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This chapter opens with a discussion of early representations of gods as animals and "fetishes, such as objects on carrying poles. To the earliest Egyptians, argues Hornung, animals seemed "to be the most powerful and efficacious beings, far superior to men in all their capacities". As human beings gained "a new self-awareness" in historical times, deities became more human in appearance.
Hornung makes an interesting point that gods represented without limbs aren't being depicted as mummies, since they were shown that way long before mummification was practiced; throughout the book he refers to gods such as Ptah as being depicted "without indication of the limbs" rather than as mummies.
This chapter deals with something I've been curious about for a while - the depiction of Egyptian gods with animal heads, and whether this was symbolic or metaphorical, or the god's "true" form. Hornung points out, for example, that the same god can be depicted in multiple ways, giving Hathor as an example - she may be depicted as a human woman with a headdress of cow horns and a sun disc; as a cow; a cow's head with a human face; and sometimes as a woman with a cow's head, amongst other forms. "We should not, therefore, assume that the Egyptians imagined Hathor as a woman with a cow's head. It is more plausible to see the cow as one possible manifestation of Hathor, and the cow's head and cow's horns as attributes that allude to a manifestation of the goddess or part of her nature... Any iconography can be no more than an attempt to indicate something of her complex nature." In other cases the deity carries their attribute, or it appears as a hieroglyph on their head, as with Isis' throne or Geb's goose, like a sort of caption. For the Egyptians the true forms of the gods were "hidden", "mysterious".
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I've finished reading the book, but the remainder of these summaries will need to wait until after our overseas trip. In the meantime, though, here are a couple of thealogical snippets:
"In the cult wine is used for the ritual assuaging of deities, especially goddesses in lioness form." (p 205)
[Discussing the way in which multiple deities are called "king of the gods"] "... even the lioness Pakhet, who is worshipped in the vicinity of Beni Hasan as both a dangerous and a helpful local deity, is given the title 'chief (h.rjt) of all the gods' on a scarab in the Groppi collection; her elevation may be related to her importance in funerary beliefs from the time of the Coffin Texts, and later at the royal court of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth dynasties." (p 234)
Hornung makes an interesting point that gods represented without limbs aren't being depicted as mummies, since they were shown that way long before mummification was practiced; throughout the book he refers to gods such as Ptah as being depicted "without indication of the limbs" rather than as mummies.
This chapter deals with something I've been curious about for a while - the depiction of Egyptian gods with animal heads, and whether this was symbolic or metaphorical, or the god's "true" form. Hornung points out, for example, that the same god can be depicted in multiple ways, giving Hathor as an example - she may be depicted as a human woman with a headdress of cow horns and a sun disc; as a cow; a cow's head with a human face; and sometimes as a woman with a cow's head, amongst other forms. "We should not, therefore, assume that the Egyptians imagined Hathor as a woman with a cow's head. It is more plausible to see the cow as one possible manifestation of Hathor, and the cow's head and cow's horns as attributes that allude to a manifestation of the goddess or part of her nature... Any iconography can be no more than an attempt to indicate something of her complex nature." In other cases the deity carries their attribute, or it appears as a hieroglyph on their head, as with Isis' throne or Geb's goose, like a sort of caption. For the Egyptians the true forms of the gods were "hidden", "mysterious".
___
I've finished reading the book, but the remainder of these summaries will need to wait until after our overseas trip. In the meantime, though, here are a couple of thealogical snippets:
"In the cult wine is used for the ritual assuaging of deities, especially goddesses in lioness form." (p 205)
[Discussing the way in which multiple deities are called "king of the gods"] "... even the lioness Pakhet, who is worshipped in the vicinity of Beni Hasan as both a dangerous and a helpful local deity, is given the title 'chief (h.rjt) of all the gods' on a scarab in the Groppi collection; her elevation may be related to her importance in funerary beliefs from the time of the Coffin Texts, and later at the royal court of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth dynasties." (p 234)
