Egypt

Posts : 376 Join date : 2015-01-18 Location : Judah

The Primeval Waters and the Ogdoad of Hermopolis:

Geraldine Pinch wrote:: Before creation there was a state of chaos that contained the potential for all life. This inchoate state was imagined as a dark watery domain of unlimited depth and extent. Elements and qualities of chaos could be personified as gods and goddesses. Some of these deities had to change or die to begin the creative process.
The origin of the universe was an intellectual problem that came to fascinate the Egyptians. Texts that allude to the unknowable era before creation defining it as the time " before two things had developed:. The cosmos was not yet divided into pairs or opposites such as earth and sky, light and darkness, male and female, or life and death.
The Egyptians speculated that the primeval substance was watery and dark and had no form and no boundaries. These primeval waters, known as the nu or the nun, continued to surround the world even after creation and were thought of as the ultimate source of the Nile. When personified as a deity, Nun could be called the father and mother of the creator, because the creator was thought of as coming into existence within the nun.
After creation, the qualities of the primeval state, such as its darkness, were retrospectively endowed with consciousness and became a group of deities known as the Eight or the Ogdoad of Hermopolis. The Eight were imagined as amphibians and reptiles, fertile creatures of the dark primeval slime. They were the forces that shaped the creator or even the first manifestations of the creator. In order to become the " fathers and mothers " of life, they had to change or, in some accounts, to die. Several temples claimed to be the burial place of these primeval deities.

Posts : 376 Join date : 2015-01-18 Location : Judah

Geraldine Pinch Wrote:
Egypt Early_11

Posts : 376 Join date : 2015-01-18 Location : Judah

Posts : 376 Join date : 2015-01-18 Location : Judah

Atum:

Quote :: Atum (also known as Tem or Temu) was the first and most important Ancient Egyptian god to be worshiped in Iunu (Heliopolis, Lower Egypt), although in later times Ra rose in importance in the city, and eclipsed him to some extent. He was the main deity of Per-Tem ("house of Atum") in Pithom in the eastern Delta.

Although he was at his most popular in the Old Kingdom in Lower Egypt, he is often closely associated with the Pharaoh all over Egypt. During the New Kingdom, Atum and the Theban god Montu (Montju) are depicted with the king in the Temple of Amun at Karnak. In the Late Period, amulets of lizards were worn as a token of the god.

Atum was the creator god in the Heliopolitan Ennead. The earliest record of Atum is the Pyramid Texts (inscribed in some of the Pyramids of the Pharaohs of dynasty five and six) and the Coffin Texts (created soon after for the tombs of nobles).

In the beginning there was nothing (Nun). A mound of earth rose from Nun and upon it Atum created himself. He spat Shu (air) and Tefnut (moisture) from his mouth. Atum's two offspring became separated from him and lost in the dark nothingness, so Atum sent his "Eye" to look for them (a precursor to the "Eye of Ra", an epithet given to many deities at different times). When they were found, he named Shu as "life" and Tefnut as "order" and entwined them together.

Quote :: Atum became tired and wanted a place to rest, so he kissed his daugther Tefnut, and created the first mound (Iunu) to rise from the waters of Nun. Shu and Tefnut gave birth to the earth (Geb) and the sky (Nut) who in turn give birth to Osiris, Isis, Set, Nephthys and Horus the elder. In later versions of the myth, Atum produces Shu and Tefnut by masturbation and splits up Geb and Nut because he is jealous of their constant copulation.

However, his creative nature has two sides. In the Book of the Dead, Atum tells Osiris that he will eventually destroy the world, submerging everything back into the primal waters (Nun), which were all that existed at the beginning of time. In this nonexistence, Atum and Osiris will survive in the form of serpents.

Atum, Ra, Horakhty and Khepri made up the different aspects of the sun. Atum was the setting sun which travelled through the underworld every night. He was also linked with solar theology, as the self-developing scarab who represented the newly created sun. As a result he is combined with Ra (the rising sun) in both the Pyramid and Coffin Texts as Re-Atum he who "emerges from the eastern horizon" and "rests in the western horizon". In other words as Re-Atum he died every night at dusk before resurrecting himself at dawn. The combined with the ruler of the gods. In this form, Atum also symbolized the setting sun and its journey through the underworld to its rising in the east.

Atum was the father of the gods, creating the first divine couple, Shu and Tefnut, from whom all the other gods are descended. He was also considered to be the father of the Pharaohs. Many Pharaohs used the title "Son of Atum" long after the power base moved from Iunu. Atum's close relationship to the king is seen in many cultic rituals, and in the coronation rites. A papyrus dating to the Late period shows that the god was of central importance to the New Year's festival in which the king's role was reconfirmed. From New Kingdom onwards, he often made an appearance inscribing royal names on the leaves of the sacred ished tree, and in some Lower Egyptian inscriptions Atum is shown crowning the Pharaoh (for example the shrine of Ramesses II in Pithom).

Texts in the New Kingdom tombs of the Valley of the Kings near Thebes depict Atum as an aged, ram-headed man who supervises the punishment of evildoers and the enemies of the sun god. He also repels some of the evil forces in the netherworld such as the serpents Nehebu-Kau and Apep (Apophis). He also provided protection to all good people, ensuring their safe passage past the Lake of Fire where there lurks a deadly dog-headed god who lives by swallowing souls and snatching hearts.

Atum is most usually depicted in anthropomorphic form and is typically shown wearing the dual crown of Upper and Lower Egypt. One of the only details that distinguishes him from a Pharaoh is the shape of his beard. He is also depicted with a solar disk and a long tripartite wig.

In his netherworld role, as well as his solar aspect, he is also often presented with the head of a ram. He may be seated on a throne but may also be shown standing erect, or even leaning on a staff when his old age is stressed. Atum was also represented by the image of the primeval hill. During the the First Intermediate period "Atum and his Hand" even appear as a divine couple on some coffins. He was represented by the black bull Mnewer, who bore the sun disk and uraeus between its horns. The snake, bull, lion, lizard and ichneumon (Egyptian mongoose) are his sacred animals. As an ape, he was sometimes armed with a bow with which to shoot his enemies. In his aspect as a solar deity, he was also depicted as a scarab and the giant scarab statue which now stands by the sacred lake at Karnak was dedicated to Atum. Also, numerous small bronze coffins containing mummified eels, bearing a figure of the fish on the top of the box and an inscription incised on it, attest to yet another zoomorphic incarnation of Atum.

Representations of Atum are surprisingly rare, but some of the depictions of the Pharaoh as "Lord of the Two Lands" may have also been viewed as incarnations of Atum. The largest of the rare statues of Atum is a group depicting King Horemheb of the 18th Dynasty kneeling in front of Atum.

Posts : 376 Join date : 2015-01-18 Location : Judah

The Distant Eye Goddess:

Geraldine Pinch wrote:: As described earlier, the Sole Eye was a separable active force even when the creator was still inert in the primeval waters. The Eye was sometimes treated as a female form of the sun god, but she was also called the " daughter of Ra." Various important goddesses were associated with this role, most commonly Bastet, Hathor, Mut, Sekhmet, Tefnut, and Wadjyt. For reasons that are rarely stated, the Eye goddess becomes angry and uncontrollable and refuses to stay with her father, Ra. Originally, this may only have been thought to happen when the Eye returned with Shu and Tefnut. Later versions of the myth seem to relate to the period when the world and humanity were well established. In these versions, the Eye goes to a distant realm, sometimes identified with the Nubian or Libyan deserts. There she rages in her terrible leonine form, destroying everything she meets. Ra is left vulnerable to his enemies, so he sends out one or more of the gods to persuade his daughter to return. This is a dangerous undertaking because the fiery power of the solar eye is stronger than all other deities.In some versions the chosen divine messenger is Onuris [Inhur]. Onuris was a hunter god whose name means " the one who brings back the distant one." The Onuris myth is only known from scattered allusions. It seems that as the most powerful and cunning of hunters, Onuris is able to track down and subdue the solar lioness. He brings her back to Egypt and is rewarded with marriage to the lion goddess.

Posts : 376 Join date : 2015-01-18 Location : Judah

Sobek

Quote :: Cult Center: Arsinoe (Crocodopolis)

A crocodile-god, he was worshipped in cities that depended on water, such as the oasis city of Arsinoe (Crocodilopolis), where the reptiles were kept in pools and adorned with jewels. Hundreds of the animals have been found mummified. He was worshipped to placate his sacred animals (the crocodiles).

He was portrayed as a man with the head of a crocodile, or sometimes simply as one. In the Book of the Dead, he assists in the birth of Horus and helps to destroy Seth. He also retrieved the Four Sons of Horus from the waters of Nun at the request of Re.

Posts : 376 Join date : 2015-01-18 Location : Judah