![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
This chapter opens with an explanation that gods radiate light, fire, and an aroma, all signs of their power: faced with a deity, humans feel awe, fear, and joy. The gods' most important gift is life, which they both give and sustain, for all beings - "As early as the Old Kingdom tomb reliefs show how the creator's loving care affects all of nature and provides nourishment even for the hedgehog in its nest. In New Kingdom solar hymns there is the image of the chick in the egg which the sun god enables to breathe and keeps alive." (I found an example of this online in a hymn to the Aten.) And of course the gods are frequently portrayed holding the ankh, the hieroglyph for life.
The idea of gods loving humanity, and vice versa, comes late into Egyptian religion. The appropriate responses are awe and joy. Nor do the gods demand tribute; after all, as Hornung points out, anything that humanity can offer the gods is going to be pretty paltry in comparison: "Before mankind gives anything, the gods have already given everything." (Cf the Aztec gods, who had to be sustained with sacrifices, or the world would end.) However, "Cult actions do not coerce but they do encourage the gods to show their gracious side". Sekhmet is "mollified" with beer in the Destruction of Mankind; in ritual wine is used to assuage angry deities, especially lioness goddesses. The gods have a dangerous, violent side, and can be extremely cruel, as in the treatment of sinners in the afterlife. The Egyptians didn't desire union with the divine, but to keep it at a safe distance.
Hornung talks about magic - specifically, the force or power emanated by every deity, which causes their word to come to pass. (Just as the king's word comes to pass - he is a god, after all.) Human beings were given magic to use in self-defence, much as Isis strikes Apophis with a blast of magic to protect the solar bark; but of course human magicians turn this around, and use magic to threaten even the gods. However, the will of the gods will always outweigh the will of human beings.
The Egyptians didn't need a theodicy: "Evil is inherent in the nonexistent and hence is older than the gods and present in the world from the beginning." Both gods and human beings have the responsibility to maintain maat, the order of creation; kings are represented offering maat (personified as the goddess Maat) to the gods, symbolising the partnership between gods and people. (Here's an online example - Ramses offering maat to Ptah.)
"The gods do not need any material gifts," concludes Hornung, "but they do need human response to their existence; they want to be experienced in the hearts of men, for only then does their work of creation acquire its lasting significance." In fact, "Lack of response and silence are characteristics of the non-existent".
Just two more chapters to go!
The idea of gods loving humanity, and vice versa, comes late into Egyptian religion. The appropriate responses are awe and joy. Nor do the gods demand tribute; after all, as Hornung points out, anything that humanity can offer the gods is going to be pretty paltry in comparison: "Before mankind gives anything, the gods have already given everything." (Cf the Aztec gods, who had to be sustained with sacrifices, or the world would end.) However, "Cult actions do not coerce but they do encourage the gods to show their gracious side". Sekhmet is "mollified" with beer in the Destruction of Mankind; in ritual wine is used to assuage angry deities, especially lioness goddesses. The gods have a dangerous, violent side, and can be extremely cruel, as in the treatment of sinners in the afterlife. The Egyptians didn't desire union with the divine, but to keep it at a safe distance.
Hornung talks about magic - specifically, the force or power emanated by every deity, which causes their word to come to pass. (Just as the king's word comes to pass - he is a god, after all.) Human beings were given magic to use in self-defence, much as Isis strikes Apophis with a blast of magic to protect the solar bark; but of course human magicians turn this around, and use magic to threaten even the gods. However, the will of the gods will always outweigh the will of human beings.
The Egyptians didn't need a theodicy: "Evil is inherent in the nonexistent and hence is older than the gods and present in the world from the beginning." Both gods and human beings have the responsibility to maintain maat, the order of creation; kings are represented offering maat (personified as the goddess Maat) to the gods, symbolising the partnership between gods and people. (Here's an online example - Ramses offering maat to Ptah.)
"The gods do not need any material gifts," concludes Hornung, "but they do need human response to their existence; they want to be experienced in the hearts of men, for only then does their work of creation acquire its lasting significance." In fact, "Lack of response and silence are characteristics of the non-existent".
Just two more chapters to go!
