FREEMASONRY, MOZART AND ALIEN CONSPIRACIES

SETI I

Dr. Nicky Nielsen

uch is known about the life and achievements of King I, the second ruler of the 19th Dynasty and the father of the Great. However Seti has M also been bizarrely associated with pseudo- archaeology and mysticism for several centuries. This article will attempt to follow the meandering roads of masonic rituals, alien conspiracies and downright fakery which have dogged the memory of one of Egypt’s greatest rulers. © JEFFREY ROSS BURZACOTT

44 NILE #15 | AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2018 METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART. PURCHASE, EDWARD S. HARKNESS GIFT, 1926. ACC. NO. 26.7.919 NILEMAGAZINE.CO.UK hotep III( ,“Lord of Truth is Re”). “Established is Manifestation the of Re”) and Amen- Thutmose rulers: Dynasty III ( prenomens the a mix,between of two important 18th- “Established is Truth the of Re”. This name is an amalgam, name the choice of illuminating. is particularly He chose prenomen (throne name) and name). (birth Seti’s royalup full their titulary. Most important were the helmthe of an ailing superpower. worldthe stage—a young man in his early twenties at years on throne the onto and was thrust suddenly Seti Egypt’s borders. after Idied Ramesses than less two expeditions againstmilitary nomadic to close tribes as his father’s and small-scale undertook also short up headed reign state the Seti administration Regent and Heir Apparent. his During father’s soldier’sthe Prince the son, Seti became su took throne the Iand as Ramesses Seti, at .Seth easternin the near cult-site the of of Seth”—a god) (the hint to his birth Commander”, “Master of Horse” and “High with his father, holding titles such as “Fortress andvizier chosen successor. rose along Seti hierarchy, eventually becoming ’s With Horemheb’s ascent, Paramessu rose inthe reignsthe of , and Horemheb. Paramessu commander was amilitary during S FATHER OFGREATNESS eti Iwas noteti king. His to born be father, primary godsandthedeifiedSeti Ihimself. Chapel ofIsis,onesevenchapels builttohonoursix Abydos. Belowthewindowwe see theentranceto nate theSecondHypostyleHall oftheSetiITempleat window toillumi- a clerestory through pierce Sunbeams in theking’sburialchamber. hundredsoffaienceshabtisfound in by Belzoni the interest ery in1817. The ancientthieves,however,showedlittle ary goodsremainingintactforGiovanniBelzoni’sdiscov funer king’s ofthe few with Kingdom, New late the during ’sValley oftheKings tomb(KV 17) hadbeenplundered All Egyptian rulers chose five rulers Egyptian namesAll which made When Horemheb childless, died Parames Menmaatre , OPPOSITE PAGE V THIS PAGE

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45 46 , temple his mortuary and addi inQurna several himself ofto course), Seti Great the Hypostyle Hall in country. A great temple at Abydos dedicated to (and ambitious programme of construction throughout the managed to regain. after his death Ramesseswhichson,and II, his never —a control would which slip from Egypt’s grasp shortly region of Amuru and strategically the citadel vital of Qadesh controlsecured decisiveSeti Afterseveral victories, the of brought him onto a collision course with Hittite the Empire. Nubia. His exploits inmodern-day Lebanon and into Levant the and Libya, as well as quelling a rebellion in aggressive foreign policy, campaigns military leading several aims.achieving both as Amenhotep III.Arguably, he was quite in successful as Thutmose leader great III, amilitary andgreat as a builder the temple. from thesacredwellforreplenishmentofwaterin assignedtoSetiI’scultwouldfilllibationvessels well atSetiI’smemorialtempleontheWestBankLuxor. dominant familytraitoftheRamessidekings. profile—particularly theaquilinenosewhichbecamea Images ofSetiIareoftenrecognisablefromhisdistinctive Alongside his active foreign policy, began an also Seti From first year very the Seti of his pursued reign, an With that he signalled name wishedas this to be Seti Although hedidn’treignformanymorethanadozen This reliefiscarvedonawallsurroundingthesacred - THE ITALIANSTRONGMAN grander fashion,upanddowntheNile. including thisone,andwentonglorifyhimselfinamuch forge aneternalconnectionbetweenthegodandking. Karnak TempletovarioustemplesontheWestBank where thesacredbarqueofAmun-Rewasparadedfrom west bankstopoftheannual“BeautifulFeastValley”, the WestBanktoperpetuatehismemory.Thiswasfirst years, hecommissionedanimpressivememorialtempleon ans as perhaps “the most colourful man ever to rob an world: Giovanni Battista Belzoni. Judged by some histori most to spread fame the of monarch this throughout the complete without mention of man the did more who than Any discussion of life the and death I would of in- be Seti go for on Egypt to rule an astonishing 68years. his which would son, Ramesses, build his own career and I’s Kings.the Seti reign successful laid foundations the upon beautifully decorated tombs constructed Valley inthe of was laid to rest in KV 17, one of largest the and most sibly due to complications arising from arteriosclerosis. He brief. After only eleven years throne,the on pos he died, tian landscape. some of monumental the fingerprintsEgyp he left the on tions to temple the of Re-Horakhty at Heliopolis, are only Ramesses IIfinishedoffmanyofhisfather’sprojects, However, like his father, Seti’s reign too would all be NILE #15 | AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2018 NILE #15|AUGUST–SEPTEMBER - - - © YVONNE BUSKENS-FRENKEN Always the showman, Belzoni opened his 1821 London exhibition (see page 49) with great flourish: the public unwrappings of a human , and that of a monkey. Inspired by the event was Horace Smith, a British poet who, four years earlier, had engaged in a sporting sonnet competition with his friend, Percy Shelley. Their subject was the “Young Memnon”, a colossal bust of Ramesses II that Belzoni had hauled from the Rames- seum to the Nile, and was slowly making its way to London. While Smith’s effort is largely forgotten, Shelley produced the famous Ozymandias. Now, in 1821, Horace Smith wrote, Address to the Mummy in Belzoni’s Exhibition, part of which is reproduced here: Speak! for thou long enough hast acted dummy; Thou hast a tongue—come, let us hear its tune. Thou’rt standing on thy legs, above ground, mummy! Revisiting the glimpses of the moon; Not like thin ghosts or disembodied creatures, But with thy bones, and flesh, and limbs, and features. Tell us—or doubtless thou canst recollect To whom should we assign the Sphinx’s fame? Was Cheops or Cephrenes architect Of either pyramid that bears his name? Is Pompey’s Pillar really a misnomer? Had Thebes a hundred gates, as sung by Homer?

This portrait of Belzoni was published in the late 18th/early 19th century. © RIJKSMUSEUM, AMSTERDAM

ancient Egyptian tomb”, Belzoni was born far from the shabtis which were standing around the king’s alabaster desert and the Delta in the northern Italian town of Padua sarcophagus. on 5 November 1778. He was the son of Giacomo Belzoni, Seti himself would remain in hiding for another 70 a barber who desired little more than for his son to follow years, ensconced in the Deir el-Bahari Royal Cache (DB in his footsteps and become a barber himself. But the 320) along with many other illustrious and priestly younger Belzoni had other ideas. At the age of 16, he left . Padua and travelled to Rome, where he claimed to have Three years after his momentous discoveries in the studied hydraulic engineering. , Belzoni published his memoirs, Nar- Leaving Rome to avoid a French army pressgang, Belzoni rative of the Operations and Recent Discoveries within the eventually arrived in London where, in 1802, he was em- Pyramids, Temples, Tombs, and Excavations, in Egypt and ployed as a strongman in Saddler’s Wells Theatre. In London Nubia; and of a Journey to the Coast of the Red Sea, in Search he also met his wife, Sarah with whom he travelled around of the Ancient Berenice; and Another to the Oasis of Jupiter Europe seeking circus and theatre work. Ammon to widespread acclaim. A year later, in 1821, Belzoni At the urging of Ismael Gibraltar, an envoy of the ruler staged a vast display in Hall in Piccadilly, of Egypt Muhammed Ali, the Belzoni’s travelled to Alex- London and recreated, using plaster casts, several rooms andria in 1815 and onwards to Cairo. After failing to impress from the tomb of Seti I (see pp. 49–50). the pasha with his hydraulic water wheel Belzoni found The plaster casts were accompanied by a plethora of employment with the British consul, Henry Salt. Together artefacts collected by Belzoni and the tall Italian himself, with Sarah, Belzoni travelled throughout Egypt securing garbed in Arab dress, with his long black hair and beard ancient artefacts for Salt’s growing collection. flowing down his shoulders, acted as host, guide and story- On 16 October 1817, Belzoni was in Thebes, working teller; every inch the showman. in the Valley of the Kings, or Beban el Malook as Belzoni referred to it. Less than a week before, he had found the paltry tomb of Ramesses I, which he wasted little time on. SETI THE FREEMASON? Instead, he told his workmen to focus their efforts on an While Belzoni’s discovery of Seti I’s tomb brought the king area some 15 feet (4.5 metres) from this tomb, an area to the attention of the broader public, some writings about Belzoni believed to be promising. Belzoni’s hunch proved his life had already begun to appear. These were largely right. His workmen uncovered the entrance to Seti’s tomb based on ancient authors who themselves were not too sure and Belzoni spent weeks exploring the tomb, drafting fac- about who Seti was or what he achieved during his reign. similes of the decoration and collecting the hundreds of The Egyptian priest , who lived during the

NILEMAGAZINE.CO.UK 47 “Of all the noises known to man,” wrote French playwright perfectly. The sets that the German stage designer had Molière, “opera is the most expensive.” While this was created were the most spectacular and “Egyptianesque” yet written around 150 years before Simon Quaglio’s version of (above). Quaglio was inspired by the sensational discovery The Magic Flute, it describes his 1818 Munich production of Seti I’s tomb the year before by Belzoni.

early Ptolemaic Period (ca. 300 b.c.), ascribed Seti with a Zauberflöte, or The Magic Flute, which premiered in 1791, completely overstated reign of 51 or even 55 years. The sixty years after Terrasson penned his book (see above). first-century scholar Josephus quoted Manetho in hisContra Seti’s links to Freemasonry were further explored by Apionem and relates the story of a 19th-Dynasty ruler by the American author and medical doctor John Adam Weisse the name of “Sethos”, whom Manetho seems to have mis- (1810–1888) who in 1880 published The Obelisk and Free- takenly considered the son of Harmesses Miamun—a king masonry According to the Discoveries of Belzoni and Com- who had ruled for 67 years (evidently Ramesses II, who mander Gorringe. Also Egyptian Symbols Compared with ruled for 68). He claimed that the power of Sethos lay in Those Discovered in American Mounds. This is a frankly his cavalry and his fleet, and that he undertook many perplexing work in which the author argues that Seti’s tomb campaigns including against Cyprus and the Lebanese city should be renamed “The Masonic Temple of Seti I and states. He also claimed that Sethos’ nickname was Aegyp- Ramesses II”, and claims that the kilts commonly worn by tus, and that the land was named after him. This story is Egyptian in sculptures and reliefs were in fact largely fantasy. Masonic aprons. Another blatant fantasy is the novel Life of Sethos, Taken The book also includes a series of rather opaque calcu- from Private Memoirs of the Ancient Egyptians, published lations, which aim to numerically link the measurements in 1731. It was written by the French priest Abbe Jean of Egyptian obelisks to various stones found in or around Terrasson (1670–1750) and claims to tell the story of Seti’s Native American burial mounds. The author goes on to early life and upbringing on the basis of “ancient manu- describe several conversations he claims to have had with scripts” entrusted to the author. It follows Seti as he is in- Sarah Belzoni, including one in which he alleges that she ducted into the mysteries and rites of the ancient Egyptian entrusted several mysterious documents to him. These were religion, which Terrasson mixed and merged with the arcana documents that she had inherited from Giovanni prior to of Freemasonry. Despite the completely fictitious nature of his death, and which, very conveniently, supported Dr. the novel, Terrasson became accepted as a specialist in Weisse’s outlandish theories. Egyptian religion and the novel eventually served as the Weisse was writing at a time when the relationship inspiration for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s opera Die between the Catholic Church and various Masonic lodges

48 NILE #15 | AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2018 In October 1817 Giovanni Belzoni discovered the spectacular Tomb of Seti I in the Valley of the Kings. Throughout the following year, he and his hired assistant, Alessandro Ricci, produced a colourful record of some of the tomb’s wall relief paintings. These formed the basis of a reconstruction of two of the most important of the tomb’s rooms, together with a scale model of the whole tomb, which was exhibited at the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly in 1821. It may not seem so in the images on this page, but the wall reliefs on the Piccadilly “tomb” were highly accurate: produced from moulds made from the original tomb decora- tion. They were then hand painted, referencing the watercolours made by Ricci and Belzoni. Many of Belzoni and Ricci’s original water- colours were acquired by the Bristol Museum in 1900, and remain in the collection today.

© BRISTOL CULTURE / BRISTOL MUSEUMS, GALLERIES & ARCHIVES. CAT. NO. H5040.

The 1821 Piccadilly exhibition was a huge success. Belzoni’s gas-lit facsimiles fascinated almost 2,000 fash- ionable Londoners on the first day. This image of London’s A-list enjoying the two chambers that made up the “tomb” was part of a large newspaper feature that described how, “within the last few years. . . an unconquerable zeal to explore those mysterious remains of antiquity has mani- fested itself. . . . Foremost in this host of talent and enterprise will ever stand the name of Belzoni, a man seemingly destined by nature for this species of research; for, in addition to the most ardent zeal and undaunted courage, he possesses prodigious personal powers, being of the amazing height of six feet seven inches, and of proportionate strength and muscular energy.”

NILEMAGAZINE.CO.UK 49 50 that order Rosicrucian the of Freemasons founded had been American Freemason claimed who Harvey Spencer Lewis, NewEgyptian Kingdom royalty was made in1916by the mutual protection and charity.” andarts, of holding together more the advanced minds for means of promoting civilisation, fostering mechanical the a result, had, author’s inthe freemasonry words, the “been founders very the messes of II, had been Freemasonry. As great men throughout history, including I and Seti by Catholic the masonry Church by claiming that many his intention was to argue against of persecution the Free of Dr.purpose Weisse’s rambling dissertation, it that seems entirely fabricated. Taxilwhich freemasonry—exposés later admitted were lic Church by writing increasingly outlandish “exposés” of notoriety and open the support of members of Catho the known French fraudster, Taxil, Leo gained significant both grotesque interludes as “The Taxil Hoax” whichduring a latterthe of centuryand part 19th the include such rather Grand Orient would grow increasingly hysterical during relationship Church the between and Order the of the represented a“Synagogue of Satan” ( against and freemasons, freemasonry whom he claimed Pope Pius IXhad issued numerous rather bulls virulent was at low. an all-time Throughoutthe 1860s and 1870s, Robinson, hadneverbeentoEgypt(notmanypeoplein Description del’Égypte product ofNapoleon’sill-fatedexpeditiontoEgypt, of thefirstmajorbuildingstobeinfluencedbygreat The EgyptianHallinPiccadilly,completed1812,wasone So while it may while difficult to So seem unpick the precise A similar connection between freemasonry and ancientA similar connection freemasonry between . Thedesignerofthehall,Peter Etsi MultaEtsi , 1873).The - - - setting forBelzoni’sblockbusterexhibition. and fauxhieroglyphs.Nineyearslater,itmadetheperfect façade withgrandtemplepylons,papyruscolumns,statues detailed artworkintheDescription,creatinganeclectic the early19thcentury),butreliedonVivantDenon’s NILE #15 | AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2018 NILE #15|AUGUST–SEPTEMBER

THE EGYPTOLOGY LIBRARY OF PEGGY JOY © BASPHOTO

The infamous “helicopter inscription” at Abydos. This presents proof of time travel, with the ancient Egyptians limestone architrave which supports the roof of the First having been visited by advanced beings and being brought Hypostyle Hall of the Seti I Temple is decorated with advanced technology from the future. In fact, the glyphs hieroglyphs in which some recognise modern machines are a result of recarving by Ramesses II, to superimpose his such as a helicopter and a submarine. Some fancy that this titulary on that of his father.

on Thursday April 1st 1489 b.c. by Thutmose III. to extra-terrestrial intelligence—particularly in less salubri- Conspiracy seems to dog Seti’s inheritance even into ous sectors of the World Wide Web. the present day. His association with Freemasonry at the One of the most enduring of these modern conspiracy pens of Terrasson and Weisse have led to modern con- theories concerns Seti’s great temple at Abydos: it holds spiracy theorists to link him with everything from Satanism that some of the signs and depictions carved into the walls are not hieroglyphs, but rather depictions of helicopters and alien spacecraft (above). The inscriptions in question were carved during the reign of Seti I, but later plastered over and recarved by his successor Ramesses II. The partial removal of some of the plaster has created optical illusions which some have interpreted as modern machinery de- picted on ancient monuments. Several of the images pur- porting to show this phenomenon have also demonstrably been edited and retouched in order to make this effect more noticeable and trick the casual observer. Seti has in some ways been punished quite harshly by history. Despite a very successful reign, he was overshad- owed by his famous son. Ramesses II’s astounding 68-year -long reign allowed him to establish himself as the very archetype of an Egyptian —the greatest warrior and builder in Pharaonic history. In terms of scholarly reception, Seti has barely received a hundredth of the attention lavished upon his son. However, within the arcane world of freemasonry, alien conspiracies and occultism, Seti has been a dominant figure for several centuries—for better, or, perhaps more likely, for worse.

DR NICKY NIELSEN obtained a in Egyptian Archaeology before progressing to his Masters and PhD in Egyptology at LiverpoolDR University. He is nowNICKY a NIELSEN is a Lecturer in Egyptology at the University Pharaoh Seti I ruled Egypt for only 11 years of Manchester, as well as Honorary (1290-1279 BC), but his reign marked a Fellow at the University of Liverpool revival of Egyptian military and economic and Field Director of the Tell Nabasha power, as well as cultural and religious life. archaeological excavation in northeastern First full-length, popular biography of Lecturer in Egyptology at the Seti was born the son of a military officer in Egypt. He has published a number of this neglected ruler northern Egypt, far from the halls of power academic papers as well as articles in in Memphis and Thebes. However, when the popular magazines in the UK, USA and last king of the 18th Dynasty, Horemheb, his native Denmark, on topics spanning • died without an heir, Seti’s father was named Egyptology,University Roman history, British naval of Manchester. He king. He ruled for only two years before history and Viking culture. dying of old age, leaving Seti in charge of an Overshadowed by his son, Ramasses II (the Great), ailing superpower. Seti about rebuilding he is here given his due for laying the Egypt after a century of dynastic struggles is the author of Pharaoh Seti and religious unrest. He reasserted Egypt’s foundations for his son’s greatness might with a series of campaigns across the Levant, Libya and Nubia. He despatched expeditions to mine for copper, gold, and • quarry for stone in the deserts, laying the I: Father of Egyptian Greatness foundations for one of the most ambitious building projects of any Egyptian Pharaoh Seti inherited a kingdom beset by external and his actions allowed his son, Ramesses the Great to rule in relative peace and stability threats and internal weaknesses but left it for 69 years, building on the legacy of his which will be published in father. A poster advertising the publication of Les Mystères de in a position of unprecedented strength Jacket design: Dominic Allen

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NILEMAGAZINE.CO.UK 51 The way in which Egyptian art is represent- ed changes over time— influenced by the cultural attitudes (and talent of the copyest) at the time. This rather unsophisti- cated watercolour of a column scene from the Tomb of Seti I was made by Belzoni himself. It shows the goddess Hathor welcoming the king into the underworld and holding out her menat necklace as a symbol of her protection. A decade later, Champollion’s expediton made a more scholarly FROM “NARRATIVE OF THE OPERATIONS AND RECENT DISCOVERIES WITHIN THE PYRAMIDS, TEMPLES, TOMBS study (below). AND EXCAVATIONS IN EGYPT AND NUBIA”, GIOVANNI BELZONI, 1820. HEIDELBERG UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

Champollion was joined on his 1828 Egyptian tour by a French artist named Alexandre Duchesne who drew the same image of Hathor and Seti I. So brilliant was the decoration that Champol- lion felt compelled to remove a section for the Egyptian collection at the Louvre. The panel was already damaged when Champollion first saw it (floodwater poured in not long after Belzoni opened the tomb), so he may have been sincere when, defending the removal, he claimed that he was, in fact, rescuing it. FROM “MONUMENTS DE L'ÉGYPTE ET DE LA NUBIE”, JEAN-FRANҪOIS CHAMPOLLION, 1835. THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

Working at at the time was British archae- ologist Joseph Bonomi, who learned of Champol- lion’s intent and urgently wrote to the Frenchman: “If it be true that such is your intention I feel it my duty as an Englishman and a lover of antiquity to use every argument to dissuade you from so Gothic a purpose. . . .” Champollion was unconvinced, and replied that he was, in fact, “acting as a real lover of antiquity, since I shall be taking them away only to preserve and not to sell. The relief was duly removed and restored (left), and today stands in the Louvre (Acc. No. B7). © RAMÓN VERDAGUER—CHRISTIANE MAQUET (SOLOEGIPTO)

52 NILE #15 | AUGUST–SEPTEMBER 2018