Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} by Simon Goodenough Egyptian Mythology by Simon Goodenough. (Menew, Menu, Amsu) was an ancient Egyptian god whose worship dates back to the predynastic times. His early images are the oldest examples of large scale statuary found in Egypt so far. He was worshipped by King Scorpion of the Early Dynastic Period and his symbol appears on the El Amrah palette (which is also known as the min palette). His cult may have developed from the worship of his fetish, which was thought to be a barbed arrow, a thunderbolt, or a fossilized belemnite (an ancient relative of the cuttlefish). As time progressed, he was given a human form and represented by the Min standard which resembles a double-headed arrow on a hook. Alternatively, Min initially represented the constellation Orion and was thought to control thunder and rain (linking him to ). This connection with Orion also connected Min with because the three were depicted with their arms raised above their head (a pose linked to the “smiting” pose of the pharaoh) and later provided a connection with . Min continued to be associated with Horus until the Middle Kingdom when he became more closely associated with fertility and the solar aspects of Horus were emphasised. Min was associated with during the New Kingdom, partly because both were linked to the ram and the bull, both of which were seen as a symbols of virility. The composite god Amun-Min was known as Kamutef (“Bull of his mother”). In later periods, Min was linked to Reshep, the Semitic god of war and thunder. Both gods were thought to be married to Qadesh the Semitic love , although Min was often considered to be the child of Reshep and Qadesh. It is perhaps unsurprising that the Greeks linked Min to their fertility god, Pan. Because of this association, they renamed named Akhmim, Panopolis (city of Pan). He was a god of the Eastern Desert, and a god and patron of traveling caravans. A reference in the to “the one who raises his arm in the east” is thought to relate to Min. He offered protection to travellers and traders and was also worshiped by the miners and masons who worked around the Wadi Hammamat. In this area, he was known as “Min, the (foremost) Man of the Mountain”. His association with the desert led to an association with foreign lands and with the god Set. Although he was associated with the desert, Min was a god of fertility and sexuality. He was associated with the Egyptian long-leaf lettuce (also a favourite food of Set) which was considered to be an aphrodisiac, as it secreted a milky substance which was likened to semen. Min was often shown standing before offering tables, covered with heads of lettuce. At the beginning of the harvest season, Min’s statue was carried through the fields in a festival known as “the departure of Min”. Min blessed the harvest and the people held games in his honour, most of which involved the menfolk climbing a huge pole (which had a connection with fertility not unlike the maypole). It is thought that this related to the construction of a huge festival pavilion where the festivities were held. Min was closely associated with fertility and agriculture, and so with Osiris. In depictions of one of Min’s festivals, the pharaoh hoes and waters the ground while Min watches. In another, the pharaoh ceremonially reaps the grain. However, Min was not just a fertility god, but a patron of male sexuality who could help men to father children. When the pharaoh successfully fathered an heir he was identified with the god, and a virginal girl was sometimes called an “unploughed field”. As he represented male virility, it is not surprising that it was Min who presided over the Heb , in which the pharaoh ran a course carrying ritual objects to rejuvenate him and to prove his virility. During the New Kingdom, the pharaoh was expected to sow his seed metaphorically using plant seeds to prove that he was fertile, although some scholars suggest that the pharaoh was also expected to prove that he was still sexually potent by ejaculating. He was also a lunar god (relating him to moisture and fertility) and was given the epithet, “Protector of the Moon”. The last day of the lunar month was sacred to Min and by the Ptolemaic period, he was patron of the fifth month of the Egyptian calendar (called Tybi by the Greeks). Min was generally thought to be the son and husband of the goddess of the east, Iabet. However, in Gebtu (which was the cult site of both Min and ) Min was considered to be the husband of Isis and the father of Horus (again associating him with Osiris). In Memphis he was associated with as the composite god Ptah-Min. He was also linked to a number of leonine warlike (particularly ). As a result, the body of Min is sometimes given the head of a lioness. He was also associated with the composite deity –Isis–, known as “the Great Mother and Lady”. This deity was depicted as a winged goddess with leonine feet, an erect penis, and three heads (the head of a lion head wearing Min’s headdress, a woman’s head wearing the double crown of Egypt, and a vulture’s head wearing the red crown of Lower Egypt). Min was generally depicted as a mummiform human man with an ithyphallic (erect and uncovered) penis wearing a crown with two large feathers (like that of Amun). In his left hand he holds his penis (although this is usually only apparent in statues because of the perspective applied to two dimensional images in Egyptian Art) and in his right hand he holds a flail up above his shoulder. The flail represents Pharonic power and fertility (it was used to thresh corn and remove the husk) and it is suggested that the position of his arm replicates the stance associated with Orion and that the position of his arm in relation to the flail represents sexual intercourse (with the flail representing a vagina and his arm representing his penis). Min’s skin is black (linking him to fertile black soil). Occasionally, he wears a red ribbon which may represent sexual power. When he takes the form of Amun-Min, he sometimes wears a sun disk between the two feathers on his headdress. In both Akhmin and Coptos he was worshipped in the form of a white bull (representing virility) known as “Bull of the Great Phallus” and in Heliopolis he was associated with the bull cult. When he is represented as the constellation Orion he can be distinguished from Osiris because the three bright stars of Orion’s belt are made to represent his erect penis. Because of his rather noticeable genitalia, images of Min were subject to a great deal of damage at the hands of more prudish Christians immigrants and during the Victorian period Egyptologists regularly omitted the lower part of his body in photographs and drawings. In a final insult to the god, nineteenth century scholars mistranslated his name as Khem (or Chem meaning “black” in Egyptian). This was in fact one of his epithets which related to his fertility aspect because black was associated with the fertile soil of the Nile. This black soil was so central to the Egyptian way of life that the word also became a common term for the land of Egypt itself. Min’s cult center was Gebtu (Koptos), the capital of the fifth Nome of Upper Egypt, but in later times he was also associated with Khent-Min (Panopolis, Akhmim) the capital of the ninth Nome of Upper Egypt. Egyptian Mythology by Simon Goodenough. Mut (Maut, Mwt) was the mother goddess of Thebes (Waset, in the 4th Nome of Upper Egypt). The ancient Egyptians considered the vulture to be a protecting and nurturing mother, and so their word for mother was also the word for a vulture, “Mwt”. Mut was either depicted as a woman, sometimes with wings, or a vulture, usually wearing the crowns of royalty – she was often shown wearing the double crown of Egypt or the vulture headdress of the New Kingdom queens. Occasionally, she was depicted as a male, in part because she was “Mut, Who Giveth Birth, But Was Herself Not Born of Any”, and in part due to the superstitious belief that there were in fact no male griffon vultures (the male is almost identical in appearance to the female). In later times, Mut was depicted as a woman with the head of a lioness, a cow, or a cobra, as she took on the attributes of the other Egyptian goddesses. Mut replaced Amun’s earlier wife, Amanuet (the invisible goddess) during the middle Kingdom. Mut was believed to have existed since primeval times, existing along side Nun, the primeval waters (possibly because she replaced Amaunet who was one of the ancient gods of the Ogdoad – the great eight – who lived in the waters). She was initially worshipped as a local deity, but rose to prominence as the queen of the gods when her husband, Amun, became the foremost national god during the New Kingdom. Thebes became the capital of Egypt, and the Theban gods became the national gods. As a result, Mut was also closely associated with the queen, the mother of the nation. She was particularly popular with the queens of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth dynasties, most notably the Pharaoh Hatshepsut and Nefertari Merytnmut (“Nefertari, Beloved of Mut”) the Chief wife of Ramessess II. When her husband Amun merged with the sun god , as Amun-Ra, Mut inherited the title the “Eye of Ra” (a title also associated with Sekhmet, , , Bast, and , among others). The “Eye of Ra” was the daughter of Ra in the form of a lion who embodied the fierce heat of the sun. However, Mut was also “Mother of the Sun in Whom He Rises” – making her both the mother and daughter of the sun god. Originally (the Theban god of war) was considered to be their son, but he was replaced by (the moon god). The of Amun, Mut, and Khonsu were worshipped at the Temple of Amun at Luxor (Ipet-Resyt). Although her worship centred around Thebes, she was also worshiped in Djannet (Tanis), Zau (Sais), the Oases of Kharga, and Dakhla. Mut was also closely associated with a number of other goddesses such as Isis and , and was worshipped as a member of a number of composite deities. With Isis and Nekhbet she formed the deity called “Mut-Isis-Nekhbet, the Great Mother and Lady”. She was a winged goddess with leonine feet, an erect penis and three heads (the head of a lioness wearing Min’s double plumed headdress, the head of a woman wearing the double crown of Egypt, and the head of a vulture wearing the red crown of Lower Egypt). With Bast and Sekhmet she was Sekhmet-Bast-Ra, another three headed deity (the head of a lion with a plumed headdress, a woman wearing the double crown, and a vulture wearing the double plumed headdress). In this form she is described in the protecting the dead from being disturbed. She was also worshipped as Mut-Wadjet–Bast, Mut-Temt, and Mut-Sekhmet–Bast–Menhet. During the New Kingdom, one of the most popular holidays was the Festival of Mut in Thebes. A statue of the goddess was placed on a barque and sailed around the “Isheru” (the small crescent moon shaped sacred lake at her temple at Karnak). There was also a celebration during the New Year festival when the statue of Amun traveled from his temple at Luxor down to Karnak to visit her. Originally, this was for the fertility goddess Opet (possibly an aspect of ), as a way of ensuring fertility for the coming year. The temple, “Hwt-Mwt” (“the estate of Mut”) was situated to the south of the great temple of Amen-Ra, with an avenue of approaching it. She was worshiped there as “Mut, the Great Lady of Isheru, the Lady of Heaven, the Queen of the Gods”. Strangely, there are few representations of her in her vulture form in this temple. However, there are numerous depictions of her as Sekhmet, the “Eye of Ra” – a number of which seem to have been transported from Amenhotep III’s funerary temple on the west bank. It is thought that the temple was initially established by Hatshepsut and Thuthmose III, and then expanded by Seti I, Ramesses II, Ramesses III, and King Tarqa (25th Dynasty). She was worshipped up until the Roman period, when her temple fell into disrepair. Meskhenet. Meskhenet (Mesenet, Meskhent, Mesket, Meshkent) was a goddess of childbirth, a divine midwife, and protector of the birthing house. She was personified as the birthing brick on which ancient Egyptian women squatted while giving birth. Child mortality was high in the ancient world, and the Egyptians were very family orientated people, so the birth of a child was a time of great celebration but also a nervous time for the parents. As a result they called on the assistance of a bewildering number of gods including Meskhenet. For example, Hatshepsut recorded the attendance of a number of gods at her birth on the walls of her at Deir-el-Bahari including , Isis , , , Taweret, and Meskhenet. In the tale of Raddjedet and her triplets (also known as Khufu and the magician), the birth was attended by Khnum, Isis, and Nephthys but it was Meskhenet who proclaimed that each child would become pharaoh. Thus, Meskhenet was not simply a midwife. She was also a goddess of fate who could determine a person’s destiny. This connects her with (the god of destiny who determines the length of a person’s life) and indeed the two are often depicted together along with (who gave the child his or her secret name). She had the power to protect newborn babies and their mothers. Hatshepsut also claimed that Meskhenet promised to protect her “like Ra“. Meskhenet also appears in the Halls of Ma’at (with Shai and Renenutet) where she was thought to testify to the character of the deceased. This suggests that she offered her protection from birth to death and beyond, and that she could also assist in the deceased’s symbolic rebirth in the afterlife. Inscriptions in the temple of Khnum at Esna refer to “four Meskhenets” who accompanied Khnum and used magic to drive away evil spirits. Meskhenet was not particularly associated with any region or city, and no temples specifically dedicated to her have been discovered. However, she appears on birth bricks found all over the country and seems to have been a popular and respected deity. She was associated with the cow goddess Hathor, another goddess who was often depicted on the birth brick and was closely associated with childbirth. Furthermore, Meskhenet’s symbol was composed of two loops at the top of a vertical stroke thought to represent the uterus of a heifer. Her name means “birthing place” and she was generally depicted as a birthing brick with a human head, or as a woman wearing the headdress of a cow’s uterus. Egyptian Mythology. From the myths and legends of the ancient world to the verfied historical records of modern times, these inspiring volumes provide a window onto the past, enabling the reader to understand previous eras and the men and women who created them. This authoritative work provides a visual guide to Egyptian legend and lore. Brilliant full-color and archival photographs chronicle the remains of this mysterious civilization and capture the beauty that is Egypt today. Read More. From the myths and legends of the ancient world to the verfied historical records of modern times, these inspiring volumes provide a window onto the past, enabling the reader to understand previous eras and the men and women who created them. This authoritative work provides a visual guide to Egyptian legend and lore. Brilliant full-color and archival photographs chronicle the remains of this mysterious civilization and capture the beauty that is Egypt today. Read Less. All Copies ( 27 ) Softcover ( 3 ) Hardcover ( 24 ) Choose Edition ( 4 ) Book Details Seller Sort. 2006, New Line Books. Edition: 2006, New Line Books Hardcover, Good Details: ISBN: 1597641189 ISBN-13: 9781597641180 Publisher: New Line Books Published: 2006 Language: English Alibris ID: 16536898733 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: €3,65 Trackable Expedited: €7,30. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972. Used books may not include companion materials, some shelf wear, may contain highlighting/notes, and may not include cd-rom or access codes. Customer service is our top priority! ► Contact This Seller. 2006, New Line Books. Edition: 2006, New Line Books Hardcover, Good Details: ISBN: 1597641189 ISBN-13: 9781597641180 Publisher: New Line Books Published: 01/2006 Language: English Alibris ID: 16507480402 Shipping Options: Standard Shipping: €3,65. Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination. Seller's Description: Good. All pages and cover are intact. 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