
Parthenius, of course, was an influence on Virgil and his
contemporaries.
Dr. Joseph D. Reed, in The American Journal of Philology 2161
An even more explicit identification is found in the fragments of a
Phrygian hymn from the 1st century CE,2162 which were preserved by
Hippolytus of Rome:
2160
Fr. 37, in Stephanus of Byzantium: Adonis is called Canopites by
Parthenius. See Longus: Daphnis and Chloe: Parthenius: Love Romances, trans.
S. Gaselee (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1916-89), 367.
2161
Joseph D. Reed, The Death of Osiris in Aeneis, The American Journal of
Philology 119, no. 3 (1998): 411.
774
Assyrians call you thrice-lamented Adonis; all Egypt- Osiris.
Phrygian Hymn to Attis 2163
Following that is the reference from Lucian:
I saw in Byblos a large temple of Byblian Aphrodite, in which
they perform the rituals to Adonis. I also learnt the rites. And
they shave their heads like the Egyptians when the Apis-bull dies.
Of the women, those who do not wish to shave their heads pay the
following fine. They put their beauty on sale for a single day; the
market is open to strangers alone, and their fee becomes forfeit to
Aphrodite. Some of the Byblians assert that it is amongst them that
Egyptian Osiris is buried, and that the mourning rites are all
directed, not to Adonis, but to Osiris.
Lucian of Samosata, On the Syrian Goddess 6-7 2164
2162
Maria G. Lancellotti, Attis, Between Myth and History: King, Priest, and God
(Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV, 2002), 117.
Gary Lease, Jewish Mystery Cults since Goodenough, Aufstieg Und
Niedergang Der Rmischen Welt II.20.2, eds. H. Temporini and W. Haase
(Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co., 1987), 861.
Philippe Borgeaud, Mother of the Gods: From Cybele to the Virgin Mary, trans.
L. Hochroth (Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 2004), 102.
2163
Hippolytus of Rome, Refutation of All Heresies, in The Gnostic Bible, eds. W.
Barnstone and M. Meyer (Boston: New Seeds Books, 2003), 483-84.
2164
Lucian, in Lightfoot (2003), 251. (Emph. added.)
775
Fig. 353: Based on a gilded bronze statue of a mummified Adonis conflated with the
Egyptian god Osiris (cf. Fig. 373); Roman Imperial Era, currently at the National Roman
Museum at the Baths of Diocletian.
Naturally, because of Osiris intimate connection with Dionysus,

Adonis became syncretic with Dionysus by at least as early as the 1 st
century CE as well.
People hold Adonis to be none other than Dionysus, a belief
supported by many of the rites at the festivals of both. Is there
actually some tradition that demonstrates identity between him and
Adonis? Moeragenes interposed, Never mind him. I as an
Athenian can answer you and say that the god is no other. Most of
the relevant proofs can lawfully be pronounced or divulged only to
those of us who have been initiated into the Perfect Mysteries
celebrated every other year.
776
Lamprias, Symmachus, and Moeragenes, in Moralia 671B-D 2165
Where there is syncretism, there is transference of attributes. Hence,
like Osiris & Dionysus, Adonis was later described as having bovine
features.
O Adonis Two-horned spirit of growth, much loved and
wept for.
Orphic Hymn to Adonis 4-6 2166
Then there is the motif of generation upon/within a tree. Although, in
the cases of Osiris and Dionysus (and even Horus) it was actually
posthumous regeneration/rebirth via the tree, while in Adonis case it
was simply birth. Nevertheless, the archetype of the tree of woe also
being a tree of life is there in all of these tales. Also in common with
Osiris is the fact that this tree was a form of Adonis mother.
Panyasis [5th cen. BCE] says that she prayed to the gods to
become invisible. Pitying her, they turned her into a tree which they
call Smyrna [myrrh]. Ten months later the tree burst open and
Adonis, as he is called, was born.
Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.14.4 (1st cen. CE) 2167
Smyrna by the foresight of Aphrodite she was changed into
the tree that bears her name. So Theodorus [4th-1st cen. BCE] in
his Metamorphoses.
Pseudo-Plutarch, Parallela Graeca et Romana 22 2168
Caught between the fear of death and weariness of life,
She embraced this prayer:
If there is any god
Open to my prayers, I do not refuse
The punishment I deserve. But to avoid
Offending the living by my life or the dead
By my death, exclude me from both realms.
Transform me, and deny me both life and death.
Some god answered her final prayer. The earth
Closed over her legs as she spoke, and roots
2165
2166
Apostolos N. Athanassakis and Benjamin M. Wolkow, The Orphic Hymns
(Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 2013), 46. (Emph. added.)
2167
2168
Pseudo-Plutarch, Parallela Graeca et Romana, in Babbitt (1936-99), 289.
777
Popped out of her toes to support the high trunk.
Her bones became sturdier, and while the marrow
Remained much the same, her blood became sap,
Her arms became branches, her fingers became twigs,
And her skin hardened to bark. The growing tree
Had now bound her heavy womb, buried her breast,
And almost covered her neck; but she could not wait,
And sank her face down into the rising wood,
Plunging it into bark. And although she has lost
Her old senses and feelings along with her body,
She still weeps, and the warm drops flow down the tree.
Even her tears are honored, and the myrrh
That drips from the bark preserves its mistress name,
Which will be spoken through all the ages.
Meanwhile, the misbegotten baby had grown
Inside the tree and was now trying to find a way
To leave its mother and come into the world.
The pregnant tree swells in its midsection
And the pressure strains the mother. The pangs
Cannot be voiced, nor can Lucina be called
In the voice of a woman in labor. But like one,
The tree bends, groans, and is wet with falling tears,
And gentle Lucina stood near the moaning branches,
Laid on her hands, and chanted childbearing spells.
The tree cracked open and through its split bark
Delivered a baby boy.
It is interesting that Ovid made sure to point out that the mothers
arms were the parts which became her branches. So here is a tree with
only two branches, each splaying out from either side of the trunk at
what would be around shoulder height. This description of the scene
invokes imagery of a tree with a cruciform shape, not unlike Fig. 102-left
& 104 on pp.331-33. And so natural is such a conclusion that apparently
that is how most of the artists of the more popular classical depictions
likewise interpreted it to look as well, as seen below. This would seem to
imply a continuation of the cross-tree motif, especially when considered
in the context of Adonis syncretism with Osiris & Dionysus, both of
whom also share in this motif.
2169
Ovid, in Lombardo (2010), 283-84. (Emph. added.)
778
Fig. 354: Illustration of the birth of Adonis from the cruciform Myrrh tree, cf. Fig. 102-
left and 104.
779
Fig. 355
780
Fig. 356
781
Fig. 357
782
Fig. 358: An illustration of Adonis in the tree compared to an illustration of crucifixion
upon a tree (Fig. 104).
783
Fig. 359: The heathen god The Good Shepherd is likewise shown upon a tree made
from the flesh of his mother.
784
Fig. 360: Here the birth of The Good Shepherd is portrayed as taking place within a tree,
just like that of Adonis.
785
Fig. 361: Again, The Good Shepherds birth is depicted as emerging from within a tree.
786
Fig. 362
787
Fig. 363
788
Fig. 364: Even to this day The Good Shepherds mother is portayed in the form of a tree,
just like Adonis mother Myrrha- a name remarkably similar to Mr. Good Shepherds
mother.
As can be seen above, this birth of Adonis from a tree is noticeably

similar to the countless heathen artistic depictions of The Good Shepherd
being born from his mother who is portayed as a tree, which grows from
the body of one of his ancestors. So what other motifs does Adonis have
in common with Osiris & company? Is there, perhaps, a virgin birth?
Well no- is what one will likely be told, depending on who is asked
and/or what text is read. Once again, remember that there are often
variants within a mythos of a particular character. Most textual sources
currently extant repeat the same tradition, that being the one in which
Adonis was conceived in incest between his mother and her father.
However, there is another tradition (also predating the Common Era)
which does indeed declare that Adonis was born without any sexual
conception. Apparently the tree from which he was born was
impregnated by none other than Zeus himself, and by some sort of
supernatural means.
[Adonis was] created by Jove without lying [with] any woman.
Philostephanus of Cyrene, Questiones Poeticae (3rd cen.
BCE) 2170
2170
Philostephanus of Cyrene, Questiones Poeticae, in (Pseudo) Marcus Valerius
Probus, Vergilus Bucolica et Georgica Commentarius 10.18. Translation
performed with the aid of Wiktionary and Google Translate.
789
Probus commentary in Virgils Ecl. 10.18 had provided a
version of the story, according to which Adonis had been
generated by Jupiter without lying with a woman Probus quotes
Philostephanus of Cyrene on Adonis as the son of Zeus.
Dr. Carlo Caruso, Adonis: The Myth of the Dying God in the
Italian Renaissance 2171
The most startling example is Ps-Probus on Buc. X.18, where
Vergil mentions Adonis. Ps-Probus gives four possible genealogies,
citing Hesiod, Antimachus, and Philostephanus, the latter complete
with book title. Since citation precedes information, on the basis of
parallel Greek texts we should almost certainly supply a fourth
name, as follows:
<filius, ut> Hesiodus ait, Phoenicis Agenoris et Alphesiboeae;
<ut Panyassis ait,> Thiantis, qui Syriam Arabiamque tenuit
imperio; ut Antimachus ait, <Cinyrae qui> regnauit Cypro, ut
et Philostephanus libro, quo quaestiones poeticas reddidit, ex
Iove sine ullius feminae accubitu proceatus.
The reconstructed text here cited (mainly after West) is intended to
reflect some ideal earlier stage of the tradition rather than the actual
texts of Ps-Probus or even his source. Under the circumstances,
there seems no good reason to cast doubt on Philostephanus, who
is cited elsewhere in the Vergil, as in the Apollonius and
Theocritus scholia.
Alan Cameron, Greek Mythography in the Roman World 2172
Philostephanus is cited by Probus (E 10.18) for a unique
version of the story, in which Adonis was ex Iove sine ullius
feminae accubitu procreatus. One assumes that this was an
unusual way of describing Adonis birth from a tree, but the
reference to Zeus is strange. The story of Adonis seems to have
been assimilated here to the stories of the miraculous births of
Dionysos or Athene from Zeus.
Dr. Paul M.C.F. Forbes Irving, Metamorphosis in Greek
Myths 2173
2171
Carlo Caruso, Adonis: The Myth of the Dying God in the Italian Renaissance
(London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013), 88, Index of names. (Emph. added.)
2172
Alan Cameron, Greek Mythography in the Roman World (New York: Oxford
University Press, 2004), 205-06. (Emph. added.)
2173
Paul M.C.F. Forbes Irving, Metamorphosis in Greek Myths (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1990), 275. (Emph. added.)
790
Evidently, this anonymous some god mentioned by Ovid who
transformed Adonis mother into a tree was Zeus, and later on Antoninus
Liberalis even stated as much.2174 As per Philostephanus, in doing so
Zeus also impregnated the mother as well, without any sexual copulation.
Or as Tyndares the Spartan (1st cen. CE) would say- not by a physical
approach, like a man's, but by some other kind of contact or touch, by
other agencies, that a god alters mortal nature and makes it pregnant with
a more divine offspring.2175 That can only leave parthenogensis. So in at
least one tradition before the Common Era, Adonis was indeed believed
to have had a virgin birth.
Details on the life events of Adonis are disappointingly lacking.
Most synopses just cover his birth, his love triangle with Aphrodite &
Persephone, and then his death. It is in his death that further parallels are
to be found. For starters, his method of death involved castration,
something Osiris & Dionysus were well familiar with. Specifically, he
was castrated by a wild hog when a boar gored him right in his groin,
after which he bled out and died.
I lament for Adonis; the Erotes lament back.
Beautiful Adonis lies in the mountains, his thigh by a white tusk
gored, white thigh by white tusk, bringing Cypris pain
with his last feeble breaths. The dark blood oozes down his snow-
white flesh.
Bion of Smyrna, Lament for Adonis 6-10 (2nd cen. BCE) 2176
Still you will weep at times for the friend whom you have lost;
Always love is due to ones man who has passed away.
Witness a goodness, when the wild boar gored Adonis
Hunting on the Idalian height;
He lay there, lovely, in the marshes, and you came
To him, Venus, with streaming hair.
Poems of Sextus Propertius 2.13.51-56 (1st cen. BCE) 2177
The boar sank his tusks
Deep into his groin and left Adonis to die
2174
Antoninus Liberalis, Metmorphoses 34.
2175
Plutarch, in Clement (1969), 117.
2176
Bion, Lament for Adonis, in Trzaskoma (2004), 73.
2177
Sextus Propertius, in Propertius: The Poems, trans. G. Lee (Oxford: Oxford
791
On the yellow sand.
Adonis, while still a boy, because of Artemis anger was gored
while hunting a boar and died!
Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.14.4 2179
Adonis is said to have been slain by the boar.
Lamprias, Moralia 671B 2180
Adonis was killed during a hunt by a boar whose tusk pierced
his groin and mutilated his genitals. He either hid, or was laid by
Aphrodite, in a bed of lettuce, or his corpse was laid out on such a
bed. The supposed dissipating effects of lettuce on male potency
and its rapid withering in the shallow pots each suggest, in different
ways, the untimely castration and death Adonis, itself represented
by the small statues.
Dr. James Fredal, Rhetorical Action in Ancient Athens:
Persuasive Artistry from Solon to Demosthenes 2181
The motif of the young hunter killed by a boar is not at all
confined to Adonis. It may be significant, however, that an
accident in boar huntingmore than, say, lion hunting or bear
huntingis liable to produce wounds somehow equaling castration.
Dr. Walter Burket, Structure and History in Greek Mythology
and Ritual 2182
He is Adonis (Etruscan Atune), who was gored, slain, and
emasculated by the boar.
Joseph Campbell, The Masks of God: Occidental Mythology 2183
2178
2179
2180
Plutarch, in Clement and Hoffleit (1969), 359.
2181
James Fredal, Rhetorical Action in Ancient Athens: Persuasive Artistry from
Solon to Demosthenes (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University, 2006), 147.
2182
Walter Burket, Structure and History in Greek Mythology and Ritual
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979), 108.
2183
Joseph Campbell, The Masks of God: Occidental Mythology
(Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd., 1976), 309.
792
Fig. 365: The emasculated Adonis dies as the boar flees the scene. The puncture wound
where Adonis phallus used to be now conspicuously resembles female genitalia; based on
a Greek cosmetic tray from Taxila, 1st century BCE, currently at The Nelson-Atkins
Museum of Art in Kansas City.
Along with the castration, the disdain for the swine and casting it as
the antagonist is something also found in the mythos of Osiris. There are,
of course, those things already mentioned such as the Coffin Texts spell
for casting out swine as well as the depiction of Osiris casting out the
damned in the form of a swine (p.563). But there is also a Coffin Text
which explains that the main reason for the Osirian disdain for swine is
because Seth, the antagonist who castrated Osiris, likewise took on the
form of a swine.
Re said: 'Look again at yonder black pig'. And Horus looked at
this black pig, and Horus cried out because of the condition of his
injured Eye, saying: 'Behold, my Eye is like that first wound which
Seth inflicted on my Eye', and Horus became unconscious in his
presence. And Re said: 'Put him on his bed until he is well'. It so
happened that Seth had transformed himself into a pig and had
projected a wound into his Eye. And Re said; 'The pig is detestable
to Horus'. 'Would that he were well', SAID THE GODS. THAT
IS HOW THE DETESTATION OF THE PIG CAME ABOUT
FOR HORUS'S (SAKE) BY THE GODS WHO ARE IN THE
SUITE.
793
This corroborates with Plutarchs testimony.
They hold the pig to be an unclean animal, because it is
reputed to be most inclined to mate in the waning of the moon,
and because the bodies of those who drink its milk break out with
leprosy and scabrous itching. The story which they relate at their
only sacrifice and eating of a pig at the time of the full moon, how
Typhon, while he was pursuing a boar by the light of the full moon,
found the wooden coffin in which lay the body of Osiris, which he
rent to pieces and scattered.
Plutarch, Moralia 353F-54A 2185
So it seems as though even at the castration (via dismemberment)
itself, Seth appeared in disguise as a boar for the purposes of boar
hunting. Whats also noteworthy is the connection mentioned there
between swine and leprosy, which was also mentioned even earlier by
Manetho (3rd cen. BCE).
A person who has tasted of sows milk becomes full of white
and scaly leprosy. All Asians indeed hate these diseases. The
Egyptians believe that the sow is abominated by both the Sun and
the Moon; when they hold a festival to the Moon, they sacrifice
sows to her this once a year, but at other times they are unwilling to
sacrifice this animal to her or to any other god, since she is an
abomination.
Manetho, Fr. 29a (Loeb Fr. 81) 2186
The relevance of this is made apparent in an informative passage by
Dr. Russell Gmirkin:
On attaining manhood, Horus expelled Seth-Typhon and his
wicked confederates from Egypt as a preliminary to resurrecting his
father Osiris. In the time of Manetho, the adherents of the cult of
Seth-Typhon were maligned as leprous, for Egyptians believed the
pig conveyed leoprosy, and a boar was one of Typhons special,
2184
Faulkner (1973), 135.
2185
2186
Manetho, in Aelian, On the Characteristics of Animals 10.16, in Berossos
and Manetho: Native Traditions in Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, trans. G.
Verbrugghe and J.M. Wickersham (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press,
1996-2003), 170.
794
sacred animals. Amenophiss purging the land of lepers and other
polluted persons thus corresponded to Horuss original purging
Egypt of Seth-Typhon and his polluted followers. The episode
under Amenophis is thus to be interpreted as a reenactment of the
expulsion of Seth-Typhon (a motif that frequently recurs in
Egyptian literature).2187
So this seems to be the root behind this recurring theme in this
brotherhood of syncretic deities involving the disdain & casting out of
the swine, which are portrayed as the antagonists. It was a divine
metaphor or synchronicity which correlated to the casting out of Seth
the evil swine of the godsand his confederacy of spiritual lepers, a
disease inflicted by swine. And once more, this is also suspiciously
reminiscent of a much later heathen tale involving the casting out of evil
spirits in the form of swine.
Moving along, the blood spilled from Adonis wound granted new
life- even eternal life (but more on that aspect later). Just as the blood of
Dionysus produced grapes/wine (and in a later tradition, a pomegranate
tree2188), and the blood of Osiris produced grapes/wine, and
grain/bread/beer, the blood of Adonis which seeped into the soil brought
forth botanical life as well.
The anemone grew from the blood of Adonis
Nicander of Colophon, Fr. 65 (2nd cen. BCE) 2189
The goddess of Paphos pours forth as many tears as Adonis
pours blood, and all of it turns to flowers on the earth:
the blood produces the rose, the tears the anemone.
Bion of Smyrna, Lament for Adonis 64-66 (2nd cen. BCE) 2190
My grief,
Adonis, shall be memorialized, and every year
Your death and my grief will be reenacted
In ritual. But your blood will be transmuted
Into a flower. If Persephone once
Could change the nymph Menthe into fragrant mint,
2187
Gmirkin (2006), 198.
2188
Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Heathen 2.19.
2189
Joseph D. Reed, New Verses on Adonis, Zeitschrift fr Papyrologie und
Epigraphik 158 (2006): 80.
2190
Bion, Lament for Adonis, in Trzaskoma (2004), 74.
795
Shall I be begrudged the transformation
Of Cinyras heroic grandson, Adonis?
And she sprinkled the blood with aromatic nectar.
Imbued with this essence, the blood swelled up
Like a clear bubble that rises from yellow mud,
And within an hour up sprang a flower
The color of blood, like a pomegranate bloom.
Another Egyptian story this bears some similarity to is yet another
story in which blood from a gods phallus created new life. This time,
instead of Osiris, it is Osiris true Father, Re, whose blood drops gave
birth to Hu (Authority) and Sia (Perception).
Ancestors, give me your hands. It is I, who came into being
through you.
WHAT IS THAT? It means that drops of blood dripped
from Res phallus when he set about cutting himself. Then
(they) became the gods that are in the presence of Re. They
are Authority (and) Perception, who are in (my) Father Atums
train daily.
Even more similar to the generative powers of Adonis phallic blood
are tales from other heathen cults of much later origin. Some of these
tales even involve their most revered deity, The Good Shepherd, and
claim that drops of his blood which dripped from his wounds during his
alleged crucifixion fell to the ground and caused flowers to spring up,
just like in the tales of Adonis. Several such species were later named
after that very event and are even still referred to by those names to this
day. An alternative version claims that the blood simply dripped upon
the flowers and stained them, as they were originally only pure white in
color, but after contact with the divine blood became permanently red
thereafter. In yet another related story of vegetative genesis, a statue of
the god was commanded to be destroyed by Emperor Julian. This idol
was, much like Osiris & Dionysus, broken in pieces and scattered but
later reconstituted and at the base of this statue grew an herb which was
2191
2192
T.G. Allen (1974), 28.
796
unknown to the physicians and empirics, but was efficacious in the
cure of all disorders.
Fig. 366: Illustration of the dying Adonis lying in a bed of blood-red anemone flowers
which were created by his shed blood.
Fig. 367: The blood-red Euphorbia milii, believed by some heathen to be the product of
the shed blood of their own crucified deity, The Good Shepherd.
797
In other heathen tales, founding fathers and various martyred heroes
of their cult likewise bled into the earth and caused plant life to spring up
at those spots. For example, one such father was hung upon a tree with
hooks and prophesied that after three days a plant shall spring up from
his blood, and shall become a vine, and shall produce fruit of a bunch
of grapes. Afterwards his comrades were to immediately press it into the
cup; and having partaken of it on the third day, send up on high as a
libation. Sure enough, thats what happened. Another good example
involved a founding father and his attempt to preach to a city of
cannibals who brought him out again, and having fastened a rope
about his neck, they dragged him; and again his flesh stuck to the
ground, and his blood flowed to the ground like water. After praying,
his god told him to look back at the places where his blood fell, and so he
turned, and saw great trees springing up, bearing fruit.
Regardless of how late or early these stories were added to the
corpus of this cults literature, it is yet another example of how several
of its motifs were used much earlier in the religion of Osiris as well as in
various heathen religions. And many such motifs indeed showed up in
this cults corpus at the earliest stages of its development. There was
never a period in this cults history when it did not incorporate
archetypes which were also previously utilized in older religions and
myths.
Getting back to the blood of Adonis, it was also believed to have
seeped into the nearby river and, in a miracle reminiscent of Osiris &
Dionysus, turned the water into blood and would continue to so annually
thereafter. Hence the river was named after Adonis.
There is another marvel in Byblian territory. A river from
Mount Lebanon discharges into the sea, and the rivers name is
Adonis. Each year the river grows bloody and, losing its normal
hue, flows into the sea and incarnadines the greater part of it,
signaling the rituals of mourning to the Byblians. The story is that
on these days Adonis is wounded on Lebanon, and the blood that
reaches the water changes the colour of the river and gives the
stream its name. This is what most of them say. But a certain
Byblian who seemed to be telling the truth gave another
explanation. His account was this: The river Adonis, stranger,
passes through Lebanon, and Lebanon has very yellow soil. Strong
winds which arise on those days carry the earth, which is red in the
highest degree, into the river, and it is the earth that makes it
798
bloody. So the reason for the phenomenon is not the blood, as
they say, but the terrain. So said the man of Byblos; but even if
what he said was right, the winds timing seemed to me to be
miraculous indeed.
Some antagonists might consider this source to be too late to be
relevant. But like all of nature, the Adonis River (today called Nahr
Ibrahim) far predates the Common Era. Nature is the oldest primary
source one can reference. Therefore humans were already observing the
annual discoloration via sediment influx for centuries prior to Lucian or
the Common Era, just as they continued to observe it on occasion
thereafter, even down to our own time.
From north to south, the principal rivers along the
Mediterranean coast are: the Nahr al Kabir, which forms the
northern boundary with Syria; the Nahr al Barid; the Nahr Abu
Ali, which flows through Tripoli; the Nahr al Jawzah; the Nahr
Ibrahim, the ancient Adonis River which still flows red in the
springtime.
Harvey H. Smith, Area Handbook for Lebanon 2194
Each spring at Apheca, the melting snows flood the river,
bringing a reddish mud into the stream from the steep mountain
slopes. The red stain can be seen feeding into the river and far out
to the Mediterranean Sea. Legend held this to be the blood of
Adonis, renewed each year at the time of his death, while local
legend also has it that the red anemones that bloom in the valley of
the Adonis River or Nahr Ibrahim, are tainted with his blood.
Hana El-Hibri, A Million Steps: Discovering the Lebanon
Mountain Trail 2195
The source of Nahr Ibrahim, the river of Adonis that turns red
with the coming of every spring, is at the top of a steep road that
twines narrowly around the mountains of North East Lebanon.
Nuha Salib-Salibi, The Lebanon I Love 2196
2193
Lucian, in Lightfoot (2003), 251-53.
2194
Harvey H. Smith et al., Area Handbook for Lebanon (Washington, D.C.: U.S.
Government Printing Office, 1974), 17. (Emph. added.)
2195
Hana El-Hibri, A Million Steps: Discovering the Lebanon Mountain Trail
(Beirut: DOTS Printing Press, 2010), 145. (Emph. added.)
799
So what about the connection of this river to Adonis? How early can
that be established? Apparently, it can be traced back at least as early as
the Hellenistic Era,2197 thus also predating Lucian or the Common Era.
(?) Laughter-loving ... (?) turning around ... in alternation ... to
Cypris ... down below to Persephone ... But ... his name to a river
..., and by means of his ambrosial blood a beautiful [?plant
bloomed].
Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 4711 (3rd-1st cen. BCE) 2198
A phrase connecting Adonis' name to a river will most
obviously refer to the River Adonis (the present-day Nahr Ibrahim,
near Byblos in Lebanon), said to be reddened yearly by Adonis'
blood.
Dr. Joseph D. Reed, in Zeitschrift fr Papyrologie und
2199
Epigraphik
POxy 4711 ... In the longest fragment, the story of Adonis (fr.
1 II. 1-6) ends with his transformation into a flower, and the
aetiology of the name of the river Adonis.
Dr. Jane L. Lightfoot, in A Companion to Ovid 2200
So this river whose water turns blood-red in the spring predates the
Common Era, and the association of that river with the bloody death of
2196
Nuha Salib-Salibi, The Lebanon I Love (Beirut: Naufal Publishers S.A.R.L.,
1980), 78. (Emph. added.)
2197
Reed (2006), 76, 81-82.
David Armstong, Papyrology, in The Oxford Handbook of Hellenic Studies,
eds. G. Boys-Stones and B. Graziosi (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009),
771-72.
W. Benjamin Henry, 4711. Elegy (Metamorphoses?), The Oxyrhynchus Papyri:
Volume LXIX, eds. N. Gonis, D. Obbink, D. Colomo, G.B. D'Alessio, and A. Nodar
(London: Egypt Exploration Society, 2005), 4653.
Enrico Magnelli, On the New Fragments of Greek Poetry from
Oxyrhynchus, Zeitschrift fr Papyrologie und Epigraphik 158 (2006): 10-11.
University of Oxford, New light on the Narcissus myth: P.Oxy. LXIX 4711,
accessed November 18, 2013,
http://www.papyrology.ox.ac.uk/POxy/papyri/4711.html.
2198
Reed (2006), 77. (Emph. added.)
2199
Ibid. 77.
2200
Jane L. Lightfoot, Ovid and Hellenistic Poetry, A Companion to Ovid, ed.
P.E. Know (Malden: Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2009), 231. (Emph. added.)
800
Adonis also predates the Common Era. Therefore the idea that the blood
of Adonis transformed that water into blood likewise predates the
Common Era. Adonis too shares in the archetype of the transmutation of
water.
And now comes the time for the most important archetype- the
resurrection and ascension into heaven. Also like Osiris and Dionysus,
Adonis could and did often descend into Hell and later return to this
world of the living. Although, the timing of it was more like that of
Persephone, or better yet, like Adonis Mesopotamian alter ego-
Tammuz (who deserves to be addressed in another work entirely). In
other words, Adonis posthumous ascent, descent, and return correlated
to the changes in weather and agriculture. The well known story of
Persephone which most readers here no doubt are familiar with consisted
of spending six months of every year down in Hell with the god Hades,
which correlated with the death of nature in autumn and winter. Then she
spent six months above with her mother Demeter, which correlated with
the return of life to nature during the spring and summer. In the case of
Adonis, his year was portioned out in thirds,2201 similar to the Egyptian
year of three seasons rather than four. He spent four months with none
other than Persephone herself, down in Hell, four months with the
goddess Aphrodite, and then four months to himself. As shall be shown,
this cycle apparently continued on even after his death. And there stands
no reason why it shouldnt have, seeing as how he came back to life and
was thus fully capable of keeping his appointments. Since Lucians text
will come up the most, Ill go ahead and start with his, even though it
post-dates the Common Era.
I saw in Byblos a large temple of Byblian Aphrodite, in which
they perform the rituals to Adonis. I also learnt the rites. They say
that the affair of Adonis and the boar took place in their country,
and in memory of the sad event they beat their breasts each year
and lament and perform the rites, and there is much mourning
throughout the country. After they have finished beating their
breasts and lamenting, they first make offerings to Adonis as to the
dead, and afterwards, on the next day, they claim that he lives and
send him into the air.
2201
Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.14.4.
801
Unsurprisingly, antagonists still vehemently deny that the Adonis
mythos contains this motif of returning to life after death, or at the very
least, they claim that it wasnt incorporated until the 2nd century CE or
later. Lucians text quoted above is often claimed to be absolute earliest
source. Disappointingly, a few of these antagonists are actually well
respected scholars in relevant fields. But alas, immune to error they are
not. For example, one passage often cited by the heathen was authored
by Dr. Jonathan Z. Smith:
There is no suggestion of Adonis rising. The first version lacks an
account of Adonis's death; the second emphasizes the goddess's
mourning and the fragility of the flower that perpetuates his memory.
Even when the two versions are combined, Adonis' alternation between
the upper and lower worlds precedes his death. The rituals of Adonis,
held during the summer months, are everywhere described as periods of
intense mourning. Only late texts claim that there is a subsequent day
of celebration for Adonis having been raised from the dead. The earliest
of these is alleged to be the second-century account of Lucian (Syrian
Goddess 67) that, on the third day of the ritual, a statue of Adonis is
brought out into the light and addressed as if alive; but this is an
ambiguous report. Lucian goes on to say that some think the ritual is not
for Adonis but rather for some Egyptian deity. The practice of addressing
a statue as if alive is no proof of belief in resurrection; rather it is the
common presupposition of any cultic activity in the Mediterranean world
that uses images. Besides, Lucian reports that after the address women
cut their hair as a sign of mourning. The element nowhere found in
the earlier native sources [is] that the god was resurrected.2203
Elsewhere, good ol Dr. Gary Habermas has stated:
Lets take Adonis. Adonis is probably the ancient god for which we
have the clearest data that he was raised from the dead. We have four
2202
Lucian, in Lightfoot (2003), 251. (Emph. added.)
2203
Jonathan Z. Smith, Dying and Rising Gods, in Encyclopedia of Religion 4:
Second Edition, ed. L. Jones (Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005), 2536.
(Emph. added.)
802
accounts that Adonis was raised. The earliest one is the 2nd century AD.
The other ones are between the 2nd and 4th century AD.2204
They say there is nothing earlier than Lucian in the 2nd century, do
they? Enter Theocritus of Syracuse.
Theocritus was a native of Syracuse in Sicily; he was probably
born in the last two years of the fourth century BC. Very little is
known of the details of his life, but the subjects of his poetry cover
Sicily and the Greek west, the eastern Aegean (notably the island of
Cos), and Alexandria, the capital of the Ptolemaic empire. He
appears to have sought or enjoyed the patronage of Hieron II of
Syracuse and Ptolemy II Philadelphus, who reigned at Alexandria
between 283 and 246 BC, and internal indications suggest links
with Callimachus and Apollonius of Rhodes, the greatest poetic
figures of Philadelphus' court. The Greek poet Theocritus of
Syracuse (first half of the third century BC) was the inventor of
'bucolic' poetry.
Anthony Verity, in Theocritus: Idylls 2205
Behind Milton's verses lie centuries of pastoral verse, but their
source is to be traced to the Boukolika ('ox-herding poems') of
Theocritus of Syracuse (mid-third century BC) who bequeathed to
the Western tradition the lament for the death of a pastoral poet
(Idyll 1), the peculiar pathos of death by drowning (Idylls 1 and 13),
and the very name 'Lycidas' (Idyll 7). Theocritus' poetic career
probably began in the late 280s and extended into the middle of
the third century BC; Idylls 14, 15, and 17 belong to the reign at
Alexandria of Ptolemy Philadelphus (c.283-246) and the latter two
poems to the period of Philadelphus' marriage to Arsinoe (c.276-
270 or 268).
Dr. Richard Hunter, in Theocritus: Idylls 2206
So Theocritus wrote in the 3rd century before the Common Era, and
the Idylls which are of concern here, especially Idyll 15, are authentic
and not the spurious ones. So first of all, there is Idyll 3 to establish that
in the setting of the poems Adonis death has already occurred, it is a
thing of the past.
2204
Habermas, op. cit.
2205
Anthony Verity, Theocritus: Idylls (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), i,
back cover.
2206
Ibid. vii-viii.
803
Adonis, grazing his sheep on the hill, drove fair Cytherea
To such a pitch of madness that even after his death
She still refused to put him away from her breast.
Theocritus of Syracuse, Idyll 3.46-48 2207
Therefore what follows clearly took place posthumously and was not
prior to his death. This becomes even more obvious in the next passage.
Dear Adonis, you alone of all other demigods, men say, haunt
Both this world and Acheron.2208 Fate would not grant
Agamemnon
This gift, nor great Ajax, that hero heavy in anger, nor Hector
Eldest of Hecabe's twenty sons; not Patroclus, nor Pyrrhus
Returned from Troy, nor even the Lapiths of old, nor Deucalion
And his people; nor the descendants of Pelops, nor the
Pelasgian kings of Argos. Be gracious to us, dear Adonis,
Again next year. This year's visitation made us joyful,
And when you come again you will find a welcome.
Be happy, beloved Adonis,

And may you find us happy when you come back here again.
Theocritus of Syracuse, Idyll 15.136-44 (3rd cen. BCE) 2209
The setting is explained:
Two Syracusan women resident in Alexandria go to the royal
palace to witness a festival of Adonis which Queen Arsinoe is
staging in honour of her mother Berenice. As quintessential figures
of the mime (a genre here signalled by the change of setting within
the poem), the women at some level represent the arrival of the
Syracusan mime-poet, namely Theocritus, at the court of
Philadelphus. Festivals of Adonis (I. 109n.) were held annually to
celebrate the young god's return from the Underworld, and the
focus of the poem is the contrast between the low aspirations and
straitened circumstances of the women and the luxury and display
of the palace. The 'hymn to Adonis' with which the poem ends
mixes features of 'real' hymns with description in a way which is
characteristic of poetic representations of festival practice.
Anthony Verity, in Theocritus: Idylls 2210
2207
2208
A river in the underworld.
2209
804
Thats quite clear. Adonis was said to have returned to this world of
the living after death, as he did every year, in a text far predating Lucian
or the Common Era. As stated there, this was something no other
demigod was able to accomplish, thus distinguishing Adonis
posthumous state from their own. As per what Dr. Smith and others have
argued, if Adonis were simply dead and stayed dead as some
disembodied spirit, he would not be any different from each of those
characters listed. Yet that was the very point of that passage, he is
different. He did what they could not- he returned to life again. Merely
being able to visit the living as a ghost, as antagonists wish to assert of
Adonis, would not set him apart those men since they were able to do the
same. Patroclus returned to Achilles after death as a ghost.2211 Hectors
ghost likewise appeared to Aeneas.2212 The ghost of Theseus (a
descendant of Pelops) returned to lead the charge of the Athenians
against the Medes at the Battle of Marathon.2213 So if these characters
were able to return to Earth but only as ghosts, and Theocritus wrote that
Adonis return to Earth was something none of them were able to do,
then logically it follows that Adonis did not remain a disembodied ghost
like them, as antagonists assert. Clearly Adonisjust like Osiris, and just
like Dionysusexperienced a resurrection from the dead, as explicitly
recorded by Theocritus prior to the Common Era. Hence it is no wonder
then that Lucian also affirmed as much later on- it was nothing new to
him.
As Persephone was queen of the dead, for part of the year
Adonis was to stay with her in the underworld. He then returned,
perhaps briefly, to Aphrodite and the world of the living. His yearly
plight is best expressed in the wonderful hymn in his honour which
was composed by the poet Theocritus and set in Egypt's Alexandria
in the 270s BC. You come both here and to the underworld, so
they say, Theocritus makes his expert singer tell the audience,
unique and alone among the demigods... The setting of this
hymn is one of royal Alexandrian splendour, but its theology
should not be discounted as a late Egyptian variation. The singer is
not Egyptian herself; she is said to be repeating a widely received
2210
2211
Homer, The Iliad 23.75-130, in Johnston (2006-07).
2212
Virgil, Aeneid 2.281-93.
2213
Plutarch, Lives: Theseus 3.1, 35.5.
805
muthos (so they say ...); Adonis, therefore, was generally believed
to commute every year between the living and the dead. Like
Theocritus in his hymn (c. 270s BC), Lucian is not innovating
when he reports the worshippers' claim that Adonis had come
alive.
Robin L. Fox, Travelling Heroes in the Epic Age of Homer 2214
Arsinoe II sponsored the Adoneia, a festival celebrating the
annual union of Aphrodite and Adonis, a young god of vegetation
who dies and whom his divine lover brings back to life yearly. Part
of the festival is captured by Theocritus.
Dr. Maryline G. Parca, A Companion to Women in the
Ancient World 2215
The festival in honor of the death and rebirth of Adonis is a
popular theme in Hellenistic literature. See Theocritus Women at
the Adonis Festival (Idyl 15).
Dr. Jerry Clack, Dioscorides and Antipater of Sidon: The
Poems 2216
The story of Adonis birth from a tree, his death, and rebirth
for six months of every year suggest that he was originally a
vegetation deity, whose death and rebirth symbolize the cyclic
rebirth of natural life. (See Theocritus Idyl XV and Bions Lament
for Adonis.) The death and rebirth of Adonis were celebrated at
festivals in Athens, Alexandria, and elsewhere in the ancient world.
Dr. Lillian Feder, The Handbook of Classical Literature 2217
Like Iasion, Adonis is a transmuted form of a youthful
vegetation god, simultaneously the son and lover of the Great
Goddess (Aphrodite, Astrate, Isis-Hathor). The scholiast on
Theocritus III, 48 makes the vegetation-character of the myth clear:
They say about Adonis that at his death he spent six
months in the arms of Aphrodite, as well as six also in those
2214
Robin L. Fox, Travelling Heroes in the Epic Age of Homer (New York: Alfred
A. Knopf, Inc., 2008), 228-29. (Emph. added.)
2215
Maryline G. Parca, The Women of Ptolemaic Egypt: The view from
Papyrology, A Companion to Women in the Ancient World, eds. S.L. James and
S. Dillon (Chichester: Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2012), 320. (Emph. added.)
2216
Jerry Clack, Dioscorides and Antipater of Sidon: The Poems (Wauconda:
Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, Inc., 2001), 25. (Emph. added.)
2217
Lillian Feder, The Handbook of Classical Literature (New York: Da Capo
806
of Persephone. This tale is in truth as follows: Adonis, that is,
the sown grain, spends six months in the earth from the time
of sowing; and for six months Aphroditethat is, the
temperate airhas him. And then men receive him.
This explanation belongs, of course, to the allegorizing
tendency of later Greek rationalism. In the more primitive form of
the myth, Adonis, as vegetation god, fructifies the Great Goddess
and helps in the bringing forth of crops. As in all such myths, the
god dies annually, is mourned by the Goddess and her devotees,
and is reborn as the Goddess son-consort once more. Idyll XV,
136-44 refers to Adonis death and resurrection in the cycle of each
year.
Dr. Charles Segal, in Lantiquit Classique 2218
Such passages as Theocritus 15.136-44 and Lucian, Dea syr. 6
reflect Near Eastern resurrected gods syncretistically disguised
under the name of Greek Adonis, and are not evidence for
Classical practice.
Dr. Joseph D. Reed, in Classical Antiquity 2219
So the scholars confirm that Theocritus 15th Idyll does indeed refer
to a resurrection of Adonis, albeit through syncretism with other
resurrecting gods (like Osiris) rather than through indigenous Greek
Classical practice, as Dr. Reed clarified. Nevertheless, Theocritus
remains a pre-Lucian and pre-Common Era source for this resurrection,
contra the aforementioned antagonists.
2218
Charles Segal, Adonis and Aphrodite (Theocritus Idyll III 48), Lantiquit
Classique 38, no. 1 (1969): 84-85. (Emph. added.)
2219
Joseph D. Reed, The Sexuality of Adonis, Classical Antiquity 14, no. 2
(1995): 334 n.60. (Emph. added.)
807
Fig. 368: The Resurrection of Adonis, based on a sarcophagus, Roman Imperial Era,
currently at the Gregorian Profane Museum at the Vatican. To the left is Aphrodite
bidding Adonis farewell as he embarks on his hunt, to the right is the attack of the boar,
and in the center is Adonis enthroned next to Aphrodite as equal to her while a bearded
physician heals the fatal wound made by the boar and Eros/Cupid washes his feet. The
center scene clearly depicts Adonis as resurrected and divinized. And this resurrection
was clearly a physical, biological resurrection of the same body which had died-
otherwise there would be no need for the physician.
808
Fig. 369: An enlarged view of the center scene- the resurrected Adonis. Instead of the
customary failing Adonis, slumped and supported by Aphrodite, the Vatican
sarcophagus substitutes the pair of lovers enthroned, their arms draped about one
another. Yet the erotic overtones of the symplegma motif evoked by other versions of the
cycles final scene have vanished. Here the injured Adonis is being tended by an older,
bearded physician, clearly smaller in scale. While he dresses the youths wound, an eros
washes his feet, which are raised from the ground. But there is no sign of Adoniss
languishing at the threshold of death: he sits erect, awake, the equal partner of
Aphrodite. The standard formula for the scene of the final embrace has been strikingly
transformed. This is unmistakably a wound tending, and it has been given new priority
among the three moments of the drama by its central placement. More importantly, its
composition has been thoroughly reconceived. The seated couple are framed
architecturally and distinguished by a parapetasma that delineates the scene at the rear;
they are larger in scale than in the adjacent scenes; and unlike the images of the
mythological protagonists in the scenes to each side, they bear portraits, without doubt
those of the couple interred within the caskets marble walls. These portraits introduce to
this scene a new level of reality, one that distinguishes it from the two scenes that frame
it. The image of the hunt, with its evocation of heroic virtus, no longer dominates the
relief; here, the healing of the young suffering hero, and the relationship of the couple
portrayed at the center of the panel, have become the focus of attention and thus the key
to the meaning of the new composition.2220
2220
Michael Koortbojian, Myth Meaning, and Memory on Roman Sarcophagi
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995), 50-51.
809
Having combed over as many of Smiths works which I have been
able to gain access to, I havent yet come across any mention of
Theocritus so far. Not even as an attempt to explain it away, Smith
simply never mentions it. In fact, for all the searching I did on Google, I
was only able to find two antagonists who mention Theocritus Idyll 15
very briefly and their attempts to explain it away were laughable. Both of
them tried to first assume that Adonis return was simply as a ghost,
but that position is untenable, as irrefutably established earlier on pp.805-
07. Then building upon that false premise, the antagonists also tried to
claim the return was but for one day and then Adonis immediately
returned to Hell where he belonged. In other words, they try to portray
Adonis as a mere ghost just like any other who simply manages to slip
out of Hell for only one day a year. This too is untenable, because as
Lucian made it clear, the worshippers finished beating their breasts and
lamenting, they first make offerings to Adonis as to the dead, and
afterwards, on the next day, they claim that he lives and send him into
the air. In other words, after returning to Earth, to the realm of living
men, Adonis then ascends into heaven, to the realm of immortal gods.
And by the way, that realm of the gods in heaven (i.e. sky) in this
mythology was at the top of Mount Olympus, a very real and physical
mountain located here on Earth, in the world of the living.2221
Naturally, since Aphrodite is one of the Twelve Olympians (see
pp.770-71), her abode is on Mount Olympus. And in Theocritus Idyll
15, Adonis is already said to be in her embrace during the festival,
showing that this is his allotted time of the year with her rather than
Persephone. In fact, the women bid Aphrodite farewell while she is still
holding onto Adonis, so obviously he departs with her. The next day the
women go down to the beach and pray to an idol of Adonis to bid him to
return again next year, which makes sense, seeing as how hes left with
Aphrodite. So clearly the departure is not back to the Hell, it is back to
his home on Olympus to spend his annual obligatory 4-8 months with his
2221
Olympus is the highest mountain in Greece. In ancient times, mountains
whose peaks reached into the clouds of the sky were considered to be
simultaneously in heaven, via their peaks, and on earth, via their bases. That
reaching the peak of Olympus was considered synonymous with going to
heaven, see Homer, Iliad 5.854-57, 990-93, 16.425-27, 24.121-28, in Johnston
(2006-07).
810
lover (and wife, evidently) Aphrodite. Adonis doesnt return to Hell
because hes a dead ghost. He only returns to Hell for 4 months to give
Persephone her allotted time with him, and since she is Queen of Hell,
naturally thats where Adonis is going to spend that time with her.
Aphrodite, whose sport is golden. See how after a year
The soft-footed Hours have brought you back Adonis from
Ever-flowing Acheronthe dear Hours, slowest of the gods,
Yet all men long for them, for they always bring some gift.
Milesian women
And shepherds of Samos will say, We made the coverlets
For beautiful Adonis couch. Cypris embraces him
In her arms, and Adonis rosy arms hold her. The groom
Is eighteen, nineteen; his kisses do not prick her,
For his lip is covered with nothing but reddish down.
Now farewell to Cypris, who holds her lover in her arms.
Theocritus of Syracuse, Idyll 15.100-03, 124-30 2222
The Adonean games take place in heaven in the company of
the Amores. The only real parallel in the extant versions of the
Adonis myth is Theocritus 15.119-30, in which a festival display
shows him, during his stay in the upper world, enjoying the
embrace of Aphrodite in a bower attended by flitting Erotes.
Dr. Joseph D. Reed, in Vertis in usum: Studies in Honor of
Edward Courtney 2223
So Adonis dies, gets resurrected, descends into Hell, ascends into
heaven, and promises to come again someday. Sounds familiar, no?
Anyway, it should also be pointed out how antagonists have already
admitted that Lucians text definitely does attest to a resurrection of
Adonis:
Lucian records that at Byblos the faithful expect the resurrection of
Adonis.2224
2222
2223
Joseph D. Reed, At Play with Adonis, in Vertis in usum: Studies in Honor of
Edward Courtney, eds. J.F. Miller, C. Damon, K.S. Myers (Munich: K.G. Saur,
2002), 223. (Emph. added.)
2224
Lloyd Geering, Resurrection: A Symbol of Hope (London: Hodder &
Stoughton Ltd, 1971) Ch. 6. Available online at http://www.religion-
online.org/showchapter.asp?title=2734&C=2446.
811
Adonis' resurrection dates to A.D. 150 by Lucian of Samosata.2225
The earliest known record of a tradition involving a revived Adonis
comes from Lucian of Samosata, the author of De Dea Syria.2226
Well, Theocritus passage on Adonis return from the dead is even
more descriptive and explicit than Lucians, so these antagonists should
be that much more willing to admit to the fact that Theocritus affirms a
resurrection of Adonis prior to the Common Era. There is also another
source that is dated to the Hellenistic Era and, when corroborated with
Theocritus, further cements this fact that Adonis was thought to have
come back to life after his death. That source is P.Oxy. 4711 quoted from
earlier:
(?) Laughter-loving ... (?) turning around ... in alternation ... to
Cypris ... down below to Persephone ... But ... his name to a river
..., and by means of his ambrosial blood a beautiful [?plant
bloomed].
Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 4711 (3rd-1st cen. BCE) 2227
So whats the big deal here? What exactly is ambrosia?
Ambrosia and nectar are the traditional fare of the Olympian
gods, whose concerns were anything but intellectual, and
traditionally ambrosia and nectar are what make the gods immortal.
Dr. Myles F. Burnyeat, Explorations in Ancient and Modern
2228
Philosophy: Volume 2
It is clear in Greek myth that the gods special food, ambrosia
and nectar, is connected with their special powers, and in particular
with their immortality.
2225
GreekOrthodoxy, Dying and Rising Gods, Freethought Nation (October
19, 2008),
http://freethoughtnation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=13871#p13871.
2226
herqlez253, Mysteries of the Ancient Imposters debunked, Welcome to
Theologetics (March 11, 2009),
http://herculescummings.wordpress.com/tag/adonis/.
2227
2228
Myles F. Burnyeat, Explorations in Ancient and Modern Philosophy: Volume
2 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 254-55. (Emph. added.)
812
Dr. Anne D.R. Sheppard, Studies on the 5th and 6th Essays of
Proclus Commentary on the Republic 2229
Generally granted to all the gods, immortality is constantly
distributed on Olympus by nectar and ambrosia, the only food of
the gods.
Jol Schmidt, Larousse Greek and Roman Mythology 2230
Ambrosia and nectar, the food of and for the gods, can also be
used to deify and immortalize a child born to be mortal.
Dr. Giulia Sissa and Marcel Detienne, The Daily Life of the
Greek Gods 2231
Zeus gave the three gods what strengthens the body,
the very nectar and ambrosia of the gods,
and they drank nectar and ate exquisite ambrosia,
then the spirit rose bold in the hearts of all.
If one of the gods who hold the peaks of snowy Olympos
pours a libation of this water and then swears a false oath,
he lies breathless for no less than a full years course;
he cannot come close to ambrosia and nectar
for nourishment but, no longer able to speak or breathe,
lies in bed, wrapped in the shroud of evil coma.
2232
Hesiod, Theogony 639-42, 793-98
In the halls she nursed the fine son of wise Celeos,
Demophon, whom fair-girdled Metaneira bore, and he grew like a
god, upon no mortal food nor <on mothers milk. For during the
day fair-garlanded> Demeter anointed him with ambrosia as
though he had been a son of a god, breathing sweetness over him
and keeping him on her lap. So wrought she by day, but at night
she was wont to hide him in the force of fire like a brand, his
parents knowing it not. No, to them it was a great marvel how he
flourished and grew like the gods to look upon. And truly she
2229
Anne D.R. Sheppard, Studies on the 5th and 6th Essays of Proclus
Commentary on the Republic (Gttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1980), 70.
(Emph. Added.)
2230
Jol Schmidt, Larousse Greek and Roman Mythology, ed. S. Benardete
(McGraw-Hill, 1965-80), 144. (Emph. added.)
2231
Giulia Sissa and Marcel Detienne, The Daily Life of the Greek Gods, trans. J.
Lloyd (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1989-2000), 78. (Emph. Added.)
2232
Hesiod, in Athanassakis (1983-2004) 27, 31. (Emph. Added.)
813
would have made him exempt from old age and death forever, had
not fair-girdled Metaneira in her witlessness spied on her in the
night from her fragrant chamber. Then she wailed and smote both
her thighs in terror for her child.
Homeric Hymn to Demeter (7 th-5th cen. BCE) 2233
Thus she spoke, and she sprayed a perfume of pure ambrosia
Over her sons body,
So that his comely curls wafted a pleasing fragrance
And his limbs grew strong and lithe.
Under the western sky there lies a pasture
For the horses of the Sun. There they browse
Not on grass but ambrosia to restore their strength
After a long days work.
Even Theocritus Idyll 15 says that Aphrodite herself uses ambrosia
to grant immortality.
Cypris, Diones child, you made mortal Berenice an immortal,
So men say, sprinkling ambrosia on to her womans breast.
Theocritus of Syracuse, Idyll 15.107-08 2236
Venus was exultant. She thanked her father
She asked the river god
To wash away all of Aeneas mortality
And carry it in his silent stream into the deep.
The horned god obeyed, and he cleansed Aeneas
Of all that was mortal. His best part remained.
His mother anointed him with divine perfume,
Touched his lips with ambrosia and nectar
And so made him a god.
So that last source was most explicit- Aphrodite uses ambrosia and
nectar to turn humans into immortal gods. This is the same goddess
2233
Trzaskoma (2004), 174. (Emph. added.)
2234
2235
Ovid, in Lombardo (2010), 97-98. (Emph. added.)
2236
Theocritus, in Verity (2002), 47-48. (Emph. added.)
2237
814
Aphroditewho poured the same immortalizing substancenectar
upon Adonis when he died.
And she sprinkled the blood with aromatic nectar.
Imbued with this essence, the blood swelled up
Like a clear bubble that rises from yellow mud,
And within an hour up sprang a flower
The color of blood, like a pomegranate bloom.
And so Adonis blood actually became ambrosia itself, that life-
granting elixir which was so powerful it even caused the lifeless earth
around him to bloom with new life. The parallel is obvious- Aphrodite
here was clearly doing for her lover Adonis what she also did for her son
Aeneas. She turned Adonis into an immortal god using the elixir of the
gods, which in turn transformed his blood into the very ambrosia of the
gods.
The striking thing here is the immortal blood of an
emphatically mortal being. What this new text does de facto is to
invert Bions trope and divinize Adonisthis could be set against
the background of Hellenistic Adonis-cults, like the Adoniac
eranos-societies of Rhodes and the Carian coast. If 3-4 are
reconstructed correctly, then this poem conceives of Adonis as still
alternating, implicitly laying the etiological foundation for the yearly
rite of lamentation (somewhat as in Theocritus 15.137-42). What is
brought out (by the paradoxical ambrosial blood) is the question
of his mortality or divinity: shifting between the Underworld and
Heaven, he has both and neither. And on earth he achieves
immortality after a fashion, in earthly things that reappear every
year.
Dr. Joseph D. Reed, in Zeitschrift fr Papyrologie und
2239
Epigraphik
So not only was Adonis resurrected and glorified into an immortal
god via the divine nectar, but his blood was turned into the same
substance which the gods eat & drink in order to be immortal. In that
respect, Adonis could quite literally grant eternal life to his worshippers
if they drank his blood. That also sounds familiar, no? And sure enough,
2238
2239
Reed (2006), 80-82. (Emph. added.)
815
this is how his blood was interpreted by artists of the Roman Era, as seen
here below.
Fig. 370: Cherubs collecting the ambrosial blood of Adonis into a chalice; based on a
sarcophagus, Roman Imperial Era, currently at the Ducal Palace in Mantova.
816
Fig. 371: Cherubs collecting the immortalizing blood of The Good Shepherd.
817
Fig. 372
On a Roman sarcophagus, to the right, is the scene of the fatal

encounter with the boar, then to the leftillustrated abovethe risen
Adonis is seated with Aphrodite while Erotes serve them. Two in
particular look as though they are tending to Adonis wound. And most
interestingly, what appear to be streams of blood from his wound are
running down Adonis left leg and dripping off his heel into a drinking
cup. The smaller Erote even seems to be sipping the blood directly off of
the calf. Of course, that all would make perfect sense in light of the
aforementioned text from P.Oxy. 4711. Having been divinized by
Aphrodite through the gods immortalizing nectar, Adonis blood is now
ambrosia and bears all of the same life-giving properties, as evidenced by
its germinating effect upon the earth. Thus it is actually quite sensible to
gather up the shed blood and drink it for the ambrosia that it is rather
than letting it go to waste. And further affirming the fact that Adonis,
like Osiris (and certain heathen gods), granted eternal life after death are
the details of the sarcophagus illustrated in Fig. 368-69. There it is
evident that just as the Egyptians identified themselves with Osiris in
death in order to share in his resurrection, Adonis worshipers likewise
identified themselves with him in death as well.
The Vatican sarcophagus, which shows Venus and the upright,
alert Adonis enthroned side by side (their portrait heads explicitly
identify the deceased with the deity), also recalls the apotheosis of
Augustus on the Gemma Augustea.
818
Dr. Joseph D. Reed, in Vertis in usum: Studies in Honor of
Edward Courtney 2240
Anyway, so the servants of Adonis drank his blood from a cup in
order to have eternal life. Thats quite a familiar sight to behold, no?
Indeed, this is essentially the same image portrayed in other heathen
cults, some of which even blatantly admit to having a history of Adonis
worship (albeit under his aforementioned Mesopotamian alter ego) which
took place right on the very temple grounds of their own supreme god.
They admit that women sat there mourning for Adonis.
This archetype of drinking divine blood was also seen in the cult of
Dionysus, as explained earlier. But above all, as also explained earlier,
the origins of this motif were in the true religion of the holy land of
ancient Kemet, in the legend and rituals of Osiris. Therefore we, on
whom God pours and showers his fountains of good things from above,
we drank from that cistern, and we were seeking scanty moisture
beneath the earth, while the heaven was raining upon us, from above
without ceasing, the more excellent food of nectar and ambrosia, far
better than that celebrated in the fables of the poets. We speak about
the upper world, about God and angels, about ambrosial food, about
garments that last and become not old, about those things which eye
hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor hath there come into the heart of
sinful men what God has prepared for those that love Him. Do thou
also therefore believe in Him, that thou mayst live; and have
confidence in Him, and thou shalt never die. They have been
enlightened by the sight of Him their Lord, whose ambrosial food they
have received, of which there is no failing at all; and they have drunk
also of the wine which brings to them no thirst, neither desire of the
flesh; and they have with the living spirit glorified and praised the
father of truth and the mother of wisdom. And so let us pray to our
Lord: give them to drink of Thy ambrosial fountain, that is never
muddy and never faileth: for they entreat Thee, and supplicate, and
wish to become Thy ministers and servants.
2240
819
Let the Eunuch Say, Behold, I Am a Dry Tree
Next up is Attis. Attis too was a syncretistic deity identified with

Osiris, Dionysus, and Adonis.
Hail to you Attis, at whose name Rhea looks down.
Assyrians call you thrice-lamented Adonis;
all Egypt- Osiris.
All hail, all hailas Pan, as Bacchus,
As shepherd of the shining stars.
Phrygian Hymns to Attis (1st cen. CE) 2241
There were two celebrated persons called Attis, one a Syrian,
the other an Arcadian, and that both were killed by a wild boar.
Plutarch, Lives: Sertorius 1.2 2242
Terracotta figurine (H. 0.192), found in a grave during
excavations for the electricity station near the actual Stadium in
Callatis. Constana Archaeological Museum, Inv. No 5343 (Coll. V.
Canarache).
Attis-Dionysus seated on a base in a short shoulder-cape and
Phrygian cap. He seems to be hermaphroditic. He holds in his left
hand a cock, a bunch of grapes in his other hand. In the back an air
hole.
Date: Hellenistic period.
Dr. Maarten J. Vermaseren, Corpus Cultus Cybelae
Attidisque VI 2243
For this reason Dionysus was called Attis, because he was
mutilated.
2241
Hippolytus, in Barnstone and Meyer (2003), 483-84. (Emph. added.)
See also p.775, n.2163.
2242
Plutarch, Lives, in Plutarchs Lives: Volume VIII, trans. B. Perrin (London:
1919-59), 3. (Emph. added.)
2243
Maarten J. Vermaseren, Corpus Cultus Cybelae Attidisque (CCCA) VI.
Germania, Raetia, Noricum, Pannonia, Dalmatia, Macedonia, Thracia, Moesia,
Dacia, Regnum Bospori, Colchis, Scythia et Sarmatia (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1989),
121. (Emph. added.)
820
The similarity in legend and cult naturally led to the
identification of Attis with Osiris.
Dr. Alan. B. Lloyd, Herodotus: Book II, Commentary 1-93 2245
A fifth lamp, of bronze, represents an Osiris-Attis wrapped as a
mummy and entwined by the coils of a snake; surprisingly his head
has an eagle headdress, which is a typical feature of Attis. This
object was sold at a Christies auction and purchased by the
Fitzwilliam Museum; its image can be seen on the internet. Recent
archaeological discoveries in Mainz (Monguntiacum) prove that
Attis was worshipped as a god of the dead, to whom curses were
addressed by local women.
Dr. Ergn Lafl, Dr. Maurizio Buora, and Dr. Attilio
Mastrocinque, in Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 2246
Fig. 373: The mummified Osiris-Attis (cf. Fig. 353); based on a bronze lamp, 1st-2nd
century CE, currently at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.
2244
Clement of Alexandria, in Roberts and Donaldson (1885-1994), 176.
2245
Alan. B. Lloyd, Herodotus: Book II, Commentary 1-93 (Leiden: E.J. Brill,
1976), 280.
2246
Ergn Lafl, Maurizio Buora, and Attilio Mastrocinque, A New Osiriform
Lamp from Antioch
in the Hatay Archaeological Museum, Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies
52 (2012): 433-34. (Emph. added.)
821
Being conflated with all of those gods, what parallels with them can
one expect to find in the mythos of Attis which would lead to such
syncretism? Is there a parthenogenetic conception/virgin birth? Indeed
there is. His mother impregnated herself when she absorbed an almond
through her chest.
There grew up from it an almond-tree with its fruit ripe, and a
daughter of the river Sangarius, they say, took of the fruit and laid it
in her bosom, when it at once disappeared, but she was with child.
A boy was born, and exposed, but was tended by a he-goat.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 7.17.11 2247
Some readers might retort that Pausanias wrote in the 2nd century,
thus post dating the texts of other heathen religions. But the afore-quoted
hymns attest to this sexless conception of Attis as well, thus rolling its
date on back to at least as early as the 1st century.
Flute player whom the fertile almond brought forth.
Phrygian Hymn to Attis (1st cen. CE) 2248
One myth of Attiss birth is a virgin birth story.
Dr. David A. Leeming, The Oxford Companion to
World Mythology 2249
Attis was said to have been a young shepherd beloved by
Cybele. His birth was miraculous. His mother Nana, the daughter
of the god of the river Sangarios, was a virgin and became pregnant
after an almond fell on her lap.
Dr. M. Fatih Berk, in The Pursuit of History 2250
Attis the son of a virgin mother (Nana) sacrificed himself by a
tree.
2247
Pausanias, Description of Greece: Books 6-8.21, trans. W.H.S. Jones
Press, 1933-93), 269.
2248
Hippolytus, in Barnstone and Meyer (2003), 484.
2249
David A. Leeming, The Oxford Companion to World Mythology (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2005), 38. (Emph. added.)
2250
M. Fatih Berk, The Mythological Power of Phrygia, The Pursuit of History:
International Periodical for History and Social Research 2, no. 4 (2010): 130.
(Emph. added.)
822
Dr. George R.H. Wright, in East and West 2251
The almond is the rst tree to ower in spring and therefore a
sign of rebirth. It is the symbol of Attis, who was born of a virgin,
and was conceived from an almond.
Dr. Patricia Casas-Agustench, Albert Salas-Huetos, and Dr.
Jordi Sala-Salvado, in Public Health Nutrition 2252
So that archetype is covered. Whats next? Well, as with Adonis, the
details from birth to death are disappointingly dismal. So the next
parallel, it seems, is that of the severed phallus.
A Phrygian boy in the woods, remarkable for his looks, Attis
bound the tower-bearing goddess in chaste love. She wanted him to
be kept for her and guard her temples, and she said: See to it that
you want always to be a boy. He gave his promise to her orders.
If I lie, he says, let that Venus by which I am false be my last.
He is false, and in the nymph Sagaritis he ceases to be what he
was. Hence the anger of the goddess exacts punishment He even
slashed his body with a sharp stone, and his long hair was dragged
in filthy dust. His cry was: I have deserved it! I pay in blood the
penalty Ive deserved. Ah, let them perish, the parts that have
ruined me! Ah, let them perish, he still kept saying.
He takes away the burden of his groin, and suddenly there are
no signs of manhood left. This madness came to be an example,
and her soft servants, tossing their hair, cut off their worthless
members. With such words the reason for the queried madness
was given by the eloquent voice of the Aonian Camena.
Ovid, Fasti 4.224-46 (1 CE) 2253
So once again, there is a religion in this brotherhood of syncretic
gods in which the followers have made themselves eunuchs for the
Kingdom of Heavens sake. At some point after this, Attis was
apparently killed by Zeus, for in a version bearing obvious influences
2251
George R.H. Wright, The Avatta Tree on the Vatican Hill, East and West
58, no.1/4 (2008): 40. (Emph. added.)
2252
Patricia Casas-Agustench, Albert Salas-Huetos, and Jordi Sala-Salvado,
Mediterranean nuts: origins, ancient medicinal benets
and symbolism, Public Health Nutrition 14, no. 12A (2011): 2299. (Emph.
added.)
2253
Ovid, in Wiseman (2011-13), 68.
823
from the Adonis myth (as indicated earlier by Plutarch) Attis was slain
by a boar, one sent by Zeus out of jealousy over Cybeles honor to Attis.
The account of Hermesianax [4th-3rd cen. BCE] goes on to
say that, on growing up, Attis migrated to Lydia and celebrated for
the Lydians the orgies of the Mother; that he rose to such honour
with her that Zeus, being wroth at it, sent a boar to destroy the
tillage of the Lydians. Then certain Lydians, with Attis himself,
were killed by the boar, and it is consistent with this that the Gauls
who inhabit Pessinus abstain from pork.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 7.17.9-10 2254
Like Adonis, Attis may die not through his self-inflicted
wounds but by the tusk of a boar.
Dr. Mark P.O. Morford and Dr. Robert J. Lenardon, Classical
Mythology 2255
Hence the recurring motif of disdain for the swine is also found here.
Anyway, Diodorus recorded a Euhemeristic version of the myth which
nevertheless has some relevant details:
But, the myth goes on to say, a pestilence fell upon human
beings throughout Phrygia and the land ceased to bear fruit, and
when the unfortunate people inquired of the god how they might
rid themselves of their ills he commanded them, it is said, to bury
the body of Attis and to honour Cybel as a goddess. Consequently
the physicians, since the body had disappeared in the course of
time, made an image of the youth, before which they sang dirges
and by means of honours in keeping with his suffering propitiated
the wrath of him who had been wronged; and these rites they
continue to perform down to our own lifetime. As for Cybel, in
ancient times they erected altars and performed sacrifices to her
yearly; and later they built for her a costly temple in Pisinus of
Phrygia, and established honours and sacrifices of the greatest
magnificence, Midas their king taking part in all these works out of
his devotion to beauty; and beside the statue of the goddess they set
up panthers and lions, since it was the common opinion that she
had first been nursed by these animals. Such, then, are the myths
which are told about Mother of the God both among the Phrygians
and by the Atlantians who dwell on the coast of the ocean.
2254
Pausanias, in Jones (1933-93), 267-69. (Emph. added.)
2255
Mark P.O. Morford and Dr. Robert J. Lenardon, Classical Mythology, 6th ed.
(Oxford: Oxdord University Press, 1971-99) 122.
824
Now the obvious reason why Attis corpse had disappeared is
because, in similar manner to Osiris and just like the mother of Adonis,
his body was turned into a tree.
You also came, tendriled ivies and grapes,
And elms cloaked in vines, mountain ash and pines,
Arbute trees loaded with ruby-red fruit,
The pliant palm, victorys prize, and the girded pine
With high crown, pleasing to the Mother of the Gods
Ever since Cybeles beloved Attis
Shed his human form and stiffened into its trunk.
Attis is driven mad by Kybele and castrates himself, then dies
or is turned into a fir tree.
Dr. Jennifer L. Larson, Greek Nymphs: Myth, Cult, Lore 2258
According to Ovids Metamorphoses, Attis was himself
transformed into a pine tree.
Dr. Luke Roman and Monica Roman, Encyclopedia of Greek
and Roman Mythology 2259
2256
2257
2258
Jennifer L. Larson, Greek Nymphs: Myth, Cult, Lore (Oxford: Oxford
2259
Roman (2010), 94.
825
Fig. 374: A bust of Attis turning into a pine tree, the trunk and branches of which can be
seen already sprouting forth from his head; based on a stone altar, Roman Imperial Era,
currently at the Museum of Prigord in Prigueux.2260
2260
Giulia S. Gasparro, Soteriology and Mystic Aspects in the Cult of Cybele and
Attis (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1985), 59.
826
Fig. 375: Attis as a pine tree, his paraphernalia (Phrygian cap, flute, cymbals, etc.)
hanging from the branches; based on a damaged altar to Cybele from Marof, Slovenia.
Given how this is the same thing which happened to Adonis mother
(pp.782-88), the mental imagery invoked by this scenario of
arborification should be the same as well, and thus would likewise result
in a very cruciform shape for the victim, as illustrated below.
827
Fig. 376: Human arborification in Ovids Metamorphoses (cf. Fig. 358).
Because Attis was buried in a tree, and identified with Osiris, in

religious ritual an effigy of Attis was hung upon a tree on the anniversary
of his death.
The accursed butcher schemed (oh the wickedness of it!) to
have his cult always renewed by something wooden, because he
foreknew that mans life, once nailed to the wood of the cross,
would thereby be clasped in the embrace of everlasting immortality,
and he wanted to fool doomed men by a counterfeit of the wood.
In the Phrygian cult of her whom they call the Mother of the Gods,
a pine tree is cut every year, and an image of a youth is fastened on
the middle of the tree.
2261
Firmicus Maternus, The Error of the Pagan Religions 27.1
2261
Firmicus Maternus, in Forbes (1970), 104. (Emph. added.)
828
Fig. 377: An image of Attis bound to the trunk of a tree, in memoriam of his
arborification; from Ephesus, Roman Imperial Era.
829
Fig. 378: The Good Shepherd was also portrayed as bound to a tree trunk in a similar
fashion.
830
Fig. 379
831
Fig. 380: The Good Shepherd flanked by crucifixions taking place on tree trunks, similar
to Attis & himself as shown above.
832
Fig. 381: As per the heathen apologist Justin Martyr,2262 crucifixion in Roman times was
known to sometimes take place on tree trunks as well as crosses.
2262
833
Fig. 382: A tree trunk allegedly used for crucifixion back in Roman times.
How fascinating that this heathen apologist admitted in no

ambiguous terms that the Phrygian custom of hanging an Attis upon a
pine tree was indeed parallel to the Roman crucifixion of his own god,
The Good Shepherd. Modern heathen of that same cult who read this
might respond with so what? seeing as how Firmicus wrote
834
significantly later than did the founders of their cult. Well, the first thing
to note here is that Firmicus also admitted that this Phrygian custom
predated his deitys alleged Roman crucifixion when Firmicus wrote that
the Phrygians did so because the spirits influencing them foreknew
this crucifixion would be taking place. The second thing to note is that
apparently such a custom was brought to Rome by Claudius Caesar in
the 1st century CE, long before Firmicus, and the dates happen to
correspond to the Hilaria festival of Attis & Cybele (i.e. the time of the
vernal equinox in March).2263 The third thing to note is how the very
reason for this custom of hanging Attis upon a tree was because Attis
became the tree, and that part of becoming a tree was indeed attested to
prior the alleged crucifixion of The Good Shepherd, as recorded by Ovid.
The fourth thing to note here is how, as just mentioned previously,
Attis was already conflated with Osiris by the 1st century CE when this
heathen gods Roman crucifixion allegedly took place (and it would be
even later when anyone actually got around to mentioning it, and even
later than that before anyone got around to depicting it visually). That
being the case, do recall from pp.301-40 that the Egyptians were already
annually hanging effigies of Osiris upon trees (and affixing them to
crosses) before any of those things the conflation of Attis with Osiris,
the Phrygian custom of hanging Attis on a tree, and the Roman
crucifixion of this heathen godever took place. Therefore, since the
identification of Attis with Osiris was already in full swing by the 1 st
century CE, and the tree hanging of Osiris effigies already existed prior
to that, then this means that the Attis mythos had by default already
incorporated that annual custom of hanging effigies upon trees by way of
this syncretism in the 1st century.
But since syncretism is the key here, it was shown earlier that Attis
was already being conflated with Dionysus at least as early as the
Hellenistic Era, in the 3rd-1st century before the Common Era. And the
Dionysus cult was likewise already hanging effigies of their god upon
trees as early as the 6th century BCE (pp.744-46). Therefore, if the
Phrygian cult got the idea for their custom from anywhere, then they got
2263
John the Lydian, De Mensibus 4.59-61.
Francis R. Walton and John Scheld, Cybele, in The Oxford Classical Dictionary,
4th ed., eds. S. Hornblower, A. Spawforth, and E. Eidinow (Oxford: Oxford
835
it from these more ancient gods with whom Attis was identified during
the Hellenistic Era, rather than getting it from much later cults like that
one which Firmicus belonged to. Hence it is no wonder that Firmicus did
admit that the Phrygian custom was earlier (fore) than the Roman
crucifixion he was defending.
Fig. 383: By the time of the Hellenistic Era, the Attis & Cybele cult wouldve regarded
these Dionysian images (Fig. 327-30) as also being depictions of Attis hanging upon a tree
(cf. Fig. 377), for Attis was already being identified with Dionysus by that point.
Attis did not remain within the pine tree forever. Eventually he was
reborn from the pine tree and emerged from it alive again and ready to
undergo apotheosis into godhood. For starters, there is a bronze bracket
from Corseul which consists of Cybele in her boat, flanked on either side
by a lion, and by Attis emerging from a pine-cone2264- the very fruit of
the tree in which his corpse was preserved. Apparently, when that pine
tree blossomed forth with new cones, it also blossomed forth with new
life, i.e. a new Attis. Thus was he born again, regenerated and
resurrected, in much the same manner as Osiris was quite literally born
again from the tree upon which his corpse was hung and encapsulated,
since that tree was a manifestation of his own mother (pp.305-08).
Alternatively, Attis is also portrayed as emerging from the pine-cones
bud/calyx, further likening Attis rebirth to the budding of the pine, and
the reblooming of all of nature.
Attis as a child emerging from a calyx with a pine-cone.
2264
James Bromwich, The Roman Remains of Northern and Eastern France: A
Guidebook (London: Routledge, 2003), 44.
836
Bust of Attis emerging from a calyx placed on a high pedestal.
He wears a Phrygian cap and a fastened shoulder-cape. The
pedestal is engraved with a pine tree.
Bust of Attis arising from a calyx. The childish head wears a
Phrygian cap. At the reverse of the bronze an oblong hole for
attachment.
Bust of Attis, in Phrygian cap, arising from a calyx. Childish
face. At the back an oblong hole for attachment.
Bust of Attis emerging from a calyx. In the back a hole for
attachment.
Attidisque I & V 2265
Perhaps this hole was intended for attachment to a pine tree. This
would make sense and would also be corroborative with Firmicus.
2265
Maarten J. Vermaseren, Corpus Cultus Cybelae Attidisque (CCCA) I. Asia
Minor (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1987), 254. (Emph. added.)
Maarten J. Vermaseren, Corpus Cultus Cybelae Attidisque (CCCA) V. Aegyptus,
Africa, Hispania, Gallia et Brittania (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1986) 74, 159.
837
Fig. 384: Attis emerges reborn from a pine-cone/calyyx as the tree gives birth to new
fruit. The left is based on part of a bronze bracket from the Fanum Martis in Corseul,
1st-3rd century CE.2266 The right is based on a bronze bust of Attis, Roman Imperial Era,
from the Balkan region.
This emergence of a new Attis from the fruit of the pine tree is
analogous to the emergence of new fruit from, well, every tree (and fruit-
bearing plant) that blossoms in the spring time. Hence that became
recognized as the time of Attis resurrection, and so it was celebrated as
such.
Like vegetation, Attis was reborn every year in the spring.
Initiation into the cult of Cybele occurred during a spring festival
that began with the cutting of a pine tree to represent Attis.
Participants were expected to fast for one day by not eating fruits
and vegetables, although eating meat was permitted. The rites came
2266
Raphal Clotuche et al., Fanum Martis, a northern city with oriental rites,
Inrap: Institut national de recherches archologiques prventives (October 7,
2008), 1-2.
http://www.inrap.fr/userdata/c_bloc_file/5/5893/7819_fichier_PR_Fanum_Ma
rtis.pdf.
838
to a head on the day of blood, in which participants worked
themselves into a frenzy dancing to the sounds of horns, drums,
and cymbals. They slashed their bodies with knives, sprinkling
blood on the sacred tree as a means of calling Attis back to life.
Dr. Frank L. Kidner et al., Making Europe: The Story of the
West 2267
Like Adonis, Attis is another resurrection-god, and their
personalities become merged in the tradition. Like Adonis, Attis
may die not through his self-inflicted wounds but by the tusk of a
boar. Furthermore Attis, like Adonis, comes back to life with the
rebirth of vegetation. We have evidence of springtime ceremonies
at which the public mourned and rejoiced for the death and rebirth
of Attis.
Dr. Mark P.O. Morford and Dr. Robert J. Lenardon, Classical
Mythology 2268
Attis, a vegetation god whose death and resurrection were
celebrated in the spring, was closely associated with the Phrygian
Great Mother goddess, Cybele. The trunk of a pine tree was
brought to the sanctuary of Cybele and wrapped in cloth and
decorated with flowers as if it were a corpse. An effigy of Attis was
placed on it. On the third day of the ceremonythe Day of
Bloodthe priests of Attis cut themselves and during a frenzied
Dionysian dance splattered the corpse with their blood. All the
worshippers then mourned the death of Attis until during the night
there appeared a light and the tomb was opened to reveal that the
god had risen from the dead. The next dayprobably on the vernal
equinox, the resurrection of Attis was celebrated in a carnival-like
Festival of Joy.
Dr. David A. Leeming, The Oxford Companion to
World Mythology 2269
There is a lot of disagreement, however, as to how early this
resurrection of Attis was incorporated into his mythos. Antagonists, of
course, are all too quick to jump on the wagon which prefers a very late
date, centuries into the Common Era. They are more than willing to cite
a slew of literature denying any early attestation to the resurrection of
2267
Frank L. Kidner, Maria Bucur, Ralph Mathisen, Sally McKee, Theodore R.
Weeks, Making Europe: The Story of the West (Boston: Wadsworth, 2009), 113.
(Emph. added.)
2268
Morford and Lenardon (1971-99) 122. (Emph. added.)
2269
Leeming (2005), 38, 343. (Emph. added.)
839
Attis, yet all the while they overlook the fact that all such passages are
ultimately relying on alternative traditions like that of Arnobius, rather
than the tradition unveiled through the sources corroborated here. And
seeing as how the existence of several variations in a mythos has been
addressed many times throughout this work as being no problem
whatsoever and thus completely irrelevant, any antagonists attempting to
take that route of argument are already neutralized before they ever even
get started.
Then there are certain heathen who, of course, support the claim that
a late incorporation of a resurrection also only occurred because of the
influence of their own cult. But alas, via syncretism it wouldve been
incorporated at least as early as the Hellenistic Era when Attis was
identified with Dionysus, whose bodily resurrection was attested at least
as early as Euphorion of Chalcis (3rd cen. BCE), as already stated. Then
this wouldve been further cemented by the 1st century CE when Attis
was also identified with Osiris & Adonis, whose resurrections were
likewise shown to be documented centuries prior to the Common Era. So
the incorporation of the resurrection would not have been due to the
influence of certain heathen cults from the eastern Mediterranean
coastline which arose in the early Common Era. The influence clearly
came from the much older religions of those gods with whom Attis had
already been conflated.
This is further affirmed in a piece from ancient Ephesus. First, recall
Fig. 373 and the Roman Era lamp which shows Attis, conflated with
Osiris, as mummified just like Osiris. As was covered on pp.429-44 and
explicitly stated by Dr. Bob Brier, the primary purpose of Egyptian
mummification, the very reason for its existence, was to preserve the
body for a physical resurrection and eternal life in afterworld. So the
image of Attis as an Osirian mummy by default indicates an expectation
of bodily resurrection for Attis. Some heathen might not accept that as
relevant because of its date, but another such figure was found near
Seluk, in what used to be ancient Ephesus, which likewise portrays
Attis as an Osirian mummy and is of an even earlier date.
Red-brown terracotta relief Attis as a child in Phrygian cap
wrapped completely in bandages except for the genitals.
Date: probably second century B.C.
840
Attidisque I 2270
The fact that here Attis is a child again also indicates that rebirth has
taken place. Deliberately exposing the genitalia emphasizes the fact that
they have regrown and that Attis body has been fully regenerated. On
another note, the Phrygian Hymn cited earlier refers to Attis not only as
Adonis, Osiris, and Dionysus, but it also refers to Attis as sometimes
corpse or god, and in that exact chronological sequence- corpse then
god. And thats exactly what happened to him. He was first killed and
turned into a corpse, and then he was reborn and turned into a god.
They also called Attis the corpse, because he was buried in
his body as in a tomb, and a god, because of his transformation.
Thus, we can see how Attis is both a human and a cosmic
character, with themes that suggest the incarnation and
resurrection.
Dr. Philippe Borgeaud, Mother of the Gods: From Cybele to
the Virgin Mary 2271
Of particular interest are the two attributes of corpse and
god that occur, in the context of the hymn, in direct sequence, an
indication that in the late period as well the close connection
between the death of Attis and his attainment of divine status
persisted, one of his characteristics right from the earliest
documentation.
Dr. Maria G. Lancellotti, Attis Between Myth and History:
King, Priest, and God 2272
So even scholars whom heathen apologists often cling to admit that
this passage does indicate a chronological sequence of death followed by
apotheosis, and that this is indeed analogous to the death and resurrection
of other heathen deities. Well of course they are analogous to each other.
They are so analogous that Attis became syncretic with several of them,
just as this same Phrygian Hymn declares, and thus transferring the
bodily resurrection of those gods into the mythos of Attis. The mortal
human Attis was posthumously apotheosized into Bagos Papaeus- a
Phrygian & Scythian sky god who was regarded as an equal to Zeus.
2270
Vermaseren (1987), 191.
2271
Borgeaud (2004), 106.
2272
Lancellotti (2002), 118.
841
The Scythians say Papaeus is the supreme God.
Origen Adamantius, Contra Celsum 5.46 2273
Now, since Attis was born a mortal human, and died a mortal human,
and was only apotheosized into a god after his death, then references to
Attis in his divine form of Papaeus are references to Attis after his death
and rebirth. And yet such a reference to Attis as the god Papaeus does
predate the Common Era.
Now Cybel, the myth records, having arrived at full
womanhood, came to love a certain native youth who was known as
Attis, but at a later time received the appellation Papas; with him
she consorted secretly.
Phrygians [call you] sometimes Papas,
Sometimes corpse or god.
One of the names under which they identified Attis was Papas,
which directly relates to the well-documented cults in Phrygian
epigraphy during the first centuries of the empire.
Dr. Philippe Borgeaud, Mother of the Gods: From Cybele to
the Virgin Mary 2276
Diodorus, as quoted previously, goes on to mention the death of Attis
as well. So even prior to the Common Era Attis was believed to have
returned from the dead as a god- corpse then god, Attis then Papaeus.
And the iconography bears this out as well, as several statues of Attis
which predate the Common Era portray him as already having been
transfigured into a god.
2273
Origen, in Chadwick (1953-2003), 301.
2274
2275
Hippolytus, in Barnstone and Meyer (2003), 484. (Emph. added.)
2276
Borgeaud (2004), 102.
842
Fig. 385: Attis risen from the dead and transformed into a god, as clearly evidenced by
his newfound wings (cf. Fig. 386) with which he appears to be in flight dancing the
hilaria after his resurrection as the new-born child Attis;2277 terracotta figurine from
Myrina, 1st century BCE, currently at the Pergamon Museum.
2277
Maarten J. Vermaseren, The Legend of Attis in Greek and Roman Art
(Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1966), 47.
843
Fig. 386: The previous image of the risen & divinized Attis is conspicuously similar to the
iconography of another god who rose from the deadHorusshown here as a winged
young child (Harpocrates), thus affirming the presence of wings as a feature of divinity;
terracotta figurine from Myrina, 100-50 BCE, currently at the Louvre Museum.
844
Fig. 387: The risen and divinized Attis; terracotta incense burner from Tarsus, 2nd-1st
century BCE, currently at the Louvre Museum.
845
Fig. 388: The winged god Attis Papaeus leaning on a pillar; based on a Roman statue, 1 st-
3rd century CE, currently at the Archaeological Museum of Istanbul.
Fig. 389: The reborn & deified Attis bears newborn fruit in a cornucopia; based on a
Roman bronze sculpture, 1st-2nd century CE.
846
Fig. 390: Attis posthumously transformed into a celestial god, the rays of his halo
radiating from his head as he holds a shepherds crook in his left hand, clearly in his role
as shepherd of the shining stars; dedication monument by C. Cartilius Euplus from
Ostia, Roman Imperial Era, currently at the Vaticans Gregorian Profane Museum.
Notice how the above image features Attis donned with a crescent
lunar crown at the top of his Phrygian cap. This corroborates with the
Phrygian Hymn where it refers to Attis as:
Greek wisdom, the heavenly crescent moon.
This is further affirmed in other iconography as well.
Bust of Attis wearing a Phrygian cap decorated with stars, a
torques and a tunica. Behind his shoulder a crescent.
Date: late Hellenistic period.
Attidisque VI 2279
2278
2279
Vermaseren (1989), 21.
847
Fig. 391: Attis as a lunar god; based on a silver dish from Hildesheim, Hellenistic Era,
currently at the Staatliche Museum in Berlin.
As is the case with Osiris, the moon is a symbol of the cosmic aspect
of Attis. Therefore, as covered in previous chapters, the death and
resurrection of Attis are attested to in the cycles of the moon, a primary
source much older than any text or any other man-made artifact on this
entire planet. As the moon wanes from full moon it approaches death,
and finally on the new moon it is buried in its tomb of darkness. Then on
the third day it reappears, alive once more, and continues to wax strong
again as it returns to full moon. That this was regarded as a death and
resurrection in ancient times is affirmed even by various forefathers of
certain other heathen cults2280 who oppose our own faith. And as pointed
out before, the moon does not return as some ethereal ghost or as some
mirage or hologram. When the moon returns from darkness each month
it does so physically, in the body in which it disappeared, just as tangible
2280
See p.356-57.
848
as it has always been. This identification with the moon also shows that
at least as early as the Hellenistic Era (Fig. 391), Attis was believed to
have returned from the dead on the third day after his body disappeared
just as the moon2281 disappears into the darkness. Of course, it has been
made clear in this chapter that his body disappeared because it became a
tree. In fact, this idea of three days in relation to Attis & his pine tree is
corroborative with the dates of Claudius Hilaria festivities as recorded
by John the Lydian:
On the 11th day before the Kalends of April, a pine tree
would be carried on the Palatine by the dendrophori ["tree-
bearers"]. The festival was established by the Emperor Claudius
On the 8th day before the Kalends, the spring equinox. 2282
From the 11th to the 8th before the Kalends of April, thats March 22-
25. Thats a difference of three days from the pine ritual (representing
Attis arborification) to the spring equinox, i.e. the rebirth of nature
(representing the rebirth of Attis, just as it did the postnatal rebirths of
Horus & Dionysus2283). This was instituted in Rome by Claudius Caesar
in the 1st century,2284 just like the Phrygian Hymn which identified Attis
as the moon, so the timing is corroborative as well. An association with
the moon naturally leads to an association with the bull, whose horns
resemble the crescent moon.2285 Notice how even in Fig. 390 the lunar
crown of Attis looks similar to horns protruding from his head. So in yet
another parallel to Osiris, Dionysus, and Adonis, there is indication of
Attis either represented vicariously as, and/or manifested as, a bull.
2281
See pp.347-56.
2282
John the Lydian, De Mensibus, trans. A. Eastbourne (2011) 4.59-61. (Emph.
added.) Available online at
http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/john_the_lydian_months_04.htm.
2283
See pp.600-02, 610, 612-15 & 709-15.
2284
Jacob Latham, Fabulous Clap-Trap: Roman Masculinity, the Cult of Magna
Mater, and Literary
Constructions of the galli at Rome from the Late Republic to Late Antiquity,
The Journal of Religion 92, no. 1 (2012): 107.
2285
Olaf E. Kaper, Lunar Cycle, in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt,
ed. D.B. Redford, Vol. 2 (New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 2001), 481.
Christopher Eyre, The Cannibal Hymn: A Cultural and Literary Study (Liverpool:
Liverpool University Press, 2002), 145.
Stevens (1998-2001), 182.
849
Fig. 392: The bull (right) established as a symbol of Attis (left); based on various coins
from ancient Cyzicus, 5th century BCE.
In the cultic complex of Ostia dedicated to the Great Mother,

the Campus Magnae Matris, there is an area that is connected but
autonomous, dedicated to him, the Attideion. From there come
some interesting finds. The first is a marble statue of a bull which
850
displays between its horns a crescent moon decorated with a star.
The second is an image of Attis, castrated.
This leads into the topic of taurobolium, and by extension,
criobolium.
The Phrygian cult of Cybele, the Magna Mater, which had
been introduced in Rome in 204 BC, still had pious followers in
the fourth century. They gathered in sanctuaries like the Vatican
phyrigianum, or the temple on the Campus Martius. Seven such
sanctuaries have been found with an altar, and they were in use in
the fourth century. Like that of Mithras, this cult had a
soteriological nature. At the end of an initiation covering several
grades, it in fact offered a rebirth akin to salvation. This was
obtained by a kind of baptism, the taurobolium. Stretched out
beneath a hurdle on which a bull had its throat cut, the initiate was
drenched in its blood as the pledge of a new life.
Dr. Bertrand Lanon, Rome in Late Antiquity 2287
Attis mystery rites with sacramental partaking of food and
taurobolium (baptism with bulls blood) were widespread
throughout the Roman Empire. At the end of March the feast of
the dying and resurrected god (symbolized by a pine-tree) was
solemnized.
Manfred Lurker, The Routledge Dictionary of Gods and
Goddesses, Devils and Demons 2288
The rites of Cybele and Attis included the taurobolium, self-
flagellation and castration of the priests, and ecstatic dances. In the
taurobolium the worshipper stood in a pit, while a bull was
sacrificed on a slatted floor overhead, bathing him in its blood. A
similar ceremony was the criobolium where a ram was used instead
of a bull.
Lesley Adkins and Roy Adkins, Handbook to Life in Ancient
Rome 2289
2286
Lancellotti (2002), 116. (Emph. added.)
2287
Bertrand Lanon, Rome in Late Antiquity (New York: Routledge, 2001), 91.
2288
Manfred Lurker, The Routledge Dictionary of Gods and Goddesses, Devils
and Demons (London: Routledge, 1984-2004), 25.
851
In towns where the cult was sufficiently organized there was a
college of eunuch priests (galli) who were initiated into the cult by
self-castration, or a ritual baptism in bulls blood (taurobolium) or
rams blood (criobolium). Ritual baptism was also used to initiate
new devotees to the cult. The taurobolium took place over a
recess in the ground (fossa sanguinaria) at the south side of the
sanctuary. The bull would have been killed, with its blood flowing
into an adjacent ditch. The archigallus sprayed the blood on to
initiates seated on a bench close by, who then considered
themselves reborn into a new life in the service of the Great
Mother.
Dr. Simon J. Keay, Roman Spain 2290
To the Great Mother of the Gods (of Mt. Ida?) and to Attis, L.
Cornelius Scipio Orfitus, of senatorial rank (and) augur, in
accordance with a vow (dedicated this altar), a taurobolium or
criobolium having been performed.
Dedication altar of Lucius Cornelius Scipio Orfitus 2291
To the great gods, to the mother of the gods and to Attis,
Sextilius Agesilaus Aedesius, vir clarissimus, distinguished orator
reborn in eternity by the sacrifice of a bull and of a ram, dedicated
the altar in the consulship of our Lords Valens for the fifth time
and of Valentinian II Augusti, August 13.
Dedication altar of Sextilius Agesilaus Aedesius 2292
Therefore, like Osiris, Dionysus, and Adonis, the cult of Attis &
Cybele performed baptism and offered the hope of salvation, rebirth, and
eternal life for its followers. They slew also the bullock and the ram for
a sacrifice and took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people. They
made them white in the blood of the lamb.
2289
Lesley Adkins and Roy Adkins, Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1994-98), 290.
2290
Simon J. Keay, Roman Spain (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988),
164.
2291
Arthur E. Gordon, Illustrated Introduction to Latin Epigraphy (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1983), 166.
2292
Naphtali Lewis and Meyer Reinhold, Roman Civilization: Selected Readings,
Volume II: The Empire (New York: Columbia University Press, 1990), 585.
(Emph. added.)
852
Fig. 393: The Cybelene taurobolium- baptized in the blood of the sacred bull.
853
Fig. 394: Attis-Mithras slays the bull for baptism; based on terracotta figurines from
Panticapaeum, 1st century BCE.2293
In keeping up the parallels with Osiris, Dionysus, and Adonis, those

baptized in the taurobolium would even drink the blood of the sacrificial
bull during their baptism. Although, in the cults of the aforementioned
2293
Edwin M. Yamauchi, The Apocalypse of Adam, in tudes Mithriaques, ed.
J. Duchesne-Guillemin (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1978), 552 n.73.
Manfred Clauss, The Roman Cult of Mithras: The God and His Mysteries, trans.
R.L. Gordon (New York: Routledge, 1990-2001), 157.
854
gods, the blood was consumed vicariously as wine, while in this case the
drink was literally animal blood.
The priest, while standing in a pit below a bull as it is
slaughtered, drinks up the sacrificial animals blood.
Dr. Marc Mastrangelo, The Roman Self in Late Antiquity:
Prudentius and the Poetics of the Soul 2294
Do you realize, unhappy pagan, the blood I speak ofthe
sacred blood of your ox, in the sacrificial slaughter of which you
soak yourselves? It passes in a shower, dripping a foul rain, and
the priest in the pit below catches it, holding his filthy head to meet
every drop and getting his robe and his whole body covered with
corruption. Laying his head back he even puts his cheeks in the
way, placing his ears under it, exposing his lips and nostrils, bathing
his very eyes in the stream, not even keeping his mouth from it but
wetting his tongue, until the whole of him drinks in the dark gore.
Prudentius, Crowns of Martyrdom 10.1007-10, 1032-40 2295
While that is a late source, it can never be repeated enough that Attis
was already conflated with Dionysus before the Common Era and with
Osiris & Adonis no later than the 1st century. Therefore this motif of
drinking sacred blood (be it literally or symbolically) as part of the path
to eternal life already began to be integrated into the Attis & Cybele cult
by that time via said syncretism. Some indication of this is seen in Fig.
393, the imagery of which is the same as that of the stereotypical bull
slaying (tauroctony) performed in the taurobolium rituals of other
religious cults which will come up later in this chapter. Yet this scene of
Attis and others like it are dated to the 1st century BCE. So Prudentius
was reporting nothing recent to his own time, it was clearly far older, and
incorporated under the influence of the aforementioned gods. The oldest
of them being Osiris, whose immortalizing blood drinking motif far
predates not only the cult of certain antagonistic heathen who oppose our
faith, but even their predecessor religion as well.
Along with blood as drink, there is also the parallel motif of flesh as
bread. Returning one last time to the Phrygian hymns:
2294
Marc Mastrangelo, The Roman Self in Late Antiquity: Prudentius and the
Poetics of the Soul (Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 2008), 199.
2295
Prudentius, Crowns of Martyrdom, in Prudentius: Volume II, trans. H.J.
Thomson (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1953), 295-97. (Emph. added.)
855
Goatherd or harvested green sheaf
or flute player whom the fertile almond brought forth.
Attis is the very thing that grows from the crops, and the
punishment which he suffered is what a harvester with his sickle
does to the ripened crops. His death they interpret as the storing
away of the collected seeds, his resurrection as the sprouting of the
scattered seeds in the annual turn of the seasons.
2297
Firmicus Maternus, The Error of the Pagan Religions 3.2
Now recall the statue of Attis illustrated in Fig. 390. Although
perhaps difficult to see given the crude quality, just above the lunar
crescent are two ears of grain sprouting forth from the top of Attis head.
Fig. 395: Stalks of grain sprout forth from the head of Attis.
2296
2297
Firmicus Maternus, in Forbes (1970), 48.
856
Its head is adorned with fruit, it wears a radiate crown and a
Phrygian beret surmounted by a lunar crescent with spikes of wheat
sticking out from it.
Just as grain sprouted forth from the body Osiris and was turned into
bread and consumed, grain likewise grew from the body of Attis. Hence,
within the legend, his flesh literally became bread. On another note,
going back to the quote from Firmicus on the previous page regarding
Attis relationship to agricultural cycles, notice the reference to the
annual turn of seasons. While the birth of Attis via the almond tree and
his posthumous rebirth from the pine tree both appear to have taken place
on/around the time of the spring equinox, the Attis mythos does have a
winter motif, albeit not in exactly the same manner as that seen in the
Osiris-Horus & Dionysus mythos.
The Phrygians, believing that the god is asleep in the winter
and awake in the summer, sing lullabies for him in the winter and
in the summer chants to arouse him, after the manner of bacchic
worshippers.
So its not a birth and not exactly a death & rebirth/resurrection on

the winter solstice, but is still similar in that it involves a departure &
decline in winter and then a return. It is clearly still comparable, as
Plutarch here explicitly compared it to the winter motif in the Dionysus
cult. It is also interesting to recall from pp.226-27, etc.,2300 how ancient
cultures, not just the Egyptians, likened death to sleep and reawakening
to resurrection. And with that, the portion on Attisthat castrated
eunuch who became a dry treeis concluded.
2298
Lancellotti (2002), 116. (Emph. added.)
2299
2300
See also pp.142, 218, 226-27, 341, 348, 359-61, 363, 366, 369, 439, 449,
452, 461-3, 475, 481, 496-97, 545, 727.
857
The Sun Shineth in His Strength
The next god to cover is the ever popular Mithras. Not to be

confused with the Zoroastrian god of the same name, this is the mystery
god of the Roman Era who was also worshipped as Sol Invictus, god of
the Unconquerable Sun. For some reason, information about Mithras is
allegedly the most sought after of any heathen god when it comes to
researching comparative mythology on the internet.2301 One possible
reason is because the cult of Mithras was a contemporary and competitor
of the primary heathen cult which has opposed our faith across the
millennia, and the one which eventually won that battle & still survives
to this day while the cult of Mithras is but a memory. Mithraism arose
only slightly prior to that other cult and their rise through the ranks of
popularity mirror each other somewhat. So it is not as though Mithraism
(significantly) preceded the cult of these heathen and was thus some
source of great influence upon its origins. So why exactly its members
feel so threatened by its parallels to Mithraism is quite a mystery itself.
Any influence on the development of such parallels for both of these
cults would more likely have come from the older religions already
covered in this work (and others not mentioned) rather than some
influence on each other. Genetic similarities among siblings are inherited
from their parents and previous generations, not from each other.
Nevertheless, there remains much confusion about the alleged attributes
of Mithras as well and the sources regarding them, so the topic of
Mithras still seems worth covering.
Anyway, of all of the gods covered so far, Mithras was arguably the
most syncretistic. As his cult grew it would eventually blend him with
just about any god and legendary hero they could get a hold of. So
naturally, Mithras had attributes comparable to just about any god from
the time of the Roman Empire. But in his earliest stages, Mithras
syncretism was a bit more exclusive. This, however, did not exclude a
certain other sun god- our Lord and Savior Osiris.
2301
The owner of tektonics.org has stated in an interview: I receive more hits
on my website for the article on Mithra than for any any other article.
https://goo.gl/VQYj1x.
858
Whether tis best to call you rosy Titan in the fashion of the
Achaemenian race, or Osiris the grain-bringer, or Mithras twisting
the horns wroth to follow in the rocks of Peres cavern.
Statius, Thebaid 1.715-20 (1st cen. CE) 2302
There is also the mummy bandage fragment from Egypt, dated to the
1st century BCE, which bears the inscription:
The priest of Mithras, Ornouphios, son of Artemis, lived 14
years, Choiak 15, the 3rd year.2303
Fig. 396: Evidently, the Mithraic cult in Egypt practiced Osirian mummification, which
only makes sense seeing as how Mithras was identified with Osiris; based on a fragment
of an Egyptian mummy bandage, 1st century BCE, currently in the Schyen Collection.
This is relevant because of what was covered on pp.19-29 & 429-44.

The very origins and purpose of Egyptian mummification revolved
around Osiris. It was invented for Osiris. He was the first mummy in
history, and all subsequent mummifications performed in ancient Egypt
were performed to deliberately emulate Osiris in an attempt at
sympathetic magic to achieve resurrection just as he did. So this mummy
fragment alone establishes at least some sort of tangential connection
between Mithras and Osiris, but when considered in light of the
syncretism attested by Statius above, this fragment is perfectly
corroborative with that. The cult of Mithras in Egypt practiced Osirian
mummification because, as Osiris, Mithras wouldve been considered the
2302
Statius, Thebaid, in Bailey (2003), 93. (Emph. added.)
2303
The Schyen Collection, 23.6. Mythraism & Roman Religion, accessed
May 11, 2013, http://www.schoyencollection.com/religionsExtinct2.html#23.6.
859
prototype of mummification. The parallels between these two gods will
become evident as this chapter continues.
Another such syncretism that occurred with Mithras in his early
stages was his conflation with Attis (who had likewise been identified
with Osiris).
In addition to such identification with solar deities, local
influences might also affect the way in which Mithras was
represented. A clear example of this is the amalgamation of ideas
from the cult of Attis with Mithras. Phrygian Attis was the dying
and reviving god of vegetation, and so the guarantor of life; in this
aspect he was akin to Mithras. Panticapaeum/Kerch, Crimean
Peninsula: terracotta figurine of Mithras, assimilated to Attis, killing
the bull (V 11). Five such figurines are known; of the two from
excavations, one was found, along with various statuettes of
Aphrodite, in a womans grave; the other in a coroplasts workshop.
The model is the generalized classical and Hellenistic heroic
animal slayer. Date: ? second half of first cent. BC.
Dr. Manfred Clauss, The Roman Cult of Mithras: The God
and His Mysteries 2304
One thing however is clear in Olbia, Chersonesos, and the
West Pontic cities the original Mithridatic, i.e. Anatolian, cults were
very rare, unlike in Bosporos and the ancestral Pontic domain,
including Kolchis, where the Pontic religious impact was much
greater. At Bosporos this influence is confirmed by the worship
of Mithras-Attis in the first century BC to the first century AD.
Sergej Ju. Saprykin, in Mithridates VI and The Pontic
Kingdom 2305
At the settlement of Poljanka, the uninhabited room 11 has
been interpreted as a heroon. Most remarkable among the finds
dated to the M1st Ct BC is a set of 33 terracottas, including Men,
Kybele, Mithras, a Mithras-Attis horseman, a Thracian rider, a
Dionysos mask, Aphrodite, an Apis bull and Herakles, indicating a
strong foreign and, particularly, Pontic influence in the post-
Mithridatic period.
Dr. Pia G. Bilde et al., Archaeology in the Black Sea Region in
Classical Antiquity 1993-2007 2306
2304
Clauss and Van Essen (1990-2001), 156-57. (Emph. added.)
2305
Sergej Ju. Saprykin, The Religion and Cults of the Pontic Kingdom: Political
Aspects, in Mithridates VI and The Pontic Kingdom, ed. J.M. Hjte (rhus:
Aarhus University Press, 2009), 249. (Emph. added.)
860
Fig. 397: Mithras-Attis riding a horse; based on a terracotta figurine from Poljanka, 1st
century BCE.
Fig. 398: Attis-Mithras on the left performing tauroctony, the quintessential scene of the
Mithraic religion, as seen on the right. The left is based on terracotta figurines from
Kerch, 1st century BCE, while the right is based on a sard gem from Nemea, 1 st century
BCE, currently at the Walters Art Museum.
2306
Pia G. Bilde et al., Archaeology in the Black Sea Region in Classical Antiquity
1993-2007 (Athens: The Council of the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic
Studies & Council of the British School at Athens, 2008), 146-47. (Emph.
added.)
861
Being a solar deity, Mithras eventually became syncretic with the
Orphic primeval luminary god Phanes Protogonus (First-Born).
We can discern the influence of Orphic speculation in a
Greek inscription from one of the numerous mithraea in Rome, on
a statue-base dedicated , that is to Deus Sol
Mithras Phanes. Phanes is the embodiment of unlimited light, an
Orphic deity who emerged from the cosmic egg. There is also
literary evidence for the syncretism of Mithras with Phanes. In this
community, therefore, Mithras identification with the sun-god
grounded an allusion to the Orphic-Platonic ideas current among
the intellectual lites. Mithras-Phanes is also known to us in
iconographic form: a relief from Vercovicum (Housesteads) on
Hadrians Wall shows Mithras emerging from the cosmic egg,
which is represented both as such and by the shape of the zodiacal
ring. Both complex and straightforward notions thus find a place
next to one another in the cult-myths about Mithras birth, and are
partially interwoven- a point that could be made about any ancient
cult. In the case of the birth, some elements are invariable, but
variants, regional or local idiosyncrasies, are admissible as well.
The youthful Apolline statue from the Mithraeum of Merida
closely resembles the god of the syncretistic relief in the Galleria
Estense in Modena which apparently represents the egg-born
Orphic god Phanes in his equation with Mithras. This equation is
assured by an inscription from Rome (CIMRM 475) and by the
close resemblance of the relief from Modena to the one found at
Borcovicium-Housesteads which shows Mithras himself.
Dr. Hubertus von Gall, in tudes Mithriaques 2308
We can also prove a direct connection between Mithraism and
Orphism. In Rome at the foot of the Aventine three Greek
inscriptions were discovered, of which the first two were dedicated
to the god Helios Mithras, the third to the god Helios Mithras
Phanes. In this inscription, the Orphic god Phanes is clearly
identified with Mithras. Further, in a British Mithras sanctuary
2307
Clauss and Van Essen (1990-2001), 70. (Emph. added.)
2308
Hubertus von Gall, The Lion-Headed and the Human-Headed God in the
Mithraic Mysteries, in tudes Mithriaques, ed. J. Duchesne-Guillemin (Leiden:
E.J. Brill, 1978), 522-23. (Emph. added.)
Manfred Clauss, The Roman Cult of Mithras: The God and His Mysteries, trans.
R.L. Gordon (New York: Routledge, 1990-2001), 157.
862
(Borcovicium, Chapel Hill) a portrayal of Phanes (or Mithras) was
discovered showing him just emerging out of the divided egg shell.
Dr. Bartel L. van der Waerden, Science Awakening II: The
Birth of Astronomy 2309
Fig. 399: Mithras-Phanes entwined by the serpent Chronos;2310 based on a marble statue,
Roman Imperial Era, currently at the National Museum of Roman Art in Mrida.
2309
Bartel L. van der Waerden, Science Awakening II: The Birth of Astronomy
(Leiden: Noordhoff International Publishing, 1974), 176. (Emph. added.)
2310
Reinhold Merkelbach, Mithras: Ein persisch-rmischer Mysterienkult
(Weinheim: Beltz Athenum Verlag 1984-94), 327.
863
As the previous scholars noted, Mithras is most closely assimilated
to Phanes during the birth motif. This establishes several parallels to
much older myths & legends already mentioned in this work. For
starters, there is the archetype of being born out of heavenly
fire/lightning, such as that seen in the premature birth of Dionysus and
the conception of Osiris.
In a picture surrounding the niche of the Mithraeum at Dura-
Europos flames are shooting from the rock and even from the
Phrygian cap of Mithras, who holds in either upraised hand a torch.
Compare the flames shooting out from the egg-halfs on the relief
showing the birth of Mithras-Phanes at Modena.
Dr. Maarten J. Vermaseren, in Mnemosyne 2311
Fig. 400: The birth of Mithras from divine fire, like Dionysus & Osiris, with flames
bursting forth from the stone egg as he emerges; based on a scene from the Mithraeum of
Dura-Europos.
2311
Maarten J. Vermaseren, The Miraculous Birth of Mithras, Mnemosyne: A
Journal of Classical Studies, Fourth Series 4, no. 3/4 (1951): 287, n.10.
864
Fig. 401: Based on a scene from the Apronianus Terme at the Mithraeum of Nersae.
The assimilation with Phanes also gives Mithras a virgin birth.

Recall from pp.65-66 & n.164-65 that it is a scientific fact that snakes are
capable of parthenogenesis. Serpentine virgin births have been observed
both in captivity and in the wild, therefore the motif has been
incorporated into various myths down through the ages. Evidently, the
birth of Mithras-Phanes was one such myth. At the beginning of time,
Time itselfChronosmanifested in the form of a monstrous
androgynous serpent in a bottomless chasm of primordial aether.2312
Since this was at the beginning of creation, the serpent was all alone in
the aether, therefore by default it procreated parthenogenetically. Hence
2312
Gabriela Bijovsky, AION: A Cosmic Allegory on a Coin from Tyre? Israel
Numismatic Research 2 (2007): 145 n.5, 146.
865
the off-spring was also called Protogonus- the First-Born god within
time.
Of this Chronos, the ageless one, whose counsels never perish,
was born the Aither and a great yawning gulf on this side and on
that: and there was no limit to it, no bottom nor foundation. (All
things were in confusion) throughout the misty darkness. Then
great Chronos fashioned in the divine Aither a silvery egg. And it
moved without slackening in a vast circle. And it began to move in
a wondrous circle. And at the birth of Phanes the misty gulf below
and the windless Aither were rent. First-born, Phaethon, son of
lofty Aither. Whom they call Phanes because he first appeared
in the Aither. With four eyes looking this way and that. With
golden wings moving this way and that. Uttering the voice of a bull
and of a glaring lion.
Orphic Rhapsodic Theogony Fr. 66-79 (1st cen. BCE2313) 2314
According to the second version of the Orphic theogony,
Chronos first produced Ether and Chaos. Then, within Ether, he
fabricated (eteukse) a silver-plated egg. The use of the verb
teukh suggests, not the sexual act, but a craftsmanlike activity,
more precisely that of a metalworker, for the egg is described as
silver-plated.
Dr. Luc Brisson, Sexual Ambivalence: Androgyny and
Hermaphroditism in Graeco-Roman Antiquity 2315
The rock out of which Mithras is born is often shown
entwined by a snake, a detail which unmistakably evokes the
famous Orphic motif of the snake-entwined cosmic egg out of
2313
Alberto Bernab, The Gods in Later Orphism, in The Gods of Ancient
Greece: Identities and Transformations, eds. J.N. Bremmer, A. Erskine
(Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2010), 423.
Robert McGahey, The Orphic Moment: Shaman to Poet-Thinker in Plato,
Nietzsche, and Mallarme (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994),
21.
Martin L. West, The Orphic Poems (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983), 251.
2314
William K.C. Guthrie, Orpheus and Greek Religion: A Study of the Orphic
Movement (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1952-93), 137. (Emph.
added.)
2315
Luc Brisson, Sexual Ambivalence: Androgyny and Hermaphroditism in
Graeco-Roman Antiquity (Berkeley: University of California, 1997-2002), 90.
(Emph. added.)
866
which the cosmos was formed when the god Phanes emerged from
it at the beginning of time.
Dr. David Ulanssey, in Studies in Mithraism 2316
The god of Time is to be considered as the Father of Mithras
himself. Mithras is another god of Eternal Time.
Dr. Maarten J. Vermaseren, in Numen 2317
As Phanes, Mithras was virgin born from the primeval serpent of
Time when it created a silver-stone egg out of primordial aether, from
which Mithras emerged in all his blazing glory. This is very similar to
the myth regarding so-called snake-stones or adder-stones. In
ancient times these were thought to be parthenogenetic wind-eggs like
those produced by birds (see pp.198-201, 615-20), except these stone
eggs were believed to have been formed by the hardened saliva & sweat
of serpents. Because of their unconventional asexual production, they
were thought to have supernatural properties.
There is, moreover, a kind of egg which is very famous in the
Gauls, but not mentioned by the Greeks. Snakes intertwined in
great numbers in a studied embrace make these round objects with
the saliva from their jaws and the foam from their bodies. It is
called a wind egg. The Druids say that it is tossed aloft by the
snakes hisses, and that it ought to be caught in a military cloak
before it can touch the earth. I indeed have seen this egg, which
was like a round apple of medium size, and remarkable for its hard
covering pitted with many gristly cup-hollows, as it were, like those
on the tentacles of an octopus. The Druids praise it highly as the
giver of victory in the law-courts and of easy access to potentates.
Pliny, Natural History 29.9.52 (1st cen. CE) 2318
That description certainly sounds like a stone, exactly like the stone
eggs which Mithras is depicted emerging from at his birth, and is of
course also surrounded by the serpent Chronos. No doubt this belief
about the origin of adder-stones had some correlation to the birth legend
of Phanes/Mithras. Just as earthly serpents can produce both fertile eggs
2316
David Ulansey, Mithras and the Hypercosmic Sun, in Studies in Mithraism,
ed. J. Hinnells (Rome: LErma di Brettschneider, 1994), 264.
2317
Maarten J. Vermaseren, The New Mithraic Temple in London, Numen:
International Review for the History of Religions 2, no. 1/2 (1955): 144.
2318
Pliny, in Rackham (1963), 217-19.
867
and stone eggs parthenogenetically, so also the primeval serpent
produced the stone egg of Mithras-Phanes parthenogenetically. Mithras
had a virgin birth.
Fig. 402: The virgin born Mithras-Phanes hatches from the silver-stone egg as flames
burst forth from each half above his head and beneath his feet, and the serpent Chronos
coils around him; based on a white marble relief, Roman Imperial Era, currently at the
Galleria Estense in Modena.
868
Fig. 403: Mithras hatches out of the stone-egg at the beginning of the universe as the
Protogonus, the First-Born within time; based on a relief from the Mithraeum at
Housesteads.
869
Fig. 404: Mithras emerges from his stone egg of silver ore; based on a marble relief,
Roman Imperial Era, currently at the Palazzo dei Conservatori in Rome.
Fig. 405: The parthenogenetic birth of Mithras from the adder-stone egg made by the
androgynous serpent of Time, who is coiled around it; based on a marble statue from the
Mithraeum at Sarmizegetusa.
870
Fig. 406: Statue of the Petra Genetrix of Mithras, Roman Imperial Era, currently at the
Museum Carnuntinum in Bad Deutsch-Altenburg.
871
Fig. 407: Based on a white marble statue from Mithraeum I at Ptuj.
872
Fig. 408: Based on a limestone statue, Roman Imperial Era, currently at the National
Museum of the Union in Alba Iulia.
Fig. 409: Based on a relief from the Mithraeum at Bingen am Rhein.
873
Fig. 410: Statue of the serpentine birth of Mithras from the stone, from the Mithraeum of
Victorinus at Budapest.
874
This virgin birth involving stones & serpents is reminiscent of a few
other parthenogenetic births covered earlier in this work. There is the
virgin birth of Erichthonius to the virgin Athenawho was surrogated
by the earthand emerged in the form of a serpent.2319 In fact, at least
one ancient heathen apologist, Jerome of Stridon, noticed the similarity
and explicitly likened the birth of Erichthonius to that of Mithras, as both
apparently emerged from stone.2320 There is also the parthenogenetic
birth of the serpent Python to the titan Gaia.2321 This birth of Mithras
likewise has some conspicuous parallels to the birth of Lord Re-Atum
from the virgin mother Neith.2322 Recall how He was born in hypostasis
as the primeval Kematef serpent,2323 thus the serpentine parallel is there.
And just as Chronos created the stone egg of Mithras-Phanes out of the
primordial aether, so also the virgin Neith created the pyramidion
Benben stone egg2324 out of the primordial Nun to birth Re-Atum. Both
of these deities were portrayed as having been the First-Born gods of all
creation.2325 Also, Osiris was conflated with both of them, with Mithras
through cultural syncretism, and with Re quite literally, physically, when
they merge every night to become Osiris-Re.2326 Osiris also happened to
have been born of a virgin like Mithras and Re, as shown in chapter 3.
So like Lord Amen-Re, Mithras-Phanes was regarded as a primeval
deity of light. From the egg out of which he hatched, the top half evolved
into the stellar heaven and the bottom half into the earth.2327 Recall from
p.48 how at the very beginning of time, before incarnating as Re, the
Lord God Amen manifested hypostatically in the likeness of a bull in
order to issue forth from His belly the living waters of the primordial
Nun. Well it appears that in a similar manner, in the primeval age at the
dawn of creation within the Mithraic mythos, there was a cosmic entity
2319
See pp.57-65.
2320
Jerome, Against Jovinian 1.7.
2321
See pp.66-67.
2322
See pp.49-55.
2323
See pp.56-57.
2324
See pp.106-09.
2325
See p.51.
2326
See p.124-30.
2327
Orphic Theogonies Fr. 57, in Athenagoras, Embassy, trans. J.H. Crehan (New
York: Paulist Press, 1956), 18.4-5.
875
likewise manifested in the form of a bull. In the most repeated motif in
Mithraic iconography, Mithras captures this bull and slays it with a knife.
This is often placed within some representation, be it arch or circle or
square, etc., of the zodiac- the twelve stellar bodies of the suns journey
through the twelve months.
Fig. 411: Mithras plunges his blade into the neck of the cosmic bull within the circle of
the zodiac, from the Mithraeum of London.
The archetype of the Twelve aside, it appears as though the slaying of

the bull set the universe in motion2328 and thus initiated the cycles of
time2329 as understood by man, such as the 12 months of the year and
especially the precession of the equinoxes, hence the zodiac. But
moreover, releasing the bulls life-force from its body apparently
imparted that life-force into the barren earth, because from the blood
which flowed down from its wounds sprang up ears of grain and clusters
of grapes.
2328
Richard L. Gordon, The Date and Significance of CIMRM 593, Journal of
Mithraic Studies 2, no. 2 (1978): 154.
Jeffry R. Halverson et al., Master Narratives of Islamist Extremism (New York:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), 99.
2329
Reinhold Merkelbach, Mithraism, in The New Encyclopaedia Britannica:
Volume 8, 15th Edition, eds. J.E. Safra and I. Yeshua (Chicago: Encyclopaedia
Britannica, Inc., 1974-2003), 197.
876
From the tail and blood of the primordial bull sacrificed by
Mithra upon the creation of the world, sprang the first ear of grain
andsignificantly in our casethe grape vine.
2330
Dr. Marta Simidchieva, in Oriente Moderno
The killing of the bull has nothing to do with mere slaughter or
destruction, rather with transfiguration and transformation. The
transformation is often depicted, namely in the cases in which corn-
ears or a cluster of grapes are shown beneath the wound on the
bulls neck, or the tail ends in one or more ears of corn. The
significance attributed in the mysteries to grain and wine, the two
most important basic foodstuffs in the ancient world, can easily be
seen in the cult-legend. As I described earlier, Mithras kills the bull
that he has overcome, and at that point an extraordinary
transformation occurs: ears of wheat grow out of its tail, and grapes
burgeon from the blood at the knife-wound.
Wheat sprouted from the spinal cord, and its blood became
the sacred wine consumed at Mithraic services.
Dr. Edwin C. Krupp, Beyond the Blue Horizon 2332
When Mithras slays a bull, wheat sprouts out of its spine and
grape vines grow out of its blood. On the marble display which
portrays this myth in the British Museum, Mithras dagger is still in
the wound, and instead of blood, three full ears of wheat are
emerging from it. Elsewhere the tail ends in sheaves of wheat.
Photina Rech, Wine and Bread 2333
Mithras was originally a Persian god. He was a sun god who
carried out a number of tasks. One of these involved killing a bull
along with the help of a dog, raven, snake, and two human
companions. As it died, a stem of wheat sprang from the bulls
spine and a grapevine from its blood.
2330
Marta Simidchieva, Rituals of Renewal: Sadeq Hedayat's The Blind Owl and
the wine myths of Manuchehri, Oriente Moderno 22, no. 83 (2003): 228 n.31.
2331
Clauss and Van Essen (1990-2001), 79-80, 110. (Emph. added.)
2332
Edwin C. Krupp, Beyond the Blue Horizon: Myths and Legends of the Sun,
Moon, Stars, and Planets (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), 147.
2333
Photina Rech, Wine and Bread, trans. H.R. Kuehn (Chicago: Liturgy Training
Publications, 1998), 80.
877
Richard Woff, A Pocket Dictionary of Greek and Roman
Gods and Goddesses 2334
This is why the tauroctony scene often depicts animals rushing to the
bull to drink its life-giving blood.
We can explain why the dog, serpent and scorpion are so
eagerly pushing their way towards the bull by assuming that the
dying beast is emitting some sort of magical force.
Mithras, who wears brown sandals, grasps the bull with his left
hand under the chin and thrusts the dagger into the heart. The
bulls tail seems to end either in one large ear of corn or in three
fine cornears. A brown dog leaps up against the bulls breast and
licks the blood. A long, dark green snake is creeping over the soil,
lifting up its head to drink the blood.
Dr. Maarten J. Vermaseren, Mithriaca III: The Mithraeum at
Marino 2336
Grain sprouts out of the bulls tail, a raven appears over
Mithrass shoulder, a dog drinks the blood from the wound, a
serpent and a cup rest below the bull.
Dr. Gregory S. Aldrete, Daily Life in the Roman City: Rome,
Pompeii, and Ostia 2337
A large central motif represents Mithras as bull-slayer. The
god, his left knee on the bulls back, plunges his dagger into the
animals neck, and the dog, usually portrayed in the act of
stretching out to lick the blood from the wound, is figured by a
motif added afterwards en barbotine.
Vivienne J. Walters, The Cult of Mithras in the Roman
Provinces of Gaul 2338
2334
Richard Woff, A Pocket Dictionary of Greek and Roman Gods and Goddesses
(London: The British Museum Press, 2003), 44.
2335
2336
Maarten J. Vermaseren, Mithriaca III: The Mithraeum at Marino (Leiden:
E.J. Brill, 1982), 12. (Emph. added.)
2337
Gregory S. Aldrete, Daily Life in the Roman City: Rome, Pompeii, and Ostia
(Westport: Greenwood Press, 2004), 162. (Emph. added.)
2338
Vivienne J. Walters, The Cult of Mithras in the Roman Provinces of Gaul
878
The ubiquitous bull-slaying scene (Tauroctonos), an icon
central to the Roman cult, depicts the moment when the dagger
was thrust into the bull. A dog and snake lapped up the blood.
John D. Shepherd, The Temple of Mithras, London 2339
2339
John D. Shepherd, The Temple of Mithras, London: Excavations by W.F.
Grimes and A. Williams at the Walbrook (London: English Heritage, 1998), 223.
(Emph. added.)
879
Fig. 412: The Mithraic tauroctony. Although not legible here, on the bulls body there
are two inscriptions, one on the torso and the other on the neck where the blood flows out
from the stab wound. The latter of these reads NAMA SEBASIO, meaning juice 2340 of
Dionysus2341- i.e. wine. The blood of the bull becomes wine, which the dog drinks.
2340
Bernard A. Taylor, Analytical Lexicon to the Septuagint: Expanded Edition
(Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 2009), 383.
Thesaurus Linguae Graecae: A Digital Library of Greek Literature, ,
accessed July 28, 2013,
http://stephanus.tlg.uci.edu/lsj/#eid=71981&context=lsj.
880
Fig. 413: Mithras wounds the bull in the neck, from which the blood flows out and turns
into grapes;2342 Roman votive-relief from Bologna.
Gavin Betts and Alan Henry, Complete Ancient Greek: Everything You Need to
Read, Write, and Understand (London: Hachette UK, 1989-2010), 416.
Numen The Latin Lexicon, nma, accessed July 28, 2013,
http://latinlexicon.org/definition.php?p1=2037703.
Umberto Quattrocchi, CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names: Common Names,
Scientific Names, Eponyms, Synonyms, and Etymology Volume III M-Q (Boca
Raton: CRC Press LLC, 2000), 1764.
2341
Obbink (2011), 292. [Dionysos] is hidden, still sewn-up in [Zeus] thigh,
where the mountains of Lydia called the Ista (?) are, hence the Lydians say that
he is Sabazios there, Fr. 1, Col. II, emphasis added.
2342
See Clauss and Van Essen (1990-2001), 80, 87.
881
Fig. 414: Harvesting the fruits which grew from the flesh & blood of the slain bull;
sandstone relief from Mithraeum I at Nida-Heddernheim.
Fig. 415: The bull & the grape; based on a couple of coins from Eretria, 4th-2nd century
BCE.
882
Fig. 416: Wheat sprouts forth from the wound of the bulls body; based on a marble
statue from the reign of Trajan (98-117 CE), currently at the British Museum.
Fig. 417: The tail of the bull transforms into ears of wheat; white marble relief, Roman
Imperial Era, currently at the Vatican Museum.
883
Sounds familiar, no? The transformation of flesh & blood into the
substance of bread & wine is a page right out of the books of Osiris,
Dionysus, Adonis, and Attis. At least three of which were shown to
likewise have a bovine aspect, and two of which were identified with
Mithras. It makes sense that antagonistic heathen who were alive in the
heyday of Mithraism felt threatened by this and believed that their own
customs were being profaned by the Mithraists. But actually, the
Mithraists were just repeating archetypes common to all of the
aforementioned gods who were more ancient.
The transformative powers of the bull did not stop with the genesis
of grain & wine. This power also brought about the palingenesis of the
bull itself, for it was brought back to life and reborn as the moon. Here
again is the theme encountered many times now, that of the bull as the
moon. And being identified with the moon by default implies a
resurrection/rebirth, just as the moon itself is metaphorically killed once
a month at the new moon phase and then buried by the darkness only to
return reborn on the third day. Hence the moon was likewise identified as
a hypostasis of Osiris and Attis,2343 who in turn were also identified with
Mithras as well as associated/identified with a bull.
On the Roman monuments, Mithra sacrifices the white bull,
who is then transformed into the moon. At the very moment of
the death of the bull, a great miracle happened. The white bull was
metamorphosed into the moon; the cloak of Mithra was
transformed into the vault of the sky, with the shining planets and
fixed stars; from the tail of the bull and from his blood sprang the
first ears of grain and the grape.
Dr. Reinhold Merkelbach, in The New Encyclopaedia
Britannica 2344
Creation arises from the death of the bull, who, as a symbol of
the Moon, embodies death and rebirth. The bull's body has
been made to allude to the Moon.
2343
See pp.203, 217, 247-58, 347-57, 362, 467, 847-51.
2344
Merkelbach (1974-2003), 197. (Emph. added.)
2345
Clauss and Van Essen (1990-2001), 82-83. (Emph. added.)
884
At a deeper level, Mithras himself is surely to some degree to
be identified with the sun and the bull slain by him with the moon.
This is not a proposition that I need to argue at any length here,
since most scholars would, I think, grant its truth as one
interpretation among other perhaps more profound. That Mithras
is in some sense the sun I take to be self-evident from the literally
scores of inscriptions that name him such. For the identification of
the bull with the moon one may cite the fact that the animal and
the luminary are regularly linked in the symbolism of late antiquity
and also the fact that Porphyry, in an important and clearly
Mithraic passage of De antro nympharum (ch. 18), explicitly calls
the moon a bull:

, ,
,
.
Dr. Roger Beck, in Journal of Mithraic Studies 2346
The bull can signify Taurus and the Moon simultaneously
without contradiction. In the star-talk lexicon used in the
tauroctony, the most interesting of the polysemous signs is the bull.
The bull, as we have seen, means Taurus, as both sign and
constellation. It also means the Moon:
Bull (sign 1) means the Moon.
Why do I so confidently claim this other meaning? First, it is
warranted by a string of mystery-cult meanings set out by Porphyry
in De antro 18.
The ancients called the priestesses of Demeter Bees, as initiates
of the earth goddess, and the Maiden they called the Honey-
sweet and the Moon who presides over genesis the Bee,
especially since the Moon is a bull and the exaltation of the
Moon is Taurus, and souls going into genesis are ox-born, and
he who secretly listens to genesis is the cattle-stealing god.
Since the 'cattle-stealing god' (bouklopos theos) means Mithras, it is
clear that this mystery-talk belongs to his mysteries as much as to
Demeter's and the Maiden's.
If Mithras in the tauroctony means the Sun and the bull means
the Moon, then the encounter of Mithras and the bull means the
2346
Roger Beck, Interpreting the Ponza zodiac: II, Journal of Mithraic Studies
2, no. 2 (1978): 101.
885
conjunction of Sun and Moon, the monthly event we call new
moon, and the victory of the bull-killing Mithras signifies, whatever
its ulterior meaning, the Suns triumph over the Moon.
Dr. Roger Beck, The Religion of the Mithras Cult in the
Roman Empire: Mysteries of the Unconquered Sun 2347
Fig. 418: The bull ascends to heaven, having been resurrected and transformed into the
moon (top center); votive relief of Titus Aurelios Macus, currently at the National
Museum of the Union.
2347
Roger Beck, The Religion of the Mithras Cult in the Roman Empire:
Mysteries of the Unconquered Sun (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 164,
886
Fig. 419: The reborn bull traverses the sky as the moon (at the top within the arch, to the
left of the center); white marble bas-relief from Turda, Roman Imperial Era, currently
at the National Museum of History in Cluj-Napoca.
887
Fig. 420: The risen bull becomes the moon (top center); marble votive relief from Alcst,
Roman Imperial Era, currently at the Hungarian National Museum in Budapest.
888
Fig. 421: The bull as the moon (top left); based on white marble fragments from Sisak,
Roman Imperial Era, currently at the Archaeological Museum in Zagreb.
889
Fig. 422: Based on a white marble bas-relief from Studniczka, Roman Imperial Era.
Fig. 423: The bull as the moon; based on various bronze coins, 3 rd-1st century BCE.
890
So now it is evident which cosmic entity was manifested in the bull
as mentioned earlier. The bull was the primeval pre-incarnation of the
moon, just as Mithras (as will be shown) was the primeval pre-
incarnation of the sun. As Dr. Beck stated, the death of the bull correlates
to the death of the moon at the new moon phase. That being the case,
the return of the moon from this death correlates to a return of the bull
from death as well, and the transformation of the moon from the horned
crescent to a full human-like face2348 correlates the bulls own
posthumous transformation into a human-like form. Because the bull is a
form of the moon, this means that the bull is also a form and hypostasis
of Luna/Selene- the moon goddess. Before getting into that, on a side
note, it is interesting that the male bull is reborn as a female goddess. The
reason for this is rather obvious, and also involves another recurring
archetype for the gods of this syncretic brotherhood from Osiris to
Mithras- that of castration. As seen in countless Mithraic artifacts, at the
tauroctony the bull was not only killed by Mithras, but it was also
castrated by a scorpion.
If then the nippers of the scorpion are in fact cutting nippers,
the final result will be the severing of the scrotum, and so
castration. The scorpion's role in the bull sacrifice seems, therefore,
to be that of inflicting another death on the bull (or at least of
threatening it), the death of its vital energy, located in the central
organ of its virility and fertility. If we consider that the scorpion is
the animal and the sign of the zodiac connected with the third level
of the Mithraic hierarchy, that of the miles, we can imagine that the
soldiers of Mithras, not without emotional involvement, focused
their attention on the exploits of their patron saint. Moreover, the
Scorpio and the Mithraic milites fall quite significantly under the
protection of Mars, both as a god and a planet, and the aggressive
and destructive nature of this god may be of significance here. To
2348
This an ancient motif that even survives to this day in the expression man
in the moon. See William C. Carroll, Goodly Frame, Spotty Globe, Earth-
Moon Relationships, eds. C. Barbieri, F. Rampazzi (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic
Thomas A. Hockey, How We See the Sky: A Naked-Eye Tour of Day and Night
(Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2011), 170-71, 174.
Plutarch, Moralia 920B-F.
This of course also correlates to Osiris own lunar identity and his
transformation between Apis bull and human form.
891
see the bull's castration, the aggression against the virility of the
highest emblem of virile potency, as the other side of the Mithraic
sacrifice accords with the ideology of the military caste, within
which, as is well-known, a considerable part of the initiates of the
Mithraic brotherhood was recruited. It was of course an ideology
centering upon masculine values and thus prone to be obsessed by
the terror of the loss or absence of virile potency.
Dr. Giovanni Casadio, in Numen 2349
Fig. 424: The scorpion castrates the bull during the Mithraic tauroctony; marble statue,
Roman Imperial Era, currently at the British Museum.
Having been effeminized, the bull acquires a feminine form, which is

that of the moon goddess Luna.
The evident relationship of Mithras to Sol establishes a parallel
relationship of the bull to Luna; since the former relationship (at a
certain level) is that of identity, so, we may conclude, is the latter:
the bull and Luna are one; thus, the bull is the Moon.
2349
Giovanni Casadio, The Failing Male God: Emasculation, Death and Other
Accidents in the Ancient Mediterranean World, Numen 50, no. 3 (2003): 265-
66. (Emph. added.)
892
Some features signify things which are not constellations at all
(either in addition to, or apart from, a constellation meaning or
meanings): the individual stars Spica (the bull's wheat-ear tail),
Aldebaran and Antares (Cautes and Cautopates), and Regulus
(Mithras); the array of celestial opposites denoted by the
torchbearers; and above all the two great luminaries, Sun and
Moon, doubly signified, exoterically by Sol and Luna, esoterically
and centrally by Mithras and the Bull.
Dr. Roger Beck, in Studies in Mithraism 2350
Creation arises from the death of the bull, who, as a symbol of
the Moon, embodies death and rebirth. Porphyry, whom I have
already cited on several occasions, has this to say about Luna in
relation to the cult of Mithras: The Moon is also known as a bull
and Taurus is its exaltation (De antr. nymph. 18, tr. Arethusa).
On the Mithraic cult-image, Luna is depicted as often as Sol: her
bust, with its characteristic crescent, is placed in the top right-hand
corner of the scene. There is a close relationship in Graeco-Roman
mythology between Moon and bull; the Moon's striking crescent,
reminiscent of a bull's horns, was known as the cornua lunae, the
Moons horns.
The fifth- or sixth-century commentator on Statius known as
Lactantius Placidus has the following observation about the two
lines from the Thebais (1.719-720) I have already cited several
times, where the poet describes Mithras overcoming the bull. He
writes:
(Mithras) grips the bull's horns with his two hands. The
interpretation of this concerns Luna... In these lines (the poet)
reveals the secrets of the mysteries of the Sun. For the Sun (-
god) sits on the bull and twists his horns, so as to teach Luna
by dint of his strength that she is not so great as he, and
inferior.
Mithras, as the Sun, overcomes the bull, and thereby also the
Moon, from earliest times a symbol of death and restoration to life.
The signs are so positioned that Leo, the astrological house of
the Sun, is leaping up towards Sol, and Taurus, the exaltation of
the Moon, is by Luna.
2350
Roger Beck, In the Place of the Lion: Mithras in the Tauroctony, in Studies
in Mithraism, ed. J. Hinnells (Rome: LErma di Brettschneider, 1994), 34-35.
(Emph. added.)
893
Luna means the Moon. The principal players in the
tauroctony are Mithras and the bull. As agent-signs in the discourse
they mean 'Sun' and 'Moon', and those too are the meanings of Sol
and Luna in the upper corners of the composition. The tauroctony
is thus star-talking about the interaction of Sun and Moon.
Dr. Roger Beck, The Religion of the Mithras Cult in the
Roman Empire: Mysteries of the Unconquered Sun 2352
The general astrological connection between the moon and
fertility, and the specific Mithraic connection between Luna and the
bull (through the fact that Taurus is the domicile of Luna), are too
familiar to require rehearsal.
Dr. Richard L. Gordon, in Journal of Mithraic Studies 2353
The polysemy of symbols: a symbol can have several referents
(meanings), and these can be in play concurrently. The law of
non-contradiction does not apply. Thus, the bull slain by Mithras
canand I think didsignify both Taurus and the Moon.
Moreover, two symbols in the same context can refer to the same
thing. Redundancy in symbolism is not a mistake. In the tauroctony
the bull as well as the bust of Luna can symbolize the Moon.
Dr. Roger Beck, Beck on Mithraism: Collected Works with
New Essays 2354
In the middle [of the Moon] can clearly be seen the face of a
young girl whose eyes are than .
Hegesianax, in Moralia 920E (2nd cen. BCE) 2355
Also recall from pp.175-83 the phenomenon of . This was
the ancient belief that bees were born from the carcass of a dead bull.
Thus bulls were thought to be reborn as bees. For the particular topic at
hand, this belief about bougonia is corroborative with the passage from
2351
Clauss and Van Essen (1990-2001), 82, 84, 89. (Emph. added.)
2352
Beck, (2006), 198, 206. (Emph. added.)
2353
Richard L. Gordon, The sacred geography of a mithraeum: the example of
Sette Sfere, Journal of Mithraic Studies 1, no.2 (1976): 144.
2354
Roger Beck, Beck on Mithraism: Collected Works with New Essays
(Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Ltd, 2004), 240. (Emph. added.)
2355
Plutarch, Moralia 920E, in Studies in Greek Colour Terminology: Volume I,
trans. P.G. Maxwell-Stuart (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1981), 89.
894
Porphyry quoted on p.885 about Mithraic customs regarding the moon,
bull, and bee.
On this account the bees are said, by the poet, to deposit their
honey in bowls and amphorae; the bowls being a symbol of
fountains, and therefore a bowl is placed near to Mithra, instead of
a fountain; but the amphorae are symbols of the vessels with which
we draw water from fountains. And fountains and streams are
adapted to aquatic Nymphs, and still more so to the Nymphs that
are souls, which the ancient peculiarly called bees, as the efficient
causes of sweetness. Hence Sophocles does not speak
unappropriately when he says of souls:
In swarms while wandering, from the dead,
A humming sound is heard.
The priestesses of Ceres, also, as being initiated into the
mysteries of the terrene Goddess, were called by the ancients bees;
and Proserpine herself was denominated by them honied. The
moon, likewise, who presides over generation, was called by them a
bee, and also a bull. And Taurus is the exaltation of the moon. But
bees are ox-begotten. And this application is also given to souls
proceeding into generation. The God, likewise, who is occultly
connected with generation, is a stealer of oxen.
Porphyry, On the Cave of the Nymphs 17-18 2356
So Luna/Selene was nicknamed Melissa (bee) since she too was
believed to have been reborn from a bull just like the bees were. As such
she was also thought to preside over the birth/rebirth of souls. And
Mithras, for his part in the process, was known as the ox-stealer.
2356
Porphyry, On the Cave of the Nymphs, trans. T. Taylor (Grand Rapids:
Phanes Press, 1823-1991), 41. (Emph. added.)
895
Fig. 425: Transformation of the moon from the horns of a bull to the face of a woman. In
the words of Zeno of Verona: She first appears as a scarcely visible crescent. It is as if
she were a child of tender years, just come from the cradle. Then she grows slowly into a
girl and then into a damsel, and as she follows her wide course and fulfills her task in the
world, she daily grows older. When she is finally grown, and the golden fire of the
flaming, light-giving charioteer has caused the small circle of her silver disc to become
fully rounded- her own travail having been not less than that of her brother -then she
inclines slowly toward old age, until having been wholly consumed by death, she starts her
life a-fresh.- Tractate 1.16.8.2357
2357
Hugo Rahner, Griechische Mythen in christlicher Deutung, trans. B.
Battershaw (New York: Biblo and Tannen, 1957-71), 174. (Emph. added.)
896
Fig. 426: An illustration of various interpretations of the lunar surface down through the
ages, among them the hare, the man/face (Osiris, Attis, Men, Endymion, etc.), and most
importantly here- the woman (Luna, the seamstress, etc.)2358
2358
Ewen A. Whitaker, Mapping and Naming the Moon: A History of Lunar
Cartography and Nomenclature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999-
2003), 3-4.
David K. Lynch and William C. Livingston, Color and Light in Nature (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1995-2001), 212.
897
Fig. 427: The moon as the bull on the top-left, the moon as Luna on the top-right; based
on a bronze plaque from Munich, Roman Imperial Era.
898
Fig. 428: The moon as the bull (top- left of center) and then as Luna (top right corner);
marble relief, Roman Imperial Era, currently at the Brukenthal National Museum in
Sibiu.
Fig. 429: Luna within the circle of the full moon bearing her torch of reflected light of the
sun, still donning her bovine horns upon her head, a remnant of her previous life as the
primeval bull; sarcophagus of Tomb D from Via Belluzzo, Roman Imperial Era.
Just as the bulls death gives birth to grains & grapes/bread & wine,
and transforms itself into the moon, its death likewise transforms
Mithras. The bull was reborn and became Luna, so too Mithras was
reborn and through henosis with the sun god became Sol Invictus- The
899
Unconquerable Sun. And as Sol, the Sun, Mithras afterwards underwent
a death & resurrection/rebirth three days later (Dec. 22-25) during the
winter solstice period,2359 which was celebrated annually thereafter. The
Mithraeum at Hawarte was even designed so that a beam of light would
shine through a hole directly on to the image of Mithras during the time
surrounding the winter solstice.2360
Mithras, a solar warrior and an agent of cosmic order,
originated in ancient Persia, but his cult spread throughout the
Mediterranean during the Roman Empire. He was reborn as sol
invictus, "the invincible sun," at the time of the winter solstice, when
the sun is at its lowest and just prior to its return to the north and
summer's strength. Mithras was born on December 25 , the same
day as Xmas and the birthday of the Unconquered Sun. At times,
Mithras was called Sol Invictus and was merged with the sun.
Dr. Edwin C. Krupp, Beyond the Blue Horizon: Myths and
Legends of the Sun, Moon, Stars, and Planets 2361
The assimilation of one solar divinity into another may have
been a natural one, given the enduring promise of renewal
embodied in the dying and rising god, Mithra, as also in the Punic
solar divinity.
Dr. Claudia Sagona, The Archaeology of Malta: From the
Neolithic through the Roman Period 2362
The winter solstice is the first day of the new sun, the last of
the old.
Ovid, Fasti 1.163-64 (1 CE) 2363
Some make the natural year commence at the Birth of the
Sun, that is to say, at Brumalia.2364
2359
See pp.590-599.
2360
Michal Gawlikowski, Krzysztof Jakubiak, Wieslaw Malkowski, Arkadiusz
Soltysiak, A Ray of Light for Mithras, in Un impaziente desiderio di scorrere il
mondo: Studi in onore di Antonio Invernizzi per il suo settantesimo compleanno,
eds. C. Lippolis and S. de Martino (Florence: Le Lettere, 2011), 169-75.
2361
Krupp (1992), 27, 146. (Emph. added.)
2362
Claudia Sagona, The Archaeology of Malta: From the Neolithic through the
Roman Period (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014), 288. (Emph.
added.)
2363
Ovid, in Wiseman (2011-13), 5. (Emph. added.)
2364
The winter solstice, see p.592 n.1773.
900
Censorinus, The Natal Day 21 2365
Month of December
22: Winter Solstice.
23: Procyon sets in the morning.
25: The birth of the sun, light increases.
Parapegma of Antiochus of Athens 2366
Soli Invicto Mithrae T . Flavius Aug. lib. Hyginus Ephebianus d. d.
Dedication Altar of Flavius Augusti Hyginus Ephebianus
(1st cen. CE) 2367
Sun Mithra, the only god and incomparable sovereign of the
world.

To Mithra, the Sun God, great Serapis, 2368 the savior, who
grants riches, hears prayers, bestows benefits, and is unrivalled and
unknowable, this is dedicated, for graces received.
Votive Offering Inscriptions of the Baths of Caracalla 2369
One of the earliest datable inscriptions from the capital, Rome,
is to be found on a free-standing sculpture of Mithras slaying the
bull,2370 dedicated by a slave who cannot have lacked financial
means: Alcimus Ti(beri) Cl(audi) Liviani ser(vus) vil(i)c(us) Sol(i)
M(ithrae) v(otum) s(olvit) d(onum) d(edit) (V 594). Alcimus was the
slave-administrator of one Ti. Claudius Livianus, who is probably
to be identified with the praetorian prefect under Trajan,2371 so that
the votive is to be dated to the first quarter of the second century
AD. This dedication is important for another reason too. It shows
that Sol and Mithras were already identified with one another in
one of the earliest known inscriptions. The followers of Mithras
saw their god as protector of the imperial house, because the
2365
Censorinus, in Maude (1900), XXI.
2366
Lehoux (2007), 162, 343. The 22nd-25th obviously being a difference of three
days.
2367
Richard L. Gordon, The date and significance of CIMRM 593 (British
Museum, Townley Collection), Journal of Mithraic Studies 2, no.2 (1978): 151-
52. (Emph. added.)
2368
The Ptolemaic version of Osiris.
2369
The Colonist, Excavations at Rome, vol. 54, no. 13555, October 24, 1912:
3.
2370
See Fig. 416.
2371
Reigned from 98-117 CE.
901
emperor recognised Sol Invictus; and Sol Invictus had always been
identical to their god.
Most Mithraic inscriptions actually equate him with the sun,
terming him Mithras Invictus, Mithras Sol Invictus, or Mithras
Deus Sol Invictus.
Dr. Gary Forsythe, Time in Roman Religion: One Thousand
Years of Religious History 2373
Eastern religions, as well as Roman deities, turn up in
Germany, where Mithras is worshipped as Sol Invictus.
Dr. Erich S. Gruen, in The Journal of Roman Studies 2374
In later times Mithras was always treated as a sun-god. In
inscriptions of the Roman period Mithras is called Deus Sol
Invictus.
Dr. Bartel L. van der Waerden, Science Awakening II: The
Birth of Astronomy 2375
Romans saw the rebirth of the sun in the dense center of winter.
Dr. Catherine M. Bell, Ritual: Perspectives and
Dimensions 2376
The year begins, Janus states tersely, when the sun is reborn
after midwinter.
Dr. Diana Spencer, Roman Landscape: Culture and
Identity 2377
The date was chosen because it was the day of the winter
solstice (the 25th exactly according to the Julian calendar of the
time) a day when the pagan cults at Rome, in Egypt, in Persia and
2372
Clauss and Van Essen (1990-2001), 22, 28. (Emph. added.)
2373
Gary Forsythe, Time in Roman Religion: One Thousand Years of Religious
History (New York: Routledge, 2012), 136.
2374
Erich S. Gruen, Review Articles: Innovation and Restraint, The Journal of
Roman Studies 92 (2002): 180.
2375
Van der Waerden (1974), 150.
2376
Catherine M. Bell, Ritual: Perspectives and Dimensions (New York: Oxford
2377
Diana Spencer, Roman Landscape: Culture and Identity (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2010), 60. (Emph. added.)
902
elsewhere celebrated the re-birth of the sunthe Feast of Natalis
Invicti.
Broughton Richmond, Time Measurement and Calendar
Construction 2378
This, then, was the full meaning of Natalis Invicti: feast of the
Suns rebirth and its divinity.
Pierre Jounel, in The Liturgy and Time 2379
In the Nativity cycle the original theme of the yearly renewal,
the end of the old time and the beginning of the new, which
connected this feast with the annual birth of the sun and the
return of light to the world, although reflected in our liturgical texts,
is so little understood.
Dr. Alexander Schmemann, Introduction to Liturgical
Theology 2380
This festival was held around the time of the winter solstice,
which has long held importance for cultures worldwide, since the
sun is believed to be reborn.
James Renshaw, In Search of the Romans 2381
According to Strabos information, Mithra and the sun are the
same.
Albert De Jong, Traditions of the Magi: Zoroastrianism in
Greek and Latin Literature 2382
It seems reasonable, however, to admit that the Mithraists of
Hawarte believed their god to have sacrificed the bull on the winter
solstice, that is, on the Suns birthday.
Dr. Michal Gawlikowski et al., in Un impaziente desiderio di
scorrere il mondo 2383
2378
Broughton Richmond, Time Measurement and Calendar Construction
2379
Pierre Jounel, The Year, in The Liturgy and Time, ed. A.G. Martimort
(Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 1986), 79-80. (Emph. added.)
2380
Alexander Schmemann, Introduction to Liturgical Theology, trans. A.E.
Moorehouse (Crestwood: St. Vladimirs Seminary Press, 1966-2003), 178.
2381
James Renshaw, In Search of the Romans (London: Bloomsbury Publishing
Plc, 2012), 83. (Emph. added.)
2382
Albert De Jong, Traditions of the Magi: Zoroastrianism in Greek and Latin
Literature (Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV, 1997), 286. (Emph. added.)
903
Fig. 430: Votive altar dedicated to Invictus Mithras from Alba Iulia, Roman Imperial
Era, currently at the Romanian National History Museum.
2383
Gawlikowski et al. (2011), 173. (Emph. added.)
904
Fig. 431: Mithras as the sun god Sol/Helios; based on a monument of Antiochus I of
Commagene, 1st century BCE.2384
2384
Van der Waerden (1974), 150.
905
Fig. 432: Roman inscription acknowledging Mithras as the sun god Sol Invictus.
Fig. 433: Dedication to Sol Invictus Mithras; based on a white marble relief from the
Circus Maximus Mithraeum at Rome.
906
Fig. 434: The henosis of Mithras with Sol Invictus; double-sided altar piece, Roman
Imperial Era, currently at the Louvre Museum. Above: Mithras slays the bull releasing
its transformative life-force, and a beam of light (seen in several reliefs) extends between
Mithras in the center and Sol in the upper left, indicating the transference of Mithras
from earth to heaven to merge with Sol. Below: sure enough, on the reverse side, Mithras
has ascended to heaven (upper right) to become one with Sol Invictus (center).
907
Fig. 435: Mithras as the sun god Sol/Helios, as evidenced by the exact same figure being
identified by each name on two different coins (Mithras/MIIRO2385 above &
Helios/HLIOS below); based on Bactrian gold dinars, Kushan Dynasty.
2385
Mary Boyce and Frantz Grenet, A History of Zoroastrianism, Vol. III:
Zoroastrianism under Macedonian and Roman Rule (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1991),
481.
908
Mithras transformation into a sun god by merging into one being
with Sol is corroborative with his aforementioned identification with
Osiris, since Osiris likewise became a sun god via his merger into one
being with Lord Amen-Re each night. Mithras is also Sol Oriens and Sol
Occidens, the eastern Sun & western Sun- a.k.a. the torchbearers Cautes
& Cautopates. Hence they hold their light with one pointing up for
sunrise and the other pointing down for sunset. This is not merely for the
ascent & descent on the horizon, but along the ecliptic as well. When the
sun rises Mithras is Sol Oriens, when the sun reaches its zenith Mithras is
Sol Invictus, and when it sets he is Sol Occidens. All are the same being.
All are the Sun. All are Mithras. Hence all three of them even look
exactly the same as well.
Cautes and Cautopates, who in the Mithras reliefs, are usually
represented as torchbearers. These two figures in Oriental dress
are, according to some statements from antiquity, hypostases of the
Sun-god Mithras. These symbolize him in the morning and in the
evening, and are respectively Sol Oriens and Sol Occidens.
Dr. Maarten J. Vermaseren and Dr. Carolus C. Van Essen,
The Excavations in the Mithraeum of the Church of Santa Pricsa
on the Aventine 2386
Above all, the pair symbolizes dawn and dusk, East and West;
as such they are called Oriens and Occidens. Before setting out
here on a new etymology for Cautes and Cautopates, it is necessary
to bring into sharper focus a general issue concerning the
attribution of their names. Since the pair are visual replications of
Mithras, and indeed have their names individually qualified by
Deus (Sol) Invictus Mithras, there is no doubt that they are but
hypostases of Mithras himself. It is therefore wholly possible, as
Schaeder and Gershevitch thought, that their names were inherited
from Mithras.
It is possible that, in a Greek-speaking milieu, *Kauta- was
associated with burn, cf. burner and burnt;
this may have had some role in the fixation of the name. In the
course of time one of the *Kauth came to be represented with his
torch pointed downwards, so that the morning and evening aspects
of the sun (united in the central figure of the eternal Mithras) would
2386
Marteen J. Vermaseren and C.C. Van Essen, The Excavations in the
Mithraeum of the Church of Santa Pricsa on the Aventine (Leiden: E.J. Brill,
1965), 194. (Emph. added.)
909
be brought out; this would accord with a typology of solar
symbolism known from other ancient religions.
Dr. Martin Schwartz, in Mithraic Studies: Volume II 2387
The scene of Mithras slaying of the bull (or tauroctony, as it is
generally called) is flanked by slightly smaller figures who represent
Mithra in two different guises, as a god of fire and light closely
associated with the sun. The figure to the left, known as Cautes,
carries an uplifted torchsymbolic of dawn, spring, the renewal of
lifewhile his counterpart on the right, Cautopates, dips his torch
downwardrepresenting the setting of the sun, winter, and death.
The scene between them, however, shows that death and night are
not permanent and that Mithra, the god of light, gives life even as
he takes it away. The cult-image of the slaying of the bull by
Mithra presents the three images of the god together, as a sacred
triad. Mithra-Cautopates, however, could also be represented
alone, as the god of sunset and death, on funerary monuments.
Mithra in the guise of Cautopates is frequently characterized by a
melancholy, downcast gaze quite similar to the type of expression
popular for funerary portraits, especially of those who had died
young.
Dr. Susan Wood, in The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum
of Art 2388
Cautes and Cautopates, on either side of Mithras and in his
exact likeness, only smaller, will signify the sun on the two tropical
circles just as Mithras is the sun on the equator.
Dr. Michael Speidel, Mithras-Orion: Greek Hero and Roman
Army God 2389
Here we must mention the figures of Cautes and Cautopates
which flanked the bull-slaying relief. Their origin is obscure, their
symbolism clear. Cautes carries his torch held upwards, and is
associated with the sign of the Bull; he stands for the rising sun,
morning, spring. Cautopates holds his torch pointing down, and is
associated with the sign of the Scorpion. He stands for the setting
sun, evening, winter. For this is what Mithraism is about, the battle
2387
Martin Schwartz, Cautes and Cautopates, the Mithraic Torchbearers, in
Mithraic Studies: Volume II, ed. J.R. Hinnells (Manchester: Manchester
University Press, 1975), 406, 414, 421. (Emph. added.)
2388
Susan Wood, An Enigmatic Roman Portrait, The Bulletin of the Cleveland
Museum of Art 68, no. 8 (1981): 298-99. (Emph. added.)
2389
Michael Speidel, Mithras-Orion: Greek Hero and Roman Army God (Leiden:
910
between light and dark, day and night, life and death, summer and
winter, good and evil.
Dr. John Ferguson, The Religions of the Roman Empire 2390
Cautes with raised torch is associated with the east, the rising
sun, day, summer and the constellation Taurus. Cautopates with
lowered torch signifies the west, the setting sun, night, winter and
the constellation Scorpius (ibid.).
Dr. Amar Annus, in Studies on Ritual and Society in the
Cautes is interpreted variously as the growing Sun of spring
and summer, the morning Sun, and a sign of warmth and life;
Cautopates represents the declining Sun of autumn and winter, the
setting Sun, cold, and death.
Dr. Stephen C. McCluskey, Astronomies and Cultures in
Early Medieval Europe 2392
In this respect, in yet another similarity to Osirian religion, the solar
Mithras is like Lord Amen-Re. As noted before, He too is manifested as
the Sun in three different forms during the three different times of the
day (for which He was offered gold, frankincense, and myrrh). In the
morning He is Re-Khepri. At the zenith He is Re-Horakhti. And in the
evening He is Re-Atum. In other words, in this respect Mithras was one
god in three persons, a trinity, so to speak.
These are things which were recorded in the sacred books of
the Persians and even today the Magi celebrate the memorial of the
triple Mithras.
The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy of Dionysius the Areopagite
1081A 2393
2390
John Ferguson, The Religions of the Roman Empire (Ithaca: Cornell
2391
Amar Annus, The Souls Ascent and Tauroctony: On Babylonian Sediment
in the Syncretic Religious Doctrines of Late Antiquity, in Studies on Ritual and
Society in the Ancient Near East, ed. T.R. Kmmerer (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
2392
Stephen C. McCluskey, Astronomies and Cultures in Early Medieval Europe
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998-2000), 42.
2393
Pseudo-Denys, in Pseudo-Dionysius: The Complete Works, trans. C. Luibheid
(Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1987), 268. (Emph. added.)
911
Cautes, the symbol of the rising sun, carries his torch pointing
upward, and Cautopates, symbolizing the setting sun, has his torch
pointing downward. Cautes, with uplifted torch, is usually depicted
under the moon, and Cautopates under the sun. The two gods are
understood as epithets of Mithras. A 4th-century C.E. text of
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite states that the two torch-bearers
form a trinity with Mithras. Cautes represents the morning sun,
Mithras the sun at noon, and Cautopates the setting sun. Thus
Mithras is the rising, noon, and setting sun, and his influence and
power are revealed daily.
Dr. Antonia Tripolitis, Religions of the Hellenistic-Roman
Age 2394
A niche-like relief shows Cautopates in Eastern dress, cross-
legged and pointing downwards his flaming torch. This torchbearer
has a companion with upraised torch (which is lacking here); they
form a trinity together with Mithras himself.
Dr. Maarten J. Vermaseren, in Numen 2395
He is frequently depicted in a cave engaged in killing the
primordial bull and flanked by two similarly attired torchbearers
who, with the central hero, form a triple Mithras.
Dr. Stephen C. McCluskey, Astronomies and Cultures in
Early Medieval Europe 2396
The nave was guarded by the two attendants, Cautes and
Cautopates (the Rising and the Setting Sun), who, with Mithras
himself, represented the Mithraic Trinity (three figures in one
god).
Dr. David Shotter, Roman Britain 2397
The two, known as Cautes and Cautopates, or as the
torchbearers, are often found on either side of Mithra in the bull
immolation scene. One of them raises his torch, while the others is
lowered, and with Mithra they form a triad, the three-fold Mithra.
These are manifestations of the god that were arranged so as to
allude to the solar cycle: dawn (Cautes, with the raised torch), noon
(Mithras) and sunset (Cautopates, with the lowered torch). They
2394
Antonia Tripolitis, Religions of the Hellenisitc-Roman Age (Grand Rapids:
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2002), 49. (Emph. added.)
2395
Vermaseren (1955), 141. (Emph. added.)
2396
McCluskey (1998-2000), 42. (Emph. added.)
2397
David Shotter, Roman Britain (Abingdon: Routledge, 1998-2004), 90.
(Emph. added.)
912
also represent the two extremities of being, the heat of life and the
bitter cold of death.
Ivana della Portella, Subterranean Rome 2398
Now getting back on topic, like many of the gods previously covered
in this work, Mithras was born again. Through the sacrifice &
resurrection of the primeval bull and its rebirth into the Moon, Mithras
was able to effectively bring about his own rebirth and subsequent
transformation into the Sun. The bulls blood brought about
transformation into new life, as seen through the metamorphosis of blood
into grapes/wine, flesh into grain/bread, and bovine corpse into lunar
goddess. Multiple Mithraic artifacts show Mithras consuming the fruits
generated from the body of the bull, such as in Fig. 414 for example.
Thus Mithras absorbed into his own body that same transformative life-
force of the bull, and thereby absorbed the power to be reborn himself.
The celestial bulls death had transcendental meaning. The
purpose of the cult of Mithras was personal salvation. The dying
bull poured new life into the soul and triggered a spiritual rebirth.
Dr. Edwin C. Krupp, Beyond the Blue Horizon 2399
So in what manner did the bull do this? Just how exactly was Mithras
reborn? Well, since through syncretism he was also Attis and Osiris as
covered earlier, Mithras was killed & revived in much the same way that
they were. Recall Fig. 374-75, & 384 concerning Attis, who died and
was arborified into a fir tree, only to emerge from the tree revived and
transfigured into a god. And sure enough, one can see in the images
below the physical mechanism through which Mithras was reborn.
2398
Ivana della Portella, Subterranean Rome, trans. R. Pierce (Venice: Arsenale
Editrice, 2002), 25. (Emph. added.)
2399
Krupp (1992), 148.
913
Fig. 436: In the upper right-hand corner (enlarged beneath), a fir tree grows up around
the body of Mithras, just like Attis; red sandstone relief from the Mithraeum at
Neuenheim.
914
Fig. 437: The arborification of Mithras; sandstone relief from Mithraeum I at Nida-
Heddernheim.
Fig. 438: To the left Mithras is born from his stone egg (as a shepherd bears witness), in
the center Mithras is arborified, his arms having become branches and his torso the
trunk. To the right he has emerged reborn; based on sandstone fragments from
Besigheim, Roman Imperial Era.
915
Fig. 439: The two births of Mithras contrasted right next to each other- his first birth
from the stone and then his rebirth from the tree; based on a scene from the Mithraeum
at Hawarti, Roman Imperial Era.
916
Fig. 440: In the bottom left, Mithras is born from his stone egg. Above that, behind the
ravens tail, is a tree. It is a tree from the top of which Mithras emerges2400 reborn.
Right next to the reborn Mithras in the upper left corner is the head of one of the four
wind gods blowing upon the tree, restoring the breath of life back to Mithras so that he
can return to life and emerge from the tree born anew. After this, he ascends to heaven
upon his solar chariot escorted by the winged child Phosphorus, having merged with Sol
Invictus to become the sun god; sandstone relief, Roman Imperial Era, currently at the
Roman Museum of Osterburken.
2400
Maarten J. Vermaseren, Corpus Inscriptionum et Monumentorum Religionis
Mithriacae: Volume II (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1960), 118.
917
Fig. 441: The three-fold Mithras emerging reborn from the fir tree (cf. fig. 444); Mithraic
relief from Dieburg, Roman Imperial Era, currently at the Museum Schloss Fechenbach.
918
Fig. 442: On the left, directly across from this scene, is the birth of Mithras from the
stone egg (it is seen in Fig. 402-05 as well). Hence this arbor genetrix is a rebirth rather
than an alternative tradition of the first birth,2401 for the first birth here is still the petra
genetrix.
2401
Gawlikowski et al. (2011), 173.
919
Fig. 443: In the top image, the titan ternitas places the severed heads of Sol & Luna
upon a sacrificial altar, for they shall be perpetually slain & reborn throughout all
eternity. Below this, Sol Invictusthe hypostasis of Mithrasis emerging reborn from
the calyx of a tree. These images are based on a Roman auereus issued by Vespasian, 1 st
century CE, and a Roman Era silver fibula from Mnchen. This is somewhat reminiscent
of The Good Shepherds cousin & herald, who was likewise decapitated and alleged to
have risen from the dead, and therefore mighty works do shew forth themselves in him.
920
Attis died & turned into a fir tree, and in these images the exact same
thing can be seen happening to Mithras, with whom Attis was identified
by the 1st century BCE. This Mithraic scene is also conspicuously
parallel to what happened to Osiris, whose corpse was hung on a tree for
so long that it eventually grew around his body and encased it within
itself. Recall that the tree of Osiris served the purpose of helping repair &
rejuvenate his body in preparation for resurrection. Likewise Attis was
reborn within the tree and emerged from it alive again. And likewise,
Mithras clearly at some point emerged from his fir tree reborn into life
again just like Attis and Osiris. This arborification of Mithras appears to
have been one of the effects of his previously mentioned consumption of
the bulls flesh & blood as bread & wine. In this respect, being a product
of a tree, Mithras was quite literally the fruit of the bulls sacrifice. One
might even say he was the firstfruits of the resurrection.
On the Dieburg and Ruckingen reliefs the passage of the bull
is followed by a threefold incarnation of the soul as symbolized by
a tree with three heads, which correspond to the three stocks of
wheat growing out of the dying bull's tail and to the three trees with
heads on the relief of Poetovio. On the Ruckingen relief the
Transitus dei and the Arbor genetrix are shown in the third register
to the left of the cosmic quadriga.
Being born or reborn was not only symbolized by the rites of
initiation but also by the Arbor genetrix. The Dieburg and
Sarrebourg reliefs omit the Telete symbols where one would expect
to find them and instead substitute a triple Arbor genetrix or an
Arbor vitae with a lion in front of it.
Dr. Leroy A. Campbell, Mithraic Iconography and Ideology 2402
Nida/Heddernheim: panel from the complex relief from
Mithraeum I (V 1083. I), Mithras being born from a tree.
The trinity symbolism of the Sun is more usual. The
is represented by Mithras and his torchbearers,
Cautes and Cautopates, by three daggers, by three heads in a tree,
by three cypresses and also by a triangle.
2402
Campbell (1968), 258, 388. (Emph. added.)
2403
921
At Pettau a row of three cypresses, trees sacred to the Sun-god,
indicate the Mithraic trinity. At Dieburg we see a tree with three
branches and three heads wearing Phrygian caps.
Dr. Maarten J. Vermaseren, Mithras, The Secret God 2405
The triple repetition of the sword may allude to the trinity of
Mithras, Cautes and Cautopates. Three eggs occur on an altar from
Carrawburgh, three cypresses on a relief from Pettau, and a tree
with three branches ending in heads on a relief from Dieburg.
Eve Harris and John R. Harris, The Oriental Cults in Roman
Britain 2406
Mithras also falls into the category of gods who emerge from
trees. At the ends of a relief on a frieze there are two busts and
between them trees and persons in ceremonies of worship towards
Mithra, who appears in this scene. Specifically, Mithra visible from
the waist up appears out of the first tree on the left side having the
traditional position which already dominates the iconography of
dendrites who emerged from sacred trees.
Dr. Constantine P. Charalampidis, Studia Archaeologica 73 2407
The cypress tree was also associated with male deities, such as
Baal, Mithras, and interestingly, the sun god, Malakbel. 2408 In an
image dedicated to Malakbel found on an altar in Rome, for
example, a youthful god emerges from a cypress tree, suggesting
vegetative rebirth that was linked to the sun. The cypress continued
to have sacred significance in the eastern Empire until well into the
fourth century of the Common Era.
2404
Vermaseren and Van Essen (1965), 345. (Emph. added.)
2405
Maarten J. Vermaseren, Mithras, The Secret God (New York: Barnes &
Noble, Inc., 1963), 74. (Emph. added.)
2406
Eve Harris and John R. Harris, The Oriental Cults in Roman Britain (Leiden:
E.J. Brill, 1965), 27 n.3. (Emph. added.)
2407
Constantine P. Charalampidis, Studia Archaeologica 73 (Rome: LErma di
Bretschneider, 1995), 48. (Emph. added.)
2408
Palmyrene name for Sol, as demonstrated in the accompanying inscription.
922
Dr. Ann I. Steinsapir, Rural Sanctuaries in Roman Syria: The
Creation of a Sacred Landscape 2409
Soli Sanctissimo sacrum / Ti(berius) Claudius Felix et /
Claudia Helpis et / Ti(berius) Claudius Alypus fil(ius) eorum /
votum solverunt liben(te)s merito / Calbienses de coh(orte) III //
L(ucius) Umbricius / Priscus / libens animo / d(onum) d(edit). //
LT DH LMLKBL WLLHY TDMR / QRB TBRYS QLWDYS
PLQS / WTDMRY LLHYHN SLM
Sacred to most holy Sol. Tiberius Claudius Felix and Claudia
Helpis and their son Tiberius Claudius Alypus fulfilled their vow
willingly and deservedly, being inhabitants of the third courtyard of
the horrea (?) of Galba.
Palmyrene inscription: This is the altar that Tiberius Claudius
Felix and the Palmyrenes have offered to Malakbel and to the gods
of Palmyra. To their gods: peace!
A magnificent votive altar dating to the late first century AD,
with two inscriptions and relief-decoration on four sides. Side A:
frontal bust of Sol, radiate nimbus (7 rays), fairly long curly hair,
chlamys, above an eagle with outstretched wings; Latin inscription.
Side B: Sol (?), bare-headed, dressed in chlamys, tunica and
trousers, whip in his right hand, stepping into a chariot drawn by
griffins; behind him, a winged Victory holding a crown above his
head; Palmyrene inscription: Side C: a cypress, with a ribbon at the
top and a small boy carrying a sheep on his shoulders emerging
from the branches just to the right of the top. Side D. Saturn (?),
bearded, capite velato, holding a harp in his right hand.
Dr. Steven Hijmans, in Mouseion 2410
It is also interesting that in Fig. 441-42, the tree splayed out into
three directions, forming somewhat of a cruciform shape. Some heathen
antagonists might consider that grasping at straws, thinking it ridiculous
to consider this Mithraic tree to be even remotely comparable to a
cross/crucifix, especially given the oddity of the human heads protruding
from the branches. Yet some of their own heathen predecessors produced
crosses like that seen below.
2409
Ann I. Steinsapir, Rural Sanctuaries in Roman Syria: The Creation of a Sacred
Landscape (Oxford: John and Erica Hedges Ltd., 2005), 37. (Emph. added.)
2410
Steven Hijmans, Temples and Priests of Sol in the city of Rome, Mouseion:
Journal of the Classical Association of Canada 3, no. 10 (2010): 381-427. (Emph.
added.)
923
Fig. 444: A Celtic cross in which three human heads emerge from the ends, just like the
tree of the triune Mithraic rebirth in Fig. 441; based on a stone slab, 8th century CE,
currently at the Gallen Priory near Ferbane.
Each of the three limbs of this cross have a human head emerging
from the end of it, conspicuously like the scenario of the tree from which
the threefold Mithras was reborn. This shows that the Mithraic rebirth
tree is indeed very comparable to the crosses of heathen religions, and
may very well have had an influence on the design of some of them. The
Mithraic tree definitely fits into the archetype of the tree of woe which is
924
simultaneously a tree of life, a tree of death which also brought about
rebirth.
While still on the topic of rebirth- just as the bull died & was reborn,
and through this Mithras facilitated his own rebirth, the members of his
cult attempted to do the same. The death & resurrection/rebirth of the
bull and Mithras were reflected in the rituals of the Mithraic initiates
themselves. Much like the cult of Osiris, with whom Mithras was
identified, the worshippers emulate their god and reenact his mythos.
They go through various levels of initiation, of which the final stage is
that of Pater, i.e. of Mithras himself. So they seek to identify themselves
with the god in the hopes of achieving the same rebirth & immortality
that he did. This too is very Osirian.
The initiates themselves became protagonists in the ritual
sacrifices which, inspired by the model of the tauroctony, were
consummated in the caverns. During these sacrifices the union
between the followers was cemented and at the same time,
identification with Mithra himself became a reality.
Dr. Luisa Musso and Dr. Elmire Zolla, in FMR 2411
The last and highest grade of the cult, Pater, is the
representative of the god Mithras on earth.
Dr. Antonia Tripolitis, Religions of the Hellenistic-Roman
Age 2412
The Father initiates by imitating the deed of Mithras, whose
counterpart in the economy of the cult he is. Ritual here is a
mimesis of myth. The scene is enacted simultaneously at two levels
or in two worlds, the earthly world of cult life and the other world
of heroic myth. What is done in the here and now by the Pater
imitates and thus derives its authority from what was done (or is
done timelessly) by Mithras in that other world. The Father is
Mithras surrogate in the economy of the cult.
Dr. Roger Beck, in Journal of Roman Studies 2413
2411
Dr. Luisa Musso and Dr. Elmire Zolla, Mithra Lives, FMR: The Magazine
of Franco Maria Ricci 32 (1988): 50. (Emph. added.)
2412
Tripolitis (2002), 54.
2413
Roger Beck, Ritual, Myth, Doctrine, and Initiation in the Mysteries of
Mithras: New Evidence from a Cult Vessel, Journal of Roman Studies 90
(2000), 150, 154. (Emph. added.)
925
Mithras is shown in stereotypical eastern dress (note the
trousers and Phrygian hat), slaying the bull by stabbing the side of
its neck. The accompanying dog, snake, scorpion, and raven had
parts in the myth and no doubt a cosmic significance as well. Sol,
the sun-god, and the moon are usually present (here they ride in
chariots) as are the small, torch-bearing figures of the minor deities
Cautes and Cautopates. Such representations differ from traditional
Greek and Roman cult images because they do not merely attempt
to provide a stand-in for the god, but reenact in iconic form a
founding myth laden with theological symbolism.
Dr. Peter Stewart, Roman Art 2414
We know that the Father is the representative on earth of the
divine Mithras-Sol in the firmament The Father himself, like
Mithras whose representative he is on earth, has magical power and
so has the magic staff as his attribute like a thaumaturge.
So what the initiates did, Mithras had already done. He was their
prototype to follow. The rituals were a mimetic dramatization of his
mythos. Bearing this fact in mind, it is known that the rituals of the
initiate included reenacting Mithraic death & resurrection/rebirth.
Emulation of death was explicitly attested in a text attributed to an
Arelius Lampridius regarding how the Emperor Commodus mistakenly
took it too far and literally killed an initiate.
He polluted the Mithraic rites with a genuine homicide when
in the rite something was regularly represented by word and deed
in a fearful likeness.
Historiae Augustae, Commodus 9.6 2416
Emulation of the resurrection was attested by the heathen apologist
Tertullian.
2414
Peter Stewart, Roman Art (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 122.
(Emph. added.)
2415
Vermaseren and Van Essen (1965), 180-224. (Emph. added.)
2416
Leroy A. Campbell, Mithraic Iconography and Ideology (Leiden: E.J. Brill,
1968), 297.
926
Mithra there sets his marks on the foreheads of his soldiers;
celebrates also the oblation of bread, and introduces an image of a
resurrection, and before a sword wreathes a crown.
Tertullian of Carthage, De Praescriptione Hereticorum XL 2417
According to Tertullian (De praescr., 40) the meal in the
Mithras cult was a devilish imitation of the Eucharist, and the
apologist adds that the initiates of Mithras enacted the resurrection
as well.
This ritual was illustrated in the Mithraeum of Santa Maria Capua
Vetere.
It has been suggested that the layout of a small stone feature
which was noted in the Mithraeum of Carrawburgh may be
connected with this baptism. In 1949 the excavators found an
oblong trench strongly resembling a tomb close to a hearth on the
south side of the sanctuary. If this trench were covered with stone
slabs a man, laid inside it, could be subjected to alternating ordeals
by heat and sudden cold. Beside this trench there was a small seat.
This arrangement recalls the first side chapel of the Santa Prisca
sanctuary, but there the explanation depends entirely on the graffito
on the rim of the vessel buried near a wider but similar trench in
which a person could be laid outstretched. At Carrawburgh a fire-
shovel was found in the same room, and it is therefore not
impossible that this room was used for the ceremony of the
branding. The fire-shovel is incidentally an attribute of the Lion,
itself the symbol of fire. An alternative reading is that this room was
used to enact death and resurrection and in this connection we are
reminded of the figure lying face downwards in the painting at
Capua and the suspect text of Lampridius concerning the Emperor
Commodus: 'he defiled the mysteries of Mithras with murder since
it was customary there for something to be spoken or imitated to
produce a kind of fear.
This means that the homicidium in the rite was only symbolic
but that Commodus actually murdered an initiate (the story told of
Julian is different). But the Capuan fresco seems to give even more
reason than Lampridius for assuming that the symbolic killing of
2417
Tertullian, in Holmes (1885-1994), 262-63.
2418
2419
927
the initiate was part of the rite. The posture of the mystagogus does
indeed resemble that of Mithras slaying the bull.
Dr. Maarten J. Vermaseren, The Mithraeum at S. Maria
Capua Vetere 2420
We must rather suppose that the Mithraic initiation involved a
simulated death and resurrection.
Dr. Adrian D.H. Bivar, The Personalities of Mithra in
Archaeology and Literature 2421
Little is known about initiation ceremonies. Ancient texts refer
to ablutions (baptism) and purifications and chastisements, to
fetters and liberation, and to certain ceremonial passwords.
Frescoes at Capua (Italy) show the initiates blindfolded, kneeling,
and prostrated. A simulated death and resurrection was probably
part of the ceremony.
Dr. Reinhold Merkelbach, in The New Encyclopaedia
Britannica 2422
The Mithraist also passed through the four elements, the
adoration of which was from the beginning of great importance in
the Persian cult. The mystes was led into the room blindfold and
naked, and after his symbolic death he returned reborn. In the
same way as the Attis-mystes (initiate) follows the reborn Attis, so
the Mithras-mystes is reborn.
2420
Maarten J. Vermaseren, The Mithraeum at S. Maria Capua Vetere (Leiden:
2421
Adrian D.H. Bivar, The Personalities of Mithra in Archaeology and Literature
(New York: Bibliotheca Persica Press, 1998), 100. (Emph. added.)
2422
Merkelbach (1974-2003), 198. (Emph. added.)
2423
Vermaseren and Van Essen (1965), 145, 209. (Emph. added.)
928
Fig. 445: Approximate layout of the extant initiation scenes at S. Maria Capua Vetere,
where the initiate simulates Mithraic death & resurrection/rebirth.
929
The initiates were born again, and it was through Mithras and his
sacrifice that they obtained salvation and eternal life in heaven after
death.
Mithras care guides him who is piously reborn and created by
sweet things. And you saved us after having shed the eternal
blood.
Inscriptions of the Santa Prisca Mithraeum 11, 14 2424
The Mithraic rituals also appear to have incorporated the motif of
the twelve. It was already referenced earlier in regards to Fig. 411 that
Mithras has strong associations with the zodiac. The tauroctony itself, the
most important event in Mithraism, is shown as having occurred within
the circle of the zodiac in several Mithraic reliefs. The zodiac of course
consists of twelve constellations, which are often understood as being
twelve gods themselves or are used as symbols for twelve gods of
various other pantheons. In Mithraism, they were witnesses to the
tauroctony. As indicated by the Phanes myth (p.862-65) and Fig. 402-11,
they were also created by Mithras when he hatched from his egg and the
top portion transformed into the heavens. And with Mithras being the
Sun, they were also his twelve followers on the ecliptic path. In the
rituals of various Mithraeums, these twelve stellar entities were
represented vicariously by twelve cult members who sat in for them (on
the benches featuring the twelve zodiacal signs). Hence the rituals are
performed in the presence of twelve disciples on earth who represent the
twelve cosmic followers of the solar Mithras.
Before returning to heaven, Mithra celebrated a Last Supper
with his twelve disciples, who represented the twelve signs of the
zodiac. In memory of this, his worshippers partook of a
sacramental meal of bread marked with a cross.
Dr. David A. Leeming, The World of Myth: An Anthology 2425
Decorated with frescoes, the Mithraeum had benches for
seating along its north and south walls.
Dr. Eric M. Meyers and Dr. Mark A. Chancey, Alexander to
Constantine 2426
2424
Vermaseren and Van Essen (1965), 208, 217. (Emph. added.)
2425
Dr. David A. Leeming, The World of Myth: An Anthology (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, Inc., 1990), 197-98.
930
Upon the seats of the benches are the signs of the zodiac
which start from the left bench near the tauroctony and which end
anticlockwise on the right bench. In this way one finds successively
Aries- Taurus-Gemini (signs of the Spring) Cancer-Leo-Virgo
(Summer) on the left bench and proceeds then on the right bench
with Pisces-Aquarius-Capricornus (Autumn) Sagittarius-Scorpio-
Wega (Winter).
Dr. Maarten J. Vermaseren, Mithriaca III: The Mithraeum at
Marino 2427
The Sun is presumably represented by Mithras himself. On
the projecting ledges of the benches are the signs of the zodiac, with
a star above each.
Dr. Tamsyn S. Barton, Ancient Astrology 2428
The proper seat of Mithras which is at the equinoxes or on
the equator is represented in the mithraeum by the image of the
bull-killing Mithras, with equinoctial symbols, commanding the
central axis of the structure, the aisle between the two distinctive
side benches. So placed, Mithras has on his right the northern
signs, which are represented in the mithraeum by the bench to his
right (embellished at Sette Sfere with symbols of the six northern
signs of the zodiac); and on his left the southern signs, represented
by the bench to his left (embellished at Sette Sfere with symbols of
the six southern signs). The mithraeums orientation is symbolic.
Dr. Roger Beck, in Journal of Roman Studies 2429
2426
Eric M. Meyers and Mark A. Chancey, Alexander to Constantine:
Archaeology of the Land of the Bible (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2012),
257.
2427
2428
Tamsyn S. Barton, Ancient Astrology (Abingdon: Routledge, 1994), 155.
2429
Roger Beck, Ritual, Myth, Doctrine, and Initiation in the Myteries of
Mithras: New Evidence from a Cult Vessel, Journal of Roman Studies 90
(2000): 161-62.
931
Fig. 446: The Mithraeum of Sette Sfere, which contained the standard benches along the
walls for the participants, representing the northern and southern skies. The seating
arrangements were designated by the twelve signs of the zodiac, divided into pairs by
planetary signs.
932
Fig. 447: Based on the Mithraeum of Vulci. A remarkable feature of this mithraeum is
the elevation of the benches, to a height of more than a metre, on arches. On each side a
row of six of these arches is flanked by two small square niches. A third niche is set in the
centre of the SW bench with three arches to each side and a smaller arch in the
corresponding position on the opposite bench. Rightly, Sgubini Moretti compares this
structural feature with the mosaics of Sette Porte and Sette Sfere at Ostia as a further
and most significantexample of the use of celestial symbolism within the mithraeum.
However, it is unlikely, given the much smaller size of the central openings, that each
bench represents the seven planetary spheres. More probable is Gordons suggestion that
the twelve large arches together representand perhaps held images ofthe signs of the
zodiac and that the two central openings represent the gates of heaven. 2430
2430
Roger Beck, Mithraism since Franz Cumont, in Aufstieg und Niedergang
der rmischen Welt II.17.4 (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co., 1984), 2032-33.
(Emph. added.)
933
Fig. 448: Based on the Mithraeum of Lucretius Menander at Ostia. Positions on the floor
were apparently designated by twelve octagons (12 zodiacal signs, 8 planetary realms),
each with a floral cross in the center.
934
Fig. 449: Mithras surrounded by his twelve followers of the zodiac, here
anthropomorphized; Parian marble relief from the Mithraeum at Sidon.
Fig. 450: An arch is directly above the head of Mithras representing the dome of the sky,
divided into twelve sections filled with the figures of the zodiac; relief from the
Mithraeum at Riegel am Kaiserstuhl.
935
Fig. 451: Sandstone relief from Mithraeum I at Nida-Heddernheim.
936
Fig. 452: Sandstone relief, Roman Imperial Era, currently at the Roman Museum of
Osterburken.
Fig. 453: Based on a white gypsum relief from the Mithraeum at Dura Europos.
937
Fig. 454: Based on a fresco from the Barberini Mithraeum at Rome.
Fig. 455: Mithras encircled by his twelve followers of the zodiac (see Fig. 402-03, 411).
938
Fig. 456: Sol Invictus, the solar alter-ego of Mithras, riding his chariot across the sky
while encircled by the twelve figures of the zodiac; Byzantine mosaic of Beth Alpha.
Fig. 457: Once again, Sol is encircled by the twelve members of the zodiac; floor mosaic
from Hamat Tiberias.
939
Fig. 458: This time the twelve are anthropomorphized; floor mosaic from Tzippori.
940
Fig. 459: The twelve are once again given anthropomorphic counterparts; from the
Handy Tables of Claudius Ptolemy of Alexandria.
Fig. 460: The zodiac encircles what can only be the solar form of Mithras, that of Sol
Invictus right? Or is that Jim Caviezel?
941
Fig. 461: Mithras as moschophoros, and Jim Caviezel as kriophoros.
And with that motif, this is pretty much a wrap on Mithras, who is
the last god in this syncretistic brotherhood to be covered in this chapter.
Who Maketh Thee to Differ from Another?
Regardless of all of this well attested syncretism between Osiris and

various heathen gods, antagonists still try, for whatever reason, to split
hairs and treat all of these gods (and others not listed) as entirely distinct
from each other like oil and water. The most oft repeated contention they
make is that the differences outweigh the similarities! A variation of
this is the accusation of parallelomania! This contention utterly fails
them.
Differences between things are to be expected. Thats how intelligent
organisms interact with the world. It is only through the distinct features
a particular object has in contrast to those around it that said object may
be identified. If there are truly no differences whatsoever between two
alleged objects, then they would in fact be the exact same object. We
identify objects through their differences, but we categorize them
942
through their similarities. As more similarities are observed between two
or more distinct objects, the more specific a category they will share. The
fact that two objects may have greater differences than similarities does
not render the similarities of no significance nor does it remove the
degree of categorization they currently share because of those
similarities. For example, somepeople might consider the differences
between a human and a sea urchin to be greater than their similarities, yet
it is through whatever number of similarities they do share that they are
both categorized in the animal kingdom rather than the other life-
kingdoms. They are both still animals regardless of their differences.
Likewise, the differences between a human and a platypus does not
negate the fact that both are classified in the more specific category of
mammals, for they share a greater number of similarities with each other
than they do a with a sea urchin. The similarities between a human and a
lemur are greater still, hence their closer categorization of primate, in
spite of whatever number of differences remain. Likewise, regardless of
whatever differences a human has with a chimpanzee, they are both still
great apes nevertheless. It is through the observation of similarities, or
the dreaded sin of pattern seeking, that certain professions achieve
success, such as that of an evolutionary biologist or an investigative
detective.
In regards to identifying relationships between various mythologies,
I have personally had nice success in doing so by way of recognizing
similarities. For example, the first time I watched The Matrix films I, like
many viewers, had noticed numerous conspicuous parallels to certain
ancient mythologies and philosophies. Naturally, I suspected there was
some influence of the latter upon the former. Initially, that was all I had
to go on- correlation. But that turned out to be enough, for when I later
accessed the internet and investigated the matter it turns out that the
Wachowski brothers had confessed to such influence in an online chat
session.
calla says: There are quite a few hidden messages in the movie that
I notice the more I watch it. Can you tell me about how many there
are?
WachowskiBros: There are more than youll ever know.
Starr22 says: Are all the religious symbolism and doctrine
throughout this movie intentional, or not?
WachowskiBros: Most of it is intentional.
943
Ronin says: Your movie has many and varied connections to
mythos and philosophies How much of that was intentional?
WachowskiBros: All of it.2431
So my hypothesis of influence turned out to be correct, correlation
did equate to causation here. This was the case in spite of the fact that the
differences far outweighed the similarities between The Matrix films and
the ancient mythologies acknowledged as the source material. For
example, the Wachowskis admitted Egyptian lore2432 was one of the
sources. Indeed, the film features a protagonist (Neo) who, like Osiris, is
killed, resurrected, affiliated with a character who is a trinity, is affiliated
with the sign of the cross (a cross of light appears at the moment of
Neos final death2433 and once it dissipates Neos corpse is left in a
cruciform pose), is referred to as a savior, has the powers of a god, etc.
Yet Osiris was never a computer programmer, was never trapped in a
computer generated virtual reality, nor did he learn kung-fu and fight
with robots, he was never used as a battery, etc. And Neo was never born
of a virgin, was not a bull or a ram, was not dismembered, was not buried
in a tomb for three days, did not turn water into wine, was not consumed
by worshippers as bread & wine, etc. The number of similarities pales in
comparison to the number of differences. Nevertheless, the similarities
were in fact deliberate indicators of the influence of Egyptian legends
upon The Matrix mythos.
Similarly, most viewers of Seth MacFarlanes Family Guy spotted
numerous parallels between that show and Matt Groenings The
Simpsons. There are several popular videos on the internet highlighting
the similarities, such as the premise for both shows being the
misadventures of a slow-witted, middle-aged, overweight, alcoholic
American man and his dysfunctional family, or how both protagonists
have a neighbor who is over 60 years old yet looks like a 30 year old, etc.
2431
Andy Wachowski and Larry Wachowski, Matrix Virtual Theatre:
Wachowski Brothers Transcript, Warner Video (November 6, 1999),
https://web.archive.org/web/20000407222451/http://www.warnervideo.com/
matrixevents/wachowski.html.
2432
Ibid.
2433
See
http://web.archive.org/web/20140117160350/http://qph.is.quoracdn.net/mai
n-qimg-90ab7f27d014adc89d5e9c64af0f0b42?convert_to_webp=true.
944
Yet a list of differences would be far longer. Homer Simpson does not
wear glasses and Peter Griffin is not bald. The familys baby in one show
is male and a talking genius, while the familys baby in the other show is
female and never says a word. Marge Simpson has large blue hair and a
small nose while Lois Griffin has short red hair and a large nose. On and
on it could go. But these differences do not matter, for in the years since
Family Guys debut, Seth MacFarlane has admitted several times that
The Simpsons was the primary inspiration for his show. This was even
explicitly stated on Family Guy in the episode Viewer Mail #2. So the
viewers suspicions were justified.
Another interesting example is that of the film O Brother, Where Art
Thou, which actually admits in its opening credits that it is based upon
Homers Odyssey. Parallels include the similarity in name between the
protagonists (Ulysses & Odysseus), the encounter with a blind fortune
teller, the encounter with singing sirens, the battle with a one-eyed
giant (Big Dan & Polyphemus), putting out the eye of that giant with a
flaming stake, the protagonists marriage being threatened by another
suitor, the false death of the protagonist, the slaughter of bovine,
surviving the flood waters, being disguised as a hobo/beggar, etc. But
Odysseus was never arrested for practicing law without a license, never
had a hit radio single, never stole or drove a car, never robbed banks with
George Nelson, never crashed a Ku Klux Klan meeting, never used
Dapper Dan hair treatment, etc. Yet the Coen brothers still borrowed
from the Odyssey and explicitly stated as much, in spite of the many
ways in which they diverted from it.
Even the heathen who oppose us will occasionally acknowledge
when a more modern myth borrows from the mythology of their own
religion, even when, in their entirety, the two are more disparate than
they are alike. A favorite among heathen in this regard is The Chronicles
of Narnia franchise, and in particular, the first book known as The Lion,
The Witch, and the Wardrobe. The 2005 film adds even more parallels.
The character Aslan is a lion, an animal often used in the epithets of
certain heathen gods, such as The Good Shepherd. He is also a
supernatural king, another common archetype. Aslan claims to have been
present when the divine laws of the deep magic of Narnia were
written. This is akin to heathen claims that The Good Shepherd is one
with his own father and thus is timeless and was present at the beginning
945
of time, thus was also present when the divine laws of creation were
written. Aslan has the power to restore the dead back life. Interestingly,
one scenario in which this happens is when he breathes upon characters
who were petrified into stone, i.e. earth, thus he produces life by
breathing the breath of life into some earth. This is also found in heathen
stories of the creation of the first human. Most conspicuously, Aslan is
killed by being pierced in his side while bound to an altar in the shape of
a cross (when viewed from above2434), thus making him crucified. This
he did willingly, sacrificing himself to take the place of a guilty sinner
who had been sentenced to death. Then, of course, he resurrected with
the sunrise. All of these are motifs found in certain heathen religions
concerning their savior god, especially The Good Shepherd.
These parallels were indeed deliberate, for the creator, C.S. Lewis,
admitted as much.2435 That makes sense, given that he was a well known
apologist of The Good Shepherds religion and wrote several books
about it. However, Lewis god was a human, not a literal lion, and that
god never visited any Narnia. And Aslan was not portrayed as a
hypostasis of the One True God, nor was he born of a virgin to a human
carpenter, he did not fast in a desert for 40 days, he didnt feed 5,000
with one basket of bread & fish, he wasnt nailed to a tree, he wasnt
buried in a tomb for three days, he did not descend into Hell or ascend to
Heaven to rule at the right hand of his father, etc. The differences
between Lewis Narnia series and the scriptures of The Good Shepherds
religion are far greater than the parallels they share. But that didnt stop
Lewis from admitting that the parallels were deliberate.
Another favorite example is that of George Lucas Star Wars series.
Oft cited parallels among fans include the virgin birth of Anakin
Skywalker, as well as his role as the fulfillment of an ancient messianic
prophecy. Just as The Good Shepherd was said to have given himself
over to the forces of evil in order to accomplish his salvific work, often
2434
See
http://web.archive.org/web/20140326234251/http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-
76vdYDIr9pE/T9CmRp-
jE7I/AAAAAAAABvg/R7TjZUjjvqY/s1600/stone+table+2.png.
2435
Clive S. Lewis, The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume III: Narnia,
Cambridge and Joy 1950-1963 (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2007), 160,
480, 603, 732, 1004-05, 1113-14, 1158-59, 1244-45.
946
summed up in the phrase that he became sin to destroy sin, Anakin
likewise ended up becoming a Sith in order to destroy the Sith. The
concept of the Force is often said to be an allegory for the spirit of the
One True God. There is also a pseudo-resurrection from the dead, or as
Yoda put it (in Episode III), "An old friend has learned the path to
immortality, one who has returned from the netherworld of the force."
And indeed later (at the end of Episode VI) Anakin is shown to have
obtained this eternal life and returned from the dead, along with Yoda
and Obi-Wan Kenobi. And this resurrection was in an ethereal or
spiritual body rather than a biological body. For many heathen sects,
such is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised
in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown
in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised
a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
So obvious are some of the parallels that they are even featured in
propaganda tracts2436 and entire books2437 produced by the heathen
concerning their religion. These heathen do this even though the Star
Wars mythos differs greatly from their own religion, and could be argued
to have far more in common with other religions which they consider
incompatible with their own, such as Buddhism or Taoism. Yet George
Lucas has admitted to incorporating elements of all of these religions and
more.2438
A lesser used example is that of the 1987 film Robocop. This has
even fewer apparent parallels. There is the death & resurrection of the
protagonist, Alex Murphy. There is also the walking on water scene.
This film differs so greatly from the heathen myth it allegedly borrows
from that even I had never really noticed any parallels. Nevertheless,
2436
Ray Comfort, The TRUE Forcecompared to the fiction of Star Wars,
ATN, accessed January 26, 2014,
https://web.archive.org/web/20140327090245/http://www.allthingsnow.com
/day/religion/shared/5285135/The-TRUE-Forcecompared-to-the-fiction-of-
Star-Wars.
2437
John C. McDowell, The Gospel According to Star Wars: Faith, Hope, and the
Force (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2007).
2438
Bill Moyers and George Lucas, Of Myth and Men: A conversation between
Bill Moyers and George Lucas on the meaning of the Force and the true
theology of Star Wars, Time 153, no. 16 (1999): 88-96.
947
some fans were able to point them out and they were right in doing so,
for Paul Verhoeven has stated that Robocop is a retelling of an ancient
heathen myth about a dying & rising god who also walked on water,
etc.2439
While it is true that correlation does not equal causation, it is
equally true that causation will always produce correlation, hence the
effect part of cause and effect. In each of these examples just
previously mentioned, the only indication of possible causation I had to
go on was correlation. And in each case (and many other cases too
numerous to list here), I turned out to be correct in concluding that it was
indeed deliberate causation which produced these correlations. So while
correlations are not always a product of direct causation, they are a very
reliable indicator of causation. Sure, not every single time there is smoke
will there always be a fire, that is true, nevertheless the idiom where
theres smoke, theres fire has proven to be a rather safe & reliable rule
of thumb.
And these types of parallels dont need to be deliberately sought out
and constructed either. I certainly never go looking for them, they
normally just jump right out at me. They are so obvious that antagonists
themselves often point them out so long as they arent parallels
concerning The Good Shepherd or their own religions. In fact, there have
even been times when I was made aware of significant parallels not
through my own original observations, but through having them pointed
out to me by antagonistic heathen who were attempting to contend
against me. For example, one such heathen was attempting (and
ultimately failed) to construct a strawman2440 of my position on this
matter, and in doing so he claimed that following such reasoning we
must conclude that the Statue of Liberty was copied from the Colossus of
Rhodes, which he thought would be a ridiculous conclusion. Even I, a
so-called parallelomaniac who is allegedly engaging in deliberate
pattern seeking, did not notice this parallel until that very moment,
when this antagonist had pointed it out to me. While later reflecting on
that, I thought there was indeed a significant similarity between those
2439
Paul Verhoeven, in Flesh + Steel: The Making of 'RoboCop', dir. J. Schwarz
(Los Angeles: Automat Pictures, 2001).
2440
https://web.archive.org/tools/lp/Bo/LogicalFallacies/169/Strawman-
Fallacy.
948
two objects and was compelled to research the matter. And sure enough,
as is usually the case when I notice such parallels, a brief investigation
revealed that deliberate causation is what produced the correlation
afterall. It turns out that Bartholdi acknowledged the Colossus of
Rhodes as his main inspiration.2441 So perhaps a thank you is due to
that anonymous heathen, wherever he may be, for enlightening me to this
particular example of correlation that equaled causation, in spite of it
having the very opposite result which he intended. He shouldve heeded
his initial instincts about the parallel he observed between these two
sculptures, instead of obstinately attempting to exploit the parallel to
comically imply something contrary to what it actually indicated. That
mightve spared him this embarrassment.
And that leads right into the chief example of antagonistic heathen
acknowledging deliberately created parallels, in spite of there being a
great number of differences between them, and that is the example of
their own scriptures. Certain heathen cults, especially those of The Good
Shepherd,2442 believe that their god dispensed his master plan for
humanity in two different phases- an old covenant & a then new
covenant or testament. Each phase has its own canon of texts, the older
of which actually came from a different (and far older) religion of its
own. In the canon of this new covenant, The Good Shepherds life
story is asserted to have been prophesied in the older canon before he
was even born, but not always prophesied in explicit terms. Many of
these alleged prophecies were in fact just archetypal parallels between
The Good Shepherds story and several different characters in the canon
of the old covenant that preceded him, whose tales were written in
several different books at different times by different authors. The term
prophetic typology and prefigurement are terms often used to
describe such a doctrine of parallels between The Good Shepherd and the
old covenant scriptures. Some of these parallels are even
acknowledged by The Good Shepherd himself and his followers.
Examples include:
2441
Nancy Jo Fox, Liberties with Liberty: The Fascinating History of America's
Proudest Symbol (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1986), 1.
See also Frdric Auguste Bartholdi, The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the
World (New York: North American Review, 1885), 36-39.
2442
See p.17.
949
the hanging of a bronze serpent on a pole=The Good
Shepherds own crucifixion on a Roman cross,
the sacrifice of a lamb=Mr. Good Shepherds own death,
reconstruction of the capital temple=his resurrection,
the expected return of an ancient prophet who ascended to
heaven=the career of The Good Shepherds martyred cousin
prior to his own ministry,
bread magically descending from heaven to sustain life=his
own descent from heaven into mortal form to ultimately give
eternal life,
water from the well of his forefather=the divine spirit that
gives eternal life,
a global flood executing divine judgment=Mr. Good
Shepherds own second coming to issue divine judgment,
a prophet being swallowed by a sea monster for three
days=Mr. Good Shepherds own burial in a tomb for three
days, etc.
On a side note, incidentally, Hercules was likewise swallowed by a
sea creature for three days and then spit out, as described by Hellanicus
of Mytilene (5th cen. BCE) and Lycophron of Chalcis (3rd cen. BCE).2443
Although, vase paintings indicate that the story was known at least as
early as the 6th century BCE (Fig.462-63). That is more than a century
earlier than the most common date currently offered for the text
containing the aforementioned parallel story of the heathen prophet.2444
2443
Daniel Ogden, Perseus (Abingdon: Routledge, 2008), 93.
Magdalene B. Stoevesandt, Laomedon, Brills New Pauly Encyclopedia of the
Ancient World: Antiquity, K-Lyc, eds. H. Cancik and H. Schneider (Leiden:
Koninklijke Brill NV, 2005), 31.
Aristoula Georgiadou and David H.J. Larmour, Lucian's Science Fiction Novel,
True Histories (Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV, 1998), 156.
Wilmon Brewer, Ovids Metamorphoses in European Culture: Books XI-XV
(Francestown: Marshall Jones Company, 1957), 21.
2444
Michael Fishbane, in Encyclopedia of Religion: 2nd Edition, Volume 7, ed. L.
Jones (Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005), 4947.
John Day, God's Conflict with the Dragon and the Sea: Echoes of a Canaanite
Myth in the Old Testament (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985),
111.
950
Likewise, the myths of the sea monster swallowing & regurgitating
Perseus2445 and of the dragon swallowing & regurgitating Jason2446
(while a slain sheep hangs on a tree, motifs also used in heathen scripture
as a parallel to the death of The Good Shepherd) were also apparently
known in the 6th-5th centuries BCE. This is all the more fascinating
considering Hercules & Jason too were bodily resurrected from the dead
like The Good Shepherd, as per sources pre-dating the Common Era.2447
Jongsoo Park, in Inspired Speech: Prophecy in the Ancient Near East, eds. J.
Kaltner and L. Stulman (London: T & T Clark International, 2004), 278.
2445
Daniel Ogden, Drakn: Dragon Myth and Serpent Cult in the Greek and
Roman Worlds (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 129.
William F. Hansen, Ariadne's Thread: A Guide to International Tales Found in
Classical Literature (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2002), 122.
Joseph E. Fontenrose, Python: A Study of Delphic Myth and Its Origins
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1959-80), 298.
2446
See p.13. Vandiver (2000), Lecture 1.
Ogden (2013), 58-59.
Karim Arafat, Argonauts, in The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 4th ed., eds. S.
Hornblower, A. Spawforth, and E. Eidinow (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2012), 149.
2447
Diodorus of Sicily, Library of History 4.38.4-4.39.1.
Lycophron, Alexandria 1310-20.
Pherecydes of Syros and Simonides of Ceos, in Lyra Graeca: Vol. II, trans. J.M.
Edmonds (London: William Heinemann, 1924), 277.
951
Fig. 462: The sea monster prepares to swallow Hercules, where he would remain for
three days before being regurgitated; based on a Caeretan black-figure hydria, 6th
century BCE, currently part of the Stavros S. Niarchos Collection in Athens.
952
Fig. 463: Hercules attempts to rescue Hesione from the sea monster, who would swallow
him for three days; based on a Corinthian black-figure krater, 6th century BCE,
currently at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
Fig. 464: The sea monster prepares to swallow Perseus in his attempt to rescue
Andromeda; Corinthian black-figure amphora, 6th century BCE, currently at the Altes
Museum in Berlin.
953
Fig. 465: A man, likely Hercules or Perseus, is regurgitated by a sea monster; based on
an Ionian carnelian scarabaeoid, 6th century BCE, currently at the State Hermitage
Museum in St. Petersburg.
954
Fig. 466: The Colchian dragon regurgitates Jason, similar to the regurgitation myths of
Hercules & Perseus. Meanwhile the Golden Fleece, i.e. a slain sheep, hangs upon a tree;
Attic red-figure kylix, 5th century BCE, currently at the Gregorian Etruscan Museum at
the Vatican.
955
Fig. 467: The prophet who foreshadowed The Good Shepherds resurrection is
swallowed & regurgitated by a sea monster, just like Hercules was long before him, as
well as Perseus & Jason.
956
Anyway, there are also, of course, the natural metaphors used by The
Good Shepherd himself as well, many of which are common archetypes
seen repeatedly throughout this book. Examples include:
bread & wine=his body & blood,
the breaking of that bread=the mutilation of his own flesh,
a hen gathering her chicks=the regathering of his lost relatives,
a corn of wheat dying & sprouting to bear fruit=resurrection,
a farmer sowing seed=his own ministry to spread his religion,
a mustard seed growing into a tree=the growth of his religious
movement & divine kingdom,
kneading yeast into dough=the spread of his kingdom,
a pearl & the recovery of a lost coin=salvation,
the budding of a fig tree=the signs of impending judgment and
his second coming,
separating tares from wheat & burning them/separating good
fish from bad & trashing them=damnation of sinners on the
judgment day,
sheep=his followers,
a wedding banquet=entering his heavenly kingdom,
virgin brides putting oil in their lamps=the righteous on
judgment day,
etc.
Going back to parallels between the new covenant canon & old
covenant canon, such parallels drawn by figures other than The Good
Shepherd himself, such as his early followers, include:
the infant son of a prophetess who ate butter & honey=virgin
birth,
ancient mass emigration from Egypt=fleeing to escape a tyrant
& then returning,
leaven=evil,
crossing a miraculously parted sea=baptism,
water from a rock=divine spirit,
circumcision of the penis=spiritual rebirth,
2 sons=2 mountains=2 covenants,
veil of the capital temple=the flesh of The Good Shepherd,
957
ancient priest of the known pagan god Elyon=the priesthood of
Mr. Good Shepherd himself,
etc.
Outside of their canonized texts, the heathen of The Good Shepherd
also highly regard the writings of the early fathers of their religion.
Parallels drawn by these heathen fathers include:
the pagan legend of the perpetual rebirth of the phoenix
bird=virgin birth and resurrection,
vultures impregnated by wind=virgin birth,
12 springs & gems & stones & baskets of bread=the 12
apostles of Mr. Good Shepherd,
accidentally touching bones of a dead prophet=Mr. Good
Shepherds ability to raise the dead,
a prophet feeding a hundred men with 20 loaves of bread=Mr.
Good Shepherds feeding thousands of people with 5 loaves,
a prophet filling several jars to the brim with but a small
amount of oil=Mr. Good Shepherd turning water into wine,
the floating of an iron ax head in water=spiritual rebirth & the
crucifixion of Mr. Good Shepherd,
placing goat wool on thorns=the crown of thorns on Mr. Good
Shepherd,
cooking meat on wooden spits=Roman crucifixion,
an ancient prophet holding out his arms to magically win a
battle=Roman crucifixion,
wrapping wool around a stick=Roman crucifixion,
wooden boat=wooden cross of Roman crucifixion,
the horns of a unicorn=the cross of Roman crucifixion,
slaying a heifer & cutting the sinews of a bullock=the death of
The Good Shepherd (thus keeping with the bovine symbolism
going as far back as Osiris),
an ancient patriarchs mock sacrifice of his son=death of the
Mr. Good Shepherd,
that same son carrying wood to make an altar=Mr. Good
Shepherd carrying his own cross,
the death of botanical life in the winter and its rebirth in the
spring=resurrection,
958
the light of the sun=the glory of The Good Shepherd,
etc. and so on. A complete list would be far too great to be
included here.
One of these heathen fathers even explicitly instructed his readers to
deliberately look for such parallels, telling them to seek you every sign
in the old scriptures as indicative of some passage in the new
scripture. They certainly have heeded such instruction, and continue to
do so even today. Some have been rather creative, seeing parallels
between things that even we who have been accused of parallelomania
had not previously seen. For example, the chest used in the sanctuary of
the capital temple contained bread from heaven & a priests staff. This
chest is claimed to be a parallel to the main protagonists mother since
she contained within her womb the protagonist, who was made flesh,
our eternal High Priest, and the Bread of Eternal Life. The covering of
this chest with a tent is also likened to the covering of said mother with a
divine spirit.
In regards to every single one of these parallels listed since p.950, the
degree of difference between The Good Shepherds story and those old
covenant stories being compared to him are just as great, if not greater,
than the degree of difference between Mr. Good Shepherd and Osiris,
Dionysus, Adonis, Attis, or Mithras, etc. Yet heathen antagonists
acknowledge most of the parallels just listed above as acceptable
parallels, and they acknowledge that The Good Shepherds motifs were
likely influenced by the old covenant motifs to which they are
compared. And these antagonists have no choice but to acknowledge as
much, since in most of these cases the new covenant scriptures
themselves deliberately pointed out the parallels- in spite of the degree of
difference between the things being compared. Differences do not nullify
the significance of a parallel. As one heathen apologist so accurately
summarized: It must be pointed out that types do not necessarily mean
in every sense possible but only in the sense indicated.2448 Indeed.
Moreover, many motifs of The Good Shepherds mythos in the
scriptures of these heathen bear a much closer resemblance to the mythos
of Osiris & gang than they do to the motifs in the old covenant
scriptures which they allegedly parallel. Burial in a tomb for three days
2448
http://archive.is/VX3p5.
959
certainly sounds more similar to Osiris burial in a tomb for three
days2449 to being swallowed by a sea creature for three days. Hanging on
a tree in the form of a cross prior to resurrection sounds more similar to
the hanging of Osiris corpse on a tree prior to resurrection2450 than to the
hanging of a bronze serpent on a pole prior to curing snake bites. This
could go on and on. If the degree of difference between Roman
crucifixion and a serpent on a pole did not deter heathen authors from
drawing a parallel between them, an even smaller degree of difference
should likewise not deter one from drawing parallels to Osiris or other
gods. And the Osiris mythos far predates the older canon of scriptures of
these heathen antagonists as well. The differences outweigh the
similarities argument utterly fails.
2449
See pp.346-53.
2450
See pp.301-40.
960
Fig. 468: If A is analogous to B & C in spite of the differences (and the heathen scriptures
admit that such is the case), then D, E, & F are equally analogous to B & C, if not more
so. See Fig. 102, 327, 441, & 90.
There are just as many differences between Osiris and Dionysus or

Dionysus and Adonis, etc., as there are differences between The Good
Shepherd and Osiris & the gang. Nevertheless, people of the ancient
world equated Osiris to Dionysus and treated them like they were one &
the same entity, in spite of any differences (as highlighted many times
throughout this book2451). And likewise, people of that ancient world also
explicitly identified Dionysus, Osiris, Horus, Baal, Adonis, Tammuz,
2451
See pp.16, 185, 688-93, 717.
961
Elyon, Zeus,2452 etc. with the gods of The Good Shepherds religion, as
mentioned in its scriptures, such as Eloh,2453 Adonai,2454 and Yaho.2455
Who the god of [Mr. Good Shepherd's people] is... the time
and character of the greatest, most sacred holiday of [Mr. Good
Shepherd's people] clearly befit Dionysus.
Plutarch, Moralia 671C-D 2456
Blessed be Tabai, duaghter of Tahapi, priest of Osiris-Eloh.
She did nothing against any one in anger. She spoke no falsehoods
against any one. Justified before Osiris, blessed be thou from
before Osiris.
The Carpentras Stela (5th-4th cen. BCE) 2457
2452
Recall their scriptures which declare of their god- for in him we live, and
move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For
we are also his offspring. These quotations, as seen on pp.100-01, are taken
verbatim from poems by Aratus and Epimenides, which actually explicitly refer
to Zeus, thus the aforementioned scripture is conflating Yaho (and/or Eloh)
with Zeus. Also note the Greek Magical Papyrus V.470-75, which states I call
upon Thee, the Master of the gods, O loud thundering Zeus, O sovereign Zeus-
Adonai, Lord Yaho," and CV.5-7, which contains the epithet Zeus-Yaho.
2453
Recall The Good Shepherds famous cry to Eloh during his crucifixion- Eloh,
Eloh, lama sabachthani.
2454
Recall The Good Shepherds scripture reading to his congregation- The
Spirit of Adonai is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach
good tidings.
2455
Recall their scripture-
But we will bless Yaho from this time forth and for evermore. Praise Yaho.
2456
2457
Dunbar I. Heath, Phoenician Inscriptions: Part I (London: Bernard Quaritch,
1873), 92. (Emph. added.)
Bezalel Porten and John Gee, "Aramaic Funerary Practices in Egypt," in The
World of the Aramaeans: Studies in Honour of Paul-Eugne Dion, Volume 2,
eds. P.M. Michle Daviau, M. Weigl, J.W. Wevers (Sheffield: Sheddield
Academic Press, Ltd., 2001), 299.
John Ray, "Literacy and language in Egypt in the Late and Persian Periods," in
Literacy and Power in the Ancient World, eds. A.K. Bowman, G. Woolf
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994-96), 57.
962
Fig. 469: The Carpentras Stela, which contains an Aramaic inscription that identifies
Osiris with the Semitic god Eloh, 5th-4th century BCE.2458
Fig. 470: To the left is the ancient Egyptian god Osiris, to the right is the Semitic god
Eloh (13th cen. BCE2459). The resemblance is conspicuous.
2458
William H. Shea, "The Carpentras Stela: A Funerary Poem," in Journal of the
American Oriental Society 101, no. 2 (1981): 215.
963
May Horus answer us in our troubles; may Adonai answer us
in troubles. O bowman in heaven, Sahar, shine forth; send your
emissary from the temple of Arash, and from Zephon may Horus
help us. May Horus grant us what is in our hearts! May the lord
grant us what is in our hearts. All (our) plans may Horus fulfill.
May Horus fulfill - may Adonai not fall short in satisfying - every
request of our hearts. Some with the bow, some with the spear;
behold as for us - lord god Horus-Yaho, our bull, is with us. May El
of Bethel answer us on the morrow. May Baal, lord of heaven,
bless you; to your pious ones, your blessings.
Papyrus Amherst 63 (4th cen. BCE2460) 2461
2459
http://archive.is/XRb6d.
2460
Stephen C. Russell, Images of Egypt in Early Biblical Literature (Berlin:
Walter de Gruyter, 2009), 44.
2461
Klaus Koch, Konigspsalmen und ihr Ritueller Hintergrund, in The Book of
Psalms: Composition and Reception, eds. P.W. Flint, P.D. Miller (Leiden:
Koninklijke Brill NV, 2005), 35-37.
John Goldinggay, Psalms: Volume 1 (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006), 302.
Mark S. Smith, The Early History of God (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans
Publishing Co., 1990-2002), 84.
Russell (2009), 44-45.
964
Fig. . 471: Horus, also identified here as the cosmic Yaho (IA in Greek2462), in his iconic
pose sitting on the cup of the lotus flower; based on a cobochon amulet, Roman Imperial
Era. 2463
2462
See Diodorus of Sicily, Library of History 1.94.2.
Marcus Terentius Varro, in De Mensibus 4.53.
Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies 1.21.3
Tertullian of Carthage, Adversus Valentinianos 24.3.
Origen Adamantius, Contra Celsum 6.32.
2463
Abd M. El-Khachab, Some Gem-Amulets Depicting Harpocrates Seated on
a Lotus Flower: To the Memory of My Great Friend Dr. Alexandre Piankoff, in
The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 57 (1971): 137, 145.
965
Fig. 472: On the left, an ancient coin from Gaza depicts Yaho traversing the heavens
riding upon a bird, while on the right Horus traverses the heavens riding upon a bird
(based on a lapis lazuli gem, Roman Imperial Era, currently at the Institute of Ancient
History at the University of Cologne).
Fig. 473: Horus donning wings of his own, four of them specifically (cf. Fig. 474), while
flanked by seraphim; based on a Phoenician scarab gem of the Collection Pauvert de la
Chapelle in Paris, 6th-4th century BCE.
966
Fig. 474: Yaho (IA in Greek) also donning four wings like Horus; based on heliotrope
gems, Roman Imperial Era.
967
Fig. 475: Horus with the head of a bird, once again flanked by seraphim; based on
Phoenician scarab gems from Cagliari and Tharros, 6 th-4th century BCE.
968
Fig. 476: Yaho (IA) likewise shown with the head of a bird while flanked by seraphim;
based on various magical amulets, Roman Imperial Era.
969
And the sacred scriptures of The Good Shepherds people admit that
they repeatedly mingled the worship of their own gods with foreign gods
from the nations surrounding them:
They followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were
round about them, and bowed themselves unto them.
They went a whoring after the gods of the people of the land.
The priests have not separated themselves from the people of the
lands, doing according to their abominations, even of the Canaanites,
the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites,
the Egyptians, and the Amorites.
They have taken hold upon other gods, and have worshipped
them, and served them.
I will give thanks to Yaho according to His righteousness And will
sing praise to the name of Yaho-Elyon.
The pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets
prophesied by Baal.
For according to the number of thy cities were thy gods; and
according to the number of the streets have ye set up altars to that
shameful thing, even altars to burn incense unto Baal.
They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons
with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal.
They have offered incense unto Baal, and poured out drink
offerings unto other gods, to provoke me to anger.
Those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and moon, to the
constellations and to all the starry hosts.
Wherefore hath Apis fled from thee? Thy choice calf has not
remained.
The women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of
heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods.
Ye provoke me unto wrath with the works of your hands, burning
incense unto other gods in the land of Egypt their wives had burned
incense unto other gods we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth
970
forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven,
and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our
fathers, our kings, and our princes.
And he brought me in by the door of the gate of the Lord's house,
which looked to the north: and behold women sat there mourning for
Adonis.
There it is- black & white, clear as crystal, incontrovertible. The
ancestors of these heathen antagonists identified their own gods with
various foreign gods (some of which are heavily featured in this book) in
spite of any differences. Whats more is that even their primary god, their
founder, their king of kings, The Good Shepherd, identified himself with
Eloh as well, and thus by extrapolation mingling himself with Osiris &
gang too.
"I and my Father are one. ... Thou, being a man, makest thyself
God."
He answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Him: Who, being in the
form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.
For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
"He that hath seen me hath seen the Father ... I am in the Father,
and the Father in me."
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the
Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.
But even removing the middle man of Eloh, The Good Shepherd was
also explicitly identified with the Platonic/Hellenistic god known as
Logos.
In the beginning was Logos, and Logos was with God, and Logos
was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were
made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
And Logos was made flesh, and dwelt among us.
Hes also identified with the Hellenistic/Mithraic god Sol/Helios.
971
He was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as
Helios, and his raiment was white as the light.
But unto you that fear my name shall the righteous Helios arise
with healing in his wings.
Fig. 477: The Good Shepherd as the god Sol/Helios, driving the chariot of the sun across
the sky; from a ceiling mosaic in the Tomb of the Julii at the Vatican Necropolis, Roman
Imperial Era.
972
Fig. 478: Mr. Good Shepherd being worshipped in the form of Sol/Helios.
And The Good Shepherd, like Yaho, was conflated with Horus.
As another example of assimilation between Horus and [Mr.
Good Shepherd] may be cited a bas-relief on the wall of an early
Egyptian church belonging to the Memnonium at Abydos. In it
[Mr. Good Shepherd] is portrayed sitting on his throne with the
horned disk of Horus and holding a modification of the staff or
crook of Osiris. In the theology and art of Gnosticism Horus and
[Mr. Good Shepherd] could easily be blended.
2464
Witt (1971-97), 218.
973
Fig. 479: The Good Shepherd as Horus; based on a bas-relief from the Memnonium
church of Abydos, Roman Imperial Era.
In the centre of the upper half stands a naked four-winged

figure in frontal view, with halo, lion masks on his knees, holding
two scorpions in each hand and treading two crocodiles under his
feet--the familiar 'Horus on the crocodiles' of ancient Egyptian
magic. ... This figure is meant to be no other than [Mr. Good
Shepherd] Himself. The second character in the line above the
Greek inscription (left of the crocodiles) appears to be a monogram
of [Mr. Good Shepherd]: ... We have [Mr. Good Shepherd]
shown in the shape of Horus.
Dr. Alfons A. Barb, in Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld
Institutes2465
2465
Alfons A. Barb, Three Elusive Amulets, in Journal of the Warburg and
Courtauld Institutes 27 (1964): 13-15.
974
Fig. 480: The Good Shepherd in the form of Horus (cf. Fig. 473) standing upon the
crocodiles; based on an amuletic gem, Roman Imperial Era, currently at the British
Museum.
Likewise, he was explicitly identified with Serapis, a.k.a. Osiris himself.

From Hadrian Augustus to Servianus the consul, greeting. The
land of Egypt, the praises of which you have been recounting to
me, my dear Servianus, I have found to be wholly light-minded,
unstable, and blown about by every breath of rumour. There those
975
who worship Serapis are, in fact, [Mr. Good Shepherds followers],
and those who call themselves bishops of [Mr. Good Shepherd]
are, in fact, devotees of Serapis.
Historia Augusta 29.8.2-3 2466
Fig. 481: To the left, a depiction of Serapis donning a crown of solar thorns, while on the
right is a depiction of Jim Caviezel (or maybe Robert Powell or perhaps Ted Neeley)
likewise bearing a crown of solar thorns; based on a bronze head of Serapis, Ptolemaic
Era, currently at the Museum of Montmaurin, and a silver medal pendant from Limpias.
Such conflations only make sense, given that Horus and

Osiris/Serapis were worshipped throughout The Good Shepherds
homeland prior to his arrival, with many temples, stelae, coins, and idols
of Horus & Osiris/Serapis having been discovered there.
Deir el-Balah has yielded four mortuary stelae dedicated to
Osiris.
Dr. Gregory D. Mumford, The Oxford Handbook of the
Archaeology of the Levant c. 8000-332 BCE 2467
2466
David Magie, Historia Augusta: Volume III (Cambridge: Harvard University
Press, 1932-98), 399.
2467
Gregory D. Mumford, Egypt and the Levant, in The Oxford Handbook of
the Archaeology of the Levant c. 8000-332 BCE, eds. M.L. Steiner, A.E. Killebrew
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 78.
976
Fig. 482: Based on four funerary stelae from the New Kingdom Period2468 which were
discovered in the homeland of The Good Shepherd, namely Deir el-Balah, all of which
bear the name and image of Osiris, thus proving Mr. Good Shepherds ancestors
venerated Osiris.
2468
Raphael Ventura, Four Egyptian Funerary Stelae from Deir el-Bala, in IEJ
37, no. 2/3 (1987): 113.
977
Fig. 483: Based on a bronze idol of Osiris found in Ashkelon, another city of The Good
Shepherds native country, dated to the 4th century BCE.
As studies by McCasland and more recently A. Duprez have

shown, the pagan cults of Asclepius and Sarapis were situated in
Palestine and immediately surrounding areas by the first half of the
first century A.D..
978
Dr. Barry Blackburn, Theios Anr and the Markan Miracle
Tradition 2469
A Ptolemaic period dedicatory inscription to Sarapis and isis
found in the vicinity of the Kore temple's foundations suggests that
a Hellenistic shrine or temple to these Egyptian deities once stood
in this area. ... It is carefully carved on a large slab of black
limestone and reads, Hegesandros, Xenarchis and their children
to Sarapis Isis. ... The cult of Isis and Sarapis was apparently
established at Samaria during the Hellenistic period (specifically the
Ptolemaic period).
Dr. Jodi Magness, in Harvard Theological Review 2470
Further traces of Sarapis worship in Palestine are the votive
inscription of the 3rd legion "Cyrenaica" in [Salem] to Juppiter
Optimus Maximus Sarapis (A.D. 116/117), and those of
Hegesandros, his wife Xenarchis and their children to Sarapis and
Isis (Samaria, 3rd cent. B.C.), of Malchus son of Demetrius to
Zeus Helios Megas Sarapis and Isis (Gerasa, A.D. 142/3), and of
Augas son of Malchion to Sarapis alone (Gerasa, 2nd-3rd century
A.D.).
Images of Isis in Palestine are less frequent. One instance is a
coin of Ptolemais/Acco bearing on the obverse Philip Junior (248-
249) son of the emperor Philippus Arabs, and on the reverse
Harpocrates approaching a seated Isis with his hand to his lips.
Dr. Maarten J. Vermaseren, Studies in Hellenistic Religions 2471
Hadrian in his official capacity actively encouraged the
expansion of Alexandrian religion. For example, after his conquest
of Palestine he established the cult of Sarapis on the holy mountain
of Samaria called Gerizim and erected a temple in honour of Isis at
Petra.
Sarapis plays a great part in the coinage of the Palestinian
cities, especially of Aelia Capitolina, Caesarea Maritima, and
2469
Barry Blackburn, Theios Anr and the Markan Miracle Tradition (Tbingen:
J.C.B. Mohr, 1991), 231. (Emph. added.)
2470
Jodi Magness, The Cults of Isis and Kore at Samaria-Sebaste in the
Hellenistic and Roman Periods, in Harvard Theological Review 94, no. 2 (April,
2001): 157-59, 170. (Emph. added.)
2471
Maarten J. Vermaseren, Studies in Hellenistic Religions (Leiden: E.J. Brill,
1979), 191. (Emph. added.)
2472
Witt (1971-97), 236.
979
Neapolis Samariae, as well as Diospolis, Eleutheropolis, and
Tiberias.
Dr. Leo Kadman, The Coins of Akko Ptolemais 2473
At Caesarea, where documentation for the cult has
accumulated in the last few years, the Isiatic divinities (Serapis as
well as Isis and Harpocrates) appear on various media (inscriptions,
reliefs, gems, coinage) attesting to their acceptance both in the
colonys public and private spheres. Serapis, Isis and
Harpocrates were part of a public cult in AkkoPtolemais, from the
Severan epoch or possibly earlier.
Dr. Laurent Bricault, in Israel Numismatic Research 2474
Coins issued in [Salem] from the time of emperors Hadrian to
Valerianus included coins with Serapis; additionally, there is a 2nd
century inscription to Serapis in [Salem].
2473
Leo Kadman, The Coins of Akko Ptolemais (Tel Aviv: Schocken Publishing
House, 1961), 69. (Emph. added.)
2474
Laurent Bricault, Deities from Egypt on Coins of Southern Levant, in Israel
Numismatic Research 1 (2006): 127, 130. (Emph. added.)
2475
Ulmer (2009), 235 n.90.
980
Fig. 484: Based on Roman Imperial Era coins depicting Serapis from (A.) Neapolis
Samaria, (B.) Aelia Capitolina, and (C.) Caesarea Maritima, all of which are cities in The
Good Shepherds home country, where the worship of Serapis was practived long before
his own arrival.
So The Good Shepherd himself was conflated with at least three

other fellow dying & rising gods, in spite of whatever differences there
were between them. The antagonists are left without excuse. Differences,
no matter how many, serve as no evidence at all against the significance
981
of parallels and the likelihood of influence from previous sources. Hence
it is no wonder that many scholars have concluded:
Thoth gave Isis knowledge how to realize the resurrection of
her son Osiris, which served as a model for the later myth of [Mr.
Good Shepherd's] resurrection.
Dr. Willis Barnstone, in The Gnostic Bible 2476
In the words2477 of the poet Ausonius of Burdigala:
The Thebans call me Bacchus,
Egyptians think me Osiris,
Mysians name me Phanaces,
Indians regard me as Dionysus,
Roman rites make me Liber,
The Arab race thinks me Adonis,
To Lucaniacus- the Universal God.
Regardless of the fact that God hath declared that by my name the
Lord was I not known to them, He was indeed still exalted among the
heathen just as He foretold- whether it was by the name of Amen, or
Zeus, or Jupiter, or Jove, or Yaho/IA, etc. And whether it was by the
name of Serapis, or Dionysus, or Adonis, or Attis, or Mithras, etc., His
chosen son Osiris was still acknowledged as the firstfruits of the
resurrection- as the savior through whom one can obtain eternal life.
Thus concludes this chapter, and this book. May it serve well in
defending the creed of our gospel & faith. Prove all things; hold fast
that which is good. Be ready always to give an answer to every man
that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you. Grace be with you
all. Amen.
2476
Willis Barnstone, Hermetic Literature: Introduction, in The Gnostic Bible,
eds. W. Barnstone and M. Meyer (Boston: New Seeds Books, 2003), 497.
(Emph. added.)
2477
Ausonius, Epigram XLVIII, in Ausionius: Volume II, trans. H.G. Evelyn White
(London: William Heinemann, 1921), 187.
982
Bibliography*
Abt, Theodor, and Erik Hornung. Knowledge for the Afterlife: The Egyptian
Amduat A Quest for Immortality. Zurich: Living Human Heritage
Publications, 2003. Print.
The Egyptian Book of Gates. Zurich: Living Human Heritage
Acosta-Hughes, Benjamin and Susan A. Stephens. Callimachus in Context:
From Plato to the Augustan Poets. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2012.
Adkins, Lesley, and Roy Adkins, Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1994-98. Print.
Aelian. On the Characteristics of Animals. In Aelian: On Animals. 3 vols.
Translated by Alwyn F. Scholfield. London: William Heinemann Ltd.,
and Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1958-59.
Aeschylus. Prometheus Bound, in Aesychlus: Prometheus Bound. Translated
by Deborah H. Roberts. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.,
2012. Print.
Albert. crucifixion dodgeball. King David 8 .com (April 13, 2012).
http://www.kingdavid8.com/_full_article.php?id=d09704b1-70f3-11e1-
b1f8-842b2b162e97. Electronic.
Aldrete, Gregory S. Daily Life in the Roman City: Rome, Pompeii, and Ostia.
Westport: Greenwood Press, 2004. Print.
Alexandridis, Annetta. Shifting Species: Animal and Human Bodies in Attic
Vase Painting in the 6th and 5th Centuries B.C. In Bodies and
Boundaries in Graeco-Roman Antiquity, edited by Thorsten Fgen and
Mireille M. Lee, 261-82. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG,
2009. Print.
* All materials used with permission or within Fair Use guidelines.

983
Allen, James P. Genesis in Egypt: The Philosophy of Ancient Egyptian
Creation Accounts. Yale Egyptological Studies 2. New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1988. Print.
Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of
Hieroglyphs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000-10. Print.
The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts. Leiden: Brill, 2005. Print.
The Celestial Realm. In Ancient Egypt, edited by David P.
Silverman, 114-131. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997-2003.
Print.
The Human Sphere. In Ancient Egypt, edited by David P. Silverman,
130-31. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1997-2003. Print.
Allen, Marti L. Horus/Harpocrates. In The Gods of Egypt in the Grco-
Roman Period, edited by Anne E. Haeckl, 31-44. Ann Arbor: The
University of Michigan Press, 1977. Print.
Allen, Thomas G. The Book of the Dead or Going Forth by Day. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1974. Print.
Anderson, David. Mythicists and Crucifixion. King David 8 .com.
http://www.kingdavid8.com/_full_article.php?id=d09704b1-70f3-11e1-
b1f8-842b2b162e97. Accessed August 23, 2013. Electronic.
Section 1 - Horus. King David 8 .com.
http://kingdavid8.com/ApologeticsPt3Sec1.html. Accessed December 6,
2011. Electronic.
Zeitgeist On Horus. King David 8 .com.
http://www.kingdavid8.com/_full_article.php?id=100edae6-626c-11e1-
be10-176ee32615f7. Accessed December 18, 2012. Electronic.
Andrews, Carol. Amulets of Ancient Egypt. London: British Museum Press,
1994. Print.
Egyptian Mummies. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984-
2004. Print.
Annus, Amar. The Souls Ascent and Tauroctony: On Babylonian Sediment
in the Syncretic Religious Doctrines of Late Antiquity. In Studies on
Ritual and Society in the Ancient Near East, edited by Thomas R.
Kmmerer, 1-53. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, 2007.
Print.
984
Antigonus of Carystus. Collection of Wonderful Tales, in Hellenistic
Collection: Philitas, Alexander of Aetolia, Hermesianay, Euphorion,
Parthenius, edited by Jane L. Lightfoot. Cambridge: Harvard University
Press, 2009. Print.
Antolin, Fernando N. Lygdamus, Corpus Tibullianum III.I-6: Lygdami
Elegarium Liber. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1996. Print.
Antoninus Liberalis. Metmorphoses.
Apollonius of Rhodes. Argonautika. Translated by Peter Green. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1997-2007. Print.
Apollonius of Tyana. To the People of Sais. In Apollonius of Tyana, Vol.
III: Letters of Apollonius, Ancient Testimonia, Eusebius Reply to
Hierocles. Edited and translated by Christopher P. Jones. Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 2006. Printed.
Appian. Civil Wars. In Appians Roman History: Volume 3, translated by
Horace White. London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1913. Print.
Arafat, Karim. Argonauts. In The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 4th ed.,
edited by Simon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth, and Esther Eidinow.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. Print.
Aratus. Phaenomena. In Callimachus: Hymns and Epigrams, Lycophron,
Aratus. Translated by Alexander W. Mair and Gilbert R. Mair. London:
William Heinemann Ltd., and Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University
Press, 1921-89. Print.
Aristophanes of Athens. Birds. In Aristophanes: Birds, Lysistrata, Women at
the Thesmophoria, translated by Jeffrey Henderson. Cambridge: Harvard
Frogs. In Classics in Translation, Volume I: Greek Literature, edited
by Paul MacKendrick and Herbet M. Howe, translated by John G.
Hawthorne, 192-220. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press,
1952-80. Print.
Aristiphanes of Byzantium. Epitome, in Theophrastus of Eresus: Sources for
his Life, Writings, Thought & Influence, Part Two, edited by William W.
Fortenbaugh et al. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1992. Print.
985
Aristotle. History of Animals, in Aristotle: History of Animals, Books 4-6.
Translated by Arthur L. Peck. London: William Heinemann Ltd., and
Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1970-93. Print.
Armstong, David. Papyrology. In The Oxford Handbook of Hellenic
Studies, edited by George Boys-Stones and Barbara Graziosi, 763-72.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. Print.
Arnold, Dieter. Temples of the Last Pharaohs. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1999. Print.
The Encyclopedia of Ancient Egyptian Architecture. New York: I.B.
Tauris & Co Ltd, 2003. Print.
Arrian. Anabasis of Alexander. In Arrian: Anabasis of Alexander Books V-
VII, Indica, translated by Peter A. Brunt. Cambridge: Harvard University
ArtistFormerlyKnownAsHeru. Was Horus resurrected? EgyptSearch.com
(February 3, 2009).
http://www.egyptsearch.com/forums/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t
=005603;p=1#000023. Electronic.
Ashmolean Museum. Print of the Decoration on a black-figure Greek
Ceramic, showing the Resurrection of Semele.
http://ruskin.ashmolean.org/collection/8979/object/14438. Accessed
January 8, 2014. Electronic.
Ask. When Did Horus Die? http://www.ask.com/question/when-did-horus-
die. Accessed December 18. 2012. Electronic.
Assman, Jan. Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt. Ithaca: Cornell
University Press, 2001-05. Print.
Egyptian Solar Religion in the New Kingdom: Re, Amun and the Crisis
of Polytheism. Translated by Anthony Alcock. London: Routledge, 1995-
2009. Print.
Magic and Theology in Ancient Egypt. In Envisioning Magic: A
Princeton Seminar and Symposium, edited by Peter Schfer and Hans G.
Kippenberg, 1-18. Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV, 1997. Print.
Periergia: Egyptian Reactions to Greek Curiosity. In Cultural
Borrowings and Ethnic Appropriations in Antiquity, edited by Erich S.
Gruen, 37-49. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2005. Print.
986
The Mind of Egypt: History and Meaning in the Time of the Pharaohs.
Translated by Andrew Jenkins. New York: Henry Holt and Company,
LLC, 1996-2002. Print.
The Search for God in Ancient Egypt. Translated by David Lorton.
Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2001. Print.
Athanassakis, Apostolos N. and Benjamin M. Wolkow. The Orphic Hymns.
Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 2013. Print.
Aufderheide, Arthur C. The Scientific Study of Mummies. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 2003. Print.
AuFrre, Sydney H. Dualism and Focalization in Alexandrian Religious
Thought in Egypt at the Beginning of the Ptolemaic Period: Manetho of
Sebennytos and the Argive Myth. In Light Against Darkness: Dualism
in Ancient Mediterranean Religion and the Contemporary World, edited
by Armin Lange and Eric M. Meyers, 36-54. Gttingen: Vandenhoeck &
Ruprecht GmbH & Co. HG, 2011. Print.
Augustine of Hippo, Expositions of the Psalms 121-150, translated by Maria
Boulding. Hyde Park: New City Press, 2004. Print.
Aveni, Anthony F. The Book of the Year: A Brief History of Our Seasonal
Holidays. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Inc., 2003-04. Print.
Baines, John, Kingship, Definition of Culture, and Legitimation. In Ancient
Egyptian Kingship, edited by David B. OConnor and David P.
Silverman, 3-48. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1995. Print.
and Geraldine Pinch, Solar Myths: The eternal cycle of renewal. In
World Mythology, edited by Roy G. Willis, 46-47. New York: Henry
Hok and Company, LLC, 1993. Print.
Barb, Alfons A. Three Elusive Amulets. In Journal of the Warburg and
Courtauld Institutes 27 (1964): 1-22. Print.
Barnstone, Willis. Hermetic Literature: Introduction. In The Gnostic Bible,
edited by Willis Barnstone and Marvin Meyer. Boston: New Seeds
Books, 2003. Print.
Bartholdi, Frdric Auguste. The Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World.
New York: North American Review, 1885. Print.
Barton, Tamsyn S. Ancient Astrology. Abingdon: Routledge, 1994. Print.
987
Basil of Caesarea, Exegetic Homilies. Translated by Agnes C. Way.
Washington D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, Inc., 1963-
2003. Print.
Batstone, William W. Notes and Comments: Tibullus. In Latin Lyric and
Elegiac Poetry: An Anthology of New Translations, edited by Diane J.
Rayor and William W. Batstone, 193-212. New York: Garland
Publishing Co., 1995. Print.
Beck, Roger. Beck on Mithraism: Collected Works with New Essays.
Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing Ltd, 2004. Print.
In the Place of the Lion: Mithras in the Tauroctony. In Studies in
Mithraism, edited by John R. Hinnells, 29-50. Rome: LErma di
Brettschneider, 1994. Print.
Interpreting the Ponza zodiac: II. Journal of Mithraic Studies 2, no. 2
(1978): 87-147. Print.
Mithraism since Franz Cumont. In Aufstieg und Niedergang der
rmischen Welt II.17.4, edited by 2002-2115. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
& Co., 1984. Print.
Ritual, Myth, Doctrine, and Initiation in the Mysteries of Mithras:
New Evidence from a Cult Vessel. Journal of Roman Studies 90 (2000):
145-80. Print.
The Religion of the Mithras Cult in the Roman Empire: Mysteries of
the Unconquered Sun. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. Print.
Becking, Bob. VIRGIN. In Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible,
edited by Karel Van Der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. Van Der
Horst, 891-91. Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV, 1995-99. Print.
Belal, Ahmed, John Briggs, Joanne Sharp, and Irina Springuel, Bedouins by
the lake: Environment, Change, and Sustainability in Southern Egypt.
Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 2009. Print.
Bell, Catherine M. Ritual: Perspectives and Dimensions. New York: Oxford
Bell, Lanny. The New Kingdom Divine Temple: The Example of Luxor.
In Temples of Ancient Egypt, edited by Byron E. Shafer, 127-184. Ithaca:
Cornell University Press, 1997. Print.
988
Belmonte, Juan Antonio, Mosalam Shaltout, and Magdi Fekri. Astronomy,
landscape and symbolism: a study pf the orientation of ancient Egyptian
temples. In Search of Cosmic Order: Selected Essays on Egyptian
Archaeoastronomy, J.A. Belmonte and M. Shaltout, 213-84. Cairo:
Supreme Council of Antiquities Press, 2009. Print.
Ben-Dov, Jonathan. Head of All Years: Astronomy and Calendars at Qumran
in Their Ancient Context. Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV, 2008. Print.
Bergman, Jan, and Helmer Ringgren. bethlh, bethlm. In Theological
Dictionary of the Old Testament, Volume II. Translated by John T.
Willis, edited by G. Johannes Botterweck and Helmer Ringgren, 338-40.
Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1972-99. Print.
Berk, M. Fatih, The Mythological Power of Phrygia. The Pursuit of
History: International Periodical for History and Social Research 2, no.
4. (2010): 121-40. Print.
Bernab, Alberto. The Gods in Later Orphism. In The Gods of Ancient
Greece: Identities and Transformations, edited by Jay N. Bremmer and
Andrew Erskine, 422-41. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2010.
Print.
Bertman, Stephen. The Genesis of Science: The Story of Greek Imagination.
Amherst: Prometheus Books, 2010. Print.
Betts, Gavin, and Alan Henry. Complete Ancient Greek: Everything You Need
to Read, Write, and Understand. London: Hachette UK, 1989-2010.
Print.
Betz, Hans Dieter. The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation Including the
Demotic Spells, Volume One: Texts, Second Edition. Translated by H.
Martin, Jr.. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1986-96. Print.
Bijovsky, Gabriela. AION: A Cosmic Allegory on a Coin from Tyre? Israel
Numismatic Research 2 (2007): 143-57. Print.
Bilde, Pia G., et al. Archaeology in the Black Sea Region in Classical
Antiquity 1993-2007. Athens: The Council of the Society for the
Promotion of Hellenic Studies & Council of the British School at Athens,
2008. Print.
989
Birkhead, Tim. The Wisdom of Birds: An Illustrated History of Ornithology.
London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2008-11. Print.
Bivar, Adrian D.H. The Personalities of Mithra in Archaeology and
Literature. New York: Bibliotheca Persica Press, 1998. Print.
Blackburn, Barry. Theios Anr and the Markan Miracle Tradition. Tbingen:
J.C.B. Mohr, 1991. Print.
Bleiberg, Edward. Arts & Humanities Through the Eras: Ancient Egypt 2675-
322 B.C.E. Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2005. Print.
Blyth, Elizabeth. Karnak: Evolution of a Temple. Abingdon: Routledge, 2006.
Print.
Bochi, Patricia A. Images of Time in Ancient Egyptian Art. Journal of the
American Research Center in Egypt 31 (1994): 55-62. Print.
Boehmer, Alan. Wine Basics: A Complete Illustrated Guide to
Understanding, Selecting, & Enjoying Wine. Guilford: Morris Book
Publishing, LLC, 2009. Print.
Bogucki, Peter I. Encyclopedia of Society and Culture in the Ancient World:
Volume 1. New York: Facts on File, Inc., 2008. Print.
Bolshakov, Andrey O. Ka." In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt,
Vol. 2, edited by Donald B. Redford. New York: Oxford University
Press, Inc., 2001. Print.
Man and his Double in Egyptian Ideology of the Old Kingdom.
Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 1997. Print.
Bommas, Martin. Isis, Osiris, and Serapis. In The Oxford Handbook of
Roman Egypt, edited by Christina Riggs, 419-35. Oxford: Oxford
Bonfante, Larissa. Nursing Mothers in Classical Art. In Naked Truths:
Women, Sexuality, and Gender in Classical Art and Archaeology, edited
by Ann O. Kolowski-Ostrow and Claire L. Lyons, 174-196. London:
Taylor & Francis, 1997-2004. Print.
Booth, Charlotte. Travellers Guide to the Ancient World: Egypt in the Year
1200 BCE. Hove: Quid Publishing, 2008. Print.
990
Booth, Warren, et al. Consecutive Virgin Births in the New World Boid
Snake, the Colombian Rainbow Boa, Epicrates maurus. Journal of
Heredity 102, no. 6 (2011): 759-63. Print.
Facultative Parthenogenesis Discovered in Wild Vertebrates.
Biology Letters 8, no. 6 (2012): 983-5. Print.
Borgeaud, Philippe. Mother of the Gods: From Cybele to the Virgin Mary,
translated by Lysa Hochroth. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University
Press, 2004. Print.
Borghouts, Joris F. The Magical Texts of Papyrus Leiden I 348. Leiden: E.J.
Brill, 1971. Print.
Bowden, Hugh. Classical Athens and the Delphic Oracle: Divination and
Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Print.
Bowie, Angus M. Aristophanes: Myth, Ritual, and Comedy. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1993-96. Print.
Boyce, Mary, and Frantz Grenet. A History of Zoroastrianism, Vol. III:
Zoroastrianism under Macedonian and Roman Rule. Leiden: E.J. Brill,
1991. Print.
Braithwaite, Gillian. Faces from the Past: A Study of Roman Face Pots from
Italy and the Western Provinces of the Roman Empire. Oxford:
Archaeopress, 2007. Print.
Bram, Jean Rhys. Ancient Astrology: Theory and Practice. Noyes Classical
Studies: Park Ridge, 1975. Print.
Brandon, Samuel G.F. Redemption in Ancient Egypt. In Types of
Redemption: Contributions to the Theme of the Study-Conference held at
Jerusalem, 14th to 19th July, 1968, edited by C.J. Bleeker and R.J. Zwi
Werblowsky, 36-45. Supplements to Numen 18. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1970.
Print.
Saviour and Judge: Two Examples of Divine Ambivalence. In Liber
Amicorum: Studies in Honour of Professor Dr. C.J. Bleeker, edited by
C.J. Bleeker, 44-54. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1969. Print.
The Proleptic Aspect of the Iconography of the Egyptian Judgment
of the Dead. In Ex Orbe Religionum: Studia Geo Widengren Oblata I,
edited by B. Layton, 16-25. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1972. Print.
991
Bratton, F. Gladstone. A History of Egyptian Archaeology. New York:
Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1968. Print.
Brenk, Frederick E. A Gleaming Ray: Blessed Afterlife in the Mysteries.
Illinois Classical Studies 18 (1993): 147-64. Print.
Plutarchs Description of Egyptian Religion, Osiris, and the
Contemporary Scene. In Sage and Emperor: Plutarch, Greek
Intellectuals and Roman Power in the Time of Trajan, edited by Philip A.
Stadter and Luc Van der Stockt. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2001.
Print.
Bresciani, Edda. Food Culture in Ancient Egypt. In Food: A Culinary
History from Antiquity to the Present, edited by Jean-Louis Flandrin,
Massimo Montanari, and Albert Sonnenfeld. Translated by Clarissa
Botsford et al., 38-45. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996-99.
Print.
Brewer, Wilmon. Ovids Metamorphoses in European Culture: Books XI-XV.
Francestown: Marshall Jones Company, 1957. Print.
Bricault, Laurent. Deities from Egypt on Coins of Southern Levant. In
Israel Numismatic Research 1 (2006): 123-35. Print.
Brier, Bob. Ancient Egyptian Magic. New York: Quill, 1980-2001. Print.
Egyptian Mummies: Unraveling the Secrets of an Ancient Art. New
York: William Morrow & Co., 1994. Print.
History of Ancient Egypt. 48 lectures. Chantilly: The Teaching
Company LLC, 1999. DVD.
The Book of the Dead (anthology). In Mummies Around the World:
An Encyclopedia of Mummies in History, Religion, and Popular Culture,
edited by Matt Cardin. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2014. Print.
Brier, Bob, and A. Hoyt Hobbs. Daily Life of the Ancient Egyptians.
Westport: Greenwood Press, 2008. Print.
Brier, Bob, and Jean-Pierre Houdin. The Secret of the Great Pyramid: How
One Mans Obsession Led to the Solution of Ancient Egypts Greatest
Mystery. New York: HarperCollins Publishers LLC, 2008. Print.
Brisson, Luc. Sexual Ambivalence: Androgyny and Hermaphroditism in
Graeco-Roman Antiquity. Berkeley: University of California, 1997-2002.
Print.
992
Bromwich, James. The Roman Remains of Northern and Eastern France: A
Guidebook. London: Routledge, 2003. Print.
Brovarski, Edward. Sokar. In Lexikon der gyptologie: Band V
Pyramidenbau-Steingefe, edited by Christine Meyer and Robert
Schichting, 1055-74. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz GmbH & Co. KG,
1984. Print.
Brown, W. Edward. The Book of Breathings: The Lafayette College Papyrus.
Easton: Lafayette College Press, 1934-2009.
http://sites.lafayette.edu/papyrus/files/2009/11/Browns-book-of-
breathings-translations-updated.pdf. Electronic.
Brl, Pierre. La fille dAthnes: La religion des filles Athnes lpoque
classique. Paris: Mythes, cultes et socit, 1987. Print.
Bryan, Betsy M. Antecedents to Amenhotep III. In Amenhotep III:
Perspectives on His Reign, edited by David B. OConnor and Eric H.
Cline, 27-62. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1998-2004.
Print.
Bube, Richard H. A Perspective on Scriptural Inerrancy. Journal of the
American Scientific Affiliation 15.3 (1963): 86-92. Print.
Buckler, John. The Hellenistic World, 336-30 B.C.E. In Understanding
Western Society: A Brief History, edited by John P. McKay, Bennett D.
Hill, John Buckler, Clare H. Crowston, Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks, and
Joe Perry, 86-111. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2012. Print.
Bunson, Matthew. Encyclopedia of the Roman Empire, Revised Edition. New
York: Facts On File, Inc., 1994-2002. Print.
Burket, Walter. Structure and History in Greek Mythology and Ritual.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979. Print.
Burnyeat, Myles F. Explorations in Ancient and Modern Philosophy: Volume
2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. Print.
Burstein, Stanley M. The Reign of Cleopatra. Norman: University of
Oklahoma Press, 2004-07. Print.
Burton, Anne. Diodorus Siculus, Book 1: A Commentary. Leiden: E.J. Brill,
1972. Print.
993
Burton, Maurice, and Robert Burton. International Wildlife Encyclopedia 3rd
Edition. New York: Marshall Cavendish Corporation, 2002. Print.
Calverley, Amice M. and Myrtle F. Broome, The Temple of King Sethos I at
Abydos: Volume I, The Chapels of Osiris, Isis and Horus, edited by Alan
H. Gardiner. London: The Egypt Exploration Society, 1933. Print.
Cameron, Alan. Greek Mythography in the Roman World. New York: Oxford
Camp, John M. The Archaeology of Athens. New Haven: Yale University
Press, 2001. Print.
Campbell, Joseph. The Masks of God: Occidental Mythology.
Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd., 1976. Print.
Myths of Light: Eastern Metaphors of the Eternal. Novato: New World
Library, 2003. Print.
The Mythic Image. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1974. Print.
Campbell, Kenneth L. Western Civilization: A Global and Comparative
Approach, Volume I: To 1715. New York: M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 2012. Print.
Campbell, Leroy A. Mithraic Iconography and Ideology. Leiden: E.J. Brill,
1968. Print.
Carroll, William C. Goodly Frame, Spotty Globe. In Earth-Moon
Relationships, edited by Cesare Barbieri and Francesca Rampazzi, 5-23.
Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2001. Print.
Caruso, Carlo. Adonis: The Myth of the Dying God in the Italian Renaissance.
London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013. Print.
Casadio, Giovanni. The Failing Male God: Emasculation, Death and Other
Accidents in the Ancient Mediterranean World. Numen 50, no. 3
(2003): 231-68. Print.
Casas-Agustench, Patricia, Albert Salas-Huetos, and Jordi Sala-Salvado.
Mediterranean nuts: origins, ancient medicinal benets and
symbolism. Public Health Nutrition 14, no. 12A (2011): 2296-2301.
Print.
Cauville, Sylvie. Dendera III: Traduction. Leuven: Peeters Press, 2000. Print.
994
Le Temple de Dendera: Les chapelles osiriennes, Bibliothque dtude
118. Cairo: French Institute for Oriental Archaeology in Cairo, 1997.
Print.
Censorinus, The Natal Day. Translated by William Maude. New York: The
Cambridge Encyclopedia Co., 1900. Print.
Chambers 21st Century Dictionary, edited by Mairi Robinson and George
W. Davidson et al. London: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd., 1996-
2008. Print.
Chadwick, John. The Mycenaean World. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Chaeremon of Alexandria. In Chaeremon, Egyptian Priest and Stoic
Philosopher: The Fragments Collected and Translated with Explanatory
Notes. Translated by Pieter Willem Van Der Horst. Leiden: E.J. Brill,
1984. Print.
Charalampidis, Constantine P. Studia Archaeologica 73. Rome: LErma di
Bretschneider, 1995. Print.
Chassinat, mile. Le Mystre dOsiris au mois de Khoiak. Cairo: French
Institute for Oriental Archaeology, 1966-68. Print.
Cheshire, Keyne. Alexander the Great - Greece & Rome: Texts and Contexts.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Print.
Christopher, R. THE DEBUNKING OF ZEITGEIST MYTHOLOGY.
ZEITGEIST RESPONSE (May 24, 2009).
http://web.archive.org/web/20090803141924/http://www.zeitgeistrespon
se.info/. Electronic.
Chronopoulou, Christina and Anastasios Mavrakis. Indications of stability of
occurrence of Halcyon days in the ancient Greek drama. In Advances in
Meteorology, Climatology and Atmospheric Physics: Volume 2, edited
by Costas G. Helmis and Panagiotis T. Nastos, 403-08. Berlin: Springer-
Verlag, 2012. Print.
Churton, Tobias. The Golden Builders: Alchemists, Rosicrucians, and the
First Freemasons. Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC: Boston, 2002-05.
Electronic.
995
Cicero. Pro Murena. In Cicero: Ten Speeches. Translated by James E.G.
Zetzel. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2009. Print.
The Nature of the Gods. Translated by Patrick G. Walsh. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1998. Print.
Clack, Jerry. Dioscorides and Antipater of Sidon: The Poems. Wauconda:
Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, Inc., 2001. Print.
Clagett, Marshall. Ancient Egyptian Science: Volume II Calendars, Clocks,
and Astronomy. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1995.
Print.
Clark, R.T. Rundle. Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt. New York: Thames
& Hudson, 1959. Print.
Clauss, Manfred. The Roman Cult of Mithras: The God and His Mysteries,
translated by Richard L. Gordon. New York: Routledge, 1990-2001.
Print.
Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Heathen. In The Ante-Nicene
Fathers: Volume II, edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson,
translated by Alexander Roberts. Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers,
1885-1994. Print.
Clement of Rome, Epistle to the Corinthians. In The Epistles of St. Clement of
Rome and St. Ignatius of Antioch, translated by Johannes Quasten and
Joseph C. Plumpe. Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1946. Print.
Clotuche, Raphal, et al. Fanum Martis, a northern city with oriental rites.
Inrap: Institut national de recherches archologiques prventives
(October 7, 2008).
http://www.inrap.fr/userdata/c_bloc_file/5/5893/7819_fichier_PR_Fanu
m_Martis.pdf. Electronic.
Cohen, Beth. The Colors of Clay: Special Techniques in Athenian Vases. Los
Angeles: Getty Publications, 2006. Print.
Collier, Mark and Bill Manley. How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs: A Step-
by-Step Guide to Teach Yourself. Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1998. Print.
Collins English Dictionary: Complete and Unabridged, 6th Edition, edited by
Jeremy Butterfield et al. Glasgow: HarperCollins Publishers, 2003. Print.
996
Collins, John F. A Primer of Ecclesiastical Latin. Washington, D.C.: The
Catholic University of America Press, 1985. Print.
Columella. On Agriculture. Translated by Andrew Millar. London: 1745.
Print.
In Columella: On Agriculture. 3 vols. Translated by Harrison B. Ash,
Edward S. Forster and Edward H. Heffner. Cambridge: Harvard
Comfort, Ray. The TRUE Forcecompared to the fiction of Star Wars.
ATN. http://www.allthingsnow.com/day/religion/shared/5285135/The-
TRUE-Forcecompared-to-the-fiction-of-Star-Wars. Accessed January
26, 2014. Electronic.
Comprehensive Dictionary of the World: Vol. III, Part 2, edited by Thomas
Wright. New Delhi: Mittal Publications, 1992. Print.
Conner, Nancy. The Everything Classical Mythology Book. Avon: F+W
Media, Inc., 2010-12. Print.
Cornutus. Compendium of Greek Theology, edited by Carl Lang. Leipzig:
Teubner, 1881. Print.
Corpus Hermeticum. In Hermetica: The Greek Corpus Hermeticum and the
Latin Asclepius in a New English Translation with Notes and
Introduction. Translated by Brian P. Copenhaver. Cambridge:
Correa, Katherine. Artemis Ephesia and Sacred Bee Imagery in Ancient
Greece. In Symposium: The Adelphi Honors College Journal of Ideas,
Vol. 12, edited by Katherine Correa et al., 74-82. Garden City: Adelphi
University, 2012. Print.
Corrington, Julian D. Bees, Bulls and Bugonia. Bios 27, no. 2 (1956): 98-
106. Print.
Cotter, Wendy. Miracles in Graeco-Roman Antiquity: A Sourcebook. New
York: Taylor & Francis, 1999-2003. Print.
Cotterell, Arthur. Oxford Dictionary of World Mythology: The Ideal Quick
Reference Guide to Deities, Spirits, and Myths. Oxford: Oxford
997
Coulter, Charles R., and Patricia Turner. Encyclopedia of Ancient Deities.
New York: Routledge, 2000-12. Print.
Covensky, Milton. The Ancient Near Eastern Tradition. New York: Harper &
Row, 1966. Print.
Creasy, Glen L. and Leroy L. Creasy. Grapes. Wallingford: CABI, 2009.
Print.
Cumston, C.G. The History of Medicine: From the Time of the Pharaohs to
the End of the XVIIIth Century. Abingdon: Routledge, 1926-98. Print.
Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures. In Nicene & Post-Nicene Fathers,
2nd Series: Volume VII, edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace,
translated by Edwin H. Gifford. Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1894-1996.
Print.
Daly, Kathleen N. Greek & Roman Mythology: A to Z. New York: Facts On
File, Inc., 1992-2004. Print.
Darnell, John C. The Enigmatic Netherworld Books of the Solar-Osirian
Unity: Cryptographic Compositions in the Tombs of tutankhamun,
Ramesses VI and Ramesses IX. Fribourg: Academic Press Fribourg,
2004. Print.
Dassow, Eva Von. A Glossary of Common Terms and Concepts. In The
Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Book of Going Forth by Day, Being the
Papyrus of Ani, edited by Eva Von Dassow, 173-75. San Francisco:
Chronicle Books LLC, 1994-2008. Print.
David, Ann Rosalie. Handbook to Life in Ancient Egypt. New York: Oxford
mortuary beliefs. In Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient
Egypt, edited by Kathryn A. Bard, 643-47. London: Routledge, 1999.
Print.
Pyramid Builders of Ancient Egypt: A Modern Investigation of
Pharaohs Workforce. London: Routledge, 1986-96. Print.
Religion and Magic in Ancient Egypt. New York: Penguin Books,
2002. Print.
The ancient Egyptian medical system. In Egyptian Mummies and
Modern Science, edited by A.Rosalie David, 181-194. Cambridge:
998
The Ancient Egyptians: Beliefs and Practices. Brighton: Sussex
Academic Press, 1998. Print.
The Experience of Ancient Egypt. New York: Routledge, 2000. Print.
Davies, Jon. Death, Burial, and Rebirth in the Religions of Antiquity. London:
Routledge, 1999-2002. Print.
Day, John. God's Conflict with the Dragon and the Sea: Echoes of a
Canaanite Myth in the Old Testament. Cambridge: Cambridge
De Jong, Albert. Traditions of the Magi: Zoroastrianism in Greek and Latin
Literature. Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV, 1997. Print.
De Jong, H.M.E. Michael Maiers Atlanta Fugiens: Sources of an Alchemical
Book of Emblems. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1969. Print.
Deacy, Susan. Athena. London: Taylor & Francis, 2008. Print.
Delaney, Carol. Investigating Culture: An Experiential Introduction to
Anthropology. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2004-11. Print.
Della Portella, Ivana. Subterranean Rome. Translated by Richard Pierce.
Venice: Arsenale Editrice, 2002. Print.
Depuydt, Leo. Civil Calendar and Lunar Calendar in Ancient Egypt. Leuven:
Peeters Publishers, 1997. Print.
Detienne, Marcel. The Writing of Orpheus: Greek Myth in Cultural Context.
Translated by Janet Lloyd. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University
Dictionary and Thesaurus - Merriam-Webster Online. http://www.merriam-
webster.com. Electronic.
Dieleman, Jacco and Ian S. Moyer. Egyptian Literature in the Hellenistic and
Roman Period. In A Companion to Hellenistic Literature, edited by
James J. Clauss and Martine Cuypers, 429-47. Malden: Blackwell
Publishing Ltd, 2010. Print.
Diodorus Siculus. Library of History. In Diodorus of Sicily, trans. C.H.
Oldfather, et al., 12 vols. Loeb Classical Library. London: William
Heinemann Ltd., and Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University
999
Djehuti. Was Horus resurrected? EgyptSearch.com (September 26, 2007).
http://www.egyptsearch.com/forums/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t
=005603;p=1#000002. Electronic.
Dolgopolsky, Aharon. The Nostratic Macrofamily and Linguistic
Palaeontology. Cambridge: The McDonald Institute for Archaeological
Research, 1998. Print.
Doty, William G. Myth: A Handbook. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2004.
Print.
Dousa, Thomas M. Imagining Isis: On some continuities and discontinuities
in the image of Isis in Greek Isis hymns and Demotic texts. Acts of the
Seventh International Conference of Demotic Studies: Copenhagen, 23-
27 August 1999, edited by Kim Ryholt, 149-84. Copenhagen: Museum
Tusculanum Press, 2002. Print.
Dowden, Ken. The Uses of Greek Mythology. London: Routledge, 1992-2005.
Print.
Zeus: Gods and Heroes of the Ancient World. Abingdon: Routledge,
2006. Print.
Doyle, Noreen. Egyptian Mythology. In National Geographic: Essential
Visual History of World Mythology, edited by Juliane von Laffert et al.,
60-105. Washington: National Geographic Society, 2008. Print.
Dreyer, Gnter. In National Geographic Special: Egypt Underworld, directed
by Nancy Donnelly. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Television,
2009. DVD.
Easton, Katherine. Memorial Temples in the Sacred Landscape of
Nineteenth Dynasty Abydos: An Overview of Processional Routes and
Equipment. The Archaeology and Art of Ancient Egypt: Essays in
Honor of David B. OConnor, Volume I, edited by Zahi A. Hawass and
Janet Richards, 231-50. Cairo: Supreme Council of Antiquities Press ,
2007. Print.
Ebeling, Florian. The Secret History of Hermes Trismegistus: Hermeticism
from Ancient to Modern Times, translated by David Lorton. Cornell
University Press: Ithaca, 2005-07. Print.
1000
Edmonds, John M. Lyra Graeca: Volume II. London: William Heinemann,
1924. Print.
Edmonds III, Radcliffe G. Who in hell is Heracles? Dionysus disastrous
disguise in Aristophanes Frogs. In Initiation in Ancient Greek Rituals
and Narratives: New Critical Perspectives, edited by David B. Dodd and
Chris A. Faraone, 181-200. London: Routledge, 2003. Print.
Egyptologists prove zeitgeist is right. Video, 9:05. Posted by
micap20078, June 19, 2010, directed by David Batty. London: Juniper
Communications, 2007.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_X1hdCUqf8. Electronic.
Ehrman. Bart D. Fuller Reply to Richard Carrier. The Bart Ehrman Blog.
(April 25, 2012). http://ehrmanblog.org/fuller-reply-to-richard-carrier/.
Electronic.
El Hadidi, M. Nabil. plants, wild. In Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of
Ancient Egypt, edited by Kathryn A. Bard, 749-60. London: Routledge,
1999. Print.
El-Aswad, el-Sayed. Archaic Egyptian Cosmology. Anthropos 92 (1997):
69-81. Print.
El-Hibri, Hana. A Million Steps: Discovering the Lebanon Mountain Trail.
Beirut: DOTS Printing Press, 2010. Print.
El-Khachab, Abd M. Some Gem-Amulets Depicting Harpocrates Seated on a
Lotus Flower: To the Memory of My Great Friend Dr. Alexandre
Piankoff. In The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 57 (1971): 132-45.
Eller, Jack D. Cultural Anthropology: Global Forces, Local Lives. New York:
Routledge, 2009. Print.
Ellis, Walter M. Ptolemy of Egypt. London: Routledge, 1994-2005. Print.
El-Shahawy, Abeer. The Funerary Art of Ancient Egypt: A Bridge to the
Realm of the Hereafter. Cairo: Farid Atiya Press, 2005. Print.
Engnell, Ivan. Studies in Divine Kingship in the Ancient Near East. Oxford:
Basil Blackwell, 1943-67. Print.
Epimenides. Cretica. In The Commentaries of Ishodad of Merv, Bishop of
Hadatha (c. 850 A.D.) In Syriac and English Vol. 4. Edited and
1001
translated by Margaret D. Gibson. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Epiphanius of Salamis. Panarion. In The Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis,
Books II and III. De Fide. Translated by Frank Williams. Leiden:
Koninklijke Brill NV, 1994-2013. Print.
Erman, Adolf. The Literature of the Ancient Egyptians. Translated by
Aylward M. Blackman. New York: Benjamin Blom Inc., 1927-71. Print.
Euripides. Bacchae, translated by Matt Neuburg. 1988.
http://sbc.apeth.com/downloads/bacchae.pdf. Electronic.
Evans, Craig A. Resurrection. The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of
Religion, edited by Chad Meister and Paul Copan, 566-75. Abingdon:
Evans, Elaine A. Ancient Egyptian Ba-Bird. In McClung Museum:
Research Notes. Knoxville: University of Tennessee, 1993. Print.
Evans, James and J. Lennart Berggren, Geminoss Introduction to the
Phenomena: A Translation and Study of a Hellenistic Survey of
Astronomy. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006. Print.
Evelyn White, Hugh G. Ausionius: Volume II. London: William Heinemann,
1921. Print.
Eyre, Christopher. The Cannibal Hymn: A Cultural and Literary Study.
Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2002. Print.
Fanet, Jacques. Great Wine Terroirs, translated by Florence Brutton.
Faulkner, Raymond O. The Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts. 3 vols.
Warminster: Aris & Phillips, Ltd, 1973-78. Print.
The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts. London: Oxford University
Press, 1969. Print.
The Bremner-Rhind Papyrus: I. A. The Songs of Isis and Nephthys.
The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 22, no. 2. (1936): 121-140. Print.
Feder, Lillian. The Handbook of Classical Literature. New York: Da Capo
1002
Ferguson, John. The Religions of the Roman Empire. Ithaca: Cornell
Ferreira de Sousa, Rogrio. The Notion of the Heart and the Idea of Man:
The Effect of Anthropological Notions of Medical Practices. In
Egyptology at the Damn of the Twenty-First Century, Volume 3:
Language, Conversation, Museology, edited by Zahi Hawass, 191-95.
Finnestad, Ragnhild B. Image of the World and Symbol of the Creator.
Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz GmbH & Co. KG, 1985. Print.
Firmicus Maternus. The Error of the Pagan Religions. Translated by Clarence
A. Forbes. New York: Newman Press, 1970. Print.
Fishbane, Michael. In Encyclopedia of Religion: 2nd Edition, Volume 7,
edited by Lindsay Jones. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005.
Print.
Flavius Josephus. Antiquities, in Josephus: Antiquities, Books 1-3. Translated
by Henry St. John Thackeray. Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
1930-98. Print.
In Josephus: Antiquities, Books 18-19. Translated by Henry St. John
Thackeray. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1965-96. Print.
Fletcher, Joann. Exploring the Life, Myth, and Art of Ancient Egypt. New
York: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc., 2010. Print.
Fontenrose, Joseph E. Python: A Study of Delphic Myth and Its Origins.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 1959-80. Print.
Forbes, Chris. In Zeitgeist refutado em 7 minutos! video, 6:36, posted by
Alex Nasc, February 13, 2010, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-
2HBSfPZpU. Electronic.
Forbes Irving, Paul M.C.F. Metamorphosis in Greek Myths. Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1990. Print.
Forsythe, Gary. Time in Roman Religion: One Thousand Years of Religious
History. New York: Routledge, 2012. Print.
Fortigurn. Carrier on Ehrmans Response to Criticisms. The Musings of
Thomas Verenna. (May 7, 2012).
1003
http://tomverenna.wordpress.com/2012/04/27/carrier-on-ehrmans-
response-to-criticisms/. Electronic.
Foster, John. L. Hymns, Prayers, and Songs: An Anthology of Ancient
Egyptian Love Poetry. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1995. Print.
Fowden, Garth. The Egyptian Hermes: A Historical Approach to the Late
Pagan Mind. Princeton University Press: Princeton, 1986. Print.
Fox, Nancy Jo. Liberties with Liberty: The Fascinating History of America's
Proudest Symbol. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1986. Print.
Fox, Robin L. Travelling Heroes in the Epic Age of Homer. New York:
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 2008. Print.
Fragments from the Lost Writings of Irenaeus. In The Ante-Nicene Fathers:
Volume I, edited by Alexander Roberts and J. Donaldson, translated by
Alexander Roberts. Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, 1885-1994. Print.
Fredal, James. Rhetorical Action in Ancient Athens: Persuasive Artistry from
Solon to Demosthenes. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University, 2006.
Print.
Freed, Rita. The Secrets of Tomb 10A. Minerva 20, no. 6 (2009): 17. Print.
Freely, John. Strolling Through Athens: Fourteen Unforgettable Walks
Through Europes Oldest City. London: I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd, 1991-
2004. Print.
Frood, Elizabeth. Biographical Texts from Ramessid Egypt. Atlanta: Society
of Biblical Literature, 2007. Print.
Furley, David. Cosmology. In The Cambridge History of Hellenistic
Philosophy, edited by Keimpe Algra et al., 412-451. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1999-2002.
Furley, William D. Homeric and Un-Homeric Hexameter Hymns: A
Question of Type, The Homeric Hymns: Interpretive Essays, edited by
Andrew Faulkner, 206-31. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. Print.
Gaballa, Gaballa Ali and Kenneth A. Kitchen. The Festival of
Sokar. Orientalia 38, fasc. 1 (1969): 39. Print.
Gagarin, Michael. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece & Rome Vol.
1. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. Print.
1004
Gasparro, Giulia S. Soteriology and Mystic Aspects in the Cult of Cybele and
Attis. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1985. Print.
Gawlikowski, Michal, Krzysztof Jakubiak, Wieslaw Malkowski, and
Arkadiusz Soltysiak. A Ray of Light for Mithras. In Un impaziente
desiderio di scorrere il mondo: Studi in onore di Antonio Invernizzi per il
suo settantesimo compleanno, edited by Carlo Lippolis and Stefano de
Martino, 169-75. Florence: Le Lettere, 2011. Print.
Geering, Lloyd. Resurrection: A Symbol of Hope. London: Hodder &
Stoughton Ltd, 1971. Print.
George Yama Maharaja Ricks. The Conspiracy Archives. Facebook
(October 20, 2013).
https://www.facebook.com/GeorgeIrvingRicks/posts/1020191743123857
0. Electronic.
Georgiadou, Aristoula, and David H.J. Larmour. Lucian's Science Fiction
Novel, True Histories. Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV, 1998. Print.
Gimbutas, Marija. The Gods and Goddesses of Old Europe 7000 to 3500 BC:
Myths, Legends & Cult Images. Berkeley: University of California Press,
1974. Print.
Glazov, Gregory. The Bridling of the Tongue and the Opening of the Mouth in
Biblical Prophecy. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press Ltd, 2001. Print.
Gmirkin, Russell E. Berossus and Genesis, Manetho and Exodus: Hellenistic
Histories and the Date of the Pentateuch. New York: T & T Clark
International, 2006. Print.
Goldinggay, John. Psalms: Volume 1. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006.
Print.
Gordon, Arthur E. Illustrated Introduction to Latin Epigraphy. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1983. Print.
Gordon, Richard L. The date and significance of CIMRM 593 (British
Museum, Townley Collection). Journal of Mithraic Studies 2, no. 2
(1978): 148-74. Print.
The sacred geography of a mithraeum: the example of Sette Sfere,
Journal of Mithraic Studies 1, no. 2 (1976): 119-65. Print.
1005
Graf, Fritz. Apollo. London: Taylor & Francis, 2008-09. Print.
Graf, Fritz and Sarah I. Johnston. Ritual Texts for the Afterlife: Orpheus and
the Bacchic Gold Tablets. Abingdon: Routledge, 2007. Print.
Graves-Brown, Carolyn. Dancing for Hathor: Women in Ancient Egypt.
London: Continuum UK, 2010. Print.
GreekOrthodoxy. Dying and Rising Gods. Freethought Nation (October 19,
2008).
Electronic.
Greeksays. When did Horus die? Answers (November 22, 2008).
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Where_did_Horus_die? Electronic.
Green, Gene L. The Letters to the Thessalonians. Grand Rapids: Wm. B.
Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2002. Print.
Green, Steven J. Ovid, Fasti I: A Commentary. Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV,
2004. Print.
Grenfell, Bernard P. and Arthur S. Hunt, The Oxyrhynchus Papyri: Part XI.
London: Oxford University Press, 1915. Print.
Griffith, Francis L. and Herbert Thompson. The Demotic Magical Papyrus of
London and Leiden. London: H. Grevel & Co., 1904. Print.
Griffiths, John G. Apuleius of Madauron: The Isis-Book (Metamorphosis,
Book XI). Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1975. Print.
Isis. In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt: Volume 2, edited
by Donald B. Redford, 188-91. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc.,
2001. Print.
Osiris. In Lexikon der gyptologie:Band IV Megiddo-Pyramiden,
edited by Wolfgang Helck and Wolfhart Westendorf, 623-33.
Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz GmbH & Co. KG, 1982. Print.
Plutarchs de Iside et Osiride: Edited with an Introduction,
Translation and Commentary. Cambridge: University of Wales Press,
1970. Print.
The concept of divine judgement in the mystery religions. In La
Soteriologia dei Culti Orientali nellImpero Romano: Atti del Colloquio
Internazionale su La soteriologia dei culti oriental nell Impero Romano,
1006
Roma 24-28 Settembre 1979, edited by Ugo Bianchi and Maarten J.
Veermaseren, 192-222. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1982. Print.
The Divine Verdict: A Study of Divine Judgement in the Ancient
Religions. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1991. Print.
The Origins of Osiris and His Cult. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1980.
The Symbolism of Red in Egyptian Religion. In Ex Orbe
Religionum: Studia Geo Widengren Oblata I, edited by Bentley Layton,
81-90. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1972. Print.
Grimal, Nicolas. A History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers
Ltd, 1988-2001. Print.
Gruen, Erich S. Review Articles: Innovation and Restraint. The Journal of
Roman Studies 92 (2002): 177-84. Print.
Guasch, Maria R. et al. Scientific Research on Archaeological Residues from
Ancient Egyptian Wines. In Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta:
Proceedings of the Ninth International Congress of Egyptologists:
Volume 1, edited by Jean-Claude Goyon, Christine Cardin, 851-56.
Leuven: Peeters Publishers, 2007. Print.
Gundlach, Rolf. Horus in the Palace: The centre of state and culture in
pharaonic Egypt. In 4th Symposium on Egyptian Royal Ideology:
Egyptian Royal Residences, edited by R. Gundlach and J.H. Taylor, 45-
68. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz GmbH & Co. KG, 2009. Print.
Guthrie, William K.C. A History of Greek Philosophy: The Earlier
Presocratics and the Pythagoreans. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Orpheus and Greek Religion: A Study of the Orphic Movement.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1952-93. Print.
Gyry, Hedvig. The Story of the Gamhud Excavations. In Orientalia
Lovaniensia Analecta: Proceedings of the Ninth International Congress
of Egyptologists: Volume 1, edited by Jean-Claude Goyon, Christine
Cardin, 907-19. Leuven: Peeters Publishers, 2007. Print.
Habermas, Gary. In Faith Under Fire: The Resurrection: Fact or Fiction?
Gary Habermas vs. Tim Callahan. Video, 11:37. Posted by
ThomisticTheist, December 29, 2013.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbExDzozUxU. Electronic.
1007
Halioua, Bruno and Bernard Ziskind, Medicine in the Days of the Pharaohs.
Translated by M.B. DeBevoise. Cambridge: Belknap Press, 2002-05.
Print.
Halverson, Jeffry R., Harold L. Goodall, Jr., and Steven R. Corman. Master
Narratives of Islamist Extremism. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
Print.
Hannah, Robert. Greek and Roman Calendars: Constructions of Time in the
Classical World. Bloomsbury Academic: London 2005. Print.
Time in Antiquity. London: Routledge, 2009. Print.
Hansen, William F. Ariadne's Thread: A Guide to International Tales Found
in Classical Literature. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2002. Print.
Hari, Robert. Iconography of Religions XVI, 6: New Kingdom Amrna Period.
Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1985. Print.
Harrington, Hannah K. Holiness: Rabbinic Judaism and the Graeco-Roman
World. London: Routledge, 2001. Print.
Harris, Eve, and John R. Harris. The Oriental Cults in Roman Britain. Leiden:
E.J. Brill, 1965. Print.
Hart, George. Egyptian Myths. Austin: University of Texas, 1990-97. Print.
Routledge Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses. New York:
Hays, Harold M. Funerary Rituals. Pharaonic Period. In UCLA
Encyclopedia of Egyptology, edited by Willeke Wendrich. Los Angeles:
2010. http://escholarship.org/uc/item/1r32g9zn. Electronic.
The Organization of the Pyramid Texts: Typology and Disposition Vol.
1. Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV, 2012. Print.
Heath, Dunbar I. Phoenician Inscriptions: Part I. London: Bernard Quaritch,
1873. Print.
Heath, Robin. Sun, Moon, & Earth. Markham: Fitzhenry and Whitside, 1999-
2001. Print.
Henderson, Jeffrey. Aristophanes: Frogs, Assemblywomen, Wealth.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002. Print.
1008
Henrichs, Albert. Dionysos Dismembered and Restored to Life: The Earliest
Evidence. OF 59 I-II. Print. In Tracing Orpheus: Studies of Orphic
Fragments, edited by Miguel H. de Juregui, Ana I.J. San Cristbal,
Marco A. Santamaria et al. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG,
2011. Print.
Henry, W. Benjamin. 4711. Elegy (Metamorphoses?). In The Oxyrhynchus
Papyri: Volume LXIX, edited by Nick Gonis, Dirk Obbink, Daniela
Colomo, Giambattista B. D'Alessio, and Alberto Nodar. London: Egypt
Exploration Society, 2005. Print.
Herodotus. Histories. In The Landmark Herodotus: The Histories, edited by
Robert B. Strassler. Translated by Andrea L. Purvis. New York: Anchor
Books, 2009. Print.
Heron of Alexandria. In The Pneumatic of Hero of Alexandria from the
Original Greek, translated by Bennett Woodcroft. London: Charles
Whittingham, 1851. Print.
herqlez253. Mysteries of the Ancient Imposters debunked. Welcome to
Theologetics (March 11, 2009).
http://herculescummings.wordpress.com/tag/adonis/. Electronic.
Hesiod. Theogony. In Hesiod: Theogony, Works and Days, Shield. Translated
by Apostolos N. Athanassakis. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University
Hijmans, Steven. Temples and Priests of Sol in the city of Rome.
Mouseion: Journal of the Classical Association of Canada 3, no. 10
(2010): 381-427. Print.
Hillar, Marian. From Logos to Trinity: The Evolution of Religious Beliefs
from Pythagoras to Tertullian. New York: Cambridge University Press,
2012. Print.
Himes, Paul A. Foreknowledge and Social Identity in 1 Peter. Pickwick
Publications: Eugene, 2014. Print.
Hippolytus of Rome. Refutation of All Heresies. In The Gnostic Bible, edited
by Willis Barnstone and Marvin W. Meyer. Boston: New Seeds Books,
2003. Print.
1009
Hockey, Thomas A. How We See the Sky: A Naked-Eye Tour of Day and
Night. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2011. Print.
Holland, Glenn S. Gods in the Desert: Religions of the Ancient Near East.
Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2009. Print.
Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean World. 48 lectures. Chantilly:
The Teaching Company LLC, 2005. DVD.
Holley, N.M. The Floating Chest. The Journal of Hellenic Studies 69
(1949): 39-47. Print.
Hollis, Susan T. 5 Egyptian Goddesses in the Third Millenium BC: Neith,
Hathor, Nut, Isis, Nephthys. In KMT: A Modern Journal of Ancient
Egypt 5, no. 4 (1994-95): 46-51, 82-85. Print.
Homer. The Iliad. Translated by Ian Johnston. Arlington: Richer Resources
Publications, 2006-07. Print.
The Odyssey. In The Odyssey of Homer. Translated by Thomas E.
Lawrence. New York: Oxford University Press, 1932-91. Print.
Hornung, Erik, and Betsy M. Bryan. The Quest for Immortality: Treasures of
Ancient Egypt. New York: Prestal-Verlag, 2002. Print.
Hornung, Erik. Akhenaten and the Religion of Light. Translated by David
Lorton. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999.
Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: The One and the Many.
Translated by John Baines. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1971-96.
Print.
History of Ancient Egypt: An Introduction. Translated by David
Lorton. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1978-99. Print.
Idea into Image: Essays on Ancient Egyptian Thought. Translated by
Elizabeth Bredeck. New York: Timken Publishers, Inc., 1989-92. Print.
The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife. Translated by David Lorton.
Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999. Print.
The Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt. New York:
Prestal-Verlag, 2002. Print.
The Secret Lore of Egypt: Its Impact on the West. Translated by David
Lorton. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2001. Print.
Valley of the Kings: Horizon of Eternity. Translated by David
Warburton. New York: Timken Publishers, Inc. 1982-90. Print.
1010
Hubbard, Thomas K. The Pipes of Pan: Intertextuality & Literary Filiation in
the Pastoral Tradition from Theocritus to Milton. Ann Arbor: The
University of Michigan Press, 1998. Print.
Hull, John M. Hellenistic Magic and the Synoptic Tradition. London: SCM
Press, 1974. Print.
Hultgrd, Anders. Leschatologie des Testaments des Douze Patriarches I:
Interprtation des texts, Acta Universitatis Upsalienses: Historia
Religionum 6. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell Int., 1977. Print.
Hurwit, Jeffrey M. The Athenian Acropolis: History, Mythology, and
Archaeology from the Neolithic Era to the Present. Cambridge:
Ikram, Salima. Choice Cuts: Meat Production in Ancient Egypt. Leuven:
Peeters Press, 1995. Print.
Death and Burial in Ancient Egypt. London: Longman, 2003. Print.
Mummification. In UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, edited by
Willeke Wendrich. Los Angeles: 2010.
http://escholarship.org/uc/item/0gn7x3ff. Electronic.
Ikram, Salima and Aidan Dodson, Royal Mummies in the Egyptian Museum.
Jackson, Howard M. Isis, Pupil of the Eye of the World. Chronique
d'Egypte 61, no. 121 (1986): 129. Print.
James, Edwin O. Seasonal Feasts and Festivals. London: Thames & Hudson
Inc., 1961-93. Print.
The Tree of Life: An Archaeological Study. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1966.
Print.
Jank, J. Akh. In UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, edited by Willeke
Wendrich. Los Angeles: 2013. http://escholarship.org/uc/item/7255p86v.
Electronic.
Janssen, Jacobus J. Two Ancient Egyptian Ships Logs: Papyrus Leiden I 350
Verso and Papyrus Turin. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1961. Print.
Jashemski, Wilhelmina F. The Discovery of a Large Vineyard at Pompeii:
University of Maryland Excavations, 1970. American Journal of
Archaeology 77, no. 1 (1973): 27-41. Print.
1011
Jasnow, Richard and Karl-Theodor Zauzich, The Ancient Egyptian Book of
Thoth, Volume 1: Text. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz GmbH & Co. KG,
2005. Print.
Jean Alvares, Daphnis and Chloe: Innocence and Experience, Archetypes
and Art. In A Companion to the Ancient Novel, edited by Edmund P.
Cueva, Shannon N. Byrne, 26-42. Malden: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.,
2014. Print.
Jol Schmidt, Larousse Greek and Roman Mythology, edited by Seth
Benardete. McGraw-Hill, 1965-80. Print.
John the Lydian. De Mensibus. Translated by A. Eastbourne. 2011.
http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/john_the_lydian_months_04.htm.
Electronic.
Johnson, Janet H. Introduction to the Demotic Magical Papyri. In The
Greek Magical Papyri in Translation Including the Demotic Spells,
Volume One: Texts, Second Edition. Chicago: The University of Chicago
Press, 198696. Print.
Johnson, W. Raymond. Amenhotep III and Amarna: Some New
Considerations. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 82, (1996): 65-
82. Print.
Johnston, Patricia A. The Mystery Cults and Vergils Georgics. In Mystic
Cults in Magna Graecia, edited by Giovanni Casadio and Patricia A.
Johnston, 251-74. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2009. Print.
Johnston, Sarah I. Dictionary of Religious Festivals. In Religions of the
Ancient World: A Guide. edited by Sarah I. Johnston. Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 2004. Print.
Jones, Prudence and Nigel Pennick, A History of Pagan Europe. Abingdon:
Jounel, Pierre. The Year. In The Liturgy and Time, edited by Aime G.
Martimort, 31-150. Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 1986. Print.
Julian, Oration, in Julian: Volume I. Translated by Wilmer C. Wright.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1913-80. Print.
1012
Justin Martyr. Dialogue with Trypho. Translated by Thomas B. Falls.
Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2003.
Print.
First Apology. In The First and Second Apologies, translated by Leslie
W. Barnard. Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1997. Print.
Kadman, Leo. The Coins of Akko Ptolemais. Tel Aviv: Schocken Publishing
House, 1961. Print.
Kkosy, Lszl. Egyptian Healing Statues in Three Museums in Italy. Serie
IMonumenti e Testi 9. Turin: Ministero per I Beni e le Attivit
CulturaliSopintendenza al Museo delle Antichit Egizie, 1999. Print.
Kaper, Olaf E. Lunar Cycle. In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt,
Vol. 2, edited by Donald B. Redford, 480-82. New York: Oxford
University Press, Inc., 2001. Print.
The Egyptian God Tutu: A Study of the Sphinx-God and Master of
Demons with a Corpus of Monuments. Leuven: Peeters Publishers, 2003.
Print.
Kroly Kernyi. Dionysos: Archetypal Image of Indestructible Life.
Translated by Ralph Manheim. Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1976. Print.
Eleusis: Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter. Translated by
Ralph Manheim. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967. Print.
Karpve and Nefertum. Osiris Resurrection. Talk:Osiris. (January 23,
2009). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3AOsiris. Electronic.
Kater-Sibbes, Gertruda J.F., and Maarten J. Vermaseren. Apis, I: The
Monuments of the Hellenistic-Roman Period from Egypt. Leiden: E.J.
Brill, 1975. Print.
Kay, Kleo. The Gods & Goddesses of Ancient Egypt.
http://www.godsandgoddessesforyou.co.uk/excerpts/the-gods-and-
goddesses-of-ancient-egypt/. Accessed July 13, 2013. Electronic.
Kearney, Michael, Matthew K. Fujita and Jessica Ridenour. Lost Sex in the
Reptiles: Constraints and Correlations. In Lost Sex: The Evolutionary
Biology of Parthenogenesis, edited by Isa Schn and Koen Martens, 447-
474. Berlin: Springer, 2009. Print.
1013
Keay, Simon J. Roman Spain. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.
Print.
Kelly, David H. and Eugene F. Milone, Exploring Ancient Skies: A Survey of
Ancient and Cultural Astronomy. New York: Springer Science+Business
Media, LLC, 2011. Print.
Kemp, Barry J. Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate
Period c. 2686-1552 BC. In Ancient Egypt: A Social History, edited by
Bruce G. Trigger et al., 71-182. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1983-2001.
Krisel, Jean L. The Nile and Its Masters: Past, Present, Future. Translated
by Philip Cockle. Rotterdam: A.A. Balkema Publishers, 1999-2001.
Print.
Kidner, Frank L., Maria Bucur, Ralph Mathisen, Sally McKee, and Theodore
R. Weeks. Making Europe: The Story of the West. Boston: Wadsworth,
2009. Print.
KingDavid8. Re: KingDavid8.com Exposed. Freethought Nation. (March
18, 2012).
Electronic.
Kisch, Ronan M. The Miraculous Achievements Of Bodywork: How Touch
Can Provide Healing For The Mind, Body, And Spirit. Bloomington:
iUniverse, 2011. Print.
Kisia, Seth M. Vertebrates: Structures and Functions. Enfield: Science
Publishers, 2010. Print.
Kleinknecht, Hermann. , A I-IV. In Theological
Dictionary of the New Testament: Abridged in One Volume. Translated
by Geoffrey W. Bromiley, edited by Gerhard Kittel and Gerhard
Friedrich, 876-79. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.,
1968-95. Print.
Klotz, David. Adoration of the Ram: Five Hymns to Amun-Re from Hibis
Temple. Yale Egyptological Studies 6. New Haven: Yale Egyptological
Seminar, 2006. Print.
1014
Koch, Klaus. Konigspsalmen und ihr Ritueller Hintergrund. In The Book of
Psalms: Composition and Reception, edited by Peter W. Flint, Patrick D.
Miller. Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV, 2005. Print.
Kockelmann, Holger. Praising the Goddess: A Comparative and Annotated
Re-Edition of Six Demotic Hymns and Praises to Isis. Berlin: Walter de
Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, 2008. Print.
Kolenkow, Anitra B. Persons of Power and their Communities. In Magic
and Divination in the Ancient World, edited by Leda J. Ciraolo and
Jonathan L. Seidel, 133-44. Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV, 2002. Print.
Koortbojian, Michael. Myth Meaning, and Memory on Roman Sarcophagi.
Krupp, Edwin C. Beyond the Blue Horizon: Myths and Legends of the Sun,
Moon, Stars, and Planets. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992. Print.
Echoes of the Ancient Skies: The Astronomy of Lost Civilizations.
Mineola: Dover Publications, Inc., 1983-2003. Print.
Laborinho, Eliana M. Nun, The Primeval Water According to the Coffin
Texts. In Lacqua nellantico Egitto: Proceedings of the First
International Conference for Young Egyptologists, edited by Alessia
Amenta, Maria M. Luiselli, and Mara N. Sordi, 221-28. Rome: Lerma
di Bretschneider, 2005. Print.
Lafl, Ergn, Maurizio Buora, and Attilio Mastrocinque. A New Osiriform
Lamp from Antioch in the Hatay Archaeological Museum. Greek,
Roman, and Byzantine Studies 52. (2012): 421-39. Print.
Lancellotti, Maria G. Attis, Between Myth and History: King, Priest, and God.
Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV, 2002. Print.
Lanon, Bertrand. Rome in Late Antiquity. New York: Routledge, 2001. Print.
Laqueur, Thomas W. Making Sex: Body and Gender from the Greeks to
Freud. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1990-2003. Print.
Larson, Jennifer L. Greek Nymphs: Myth, Cult, Lore. Oxford: Oxford
Latham, Jacob. Fabulous Clap-Trap: Roman Masculinity, the Cult of
Magna Mater, and Literary Constructions of the galli at Rome from the
1015
Late Republic to Late Antiquity. The Journal of Religion 92, no. 1.
(2012): 84-122. Print.
Lawton, Carol L. Athenian anti-Macedonian sentiment and democratic
ideology in Attic document reliefs in the second half of the fourth
century B.C. In The Macedonians in Athens: 322-229 B.C., edited by
Olga Palagia and Stephen V. Tracy, 117-27. Oxford: Oxbow Books,
2003. Print.
Le Sage, D.E. Bees in Indo-European Languages. Bee World 55, no. 1
(1974): 15-28. Print.
Lease, Gary. Jewish Mystery Cults since Goodenough. In Aufstieg Und
Niedergang Der Rmischen Welt II.20.2, edited by Hildegard Temporini
and Wolfgang Haase, 858-80. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co., 1987.
Print.
Lebedev, Andrei V. The Logos of Heraclitus: a Reconstruction of his Thought
and Word. St. Petersburg: Nauka Publishers, 2014. Electronic.
Leeming, David A. Creation Myths of the World: An Encyclopedia. Santa
Barbara: ABC-CLIO, LLC, 1994-2009. Print.
Jealous Gods and Chosen People: The Mythology of the Middle East.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. Print.
The Oxford Companion to World Mythology. Oxford: Oxford
The World of Myth: An Anthology. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
Inc., 1990. Print.
Leeming, David A. and Jake Page, God: Myths of the Male Divine. New
York: Oxford University Press, 1996. Print.
Lehoux, Daryn. Astronomy, Weather, and Calendars in the Ancient World:
Parapegmata and Related Texts in Classical and Near-Eastern Societies.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Print.
Leitz, Christian. Deities and Demons: Egypt. In Religions of the Ancient
World: A Guide, edited by Sarah I. Johnston, 392-422. Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2004. Print.
Lehner, Mark. The Fractal House of Pharaoh: Ancient Egypt as a Complex
Adaptive System, a Trial Formulation. In Dynamics in Human and
1016
Primate Societies: Agent-Based Modeling of Social and Spatial
Processes, edited by Timothy A. Kohler and George J. Gumerman, 275-
354. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 2000. Print.
Leopold, Anita Maria. Syncretism. In The Worlds Religions: Continuities
and Transformations, edited by Peter B. Clarke and Peter Beyer, 695-
708. Abingdon: Routledge, 2009. Print.
Lesko, Barbara S. The Great Goddesses of Egypt. Norman: University of
Oklahoma Press, 1999. Print.
Lesko, Leonard H. Ancient Egyptian Cosmogonies and Cosmology. In
Religion in Ancient Egypt: Gods, Myths, and Personal Practice, edited
by Byron E. Shafer, 88-122. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991.
Print.
Mythology. In Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt,
edited by Kathryn A. Bard, 661-64. London: Routledge, 1999. Print.
LeVen, Pauline A. The Many-Headed Muse: Tradition and Innovation in Late
Classical Greek Lyric Poetry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2014. Print.
Lewis, Clive S. The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis, Volume III: Narnia,
Cambridge and Joy 1950-1963. New York: HarperCollins Publishers,
2007. Print.
Lewis, Naphtali, and Meyer Reinhold, Roman Civilization: Selected
Readings, Volume II: The Empire. New York: Columbia University
Press, 1990. Print.
Lichtheim, Miriam. Ancient Egyptian Literature Vol. I: The Old and Middle
Kingdoms. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973-2006. Print.
Ancient Egyptian Literature Vol. II: The New Kingdom. Berkeley:
Ancient Egyptian Literature Vol. III: The Late Period. Berkeley:
Lightfoot, Jane L. Ovid and Hellenistic Poetry. In A Companion to Ovid,
edited by Peter E. Know, 219-35. Malden: Blackwell Publishing Ltd,
2009. Print.
1017
Lindsay, Hamish. Tracking Apollo to the Moon. London: Springer-Verlag
London Limited, 2001. Print.
Live Auctioneers. An Egyptian Pseudo-Mummified Horus Figure.
http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/15656573_an-egyptian-pseudo-
mummified-horus-figure. Accessed November 16, 2013. Electronic.
Lloyd, Alan B. Ancient Egypt: State and Society. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2014. Print
Herodotus Book II: Introduction. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1975-94. Print.
Herodotus: Book II, Commentary 1-93. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1976. Print.
Strabo and the Memphite Tauromachy. In Hommages a Maarten J.
Vermaseren, Vol. II, edited by Margreet B. de Boer and T.A. Edridge,
Locke, Liz. Eurydices Body: Feminist Reflections of the Orphic Descent
Myth in Philosophy and Film. Bloomington: Indiana University, 2000.
Print.
Long Island University. Bob Brier.
http://www.liu.edu/CWPost/Academics/Research/Scholars/Bob-Brier.
Accessed April 17, 2013. Electronic.
Longus. Daphnis and Chloe. Translated by Jeffrey Henderson. Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 2009. Print.
Lucian of Samosata. On the Syrian Goddess. In Lucian: On the Syrian
Goddess. Translated by Jane L. Lightfoot. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2003. Print.
Philopatris. In Lucian: Vol. VIII. Translated by M.D. MacLeod.
London: William Heinemann Ltd., and Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
Lupton, Carter. An Historical Study of Two Egyptian Mummies in the
Milwaukee Public Museum. In Human Remains: Conservation,
Retrieval and Analysis, edited by Emily Williams, 215-25. Oxford:
Archaeopress, 2001. Print.
Lurker, Manfred. The Routledge Dictionary of Gods and Goddesses, Devils
and Demons. London: Routledge, 1984-2004. Print.
1018
Lycophron. Alexandria. In Callimachus, Lycophron, Aratus, translated by
Alexander W. Mair. London: William Heinemann, 1921. Print.
Lynch, David K., and William C. Livingston, Color and Light in Nature.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995-2001. Print.
Maas, Michael. Readings in Late Antiquity: A Sourcebook. Abingdon:
MacLeod, David J. Myth, Hoax, or History? The Emmaus Journal 7, no. 2.
(1998): 157-99. Print.
Macrobius. Saturnalia, in Macrobius, or Philosophy, Science and Letters in
the Year 400. Translated by Thomas Whittaker. Cambridge: Cambridge
in The Saturnalia. Translated by Percival V. Davies. New York:
Columbia University Press, 1969. Print.
Magie, David. Historia Augusta: Volume III. Cambridge: Harvard University
Magli, Giulio. Architecture, Astronomy and Sacred Landscape in Ancient
Egypt. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Print.
Magnelli, Enrico. On the New Fragments of Greek Poetry from
Oxyrhynchus. Zeitschrift fr Papyrologie und Epigraphik 158 (2006):
9-12. Print.
Magness, Jodi. The Cults of Isis and Kore at Samaria-Sebaste in the
Hellenistic and Roman Periods. In Harvard Theological Review 94, no.
2 (April, 2001): 157-77. Print.
Major, J. Russell, Robert Scranton, and George P. Cuttino, Civilization in the
Western World: Ancient times to 1715. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co.,
1967. Print.
Manassa, Colleen. The Late Egyptian Underworld: Sarcophagi and Related
Texts from the Nectanebid Period. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag,
2007. Print.
Manetho. In Berossos and Manetho: Native Traditions in Ancient
Mesopotamia and Egypt, translated by Gerald Verbrugghe and John M.
Wickersham. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1996-2003.
Print.
1019
Mannack, Thomas. The Late Mannerists in Athenian Vase-Painting. Oxford:
Manniche, Lise. An Ancient Egyptian Herbal. Austin: University of Texas
Manolaraki, Eleni. Noscendi Nilum Cupido: Imagining Egypt from Lucan to
Philostratus. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, 2013. Print.
Martin, Richard P. Myths of the Ancient Greeks. New York: New American
Library, 2003. Print.
Massey, Gerald. Ancient Egypt, The Light of the World: A Work of
Reclamation and Restitution, Vol. I. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1907.
Print.
Mastrangelo, Marc. The Roman Self in Late Antiquity: Prudentius and the
Poetics of the Soul. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 2008.
Print.
Mathews, Thomas F. and Norman Muller. Isis and Mary in early icons. In
Images of the Mother of God: Perceptions of the Theotokos in
Byzantium, edited by Maria Vasilak, 3-12. Aldershot: Ashgate
Publishing, 2005. Print.
Mayerson, Philip. Classical Mythology in Literature, Art, and Music.
Newburyport: Focus Classical Library, R. Pullins and Company, 2001.
Print.
McCarthy, Heather L. Rules of Decorum and Expressions of Gender Fluidity
in Tawosret's Tomb. Sex and Gender in Ancient Egypt: Don your wig
for a joyful hour, edited by Carolyn Graves-Brown, 83-114. Swansea:
Classical Press of Wales, 2008. Print.
McCluskey, Stephen C. Astronomies and Cultures in Early Medieval Europe.
McDermott, Bridget. Decoding Egyptian Hieroglyphs. San Francisco:
Chronicle Books LLC, 2001. Print.
McDowell, John C. The Gospel According to Star Wars: Faith, Hope, and the
Force. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2007. Print.
1020
McFall, Mark. OH-SIGH-RIS: The Pagan Origins of Resurrection Refuted!
Frontline Apologetics. (November 19, 2002). http://www.frontline-
apologetics.com/. Electronic.
McGahey, Robert. The Orphic Moment: Shaman to Poet-Thinker in Plato,
Nietzsche, and Mallarme. Albany: State University of New York Press,
1994. Print.
McGovern, Patrick E. Ancient Wine: The Search for the Origins of
Viniculture. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003. Print.
Uncorking the Past: The Quest for Wine, Beer, and Other Alcoholic
Beverages. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009. Print.
McKnight, Lidija M. Religion and mummies. In Mummies Around the
World: An Encyclopedia of Mummies in History, Religion, and Popular
Culture, edited by Matt Cardin. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2014.
Print.
Meeks, Dimitri, and Christine Favard-Meeks. Daily Life of the Egyptian
Gods. Translated by Gary M. Goshgarian. Ithaca: Cornell University
Meltzer, Edmund S. Horus. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt
Vol.2, edited by Donald B. Redford, 119-122. New York: Oxford
University Press, Inc., 2001. Print.
Book of the Dead: Faulkner vs. Budge. Glyphdoctors. (May 1,
2005).
http://www.glyphdoctors.com/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=71#p306.
Mercer, Samuel A.B. The Pyramid Texts in Translation and Commentary.
Vol. 1. New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1952. Print.
The Religion of Ancient Egypt. London: Luzac & Co., 1949. Print.
Merkelbach, Reinhold. Mithraism. In The New Encyclopaedia Britannica:
Volume 8, 15th Edition, edited by Jacob E. Safra and Ilan Yeshua, 197-
98. Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 1974-2003. Print.
Mithras: Ein persisch-rmischer Mysterienkult. Weinheim: Beltz
Athenum Verlag 1984-94. Print.
Mertz, Barbara. Red Land, Black Land: Daily Life in Ancient Egypt. New
York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1966-2008. Print.
1021
Meskell, Lynn. Private Life in New Kingdom Egypt. Princeton: Princeton
Mumford, Gregory D. Egypt and the Levant. In The Oxford Handbook of
the Archaeology of the Levant c. 8000-332 BCE, edited by Margreet L.
Steiner, Ann E. Killebrew. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. Print.
Merriam-Websters Collegiate Dictionary: Eleventh Edition, edited by
Frederick C. Mish et al. Springfield: Merriam-Webster, Inc., 2004. Print.
Merriam-Websters Dictionary of Synonyms, edited by Philip B. Gove et al.
Springfield: Merriam-Websters, Inc., 1984. Print.
Meyers, Eric M., and Mark A. Chancey. Alexander to Constantine:
Archaeology of the Land of the Bible. New Haven: Yale University
Press, 2012. Print.
Meyer, Frederick G. Appendix 9: Fuchs Literary Sources. In The Great
Herbal of Leonhart Fuchs: De Historia Stirpium Commentarii Insignes,
1542, edited and translated by Frederick G. Meyer, Emily E. Trueblood,
and John L. Heller, 844-49. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999.
Print.
Meyers, Carol L. The Tabernacle Menorah: A Synthetic Study of a Symbol
from the Biblical Cult. Piscataway: Gorgia Press LLC, 2003. Print.
Mikalson, Jon D. Ancient Greek Religion. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell, 2005-
10. Print.
Mills, Sophie. Euripides: Bacchae. London: Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd.,
2006. Print.
Milwaukee Public Museum. Collection Highlights: 130 Objects, 130 Years.
http://www.mpm.edu/research-collections/collection-highlights?page=6.
Accessed December 13, 2013. Electronic.
Minucius Felix. The Octavius. Translated by Graeme W. Clarke. New York:
Paulist Press, 1974. Print.
Mittwoch, Ursula. Virgin Birth. New Scientist 78, no. 1107.35 (1978): 750-
52. Print.
Moeller, Walter O. The Mithraic Origin and the Meanings of the Rotas-Sator
Square. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1973. Print.
1022
Mohammed, M. Abdul-Qader. The Development of the Funerary Beliefs and
Practices Displayed in the Private Tombs of the New Kingdom at
Thebes. Cairo: General Organization for Government Printing Offices,
1966. Print.
Mojsov, Bojana. Osiris: Death and Afterlife of a God. Malden: Blackwell
Publishing, 2005. Print.
Montiglio, Silvia. Wandering in Ancient Greek Culture. Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 2005. Print.
Moorey, Peter R.S. Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Ashmolean Museum Publications,
1970-92. Print.
Moraw, Susanne. Visual Differences: Dionysos in Ancient Art. In A
Different God?: Dionysos and Ancient Polytheism, edited by Renate
Schlesier, 233-52. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, 2011.
Print.
Morford, Mark P.O. and Robert J. Lenardon. Classical Mythology, 6th ed.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971-99. Print.
Morkot, Robert G. Egypt: Land of the Pharaohs. Hong Kong: Odyssey Books
& Guides, 1989-2005. Print.
The Egyptians: An Introduction. New York: Routledge, 2005. Print.
Moursi S.A., Hanifa. The Family Love in Ancient Egypt. In The Horizon:
Studies in Egyptology in Honour of M.A. Nur El-Din, edited by Basem
El-Sharkaway, 353-406. Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press,
2009. Print.
Moyer, Ian S. Egypt and the Limits of Hellenism. Cambridge: Cambridge
The Initiation of the Magician: Transition and Power in Graeco-
Egyptian Ritual. In Initiation in Ancient Greek Rituals and Narratives:
New Critical Perspectives, edited by David B. Dodd and Christopher A.
Faraone, 219-40. London: Routledge, 2003. Print.
Moyers, Bill, and George Lucas. Of Myth and Men: A conversation between
Bill Moyers and George Lucas on the meaning of the Force and the true
theology of Star Wars. Time 153, no. 16 (1999): 88-96.
1023
Muhlestein, Kerry. The Religious and Cultural Background of Joseph Smith
Papyrus I. Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other Restoration
Scripture 22, no. 1 (2013): 20-32. Print.
Mller, Hans W., and Eberhard Thiem. Gold of the Pharaohs. Ithaca: Cornell
Mller, Maya. Braids for Paradise from Dynastic Egypt to the Islamic
Middle Ages. In Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta: Proceedings of the
Ninth International Congress of Egyptologists, Volume II, edited by
Jean-Claude Goyon and Christine Cardin, 1343-50. Leuven: Peeters
Publishers 2007. Print.
Mller, W. Max. Development and Propagation of Egyptian Religion. The
Mythology of all Races Vol. XII, edited by Louis H. Gray and George F.
Moore, 212-45. Boston: Marshall Jones Co., 1918. Print.
Mullins, Michael G., Alain Bouquet, and Larry E. Williams. Biology of the
Grapevine. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992-2003. Print.
Muse du Louvre. Athna la ciste. http://cartelfr.louvre.fr/cartelfr/visite?
srv=car_not&idNotice=847. Accessed October 14, 2012. Electronic.
Musso, Luisa, and Elmire Zolla. Mithra Lives. FMR: The Magazine of
Franco Maria Ricci 32 (1988): 43-70. Print.
Myliwiec, Karol. Eros on the Nile. Translated by Geoffrey L. Packer. Ithaca:
Cornell University Press, 1998-2004. Print.
Naville, Edouard. The Temple of Deir El Bahari: Part IV. London: Egypt
Exploration Fund, 1901. Print.
Neils, Jenifer. Phidias. In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and
Rome Vol. 4, edited by Michael Gagarin and Elaine Fantham, 242-43.
Neugebauer, Otto E. A History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy. Berlin:
Springer-Verlag, 1975. Print.
Nielsen, Ivar. COMMON CREATION STORIES - AN EGYPTIAN
EXAMPLE. Native Science. http://www.native-
science.net/Common_Creation_Stories.htm. Accessed December 14,
2013. Electronic.
1024
Nicander of Colophon. Theriaca, in Poems and Poetical Fragments, edited by
Andrew S.F. Gow and Alwyn F. Scholfield. Cambridge: Cambridge
Niwiski, Andrzej. Some unusual amulets found on the Late Period
mummies in Warsaw and Cracow. In Egyptian Religion: The Last
Thousand Years, Pt. I, edited by Willy Clarysse, Antoon Schoors, and
Harco Willems, 179-90. Leuven: Peeters Publishers, 1998. Print.
Norris, Ray P. Searching for the Astronomy of Aboriginal Australians. In
Astronomy and Cosmology in Folk Traditions and Cultural Heritage,
edited by Jonas Vaiknas, 246-51. Klaipda: Klaipda University Press,
2009. Print.
Numen The Latin Lexicon. nma.
http://latinlexicon.org/definition.php?p1=2037703. Accessed July 28,
2013. Electronic.
Nyford, Rune. Breathing Flesh: Conceptions of the Body in Ancient Egyptian
Coffin Texts. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2009. Print.
Nyord, Rune. Breathing Flesh: Conceptions of the Body in the Ancient
Egyptian Coffin Texts. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 2009.
Print.
Oakes, Lorna, and Lucia Gahlin. Ancient Egypt: An Illustrated Reference to
the Myths, Religions, Pyramids and Temples of the Land of the
Pharaohs. London: Anness Publishing Ltd, 2002-05. Print.
Obbink, Dirk. Dionysos in and out of the Papyri. In A Different God?:
Dionysos and Ancient Polytheism, edited by Renate Schlesier, 281-93.
Berlin: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, 2011. Print.
OConnor, David B. Abydos, North, ka chapels and cenotaphs. In
Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt, edited by Kathryn A.
Bard, 110-13. London: Routledge, 1999. Print.
ONeil, William M. Time and the Calendars. Manchester: Manchester
Ochs, Sidney. A History of Nerve Functions: From Animal Spirits to
Molecular Mechanisms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Print.
1025
Ogden, Daniel. Drakn: Dragon Myth and Serpent Cult in the Greek and
Roman Worlds. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. Print.
Perseus. Abingdon: Routledge, 2008. Print.
OnceWasLost. Horus: The myth the legend. Rapture Ready (September 23,
2009). http://rr-bb.com/showthread.php?109818-Horus-The-myth-the-
legend. Electronic.
Origen Adamantius. Contra Celsum. Translated by Henry Chadwick.
In The Ante-Nicene Fathers: Volume IV, edited by Alexander Roberts
and James Donaldson, translated by Alexander Roberts. Peabody:
Hendrickson Publishers, 1885-1994. Print.
In Fragments on 1 Corinthians: Origen of Alexandria, edited by Steve
E. Harris, translated by Judith.L. Kovacs. 2012.
http://steveharris0.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/origen-on-1-corinthians-
fragments-1-5-11-english.pdf. Electronic.
Orphic Theogonies Fr. 57. In Embassy, by Athenagoras, translated by Joseph
H. Crehan. New York: Paulist Press, 1956. Print.
Ovid, Fasti. Translated by Anne Wiseman and Peter Wiseman. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2011-13. Print.
Metamorphoses. Translated by Stanley Lombardo. Indianapolis:
Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2010. Print.
Oxford Dictionaries Online (US). http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/
english/maiden. Accessed June 10, 2013. Electronic.
Pache, Corinne O. The Olympian Gods. In The Oxford Encyclopedia of
Ancient Greece and Rome: Volume 1, edited by Michael Gagarin, 308-
17. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. Print.
Pannekoek, Anton. A History of Astronomy. New York: Dover Publications,
Inc., 1951-89. Print.
Papyri Demoticae Magicae. In The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation
Including the Demotic Spells, Volume One: Texts, Second Edition, edited
by Hans Dieter Betz, 195-330. Chicago: The University of Chicago
1026
Papyri Graecae Magicae. In The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation
Including the Demotic Spells, Volume One: Texts, Second Edition,
edited by Hans Dieter Betz, 3-195. Chicago: The University of Chicago
Papyrus Louvre N. 3279. Translated by T.M. Dousa. In The Orphic Gold
Tablets and Greek Religion: Further Along the Path, edited by Radcliffe
G. Edmonds III. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. Print.
Parca, Maryline G. The Women of Ptolemaic Egypt: The view from
Papyrology, A Companion to Women in the Ancient World, edited by
Sharon L. James and Sheila Dillon, 316-28. Chichester: Blackwell
Publishing Ltd., 2012. Print.
Park, Jongsoo. In Inspired Speech: Prophecy in the Ancient Near East, edited
by John Kaltner and Louis Stulman, 276-85. London: T & T Clark
International, 2004. Print.
Parkin, Tim G. Old Age in the Roman World: A Cultural and Social History.
Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 2003. Print.
Parthenius of Nicaea. Fr. 37. In Longus: Daphnis and Chloe: Parthenius:
Love Romances, translated by Stephen Gaselee. Cambridge: Harvard
Patch, Diana C., and Marianne Eaton-Krauss. Dawn of Egyptian Art. New
York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2011. Print.
Pausanias. Description of Greece. 5 vols. Translated by William H.S. Jones
and Henry A. Ormerod. London: William Heinemann Ltd., and
Peponi, Anastasia-Erasmia. Theorizing the Chorus in Greece. In Choruses,
Ancient & Modern, edited by Joshua Billings, Felix Budelmann, and
Fiona Macintosh, 15-34. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. Print.
Pettazzoni, Raffaele. Essays on the History of Religions. Leiden: E.J. Brill,
1954. Print.
Pfeiffer, Stefan. The God Serapis, His Cult and The Beginnings of the Ruler
Cult in Ptolemaic Egypt. In Ptolemy II Philadelphus and his World,
edited by Paul McKechnie & Philippe Guillaume, 387-408. Leiden:
Koninklijke Brill NV, 2008.
1027
Pfrommer, Michael. Greek Gold from Hellenistic Egypt. Los Angeles: Getty
Philo of Alexandria. On Those Who Offer Sacrifice, in Philo: Volume VII.
Translated by Francis H. Colson. London: William Heinemann Ltd., and
Philodemus. On Piety. In Hellenistic Collection: Philitas, Alexander of
Aetolia, Hermesianax, Euphorion, Parthenius, translated by Jane L.
Lightfoot. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2009. Print.
Philostephanus of Cyrene, Questiones Poeticae. In Vergilus Bucolica et
Georgica Commentarius 10.18.
Philostratus. Life of Apollonius of Tyana. In Apollonius of Tyana, Vol. II: Life
of Apollonius of Tyana, Books 5-8. Edited and translated by Christopher
P. Jones. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005). Print.
Piankoff, Alexandre. The Litany of Re. Bollingen Series XL.4. New York:
Pantheon Books, 1964. Print.
Pinch, Geraldine. Egyptian Myth: A very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford
Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Goddesses, and Traditions
of Ancient Egypt. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002-04. Print.
Plato. Republic. In The Dialogues of Plato Vol. II. Translated by Benjamin
Jowett. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1871-2010. Print.
Timaeus. In Plato: Complete Works, edited by John M. Cooper and
D.S. Hutchinson. Translated by Donald J. Zeyl. Indianapolis: Hackett
Publishing Company, Inc., 1997. Print.
Platt, Verity J. Facing the Gods: Epiphany and Representation in Graeco-
Roman Art, Literature and Religion. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2011. Print.
Pliny the Elder. Natural History. In Pliny: Natural History. 10 vols.
Translated by Harris Rackham, et al. Loeb Classical Library. London:
William Heinemann Ltd., and Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University
Plutarch. Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans. In Plutarchs Lives. 11 vols.
Translated by Bernadotte Perrin. Loeb Classical Library. London:
1028
William Heinemann Ltd. and Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University
Moralia. In Plutarchs Lives and Writings VIII: Essays and
Miscellanies, 5 vols., edited by Arthur H. Clough and William W.
Goodwin. Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1909. Print.
Moralia. In Plutarchs Moralia. 15 vols. Translated by Frank C.
Babbitt, et al. Loeb Classical Library. London: William Heinemann Ltd.,
and Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1927-99. Print.
Moralia. In Studies in Greek Colour Terminology: Volume I,
translated by Peter G. Maxwell-Stuart. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1981. Print.
Pojman, Lois P., and Michael Rea. Philosophy of Religion: An Anthology,
Sixth Edition. Boston: Wadsworth, 2003-12. Print.
Pomponius Mela. Description of the World. Translated by Frank E. Romer.
Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1998. Print.
Poo, Mu-chou. Liquids in Temple Ritual. In UCLA Encyclopedia of
Egyptology, edited by Willeke Wendrich. Los Angeles: 2010.
http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/7gh1n151. Electronic.
Wine. In The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt: Volume 3,
edited by Donald B. Redford, 503. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2001. Print.
Wine and Wine Offering in the Religions of Ancient Egypt. London:
Kegan Paul International, 1995. Print.
Porphyry. Concerning Images, in Eusebii Pamphili: Evangelicae
Praeparationis, Libri XV. Translated by Edwin H. Gifford. Oxford:
On the Cave of the Nymphs. Translated by Thomas Taylor. Grand
Rapids: Phanes Press, 1823-1991. Print.
Porten, Bezalel and John Gee. "Aramaic Funerary Practices in Egypt." In The
World of the Aramaeans: Studies in Honour of Paul-Eugne Dion,
Volume 2, edited by Paulette M. Michle Daviau, Michael Weigl, John
W. Wevers. Sheffield: Sheddield Academic Press, Ltd., 2001. Print.
Postgate, Nicholas. Bronze Age Bureaucracy: Writing and the Practice of
Government in Assyria. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013.
Print.
1029
Powell, Barry B. Writing and the Origins of Greek Literature. Cambridge:
Proclus, On the Timaeus of Plato. Print.
Prudentius. Crowns of Martyrdom. In Prudentius: Volume II, translated by
Henry J. Thomson. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1953. Print.
Pseudo-Denys. In Pseudo-Dionysius: The Complete Works, translated by
Colm Luibheid. Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1987. Print.
Quattrocchi, Umberto. CRC World Dictionary of Plant Names: Common
Names, Scientific Names, Eponyms, Synonyms, and Etymology Volume
III M-Q. Boca Raton: CRC Press LLC, 2000. Print.
Rahner, Hugo. Griechische Mythen in christlicher Deutung, translated by
Brian Battershaw. New York: Biblo and Tannen, 1957-71. Print.
Ramsey, John T. Cicero: Philippics I-II. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2003. Print. Ray, John D. Reflections of Osiris: Lives from Ancient
Egypt. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002. Print.
Ray, John. "Literacy and language in Egypt in the Late and Persian Periods."
In Literacy and Power in the Ancient World, edited by Alan K. Bowman,
Greg Woolf. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994-96. Print.
Rech, Photina. Wine and Bread, translated by Heinz R. Kuehn. Chicago:
Liturgy Training Publications, 1998. Print.
Redford, Susan, and Donald B. Redford. The Cult and Necropolis of the
Sacred Ram at Mendes, Divine Creatures: Animal Mummies in Ancient
Egypt, edited by Salima Ikram, 164-198. Cairo: The American
University in Cairo Press, 2005. Print.
Reed, George. Dark Sky Legacy: Astronomys Impact on the History of
Culture. New York: Prometheus Books, Inc., 1989. Print.
Reed, Joseph D. Arsinoes Adonis and the Poetics of Ptolemaic
Imperialism. Transactions of the American Philological Association
130 (2000): 319-51. Print.
At Play with Adonis. In Vertis in usum: Studies in Honor of Edward
Courtney, edited by John F. Miller, Cynthia Damon, K. Sara Myers, 219-
29. Munich: K.G. Saur, 2002. Print.
1030
New Verses on Adonis. Zeitschrift fr Papyrologie und Epigraphik
158 (2006): 76-82. Print.
The Death of Osiris in Aeneis. The American Journal of Philology
119, no. 3 (1998): 399-418. Print.
The Sexuality of Adonis. Classical Antiquity 14, no. 2. (1995): 317-
47. Print.
reed67. Zeitgeist- The greatest story ever told. SodaHead (September 4,
2009). http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/zeitgeist--the-greatest-
story-ever-told/blog-147163/comment-3204167/. Electronic.
Refai, Hosam. Notes on the Function of the Great Hypostyle Hall in the
Egyptian Temple: A Theban Approach. In Egyptology at the Dawn of
the Twenty-First Century, Volume 1: Archaeology, edited by Zahi
Hawass, 393-99. Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 2003.
Print.
Reid, Patrick V. Readings in Western Religious Thought: The Ancient World.
Mahwah: Paulist Press, 1987. Print.
Remler, Patricia. Egyptian Mythology: A to Z. New York: Chelsea House,
2000-10. Print.
Renshaw, James. In Search of the Romans. London: Bloomsbury Publishing
Plc, 2012. Print.
Richards, Janet. Society and Death in Ancient Egypt: Mortuary Landscapes of
the Middle Kingdom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005.
Print.
Richardson, William F. Numbering and Measuring in the Classical World: An
Introductory Handbook. Auckland: St. Leonards Publications, 1985.
Print.
Richmond, Broughton. Time Measurement and Calendar Construction.
Richter, Daniel S. Cosmopolis: Imagining Community in Late Classical
Athens and the Early Roman Empire. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
Inc., 2011. Print.
1031
Riggs, Christina. Funerary Rituals. Ptolemaic and Roman Periods). In
UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, edited by Willeke Wendrich. Los
Angeles: 2010. http://escholarship.org/uc/item/1n10x347. Electronic.
Ringo, John. Fundamental Genetics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2004. Print.
Ritner, Robert K. Egypt under Roman rule: the legacy of Ancient Egypt. In
The Cambridge History of Egypt: Volume One, edited by Carl F. Petry,
1-33. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998-2008. Print.
Mechanics of Ancient Egyptian Magical Practice. Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 1993-2008. Print.
The Cult of the Dead. In Ancient Egypt, edited by David P.
Silverman, 132-47. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997-2003.
Print.
The Great Cairo Hymn of Praise to Amun-Re {1.25} P. Cairo 58038
(P. Bulaq 17). In The Context of Scripture: Canonical Compositions
from the Biblical World, Vol. 1, edited by W.W. Halo and K.L. Younger,
The Joseph Smith Egyptian Papyri: A Complete Editon, translated by
Klaus Baer. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2013. Print.
The Legend of Isis and the Name of Re {1.22} (P. Turin 1993). In
The Context of Scripture: Canonical Compositions from the Biblical
World, Vol. 1, edited by William W. Halo and K. Lawson Younger, 33-
34. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1997. Print.
The Libyan Anarchy: Inscriptions From Egypts Third Intermediate
Period. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2009. Print.
Roberson, Joshua. The Book of the Earth: A Study of Ancient Egyptian
Symbol-Systems and the Evolution of New Kingdom Cosmographic
Models. PhD diss., University of Pennsylvania, 2007.
Robins, Gay. The Art of Ancient Egypt: Revised Edition. London: The British
Museum Press, 1997-2008. Print.
Roman, Luke and Monica Roman. Encyclopedia of Greek and Roman
Mythology. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2010. Print.
Roth, Ann M. Hatshepsuts Mortuary Temple at Deir El-Bahri: Architecture
as Political Statement. In Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharaoh, edited
1032
by Catharine H. Roebrig, Rene Dreyfus, and Cathleen A. Keller, 147-
57. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005. Print.
Rowlandson, Jane. The Character of Ptolemaic Aristocracy: Problems of
Definition and Evidence. In Perspectives Juives sur Rgles
Hellnistiques, edited by Tessa Rajak, Sarah Pearce, James Aitken, and
Jennfer Dines, 29-49. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007.
Print.
Rowling, J.K. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. New York: Scholastic
Inc., 2007. Print.
Roy, Christian. Traditional Festivals: A Multicultural Encyclopedia, Volume
2 M-Z. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, Inc., 2005. Print.
Ruether, Rosemary R. Goddesses and the Divine Feminine: A Western
Religious History. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005.
Ruffini, Giovanni. Medieval Nubia: A Social and Economic History. Oxford:
Runia, David T. Philo of Alexandria and The Timaeus of Plato. Leiden: E.J.
Brill, 1986. Print.
Russell, Stephen C. Images of Egypt in Early Biblical Literature. Berlin:
Walter de Gruyter, 2009. Print.
Russmann, Edna R. Vulture and Cobra at the Kings Brow. Chief of Seers:
Egyptian Studies in Memory of Cyril Aldred, edited by Elizabeth Goring,
Nicolas Reeves, and John Ruffle, 266-85. Abingdon: Routledge, 1997-
2009. Print.
Ryholt, Kim. The Story of Petese Son of Petetum and Seven Other Good and
Bad Stories. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 1999. Print.
Sagona, Claudia. The Archaeology of Malta: From the Neolithic through the
Roman Period. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014. Print.
Salib-Salibi, Nuha. The Lebanon I Love. Beirut: Naufal Publishers S.A.R.L.,
1980. Print.
Sandison, A.T.. Human Mummification Technique in Ancient Egypt. In
Science in Egyptology: Proceedings of the Science in Egyptology
1033
Symposia, edited by A.Rosalie David, 1-5. Manchester: Manchester
Saprykin, Sergej Ju. The Religion and Cults of the Pontic Kingdom: Political
Aspects. In Mithridates VI and The Pontic Kingdom, edited by Jakob
M. Hjte, 249-75. rhus: Aarhus University Press, 2009. Print.
Sardar, Ziauddin. The astronomy of Ramadan, in New Scientist 94, no.
1311 (June 24, 1982): 854-56. Print.
Savvopoulos, Kyriakos. Alexandrea in Aegypto: The Role of the Egyptian
Tradition in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods- Ideology, Culture,
Identity, and Public Life. Leiden: Leiden University, 2011. Print.
Scala Archives. B012809.
http://www.scalarchives.com/web/dettaglio_immagine.asp?numImmagin
i=134&posizione=21&prmset=on&ANDOR=&xesearch=hydria&xesear
ch_ita=idria&xesearch_fra=hydrie&ricerca_s=hydria&SC_PROV=RR&
SC_Lang=eng&Sort=9&luce=. Accessed January 8, 2014. Electronic.
Scalf, Foy. The Role of Birds within the Religious Landscape of Ancient
Egypt. In Between Heaven and Earth: Birds in Ancient Egypt, edited by
R. Bailleul-Lesuer. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012. Print.
Schefold, Karl. Gods and Heroes in Late Archaic Greek Art. New York:
Scheub, Harold. A Dictionary of Mythology: The Mythmaker as Storyteller.
Schmemann, Alexander. Introduction to Liturgical Theology, translated by
Asheleigh E. Moorehouse. Crestwood: St. Vladimirs Seminary Press,
1966-2003. Print.
Schott, Siegfried. Altgyptische Liebeslieder: Mit Mrchen und
Liebesgeschichten. Zrich: Artemis-Verlag, 1950. Print.
Schulz, Regine. A Corn Mummy Decoded. The Walters Art Museum
Journal 63 (2005): 5-14. Print.
Schtze, Alexander. Collection online: sarcophagus. The British Museum.
http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_obj
ect_details.aspx?objectId=122738&partId=1. Accessed December 13,
2013. Electronic.
1034
Schwabe, Calvin W. Cattle, Priests, and Progress in Medicine. Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 1978. Print.
Schwabe, Calvin W., Joyce Adams and Carleton T. Hodge. Egyptian Beliefs
about the Bulls Spine: An Anatomical Origin for Ankh. Anatomical
Linguistics, Vol. 24, No. 4 (Winter, 1982): 445-479. Print.
Schwartz, Martin. Cautes and Cautopates, the Mithraic Torchbearers. In
Mithraic Studies: Volume II, edited by John R. Hinnells, 406-23.
Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1975. Print.
Schweizer, Andreas. The Sungods Journey through the Netherworld:
Reading the Ancient Egyptian Amduat. Ithaca: Cornell University Press,
1994-2010. Print.
Segal, Charles. Adonis and Aphrodite. Theocritus Idyll III 48. Lantiquit
Classique 38, no. 1. (1969): 82-88. Print.
Seidel, Matthias, and Regine Schulz. Egypt: Art & Architecture.
Knigswinter: Tandem Verlag GmbH, 2005. Print.
Sellar, John. Stoicism. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006. Print.
Sextus Propertius. In Propertius: The Poems, translated by G. Lee. Oxford:
Sharpes, Donald K. Sacred Bull, Holy Cow: A Cultural Study of Civilizations
Most Important Animal. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 2006.
Print.
Sharples, Robert W. Theophrastus of Eresus: Sources for his Life, Writings,
Thought & Influence, Commentary Volume 5, Sources on Biology.
Leiden, E.J. Brill, 1995. Print.
Shaw, Ian. Ancient Egypt: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford
Exploring Ancient Egypt. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
Print.
The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Oxford University
Shea, William H. The Carpentras Stela: A Funerary Poem. In Journal of the
American Oriental Society 101, no. 2 (1981): 215-17. Print.
1035
Shepherd, John D. The Temple of Mithras, London: Excavations by W.F.
Grimes and A. Williams at the Walbrook. London: English Heritage,
1998. Print.
Sheppard, Anne D.R. Studies on the 5th and 6th Essays of Proclus
Commentary on the Republic. Gttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht,
1980. Print.
Sherman, Dennis, and Joyce Salisbury. The West in the World, Volume I: To
1715. New York: McGraw Hill Companies, Inc., 2007. Print.
Shotter, David. Roman Britain. Abingdon: Routledge, 1998-2004. Print.
Sibley, Larry. Luke: Gospel for the City. Elgin: David C. Cook Publishing
Co., 1988. Print.
Simidchieva, Marta. Rituals of Renewal: Sadeq Hedayat's The Blind Owl
and the wine myths of Manuchehri, Oriente Moderno 22, no. 83 (2003):
219-41. Print.
Simon, Erika. Greek myth in Etruscan culture. In The Etruscan World,
edited by Jean Macintosh Turfa, 495-512. Abingdon: Routledge, 2013.
Print.
Simpson, Michael. Gods & Heroes of the Greeks: The Library of
Apollodorus. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1976. Print.
Simpson, William K. The Literature of Ancient Egypt: An Anthology of
Stories, Instructions, Stelae, Autobiographies, and Poetry. New Haven:
Yale University Press, 2003. Print.
Sissa, Giulia, and Marcel Detienne. The Daily Life of the Greek Gods,
translated by Janet Lloyd. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1989-
2000. Print.
Smith, F. Harold. Article V. The Church Quarterly Review 95, no. 189
(1922): 75-103. Print.
Smith, Harvey H., Nancy W. Al-Any, Donald W. Bernier, Frederica M.
Bunge, William Giloane, Joseph G. Jabbra, Peyton Kerr, and Suzanne
Teleki, Area Handbook for Lebanon. Washington, D.C.: U.S.
Government Printing Office, 1974. Print.
1036
Smith, Jonathan Z. Dying and Rising Gods. In Encyclopedia of Religion 4:
Second Edition, edited by Lindsay Jones, 2535-40. Detroit: Macmillan
Reference USA, 2005. Print.
Smith, Mark J. A Demotic Coffin Inscription: Berlin G. Inv. 7227.
In Egyptian Religion: The Last Thousand Years, Part 1, edited by A.
Schoors and Harco Willems. Leuven: Peeters Publishers, 1998. Print.
On the Primeval Ocean. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press,
2002. Print.
Osiris and the Deceased. In UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology,
edited by Willeke Wendrich. Los Angeles: 2008.
http://escholarship.org/uc/item/29r70244. Electronic.
P. Carlsberg 462: A Fragmentary Account of a Rebellion Against the
Sun of God. A Micellany of Demotic Texts and Studies, edited by Paul J.
Frandsen and Kim S.B. Ryholt, 95-112. Copenhagen: Museum
Tusculanum Press, 2000. Print.
Resurrection and the Body in Graeco-Roman Egypt. In The Human
Body in Death and Resurrection, edited by Tobias Nicklas, Friedrich V.
Reiterer, and Joseph Verheyden, 27-41. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter GmbH
& Co. KG, 2009. Print.
Smith, Mark S. The Early History of God. Grand Rapids: William B.
Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1990-2002. Print.
Smith, Martyn. Religion, Culture, and Sacred Space. New York: Palgrave
Macmillan, 2008. Print.
Smith, Page and Charles Daniel, The Chicken Book: Being an Inquiry into the
Rise and Fall, Use and Abuse, Triumph and Tragedy of Gallus
Domesticus. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1975-2000. Print.
Snape, Steven. Ancient Egyptian Tombs: The Culture of Life and Death.
Chichester: Blackwell Publishing, 2011. Print.
Soli, Pierre. On the Role of the Isis/Osiris Myth and of the Egyptian Book
of the Dead in the Treatment of a Case of Pathological Mourning. In
Symbolic and Clinical Approaches in Practice and Theory, edited by
Luigi Zoja and Robert Hinshaw, 57-66. Zrich: Daimon Verlag, 1986.
Print.
1037
Sophocles. In Sophocles: Fragments, translated by Hugh Lloyd-Jones.
Harvard: Harvard University Press, 1996-2003. Print.
Srensen, J. Podemann. Attis or Osiris? Firmicus Maternus, De errore 22.
In Rethinking Religion: Studies in the Hellenistic Process, edited by J.
Podemann Srensen, 73-86. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press,
1989. Print.
Southgate, Beverley C. History: What and Why? Ancient. Modern, and
Postmodern Perspectives. London: Routledge, 1996-2001.
Sowa, Cora A. Traditional Themes and the Homeric Hymns. Wauconda:
Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, Inc., 1984-2005. Print.
Speidel, Michael. Mithras-Orion: Greek Hero and Roman Army God. Leiden:
Spencer, Diana. Roman Landscape: Culture and Identity. Cambridge:
Spencer, Jeffrey. Death in Ancient Egypt. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books,
1982. Print.
Spier, Hedwig. The Motive for the Suppliants Flight. The Classical
Journal 57, no. 7 (1962): 315-17. Print.
St. Bonaventure. Vitis Mystica. Translated by W.R. Bernard Brownlow.
London: R. Washbourne, 1873. Print.
Strabo. Geography. In The Geography of Strabo, Vol. VII. Translated by
Horace L. Jones. London: William Heinemann Ltd., and Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1932-82. Print.
Stamatellos, Giannis. Introduction to Presocratics: A Thematic Approach to
Early Greek Philosophy with Key Readings. Oxford: John Wiley & Sons,
Inc., 2012. Print.
Stambaugh, John E. Sarapis Under the Early Ptolemies. Leiden: E.J. Brill,
1972. Print.
Statius. Thebaid. In Statius: Thebaid. 2 vols. Translated by David R.S. Bailey.
Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2003. Print.
Steinsapir, Ann I. Rural Sanctuaries in Roman Syria: The Creation of a
Sacred Landscape. Oxford: John and Erica Hedges Ltd., 2005. Print.
1038
Stephens, Susan A. Egyptian Callimachus. In Callimaque: Sept exposs
suivis de discussions, edited by Franco Montanari and Luigi A. Lehnus,
235-70. Geneva: Fondation Hardt, 2002. Print.
Seeing Double: Intercultural Poetics in Ptolemaic Alexandria.
Whose Rituals in Ink?. In Rituals in Ink: A Conference on Religion
and Literary Production in Ancient Rome, edited by Alessandro
Barchiesi, Jrg Rpke, and Susan A. Stephens, 157-60. Wiesbaden:
Franz Steiner Verlag, 2004. Print.
Stevens, Anthony. Ariadne's Clue: A Guide to the Symbols of Humankind.
Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998-2001. Print.
Stevens, Marissa A. Opening of the Mouth. In Mummies Around the World:
An Encyclopedia of Mummies in History, Religion, and Popular Culture,
edited by Matt Cardin. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2014. Print.
Stewart, Peter. Roman Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. Print.
Stoevesandt, Magdalene B. Laomedon. Brills New Pauly Encyclopedia of
the Ancient World: Antiquity, K-Lyc, edited by Hubert Cancik and
Helmuth Schneider. Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV, 2005. Print.
Stroszeck, Jutta. Greek trophy monuments. In Myth and Symbol II:
Symbolic Phenomena in Ancient Greek Culture, edited by Synnve des
Bouvrie, 303-31. Bergen: the Norwegian Institute at Athens, 2004. Print.
Suetonius. Lives of the Twelve Caesars. Translated by H.M. Bird. Ware:
Wordsworth Editions Ltd., 1930-97. Print.
Sumegi, Angela. Understanding Death: An Introduction to Ideas of Self and
the Afterlife in World Religions. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell, 2014.
Print.
Taylor, Bernard A. Analytical Lexicon to the Septuagint: Expanded Edition.
Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., 2009. Print.
Taylor, John H. Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt. London: British
Museum Press, 2001. Print.
Journey Through the Afterlife: Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead.
London: British Museum Press, 2010. Print.
1039
Taylor, Rabun M. The Moral Mirror of Roman Art, (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2008
Te Velde, Herman. Funerary Mythology. In Mummies & Magic: The
Funerary Arts of Ancient Egypt, edited by Sue DAuria, Peter Lacovara,
Catharine H. Roehrig, 27-37. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1988. Print.
Seth, God of Confusion: A Study of His Role in Egyptian Mythology
and Religion. Translated by Gertrud E. van Baaren-Pape. Leiden: E.J.
Brill, 1967-77. Print.
Some remarks on the concept person in the ancient Egyptian
culture. In Concepts of Person in Religion and Thoughts, edited by H.G.
Kippenberg, Y.B. Kuiper, A.F. Sanders, 83-101. Berlin: Walter de
Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, 1990. Print.
The Goddess Mut and the Vulture. In Servant of Mut: Studies in
Honor of Richard A. Fazzini, edited by Sue H. DAuria, 242-45. Leiden:
Koninklijke Brill NV. Print.
Teeter, Emily and Courtney DeNeice Kleinschmidt-Jacobsen. "26. Mirror."
In The Life of Meresamun: A Temple Singer in Ancient Egypt, edited by
Emily Teeter and Janet H. Johnson. Chicago: The Oriental Institute of
the University of Chicago, 2009. Print.
Tertullian of Carthage. Adversus Valentinianos. In The Ante-Nicene Fathers:
The Writings of the Fathers Down to A.D. 325, 10 vols, edited by
Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. Peabody: Hendrickson
Publishers, 1885-1994. Print.
Apologeticus. In Tertullian: Apology, De Spectaculis. Translated by
Terrot R. Glover. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1931-98. Print.
De Resurrectione Carnis. In The Ante-Nicene Fathers: Volume III,
edited by Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson. Translated by Peter
Holmes. Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, 1885-1994. Print.
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition,
edited by Margery S. Berube et al. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company,
2000-09. Print.
The Art Institute of Chicago. Collections.
http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/154054/. Accessed January
16, 2014. Electronic.
1040
The Chambers Dictionary, edited by Elaine Higgleton et al. Edinburgh:
Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd., 1998-2006. Print.
The Colonist. Excavations at Rome. vol. 54, no. 13555 (October 24, 1912):
3. Print.
The Great Courses. Bob Brier.
http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/professors/professor_detail.aspx?pid
=101. Accessed September 29, 2013. Electronic.
The Schyen Collection, 23.6. Mythraism & Roman Religion. Accessed
May 11, 2013.
http://www.schoyencollection.com/religionsExtinct2.html#23.6.
Electronic.
Theophilus of Antioch. Ad Autolycum. Translated by Robert M. Grant.
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970. Print.
In The Ante-Nicene Fathers: Volume II, edited by Alexander Roberts
and James Donaldson, translated by Alexander Roberts. Peabody:
Hendrickson Publishers, 1885-1994. Print.
Theophrastus of Eresus. Characters. Translated by James Diggle. Cambridge:
On Weather Signs. In Theophrastus: Enquiry Into Plants and Minor
Works on Odours and Weather Signs, Volume II, translated by Arthur
Hort. London: William Heinemann, 1916. Print.
Thesaurus Linguae Graecae: A Digital Library of Greek Literature. .
Accessed July 28, 2013.
http://stephanus.tlg.uci.edu/lsj/#eid=71981&context=lsj. Electronic.
Thomas, Geraldine T. Religious Backgrounds for Virgils Bee Symbol in the
Georgics. In Vergilius, Vol. 24, edited by J.M. Benario, 32-36.
Wallingford: The Vergilian Society, 1978. Print.
Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War. In The Landmark Thucydides:
A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War, translated by Robert
B. Strassler. New York: Free Press, 1996. Print.
Tibullus. Poem I.7. In Latin Lyric and Elegiac Poetry: An Anthology of New
Translations. Translated by Rachel Hadas, edited by Diane J. Rayor and
William W. Batstone. New York: Garland Publishing Co., 1995. Print.
1041
Timothy of Miletus. In The Fragments of Timotheus of Miletus, edited by
James H. Hordern. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. Print.
Tobin, Vincent A. Amun and Amun-Re. In The Oxford Encyclopedia of
Ancient Egypt: Vol. 1, edited Donald B. Redford, 82-85. New York:
Love Songs and the Songs of the Harper. In The Literature of
Ancient Egypt: An Anthology of Stories, Instructions, Stelae,
Autobiographies, and Poetry, edited by William K. Simpson, 307-33.
New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003. Print.
Theological Principles of Egyptian Religion. New York: Peter Lang
Publishing, Inc., 1989. Print.
Trk, Lszl. Between Two Worlds: The Frontier Region between Ancient
Nubia and Egypt 3700 BC 500 AD. Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV,
2009. Print.
Hellenistic and Roman Terracottas from Egypt. Rome: L'Erma di
Bretschneider, 1995. Print.
The Image of the Ordered World in Ancient Nubian Art: The
Construction of the Kushite Mind (800 BC 200 AD). Leiden:
Koninklijke Brill, 2002.
Trigger, Bruce G., et al. Ancient Egypt: A Social History. Cambridge:
Tripolitis, Antonia. Religions of the Hellenistic-Roman Age. Grand Rapids:
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2002. Print.
Troy, Lana. Religion and Cult during the Time of Thutmose III. In
Thutmose III: A New Biography, edited by Eric H. Cline and David B.
OConnor, 123-83. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 2006.
Print.
Trzaskoma, Stephen M., R. Scott Smith, and Stephen Brunet. Anthology of
Classical Myth: Primary Sources in Translation. Indianapolis: Hackett
Publishing Company, Inc., 2004. Print.
Turretin, Francis. Ehrman Spin Kicks Carrier in the Jaw. Thoughts of
Francis Turretin: Reformed Apologetics & Polemics. (April 27, 2012).
http://turretinfan.blogspot.com/2012/04/ehrman-spin-kicks-carrier-in-
jaw.html. Electronic.
1042
Tyldesley, Joyce. Myths and Legends of Ancient Egypt. London: Penguin
Books Ltd, 2010. Print.
Ulansey, David. Mithras and the Hypercosmic Sun. In Studies in
Mithraism, edited by John R. Hinnells, 257-64. Rome: LErma di
Brettschneider, 1994. Print.
Ulmer, Rivka. Egyptian Cultural Icons in Midrash. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter
GmbH & Co. KG, 2009. Print.
Undo. Did Osiris really die? Above Top Secret (September 22, 2006).
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread226939/pg1. Electronic.
University of Oxford. New light on the Narcissus myth: P.Oxy. LXIX 4711.
http://www.papyrology.ox.ac.uk/POxy/papyri/4711.html. Accessed
November 18, 2013. Electronic.
Van den Dungen, Wim. Ancient Egyptian Wisdom Readings. Antwerp: 2011.
http://www.sofiatopia.org/maat/Ancient_Egyptian_
Wisdom_Readings.pdf. Electronic.
Van der Haagen, Jan K. Sunlight Creates a God. Science Digest 53 (1963):
48-58. Print.
Van der Plas, Dirk. The Veiled Image of Amenapet. In Effigies Dei: Essays
on the History of Religions, edited by Dirk van der Plas, 1-12. Leiden:
Van der Waerden, Bartel L. Science Awakening II: The Birth of Astronomy.
Leiden: Noordhoff International Publishing, 1974. Print.
Van Dijk, Jacobus. An early hymn to Osiris as nocturnal manifestation of
Re. In The Memphite Tomb of Horemheb, Commander-in-chief of
Tutankhamn, Vol. I, edited by Geoffrey T. Martin, 61-69. London:
Egypt Exploration Society, 1989. Print.
Vancity89. I Tried To Watch Zeitgeist. experience project (February 9,
2010). http://www.experienceproject.com/stories/Tried-To-Watch-
Zeitgeist/901846. Electronic.
Vandier, Jacques. Le Papyrus Jumilhac. Paris: Centre National de la
Recherche Scientifique, 1961. Print.
1043
Vandiver, Elizabeth. Classical Mythology. 24 lectures. Chantilly: The
Teaching Company LLC, 2000. DVD.
Varro. Antiquitates Rerum Divinarum. In The City of God against the Pagans,
by Augustine of Hippo, translated by R.W. Dyson. Cambridge:
On the Latin Language, translated by Roland G. Kent. London:
William Heinemann Ltd. and Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University
Press, 1938. Print.
On Agriculture. In Cato and Varro on Agriculture, translated by
William D. Hooper and Harrison B. Ash. London: William Heinemann
Ltd., and Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1934-93. Print.
Vatican Museums. Two-faced Osiris/Apis (Serapis) is born from the lotus
flower.
http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/x-
Schede/MEZs/MEZs_Sala03_01_01_009.html. Accessed September 7.
2013. Electronic.
Ventura, Raphael. Four Egyptian Funerary Stelae from Deir el-Bala. In
IEJ 37, no. 2/3 (1987): 105-15. Print.
Verbrugghe, Gerald P., and John M. Wickersham. Berossos and Manetho:
Native Traditions in Ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. Ann Arbor: The
University of Michigan Press, 1996-2003. Print.
Verhoeven, Paul. In Flesh + Steel: The Making of 'RoboCop', dir. Jeffrey
Schwarz. Los Angeles: Automat Pictures, 2001. Print.
Verity, Anthony. Theocritus: Idylls. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Print.
Vermaseren, Maarten J. The Miraculous Birth of Mithras. Mnemosyne: A
Journal of Classical Studies, Fourth Series 4, no. 3/4 (1951): 285-301.
Print.
The New Mithraic Temple in London, Numen: International Review
for the History of Religions 2, no. 1/2 (1955): 139-45. Print.
Corpus Cultus Cybelae Attidisque (CCCA) I. Asia Minor. Leiden: E.J.
Brill, 1987. Print.
Corpus Cultus Cybelae Attidisque (CCCA) V. Aegyptus, Africa,
Hispania, Gallia et Brittania. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1986. Print.
1044
Corpus Cultus Cybelae Attidisque (CCCA) VI. Germania, Raetia,
Noricum, Pannonia, Dalmatia, Macedonia, Thracia, Moesia, Dacia,
Regnum Bospori, Colchis, Scythia et Sarmatia. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1989.
Print.
Corpus Inscriptionum et Monumentorum Religionis Mithriacae:
Volume II. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1960. Print.
Mithras, The Secret God. New York: Barnes & Noble, Inc., 1963.
Print.
Mithriaca III: The Mithraeum at Marino. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1982.
Print.
Studies in Hellenistic Religions. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1979. Print.
The Legend of Attis in Greek and Roman Art. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1966.
Print.
The Mithraeum at S. Maria Capua Vetere. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1971.
Print.
Vermaseren, Marteen J. and Carel C. Van Essen. The Excavations in the
Mithraeum of the Church of Santa Pricsa on the Aventine. Leiden: E.J.
Brill, 1965. Print.
Vianello, Andrea. The Ship and Its Symbolism in European Prehistory. In
Cognitive Archaeology as Symbolic Archaeology, edited by Fernando
Coimbra and George Dimitriadis, 27-34. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2008.
Print.
Vinson, Steve. Through a Womans Eyes, and in a Womans Voice: Ihweret
as Focalizor in the First Tale of Setne Khaemwas. In Ptolemy II
Philadelphus and his World, edited by Paul McKechnie & Philippe
Guillaume, 303-52. Leiden: Koninklijke Brill NV, 2008. Print.
Virgil. Georgics. In Virgil: The Eclogues, The Georgics. Translated by C.D.
Lewis. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1940-83. Print.
Vogelsang-Eastwood, Gillian. Textiles. In Ancient Egyptian Materials and
Technology, edited by Paul T. Nicholson and Ian Shaw, 268-98.
Cambridge: Cambridge Univesity Press, 2000-06.
Von Franz, Marie-Louise. The Problem of the Puer Aeternus. Toronto: Inner
City Books, 1970-2000.
1045
Von Gall, Hubertus. The Lion-Headed and the Human-Headed God in the
Mithraic Mysteries. In tudes Mithriaques, edited by Jacques
Duchesne-Guillemin, 511-26. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1978. Print.
Vos, Nelvin. Inter-Actions: Relationships of Religion and Drama. Lanham:
University Press of America, Inc., 2009. Print.
Vos, Ren L. Varius coloribus. Some remarks on the colours of Apis and
other sacred animals. In Egyptian Religion: The Last Thousand Years,
Part 1, edited by Willy Clarysse, Antoon Schoors, and Harco Willems,
709-18. Leuven: Peeters Publishers, 1998. Print.
Voth, Grant L. Myth in Human History. 36 lectures. Chantilly: The Teaching
Company LLC, 2010. DVD.
Vycichl, Werner. Magic. In The Coptic Encyclopedia: Vol. 5, edited by
Aziz S. Atiya, 1499-1509. New York: Macmillan, 1991. 1503-04. Print.
Wachowski, Andy, and Larry Wachowski, Matrix Virtual Theatre:
Wachowski Brothers Transcript. Warner Video (November 6, 1999).
http://www.warnervideo.com/matrixevents/wachowski.html. Electronic.
Wakeman, Mary K. Gods Battle with the Monster: A Study in Biblical
Imagery. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1973. Print.
Walker, Susan. 85 Mummy of a woman named Artemidora. In Ancient
Faces: Mummy Portraits from Roman Egypt, edited by Susan Walker.
New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000. Print.
Walters, E.J. Women in the Cult of Isis at Hierakonpolis. In Egyptology at
the Dawn of the Twenty-First Century, Volume 2: History, Religion,
edited by Zahi A. Hawass, 558-65. Cairo: The American University in
Cairo Press, 2003. Print.
Walters, Vivienne J. The Cult of Mithras in the Roman Provinces of Gaul.
Walton, Francis R. and John Scheld, Cybele. In The Oxford Classical
Dictionary, 4th ed., edited by Simon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth, and
Esther Eidinow. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. Print.
Ward, William. The Four Egyptian Homographic Roots B-A: Etymological
and Egypto-Semitic Studies. Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 1978. Print.
1046
Wente Jr., Edward F. Destruction of Mankind. In The Oxford Encyclopedia
of Ancient Egypt: Volume 1, edited by Donald B. Redford, 389-90. New
York: Oxford University Press, 2001. Print.
The Book of the Heavenly Cow. In The Literature of Ancient Egypt:
An Anthology of Stories, Instructions, Stelae, Autobiographies, and
Poetry, edited by William K. Simpson, 289-98. New Haven: Yale
Werness, Hope B. The Continuum Encyclopedia of Animal Symbolism in
World Art. New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group
Inc., 2006. Print.
West, Martin L. The Orphic Poems. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983. Print.
Westphal, Merold. God, Guilt, and Death: An Existential Phenomenology of
Religion. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984. Print.
Whitaker, Ewen A. Mapping and Naming the Moon: A History of Lunar
Cartography and Nomenclature. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Wild, Robert A. Water in the Cultic Worship of Isis and Sarapis. Leiden: E.J.
Brill, 1981. Print.
Wilkinson, Richard H. Reading Egyptian Art, A Hieroglyphic Guide to
Ancient Egyptian Painting and Sculpture. London: Thames & Hudson
Inc., 1992. Print.
The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt. New York:
Thames & Hudson Inc., 2003. Print.
willard 24. Zeitgeist. The Lounge (February 20, 2009).
http://lounge.moviecodec.com/religion/zeitgeist-63530/. Electronic.
Willems, Harco. The Coffin of Heqata (Cairo JdE 36418): A Case Study of
Egyptian Funerary Culture of the Early Middle Kingdom. Leuven:
Peeters Publishers, 1996. Print.
The First Intermediate Period and the Middle Kingdom. In A
Companion to Ancient Egypt Vol. 1, edited by Alan B. Lloyd, 81-100.
Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2010. Print.
Willis, William H. and Klaus Maresch. Introduction. The Archive of
Ammon Scholasticus of Panopolis. P. Ammon) Volume I: The Legacy of
1047
Harpocration, edited by W.H. Willis and K. Maresch, 1-6. Wiesbaden:
Westdeutscher Verlag, 1997. Print.
Winston, Edward L.. Zeitgeist Part I: The Greatest Story Ever
Told. Skeptic Project (November 29, 2007).
http://conspiracies.skepticproject.com/articles/zeitgeist/part-one/.
Electronic.
Witt, Reginald E. Isis in the Ancient World. Baltimore: The John Hopkins
Wlasuk, Peter T. Observing the Moon. London: Springer-Verlag London Ltd.,
2000. Print.
Woff, Richard. A Pocket Dictionary of Greek and Roman Gods and
Goddesses. London: The British Museum Press, 2003. Print.
Wood, Susan. An Enigmatic Roman Portrait. The Bulletin of the Cleveland
Museum of Art 68, no. 8 (1981): 286-302. Print.
Woodbury, Leonard. Apollos First Love. Transactions and Proceedings of
the American Philological Association 103 (1972): 561-73. Print.
Wright, George R.H. The works organisation of a major building project in
Roman Egypt. Archaeological Research in Roman Egypt: The
Proceedings of the Seventeenth Classical Colloquium of the Department
of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum, Held on 1-4
December, 1993, edited by Donald M. Bailey, 143-54. Dexter: Thomson-
Shore, 1996. Print.
The Avatta Tree on the Vatican Hill. East and West 58, no.1/4
(2008): 33-51. Print.
Wyatt, Nicolas. Space and Time in the Religious Life of the Near East.
Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2001. Print.
Yamauchi, Edwin M. Life, Death, and the Afterlife in the Ancient Near
East. In Life in the Face of Death: the Resurrection Message of the New
Testament, edited by Richard N. Longenecker, 21-50. Grand Rapids:
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1998. Print.
The Apocalypse of Adam. In tudes Mithriaques, edited by Jacques
Duchesne-Guillemin, 537-63. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1978. Print.
1048
Yeager, Randolph O. The Renaissance New Testament. Gretna: Pelican
Publishing Co., Inc., 1985. Print.
abkar, Louis V. A Study of the Ba Concept in Ancient Egyptian Texts.
Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1968. Print.
Herodotus and the Egyptian Idea of Immortality. Journal of Near
Eastern Studies 22, no. 1. (1963): 57-63. Print.
Hymns to Isis in Her Temple at Philae. Hanover: University Press of
New England, 1988. Print
Zandee, Jan. An ancient Egyptian crossword puzzle: An inscription of
Nebwenenef from Thebes. Mededelingen en verhandelingen van het
Vooraziatisch-Egyptisch Genootschap Ex Oriente Lux, XV. Leiden: E.J.
Brill, 1966. Print.
Death as an Enemy According to Ancient Egyptian Conceptions.
Translated by W.F. Klasens. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1960. Print.
Zayed, Abdel H. Egyptian Antiquities. Cairo: Le Scribe gyptien S.A.E.,
1962. Print.
Ziegler, Christiane. 152. Fragment from the Right Side of the Faade of the
Tomb of Metjetji. In Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids, edited by
John P. ONeill and Carol Fuerstein, 411. New York: Mentropolitan
Museum of Art, 1999. Print.
155. False-Door Stela from the Tomb of Metjetji. In Egyptian Art in
the Age of the Pyramids, edited by John P. ONeill and Carol Fuerstein,
414. New York: Mentropolitan Museum of Art, 1999. Print.
Zeitlin, Froma L. Patterns of Gender in Aeschylean Drama: Seven against
Thebes and the Danaid Trilogy, Cabinet of the Muses , edited by Mark
Griffith and Donald J. Mastronarde, 103-15. Atlanta: Scholars Press,
1990. Print.
Zuidema, R. Tom. The Sidereal Lunar Calendar of the Incas. In
Archaeoatronomy in the New World: American Primitive Astronomy,
edited by Anthony F. Aveni, 59-107. Cambridge: Cambridge University
1049
List of Illustrations
Figure 1 (New Kingdom stela of Chia, treasurer of a temple of Ramses
II): Photo by Guillaume Blanchard, original in color. Used under
Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 Unported
license, available at Wikimedia Commons.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Egypte_louvre_116_stele.jpg.
Figure 2 (The eyes of the Lord): Image by the author; based on the
Papyrus of Tent-diu-Mut, 21st Dynasty, currently at the Cairo Museum.
Figure 3 (Neith, the Goddess of Sais): Image by August Ramsthal, in

Egypt: Descriptive, Historical, and Picturesque Volume 1, by George
Ebers, trans. by Clara Bell (New York: Cassell & Company, Ltd., 1878),
71. This work is now in the public domain.
Figure 4 (Statue of Udjahorresnet, 26th Dynasty, Gregorian Egyptian

Museum): Photo by Sbastien Neithsabes, original in color. Image is
released into the public domain, available at Wikimedia Commons.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Museo_Gregoriano_004a.jpg.
Figure 5 (The Creator in hypostasis as both primeval serpent and

newborn sun god): Image by the author; based on a vignette of the
Brooklyn Magical Papyrus 47.218.156, c. 5th century BCE, currently at
the Brooklyn Museum.
Figure 6 (The serpent lifted up on the staff grants eternal life): Image by
the author; based on a relief block from a building of Amenemhat I, 12 th
Dynasty, currently at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Figure 7 (Statue of Anubis, c. 1st cen. CE, Gregorian Egyptian Museum):

Photo by gnuckx, original in color. Used under Creative Commons
Attribution 2.0 Generic license, available at Wikimedia Commons.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Italy_Vatican_-
_Creative_Commons_by_gnuckx_(3492615876).jpg.
Figure 8 (Caduceus insignia for the United States Navy Hospital

Corpsmen): Image by the United States
1050
Navy. Image is in the public domain, available at Wikimedia Commons.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rating_Badge_HM.jpg.
Figure 9 (The birth of Erichthonius): Image by the author; based on a

Luna marble relief from a temple to Hephaistos, currently at the Museum
of Ostia.
Figure 10 (Athna la ciste, 1st-2nd cen. CE, Louvre Museum): Photo by

Marie-Lan Nguyen, original in color. Image is released into the public
domain, available at Wikimedia Commons.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Athena_ciste.jpg.
Figure 11 (Athena Parthenos with her son Erichthonius): Image by the

author; based on a terracotta disk at the Agora Museum in Athens.
Figure 12 (Athena Parthenos, again with her son Erichthonius): Image by

Victor Duruy, in History of Greece and of the Greek People: From the
Earliest Times to the Roman Conquest, Volume IISection II, trans. M.
M. Ripley (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trbner & Co., Ltd., 1898),
390 n.1. This work is now in the public domain. Image has been slightly
altered for clarity, based on a proxeny decree in honor of Philiskos
Lykou of Sestos, currently at the National Archaeological Museum of
Athens.
Figure 13 (Varvakeion Athena): Photo by William Vaughn Tupper.

Image is now in the public domain, available at Wikimedia Commons.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Minerva_of_Phidias.jpg.
Figure 14 (A pair of click beetles, an ancient emblem of Neith): Image

by the author; based on a corner fragment of a cosmetic palette from the
Early Dynastic Period, currently at the Cinquantenaire Museum in
Brussels, Belgium.
Figure 15 (The emergence of a scarab beetle from its dung ball): Image
by the author.
Figure 16 (A mortuary pendant of the solar scarab Khepri from the tomb
of Tutankhamun): Photo by Jon Bodsworth, original in color. Used under
Copyrighted Free Use license,* available at Wikimedia Commons.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hidden_treasures_19.jpg. *All
1051
the photographs on this site are from my own originals and are copyright
free. They can be reproduced in any medium.
http://web.archive.org/web/20030530084017/http://www.egyptarchive.c
o.uk/html./contact.html.
Figure 17 (Re in His form as Khepri): Image by E.A. Wallis Budge, in

The Gods of the Egyptians or Studies in Egyptian Mythology Volume I
(London: Methuen & Co., 1904), 356, pl. 8, original in color. This work
is now in the public domain.
Figure 18 (The slaying of Apophis, from a vignette in the Book of the

Dead for Lady Her-Weben-Khet, 21st Dynasty): Image courtesy of the
Museum of Egyptian Antiquities in Cairo, Egypt, original in color.
Image released into the public domain, available at Wikimedia Commons.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Set_speared_Apep.jpg.
Figure 19 (The slaying of Apophis, from a wall relief of a temple a

Edfu): Photo by Rmih, original in color. Used under Creative
Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license, available at
Wikimedia Commons.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Edfu16.JPG.
Figure 20 (Blessings shining down from the Father of lights): Image by

Norman de G. Davies, in The Rock Tombs of El Amarna: Part III.The
Tombs of Huya and Ahmes (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trbner &
Co., Ltd., 1905), Plate IV; based on the banquet scene on the south wall
of the east side of the tomb of Huya, 14th cen. BCE. This work is now in
the public domain.
Figure 21 (The Lord as Khnum at His potters wheel, making man in His
own image out of the clay of the earth): Photo by Karen Green, original
in color. Used under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0
Generic license, available at Wikimedia Commons.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flickr_-_schmuela_-
_IMG_6772.jpg.
Figure 22 (The many manifestations of Re, as depicted in the tomb of

Thutmose III, 15th century BCE): Photo by Hajor, original in color.
1052
Used under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported
license, available at
Wikimedia Commons.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Egypt.KV34.03.jpg.
Figure 23 (Zeus-Ammon): Image by Aubin L. Millin, in Galerie

Mythologique: Recueil de monuments pour servir ltude de
lamythologie, de lhistoire de lart, et du langage allgorique des
anciens, Tome Premier (Paris: Soyer, 1840), 233; based on a Greek
bronze medallion from Mytilene. This work is now in the public domain.
Figure 24 (Illustrating Amen as the Primordial Chaos): Image by the

author.
Figure 25 (Birth of the sun upon the primeval mound, from the Book of
the Dead of Khensumose, 21st Dynasty): Image courtesy of Akademie
der Bildenden Kuenste in Vienna, Austria, original in color. Available at
Wikimedia Commons- This is a faithful photographic reproduction of an
original two-dimensional work of art. The work of art itself is in the
public domain for the following reason: This work is in the public
domain in the United States, and those countries with a copyright term of
life of the author plus 100 years or less. The official position taken by the
Wikimedia Foundation is that faithful reproductions of two-dimensional
public domain works of art are public domain, and that claims to the
contrary represent an assault on the very concept of a public domain.
For details, see Commons: When to use the PD-Art tag. This
photographic reproduction is therefore also considered to be in the public
domain.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sunrise_at_Creation.jpg.
Figure 26 (Raising the sky, based on the Book of the Celestial Cow, 18 th-
20th Dynasties): Image by E.A. Wallis Budge, in The Gods of the
Egyptians or Studies in Egyptian Mythology Volume I (London: Methuen
& Co., 1904), 368, ill. 32. This work is now in the public domain.
Figure 27 (The generations of the Great Ennead): Image by the author;

composed of public domain images available at Wikimedia Commons.
1053
Figure 28 (The union of Re and Osiris, from the tomb of Nefertari, 19 th
Dynasty): Photo by Frank Teichmann, original in color. Available at
Wikimedia Commons, classified as public domain- see entry for Figure
25. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Re-Osiris.jpg.
Figure 29 (The union of Osiris and Re in the fifth hour of the Amduat,
from the tomb of Thutmose III, 15th century BCE): Photo by Francesco
Gasparetti, original in color. Used under Creative Commons Attribution
2.0 Generic license, available at Wikimedia Commons.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flickr_-_Gaspa_-
_Valle_dei_Re,_tomba_di_Thutmosi_III_(7).jpg.
Figure 30 (Ptah-Sokar-Osiris receiving libation, based on a scene from

the tomb of Ramesses III, KV11, 20th Dynasty): Image by Giuseppe
Angelelli, original in color. This work is now in the public domain.
Figure 31 (Gilded funerary statue of Ptah-Sokar-Osiris): Photo by

Mansell, in Egyptian Myth and Legend by Donald A. Mackenzie
(London: Gresham Publishing Co., Ltd., 1913), 368, pl. 31. This work is
now in the public domain.
Figure 32 (Tutankamun with his ka embraces Osiris, from the rear wall
of his burial chamber, KV62, 14th century BCE): Photo by Solomon
Witts, original in color. Image is released into the public domain (see
also entry for Figure 25), available at Wikimedia Commons.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tutankhamun_embraces_
Osiris.jpg.
Figure 33 (Re and Osiris-Sokar): Composite image. The image of Re is

taken from a photo by Jon Bodsworth of the stela of Djed-Djehuty-ef-
Ankh, 18th Dynasty, original in color. Used under Copyright Free Use
license (see also entry for Figure 16), available at Wikimedia Commons.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Painted_stele_of_Djeddjehutef
ankh.jpg. The image of Osiris-Sokar is taken from a photo by
Soutekh67 of a vignette from the Papyrus of Ani, 13th century BCE,
original in color. Used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share
Alike 3.0 Unported license, available at Wikimedia Commons.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ani_LDM_fin.jpg.
1054
Figure 34 (Plate depicting Osiris as Apis): Image by Sir J. Gardiner
Wilkinson in A Second Series of the Manners and Customs of the Ancient
Egyptians: Supplement (London: John Murray, 1841), pl. 31. This work
Figure 35 (Osiris-Apis from the stela of Apis from Saqqara, 26th

Dynasty, currently at the Louvre Museum): Photo by Sbastien
Neithsabes, original in color. Image is released into the public domain,
available at Wikimedia Commons.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Louvre_122006_007.jpg.
Figure 36 (Osiris as Apis): Image by E.A. Wallis Budge in Osiris and the
Egyptian Resurrection: Volume 2 (London: Philip Lee Warner, 1911),
Figure 37 (Bronze bust of Osiris-Apis): Image by the author; based on a

replica currently located at the Cond Museum in Chantilly; the original
was taken from Hadrians Villa and is currently at the Vaticans
Gregorian Egyptian Museum.
Figure 38 (Statue of Antinous as Osiris-Apis, from the Serapaeum of the

Canope in Hadrians Villa, currently at the Vaticans Gregorian Egyptian
Museum): Photo by Marie-Lan Nguyen, original in color. Image is
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Osiris-Apis_MGEg_Inv22847-
9.jpg.
Figure 39 (Bust of Apis from Memphis, 3rd2nd century BCE): Photo by

Marie-Lan Nguyen, original in color. Image is released into the public
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Apis_MGEg_Inv22808.jpg.
Figure 40 (Statues of Apis): Right image by the author, based on a

bronze statue from the Saqqara Serapeum, Old Kingdom Period. Left
photo by Sbastien Neithsabes, original in color. Image is released into
the public domain, available at Wikimedia Commons.
1055
Figure 41 (Ushabti figurines of Apis, 19th Dynasty, currently at the
Louvre Museum): Photo by Sbastien Neithsabes, original in color.
Image is released into the public domain, available at Wikimedia
Commons.
Figure 42 (Scene from the Book of the Celestial Cow in the tomb of Seti
I, KV17, 13th cen. BCE): Photo by Edward Piercy, original in color.
Available at Wikimedia Commons, classified as public domain- see entry
for Figure 25. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:
Book_of_the_Heavenly_Cow_KV17.jpg.
Figure 43 (Nut the Long-horned, from the Temple of Kom Ombo): Photo
by Joe Pyrek, original in color. Used under the Creative Commons
Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license, available at Wikimedia
Commons.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Reliefs_from_Kom_Ombo_tem
ple2008-01.jpg.
Figure 44 (A sixteenth-century woodcut showing honey bees being

generated from a dead animal): Author of the image is unknown. This
work is in the public domain, available at SpringerImages.
http://www.springerimages.com/Images/LifeSciences/1-10.1007_978-
90-481-2389-6_1-3.
Figure 45 (The bees of Aristes, c.1517): Author of the image is

unknown, original in color. This work is in the public domain, available
at Wikimedia Commons.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aristee.png.
Figure 46 (Drawing of the golden Apis bees from the tomb of King
Childric): Image by J.J. Chifflet. This work is in the public domain,
available at Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Childerics_bees.jpg.
Figure 47 (Drawing of a scene from a Greek vase, 5th century BCE,

currently at the Kunsthistorisches Museum): Image by Charles M.
Gayley in The Classic Myths in English Literature and in Art (Boston:
Ginn and Company, 1893), 65. This work is now in the public domain.
1056
Figure 48 (Drawing of the conception of Hatshepsut, based on a scene
from the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, 15th century BCE): Image by
Edouard Naville in The Temple of Deir El Bahari: Part II (London:
Egypt Exploration Fund, 1897), pl. XLVII. This work is now in the
public domain.
Figure 49 (Scene of the infant Hatshepsut nursing from a cow goddess at

the Temple of Thutmose III, 15th century BCE): Image by Edouard
Naville in The Temple of Deir El Bahari: Part IV (London: Egypt
Exploration Fund, 1901), pl. CIV. This work is now in the public
domain.
Figure 50 (Depiction of the Netherworld baptism of 12 deceased): Image

by the author; based on the 10th Hour of the Amduat as seen in the tomb
of Thutmose III, KV34, 15th century BCE.
Figure 51 (Depiction of Horus posthumously baptizing Osiris; based on a

bas-relief at Abydos): Image by E.A. Wallis Budge in Osiris and the
Figure 52 (The anointing of Ramesses IV, from the Temple of Khonsu at

Karnak, 12th century BCE): Photo by Sbastien Neithsabes, original in
color. Used under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
Unported license, available at Wikimedia Commons.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Karnak_Khonsou_080525.jpg.
Figure 53 (A solar eclipse in Egypt): Photo by Lisa4edit, original in

color. Image is released into the public domain under CC0 1.0 Universal
Public Domain Dedication, and is available at Wikimedia Commons.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Total_solar_eclipse_during_tota
lity,_March_29,_2006,_Sallum,_Egypt.jpg.
Figure 54 (Depiction of the death and dismemberment of Osiris): Image

by Michael Maier in Atalanta Fugiens (Oppenheim, 1617), Emblem 44.
This work is in the public domain.
Figure 55 (Depiction of the reassembling of Osiris, based on a scene

from the Temple of Isis at Philae): Image by Ippolito Rosellini in
1057
Monumenti dell Egitto e della Nubia: Monumenti del Culto (Pisa: Presso
Niccol Capurro, 1844), pl.XXIII. This work is in the public domain.
Figure 56 (The coffer barque of Osiris; from the Osiris Chapel at the
Temple of Seti I at Abydos, 13th century BCE): Photo by Roland Unger,
original in color. Used under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike
3.0 Unported license, available at Wikimedia Commons.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AbydosOsirisBark-144.jpg.
Figure 57 (Depiction of Osiris the Moon-god): Image by E.A. Wallis

Budge in Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection: Volume 1 (London:
Philip Lee Warner, 1911), 59. This work is now in the public domain.
Figure 58-60 (The waning and waxing of the moon, identified with
Osiris; from the Temple of Hathor in Dendera): Photos by Olaf Tausch,
originals in color. Used under Creative Commons Attribution-Share
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dendera_Deckenrelief_05.JPG.
Figure 61-62 (The dismemberment and reconstruction of the moon; from

the Temple of Khnum at Esna): Photos by Olaf Tausch, originals in
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Esna_Tempel_Deckenrelief_25.
jpg.
jpg.
jpg.
Figure 63 (Depiction of wine-making, 15th century BCE): Photos

courtesy of Matthias Seidel and Abdel Ghaffar Shedid in Das Grab des
Nacht: Kunst und Geschichte eines Beamtengrabes der 18 Dynastie in
Theben-West (Mainz: Philipp von Zabern, 1991); original in color.
for Figure 25.
1058
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tomb_of_Nakht_(12).jpg.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tomb_of_Nakht_(13).jpg.
Figure 64 (A wine-making scene from the tomb of Khaemwaset, TT261,

15th century BCE): Photo courtesy of The Yorck Project, original in
color. Available at Wikimedia Commons, classified as public domain-
see entry for Figure 25.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:gyptischer_Maler_um_1500_
v._Chr._001.jpg.
Figure 65 (Depiction of Osiris with wheat growing from his body; based
on a bas-relief at Karnak): Image by E.A. Wallis Budge in Osiris and the
Figure 66 (Ears sprouting from the corpse of Osiris; from the Jumilhac
Papyrus, currently at the Louvre Museum): Author of the image is
unknown. Available at Wikimedia Commons, classified as public
domain- see entry for Figure 25.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:P.J..PNG.
Figure 67 (Grain growing from the body of Osiris; from the coffin of
Nespawershepi, 10th century BCE): Photo by moongoat, original in
color. Used under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license, available at
Cow of Gold: An Encyclopedia of Egyptian Mythology.
https://cowofgold.wikispaces.com/file/detail/025mvbhdhdxgf.jpg.
Figure 68-69 (Osiris beds for growing grain effigies): Photos by

moongoat, originals in color. Used under Creative Commons
Attribution 3.0 license, available at Cow of Gold: An Encyclopedia of
Egyptian Mythology.
https://cowofgold.wikispaces.com/file/detail/2005-mar-11_475ff.jpg.
https://cowofgold.wikispaces.com/file/detail/006obeddy.jpg.
Figure 70 (An Osiris bed after sprouting, from the tomb of Maiherpri,
KV36, 14th century BCE.): Photo courtesy of William Max Miller. Used
with permission,* available at The Theban Royal Mummy Project.
anubis4_2000.tripod.com/KV36/Maihirpre2.htm. *Feel free to
1059
use material from the Theban Royal Mummy Project website. No prior
written permission is required.
Figure 71 (A grain mummy effigy of Osiris, currently at the National

Museum of Antiquities in Leiden): Photo by Rob Koopman, original in
Generic license; available at Flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/koopmanrob/3981803816/.
Figure 72-73 (An Osirian grain-mummy with sarcophagus; from the Late
Period, currently at the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose):
Photos by BrokenSphere, originals in color. Used under Creative
Wikimedia Commons.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Late_Period_corn_mummy_1_
REM.JPG.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Late_Period_corn_mummy_3_
REM.JPG.
Figure 74 (Broken gingerbread men): Photo by Andrs Nieto Porras,

2.0 Generic license; available at Wikimedia Commons.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Matanza_(5275617234).jpg.
Figure 75 (Depiction of harvesting grain, based on a scene from the tomb

of Nakht, TT52, 14th century BCE): Image by Nina & Norman de Garis
Davies, original in color. This work is now in the public domain.
Figure 76 (Depiction of the royal bakery, based on a scene from the tomb
of Ramesses III, KV11, 12th century BCE): Image by Adolf Erman in
Life in Ancient Egypt (London: Macmillan and Co., 1894), 191. This
work is in the public domain.
Figure 77 (Bas-relief of the Banebdjed): Photo by Olaf Tausch, original

in color. Used under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Esna_Tempel_Deckenrelief_0
2.jpg.
1060
Figure 78 (Banebdjed surrounded by four beasts, from the Hypocephalus
of Tasheritkhons, currently located at the British Museum): Photo by
Captmondo, original in color. Used under Creative Commons
Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 Unported license, available at Wikimedia
Commons.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hyocephalus_of_Tasheritkons_
Tasheritkons_(c._305-30_BCE),_British_Museum,_London_-
_20080821.jpg.
Figure 79 (Depiction of sacred bread and wine at St. Michael the

Archangel Parish in Findlay, Ohio): Photo by Nheyob, original in
color. Used under Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St_Michael_the_Archangel,_Fi
ndlay,_OH_-_bread_and_wine.jpg.
Figure 80 (Depiction of an effigy of Osiris upon a sycamore): Composite

image edited by the author- Osiris effigy by the author; photo of
Egyptian sycamore background by moongoat. Used under Creative
Commons Attribution 3.0 license, available at Cow of Gold: An
Encyclopedia of Egyptian Mythology.
https://cowofgold.wikispaces.com/file/detail/0tu7outot29.jpg.
Figure 81 (Nut in hypostasis as a sycamore tree, nursing the royal child;

from the tomb of Thutmose III, KV34, 15th century BCE): Photo
courtesy of The Yorck Project, original in color. Available at Wikimedia
Commons, classified as public domain- see entry for Figure 25.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Maler_der_Grabkammer_des_T
hutmosis_III._001.jpg.
Figure 82 (Depiction of Nut in hypostasis as a sycamore tree, nourishing

the deceased): Image by M. Faucher-Gudin in History of Egypt, Chaldea,
Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria: Vol. 1, by Gaston Maspero (London: The
Grolier Society Publishers, 1903), 264. This work is now in the public
domain.
Figure 83 (Representations of the djed cross): composite image edited by

the author. The left image is by the author, based on a wooden stela of
the Ptolemaic Period. The right image is of an amulet from the reign of
1061
Ramesses IX, 12th century BCE, from the Saqqara Serapeum and
currently at the Louvre Museum; photo by Sbastien Neithsabes,
original in color. Image is released into the public domain, available at
Wikimedia Commons.
Figure 84 (Djed crosses from the New Kingdom and Late Period):
Composite image edited by the author; source images by the author
based on various icon crucifixes & clergy crossesand by the Walters
Art Museum, originals in color. Used under Creative Commons
Commons. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Egyptian_-
_Djed_Pillar_-_Walters_481628.jpg.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Egyptian_-_Djed_Pillar_-
_Walters_481628_-_Left.jpg.
_Walters_61214.jpg.
_Walters_61214_-_Right.jpg.
Figure 85 (Raising of the Djed scene in the chapel of Osiris at the

Temple of Seti I in Abydos, 13th century BCE, and the raising of a
Roman cross): Photo on the left by Jon Bodsworth, original in color.
Used under Copyrighted Free Use license (see entry for Figure 16),
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Abydos_seti_16.jpg. Image on
the right from the Danish Church of Broens, c.1525, classified as public
Figure 86 (Depiction of the raising of the djed cross): Image by the

author; based on a scene from the tomb of Kheruef, TT192, 14 th century
BCE.
Figure 87 (The Crucifixion of Philip, at the Strozzi Chapel of Santa

Maria Novella in Florence): Image by Filippino Lippi, original in color.
for Figure 25 above.
1062
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Filippino,_smn,_crocifissione_d
i_san_filippo.jpg.
Figure 88 (Grave crosses at Point Lookout II cemetery in Angola): Photo

by Lee Honeycutt, original in color. Used under Creative Commons
Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license; available at Wikimedia
Commons.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PointLookoutIILSP.jpg.
(Funerary cross at Cementerio de Huaraz in Huaraz, Peru): Photo by
Dtarazona. Used under Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cementerio_de_Huaraz_Cruz_
B_16012008.jpg.
Figure 89 (The djed cross of Osiris flanked by circular ankh crosses

compared to a Roman cross flanked by circular Coptic crosses):
Composite image edited by the author; based on the Pyramidion of Hori
from Abu Tig, c. 1350 BCE, and the London Oriental Manuscript 6796.
Classified as public domain- see entry for Figure 25.
Figure 90 (Depiction of Osiris affixed to the djed cross): Image by the

author; based on a bronze statuette, 6th-5th century BCE, currently
featured by The California Institute of World Archaeology in Santa
Barbara.
Figure 91 (Depiction of a bronze statuette of Osiris with a djed cross

along the back): Image courtesy of Description de Lgypte: Antiquits
5, 2nd dition, ed. M. Edme-Franois Jomard (Paris: Imprimerie de C.L.F.
Panckoucke, 1823), Pl. 82.44, 46. This work is in the public domain.
Figure 92 (Depiction of Amenhotep III affixed to a djed cross): Image by

the author; based on a serpentine statue, 14th century BCE, currently at
the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Figure 93 (Depiction of Ptah-Osiris affixed to the djed cross): Image by

the author; based on a scene from the rear north wall of the tomb of
Horemheb, KV57, 13th century BCE.
1063
Figure 94 (Statue of Ptah with a djed along the back, 5th century BCE,
currently at the Walters Art Museum): Composite image edited by the
author; source photos by the Walters Art Museum, original in color.
Used under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Egyptian_-
_Ptah_Seated_on_Throne_-_Walters_42400_-_Back.jpg.
_Ptah_Seated_on_Throne_-_Walters_42400_-_Left.jpg.
Figure 95 (Depiction of various coffins with djed crosses along the

backs): Image by the author. From left to right, they are based upon 1)
the infer coffin of Djedmontuefankha, 7th century BCE, 2) the inner
coffin of Nesmutaatneru, 8th-7th century BCE, 3) the inner coffin of
Neskons, 10th century BCE, 4) the inner coffin of Hetepamun, 7th century
BCE.
Figure 96 (A coffin with the djed cross along the back interior, currently
at the Louvre Museum.): Photo by Rama, original in color. Used under
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 France license; available
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Louvres-antiquites-egyptiennes-
p1020005.jpg.
Figure 97 (Sarcophagus with a cross): Photo by John Kratz, original in

color. Used under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license,
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Iron_Cross_Two.jpg.
Figure 98 (The Gathenhielm Sarcophagi of Onsala, decorated with

crosses): Image by C.S. Hall Beck in Svenska Familj-Journalen 12, no. 1
(1873): 7. This work is in the public domain.
Figure 99-101: see entry for Figure 89.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cementerio_de_Huaraz_Tumba
_F_16012008.jpg.
s_B_16012008.jpg.
1064
s_16012008.jpg.
Figure 102 (Trees used for Roman crucifixion): Photos by Rubn

Betanzo S., originals in color. Used under Creative
Wikimedia Commons.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cruz_simple.jpg.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cruz_patibular..jpg.
Figure 103 (Depictions of Roman crucifixion in The Antwerp

Crucifixion): Image edited by the author, original in color by Antonello
da Messina. This work is in the public domain.
Figure 104 (Crucifixion of St. Andrew): Image by Carlo Braccesco,

original in color. Available at Wikimedia Commons, this work is in the
public domain.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Standrew2.jpg.
Figure 105 (Crucifixion upon trees depicted in The Martyrdom of St.

Maurice and the Theban Legion): Image by Jacopo Carucci da
Pontormo, original in color. This work is in the public domain.
Figure 106 (A cross embedded in a tree): Image by the author; based on a

grave from the Cemitrio So Miguel Arcanjo.
Figure 107 (Depiction of djed-ankh crosses): Image by the author; based

on faience amulets of the Third Intermediate Period.
Figure 108 (Depiction of Roman crosses in The Martyrdom of Martha

and Mary, and their Brother Lycarion, in Egypt): Author of the image is
unknown, original in color. This work is in the public domain.
Figure 109 (Ancient Celtic crosses): Composite image edited by the

author. From left to right: 1) Early Celtic Cross7th or 8th centuryat
Wooltack Point in Pembrokeshire, photo by Dr. Duncan Pepper,
original in color; 2) 8th century Pictish stone cross at Aberlemno, photo
by Anne Burgess, original in color; 3) 10th century Celtic high cross from
Clones, photo by David Quinn, original in color. All are used under
1065
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license,
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Early_Celtic_Cross_(7th_or_8t
h_century)_found_in_the_deerpark_wall_at_Wooltack_Point_-
_geograph.org.uk_-_1517573.jpg.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aberlemno_Cross_-
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:High_Cross,_Clones_-
Figure 110 (Depiction of an assortment of Ethiopian crosses): Image by

the author, based on Ethiopian crosses of the 4th-6th centuries.
Figure 111 (Depiction of Osiris upon a djed-ankh cross): Image by the

author.
Figure 112 (Illustration of a cruciform magical mummy effigy): Image

by the author, based on a cruciform mummy from ancient Egypt.
Figure 113 (Osiris in his tomb, from the Temple of Hathor at Dendera):
Photo by Francesco Gasparetti, original in color. Used under Creative
Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license, available at Wikimedia
Commons. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flickr_-_Gaspa_-
_Dendara,_tempio_di_Hator_(56).jpg.
Figure 114-119 (Various depictions of Osiris dead and buried in his

tomb; based on ancient Egyptian reliefs): Images by E.A. Wallis Budge
in Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection: Volume 2 (London: Philip Lee
Warner, 1911), 26, 28, 35, 50, 52-53. This work is now in the public
domain.
Figure 120 (No ghosts emblem): Composite image edited by the

author. Used under Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0
Unported license, available at Wikimedia Commons and ClipartFest.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SlashCircle.svg.
http://archive.is/GeMxf.
Figure 121-22 (The relation of bA, kA, and Ax to the deceased): Images by
the author.
1066
Figure 123 (Bruce Banner and his bA, the incredible Hulk): Image by
Dave silvergage of DFS-ART, original in color. Used under Creative
deviantART.
http://dfs-art.deviantart.com/art/Bruce-Banner-is-Hulk-90650944c.
Figure 124 (Steve Rogers looks back at his bA, Captain America): Image
by Amy K, original in color. Used under Creative Commons Attribution
4.0 International license, available at SketchPort. http://archive.is/lFErE.
Figure 125 (Dr. Jekyll transforms into his bA, Mr. Hyde): Image courtesy
of National Prtg. & Engr. Co. This work is now in the public domain.
Figure 126 (Billy Batson transforming into his bA, Captain Marvel):
Image by Charles Halloran, original in color. Used under Creative
deviantART. http://halloranillustration.deviantart.com/art/SHAZAM-
427231933.
Figure 127 (Clark Kent and his bA, Superman): Image by the author,
inspired by graphic novels featuring Superman.
Figure 128 (Nefertari and her bA): Image by the author; based on scene
from the Tomb of Nefertari, QV66, 13th century BCE.
Figure 129 (Ani, Thuthu, and their bA): Image by the author; based on a
scene from the Papyrus of Ani, 13th century BCE.
Figure 130 (Peleus vs. Thetis in her many forms): Image by the author;
based on an Athenian red-figure kylix, 6th-5th century BCE, currently at
the Staatliche Museum in Berlin.
Figure 131 (Tyler Durden and his bA, Jack): Image by Pouria
Hadizadeh, original in color. Used under Creative Commons Attribution
Share-Alike 3.0 Unported license, available at deviantART.
http://gilbertous64.deviantart.com/art/fight-club-111111632
Figure 132 (Inherkhau interacting with his bA): Image by the author;
based on a scene from the Tomb of Inherkhau, TT359, 12th century BCE.
1067
Figure 133 (Ani interacting with his bA): Image by the author; based on a
scene from the Papyrus of Ani, 13th century BCE.
Figure 134 (Osiris as Apis, based on the statue of Antinous as Osiris-

Apis, from the Serapaeum of the Canope in Hadrians Villa, currently at
the Vaticans Gregorian Egyptian Museum): Image by the author.
Figure 135-36 (Depictions of Osiris, based on reliefs at the Temple of

Dendera): Images by Auguste Mariette in Dendrah: Description
Gnrale du Grand Temple de Cette Ville, Vol. 4 (Paris: Librairie A.
Franck, 1873), pl. 53, 56. This work is now in the public domain.
Figure 137 (Plate depicting Ptah, Sokar, and Osiris): Image by Sir J.
Gardiner Wilkinson in A Second Series of the Manners and Customs of
the Ancient Egyptians: Supplement (London: John Murray, 1841), pl. 24.
This work is now in the public domain.
Figure 138 (Depiction of Osiris as Sokar with Apis, based on a relief at

the Temple of Dendera): Image by Auguste Mariette in Dendrah:
Description Gnrale du Grand Temple de Cette Ville, Vol. 4 (Paris:
Librairie A. Franck, 1873), pl. 55. This work is now in the public
domain.
Figure 139-40 (Images showing Isis with her bA in the form of a kite,
based reliefs at the Temple of Dendera): Images by E.A. Wallis Budge in
Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection: Volume 2 (London: Philip Lee
Warner, 1911), 31, 42. This work is now in the public domain.
Figure 141 (The bA, kA, and Ax forms of Osiris): Image edited by the
author, composed of various public domain images.
Figure 142-43 (Clark Kent and his bA form, Superman): Images by the
author, inspired by scenes from cinema featuring Superman
Figure 144 (Naruto and his kage bunshin): Image by the author, inspired
by media from the Naruto franchise.
Figure 145 (Four manifestations of Osiris): Image by the author; based

on the 3rd tableau of the Book of Caverns as seen in the cenotaph of Seti
1068
Figure 146-47 (The Good Shepherd physically interacting with his own
hypostasis/alter ego): Images edited by the author; originals in color, by
Pieter de Grebber. These works are now in the public domain.
Figure 148 (Osiris transfigured): Image edited by the author; original in

color, used under Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0
Unported license and available at Wikimedia Commons.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Standing_Osiris_edit1.svg.
Figure 149 (The kA symbol): Image by the author; based on an ancient

Egyptian relief.
Figure 150 (Senet eats for her kA): Image by the author; based on a relief
from the tomb of Senet at Thebes, TT60, 20th century BCE.
Figure 151 (KA statue of Hor Awibre, 18th century BCE): Photo by Jon
Bodsworth, original in color. Used under Copyright Free Use license (see
also entry for Figure 16), available at Wikimedia Commons.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ka_Statue_of_horawibra.jpg.
Figure 152 (KA statue of Amenemhet III, 19th century BCE): Image by
the author.
Figure 153 (KA statue of Djoser, 27th century BCE, currently at the Cairo
Museum): Original in color. Used under Creative Commons Attribution-
Share Alike 3.0 Unported license, available at Wikimedia Commons.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Djoser.jpg.
Figure 154 (KA statue of Overseer of Works, Middle Kingdom period,

currently at the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose): Photo by
BrokenSphere, original in color. Used under Creative Commons
Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license, available at Wikimedia
Commons.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ka_statue_of_man_of_rank_1
_REM.JPG.
Figure 155 (KA statue of a vizier, 18th century BCE, currently at the
Walters Art Museum in Baltimore): Original in color. This work is has
been released into the public domain and is available at Wikimedia
1069
Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Egyptian_-
_Statue_of_a_Vizier,_Usurped_by_Pa-di-iset_-_Walters_22203.jpg.
Figure 156 (KA statue of Nehy, 13th century BCE, currently at the Walters
Art Museum): Original in color. This work is has been released into the
public domain and is available at Wikimedia Commons.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Egyptian_-
_Seated_Statue_of_Nehy_-_Walters_22106.jpg.
Figure 157 (Kawit drinks milk for her reflection, i.e. her kA): From the
sarcophagus of Kawit, 21st century BCE; used under Creative Commons
Attribution 4.0 International license, available at Wikimedia Commons.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Princess_Kaiwit_having_her_h
air_dressed,_circa_2000BC._Wellcome_M0006211.jpg.
Figure 158 (Khnum endows Hatshepsut with her kA): based on a scene
from the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, 15th century BCE): Image by
Edouard Naville in The Temple of Deir El Bahari: Part II (London:
Egypt Exploration Fund, 1897), pl. XLVIII. This work is now in the
public domain.
Figure 159 (The prince with his kA is presented to Amun): (The prince
receives his kA and is presented to Amen): Image by Carl R. Lepsius in
Denkmaeler aus Aegypten und Aethiopien: Band V, Enthaltend,
Abtheilung III Blatt I-XC (Berlin: Nicolaische Buchhandlung, 1849-58),
Bl.75; based on a scene from the Temple of Luxor, 18th Dynasty. This
work is now in the public domain.
Figure 160 (Tutankhamun embraces Osiris): From the tomb of

Tutankamun, KV62, 14th century BCE. Available at Wikimedia
Commons, classified as public domain- see entry for Figure 25.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tutankhamun_embraces_Osiri
s.jpg.
Figure 161-68 (Various images of Osiris physically resurrecting; based

on ancient Egyptian reliefs): Images by E.A. Wallis Budge in Osiris and
the Egyptian Resurrection: Volume 2 (London: Philip Lee Warner,
1911), 29, 40, 42, 43, 46, 54-55, 58. This work is now in the public
domain.
1070
Figure 169 (Tomb remains at Abydos once believed to literally be the
emptied grave of the resurrected Osiris): Image by the author; based on
the remains of the tomb of Djer
Figure 170 (Old Kingdom false door of Imhotep): Photo by

HoremWeb, original in color. Used under Creative Commons
Commons.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:False_Door_of_an_Imhotep.jpg.
Figure 171 (The false door of Manefer, 5th dynasty): Photo by Sbastien
Neithsabes, original in color. Used under Creative Commons
Commons.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Berlin_122009_037.jpg.
Figure 172 (The false door of Ihy, 12th dynasty): Photo by HoremWeb,
original in color. Used under Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ihys_false_door_2.jpg.
Figure 173 (The seven-gated false door at the Chapel of Osiris

Hemkadjet at Karnak): Photo by Olaf Tausch, original in color. Used
under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license, available at
Wikimedia Commons.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Karnak_Kapelle_Osiris_Hekadj
et_04.JPG.
Figure 174 (Ani and his wife begin pass through the seven gates of the
House of Osiris, from the Papyrus of Ani, 13th century BCE): Images by
E.A. Wallis Budge in The Book of the Dead: The Papyrus of Ani, Volume
I (London: The Medici Society, LTD., 1913), pl. 11-12. This work is
Figure 175 (Osiris sailing across the night sky): Photo by Olaf Tausch,
originals in color. Used under Creative Commons Attribution-Share
1071
Figure 176 (Osiris ascends to the Orion constellation): Photo by
LassiHu, original in color. Used under Creative Commons Attribution-
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dendara_zodiac.JPG.
Figure 177 (The twelve stages of the suns voyage across the sky; based
on a relief from the Hall of the New Year at Edfu): Image by M.
Faucher-Gudin in History of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, and
Assyria: Vol. 1, by Gaston Maspero (London: The Grolier Society
Publishers, 1903), 118. This work is now in the public domain.
Figure 178 (The twelve divisions of Nut; based on the coffin of

Peftjauneith of the Ptolemaic Period): Image by M. Faucher-Gudin in
History of Egypt, Chaldea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria: Vol. 1, by
Gaston Maspero (London: The Grolier Society Publishers, 1903), 115.
Figure 179 (The twelve caverns of the Netherworld, corresponding to the

twelve hours of the night): Image by the author; based on the Egyptian
Book of Amduat, as seen in tombs of the New Kingdom Period.
Figure 180-81 (Drawings of the twelve goddesses and twelve guardian

serpents of the first hour of the Book of Amduat): Images by E.A. Wallis
Budge in The Egyptian Heaven and Hell: Vol. I, The Book Am-Tuat
(London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trbner & Co., Ltd., 1905), 10, 12, 13,
Figure 182 (Twelve servants of Re, walking on water; from the third
hour of the Book of Amduat, as seen in the tomb of Thutmose III, 15th
century BCE): Image courtesy of Azimandyas, original in color.
for Figure 25. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Am3rdHour.jpg.
Figure 183 (Twelve goddesses walking on water as they guide the barque
of Re through the fourth cavern of the Netherworld): Image by the
author; based on the 4th Hour of the Book of Gates as seen in the tomb
of Ramesses I, KV16, 13th century BCE.
1072
Figure 184 (Twelve gods of the crew of the bark of Re, rowing Him who
is in the horizon until he set in the eastern gateway of the sky): Image by
the author; based on the 9th Hour of the Book of Amduat as seen in the
tomb of Thutmose III, KV34, 15th century BCE.
Figure 185 (Twelve followers of Re, armed for battle; from the tenth
hour of the Book of Amduat, as seen on the Papyrus of Amenhotep,
priest of Amun, 11th century BCE): Image courtesy of Azimandyas,
original in color. Available at Wikimedia Commons, classified as public
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AmenhotepPapyrus_A.jpg.
Figure 186 (The twelve bearers of the Mehen serpent; from the eleventh
hour of the Book of Amduat, as seen on the Papyrus of Amenhotep,
priest of Amun, 11th century BCE): Image courtesy of Azimandyas,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AmenhotepPapyrus_B.jpg
Figure 187 (Twelve gods lifting the mystery of this great god to the
Hidden Chamber, day after day. They go forth with this great god to the
sky): Image by the author; based on the 11th Hour of the Book of
Amduat as seen in the tomb of Thutmose III, KV34, 15th century BCE.
Figure 188 (Twelve gods who elevate the great sun disc in the eastern
horizon of the sky, day after day): Image by the author; based on the
12th Hour of the Book of Amduat as seen in the tomb of Thutmose III,
Figure 189 (Twelve guardian goddesses, worshipers, and towers of Re;

from the twelfth hour of the Book of Amduat, as seen in the tomb of
Amenhotep II, 15th century BCE): Image courtesy of Azimandyas,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Am12thHour.jpg.
Figure 190 (Twelve gods who possess the Eye of Re, whom he has
hidden from those who are upon earth): Image by the author; based on
1073
the 1st Hour of the Book of Gates as seen on the sarcophagus of Seti I,
13th century BCE.
Figure 191 (Twelve gods who have adored Re on earth, and have
enchanted Apophis): Image by the author; based on the 2nd Hour of the
Figure 192 (Twelve followers of Re whom he bodily resurrects from out

of their shrines): Image by the author; based on the 3rd Hour of the Book
Figure 193 (The twelve Jackals who are in the Lake of Life'): Image
by the author; based on the 4th Hour of the Book of Gates as seen in the
tomb of Horemheb, KV57, 13th century BCE..
Figure 194 (Twelve gods who have gone to their kA): Image by the
author; based on the 4th Hour of the Book of Gates as seen in the tomb
of Horemheb, KV57, 13th century BCE.
Figure 195 (The twelve AXs who make jubilation for Re in the West):
Image by the author; based on the 5th Hour of the Book of Gates as seen
on the sarcophagus of Seti I, 13th century BCE.
Figure 196 (Twelve bA who have spoken Maat on earth): Image by the
author; based on the 5th Hour of the Book of Gates as seen on the
Figure 197 (The twelve gods and goddesses who are in this gate):
Figure 198 (The twelve captors of Apophis who punish Evilface, and
overthrow the enemies of Re. It is they who seize the rebel, and let
emerge the heads of those who are in him): Image by the author; based
on the 6th Hour of the Book of Gates as seen on the sarcophagus of Seti
Figure 199 (The twelve armed gods whose forked sticks, Re, are
planted into the Devourer, our strings are on the Evil Serpent): Image
1074
by the author; based on the 6th Hour of the Book of Gates as seen on the
Figure 200 (The twelve gods of Aqen who carry the double-twisted
rope out of which the hours emerge): Image by the author; based on the
6th Hour of the Book of Gates as seen on the sarcophagus of Seti I, 13th
century BCE.
Figure 201 (The twelve gods of Ikeki who carry the Devourer whom
they grasp): Image by the author; based on the 8th Hour of the Book of
Figure 202 (The twelve gods of the council of gods which surrounds the
Island of Fire): Image by the author; based on the 9th Hour of the Book
Figure 203 (The twelve goddesses who tow Re and who guide him on
the ways in heaven): Image by the author; based on the 11th Hour of the
Figure 204 (The twelve gods who transform for the rebirth of Re in
heaven gods who know no decay): Image by the author; based on the
11th Hour of the Book of Gates as seen on the sarcophagus of Seti I, 13th
century BCE.
Figure 205 (The twelve divine baboons worshiping the rising sun in his
form as Khepri): Image by the author; based on a scene from the tomb of
Tutankhamen, KV62, 14th century BCE.
Figure 206 (The twelve followers of Osiris & Re, from the Book of the
Dead as seen in the Papyrus of Ani, 13th century BCE): Image courtesy
of E.A. Wallis Budge in The Book of the Dead: The Papyrus of Ani,
Volume I (London: The Medici Society, LTD., 1913), pl. 36. This work
Figure 207 (Osiris with twelve followers; from the second hour of the
Book of Amduat, as seen in the tomb of Amenhotep II, 15th century
BCE): Image courtesy of Azimandyas, original in color. Available at
25. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AmHour2.jpg.
1075
Figure 208 (The twelve goddesses of the twelve night hours gather at the
coffin of Osiris; from the seventh hour of the Book of Amduat, as seen in
the tomb of Thutmose III, 15th century BCE): Image courtesy of
Azimandyas, original in color. Available at Wikimedia Commons,
classified as public domain- see entry for Figure 25.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Am7thHour.png.
Figure 209 (Twelve servants of Osiris; from the ninth hour of the book of
Amduat, as seen in the tomb of Thutmose III, KV34, 15th century BCE):
Image courtesy of Azimandyas, original in color. Available at
25.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Am9thHour.jpg.
Figure 210 (Twelve female followers of Osiris walking in his train):

Image by the author; based on the 9th Hour of the Book of Amduat as
seen in the tomb of Thutmose III, KV34, 15th century BCE.
Figure 211 (Twelve seraphim who spit fire for Osiris, Foremost of the
Netherworld): Image by the author; based on the 9th Hour of the Book
of Amduat as seen in the tomb of Thutmose III, KV34, 15th century
BCE.
Figure 212 (The twelve Gods of the Western Desert): Image by the
author; based on the 1st Hour of the Book of Gates as seen on the
Figure 213 (The twelve justified who are in the Duat Those who
have spoken Maat on earth, who have kept afar from doing wrong):
Image by the author; based on the 2nd Hour of the Book of Gates as seen
Figure 214 (The twelve Gods who are in the Lake of Fire): Image by
the author; based on the 3rd Hour of the Book of Gates as seen on the
Figure 215 (The twelve followers of Osiris who surround his shrine):
Image by the author; based on the 4th Hour of the Book of Gates, as seen
in the tomb of Ramesses I, KV16, 13th century BCE.
1076
Figure 216 (The twelve gods of Osiris who carry the measuring-rope in
the fields of the Duat): Image by the author; based on the 5th Hour of
the Book of Gates as seen on the sarcophagus of Seti I, 13th century
BCE.
Figure 217 (Twelve gods carrying the serpent of time): Image by the
Figure 218 (The twelve followers of Osiris are bodily resurrected by the
Sungod): Image by the author; based on the 6th Hour of the Book of
Gates as seen in the tomb of Seti I, KV17, 13th century BCE.
Figure 219 (The twelve gods with hidden arm who carry the mystery):
Figure 220 (The twelve gods of Osiris who guard the Lake of Fire):
in the tomb of Horemheb, KV57, 13th century BCE.
Figure 221 (The twelve followers of Osiris who practiced Maat on

earth): Image by the author; based on the 7th Hour of the Book of Gates
as seen in the tomb of Ramesses III, KV11, 12th century BCE.
Figure 222 (The twelve grain gods of Osiris): Image by the author; based
on the 7th Hour of the Book of Gates as seen in the tomb of Ramesses
III, KV11, 12th century BCE.
Figure 223 (Twelve gods of Osiris carry twelve baskets of bread): Image
by the author; based on the 7th Hour of the Book of Gates, as seen in the
tomb of Ramesses III, KV11, 12th century BCE.
Figure 224 (The twelve gods who carry the rope which gives birth to
mysteries): Image by the author; based on the 8th Hour of the Book of
Figure 225 (The twelve sphinx mummies of He with hidden

mysteries): Image by the author; based on the 8th Hour of the Book of
1077
Figure 226 (The twelve Masters of provision in the West): Image by
the author; based on the 8th Hour of the Book of Gates as seen on the
Figure 227 (The twelve Gods who cut off throats): Image by the
Figure 228 (The twelve members of the divine tribunal of Osiris; from
the Papyrus of Ani, 13th cen. BCE.): Image by E.A. Wallis Budge in The
Book of the Dead: The Papyrus of Ani, Volume I (London: The Medici
Society, LTD., 1913), pl. 3. This work is now in the public domain.
Figure 229-31 (Depictions of the weighing of the heart deceased during

judgment; based on vignettes from the Book of the Dead): Images by
E.A. Wallis Budge in The Book of the Dead: The Papyrus of Ani, Volume
I (London: The Medici Society, LTD., 1913), 236-37, 281. This work is
Figure 232 (Depiction of Osiris judging the deceased; based on a

vignette from the Book of the Dead): Image by Ernst Wallis in
Illustrerad Verldshistoria: Behandlar Orientens, Greklands och
Romerska folkets historia (Chicago: Svenska Amerikanaren, 1894), 56.
Figure 233 (Osiris judging the dead; from the First Book of Breathings of
Ousirour, Ptolemaic Period): Photo by Rama, original in color. Used
under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 France license,
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:First_book_of_respirations_N3
284_mp3h8821.jpg.
Figure 234 (A judgment scene from the Papyrus of Ani, 13th cen. BCE.):
Photo by Soutekh67, original in color. Used under Creative Commons
Commons. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ani_chap125.jpg.
Figure 235 (Osiris presiding over the judgment; from a papyrus on

display at the Cairo Museum): Photo by Hajor, original in color. Used
1078
under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license,
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Egypt.Papyrus.01.jpg.
Figure 236 (Judgment scene from the Book of the Dead of Neskhons, 11-
10th century BCE.): Photo courtesy of Sven-steffen Arndt, original in
color. . Available at Wikimedia Commons, classified as public domain-
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ausschnitt_aus_dem_Totenbuc
h_der_Neschons.jpg.
Figure 237 (Casting away the condemned as a swine; based on a scene

from the Book of Gates): Image by E.A. Wallis Budge in The Egyptian
Heaven and Hell: Vol. I, The Book Am-Tuat (London: Kegan Paul,
Trench, Trbner & Co., Ltd., 1905), 161. This work is now in the public
domain.
Figure 238-41 (Depictions of the Lake of Fire; based on vignettes from

the Book of the Dead): Images by E.A. Wallis Budge in The Book of the
Dead: The Papyrus of Ani, Volume I (London: The Medici Society,
LTD., 1913), 237; Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection: Volume 1
(London: Philip Lee Warner, 1911), 205, 346. These works are now in
the public domain.
Figure 242 (Horus united with Re as Re-Horakhti; from the Stela of Lady
Taperet, 9th-7th century BCE, currently at the Louvre Museum): Photo
by Rama, original in color. Used under Creative Commons
Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 France license; available at Wikimedia
Commons.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Taperet_stele_E52_mp3h9201.j
pg.
Figure 243 (Horus the Child as sun god; from the Papyrus of Dama-
Heroub, 11th-10th century BCE):
Figure 172-73 (Depictions of Horus as sun god): Images by the author,
based on the Stela of Wenenkhu and a 19th Dynasty wooden stela from
Deir el-Medina, 13th century BCE.
1079
Figure 244-47 (Depictions of Horus the Child as sun god, seated upon
the prows of the barque of Maat and Sektet; based on scenes from the
Temple of Dendera): Images by E.A. Wallis Budge in Osiris and the
62, 64. This work is now in the public domain.
Figure 248 (Ruins of an ancient temple of Horus on Thoth Hill which

was aligned to the winter solstice sunrise, c. 2000 BCE): Photo by
Roland Unger, original in color. Used under Creative Commons
Commons.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ThothHillTemple.jpg.
Figure 249 (Sunrise on the winter solstice): Photo by Betty Blair, original
in color. Used under Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Maiden_tower_baku_solstice_
med.jpg.
Figure 250-51 (Depictions of the birth of the sun on the winter solstice,
based on a relief from the Ramesside Period, etc.): Images by Heinrich
Brugsch in Thesaurus Inscriptionum Aegyptiacarum: Abtheilung 1
(Leipzig: J.C. Hinrichssche Buchhandlung, 1883), 408-11. This work is
Figure 252 (Faience statue of the infant Horus, 20th-15th century BCE,
currently at the Walters Art Museum): Photo courtesy of the Walters Art
Museum, original in color. Used under Creative Commons Attribution
Share-Alike 3.0 Unported license, available at Wikimedia Commons.
_Horus_the_Child,_Seal_Squatting_Child_-_Walters_42207_-_Left.jpg.
Figure 253 (Greco-Roman statue of the infant Horus, currently at the

Louvre Museum): Photo by Rama, original in color. Used under
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 France license; available
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Crouching_child-Louvre-
NIII2411-IMG_3078.jpg.
1080
Figure 254 (Sirius, the star of Isis): Photo by Akira Fujii, original in
color. This work has been released into the public domain.
Figure 255 (Depictions of the infant Horus accompanied by a star):

Image by the author; based on Phoenician scarab gems, 6th-4th century
BCE.
Figure 256 (Depiction of an incense offering to the sun, based on a scene

from the Tomb of Meryra, 18th Dynasty): Image by Norman de G.
Davies. This work is now in the public domain.
Figure 257 (Depictions of the infant Horus being visited by various

groups of three sacred bA animals of the kingship): Image by the author;
based on various scarab gems and talismans from the Hellenistic Era.
Figure 258 (The infant Horus being hidden in the bulrushes; from the
Temple of Edfu): Photo by Grard Ducher, original in color. Used under
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license;
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:GD-EG-Edfou013.JPG.
Figure 259 (The birth of Horus in the papyrus swamp; based on a

scene from the mammisi at the Temple of Philae): Image by Carl T.
Odhner in The Correspondences of Egypt: A Study in the Theology of the
Ancient Church (Bryn Athyn: The Academy Book Room, 1914), 124.
Figure 260 (The rebirth of Horus from the corpse of Osiris; from the
Book of the Earth as seen in the tomb of Ramesses VI, KV9, 12th century
BCE): Author of the image is unknown, original in color. Available at
25. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BotE.jpg.
Figure 261 (Depiction of the conception of Horus by Isis; based on a

relief at Dendera): Image by E.A. Wallis Budge in Osiris and the
1081
Figure 262-63 (Isis proclaims herself to be the Great Virgin): Images
by the author, based on the south gate in the west wall of the chapel of
Osiris at the Temple of Seti I at Abydos, 13th century BCE.
Figure 264-65 (Isis conceives Horus through her bA in the form of a

bird): Images by E.A. Wallis Budge in Osiris and the Egyptian
Resurrection: Volume 2 (London: Philip Lee Warner, 1911), 31, 38. This
Figure 266 (Statue of Isis nursing the newborn Horus, while donning the
vulture cap, 7th century BCE): Photo courtesy of the Walters Art
Museum, original in color. Used under Creative Commons Attribution
_Isis_with_Horus_the_Child_-_Walters_54416_-
_Three_Quarter_Right.jpg.
Figure 267 (Isis greets Nectanebo II while wearing her vulture headdress;
from the Saqqara Serapaeum, 4th century BCE): Photo by Marie-Lan
Nguyen, original in color. Used under Creative Commons Attribution 2.5
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nectanebo_II_Isis_Louvre_N40
2.jpg.
Figure 268 (Limestone relief of Isis in the vulture headdress, 4th-1st

century BCE, currently at the Brooklyn Museum): Photo by Trish Mayo,
original in color. Used under Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WLA_brooklynmuseum_Repre
sentation_of_Isis_limestone.jpg.
Figure 269 (Isis dons the vulture cap; a relief from the Temple of Philae,
3rd cen. BCE): Photo by Anna Carotti, original in color. This work has
been released into the public domain.
Figure 270 (Depiction of the infant Horus flanked by Isis & Nephthys in
the forms of vultures): Image by the author; based on a damaged
Assyrian furniture plaque, 8th-7th century BCE.
1082
Figure 271 (Osiris flanked by Isis & Nephthys in the form of a vulture
and winged cobra): Image by the author; based on a pectoral from the
tomb of Tutankhamun, 14th century BCE.
Figure 272-73 (Depictions of Horus walking on water in the

netherworld): Images by the author, based on scenes from the second
hour of the Book of Amduat as seen in the tomb of Thutmose III, KV34,
15th century BCE.
Figure 274-75 (Depictions of the Etruscan sun god Usil walking on

water): Images by the author, based on an Etruscan bronze mirror, 6th
century BCE, and an Etruscan cista ornament, 5th century BCE.
Figure 276 (Depiction of the Etruscan sun god Usil parting the sea):
Image by the author; based on an Etruscan bronze mirror, 6th century
BCE.
Figure 277 (Horus as a lion; from the Temple of Edfu, 3rd century BCE):
Composite image edited by the author. The top portion is a photo by
Hedwig Storch, original in color. Used under Creative Commons
Commons.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Edfu_Temple_9628.JPG. The
bottom portion is a photo by Karen Green, original in color. Used under
Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 2.0 Generic license,
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flickr_-_schmuela_-_falcon-
sphinx_and_vulture,_over_lotus_flowers.jpg.
Figure 278 (Horus conquering Seth in the form of a hippopotamus; from

the Temple of Edfu): Photo by Rmih, original in color. Used under
Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0 Unported license,
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Edfu47.JPG.
Figure 279 (Horus slaying the bull of Seth while guarded by Sagittarius;
from the ceiling of the Temple of Dendera): Author of the image is
unknown, original in color. Classified as public domain- see entry for
Figure 25.
1083
Figure 280 (Horus and Seth reuniting the two kingdoms; based on a
relief from the throne of Senusret I, 20th century BCE): Image by
Gustave Jquier in Histoire de la Civilisation gyptienne: des Origines a
la Conqute DAlexandre (Paris: Librairie Payot et Cie, 1913), 43. This
Figure 281 (Horus conquers Seth in the form of a crocodile, Roman

Imperial Era, currently at the Louvre Museum): Photo by
, original in color. Used under Creative Commons Attribution
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Horus_on_horseback_spearing_
a_crocodile.png.
Figure 282 (Statue of George of Lydda slaying the dragon in

Marckolsheim, France): Photo by Olivier, original in color. Used under
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Marckolsheim_-
_Saint_Georges_terrassant_le_dragon.jpg.
Figure 283 (Medieval tympanum of George slaying the dragon from

Brinsop, UK): Photo by Philip Pankhurst, original in color. Used under
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St_George,_Brinsop_-
Figure 284 (Medieval steatite Byzantine sculpture of George killing the

dragon from Egypt): Photo courtesy of the Walters Art Museum, original
in color. Used under Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 3.0
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Byzantine_-
_St_George_and_the_Dragon_-_Walters_41205.jpg.
Figure 285 (Medieval limestone sculpture of George battling the dragon,

currently at the Muse de la Guerre au Moyen-ge, Chteau de
Castelnaud, Dordogne, France): Photo by Jebulon, original in color.
This work has been released into the public domain.
1084
Figure 286 (Horus with 12 followers, the gods of the night stars; from the
seventh hour of the Book of Amduat from the tomb of Thutmose III,
15th century BCE): Image courtesy of Azimandyas, original in color.
for Figure 25. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Am7thHour.png.
Figure 287 (Horus with 12 followers, the gods of the night stars): Image
by the author; based on the 7th Hour of the Book of Amduat as seen in
the tomb of Amenhotep II, KV35, 15th century BCE.
by the author; based on the tomb of Ramesses III, KV11, 12th century
BCE.
by the author; based on the tomb of Ramesses VI, KV9, 12th century
BCE.
Figure 290 (Twelve deceased, buried in the Nile and baptized the Nun,
are welcomed into the afterlife by Horus; from the tenth hour of the
Book of Amduat as seen on the Papyrus of Amenophis, priest of Amun,
11th century BCE): Image courtesy of Azimandyas, original in color.
for Figure 25.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AmenhotepPapyrus_A.jpg.
Figure 291 (Twelve deceased, buried in the Nile and baptized the Nun,
are welcomed into the afterlife by Horus): Image by the author; based on
the Papyrus of Henettawy, 10th century BCE.
Figure 292 (Horus takes the twelve enemies of his father Osiris to the
Lake of Fire): Image by the author; based on the 9th Hour of the Book of
Gates as seen in tombs of Ramesses V & VI, KV9, 12th century BCE.
Figure 293 (Depiction of the dead & mummified corpses of Osiris and
Horus, sailing upon their funeral barques; based on the Book of the Earth
as seen in the tomb of Ramesses VI, KV9, 12th century BCE): Composite
image edited by the author to match the positioning in the original scene
from KV9; source images by E.A. Wallis Budge in Osiris and the
1085
12, 14. This work is now in the public domain.
Figure 294 (Depiction of Horus dead & mummified): Image by the

author; based on a funerary statuette from the 11th-4th century BCE.
Figure 295 (The mummified Horus and Osiris, now risen and standing;
from the Book of the Earth as seen in the tomb of Ramesses VI, KV9,
12th century BCE): Author of the image is unknown, original in color.
for Figure 25. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kv9D3t.png.
Figure 296 (An acacia tree, upon which Horus was regenerated): Photo
courtesy of The Field Museum Library, original in color. This photo has
no known copyright restrictions, and is available at Flickr: The
Commons.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/field_museum_library/3948871162/.
Figure 297 (Osiris & Dionysus with the horns of a bull): Image by the
author; based on a statue of Antinous as Osiris-Apis from the Serapaeum
of the Canope in Hadrians Villa, currently at the Vaticans Gregorian
Egyptian Museum, and a bronze mask of Dionysus from the 3rd-2nd
century BCE, currently at the British Museum.
Figure 298 (Osiris & Dionysus represented by a bull): Composite image

edited by the author. The top portion is a limestone relief, 7 th-4th century
BCE, currently at the Walters Art Museum. Photo courtesy of the
Walters Art Museum, and is now in the public domain, available at
Wikimedia Commons.
_Rectangular_Tablet_with_Temple_Scene_-_Walters_22129.jpg. The
bottom portion is an image by the author based on a Neo-Attic relief
currently at the Vatican Museum.
Figure 299 (Greek vase depicting the chariot of Dionysus being pulled
by a bull, a griffin, and a lion, 4th century BCE, currently at the Louvre
Museum): Photo by Bibi Saint-Pol, original in color. Image is released
into the public domain, available at Wikimedia Commons.
1086
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chariot_Dionysos_Louvre_M1
0.jpg.
Figure 300 (Relief of the four Sons of Horus from the tomb of
Paatenemheb, 14th century BCE): Photo by Rob Koopman, original in
color. Used under Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license, available
at Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/koopmanrob/4417513837/.
Figure 301 (Folio 27v from the Book of Kells): Author of the image is
unknown, original in color. This work is in the public domain, available
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:KellsFol027v4Evang.jpg.
Figure 302 (Marble sarcophagus relief of the triumphant procession of

Dionysus from Athens, currently at the Walters Art Museum): Photo
courtesy of the Walters Art Museum, original in color. This image is now
in the public domain, available at Wikimedia Commons.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Roman_-
_Sarcophagus_with_the_Triumph_of_Dionysus_-_Walters_2331.jpg.
Figure 303 (Roman mosaic of the triumphant return of Dionysus,

currently at the Sousse Archaeological Museum): Author of the image is
unknown, original in color. Available at Wikimedia Commons, classified
as public domain- see entry for Figure 25.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Triumph_of_Bacchus_-
_Sousse.jpg.
Figure 304 (The return of Dionysus upon an ass, after the capture of
Hephaistos): Image by the author; based on an Attic Greek vase 5th
century BCE, currently at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Figure 305 (The triumphant return of Dionysus riding upon an ass):

Image by the author; based on an Attic Greek vase, 5th century BCE,
currently at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Figure 306 (Dionysus riding upon a mule): Image by the author; based
on an Attic Greek vase, 5th century BCE, currently at the Allard Pierson
Museum in Amsterdam.
1087
Figure 307 (Dionysus riding upon an ass while drinking wine): Image by
the author; based on various privately collected Macedonian coins, all
from the 5th century BCE.
Figure 308-12 (Semele flees from Zeus as he prepares to strike her with
lightning): Photos of/images based on various Greek pottery from the 5th-
4th centuries BCE, courtesy of Arthur B. Cook, Zeus: A Study in Ancient
Religion, Volume II, Part I (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1925), 24-26. This work is now in the public domain.
Figure 313 (Zeus extracts the fetus of Dionysus from the burning corpse
of Semele): Image by Ludovico Dolce. This work is in the public
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Semele,_Ludovico_Dolce,_155
8.jpg.
Figure 314 (Dionysus reborn from the body of his father, just like
Horus): Composite image edited by the author. The top portion is based
on a proto-Apulian krater, 5th century BCE, currently at the National
Archaeological Museum of Taranto. The bottom is from Figure 188.
Figure 315 (Dionysus & Horus being presented to the father from whom
they were born): Composite image edited by the author. The top portion
is based on an Attic red-rigure volute krater, 5th century BCE, currently
at the National Museum of Spina in Ferrara. The bottom portion is based
on a relief from the East Osirian Chapel on the roof of the Temple of
Hathor at Dendera, courtesy of Karl Baedeker, Egypt - Handbook for
Traveling, Part First: Lower Egypt and the Peninsula of Sinai (London:
Dulau and Co., 1895), clii. This work is now in the public domain.
Figure 316 (Dionysus in the embrace of his mother Semele, who has
clearly been resurrected from the dead; based on a bronze Etruscan
mirror, 4th century BCE, currently at the Staatliche Museum in Berlin):
Image courtesy of Charles G. Leland, Etruscan Roman Remains in
Popular Tradition (New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1892), 66. This
Figure 317 (Dionysus bringing Semele back from the dead; based on an
Attic black-figure hydria, 5th century BCE, currently at the Staatliche
1088
Museum in Berlin): Image by L Steffen, Berlin c. 1830, original in color.
Figure 318 (The Infant Bacchus Killed by the Titans and Restored to Life
by Rhea): Image by Taddeo Zuccaro, Sant'Angelo in Vado c. 1561-66.
This work is in the public domain.
Figure 319 (Grape vines growing from Dionysus flesh): From a wine
kylix by Exekias, 6th century BCE, currently at the Staatliche
Antikensammlungen in Munich.
Figure 320 (Grape vines growing from divine flesh): Author of the
images are unknown, taken from various icon & fresco paintings of the
16th-18th centuries, originals in color. Classified as public domain- see
entry for Figure 25.
Figure 321 (A grapevine hanging upon a Field Maple tree): Photo by
Pg1945, original in color. Used under Creative Commons Attribution-
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coltura_Promiscua.jpg.
Figure 322 (A grapevine hanging upon an oak tree): Photo by Serge
Melki, original in color. Used under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bijdarfel_-_Batroun_-
_Grapevine_around_oak_tree_(2308282313).jpg.
Figure 323 (grape vine trunk planted in the 1770s): Photo by Charlie
Vinz, original in color. Used under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0
Generic license, available at Flickr.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/vinzcha/5099558163/.
Figure 324-26 (The Good Shepherd upon a grape vine the size of a tree):
Byzantine & Greek Orthodox icons from the 15th-16th centuries. Edited
by the author; originals in color. Classified as public domain- see entry
for Figure 25.
Figure 327 (An effigy of Dionysus hangs upon a tree while the Bacchae
serve bread & wine): Image by the author; based on an Attic vase, 5th
century BCE, currently at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
1089
century BCE.
century BCE, currently at the Naples National Archaeological Museum.
Figure 330 (The Bacchae worship Dionysus while he hangs upon a tree
before an altar, cakes of bread having been skewered upon the branches;
based on an Attic cup by Makron, 5th century BCE, currently at the
Staatliche Museum in Berlin): Image courtesy of Jane E. Harrison,
Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1908), 427. This work is now in the public domain.
Figure 331 (The Good Shepherd hangs upon a tree): By Giovanni da
Modena, from the San Petronio Basilica; edited by the author, original in
color. This work is now in the public domain.
Figure 332 (The Good Shepherd hangs upon a tree): By Sir Edward
Burne-Jones, from the American Episcopal Church in Rome; edited by
the author, original in color. This work is now in the public domain.
Figure 333 (The Good Shepherd hangs upon a tree): From the St. Peter
Codex, 13th century, original in color. This work is in the public domain,
and is available at Wikimedia Commons.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cod_St_Peter_perg_139_Sche
renberg-Psalter_8r.jpg.
Figure 334 (The Good Shepherd hangs upon a tree): From the Lignum
Vitae by St. Bonaventure; edited by the author, original in color. This
Figure 335 (Grapevines hanging from cross-shaped trellises): Image by

the author; composite of images based on a Californian grape farms as
well as a 1st century Roman fresco from the Casa del Centenario in
Pompeii, currently at the Mational Archaeological Museum of Naples.
That image is in the public domain, available at Wikimedia Commons.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pompeii_-
_Casa_del_Centenario_-_MAN.jpg.
1090
Figure 336 (The grapes of Canaan & The Good Shepherds cross) Taken
from a relief at a monastery in Sion, and 16th century manuscript by
Hieronymus Wierix from Antwerp, currently at the British Museum;
classified as public domain- see entry for Figure 25.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wierix-
spiescarryinggrapes.jpg.
Figure 337 (Dionysus as the cross-shaped herm statue): Image by the
author; based on a replica of a damaged herm recovered from the
shipwreck of Mahdia in the 2nd century BCE, currently at The Getty
Villa Malibu.
Figure 338 (A cruciform double-herm featuring Dionysus on one side
and Hermes on the reverse side): Image by the author; based on a marble
herm statue, 1st century BCE-CE, currently at the Museum of Fine Arts
in Boston.
Figure 339 (A cruciform herm of Dionysus stands upon a pillar): Image
by the author; based on based on an Arretine bowl, 1st century BCE-CE.
Figure 340 (A herm of Dionysus with two fish): Image by the author;
based on a Heraclean coin, 2nd-1st century BCE, currently at the British
Museum.
Figure 341 (Another cruciform herm of Dionysus): Image by the author;
based on a mosaic from the House of Bacchus and Ariadne in Ostia.
Figure 342 (Dionysus as a herm cross): Image by the author; based on

bronze coins of Prince Machares, 1st century BCE.
Figure 343 (The Riasg Buidhe Cross of Colonsay): Photo by Karenjc,

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Riasg_Buidhe_Cross.jpg.
Figure 344 (Herm of Dionysus with an erect phallus): Image by the

author; based on an Attic amphora, 5th century BCE.
Figure 345 (Statue of Antinous as Dionysus with a hole for a removable

phallus; currently on display at the Banca dItalia in Rome, Roman
1091
Imperial Era): Image courtesy of Verlagsanstalt fr Kunst und
Wissenschaft, 1892. This work is now in the public domain.
Figure 346 (Statues of the phallus of Dionysus at the ruins of his temple
in Delos, 4th century BCE): Photo by Geraki, original in color. Used
under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Greece license,
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Delos_3124.jpg.
Figure 347 (The apotheosized phallus of Dionysus): Image by the author;

based on a phallic idol from Delos, 4th century BCE.
Figure 348 (A Bacchic hetaerae carries a giant replica of Dionysus

severed phallus): Image by the author; based on a wine pitcher, 5th
century BCE, currently at the Staatliche Museum in Berlin.
Figure 349 (Roman coin portraying Dionysus on top of the Cista Mystica
containing his phallus, while flanked by phallic serpents, c.39 BCE):
Photo courtesy of Classical Numismatic Group, Inc., original in color.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mark_Antony_and_Octavia.jpg
.
Figure 350 (Dionysus w/ phallic serpent & the Cista Mystica): Image by
the author; based on various Roman coins, 2nd-1st century BCE.
Figure 351 (The phallic serpent slithers into the Cista Mystica while
surrounded by the ivy crown of Dionysus, and serpents flank a box while
Dionysus stands off to the right): Image by the author; based on a Greek
coin, c.133 BCE.
Figure 352 (Dionysus as one of the Twelve Olympians): Image by the

author; based on the east frieze of the Parthenon, 5th century BCE.
Figure 353 (Adonis as the mummified Osiris): Image by the author;

based on a gilded bronze statue, Roman Imperial Era, currently at the
National Roman Museum at the Baths of Diocletian.
1092
Figure 354 (The birth of Adonis from the cruciform Myrrh tree): Image
courtesy of Pierre du-Ryer Parisien, Les Mtamorphoses d'Ovide, en
Latin et Francois, Divises en XV Livres (1677). This work is in the
public domain.
Figure 355 (Ceramic bowl from Urbino depicting the arborification of

Myrrha and the birth of Adonis): Author of the image is unknown, 16 th
century, now in the public domain.
Figure 356 (Illustration of Adonis emerging from a cruciform Myrrh

tree): Image by Anthonie van Blocklandt, c.1579. This work is now in
the public domain.
Figure 357 (Woodcut illustration of Adonis birth from the Myrrh tree in
Ovids Metamorphoses): Image by Zoane Rosso, 1497. This work is in
the public domain.
Figure 358 (An illustration of Adonis in the tree compared to an

illustration of crucifixion upon a tree): Composite image edited by the
author. The top portion is a print from an engraving by Bernard Picart,
17th century, in the public domain. The bottom portion is from Fig. 104.
Figure 359 (Crucifixion upon a tree growing from the mothers flesh):
From Dream of a Virgin by Simone dei Crucifissi; original in color,
edited by the author. This work is now in the public domain.
Figure 360 (Virgin birth from a tree): From the Spinola Hours by Maser
of James IV of Scotland; original in color, edited by the author. This
Figure 361 (Virgin birth from a tree): From a fresco at the Limburg
Cathedral; photo by Stefan Kampf, original in color, edited by the author.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ahnenreihe_Jesu_im_Limburg
er_Dom.jpg.
Figure 362 (Virgin birth from a tree): From a 17th century oak carving at
St. Andrews Castle; photo by Stephen C. Dickson, original in color,
edited by the author. Used under Creative Commons Attribution-Share
1093
Alike 4.0 International license, available at Wikimedia Commons.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:An_oak_carving_of_the_Tree_
of_Jesse_from_St_Andrews_Castle,_RSM.JPG.
Figure 363 (Virgin birth from a tree): From the St. Peter Codex; original
in color, edited by the author. This work is now in the public domain.
Figure 364 (Trees bearing the image of a virgin mother with her divine
child): Image by the author; based on various trees bearing images of
virgin mother & child.
Figure 365 (The emasculated Adonis dies as the boar flees the scene):
Image by the author; based on a Greek cosmetic tray from Taxila, 1st
century BCE, currently at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas
City.
Figure 366 (Illustration of the dying Adonis lying in a bed of blood-red

anemone flowers): Image by John William Waterhouse, 1900, original in
color. This work is in the public domain, available at Wikimedia
Commons.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Waterhouse,_John_William_-
_The_Awakening_of_Adonis.jpg.
Figure 367 (The blood-red Euphorbia milii): Photo by H. Zell, original in

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Euphorbia_milii_002.JPG.
Figure 368-69 (The Resurrection of Adonis): Image by the author; based

on a Roman sarcophagus currently at the Gregorian Profane Museum at
the Vatican.
Figure 370 (Collecting the ambrosial blood of Adonis into a chalice):

Image by the author; based on a Roman sarcophagus currently at the
Ducal Palace in Mantova.
Figure 371 (Cherubs collecting divine blood): Image by Thomas

Bosschaert Willeboirts; original in color, edited by the author. This work
1094
Figure 372 (Cherubs collecting divine blood): The Crucifixion by
Andreas Pavias; original in color, edited by the author. This work is now
in the public domain.
Figure 373 (The mummified Osiris-Attis): Image by the author; based on

a bronze lamp, 1st-2nd century CE, currently at the Fitzwilliam Museum
in Cambridge.
Figure 374 (A bust of Attis turning into a pine tree): based on a Roman
stone altar currently at the Museum of Prigord in Prigueux.
Figure 375 (Attis as a pine tree): Image by the author; based on a

damaged altar to Cybele from Marof, Slovenia.
Figure 376 (Human arborification in Ovids Metamorphoses): Image by

Sbastien Le Clerc. This work is in the public domain.
Figure 377 (An image of Attis bound to the trunk of a tree, in memoriam
of his arborification; from Ephesus, Roman Imperial Era): Photo by
Everett Ferguson, original in color. Used under Creative Commons
Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 License.
Figure 378 (The Good Shepherd bound to a tree trunk like Attis): From
an Ethiopian Passion icon; original in color, edited by the author. This
Figure 379 (Flogged while bound to a tree trunk): From a 15th century
church wall in Bellinge; original in color, edited by the author. This work
Figure 380 (Crucifixion upon tree trunks): Image by Antionio Francesco

Frisi in Historical Memories of Monza and His Court; edited by the
author. This work is now in the public domain.
Figure 381 (Crucifixion upon a tree trunk): Image by Justus Lipsius, De

Cruce Libri Tres (Leiden: Pieter van der Aa, 1594), 10. Image edited by
the author. This work is now in the public domain.
Figure 382 (A tree trunk allegedly used for crucifixion in Roman times):
Photo by Rubn Betanzo S.; original in color. Used under Creative
1095
Wikimedia Commons.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cruz_patibular..jpg.
Figure 383 (Dionysus, who was identified with Attis, hanging upon a
tree): See Fig. 327-30.
Figure 384 (Attis emerges reborn from a pine cone): Image by the
author; based on part of a bronze bracket from the Fanum Martis in
Corseul, 1st-3rd century CE, and a bronze bust of Attis, Roman Imperial
Era, from the Balkan region.
Figure 385 (Attis risen from the dead and transformed into a god;
terracotta figurine from Myrina, 1st century BCE, currently at the
Pergamon Museum): Photo by Wolfgang Sauber, original in color. Used
under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license,
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PM_-_Attis.jpg.
Figure 386 (The winged Horus the Child; terracotta figurine from
Myrina, 100-50 BCE, currently at the Louvre Museum): Photo by Marie-
Lan Nguyen, original in color. This work has been released into the
public domain.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Harpocratic_Eros_Louvre_Myr
805.jpg.
Figure 387 (The risen and divinized Attis; terracotta incense burner from
Tarsus, 2nd-1st century BCE, currently at the Louvre Museum): Photo
by Marie-Lan Nguyen, original in color. This work has been released
into the public domain.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:
Attis_thymiaterion_Louvre_Tarse61.jpg
Figure 388 (The winged god Attis Papaeus leaning on a pillar): Image by
the author; based on a Roman statue, 1st-3rd century CE, currently at the
Archaeological Museum of Istanbul.
Figure 389 (The reborn & deified Attis bears newborn fruit in a
cornucopia): Image by the author; based on a Roman bronze sculpture,
1st-2nd century CE.
1096
Figure 390 (Roman dedication monument from Ostia of Attis
transformed into a celestial god, by C. Cartilius Euplus, currently at the
Vaticans Gregorian Profane Museum): Photo by Fratelli Alinari, c.
1900. This work is in the public domain, available at Wikimedia
Commons.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/The_great_mothe
r_of_the_gods_%281901%29_%2814594571307%29.jpg.
Figure 391 (Attis as a lunar god): Image by the author; based on a silver
dish from Hildesheim, Hellenistic Era, currently at the Staatliche
Museum in Berlin.
Figure 392 (Attis and the bull): Image by the author; based on various
coins from ancient Cyzicus, 5th century BCE.
Figure 393 (Engraving illustration of the taurobolium of the priests of

Cybele): Image by Bernhard Rode, c. 1780. This work is in the public
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Taurobolium.jpg.
Figure 394 (Attis-Mithras slaying the bull): Image by the author; based
on terracotta figurines from Panticapaeum, 1st century BCE.
Figure 395 (Stalks of grain sprout forth from the head of Attis): See Fig.
390.
Figure 396 (Egyptian mummification of Ornouphios, a priest of

Mithras): Image by the author; based on a fragment of an Egyptian
mummy bandage, 1st century BCE, currently in the Schyen Collection.
Figure 397 (Mithras-Attis riding a horse): Image by the author; based on

a terracotta figurine from Poljanka, 1st century BCE.
Figure 398 (Attis & Mithras performing tauroctony): Image by the

author. The left is based on terracotta figurines from Kerch, 1st century
BCE, while the right is based on a sard gem from Nemea, 1st century
BCE, currently at the Walters Art Museum.
1097
Figure 399 (Mithras-Phanes entwined by the serpent Chronos): Image by
the author; based on a marble statue, Roman Imperial Era, currently at
the National Museum of Roman Art in Mrida.
Figure 400 (The birth of Mithras from divine fire): Image by the author;
based on a scene from the Mithraeum of Dura-Europos.
Figure 401 (The birth of Mithras from divine fire): Image by the author;
based on a scene from the Apronianus Terme at the Mithraeum of
Nersae.
Figure 402 (Mithras-Phanes hatches from the silver-stone egg as flames

burst forth): Image by the author; based on a Roman white marble relief,
currently at the Galleria Estense in Modena.
Figure 403 (Mithras hatches out of the stone-egg): Image by the author;
based on relief from the Mithraeum at Housesteads.
Figure 404 (Mithras emerges from his stone egg): Image by the author;
based on a Roman marble relief, currently at the Palazzo dei
Conservatori in Rome.
Figure 405 (The birth of Mithras from the adder-stone egg): Image by the
author; based on marble statue from the Mithraeum at Sarmizegetusa.
Figure 406 (Roman statue of the Petra Genetrix of Mithras, currently at

the Museum Carnuntinum in Bad Deutsch-Altenburg): Photo by
Wolfgang Sauber, original in color. Used under Creative Commons
Commons. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File: MC_-
_Mithras_im_Fels.jpg.
Figure 407-09 (Mithras emerging from the serpents stone egg): Images
by the author; based on a white marble statue from Mithraeum I at Ptuj, a
Roman limestone statue currently at the National Museum of the Union
in Alba Iulia, and a relief from the Mithraeum at Bingen am Rhein.
Figure 410 (Statue of the serpentine birth of Mithras from the stone, from
the Mithraeum of Victorinus at Budapest): Photo by Andypeg123,
1098
original in color. This work has been released into the public domain,
available at Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Birth_of_Mithras_from_Mithraeum_of
_Victorinus.jpg
Figure 411 (Mithras slays the bull within the circle of the zodiac, from
the Mithraeum of London): Photo by Elliott Brown, original in color.
Used under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license, available
at Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/ell-r-brown/8109170442/.
Figure 412 (Mithraic tauroctony with the inscription NAMA

SEBASIO describing the bulls wound; Borghesi white marble bas-
relief, currently at the Louvre Museum): Photo courtesy of Franz
Cumont, The Mysteries of Mithra (Chicago: The Open Court Publishing
Company, 1903), 21. This work is now in the public domain.
Figure 413 (Mithras stabs the bull and grapes bleed forth from the
wound; Roman votive-relief from Bologna): Photo courtesy of Franz
Cumont, The Mysteries of Mithra (Chicago: The Open Court Publishing
Company, 1903), 151. This work is now in the public domain.
Figure 414 (Harvesting the fruits which grew from the flesh & blood of
the slain bull; sandstone relief from Mithraeum I at Nida-Heddernheim):
Photo courtesy of Franz Cumont, The Mysteries of Mithra (Chicago: The
Open Court Publishing Company, 1903), 54. This work is now in the
public domain.
Figure 415 (The bull & the grape): Image by the author; based on a
couple of coins from Eretria, 4th-2nd century BCE.
Figure 416 (Wheat sprouts forth from the wound of the bulls body):
Image by the author; based on a marble statue from the reign of Trajan,
currently at the British Museum.
Figure 417 (The tail of the bull transforms into ears of wheat; Roman
white marble relief, currently at the Vatican Museum): Photo by
Lalupa, original in color. Used under Creative Commons Attribution-
1099
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Musei_Vaticani_-_Mithra_-
_Sol_invictus_01136.JPG.
Figure 418 (The bull ascends to heaven, having been resurrected and
transformed into the moon; votive relief of Titus Aurelios Macus,
currently at the National Museum of the Union): Photo by Codrin B.,
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Musei_Vaticani_-_Mithra_-
_Sol_invictus_01136.JPG.
Figure 419-22 (The reborn bull traverses the sky as the moon on various
Roman Era Mithraic reliefs): Images courtesy of Franz Cumont, Textes
et monuments figurs relatifs aux Mystres de Mithra: Tome Second
(Brussels: H. Lamertin, 1896), 300, 317, 322, 326, . This work is now in
the public domain.
Figure 423 (The bull as the moon): Image by the author; based on
various bronze coins, 3rd-1st century BCE.
Figure 424 (The scorpion castrates the bull during the Mithraic
tauroctony; Roman marble statue, currently at the British Museum):
Photo by Mike Young, original in color. This image has been released
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BritMusMithrasScorpion.jpg.
Figure 425 (Transformation of the moon from the horns of a bull to the
face of a woman): Composite image edited by the author. The top
portion is a photo by Rafolas. Used under Creative Commons
Attribution 2.0 Generic license, available at Flickr.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/25466188@N04/5935864125/. The
th
bottom portion is a 19 century poster based on photographs taken with
the James Lick Telescope, now in the public domain.
Figure 426 (An illustration of various interpretations of the lunar surface

down through the ages): Composite image edited by the author. Man In
The Moon2.png by D. Helber, used under Creative Commons
1100
Commons.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Man_In_The_Moon2.png.
Roman marble altar of Luna accompanied by the Dioscuri photographed
by Marie-Lan Nguyen, original in color; this image has been released
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Altar_Selene_Louvre_Ma508.j
pg.
The Man in the Moon by L. Richter is found in Sabine-Baring Gould,
Curious Myths of the Middle Ages (London: Rivingtons, 1872), 190. This
The hare in the moon is from Codex Vaticanus 3773, public domain- see
entry for Figure 25.
The illustration of the lunar face is courtesy of wpclipart, and in the
public domain.
http://www.wpclipart.com/weather/moon/man_in_the_moon.png.html.
Figure 427 (The moon as the bull then as Luna; based on a Roman
bronze plaque from Munich): Image courtesy of Franz Cumont, Textes et
monuments figurs relatifs aux Mystres de Mithra: Tome Second
(Brussels: H. Lamertin, 1896), 446. This work is now in the public
domain
Figure 428 (The moon as both bull & goddess; Roman marble relief,
currently at the Brukenthal National Museum in Sibiu): Photo by Cristian
Chirita, original in color. Used under Creative Commons Attribution-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mytras_Ceremony_SIBIU_Hystory_M
useum.JPG.
Figure 429 (Luna with bull horns; Roman sarcophagus of Tomb D from
Via Belluzzo): Photo by Marie-Lan Nguyen, original in color. This
image has been released into the public domain, available at Wikimedia
Commons.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Clipeus_Selene_Terme.jpg.
Figure 430 (Roman votive altar dedicated to Invictus Mithras from

Alba Iulia, currently at the Romanian National History Museum): Photo
by Cristian Chirita, original in color. Used under Creative Commons
1101
Commons.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stela_funerara_MItra_MNIR.JP
G.
Figure 431 (Mithras as the sun god Sol/Helios; based on a monument of

Antiochus I of Commagene, 1st century BCE): Image courtesy of Franz
Cumont, Textes et monuments figurs relatifs aux Mystres de Mithra:
Tome Second (Brussels: H. Lamertin, 1896), 188. This work is now in
the public domain.
Figure 432 (Roman inscription acknowledging Mithras as the sun god

Sol Invictus): See Figure 322.
Figure 433 (Dedication to Sol Invictus Mithras): Image by the author;

based on a white marble relief from the Circus Maximus Mithraeum at
Rome.
Figure 434 (Roman double-sided altar piece, currently at the Louvre

Museum): Photos by Marie-Lan Nguyen, originals in color. These
images have been released into the public domain, available at
Wikimedia Commons.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MithraReliefvert.jpg.
Figure 435 (Mithras reborn as the sun god Sol/Helios): Image by the
author; based on Bactrian gold dinars of the Kushan Dynasty.
Figure 436-37 (Mithras transformed & reborn from a fir tree, as seen at
Mithraeums from Neuenheim & Nida-Heddernheim): Photos courtesy of
Franz Cumont, The Mysteries of Mithra (Chicago: The Open Court
Publishing Company, 1903), 55, 117. This work is now in the public
domain.
Figure 438 (The birth, arborification, and rebirth of Mithras): Image by

the author, based on sandstone fragments from Besigheim, Roman
Imperial Era.
Figure 439 (The birth of Mithras from the stone and then his rebirth from
the tree): Image by the author, based on a scene from the Mithraeum at
Hawarti, Roman Imperial Era.
1102
Figure 440 (Mithras rebirth from a tree & ascension to heaven as Sol
Invictus, as seen on a Roman sandstone relief currently at the Roman
Museum of Osterburken): Photo by Hartmann Linge, original in color.
Used under Creative Commons Attribution 1.0 Generic license, available
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:200909161121MEZ_R%C3%B
6mermuseum_Osterburken_0G_Mithras.jpg.
Figure 441-42 (The three-fold Mithras emerging reborn from the fir tree,
as seen on a Mithraic relief from Dieburg): Photo by Carole Raddato,
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Detail_of_Mithras_the_hunter_
relief_a_tree_with_three_branches_ending_in_heads_in_Phrygian_caps,
_Museum_Schloss_Fechenbach,_Dieburg,_Germany_(9349688199).jpg.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mithras_the_hunter_represente
d_on_horseback_galloping_to_the_right_and_shooting_arrows,_two-
sided_relief_on_pivot_with_side-
panels,_Museum_Schloss_Fechenbach,_Dieburg,_Germany_(93524944
34).jpg.
Figure 443 (Mithras as Sol Invictus sacrificed and reborn from a tree):
Image by the author; based on a Roman auereus issued by Vespasian, 1st
century CE, and a Roman Era silver fibula from Mnchen.
Figure 444 (A Celtic cross in which three human heads emerge from the
ends): Image by the author; based on a stone slab, 8th century CE,
currently at the Gallen Priory near Ferbane.
Figure 445 (Initiation scenes at S. Maria Capua Vetere simulating

Mithraic death & resurrection/rebirth): Images courtesy of A. Minto,
IX. S. Maria di Capua Vetere, in Notizie Degli Scavi di Antichit:
Volume XXI (Rome: Tipografia della R. Accademia Nazionale dei
Lincei, 1924), 368-74. This work is now in the public domain.
Figure 446 (The twelve signs of the zodiac on the seating arrangement of
the Mithraeum of Sette Sfere): Composite image edited by the author,
bottom portion by the author. The top portion is a photo by Dennis
Jarvis, original in color. Used under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0
1103
Generic license, available at Flickr.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/archer10/5150996098/.
Figure 447 (Twelve arches designating the seating arrangement for the
initiates): Image by the author; based on the Mithraeum of Vulci.
Figure 448 (Twelve octagons w/floral crosses): Image by the author;

based on the floor arrangement of the Mithraeum of Lucretius Menander
at Ostia.
Figure 449 (Mithras surrounded by his twelve followers of the zodiac;

Parian marble relief from the Mithraeum at Sido): Photo by Carole
Raddato, original in color. Used under Creative Commons Attribution
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tauroctony_in_Parian_marble_
depicting_Mithras_slaying_the_Bull,_from_the_Mithraeum_at_Sidon_(
Colonia_Aurelia_Pia,_Syria),_late_4th_century_AD,_Louvre_Museum_
(9362285553).jpg.
Figure 450 (Mithras beneath the twelve signs of the zodiac; relief from
the Mithraeum at Riegel am Kaiserstuhl): Photo by Kroeterich,
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MithrasRiegel.jpg.
Figure 451 (Mithras beneath the zodiac): See Figure 437.
Figure 452 (Mithras & the zodiac): See Figure 440.
Figure 453 (Mithras & the twelve signs of the zodiac): Image by the
author; based on a white gypsum relief from the Mithraeum at Dura
Europos.
Figure 454 (Mithras beneath the twelve signs of the zodiac): Image by
the author; based on a fresco from the Barberini Mithraeum at Rome.
Figure 455 (Mithras encircles by his twelve followers of the zodiac):

Composite image edited by the author, see Fig. 402-03, 411.
1104
Figure 456 (Sol Invictus riding his chariot, encircled by the zodiac;
Byzantine mosaic of Beth Alpha): Author of the image is unknown, in
the public domain- see entry for Figure 25.
Figure 457 (Sol Invictus within the zodiac; floor mosaic from Hamat
Tiberias): Photo by Bukvoed, original in color. Used under Creative
Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license, available at Wikimedia
Commons. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hamat-Tiberias-
119.jpg.
Figure 458 (Sol surrounded by the twelve members of an

anthropomorphized zodiac; floor mosaic from Tzippori): Photo by
LordAmeth, original in color. This image has been released into the
public domain, available at Wikimedia Commons.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ZodiacMosaicTzippori.jpg.
Figure 459 (Sol with another anthropomorphized zodiac; from the

Handy Tables of Claudius Ptolemy of Alexandria): Author of the
image is unknown, in the public domain- see entry for Figure 25.
Figure 460 (The Good Shepherd portrayed in the likeness of Sol Invictus
within the zodiac; 11th century manuscript currently at the National
Library of Paris): Author of the image is unknown, in the public domain-
Figure 461 (Moschophoros & kriophoros): Author of the images are

unknown; taken from the Mithraeum of Neuenheim and the inscription to
Apuleia Crysopolis in the Catacomb of St. Callixtus, Roman Imperial
Era.. These images are in the public domain- see entry for Figure 25.
Figure 462 (The sea monster swallowing Hercules): Image by the author;
based on a Caeretan black-figure hydria, 6th century BCE, currently part
of the Stavros S. Niarchos Collection in Athens.
Figure 463 (Hercules vs. the sea monster): Image by the author; based on
a Corinthian black-figure krater, 6th century BCE, currently at the
Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
Figure 464 (The sea monster prepares to swallow Perseus; Corinthian

black-figure amphora, 6th century BCE, currently at the Altes Museum
1105
in Berlin): Photo by BishkekRocks, original in color. Used under
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license,
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Corinthian_Vase_depicting_Per
seus,_Andromeda_and_Ketos.jpg.
Figure 465 (A man is regurgitated by a sea monster): Image by the

author; based on an Ionian carnelian scarabaeoid, 6th century BCE,
currently at the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg.
Figure 466 (The Colchian dragon regurgitates Jason; Attic red-figure
kylix, 5th century BCE, currently at the Gregorian Etruscan Museum at
the Vatican): Photo by Shii, original in color. This image has been
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Douris_cup_Jason_Vatican_16
545.jpg.
Figure 467 (The prophet foreshadows death & resurrection via being
swallowed & regurgitated by a sea monster): From the catacombs of St.
Marcellinus & Peter, St. Callixtus, and St. Priscilla in Rome. These
images are in the public domain- see entry for Figure 25.
Figure 468 (A comparison of crosses & trees): Composite image edited

by the author; see Fig. 92, 104, 243, and 354. The photo of the serpent on
the pole relief is by Manfred Antranias Zimmer, original in color. This
image has been released into the public domain, available at Pixabay.
http://pixabay.com/en/relief-symbol-rod-snake-265516/.
Figure 469 (The Carpentras Stela): Image courtesy of Samuel R. Driver,

The Books of Samuel (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1912), xiii, pl.
III. This work is now in the public domain.
Figure 470 (Osiris cf. Eloh): Image of Osirian statue courtesy of the
Museum of Boulaq, now in the public domain; image of Eloh by the
author, based on a gold statue from Ras-Shamra, currently at the
National Museum of Damas in Damascus.
Figure 471 (Horus as Yaho): Image by the author; based on a cabochon

amulet, Roman Imperial Era.
1106
Figure 472 (Yaho & Horus riding upon birds): Image of the Gaza coin
courtesy of Michael Avi-Yonah, now in the public domain; image of
Harpocrates by the author, based on a Roman lapis lazuli gem currently
at the Institute of Ancient History in the University of Cologne.
Figure 473 (Horus donning four wings & flanked by seraphim): Image
by the author; ; based on a Phoenician scarab gem of the Collection
Pauvert de la Chapelle in Paris, 6th-4th century BCE.
Figure 474 (Yaho/ IA donning four wings like Horus): Images by the
author; based on heliotrope gems, Roman Imperial Era.
Figure 475 (Horus with the head of a bird & flanked by seraphim):
Images by the author; based on Phoenician scarab gems from Cagliari
and Tharros, 6th-4th century BCE.
Figure 476 (Yaho/IA with the head of a bird & flanked by seraphim):
Composite image edited by the author. Images A-F by the author; based
on various magical amulets, Roman Imperial Era. Image G courtesy of
the Walter Arts Museum, depicting a Roman Era gold mounted hematite
intaglio amulet from Cappadocia. This image has been released into the
public domain; available at Wikimedia Commons.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Roman_-
_Amulet_of_Mithras_Slaying_the_Bull,_and_the_God_Abraxas_-
_Walters_42868_-_Reverse.jpg.
Figure 477 (The Savior as Sol/Helios; ceiling mosaic in the Tomb of the
Julii at the Vatican Necropolis, Roman Imperial Era): Author of the
image is unknown, in the public domain- see entry for Figure 25.
Figure 478 (Messiah the Sun attracts souls; Omne BonumMs. Royal 6
E. VI): Image by James le Palmer, in the public domain- see entry for
Figure 25.
Figure 479 (The Messiah as Horus): image by the author; based on a bas-
relief from the Memnonium church of Abydos, Roman Imperial Era.
Figure 480 (The Savior as Horus): image by the author; based on an

amuletic gem, Roman Imperial Era, currently at the British Museum.
1107
Figure 481 (Serapis crowned with solar thorns): Image by the author;
based on a Ptolemaic bronze head of Serapis, currently at the Museum of
Monmaurin, and a silver medal pendant from Limpias.
Figure 482 (Osiris in the Levant): Image by the author; based on funerary
stelae depicting Osiris, from Deir el-Bala, New Kingdom Period.
Figure 483 (Osiris in Ashkelon): Image by the author; based on a bronze

idol of Osiris from Ashkelon, 4th century BCE.
Figure 484 (Serapis in the Levant): Image by the author; based on coins
depicting Serapis from cities in the Levant during the Roman Imperial
Era.
1108

Pagan Parallels: The Ultimate Source Guide

Caricato da

Informazioni sul documento

Copyright

Formati disponibili

Condividi questo documento

Condividi o incorpora il documento

Opzioni di condivisione

Hai trovato utile questo documento?

Questo contenuto è inappropriato?

Copyright:

Formati disponibili

Pagan Parallels: The Ultimate Source Guide

Caricato da

Copyright:

Formati disponibili

The Perennial Gospel: A Source Guide for Defending the Gospel of Our

Faith against the Heathen

Chapter 1: I Believe in God, the Father Almighty,

Chapter 2: And in the Qrst, His Begotten

Chapter 3: Who was conceived by a Holy Spirit,

Chapter 4: Suffered under the evil Typhon, was

Chapter 6: He Ascended into Heaven

Chapter 7: He will Judge the Living and the Dead

Chapter 8: The Bright and Morning Star

Chapter 9: I will Be Exalted among the Heathen

In these latter days of the age of grace, lawlessness and iniquity

David Furley, Cosmology, in The Cambridge History of Hellenistic Philosophy,

Concerning the Holy Scriptures of the Funerary Literature

The next preliminary concept necessary for understanding the nature

The name Amun ( jmn, more fully

O Amon, thou hidden of aspect, mysterious of form.88

God in Three Persons, Blessed Trinity

He that Hath Seen the Son Hath Seen the Father

The Firstborn of All Creation

Another interesting fact pointed out by the aforementioned

Fig. 16: A pendant of Khepri from the tomb of Tutankhamun.

Fig. 21: We are the clay, and He our Potter.

A few examples of those forms, aside from those already mentioned,

These are the generations of the Great Ennead.

The best-known and most important such group is the ennead

Thus concludes the generations of the Great Ennead, and of Osiris,

God was Manifest in the Flesh

Namely, the sun whom they called respectively Osiris

There are some who without reservation assert that Osiris is

The Book of Caverns depicts Osiris as the giant eastern

Dr. John C. Darnell, The Enigmatic Netherworld Books of the

In the New Kingdom (1550-1069 BC) the cult of Osiris

The glory of the King is in the sky,

The so-called Osiris is produced without intercourse.

Like Father, like Son

It is common knowledge that progenitors pass on their traits to their

Given that the kA is inherited from ones ancestors and has an

His Glory is like the Firstling of His Bullock

Countless characters in folklore are said to have theriomorphic forms

The Nile River god Osiris was worshipped in the form of a

Osiris-Apis, Foremost of the West, the (great) god.

O Osiris-Apis, Foremost of the West, (great) god, may he

The King is established at your head as the enduring bull of

I am the Great wild Bull who went forth as Foremost of the

The Firstling of a Cow They are Holy

So Osiris is a bull, and in that form is known as Apis (and the

It is my mother the great Wild Cow ... who has lifted me up to

Egypt is like a very Fair Heifer

(Hwnt wrt). An epithet of Nut.

Fig. 44: Bougonia.

Aristotle knew not only that bees can reproduce without

Adding all of this together, it is only natural that Nuts association

Along with conception by a touch of the hand, another parallel is that

Ann M. Roth, Hatshepsuts Mortuary Temple at Deir El-Bahri: Architecture as

In addition to nonsexual hand-touch conception and bovine birth, yet

There shall the Vultures be Gathered

Another piece of evidence to corroborate with all of this is the fact

The Egyptians fable the whole species [of vultures] is female,

And the Brother shall Deliver up the Brother to Death

Baptized into His Death

The second point to touch on concerning this portion of the gospel

Continuing with the death of Osiris, recall how earlier it was

When the topic of the death and resurrection of Osiris is discussed

By this Time He Stinketh