1.
Uraeus
–
The Uraeus is the stylized, upright form of an Egyptian cobra, used as a symbol of sovereignty, royalty, deity and divine authority in ancient Egypt. The Uraeus is a symbol for the goddess Wadjet and she was one of the earliest Egyptian deities and who often was depicted as a cobra. The center of her cult was in Per-Wadjet, later called Buto by the Greeks and she became the patroness of the Nile Delta and the protector of all of Lower Egypt. In whatever manner that the Uraeus was displayed upon the head, it was, in effect. The pharaoh was recognized only by wearing the Uraeus, which conveyed legitimacy to the ruler, there is evidence for this tradition even in the Old Kingdom during the third millennium BCE. Several goddesses associated with or being considered aspects of Wadjet are depicted wearing the Uraeus also, the importance of their separate cults kept them from becoming merged as with so many Egyptian deities. Together, they were known as The Two Ladies, who became the joint protectors and patrons of the unified Egypt. Later, the pharaohs were seen as a manifestation of the sun god Ra, in some mythological works, the eyes of Ra are said to be uraei. As the Uraeus was seen as a symbol, the deities Horus. In early ancient Egyptian mythology, Horus would have been the given to any king as part of the many titles taken. According to the mythology of Re, the first Uraeus was said to have been created by the goddess Isis, who formed it from the dust of the earth. In this version of the mythology, the Uraeus was the instrument with which Isis gained the throne of Egypt for Osiris, Isis is associated with and may be considered an aspect of Wadjet. In 1919, after only a half-hour of excavation, the Qufti worker Hosni Ibrahim held in his hands the solid-gold Golden Uraeus of Senusret II and it had been decided to make a complete clearance of the El-Lahun Pyramids rooms at Saqqara. The start in the offering chamber, leading from the tomb, on the south, immediately revealed in the turnover of the six inches of debris. Prior to the 1922 find of Tutankhamuns tomb, this Golden Uraeus was the only ornament ever known to be worn by an entombed pharaoh, and it was thought that it was passed to the next pharaoh. The Golden Uraeus is of gold,6.7 cm, black eyes of granite, a snake head of deep ultramarine lapis lazuli, the flared cobra hood of dark carnelian inlays. For mounting on the crown, two loops in the rear-supporting tail of the cobra provide the attachment points. Besides the Uraeus being used as an ornament for statuary or as an adornment on the pharaoh, it also was used for jewellery, however, another important use is as the hieroglyph
Uraeus
–
Mask of
Tutankhamun 's mummy featuring a uraeus, from the
eighteenth dynasty. The
cobra image of
Wadjet with the
vulture image of
Nekhbet representing of the unification of Lower and Upper Egypt
Uraeus
–
Uraeus with Solar Disk, 305-30 B.C.E.,51.147.2,
Brooklyn Museum
Uraeus
–
Green glazed cobra amulet in the form of a Uraeus
2.
Egyptian hieroglyphs
–
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
Egyptian hieroglyphs
–
A section of the
Papyrus of Ani showing cursive hieroglyphs.
Egyptian hieroglyphs
–
Hieroglyphs on a funerary stela in
Manchester Museum
Egyptian hieroglyphs
–
The
Rosetta Stone in the
British Museum
Egyptian hieroglyphs
–
Hieroglyphs typical of the Graeco-Roman period
3.
Dendera
–
Dendera is a small town and former bishopric in Egypt situated on the west bank of the Nile, about 5 kilometres south of Qena, on the opposite side of the river. It is located approximately 60 kilometres north of Luxor and remains a Latin Catholic titular see, the modern Arab town is built on the ancient site of Ta-ynt-netert, which means She of the Divine Pillar. In the Greek era, the town was known as Tentyra and it was once the -modest- capital of the 6th Nome of Upper Egypt, and was also called Nikentori or Nitentori, which means willow wood or willow earth. Some scholars believe the name derives from the sky and fertility goddess Hathor, also associated with the Greek Aphrodite, the official deity of the city was a crocodile. Crocodiles were also venerated as deities in other Egyptian cities, which rise to many quarrels. After Egypt became a Roman possession, the city of Tentyris was part of the Late Roman province of Thebais Secunda and its bishopric was a suffragan of Ptolemais Hermiou, the capital and metropolitan see of the province. Pachomius, whose diocese boasted the celebrated convent of Tabennisi, the town was given its present Arabic name of Denderah during the late Ottoman Empire and ruled 6000 inhabitants in Qena district. M. I. André van den Bronk, Society of African Missions Teodoro Bensch Jean-Rosière-Eugène Arnau], the Dendera Temple complex, which contains the Temple of Hathor, is one of the best-preserved temples, if not the best-preserved one, in all of Upper Egypt. The whole complex covers some 40,000 square meters and is surrounded by a hefty mud brick wall and it was once home to the celebrated Dendera zodiac, which is now displayed in the Louvre Museum in Paris. There are also Roman and pharaonic Mammisi, ruins of a Coptic church, the area around the temple has been extensively landscaped and now has a modern visitor centre, bazaar and small cafeteria. This area has an amount of sunshine year round due to its stable descending air. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Dendera has a hot desert climate, Dendera light Dendera Herbermann, Charles, ed. Tentyris. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Herbermann, Charles. GigaCatholic, listing the titular bishops Media related to Dendera at Wikimedia Commons
Dendera
–
General view of the temple compound.
Dendera
–
Entrance to the temple.
Dendera
–
Egypt - Denderah., n.d., This slide colored by Joseph Hawkes. Brooklyn Museum Archives
Dendera
4.
Sistrum
–
A sistrum is a musical instrument of the percussion family, chiefly associated with ancient Iraq and Egypt. It consists of a handle and a U-shaped metal frame, made of brass or bronze, when shaken the small rings or loops of thin metal on its movable crossbars produce a sound that can be from a soft clank to a loud jangling. Its name in the ancient Egyptian language was sekhem and sesheshet, sekhem is the simpler, hoop-like sistrum, while sesheshet is the naos-shaped one. The sistrum was an instrument in ancient Egypt. It was also shaken to avert the flooding of the Nile, isis in her role as mother and creator was depicted holding a pail symbolizing the flooding of the Nile, in one hand and a sistrum in the other. The goddess Bast too is often depicted holding a sistrum, symbolizing her role as a goddess of dance, joy, Sistra are still used in the Alexandrian Rite and Ethiopic Rite. Besides the depiction in Egyptian art with dancing and expressions of joy, the hieroglyph for the sistrum is shown. The ancient Minoans also used the sistrum, and a number of made of local clay have been found on the island of Crete. Five of these are displayed at the Archaeological Museum of Agios Nikolaos, a sistrum is also depicted on the Harvester Vase, an artifact found at the site of Agia Triada. The sistrum has remained a liturgical instrument in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church throughout the centuries and is played during the dance performed by the debtera on important church festivals and it is also occasionally found in NeoPagan worship & ritual. The sistrum was occasionally revived in 19th century Western orchestral music, nowadays, however, it is replaced by its close modern equivalent, the tambourine. The effect produced by the sistrum in music - when shaken in short, sharp, rhythmic pulses - is to arouse movement, the barcoo dog, a sheep herding tool used in Australian bush band music, is a type of sistrum. Sistrum Media related to Sistra at Wikimedia Commons Sistrum
Sistrum
–
A sekhem style sistrum.
Sistrum
–
Nefertari, wife of
Ramesses II, holding a sistrum
Sistrum
–
Broken Egyptian Sistrum
Sistrum
–
Collection of sistrums at the
Louvre
5.
Horus
–
Horus is one of the most significant ancient Egyptian deities. He was worshipped from at least the late prehistoric Egypt until the Ptolemaic Kingdom, different forms of Horus are recorded in history and these are treated as distinct gods by Egyptologists. He was most often depicted as a falcon, most likely a falcon or peregrine falcon. In another tradition Hathor is regarded as his mother and sometimes as his wife, Horus served many functions, most notably being a god of the sky, war and hunting. Horus is recorded in Egyptian hieroglyphs as ḥr. w Falcon, additional meanings are thought to have been the distant one or one who is above, over. As the language changed over time, it appeared in Coptic dialects variously as hoːɾ or ħoːɾ and was adopted into ancient Greek as Ὧρος Hōros and it also survives in Late Egyptian and Coptic theophoric names such as Har-si-ese Horus, Son of Isis. Nekheny may have been another falcon god worshipped at Nekhen, city of the falcon, Horus may be shown as a falcon on the Narmer Palette, dating from about the 31st century BC. In early Egypt, Horus was the brother of Isis, Osiris, Set, as different cults formed, he became the son of Isis and Osiris. Isis remained the sister of Osiris, Set and Nephthys, the Pyramid Texts describe the nature of the pharaoh in different characters as both Horus and Osiris. The pharaoh as Horus in life became the pharaoh as Osiris in death, New incarnations of Horus succeeded the deceased pharaoh on earth in the form of new pharaohs. The lineage of Horus, the product of unions between the children of Atum, may have been a means to explain and justify pharaonic power. The gods produced by Atum were all representative of cosmic and terrestrial forces in Egyptian life, the notion of Horus as the pharaoh seems to have been superseded by the concept of the pharaoh as the son of Ra during the Fifth Dynasty. Once Isis knew she was pregnant with Horus, she fled to the Nile Delta marshlands to hide from her brother Set, who jealously killed Osiris, there Isis bore a divine son, Horus. Since Horus was said to be the sky, he was considered to contain the sun. It became said that the sun was his eye and the moon his left, and that they traversed the sky when he. Later, the reason that the moon was not as bright as the sun was explained by a tale, known as the The Contendings of Horus and Seth. As Horus was the victor he became known as ḥr. w wr Horus the Great. In the struggle, Set had lost a testicle, explaining why the desert, Horus left eye had also been gouged out, then a new eye was created by part of Khonsu, the moon god, and was replaced
Horus
–
Horus,
(Louvre Museum),
Shen rings in his grasp
Horus
Horus
–
Figure of a Horus Falcon, between circa 300 and circa 250 BC (Greco-Roman). The Walters Art Museum.
Horus
–
Horus, patron deity of Hierakonpolis (near
Edfu), the predynastic capital of Upper Egypt. Its head was executed by means of beating the gold then connecting it with the copper body. A uraeus is fixed to the diadem which supports two tall openwork feathers. The eyes are inlaid with obsidian. (6th dynasty).
6.
Ihy
–
Ihy is a god in ancient Egyptian mythology who represents the ecstasy of playing the sistrum. His name may mean sistrum player, referring to his function and this is in allusion to his relationship with the cow goddess Hathor who was often said to be his mother. Other goddesses might be called his mother, however, including Isis, Sekhmet, the god Horus is Ihys father. Ihy was depicted as a holding a sistrum or as a nude child with his finger in his mouth. He was worshiped alongside Horus and Hathor at Dendera, Hathor was his mother and Horus as his father Media related to Ihy at Wikimedia Commons
Ihy
–
The god
Khnum, accompanied by
Heqet, moulds Ihy in a relief from the
mammisi (birth temple),
Dendera Temple complex,
Dendera,
Egypt
Ihy
–
v
7.
Hapi (Son of Horus)
–
This article is about the funerary deity. Hapi can also refer to Hapi, a Nile god, or Hapi-ankh, Hapi, sometimes transliterated as Hapy, is one of the Four sons of Horus in ancient Egyptian religion, depicted in funerary literature as protecting the throne of Osiris in the Underworld. Hapi was the son of Heru-ur and Isis or Serqet and he is not to be confused with another god of the same name. Hapi is in turn protected by the goddess Nephthys, when his image appears on the side of a coffin, he is usually aligned with the side intended to face north. When embalming practices changed during the Third Intermediate Period and the organs were placed back inside the body. Since drowning was the form of death associated with the lungs, the spelling of his name includes a hieroglyph which is thought to be connected with steering a boat, although its exact nature is not known. For this reason he was connected with navigation, although early references call him the great runner. As one of the four pillars of Shu and one of the four rudders of heaven he was associated with the North, Four Sons of Horus – in-depth treatment of the Four Sons and their interrelationships
Hapi (Son of Horus)
–
Hapi in the Übersee-Museum
8.
Qebehsenuef
–
Qebehsenuef is an ancient Egyptian deity. He is one of the four sons of Horus in Egyptian mythology, in the preparation of mummies, his canopic jar was used for the intestines. He is seen as a mummy with a falcon head and he was said to be protected by the goddess Serket. The intestine was used in sacrificed animals, by soothsayers, to predict the future, with death by poison, the canopic jar deity is protected by Serket who bears the emblem of the scorpion. I am thy son, O Osiris Ani, triumphant, I have come to protect thee. I have collected thy bones, and I have gathered together thy members, I have brought thy heart and I have placed it upon its throne within thy body. I have made thy house to flourish after thee, O thou who livest for ever, together with Maa-atef-f, Kheri-beq-f, and Horus-Khenti-maa, the four sons of Horus were known as the Seven Shining Ones, protectors of the body of Osiris
Qebehsenuef
–
Canopic jar Depicting Qebehsenuef
9.
Neith
–
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
Neith
–
Aegis of Neith,
Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt.
Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon.
Neith
–
Egyptian war goddess Neith wearing the
Deshret crown of northern (lower) Egypt, which bears the
cobra of
Wadjet
Neith
–
Louvre Statuette of Neith
10.
Khnum
–
Khnum was one of the earliest Egyptian deities, originally the god of the source of the Nile River. He later was described as having moulded the other deities, and he had the titles Divine Potter, Khnum was the god of rebirth, creation and the evening sun, although this is usually the function of Atum. The worship of Khnum centered on two principal sites, Elephantine Island and Esna, which were regarded as sacred sites. At Elephantine, he was worshipped alongside Anuket and Satet as the guardian of the source of the Nile River. His significance led to early theophoric names of him, for children, such as Khnum-Khufwy – Khnum is my Protector, Khnum has also been related to the deity Min. The temple at Elephantine was dedicated to Khnum, his consort Satet, the temple dates back to at least the Middle Kingdom. By the 11th dynasty Khnum, Satet and Anuket are all attested at Elephantine, during the New Kingdom finds from the time of Ramesses II show Khnum was still worshipped there. Opposite Elephantine, on the east bank at Aswan, Khnum, in Esna, known as Iunyt or Ta-senet to the Ancient Egyptians, a temple was dedicated to Khnum, Neith and Heka, and other deities. The temple dates to the Ptolemaic period, Khnum is sometimes depicted as a crocodile-headed god. Nebt-uu and Menhit are Khnums principal consorts and Heka is his eldest son, both Khnum and Neith are referred to as creator deities in the texts at Esna. Khnum is sometimes referred to as the father of the fathers and they later become the parents of Re, who is also referred to as Khnum-Re. The Beit el-Wali temple of Ramesses II contained statues of Khnum, Satis and Anukis, along with statues of Isis and Horus
Khnum
–
Cnouphis-Nilus (Jupiter-Nilus, Dieu Nil), N372.2,
Brooklyn Museum
Khnum
–
Khnum, accompanied by the goddess
Heket, moulds
Ihy in a relief from the
mammisi (birth temple) at
Dendera Temple complex,
Dendara,
Egypt
11.
Apep
–
Apep or Apophis was the ancient Egyptian deity who embodied chaos and was thus the opponent of light and Maat. He appears in art as a giant serpent and his name is reconstructed by Egyptologists as *ʻAʼpāpī, as it was written ꜥꜣpp and survived in later Coptic as Ⲁⲫⲱⲫ Aphōph. Apep was first mentioned in the Eighth Dynasty, and he was honored in the names of the Fourteenth Dynasty king Apepi, Ra was the solar deity, bringer of light, and thus the upholder of Maat. Apep was viewed as the greatest enemy of Ra, and thus was given the title Enemy of Ra, as the personification of all that was evil, Apep was seen as a giant snake or serpent leading to such titles as Serpent from the Nile and Evil Lizard. Some elaborations said that he stretched 16 yards in length and had a made of flint. Also, comparable hostile snakes as enemies of the sun god existed under other names already before the name Apep occurred, the etymology of his name is perhaps to be sought in some west-semitic language where a word root ꜣpp meaning to slither existed. A verb root ꜥꜣpp does at any rate not exist elsewhere in Ancient Egyptian, Apeps name much later came to be falsely connected etymologically in Egyptian with a different root meaning spat out, the Romans referred to Apep by this translation of his name. Apophis was a golden snake known to be miles long. He was so large that he attempted to swallow the sun every day, tales of Apeps battles against Ra were elaborated during the New Kingdom. Storytellers said that every day Apep must lie just below the horizon and this appropriately made him a part of the underworld. In some stories Apep waited for Ra in a mountain called Bakhu, where the sun set. The wide range of Apeps possible location gained him the title World Encircler and it was thought that his terrifying roar would cause the underworld to rumble. Myths sometimes say that Apep was trapped there, because he had been the chief god overthrown by Ra. The Coffin Texts imply that Apep used a magical gaze to overwhelm Ra, Ra was assisted by a number of defenders who travelled with him, including Set and possibly the Eye of Ra. Apeps movements were thought to cause earthquakes, and his battles with Set may have meant to explain the origin of thunderstorms. In some accounts, Ra himself defeats Apep in the form of a cat, Ra was worshipped, and Apep worshipped against. Ras victory each night was thought to be ensured by the prayers of the Egyptian priests, the Egyptians practiced a number of rituals and superstitions that were thought to ward off Apep, and aid Ra to continue his journey across the sky. The Egyptian priests had a guide to fighting Apep, referred to as The Books of Overthrowing Apep
Apep
–
Atum and snake Apep
Apep
–
Set speared Apep
12.
Thoth
–
Thoth or Djehuti was one of the deities of the Egyptian pantheon. In art, he was depicted as a man with the head of an ibis or a baboon. His feminine counterpart was Seshat, and his wife was Maat, Thoths chief temple was located in the city of Khmun, later called Hermopolis Magna during the Greco-Roman era and Shmounein in the Coptic rendering, and was partially destroyed in 1826 CE. In that city, he led the Ogdoad pantheon of eight principal deities and he also had numerous shrines within the cities of Abydos, Hesert, Urit, Per-Ab, Rekhui, Ta-ur, Sep, Hat, Pselket, Talmsis, Antcha-Mutet, Bah, Amen-heri-ab, and Ta-kens. Thoth played many vital and prominent roles in Egyptian mythology, such as maintaining the universe, the final -y may even have been pronounced as a consonant, not a vowel. According to Theodor Hopfner, Thoths Egyptian name written as ḏḥwty originated from ḏḥw, the addition of -ty denotes that he possessed the attributes of the ibis. Hence his name means He who is like the ibis, Djehuty is sometimes alternatively rendered as Jehuti, Jehuty, Tahuti, Tehuti, Zehuti, Techu, or Tetu. Greek versions Thot, Thout and Thoth are derived from the letters ḏḥwty, not counting differences in spelling, Thoth had many names and titles, like other goddesses and gods. Among the names used are A, Sheps, Lord of Khemennu, Asten, Khenti, Mehi, Hab, in addition, Thoth was also known by specific aspects of himself, for instance the moon god Iah-Djehuty, representing the Moon for the entire month. The Greeks related Thoth to their god Hermes due to his similar attributes, One of Thoths titles, Thrice great was translated to the Greek τρισμέγιστος, making Hermes Trismegistus. Thoth has been depicted in many ways depending on the era, usually, he is depicted in his human form with the head of an ibis. In this form, he can be represented as the reckoner of times, when depicted as a form of Shu or Ankher, he was depicted to be wearing the respective gods headdress. Sometimes he was seen in art to be wearing the Atef crown or the United Crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt. When not depicted in this form, he sometimes takes the form of the ibis directly. He also appears as a baboon or a man with the head of a baboon when he is Aan. In the form of Aah-Djehuty he took a more human-looking form and these forms are all symbolic and are metaphors for Thoths attributes. The Egyptians did not believe these gods actually looked like humans with animal heads, for example, Maat is often depicted with an ostrich feather, the feather of truth, on her head, or with a feather for a head. Thoths roles in Egyptian mythology were many and he served as a mediating power, especially between good and evil, making sure neither had a decisive victory over the other
Thoth
–
Thoout, Thoth Deux fois Grand, le Second Hermés, N372.2A,
Brooklyn Museum
Thoth
–
Depiction of Thoth as a baboon (c. 1400 BC), in the
British Museum
Thoth
–
Lee Lawrie, Thoth (1939). Library of Congress
John Adams Building, Washington, D.C.
Thoth
–
Thoth, sitting on his throne
13.
Sobek
–
Sobek, in Greek, Suchos and from Latin Suchus, was an ancient Egyptian deity with a complex and fluid nature. He is associated with the Nile crocodile and is represented in its form or as a human with a crocodile head. Sobek enjoyed a longstanding presence in the ancient Egyptian pantheon, from the Old Kingdom through the Roman period and he is first known from several different Pyramid Texts of the Old Kingdom, particularly from spell PT317. Unis has appeared as Sobek, Neiths son, Unis will eat with his mouth, Unis will urinate and Unis will copulate with his penis. Unis is lord of semen, who takes women from their husbands to the place Unis likes according to his hearts fancy. The origin of his name, Sbk in ancient Egyptian, is debated among scholars, though Sobek was worshipped in the Old Kingdom, he truly gained prominence in the Middle Kingdom, most notably under the Twelfth Dynasty king, Amenemhat III. Amenemhat III had taken a particular interest in the Faiyum region of Egypt, Amenemhat and many of his dynastic contemporaries engaged in building projects to promote Sobek – projects that were often executed in the Faiyum. In this period, Sobek also underwent an important change, he was fused with the falcon-headed god of divine kingship. This brought Sobek even closer with the kings of Egypt, thereby giving him a place of prominence in the Egyptian pantheon. The fusion added a level of complexity to the god’s nature, as he was adopted into the divine triad of Horus. Sobek-Horus persisted as a figure in the New Kingdom, but it was not until the last dynasties of Egypt that Sobek-Ra gained prominence and this understanding of the god was maintained after the fall of Egypts last native dynasty in Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt. The entire Faiyum region – the Land of the Lake in Egyptian – served as a center of Sobek. Most Faiyum towns developed their own localized versions of the god, such as Soknebtunis at Tebtunis, Sokonnokonni at Bacchias, at Karanis, two forms of the god were worshipped, Pnepheros and Petsuchos. There, mummified crocodiles were employed as cult images of Petsuchos, Sobek Shedety, the patron of the Faiyums centrally located capital, Crocodilopolis, was the most prominent form of the god. Extensive building programs honoring Sobek were realized in Shedet, as it was the capital of the entire Arsinoite nome and it is thought that the effort to expand Sobeks main temple was initially driven by Ptolemy II. Outside the Faiyum, Kom Ombo, in southern Egypt, was the biggest cultic center of Sobek, particularly during the Ptolemaic, located about 30 miles north of Aswan and was built during the Graeco-Roman period. The temple at this site was called the Per-Sobek, meaning the house of Sobek, Sobek is, above all else, an aggressive and animalistic deity who lives up to the vicious reputation of his patron animal, the large and violent Nile crocodile. Some of his common epithets betray this nature succinctly, the most notable of which being, he who loves robbery, he who eats while he also mates, however, he also displays grand benevolence in more than one celebrated myth
Sobek
–
This statue of Sobek was found at
Amenemhat III 's mortuary temple (which was connected to his
pyramid at
Hawara in the
Faiyum), serving as a testament to this king's devotion to Sobek.
Ashmolean Museum,
Oxford.
Sobek
–
This
Late Period (c. 400–250 BCE) statue shows Sobek bearing the falcon head of Re-Harakhti, illustrating the fusion of Sobek and
Re into Sobek-Re.
Walters Art Museum,
Baltimore.
Sobek
–
This relief from the
Temple of Kom Ombo shows Sobek with typical attributes of kingship, including a
was sceptre and royal kilt. The
ankh in his hand represents his role as an Osirian healer and his crown is a solar crown associated with one of the many forms of
Re.
Sobek
–
This Roman period box shows a king making an offering to a solar form of Sobek. It is thought that this box could have been used in such offering rituals.
Walters Art Museum,
Baltimore.
14.
Serket
–
Serqet /ˈsɜːrˌkɛt/ is the goddess of fertility, nature, animals, medicine, magic, and healing venomous stings and bites in Egyptian mythology, originally the deification of the scorpion. In the art of ancient Egypt, Serqet was shown as a scorpion or as a woman with a scorpion on her head, although Serqet does not appear to have had any temples, she had a sizable number of priests in many communities. Her close association with the early rulers implies that she was their protector, notably Scorpion I and Scorpion II. As the protector against venom and snakebite, Serqet often was said to protect the deities from Apep, as many of the venomous creatures of Egypt could prove fatal, Serqet also was considered a protector of the dead, particularly being associated with venoms and fluids causing stiffening. As the guard of one of the jars and a protector, Serqet gained a strong association with Isis, Nephthys, and Neith. According to this hypothesis, Serket is referred to as She who gives breath because of the way waterscorpions seem to breath underwater, les prêtres-ouâb de Sekhmet et les conjurateurs de Serket
Serket
–
the Egyptian goddess Serket. She is often depicted as a woman with a scorpion gracing her crown. She holds the ankh, the symbol of life, in one hand and a staff, representing power, in the other.
15.
Egyptian language
–
The language spoken in ancient Egypt was a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. The earliest known complete sentence in the Egyptian language has been dated to about 2690 BCE, making it one of the oldest recorded languages known. Egyptian was spoken until the seventeenth century in the form of Coptic. The national language of modern Egypt is Egyptian Arabic, which gradually replaced Coptic as the language of life in the centuries after the Muslim conquest of Egypt. Coptic is still used as the language of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. It has several hundred fluent speakers today, the Egyptian language belongs to the Afroasiatic language family. Of the other Afroasiatic branches, Egyptian shows its greatest affinities with Semitic, in Egyptian, the Proto-Afroasiatic voiced consonants */d z ð/ developed into pharyngeal ⟨ꜥ⟩ /ʕ/, e. g. Eg. Afroasiatic */l/ merged with Egyptian ⟨n⟩, ⟨r⟩, ⟨ꜣ⟩, and ⟨j⟩ in the dialect on which the language was based. Original */k g ḳ/ palatalize to ⟨ṯ j ḏ⟩ in some environments and are preserved as ⟨k g q⟩ in others, Egyptian has many biradical and perhaps monoradical roots, in contrast to the Semitic preference for triradical roots. Egyptian probably is more archaic in this regard, whereas Semitic likely underwent later regularizations converting roots into the triradical pattern, scholars group the Egyptian language into six major chronological divisions, Archaic Egyptian language Old Egyptian language Middle Egyptian language, characterizing Middle Kingdom. Demotic Coptic The earliest Egyptian glyphs date back to around 3300 BC and these early texts are generally lumped together under the general term Archaic Egyptian. They record names, titles and labels, but a few of them show morphological and syntactic features familiar from later, more complete, Old Egyptian is dated from the oldest known complete sentence, found in the tomb of Seth-Peribsen and dated to around 2690 BCE. It reads, dmḏ. n. f t3wj n z3. f nswt-bjt pr-jb. snj He has united the Two Lands for his son, extensive texts appear from about 2600 BCE. Demotic first appears about 650 BCE and survived as a written language until the fifth century CE and it probably survived in the Egyptian countryside as a spoken language for several centuries after that. Bohairic Coptic is still used by the Coptic Churches, Old, Middle, and Late Egyptian were all written using hieroglyphs and hieratic. Demotic was written using a script derived from hieratic, its appearance is similar to modern Arabic script and is also written from right to left. Coptic is written using the Coptic alphabet, a form of the Greek alphabet with a number of symbols borrowed from Demotic for sounds that did not occur in ancient Greek. Arabic became the language of Egypts political administration soon after the early Muslim conquests in the seventh century, today, Coptic survives as the sacred language of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria and the Coptic Catholic Church
Egyptian language
–
Seal impression from the tomb of
Seth-Peribsen, containing the oldest known complete sentence in Egyptian
Egyptian language
–
Ebers Papyrus detailing treatment of
asthma
Egyptian language
–
3rd-century Coptic inscription
16.
Greek language
–
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any living language, spanning 34 centuries of written records and its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history, other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were used previously. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic and many other writing systems. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world, during antiquity, Greek was a widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world and many places beyond. It would eventually become the official parlance of the Byzantine Empire, the language is spoken by at least 13.2 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey, and the Greek diaspora. Greek roots are used to coin new words for other languages, Greek. Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, the earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the worlds oldest recorded living language. Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now extinct Anatolian languages, the Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods, Proto-Greek, the unrecorded but assumed last ancestor of all known varieties of Greek. The unity of Proto-Greek would have ended as Hellenic migrants entered the Greek peninsula sometime in the Neolithic era or the Bronze Age, Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Mycenaean civilisation. It is recorded in the Linear B script on tablets dating from the 15th century BC onwards, Ancient Greek, in its various dialects, the language of the Archaic and Classical periods of the ancient Greek civilisation. It was widely known throughout the Roman Empire, after the Roman conquest of Greece, an unofficial bilingualism of Greek and Latin was established in the city of Rome and Koine Greek became a first or second language in the Roman Empire. The origin of Christianity can also be traced through Koine Greek, Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, the continuation of Koine Greek in Byzantine Greece, up to the demise of the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century. Much of the written Greek that was used as the language of the Byzantine Empire was an eclectic middle-ground variety based on the tradition of written Koine. Modern Greek, Stemming from Medieval Greek, Modern Greek usages can be traced in the Byzantine period and it is the language used by the modern Greeks, and, apart from Standard Modern Greek, there are several dialects of it. In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia, the historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language is often emphasised. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language and it is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, Homeric Greek is probably closer to demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English, Greek is spoken by about 13 million people, mainly in Greece, Albania and Cyprus, but also worldwide by the large Greek diaspora. Greek is the language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population
Greek language
–
Idealized portrayal of
Homer
Greek language
–
regions where Greek is the official language
Greek language
–
Greek language road sign, A27 Motorway, Greece
17.
Egyptian pantheon
–
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
Egyptian pantheon
–
The gods
Osiris,
Anubis, and
Horus
Egyptian pantheon
–
Isis, a
mother goddess and a patroness of kingship, holds Pharaoh
Seti I in her lap.
Egyptian pantheon
–
The sky goddess Nut swallows the sun, which travels through her body at night to be reborn at dawn.
Egyptian pantheon
–
Deities personifying
provinces of Egypt
18.
Music
–
Music is an art form and cultural activity whose medium is sound organized in time. The common elements of music are pitch, rhythm, dynamics, different styles or types of music may emphasize, de-emphasize or omit some of these elements. The word derives from Greek μουσική, Ancient Greek and Indian philosophers defined music as tones ordered horizontally as melodies and vertically as harmonies. Common sayings such as the harmony of the spheres and it is music to my ears point to the notion that music is often ordered and pleasant to listen to. However, 20th-century composer John Cage thought that any sound can be music, saying, for example, There is no noise, the creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of music vary according to culture and social context. There are many types of music, including music, traditional music, art music, music written for religious ceremonies. For example, it can be hard to draw the line between some early 1980s hard rock and heavy metal, within the arts, music may be classified as a performing art, a fine art or as an auditory art. People may make music as a hobby, like a teen playing cello in a youth orchestra, the word derives from Greek μουσική. According to the Online Etymological Dictionary, the music is derived from mid-13c. Musike, from Old French musique and directly from Latin musica the art of music and this is derived from the. Greek mousike of the Muses, from fem. of mousikos pertaining to the Muses, from Mousa Muse. In classical Greece, any art in which the Muses presided, Music is composed and performed for many purposes, ranging from aesthetic pleasure, religious or ceremonial purposes, or as an entertainment product for the marketplace. With the advent of recording, records of popular songs. Some music lovers create mix tapes of their songs, which serve as a self-portrait. An environment consisting solely of what is most ardently loved, amateur musicians can compose or perform music for their own pleasure, and derive their income elsewhere. Professional musicians sometimes work as freelancers or session musicians, seeking contracts and engagements in a variety of settings, There are often many links between amateur and professional musicians. Beginning amateur musicians take lessons with professional musicians, in community settings, advanced amateur musicians perform with professional musicians in a variety of ensembles such as community concert bands and community orchestras. However, there are many cases where a live performance in front of an audience is also recorded and distributed. Live concert recordings are popular in classical music and in popular music forms such as rock, where illegally taped live concerts are prized by music lovers
Music
–
A painting on an Ancient Greek vase depicts a music lesson (c. 510 BC).
Music
–
Jean-Gabriel Ferlan performing at a 2008 concert at the collège-lycée Saint-François Xavier
Music
–
The composer
Michel Richard Delalande, pen in hand.
Music
–
Funk places most of its emphasis on rhythm and
groove, with entire songs based around a
vamp on a single chord. Pictured are the influential funk musicians
George Clinton and
Parliament Funkadelic in 2006.
19.
Dance
–
Dance is a performance art form consisting of purposefully selected sequences of human movement. This movement has aesthetic and symbolic value, and is acknowledged as dance by performers and observers within a particular culture, Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoire of movements, or by its historical period or place of origin. Other forms of movement are sometimes said to have a dance-like quality, including martial arts, gymnastics, figure skating, synchronized swimming. Theatrical dance, also called performance or concert dance, is intended primarily as a spectacle and it often tells a story, perhaps using mime, costume and scenery, or else it may simply interpret the musical accompaniment, which is often specially composed. Examples are western ballet and modern dance, Classical Indian dance and Chinese and Japanese song, most classical forms are centred upon dance alone, but performance dance may also appear in opera and other forms of musical theatre. Such dance seldom has any narrative, a group dance and a corps de ballet, a social partner dance and a pas de deux, differ profoundly. Even a solo dance may be solely for the satisfaction of the dancer. On the other hand, some cultures lay down strict rules as to the dances in which, for example. Archeological evidence for early dance includes 9, 000-year-old paintings in India at the Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka and it has been proposed that before the invention of written languages, dance was an important part of the oral and performance methods of passing stories down from generation to generation. The use of dance in trance states and healing rituals is thought to have been another early factor in the social development of dance. References to dance can be found in very early recorded history, Greek dance is referred to by Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch, the Bible and Talmud refer to many events related to dance, and contain over 30 different dance terms. In Chinese pottery as early as the Neolithic period, groups of people are depicted dancing in a line holding hands, Dance is further described in the Lüshi Chunqiu. Primitive dance in ancient China was associated with sorcery and shamanic rituals, during the first millennium BCE in India, many texts were composed which attempted to codify aspects of daily life. Bharata Munis Natyashastra is one of the earlier texts and it mainly deals with drama, in which dance plays an important part in Indian culture. It categorizes dance into four types - secular, ritual, abstract, the text elaborates various hand-gestures and classifies movements of the various limbs, steps and so on. A strong continuous tradition of dance has since continued in India, through to modern times, where it continues to play a role in culture, ritual, and, notably, the Bollywood entertainment industry. Many other contemporary dance forms can likewise be traced back to historical, traditional, ceremonial, Dance is generally, though not exclusively, performed with the accompaniment of music and may or may not be performed in time to such music. Some dance may provide its own audible accompaniment in place of music, many early forms of music and dance were created for each other and are frequently performed together
Dance
–
Modern dance
Dance
–
Members of American jazz dance company
Giordano Dance Chicago perform a formal group routine in a concert dance setting
Dance
–
Greek bronze statuette of a veiled and masked dancer, 3rd-2nd century BC, Alexandria, Egypt.
Dance
–
Ugandan youth dance at a cultural celebration of peace
20.
Fertility
–
Fertility is the natural capability to produce offspring. As a measure, fertility rate is the number of offspring born per mating pair, Fertility differs from fecundity, which is defined as the potential for reproduction. A lack of fertility is infertility while a lack of fecundity would be called sterility, Human fertility depends on factors of nutrition, sexual behavior, consanguinity, culture, instinct, endocrinology, timing, economics, way of life, and emotions. In demographic contexts, fertility refers to the production of offspring. While fertility can be measured, fecundity cannot be, demographers measure the fertility rate in a variety of ways, which can be broadly broken into period measures and cohort measures. Period measures refer to a cross-section of the population in one year, cohort data on the other hand, follows the same people over a period of decades. Both period and cohort measures are widely used, crude birth rate - the number of live births in a given year per 1,000 people alive at the middle of that year. One disadvantage of this indicator is that it is influenced by the age structure of the population, general fertility rate - the number of births in a year divided by the number of women aged 15–44, times 1000. It focuses on the potential mothers only, and takes the age distribution into account, child-Woman Ratio - the ratio of the number of children under 5 to the number of women 15–49, times 1000. It is especially useful in historical data as it not require counting births. This measure is actually a hybrid, because it involves deaths as well as births, TFR equals the sum for all age groups of 5 times each ASFR rate. Gross Reproduction Rate - the number of girl babies a synthetic cohort will have and it assumes that all of the baby girls will grow up and live to at least age 50. NRR is always lower than GRR, but in countries where mortality is low, almost all the baby girls grow up to be potential mothers. In countries with high mortality, NRR can be as low as 70% of GRR, when NRR =1.0, each generation of 1000 baby girls grows up and gives birth to exactly 1000 girls. When NRR is less one, each generation is smaller than the previous one. When NRR is greater than 1 each generation is larger than the one before, NRR is a measure of the long-term future potential for growth, but it usually is different from the current population growth rate. A parents number of children strongly correlates with the number of children that each person in the generation will eventually have. Factors generally associated with increased fertility include religiosity, intention to have children, Factors generally associated with decreased fertility include wealth, education, female labor participation, urban residence, intelligence, increased female age and increased male age
Fertility
–
United States crude birth rate (births per 1000 population); Baby Boom years in red.
21.
Miners
–
A miner is a person who extracts ore, coal, or other mineral from the earth through mining. There are two senses in which the term is used, in its narrowest sense, a miner is someone who works at the rock face, cutting, blasting, or otherwise working and removing the rock. In a broader sense, a miner is working within a mine. Mining is one of the most dangerous trades in the world, in some countries, miners lack social guarantees and in case of injury may be left to cope without assistance. Different functions of the individual miner, many of the roles are specific to a type of mining, such as coal mining. Roles considered to be miners in the narrower sense have included, Hewer, collier, a hewer who hews coal with a pick. Driller, who works a rock drill to bore holes for placing dynamite or other explosives, other roles within mines that did not involve breaking rock have included, Loader, who loads the mining carts with coal at the face. Putter, who works the carts around the mine, barrow-man, who transported the broken coal from the face in wheelbarrows. Hurrier, who transported coal carts from a mine to the surface, timberer, who fashions and installs timber supports to support the walls and ceiling in an underground mine. In addition to miners working underground, a mine employs other workers in duties at the surface, in addition to office staff of various sorts, these may include, Brakesman, who operate the winding engine. Mining engineers use the principles of math and science to develop solutions to technical problems for miners. In most cases, a degree in engineering, mining engineering or geological engineering is required. Because technology is changing, miners and mining engineers need to continue their education. The basics of mining engineering includes finding, extracting, and preparing minerals, metals and these mined products are used for electric power generation and manufacturing industries. Mining engineers also supervise the construction of mine operations and create ways to transport the extracted minerals to processing plants. Underground mining Miners apron Miners cap Miners habit Mining helmet Mooskappe, miners cap worn in the Harz
Miners
–
A
coal miner from
Kuzbass with a
jackhammer, 1933
Miners
–
Freiburg Miner, stained glass window, 1330
Miners
–
A
brown coal miner with a
pickaxe. West Germany, 1952
Miners
–
Miner in a mine of the "Cerro Rico" at
Potosí, Bolivia, 2006
22.
Predynastic Egypt
–
This Predynastic era is traditionally equivalent to the final part of the Neolithic period beginning c.6000 BC and corresponds to the Naqada III period. The Predynastic period is divided into cultural periods, each named after the place where a certain type of Egyptian settlement was first discovered. The Late Paleolithic in Egypt started around 30,000 BC, the Nazlet Khater skeleton was found in 1980 and dated in 1982 from nine samples ranging between 35,100 and 30,360 years. This specimen is the only complete human skeleton from the earliest Late Stone Age in Africa. Excavation of the Nile has exposed early stone tools, the earliest of these lithic industries were located within the 100-foot terrace, and were Chellean, primitive Acheulean and an Egyptian form of the Clactonian. Within the 50-foot terrace was developed Acheulean, originally reported as Early Mousterian but since changed to Levalloisean, other implements were located in the 30-foot terrace. The 15- and 10-foot terraces saw a more developed version of the Levalloisean, finally, tools of the Egyptian Sebilian technology and an Egyptian version of the Aterian technology were also located. Some of the oldest known buildings were discovered in Egypt by archaeologist Waldemar Chmielewski along the border near Wadi Halfa. They were mobile structures—easily disassembled, moved, and reassembled—providing hunter-gatherers with semi-permanent habitation, Aterian tool-making reached Egypt c.40,000 BC. The Khormusan industry in Egypt began between 40,000 and 30,000 BC, khormusans developed advanced tools not only from stone but also from animal bones and hematite. They also developed small arrow heads resembling those of Native Americans, the end of the Khormusan industry came around 16,000 B. C. with the appearance of other cultures in the region, including the Gemaian. The Halfan culture flourished along the Nile Valley of Egypt and Nubia between 18,000 and 15,000 BC, though one Halfan site dates to before 24,000 BC, people survived on a diet of large herd animals and the Khormusan tradition of fishing. Greater concentrations of artifacts indicate that they were not bound to seasonal wandering and they are viewed as the parent culture of the Ibero-Maurusian industry, which spread across the Sahara and into Spain. The Halfan culture was derived in turn from the Khormusan, which depended on specialized hunting, fishing, the primary material remains of this culture are stone tools, flakes, and a multitude of rock paintings. Qadan peoples developed sickles and grinding stones to aid in the collecting and processing of plant foods prior to consumption. However, there are no indications of the use of these tools after around 10,000 BC, in Egypt, analyses of pollen found at archaeological sites indicate that the Sebilian culture were gathering wheat and barley. It has been hypothesized that the sedentary lifestyle used by farmers led to increased warfare, continued expansion of the desert forced the early ancestors of the Egyptians to settle around the Nile more permanently and adopt a more sedentary lifestyle. The period from 9000 to 6000 BC has left little in the way of archaeological evidence
Predynastic Egypt
–
Predynastic artifacts: clockwise from top left: a
Bat figurine, a Naqada jar, an ivory figurine, cosmetic palette, a
flint knife, and a
diorite vase.
Predynastic Egypt
–
Female Figure, ca. 3500-3400 B.C.E. Terracotta, painted, 11 1/2 x 5 1/2 x 2 1/4 in. (29.2 x 14 x 5.7 cm).
Brooklyn Museum
Predynastic Egypt
–
A typical Naqada II pot with ship theme
23.
Menat
–
Menat was a name used for the goddess Hathor. With a slightly different hieroglyphic spelling, it referred to an ancient Egyptian artifact which and it was held in the hand by its counterpoise and used as a rattle by Hathors priestesses. Often it was worn as an amulet, even by Apis bulls. The menat comprised a plate termed an aegis, worn on the chest, the other ends of the strings were tied to a counterweight which dangled on the wearers back. The aegis was often made of faience, but other materials as varied as leather and it was often inscribed or bore depictions of deities associated with Hathor, such as the one of Sekhmet displayed to the right. The necklace was meant to ensure good luck and fortune and to protect against evil spirits and it was also worn for protection in the afterlife and is often found buried with the dead, given as a grave gift since Ramesside times. Worn by women, it was expected to foster fruitfulness and good health, robert A. Armour, Gods and Myths of Ancient Egypt, American Univ. Eerdmans, Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, Wm. B, eerdmans Publishing 1999 Erman, Johann Peter Adolf, and Hermann Grapow, eds. Wörterbuch der aegyptischen Sprache im Auftrage der deutschen Akademien, media related to Menat-necklace and counterpoise at Wikimedia Commons
Menat
–
An elaborate menat necklace depicted in a relief at the
Temple of Hathor at Dendera
Menat
–
Part of a menat necklace said to depict Hariesis (Horus) extending a
sistrum in front of the goddess
Sekhmet, who is flanked by the goddesses
Wadjet as the
cobra and
Nekhbet as the white
vulture, who were the protectors of
Upper and
Lower Egypt, respectively. Held in the supplicant's other hand is a complete menat, showing the strings of beads.
24.
Narmer Palette
–
The Narmer Palette, also known as the Great Hierakonpolis Palette or the Palette of Narmer, is a significant Egyptian archeological find, dating from about the 31st century BC. It contains some of the earliest hieroglyphic inscriptions ever found, the tablet is thought by some to depict the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the king Narmer. On one side, the king is depicted with the bulbed White Crown of Upper Egypt, and the other side depicts the king wearing the level Red Crown of Lower Egypt. Along with the Scorpion Macehead and the Narmer Maceheads, also together in the Main Deposit at Nekhen. The Palette shows many of the conventions of Ancient Egyptian art. The Egyptologist Bob Brier has referred to the Narmer Palette as the first historical document in the world, also found at this dig were the Narmer Macehead and the Scorpion Macehead. The exact place and circumstances of these finds were not recorded very clearly by Quibell and Green. In fact, Greens report placed the Palette in a different layer one or two away from the deposit, which is considered to be more accurate on the basis of the original excavation notes. It has been suggested that these objects were royal donations made to the temple, Nekhen, or Hierakonpolis, was the ancient capital of Upper Egypt during the pre-dynastic Naqada III phase of Egyptian history. One theory is that it was used to grind cosmetics to adorn the statues of the gods, the Narmer Palette is part of the permanent collection of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. It is one of the exhibits which visitors have been able to see when entering the museum. It has the Journal dEntrée number JE32169 and the Catalogue Général number CG14716, the Narmer Palette is a 63-centimetre tall, shield-shaped, ceremonial palette, carved from a single piece of flat, soft dark gray-green siltstone. The stone has often been identified, in the past. Slate is layered and prone to flaking, and schist is a rock containing large. Both are unlike the finely grained, hard, flake-resistant siltstone and this material was used extensively during the pre-dynastic period for creating such palettes and also was used as a source for Old Kingdom statuary. A statue of the 2nd dynasty pharaoh Khasekhemwy, found in the complex as the Narmer Palette at Hierakonpolis. Both sides of the Palette are decorated, carved in raised relief, at the top of both sides are the central serekhs bearing the rebus symbols nr and mr inside, being the phonetic representation of Narmers name. The serekh on each side are flanked by a pair of heads with highly curved horns
Narmer Palette
–
Both sides of the Narmer Palette
Narmer Palette
–
Narmer Palette
Narmer Palette
25.
Isis
–
Isis is a goddess from the polytheistic pantheon of Egypt. She was first worshiped in ancient Egyptian religion, and later her worship spread throughout the Roman Empire, Isis was worshipped as the ideal mother and wife as well as the patroness of nature and magic. She was the friend of slaves, sinners, artisans and the downtrodden, Isis is often depicted as the mother of Horus, the falcon-headed deity associated with king and kingship. Isis is also known as protector of the dead and goddess of children, as the personification of the throne, she was an important representation of the pharaohs power. The pharaoh was depicted as her child, who sat on the throne she provided. Her cult was popular throughout Egypt, but her most important temples were at Behbeit El Hagar in the Nile delta, and, beginning in the reign with Nectanebo I, on the island of Philae in Upper Egypt. In the typical form of her myth, Isis was the first daughter of Geb, god of the Earth, and Nut, goddess of the Sky and she married her brother, Osiris, and she conceived Horus with him. Isis was instrumental in the resurrection of Osiris when he was murdered by Set, using her magical skills, she restored his body to life after having gathered the body parts that had been strewn about the earth by Set. This myth became very important during the Greco-Roman period, for example, it was believed that the Nile River flooded every year because of the tears of sorrow which Isis wept for Osiris. Osiriss death and rebirth was relived each year through rituals, the worship of Isis eventually spread throughout the Greco-Roman world, continuing until the suppression of paganism in the Christian era. The popular motif of Isis suckling her son Horus, however, the Greek name version of Isis is close to her original, Egyptian name spelling. Isis name was written with the signs of a throne seat. The grammar, spelling and used signs of Isis name never changed during time in any way, however, the symbolic and metaphoric meaning of Isis name remains unclear. The throne seat sign in her name might point to a role as a goddess of kingship. Thus, her name could mean she of the kings throne, but all other Egyptian deities have names that point to clear cosmological or nature elemental roles, thus the name of Isis shouldnt be connected to the king himself. The throne seat symbol might alternatively point to a meaning as throne-mother of the gods and this in turn would supply a very old existence of Isis, long before her first mentioning during the late Old Kingdom, but this hypothesis remains unproven. A third possible meaning might be hidden in the egg-symbol, that was used in Isis name. The egg-symbol always represented motherhood, implying a role of Isis
Isis
–
Isis depicted with outstretched wings (wall painting, c. 1360 BCE)
Isis
–
Isis nursing Horus (
Louvre)
Isis
–
Temple of Isis at Philae. The Court. 1893. Wilbour Library of Egyptology,
Brooklyn Museum
Isis
–
Philae, Egypt. Temple of Isis., n.d.
Brooklyn Museum Archives
26.
Bastet
–
Bastet was a goddess in ancient Egyptian religion, worshiped as early as the 2nd Dynasty. As Bast, she was the goddess of warfare in Lower Egypt and her name is also translated as Baast, Ubaste, and Baset. In Greek mythology, she is known as Ailuros. The uniting Egyptian cultures had deities that shared similar roles and usually the same imagery, in Upper Egypt, Sekhmet was the parallel warrior lioness deity. Often similar deities merged into one with the unification, but that did not occur with these deities having such strong roots in their cultures, instead, these goddesses began to diverge. During the 22nd Dynasty, Bast had transformed from a lioness deity into a major protector deity represented as a cat. Bastet, the associated with this later identity, is the name commonly used by scholars today to refer to this deity. Bastet, the form of the name which is most commonly adopted by Egyptologists today because of its use in later dynasties, is a modern convention offering one possible reconstruction, in early Egyptian, her name appears to have been bꜣstt. In Egyptian writing, the second t marks a feminine ending, but was not usually pronounced, by the first millennium, then, bꜣstt would have been something like *Ubaste in Egyptian speech, later becoming Coptic Oubaste. During later dynasties, the deity remained, but was assigned a role in the pantheon by bearing the name Bastet. This happened after Thebes became the capital of Ancient Egypt during the 18th Dynasty, diminishing her status, they began referring to the deity with the added suffix, as Bastet, and their use of the new name was well-documented, becoming very familiar to researchers. By the 22nd Dynasty the transition had occurred in all regions, what the name of the goddess means remains uncertain. One recent suggestion by Stephen Quirke explains it as meaning She of the ointment jar and this ties in with the observation that her name was written with the hieroglyph for ointment jar and that she was associated with protective ointments, among other things. The name of the known as alabaster might, through Greek. Bastet was originally a warrior goddess of the sun throughout most of ancient Egyptian history. Greeks occupying ancient Egypt toward the end of its civilization changed her into a goddess of the moon, as protector of Lower Egypt, she was seen as defender of the pharaoh, and consequently of the later chief male deity, Ra. Along with the lioness goddesses, she would occasionally be depicted as the embodiment of the Eye of Ra. She has been depicted as fighting the evil snake named Apep, images of Bastet were often created from alabaster
Bastet
–
Photograph of an alabaster cosmetic jar topped with a lioness, representing Bast, an 18th dynasty burial artifact from the tomb of
Tutankhamun circa 1323 BC - Cairo Museum
Bastet
–
Wadjet-Bast, with a lioness head of Bast, the solar disk, and the cobra that represents Wadjet
Bastet
–
Ancient Egyptian statue of Bastet after becoming represented as a domestic cat
Bastet
–
The
Gayer-Anderson cat, believed to be a representation of Bastet
27.
Osiris
–
Osiris was an Egyptian god, usually identified as the god of the afterlife, the underworld, and the dead, but more appropriately as the god of transition, resurrection, and regeneration. He was also associated with the epithet Khenti-Amentiu, meaning Foremost of the Westerners, as ruler of the dead, Osiris was also sometimes called king of the living, ancient Egyptians considered the blessed dead the living ones. Osiris was considered the brother of Isis, Set, Nephthys, and Horus the Elder and he was described as the Lord of love, He Who is Permanently Benign and Youthful and the Lord of Silence. The Kings of Egypt were associated with Osiris in death – as Osiris rose from the dead they would, in union with him, inherit eternal life through a process of imitative magic. By the New Kingdom all people, not just pharaohs, were believed to be associated with Osiris at death, Osiris was widely worshipped as Lord of the Dead until the suppression of the Egyptian religion during the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire. Osiris is a Latin transliteration of the Ancient Greek Ὄσιρις IPA, in Egyptian hieroglyphs the name is appears as wsjr or jsjrt. Since hieroglyphic writing lacks vowels, Egyptologists have vocalized the name in various ways as Asar, Yasar, Aser, Asaru, Ausar, Ausir, Wesir, Usir, several proposals have been made for the etymology and meaning of the original name wsjr. John Gwyn Griffiths proposed a derivation from wsr signifying the powerful, moreover, one of the oldest attestations of the god Osiris appears in the mastaba of the deceased Netjer-wser. David Lorton proposed that Wsjr is composed by the morphemes set-jret signifying ritual activity, wolfhart Westendorf proposed an etymology from Waset-jret she who bears the eye. He also carries the crook and flail, the crook is thought to represent Osiris as a shepherd god. The symbolism of the flail is more uncertain with shepherds whip, fly-whisk and he was commonly depicted as a pharaoh with a complexion of either green or black in mummiform. The Pyramid Texts describe early conceptions of an afterlife in terms of travelling with the sun god amongst the stars. Amongst these mortuary texts, at the beginning of the 4th dynasty, is found, An offering the king gives, by the end of the 5th dynasty, the formula in all tombs becomes An offering the king gives and Osiris. Osiris is the father of the god Horus, whose conception is described in the Osiris myth. The myth described Osiris as having been killed by his brother Set, Isis joined the fragmented pieces of Osiris, but the only body part missing was the phallus. Isis fashioned a golden phallus, and briefly brought Osiris back to life by use of a spell that she learned from her father and this spell gave her time to become pregnant by Osiris before he again died. Isis later gave birth to Horus, as such, since Horus was born after Osiris resurrection, Horus became thought of as a representation of new beginnings and the vanquisher of the evil Set. Ptah-Seker thus gradually became identified with Osiris, the two becoming Ptah-Seker-Osiris, Osiris soul, or rather his Ba, was occasionally worshipped in its own right, almost as if it were a distinct god, especially in the Delta city of Mendes
Osiris
–
Head of the God Osiris, ca. 595-525 B.C.E.
Brooklyn Museum
Osiris
–
Osiris with an Atef-crown made of bronze in the
Naturhistorisches Museum (Vienna)
Osiris
–
The gods Osiris,
Anubis, and
Horus, from a tomb painting.
Osiris
–
The family of Osiris. Osiris on a
lapis lazuli pillar in the middle, flanked by
Horus on the left and
Isis on the right (22nd dynasty,
Louvre,
Paris)
28.
Aphrodite
–
Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation. She is identified with the planet Venus, and her Roman equivalent is the goddess Venus, as with many ancient Greek deities, there is more than one story about her origins. According to Hesiods Theogony, she was born when Cronus cut off Uranuss genitals and threw them into the sea, according to Homers Iliad, she is the daughter of Zeus and Dione. In Plato, these two origins are said to be of hitherto separate entities, Aphrodite Ourania and Aphrodite Pandemos, Aphrodite had many lovers—both gods, such as Ares, and men, such as Anchises. She played a role in the Eros and Psyche legend, and was lover and surrogate mother of Adonis. Many lesser beings were said to be children of Aphrodite, Aphrodite is also known as Cytherea and Cypris after the two cult sites, Cythera and Cyprus, which claimed to be her place of birth. Myrtle, roses, doves, sparrows and swans were sacred to her, the ancient Greeks identified her with the Ancient Egyptian goddess Hathor. Aphrodite had many names such as Acidalia and Cerigo, each used by a different local cult of the goddess in Greece. The Greeks recognized all of these names as referring to the single goddess Aphrodite, despite the differences in what these local cults believed the goddess demanded of them. The Attic philosophers of the 4th century, however, drew a distinction between a celestial Aphrodite of transcendent principles, and a separate, common Aphrodite who was the goddess of the people, hesiod derives Aphrodite from aphrós sea-foam, interpreting the name as risen from the foam. Michael Janda, accepting this as genuine, claims the birth myth as an Indo-European mytheme. Likewise, Witczak proposes an Indo-European compound *abʰor- very and *dʰei- to shine and it has been argued that etymologies based on comparison with Eos are unlikely since Aphrodites attributes are entirely different from those of Eos or the Vedic deity Ushas. A number of improbable non-Greek etymologies have suggested in scholarship. One Semitic etymology compares Aphrodite to the Assyrian barīrītu, the name of a demon that appears in Middle Babylonian. Hammarström looks to Etruscan, comparing prϑni lord, an Etruscan honorific loaned into Greek as πρύτανις and this would make the theonym in origin an honorific, the lady. Hjalmar Frisk and Robert Beekes reject this etymology as implausible, especially since Aphrodite actually appears in Etruscan in the borrowed form Apru, the medieval Etymologicum Magnum offers a highly contrived etymology, deriving Aphrodite from the compound habrodíaitos, she who lives delicately, from habrós and díaita. The alteration from b to ph is explained as a characteristic of Greek obvious from the Macedonians. Aphrodite is usually said to have been born near her chief center of worship, Paphos, on the island of Cyprus, however, other versions of her myth have her born near the island of Cythera, hence another of her names, Cytherea
Aphrodite
–
Aphrodite Pudica (Roman copy of 2nd century AD),
National Archaeological Museum, Athens
Aphrodite
–
Petra tou Romiou ("The rock of the
Greek "), Aphrodite's legendary birthplace in
Paphos, Cyprus.
Aphrodite
–
The Birth of Venus by
Sandro Botticelli, circa 1485.
Aphrodite
–
Venus and Adonis by
Titian, circa 1554.
29.
Bat (goddess)
–
Bat was a cow goddess in Egyptian mythology depicted as a human face with cow ears and horns. By the time of the Middle Kingdom, her identity and attributes were subsumed within the goddess Hathor, the worship of Bat dates to earliest times and may have its origins in Late Paleolithic cattle herding. Bat was the goddess of Seshesh, otherwise known as Hu or Diospolis Parva. The epithet Bat may be linked to the word ba with the suffix t. A persons ba roughly equates to his or her personality or emanation and is translated as soul. Although it was rare for Bat to be depicted in painting or sculpture. In other instances she was pictured as a bovine creature surrounded by stars or as a human woman. More commonly, Bat was depicted on amulets, with a face, but with bovine features, such as the ears of a cow. Bat became strongly associated with the sistrum, and the center of her cult was known as the Mansion of the Sistrum, the sistrum is a musical instrument, shaped like an ankh, that was one of the most frequently used sacred instruments in ancient Egyptian temples. Some instruments would include depictions of Bat, with her head and neck as the handle and base, the imagery is repeated on each side, having two faces, as mentioned in the Pyramid Texts. I am Praise, I am Majesty, I am Bat with Her Two Faces, I am the One Who Is Saved, the imagery of Bat as a divine cow was remarkably similar to that of Hathor, a parallel goddess from Lower Egypt. In two dimensional images, both goddesses often are depicted straight on, facing the onlooker and not in profile in accordance with the usual Egyptian convention, the significant difference in their depictions is that Bats horns curve inward and Hathors curve outward slightly. It is possible that this could be based in the different breeds of cattle herded at different times. Hathors cult center was in the 6th Nome of Upper Egypt, adjacent to the 7th where Bat was the cow goddess, by the Middle Kingdom, the cult of Hathor had again absorbed that of Bat in a manner similar to other mergers in the Egyptian pantheon. The goddess Bat - discussion on Philae The goddess Bat - discussion on Egyptian Myths
Bat (goddess)
–
The
Narmer Palette,
Bat flanks the top of both sides.
Bat (goddess)
–
Both
Hathor (left) and Bat flank
Menkaure in this Fourth Dynasty triad statue. The goddesses provide the authority for him to be king and are identified by their crowns. The emblem on Bat's crown represents the
sistrum, though the crown also includes her
zoomorphic face and the feather of
Ma'at. -
Cairo Museum
,_N372.2.jpg)
