Cherprer

Ra

Atum

Figli di Ra: Shun et tefnet, Geb et nut

Nun
 Ra (Sherper, Atum) Geb

Tefnet (Prima a
Shun (aria) partorire) (L'umidita) Nut
Femminile

Geb (Terra)
Nut (Cieli) Femminile
Maschille

MAAT (Regola degli Dei)

Osiri Seth

Iside Neftis

Horu

Horu (Ra)

Osiride Iside Horu

Seth Neftis

'Faulkner, The ancient Egyptian coffin texts, cit., Capitolo 2, nota 28. p. 39.
E. Hornung, Verfail und Regeneration dei Schopfung, in eEranos Jahrbuche 46,
1977, pp. 411.
49.
Gli dèi, ordinati per singoli distretti, si trovano trattati in G. Roeder, Die
Agyptische Gotterwelt,
Ziirkh 1959.
Horus *

Anubis (dios de los muertos)

Hapi, dios de los muertos

Hathor (Regna nel mondo dei morti)

Maat

Thot *

Apis *apep

Amón

Mut

Jonsu

Apis *Apep

Atum

Chu (En-Huret)

Hapi, dios de los muertos

Hathor (Regna nel mondo dei morti)

Homs

Imhotep

Ptah

Inum

Min
Guerreros

Mon (Amon)

Mut

Neibet (o Nekhbet),

Sejmet

Nefertem

Thot *

Sesseth

Francoise Dunand e Christiane Zivie-Coche. Dei e uomini nell'Egitto antico.

Lerma, Roma.
Gli Egiziani ordinarono gli esseri suddividendoli in categorie, senza pretendere di
essere esaustivi e secondo criterie evidentemente diversi dai nostri; così, un certo
numero di testi, tra cui alcuni esemplari del Libro dei Morti, includono una lista che
distingue le categorie degli uomini –cioè gli Egiziani, che sono gli uomini per
eccellenza- degli dei e dei morti. La categoria dei morti, quindi non appartiene
propiamente all´umanità, ma forma una comunità a parte. Questa lista è a volte
completata dalla parola akh, che indica, fin dai testi religiosi più antichi, lo stato cui
ogni defundo spera di accedere". P. 188. Gli akhu sono i morti glorificati.

nṯr "God"
in hieroglyphs

Professor Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie pliteisteismo

Erik Hornung henoteismo

Schelling henoteismo

Ernest Alfred Thompson Wallis Budge monoteismo

Thot
Da Wikipedia, l'enciclopedia libera.

Vai a: Navigazione, cerca

 Disambiguazione – Se stai cercando Thoth, divinità immaginaria dell'ambientazione Forgotten Realms, vedi
Thoth (Forgotten Realms).

Thoth[1] was considered one of the more important deities of the Egyptian pantheon. In art, he was
often depicted as a man with the head of an ibis or a baboon; these animals were sacred to him. His
feminine counterpart was Seshat.[2] His chief shrine was located in the city of Khmun,[3] later renamed
Hermopolis Magna during the Greco-Roman era[4] (in reference to him through the Greeks'
interpretation that he was the same as their god Hermes) and Eshmûnên in the Coptic rendering. In
that city, he led the local pantheon of the region known as the Ogdoad, and its eight principal deities.
He also had numerous shrines within the cities of Abydos, Hesert, Urit, Per-Ab, Rekhui, Ta-ur, Sep,
Hat, Pselket, Talmsis, Antcha-Mutet, Bah, Amen-heri-ab, and Ta-kens.[5]

He was often considered as the heart, which, according to the ancient Egyptians, is the seat of
intelligence or the mind, and tongue of the sun god Ra; as well as the means by which Ra's will was
translated into speech.[6] He had also been related to the Logos of Plato[6] and the mind of God[7] (see
The All). In the Egyptian mythology, he has played many vital and prominent roles in maintaining the
universe, including being one of the two deities (the other being Ma'at, who was also his wife) who
stood on either side of Ra's boat.[8] Later in ancient Egyptian history, Thoth became heavily associated
with the arbitration of godly disputes,[9] the arts of magic, the system of writing, the development of
science,[10] and the judgment of the dead.[11]

Contents
[hide]

 1 Name
o 1.1 Etymology
o 1.2 Alternate names
 2 Depictions
 3 Attributes
 4 Mythology
 5 History
 6 Titles
 7 See also
 8 Notes
 9 References

[edit] Name
[edit] Etymology

Common names for Thoth[12]

 in hieroglyphs

, or

, or

The Egyptian pronunciation of ḏḥwty is not fully known, but may be reconstructed as *ḏiḥautī, based
on the Ancient Greek borrowing Θωθ Thōth or Theut and the fact that it evolved into Sahidic Coptic
variously as Thoout, Thōth, Thoot, Thaut as well as Bohairic Coptic Thōout. The final -y may even
have been pronounced as a consonant, not a vowel.[13] However, many write "Djehuty", inserting the
letter 'e' automatically between consonants in Egyptian words, and writing 'w' as 'u', as a convention of
convenience for English speakers, not the transliteration employed by Egyptologists.[14] In modern
Egypt, tour guides pronounce the name as "Thote" or "Tote" with an aspirated initial consonant.

According to Theodor Hopfner,[15] Thoth's Egyptian name written as ḏḥwty originated from ḏḥw,
claimed to be the oldest known name for the ibis although normally written as hbj. The addition of
-ty denotes that he possessed the attributes of the ibis.[16] Hence his name means "He who is like the
ibis".

[edit] Alternate names

Djehuty is sometimes alternatively rendered as Jehuti, Tahuti, Tehuti, Zehuti, Techu, or Tetu.
Thoth (also Thot or Thout) is the Greek version derived from the letters ḏḥwty. Not counting
differences in spelling, Thoth had many names and titles or names, like other goddesses and gods.
Similarly, each Pharaoh, considered a god himself, had five different names used in public.[17] Among
his alternate names are A, Sheps, Lord of Khemennu, Asten, Khenti, Mehi, Hab, and A'an.[18] In
addition, Thoth was also known by specific aspects of himself, for instance the moon god Iah-Djehuty,
representing the moon for the entire month,[19] or as jt-nṯr "god father". Further, the Greeks related
Thoth to their god Hermes due to his similar attributes and functions.[20] One of Thoth 's titles, "Three
times great, great" (see Titles) was translated to the Greek τρισμεγιστος (Trismegistos) making
Hermes Trismegistus.[21]
[edit] Depictions

Depiction of Thoth as a baboon (c. 1400 BC), in the British Museum.

Thoth has been depicted in many ways depending on the era and on the aspect the artist wished to
convey. Usually, he is depicted in his human form with the head of an ibis.[22] In this form, he can be
represented as the reckoner of times and seasons by a headdress of the lunar disk sitting on top of a
crescent moon resting on his head. When depicted as a form of Shu or Ankher, he was depicted to be
wearing the respective god's headdress. Sometimes was also seen in art to be wearing the Atef crown
or the United Crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt.[16] When not depicted in this common form, he
sometimes takes the form of the ibis directly.[22] He also appears as a dog faced baboon or a man with
the head of a baboon when he is A'an, the god of equilibrium.[23] In the form of A'ah-Djehuty he took a
more human-looking form.[24] These forms are all symbolic and are metaphors for Thoth's attributes.
The Egyptians did not believe these gods actually looked like humans with animal heads [25]. For
example, Ma'at is often depicted with an ostrich feather, "the feather of truth," on her head [26], or with
a feather for a head.[27]

[edit] Attributes
Lee Lawrie, Thoth (1939). Library of Congress John Adams Building, Washington, D.C.

Egyptologists disagree on Thoth's nature depending upon their view of the Egyptian pantheon. Most
Egyptologists today side with Sir Flinders Petrie that Egyptian religion was strictly polytheistic, in
which Thoth would be a separate god. His contemporary adversary, E. A. Wallis Budge, however,
thought Egyptian religion to be primarily henotheistic [28] where all the gods and goddesses were
aspects of the God Ra, similar to the devas in Hinduism.[29] In this view, Thoth would be the aspect of
Ra which the Egyptian mind would relate to the heart and tongue.

His roles in Egyptian mythology were many. Thoth served as a mediating power, especially between
good and evil, making sure neither had a decisive victory over the other.[30] He also served as scribe of
the gods,[31] credited with the invention of writing and alphabets (i.e. hieroglyphs) themselves.[32] In the
underworld, Duat, he appeared as an ape, A'an, the god of equilibrium, who reported when the scales
weighing the deceased's heart against the feather, representing the principle of Ma'at, was exactly
even.[33]

The ancient Egyptians regarded Thoth as One, self-begotten, and self-produced.[22] He was the master
of both physical and moral (i.e. Divine) law,[22] making proper use of Ma'at.[6] He is credited with
making the calculations for the establishment of the heavens, stars, Earth,[34] and everything in them.[6]
Compare this to how his feminine counterpart, Ma'at was the force which maintained the Universe.[35]
He is said to direct the motions of the heavenly bodies. Without his words, the Egyptians believed, the
gods would not exist.[31] His power was unlimited in the Underworld and rivaled that of Ra and Osiris.
[22]
The Egyptians credited him as the author of all works of science, religion, philosophy, and magic.[36]
The Greeks further declared him the inventor of astronomy, astrology, the science of numbers,
mathematics, geometry, land surveying, medicine, botany, theology, civilized government, the
alphabet, reading, writing, and oratory. They further claimed he was the true author of every work of
every branch of knowledge, human and divine.[32]

[edit] Mythology
Thoth has played a prominent role in many of the Egyptian myths. Displaying his role as arbitrator, he
had overseen the three epic battles between good and evil. All three battles are fundamentally the same
and belong to different periods. The first battle took place between Ra and Apep, the second between
Heru-Bekhutet and Set, and the third between Horus, the son of Osiris, and Set. In each instance, the
former god represented order while the latter represented chaos. If one god was seriously injured,
Thoth would heal them to prevent either from overtaking the other.

Thoth was also prominent in the Osiris myth, being of great aid to Isis. After Isis gathered together the
pieces of Osiris' dismembered body, he gave her the words to resurrect him so she could be
impregnated and bring forth Horus. When Horus was slain, Thoth gave the magic to resurrect him as
well. Similar to God speaking the words to create the heavens and Earth in Judeo-Christian beliefs,
Thoth, being the god who always speaks the words that fulfill the wishes of Ra, spoke the words that
created the heavens and Earth in Egyptian mythology.

This mythology also credits him with the creation of the 365 day calendar. Originally, according to the
myth, the year was only 360 days long and Nut was sterile during these days, unable to bear children.
Thoth gambled with Khonsu, the moon, for 1/72nd of its light (360/72 = 5), or 5 days, and won.
During these 5 days, Nut gave birth to Kheru-ur (Horus the Elder, Face of Heaven), Osiris, Set, Isis,
and Nepthys.

In the Ogdoad cosmogony, Thoth gave birth to Ra, Atum, Nefertum, and Khepri by laying an egg
while in the form of an ibis, or later as a goose laying a golden egg.

[edit] History
Thoth, sitting on his throne.

He was originally the deification of the moon in the Ogdoad belief system. Initially, in that system, the
moon had been seen to be the eye of Horus, the sky god, which had been semi-blinded (thus darker) in
a fight against Set, the other eye being the sun. However, over time it began to be considered
separately, becoming a lunar deity in its own right, and was said to have been another son of Ra. As
the crescent moon strongly resembles the curved beak of the ibis, this separate deity was named
Djehuty (i.e. Thoth), meaning ibis.

Thoth became associated with the Moon, due to the Ancient Egyptians observation that Baboons
(sacred to Thoth) 'sang' to the moon at night[citation needed].

The Moon not only provides light at night, allowing the time to still be measured without the sun, but
its phases and prominence gave it a significant importance in early astrology/astronomy. The cycles of
the moon also organized much of Egyptian society's civil, and religious, rituals, and events.
Consequently, Thoth gradually became seen as a god of wisdom, magic, and the measurement, and
regulation, of events, and of time. He was thus said to be the secretary and counselor of Ra, and with
Ma'at (truth/order) stood next to Ra on the nightly voyage across the sky, Ra being a sun god.

Thoth became credited by the ancient Egyptians as the inventor of writing, and was also considered to
have been the scribe of the underworld, and the moon became occasionally considered a separate
entity, now that Thoth had less association with it, and more with wisdom. For this reason Thoth was
universally worshipped by ancient Egyptian Scribes. Many scribes had a painting or a picture of Thoth
in their "office". Likewise, one of the symbols for scribes was that of the ibis.

In art, Thoth was usually depicted with the head of an ibis, deriving from his name, and the curve of
the ibis' beak, which resembles the crescent moon. Sometimes, he was depicted as a baboon holding
up a crescent moon, as the baboon was seen as a nocturnal, and intelligent, creature. The association
with baboons led to him occasionally being said to have as a consort Astennu, one of the (male)
baboons at the place of judgment in the underworld, and on other occasions, Astennu was said to be
Thoth himself.

During the late period of Egyptian history a cult of Thoth gained prominence, due to its main centre,
Khnum (Hermopolis Magna), also becoming the capital, and millions of dead ibis were mummified
and buried in his honour. The rise of his cult also led to his cult seeking to adjust mythology to give
Thoth a greater role.

Thoth was inserted in many tales as the wise counsel and persuader, and his association with learning,
and measurement, led him to be connected with Seshat, the earlier deification of wisdom, who was
said to be his daughter, or variably his wife. Thoth's qualities also led to him being identified by the
Greeks with their closest matching god Hermes, with whom Thoth was eventually combined, as
Hermes Trismegistus, also leading to the Greeks naming Thoth's cult centre as Hermopolis, meaning
city of Hermes.

It is also viewed that Thoth was the God of Scribe and not a messenger. Anubis was viewed as the
messenger of the gods, as he travelled in and out of the Underworld, to the presence of the gods, and to
humans, as well. Some call this fusion Hermanubis. It is in more favor that Thoth was a record keeper,
and not the messenger. In the Papyrus of Ani copy of the Egyptian Book of the Dead the scribe
proclaims "I am thy writing palette, O Thoth, and I have brought unto thee thine ink-jar. I am not of
those who work iniquity in their secret places; let not evil happen unto me."[37] Chapter XXXb (Budge)
of the Book of the Dead is by the oldest tradition said to be the work of Thoth himself.[38]

There is also an Egyptian pharaoh of the Sixteenth dynasty of Egypt named Djehuty (Thoth) after him,
and who reigned for three years.

[edit] Titles
Thoth, like many Egyptian gods and nobility, held many titles. Among these were "Scribe of Ma'at in
the Company of the Gods," "Lord of Ma'at," "Lord of Divine Words," "Judge of the Two Combatant
Gods,"[34] "Judge of the Rekhekhui, the pacifier of the Gods, who Dwelleth in Unnu, the Great God in
the Temple of Abtiti,"[30] "Twice Great," "Thrice Great,"[22] " and "Three Times Great."[7]
Rappresentazione di Thot nel Ramesseum

Thot è la divinità egizia della luna, sapienza, scrittura, magia, misura del tempo, matematica e
geometria. È rappresentato sotto forma di ibis, uccello che vola sulle rive del Nilo, o sotto forma
(meno frequente) di babbuino.
Il nome egizio del dio è:

da cui il termine usuale di dio-ibis con le varianti

la cui traslitterazione è dḥwty (possibile lettura, in italiano, Djehuty).

Indice
[nascondi]

 1 Thot egizio
 2 Thot presso i Greci
 3 Thot nei tempi moderni
 4 Bibliografia
 5 Voci correlate
 6 Altri progetti

Thot egizio [modifica]

Originario del 3º distretto del Basso Egitto, capitale Damanhur (Hermopolis Parva), comparve già nel
periodo predinastico.
Però la città dove venne maggiormente adorato fu Hermopolis Magna (Città degli Otto'), capitale del
15º distretto dell'Alto Egitto, dove venne rappresentato in sembianza di ibis, di cinocefalo ed anche di
toro.
Nella teogonia di Ermopoli Thot assunse un ruolo di grande rilevanza e fu considerato una delle
divinità creatrici del mondo.
Come divinità lunare venne associato con il sole morto in quanto la luna stessa (Iah) compare
raramente nella teologia egizia. Come i cicli della luna regolavano molti dei rituali religiosi ed eventi
civili della società egiziana, così Thot fu considerato anche il primo regolatore di tali attività.
Il dio Thot raffigurato come un babbuino
Museo del Louvre

Compagna di Thot fu Seshat che con lui divideva il compito di scrivere nomi ed imprese dei defunti
sulle foglie dell'albero ished; secondo altre tradizioni sposa di Thot fu anche la dea-rana Heket.
In quanto inventore della scrittura e patrono degli scribi fu tale ruolo che ebbe anche nei confronti del
dio Ra di cui era segretario e visir.

Nel Duat, il mondo degli inferi, aiutò Osiride giudicando le anime dei morti.

È stato a volte identificato con il dio greco Ermes o Hermes Trismegistus.

Thot presso i Greci [modifica]

In un dialogo platonico, il Fedro, Thot viene nominato (come Theuth), in un breve apologo proposto
da Socrate per contestare l'importanza della scrittura, di cui il dio egizio sarebbe stato l'inventore, a
favore dell'oralità — che all'epoca di Socrate era ancora molto sviluppata — la quale sola
permetterebbe all'uomo di "possedere" nella propria memoria quello che la fredda scrittura fissa su
supporti materiali.
Thot nei tempi moderni [modifica]
Un’ipotesi sull’origine dei Tarocchi fa riferimento al Libro di Thot, nel quale sarebbero contenute
delle conoscenze antiche originariamente trasmesse all’uomo da questa divinità. Esiste anche uno
specifico mazzo di tarocchi creato da Aleister Crowley e Lady Frieda Harris.

Bibliografia [modifica]
 Claas Jouco Bleeker, Hathor and Thoth: Two Key Figures of the Ancient Egyptian Religion, in Studies in
the History of Religions 26, Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1973
 Patrick Boylan, Thot, the Hermes of Egypt: A Study of Some Aspects of Theological Thought in Ancient
Egypt, London: Oxford University Press, 1922 (Reprinted Chicago: Ares Publishers inc., 1979)
 Giuseppe Catapano, Thot Parlava Albanese, Bardi Editore, Roma 1984.
 Jaroslav Černý, Thoth as Creator of Languages in Journal of Egyptian Archæology 34:121–122, 1948
 Garth Fowden, The Egyptian Hermes: A Historical Approach to the Late Pagan Mind, Cambridge and
New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986 (Reprinted Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993)
ISBN 0-691-02498-7
 Mario Tosi, Dizionario enciclopedico delle Divinità dell'Antico Egitto, ANANKE, 2004 ISBN 88-732

MEHETURET
 

TRANSLITERACIÓN: mH(t)-wr(t)
NOMBRE EGIPCIO: MEHET-URT.
Transcrito también como: MERETUERET/METHIUR/METHUER
NOMBRE GRIEGO/ROMANO: METHYER
ICONOGRAFÍA: Se la representa como una vaca con cuernos liriformes, entre los que surge un disco
solar y dos plumas de avestruz o como una vaca en pie con vientre estrellado.
Está adornada con el collar menat y sale de la montaña entre un haz de papiros.
Su aspecto antropomorfo es muy poco usual: mujer con cabeza de vaca y disco solar entre los
cuernos, en pie sobre una alfombra roja y llevando el collar menat.

SINOPSIS: Presente en los Textos de las Pirámides, figura como el camino de agua por el que el rey
y el Sol navegan.
Su nombre significa “El Gran Diluvio” o, según algunos autores, “Gran Marea de Abundancia”, en
referencia a las aguas primordiales que rodean la tierra y a la crecida anual del Nilo.
Tiene una marcada función creadora, ya que los propios egipcios recogen en los documentos religiosos
que “en sus piernas se ha visto nacer al Sol”. Es decir, Meheturet representa la vaca que se traga al
Sol al anochecer para darlo a luz en la mañana completamente renacido. Esta diosa es la responsable
de hacerle salir del Nun, del que lo levanta colocándole entre sus cuernos.
Como exponente de las aguas primordiales, también lo era del cielo, considerado una parte de estas
aguas que se habían originado al separase la tierra y el cielo, creando el espacio donde situar el aire,
el suelo, los dioses, los animales y las plantas.
En algunos textos Meheturet figura como madre de unos dioses del área de Tebas, llamados “Los Siete
Sabios”. Estas deidades tenían forma de halcón y estaban igualmente inmersas en las aguas
primordiales, protegidas por el Ojo de Ra (Meheturet). Dependiendo de la versión consultada, la diosa
figura como la esposa del Sol, y los “Siete Sabios” se relacionan con Thot, ya que, además, eran
divinidades asignadas a todas las áreas de enseñanza y patronos de las letras.
 KEK AND KAUKET, DEITIES OF DARKNESS, OBSCURITY AND NIGHT

BY CAROLINE SEAWRIGHT

The Egyptians believed that before the world was formed, there was a watery mass of dark, directionless chaos. In this chaos lived the Ogdoad of

Khmunu (Hermopolis), four frog gods  and four snake goddesses of chaos. These deities were Nun and Naunet (water), Amun and Amaunet

(invisibility), Heh and Hauhet (infinity) and Kek and Kauket (darkness). The chaos existed without the light, and thus Kek and Kauket came to

represent this darkness. They also symbolized obscurity, the kind of obscurity that went with darkness, and night.

The Ogdoad were the original great gods of Iunu (On, Heliopolis) where they were thought to have helped with creation, then died and retired to

the land of the dead where they continued to make the Nile flow and the sun rise every day. Because of this aspect of the eight, Budge believe that

Kek and Kauket were once deities linked to Khnum and Satet, to Hapi - Nile gods of Abu (Elephantine). He also believed that Kek may have also

been linked to Sobek.

Kek

 
 

Kek (Kuk, Keku) means darkness. He was the god of the darkness of chaos, the darkness before time began. He was the god of obscurity, hidden

in the darkness. The Egyptians saw the night time, the time without the light of the sun, as a reflection of this chaotic darkness.

The characteristics of the third paid of gods, Keku and Kauket, are easier to determine, and it is tolerable certain that these deities represent the

male and female powers of the darkness which was supposed to cover over the primeval abyss of water; they have been compared by Dr. Brugsch

with the Erebos of the Greeks.

-- The Gods of the Egyptians, E. A. Wallis Budge

As a god of the night, Kek was also related to the day - he was called the "bringer-in of the light". This seems to mean that he was responsible for

the time of night that came just before sunrise. The god of the hours before day dawned over the land of Egypt. This was the twilight which gave

birth to the sun.

Kauket

 
The feminine of the god Kek, Kauket (Keket) was a much more obscure goddess than her husband. She was a snake-headed woman who ruled

over the darkness with her husband. Her name also meant darkness, as did her husband's name, but with a feminine ending.

O you eight chaos gods, keepers of the chambers of the sky...The bnbn [phoenix] of Ra was that from which Atum came to be as ... Kek,

darkness... I am the one who begot the chaos gods again, as Heh, Nun, Amun, Kek. I am Shu who begot the gods.

-- Coffin Text, Spell 76

Kauket was the feminine to Kek's masculine, more of a representation of duality than an actual goddess, so she was even less of a deity than Kek,

and much more of an abstract.

She was, though, also related to the day - she was the "bringer-in of the night". This seems to show her to be the goddess of the night, just after

sunset. The goddess of the the hours of the evening, as night covered Egypt, and the sun had disappeared. This was the twilight which turned into

the darkness of night.

HEH AND HAUHET, DEITIES OF INFINITY AND ETERNITY

 BY CAROLINE SEAWRIGHT
 

The Egyptians believed that before the world was formed, there was a watery mass of dark, directionless chaos. In this
chaos lived the Ogdoad of Khmunu (Hermopolis), four frog gods and four snake goddesses of chaos. These deities were
Nun and Naunet (water), Amun and Amaunet (invisibility), Heh and Hauhet (infinity) and Kek and Kauket (darkness). The
water stretched infinitely off in all directions, as ever lasting as time itself. Heh and Hauhet came to symbolise infinity. After
the Egyptians believed that time began, Heh and Hauhet came to symbolise limitless time, and long life.

Heh

 
  

The frog or human headed god Heh (Huh) was one of the original eight gods of the Ogdoad of Khmunu (Hermopolis). He
was the god of infinity and time, the god of long life and eternity. In his hand he is shown holding one or two palm fronds of
'A Million Years' in his hands, the Egyptian sign of long life. Sometimes he was shown wearing a palm frond on his head,
as a headdress.

As a god of infinity, his name was linked to numbers. His determinative - an image of Heh with his arms raised - was
used for 'one million'. It seems that 'million' was a number for eternity - the 'Barque of a Million Years' was the name of the
boat that the sun god Ra travelled in during the day, which the Egyptians believed would happen until the end of time,
when chaos took over the land once more.

 
 

This centerpiece of a princess' necklace is composed around the throne name of King Senusret II. It was found among the
jewelry of Princess Sithathoryunet (sit-hathor-you-net) in a special niche of her underground tomb beside the pyramid of
Senusret II at Lahun. Hieroglyphic signs... might be read as a text saying, "The god of the rising sun grants life and
dominion over all that the sun encircles for one million one hundred thousand years [i.e., eternity] to King Khakheperre
[Senwosret II]."

... The cartouche rests on the bent tops of palm fronds (signs for "year") that are held by a kneeling Heh, god of eternity
and sign for "one million." A tadpole (sign for "one hundred thousand") dangles from the god's right elbow.

-- Pectoral of Princess Sithathoryunet, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

As well as being a god of time and infinity, he was also an air god. Identified with Shu, Heh was a god of the wind who was
linked to the four pillars that held up the sky. Like Shu, he was sometimes shown with his arms raised to help hold up the
sky.

O you eight chaos gods, keepers of the chambers of the sky, whom Shu made from the efflux of his limbs, who bound
together the ladder of Atum...The bnbn [phoenix] of Ra was that from which Atum came to be as Heh... I am the one who
begot the chaos gods again, as Heh, Nun, Amun, Kek. I am Shu who begot the gods.

 
 

-- Coffin Text, Spell

Heh was also eight different gods - like Hathor and the seven Hathors - who were believed to support the great celestial
cow in the heavens. He, like Nun, was also believed to hold up the solar barque of Ra, and to life it up into the sky at the
end of its voyage through the land of the dead.

Some believe that Heh was a representation of fire at one point, though it seemed that he was regarded as representing
different things over time. While being a god of fire, he was shown as a snake headed god. Hauhet, as a goddess
personifying fire, was shown with the head of a cat.

Hauhet

 
  

The feminine of the god Heh, Hauhet (Hehet) was a much more obscure goddess than her husband. She was a snake-
headed woman who ruled over infinity with her husband. He name was the same as her husband's, except with a feminine
ending.

Heh and Hauhet are rather difficult ideas to grasp, perhaps active and passive infinity would be a good expression. This
infinity is mostly conceived in relation to time, and is consequently equivalent to, and often described by the Greek Aion;
as infinity of form it resembles Eros ... The first act of a creation is the formation of an egg, which rises upon the hands of
Heh and Hauhet out of the proto-matter. Out of the egg arises the god of light, Ra, the immediate cause of life in this
world.

-- Cosmogony, The Catholic Encyclopedia Hauhet was the feminine to Heh's masculine, more of a representation of
duality than an actual goddess, so she was even less of a deity than Heh, and more of an abstract

Amun
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

For other uses, see Amun (disambiguation).

Amun

Amun depicted with a tall feather crown

God of creation and the wind

Name in
hieroglyphs
 Major cult center Thebes

Symbol two vertical plumes, the ram-headed

Sphinx (Criosphinx)

Parents none (self-created)

Consort Amunet
Wosret
Mut

Amun, reconstructed Egyptian Yamānu (also spelled Amon, Amoun, Amen, and rarely Imen or Yamun,
Greek Ἄμμων Ammon, and Ἅμμων Hammon), was a God in Egyptian mythology who in the form of
Amun-Ra became the focus of the most complex system of theology in Ancient Egypt. Whilst
remaining hypostatic deities, Amun represented the essential and hidden, whilst in Ra he represented
revealed divinity. As the creator deity "par excellence", he was the champion of the poor and central to
personal piety. Amun was self created, without mother and father, and during the New Kingdom he
became the greatest expression of transcendental deity in Egyptian theology. He was not considered to
be immanent within creation nor was creation seen as an extension of himself. Amun-Ra did not
physically engender the universe. His position as King of Gods developed to the point of virtual
monotheism where other Gods became manifestations of him. With Osiris, Amun-Ra is the most
widely recorded of the Egyptian gods.[1] He was also widely worshipped in the neighboring regions of
Libya and Nubia.

Contents
[hide]

 1 Family
 2 Rise of cult after expulsion of Hyksos
 3 Sun God
 4 Decline
 5 Cult in Nubia, Libya, and Greece
 6 Derived terms
 7 References
 8 External links

[edit] Family
Amun created himself alone. His first wife was Wosret, but he later married Amunet and Mut. With
Mut he is a father of the Moon god Khonsu.

[edit] Rise of cult after expulsion of Hyksos

Bas-relief depicting Amun as pharaoh

When the army of the founder of the Eighteenth dynasty expelled the Hyksos rulers from Egypt, the
victor's city of origin, Thebes, became the most important city in Egypt, the capital of a new dynasty.
The local patron deity of Thebes, Amun, therefore became nationally important. The pharaohs of that
new dynasty attributed all their successful enterprises to Amun and they lavished much of their wealth
and captured spoil on the construction of temples dedicated to Amun. The cultural advances achieved
by the pharaohs of this dynasty brought Egypt into a cultural renaissance, restoring trade and
advancing architectural design to a level that would not be achieved by any other culture for a
thousand years[citation needed].

As the Egyptians considered themselves oppressed during the period of the Hyksos rule, the victory
accomplished by pharaohs worshiping Amun was seen as a champion of the less fortunate.
Consequently, Amun was viewed as upholding the rights of justice for the poor.[1] By aiding those who
traveled in his name, he became the Protector of the road. Since he upheld Ma'at (truth, justice, and
goodness) ,[1] those who prayed to Amun were required, first, to demonstrate that they were worthy by
confessing their sins. Votive stela from the artisans village at Deir el-Medina record:

[Amun] who comes at the voice of the poor in distress, who gives breath to him who is wretched..You
are Amun, the Lord of the silent, who comes at the voice of the poor; when I call to you in my distress
You come and rescue me...Though the servant was disposed to do evil, the Lord is disposed to forgive.
The Lord of Thebes spends not a whole day in anger; His wrath passes in a moment; none remains.
His breath comes back to us in mercy..May your ka be kind; may you forgive; It shall not happen
again.[2]
Much later, because of the evidence of the adoration given to Amun in many regions during the height
of his cult, Greek travelers to Egypt would report that Amun—who they determined to be the ruler of
the Egyptian pantheon—was similar to the leader of the Classical Greek pantheon, Zeus, and therefore
they became identified by the Greeks as the same deity. Likewise, Amun's consort Mut became
associated by these Greeks with Zeus's consort in the Classical pantheon, Hera.

Praises of Amun on stelae are strikingly similar in language to those later used in the reign of
Akhenaton, in particular the Hymn to the Aten :

"When thou crossest the sky, all faces behold thee, but when thou departest, thou are hidden from
their faces.. When thou settest in the western mountain, then they sleep in the manner of death..The
fashioner of that which the soil produces,...a mother of profit to gods and men; a patient craftsmen,
greatly wearying himself as their maker..valiant herdsman, driving his cattle, their refuge and the
making of their living..The sole Lord, who reaches the end of the lands every day, as one who sees
them that tread thereon..Every land chatters at his rising every day, in order to praise him."[3]

Amun-Min as Amun-ka-Mut-ef from the temple at Deir el Medina

Subsequently, when Egypt conquered Kush, they identified the chief deity of the Kushites as Amun.
This Kush deity was depicted as ram-headed, more specifically a woolly ram with curved horns*—so
Amun became associated with the ram: indeed, due to the aged appearance of the Kush ram deity.

Since rams were considered a symbol of virility due to their rutting behavior, Amun also became
thought of as a fertility deity, and so started to absorb the identity of Min, becoming Amun-Min. This
association with virility led to Amun-Min gaining the epithet Kamutef, meaning Bull of his mother,[4] in
which form he was found depicted on the walls of Karnak, ithyphallic, and with a scourge, as Min
was.

[edit] Sun God

Amun-Ra
in hieroglyphs

Amun-Ra

As the cult of Amun grew in importance, Amun became identified with the chief deity who was
worshipped in other areas during that period, Ra-Herakhty, the merged identities of Ra and Horus.
This identification led to another merger of identities, with Amun becoming Amun-Ra. In the Hymn
to Amun-Ra he is described as "Lord of truth, father of the gods, maker of men, creator of all animals,
Lord of things that are, creator of the staff of life."[5] By then Ra had been described as the father of
Shu, Tefnut, and the remainder of the Ennead, so Amun-Ra likewise, became identified as their father.

Ra-Herakhty had been a solar deity and this nature became ascribed to Amun-Ra as well, Amun
becoming considered the hidden aspect of the sun during the night, in contrast to Ra-Herakhty as the
visible aspect during the day. Amun clearly meant the one who is hidden. This complexity over the sun
led to a gradual movement toward the support of a more pure form of deity.
During the later part of the eighteenth dynasty, the pharaoh Akhenaten (also known as Amenhotep IV)
disliked the power of the temple of Amun and advanced the worship of the Aten, a deity whose power
was manifested in the sun disk, both literally and symbolically. He defaced the symbols of many of the
old deities and based his religious practices upon the deity, the Aten. He moved his capitol away from
Thebes, but this abrupt change was very unpopular with the priests of Amun, who now found
themselves without any of their former power. The religion of Egypt was inexorably tied to the
leadership of the country, the pharaoh being the leader of both. The pharaoh was the highest priest in
the temple of the capital and the next lower level of religious leaders were important advisers to the
pharaoh, many being administrators of the bureaucracy that ran the country.

When Akhenaten died, the priests of Amun reasserted themselves. His name was struck from Egyptian
records, all of his religious and governmental changes were undone, and the capital was returned to
Thebes. The return to the previous capital and its patron deity was accomplished so swiftly that it
seemed this almost monotheistic cult and its governmental reforms had never existed. Worship of the
Aten ceased and worship of Amun-Ra was restored. The priests of Amun even persuaded his young
son, Tutankhaten, whose name meant "the living image of Aten"—and who later would become a
pharaoh—to change his name to Tutankhamun, "the living image of Amun".

As Amun-Re he was petitioned for mercy by those who believed suffering had come about as a result
of their own or others wrongdoing.

Amon-Re "who hears the prayer, who comes at the cry of the poor and distressed...Beware of him!
Repeat him to son and daughter, to great and small; relate him to generations of generations who
have not yet come into being; relate him to fishes in the deep, to birds in heaven; repeat him to him
who does not know him and to him who knows him...Though it may be that the servant is normal in
doing wrong, yet the Lord is normal in being merciful. The Lord of Thebes does not spend an entire
day angry. As for his anger - in the completion of a moment there is no remnant..As thy Ka endures!
thou wilt be merciful!"[6]

In the Leydon hymns, Amun, Ptah, and Re are regarded as a trinity who are distinct gods but with
unity in plurality.[7] "The three gods are one yet the Egyptian elsewhere insists on the separate identity
of each of the three."[8] This unity in plurality is expressed in one text: "All gods are three: Amun, Re
and Ptah, whom none equals. He who hides his name as Amun, he appears to the face as Re, his body
is Ptah."[9] The hidden aspect of Amun and his likely association with the wind caused Henri Frankfort
to draw parallels with a passage from the Gospel of John: "The wind blows where it wishes, and you
hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going."[John 3:8][10] A Leydon
hymn to Amun describes how he calms stormy seas for the troubled sailor:

The tempest moves aside for the sailor who remembers the name of Amon. The storm becomes a
sweet breeze for he who invokes His name... Amon is more effective than millions for he who places
Him in his heart. Thanks to Him the single man becomes stronger than a crowd.[11]

[edit] Decline
Although the capital was moved back to Thebes and the power base of Amun's cult had been
revivified, the authority of Amun began to weaken after the Twentieth dynasty. Under the Twenty-first
dynasty the secondary line of priest pharaohs of Thebes upheld his dignity to the best of their power,
and the Twenty-second favoured Thebes, but they became weak and ineffective.

The sarcophagus of a priestess of Amon-Ra, c. 1000 B.C. - Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History

As the leadership weakened, division between Upper Egypt, the southern portion, and Lower Egypt,
the northern portion, reasserted itself. The unification of Egypt failed, falling into regional autonomy
again. Nubia took over the rule of southern Egypt. Southern Egypt includes Thebes and it would have
decayed rapidly had it not been for the piety of the rulers of Nubia toward Amun, who had been
worshiped in their own country for a long time. Initially, they made Thebes their Egyptian capital and
they honoured Amun greatly, although neither their wealth nor their culture was sufficient to reverse
the decline of the cult.

In the rest of Egypt, however, the popularity of the cult of Amun was rapidly overtaken by the rise of
the new cult of Isis and Osiris. And so outside Thebes, Amun's identity first became subsumed into Ra
(Ra-Herakhty), who initially remained an identifiable figure in the Isis and Osiris cult, but ultimately,
Amun became an aspect of Horus.

[edit] Cult in Nubia, Libya, and Greece

In areas outside of Egypt where the Egyptians had previously brought the cult of Amun his worship
continued. In Nubia, where his name was pronounced Amane, he remained a national deity, with his
priests, at Meroe and Nobatia, regulating the whole government of the country via an oracle, choosing
the ruler, and directing military expeditions. According to Diodorus Siculus, these religious leaders
even were able to compel kings to commit suicide, although this tradition stopped when Arkamane, in
the 3rd century BC, slew them.

In Libya there remained a solitary oracle of Amun in the Libyan Desert at the oasis of Siwa. The
worship of Ammon was introduced into Greece at an early period, probably through the medium of the
Greek colony in Cyrene, which must have formed a connection with the great oracle of Ammon in the
Oasis soon after its establishment. Ammon had a temple and a statue, the gift of Pindar, at Thebes
(Paus. ix. 16. § 1), and another at Sparta, the inhabitants of which, as Pausanias (iii. 18. § 2) says,
consulted the oracle of Ammon in Libya from early times more than the other Greeks. At Aphytis,
Chalcidice, Ammon was worshipped, from the time of Lysander, as zealously as in Ammonium.
Pindar the poet honoured the god with a hymn. At Megalopolis the god was represented with the head
of a ram (Paus. viii. 32. § 1), and the Greeks of Cyrenaica dedicated at Delphi a chariot with a statue of
Ammon.

Such was its reputation among the Classical Greeks that Alexander the Great journeyed there after the
battle of Issus and during his occupation of Egypt, where he was declared the son of Amun by the
oracle. Alexander thereafter considered himself divine. Even during this occupation, Amun, identified
by these Greeks as a form of Zeus, continued to be the principal local deity of Thebes during its decay.

[edit] Derived terms

Amun-Ra on relief

Several words derive from Amun via the Greek form, Ammon: ammonia and ammonite. The Romans
called the ammonium chloride they collected from deposits near the Temple of Jupiter Amun in
ancient Libya sal ammoniacus (salt of Amun) because of proximity to the nearby temple.[12]

Ammonia, as well as being the chemical, is a genus name in the foraminifera. Both these
foraminiferans (shelled Protozoa) and ammonites (extinct shelled cephalopods) bear spiral shells
resembling a ram's, and Ammon's, horns.

The regions of the hippocampus in the brain are called the cornu ammonis – literally "Amun's Horns",
due to the horned appearance of the dark and light bands of cellular layers.
[edit] References

Amonet
Da Wikipedia, l'enciclopedia libera.

Amonet, nella mitologia egizia era la forma femminile, o paredra, del dio Amon che era la parte
maschile.

imnt (colei che è nascosta)

Statua della dea Amonet, nel tempio di Karnak

Indice

[nascondi]

1 Genesi
2 Natura divina e
culto
 3 Iconografia
4 Forme
sincretiche
5 Bibliografia

Genesi [modifica]
La coppia rappresentava l'ignoto e faceva parte dell'Ogdoade ermopolitana. Questa era formata in
origine dalle seguenti coppie:

 Nun e Nunet, il caos delle acque primordiali

 Kuk e Keket, l'oscurità
 Huh e Huhet, l'illimitatezza
 Niau e Niaunet, l'aria e il vento

Niau e Niaunet, nominati nei Testi delle Piramidi ed in particolare nei testi della piramide di Huni (V
dinastia), furono sostituiti successivamente da Amon e Amonet. Quest'ultima fu, a sua volta, sostituita
dalla dea Mut, durante il Medio Regno. Amonet, tuttavia, continuò ad essere adorata anche in altri
ruoli.

Natura divina e culto [modifica]

Particolare dei piedi della Statua di Amonet

Entrambi i nomi di Amon e Amonet sono menzionati spesso nei Testi delle Piramidi ed il significato
del nome Amonet è "colei che è nascosta". Dalla fusione di questo significato con quello di "aria e
vento", Amonet personificava l'aria ignota e il vento impetuoso che agitavano il Caos primigenio da
cui sarebbe stato, poi, creato il mondo.
La dea Amonet risale all'Antico Regno ed è citata sempre in unione con Amon. È raffigurata con
corpo di donna e testa di ureo così come Amon è raffigurato con corpo di uomo e testa di rana. Spesso
però la dea veniva raffigurata anche con la testa di gatto.

Nel Nuovo Regno, il clero tebano, che era il più potente, ebbe la necessità di crearsi una propria
Cosmogonia e attinse alle dottrine più antiche appropriandosi della coppia Amon/Amonet, che
rappresentò come una coppia di serpenti e negando la loro origine ermopolitana.

Gli aspetti e le caratteristiche di un dio, erano stabiliti dal clero più influente in quel dato contesto
storico. Così a Tebe, Amonet, era solo la parte femminile di Amon mentre a Karnak rimase la sposa di
Amon, non meno adorata della successiva sposa Mut che ebbe, a differenza di Amonet, il figlio
Khonsu da Amon, facendola, di conseguenza, crescere d'importanza.

Il culto di Amonet già estremamente diffuso nella XVIII dinastia era officiato da sacerdoti di alto
rango quali i "profeti" , proseguì almeno fino alla XXVI dinastia dove troviamo citato sempre nel
tempio di Karnak, Horakhbit Primo sacerdote di Amon e profeta di Amonet e continuò ad essere
officiato fino al periodo tolemaico.

Iconografia [modifica]
Amonet è raffigurata:

 nel tempio di Karnak, al VI pilone nella Sala degli Annali, edificate da Thutmose III, vi sono due colonne
di granito rosso che recano scolpite una il fior di loto, simbolo dell'Alto Egitto e l'altra il papiro, simbolo
del Basso Egitto. Accanto vi sono due statue: Amon ed Amonet. Quest'ultima è rappresentata in forma
umana e con la corona rossa del delta del Nilo. Le statue risalgono a Tutankhamon che fece erigere
per la coppia divina un grande tempio. In questa statua l'aspetto della dea è reso in maniera perfetta.
 nel tempio di Karnak, al III pilone, chiosco di Sesostri I. Qui la dea è mostrata, con raffinate decorazioni
in rilievo, con il sovrano e altri dei, nei riti svoltisi in occasione del giubileo (Festa Sed);
 nel tempio di Luxor, muro est dell'Atrio, vi sono scolpite scene del sovrano che offre latte, pesci, uccelli
e unguenti ad dio Amon e alla dea Amonet;
 nel tempio di Luxor, estremità della parete sud del colonnato, dove la dea Amonet è rappresentata
con il dio Amon e la dea Mut omaggiati da Tutankhamon;
 nel monumento di Thutmose III dove la dea Amonet apre la schiera degli dei per il giubileo del
sovrano.
Dea Amonet, parte femminile del dio Amon

Nell'iconografia, Amonet, è anche raffigurata come figura femminile:

 con il geroglifico della vita e lo stelo di papiro che simboleggia il rigenerarsi eterno delle anime dei
giusti;
 alata in quanto era la dea primordiale dell'aria;
 con un falco o una piuma di struzzo sulla testa.

Tra i disegni di Ippolito Rosellini, da Monumenti dell'Egitto e della Nubia, uno rappresenta Seti I
davanti ad Osiride e alle spalle di quest'ultimo vi è Amonet rappresentata come la dea dell'Occidente
con sopra la testa il geroglifico dell'occidente e il falco. Tiene in mano l'ankh ed abbraccia il dio
Osiride nel familiare gesto di molte coppie egizie.

Forme sincretiche [modifica]

Man mano che il dio Amon cresceva d'importanza per il clero egizio, Amonet venne translata in altre
figure mitologiche, dai vari aspetti divini, che ne hanno reso spesso dubbia l'identità.
Inoltre la confusione tra nomi di etimologia egizia, egiziana e greca, reinterpretati poi nelle varie
lingue moderne, non ne favorisce il processo identificativo. Per esempio, altri nomi di Amonet sono ,
Amenet, Amentet, Amentit, Amonia, Amunet, Imentet, Imenti etc.

Per completezza, indichiamo che Amonet è stata identificata con:

 la dea Imentet in quanto impersonava la dea della Terra dell'Occidente che in egizio era detta Amenti
(o Ament, Amentet) che significava "terra nascosta" (ossia il regno dei morti). Veniva rappresentata
con belle fattezze, con il geroglifico occidente sulla testa, lo scettro delle dee, uadj, e l'ankh della vita
nelle sue mani.

imntt

Il geroglifico dell'occidente è disegnato con mezzo cerchio sorretto su due aste di lunghezze diverse, la
più lunga delle quali è legata alla testa di Amonet con una fascia. Se così rappresentata prendeva
appunto il nome di Imentet.
In un dipinto della tomba di Seti I, Amonet è raffigurata come la dea Hathor ma si differenzia da
quest'ultima perché sopra la testa della dea, vi è il geroglifico dell'occidente.
Nella tomba di Menna è raffigurata con un falco sulla testa.
Nella seconda sala ipostila del tempio di Seti I, ad Abydos, gli stupendi rilievi della parete, di squisita
fattura, raffigurano Osiride assiso di fronte a Maat e Renpet con alle spalle Iside, Imentet e Nefti.
Anche nella tomba di Nefertari, Amonet è raffigurata, nel vestibolo, come Imentet/Hathor.

 la dea Amentet (o Amentit, Imentit) perché era la forma antropomorfizzata dell'Amenti cioè della
dimora delle anime giuste e senza peccato. L'Amenti è illustrato nel libro dell'Amduat il cui significato
è "chi è nel Duat (Oltretomba)". Il Duat è diviso in dodici zone/ore e l'Amenti è situato nella V ora
notturna. Lì si riunivano le anime dei defunti in attesa di essere traghettati. Ma poteva salire sulla
barca solo chi in vita era stato giusto e conosceva tutti i rituali sacri.
 la dea Iasaaset ossia "l'ombra di Atum". Come tale è divenuta la madre del creato e le fu dato
l'appellativo di "la madre che è padre".
 la dea arborea del sicomoro poiché essendo Amonet dea dell'occidente ed essendo l'occidente la
Terra dell'Oltretomba aveva il compito di accogliere i defunti e di nutrirli affinché si potessero
rigenerare. In questa veste le fu associato il sicomoro. Ella accoglieva tutti quelli che avrebbero dovuto
fare il grande viaggio. Viveva in un albero ai confini del deserto con lo sguardo rivolto verso
l'Oltretomba. Durante il Periodo Tolemaico è raffigurata mentre allatta il faraone Filippo Arrideo
(Dinastia Tolemaica), fratellastro di Alessandro Magno, che è rappresentato come bambino divino.
 la dea Iusaas ossia "la mano del dio" oppure "ella viene con la sua potenza".

iw.s ˁ.s (essa (è) grande)

Quest'ultimo epiteto significherebbe che questa dea si sia autogenerata come il dio Atum ed era anche
il titolo della Divina Sposa di Amon. Similmente ad Amonet era la forma femminile di Atum e
partecipò alla creazione del mondo. Iusaas, Nebethetepet e Temet erano le figure femminili affiancate
ad Atum. Dea di Heliopolis aveva anche un tempio a lei dedicato. È raffigurata con uno scarabeo in
testa.

 la dea Neith, ma in tarda epoca e mantenendo intatte le proprie caratteristiche.

 la dea Opet , dea tebana che era adorata nell'Opet meridionale.

La dea Amonet era anche la dea tutelare sia dei faraoni che a lei si rivolgevano nelle feste Sed che dei
periodi di successione faraonica. Ne consegue che, come dea protettrice dei sovrani, lo fosse anche
dell'Egitto che essi rappresentavano.

a sinistra la dea Amonet nella successiva identificazione in Iment/Amentet a destra la dea Iment
Statua della dea Amonet, a sinistra si intravede la statua di Amon

Mut
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

For other uses, see Mut (disambiguation).

Mut
 A contemporary image of goddess Mut, depicted as a
woman wearing the double crown plus a royal vulture
headdress, associating her with Nekhbet.

Goddess of queens

Major cult center Thebes

Symbol the vulture

Parents none (self-created)

Consort Amun
Nineteenth dynasty statue of Mut, part of a double statue, c. 1279-1213 BC, Luxor Museum

Mut
in hieroglyphs

Mut, which meant mother in the ancient Egyptian language,[1] was an ancient Egyptian mother
goddess with multiple aspects that changed over the thousands of years of the culture. Alternative
spellings are Maut and Mout. She was depicted as a white vulture most often. She was considered a
primal deity, associated with the waters from which everything was born through parthenogenesis. She
also was depicted as a woman with the crowns of Egypt upon her head. The rulers of Egypt each
supported her worship in their own way to emphasize their own authority and right to rule through an
association with Mut.

Some of Mut's many titles included World-Mother, Eye of Ra, Queen of the Goddesses, Lady of
Heaven, Mother of the Gods, and She Who Gives Birth, But Was Herself Not Born of Any.

Most of these titles reveal the worship of her as the primary mother goddess deity of ancient times.

Contents
[hide]

 1 Changes of mythological position

 2 Depictions
 3 In Karnak
 4 Personal piety
 5 References
 6 External links

[edit] Changes of mythological position

Mut was a title of the primordial waters of the cosmos, Naunet, in the Ogdoad cosmogony during what
is called the Old Kingdom, the third through sixth dynasties, dated between 2,686 to 2,134 B.C.
However, the distinction between motherhood and cosmic water later diversified and lead to the
separation of these identities, and Mut gained aspects of a creator goddess, since she was the mother
from which the cosmos emerged.

The hieroglyph for Mut's name, and for mother itself, was that of a white vulture, which the Egyptians
believed were very maternal creatures. Indeed, since Egyptian white vultures have no significant
differing markings between female and male of the species, being without sexual dimorphism, the
Egyptians believed they were all females, who conceived their offspring by the wind herself, another
parthenogenic concept.
Schist statuette of Mut, Late Period, Dynasty XXVI, c. 664-525 BC

sculpture of Sekmet the lioness deity in the eighteenth dynasty temple to Mut

Much later new myths held that since Mut had no parents, but was created from nothing;
consequently, she could not have children and so adopted one instead.

Making up a complete triad of deities for the later pantheon of Thebes, it was said that Mut had
adopted Menthu, god of war. This choice of completion for the triad should have proved popular, but
because the isheru, the sacred lake outside Mut's ancient temple in Karnak at Thebes, was the shape of
a crescent moon, Khonsu, the moon god eventually replaced Menthu as Mut's adopted son.

Lower and upper Egypt both already had patron deities–Wadjet and Nekhbet–respectively, indeed they
also had lioness protector deities–Bast and Sekhmet–respectively. When Thebes rose to greater
prominence, Mut absorbed these warrior goddesses as some of her aspects. First, Mut became Mut-
Wadjet-Bast, then Mut-Sekhmet-Bast (Wadjet having merged into Bast), then Mut also assimilated
Menhit, who was also a lioness goddess, and her adopted son's wife, becoming Mut-Sekhmet-Bast-
Menhit, and finally becoming Mut-Nekhbet.

Later in ancient Egyptian mythology deities of the pantheon were identified as equal pairs, female and
male counterparts, having the same functions. In the later Middle Kingdom, when Thebes grew in
importance, its patron, Amun also became more significant, and so Amaunet, who had been his female
counterpart, was replaced with a more substantial mother-goddess, namely Mut, who became his wife.
In that phase, Mut and Amun had a son, Khonsu, another moon deity.

The authority of Thebes waned later and Amun was assimilated into Ra. Mut, the doting mother, was
assimilated into Hathor, the cow-goddess and mother of Horus who had become identified as Ra's
wife. Subsequently, when Ra assimilated Atum, the Ennead was absorbed as well, and so Mut-Hathor
became identified as Isis (either as Isis-Hathor or Mut-Isis-Nekhbet), the most important of the females
in the Ennead (the nine), and the patron of the queen. The Ennead proved to be a much more
successful identity and the compound triad of Mut, Hathor, and Isis, became known as Isis alone—a
cult that endured into the 7th century A.D. and spread to Greece, Rome, and Britain.

[edit] Depictions
In art, Mut was pictured as a woman with the wings of a white vulture, holding an ankh, wearing the
united crown of Upper and Lower Egypt and a dress of bright red or blue, with the feather of the
goddess Ma'at at her feet.

Alternatively, as a result of her assimilations, Mut is sometimes depicted as a cobra, a cat, a cow, or as
a lioness as well as the white vulture.

[edit] In Karnak

Precinct of Mut at the Karnak temple complex

There are temples dedicated to Mut still standing in modern-day Egypt and Sudan, reflecting the
widespread worship of her, but the center of her cult became the temple in Karnak. That temple had
the statue that was regarded as an embodiment of her real ka. Her devotions included daily rituals by
the pharaoh and her priestesses. Interior reliefs depict scenes of the priestesses, currently the only
known remaining example of worship in ancient Egypt that was exclusively administered by women.

Usually the queen, who always carried the royal lineage among the rulers of Egypt, served as the chief
priestess in the temple rituals. The pharaoh participated also and would become a deity after death. In
the case when the pharaoh was female, records of one example indicate that she had her daughter
serve as the high priestess in her place. Often priests served in the administration of temples and
oracles where priestesses performed the traditional religious rites. These rituals included music and
drinking.

The pharaoh Hatshepsut had the ancient temple to Mut at Karnak rebuilt during her rule in the
Eighteenth Dynasty. Previous excavators had thought that Amenhotep III had the temple built because
of the hundreds of statues found there of Sekhmet that bore his name. However, Hatshepsut, who
completed an enormous number of temples and public buildings, had completed the work seventy-five
years earlier. She began the custom of depicting Mut with the crown of both Upper and Lower Egypt.
It is thought that Amenhotep III removed most signs of Hatshepsut, while taking credit for the projects
she had built.
Hatshepsut was a pharaoh who brought Mut to the fore again in the Egyptian pantheon, identifying
strongly with the goddess. She stated that she was a descendant of Mut. She also associated herself
with the image of Sekhmet, as the more aggressive aspect of the goddess, having served as a very
successful warrior during the early portion of her reign as pharaoh.

Later in the same dynasty, Akhenaten suppressed the worship of Mut as well as the other deities when
he promoted the monotheistic worship of his sun god, Aten. Tutankhamun later re-established her
worship and his successors continued to associate themselves with Mut afterward.

Ramesses II added more work on the Mut temple during the nineteenth dynasy, as well as rebuilding
an earlier temple in the same area, rededicating it to Amun and himself. He placed it so that people
would have to pass his temple on their way to that of Mut.

Kushite pharaohs expanded the Mut temple and modified the Ramesses temple for use as the shrine of
the celebrated birth of Amun and Khonsu, trying to integrate themselves into divine succession. They
also installed their own priestesses among the ranks of the priestesses who officiated at the temple of
Mut.

The Greek Ptolemaic dynasty added its own decorations and priestesses at the temple as well and used
the authority of Mut to emphasize their own interests.

Later, the Roman emperor Tiberius rebuilt the site after a severe flood and his successors supported
the temple until it fell into disuse, sometime around the third century A.D. Some of the later Roman
officials used the stones from the temple for their own building projects, often without altering the
images carved upon them.

[edit] Personal piety

In the wake of Akhenaten's revolution, and the subsequent restoration of traditional beliefs and
practices, the emphasis in personal piety moved towards greater reliance on divine, rather than human,
protection for the individual. During the reign of Rameses II a follower of the goddess Mut donated all
his property to her temple and recorded in his tomb:

And he [Kiki] found Mut at the head of the gods, Fate and fortune in her hand, Lifetime and breath of
life are hers to command...I have not chosen a protector among men. I have not sought myself a
protector among the great...My heart is filled with my mistress. I have no fear of anyone. I spend the
night in quiet sleep, because I have a protector.[2]

Khonsu
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For other uses, see Khonsu (disambiguation).

Khonsu

God of youth and the moon

Major cult center Thebes

Symbol the moon disk, the sidelock

Parents Amun and Mut

Siblings Monthu
Khonsu, the ancient
Egyptian moon-god, was
depicted either as a falcon
wearing the moon-disk on
his head (left) or as the child
of Amun and Mut.

Khonsu (alternately Chonsu, Khensu, Khons, Chons or Khonshu) is an Ancient Egyptian god
whose main role was associated with the moon. His name means "traveller" and this may relate to the
nightly travel of the moon across the sky. Along with Thoth he marked the passage of time. Khonsu
was instrumental in the creation of new life in all living creatures. At Thebes he formed part of a
family triad with Mut as his mother and Amun his father. At Kom Ombo he was worshipped as son of
Sobek and Hathor.[1]

Contents
[hide]

 1 Attributes
 2 Etymology
 3 History
 4 Modern culture
 5 Notes

[edit] Attributes
Khonsu is typically depicted as a mummy with the symbol of childhood, a sidelock of hair, as well as
the menat necklace with crook and flail. He has close links to other divine children such as Horus and
Shu. He is sometimes shown wearing a falcon's head like Horus, with whom he is associated as a
protector and healer, adorned with the sun disk and crescent moon.[1]

He is mentioned in the Pyramid Texts and Coffin Texts, in which he is depicted in a fierce aspect, but
he does not rise to prominence until the New Kingdom, when he is described as the "Greatest God of
the Great Gods". Most of the construction of the temple complex at Karnak was centered on Khonsu
during the Ramesside Period.[1] His temple at Karnak is in a relatively good state of preservation, and
on one of the walls is depicted a cosmogeny in which Khonsu is described as the great snake who
fertilizes the Cosmic Egg in the creation of the world.[2]

Khonsu's reputation as a healer spread outside Egypt; a stele records how a princess of Bekhten was
instantly cured of an illness upon the arrival of an image of Khonsu.[3] King Ptolemy IV, after he was
cured of an illness, called himself "Beloved of Khonsu Who Protects His Majesty and Drives Away
Evil Spirits".

Locations of Khonsu's cult were Memphis, Hibis and Edfu.[1]

[edit] Etymology
His name reflects the fact that the Moon (referred to as Aah in Egyptian) travels across the night sky,
for it means traveller, and also had the titles Embracer, Pathfinder, and Defender, as he was thought to
watch over night travelers. As the god of light in the night, Khonsu was invoked to protect against
wild animals, increase male virility, and to aid with healing. It was said that when Khonsu caused the
crescent moon to shine, women conceived, cattle became fertile, and all nostrils and every throat was
filled with fresh air.

Khonsu can also be understood to mean king's placenta, and consequently in early times, he was
considered to slay the king's (i.e. the pharaoh's) enemies, and extract their innards for the king's use,
metaphorically creating something resembling a placenta for the king. This bloodthirsty aspect leads
him to be referred to, in such as the Pyramid texts, as the (one who) lives on hearts. He also became
associated with more literal placentas, becoming seen as a deification of the royal placenta, and so a
god involved with childbirth.

[edit] History

Khonsu
in hieroglyphs
 Khonsu of Thebes
The "Maker" of men's destinies –
Chonsu-pa-âri-sekher-em-"Uas-t"
in hieroglyphs

Pylon of the Temple of Khonsu at Karnak

Khonsu gradually replaced the war-god Monthu as the son of Mut in Theban thought during the
Middle Kingdom, because the pool at the temple of Mut was in the shape of a crescent moon. The
father who had adopted Khonsu was thought to be Amun, who had already been changed into a more
significant god by the rise of Thebes, and had his wife changed to Mut. As these two were both
considered extremely benign deities, Menthu gradually lost his more aggressive aspects.

In art, Khonsu was depicted as a man with the head of a hawk, wearing the crescent of the new moon
subtending the disc of the full moon. His head was shaven except for the side-lock worn by Egyptian
children, signifying his role as Khonsu the Child. Occasionally he was depicted as a youth holding the
flail of the pharaoh, wearing a menat necklace. He was sometimes pictured on the back of a goose,
ram, or two crocodiles. His sacred animal was the baboon, considered a lunar animal by the ancient
Egyptians.

[edit] Modern culture

KHONSU, THE LUNAR GOD WHO CAME TO GREATNESS

BY JIMMY DUNN

 
 

The name of the moon god, Khonsu, was at first thought to have been derived from the elements kh (placenta) and nesu (king), as a

personification of the royal placenta, but it is now generally believed to be based on the verb, khenes, meaning "to cross over" or "traverse", related

to "he who traverses [the sky]".

Khonsu might be considered a fine lesson in ancient Egyptian religion. Many novices interested in this theology at first see it as a static religion, but

indeed, over time and in various regions it was very different. The moon god Khonsu illustrates this fact, for his earliest attested character became

considerably altered by the New Kingdom at Thebes (modern Luxor), where he appears as the benign son of Amun and Mut.

Yet in the early Pyramid Texts, he appears in the well known "Cannibal Hymn" (Utt. 173-4) as a bloodthirsty deity who assists the deceased king in

catching and slaying those gods that the king "feeds upon" in order to absorb their strength. Specifically, it refers to him as "Khonsu who slew the

lords, who strangles them for the King, and extracts for him what is in their bodies". Though only mentioned once in the Pyramid Texts, he is also

referred to in Spell 258 of the Coffin Texts, where he is "Khonsu who lives on hearts", and in Spell 310, where he is capable of sending out "the

rage which burns hearts". He later becomes associated with childbirth prior to becoming the  better known god of the Theban triad, consisting of

Amun, Mut and himself.

 

At Thebes, Khonsu was primarily known as a lunar god known as "Khonsu in Thebes Nefer-hotep", but in fact his mythology was not limited to that

role. He has several different aspects, appearing in among other forms as Khonsu pa-khered, or Khonsu the Child; Khonsu pa-ir-sekher, or Khonsu

the provider (the Chespisichis of the Greeks); and Khonsu heseb-ahau, or Khonsu, decider of the life span, which was in reality one of the most

important Theban manifestations of the god.

Different aspects of this god could interact with each other, as evidenced by an inscription known as the Bentresh Stela now in the Louvre

Museum. It was produced in Thebes in the 4th century BC by priests, though it claims to record a pronouncement of Ramesses II some 800 years

earlier. It spins a story about that Pharaoh loaning a statue of Khonsu pa-ir-sekher to the king of Bakhtan to aid in the healing of a princess,

Bentresh, and includes a conversation between this form of Khonsu and the more senior Khonsu in Thebes.

 
 Above: Ramesses IV offers the first fruits of the 

season to Khonsu  in the Khonsu Temple at Karnak

Below: Khonsu offers the palm tree of the years and the sed-festival 

symbol while Isis breast-feeds the young king prince wearing the white crown

 
 

A synopsis of this document is provided by George Hart, in his Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses:

"Ramesses on a tour of inspection in Syria falls in love with the daughter of the prince of Bakhtan (-Bactria?).

The princess goes to Egypt as his Great Royal Wife Nefrure.

A request arrives from Bakhtan for help in curing Nefrure's younger sister, Bentresh.

The Royal scribe Djeheutyemheb goes to Bakhtan and diagnoses that Bentresh is possessed by a hostile spirit. He informs the pharaoh.

In Egypt Ramesses consults Khonsu in Thebes Nefer-hotep.

Khonsu approaches the manifestation of himself specializing in healing and riving out demons, who is Khonsu pa-ir-sekher.

This Khonsu's statue is sent to Bakhtan, a journey of seventeen months.

To the amazement of the Bakhtan court, Khonsu cures Bentresh and the hostile spirit acknowledges his supremacy.
The Prince of Bakhtan deliberately detains the statue for three years and nine months until a dream of Khonsu as a golden falcon flying away

causes a crisis of conscience.

Khonsu's statue returns to Thebes laden with treasure from the prince, which is handed over to Khonsu in Thebes Nefer-hotep - obviously the

senior partner."

Khonsu's nature did not simply change over time. Although firmly associated with Amun and Mut at Thebes, at Kom Ombo Khonsu was considered

the son of Sobek and Hathor, and in Edfu, Khonsu was linked with Osiris as "the son of the leg", referring to a relic of that  netherworld god said to

be preserved in that temple.

As a moon god, Khonsu was sometimes associated with Shu, the god of the air, and also with Horus. And he participated in the reckoning of time

like, and as an assistant to Thoth. He was also believed to influence the gestation of both humans and animals, and was even connected to

creation myths by the Khonsu Cosmogony, which was preserved in a Ptolemaic text recorded on the walls at the Khonsu temple at Karnak and

which explains the the connection between the Theban Khonsu and the creation myths of Memphis and Hermopolis.
 

Iconography

Khonsu was typically represented in anthropomorphic form, usually as a younger man wrapped in mummy bandages or a tightly fitting garment,

though his arms may be partially or completely unrestrained. He is frequently depicted wearing his lunar symbol, which consists of the full lunar

disk resting in a crescent new moon upon his head. However, in his role as divine child of Amun and Mut, he commonly wears the sidelock of

youth, even though he may also wear the curved beard of the gods.  Often, he holds the crook and flail associated with Osiris and Horus, as well

as a was or djed-headed  staff. His most distinctive adornment, however, is a loosely hanging necklace with a crescent-shaped pectoral element

resting on his chest and with a heavy counterpoise on his back. This counterpoise usually has an inverted keyhole shape, which is useful in

differentiating this god from representations of the god Ptah, whose necklace counterpoise is of a different shape.

As a god of the sky, Khonsu may also be depicted with the head of a falcon, but can be differentiated from Horus and Re by the lunar disk and

crescent surmounting his head. As a lunar deity, one of his symbols was the Cynocephalus baboon, considered a lunar creature by the ancient

Egyptians, though he does not nearly so frequently appear in this form as does the god Thoth. In the later dynasties, Khonsu may take human form
on small amulets. Also during Egypt's late history, he may be depicted on plaques as fully human or in his falcon-headed form, together with his

divine parents, Amun and Mut. He may also be depicted like Horus, standing on the back of a crocodile.

Worship

Khonsu was a major Egyptian god with sanctuaries throughout the ancient land of Egypt, including temples at Memphis, Edfu and Hibis. However,

his main cult center was at Thebes. Within the precincts of the great Amun temple at Karnak, his temple to the south of the first court was begun in

the 20th dynasty by Ramesses III and completed by a number of later rulers.  Like his parents, Khonsu participated in various processions, such as

the New Year's festival at the temple of Luxor, where the god's statue was transported from his precinct at Karnak on a sacred barque that could

be identified by a falcon's head at its prow and stern. In this festival, the god traveled along his own statue-lined avenue which ran from his temple

to Luxor, indicating his importance in this and other celebrations. In fact, the pylon of Khonsu's temple, known as "Benent", was the starting point of

the processional avenue leading to the Luxor Temple, and in the late Ramessid period, most of the construction at Karnak, where one of his divine

epithets was "the Greatest God of the Great Gods", focused on his temple.

Particularly during later times, Khonsu's fame as a god of healing was widespread, and enhanced by the fact that he was believed to have

personally healed one of Egypt's kings during the Greek Period, Ptolemy IV, who called himself "beloved of Khonsu who protects the king and
drives away evil spirits. In fact, as a healing god, Khonsu came to be worshipped by the common people as well, who sometimes took the god's

name as part of their own.

Statue of Khonsu at the time of its discovery in 1903

Ptah
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For the asteroid, see 5011 Ptah.

This article does not cite any references or sources.

Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged
and removed. (December 2007)

Ptah
 Ptah, in the form of a mummified man, holding a scepter or
staff that bears the combined ankh-djed-was symbols.

God of creation, the arts and fertility

Major cult center Memphis

Symbol the djed pillar, the bull

Parents none (self-created)

Consort Bastet / Sekhmet

In Egyptian mythology, Ptah was the deification of the primordial mound in the Ennead cosmogony,
which was more literally referred to as Ta-tenen (also spelled Tathenen, Tatjenen, etc), meaning
risen land, or as Tanen, meaning submerged land, though Tatenen was a god in his own right, before
being assimilated with Ptah. Ptah also is referred to as the noble Djed.
It was said (in the Shabaka Stone) that it was Ptah who called the world into being, having dreamt
creation in his heart, and speaking it, his name meaning opener, in the sense of opener of the mouth.
Indeed the opening of the mouth ceremony, performed by priests at funerals to release souls from their
corpses, was said to have been created by Ptah. Atum was said to have been created by Ptah to rule
over the creation, sitting upon the primordial mound.

In art, he is portrayed as a bearded mummified man, often wearing a skull cap, with his hands holding
an ankh, was, and djed, the symbols of life, power and stability, respectively. It was also considered
that Ptah manifested himself in the Apis bull. He may have originally been a fertility god because of
this.

In Memphis, Ptah was worshipped in his own right, and was seen as Atum's father, or rather, the father
of Nefertum, the younger form of Atum. When the beliefs about the Ennead and Ogdoad were later
merged, and Atum was identified as Ra (Atum-Ra), himself seen as Horus (Ra-Herakhty), this led to
Ptah being said to be married to Bastet / Sekhmet, at the time considered the earlier form of Hathor,
Horus', thus Atum's, mother.

Stucco relief of Ptah with staff and ankh and djed. Late Period or Ptolemaic Dynasty, 4th to 3rd century BC.

Since Ptah was the primordial mound, and had called creation into being, he was considered the god of
craftsmen, and in particular stone-based crafts. Eventually, due to the connection of these things to
tombs, and that at Thebes, the craftsmen regarded him so highly as to say that he controlled their
destiny. Consequently, first amongst the craftsmen, then the population as a whole, Ptah also became a
god of regeneration. Since Seker was also god of craftsmen, and of regeneration of the sun during the
night, Seker was later assimilated with Ptah becoming Ptah-Seker.

Consequently, Ptah-Seker became considered an underworld deity, and eventually, by the Middle
Kingdom, become assimilated by Osiris, the lord of the underworld, occasionally being known as
Ptah-Seker-Osiris.
Stele dedicated to Ptah by the foreman of Deir el-Medina in the XX dynasty.

[edit] Literature
 Benedikt Rothöhler, Neue Gedanken zum Denkmal memphitischer Theologie. Heidelberg, 2006
www.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/archiv/7030

[edit] References
PTAH, GOD OF CRAFTSMEN, REBIRTH AND CREATION
BY CAROLINE SEAWRIGHT

Ptah (Pteh, Peteh) was the predynastic Mennefer (Hikuptah, Memphis) god of craftsmen, pottery and creation. The Egyptians believed that he was

a god who created everything from artifacts to the world egg to the other deities themselves. The Opening of the Mouth ceremony was believed to

have been devised by him. He was a god of creation and rebirth.

 

Ptah was usually depicted as a bearded mummiform man, wearing a close fitting skull cap. Only his hands come out of his shroud, and he was

usually shown holding a staff that incorporated the djed pillar, the ankh symbol and the was scepter.

The origin of Ptah's name is unclear, though some believe it to mean 'opener' or 'sculptor'. As a god of craftsmen, the later is probably correct. He

was a patron of the arts, protector of stonecutters, sculptors, blacksmiths, architects, boat builders, artists and craftsmen. His high priest was given

the title wr khrp hmw, 'Great Leader of Craftsmen', and his priests were probably linked to the different crafts. It was believed that Ptah invented

masonry and that it was he who crafted the boats that the dead used to travel to the Duat. The Book of the Dead describes him as: ...a master

architect, and framer of everything in the universe... -- Egypt - Myths and Legends, Lewis Spence
 

It was believed that Ptah created the heavens and the earth while Khnum fashioned the animals and people on his pottery wheel. Ptah created the

giant metal plate that was believed to be the floor of heaven and the roof of the sky, he also created the struts that upheld it. He created the

universe by speaking words through his Tongue (linked to the god Thoth and the goddess Tefnut) and by thoughts coming from his Heart (linked to

Horus the Elder). There came into being as the heart and there came into being as the tongue ... in the form of Atem.

The mighty Great One is Ptah, who transmitted [life to all gods], as well as (to) their kas... (Thus) it happened that the heart and tongue gained

control over [every] (other) member of the body, by teaching that he [i.e., Ptah] is in every body and in every mouth of all gods, all men, [all] cattle,

all creeping things, and (every thing) that lives, by thinking and commanding everything that he wishes... Thus all the gods were formed and his

Ennead was completed.

Indeed, all the divine order really came into being through what the heart thought and the tongue commanded. Thus the ka-spirits were made... by

this speech... Thus were made all work and all crafts, the action of the arms, the movement of the legs, and the activity of every member, in

conformance with (this) command which the heart thought, which came forth through the tongue, and which gives value to everything. -- Primal

Myths, Barbara C. Sproul

 
 

Not only was Ptah a god of creation, but he was involved with the soul's rebirth in the afterlife. He was related to the dead since Old Kingdom

times, where he was believed to have invented the Opening of the Mouth ritual to allow the spirit to be able to see, hear, speak and eat as a living

being. The Osiris Ani [whose word is truth, saith]:- I eat bread. I drink ale. I gird up my garments. I fly like a hawk.

I cackle like the Smen goose. I alight upon that place hard by the Sepulchre on the festival of the Great God. That which is abominable, that which

is abominable I will not eat. [An abominable thing] is filth, I will not eat thereof. That which is an abomination unto my ka shall not enter my body. I

will live upon that whereon live the gods and the Spirit-souls. I shall live, and I shall be master of their cakes.

I am master of them, and I shall eat them under the trees of the dweller in the House of Hathor, my Lady. I will make an offering. My cakes are in

Tetu, my offerings are in Anu. I gird about myself the robe which is woven for me by the goddess Tait. I shall stand up and sit down in whatsoever

place it pleaseth me to do so. My head is like unto that of Ra.

I am gathered together like Atem. Here offer the four cakes of Ra, and the offerings of the earth. I shall come forth. My tongue is like that of Ptah,

and my throat is like unto that of Hathor, and I remember the words of Atem, of my father, with my mouth. He forced the woman, the wife of Geb,

breaking the heads near him; therefore was the fear of him there. [His] praises are repeated with vigor. I am decreed to be the Heir, the lord of the

earth of Geb. I have union with women. Geb hath refreshed me, and he hath caused me to ascend his throne. Those who dwell in Anu bow their

heads to me. I am [their] Bull, I am stronger than [the Lord] of the hour. I unite with women. I am master for millions of years.

 
--

The Chapter of Making the Transformation into Ptah, The Book of the Dead Ptah was also a miracle worker. It was believed that Ptah saved the

town of Pelusium from Assyrian invaders with an army of rats. Ptah ordered the rats to sneak into the camp of the Assyrians and gnaw through the

bowstrings and shield handles of the enemy. Without weaponry or defense, the Assyrian army fled.

It was also said that he stopped a fight between Horus and Set: He judged between Heru and Set; he ended their quarrel. He made Set the 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 Set

stood over one region. They made peace over the Two Lands at Ayan. That was the division of the Two Lands.

--

The Shabaka Stone The Apis bull was regarded as the Ba of Ptah while it was living. The bull's main sanctuary was near the temple of Ptah in

Mennefer, near the bull's embalming house where he became linked to Osiris after death. Herodotus wrote that the Apis bull was conceived from a
bolt of lightning, it was black with a while diamond on his forehead, the image of a vulture on his back, double hairs on his tail and a scarab mark

under his tongue. The lightning was thought by the Egyptians to be Ptah in the form of a celestial fire, who mated with a heifer.

With a creation god as his father, the bull was believed to be a fertility symbol. The heifer that produced the bull was venerated as a form of the

goddess Isis. There was only one Apis bull at a time, and the cult of the Apis bull started at the beginning of Egyptian history. While alive, the bull

was known as the 'Spokesman' of Ptah and his 'Glorious Soul'.

He was married to either Bast, Sekhmet or Wadjet. His union with Bast was thought to have produced a lion-headed god called Mihos, while

Nefertem was his son by either Sekhmet or Wadjet. Different towns believed that Ptah was married to their goddess, and thus the confusion with

his family ties. Mennefer had a triad consisting of Ptah, Sekhmet and Nefertem. The architect of the Saqqara Step Pyramid, Imhotep, after he

became deified came to be regarded as the son of Ptah. As father and creator of the gods, the deities he created first

were Nun and Naunet and the nine gods of the Ennead. The nine were Tem, Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut, Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys who were

considered to be both the teeth and lips of the mouth of Ptah and the semen and the hands of Tem.  He was linked to two other Mennefer gods -

Ta-tenen and Sokar. Ta-tenen (known as Ptah-Ta-tenen when the two were combined) was an earth god connected with the primeval mound as it

rose from the waters of Nun while Sokar was a god of the necropolis.

This reinforced Ptah's aspects of a god of creation and a god of the dead. Ptah-Sokar was also connected with Osiris, and known as Ptah-Sokar-

Osiris. Statues of the three-in-one god showed a mummiform man wearing the sun disk, corkscrew ram horns and long plumes or the atef crown.

These statues often contained a copy of spells from The Book of the Dead. Ptah was a creator god, the third highest god in Egypt.
 

He was the god presiding over the Second Egyptian month, known as Paopi by Greek times. From a local god of craftsmen to the deity who crafted

the universe and the other deities, Ptah was only overshadowed by the sun god Ra, and the hidden god Amen. He fashioned the universe through

words of power and by thought, as well as creating different parts by hand.

He helped the dead on their travels through the afterlife, allowing them to transform into his divine figure, or by building the boats on which they

could travel. He was the one who allowed the dead to be like the living after death with the Opening of the Mouth ceremony. The Apis bull was his

sacred animal, more of a representation of his soul on earth who gave fertility and rebirth to the people. He was an ancient god who the Egyptians

worshiped through their long history.

Sekhmet
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For other uses, see Sekhmet (disambiguation).

Sekhmet
Sekhmet with head of lioness and a solar disk and uraeus on
her head

Goddess of warfare, pestilence and the desert

Major cult center Memphis, Leontopolis

Symbol Sun disk, red linen

Parents Ra ?

Siblings Presumably Hathor, Bast, Serket, Shu,

and Tefnut

Consort Ptah
In Egyptian mythology, Sekhmet (also spelled Sachmet, Sakhet, Sekmet, Sakhmet and Sekhet; and
given the Greek name, Sachmis), was originally the warrior goddess of Upper Egypt. She is depicted
as a lioness, the fiercest hunter known to the Egyptians. It was said that her breath created the desert.
She was seen as the protector of the pharaohs and led them in warfare.

Her cult was so dominant in the culture that when the first pharaoh of the twelfth dynasty, Amenemhat
I, moved the capital of Egypt to Itjtawy, the centre for her cult was moved as well. Religion, the royal
lineage, and the authority to govern were intrinsically interwoven in Ancient Egypt during its
approximately three thousand years of existence.

Sekhmet also is a solar deity, often considered an aspect of the goddesses Hathor and Bast. She bears
the solar disk and the Uraeus which associates her with Wadjet and royalty. With these associations
she can be construed as being a divine arbiter of the goddess Ma'at (Justice, or Order) in the Judgment
Hall of Osiris, The Eye of Horus, and connecting her with Tefnut as well.

Contents
[hide]

 1 History
o 1.1 Festivals and evolution
 2 In popular culture
 3 References
 4 External links

[edit] History
Upper Egypt is in the south and Lower Egypt is in the delta region in the north. As Lower Egypt had
been conquered by Upper Egypt, Sekhmet was seen as the more powerful of the two warrior
goddesses, the other, Bast, being the similar warrior goddess of Lower Egypt. Consequently, it was
Sekhmet who was seen as the Avenger of Wrongs, and the Scarlet Lady, a reference to blood, as the
one with bloodlust. She also was seen as a special goddess for women, ruling over menstruation.
Unable to be eliminated completely however, Bast became a lesser deity and even was marginalized as
Bastet by the priests of Amun who added a second female ending to her name that may have implied a
diminutive status, becoming seen as a domestic cat at times.
Sekhmet from the temple of Mut at Luxor, granite, 1403–1365 BC, in the National Museum, Copenhagen

Sekhmet became identified in some later cults as a daughter of the new sun god, Ra, when his cult
merged with and supplanted the worship of Horus (the son of Osiris and Isis, who was one of the
oldest of Egyptian deities and gave birth daily to the sun). At that time many roles of deities were
changed in the Egyptian myths. Some were changed further when the Greeks established a royal line
of rulers that lasted for three hundred years and some of their historians tried to create parallels
between deities in the two pantheons.

Her name suits her function and means, the (one who is) powerful. She also was given titles such as
the (One) Before Whom Evil Trembles, the Mistress of Dread, and the Lady of Slaughter.

Sekhmet was believed to protect the pharaoh in battle, stalking the land, and destroying the pharaoh's
enemies with arrows of fire. An early Egyptian sun deity also, her body was said to take on the bright
glare of the midday sun, gaining her the title Lady of Flame. It was said that death and destruction
were balm for her warrior's heart and that the hot desert winds were believed to be her breath.[1]

Image from a ritual Menat necklace, depicting a ritual being performed before a statue of Sekhmet on her
throne, she also is flanked by the goddess Wadjet as the cobra and the goddess Nekhbet as the white vulture,
symbols of lower and upper Egypt respectively who always were depicted on the crown of Egypt and referred
to as the two ladies, and the supplicant holds a complete menat and a sistrum for the ritual, circa 870 B.C.
(Berlin, Altes Museum, catalogue number 23733)

In order to placate Sekhmet's wrath, her priestesses performed a ritual before a different statue of the
goddess on each day of the year. This practice resulted in many images of the goddess being
preserved. Most of her statuettes were rigidly crafted and do not exhibit any expression of movements
or dynamism; this design was made to make them last a long time rather than to express any form of
functions or actions she is associated with. It is estimated that more than seven hundred statues of
Sekhmet once stood in one funerary temple alone, that of Amenhotep III, on the west bank of the Nile.
It was said that her statues were protected from theft or vandalism by coating them with anthrax.[citation
needed]

Sekhmet also was seen as a bringer of disease as well as the provider of cures to such ills. The name
"Sekhmet" literally became synonymous with physicians and surgeons during the Middle Kingdom. In
antiquity, many members of Sekhmet's priesthood often were considered to be on the same level as
physicians.

She was envisioned as a fierce lioness, and in art, was depicted as such, or as a woman with the head
of a lioness, who was dressed in red, the colour of blood. Sometimes the dress she wears exhibits a
rosetta pattern over each nipple, an ancient leonine motif, which can be traced to observation of the
shoulder-knot hairs on lions. Occasionally, Sekhmet was also portrayed in her statuettes and
engravings with minimal clothing or naked. Tame lions were kept in temples dedicated to Sekhmet at
Leontopolis.

[edit] Festivals and evolution

The warrior goddess Sekhmet, shown with her sun disk and cobra crown
To pacify Sekhmet, festivals were celebrated at the end of battle, so that the destruction would come to
an end. During an annual festival held at the beginning of the year, a festival of intoxication, the
Egyptians danced and played music to soothe the wildness of the goddess and drank great quantities of
beer ritually to imitate the extreme drunkenness that stopped the wrath of the goddess—when she
almost destroyed humankind. This may relate to averting excessive flooding during the inundation at
the beginning of each year as well, when the Nile ran blood-red with the silt from upstream and
Sekhmet had to swallow the overflow to save humankind.

In 2006, Betsy Bryan, an archaeologist with Johns Hopkins University excavating at the temple of Mut
presented her findings about the festival that included illustrations of the priestesses being served to
excess and its adverse effects being ministered to by temple attendants.[2] Participation in the festival
was great, including the priestesses and the population. Historical records of tens of thousands
attending the festival exist. These findings were made in the temple of Mut because when Thebes rose
to greater prominence, Mut absorbed the warrior goddesses as some of her aspects. First, Mut became
Mut-Wadjet-Bast, then Mut-Sekhmet-Bast (Wadjet having merged into Bast), then Mut also
assimilated Menhit, another lioness goddess, and her adopted son's wife, becoming Mut-Sekhmet-
Bast-Menhit, and finally becoming Mut-Nekhbet. These temple excavations at Luxor discovered a
"porch of drunkenness" built onto the temple by the Pharaoh Hatshepsut, during the height of her
twenty year reign.

In a later myth developed around an annual drunken Sekhmet festival, Ra (who created himeself), by
then the sun god of Upper Egypt, created her from a fiery eye gained from his mother, Hathor
(daughter of Ra), to destroy mortals who conspired against him (Lower Egypt). In the myth, Sekhmet's
blood-lust was not quelled at the end of battle and led to her destroying almost all of humanity, so Ra
had tricked her by turning the Nile as red as blood (the Nile turns red every year when filled with silt
during inundation) so that Sekhmet would drink it. The trick was, however, that the red liquid was not
blood, but beer mixed with pomegranate juice so that it resembled blood, making her so drunk that she
gave up slaughter and became an aspect of the gentle Hathor to some moderns.

After Sekhmet's worship was moved to Memphis, Horus the Elder (whose eyes were the sun and the
moon) and Ra had been identified as one another (or allies) under the name Ra-Horakhty (with many
variant spellings) and so when the two religious systems were merged and Ra became seen as a form
of Atum, known as Atum-Ra, Sekhmet (the lioness daughter of Ra), as a form of Hathor (the cow
goddess and the mother of the sun who gives birth anew to it every day), was seen as Atum's mother.
She then was seen as the mother of Nefertum, the youthful form of Atum who emerged in later myths,
and so was said to have Ptah, Nefertum's father, as a husband — as were most of the goddesses when
they acquired counterparts as paired deities.

Although Sekhmet again became identified as an aspect of Hathor, over time both evolved back into
separate deities because the characters of the two goddesses were so vastly different. Later, as noted
above, the creation goddess Mut, the great mother, gradually became absorbed into the identities of the
patron goddesses, merging with Sekhmet, and also sometimes with Bast.

Sekhmet later was considered to be the mother of Maahes, a deity who appeared during the New
Kingdom period. He was seen as a lion prince, the son of the goddess. The late origin of Maahes in the
Egyptian pantheon may be the incorporation of a Nubian deity of ancient origin in that culture,
arriving during trade and warfare or even, during a period of domination by Nubia. During the Greek
occupation of Egypt, note was made of a temple for Maahes that was an auxiliary facility to a large
temple to Sekhmet at Taremu in the delta region (likely a temple for Bast originally), a city which the
Greeks called Leontopolis, where by that time, an enclosure was provided to house lions.

[edit] In popular culture

Sekhmet appears in Akhet, the first in a trilogy of novels by H.L. Reasby. Called the "Sekhmet's Light
Trilogy", the series tells of Dr. Nicole Salem and how she becomes the avatar of Sekhmet, gifted with
superhuman abilities so that she can combat the forces of Apep in the mortal world.

Sekhmet is referenced in the album The Circus by The Venetia Fair. Sekhmet is the lion.

Death metal band Nile referenced Sekhmet in the title track of their album "Ithyphallic", and in "The
Eye Of Ra" on their album Those Whom the Gods Detest.

Sekhmet is used in The 39 Clues book Beyond The Grave and it is the reason why they travel to Cairo.

Sekhmet is also featured in The Red Pyramid written by Rick Riordan.

Sekhmet is the subject of "Lionheart" a song about the goddess

Nefertem
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Nefertem
the Memphite god Nefertem with a water-lily heardress as a
symbol of fragrance and beauty.

God of healing and beauty

Major cult center Memphis

Symbol the water-lily

Parents Ptah and Sekhmet

Siblings Maahes (in some accounts)

Nefertem

In Egyptian mythology, Nefertem (perhaps to be translated: 'the beautiful one who closes' or 'the one
who does not close'; also read as Nefertum, Nefer-Tem, Nefer-Temu) was originally a lotusflower at
the creation of the world, who had arisen from the primal waters.[1] Nefertem represented both the first
sunlight (also often associated with the shapes of a lion or a falcon god; sunlight was also supposed to
shine forth from the double high feathers from the deity's head, a usual aspect of his iconography) and
the delightful smell of the Egyptian blue lotusflower having arisen from the primal waters within an
Egyptian blue water-lily, Nymphaea caerulea. (This flower is widely used in Egyptian art, religion and
literature. In much of the literature about ancient Egypt, it is called the "(blue) lotus".[2] However, the
true lotus, Nelumbo nucifera, is not found in Egypt until the time of the Persian invasion, when it was
introduced as a food crop. Some of the titles of Nefertem were "He Who is Beautiful" and "Water-Lily
of the Sun", and a version of the Book of the Dead says,

"Rise like Nefertem from the blue water lily, to the nostrils of Ra (the creator and sungod), and come
forth upon the horizon each day."

As the power of Memphis grew, their chief god, Ptah, was said to be the original creator, and thus of
all the other gods, including any lesser creators, who create the remaining gods having first being
created by Ptah. Consequently Nefertum came to be merely the son of Ptah, rather than a creator of
light proper. As son of Ptah, it was said that either the lioness-deities Sekhmet, or Bast (whichever was
considered wife of Ptah), was his 'mother'. As a god now only associated with the highly aromatic blue
water-lily rather than creation, he became a god of perfume and luck. In art, Nefertum is usually
depicted as a beautiful young man having blue water-lily flowers around his head. As the son of Bast,
he also sometimes has the head of a lion or is a lion or cat reclining. Nefertem was associated both
with the scent of the blue water-lily flower and its supposed narcotic effect (widely presumed, but yet
untested scientifically). The ancient Egyptians often carried small statuettes of him as good-luck
charms.

[edit] References
1. ^ Nefertem page at Ancient Egypt: the Mythology retrieved June 21, 2008.
2. ^ Male Child Deities of Ancient Egypt at Tour Egypt retrieved June 21, 2008.

Shu (mitologia)
Shu in scrittura geroglifica
Da Wikipedia, l'enciclopedia libera.

Shu (o Chu), dio primordiale della mitologia egizia, fa parte della grande
Enneade di Eliopoli.

Nacque, come sua sorella gemella e moglie Tefnut, dallo sperma o muco
di Atum, il creatore. Tefnut e Shu formano la prima coppia divina. La
prima è il simbolo dell’umidità e Shu quello dell’aria; rappresentano con i
loro due figli, Geb (la terra) et Nut (il cielo), i quattro elementi primordiali.
Shu simboleggia l’aria, intesa anche come soffio di vita. Viene raffigurato come un uomo barbuto, che
sta sopra Geb nell’atto di sostenere Nut con le braccia tese (l’aria tra la terra ed il cielo). Spesso
indossa sul capo una piuma di struzzo. A Leontopoli, Shu e Tefnut erano venerati sotto forma di una
coppia di leoni.

Shu fu in seguito identificato con Anhur, il cui nome significa Portatore del cielo, diventando Anhur-
Shu.

Bibliografia [modifica]

Shu (Egyptian deity)

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This article does not cite any references or sources.

Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged
and removed. (April 2008)

Shu
Shu was sometimes depicted as a man wearing a headdress
with tall plumage resting on his head.

God of the wind and air

Major cult center Heliopolis, Leontopolis

Symbol the ostrich feather

Parents Ra-Atum and Iusaaset

Siblings Tefnut, Hathor, Sekhmet

 Consort Tefnut

In Egyptian mythology, Shu (meaning emptiness and he who rises up) is one of the primordial gods, a
personification of air, one of the Ennead of Heliopolis. He was created by Atum, his father and
Iusaaset, his mother in the city of Heliopolis. With his sister, Tefnut (moisture), he was the father of
Nut and Geb. His daughter, Nut, was the sky goddess whom he held over the Earth (Geb), separating
the two.

Shu's grandchildren are Osiris, Isis, Set and Nephthys.

As the air, Shu was considered to be cooling, and thus calming, influence, and pacifier. Due to the
association with air, calm, and thus Ma'at (truth, justice and order), Shu was portrayed in art as
wearing an ostrich feather. Shu was seen with 1-4 feathers.

Shu
in hieroglyphs

In a much later myth, representing the terrible weather disaster at the end of the Old Kingdom, it was
said that Tefnut and Shu once argued, and Tefnut (moisture) left Egypt for Nubia (which was always
more temperate). It was said that Shu quickly decided that he missed her, but she changed into a cat
that destroyed any man or god that approached. Thoth, disguised, eventually succeeded in convincing
her to return

Tefnut
Da Wikipedia, l'enciclopedia libera. Tefnut in scrittura geroglifica

Tefnut (anche Tefnet o Tphenis), dea della mitologia egizia, fa parte

della grande Enneade di Eliopoli.

Nacque, come suo fratellino e sposo Shu, dallo sperma o mucosa di

Atum, il creatore. Tefnut e Shu formano la prima coppia divina. La
prima è il simbolo dell’umidità e Shu quello dell’aria; rappresentano
con i loro due figli, Geb (la terra) et Nut (il cielo), i quattro elementi primordiali.
Tefnut, associata anche alla pioggia ed alle nuvole, simboleggia l’acqua ed il suo potere creatore. Era
citata nei Testi delle Piramidi, come colei che dissetava i defunti.
Era adorata ad Ossirinco e l'iconografia la rappresenta, per sincretismo con Sekhmet, come una donna
con testa leonina, disco solare ed ureo. A Leontopoli, Shu e Tefnut erano venerati sotto forma di una
coppia di leoni.

Tefnut è anche la personificazione della dea lontana, assumendo l’aspetto e gli attributi delle dee
pericolose e incarnando l’occhio di Ra, il ciclo del sole che brucia e devasta. Secondo il mito, Tefnut,
figlia del sole, fuggì nel deserto della Nubia, dove lasciò libero corso alla sua ferocia. Ra incaricò Thot
di andarla a riprendere e, ritrovato il suo aspetto benefico, Tefnut tornò in Egitto.

Geb
Da Wikipedia, l'enciclopedia libera.

Disambiguazione – Se stai cercando altre voci che possono riferirsi alla stessa combinazione di 3 caratteri,
vedi GEB.
Geb in scrittura geroglifica
Nella mitologia egizia, Geb (da pronunciarsi con g dura: /'geb/) o Seb era
il dio della terra, in contrasto con la maggior parte delle altre mitologie,
per le quali è una personificazione femminile. Nell'Enneade di Heliopolis
è figlio di Tefnut, l'umidità, e Shu, l'aria, e marito di Nut, il cielo, dalla
quale ebbe quattro figli – Osiride, Iside, Seth e Nefti.

La dea del cielo Nut e Geb.

Nell'iconografia legata alla cosmologia eliopolitana Geb è solitamente raffigurato disteso a terra,
sormontato da Shu, che sostiene Nut inarcata su di lui. In altre immagini è un uomo barbuto, con
l'emblema di un'oca sulla testa, che simboleggia il geroglifico del suo nome. A volte veniva chiamato
il grande starnazzatore. Con il passare del tempo, il suo nome venne associato sempre più spesso alla
terra abitabile dell'Egitto, e quindi alla vegetazione ed alla fertilità. In tal modo, l'oca divenne un
simbolo di prosperità, tanto che la successione di un nuovo faraone veniva annunciata da quattro oche
selvatiche, lasciate libere, come benedizione di un regno lungo e prospero.
Shu separa Geb e Nut

In associazione con l’elemento vegetale, viene raffigurato a volte con piante e frutti sul corpo e con la
pelle verde o nera, il colore della terra fertile del Nilo.

Geb governò il mondo antico, ricco e fecondo, fin quando si stancò di regnare, e il suo posto venne
preso dai suoi figli litigiosi Osiride e Seth.

Geb venne associato anche al mondo degli inferi, in quanto si credeva che intrappolasse le anime per
impedire loro di ascendere al cielo. Secondo una tradizione minore avrebbe avuto da Renenutet, dea
del raccolto, il figlio Nehebkau, divinità legata all’oltretomba.

In età ellenistica venne identificato con il dio greco Crono.

Bibliografia [modifica]

Geb
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Geb

God of the Earth

Parents Shu and Tefnut

Siblings Nut

Consort Nut
 Geb
in hieroglyphs

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Geb was the Egyptian god of the Earth and a member of the Ennead of Heliopolis. The name was
pronounced as such from the Greek period onward, (formerly erroneously read as Seb[1] or as Keb.
The original Egyptian was "Gebeb"/"Kebeb", meaning probably: 'weak one', perhaps:'lame one'. It was
spelled with either initial -g- (all periods), or with -k-point (gj). The latter initial root consonant occurs
once in the Middle Kingdom Coffin Texts, more often in 21st Dynasty mythological papyri as well as
in a text from the Ptolemaic tomb of Petosiris at Tuna el-Gebel or was written with initial hard -k-, as
e.g. in a 30th Dynasty papyrus text in the Brooklyn Museum dealing with descriptions of and remedies
against snakes and their bites.
[edit] Role and development
The oldest representation in a fragmentary relief of the god, was as an anthropomorphic bearded being
accompanied by his name, and dating from king Djoser's reign, 3rd Dynasty, and was found in
Heliopolis. In later times he could also be depicted as a ram, a bull or a crocodile (the latter in a vignet
of the Book of the Dead-papyrus of the lady Heryweben in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo, depicted in
G.Posener e.a., Dictionnaire de la civilisation égyptienne = Lexikon der ägyptischen Kultur
(Wiesbaden, 1960),lemma 'Crocodile'/'Krokodil'). Frequently described mythologically as 'father' of
snakes (one of the names for snake was s3-t3 'son of the earth' and in a Coffin Texts-spell Geb was
described as 'father' of the primeval snake Nehebkau, while his mother was in that case the goddess
Neith) and therefore depicted sometimes (partly) as such. In mythology Geb also often occurs as a
primeval divine king of Egypt from whom his 'son' Osiris and his 'grand-son' Horus inherited the land
after many contendings with the disruptive god Seth, brother and killer of Osiris. Geb could also be
regarded as personified fertile earth and barren desert, the latter containing the dead or setting them
free from their tombs, metaphorically described as ' Geb opening his jaws', or imprisoning those there
not worthy to go to the fertile North-Eastern heavenly Field of Reeds. In the latter case, one of his
otherworldly attributes was an ominous jackal-headed stave (called wsr.t) rising from the ground to
which enemies could be bound and punished.

In the Heliopolitan Ennead (a group of nine gods created in the beginning by the one god Atum), Geb
is the husband of Nut, the sky or visible daytime and nightly firmament, the son of the earlier
primordial elements Tefnut ('orphaness', later also conceived of as moisture [e.g.: 'tef']) and Shu
('emptiness' or perhaps 'raiser'[namely of the firmament as air]), and the 'father' to the four lesser gods
of the system - Osiris, Seth, Isis and Nephthys. In this context, Geb was believed to have originally
been engaged in eternal sex with Nut, and had to be separated from her by Shu, god of the air.[2]
Consequently, in mythological depictions, Geb was shown as a 'man' reclining, sometimes with his
phallus still pointed towards the sky goddess Nut.

As time progressed, the deity became more associated with the habitable land of Egypt and also as one
of its early godly rulers. As a chthonic deity he (like Osiris and Min) became naturally associated with
the underworld and with vegetation -barley being said to grow upon his ribs- and was depicted with
plants and other green patches on his body.

His association with vegetation, and sometimes with the underworld, and also with royalty brought
Geb the occasional interpretation that he was the husband of Renenutet, primarily a minor goddess of
the harvest and also mythological caretaker (the meaning of her name is 'nursing snake')of the young
king in the shape of a cobra, who herself could also be regarded as the mother of Nehebkau, a
primeval snake god associated with the underworld, who, however, was on the same occasions said to
be his son by her. He is also equated by classical authors as the Greek Titan Cronus.

[edit] Goose
This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this section
if you can. The talk page may contain suggestions. (November 2008)
Some Egyptologists, (specifically Jan Bergman, Terence Duquesne or Richard H. Wilkinson) have
stated that Geb was associated with a mythological divine creator goose who had laid a cosmic egg
from which the sun and/or the world had sprung. This theory is assumed to be incorrect and to be a
result of confusing the divine name "Geb" with that of a Whitefronted Goose (Anser albifrons), also
called originally gb(b): 'lame one, stumbler' [3]. This bird-sign is used only as a phonogram in order to
spell the name of the god (H.te Velde, in: Lexikon der Aegyptologie II, lemma: Geb). An alternative
ancient name for this goose species was trp meaning similarly 'walk like a drunk', 'stumbler.' The
Whitefronted Goose is never found as a cultic symbol or holy bird of Geb. The mythological creator
'goose' referred to above, was called Ngg wr 'Great Honker' and always depicted as a
Nilegoose/Foxgoose (Alopochen aegyptiacus) who ornitologically belongs to a separate genus and
whose Egyptian name was smn, Coptic smon. A coloured vignet irrefutably depicts a Nile Goose with
an opened beak (Ngg wr!) in a context of solar creation on a mythological papyrus dating from the
21st Dynasty. Similar images of this divine bird are to be found on temple walls (Karnak, Deir el-
Bahari), showing a scene of the king standing on a papyrus raft and ritually plucking papyrus for the
Theban god Amun-Re-Kamutef. The latter Theban creator god could be embodied in a Nilegoose, but
never in a Whitefronted Goose. In Underworld Books a diacritic goose-sign (most probably denoting
then an Anser albifrons) was sometimes depicted on top of the head of an standing anonymous male
anthropomorphic deity, pointing to Geb's identity. Geb himself was never depicted as a Nile Goose, as
later was Amun, called on some New Kingdom stelae explicitly:'Amun, the beautiful smn-goose (Nile
Goose). The only clear pictorial confusion between the hieroglyphs of a Whitefronted Goose (in the
normal hieroglyphic spelling of the name Geb, often followed by the additional -b-sign) and a Nile
Goose in the spelling of the name Geb occurs in the rock cut tomb of the provincial governor Sarenput
II (12th Dynasty, Middle Kingdom) on the Qubba el-Hawa desert-ridge (opposite Aswan), namely on
the left (southern) wall near the open doorway, in the first line of the brightly painted funerary offering
formula. This confusion is to be compared with the frequent hacking out by Ekhnaton's agents of the
sign of the Pintail Duck (meaning 'son') in the royal title 'Son of Re', especially in Theban temples,
where they confused the duck sign with that of a Nilegoose regarded as a form of the then forbidden
god Amon.[4]

Sky goddess Nut and Geb with the head of a snake.

[edit] Notes
1. ^ cf. E.A.Wallis Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians. Studies in Egyptian Mythology (London, 1904;
republ.Dover Publications, New York, 1969)
2. ^ Meskell, Lynn Archaeologies of social life: age, sex, class et cetera in ancient Egypt Wiley Blackwell
(20 Oct 1999) ISBN 978-0631212997 p.103
3. ^ C.Wolterman, "On the Names of Birds and Hieroglyphic Sign-List G 22, G 35 and H 3" in: "Jaarbericht
van het Vooraziatisch-Egyptisch genootschap Ex Oriente Lux" no.32 (1991-1992)(Leiden, 1993), p.122,
note 8
4. ^ text: drs. Carles Wolterman, Amstelveen, Holland

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geb"

Categories: Earth gods | Egyptian gods

Nut (mitologia)
Da Wikipedia, l'enciclopedia libera.

Nut in scrittura geroglifica

Nut con il corpo arcuato simboleggia la volta celeste Museo del Louvre.

Nella mitologia egizia, Nut o Nuit era la dea del cielo e della nascita, in contrasto con la maggior parte
delle altre mitologie, che solitamente hanno un padre celeste.

Indice

[nascondi]

1 Genealogia
2 Leggende e miti
 3 Iconografia, forme e
simboli
4 Note
5 Bibliografia
6 Altri progetti
7 Collegamenti esterni

Genealogia [modifica]
Nut è figlia di Shu, dio dell’aria, e Tefnut, dea dell’umidità. Era una delle divinità dell’Enneade e suo
marito era Geb, la terra, con cui ebbe quattro figli - Osiride, Iside, Seth e Nefti.

Leggende e miti [modifica]

Raffigurazione di Nut a Dendera

La leggenda narra che Geb (la terra) e Nut (il cielo) erano in origine uniti, fino a quando il dio Ra,
contrariato per questa unione, ordinò a Shu di dividerli, creando lo spazio tra cielo e terra. Nut, proprio
in quella occasione, formò la volta celeste, sostenuta da Shu, che però fu costretto a conservare
perennemente quella posizione. Originariamente fu la dea del cielo diurno, ma più tardi rappresentò il
cielo in generale. Si pensava che il dio-sole, Ra, nel suo viaggio notturno, fosse da lei ingoiato dopo il
tramonto, per essere partorito di nuovo all’alba. Nello stesso modo, Nut divorava e faceva rinascere le
stelle, e per questo motivo era considerata una divinità legata alla resurrezione. Come tale si trova
spesso raffigurata all’interno dei sarcofaghi.
Un'altra leggenda narra che Nut, sotto le sembianze di una mucca, ebbe l'onore e l'onere di far salire
sul suo enorme dorso il dio Ra. A causa dello sforzo immane profuso, Net fu aiutata da quattro dei
aventi la funzione, in seguito divenuta perenne, di pilastri del mondo.

Iconografia, forme e simboli [modifica]

La dea del cielo Nut raffigurata da una vacca

Nell’iconografia la volta celeste è rappresentata da Nut, solitamente raffigurata come una donna nuda,
ricoperta di stelle, con le mani ed i piedi a terra, inarcata su Geb, dal quale è tenuta lontana da Shu, che
la sostiene. I dipinti la raffigurano con un vaso d’acqua sulla testa, presente nel geroglifico del suo
nome. A volte si presenta nella forma di una mucca, il cui grande corpo forma il cielo, di un albero di
sicomoro, o come una grande scrofa mentre divora i suoi piccoli, che simboleggiano le stelle.

Nut con Geb e Shu

La sua pelle è, solitamente, blu perché questo colore simboleggia la vita e la rinascita; le ali, talvolta
raffigurate, rappresentano la protezione lungo il viatico della morte; le stelle che ricoprono il suo corpo
rafforzano l'immagine del cielo e simboleggiano le anime dei morti. Quando la sua pelle è giallastra,
vuol dire che è stato evidenziato il suo aspetto di essere immortale, di dea Madre da cui tutti hanno
origine. La sua posizione inarcata esemplifica il suo potere nel cielo e sugli oggetti celesti.[1]

Note [modifica]
1. ^ Nut, la dea della Notte. URL consultato il 28-04-09.

Nut (goddess)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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This article is about the Egyptian sky goddess. For the goddess in the cosmology of Thelema, see Nuit.

The Sky Goddess Nut arched protectively over the Earth and all of its inhabitants

Nut (nwt)
in hieroglyphs

[1]

In the Ennead of Egyptian mythology, Nut (alternatively spelled Nuit, Newet, and Neuth) was the
goddess of the sky.[2] Her name is translated to mean 'sky' [3] and she is considered one of the oldest
deities among the Egyptian pantheon,[4] with her origins being found on the creation story of
Heliopolis. She was originally the goddess of the nighttime sky, but eventually became referred to as
simply the sky goddess. Her headdress was the hieroglyphic of part of her name, a pot, which may also
symbolize the uterus. Mostly depicted in human form, Nut was also sometimes depicted in the form of
a cow whose great body formed the sky and heavens, a sycamore tree, or as a giant sow, suckling
many piglets (representing the stars).

[edit] Origins
A sacred symbol of Nut was the ladder, used by Osiris to enter her heavenly skies. This ladder-symbol
was called maqet and was placed in tombs to protect the deceased, and to invoke the aid of the deity of
the dead. Nut is considered an enigma in the world of mythology because she is direct contrast to most
other mythologies, which usually evolve into a sky father associated with an earth mother or Mother
Nature.[5]
The sky goddess Nut depicted as a cow

She appears in the creation myth of Heliopolis which involves several goddesses who play important
roles: Tefnut (Tefenet) is a personification of moisture, who mated with Shu (Air) and then gave birth
to Sky as the goddess Nut, who mated with her brother Earth, as Geb. From the union of Geb and Nut
came, among others, the most popular of Egyptian goddesses, Isis, the mother of Horus, whose story is
central to that of her brother-husband, the resurrection god Osiris. Osiris is killed by his brother Set
and scattered over the Earth in 14 pieces which Isis gathers up and puts back together. Osiris then
climbs a ladder into his mother Nut for safety and eventually becomes king of the dead. A huge cult
developed about Osiris that lasted well into Roman times. Isis was her husband's queen in the
underworld and the theological basis for the role of the queen on earth. It can be said that she was a
version of the great goddess Hathor. Like Hathor she not only had death and rebirth associations, but
was the protector of children and the goddess of childbirth..[6]

Some of the titles of Nut were:

- Coverer of the Sky: Nut was said to be covered in stars touching the different points of her body.
- She Who Protects: Among her jobs was to envelop and protect Ra, the sun god.[7]
- Mistress of All or "She who Bore the Gods": Originally, Nut was said to be laying on top of Geb
(Earth) and continually having intercourse. During this time she birthed four children: Osiris, Isis, Set,
and Nephthys[8] A fifth child named Arueris is mentioned by Plutarch.[9] He was the Egyptian
counterpart to the Greek god Apollo, who was made syncretic with Horus in the Hellenistic era as
'Horus the Elder'.[10] The Ptolemaic temple of Edfu is dedicated to Horus the Elder and there he is
called the son of Nut and Geb, brother of Osiris, and eldest son of Geb.[11]
- She Who Holds a Thousand Souls: Because of her role in the re-birthing of Ra every morning and in
her son Osiris's resurrection, Nut became a key god in many of the myths about the after-life.[7]

[edit] Role
Great goddess Nut.

Nut was the goddess of the sky and all heavenly bodies, a symbol of protecting the dead when they
enter the after life. According to the Egyptians, during the day, the heavenly bodies—such as the sun
and moon—would make their way across her body. Then, at dusk, they would be swallowed, pass
through her digestive system during the night, and be reborn at dawn.[12]
Nut and the Sun

Nut is also the barrier separating the forces of chaos from the ordered cosmos in the world. She was
pictured as a woman arched on her toes and fingertips over the earth; her body portrayed as a star-
filled sky. Nut’s fingers and toes were believed to touch the four cardinal points or directions of north,
south, east, and west. Because of her role in saving Osiris, Nut was seen as a friend and protector of
the dead, who appealed to her as a child appeals to its mother: “O my Mother Nut, stretch Yourself
over me, that I may be placed among the imperishable stars which are in You, and that I may not die.”
Nut was thought to draw the dead into her star-filled sky, and refresh them with food and wine: “I am
Nut, and I have come so that I may enfold and protect you from all things evil.” She was often painted
on the inside lid of the sarcophagus, protecting the deceased. The vault of tombs often were painted
dark blue with many stars as a representation of Nut. The Book of the Dead says, “Hail, thou
Sycamore Tree of the Goddess Nut! Give me of the water and of the air which is in thee. I embrace
that throne which is in Unu, and I keep guard over the Egg of Nekek-ur. It flourisheth, and I flourish; it
liveth, and I live; it snuffeth the air, and I snuff the air, I the Osiris Ani, whose word is truth, in
peace.”[13]

[edit] References
1. ^ The hieroglyphics (top right) spell nwt or nut. Egyptians never wrote Nuit. (Collier and Manley p.
155) The determinative hieroglyph is for 'sky' or 'heaven', the sky (hieroglyph).
2. ^ Mythology, An Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Principal Myths and Religions of the World, by Richard
Cavendish ISBN 1-84056-070-3, 1998
3. ^ Wörterbuch der Ägyptischen Sprache, edited by Adolf Erman and Hermann Grapow, p 214, 1957
 4. ^ The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, by Leonard H. Lesko, 2001
5. ^ Women of Ancient Egypt and the Sky Goddess Nut, by Susan Tower Hollis The Journal of American
Folklore © 1987 American Folklore Society.
6. ^ "Egyptian goddesses" The Oxford Companion to World mythology. David Leeming. Oxford University
Press, 2004. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Southeast Missouri State University. 7
May 2009
7. ^ a b The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, by Leonard H. Lesko, 2001.
8. ^ Clark, R. T. Rundle. Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt. London: Thames and Hudson, 1959.
9. ^ The Moralia - Isis & Osiris, 355 F[1]
10. ^ Encyclopaedia Britannica[2]
11. ^ Emma Swan Hall, Harpocrates and Other Child Deities in Ancient Egyptian Sculpture, Journal of the
American Research Center in Egypt Vol. 14, (1977), pp. 55-58, retrieved from JSTOR [3]
12. ^ Hart, George Routledge dictionary of Egyptian gods and goddesses Routledge; 2 edition (15 March
2005) ISBN 978-0415344951 p.111 Books.google.co.uk
13. ^ "Papyrus of Ani: Egyptian Book of the Dead", Sir Wallis Budge, NuVision Publications, page 57, 2007,
ISBN 1595479147

 Collier, Mark and Manley, Bill. How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs: Revised Edition. Berkeley: University
of California Press, 1998.
 "Egyptian goddesses" The Oxford Companion to World mythology. David Leeming. Oxford University
Press, 2004. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Southeast Missouri State University. 7
May 2009.
 "Papyrus of Ani: Egyptian Book of the Dead", Sir Wallis Budge, NuVision Publications, page 57, 2007.
 The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, by Leonard H. Lesko, 2001.
 Women of Ancient Egypt and the Sky Goddess Nut, by Susan Tower Hollis The Journal of American
Folklore, 1987.

Osiride (anche Usiride, Osiris od Osiri o, in egiziano antico, Asar o Ausar, una delle possibili
etimologie è vegetazione) è il dio egiziano della morte e dell’oltretomba. È una delle divinità
dell’Enneade ed il suo culto fu uno dei maggiori dell’Egitto, dove le sue statue decoravano moltissimi
cortili dei templi. Era originario della città di Busiris e fu sepolto nella città di Abydos, centro del suo
culto celebrato con riti e processioni, dove il simulacro della divinità veniva trasportato con la
neshmet.

Osiride in scrittura geroglifica Osiride era il dio egiziano degli inferi, oltre che della fertilità.

Come dio dell' agricoltura veniva festeggiato nel mese di khoiak

quando si effettuava la raccolta del grano i cui germogli
simboleggiando la sua resurrezione, venivano anche usati in ambito
funerario nella statuetta detta "Osiride vegetante".

Fu proprio lui, assieme ad Iside, a civilizzare l'umanità insegnandole

l’agricoltura. Il suo culto della fertilità, inizialmente diffuso nel delta, in
seguito si espanse in tutto il resto del paese. Nel Duat, l’oltretomba, Osiride pesava i cuori dei morti su
un piatto della bilancia, mentre sull’altro vi era una piuma. Le anime che pesavano di più a causa dei
peccati venivano date in pasto ad Ammit, mentre quelle che erano abbastanza leggere venivano
mandate da Aaru.
Figlio di Nut e Geb, ebbe da sua sorella Iside il figlio Horo. Più tardi, Osiride fu messo in relazione
con Seker e Ptah portando alla forma sincretistica di Ptah-Seker-Osiride; venne anche identificato con
Heryshaf.

Indice

[nascondi]

1 Il mito
2 Analogie con
Gesù
3 Bibliografia
4 Note
5 Voci correlate
6 Collegamenti
esterni
7 Altri progetti

Il mito [modifica]
Osiride portò la civiltà agli uomini, insegnò loro come coltivare la terra e produrre il vino e fu molto
amato dal popolo. Seth, invidioso del fratello, cospirò per ucciderlo. Egli costruì in segreto una bara
preziosa fatta appositamente per il fratello e poi tenne un banchetto, nel quale annunciò che ne avrebbe
fatto dono a colui al quale si fosse adattata. Dopo che alcuni ebbero provato senza successo, Seth
incoraggiò il fratello a provarla. Appena Osiride vi si adagiò dentro il coperchio venne chiuso e
sigillato. Seth e i suoi amici gettarono la bara nel Nilo, facendo annegare Osiride. Questo atto
simboleggerebbe l’annuale inondazione del Nilo.

Iside con l’aiuto della sorella Nefti riportò Osiride alla vita usando i suoi poteri magici. Prima che si
potesse vendicare, Seth uccise Osiride, fece a pezzi il suo corpo e nascose le quattordici (secondo
alcune fonti: tredici o quindici) parti in vari luoghi. Iside e Nefti trovarono i pezzi (eccetto i genitali,
che erano stati mangiati dal pesce Ossirinco). Ra mandò Anubi e Thot ad imbalsamare Osiride, ma
Iside lo riportò in vita. Successivamente Osiride andò negli inferi per giudicare le anime dei morti, e
così venne chiamato Neb-er-tcher ("il signore del limite estremo").

Il figlio che Osiride ebbe da Iside, Horus, quando fu abbastanza grande affrontò Seth in battaglia, per
vendicare la morte del padre. Il combattimento fu lungo e cruento, Horus perse un occhio nella
battaglia e Seth un testicolo.
Il conflitto fu interrotto dagli altri dei, che decisero in favore di Horus e diedero a lui la sovranità del
paese. Seth fu condannato e bandito dalla regione. In altre versioni le due divinità si riconciliarono,
rappresentando l’unione dell’Alto e Basso Egitto.

Per finire, si parla di una lotta che non è ancora finita e quando Horus vincerà Seth Osiride tornerà alla
terra dei vivi e governerà. Ovvero: quando il bene trionferà sul male la morte verrà sconfitta.[senza  fonte]
 Iside
Da Wikipedia, l'enciclopedia libera.

Disambiguazione – Se stai cercando la regina egizia, vedi Iside (regina).

Disambiguazione – Se stai cercando il nome proprio, vedi Iside (nome).

Iside o Isis o Isi (in lingua egiziana Aset, ossia trono), originaria del Delta, è la dea della maternità e
della
Isis fertilità geroglifica
in scrittura nella mitologia egizia. Divinità in origine celeste, associata alla regalità (il suo
geroglifico include la parola per "trono"), faceva parte dell'Enneade.

oppur
e

Indice

[nascondi]

1 Mito
2 Iconografia
3 Culto
4 Iside e la Vergine
 o 4.1 Inno a
Iside
5 Note
6 Bibliografia
7 Voci correlate
8 Altri progetti
9 Collegamenti
esterni

Mito [modifica]
Figlia di Nut e Geb, sorella di Nefti, Seth ed Osiride, di cui fu anche sposa e dal quale ebbe Horus.
Secondo il mito, raccontato nei Testi delle Piramidi e da Plutarco nel suo Iside ed Osiride, con l'aiuto
della sorella Nefti assemblò le parti del corpo di Osiride, riportandolo alla vita. Per questo era
considerata una divinità associata alla magia ed all'oltretomba. Aiutò a civilizzare il mondo, ed inventò
il sistro; istituì il matrimonio e insegnò alle donne le arti domestiche.

Iconografia [modifica]
Solitamente viene raffigurata come una donna vestita con una lunga tunica, che reca sul capo il
simbolo del trono, mentre tiene in mano l'ankh o l'uadj. Più tardi, in associazione con Hathor, è stata
raffigurata con le corna bovine, tra le quali è racchiuso il sole. Nell'iconografia è rappresentata spesso
come un falco o come una donna con ali di uccello e simboleggia il vento. In forma alata è anche
dipinta sui sarcofagi nell’atto di prendere l’anima tra le ali per condurla a nuova vita. Frequenti anche
le rappresentazioni della dea mentre allatta il figlio Horo. Il suo simbolo è il tiet, chiamato anche nodo
isiaco.

Culto [modifica]
Iside, la cui originaria associazione con Osiride fu sostituita dalla Dinastia tolemaica con quella al dio
Serapide, fu una delle divinità più famose di tutto il bacino del Mar Mediterraneo.

Dall'epoca tolemaica la venerazione per la dea, simbolo di sposa e madre e protettrice dei naviganti, si
diffuse nel mondo ellenistico, fino a Roma. Il suo culto, diventato misterico per i legami della dea con
il mondo ultraterreno e nonostante all'inizio fosse ostacolato, dilagò in tutto l'Impero romano. Nel
sincretismo tipico dell'epoca ellenistica e imperiale Iside venne assimilata con molte divinità femminili
locali, quali Cibele, Demetra e Cerere, e molti templi furono innalzati in suo onore in Europa, Africa
ed Asia. Il più famoso fu quello di File, l'ultimo tempio pagano ad essere chiuso nel VI secolo.

Durante il suo sviluppo nell'Impero il culto di Iside si contraddistinse per processioni e feste in onore
della dea molto festose e ricche.
La Dea Iside era venerata anche nell'antica Benevento, dove l'imperatore Domiziano fece erigere un
tempio in suo onore. Molti studiosi ricollegano il culto della dea egizia della magia alla leggenda delle
Janare, che fa di Benevento la città delle streghe. All'interno del Museo del Sannio, un'intera sala è
dedicata alla dea, Signora di Benevento.

Le sacerdotesse della dea vestivano solitamente in bianco e si adornavano di fiori; a Roma,

probabilmente a frutto dell'influenza del culto autoctono di Vesta, dedicavano talvolta la loro castità
alla dea Iside.

La decadenza nel Mediterraneo del culto di Iside fu per lo più determinata dall'avvento di nuove
religioni quali lo stesso Cristianesimo.

Iside e la Vergine [modifica]

Iside che allatta il figlio Horus

Esistono tratti comuni nell'iconografia relativa a queste due figure, ed è ragionevole supporre che già
l'arte paleocristiana si sia ispirata alla raffigurazione classica di Iside per rappresentare la figura di
Maria: la comunanza in vari dipinti si ritrova per esempio nei tratti delicati ed eterei, nel tenere
entrambe in braccio un infante, che è Gesù Bambino nel caso della Madonna ed Horus per Iside.

Ancora, con il primo vero affermarsi del Cristianesimo nell'Impero romano, sotto imperatori come
Costantino I e Teodosio I e con il conseguente rifiuto e persecuzione delle altre religioni a Roma e nei
domini, il fatto che vari templi consacrati ad Iside siano stati riadattati e consacrati come basiliche
dedicate alla Vergine, così come a volte modificati i dipinti e le opere raffiguranti la dea egiziana, ha
sicuramente aiutato l'accomunarsi delle due figure a livello iconografico.

Inno a Iside [modifica]

Tratto dal Papiro di Ossirinco n.1380, 1. 214-216, risalente al II secolo a.C.:

[…] Dea dalle molte facoltà,

onore del sesso femminile.
[…] Amabile, che fa regnare la dolcezza nelle assemblee,
[…] nemica dell'odio […],
[…] Tu regni nel Sublime e nell'Infinito.
Tu trionfi facilmente sui despoti con i tuoi consigli leali.
[…] Sei tu che, da sola, hai ritrovato tuo fratello (Osiri), che hai
ben governato la barca, e gli hai dato una sepoltura degna di lui.
[…] Tu vuoi che le donne (in età di procreare) si uniscano agli uomini.
[…] Sei tu la Signora della Terra […]
Tu hai reso il potere delle donne uguale a quello degli uomini![1]

Note [modifica]
1. ^ La donna nell'antico Egitto di Enrichetta Leospo, Mario Tosi, p.31

Bibliografia [modifica]

Seth
Da Wikipedia, l'enciclopedia libera.

Disambiguazione – Se stai cercando il personaggio di Street Fighter IV, vedi Seth (Street Fighter).
 Seth in scrittura geroglifica

Seth

Seth (anche Sutekh, Setesh o Set) è il dio della pioggia e del cattivo tempo nella mitologia egizia,
secondo la teogonia menphita sviluppata nel periodo tardo. Viene, di norma, raffigurato come un
uomo con testa di animale, talvolta identificato con lo sciacallo, più generalmente indicato
semplicemente come "animale di Seth"; nelle raffigurazioni più antiche è invece raffigurato come
animale.

Figlio di Geb, la terra (principio maschile) e Nut, il cielo (principio femminile), fratello di Osiride,
Iside e Nefti (di cui era anche lo sposo), per gelosia organizzò una congiura mortale nei confronti del
fratello Osiride che sarà poi vendicato dal figlio di quest'ultimo, Horo.

In origine Seth è una delle maggiori divinità dell'Alto Egitto del Periodo Predinastico, con la funzione
di benigna divinità dei morti. La sua importanza diminuisce quando i re dell' Alto Egitto unificano le
Due Terre ed impongono il loro dio, Horo, come divinità principale. Comunque per tutto il Regno
Antico Seth mantiene una certa importanza e sul finire della II dinastia sostituisce il rivale nella
titolatura reale (Peribsen), oppure si affianca ad Horo (Khasekhemwy).

Durante il periodo hyksos Seth verrà prescelto quale Dio dinastico ed associato alla divinità hurrita
della tempesta Teshup.

Durante la XIX dinastia il nome di Seth torna a comparire nelle titolature reali come nomen (Seti I e
Seti II). In questo periodo veniva raffigurato a prua dell'imbarcazione notturna di Ra, impegnata nella
cattura del mostro serpente.
Raffigurazione di Seth in una tomba egizia

È stato la maggiore divinità degli Hyksos, come pure il protettore dei sovrani condottieri Ramessidi,
divenendo infine la divinità dei paesi stranieri e quindi un dio ostile.

Seth è il Signore del deserto, adorato dai carovanieri che si spostavano tra un'oasi e l'altra. Seth è una
divinità a tutti gli effetti, di pari potere agli altri e che merita adorazione per la sua possanza. Assolve,
inoltre, anche compiti fondamentali: è il dio della guerra e della forza bruta, che insegna ad asservire
nella lotta violenta per vincere in battaglia e trovare l'onore.

Seth è anche detto l'Ombita dalla città di Ombos sede originaria del suo culto.

Indice

[nascondi]

1 Seth in altre
religioni
2 Bibliografia
3 Voci correlate
4 Altri progetti
5 Collegamenti
esterni

Seth in altre religioni [modifica]

 Nelle versioni ellenistiche della mitologia egizia è noto come Tifone.
 Alla figura di Seth si richiamano esplicitamente i satanisti del Temple of Set.

Bibliografia [modifica]
 Tosi, Mario, Dizionario enciclopedico delle Divinità dell'Antico Egitto, Torino 2004 ISBN 88-7325-064-5

Voci correlate [modifica]

Nefti
Da Wikipedia, l'enciclopedia libera.

Disambiguazione – Se stai cercando Nephthys, divinità immaginaria

Nefti in scrittura geroglifica
dell'ambientazione Forgotten Realms, vedi Nephthys (Forgotten Realms).

Nella mitologia egiziana Nefti, che fa parte dell'Enneade di Eliopoli, è la

dea dell'oltretomba, oltre che del parto. Il nome veniva utilizzato anche
per identificare la donna più anziana della famiglia.

È la figlia di Nut e Geb, e sorella di Osiride, Iside e Seth, del quale è

moglie. È madre di Anubi, frutto dell'unione con Osiride, circuito con
l'inganno. Nell'iconografia, il suo vestito è simile al sudario utilizzato per i cadaveri. È raffigurata con
il simbolo geroglifico del palazzo sulla testa, ed a volte come un nibbio, falco o altro uccello. È
rappresentata spesso con la sorella Iside, che aiuta a resuscitare Osiride. È talvolta raffigurata al capo
del sarcofago di Osiride, mentre Iside vigila ai piedi del fratello/consorte.

Indice

[nascondi]

1 Altri nomi
2
Bibliografia
3 Voci
correlate
 4 Altri
progetti

Altri nomi [modifica]

 Nebet-het
 Nebt-het

Nephthys
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Nephthys
 Nephthys was normally portraited as a young woman,
wearing a headress in the shape of a house and basket

Goddess of the Night and Lamentation

Name in hieroglyphs

Major cult center none specifically, Diospolis

Parva

Symbol the house, mummy wrappings

Parents Geb and Nut

Siblings Isis, Osiris and Set

 Consort Set

In Egyptian mythology, Nephthys is a member of the Great Ennead of Heliopolis, a daughter of Nut
and Geb. Nephthys was typically paired with her sister Isis in funerary rites because of their role as
protectors of the mummy and the god Osiris and as the sister-wife of Set. Nephthys is occasionally
regarded as the mother of the funerary-deity Anubis.

Nephthys was known in some ancient Egyptian temple theologies and cosmologies as the "Useful
Goddess" or the "Excellent Goddess".[1] These late Ancient Egyptian temple texts describe a goddess
who represented divine assistance and protective guardianship.

Less well understood than her sister Isis, Nephthys was no less important in Egyptian Religion as
confirmed by the work of E. Hornung,[2] along with the work of several noted scholars.

As the primary "nursing mother" of the incarnate Pharaonic-god, Horus, Nephthys also was considered
to be the nurse of the reigning Pharaoh himself.[3] Though other goddesses could assume this role,
Nephthys was most usually portrayed in this function. In contrast Nephthys is sometimes featured as a
rather ferocious and dangerous divinity, capable of incinerating the enemies of the Pharaoh with her
fiery breath.[4]

New Kingdom Ramesside Pharaohs, in particular, were enamored of Mother Nephthys, as is attested in
various stelae and a wealth of inscriptions at Karnak and Luxor, where Nephthys was a member of that
great city's Ennead and her altars were present in the massive complex.[5]

Nephthys was one of the few national goddesses to serve as tutelary divinity of her own district, or
nome, in Ancient Egyptian history. Upper Egyptian Nome VII and its city, Hwt-Sekhem, were
considered (at least by Greco-Roman times) to be the domain of Nephthys.[6]

Contents
[hide]

 1 Etymology
 2 Function
 3 Nephthys and Set
 4 The Saving Sister of Osiris
 5 New Kingdom Cults of Nephthys
 6 Chief Goddess of Nome VII
 7 References

[edit] Etymology
Nephthys - Musée du Louvre, Paris, France

Nephthys is the Greek form of an epithet (transliterated as Nebet-het, and Nebt-het, from Egyptian
hieroglyphs).The origin of the goddess Nephthys is unclear but the literal translation of her name is
usually given as "Lady of the House," which has caused some to mistakenly identify her with the
notion of a "housewife," or as the primary lady who ruled a domestic household. This is a pervasive
error repeated in many commentaries concerning this deity. Her name means quite specifically, Lady
of the [Temple] Enclosure which associates her with the role of priestess.

This title which may be more of an epithet describing her function than a given name probably
indicates the association of Nephthys with one particular temple or some specific aspect of the
Egyptian temple ritual. Along with her sister Isis, Nephthys represented the temple pylon or
trapezoidal tower gateway entrance to the temple which also displayed the flagstaff. This entrance way
symbolised the horizon or akhet.

[edit] Function
 

Part of a series on

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religion
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Mafdet · Menhit · Meretseger
Meskhenet · Monthu · Min · Mnevis
Mut · Neith · Nekhbet · Nephthys
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At the time of the Fifth Dynasty Pyramid Texts, Nephthys appears as a goddess of the Heliopolitan
Ennead. She is the sister of Isis and companion of the war-like deity, Set. As sister of Isis and
especially Osiris, Nephthys is a protective goddess who symbolizes the death experience, just as Isis
represented the (re-)birth experience.

"Ascend and descend; descend with Nephthys, sink into darkness with the Night-bark. Ascend and
descend; ascend with Isis, rise with the Day-bark."

Pyramid Text Utterance 222 line 210.[7]

In the funerary role, Nephthys often was depicted as a bird of prey called a kite, or as a woman with
falcon wings, usually outstretched as a symbol of protection. Nephthys's association with the kite or
the Egyptian hawk (and its piercing, mournful cries) evidently reminded the ancients of the
lamentations usually offered for the dead by wailing women. In this capacity, it is easy to see how
Nephthys could be associated with death and putrefaction in the Pyramid Texts. She was, almost
without fail, depicted as crowned by the hieroglyphics signifying her name, which were a combination
of signs for the sacred temple enclosure (hwt), along with the sign for neb, or mistress (Lady), on top
of the enclosure sign.[8]

Nephthys was clearly viewed as a morbid-but-crucial force of heavenly transition, i.e., the Pharaoh
becomes strong for his journey to the afterlife through the intervention of Isis and Nephthys. The same
divine power could be applied later to all of the dead, who were advised to consider Nephthys a
necessary companion. According to the Pyramid Texts, Nephthys, along with Isis, was a force before
whom demons trembled in fear, and whose magical spells were necessary for navigating the various
levels of Duat, as the region of the afterlife was termed.
It should here be noted that Nephthys was not necessarily viewed as the polar opposite of Isis, but
rather as a different reflection of the same reality: eternal life in transition. Thus, Nephthys was also
seen in the Pyramid Texts as a supportive cosmic force occupying the night-bark on the journey of Ra,
the majestic sun god, particularly when he entered Duat at the transitional time of dusk, or twilight.
Isis was Ra's companion at the coming of dawn.

[edit] Nephthys and Set

Though it commonly has been assumed that Nepthys was married to Set, recent Egyptological
research has called this into question. Levai notes that while Plutarch’s De Iside et Osiride mentions
the deity's marriage, there is very little specifically linking Nephthys and Set in the original early
Egyptian sources. She argues that the later evidence suggests that:

while Nephthys’s marriage to Set was a part of Egyptian mythology, it was not a part of the myth of
the murder and resurrection of Osiris. She was not paired with Seth the villain, but with Seth’s other
aspect, the benevolent figure who was the killer of Apophis. This was the aspect of Set worshiped in
the western oases during the Roman period, where he is depicted with Nephthys as co-ruler.[9]

[edit] The Saving Sister of Osiris

Nephthys - Greco-Roman era painted image on a linen and tempera shroud - c. 300-200 B.C. - Metropolitan
Museum of Art
Isis - Greco-Roman era painted image on a linen and tempera shroud - c. 300-200 B.C. - Metropolitan Museum
of Art

Nephthys plays an important role in the Osirian myth-cycle.

It is Nephthys who assists Isis in gathering and mourning the dismembered portions of the body of
Osiris, after his murder by the envious Set. Nephthys also serves as the nursemaid and watchful
guardian of the infant Horus. The Pyramid Texts refer to Isis as the "birth-mother" and to Nephthys as
the "nursing-mother" of Horus. Nephthys was attested as one of the four "Great Chiefs" ruling in the
Osirian cult-center of Busiris, in the Delta (cf. The Book of the Dead, Theban Recension) and she
appears to have occupied an honorary position at the holy city of Abydos. No cult is attested for her
there, though she certainly figured as a goddess of great importance in the annual rites conducted,
wherein two chosen females or priestesses played the roles of Isis and Nephthys and performed the
elaborate 'Lamentations of Isis and Nephthys'. There, at Abydos, Nephthys joined Isis as a mourner in
the shrine known as the Osireion (cf.Byron Esely Shafer, Dieter Arnold, Temples in Ancient Egypt,
p. 112, 2005). These "Festival Songs of Isis and Nephthys" were ritual elements of many such Osirian
rites in major ancient Egyptian cult-centers.

As a mortuary goddess (along with Isis, Neith, and Serqet), Nephthys was one of the protectresses of
the Canopic jars of the Hapi. Hapi, one of the Sons of Horus, guarded the embalmed lungs. Thus we
find Nephthys endowed with the epithet, "Nephthys of the Bed of Life," ( cf. tomb of Tuthmosis III,
Dynasty XVIII) in direct reference to her regenerative priorities on the embalming table. In the city of
Memphis, Nephthys was duly honored with the title "Queen of the Embalmer's Shop," and there
associated with the jackal-headed god Anubis as patron.[10]

Nephthys was also considered a festive deity whose rites could mandate the liberal consumption of
beer. In various reliefs at Edfu, Dendera, and Behbeit, Nephthys is depicted receiving lavish beer-
offerings from the Pharaoh, which she would "return", using her power as a beer-goddess "that [the
pharaoh] may have joy with no hangover." Elsewhere at Edfu, for example, Nephthys is a goddess
who gives the Pharaoh power to see "that which is hidden by moonlight." This fits well with more
general textual themes that consider Nephthys to be a goddess whose unique domain was darkness, or
the perilous edges of the desert.

Nephthys could also appear as one of the goddesses who assists at childbirth. One ancient Egyptian
myth preserved in the Papyrus Westcar recounts the story of Isis, Nephthys, Meskhenet, and Heqet as
traveling dancers in disguise, assisting the wife of a priest of Amun-Re as she prepares to bring forth
sons who are destined for fame and fortune.

Nephthys's healing skills and status as direct counterpart of Isis, steeped, as her sister in "words of
power," are evidenced by the abundance of faience amulets carved in her likeness, and by her presence
in a variety of magical papyri that sought to summon her famously altruistic qualities to the aid of
mortals.[11]

[edit] New Kingdom Cults of Nephthys

The Ramesside Pharaohs were particularly devoted to Set's prerogatives and, in the 19th Dynasty , a
temple of Nephthys called the "House of Nephthys of Ramesses-Meriamun" was built or refurbished
in the town of Sepermeru, midway between Oxyrhynchos and Herakleopolis, on the outskirts of the
Fayyum and quite near to the modern site of Deshasheh. Here, as Papyrus Wilbour notes in its wealth
of taxation records and land assessments, the temple of Nephthys was a specific foundation by
Ramesses II, located in close proximity to (or within) the precinct of the enclosure of Set. To be
certain, the House of Nephthys was one of fifty individual, land-owning temples delineated for this
portion of the Middle Egyptian district in Papyrus Wilbour. The fields and other holdings belonging to
Nephthys's temple were under the authority of two Nephthys-prophets (named Penpmer and
Merybarse) and one (mentioned) wa'ab priest of the goddess.

While certainly affiliated with the "House of Set," the Nephthys temple at Sepermeru and its
apportioned lands (several acres) clearly were under administration distinct from the Set institution.[12]
The Nephthys temple was a unique establishment in its own right, an independent entity. According to
Papyrus Wilbour,[13] another "House of Nephthys of Ramesses-Meriamun" seems to have existed to
the north, in the town of Su, closer to the Fayyum region.

Another temple of Nephthys seems to have existed in the town of Punodjem. The Papyrus Bologna
records a complaint lodged by a prophet of the temple of Set in that town regarding undue taxation in
his regard. After making an introductory appeal to "Re-Horakhte, Set, and Nephthys" for the ultimate
resolution of this issue by the royal Vizier, the prophet (named Pra'emhab) laments his workload. He
notes his obvious administration of the "House of Set" and adds: "I am also responsible for the ship,
and I am responsible likewise for the House of Nephthys, along with a heap of other temples."[14]

As "Nephthys of Ramesses-Meriamun," the goddess and her shrines were under the particular
endorsement of Ramesses II. The foundations of the Set and Nephthys temples at Sepermeru finally
were discovered and identified in the 1980s, and the Nephthys temple was a self-sustaining temple
complex within the Set enclosure.[15]
There can be little doubt that a cult of Nephthys existed in the temple and great town of Herakleopolis,
north of Sepermeru. A near life-sized statue of Nephthys (currently housed in the Louvre) boasts a
curiously altered inscription. The basalt image originally was stationed at Medinet-Habu, as part of the
cultic celebration of the Pharaonic "Sed-Festival," but was transferred at some point to Herakleopolis
and the temple of Herishef. The cult-image's inscription originally pertained to "Nephthys, Foremost
of the Sed [Festival] in the Booth of Annals" (at Medinet-Habu), but was re-inscribed or re-dedicated
to "Nephthys, Foremost of the [Booths of] Herakleopolis." A "prophet of Nephthys" is indeed attested
for the town of Herakleopolis in the 30th Dynasty.[16]

[edit] Chief Goddess of Nome VII

Nephthys was considered the unique protectress of the Sacred Phoenix, or the Bennu Bird. This role
may have stemmed from an early association in her native Heliopolis, which was renowned for its
"House of the Bennu" temple. In this role, Nephthys was given the name "Nephthys-Kheresket," and a
wealth of temple texts from Edfu, Dendara, Philae, Kom Ombo, El Qa'la, Esna, and others corroborate
the late identification of Nephthys as the supreme goddess of Upper Egyptian Nome VII, where
another shrine existed in honor of the Bennu. Nephthys also was the goddess of the "Mansion of the
Sistrum" in Hwt-Sekhem (Gr. Diospolis Parva), the chief city of Nome VII. There, Nephthys was the
primary protectress of the resident Osirian relic, of the Bennu Bird, and of the local Horus/Osiris
manifestation, the god Neferhotep.[6]

Nephthys was most widely and usually worshipped in ancient Egypt as part of a consortium of temple
deities. Therefore, it should not surprise us that her cult images could likely be found as part of the
divine entourage in temples at Kharga, Kellis, Deir el-Hagar, Koptos, Dendereh, Philae, Sebennytos,
Busiris, Shenhur, El Qa'la, Letopolis, Heliopolis, Abydos, Thebes, Dakleh Oasis, and indeed
throughout Egypt.[17] In most cases, Nephthys found her typical place as part of a triad alongside Osiris
and Isis, or Isis and Horus, or Isis and Min, or as part of a quartet of deities. It is perhaps, in this way
that Nephthys best fulfilled her role as an important national deity whose ideal function was to provide
powerful assistance to her associates in a great variety of temple cults—a truly "Useful" and
"Excellent" goddess, as her primary epithets reflect.

JUDGMENT OF THE DEAD


1.
 mitologia egiziana
1. Anubi
2. Osiride
3. Iside
4. Neith
5. Nefti
 6. Horus
7. Seth
8. Thot

Anubi
Da Wikipedia, l'enciclopedia libera.

Disambiguazione – Se stai cercando altri significati, vedi Anubi Anubi in scrittura geroglifica

(disambigua).

Nella religione egizia, Anubi era la divinità che proteggeva le

necropoli ed il mondo dei morti, per cui veniva anche chiamato "Il
Signore degli Occidentali".

Prima divinità dell'Oltretomba, come recitano i "Testi delle Piramidi", venne successivamente
sostituito da Osiride, già verso la V dinastia, ma restava il dio protettore del XVII nomos dell'Alto
Egitto il cui capoluogo, Khasa, venne chiamato, in epoca ellenistica, Cinopoli ossia "Città dei canidi"
per il culto che vi veniva celebrato.

Anubi tra Osiride e Horo

Aveva numerosi titoli che coglievano i vari aspetti della complessa natura del dio, tra i quali:

 "Colui che presiede l'imbalsamazione"

 "Colui che è sulla montagna" intendendo la montagna ove erano scavati gli ipogei
 "Colui della necropoli"
 "Colui che è nelle bende" intendendo le bende funerarie ma dall'oscuro significato

Indice

[nascondi]

1 Aspetto
2 Genesi
3 Ruoli nella mitologia
4 Iconografia
5 Altri nomi
6 Anubi nella cultura
moderna
7 Voci correlate
8 Note
9 Bibliografia
10 Altri progetti
11 Voci correlate
12 Collegamenti esterni

Aspetto [modifica]

Anubi
Nel primitivo culto zoolatrico, Anubi era raffigurato come un cane dal pelo rossiccio, con grandi
orecchie e lunga coda, ma a partire dal Nuovo Regno veniva rappresentato con il corpo di uomo e testa
di cane[1], chiamata poi genericamente testa di sciacallo, per identificare così l'animale che si nutre di
carogne e quindi strettamente connesso alla morte.

La testa era raffigurata nera perché questo colore indicava la putrefazione dei corpi, il bitume
impiegato nella mummificazione ma anche il fertile limo, simbolo di rinascita.

La forma mista di corpo umano e testa di canide non deve far credere che gli Egizi immaginassero e
adorassero un dio semi-umano ma significa che essi vedevano nel cane randagio, della Valle del Nilo,
la possibile forma, detta ipostasi, dell'apparizione del dio Anubi (Hornung).

Quindi la comune immagine di questo dio altro non era che un geroglifico indicante la "natura e le
caratteristiche" della divinità e non certo il nome.

Le divinità ibride con testa di canide erano diverse e ne citiamo tre: Anubi, Upuat e Khentamentyu.

Genesi [modifica]
Anubi veniva definito nei "Testi delle piramidi" come quarto figlio di Ra generato con la dea Hesat,
dalla testa di vacca.

Le varie teologie, in realtà molto confuse, lo indicavano anche come figlio, frutto di un rapporto tra
Osiride e Nefti oppure della coppia Nefti-Seth ed era anche indicato come fratello di Osiride mentre,
inizialmente, negli antichi testi non venivano citati né genitori né coniuge.

La dea Qeb-hwt, anche conosciuta come Kebechet ossia "Colei che versa l'acqua fresca" che ristorava
i defunti era considerata la figlia di Anubi e qualche volta la sorella.

La sua paredra era la dea Inpwt avente anche lei per simbolo il canide ed un centro di culto sempre nel
XVII distretto dell'Alto Egitto.

Ruoli nella mitologia [modifica]

Dipinto dalla tomba di Sennedjem ove un sacerdote con la maschera di Anubi termina la mummificazione

Protettore della sacra terra della necropoli, aveva il compito di accompagnare il Ba del defunto davanti
al tribunale supremo degli dei, così come narrato nel "Libro dei morti", illuminando il cammino con la
Luna tenuta nel palmo della mano. In questo caso diveniva la forma sincretica del dio Upuat che
significa "Colui che apre la strada" ed era anche assimilato all'altra divinità canide Khentamentyu
ossia "Colui che è a capo della necropoli".

Come rappresentato il alcune tombe del Medio Regno della necropoli tebana , Anubi appare chinato
sul defunto con lo scettro rituale wr-hk3w detto "Grande di magia" il cui scopo era quello di ridonare
la vita.

In basso a sinistra dell'immagine si nota il feticcio rituale collegato al culto di Anubi

Ebbe anche un ruolo importante nel mito di Osiride del quale imbalsamò le spoglie, su ordine di Ra,
facendone così la prima mummia e divenendo quindi il dio protettore dell'imbalsamazione.

Gli stessi imbalsamatori erano suoi sacerdoti e quello che presiedeva ai riti funebri indossava la
maschera nera con le sembianze del dio, divenendo egli stesso la personificazione della divinità.

Partecipava inoltre alla psicostasia ove conduceva il defunto nella "Sala delle due verità" e ne pesava
il cuore assieme al dio Thot che come scriba ne registrava la pesatura.

Successivamente fu associato, dai Greci, a Hermes Psychopompos ossia "Hermes che accompagna le
anime" con il nome di Ermanubi che poche caratteristiche aveva del dio dinastico Anubi.

Nel Libro XI de Le metamorfosi di Apuleio si trova la testimonianza che il culto di Anubi durò, a
Roma, almeno fino al II secolo d.C.

Iconografia [modifica]
La più antica rappresentazione di Anubi è in una tavola risalente al sovrano Aha della I dinastia nella
quale veniva anche citata la festività collegata al dio che veniva inizialmente rappresentato solo come
canide dalla lunga coda e con uno scettro sekhem posizionato sopra una mastaba.
Successivamente era spesso raffigurato nelle pitture parietali degli ipogei unitamente al sovrano
defunto e sovente con un'altra divinità dal corpo di uomo e testa di falco con doppia corona: era,
quest'ultimo, il dio protettore dei defunti Harsiesis.

Nella tomba di Nakhtamon a Deir el-Medina ed in altre tombe è raffigurato con testa d'ariete ed un
serpente sulle corna con il significato di personificazione, o sincretismo, in Ra come sole della notte e
signore dell'Oltretomba.

Durante il Nuovo Regno veniva rappresentato anche nei sarcofagi. Resta notevole testimonianza il
reperto del tesoro di Tutankhamon ove il dio doveva assolvere il compito di protettore degli arredi
funerari e sempre con scopi apotropaici la sua effigie compariva nei sigilli delle tombe reali e nobiliari.

Altri nomi [modifica]

  Neith
Da Wikipedia, l'enciclopedia libera.

Disambiguazione – Se stai cercando altri significati del termine, vedi Neith (disambigua).
Neith (anche nota come Nit, Net e Neit) era la divinità egizia patrona di Sais, nel Delta occidentale.

nt

Originariamente Neith fu la dea della caccia e della guerra ed ebbe come simboli di potere, come la
città stessa di Sais, due frecce incrociate sopra uno scudo come corona divina e il bastone uadj come
scettro di potere .
Nella forma antica, come divinità della guerra, era considerata artefice delle armi dei guerrieri e
guardiana dei morti in battaglia.

Comunque il suo simbolo poteva anche essere interpretato come un telaio, cosicché Neith divenne la
dea della tessitura, da cui derivò il nome di tessitrice. In questo ruolo di dea delle arti domestiche era
protettrice delle donne e guardiana del matrimonio. Le donne della famiglia reale aggiunsero spesso il
nome teoforo al loro in suo onore.

La dea della guerra fu anche associata alla morte; si pensava che Neith avvolgesse i corpi dei morti
con le bende nella imbalsamazione. Così divenne protettrice di uno dei quattro Figli di Horo,
Duamutef, la deificazione del canopo che conteneva lo stomaco e il cui coperchio raffigurava la testa
di uno sciacallo.

Nel tempo, poiché il suo nome poteva anche essere interpretato con il significato di "acqua", Neith fu
considerata la personificazione delle acque primordiali della creazione, nella Ogdoade, e quindi madre
di Ra. Come dea delle acque fu anche considerata madre di Sobek e raffigurata mentre allatta un
piccolo coccodrillo.

In tempi più recenti, la dea della guerra e della morte fu identificata con Nefti, e quindi considerata
moglie di Seth.

Nell'iconografia, Neith appare come una donna con una spola di telaio sulla testa, con in mano un arco
e delle frecce. Viene anche rappresentata come una donna con la testa di leonessa, di serpente o di
mucca.

Una grande festa, chiamata la Festa delle Lampade, si teneva ogni anno in suo onore. Dal racconto di
Erodoto sappiamo che i devoti della dea durante la celebrazione notturna accendevano centinaia di luci
all’aria aperta.

Alcuni studiosi hanno ipotizzato che Neith possa corrispondere alla dea punica Tanit (Ta-Nit). Platone
nel Timeo afferma che essa fosse la dea greca Atena con un altro nome, ma storicamente le due
divinità non condividono le stesse origini.

Voci correlate [modifica]

  Anubi
 Osiride
 Thot
 Divinità della morte
 Personificazione della morte

Horo
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Questa voce o sezione sull'argomento religione è ritenuta da controllare.

Motivo: vedi discussione

Partecipa alla discussione e/o correggi la voce. Segui i suggerimenti del progetto di riferimento.
Disambiguazione – Se stai cercando altri significati di Horo o Horus, vedi Horo (disambigua).

Statua di Horo. Tempio di Edfu, Egitto

Horo, che significa probabilmente "Il lontano" (Bresciani), è una divinità celeste egizia che ha la sua
ipostasi nel falco.
Horo (o Horus) è la forma latina del nome egizio Hr (nella scrittura egizia non sono rappresentate le
vocali) la cui lettura è Heru oppure Hor.

Indice

[nascondi]

1 Mitologia
2 La teoria del parallelismo tra Horus e
Gesù
3 Galleria di immagini
4 Note
5 Bibliografia
6 Altri progetti
7 Collegamenti esterni

Mitologia [modifica]
Il culto di Horo è attestato dal periodo predinastico fino all'epoca romana quando il suo culto viene
unito a quello della madre Iside.
In epoca predinastica si ebbero, con molta probabilità, diverse divinità falco. La più importante delle
quali era il dio-falco venerato nell'Alto Egitto.
Quando i sovrani del Basso Egitto unificano le Due Terre, Horo assume il carattere di Unificatore
dell'Alto e Basso Egitto.
Il sovrano egizio è considerato la personificazione di Horo, ossia l' Horo vivente; la prima tra le molte
titolature che identificano un sovrano dell'Egitto è il serekht ossia il nome-Horo caratterizzato appunto
dal falco.

In alcuni miti, Horo è considerato figlio della dea-vacca Hathor, il cui nome significa letteralmente
casa di Horo.
Il mito però maggiormente famoso è quello che lo vuole figlio di Osiride ed Iside e vendicatore del
padre nei confronti di Seth, il quale gli tolse un occhio durante lo scontro.
Durante il lungo periodo della civiltà egizia l'Horo di Hierakonpolis assorbe, con un meccanismo di
sincretismo, svariate altre divinità locali aventi caratteristiche simili che infine divennero aspetti
diversi di una sola figura.

Le forme sincretiche più comuni erano:Harakhti, Hornedjitef, Harsiesi, Harmakhis, Haroeris,

Harpocrates, Harsomtus e Hurum ma ve ne sono anche con gli dei solari Ra, Atum e Aton di cui la più
conosciuta è quella di Ra-Harakhti.

I figli di Horo sono quattro divinità protettrici dei vasi canopi, i contenitori delle viscere nel processo
di imbalsamazione.

Presso i Greci e i Romani fu noto con il nome di Arpocrate e rappresentato come un bambino con un
dito in bocca, gesto interpretato come un invito al silenzio.

Dall'etimologia del nome e dal suo aspetto di uccello, si deduce che Horo fosse una divinità del cielo: i
suoi occhi simboleggiano luna e sole, il cui viaggio nel cielo è dovuto al volo di Horo. Inoltre il mito
dello scontro tra Horo e Seth spiega la minore luminosità della luna rispetto al sole col fatto che
l'occhio lunare sarebbe quello staccato da Seth in combattimento e in seguito riposizionato dal dio
della magia Toth.

La teoria del parallelismo tra Horus e Gesù [modifica]

La teoria si basa sugli studi compiuti da Gerald Massey. Le teorie di Massey ispireranno anche il
teosofo Alvin Boyd Kuhn. Massey fu esponente della massoneria e le sue opere sono ancora oggi testi
di riferimento della Società Teosofica [1], movimento religioso-filosofico fondato da Helena Blavatsky.
Poeta e appassionato di civiltà egizia, Massey apprende da autodidatta l’arte di decifrare i geroglifici.
La sua teoria che vuole instaurare un parallelismo tra la vita di Horus e quella di Gesù si basa su un
rilievo che si trova a Luxor, che lui esamina e interpreta nell'opera The Historical Jesus and The
Mythical Christ, anche se per affermare questa tesi non vi sono altre fonti di riferimento.

Rilievo Massey
In questo rilievo si leggerebbe l’annunciazione, l'immacolata concezione della dea Iside, la nascita ed
adorazione di Horus. Questa sua interpretazione contrasta con quella degli egittologi[2] e non è stata
mai confermata da altre fonti. Le sue opere, che tentano di stabilire un più generale parallelismo tra
ebraismo, cristianesimo e religione egizia, sono assolutamente disconosciute dalla moderna egittologia
e non sono menzionate nell'Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt o in qualche altra opera di
riferimento di questa branca accademica. Massey non è infatti nominato né in "Who Was Who in
Egyptology" di M. L. Bierbrier (III ed., 1995), attuale lista degli egittologi internazionali di
riferimento, né tanto meno nella più estesa bibliografia sull'antico Egitto stilata da Ida B. Pratt
(1925/1942), universalmente riconosciuta dalla comunità internazionale degli egittologi [3].

Errato è anche il parallelo con il dogma cattolico dell'immacolata concezione: nella religione cattolica
l'immacolata concezione si riferisce al concepimento di Maria senza peccato originale e non alla
nascita verginale di Gesù Cristo.

Nel 1999 la storica e archeologa D.M. Murdock riporta in auge questa "teoria" nel The Christ
Conspiracy pubblicato con lo pseudonimo di Acharya. L'opera è stata anche utilizzata come base della
prima parte del film web Zeitgeist. In un capitolo del suo libro l'autrice mette in luce delle somiglianze
notevoli che intercorrerebbero tra la figura di Gesù Cristo e quella di Horus. In questo ripercorre
sostanzialmente le tesi di Massey sul parallelismo Horus/Gesù. La questione relativa all'attendibilità
delle sue tesi è tuttora molto controversa e il dibattito molto acceso. La Murdock non ha una
formazione accademica da egittologa ed una delle critiche fondamentali che le si rivolgono è di non
aver attinto da fonti primarie ma di aver utilizzato fonti poco attendibili come Ancient Egypt: The
Light of the World di Gerald Massey. Nel suo ultimo libro Christ in Egypt (Ed. 2009) l'autrice replica
che il suo lavoro non si ispirerebbe a quello di Massey (sebbene a distanza di cento anni risulterebbe
sostanzialmente corretto) ma su molteplici fonti di egittologi tra cui cita Margaret Murray, egittologa e
antropologa vissuta negli anni '30, che nel libro "Il Dio delle streghe" si è occupata di stregoneria
medievale cercando di trovare le sue radici nel periodo pre-cristiano. Anche la storicità del lavoro
della Murray è ancora molto discussa e le sue argomentazioni sono oggi aspramente criticate in ambito
accademico: tra gli storici che criticano la sua impostazione di ricerca e quindi i risultati raggiunti ci
sono Norman Cohn, Ronald Hutton, G. L. Kittredge, Keith Thomas, J. B. Russell e Carlo Ginzburg [4].
Questo getta ulteriori ombre sulla canonicità storico/scientifica dell'opera della D.M. Murdock. Si
consideri inoltre che, analogamente a quanto affermato dagli egittologi in relazione alle tesi di Massey,
la ricostruzione della vita di Iside e Horus fatta dalla Murdock è in aperto contrasto con i risultati
raggiunti dall'attuale egittologia e non trova riscontri nella narrazione delle vicende di Horus e Iside
come narrate nella mitologia egizia [5].

L'unica fonte di riferimento per questa tesi resterebbe quindi l'iscrizione di Luxor, sopra indicata, in
una traduzione e interpretazione considerata dagli egittologi moderni totalmente fallace[6], che non
trova altri referenti se non il succitato Massey.
Raffigurazione

L'autrice sostiene di aver ritrovato questi motivi nel corso dei suoi studi e di averli poi riordinati in una
specie di racconto evangelico per mettere in luce le somiglianze di fondo. Ecco alcune delle presunte
analogie individuate dalla Murdock nel suo libro [7]:

 fu annunciata la sua nascita alla madre dall'angelo Thot, che le comunicò anche che il figlio sarebbe
stato concepito verginalmente
 nacque in una grotta il 25 dicembre dalla vergine Iside, annunciato da una stella d'oriente
 venne adorato nella grotta da pastori e da tre saggi che gli offrirono in dono oro, incenso e mirra
 da bambino insegnò in un tempio
 ebbe 12 discepoli
 all'età di 30 anni fu battezzato da una figura nota come Anup, che venne in seguito decapitato (come
Giovanni Battista)
 combatté 40 giorni nel deserto contro Satana
 compì miracoli, come la resurrezione dei morti e la camminata sulle acque
 fu chiamato il "Santo Bambino" ed era noto con molti nomi, tra cui: "La Verità", "La Luce", "La Vita",
"L'Unto Figlio di Dio" e il "Buon Pastore", "L'Agnello", "La Stella del Mattino"
 Sapeva volare e cantare
 Horus nacque a Annu, il "posto del pane", mentre Gesù nacque a Bethleem, la "casa del pane"
 fu crocifisso tra due ladroni e dopo tre giorni risorse dai morti
 viene rappresentato da una croce
 assieme a Iside e Osiride, Horo costituisce un membro della trinità egizia.

Galleria di immagini [modifica]

 Museo del Louvre
Rappresentazione della sua forma Museo del Serekht di Djer. Parigi, Museo
di falco Louvre del Louvre

Note [modifica]

The Judgment of the Dead is known primarily after the New Kingdom and later on, through illustrated vignettes appearing
on funerary papyri that were part of the Book of Coming Forth by Day. However, two earlier versions of this process are
attested in Egyptian texts. The earliest, the divine tribunal that continuously operated in the under-world, is attested first in
the late Old Kingdom hieroglyphic tomb-chapel inscriptions, with threats to would-be tomb robber, and in Hieratic "letters
to the Dead." An inscription from the tomb of the 5th Dynasty official named Hetep-her-akhet reads: "As for any people
who would enter this tomb unclean and do something evil to it, there will be judgment against them by the great god."
Letters to the dead were prompted by some unfortunate situation in which the writer or close relative of the deceased has
found himself. The deceased, or some other person in the afterlife, is addressed in the letter as the cause of the
misfortune, and is requested to either desist from its malign influences or to institute legal proceedings in the beyond
against that one responsible for the misfortune. One example of such an Old Kingdom letter is by a man named Shepsi
who addresses his father, "Is it in your presence that I am being injured by my brother even though there is nothing that I,
your son, did or said?….Since you had said regarding me, your son, "It is in my son Shepsi that all my property shall be
vested,"….Now my fields have been taken possession of by Sher’s son Henu. Now that he (my brother) is with you in the
same city of the dead, you must institute litigation with him since you have witnesses at hand in the same city."

References to these continuous tribunals can also be read in the early Middle Kingdom funerary literature called the Coffin
Texts. Here the afterlife is a continuation of life on earth, with death merely a temporary interruption. Plaintiffs can bring
cases to the authorities, who would then execute justice. The "great god" of the tribunal is not named, though he may be
Osiris, the god who is lord of the underworld. One example of such a textual reference comes from Coffin Text spell 335
which says in part: "Hail to you, Lords of Truth, the tribunal which is behind Osiris, which puts terror into those who are
false when those whom it protects are at risk."

In the later version of the judgment, when the divine tribunal determines whether the deceased individual is worthy of
eternal life, death marks the moment determining the immortality of the individual. People are now considered either pure
or evil, with the evil dying a second death to become mt, or damned. But the good become transfigured as akh or spirit.
This divine judgment is expressed figuratively by the use of scales which were used by accounting scribes to weigh
precious metals with objective calculation in treasury accounts.

At death, each individual becomes Osiris if declared justified or "true of voice", resuscitated into new life, as Isis did when
she magically revived Osiris, and like Horus, who was declared as "telling the truth" in his physical and legal battles with
Set over the inheritance of the kingship from Osiris.

Unambiguous references to scales of reckoning occur in the Coffin Texts, such as CT spell 335 and CT spell 452, the
latter referring to "that balance of Ra on which Ma’at is raised,"; four coffins of the 12th Dynasty bear a text of CT spell
338in which the dead are polarized as good and evil. This text refers to various divine tribunals, and asks that the
deceased be vindicated against his foes just as the god Thoth vindicated Osiris against his own foes. One line reads, "the
tribunal which is in Abydos on that night of counting the dead and the blessed spirits."

The Instruction of Merikare says "Do not trust in length of years-they are a lifetime as an hour; when a man is left over
after mourning, his deeds are piled up beside him….As for the man who reaches them, without doing evil, he will abide
there like a god, roaming free like the lords of time." It was apparently important to the ancient Egyptians that they be
remembered as having lived rightly and in accordance with some ethical guidelines. The 6th Dynasty tomb of an official
named Nefer-Seshem-Re carefully noted that the deceased "spoke truly, did right, spoke fairly, rescued the weak from
one stronger than he, gave bread to the hungry, clothes to the undressed, respected father, pleased mother."
[paraphrased] The passage of centuries did nothing to change this desire to be remembered as having lived rightly. The
New Kingdom tomb of the mayor Paheri listed his own good conduct: "I told no lie to anyone…. I did the tasks as they
were ordered…I was a model of kindliness."

The classic exposition of judgment at death comes in the Book of Coming Forth by Day, in Chapter/spell 30 and in
chapter/spell 125 and the so-called weighing of the heart. To the Egyptians, the heart, or ib, rather than the brain, was the
source of human wisdom and the center of emotions and memory. Because of its apparent links with intellect, personality
and memory, it was considered the most important of the internal organs. It could reveal the person’s true character, even
after death, so the belief went, and therefore, the heart was left in the deceased’s body during mummification. In the
weighing of the heart rite, the heart of the deceased is weighed in the scale against the feather of the goddess Ma’at, who
personifies Order, Truth, what is right. Spell 30 was often inscribed on heart scarabs that were placed with the deceased.
The spell appeals to the heart not to weigh down the balance or testify against the deceased to the keeper of the balance.
Part of the spell gives instructions for making the heart scarab: "Make a scarab of nephrite adorned with gold and put
within a man’s breast, and perform for him the ceremony of opening the mouth, the scarab being anointed with myrrh."

 
  

In spell 125, the deceased is first led into the broad court of the Two Maats or Two Truths, to declare innocence of wrongs
before the great god, and before the full tribunal of forty-two divine assessors, including Osiris and Ra. Some of the
denials reflect the precepts of the Instruction genre of Egyptian literature, whereby the father instructs a son or apprentice
in the correct way to behave. Others are related to the priestly oaths of purity taken at the moment of entering priestly
service. The style of the declarations are in the form of "I have not done X."

The illustrations, or vignettes, of the "weighing of the heart" often include the four sons of Horus as protectors of the
internal organs of the deceased after mummification. These were represented by the canopic jars. They were named
Imseti, who was human-headed and guarded the liver, Hapi, who was baboon-headed, guarding the lungs, Dua-mutef,
jackal-headed, guarding the stomach, and Qebeh-senuef, falcon-headed, for the intestines.

During the 18th Dynasty, the scales are depicted as being managed by Thoth, in his baboon form, beside the god Osiris
who is seated on his throne. Later 18th Dynasty versions make Anubis, god of embalming, the deity in charge of the
weighing, and they now add a monster called Ammut, Swallower of the Damned. If the heart proved to be false, and the
deceased wicked, Ammut would swallow the heart and the deceased would die a second death. The earliest manuscript
showing Anubis and Ammut is the Book of Nebqed during the reign of either Tuthmosis IV or Amenhotep III.

Ramessid illustrations start to shift from the weighing of the heart to the declaration of innocence. In the Papyrus of
Hunefer, Anubis leads the deceased to the scales, which he then oversees alongside Ammut, following which Anubis
leads the justified deceased to the enthroned Osiris.

Supplementary figures in the vignettes often include the goddesses Isis and Nephthys supporting Osiris, and in the
standard Late period version, one or two figures of the goddess Maat. Later vignettes generally include a secondary
human figure beside the scales: from the Ramesside period it was the ba-soul of the deceased; from the Third
Intermediate Period, it was a crouching figure; and from the Late Period, it was a divine child on a scepter.

 
See Also:

 Ethics in Ancient Egyptians

Sources:

 Ancient Egyptian Literature translated by Miriam Lichtheim

 Letters from Ancient Egypt by Eduard Wente
 Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts by Raymond O. Faulkner
 Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt
 Hieroglyphics and the Afterlife by Stephen Quirke
 Dictionary of Ancient Egypt by Ian Shaw and Paul Nicholson
 The Book of Going Forth by Day translated by Thomas G. Allen
 The Book of Going Forth by Day translated by Raymond O. Faulkner

Thot
Da Wikipedia, l'enciclopedia libera.

Disambiguazione – Se stai cercando Thoth, divinità immaginaria dell'ambientazione Forgotten Realms, vedi
Thoth (Forgotten Realms).
Rappresentazione di Thot nel Ramesseum

Thot è la divinità egizia della luna, sapienza, scrittura, magia, misura del tempo, matematica e
geometria. È rappresentato sotto forma di ibis, uccello che vola sulle rive del Nilo, o sotto forma
(meno frequente) di babbuino.
Il nome egizio del dio è:

da cui il termine usuale di dio-ibis con le varianti

la cui traslitterazione è dḥwty (possibile lettura, in italiano, Djehuty).

 Indice

[nascondi]

1 Thot egizio
2 Thot presso i Greci
3 Thot nei tempi
moderni
4 Bibliografia
5 Voci correlate
6 Altri progetti

Thot egizio [modifica]

Originario del 3º distretto del Basso Egitto, capitale Damanhur (Hermopolis Parva), comparve già nel
periodo predinastico.
Però la città dove venne maggiormente adorato fu Hermopolis Magna (Città degli Otto'), capitale del
15º distretto dell'Alto Egitto, dove venne rappresentato in sembianza di ibis, di cinocefalo ed anche di
toro.
Nella teogonia di Ermopoli Thot assunse un ruolo di grande rilevanza e fu considerato una delle
divinità creatrici del mondo.
Come divinità lunare venne associato con il sole morto in quanto la luna stessa (Iah) compare
raramente nella teologia egizia. Come i cicli della luna regolavano molti dei rituali religiosi ed eventi
civili della società egiziana, così Thot fu considerato anche il primo regolatore di tali attività.
Il dio Thot raffigurato come un babbuino
Museo del Louvre

Compagna di Thot fu Seshat che con lui divideva il compito di scrivere nomi ed imprese dei defunti
sulle foglie dell'albero ished; secondo altre tradizioni sposa di Thot fu anche la dea-rana Heket.
In quanto inventore della scrittura e patrono degli scribi fu tale ruolo che ebbe anche nei confronti del
dio Ra di cui era segretario e visir.

Nel Duat, il mondo degli inferi, aiutò Osiride giudicando le anime dei morti.

È stato a volte identificato con il dio greco Ermes o Hermes Trismegistus.

Thot presso i Greci [modifica]

In un dialogo platonico, il Fedro, Thot viene nominato (come Theuth), in un breve apologo proposto
da Socrate per contestare l'importanza della scrittura, di cui il dio egizio sarebbe stato l'inventore, a
favore dell'oralità — che all'epoca di Socrate era ancora molto sviluppata — la quale sola
permetterebbe all'uomo di "possedere" nella propria memoria quello che la fredda scrittura fissa su
supporti materiali.
Thot nei tempi moderni [modifica]
Un’ipotesi sull’origine dei Tarocchi fa riferimento al Libro di Thot, nel quale sarebbero contenute
delle conoscenze antiche originariamente trasmesse all’uomo da questa divinità. Esiste anche uno
specifico mazzo di tarocchi creato da Aleister Crowley e Lady Frieda Harris.

Bibliografia [modifica]
 Claas Jouco Bleeker, Hathor and Thoth: Two Key Figures of the Ancient Egyptian Religion, in Studies in
the History of Religions 26, Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1973
 Patrick Boylan, Thot, the Hermes of Egypt: A Study of Some Aspects of Theological Thought in Ancient
Egypt, London: Oxford University Press, 1922 (Reprinted Chicago: Ares Publishers inc., 1979)
 Giuseppe Catapano, Thot Parlava Albanese, Bardi Editore, Roma 1984.
 Jaroslav Černý, Thoth as Creator of Languages in Journal of Egyptian Archæology 34:121–122, 1948
 Garth Fowden, The Egyptian Hermes: A Historical Approach to the Late Pagan Mind, Cambridge and
New York: Cambridge University Press, 1986 (Reprinted Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993)
ISBN 0-691-02498-7
 Mario Tosi, Dizionario enciclopedico delle Divinità dell'Antico Egitto, ANANKE, 2004 ISBN 88-7325-064-
5

Seshat
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Seshat
 Seshat, depicted in a leopard skin, holding the hieroglyph for
'year' and writing on a papyrus reed with a stylus pen.

Goddess of writing and wisdom

Symbol papyrus scrolls and reeds

Parents Ra (in some accounts) or Thoth ?

Siblings presumably Maat

Consort Thoth (in some accounts)

In Egyptian mythology, Seshat (also spelled Safkhet, Sesat, Seshet, Sesheta, and Seshata) was the
Ancient Egyptian goddess of wisdom, knowledge, and writing. She was seen as a scribe and record
keeper, and her name means she who scrivens (i.e. she who is the scribe), and is credited with
inventing writing. She also became identified as the goddess of architecture, astronomy, astrology,
building, mathematics, and surveying. These are all professions that relied upon expertise in her skills.
She is identified as Safekh-Aubi in some late texts.[1]

Mistress of the House of Books is another title for Seshat, being the deity whose priests oversaw the
library in which scrolls of the most important knowledge was assembled and spells were preserved.
One prince of the fourth dynasty, Wep-em-nefret, is noted as the Overseer of the Royal Scribes, Priest
of Seshat on a slab stela. Heliopolis was the location of her principal sanctuary. She is described as the
goddess of history.

In art, she was depicted as a woman, with a stylised papyrus plant above her head. The papyrus
symbolised writing because the ancient Egyptians wrote on a material derived from papyrus. The
papyrus plant, her symbol, was shown as having six spurs from the tip of the central stem, making it
resemble a seven-pointed star. Pharaoh Tuthmosis III (1479-1425 B.C.E.) called her Sefket-Abwy
(She of seven points). Spell 10 of the coffin text states "Seshat opens the door of heaven for you."

Usually, she also is shown holding a palm stem, bearing notches to denote the recording of the passage
of time, especially for keeping track of the allotment of time for the life of the pharaoh. She also was
depicted holding other tools and, often, holding the wound cords that were stretched to survey land
and structures.

She frequently is shown dressed in a cheetah or leopard hide, a symbol of funerary priests. If not
shown with the hide over a dress, the pattern of the dress is that of the spotted feline. The pattern on
the natural hide was thought to represent the stars, being a symbol of eternity, and to be associated
with the night sky.

As the divine measurer and scribe, Seshat was believed to appear to assist the pharaoh in both of these
practices. It was she who recorded, by notching her palm, the time allotted to the pharaoh for his stay
on earth.
Seshat, the Egyptian goddess of wisdom, in her papyrus headdress and wearing her leopard skin - relief from
Karnak Temple

Seshat assisted the pharaoh in the stretching the cord ritual. This ritual is related to laying out the
foundations of temples and other important structures in order to determine and assure the sacred
alignments and the precision of the dimensions. Her skills were necessary for surveying the land after
the annual floods to reestablish boundary lines. The priestess who officiated at these functions in her
name also oversaw the staff of others who performed similar duties and were trained in mathematics
and the related store of knowledge. Much of this knowledge was considered quite sacred and not
shared beyond the ranks of the highest professionals such as architects and certain scribes. She also
was responsible for recording the speeches the pharaoh made during the crowning ceremony and
approving the inventory of foreign captives and goods gained in military campaigns. During the New
Kingdom, she was involved in the Sed festival held by the pharaohs who could celebrate thirty years
of reign.

Later, when the cult of the moon deity, Thoth, became prominent and he became identified as a god of
wisdom, the role of Seshat changed in the Egyptian pantheon when counterparts were created for most
older deities. The lower ranks of her priestesses were displaced by the priests of Thoth. First, she was
identified as his daughter, and later as his wife. However, as late as the eighteenth dynasty, in a temple
constructed during the reign of Hatshepsut, there is an image of the pharaoh directing Thoth to obtain
answers to important questions from Seshat.[2] After the pairing with Thoth the stylised papyrus of
Seshat was shown surmounted by a crescent moon, which, over time, degenerated into being shown as
two horns arranged to form a crescent shape, but pointing downward (in an atypical fashion for
Egyptian art). When the crescent moon symbol had degenerated into the horns, she sometimes was
known as Safekh-Aubi, meaning she who wears the two horns. In a few images the horns resemble
two cobras, as depicted in hieroglyphs, but facing each other with heads touching.

[edit] See also

Maat
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

  (Redirected from Ma'at)

Jump to: navigation, search

For other uses, see Maat (disambiguation).

Maat
 Maat was both the goddess and the personification of truth
and justice. Her ostrich feather represents truth.

Goddess of truth and justice

Major cult center All ancient Egyptian cities

Symbol the ostrich feather

Parents Ra

Consort Thoth (in some accounts)

Maat, Ma'at, Māt or Mayet, thought to have been pronounced *[muʔ.ʕat],[1] was the Ancient
Egyptian concept of truth, balance, order, law, morality, and justice. Maat was also personified as a
goddess regulating the stars, seasons, and the actions of both mortals and the deities, who set the order
of the universe from chaos at the moment of creation.
The earliest surviving records indicating Maat is the norm for nature and society, in this world and the
next, is recorded during the Old Kingdom in pyramid texts (ca. 2780-2250 BCE).[2]

Later, as a goddess in other traditions of the Egyptian pantheon, where most goddesses were paired
with a male aspect, her masculine counterpart was Thoth and their attributes are the same. After the
rise of Ra they were depicted together in the Solar Barque. As Thoth has been seen to represent the
Logos of Plato,[3] so Maat has been viewed as an expression of Divine Wisdom.[4]

After her role in creation and continuously preventing the universe from returning to chaos, her
primary role in Egyptian mythology dealt with the weighing of souls that took place in the underworld,
Duat.[5] Her feather was the measure that determined whether the souls (considered to reside in the
heart) of the departed would reach the paradise of afterlife successfully.

Pharaohs are often depicted with the emblems of Maat to emphasise their role in upholding the laws of
the Creator.[6]

Contents
[hide]

 1 Maat as a principle
o 1.1 Maat and the law
o 1.2 Maat and scribes
 2 Maat as a goddess
 3 Temples of Maat
 4 Maat Themes Found in the Book of the Dead and on Tomb Inscriptions
o 4.1 42 Negative Confessions (Papyrus of Ani)
 5 Assessors of Maat
 6 See also
 7 Notes
 8 References
 9 External links

[edit] Maat as a principle

Maat wearing feather of truth

Maat as a principle was formed to meet the complex needs of the emergent Egyptian state that
embraced diverse peoples with conflicting interests. The development of such rules sought to avert
chaos and it became the basis of Egyptian law. From an early period the King would describe himself
as the "Lord of Maat" who decreed with his mouth the Maat he conceived in his heart.

The significance of Maat developed to the point that it embraced all aspects of existence, including the
basic equilibrium of the universe, the relationship between constituent parts, the cycle of the seasons,
heavenly movements, religious observations and fair dealings, honesty and truthfulness in social
interactions.[7]

The Ancient Egyptians had a deep conviction of an underlying holiness and unity within the universe.
Cosmic harmony was achieved by correct public and ritual life. Any disturbance in cosmic harmony
could have consequences for the individual as well as the state. An impious King could bring about
famine or blasphemy blindness to an individual.[8] In opposition to the right order expressed in the
concept of Maat is the concept of Isfet: chaos, lies and violence.[9]

In addition to the importance of the Maat, several other principles within Ancient Egyptian law were
essential, including an adherence to tradition as opposed to change, the importance of rhetorical skill,
and the significance of achieving impartiality, and social justice. In one Middle Kingdom (2062 to c.
1664 BCE) text the Creator declares "I made every man like his fellow". Maat called the rich to help
the less fortunate rather than exploit them, echoed in tomb declarations: "I have given bread to the
hungry and clothed the naked" and "I was a husband to the widow and father to the orphan".[10]

To the Egyptian mind, Maat bound all things together in an indestructible unity: the universe, the
natural world, the state, and the individual were all seen as parts of the wider order generated by Maat.
The underlying concepts of Taoism and Confucianism resemble Maat at times.[11] Many of these
concepts were codified into laws, and many of the concepts often were discussed by ancient Egyptian
philosophers and officials who referred to the spiritual text known as the Book of the Dead.

[edit] Maat and the law

There is little surviving literature that describes the practice of ancient Egyptian law. Maat was the
spirit in which justice was applied rather than a detailed legalistic exposition of rules as in Jewish law.
Maat was the norm and basic values that formed the backdrop for the application of justice that had to
be carried out in the spirit of truth and fairness. From the 5th dynasty (c. 2510-2370 BCE) onwards the
Vizier responsible for justice was called the Priest of Maat and in later periods judges wore images of
Maat.[12]

Later scholars and philosophers also would embody concepts from the wisdom literature, or Sebayt.[13]
These spiritual texts dealt with common social or professional situations and how each was best to be
resolved or addressed in the spirit of Maat. It was very practical advice, and highly case-based, so that
few specific and general rules could be derived from them.

During the Greek period in Egyptian history, Greek law existed alongside Egyptian law. The Egyptian
law preserved the rights of women who were allowed to act independently of men and own substantial
personal property and in time this influenced the more restrictive conventions of the Greeks and
Romans.[14] When the Romans took control of Egypt, the Roman legal system which existed
throughout the Roman empire was imposed in Egypt.

[edit] Maat and scribes

Scribes held prestigious positions in Ancient Egyptian society in view of their importance in the
transmission of religious, political and commercial information.[15]

Thoth was the patron of scribes who is described as the one "who reveals Maat and reckons Maat; who
loves Maat and gives Maat to the doer of Maat".[16] In texts such as the Instruction of Amenemope the
scribe is urged to follow the precepts of Maat in his private life as well as his work.[17] The
exhortations to live according to Maat are such that these kinds of instructional texts have been
described as "Maat Literature".[18]

[edit] Maat as a goddess

Goddess Maat[19][20]
in hieroglyphs
 or

o
r

o
r

o
r

o
r

o
r

o
r

Maat was the goddess of harmony, order, and truth represented as a young woman,[21] sitting or
standing, holding a was scepter, the symbol of power, in one hand and an ankh, the symbol of eternal
life, in the other. Sometimes she is depicted with wings on each arm or as a woman with an ostrich
feather on her head.[22] Depictions of Maat as a goddess are recorded from as early as the middle of the
Old Kingdom (c. 2680 to 2190 BCE).[23]

The sun-god Ra came from the primaeval mound of creation only after he set his daughter Maat in
place of Isfet (chaos). Kings inherited the duty to ensure Maat remained in place and they with Ra are
said to "live on Maat", with Akhenaten (r. 1372-1355 BCE) in particular emphasising the concept.
Some of them incorporated Maat into their names, being referred to as Lords of Maat,[24] or Meri-Maat
(Beloved of Maat). When beliefs about Thoth arose in the Egyptian pantheon and started to consume
the earlier beliefs at Hermopolis about the Ogdoad, it was said that she was the mother of the Ogdoad
and Thoth the father.

In the Duat, the Egyptian underworld, the hearts of the dead were said to be weighed against her single
Shu feather, symbolically representing the concept of Maat, in the Hall of Two Truths. A heart which
was unworthy was devoured by the goddess Ammit and its owner condemned to remain in the Duat.
The heart was considered the location of the soul by ancient Egyptians. Those people with good and
pure hearts were sent on to Aaru. Osiris came to be seen as the guardian of the gates of Aaru after he
became part of the Egyptian pantheon and displaced Anubis in the Ogdoad tradition.
The weighing of the heart, pictured on papyrus in the Book of the Dead typically, or in tomb scenes,
shows Anubis overseeing the weighing and the lioness Ammit seated awaiting the results so she could
consume those who failed. The image would be the vertical heart on one flat surface of the balance
scale and the vertical Shu-feather standing on the other balance scale surface. Other traditions hold
that Anubis brought the soul before the posthumous Osiris who performed the weighing.

[edit] Temples of Maat

The earliest evidence for a dedicated temple is in the New Kingdom (c. 1569 to 1081 BCE) era,
despite the great importance placed on Maat. Amenhotpe III commissioned a temple in the Karnak
complex, whilst textual evidence indicates that other temples of Maat where located in Memphis and
at Deir el-Medina.[25]

[edit] Maat Themes Found in the Book of the Dead and on

Tomb Inscriptions

A section of the Egyptian Book of the Dead written on papyrus showing the Weighing of the Heart in the Duat
using the feather of Maat as the measure in balance

One aspect of ancient Egyptian funerary literature which often is mistaken for a codified ethic of Maat
is Spell (Chapter) 125 of the Book of the Dead or Papyrus of Ani (known to the Ancient Egyptians as
The Book of Going Forth by Day). The lines of this spell are often collectively called the "Forty-Two
Declarations of Purity" or the Negative Confessions. These declarations varied somewhat from tomb
to tomb and so cannot be considered a canonical definition of Maat. Rather, they appear to express
each tomb owner's individual conception of Maat, as well as working as a magical absolution -
misdeeds or mistakes made by the tomb owner in life could be declared as not having been done, and
through the power of the written word, wipe that particular misdeed from the afterlife record of the
deceased.

Many of the lines are similar, however, and they can help to give the student a "flavor" for the sorts of
things which Maat governed — essentially everything, from the most formal to the most mundane
aspects of life.

Many versions are given on-line. Unfortunately, seldom do they note the tomb from which they came
or whether they are a collection from various different tombs. Generally, they are each addressed to a
specific deity, described in his or her most fearsome aspect.

The doctrine of Maat is represented in the declarations to Rekhti-merti-f-ent-Maat and the 42 Negative
Confessions listed in the Papyrus of Ani. The following are taken from public domain translations
made by E. A. Wallis Budge in the early part of the 20th century, more recent translations may differ
in the light of modern scholarship.

[edit] 42 Negative Confessions (Papyrus of Ani)

1. I have not committed sin.

2. I have not committed robbery with violence.
3. I have not stolen.
4. I have not slain men and women.
5. I have not stolen grain.
6. I have not purloined offerings.
7. I have not stolen the property of the god.
8. I have not uttered lies.
9. I have not carried away food.
10. I have not uttered curses.
11. I have not committed adultery.
12. I have not lain with men.
13. I have made none to weep.
14. I have not eaten the heart [i.e I have not grieved uselessly, or felt remorse].
15. I have not attacked any man.
16. I am not a man of deceit.
17. I have not stolen cultivated land.
18. I have not been an eavesdropper.
19. I have slandered [no man].
20. I have not been angry without just cause(?).
21. I have not debauched the wife of any man.
22. I have not polluted myself.
23. I have terrorised none.
24. I have not transgressed [the Law].
25. I have not been wroth.
26. I have not shut my ears to the words of truth.
27. I have not blasphemed.
28. I am not a man of violence.
29. I am not a stirrer up of strife (or a disturber of the peace).
 30. I have not acted (or judged) with undue haste.
31. I have not pried into matters.
32. I have not multiplied my words in speaking.
33. I have wronged none, I have done no evil.
34. I have not worked witchcraft against the King (or blasphemed against the King).
35. I have never stopped [the flow of] water.
36. I have never raised my voice (spoken arrogantly, or in anger?).
37. I have not cursed (or blasphemed) God.
38. I have not acted with arrogance(?).
39. I have not stolen the bread of the gods.
40. I have not carried away the khenfu cakes from the Spirits of the dead.
41. I have not snatched away the bread of the child, nor treated with contempt the god of my city.
42. I have not slain the cattle belonging to the god. [26]

[edit] Assessors of Maat

 

Part of a series on

Ancient Egyptian
religion

Main beliefs

Mythology · Soul · Duat · Ma'at

Numerology

Practices

Offering formula · Funerals

Deities

Amun · Amunet · Anubis · Anuket

 Apep · Apis · Aten · Atum · Bastet
Bat · Bes · Four sons of Horus
Geb · Hapy · Hathor · Heka · Heqet
Horus · Isis · Khepri · Khnum
Khonsu · Kuk · Maahes · Ma'at
Mafdet · Menhit · Meretseger
Meskhenet · Monthu · Min · Mnevis
Mut · Neith · Nekhbet · Nephthys
Nu · Nut · Osiris · Pakhet · Ptah
Qebui · Ra · Ra-Horakhty · Reshep
Satis · Sekhmet · Seker · Selket
Sobek · Sopdu · Set · Seshat · Shu
Tatenen · Taweret · Tefnut · Thoth
Wadjet · Wadj-wer · Wepwawet
Wosret

Texts

Amduat · Books of Breathing

Book of Caverns · Book of the Dead
Book of the Earth · Book of Gates
Book of the Netherworld

Related topics

Atenism · Curse of the Pharaohs

Ancient Egypt portal

v • d • e

The Assessors of Maat are the 42 deities listed in the Papyrus of Nebseni, to whom the deceased make
the Negative Confession in the Papyrus of Ani.[27]
[edit] See also
 Seshat - Goddess of Writing and Measure, a wife of Thoth
 Egyptian soul
 Rta - principle of Vedic religion 'that which is properly joined: order, rule, truth'.

[edit] Notes

Apopi
Da Wikipedia, l'enciclopedia libera.

(Reindirizzamento da Apofi)

Disambiguazione – "Apofi" reindirizza qui. Se stai cercando altri significati del termine, vedi Apofi
(disambigua).

Ra sotto la forma del Grande gatto sacro combatte contro Apopi. Deir el-Medina, Luxor, Egitto

Apopi (o Apep, o Apophis), secondo la mitologia egizia, era la rappresentazione del buio e del Caos;
è spesso rappresentato con le sembianze di un serpente cobra.

variante
ˁ3 p p - Apep - Apopi
Questa divinità era il nemico del dio-sole Ra a cui cercava ogni giorno di impedire di sorgere
minacciandolo durante il suo viaggio attraverso Duat.
Nella cosmogonia di Esna Apopi era visto come una creazione di Neith, che in questa cosmogonia
svolgeva il ruolo di demiurgo.
Derivante dal Caos primordiale, Apopi poteva essere combattuto e reso innocuo, per un certo tempo,
ma non poteva essere distrutto rappresentando, nel continuo conflitto con Ra, lo scontro ancestrale tra
bene e male.
Nel tempio di Karnak i sacerdoti svolgevano un particolare rituale, ripetuto varie volte al giorno, per
aiutare il dio sole nel resistere agli attacchi di Apopi.
Anche nel libro dei morti lo scontro tra Apopi e Ra si ripeteva ed in questo caso era necessario
l'intervento del dio-serpente Mehen e di Iside per garantire il proseguimento del viaggio del sole nella
Duat. Secondo la mitologia, dopo essere stato domato dalle forze del bene, veniva incatenato e trafitto
coi coltelli, il sangue che sgorgava dalle sue ferite tingeva i cieli mattutini e serotini di rosso.

Bibliografia [modifica]

Apep
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Jump to: navigation, search

For the Cypriot football team, see APEP Pitsilia.

For other uses, see Apep (disambiguation).

Apep
 Atum and snake Apep

God of darkness and chaos

Parents Neith and Nun

Siblings Sobek and Ra

Part of a series on

Ancient Egyptian
religion

Main beliefs

Mythology · Soul · Duat · Ma'at

Numerology

Practices

Offering formula · Funerals

Deities

Amun · Amunet · Anubis · Anuket

Apep · Apis · Aten · Atum · Bastet
Bat · Bes · Four sons of Horus
Geb · Hapy · Hathor · Heka · Heqet
 Horus · Isis · Khepri · Khnum
Khonsu · Kuk · Maahes · Ma'at
Mafdet · Menhit · Meretseger
Meskhenet · Monthu · Min · Mnevis
Mut · Neith · Nekhbet · Nephthys
Nu · Nut · Osiris · Pakhet · Ptah
Qebui · Ra · Ra-Horakhty · Reshep
Satis · Sekhmet · Seker · Selket
Sobek · Sopdu · Set · Seshat · Shu
Tatenen · Taweret · Tefnut · Thoth
Wadjet · Wadj-wer · Wepwawet
Wosret

Texts

Amduat · Books of Breathing

Book of Caverns · Book of the Dead
Book of the Earth · Book of Gates
Book of the Netherworld

Related topics

Atenism · Curse of the Pharaohs

Ancient Egypt portal

v • d • e

In Egyptian mythology, Apep (also spelled Apepi, and Aapep, or Apophis in Greek) was an evil god,
the deification of darkness and chaos (isfet in Egyptian), and thus opponent of light and Ma'at
(order/truth), whose existence was believed from the Middle Kingdom onwards. His name is
reconstructed by Egyptologists as *ʻAʼpāpī, as it was written ꜥꜣpp(y) and survived in later Coptic as
Aphōph.
Contents
[hide]

 1 Development
 2 Battles with Ra
 3 Worship
 4 See also
 5 Notes
 6 External links

[edit] Development

Apep
in hieroglyphs

[1]

Apep formed part of the more complex cosmic system resulting from the identification of Ra as Atum,
i.e. the creation of Atum-Ra, and the subsequent merging of the Ogdoad and Ennead systems.
Consequently, since Atum-Ra, who was later referred to simply as Ra, was the solar deity, bringer of
light, and thus the upholder of Ma'at, Apep was viewed as the greatest enemy of Ra, and thus was
given the title Enemy of Ra.

As the personification of all that was evil, Apep was seen as a giant snake/serpent, crocodile, or
occasionally as a dragon in later years, leading to such titles as Serpent from the Nile and Evil Lizard.
Some elaborations even said that he stretched 16 yards in length and had a head made of flint. It is to
be noted that already on a Naqada I (ca. 4000 BCE) C-ware bowl (now in Cairo) a snake was painted
on the inside rim combined with other desert and aquatic animals as a possible enemy of a (solar?)
deity who is invisibly hunting in a big rowing vessel.[2] Also, comparable hostile snakes as enemies of
the sun god existed under other names (in the Pyramid Texts and Coffin Texts) already before the
name Apep occurred. The etymology of his name ('3pp) is perhaps to be sought in some west-semitic
language where a word root 'pp meaning 'to slither' existed. A verb root '3pp does at any rate not exist
elsewhere in Ancient Egyptian. (It is not to be confused with the verb 'pi/'pp: 'to fly across the sky, to
travel') Apep's name much later came to be falsely connected etymologically in Egyptian with a
different root meaning (he who was) spat out; the Romans referred to Apep by this translation of his
name.
After the end of the Middle Kingdom, the foreign Hyksos, now rulers over Egypt, chose Set as their
favorite deity, since he had been protector of Ra, and was associated with Lower Egypt, where their
power base was. Consequently, because the foreign overlords were hated by nationalistic groups, Set
became gradually demonised, and started being thought of as an evil god. Indeed, because of the
extreme level of nationalism and xenophobia, Set eventually became thought of as the god of evil, and
gradually took on all the characteristics of Apep. Consequently, Apep's identity was eventually
entirely subsumed by that of Set.[3]

[edit] Battles with Ra

Ra in the form of a cat slays the snake-like Apep

Tales of Apep's battles against Ra were elaborated during the New Kingdom.[4] Since nearly everyone
can see that the sun is not attacked by a giant snake during the day, every day, storytellers said that
Apep must lie just below the horizon. This appropriately made him a part of the underworld. In some
stories Apep waited for Ra in a western mountain called Bakhu, where the sun set, and in others Apep
lurked just before dawn, in the Tenth region of the Night. The wide range of Apep's possible location
gained him the title World Encircler. It was thought that his terrifying roar would cause the
underworld to rumble. Myths sometimes say that Apep was trapped there, because he had been the
previous chief god and suffered a coup d'etat by Ra, or because he was evil and had been imprisoned.

In his battles, Apep was thought to use a magical gaze to hypnotize Ra and his entourage, attempting
to devour them whilst choking the river on which they travelled through the underworld with his coils.
Sometimes Apep had assistance from other demons, named Sek and Mot. Ra was assisted by a number
of defenders who travelled with him, the most powerful being Set, who sat at the helm.

In a bid to explain certain natural phenomena it was said that occasionally Apep got the upper hand.
The damage to order caused thunderstorms and earthquakes. Indeed: it was even thought that
sometimes Apep actually managed to swallow Ra during the day, causing a solar eclipse, but since
Ra's defenders quickly cut him free of Apep, the eclipse always ended within a few minutes. On the
occasions when Apep was said to have been killed, he was able to return each night (since he lived in
the world of the dead already). In Atenism it is Aten who kills the monster since Aten is the only god
in the belief system.
But in other myths, it was the cat goddess Bast, daughter of Ra, who slayed Apep in her cat form one
night, hunting him down with her all seeing eye.

[edit] Worship
Apep was not so much worshipped, as worshipped against. His defeat each night, in favour of Ra, was
thought to be ensured by the prayers of the Egyptian priests and worshipers at temples. The Egyptians
practiced a number of rituals and superstitions that were thought to ward off Apep, and aid Ra to
continue his journey across the sky.

In an annual rite, called the Banishing of Apep, priests would build an effigy of Apep that was thought
to contain all of the evil and darkness in Egypt, and burn it to protect everyone from Apep's influence
for another year, in a similar manner to modern rituals such as Zozobra.

The Egyptian priests even had a detailed guide to fighting Apep, referred to as The Books of
Overthrowing Apep (or the Book of Apophis, in Greek).[5] The chapters described a gradual process of
dismemberment and disposal, and include:

 Spitting Upon Apep

 Defiling Apep with the Left Foot
 Taking a Lance to Smite Apep
 Fettering Apep
 Taking a Knife to Smite Apep
 Laying Fire Upon Apep

In addition to stories about Apep's defeats, this guide had instructions for making wax models, or
small drawings, of the serpent, which would be spat on, mutilated and burnt, whilst reciting spells that
would aid Ra. Fearing that even the image of Apep could give power to the demon, any rendering
would always include another deity to subdue the monster, and/or knives already stabbed into him.

As Apep was thought to live in the underworld, he was sometimes thought of as an Eater-up of Souls.
Thus the dead also needed protection, so they were sometimes buried with spells that could destroy
Apep. The Book of the Dead does not frequently describe occasions when Ra defeated the chaos snake
explicitly called Apep. Only BD Spells 7 and 39 can be explained as such.[6]

Seker
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For the places in Azerbaijan, see Şəkər.

For the Stargate SG-1 character, see Sokar (Stargate)

Seker-Osiris

Seker
in hieroglyphs

Seker or Sokar is a falcon god of the Memphite necropolis. Although the meaning of his name
remains uncertain the Egyptians themselves in the Pyramid Texts linked his name to the anguished cry
of Osiris to Isis 'Sy-k-ri' ('hurry to me'),[1] in the underworld. Seker is strongly linked with two other
gods, Ptah the chief god of Memphis and Osiris the god of the dead. In later periods this connection
was expressed as the triple god Ptah-Seker-Osiris.

Seker was usually depicted as a mummified hawk and sometimes as mound from which the head of a
hawk appears. Here he is called 'he who is on his sand'. Sometimes he is shown on his 'hennu barque'
which was an elaborate sledge for negotiating the sandy necropolis. One of his titles was 'he of Restau'
which means the place of 'openings' or tomb entrances.

In the New Kingdom Book of the Underworld, the Amduat, he is shown standing on the back of a
serpent between two spread wings, as an expression of freedom this suggests a connection with
resurrection or perhaps a satisfactory transit of the underworld.[2] Despite this the region of the
underworld associated with Seker was seen as difficult, sandy terrain called the Imhet (meaning 'filled
up' presumably with sand).[3]

Seker, possibly through his association with Ptah, also has a connection with craftsmen. In the Book of
the Dead he is said to fashion silver bowls [4] and a silver coffin of Sheshonq II has been discovered at
Tanis decorated with the iconography of Seker.[5]

Seker's cult centre was in Memphis where festivals in his honour were held in the fourth month of the
akhet (spring) season. The god was depicted as assisting in various tasks such as digging ditches and
canals. From the New Kingdom a similar festival was held in Thebes.[6]

Ammit
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This detail scene from the Papyrus of Hunefer (ca. 1375 B.C.) shows Hunefer's heart being weighed on the
scale of Maat against the feather of truth, by the jackal-headed Anubis. The Ibis-headed Thoth, scribe of the
gods, records the result. If his heart is lighter than the feather, Hunefer is allowed to pass into the afterlife. If
not, he is eaten by the waiting Ammit. Vignettes such as these were a common illustration in Egyptian books
of the dead.[1]
A depiction of Ammit in a late period papyrus, showing mostly leonine traits.

In ancient Egyptian religion, Ammit (also spelled Ammut and Ahemait, meaning Devourer or Bone
Eater) was a female demon with a body that was part lion, hippopotamus and crocodile. A funerary
deity, her titles included “Devourer of the Dead,” “Eater of Hearts,” and “Great of Death.”

Ammit lived near the scales of justice in Duat, the Egyptian underworld. In the Hall of Two Truths,
Anubis weighed the heart of a person against Ma'at, the goddess of truth, who was sometimes depicted
symbolically as an ostrich feather. If the heart was judged to be not pure, Ammit would devour it, and
the person undergoing judgement was not allowed to continue their voyage towards Osiris and
immortality. Once Ammut swallowed the heart, the soul was believed to become restless forever; this
was called "to die a second time". Ammit was also sometimes said to stand by a lake of fire. In some
traditions, the unworthy hearts were cast into the fiery lake to be destroyed. Some scholars believe
Ammit and the lake represent the same concept of destruction.

Ammit was not worshipped, and was never regarded as a goddess; instead she embodied all that the
Egyptians feared, threatening to bind them to eternal restlessness if they did not follow the principle of
Ma'at.

Ammit has been linked[who?] with the goddess Tawaret, who has a similar physical appearance and, as a
companion of Bes, also protected others from evil. Other authors[who?] have noted that Ammit's lion
characteristics, and the lake of fire, may be pointers to a connection with the goddess Sekhmet.

[edit] See also

Eye of Horus
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See also: Eye of Horus (video game)

The Wedjat - later called The Eye of Horus

An Eye of Horus or Wedjat pendant

The Eye of Horus is an ancient Egyptian symbol of protection, royal power and good health. The eye
is personified in the goddess Wadjet (also written as Wedjat,[1][2][3]Uadjet, Wedjoyet, Edjo or Uto[4] and
as The Eye of Ra[5] or "Udjat"[6]). The name Wadjet is derived from 'wadj' meaning 'green' hence 'the
green one' and was known to the Greeks and Romans as 'uraeus' from the Egyptian 'iaret' meaning
'risen one' from the image of a cobra rising up in protection.[7]

Wadjet was one of the earliest of Egyptian deities who later became associated with other goddesses
such as Bast, Mut, and Hathor. She was the tutelary deity of Lower Egypt and the major Delta shrine
the 'per-nu' was under her protection.[7] Hathor is also depicted with this eye.[8] Funerary amulets were
often made in the shape of the Eye of Horus. The Wedjat or Eye of Horus is "the central element" of
seven "gold, faience, carnelian and lapis lazuli" bracelets found on the mummy of Shoshenq II.[9] The
Wedjat "was intended to protect the king [here] in the afterlife"[10] and to ward off evil. Ancient
Egyptian and Near Eastern sailors would frequently paint the symbol on the bow of their vessel to
ensure safe sea travel.[11]
Eye of Horus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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See also: Eye of Horus (video game)

The Wedjat - later called The Eye of Horus

An Eye of Horus or Wedjat pendant

The Eye of Horus is an ancient Egyptian symbol of protection, royal power and good health. The eye
is personified in the goddess Wadjet (also written as Wedjat,[1][2][3]Uadjet, Wedjoyet, Edjo or Uto[4] and
as The Eye of Ra[5] or "Udjat"[6]). The name Wadjet is derived from 'wadj' meaning 'green' hence 'the
green one' and was known to the Greeks and Romans as 'uraeus' from the Egyptian 'iaret' meaning
'risen one' from the image of a cobra rising up in protection.[7]

Wadjet was one of the earliest of Egyptian deities who later became associated with other goddesses
such as Bast, Mut, and Hathor. She was the tutelary deity of Lower Egypt and the major Delta shrine
the 'per-nu' was under her protection.[7] Hathor is also depicted with this eye.[8] Funerary amulets were
often made in the shape of the Eye of Horus. The Wedjat or Eye of Horus is "the central element" of
seven "gold, faience, carnelian and lapis lazuli" bracelets found on the mummy of Shoshenq II.[9] The
Wedjat "was intended to protect the king [here] in the afterlife"[10] and to ward off evil. Ancient
Egyptian and Near Eastern sailors would frequently paint the symbol on the bow of their vessel to
ensure safe sea travel.[11]
Nekhbet
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This article does not cite any references or sources.

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and removed. (August 2007)

Goddess Nekhbet, staff, with Shen ring

In Egyptian mythology, Nekhbet (also spelt Nechbet, and Nekhebit) was an early predynastic local
goddess who was the patron of the city of Nekheb, her name meaning of Nekheb. Ultimately, she
became the patron of Upper Egypt and one of the two patron deities for all of Ancient Egypt when it
was unified.

She was seen as a goddess who had chosen to adopt the city, and consequently depicted as the
Egyptian white vulture, a creature that the Egyptians thought only existed as females (not knowing
that, lacking sexual dimorphism, the males are identical). They were presumed to be reproducing via
parthenogenesis.

Egypt’s oldest oracle was the shrine of Nekhbet at Nekheb, the original necropolis or city of the dead.
It was the companion city to Nekhen, the religious and political capital of Upper Egypt at the end of
the Predynastic period (c. 3200–3100 BC) and probably, also during the Early Dynastic Period (c.
3100–2686 BC). The original settlement on the Nekhen site dates from Naqada I or the late Badarian
cultures. At its height, from about 3400 BC, Nekhen had at least 5,000 and possibly as many as 10,000
inhabitants.

The priestesses of Nekhbet were called muu (mothers) and wore robes of vulture feathers.
Later, as with Wadjet, Nekhbet's sister, became patron of the pharaohs, in her case becoming the
personification of Upper Egypt. The images of these two primal goddesses became the protecting
deities for all of Egypt, also known as the "two ladies." In art, Nekhbet was depicted as the white
vulture (representing purification), always seen on the front of pharaoh’s double crown along with
Wadjet. Nekhbet usually was depicted hovering, with her wings spread above the royal image,
clutching a shen symbol (representing infinity, all, or everything), frequently in both of her claws. As
patron of the pharaoh, she was sometimes seen to be the mother of the divine aspect of the pharaoh,
and it was in this capacity that she was Mother of Mothers, and the Great White Cow of Nekheb.

The vulture hieroglyph was the uniliteral sign used for the glottal sound (3) including words such as
mother, prosperous, grandmother, and ruler. In some late texts of the Book of the Dead, Nekhbet is
referred to as Father of Fathers, Mother of Mothers, who hath existed from the Beginning, and is
Creatrix of this World.

When pairing began to occur in the Egyptian pantheon, giving most of the goddesses a husband,
Nekhbet was said to become the wife of Hapy, a deity of the inundation of the Nile. Given the early
and constant association of Nekhbet with being a good mother, in later myths she was said to have
adopted children.

Wadjet
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w3ḏyt
in hieroglyphs

cobra+Sun
in hieroglyphs
 ḏt "cobra"
in hieroglyphs

In Egyptian mythology, Wadjet, or the Green One (Egyptian w3ḏyt; also spelled Wadjit, Wedjet,
Uadjet or Ua Zit and in Greek, Udjo, Uto, Edjo, and Buto among other names), was originally the
ancient local goddess of the city of Dep,[1] which became part of the city that the Egyptians named
Per-Wadjet, House of Wadjet, and the Greeks called Buto,[2] a city that was an important site in the
Predynastic era of Ancient Egypt and the cultural developments of the Paleolithic. She was said to be
the patron and protector of Lower Egypt and upon unification with Upper Egypt, the joint protector
and patron of all of Egypt with the "goddess" of Upper Egypt. The image of Wadjet with the sun disk
is called the uraeus, and it was the emblem on the crown of the rulers of Lower Egypt.

As the patron goddess, she was associated with the land and depicted as a snake-headed woman or a
snake—usually an Egyptian cobra, a poisonous snake common to the region; sometimes she was
depicted as a woman with two snake heads and, at other times, a snake with a woman's head. Her
oracle was in the renowned temple in Per-Wadjet that was dedicated to her worship and gave the city
its name. This oracle may have been the source for the oracular tradition that spread to Greece from
Egypt.[3]

The Going Forth of Wadjet was celebrated on December 25 with chants and songs. An annual festival
held in the city celebrated Wadjet on April 21. Other important dates for special worship of her were
June 21, the Summer Solstice, and March 14. She also was assigned the fifth hour of the fifth day of
the moon.
Two images of Wadjet appear on this carved wall in the Hatshepsut Temple at Luxor

Wadjet was closely associated in the Egyptian pantheon with Bast, the fierce goddess depicted as a
lioness warrior and protector, as the sun goddess whose eye later became the eye of Horus, the eye of
Ra, and as the Lady of Flame. The hieroglyph for her eye is shown below; sometimes two are shown
in the sky of religious images. Per-Wadjet also contained a sanctuary of Horus, the child of the sun
deity who would be interpreted to represent the pharaoh. Much later, Wadjet became associated with
Isis as well as with many other deities.

In the relief shown to the right, which is on the wall of the Hatshepsut Temple at Luxor, there are two
images of Wadjet: one of her as the uraeus sun disk with her head through an ankh and another where
she precedes a Horus hawk wearing the double crown of united Egypt, representing the pharaoh whom
she protects.

Contents
[hide]

 1 Protector of country, pharaohs, and other deities

 2 Associations with other deities
 3 Etymology
 4 References
  5 Footnotes
 6 See also

[edit] Protector of country, pharaohs, and other deities

Uraeus –
Uraeus on Basket
Ntr + Cobra
in hieroglyphs

or .deities.

Eventually, Wadjet was claimed as the patron goddess and protector of the whole of Lower Egypt and
became associated with Nekhbet, depicted as a white vulture, who held the same title in Upper Egypt.
When the two parts of Egypt were joined together, there was no merger of the deities as often
occurred, both beliefs were retained and became known, euphemistically, as the two ladies,[4] who
were the protectors of unified Egypt. After the unification the image of Nekhbet joined Wadjet on the
crown, thereafter shown as part of the uraeus.

Wedjat - Eye of Horus

in hieroglyphs

The ancient Egyptian word Wedjat signifies blue and green. It is also the name for the well known Eye
of the Moon,[5] which later became the Eye of Horus and the Eye of Ra as additional sun deities arose.
Indeed, in later times, she was often depicted simply as a woman with a snake's head, or as a woman
wearing the uraeus. The uraeus originally had been her body alone, which wrapped around or was
coiled upon the head of the pharaoh or another deity.

Depicted as an Egyptian cobra she became confused with Renenutet, whose identity eventually
merged with hers. As patron and protector, later Wadjet often was shown coiled upon the head of Ra,
who much later became the Egyptian chief deity; in order to act as his protection, this image of her
became the uraeus symbol used on the royal crowns as well.
Another early depiction of Wadjet is as a cobra entwined around a papyrus stem, beginning in the
Predynastic era (prior to 3100 B.C.) and it is thought to be the first image that shows a snake entwined
around a staff symbol. This is a sacred image that appeared repeatedly in the later images and myths of
cultures surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, called the caduceus, which may have had separate
origins.

Her image also rears up from the staff of the "flag" poles that are used to indicate deities, as seen in the
hieroglyph for uraeus above and for goddess in other places.

[edit] Associations with other deities

An interpretation of the Milky Way was that it was the primal snake, Wadjet, the protector of Egypt.
In this interpretation she was closely associated with Hathor and other early deities among the various
aspects of the great mother goddess, including Mut and Naunet. The association with Hathor brought
her son Horus into association also. The cult of Ra absorbed most of Horus's traits and included the
protective eye of Wadjet that had shown her association with Hathor.

When identified as the protector of Ra, who also was a sun deity associated with heat and fire, she
sometimes was said to be able to send fire onto those who might attack, just as the cobra spits poison
into the eyes of its enemies.[6] In this role she was called the Lady of Flame.

Wadjet as Wadjet-Bast, depicted as the body of a woman with a lioness head, wearing the uraeus

She later became identified with the war goddess of Lower Egypt, Bast, who acted as another figure
symbolic of the nation, consequently becoming Wadjet-Bast. In this role, since Bast was a lioness,
Wadjet-Bast often was depicted with a lioness head.
When Lower Egypt had been conquered by Upper Egypt and they were unified, the lioness goddess of
Upper Egypt, Sekhmet, was seen as the more powerful of the two warrior goddesses. It was Sekhmet
who was seen as the Avenger of Wrongs, and the Scarlet Lady, a reference to blood, as the one with
bloodlust. She is depicted with the solar disk and Wadjet, however.

Eventually, her position as patron led to her being identified as the more powerful goddess Mut, whose
cult had come to the fore in conjunction with rise of the cult of Amun, and eventually being absorbed
into her as the Mut-Wadjet-Bast triad.

When the pairing of deities occurred in later Egyptian myths, since she was linked to the land, after the
unification of Lower and Upper Egypt she came to be thought of as the wife of Hapy, a deity of the
Nile, which flowed through the land.[7]

Wadjet is not to be confused with the Egyptian demon Apep, who is also represented as a snake in
Egyptian mythology.

[edit] Etymology
The name Wadjet[8] is derived from the term for the symbol of her domain, Lower Egypt, the papyrus.
[9]

Her name mean "papyrus-colored one",[10][11] as wadj is the ancient Egyptian word for color Green (in
reference to the color of the papyrus plant) and the et is an indication of her gender. Its hieroglyphs
differ from those of the Green Crown (Red Crown) of Lower Egypt only by the determinative, which
in the case of the crown was a picture of the Green Crown[12] and, in the case of the goddess, a rearing
cobra.

[edit] References
 Adolf Erman, Hermann Grapow, Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache, Berlin 1963
 Ana Ruiz, The Spirit of Ancient Egypt, Algora Publishing 2001
 Toby A. H. Wilkinson, Early Dynastic Egypt, Routledge 1999
 James Stevens Curl, The Egyptian Revival: Ancient Egypt as the Inspiration for Design Motifs in the
West, Routledge 2005

[edit] Footnotes

Ankh
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For other uses, see Ankh (disambiguation).

Ankh

The Ankh, also known as key of life, the key of the Nile or crux ansata, was the ancient Egyptian
hieroglyphic character that read "eternal life", a triliteral sign for the consonants ʻ-n-ḫ. Egyptian gods
are often portrayed carrying it by its loop, or bearing one in each hand, arms crossed over their chest.

Contents
[hide]

 1 Origins
 2 History
 3 See also
 4 References
o 4.1 Bibliography
o 4.2 Notes
 5 External links

[edit] Origins

Ankh
in hieroglyphs

  or 

[1]
The origin of the symbol remains a mystery to Egyptologists, and no single hypothesis has been
widely accepted. One of the earliest suggestions is that of Thomas Inman, first published in 1869:[2]

It is by Egyptologists called the symbol of life. It is also called the 'handled cross,' or crux ansata. It represents
the male triad and the female unit, under a decent form. There are few symbols more commonly met with in
Egyptian art. In some remarkable sculptures, where the sun's rays are represented as terminating in hands, the
offerings which these bring are many a crux ansata, emblematic of the truth that a fruitful union is a gift from
the deity.

Merenptah offering to Ptah: Ankh, Djed and Was.

The Ankh, During the reign of Hatshepsut (1508–1458 BC), from Royal Ontario Museum

E. A. Wallis Budge postulated that the symbol originated as the belt-buckle of the mother goddess
Isis[citation needed], an idea joined by Wolfhart Westendorf with the notion that both the ankh and the knot
of Isis were used as ties on ceremonial girdles[citation needed]. Sir Alan Gardiner speculated that it
represented a sandal strap, with the loop going around the ankle[citation needed]. The word for sandal strap
was also spelled ʿnḫ, although it may have been pronounced differently.
In their 2004 book The Quick and the Dead,[3] Andrew Hunt Gordon and Calvin W. Schwabe
speculated that the ankh, djed, and was symbols have a biological basis derived from ancient cattle
culture (linked to the Egyptian belief that semen was created in the spine), thus:

 the Ankh, symbol of life, thoracic vertebra of a bull (seen in cross section)
 the Djed, symbol of stability, base on sacrum of a bull's spine
 the Was, symbol of power and dominion, a staff featuring the head and tail of the god Set, "great of
strength"

Egyptian academics, in particular those at the University of Cairo, aver that the ankh has been over-
interpreted and that it is representative of the pivotal role of the Nile in the country[citation needed]. The oval
head is said to represent the Nile delta, with the vertical mark representing the path of the river and the
East and West arms representing the two sides of the country and their unification[citation needed].

[edit] History

Ankh Symbol

The ankh appears frequently in Egyptian tomb paintings and other art, often at the fingertips of a god
or goddess in images that represent the deities of the afterlife conferring the gift of life on the dead
person's mummy; this is thought to symbolize the act of conception[citation needed]. Additionally, an ankh
was often carried by Egyptians as an amulet, either alone, or in connection with two other hieroglyphs
that mean "strength" and "health" (see explication of Djed and Was, above). Mirrors of beaten metal
were also often made in the shape of an ankh, either for decorative reasons or to symbolize a perceived
view into another world[citation needed].

The ankh was almost never drawn in silver; as a sun-symbol, the Egyptians almost invariably crafted
important examples of it (for tombs or other purposes) from the metal they most associated with the
sun, gold. A similar metal such as copper, burnished to a high sheen, was also sometimes used.
A symbol similar to the ankh appears frequently in Minoan and Mycenaean sites. This is a
combination of the sacral knot (symbol of holiness) with the double-edged axe (symbol of matriarchy)
[4]
but it can be better compared with the Egyptian tyet which is similar. This symbol can be recognized
on the two famous figurines of the chthonian snake goddess discovered in the palace of Knossos. Both
snake goddesses have a knot with a projecting loop cord between their breasts.[5] In the Linear B
(Mycenean Greek) script, ankh is the phonetic sign za.[6]

Crux ansata in Codex Glazier

The ankh also appeared frequently in coins from ancient Cyprus and Asia Minor (particularly the city
of Mallus in Cilicia).[7] In some cases, especially with the early coinage of King Euelthon of Salamis,
the letter ku, from the Cypriot syllabary, appeared within the circle ankh, representing Ku(prion)
(Cypriots). To this day, the ankh is also used to represent the planet Venus (the namesake of which,
the goddess Venus or Aphrodite, was chiefly worshipped on the island) and the metal Copper (the
heavy mining of which gave Cyprus its name).

David P. Silverman notes the striking example of how the depiction of the Ancient Egyptian Ankh was
preserved by the Copts in their representation of the Christian cross.[8]

Djed
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The Djed pillar represents the concept of 'stability' and is the symbolic backbone of the god Osiris.

The Djed symbol is a pillar-like ancient Egyptian symbol representing stability. It has been interpreted
as the backbone of the Egyptian god Osiris, especially in the form Banebdjedet (the ba of the lord of
the Djedet). Djedu is the Egyptian name for Busiris, a centre of the cult of Osiris. During the Renewal
Festival, the djed would be ceremonially raised as a phallic symbol symbolising the "potency and
duration of the pharaoh's rule".[1] It has been compared to the Sumerian concept of temen. The
hieroglyph for "djed" may have given rise to the letter Samekh.

Ptah, and Tatenen, are also sometimes referred to as the noble Djed.

[edit] Gordon-Schwabe theory

In their 2004 book The Quick and the Dead, Andrew H. Gordon and Calvin W. Schwabe speculated
that the Ankh, Djed and Was symbols have a biological basis derived from ancient cattle culture, thus:

 the Ankh - symbol of life - thoracic vertebrae of a bull (seen in cross section)
 the Djed - symbol of stability - base or sacrum of a bull's spine
  the Was - symbol of power and dominion - a staff made from a dried bull's penis

Gordon and Schwabe's speculation is based on the Egyptian belief that semen (or more generally
spoken - the source of life) was formed from spinal fluid. Applying the above correspondences,
according to Gordon and Schwabe, the essence of life starts here in the Ankh - it flows down through
the vertebral canal, past the strong base of the spine (the

Was
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For other uses, see Was (disambiguation).

Was
in hieroglyphs

The Was ("power, dominion") sceptre is a symbol that appeared often in relics, art and hieroglyphics
associated with the Ancient Egyptian religion. They appear as long, straight staffs, with a stylized
animal head on top and a forked end.

A was staff, carried by the god Set, in the tomb of Thutmose III.

Was scepters were used as symbols of power or dominion, and were associated with the gods (such as
Set or Anubis[1]) as well as with the pharaoh. Was scepters also represent the typhonic beast or Set-
animal (the mascot of the Egyptian god Set). In later use, it was a symbol of control over the force of
chaos that Set represented.
In a funerary context the was-sceptre was responsible for the well-being of the deceased, and was thus
sometimes included in the tomb equipment or in the decoration of the tomb or coffin. The sceptre is
also considered an amulet. The Egyptians perceived the sky as being supported on four pillars, which
could have the shape of was-sceptres. The 'was'-sceptre is also the symbol of the fourth Upper
Egyptian nome, the nome of Thebes (called 'Waset' in Egyptian).[2]

Was scepters were depicted as being carried by gods, pharaohs, and priests. They commonly occur in
paintings, drawings, and carvings of gods, and often parallel with emblems such as the ankh-sign and
the djed-pillar.[3]

Remnants of real Was scepters have been found, constructed of faience or wood, where the head and
forked tail of the Set-animal are visible, with the earliest examples dating back to the times of the first
dynasty.[4]

The Was (w s) is also the Egyptian hieroglyphic character that stands for a word meaning power.

Uraeus
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Mask of Tutankhamun's mummy featuring a uraeus from the eighteenth dynasty when the cobra image of
Wadjet from the original uraeus had been joined by the white vulture image of Nekhbet because of the
unification of Lower and Upper Egypt

The Uraeus (plural Uraei or Uraeuses, from the Greek οὐραῖος, from Egyptian jʿr.t (iaret) "rearing
cobra") is the stylized, upright form of an Egyptian spitting cobra (asp, serpent, or snake), used as a
symbol of sovereignty, royalty, deity, and divine authority in ancient Egypt.
The Uraeus is a symbol for the goddess Wadjet, one of the earliest of Egyptian deities, who often was
depicted as a cobra. The center of her cult was in Per-Wadjet, later called Buto by the Greeks. She
became the patroness of the Nile Delta and the protector of all of Lower Egypt, so her image was worn
by the pharaohs as a head ornament, first as the body of Wadjet atop the head or as a crown encircling
the head, always remaining in effect part of their crown, indicating her protection and as a claim over
the land. The pharaoh was recognized only by wearing the uraeus, which conveyed legitimacy to the
ruler. There is evidence for this tradition even in the Old Kingdom during the third millennium B.C.
Several goddesses associated with, or being considered aspects of Wadjet are depicted wearing the
uraeus also.

At the time of the unification of Egypt, the image of Nekhbet, who was represented as a white vulture
and held the same position as the patron of Upper Egypt, joined the image of Wadjet on the Uraeus
that would encircle the crown of the pharaohs who ruled the unified Egypt. The importance of their
separate cults kept them from becoming merged as with so many Egyptian deities. Together they were
known as The Two Ladies, who became the joint protectors and patrons of the unified Egypt.

Later, the pharaohs were seen as a manifestation of the sun-god Ra, and so it also was believed that the
Uraeus protected them by spitting fire on their enemies from the fiery eye of the goddess. In some
mythological works, the eyes of Ra are said to be uraei. Wadjets existed long before the rise of this
cult when they originated as the eye of Wadjet as cobra and are the name of the symbols also called
the Eye of the Moon, Eye of Hathor, the Eye of Horus, and the Eye of Ra—depending upon the dates
of the references to the symbols.

As the Uraeus was seen as a royal symbol, Horus and Set also were depicted wearing one. In early
mythology, Horus would have been the name given to any king as part of the many titles taken, being
identified as the son of the goddess. According to the later mythology of Re, the first uraeus was said
to have been created by the goddess Isis who formed it from the dust of the earth and the spittle of the
then current sun deity. In this version of the mythology, the uraeus was the instrument with which Isis
gained the throne of Egypt for Osiris. Isis is associated with, and may be considered an aspect of
Wadjet.

Contents
[hide]

 1 Golden Uraeus of Senusret II

 2 Uraeus as a hieroglyph
 3 See also
 4 Notes
 5 References
 6 External links

[edit] Golden Uraeus of Senusret II

In 1919, after only a half-hour of excavation, the Qufti worker Hosni Ibrahim held in his hands the
solid gold Golden Uraeus of Senusret II. It had been decided to make a (follow-up) complete
clearance of the El-Lahun Pyramid's rooms at Saqqara. The start in the rock-cut offering chamber,
leading from the tomb, on the south, immediately revealed in the turnover of the six inches of debris,
the Golden Uraeus crown ornament.

Prior to the 1922 find of Tutankhamun's tomb, this Golden Uraeus was the only ornament ever known
to be worn by an entombed pharaoh and it was thought that it was passed to the next pharaoh.

The Golden Uraeus is of solid gold, 6.7 cm, black eyes of granite, a snake head of deep ultramarine
lapis lazuli, the flared cobra hood of dark carnelian inlays, and also inlays of turquoise. For mounting
on the pharaoh's crown, two loops in the rear-supporting tail of the cobra provide the attachment
points.[1][2]

[edit] Uraeus as a hieroglyph

Uraeus—
Uraeus on Basket
Ntr + Cobra
in hieroglyphs

or .deities.

Beside the Uraeus being used as an ornament for statuary or as an adornment on the pharaoh, it also
was used for jewellery and in amulets. However another important use is as the hieroglyph.

 For Uraeus ornament as a mummy grave example, See: Djedptahiufankh, "High Priest" of 21st
Dynasty, Shoshenq I.

The simplest hieroglyph is the "Cobra" (the Uraeus), however there are subcategories, referring to: a
goddess, a priestess, the goddess Menhit, the shrine of the goddess (àter), the goddess Isis, and lastly
goddess: (Cobra (uraeus) at base of deity (ntr)).

The Rosetta Stone uses the plural of the last example, "3 × "god flag" with Cobra at each base of flag".
The story of the Rosetta Stone has the king (the priests of the king), listing his reasons for being
honored, and in return, "The Gods and Goddesses (plural)" reward him. The last two-thirds of the
Rosetta Stone relates how he will be honored, including erecting the Rosetta Stone, for all to read.

Uraeus on buildings
 in hieroglyphs

Another example of the hieroglyph usage, is as adornments upon the hieroglyph for "shrine", and also
for buildings.[3]

[edit] See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Category:White crown

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Category:Red crown

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Category:Pschent

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Category:Crowns of Egyptian deities

 Deshret - Red Crown of Lower Egypt

 Hedjet - White Crown of Upper Egypt
 Pschent - Double Crown of Lower & Upper Egypt
 Atef - Hedjet Crown with feathers identified with Osiris
 Khepresh - Blue or War Crown also called Royal Crown
 Uraeus - Rearing Cobra

 N-red crown (n hieroglyph)

 N-water ripple (n hieroglyph)

 Nekhbet - Woman or Vulture wearing an Atef Crown

 Serpent symbolism

 WHY EGYPTIANAS ADORE ANIMALS

 http://www.blavatsky.net/magazine/theosophy/ww/additional/ancientlandmarks/EgyptianSymb
olsWorship.html


 THEOSOPHY, Vol. 15, No. 9, July, 1927

(Pages 404-412; Size: 27K)
(Number 18 of a 59-part series)

 The cat, associated with the moon, was sacred to the cat-goddess Bast or Pasht, and to kill one
was to court death. The Egyptian word for cat is mau, meaning to see, and both the moon and
the cat were seers by night. As the moon reflects the light of the sun, so the cat was supposed
to reflect the moon on account of its phosphorescent eyes. In the form of the goddess Bast the
cat keeps watch for the sun, with her paw holding down and bruising the head of the serpent of
darkness, the sun's eternal enemy. In Chapter XVII of the Book of the Dead, "The male cat is
Ra himself, and he is called 'Mau'" (Seer), while the illustrations represent him in action similar
to Bast. The chief-priest of Amen-Ra was called "Oiru mau," Master of Visions, he who beheld
God "face to face."

 The sun is represented as a beetle in the solar boat -- the "Boat of millions of years" -- and is
referred to as giving birth to beings in his name of Khepera. Khepera is the beetle or
scarabaeus, the symbol of rebirth. The word is derived from the verb kheper, to become, to
build again. Like the beetle the sun appeared to come up out of the earth and to ascend aloft as
with wings. The winged globe is but another form of the scarabaeus and the egg, relating both
to the rebirth of man and to his spiritual regeneration. No mummy is found without several of
these green or blue beetles.

 The jackal-headed god was Anubis, the "Opener of the Ways." The jackal's omniscience as to
where any dead body is hidden, his absolute certainty of direction in the trackless desert, made
him a fitting symbol of Anubis, who not only guided the dead along the trackless path of the
underworld, but also led the reincarnating entity into the underworld of physical existence.
Anubis is often identified with Horus and with Hermes, the Higher Mind; he is the knowledge
on any plane which leads one whithersoever he has need to go. Anubis is also connected with
the dog-star, the Sothis of the Egyptians.

 The ibis, sacred to Thot, was held in the greatest veneration. It kills the land serpents and
makes havoc among the crocodile eggs, thus saving Egypt from being overrun by these
saurians. The black and white ibis was sacred to the moon, because this planet has a dark as
well as a light side. Under the form of an ibis Thot watched over the Egyptians and taught them
the occult arts and sciences. Maspero affirms that the word "Thot" means ibis. The ibis
religiosa is said to have magical properties, in common with many other birds. At all events, he
who killed either an ibis or the golden sparrow-hawk risked death. The hawk, the keen-sighted,
was the symbol of the sun, of Horus and of the human soul.

 The fennec is the Egyptian fox, appropriate symbol of Set whose craftiness conceived the
coffin into which Osiris was enticed and confined, thus causing his death. Apis the white bull,
sacred to Osiris and into which he was supposed to incarnate, was typical of the universal
generative or evolving power in nature. Mariette Bey discovered near Memphis the
Serapaeum, an imposing subterranean crypt containing the mummies of thirty sacred bulls. The
 mummification of various sacred animals would show that the Egyptians took the utmost care
to conserve the "lives" in any highly evolved type or species. The bull is also the Taurus of the
zodiac, connected with all the "First-born" solar gods. Christians associated this constellation
with Christ. Here again, the Egyptians no more worshipped the bull than Christians worship
the lamb. The ram is always a symbol of physical generation, the ram or the goat of Mendes
being another symbol of Osiris.

 Maspero suggests that the habit of certain monkeys assembling, as it were in full court, and
chattering noisily a little before sunrise and just before sunset, may have justified the Egyptians
in entrusting the apes with the duty of hailing Ra morning and evening. In the illustrations of
the Sunrise previously mentioned, six apes hail the sun; the Papyrus of Hu-nefer gives seven.
In Chapter C of the Book of the Dead, the deceased says, "I have united myself unto the divine
apes who sing at the dawn and I am a divine Being among them." The dog-headed ape was a
Hermetic symbol, filling the same office in Egypt that Hanuman did in India. In Chapter XLII
the defunct says, "I am the dog-headed ape of gold, three palms and two fingers high."

 The crocodiles in the Celestial Nile are five, and the god Toum calls them forth in his fifth
creation. When Osiris, "the defunct Sun," is buried and enters into Amenti, the sacred
crocodiles plunge into the abyss of primordial waters. When the Sun of life rises, they re-
emerge from the sacred river. In the Secret Doctrine the Fifth Group is said to be a very
mysterious one, as it is connected with the Microcosmic Pentagon, the five-pointed star
representing man. In India and in Egypt those Dhyanis were connected with the crocodile, and
their abode is in the zodiacal sign of Capricorn. In Egypt the defunct was transformed into a
crocodile -- Sebakh or Sevekh, the "Seventh" -- showing it to be a type of intelligence, a dragon
in reality, not a crocodile. (S.D. I, 219; II, 580). The mummy donned the head of a crocodile to
indicate that it was a soul arriving from earth. The instructions appended to Chapter CLXIII are
that it should be read before a serpent with two legs, meaning thereby a Dragon of Wisdom, or
Hierophant. The evil serpent, "the enemy of Ra" was Apep (Apophis) whose power was
greatest at the full of the moon, his overthrow being the subject of Chapter XXXIX.

 Chapter LXXIII is devoted to the transformation into the Bennu bird, the Egyptian phoenix,
symbol of the cycle of rebirth. The deceased says: "I came (literally 'I flew') into being from
unformed matter. I came into existence like the god Khepera. I have germinated like the things
(i.e., the plants) which germinate, and I have dressed myself like the tortoise. I am [of] the
germs of every god."

 In this incomplete list of animal symbols must be included a curious little insect called the
praying mantis, the "diviner" who led the deceased unerringly to the underworld. It was greatly
honored in Egypt, the Greeks attributed to it supernatural powers, and the Arabs declare that it
always prays with its head toward Mecca. We might connote with it the state called manticism,
during which the gift of prophecy is developed. (See chapter in Isis Unveiled, "Before the
Veil.")

 The lotus was pre-eminently the flower of Egypt. The lotus seeds, even before they germinate,
contain perfectly formed leaves -- the miniature of the perfect plants they will some day
become, thus showing how idea comes to be made visible, which is true of the birth of a world
 as of a man. Its roots growing in the mud, and its blossoms in the air typify the human nature --
its body grown out of the lower kingdoms, and the soul belonging to the higher spiritual
regions. In Chapter LXXI of the Ritual -- making the transformation into a lotus, a human head
springs from the flower, and the god exclaims: "I am the pure Lotus, emerging from the
Luminous One... I carry the messages of Horus. I am the pure lotus which comes from the
Solar Fields." So the god Khnoom, the moist principle of life, sits on a throne within a lotus.
Thot is often seated on a lotus. Finally, it is the goddess Hiquet, under the shape of a frog, who
rests on the lotus. This undeniably most ancient of goddesses, on account of her amphibious
nature, was one of the chief cosmic deities connected with creation. Because the frog comes to
life after being buried for years under rocks or in old walls, it was typical of resurrection. A
frog or toad enshrined in a lotus, or simply without the flower, was the form chosen by the
early Christians for their church lamps, on which were engraved the words, "I am the
resurrection."

 Was the general character of Egyptian religion monotheistic, polytheistic or pantheistic, is a

question that has caused endless discussion. The epithet "the only god," which on the surface
might imply monotheism, was applied to several gods. In the Papyrus of Nesi-Khonsu, Amen-
Ra is addressed as "the One One," "the divine form who dwelleth in the forms of all the gods;"
but this concept was held only by the educated and the priesthood. Then, as now, the true
teaching existed: that behind all forms is a nameless, invisible Power, the source of all
manifested life, expressed in such passages as this: "You look and you see it not -- it is
colorless; you listen and you hear it not -- it is voiceless; you desire to handle it -- you touch it
not -- it is formless."

 Budge says in the Collection of Moral Aphorisms composed by ancient sages are several
allusions to a divine power to which no personal name is given. The word used to indicate this
is Neter, translated "God" by him in the following examples taken from the Precepts of
Kagema and the Precepts of Ptah-hotep, whose many instructions remind one of the Proverbs
of Solomon:

 "The things which God doeth cannot be known."

 "Terrify not men. God is opposed thereto."

 "When thou ploughest, labour in the field God (Karma) hath given thee."

 The Teaching of Amenemapht clearly shows, says this author, that the writer distinguished
between Deity and the gods Ra, Thot, etc.

 "Leave the angry man in the hands of God. God (Karma) knows how to requite him."

 "Take good heed to the Lord of the Universe." (The Self).

 "Truth is the great bearer of Deity."

 In the Teaching of Khensu-hetep, Budge finds a more intimate, personal Heavenly Being:
 "It is God who gives thee existence."

 "The Deity is the judge of the truth."

 "The house of God abominates overmuch speaking. Pray with a loving heart, the words of
which are hidden. He will do what is needful for thee, he will hear thy petitions and will accept
thy oblations." (The God within each being).

 In Chapter CXXV of the Book of the Dead, the defunct says, "I have not cursed God" and "I
have not contemned the god of my city," showing the Egyptian admitted the existence of
another Neter besides the god of his native place.

 Whatever the Egyptian thought as to Deity or to the gods, he knew he was himself "of the
germs of every god." He never considered himself a poor worm of the dust, as do Christians,
but ever declared,