The similarities between and (河伯) Bohai,

Address: Industrial Park, Suzhou,

Abstract: the pronunciation of Hebo(河伯) is similar to the god-

Hapi(Hep), and Hebo( 河 伯 ) resembles Hapi in its functions and character.

The combination of and is similar to the

Egyptian hieroglyph , which means Hapi. So from hieroglyph, we can conclude that Hebo(河伯) is Hapi in China. Besides, animals as well as humans have been drowned in the river as sacrifices, including young women destined to become the god's wives, so this resembles the bride of the Nile. So from the above, we can get a hypothesis that

Hebo(河伯) is probably Hapi with Chinese characteristic. Hapi (Hep, Hap, Hapy) was probably a predynastic name for the Nile - later on, the just called the Nile iterw, meaning 'the river' - and so it became the name of the god of the Nile. ('Nile' comes from the

Greek corruption-Neilos-of the Egyptian nwy which means 'water'.) He was mentioned in the Texts ("who comest forth from Hep") where he was to send the river into the underworld from certain caverns, where he was thought to have lived at the First Cataract. The Nile was thought to have flowed from the primeval waters of Nun, through the land of the dead, the heavens and finally flowing into where it rose out of the ground between two mountains which lay between the

Islands of Abu () and the Island of -Rek (Philae). Hapi was also mentioned in the as a destructive power, but one that worked for the pharaoh. Homage to thee, O Hapi, thou appearest in this land, and thou comest in peace to make Egypt to live. Thou art the Hidden One, and the guide of the darkness on the day when it is thy pleasure to lead the same. Thou art the waterer of the fields which has created, thou givest life unto all animals, thou makest all the land to drink unceasingly as thou descendest on thy way from heaven.

-- Spence, L. 2008, Myths & Legends of , p. 171

Hapi

Hapi,the Nile god

Hapi, wearing the fish symbol of a local Without Hapi, Egypt would have died, and so he was sometimes revered even above Ra, the sun god. According to Donald A. MacKenzie

(1922), the "whitish muddy Nile may have been identified with milk".

Thus, these white, muddy waters that flowed from the breasts of Hapi were probably linked to nurturing and suckling, and thus also to fertility. At a very early period he absorbed the attributes of Nun, the primeval watery mass from which Ra, the Sun-god, emerged on the first day of the creation; and as a natural result he was held the father of all beings and things, which were believed to be the results of his handiwork and his offspring. When we consider the great importance which the Nile possessed for Egypt and her inhabitants it is easy to understand how the Nile-god Hapi held a unique position among the gods of the country, and how he came to be regarded as a being as great as, if not greater than Ra himself.

-- Tour Egypt, Hap, or Hapi, The God of the Nile Hapi was the god of the annual in ancient Egyptian religion. Its name in hieroglyph is . The flood deposited rich silt (fertile soil) on the river's banks, allowing the Egyptians to grow crops(Wilkinson, p.106).Hapi was greatly celebrated among the Egyptians.

Some of the titles of Hapi were "Lord of the Fish and Birds of the

Marshes" and "Lord of the River Bringing Vegetation". Hapi is typically depicted as an androgynous figure with a large belly and pendulous breasts, wearing a loincloth and ceremonial false beard(Wilkinson, p.107).

Hapi, bearing offerings The annual flooding of the Nile occasionally was said to be the Arrival of Hapi. Since this flooding provided fertile soil in an area that was otherwise desert, Hapi, as its patron, symbolised fertility. He had large female breasts because he was said to bring a rich and nourishing harvest. Due to his fertile nature he was sometimes considered the

"father of the gods"(Wilkinson, p.106), and was considered to be a caring father who helped to maintain the balance of the cosmos, the world or universe regarded as an orderly, harmonious system(Wilkinson, p.106). He was thought to live within a cavern at the supposed source of the Nile near (Wilkinson, p.108). The cult of Hapi was mainly located at the First Cataract named Elephantine. Its name in hieroglyphs is

. Known to the ancient Egyptians as Ibw "Elephant" (Middle Egyptian: /ˈʀuːbaw/ → Medio-Late Egyptian: /ˈjuːbəʔ/ → Copc:

/ˈjeβ/), the island of Elephantine stood at the border between

Egypt and Nubia.

Elephantine Island in the Nile,at Aswan, .

View south (upstream) of Elephantine Island and Nile, from a hotel tower. Hapi’s priests were involved in rituals to ensure the steady levels of flow required from the annual flood. At Elephantine the official nilometer, a measuring device, was carefully monitored to predict the level of the flood, and his priests must have been intimately concerned with its monitoring.

A nilometer (lower left) at Elephantine Island Although male and wearing the false beard, Hapi was pictured with pendulous breasts and a large belly, as representations of the fertility of the Nile. He also was usually given blue(Wilkinson, p.107) or green skin, representing water. Hapi was also both god of Upper and - this duality was shown by having twin Hapi deities, one wearing the papyrus of the north (Lower Egypt) as a headdress, the other wearing the south's (Upper Egypt) water lily (lotus) as a headdress. The Upper

Egyptian Hapi was called 'Hap-Meht' while the Lower Egyptian Hapi was known as 'Hap-Reset'. In Lower Egypt, he was adorned with papyrus plants and attended by frogs, present in the region, and symbols of it. Whereas in Upper Egypt, it was the lotus and crocodiles which were more present in the Nile, thus these were the symbols of the region, and those associated with Hapi there.

Hapi often was pictured carrying offerings of food or pouring water from an amphora, but also, very rarely, was depicted as a hippopotamus.

During the Nineteenth Dynasty Hapi is often depicted as a pair of figures, each holding and tying together the long stem of two plants representing

Upper and Lower Egypt, symbolically binding the two halves of the country around a hieroglyph meaning "union"(Wilkinson, p.107). This symbolic representation was often carved at the base of seated statues of the pharaoh(Wilkinson, p.107). ...the Egyptians had no clue how or why the Nile flooded each year. They believed that the gods , Satet, and Anqet were the guardians of the source of the Nile. Their duty was to make sure that the right amount of silt was released during the yearly inundation. Hapi was in charge of the waters that flowed during the floods. The flood was commonly known as the "arrival of Hapi".

-- McDevitt, A., Hapi Hapi was thought to come with the inundation (the 'Arrival of Hapi') with a retinue of crocodile gods and frog goddesses. A was known as a 'large Hapi', whilst a low flood was a 'small Hapy'.

During inundation, statues of Hapi were carried about through the towns and villages so that the people could honor and pray to him - it was a solemn occasion.

Ramesses III worshipping Hapi, who is wearing a papyrus headdress Even Akhenaten, the 'heretic king', could not banish Hapi completely as he did with the other gods. Instead, he tried to suggest that Hapi was an incarnation of the Akenaten himself: Praises to thee, O Ua-en-Re (Akhenaten). I give adoration to the height of heaven. I propitiate him who lives by truth (Ma'at), the Lord of Diadems, Akhenaten, great in his duration; the Nile-god by whose decrees men are enriched; the food (kau) and fatness of Egypt; the good ruler who forms me, begets me, develops me, makes me to associate with princes; the light by sight of which I live - my Ka day by day.

-- Frankfort, H. 1978, Kingship and the Gods, p. 69

Limestone slab showing the Nile flood god Hapi. 12th Dynasty. From the foundations of the temple of Thutmose III, Koptos, Egypt. Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London

Hapi, shown as an iconographic pair of genii symbolically tying together

Hapi is featured in Egyptian Money. It also notable that before the expansion of Islam, human sacrifices were common in Egypt, Egyptians conducted to sacrifice female to River Nile, every year when it was flooded. The flood would remain until a young female was thrown into it as a sacrifice to become the bride of the Nile god Hapi. During the reign of Caliph Umar bin al-Khattab, Amr bin al-Aas, the governor of Egypt, wrote to Umar askin his direction for such activity. There is a story that Umar answered by writing a note to be thrown into the Nile river instead of sacrificing a female to it. The note enclosed verses from the Qur'an and a command from Umar asking the Nile to flow fluently in the name of Allah without causing any damage to inhabitants. When the note was thrown into the

Nile, the flood dissolved. After that they won't sacrifice human(p. 329 - 330 by Elias Kifon Bongmba).

A Bride of the Nile

Sacrifice a virgin to the Nile god Feeling tired? Now let us back to China. Hebo (Chinese: 河伯; literally:

'Lord of the River') is the god of the . The Yellow River (

He) is one of the world's major rivers and a river of great cultural importance in China. This is reflected in by the tales surrounding the deity Hebo. The name, Hebo, means "Lord of the River", in this case "the River" referring to the main river of Northern China, the

Huang He, or Yellow River, which takes its name from the vast amount of yellowish silt from the Loess plateau through which much of the river flows. However, the descriptive term, Hebo, is not this deity's only name, and worship is geographically widespread. Some of the character ascribed to Hebo is related to the character of the Yellow River itself: a river which has been described as one of China's greatest assets as well as one of the greatest sources of sorrow. Some of the world's greatest floods accompanied by tragic and stupendous loss of human life have been due to the Yellow River overflowing its banks, and even shifting course and establishing a new river bed. The Yellow River has also been one of the major agricultural sources for of farms which have provided for the dietary needs of the population at least from the cradle of Chinese civilization through the present day. To some extent, the deity

Hebo is a personification of the character of this river. However, Hebo has also had an important role in the history of religious worship in China

(especially North China), and also having a more general function in terms of , including literature and poetry. So from the above, the pronunciation of Hebo(河伯) is similar to the Nile god-

Hapi(Hep), and Hebo(河伯) resembles Hapi in its functions.

Hebo as depicted in the Nine Songs, imprint from presumably the 14th century

Hebo(河伯)in Chinese Culture(楚文化)

A Temple of Hebo

Hebo is also known as Bingyi (冰夷)（Christie, 79; Strassberg 2002, 201）.

He (河) may be used somewhat generically to refer to rivers in general, or to various particular flowing bodies of water, but in this case is particularly and primarily associated with the Yellow River of China.

The ancient of the Nile is called Iteru, which means

"river." The Chinese character “河” in ancient times refers specifically to the Yellow River and the Milky Way in the sky. The ancient Egyptians also imagined the Milky Way as the Nile River in the sky.

Egyptian hieroglyph Iteru

The prototype of “河” Besides, the bronze character “伯” in “河伯” is ; the

seal character “河” in “河伯” is . So the combination of

and is similar to the in Egyptian hieroglyph

, which means Hapi. So from hieroglyph, we can conclude that Hebo(河伯) is Hapi in China.

Hebo is the god of the Yellow River（Strassberg 2002, 201）, one of the world's major rivers with close association to Chinese culture. Reflecting the personification of the Yellow River, Hebo has been regarded as benevolent, but also greedy, unpredictable, and dangerously destructive(Strassberg 2002, 202). So in my point of view, Hebo resembles

Hapi in its character.

The Jin scholar Guo Pu commented that early illustrations depicted

Hebo on his chariot—pulled by two dragons through the clouds—riding in all directions( Strassberg 2002, 201–202). In the "Nine Songs" from the Songs of Chu, the performer narrates a wedding journey with him in a chariot drawn by two dragons( Strassberg 2002, 202). Some early accounts—such as the book wherein he bestowed the River

Diagram to the Great—describes Hebo as having a white face of a human with the body of a fish( Strassberg 2002, 202).

Hebo as depicted in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, 1597 edition The poem "Questions of Heaven" alludes to a myth about Yi shooting

Hebo( Strassberg 2002, 202). The commentator annotated it with the following story: Lord of the River transformed himself into a white dragon and was traveling alongside the river when Yi the Archer saw him and shot an arrow at him, hitting his left eye. Lord of the River complained to the Supreme God of Heaven, Di, and said, "Kill Yi to avenge me!" The Supreme God asked, "Why were you struck by an arrow?" and he answered, "I had transformed myself into a white dragon and was traveling about." The Supreme God stated, "If you had only dedicated yourself to carrying out your duties as a god, how would Yi have transgressed? Now you became a beast, and it is natural that someone would shoot at you. Yi acted properly, so what crime has he committed?"( Strassberg 2002, 203). The stated that Houyi had shot Hebo for the latter had drowned people(Strassberg 2002, 203).

The Yellow River is believed to have originated at the mythological Mount , leading to a cult to Hebo within the ancient states of northwestern and central China before spreading southward(Strassberg 2002, 202). So I think it resembles twin Hapi deities.

Hebo was worshiped at various times as an object of and as a figure in the imperial cult(Christie, 79 and 82-83). Hebo has been said to have helped to end the Great Flood of China, by providing a map of the Yellow River(, 131). Animals as well as humans have been drowned in the river as sacrifices, including young women destined to become the god's wives(Strassberg 2002, 202). So this resembles the bride of the Nile. The inscriptions provide solid evidence of the sacrificial worship of Hebo during the ( Strassberg 2002, 201 and Hawkes, 113).

Worship Hebo (河伯)with ten goats and ten boars

In Dingsi Day, burned the oxen in the sacrifice of Liao(尞(燎)), and drowned a woman to worship Hebo(河伯) in the sacrifice of Shen(沈).

The oracle characters in the red box means cast jades into the Yellow River as sacrifices to worship Hebo, unearthed in the South of Xiaotun Locus, (安阳小 屯南地) Human sacrifice seems to have continued into the , prominently featuring the presentation of a virgin female human bride, floated on a bridal raft upon the surface of the river, as an offering to Hebo(Hawkes, 113-114). This practice was apparently ended (at the Ye shamanic college) by scholar-official Ximen Bao( Christie, 82, who refers to Ximen Bao as "Hsi-men Pao".).

Sacrifice a virgin to Hebo

Sacrifice a wizard to Hebo, it is higher than a virgin However, other bridal sacrifices continued elsewhere, until the time of Huangdi, of state(Christie, 82, who refers to the locale as "Lin-tsin".).

The book stated that the -shamans and zhu-priests—who were in charge of the rituals—considered oxen with white foreheads, pigs with turned-up snouts, and humans with piles as unsuitable for offerings(Strassberg 2002, 202).

There were cases where people drowned horses and cast valuables into the river as sacrifices(Strassberg 2002, 202). During the , occasional sacrifices of jade objects, together with a live horse are recorded(Hawkes, 114).

Hebo is one of the main characters in the cast of , the Nine

Songs, a work anthologized in the ancient poetic source Chu . The Jiu

Ge lyrics, including the "He Bo" section seem to have originally been a lyrical part an ancient religious dramatic performance which also included costuming, choreography, musical accompaniment and other features which unlike the lyrics themselves failed to survive the vicissitudes of history. Of the deities specified therein, Hebo is the one who has had the most mainstream cultural appeal(Hawkes, 113).

Hebo as depicted by Yuncong in the Lisao (离骚), imprint of 1645

Today people also worship Hebo(河伯) in Mengjin County, Henan

Province(河南省孟津县), and Taierzhuang, (山东台儿庄) and so on, as shown in the following images.

Worship Hebo in Mengjin County, Henan Province(河南省孟津县)

Worship Hebo in Mengjin County, Henan Province(河南省孟津县)

Worship Hebo in Mengjin County, Henan Province(河南省孟津县)

Worship Hebo in Mengjin County, Henan Province(河南省孟津县)

Worship Hebo in Mengjin County, Henan Province(河南省孟津县)

Worship Hebo in Mengjin County, Henan Province(河南省孟津县)

Worship Hebo in Mengjin County, Henan Province(河南省孟津县)

Worship Hebo in Mengjin County, Henan Province(河南省孟津县)

Worship Hebo in Taierzhuang, Shandong(山东台儿庄)

Worship Hebo in Taierzhuang, Shandong(山东台儿庄)

Worship Hebo in Taierzhuang, Shandong(山东台儿庄)

Worship Hebo in Taierzhuang, Shandong(山东台儿庄)

Worship Hebo in Taierzhuang, Shandong(山东台儿庄)

Worship Hebo in Taierzhuang, Shandong(山东台儿庄)

Worship Hebo in Taierzhuang, Shandong(山东台儿庄)

Worship Hebo in Taierzhuang, Shandong(山东台儿庄)

Worship Hebo in Taierzhuang, Shandong(山东台儿庄)

Worship Hebo in Taierzhuang, Shandong(山东台儿庄)

Worship Hebo in Taierzhuang, Shandong(山东台儿庄)

Worship Hebo in Taierzhuang, Shandong(山东台儿庄)

Worship Hebo in Taierzhuang, Shandong(山东台儿庄)

Worship Hebo in Wuzhen,(浙江乌镇) So from the above, we can get a hypothesis that Hebo(河伯) is probably Hapi with Chinese characteristic.

References:

1.http://www.thekeep.org/~kunoichi/kunoichi/themestream/hapi.html

#.XP-KQfmsdXB

2.https://www.gettyimages.co.nz/photos/hapi?family=editorial&page=

2&phrase=Hapi&recency=anydate&sort=best&suppressfamilycorrection

=true#license

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hapi_(Nile_god)

4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephantine 5.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_African_Religion_and_other

_religions

6.https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Woman_Triumphant/Women_During_t he_Remote_Past

7.http://www.mummies2pyramids.info/pharaohs-kings/human-sacrifice s.htm

8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebo

9. http://www.hbswl.gov.cn/doc/2017/09/20/20065.shtml (梦幻九歌—

大型楚文化神幻杂技秀)

10.https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E7%A5%AD%E6%B2%B3%E7%A5%9

E/8892321?fr=aladdin (百度百科—祭河神)

11. https://ssrn.com/abstract=3257214 (刘光保—尼罗河和黄河)

12. https://hanziyuan.net/

13. https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/29783339 (甲骨文所见的大历史：「祭

河」曰「沈」——沉牛沉羊也沉人！)

14. http://www.52shijing.com/zgls/70501.html (西门豹治邺是怎么回事

西门豹怎么死的 )

15. http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_4b2968520102ebcw.html (赵跟喜—

壬辰年（孟津）黄河祈福大典)

16. http://www.lymjzx.gov.cn/news.asp?id=220 (孟津县成功举办首届

黄河祈福大典)

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18. http://news.hexun.com/2012-02-23/138588830.html (“二月二”台

儿庄举行祭河神仪式 再现传统民俗)

19.http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/dfpd/sd/bwzg/2014-03/03/content_1

7316436.htm (农历“二月二”山东台儿庄古运河畔再现祭河神传统

民俗)

20. http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_4dee30590102xcop.html (袁袤翔—

台儿庄古城：二月二“龙抬头”，祭河神“行大运”！)

21.https://bbs.fang.com/sfsyt~26~10994/150648309_150648901.htm

(月亮乌镇行风景和风情放在一起了)