GODS DE KHEMI

Mythology and legends.

Sorry, my English is very poor. The translation is automatic, my excuses for the errors. If some kind navigator wants to correct them and to send me the correction, he would thank it to him...

Enéada heliopolitana.

Legend of Isis and Osiris (Plutarco).

Triad of Menfis.

Triad of Tebas.

Important God.

Maat; the concept.

The three essences of the spirit.

THE CREATION.

    In the Texts of the Pyramids we find the legend of the Creation; also in the papyrus of the British Museum 10188 find a spell to destroy Apopi, snake-demon of the Darkness. In him we find that Ra adopted the form of Khepra:

    "The sky didn't exist and the earth was still without creating, and the things of the earth and the things reptantes had not been born in that place, and I made them leave Gnu outside of its state of inactivity.

    I didn't find any place where it could remain of foot. I imposed a spell on my own heart. I established a foundation in Maat. I created all form. He/she was an unique being. It had not emanated of me the god Shu, and he/she had not hurtled from my being to the goddess Tefnut. There was not any other being working with me. A multitude of things believes from my heart".

    But the Sun, the eye of Gnu, it was covered by Shu and Tefnut, their children; after a long period these leave Gnu and they take I get their father's eye.

    Then Khepra cried, and of its tears the man and the woman were born.

    The god made another eye, the moon, and creó then the plants and the reptiles; and Geb and Nut, Osiris and Isis, Seth and Neftis and Horus were born of Shu and Tefnut. It is the Eneada Heliopolitana.

ENEADA HELIOPOLITANA

They are the gods of Iunu, called Heliopolis for the Greeks, capital of the XIII nomo, Heqat.

    Ra. - Father of all the God." Creator of the Universe. Their importance settles down in the period Tub, although it is in the Dynasty IV when the Faraones adopts the title of Son of Ra." It is represented as man with hawk head or ram; it has more than enough this the solar disk and the ureo. To the dawn it is Khepra, at noon Ra and to the evening Atúm. 14 Kas possesses (Hu-feeding; Shepes-glory; Iry-production of foods; Nejt-victory; Udy-prosperity; Uas-honor; Aju-din; Shemes-fidelity; Ayefa-abundance; Heka-magic; Dyehen-splendor; User-vigor; Seped-ability; Pesedy-brightness). With form of bull Mer ur he/she associates to the fertility of the fields.

    Shu. - Son of Ra and husband of Tefnut. It is represented as man with an ostrich feather in the head, holding Nut, the sky. Their name means to be empty"; it is the air that is between sky and earth, the one that allows the alive beings to breathe. Their bones are come in form of clouds that help Ra in their ascension.

    Tefnut. - Woman with lioness head and solar disk on this. Daughter of Ra, Wife of Shu, mother of Geb and Nut. It represents the humidity. Created of the saliva of Ra.

    Geb. -man with the penis in erection with a goose on the head. God of the earth; I handcuff of the sky, Nut, constitutes the principle of the fertility and of the life of all that lives on the earth. Called Gengen Ur, the Great Cacareador", it is the reason of the King's divinity since this it is considered as Horus and it takes the title of Heir of Geb."

    Nut. - arched Woman on the earth with the recovered body of stars; woman with a glass on the head. It is the sky, the vault that contains the Universe, the place that the Sun travels, to which gives to light every morning. Mother of Osiris, Isis, Seth and Neftis, engendered of Geb in the 5 days epagómenos (legend that I will relate later on).

    Osiris. - Mr. of the Amenti. Mummified man that it takes the symbols of power (the I thrash and the shepherd's crook); on the head, the crown Atef. As symbol he/she has the pillar Djed, spine of the god. Divinity of the vegetation and Sovereign of the further on. Supreme judge in the heavy of the heart in the Room of the Two Truths. It is the personification of the history and the power of Khemi (next to Isis), direct ancestor of the royalty.

    Isis. - Their name means throne, and the goddess, like a woman is represented this way with a throne in the head; you/he/she can also take two horns liriformes with the solar disk between; winged woman, with cow head, scorpion (Hedjedet), hippopotamus (Raret), you/he/she gets paid or lioness (Uadjet). It represents the throne, the fidelity, he/she is the Great Diosa Madre; it personifies the maternity, the fertility. It mates and wife of Osiris, mother of Horus.

    Seth. - Mr. of High Egypt. Man with head of unknown animal; some egiptólogos believes that it can be an ass, a giraffe or a harrier. Although the legend identifies him with the violence, the wrong and the desert (in opposition to Osiris), it is not clear that was always this way. Perhaps be due to the progressive increase of the learned osiríaco, since even some kings took their name, v.gr. Sethi I; it is also present in the ceremony Sema-Taui, union of the lotus and the papyrus, symbols of the North and the South of Khemi, Under and High Egypt, in the rite of the king's coronation.

    Neftis. - Mrs. of the House. Woman with the hieroglyphic of their name on the head; winged woman. It handcuffs and sister of Seth, sister of Osiris and Isis. Mother of Anubis that is engendered of their relationship with Osiris, although Woman is also denominated without Vagina by her union with Seth. It is related with the funeral rites (the bandages of the mummies are called Cowlick of Neftis").

Iside et Osiride

Legend of Plutarco (brief story).

   Although you leave of this myth they are in the Texts of the Pyramids, it is thanks to Plutarco that we almost know the entirety of the legend; shortly it is:

    Choleric Ra because Nut was loved by Geb, and this was corresponded, it decreed that the goddess would not have children in any month neither in any year. The curse of Ra could not be ignored to be the supreme god. Nut goes to Thoth that also loved her, and this goes to the god of the Moon that competes with the Sun in brightness. It challenges to a table game with a strong bet; the god of the Moon loses the game and the bet that it consisted on the seventeenth part of its brightness (for this reason the Moon disappears every 28 days). With this light, Thoth adds 5 days a year (before the year he/she had 360 days) in such a way that you/they don't belong to the previous year neither the following one, neither to any month; they are the 5 days epagómenos that allow to leave aside the curse of Ra. In these days, Nut has its children Osiris, Horus (the old one), Seth, Isis and Neftis.

    In the moment of the birth of Osiris, in the whole earth it was heard: "The good and great king of the Earth has been born." With the time, the prophecies were completed; Osiris brought the civilization to the valley of the Nile, and their inhabitants that practiced the cannibalism and the human sacrifices, they receive with joy the teachings and laws that Osiris brings them (I cultivate of the earth, moral laws, correct rites to worship to the gods,...).

Once gotten, Osiris goes to teach to other towns he/she leaves its wife and sister Isis to the front of Khemi. But somebody envy the achievements of Osiris, their brother Seth, Mr. of the Desert. Seth, apovechando its brother's infinite kindness, prepares (to its turn) a great banquet. Isis warns of the wickedness from Seth to its husband, but this doesn't see any wrong in attending the banquet in its honor. Seth allies with I Roast, queen of Kush, and with other 72 plotters; secretly, it measures the body of Osiris and it orders to manufacture a coffer, with the king's measures, adorned rícamente. At the end of the banquet, Seth orders to take out the coffer and he/she announces that it will donate it to who enters in him. All try to enter, but they don't fit; Osiris, without seeing bad some in it, enters in the coffer and, in seconds, this is closed, nailed the cover and sealed with melted lead. Soon after, the coffer is heady to the Nile, in its outlet tainítica.

    When Isis receives the news, it feels a great pain, he/she gets dressed of mourning and it cuts himself a cowlick of its mane. Knowing that the deads cannot rest if they are not buried with the appropriate funeral rites, it undertakes the search of their esposo/hermano. A lot of time passed asking to all man and woman so richly for the coffer adorned; one day, seeing some children playing in the bank of the Nile, he/she came closer to ask them; the children informed him of the place where Seth and their henchmen had left the coffer (from then on, the Egyptians believed that the children possessed natural gifts of divination).
Thanks to the Magic, Isis discovers that the waves have taken the coffer to Byblos and they have thrown it in a tamarisco bush; this bush became a wonderful tree with the coffer inside the trunk. The king of Byblos, Melcarthus, fascinated by the tree, made it talar to use its trunk as column of subjection of the roof of its palace.

    Isis went to Byblos, where he/she sat down in a source. He/she didn't speak with anybody, I save with the queen's maidens, to those that spoke with sweetness, he/she combed and it perfumed with their divine encouragement, more fragrant than the flowers. When the maidens arrived at palace the queen Astarté he/she asked them how they went so combed and perfumed; those they had him the encounter the beautiful foreigner, and the queen made that they brought it to palace, transforming it into personal nurse of one of the princes.

    Isis fed the boy giving him the finger to suck. At night, when all slept, it put big trunks to the fire and it tossed to the boy to the flames; later he/she became a swallow and it emitted big laments for their dead esposo/hermano. Rumors of these practices ran for palace and one night the queen he/she hid in the room to check if they were certain. When Astarté saw the boy among the flames, he/she ran panicky to rescue him and Isis reprehended it saying that it deprived the infant of the immortality. Then he/she revealed the queen their true identity and he/she explained to him the reasons for those that was in Byblos, requesting him that she gave him the pillar that held the palace roof. When it was given him, he/she opened the trunk and it took out the coffer that contained the body of Osiris; their lament was such that one of the princes died from terror. From then on, the trunk was conserved and worshipped in Byblos. For this reason, one of the many names of Osiris is: "the one that is in the tree."

    Isis returned to Egypt for sea, she opened the coffer and he/she cried bitterly for its husband. Then Isis retired to Buto to rest.

    Seth that was hunting by the light of the moon, discovered the coffer, and inflamed it destroyed the cadaver of Osiris and it spread the 14 pieces for all Khemi.

    When discovering this last act, Isis, attended by Neftis and Toth, it undertakes the search of their husband's pieces again; when he/she found one, it ordered to erect a temple in the lugar(por this is so many tombs of Osiris in Khemi); alone it lacked the phallus, eaten by three fish, Phragos, Lepidotos and Oxirrincos. Attended by Anubis, Isis recomposes the body of Osiris and he/she practices the first ceremony of Opening of the Eyes and the Mouth and the first mummification. Thanks to the Magic, he/she became kite and it fluttered on the body of Osiris, ventilating their nasal conduits and giving him the enough vitality for embarzarla of Horus (the youth), to which will give to light in the island of Shemis, in the delta. This way, Horus becomes posthumous son of Osiris, to who Isis will protect (Isis is also protector of the childhood).

    More writings of Khemi in the p. of Texts.

THE TRÍADA DE MENFIS

    Ptah. - Man of small stature with a leather cap in the head, carrying the necklace Menat, wrapped in bandages of those that come out the hands in those that takes the pillar Djed combined with the Uas, symbolizing the fertility and the stability. Present from times predinásticos, it is considered as demiurgo, creative god of the universe and of the other gods. The artisans' pattern, mainly of the sculptors and goldsmiths; protective of the midgets (these enjoyed a great status in Khemi, surely for their dedication to the goldwork). The Supreme Priest of Ptah took Uer Kormentiu's title, Great Boss of the Authors." It is called Mr. of the Truth"; Mr. of the Magic"; Mr. of the Darkness."

    Sekhmet. - Woman with lioness head, is the destructive energy of Ra. Goddess of the war; it was considered that it could unchain illnesses and epidemics; their cholera could be extremely bloody. Their name means powerful. The doctors' employer; these based their knowledge on the anatomical study, the knowledge of the botany and the study of the goddess's rites. During the station of the flood, he/she took place in their honor the Party of the Intoxication", since, according to an old legend (The Distant Goddess), the goddess was intoxicated to appease her anger.

   Nefertum. - Man with lion head; it has more than enough this, a flower of blue lotus accompanied by two feathers. It takes two necklaces Menat like symbol of pleasure and fertility. Their name means " lotus ". He/she is associated with Ra the youth, since this is born of the watery abyss on a lotus flower; it also represents the aroma, the sacred perfume, the lotus flower perfumed in the nose of Ra."

THE TRÍADA DE TEBAS

    Amon. - I Lower their anthropomorphous aspect he/she has the black skin or of blue color (lapislazuli); also with ram head with a crown of the one that you/they come out two high feathers divided in 7 parts. In form animal, it is the ram with gnarled horizontal horns, with the solar disk and the two feathers before mentioned on them; also as primordial snake (Amon-Kamutef The one that is in the Primordial Times of the Two Countries") and I eat goose that puts the egg of which the sun is born. Their name means The Hidden one", and it is starting from the Half Empire when its importance grows, with its city Tebas, thanks to the kings of the XII dynasty. It is in this time when their union takes place with Ra, becoming the most powerful deity, Amon-Ra. The Hymn of Leyden tells us: "Three are the gods: Amon, Ra and Ptah. Amon is its name, Ra it is its face, Ptah it is its body. Amon is the unique god that becomes millions." God of the sky, god of the air, Mr. of the Oasis."

    Mut. - Woman with lioness head. Woman with the crown of the High and Low Egypt or a headdress formed by a vulture and an ureo; in the hand it usually takes the scepter of the south of the country. Wife of Amon and mother of Jons, the goddess primordial mother is considered; in some texts you/he/she is said that she has double sex and you/he/she is self-sufficient for the procreation.

    Jons. - Man with beard and lateral ponytail (symbol of the heir to the throne). Man with hawk head. God lunar representative of the real placenta that was cult object. The king's considered brother twin, this was associated in the sun, for what the real placenta was associated to the moon. Among their many nomenclatures we find: "The Deambulador", That that crosses the Sky", God that frightens to the wicked spirits", The Magnanimous one",...

IMPORTANT GODS

    Horus. - Hawk or man with hawk head. Their plant is the acacia. Son of Osiris and Isis, although due to their multiple aspects it changes progenitors, children, it handcuffs,... (It happens to many divinities, not only of Khemi). Their father's eternal avenger, Osiris, its fight with Seth personifies the eternal combat among the Two Lands, the Black Earth" (the valley of the Nile, the fertility) and the Red Earth" (the desert). From the I. A., the king is the incarnation of Horus in the earth; of here the name Horus of the king's Gold. The legend of Horus is in the work of Plutarco, in the walls of the Temple of Edfú and in the papyrus Chester Beatty nº 1.

    The Children of Horus. - they are identified, from the antiquity, with the souls of the god. Their main function is that of guardians of the deceased's mummified viscera. In the I. A., the glasses canopos didn't have tapas with human heads or animals; it is later when they adopt human form and, by the middle of the I. N. the tapas are carried out with the heads of the children of     Horus that represent also to the 4 winds, to the vital principles and the divine weepers, that is:
    Amset. - human Head. The South. Liver. Ka. Isis.
    Hapy. - babuino Head. North. Lungs. Ib. Neftis.
    Duamutef. - you go. of jackal. This. Stomach. Ba. Neit.
    Kebsenuf. - you go. of hawk. West. Intestine. Sa. Selkis.
  They are also present in the Room of the Two Truths", presiding over next to Osiris the trial and the heavy of the deceased's soul. Here they are of I tweeted, with form of mummies that emerge of a lotus flower. They are assistants of Anubis in the ceremony of Opening of Eyes and Mouth and in the mummification of Osiris. The myth counts that they were in the waters primigenias, being rescued to loins of Sobek by order of Ra.

    Anubis. - Man with jackal head or black jackal with a red bandage to the neck. In Iunu he/she is represented as snake. Son of Seth and Neftis (although according to different texts their progenitors vary) their cult is very old. Perhaps the fact of observing the jackals to exhume to the cadavers to feed is decisive when considering further on this divinity like driver of the souls toward the. It takes as holding: "Mr. of the necropolis", Mr. of the Westerners" (the souls go to occident), The one that is on the Bandages" (as first momificador and officiating of the ceremony of Opening of the Eyes and Mouth"). The Book of the Caverns tells us that Anubis illuminates, with the moon in the hands, the one on the way to the deceaseds."

    Apis. - Man with bull head, sun has more than enough growing moon and two high feathers; it takes the pillar Djed in the hands. Bull with paws and white stomach, sun and ureo in the head.
The bulls were considered heralds of the gods; Apis was the herald of Ptah, symbol of the fecundity of the earth and of its germinative power. He/she is born of a sunbeam that fertilizes a cow.
He/she lived in Menfis in a palace, where their necessities were assisted as it was assisted to the god that personified. To their death it was carefully mummified and buried (Serapeum menfita) with all the rites and ceremonies that the cult demanded. Their terrestrial well-being and in the further on was of supreme importance for all Khemi and their people. The election of the new Apis was extremely rigorous, given the importance that had for the future of the country; the animal had to possess 29 specific marks that indicated if it was the incarnation of the god; the most significant are: black color, white triangle in the forehead, a vulture with the wings deployed in the loin, image of a scarab in the language and the line divided in two hair cowlicks.
The annual visit that Apis made to the divine bull of Iunu (Heliopolis), Mnervis, era a party of great importance in all Khem.

    Hathor. - Woman with head and cow ears and solar disk among the horns. The animal form is of cow, although he/she can appear (due to its many associations) as lioness, cat or female hawk.
Their name means: Mother of Horus (Hat Hor); their sacred tree is the sycamore. Related with Methyer (Great Wave) with the one that takes out in the sun of the watery abyss (Nun), holding it with the horns.
Goddess of the fertility, of the love, the music, the happiness and the dance. As Mrs. of the Mammisis it protects the mothers and children.
In the antiquity it represented to the sky, located and their paunch of starry cow; in their funeral shade he/she is the occident lady, The one that is in the Western Montaña", and acoje to the deceased to the evening.

    Bastet. - Cat or woman with cat head; it takes a sistro in a hand and a basket (for the breedings) in the other one. Already from the II D. it represented the maternal sweetness. Guardian of the home, but the children's ferocious defender.
Daughter of Atum, protects him of the snake Apofis with her claws. Through the Distant Goddess's myth, it is related with Sekhmet and, in Bubastis, he/she took place a party annual denominated Party of the Intoxication", in which big quantities of wine were consumed, remembering that the goddess was intoxicated to appease her anger and so that doesn't harm to the humanity.
In the goddess's temples cats were raised that were the incarnation of the divinity; to their death they were embalmed with all the cares and rites, and they were buried in a specific place of the necropolis.

    Bes. - Dwarf, bearded genius that takes out the language. Represented nude, it takes a crown of vertical feathers. He/she is the protective genius of the family; it protects the births and to the women gestantes. He/she is also related with the music, the dance and the intoxication. It takes as holding Mr. of Punt and Mr. of Nubia", of where their cult could come. He appears represented in multitude of amulets and in places that you/they need special protection (beds, reposacabezas, armchairs, mirrors) since it moves away the wicked geniuses.
    Their cult extended for the whole Mediterranean, v.g. Ibiza, Ebessus, the Island of the god Bes.

MAAT

    Maat is not only the name of a goddess -of the Truth and of the Justice -, implica  a quite complex notion and, in the texts, several definitions of the concept Maat is appreciated; we see:

       Fundamentally, Maat is the fair state of the nature and of the society, just as he/she wanted it and it fixed the creative act. It personifies what is exact, correct, the order, the right, the justice and the truth; for he/she is surrendered cult. Their older hieroglifo represents the perfect balance of the baseboard of the throne maybe; but then the scribes represented it like a youth taking as headdress the hieroglifo of its name: a right feather.

    Instituted at the beginning by the creative god as kind of a feminine logoses, the Maat is constantly guaranteed and restored by the king, as soon as god that is intimately together to him and he/she feeds of him.

    The Maat is also imposed to all individual like behavior norm, so much for the efforts that he/she must make like for what must avoid. It is not presented like a detailed law, but he/she receives a concrete content, diversified infinitely, in the daily life of each Egyptian. It will be spoken then of Maat point for the truthfulness of a testimony or the justness of a sentence like for the accuracy of a measure or the honesty of a treatment.

    The individual an intelligence effort can progress in the knowledge of the half Maat, by means of the welcome of a transmitted wisdom, but also for kind of a divine illumination.

    Stone of touch of the moral rightness before the human tribunals, the Maat also serves from approach to the god Ra, Mr. of the Maat, in the trial after the death.

BA, AKH, KA; the three essences of the spirit.

    The texts and the inscriptions of the Egypt relative faraónico to the survival of the individuals after the death point out us indirectly how the men from the Nile analyzed the human compound.

    When dying, the man's material element (djet) it is unfolded: the tangible cadaver remains in the sarcophagus and the impalpable projection of the body (khat) its stay begins in the Duat (region of Orión). The spiritual elements -three - they separate the cadaver equally: in the first place the ba, immaterial principle able to revive the cadaver, of making it «to leave to the light» under the form wanted by the deceased; then, the akh. «effective personality» that the king only possesses in life and whose function is the one of to illuminate and to glorify the deceased; finally and mainly the ka. force of life that assures the man at the same time their physical tonality and their spiritual existence of person. After the death, the ka. that one thinks that it resides in the funeral statue (statue of the ka), it awaits the deceased to meet with him and to deify it. For that reason they make an effort, by means of the embalm of the body, in preserving it of all decomposition; this way, the ba can encamarse again and the ka can inhale him its principle of life and to make it last thanks to the offerings in the tomb, its house of eternity.

Last revision: 270298. It will continue...

ICQ #9391677 Comments, errors, suggestions,... Thank you!

To return to the page beginning.

Book of Visits.

News (news) in the Web of Ptah.

This page hosted by Get your own Free Homepage