Egyptian: The material to be worked upon to achieve perfection through creative activity; the rough ashlar is unregenerate man, the perfect ashlar is the spiritual and perfected man.
[Source: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols by J.C. Cooper]
A lunar creature; the humid principle; believed to be tongueless and subsist on dew, the lizard was a symbol of silence.
In Egyptian and Greek symbolism, it represented divine wisdom and good fortune and was an attribute of Serapis and Hermes; in Zoroastrianism it was a symbol of Ahriman and evil.
In Christianity it is also evil and the Devil. The lizard is an attribute of Sabazios and usually appears on the hand of Sabazios.
In Roman mythology it was supposed to sleep through the winter and so symbolized death and resurrection. The lizard Tarrotarro is an aboriginal Australian culture hero.
[Source: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols by J.C. Cooper]
Like all evergreens, the ivy is immortality and eternal life; it is also revelry; clinging dependence; attachment; constant affection; friendship.
Christian: Everlasting life; death and immortality; fidelity.
Egyptian: ‘The plant of Osiris’, immortality.
Greek: Sacred to Dionysos who is crowned with ivy and whose cup is an 'ivy cup’; his thyrsus is encircled with ivy and one of his emblems is a post sprouting ivy leaves.
Semetic: Sacred to the Phrygian Attis; immortality. The ivy-leaf is phallic, depicting the male trinity.
[Source: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols by J.C. Cooper]
Happy Mythology Monday! This picture of the Egyptian goddess Isis comes from Giovanni Battista Casali’s De veteribus Aegyptiorum Ritibus, published in Rome in 1644. While Isis originated in the Egyptian pantheon, she took on many Hellenistic qualities after the Ptolemaic dynasty became the rulers of Egypt. In this image, her headdress is classically Egyptian, but the cornucopia she often carries is a sign of her identification with the Greco-Roman goddess Demeter/Ceres.
I painted this many moons ago but thought I would repost it in honor of the Little Mermaid casting news. I give you the Nile Mermaid or “River Sphinx.”
She has her own world building myth I came up with, that if interested, you can find on my DA or Tumblr.
While Mulan is my favorite The Little Mermaid is a very close second, so I’m interested in seeing how it comes out.
choose one: fangs or pointed ears, immunity or immortality, wings or horns, greek mythology or egyptian mythology, chokers or anklets, dark red or dark green, glitter or blush, heels or boots, ripped jeans or fishnets, long nails or short nails, vampire or werewolf, oceans or forests, books or movies, phone calls or text messages, rings or studs and skirts or jeans.
being egyptian and reading the kane chronicles is so wild because it says that the egyptian gods migrate to wherever the center of western civilization is, implying that ancient egypt was a western civilization or that egypt’s a was, and not an is.like why is this non-white civilization which manifests today in a real life country supposedly a western civilization but the actual people whose heritage is tied to that civilization are excluded from it? why is a white british woman (a WHITE BRITISH WOMAN!) the living incarnation of isis - the mother of egypt? there’s no cultural nuance. there’s no consideration. the image of the egyptian mother, through isis or otherwise, is something so fucking important in egyptian culture, and to have it represented by a british woman - a descendant of those who bastardized and stole our heritage- is just insane to me. perhaps an interesting analysis of post colonial egypt in a meta sense, but that’s for egyptian artists to dissect, not riordan. and that’s only one thing. egypt - the actual egypt from which everything in the series originates) in that series is so mocked. i remember at some point sadie and walt are walking through egypt and mock the fact that since the arabic language has no “p”, they pronounce pepsiasbebsi.no respect.the very foundation of this series is based in racism, in colonial thinking, and, ultimately, white supremacy. why is zia, the only actual egyptian in the main cast, so irrelevant? so quiet and without agency? in a meta way, she’s like egypt itself. i just wanted to bring this to light since a lot of rr crit focuses on the racism and homophobia present in pjo and hoo and mcga and toa- perfectly valid criticisms that are well deserved - but barely anyone talks about the inherent colonialist and racist foundations of the entirety of the kane chronicles, which is why i wanted to bring it to light. enjoy the series if you want, i’m not saying you’re not allowed, but as long as we’re criticizing riordan, let’s criticize everything.
Exactly.
As a Greek I second OPs point and the post has my full support! It also made me wonder why Riordan (and the West) has done the exact same thing to other cultures, and also to the Greek culture specifically and nobody batted an eye. (The problematic things Americans notice aren’t the things Greeks noticed btw, bc the Americans noticed American things). And while I don’t feel well adding this to a post about Egypt, none of my posts about the missappropriation of the Greek culture and stories gains that type of traction. So, “make your own post” doesn’t apply here because people always ignore those posts. And because we and other ethnic people were ignored, he continued to do it, also harming the Egyptian culture in the process.
The rediculous thing is that he didn’t even bother going “that deep” (I know, it wasn’t even that deep with Egypt) as he did for Egypt and he still gave nonexistent and shitty representation. If people here must see a Greek addition to understand some of your popular American writers bullshit their way into writing cultures, so be it.
Riordan is one of the creators who usually learns from mistakes and tries to do better. Imagine what the others are doing…
As an Egyptian I agree with op fully (and also agree with the added bit about Greek heritage)
Khonsu and Ma’at are interesting because their images coincide greatly with the appearance of other Gods. Knowing how to identify Khonsu from the images of Osiris and Horus can be helpful, as well as being able to tell Ma’at and Isis apart.
Khonsu
Khonsu, like many Gods, had two different forms including one with a human head and one with a falcon head.
The main way to tell if an image is representing Khonsu is by looking for the lunar disk. While he is in falcon form, this disk is essentially the only thing separating him from being Horus or Ra. Generally, however, Khonsu is represented as a young child with green skin, wrapped in mummification linens and bearing the sidelock of youth in his hair. His symbols include the crook and flail, so you will often see that as well. His human form is certainly similar to that of Osiris but the differences are thusly; Osiris has a beard, Khonsu does not. Osiris is almost always shown wearing the White Crown of Upper Egypt, whereas Khonsu is shown with a lunar disk representing the full and crescent moon. Khonsu also has a sidelock hairstyle whereas Osiris has no hair showing.
Khonsu’s falcon form is nearly identical to Horus and Ra so the only thing you need to look for to identify them is for the crown. If it’s the solar disk with the uraeus snake it’s Ra, if it is the double crown of upper and lower Egypt then it’s Horus, and if it’s the lunar disk, it’s Khonsu.
As a reminder, this is what the solar disk with the uraeus looks like:
If you are looking at a large wall inscription, you may also come across Khonsu’s name in hieroglyphs:
Ma’at
Ma’at is similar in representation to Isis. Both are well-known images of ancient Egypt, but few people realize they are posting Ma’at when they want to be posting Isis, and vice versa.
She is represented with her wings spread; very similar to Isis. The image above is Ma’at, and the image below is Isis.
So the main difference here is not the hair––that’s something that changes from art piece to art piece––it’s again, the crown that they wear. Isis is represented with the Throne of Egypt on her head; it’s part of her name in hieroglyphs, whereas Ma’at is represented with the feather of truth on her head. This is a big thing to notice! Both crowns are instrumental in the characters of Isis and Ma’at, and confusing them is to confuse Goddesses who don’t have much to do with one another.
Funnily enough, there is yet another Goddess shown with spread wings. Hathor is also sometimes represented in this way, but to know when it’s her, you again look at the crown. Hathor almost always wears the crown of the cow she represents, whose horns hold up the solar disk. Here’s a quick image so you know what Hathor’s crown looks like.
Going back to Ma’at, there are very few images of her. She had no temples built for her and few worshippers, simply because she was an intrinsic part of the universe, and worship of any other God was based around her powers of calming the chaos of primordial waters.
Like most words and titles in Egyptian hieroglyphs, there were a few different ways to record Ma’at’s name. One is shortened, but I’ve included both long and short versions below.
Being able to tell the difference between the many Gods and Goddesses of ancient Egypt can be difficult. Many of their traits overlap and, with the progress of time, many of them have changed from the Old Kingdom up to the Grecian occupation. So let’s look at some of the more common Gods and how to identify them.
Osiris
Osiris is quite identifiable. He is a God with green skin (though this trait is shared with several others) and he bears the white crown of Upper Egypt. He is also represented as a mummified man, meaning he is clad in white linen wrappings. He wears a collar, a royal beard, and holds a crook and flail. His name in hieroglyphs is easy to remember as it is only the Eye of Ra, the throne of Egypt, and then the determinative that this is a royal name.
Thoth
Thoth is also a very identifiable God because he is one of the only Gods with an ibis head. However, he is also sometimes portrayed as a full baboon, but rarely as a human with a baboon head. He often carries an ankh with him. Above him, he can sometimes wear the Atef crown—the double crown of lower and upper Egypt—but commonly bears a lunar disk type crown that rests on a crescent moon. His name in hieroglyphs can be quite long but there is, fortunately, a short version which is very easy to identify, as it is made up of an ibis, a loaf of bread, and two slash marks. Like Osiris and all other gods, there is a determinative that shows this is a God’s name.
Used traditionally as an amulet worn, carried, or used as an offering. It is modeled after a plant called wadj, meaning green. Meant to invoke vitality and regeneration.
