Part 8 (2/2)

With this starry landscape in mind, we can begin to conjure up a fairly detailed image of the Duat, the 'Kingdom of Osiris' in the sky-a distinct pattern of stars, at a specific celestial location, that comes complete with its own 'cosmic Nile'.

But when was this cosmic kingdom 'founded'?

'First Time'

In their most profound and beautiful religious texts, as we noted in Part I, the ancient Egyptians spoke of 'the time of the G.o.ds', Zep Tepi (literally the 'First Time') with the unshakeable conviction that there had indeed been such an epoch. In other words, they believed that Zep Tepi had been an actual, historical event. In line with their prevailing dualism they also believed that it had been projected and 'recorded' in the catalogue of the starry sky. Indeed it was a story that was re-enacted endlessly in the cosmic setting by the cyclical displays of the celestial orbs and the constellations.

What they had in mind, in other words, was a kind of cosmic 'pa.s.sion play', expressed in the language of allegorical astronomy, in which each main character was identified with a specific celestial body. Re was the sun, Osiris was Orion, Isis was the star Sirius, Thoth was the moon-and so on and so forth. Nor was the drama only confined to the celestial realms; on the contrary, as one might expect in dualistic ancient Egypt, it was also re-enacted on the ground, amidst the cosmic ambiance of the astronomical Pyramids of Giza, where the events of the 'First Time' were commemorated for millennia in secret rituals and liturgies.[302]

Very little is known about these liturgies, or about the myths they expressed. As the Egyptologist R. T. Rundle Clark explains: The creation of the myths was founded on certain principles. These are strange and, as yet, only partially understood. The most important element seems to have been as follows: (a) The basic principles of life, nature and society were determined by the G.o.ds long ago, before the establishment of kings.h.i.+p. This epoch-Zep Tepi-'the First Time'-stretched from the first stirring of the High G.o.d in the Primeval Waters to the settling of Horus upon the throne and the redemption of Osiris. All proper myths relate events or manifestations of this epoch.

(b) Anything whose existence or authority had to be justified or explained must be referred to the 'First Time'. This was true for natural phenomena, rituals, royal insignia, the plans of temples, magical or medical formulae, the hieroglyphic system of writing, the calendar-the whole paraphernalia of the civilization ...[303]

Rundle Clark has also recognized that Egyptian art 'is nearly all symbolism', that 'the architectural arrangements and decoration were a kind of mythical landscape' worked down to the last detail, and that everything had a meaning: The shrine [tomb or pyramid complex] of the G.o.d [the king], for instance, was the 'Horizon', the land of glorious light beyond the dawn horizon where the G.o.ds dwelt. The Temple was an image of the universe as it now existed and, at the same time, the land on which it stood was the Primeval Mound which arose from the waters of the Primeval Ocean at Creation ... At the close of the daily temple service, the priests raised a small figure of Maat (the G.o.ddess of Law and Order) in front of the divine image. This act was meant to a.s.sert that Tightness and order had been re-established, but it was also a repet.i.tion of an event that took place at the beginning of the world ... of some mythical happening in the time of the G.o.ds ...[304]

Golden Age and the entry of evil

In later chapters we shall be returning to take a closer look at this 'First Time' of the G.o.ds. Here, however, it is sufficient to note that Zep Tepi was regarded as a mysterious and wonderful golden age that had immediately followed Creation. Furthermore, in the minds of the ancient Egyptians at least, this golden age had not occurred in some hard-to-find never-never land like the Biblical 'Garden of Eden' but in a familiar and unmistakably real physical and historical setting. Indeed it was their emphatic belief that the huge triangular region just south of the apex of the Nile Delta encompa.s.sing Heliopolis, Memphis and Giza was the actual geographical location of the events of the 'First Time'-a real 'Garden of Eden', in short, with real geographical features and places. It was here, amidst this sacred landscape, that the G.o.ds of the 'First Time' were said in the texts to have established their earthly kingdom.[305]

And what was the cultural character of that Kingdom? Rundle Clark gives the best summary: ... all that was good or efficacious was established on the principles laid down in the 'First Time'-which was, therefore, a golden age of absolute perfection-'before rage or clamour or strife or uproar had come about'. No death, disease or disaster occurred in this blissful epoch, known variously as 'the time of Re', 'the time of Osiris', or 'the time of Horus' ...[306]

37. The huge triangular region just south of the apex of the Nile Delta encompa.s.sing Heliopolis, Memphis and Giza was regarded by the ancient Egyptians as the actual geographical location of the events of the 'First Time'-a sort of geodetic 'Garden of Eden' focused on astronomical lat.i.tude 30 degrees north.

The G.o.ds Osiris and Horus, together with Re (in his composite form as Re-Atum, the 'Father' of the G.o.ds) were regarded by the ancient Egyptians as the supreme expressions and exemplars of the 'blissful epoch of the ”First Time” '.[307]

Osiris they remembered in particular for having been the first to sit on the throne of this divine Kingdom, which he ruled jointly with his consort Isis.[308] The golden age of plenty over which the royal couple presided (during which agriculture and animal husbandry were taught to humans and laws and religious doctrines were set for them) was however brought to an abrupt and violent halt when Osiris was murdered by his brother, Seth. Left without child, Isis brought the dead Osiris back to life for long enough to receive his seed. As a result of this union she, in due course, gave birth to Horus whose destiny it was to wrangle back the 'kingdom of Osiris' from the clutches of his evil uncle Seth.

Shabaka texts

In all its essential elements this is, of course, the story that we know as Hamlet (which has a far older pedigree than the Shakespeare play[309]), and it is also, in its most recent Hollywood manifestation, the story of the Lion King (brother murders brother, bereaved son of the murder victim takes revenge on his uncle and sets the Kingdom to rights).

The original Egyptian version of the story-the so-called 'Memphite Theology'-is found in texts inscribed on a monument known as the 'Shabaka Stone', now in the British Museum.[310] Here we read how, after a great quarrel between Horus and Seth (in which Horus lost an eye and Seth a t.e.s.t.i.c.l.e) Geb, the earth-G.o.d (the father of Osiris and Isis), summoned the Great Council of the G.o.ds-the nine-member 'Ennead' of Heliopolis-and with them pa.s.sed judgement between Horus and Seth: Geb, lord of the G.o.ds, commanded the Nine G.o.ds to gather to him. He judged between Horus and Seth; he ended their quarrel. He made Seth king of Upper Egypt, up to the place in which he was born, which is Su. And Geb made Horus king of Lower Egypt, up to the place in which his father [Osiris] was drowned[311] which is 'Division-of-the-Two-Lands'. Thus Horus stood over one region, and Seth stood over one region. They made peace over the Two Lands at Ayan. That was the division of the Two Lands ...[312]

Let us note in pa.s.sing that Ayan is not a mythical place but was an actual, physical location in ancient Egypt immediately to the north of Memphis, the Early Dynastic capital city.[313] The judgement that was made here was later changed, as the Shabaka Texts go on to tell us: Then it seemed wrong to Geb that the portion of Horus was like the portion of Seth. So Geb gave to Horus his [Seth's] inheritance, for he [Horus] is the son of his first born [Osiris] ...

Then Horus stood over the two lands. He is the uniter of the Two Lands, proclaimed in the great name: Ta-tenen, 'South-of-his-Wall', 'Lord of Eternity'... He is Horus, who arose as King of Upper and Lower Egypt, who united the Two Lands in the [District] of the Wall [Memphis], the place where the Two Lands were united ...[314]

Treasure trail

What we have in this amazing story is a sort of treasure trail of clues as to how the ancient Egyptians themselves saw the mythical-historical transfer of the 'deeds' or keys of the 'Kingdom of Osiris' to Horus by the Great Ennead and Geb.

It seems clear, for example, that this momentous event was thought to have taken place at Ayan, immediately to the north of Memphis, i.e. about 10 miles or so south of modern Cairo.[315]

And as for the dead Osiris, the Shabaka Texts tell us how the G.o.d was taken and buried 'in the land of Sokar': This is the land ... the burial [place] of Osiris in the House of Sokar ... Horus speaks to Isis and [her sister] Nepthys: 'Hurry, grasp him ...' Isis and Nepthys speak to Osiris: 'We come, we take you ...' They heeded in time and brought him to land. He entered the hidden portals in the glory of the Lords of Eternity. Thus Osiris came into the Earth, at the Royal Fortress, to the north of the land to which he had come. And his son Horus as king of Upper Egypt, arose as king of Lower Egypt in the embrace of his father Osiris ...[316]

Where, what, and whose was the 'land of Sokar'?

It turns out to have been an epithet used by the ancient Egyptians to describe the extensive 'Memphite necropolis' incorporating the Pyramid-field of Giza. According to Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, for example: 'The dominions of Sokar were situated in the deserts round about Memphis and were supposed to cover a large extent of territory.'[317] I. E. S. Edwards tells us that the name 'Sokar' was that of 'the G.o.d of the Memphite necropolis'-a predynastic deity of the dead-and that 'by Pyramid times Osiris had become identified with Sokar'.[318] R. T. Rundle Clark then further complicates the picture by speaking of 'Rostau, the modern Giza, the burial place of Memphis and the home of a form of Osiris known as Sokar'.[319]

What confronts us, therefore, appears to be a linked sequence of ideas involving Osiris, Sokar, the 'land of Sokar' (identified with the Memphite necropolis), and now 'Rostau', the ancient Egyptian name for the Pyramid-field at Giza-a name that is in fact carved in hieroglyphs on the granite stela, which we encountered in Part I, that stands to this day between the paws of the Great Sphinx.[320] That same stela also describes Giza in more general terms as 'the Splendid Place of the ”First Time” ' and speaks of the Sphinx as standing beside 'the House of Sokar'.[321]

So the clues on the treasure trail, as well as Osiris, Sokar, the land of Sokar and Rostau-Giza, now also include the 'House of Sokar' and lead us back towards Zep Tepi, the 'First Time'.

Bearing all this in mind, let us return for a final look at the Memphite theology as it is expressed in the Shabaka Texts.

We find Horus firmly in possession of the earthly 'Kingdom of Osiris' (which had of course been founded in the 'First Time') and we find the body of Osiris himself safely installed in 'the House of Sokar'.[322] Under these ideal conditions, according to the texts, the spiritualized form of Osiris was freed to depart to the sky-and to a specific location in the sky that we have already identified: 'the place where Orion is'.[323] There it was held that he had established the Duat-the cosmic 'Otherworld' on the right bank of the Milky Way-as a sort of celestial 'Kingdom of Osiris' for the Dead.[324]

Sphinx G.o.d

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