Myth and Cosmos in Ancient Egyptian History

By Asher Benowitz

Literature and mythology

From the New Kingdom, only ten narratives survive. These stories assume that their readers have a deep understanding of Egyptian mythology.

It describes a prince who is doomed to die by a snake, crocodile, or dog, as the world's oldest fairy tale. There is no ending in the story, but it is likely that the prince was saved by the spirited princess whose hand he wins in a jumping contest.. As an extended version of the Osiris myth, Truth and Lies involves a dysfunctional family of deities whose son avenges his father, Truth, and defeats Lies' enemy. The plot revolves around a son who grows up to avenge his father, Truth, and beat his enemy, Lies. Isis is lustful and heartless, whereas the hero's mother is presented as passionate and cruel.

This story contains a lot of mythological themes in a semi-disguised manner. As in the story of the Two Brothers, the female characters are also evil. A woman who the gods have blessed as a wife betrays the hero by falsely accusing him of raping his brother's wife. Anubis and Bata are two brothers with the same name as two gods (Anubis and Bata).. A time when it was still possible to meet gods and monsters just beyond Egypt's borders is depicted in the story. In both the Two Brothers and another New Kingdom tale about Seth's fight with an ocean god to save Astarte, the sea tries to capture a beautiful female. Astute is included under "Deities, Themes, and Concepts" as a partially Egyptianized myth. More fragmentary accounts describe a woman who becomes a lioness and the God Heryshef recruiting a human to help him fight a divine falcon.

Contendings between Horus and Seth is the most controversial story from the New Kingdom. This is the most extended narrative that survives the conflict between the two gods and its resolution. But that does not mean it should be regarded as the only or standard version of the myth. Fables consist of all their performances, as many scholars have emphasized. This text was read aloud for entertainment, hence its narrative form. In addition to telling an ancient myth, the satire contains commentary about how difficult it is to obtain justice under New Kingdom legal systems and perhaps some veiled commentaries about recent problems with royal succession.

• Language: English
• Publisher: DTTV PUBLICATIONS
• Release date: Jun 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201895341

Asher Benowitz

Born in Poland to Jewish Parents, he has long been fascinated with All things Middle East.

Book preview

DECODING KNOWLEDGE AND SYMBOLISM IN HIEROGLYPHIC LITERATURE

ASHER BENOWITZ

Literature and mythology

From the New Kingdom, only ten narratives survive. These stories assume that their readers have a deep understanding of Egyptian mythology.

It describes a prince who is doomed to die by a snake, crocodile, or dog, as the world's oldest fairy tale. There is no ending in the story, but it is likely that the prince was saved by the spirited princess whose hand he wins in a jumping contest.. As an extended version of the Osiris myth, Truth and Lies involves a dysfunctional family of deities whose son avenges his father, Truth, and defeats Lies' enemy. The plot revolves around a son who grows up to avenge his father, Truth, and beat his enemy, Lies. Isis is lustful and heartless, whereas the hero's mother is presented as passionate and cruel.

This story contains a lot of mythological themes in a semi-disguised manner. As in the story of the Two Brothers, the female characters are also evil. A woman who the gods have blessed as a wife betrays the hero by falsely accusing him of raping his brother's wife. Anubis and Bata are two brothers with the same name as two gods (Anubis and Bata).. A time when it was still possible to meet gods and monsters just beyond Egypt's borders is depicted in the story. In both the Two Brothers and another New Kingdom tale about Seth's fight with an ocean god to save Astarte, the sea tries to capture a beautiful female. Astute is included under Deities, Themes, and Concepts as a partially Egyptianized myth. More fragmentary accounts describe a woman who becomes a lioness and the God Heryshef recruiting a human to help him fight a divine falcon.

Contendings between Horus and Seth is the most controversial story from the New Kingdom. This is the most extended narrative that survives the conflict between the two gods and its resolution. But that does not mean it should be regarded as the only or standard version of the myth. Fables consist of all their performances, as many scholars have emphasized. This text was read aloud for entertainment, hence its narrative form. In addition to telling an ancient myth, the satire contains commentary about how difficult it is to obtain justice under New Kingdom legal systems and perhaps some veiled commentaries about recent problems with royal succession.

The comic treatment of many characters and events in the Contendings of Horus and Seth is sometimes viewed by Egyptologists because the work cannot be considered a myth, but a robust, cruel sense of humor can be found in folklore from many cultures. The story's more shameful episodes are also found in funerary and magical texts, such as Seth's failed attempt to seduce Horus and Horus cutting off his mother's head.

Many myths now known only from mystical texts were likely adapted from other types of source material or from oral tradition. Isis, the first fully developed character in Egyptian mythology, is a devoted and domineering mother. Serqet, in Deities, Themes, and Concepts, tells the story of Isis and her attendant scorpions taking shelter with a fisherwoman. This story was used to drive poison from magical statues and steles many centuries later. Several spells survive on papyri from the later New Kingdom. In the British Museum's Harris Magical Papyrus, you'll find a sequence of anticrocodile stretches that refer to myths like the defilement of Isis.

Although myths are often viewed as communal artifacts, they have many personal applications in Egyptian culture. The list of lucky and unlucky days derived from the calendars of temple festivals was another example. The Cairo Calendar is based on the belief that each day was associated with some deity or mythical event.

These associations affected what could be done each day, making the calendars similar to horoscopes. During the second month of Peret (spring), the children of Geb rebelled against the Creator. The calendar warns against doing anything on this day. Some entries summarize well-known mythological events, like the reconciliation of Horus and Seth, and others refer to obscure myths, like the lost children of Benesh.

The New Kingdom has come to an end.

The kings of the eastern Delta had little influence over the south of the country by the eleventh century BCE. In the Valley of the Kings, a tomb was probably cut for Rameses XI (c. 1099–1069 BCE), the last king of the Twentieth Dynasty. One family had become powerful in the Theban region, and its members were high priests in Karnak's temple and generals in the army. Peace between the two families was achieved by a series of marriages. The Twenty-First Dynasty, which took control in the north after the collapse of this family, gave many of its member's royal titles.

During the eleventh and tenth centuries BCE, aristocratic and royal women who served as priestesses in Thebes' temples created some of the most beautiful Books of the Dead. An elite burial was conducted with papyri containing one or more underworld books and spells from the Book of the Dead. At this time, the Theban priesthood moved most of the royal mummies from their original resting places, so the secret Underworld Books on the walls of their tombs became available for copying.

In Egypt, the papyri that represent Underworld Books are called mythological papyri. They can be almost entirely drawn with a few brief captions. In papyri and coffins of this period,  From texts from the third millennium BCE on, mythological episodes are revealed, including the Creator creating life or the separation of the earth from the sky.. Egypt's tendency to think in images is evident in these important papyri. Few words adequately convey the numinous. Rather than using words to illustrate complex ideas, the Egyptian priesthood devised a system of visual symbols.

Production of funerary papyri abruptly ceased in the ninth century BCE. Temple life may have been disrupted by a civil war between the Thebans and a new dynasty of kings from the north. Twenty-second Dynasty kings were descended from Libya, but they adopted the Egyptian religion wholly. Their devotion to Bastet led them to rebuild a part of her temple at Bubastis. There are reliefs that depict all the Egyptian deities gathered at Bubastis to celebrate the king's jubilee (c. 874–850 BCE).. As one of the goddesses who could play the role of Ra's fiery Eye, Batet was one of the goddesses who guarded the sun god and every king. During the first millennium BCE, myths concerning the Eye goddess became increasingly popular.

Tanis is the location of most of the tombs of the northern kings, found within the Amun-Ra temple. There are versions of New Kingdom Underworld Books, such as the Book of the Day and the Night, inscribed on the walls of these tombs.  The temples of Tanis contain statues from all over Egypt, including those from the Middle and New Kingdoms. Their purpose probably went beyond economics. New structures were given an instant past by using old royal figures. This invoked the ancestors of the monarchy.

However, there have been innovations among small objects despite this tendency to look