Showing posts with label Horus the Child. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Horus the Child. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Pictures from Facebook

I am sure most of you who have a Facebook account have seen those images comparing Jesus and Horus. I am sure you've seen them but here are a couple examples. (You can click them to make them bigger)

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For the most part we are going to ignore the Jesus side of these and focus on what is said about Horus and how that relates to Ancient Egyptian religion. I will also endeavor to point toward sources for as much of this as possible. It might mean a huge bibliography or a lot of links but it is important. Also, I should say that there is nothing wrong with having any of these beliefs but pointing to them as Ancient Egyptian or that Christianity copied these early on from this religion then something must be said about authenticity of these claims.

Let's start with the list in image #1 just because it is the most extensive and will likely address many of the others.

First on the list of image #1 is "Written down 5000 years ago." This means it was written around 3000 BC. This is about 500 years before the Great Pyramids were being built. We know that by this time most of Egyptian mythology, the core anyway, was already strongly in place. From items like the Narmer palette(Discussions of the glyphs and meaning of the palette here.) and other sources contemporary to the palatte, we also know hieroglyphs were in use before 3000 BC. Likely this date of 5000 years ago is probably wrong. On the other side of it dates for the Bible range widely as to when it was written, much of it depends on which version of the Bible one uses. What I take away from all of this is that pointing out dates for either of these documents is probably not legitimate.

We then move on to Horus being born of a virgin. This is going to get into some weird things about Egyptian mythology. As the myth goes, either Osiris impregnates Isis or after Osiris is dead and chopped up Isis uses his dismembered phallus to impregnate herself. In the most traditional sense of virgin, a woman who has never been vaginally penetrated, Isis does not fit the bill. The other common definition of virgin is unmarried. As Osiris was about to ascend to the throne he would have been married by Egyptian customs and there are references to Isis as his wife prior to the dismemberment incident. Isis is not an unmarried woman. In still other myths Isis and Osiris mingle breaths, doesn't that sound like a euphemism, when he is resurrected and that is how she becomes pregnant with Horus. It is highly unlikely that Isis is a virgin in any myths.

Horus was born on Christmas Day. Since Osiris is murdered in early October/November it is highly unlikely that Horus would have been born the next month. The main festival of Horus, which is often associated with the birth of the god or goddess, is in June/July. If we consider the Egyptian ideals of realism their mythology we can see that July as more reasonable as this is 9 months after the murder. Another fact that points to the idea that this is reasonable is that Horus is hidden in a papyrus marsh after his birth so Set would not find him. December is the middle of the Nile flood and most papyrus beds would be underwater at this time making it impossible to hide a child there. July however is the time of low water and planting which would leave much of these areas open.

I don't even know where to start with this concept of three wise men and the Eastern Star. The Eastern Star is usually thought of as Sirius, which in Ancient Egyptian mythology was a goddess, Sothis/Sopdt. (Sothis was a goddess that sometimes heralded the arrival of epidemics and plague as well as her more benign association with the Nile flood bringing fertile soils.!) I don't have much to say about the three wise men. I can't say I have ever read anything about three wise men in any Egyptian myth.

This whole line "Taken to Egypt to avoid the wrath of Typhoon" is problematic. Horus was born in Egypt, usually somewhere in the delta region in most myths. He could not have been taken to some place he already was. (Very curious) Typhoon also causes problems since this is a Greco-Roman god who is a titan offspring of Gaia. I am sure they meant Set but in calling him Typhoon this no longer refers to Egyptian myth but a later Roman idea.

Taught in the temple as a child is also not likely to be true to the myths. There are many myths of Horus' childhood. Many of them include his haphazard childhood of being hunted by Set and stung/bitten by animals. We also must consider that in the ancient world most male children of a king would have been educated, likely in a temple, regardless of their nationality. This is hardly something that would set Horus apart from most other deities or king's children.

Anup is not an Egyptian god. I assume we are dealing with a misspelling of Anpu, the Egyptian name of Anubis. (Anubis is a Greek word) Misspelling a deity name does not instill confidence in me. Baptism is not an Egyptian practice. Baptism is a Christian concept and related to the Jewish concept Tvilah to restore purity. (You can also think of this as the removal of sin.) What they are doing in this piece is blurring all of these different concepts by compiling them under the Greek word "baptismos". This Greek word refers to Jewish ritual washing. From there they are saying that because the Egyptian priests also washed before entering a temple that they were practicing "baptismos" too. This is quite a long string of things to make this comparison work. As for the rest, I can't remember any listing of an Egyptian god or goddess' age being given in years, especially specific years. Usual descriptions refer to body, so something like the body of a young boy or bent with age or they just default to millions of years.

Egyptians combined gods and goddesses into Triads. This makes the 12 disciples rather weird. I thought that perhaps during the myth of Horus and Set, while Horus is hunting Set, that he might have had 12 army leaders in those with him. However, upon reading the myths I didn't see anything about the numbers of men in his army. I am not even sure where this would have come from.

Horus walked on water? Most myths refer to him and show him riding in a boat, as is true for the Egyptian gods in general. There are some myths where Horus is transformed into a winged sun disk to fly over the Nile but this still doesn't fit the concept of walking on water.


The next one just doesn't make much sense either. "Raise El-Azur-us from the dead". I know what they are trying to get at and that is the fallacy that Osiris and Lazurus(of the Bible) are one in the same. First, I must point out that the El starting piece is not in the Egyptian language but is in the Arabic names of various locales and deities. The writer is also trying to manipulate the Egyptian name Ausar which is a name of Osiris. Horus did not resurrect anyone, and certainly not Osiris. Anubis was the god to create mummification and raise Osiris from the dead. (Sometimes with the help of Isis and/or Thoth). Remember, at the time of Osiris' murder and resurrection Horus was not yet born. Not only is this false based on mythology but it would also require a fetus/zygote to raise people from the dead. Even the Egyptians didn't have myths that off the wall.

Transfiguration may be something we could stretch our imagination to believe. As I mentioned before, Horus transformed in some myths into a sundisk to fly around. However, this usually happened in the Nile valley and marshes, not on a mountain. I can grant them that both Jesus and Horus were supposed to have changed into something glowing at some point but these are very different ideas. Jesus glowing was to signal his divinity to those around him. (That is a very paraphrased comment for the sake of brevity.) Horus transformed in order to hunt down Set and try to kill him. He was a god so no need to prove his divinity to anyone.

Titles... "The way, the truth, the light" These are titles I have seen most often used and likely created by various modern forms of Egyptian religion. You could perhaps apply "the light" to Ancient Egypt in later mythology when Horus and Ra are merged into one solar deity Ra-Horakhty. Messiah is actually an interesting title, though it is not Egyptian at all. Aside from the Christian definition, Messiah also means a zealous leader of a cause. This definition could definitely apply to Horus as he was obsessed with vengeance and murdering Set for killing Osiris... though I doubt obsession with killing someone is Christ-like. The next title includes "God's" with a capital "G" which is not an Egyptian term but a Christian one. Son of man does not work at ALL for Horus as the Pharaoh, ie man, was the son of Horus not the other way around. Lamb of God, here we are with the capital "G" god. Also, as a god of the sky, war, revenge and vengence I doubt Horus fits into the traditional "Lamb of God concept. The Word is not applicable. This concept in Ancient Egypt was Ma'at, goddess of truth. The morning star refers to Sirius which we have already addressed. The light of the world in Egypt is Ra so perhaps this could be applied to Horus after he is merged with Ra.

Crucifixion was not used by Egyptians at all. This was a Roman practice Horus never dies in the mythology and therefore cannot be resurrected.

WOW that was just the first image. I hope you are not bored or overwhelmed but I am going to continue going through the rest of these comments on the other images. Might as well finish up.
 Image 2 has already been addressed in full.

On image 3 I would like to point out that Horus was born in a papyrus swamp and not a cave.

Image 4 starts out with the wrong date for the begining of Horus worship. Horus is referenced on the Narmer palette from 3000BC.

Healing of the sick and injured is highly unlikely for a god of war and vengeance. Likely, they have given Horus some of the attributes of Isis, his mother.

And at this point we are finished with dispelling some of these items that keep appearing on Facebook attributing things to Ancient Egypt that are not true. I have also seen these types of references between Osiris and Jesus as well. Here at least there are some more applicable relationships including being harmonious, kind, resurrected and so on. If you are interested in reading up on this more here are some suggested readings:
Wright, N.T. The Resurrection of the Son of God. London: SPCK, 2003.

In my searching for answers here I found some other treatments of this topic that take a different approach than I do. Here is one of them. If you are interested in the topic a simple google search will turn up more.
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I think this is kind of funny.
I do hope that this covers the topic. If you have more questions, see another of these types of images that you want me to look into or want more information feel free to reply here or email me. 

Friday, April 20, 2012

Confessions 26-30


Confession 26. O Youth who came forth from the Double Scepter Nome, I have not been neglectful of truthful words.

Egyptian Elephantnose fish believed to be the sacred Oxyrhyncus
The Nome of the Double Scepter is the West Bank area around Oxyrhynchus (Per-Medjed in Egyptian). This is not too far south of the Faiyum. This area is sacred to Osiris as it was here that the Oxyrhynchus fish was discovered that had swallowed his penis. The youth could refer to Horus the child. However, Oxyrhynchus is also known for having a temple with many dog mummies which could suggest Anubis as he is also the son of Osiris. While the god may be confusing the confession is not. I have not neglected the truth. This means telling the truth, promoting the truth, seeking the truth and so on. It can also mean remaining ignorant or ignoring teachings, being uneducated, since the Egyptians saw education (provided the teacher was in Ma'at) as a form of truth.
Artifact of the Oxyrhynchus
Confession 27. O Dark One who came forth from the Darkness, I have not caused grief.
The dark one who came forth from the darkness is Nun. He is named with this title in more than one text. Grief has a broad meaning that encompasses distress, sorrow or mental suffering from loss. Basically, it is saying that the person confessing hasn't purposefully caused mental suffering of others. 

Confession 28. O He-Who-Brings-His-Offering who comes forth from Asyut, I have not been violent.
Asyut is Lycopolis in Upper Egypt. A city sacred to Anubis and Wepwawet. He who brings his offerings likely Wepwawet as he is an overseer of funerary offerings among other things. The confession... pretty straightforward, I'm not violent. However, it is important to realize that culturally Ancient Egyptians did not consider self defense or defense of one's home, land or country to be violence.

Confession 29. O Proclaimer of Voice who came forth from Wenis, I have not confounded truth.
Wenis is another name for Unas the deified pharaoh.However, it might mean Saqqara where he is buried as well. If it is Saqqara that is meant then the Proclaimer of Voice is probably one of the death deities. Most likely of them is Sobek who returns the voice of the deceased in the Duat. I have not confounded the truth is a statement of not masking, obscuring or otherwise twisting the truth. This confession is all about claiming to be "a straight shooter" to use an American turn of phrase.

Confession 30.O Possessor of Faces who came forth from Nedjefet, I have not been impatient.
Nedjefet is the nome of Egypt that contains Akhetaten's capitol Amarna.Since historical texts state that Amarna was built on a site where no other cities had been the god referenced must be either Aten or Thoth as they were the only gods sacred to this city. Possessor of Faces could relate Thoth's association with the moon. I have not been impatient means both the act defined by the word but also judging hastily or without information.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Confessions 11-15

Confession 11: O He-of-the-Cavern who came forth from the West, I have not fornicated with the fornicator.

In Egypt this was different than we might expect. Marriage was considered not by a service but by declaring love or the intent to be together to the populace/family. This could also be a parent or set of parents setting up an arranged marriage. In Ancient Egyptian terms fornication here refers to what we would call cheating on a marriage, an affair or a similar act. There are many additional laws governing this confession. For example, a woman could nullify a marriage simply by stating that her husband was not providing for her. (In some cases even if the thing he was not providing was sex.) Divorce also did not happen in the long drawn out manner it does in modern times. From the few records I have read on the matter (primary source stuff) apparently speaking it to those involved was enough.

Ok enough on that. I will try to get a coherent post on marriage practices in the future. For now let us move on to who this confession is spoken to. From the west can refer to either one who is rising from the dead(walking out of the Duat) or someone who rules the desert. More than likely this is Set. He hid out in a cavern and he is also associated in some mythology with fornication and/or misdeeds. 

Confession 12: O He-Whose-Face-is-Behind-Him who came forth from his hole, I have not caused anyone to weep.
This is what it sounds like. It means that a follower has not purposefully said or done things with the intention of hurting others.. of making them weep. As to who, this is one that eludes me as well. I have to make a guess because while there have been studies of the Book of the Dead I have yet to find a source that tries to name the assessors. This research has been all mine. Coming forth from the hole is a term I have seen in reference to the mound of creation. The hole could refer to where Nun came from at the beginning of the world. I don't really know what it means that his face is behind him. Another possibility is Hra-f-ha-f a god who steers the boat of Ra who is often depicted looking over his shoulder.

The Gayer-Anderson Cat at the British Museum.

Confession 13: O Bast coming forth from the secret place, I have not eaten my heart.
This time they were nice enough to give us the goddess. Her secret place is likely her temple at Per-Bast. There are two possible translations of eating the heart. The first, and more straightforward one, is that committing offense against Ma'at's law. This is probably not the case after reading the next confession. More likely it refers to being false in appearance, attitude or personality. The heart, ab, is the center of good and evil thoughts and weighed in judgement. Eating your heart would be destroying it in the way Ammut would and that would be infecting it with evil.

Confession 14.O Hot-Legs who came forth at twilight, I have not transgressed.
I am again not sure who "Hot Legs" is aside from some reference to pin-ups that I am sure the Egyptians knew nothing about. However, the description does suggest they come from night time or dusk. It could be Nut or Hathor who are both supposed to be images of beauty and are associated with twilight times. Aside from that I am not sure who "Hot Legs" might be. One who walks in fire at night? Could be. The second part is much more clear. I have not transgressed refers to laws. These could be the laws of Ma'at, the government or the society. It isn't specific in what the transgression is against but the glyph choice suggests it is related to law. 

Confession15. O He-Who-is-Blood who came forth from the place of slaughter, I have not grain-profiteering.

Grain profiteering is gaining monetary profits by cheating others. Again, this is about treating others unfairly for personal gain. This seems to refer directly to cheating people out of money though deceit or unethical practices.In the modern scheme of things I would consider this any sort of cheating others for profit. So, overcharging for a service or product, misrepresenting product or any number of modern schemes that involve getting more money that the sold item or service is worth.

I have always associated "He who is Blood" to either be Horus, where blood is a reference to bloodline, or Set as the one in charge of the military. Either god would be quite appropriate as Horus is a god of vengeance and taking action against wrongs. Set on the other hand is sometimes associated with greed and deceit. Like many of these I need to do much more research on the references before I can be definitive on which god it might be.

Wednesday, January 04, 2012

Whose Eye is this anyway?

The Egyptian eye is probably one of the most widely recognized Egyptian symbols. From the fancy make-up and tattoos to the amulets in the museum the icon has become a widespread image. Sometimes we see it called the Eye of Ra and others, the Eye of Horus.

Like most people, for years I was confused about what this symbol actually was. It was so often that both illustrations looked exactly the same and heads or tails couldn't be made for when to tell them apart. In fact, if you do a google search the exact same images will come up for the "Eye of Ra" and the "Eye of Horus". It took me many years, almost 20 now, to get to the bottom of this mess about which one is which. Just this past year I found a text, both a translation and images of the original Papyrus of Turin, that told me once and for all what the difference was.

Before we get into how to resolve this problem of determining what is and is not whose eye we can start by talking about those things we do know. There are times in mythology and writing where one of these eyes is referred to and not the other.

The Eye of Ra
The Eye of Ra is defined universally as several things that are never given the name Eye of Horus. These include the goddesses. Sekhmet, Hathor and Bastet are often given the name Eye of Ra and associated with the symbol. When we see these goddesses and the eye symbol we can be certain that this is in fact the Eye of Ra. The Eye of Ra is also a common theme in creation myths to light up the water of Nun. The eye of Ra can be shown alone or as a pair.

The Eye of Horus
Horus, and that is Horus the Elder brother of Set and not Horus the Child, had his eye ripped out by Set in the first battle that Set waged against his family. This eye was then healed by Thoth or sometimes Isis depending on the version of the myth you are actually reading.
........But wait, there is actually a second Eye of Horus. Set must have a tendency for eye removal as some myths state that he also removes the eye of Horus the Child just before the other gods tell them enough fighting and force them to go to trial. The eye of Horus, no matter the Horus, is almost always a single eye and usually a right one.

..........AND then the Egyptian make it exceedingly complicated.
A god named Re-Horakhty or Ra-Horakhty, if you like, comes on the scene. This god is a merger of Ra and Horus, the child in this case. Now whose eye is it? Is it the Eye of Horus? The Eye of Ra? Do we have a third Eye of Ra-Horakhty? How do we figure out what to call the eye associated with this god?

There is an explanation!
Until just last year I would have been sitting there scratching my head just as most people do when faced with this conundrum of eyes. I told you that I had found a myth from a papyrus that clears this up once and for all. The myth is a common one telling the story of how Isis used magic and trickery to force Ra to divulge his true and secret name. Most of the versions of this myth Isis only asks for Ra's name. However, in some versions, such as the 20th dynasty one in the Papyrus of Turin, Isis adds another stipulation that Ra give Horus his eyes as well or die in agony. The writer of this myth even states that there after the Eyes of Ra are called the Eyes of Horus by men. EUREKA! There seems to be an answer, that though we call it the Eye of Horus all of the eyes are actually Ra's.

There is one loose end though. What about the eye of Horus the Elder? This eye is named in a few myths but the Eye of Horus the Elder is rarely, exceedingly rarely, used outside of the mythology of his battle with Set. Usually, we are looking at amulets, artwork or tattoos designed for protection. The Eye of Horus the Elder is never given the attributes of protection so we can usually rule that name out for items that are designed to give protection. If we are picking up an eye to use as a religious item it has to be either Ra or Horus the Child whom that eye belongs to.

The question remains do we call it the Eye of Horus or the Eye of Ra? Honestly, it can be either. The Eye of Ra is the original form, the owner of the eyes and reference to either Bastet and/or Sekhmet/Hathor. We could use the Eye of Horus as well but it comes with the mythology of these eyes truly being the stolen property of Ra. Though, occasionally we can use the Eye of Horus as the one Set removes but having your eye plucked out hardly sounds like an image of protection to me. It is an interesting set of mythology.



If you want to read a translation of this myth check out Legends of Ancient Egypt by M.A. Murray.