Property of Sekhmet

Somewhere - and I am determined to find it again - I read that Apophis has one redeeming feature: that when it comes time for the cosmos to end, he's involved in the necessary process of destruction. That gives him a positive cosmic role, much as Set has a positive role in warding off Apophis's nightly attacks on the sun god. I mentioned this idea on Tumblr, provoking a great deal of alarm and warning that Apophis is strictly off-limits, which has only prompted me to start a little research project on the wriggly fucker. :) ETA: Eventually I figured out what I'd misremembered: Atum destroying creation and turning into a snake in BD 175.

Assmann, Jan. "The Iconography of the Solar Journey". In Egyptian solar religion in the New Kingdom: Re, Amun and the crisis of polytheism. London ; New York : Kegan Paul International ; New York : Distributed by Columbia University Press, 1995.

Apophis takes a thorough beating each time he attacks the sun-god, with numerous gods participating. In The Book of the Day, the fight is on at noon and through the early afternoon (the Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth hours). The battle is, naturally, referred to in language that "presupposes" the good guys win: "It is not the struggle that is represented here, but the state of the enemy defeated and harmony restored." The sun-god himself doesn't engage; Apophis is fought off with Isis's magic and Set's spear (or by Thoth's knife). The sun-god's protective uraeus spits fire at it, which Assmann connects to the noon heat of the sun and to sacrifice. The victory is less like a show of force, writes Assmann, and more like the execution of a judgement.

The place where the battle takes places is called the "sandbank", which Assmann connects to the Egyptian word for midday: "standstill". Apophis, as snake or turtle, has swallowed up all the water, leaving the solar barque high and dry; Seth stabbing Apophis forces him to vomit up the water so that the boat can be on its way. This "sandbank of Apophis" was also used as an expression for drought and famine: the stranding of the barque symbolises not just the daily battle, but any crisis which threatens life ("famine, disease, sickness, snake bite, uprising, war etc.") Hence spells which treat a scorpion sting or what-have-you as a cosmic disruption. There are also spells against Set' disruptive activities which invoke the same image of the stranding on the sandbank.

The victory is followed by general jubilation; Assmann quotes a celebration from the Book of the Dead of Nedjmet, and remarks that "Overcoming the obstacle of the sandbank means the salvation of Nedjmet."

Borghouts, J. F. The Evil Eye of Apopis. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 59 (Aug., 1973), pp. 114-150.

Another standstill is prompted by Apophis's hypnotic gaze. In the Coffin Texts (and in the Book of the Dead Chapter 108), when the solar barque comes in the evening to the mountain of B3ẖw, it encounters a thirty-cubit long snake (somewhere in the vicinity of 150 metres. Whew!). "A standstill comes about among the crew / and a great bewilderment (sgw.t) during the course." Boasting of his great magic, Set counters Apophis's gaze: "You who see from afar, / just close your eye!" (In Behind Closed Eyes, Kasia Maria Szpakowska describes this moment thus: "he was commanded to cease his malign gawking"). Borghouts notes that this is amongst the earliest examples of Set's positive role as the sun-god's protector. Also, he suggests that what's happening here is Apophis's attempt to steal or harm the Eye of Re with the use of his own eye. He discusses various other texts and spells which refer to the serpent's "face" (gaze) and to blinding him.

Discussing an image of Wnty (a frequent name for Apophis) in the form of a crocodile in the tomb of Ramesses IX, Borghouts notes that he's more usually associated with the tortoise and the scorpion. This crocodile figure vomits up the Eye of Re. Strikingly, this seems to be a positive role for Apophis: "The crocodile rather represents divine being, a kind of equal of Re, and the latter rejuvenates himself passing through its body. It looks like Re meeting his other, chaotic counterpart, but without feelings of enmity; is it the depth and the primeval surroundings meeting-place which annihilate the contrasts?" The serpents W3mmty, equated with Apophis, has a positive role, guarding the resting-places of the gods. The Nḥb-k3w and Ḏsr-tp serpents are ambiguous, sometimes equated with Apophis, at other times beneficent.

Finally, the ritual game where pharaoh hits a ball before a goddess has been interpreted as deflecting Apophis's eye! Significantly, it's done before Hathor, Tefnut, and Sekhmet - the Eye of Re.

Faulkner, R. O. The Bremner-Rhind Papyrus: III: D. The Book of Overthrowing 'Apep. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 23, No. 2 (Dec., 1937), pp. 166-185
-- The Bremner-Rhind Papyrus: IV. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Jun., 1938), pp. 41-53

I can't write a better introduction than Faulkner's: "The main purpose of these texts is the magical protection sun-god in his daily course across the sky from the attacks of the storm demon ʿApep... but they are secondarily directed to the protection of Pharaoh, the earthly representative of the solar divinity, from his foes also, 'whether dead or alive'." Significant passages, and the names of malevolent creatures, are written in red (though so is the name of Set, who acts as the sun-god's defender). Spells spit on, trample, spear, bind, stab, and set fire to Apophis; he is burned in effigy (drawn in green ink - interesting) both to ward off his attack on the barque and to prevent thunder-storms (I wonder if this signifies some connection with that other cosmic enemy, Set?). 

Quite a lot of telling Apophis to fall down, fall on his face, etc, which I suppose suggests the serpent is rearing up to attack. Sekhmet does a lot of burning, as do Wepes (Wepset?) and Pakhet, amongst others. In fact, Apophis is so comprehensively annihilated that it's surprising he keeps coming back for more. Given that so much of the spells is directed not at Apophis, but at the foes of pharaoh, I wonder if Apophis in fact symbolises those enemies -- and with the king of Egypt the lynchpin of cosmic order, those enemies must be constantly "annihilated" -- thoroughly defeated.

(Also in this papyrus: Re tells the story of creation, including his generation of Shu and Tefnut, their returning to him his Eye (or the Eye returning them to him, in a variation), and the creation of humanity from his tears.)

Morenz, Ludwig D. On the Origin, Name, and Nature of an Ancient Egyptian Anti‐God. Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 63, No. 3 (July 2004), pp. 201-205.

As it turns out, Apophis doesn't even turn up until the First Intermediate Period (as far as we know); the earliest attestation we have comes from a Ninth Dynasty tomb which mentions "the sandbank of Apophis". The practice of "mutilating" his name begins later, with the Coffin Texts (where it is apparently inconsistent), in which he increasingly appears during the Middle Kingdom. (Morenz suggests he might have been around before this in popular religion, and was incorporated into elite theology at this time.)

Apophis was not referred to as a god, and did not receive cult (and was therefore not represented by statues, though of course he routinely appears in art, eg tomb paintings). He dwelt in water (compare similar Ancient Near Eastern water monsters, such as Leviathan). His name, ʿ3pp, means something like "great babbler": he makes noise, but it is "anticommunication", just roaring or meaningless shouting. "Apophis is just noisy," remarks Morenz. (Interestingly, he also notes that the language of the gods was transcendent, something "transhuman".)

Pinch, Geraldine. Egyptian Mythology. Oxford University Press, 2002.

"Apophis was first mentioned in the twenty-first century BCE. A much later creation myth explained that Apophis sprang from the saliva of the goddess Neith when she was still in the primeval waters. Her spit became a snake 120 yards long." (This is the creation myth from Esna.) ETA: According to Mpay Kemboly, it was Re's spit, not Neith's.

Jan Zandee's Death as an Enemy gives numerous examples of Apophis being restrained and/or punished.

My last posting brought us to the end of Section A, "Death in Contrast With Life". Part B, "Dangers of the Hereafter", opens with a discussion of the location of the netherworld, then proceeds with a list of terms for afterlife hazards which in many ways repeat the contents of Part A. The deceased has to pass gates guarded by demons; may be deprived of their liberty, being bound or imprisoned; faces fire in numerous forms, and may even be cooked; may be cut or mutilated by demons, tortured, or slaughtered like a sacrifice; may be hunted or caught in a net; may be eaten; and journeys through dangerous places.

Section B.8 concerns "Dangers which threaten essential parts of the personality" - the b3, the k3, shadow, corpse, heka (magical power), name, and heart are all needed for the deceased's continued existence, and all are in danger in the netherworld.

B.12 - B.16 is a list of "beings to be feared". Dangerous animals include the crocodile, uraeus, lion, hippo, and snakes, and some surprising creatures, such as the grasshopper. Dead people could haunt the living and harm the dead. There's quite a roll-call of demons: torturers, various kinds of slaughterers, fighters; the messengers of Osiris, who try to seize the dead. The gods themselves may pose a hazard, amongst them Atum, Baba, Khonsu, Sekhmet, Set, Shu, Shesmu, and Thoth. Even Osiris has a "daemonical" side.

Sekhmet "is present in dangerous places in the realm of the dead, which the dead has to pass... About a fiery river near a gate... it is said: 'The third (river) is the fiery breath from the mouth of Śḫm.t [CT IV 329.k]... As raging lion-goddess she punishes the enemies of Re in the realm of the dead. 'You stand in the front of the boat of your father, felling the malicious one (Apophis) [which is so interesting that here's the entire footnote: BD 164; 415.4.11.12. See also H. Blok, AcOr VII, pp 98, 103, 108; Pl II]."

The term ḫfty "enemy" encompasses demons, "opponents in a law-suit", "opponents of Osiris", "Sinners as enemies of Re and Osiris", and a demon named Ḫfty.

Both the Book of Gates and the Amduat contain passages in which the drowned are restored. "They give the possibility that also for the drowned ones, who have not been buried ritually and for whom consequently the worst threatens, a favourable fate will still be possible in the realm of the dead." (pp 236-7)

Zandee, J. Death as an Enemy According to Ancient Egyptian Conceptions. (Studies in the Histories of Religions, Supplement to Numen, V). Leiden, E.J. Brill, 1960.

What else is death like? Like being bound or imprisoned: "Man cannot move any more and go where he wants." Spells protect the deceased from being fettered, tied, shut up, or waylaid. Sleep: more spells guard against tiredness and sleep. (Man, I could use some of that.) To be "snatched away" or stolen.

The next section is entitled "The realm of the dead as a place of darkness". "It is a dark place," writes Zandee, "where the light of the sun does not penetrate." A lament describes it as "deep and dark", without doors, windows, or light. "The sun does not rise there, but the dead lie in the dark all days." Various words for "darkness" crop up in spells, including kkw, familiar from the name of the primal gods Kek and Kauket. Demons lurk in the darkness.

Fire and darkness seem to be linked: in the Book of Two Ways, there is "the place of a spirit, which has fallen into the fire, which enters darkness"; in the same text there's the "gate of darkness, which is shut by a fiery door, on which the word śḏ.t, flame, is written. The [gate] is black, the door is of a red colour." But "[t]he dead overcomes the darkness to be with Re in heaven", and gods may light his or her path. "In the tombs of the kings the darkness is the residence of the king. They revive temporarily, as long as Re shines there." But Osiris's enemies "never catch sight of the sun".

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Zandee, J. Death as an Enemy According to Ancient Egyptian Conceptions. (Studies in the Histories of Religions, Supplement to Numen, V). Leiden, E.J. Brill, 1960.

The texts buried with the dead "deny with the greatest emphasis that he has died... By denying death they annihilate him and revive the dead." Such denials may be as simple as: "I do not die." (p 46)Zandee, J. Death as an Enemy According to Ancient Egyptian Conceptions. (Studies in the Histories of Religions, Supplement to Numen, V). Leiden, E.J. Brill, 1960.

 Zandee's brief notes on the many dangerous places of the netherworld lead into a longer section entitled "The Journey of the Dead". In the Pyramid Texts and the Coffin Texts, the king ascends to the sky. The Book of Two Ways describes "a black land by road and a blue road by water, which is only part of the whole complex. Sometimes a whole labyrinth is mentioned."

The deceased's journey may take him or her to Osiris, who may be located in "heaven" or in the Ḥtp-field; and to Re and his solar barque. Like someone travelling from town to town, the deceased might have to pass gates, using spells to "impose his will" on the "demoniacal gate-keepers". Other spells protected the deceased from various demons and dangers, such as a pool of fire. Another spell gains the use of a ferry-boat and helpful spirits in order to cross a stream on the way to the ʾI3r-w-field. Zandee points out the parallel journey of "the funeral procession and the funerary voyage".

The dead also face judgement, on the basis of their actions towards other people, and towards the gods and their cults. The most famous scene is in the Book of the Dead Chapter 125, in the "hall of the double truth" and its forty-two judges / executioners, in which the deceased makes the "negative confession", Anubis weighs their heart against the feather, and The Devourer eats anyone who fails to be acquitted. Various versions of the judgement are based on real-life Egyptian court hearings, with a judge (Osiris or Re), an "opposing party" (called ḫfty, "enemy"), there's a verdict, and so forth. Multiple spells prevent the dead person's own heart from giving evidence against them. Apparently the dead could bring court cases against each other in the hereafter! The deceased could also bring a case against a living person who interfered with the tomb, winning the right to "annoy, as a ghost, the tomb robber still living on earth".

I started this blog by reading an entire book and taking notes as I went along; I'd like to return to that process, at least more often, rather than quite so much scattershot stuff. So let's have a look at Jan Zandee's overview of thinking about death in Ancient Egypt.

He opens Chapter One by describing the two different ways in which the Ancient Egyptians thought about death. The "monistic view" is this: "Death is considered the necessary condition for eternal life... plants and crops mature and die down, but they spring up again from the seed which has been put into the earth and has died. After each setting the sun rises in the East through its own spontaneous power. This resurrection from death points to the fact that the secret of spontaneous life lives under the earth in the realm of the dead." This concept contrasts with the "dualistic view", in which "death is considered the enemy of life". Although Ancient Egyptian religion takes the monistic view, the dualistic view still crops up: the Egyptians enjoy life and want a long one. The various netherworld texts describe dangerous place where the soul risks complete destruction.

In the earliest writings about the afterlife, the Pyramid Texts and the Coffin Texts, only the king can ascend to heaven; the ordinary people stay in the lightless subterranean realm, where no-one eats, drinks, or has sex: "He who formerly walked on the earth, now walks with his feet against the bottom of the flat disk of the earth, as it were against a ceiling, head down." Spells in various texts help the deceased ward off this doom, and the similar topsy-turvy fate of having to eat excrement. Later, this condition is reserved for the damned.

Next: "Views based on direct observation of death as a physical phenomenon." Should be fun.

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Zandee, J. Death as an Enemy According to Ancient Egyptian Conceptions. (Studies in the Histories of Religions, Supplement to Numen, V). Leiden, E.J. Brill, 1960.

Behold:



These figures appear on the back pillar of a magical healing statue, Turin 3031, which portrayed a man holding a Horus cippus. Only the lower part has survived.

If that's an accurate rendering of "Sekhmet the Great, beloved of Ptah", then her phallus seems to have slid down to her knees. Kákosy compares her to other lioness-headed, ithyphallic figures, from Karnak and Hibis, and also "the statue in Naples inv. 1065 back pillar right side ref V.1.", which alas I seem to have neglected to photocopy.

There are enough examples of this figure - the ithyphallic lioness-headed goddess - to say that it was definitely A Thing, a rare example of androgyny in Egyptian religion. But what did it mean to the ancients? If it's a syncretism between Mut or Sekhmet and a specific male god or gods, then why not name them? Perhaps it was comparable to pantheistic figures - showing that the deity in question had the powers of all the gods, male and female?

ETA: Figures labelled as Sekhmet appear elsewhere on the same statue - which makes sense for a goddess associated with sickiness and healing. The goddess takes various forms: holding two snakes; holding a long double-headed snake ("Sekhmet who subdues the Rebel"); as a lion-headed uraeus, presented with the wedjat by a baboon (presumably a reference to the tale of the Distant Goddess); and as a lion lying on a shrine, wearing the atef crown ("Sekhmet the Great who dwells in the City" (perhaps Thebes)).

Nefertum also makes multiple appearances, firstly to the left of Horus on the cippus, in the form of a lotus with tall plume hung with two pairs of menits. The texts on the cippus which refer to this symbol name "Horus the Saviour", who Kákosy speculates was identified with Nefertem in this case. Kákosy writes that this symbol was "a potent emblem" and says that Nefertem and his lotus often appear in magic; Horus on the papyrus, which appears on the right side of the cippus opposite Neferterm's symbol as its "counterpart", "may have been the symbol of rejuvenation and freshness of health" as well as the union of male and female (many goddesses hold a papyriform sceptre).

There are several other interesting figures, such as Sobek pulling a snake out of his mouth and two cats flanking a sistrum. "Khonsu the Great who came forth from the Nun" appears in the form of a crocodile on a pedestal with a falcon-head and sun-disc emerging from its back.

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Kákosy, László. Egyptian Healing Statues in Three Museums in Italy: Turin, Florence, Naples. Ministero per i beni e le attività culturali, Soprintendenza al Museo delle antichità egizie, 1999.

Egyptian hieroglyphs at Mnamon: Ancient writing systems in the Mediterranean: A critical guide to electronic resources

A Very Remote Period Indeed: A blog reviewing recent archaeological publications having to do with Paleolithic archaeology, paleoanthropology, lithic technology, hunter-gatherers and archaeological theory.

Untangling an Accounting Tool and an Ancient Incan Mystery (NYT, 2 January 2016)

Diodorus Siculus describes the Assyrian king Sardanapallus (perhaps Ashurbanipal) as a transvestite / transgender bisexual and blames him for the destruction of the Assyrian Empire - although the Greek historian's account mostly sounds like a pretty ordinary war.

Ancient Egyptian herbal wines (Patrick E. McGovern, PNAS 106(18), 5 May 2009) | Archaeological team prepares 4,000-year-old Hittite meals (Slate, 8 September 2016)

Ancient 'Mad Libs' Papyri Contain Evil Spells of Sex and Subjugation (LiveScience, 20 May 2016)

Scientist debunks nomadic Aboriginal 'myth' (GA, 9 October 2007) | Waking our sleeping Indigenous languages: 'we're in the midst of a resurgence' (GA, 31 August 2016) | Indigenous Australians most ancient civilisation on Earth, DNA study confirms (GA, 21 September 2016) | World-first genome study reveals rich history of Aboriginal Australians (ABC, 22 September 2016) | Indigenous Australians know we're the oldest living culture – it's in our Dreamtime (GA, 22 September 2016)

How human sacrifice helped to enforce social inequality (Aeon, 8 June 2016)

The Exotic Animal Traffickers of Ancient Rome (The Atlantic, 30 March 2016)

Have archeologists found the only female ruler of ancient Canaan? (Jerusalem Post, 2009)

Scientists use 'virtual unwrapping' to read ancient biblical scroll reduced to 'lump of charcoal' (GA, 21 September 2016)

Over in Tumblr, my strange little hobby is trying to identify gods and demons in photos from Egypt. When the name is visible in hieroglyphs, of course, it's a pushover. At other times, I can only make an educated guess from other clues, because the iconography of many deities overlaps: Isis and Hathor; Amun and Khnum; Re and Ra-Horakhty; and the many lioness goddesses can look identical. I'm far less well up on the gods of the Levant, Phoenicia and Syria and Canaan and all that, but the problem of telling them apart seems to be even more pronounced, even for the experts. As Richard D. Barnett writes, "we have lost the keys for interpreting many of the bewildering variety of divine types".

So Barnett only "ventured to identify" one particular form of Phoenician goddess of the Iron Age with Anat (aka 'Anath): "a young girl, dressed in a long Egyptian woman's garment who wears either the great Egyptian triple version of the 'atef crown, called hm hm ('terrible'), or the 'atef crown on horns between two uraeus snakes". She also "wears an Isis-girdle, holds a shield and harpe and sometimes has a long dagger (or daggers) stuck in her girdle at her waist." Barnett describes this goddess as "partially transvestite": not only is she armed, but the hm hm crown is more usually seen on male gods, such as Osiris, Harpocrates, and Ba'al. This is a good match for the Anat of the Ba'al cycle, ready to avenge her brother's death, and representations of Anat from New Kingdom Egypt show her brandishing shield and weapons, as Barnett points out. (I'd add that it matches Papyrus Chester Beatty VII, in which Anat is described as "a woman acting as a warrior, clad as men and girt as women".) However, 'Ashtart (aka Astarte) was similarly depicted in Egypt: "it is clear that she and 'Anath often coalesced".

Barnett's goal is to trace the history of representations of Anat. The Iron Age in Phoenicia, 1200-500 BCE, roughly corresponds with the middle of the New Kingdom in Egypt through to the middle of the Late Period. Barnett writes that "the identification of Isis-Hathor with the Lady of Byblos goes back to the Middle Kingdom" and "the concept of 'Anath and 'Ashtart as war-goddesses is an invention of the Egyptian New Kingdom, and was not known in Phoenicia till the Iron Age." (There may be indications of it as early as the Hyksos period, however.) I guess this is a pretty good indication of the cultural exchange going on between Egypt and the Levant - iconography and gods being traded along with everything else. (Ugarit, however, predates the Iron Age, and 'Anat is pretty bloody warlike in the literature found there!)

It's also possible that 'Anath is represented in a different way - wearing Isis/Hathor's sun-and-horns headdress, flanking a god who could be Ba'al or Reshep, with a goat standing on its hindlegs on his other side. She embraces him (the god, not the goat). Apparently Anat and Hathor were identified with one another in second millennium BCE Syria. Barnett thinks it's more likely this goddess is 'Astarte. But he cautions that "Their roles and representations are in fact still at present very hard to distinguish. The distinction between the representation of the two sister goddesses is something of a mystery, which we are not yet in a position to unravel." Has it been unravelled a bit since 1978? Further investigation is indicated.

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Barnett, Richard D. The Earliest Representation of 'Anath. Eretz-Israel 14 1978, pp 28-31.

Ancient customer-feedback technology lasts millennia (New Scientist, 2 March 2015). Nanni wants a refund from Ea-nasir for these rubbish copper ingots.

The Newly Discovered Tablet V of the Epic of Gilgamesh (Ancient History etc blog, 24 September 2015). It revealed more details of Gilgamesh and Enkidu's battle with Humbaba in the Cedar Forest.

Summer Solstice – Season of Passion and Social Justice (Summer's Path blog, 6 July 2015). Sekhmet, the Ancestral Outraged Mother, and fighting for racial and sexual equality.

Grave of ‘Griffin Warrior’ at Pylos Could Be a Gateway to Civilizations (NYT, 26 October 2015)

Farmers Have Been Enjoying The Fruits Of Bee Labor For 9,000 Years (NPR, 11 November 2015)

Early captive carnivore remains found in ancient Mexican ruins (phys.org, 2015)

3,200-Year-Old Papyrus Contains Astrophysical Information about Variable Star Algol (scinews.com, 23 Decembe 2015): "Ancient Egyptians wrote Calendars of Lucky and Unlucky Days... The best preserved... is the Cairo Calendar dated to 1244 – 1163 BC (Ramesside Period). According to scientists at the University of Helsinki, this papyrus is the oldest preserved historical document of naked eye observations of a variable star, the eclipsing binary star Algol."

Early Egyptian Queen Revealed in 5,000-Year-Old Hieroglyphs (Live Science, 19 January 2016) "... one inscription the researchers found tells of a queen named Neith-Hotep who ruled Egypt 5,000 years ago as regent to a young pharaoh named Djer."

Discovery Of Ancient Massacre Suggests War Predated Settlements (NPR, 21 January 2016)

Ancient Babylonian astronomers used calculus to find Jupiter 1,400 years before Europeans (ABC, 29 January 2016)

Gobekli Tepe: The World’s First Temple? (Smithsonian, November 2008)

Rise of human civilization tied to belief in punitive gods (Science News, 10 February 2016)

Lost art of Aboriginal dendroglyphs revived by modern artist (The World Today, 19 February 2016)

Is the Moon seen as a crescent (and not a "boat") all over the world? (Ask an Astronomer) Had to include this because of Inanna's "crescent-shaped barge of heaven". :)