Egyptian Creation Myths Isis and Osiris. Key Terms Amun animals as mythical figures Anubis Artemis...
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Transcript of Egyptian Creation Myths Isis and Osiris. Key Terms Amun animals as mythical figures Anubis Artemis...
Egyptian CreationMyths
Isis and Osiris
Key TermsAmunanimals as mythical figuresAnubisArtemisAstarteAtumBook of the DeadCronusDemeterDionysusEgyptian centers of learning and worshipEnneadGebGnosticismHarpocratesHathorHeliopolisHeraclesHermes
HorusIsisliminalityMercurymystery religionsNephthysNutOsirisPamyliaPlutarchPtahrationalizationReRhearitualSethShusyncretismTefnut/TefenetThothTyphon
Painted papyrus depicting Shu, the air god, raising his daughter Nut, the sky goddess, above her brother Geb, the earth god, thus creating the world).
World of Ancient Egypt
Timeline of Ancient Egyptc. 4500-3000 Predynastic Period c. 3100-2890 Early Dynastic: Dynasty 1 c. 2890-2686 Early Dynastic: Dynasty 2 c. 2686-2613 Early Dynastic: Dynasty 3 c. 2613-2494 Old Kingdom Dynasty 4 c. 2494-2345 Old Kingdom Dynasty 5 c. 2345-2181 Old Kingdom Dynasty 6 c. 2181-2125 Old Kingdom Dynasties 7 & 8 c. 2125-2025 First Intermediate Period: Dynasties 9-11 c. 2025-1700 Middle Kingdom Dynasties 11-13 c. 1700-1550 Second Intermediate Period Dynasty 13-17 c. 1550-1295 New Kingdom Dynasty 18 c. 1295-1186 New Kingdom Dynasty 19 c. 1186-1069 New Kingdom Dynasty 20 c. 1069-945 Third Intermediate Period Dynasty 21 c. 945-727 Third Intermediate Period Dynasties 22-23 c. 727-332 Late Period Dynasties 24-30 and Persian Occupation 332-30 Ptolemaic Period 30 BC - 330 AD Roman Period 330 AD - 641 Byzantine Period
Theriomorphism: Manifestation of some aspect of the god’s power
E.g., Hathor as cow. Cow as symbol of fertility.
Official state religion King as priest:
Pharaoh as Horus or son of Re and, after death, Osiris
The pharaoh Chephren with Horus. (The statue originally stood with twenty-two other royal figures as centerpiece of the statue cult in the king's valley temple, Giza. Fourth Dynasty circa 2550 BC. )
Mythology, Religion and Kingship in Egypt
Tutankhamun as Osiris ( Dynasty XVIII tomb painting, from the north wall of the tomb of Tutankhamun, Valley of the Kings).
Afterlife
Illustration from the Book of the Dead (shows deceased being led to judgment by jackal- headed god Anubis, where his heart is weighed against a feather, symbol of truth, in the presence of Thoth, ibis- headed god of wisdom who wears the wide sash of a priest; he notes the results of the weighing. Then, the deceased is led to the supreme judge of the dead and ruler of the underworld, Osiris, who is shown enthroned with attendants. From Thebes. Painted papyrus from the Nineteenth Dynasty ca. 1285 B.C. )
Religious/Cult Centersof Ancient Egypt
MEMPHIS
HELIOPOLIS
HERMOPOLIS
THEBES
MEMPHIS
Menes (Narmer) unites Upper and Lower Egyptwith capital at Memphis. c.3100 B.C.
Narmer paletteMetropolitan Museum of ArtNew York
Ptah, Creator god of Memphis
Temple of Denderah.This engraving represents a pharaoh making offerings to the god Ptah and to the goddess Sekhmet, his wife.
Temple of Ptah and Sekhmetat Memphis
Shabaka Stone
Shabaka (712-698 B.C.), the first Ethiopian born pharaoh
On the Shabaka Stone: http://maat.sophiatopia.org/shabaka.htm Translation: http://www.touregypt.net/shabakastone.htm
He (Ptah) gave birth to the gods,He made the towns,He established the nomes,He placed the gods in their shrines,He settled their offerings,He established their shrines,He made their bodies according to their wishes.Thus the gods entered into their bodies,Of every wood, every stone, every clay,Every thing that grows upon himIn which they came to be.Thus were gathered to him all the gods and their kas,Content, united with the Lord of the Two Lands.
Memphis Creation Mythc. 2900 B.C.
political goal:
1.) to celebrate Ptah, the local god of Memphis
2.) unification of Two Egypts
Ptah in primaeval water comes to Heliopolis and calls it Memphis
act of creation = Ptah desires himself eight other gods = Ogdoad
Heliopolis (Modern Cairo)Dominant city of the Old Kingdom
Synthesis ofCreation story of Atum
and the story of Osiris
The oldest surviving obelisk in the world, c.2000 B.C.
Heliopolitan Ennead
From Heliopolis: Nun (watery chaos) Atum (sun) Shu (air) Tefnut (moisture) Geb (Earth) Nut (sky) Osiris, Isis, Seth, Nephthys
Seven of nine members of the Heliopolitan Ennead, as represented in the judgment scene on the Papyrus of Ani. From right to left: Atum, Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut and sitting next to each other, Isis and Nephthys. Other members of the Ennead include Osiris, Seth, Horus and Thot.
Shu and Nut
Painted papyrus depicting Shu, the air god, raising his daughter Nut, the sky goddess, above her brother Geb, the earth god, thus creating the world.
Hermopolis
Administrative center ofMiddle Kindgom
The City of Thoth, the scribe of the gods
Located in Middle Egypt
Thoth
Hermopolis Ogdoad
From Hermopolis:
Deities representing the four characteristics of Chaos:
Nun and Naunet (primordial water)
Heh and Hehet (infinite space)
Kek and Keket (darkness)
Amun and Amunet (invisibility).
Geese representing the
Ogdoad of Hermopolis and Thoth.
Thebes
Capital of Egypt after the First Intermediate Period (2040 B.C.)
All gods are projections of Amun (“The Hidden One”)
Creation of the Worldaccording to Heliopolis
Development of the Ennead
Birth of Isis and Osiris
Death and Resurrection of Osiris
The Ennead Cyclical Struggle:
Osiris (Underworld) and Seth (Chaos)
Prominence of Horus (King of Egypt)
Sources
Pyramid Texts, as early as 2375-2345 B.C.)
Coffin Texts
Coffin Text
Creation via masturbation
Atum spit me [Shu] out
Pyramid Text
Hymn to Osiris
Coffin as Geb (Earth)
Lid as Nut (Sky)
Nut on a coffin lid
Plutarch’s Isis and Osiris
http://www.philae.nu/philae/IsisOsiris.html
The Birth of Isis and Osiris
The Rivalry of Seth and Horus
Wanderings of isis
Isis Finds the Coffin of Osiris
The Reawakening of Osiris
Note SYNCRETISM
Cronus = NutRhea = GebOsiris = DionysusTyphon = SethCastration of Uranus = Loss of Osiris’ Penis
Isis suckling the Horus-Child
in the papyrus swamps.
The Resurrection of Osiris
The Osiris Mysteries as portrayed in the Temple of Isis at Philae.(images After H. Rosellini, Monumenti dell'Egitto e della Nubia, Vol. III (Pisa, 1844), Pl.
XXIII.)
Ritual of Osiris
Flooding of the Nile
Rebirth of Egypt
Isis’ Quest for Osiris
Greco-Roman Isis
Temple of Isis at Pompeii
Ritual of Isis
Sistrum (rattle)
Key TermsAmunanimals as mythical figuresAnubisArtemisAstarteAtumBook of the DeadCronusDemeterDionysusEgyptian centers of learning and worshipEnneadGebGnosticismHarpocratesHathorHeliopolisHeraclesHermes
HorusIsisliminalityMercurymystery religionsNephthysNutOsirisPamyliaPlutarchPtahrationalizationReRhearitualSethShusyncretismTefnut/TefenetThothTyphon
ADD:MemphisHeliopolitan EnneadHemopolis Ogdoad Menes/NarmerApuleius’ Golden AssCoffin TextsPyramid TextsJoseph CampbellHero QuestClaude Levi-StraussStructuralismMediating contradictionsLord RaglanHero Pattern