9 World Chronicles

The two Horus of Kemetic/Egyptian mythology

Horus was the celestial Falcon and the embodiment of kingship. The conflict between Horus and Seth the two Lords was an enduring theme an Egyptian mythology.

The name Horace translates to meaning the distant one  but there were two main forms of Horace that appear in Kemetic mythology.

These are sometimes regarded as separate gods belonging to completely different  epox but sometimes has aspects of the same deity.

Horace the great or Horace the elder was a primeval being who initiated creation. As Lord of the Sky his wingspan the heaven, and his eyes were the sun and the moon. This Horus was the son of a Sky goddess either Nut or Hathor. Horace the younger was the son of Isis or Auset who grew up to avenge his murder father who was Osiris and take his place as the ruler of Kemet.

He was usually shown as a Falcon headed man. He represented Kingship Each King of Egypt was acclaimed as a living Horus.

Egypt's earliest Kings were shown as Hawks praying on their enemies. Many Egyptian deities could be represented by birds of the Hawk family. The hawk the cult of some of these gods such as Nekheny  were gradually assimilated with that of Horus.

One of the earliest divine images known from image from Egypt is that of a Falcon in a barque. This represents Horus as a star or planet crossing the winding waterway of the Sky. And later text paint a dazzling picture of “the one of dappled plumage who opened his eyes to dispel both darkness and chaos”.

Like other primary primeval deities the celestial Falcon coalesce with the creator son God.

He then became Ra Horakthy meaning Ra Horace of the double horizon. He  Who triumphed over his enemies to rise in the East. The union of these two powers could be symbolized by a Falcon Crowned with the sun disk or a sun disk with a falcon's wings.

When a King appeared to his subjects it was compared with the glorious rising of Horace in the horizon. The two Lords, Horus and Seth were depicted either as brothers or as nephew uncle.  Many theories have advanced to explain the origins of their combat from memories of an ancient civil War Two observations of storms or astronomical phenomenon.

When the combatants are Horace the elder the celestial Falcon and set the chaotic God of storms the conflict seems to belong to the primeval age 1 opposing element come together to create a divine order. Thus order dominating chaos.

The necessity of Horus and Seth being reconciled is stress in many sources. one of the key images of Royal art was Horus the Uniter Set tying together the plant of upper and lower Kemet to symbolize the union of the two lands into one perfect Kingdom.

although the figure is sometimes replaced with Thoth indicating that Set’s role as the Slayer of Osiris could not be overlooked.

When the great conflict is presented as a dynastic feud between young Horace and his usurper uncle.

Horace must triumph and Seth must be punished so that just kingship can be established for humanity. Horace who was son of Isis was destined to be King from the moment of conception his epitaph Horus who is upon the papyrus alludes to the myth that Auset hid the infant Horace in the papyrus thickets of a hidden island among the Marshes. The nest of Horace was guarded by divine beings such as a cow and scorpion goddess.

The young Horace grew up to become “the pillar of his mother” and “the Avenger of his father”.

 Advised by isis Horus fought Seth in many different ways. He turn set sexual aggression to his own advantage and overcame the temporary loss of power in his eye . Horace argued his father's case before the divine tribunal led by Geb.

Osiris is granted sovereignty over the dead and Horace over the living .

Horace the devoted son becomes the prototype for all funerary priests and performs a series of rituals to rise up Osiris. He also becomes an intermediary between the world of the living and the dead.

Horace is shown in the book of coming forth by day presenting  deceased souls before the throne of Osiris. The reign of Horus as King of Egypt was considered the model for all subsequent rains. The semi divine Kings who came after him in mythological history were called the followers of Horus

 In a few magical test text a scorpion goddess called Ta Bitjet is called the wife of Horus.

 A passage in the coffin text makes Horus the elder and his sister Isis the parents of four protective deities known as the sons of Horus. A festival at Edfu temple celebrate the beautiful union between Horus and Hathor the lady of Dendera. Here Horace is an aspect of the sun God uniting with the goddess to renew the cosmos.

.A mythical history of temples relates how to mysterious being subdued the primeval swamp by cutting down reads. When they struck a Reed in the ground it became a perch for the celestial Falcon, Horus the Elder.

The Reed Hut built to house the Falcon was set to be the center of the world and the first temple.

In the legend of the wing disc Horace the distant one takes the role usually given to the distant goddess and transforms himself into a fiery disc to blind and destroy the sun God's enemies. In the ritual drama known as triumph of Horace. Horus the son of Isis harpoons Seth in his hippopotamus form. After a series of battles by land and water he drives Seth and his followers out of Egypt just  as the Egyptian Kings hoped to drive out foreign invaders.

Nanaja goddess of sex and war

Classification: God

Cultures: Mesopotamian Babylonio Akkadian Fertility goddess.

Period of Worship : 3000 bce to roughly 800 BCE

Sacred Animal: the Hawk

Sacred Color: Blue

Sacred Stone Amethyst

Cult Centers: Lebanon, Syria, Iraq

Art references: the Stele of King Melispak II _circa 1186-1172 bce

She was venerated as a war goddess and was also known to the Babylonians as Tasmetu.

) is the canonical name for a goddess worshipped by the Sumerians and Akkadians, a deity who personified voluptuousness and sexuality, and warfare. Her cult was large and was spread as far as Egypt, Syria, and Iran.

the Voluptuous One

The Land grant to Ḫunnubat-Nanaya kudurru is a stele of King Meli-Shipak II (1186–1172 BCE). Nanaya, seated on a throne, is being presented the daughter of the king, Ḫunnubat-Nanaya.

Uruk circle of gods, forming with An/Anum and Inanna/Ishtar the dominant divine ‘Triad’.

Nanaja has taken many names over her long history. At times she has been confused with Inanna, but in art reliefs the two are often shown together.

Hequet Goddess of the Primeval slime

She who hastens the birth

Classification: Goddess

Culture: Kemetic/Egyptian

Associated: Birth, Rebirth  

Heqet is a frog goddess who helped women to give birth and the dead to be reborn. The knife wielding frog shown on ivory wants or probably hack at in her role as defender of women and children.

The beginning of her cult dates to the early dynastic period at least. Her name was part of the names of some high-born Second Dynasty individuals buried at Helwan and was mentioned on a stela of Wepemnofret and in the Pyramid Texts. Early frog statuettes are often thought to be depictions of her.

Hackett mistress of joy was among the followers of the Inundation God Hapi when he brought the new life of Egypt each year.

Egyptians believed that frogs were spontaneously generated from the mud left by the receding Nile flood. Heqet it came to be worshipped as the goddess of the primeval slime who gave birth to the sun God.

She was regarded as a female counterpart to the creator God canoe and the two are linked in a middle Kingdom Royal birth myth.

The sun God RA sends a group of deities to assist a woman name Ruddaddet giving birth to three children who were destined to be Kings . 4 goddesses Isis, Nephthys, Meskhenet, and Hequet disguise themselves as dancing girls while canoe pretends to be their servant.

At the House of Ruddadet her distraught husband asked him for help because his wife's labor is so painful and difficult.

The deities locked themselves in the room with Ruddadet and Hequet hastens the birth of the Royal triplets.

Isis names the children,  Meskhennet predicts their fate Khnum make, some strong and healthy.

The beauties create three crowns for the triplets and hide them in a sack of Burley before returning to their divine realm.

The story implies that the children were sired by RA and they grow to be the sun worshipping Kings of the 5th dynasty.

In new Kingdom Royal birth myths Hequet gives life to the body and Ka  of the Royal infant shaped on the Potter's wheel of Khnum. And temples of the first Millennium BCE known assisting goddess is giving birth to divine children.

At Abydos Haquet was revered for helping Isis bring Horus into the world and for assisting the murdered God Osiris to be reborn. All Egyptians hoped that after they died Hequet would act as a divine midwife to their rebirth.

Barque of Millions

Solar barques were the vessels used by the sun god Ra in ancient Egyptian mythology. During the day, Ra was said to use a vessel called the Mandjet or the Boat of Millions of Years, and the vessel he used during the night was known as the Mesektet.

Ra was said to travel through the sky on the barge, providing light to the world. Each twelfth of his journey formed one of the twelve Egyptian hours of the day, each overseen by a protective deity. Ra then rode the barque through the underworld, with each hour of the night considered a gate overseen by twelve more protective deities. Passing through all of these while fending off various destructive monsters, Ra reappeared each day on the eastern horizon. He was said to travel across the sky in the Mandjet Barque through the hours of the day, and then switch to the Mesektet Barque to descend into the underworld for the hours of the night.

The progress of Ra upon the Mandjet was sometimes conceived as his daily growth, decline, death, and resurrection and it appears in the symbology of Egyptian mortuary texts.

The Underworld Journey of Ra

1st gate: Sia, deification of perception,  standing on the prow of the sun boat, invites a snake called "Desert-Protector" to unlock the gate to the arrival of Ra who, in the form of the god Atum (deification of the sunset sun , observes his enemies being massacred.

2nd gate: the guardian god is called "Swallower Of Sinners" and his gate precedes a lake of fire.

3rd gate: its guardian snake is "Stinger" while the portal itself is the goddess "Mistress Of Food"; some jackals watch over the "Lake of Life" interdicted to the dead because it is the place where Ra draws his breath.

4th gate: some deities carry ropes to measure the extension of the netherworld fields — as well as, in the daily life of the Egyptians, the measurement of the fields was carried out for tax purposes; this is also where the four human ethnic groups (according to the Egyptians) were depicted: the "cattle of Ra", i.e. Egyptians themselves, Levantines, Libyans and Nubians.

5th gate: this gate is the goddess "Lady Of Duration" while its guardian serpent is "Flame-Eyed"; this access is inhabited by the perfidious demon Apep — embodiment of evil and chaos (Isfet), bitter enemy of Ra  — here called "Evil Of Face". 20 deities manage to stem his devastating power by continuing to dissect it, while the heads of those he devoured emerge from his coils. The sun boat moves on and Ra leaves this dramatic region.

6th gate: Ra's boat approaches to seven jackal-headed poles with two enemies bound to each one, waiting to be beheaded.

7th gate: this gate is the goddess "Shining One" and beyond it there are 20 gods holding a rope ending in four whips, four falcon heads and four human heads.

8th gate: this access is inhabited by a flaming snake who burns up the enemies of Ausar.

9th gate: here stand Horus and Set on a hawk-headed lion.

10th gate: Apep appears again, but chained in order not to harm Ra in his transit.

11th gate: this gate is called "Mysterious Of Approaches" and is overseen by the cat-headed god Meeyuty (meow onomatopoeia).

12th gate: here stand the goddesses Isis and Nephthys in the form of snakes: the journey through the gates of the afterlife is finished and the sun rises on the world in the form of a sacred scarab (Khepri, deification of the morning sun.

What is the Ba or Soul

The Ba an Egyptian symbol for the soul usually depicted as a bird with the head of the deceased. The ba is believed could flit between the world of the dead and the living if one knew the proper power words or spells (thought brought to life by the spoken word)

The Ba is only one of 9 very important components to the human “soul”.

Again, the importance of the sacred number 9 rears its pretty head. 9 being the number of completion.

In the line of this mythology the 8 Ogdoad pairs create Atum (9) and existence and life were created.

Ra would sir the 8 deities would join him to create the Ennead or 9 Shu and Tefntu, Geb and Nut, Ausra and Auset and Seth and Nepthys.

9 Would be import in the representation of the soul as well

The Khet is the physical form  which is why mummification became important as it was seen as essential for the afterlife.

Sah (spiritual body   spiritual representation of the physical body) forms. This spiritual body was then able to interact with the many entities extant in the afterlife. The Sah could manifest in this planes as well as an angry spirit.

Ib is the heart which is the center for emotion its formed from a dop of the mothers blood.

It was thought that the heart was examined by Anubis and the deities during the Weighing of the Heart ceremony. If the heart weighed more than the feather of Maat, it was immediately consumed by the monster Ammit, and the soul became eternally restless.

The heart is judged and weighed in the Weighing of the Heart Ceremony. If the heart was judged to be heavy with sin it was devoured by the monster Ammit.

The Ka is your vital essence the spark of life that comes from the universe. It’s the part of all of us that is divine. The Ka is immortal.

Shut (shadow)

A person's shadow or silhouette, šwt (shut), is always present. Because of this, Egyptians surmised that a shadow contains something of the person it represents.

sḫm (sekhem) as the living force or life-force of the soul which exists in the afterlife after all judgement has been passed.

Ren is a person’s given birth name its is seen as the sum of a person’s identity, experiences and knowledge.

Akh is the intellect and is associated as thought as a divine force.

The Ba is the unique aspect of a person, this is what makes us different, it is shaped by the intellect (Akh), the hearth and the Ka vital essence and the life force.

When a person suffers a mortal death the Ka leaves the body, the opening of the mouth ceremony frees the Ba and its components to join the Ka.

The ancient Kemet believed that the afterlife was similar to this life. As above so below. Is a phrase that captures that, and the Ba and Ka would create a new entity to replace the khet that as met it mortal time.

9 Components of Human Existence

Necropolis

A city where the dead are honored. With tombs and funerary shrines. Necro meaning death.

Most of the famous necropolises of Egypt line the Nile River across from their cities. In ancient Greece and Rome, a necropolis would often line the road leading out of a city; in the 1940s a great Roman necropolis was discovered under the Vatican's St. Peter's Basilica

Egypt

The Giza Necropolis of ancient Egy pt is one of the oldest and probably the most well-known necropolis in the world since the Great Pyramid of Giza was included in the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Aside from the pyramids, which were reserved for the burial of Pharaohs, the Egyptian necropoleis included mastabas, a typical royal tomb of the early Dynastic period.

Abusir

Bagawat

Dahshur

Saqqara

Siwa Oasis

Theban Necropolis

Minya

Algeria

Jedars

Nepasa

Roknia

Brazil

Cemitério de São Francisco Xavier

By Halley Pacheco de Oliveira - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36331204

The Etruscans took the concept of a "city of the dead" quite literally. These tombs had multiple chambers and were elaborately decorated like contemporary houses. The arrangement of the tumuli in a grid of streets gave it an appearance similar to the cities of the living.

Etruscan necropoleis were usually located on hills or slopes of hills.[5]

Mycenae

In the Mycenean Greek period predating ancient Greece, burials could be performed inside the city. In Mycenae, for example, the royal tombs were located in a precinct within the city walls. This changed during the ancient Greek period when necropoleis usually lined the roads outside a city.

Kerameikos outside of Athens

Vergina

Amphipolis

Marathon

Persia

Naqsh-e Rustam is an ancient necropolis located about 12 km (7.5 mi) northwest of Persepolis, in Fars Province, Iran. The oldest relief at Naqsh-i Rustam dates to c. 1000 BC Darius the Great

The North Acropolis of the ancient Maya city of Tikal in Guatemala is an architectural complex that served as a royal necropolis and was a centre for funerary activity for over 1300 years. The acropolis is located near the centre of the city and is one of the most studied of Maya architectural complexes.

Iraq

Wadi-us-Salaam, reputedly the largest cemetery in the world.

Lebanon

Tyre Necropolis

Libya

Necropolis of Cyrene

Malta

Hypogeum of Ħal-Saflieni

Morocco

Chellah is a medieval fortified Muslim necropolis located in the metro area of Rabat, Morocco,

North Macedonia

Saint Erasmus

Pakistan

Chaukundi

Makli Hill

Peru

Necropolis of Wari Kayan

Russia

Kremlin Wall Necropolis

Somalia

Hafun

Syria

Necropolis of Emesa

Valley of Tombs

Turkey

Tombs of the kings of Pontus

Karacaahmet Cemetery

Eyüp Cemetery

Hierapolis necropoleis

Lycian necropoleis

Ukraine

Caves of The Kyiv Pechersk Lavra

Uzbekistan

Bahoutdin Architectural Complex

Vatican City

Vatican Necropolis

tempt·ress

/ˈtem(p)trəs/

noun

a woman who tempts someone to do something, typically a sexually attractive woman who sets out to allure or seduce someone.

In the Biblical Account the temptress Delilah wooed and seduced the hero Samson in a plot to steal his strength by shaving his head.

She was successful in her endeavors.

In the epic of Gilgamesh  Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, abuses his people. In response to complaints from the citizens, the goddess Aruru creates Enkidu in the steppe. Abundantly hairy and primitive, he lives roaming with the herds and grazing and drinking from rivers with the beasts. One day a hunter watches Enkidu destroying the traps he has prepared for the animals. The hunter informs his father, who sends him to Uruk to ask Gilgamesh for help. The king sends Shamhat, a prostitute, who seduces Enkidu. After two weeks with her, he becomes human, intelligent and understanding words, however the beasts flee when they see him. Shamhat convinces Enkidu to face the tyrant Gilgamesh in combat.

The Goddess Inanna famously attempted to seduce Gilgamesh King of Urak. He rejected her, infuriating the proud gods. In retribution she unleashed the bull of heaven on Earth. The bull caused tremendous damage and killed people until he was slain by Gilgamesh and the now civilized Enkidu.

Circe the Siren of Greek myth seduced the Trojan Hero Odysseus. He spent a year on her isle before he was able to break free of her spell.

Lilith, the rebel turned demon of Abrahamic beliefs became a succubus as she was fully corrupted. She survived by seducing been in the guise of a beautiful temptress. Those who tell into her trap were drained of the life force.

The Kemetic Goddess Nephthys yearned for a child but was married to Set who rejected her. She seduced her sister Auset’s husband Ausar and conceived the Under world god Anubis (Anpu).

Sopdet  Sharp one

Associated: Sopdet Star (the Sirius), inundation of the Nile

Culture: North Africa Kemetic Egyptian

Cult Center: Per Sopdet

Period of Worship : predynastic peris through Greco-Roman invasion

Consort Sah (Orion)

Offspring: Sopdu Venus

The Astral Goddess

Sopdet (Sepdet, Sothis) personified the 'dog star' Sirius. This star was the most important of the stars to the ancient Egyptians.

SOPDET,  or SIRIUS, is the brightest of all the fixed, stars, and is regarded as the most important star in the sky, in Kemetic Beliefs,  forming the astronomical foundation of their religious system, delineating the rhythms, and cycles, by which they lived, and establishing its, mysterious connection, with humanity.

The heliacal rising of this star came at the time of inundation and the start of the Egyptian New Year.

 As a goddess of the inundation, she was a goddess of fertility. She also was linked to the pharaoh and his journey in the afterlife.

In the mythology of the NTRs (who would latter be called gods by the Greeks), the Sopdet star is their solar home. The source of not only these enlightened being but was viewed as the ultimate source of knowledge. This star can be seen from almost every inhabited region of Earths surface.

This celestial body was sacred to the Freemason and the order of the Eastern star.

Even as early as the 1st Dynasty, she was known as 'the bringer of the new year and the Nile flood'. When Sirius appeared in the sky each year, the Nile generally started to flood and bring fertility to the land. The ancient Egyptians connected the two events, and so Sopdet took on the aspects of a goddess of not only the star and of the inundation, but of the fertility that came to the land of Egypt with the flood. The flood and the rising of Sirius also marked the ancient Egyptian New Year, and so she also was thought of as a goddess of the New Year.

She is depicted as a nude figure wearing a conical white crown of Lower Egypt surmounted by a star. Late in Egyptian mythology she becomes largely syncretized with Isis.

heliacal rising of the bright star preceded the usual annual flooding of the Nile.[8] It was therefore apparently used for the solar civil calendar which largely superseded the original lunar calendar in the 3rd millennium BC

During the Old Kingdom, she was an important goddess of the annual flood and a psychopomp guiding deceased pharaohs through the Egyptian underworld.

From the Middle Kingdom, Sopdet sometimes appeared as a god who held up part of Nut (the sky or firmament) with Hathor.

She is also thought to be a guide in the afterlife for the pharaoh, letting him fly into the sky to join the gods, showing him 'goodly roads' in the Field of Reeds and helping him become one of the imperishable stars. She was thought to be living on the horizon, encircled by the Duat.

        ‘When I have bathed for the king, for the lord,

        when I have bathed for the shepherd Dumuzid (Dumuzi),

        when I have adorned my flanks (?) with ointment (?),

        when I have anointed my mouth with balsamic oil, when I have painted my eyes with kohl,

        when he has …… my hips with his fair hands,

        when the lord who lies down beside holy Inanna, the shepherd Dumuzid, has …… on his lap,

        when he has relaxed (?) …… in my pure (?) arms,

        when he has intercourse (?) with me …… like choice beer,

        when he ruffles my pubic hair for me, when he plays with the hair of my head,

        when he lays his hands on my holy genitals, when he lies down in the …… of my sweet womb,

        2 lines unclear

        when he treats me tenderly on the bed, then I will too treat my lord tenderly.

        I will decree a good fate for him!

        I will treat Culgi (King Shulgi), the good shepherd, tenderly!

        I will decree a good fate for him! I will treat him tenderly in his ……!

        I will decree the shepherdship of all the lands as his destiny!’ …

        ‘In battle I will be the one who goes before you.

        In combat I will carry your weapon like a personal attendant.

        In the assembly I will be your advocate.

        On campaign I will be your encouragement.

        You are a shepherd chosen by holy …….

        You are the generous provider of E-ana.

        You are the pure (?) one of An’s Iri-gal.

        You are worthy of …….

        You are one who is entitled to hold high his head on the lofty dais.

        You are one who is worthy of sitting on the shining throne.

        Your head is worthy of the brilliant crown.

        Your body is worthy of the long fleecy garment.

        You are worthy of being dressed in the royal garb.

        You are suited to hold the mitum weapon in your arm. …

        You are a fast runner suited to race on the road.

        You are worthy to delight yourself on my holy breast like a pure calf.

        May your love be lasting!

        An has determined this for you, and may he never alter it!

        May Enlil, the decreer of fates, never change it!’

Maat – The Embodiment of Truth

The central concept of Egyptian cosmology and ethics was Maat. The word Maat can mean truth justice righteousness or balance and cosmic law.

The primary duty of the Egyptian pharaoh or King was to be the champion of Maat.

to be sure that the kingdom was living in Maat.

The Goddess Maat became the personification of those principals.

Kings were frequently shown offering a miniature figure of Maat to the chief deity of any particular temple. All daily rituals and sacrifices would be deemed meaningless unless the King and his people were living righteously.  Judges and high officials wore images of the goddess to signify that they were enforcing her laws.

Maat was also a part of the death of a soul and an integral to the success of a soul passing through the Hall of the Two Truth where the heart was weighed against the feather of Maat.

In the book of coming forth by day the Hall of two truths is the place where souls of the dead come to be judged. The hearts of the dead were weighed against a feather of Maat.

If like Ra,  the dead person had Maat in his (her)  heart the scales were balanced, and the deceased would be clear declared true or voice or justified.  If the soul was heavy with untruth and misdeeds they were consumed by a great monster.

Maat was linked to Thoth who was the impartial judge who was said to have put the laws of Maat into writing. This gave a divine precedent for the many works of Egyptian literature that teach or debate how to live in Maat in the real world.

Egyptians’ myth of the golden age include a period when Maat was ruler of the world. she was sometimes said to have drawn in the heaven because unrighteous nature of some men.

The goddess Maat was the beloved daughter of RA the creator sun God. She travels with him in the solar baroque delighting his heart and “giving him life to his nostrils”.

From the old Kingdom onward, Maat  presence were thought to be vital to the daily regeneration of the sun God. In underworld books she is often shown standing close to Ra and both the day and night boats of the sun. This or the dual nature of Egypt as two kingdoms may explain why Maat can appear as two identical goddesses.

Goddess of cosmic order. Epitomizing the harmonious law of cosmic order and truth.

She was recognized from at least the middle of the third millennium and most likely much earlier.

Her only known sanctuary is in the Temple Complex Karnak at Thebes.

Maat is depicted either in human form wearing an ostrich plume on her head or by an ostrich feather alone.

The rulers of Egypt believed they were governed under her aegis and referred to themselves as “beloved of Maat.