The Dash Between

Okay - work has been mad busy, so I haven't been able to focus on reviewing the festivals like I wanted to. Here's my efforts to catch up.

Yup - four festivals/ritual days - back to back to back. Let's see what I can dig up on each of them.


Day of Het-Hert (Hathor) (17 Pashons)

Het-Hert (more commonly known as Hathor) was originally a universal cow-goddess and symbolic mother of Pharaoh. She was also a daughter of Ra. The ancient Egyptians often chose animals to symbolize a deity´s properties, and as the wild cow was very protective about its calves, it was therefore a perfect ideal for maternal protectiveness and so was used in depictions for Het-Hert. Her forms were many, and she was frequently shown with a woman's head and a cow's ears. This can be found on pillar heads, like at Denderah and her image, smiling and naked, is often found decorating mirrors. Another often seen depiction of her is with a sun-disc surrounded by cow's horns on her head but also with a cow's head or in full bovine form. Also as a lioness, a snake and a tree nymph among the branches of the Sycamore, her sacred tree, which she shared with Aset in later periods. Her greatest influence was as a goddess especially for women, a patron of beauty, love, sexuality, joy, dance and music. At various periods she had a large female priesthood who acted as singers, musicians and dancers in temple rituals and processions. At Denderah Ihy, the personification of the jubilation associated with sistrum playing, is a child of Hathor and Horus. In her motherly aspect she protected pregnant women and children and at some of her temples people could get their dreams interpreted.

Day of Joy of the Ennead and crew of Ra (18 Pashons)

hmm.... I haven't found any explanations of this festival, so let's examine who the players are.

1) The Ennead.
There were several Ennead's in Ancient Egypt, and which one you were talking about depended on which temple center you were worshipping at.
The earliest and most important Ennead was the one of Heliopolis, the center of solar cult in Ancient Egypt. It consisted of the primeval god Atum (solar god), his two children Shu (air) and Tefnut (moisture), their offspring Geb (earth) and Nut (sky) and their children Osiris, Isis, Seth and Nephthys. Horus and Thot are sometimes also counted to this Ennead, which makes the actual number of gods greater than 9.
There was also the Theban Ennead, which consisted of as many as 15 gods, and the Ennead of Abydos, which only counted 7. I need to check my books at home, and get a listing of the netjer that were included in each Ennead.

2) The Crew of Ra
It was Maàt that guided the course of the boat. At the helm of the boat stood Thoth, representative of the moon, who symbolically stood next to Horus, who, in early egyptian myth, represented the sky, and whose dark eye was the moon. It was Horus who steered. Many of the other gods travelled in the boat with them, and one of them, possibly with the assistant Mehen (who may instead simply be nothing more than a boardgame), defended the boat from attack by the monster of darkness, who wished to devour Ra. In early mythology, it was Set who was the hero defending the boat, and Apep who was the attacker, but in later myth, after Set became regarded as evil, it was Thoth who defended and Set who was the demon. Temporary failure to protect Ra was said to be the cause of solar eclipses, and mere difficulty in doing so was said to cause bad weather.

Now, why exactly these two groups are joyful - I don't know - I'll have to do more research. Quick note to self: Get a good collection of Netjer Myths, and a copy of 'Going forth by Day' that was NOT translated by Budge.

Day of the counting of Tehuti (Thoth) who heard Ma'at (19 Pashons)

Now - in the last book that I read, by Mancini, she was saying that 'hearing' Ma'at wasn't actually an auditory process, and that 'hearing' Ma'at meant being able to properly transmit life energy - to bring it into yourself, and to be able to share it with others. The whole book basically said that the interpetations of the Weighing of the Heart scene were tainted by expections of material justice, while the Egyptians may have considered it a representation of transmutive ability. It was an interesting book, made some interesting points, and I'll definitely have to read it again - as well as get an idea of how other scholars view her conclusions. Anyhow!

Thoth/Tehuti/Thot/Djehuty was originally the deification of the moon in the Ogdoad belief system. Initially, in that system, the moon had been seen to be the eye of Horus, the sky god, which had been semi-blinded (thus darker) in a fight against Set, the other eye being the sun. However, over time it began to be considered separately, becoming a lunar deity in its own right, and was said to have been another son of Ra. As the crescent moon strongly resembles the curved beak of the ibis, this separate deity was named Djehuty (i.e. Thoth), meaning ibis.
Thoth became credited by the ancient Egyptians as the inventor of writing, and was also considered to have been the scribe of the underworld, and the moon became occasionally considered a separate entity, now that Thoth had less association with it, and more with wisdom. For this reason Thoth was universally worshipped by ancient Egyptian Scribes. Also, he became credited as the inventor of the 365-day (rather than 360-day) calendar, it being said that he had won the extra 5 days by gambling with the moon, then known as Iabet, in a game of dice, for 1/72nd of its light (5 = 360/72). When the Ennead and Ogdoad systems started to merge, one result was that, for a time, Horus was considered a sibling of Isis, Osiris, Set, and Nephthys, and so it was said that Hathor/Nuit had been cursed against having children during the (360) day year, but was able to have these five over the 5 extra days won by Thoth. I REALLY have to get a good collection of myths!
Thoth was inserted in many tales as the wise counsel and persuader, and his association with learning, and measurement, lead him to be connected with Seshat, the earlier deification of wisdom, who became said to be his daughter, or variably his wife.


Ma'at judges the souls before the Netjeru (20 Pashons)

This one is almost TOO easy - it had to be a festival for this:



perhaps celebating and honoring the souls who had passed the weighing, as well as prayers/rituals to help the souls of those who had recently died pass through the process.


After these four back to back to back to back festivals, there is a break, and the next festival isn't until 30 Pashons.

So - notes to myself about stuff I still need - I'm SUCH a hopeless researcher, and - there are Four THOUSAND years of - history/change/faith to attempt to review and understand. Thankfully, the Egyptian culture in most ways stayed pretty much the same from beginning to end. Not so happily, their faith was - amazing fluid, and not only allowed for different interpetations of the same myth (or even entirely different myths addressing the same situation) but also 'adopted' the gods of other cultures with barely a blink. So - just to remind myself - first, I have to get an understanding of their world view, THEN I have the proper foundation to fully understand their faith. Patience, lotusflower, patience!
1) A good collection of creation/interaction myths.
2) A copy of 'Going forth by Day' (which was their name for the better known 'The Book of the Dead') that was NOT translated by Budge.
3) A basic overview of the various temple centers and their - ebb and flow.