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Ancient Egypt Magazine

Issue Nine - November/December 2001

Netfishing by Hapy  

Last issue you were promised more about the gods and goddesses of ancient Egypt. A quick search using one of the best engines available – Google – brought in quick results of over 17,000 pages. There are numerous summaries and lists of the deities of Egypt, provided by both amateur Egyptologists and academic institutions. It’s worth having a look at a number of these since they tend to take slightly different approaches and often provide diverse information on the same deity. One general grumble that comes from surfing is that few sites provide follow-up references. Museum sites are often a good starting point and this proved to be the case with the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) on www.rom.on.ca/egypt/case/about/gods.html This has a brief but useful introduction to concepts behind divinities in Egypt as well as a quite concise and detailed list. The descriptions of the divinities are well-written with insight and sensitivity. With regard to Hathor in cow form, for example: ‘A herd of cattle was a beautiful sight because it represented wealth in the form of food, milk, hides and work, as oxen pulled the ploughs of farmers. Cattle dung was a valuable fertiliser and had many uses in building. The Egyptians admired many qualities in cows, besides their economic benefits. The cow’s careful tending of her calf was a model for motherhood.’

 The Metropolitan Museum in New York also provides excellent pages on the deities, with good links and it’s easy to flow around the Museum’s site. This can be found on www.metmuseum.org/explore/newegypt/htm/ls_gods.htm. Other general sites with listings of Egyptian deities include www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~shawn/egypt/gods.html and www.osirisweb.com/egypt/director.htm and it’s always worth checking the comprehensive history, culture and religion pages on www.touregypt.net

 One thing to watch for is that a number of the personal sites have an eclectic approach to religion, happily mixing mainstream Egyptological approaches with references to lesser Egyptological lights (although notorious in other fields) such as Aleister Crowley. One such site (www.tir.com/~laneta/~kristi2.html), for instance, refers to the deity Heru-ra-ha as ‘a composite deity in Crowley’s quasi-Egyptian mythology, composed of Ra-Hoor-Khuit and Hoor-per-Kraat. Apparently without basis in historical Egyptian mythology, but the name translated into Egyptian, means something approximating “Horus and Re be praised”.’

 ‘What is a fruity pharaoh?’ was the distracting question posed by a Chihuahua in Nemes headdress at www.neferchichi.com/index.html Fortunately, the site also gave a quotable response: ‘That depends on who you ask. To the kids, a fruity pharaoh is a recently-deceased king that has been properly mummified to ensure an eternal afterlife. To people with less active imaginations, it’s a potato-headed orange that has been preserved by drying.’

  To discover how to make your own fruity pharaoh, should you be so inclined, visit the site. You wi11 need a potato, orange, plastic box and various other implements (here’s one I prepared earlier). And a vivid imagination. The site also offers quite a lot of information on the deities of Egypt including a range of clip-art especially suitable for school students. Plus your opportunity to buy 18 flexible rubber magnets to decorate your appliances.

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