Hathor Egyptian Goddess of love Facts Part 1/2

Hathor Egyptian Goddess of love | Facts and Secrets Part 1
The archetype of the Earth Mother is common to many mythologies; at different times Isis, Sekhmet, and Nut-among others-have had this role in Egyptian mythology. Hathor Goddess, however, appears to have been the oldest example in Egypt and the prototype on which later ones were based. While substantial evidence of Hathor Goddess in this role exists from the earliest periods, R. T. Rundle Clark believed that during the Old Kingdom it was suppressed or ignored, only to resurface at the time of the Coffin Texts. By this time Isis and Nut had become important in their own right, and the texts contained an interesting version of creation in which all three goddesses in turn played the role of the Great Mother. The story contained a graphically gory account of the birth of Ihy, who was first called the son of Hathor Goddess , then of Isis, but in either case Hathor Goddess dominated the myth.

Hathor Egyptian Goddess

Hathor’s origin adds to the mystery about her roles. In the Coffin Texts she was called “the Primeval, the Lady of All, who lived on Truth,” and claimed to have been created before the sky and earth. This myth told of her coming into existence at the time Ra rose as the sun god, when she took her place beside him in the solar boat. A variation, however, told that she was actually the daughter of Ra and Nut (we have seen that in some accounts they were lovers). When Hathor Goddess was born, she was said to have been either black-skinned or reddish-black. As a result of these birth myths (and of her association with Horus as the sun god) she was considered a sky goddess, and wore the solar disk in her headdress.

The Destruction of Mankind
The fullest account of the relationship between Ra and Hathor Goddess as father and daughter came in another story from Ra’s declining years. As we have seen, in his old age Ra was grieved by a decline of respect for him in the world he had created, and especially among the human race, the product of his own tears. His human creations began to laugh derisively at him: “Look at Ra! He is old and his bones are like silver, his flesh is like gold, and his hair is like true lapis lazuli.” Ra objected to being called old; even the comparisons with precious metals and stones called attention to the fact that his flesh was not what it had been in his youth. He was angered by humankind’s ridicule and sought to teach them a lesson.

He called out to those followers who were close at hand and had them assemble his nearest relatives: “Summon here my daughter  Hathor Goddess , the apple of my eye, and summon also the gods Shu and Tefnut, Geb and Nut, and the great god Nun, whose dwelling is in the waters of the sky.” The messengers were instructed to summon the gods quietly so that mankind would not guess what was happening and seek refuge from the revenge being plotted.

At the mansion of Ra in the Hidden Place the gods and goddesses assembled to find out what their father demanded of them. They bowed down before him, touching the ground with their foreheads, and asked their leader what he wanted them to do. Ra addressed Nun as the eldest of all gods: “Behold the people whom I have created, how they speak against me. Tell me what you think I should do to them, for truly I will not slay them until I have heard your words.” Even though the last sentence suggests that the supreme god had decided on the punishment before hearing the other gods’ advice, Ra nonetheless consulted his lesser colleagues. Nun, not surprisingly, told the chief god what he wanted to hear. He suggested that Ra’s eye in the form of Hathor Goddess (the apple of her father’s eye) be sent out to kill those who attacked the great god. He reminded Ra that he was still the greatest of the gods and his throne was secure: humans should, therefore, have much to fear from his anger.

The other gods quickly agreed to this simple strategy and Hathor Goddess was sent out in the form of Sekhmet, a fierce lioness to seek revenge. She rushed to attack her prey and found that, like the lion, she took delight in slaughter. She discovered pleasure in shedding blood throughout the land and quickly taught Ra’s tormentors that they should not laugh at the chief god. As she hastened to and fro, killing everyone she met, her father observed her work and at first was pleased. Soon he sensed that his vengeance was complete and called to her to stop before she eliminated the entire human race: “Come in peace,  Hathor Goddess . Have you not done that which I gave you to do?” But there was no stopping her once she had tasted blood. She cried out, “By your life, 0 Ra, I work my will on the human race and my heart rejoices.”

For many nights the waters of the Nile ran red with the blood of mortals, and Hathor Goddess waded through blood until her feet became crimson. Ra took pity on humankind in spite of his former resentment, but no god or mortal could stop the ruthless carnage of the goddess who clearly enjoyed her role as lioness. Because of her divine power, no one could force her to cease her killing, not even Ra himself; she had to be stopped by persuasion or trickery.

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Horus and Seth Battle Part 1/3

Horus and Seth Battle Episode 1/3
Horus God attempts to avenge his father’s murder and to regain control over the territory taken by  Seth God led to the great battles of Egyptian mythology. The tale begins with a young son who seeks to avenge his father’s death, but it continues on to become a fight for the territory or position that the son thinks the killer wrongfully gained through murder. These events combine to make up the Egyptian equivalent of the Iliad, an ancient Greek epic, and the battles that result are of epic importance.

 

Battle between Horus and Seth

Interestingly enough, this myth has survived in two versions with entirely different tones. Many Egyptian myths have been told in different places and with different details, but this particular story has been recorded in versions so divergent as to lead to exactly opposite attitudes toward the central characters and events. One version is entirely serious, even though it describes events that are fantastic. Since this version is similar to the epics of the Western world (great battles, heroes fighting villains with gods taking an active role, supernatural events, and an oral tradition including repetition of key phrases), it is called here the epic version.

The other version presents a satiric view of the same characters. In this “parody” of the epic version (the reader should note that there is no proof which of the two versions was the first), the gods in the central roles are ridiculed and the battle is reduced to a petty squabble among deities who possess very human characteristics.

No evidence suggests that early Egyptians could not have held both the serious and humorous attitudes toward these events at the same time, since humor does not necessarily denote disrespect the two accounts are separated here, however, in order to make the narratives and attitudes clearer.

The Epic Version (briefly told)
The great battles between Horus God and Seth God began during the three hundred and sixty-third year of the reign of Ra-Herakhty on earth and ended decades later. Ra assembled a massive army in Nubia in preparation for an attack on Seth God who had rebelled against him. From a boat floating on the river he directed his troops of footmen, horsemen, and archers. Among them was Horus God who had long sought to avenge his father’s death but had been unable to trap Seth God in battle; Horus, who loved an hour of fighting more than a day of feasting, looked forward to the battle with glee. Thoth gave the young god magical power to transform himself into a solar disk with large golden wings, the color of the sky at sunset; in this form Horus God led Ra’s troops into battle and prepared the tactics for the first encounter.

When Horus God sighted the legions of Seth God , he rose on his great wings above them and uttered a curse: “Your eyes shall be blinded and you shall not see; your ears shall be deaf and you shall not hear.” The enemy beneath him suddenly became confused: each warrior looked at the soldier next to him and, deceived by the power of the curse, saw a stranger where moments before an ally had stood. The speech around him sounded like a foreign language. The warriors cried out that their ranks had been infiltrated by the enemy, and they turned and fell upon each other. In a moment the army had defeated itself. Meanwhile, Horus God was hovering above, looking for Seth God . His archenemy was not in this advance guard, but hiding in the marshes to the north. Horus God continued to have trouble cornering Seth God in battle, even though he was to chase Seth’s troops through three more battles in the south and six in the north. Some took place in rivers, where the combatants changed themselves into crocodiles and hippopotamuses, some took place on land where again the slaughter was terrible, and one was even fought on the high seas.
 
On one occasion when Horus God thought he had captured his chief enemy during the heat of a battle, he cut off the soldier’s head and severed the body into fourteen pieces as Seth God had cut up Osiris. Once the dust from the battle had settled, however, Horus God finally saw his victim clearly and realized he had the wrong enemy: Seth God had escaped him once again.

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Horus and Seth Battle Part 2/3

Horus and Seth Battle Episode 2/3
Later, when Horus God had matured, Seth God challenged him to single combat. Isis decorated her son’s boat with gold and prayed for his success (one is reminded of Achilles’ mother’s efforts on his behalf just before his great battle with Hector). Seth God took the form of a red hippopotamus and prepared for battle on Elephantine Island at Aswan. With his great voice like thunder he used his power over storms as a terrible weapon. The waves and wind tossed Horus’ boats about, but the young god stood fast at the prow and led his followers through the worst of the storm. At the point of blackest darkness, the foam of the waters made the golden boat shine like the rays of the sun.

Horus and Seth battle

As the storms lessened, the two gods began their long-due battle, which is said to have lasted three days. Somehow during the confusion Seth God wrested Horus’ left eye from his head, perhaps because he disguised himself as a black pig and tricked Horus God into letting him get close. Horus God redoubled his efforts and recaptured his eye, which later he was to feed to Osiris to ensure his eternal life. Horus God revenged himself upon Seth God for this injury by seizing the red god and pulling off his testicles.

At one point in the fighting Horus God gained the upper hand and tied up his adversary. He asked Isis to guard Seth God while he went in pursuit of the enemy army, but Seth God tricked Isis with sweet words about her duty to her brother. Finally, Isis felt so guilty she loosened Seth’s ropes and allowed him to escape. When Horus God discovered what had been done, he was so outraged that he cut his mother’s head from her body with one blow of his knife. Fortunately Thoth was nearby and quickly replaced her missing head with the horns and solar disk of Hathor, which explains why in some depictions Isis wears Hathor’s head and headdress.

With Seth God at large again, Horus God had to return to battle. A young god eight cubits tall (almost fourteen feet), he held a harpoon whose blade measured four cubits. He handled this mighty weapon as if it weighed no more than a reed. This time, when he sighted his long-time foe, he aimed with all his skill. The first cast caught the red hippopotamus full in the head and entered his brain. Finally, after years of battles, Horus God had avenged the humiliation of his father, and Isis could rest.

The Satiric Version
In the second version the action centers not on physical combat, but on a court trial. Battles do occur, surely, but they are intertwined with some of mythology’s more bizarre court scenes.

The gods assembled at Heliopolis as a court to hear the plea of young Horus God against his uncle, Seth God. Atum-Ra sat in the chair as chief judge, and Thoth was the main spokesman for the young god. The dilemma before the court was whether Horus God should receive Osiris’ position on earth because he was the blood heir, or whether Seth God should receive it because he was stronger, older, and fit to rule. Shu and others argued: “Justice should prevail over sheer strength. Deliver judgment saying ‘Give the office to Horus.’ ”

But Atum-Ra was not happy. Fearing Seth’s warlike character, and knowing that his retaliation if the case went against him would be more troublesome than anything Horus God could attempt, he wanted to appease the red god and was angry with the court for giving in to Horus God so easily. Seth God then proposed that he and Horus God resolve the issue through trial by combat, but Thoth asked the court if it would not be better to try to find out who was right and who was wrong rather than leaving the decision to a fight. The arguments before this court presented the classic case for civilization versus barbarism, a theme that runs throughout much of Egyptian mythology.

When Osiris asked if there were some approach other than combat, the gods decided that they were trying to settle the case with insufficient information, and that they would write to Neith, an ancient goddess renowned for her wisdom, to request her guidance. At once Thoth, as secretary of the gods, composed a letter that concluded: “What are we to do about these two fellows who have now been before the court for eighty years without our being able to decide between them? Please write and tell us what to do.” Neith replied that the court should give Osiris’ position to Horus, and mollify Seth God by offering him a couple of minor goddesses to dally with.

The court was pleased with this compromise and immediately decided Neith had great wisdom.

When Atum-Ra still refused to agree with the court, the other gods grew increasingly angry with him. Over the uproar, one god screamed at Atum-Ra:

Your shrine is empty!” Such an insult, of course, could not pass unnoticed, and Atum-Ra went sulking back to his house where he lay on his back without talking to anyone. Hathor, his daughter saw that something had to be done for the old god and decided to tease him out of his ill humor. She danced in front of him whipped up her gown, and suddenly bared her private parts before his startled eyes. Atum-Ra laughed out loud and returned to court in a better frame of mind.

He commanded the opponents to debate the matter in open court, where Seth God and Horus God repeated the old arguments. When the court agreed with Seth God , Isis became angry and the court assured her that Horus God would win the position. Seth God , furious with his sister, told Atum-Ra that he would have nothing more to do with the court as long as Isis was around to influence it. Atum-Ra decided that a change in venue was in order and moved the court to an island. The ferryman, Anty, was ordered not to take Isis or anyone who looked like her across the water.

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Horus Egyptian God of War Part 1/2

Horus Egyptian God  Story part One
Horus Of all the gods of Egyptian mythology the most complex and potentially confusing for us today is  Horus God . One Egyptologist from the turn of the century identified fifteen different forms of this god, and Siegfried Morenz also found fifteen, not necessarily the same ones. The main forms were probably Ra-Herakhty, Horus God the Elder, Horus God the Younger, and Horus God the Child. Ra-Herakhty was a form of the sun god, a combination of Ra and Horus God who represented the morning sun. Often shown in falcon form or in the shape of the winged disk, Horus God the Elder was worshipped from Heliopolis to Abu Simbel. He can be considered the fifth child of Geb and Nut, making him another brother of Isis and Osiris. Some have thought that he might be the son of Hathor, but in that case his paternity is in doubt, although Ra is some- times so mentioned.

Horus Egyptian god statue

Horus God the Younger should be considered the son of Isis and Osiris, the god who avenged his father’s murder and replaced him on earth, the hero of the war with Seth to be told in the next chapter.

Horus God the Child was another version of Horus God the Younger, but he was given a distinct depiction. Called Harpocrates by the Greeks, he was prominent during the Graeco-Roman period, long after the other forms of Horus God . Horus God the Child was usually shown as a boy, wearing the side lock of a youth and sticking his finger in his mouth. At the height of his popularity he was often commemorated on small bronze plaques, called cippi of Horus God , where he was shown standing on crocodiles and holding scepters or other signs of authority.

At Edfu some of the forms of Horus God came together. Following his early victory over the army of Seth, Horus God and his followers came ashore near Edfu to celebrate. To commemorate the event, Ra decreed that the winged disk, the form Horus God had taken during the battle when he fought as Ra-Herakhty, should be preserved as a motif over the doors of temples and shrines as a sign that the gods protected all who entered. Visitors can still find these images among the ruins of temples and other shrines. (Following this event Edfu became a base for the worship of Horus God ; centuries later, during the Ptolemaic rule, an important temple was built there that was to become the site of the festival celebrating the sacred marriage of Horus God and Hathor.)

In the Coffin Texts, this Horus God was thought of mainly as the son of Isis and Osiris whom we are calling Horus God the Younger and had been fully assimilated into the Heliopolitan genealogy as a character united with Ra. The victorious Horus God thought of himself as the chief of the gods:

I am Horus God ; the Falcon who is on the battlements of the mansion of him whose name is hidden. My flight aloft has reached the horizon, I have over passed the gods of the sky, I have made my position more prominent than that of the Primeval Ones. My place is far from Seth, the enemy of my father Osiris ... I go up in flight and there is no god who can do what I have done I am Horus God , born of Isis whose protection was made within the egg.

It was in the Coffin Texts that the images of Horus God as the falcon and as the son of Isis merged, according to R. T. Rundle Clark. As we have seen in the myth of his birth, he was usually depicted as a humanlike child in need of his mother Isis’ nursing and protection, but in other versions he was depicted not as a child but as a falcon. During pregnancy Isis knew that her baby was unusual and told Atum “it is a falcon that is within my body.” When the baby was born, he took flight while his mother immediately began to negotiate a seat for him in the solar boat. In this version Horus God did not grow up hiding from Seth among the papyrus rushes of the Delta, but immediately assumed his place as a powerful god.

Regardless of which myth is followed, as an adult Horus God became one of the most powerful and important gods. He was first and foremost a sun god, and the replacement of Osiris here on earth, with a place in the solar boat as its pilot and steersman.

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Osiris and Isis Adventures Part 6/6

Osiris and Isis Adventures
At the Delta town of Busiris there was an annual festival in which Osiris God’ dismembered body was reconstituted. Here, apparently, the pillar came to stand for his backbone (which could also explain its shape), and in this festival it was erected as part of the ritual. Coffins in the New Kingdom had the pillar painted on the bottom as a suggestion that the corpse became Osiris God when his backbone became one with the painted one.

A wall painting at the Temple of Seti I at Abydos shows a series of scenes in which the king assisted Isis Goddess in raising the pillar and thereby resurrecting Osiris God . The obvious phallic symbolism of the totem also suggested the sexual resurrection of Osiris God, commemorated elsewhere at this temple. In other drawings of the pillar here and there throughout Egypt it is shown with arms holding the crook and flail in the same attitude often used for Osiris God ; vignettes in the Book of the Dead, as well as drawings elsewhere, showed the pillar with eyes staring out between the cross-members, just as if Osiris God were looking out from inside.

Ramses II Presenting Offerings to Osiris and Isis, Temple of Seti I

 The popularity of the Osiris-Isis myth had led many scholars to try to explain its significance. Most interpretations can probably be reduced to three simple themes: the transferal of the power of kingship, celebration of the cycle of nature and its annual rejuvenation, and rituals for achieving immortality.

Older scholars, such as E. A. Wallis Budge and James Frazer, were chiefly interested in the myth as a statement about death and resurrection. Budge, of course, wrote a massive study of Osiris God and did not limit himself to any one aspect of the myth, but the motif of resurrection lies at the heart of all his research.

Frazer compared Osiris God to the Greek god Adonis and Near Eastern god Attis in one of the most important volumes of The Golden Bough, and he concluded: “In the resurrection of Osiris God the Egyptians saw the pledge of a life everlasting for themselves beyond the grave They believed that every man would live eternally in the other world if only his surviving friends did for his body what the gods had done for the body of Osiris God . Hence the ceremonies observed by the Egyptians over the human dead were an exact copy of those which Anubis, Horus, and the rest had performed over the dead god.”

Rudolf Anthes believes that the myth was a statement of the way ritual serves to satisfy religious needs, because the rituals associated with the resurrection of Osiris God became an important part of Egyptian culture. Anthes notes the ludicrous elements in the story, especially in the Horus-Seth conflict (to be told in the next chapter), but he believes that the common people worshipped the gods and enjoyed the story-telling aspect of the tales at the same time. There was great dignity in the rituals associated with Osiris God and Isis Goddess , and some of the hymns and charms that have survived are literary works of considerable beauty.

The myth of Osiris God is intimately connected with the Egyptian view of death, according to Siegfried Morenz: “Egyptian religion, in so far as it was related to death, preserved ancient ways of ensuring everlasting life and kept on discovering new ones.” Egyptian religion maintained the beliefs that life would be prolonged in the tomb and those deceased individuals and possessions in their tombs could be rejuvenated through certain rituals. The best way for a dead king to transcend death was “to become Osiris God ” through the clearly prescribed ritual that would unite the king with the god, thereby raising him above the possibility of being judged like other mortals. The myth of Osiris God , then, provided a ritualistic method for overcoming death.

The best way to approach this myth, as R. T. Rundle Clark has written, is to seek its symbolic value. Out of the story emerges a human-god who is the essential victim. Yet he is avenged and his passion has an end at last, when justice and order are reestablished on earth. The other gods are transcendent, distinct from their worshippers. Osiris God , however, is immanent. He is the sufferer with all mortality, but at the same time he is all the power of revival and fertility in the world. He is the power of growth in plants and of reproduction in animals and human beings. He is both dead and the source of all living. Hence, to become Osiris God is to become one with the cosmic cycles of death and rebirth.

The myth, then, is finally seen in archetypal terms.

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Osiris and Isis Adventures Part 5/6

Osiris and Isis Adventures Part 5
Diodorus wrote that Isis, after she had seen to the survival of Osiris God ’ body and the continuation of his worship, made a vow never to marry again. She remained the perfect queen to her people and was renowned for her sense of justice and her charity. Her efforts to revive both her son and husband from illness and death created in her an interest in medicine that she was later able to use to help humankind. At her death some claimed she was buried at Memphis, while others believe she was put to rest in her temple at Philae. After death, she is supposed to have taken her place among the rest of the gods, especially in support of Osiris God . Her fame in medicine was widespread.

Ancient Egyptian Gods and Goddess

The buildings erected in Osiris God’ memory gave Egypt some fine examples of religious architecture, but the most outstanding was the temple at Abydos, which claimed to be the repository of his head. A stele describes in detail the festival in which Ikhernefert, an official during the Twelfth Dynasty, played the important role of Horus. This was a sort of play that began with a procession of priests, laymen, a representation of Horus, and a boat holding a statue of the god Qsiris. Horus engaged the enemies of Osiris God in battle when they attacked the boat, and many of the people defended the great god, but he was nevertheless slain. Probably (the text is not clear on this) Isis Goddess and Nephthys found the body and began the rituals of lamentation. Horus then directed that the body be buried at Peger, whose location has never been determined by modern scholars.

Following the burial, Horus sought out Osiris God ’ enemies and avenged his father’s death in a great battle; the theatrical recreation of this event must have been one of the more thrilling and dangerous parts of the play. After his victory, Horus set Osiris God in a boat to sail before the crowds of people gathered at Abydos to celebrate the defeat of Seth and his troops, and to greet the risen god. It is possible that the performance of the play and the following festivities could have lasted three or four weeks.

Memphis also claimed to have the buried head, and enough temples claimed possession of his legs to have more than adequately equipped him with several pairs.

The djed pillar, which entered the Osiris God myth as the tree containing his coffin, was also connected with an important festival in his honor. Many of the symbols found in Egyptian mythology had foreign origins, but two-the eye and the djed pillar-were distinctly Egyptian. Although the latter came to be associated with the god Osiris God, it was probably a prehistoric Egyptian fetish. In shape, this object was a tallish pillar that flared out to provide a base when expected to stand alone; otherwise it had the same diameter from top to bottom and was planted in the ground like a maypole. Near the top were four cross-members that gave the appearance of short limbs or branches. The word djed meant “stability.”

Manfred Lurker believed that the pillar was originally a symbolic fertility pole on which were tied ears of corn in tiers (hence the cross-members). The ritualistic use of the pillar began in Memphis, according to Lurker, where it was associated with Ptah, who was called the “noble djed" in the Old Kingdom. If so, the king probably helped to raise the pillar in order to associate his reign with stability. R. T. Rundle Clark found a different origin: he pointed out that in the Old Kingdom the pillar was shown in wall decorations at the Step Pyramid at Sakkara.

In these drawings djed pillars were shown in the royal palace where they formed columns supporting windows. When one looked through the windows, the pillars gave the appearance of holding up the sky beyond. Clark wrote: “The purpose is clear: ... the djed columns are world pillars, holding up the sky and so guaranteeing the space of air and world in which the king’s authority holds well.” Clark believed that in the prehistoric era, the pillar was part of a “simple harvest ritual” performed by peasants in the Delta.

Both scholars agreed that, whatever its physical origins, the djed pillar found a place in mythology once the Osiris God myths were widely disseminated. In the Pyramid Texts the pillar was connected with Osiris God and described as being charred. It was thought of as the tree that grew up around Osiris God’ coffin after the waters of the Nile had floated it away. Isis Goddess had used fire as part of the ritual of release, which would account for the references to charred wood. Reference was also made to the top lying beside the pillar, which makes sense if the top were the branches of the tree that had been cut off when the tree was felled to be used in the king’s palace as a column.

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Osiris and Isis Adventures Part 4/6

Part 4 of  Osiris and Isis
Isis Goddess once more set out on a search for her husband’s body, but this time she had to find its parts. Attended by birds and beasts, she sailed up and down the Nile in a frail boat of papyrus reeds lashed together. The dreaded crocodile avoided the boat and refused to harm its divine passenger, thus originating the belief that the crocodile will not attack anybody floating in a papyrus boat. One by one Isis Goddess found the dismembered parts of Osiris God.

Isis 

Wherever she found one, she pretended to bury it and to build a shrine marking the spot. Actually, according to Diodorus, Isis Goddess made a waxen mold of each part, presented it to local priests and made them swear to protect forever this “part” of the god’s body. In return she promised each priest the personal use of one third of the land set aside for the worship of Osiris God . The historian explained the result: “accordingly it is said that the priests, mindful of the benefits of Osiris God, desirous of gratifying the queen, and moved by the prospect of gain, carried out all the instructions of Isis Goddess .

'While some believed that she actually buried the god’s parts ]n these shrines and tombs, most accepted the idea that this was Part of an elaborate ruse to trick Seth, and that she took the real Parts of Osiris God' body to Horus in order that he might put them together again. It seems that she found all but one of the parts: the god’s sexual organ, which had been eaten by fish the lepid, tus, phagrus, and oxyrhynchus. Unable to reassemble the body completely, Isis Goddess made a mold of the missing part and, according to Plutarch, “instituted a solemn festival to its memory, which is even to this day observed by the Egyptians.” Unfortunately for the curious, this festival seems not to have survived Plutarch’s day.

Osiris

Isis Goddess’ trick of pretending to bury the body wherever she found a part helps to explain why there are so many shrines to Osiris God. Each site jealously guarded its claim to have responsibility for protecting the god, and before many centuries had passed, new sites arose claiming to be authentic as well.


As Isis Goddess delivered the parts of Osiris God’ body, Horus-with the assistance of Anubis and Thoth-set about reassembling it. Once it was all together, except of course the part eaten by the fish, the body was wrapped in white linen and placed in state at the Temple of Abydos. After Horus had fought his battle with Seth, he returned to Abydos with the eye he had won from his evil uncle.  

Osiris God sat on a throne with his arms crossed holding the flail and scepter. Horus reverently opened his father’s mouth and allowed him to eat of the eye, which gave him eternal life (the mythic origin of the ritual of the Opening of the Mouth). Horus then put into place a long ladder that stretched from Abydos to heaven, and slowly Osiris God climbed upward, accompanied by Isis Goddess and Nephthys wearing beautiful robes. Thoth followed carrying the book of the gods, and Horus helped his father climb whenever he needed slight assistance.

As he climbed higher, Osiris God was able to see the mountains to the east and west and feel the cool breezes from the four corners of the earth. The solar boat lighted his passage and finally he stepped out onto the crystal floor of heaven, which rested on the peaks of two mountains. Now an immortal, it became his task to judge the lives of the mortals who sought to follow him.

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Osiris and Isis Adventures Part 3/6

The Adventures of Osiris and Isis Facts Part 3 
Once Horus was born, Thoth appeared to his mother and urged her to flee with the child to protect him from his evil, red-haired uncle. The great god of wisdom advised her to hide the little boy until he was old enough to “assume the office of Ruler of the Two Lands.” His mother then took Horus deep into the swamps of Lower Egypt where she placed her baby under the care of the goddess Wadjet (variant spelling, Uazet) who resided at Pe, a city on a floating island. Isis Goddess loosened the ropes that held the island fast and allowed it to drift further into the swamp where no man or god would know where to locate it or its divine resident.

Osiris and Isis

During the time of her flight with Horus, much adversity befell the goddess who felt utterly alone against the world while she walked far with her baby and her seven scorpion companions. Once, looking for refuge, they wearily approached the house of a wealthy woman who lived in a small settlement. When the woman saw the outlandish party, she hurriedly shut her door against them, not knowing whom she was turning away. Chagrined and hurt, Isis Goddess continued her wandering. After a time she found rest in the home of another woman, but her anger with the first continued unabated. Six of her scorpions transferred all their poison into the sting of one, Tefen, who slipped through a crack under the woman’s door and stung her son with the power of seven scorpions. Despite his mother’s piteous lamentations, the child soon died. The woman rushed about the town trying to find help, but this time it was she who was denied admission to other houses.

In the midst of her grief she remembered her treatment of the strange woman who so much needed a friend, and she repented of her behavior now that she understood what it meant to be alone and rejected. Isis Goddess then showed mercy, calling upon her scorpions to withdraw their poison: “The child shall live, the poison shall die! As Horus is strong and well for me, his mother, so shall this child be strong and well for his mother!” From that day on, when a mortal suffered the sting of the scorpion, these words of Isis Goddess were used as a charm to relieve the effects of the poison.

Later, Isis Goddess left her home in the swamp disguised as a beggar woman, for the great goddess had been reduced to begging for food to keep her son alive. When she returned home, she discovered the boy lying on the ground with tears in his eyes and saliva flowing from his mouth. Not even milk from a divine breast could ease his pain, and never had Isis Goddess felt more desperate. Finally, there appeared a woman bearing an ankh, who diagnosed the source of the problem: a scorpion bite. Isis Goddess repeated a series of charms, but nothing relieved the child’s pain. Then Thoth appeared again to the mother. He had just come, he said, from the solar boat where the gods were worried. The sun was standing still and the world would remain in darkness until the sun god of the future was cured.

The anguished mother chided her old friend for moving so slowly. Didn’t he understand how much Horus suffered? Thoth in his own time assured her that he had come to help and finally began to recite a long charm designed to kill the poison; soon his ministrations had the desired effect. Once the child began to recover, Thoth ordered the women of the Delta to help protect Horus from his enemy and assured them that one day he would rule the Two Lands with the help of Ra, Osiris God , and Isis Goddess. The god of wisdom then returned to the solar boat to report to the boy’s father that all was well below.

All was not well, however, for Osiris God and Isis Goddess. Seth was not satisfied that he was safe as long as Osiris God’ body existed. After Isis Goddess and Nephthys had embalmed the body with the assistance of Anubis and Thoth who had been sent for this task by Ra, Isis Goddess hid the body and set out to visit Horus at Pe. While she was gone, Seth went hunting wild boars by moonlight: he enjoyed the evil things that roamed at night. He was at full gallop after a boar when he saw the finely wrought chest he had used to trick Osiris God, and reined in his horse.

Gleefully he jerked the body from the chest and tore it into fourteen pieces. Some said that he then scattered the pieces across Egypt, but the more widely accepted myth is that he threw the pieces into the Nile and let the waters carry them the length of the river. Then he laughed aloud and boasted across the world: “It is not possible to destroy the body of a god, but I have done what is impossible, I have destroyed Osiris God.” But Seth was mistaken.

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Osiris and Isis Adventures Part 2/6

The Adventures of Osiris and Isis Facts Part 2
The infant son of the queen suffered from an incurable illness, but Isis Goddess offered to restore him to health: “I can make him strong and well, but in my own way I will do it, and no one must interfere.” Every day the child seemed stronger, but no one knew what Isis Goddess did to help him. Finally the queen hid herself in the nursery to uncover Isis Goddess ’ secret, and what she saw shocked her.

Isis Goddess first locked the doors and then built a high scorching flame behind them. Putting the child to the flames, she turned herself into a swallow that flew around and around the pillar making the most mournful twitterings. The queen in fright seized her son and began to run from the room, but suddenly she was confronted, not by a strange woman, but by Isis Goddess the goddess. “0 foolish mothers,” said the goddess, “Why did you seize the child? But a few days longer and all that is mortal in him would have been burned away and he would have been like the gods immortal and forever young.” The mother regretted her haste, but recognized that she was in the presence of divinity. When she and her husband asked the goddess to accept a gift for restoring their son to health, all Isis Goddess asked for was the pillar supporting the roof. As soon as this

Osiris and Isis story

Usual request was granted, she sent for carpenters who split open the trunk and removed the chest. Isis Goddess then had the men bind the tree back together and wrap it in fine linen. She strewed it with spices and scented flowers and returned it to the king and queen. (This became the djed pillar, which was worshipped from that day on by the people of Byblos, because it had once held the remains of Osiris God  . Its use spread throughout Egypt, where it became a symbol of strength.) This done, Isis Goddess flung herself on the chest and began her lament for her husband. The sight of the goddess in such distress was so terrible that one of the king’s sons died of fright.

Isis Goddess loaded the chest and body on a ship and set sail for home with the elder of the king’s sons as a passenger. During the voyage she opened the chest and fell into grief over the body. The boy had crept up silently behind her and, when she heard him, she looked round with such terror that he too died on the spot. So it was that the king and queen of Byblos lost a second son to the lamentations of the goddess.

During the voyage Osiris God’ body rested on the open deck. When the waves and currents from a little river they were passing caused the ship to rock, Isis Goddess used her magic to dry up its waters.

Once she had arrived in the safety of the Delta, she set the chest on land and she and Nephthys tried to revive Osiris God. A beautiful hymn extolled Isis Goddess ’ efforts to love her husband as before; she is said to be the goddess:

• Who worked on your lifeless body with knotted cords?
• Who warmed your body with the warmth of her breast?
• Who made air to enter with the beating of her wings?
• Who made life flow from your body up into Isis?

To the chamber of the abode of life.

The hymn explains that her magic was able to warm and breathe life into Osiris God ’ body long enough for it to stir and impregnate her with Horus. The walls of the Temple of Dendera depict graphically the awakening of Osiris God and Isis Goddess’ appearance as a bird hovering over her husband’s erect penis from which she received the seed that enabled her to continue the great line of the gods.

Seth hunted Isis Goddess down and shut her into a dark prison, but with the help of Anubis, she escaped and fled into the swamps. When the time came for her to deliver her child, she sat alone among the reeds of the river. Her pain was great, but no matter how hard she strained, no matter how hard she pushed, the baby would not be born. Suddenly two gods appeared at her side and smeared her forehead with blood-a sign of life and finally her body split and the boy sprang forth, like the sun when it breaks from darkness. As the day of his birth was the vernal equinox, the beginning of spring, Horus appeared at the time young shoots of grain were beginning to sprout from the darkness of the ground.
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Osiris and Isis Adventures Part 1/6

The Adventures of Osiris and Isis Facts 

Isis' Hunt for the Body

At that time Isis Goddess was visiting the village of Chemmis not far from Thebes in Upper Egypt. The fauns and satyrs in that area were the first to know of their king’s assassination, and they quickly spread word of the horror. Isis Goddess , however, knew immediately of her husband’s death without having to be told and went into mourning- She cut off a lock of hair and put on mourning robes without moving from the spot on which she stood. Ever since, the town has been known as Koptos (modern Qift), or the City of Mourning.

The Goddess Isis, wall painting, c. 1360 BCE

Full of grief, Isis Goddess set out looking for the chest and its contents. 5he wandered across the country and inquired of everyone she met whether he or she had news of her husband’s body. Nowhere did she receive help until she chanced across some children playing near her road. They told her they had indeed seen the chest being thrown into the river and floating northward toward the sea. From this time on, Egyptians revered children for their prophetic powers.

During her mourning Isis Goddess was told that her sister Nephthys had fallen in love with Osiris God and tricked him into her bed. A garland he had left behind after the event was proof of the truth of the stoty- Rumor said that Nephthys had become pregnant from the occasion, but fearing the reaction of her husband, Seth, she had left the baby boy to be exposed immediately after his birth. Wild dogs found the child and saved him, and Isis Goddess soon located the pack and rescued her nephew.

She took the young god to be reared as her own son and gave him the name of Anubis. From this time onward he watched over Isis Goddess the way mortal dogs watch over humans. Isis Goddess was quick to forgive Nephthys, and the two females shared their grief for Osiris God . Even though Nephthys was married to Seth, she soon left him and devoted herself to the search for Osiris God ’ body. The songs of lamentation sung by the sisters were described by the scholar James Breasted as “the most sacred expression of sorrow known to the heart of the Egyptian.”

Eventually Isis Goddess heard that the body had been washed ashore at a place called Byblos, but there is disagreement over just where this was. Some accept the Greek notion that it was on the coast of Syria; others believe that it was a corruption of the name for a Papyrus swamp in the Delta of Egypt. Whichever it was, Isis Goddess went there in search of the chest. The waves had carried it ashore and lifted it into the branches of a tamarisk tree growing nearby. When the tree grew to encompass and hide the chest, its gigantic Slze and beautiful flowers made it widely known, and eventually King Malkander and his wife Queen Athenais came from the Palace to see the marvelous sight. He ordered the tree to be cut down and used as a pillar to support the roof of his palace, but no one suspected that this piece of wood contained the body of a king and god.

Following the information from the children, Isis Goddess traced the passage of the chest to Byblos where she came ashore and sat without speaking. The queen’s handmaidens, coming to bathe in the waters, were struck by the sight of this beautiful woman who sat so quietly. Fascinated, they began a conversation with the stranger who was dressed in white with her breasts exposed after the fashion of the Egyptians. She showed them how to braid their hair and wear their jewels, and her breath perfumed the women and their clothes with a wonderful fragrance. On their return to the palace the queen inquired about the fragrance, and they told her of the beautiful stranger. When she went to the shore, the two women immediately became companions and Isis Goddess was invited to attend Athenais at court.

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The Murder of Osiris

The Adventures of Osiris and Isis Facts

The Murder of Osiris

The myths concerning Osiris God and his sister-wife are among the most entertaining and illuminating of Egyptian mythology. The story of Osiris God ’ murder and Isis’ hunt for his body is known worldwide and is an integral statement of Egyptian beliefs in life after death. R. T. Rundle Clark called Osiris God “the most vivid achievement of the Egyptian imagination.”

Actually no complete Egyptian version of the stories has survived from ancient times, and the earliest version was written down by Plutarch, a Greek traveler and historian of the first century after Christ. For the next four hundred years, other Western writers such as Diodorus Siculus, Firmicus Maternus, and Macrobius recounted the adventures of the two gods and added details of their own to the stories. Much of this non-Egyptian material has been confirmed as authentic by Egyptologists working in temples and other sites where murals tell fragmented stories of the divine pair. Finally, the Pyramid Texts and other early writings contain numerous references to Osiris God and Isis and help complete the story when pieced together. What is told here is a compilation of these sources, but Plutarch’s writings provide the basic outline.

Osiris Egyptian God

The Murder of Osiris
Osiris God , while in human form, was first a legendary leader of mortals. At the moment of his birth a voice announced: “The lord of all the world is born.” Other supernatural signs pointed to the occurrence of a marvelous event, especially at a temple at Thebes where a man named Pamyles had gone to draw a jug of water. He heard a voice commanding him to go forth among the people proclaiming that “the good and great King Osiris God was then born.” Having fulfilled his charge, Pamyles was rewarded by the grateful gods by being given the responsibility for Osiris’ education.

Osiris God was born a god but grew up as a man. He became king of Egypt at a time when the country was full of wild men who knew only the habits of barbarism (including cannibalism, according to some versions of the myth). As a civilizing force for these people, Osiris God discovered methods of organized agriculture and taught his people how to cultivate corn and barley.

He was the first man to drink wine and showed his people how to plant vines to provide grapes for this remarkable new beverage. In order to refine their rough customs, Osiris God instructed the citizens of his land in rituals for honoring the gods, and gave them laws to govern their behavior. He relied heavily on the advice of Thoth who taught human beings rhetoric and names for objects that heretofore had been nameless. Thoth invented the letters of the alphabet, arithmetic, music, sculpture, and astronomy-gifts that Osiris God passed on to humans for their betterment. The people recognized that Osiris was responsible for improving their lives and greatly revered his ideas.

Satisfied with his progress at home, Osiris God decided to export his civilization to other lands. First, he arranged for Isis to govern Egypt while he was gone and gave her Thoth as assistant. Then, he marched toward Ethiopia with an army and a few friends. Greeted by a company of satyrs for his entertainment, he added musicians and dancers to their numbers.

He taught the local inhabitants agricultural methods, constructed dams and canals to control the flooding of the Nile, and built cities. In areas too dry t grow grapes, he taught the people to make beer from barley. He then passed through Arabia on his way to India, where he built cities and introduced the ivy plant. Next he traveled across the Hellespont into Europe where he was forced to kill a king who resisted his new and fair system of government.

During his absence Isis had no serious problems since she was careful and cautious, but Seth, their brother, was jealous of Osiris God ’ success, his land, and his wife. He bided his time and plotted the assassination of the king. He gathered around him seventy-tw0 conspirators and convinced Aso, a queen of Ethiopia who presumably was jealous of Osiris God ’ success in her country, to join the plot. The hypocritical conspirators greeted their king with smiles when he returned home, but in their hearts they were plotting murder. Seth, who had secretly taken the measurements of Osiris God ’ body, constructed a fine chest to fit those measurements exactly.

This richly decorated wooden box was a prize worthy of any man or god. At a feast at Seth’s banquet hall, the guests drank wine and sang songs while slaves scattered flowers about the room. At the height of the entertainment, the chest was carried in while the guests cried out in appreciation of its beauty. With words sweet as honey, Seth told those gathered there: “He who lies down in this coffin and whom it fits, to that man I will give it.” The guests eagerly stepped forward, but each found that it was not the right size. When all the others had failed to fit the chest, Seth jokingly challenged the king to try. Proudly Osiris stepped into the chest and lay down to discover that it was a perfect fit, but no sooner was he inside than the conspirators slammed the lid over his head. While some nailed the top tight, others poured hot lead around the edge so that Osiris God quickly suffocated. The party guests then took the chest to the Nile and threw it with its divine contents into the waters, which carried them far away.

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Egyptian Ra God of the Sun Part 1/2

The Secret Name of Ra and other facts about Ra God
Isis, observing the power and might of Ra God, envied his control over all creatures. She knew that his power, like the breezes, reached to the far corners of the earth and the outermost expanses of the heavens, where he was revered by both humans and gods. In her heart she coveted this power and plotted to discover its secret so that she would be greater than the other gods and would rule over humans. She was well practiced in magic and sought a way of using this art to usurp her great-grandfather's supreme authority.

Ra  God

His power, however, lay in the fact that he alone knew his secret name. Every person and god had many names, but each kept the most potent of them secret in order that others not gain dominion over them through its use. Ra’s secret name was therefore his most carefully guarded possession. He knew that anyone who discovered the name could use it to gain his Power over the world and even to obtain some control over Ra God himself.

Many times he had risen in the morning and made his daily trip through the sky, only to see his radiance sink into the darkness of Tuat every night. The repetition of this act had tired him and he had grown so old and feeble that the saliva dribbled from his mouth and fell upon the earth. Seeing this, Isis quickly took up some of the ground mixed with the spittle and began to mold this clay into the shape of a cobra, the snake associated with the gods and kings of Egypt. The model snake contained Ra’s own substance; therefore he had no defense against its poison.

Isis hid the serpent on the path Ra God took each day on his heavenly journey, and next morning, when Ra God and his followers began their trip, the chief god passed close by the stealthy creature. The snake struck with all its divine force and sank its dart like fangs into the flesh of the father of all the gods. The poison surged through Ra’s body and caused great pain, since it had been created from divine substance.

The cry of rage and pain that escaped from Ra God shook heaven and earth; his followers in the boat gathered round to ask what had caused it. The pain was so great; however, that he could barely answer them. The poison spread through his body as the waters of the Nile spread over the land; his limbs trembled and his teeth chattered. Finally he calmed down enough to tell the gods in the boat that he had been seriously wounded. He was perplexed by the pain because he had thought himself safe from such an attack as long as he kept his name secret. He told them that he had just come out to take a look at the world he had created when something struck him and brought this intense pain, making him burn and shiver at the same time. Then he ordered that his children, the rest of the gods with knowledge of magic, be brought to consult with him.

With weeping and lamentations the gods assembled, but none could relieve the pain since it was caused by Ra’s own substance. None had enough power to find a magical antidote. Naturally, Isis was among those in the crowd, but she said nothing until the others had tried and failed to find a remedy. Calmly she practiced her deceit on the elderly god: “What is this, 0 divine Father? What is this? Has a snake brought pain to you? Has a creation of your hand lifted up its hand against you?” She told him that she would use her magic on his behalf and find a cure.

Still confused by the severe pain, Ra God described the symptoms to her' “I am colder than water, I am hotter than fire. I tremble in all my limbs, and the sweat runs down my face even as in the heat of summer.” This time Isis spoke quietly and softly and offered to help if he would reveal his secret name so that she could use it in her magic: “Tell me your name, 0 divine Father, your true name, your secret name, for only he can live who is called by his name.”

Now let's continue the facts and secrets about Ra God ancient Egyptian God

I am the maker of heaven and earth,
I am the establisher of the mountains,
I am the creator of..... Continue

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Ra God in His Declining Years

Ra Egyptian God in His Declining Years
In many ways Ra God was the personification of numerous human needs recognized by people in early times, among which was the luxury of growing old and retiring from the day-to-day cares of the active world. Like a farmer who has grown too old to spend the entire day in the fields, Ra God tired of the daily routine of rising m the east and setting in the west, always besieged by enemies. He looked forward to turning things over to his children, but like many mortals he was slow to recognize that the time of retirement was approaching, and had to be urged toward it by those around him. Some of the most interesting of his myths are set during this Period of his life.

Ra on the Solar boat

In one story, Ra God complained of fatigue to Nun, the primeval Waters, who set about trying to find him some help with his daily chores. First the sky goddess Nut was instructed to take the form of a cow and carry Ra God through the sky each day (a variation of this story said that Nut gave Ra God the ride to help him escape from the angry human survivors who did not take kindly to Hathor’s destruction of so many of their friends and kin-see Chapter 7 “Hathor”).

Anyway, Nut became responsible for carrying Ra God each day, but the strain was too much for her and her limbs began to tremble. Ra God declared that he would find help for her and commanded her father, Shu, to support her belly (this is a variation of the myth that says Shu holds Nut up as the sky to separate her from the earth). When the men of earth saw Ra God upon Nut’s back, they began to regret their neglect of him. The next morning they appeared fully armed and ready to do battle against his enemies. Encouraged by their support, Ra God immediately forgave humanity’s earlier sins, which he attributed to the wiles of the earth’s serpent population. Geb, as earth god, was held responsible for the trouble caused by these malign creatures, and was ordered to take the necessary steps to see that the problems did not occur again.

Finally Ra God called Thoth to come with haste into the chief god’s court. Thoth was told, from that moment on, to keep a written record of the punishments Ra God had decided for his enemies. Thoth was also to assume the title of asti, Ra’s deputy, and was to become Ra’s representative on earth. In order to ease Thoth’s task, Ra God created the ibis as Thoth’s messenger among men, gave him the use of the power of the sun and moon, and lastly if this part of the inscription is properly understood-brought into being the ape to assist Thoth in driving back his enemies. Thus did Ra God spread out the responsibilities of his divine office and make his life a little less wearisome.

This story was told on the walls of the tomb of Seti I near Luxor that date from the early part of the Nineteenth Dynasty (1320-1200 B.C.). The inscriptions are partly damaged, but most of the myth can be discovered and the rest guessed at. Nearby is a beautiful drawing of Nut as the cow goddess giving Ra God a ride in his solar boats, but the exact connection between the drawing and the story remains the subject of considerable scholarly speculation.

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Ra God and the Phoenix

The Ra - Sun God - and the Phoenix
Sacred at Heliopolis, the phoenix was a mythological bird based on the wingtail or the heron. It was specially attached to Ra God because it seemed to mimic the sun rising from the water when it took flight. Its Egyptian name (for “phoenix” I is Greek) was bennu, which was derived from a word meaning “to shine” or “to rise.” It was depicted with a long straight beak, graceful body, long legs, and two lengthy feathers falling from the back of its head. In the Coffin Texts the dead person viewed himself as rising like the phoenix: “I am that great phoenix that is in Annu, the supervisor of all that exists.”

The Phoenix - fenix bird

Elsewhere the texts associated the bird with Osiris or Horus since these gods and the bird existed for eternity. In the Book of the Dead there was a spell for helping the dead become the bennu bird: “I flew up as the Primeval God and assumed forms...® I am Horus, the god who gives light by means of his body.”

The most elaborate discussion of the J phoenix bird, however, is seen in Herodotus, who had some strange ideas that have become the conventional concept of the bird, even though they do not seem supported by Egyptian texts:

They have also another sacred bird, which, except in a picture, I have never seen; it is called the phoenix. It is very uncommon, even among themselves; for according to the Heliopolitans, it comes there but once in the course of five hundred years, and then only at the decease of the parent bird. If it bear any resemblance to its picture, the wings are partly of a gold and partly of a crimson color, and its form and size are perfectly like the eagle. They relate one thing about it that surpasses all credibility: they say that it comes from Arabia to the temple of the sun, bearing the dead body of its parent, enclosed in myrrh, which it buries. It makes a ball of myrrh, shaped like an egg, as large as it is able to carry, which it proves by experiment. This done it excavates the mass, into which it introduces the body of the dead bird; it again closes the aperture with myrrh, and the whole becomes the same weight as when composed entirely of myrrh; it then proceeds to Egypt to the temple of the sun.

These and other classical myths concerning the bird appear to be misreadings of the Egyptian concept. In Egypt the bird did not achieve immortality through periodic renewal, but it was seen as a symbol for the sun, which did rise-like the bird-each day from the waters to the east. Perhaps the clearest Egyptian use of the bird was in the Book of the Dead where, as a sign of rebirth, it was beautifully depicted in the vignettes.

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The daily voyage of Ra God

Since Ra God, in his various forms and unions with other gods, was the sun god and father of the Great Ennead, his adventures affected the entire universe. His power and brilliance were great, his actions affected other gods and mortals alike. He had created the world and the gods and people who populated it, and he maintained his position of eminence as father of the gods even after others gained equal or greater power. As sun god, his chief function was to travel the skies daily and provide light and heat for the residents of earth; as chief god he was sometimes involved with other gods in events that were closely watched by all who might be influenced.

Ra Statue

The Daily Voyage of Ra
Understanding that the sun was fire, the early Egyptians could not easily conceive of it rising out of water without having been extinguished, yet it obviously came out of the water every day. They therefore pictured the sun as rising from the waters of Nun in a boat that could float and then sail through the air during the day. This daily victory over darkness caused men and women to live, nations to rejoice, and the souls of the dead to sing in joy. With good luck the boat had good winds and safe ports during its voyage. A hymn in the Book of the Dead celebrated Ra’s daily glory:

Millions of years have gone over the world; I cannot tell the numbers of those through which you have passed. Your heart has decreed a day of happiness in the name of the ‘Traveller.’ You pass over and travel

through untold spaces [requiring] millions and hundreds of thousands of years [to pass over]; you pass through them in peace, and you steer your way through the watery abyss to the place you love; this you do in one little moment of time, and then you sink down and make an end of the hours.

Actually there were two boats: Matet (which means “becoming stronger”) for the morning, and Semket (which means “becoming weak”) for the evening. Khepri, Ra God, and Atum, the various forms of the sun god during this journey, sat in the middle of the boat while Horus was the steersman at the rudder. Thoth, the god of wisdom, and Maat, the goddess of truth and justice, wrote down the daily course for the boat and then stood beside Horus to approve the course he set.  

Abtu and Ant were mythological fish that led the boats through the expanses of ocean. The king at his death joined the crew as Ra’s immortal secretary. The king rode in the bow of the ship, where he opened Ra’s boxes, broke open the sealed edicts, sealed his dispatches, sent out his messages, and generally did what Ra God asked of him. He was also responsible for watching over Ra’s jar of cold water during the day. The goddess Nehebka rode in the Matet boat; since she was goddess of “matter revivified,” her presence caused considerable rejoicing among the dead souls who accompanied the ships during their voyages.

The boat settled into Manu, the mountains of the sunset, where as the evening boat it entered the waters of the underworld, called Tuat. As the sun set Horus, Hapi, Isis, and Nephthys were seen in adoration. As if the nightly journey out of sight were not difficult enough, the boat was attacked during the night by its enemies. Although Ra God carried with him a company of strong, wise, and fair gods, of whom he was the strongest, his enemies never hesitated to try to find a weakness and destroy him.

Collectively the enemies were Sebau, a legion of devils, but the most dangerous was Apophis (variant spelling, Apepi) who took the form of a serpent. His attack on the sun god was seen as an attack on the stability of the world, and therefore his defeat was essential. Originally, Apophis had been viewed as the darkness that surrounded Nun, and the first serious obstacle to the creation that Ra God had to overcome. Later, however, Apophis personified the darkest part of the night that Ra God must defeat before he could rise again in the morning. He attacked with mists, eclipses, and other phenomena that hid the light of the sun or moon. Ra God counterattacked with the darts of his sunbeams and sent his scorpions to sting the snake, but at the moment of greatest danger he left the boat and took the shape of a cat, an animal admired for its agility.

In this form he cut off the head of the serpent. The nightly fate of Apophis was ghastly: he was bound in chains, then stabbed with spears, cut and dismembered with red-hot knives, and finally roasted and consumed by fire. Apophis was crafty and had many names to confuse Ra God and his assistants, but the papyri listed them all so that the dead souls could help Ra God to identify his enemy by the use of magic. The pink glow in the sky at evening was attributed to the blood that flowed from the wounded and defeated Apophis.

In the morning Ra God arose again safe from the battles of the night, glorying in his victories over the powers of darkness. His brilliance undiminished, he sailed through the heavens on another of his daily voyages. His renewed presence gave new I hope to those who depended on his light and warmth and was | the cause of much rejoicing.

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Min God of Fertility Story

Min Egyptian God of Fertility Story
Min was the god of fertility and was celebrated in one of the more interesting festivals during the Twentieth Dynasty. His cult centers were Koptos and Panopolis, and there is evidence of his worship as early as the First Dynasty, perhaps even earlier. Eventually he became a vegetation god, and one brief myth from the Eleventh Dynasty described his curious activity of bringing rain to the desert; apparently during the rainstorm he became visible to mortals. Both as vegetation god and as bringer of rain to barren land, he was fulfilling his duties as god of fertility.

Min the Egyptian god

The usual depiction of Min provided him with the necessary attributes for a fertility god. He was drawn in human form standing with his feet close together and his penis erect. He holds an arm above his head and 'n his hand is a flail. His headpiece is usually the two plumes of Amun, and he has two streamers banging down the back his neck. Many of the chief g0ds were associated with Min in order to demonstrate that they ad his virility; at one time or another Ptah, Amun-Ra, Khons, and Horus were represented as Min. The association with Horus also meant that the kings, who assumed the identity of Horus while they lived, attained the sexual vitality of Min.

Preliterate societies depended heavily on the health and strength of their kings. If a king were sickly or weak, he could not lead his people in battle and might not be able to produce an heir, thereby causing strife over his succession. As a result these societies devised numerous tests of the health and strength of their kings, most of which revolved around the periodic renewal of the king’s physical powers. On the plain across the river from Luxor is the Temple of Medinet Habu, the mortuary temple of Ramesses III, built during the Twentieth Dynasty. The walls of this temple contain carvings of the annual festival of Min at harvest time, during which the kings renewed their powers and were “reborn” with increased vigor. In the opening scene the king went to the “house of his father Min,” the local temple, accompanied by his sons, priests, musicians, and guards. There he worshipped the god and poured libations in his honor. Min in this episode was addressed as Amun-Ra-Khamutef, a combination of sun and moon gods.

In the next scene the god was carried out of his sanctuary by twenty priests, and a short procession, including the king, queen, a white bull, priests, and others, carried the statue on poles to a nearby festival site. Some of the priests carried a box of lettuce leaves, which were credited with aphrodisiac powers. (The explanation for this use of the lettuce plant remains obscure, although we have seen another example of it during the satirical version o the fight between Seth and Horus.) The group proceeded to the “Stairs of Min,” a platform with steps on which the statue was placed. The statue, according to the text, then caused the king to make great sacrifices. What happened next was supposed to rep resent the symbolic death and rebirth of the king/god, which in turn suggested the death and rebirth of the land whose virility wa5 thought to be connected with the king’s. The services began Wi the singing of hymns of praise; then the king cut a sheaf ofw with a sickle, symbolizing the death of the wheat at the moment 0f harvest. During this act, the queen, as the personification of Isis, walked around her husband and uttered a spell, probably intended to assure his rebirth. The next act was the sacrifice of the bull, which apparently served as surrogate for the king. The dead bull’s ear was severed and presented to the king as a reminder that he too was mortal, and the bull’s tail was cut off and shown to the assembled people. The king paraded around the stairs and eventually embraced the queen in the form of Isis while the people chanted hymns. The embrace was symbolic of the rebirth of the king as Min, and he was restored to purity, fertility, and vitality. Four birds were released to carry the good news to the four points of the compass, and the king offered the first fruits of the harvest to Min, whose statue was returned to his temple. It is possible that the rituals of the Sacred Marriage were celebrated between the king as Min and his wife as Isis or Hathor toward the end of the festival, but the sources of information are damaged at this point and the exact details are impossible to determine.

This festival celebrated Min as the god of fertility, which was his most prominent role, but Eva R. Meyerowitz, in a work on the rituals associated with the divine kingship in Egypt that includes an elaborate explanation of the festival just described, claims that Min was also given other duties. He was associated with the moon and considered a storm god illuminated by meteorites and thunderbolts. His statue was painted black to represent a stormy night.

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Khnum Egyptian God Facts

Khnum Egyptian God Facts
The chief god in the mythology of Elephantine Island in the Nile at Aswan was Khnum God, who headed his own triad. He was the god of the cataract region, which included the sources of the Nile guarded by Hapi. There is evidence in the Pyramid Texts that he had been known long before the time of those writings, but no one knows for sure just how long he had been worshipped- Apparently he came to be known as a creator god rather late, but he survived until two or three centuries after Christ. He was rep resented on monuments as a man with a ram’s head, holding scepter and ankh. Often the white crown of Upper Egypt was on his head, and sometimes the crown was decorated with plumes, disk, or cobras. Occasionally a jug of water, representing the Nile, rested over his ram’s horns.

Khnum Egyptian God

Like most chief gods, he was later considered a creator. His followers thought that on his potter’s wheel he molded an egg from which sprang the sun. Wall carvings at various temples in the Luxor area show him sitting at his potter’s wheel on which he is fashioning a child; he was thought of as the master craftsman who molded children out of clay and then implanted them as a seed in their mother’s womb. In this manner he was considered the “father of fathers and the mother of mothers.” It was said he created the gods in a similar manner.

Khnum God was thought to be the combination of the forces that made up the entire world; he was Ra, the sun; Shu, the air; Osiris, the underworld; and Geb, the earth-all wrapped up in one figure. In this form he was represented as a man with four ram’s heads.

A Ptolemaic inscription preserves for us an interesting myth about Khnum’s role in a seven-year drought that must have been an old story when it was finally written down. The story supposedly took place during the reign of a king of the Third Dynasty,

Khnum Egyptian God fashioning a human and double on this potter's wheel possibly Djoser, who became increasingly concerned about the drought that plagued his country year after year without relief for seven years the Nile had failed to rise enough to flood sufficient land to grow the needed crops, and so the king sent a message to the governor of the south, inquiring about the source of the Nile. On being told that its waters, the source of all good things, came from a double cavern, which was compared to twin breasts, the king decided to visit the Nile god who watched over the river and emerged at the time of the flood. The gatekeeper of the flood was Khnum God, who guarded the doors that kept the water in and then, at the right moment, threw open the doors to let the floods loose on the land.

The king went to Elephantine Island and made proper sacrifices to Khnum God who then appeared in front of the royal visitor from the north: “I am Khnum God,” he said, “the Creator. My hands rest upon you to protect your person and to make your body sound. I gave you your heart... I am he who rises at his will to give health to those who toil. I am the guide and director of all mortals, the almighty, the father of the gods, Shu, the mighty possessor of the earth.” The god went on to complain that no one took care to keep his shrine in good repair even though there were plenty of stones in the neighborhood to use in the work. The king promised that this wrong would be corrected, and the god promised in return that the Nile would once again rise every year as it had in the old days. The king ordered a tax to be levied annually on local produce and the proceeds applied to the maintenance of priesthood for Khnum God (dare we now speculate that the entire myth was made up by latter-day king and priests, who conspired to raise a tax and needed justification?). It must be assumed that both king and god kept their promises.

The triad of Elephantine was completed by two goddesses associated with fertility. Satis was Khnum’s consort, giver of the waters used in the rituals of purification of the dead. Called dis penser of cool water coming from Elephantine,” she was 1st associated with Isis and Hathor. Her sister Anuket was the third member of the triad. The name of this human-shaped goddess meant “to embrace,” and she was possibly the goddess of lust.

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