Papyrus
A symbol of life merging from primeval water. The plant is
used to produce the papyrus paper, the world’s first paper
Papyrus, writing material of ancient times and also the
plant from which it was derived, Cyperus papyrus (family Cyperaceae), also
called paper plant. The papyrus plant was long cultivated in the Nile delta
region in Egypt and was collected for its stalk or stem, whose central pith was
cut into thin strips, pressed together, and dried to form a smooth thin writing
surface.
Papyrus is a grasslike aquatic plant that has woody, bluntly
triangular stems and grows up to 4.6 m (about 15 feet) high in quietly flowing
water up to 90 cm (3 feet) deep. The
triangular stem can grow to a width of as much as 6 cm. The papyrus plant is
now often used as a pool ornamental in warm areas or in conservatories. The
dwarf papyrus (C. isocladus, also given as C. papyrus ‘Nanus’), up to 60 cm
tall, is sometimes potted and grown indoors.
The ancient Egyptians used the stem of the papyrus plant to
make sails, cloth, mats, cords, and, above all, paper. Paper made from papyrus
was the chief writing material in ancient Egypt, was adopted by the Greeks, and
was used extensively in the Roman Empire.
Due to its prevalence in the Nile Delta, the papyrus was the
heraldic plant of Lower (northern) Egypt, while the lily or lotus stood for
Upper (southern) Egypt.
The goddess Wadjet, depicted as a rearing cobra or a woman with the head of a lioness , was
the tutelary deity of Lower Egypt, and often is shown carrying a papyrus-shaped
scepter.
In ancient Egyptian cosmology, the world was created when
the first god stood on a mound that emerged from limitless and undifferentiated
darkness and water, a mythical echo of the moment each year when the land began
to reappear from beneath the annual floodwaters. Papyrus marshes were thus seen
as fertile regions that contained the germs of creation Ceilings in temples and
tombs were frequently supported with columns in the form of papyrus plants,
turning their architectural settings into models of this primeval marsh
In one of the great mythic cycles central to Egyptian
religion, the goddess Isis took her infant son Horus to the papyrus thickets of
the north to conceal him from her brother Seth, who had murdered her husband
Osiris and usurped his throne. Horus grew to manhood here, hidden among the
swaying reeds whose rustling sounds soothed him and masked his cries, until he
emerged to defeat his wicked uncle and reclaim his patrimony (. Horus was
protected and nursed while a baby by the goddess Hathor, who was worshipped in
the ritual of the Shaking of the Papyrus.
To celebrate her role as wet-nurse of Horus and symbol of
rebirth and resurrection in the celestial realm, this goddess is shown in the
form of a cow emerging from the papyrus thicket The handles of mirrors,
associated with Hathor as the goddess of eroticism and beauty, were often in
the form of papyrus plants.
The Papypus has served mankind well
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