1.
Goa'uld characters in Stargate
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This is a list of the Goauld characters that appear in Stargate, Stargate SG-1, and Stargate Atlantis. In the Stargate fictional universe, the Goauld are an alien race that use other beings as hosts. Most Goauld pose as gods in order to control slave armies, the Goauld are extremely intelligent and have an aptitude for understanding, working with, and using technology that is superior to that of humans. They each have access to their species genetic memory from the moment of birth. As a result, no Goauld has to learn how to operate any technological device, the character is first mentioned in the season 5 episode Between Two Fires, although he is not seen in person until Revelations. In Reckoning, he is seen in two different host bodies, played by Dean Aylesworth and Rik Kiviaho, in Threads, in the persona of Jim, he is played by George Dzundza. Anubis has a tendency to make pronouncements that are excessively melodramatic even by Goauld standards, at one point Jack ONeill comments, Oh come on, who talks like that. Anubis had been banished by the System Lords thousands of years ago for crimes that were unspeakably evil even by Goauld standards, Anubis was believed to have died thereafter, but in fact he had instead tricked the Ascended being Oma Desala into helping him Ascend. Anubis thus becomes an incorporeal being who is given form by a shield and he also has himself reinstated into the ranks of the System Lords despite having attacked their holdings, with the promise of eliminating the Tauri. ONeill flies the Stargate to a distance from Earth before it explodes. In, Anubis seeks out six powerful artifacts to power a superweapon on his mothership, SG-1 finds the last artifact, the Eye of Ra, on Abydos, and at Daniel Jacksons behest hands it to Anubis in exchange for sparing Abydos. In Fallen, SG-1 lures his mothership to Vis Uban and launches an F-302 attack that disables the superweapon, Anubis then travels to Langara to investigate naqahdriah as an alternate power source for his weapon, based on information he extracts from Jonas Quinns mind. The System Lords arrive at Langara and destroy his mothership, though Anubis escapes, in the second half of season 7, Anubis creates a new army of nearly invincible Kull Warriors to replace his Jaffa. He assassinates a number of minor Goauld, absorbing their forces into his own in preparation for the war against the System Lords. In Lost City, Anubis launches an assault on Earth with a fleet of over thirty motherships. His fleet is annihilated by the Ancient drone weapons launched from the Antarctica outpost by SG-1, however, Anubis survives in energy form and possesses several SGC personnel in a bid to reach the Stargate. Carter sends him, in the body of Colonel Vasilov, to a frozen wasteland, Anubis eventually frees himself and secretly establishes dominance over Baal, possessing a succession of host bodies as each one quickly deteriorates under his influence. During the Replicator invasion of the Milky Way, he plans to use the Dakara superweapon to destroy all life in the galaxy, Anubis continues his plan after the Replicators are destroyed, outmaneuvering the Free Jaffa and conquering Dakara
2.
Imentet
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Imentet was a goddess in Ancient Egyptian religion representing the necropolises west of the Nile. She was the consort of Aqen, a god who guided Ra through parts of the underworld, although she was never officially worshipped, she was mentioned in various hymns and passages of the Book of the Dead. As goddess of the deceased, she lived in a tree looking out at the entrance to the Underworld, though she might have been considered the daughter of Hathor and Horus. She was usually depicted as a queen in robes wearing the hieroglyph for west on her head or a sceptre and she often appears in tombs welcoming the deceased into the afterlife, sometimes with wings, and sometimes as a Kite because of her connection to Isis and Nephthys. Additionally, amenti was thought to be where the sun set, and where the entrance to the Underworld was located, although later the term began to associate itself with graveyards and tombs as well
3.
Egyptian hieroglyphs
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Egyptian hieroglyphs were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt. It combined logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with a total of some 1,000 distinct characters, cursive hieroglyphs were used for religious literature on papyrus and wood. The later hieratic and demotic Egyptian scripts are derived from hieroglyphic writing, the writing system continued to be used throughout the Late Period, as well as the Persian and Ptolemaic periods. Late survivals of hieroglyphic use are found well into the Roman period, with the closing of pagan temples in the 5th century, knowledge of hieroglyphic writing was lost, and the script remained undeciphered throughout the medieval and early modern period. The decipherment of hieroglyphs would only be solved in the 1820s by Jean-François Champollion, the word hieroglyph comes from the Greek adjective ἱερογλυφικός, a compound of ἱερός and γλύφω, supposedly a calque of an Egyptian phrase mdw·w-nṯr gods words. The glyphs themselves were called τὰ ἱερογλυφικὰ γράμματα the sacred engraved letters, the word hieroglyph has become a noun in English, standing for an individual hieroglyphic character. As used in the sentence, the word hieroglyphic is an adjective. Hieroglyphs emerged from the artistic traditions of Egypt. For example, symbols on Gerzean pottery from c.4000 BC have been argued to resemble hieroglyphic writing, proto-hieroglyphic symbol systems develop in the second half of the 4th millennium BC, such as the clay labels of a Predynastic ruler called Scorpion I recovered at Abydos in 1998. The first full sentence written in hieroglyphs so far discovered was found on a seal found in the tomb of Seth-Peribsen at Umm el-Qaab. There are around 800 hieroglyphs dating back to the Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, by the Greco-Roman period, there are more than 5,000. However, given the lack of evidence, no definitive determination has been made as to the origin of hieroglyphics in ancient Egypt. Since the 1990s, and discoveries such as the Abydos glyphs, as writing developed and became more widespread among the Egyptian people, simplified glyph forms developed, resulting in the hieratic and demotic scripts. These variants were more suited than hieroglyphs for use on papyrus. Hieroglyphic writing was not, however, eclipsed, but existed alongside the other forms, especially in monumental, the Rosetta Stone contains three parallel scripts – hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek. Hieroglyphs continued to be used under Persian rule, and after Alexander the Greats conquest of Egypt, during the ensuing Ptolemaic and Roman periods. It appears that the quality of comments from Greek and Roman writers about hieroglyphs came about, at least in part. Some believed that hieroglyphs may have functioned as a way to distinguish true Egyptians from some of the foreign conquerors, another reason may be the refusal to tackle a foreign culture on its own terms, which characterized Greco-Roman approaches to Egyptian culture generally
4.
Ancient Greek
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Ancient Greek includes the forms of Greek used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around the 9th century BC to the 6th century AD. It is often divided into the Archaic period, Classical period. It is antedated in the second millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Hellenistic phase is known as Koine. Koine is regarded as a historical stage of its own, although in its earliest form it closely resembled Attic Greek. Prior to the Koine period, Greek of the classic and earlier periods included several regional dialects, Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of fifth-century Athenian historians, playwrights, and philosophers. It has contributed many words to English vocabulary and has been a subject of study in educational institutions of the Western world since the Renaissance. This article primarily contains information about the Epic and Classical phases of the language, Ancient Greek was a pluricentric language, divided into many dialects. The main dialect groups are Attic and Ionic, Aeolic, Arcadocypriot, some dialects are found in standardized literary forms used in literature, while others are attested only in inscriptions. There are also several historical forms, homeric Greek is a literary form of Archaic Greek used in the epic poems, the Iliad and Odyssey, and in later poems by other authors. Homeric Greek had significant differences in grammar and pronunciation from Classical Attic, the origins, early form and development of the Hellenic language family are not well understood because of a lack of contemporaneous evidence. Several theories exist about what Hellenic dialect groups may have existed between the divergence of early Greek-like speech from the common Proto-Indo-European language and the Classical period and they have the same general outline, but differ in some of the detail. The invasion would not be Dorian unless the invaders had some relationship to the historical Dorians. The invasion is known to have displaced population to the later Attic-Ionic regions, the Greeks of this period believed there were three major divisions of all Greek people—Dorians, Aeolians, and Ionians, each with their own defining and distinctive dialects. Often non-west is called East Greek, Arcadocypriot apparently descended more closely from the Mycenaean Greek of the Bronze Age. Boeotian had come under a strong Northwest Greek influence, and can in some respects be considered a transitional dialect, thessalian likewise had come under Northwest Greek influence, though to a lesser degree. Most of the dialect sub-groups listed above had further subdivisions, generally equivalent to a city-state and its surrounding territory, Doric notably had several intermediate divisions as well, into Island Doric, Southern Peloponnesus Doric, and Northern Peloponnesus Doric. The Lesbian dialect was Aeolic Greek and this dialect slowly replaced most of the older dialects, although Doric dialect has survived in the Tsakonian language, which is spoken in the region of modern Sparta. Doric has also passed down its aorist terminations into most verbs of Demotic Greek, by about the 6th century AD, the Koine had slowly metamorphosized into Medieval Greek
5.
Ancient Egyptian deities
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Ancient Egyptian deities are the gods and goddesses worshipped in ancient Egypt. The beliefs and rituals surrounding these gods formed the core of ancient Egyptian religion, the gods complex characteristics were expressed in myths and in intricate relationships between deities, family ties, loose groups and hierarchies, and combinations of separate gods into one. Deities diverse appearances in art—as animals, humans, objects, and combinations of different forms—also alluded, through symbolism, to their essential features. In different eras, various gods were said to hold the highest position in society, including the solar deity Ra, the mysterious god Amun. The highest deity was usually credited with the creation of the world, some scholars have argued, based in part on Egyptian writings, that the Egyptians came to recognize a single divine power that lay behind all things and was present in all the other deities. Gods were assumed to be present throughout the world, capable of influencing natural events, people interacted with them in temples and unofficial shrines, for personal reasons as well as for larger goals of state rites. Egyptians prayed for help, used rituals to compel deities to act. Humans relations with their gods were a part of Egyptian society. The beings in ancient Egyptian tradition who might be labeled as deities are difficult to count, Egyptian texts list the names of many deities whose nature is unknown and make vague, indirect references to other gods who are not even named. The Egyptologist James P. Allen estimates that more than 1,400 deities are named in Egyptian texts, the Egyptian languages terms for these beings were nṯr, god, and its feminine form nṯrt, goddess. Scholars have tried to discern the nature of the gods by proposing etymologies for these words, but none of these suggestions has gained acceptance. The hieroglyphs that were used as ideograms and determinatives in writing these words show some of the traits that the Egyptians connected with divinity, the most common of these signs is a flag flying from a pole. Similar objects were placed at the entrances of temples, representing the presence of a deity, other such hieroglyphs include a falcon, reminiscent of several early gods who were depicted as falcons, and a seated male or female deity. The feminine form could also be written with an egg as determinative, connecting goddesses with creation and birth, or with a cobra, the Egyptians distinguished nṯrw, gods, from rmṯ, people, but the meanings of the Egyptian and the English terms do not match perfectly. The term nṯr may have applied to any being that was in some way outside the sphere of everyday life, Egyptian religious art also depicts places, objects, and concepts in human form. These personified ideas range from deities that were important in myth and ritual to obscure beings, only mentioned once or twice, confronting these blurred distinctions between gods and other beings, scholars have proposed various definitions of a deity. One widely accepted definition, suggested by Jan Assmann, says that a deity has a cult, is involved in some aspect of the universe, according to a different definition, by Dimitri Meeks, nṯr applied to any being that was the focus of ritual. From this perspective, gods included the king, who was called a god after his coronation rites, and deceased souls, likewise, the preeminence of the great gods was maintained by the ritual devotion that was performed for them across Egypt
6.
Ancient Egyptian religion
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Ancient Egyptian religion was a complex system of polytheistic beliefs and rituals which were an integral part of ancient Egyptian society. It centered on the Egyptians interaction with many deities who were believed to be present in, and in control of, rituals such as prayers and offerings were efforts to provide for the gods and gain their favor. Formal religious practice centered on the pharaoh, the king of Egypt and he acted as the intermediary between his people and the gods and was obligated to sustain the gods through rituals and offerings so that they could maintain order in the universe. The state dedicated enormous resources to Egyptian rituals and to the construction of the temples, individuals could interact with the gods for their own purposes, appealing for their help through prayer or compelling them to act through magic. These practices were distinct from, but closely linked with, the formal rituals, the popular religious tradition grew more prominent in the course of Egyptian history as the status of the Pharaoh declined. Another important aspect was the belief in the afterlife and funerary practices, the Egyptians made great efforts to ensure the survival of their souls after death, providing tombs, grave goods, and offerings to preserve the bodies and spirits of the deceased. The religion had its roots in Egypts prehistory and lasted for more than 3,000 years, the details of religious belief changed over time as the importance of particular gods rose and declined, and their intricate relationships shifted. At various times, certain gods became preeminent over the others, including the sun god Ra, the creator god Amun, for a brief period, in the theology promulgated by the Pharaoh Akhenaten, a single god, the Aten, replaced the traditional pantheon. Ancient Egyptian religion and mythology left behind many writings and monuments, along with significant influences on ancient, the beliefs and rituals now referred to as ancient Egyptian religion were integral within every aspect of Egyptian culture. Their language possessed no single term corresponding to the modern European concept of religion, the characteristics of the gods who populated the divine realm were inextricably linked to the Egyptians understanding of the properties of the world in which they lived. The Egyptians believed that the phenomena of nature were divine forces in and these deified forces included the elements, animal characteristics, or abstract forces. The Egyptians believed in a pantheon of gods, which were involved in all aspects of nature and their religious practices were efforts to sustain and placate these phenomena and turn them to human advantage. This polytheistic system was complex, as some deities were believed to exist in many different manifestations. Conversely, many forces, such as the sun, were associated with multiple deities. The diverse pantheon ranged from gods with vital roles in the universe to minor deities or demons with very limited or localized functions. It could include gods adopted from foreign cultures, and sometimes humans, deceased Pharaohs were believed to be divine, and occasionally, distinguished commoners such as Imhotep also became deified. The depictions of the gods in art were not meant as representations of how the gods might appear if they were visible. Instead, these depictions gave recognizable forms to the deities by using symbolic imagery to indicate each gods role in nature
7.
Ogdoad (Egyptian)
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In Egyptian mythology, the Ogdoad were eight primordial deities worshipped in Hermopolis during the Old Kingdom period. Budge compares the concept to a group of four pairs of primeval gods mentioned in the Babylonian Enûma Eliš, texts of the Late Period describe them as having the heads of frogs and serpents, and they are often depicted in this way in reliefs of the Greco-Roman period. The eight deities were arranged in four pairs, as follows. The names of Nu and Nut are written with the determiners for sky and water, but from the context of a number of passages in which Ḥeḥu is mentioned, Brugsch also suggested that he may be a personification of the atmosphere between heaven and earth. The fourth pair appears with varying names, sometimes the name Qerḥ is replaced by Ni, Nenu, Nut, or Amun, the common meaning of qerḥ is night, but the determinative also suggests the principle of inactivity or repose. There is no way to attribute four functions to the four pairs of gods. Ennead Butler, Edward P. Hermopolitan Ogdoad
8.
Hermopolis
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Hermopolis was a major city in antiquity, located near the boundary between Lower and Upper Egypt. A provincial capital since the Old Kingdom period, Hermopolis developed into a city of Roman Egypt. It was abandoned after the Muslim invasion and its remains are located near the modern Egyptian town of El Ashmunein in Al Minya governorate. Khemenu, the Ancient Egyptian name of the city, means eight-town, after the Ogdoad, the name survived into Coptic as Ϣⲙⲟⲩⲛⲉⲓⲛ, from which the modern name, El Ashmunein, is derived. Thoth was associated in the way with the Semitic Eshmun. Inscriptions at the call the god The Lord of Eshmun. The city was the capital of the Hare nome in the Heptanomis, Hermopolis stood on the borders of Upper and Lower Egypt, and, for many ages, the Thebaïd or upper country extended much further to the north than in more recent periods. As the border town, Hermopolis was a place of resort and opulence. A little to south of the city was the castle of Hermopolis, the principal deities worshipped at Hermopolis were Typhôn and Thoth. Typhon was represented by a hippopotamus, on which sat a hawk fighting with a serpent, Thoth, whom the Ancient Greeks associated with Hermes because they were both gods of magic and writing, was represented by the Ibis. A surviving Oxyrhynchus Papyrus of the 3rd century AD indicates that buildings with seven stories existed in the town. The collection of Arabic papyri in the John Rylands Library, Manchester, contains many documents referring to Hermopolis, the city is still a titular diocese in the Roman Catholic Church, and in the Coptic Orthodox Church. The Ibis-headed god, was, with his accompanying emblems, the Ibis and the Cynocephalus or ape and his designation in inscriptions was The Lord of Eshmoon. The portico, the remnant of the temple, consists of a double row of pillars. The architraves are formed of five stones, each passes from the centre of one pillar to that of the next, the intercolumnation of the centre pillars is wider than that of the others, and the stone over the centre is twenty-five feet and six inches long. These columns were painted yellow, red, and blue in alternate bands, there is also a peculiarity in the pillars of the Hermopolitan portico peculiar to themselves, or, at least, discovered only again in the temple of Gournou. Instead of being formed of large masses placed horizontally above each other, they are composed of irregular pieces, the widest part of the intercolumnation is 17 feet, the other pillars are 13 feet apart. Currently there is a small museum in which stand two massive statues of Thoth as a baboon worshipping the sun, and a few carved blocks of masonry
9.
Creation myth
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A creation myth is a symbolic narrative of how the world began and how people first came to inhabit it. While in popular usage the term often refers to false or fanciful stories, formally. Cultures generally regard their creation myths as true, in the society in which it is told, a creation myth is usually regarded as conveying profound truths, metaphorically, symbolically and sometimes in a historical or literal sense. They are commonly, although not always, considered cosmogonical myths – that is, Creation myths often share a number of features. They often are considered sacred accounts and can be found in all known religious traditions. They are all stories with a plot and characters who are either deities, human-like figures, or animals and they are often set in a dim and nonspecific past that historian of religion Mircea Eliade termed in illo tempore. Creation myths develop in oral traditions and therefore typically have multiple versions, found throughout human culture, Creation myth definitions from modern references, A symbolic narrative of the beginning of the world as understood in a particular tradition and community. Creation myths are of importance for the valuation of the world, for the orientation of humans in the universe. Creation myths tell us how things began, all cultures have creation myths, they are our primary myths, the first stage in what might be called the psychic life of the species. As cultures, we identify ourselves through the collective dreams we call creation myths, … Creation myths explain in metaphorical terms our sense of who we are in the context of the world, and in so doing they reveal our real priorities, as well as our real prejudices. Our images of creation say a deal about who we are. A philosophical and theological elaboration of the myth of creation within a religious community. Religion professor Mircea Eliade defined the word myth in terms of creation, Myth narrates a history, it relates an event that took place in primordial Time. All creation myths are in one sense etiological because they attempt to explain how the world was formed, in the past historians of religion and other students of myth thought of them as forms of primitive or early-stage science or religion and analyzed them in a literal or logical sense. However they are seen as symbolic narratives which must be understood in terms of their own cultural context. Charles Long writes, The beings referred to in the myth – gods, animals, the myths should not be understood as attempts to work out a rational explanation of deity. While creation myths are not literal explications they do serve to define an orientation of humanity in the world in terms of a birth story. They are the basis of a worldview that reaffirms and guides how people relate to the world, to any assumed spiritual world
10.
Amun
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Amun was a major Ancient Egyptian deity. He was attested since the Old Kingdom together with his wife Amaunet, with the 11th dynasty, he rose to the position of patron deity of Thebes by replacing Monthu. After the rebellion of Thebes against the Hyksos and with the rule of Ahmose I, Amun acquired national importance, expressed in his fusion with the Sun god, Ra, Amun-Ra retained chief importance in the Egyptian pantheon throughout the New Kingdom. Amun-Ra in this period held the position of transcendental, self-created creator deity par excellence, he was the champion of the poor or troubled and his position as King of Gods developed to the point of virtual monotheism where other gods became manifestations of him. With Osiris, Amun-Ra is the most widely recorded of the Egyptian gods, as the chief deity of the Egyptian Empire, Amun-Ra also came to be worshipped outside of Egypt, according to the testimony of ancient Greek historiographers in Libya and Nubia. As Zeus Ammon he came to be identified with Zeus in Greece, Amun and Amaunet are mentioned in the Old Egyptian Pyramid Texts. The name Amun meant something like the one or invisible. Amun rose to the position of tutelary deity of Thebes after the end of the First Intermediate Period, as the patron of Thebes, his spouse was Mut. In Thebes, Amun as father, Mut as mother and the Moon god Khonsu formed a family or Theban Triad. The history of Amun as the god of Thebes begins in the 20th century BC. The city of Thebes does not appear to have been of great significance before the 11th dynasty, major construction work in the Precinct of Amun-Re took place during the 18th dynasty when Thebes became the capital of the unified ancient Egypt. Construction of the Hypostyle Hall may have begun during the 18th dynasty, though most building was undertaken under Seti I. Merenptah commemorated his victories over the Sea Peoples on the walls of the Cachette Court and this Great Inscription shows the kings campaigns and eventual return with booty and prisoners. Next to this inscription is the Victory Stela, which is largely a copy of the more famous Israel Stela found in the complex of Merenptah on the west bank of the Nile in Thebes. Merenptahs son Seti II added 2 small obelisks in front of the Second Pylon, and this was constructed of sandstone, with a chapel to Amun flanked by those of Mut and Khonsu. The last major change to the Precinct of Amun-Res layout was the addition of the first pylon, the local patron deity of Thebes, Amun, therefore became nationally important. The pharaohs of that new dynasty attributed all their enterprises to Amun. The victory accomplished by pharaohs who worshipped Amun against the rulers, brought him to be seen as a champion of the less fortunate
11.
Tutankhamun
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Tutankhamun was an Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th dynasty, during the period of Egyptian history known as the New Kingdom or sometimes the New Empire Period. He has, since his discovery, been referred to as King Tut. His original name, Tutankhaten, means Living Image of Aten, in hieroglyphs, the name Tutankhamun was typically written Amen-tut-ankh, because of a scribal custom that placed a divine name at the beginning of a phrase to show appropriate reverence. The 1922 discovery by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon of Tutankhamuns nearly intact tomb received worldwide press coverage and it sparked a renewed public interest in ancient Egypt, for which Tutankhamuns mask, now in the Egyptian Museum, remains the popular symbol. Exhibits of artifacts from his tomb have toured the world, in February 2010, the results of DNA tests confirmed that he was the son of Akhenaten. His mother was Akhenatens sister and wife, whose name is unknown, the mysterious deaths of a few of those who excavated Tutankhamuns tomb has been popularly attributed to the curse of the pharaohs. Tutankhamun was the son of Akhenaten and one of Akhenatens sisters, as a prince, he was known as Tutankhaten. He ascended to the throne in 1333 BC, at the age of nine or ten and his wet nurse was a woman called Maia, known from her tomb at Saqqara. His teacher was most likely Sennedjem, when he became king, he married his half-sister, Ankhesenpaaten, who later changed her name to Ankhesenamun. They had two daughters, both stillborn, computed tomography studies released in 2011 revealed that one daughter died at 5–6 months of pregnancy and the other at 9 months of pregnancy. No evidence was found in either mummy of congenital anomalies or an apparent cause of death, given his age, the king probably had very powerful advisers, presumably including General Horemheb and Grand Vizier Ay. Horemheb records that the king appointed him lord of the land as hereditary prince to maintain law and he also noted his ability to calm the young king when his temper flared. In his third year, under the influence of his advisors. He ended the worship of the god Aten and restored the god Amun to supremacy, the ban on the cult of Amun was lifted and traditional privileges were restored to its priesthood. The capital was moved back to Thebes and the city of Akhetaten abandoned and this is when he changed his name to Tutankhamun, Living image of Amun, reinforcing the restoration of Amun. As part of his restoration, the king initiated building projects, in particular at Karnak in Thebes, many monuments were erected, and an inscription on his tomb door declares the king had spent his life in fashioning the images of the gods. The traditional festivals were now celebrated again, including those related to the Apis Bull, Horemakhet and his restoration stela says, The temples of the gods and goddesses. Their shrines were deserted and overgrown and their sanctuaries were as non-existent and their courts were used as roads
12.
Karnak
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The Karnak Temple Complex, commonly known as Karnak, comprises a vast mix of decayed temples, chapels, pylons, and other buildings. Building at the complex began during the reign of Senusret I in the Middle Kingdom and continued into the Ptolemaic period, the area around Karnak was the ancient Egyptian Ipet-isut and the main place of worship of the eighteenth dynasty Theban Triad with the god Amun as its head. It is part of the city of Thebes. The Karnak complex gives its name to the nearby, and partly surrounded, the complex is a vast open-air museum, and the second largest ancient religious site in the world, after the Angkor Wat Temple of Cambodia. It is believed to be the second most visited site in Egypt. It consists of four parts, of which only the largest is currently open to the general public. The term Karnak often is understood as being the Precinct of Amun-Ra only, the three other parts, the Precinct of Mut, the Precinct of Montu, and the dismantled Temple of Amenhotep IV, are closed to the public. There also are a few temples and sanctuaries connecting the Precinct of Mut, the Precinct of Amun-Re. The Precinct of Mut is very ancient, being dedicated to an Earth and creation deity, the original temple was destroyed and partially restored by Hatshepsut, although another pharaoh built around it in order to change the focus or orientation of the sacred area. Many portions of it may have carried away for use in other buildings. The key difference between Karnak and most of the temples and sites in Egypt is the length of time over which it was developed and used. Construction of temples started in the Middle Kingdom and continued through to Ptolemaic times, approximately thirty pharaohs contributed to the buildings, enabling it to reach a size, complexity, and diversity not seen elsewhere. Few of the features of Karnak are unique, but the size. The deities represented range from some of the earliest worshiped to those worshiped much later in the history of the Ancient Egyptian culture and it also contains evidence of adaptations, using buildings of the Ancient Egyptians by later cultures for their own religious purposes. One famous aspect of Karnak is the Hypostyle Hall in the Precinct of Amun-Re,122 of these columns are 10 meters tall, and the other 12 are 21 meters tall with a diameter of over three meters. The architraves on top of columns are estimated to weigh 70 tons. These architraves may have been lifted to these heights using levers and this would be an extremely time-consuming process and also would require great balance to get to such great heights. A common alternative theory regarding how they were moved is that large ramps were constructed of sand, mud, brick or stone, if stone had been used for the ramps, they would have been able to use much less material
13.
Pyramid Texts
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The Pyramid Texts are a collection of ancient Egyptian religious texts from the time of the Old Kingdom. Written in Old Egyptian, the texts were carved on the walls. The oldest of the texts have been dated to between ca, unlike the later Coffin Texts and Book of the Dead, the pyramid texts were reserved only for the pharaoh and were not illustrated. The spells delineate all of the ways the pharaoh could travel, including the use of ramps, stairs, ladders, the spells could also be used to call the gods to help, even threatening them if they did not comply. The texts were first discovered in 1881 by Gaston Maspero, and translations were made by Kurt Heinrich Sethe, Louis Speleers, Raymond O. Faulkner, Samuel A. B. The oldest version consists of 228 spells and comes from the Pyramid of Unas, Pyramid Texts were also discovered on fragments of wood within in the tomb of queen Meretites II. Kurt Sethes first edition of the texts contained 714 distinct spells. No single collection uses all recorded spells, after death, the king must first rise from his tomb. Take your head, collect your bones, Gather your limbs, take your bread that rots not, your beer that sours not, Stand at the gates that bar the common people. The gatekeeper comes out to you, he grasps your hand, Takes you into heaven and he rejoices at your coming, gives you his hands, Kisses you, caresses you, Sets you before the spirits, the imperishable stars. The texts then describe several ways for the pharaoh to reach the heavens, in utterance 304 the king says, Hail, daughter of Anubis, above the hatches of heaven, Comrade of Thoth, above the ladders rails, Open Unass path, let Unas pass. If the boatman refuses to him, the king has other plans, If you fail to ferry Unas, He will leap and sit on the wing of Thoth. Apart from the burial of Unas, only the Pyramid of Teti displays the Cannibal Hymn, a god who lives on his fathers, who feeds on his mothers. Unas is the bull of heaven Who rages in his heart, Who lives on the being of every god, Who eats their entrails When they come, the cannibal hymn later reappeared in the Coffin Texts as Spell 573. It was dropped by the time the Book of the Dead was being copied, in the first scene of Philip Glasss opera Akhnaten, the phrase Open are the double doors of the horizon is a quotation from the Pyramid Texts. More specifically, it seems to come from Utterance 220, the American death metal band Nile made a song, Unas Slayer of the Gods which contains many references to the Pyramid Texts, including the Cannibal Hymn. In the 2001 action-adventure movie, The Mummy Returns, when Imhotep gets a jar full of dust and blows it, he part of the Utterance 373. In neuer deutscher Uebersetzung, vollständig bearbeitet und herausgegeben von Wolfgang Kosack Christoph Brunner, Berlin 2012, a New Concordance of the Pyramid Texts
14.
Mut
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Mut, which meant mother in the ancient Egyptian language, was an ancient Egyptian mother goddess with multiple aspects that changed over the thousands of years of the culture. Alternative spellings are Maut and Mout and she was considered a primal deity, associated with the waters from which everything was born through parthenogenesis. She also was depicted as a woman with a head dress, the rulers of Egypt each supported her worship in their own way to emphasize their own authority and right to rule through an association with Mut. Some of Muts many titles included World-Mother, Eye of Ra, Queen of the Goddesses, Lady of Heaven, Mother of the Gods, and She Who Gives Birth, But Was Herself Not Born of Any. Mut was a title of the waters of the cosmos, Naunet, in the Ogdoad cosmogony during what is called the Old Kingdom. The hieroglyph for Muts name, and for itself, was that of a vulture. Much later new myths held that since Mut had no parents, making up a complete triad of deities for the later pantheon of Thebes, it was said that Mut had adopted Menthu, god of war. Lower and upper Egypt both already had patron deities–Wadjet and Nekhbet–respectively, indeed they also had lioness protector deities–Bast and Sekhmet–respectively, when Thebes rose to greater prominence, Mut absorbed these warrior goddesses as some of her aspects. Later in ancient Egyptian mythology deities of the pantheon were identified as equal pairs, female and male counterparts, in that phase, Mut and Amun had a son, Khonsu, another moon deity. The authority of Thebes waned later and Amun was assimilated into Ra, Mut, the doting mother, was assimilated into Hathor, the cow-goddess and mother of Horus who had become identified as Ras wife. Subsequently, when Ra assimilated Atum, the Ennead was absorbed as well, and so Mut-Hathor became identified as Isis, the most important of the females in the Ennead, and the patron of the queen. Alternatively, as a result of her assimilations, Mut is sometimes depicted as a cobra, a cat, a cow, or as a lioness as well as the vulture. The last image on this shows the goddesss facial features which mark this as a work made sometime between late Dynasty XVIII and relatively early in the reign of Ramesses II. There are temples dedicated to Mut still standing in modern-day Egypt and Sudan, reflecting the widespread worship of her and that temple had the statue that was regarded as an embodiment of her real ka. Her devotions included daily rituals by the pharaoh and her priestesses, interior reliefs depict scenes of the priestesses, currently the only known remaining example of worship in ancient Egypt that was exclusively administered by women. Usually the queen, who carried the royal lineage among the rulers of Egypt. The pharaoh participated also and would become a deity after death, in the case when the pharaoh was female, records of one example indicate that she had her daughter serve as the high priestess in her place. Often priests served in the administration of temples and oracles where priestesses performed the religious rites
15.
Mentuhotep II
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Nebhepetre Mentuhotep II was a Pharaoh of the 11th Dynasty who reigned for 51 years. Around his 39th year on the throne he reunited Egypt, thus ending the First Intermediate Period, consequently, he is considered the first pharaoh of the Middle Kingdom. Mentuhotep II was the son of Intef III and Intef IIIs wife Iah who may also have been his sister. This lineage is demonstrated by the stele of Henenu, an official who served under Intef II, Intef III and his son, as for Iah, she bore the title of mwt-nswt, Kings mother. The parentage of Mentuhotep II is also confirmed by a relief at Shatt er-Rigal. f Kings wife, his beloved. She gave Mentuhotep II two children, one of which was certainly Mentuhotep III since Tem was also called mwt-nswt, Kings mother and mwt-nswt-bitj, apparently she died after her husband and was buried by her son in Mentuhotep temple. Her tomb was discovered in 1859 by Lord Duffering and fully excavated in 1968 by D. Arnold, Neferu II was called Kings wife and hmt-nswt-mryt. f, Kings wife, his beloved. She was buried in the tomb TT319 of Deir el-Bahri, kawit was one of Mentuhotep IIs secondary wives. She bore the titles of hmt-nswt mryt. f Kings wife, his beloved and khkrt-nswt and she was a Priestess of the goddess Hathor. It has been suggested that she was Nubian and she was buried under the terrasse of Mentuhotep IIs mortuary temple where E. Naville uncovered her sarcophagus in 1907. Sadeh, Ashayet, Henhenet and Kemsit were all Mentuhotep IIs secondary wives and they bore the title of hmt-nswt mryt. f Kings wife, his beloved and khkrt-nswt-w3tit Unique embellishment of the King. They were priestesses of Hathor and each of them was buried in a pit dug under the terrasse of Mentuhotep IIs temple. Note that an alternative theory holds that Henhenet was one of Intef IIIs secondary wives, Henhenet might have died in childbirth. Mwyt, a girl buried with Mentuhotep IIs secondary wives. It is not clear if she was one of Mentuhoteps wives herself or one of his daughters, Mentuhotep II is considered to be the first ruler of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt. The Turin Canon credits him with a reign of 51 years, when he ascended the Theban throne, Mentuhotep II inherited the vast land conquered by his predecessors from the first cataract in the south to Abydos and Tjebu in the north. Mentuhotep IIs first fourteen years of reign seem to have been peaceful in the Theban region as there are no surviving traces of conflict firmly datable to that period, in the 14th year of his reign, an uprising occurred in the north. This uprising is most probably connected with the conflict between Mentuhotep II based in Thebes and the rival 10th Dynasty based at Herakleopolis who threatened to invade Upper Egypt
16.
Thebes, Egypt
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Thebes, known to the ancient Egyptians as Waset, was an ancient Egyptian city located east of the Nile about 800 kilometers south of the Mediterranean. Its ruins lie within the modern Egyptian city of Luxor, Thebes was the main city of the fourth Upper Egyptian nome. It was close to Nubia and the desert, with their valuable mineral resources. It was a center and the wealthiest city of ancient Egypt at its heyday. The Ancient Egyptians originally knew Thebes as Wose or Wase A was was the scepter of the pharaohs, a staff with an animals head. Thebes is the Latinized form of the Greek Thebai, the form of the Demotic Egyptian Ta-pe. This was the name not for the city itself but for the Karnak temple complex on the northern east bank of the city. As early as Homers Iliad, the Greeks distinguished the Egyptian Thebes as Thebes of the Hundred Gates, as opposed to the Thebes of the Seven Gates in Boeotia, from the end of the New Kingdom, Thebes was known in Egyptian as Niwt-Imn, the City of Amun. Amun was the chief of the Theban Triad of gods whose other members were Mut and this name appears in the Bible as the Nōʼ ʼĀmôn of the Book of Nahum and probably also as the No mentioned in Ezekiel and Jeremiah. In the interpretatio graeca, Amun was seen as a form of Zeus, the name was therefore translated into Greek as Diospolis, the City of Zeus. To distinguish it from the other cities by this name. The Greek names came into use after the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great. Thebes was located along the banks of the Nile River in the part of Upper Egypt about 800 km from the Delta. It was built largely on the plains of the Nile Valley which follows a great bend of the Nile. As a natural consequence, the city was laid in a northeast-southwest axis parallel to the river channel. Thebes had an area of 93 km2 which included parts of the Theban Hills in the west that culminates at the sacred 420-meter al-Qurn, in the east lies the mountainous Eastern Desert with its wadis draining into the valley. Significant of these wadis is Wadi Hammamat near Thebes and it was used as an overland trade route going to the Red Sea coast. In the fourth Upper Egyptian nome, Thebes was found to have neighboring towns such as Per-Hathor, Madu, Djerty, Iuny, Sumenu, according to George Modelski, Thebes had about 40,000 inhabitants in 2000 BC
17.
Pharaoh
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The word pharaoh ultimately derive from the Egyptian compound pr-ˤ3 great house, written with the two biliteral hieroglyphs pr house and ˤ3 column, here meaning great or high. It was used only in larger phrases such as smr pr-ˤ3 Courtier of the High House, with specific reference to the buildings of the court or palace. From the twelfth dynasty onward, the word appears in a wish formula Great House, may it live, prosper, and be in health, but again only with reference to the royal palace and not the person. During the reign of Thutmose III in the New Kingdom, after the rule of the Hyksos during the Second Intermediate Period. During the eighteenth dynasty the title pharaoh was employed as a designation of the ruler. From the nineteenth dynasty onward pr-ˤ3 on its own was used as regularly as hm. f, the term, therefore, evolved from a word specifically referring to a building to a respectful designation for the ruler, particularly by the twenty-second dynasty and twenty-third dynasty. For instance, the first dated appearance of the pharaoh being attached to a rulers name occurs in Year 17 of Siamun on a fragment from the Karnak Priestly Annals. Here, an induction of an individual to the Amun priesthood is dated specifically to the reign of Pharaoh Siamun and this new practice was continued under his successor Psusennes II and the twenty-second dynasty kings. Shoshenq I was the successor of Siamun. Meanwhile, the old custom of referring to the sovereign simply as pr-ˤ3 continued in traditional Egyptian narratives, by this time, the Late Egyptian word is reconstructed to have been pronounced *par-ʕoʔ whence Herodotus derived the name of one of the Egyptian kings, Φερων. In the Bible, the title also occurs as פרעה, from that, Septuagint φαραώ pharaō and then Late Latin pharaō, both -n stem nouns. The Quran likewise spells it فرعون firawn with n, interestingly, the Arabic combines the original pharyngeal ayin sound from Egyptian, along with the -n ending from Greek. English at first spelt it Pharao, but the King James Bible revived Pharaoh with h from the Hebrew, meanwhile in Egypt itself, *par-ʕoʔ evolved into Sahidic Coptic ⲡⲣ̅ⲣⲟ prro and then rro. Scepters and staves were a sign of authority in ancient Egypt. One of the earliest royal scepters was discovered in the tomb of Khasekhemwy in Abydos, kings were also known to carry a staff, and Pharaoh Anedjib is shown on stone vessels carrying a so-called mks-staff. The scepter with the longest history seems to be the heqa-scepter, the earliest examples of this piece of regalia dates to pre-dynastic times. A scepter was found in a tomb at Abydos that dates to the late Naqada period, another scepter associated with the king is the was-scepter. This is a long staff mounted with an animal head, the earliest known depictions of the was-scepter date to the first dynasty
18.
Coronation of the pharaoh
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A coronation was an extremely important ritual in early and ancient Egyptian history, concerning the change of power and rulership between two succeeding pharaohs. The accession to the throne was celebrated in ceremonies, rites. The coronation feast was not one event but rather as a long lasting process including several festivals, for this reason, Egyptologists today describe the year that a new pharaoh accessed to power as the year of the coronation. The earliest depictions of rites and ceremonies concerning an accession to the throne may be found on objects from the reign of the predynastic king Scorpion II, at this time, the change between rulers may have been marked by wars and invasions from neighboring Egyptian proto-kingdoms. From king Narmer onwards, wars between Egyptian proto-kingdoms may have been replaced by symbolic ceremonies and festivals. The stone also records various events during a reign, such as the creation of statues, city and domain foundations, cattle counts. The stone also gives the date of a rulers accession to the throne. The first year of a ruler on the throne, the year of coronation, was not counted in a kings regnal year count, and the stone mentions only the most important ceremonies that took place in this year. As already mentioned, the coronation included several, long lasting festivals, rites and ceremonies the king had to celebrate first, the most famous depiction of this ritual may be seen on the ceremonial palette of king Narmer. Another symbolic depiction of the unification feast appears on a relief dating to the reign of king Senusret I. Circumambulation of the White Walls The ceremony of the circumambulation of the White Walls is known from the inscriptions on the Palermo stone. According to legends, the White Walls, in Egyptian Inebu Hedj, appearance of the king The feast appearance of the king is likewise known from inscriptions on the Palermo stone. This feast was held immediately after the coronation, as a confirmation of the right to rule. After the end of the year of the coronation, the feast was celebrated every second year, the earliest known mention of this feast dates back to king Djoser, first pharaoh of 3rd dynasty. Sed feast One of the most important feasts of Ancient Egypt linked with a time on the throne was the Sed festival. It included many complex rituals, which are not fully understood up to this day, the first celebration of the feast was held during the year of the coronation. After that, the celebration was held in the 30th year of the pharaoh on the throne. Early dynastic rulers, for which at least one Sed feast is archaeologically attested, include Narmer, Den, Qaa, Nynetjer, some kings simply claimed to have celebrated a Sed festival, despite archaeological evidences proof that they did not rule for 30 years
19.
Sed festival
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The Sed festival was an ancient Egyptian ceremony that celebrated the continued rule of a pharaoh. The name is taken from the name of an Egyptian wolf god and this tail might have been the vestige of a previous ceremonial robe made out of a complete animal skin. In his sun temple at Abu Ghurab, of Akhenaten at East Karnak, the ancient festival might, perhaps, have been instituted to replace a ritual of murdering a pharaoh who was unable to continue to rule effectively because of age or condition. Eventually, Sed festivals were celebrated after a ruler had held the throne for thirty years. They primarily were held to rejuvenate the pharaohs strength and stamina while still sitting on the throne, there is clear evidence for early pharaohs celebrating the Heb Sed, such as the First Dynasty pharaoh Den and the Third Dynasty pharaoh Djoser. In the Pyramid of Djoser, there are two stones in his Heb Sed court, which is within his pyramid complex. He also is shown performing the Heb Sed in a false doorway inside his pyramid, one of the earliest Sed festivals for which there is substantial evidence is that of the Sixth Dynasty pharaoh Pepi I Meryre in the South Saqqara Stone Annal document. The most lavish, judging by surviving inscriptions, were those of Ramesses II, pharaohs who followed the typical tradition, but did not reign so long as 30 years had to be content with promises of millions of jubilees in the afterlife. Upon her husbands death, the eligible male in the royal family was a stepson. He was made a consort and, shortly thereafter, she was crowned pharaoh and he had appointed his daughter to the highest administrative office in his government, giving her a co-regents experience at ruling many aspects of his bureaucracy. This reflects an oracular assertion supported by the priests of Amun-Re that her father named her as heir to the throne, Akhenaten made many changes to religious practices in order to remove the stranglehold on the country by the priests of Amun-Re, whom he saw as corrupt. His religious reformation may have begun with his decision to celebrate his first Sed festival in his regnal year. His purpose may have been to gain an advantage against the temple, since a Sed-festival was a royal jubilee intended to reinforce the pharaohs divine powers. At the same time he moved his capital away from the city that these priests controlled. Media related to Sed festival at Wikimedia Commons
20.
Festival Hall of Thutmose III
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The Festival Hall of Thutmose III is an ancient shrine in Luxor, Egypt. It is located at the heart of the Precinct of Amun-Re, the edifice is normally translated as the most glorious of monuments, but monument to living spirit is an alternative translation since akh can mean either glory or blessed/living spirit. The Festival Hall of Thutmose III is situated at the end of the Middle Kingdom court and it was originally built to celebrate the jubilee of Thutmose III, and later became used as part of the annual Opet Festival. It is seemingly decorated to echo a huge tent shrine, complete with awnings, in this temple, the Karnak king list, shows Thutmose III with some of the earlier kings that built parts of the temple complex. Built at the end of Karnaks main axis, and enclosed in its own walls. This is known as the Hry-ib, or that which is at the heart of it, the only original entrance was in the south-west corner. The walls contain the Botanical garden of Thutmosis III, the originals of these were removed and are now located in the Louvre in Paris. List of lists of ancient kings Blyth, Elizabeth, thebes in Egypt A Guide to the Tombs and Temples of Ancient Luxor. Ancient Egypt, Anatomy of a Civilization
21.
Min (god)
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Min is an ancient Egyptian god whose cult originated in predynastic times. He was represented in different forms, but was often represented in male human form, shown with an erect penis which he holds in his left hand. As Khem or Min, he was the god of reproduction, as Khnum, he was the creator of all things, the maker of gods and men. His cult was strongest in Coptos and Akhmim, where in his honour great festivals were held celebrating his “coming forth” with a procession and presentation of offerings. His other associations include the desert and links to the god Horus. Flinders Petrie excavated two statues of Min at Qift which are now in the Ashmolean Museum and it is thought by some that they are pre-dynastic. Although not mentioned by name a reference to he whose arm is raised in the East in the Pyramid Texts is thought to refer to Min and his importance grew in the Middle Kingdom when he became even more closely linked with Horus as the deity Min-Horus. By the New Kingdom he was fused with Amun in the deity Min-Amun-kamutef. Mins shrine was crowned with a pair of bull horns, as the central deity of fertility and possibly orgiastic rites Min became identified by the Greeks with the god Pan. He also had connections with Nubia, however, his main centres of worship were Qift and Akhmim. In Egyptian art, Min was depicted as being covered in shrouds, wearing a crown with feathers, and often holding his penis erect in his left hand and a flail in his upward facing right hand. Around his forehead, Min wears a red ribbon that trails to the ground, even some war goddesses were depicted with the body of Min, and this also led to depictions, ostensibly of Min, with the head of a lioness. In the 19th century, there was an erroneous transcription of the Egyptian for Min as ḫm. Since Khem was worshipped most significantly in Akhmim, the identity of Khem was reinforced. However, Akhmim is a corruption of ḫm-mnw, meaning Shrine of Min. In Hymn to Min it is said, Min, Lord of the Processions, God of the High Plumes, Son of Osiris and Isis, mins wives were Iabet and Repyt. The God Min to the End of the Old Kingdom, ISBN9780856686788 Media related to Min at Wikimedia Commons Site on Min, with some pictures
22.
Red Crown
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Deshret, from ancient Egyptian, was the formal name for the Red Crown of Lower Egypt and for the desert Red Land on either side of Kemet, the fertile Nile river basin. When combined with the Hedjet of Upper Egypt, it forms the Pschent, the Red Crown in Egyptian language hieroglyphs eventually was used as the vertical letter n. The original n hieroglyph from the Predynastic Period, and the Old Kingdom was the sign depicting ripples of water, in mythology, the earth deity Geb, original ruler of Egypt, invested Horus with the rule over Lower Egypt. The Egyptian pharaohs, who saw themselves as successors of Horus, other deities wore the deshret too, or were identified with it, such as the protective serpent goddess Wadjet and the creator-goddess of Sais, Neith, who often is shown wearing the Red Crown. The Red Crown would later be combined with the White Crown of Upper Egypt to form the Double Crown, symbolizing the rule over the whole country, as concerns deshret, the Red Land which comprised the deserts and foreign lands surrounding Egypt, Seth was its lord. It was considered a region of chaos, without law and full of dangers, none of the red crowns have survived, and it is unknown how it was constructed and what materials were used. Copper, reeds, cloth, and leather have been suggested, the Red Crown frequently is mentioned in texts and depicted in reliefs and statues. An early example is the depiction of the victorious pharaoh wearing the deshret on the Narmer Palette, a label from the reign of Djer records a royal visit to the shrine of the Deshret which may have been located at Buto in the Nile delta. The ancient Egyptian Red Crown, the Deshret crown, is one of the oldest Egyptian hieroglyphs, as an iconographic element, it is used on the famous Narmer Palette of Pharaoh Narmer as the Red Crown of the Delta, the Delta being Lower Egypt. The first usage of the Red Crown was in iconography as the symbol for Lower Egypt with the Nile Delta, later it came to be used in the Egyptian language – as an alphabetic uniliteral, vertical form for letter n as a phoneme or preposition. It became functional in running hieroglyphic texts, where either the horizontal or vertical form preposition satisfied space requirements, the Red Crown is also used as a determinative, most notably in the word for deshret. It is also used in words or names of gods. One older use of the red crown hieroglyph is to make the word, Egyptian in is used at the beginning of a text and translates as, Behold. or Lo. and is an emphatic. In the 198 BC Rosetta Stone, the Red Crown as hieroglyph has the usage mostly of the form of the preposition n. Visually it is also a hieroglyph that takes up more space-, so it may have a purpose of a less compact text. The Red Crown hieroglyph is used 35 times in the Rosetta Stone and it averages once per line usage in the 36 line Decree of Memphis -. Deshret, the Red Crown of the Pharaoh Gardiners Sign List#S. Crowns, Dress, Staves, Gardiners Sign List Deshret in hieroglyphic writing Budge. An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary, E. A. Wallace Budge, c 1978, the Rosetta Stone, E. A. Wallace Budge, c 1929, Dover edition,1989
23.
Thutmose III
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Thutmose III was the sixth Pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. During the first 22 years of Thutmoses reign he was co-regent with his stepmother and aunt, Hatshepsut, while he was shown first on surviving monuments, both were assigned the usual royal names and insignia and neither is given any obvious seniority over the other. He served as the head of her armies, during the final 2 years of his reign, he appointed his son and successor, Amenhotep II, as his junior co-regent. His firstborn son and heir to the throne, Amenemhat, predeceased Thutmose III, when Thutmose III died, he was buried in the Valley of the Kings as were the rest of the kings from this period in Egypt. Thutmose III was the son of Thutmose II by a secondary wife and his fathers great royal wife was Queen Hatshepsut. Her daughter Neferure was Thutmoses half-sister, Thutmosis III had little power over the empire while Hatshepsut exercised the formal titulary of kingship. Her rule was quite prosperous and marked by great advancements, when he reached a suitable age and demonstrated the capability, she appointed him to head her armies. Thutmosis III had several wives, Satiah, She may have been the mother of his firstborn son, an alternative theory is that the boy was the son of Neferure. Thutmoses successor, the prince and future king Amenhotep II, was the son of Merytre-Hatshepsut. Additional children include Menkheperre and daughters named Nebetiunet, Meryetamun, Meryetamun, Merytre-Hatshepsut was the daughter of the divine adoratrice Huy. Nebtu, she is depicted on a pillar in Thutmose IIIs tomb, menwi, Merti, Menhet three foreign wives. Neferure, Thutmose III may have married his half-sister, but there is no evidence for this marriage. It has been suggested that Neferure, instead of Satiah, may have been the mother of Amenemhat, Thutmose III reigned from 1479 BC to 1425 BC according to the Low Chronology of Ancient Egypt. This has been the conventional Egyptian chronology in academic circles since the 1960s and this document has no note of the place of observation, but it can safely be assumed that it was taken in either a Delta city such as Memphis or Heliopolis, or in Thebes. These two latitudes give dates 20 years apart, the High and Low chronologies, respectively, the length of Thutmose IIIs reign is known to the day thanks to information found in the tomb of the military commander Amenemheb-Mahu. Amenemheb-Mahu records Thutmose IIIs death to his masters 54th regnal year, widely considered a military genius by historians, Thutmose III made 16 raids in 20 years. He was an active expansionist ruler, sometimes called Egypts greatest conqueror or the Napoleon of Egypt and he is recorded to have captured 350 cities during his rule and conquered much of the Near East from the Euphrates to Nubia during seventeen known military campaigns. He was the first Pharaoh after Thutmose I to cross the Euphrates and his campaign records were transcribed onto the walls of the temple of Amun at Karnak, and are now transcribed into Urkunden IV
24.
Papyrus
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The word papyrus /pəˈpaɪrəs/ refers to a thick precursor to modern paper made from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus. Papyrus can also refer to a document written on sheets of papyrus joined together side by side and rolled up into a scroll, the plural for such documents is papyri. Papyrus is first known to have used in ancient Egypt. It was also used throughout the Mediterranean region and in Kingdom of Kush, the Ancient Egyptians used papyrus as a writing material, as well as employing it commonly in the construction of other artifacts such as reed boats, mats, rope, sandals, and baskets. Papyrus was first manufactured in Egypt as far back as the fourth millennium BCE, the earliest archaeological evidence of papyrus was excavated in 2012 and 2013 at Wadi al-Jarf, an ancient Egyptian harbor located on the Red Sea coast. The papyrus rolls describe the last years of building the Great Pyramid of Giza, in the first centuries BCE and CE, papyrus scrolls gained a rival as a writing surface in the form of parchment, which was prepared from animal skins. Sheets of parchment were folded to form quires from which book-form codices were fashioned, early Christian writers soon adopted the codex form, and in the Græco-Roman world, it became common to cut sheets from papyrus rolls to form codices. Codices were an improvement on the scroll, as the papyrus was not pliable enough to fold without cracking. Papyrus had the advantage of being cheap and easy to produce. Unless the papyrus was of quality, the writing surface was irregular. Its last appearance in the Merovingian chancery is with a document of 692, the latest certain dates for the use of papyrus are 1057 for a papal decree, under Pope Victor II, and 1087 for an Arabic document. Its use in Egypt continued until it was replaced by more inexpensive paper introduced by Arabs who originally learned of it from the Chinese, by the 12th century, parchment and paper were in use in the Byzantine Empire, but papyrus was still an option. Papyrus was made in several qualities and prices, pliny the Elder and Isidore of Seville described six variations of papyrus which were sold in the Roman market of the day. These were graded by quality based on how fine, firm, white, grades ranged from the superfine Augustan, which was produced in sheets of 13 digits wide, to the least expensive and most coarse, measuring six digits wide. Materials deemed unusable for writing or less than six digits were considered commercial quality and were pasted edge to edge to be used only for wrapping, until the middle of the 19th century, only some isolated documents written on papyrus were known. They did not contain literary works, the first modern discovery of papyri rolls was made at Herculaneum in 1752. Until then, the papyri known had been a few surviving from medieval times. The English word papyrus derives, via Latin, from Greek πάπυρος, Greek has a second word for it, βύβλος
25.
Neith
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Neith was an early goddess in the Egyptian pantheon. She was the deity of Sais, where her cult was centered in the Western Nile Delta of Egypt. The Ancient Egyptian name of city was Zau. Neith was a goddess of war and of hunting and had as her symbol, however, she is a far more complex goddess than is generally known, and of whom ancient texts only hint of her true nature. In her usual representations, she is portrayed as a fierce deity and her symbol also identified the city of Sais. This symbol was displayed on top of her head in Egyptian art, in her form as a goddess of war, she was said to make the weapons of warriors and to guard their bodies when they died. As a deity, Neith is normally shown carrying the was scepter and she is also called such cosmic epithets as the Cow of Heaven, a sky-goddess similar to Nut, and as the Great Flood, Mehet-Weret, as a cow who gives birth to the sun daily. In these forms, she is associated with creation of both the time and daily re-creation. She is identified as a mother goddess in this role as a creator. As a female deity and personification of the waters, Neith encompasses masculine elements. She is a version of Ptah-Nun, with her feminine nature complemented with masculine attributes symbolized with her association with the bow and arrow. In the same manner, her personification as the waters is Mehetweret. Neith is one of the most ancient deities associated with ancient Egyptian culture and her first anthropomorphic representations occur in the early dynastic period, on a diorite vase of King Ny-Netjer of the Second Dynasty, found in the Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara. That her worship predominated the early dynastic periods is shown by a preponderance of theophoric names within which Neith appears as an element. It has been suggested the hunt/war features of Neith’s imagery may indicate her origin from Libya, located west and southwest of Egypt, while Neith is generally regarded as a deity of Lower Egypt, her worship was not consistently located in that region. Her cult reached its height in Saïs and apparently in Memphis in the Old Kingdom, however, the cult regained political and religious prominence during the 26th Dynasties when worship at Saïs flourished again, as well as at Esna in Upper Egypt. Neiths symbol and part of her hieroglyph also bore a resemblance to a loom, at this time her role as a creator conflated with that of Athena, as a deity who wove all of the world and existence into being on her loom. As mother of Ra, in her Mehet-Weret form, she was described as the Great Cow who gave birth to Ra
26.
Ptolemaic Kingdom
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The Ptolemaic Kingdom was a Hellenistic kingdom based in Egypt. Alexandria became the city and a major center of Greek culture. To gain recognition by the native Egyptian populace, they named themselves the successors to the Pharaohs, the later Ptolemies took on Egyptian traditions by marrying their siblings, had themselves portrayed on public monuments in Egyptian style and dress, and participated in Egyptian religious life. The Ptolemies had to fight native rebellions and were involved in foreign and civil wars led to the decline of the kingdom. Hellenistic culture continued to thrive in Egypt throughout the Roman and Byzantine periods until the Muslim conquest. The era of Ptolemaic reign in Egypt is one of the most well documented periods of the Hellenistic Era. In 332 BC, Alexander the Great, King of Macedon invaded the Achaemenid satrapy of Egypt and he visited Memphis, and traveled to the oracle of Amun at the Oasis of Siwa. The oracle declared him to be the son of Amun, the wealth of Egypt could now be harnessed for Alexanders conquest of the rest of the Persian Empire. Early in 331 BC he was ready to depart, and led his forces away to Phoenicia and he left Cleomenes as the ruling nomarch to control Egypt in his absence. Following Alexanders death in Babylon in 323 BC, a crisis erupted among his generals. Perdiccas appointed Ptolemy, one of Alexanders closest companions, to be satrap of Egypt, Ptolemy ruled Egypt from 323 BC, nominally in the name of the joint kings Philip III and Alexander IV. However, as Alexander the Greats empire disintegrated, Ptolemy soon established himself as ruler in his own right, Ptolemy successfully defended Egypt against an invasion by Perdiccas in 321 BC, and consolidated his position in Egypt and the surrounding areas during the Wars of the Diadochi. In 305 BC, Ptolemy took the title of King, as Ptolemy I Soter, he founded the Ptolemaic dynasty that was to rule Egypt for nearly 300 years. All the male rulers of the dynasty took the name Ptolemy, while princesses and queens preferred the names Cleopatra, Arsinoe and Berenice. Because the Ptolemaic kings adopted the Egyptian custom of marrying their sisters, many of the kings ruled jointly with their spouses and this custom made Ptolemaic politics confusingly incestuous, and the later Ptolemies were increasingly feeble. The only Ptolemaic Queens to officially rule on their own were Berenice III, Cleopatra V did co-rule, but it was with another female, Berenice IV. Cleopatra VII officially co-ruled with Ptolemy XIII Theos Philopator, Ptolemy XIV, and Ptolemy XV, upper Egypt, farthest from the centre of government, was less immediately affected, even though Ptolemy I established the Greek colony of Ptolemais Hermiou to be its capital. But within a century Greek influence had spread through the country, nevertheless, the Greeks always remained a privileged minority in Ptolemaic Egypt
27.
Philip III of Macedon
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Philip III Arrhidaeus reigned as king of Macedonia from after 11 June 323 BC until his death. He was a son of King Philip II of Macedonia by Philinna of Larissa, named Arrhidaeus at birth, he assumed the name Philip when he ascended to the throne. As Arrhidaeus grew older it became apparent that he had learning difficulties. Alexander was fond of Arrhidaeus and took him on his campaigns, after Alexanders death in Babylon in 323 BC, the Macedonian army in Asia proclaimed Arrhidaeus as king, however, he served merely as a figurehead and as the pawn of a series of powerful generals. Arrhidaeus whereabouts during the reign of his brother Alexander are unclear from the extant sources and he was in Babylon at the time of Alexanders death on 10 June 323 BC. Arrhidaeus was the most obvious candidate, but he was unfit to rule. This eventuality did indeed arise and resulted in Roxanas son, Alexander and it was immediately decided that Philip Arrhidaeus would reign, but not rule, this was to be the prerogative of the new regent, Perdiccas. When news arrived in Macedonia that Arrhidaeus had been chosen as king, Cynane and this move was an obvious affront to the regent, whom Cynane had completely bypassed, and to prevent the marriage, Perdiccas sent his brother, Alcetas, to kill Cynane. The reaction among the troops generated by this murder was such that the regent had to give up his opposition to the proposed match and accept the marriage. From that moment on, Philip Arrhidaeus was to be under the sway of his bride, eurydices chance to increase her husbands power came when the first war of the Diadochi sealed the fate of Perdiccas, making a new settlement necessary. An agreement was made at Triparadisus in Syria in 320 BC, the regent died of natural causes the following year, nominating as his successor not his son Cassander, but his friend and lieutenant, Polyperchon. Cassanders refusal to accept his fathers decision sparked the Second War of the Diadochi, an opportunity presented itself in 317 BC when Cassander expelled Polyperchon from Macedonia. Eurydice immediately allied herself with Cassander and persuaded her husband to him as the new regent. Cassander reciprocated by leaving her in control of the country when he left to campaign in Greece. But individual circumstances and events at time were subject to rapid change. That same year, Polyperchon and Olympias allied with her cousin, Aeacides, king of Epirus, the Macedonian troops refused to fight Olympias, the mother of Alexander. Philip and Eurydice had no choice but to escape, only to be captured at Amphipolis, in 1977, important excavations were made near Vergina leading to the discovery of a two-chambered royal tomb, with an almost perfectly preserved male skeleton. He appears as one of the characters in the novel Funeral Games by Mary Renault
28.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
29.
Maat
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Maat or Maat was the ancient Egyptian concept of truth, balance, order, harmony, law, morality, and justice. Maat was also personified as a goddess regulating the stars, seasons, cuneiform texts indicate that the word mˤ3t was pronounced /múʕʔa/ during the New Kingdom period, having lost the feminine ending t. Sound shifts from u to e later produced the cognate Coptic word ⲙⲉⲉ/ⲙⲉ truth, later, as a goddess in other traditions of the Egyptian pantheon, where most goddesses were paired with a male aspect, her masculine counterpart was Thoth, as their attributes are similar. In other accounts, Thoth was paired off with Seshat, goddess of writing and measure and her feather was the measure that determined whether the souls of the departed would reach the paradise of afterlife successfully. Pharaohs are often depicted with the emblems of Maat to emphasise their role in upholding the laws of the Creator, Maat represents the ethical and moral principle that every Egyptian citizen was expected to follow throughout their daily lives. They were expected to act with honor and truth in manners that involve family, the community, the nation, the environment, Maat as a principle was formed to meet the complex needs of the emergent Egyptian state that embraced diverse peoples with conflicting interests. The development of such rules sought to avert chaos and it became the basis of Egyptian law, from an early period the King would describe himself as the Lord of Maat who decreed with his mouth the Maat he conceived in his heart. The ancient Egyptians had a conviction of an underlying holiness. Cosmic harmony was achieved by public and ritual life. Any disturbance in cosmic harmony could have consequences for the individual as well as the state, an impious King could bring about famine or blasphemy blindness to an individual. In opposition to the order expressed in the concept of Maat is the concept of Isfet, chaos, lies. In one Middle Kingdom text the Creator declares I made every man like his fellow, a passage in the Instruction of Ptahhotep presents Maat as follows, Maat is good and its worth is lasting. It has not been disturbed since the day of its creator and it lies as a path in front even of him who knows nothing. Wrongdoing has never yet brought its venture to port and it is true that evil may gain wealth but the strength of truth is that it lasts, a man can say, It was the property of my father. There is little surviving literature that describes the practice of ancient Egyptian law, Maat was the spirit in which justice was applied rather than the detailed legalistic exposition of rules. Maat represented the normal and basic values that formed the backdrop for the application of justice that had to be carried out in the spirit of truth and fairness. From the 5th dynasty onwards the Vizier responsible for justice was called the Priest of Maat, later scholars and philosophers also would embody concepts from the wisdom literature, or Sebayt. These spiritual texts dealt with social or professional situations and how each was best to be resolved or addressed in the spirit of Maat
30.
Egyptian mythology
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Egyptian mythology is the collection of myths from ancient Egypt, which describe the actions of the Egyptian gods as a means of understanding the world. The beliefs that these myths express are an important part of ancient Egyptian religion, Myths appear frequently in Egyptian writings and art, particularly in short stories and in religious material such as hymns, ritual texts, funerary texts, and temple decoration. These sources rarely contain an account of a myth and often describe only brief fragments. Inspired by the cycles of nature, the Egyptians saw time in the present as a series of recurring patterns, Myths are set in these earliest times, and myth sets the pattern for the cycles of the present. Present events repeat the events of myth, and in doing so renew maat, events from the present that might be regarded as myths include Ras daily journey through the world and its otherworldly counterpart, the Duat. The details of these sacred events differ greatly from one text to another, Egyptian myths are primarily metaphorical, translating the essence and behavior of deities into terms that humans can understand. Each variant of a myth represents a different symbolic perspective, enriching the Egyptians understanding of the gods and it inspired or influenced many religious rituals and provided the ideological basis for kingship. Scenes and symbols from myth appeared in art in tombs, temples, in literature, myths or elements of them were used in stories that range from humor to allegory, demonstrating that the Egyptians adapted mythology to serve a wide variety of purposes. The development of Egyptian myth is difficult to trace, Egyptologists must make educated guesses about its earliest phases, based on written sources that appeared much later. One obvious influence on myth is the Egyptians natural surroundings, thus the Egyptians saw water and the sun as symbols of life and thought of time as a series of natural cycles. This orderly pattern was at constant risk of disruption, unusually low floods resulted in famine, the hospitable Nile valley was surrounded by harsh desert, populated by peoples the Egyptians regarded as uncivilized enemies of order. For these reasons, the Egyptians saw their land as an place of stability, or maat. These themes—order, chaos, and renewal—appear repeatedly in Egyptian religious thought, another possible source for mythology is ritual. Many rituals make reference to myths and are based directly on them. But it is difficult to determine whether a cultures myths developed before rituals or vice versa, questions about this relationship between myth and ritual have spawned much discussion among Egyptologists and scholars of comparative religion in general. In ancient Egypt, the earliest evidence of religious practices predates written myths, rituals early in Egyptian history included only a few motifs from myth. For these reasons, some scholars have argued that, in Egypt, but because the early evidence is so sparse, the question may never be resolved for certain. In private rituals, which are often called magical, the myth, many of the myth-like stories that appear in the rituals texts are not found in other sources
31.
Paganism
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Paganism is a term that derives from Latin word pagan, which means nonparticipant, one excluded from a more distinguished, professional group. The term was used in the 4th century, by early Christian community, the term competed with polytheism already in use in Judaism, by Philo in the 1st century. Pagans and paganism was a pejorative for the same polytheistic group, Paganism has broadly connoted religion of the peasantry, and for much of its history a derogatory term. Alternate terms in Christian texts for the group was hellene. In and after the Middle Ages, paganism was a pejorative that was applied to any non-Abrahamic or unfamiliar religion, there has been much scholarly debate as to the origin of the term paganism, especially since no one before the 20th century self-identified as a pagan. In the 19th century, paganism was re-adopted as a self-descriptor by members of various artistic groups inspired by the ancient world. Forms of these religions, influenced by various historical pagan beliefs of pre-modern Europe, exist today and are known as contemporary or modern paganism, while most pagan religions express a worldview that is pantheistic, polytheistic, or animistic, there are some monotheistic pagans. It is crucial to stress right from the start that until the 20th century people did not call themselves pagans to describe the religion they practised, the notion of paganism, as it is generally understood today, was created by the early Christian Church. It was a label that Christians applied to others, one of the antitheses that were central to the process of Christian self-definition, as such, throughout history it was generally used in a derogatory sense. The term pagan is from Late Latin paganus, revived during the Renaissance and it is related to pangere and ultimately comes from Proto-Indo-European *pag-. The evolution occurred only in the Latin west, and in connection with the Latin church, elsewhere, Hellene or gentile remained the word for pagan, and paganos continued as a purely secular term, with overtones of the inferior and the commonplace. However, this idea has multiple problems, first, the words usage as a reference to non-Christians pre-dates that period in history. Second, paganism within the Roman Empire centered on cities, the concept of an urban Christianity as opposed to a rural paganism would not have occurred to Romans during Early Christianity. Third, unlike words such as rusticitas, paganus had not yet acquired the meanings used to explain why it would have been applied to pagans. Paganus more likely acquired its meaning in Christian nomenclature via Roman military jargon, Early Christians adopted military motifs and saw themselves as Milites Christi. As early as the 5th century, paganos was metaphorically used to persons outside the bounds of the Christian community. In response, Augustine of Hippo wrote De Civitate Dei Contra Paganos, in it, he contrasted the fallen city of Man to the city of God of which all Christians were ultimately citizens. Hence, the invaders were not of the city or rural
32.
Pantheism
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Pantheism is the belief that all reality is identical with divinity, or that everything composes an all-encompassing, immanent god. Pantheists thus do not believe in a personal or anthropomorphic god. The term pantheism was not coined until after Spinozas death, and his work, Ethics, was the major source from which Western pantheism spread. Pantheistic concepts may date back thousands of years, and some religions in the East continue to contain pantheistic elements, Pantheism derives from the Greek πᾶν pan and θεός theos. There are a variety of definitions of pantheism, some consider it a theological and philosophical position concerning God. As a religious position, some describe pantheism as the polar opposite of atheism, from this standpoint, pantheism is the view that everything is part of an all-encompassing, immanent God. All forms of reality may then be considered either modes of that Being, some hold that pantheism is a non-religious philosophical position. To them, pantheism is the view that the Universe and God are identical, pantheistic tendencies existed in a number of early Gnostic groups, with pantheistic thought appearing throughout the Middle Ages. These included a section of Johannes Scotus Eriugenas 9th-century work De divisione naturae, the Roman Catholic Church has long regarded pantheistic ideas as heresy. Giordano Bruno, an Italian monk who evangelized about an immanent and he has since become known as a celebrated pantheist and martyr of science. Bruno influenced many later thinkers including Baruch Spinoza, in the West, pantheism was formalized as a separate theology and philosophy based on the work of the 17th-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza. Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher of Sephardi Portuguese origin, whose book Ethics was an answer to Descartes famous dualist theory that the body, Spinoza held the monist view that the two are the same, and monism is a fundamental part of his philosophy. He was described as a God-intoxicated man, and used the word God to describe the unity of all substance, although the term pantheism was not coined until after his death, Spinoza is regarded as its most celebrated advocate. His work, Ethics, was the source from which Western pantheism spread. The breadth and importance of Spinozas work was not fully realized until years after his death. Spinozas magnum opus, the posthumous Ethics, in which he opposed Descartes mind–body dualism, has earned him recognition as one of Western philosophys most important thinkers, Hegel said, You are either a Spinozist or not a philosopher at all. His philosophical accomplishments and moral character prompted 20th-century philosopher Gilles Deleuze to name him the prince of philosophers, Spinoza was raised in the Portuguese Jewish community in Amsterdam. He developed highly controversial ideas regarding the authenticity of the Hebrew Bible, the Jewish religious authorities issued a cherem against him, effectively excluding him from Jewish society at age 23
33.
Polytheism
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Polytheism is the worship of or belief in multiple deities, which are usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own religions and rituals. Polytheism is a type of theism, within theism, it contrasts with monotheism, the belief in a singular God, in most cases transcendent. Polytheists do not always worship all the gods equally, but they can be henotheists, other polytheists can be kathenotheists, worshiping different deities at different times. Polytheism was the form of religion during the Bronze Age and Iron Age up to the Axial Age and the development of Abrahamic religions. Important polytheistic religions practiced today include Chinese traditional religion, Hinduism, Japanese Shinto, the term comes from the Greek πολύ poly and θεός theos and was first invented by the Jewish writer Philo of Alexandria to argue with the Greeks. When Christianity spread throughout Europe and the Mediterranean, non-Christians were just called Gentiles or pagans or by the pejorative term idolaters. The modern usage of the term is first revived in French through Jean Bodin in 1580, a central, main division in polytheism is between soft polytheism and hard polytheism. Hard polytheism is the belief that gods are distinct, separate, real divine beings, hard polytheists reject the idea that all gods are one god. Hard polytheists do not necessarily consider the gods of all cultures as being equally real, Polytheism cannot be cleanly separated from the animist beliefs prevalent in most folk religions. The gods of polytheism are in cases the highest order of a continuum of supernatural beings or spirits. In some cases these spirits are divided into celestial or chthonic classes, since divinity is intellectual, and all intellect returns into itself, this myth expresses in allegory the essence of divinity. Myths may be regarded physically when they express the activities of gods in the world, the psychological way is to regard the activities of the soul itself and or the souls acts of thought. The material is to regard material objects to actually be gods, for example, to call the earth Gaia, ocean Okeanos, Some well-known historical polytheistic pantheons include the Sumerian gods and the Egyptian gods, and the classical-attested pantheon which includes the ancient Greek religion and Roman religion. Post-classical polytheistic religions include Norse Æsir and Vanir, the Yoruba Orisha, the Aztec gods, an example of a religious notion from this shared past is the concept of *dyēus, which is attested in several distinct religious systems. In many civilizations, pantheons tended to grow over time, deities first worshipped as the patrons of cities or places came to be collected together as empires extended over larger territories. Conquests could lead to the subordination of the elder cultures pantheon to a one, as in the Greek Titanomachia. Most ancient belief systems held that gods influenced human lives, epicurus believed that these gods were material, human-like, and that they inhabited the empty spaces between worlds. Though it is suggested that Hestia stepped down when Dionysus was invited to Mount Olympus, robert Graves The Greek Myths cites two sources that obviously do not suggest Hestia surrendered her seat, though he suggests she did
34.
Ancient Egyptian concept of the soul
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The ancient Egyptians believed that a human soul was made up of five parts, the Ren, the Ba, the Ka, the Sheut, and the Ib. In addition to these components of the soul there was the human body, the other souls were aakhu, khaibut, and khat. An important part of the Egyptian soul was thought to be the jb, the heart was believed to be formed from one drop of blood from the childs mothers heart, taken at conception. To ancient Egyptians, the heart was the seat of emotion, thought, will and this is evidenced by the many expressions in the Egyptian language which incorporate the word jb. This word was transcribed by E. A. Wallis Budge as Ab, in Egyptian religion, the heart was the key to the afterlife. It was conceived as surviving death in the world, where it gave evidence for, or against. 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. A persons shadow or silhouette, Sheut, is always present, because of this, Egyptians surmised that a shadow contains something of the person it represents. Through this association, statues of people and deities were sometimes referred to as shadows, the shadow was also representative to Egyptians of a figure of death, or servant of Anubis, and was depicted graphically as a small human figure painted completely black. Sometimes people had a box in which part of their Sheut was stored. For example, part of the Book of Breathings, a derivative of the Book of the Dead, was a means to ensure the survival of the name, a cartouche often was used to surround the name and protect it. Conversely, the names of deceased enemies of the state, such as Akhenaten, were hacked out of monuments in a form of damnatio memoriae. Sometimes, however, they were removed in order to make room for the insertion of the name of a successor. The greater the number of places a name was used, the greater the possibility it would survive to be read, the Bâ was everything that makes an individual unique, similar to the notion of personality. In the Coffin Texts one form of the Bâ that comes into existence after death is corporeal, louis Žabkar argued that the Bâ is not part of the person but is the person himself, unlike the soul in Greek, or late Judaic, Christian or Muslim thought. The word bau, plural of the ba, meant something similar to impressiveness, power. When a deity intervened in human affairs, it was said that the Bau of the deity were at work. The Ka was the Egyptian concept of essence, which distinguishes the difference between a living and a dead person, with death occurring when the ka left the body
35.
Ancient Egyptian funerary practices
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The ancient Egyptians had an elaborate set of funerary practices that they believed were necessary to ensure their immortality after death. These rituals and protocols included mummifying the body, casting of magic spells, the burial process used by the ancient Egyptians evolved throughout time as old customs were discarded and new ones adopted, but several important elements of the process persisted. Although specific details changed over time, the preparation of the body, the rituals involved. Though no writing survives from Predynastic Egypt, scholars believe the importance of the physical body and this would explain why people of that time did not follow the common practice of cremation, but rather buried the dead. Some also believe they may have feared the bodies would rise again if mistreated after death, early bodies were buried in simple, shallow oval pits, with a few burial goods. Sometimes multiple people and animals were placed in the same grave, over time, graves became more complex, with the body placed in a wicker basket, then later in wooden or terracotta coffins. The latest tombs Egyptians made were sarcophaguses and these graves contained burial goods like jewelry, food, games and sharpened splint. This demonstrates that this ancient period had a sense of the afterlife and this may be because admission required that the deceased must be able to serve a purpose there. The pharaoh was allowed in because of his role in life, human sacrifices found in early royal tombs reinforce this view. These people were meant to serve the pharaoh during his eternal life. Eventually, figurines and wall paintings begin to replace human victims, some of these figurines may have been created to resemble certain people, so they could follow the pharaoh after their lives ended. Note that not only the classes had to rely on the pharaoh’s favor. They believed that when he died, the became a type of god. This belief existed from the period through the Old Kingdom. In the First Intermediate Period, however, the importance of the pharaoh declined, funerary texts, previously restricted to royal use, became more widely available. The first farmers in Egypt are known from the villages of Omari, the people of these villages buried their dead in a simple, round graves with one pot. The body was neither treated nor arranged in a way as would be the case later in the historical period. Without any written evidence, there is little to provide information about contemporary beliefs concerning the afterlife except for the inclusion of a single pot in the grave
36.
Mortuary temple
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Mortuary temples were temples that were erected adjacent to, or in the vicinity of, royal tombs in Ancient Egypt. The temples were designed to commemorate the reign of the Pharaoh by whom they were constructed, mortuary temples were built around pyramids in the Old Kingdom and Middle Kingdom. However, once the New Kingdom pharaohs began constructing tombs in the Valley of the Kings and these New Kingdom temples were called mansions of millions of years by the Egyptians. These temples were used as a resting place for the boat of Amun at the time of the Beautiful Festival of the Valley. The first mortuary temple was built for Amenhotep I of the 18th dynasty during the New Kingdom, later rulers of the 18th Dynasty either failed to build here at all or, in the case of Tutankhamun, Ay and Horemheb, their construction was not completed. The 19th Dynasty ruler Seti I constructed his temple at what is now known as Gurna. Ramesses II constructed his own temple, referred to as the Ramesseum, Temple of a years of Usermaatre Setepenre which is linked with Thebes-the-Quoted in the Field of Amun. Much later, during the 20th Dynasty, Ramesses III constructed his own temple at Medinet Habu
37.
Ancient Egyptian offering formula
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The Ancient Egyptian offering formula, generally referred to as the ḥtp-dỉ-nsw formula by Egyptologists, was written as an offering for the deceased in the ancient Egyptian religion. All ancient Egyptian offering formulas share the basic structure, but there is a great deal of variety in which deities and offerings are mentioned. That he may give a voice-offering of bread, beer, oxen, birds, alabaster, clothing, for the ka of the revered Senwosret, True of Voice. The offering formula is found carved or painted onto funerary stelae, false doors, coffins. Each person would, of course, have their own name, the offering formula was not a royal prerogative like some of the other religious texts such as the Litany of Re, and was used by anyone who could afford to have one made. The offering formula always begins with the phrase, ḥtp dỉ nsw This phrase comes from Old Egyptian, because the king was seen as an intermediary between the people of Egypt and the gods, the offering was made through him. Next the formula names a god of the dead and several of his epithets, usually Osiris, Anubis, or Geb or another deity. The following phrase is an invocation of Osiris, wsỉr nb ḏdw, nṯr ꜥꜣ, nb ꜣbḏw which means Osiris, the lord of Busiris, the great god. There was apparently no set rule about what epithets were used, however Lord of Busiris, Great God, after the list of deities and their titles, the formula proceeds with a list of the ḫrt-prw, or invocation offerings. The list is always preceded by the phrase, or dỉ=f prt-ḫrw or dỉ=sn prt-ḫrw which means He give invocation offerings, the last part of the offering formula lists the name and titles of the recipient of the invocation offerings. For example, n kꜣ n ỉmꜣḫy s-n-wsrt, mꜣꜥ-ḫrw which means for the ka of the revered Senwosret, Egyptian mythology Egyptian soul Ancient Egyptian burial customs Ancient Egyptian funerary texts Bennett, C. Growth of the ḤTP-DI-NSW Formula in the Middle Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom Offering Formulas—A Challenge. Die Opferformel des Alten Reiches unter Berücksichtigung einiger später Formen, mainz am Rhein, Verlag Philipp von Zabern. The Writing of the ḤTP-DI-NSW Formula in the Middle and New Kingdoms, telford, Mark Patrick, Death And The Afterlife
38.
Egyptian temple
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Egyptian temples were built for the official worship of the gods and in commemoration of the pharaohs in ancient Egypt and regions under Egyptian control. Temples were seen as houses for the gods or kings to whom they were dedicated and these rituals were seen as necessary for the gods to continue to uphold maat, the divine order of the universe. Housing and caring for the gods were the obligations of pharaohs, nevertheless, a temple was an important religious site for all classes of Egyptians, who went there to pray, give offerings, and seek oracular guidance from the god dwelling within. The most important part of the temple was the sanctuary, which contained a cult image. These edifices are among the largest and most enduring examples of Egyptian architecture and their typical design consisted of a series of enclosed halls, open courts, and massive entrance pylons aligned along the path used for festival processions. Beyond the temple proper was a wall enclosing a wide variety of secondary buildings. A large temple also owned sizable tracts of land and employed thousands of laymen to supply its needs, temples were therefore key economic as well as religious centers. The priests who managed these powerful institutions wielded considerable influence, temple-building in Egypt continued despite the nations decline and ultimate loss of independence to the Roman Empire. With the coming of Christianity, however, Egyptian religion faced increasing persecution, for centuries, the ancient buildings suffered destruction and neglect. Dozens of temples survive today, and some have become world-famous tourist attractions that contribute significantly to the modern Egyptian economy, Egyptologists continue to study the surviving temples and the remains of destroyed ones, as they are invaluable sources of information about ancient Egyptian society. Ancient Egyptian temples were meant as places for the gods to reside on earth, indeed, the term the Egyptians most commonly used to describe the temple building, ḥwt-nṯr, means mansion of a god. A gods presence in the temple linked the human and divine realms and these rituals, it was believed, sustained the god and allowed it to continue to play its proper role in nature. They were therefore a key part of the maintenance of maat, maintaining maat was the entire purpose of Egyptian religion, and it was the purpose of a temple as well. Because he was credited with divine power himself, the pharaoh, as a king, was regarded as Egypts representative to the gods. Thus, it was theoretically his duty to perform the temple rites, the pharaoh was nevertheless obligated to maintain, provide for, and expand the temples throughout his realm. Although the pharaoh delegated his authority, the performance of rituals was still an official duty. The participation of the populace in most ceremonies was prohibited. Much of the lay religious activity in Egypt instead took place in private and community shrines, however, as the primary link between the human and divine realms, temples attracted considerable veneration from ordinary Egyptians
39.
Veneration of the dead
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The veneration of the dead, including ones ancestors, is based on love and respect for the deceased. In some cultures, it is related to beliefs that the dead have a continued existence, the social or non-religious function of ancestor veneration is to cultivate kinship values, such as filial piety, family loyalty, and continuity of the family lineage. Ancestor veneration occurs in societies with every degree of social, political, and technological complexity, ancestor reverence is not the same as the worship of a deity or deities. In some Afro-diasporic cultures, ancestors are seen as being able to intercede on behalf of the living, as spirits who were once human themselves, they are seen as being better able to understand human needs than would a divine being. In other cultures, the purpose of ancestor veneration is not to ask for favors, some cultures believe that their ancestors actually need to be provided for by their descendants, and their practices include offerings of food and other provisions. Others do not believe that the ancestors are even aware of what their descendants do for them, most cultures who practice ancestor veneration do not call it ancestor worship. In English, the word usually refers to the reverent love. However, in cultures, this act of worship does not confer any belief that the departed ancestors have become some kind of deity. Rather, the act is a way to respect, honor, in this regard, many cultures and religions have similar practices. Some may visit the graves of their parents or other ancestors, leave flowers and pray to them in order to honor and remember them, however, this would not be considered as worshipping them since the term worship shows no such meaning. This is consistent with the meaning of the veneration in English. Although there is no accepted theory concerning the origins of ancestor veneration. Although some historians claim that ancient Egyptian society was a “death cult” because of its tombs and mummification rituals. The philosophy that “this world is but a vale of tears” and this was not to say that they were unacquainted with the harshness of life, rather, their ethos included a sense of continuity between this life and the next. Tombs were housing in the Hereafter and so they were constructed and decorated. Mummification was a way to preserve the corpse so the ka of the deceased could return to receive offerings of the things s/he enjoyed while alive, if mummification was not affordable, a “ka-statue” in the likeness of the deceased was carved for this purpose. The Blessed Dead were collectively called the akhu, or “shining ones” and they were described as “shining as gold in the belly of Nut and were indeed depicted as golden stars on the roofs of many tombs and temples. If the heart was in balance with the Feather of Maat, at this point only was the ka deemed worthy to be venerated by the living through rites and offerings
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Heh (god)
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Ḥeḥ was in Egyptian mythology, the deification of infinity or eternity in the Ogdoad, his name itself meaning endlessness. His female counterpart was known as Hauhet, which is simply the feminine form of his name, like the other concepts in the Ogdoad, his male form was often depicted as a frog, or a frog-headed human, and his female form as a snake or snake-headed human. Depictions of this also had a shen ring at the base of each palm stem. Depictions of Huh were also used in hieroglyphs to represent one million, thus this deity is also known as the god of millions of years. The primary meaning of the term ḥeḥ was million or millions, subsequently, together with his female counterpart Ḥauḥet, Ḥeḥ represented a member of the Ogdoad of eight primeval deities whose worship was centred at Hermopolis Magna. The other members of the Ogdoad are Nu and Naunet, Amun and Amaunet, Kuk, the god Ḥeḥ was usually depicted anthropomorphically, as in the hieroglyphic character, as a male figure with divine beard and lappet wig. Normally kneeling, the god typically holds in each hand a palm branch. Occasionally, a palm branch is worn on the gods head. The personified, somewhat abstract god of eternity Ḥeḥ possessed no known cult centre or sanctuary, rather, his veneration revolved around symbolism, barta, Winfried, Die Bedeutung der Personifikation Huh im Unterschied zu den Personifikationen Hah und Nun, Göttinger Miszellen 127, pp. 7–12
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