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BlueWillow — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 01:28:12 CDT

Black-Eyed Susan

Rudbeckia hirta (Asteraceae)

A stiff, upright annual or shortlived perennial native to the eastern United States, but has become endemic throughout North America. The Black-Eyed Susan is probably the most common of all American wildflowers. The characteristic brown, domed center is surrounded by bright yellow ray florets. Thrives in most soils in full sun. A true sunshine worshiper that forgives neglect.

Average planting success with this species: 80%
Height: 2-3 feet
Germination: 7-30 days
Optimum soil temperature for germination: 70F
Sowing depth: 1/16"
Blooming period: June-August
Average seeds per pound: 1,710,000
Seeding rate: 2 lbs. per acre
Suggested use: Roadsides, open fields, floral gardens, mixtures.
Miscellaneous: The state flower of Maryland. When cut, has a vase life of 6 to 10 days. Reseeds

Medicinal Uses: Native Americans used root tea for worms, colds, external wash for sores, snakebites, swelling; root juice for earaches

Black-Eyed Susan is surely one of the most beloved plants in the wildflower and perennial garden. It is yet another member of the Aster family, and close family members include annuals, biennials, and perennials. However, most behave like biennials - growing clumps of foliage the first year and flowering the second. (In long-season areas, some may flower in the first year). Black-Eyed Susans are very easy-care plants with no special requirements in the garden other than well-drained soil and full sun or near-full sun. They are included in many perennial and wildflower mixes, and are a common sight along roadways and in disturbed areas due to their prolific growth and successful self-seeding. In the garden, they make a good naturalizing plant, but beware, some years may be more colorful than others due to their biennial-type growth habit. They self seed freely, and the roots of perennial specimens can be divided in the fall for more plants. They can be started easily by seed in the fall, in flats 6 weeks before the last frost, or early in the spring for bloom the next year. In the garden, they are rather nondescript plants before blooming, so other ornamentals that bloom a little earlier are a good idea to keep the show going. Black-Eyed Susans are a very close relative of the venerable herb, Echinacea, and there is some indication that the root has at least the medicinal qualities of Echinacea, and may be an even stronger medicinal plant for the same medical complaints. More study is needed to confirm this, however. See Echinacea in Echinacea in Medicine for more information. Indians used tea made from the roots (and sometimes the leaves) of the plant internally for elimination of worms, for cold symptoms, and topically as a remedy for sores, cuts, and scrapes. The juice squeezed from the roots was used for earaches. The seeds of most Black-Eyed Susans are poisonous, so steer clear of the seed for any herbal uses. The leaves appear to be safe if used in teas internally or topically. Lastly, with their sturdy stems, Black-Eyed Susans make wonderful long-lasting, cheery cut flowers for arrangements. In the garden, they are a strong draw for beneficial insects and wildlife, including bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds, and as such make a wonderful addition to a habitat-type situation. Black-Eyed Susans are also quite drought tolerant, and as such makes a welcome and useful addition to the garden in very hot, dry areas. This information was

borrowed from: http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/wildseed/20/20.2.html, http://www.gardensablaze.com/WildflowersBlackEyeSus.htm, http://www.hsl.unc.edu/Collections/MedicinalGarden/BESusan.htm, and http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/SCHOOLS/OLNEYES/Media/blackeyed_susan.html

SC News Page 2

BlueWillow — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 01:13:21 CDT

Lughnasadh

The Celtic harvest festival on August 1st takes its name from the Irish god Lugh, one of the chief gods of the Tuatha De Danann, giving us Lughnasadh in Ireland, Lunasdál in Scotland, and Laa Luanys in the Isle of Man. (In Wales, this time is known simply as Gwl Awst, the August Feast.)
Lugh dedicated this festival to his foster-mother, Tailtiu, the last queen of the Fir Bolg, who died from exhaustion after clearing a great forest so that the land could be cultivated. When the men of Ireland gathered at her death-bed, she told them to hold funeral games in her honor. As long as they were held, she prophesied Ireland would not be without song. Tailtiu’s name is from Old Celtic Talantiu, "The Great One of the Earth," suggesting she may originally have been a personification of the land itself, like so many Irish goddesses. In fact, Lughnasadh has an older name, Brón Trogain, which refers to the painful labor of childbirth. For at this time of year, the earth gives birth to her first fruits so that her children might live.
Tailtiu gives her name to Teltown in County Meath, where the festival was traditionally held in early Ireland. It evolved into a great tribal assembly, attended by the High King, where legal agreements were made, political problems discussed, and huge sporting contests were held on the scale of an early Olympic Games. Artists and entertainers displayed their talents, traders came from far and wide to sell food, farm animals, fine crafts and clothing, and there was much storytelling, music, and high-spirited revelry, according to a medieval eye-witness account: "Trumpets, harps, hollow-throated horns, pipers, timpanists, unwearied…fiddlers, gleemen, bone-players and bag-pipers, a rude crowd, noisy, profane, roaring and shouting."
This was also an occasion for handfasting, or trial marriages. Young men and women lined up on either side of a wooden gate in a high wall, in which a hole was carved, large enough for a hand. One by one, girl and boy would grasp a hand in the hole, without being able to see who was on the other side. They were now married, and could live together for year and day to see if it worked out. If not, the couple returned to next year’s gathering and officially separated by standing back to back and walking away from each other.
Throughout the centuries, the grandeur of Teltown dwindled away, but all over Ireland, right up to the middle of this century, country-people have celebrated the harvest at revels, wakes, and fairs – and some still continue today in the liveliest manner. It was usually celebrated on the nearest Sunday to August 1st, so that a whole day could be set aside from work. In later times, the festival of Lughnasadh was christianized as Lammas, from the Anglo-Saxon, hlaf-mas, "Loaf-Mass," but in rural areas, it was often remembered as "Bilberry Sunday," for this was the day to climb the nearest "Lughnasadh Hill" and gather the earth’s freely-given gifts of the little black berries, which they might wear as special garlands or gather in baskets to take home for jam.
As of old, people sang and danced jigs and reels to the music of melodeons, fiddles and flutes, and held uproarious sporting contests and races. In some places, a woman—or an effigy of one—was crowned with summer flowers and seated on a throne, with garlands strewn at her feet. Dancers whirled around her, touching her garlands or pulling off a ribbon for good luck. In this way, perhaps, the ancient goddess of the harvest was still remembered with honor. This information was borrowed from http://www.chalicecentre.net/lughnasadh.htm

SC News Page 1

BlueWillow — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 01:04:58 CDT

Ann Moura

Ann Moura was born in 1947 and raised in a family oral tradition of at least three generations, Ann Moura began writing about her heritage as a Green Witch in 1993 when her mother passed away. Her maternal heritage is Brazilian/Celtic-Iberian through her mother and grandmother. From them she learned folk magics and Craft concepts that included Rules of Conduct, spiritism, herbal spells, candle magics, reincarnation belief, calling upon the Elementals, and working with “The Power.”Ann holds both Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in History and writes from the perspective of her personal experience and family training. Her books are sold internationally in English, Italian, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, and Russian.
Ann is the author of Green Witchcraft: Folk Magic, Fairy Lore, & Herb Craft, Green Witchcraft II: Balancing Light & Shadow, Green Witchcraft III: The Manual, Green Magic: The Sacred Connection to Nature, Grimoire for the Green Witch: A Complete Book of Shadows, and Tarot for the Green Witch.

She can be contacted through her website http://www.annmourasgarden.com/.

This information was borrowed from: http://www.llewellyn.com/bookstore/author.php?id=23222

Amendment I (religious Freedom)

BlueWillow — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 00:49:45 CDT

James Madison, Memorial and Remonstrance against Religious Assessments

June 20, 1785

To the Honorable the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia A Memorial and Remonstrance

We the subscribers, citizens of the said Commonwealth, having taken into serious consideration, a Bill printed by order of the last Session of General Assembly, entitled "A Bill establishing a provision for Teachers of the Christian Religion," and conceiving that the same if finally armed with the sanctions of a law, will be a dangerous abuse of power, are bound as faithful members of a free State to remonstrate against it, and to declare the reasons by which we are determined. We remonstrate against the said Bill,

1. Because we hold it for a fundamental and undeniable truth, "that Religion or the duty which we owe to our Creator and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence." [Virginia Declaration of Rights, art. 16] The Religion then of every man must be left to the conviction and conscience of every man; and it is the right of every man to exercise it as these may dictate. This right is in its nature an unalienable right. It is unalienable, because the opinions of men, depending only on the evidence contemplated by their own minds cannot follow the dictates of other men: It is unalienable also, because what is here a right towards men, is a duty towards the Creator. It is the duty of every man to render to the Creator such homage and such only as he believes to be acceptable to him. This duty is precedent, both in order of time and in degree of obligation, to the claims of Civil Society. Before any man can be considered as a member of Civil Society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governor of the Universe: And if a member of Civil Society, who enters into any subordinate Association, must always do it with a reservation of his duty to the General Authority; much more must every man who becomes a member of any particular Civil Society, do it with a saving of his allegiance to the Universal Sovereign. We maintain therefore that in matters of Religion, no mans right is abridged by the institution of Civil Society and that Religion is wholly exempt from its cognizance. True it is, that no other rule exists, by which any question which may divide a Society, can be ultimately determined, but the will of the majority; but it is also true that the majority may trespass on the rights of the minority.

2. Because if Religion be exempt from the authority of the Society at large, still less can it be subject to that of the Legislative Body. The latter are but the creatures and vicegerents of the former. Their jurisdiction is both derivative and limited: it is limited with regard to the co-ordinate departments, more necessarily is it limited with regard to the constituents. The preservation of a free Government requires not merely, that the metes and bounds which separate each department of power be invariably maintained; but more especially that neither of them be suffered to overleap the great Barrier which defends the rights of the people. The Rulers who are guilty of such an encroachment, exceed the commission from which they derive their authority, and are Tyrants. The People who submit to it are governed by laws made neither by themselves nor by an authority derived from them, and are slaves.

3. Because it is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties. We hold this prudent jealousy to be the first duty of Citizens, and one of the noblest characteristics of the late Revolution. The free men of America did not wait till usurped power had strengthened itself by exercise, and entangled the question in precedents. They saw all the consequences in the principle, and they avoided the consequences by denying the principle. We revere this lesson too much soon to forget it. Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other Religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other Sects? that the same authority which can force a citizen to contribute three pence only of his property for the support of any one establishment, may force him to conform to any other establishment in all cases whatsoever?

4. Because the Bill violates that equality which ought to be the basis of every law, and which is more indispensible, in proportion as the validity or expediency of any law is more liable to be impeached. If "all men are by nature equally free and independent," [Virginia Declaration of Rights, art. 1] all men are to be considered as entering into Society on equal conditions; as relinquishing no more, and therefore retaining no less, one than another, of their natural rights. Above all are they to be considered as retaining an "equal title to the free exercise of Religion according to the dictates of Conscience." [Virginia Declaration of Rights, art. 16] Whilst we assert for ourselves a freedom to embrace, to profess and to observe the Religion which we believe to be of divine origin, we cannot deny an equal freedom to those whose minds have not yet yielded to the evidence which has convinced us. If this freedom be abused, it is an offence against God, not against man: To God, therefore, not to man, must an account of it be rendered. As the Bill violates equality by subjecting some to peculiar burdens, so it violates the same principle, by granting to others peculiar exemptions. Are the Quakers and Menonists the only sects who think a compulsive support of their Religions unnecessary and unwarrantable? Can their piety alone be entrusted with the care of public worship? Ought their Religions to be endowed above all others with extraordinary privileges by which proselytes may be enticed from all others? We think too favorably of the justice and good sense of these denominations to believe that they either covet pre-eminences over their fellow citizens or that they will be seduced by them from the common opposition to the measure.

5. Because the Bill implies either that the Civil Magistrate is a competent Judge of Religious Truth; or that he may employ Religion as an engine of Civil policy. The first is an arrogant pretension falsified by the contradictory opinions of Rulers in all ages, and throughout the world: the second an unhallowed perversion of the means of salvation.

6. Because the establishment proposed by the Bill is not requisite for the support of the Christian Religion. To say that it is, is a contradiction to the Christian Religion itself, for every page of it disavows a dependence on the powers of this world: it is a contradiction to fact; for it is known that this Religion both existed and flourished, not only without the support of human laws, but in spite of every opposition from them, and not only during the period of miraculous aid, but long after it had been left to its own evidence and the ordinary care of Providence. Nay, it is a contradiction in terms; for a Religion not invented by human policy, must have pre-existed and been supported, before it was established by human policy. It is moreover to weaken in those who profess this Religion a pious confidence in its innate excellence and the patronage of its Author; and to foster in those who still reject it, a suspicion that its friends are too conscious of its fallacies to trust it to its own merits.

7. Because experience witnesseth that ecclesiastical establishments, instead of maintaining the purity and efficacy of Religion, have had a contrary operation. During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have been its fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the Clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity, in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution. Enquire of the Teachers of Christianity for the ages in which it appeared in its greatest lustre; those of every sect, point to the ages prior to its incorporation with Civil policy. Propose a restoration of this primitive State in which its Teachers depended on the voluntary rewards of their flocks, many of them predict its downfall. On which Side ought their testimony to have greatest weight, when for or when against their interest?

8. Because the establishment in question is not necessary for the support of Civil Government. If it be urged as necessary for the support of Civil Government only as it is a means of supporting Religion, and it be not necessary for the latter purpose, it cannot be necessary for the former. If Religion be not within the cognizance of Civil Government how can its legal establishment be necessary to Civil Government? What influence in fact have ecclesiastical establishments had on Civil Society? In some instances they have been seen to erect a spiritual tyranny on the ruins of the Civil authority; in many instances they have been seen upholding the thrones of political tyranny: in no instance have they been seen the guardians of the liberties of the people. Rulers who wished to subvert the public liberty, may have found an established Clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just Government instituted to secure & perpetuate it needs them not. Such a Government will be best supported by protecting every Citizen in the enjoyment of his Religion with the same equal hand which protects his person and his property; by neither invading the equal rights of any Sect, nor suffering any Sect to invade those of another.

9. Because the proposed establishment is a departure from that generous policy, which, offering an Asylum to the persecuted and oppressed of every Nation and Religion, promised a lustre to our country, and an accession to the number of its citizens. What a melancholy mark is the Bill of sudden degeneracy? Instead of holding forth an Asylum to the persecuted, it is itself a signal of persecution. It degrades from the equal rank of Citizens all those whose opinions in Religion do not bend to those of the Legislative authority. Distant as it may be in its present form from the Inquisition, it differs from it only in degree. The one is the first step, the other the last in the career of intolerance. The magnanimous sufferer under this cruel scourge in foreign Regions, must view the Bill as a Beacon on our Coast, warning him to seek some other haven, where liberty and philanthrophy in their due extent, may offer a more certain repose from his Troubles.

10. Because it will have a like tendency to banish our Citizens. The allurements presented by other situations are every day thinning their number. To superadd a fresh motive to emigration by revoking the liberty which they now enjoy, would be the same species of folly which has dishonoured and depopulated flourishing kingdoms.

11. Because it will destroy that moderation and harmony which the forbearance of our laws to intermeddle with Religion has produced among its several sects. Torrents of blood have been spilt in the old world, by vain attempts of the secular arm, to extinguish Religious discord, by proscribing all difference in Religious opinion. Time has at length revealed the true remedy. Every relaxation of narrow and rigorous policy, wherever it has been tried, has been found to assuage the disease. The American Theatre has exhibited proofs that equal and compleat liberty, if it does not wholly eradicate it, sufficiently destroys its malignant influence on the health and prosperity of the State. If with the salutary effects of this system under our own eyes, we begin to contract the bounds of Religious freedom, we know no name that will too severely reproach our folly. At least let warning be taken at the first fruits of the threatened innovation. The very appearance of the Bill has transformed "that Christian forbearance, love and charity," [Virginia Declaration of Rights, art. 16] which of late mutually prevailed, into animosities and jealousies, which may not soon be appeased. What mischiefs may not be dreaded, should this enemy to the public quiet be armed with the force of a law?

12. Because the policy of the Bill is adverse to the diffusion of the light of Christianity. The first wish of those who enjoy this precious gift ought to be that it may be imparted to the whole race of mankind. Compare the number of those who have as yet received it with the number still remaining under the dominion of false Religions; and how small is the former! Does the policy of the Bill tend to lessen the disproportion? No; it at once discourages those who are strangers to the light of revelation from coming into the Region of it; and countenances by example the nations who continue in darkness, in shutting out those who might convey it to them. Instead of Levelling as far as possible, every obstacle to the victorious progress of Truth, the Bill with an ignoble and unchristian timidity would circumscribe it with a wall of defence against the encroachments of error.

13. Because attempts to enforce by legal sanctions, acts obnoxious to so great a proportion of Citizens, tend to enervate the laws in general, and to slacken the bands of Society. If it be difficult to execute any law which is not generally deemed necessary or salutary, what must be the case, where it is deemed invalid and dangerous? And what may be the effect of so striking an example of impotency in the Government, on its general authority?

14. Because a measure of such singular magnitude and delicacy ought not to be imposed, without the clearest evidence that it is called for by a majority of citizens, and no satisfactory method is yet proposed by which the voice of the majority in this case may be determined, or its influence secured. "The people of the respective counties are indeed requested to signify their opinion respecting the adoption of the Bill to the next Session of Assembly." But the representation must be made equal, before the voice either of the Representatives or of the Counties will be that of the people. Our hope is that neither of the former will, after due consideration, espouse the dangerous principle of the Bill. Should the event disappoint us, it will still leave us in full confidence, that a fair appeal to the latter will reverse the sentence against our liberties.

15. Because finally, "the equal right of every citizen to the free exercise of his Religion according to the dictates of conscience" is held by the same tenure with all our other rights. If we recur to its origin, it is equally the gift of nature; if we weigh its importance, it cannot be less dear to us; if we consult the "Declaration of those rights which pertain to the good people of Virginia, as the basis and foundation of Government," it is enumerated with equal solemnity, or rather studied emphasis. Either then, we must say, that the Will of the Legislature is the only measure of their authority; and that in the plenitude of this authority, they may sweep away all our fundamental rights; or, that they are bound to leave this particular right untouched and sacred: Either we must say, that they may controul the freedom of the press, may abolish the Trial by Jury, may swallow up the Executive and Judiciary Powers of the State; nay that they may despoil us of our very right of suffrage, and erect themselves into an independent and hereditary Assembly or, we must say, that they have no authority to enact into law the Bill under consideration. We the Subscribers say, that the General Assembly of this Commonwealth have no such authority: And that no effort may be omitted on our part against so dangerous an usurpation, we oppose to it, this remonstrance; earnestly praying, as we are in duty bound, that the Supreme Lawgiver of the Universe, by illuminating those to whom it is addressed, may on the one hand, turn their Councils from every act which would affront his holy prerogative, or violate the trust committed to them: and on the other, guide them into every measure which may be worthy of his blessing, may redound to their own praise, and may establish more firmly the liberties, the prosperity and the happiness of the Commonwealth.

The Founders' Constitution

Volume 5, Amendment I (Religion), Document 43
http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/amendI_religions43.html
The University of Chicago Press The Papers of James Madison. Edited by William T. Hutchinson et al. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1962--77 (vols. 1--10); Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1977--(vols. 11--).

This article was borrowed from: http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/amendI_religions43.html and is in no way my work, it is here for the express purposes to educate the readers on religious freedom.

Blue Willow

Old News

BlueWillow — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 00:49:04 CDT

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Old News 3

BlueWillow — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 00:48:15 CDT

Plant of the month

Crocus

(Crocus vernus)

Crocus (plural: crocus, crocuses) is a genus of perennial flowering plants, native to a large area from coastal and subalpine areas of central and southern Europe (including the islands of the Aegean), North Africa and the Middle East, across Central Asia to western China.

The genus Crocus is placed botanically in the iris family (Iridaceae). The plants grow from corms and are mainly hardy perennials, and are found in a wide range of habitats, including woodland, scrub and meadows.

There are about eighty species of crocus (of which approximately 30 are cultivated). Their cup-shaped, solitary, salverform flowers taper off into a narrow tube. Their color varies enormously, although lilac, mauve, yellow and white are predominant. The grass-like, ensiform leaf shows generally a white central stripe along the leaf axis. The leaf margin is entire. All crocuses typically have three stamens. The spice saffron is obtained from the stigmas of Crocus sativus, an autumn/fall-blooming species.

The name of the genus is derived from the Greek κρόκος, krokos (attested in Homer's Iliad, Book XIV, verse 347), this in turn being a Semitic loanword (Hebrew karkom, Aramaic kurkama, Persian and Arabic kurkum, all meaning saffron or saffron yellow). In Greek, the word is also used for the similarly colored egg yolk

The first crocus seen in the Netherlands, where Crocus species are not native, were corms brought back from the Holy Roman Emperor's ambassador to the Sublime Porte, A. Ghislain de Busbeq, in the 1560s. A few corms were forwarded to Carolus Clusius at the botanical garden in Leiden. By 1620, the approximate date of Ambrosius Bosschaert's painting (illustration, left), new garden varieties had been developed, such as the cream-colored crocus feathered with bronze at the base of the bouquet, similar to varieties still in the market.

Bosschaert, working from a preparatory drawing to paint his composed piece, which spans the whole of Spring, exaggerated the crocus so that it passes for a tulip, but its narrow, grass like leaves give it away.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crocus#References
http://www.zaplana.net/flowers/asp/display_flower.asp?name=Crocus+vernus
http://www.sacrecoeurcharleroi.be/net_cursus/crocus.jpg

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Old News 2

BlueWillow — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 00:47:49 CDT

Monthly Celebration

ostara/LadysDay/Spring Equinox

(Thursday March 20 2008)

Now comes the vernal equinox, and the season of spring reaches its apex, halfway through its journey from Candlemas to Beltane. Once again, night and day stand in perfect balance, with the powers of light on the ascendancy. The God of Light now wins a victory over his twin, the God of Darkness. In The Mabinogion myth reconstruction that I have proposed, this is the day on which the restored Llew takes his vengeance on Goronwy by piercing him with the sunlight spear. For Llew was restored/reborn at the winter solstice and is now well/old enough to vanquish his rival/twin and mate with his lover/ mother. And the Great Mother Goddess, who has returned to her Virgin aspect at Candlemas, welcomes the young Sun God’s embraces and conceives a child. The child will be born nine months from now, at the next winter solstice. And so the cycle closes at last.

We think that the customs surrounding the celebration of the spring equinox were imported from Mediterranean lands, although there can be no doubt that the first inhabitants of the British Isles observed it, as evidence from megalithic sites shows. But it was certainly more popular to the south, where people celebrated the holiday as New Year’s Day, and claimed it as the first day of the first sign of the zodiac, Aries. However you look at it, it is certainly a time of new beginnings, as a simple glance at nature will prove.

In the Roman Catholic Church, there are two holidays that get mixed up with the vernal equinox. The first, occurring on the fixed calendar day of March 25 in the old liturgical calendar, is called the Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary (or B.V.M., as she was typically abbreviated in Catholic missals). Annunciation means an “announcement”. This is the day that the archangel Gabriel announced to Mary that she was “in the family way”. Naturally, this had to be announced since Mary, being still a virgin, would have no other means of knowing it. (Quit scoffing, O ye of little faith!) Why did the church pick the vernal equinox for the commemoration of this event? Because it was necessary to have Mary conceive the child Jesus a full nine months before his birth at the winter solstice (i.e., Christmas, celebrated on the fixed calendar date of December 25). Mary’s pregnancy would take the natural nine months to complete, even if the conception was a bit unorthodox.

As mentioned before, the older Pagan equivalent of this scene focuses on the joyous process of natural conception, when the young Virgin Goddess (in this case, “virgin” in the original sense of meaning “unmarried”) mates with the young solar God, who has just displaced his rival. This is probably not their first mating, however. In the mythical sense, the couple may have been lovers since Candlemas, when the young God reached puberty. But the young Goddess was recently a mother (at the winter solstice) and is probably still nursing her new child. Therefore, conception is naturally delayed for six weeks or so and, despite earlier matings with the God, she does not conceive until (surprise!) the vernal equinox. This may also be their hand fasting, a sacred marriage between God and Goddess called a hierogamy, the ultimate Great Rite. Probably the nicest study of this theme occurs in M. Esther Harding’s book, Woman’s Mysteries. Probably the nicest description of it occurs in Marion Zimmer Bradley’s The Mists of Avalon, in the scene where Morgan and Arthur assume the sacred roles. (Bradley follows the British custom of transferring the episode to Beltane, when the climate is more suited to its outdoor celebration.)

The other Christian holiday that gets mixed up in this is Easter. Easter, too, celebrates the victory of a God of light (Jesus) over darkness (death), so it makes sense to place it at this season. Ironically, the name “Easter” was taken from the name of a Teutonic lunar Goddess, Eostre (from whence we also get the name of the female hormone, estrogen). Her chief symbols were the bunny (both for fertility and because her worshipers saw a hare in the full moon) and the egg (symbolic of the Cosmic Egg of Creation), images that Christians have been hard pressed to explain. Her holiday, the Eostara, was held on the vernal equinox full moon. Of course, the church doesn’t celebrate full moons, even if they do calculate by them, so they planted their Easter on the following Sunday. Thus, Easter is always the first Sunday, after the first full moon, after the vernal equinox.

If you’ve ever wondered why Easter moved all around the calendar, now you know. (By the way, the Catholic Church was so adamant about not incorporating lunar Goddess symbolism that they added a further calculation: if Easter Sunday were to fall on the full moon itself, then Easter was postponed to the following Sunday instead.) Incidentally, this raises another point: recently, some Pagan traditions began referring to the vernal equinox as ‘Eostara’. Historically, this is incorrect. Eostara is a lunar holiday, honoring a lunar Goddess, at the vernal full moon. Hence, the name “Eostara” is best reserved to the nearest Esbat, rather than the Sabbat itself. How this happened is difficult to say. However, it is notable that some of the same groups misappropriated the term ‘Lady Day’ for Beltane, which left no good folk name for the equinox. Thus, ‘Eostara’ was misappropriated for it, completing a chain reaction of displacement. Needless to say, the old and accepted folk name for the vernal equinox is “Lady Day”. Christians sometimes insist that the title is in honor of Mary and her Annunciation, but Pagans will smile knowingly.

Another mythological motif that must surely arrest our attention at this time of year is that of the descent of the God or Goddess into the Underworld. Perhaps we see this most clearly in the Christian tradition. Beginning with his death on the cross on Good Friday, it is said that Jesus “descended into hell” for the three days that his body lay entombed. But on the third day (that is, Easter Sunday), his body and soul rejoined, he arose from the dead and ascended into heaven. By a strange ‘coincidence’, most ancient Pagan religions speak of the Goddess descending into the Underworld, also for a period of three days. Why three days? If we remember that we are here dealing with the lunar aspect of the Goddess, the reason should be obvious. As the text of one Book of Shadows gives it, “As the moon waxes and wanes, and walks three nights in darkness, so the Goddess once spent three nights in the Kingdom of Death.” In our modern world, alienated as it is from nature, we tend to mark the time of the new moon (when no moon is visible) as a single date on a calendar. We tend to forget that the moon is also hidden from our view on the day before and the day after our calendar date. But this did not go unnoticed by our ancestors, who always speak of the Goddess’s sojourn into the Land of Death as lasting for three days. Is it any wonder then that we celebrate the next full moon (the Eostara) as the return of the Goddess from chthonic regions?

Naturally, this is the season to celebrate the victory of life over death, as any nature lover will affirm. And the Christian religion was not misguided by celebrating Christ’s victory over death at this same season. Nor is Christ the only solar hero to journey into the Underworld. King Arthur, for example, does the same thing when he sets sail in his magical ship, Prydwen, to bring back precious gifts (i.e., the gifts of life) from the Land of the Dead, as we are told in The Mabinogi. Welsh triads allude to Gwydion and Amaethon doing much the same thing. In fact, this theme is so universal that mythologists refer to it by a common phrase, “the harrowing of hell”.

However, one might conjecture that the descent into hell, or the Land of the Dead, was originally accomplished, not by a solar male Deity, but by a lunar female Deity. It is Nature herself who, in spring, returns from the Underworld with her gift of abundant life. Solar heroes may have laid claim to this theme much later. The very fact that we are dealing with a three-day period of absence should tell us we are dealing with a lunar, not solar, theme. (Although one must make exception for those occasional male lunar deities, such as the Assyrian God, Sin.) At any rate, one of the nicest modern renditions of the harrowing of hell appears in many Books of Shadows as “The Descent of the Goddess”. Lady Day may be especially appropriate for the celebration of this theme, whether by storytelling, reading, or dramatic reenactment.

For modern Witches, Lady Day is one of the Lesser Sabbats or Low Holidays of the year, one of the four quarter days. And what date will Witches choose to celebrate? They may choose the traditional folk fixed date of March 25, starting on its eve. Or they may choose the actual equinox point, when the sun crosses the equator and enters the astrological sign of Aries.

Document Copyright © 1986, 1995, 2005 by Mike Nichols. This document can be re-published only as long as no information is lost or changed, credit is given to the author, and it is provided or used without cost to others. Other uses of this document must be approved in writing by Mike Nichols. Revised: Tuesday, May 3, 2005 c.e. Please click here to go to Mike Nichols home page.

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Old News 1

BlueWillow — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 00:47:00 CDT

Monthly Pagan Author Biographies

Scott Cunningham

(1956-1993)

Scott Cunningham was a Wiccan and popular author of more than thirty books, these he wrote fluently using both fiction and non-fiction genres. More than fifteen of his books were written on Wicca and its related subjects, he also wrote scripts for occult videos. Scott was a key player in opening up Wicca to solitary practice, and by making a great deal of information available to the public he helped to influence many newcomers entering the craft.

Scott was born on the 27th June 1956 in Royal Oak, Michigan. In 1961 he moved to San Diego where he lived until his death in 1993. His introduction to the craft came through a book he read in 1971, one purchased by his mother called 'The Supernatural by Douglas Hill and Pat Williams'. Scott had always shown an interest in plants, minerals and other natural earth products and this book furthered his interest. It also showed diagrams of Italian hand gestures used to ward of the evil eye and these particularly fascinated him.

Later in high school he used some of these gestures to attract the attention of a female classmate, for he knew her to be involved with an occult and magical work group. When she inquired if he was a Witch, he replied saying 'No, but I’d sure like to know more'. The classmate introduced Scott into Wicca and the training he received further intensified his interest in the powers of nature. Over the next few years he took initiation into several covens of varying traditions gaining experience but really he preferred to practice as a solitary practitioner.

In 1974 he enrolled at San Diego State University were he studied creative writing, inspired to do so by his father Chet. His father was a prolific and professional writer who had authored some 170 non-fiction and fiction books. Scott started writing truck and automobile articles for trade publications, he also wrote advertising copy on a freelance basis. After only two years on his University course, he had collected more published credits than most of his professors, so he decided to drop out on the rest of the course and started writing full-time. The first book he had published was an Egyptian romance novel called Shadow of Love (1980).

Scott’s writing style was easy to understand being simple and direct, his teachings focused on encouraging people to: "employ whatever works for them in their religious, spiritual, and magickal endeavors". He was a fine herbalist and produced several books dealing with herbs, including: Magickal Herbalism (Llewellyn Publications, 1982) and Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magickal Herbs (Llewellyn Publications, 1985). His books on Wicca led to a steady rise in his popularity and he soon became one of the best-read Wiccan authors of his time. Sales of his most popular book Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner (Llewellyn, 1988), reached over 400,000 copies by the year 2000.

His prominence was instrumental in influencing the changes that took place in the Wicca movement during the eighties. Due to his influence the Wiccan religion shifted primarily from the hands of initiates into the public arena and many eclectic traditions were formed as a result. While essentially a self-styled Wiccan and a solitary practitioner, he was initiated into several established Craft Traditions. In 1980 he entered into the Aridian Tradition where he undertook a course of study on Witchcraft and Magick from Raven Grimassi. Then in 1981 he entered the Reorganized Traditional Gwyddonic Order of Wicca, an Ancient Pictish Gaelic Tradition. Additionally he was also an initiate of the American Traditionalist Wicca.

Scott traveled around the country giving lectures and occasionally making media appearances on behalf of the craft. He viewed the craft as a modern religion created in the 20th century, and thought that Wicca while containing pagan folk magic derived of ancient times, should be stripped of it’s quasi-historical and mythological trappings and represented to the public as a modern religion utilizing ancient concepts.

A sudden onset of health issues began to affect his public appearances, then later his writing. In 1983 he was diagnosed with Lymphoma, a form of cancer. To make matters worse in 1990, he also contracted Cryptococcal Meningitis. His health continued to decline as he suffered opportunistic infections related to his primary disease. Finally on the 28th March 1993 he succumbed, and passed from this world and into the next. During his brief life time, only 37 years, he had been an ambassador of the pagan way of life and his books continue to influence many who would follow on a similar path. Blessed he be.

Sources:
Several of Scott's own books contain text – "About the Author". The Encyclopedia of Witches &Witchcraft - by Rosemary Ellen Guiley. Encyclopedia of Wicca & Witchcraft - by Raven Grimassi. First published on the 01st May 2001, 20:21:16 © George Knowles

http://www.controverscial.com/Scott%20Cunningham.htm

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SC News

BlueWillow — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 00:41:38 CDT

Pagan based news for the Silver Cauldron wiki group.

The Pagan Famous and Author's of the Month!

Our pagan author of the month Scott Cunningham. He is the author of such books as Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner and The Complete Book of Incense, Oils and Brews. Scott Cunningham is both a fiction and non fiction writer, scott cunning ham was a key player in opening up wicca to the solitary practioner. Read more about Scott Cunningham on Page1!

Monthly Celebrations!

This months pagan celebration is Ostara also known as Ladys Day or the Spring (Vernal) Equinox. This celebration is held half way between Candlemas and Beltain.
Ostra celebrates the victory of life over death and the victory of light over darkness as the God of light now wins a victory over his twin, the God of darkness. Read more about Ostara on Page2!

Plant of the Month!

The plant of the month is the Crocus: This is a genus of perennial flowering plants, native to a large area from coastal and subalpine areas of central and southern Europe.

T.S.C. Calander

BlueWillow — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 00:39:08 CDT

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How to

BlueWillow — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 00:34:32 CDT

How to Add to Pages Propperly:

In pages like the recipe pages if there is already a table set up (which usually there is) just click inside the table row and type or paste your information you want to post there then you can adjust the font type and size and color (for custom color pages just highlight a custom colored text then click the text color box click custom color and ccp the color code, then highlight the text thats not colored and again hit the text color box then custom color then delet the color numbers in there and paste in the custom color numbers in and hit select color and wala your text has custom color. i usually use Ariel 14pt for my text size and type. for titles i usually use 18 or 24 pt.

To make a table like i use for the recipe page i hit the table box (after i click easy edit of course) then i type in 10 next to rows, 1 next to columns, click the radio button next to fit to page then leave it at 3 pixels and i click the 1st wrap text box and the 4th table style box and hit add table and wala i have a table set up for my recipes.... i usually put one recipe in each table row.

(ill add more how to when i get more time)

Bath n Body 2

BlueWillow — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 00:22:21 CDT

Moisturizer

6 tbsp. Jojoba oil
1 tbsp. Vitamin E oil
2 tbsp. grated Bees Wax
1 tbsp. pure Aloe Vera
2 tbsp. Rose Water
8 drops Sandlewood Essential oil
4 drops Rose Essential oil

In a small bowl, combine jojoba oil, vitamin E oil and beeswax. Place bowl in a shallow pan of boiling water and heat till wax melts stirring occasionaly. remove the bowl and allow to cool to room temp (the mixture will become loudy as it cools). in a blender or small food processor, put the aloe and rose water place the cap on the blender and turn on to blend drizzle the oil/wax mixture into the rosewater mix till thickend then add the rose oil and sandlewood oil and blend till mixed use a rubber spatula to remove the cream from the blender and putin a colorful jar and cap. To use: apply a small amount to face every evening, for very dry skin use in the am too.

Rose Water

This recipe is the more traditional way to prepare rose water. Though it's a little more involved, its fun to do and the results are outstanding. You can make a quart of excellent-quality rose water in about 40 minutes. However, if you simmer the water too long, you will continue to produce distilled water but the rose essence will become diluted. Your rose water will smell more like plain distilled water, rather than the heavenly scent of roses.

Be sure you have a brick and heat-safe stainless steel or glass quart bowl ready before you begin.

Ingredients
2-3 quarts fresh roses or rose petals
water
ice cubes or crushed ice

1. In the center of a large pot (the speckled blue canning pots are ideal) with an inverted lid (a rounded lid), place a fireplace brick. On top of the brick place the bowl. Put the roses in the pot; add enough flowers to reach the top of the brick. Pour in just enough water to cover the roses. The water should be just above the top of the brick.

2. Place the lid upside down on the pot. Turn on the stove and bring the water to a rolling boil, then lower heat to a slow steady simmer. As soon as the water begins to boil, toss two or three trays of ice cubes (or a bag of ice) on top of the lid.

3. You've now created a home still! As the water boils the steam rises, hits the top of the cold lid, and condenses. As it condenses it flows to the center of the lid and drops into the bowl. Every twenty minutes, quickly lift the lid and take out a tablespoon or two of the rose water. It's time to stop when you have between a pint and a quart of water that smells and tastes strongly like roses.

Bath n Body 1

BlueWillow — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 00:10:55 CDT

Aloe Hand Sanitizer Gel 1 c. aloe vera gel 9 tsp. rubbing alcohol 90 proof 2 tsp. vegtable glycerin 20 drops tea tree Oil 5 or more drops of fragrance or essential oil of choice (till desired fragrance is reached) Add all ingredients to a large jar with lid and shake well, then pour into smaller squeezable bottles, to use rub a small amount into the hands (dont for get to label em)
Flax Seed Hand Sanitizer Gel 8 oz. flax seed gel (recipie follows) 2 oz. aloe vera gel 2 tsp. vegtable glycerin 9 tsp. 90 proof alcohol 10 drop tea tree oil 5 drops essenial oil or other fragrance Add all ingredients to a large clean wide mouth jar with lid, put on the lid and shake well, then pour into smaller squeezable bottles. (dont forget to label em) to use squeeze a small amount on your hand and rub it in. By Gabriel Kingsley
Flax Seed Gel 3 tbsp. flax seed (whole) 1 c. water Add the flax seed to a pan with the water bring to a boil and then boil till the water begins gets thick and syrupy in consistancy strain and cool to room temperature before using. The Flax seed gel Hand Sanitizer is by Gabriel M. Kingsley aka Wakerens
Bath Bombs you'll need: 3 oz. citric acid 2.5 oz. corn starch 8 oz. baking soda 3.5 oz. palm or coconut oil 12 drops essential oil of choice powdered or gel food coloring Mix all of the dry ingredients together then add the essential oils, coconut oil and food coloring and mix well and quickly so the oils dont cause the citric acid to fiz to much, make sure it is blended well. Now you can either pack it into molds or into old unused ice cube trays or roll by hand into balls ...let set in the air for a day or two to firm up To Use: place 1 bomb into the bath water to fiz let disolve then enjoy your bath caution very slippery, parents please watch children in the tub at all times when using these .. please also make sure the essential oil you use is skin safe ....thank you i have used these mixes of essential oils for this mix: patchoulli Eo, patchoulli and lemongrass Eo, lemongrass and sage Eo, orange Eo, Orange and grapefruit Eo.
Bath Salts 1 c. sea salt 8 drops food coloring 5 to 8 drops or more of essential oil Put all ingredients into a blender (one not used for food) and blend till the colors is fully mixed in add more color or fragrence as desired. To Use : pour a handfull under running bathwater till disolved and enjoy.
Bubble Bath 1 quart water 8 oz. liquid castille soap or one bar grated castile soap 2 oz. glycerin 3 drops scent of choice If making this bubble bath with bar castile soap you must first disolve the solid soap granules into a liquid by warming the water and setting the soap in the water. once liquid add the glycerin and scent of choice. If using liquid castile soap, just add all ingredients together (adding the fragrance to the liquid soap before the water will help it mix better). scents you can use: any soap scents can be used or oil perfumes or even Essential oils ..try bubble gum or lilac or rose or violet or ylang ylang or even frangipani for or mix n match for interesting fragrances.
Honey Facial Masque Formula 1/2 cup hot water 10 tablespoons quick oats 1/2 apple, cored - not peeled 2 heaped tablespoons plain yogurt 2 tablespoons honey 1 egg white Instructions: Combine hot water and oats and stir until smooth. Let stand for about 5 minutes or until mixture is paste like. Put remaining ingredients in a blender and mix for 45 seconds. Add oatmeal mixture and blend for another 20 seconds. Apply masque evenly to entire face and let sit for about 15 minutes, or until skin is tight. Rinse thoroughly with warm water
CUCUMBER FACIAL CLEANSER 1/4 chopped cucumber - do not peel 1/8 chopped russet potato - do not peel 1 teaspoon backing soda 1 whole egg 1/4 plain yogurt Instructions: In a blender, mix the cucumber and potato on medium speed for 20 seconds, then add the remaining ingredients and blend on low for 1 minute. Moisten face with warm water and then apply cleanser with a washcloth, moving the washcloth in a circular motion. Rinse clean with warm water followed by cool water. Life Makes 1 1/2 cups. Cover and refrigerate. Discard after 2 days.
Lip Balm 1 teaspoon olive oil 1 teaspoon canola oil 2 teaspoons honey 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon oil Instructions: In a bowl, mix all ingredients together and stir well. Apply to lips and use daily. ( for longer lasting balm you can add a few drops of vitamin e oil) Makes 2 tablespoons. Discard after 5 days (unless you use a preservative)
Midnight Hair Shampoo (for dark hair) part 1: 10 oz. boiling water (mineral water or distilled water) 1 tsp. each ground sage, comfrey root (cut & sifted), whole or course ground rosemary, ground black walnut hull part 2: 3 oz. castille soap (unscented) 1/4 tsp. olive oil (for normal hair) sesamie oil (for oily hair) or jojoba oil (for dry hair) 45 drops tangarine EO 15 drops nutmeg EO directions for part 1: in a large warm wide mouth jar add the herbs and the boiling water lightly cover and let set for 8 hours, strain out the herbs and discard them keeping the remaining water, set aside. directions for part 2: mix all the ingredients in a small jar and shake to mix well when both are done add part 2 ingredients to part one ingredients and cover and shake well let set till foam settles..use as you would any other shampoo. Midnight Hair Shampoo By Dina Falconi From her Book Earthly Body Heavenly Hair

Aloe Hand Sanitizer Gel

1 c. aloe vera gel

9 tsp. rubbing alcohol 90 proof
2 tsp. vegtable glycerin
20 drops tea tree Oil
5 or more drops of fragrance or essential oil of choice (till desired fragrance is reached)

Add all ingredients to a large jar with lid and shake well, then pour into smaller squeezable bottles, to use rub a small amount into the hands (dont for get to label em)

Flax Seed Hand Sanitizer Gel 8 oz. flax seed gel (recipie follows)

2 oz. aloe vera gel
2 tsp. vegtable glycerin
9 tsp. 90 proof alcohol
10 drop tea tree oil
5 drops essenial oil or other fragrance

Add all ingredients to a large clean wide mouth jar with lid, put on the lid and shake well, then pour into smaller squeezable bottles. (dont forget to label em) to use squeeze a small amount on your hand and rub it in.

By Gabriel Kingsley

Flax Seed Gel

3 tbsp. flax seed (whole)
1 c. water

Add the flax seed to a pan with the water bring to a boil and then boil till the water begins gets thick and syrupy in consistancy strain and cool to room temperature before using. The Flax seed gel Hand Sanitizer is by Gabriel M. Kingsley aka Wakerens

Bath Bombs

you'll need:
3 oz. citric acid
2.5 oz. corn starch
8 oz. baking soda
3.5 oz. palm or coconut oil
12 drops essential oil of choice
powdered or gel food coloring

Mix all of the dry ingredients together then add the essential oils, coconut oil and food coloring and mix well and quickly so the oils dont cause the citric acid to fiz to much, make sure it is blended well. Now you can either pack it into molds or into old unused ice cube trays or roll by hand into balls ...let set in the air for a day or two to firm up To Use: place 1 bomb into the bath water to fiz let disolve then enjoy your bath
caution very slippery, parents please watch children in the tub at all times when using these .. please also make sure the essential oil you use is skin safe ....thank you i have used these mixes of essential oils for this mix: patchoulli Eo, patchoulli and lemongrass Eo, lemongrass and sage Eo, orange Eo, Orange and grapefruit Eo.

Bath Salts
1 c. sea salt
8 drops food coloring
5 to 8 drops or more of essential oil

Put all ingredients into a blender (one not used for food) and blend till the colors is fully mixed in add more color or fragrence as desired. To Use : pour a handfull under running bathwater till disolved and enjoy.

Bubble Bath

1 quart water
8 oz. liquid castille soap or one bar grated castile soap
2 oz. glycerin
3 drops scent of choice

If making this bubble bath with bar castile soap you must first disolve the solid soap granules into a liquid by warming the water and setting the soap in the water. once liquid add the glycerin and scent of choice. If using liquid castile soap, just add all ingredients together (adding the fragrance to the liquid soap before the water will help it mix better). scents you can use: any soap scents can be used or oil perfumes or even Essential oils ..try bubble gum or lilac or rose or violet or ylang ylang or even frangipani for or mix n match for interesting fragrances.

Honey Facial Masque

Formula
1/2 cup hot water
10 tablespoons quick oats
1/2 apple, cored - not peeled
2 heaped tablespoons plain yogurt
2 tablespoons honey
1 egg white

Instructions:
Combine hot water and oats and stir until smooth. Let stand for about 5 minutes or until mixture is paste like. Put remaining ingredients in a blender and mix for 45 seconds. Add oatmeal mixture and blend for another 20 seconds. Apply masque evenly to entire face and let sit for about 15 minutes, or until skin is tight. Rinse thoroughly with warm water

CUCUMBER FACIAL CLEANSER

1/4 chopped cucumber - do not peel
1/8 chopped russet potato - do not peel
1 teaspoon backing soda
1 whole egg
1/4 plain yogurt

Instructions:
In a blender, mix the cucumber and potato on medium speed for 20 seconds, then add the remaining ingredients and blend on low for 1 minute. Moisten face with warm water and then apply cleanser with a washcloth, moving the washcloth in a circular motion. Rinse clean with warm water followed by cool water.

Life
Makes 1 1/2 cups. Cover and refrigerate. Discard after 2 days.

Lip Balm

1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon canola oil
2 teaspoons honey
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon oil

Instructions:
In a bowl, mix all ingredients together and stir well. Apply to lips and use daily. ( for longer lasting balm you can add a few drops of vitamin e oil)
Makes 2 tablespoons. Discard after 5 days (unless you use a preservative)

Midnight Hair Shampoo (for dark hair)

part 1:
10 oz. boiling water (mineral water or distilled water)
1 tsp. each ground sage, comfrey root (cut & sifted), whole or course ground rosemary, ground black walnut hull

part 2:
3 oz. castille soap (unscented)
1/4 tsp. olive oil (for normal hair) sesamie oil (for oily hair) or jojoba oil (for dry hair)
45 drops tangarine EO
15 drops nutmeg EO

directions for part 1:
in a large warm wide mouth jar add the herbs and the boiling water lightly cover and let set for 8 hours, strain out the herbs and discard them keeping the remaining water, set aside.

directions for part 2:
mix all the ingredients in a small jar and shake to mix well when both are done add part 2 ingredients to part one ingredients and cover and shake well let set till foam settles..use as you would any other shampoo.
Midnight Hair Shampoo By Dina Falconi From her Book Earthly Body Heavenly Hair

Herbal Bath N Body Recipes

BlueWillow — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 23:37:10 CDT

Herbal Bath N' Body Product Recipes

Here you you can post recipes of herbal bath n body products including, soaps, lotions, bath, salts, oils and more... if you use your own recipes give yourself credit for them, if you find a recipe you like from someplace else give them credit and post a link if its a website. and enjoy all the wonderful products.

Egyptian Info. I - M

BlueWillow — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 05:41:08 CDT

Egyptology I - M Ihu: The Egyptian god of the sistrum (the sacred rattle). other spellings: ehi Ihy In Egyptian mythology, the son of Hathor, who was worshipped in Dendera with her and Horus-Behdety. Like his mother, Ihy was a god of music and dancing, and was always depicted as a child bearing a sistrum. Imhotep: In Egyptian mythology, Imhotep was an architect, physician, scribe, and grand vizier (high executive officer) of the IIIrd dynasty (2635-2570 BCE). He lived in the court of the Pharaoh Zoser. He built and designed the Step Pyramid at Sakkara. This led to the curiosity and development of building with stone on a large scale. He also worked with Thothon scribes. Imhotep was said to be the son of Ptah , the creator of the universe. The Greeks considered Imhotep to be Asclepius. other spellings: imhetep Imiut: The Egyptian protective deity of the underworld. Imset: Imset is the deity that protects the canopic jars that contain the liver of mummified corpses. He is one of the four Sons of Horus. He is represented as human-headed. other spellings: amset/ mesti/ mesta Inmutef: The Egyptian deity who bears the heavens. other spellings: iunmutef Ipet: An ancient Egyptian hippopotamus goddess of birth. She merged with the city goddess of Luxor and became a primordial mother goddess. As mother and consort of Amun she appears as 'Queen of the two lands' (Upper and Lower Egypt). Isdes: The Egyptian 'lord of the west'. He is one of the judges of the dead. Isis: One of the most popular goddesses in Egypt. Isis belongs to the Ennead of Heliopolis, and according to the Heliopolitan genealogy is a daughter of Seb and Nut , sister and wife of Osiris . Possibly she was originally the personification of the throne (her name is written with the hieroglyph for throne), and as such she was an important source of the pharaoh's power. In the Hellenistic time Isis was the protrectress of sailors. In the Osiris myths she searched for her husband's body, who was killed by her brother Seth . She retrieved and reassembled the body, and in this connection she took on the role of a goddess of the dead and of the funeral rights. Isis impregnated herself from the Osiris' body and gave birth to Horus in the swamps of Khemnis in the Nile Delta. Here she raised her son in secret and kept him far away from Seth. Horus later defeated Seth and became the first ruler of a united Egypt. Isis, as mother of Horus, was by extension regarded as the mother and protectress of the pharaoh's. She was worshipped as the divine mother-goddess, faithful consort of Osiris, and dedicated mother of Horus. Isis was depicted as a woman with the solar disk between the cow horns on her head (an analogy with the goddess Hathor) or crowned with a thrown, but also with the child Horus sitting on her lap. A vulture was sometimes seen incorporated in her crown. Also she was sometimes depicted as a kite above the mummified body of Osiris. Isis' popularity lasted far into the Roman era. She had her own priests and many temples were erected in her honor. On the island of Philae in the Nile delta her largest temple was situated (it was transferred to the island Agilkia in 1975-1980). other spellings: aset Isten: An Egyptian god. Joh: An Egyptian god of the moon. other spellings: jah Juesaes: An Egyptian goddess. other spellings: iusas/ jusas Junit: An Egyptian goddess. ka: The Egyptian definition of the spirit and life-force of both humans and gods. Ka and ba (soul) form together the immortal elements. When a mortal was born, his ka was created with him and remained in the world of eternity while his mortal body was alive on earth. When a person died, he "rejoined his ka". Ka also acts as a protecting spirit and guards its dead against the dangers of the after life. The hieroglyph for ka is two raised arms with the palms of the hand stretched. Kauket: An Egyptian primordial goddess who represents the darkness of primal chaos. She is one of the Ogdoad . Kebechet: The Egyptian goddess who personifies the purification through water. As the daughter of Anubis she plays an important role in the funeral cult. Her appearance is that of a snake. Kebechsenef: Kebechsenef is one of the Sons of Horus . The head of this falcon-god was portrayed on the lid of those canopic jars where the viscera of the lower body where kept after mummification. other spellings: kebehsenuf/ qebshenuf/ qebehsenuf Kematef: A late Egyptian name for Amun . Kemwer: The Egyptian black bull. other spellings: kemur Khem: Khem is the Egyptian god of reproduction, generation, fertility, harvest, agriculture, plant life, and human fertility. The Greeks identified him as Pan . Khem was an Egyptian father-god. He was represented as a mummy. Khentamenti: An ancient jackel-headed god of the dead. He is later identified with Osiris . Khentamenti is 'He who is in the West', the god of the cemetary at Abydos, to whom the dead went. Khentimentiu: The Egyptian god who rules the destiny of the dead, seen as the guardian 'dog of the dead'. Khepri: Khepri was the one of the class of Egyptian gods associated with a particular animal. Khepri was the sacred scarab. The scarab is a type of dung beetle common throughout Egypt. The word Kheper means "scarab" in Egyptian and Khepri was also known as Khepera. The scarab's habit of laying eggs in animal dung as well as the bodies of dead scarabs was noticed by the Egyptians. The subsequent hatching of the eggs from this seemingly unpromising material lead to the Egyptians associating the scarab with renewal, rebirth and resurrection. The scarab's habit of rolling up dung into spheres and pushing it across the ground was also noted by the Ancient Egyptians. Khepri was often associated with the Sun and was conceived as a gigantic scarab rolling the Sun before him across the sky. The renewal and rebirth associated with the scarab also came into play here. Khepri renewed the Sun each day before rolling it above the horizon and carried it safely through the other world after sunset to renew it the next day. Khepri was variously represented as a scarab, a man with the face of a scarab and a man whose head was surmounted by a scarab. other spellings: kheper/ khepera/ khepri/ chepri Khnum: An ancient Egyptian creator-god who fashioned the bodies of both gods and mankind upon his potter's wheel. He is represented as ram-headed. His consort is Heket . other spellings: khnemu Kis: The Egyptian god of Kusae. Kuk An Egyptian primordial god, one of the Ogdoad of Hermopolis. Together with Kauket he represents the darkness of primal chaos. They produce the twilight from which the light is created. Maahes: A somewhat obscure leonine god who may be of foreign origin, Maahes (whose name has been translated to mean "True Before Her") was worshipped in both Bubastis (or, in Egyptian, Per-Bast, the cult center of Bast), Leontopolis (also the cult center of Tefnut and Shu as twin lions), and especially Upper Egypt (perhaps through confusion with the Nubian lion-god Apedemak). Maahes is regarded in later times to be the son of Bastet and Ptah in Memphis. Maahes (also called "Lord of the Massacre") punished the transgressors of Ma'at and was represented as either a lion or a man with a lion's head and a knife. His protection was invoked over the innocent, and he is sometimes regarded as a son of the triad in Memphis alongside Nefertem and occasionally Imhotep. The Greeks pronounced his name as either Mihos or Miysis. other spellings: mihos/ miysis Ma'at: An Egyptian goddess who personified the concepts of truth, cosmic order and justice. This concept was fundamental to Egyptian life and the rule of the Pharaohs. The Kings portrayed themselves constantly as "Beloved of Ma'at" and upholders of the universal order. This role was established by their divine predecessor Horus , who defeated the forces of the chaotic god Seth . Judges in both human and divine spheres were known as representatives of Ma'at. At the final judgement of souls that Ma'at helped to determine the ultimate fate of the deceased. In the "Hall of Two Truths" the heart of the deceased would be weighed by Anubis against the Feather of Truth, which was Ma'at's symbol. If the verdict was favorable then the deceased could look forward to a happy afterlife; if not, the hapless soul was quickly devoured by the hybrid Ammit. Ma'at was usually depicted as a woman wearing a large ostrich feather in her headband. This Feather formed the Hieroglyph of her name and could be used by itself as an abstract representation of the goddess. Mafdet: Mafdet, "The Lady of the Castle of Life," was an early (1st Dynasty) Egyptian goddess, in feline form, possibly that of a panther. She was noted principally as a destroyer of snakes and scorpions. Her sacred animals were the cat and the mongoose. She was invoked to help cure snakebites. Mahes: The Egyptian personification of the summer heat, called 'Lord of the massacre'. He is represented as a lion or a man with a lion's head. He was principally worshipped in the area of the Nile Delta. In Greek literature he is called Miysis. Mehen: An Egyptian serpent god. He defends the solar bargue of the sun-god during his nightly passage through the underworld. Mehen was usually depicted as a snake coiled about the barque. Mehturt: An Egyptian sky-goddess, represented as a colossal cow, with the sun disk between her horns, lying on a mat of reeds. She is the personification of that part of the sky wherein the sun rises, and also of that part of it in which he takes his daily course; Re proceeded in his solar barque across her belly. She was early regarded as the waterway of the heavens, but later she came to be equated with the primeval waters from which Re emerged. This earned her the epithet 'mother of Re'. Her name means "Great Flood". other spellings: mehurt/ mehet-weret/ mehet-uret Mendes: An Egyptian deity of nature, associated by the Greeks with their god Pan . Menhit: An ancient Egyptian lion-goddess, and a goddess of war. She is the wife of the god Chnum , and her son is the god Hike . The three of them were worshipped as a triad in Latopolis (the current Esna) in Upper Egypt. Her name means "she who slaughters". other spellings: menchit Menthu: In Egyptian mythology, Menthu was the god of war. He was portrayed as a man with a hawk’s head. Mentu: An Egyptian god, patron of war and represented with the head of falcon. other spellings: menthu/ monto/ mont(h) Meret: The Egyptian goddess of song and rejoicing. other spellings: mert Meretseger: "She Who Loves Silence", the Egyptian goddess of the mountain overlooking the Valley of the Kings. She was a cobra goddess who would spit venom at anyone attempting to disturb one of the Valley's royal tombs. Occasionally she would also manifest herself as a scorpion with a woman's head. Meretseger was especially revered by the inhabitants of Deir el-Medina who were responsible for building the royal tombs. The "Lady of the Peak", as they called her, was believed to strike at workers who committed crimes. If the victim repented of his or her actions the goddess was merciful and would heal the wound she had inflicted. other spellings: mertseger Mert-sekert: A name of Isis or Hathor as goddess of the underworld. The center of her cult was a portion of Western Thebes. She is sometimes depicted in the form of a woman, having a disk and horns upon her head. Mesenet: The Egyptian goddess of childbirth, the personification of the rock on which the mother gives birth. Not only does she forms the child in the womb, but she is also responsible for creating the baby's ka . She is also a goddess of fate. Mesenet is portrayed with a double coil on her head, which is sometimes regarded as being the uterus of a cow. other spellings: meskhenet/ meskhent/ meshkent Meskhenet: An Egyptian goddess who acted as a midwife and who presided over the birth-chamber. She accompanied the goddess Renenet (Fortune). Mihos: An Egyptian lion-god, son of Bastet and Ptah . Min: An ancient Egyptian fertility god, and one of the most popular deities. He is also a god of creating, vegetation, and the patron of travelers and caravans in the eastern desert. Min was preeminently a god of male sexuality, and in the New Kingdom (1567-1085 BCE) he was honored in the coronation rites of the pharaohs to ensure their sexual vigor and the production of a male heir. In addition to his role in coronation rites, Min was honored in harvest festivals during which offerings of lettuce and sheaves of wheat. Lettuce was one of his attributes, as some sort of aphrodisiac. He was originally worshipped at Koptos and Akhmim, but later his cult spread throughout the entire realm. Min was portrayed wearing a feathered crown and holding his erect penis with his left hand. In his raised right hand he holds a flail. He is sometimes given as either the son or the consort of Isis . The Greeks equated him with their god Pan and named the city of Akhmin Panopolis. Mnewer: In Egyptian mythology, Mnewer is the sacred black bull of Heliopolis, worshipped as a god for its virility and its oracles. It was also regarded as an emissary of the sun god, and therefore represented with a solar disk between its horns. Many festivities were held in honor of this bull. The deceased bulls were embalmed and buried at Heliopolos. other spellings: mnevis Mut: A primordial Egyptian goddess, patroness of the city of Thebes, where she was worshipped as a vulture. At Thebes she replaced Amaunet as the consort of Amun . With Amun and her adopted son, the moon-god Chons , she forms a powerful triad. They were worshipped in the large Amun temple in Luxor. Mut, whose name means "mother", was also a sky goddess and 'mother of the mothers', from whom everything originates. In an annual marital ceremony, Amun came from his temple in Karnak to Luxor to visit her. She was portrayed as a vulture, or as a woman with the head of a vulture, dressed in a bright red or blue dress. At Thebes, Mut was syncretized with the goddess Sakhmet .

Egyptology I - M

Ihu: The Egyptian god of the sistrum (the sacred rattle). other spellings: ehi
Ihy In Egyptian mythology, the son of Hathor, who was worshipped in Dendera with her and Horus-Behdety. Like his mother, Ihy was a god of music and dancing, and was always depicted as a child bearing a sistrum.

Imhotep: In Egyptian mythology, Imhotep was an architect, physician, scribe, and grand vizier (high executive officer) of the IIIrd dynasty (2635-2570 BCE). He lived in the court of the Pharaoh Zoser. He built and designed the Step Pyramid at Sakkara. This led to the curiosity and development of building with stone on a large scale. He also worked with Thothon scribes. Imhotep was said to be the son of Ptah , the creator of the universe. The Greeks considered Imhotep to be Asclepius. other spellings: imhetep

Imiut: The Egyptian protective deity of the underworld.

Imset: Imset is the deity that protects the canopic jars that contain the liver of mummified corpses. He is one of the four Sons of Horus. He is represented as human-headed. other spellings: amset/ mesti/ mesta

Inmutef: The Egyptian deity who bears the heavens. other spellings: iunmutef

Ipet: An ancient Egyptian hippopotamus goddess of birth. She merged with the city goddess of Luxor and became a primordial mother goddess. As mother and consort of Amun she appears as 'Queen of the two lands' (Upper and Lower Egypt).

Isdes: The Egyptian 'lord of the west'. He is one of the judges of the dead.

Isis: One of the most popular goddesses in Egypt. Isis belongs to the Ennead of Heliopolis, and according to the Heliopolitan genealogy is a daughter of Seb and Nut , sister and wife of Osiris . Possibly she was originally the personification of the throne (her name is written with the hieroglyph for throne), and as such she was an important source of the pharaoh's power. In the Hellenistic time Isis was the protrectress of sailors.
In the Osiris myths she searched for her husband's body, who was killed by her brother Seth . She retrieved and reassembled the body, and in this connection she took on the role of a goddess of the dead and of the funeral rights. Isis impregnated herself from the Osiris' body and gave birth to Horus in the swamps of Khemnis in the Nile Delta. Here she raised her son in secret and kept him far away from Seth. Horus later defeated Seth and became the first ruler of a united Egypt. Isis, as mother of Horus, was by extension regarded as the mother and protectress of the pharaoh's. She was worshipped as the divine mother-goddess, faithful consort of Osiris, and dedicated mother of Horus. Isis was depicted as a woman with the solar disk between the cow horns on her head (an analogy with the goddess Hathor) or crowned with a thrown, but also with the child Horus sitting on her lap. A vulture was sometimes seen incorporated in her crown. Also she was sometimes depicted as a kite above the mummified body of Osiris. Isis' popularity lasted far into the Roman era. She had her own priests and many temples were erected in her honor. On the island of Philae in the Nile delta her largest temple was situated (it was transferred to the island Agilkia in 1975-1980). other spellings: aset

Isten: An Egyptian god.

Joh: An Egyptian god of the moon. other spellings: jah

Juesaes: An Egyptian goddess. other spellings: iusas/ jusas

Junit: An Egyptian goddess.

ka: The Egyptian definition of the spirit and life-force of both humans and gods. Ka and ba (soul) form together the immortal elements. When a mortal was born, his ka was created with him and remained in the world of eternity while his mortal body was alive on earth. When a person died, he "rejoined his ka". Ka also acts as a protecting spirit and guards its dead against the dangers of the after life. The hieroglyph for ka is two raised arms with the palms of the hand stretched.

Kauket: An Egyptian primordial goddess who represents the darkness of primal chaos. She is one of the Ogdoad .

Kebechet: The Egyptian goddess who personifies the purification through water. As the daughter of Anubis she plays an important role in the funeral cult. Her appearance is that of a snake.

Kebechsenef: Kebechsenef is one of the Sons of Horus . The head of this falcon-god was portrayed on the lid of those canopic jars where the viscera of the lower body where kept after mummification. other spellings: kebehsenuf/ qebshenuf/ qebehsenuf

Kematef: A late Egyptian name for Amun .

Kemwer: The Egyptian black bull. other spellings: kemur

Khem: Khem is the Egyptian god of reproduction, generation, fertility, harvest, agriculture, plant life, and human fertility. The Greeks identified him as Pan . Khem was an Egyptian father-god. He was represented as a mummy.

Khentamenti: An ancient jackel-headed god of the dead. He is later identified with Osiris . Khentamenti is 'He who is in the West', the god of the cemetary at Abydos, to whom the dead went.

Khentimentiu: The Egyptian god who rules the destiny of the dead, seen as the guardian 'dog of the dead'.

Khepri: Khepri was the one of the class of Egyptian gods associated with a particular animal. Khepri was the sacred scarab. The scarab is a type of dung beetle common throughout Egypt. The word Kheper means "scarab" in Egyptian and Khepri was also known as Khepera. The scarab's habit of laying eggs in animal dung as well as the bodies of dead scarabs was noticed by the Egyptians. The subsequent hatching of the eggs from this seemingly unpromising material lead to the Egyptians associating the scarab with renewal, rebirth and resurrection. The scarab's habit of rolling up dung into spheres and pushing it across the ground was also noted by the Ancient Egyptians. Khepri was often associated with the Sun and was conceived as a gigantic scarab rolling the Sun before him across the sky. The renewal and rebirth associated with the scarab also came into play here. Khepri renewed the Sun each day before rolling it above the horizon and carried it safely through the other world after sunset to renew it the next day. Khepri was variously represented as a scarab, a man with the face of a scarab and a man whose head was surmounted by a scarab.
other spellings: kheper/ khepera/ khepri/ chepri

Khnum: An ancient Egyptian creator-god who fashioned the bodies of both gods and mankind upon his potter's wheel. He is represented as ram-headed. His consort is Heket . other spellings: khnemu

Kis: The Egyptian god of Kusae.

Kuk An Egyptian primordial god, one of the Ogdoad of Hermopolis. Together with Kauket he represents the darkness of primal chaos. They produce the twilight from which the light is created.

Maahes: A somewhat obscure leonine god who may be of foreign origin, Maahes (whose name has been translated to mean "True Before Her") was worshipped in both Bubastis (or, in Egyptian, Per-Bast, the cult center of Bast), Leontopolis (also the cult center of Tefnut and Shu as twin lions), and especially Upper Egypt (perhaps through confusion with the Nubian lion-god Apedemak). Maahes is regarded in later times to be the son of Bastet and Ptah in Memphis.
Maahes (also called "Lord of the Massacre") punished the transgressors of Ma'at and was represented as either a lion or a man with a lion's head and a knife. His protection was invoked over the innocent, and he is sometimes regarded as a son of the triad in Memphis alongside Nefertem and occasionally Imhotep. The Greeks pronounced his name as either Mihos or Miysis. other spellings: mihos/ miysis

Ma'at: An Egyptian goddess who personified the concepts of truth, cosmic order and justice. This concept was fundamental to Egyptian life and the rule of the Pharaohs. The Kings portrayed themselves constantly as "Beloved of Ma'at" and upholders of the universal order. This role was established by their divine predecessor Horus , who defeated the forces of the chaotic god Seth .
Judges in both human and divine spheres were known as representatives of Ma'at. At the final judgement of souls that Ma'at helped to determine the ultimate fate of the deceased. In the "Hall of Two Truths" the heart of the deceased would be weighed by Anubis against the Feather of Truth, which was Ma'at's symbol. If the verdict was favorable then the deceased could look forward to a happy afterlife; if not, the hapless soul was quickly devoured by the hybrid Ammit. Ma'at was usually depicted as a woman wearing a large ostrich feather in her headband. This Feather formed the Hieroglyph of her name and could be used by itself as an abstract representation of the goddess.

Mafdet: Mafdet, "The Lady of the Castle of Life," was an early (1st Dynasty) Egyptian goddess, in feline form, possibly that of a panther. She was noted principally as a destroyer of snakes and scorpions. Her sacred animals were the cat and the mongoose. She was invoked to help cure snakebites.

Mahes: The Egyptian personification of the summer heat, called 'Lord of the massacre'. He is represented as a lion or a man with a lion's head. He was principally worshipped in the area of the Nile Delta. In Greek literature he is called Miysis.

Mehen: An Egyptian serpent god. He defends the solar bargue of the sun-god during his nightly passage through the underworld. Mehen was usually depicted as a snake coiled about the barque.

Mehturt: An Egyptian sky-goddess, represented as a colossal cow, with the sun disk between her horns, lying on a mat of reeds. She is the personification of that part of the sky wherein the sun rises, and also of that part of it in which he takes his daily course; Re proceeded in his solar barque across her belly. She was early regarded as the waterway of the heavens, but later she came to be equated with the primeval waters from which Re emerged. This earned her the epithet 'mother of Re'. Her name means "Great Flood". other spellings: mehurt/ mehet-weret/ mehet-uret

Mendes: An Egyptian deity of nature, associated by the Greeks with their god Pan .

Menhit: An ancient Egyptian lion-goddess, and a goddess of war. She is the wife of the god Chnum , and her son is the god Hike . The three of them were worshipped as a triad in Latopolis (the current Esna) in Upper Egypt. Her name means "she who slaughters". other spellings: menchit

Menthu: In Egyptian mythology, Menthu was the god of war. He was portrayed as a man with a hawk’s head.

Mentu: An Egyptian god, patron of war and represented with the head of falcon. other spellings: menthu/ monto/ mont(h)

Meret: The Egyptian goddess of song and rejoicing. other spellings: mert

Meretseger: "She Who Loves Silence", the Egyptian goddess of the mountain overlooking the Valley of the Kings. She was a cobra goddess who would spit venom at anyone attempting to disturb one of the Valley's royal tombs. Occasionally she would also manifest herself as a scorpion with a woman's head. Meretseger was especially revered by the inhabitants of Deir el-Medina who were responsible for building the royal tombs. The "Lady of the Peak", as they called her, was believed to strike at workers who committed crimes. If the victim repented of his or her actions the goddess was merciful and would heal the wound she had inflicted. other spellings: mertseger

Mert-sekert: A name of Isis or Hathor as goddess of the underworld. The center of her cult was a portion of Western Thebes. She is sometimes depicted in the form of a woman, having a disk and horns upon her head.

Mesenet: The Egyptian goddess of childbirth, the personification of the rock on which the mother gives birth. Not only does she forms the child in the womb, but she is also responsible for creating the baby's ka . She is also a goddess of fate. Mesenet is portrayed with a double coil on her head, which is sometimes regarded as being the uterus of a cow. other spellings: meskhenet/ meskhent/ meshkent

Meskhenet: An Egyptian goddess who acted as a midwife and who presided over the birth-chamber. She accompanied the goddess Renenet (Fortune).

Mihos: An Egyptian lion-god, son of Bastet and Ptah .

Min: An ancient Egyptian fertility god, and one of the most popular deities. He is also a god of creating, vegetation, and the patron of travelers and caravans in the eastern desert. Min was preeminently a god of male sexuality, and in the New Kingdom (1567-1085 BCE) he was honored in the coronation rites of the pharaohs to ensure their sexual vigor and the production of a male heir. In addition to his role in coronation rites, Min was honored in harvest festivals during which offerings of lettuce and sheaves of wheat. Lettuce was one of his attributes, as some sort of aphrodisiac.
He was originally worshipped at Koptos and Akhmim, but later his cult spread throughout the entire realm. Min was portrayed wearing a feathered crown and holding his erect penis with his left hand. In his raised right hand he holds a flail. He is sometimes given as either the son or the consort of Isis . The Greeks equated him with their god Pan and named the city of Akhmin Panopolis.

Mnewer: In Egyptian mythology, Mnewer is the sacred black bull of Heliopolis, worshipped as a god for its virility and its oracles. It was also regarded as an emissary of the sun god, and therefore represented with a solar disk between its horns. Many festivities were held in honor of this bull. The deceased bulls were embalmed and buried at Heliopolos. other spellings: mnevis

Mut: A primordial Egyptian goddess, patroness of the city of Thebes, where she was worshipped as a vulture. At Thebes she replaced Amaunet as the consort of Amun . With Amun and her adopted son, the moon-god Chons , she forms a powerful triad. They were worshipped in the large Amun temple in Luxor. Mut, whose name means "mother", was also a sky goddess and 'mother of the mothers', from whom everything originates. In an annual marital ceremony, Amun came from his temple in Karnak to Luxor to visit her. She was portrayed as a vulture, or as a woman with the head of a vulture, dressed in a bright red or blue dress. At Thebes, Mut was syncretized with the goddess Sakhmet .

Egyptian Info. S - Z

BlueWillow — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 05:37:16 CDT

Egyptology S - Z Saa: The Egyptian personification of intelligence. Sai: The Egyptian personification of destiny. In Greece called Psais. Sakhmet: A fiery and destructive Egyptian goddess associated with war and divine vengeance. Her name means "the Mighty One" and she was depicted as a woman with the head of a lioness. Her main center of worship was the Old Kingdom capital of Memphis. It was there that she was worshipped as a member of a divine triad with her husband Ptah and her son Nefertem . She was also worshipped in Luxor. According to a tale known as "The Destruction of Mankind" Sakhmet was the "Eye of Re", a vengeful aspect of the usually benevolent goddess Hathor. The sun god Re sent Sakhmet to slay mortals who were plotting against him. Sakhmet became so enthusiastic about her task that she nearly slew all of humanity. Re prevented this by tricking her into drinking vast quantities of beer which had been colored to look like blood. The intoxicated goddess had to abandon the slaughter and humanity was saved. As goddess of war Sakhmet was often said to accompany Pharaoh into battle. The King at war was described as being like Sakhmet in her fury, and the goddess aided him by shooting arrows at his enemies. She was also the "Lady of Pestilence" who could send plague and disease. She was also revered as a healer of these ailments, a role which seems paradoxical in such a bloodthirsty deity. other spellings: sekhet/ sakhmet/ sachmet Satet: Satet is the Egyptian goddesss of inundation (the yearly flooding of the Nile) and fertility. She was also connected to the star "Sept." The beginning of the flood season was when the star returned to the night sky. Her name comes from the root "sat" which means to shoot, to eject, and to throw. Satet was the pricipal female counterpart of Khnemu. She was worshipped with him at Elephantine (Abu). Her sister was the goddess, Anquet. The island of Sahal, two miles south of Elephantine was the center of her worship. Her temple at Elephantine was one of the principal holy places in Egypt. Satis: "Queen of Elephantine", who was worshipped by the ancient Egyptians on that island in the Nile. Her primary role was that of a guardian of Egypt's southern (Nubian) frontier, killing enemies of the pharaoh with her arrows. Satis was also associated with the annual inundation of the Nile. With the god Chnum and the goddess Anuket she forms, what is occasinally referred to as, the 'Elephantine triad'. On her head she wears the crown of Upper Egypt, flanked by the gazelle horns, and in her hands she holds a sceptre and the ankh. other spellings: satjit/ sates/ sati Seb: As the son of Shu and Tefnut , Seb was the Egyptian earth god. He was masculine, contrasting with the tradition that the guardian of the earth was usually female. Osiris , Isis , Seth , and Nephthys were his children and he was brother and husband to Nuit. In early Egyptian history, Seb was known as Geb or Keb, but in later forms of the language it became Seb. Seb’s sacred animal and symbol was the goose; he was often referred to as the "Great Cackler." His skin was either green or black. The green represented the the color of living things and the black was the color of the fertile Nile mud. It was believed that Seb imprisoned wicked souls, so they couldn’t ascend to heaven. other spellings: geb / keb Sebek: An ancient Egyptian crocodile god, sometimes identified with Re or with Seth , and regarded as the son of Neith . He symbolized the might of the Egyptian pharaohs. His cult was widespread, but the center of his cult was the Faiyum (later also Kom Omba and Thebes). Sebek is depicted as a crocodile or in human form with the head of a crocodile. He was crowned either by a pair of plumes or by a combination of the solar disk and the uraeus. other spellings: sobeck Sechat-Hor: Another Egyptian cow-goddess. Sed: An Egyptian 'saviour' god. other spellings: sedim Seker: The Egyptian god of the Memphis necropolis, and a funerary god. In the Old Kingdom, Seker came to be regarded as a manifestation of the dead Osiris at Abydos in Upper Egypt. Also during this time, he came to be syncretized with Ptah as Ptah-Seker, in which form he took the lioness goddess Sakhmet as his consort. In the Middle Kingdom, the three were sometimes merged in the form Ptah-Seker-Osiris . As god of the necropolis, Seker is also the patron of the craftsmen who are put to work there. He was associated with the manufacture of various objects used in embalming and in funerary rituals. He also played a prominent role at Thebes where he was depicted on the royal tombs. An important annual festival was held in his honor at Thebes. The festival celebrated the resurrection of Osiris in the form of Seker and the continuity of the Egyptian monarchy. At this festival his image was carried in an elaborate boat known as the henu. (A depiction of such a festival can be found on the walls of an inner court of the temple of Ramses III at Medinet Habu, mid 12th century BCE.) Seker is portrayed in human form with the head of a hawk. He is called Socharis by the Greeks. other spellings: sokar/ sokaris Sentait: Another Egyptian cow goddess. Sepa: An Egyptian chthonic god. other spellings: sep Septu: An Egyptian god of war. other spelling: sopd/ sopdu Serapis: The Ptolemaic form of Apis , an Egyptian deity who, when dead, was honored under the attributes of Osiris and thus became 'osirified Apis' or [O] Sorapis. He was lord of the underworld. Serket: "She who causes the throat to breath". An Egyptian scorpion-goddess, and an early a tutelary deity of the Egyptian monarchs. She is one of the goddess who guards the canopic jars containing the viscera of the deceased. From this association she came to be a tutelary goddess of the dead. She is represented as a woman with a scorpion on her head or with a scorpion-shaped headdress, but also with a scorpion body and a human head. Serket was called upon to avert venomous bites and stings. other spellings: serket hetyt/ selket/ selkis/ selchis Serq: A form of the goddess Isis . She is usually depicted in the form of a woman with a scorpion upon her head; occasionally she appears as a scorpion with a woman's head, surmounted by disk and horns. other spellings: selk Seshat: The Egyptian goddess of writing, mathematics, and building schemes. She is also associated with libraries, letters, archives and historical records. She keeps track of the royal annals, with the ruling periods of every king and the speeches that were spoken during the crowning rituals. She also assisted the pharaoh mark out the boundaries of a temple in a ritual known as 'stretching the cord'. She is depicted in human form with a star or rosette above her head, wearing a leopard-skin robe, holding a scepter made of a notched palm branch on which she recorded the jubilee years. Seshat is regarded as a daughter of Thoth . other spellings: sesat/ secheta Sesmu: The Egyptian god of oil and wine pressing. Seth The ancient Egyptian god of chaos, the embodiment of hostility and even of outright evil. He is also a god of war, deserts, storms, and foreign lands. As the god of deserts he protects the caravans which travel through the desert, but he also causes sandstorms which bring him into conflict with the fertility god Osiris . The two are adversaries and in the Osiris myths, Seth killed his brother and scattered the remains all over Egypt. Seth belongs to the Ennead of Heliopolis and is the son of Geb and Nut (or Re and Nut). He is the brother of Osiris, Isis , and Nephthys , who is sometimes given as his consort, although Seth is more commonly associated with the foreign, Semitic goddesses Astarte and Anat . During the 3rd millenium BCE Seth replaced Horus as the tutelary deity of the pharaohs, but the story of Osiris' murder gained currency and Horus was restored to his original status. The war that followed lasted eighty years, during which Seth tore out Horus' left eye and Horus tore off Seth's foreleg and testicles. Eventually, Horus emerged victorious, or was deemed the victor by the council of the gods, and thus became the rightful ruler of the kingdoms of Lower and Upper Egypt. Seth was forced to return the eye of Horus and was either castrated or killed. In other versions he went to live with the sungod Re, where he became the voice of thunder. In the Book of the Dead, Seth is called "Lord of the Northern Sky" and is held responsible for storms and cloudy weather. Despite his reputation, Seth has some good characteristics. He protects the sun barge of Re during its nightly journey through the underworld and he fights the snake-like monster Apep. On the other hand, he was a peril for ordinary Egyptians in the underworld, where he was said to seize the souls of the unwary. Seth was portrayed as a man with the head of undeterminable origin, although some see in it the head of an aardvark. He had a curved snout, erect square-tipped ears and a long forked tail. He was sometimes entirely in animal form with the body similar to that of a greyhound. Animals sacred to this god where the dog, the jackal, the gazelle, the donkey, the crocodile, the hippopotamus, and the pig. There was an important sanctuary at Ombos in Upper Egypt, his reputed birthplace, and considered to be the home of his cult. This cult was also prominent in the north-eastern region of the Nile delta. The Greeks equated him with their Typhon. other spellings: set/ setekh/ setesh/ seti Shai: The Egyptian goddess/personification of Fate. Her name and that of Shai (Fortune) are usually found coupled. They are said to be in the hands of Thoth , the divine intelligence of of the gods. Rameses II boasted that he himself is "lord of Shai and creator of Renenet." Shai was originally the deity who "fated" what should happen to a man. There was little or no distinction between Shai and Renenet and the abstract ideas which they represented. In the Papyrus of Ani, Shai stands by himself near the pillar of Balance. Shait: An Egyptian goddess of destiny. Shu: The embodiment of the sky. In the Ennead of Heliopolis he is the son of Atum and brother-husband of Tefnut . He was one of the first deities to be created by Atum, either from his semen or the muscus of his notrils. With Tefnut he became the father of Nut (the sky) and Seb (the earth). He raised the body of his daughter high above the earth and separated thus heaven and earth. The connection of Atum and Re , as Atum-Re, makes Shu a 'son of Re' and as such the brother of the Egyptian king (who calls himself a 'son' as well. Shu is depicted in human form wearing an ostrich feather (the hieroglyph for his name), with his arms raised to support Nut above the supine form of her brother Geb. Sia: A primeval Egyptian god personifying the mind. She was born from a drop of blood from the penis of Re . Her consort is Hu . Sobek: An Egyptian god who brings fertility from the Nile waters. He symbolized the power of the pharaohs. He is regarded as a son of Neith . The cradle of his cult was el Faiyum, at the ancient border of Upper and Lower Egypt, although his cult was wide-spread. Here, parts of his temples can still be found. One of the towns in that vicinity was called 'Crocodilopolis' by the Greeks. Other centers of his cult later became Kom Ombo and Thebes. Sobek is represented as a crocodile or as a man with the head of a crocodile. On his head he often wore a pair or plumes. Later he was associated with the sun-god Re and is then wearing the solar disc and the uraeus on his crocodile head. His Greek name is Suchos. other spellings: sebek/ sochet Somtus: The Egyptian god of Dendara. other spellings: harsomtus Sons of Horus: The four sons of Horus who assist the deceased during their journey to the underworld. They protect to canopic jars (jars where the viscera are kept after mummification). Their heads are depicted on the lids of those jars. They are Imset (human), Hapi (baboon), Duamutef (jackal), and Kebechsenef (falcon). They represent the four cardinal directions and are also portrayed on the four corners of the sarcophagus. Sopdet: The Egyptian fertility goddess who personifies the Dog Star, Sirius. With the appearance of Sirius at dawn in July (the 'heliacal rising') the annual inundation of the Nile began, a phenomena ascribed to Sopdet. Thus she became associated with the fertility and prosperity resulting from the annual floods. In a papyrus dated from ca. fourth century BCE, Isis identifies herself with Sothis as she laments the death of Osiris . Later Sopdet merged with Isis entirely. She is depicted in human form wearing the tall conical white crown of Upper Egypt surmounted by a star. Her Greek name is Sothis. Sopedu: The Egyptian god of the eastern frontier and the eastern desert, of the Sinai peninsula and of the turquoise mines in the Sinai. In the Pyramid Texts he impregnated Isis in her manifestation as the star Sirius, whose appearance in July heralded the annual inundation of the Nile. Isis subsequently gave birth to the composite deity Sopedu-Horus. His primary cult center was at Saft el-Henna in the north-eastern Nile delta. Sopedu was depicted either in the form of a falcon or as a Bedouin crowned with tall plumes. other spellings: sopdu Tanen: The Egyptian god Ptah in the aspect of an earth god. other spellings: Tathenen Taouris: An ancient Egyptian goddess of pregnancy and birth (from ta-weret, "the great one"). She is represented as a female hippopotamus with a huge belly, standing upright on her hind legs. other spellings: Taourt Tasenetnofret: Tasenetnofret was an Ancient Egyptian goddess. She was the consort of Horus when he was Har-wer . Har-wer was the name of Horus at a more elderly age. Horus reached maturity at this stage in life, and at this time, Tasenetnofret became his companion. He got revenge for his father by overcoming Seth. He then became the king of Egypt. In Kom Ombo, which is northern Egypt, Har-wer was thought of as the son of the god Re , and therefore was identical with the sky god, Shu . His image is that of a falcon. Ta-tchesert: The holy land, a common name for the Other World. Tatenen: "Exalted Earth". A primeval Egyptian earth-god who represents the mound (or hill) that arose from the primordial water. He is represented with the horns of a ram and wearing a crown with feathers. At Memphis he was connected to Ptah (Ptah-Tenen) in his aspect as a creator god, and also with Horus . As a vegetation god, he could be portrayed with green skin. other spelling: Tathen/ tanen/ tenen/ ten. Taurt: In Egyptian mythology, Taurt was the Goddess of Good Fortune and Childbirth. She was shown as a mixture of a hippopotamus’ body, a crocodile’s head, and a lion’s feet. This goddess was popular with the ordinary men and women. She was responsible for fertility and protecting women before, during, and after childbirth. Her husband was Bes , the God of Pleasure. other spelling: Ta- Urt Taweret: "The Great One". A very popular Egyptian hippopotamus goddess of childbirth. She is a domestic deity who is portrayed on beds and on pillows. Pregnant women commonly wore amulets bearing the goddess's image. Taweret assists women in labor and wards off demons (hence her scary appearance). She was often found in the company of the dwarf god Bes, who had a similar function. She was depicted as part woman part hippopotamus, with sagging breasts, a swollen belly, and the head of a hippopotamus. Sometimes she also had the legs and arms of a lion, and the tail of a crocodile. She was often depicted holding the Sa amulet symbolizing protection. Also called Opet. other spelligs: Toeris/ Taueret/ Taurt/ Apet. Tefnut: The personified goddess of moisture in Egyptian mythology. Together with her consort Shu (Air) she was produced by Re from his own body by masturbation. By Shu she became the mother of Seb (Earth) and Nut (Sky). Tenenit: The Egyptian goddess of beer. Thoth: Thoth is the name given by the Greeks to the Egyptian god Djeheuty. Thoth was the god of wisdom, inventor of writing, patron of scribes and the divine mediator. He is most often represented as a man with the head of an ibis, holding a scribal palette and reed pen. He could also be shown completely as an ibis or a baboon. other spelling: Djeheuty/ tehuti/ tathuti/ zehuti. As with most Egyptian deities there were many different stories regarding the parentage of Thoth. Many sources call him the son of Re , but one tradition has him springing forth from the head of Seth . This latter story is reminiscent of the birth of the Greek goddess Athena , who like Thoth was the patron divinity of wisdom. Myths concerning Thoth show him as a divinity whose counsel is always sought. His most significant role is during the battles of Horus and Seth. Thoth is a staunch supporter of Horus and his mother Isis , maintaining that Horus' claim to the throne is just and the murderous Seth has no right to the kingship of Egypt. Elsewhere Thoth is a reliable mediator and peacemaker. When the goddess Tefnut had a dispute with her father Re and absconded to Nubia, it was Thoth that the sun-god sent to reason with her and bring her home. Thoth was also present at the judgement of the dead. He would question the deceased before recording the result of the weighing of the deceased's heart. If the result was favorable Thoth would declare the deceased as a righteous individual who was worthy of a blessed afterlife. Thoth was also a lunar deity, and whatever form he took he wore a lunar crescent on his head. Some Egyptologists think that the Egyptians identified the crescent moon with the curved beak of the ibis. It is also suggested that the Egyptians observed that baboon was a nocturnal (i.e. lunar) animal who would greet the sun with chattering noises each morning. As he was messenger of the gods Thoth was identified by the Greeks with their own god Hermes . For this reason Thoth's center of worship is still known to us today as Hermopolis. Toeris: An old-Egyptian hippopotamus goddess. Other spelling: thoeris/ ta-uret. Tuat: A common name for the Other World. Uneg: An Egyptian plant-god. Un-nefer: A name of Osiris in his capacity of god and judge of the dead in the underworld. The name probably means "good being." Unut: An Egyptian hare-goddess. Urthekau: The name for Egyptian supernatural powers. other spelling: werethkua Wepwawet: The ancient Egyptian jackal god of war and the funerary cult. He was a cemetary god at Asyut (Siut). His name means "opener of the ways"; he opened the ways for the armies of the Pharaos and for the spirits of the dead. He was depicted on the shedshed, the standard which led the armies to the battlefields. Wepwawet originated in Upper Egypt, but symbolized the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt. He was worshipped as the god of death in Abydos, where he led the processions at the feasts of Osiris . His Greek name is Ophois. other spelling: upuaut/ we-wawet/ ophois. Wosyet: The Egyptian protector goddess of the young. Yaaru: In Egyptian myth, Yaaru (Iaru, Aalu) are the fields of the nether-world, located in the realm of the dead, the domain of Osiris . It is a beautiful place (an equivalent of Eden) were the deceased can perform their favorite activities. These fields are tilled to provide the dead with food. It is represented as a vast field of wheat, symbol of life. Yaaru is situated in the east where the sun rises, but is sometimes also referred to as a group of islands. They correspond roughly to the Elysian Fields of the Greeks. The antipode of Yaaru is Duat, the dark realm of the dead. other spelling: Aaru/ Aalu. Zenenet: The Egyptian goddess of Hermonthis.

Egyptology S - Z

Saa: The Egyptian personification of intelligence.

Sai: The Egyptian personification of destiny. In Greece called Psais.

Sakhmet: A fiery and destructive Egyptian goddess associated with war and divine vengeance. Her name means "the Mighty One" and she was depicted as a woman with the head of a lioness. Her main center of worship was the Old Kingdom capital of Memphis. It was there that she was worshipped as a member of a divine triad with her husband Ptah and her son Nefertem . She was also worshipped in Luxor.
According to a tale known as "The Destruction of Mankind" Sakhmet was the "Eye of Re", a vengeful aspect of the usually benevolent goddess Hathor. The sun god Re sent Sakhmet to slay mortals who were plotting against him. Sakhmet became so enthusiastic about her task that she nearly slew all of humanity. Re prevented this by tricking her into drinking vast quantities of beer which had been colored to look like blood. The intoxicated goddess had to abandon the slaughter and humanity was saved.
As goddess of war Sakhmet was often said to accompany Pharaoh into battle. The King at war was described as being like Sakhmet in her fury, and the goddess aided him by shooting arrows at his enemies. She was also the "Lady of Pestilence" who could send plague and disease. She was also revered as a healer of these ailments, a role which seems paradoxical in such a bloodthirsty deity. other spellings: sekhet/ sakhmet/ sachmet

Satet: Satet is the Egyptian goddesss of inundation (the yearly flooding of the Nile) and fertility. She was also connected to the star "Sept." The beginning of the flood season was when the star returned to the night sky. Her name comes from the root "sat" which means to shoot, to eject, and to throw.
Satet was the pricipal female counterpart of Khnemu. She was worshipped with him at Elephantine (Abu). Her sister was the goddess, Anquet. The island of Sahal, two miles south of Elephantine was the center of her worship. Her temple at Elephantine was one of the principal holy places in Egypt.

Satis: "Queen of Elephantine", who was worshipped by the ancient Egyptians on that island in the Nile. Her primary role was that of a guardian of Egypt's southern (Nubian) frontier, killing enemies of the pharaoh with her arrows. Satis was also associated with the annual inundation of the Nile. With the god Chnum and the goddess Anuket she forms, what is occasinally referred to as, the 'Elephantine triad'. On her head she wears the crown of Upper Egypt, flanked by the gazelle horns, and in her hands she holds a sceptre and the ankh. other spellings: satjit/ sates/ sati

Seb: As the son of Shu and Tefnut , Seb was the Egyptian earth god. He was masculine, contrasting with the tradition that the guardian of the earth was usually female. Osiris , Isis , Seth , and Nephthys were his children and he was brother and husband to Nuit. In early Egyptian history, Seb was known as Geb or Keb, but in later forms of the language it became Seb. Seb’s sacred animal and symbol was the goose; he was often referred to as the "Great Cackler." His skin was either green or black. The green represented the the color of living things and the black was the color of the fertile Nile mud. It was believed that Seb imprisoned wicked souls, so they couldn’t ascend to heaven. other spellings: geb / keb

Sebek: An ancient Egyptian crocodile god, sometimes identified with Re or with Seth , and regarded as the son of Neith . He symbolized the might of the Egyptian pharaohs. His cult was widespread, but the center of his cult was the Faiyum (later also Kom Omba and Thebes). Sebek is depicted as a crocodile or in human form with the head of a crocodile. He was crowned either by a pair of plumes or by a combination of the solar disk and the uraeus. other spellings: sobeck

Sechat-Hor: Another Egyptian cow-goddess.

Sed: An Egyptian 'saviour' god. other spellings: sedim

Seker: The Egyptian god of the Memphis necropolis, and a funerary god. In the Old Kingdom, Seker came to be regarded as a manifestation of the dead Osiris at Abydos in Upper Egypt. Also during this time, he came to be syncretized with Ptah as Ptah-Seker, in which form he took the lioness goddess Sakhmet as his consort. In the Middle Kingdom, the three were sometimes merged in the form Ptah-Seker-Osiris . As god of the necropolis, Seker is also the patron of the craftsmen who are put to work there. He was associated with the manufacture of various objects used in embalming and in funerary rituals.
He also played a prominent role at Thebes where he was depicted on the royal tombs. An important annual festival was held in his honor at Thebes. The festival celebrated the resurrection of Osiris in the form of Seker and the continuity of the Egyptian monarchy. At this festival his image was carried in an elaborate boat known as the henu. (A depiction of such a festival can be found on the walls of an inner court of the temple of Ramses III at Medinet Habu, mid 12th century BCE.)
Seker is portrayed in human form with the head of a hawk. He is called Socharis by the Greeks. other spellings: sokar/ sokaris

Sentait: Another Egyptian cow goddess.

Sepa: An Egyptian chthonic god. other spellings: sep

Septu: An Egyptian god of war. other spelling: sopd/ sopdu

Serapis: The Ptolemaic form of Apis , an Egyptian deity who, when dead, was honored under the attributes of Osiris and thus became 'osirified Apis' or [O] Sorapis. He was lord of the underworld.

Serket: "She who causes the throat to breath". An Egyptian scorpion-goddess, and an early a tutelary deity of the Egyptian monarchs. She is one of the goddess who guards the canopic jars containing the viscera of the deceased. From this association she came to be a tutelary goddess of the dead. She is represented as a woman with a scorpion on her head or with a scorpion-shaped headdress, but also with a scorpion body and a human head. Serket was called upon to avert venomous bites and stings. other spellings: serket hetyt/ selket/ selkis/ selchis

Serq: A form of the goddess Isis . She is usually depicted in the form of a woman with a scorpion upon her head; occasionally she appears as a scorpion with a woman's head, surmounted by disk and horns. other spellings: selk

Seshat: The Egyptian goddess of writing, mathematics, and building schemes. She is also associated with libraries, letters, archives and historical records. She keeps track of the royal annals, with the ruling periods of every king and the speeches that were spoken during the crowning rituals. She also assisted the pharaoh mark out the boundaries of a temple in a ritual known as 'stretching the cord'. She is depicted in human form with a star or rosette above her head, wearing a leopard-skin robe, holding a scepter made of a notched palm branch on which she recorded the jubilee years. Seshat is regarded as a daughter of Thoth . other spellings: sesat/ secheta

Sesmu: The Egyptian god of oil and wine pressing.
Seth The ancient Egyptian god of chaos, the embodiment of hostility and even of outright evil. He is also a god of war, deserts, storms, and foreign lands. As the god of deserts he protects the caravans which travel through the desert, but he also causes sandstorms which bring him into conflict with the fertility god Osiris . The two are adversaries and in the Osiris myths, Seth killed his brother and scattered the remains all over Egypt. Seth belongs to the Ennead of Heliopolis and is the son of Geb and Nut (or Re and Nut). He is the brother of Osiris, Isis , and Nephthys , who is sometimes given as his consort, although Seth is more commonly associated with the foreign, Semitic goddesses Astarte and Anat . During the 3rd millenium BCE Seth replaced Horus as the tutelary deity of the pharaohs, but the story of Osiris' murder gained currency and Horus was restored to his original status. The war that followed lasted eighty years, during which Seth tore out Horus' left eye and Horus tore off Seth's foreleg and testicles. Eventually, Horus emerged victorious, or was deemed the victor by the council of the gods, and thus became the rightful ruler of the kingdoms of Lower and Upper Egypt. Seth was forced to return the eye of Horus and was either castrated or killed. In other versions he went to live with the sungod Re, where he became the voice of thunder. In the Book of the Dead, Seth is called "Lord of the Northern Sky" and is held responsible for storms and cloudy weather.
Despite his reputation, Seth has some good characteristics. He protects the sun barge of Re during its nightly journey through the underworld and he fights the snake-like monster Apep. On the other hand, he was a peril for ordinary Egyptians in the underworld, where he was said to seize the souls of the unwary.
Seth was portrayed as a man with the head of undeterminable origin, although some see in it the head of an aardvark. He had a curved snout, erect square-tipped ears and a long forked tail. He was sometimes entirely in animal form with the body similar to that of a greyhound. Animals sacred to this god where the dog, the jackal, the gazelle, the donkey, the crocodile, the hippopotamus, and the pig. There was an important sanctuary at Ombos in Upper Egypt, his reputed birthplace, and considered to be the home of his cult. This cult was also prominent in the north-eastern region of the Nile delta. The Greeks equated him with their Typhon. other spellings: set/ setekh/ setesh/ seti

Shai: The Egyptian goddess/personification of Fate. Her name and that of Shai (Fortune) are usually found coupled. They are said to be in the hands of Thoth , the divine intelligence of of the gods. Rameses II boasted that he himself is "lord of Shai and creator of Renenet." Shai was originally the deity who "fated" what should happen to a man. There was little or no distinction between Shai and Renenet and the abstract ideas which they represented. In the Papyrus of Ani, Shai stands by himself near the pillar of Balance.

Shait: An Egyptian goddess of destiny.

Shu: The embodiment of the sky. In the Ennead of Heliopolis he is the son of Atum and brother-husband of Tefnut . He was one of the first deities to be created by Atum, either from his semen or the muscus of his notrils. With Tefnut he became the father of Nut (the sky) and Seb (the earth). He raised the body of his daughter high above the earth and separated thus heaven and earth. The connection of Atum and Re , as Atum-Re, makes Shu a 'son of Re' and as such the brother of the Egyptian king (who calls himself a 'son' as well. Shu is depicted in human form wearing an ostrich feather (the hieroglyph for his name), with his arms raised to support Nut above the supine form of her brother Geb.

Sia: A primeval Egyptian god personifying the mind. She was born from a drop of blood from the penis of Re . Her consort is Hu .

Sobek: An Egyptian god who brings fertility from the Nile waters. He symbolized the power of the pharaohs. He is regarded as a son of Neith . The cradle of his cult was el Faiyum, at the ancient border of Upper and Lower Egypt, although his cult was wide-spread. Here, parts of his temples can still be found. One of the towns in that vicinity was called 'Crocodilopolis' by the Greeks. Other centers of his cult later became Kom Ombo and Thebes.
Sobek is represented as a crocodile or as a man with the head of a crocodile. On his head he often wore a pair or plumes. Later he was associated with the sun-god Re and is then wearing the solar disc and the uraeus on his crocodile head. His Greek name is Suchos. other spellings: sebek/ sochet

Somtus: The Egyptian god of Dendara. other spellings: harsomtus

Sons of Horus: The four sons of Horus who assist the deceased during their journey to the underworld. They protect to canopic jars (jars where the viscera are kept after mummification). Their heads are depicted on the lids of those jars. They are Imset (human), Hapi (baboon), Duamutef (jackal), and Kebechsenef (falcon). They represent the four cardinal directions and are also portrayed on the four corners of the sarcophagus.

Sopdet: The Egyptian fertility goddess who personifies the Dog Star, Sirius. With the appearance of Sirius at dawn in July (the 'heliacal rising') the annual inundation of the Nile began, a phenomena ascribed to Sopdet. Thus she became associated with the fertility and prosperity resulting from the annual floods. In a papyrus dated from ca. fourth century BCE, Isis identifies herself with Sothis as she laments the death of Osiris . Later Sopdet merged with Isis entirely. She is depicted in human form wearing the tall conical white crown of Upper Egypt surmounted by a star. Her Greek name is Sothis.

Sopedu: The Egyptian god of the eastern frontier and the eastern desert, of the Sinai peninsula and of the turquoise mines in the Sinai. In the Pyramid Texts he impregnated Isis in her manifestation as the star Sirius, whose appearance in July heralded the annual inundation of the Nile. Isis subsequently gave birth to the composite deity Sopedu-Horus. His primary cult center was at Saft el-Henna in the north-eastern Nile delta. Sopedu was depicted either in the form of a falcon or as a Bedouin crowned with tall plumes. other spellings: sopdu

Tanen: The Egyptian god Ptah in the aspect of an earth god. other spellings: Tathenen

Taouris: An ancient Egyptian goddess of pregnancy and birth (from ta-weret, "the great one"). She is represented as a female hippopotamus with a huge belly, standing upright on her hind legs. other spellings: Taourt

Tasenetnofret: Tasenetnofret was an Ancient Egyptian goddess. She was the consort of Horus when he was Har-wer . Har-wer was the name of Horus at a more elderly age. Horus reached maturity at this stage in life, and at this time, Tasenetnofret became his companion. He got revenge for his father by overcoming Seth. He then became the king of Egypt. In Kom Ombo, which is northern Egypt, Har-wer was thought of as the son of the god Re , and therefore was identical with the sky god, Shu . His image is that of a falcon.

Ta-tchesert: The holy land, a common name for the Other World.

Tatenen: "Exalted Earth". A primeval Egyptian earth-god who represents the mound (or hill) that arose from the primordial water. He is represented with the horns of a ram and wearing a crown with feathers. At Memphis he was connected to Ptah (Ptah-Tenen) in his aspect as a creator god, and also with Horus . As a vegetation god, he could be portrayed with green skin. other spelling: Tathen/ tanen/ tenen/ ten.

Taurt: In Egyptian mythology, Taurt was the Goddess of Good Fortune and Childbirth. She was shown as a mixture of a hippopotamus’ body, a crocodile’s head, and a lion’s feet. This goddess was popular with the ordinary men and women. She was responsible for fertility and protecting women before, during, and after childbirth. Her husband was Bes , the God of Pleasure. other spelling: Ta- Urt

Taweret: "The Great One". A very popular Egyptian hippopotamus goddess of childbirth. She is a domestic deity who is portrayed on beds and on pillows. Pregnant women commonly wore amulets bearing the goddess's image. Taweret assists women in labor and wards off demons (hence her scary appearance). She was often found in the company of the dwarf god Bes, who had a similar function. She was depicted as part woman part hippopotamus, with sagging breasts, a swollen belly, and the head of a hippopotamus. Sometimes she also had the legs and arms of a lion, and the tail of a crocodile. She was often depicted holding the Sa amulet symbolizing protection. Also called Opet. other spelligs: Toeris/ Taueret/ Taurt/ Apet.

Tefnut: The personified goddess of moisture in Egyptian mythology. Together with her consort Shu (Air) she was produced by Re from his own body by masturbation. By Shu she became the mother of Seb (Earth) and Nut (Sky).

Tenenit: The Egyptian goddess of beer.

Thoth: Thoth is the name given by the Greeks to the Egyptian god Djeheuty. Thoth was the god of wisdom, inventor of writing, patron of scribes and the divine mediator. He is most often represented as a man with the head of an ibis, holding a scribal palette and reed pen. He could also be shown completely as an ibis or a baboon. other spelling: Djeheuty/ tehuti/ tathuti/ zehuti.
As with most Egyptian deities there were many different stories regarding the parentage of Thoth. Many sources call him the son of Re , but one tradition has him springing forth from the head of Seth . This latter story is reminiscent of the birth of the Greek goddess Athena , who like Thoth was the patron divinity of wisdom.
Myths concerning Thoth show him as a divinity whose counsel is always sought. His most significant role is during the battles of Horus and Seth. Thoth is a staunch supporter of Horus and his mother Isis , maintaining that Horus' claim to the throne is just and the murderous Seth has no right to the kingship of Egypt. Elsewhere Thoth is a reliable mediator and peacemaker. When the goddess Tefnut had a dispute with her father Re and absconded to Nubia, it was Thoth that the sun-god sent to reason with her and bring her home.
Thoth was also present at the judgement of the dead. He would question the deceased before recording the result of the weighing of the deceased's heart. If the result was favorable Thoth would declare the deceased as a righteous individual who was worthy of a blessed afterlife. Thoth was also a lunar deity, and whatever form he took he wore a lunar crescent on his head. Some Egyptologists think that the Egyptians identified the crescent moon with the curved beak of the ibis. It is also suggested that the Egyptians observed that baboon was a nocturnal (i.e. lunar) animal who would greet the sun with chattering noises each morning.
As he was messenger of the gods Thoth was identified by the Greeks with their own god Hermes . For this reason Thoth's center of worship is still known to us today as Hermopolis.

Toeris: An old-Egyptian hippopotamus goddess. Other spelling: thoeris/ ta-uret.

Tuat: A common name for the Other World.

Uneg: An Egyptian plant-god.

Un-nefer: A name of Osiris in his capacity of god and judge of the dead in the underworld. The name probably means "good being."

Unut: An Egyptian hare-goddess.

Urthekau: The name for Egyptian supernatural powers. other spelling: werethkua

Wepwawet: The ancient Egyptian jackal god of war and the funerary cult. He was a cemetary god at Asyut (Siut). His name means "opener of the ways"; he opened the ways for the armies of the Pharaos and for the spirits of the dead. He was depicted on the shedshed, the standard which led the armies to the battlefields. Wepwawet originated in Upper Egypt, but symbolized the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt. He was worshipped as the god of death in Abydos, where he led the processions at the feasts of Osiris . His Greek name is Ophois. other spelling: upuaut/ we-wawet/ ophois.

Wosyet: The Egyptian protector goddess of the young.

Yaaru: In Egyptian myth, Yaaru (Iaru, Aalu) are the fields of the nether-world, located in the realm of the dead, the domain of Osiris . It is a beautiful place (an equivalent of Eden) were the deceased can perform their favorite activities. These fields are tilled to provide the dead with food. It is represented as a vast field of wheat, symbol of life. Yaaru is situated in the east where the sun rises, but is sometimes also referred to as a group of islands. They correspond roughly to the Elysian Fields of the Greeks. The antipode of Yaaru is Duat, the dark realm of the dead. other spelling: Aaru/ Aalu.

Zenenet: The Egyptian goddess of Hermonthis.

Egytian Info. E - H

BlueWillow — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 05:31:31 CDT

Egyptology E thru H Ennead The group of the nine chief deities of the Osirian cycle in ancient Egyptian myth. They are Atum, Shu, Tefnut, Seb, NUt, Osiris, Isis, Seth, and Nephthys. The term is also frequently used in Egyptian texts to denote the divine council of gods and goddesses in general. Geb An older rendering of the god Ha The Egyptian god of the west and of the western desert. Since the entrance was situated in the western desert, he plays a part in the death cult. He is portrayed as a human figure with on his head the hieroglyph that represents the west. Hah Egyptian god of the sky, the personification of eternity and the infinite sky. With wide-spread arms he supports the sky. This hieroglyph is also the symbol for one million. Hapi The personification of the Nile in ancient Egypt. He was particularly associated with the annual flooding of the Nile, which was considered as a gift to the gods and kings. He was believed to live in caves near the Nile cataracts with his retinue of crocodile gods and frog goddesses (his harem). Hapi was portrayed as a plump man with pendulous female breasts, with a beard, a large belly, and a crown of aquatic plants. Hapi is also the name of one of the four Son of Horus other spellings: hapy/ hepr hapi Hapi was one of the four sons of Son of Horus, in Egyptian mythology. He protected the canopic jars containing the embalmed lungs of the deceased. Hapi was represented as a mummified man with the head of a baboon. He also represented a cardinal direction, north. His protector was the goddes Nephthys. Imset, Duamutef, and Kebechsenef were his three brothers. Imset was depicted as a human, Duamutef as a jackal, and Kebechsenef as a falcon. Their father, Horus, was one of the most important deities of Egypt. It was believed that they were born from a lotus flower and were solar gods associated with the creation. Then, Anubis gave them the duties of mummification. In the hall of Ma'at they sat on a lotus flower in front of Osiris, one of the mummified people they protected. other spellings: hep Harakhti The Egyptian god of the morning sun, whose name means 'Horus of the Horizon'. Harakhti (Harachte) is one of the many manifestations of Horus. The Egyptian pharaoh was said to be born on the eastern horizon as Harakhti and to rule over the eastern and western horizon in that form. In Heliopolis he coalesced with Re and was worshipped as Re-Harakhti. He was depicted in the form of a falcon. other spellings: harachte Har-em-akhet "Horus upon the Horizon". Another form of Horus in which he figures as a sun god (identified with Re-Her-Akhety). Later is was believed that the sphinx of Gizeh represented "Horus of the Morning Sun" looking toward the eastern horizon. Also Her-Akhety, "Horus of the Two Horizons". Harmachis is the Greek rendering of the name. her-akhety/ harmachis Har-mau Another manifestation of the god Horus, this time as 'Horus the uniter'. In this form Horus achieves the uniting of the kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt. Also known as Harsomtus. other spellings: harsomtus Harmerti The name of Horus as the falcon-god 'with the two eyes' which represent the sun and the moon. He was also worshipped as the hero that restrains monsters such as Apep. Har-nedj-itef An Egyptian guardian god, one of the manifestations of Horus. In this form, he guards his father Osiris in the underworld and therefore called 'Horus the savior of his father'. Har-nedj-itef (Greek: Harendotes) also protects the dead and is portrayed as a falcon on sarcophagi. other spellings: harendotes Har-pa-khered "Horus the Child". The form of Horus as a young boy, distinguished from Horus as an adult. He is portrayed as a naked child with a finger in his mouth, sitting on a lotus flower or on the knee of his mother Isis. He was invoked to ward off dangerous creatures. As the son of Osiris he was also a vegetation god, portrayed with a jar or a horn of plenty. In the New Empire he became very popular and his cult was expanded substantially during the time of the Roman Empire. Statuettes of Har-pa-khered from the Greco-Roman period depicted him riding on a goose or a ram. The Greeks called him Harpocrates (Harpokrates). other spellings: harpocrates Har-sa-iset A form of the god Horus, specifically as the son of Isis. In the Osiris-myth he was born from the impregnation of Isis by her deceased husband Osiris. Isis protects Horus as a child against many dangers. The Pyramid texts state that Har-sa-iset performed the rite of the 'opening of the mouth' on the dead pharaoh, ensuring that the pharaoh would have the use of his faculties in the afterlife. Har-sa-iset is also considered to be a guardian deity. other spellings: harsiesis Har-wer The name of Horus at an advanced age, which means 'the Elder Horus'. In this manifestation Horus reaches maturity and avenges his father Osiris against his enemy Seth. He defeats Seth and seizes the throne of Egypt. In Kom Ombo (the ancient Noebt) in Upper Egypt, Har-wer was regarded as the son of the god Re and thus identical with the sky god Shu. Again, he is depicted in the form of a falcon. other spellings: haroeris Hathor The feminine goddess par excellence in ancient Egypt, Hathor was a pre-Dynastic goddess who gained enormous popularity early on. Her name is translated as "the House of Horus", which may be a reference to her as the embodiment of the sky in her role of the Celestial Cow, being that which surrounds the decidedly sky-oriented hawk-deity, Horus, when he takes wing. If Horus was the god associated with the living king, Hathor was the god associated with the living queen. In earlier periods she was most often depicted as a full cow with the sundisk between her horns or as a slender woman wearing the horns-and-a-sundisk headdress (which may or may not have a uraeus upon it). She was also shown as a hippopotamus, a falcon, a cobra, or a lioness, however these were not as frequent as the woman or the cow. While there are some depictions of Hathor as a woman with a cow's head, this is mainly found only in the later periods. Hathor's symbology included such items as sistra (a type of rattle), the horns-and-sundisk headdress (in much later times incorporated into the attire of Isis), the menat (a type of ritual necklace that may have been used for percussive music), and mirrors. Many ancient mirrors and sistra decorated with smiling, often nude Hathors on them have been uncovered over the years, and Hathor's visage (with cow ears) commonly appeared at the top of stone columns in Egyptian temples, many of which can still be seen today. Her cult flourished in Ta-Netjer ("Land of God" -- modern day Dendera) in Upper Egypt and her priests included both men and women, many of whom were dancers, singers, or musicians as the arts fell under Hathor's domain. Priests of Hathor were also oracles and midwives, and people could go to some temples of Hathor to have their dreams interpreted by her priests. Hathor's protection was invoked over children and pregnant women. Hathor, as the Eye of Ra, "becomes" Sakhmet in the story "The Destruction of Mankind". Engraved into one of the shrines of Tutankhamen's tomb, the story tells how Hathor, at the request of her father (Ra), turns into Sakhmet in order to punish humans for transgressing against him. When she nearly wipes out all of humanity, Ra tries to stop her and, failing in that, contrives to get her drunk, whereupon she immediately forgets what it was she was doing and goes back to being Hathor. Hathor also appears as a minor character in "The Contendings of Horus and Seth". Her father (Ra) falls into a black mood so Hathor sets forth to cheer him up. Removing her clothing, she dances around his throne until he smiles again. An additional myth, sometimes called "The Distant Goddess", tells of how Hathor became angry with Ra and wandered away from Egypt. Great sadness falls over the land and Ra, lost without his Eye, decides to fetch her back. However, Hathor has now become a deadly wild cat who destroys all that approaches her, and so no man or god will volunteer to go get her. Thoth eventually agrees to lure her back and, dressed in disguise, manages to coax the angry goddess to return to Egypt by telling her stories. Back in her homeland, she bathes in the Nile and once again settles into her normally gentle demeanor, but not before the waters turn red from the effort of cooling her rage. In some versions of this story it is Tefnut, not Hathor, who wanders away from Egypt, and Shu, not Thoth, who brings her back. Hathor is associated with numerous other Egyptian goddesses. Her connections with Bastet helped to "soften up" that deity's visage, and as discussed previously Hathor was the other side of the Sakhmet coin. Hathor also seems to have absorbed many of the properties of Bat (another pre-Dynastic cow goddess), who is depicted at the top of the famous Narmer palette overseeing the events detailed therein. Hathor is also known as the "Lady to the Limit" ("limit" meaning the edges of the known universe) and the "Lady of the West"; her image is sometimes seen on funerary depiction as she stands behind Osiris, welcoming the dead to their new home. Other titles of Hathor include the "Divine (or Celestial) Cow", "Mistress of Heaven", and "Lady of Gold", the last two of which were sometimes attributed to the queens of ancient Egypt. Hathor was also known as the "Lady of Greenstone and Malachite" due to her being regarded as a goddess of the desert fringes where such mines existed. The Greeks called Hathor by the name of their goddess, Aphrodite. In the very late stages of Egyptian religion (over two millennia after Hathor had first appeared) she became almost totally absorbed into Isis (who acquired, aside from Hathor's headdress, the sistrum as well), resulting in frequent mistaken identity between the two. There are, however, subtle differences. When Isis is shown with the horns she is also (usually) shown with either the vulture headdress (which was associated with Mut, a goddess of Thebes), winged, or wearing a multi-colored feathered dress. There are of course exceptions (such as in the tomb of Horemheb), in which case knowledge of hieroglyphs is necessary to discern which goddess is which. At the temple of Nefertari at Abu Simbel, Nefertari is shown as Hathor in many places, and Ramses II (the husband of Nefertari) is shown in one sanctuary receiving milk from Hathor the cow. When a child was born in Egypt, seven Hathors (somewhat like European fairy godmothers) would appear to "speak with one mouth" and determine the child's fate. Hathor's own child was Ihy, who was worshipped in Dendera with her and Horus-Behdety. Like his mother, Ihy was a god of music and dancing, and was always depicted as a child bearing a sistrum. other spellings: hwt-hert/ het-heru/ het-hert Hatmehit An Egyptian fish goddess. She was worshipped in the Nile Delta, especially at Mendes. other spellings: hatmehyt Hauhet Hauhet is an Egyptian goddess and is represented as a frog. She was the goddess of immeasureable infinity. She is one of the Ogdoad. The Ogdoad are eight Egyptian dieties who were especially worshipped in Hermoplic in Upper Egypt. They formed the basis of the creation myths. The Ogdoad were made up of four goddesses and four gods. The goddesses were represented as either frogs or humans with frog heads. The gods were represented as either snakes or humans with snake heads. other spellings: hehet Hedetet The Egyptian scorpion-goddess Heh A primordial god of Egypt, one of the Ogodoad of Hermopolis. Together with his female counterpart Hauhet the represents infinity. Their task was to wake the sun. Huh is depicted as a frog, or as a man with the head of a frog. other spellings: huh Heket The Egyptian goddess of childbirth, and protector of the dead. She is portrayed as a frog, a symbol of life and fertility (presumably because of the millions of them spawned after the annual inundation of the Nile), or as a woman with a frog's head. Women often wore amulets of her during childbirth. As the daughter of the sun-god Re she is called 'Eye of Re' and 'Mother of the gods'. She is regarded as the consort of Khnum other spellings: heqet/ heka Hemen An Egyptian falcon god. Hemsut The Egyptian goddess of fate. other spellings: hemuset Hermanubis A syncretic deity combining the Greek Hermes with the Egyptian Anubis. Heron An Egyptian deity. Heryshaf A god of Middle Egypt who was born from the primeval waters, whose name means 'He who is upon his lake'. He is the ram god of Heracleopolis (now the city Ehnas). He is identified with Osiris and Re. The Greeks equated him with their Heracles, and to them Heryshaf was known as Harsaphes Hesat An Egyptian cow goddess. The ancient Egyptians referred to milk as 'the beer of Hesat'. Hetepet An Egyptian cult goddess. Hez-ur An Egyptian baboon god Hike The Egyptian personification of supernatural powers attributed to the gods. He is regarded as the eldest son of Atum. Doctors, who invoked his magical powers when practicing their arts, called themselves 'priests of Hike'. other spellings: heka Hor-Hekenu A variation of the Egyptian god Horus. Horus The name "Horus" is a general catchall for multiple deities, the most famous of whom is Harseisis (Heru-sa-Aset) or Horus-son-of-Isis (sometimes called Horus the Younger) who was conceived after the death of his father, Osiris, and who later avenged him. In all the Horus deities the traits of kingship, sky and solar symbology, and victory reoccur. As the prototype of the earthly king, there were as many Horus gods as there were rulers of Egypt, if not more. The oldest of the Horus gods is appropriately named Horus the Elder (Heru-ur), and was especially venerated in pre-Dynastic Upper Egypt along with Hathor. In this very ancient form, Horus is also a creator god, the falcon who flew up at the beginning of time. The pre-Pharaohnic rulers of Upper Egypt were considered "shemsu-Heru" or "followers of Horus", and the original Horus is himself considered in some myths to be the brother of Seth and Osiris, second-born of the five children of Geb and Nut(Osiris, Horus, Seth, Isis, Nephthys). Horus the Elder's city was Letopolis, and his eyes were thought to be the sun and moon. When these two heavenly bodies are invisible (as on the night of the new moon) he goes blind and takes the name Mekhenty-er-irty, "He who has no eyes". When he recovers them, he becomes Khenty-irty, "He who has eyes". A warrior-god armed with a sword, Horus could be especially dangerous to those around him in his vision-deprived state, and during one battle in particular he managed to not only knock off the heads of his enemies but of the other deities fighting alongside him, thus plunging the world into immediate confusion that was only relieved when his eyes returned. Other notable Horus gods are the previously mentioned Harseisis, as well as Horus of Behdet (sometimes called simply Behdety) who was represented as a winged sun disk, Anhur (a form of Horus the Elder and Shu), Horakhety (Ra-Heru-akhety) who was a syncretism of Ra and Horus, and Harpokrates (Heru-pa-khered) or Horus the Child. In the form of Harpokrates, Horus is the danger-beset son of Isis with one finger to his lips, signifying his childish nature (also evident in his princely sidelock and naked status). Harpokrates represented not only the royal heir, but also the newborn sun. Horus deities are frequently depicted as hawks or hawk-headed men, though some are represented as fully human. The pharaoh was considered to be the Living Horus, the temporal stand-in for Horus in the earthly domain. As the opponent of Seth (who, though initially an Upper Egyptian deity himself, later came to represent not only Lower Egypt but the desert surrounding Egypt), Horus is alternately a brother vying for the throne and unification of Egypt (Horus the Elder), or a royal heir come to reclaim his inheritance (Horus the Younger). Horus can be seen at the top of the serekh of early kings, though in very rare cases his place was usurped by Set (Peribsen, Dynasty 2) or even shared with him (Khasekhemwy, Dynasty 2). Horus is also depicted on the famous Narmer palette along with Bat, an earlier form of Hathor. A passage from the Coffin Texts (passage 148) sums up Horus in his own words: "I am Horus, the great Falcon upon the ramparts of the house of him of the hidden name. My flight has reached the horizon. I have passed by the gods of Nut. I have gone further than the gods of old. Even the most ancient bird could not equal my very first flight. I have removed my place beyond the powers of Set, the foe of my father Osiris. No other god could do what I have done. I have brought the ways of eternity to the twilight of the morning. I am unique in my flight. My wrath will be turned against the enemy of my father Osiris and I will put him beneath my feet in my name of 'Red Cloak'." other spellings: hrw/ hr Hu In Egyptian mythology the creating word of the sun-god of Heliopolis, personified in the same god. With Sia he forms a primeval pair, both born from a drop of blood from the penis of Re, and together the personify the insight and wisdom of the sun-god. They also accompany him on his solar barque and help the bring order in chaos. When the pharaoh became a lone star, his companion was Hu. Huh An primeval Egyptian god, one of the Ogdoad of Hermopolis. Together with his female pendant Hauhet he personifies infinite space. It is their task to wake the sun-god every morning. He appears as a frog or as a man with the head of a frog.

Egyptology E thru H

Ennead The group of the nine chief deities of the Osirian cycle in ancient Egyptian myth. They are Atum, Shu, Tefnut, Seb, NUt, Osiris, Isis, Seth, and Nephthys. The term is also frequently used in Egyptian texts to denote the divine council of gods and goddesses in general.
Geb An older rendering of the god

Ha The Egyptian god of the west and of the western desert. Since the entrance was situated in the western desert, he plays a part in the death cult. He is portrayed as a human figure with on his head the hieroglyph that represents the west.

Hah Egyptian god of the sky, the personification of eternity and the infinite sky. With wide-spread arms he supports the sky. This hieroglyph is also the symbol for one million.

Hapi The personification of the Nile in ancient Egypt. He was particularly associated with the annual flooding of the Nile, which was considered as a gift to the gods and kings. He was believed to live in caves near the Nile cataracts with his retinue of crocodile gods and frog goddesses (his harem). Hapi was portrayed as a plump man with pendulous female breasts, with a beard, a large belly, and a crown of aquatic plants. Hapi is also the name of one of the four Son of Horus other spellings: hapy/ hepr
hapi
Hapi was one of the four sons of Son of Horus, in Egyptian mythology. He protected the canopic jars containing the embalmed lungs of the deceased. Hapi was represented as a mummified man with the head of a baboon. He also represented a cardinal direction, north. His protector was the goddes Nephthys. Imset, Duamutef, and Kebechsenef were his three brothers. Imset was depicted as a human, Duamutef as a jackal, and Kebechsenef as a falcon. Their father, Horus, was one of the most important deities of Egypt. It was believed that they were born from a lotus flower and were solar gods associated with the creation. Then, Anubis gave them the duties of mummification. In the hall of Ma'at they sat on a lotus flower in front of Osiris, one of the mummified people they protected. other spellings: hep

Harakhti The Egyptian god of the morning sun, whose name means 'Horus of the Horizon'. Harakhti (Harachte) is one of the many manifestations of Horus. The Egyptian pharaoh was said to be born on the eastern horizon as Harakhti and to rule over the eastern and western horizon in that form. In Heliopolis he coalesced with Re and was worshipped as Re-Harakhti. He was depicted in the form of a falcon. other spellings: harachte
Har-em-akhet "Horus upon the Horizon". Another form of Horus in which he figures as a sun god (identified with Re-Her-Akhety). Later is was believed that the sphinx of Gizeh represented "Horus of the Morning Sun" looking toward the eastern horizon. Also Her-Akhety, "Horus of the Two Horizons". Harmachis is the Greek rendering of the name. her-akhety/ harmachis

Har-mau Another manifestation of the god Horus, this time as 'Horus the uniter'. In this form Horus achieves the uniting of the kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt. Also known as Harsomtus. other spellings: harsomtus
Harmerti The name of Horus as the falcon-god 'with the two eyes' which represent the sun and the moon. He was also worshipped as the hero that restrains monsters such as Apep.

Har-nedj-itef An Egyptian guardian god, one of the manifestations of Horus. In this form, he guards his father Osiris in the underworld and therefore called 'Horus the savior of his father'. Har-nedj-itef (Greek: Harendotes) also protects the dead and is portrayed as a falcon on sarcophagi.
other spellings: harendotes

Har-pa-khered "Horus the Child". The form of Horus as a young boy, distinguished from Horus as an adult. He is portrayed as a naked child with a finger in his mouth, sitting on a lotus flower or on the knee of his mother Isis. He was invoked to ward off dangerous creatures. As the son of Osiris he was also a vegetation god, portrayed with a jar or a horn of plenty. In the New Empire he became very popular and his cult was expanded substantially during the time of the Roman Empire. Statuettes of Har-pa-khered from the Greco-Roman period depicted him riding on a goose or a ram. The Greeks called him Harpocrates (Harpokrates). other spellings: harpocrates

Har-sa-iset A form of the god Horus, specifically as the son of Isis. In the Osiris-myth he was born from the impregnation of Isis by her deceased husband Osiris. Isis protects Horus as a child against many dangers. The Pyramid texts state that Har-sa-iset performed the rite of the 'opening of the mouth' on the dead pharaoh, ensuring that the pharaoh would have the use of his faculties in the afterlife. Har-sa-iset is also considered to be a guardian deity. other spellings: harsiesis

Har-wer The name of Horus at an advanced age, which means 'the Elder Horus'. In this manifestation Horus reaches maturity and avenges his father Osiris against his enemy Seth. He defeats Seth and seizes the throne of Egypt. In Kom Ombo (the ancient Noebt) in Upper Egypt, Har-wer was regarded as the son of the god Re and thus identical with the sky god Shu. Again, he is depicted in the form of a falcon. other spellings: haroeris

Hathor The feminine goddess par excellence in ancient Egypt, Hathor was a pre-Dynastic goddess who gained enormous popularity early on. Her name is translated as "the House of Horus", which may be a reference to her as the embodiment of the sky in her role of the Celestial Cow, being that which surrounds the decidedly sky-oriented hawk-deity, Horus, when he takes wing. If Horus was the god associated with the living king, Hathor was the god associated with the living queen.
In earlier periods she was most often depicted as a full cow with the sundisk between her horns or as a slender woman wearing the horns-and-a-sundisk headdress (which may or may not have a uraeus upon it). She was also shown as a hippopotamus, a falcon, a cobra, or a lioness, however these were not as frequent as the woman or the cow. While there are some depictions of Hathor as a woman with a cow's head, this is mainly found only in the later periods.
Hathor's symbology included such items as sistra (a type of rattle), the horns-and-sundisk headdress (in much later times incorporated into the attire of Isis), the menat (a type of ritual necklace that may have been used for percussive music), and mirrors. Many ancient mirrors and sistra decorated with smiling, often nude Hathors on them have been uncovered over the years, and Hathor's visage (with cow ears) commonly appeared at the top of stone columns in Egyptian temples, many of which can still be seen today. Her cult flourished in Ta-Netjer ("Land of God" -- modern day Dendera) in Upper Egypt and her priests included both men and women, many of whom were dancers, singers, or musicians as the arts fell under Hathor's domain. Priests of Hathor were also oracles and midwives, and people could go to some temples of Hathor to have their dreams interpreted by her priests. Hathor's protection was invoked over children and pregnant women.
Hathor, as the Eye of Ra, "becomes" Sakhmet in the story "The Destruction of Mankind". Engraved into one of the shrines of Tutankhamen's tomb, the story tells how Hathor, at the request of her father (Ra), turns into Sakhmet in order to punish humans for transgressing against him. When she nearly wipes out all of humanity, Ra tries to stop her and, failing in that, contrives to get her drunk, whereupon she immediately forgets what it was she was doing and goes back to being Hathor. Hathor also appears as a minor character in "The Contendings of Horus and Seth". Her father (Ra) falls into a black mood so Hathor sets forth to cheer him up. Removing her clothing, she dances around his throne until he smiles again. An additional myth, sometimes called "The Distant Goddess", tells of how Hathor became angry with Ra and wandered away from Egypt. Great sadness falls over the land and Ra, lost without his Eye, decides to fetch her back. However, Hathor has now become a deadly wild cat who destroys all that approaches her, and so no man or god will volunteer to go get her.
Thoth eventually agrees to lure her back and, dressed in disguise, manages to coax the angry goddess to return to Egypt by telling her stories. Back in her homeland, she bathes in the Nile and once again settles into her normally gentle demeanor, but not before the waters turn red from the effort of cooling her rage. In some versions of this story it is Tefnut, not Hathor, who wanders away from Egypt, and Shu, not Thoth, who brings her back.
Hathor is associated with numerous other Egyptian goddesses. Her connections with Bastet helped to "soften up" that deity's visage, and as discussed previously Hathor was the other side of the Sakhmet coin. Hathor also seems to have absorbed many of the properties of Bat (another pre-Dynastic cow goddess), who is depicted at the top of the famous Narmer palette overseeing the events detailed therein.
Hathor is also known as the "Lady to the Limit" ("limit" meaning the edges of the known universe) and the "Lady of the West"; her image is sometimes seen on funerary depiction as she stands behind Osiris, welcoming the dead to their new home. Other titles of Hathor include the "Divine (or Celestial) Cow", "Mistress of Heaven", and "Lady of Gold", the last two of which were sometimes attributed to the queens of ancient Egypt. Hathor was also known as the "Lady of Greenstone and Malachite" due to her being regarded as a goddess of the desert fringes where such mines existed.
The Greeks called Hathor by the name of their goddess, Aphrodite. In the very late stages of Egyptian religion (over two millennia after Hathor had first appeared) she became almost totally absorbed into Isis (who acquired, aside from Hathor's headdress, the sistrum as well), resulting in frequent mistaken identity between the two. There are, however, subtle differences. When Isis is shown with the horns she is also (usually) shown with either the vulture headdress (which was associated with Mut, a goddess of Thebes), winged, or wearing a multi-colored feathered dress.
There are of course exceptions (such as in the tomb of Horemheb), in which case knowledge of hieroglyphs is necessary to discern which goddess is which. At the temple of Nefertari at Abu Simbel, Nefertari is shown as Hathor in many places, and Ramses II (the husband of Nefertari) is shown in one sanctuary receiving milk from Hathor the cow. When a child was born in Egypt, seven Hathors (somewhat like European fairy godmothers) would appear to "speak with one mouth" and determine the child's fate. Hathor's own child was Ihy, who was worshipped in Dendera with her and Horus-Behdety. Like his mother, Ihy was a god of music and dancing, and was always depicted as a child bearing a sistrum. other spellings: hwt-hert/
het-heru/ het-hert

Hatmehit An Egyptian fish goddess. She was worshipped in the Nile Delta, especially at Mendes. other spellings: hatmehyt

Hauhet Hauhet is an Egyptian goddess and is represented as a frog. She was the goddess of immeasureable infinity. She is one of the Ogdoad. The Ogdoad are eight Egyptian dieties who were especially worshipped in Hermoplic in Upper Egypt. They formed the basis of the creation myths. The Ogdoad were made up of four goddesses and four gods. The goddesses were represented as either frogs or humans with frog heads. The gods were represented as either snakes or humans with snake heads. other spellings: hehet

Hedetet The Egyptian scorpion-goddess

Heh A primordial god of Egypt, one of the Ogodoad of Hermopolis. Together with his female counterpart Hauhet the represents infinity. Their task was to wake the sun. Huh is depicted as a frog, or as a man with the head of a frog. other spellings: huh

Heket The Egyptian goddess of childbirth, and protector of the dead. She is portrayed as a frog, a symbol of life and fertility (presumably because of the millions of them spawned after the annual inundation of the Nile), or as a woman with a frog's head. Women often wore amulets of her during childbirth. As the daughter of the sun-god Re she is called 'Eye of Re' and 'Mother of the gods'. She is regarded as the consort of Khnum
other spellings: heqet/ heka

Hemen An Egyptian falcon god.

Hemsut The Egyptian goddess of fate. other spellings: hemuset

Hermanubis A syncretic deity combining the Greek Hermes with the Egyptian Anubis.

Heron An Egyptian deity.

Heryshaf A god of Middle Egypt who was born from the primeval waters, whose name means 'He who is upon his lake'. He is the ram god of Heracleopolis (now the city Ehnas). He is identified with Osiris and Re. The Greeks equated him with their Heracles, and to them Heryshaf was known as Harsaphes

Hesat An Egyptian cow goddess. The ancient Egyptians referred to milk as 'the beer of Hesat'.

Hetepet An Egyptian cult goddess.

Hez-ur An Egyptian baboon god

Hike The Egyptian personification of supernatural powers attributed to the gods. He is regarded as the eldest son of Atum. Doctors, who invoked his magical powers when practicing their arts, called themselves 'priests of Hike'. other spellings: heka

Hor-Hekenu A variation of the Egyptian god Horus.

Horus The name "Horus" is a general catchall for multiple deities, the most famous of whom is Harseisis (Heru-sa-Aset) or Horus-son-of-Isis (sometimes called Horus the Younger) who was conceived after the death of his father, Osiris, and who later avenged him. In all the Horus deities the traits of kingship, sky and solar symbology, and victory reoccur. As the prototype of the earthly king, there were as many Horus gods as there were rulers of Egypt, if not more.
The oldest of the Horus gods is appropriately named Horus the Elder (Heru-ur), and was especially venerated in pre-Dynastic Upper Egypt along with Hathor. In this very ancient form, Horus is also a creator god, the falcon who flew up at the beginning of time. The pre-Pharaohnic rulers of Upper Egypt were considered "shemsu-Heru" or "followers of Horus", and the original Horus is himself considered in some myths to be the brother of Seth and Osiris, second-born of the five children of Geb and Nut(Osiris, Horus, Seth, Isis, Nephthys). Horus the Elder's city was Letopolis, and his eyes were thought to be the sun and moon. When these two heavenly bodies are invisible (as on the night of the new moon) he goes blind and takes the name Mekhenty-er-irty, "He who has no eyes". When he recovers them, he becomes Khenty-irty, "He who has eyes". A warrior-god armed with a sword, Horus could be especially dangerous to those around him in his vision-deprived state, and during one battle in particular he managed to not only knock off the heads of his enemies but of the other deities fighting alongside him, thus plunging the world into immediate confusion that was only relieved when his eyes returned.
Other notable Horus gods are the previously mentioned Harseisis, as well as Horus of Behdet (sometimes called simply Behdety) who was represented as a winged sun disk, Anhur (a form of Horus the Elder and Shu), Horakhety (Ra-Heru-akhety) who was a syncretism of Ra and Horus, and Harpokrates (Heru-pa-khered) or Horus the Child. In the form of Harpokrates, Horus is the danger-beset son of Isis with one finger to his lips, signifying his childish nature (also evident in his princely sidelock and naked status). Harpokrates represented not only the royal heir, but also the newborn sun.
Horus deities are frequently depicted as hawks or hawk-headed men, though some are represented as fully human. The pharaoh was considered to be the Living Horus, the temporal stand-in for Horus in the earthly domain. As the opponent of Seth (who, though initially an Upper Egyptian deity himself, later came to represent not only Lower Egypt but the desert surrounding Egypt), Horus is alternately a brother vying for the throne and unification of Egypt (Horus the Elder), or a royal heir come to reclaim his inheritance (Horus the Younger).
Horus can be seen at the top of the serekh of early kings, though in very rare cases his place was usurped by Set (Peribsen, Dynasty 2) or even shared with him (Khasekhemwy, Dynasty 2). Horus is also depicted on the famous Narmer palette along with Bat, an earlier form of Hathor.
A passage from the Coffin Texts (passage 148) sums up Horus in his own words: "I am Horus, the great Falcon upon the ramparts of the house of him of the hidden name. My flight has reached the horizon. I have passed by the gods of Nut. I have gone further than the gods of old. Even the most ancient bird could not equal my very first flight. I have removed my place beyond the powers of Set, the foe of my father Osiris. No other god could do what I have done. I have brought the ways of eternity to the twilight of the morning. I am unique in my flight. My wrath will be turned against the enemy of my father Osiris and I will put him beneath my feet in my name of 'Red Cloak'." other spellings: hrw/ hr

Hu In Egyptian mythology the creating word of the sun-god of Heliopolis, personified in the same god. With Sia he forms a primeval pair, both born from a drop of blood from the penis of Re, and together the personify the insight and wisdom of the sun-god. They also accompany him on his solar barque and help the bring order in chaos. When the pharaoh became a lone star, his companion was Hu.
Huh An primeval Egyptian god, one of the Ogdoad of Hermopolis. Together with his female pendant Hauhet he personifies infinite space. It is their task to wake the sun-god every morning. He appears as a frog or as a man with the head of a frog.

Egyptian Info. N - R

BlueWillow — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 05:30:20 CDT

Egyptology N - R Naunet: An Egyptian goddess who representes the primordial abyss of the underworld. Her male counterpart, as well as her consort, is Nun . In the cosmogony of Hermopolis she was a member of the Ogdoad of eight primordial deities. Neb-er-tcher: A name which signifies "lord to the uttermost limit", i.e.. "lord of the universe." This name was subsequently given to Osiris . Some have thought that is was given to Osiris after the completed re-construction of his body, which had been hacked to pieces by Seth . Nebtuu: An Egyptian local goddess. other spellings: nebetu Nechmetawaj: An Egyptian goddess. other spellings: nehmet-awai Neferhor: An Egyptian god. other spekkings: nephoros/ nopheros Nefertem: An ancient Egyptian god identified with the lotus, but he also personified some form of the morning sun. He is a son of Ptah and Sakhmet or Bastet . Nefertem is usually represented as a man with a cluster of lotus flowers upon his head, but sometimes he has the head of a lion. In the little faïence figures of him, which are so common, he stands upon the back of a lion. He represents the sun-god in the legend which made him burst forth from a lotus, for in the pyramid of Unas the king is said: "Rise like Nefer-Temu from the lotus (lily) to the nostrils of Ra" and to "come forth on the horizon every day." other spellings: nefrtum/ nefer-tem/ nefer-temu Neheb-ka: The name of an Egyptian goddess who is usually represented with the head of a serpent, and with whom the deceased identifies himself. Nehebkau: An Egyptian snake-demon or snake-god who guards the entrance to the underworld. Various functions are attributed to him besides guarding the entrance. He protects the pharaoh in the afterlife, and he accompanies the sun god Re during his voyage through the underworld. Legend has it the Re tamed him and made him his servant. According to one tradition Nehebkau was the son of the scorpion goddess Serket . Yet another tradition mentions him as the son of the earth god Geb and the harvest goddess Renenutet . As god of infinite time he was invoked by the dead, but he was also invoked against snake bites and scorpion stings. Nehebkau was depicted as a serpent with human arms and legs. other spellings: nehebu-kau/ nehebkhau Neith: The ancient Egyptian local goddess of Sais was a warlike divinity, a fact which is stated by her attributes, the bow, shield, and arrows. This goddess of war also blessed hunters' weapons. The practice of placing weapons around the coffin in ancient Egyptian times could be traced to the goddess' protective functions. Her close relationship to Sobek , the crocodile god who was her son, can be explained by the proximity of her cult center in the Delta. In the New Kingdom she was regarded as the "god's mother who bore Re," whereby she assumed the position of a primeval goddess who was neither male nor female. She was the first to "create the seed of gods and men." Also she was a mortuary goddess who watched over Osiris ' brier along with Isis , Nephthys and Serket . The deceased received her divine power by means of the mummy's wrappings, for the bandages and shrouds were considered gifts of Neith, who was regarded as the patroness of weaving. Possibly there was an earlier proposal that her symbol was the weaver's shuttle. Nekhbet: The Egyptian vulture-goddess of the city of Nekheb in Upper Egypt, the Eileithyaspolis of the Greeks, and the modern Al-Kâb. She was the tutelary goddess of Upper Egypt in very early dynastic times. From city goddess she was elevated to the status of protectress and mother of the king. Together with the snake-goddess Buto she was portrayed on the head of the Egyptian king. Nekhbet is present at the birth of gods and kings. As the protectress of the infant monarch she was referred to as the "Great White Cow of Nekheb". Since the time of the New Empire she is very popular as the goddess of childbirth. She is also a sun and moon-goddess. Her name means "she of Nekheb". Nekhbet was depicted as a woman, either with the vulture headdress, or with the head of a vulture. Sometimes she was portrayed as a vulture wearing the white crown of Upper Egypt and holding the symbols of eternity in her talons. Nekhbet and Uatchit divided between them the sovereignty of all Egypt. other spellings: nechbet/ nekhebit Nenun: An Egyptian falcon-god. other spellings: nenwen Neper: An Egyptian god of grain who was particularly associated with barley and emmer wheat. Nephthys: The "Mistress of the House" (Nebet-het or Nebt-het in the Egyptian Language), Nephthys is the "Friend of the Dead," and is first mentioned in Old Kingdom funerary literature as riding the "night boat" of the underworld, meeting the deceased king's spirit and accompanying him into "Lightland." Her hair is metaphorically compared to the strips of cloth which shroud the bodies of the dead. Nephthys is almost universally depicted as a woman with the hieroglyphic symbols of her name (a basket and a house, stacked on top of each other) situated atop her head, though she can also be depicted as a bird (most often a kite or some other form of falcon/hawk). She was associated with funerary rituals throughout ancient Egyptian history and was venerated not as Death itself, but as the companion who gives guidance to the newly deceased, and as a Lady With Wings who comforts the deceased's living relatives. Nephthys is in most myths the youngest daughter of Nut , sister of Isis and Osiris and the sister-consort of Seth . In later periods Nephthys is also considered to be the mother of Anubis, a primordial form of the lord of the dead who later became subservient to Osiris in the Egyptian cultic myth. Nephthys had connections with life as well as death -- she stood at the head of the birth-bed to comfort and assist the mother giving birth (while her sister, Isis, stood at the foot to midwife the child). To our current Egyptological knowledge, Nephthys did not have her own cult or temples in Egypt until the Ptolemaic-Roman period; however, as her name is merely a title (the same title given to the eldest woman in any ancient Egyptian household), it is possible that Nephthys may be a specialized form of another goddess; probable candidates include Bat (as she is called the "Lady of Het," or "Nebt-het") and Neith (with whom Nephthys is paired in the canopic shrine quadrants, as Isis is with Serket, who is sometimes seen to be an aspect of Isis. Neith's being the "eldest of goddesses," along with her connection with weaving and funerary garments lends credence to this theory, as does the interchangeable depiction of Neith and/or Nephthys in symmetrical transposition on a number of Late Period temples. other spellings: neb-hut/ nebthet Nepit: An Egyptian corn goddess. She is the female counterpart of the corn-god Neper . Neter-khertet: A common name for the abode of the dead. It means the "divine subterranean place." other spellings: khert neter Nu: ( see below ) Nun: The primeval water that encircles the entire world, and from which everything was created, personified as a god. He is considered to be a more ancient god then the sun-god Re, who arose from this water. He is called 'father of the gods', which refers to his primacy rather than literal parentage. With the goddess Naunet he forms a pair in the Ogdoad of Hermopolis. Nun played no part in religious rituals and had no temples dedicated to him. He was symbolized by the sacred lakes associated with certain temples, such as the ones at Dendera and Karnak. Nun is depicted in human form holding the solar barque above his head. Nunet: Egyptian goddess of the ocean. Nut: The ancient Egyptian sky-goddess, one of the Ennead of Heliopolos. She is the personification of the sky and of the heavens, the daughter of Shu and Tefnut . Nu was the barrier separating the forces of chaos from the ordered cosmos in this world. The god Re was said to enter her mouth after setting in the evening and travel through her body during the night to be reborn from her vulva each morning. She also swallows the stars and have them reborn later. In the death cult she plays a part in the resurrection of the dead; she is portrayed on the inside of the lids of the sarcophagi. The pharaoh was said to enter her body after death, from which he would later be resurrected. As sky-goddess Nut was portrayed as a naked woman covered with painted stars, held up by Shu. Thus she forms the firmament above her husband Seb , the earth. Her fingers and toes were believed to touch the four cardinal points or directions. The principal sanctuary of Nut was at Heliopolis Ogdoad: The name of eight Egyptian deities who were especially worshipped in Hermopolis in Upper Egypt. They form the basis of the creation myth. The Ogdoad consist of four gods and four goddesses who together personify the essence of the primordial chaos before the creation of the world. They are Nun and Naunet (the primordial water), Huh and Hauhet (infinite space), Kuk and Kauket (darkness), and Amun and Amaunet (representing hidden powers). From themselves they created the mound upon which lay the egg from which the sun god emerged. The gods of the Ogdoad are represented as frogs or with the head of a frog; the goddesses in the shape of a snake or as a woman with the head of a snake. Their cult centered on the town of Khemnu (Greek Hermopolis) in Middle Egypt. They also had a sanctuary at Medinet Habu in western Thebes. Osiris: Osiris was the Egyptian god of the underworld, although he was also worshipped as a fertility, resurrection, and vegetation god. He was married to Isis , a sky goddess. He was father to Horus , the god of sky, and protector of the dead. Osiris was killed by his brother Seth , who shut his body in a chest and threw it into the Nile, where it washed up onto the shore and was trapped in a huge tree. The King Byblos turned it into a pillar in his palace. Isis (who had been searching for her husband) discovered the trunk, and retrieved the trunk and the body. While Isis was away, Seth found the body, and chopped it up into many pieces, and scattered them throughout Egypt. Isis and her sister, Nephthys , found the pieces and made wax models of them to give to priests to be worshipped. When they found all of his pieces, they were so sad they wailed loudly enough for Re, the father god, to have pity on them. He sent Anubis and Thoth to help. They mummified Osiris, and put his body in a lion headed pier. Isis changed into a kite and fanned breath into Osiris. He was not allowed to stay in the land of the living, and was sent to the underworld to serve as king, and to judge the souls of the dead. other spellings: usire Pachet: The Egyptian goddess of the desert. Petbe: The Egyptian god of retaliation. Petesuchos: An Egyptian crocodile-god. Ptah: Ptah is the creator-god of Memphis, the city that served as the capital of the ancient Egypt for most of its history and which was known, during that history, as Het-ka-Ptah or "House of the Soul of Ptah". Ptah is one of several Egyptian deities attributed with a myth about fashioning creation. Ptah, as the god Ta-tenen (the primordial mound), creates in the so-called "Memphite Theology" the world, its inhabitants, and the kas (or spirits) of the other gods. <DIR> A patron of craftsmen, Ptah's name means "Creator". He is depicted as a mummified man with only his hands free to grasp a sceptre composed of the symbols of life (ankh), power (was), and stability (djed). He is also typically shown wearing a skullcap and standing on the plinth-shaped hieroglyph that is part of the name for Ma'at , the goddess of fundamental truth. Another deity of Memphis, the funerary god Sokar , was also a patron to craftsmen, and seems to have divided his labor with Ptah: where Ptah was closely associated with stone-working, Sokar was closely associated with metal-working. In the Later Period, Ptah and Sokar would become syncretized with Osiris to form Ptah-Seker-Osiris , a composite deity invoking the properties exhibited by all three: creation, stasis, and the afterlife. In Heliopolis, this triad would be known as Ptah-Sokar-Atum, but hailed as Osiris. Ptah's wife is usually Sakhmet or, less commonly, Bastet . Gods attributed as his children are Nefertem , Imhotep (a deified architect of the Old Kingdom), and Maahes . Apis , the bull of Memphis, was associated with Ptah as his oracle. From the Memphite Theology "Thus it is said of Ptah: 'He who made all and created the gods.' And he is Ta-tenen, who gave birth to the gods, and from whom every thing came forth, foods, provisions, divine offerings, all good things. Thus it is recognized and understood that he is the mightiest of the gods. Thus Ptah was satisfied after he had made all things and all divine words." (Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdom translated by Miriam Lichtheim) </DIR> Ptah-Seker-Osiris: An Egyptian composite funerary god. Consists of Ptah , Seker , and Osiris (Asar). other spellings: ptah-seker-asar Qeb: An alternative transliteration of the name of the Egyptian earth-god Seb . Qetesh: Originally a Syrian goddess who was later she worshipped in Egypt as a goddess of love. Possibly she is one of the forms of the mother-goddess Hathor. Ra: The Egyptian sun-god. See: Re . Rat-taui: An Egyptian goddess. Re: The most important of the Egyptian gods, the personification of the (midday) sun. According to the Heliopolitan cosmology he created himself from a mound that arose from the primeval waters of Nun or out of a primordial lotus flower. He then created Shu (air) and Tefnut (moisture), who in turn engendered the earth-god Geb and the sky-goddess Nut . Re was said to have created humankind from his own tears and the gods Hu and Sia from blood drawn from his own penis. The sun itself was taken to be either his body or his eye (the 'Eye of Re'). The center of his cult was from the very beginning in Heliopolis, where he was also venerated in the forms of Atum (the setting sun) and Khepri (the rising sun) and, in connection to the morning sun, as Re-Harachte. As Re-Atum he is the creator who gives light and warmth and thus growth. Re was often combined with other deities to enhance the prestige of the latter, as in Re-Atum or Amun-Re . It was said that Re traveled each day in his solar barque through the sky, starting in the morning. At night, Re journeyed through the underworld in another barque. And each night, the monster Apep would try to prevent the sun-god from emerging again; the eternal battle between light and darkness. The gods Seth and Mehen accompanied him and were often depicted defending Re's barque. Others believed that Re could be found at night in the underworld, consoling and giving support to the dead. Re is also the god of the pharaohs and since the fourth dynasty the Egyptian kings styled themselves 'sons of Re'. After death, the monarch was said to ascend into the sky to join the entourage of Re. In Heliopolis the Benu or Phoenix (sacred heron) and the oracular Mnevis (bull) were venerated as manifestations of the sun-god. Here the kings also built temples for Re, which were important institutions in the field of ideology. Re was usually portrayed as a man with the head of a falcon, crowned with the sun disc encircled by the uraeus. other spellings: ra Renenet: The Egyptian personification of Fortune. Her name and that of Shai (Fate) are usually found coupled. They are said to be in the hands of Thoth , the divine intelligence of of the gods. Rameses II boasted that he himself is "lord of Shai and creator of Renenet." According to the Pyramid Texts, she was the goddess of plenty, good fortune, and the like; subsequently there was no distinction made between these deities and the abstract ideas the represented. Renenet is accompanied by Meskhenet, who acted as midwife and presided over the birth-chamber. Renenutet: An ancient Egyptian cobra goddess of harvest, portrayed as a snake of with the head of a snake. She is a fertility-goddess and regarded as nurturer of children, and tutelary deity of the Pharaoh. With her gaze she could vanquish all enemies, but with the same gaze she could also ensure the fertility of the crops and the bounty of the harvest. During the harvests on fields and vineyards offerings were made to her. An important place of her cult was in Terenuthis (from her Greek name Termuthis) situated in the Nile-delta. Renemutet was associated with the magical properties believed to inhere in the linen bandages that wrapped the dead. At Edfu she was known as 'mistress of the robes'. other spellings: ernutet/ renenet Renpet: The Egyptian goddess of youth and spingtime. Reret: An Egyptian hippopotamus goddess. Resheph: The Egyptian version of the Sumerian Aleyin , originally a vegetation god, regarded by Egyptians as a warrior. other spellings: reshpu: Ruti: A pair of lions worshipped in Egyptian Letopolis.

Egyptology N - R

Naunet: An Egyptian goddess who representes the primordial abyss of the underworld. Her male counterpart, as well as her consort, is Nun . In the cosmogony of Hermopolis she was a member of the Ogdoad of eight primordial deities.

Neb-er-tcher: A name which signifies "lord to the uttermost limit", i.e.. "lord of the universe." This name was subsequently given to Osiris . Some have thought that is was given to Osiris after the completed re-construction of his body, which had been hacked to pieces by Seth .

Nebtuu: An Egyptian local goddess. other spellings: nebetu Nechmetawaj: An Egyptian goddess. other spellings: nehmet-awai Neferhor: An Egyptian god. other spekkings: nephoros/ nopheros Nefertem: An ancient Egyptian god identified with the lotus, but he also personified some form of the morning sun. He is a son of Ptah and Sakhmet or Bastet . Nefertem is usually represented as a man with a cluster of lotus flowers upon his head, but sometimes he has the head of a lion. In the little faïence figures of him, which are so common, he stands upon the back of a lion. He represents the sun-god in the legend which made him burst forth from a lotus, for in the pyramid of Unas the king is said: "Rise like Nefer-Temu from the lotus (lily) to the nostrils of Ra" and to "come forth on the horizon every day." other spellings: nefrtum/ nefer-tem/ nefer-temu Neheb-ka: The name of an Egyptian goddess who is usually represented with the head of a serpent, and with whom the deceased identifies himself.

Nehebkau: An Egyptian snake-demon or snake-god who guards the entrance to the underworld. Various functions are attributed to him besides guarding the entrance. He protects the pharaoh in the afterlife, and he accompanies the sun god Re during his voyage through the underworld. Legend has it the Re tamed him and made him his servant. According to one tradition Nehebkau was the son of the scorpion goddess Serket . Yet another tradition mentions him as the son of the earth god Geb and the harvest goddess Renenutet . As god of infinite time he was invoked by the dead, but he was also invoked against snake bites and scorpion stings. Nehebkau was depicted as a serpent with human arms and legs. other spellings: nehebu-kau/ nehebkhau

Neith: The ancient Egyptian local goddess of Sais was a warlike divinity, a fact which is stated by her attributes, the bow, shield, and arrows. This goddess of war also blessed hunters' weapons. The practice of placing weapons around the coffin in ancient Egyptian times could be traced to the goddess' protective functions. Her close relationship to Sobek , the crocodile god who was her son, can be explained by the proximity of her cult center in the Delta. In the New Kingdom she was regarded as the "god's mother who bore Re," whereby she assumed the position of a primeval goddess who was neither male nor female. She was the first to "create the seed of gods and men." Also she was a mortuary goddess who watched over Osiris ' brier along with Isis , Nephthys and Serket . The deceased received her divine power by means of the mummy's wrappings, for the bandages and shrouds were considered gifts of Neith, who was regarded as the patroness of weaving. Possibly there was an earlier proposal that her symbol was the weaver's shuttle.

Nekhbet: The Egyptian vulture-goddess of the city of Nekheb in Upper Egypt, the Eileithyaspolis of the Greeks, and the modern Al-Kâb. She was the tutelary goddess of Upper Egypt in very early dynastic times. From city goddess she was elevated to the status of protectress and mother of the king. Together with the snake-goddess Buto she was portrayed on the head of the Egyptian king. Nekhbet is present at the birth of gods and kings. As the protectress of the infant monarch she was referred to as the "Great White Cow of Nekheb". Since the time of the New Empire she is very popular as the goddess of childbirth. She is also a sun and moon-goddess. Her name means "she of Nekheb". Nekhbet was depicted as a woman, either with the vulture headdress, or with the head of a vulture. Sometimes she was portrayed as a vulture wearing the white crown of Upper Egypt and holding the symbols of eternity in her talons. Nekhbet and Uatchit divided between them the sovereignty of all Egypt. other spellings: nechbet/ nekhebit Nenun: An Egyptian falcon-god. other spellings: nenwen Neper: An Egyptian god of grain who was particularly associated with barley and emmer wheat.

Nephthys: The "Mistress of the House" (Nebet-het or Nebt-het in the Egyptian Language), Nephthys is the "Friend of the Dead," and is first mentioned in Old Kingdom funerary literature as riding the "night boat" of the underworld, meeting the deceased king's spirit and accompanying him into "Lightland." Her hair is metaphorically compared to the strips of cloth which shroud the bodies of the dead. Nephthys is almost universally depicted as a woman with the hieroglyphic symbols of her name (a basket and a house, stacked on top of each other) situated atop her head, though she can also be depicted as a bird (most often a kite or some other form of falcon/hawk). She was associated with funerary rituals throughout ancient Egyptian history and was venerated not as Death itself, but as the companion who gives guidance to the newly deceased, and as a Lady With Wings who comforts the deceased's living relatives. Nephthys is in most myths the youngest daughter of Nut , sister of Isis and Osiris and the sister-consort of Seth . In later periods Nephthys is also considered to be the mother of Anubis, a primordial form of the lord of the dead who later became subservient to Osiris in the Egyptian cultic myth. Nephthys had connections with life as well as death -- she stood at the head of the birth-bed to comfort and assist the mother giving birth (while her sister, Isis, stood at the foot to midwife the child). To our current Egyptological knowledge, Nephthys did not have her own cult or temples in Egypt until the Ptolemaic-Roman period; however, as her name is merely a title (the same title given to the eldest woman in any ancient Egyptian household), it is possible that Nephthys may be a specialized form of another goddess; probable candidates include Bat (as she is called the "Lady of Het," or "Nebt-het") and Neith (with whom Nephthys is paired in the canopic shrine quadrants, as Isis is with Serket, who is sometimes seen to be an aspect of Isis. Neith's being the "eldest of goddesses," along with her connection with weaving and funerary garments lends credence to this theory, as does the interchangeable depiction of Neith and/or Nephthys in symmetrical transposition on a number of Late Period temples. other spellings: neb-hut/ nebthet Nepit: An Egyptian corn goddess. She is the female counterpart of the corn-god Neper . Neter-khertet: A common name for the abode of the dead. It means the "divine subterranean place." other spellings: khert neter Nu: ( see below )

Nun: The primeval water that encircles the entire world, and from which everything was created, personified as a god. He is considered to be a more ancient god then the sun-god Re, who arose from this water. He is called 'father of the gods', which refers to his primacy rather than literal parentage. With the goddess Naunet he forms a pair in the Ogdoad of Hermopolis. Nun played no part in religious rituals and had no temples dedicated to him. He was symbolized by the sacred lakes associated with certain temples, such as the ones at Dendera and Karnak. Nun is depicted in human form holding the solar barque above his head.

Nunet: Egyptian goddess of the ocean.

Nut: The ancient Egyptian sky-goddess, one of the Ennead of Heliopolos. She is the personification of the sky and of the heavens, the daughter of Shu and Tefnut . Nu was the barrier separating the forces of chaos from the ordered cosmos in this world. The god Re was said to enter her mouth after setting in the evening and travel through her body during the night to be reborn from her vulva each morning. She also swallows the stars and have them reborn later. In the death cult she plays a part in the resurrection of the dead; she is portrayed on the inside of the lids of the sarcophagi. The pharaoh was said to enter her body after death, from which he would later be resurrected. As sky-goddess Nut was portrayed as a naked woman covered with painted stars, held up by Shu. Thus she forms the firmament above her husband Seb , the earth. Her fingers and toes were believed to touch the four cardinal points or directions. The principal sanctuary of Nut was at Heliopolis

Ogdoad: The name of eight Egyptian deities who were especially worshipped in Hermopolis in Upper Egypt. They form the basis of the creation myth. The Ogdoad consist of four gods and four goddesses who together personify the essence of the primordial chaos before the creation of the world. They are Nun and Naunet (the primordial water), Huh and Hauhet (infinite space), Kuk and Kauket (darkness), and Amun and Amaunet (representing hidden powers). From themselves they created the mound upon which lay the egg from which the sun god emerged. The gods of the Ogdoad are represented as frogs or with the head of a frog; the goddesses in the shape of a snake or as a woman with the head of a snake. Their cult centered on the town of Khemnu (Greek Hermopolis) in Middle Egypt. They also had a sanctuary at Medinet Habu in western Thebes.

Osiris: Osiris was the Egyptian god of the underworld, although he was also worshipped as a fertility, resurrection, and vegetation god. He was married to Isis , a sky goddess. He was father to Horus , the god of sky, and protector of the dead. Osiris was killed by his brother Seth , who shut his body in a chest and threw it into the Nile, where it washed up onto the shore and was trapped in a huge tree. The King Byblos turned it into a pillar in his palace. Isis (who had been searching for her husband) discovered the trunk, and retrieved the trunk and the body. While Isis was away, Seth found the body, and chopped it up into many pieces, and scattered them throughout Egypt. Isis and her sister, Nephthys , found the pieces and made wax models of them to give to priests to be worshipped. When they found all of his pieces, they were so sad they wailed loudly enough for Re, the father god, to have pity on them. He sent Anubis and Thoth to help. They mummified Osiris, and put his body in a lion headed pier. Isis changed into a kite and fanned breath into Osiris. He was not allowed to stay in the land of the living, and was sent to the underworld to serve as king, and to judge the souls of the dead. other spellings: usire

Pachet: The Egyptian goddess of the desert.

Petbe: The Egyptian god of retaliation.

Petesuchos: An Egyptian crocodile-god.

Ptah: Ptah is the creator-god of Memphis, the city that served as the capital of the ancient Egypt for most of its history and which was known, during that history, as Het-ka-Ptah or "House of the Soul of Ptah". Ptah is one of several Egyptian deities attributed with a myth about fashioning creation. Ptah, as the god Ta-tenen (the primordial mound), creates in the so-called "Memphite Theology" the world, its inhabitants, and the kas (or spirits) of the other gods. <DIR> A patron of craftsmen, Ptah's name means "Creator". He is depicted as a mummified man with only his hands free to grasp a sceptre composed of the symbols of life (ankh), power (was), and stability (djed). He is also typically shown wearing a skullcap and standing on the plinth-shaped hieroglyph that is part of the name for Ma'at , the goddess of fundamental truth. Another deity of Memphis, the funerary god Sokar , was also a patron to craftsmen, and seems to have divided his labor with Ptah: where Ptah was closely associated with stone-working, Sokar was closely associated with metal-working. In the Later Period, Ptah and Sokar would become syncretized with Osiris to form Ptah-Seker-Osiris , a composite deity invoking the properties exhibited by all three: creation, stasis, and the afterlife. In Heliopolis, this triad would be known as Ptah-Sokar-Atum, but hailed as Osiris. Ptah's wife is usually Sakhmet or, less commonly, Bastet . Gods attributed as his children are Nefertem , Imhotep (a deified architect of the Old Kingdom), and Maahes . Apis , the bull of Memphis, was associated with Ptah as his oracle. From the Memphite Theology "Thus it is said of Ptah: 'He who made all and created the gods.' And he is Ta-tenen, who gave birth to the gods, and from whom every thing came forth, foods, provisions, divine offerings, all good things. Thus it is recognized and understood that he is the mightiest of the gods. Thus Ptah was satisfied after he had made all things and all divine words." (Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdom translated by Miriam Lichtheim) </DIR> Ptah-Seker-Osiris: An Egyptian composite funerary god. Consists of Ptah , Seker , and Osiris (Asar). other spellings: ptah-seker-asar Qeb: An alternative transliteration of the name of the Egyptian earth-god Seb .

Qetesh: Originally a Syrian goddess who was later she worshipped in Egypt as a goddess of love. Possibly she is one of the forms of the mother-goddess Hathor.

Ra: The Egyptian sun-god. See: Re .

Rat-taui: An Egyptian goddess.

Re: The most important of the Egyptian gods, the personification of the (midday) sun. According to the Heliopolitan cosmology he created himself from a mound that arose from the primeval waters of Nun or out of a primordial lotus flower. He then created Shu (air) and Tefnut (moisture), who in turn engendered the earth-god Geb and the sky-goddess Nut . Re was said to have created humankind from his own tears and the gods Hu and Sia from blood drawn from his own penis. The sun itself was taken to be either his body or his eye (the 'Eye of Re'). The center of his cult was from the very beginning in Heliopolis, where he was also venerated in the forms of Atum (the setting sun) and Khepri (the rising sun) and, in connection to the morning sun, as Re-Harachte. As Re-Atum he is the creator who gives light and warmth and thus growth. Re was often combined with other deities to enhance the prestige of the latter, as in Re-Atum or Amun-Re . It was said that Re traveled each day in his solar barque through the sky, starting in the morning. At night, Re journeyed through the underworld in another barque. And each night, the monster Apep would try to prevent the sun-god from emerging again; the eternal battle between light and darkness. The gods Seth and Mehen accompanied him and were often depicted defending Re's barque. Others believed that Re could be found at night in the underworld, consoling and giving support to the dead. Re is also the god of the pharaohs and since the fourth dynasty the Egyptian kings styled themselves 'sons of Re'. After death, the monarch was said to ascend into the sky to join the entourage of Re. In Heliopolis the Benu or Phoenix (sacred heron) and the oracular Mnevis (bull) were venerated as manifestations of the sun-god. Here the kings also built temples for Re, which were important institutions in the field of ideology. Re was usually portrayed as a man with the head of a falcon, crowned with the sun disc encircled by the uraeus. other spellings: ra Renenet: The Egyptian personification of Fortune. Her name and that of Shai (Fate) are usually found coupled. They are said to be in the hands of Thoth , the divine intelligence of of the gods. Rameses II boasted that he himself is "lord of Shai and creator of Renenet." According to the Pyramid Texts, she was the goddess of plenty, good fortune, and the like; subsequently there was no distinction made between these deities and the abstract ideas the represented. Renenet is accompanied by Meskhenet, who acted as midwife and presided over the birth-chamber.

Renenutet: An ancient Egyptian cobra goddess of harvest, portrayed as a snake of with the head of a snake. She is a fertility-goddess and regarded as nurturer of children, and tutelary deity of the Pharaoh. With her gaze she could vanquish all enemies, but with the same gaze she could also ensure the fertility of the crops and the bounty of the harvest. During the harvests on fields and vineyards offerings were made to her. An important place of her cult was in Terenuthis (from her Greek name Termuthis) situated in the Nile-delta. Renemutet was associated with the magical properties believed to inhere in the linen bandages that wrapped the dead. At Edfu she was known as 'mistress of the robes'. other spellings: ernutet/ renenet Renpet: The Egyptian goddess of youth and spingtime.

Reret: An Egyptian hippopotamus goddess.

Resheph: The Egyptian version of the Sumerian Aleyin , originally a vegetation god, regarded by Egyptians as a warrior. other spellings: reshpu: Ruti: A pair of lions worshipped in Egyptian Letopolis.

Egyptian Info B - D

BlueWillow — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 05:11:54 CDT

Egyptology B thru D ba: The term 'ba' was from ancient Egyptian mythology. Ba was the Egyptian word for the soul of the deceased. It was depicted as a bird or a human-headed bird. Egyptians believed that after death, there would be a final union between souls and their bodies. Since Ba was the soul, it visited its old body in the tomb. Ba was the soul, spirit, and mind of a mummy and could roam freely over the earth, providing its mummy with substances that were necessary for the afterlife. There were some holy animals that were regarded as the ba of gods. One example of this is the Benu of the sun god Re. A Benu was a sacred bird from ancient Egypt. Theba was a man-headed hawk and was the ba of a god; the pharaoh is also regarded as the ba of a god, specifically Re Ba: The Egyptian ram-god of Mendes (the 16th district of Lower Egypt) and a god of fertility. Ba was invoked by women in the hope that he would aid them in conceiving children. Babi: An Egyptian demonic god, believed to live on human entrails. He attended the ceremony of the Weighing of the Heart in the Hall of the Two Truths where he and Ammit devoured the souls deemed unworthy. Babi was associated with sexual prowess in the afterlife and was portrayed as a baboon with an erect penis. His penis was also depicted being used as the mast of the underworld ferry. Bakha: The sacred bull of Hermonthis in Egypt, and an incarnation of Menthu, a personification of the heat of the sun. He changed color every hour of the day. Banebdjetet: The ram god of Lower Egypt, consort of the fish goddess Hatmehit and father of Har-pa-kherd (Harpocrates). He interceded in the contest between Horus and Seth for the Egyptian throne. He advised the gods to consult Neith , who in turn advised them to award the throne to Horus. Banebdjetet was depicted in anthropomorphic form with a ram's head. The center of his cult was at Mendes. other spellings: ba-neb-telet / banebdedet / baneb-djedet Ba-Pef: Ba-Pef ("That Soul") is a minor Egyptian god of malevolent aspect. Bastet: The Egyptian cat-headed goddess, Bastet was strictly a solar deity until the arrival of Greek influence on Egyptian society, when she became a lunar goddess due to the Greeks associating her with their Artemis. Dating from the 2nd Dynasty (roughly 2890-2686 BCE), Bastet was originally portrayed as either a wild desert cat or as a lioness, and only became associated with the domesticated feline around 1000 BCE. She was commonly paired with Sakhmet, the lion-headed goddess of Memphis, Wadjet, and Hathor. Bastet was the "Daughter of Ra", a designation that placed her in the same ranks as such goddesses as Ma'at and Tefnut. Additionally, Bastet was one of the "Eyes of Ra", the title of an "avenger" god who is sent out specifically to lay waste to the enemies of Egypt and her gods. other spellings: bast Bat: The Egyptian cow goddess of fertility, also called Bata. She was primarily worshipped in Upper Egypt. Bat was depicted as a cow or in human form with the ears and horns of a cow. other spellings: bata Beb: Beb is mentioned three times in the Egyptian Book of the Dead. He is the "firstborn son of Osiris", and seems the be one of the gods of generation. other spellings: bebti / baba / babu Behedti: An Egyptian god of Behdet (Edfu) where he was worshipped as a local form of Horus. Behedti was depicted as a crouching falcon. Benu: The Egyptian mythical sun bird of Heliopolis, connected with the god Re. The bird is the symbol of the rise of life (also sun rise) and heralds a new period of wealth, characterized by fertility. The benu, sometimes portrayed as a heron, is also associated with the death and rebirth of Osiris. Bes: The Egyptian dwarf god who, with his grotesque figure, guards against evil spirits, snakes, and misfortune. Originally he was the protective deity of the royal house of Egypt, but gradually became a popular household deity throughout Egypt, especially among the masses of the common people. He is a god of human pleasures and jollity, music and dance. In particular he was the protector of children and of women in labor, and aided the hippopotamus goddess Taweret in childbirth. Unlike most other Egyptian deities, Bes was depicted full face (often nude, with prominent genitals). He was shown as a dwarf, with a protruding tongue, bow legs and the ears, mane and tail of a lion or cat. On his head he bore a plumed crown and he wore the skin of a feline animal. With his swords and knives he wards off evil spirits, and with his instruments he creates a din to frighten them off. other spellings: bisu Beset: Beset was a goddess of ancient Egyptian mythology. She was the female version of the dwarf-god Bes. Beset was an Egyptian guard. She protected people from evil spirits, snakes, and misfortune. Beset was also a goddess of human pleasures. Some of these pleasures were music, dance, and jollity. Beset had a protruding tongue, bow legs, and the ears, mane, and tail of a lion. Bow and Arrow: Bows and arrows have been present in Egyptian culture since it’s predynastic origins. The nine bows symbolise the various peoples that had been ruled over by the pharaoh since Egypt was united. The goddess Nekhbet symbolised the unity of the peoples under the pharaoh, her epitaph was ‘She who binds nine bows’ The arrow itself was a symbol of divine power, which was personified by Neith, the goddess of war, whose cult was symbolised by two crossed arrows. Two crossed arrows could also represent the power of Hemsut, which was a female form of Ka. Arrows could symbolise the sun’s rays; Atum was the archer who fired sunbeams as though they were arrows. At the Ascension of the king, he would symbolically fire an arrow in each of the four cardinal directions; this symbolised his power over the Four Corners of the world. Bows were originally made from antelope horns bound to a piece of wood in the centre; it is this form of bow, which is shown in the hieroglyph of a bow. This was around in prehistoric times and many flint arrowheads have been found. Later bows built from a single piece of wood replaced the earlier antelope horn bows. Usually these bows were made from Acacia wood and strung with animal fibre, the arrows were made from cane with flint, bone or bronze heads. When the Hyskos came into contact with the Egyptians they brought with them the composite bow which was far more powerful than its predecessors were. Bows often featured in burials, something that is connected to the goddess Neith’s protective role. Buchis: The sacred bull of the Egyptian city of Hermonthis, near Thebes. The bull had a white body with a black head and was regarded as the living image of the god Mentu. The snake-goddess of the ancient Egyptian oracle in Buto and tutelary goddess of Lower Egypt (the Delta of the Nile). She is the protector of the Egyptian king, together with the vulture-goddess Nekhbet. She was placed as an uraeus (cobra amulet) on the crown of the king. Her name means 'the papyrus colored', referring to the green color of the cobra. Buto gave nourishment to both children of Isis. She was depicted as a woman, or as a cobra with the crown of Lower Egypt on its head. The Greeks identified her with the goddess Leto. She is also called Uto Buto: The snake-goddess of the ancient Egyptian oracle in Buto and tutelary goddess of Lower Egypt (the Delta of the Nile). She is the protector of the Egyptian king, together with the vulture-goddess Nekhbet. She was placed as an uraeus (cobra amulet) on the crown of the king. Her name means 'the papyrus colored', referring to the green color of the cobra. Buto gave nourishment to both children of Isis. She was depicted as a woman, or as a cobra with the crown of Lower Egypt on its head. The Greeks identified her with the goddess Leto. She is also called Uto. other spellings: edju/ udjo/ wadjet/ wadjit Chem Also called Ham. He was the god of "increase", considered as the father of their race. He is usually pictured wearing a women's garment. other spellings:ham Chensit: The Egyptian goddess of the twentieth none of Lower Egypt. Chentamentet: A local god from Abydus, later identified with Osiris Chenti-cheti: An Egyptian falcon-god, but originally a crocodile god. Chenti-irti: An Egyptian falcon god of law and order. He is identified with Horus. Cherti: Egyptian ram-god of the underworld and ferryman of the dead. In the Pyramid Texts Cherti was said to be a threat to the pharaoh, who had to be defended by Re himself. However, as an earth-god Cherti also acts as a guardian of the pharaoh's tomb. The main center of Cherti's cult was at Letopolis, north-west of Memphis. He was depicted as a man with the head of a ram, or as a ram. His name means "Lower One". other spellings: kherty Chnum: The Egyptian ram god who makes the Nile delta fertile and suitable for agriculture. He is considered the creator of humans, because he makes children from clay and places them in the wombs of the mothers. He is usually depicted as ram or a man with the head of a ram. He was worshipped on Elephantine Island, together with the goddesses Anuket and Satis. He was also worshipped in Esna, (ancient Latopolis, south of Luxor) with his wife, the lion goddess Menhit, and their son Hike (the god of magic). In Esna, a temple dedicated to Chnum can still be found. other spellings: knum Chons: The Egyptian god of the moon, son of Amun and Mut with whom he forms a triad at Thebes. As the 'master of time' he is sometimes identified with the god Thoth. In human form he is depicted a young man in the posture of a mummy with the child's side lock and the curved beard worn by the gods, but also with a full moon and a crescent on his headdress. other spellings: khonsu/ khons/ khensu Chontamenti: The Egyptian god of the dead and of the land of the west. He was portrayed as a dog, or as dog's head, with horns. Dedun: The Egyptian/Nubian god of wealth and incense. He is associated with the southern lands. Dedun (Dedwen) is usually depicted in human form but also as a lion. other spellings: dedwen Djebauti: An Egyptian local god, also known as Zebauti. other spellings: zebauti Dua: The Egyptian god of toiletry. Duamutef: Duamutef was a god of Egyptian mythology. He was the guardian of the East and one of the four Sons of Horus. Duamutef was represented as a mummified man with the head of a jackal. He was a funerary god. Duamutef protected the stomach of the deceased. The stomach was kept in a canopic jar after mummification. On the lids of these jars was a picture of the head of Duamutef. The goddess Neith. protected him. other spellings: tuamutef Duat: One of the ancient names for the afterworld, the dark realm of death in Egyptian mythology, situated west of the Nile (in later times considered to be beneath the earth). The sun passes through this place on its return journey from west to east. This underworld is represented by the hieroglyph for a star. It is here that the souls are judged (see also: Ammit).

Egyptology B thru D

ba: The term 'ba' was from ancient Egyptian mythology. Ba was the Egyptian word for the soul of the deceased. It was depicted as a bird or a human-headed bird. Egyptians believed that after death, there would be a final union between souls and their bodies. Since Ba was the soul, it visited its old body in the tomb. Ba was the soul, spirit, and mind of a mummy and could roam freely over the earth, providing its mummy with substances that were necessary for the afterlife. There were some holy animals that were regarded as the ba of gods. One example of this is the Benu of the sun god Re. A Benu was a sacred bird from ancient Egypt. Theba was a man-headed hawk and was the ba of a god; the pharaoh is also regarded as the ba of a god, specifically Re

Ba: The Egyptian ram-god of Mendes (the 16th district of Lower Egypt) and a god of fertility. Ba was invoked by women in the hope that he would aid them in conceiving children.

Babi: An Egyptian demonic god, believed to live on human entrails. He attended the ceremony of the Weighing of the Heart in the Hall of the Two Truths where he and Ammit devoured the souls deemed unworthy. Babi was associated with sexual prowess in the afterlife and was portrayed as a baboon with an erect penis. His penis was also depicted being used as the mast of the underworld ferry.

Bakha: The sacred bull of Hermonthis in Egypt, and an incarnation of Menthu, a personification of the heat of the sun. He changed color every hour of the day.

Banebdjetet: The ram god of Lower Egypt, consort of the fish goddess Hatmehit and father of Har-pa-kherd (Harpocrates). He interceded in the contest between Horus and Seth for the Egyptian throne. He advised the gods to consult Neith , who in turn advised them to award the throne to Horus. Banebdjetet was depicted in anthropomorphic form with a ram's head. The center of his cult was at Mendes. other spellings: ba-neb-telet /
banebdedet / baneb-djedet

Ba-Pef: Ba-Pef ("That Soul") is a minor Egyptian god of malevolent aspect.

Bastet: The Egyptian cat-headed goddess, Bastet was strictly a solar deity until the arrival of Greek influence on Egyptian society, when she became a lunar goddess due to the Greeks associating her with their Artemis. Dating from the 2nd Dynasty (roughly 2890-2686 BCE), Bastet was originally portrayed as either a wild desert cat or as a lioness, and only became associated with the domesticated feline around 1000 BCE. She was commonly paired with Sakhmet, the lion-headed goddess of Memphis, Wadjet, and Hathor. Bastet was the "Daughter of Ra", a designation that placed her in the same ranks as such goddesses as Ma'at and Tefnut. Additionally, Bastet was one of the "Eyes of Ra", the title of an "avenger" god who is sent out specifically to lay waste to the enemies of Egypt and her gods. other spellings: bast

Bat: The Egyptian cow goddess of fertility, also called Bata. She was primarily worshipped in Upper Egypt. Bat was depicted as a cow or in human form with the ears and horns of a cow. other spellings: bata

Beb: Beb is mentioned three times in the Egyptian Book of the Dead. He is the "firstborn son of Osiris", and seems the be one of the gods of generation. other spellings: bebti / baba / babu

Behedti: An Egyptian god of Behdet (Edfu) where he was worshipped as a local form of Horus. Behedti was depicted as a crouching falcon.

Benu: The Egyptian mythical sun bird of Heliopolis, connected with the god Re. The bird is the symbol of the rise of life (also sun rise) and heralds a new period of wealth, characterized by fertility. The benu, sometimes portrayed as a heron, is also associated with the death and rebirth of Osiris.

Bes: The Egyptian dwarf god who, with his grotesque figure, guards against evil spirits, snakes, and misfortune. Originally he was the protective deity of the royal house of Egypt, but gradually became a popular household deity throughout Egypt, especially among the masses of the common people. He is a god of human pleasures and jollity, music and dance. In particular he was the protector of children and of women in labor, and aided the hippopotamus goddess Taweret in childbirth.
Unlike most other Egyptian deities, Bes was depicted full face (often nude, with prominent genitals). He was shown as a dwarf, with a protruding tongue, bow legs and the ears, mane and tail of a lion or cat. On his head he bore a plumed crown and he wore the skin of a feline animal. With his swords and knives he wards off evil spirits, and with his instruments he creates a din to frighten them off. other spellings: bisu

Beset: Beset was a goddess of ancient Egyptian mythology. She was the female version of the dwarf-god Bes. Beset was an Egyptian guard. She protected people from evil spirits, snakes, and misfortune. Beset was also a goddess of human pleasures. Some of these pleasures were music, dance, and jollity. Beset had a protruding tongue, bow legs, and the ears, mane, and tail of a lion.

Bow and Arrow: Bows and arrows have been present in Egyptian culture since it’s predynastic origins. The nine bows symbolise the various peoples that had been ruled over by the pharaoh since Egypt was united. The goddess Nekhbet symbolised the unity of the peoples under the pharaoh, her epitaph was ‘She who binds nine bows’ The arrow itself was a symbol of divine power, which was personified by Neith, the goddess of war, whose cult was symbolised by two crossed arrows. Two crossed arrows could also represent the power of Hemsut, which was a female form of Ka. Arrows could symbolise the sun’s rays; Atum was the archer who fired sunbeams as though they were arrows. At the Ascension of the king, he would symbolically fire an arrow in each of the four cardinal directions; this symbolised his power over the Four Corners of the world. Bows were originally made from antelope horns bound to a piece of wood in the centre; it is this form of bow, which is shown in the hieroglyph of a bow. This was around in prehistoric times and many flint arrowheads have been found. Later bows built from a single piece of wood replaced the earlier antelope horn bows. Usually these bows were made from Acacia wood and strung with animal fibre, the arrows were made from cane with flint, bone or bronze heads. When the Hyskos came into contact with the Egyptians they brought with them the composite bow which was far more powerful than its predecessors were. Bows often featured in burials, something that is connected to the goddess Neith’s protective role.

Buchis: The sacred bull of the Egyptian city of Hermonthis, near Thebes. The bull had a white body with a black head and was regarded as the living image of the god Mentu.
The snake-goddess of the ancient Egyptian oracle in Buto and tutelary goddess of Lower Egypt (the Delta of the Nile). She is the protector of the Egyptian king, together with the vulture-goddess Nekhbet. She was placed as an uraeus (cobra amulet) on the crown of the king. Her name means 'the papyrus colored', referring to the green color of the cobra. Buto gave nourishment to both children of Isis. She was depicted as a woman, or as a cobra with the crown of Lower Egypt on its head. The Greeks identified her with the goddess Leto. She is also called Uto

Buto: The snake-goddess of the ancient Egyptian oracle in Buto and tutelary goddess of Lower Egypt (the Delta of the Nile). She is the protector of the Egyptian king, together with the vulture-goddess Nekhbet. She was placed as an uraeus (cobra amulet) on the crown of the king. Her name means 'the papyrus colored', referring to the green color of the cobra. Buto gave nourishment to both children of Isis. She was depicted as a woman, or as a cobra with the crown of Lower Egypt on its head. The Greeks identified her with the goddess Leto. She is also called Uto. other spellings: edju/ udjo/ wadjet/ wadjit
Chem Also called Ham. He was the god of "increase", considered as the father of their race. He is usually pictured wearing a women's garment.
other spellings:ham

Chensit: The Egyptian goddess of the twentieth none of Lower Egypt.

Chentamentet: A local god from Abydus, later identified with Osiris

Chenti-cheti: An Egyptian falcon-god, but originally a crocodile god.

Chenti-irti: An Egyptian falcon god of law and order. He is identified with Horus.

Cherti: Egyptian ram-god of the underworld and ferryman of the dead. In the Pyramid Texts Cherti was said to be a threat to the pharaoh, who had to be defended by Re himself. However, as an earth-god Cherti also acts as a guardian of the pharaoh's tomb. The main center of Cherti's cult was at Letopolis, north-west of Memphis. He was depicted as a man with the head of a ram, or as a ram. His name means "Lower One". other spellings: kherty

Chnum: The Egyptian ram god who makes the Nile delta fertile and suitable for agriculture. He is considered the creator of humans, because he makes children from clay and places them in the wombs of the mothers. He is usually depicted as ram or a man with the head of a ram. He was worshipped on Elephantine Island, together with the goddesses Anuket and Satis. He was also worshipped in Esna, (ancient Latopolis, south of Luxor) with his wife, the lion goddess Menhit, and their son Hike (the god of magic). In Esna, a temple dedicated to Chnum can still be found. other spellings: knum

Chons: The Egyptian god of the moon, son of Amun and Mut with whom he forms a triad at Thebes. As the 'master of time' he is sometimes identified with the god Thoth. In human form he is depicted a young man in the posture of a mummy with the child's side lock and the curved beard worn by the gods, but also with a full moon and a crescent on his headdress. other spellings: khonsu/ khons/ khensu

Chontamenti: The Egyptian god of the dead and of the land of the west. He was portrayed as a dog, or as dog's head, with horns.

Dedun: The Egyptian/Nubian god of wealth and incense. He is associated with the southern lands. Dedun (Dedwen) is usually depicted in human form but also as a lion. other spellings: dedwen

Djebauti: An Egyptian local god, also known as Zebauti. other spellings: zebauti

Dua: The Egyptian god of toiletry.

Duamutef: Duamutef was a god of Egyptian mythology. He was the guardian of the East and one of the four Sons of Horus. Duamutef was represented as a mummified man with the head of a jackal. He was a funerary god. Duamutef protected the stomach of the deceased. The stomach was kept in a canopic jar after mummification. On the lids of these jars was a picture of the head of Duamutef. The goddess Neith. protected him. other spellings: tuamutef

Duat: One of the ancient names for the afterworld, the dark realm of death in Egyptian mythology, situated west of the Nile (in later times considered to be beneath the earth). The sun passes through this place on its return journey from west to east. This underworld is represented by the hieroglyph for a star. It is here that the souls are judged (see also: Ammit).

Egyptian Info. A

BlueWillow — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 04:55:51 CDT

Egyptology - A Abydos: the holy city of Osiris, who was buried there himself, as where many other pharohs. Acacia: The gods are said to have been born underneath the goddess Saosis' Acacia tree, north of Heliopolis. Horus was supposed to have emerged from the tree, according to the pyramid text 436. The book of the dead refers to the tree as: 'I betook myself to the Acacia Tree of the [divine] Children.' [The Chapter Of] Entering into the Hall Of Maati to praise Osiris Khenti-Amenti. 'Homage to thee, O Lord of the Acacia Tree, whose Seker Boat is set upon its sledge, who turnest back the Fiend, the Evildoer, and dost cause the Eye of Ra (utchat) to rest upon its seat,' - A hymn of praise to Ra when he riseth upon the horizon, and when he setteth in the land of life. Later legends linked the tree not only with birth but also with death and the afterlife. According to the 'Book of the Dead' some children lead the deceased to the Acacia tree. The coffin texts also refer to the Acacia tree; they state that parts of the Sacred Acacia tree of Saosis 'squashed and bruised' by the deceased. These parts were then said to have a magical healing effect. The Ancient Egyptians put the acacia to many uses. The ‘Sont’ (Arab name) or ‘Acacia Nilotica’ (Latin name), was used for: handles of tools, wooden pegs or nails, cramps, idols and small boxes or parts of cabinets for which a hard compact wood was required. The seed pods of the ‘Acacia Nilotica’ and the bark of the ‘Sealeh Acacia’ were both used for tanning. Other varieties of Acacia found in the interior or on the confines of the desert were used as the shafts for spears. The Acacia tree also produces a gum. Adim: An ancient Egyptian king, son of Budasheer. He ruled after the flood and often secretly consulted his father's spirit who lived on in his subterranean palace. Adim built the first installation for distilling fresh water from sea water in a deep vast cave. Ailuros: a cat - deity of ancient egypt, also called bastet. Aken: The custodian of the ferryboat who ferries the souls of the deceased to the Egyptian underworld. Aker: The Egyptian personification of the earth and god of the dead. He rules over the meeting point between the eastern and western horizons in the underworld. He is also the guardian of the gate through which the pharaoh passes into the underworld. Aker provides a safe passage for the barque of the sun during its nightly journey through the underworld. He is represented as a small strip of land with both ends forming the head of a lion or a human. Alternatively, he is also represented as a pair of lions with the back to each other, with one head facing the east and the other head facing the west, thus seeing the sun rise and set. Akert: a common name for the abode of the dead. Akeru: a group of chthonic gods associated with the god aker. Akh: The Akh is one of the five constituents of the human personality; the others being Ka, Ba, Name and Shadow. It has been referred to as a kind of glorified being of light (spirit). There seem to be two variations of the relationship between the Ba, Ka and Akh: 1. The Akh is the result of the Ka and Ba being reunited in the after life; once reunited the Akh is unchanged for all eternity. The Akh was the form in which the deceased occupied the afterlife, once he had became an Akh, the deceased would become a part of the Akh-Akh (Starry sky) along with the other deceased, gods and birds. The Akh was an entity that co-existed with the Ka and Ba, it could have a positive or negative affect on the living world, in which it still bore responsibilities. 2. When someone died their Ka split into two, the Akh and the Ba. The Akh, in the form of a bird flew to the afterlife where it turned back into the Ka. While the Ba remained on earth, inhabiting the physical body of the deceased. The physical form of the Akh is represented by a mummiform figure, similar to that of a shabti figure. However the hieroglyph representing the Akh is the sign of the crested ibis (Geronticus Eremita) sometimes called the hermit ibis. The crested Ibis is a less well known variety of Ibis, which is now rare in Egypt although once it was more common. It has long legs and a long neck, with a distinctive ruff that led to its name. The word ‘Akh’ also means ‘to shine’, it is from the term ‘Radiant light’. The transformation into the Akh is symbolized by the adding of a crest to the normal Ba bird to make it an Akh bird. The largest section of the Pyramid text is devoted to ‘Glorifications’ (Sakhu) which literally means ‘That which makes one an Akh’. The following is a chapter from the Book of the Dead, as translated by Wallis Budge, note that the Akh is referred to as Khu in this chapter dedicated to the making of the Akh. THE BOOK OF MAKING PERFECT THE KHU In the heart of Ra, of making him to have the mastery before Tem, of magnifying him before Osiris, of making him mighty before Khent-Amentet, and of setting awe of him before the Company of the Gods. It shall be recited on the day of the New Moon, on the sixth day festival, on the fifteenth day festival, on the festival of Uak, on the festival of Thoth, on the Birthday of Osiris, on the festival of Menu, on the night of Heker, [during] the Mysteries of the Tuat, during the celebration of the Mysteries in Akertet, at the smiting of the emissions, at the passage of the Funerary Valley, [and] the Mysteries... [The recital thereof] will make the heart of the Khu to flourish and will make long his strides, and will make him to advance, and will make his face bright, and will make it to penetrate to the god. Let no man witness [the recital] except the king and the Kherheb priest, but the servant who cometh to minister outside shall not see it. Of the Khu for whom this Book shall be recited, his soul shall come forth by day with the living, he shall have power among the gods, and it will make him irresistible forever and ever. These gods shall go round about him, and shall acknowledge him. He shall be one of them. This [Book] shall make him to know how he came into being in the beginning. This Book is indeed a veritable mystery. Let no stranger anywhere have knowledge of it. Do not speak about it to any man. Do not repeat it. Let no [other] eye see it. Let no [other] ear hear it. Let no one see it except [thyself] and him who taught [it to thee]. Let not the multitude [know of it] except thyself and the beloved friend of thy heart. Thou shalt do this book in the she chamber on a cloth painted with the stars in colour all over it. It is indeed a mystery. The dwellers in the swamps of the Delta and everywhere there shall not know it. It shall provided the Khu with celestial food upon in Khert-Neter. It shall supply his Heart-soul with food upon earth. It shall make him to live forever. No [evil] thing shall have the master over him. This excerpt from the Book of the Dead shows the Akh as one of the four rudders. THE ADDRESSES OF THE FOUR RUDDERS Hail, Power of Heaven, Opener of the Disk, thou Beautiful Rudder of the Northern Heaven. Hail, Ra, Guide of the Two Lands, thou Beautiful Rudder of the Western Heaven. Hail, Khu, Dweller in the House of the Akhemu gods, thou Beautiful Rudder of the Eastern Heaven. Hail, Governor, Dweller in the House of the Tesheru Gods, thou Beautiful Rudder of the Southern Heaven. other spellings: khu Amathunta: the egyption goddess of the sea. Amaunet: An Egyptian mother goddess, called the "Hidden One". She is the personification of the li fe-bringing northern wind. She belongs to the Ogdoad of Hermopolis. Within this group of gods her consort is the god Amun. She is referred to as 'the mother who is father' and in this capacity she needs no husband. Amaunet was regarded as a tutelary deity of the Egyptian pharaohs and had a prominent part in their accession ceremonies. She is portrayed as a snake or a snake-head on which the crown of Lower Egypt rests. Amenhotep: an ancient egyptian architect who was elevated to the status of god of building. Ament: an egyptian goddess who lived in a tree at the edge of the desert where she watched the gates of the afterworld, welcoming the newly dead with bread and water. Amentet: An Egyptian goddess, the personification of the West (amenti), as well as the western areas where the sun sets and where the entrance to the underworld reputedly lies. Here she welcomes the deceased who enter the city of the dead. other spellings: amenti Amenthes: the hades of the ancient egyptians. it is the abode of the spirits of the deceased where judgment was passed by Osiris. Amenti: in ancient egyptian cosmology, the abode of the dead where the souls of the are judged by Osiris and punished or rewarded for their deeds. Am-heh: an egyptian chthonic god, god of the underworld. Ammit: An Egyptian demon; sometimes clearly female and human, sometimes with the head of a crocodile, the torso of a wild cat and the hindquarters of a hippopotamus. Ammit ("devouress of the dead") sits under the Scales of Justice, in the Hall of the Two Truths, in the House of Osiris. When a person dies and after performing the necessary rituals, he is taken there by Anubis, in his role as psychopomp ("conductor of souls"), to be weighed. Here he will have a chance to defend his deeds in his previous existence. The role of the prosecutor is for Thoth, the god of wisdom.Osiris sits on his throne as the judge, accompanied by the goddesses Isis and Nephthys. Eventually the heart of the deceased will be placed on one of the scales and a feather, from the headband of Ma'at the goddess of truth on the other. If the heart under the weight of its sins, weights more than the feather, then Ammit will appear from underneath the scales to devour it. This means the end of the soul and there will be no chance for a further existence. other spellings: ammut / ahemait Ammon: Ammon was one of the many non-Greek gods sometimes identified with Zeus. An Egyptian god associated with the city of Thebes, he had an oracle in Libya whose reputation was on a par with those at Delphi and Dodona. Ammon is the Greek rendering of Amun. Amun: A primordial Egyptian god, whose name means "the hidden one". As the driving force of the invisible breeze he was originally a god of wind and ruler of the air. During the 11th dynasty (2133 - 2000 BCE) he became the powerful sun-god of Thebes, where he was worshipped as Amun-Re. Later he was made the supreme god of the entire realm and king of the gods. In the OgDoad of Hermopolis he forms a pair with the mother-goddess Amaunet. From his union with the goddess Mut came forth the moon-god Chons. Amun's symbol is the ram. He is portrayed as a ram, as a man with a ram's head, or with a beard and a feathered crown. Temples dedicated to him are situated as Karnak and Deir-el-Bahari (near Luxor). In Greece he was worshipped as Ammon. other spellings: amon / amen / ammon Amun-Re: A combination of Amun and Re from later Egyptian mythology, also called Amon-Ra. The Theban god Amun became the national god of Egypt under this name. other spellings: amun-ra Andjety: An Egyptian god of the underworld. He is responsible for the rebirth of a person in the afterlife. His worship originated in the ninth nome of Lower Egypt, and the center of his cult was located at Busiris. He is depicted with a high conical crown with two feather plumes. The crook and flail are his symbols, and because those are also the symbols of Osiris, Andjety was often associated with him. He also known as Anezti and Anedjti. other spellings: anezti / anedjti Anhur: The Egyptian warrior and hunter god, the personification of the royal warriors. As the champion of Egypt, he hunted and slew the enemies of Re. His consort is the lion goddess Mekhit. The center of his cult was the city of Thinis in Upper Egypt. He is portrayed as a bearded warrior wearing a long robe. On his head he wears a headdress with four tall plumes and in his hand he holds a lance. His Greek form is Onuris, derived from the Egyptian anhuret, which means 'he who brings the far near'. Anhur is also identified with the god Shu. Ankh: Found widely in Egyptian art, the ankh has come to symbolize life after death. Originally an Egyptian hieroglyphic representing the womb with its looped top, its meaning is related to matters concerning life and death, or rather, Eternal Life ("Nem Ankh"). In art, especially that depicting funeral ceremonies, their gods and goddesses are shown clutching the ankh by its loop as if it were a key. In this manner, it is believed that the ankh would open the gates of death on to immortality. It is also known as the Key of the Nile, representing the union of Isis and Osiris. It is said that this mystic union would initiate the annual flooding of the Nile, providing Egypt with her various means to survive. The meaning of the ankh as womb, thus fertility and reproduction, is well-illustrated in this particular legend. Ankt: a spear - carrying war goddess, ankt, is depicted wearing a curved and feathered crown. Anouke: An elder Egyptian goddess of war, identified with Neith. Anouke was pictured with a bow and arrows and a shuttle. Anti: An Egyptian guardian deity, the god of ferrymen. Anti was portrayed as a falcon, or with a falcon's head. Anubis: Anubis, who the ancient Egyptians called Ienpw (phonetically "Yinepu"), is the mysterious canid funerary deity of ancient Egypt. Even the meaning of his name is unknown -- speculations range from "Royal Child" to having derived from the world for "to putrefy". Both certainly fit the deity, who was at various points in time of Egyptian history known as the lord of the dead before Osiris and, later, became popularly known as the son of Osiris. Just what type of animal Anubis is represented by is unknown as well; definitely canid and most likely a jackal or a wild dog -- or a hybrid of both -- but, as in the case of Seth, with alterations that deliberately smudge the lines of reality. The deep black color Anubis's animal is not reflective of its actual coat but is instead symbolic of his position as a funerary deity. The reason for Anubis's animal being canid is based on what the ancient Egyptians themselves observed of the creature -- dogs and jackals often haunted the edges of the desert, especially the cemeteries where the dead were buried. Anubis is an extremely ancient deity. The oldest mastabas of the Old Kingdom have prayers to him carved into their walls, and he is mentioned in the Pyramid Texts in his most celebrated role as a guardian and protector of the dead. A standard offering formula for the dead in the Old Kingdom began thusly: "An offering which the king gives and Anubis, who is upon his mountain and in the place of embalming, the lord of the necropolis...." As mentioned previously, Anubis began in the position that Osiris would later command. In the earliest period of Egyptian religion Anubis was clearly the lord of the dead and Osiris the embalmed god while Anubis performed the act of embalming. Titles that were invested unto Osiris -- such as Khenty-Imentiu or "Foremost of Westerners" -- were originally Anubis's. As the drama of Osiris's death and vindication unfolded over the centuries, Anubis assumed the role of the guide who holds steady the scales on which their hearts are measured against the feather of ma'at as "He Who Counts the Hearts". Should the heart be light as the feather, the soul would then be lead by Anubis (or, in some cases, Harseisis) to be presented to Osiris. Should the heart be heavy, it is fed to Ammit and the soul destroyed. As Imy-ut, or "He Who is In the Place of Embalming", Anubis is the embalmer who washes the entrails of the dead and guards over their physical bodies as well as the places that house them (the tomb and the necropolis). Priests wearing a mask of Anubis were responsible for the Opening of the Mouth ceremony that reawakened a dead person's senses. In a reflection of the royal seal used on the tombs of the Valley of the Kings depicting pharaoh's victory over the "nine bows" (enemies of Egypt), Anubis is shown recumbent over nine bows meant to be hostile forces of the Underworld who he -- as "Jackal Ruler of the Bows" -- has triumphed over. Anubis's parentage is a mystery -- in one tradition he is the son of Nebt-het (Nephthys1) and Ra. In yet another, from the Coffin Text period, the cow goddess Hesat is his mother and, from the same source, Bastet is even accounted as his mother (most likely a pun on the ointment jars that comprise her hieroglyphs -- the same jars that were used during the embalming process Anubis was lord of). The Pyramid Texts even supply Anubis with a daughter in the form of the goddess Qeb-hwt ("Cooling Water") -- a celestial serpent or ostrich Who purifies and quenches the monarch. Anubis is depicted most often as a man with the head of a black canid with alert, pointed ears. He is also represented by a full black canid wearing ribbons and holding a flagellum in the crook of its arm. Very rarely is he ever shown fully human, though there are some cases (such as in the temple of Ramesses II of Abydos) of this. Perhaps the most famous representation of Anubis, the gold-gilded wooden canid found in the tomb of Tutankhamen, was doubtlessly placed there as a protector of the dead and guardian of the tomb. Anubis was worshipped throughout Egypt, but the center of his cult was in Cynopolis (Upper Egypt). other spellings: anup / ienpw / yinepu Anuket: The Egyptian goddess of the Nile, and nourisher of the fields. She formed a triad with Chnum and Satis. Her principal sanctuary as at Elephantine, an island near Aswan. Anuket (Anqet) was portrayed with a crown made of reed and topped with ostrich feathers. The gazelle is her sacred animal. Later she became known as 'Ruler of Numibia'. Her name means the "embracer" and may refer to the embrace of the Nile waters by the river's banks. In hieroglyphs she is seen wearing a feather headress. She was later merged with Nephthys. Her Greek form is Anukis. other spellings: anqet Apis: Apis was the holy bull or bull god of Memphis. Any bull found bearing a white triangle on its forehead and otherwise totally black, was considered to be the personification of Apis. Priest derived omens from his behavior. The bull was not allowed to live past 25 years and upon reaching this age it was drowned and a new bull was sought. If it died before that time, it was buried with much ceremony at Sakkarah, south of Cairo. The apis cult was later closely connected with the god Ptah, but was also widespread among the Greeks and Romans. other spellings: hap Apep: An Egyptian monster living in perpetual darkness. This snake god is the chief of the antagonists of the sun god Re and each night he tries to stop the sun god's barque on his journey through the underworld. In the struggle between light and darkness, the monster is wounded by the divine entourage of Re with knives and spears. The god Seth and the god Mehen were often depicted defending the solar barque. Apep is the personification of darkness, evil, and chaos. Occasionally, the battle was decided in his favor, causing a solar eclipse, but his victories were of short duration for Re always triumphed in the end. Eventually, Apep was slain by Re, who cut up his body and burned it. The Greeks referred to him as Apophis. other spellings: apepi / Aapep Arensnuphis: A benign god of Egyptian Nubia. He had a temple at Philae, where he was referred to as the companion of Isis, the chief local deity. He is depicted in the form of a lion, or as a man wearing a plumed crown. other spellings: ari-hes-nefer / arsnuphis / harensnuphis Ash: The Egyptian god of the Libyan Desert (Sahara), called 'Lord of Libya'. As a desert god he was sometimes identified with Seth. Ash was associated with the fertile oases. He was depicted as a man with the head of a hawk. other spellings: as Astennu: A name given to one of the associates of Thoth, and to Thoth himself. Aten: The name of the visible solar disc in ancient Egypt. Originally a manifestation of the sun god, Aten (Aton) became the only true sun god during the reign of pharaoh Amenhotep IV (1367 - 1350 BCE). The sun gods Re and Atum lost much of their importance during this period. In some of the older sources, it is stated that Amenhotep, who later assumed the name Akhenaten, attempted to establish a monotheistic cult with Aten as the sole deity and that after his death Egypt returned to polytheism. However, Akhenaten held other deities in reverence too, and his Atenism was not entirely monotheism. He did build the city Akhetaten (modern Tel el-Amarna) and erected a huge Aten temple at Karnak, but the city was abandoned after his death and the temple of Aten was destroyed by his successors. Aten was depicted as a radiant solar disc with rays ending in hands holding the ankh symbols or in hands of blessing over the king and his family, but also as a winged sun disc. This disc was also subtended by the cobra amulet, the uraeus. The main sanctuaries of Aten were in Thebes, Akhetaten, and Heliopolis. Atum: The primeval Egyptian sun god and creator of the world. He is the evening aspect of the sun, representing the setting sun. Later he was syncretized with Re as the god Atum-Re. According to the myths, he was the first substance (a hill) who emerged from the primeval waters. Amut created the deities Shu and Tefnut from his spittle or from his semen in the act of masturbation. Atum was especially worshipped at Heliopolis, where he was the head of the Ennead cult. He was represented by the black bull Mnewer, who bore the sun disk and uraeus between its horns. As the father of the pharaoh, he played an important part in the coronation rites. Atum was depicted as old man symbolizing the setting sun, but he also appeared also a snake, a scarab, and a mangust (pharaoh hat). The snake, bull, lion, lizard and ichneumon are his sacred animals. The Memphite creation myth stated that Atum was conceived in the heart of Ptah and was created by his word. Literally, "he who completes, or perfects". other spellings: tum / temu Auf: In Egyptian mythology, Auf was another name for Re, the sun god. Re assumed this name on his nightly visit to the underworld. This trip was made so that he could get to the other side of the world, where he could rise in the morning. He travelled through each of the twelve regions of the underworld in a boat, different from the one that he used to carry the sun across the sky by day. The boat was ornamented with serpents and manned by a crew of spirits. There were many demons that Auf had to overcome on these trips, but some were considered friendly because they disposed of his greater enemies. other spellings: efu-ra Ausaas: The wife of Harakhti, one of the manifestations of Horus.

Egyptology - A

Abydos: the holy city of Osiris, who was buried there himself, as where many other pharohs.
Acacia: The gods are said to have been born underneath the goddess Saosis' Acacia tree, north of Heliopolis. Horus was supposed to have emerged from the tree, according to the pyramid text 436. The book of the dead refers to the tree as: 'I betook myself to the Acacia Tree of the [divine] Children.' [The Chapter Of] Entering into the Hall Of Maati to praise Osiris Khenti-Amenti. 'Homage to thee, O Lord of the Acacia Tree, whose Seker Boat is set upon its sledge, who turnest back the Fiend, the Evildoer, and dost cause the Eye of Ra (utchat) to rest upon its seat,' - A hymn of praise to Ra when he riseth upon the horizon, and when he setteth in the land of life. Later legends linked the tree not only with birth but also with death and the afterlife. According to the 'Book of the Dead' some children lead the deceased to the Acacia tree. The coffin texts also refer to the Acacia tree; they state that parts of the Sacred Acacia tree of Saosis 'squashed and bruised' by the deceased. These parts were then said to have a magical healing effect. The Ancient Egyptians put the acacia to many uses. The ‘Sont’ (Arab name) or ‘Acacia Nilotica’ (Latin name), was used for: handles of tools, wooden pegs or nails, cramps, idols and small boxes or parts of cabinets for which a hard compact wood was required. The seed pods of the ‘Acacia Nilotica’ and the bark of the ‘Sealeh Acacia’ were both used for tanning. Other varieties of Acacia found in the interior or on the confines of the desert were used as the shafts for spears. The Acacia tree also produces a gum.

Adim: An ancient Egyptian king, son of Budasheer. He ruled after the flood and often secretly consulted his father's spirit who lived on in his subterranean palace. Adim built the first installation for distilling fresh water from sea water in a deep vast cave.

Ailuros: a cat - deity of ancient egypt, also called bastet.

Aken: The custodian of the ferryboat who ferries the souls of the deceased to the Egyptian underworld.

Aker: The Egyptian personification of the earth and god of the dead. He rules over the meeting point between the eastern and western horizons in the underworld. He is also the guardian of the gate through which the pharaoh passes into the underworld. Aker provides a safe passage for the barque of the sun during its nightly journey through the underworld. He is represented as a small strip of land with both ends forming the head of a lion or a human. Alternatively, he is also represented as a pair of lions with the back to each other, with one head facing the east and the other head facing the west, thus seeing the sun rise and set.

Akert: a common name for the abode of the dead.

Akeru: a group of chthonic gods associated with the god aker.

Akh: The Akh is one of the five constituents of the human personality; the others being Ka, Ba, Name and Shadow. It has been referred to as a kind of glorified being of light (spirit). There seem to be two variations of the relationship between the Ba, Ka and Akh:
1. The Akh is the result of the Ka and Ba being reunited in the after life; once reunited the Akh is unchanged for all eternity. The Akh was the form in which the deceased occupied the afterlife, once he had became an Akh, the deceased would become a part of the Akh-Akh (Starry sky) along with the other deceased, gods and birds. The Akh was an entity that co-existed with the Ka and Ba, it could have a positive or negative affect on the living world, in which it still bore responsibilities.
2. When someone died their Ka split into two, the Akh and the Ba. The Akh, in the form of a bird flew to the afterlife where it turned back into the Ka. While the Ba remained on earth, inhabiting the physical body of the deceased. The physical form of the Akh is represented by a mummiform figure, similar to that of a shabti figure. However the hieroglyph representing the Akh is the sign of the crested ibis (Geronticus Eremita) sometimes called the hermit ibis. The crested Ibis is a less well known variety of Ibis, which is now rare in Egypt although once it was more common. It has long legs and a long neck, with a distinctive ruff that led to its name. The word ‘Akh’ also means ‘to shine’, it is from the term ‘Radiant light’. The transformation into the Akh is symbolized by the adding of a crest to the normal Ba bird to make it an Akh bird. The largest section of the Pyramid text is devoted to ‘Glorifications’ (Sakhu) which literally means ‘That which makes one an Akh’. The following is a chapter from the Book of the Dead, as translated by Wallis Budge, note that the Akh is referred to as Khu in this chapter dedicated to the making of the Akh.

THE BOOK OF MAKING PERFECT THE KHU In the heart of Ra, of making him to have the mastery before Tem, of magnifying him before Osiris, of making him mighty before Khent-Amentet, and of setting awe of him before the Company of the Gods. It shall be recited on the day of the New Moon, on the sixth day festival, on the fifteenth day festival, on the festival of Uak, on the festival of Thoth, on the Birthday of Osiris, on the festival of Menu, on the night of Heker, [during] the Mysteries of the Tuat, during the celebration of the Mysteries in Akertet, at the smiting of the emissions, at the passage of the Funerary Valley, [and] the Mysteries... [The recital thereof] will make the heart of the Khu to flourish and will make long his strides, and will make him to advance, and will make his face bright, and will make it to penetrate to the god. Let no man witness [the recital] except the king and the Kherheb priest, but the servant who cometh to minister outside shall not see it. Of the Khu for whom this Book shall be recited, his soul shall come forth by day with the living, he shall have power among the gods, and it will make him irresistible forever and ever. These gods shall go round about him, and shall acknowledge him. He shall be one of them. This [Book] shall make him to know how he came into being in the beginning. This Book is indeed a veritable mystery. Let no stranger anywhere have knowledge of it. Do not speak about it to any man. Do not repeat it. Let no [other] eye see it. Let no [other] ear hear it. Let no one see it except [thyself] and him who taught [it to thee]. Let not the multitude [know of it] except thyself and the beloved friend of thy heart. Thou shalt do this book in the she chamber on a cloth painted with the stars in colour all over it. It is indeed a mystery. The dwellers in the swamps of the Delta and everywhere there shall not know it. It shall provided the Khu with celestial food upon in Khert-Neter. It shall supply his Heart-soul with food upon earth. It shall make him to live forever. No [evil] thing shall have the master over him. This excerpt from the Book of the Dead shows the Akh as one of the four rudders.

THE ADDRESSES OF THE FOUR RUDDERS Hail, Power of Heaven, Opener of the Disk, thou Beautiful Rudder of the Northern Heaven. Hail, Ra, Guide of the Two Lands, thou Beautiful Rudder of the Western Heaven. Hail, Khu, Dweller in the House of the Akhemu gods, thou Beautiful Rudder of the Eastern Heaven. Hail, Governor, Dweller in the House of the Tesheru Gods, thou Beautiful Rudder of the Southern Heaven. other spellings: khu

Amathunta: the egyption goddess of the sea.

Amaunet: An Egyptian mother goddess, called the "Hidden One". She is the personification of the li fe-bringing northern wind. She belongs to the Ogdoad of Hermopolis. Within this group of gods her consort is the god Amun. She is referred to as 'the mother who is father' and in this capacity she needs no husband. Amaunet was regarded as a tutelary deity of the Egyptian pharaohs and had a prominent part in their accession ceremonies. She is portrayed as a snake or a snake-head on which the crown of Lower Egypt rests.

Amenhotep: an ancient egyptian architect who was elevated to the status of god of building.

Ament: an egyptian goddess who lived in a tree at the edge of the desert where she watched the gates of the afterworld, welcoming the newly dead with bread and water.

Amentet: An Egyptian goddess, the personification of the West (amenti), as well as the western areas where the sun sets and where the entrance to the underworld reputedly lies. Here she welcomes the deceased who enter the city of the dead. other spellings: amenti

Amenthes: the hades of the ancient egyptians. it is the abode of the spirits of the deceased where judgment was passed by Osiris.

Amenti: in ancient egyptian cosmology, the abode of the dead where the souls of the are judged by Osiris and punished or rewarded for their deeds.

Am-heh: an egyptian chthonic god, god of the underworld.

Ammit: An Egyptian demon; sometimes clearly female and human, sometimes with the head of a crocodile, the torso of a wild cat and the hindquarters of a hippopotamus. Ammit ("devouress of the dead") sits under the Scales of Justice, in the Hall of the Two Truths, in the House of Osiris. When a person dies and after performing the necessary rituals, he is taken there by Anubis, in his role as psychopomp ("conductor of souls"), to be weighed. Here he will have a chance to defend his deeds in his previous existence. The role of the prosecutor is for Thoth, the god of wisdom.Osiris sits on his throne as the judge, accompanied by the goddesses Isis and Nephthys. Eventually the heart of the deceased will be placed on one of the scales and a feather, from the headband of Ma'at the goddess of truth on the other. If the heart under the weight of its sins, weights more than the feather, then Ammit will appear from underneath the scales to devour it. This means the end of the soul and there will be no chance for a further existence. other spellings: ammut / ahemait

Ammon: Ammon was one of the many non-Greek gods sometimes identified with Zeus. An Egyptian god associated with the city of Thebes, he had an oracle in Libya whose reputation was on a par with those at Delphi and Dodona. Ammon is the Greek rendering of Amun.

Amun: A primordial Egyptian god, whose name means "the hidden one". As the driving force of the invisible breeze he was originally a god of wind and ruler of the air. During the 11th dynasty (2133 - 2000 BCE) he became the powerful sun-god of Thebes, where he was worshipped as Amun-Re. Later he was made the supreme god of the entire realm and king of the gods. In the OgDoad of Hermopolis he forms a pair with the mother-goddess Amaunet. From his union with the goddess Mut came forth the moon-god Chons. Amun's symbol is the ram. He is portrayed as a ram, as a man with a ram's head, or with a beard and a feathered crown. Temples dedicated to him are situated as Karnak and Deir-el-Bahari (near Luxor). In Greece he was worshipped as Ammon. other spellings: amon / amen / ammon

Amun-Re: A combination of Amun and Re from later Egyptian mythology, also called Amon-Ra. The Theban god Amun became the national god of Egypt under this name. other spellings: amun-ra

Andjety: An Egyptian god of the underworld. He is responsible for the rebirth of a person in the afterlife. His worship originated in the ninth nome of Lower Egypt, and the center of his cult was located at Busiris. He is depicted with a high conical crown with two feather plumes. The crook and flail are his symbols, and because those are also the symbols of Osiris, Andjety was often associated with him. He also known as Anezti and Anedjti. other spellings: anezti / anedjti

Anhur: The Egyptian warrior and hunter god, the personification of the royal warriors. As the champion of Egypt, he hunted and slew the enemies of Re. His consort is the lion goddess Mekhit. The center of his cult was the city of Thinis in Upper Egypt. He is portrayed as a bearded warrior wearing a long robe. On his head he wears a headdress with four tall plumes and in his hand he holds a lance. His Greek form is Onuris, derived from the Egyptian anhuret, which means 'he who brings the far near'. Anhur is also identified with the god Shu.

Ankh: Found widely in Egyptian art, the ankh has come to symbolize life after death. Originally an Egyptian hieroglyphic representing the womb with its looped top, its meaning is related to matters concerning life and death, or rather, Eternal Life ("Nem Ankh"). In art, especially that depicting funeral ceremonies, their gods and goddesses are shown clutching the ankh by its loop as if it were a key. In this manner, it is believed that the ankh would open the gates of death on to immortality. It is also known as the Key of the Nile, representing the union of Isis and Osiris. It is said that this mystic union would initiate the annual flooding of the Nile, providing Egypt with her various means to survive. The meaning of the ankh as womb, thus fertility and reproduction, is well-illustrated in this particular legend.

Ankt: a spear - carrying war goddess, ankt, is depicted wearing a curved and feathered crown.

Anouke: An elder Egyptian goddess of war, identified with Neith. Anouke was pictured with a bow and arrows and a shuttle.

Anti: An Egyptian guardian deity, the god of ferrymen. Anti was portrayed as a falcon, or with a falcon's head.

Anubis: Anubis, who the ancient Egyptians called Ienpw (phonetically "Yinepu"), is the mysterious canid funerary deity of ancient Egypt. Even the meaning of his name is unknown -- speculations range from "Royal Child" to having derived from the world for "to putrefy". Both certainly fit the deity, who was at various points in time of Egyptian history known as the lord of the dead before Osiris and, later, became popularly known as the son of Osiris. Just what type of animal Anubis is represented by is unknown as well; definitely canid and most likely a jackal or a wild dog -- or a hybrid of both -- but, as in the case of Seth, with alterations that deliberately smudge the lines of reality. The deep black color Anubis's animal is not reflective of its actual coat but is instead symbolic of his position as a funerary deity. The reason for Anubis's animal being canid is based on what the ancient Egyptians themselves observed of the creature -- dogs and jackals often haunted the edges of the desert, especially the cemeteries where the dead were buried. Anubis is an extremely ancient deity. The oldest mastabas of the Old Kingdom have prayers to him carved into their walls, and he is mentioned in the Pyramid Texts in his most celebrated role as a guardian and protector of the dead. A standard offering formula for the dead in the Old Kingdom began thusly: "An offering which the king gives and Anubis, who is upon his mountain and in the place of embalming, the lord of the necropolis...." As mentioned previously, Anubis began in the position that Osiris would later command. In the earliest period of Egyptian religion Anubis was clearly the lord of the dead and Osiris the embalmed god while Anubis performed the act of embalming. Titles that were invested unto Osiris -- such as Khenty-Imentiu or "Foremost of Westerners" -- were originally Anubis's. As the drama of Osiris's death and vindication unfolded over the centuries, Anubis assumed the role of the guide who holds steady the scales on which their hearts are measured against the feather of ma'at as "He Who Counts the Hearts". Should the heart be light as the feather, the soul would then be lead by Anubis (or, in some cases, Harseisis) to be presented to Osiris. Should the heart be heavy, it is fed to Ammit and the soul destroyed. As Imy-ut, or "He Who is In the Place of Embalming", Anubis is the embalmer who washes the entrails of the dead and guards over their physical bodies as well as the places that house them (the tomb and the necropolis). Priests wearing a mask of Anubis were responsible for the Opening of the Mouth ceremony that reawakened a dead person's senses. In a reflection of the royal seal used on the tombs of the Valley of the Kings depicting pharaoh's victory over the "nine bows" (enemies of Egypt), Anubis is shown recumbent over nine bows meant to be hostile forces of the Underworld who he -- as "Jackal Ruler of the Bows" -- has triumphed over. Anubis's parentage is a mystery -- in one tradition he is the son of Nebt-het (Nephthys1) and Ra. In yet another, from the Coffin Text period, the cow goddess Hesat is his mother and, from the same source, Bastet is even accounted as his mother (most likely a pun on the ointment jars that comprise her hieroglyphs -- the same jars that were used during the embalming process Anubis was lord of). The Pyramid Texts even supply Anubis with a daughter in the form of the goddess Qeb-hwt ("Cooling Water") -- a celestial serpent or ostrich Who purifies and quenches the monarch. Anubis is depicted most often as a man with the head of a black canid with alert, pointed ears. He is also represented by a full black canid wearing ribbons and holding a flagellum in the crook of its arm. Very rarely is he ever shown fully human, though there are some cases (such as in the temple of Ramesses II of Abydos) of this. Perhaps the most famous representation of Anubis, the gold-gilded wooden canid found in the tomb of Tutankhamen, was doubtlessly placed there as a protector of the dead and guardian of the tomb. Anubis was worshipped throughout Egypt, but the center of his cult was in Cynopolis (Upper Egypt). other spellings: anup / ienpw / yinepu

Anuket: The Egyptian goddess of the Nile, and nourisher of the fields. She formed a triad with Chnum and Satis. Her principal sanctuary as at Elephantine, an island near Aswan. Anuket (Anqet) was portrayed with a crown made of reed and topped with ostrich feathers. The gazelle is her sacred animal. Later she became known as 'Ruler of Numibia'. Her name means the "embracer" and may refer to the embrace of the Nile waters by the river's banks. In hieroglyphs she is seen wearing a feather headress. She was later merged with Nephthys. Her Greek form is Anukis. other spellings: anqet

Apis: Apis was the holy bull or bull god of Memphis. Any bull found bearing a white triangle on its forehead and otherwise totally black, was considered to be the personification of Apis. Priest derived omens from his behavior. The bull was not allowed to live past 25 years and upon reaching this age it was drowned and a new bull was sought. If it died before that time, it was buried with much ceremony at Sakkarah, south of Cairo. The apis cult was later closely connected with the god Ptah, but was also widespread among the Greeks and Romans. other spellings: hap

Apep: An Egyptian monster living in perpetual darkness. This snake god is the chief of the antagonists of the sun god Re and each night he tries to stop the sun god's barque on his journey through the underworld. In the struggle between light and darkness, the monster is wounded by the divine entourage of Re with knives and spears. The god Seth and the god Mehen were often depicted defending the solar barque. Apep is the personification of darkness, evil, and chaos. Occasionally, the battle was decided in his favor, causing a solar eclipse, but his victories were of short duration for Re always triumphed in the end. Eventually, Apep was slain by Re, who cut up his body and burned it. The Greeks referred to him as Apophis. other spellings: apepi / Aapep

Arensnuphis: A benign god of Egyptian Nubia. He had a temple at Philae, where he was referred to as the companion of Isis, the chief local deity. He is depicted in the form of a lion, or as a man wearing a plumed crown. other spellings: ari-hes-nefer / arsnuphis / harensnuphis

Ash: The Egyptian god of the Libyan Desert (Sahara), called 'Lord of Libya'. As a desert god he was sometimes identified with Seth. Ash was associated with the fertile oases. He was depicted as a man with the head of a hawk. other spellings: as

Astennu: A name given to one of the associates of Thoth, and to Thoth himself.

Aten: The name of the visible solar disc in ancient Egypt. Originally a manifestation of the sun god, Aten (Aton) became the only true sun god during the reign of pharaoh Amenhotep IV (1367 - 1350 BCE). The sun gods Re and Atum lost much of their importance during this period. In some of the older sources, it is stated that Amenhotep, who later assumed the name Akhenaten, attempted to establish a monotheistic cult with Aten as the sole deity and that after his death Egypt returned to polytheism. However, Akhenaten held other deities in reverence too, and his Atenism was not entirely monotheism. He did build the city Akhetaten (modern Tel el-Amarna) and erected a huge Aten temple at Karnak, but the city was abandoned after his death and the temple of Aten was destroyed by his successors. Aten was depicted as a radiant solar disc with rays ending in hands holding the ankh symbols or in hands of blessing over the king and his family, but also as a winged sun disc. This disc was also subtended by the cobra amulet, the uraeus. The main sanctuaries of Aten were in Thebes, Akhetaten, and Heliopolis.

Atum: The primeval Egyptian sun god and creator of the world. He is the evening aspect of the sun, representing the setting sun. Later he was syncretized with Re as the god Atum-Re. According to the myths, he was the first substance (a hill) who emerged from the primeval waters. Amut created the deities Shu and Tefnut from his spittle or from his semen in the act of masturbation. Atum was especially worshipped at Heliopolis, where he was the head of the Ennead cult. He was represented by the black bull Mnewer, who bore the sun disk and uraeus between its horns. As the father of the pharaoh, he played an important part in the coronation rites. Atum was depicted as old man symbolizing the setting sun, but he also appeared also a snake, a scarab, and a mangust (pharaoh hat). The snake, bull, lion, lizard and ichneumon are his sacred animals. The Memphite creation myth stated that Atum was conceived in the heart of Ptah and was created by his word. Literally, "he who completes, or perfects". other spellings: tum / temu

Auf: In Egyptian mythology, Auf was another name for Re, the sun god. Re assumed this name on his nightly visit to the underworld. This trip was made so that he could get to the other side of the world, where he could rise in the morning. He travelled through each of the twelve regions of the underworld in a boat, different from the one that he used to carry the sun across the sky by day. The boat was ornamented with serpents and manned by a crew of spirits. There were many demons that Auf had to overcome on these trips, but some were considered friendly because they disposed of his greater enemies. other spellings: efu-ra

Ausaas: The wife of Harakhti, one of the manifestations of Horus.