Showing posts with label Isis. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Isis. 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. 

Monday, July 23, 2012

After another break...

I really want to keep up writing here weekly but with a festival coming up that I hope to vend at my time has turned to crafting. I thought I would take a moment to share some of what I have been working on.

This is a carved replica of a jointed and movable scarab amulet. I was originally working on a beaded collar for it but I have since changed my mind. I am now working on a set of beads more like the original artifact. (See the image below.)

Faience scarab amulet from the Late Period

These are a series of wall plaques. These are designed with hieroglyphic wards/warnings in a style of the Old and Middle Kingdom threat formulae. I am looking forward to doing some more of these but on papyrus. These three are for Thoth to bestow wisdom, Set to protect against thieves and Sekhmet to protect a family.

A hand carved replica Isis amulet. I still haven't been able to decide if I want to make her into a collar or a hair piece yet. I am sort of leaning toward a hair piece just because it will not be the usual.

A pair of wooden sistrums. These are the rattles sacred to Hathor and Bast as well as several other gods and goddesses. I am experimenting on how different materials alter the sound. So far the one on the right, with all wooden shakers, is my favorite for the delicate sound it makes. Though traditionally these were metal I don't have the facilities to forge metal pieces at home so I have opted for wood. I choose each from a naturally occurring "v" in a branch so they all end up having a unique form, shape and size.





So that is a little of what I have been up to. I hope to have an update here with some more posts later in the week, hopefully. Classes have started up again so it might be slow to start but I hope to get on a schedule for regular posts again soon.

Monday, April 23, 2012

Confessions 31-35


Confession 31. O Captain who came forth from Weten, I have not discussed
I have not discussed likely refers to not revealing private matters to uninvolved parties. Who is not involved in a situation is likely open to interpretation. Is a best friend uninvolved? What about some other confidant? When I read this I take it to mean revealing secrets or revealing personal matters to people who are outside of what those involve consider their confidants. After three days of searching for where or who "Weten" might be I am at a loss. I have yet to find any references to it. I will continue to look and hopefully in the near future there will be an answer for this Captain who came forth from Weten.

Confession 32. O Possessor of the Two Horns who came forth from Asyut, I have not been garrulous about matters. 
Asyut is mentioned here again, Lycopolis. The possessor of two horns is probably either Isis or Hathor. It is hard to tell considering that most of our copies of the Book of the Dead come from time periods where Isis and Hathor were, at times, merged into one goddess. Garrulous is a state of talking in a roundabout way. It also means not talking about trivial matters in ways that blow them out of proportion or make them out to be more important than they are.

Confession 33O Nefertum who came forth from Memphis, I have not done wrong, I have not done evil.
Nefertum is the son of of Sekhmet and Ptah. He is the god of the lotus blossom and Memphis is sacred to him and his family. This is a repetition of not going against Ma'at. Evil and Wrong are general terms that in Egyptian text refer to breaking the Laws of Ma'at.

Confession 34. O He-Who-Does-Not-Allow-Survivors who came forth from Bursiris, I have not disputed/cursed the king.
Bursiris is the birth place of Osiris (and probably the rest of Nut's children as well.) He who does not allow survivors could mean one of two things... either Osiris in his seat at Judgement or Set as the head of the military or just as a nasty character. Disputed the king or cursed the king here refers to more than just bad language. It is more related to destruction of tombs and mummies, disturbing the dead and those things. The other thing this could refer to is "king" could be translated as "king of the gods" which could be Ra or Osiris.This could refer to cursing the gods or going against the order of the universe.


Confession 35. O He-Who-Acts-As-He-Wishes who came forth from Antinaiopolis, I have not waded in the water.
This city (which has the Greco-Roman name here. The Egyptian city is likely Her-Wer.) This location is sacred to Khnum, Bes and Hathor. This is probably Bes because of the title. Bes is known for acting outside the norms of the other deities. Khnum, being a god of creation could also be thought of as a god who acts as he wishes in his role as a creator. I have not waded in the water means entering the sacred water of a temple to which you are not devoted to or a sacred spring, oasis, etc which is sacred to those you are not devoted to. It is a ways of maintaining sacred space which the Egyptians had a very complex protocol for. (It look like I have yet another topic to address after these confessions. Ideas of sacred space in the Egyptian culture.)


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.