사용자:배우는사람/문서:Chapter I - The Gods Of Egypt (1-17)

Chapter I - The Gods Of Egypt

[Page 1] The Greek historian Herodotus affirms¹⁾ that the Egyptians were “beyond measure scrupulous (세심한) in all matters appertaining to religion,” and he made this statement after personal observation of the care which they displayed in the performance of religious ceremonies, the aim and object of which was to do honour to the gods, and of the obedience which they showed to the behests (명령) of the priests who transmitted to them commands which they declared to be, and which were accepted as, authentic revelations of the will of the gods. From the manner in which this writer speaks it is clear that he had no doubt about what he was saying, and that he was recording a conviction which had become settled in his mind.

¹⁾ ii. 64.

He was fully conscious that the Egyptians worshipped a large number of animals, and birds, and reptiles, with a seriousness and earnestness which must have filled the cultured Greek with astonishment, yet he was not moved to give expression to words of scorn as was Juvenal,²⁾ for Herodotus perceived that beneath the acts of apparently [Page 2] foolish and infatuated (심취한) worship there existed a sincerity which betokened (징조이다) a firm and implicit belief which merited (받을 만하다) the respect of thinking men.

²⁾
“Quis nescit, Volusi Bithynice, qualia demens
Aegyptus portenta colat ? crocodilon adorat
Pars haec, ilia pavet saturam serpentibus ibin.
Effigies sacri nitet aurea cercopitbeci,
Dimidio magicae resonant ubi Memnone chordae
Atque vetus Thebe centum jacet obruta portis.
Illic aeluros, hie piscem fluminis, illic
Oppida tota canem venerantur, nemo Dianam.
Porrum efc caepe nefas violare et frangere inorsu :
O sanctas gentes, quibus haec nascuntur in hortis
Numina ! Lanatis animalibus abstinet omnis
Mensa, nefas illic fetum ingulare capellae :
Carnibus humanis vesci licet.”
—Satire, xv. 1—13.

That the crocodile, ibis, dog-headed ape, and fish of various kinds were venerated in Egypt is true enough; they were not, however, venerated in dynastic times as animals, but as the abodes of gods. In certain localities peculiar sanctity was attributed to the leek (리크) and onion, as Juvenal suggests, but neither vegetable was an object of worship in the country generally; and there is no monumental (기념물에 나타난) evidence to show that the eating of human flesh was practised, for it is now known that even the predynastic Egyptians did not eat the flesh of the dead and gnaw (물어뜯다) their bones, as was once rashly (무분별하게) asserted. Juvenal’s statements are only partly true, and some of them are on a par with (같은) that of a learned Indian who visited England, and wrote a book on this country after his return to Bombay. Speaking of the religion of the English he declared that they were all idolators, and to prove this assertion he gave a list of churches in which he had seen a figure of a lamb in the sculpture work over and about the altar, and in prominent places elsewhere in the churches. The Indian, like Juvenal, and Cicero also, seems not to have understood that many nations have regarded animals as symbols of gods and divine powers, and still do so.

Decimus Iunius Iuvenalis, known in English as Juvenal, was a Roman poet active in the late 1st and early 2nd century AD, author of the Satires. The details of the author's life are unclear, although references within his text to known persons of the late 1st and early 2nd centuries AD fix his terminus post quem (earliest date of composition).

In accord with the manner of Lucilius—the originator of the genre of Roman satire—and within a poetic tradition that also included Horace and Persius, Juvenal wrote at least 16 poems in dactylic hexameter covering an encyclopedic range of topics across the Roman world. While the Satires are a vital source for the study of ancient Rome from a vast number of perspectives, their hyperbolic, comedic mode of expression makes the use of statements found within them as simple fact problematic. At first glance the Satires could be read as a critique of pagan Rome, perhaps ensuring their survival in Christian monastic scriptoria, a bottleneck in preservation when the large majority of ancient texts were lost.

데키무스 유니우스 유베날리스(라틴어: Decimus Iunius Iuvenalis 데키무스 유니우스 유웨날리스^[*])는 1세기 후반에서 2세기 초반에 활동한 고대 로마의 시인이다. 도미티아누스 황제를 비롯해 수많은 황제들과 로마의 귀족들, 당시의 사회상에 대한 통렬하지만 유쾌한 풍자시로 유명하며 당시의 라틴 문학은 물론 후대의 풍자작가들에 많은 영향을 끼쳤다.

유베날리스의 생애에 대하여는 확실한 근거를 가진 사료가 별로 없다. 그에 관한 전기도 상당수는 유베날리스가 죽은 지 오랜 시간이 지난후에 쓰여진것으로 보인다. 단지 그의 풍자시에서 단편적으로 유베날리스의 삶을 유추할 수 있다.

유베날리스의 풍자시집은 모두 16편으로 알려져있고 다섯권의 책으로 나뉘어 있다.

• 제1권 : 풍자시 1-5 편
• 제2권 : 풍자시 6편
• 제3권 : 풍자시 7-9편
• 제4권 : 풍자시 10-12편
• 제5권 : 풍자시 13-16편 (풍자시 16편은 미완성인채로 남아있음)

Antiquity Of Religious Observances

It would be wrong to imagine that the Egyptians were the only people of antiquity who were scrupulous beyond measure in religious matters, for we know that the Babylonians, both Sumerian and Semitic, were devoted worshippers of their gods, and that they possessed a very old and complicated system of religion; but there is good reason for thinking that the Egyptians were more scrupulous than their neighbours in religious matters, and that they always bore the character of being an extremely religious nation.

The evidence of the monuments of the Egyptians proves that from the earliest to the latest period of their history the observance of religious festivals and the performance of religious duties in connexion with the worship of the gods absorbed a very large part of the time and energies of the nation, and if we take into consideration the funeral ceremonies and services commemorative (기념하는) of the dead which were performed by them at the tombs, a casual visitor to Egypt who did not know how to look below the surface might be pardoned for (...에 대해 용서를 구하다) declaring that the [Page 3] Egyptians were a nation of men who were wholly given up to the worship of beasts and the cult of the dead.

Divine Origin Of Kings

The Egyptians, however, acted in a perfectly logical manner, for they believed that they were a divine nation, and that they were ruled by kings who were themselves gods incarnate; their earliest kings, they asserted, were actually gods, who did not disdain (업신여기다) to live upon earth, and to go about and up and down through it, and to mingle with men. Other ancient nations were content to believe that they had been brought into being by the power of their gods operating upon matter, but the Egyptians believed that they were the issue of the great God who created the universe, and that they were of directly divine origin.

When the gods ceased to reign in their proper persons upon earth, they were succeeded by a series of demi-gods, who were in turn succeeded by the Manes, and these were duly (적절한 절차에 따라) followed by kings in whom was enshrined (소중히 간직하다) a divine nature with characteristic attributes. When the physical or natural body of a king died, the divine portion of his being, i.e., the spiritual body, returned to its original abode with the gods, and it was duly worshipped by men upon earth as a god and with the gods.

This happy result was partly brought about by the performance of certain ceremonies, which were at first wholly magical, but later partly magical and partly religious, and by the recital (낭송) of appropriate words uttered in the duly (적절한 절차에 따라) prescribed tone and manner, and by the keeping of festivals at the tombs at stated seasons when the appointed offerings were made, and the prayers for the welfare of the dead were said. From the earliest times the worship of the gods went hand in hand with the deification of dead kings and other royal personages, and the worship of departed monarchs from some aspects may be regarded as meritorious (칭찬할 만한) as the worship of the gods.

From one point of view Egypt was as much a land of gods as of men, and the inhabitants of the country wherein the gods lived and moved naturally devoted a considerable portion of their time upon earth to the worship of divine beings and of their ancestors who had departed to the land of the gods. In the matter of religion, and all that appertains thereto (그것에 관련된), the Egyptians were a “peculiar people,” and in all ages they have exhibited a tenacity (지속적인) of belief [Page 4] and a conservatism which distinguish them from all the other great nations of antiquity.

In ancient Roman religion, the Manes or Di Manes are chthonic deities sometimes thought to represent souls of deceased loved ones. They were associated with the Lares, Lemures, Genii, and Di Penates as deities (di) that pertained to domestic, local, and personal cult. They belonged broadly to the category of di inferi, "those who dwell below," the undifferentiated collective of divine dead. The Manes were honored during the Parentalia and Feralia in February.

Number And Variety Of Gods

But the Egyptians were not only renowned for their devotion to religious observances, they were famous as much for the variety as for the number of their gods. Animals, birds, fishes, and reptiles were worshipped by them in all ages, but in addition to these they adored the great powers of nature as well as a large number of beings with which they peopled the heavens, the air, the earth, the sky, the sun, the moon, the stars, and the water. In the earliest times the predynastic Egyptians, in common with (~와 마찬가지로) every half-savage people, believed that all the various operations of nature were the result of the actions of beings which were for the most part unfriendly to man.

홍수와 범람

The inundation which rose too high and flooded the primitive village, and drowned their cattle, and destroyed their stock of grain, was regarded as the result of the working of an unfriendly and unseen power; and when the river rose just high enough to irrigate the land which had been prepared, they either thought that a friendly power, which was stronger than that which caused the destroying flood, had kept the hostile power in check (억제하다), or that the spirit of the river was on that occasion pleased with them.

정령

They believed in the existence of spirits of the air, and in spirits of mountain, and stream, and tree, and all these had to be propitiated (달래다) with gifts, or cajoled (발라맞추다) and wheedled (구슬리다) into bestowing their favour and protection upon their suppliants (탄원자, 애원자).

God And "gods" And Angels

neteru · neter

It is very unfortunate that the animals, and the spirits of natural objects, as well as the powers of nature, were all grouped together by the Egyptians and were described by the word neteru, which, with considerable inexactness, we are obliged to translate by “gods.” There is no doubt that at a very early period in their predynastic history the Egyptians distinguished between great gods and little gods, just as they did between friendly gods and hostile gods, but either their poverty of expression, or the inflexibility of their language, prevented them from making a distinction apparent in writing, and thus it happens that in dynastic times, when a lofty conception of monotheism prevailed among the priesthood, the scribe found [Page 5] himself obliged to call both God and the lowest of the beings that were supposed to possess some attribute of divinity by one and the same name, i.e., neter.

Definition

"Deity" in hieroglyphs
or or nṯr "god"
nṯr.t "goddess"

The beings in ancient Egyptian tradition who might be labeled as deities are difficult to count. Egyptian texts list the names of many deities whose nature is unknown and make vague, indirect references to other gods who are not even named. The Egyptologist James P. Allen estimates that more than 1,400 deities are named in Egyptian texts, whereas his colleague Christian Leitz says there are "thousands upon thousands" of gods.

The Egyptian terms for these beings were nṯr, "god", and its feminine form nṯrt, "goddess". Scholars have tried to discern the original nature of the gods by proposing etymologies for these words, but none of these suggestions has gained acceptance, and the terms' origin remains obscure. The hieroglyphs that were used as ideograms and determinatives in writing these words show some of the characteristics that the Egyptians connected with divinity. The most common of these signs is a flag flying from a pole; similar objects were placed at the entrances of temples, representing the presence of a deity, throughout ancient Egyptian history. Other such hieroglyphs include a falcon, reminiscent of several early gods who were depicted as falcons, and a seated male or female deity. The feminine form could also be written with an egg as determinative, connecting goddesses with creation and birth, or with a cobra, reflecting the use of the cobra to depict many female deities.

The Egyptians distinguished nṯrw, "gods", from rmṯ, "people", but the meanings of the Egyptian and the English terms do not match perfectly. The term nṯr may have applied to any being that was in some way outside the sphere of everyday life. Deceased humans were called nṯr because they were considered to be like the gods, whereas the term was rarely applied to many of Egypt's lesser supernatural beings, which modern scholars often call "demons". Egyptian religious art also depicts places, objects, and concepts in human form. These personified ideas range from deities that were important in myth and ritual to obscure beings, only mentioned once or twice, that may be little more than metaphors.

Confronting these blurred distinctions between gods and other beings, scholars have proposed various definitions of a "deity". One widely accepted definition, suggested by Jan Assmann, says that a deity has a cult, is involved in some aspect of the universe, and is described in mythology or other forms of written tradition. According to a different definition, by Dimitri Meeks, nṯr applied to any being that was the focus of ritual. From this perspective, "gods" included the king, who was called a god after his coronation rites, and deceased souls, who entered the divine realm through funeral ceremonies. Likewise, the preeminence of the great gods was maintained by the ritual devotion that was performed for them across Egypt.

Muḥammadan And Syrian Angels

Other nations of antiquity found a way out of the difficulty of grouping all classes of divine beings by one name by inventing series of orders of angels, to each of which they gave names and assigned various duties in connexion with the service of the Deity.

코란의 천사

Thus in the Ḳurʻan (Sura xxxv.) it is said that God maketh the angels His messengers and that they are furnished with two, or three, or four pairs of wings, according to their rank and importance; the archangel Gabriel is said to have been seen by Muhammad the Prophet with six hundred pairs of wings!

	Surah Initiator (Faater) Pickthall In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.	Surah Initiator (Faater) Ahmed Ali In the name of Allah, most benevolent, ever-merciful.
Qur'an 35:1	Praise be to Allah, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, Who appointeth the angels messengers having wings two, three and four. He multiplieth in creation what He will. Lo! Allah is Able to do all things.	ALL PRAISE BE to God, the originator of the heavens and the earth, who appointed angels as His messengers, with wings, two, three and four. He adds what He pleases to His creation. He has certainly power over everything.

코란의 천사들의 의무

The duties of the angels, according to the Muhammadans, were of various kinds.

Thus nineteen angels are appointed to take charge of hell fire (Sura lxxiv.);

eight are set apart to support God’s throne on the Day of Judgment (Sura lxix.);

several tear the souls of the wicked from their bodies with violence, and several take the souls of the righteous from their bodies with gentleness and kindness (Sura lxxix.);

two angels are ordered to accompany every man on earth, the one to write down his good actions and the other his evil deeds, and these will appear with him at the Day of Judgment, the one to lead him before the Judge, and the other to bear witness either for or against him (Sura 1.).

이슬람교의 천사

Muhammadan theologians declare that

1. the angels are created of a simple substance of light, and that
2. they are endowed with life, and speech, and reason;
3. they are incapable of sin,
4. they have no carnal desire,
5. they do not propagate their species, and
6. they are not moved by the passions of wrath and anger;
7. their obedience is absolute.
8. Their meat is the celebrating of the glory of God,
9. their drink is the proclaiming of His holiness,
10. their conversation is the commemorating (기념하다) of God, and
11. their pleasure is His worship.

Curiously enough, some are said to have the form of animals.

이슬람교의 4대천사

Four of the angels are Archangels, viz.

1. Michael,
2. Gabriel,
3. Azrael,
4. and Israfel,

and they possess special powers, and special duties are assigned to them. These four are superior to all the human race, with the exception of the Prophets and Apostles, but the angelic nature is held to be inferior to human nature because all the angels were commanded to worship [Page 6] Adam (Sura ii.).

Angels (ملائكة malāʾikah; singular: ملاك malāk) are heavenly beings mentioned many times in the Quran and hadith. Unlike humans or jinn, they have no free will and therefore can do only what God orders them to do. An example of a task they carry out is testing individuals by granting them abundant wealth and curing their illness. Believing in angels is one of the six Articles of Faith in Islam. Just as humans are made of clay, and jinn are made of smokeless fire, angels are made of light.

Angel hierarchy

For other angelic hierarchies, see Hierarchy of angels (disambiguation) and en:Hierarchy of angels.

There is no standard hierarchical organization in Islam that parallels the division into different "choirs" or spheres, as hypothesized and drafted by early medieval Christian theologians. Most Islamic scholars agree that this is an unimportant topic in Islam, simply because angels have a simple existence in obeying God already, especially since such a topic has never been directly addressed in the Quran. However, it is clear that there is a set order or hierarchy that exists between angels, defined by the assigned jobs and various tasks to which angels are commanded by God. Some scholars suggest that Islamic angels can be grouped into fourteen categories as follows, of which numbers two-five are considered archangels. Not all angels are known by Muslims however, the Quran and hadith only mentions a few by name. Due to varied methods of translation from Arabic and the fact that these angels also exist in Christian contexts and the Bible, several of their Christian and phonetic transliteral names are listed:

• Jibrail/Jibril (Judeo-Christian, Gabriel), the angel of revelation, who is said to be the greatest of the angels. Jibrail is the archangel responsible for revealing the Quran to Muhammad, verse by verse. Jibrail is widely known as the angel who communicates with (all of) the prophets and also for coming down with God's blessings during the night of Laylat al-Qadr ("The Night of Power").

Israfil

Israfil or Israafiyl (Judeo-Christian, Raphael), is an archangel in Islam who will blow the trumpet twice at the end of time. According to the hadith, Israfil is the angel responsible for signaling the coming of Qiyamah (Judgment Day) by blowing a horn. The blowing of the trumpet is described in many places in the Quran. It is said that the first blow will bring all to attention. The second will end all life, while the third blow will bring all human beings back to life again to meet their Lord for their final judgement.

• Mikail (Judeo-Christian, Michael), who provides nourishments for bodies and souls. Mikail is often depicted as the archangel of mercy who is responsible for bringing rain and thunder to Earth. He is also responsible for the rewards doled out to good people in this life.
• 'Azrael/'Azraaiyl also known as Malak al-maut (Judeo-Christian, Azrael), the angel of death. He is responsible for parting the soul from the body. He is only referred as malak al-maut, meaning angel of death, in the Quran.

Artistic depiction of Azrael, the Angel of Death, by Evelyn De Morgan.

Azrael is the Archangel of Death in some traditions. He is also the angel of retribution in Islamic theology and Sikhism. The name Azrael is an English form of the Arabic name ʿIzrāʾīl (عزرائيل) or Azra'eil (عزرایل), the name traditionally attributed to the angel of death in some sects of Islam and Sikhism, as well as some Hebrew lore. The Qur'an never uses this name, rather referring to Malak al-Maut (which translates directly as angel of death). Also spelt Izrail, Azrin, Izrael, Azriel, Azrail, Ezraeil, Azraille, Azryel, Ozryel, or Azraa-eel, the Chambers English dictionary uses the spelling Azrael. The name literally means Whom God Helps, in an adapted form of Hebrew.

Background

Depending on the outlook and precepts of various religions in which he is a figure, Azrael may be portrayed as residing in the Third Heaven. In one of his forms, he has four faces and four thousand wings, and his whole body consists of eyes and tongues, the number of which corresponds to the number of people inhabiting the Earth. He will be the last to die, recording and erasing constantly in a large book the names of men at birth and death, respectively.

In Judaism

In Jewish mysticism, he is commonly referred to as "Azriel," not "Azrael." The Zohar (a holy book of the Jewish mystical tradition of Kabbalah), presents a positive depiction of Azriel. The Zohar says that Azriel receives the prayers of faithful people when they reach heaven, and also commands legions of heavenly angels. Accordingly, Azriel is associated with the South and is considered to be a high-ranking commander of God's angels. (Zohar 2:202b)

In Christianity

There is no reference to Azrael in the bible, and he is not considered a canonical character within Christianity. However, a story from Folk-lore of the Holy Land: Moslem, Christian and Jewish by J. E. Hanauer tells of a soldier with a gambling addiction avoiding Azrael. Because the soldier goes to Jesus and asks for help, then later must see Jesus and repent to be allowed back in Heaven, this is seen as a Christian account of Azrael. However, it does not specify whether Azrael is an angel of death, or an angel of punishment in this story.

In Islam

In some cultures and sects, Azrael (also pronounced as ʿIzrāʾīl /Azriel) is the name referring to the Angel of Death by some Arabic speakers. The name is mentioned in a few Muslim books but is argued by some Muslims as having no basis of reference. Along with Jibrīl, Mīkhā'īl, Isrāfīl and other angels, the Angel of Death is believed by Muslims to be one of the archangels. The Qur'an states that the angel of death takes the soul of every person and returns it to God. However, the Qur'an makes it clear that only God knows when and where each person will be taken by death, thus making it clear that the Angel of Death has no power of his own. Several Muslim traditions recount meetings between the Angel of Death and the prophets, the most famous being a conversation between the Angel of Death and Moses. He watches over the dying, separates the soul from the body, and receives the spirits of the dead in Muslim belief. Rather than merely representing death personified, the Angel of Death is usually described in Islamic sources as subordinate to the will of God "with the most profound reverence." However, there is no reference within the Qur'an or any Islamic teachings giving the angel of death the name of Azrael.

Some have also disputed the usage of the name Azrael as it's not used in the Qur'an itself. However, the same can be said about many Prophets and Angels, many of whom aren't mentioned by name in the Qur'an.

Riffian (Berber) men of Morocco had the custom of shaving the head but leaving a single lock of hair on either the crown, left, or right side of the head, so that the angel Azrael is able "to pull them up to heaven on the Last Day."

In Sikhism

In Sikh scriptures written byGuru Nanak Dev Ji, God (Waheguru) sends Azrael to people who are unfaithful and unrepentant for their sins. Azrael appears on Earth in human form and hits sinful people on the head with his scythe to kill them and extract their souls from their bodies. He then brings their souls to hell, and makes sure that they get the punishment that Waheguru decrees once he judges them. This would portray him as more of an avenging angel, or angel of retribution, rather than a simple angel of death. It is unknown which story of Azrael this view is taken from.

Israfil ({{{2}}}, Alternate Spelling: Israfel , Meaning: The Burning One ), is the angel of the trumpet in Islam, though unnamed in the Qur'an. Along with Mikhail, Jibrail and Izra'il, he is one of the four Islamic archangels. Israfil will blow the trumpet from a holy rock in Jerusalem to announce the Day of Resurrection. The trumpet is constantly poised at his lips, ready to be blown when God so orders. In Judeo-Christian biblical literature, Raphael is the counterpart of Isrāfīl. Isrāfīl is usually conceived as having a huge, hairy body that is covered with mouths and tongues and that reaches from the seventh heaven to the throne of God. One wing protects his body, another shields him from God, while the other two extend east and west. He is overcome by sorrow and tears three times every day and every night at the sight of Hell. It is said that Isrāfīl tutored Muhammad for three years in the duties of a prophet before he could receive the Qurʾān.

In religious tradition

Although the name "Israfel" does not appear in the Quran, mention is repeatedly made of an unnamed trumpet-angel assumed to identify this figure:

"And the trumpet shall be blown, so all those that are in the heavens and all those that are in the earth shall swoon, except Allah; then it shall be blown again, then they shall stand up awaiting." —Qur'an (39.68).

In Islamic tradition he is said to have been sent, along with the other three Islamic archangels, to collect dust from the four corners of the earth, although only Izra'il succeeded in this mission. It was from this dust that Adam was formed.틀:Verify credibility

Israfil has been associated with a number of other angelic names not pertaining to Islam, including Uriel, Sarafiel and Raphael.

Certain sources indicate that, created at the beginning of time, Israfil possesses four wings, and is so tall as to be able to reach from the earth to the pillars of Heaven. A beautiful angel who is a master of music, Israfil sings praises to God in a thousand different languages, the breath of which is used to inject life into hosts of angels who add to the songs themselves.

According to Sunni traditions reported by Imam Al-Suyuti, the Ghawth or Qutb, who is regarded among Sufis as the highest person in the rank of siddiqun (saints), is someone who has a heart that resembles that of Archangel Israfil, signifying the loftiness of this angel. The next in rank are the saints who are known as the Umdah or Awtad, amongst whom the highest ones have their hearts resembling that of Angel Michael, and the rest of the lower ranking saints having the heart of Jibreel or Gabriel, and that of the previous prophets before the Prophet Muhammad. The earth is believed to always have one of the Qutb.

In 19th-century Occultism

Israfil appears in cabbalistic lore as well as 19th-century Occultism. He was referenced in the title of Aleister Crowley's Liber Israfil, formerly Liber Anubis, a ritual which in its original form was written and utilized by members of the Golden Dawn. This is a ritual designed to invoke the Egyptian god, Thoth, the deity of wisdom, writing, and magic who figures large in the Hermetica attributed to Hermes Trismegistus upon which modern practitioners of Alchemy and Ceremonial Magic draw.

In literature

 이 부분의 본문은 Poems by Edgar Allan Poe#Israfel (1831)입니다.

• Israfil is the subject and title of a poem by Edgar Allan Poe, used for the exotic effect of the name:

In Heaven a spirit doth dwell

Whose heart-strings are a lute;

None sing so wildly well

As the angel Israfil,

And the giddy stars (so legends tell),

Ceasing their hymns, attend the spell

Of his voice, all mute.

• Israfil appears as a character in the book Heavenly Discourse by C. E. S. Wood.
• Israfil is a character in the Remy Chandler book series - specifically the book A kiss before the Apocalypse - by Thomas E. Sniegoski. In that series he plays the part of the Angel of Death.
• Israfil appears as an angelic character in the Sheri S. Tepper book - "Beauty".

See also

• Angel
• Archangel
• Angels in Islam - an article on Angles in Islam
• Seraph
• Eschatology
• Resurrection

이슬람교의 천사와 이집트 하급신들의 유사성

The above and many other characteristics might be cited in proof that the angels of the Muḥammadans possess much in common with the inferior gods of the Egyptians, and though many of the conceptions of the Arabs on this point were undoubtedly borrowed from the Hebrews and their writings, a great many must have descended to them from their own early ancestors.

시리아의 천사 체계: 3위 9등급 체계

Closely connected with these Muḥammadan theories, though much older, is the system of angels which was invented by the Syrians. In this we find the angels divided into nine classes and three orders, upper, middle, and lower.

1. The upper order is composed of
   1. Cherubim,
   2. Seraphim, and
   3. Thrones ;
2. the middle order of
   1. Lords,
   2. Powers, and
   3. Rulers; and
3. the lower order of
   1. Principalities,
   2. Archangels, and
   3. Angels.

The middle order receives revelations from those above them, and the lower order are the ministers who wait upon created things.

시리아의 천사 체계의 최고위 천사: 가브리엘

The highest and foremost among the angels is Gabriel, who is the mediator between God and His creation. The Archangels in this system are described as a “swift operative motion,” which has dominion over every living thing except man; and the Angels are a motion which has spiritual knowledge of everything that is on earth and in heaven.³⁾

³⁾ See my edition of the Book of the Bee, by Solomon of Al-Baṣra. Oxford, 1886, pp. 9-11.

시리아의 천사 체계의 기원과 이집트 하급신과의 유사성

The Syrians, like the Muḥammadans, borrowed largely from the writings of the Hebrews, in whose theological system angels played a very prominent part. In the Syrian system also the angels possess much in common with the inferior gods of the Egyptians.

Hebrew Angels Or "gods"

이집트 하급신의 성격

The inferior gods of the Egyptians

1. were supposed to suffer from many of the defects of mortal beings, and
2. they were even thought to grow old and to die, and the same ideas about the angels were held by Muḥammadans and Hebrews.

이슬람의 천사의 성격

According to the former (이슬람교), the angels will perish when heaven, their abode, is made to pass away at the Day of Judgment.

유대교의 천사의 성격

According to the latter (유대교), one of the two great classes of angels, i.e., those which were created on the fifth day of creation, is mortal; on the other hand, the angels which were created on the second day of creation [Page 7] endure for ever, and these may be fitly compared with the unfailing and unvarying powers of nature which were personified and worshipped by the Egyptians; of the angels which perish, some spring from fire, some from water, and some from wind.

유대교의 천사의 하이어라키: 10등급

The angels are grouped into ten classes, i.e.,

1. the Erêlîm,
2. the Îshîm,
3. the Bĕnê Elôhîm,
4. the Malachîm,
5. the Ḥaslimalîm,
6. the Tarshîshîm,
7. the Shislianîm,
8. the Cherûbîm,
9. the Ophannîm,
10. and the Serâphim;⁴⁾

among these were divided all the duties connected with the ordering (정리, 배치) of the heavens and the earth, and they, according to their position and importance, became the interpreters of the Will of the Deity.

⁴⁾ See the chapter “Was die Judeu von den guten Engeln lehren” in Eisenmenger, Entdeckten Judenthums, vol. ii. p. 370 ff.

Angels in Judaism (angel: מַלְאָךְ mal’āḵ, plural mal’āḵīm) appear throughout the Hebrew Bible, Talmud, Rabbinic literature, and traditional Jewish liturgy. They are categorized in different hierarchies.

Maimonides

Maimonides, in his Mishneh Torah or Yad ha-Chazakah: Yesodei ha-Torah, counts ten ranks of angels in the Jewish angelic hierarchy, beginning from the highest:

Rank	Angel	Notes
1	Chayot HaKodesh	See Ezekiel chs. 1 and 10
2	Ophanim	See Ezekiel chs. 1 and 10
3	Erelim	See Isaiah 33:7
4	Hashmallim	See Ezekiel 1:4
5	Seraphim	See Isaiah 6
6	Malakim	Messengers, angels
7	Elohim	"Godly beings"
8	Bene Elohim	"Sons of Godly beings"
9	Cherubim	See Talmud Hagigah 13b
10	Ishim	"manlike beings", see Genesis 18:2, Daniel 10:5

Kabbalah

The Sephirot in Jewish Kabbalah
The Sefirot in Jewish Kabbalah
	Category:Sephirot

According to the Kabbalah as described by the Golden Dawn there are ten archangels, each commanding one of the choir of angels and corresponding to one of the Sephirot. It is similar to the Jewish angelic hierarchy.

Rank	Choir of Angels	Translation	Archangel	Sephirah
1	Hayot Ha Kodesh	Holy Living Ones	Metatron	Keter
2	Ophanim	Wheels	Raziel	Chokmah
3	Erelim	Brave ones	Tzaphkiel	Binah
4	Hashmallim	Glowing ones, Amber ones	Tzadkiel	Chesed
5	Seraphim	Burning Ones	Khamael	Gevurah
6	Malakim	Messengers, angels	Raphael	Tipheret
7	Elohim	Godly Beings	Uriel	Netzach
8	Bene Elohim	Sons of Elohim	Michael	Hod
9	Cherubim		Gabriel	Yesod
10	Ishim	Men (man-like beings, phonetically similar to "fires")	Sandalphon	Malkuth

셈족 신화와 이집트 신화의 관련성

A comparison of the passages in Rabbinic literature which describe these and similar matters connected with the angels, spirits, etc., of ancient Hebrew mythology with Egyptian texts shows that both the Egyptians and Jews possessed many ideas in common, and all the evidence goes to prove that the latter borrowed from the former in the earliest period.

In comparatively late historical times the Egyptians introduced into their company of gods a few deities from Western Asia, but these had no effect in modifying the general character either of their religion or of their worship. The subject of comparative Egyptian and Semitic mythology is one which has yet to be worked thoroughly, not because it would supply us with the original forms of Egyptian myths and legends, but because it would show what modifications such things underwent when adopted by Semitic peoples, or at least by peoples who had Semitic blood in their veins.

Some would compare Egyptian and Semitic mythologies on the ground that the Egyptians and Semites were kinsfolk (친척들), but it must be quite clearly understood that this is pure assumption, and is only based on the statements of those who declare that the Egyptian and Semitic languages are akin. Others again have sought to explain the mythology of the Egyptians by appeals to Aryan mythology, and to illustrate the meanings of important Egyptian words in religious texts by means of Aryan etymologies, but the results are wholly unsatisfactory, and they only serve to show the futility (무용) [Page 8] of comparing the mythologies of two peoples of different race occupying quite different grades in the ladder of civilization.

The Oldest Gods Of Egypt

It cannot be too strongly insisted on that all the oldest gods of Egypt are of Egyptian origin, and that the fundamental religious beliefs of the Egyptians also are of Egyptian origin, and that both the gods and the beliefs date from predynastic times, and have nothing whatever to do with the Semites or Aryans of history.

Of the origin of the Egyptian of the Palaeolithic and early Neolithic Periods, we, of course, know nothing, but it is tolerably certain that the Egyptian of the latter part of the Neolithic Period was indigenous to North-East Africa, and that a very large number of the great gods worshipped by the dynastic Egyptian were worshipped also by his predecessor in predynastic times. The conquerors of the Egyptians of the Neolithic Period who, with good reason, have been assumed to come from the East and to have been more or less akin to the Proto-Semites, no doubt brought about certain modifications in the worship of those whom they had vanquished (완파하다), but they could not have succeeded in abolishing the various gods in animal and other forms which were worshipped throughout the length and breadth (…의 전체에 걸쳐) of the country, for these continued to be venerated (공경[숭배]하다) until the time of the Ptolemies.

Ptolemaic dynasty, in blue.

The Ptolemaic Kingdom (/ˌtɒləˈmeɪ.ɪk/; Πτολεμαϊκὴ βασιλεία, Ptolemaïkḕ Basileía) was a Hellenistic kingdom in Egypt. It was ruled by the Ptolemaic dynasty that Ptolemy I Soter founded after the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC—which ended with the death of Cleopatra VII and the Roman conquest in 30 BC.

The Ptolemaic Kingdom was founded in 305 BC by Ptolemy I Soter, who declared himself Pharaoh of Egypt and created a powerful Hellenistic dynasty that ruled an area stretching from southern Syria to Cyrene and south to Nubia. Alexandria became the capital city and a center of Greek culture and trade. To gain recognition by the native Egyptian populace, they named themselves the successors to the Pharaohs. The later Ptolemies took on Egyptian traditions by marrying their siblings, had themselves portrayed on public monuments in Egyptian style and dress, and participated in Egyptian religious life. The Ptolemies had to fight native rebellions and were involved in foreign and civil wars that led to the decline of the kingdom and its annexation by Rome. Hellenistic culture continued to thrive in Egypt throughout the Roman and Byzantine periods until the Muslim conquest.

History of Egypt
This article is part of a series
Prehistoric Egypt pre–3100 BC
Ancient Egypt
Early Dynastic Period 3100–2686 BC
Old Kingdom 2686–2181 BC
1st Intermediate Period 2181–2055 BC
Middle Kingdom 2055–1650 BC
2nd Intermediate Period 1650–1550 BC
New Kingdom 1550–1069 BC
3rd Intermediate Period 1069–664 BC
Late Period 664–332 BC
Classical Antiquity
Achaemenid Egypt 525–332 BC
Ptolemaic Egypt 332–30 BC
Roman & Byzantine Egypt 30 BC–641 AD
Sassanid Egypt 621–629
Middle Ages
Arab Egypt 641–969
Fatimid Egypt 969–1171
Ayyubid Egypt 1171–1250
Mamluk Egypt 1250–1517
Early Modern
Ottoman Egypt 1517–1867
French occupation 1798–1801
Egypt under Muhammad Ali 1805–1882
Khedivate of Egypt 1867–1914
Modern Egypt
British occupation 1882–1953
Sultanate of Egypt 1914–1922
Kingdom of Egypt 1922–1953
Republic 1953–present
Egypt portal

The history of Ancient Egypt spans the period from the early predynastic settlements of the northern Nile Valley to the Roman conquest in 30 BC. The Pharaonic Period is dated from around 3200 BC, when Lower and Upper Egypt became a unified state, until the country fell under Greek rule in 332 BC.

Chronology

Note

For alternative 'revisions' to the chronology of Egypt, see Egyptian chronology.

Egypt's history is split into several different periods according to the ruling dynasty of each pharaoh. The dating of events is still a subject of research. The conservative dates are not supported by any reliable absolute date for a span of about three millennia. The following is the list according to conventional Egyptian chronology.

• Predynastic Period (Prior to 3100 BC)
• Protodynastic Period (Approximately 3100 - 3000 BC)
• Early Dynastic Period (1st–2nd Dynasties)
• Old Kingdom (3rd–6th Dynasties)
• First Intermediate Period (7th–11th Dynasties)
• Middle Kingdom (12th–13th Dynasties)
• Second Intermediate Period (14th–17th Dynasties)
• New Kingdom (18th–20th Dynasties)
• Third Intermediate Period (21st–25th Dynasties) (also known as the Libyan Period)
• Late Period (26th–31st Dynasties)

Neolithic Egypt

Neolithic period

The Nile has been the lifeline for Egyptian culture since nomadic hunter-gatherers began living along the Nile during the Pleistocene. Traces of these early people appear in the form of artifacts and rock carvings along the terraces of the Nile and in the oases. To the Egyptians the Nile meant life and the desert meant death, though the desert did provide them protection from invaders.

Along the Nile, in the 12th millennium BC, a grain-grinding culture using the earliest type of sickle blades had been replaced by another culture of hunters, fishers, and gathering people using stone tools. Evidence also indicates human habitation and cattle herding in the southwestern corner of Egypt, near the Sudan border, before 8000 BC. But according to Barbara Barich the idea of an independent bovine domestication event in Africa must be abandoned because subsequent evidence gathered over a period of thirty years has failed to corroborate this. In light of this the oldest known domesticated bovine remains in Africa are from the Fayum c. 4400 BC. Geological evidence and computer climate modeling studies suggest that natural climate changes around 8000 BC began to desiccate the extensive pastoral lands of northern Africa, eventually forming the Sahara (c.2500 BC).

Continued desiccation forced the early ancestors of the Egyptians to settle around the Nile more permanently and forced them to adopt a more sedentary lifestyle. However, the period from 9000 to 6000 BC has left very little in the way of archaeological evidence.

Predynastic period

 이 부분의 본문은 Predynastic Egypt입니다.

Further information: Naqada

A Naqada II vase decorated with gazelles, on display at the Louvre.

The Nile Valley of Egypt was basically uninhabitable until the work of clearing and irrigating the land along the banks of the river was started. However it appears that this clearance and irrigation was largely under way by about 6000 BC. By that time, society in the Nile Valley was already engaged in organized agriculture and the construction of large buildings in the Nile Valley. At this time, Egyptians in the southwestern corner of Egypt were herding cattle and also constructing large buildings. Mortar was in use by 4000 BC. The people of the Nile Valley and on delta were self-sufficient and were raising barley and emmer (an early variety of wheat) and stored it in pits lined with reed mats. They raised cattle, goats and pigs and they wove linens and baskets. The Predynastic Period continues through this time, variously held to begin with the Naqada culture.

Between 5500 and 3100 BC, during Egypt's Predynastic Period, small settlements flourished along the Nile, whose delta empties into the Mediterranean Sea. By 3300 BC, just before the first Egyptian dynasty, Egypt was divided into two kingdoms, known as Upper Egypt, Ta Shemau, to the south, and Lower Egypt, Ta Mehu, to the north. The dividing line was drawn roughly in the area of modern Cairo.

The Tasian culture was the next to appear in Upper Egypt. This group is named for the burials found at Der Tasa, a site on the east bank of the Nile between Asyut and Akhmim. The Tasian culture group is notable for producing the earliest blacktop-ware, a type of red and brown pottery which has been painted black on its top and interior.

The Badarian Culture, named for the Badari site near Der Tasa, followed the Tasian culture, however similarities between the two have led many to avoid differentiating between them at all. The Badarian Culture continued to produce the kind of pottery called Blacktop-ware (although its quality was much improved over previous specimens), and was assigned the Sequence Dating numbers between 21 and 29. The significant difference, however, between the Tasian and Badarian culture groups which prevents scholars from completely merging the two together is that Badarian sites use copper in addition to stone, and thus are chalcolithic settlements, while the Tasian sites are still Neolithic, and are considered technically part of the Stone Age.

The Amratian culture is named after the site of el-Amra, about 120 km south of Badari. El-Amra was the first site where this culture group was found unmingled with the later Gerzean culture group; however, this period is better attested at the Naqada site, thus it is also referred to as the Naqada I culture. Black-topped ware continued to be produced, but white cross-line ware, a type of pottery which was decorated with close parallel white lines crossed by another set of close parallel white lines, began to be produced during this time. The Amratian period falls between S.D. 30 and 39 in Petrie's Sequence Dating system. Trade between Upper and Lower Egypt was attested at this time, as newly excavated objects indicate. A stone vase from the north was found at el-Amra, and copper, which is not present in Egypt, was apparently imported from the Sinai, or perhaps from Nubia. Obsidian and an extremely small amount of gold were both definitively imported from Nubia during this time. Trade with the oases was also likely.

The Gerzean Culture, named after the site of Gerza, was the next stage in Egyptian cultural development, and it was during this time that the foundation for Dynastic Egypt was laid. Gerzean culture was largely an unbroken development out of Amratian Culture, starting in the delta and moving south through upper Egypt; however, it failed to dislodge Amratian Culture in Nubia. Gerzean culture coincided with a significant drop in rainfall, and farming produced the vast majority of food. With increased food supplies, the populace adopted a much more sedentary lifestyle, and the larger settlements grew to cities of about 5,000 residents. It was in this time that the city dwellers started using mud brick to build their cities. Copper instead of stone was increasingly used to make tools and weaponry. Silver, gold, lapis, and faience were used ornamentally, and the grinding palettes used for eye-paint since the Badarian period began to be adorned with relief carvings.

Dynastic Egypt

Dynasties of Ancient Egypt Early Dynastic • 1st Dynasty (c. 3050 – 2890 BC) • 2nd Dynasty (2890–2686 BC) Old Kingdom • 3rd Dynasty (2686–2613 BC) • 4th Dynasty (2613–2498 BC) • 5th Dynasty (2498–2345 BC) • 6th Dynasty (2345–2181 BC) First Intermediate • 7th Dynasty (2181–2160 BC) • 8th Dynasty (2181–2160 BC) • 9th Dynasty (2160–2130 BC) • 10th Dynasty (2130–2040 BC) • 11th Dynasty (Thebes only) (2134–1991 BC) Middle Kingdom • 11th Dynasty (All Egypt) (2134–1991 BC) • 12th Dynasty (1991–1803 BC) • 13th Dynasty (1803–1649 BC) • 14th Dynasty (1705–1690 BC) Second Intermediate  • 15th Dynasty (1674–1535 BC) • 16th Dynasty (1660–1600 BC) • 17th Dynasty (1650–1549 BC) New Kingdom • 18th (1549–1292 BC) • 19th (1292–1189 BC) • 20th (1189–1077 BC) Third Intermediate • 21st (1069–945 BC) • 22nd (945–720 BC) • 23rd (837–728 BC) • 24th (732–720 BC) • 25th (732–653 BC) Late Period • 26th (672–525 BC) • 27th (First Achaemenid Period) (525–404 BC) • 28th (404–398 BC) • 29th (398–380 BC) • 30th (380–343 BC) • 31st (Second Achaemenid Period) (343–332 BC) Hellenistic Period • Argead (332–305 BC) • Ptolemaic (305–30 BC)

Early dynastic period

 이 부분의 본문은 Early Dynastic Period of Egypt입니다.

Stela of the 2nd dynasty pharaoh Raneb, displaying the hieroglyph for his name within a serekh, surmounted by Horus. On display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The historical records of ancient Egypt begin with Egypt as a unified state, which occurred sometime around 3150 BC. According to Egyptian tradition Menes, thought to have unified Upper and Lower Egypt, was the first king. This Egyptian culture, customs, art expression, architecture, and social structure was closely tied to religion, remarkably stable, and changed little over a period of nearly 3000 years.

Egyptian chronology, which involves regnal years, began around this time. The conventional Egyptian chronology is the chronology accepted during the twentieth century, but it does not include any of the major revision proposals that also have been made in that time. Even within a single work, archaeologists often will offer several possible dates or even several whole chronologies as possibilities. Consequently, there may be discrepancies between dates shown here and in articles on particular rulers or topics related to ancient Egypt. There also are several possible spellings of the names. Typically, Egyptologists divide the history of pharaonic civilization using a schedule laid out first by Manetho's Aegyptiaca (History of Egypt) that was written during the Ptolemaic era, during the third century BC.

Prior to the unification of Egypt, the land was settled with autonomous villages. With the early dynasties, and for much of Egypt's history thereafter, the country came to be known as the Two Lands. The rulers established a national administration and appointed royal governors.

According to Manetho, the first king was Menes, but archeological findings support the view that the first pharaoh to claim to have united the two lands was Narmer (the final king of the Protodynastic Period). His name is known primarily from the famous Narmer Palette, whose scenes have been interpreted as the act of uniting Upper and Lower Egypt.

Funeral practices for the elite resulted in the construction of mastaba tombs, which later became models for subsequent Old Kingdom constructions such as the Step pyramid.

Old Kingdom

 이 부분의 본문은 Old Kingdom입니다.

Graywacke statue of the pharaoh Menkaura and his consort Queen Khamerernebty II. Originally from his Giza Valley temple, now on display at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

The Old Kingdom is most commonly regarded as spanning the period of time when Egypt was ruled by the Third Dynasty through to the Sixth Dynasty (2686 BC – 2134 BC). The royal capital of Egypt during the Old Kingdom was located at Memphis, where Djoser established his court. The Old Kingdom is perhaps best known, however, for the large number of pyramids, which were constructed at this time as pharaonic burial places. For this reason, the Old Kingdom is frequently referred to as "the Age of the Pyramids." The first notable pharaoh of the Old Kingdom was Djoser (2630–2611 BC) of the Third Dynasty, who ordered the construction of a pyramid (the Step Pyramid) in Memphis' necropolis, Saqqara.

It was in this era that formerly independent ancient Egyptian states became known as nomes, ruled solely by the pharaoh. Subsequently the former rulers were forced to assume the role of governors or otherwise work in tax collection. Egyptians in this era worshiped their pharaoh as a god, believing that he ensured the annual flooding of the Nile that was necessary for their crops.

The Old Kingdom and its royal power reached their zenith under the Fourth Dynasty. Sneferu, the dynasty's founder, is believed to have commissioned at least three pyramids; while his son and successor Khufu erected the Great Pyramid of Giza, Sneferu had more stone and brick moved than any other pharaoh. Khufu (Greek Cheops), his son Khafra (Greek Chephren), and his grandson Menkaura (Greek Mycerinus), all achieved lasting fame in the construction of their pyramids. To organize and feed the manpower needed to create these pyramids required a centralized government with extensive powers, and Egyptologists believe the Old Kingdom at this time demonstrated this level of sophistication. Recent excavations near the pyramids led by Mark Lehner have uncovered a large city which seems to have housed, fed and supplied the pyramid workers. Although it was once believed that slaves built these monuments, a theory based on the biblical Exodus story, study of the tombs of the workmen, who oversaw construction on the pyramids, has shown they were built by a corvée of peasants drawn from across Egypt. They apparently worked while the annual Nile flood covered their fields, as well as a very large crew of specialists, including stone cutters, painters, mathematicians and priests.

The Fifth Dynasty began with Userkhaf (starting c. 2495 BC) and was marked by the growing importance of the cult of sun god Ra. Consequently less efforts were devoted to the construction of pyramid complexes than during the 4th dynasty and more to the construction of sun temples in Abusir. The decoration of pyramid complexes grew more elaborate during the dynasty and its last king, Unas, was the first to have the pyramid texts inscribed in his pyramid. Egypt's expanding interests in trade goods such as ebony, incense such as myrrh and frankincense, gold, copper and other useful metals compelled the ancient Egyptians to navigate of the open seas. Evidence from the pyramid of Sahure, second king of the dynasty, shows that a regular trade existed with the Syrian cost to procure cedar wood. Pharaohs also launched expeditions to the famed Land of Punt, possibly in modern day Ethiopia and Somalia, for ebony, ivory and aromatic resins.

During the sixth dynasty (2345–2181 BC), the power of pharaohs gradually weakened in favor of powerful nomarchs (regional governors). These no longer belonged to the royal family and their charge became hereditary, thus creating local dynasties largely independent from the central authority of the pharaoh. Internal disorders set in during the incredibly long reign of Pepi II (2278–2184 BC) towards the end of the dynasty. His death, certainly well past that of his intended heirs, might have created succession struggles and the country slipped into civil wars mere decades after the close of Pepi II's reign. The final blow came when a severe drought affected the region which resulted from a drastic drop in precipitation during the 22nd century BC, producing consistently low Nile flood levels. The result was the collapse of the Old Kingdom followed by decades of famine and strife.

First Intermediate Period

 이 부분의 본문은 First Intermediate Period입니다.

Pottery model of a house used in a burial from the First Intermediate Period, on display at the Royal Ontario Museum.

After the fall of the Old Kingdom came a roughly 200-year stretch of time known as the First Intermediate Period, which is generally thought to include a relatively obscure set of pharaohs running from the end of the Sixth to the Tenth, and most of the Eleventh Dynasty. Most of these were likely local monarchs who did not hold much power outside of their own limited domain, and none held power over the whole of Egypt.

While there are next to no official records covering this period, there are a number of fictional texts known as Lamentations from the early period of the subsequent Middle Kingdom that may shed some light on what happened during this period. Some of these texts reflect on the breakdown of rule, others allude to invasion by "Asiatic bowmen". In general the stories focus on a society where the natural order of things in both society and nature was overthrown.

It is also highly likely that it was during this period that all of the pyramid and tomb complexes were robbed. Further lamentation texts allude to this fact, and by the beginning of the Middle Kingdom mummies are found decorated with magical spells that were once exclusive to the pyramid of the kings of the sixth dynasty.

By 2160 BC a new line of pharaohs (the Ninth and Tenth Dynasties) consolidated Lower Egypt from their capital in Herakleopolis Magna. A rival line (the Eleventh Dynasty) based at Thebes reunited Upper Egypt and a clash between the two rival dynasties was inevitable. Around 2055 BC the Theban forces defeated the Heracleopolitan Pharaohs, reunited the Two Lands. The reign of its first pharaoh, Mentuhotep II marks the beginning of the Middle Kingdom.

Middle Kingdom

 이 부분의 본문은 Middle Kingdom of Egypt입니다.

An Osiride statue of Mentuhotep II, the founder of the Middle Kingdom

The Middle Kingdom is the period in the history of ancient Egypt stretching from the establishment of the Eleventh Dynasty to the end of the Fourteenth Dynasty, roughly between 2030 BC and 1640 BC.

The period comprises two phases, the 11th Dynasty, which ruled from Thebes and the 12th Dynasty onwards which was centered around el-Lisht. These two dynasties were originally considered to be the full extent of this unified kingdom, but historians now consider the 13th Dynasty to at least partially belong to the Middle Kingdom.

The earliest pharaohs of the Middle Kingdom traced their origin to a nomarch of Thebes, "Intef the Great, son of Iku", who is mentioned in a number of contemporary inscriptions. However, his immediate successor Mentuhotep II is considered the first pharaoh of this dynasty.

An inscription carved during the reign of Wahankh Intef II shows that he was the first of this dynasty to claim to rule over the whole of Egypt, a claim which brought the Thebeans into conflict with the rulers of Herakleopolis Magna, the Tenth Dynasty. Intef undertook several campaigns northwards, and captured the important nome of Abydos.

Warfare continued intermittently between the Thebean and Heracleapolitan dynasties until the 14th regnal year of Nebhetepra Mentuhotep II, when the Herakleopolitans were defeated, and the Theban dynasty began to consolidate their rule. Mentuhotep II is known to have commanded military campaigns south into Nubia, which had gained its independence during the First Intermediate Period. There is also evidence for military actions against Palestine. The king reorganized the country and placed a vizier at the head of civil administration for the country.

Mentuhotep IV was the final pharaoh of this dynasty, and despite being absent from various lists of pharaohs, his reign is attested from a few inscriptions in Wadi Hammamat that record expeditions to the Red Sea coast and to quarry stone for the royal monuments. The leader of this expedition was his vizier Amenemhat, who is widely assumed to be the future pharaoh Amenemhet I, the first king of the 12th Dynasty. Amenemhet is widely assumed by some Egyptologists to have either usurped the throne or assumed power after Mentuhotep IV died childless.

Amenemhat I built a new capital for Egypt, known as Itjtawy, thought to be located near the present-day el-Lisht, although the chronicler Manetho claims the capital remained at Thebes. Amenemhat forcibly pacified internal unrest, curtailed the rights of the nomarchs, and is known to have at launched at least one campaign into Nubia. His son Senusret I continued the policy of his father to recapture Nubia and other territories lost during the First Intermediate Period. The Libyans were subdued under his forty-five year reign and Egypt's prosperity and security were secured.

Senusret III (1878 BC – 1839 BC) was a warrior-king, leading his troops deep into Nubia, and built a series of massive forts throughout the country to establish Egypt's formal boundaries with the unconquered areas of its territory. Amenemhet III (1860 BC – 1815 BC) is considered the last great pharaoh of the Middle Kingdom.

Egypt's population began to exceed food production levels during the reign of Amenemhat III, who then ordered the exploitation of the Fayyum and increased mining operations in the Sinaï desert. He also invited Asiatic settlers to Egypt to labor on Egypt's monuments. Late in his reign the annual floods along the Nile began to fail, further straining the resources of the government. The Thirteenth Dynasty and Fourteenth Dynasty witnessed the slow decline of Egypt into the Second Intermediate Period in which some of the Asiatic settlers of Amenemhat III would grasp power over Egypt as the Hyksos.

Second Intermediate Period and the Hyksos

 이 부분의 본문은 Second Intermediate Period 및 Hyksos입니다.

The Second Intermediate Period marks a period when Ancient Egypt once again fell into disarray between the end of the Middle Kingdom, and the start of the New Kingdom. This period is best known as the time the Hyksos (an Asiatic people) made their appearance in Egypt, the reigns of its kings comprising the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Dynasties.

The Thirteenth Dynasty proved unable to hold onto the long land of Egypt, and a provincial ruling family located in the marshes of the western Delta at Xois broke away from the central authority to form the Fourteenth Dynasty. The splintering of the land accelerated after the reign of the Thirteenth Dynasty king Neferhotep I.

The Hyksos first appear during the reign of the Thirteenth Dynasty pharaoh Sobekhotep IV, and by 1720 BC took control of the town of Avaris. The outlines of the traditional account of the "invasion" of the land by the Hyksos is preserved in the Aegyptiaca of Manetho, who records that during this time the Hyksos overran Egypt, led by Salitis, the founder of the Fifteenth Dynasty. In the last decades, however, the idea of a simple migration, with little or no violence involved, has gained some support. Under this theory, the Egyptian rulers of 13th Dynasty were unable to stop these new migrants from travelling to Egypt from Asia because they were weak kings who were struggling to cope with various domestic problems including possibly famine.

The Hyksos princes and chieftains ruled in the eastern Delta with their local Egyptian vassals. The Hyksos Fifteenth Dynasty rulers established their capital and seat of government at Memphis and their summer residence at Avaris.

The Hyksos kingdom was centered in the eastern Nile Delta and Middle Egypt and was limited in size, never extending south into Upper Egypt, which was under control by Theban-based rulers. Hyksos relations with the south seem to have been mainly of a commercial nature, although Theban princes appear to have recognized the Hyksos rulers and may possibly have provided them with tribute for a period.

Around the time Memphis fell to the Hyksos, the native Egyptian ruling house in Thebes declared its independence from the vassal dynasty in Itj-tawy and set itself up as the Seventeenth Dynasty. This dynasty was to prove the salvation of Egypt and would eventually lead the war of liberation that drove the Hyksos back into Asia. The two last kings of this dynasty were Tao II the Brave and Kamose. Ahmose I completed the conquest and expulsion of the Hyksos from the delta region, restored Theban rule over the whole of Egypt and successfully reasserted Egyptian power in its formerly subject territories of Nubia and Canaan. His reign marks this beginning of the Eighteenth Dynasty and the New Kingdom period.

New Kingdom

 이 부분의 본문은 New Kingdom of Egypt입니다.

Possibly as a result of the foreign rule of the Hyksos during the Second Intermediate Period, the New Kingdom saw Egypt attempt to create a buffer between the Levant and Egypt, and attain its greatest territorial extent. It expanded far south into Nubia and held wide territories in the Near East. Egyptian armies fought Hittite armies for control of modern-day Syria.

Eighteenth Dynasty

Golden mask from the mummy of Tutankhamen

This was a time of great wealth and power for Egypt. Some of the most important and best-known Pharaohs ruled at this time. Hatshepsut was a pharaoh at this time. Hatshepsut is unusual as she was a female pharaoh, a rare occurrence in Egyptian history. She was an ambitious and competent leader, extending Egyptian trade south into present-day Somalia and north into the Mediterranean. She ruled for twenty years through a combination of widespread propaganda and deft political skill. Her co-regent and successor Thutmose III ("the Napoleon of Egypt") expanded Egypt's army and wielded it with great success. Late in his reign he ordered her name hacked out from her monuments. He fought against Asiatic people and was the most successful of Egyptian pharaohs. Amenhotep III built extensively at the temple of Karnak including the Luxor temple which consisted of two pylons, a colonnade behind the new temple entrance, and a new temple to the goddess Ma'at.

Nineteenth Dynasty

Egypt and its world in 1300 BC.

Colossal depictions of Ramesses II at a temple dedicated to him at Abu Simbel.

Ramesses I reigned for two years and was succeeded by his son Seti I. Seti I carried on the work of Horemheb in restoring power, control, and respect to Egypt. He also was responsible for creating the temple complex at Abydos.

Arguably Ancient Egypt's power as a nation-state peaked during the reign of Ramesses II ("the Great") of the 19th Dynasty. He reigned for 67 years from the age of 18 and carried on his immediate predecessor's work and created many more splendid temples, such as that of Abu Simbel on the Nubian border. He sought to recover territories in the Levant that had been held by 18th Dynasty Egypt. His campaigns of reconquest culminated in the Battle of Kadesh in 1274 BC, where he led Egyptian armies against those of the Hittite king Muwatalli II and was caught in history's first recorded military ambush. Ramesses II was famed for the huge number of children he sired by his various wives and concubines; the tomb he built for his sons (many of whom he outlived) in the Valley of the Kings has proven to be the largest funerary complex in Egypt.

His immediate successors continued the military campaigns, though an increasingly troubled court complicated matters. Ramesses II was succeeded by his son Merneptah and then by Merenptah's son Seti II. Seti II's throne seems to have been disputed by his half-brother Amenmesse, who may have temporarily ruled from Thebes. Upon his death, Seti II son Siptah, who may have been afflicted with polio during his life, was appointed to the throne by Chancellor Bay, an Asiatic commoner who served as vizier behind the scenes. At Siptah's early death, the throne was assumed by Twosret, the dowager queen of Seti II (and possibly Amenmesse's sister). A period of anarchy at the end of Twosret's short reign saw a native reaction to foreign control leading to the execution of the chancellor, and placing Setnakhte on the throne, establishing the Twentieth Dynasty.

Twentieth Dynasty

The last "great" pharaoh from the New Kingdom is widely regarded to be Ramesses III, the son of Setnakhte who reigned three decades after the time of Ramesses II. In Year 8 of his reign, the Sea People, invaded Egypt by land and sea. Ramesses III defeated them in two great land and sea battles. He claimed that he incorporated them as subject people and settled them in Southern Canaan, although there is evidence that they forced their way into Canaan. Their presence in Canaan may have contributed to the formation of new states in this region such as Philistia after the collapse of the Egyptian Empire. He was also compelled to fight invading Libyan tribesmen in two major campaigns in Egypt's Western Delta in his Year 6 and Year 11 respectively.

The heavy cost of these battles slowly exhausted Egypt's treasury and contributed to the gradual decline of the Egyptian Empire in Asia. The severity of these difficulties is stressed by the fact that the first known labor strike in recorded history occurred during Year 29 of Ramesses III's reign, when the food rations for the Egypt's favoured and elite royal tomb-builders and artisans in the village of Deir el Medina could not be provisioned. Something in the air prevented much sunlight from reaching the ground and also arrested global tree growth for almost two full decades until 1140 BC. One proposed cause is the Hekla 3 eruption of the Hekla volcano in Iceland, but the dating of that event remains in dispute.

Following Ramesses III's death there was endless bickering between his heirs. Three of his sons would go on to assume power as Ramesses IV, Ramesses VI and Ramesses VIII respectively. However, at this time Egypt was also increasingly beset by a series of droughts, below-normal flooding levels of the Nile, famine, civil unrest and official corruption. The power of the last pharaoh, Ramesses XI, grew so weak that in the south the High Priests of Amun at Thebes became the effective defacto rulers of Upper Egypt, while Smendes controlled Lower Egypt even before Ramesses XI's death. Smendes would eventually found the Twenty-First dynasty at Tanis.

Third Intermediate Period

 이 부분의 본문은 Third Intermediate Period입니다.

Sphinx of the Nubian pharaoh Taharqa.

25th Dynasty

After the death of Ramesses XI, his successor Smendes ruled from the city of Tanis in the north, while the High Priests of Amun at Thebes had effective rule of the south of the country, whilst still nominally recognizing Smendes as king. In fact, this division was less significant than it seems, since both priests and pharaohs came from the same family. Piankh, assumed control of Upper Egypt, ruling from Thebes, with the northern limit of his control ending at Al-Hibah. (The High Priest Herihor had died before Ramesses XI, but also was an all-but-independent ruler in the latter days of the king's reign.) The country was once again split into two parts with the priests in Thebes and the Pharaohs at Tanis. Their reign seems to be without any other distinction, and they were replaced without any apparent struggle by the Libyan kings of the Twenty-Second Dynasty.

Egypt has long had ties with Libya, and the first king of the new dynasty, Shoshenq I, was a Meshwesh Libyan, who served as the commander of the armies under the last ruler of the Twenty-First Dynasty, Psusennes II. He unified the country, putting control of the Amun clergy under his own son as the High Priest of Amun, a post that was previously a hereditary appointment. The scant and patchy nature of the written records from this period suggest that it was unsettled. There appear to have been many subversive groups, which eventually led to the creation of the Twenty-Third Dynasty, which ran concurrent with the latter part of the Twenty-Second Dynasty. The country was reunited by the Twenty-Second Dynasty founded by Shoshenq I in 945 BC (or 943 BC), who descended from Meshwesh immigrants, originally from Ancient Libya. This brought stability to the country for well over a century. After the reign of Osorkon II the country had again splintered into two states with Shoshenq III of the Twenty-Second Dynasty controlling Lower Egypt by 818 BC while Takelot II and his son (the future Osorkon III) ruled Middle and Upper Egypt.

After the withdrawal of Egypt from Nubia at the end of the New Kingdom, a native dynasty took control of Nubia. Under king Piye, the Nubian founder of Twenty-Fifth Dynasty, the Nubians pushed north in an effort to crush his Libyan opponents ruling in the Delta. Piye managed to attain power as far as Memphis. His opponent Tefnakhte ultimately submitted to him, but he was allowed to remain in power in Lower Egypt and founded the short-lived Twenty-Fourth Dynasty at Sais. The Kushite kingdom to the south took full advantage of this division and political instability and defeated the combined might of several native-Egyptian rulers such as Peftjaubast, Osorkon IV of Tanis, and Tefnakht of Sais. Piye established the Nubian Twenty-Fifth Dynasty and appointed the defeated rulers to be his provincial governors. He was succeeded first by his brother, Shabaka, and then by his two sons Shebitku and Taharqa. Taharqa reunited the "Two lands" of Northern and Southern Egypt and created an empire that was as large as it had been since the New Kingdom. The 25th dynasty ushered in a renaissance period for Ancient Egypt. Religion, the arts, and architecture were restored to their glorious Old, Middle, and New Kingdom forms. Pharaohs, such as Taharqa, built or restored temples and monuments throughout the Nile valley, including at Memphis, Karnak, Kawa, Jebel Barkal, etc. It was during the 25th dynasty that the Nile valley saw the first widespread construction of pyramids (many in modern Sudan) since the Middle Kingdom.

The international prestige of Egypt declined considerably by this time. The country's international allies had fallen under the sphere of influence of Assyria and from about 700 BC the question became when, not if, there would be war between the two states. Taharqa's reign and that of his successor, Tanutamun, were filled with constant conflict with the Assyrians against whom there were numerous victories, but ultimately Thebes was occupied and Memphis sacked.

Late Period

 이 부분의 본문은 Late Period of Ancient Egypt입니다.

From 671 BC on, Memphis and the Delta region became the target of many attacks from the Assyrians, who expelled the Nubians and handed over power to client kings of the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty. Psamtik I was the first to be recognized as the king of the whole of Egypt, and he brought increased stability to the country during a 54-year reign from the new capital of Sais. Four successive Saite kings continued guiding Egypt successfully and peacefully from 610-526 BC, keeping the Babylonians away with the help of Greek mercenaries.

By the end of this period a new power was growing in the Near East: Persia. The pharaoh Psamtik III had to face the might of Persia at Pelusium; he was defeated and briefly escaped to Memphis, but ultimately was captured and then executed.

Persian domination

 이 부분의 본문은 History of Achaemenid Egypt입니다.

Achaemenid Egypt can be divided into three eras: the first period of Persian occupation when Egypt became a satrapy, followed by an interval of independence, and the second and final period of occupation.

The Persian king Cambyses assumed the formal title of Pharaoh, called himself Mesuti-Re ("Re has given birth"), and sacrificed to the Egyptian gods. He founded the Twenty-seventh dynasty. Egypt was then joined with Cyprus and Phoenicia in the sixth satrapy of the Achaemenid Empire.

Cambyses' successors Darius I the Great and Xerxes pursued a similar policy, visited the country, and warded off an Athenian attack. It is likely that Artaxerxes I and Darius II visited the country as well, although it is not attested in our sources, and did not prevent the Egyptians from feeling unhappy.

During the war of succession after the reign of Darius II, which broke out in 404, they revolted under Amyrtaeus and regained their independence. This sole ruler of the Twenty-eighth dynasty died in 399, and power went to the Twenty-ninth dynasty. The Thirtieth Dynasty was established in 380 BC and lasted until 343 BC. Nectanebo II was the last native king to rule Egypt.

Artaxerxes III (358–338 BC) reconquered the Nile valley for a brief period (343–332 BC). In 332 BC Mazaces handed over the country to Alexander the Great without a fight. The Achaemenid empire had ended, and for a while Egypt was a satrapy in Alexander's empire. Later the Ptolemies and then the Romans successively ruled the Nile valley.

Ptolemaic dynasty

 이 부분의 본문은 Ptolemaic dynasty입니다.

In 332 BC Alexander III of Macedon conquered Egypt with little resistance from the Persians. He was welcomed by the Egyptians as a deliverer. He visited Memphis, and went on a pilgrimage to the oracle of Amun at the Oasis of Siwa. The oracle declared him to be the son of Amun. He conciliated the Egyptians by the respect which he showed for their religion, but he appointed Greeks to virtually all the senior posts in the country, and founded a new Greek city, Alexandria, to be the new capital. The wealth of Egypt could now be harnessed for Alexander's conquest of the rest of the Persian Empire. Early in 331 BC he was ready to depart, and led his forces away to Phoenicia. He left Cleomenes as the ruling nomarch to control Egypt in his absence. Alexander never returned to Egypt.

Following Alexander's death in Babylon in 323 BC, a succession crisis erupted among his generals. Initially, Perdiccas ruled the empire as regent for Alexander's half-brother Arrhidaeus, who became Philip III of Macedon, and then as regent for both Philip III and Alexander's infant son Alexander IV of Macedon, who had not been born at the time of his father's death. Perdiccas appointed Ptolemy, one of Alexander's closest companions, to be satrap of Egypt. Ptolemy ruled Egypt from 323 BC, nominally in the name of the joint kings Philip III and Alexander IV. However, as Alexander the Great's empire disintegrated, Ptolemy soon established himself as ruler in his own right. Ptolemy successfully defended Egypt against an invasion by Perdiccas in 321 BC, and consolidated his position in Egypt and the surrounding areas during the Wars of the Diadochi (322 BC-301 BC). In 305 BC, Ptolemy took the title of King. As Ptolemy I Soter ("Saviour"), he founded the Ptolemaic dynasty that was to rule Egypt for nearly 300 years.

The later Ptolemies took on Egyptian traditions by marrying their siblings, had themselves portrayed on public monuments in Egyptian style and dress, and participated in Egyptian religious life. Hellenistic culture thrived in Egypt well after the Muslim conquest. The Ptolemies had to fight native rebellions and were involved in foreign and civil wars that led to the decline of the kingdom and its annexation by Rome.

Indigenous Beliefs

정복자들의 종교는 토착 종교에 크게 영향을 미치지 못하였다

The conquerors of the Egyptians of the Neolithic Period who, with good reason, have been assumed to come from the East and to have been more or less akin to the Proto-Semites, no doubt brought about certain modifications in the worship of those whom they had vanquished (완파하다), but they could not have succeeded in abolishing the various gods in animal and other forms which were worshipped throughout the length and breadth (…의 전체에 걸쳐) of the country, for these continued to be venerated (공경[숭배]하다) until the time of the Ptolemies.

We have at present no means of knowing how far the religious beliefs of the conquerors influenced the conquered peoples of Egypt, but viewed in the light of well-ascertained facts it seems tolerably certain that no great change took place in the views which the indigenous peoples held concerning their gods as the result of the invasion of foreigners, and that if any foreign gods were introduced into the company of indigenous, predynastic gods, they were either quickly assimilated to or wholly absorbed by them.

이집트 신들은 이집트 역사 전반에서 대체로 변화없이 계속되었다

Speaking generally, the gods of the Egyptians remained unchanged throughout all the various periods of the history of Egypt, and the minds of the people seem always to have had a tendency towards the maintenance of old forms of worship, and to the preservation of the ancient texts in which such forms were prescribed and old beliefs were enshrined (…에 명시되어 있는). The Egyptians never forgot the ancient gods of the country, and it is typical of the spirit of conservatism which they displayed in most things that even in the Roman [Page 9] Period (Roman & Byzantine Egypt 30 BC–641 AD) pious folk among them were buried with the same prayers and with the same ceremonies that had been employed at the burial of Egyptians nearly five thousand years before.

아누비스 · 토트 · 오시리스 · 호루스

The Egyptian of the Roman Period (Roman & Byzantine Egypt 30 BC–641 AD), like the Egyptian of the Early Empire (Early Dynastic Period 3100–2686 BC), was content to think that his body would be received in the tomb by the jackal-headed Anubis; that the organs of his corruptible body would be presided over (지휘를 받다) and guarded by animal-headed gods; that the reading of the pointer of the Great Scales, wherein his heart was weighed, would be made known by an ape to the ibis-headed scribe of the gods, whom we know by the name of Thoth; and that the beatified (시복하다) dead would be introduced to the god Osiris by a hawk-headed god called Horus, son of Isis, who in many respects was the counterpart of the god Ḥeru-ur, the oldest of all the gods of Egypt, whose type and symbol was the hawk.

일반 이집트인들은 종교적 전통을 고수했다

From first to last the indigenous Egyptian paid little heed to the events which happened outside his own country, and neither conquest nor invasion by foreign nations had any effect upon his personal belief. He continued to cultivate his land diligently, he worshipped the gods of his ancestors blindly, like them he spared no pains (노고를 아끼지 않다) in making preparations for the preservation of his mummified body, and the heaven which he hoped to attain was fashioned according to old ideas of a fertile homestead (주택[농가]), well stocked with cattle, where he would enjoy the company of his parents, and be able to worship the local gods whom he had adored upon earth.

사제와 상류층의 관점은 일반 이집트인의 관점과는 달랐지만, 이집트 종교와 신화를 규정하는 것은 토착의, 선왕조 시대의 종교와 신화이다

The priestly and upper classes certainly held views on these subjects which differed from those of the husbandman, but it is a significant fact that it was not the religion and mythology of the dynastic Egyptian, but that of the indigenous, predynastic Egyptian, with his animal gods and fantastic and half-savage beliefs, which strongly coloured the religion of the country in all periods of her history, and gave to her the characteristics which were regarded with astonishment and wonder by all the peoples who came in contact with the Egyptians.

Anubis
The Egyptian god Anubis (a modern rendition inspired by New Kingdom tomb paintings)
Protector of the dead and embalming
Name in hieroglyphs
Major cult center	Lycopolis, Cynopolis
Symbol	the fetish, the flail
Consort	Anput
Parents	Ra (early myth) Nephthys and Set, or Osiris (in some accounts) (later)
Siblings	Horus (in some accounts)
Offspring	Kebechet

Anubis (/əˈnuːbəs/ or /əˈnjuːbəs/; Ἄνουβις) is the Greek name for a jackal-headed god associated with mummification and the afterlife in ancient Egyptian religion. He is the son of Nephthys and Set according to the Egyptian mythology. According to the Akkadian transcription in the Amarna letters, Anubis' name was vocalized in Egyptian as Anapa. The oldest known mention of Anubis is in the Old Kingdom pyramid texts, where he is associated with the burial of the pharaoh. At this time, Anubis was the most important god of the dead but he was replaced during the Middle Kingdom by Osiris.

He takes names in connection with his funerary role, such as He who is upon his mountain, which underscores his importance as a protector of the deceased and their tombs, and the title He who is in the place of embalming, associating him with the process of mummification. Like many ancient Egyptian deities, Anubis assumes different roles in various contexts. Anubis also attends the weighing scale in the Afterlife during the "Weighing Of The Heart". Anubis' wife is a goddess called Anput. His daughter is the goddess Kebechet.

Portrayal

Anubis was associated with the mummification and protection of the dead for their journey into the afterlife. He was usually portrayed as a half human, half jackal, or in full jackal form wearing a ribbon and holding a flail in the crook of its arm. The jackal [Note: recent genetic studies show that the Egyptian jackal is actually a form of the grey wolf and has thus been renamed the "Egyptian Wolf"] was strongly associated with cemeteries in ancient Egypt, since it was a scavenger which threatened to uncover human bodies and eat their flesh. The distinctive black color of Anubis "did not have to do with the jackal [per se] but with the color of rotting flesh and with the black soil of the Nile valley, symbolizing rebirth." The only known depiction of him in fully human form is in the tomb of Ramesses II in Abydos.

Anubis is depicted in funerary contexts where he is shown attending to the mummies of the deceased or sitting atop a tomb protecting it. In fact, during embalming, the "head embalmer" wore an Anubis costume. The critical weighing of the heart scene in the Book of the Dead also shows Anubis performing the measurement that determined the worthiness of the deceased to enter the realm of the dead (the underworld, known as Duat). New Kingdom tomb-seals also depict Anubis sitting atop the nine bows that symbolize his domination over the enemies of Egypt.

Embalmer

One of the roles of Anubis was "Guardian of the Scales". Deciding the weight of "truth" by weighing the Heart against Ma'at, who was often depicted as an ostrich feather, Anubis dictated the fate of souls. In this manner, he was a Lord of the Underworld, only usurped by Osiris.

Anubis is a son of Ra in early myths, but later he became known as son of Set and Nephthys, and he helped Isis mummify Osiris. Indeed, when the Myth of Osiris and Isis emerged, it was said that when Osiris had been killed by Set, Osiris' organs were given to Anubis as a gift. With this connection, Anubis became the patron god of embalmers: during the funerary rites of mummification, illustrations from the Book of the Dead often show a priest wearing the jackal mask supporting the upright mummy.

Perceptions outside Egypt

틀:Ancient Egyptian religion In later times, during the Ptolemaic period, Anubis was merged with the Greek god Hermes, becoming Hermanubis. The centre of this cult was in uten-ha/Sa-ka/ Cynopolis, a place whose Greek name simply means "city of dogs". In Book XI of "The Golden Ass" by Apuleius, we find evidence that the worship of this god was maintained in Rome at least up to the 2nd century. Indeed, Hermanubis also appears in the alchemical and hermetical literature of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Although the Greeks and Romans typically scorned Egypt's animal-headed gods as bizarre and primitive (Anubis was known to be mockingly called "Barker" by the Greeks), Anubis was sometimes associated with Sirius in the heavens, and Cerberus in Hades. In his dialogues, Plato has Socrates utter, "by the dog" (kai me ton kuna), "by the dog of Egypt", "by the dog, the god of the Egyptians", for emphasis. Anubis is also known as the god of mummification and death - unlike other jackals, Anubis' head was black to resemble his status as god of death.

Birth

Usually, Anubis is portrayed as the son of Nephthys and Set, Osiris' brother and the god of the desert and darkness. One myth says that Nephthys got Osiris drunk and the resultant seduction brought forth Anubis. Yet another says she disguised herself as Isis and seduced Osiris and subsequently gave birth to Anubis.

• 
  Anubis statue from the Tomb of Tutankhamun (Cairo Museum).
• 
  Anubis attending the mummy of the deceased.
• 
  Statue of Hermanubis (Vatican Museums)
• 
  Anubis mask, Roemer- und Pelizaeus-Museum Hildesheim
• 
  A worshipper kneeling before Anubis, Walters Art Museum

Misconceptions in Popular Media

The 2008 comic documentary Religulous refers to Anubis, as "Anup the Baptizer" and says that he performed baptisms in Egyptian mythology. There is no evidence for baptism and it is widely held by Egyptologists that Anubis' role was associated with the mummification and protection of the dead for their journey into the afterlife. Anubis and Wepwawet (Upuaut) led the deceased to the halls of Maat where they would be judged. Anubis oversaw the process and ensured that the weighing of the heart was conducted correctly. He then led the innocent on to a heavenly existence and abandoned the guilty to Ammit.

Weighing of the heart

The weighing of the heart ceremony was an important factor of the Egyptian mythology. In this ceremony, the heart was weighed by Anubis, against an ostrich feather representing Maat or truth. If the heart was heavier than the feather the soul would be devoured by Ammit.

See also

• Egyptian jackal
• Egyptian mythology in popular culture

For other meanings of "Thoth", or of "Djehuti" and similar, see Thoth (disambiguation).

Thoth
Thoth, in one of his forms as an ibis-headed man
God of Knowledge, Hieroglyphs and Wisdom
Major cult center	Hermopolis
Symbol	Moon disk, papyrus scroll
Consort	Seshat, Ma'at, Bastet or Hathor
Parents	None (self-created); alternatively Ra or Horus and Hathor,

Thoth (/ˈθoʊθ/ or /ˈtoʊt/; from Greek Θώθ thṓth, from Egyptian ḏḥwty, perhaps pronounced */tʃʼiħautiː/) was considered one of the more important deities of the Egyptian pantheon. In art, he was often depicted as a man with the head of an ibis or a baboon, animals sacred to him. As in the main picture, Thoth is almost always shown holding a Was (a wand or rod symbolizing power) in one hand and an Ankh (the key of the Nile symbolizing life) in the other hand. His feminine counterpart was Seshat, and his wife was Ma'at.

Thoth's chief temple was located in the city of Khmun, later called Hermopolis Magna during the Greco-Roman era (in reference to him through the Greeks' interpretation that he was the same as their god Hermes) and Ϣⲙⲟⲩⲛⲉⲓⲛ shmounein in the Coptic rendering. In that city, he led the Ogdoad pantheon of eight principal deities. He also had numerous shrines within the cities of Abydos, Hesert, Urit, Per-Ab, Rekhui, Ta-ur, Sep, Hat, Pselket, Talmsis, Antcha-Mutet, Bah, Amen-heri-ab, and Ta-kens.

Thoth played many vital and prominent roles in Egyptian mythology, such as maintaining the universe, and being one of the two deities (the other being Ma'at) who stood on either side of Ra's boat. In the later history of ancient Egypt, Thoth became heavily associated with the arbitration of godly disputes, the arts of magic, the system of writing, the development of science, and the judgment of the dead.

Name

Etymology

, or
Common names for Thoth
신성문자 표기

The Egyptian pronunciation of ḏḥwty is not fully known, but may be reconstructed as *ḏiḥautī, based on the Ancient Greek borrowing Θώθ Thōth or Theut and the fact that it evolved into Sahidic Coptic variously as Thoout, Thōth, Thoot, Thaut as well as Bohairic Coptic Thōout. The final -y may even have been pronounced as a consonant, not a vowel. However, many write "Djehuty", inserting the letter 'e' automatically between consonants in Egyptian words, and writing 'w' as 'u', as a convention of convenience for English speakers, not the transliteration employed by Egyptologists.

According to Theodor Hopfner, Thoth's Egyptian name written as ḏḥwty originated from ḏḥw, claimed to be the oldest known name for the Ibis although normally written as hbj. The addition of -ty denotes that he possessed the attributes of the Ibis. Hence his name means "He who is like the Ibis".

Further names and spellings

Djehuty is sometimes alternatively rendered as Jehuti, Tahuti, Tehuti, Zehuti, Techu, or Tetu. Thoth (also Thot or Thout) is the Greek version derived from the letters ḏḥwty. Not counting differences in spelling, Thoth had many names and titles, like other goddesses and gods. (Similarly, each Pharaoh, considered a god himself, had five different names used in public.) Among the names used are A, Sheps, Lord of Khemennu, Asten, Khenti, Mehi, Hab, and A'an.

In addition, Thoth was also known by specific aspects of himself, for instance the moon god Iah-Djehuty, representing the Moon for the entire month,. The Greeks related Thoth to their god Hermes due to his similar attributes and functions. One of Thoth's titles, "Three times great, great" (see Titles) was translated to the Greek τρισμεγιστος (Trismegistos) making Hermes Trismegistus.

Depictions

Depiction of Thoth as a baboon (c. 1400 BC), in the British Museum

Thoth has been depicted in many ways depending on the era and on the aspect the artist wished to convey. Usually, he is depicted in his human form with the head of an ibis. In this form, he can be represented as the reckoner of times and seasons by a headdress of the lunar disk sitting on top of a crescent moon resting on his head. When depicted as a form of Shu or Ankher, he was depicted to be wearing the respective god's headdress. Sometimes he was also seen in art to be wearing the Atef crown or the United Crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt. When not depicted in this common form, he sometimes takes the form of the ibis directly.

He also appears as a dog faced baboon or a man with the head of a baboon when he is A'an, the god of equilibrium. In the form of A'ah-Djehuty he took a more human-looking form. These forms are all symbolic and are metaphors for Thoth's attributes. The Egyptians did not believe these gods actually looked like humans with animal heads. For example, Ma'at is often depicted with an ostrich feather, "the feather of truth," on her head, or with a feather for a head.

Attributes

Lee Lawrie, Thoth (1939). Library of Congress John Adams Building, Washington, D.C.

Thoth's roles in Egyptian mythology were many. He served as a mediating power, especially between good and evil, making sure neither had a decisive victory over the other. He also served as scribe of the gods, credited with the invention of writing and alphabets (i.e. hieroglyphs) themselves. In the underworld, Duat, he appeared as an ape, A'an, the god of equilibrium, who reported when the scales weighing the deceased's heart against the feather, representing the principle of Ma'at, was exactly even.

The ancient Egyptians regarded Thoth as One, self-begotten, and self-produced. He was the master of both physical and moral (i.e. Divine) law, making proper use of Ma'at. He is credited with making the calculations for the establishment of the heavens, stars, Earth, and everything in them. Compare this to how his feminine counterpart, Ma'at was the force which maintained the Universe. He is said to direct the motions of the heavenly bodies. Without his words, the Egyptians believed, the gods would not exist. His power was unlimited in the Underworld and rivaled that of Ra and Osiris.

The Egyptians credited him as the author of all works of science, religion, philosophy, and magic. The Greeks further declared him the inventor of astronomy, astrology, the science of numbers, mathematics, geometry, land surveying, medicine, botany, theology, civilized government, the alphabet, reading, writing, and oratory. They further claimed he was the true author of every work of every branch of knowledge, human and divine.

Mythology

Thoth has played a prominent role in many of the Egyptian myths. Displaying his role as arbitrator, he had overseen the three epic battles between good and evil. All three battles are fundamentally the same and belong to different periods. The first battle took place between Ra and Apophis, the second between Heru-Bekhutet and Set, and the third between Horus, the son of Osiris, and Set. In each instance, the former god represented order while the latter represented chaos. If one god was seriously injured, Thoth would heal them to prevent either from overtaking the other.

Thoth was also prominent in the Osiris myth, being of great aid to Isis. After Isis gathered together the pieces of Osiris' dismembered body, he gave her the words to resurrect him so she could be impregnated and bring forth Horus. When Horus was slain, Thoth gave the magic to resurrect him as well. Thoth was the god who always speaks the words that fulfill the wishes of Ra.

This mythology also credits him with the creation of the 365 day calendar. Originally, according to the myth, the year was only 360 days long and Nut was sterile during these days, unable to bear children. Thoth gambled with the Moon for 1/72nd of its light (360/72 = 5), or 5 days, and won. During these 5 days, Nut gave birth to Kheru-ur (Horus the Elder, Face of Heaven), Osiris, Set, Isis, and Nepthys.

History

Thoth, sitting on his throne

He was originally the deification of the Moon in the Ogdoad belief system. Initially, in that system, the Moon had been seen to be the eye of Horus, the sky god, which had been semi-blinded (thus darker) in a fight against Set, the other eye being the Sun. However, over time it began to be considered separately, becoming a lunar deity in its own right, and was said to have been another son of Ra. As the crescent moon strongly resembles the curved beak of the ibis, this separate deity was named Djehuty (i.e. Thoth), meaning ibis.

The Moon not only provides light at night, allowing the time to still be measured without the sun, but its phases and prominence gave it a significant importance in early astrology/astronomy. The cycles of the Moon also organized much of Egyptian society's civil, and religious, rituals, and events. Consequently, Thoth gradually became seen as a god of wisdom, magic, and the measurement, and regulation, of events, and of time. He was thus said to be the secretary and counselor of Ra, and with Ma'at (truth/order) stood next to Ra on the nightly voyage across the sky, Ra being a sun god.

Thoth became credited by the ancient Egyptians as the inventor of writing, and was also considered to have been the scribe of the underworld, and the Moon became occasionally considered a separate entity, now that Thoth had less association with it, and more with wisdom. For this reason Thoth was universally worshipped by ancient Egyptian Scribes. Many scribes had a painting or a picture of Thoth in their "office". Likewise, one of the symbols for scribes was that of the ibis.

In art, Thoth was usually depicted with the head of an ibis, deriving from his name, and the curve of the ibis' beak, which resembles the crescent moon. Sometimes, he was depicted as a baboon holding up a crescent moon, as the baboon was seen as a nocturnal, and intelligent, creature. The association with baboons led to him occasionally being said to have as a consort Astennu, one of the (male) baboons at the place of judgment in the underworld, and on other occasions, Astennu was said to be Thoth himself.

During the late period of Egyptian history a cult of Thoth gained prominence, due to its main centre, Khnum (Hermopolis Magna), also becoming the capital, and millions of dead ibis were mummified and buried in his honour. The rise of his cult also led to his cult seeking to adjust mythology to give Thoth a greater role.

Thoth was inserted in many tales as the wise counsel and persuader, and his association with learning, and measurement, led him to be connected with Seshat, the earlier deification of wisdom, who was said to be his daughter, or variably his wife. Thoth's qualities also led to him being identified by the Greeks with their closest matching god Hermes, with whom Thoth was eventually combined, as Hermes Trismegistus, also leading to the Greeks naming Thoth's cult centre as Hermopolis, meaning city of Hermes.

It is also considered that Thoth was the scribe of the gods rather than a messenger. Anubis (or Hermanubis) was viewed as the messenger of the gods, as he travelled in and out of the Underworld and presented himself to the gods and to humans. It is more widely accepted that Thoth was a record keeper, not a divine messenger. In the Papyrus of Ani copy of the Egyptian Book of the Dead the scribe proclaims "I am thy writing palette, O Thoth, and I have brought unto thee thine ink-jar. I am not of those who work iniquity in their secret places; let not evil happen unto me." Chapter XXXb (Budge) of the Book of the Dead is by the oldest tradition said to be the work of Thoth himself.

There was also an Egyptian pharaoh of the Sixteenth dynasty of Egypt named Djehuty (Thoth) after him, and who reigned for three years.

Titles

Thoth, like many Egyptian gods and nobility, held many titles. Among these were "Scribe of Ma'at in the Company of the Gods," "Lord of Ma'at," "Lord of Divine Words," "Judge of the Two Combatant Gods," "Judge of the Rekhekhui, the pacifier of the Gods, who Dwelleth in Unnu, the Great God in the Temple of Abtiti," "Twice Great," "Thrice Great," ", "Three Times Great," and also "The Timeless."

See also

• Eye of Horus
• Maat, or Ma'at, Egyptian goddess and concept of truth, wife of Thoth
• Seshat – goddess of writing and measure, wife of Thoth
• The Book of Thoth

Horus
Horus was often the ancient Egyptians' national patron god. He was usually depicted as a falcon-headed man wearing the pschent, or a red and white crown, as a symbol of kingship over the entire kingdom of Egypt.
Major cult center	Nekhen, Behdet Edfu
Symbol	The wedjat eye
Consort	Hathor (in one version)
Parents	Osiris and Isis in some myths, and Nut and Geb in others.
Siblings	Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys (in some accounts)
Offspring	Imsety, Hapi, Duamutef, Qebehsenuef and Ihy

Horus (Arabic: حورس Ḥwrs) is one of the oldest and most significant deities in ancient Egyptian religion, who was worshipped from at least the late Predynastic period through to Greco-Roman times. Different forms of Horus are recorded in history, and these are treated as distinct gods by Egypt specialists. These various forms may possibly be different perceptions of the same multi-layered deity in which certain attributes or syncretic relationships are emphasized, not necessarily in opposition but complementary to one another, consistent with how the Ancient Egyptians viewed the multiple facets of reality. He was most often depicted as a falcon, most likely a lanner or peregrine, or as a man with a falcon head.

The earliest recorded form of Horus is the patron deity of Nekhen in Upper Egypt, who is the first known national god, specifically related to the king who in time came to be regarded as a manifestation of Horus in life and Osiris in death. The most commonly encountered family relationship describes Horus as the son of Isis and Osiris but in another tradition Hathor is regarded as his mother and sometimes as his wife. Horus served many functions in the Egyptian pantheon, most notably being the god of the sun, war and protection.

Etymology

ḥr "Horus"
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Horus is recorded in Egyptian hieroglyphs as ḥr.w; the pronunciation has been reconstructed as *Ḥāru, meaning "falcon". Additional meanings are thought to have been "the distant one" or "one who is above, over". By Coptic times, the name became Hōr. It was adopted into Greek as Ὧρος Hōros. The original name also survives in later Egyptian names such as Har-si-ese literally "Horus, son of Isis".

Horus was also known as Nekheny, meaning "falcon". Some have proposed that Nekheny may have been another falcon-god, worshipped at Nekhen (city of the hawk), with which Horus was identified from early on. Horus may be shown as a falcon on the Narmer Palette dating from the time of unification of Upper and Lower Egypt.

Note of Changes Over Time

In early Egypt, Horus was the brother of Isis, Osiris, Set and Nephthys. As different cults formed, he became the son of Isis. Isis remained the sister of Osiris, Set, and Nephthys.

Horus and the Pharaoh

Pyramid texts ca. the 25th century BC describe the nature of the Pharaoh in different characters as both Horus and Osiris. The Pharaoh as Horus in life became the Pharaoh as Osiris in death, where he was united with the rest of the gods. New incarnations of Horus succeeded the deceased pharaoh on earth in the form of new Pharaohs.

The lineage of Horus, the eventual product of unions between the children of Atum, may have been a means to explain and justify Pharaonic power; The gods produced by Atum were all representative of cosmic and terrestrial forces in Egyptian life; by identifying Horus as the offspring of these forces, then identifying him with Atum himself, and finally identifying the Pharaoh with Horus, the Pharaoh theologically had dominion over all the world.

The notion of Horus as the Pharaoh seems to have been superseded by the concept of the Pharaoh as the son of Ra during the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt.

Origin mythology

Horus was born to the goddess Isis after she retrieved all the dismembered body parts of her murdered husband Osiris, except his penis which was thrown into the Nile and eaten by a catfish, or sometimes by a crab, and according to Plutarch's account (see Osiris) used her magic powers to resurrect Osiris and fashion a gold phallus to conceive her son (older Egyptian accounts have the penis of Osiris surviving).

Once Isis knew she was pregnant with Horus, she fled to the Nile Delta marshlands to hide from her brother Set who jealously killed Osiris and who she knew would want to kill their son. There Isis bore a divine son, Horus.

Mythological roles

rˁ-ḥr-3ḫty "Ra-Horakhty"
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Sky god

Since Horus was said to be the sky, he was considered to also contain the sun and moon. It became said that the sun was his right eye and the moon his left, and that they traversed the sky when he, a falcon, flew across it. Later, the reason that the moon was not as bright as the sun was explained by a tale, known as the contestings of Horus and Set, originating as a metaphor for the conquest of Upper Egypt by Lower Egypt in about 3000 BCE. In this tale, it was said that Set, the patron of Upper Egypt, and Horus, the patron of Lower Egypt, had battled for Egypt brutally, with neither side victorious, until eventually the gods sided with Horus.

As Horus was the ultimate victor he became known as Harsiesis, Heru-ur or Har-Wer (ḥr.w wr 'Horus the Great'), but more usually translated as Horus the Elder. In the struggle Set had lost a testicle, explaining why the desert, which Set represented, is infertile. Horus' left eye had also been gouged out, then a new eye was created by part of Khonsu, the moon god, and was replaced.

Horus was occasionally shown in art as a naked boy with a finger in his mouth sitting on a lotus with his mother. In the form of a youth, Horus was referred to as Neferhor. This is also spelled Nefer Hor, Nephoros or Nopheros (nfr ḥr.w) meaning 'The Good Horus'.

The Eye of Horus is an ancient Egyptian symbol of protection and royal power from deities, in this case from Horus or Ra. The symbol is seen on images of Horus' mother, Isis, and on other deities associated with her.

In the Egyptian language, the word for this symbol was "Wedjat". It was the eye of one of the earliest of Egyptian deities, Wadjet, who later became associated with Bast, Mut, and Hathor as well. Wedjat was a solar deity and this symbol began as her eye, an all seeing eye. In early artwork, Hathor is also depicted with this eye. Funerary amulets were often made in the shape of the Eye of Horus. The Wedjat or Eye of Horus is "the central element" of seven "gold, faience, carnelian and lapis lazuli" bracelets found on the mummy of Shoshenq II. The Wedjat "was intended to protect the king [here] in the afterlife" and to ward off evil. Ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern sailors would frequently paint the symbol on the bow of their vessel to ensure safe sea travel.

• 
  Horus, patron deity of Hierakonpolis (near Edfu), the predynastic capital of Upper Egypt. Its head was executed by means of beating the gold then connecting it with the copper body. A uraeus is fixed to the diadem which supports two tall openwork feathers. The eyes are inlaid with Gold and obsidian. (6th dynasty).
• 
  Horus represented in relief with Wadjet and wearing the double crown – Temple of Hatshepsut
• 
  Horus relief in the Temple of Edfu
• 
  Wedjat, Eye of Horus

God of war and hunting

Horus depicted as a falcon

Horus was also said to be a god of war and hunting. The Horus falcon is shown upon a standard on the predynastic Hunters Palette in the "lion hunt".

Thus he became a symbol of majesty and power as well as the model of the pharaohs. The Pharaohs were said to be Horus in human form.

Furthermore Nemty, another war god, was later identified as Horus.

Conflict between Horus and Set

Horus, (Louvre Museum), 'Shen rings' in his grasp

Horus was told by his mother, Isis, to protect the people of Egypt from Set, the god of the desert, who had killed his father Osiris.

Horus had many battles with Set, not only to avenge his father, but to choose the rightful ruler of Egypt. In these battles, Horus came to be associated with Lower Egypt, and became its patron.

According to Papyrus Chester-Beatty I, Set is depicted as trying to prove his dominance by seducing Horus and then having intercourse with him. However, Horus places his hand between his thighs and catches Set's semen, then subsequently throws it in the river, so that he may not be said to have been inseminated by Set. Horus then deliberately spreads his own semen on some lettuce, which was Set's favorite food. After Set had eaten the lettuce, they went to the gods to try to settle the argument over the rule of Egypt. The gods first listened to Set's claim of dominance over Horus, and call his semen forth, but it answered from the river, invalidating his claim. Then, the gods listened to Horus' claim of having dominated Set, and call his semen forth, and it answered from inside Set.

Figure of a Horus Falcon, between circa 300 and circa 250 BC (Greco-Roman). The Walters Art Museum.

However, Set still refused to relent, and the other gods were getting tired from over eighty years of fighting and challenges. Horus and Set challenged each other to a boat race, where they each raced in a boat made of stone. Horus and Set agreed, and the race started. But Horus had an edge: his boat was made of wood painted to resemble stone, rather than true stone. Set's boat, being made of heavy stone, sank, but Horus's did not. Horus then won the race, and Set stepped down and officially gave Horus the throne of Egypt. But after the New Kingdom, Set still was considered Lord of the desert and its oases.

This myth, along with others, could be seen as an explanation of how the two kingdoms of Egypt (Upper and Lower) came to be united. Horus was seen as the God of Upper Egypt, and Set as the God of Lower Egypt. In this myth, the respective Upper and Lower deities have a fight, through which Horus is the victor. However, some of Horus (representing Upper Egypt) enters into Set (Lower Egypt) thus explaining why Upper Egypt is dominant over Lower Egypt. Set's regions were then considered to be of the desert.

Heru-pa-khered (Horus the Younger)

Horus the Younger, Harpocrates to the Ptolemaic Greeks, is represented in the form of a youth wearing a lock of hair (a sign of youth) on the right of his head while sucking his finger. In addition, he usually wears the united crowns of Egypt, the crown of upper Egypt and the crown of lower Egypt. He is a form of the rising sun, representing its earliest light.

Heru-ur (Horus the Elder)

In this form he represented the god of light and the husband of Hathor. He was one of the oldest gods of ancient Egypt. He became the patron of Nekhen (Hierakonpolis) and the first national god (God of the Kingdom). Later, he also became the patron of the pharaohs, and was called the son of truth. – signifying his role as an important upholder of Maat. He was seen as a great falcon with outstretched wings whose right eye was the sun and the left one was the moon. In this form, he was sometimes given the title Kemwer, meaning (the) great black (one).

The Greek form of Heru-ur (or Har wer) is Haroeris. Other variants include Hor Merti 'Horus of the two eyes' and Horkhenti Irti.

Horus in Thelema

In the cosmology of Aleister Crowley's religio-philosophical system of Thelema, the god Horus is the third god to speak via a chapter of The Book of the Law, in his guise or manifestation as Ra-Hoor-Khuit. Regarded by Thelemites as the Lord of the Aeon, he is symbolized as a throned man with the head of a hawk who carries a wand. He is associated with the Sun and the active energies of Thelemic magick. The 'Aeon (Thelema) of Horus' in the modern age is held by Crowley to mark the turning away from the past patriarchal religions (Aeon of Osiris) and matriarchal religions (Aeon of Isis) towards a new era of freedom and the reign of the 'Crowned and Conquering Child'.

Misconceptions in popular media

The documentary movie Religulous (2008), the internet movie Zeitgeist (2007) and the book The Christ Conspiracy claim that Horus was born of a virgin. Egyptian texts demonstrate that Horus’ mother was the goddess Isis, and not a human virgin. Horus was conceived when Isis resurrected the dismembered god Osiris and had intercourse with him, which precludes the idea of virginity, and certainly parthenogenesis. However, Isis' intercourse with Osiris did not involve the use of Osiris' lost phallus, but, rather, the golden phallus Isis had fashioned. This standing, it may be said that Horus was divinely conceived of a female whom had not had intercourse with a male's organic phallus. So being, the term 'virgin' is debatable in reference to Isis, but Horus' birth by divine intervention (the golden phallus) through a female whom had not had intercourse with a male's organic phallus is not as debatable.

See also

• Egyptian pantheon
• Myth of Osiris and Isis
• Solar deity
• Hawk of Quraish

Belief In Spirits

The predynastic Egyptians in the earliest stages of their existence, like most savage and semi-savage peoples, believed that the sea, the earth, the air, and the sky were filled to overflowing with spirits, some of whom were engaged in carrying on the works [Page 10] of nature, and others in aiding or obstructing man in the course of his existence upon earth. Whatsoever happened in nature was attributed by them to the operations of a large number of spiritual beings, the life of whom was identical with the life of the great natural elements, and the existence of whom terminated with the destruction of the objects which they were supposed to animate.

정령과 사물과 이름

Such spirits, although invisible to mental eyes, were very real creatures in their minds, and to them they attributed all the passions which belong to man, and all his faculties and powers also. Everything in nature was inhabited by a spirit, and it was thought possible to endow (~에게 ~을 부여하다) a representation, or model, or figure of any object with a spirit or soul, provided a name was given to it; this spirit or soul lived in the drawing or figure until the object which it animated was broken or destroyed. The objects, both natural and artificial, which we consider to be inanimate were regarded by the predynastic Egyptians as animate, and in many respects they were thought to resemble man himself.

수 많은 형태의 정령이 있었다

The spirits who infested (우글거리다) every part of the visible world were countless in forms, and they differed from each other in respect of power; the spirit that caused the Inundation of the Nile was greater than the one that lived in a canal (운하, 수로), the spirit that made the sun to shine was more powerful than the one that governed the moon, and the spirit of a great tree was mightier than the one that animated an ear of corn (옥수수 한 대) or a blade of grass.

The difference between the supposed powers of such spirits must have been distinguished at a very early period,

정령의 이익되는 행위와 불이익되는 행위를 명확히 구분했다

and the half-savage inhabitants of Egypt must at the same time have made a sharp distinction between those whose operations were beneficial to them, and those whose actions brought upon them injury, loss, or death. It is easy to see how they might imagine that certain great natural objects were under the dominion of spirits who were capable of feeling wrath, or displeasure (불쾌감, 불만), and of making it manifest to man.

나일강의 정령

Thus the spirit of the Nile would be regarded as beneficent and friendly when the waters of the river rose sufficiently during the period of the Inundation to ensure an abundant crop throughout the land; but when their rise was excessive, and they drowned the cattle and washed away the houses of the people, whether made of [Page 11] wattles (턱볏) or mud, or when they rose insufficiently and caused want and famine, the spirit of the Nile would be considered unfriendly and evil to man.

An ample and sufficient Inundation was regarded as a sign that the spirit of the Nile was not displeased with man, but a destructive flood was a sure token of displeasure. The same feeling exists to this day in Egypt among the peasant-farmers, for several natives told me in 1899, the year of the lowest rise of the Nile of the XIXth century,⁵⁾ that “Allah was angry with them, and would not let the water come; and one man added that in all his life he had never before known Allah to be so angry with them.

⁵⁾ In October, 1899, the level of the water of Lake Victoria was 2 ft. below the normal, and in December the level at Aswftn was 5 ft. 8 ins. below the average of previous years.

A wattle fence at Sanok-Skansen outdoor museum in Poland

Wattle is a lightweight construction material made by weaving thin branches (either whole, or more usually split) or slats between upright stakes to form a woven lattice. It has commonly been used to make fences and hurdles for enclosing ground or handling livestock. The wattle may be made as loose panels, slotted between timber framing to make infill panels, or it may be made in place to form the whole of a fence or wall. The technique goes back to Neolithic times.

A woven wattle gate keeps animals out of the fifteenth-century cabbage patch (Tacuinum Sanitatis, Rouen)

A wattle hurdle being made.

It forms the substructure of wattle and daub, a composite building material used for making walls, in which wattle is daubed with a sticky material usually made of some combination of wet soil, clay, sand, animal dung and straw. Wattle and daub has been used for at least 6,000 years, and is still an important construction material in many parts of the world. This process is similar to modern lath and plaster, a common building material for wall and ceiling surfaces, in which a series of nailed wooden strips are covered with plaster smoothed into a flat surface. Many historic buildings include wattle and daub construction, and the technique is becoming popular again in more developed areas as a low-impact sustainable building technique.

Square panels

Wattle hurdle or panel.

Square panels are large, wide panels used as hurdles or forming panelling in some later timber frame houses. They have a square shape although sometimes they are triangular to accommodate arched or decorative bracing. This style does require wattles to be woven for better support of the daub.

To insert wattles in a square panel several steps are required. First, a series of evenly spaced holes are drilled along the middle of the inner face of each upper timber. Next, a continuous groove is cut along the middle of each inner face of the lower timber in each panel. Vertical slender timbers, known as staves, are then inserted and these hold the whole panel within the timber frame. The staves are positioned into the holes and then sprung into the grooves. They must be placed with sufficient gaps to weave the flexible horizontal wattles.

See also

• Lath and plaster

Animals And Reptiles

악한 정령들이 특정 포유류와 파충류와 동일시 되었다

The spirits which were always hostile or unfriendly towards man, and were regarded by the Egyptians as evil spirits, were identified with certain animals and reptiles, and traditions of some of these seem to have been preserved until the latest period of dynastic history.

아펩과 아펩의 동맹군

Āpep, the serpent-devil of mist, darkness, storm, and night, of whom more will be said later on, and his fiends, the “children of rebellion,” were not the result of the imagination of the Egyptians in historic times, but their existence dates from the period when Egypt was overrun by mighty beasts, huge serpents, and noxious (유독한) reptiles of all kinds.

The great serpent of Egyptian mythology, which was indeed a formidable opponent (강적) of the Sun-god, had its prototype in some monster serpent on earth, of which tradition had preserved a record; and that this is no mere theory is proved by the fact that the remains of a serpent, which must have been of enormous size, have recently been found in the Fayyûm. The vertebræ are said to indicate that the creature to which they belonged was longer than the largest python known.⁶⁾

The allies of the great serpent-devil Āpep were as hostile to man as was their master to the Sun-god, and they were regarded with terror by the minds of those who had evolved them.

Apep
Atum and snake Apep
Parents	Neith
Siblings	Ra

Apep (/ˈæˌpɛp/ or /ˈɑːˌpɛp/) or Apophis (/ˈæpəf[미지원 입력]s/; Άποφις; also spelled Apepi or Aapep) was an evil god in ancient Egyptian religion, the deification of darkness and chaos (ı͗zft in Egyptian), and thus opponent of light and Ma'at (order/truth), whose existence was believed from the 8th Dynasty (mentioned at Moalla) onwards. His name is reconstructed by Egyptologists as *ʻAʼpāpī, as it was written ꜥꜣpp(y) and survived in later Coptic as Ⲁⲫⲱⲫ Aphōph.

Development

Apep
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Ra was the solar deity, bringer of light, and thus the upholder of Ma'at. Apep was viewed as the greatest enemy of Ra, and thus was given the title Enemy of Ra.

As the personification of all that was evil, Apep was seen as a giant snake/serpent, or occasionally as a dragon in later years, leading to such titles as Serpent from the Nile and Evil Lizard. Some elaborations even said that he stretched 16 yards in length and had a head made of flint. It is to be noted that already on a Naqada I (ca. 4000 BC) C-ware bowl (now in Cairo) a snake was painted on the inside rim combined with other desert and aquatic animals as a possible enemy of a deity, possibly a solar deity, who is invisibly hunting in a big rowing vessel.

Also, comparable hostile snakes as enemies of the sun god existed under other names (in the Pyramid Texts and Coffin Texts) already before the name Apep occurred. The etymology of his name (ꜥꜣpp) is perhaps to be sought in some west-semitic language where a word root ꜣpp meaning 'to slither' existed. A verb root ꜥꜣpp does at any rate not exist elsewhere in Ancient Egyptian. (It is not to be confused with the verb ꜥpı͗/ꜥpp: 'to fly across the sky, to travel') Apep's name much later came to be falsely connected etymologically in Egyptian with a different root meaning (he who was) spat out; the Romans referred to Apep by this translation of his name. Apophis was a large golden snake known to be miles long. He was so large that he attempted to swallow the sun every day.

Set eventually became thought of as the god of evil, and gradually took on all the characteristics of Apep. Consequently, Apep's identity was eventually entirely subsumed by that of Set.

Battles with Ra

Set speared Apep

The sun god Ra, in the form of Great Cat, slays the snake Apep

Tales of Apep's battles against Ra were elaborated during the New Kingdom. Since nearly everyone can see that the sun is not attacked by a giant snake during the day, every day, storytellers said that Apep must lie just below the horizon. This appropriately made him a part of the underworld. In some stories Apep waited for Ra in a western mountain called Bakhu, where the sun set, and in others Apep lurked just before dawn, in the Tenth region of the Night. The wide range of Apep's possible location gained him the title World Encircler. It was thought that his terrifying roar would cause the underworld to rumble. Myths sometimes say that Apep was trapped there, because he had been the previous chief god and suffered a coup d'etat by Ra, or because he was evil and had been imprisoned.

In his battles, Apep was thought to use a magical gaze to hypnotize Ra and his entourage, attempting to devour them whilst choking the river on which they traveled through the underworld with his coils. Sometimes Apep had assistance from other demons, named Sek and Mot. Ra was assisted by a number of defenders who travelled with him, the most powerful being Set, who sat at the helm.

In a bid to explain certain natural phenomena it was said that occasionally Apep got the upper hand. The damage to order caused thunderstorms and earthquakes. Indeed: it was even thought that sometimes Apep actually managed to swallow Ra during the day, causing a solar eclipse, but since Ra's defenders quickly cut him free of Apep, the eclipse always ended within a few minutes. On the occasions when Apep was said to have been killed, he was able to return each night (since he lived in the world of the dead already). In Atenism it is Aten who kills the monster since Aten is the only god in the belief system.

However, in other myths, it was the cat goddess Bast, daughter of Ra, who slew Apep in her cat form one night, hunting him down with her all seeing eye.

Worship

Ra was so very much worshipped, and Apep worshipped against. His victory each night was thought to be ensured by the prayers of the Egyptian priests and worshipers at temples. The Egyptians practiced a number of rituals and superstitions that were thought to ward off Apep, and aid Ra to continue his journey across the sky.

In an annual rite, called the Banishing of Chaos, priests would build an effigy of Apep that was thought to contain all of the evil and darkness in Egypt, and burn it to protect everyone from Apep's evil for another year, in a similar manner to modern rituals such as Zozobra.

The Egyptian priests even had a detailed guide to fighting Apep, referred to as The Books of Overthrowing Apep (or the Book of Apophis, in Greek). The chapters described a gradual process of dismemberment and disposal, and include:

   Spitting Upon Apep
   Defiling Apep with the Left Foot
   Taking a Lance to Smite Apep
   Fettering Apep
   Taking a Knife to Smite Apep
   Putting Fire Upon Apep 

In addition to stories about Ra's winnings, this guide had instructions for making wax models, or small drawings, of the serpent, which would be spat on, mutilated and burnt, whilst reciting spells that would kill Apep. Fearing that even the image of Apep could give power to the demon any rendering would always include another deity to subdue the monster.

As Apep was thought to live in the underworld, he was sometimes thought of as an Eater of Souls. Thus the dead also needed protection, so they were sometimes buried with spells that could destroy Apep. The Book of the Dead does not frequently describe occasions when Ra defeated the chaos snake explicitly called Apep. Only BD Spells 7 and 39 can be explained as such.

See also

• Snakes in mythology
• Serpent (symbolism)
• Ethnoherpetology
• Wadjet
• Mehen
• Unut
• 99942 Apophis
• Egyptian influence in popular culture
• Apepi (pharaoh)

A python is a constricting snake belonging to the Python (genus), or, more generally, any snake in the family Pythonidae (containing the Python genus).

Python may also refer to:

In ancient Greece:

• Python (mythology), serpent, the earth-dragon of Delphi
• Python of Byzantium, orator, diplomat of Philip II of Macedon
• Python of Catana, poet who accompanied Alexander the Great
• Python of Aenus, student of Plato

Faiyum
Faiyum Location in Egypt
Coordinates: 북위 29.308374° 동경 30.844105°  / 29.308374; 30.844105
Country	이집트
Governorate	Faiyum
Elevation	23 m (75 ft)
Population (2012)
• Total	349,883
Time zone	EST (en:UTC+2)

Faiyum (الفيوم el-Fayyūm  pronounced [elfæjˈjuːm]; ̀Ⲫⲓⲟⲙ Phiom ) is a city in Middle Egypt. Located 130 km (81 mi) southwest of Cairo, it is the capital of the modern Faiyum Governorate. The town occupies part of the ancient site of Crocodilopolis. Founded in around 4000 BC, it is the oldest city in Egypt and one of the oldest cities in Africa.

Name and etymology

pA-y-m (Faiyum)
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Its name in English is also spelled as Fayum, Fayoum, Al Fayyum or El Faiyūm. Faiyum was previously officially named Madīnet el Faiyūm (Arabic for The City of Faiyum). The name Faiyum (and its spelling variations) may also refer to the Faiyum Oasis, although it is commonly used by Egyptians today to refer to the city.

The modern name of the city comes from Coptic 'Ⲫⲓⲟⲙ /Ⲡⲉⲓⲟⲙ efiom/peiom (whence the proper name Ⲡⲁⲓⲟⲙ payom), meaning the Sea or the Lake, which in turn comes from late Egyptian pA y-m of the same meaning, a reference to the nearby Lake Moeris.

Crocodilopolis or Krokodilopolis (Greek: Κροκοδείλων πόλις) or Ptolemais Euergetis or Arsinoe (Greek: Ἀρσινόη) or Krialon or Taaud was an ancient city in the Heptanomis, Egypt, the capital of Arsinoites nome, on the western bank of the Nile, between the river and the Lake Moeris, southwest of Memphis, in lat. 29° N. Its native Ancient Egyptian name was Shedyet.

History

In the Pharaonic era the city was the most significant center for the cult of Sobek, the crocodile-god. In consequence, the Greeks named it Crocodilopolis, "Crocodile City", from the particular reverence paid by its inhabitants to crocodiles. The city worshipped a sacred crocodile, named Petsuchos, that was embellished with gold and gems. The crocodile lived in a special temple, with sand, a pond and food. When the Petsuchos died, it was replaced by another.

After the city passed into the hands of the Ptolemies, the city was renamed Ptolemais Euergetis. The city was renamed Arsinoe by Ptolemy Philadelphus to honor Arsinoe II of Egypt, his sister and wife, during the 3rd century BCE. The region in which Crocodilopolis stood – the modern Fayyum – was the most fertile in Egypt. Besides the usual cereals and vegetables of the Nile valley, it abounded in dates, figs, roses, and its vineyards and gardens rivalled those in the vicinity of Alexandria. Here, too, the olive was cultivated.

The Arsinoite nome was bounded to the west by Lake Moeris (modern Birkat el Qārūn) watered by the Canal of Joseph (Bahr Yusuf), and contained various pyramids, the necropolis of Crocodilopolis, and a celebrated labyrinth. Extensive mounds of ruins at Al Fayyum (Madīnet-el-Faiyūm), or el-Fares, represent the site of Crocodopolis, but no remains of any remarkable antiquity, except a few sculptured blocks, have hitherto been found there. In the later periods of the Roman Empire, Arsinoe, as it was then called, was annexed to the department of Arcadia Ægypti, and became the chief town of an episcopal see.

Shortly after the renaming, Samaritans were found there. It eventually became a flourishing center of Christian life, but in 642 the Copts surrendered the city to the Arabs under the command of Amr ibn al-Ās, the conqueror of Egypt for the caliph Umar Ibn al-Khattab. The region is celebrated for the discovery (1877–78) of a great many papyrus manuscripts, some of which are important to the earliest Christian history of Egypt; they are described in the Hellenic section of the reports of the Egypt Exploration Fund. The current city has several Coptic churches and Islamic mosques, and remains a titular see of the Roman Catholic Church.

선한 정령은 악한 정령과 싸운다

On the other hand, there were numbers of spirits whose actions were friendly [Page 12] and beneficial to man, and some of these were supposed to do battle on his behalf against the evil spirits.

정령을 달래야 한다는 관념이 선왕조 시대에 생겨났다: 3계층의 정령들

Thus at a very early period the predynastic Egyptian must have conceived the existence of

1. a great company of spirits whose goodwill, or at all events whose inaction, could only be obtained by bribes, i.e., offerings, and cajolery (감언이설, 아첨) and flattery; and of
2. a second large company whose beneficent deeds to man he was wont to acknowledge and whose powerful help he was anxious to draw towards himself; and of
3. a third company who were supposed to be occupied solely with making the sun, moon, and stars to shine, and the rivers and streams to flow, and the clouds to form and the rain to fall, and who, in fact, were always engaged in carrying out diligently the workings and evolutions of all natural things, both small and great.

Heaven And Hell

악한 정령의 집단과 지옥

The spirits to whom in predynastic times the Egyptians ascribed a nature malicious or unfriendly towards man, and who were regarded much as modern nations have regarded goblins, hobgoblins, gnomes, trolls, elves, etc., developed in dynastic times into a corporate society, with aims, and intentions, and acts wholly evil, and with a government which was devised by the greatest and most evil of their number (집단).

To these, in process of time, were joined the spirits of evil men and women, and the prototype of hell was formed by assuming the existence of a place where evil spirits and their still more evil chiefs lived together.

선한 정령의 집단과 천국

By the same process of imagination beneficent and friendly spirits were grouped together in one abode under the direction of rulers who were well disposed (호의적인) towards man, and this idea became the nucleus of the later conception of the heaven to which the souls of good men and women were supposed by the Egyptian to depart, after he had developed sufficiently to conceive the doctrine of immortality.

악마(devils)와 신(gods)과 우주적인 신(cosmic gods)

The chiefs of the company of evil spirits subsequently became the powerful devils of historic times, and the rulers of the company of beneficent and good spirits became the gods ; the spirits of the third company, i.e., the spirits of the powers of Nature, became the great cosmic gods of the dynastic Egyptians.

우주적인 신(cosmic gods): 예를 들어, 태양신

The cult of this last class of spirits, or gods (즉, cosmic gods), differed in many ways from that of the spirits or gods who were supposed to be concerned entirely with the welfare of man, and in dynastic times there are abundant [Page 13] proofs of this in religious texts and compositions. In the hymns to the Sun-god, under whatsoever name he is worshipped, we find that the greatest wonder is expressed at his majesty (장엄함) and glory, and that he is apostrophised (아포스트로피를 붙이다) in terms which show forth the awe and fear of his devout adorer.

His triumphant passage across the sky is described, the unfailing regularity of his rising and setting is mentioned, reference is made to the vast distance over which he passes in a moment of time, glory is duly (적절한 절차에 따라, 때를 맞춰) ascribed to him for the great works which he performs in nature, and full recognition is given to him as the creator of men and animals, of birds and fish, of trees and plants, of reptiles, and of all created things; the praise of the god is full and sufficient, yet it is always that of a finite being who appears to be overwhelmed at the thought of the power and might of an apparently infinite being.

태양신과 오시리스에 대한 태도의 차이

The petitions (진정[탄원/청원]) lack the personal appeal which we find in the Egyptian’s prayers to the man-god Osiris, and show that he regarded the two gods (태양신과 오시리스) from entirely different points of view. It is impossible to say how early this distinction between the functions of the two gods was made, but it is certain that it is coeval with (…와 같은 시대의) the beginnings of dynastic history, and that it was observed until very late times.

Osiris
Osiris, lord of the dead. His green skin symbolizes re-birth.
God of the afterlife
Name in hieroglyphs
Major cult center	Abydos
Symbol	Crook and flail
Consort	Isis
Parents	Geb and Nut
Siblings	Isis, Set, Nephthys, (and Arueris as per Plutarch)

Osiris (/oʊˈsaɪər[미지원 입력]s/; Ὄσιρις, also Usiris; the Egyptian language name is variously transliterated Asar, Asari, Aser, Ausar, Ausir, Wesir, Usir, Usire or Ausare) is an Egyptian god, usually identified as the god of the afterlife, the underworld and the dead. He was classically depicted as a green-skinned man with a pharaoh's beard, partially mummy-wrapped at the legs, wearing a distinctive crown with two large ostrich feathers at either side, and holding a symbolic crook and flail.

Osiris was at times considered the oldest son of the Earth god Geb, and the sky goddess Nut, as well as being brother and husband of Isis, with Horus being considered his posthumously begotten son. He was also associated with the epithet Khenti-Amentiu, which means "Foremost of the Westerners" — a reference to his kingship in the land of the dead. As ruler of the dead, Osiris was also sometimes called "king of the living", since the Ancient Egyptians considered the blessed dead "the living ones".

Osiris is first attested in the middle of the Fifth dynasty of Egypt, although it is likely that he was worshipped much earlier; the term Khenti-Amentiu dates to at least the first dynasty, also as a pharaonic title. Most information we have on the myths of Osiris is derived from allusions contained in the Pyramid Texts at the end of the Fifth Dynasty, later New Kingdom source documents such as the Shabaka Stone and the Contending of Horus and Seth, and much later, in narrative style from the writings of Greek authors including Plutarch and Diodorus Siculus.

Osiris was considered not only a merciful judge of the dead in the afterlife, but also the underworld agency that granted all life, including sprouting vegetation and the fertile flooding of the Nile River. He was described as the "Lord of love", "He Who is Permanently Benign and Youthful" and the "Lord of Silence". The Kings of Egypt were associated with Osiris in death — as Osiris rose from the dead they would, in union with him, inherit eternal life through a process of imitative magic. By the New Kingdom all people, not just pharaohs, were believed to be associated with Osiris at death, if they incurred the costs of the assimilation rituals.

Through the hope of new life after death, Osiris began to be associated with the cycles observed in nature, in particular vegetation and the annual flooding of the Nile, through his links with Orion and Sirius at the start of the new year. Osiris was widely worshipped as Lord of the Dead until the suppression of the Egyptian religion during the Christian era.

Appearance

Osiris is represented in his most developed form of iconography wearing the Atef crown, which is similar to the White crown of Upper Egypt, but with the addition of two curling ostrich feathers at each side (see also Atef crown (hieroglyph)). He also carries the crook and flail. The crook is thought to represent Osiris as a shepherd god. The symbolism of the flail is more uncertain with shepherds whip, fly-whisk, or association with the god Andjety of the ninth nome of Lower Egypt proposed.

He was commonly depicted as a green (the color of rebirth) or black (alluding to the fertility of the Nile floodplain) complexioned pharaoh, in mummiform (wearing the trappings of mummification from chest downward). He was also depicted rarely as a lunar god with a crown encompassing the moon.

Early mythology

The Pyramid Texts describe early conceptions of an afterlife in terms of eternal travelling with the sun god amongst the stars. Amongst these mortuary texts, at the beginning of the 4th dynasty, is found: "An offering the king gives and Anubis". By the end of the 5th dynasty, the formula in all tombs becomes "An offering the king gives and Osiris".

Father of Horus

The gods Osiris, Anubis, and Horus, from a tomb painting.

Osiris is the mythological father of the god Horus, whose conception is described in the Osiris myth, a central myth in ancient Egyptian belief. The myth described Osiris as having been killed by his brother Set, who wanted Osiris' throne. Isis joined the fragmented pieces of Osiris, but the only body part missing was the phallus. Isis fashioned a golden phallus, and briefly brought Osiris back to life by use of a spell that she learned from her father. This spell gave her time to become pregnant by Osiris before he again died. Isis later gave birth to Horus. As such, since Horus was born after Osiris' resurrection, Horus became thought of as a representation of new beginnings and the vanquisher of the evil Set.

Ptah-Seker (who resulted from the identification of Ptah with Seker), god of re-incarnation, thus gradually became identified with Osiris, the two becoming Ptah-Seker-Osiris. As the sun was thought to spend the night in the underworld, and was subsequently re-incarnated every morning, Ptah-Seker-Osiris was identified as both king of the underworld, and god of reincarnation.

Ram god

Banebdjed (b3-nb-ḏd)
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Osiris' soul, or rather his Ba, was occasionally worshipped in its own right, almost as if it were a distinct god, especially in the Delta city of Mendes. This aspect of Osiris was referred to as Banebdjedet, which is grammatically feminine (also spelt "Banebded" or "Banebdjed"), literally "the ba of the lord of the djed, which roughly means The soul of the lord of the pillar of stability. The djed, a type of pillar, was usually understood as the backbone of Osiris, and, at the same time, as the Nile, the backbone of Egypt.

The Nile, supplying water, and Osiris (strongly connected to the vegetation) who died only to be resurrected, represented continuity and stability. As Banebdjed, Osiris was given epithets such as Lord of the Sky and Life of the (sun god) Ra, since Ra, when he had become identified with Atum, was considered Osiris' ancestor, from whom his regal authority is inherited. Ba does not mean "soul" in the western sense, and has to do with power, reputation, force of character, especially in the case of a god.

Since the ba was associated with power, and also happened to be a word for ram in Egyptian, Banebdjed was depicted as a ram, or as Ram-headed. A living, sacred ram, was kept at Mendes and worshipped as the incarnation of the god, and upon death, the rams were mummified and buried in a ram-specific necropolis. Banebdjed was consequently said to be Horus' father, as Banebdjed was an aspect of Osiris.

Regarding the association of Osiris with the ram, the god's traditional crook and flail are the instruments of the shepherd, which has suggested to some scholars also an origin for Osiris in herding tribes of the upper Nile. The crook and flail were originally symbols of the minor agricultural deity Andjety, and passed to Osiris later. From Osiris, they eventually passed to Egyptian kings in general as symbols of divine authority.

Mythology

The family of Osiris. Osiris on a lapis lazuli pillar in the middle, flanked by Horus on the left and Isis on the right (22nd dynasty, Louvre, Paris)

The cult of Osiris (who was a god chiefly of regeneration and rebirth) had a particularly strong interest in the concept of immortality. Plutarch recounts one version of the myth in which Set (Osiris' brother), along with the Queen of Ethiopia, conspired with 72 accomplices to plot the assassination of Osiris. Set fooled Osiris into getting into a box, which Set then shut, sealed with lead, and threw into the Nile (sarcophagi were based on the box in this myth). Osiris' wife, Isis, searched for his remains until she finally found him embedded in a tamarind tree trunk, which was holding up the roof of a palace in Byblos on the Phoenician coast. She managed to remove the coffin and open it, but Osiris was already dead.

In one version of the myth, she used a spell learned from her father and brought him back to life so he could impregnate her. Afterwards he died again and she hid his body in the desert. Months later, she gave birth to Horus. While she raised Horus, Set was hunting one night and came across the body of Osiris.

Enraged, he tore the body into fourteen pieces and scattered them throughout the land. Isis gathered up all the parts of the body, less the phallus (which was eaten by a catfish) and bandaged them together for a proper burial. The gods were impressed by the devotion of Isis and resurrected Osiris as the god of the underworld. Because of his death and resurrection, Osiris was associated with the flooding and retreating of the Nile and thus with the crops along the Nile valley.

Diodorus Siculus gives another version of the myth in which Osiris was described as an ancient king who taught the Egyptians the arts of civilization, including agriculture, then travelled the world with his sister Isis, the satyrs, and the nine muses, before finally returning to Egypt. Osiris was then murdered by his evil brother Typhon, who was identified with Set. Typhon divided the body into twenty-six pieces, which he distributed amongst his fellow conspirators in order to implicate them in the murder. Isis and Hercules (Horus) avenged the death of Osiris and slew Typhon. Isis recovered all the parts of Osiris' body, except the phallus, and secretly buried them. She made replicas of them and distributed them to several locations, which then became centres of Osiris worship.

Death and institution as god of the dead

Osiris-Nepra, with wheat growing from his body. From a bas-relief at Philae. The sprouting wheat implied resurrection.

Osiris "The God Of The Resurrection", rising from his bier.

Plutarch and others have noted that the sacrifices to Osiris were "gloomy, solemn, and mournful..." (Isis and Osiris, 69) and that the great mystery festival, celebrated in two phases, began at Abydos on the 17th of Athyr (November 13) commemorating the death of the god, which was also the same day that grain was planted in the ground. "The death of the grain and the death of the god were one and the same: the cereal was identified with the god who came from heaven; he was the bread by which man lives. The resurrection of the god symbolized the rebirth of the grain." (Larson 17) The annual festival involved the construction of "Osiris Beds" formed in shape of Osiris, filled with soil and sown with seed.

The germinating seed symbolized Osiris rising from the dead. An almost pristine example was found in the tomb of Tutankhamun by Howard Carter.

The first phase of the festival was a public drama depicting the murder and dismemberment of Osiris, the search of his body by Isis, his triumphal return as the resurrected god, and the battle in which Horus defeated Set. This was all presented by skilled actors as a literary history, and was the main method of recruiting cult membership.

According to Julius Firmicus Maternus of the fourth century, this play was re-enacted each year by worshippers who "beat their breasts and gashed their shoulders.... When they pretend that the mutilated remains of the god have been found and rejoined...they turn from mourning to rejoicing." (De Errore Profanorum).

The passion of Osiris was reflected in his name 'Wenennefer" ("the one who continues to be perfect"), which also alludes to his post mortem power.

Ikhernofret Stela

Much of the extant information about the Passion of Osiris can be found on the Ikhernofret Stela at Abydos erected in the 12th Dynasty by Ikhernofret (also I-Kher-Nefert), possibly a priest of Osiris or other official (the titles of Ikhernofret are described in his stela from Abydos) during the reign of Senwosret III (Pharaoh Sesostris, about 1875 BC). The Passion Plays were held in the last month of the inundation (the annual Nile flood, coinciding with Spring, and held at Abydos/Abedjou which was the traditional place where the body of Osiris/Wesir drifted ashore after having been drowned in the Nile.

The part of the myth recounting the chopping up of the body into 14 pieces by Set is not recounted in this particular stela. Although it is attested to be a part of the rituals by a version of the Papyrus Jumilhac, in which it took Isis 12 days to reassemble the pieces, coinciding with the festival of ploughing. Some elements of the ceremony were held in the temple, while others involved public participation in a form of theatre. The Stela of I-Kher-Nefert recounts the programme of events of the public elements over the five days of the Festival:

• The First Day, The Procession of Wepwawet: A mock battle was enacted during which the enemies of Osiris are defeated. A procession was led by the god Wepwawet ("opener of the way").
• The Second Day, The Great Procession of Osiris: The body of Osiris was taken from his temple to his tomb. The boat he was transported in, the "Neshmet" bark, had to be defended against his enemies.
• The Third Day, Osiris is Mourned and the Enemies of the Land are Destroyed.
• The Fourth Day, Night Vigil: Prayers and recitations are made and funeral rites performed.
• The Fifth Day, Osiris is Reborn: Osiris is reborn at dawn and crowned with the crown of Ma'at. A statue of Osiris is brought to the temple.

Wheat and clay rituals

Rare sample of Egyptian terra cotta sculpture, could be Isis mourning Osiris, (raising her right arm over her head, a typical mourning sign). Musée du Louvre, Paris.

Contrasting with the public "theatrical" ceremonies sourced from the I-Kher-Nefert stele (from the Middle Kingdom), more esoteric ceremonies were performed inside the temples by priests witnessed only by chosen initiates. Plutarch mentions that (for much later period) two days after the beginning of the festival "the priests bring forth a sacred chest containing a small golden coffer, into which they pour some potable water...and a great shout arises from the company for joy that Osiris is found (or resurrected). Then they knead some fertile soil with the water...and fashion therefrom a crescent-shaped figure, which they cloth and adorn, this indicating that they regard these gods as the substance of Earth and Water." (Isis and Osiris, 39). Yet his accounts were still obscure, for he also wrote, "I pass over the cutting of the wood" - opting not to describe it, since he considered it as a most sacred ritual (Ibid. 21).

In the Osirian temple at Denderah, an inscription (translated by Budge, Chapter XV, Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection) describes in detail the making of wheat paste models of each dismembered piece of Osiris to be sent out to the town where each piece is discovered by Isis. At the temple of Mendes, figures of Osiris were made from wheat and paste placed in a trough on the day of the murder, then water was added for several days, until finally the mixture was kneaded into a mold of Osiris and taken to the temple to be buried (the sacred grain for these cakes were grown only in the temple fields). Molds were made from the wood of a red tree in the forms of the sixteen dismembered parts of Osiris, the cakes of 'divine' bread were made from each mold, placed in a silver chest and set near the head of the god with the inward parts of Osiris as described in the Book of the Dead (XVII).

On the first day of the Festival of Ploughing, where the goddess Isis appeared in her shrine where she was stripped naked, paste made from the grain were placed in her bed and moistened with water, representing the fecund earth. All of these sacred rituals were "climaxed by the eating of sacramental god, the eucharist by which the celebrants were transformed, in their persuasion, into replicas of their god-man" (Larson 20).

Judgment

The idea of divine justice being exercised after death for wrongdoing during life is first encountered during the Old Kingdom, in a 6th dynasty tomb containing fragments of what would be described later as the Negative Confessions.

Judgment scene from the Book of the Dead. In the three scenes from the Book of the Dead (version from ~1375 BC) the dead man (Hunefer) is taken into the judgement hall by the jackal-headed Anubis. The next scene is the weighing of his heart against the feather of Ma'at, with Ammut waiting the result, and Thoth recording. Next, the triumphant Henefer, having passed the test, is presented by the falcon-headed Horus to Osiris, seated in his shrine with Isis and Nephthys. (British Museum)

With the rise of the cult of Osiris during the Middle Kingdom the “democratization of religion” offered to even his humblest followers the prospect of eternal life, with moral fitness becoming the dominant factor in determining a person's suitability.

At death a person faced judgment by a tribunal of forty-two divine judges. If they led a life in conformance with the precepts of the goddess Ma'at, who represented truth and right living, the person was welcomed into the kingdom of Osiris. If found guilty, the person was thrown to a "devourer" and didn't share in eternal life.

The person who is taken by the devourer is subject first to terrifying punishment and then annihilated. These depictions of punishment may have influenced medieval perceptions of the inferno in hell via early Christian and Coptic texts.

Purification for those who are considered justified may be found in the descriptions of "Flame Island", where they experience the triumph over evil and rebirth. For the damned, complete destruction into a state of non-being awaits, but there is no suggestion of eternal torture.

Divine pardon at judgement was always a central concern for the Ancient Egyptians.

During the reign of Seti I, Osiris was also invoked in royal decrees to pursue the living when wrongdoing was observed, but kept secret and not reported.

Greco-Roman era

Hellenisation

Bust of Serapis.

Eventually, in Egypt, the Hellenic pharaohs decided to produce a deity that would be acceptable to both the local Egyptian population, and the influx of Hellenic visitors, to bring the two groups together, rather than allow a source of rebellion to grow. Thus Osiris was identified explicitly with Apis, really an aspect of Ptah, who had already been identified as Osiris by this point, and a syncretism of the two was created, known as Serapis, and depicted as a standard Greek god.

Destruction of cult

Philae Island.

The cult of Osiris continued until the 6th century AD on the island of Philae in Upper Nile. The Theodosian decrees of the 390s, to destroy all pagan temples, were not enforced there. The worship of Isis and Osiris was allowed to continue at Philae until the time of Justinian, by treaty between the Blemmyes-Nobadae and Diocletian. Every year they visited Elephantine, and at certain intervals took the image of Isis up river to the land of the Blemmyes for oracular purposes. The practices ended when Justinian I sent Narses to destroy sanctuaries, arrest priests, and seize divine images, which were taken to Constantinople.

See also

• Aaru
• Egyptian soul

Antiquity Of Egyptian Magic

The element of magic, which is the oldest and most persistent characteristic of the worship of the gods and of the Egyptian religion, generally belongs to the period before this distinction was arrived at, and it is clear that it dates from the time when man thought that the good and evil spirits were beings who were not greatly different from himself, and who could be propitiated with gifts, and controlled by means of words of power and by the performance of ceremonies, and moved to action by hymns and addresses.

The term heku (or hekau), in Ancient Egyptian mythology, refers to a type of magic or enchantment that Egyptian priests, sorcerers, and Pharaohs often performed. Heku is generally associated to vocalized forms, such as enchantments, songs, poems, and prayers. They may be found in the Egyptian book of the dead.

The energy is thought to derive from the powers of the gods Heka, Hu, and Sia. Generally, heku may be regarded as the Ancient Egyptian reverence for language and knowledge. That is, words were regarded as sacred, and thus their utterance was placed under the auspices of divination. The term can be seen to come up in common translations in Egyptology, such as in the term Werethekau, which may be translated as "she who has great magic." See Hathor, Sekhmet, and Aset.

Heku may be compared to the Kotodama of Asian cultures.

External links

• Egyptian Book of the Dead (online)

Magic may refer to:

• Magic (illusion), the art of appearing to perform supernatural feats using sleight of hand, escapology, or other methods
• Magic (paranormal), the use of paranormal methods to manipulate natural forces, such as:
  • Alchemy, a historical proto-science directed at the transmutation of physical substances for spiritual or magical purposes
  • Mana, an impersonal magical force, energy or power; commonly regarded as "the stuff of which magic is made."
  • Thaumaturgy, the magician's practice of working magic or miracles
  • Ancient cultural practices, such as Seidr (Norse magic), Heku (Egyptian magic), and Greco-Roman magic
  • Witchcraft, also called 'witchery' or 'spellcraft'
  • Sex magic, the practice of using sexual psychic energies for magical purposes
  • White magic, Gray magic, Black magic and Maleficium (sorcery), as gradations of magical intent from benevolent to malevolent; sometimes seen as related to a widespread magical categorization of Left-hand path and right-hand path.
  • Apotropaic magic, intended to deflect, avert, or "turn away" harmful influences.
  • Hoodoo (folk magic), also called 'Conjure' and (erroneously) 'Voodoo.'
  • Cunning folk, Pow-wow (folk magic), Dowsing, and other Folk magic practices
  • Theurgy, Conjuring, Spirit possession - various methods of evocation or summoning of spiritual entities
  • Ceremonial magic, a ritual system of esoteric spiritual development using occult techniques, related to Hermeticism, Kabbalah, and Western esotericism; a system often described as a western counterpart to yoga.
  • Related variants of Ceremonial Magic, such as Enochian magic and Golden Dawn
  • Comparable occult systems for esoteric spiritual development in Eastern religions; such as Tantra, Yoga, and especially yogic powers known as Siddhis
  • Magick, a specific system of ritual magic deriving from the religious philosophy of Thelema
  • Magic and religion, which may involve the intercession of deities or other spirits, such as prayer
  • Divination and other Occult practices are often considered to be aspects of magic
  • Synchronicity has been considered both as "magical causality" and as "meaningful acausal coincidence."
  • Some paranormal research topics that are presented as "science" are better categorized as magic and/or pseudoscience
• Magic (fantasy), fictional characters or objects with magical powers.
  • Magic in fiction, the treatment of magic in fictional works
  • Magic (Middle-earth), the mystical, paranormal, or supernatural activity, appear in various forms in J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional realm of Middle-earth.
• Magic (gaming), the portrayal of magic in roleplaying games
  • Magic of Dungeons & Dragons, widely used in the role-playing community, across many different fictional worlds, and across books, board games, video games, and movies.

"Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses" by John William Waterhouse

Magic is practiced in many cultures, and utilizes ways of understanding, experiencing and influencing the world in a manner akin to that of religion. Hanegraaff argues that magic is in fact "...a largely polemical concept that has been used by various religious interest groups either to describe their own religious beliefs and practices or - more frequently - to descredit those of others"

The concept of magic as a separate category to that of religion first appeared in Judaism, which derided as magic the practices of pagan worship designed to appease and receive benefits from gods other than Jehovah.

The belief in and the practice of magic has been present since the earliest human cultures and continues to have an important religious and medicinal role in many cultures today.

"Magic is central not only in 'primitive' societies but in 'high cultural' societies as well..."

Modern Western magicians generally state magic's primary purpose to be personal spiritual growth. Modern perspectives on the theory of magic broadly follow two major views. The first sees magic as a result of a universal sympathy within the universe, where if something is done here a result happens somewhere else. The other view sees magic as a collaboration with spirits who cause the effect.

Magic is often viewed with suspicion by the wider community, and is sometimes practiced in isolation and secrecy.

Etymology

The word "magic" derives via Latin magicus from the Greek adjective magikos (μαγικός) used in reference to the "magical" arts of the Persian Magicians (Greek: magoi, singular mágos, μάγος), the Zoroastrian astrologer priests of the ancient Persian Empire. Greek mágos is first attested in Heraclitus (6th century BC, apud. Clement Protrepticus 12) who curses the Magians and others for their "impious rites".

Likewise, sorcery was taken in ca. 1300 from Old French sorcerie, which is from Vulgar Latin *sortiarius, from sors "fate", apparently meaning "one who influences fate".

Common features of magical practice

Rituals

Magical rituals are the precisely defined actions (including speech) used to work magic. Bronisław Malinowski describes ritual language as possessing a high "coefficient of weirdness", by which he means that the language used in ritual is archaic and out of the ordinary, which helps foster the proper mindset to believe in the ritual. S. J. Tambiah notes, however, that even if the power of the ritual is said to reside in the words, "the words only become effective if uttered in a very special context of other action." These other actions typically consist of gestures, possibly performed with special objects at a particular place or time. Object, location, and performer may require purification beforehand. This caveat draws a parallel to the felicity conditions J. L. Austin requires of performative utterances. By "performativity" Austin means that the ritual act itself achieves the stated goal. For example, a wedding ceremony can be understood as a ritual, and only by properly performing the ritual does the marriage occur. Émile Durkheim stresses the importance of rituals as a tool to achieve "collective effervescence", which serves to help unify society. On the other hand, some psychologists compare such rituals to obsessive-compulsive rituals, noting that attentional focus falls on the lower level representation of simple gestures. This results in goal demotion, as the ritual places more emphasis on performing the ritual just right than on the connection between the ritual and the goal.

Magical symbols

Helm of Awe (ægishjálmr) - magical symbol worn by Vikings for invincibility. Modern day use by Ásatrú followers for protection.

Magic often utilizes symbols that are thought to be intrinsically efficacious. Anthropologists, such as Sir James Frazer (1854–1938), have characterized the implementation of symbols into two primary categories: the "principle of similarity", and the "principle of contagion." Frazer further categorized these principles as falling under "sympathetic magic", and "contagious magic." Frazer asserted that these concepts were "general or generic laws of thought, which were misapplied in magic."

Principle of similarity

The principle of similarity, also known as the "association of ideas", which falls under the category of sympathetic magic, is the thought that if a certain result follows a certain action, then that action must be responsible for the result. Therefore, if one is to perform this action again, the same result can again be expected. One classic example of this mode of thought is that of the rooster and the sunrise. When a rooster crows, it is a response to the rising of the sun. Based on sympathetic magic, one might interpret these series of events differently. The law of similarity would suggest that since the sunrise follows the crowing of the rooster, the rooster must have caused the sun to rise. Causality is inferred where it might not otherwise have been. Therefore, a practitioner might believe that if he is able to cause the rooster to crow, he will be able to control the timing of the sunrise. Another use of the principle of similarity is the construction and manipulation of representations of some target to be affected (e.g. voodoo dolls), believed to bring about a corresponding effect on the target (e.g. breaking a limb of a doll will bring about an injury in the corresponding limb of someone depicted by the doll).

Principle of contagion

Another primary type of magical thinking includes the principle of contagion. This principle suggests that once two objects come into contact with each other, they will continue to affect each other even after the contact between them has been broken. One example that Tambiah gives is related to adoption. Among some American Indians, for example, when a child is adopted his or her adoptive mother will pull the child through some of her clothes, symbolically representing the birth process and thereby associating the child with herself. Therefore, the child emotionally becomes hers even though their relationship is not biological. As Claude Lévi-Strauss would put it: the birth "would consist, therefore, in making explicit a situation originally existing on the emotional level and in rendering acceptable to the mind pains which the body refuses to tolerate...the woman believes in the myth and belongs to a society which believes in it."

Symbols, for many cultures that use magic, are seen as a type of technology. Natives might use symbols and symbolic actions to bring about change and improvements, much like Western cultures might use advanced irrigation techniques to promote soil fertility and crop growth. Michael Brown discusses the use of nantag stones among the Aguaruna as being similar to this type of "technology." These stones are brought into contact with stem cuttings of plants like manioc before they are planted in an effort to promote growth. Nantag are powerful tangible symbols of fertility, so they are brought into contact with crops to transmit their fertility to the plants.

Others argue that ritualistic actions are merely therapeutic. Tambiah cites the example of a native hitting the ground with a stick. While some may interpret this action as symbolic (i.e. the man is trying to make the ground yield crops through force), others would simply see a man unleashing his frustration at poor crop returns. Ultimately, whether or not an action is symbolic depends upon the context of the situation as well as the ontology of the culture. Many symbolic actions are derived from mythology and unique associations, whereas other ritualistic actions are just simple expressions of emotion and are not intended to enact any type of change.

Magical language

See also: Magic spell and Magic word

The performance of magic almost always involves the use of language. Whether spoken out loud or unspoken, words are frequently used to access or guide magical power. In "The Magical Power of Words" (1968) S. J. Tambiah argues that the connection between language and magic is due to a belief in the inherent ability of words to influence the universe. Bronisław Malinowski, in Coral Gardens and their Magic (1935), suggests that this belief is an extension of man's basic use of language to describe his surroundings, in which "the knowledge of the right words, appropriate phrases and the more highly developed forms of speech, gives man a power over and above his own limited field of personal action." Magical speech is therefore a ritual act and is of equal or even greater importance to the performance of magic than non-verbal acts.

Not all speech is considered magical. Only certain words and phrases or words spoken in a specific context are considered to have magical power. Magical language, according to C. K. Ogden and I. A. Richards's (1923) categories of speech, is distinct from scientific language because it is emotive and it converts words into symbols for emotions; whereas in scientific language words are tied to specific meanings and refer to an objective external reality. Magical language is therefore particularly adept at constructing metaphors that establish symbols and link magical rituals to the world.

Malinowski argues that "the language of magic is sacred, set and used for an entirely different purpose to that of ordinary life." The two forms of language are differentiated through word choice, grammar, style, or by the use of specific phrases or forms:spells, songs, blessings, or chants, for example. Sacred modes of language often employ archaic words and forms in an attempt to invoke the purity or "truth" of a religious or a cultural "golden age". The use of Hebrew in Judaism is an example.

Another potential source of the power of words is their secrecy and exclusivity. Much sacred language is differentiated enough from common language that it is incomprehensible to the majority of the population and it can only be used and interpreted by specialized practitioners (magicians, priests, shamans, even mullahs). In this respect, Tambiah argues that magical languages violate the primary function of language: communication. Yet adherents of magic are still able to use and to value the magical function of words by believing in the inherent power of the words themselves and in the meaning that they must provide for those who do understand them. This leads Tambiah to conclude that "the remarkable disjunction between sacred and profane language which exists as a general fact is not necessarily linked to the need to embody sacred words in an exclusive language."

Magicians

Main article: Magician (paranormal)

The "Magician" card from a 15th-century tarot deck.

A magician is any practitioner of magic; therefore a magician may be a specialist or a common practitioner, even if he or she does not consider himself a magician.

Magical knowledge is usually passed down from one magician to another through family or apprenticeships, though in some cultures it may also be purchased. The information transferred usually consists of instructions on how to perform a variety of rituals, manipulate magical objects, or how to appeal to gods or to other supernatural forces. Magical knowledge is often well guarded, as it is a valuable commodity to which each magician believes that he has a proprietary right.

Yet the possession of magical knowledge alone may be insufficient to grant magical power; often a person must also possess certain magical objects, traits or life experiences in order to be a magician. Among the Azande, for example, in order to question an oracle a man must have both the physical oracle (poison, or a washboard, for example) and knowledge of the words and the rites needed to make the object function.

A variety of personal traits may be credited to magical power, though frequently they are associated with an unusual birth into the world. For example, in 16th century Friuli, babies born with the caul were believed to be good witches, benandanti, who would engage evil witches in nighttime battles over the bounty of the next year's crops.

Certain post-birth experiences may also be believed to convey magical power. For example a person's survival of a near-death illness may be taken as evidence of their power as a healer: in Bali a medium's survival is proof of her association with a patron deity and therefore her ability to communicate with other gods and spirits. Initiations are perhaps the most commonly used ceremonies to establish and to differentiate magicians from common people. In these rites the magician's relationship to the supernatural and his entry into a closed professional class is established, often through rituals that simulate death and rebirth into a new life.

Given the exclusivity of the criteria needed to become a magician, much magic is performed by specialists. Laypeople will likely have some simple magical rituals for everyday living, but in situations of particular importance, especially when health or major life events are concerned, a specialist magician will often be consulted. The powers of both specialist and common magicians are determined by culturally accepted standards of the sources and the breadth of magic. A magician may not simply invent or claim new magic; the magician is only as powerful as his peers believe him to be.

In different cultures, various types of magicians may be differentiated based on their abilities, their sources of power, and on moral considerations, including divisions into different categories like sorcerer, witch, healer and others.

Witchcraft

Main article: Witchcraft

In non-scientific societies, perceived magical attack is an idea sometimes employed to explain personal or societal misfortune. In anthropological and historical contexts this is often termed witchcraft or sorcery, and the perceived attackers 'witches' or 'sorcerers'. Their maleficium is often seen as a biological trait or an acquired skill. Known members of the community may be accused as witches, or the witches may be perceived as supernatural, non-human entities. In early modern Europe and Britain such accusations led to the executions of tens of thousands of people, who were seen to be in league with Satan. Those accused of being satanic 'witches' were often practitioners of (usually benign) folk magic, and the English term 'witch' was also sometimes used without its pejorative sense to describe such practitioners.

Theories

Anthropological and psychological origins

Definitions of relevant terminology

The foremost perspectives on magic in anthropology are functionalist, symbolist and intellectualist. These three perspectives are used to describe how magic works in a society. The functionalist perspective, usually associated with Bronisław Malinowski, maintains that all aspects of society are meaningful and interrelated. In the functionalist perspective, magic performs a latent function in the society. The symbolist perspective researches the subtle meaning in rituals and myths that define a society and deals with questions of theodicy—why do bad things happen to good people. Finally the intellectualist perspective, associated with Edward Burnett Tylor and Sir James Frazer, regard magic as logical, but based on a flawed understanding of the world.

Magical thinking

Main article: Magical thinking

The term 'magical thinking' in anthropology, psychology, and cognitive science refers to causal reasoning often involving associative thinking, such as the perceived ability of the mind to affect the physical world (see the philosophical problem of mental causation) or correlation mistaken for materialist causation. Perceived causal associations between actions or events may derive from symbolic associations such as metaphor, metonym, "As above, so below" from Hermeticism and apparent synchronicity (coincidental magic).

Psychological theories of magic

Main article: Psychological theories of magic

Psychological theories treat magic as a personal phenomenon intended to meet individual needs, as opposed to a social phenomenon serving a collective purpose. The explanatory power of magic should not be underestimated, however. Both in the past and in the modern world magical belief systems can provide explanations for otherwise difficult or impossible to understand phenomena while providing a spiritual and metaphysical grounding for the individual. Furthermore, as both Brian Feltham and Scott E. Hendrix argue, magical beliefs need not represent a form of irrationality, nor should they be viewed as incompatible with modern views of the world.

Intellectualist perspectives

Further information: Myth and ritual and Shamanism

The belief that one can influence supernatural powers, by prayer, sacrifice or invocation goes back to prehistoric religion and is present in early records such as the Egyptian pyramid texts and the Indian Vedas.

James George Frazer asserted that magical observations are the result of an internal dysfunction: "Men mistook the order of their ideas for the order of nature, and hence imagined that the control which they have, or seem to have, over their thoughts, permitted them to exercise a corresponding control over things."

Others, such as N. W. Thomas and Sigmund Freud have rejected this explanation. Freud explains that "the associated theory of magic merely explains the paths along which magic proceeds; it does not explain its true essence, namely the misunderstanding which leads it to replace the laws of nature by psychological ones". Freud emphasizes that what led primitive men to come up with magic is the power of wishes: "His wishes are accompanied by a motor impulse, the will, which is later destined to alter the whole face of the earth in order to satisfy his wishes. This motor impulse is at first employed to give a representation of the satisfying situation in such a way that it becomes possible to experience the satisfaction by means of what might be described as motor hallucinations. This kind of representation of a satisfied wish is quite comparable to children's play, which succeeds their earlier purely sensory technique of satisfaction. [...] As time goes on, the psychological accent shifts from the motives for the magical act on to the measures by which it is carried out—that is, on to the act itself. [...] It thus comes to appear as though it is the magical act itself which, owing to its similarity with the desired result, alone determines the occurrence of that result."

Theories on the relationship of magic, science, art and religion

Main articles: Magic and religion and Myth and ritual

Magic and religion are categories of beliefs and systems of knowledge used within societies. While generally considered distinct categories in western cultures, the interactions, similarities, and differences have been central to the study of magic for many theorists in sociology and anthropology, including Frazer, Mauss, S. J. Tambiah, Malinowski, Michael Nevin and Isabelle Sarginson. From the intellectualist and functionalist perspectives, magic is often considered most analogous to science and technology.

Marcel Mauss

In A General Theory of Magic, Marcel Mauss classifies magic as a social phenomenon, akin to religion and science, but yet a distinct category. In practice, magic bears a strong resemblance to religion. Both use similar types of rites, materials, social roles and relationships to accomplish aims and engender belief. They both operate on similar principles, in particular those of consecration and sanctity of objects and places, interaction with supernatural powers mediated by an expert, employment of symbolism, sacrifice, purification and representation in rites, and the importance of tradition and continuation of knowledge. Magic and religion also share a collective character and totality of belief. The rules and powers of each are determined by the community's ideals and beliefs and so may slowly evolve. Additionally neither supports partial belief. Belief in one aspect of the phenomena necessitates belief in the whole, and each incorporates structural loopholes to accommodate contradictions.

The distinction Mauss draws between religion and magic is both of sentiment and practice. He portrays magic as an element of pre-modern societies and in many respects an antithesis of religion. Magic is secretive and isolated, and rarely performed publicly in order to protect and to preserve occult knowledge. Religion is predictable and prescribed and is usually performed openly in order to impart knowledge to the community. While these two phenomena do share many ritual forms, Mauss concludes that "a magical rite is any rite that does not play a part in organized cults. It is private, secret, mysterious and approaches the limit of prohibited rite." In practice, magic differs from religion in desired outcome. Religion seeks to satisfy moral and metaphysical ends, while magic is a functional art which often seeks to accomplish tangible results. In this respect magic resembles technology and science. Belief in each is diffuse, universal, and removed from the origin of the practice. Yet, the similarity between these social phenomena is limited, as science is based in experimentation and development, whereas magic is an "a priori belief." Mauss concludes that though magical beliefs and rites are most analogous to religion, magic remains a social phenomenon distinct from religion and science with its own characteristic rules, acts and aims.

S. J. Tambiah

According to Stanley Tambiah, magic, science, and religion all have their own "quality of rationality", and have been influenced by politics and ideology. Tambiah also believes that the perceptions of these three ideas have evolved over time as a result of Western thought. The lines of demarcation between these ideas depend upon the perspective of a variety of anthropologists, but Tambiah has his own opinions regarding magic, science, and religion.

According to Tambiah, religion is based on an organized community, and it is supposed to encompass all aspects of life. In religion, man is obligated to an outside power and he is supposed to feel piety towards that power. Religion is effective and attractive because it is generally exclusive and strongly personal. Also, because religion affects all aspects of life, it is convenient in the sense that morality and notions of acceptable behavior are imposed by God and the supernatural. Science, on the other hand, suggests a clear divide between nature and the supernatural, making its role far less all-encompassing than that of religion.

As opposed to religion, Tambiah suggests that mankind has a much more personal control over events. Science, according to Tambiah, is "a system of behavior by which man acquires mastery of the environment." Whereas in religion nature and the supernatural are connected and essentially interchangeable, in science, nature and the supernatural are clearly separate spheres. Also, science is a developed discipline; a logical argument is created and can be challenged. The base of scientific knowledge can be extended, while religion is more concrete and absolute. Magic, the less accepted of the three disciplines in Western society, is an altogether unique idea.

Tambiah states that magic is a strictly ritualistic action that implements forces and objects outside the realm of the gods and the supernatural. These objects and events are said to be intrinsically efficacious, so that the supernatural is unnecessary. To some, including the Greeks, magic was considered a "proto-science." Magic has other historical importance as well.

Much of the debate between religion and magic originated during the Protestant Reformation. The Catholic Church was attacked for its doctrine of transubstantiation because it was considered a type of sacramental magic. Furthermore, the possibility of anything happening outside of God's purpose was denied. Spells were viewed as ineffective and blasphemous, because religion required belief in "a conscious agent who could be deflected from this purpose by prayer and supplication." Prayer was the only way to effectively enact positive change. The Protestant Reformation was a significant moment in the history of magical thought because Protestantism provided the impetus for a systematic understanding of the world. In this systematic framework, there was no room for magic and its practices. Besides the Reformation, the Renaissance was an influential epoch in the history of thought concerning magic and science.

During the Renaissance, magic was less stigmatized even though it was done in secret and therefore considered "occult". Renaissance magic was based on cosmology, and its powers were said to be derived from the stars and the alignment of the planets. Newton himself began his work in mathematics because he wanted to see "whether judicial astrology had any claim to validity."

The lines of demarcation between science, magic, and religion all have origins dating to times when established thought processes were challenged. The rise of Western thought essentially initiated the differentiation between the three disciplines. Whereas science could be revised and developed through rational thought, magic was seen as less scientific and systematic than science and religion, making it the least respected of the three.

Bronisław Malinowski

Main article: Bronisław Malinowski

In his essay "Magic, Science and Religion", Bronisław Malinowski contends that every person, no matter how primitive, uses both magic and science. To make this distinction he breaks up this category into the "sacred" and the "profane" or "magic/religion" and science. He theorizes that feelings of reverence and awe rely on observation of nature and a dependence on its regularity. This observation and reasoning about nature is a type of science. Magic and science both have definite aims to help "human instincts, needs and pursuits." Both magic and science develop procedures that must be followed to accomplish specific goals. Magic and science are both based on knowledge; magic is knowledge of the self and of emotion, while science is knowledge of nature.

According to Malinowski, magic and religion are also similar in that they often serve the same function in a society. The difference is that magic is more about the personal power of the individual and religion is about faith in the power of God. Magic is also something that is passed down over generations to a specific group while religion is more broadly available to the community.

To end his essay, Malinowski poses the question, "why magic?" He writes, "Magic supplies primitive man with a number of ready-made rituals, acts and beliefs, with a definite mental and practical technique which serves to bridge over the dangerous gaps in every important pursuit or critical situation."

Robin Horton

In "African Traditional Thought and Western Science," Robin Horton compares the magical and religious thinking of non-modernized cultures with western scientific thought. He argues that both traditional beliefs and western science are applications of "theoretical thinking." The common form, function, and purpose of these theoretical idioms are therefore structured and explained by eight main characteristics of this type of thought:

1. In all cultures the majority of human experience can be explained by common sense. The purpose then of theory is to explain forces that operate behind and within the commonsense world. Theory should impose order and reason on everyday life by attributing cause to a few select forces.
2. Theories also help place events in a causal context that is greater than common sense alone can provide, because commonsense causation is inherently limited by what we see and experience. Theoretical formulations are therefore used as intermediaries to link natural effects to natural causes.
3. "Common sense and theory have complementary roles in everyday life." Common sense is more handy and useful for a wide range of everyday circumstances, but occasionally there are circumstances that can only be explained using a wider causal vision, so a jump to theory is made.
4. "Levels of theory vary with context." There are widely and narrowly encompassing theories, and the individual can usually chose which to use in order to understand and explain a situation as is deemed appropriate.
5. All theory breaks up aspects of commonsense events, abstracts them and then reintegrates them into the common usage and understanding.
6. Theory is usually created by analogy between unexplained and familiar phenomena.
7. When theory is based on analogy between explained and unexplained observations, "generally only a limited aspect of the familiar phenomena is incorporated into (the) explanatory model". It is this process of abstraction that contributes to the ability of theories to transcend commonsense explanation. For example, gods have the quality of spirituality by omission of many common aspects of human life.
8. Once a theoretical model has been established, it is often modified to explain contradictory data so that it may no longer represent the analogy on which is was based.

While both traditional beliefs and western science are based on theoretical thought, Horton argues that the differences between these knowledge systems in practice and form are due to their states in open and closed cultures. He classifies scientifically oriented cultures as ‘open’ because they are aware of other modes of thought, while traditional cultures are ‘closed’ because they are unaware of alternatives to the established theories. The varying sources of information in these systems results in differences in form which, Horton asserts, often blinds observers from seeing the similarities between the systems as two applications of theoretical thought.

Alan Moore

Alan Moore says that magic is indistinguishable from art whether it be writing, music, sculpture, or any other form. He supports his proposition by stating that magic is referred to in early texts simply as 'the art'. Also books of spells were referred to as 'grimoires' in the past which is another way of saying 'grammar' and to cast a spell means simply to spell. Further he states that magic is simply the manipulation of symbols, words, or images, to achieve changes in consciousness.

History

Further information: Further, History of astrology, and History of religions

Ancient Egypt

Egyptians believed that with Heka, the activation of the Ka, an aspect of the soul of both gods and humans, (and divine personification of magic), they could influence the gods and gain protection, healing and transformation. Health and wholeness of being were sacred to Heka. There is no word for religion in the ancient Egyptian language as mundane and religious world views were not distinct; thus, Heka was not a secular practice but rather a religious observance. Every aspect of life, every word, plant, animal and ritual was connected to the power and authority of the gods.

In ancient Egypt, magic consisted of four components; the primeval potency that empowered the creator-god was identified with Heka, who was accompanied by magical rituals known as Seshaw held within sacred texts called Rw. In addition Pekhret, medicinal prescriptions, were given to patients to bring relief. This magic was used in temple rituals as well as informal situations by priests. These rituals, along with medical practices, formed an integrated therapy for both physical and spiritual health. Magic was also used for protection against the angry deities, jealous ghosts, foreign demons and sorcerers who were thought to cause illness, accidents, poverty and infertility. Temple priests used wands during magical rituals.

Mesopotamia

In parts of Mesopotamian religion, magic was believed in and actively practiced. At the city of Uruk, archaeologists have excavated houses dating from the 5th and 4th centuries BCE in which cuneiform clay tablets have been unearthed containing magical incantations.

Classical antiquity

Main article: Magic in the Greco-Roman world

Hecate, the ancient Greek goddess of magic.

In ancient Greece magic was involved in practice of religion, medicine, and divination.

The Greek mystery religions had strongly magical components, and in Egypt, a large number of magical papyri, in Greek, Coptic, and Demotic, have been recovered. They contain early instances of:

• the use of "magic words" said to have the power to command spirits;
• the use of wands and other ritual tools;
• the use of a magic circle to defend the magician against the spirits that he is invoking or evoking; and
• the use of mysterious symbols or sigils which are thought to be useful when invoking or evoking spirits.

The practice of magic was banned in the Roman world, and the Codex Theodosianus states:

If any wizard therefore or person imbued with magical contamination who is called by custom of the people a magician...should be apprehended in my retinue, or in that of the Caesar, he shall not escape punishment and torture by the protection of his rank.

Middle Ages

Several medieval scholars were considered to be magicians in popular legend, notably Gerbert d'Aurillac and Albertus Magnus: both men were active in the scientific research of their day as well as in ecclesiastical matters, which was enough to attach to them a nimbus of the occult.

Magical practice was actively discouraged by the church, but it remained widespread in folk religion throughout the medieval period. The demonology and angelology contained in the earliest grimoires assume a life surrounded by Christian implements and sacred rituals. The underlying theology in these works of Christian demonology encourages the magician to fortify himself with fasting, prayers, and sacraments, so that by using the holy names of God in the sacred languages, he could use divine powers to coerce demons into appearing and serving his usually lustful or avaricious magical goals.

13th century astrologers include Johannes de Sacrobosco and Guido Bonatti.

Renaissance

Further information: Renaissance magic

Renaissance humanism saw resurgence in hermeticism and Neo-Platonic varieties of ceremonial magic. The Renaissance, on the other hand, saw the rise of science, in such forms as the dethronement of the Ptolemaic theory of the universe, the distinction of astronomy from astrology, and of chemistry from alchemy.

A talisman from the Black Pullet, a late grimoire containing instructions on how a magician might cast rings and craft amulets for various magical applications, culminating in the Hen that Lays Golden Eggs.

The seven artes magicae or artes prohibitae or arts prohibited by canon law by Johannes Hartlieb in 1456 were: nigromancy (which included "black magic" and "demonology"), geomancy, hydromancy, aeromancy, pyromancy, chiromancy, and scapulimancy and their sevenfold partition emulated the artes liberales and artes mechanicae. Both bourgeoisie and nobility in the 15th and 16th century showed great fascination with these arts, which exerted an exotic charm by their ascription to Arabic, Jewish, Gypsy and Egyptian sources, and the popularity of white magic increased. However, there was great uncertainty in distinguishing practices of superstition, occultism, and perfectly sound scholarly knowledge or pious ritual. The intellectual and spiritual tensions erupted in the Early Modern witch craze, further reinforced by the turmoil of the Protestant Reformation, especially in Germany, England, and Scotland.

Baroque

Further information: 17th-century philosophy and natural magic

Study of the occult arts remained intellectually respectable well into the 17th century, and only gradually divided into the modern categories of natural science, occultism, and superstition. The 17th century saw the gradual rise of the "age of reason", while belief in witchcraft and sorcery, and consequently the irrational surge of Early Modern witch trials, receded, a process only completed at the end of the Baroque period circa 1730. Christian Thomasius still met opposition as he argued in his 1701 Dissertatio de crimine magiae that it was meaningless to make dealing with the devil a criminal offence, since it was impossible to really commit the crime in the first place. In Britain, the Witchcraft Act of 1735 established that people could not be punished for consorting with spirits, while would-be magicians pretending to be able to invoke spirits could still be fined as con artists.

[The] wonderful power of sympathy, which exists throughout the whole system of nature, where everything is excited to beget or love its like, and is drawn after it, as the loadstone draws iron... There is ... such natural accord and discord, that some will prosper more luxuriantly in another's company; while some, again, will droop and die away, being planted near each other. The lily and the rose rejoice by each other's side; whilst ... fruits will neither ripen nor grow in aspects that are inimical to them. In stones likewise, in minerals, ... the same sympathies and antipathies are preserved. Animated nature, in every clime, in every corner of the globe, is also pregnant with similar qualities... Thus we find that one particular bone ... in a hare's foot instantly mitigates the most excruciating tortures of the cramp; yet no other bone nor part of that animal can do the like... From what has been premised, we may readily conclude that there are two distinct species of magic; one whereof, being inherent in the occult properties of nature, is called natural magic; and the other, being obnoxious and contrary to nature, is termed infernal magic, because it is accomplished by infernal agency or compact with the devil...

Under the veil of natural magic, it hath pleased the Almighty to conceal many valuable and excellent gifts, which common people either think miraculous, or next to impossible. And yet in truth, natural magic is nothing more than the workmanship of nature, made manifest by art; for, in tillage, as nature produceth corn and herbs, so art, being nature's handmaid, prepareth and helpeth it forward... And, though these things, while they lie hid in nature, do many of them seem impossible and miraculous, yet, when they are known, and the simplicity revealed, our difficulty of apprehension ceases, and the wonder is at an end; for that only is wonderful to the beholder whereof he can conceive no cause nor reason... Many philosophers of the first eminence, as Plato, Pythagoras, Empedocles, Democritus, &c. travelled through every region of the known world for the accomplishment of this kind of knowledge; and, at their return, they publicly preached and taught it. But above all, we learn from sacred and profane history, that Solomon was the greatest proficient in this art of any either before or since his time; as he himself hath declared in Ecclesiastes and the Book of Wisdom, where he saith,

"God hath given me the true science of things, so as to know how the world was made, and the power of the elements, the beginning, and the end, and the midst of times, the change of seasons, the courses of the year, and the situation of the stars, the nature of human beings, and the quality of beasts, the power of winds, and the imaginations of the mind; the diversities of plants, the virtues of roots, and all things whatsoever, whether secret or known, manifest or invisible."

And hence it was that the magi, or followers of natural magic, were accounted wise, and the study honourable; because it consists in nothing more than the most profound and perfect part of natural philosophy, which defines the nature, causes, and effects, of things.

How far such inventions as are called charms, amulets, periapts, and the like, have any foundation in natural magic, may be worth our enquiry; because, if cures are to be effected through their medium, and that without any thing derogatory to the attributes of the Deity, or the principles of religion, I see no reason why they should be rejected with that inexorable contempt which levels the works of God with the folly and weakness of men. Not that I would encourage superstition, or become an advocate for a ferrago of absurdities; but, when the simplicity of natural things, and their effects, are rejected merely to encourage professional artifice and emolument, it is prudent for us to distinguish between the extremes of bigoted superstition and total unbelief.

It was the opinion of many eminent physicians, of the first ability and learning, that such kind of charms or periapts as consisted of certain odoriferous herbs, balsamic roots, mineral concretions, and metallic substances, might have, and most probably possessed, by means of their strong medicinal properties, the virtue of curing... though without the least surprise or admiration; because the one appears in a great measure to be the consequence of manual operation, which is perceptible and visible to the senses, whilst the other acts by an innate or occult power, which the eye cannot see, nor the mind so readily comprehend; yet, in both cases, perhaps, the effect is produced by a similar cause; and consequently all such remedies... are worthy of our regard, and ought to excite in us not only a veneration for the simple practice of the ancients in their medical experiments, but a due sense of gratitude to the wise Author of our being, who enables us, by such easy means, to remove the infirmities incident to mankind. Many reputable authors ... contend that not only such physical alligations, appensions, periapts, amulets, charms, &c. which, from their materials appear to imbibe and to diffuse the medical properties above described, ought in certain obstinate and equivocal disorders to be applied, but those likewise which from their external form and composition have no such inherent virtues to recommend them; for harm they can do none, and good they might do, either by accident or through the force of imagination. And it is asserted, with very great truth, that through the medium of hope and fear, sufficiently impressed upon the mind or imagination... Of the truth of this we have the strongest and most infallible evidence in the hiccough, which is instantaneously cured by any sudden effect of fear or surprise; ... Seeing, therefore, that such virtues lie hid in the occult properties of nature, united with the sense or imagination of man... without any compact with spirits, or dealings with the devil; we surely ought to receive them into our practice, and to adopt them as often as occasion seriously requires, although professional emolument and pecuniary advantage might in some instances be narrowed by it.
— Ebenezer Sibly (1751–1800), An Illustration of the Celestial Science of Astrology, Part the Fourth.
Containing the Distinction between Astrology and the Wicked Practice of Exorcism.
with a General Display of Witchcraft, Magic, and Divination,
founded upon the Existence of Spirits Good and Bad and their Affinity with the Affairs of this World.

Further information: Isaac Newton's occult studies

"Newton was not the first of the age of reason, he was the last of the magicians." — John Maynard Keynes

Romanticism

From 1776 to 1781 AD, Jacob Philadelphia performed feats of magic, sometimes under the guise of scientific exhibitions, throughout Europe and Russia. Baron Carl Reichenbach's experiments with his Odic force appeared to be an attempt to bridge the gap between magic and science. More recent periods of renewed interest in magic occurred around the end of the 19th century, where Symbolism and other offshoots of Romanticism cultivated a renewed interest in exotic spiritualities. European colonialism put Westerners in contact with India and Egypt and re-introduced exotic beliefs. Hindu and Egyptian mythology frequently feature in 19th century magical texts. The late 19th century spawned a large number of magical organizations, including the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the Theosophical Society, and specifically magical variants on Freemasonry. The Golden Dawn represented perhaps the peak of this wave of magic, attracting cultural celebrities like William Butler Yeats, Algernon Blackwood, and Arthur Machen.

In cultural contexts

Animism and folk religion

An 1873 Victorian illustration of a "Ju-ju house" on the Gold Coast showing fetishised skulls and bones.

Juju charm protecting dugout canoe on riverbank, in Suriname.1954.

Appearing in various tribal peoples from Aboriginal Australia and Māori New Zealand to the Amazon, African savannah, and pagan Europe, some form of shamanic contact with the spirit world seems to be nearly universal in the early development of human communities. Much of the Babylonian and Egyptian pictorial writing characters appear derived from the same sources.

Although indigenous magical traditions persist to this day, very early on some communities transitioned from nomadic to agricultural civilizations, and with this shift, the development of spiritual life mirrored that of civic life. Just as tribal elders were consolidated and transformed into kings and bureaucrats, so too were shamans and adepts changed into priests and a priestly caste.

This shift is by no means in nomenclature alone. While the shaman's task was to negotiate between the tribe and the spirit world, on behalf of the tribe, as directed by the collective will of the tribe, the priest's role was to transfer instructions from the deities to the city-state, on behalf of the deities, as directed by the will of those deities. This shift represents the first major usurpation of power by distancing magic from those participating in that magic. It is at this stage of development that highly codified and elaborate rituals, setting the stage for formal religions, began to emerge, such as the funeral rites of the Egyptians and the sacrifice rituals of the Babylonians, Persians, Aztecs and Mayans.

In 2003, Sinafasi Makelo, a representative of Mbuti pygmies, told the UN's Indigenous People's Forum that during the Congo Civil War, his people were hunted down and eaten as though they were game animals. Both sides of the war regarded them as "subhuman" and some say their flesh can confer magical powers.

On April, 2008, Kinshasa, the police arrested 14 suspected victims (of penis snatching) and sorcerers accused of using black magic or witchcraft to steal (make disappear) or shrink men's penises to extort cash for cure, amid a wave of panic. Arrests were made in an effort to avoid bloodshed seen in Ghana a decade ago, when 12 alleged penis snatchers were beaten to death by mobs.

Native American medicine

Main article: Shamanism#Americas

The Shamanism practiced by the indigenous peoples of the Americas was called "medicine" and was practiced by medicine men. In addition to healing, medicine served many other purposes, for example among the Cheyenne, one of Plains Indians that lived in the Great Plains of North America, medicine such as war paint, war shields, war shirts, and war bonnets, such as the famous war bonnet of Roman Nose, served to protect a warrior from wounding during battle.

Magic in Hinduism

Traditional welcome performance, Mitral, Kheda district, Gujarat

The Atharva Veda is a veda that deals with mantras that can be used for both good and bad. The word mantrik in India literally means "magician" since the mantrik usually knows mantras, spells, and curses which can be used for or against all forms of magic. Tantra is likewise employed for ritual magic by the tantrik. Many ascetics after long periods of penance and meditation are alleged to attain a state where they may utilize supernatural powers. However, many say that they choose not to use them and instead focus on transcending beyond physical power into the realm of spirituality. Many siddhars are said to have performed miracles that would ordinarily be impossible to perform.

Western magic

Further information: Western esotericism

In general, the 20th century has seen a sharp rise in public interest in various forms of magical practice, and the foundation of a number of traditions and organisations, ranging from the distinctly religious to the philosophical.

In England, a further revival of interest in magic was heralded by the repeal of the last Witchcraft Act in 1951. In 1954 Gerald Gardner published a book, Witchcraft Today, in which he claimed to reveal the existence of a witch-cult that dated back to pre-Christian Europe. Although many of Gardner's claims have since come under intensive criticism from sources both within and without the Neopagan community, his works remain the most important founding stone of Wicca.

Gardner's newly created religion, and many others, took off in the atmosphere of the 1960s and 1970s, when the counterculture of the hippies also spawned another period of renewed interest in magic, divination, and other occult practices. The various branches of Neopaganism and other Earth religions that have emerged since Gardner's publication tend to follow a pattern in combining the practice of magic and religion, although this combination is not exclusive to them. Following the trend of magic associated with counterculture, some feminists launched an independent revival of goddess worship. This brought them into contact with the Gardnerian tradition of magical religion (or religious magic), and deeply influenced that tradition in return.

The pentagram, an ancient geometrical symbol known from many cultures, is often associated with magic. In Europe, the Pythagoreans first used the pentagram as a symbol of their movement.

The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Aleister Crowley's Thelema and their subsequent offshoots, influenced by Eliphas Levi, are most commonly associated with the resurgence of magical tradition in the English speaking world of the 20th century. Other, similar resurgences took place at roughly the same time, centered in France and Germany. The western traditions acknowledging the natural elements, the seasons, and the practitioner's relationship with the Earth, Gaia, or a primary Goddess have derived at least in part from these magical groups, as found in Neopagan religions and various forms of contemporary paganism.

Allegedly for gematric reasons Aleister Crowley preferred the spelling magick, defining it as "the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with the will." By this, he included "mundane" acts of change as well as ritual magic. In Magick in Theory and Practice, Chapter XIV, Crowley says:

What is a Magical Operation? It may be defined as any event in nature which is brought to pass by Will. We must not exclude potato-growing or banking from our definition. Let us take a very simple example of a Magical Act: that of a man blowing his nose.

Western magical traditions draw heavily from Hermeticism which influenced the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, as well as Wicca and some other Neopagan religions and contemporary forms of paganism.

Wicca is one of the more publicly known traditions within Neopaganism, a magical religion inspired by medieval witchcraft, with influences including the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and Crowley. Ruickbie (2004:193-209) shows that Wiccans and witches define magic in many different ways and use it for a number of different purposes. Despite that diversity of opinion, he concludes that the result upon the practitioner is generally perceived as a positive one.

Regardie argued that some magical practices rely upon widely accepted psychological principles and are intended to promote internal personal changes within the practitioner themselves. Visualization techniques, for instance, widely used by magicians, are also used in somewhat different contexts in fields such as clinical psychology and sports training.

Hypotheses of adherents

Adherents to magic believe that it may work by one or more of the following basic principles:

• A mystical force or energy that is natural, but cannot be detected by science at present, and which may not be detectable at all. Common terms referring to such magical energy include mana, numen, chi or kundalini. These are sometimes regarded as fluctuations of an underlying primary substance (akasha, aether) that is present in all things and interconnects and binds all. Magical energy is thus also present in all things, though it can be especially concentrated in magical objects. Magical energies are typically seen as being especially responsive to the use of symbols, so that a person, event or object can be affected by manipulating an object that symbolically represents them or it (as in sigil magic, for instance). This corresponds to James Frazer's theory of sympathetic magic.

• Intervention of spirits, similar to hypothetical natural forces, but with their own consciousness and intelligence. Believers in spirits will often describe a whole cosmos of beings of many different kinds, sometimes organized into a hierarchy.

• Manipulation of the Elements, by using the will of the magician and symbols or objects which are representative of the element(s). Western practitioners typically use the Classical elements of Earth, Air, Water, and Fire.

• Concentration or meditation. A certain amount of focusing or restricting the mind to some imagined object (or will), according to Aleister Crowley, produces mystical attainment or "an occurrence in the brain characterized essentially by the uniting of subject and object" (Book Four, Part 1: Mysticism). Magic, as defined previously, seeks to aid concentration by constantly recalling the attention to the chosen object (or Will), thereby producing said attainment. For example, if one wishes to concentrate on a god, one might memorize a system of correspondences (perhaps chosen arbitrarily, as this would not affect its usefulness for mystical purposes) and then make every object that one sees "correspond" to said god.

Aleister Crowley wrote that ". . . the exaltation of the mind by means of magickal practices leads (as one may say, in spite of itself) to the same results as occur in straightforward Yoga." Crowley's magick thus becomes a form of mental, mystical, or spiritual discipline, designed to train the mind to achieve greater concentration. Crowley also made claims for the paranormal effects of magick, suggesting a connection with the first principle in this list. However, he defined any attempt to use this power for a purpose other than aiding mental or mystical attainment as "black magick".

• The magical power of the subconscious mind. To believers who think that they need to convince their subconscious mind to make the changes that they desire, all spirits and energies are projections and symbols that make sense to the subconscious. A variant of this belief is that the subconscious is capable of contacting spirits, who in turn can work magic.

• The Oneness of All. Based on the fundamental concepts of monism and Non-duality, this philosophy holds that Magic is little more than the application of one's own inherent unity with the universe. Hinging upon the personal realization, or "illumination", that the self is limitless, one may live in unison with nature, seeking and preserving balance in all things.

Many more hypotheses exist. Practitioners will often mix these concepts, and sometimes even invent some themselves. In the contemporary current of chaos magic in particular, it is not unusual to believe that any concept of magic works.

Key principles of utilizing Magic are often said to be Concentration and Visualization. Many of those who purportedly cast spells attain a mental state called the "Trance State" to enable the spell. The Trance State is often described as an emptying of the mind, akin to meditation.

Magic and monotheism

Officially, Christianity and Islam characterize magic as forbidden witchcraft, and have often prosecuted alleged practitioners of it with varying degrees of severity. Other religions, such as Judaism and Zoroastrianism have rather more ambiguous positions towards it. Trends in monotheistic thought have dismissed all such manifestations as trickery and illusion, nothing more than dishonest gimmicks.

In Judaism

Further information: Kabbalah and Hermetic Qabalah

In Judaism the Torah prohibits Jews from being superstitious or engaging in astrology (Lev. 19, 26); from muttering incantations (Deut. 18, 11); from consulting an ov (mediums), yidoni (seers), or attempting to contact the dead (Deut. 18, 11); from going into a trance to foresee events, and from performing acts of magic (Deut. 18, 10). See 613 Mitzvot. The general theme of these commandments is a prohibition to channel and utilise forces of impurity for personal gain. That is, a prohibition against practicing Black Magic.

A different type of magic can be achieved using knowledge of the kabbalah. Because the kabbalah provides knowledge of the spiritual and conceptual underpinnings of physical existence, one who possesses kabbalistic knowledge is able to produce physical effects by directly addressing the spiritual basis of the affected physical object. This is called 'practical kabbalah' and is a type of White Magic.

The practice of practical kabbalah was banned by the Vilna Gaon due to the decreasing spiritual sensitivity of later generations.

In Christianity

Further information: Renaissance magic, Grimoire, Christian views on witchcraft, and Theurgy

Magia was viewed with suspicion by Christianity from the time of the Church fathers. However, it was never completely settled whether there may be permissible practices, e.g. involving relics or holy water as opposed to "blasphemous" necromancy (necromantia) involving the invocation of demons (goetia). The distinction became particularly pointed and controversial during the Early Modern witch-hunts, with some authors such as Johannes Hartlieb denouncing all magical practice as blasphemous, while others portrayed natural magic as not sinful.

The position taken by Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, one of the foremost Renaissance magicians, is ambiguous. The character of Faustus, likely based on a historical 16th century magician or charlatan, became the prototypical popular tale of a learned magician who succumbs to a pact with the devil.

The current Catechism of the Catholic Church discusses divination and magic under the heading of the First Commandment.

It is careful to allow for the possibility of divinely inspired prophecy, but it rejects "all forms of divination":

(2116) All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to "unveil" the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.

The section on "practices of magic or sorcery" is less absolute, specifying "attempts to tame occult powers" in order to "have supernatural power over others". Such are denounced as "gravely contrary to the virtue of religion", notably avoiding a statement on whether such attempts can have any actual effect (that is, attempts to employ occult practices are identified as violating the First Commandment because they in themselves betray a lack of faith, and not because they may or may not result in the desired effect).

The Catechism expresses skepticism towards widespread practices of folk Catholicism without outlawing them explicitly:

(2117) [...] Wearing charms is also reprehensible. Spiritism often implies divination or magical practices; the Church for her part warns the faithful against it. Recourse to so-called traditional cures does not justify either the invocation of evil powers or the exploitation of another's credulity.

Some argue that the recent popularity of the prosperity gospel constitutes a return to magical thinking within Christianity. Note also that Gnostic Christianity has a strong mystical current, but shies away from practical magic and focuses more on theurgy.

In Islam

틀:Essay Any discussion of Muslim magic poses a double set of problems. On the one hand, like its counterpart in predominantly Christian cultures, magic is forbidden by orthodox leaders and legal opinions. On the other hand, translating various Arabic terms as ‘magic’ causes another set of problems with no clear answers.

As with any question regarding the behavior of Muslims in relation to authorized practices, theological decisions begin by consulting the Qur’an. The second chapter introduces an explanation for the introduction of magic into the world:

They followed what the evil ones gave out (falsely) against the power of Solomon: the blasphemers were, not Solomon, but the evil ones, teaching men magic, and such things as came down at Babylon to the angels Harut and Marut. But neither of these taught anyone (such things) without saying: "We are only for trial; so do not blaspheme." They learned from them the means to sow discord between man and wife. But they could not thus harm anyone except by Allah's permission. And they learned what harmed them, not what profited them. And they knew that the buyers of (magic) would have no share in the happiness of the Hereafter. And vile was the price for which they did sell their souls, if they but knew! (Q 2:102).

Though it presents a generally contemptuous attitude towards magic (Muhammad was accused by his detractors of being a magician), the Qur’an distinguishes between apparent magic (miracles sanctioned by Allah) and real magic. The first is that used by Solomon, who being a prophet of Allah, is assumed to have used miraculous powers with Allah's blessing. Muslims also believe that Allah made an army of Djinn obedient to him. The second form is the magic that was taught by the "evil ones", or al-shayatin. Al-shayatin has two meanings; the first is similar to the Christian Satan. The second meaning, which is the one used here, refers to a djinn of superior power. The al-shayatin taught knowledge of evil and "pretended to force the laws of nature and the will of Allah . . ." According to this belief, those who follow this path turn themselves from Allah and cannot reach heaven.

The Arabic word translated in this passage as "magic" is sihr. The etymological meaning of sihr suggests that "it is the turning . . . of a thing from its true nature . . . or form . . . to something else which is unreal or a mere appearance . . ."

By the first millennium CE, sihr became a fully developed system in Islamic society. Within this system, all magicians "assert[ed] that magic is worked by the obedience of spirits to the magician." The efficacy of this system comes from the belief that every Arabic letter, every word, verse, and chapter in the Qur’an, every month, day, time and name were created by Allah a priori, and that each has an angel and a djinn servant. It is through the knowledge of the names of these servants that an actor is able to control the angel and djinn for his or her purposes.

The Sunni and Shia sects of Islam typically forbid all use of magic. The Sufis within these two sects are much more ambiguous about its use as seen in the concept of "Barakah". If magic is understood in terms of Frazer's principle of contagion, then barakah is another term that can refer to magic. Barakah, variously defined as "blessing", or "divine power", is a quality one possesses rather than a category of activity. According to Muslim conception, the source of barakah is solely from Allah; it is Allah's direct blessing and intervention conferred upon special, pious Muslims. Barakah has a heavily contagious quality in that one can transfer it by either inheritance or contact. Of all the humans who have ever lived, it is said that the Prophet Muhammad possessed the greatest amount of barakah and that he passed this to his male heirs through his daughter Fatima. Barakah is not just limited to Muhammad's family line; any person who is considered holy may also possess it and transfer it to virtually anyone else. In Morocco, barakah transfer can be accomplished by sharing a piece of bread from which the possessor has eaten because saliva is the vessel of barakah in the human body. However, the transference of barakah may also occur against the will of its possessor through other forms of physical contact such as hand shaking and kissing. The contagious element of barakah is not limited to humans as it can be found in rocks, trees, water, and even in some animals, such as horses.

Just how the actor maintained obedience depended upon the benevolence or malevolence of his practice. Malevolent magicians operated by enslaving the spirits through offerings and deeds displeasing to Allah. Benevolent magicians, in contrast, obeyed and appeased Allah so that Allah exercised His will upon the spirits. Al-Buni provides the process by which this practice occurs:

First: the practitioner must be of utterly clean soul and garb. Second, when the proper angel is contacted, this angel will first get permission from God to go to the aid of the person who summoned him. Third: the practitioner "must not apply . . .[his power] except to that purpose [i.e. to achieve goals] which would please God."

However, not all Islamic groups accept this explanation of benevolent magic. The Salafis particularly view this as shirk, denying the unity of Allah. Consequently, the Salafis renounce appellations to intermediaries such as saints, angels, and djinn, and renounce magic, fortune-telling, and divination. This particular brand of magic has also been condemned as forbidden by a fatwa issued by Al-Azhar University. Further, Egyptian folklorist Hasan El-Shamy, warns that scholars have often been uncritical in their application of the term sihr to both malevolent and benevolent forms of magic. He argues that in Egypt, sihr only applies to sorcery. A person who practices benevolent magic "is not called saahir or sahhaar (sorcerer, witch), but is normally referred to as shaikh (or shaikha for a female), a title which is normally used to refer to a clergyman or a community notable or elder, and is equal to the English title: ‘Reverend.’"

Varieties of magical practice

The Magician, a Tarot card

The best-known type of magical practice is the spell, a ritualistic formula intended to bring about a specific effect. Spells are often spoken or written or physically constructed using a particular set of ingredients. The failure of a spell to work may be attributed to many causes, such as a failure to follow the exact formula, to the general circumstances being unconducive, to a lack of magical ability, to a lack of willpower or to fraud.

Another well-known magical practice is divination, which seeks to reveal information about the past, present or future. Varieties of divination include: astrology, augury, cartomancy, chiromancy, dowsing, extispicy, fortune telling, geomancy, I Ching, omens, scrying, and tarot reading.

Necromancy is a practice which claims to involve the summoning of, and conversation with, spirits of the dead. This is sometimes done simply to commune with deceased loved ones; it can also be done to gain information from the spirits, as a type of divination; or to command the aid of those spirits in accomplishing some goal, as part of casting a spell.

Varieties of magic can also be categorized by the techniques involved in their operation. One common means of categorization distinguishes between contagious magic and sympathetic magic, one or both of which may be employed in any magical work. Contagious magic involves the use of physical ingredients which were once in contact with the person or a thing which the practitioner intends to influence. Sympathetic magic involves the use of images or physical objects which in some way resemble the person or thing that one hopes to influence; voodoo dolls are an example. This dichotomy was proposed by Sir James Frazer's The Golden Bough.

Other common categories given to magic include High and Low Magic (the appeal to divine powers or spirits respectively, with goals lofty or personal, according to the type of magic). Another distinction is between "manifest" and "subtle" magic. Subtle magic typically refers to magic of legend, gradually and sometimes intangibly altering the world, whereas manifest magic is magic that immediately appears as a result.

Academic historian Richard Kieckhefer divides the category of spells into psychological magic, which seeks to influence other people's minds to do the magician's will, such as with a love spell, or illusionary magic, which seeks to conjure the manifestation of various wonders. A spell that conjures up a banquet, or that confers invisibility on the magician, would be examples of illusionary magic. Magic that causes objective physical change, in the manner of a miracle, is not accommodated in Kieckhefer's categories.

Magical traditions

Another method of classifying magic is by "traditions", which in this context typically refer to complexes or "currents" of magical belief and practice associated with various cultural groups and lineages of transmission. Some of these traditions are highly specific and culturally circumscribed. Others are more eclectic and syncretistic. These traditions can compass both divination and spells.

When dealing with magic in terms of "traditions", it is a common misconception for outsiders to treat any religion in which clergy members make amulets and talismans for their congregants as a "tradition of magic", even though what is being named is actually an organized religion with clergy, laity, and an order of liturgical service. This is most notably the case when Voodoo, Palo, Santería, Taoism, Wicca, and other contemporary religions and folk religions are mischaracterized as forms of "magic", or even as "sorcery."

Examples of magical, folk-magical, and religio-magical traditions include:

• Alchemy
• Animism
• Asatru
• Benedicaria
• Black Magic
• Bön
• Candomblé Jejé
• Ceremonial magic
• Chaos magic
• Druidry
• Feri Tradition
• Haitian Vodou
• Hermetic Qabalah
• Hermeticism

• Hoodoo
• Huna
• Kabbalah
• Louisiana Voodoo
• Nagual
• Obeah
• Onmyōdō
• Palo
• Pow-wow
• Psychonautics
• Quimbanda
• Reiki
• Santería
• Satanism

• Seid
• Setianism
• Sex Magic
• Shamanism
• Shinto
• Sigil Magic
• Tantra
• Taoism
• Thelema
• West African Vodun
• White magic
• Witchcraft
• Wicca
• Zos Kia Cultus

See also

• List of occult terms
• List of occult writers
• List of occultists
• Maleficium (sorcery)
• Magic (illusion)
• Magic in fiction

• Magic in the Greco-Roman world
• Mathemagician
• Occultism
• Psionics
• Sympathetic magic
• Witchcraft

Bibliography

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• Adler, Margot (1987). Drawing Down the Moon: Witches, Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America Today. ISBN 0-14-019536-X
• Clifton, Dan Salahuddin (1998). 《Myth Of The Western Magical Tradition》. C&GCHE. ISBN 0-393-00143-1. 
• Frazer, J. G. (1911). The Magic Art (2 vols.) (The Golden Bough, 3rd ed., Part II). London.
• Freud, Sigmund (1950). 《Totem and Taboo: Some Points of Agreement between the Mental Lives of Savages and Neurotics》. trans. Strachey. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-00143-1. 
• Greer, Mary K. (1996) Women of the Golden Dawn. Llewellyn. ISBN 0-89281-607-4
• de Givry, Grillot (1954). Witchcraft, Magic, and Alchemy, trans. J. Courtney Locke. Frederick Pub.
• Hutton, Ronald (2001). The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft. Oxford. ISBN 0-19-285449-6.
• Hutton, Ronald (2006). Witches, Druids, and King Arthur. Hambledon. ISBN 1-85285-555-X
• Kampf, Erich (1894). The Plains of Magic. Konte Publishing.
• Kiekhefer, Richard (1998). Forbidden Rites: A Necromancer's Manual of the Fifteenth Century. Pennsylvania State University. ISBN 0-271-01751-1.
• Ruickbie, Leo (2004). Witchcraft Out of the Shadows. Robert Hale. ISBN 0-7090-7567-7.
• Stark, Ryan. Rhetoric, Science, and Magic in Seventeenth-Century England. Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2009.
• Thomas, N. W. (1910–11). "Magic". Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed., vol. 26, p. 337.
• Thorndike, Lynn (1923–1958). 《A History of Magic and Experimental Science》 (8 volumes). New York: Macmillan. ISBN 0-231-08794-2. 
• Waite, Arthur E. (1913) The Book of Black Magic and of Pacts, London. J.B. Haze

• Roth, Remo F.: Return of the World Soul, Wolfgang Pauli, C.G. Jung and the Challenge of Psychophysical Reality [unus mundus]. Pari Publishing, 2011, ISBN 978-88-95604-12-1.

External links

• Catholic Encyclopedia "Occult Art, Occultism"
• Catholic Encyclopedia "Witchcraft"

Evil Spirits

Evil Eye

The element of magic, which is the oldest and most persistent characteristic of the worship of the gods and of the Egyptian religion, generally belongs to the period before this distinction (태양신과 오시리스에 구분되는 태도) was arrived at, and it is clear that it dates from the time when man thought that the good and evil spirits were beings who were not greatly different from himself, and who could be propitiated with gifts, and controlled by means of words of power and by the performance of ceremonies, and moved to action by hymns and addresses.

This belief was present in the minds of the Egyptians in all ages of their history, and it exists in a modified form among the Muhammadan Egyptians and Sûdânî men to this day. It is true that they proclaim vehemently (열정적으로) that there is no god but God, and that Muḥammad is His Prophet, and that God’s power is infinite and absolute, but they take care to guard the persons of themselves and their children from the Evil Eye and from the assaults (공격) of malicious and evil spirits, by means of amulets of all kinds as zealously now as their ancestors did in the days before [Page 14] the existence of God Who is One was conceived.

The caravan men protect their camels from the Evil Eye of the spirits of the desert by fastening bright-coloured beads between the eyes of their beasts, and by means of long fringes (앞머리, 술) which hang from their mahlûfas, or saddles (안장), and in spite of their firm belief in the infinite power of God, they select an auspicious day on which to set out on a journey, and they never attempt to pass certain isolated caves, or ravines (협곡), or mountains, in the night time.

Nazars, charms used to ward off the evil eye.

The evil eye is a look that is believed by many cultures to be able to cause injury or bad luck for the person at whom it is directed for reasons of envy or dislike. The term also refers to the power attributed to certain persons of inflicting injury or bad luck by such an envious or ill-wishing look. The evil eye is usually given to others who remain unaware.

The "evil eye" is also known in Arabic as ʿayn al-ḥasūd (عين الحسود‏), in Hebrew as ʿáyin hā-ráʿ (עַיִן הָרַע‏), in Kurdish çaw e zar (eye of evil/sickness), in Persian as chashm zakhm (eye-caused injury) or chashm e bad (bad eye), in Turkish as Nazar (nazar is from Arabic نَظَر Nathar which means eye vision or eyesight), similarly in Urdu/Hindi/Punjabi the word Nazar or Boori Nazar (bad eye/look) is used, in Amharic buda, in Afghan Pashto cheshim mora, and also "Nazar", in Greek as to máti (το μάτι), in Spanish as mal de ojo, in Italian as malocchio, in Portuguese mau-olhado ("act of giving an evil/sick look"), and in Hawaiian it is known as "stink eye" or maka pilau meaning "rotten eyes".

The idea expressed by the term causes many cultures to pursue protective measures against it. The concept and its significance vary widely among different cultures, primarily the Middle East. The idea appears several times in translations of the Old Testament. It was a widely extended belief among many Mediterranean and Asian tribes and cultures. Charms and decorations featuring the eye are a common sight across Afghanistan and Turkey and have become a popular choice of souvenir with tourists.

Forms of belief

Ilya Repin, "Muzhik with an evil eye" (1877), portrait of I.F. Radov, the artist's godfather.

In some forms, it is the belief that some people can bestow a curse on victims by the malevolent gaze of their magical eye. The most common form, however, attributes the cause to envy, with the envious person casting the evil eye doing so unintentionally. Also the effects on victims vary. Some cultures report afflictions with bad luck; others believe the evil eye may cause disease, wasting, or even death. In most cultures, the primary victims are thought to be babies and young children, because they are so often praised and commented upon by strangers or by childless women.

The late UC Berkeley professor of folklore Alan Dundes has explored the beliefs of many cultures and found a commonality—that the evil caused by the gaze is specifically connected to symptoms of drying, desiccation, withering, and dehydration, that its cure is related to moisture, and that the immunity from the evil eye that fish have in some cultures is related to the fact that they are always wet. His essay "Wet and Dry: The Evil Eye" is a standard text on the subject.

In many beliefs, a person—otherwise not malefic in any way—can harm adults, children, livestock or possessions, simply by looking at them with envy. The word "evil" is somewhat misleading in this context, because it suggests an intentional "curse" on the victim. A better understanding of the term "evil eye" can be gained from the old English word for casting the evil eye, namely "overlooking", implying that the gaze has remained focused on the coveted object, person, or animal for too long.

History

The amount of literary and archeological evidence attests to the belief in the evil eye in the eastern Mediterranean for millennia starting with Hesiod, Callimachus, Plato, Diodorus Siculus, Theocritus, Plutarch, Heliodorus, Pliny the Elder, and Aulus Gellius. In Peter Walcot's Envy and the Greeks (1978) he referenced more than one hundred of these authors' works related to the evil eye. Studying these written sources in order to write on the evil eye only gives a fragmented view of the subject whether it presents a folkloric, theological, classical, or anthropological approach to the evil eye. While these different approaches tend to reference similar sources each presents a different yet similar usage of the evil eye, that the fear of the evil eye is based on the belief that certain people have eyes whose glance has the power to injure or even kill and that it can be intentional or unintentional.

Classical antiquity

Roman-era mosaic from Antioch depicting a plethora of devices against the evil eye

Belief in the evil eye during antiquity is based on the evidence in ancient sources like Aristophanes, Athenaeus, Plutarch, and Heliodorus.

In the Greco-Roman period a scientific explanation of the evil eye was common. Plutarch's scientific explanation stated that the eyes were the chief, if not sole, source of the deadly rays that were supposed to spring up like poisoned darts from the inner recesses of a person possessing the evil eye (Quaest.Conv. 5.7.2-3=Mor.80F-81f). Plutarch treated the phenomenon of the evil eye as something seemingly inexplicable that is a source of wonder and cause of incredulity.

The belief in the evil eye during antiquity varied from different regions and periods. The evil eye was not feared with equal intensity in every corner of the Roman Empire. There were places in which people felt more conscious of the danger of the evil eye. In the Roman days not only were individuals considered to possess the power of the evil eye but whole tribes, especially those of Pontus and Scythia, were believed to be transmitters of the evil eye. The phallic charm called fascinum in Latin, from the verb fascinare, "to cast a spell" (the origin of the English word "fascinate"), was used against the evil eye.

The spreading in the belief of the evil eye towards the east is believed to have been propagated by the Empire of Alexander the Great, which spread this and other Greek ideas across his empire.

Around the world

Tree with nazars in Cappadocia, Turkey.

Belief in the evil eye is strongest in the Middle East, East and West Africa, Central America, South Asia, Central Asia, and Europe, especially the Mediterranean region; it has also spread to areas, including northern Europe, particularly in the Celtic regions, and the Americas, where it was brought by European colonists and Middle Eastern immigrants.

Belief in the evil eye is found in Islamic doctrine, based upon the statement of Muhammad, "The influence of an evil eye is a fact..." [Sahih Muslim, Book 26, Number 5427]. Authentic practices of warding off the evil eye are also commonly practiced by Muslims: rather than directly expressing appreciation of, for example, a child's beauty, it is customary to say Masha'Allah, that is, "God has willed it," or invoking God's blessings upon the object or person that is being admired. A number of beliefs about the evil eye are also found in folk religion, typically revolving around the use of amulets or talismans as a means of protection.

Although the concept of cursing by staring or gazing is largely absent in East Asian and Southeast Asian societies.

In the Aegean Region and other areas where light-colored eyes are relatively rare, people with green eyes, and especially blue eyes, are thought to bestow the curse, intentionally or unintentionally. This belief may have arisen because people from cultures not used to the evil eye, such as Northern Europe, are likely to transgress local customs against staring or praising the beauty of children. Thus, in Greece and Turkey amulets against the evil eye take the form of blue eyes, and in the painting by John Phillip, below, we witness the culture-clash experienced by a woman who suspects that the artist's gaze implies that he is looking at her with the evil eye.

Among those who do not take the evil eye literally, either by reason of the culture in which they were raised or because they simply do not believe in such things, the phrase, "to give someone the evil eye" usually means simply to glare at the person in anger or disgust. The term has entered into common usage within the English language. Within the broadcasting industry it refers to when a presenter signals to the interviewee or co-presenter to stop talking due to a shortage of time.

Protective talismans and cures

Attempts to ward off the curse of the evil eye has resulted in a number of talismans in many cultures. As a class, they are called "apotropaic" (Greek for "prophylactic" or "protective," literally: "turns away") talismans, meaning that they turn away or turn back harm.

The Hamsa, a charm made to ward off the evil eye.

Disks or balls, consisting of concentric blue and white circles (usually, from inside to outside, dark blue, light blue, white, dark blue) representing an evil eye are common apotropaic talismans in the Middle East, found on the prows of Mediterranean boats and elsewhere; in some forms of the folklore, the staring eyes are supposed to bend the malicious gaze back to the sorcerer.

Known as nazar (nazar boncuğu or nazarlık), this talisman is most frequently seen in Turkey, found in or on houses and vehicles or worn as beads.

A blue or green eye can also be found on some forms of the hamsa hand, an apotropaic hand-shaped talisman against the evil eye found in the Middle East. The word hamsa, also spelled khamsa and hamesh, means "five" referring to the fingers of the hand. In Jewish culture, the hamsa is called the Hand of Miriam; in some Muslim populated cultures, the Hand of Fatima. However, it is considered a superstition to practicing or religious Muslims that any symbol or object protects against the evil eye. In Islam, only God can protect against the evil eye.

In Islam

Evil eye, Isabat al-’ayn, is a common belief that individuals have the power to look at people, animals or objects to cause them harm. In Islam, God is the only one who can protect against the evil eye; no object or symbol can. Prophet Muhammad prohibited the use of talismans as protection against the evil eye because it is idolatry, the form of protection allowed being supplication to Allah. It is tradition among many Muslims that if a compliment is to be made one should say "Masha'Allah" (ما شاء الله‏) ("God has willed it.") and also "Tabarakallah" (تبارك الله‏) ("Blessings of God") to ward off the evil eye. Reciting Sura Al-Falaq and Sura Al-Nas from the Qur'an is also used as a means of personal protection against the evil eye.

Assyrians

A Ruby Eye Pendant from an ancient civilization in Mesopotamia was possibly used as amulet to protect against evil eyes. Adilnor Collection.

Assyrians are also strong believers in the evil eye. They will usually wear a blue/turquoise bead around a necklace to be protected from the evil eye. Also, they might pinch the buttocks, comparable to Armenians. It is said that people with green or blue eyes are more prone to the evil eye effect. A simple and instant way of protection in European Christian countries is to make the sign of the cross with your hand and point two fingers, the index finger and the little finger, towards the supposed source of influence or supposed victim as described in the first chapter of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula published in 1897:

When we started, the crowd round the inn door, which had by this time swelled to a considerable size, all made the sign of the cross and pointed two fingers towards me. With some difficulty, I got a fellow passenger to tell me what they meant. He would not answer at first, but on learning that I was English, he explained that it was a charm or guard against the evil eye.

In Judaism

The evil eye is mentioned several times in the classic Pirkei Avot (Ethics of Our Fathers). In Chapter II, five disciples of Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakai give advice on how to follow the good path in life and avoid the bad. Rabbi Eliezer says an evil eye is worse than a bad friend, a bad neighbor, or an evil heart. Judaism believes that a "good eye" designates an attitude of good will and kindness towards others. Someone who has this attitude in life will rejoice when his fellow man prospers; he will wish everyone well. An "evil eye" denotes the opposite attitude. A man with "an evil eye" will not only feel no joy but experience actual distress when others prosper, and will rejoice when others suffer. A person of this character represents a great danger to our moral purity. Many Observant Jews avoid talking about valuable items they own, good luck that has come to them and, in particular, their children. If any of these are mentioned, the speaker and/or listener will say "b'li ayin hara" (Hebrew), meaning "without an evil eye", or "kein eina hara" (Yiddish; often shortened to "kennahara"), "no evil eye". It has also been suggested the 10th commandment: "do not covet anything that belongs to your neighbor" is a law against bestowing the evil eye on another person.

In Hinduism

Main article: Nazar Battu

The evil eye called as Buri Nazar (in modern North India) or Drushti (in Sanskrit) is an ancient belief in India. There are several ways of removing the evil eye mentioned in Atharvaveda.

Ethiopia

Main article: Buda (folk religion)

Belief in the evil eye, or buda (var. bouda), is widespread in Ethiopia. Buda is generally believed to be a power held and wielded by those in a different social group, for example among the Beta Israel or metalworkers.^:20-21 Some Ethiopian Christians carry an amulet or talisman, known as a kitab, or will invoke God's name, to ward off the ill effects of buda. A debtera, who is either an unordained priest or educated layperson, will create these protective amulets or talismans.

Greece

The evil eye, known as μάτι (mati), "eye," as an apotropaic visual device, is known to have been a fixture in Greece dating back to at least the 6th century BC, when it commonly appeared on drinking vessels. In Greece, the evil eye is cast away through the process of xematiasma (ξεμάτιασμα), whereby the "healer" silently recites a secret prayer passed over from an older relative of the opposite sex, usually a grandparent. Such prayers are revealed only under specific circumstances, for according to superstition those who reveal them indiscriminately lose their ability to cast off the evil eye. There are several regional versions of the prayer in question, a common one being: "Holy Virgin, Our Lady, if [insert name of the victim] is suffering of the evil eye, release him/her of it" repeated three times. According to custom, if one is indeed afflicted with the evil eye, both victim and "healer" then start yawning profusely. The "healer" then performs the sign of the cross three times, and emits spitting-like sounds in the air three times. A very similar ritual can be found in neighboring Bulgaria.

Another "test" used to check if the evil eye was cast is that of the oil: under normal conditions, olive oil floats in water, as it is less dense than water. The test of the oil is performed by placing one drop of olive oil in a glass of water, typically holy water. If the drop floats, the test concludes there is no evil eye involved. If the drop sinks, then it is asserted that the evil eye is cast indeed. Another form of the test is to place two drops of olive oil into a glass of water. If the drops remain separated, the test concludes there is no evil eye, but if they merge, there is. There is also a third form where in a plate full of water the "healer" places three or nine drops of oil. If the oil drops become larger and eventually dissolve in the water there is evil eye. If the drops remain separated from water in a form of a small circle there isn't. The first drops are the most important and the number of drops that dissolve in water indicate the strength of the evil eye.

There is another form of the "test" where the "healer" sets on fire using a matchstick a clove which is then thrown in water. If the clove "explodes" upon touching water the evil eye was cast. If it burns out silently it wasn't.

All of the above methods are usually performed by an old lady, who is known for her healing, or a grandparent.

The Greek Fathers accepted the traditional belief in the evil eye, but attributed it to the Devil and envy. In Greek theology, the evil eye or vaskania (βασκανία) is considered harmful for the one whose envy inflicts it on others as well as for the sufferer. The Greek Church has an ancient prayer against vaskania from the Megan Hieron Synekdemon book of prayers (Μέγαν Ιερόν Συνέκδημον).

Italy and Sicily

The cornicello, "little horn," also called the cornetto (little horn) or cornetti (plural), is a long, gently twisted horn-shaped amulet. Cornicelli are usually carved out of red coral or made from gold or silver. The type of horn they are intended to copy is not a curled-over sheep horn or goat horn but rather like the twisted horn of an African eland or something similar.

One idea that the ribald suggestions made by sexual symbols distract the witch from the mental effort needed to successfully bestow the curse. Another is that since the effect of the eye was to dry up liquids, the drying of the phallus (resulting in male impotence) would be averted by seeking refuge in the moist female genitals. Among the ancient Romans and their cultural descendants in the Mediterranean nations, those who were not fortified with phallic charms had to make use of sexual gestures to avoid the eye. Such gestures include the fig sign; a fist with the index and little finger extended and a fist with the thumb pressed between the index and middle fingers, representing the phallus within the vagina. In addition to the phallic talismans, statues of hands in these gestures, or covered with magical symbols, were carried by the Romans as talismans. In Latin America, carvings of the fist with the thumb pressed between the index and middle fingers continue to be carried as good luck charms.

The wielder of the evil eye, the jettatore, is described as having a striking facial appearance, high arching brows with a stark stare that leaps from his black eyes. He often has a reputation for clandestine involvement with dark powers and is the object of gossip about dealings in magic and other forbidden practices. Successful men having tremendous personal magnetism quickly gain notoriety as jettatori. Pope Pius IV was dreaded for his evil eye, and a whole cycle of stories about the disasters that happened in his wake were current in Rome during the latter decades of the 19th century. Public figures of every type, from poets to gangsters, have had their specialized abilities attributed to the power of their eyes.

Ibero-America

In Mexico and Central America, infants are considered at special risk for the evil eye (see mal de ojo, above) and are often given an amulet bracelet as protection, typically with an eye-like spot painted on the amulet. Another preventive measure is allowing admirers to touch the infant or child; in a similar manner, a person wearing an item of clothing that might induce envy may suggest to others that they touch it or some other way dispel envy.

One traditional cure in rural Mexico involves a curandero (folk healer) sweeping a raw chicken egg over the body of a victim to absorb the power of the person with the evil eye. The egg is later broken into a glass with water and placed under the bed of the patient near the head. Sometimes it is checked immediately because the egg appears as if it has been cooked. When this happens it means that the patient did have Mal De Ojo. Somehow the Mal De Ojo has transferred to the egg and the patient immediately gets well. (Fever, vomiting/diarrhea,nausea and pain goes away instantly) In the traditional Hispanic culture of the Southwestern United States and some parts of Mexico, the egg may be passed over the patient in a cross-shaped pattern all over the body, while saying the Lord's Prayer. The egg is also placed in a glass with water, under the bed and near the head, sometimes it is examined right away or in the morning and if the egg looks like it has been cooked then it means that they did have Mal de Ojo and the patient will start feeling better. Sometimes if the patient starts getting ill and someone knows that they had stared at patient which is usually a child, if the person who stared goes to the child and touches them, the child's illness goes away immediately so the Mal De Ojo energy is released.

In some parts of South America the act of ojear, which could be translated as to give someone the evil eye, is an involuntary act. Someone may ojear babies, animals and inanimate objects just by staring and admiring them. This may produce illness, discomfort or possibly death on babies or animals and failures on inanimate objects like cars or houses. It's a common belief that since this is an involuntary act made by people with the heavy look, the proper way of protection is by attaching a red ribbon to the animal, baby or object, in order to attract the gaze to the ribbon rather than to the object intended to be protected.

Brazil

Brazilians generally will associate mal-olhado, mau-olhado ("act of giving a bad look") or olho gordo ("fat eye" i.e. "gluttonous eye") with envy or jealousy on domestic and garden plants (that, after months or years of health and beauty, will suddenly weaken, wither and die, with no apparent signs of pest, after the visitation of a certain friend or relative), attractive hair and less often economic or romantic success and family harmony.

Unlike in most cultures mal-olhado is not seen to be something that risks young babies. "Pagans" or non-baptized children are instead assumed to be at risk from bruxas (witches), that have malignant intention themselves rather than just mal-olhado. It probably reflects the Galician folktales about the meigas or portuguese magas, (witches), as Colonial Brazil was primarily settled by portuguese people ), in numbers greater than all Europeans to settle pre-independence United States. Those bruxas are interpreted to took the form of moths, often very dark, that disturb children at night and take their energy. For that reason, Christian Brazilians often have amulets in the form of crucifixes around, aside or inside beds where children sleep.

Nevertheless, older children, especially boys, that fill in the cultural expectations of them behaving gorgeously well, for example in having no problems whatsoever in eating well and in great variety, being obedient and respectful toward adults, kind, polite, studious, and demonstrating no bad blood with other children or its siblings, that turn out to be problematic adolescents or adults (from having lack of good health habits to extreme laziness and lacking in the work for their life goals to eating disorders to delinquency), are said to have been victims of mal-olhado from parents of children that were not as admired.

Amulets that protect against mal-olhado tend to be generally resistant, mildly to strongly toxic and dark plants in specific and strategic places of a garden or the entry to a house. Those include comigo-ninguém-pode ("against-me-nobody-cans"), Dieffenbachia (the dumbcane), espada-de-são-jorge ("St. George's sword"), Sansevieria trifasciata (the snake plant or mother-in-law's tongue) and guiné ("Guinea"), among various other names, Petiveria alliacea (the guinea henweed). For those lacking in space or wanting to "sanitize" specific places, they may all be planted together in a single sete ervas ("seven [lucky] herbs") pot, that will also include arruda (common rue), pimenteira (Capsicum annuum), manjericão (basil) and alecrim (rosemary). (Though the last four ones should not be used for their common culinary purposes by humans.)

Mexico

틀:Refimprove section Mal ojo often occurs without the dimension of envy, but insofar as envy is a part of ono틀:Disambiguation needed, it is a variant of this underlying sense of insecurity and relative vulnerability to powerful, hostile forces in the environment. In her study of medical attitudes in the Santa Clara Valley of California, Margaret Clark arrives at essentially the same conclusion: "Among the Spanish-speaking folk of Sal si Puedes, the patient is regarded as a passive and innocent victim of malevolent forces in his environment. These forces may be witches, evil spirits, the consequences of poverty, or virulent bacteria which invade his body. The scapegoat may be a visiting social worker who unwittingly 'cast the evil eye' ... Mexican folk concepts of disease are based in part on the notion that people can be victimized by the careless or malicious behavior of others".

Another aspect of the mal ojo syndrome in Ixtepeji is a disturbance of the hot-cold equilibrium in the victim. According to folk belief, the bad effects of an attack result from the "hot" force of the aggressor entering the child's body and throwing it out of balance. Currier has shown how the Mexican hot-cold system is an unconscious folk model of social relations upon which social anxieties are projected. According to Currier, "the nature of Mexican peasant society is such that each individual must continuously attempt to achieve a balance between two opposing social forces: the tendency toward intimacy and that toward withdrawal. [It is therefore proposed] that the individual's continuous preoccupation with achieving a balance between "heat" and "cold" is a way of reenacting, in symbolic terms, a fundamental activity in social relations."

United States

In 1946, the American magician Henri Gamache published a text called Terrors of the Evil Eye Exposed! (later reprinted as Protection against Evil), which offers directions to defend oneself against the evil eye. Also known as "mean mugging" or "mad dogging" among urban youths.

Media/Press

Book: The Evil Eye (1992), Writer: Alan Dundes, In some cultures overcomplimenting cast a curse. So does envy. Since ancient times such maledictions have been collectively called the evil eye. According to folklorist Alan Dunde's book The Evil Eye, the belief's premise is that an individual can cause harm simply by looking at another's person or property. But in protection is easy to come by with talismans that can be worn, carried, or hung in homes, most often incorporating the contours of a human eye. In Aegean countries people with light-colored eyes are thought to be particularly powerful, and amulets in Greece and Turkey are usually blue orbs. Indians, Muslims, and Jews use charms with palm-forward hands with an eye in the center; Italians employ horns, phallic shapes meant to distract spell casters.

Movie: Evil Eye (1975) "Malocchio"(Original Title),Director:Mario Siciliano, The police has to face some extremely brutal murders. How is the rich playboy Peter Crane (Jorge Rivero) involved in this? He suffers from horrible nightmares that make him believe that he is responsible for these murders...

Names in various languages

In most languages, the name translates literally into English as "bad eye," "evil eye," "evil look," or just "the eye." Some variants on this general pattern from around the world are:

• In Albanian it is known as "syri i keq" (Standart and Tosk), or as "syni keq" (Gheg) meaning "bad eye."
• In Arabic, ʿayn al-ḥasūd, عين الحسود‏, "the eye of envy". ʿAyn ḥārrah (عين حارّة) is also used, literally translating to "hot eye."
• In Armenian, char atchk (չար աչքն) "evil eye" or "bad eye". Regarding the act of giving an evil gaze, it is said (directly translated), "to give with the eye" or in Armenian, "atchkov tal."
• In German, it is called "böser Blick", literally "evil gaze".
• In Greek, to matiasma (μάτιασμα) or mati (μάτι) someone refers to the act of casting the evil eye (mati being the Greek word for eye); also: vaskania (βασκανία, the Greek word for jinx)
• In Hebrew, ʿáyin hā-ráʿ (עַיִן הָרַע‏, "evil eye")
• In Hindustani and other languages of North India and Pakistan, nazar; nazar lagna means to be afflicted by the evil eye.
• In Hungarian, gonosz szem means "evil eye", but more widespread is the expression szemmelverés (lit. "beating with eye") which refers to the supposed/alleged act of harming one by an evil look
• In Italian, the word malocchio refers to the evil eye.
• In Japanese it is known as "邪視" ("jashi").
• In Kannada, it is called "drishti". (But cf. "Drishti (yoga)".)
• In Macedonian it is known as урокливо око.
• In Malayalam it is known as kannu veykkuka - to cast an evil eye while "kannu peduka" means to be on the receiving end of the malefic influence. "kannu dosham" refers to a bad effect caused by an evil eye.
• In Persian it is known as "چشم‌ زخم"‏ (injurious look/eyes causing injury) or "چشم شور"‏ (Salty eye) "Cheshmeh Hasood", meaning Jealous eye, or "Cheshme Nazar" meaning evil eye.
• In Polish it is known as "złe oko" or "złe spojrzenie".
• In Portuguese, it is called "mau olhado", ou "olho gordo" (literally "fat eye"). The first expression is used in Portugal and second one is more common in Brazil.
• In Romanian, it is known as "deochi", meaning literally "of eye".
• In Russian, "дурной глаз" (durnoy glaz) means "bad/evil eye"; "сглаз" (sglaz) literally means "from eye".
• In Sanskrit, an ancient Indian language, it is called "drishti dosha" meaning malice caused by evil eye. (But cf. "drishti (yoga)".)
• In Serbian, it is called Urokljivo oko (Cyr. Урокљиво око). First word is adjective of the word urok/урок which means spell or curse, and the second one means eye.
• In Spanish, mal de ojo literally means "evil from the eye" as the name does not refer to the actual eye but to the evil that supposedly comes from it. Casting the evil eye is then echar mal de ojo, i.e. "to cast evil from the eye".
• In Tamil, "கண் படுதல்" (kan padudhal) literally means "casting an eye" (with an intention to cause harm). "கண்ணூறு" (kannooru) "harm from the eye"
• In Turkish "nazar boncuğu" looking with kem göz meaning looking with evil eye

See also

파일:Evil Eye.jpg

John Phillip, The Evil Eye (1859), a self-portrait depicting the artist sketching a Spanish gypsy who thinks she is being given the evil eye.

• Amulet
• Balor of the Evil Eye – a character in Irish legend
• Basilisk Death glance/petrifying glance
• Cockatrice Death glance/petrifying glance
• Envy
• Eye of Horus – an Ancient Egyptian symbol of protection and power against evil.
• Eye of Providence – a symbol showing an eye surrounded by rays of light or a glory, and usually enclosed by a triangle.
• Eye of Sauron – a fictional eye from The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
• Hamsa
• Harmal
• Matthew 6:23 "If thine eye be evil" – The evil eye as ungenerosity of spirit, hence darkness / blindness / evil itself. (A saying of Jesus.)
• Medusa and Gorgon Petrification glance (Stone glance), picture also used on as protection from evil eye.
• Mirror armour which believed as protection not from only cold steel and arrows, but also from evil eye
• Nazar
• Nazar Battu - from North India and Pakistan
• Red string (Kabbalah)
• Scopophobia
• Sign of the horns - horned hand gesture used for warding off the Evil Eye and other purposes
• Thousand mile stare - a relatively common phenomenon that may be mistaken for the evil eye.
• Usog – a Filipino version.

Jinn and Genii

All the members of the great family of the Jinn are to them as real to-day as their equivalents were to the ancient Egyptians, and, from the descriptions of desert spirits which are given by those who have been fortunate enough to see them, it is clear that traditions of the form and appearance of ancient Egyptian fiends and evil spirits have been unconsciously preserved until the present day. The modern Egyptians call them by Arabic names, but the descriptions of them agree well with those which might be made of certain genii that appear in ancient Egyptian mythological works treating of the Underworld (지하세계) and its inhabitants.

Genii (also genies), a plural form of genie, which is an alternate spelling of jinnī (pl. jinn), are supernatural creatures in Arab folklore and Islamic teachings. .

The Majlis al-Jinn cave in Oman, literally "Meeting place of the Jinn". It is one of the world's biggest cave chambers.

The jinn (الجن al-jinn, singular الجني al-jinnī; also spelled djinn), or genies, are spiritual creatures mentioned in the Qur'an and other Islamic texts who inhabit an unseen world in dimensions beyond the visible universe of humans. Together, the jinn, humans and angels make up the three sapient creations of God. The Qur'an mentions that the jinn are made of a smokeless and "scorching fire", but also physical in nature, being able to interact physically with people and objects and likewise be acted upon. Like human beings, the jinn can also be good, evil, or neutrally benevolent and hence have freewill like humans and unlike angels. The jinn are mentioned frequently in the Qurʾan, and the 72nd surah is titled Sūrat al-Jinn.

Etymology and definitions

Jinn is a noun of the collective number in Arabic literally meaning "hidden from sight", and it derives from the Arabic root j-n-n (pronounced: jann/ junn جَنّ / جُنّ) meaning "to hide" or "be hidden". Other words derived from this root are majnūn 'mad' (literally, 'one whose intellect is hidden'), junūn 'madness', and janīn 'embryo, fetus' ('hidden inside the womb').

The Arabic root j-n-n means 'to hide, conceal'. A word for garden or Paradise, جنّة jannah, is a cognate of the Hebrew word גן gan 'garden', derived from the same Semitic root. In arid climates, gardens have to be protected against desertification by the use of walls; this is the same concept as in the word "paradise" from pairi-daêza, an Avestan word for garden that literally means 'having walls built around'. Thus the protection of a garden behind walls implies its being hidden from the outside. Arabic lexicons such as Edward William Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon define jinn not only as spirits, but also anything concealed through time, status, and even physical darkness.

The word genie in English is derived from Latin genius, meant a sort of tutelary or guardian spirit thought to be assigned to each person at their birth. English borrowed the French descendant of this word, génie; its earliest written attestation in English, in 1655, is a plural spelled "genyes." The French translators of The Book of One Thousand and One Nights used génie as a translation of jinnī because it was similar to the Arabic word in sound and in meaning. This use was also adopted in English and has since become dominant.

In Arabic, the word jinn is in the collective number, translated in English as plural (e.g., "several genies"); jinnī is in the singulative number, used to refer to one individual, which is translated by the singular in English (e.g., "one genie"). Therefore, the word jinn in English writing is treated as a plural.

Jinn in the pre-Islamic era

Among archaeologists dealing with ancient Middle Eastern cultures, the spirits made after the angels and before mankind are often referred to as a jinni, especially when describing stone carvings or other forms of art.

Inscriptions found in Northwestern Arabia seem to indicate the worship of jinn, or at least their tributary status, hundreds of years before Islam. For instance, an inscription from Beth Fasi'el near Palmyra pays tribute to the "jinnaye", the "good and rewarding gods".

In the following verse, the Qurʾan rejects the worship of jinn and stresses that only God should be worshipped:

"Yet, they join the jinn as partners in worship with Allah, though He has created them (the jinn), and they attribute falsely without knowledge sons and daughters to Him. Be He glorified and exalted above (all) that they attribute to Him." (Quran 6:100)

In One Thousand and One Nights, there are depicted several types of jinn that coexist and interact with humans: shayṭān, the ghūl, the marīd, the ‘ifrīt, and the angels. The One Thousand and One Nights seems to present ifrits as the most massive and strongest forms of jinn, and marids are a type of jinn associated with seas and oceans.

Jinn in Islam

In Islamic theology jinn are said to be creatures with free will, made from smokeless fire by Allah as humans were made of clay, among other things. According to the Quran, jinn have free will, and Iblīs abused this freedom in front of Allah by refusing to bow to Adam when Allah ordered angels and jinn to do so. For disobeying Allah, he was expelled from Paradise and called "Shayṭān" (Satan). Jinn are frequently mentioned in the Quran: Surah 72 (named Sūrat al-Jinn) is named after the jinn, and has a passage about them. Another surah (Sūrat al-Nās) mentions jinn in the last verse. The Qurʾan also mentions that Muhammad was sent as a prophet to both "humanity and the jinn," and that prophets and messengers were sent to both communities. An appellation of Muhammad is Rasûl-üs-Sakaleyn. Because Muhammad met several times the jinns at night.틀:Awkward A masjid (Masjid-i Jinn) was built at a future date to the memory of this phenomena.

Similar to humans, jinn have free will allowing them to do as they choose (such as follow any religion). They are usually invisible to humans, and humans do not appear clearly to them. Jinn have the power to travel large distances at extreme speeds and are thought to live in remote areas, mountains, seas, trees, and the air, in their own communities. Like humans, jinn will also be judged on the Day of Judgment and will be sent to Paradise or Hell according to their deeds.

Classifications and characteristics

The social organization of the jinn community resembles that of humans; e.g., they have kings, courts of law, weddings, and mourning rituals. A few traditions (hadith), divide jinn into three classes: those who have wings and fly in the air, those who resemble snakes and dogs, and those who travel about ceaselessly. Other reports claim that ‘Abd Allāh ibn Mas‘ūd (d. 652), who was accompanying Muhammad when the jinn came to hear his recitation of the Quran, described them as creatures of different forms; some resembling vultures and snakes, others tall men in white garb. They may even appear as dragons, onagers, or a number of other animals. In addition to their animal forms, the jinn occasionally assume human form to mislead and destroy their human victims. Certain hadiths have also claimed that the jinn may subsist on bones, which will grow flesh again as soon as they touch them, and that their animals may live on dung, which will revert to grain or grass for the use of the jinn flocks.

Ibn Taymiyyah believed the jinn were generally "ignorant, untruthful, oppressive and treacherous," thus representing the very strict interpretations adhered by the Salafi schools of thought.

Ibn Taymiyyah believes that the jinn account for much of the "magic" perceived by humans, cooperating with magicians to lift items in the air unseen, delivering hidden truths to fortune tellers, and mimicking the voices of deceased humans during seances.

In Sūrat al-Raḥmān, verse 33, God reminds jinn as well as mankind that they would possess the ability to pass beyond the furthest reaches of space only by His authority, followed by the question: "Then which of the favors of your Lord do you deny?" In Sūrat Al-Jinn, verses 8–10, Allah narrates concerning the jinn how they touched or "sought the limits" of the sky and found it full of stern guards and shooting stars, as a warning to man. It goes on further to say how the jinn used to take stations in the skies to listen to divine decrees passed down through the ranks of the angels, but those who attempt to listen now (during and after the revelation of the Qurʾan) shall find fiery sentinels awaiting them.

Qarīn

A related belief is that every person is assigned one's own special jinnī, also called a qarīn, of the jinn and if the qarin is evil it could whisper to people's souls and tell them to submit to evil desires. The notion of a qarīn is not universally accepted amongst all Muslims, but it is generally accepted that Shayṭān whispers in human minds, and he is assigned to each human being.

In a hadith recorded by Muslim, the companion Ibn Mas‘ud reported: 'The Prophet Muhammad said: 'There is not one of you who does not have a jinnī appointed to be his constant companion (qarīn).' They said, 'And you too, O Messenger of Allah?' He said, 'Me too, but Allah has helped me and he has submitted, so that he only helps me to do good.' '

Jinn in Muslim cultures

A manuscript of the One Thousand and One Nights.

The stories of the jinn can be found in various Muslim cultures around the world. In Sindh the concept of the Jinni was introduced during the Abbasid Era and has become a common part of the local folklore which also includes stories of both male jinn called "jinn" and female jinn called "jiniri." Folk stories of female jinn include stories such as the Jejhal Jiniri.

Other acclaimed stories of the jinn can be found in the One Thousand and One Nights story of the Fisherman and the Jinni; more than three different types of jinn are described in the story of Ma‘ruf the Cobbler; a mighty jinni helps young Aladdin in the story of Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp; as Ḥasan Badr al-Dīn weeps over the grave of his father until sleep overcomes him, and he is awoken by a large group of sympathetic jinn in the Tale of ‘Alī Nūr al-Dīn and his son Badr ad-Dīn Ḥasan.

During the Rwandan genocide, both Hutus and Tutsi avoided searching in local Rwandan Muslim neighborhoods and widely believed myths that local Muslims and Mosques were protected by the power of Islamic magic and the efficacious jinn. In Cyangugu, arsonists ran away instead of destroying the mosque because they believed jinn were guarding the mosque and feared their wrath.

Relationship of Prophet Solomon and the Jinn

Main article: Islamic view of Solomon

According to traditions, the jinn stood behind the learned humans in Solomon's court, who in turn, sat behind the prophets. The jinn remained in the service of Solomon, who had placed them in bondage, and had ordered them to perform a number of tasks.

"And before Solomon were marshalled his hosts,- of jinn and men and birds, and they were all kept in order and ranks." (Quran 27:17)

The Qurʾan relates that Solomon died while he was leaning on his staff. As he remained upright, propped on his staff, the jinn thought he was still alive and supervising them, so they continued to work. They realized the truth only when Allah sent a creature to crawl out of the ground and gnaw at Solomon's staff until his body collapsed. The Qurʾan then comments that if they had known the unseen, they would not have stayed in the humiliating torment of being enslaved.

"Then, when We decreed (Solomon's) death, nothing showed them his death except a little worm of the earth, which kept (slowly) gnawing away at his staff: so when he fell down, the jinn saw plainly that if they had known the unseen, they would not have tarried in the humiliating penalty (of their task)." (Qurʾan 34:14)

Difference in perception of jinn between East and West

There is a significant difference in how these beings are perceived in East (as jinn) and in West (as genies). Western natives moving to Eastern countries may experience a bout of culture shock when they are confronted with the perceived presence of jinn by people who believe in them, and two good examples of the struggle to adapt to a culture which believes in jinn are The Caliph's House and In Arabian Nights by Tahir Shah, which describe his family's experiences in moving from London to a supposedly jinn-inhabited home in Morocco.

Existence and usage of jinn in other cultures

Genie in Legoland.

In Guanche mythology from Tenerife in the Canary Islands, there existed the belief in beings that are similar to genies틀:Synthesis-inline, such as the maxios or dioses paredros ('attendant gods', domestic and nature spirits) and tibicenas (evil genies), as well as the demon Guayota (aboriginal god of evil) that, like the Arabic Iblīs, is sometimes identified with a genie.

Jinn in the Bible

In Judeo-Christian tradition, the word or concept of jinn as such does not occur in the original Hebrew text of the Bible, but the Arabic word jinn is often used in several old Arabic translations.

In several verses in those Arabic translations, the words jinn (جن), jann (الجان al-jānn), majnoon (مجنون Majnūn), and Iblīs (إبلیس) are mentioned as translations of familiar spirit or אוב (ob) for jann and the devil or δαιμόνιον (daimónion) for Iblīs.

In Van Dyck's Arabic translation of the Bible, these words are mentioned in Leviticus 19:31, Lev 20:6, 1 Samuel 28:3, 1 Sa 28:9, 1 Sa 28:7, 1 Chronicles 10:13, Gospel of Matthew 4:1, Mat 12:22, Gospel of Luke 4:5, Luk 8:12, Gospel of John 8:44 and other verses as well. Also, in the apocryphal book Testament of Solomon, Solomon describes particular demons whom he enslaved to help build the temple, the questions he put to them about their deeds and how they could be thwarted, and their answers, which provide a kind of self-help manual against demonic activity.

Protection from jinn

An amulet, talisman or what is referred to as a tawiz in Sufi circles is a form of protection against many forms of spiritual evil, including protection against the jinn. It is often worn around the neck in a pouch, close to the heart. One such popular amulet was said to have been given to Sheikh Abdullah Daghistani by Muhammad in a vision. In that vision he was instructed to give this amulet to people as a protection for them in the last days. The amulet contains a depiction of the Throne Room of Allah. The amulet contains theosophic names as well as the names of folk saints. It is widely held to be very miraculous and a protection to those who submit to Allah. Muslims believe that all protection and help only comes from Allah, as it is a central Islamic tenet to believe that there is no power nor might save God's. These sorts of practices are widespread in the Islamic world. The Muslim faithful believe that reciting the Verse of the Throne (Qurʾan 2:255) and the final three concise chapters of the Qurʾan (chapters 112-114) are the most effective means of seeking protection from satanic whispers and evil creatures.

Popular culture

Main article: Genie in popular culture

• The Caliph's House and In Arabian Nights by Tahir Shah, describes his family's experiences in moving from London to a supposedly jinn-inhabited home in Morocco.
• In a subplot in Neil Gaiman's novel, American Gods, a salesman discontented with his life has a sexual encounter with a jinni (specifically, an ‘ifrit) who is working as a taxi driver in New York.
• In the Supernatural episode "What Is and What Should Never Be," the protagonist, Dean Winchester, is attacked by a jinn and it grants him his wish. They also make an appearance later on; in season 6 in episode "Exile on Main st".
• In the popular online MMORPG AdventureQuest Worlds, the Middle Eastern-themed zone the Sandsea Desert features a Djinn Chaos Lord named Tibicenas, as well as a Djinn realm which the player can explore.
• In Clash of the Titans the Djinn leader heals Perseus of a wound and aids his band in their battle against the gods.
• "Two Djinn" is a song by Bob Weir and Gerrit Graham which was released on Ratdog's album "Evening Moods" in the year 2000.
• 'I Dream of Jeannie' is a 1960's television show starring Larry Hagman & Barbara Eden as a beautiful but incorrigible genie rescued by an Air Force pilot, Major Anthony Nelson (Hagman) who constantly gets him into trouble with her magic.
• In the video game series Golden Sun players use four types of Djinn representing the four traditional elements Earth, Fire, Water, and Wind to battle monsters.
• In the video game Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch, the secondary antagonist, Shadar, is also known as 'The Dark Djinn' while there is also the benevolent Cauldron bound Genie named Al-Khemi that helps the player craft new items after beating him in battle.
• In P.B. Kerr's series, "Children of the Lamp", the main protagonists and antagonists of the series are djinn.
• In the video game, Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, Nathan Drake searches the legendary city of Ubar, which according to legend was doomed thousands of years ago by King Solomon when he imprisoned evil Djinn within a brass vessel and cast it into the heart of the city.
• In the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis the White Witch Jadis is described in The Magician's Nephew to be "half Jinn and half giantess".

See also

• Arabian mythology
• Jinn in popular culture

The Class of Jinn :

• Nasnas (the first race of jinns in the earth)
• Shayṭān (Troops of Shayṭān headed by Iblis)
• Ifrit (a class of infernal jinn)
• Marid (Giant jinn, often used for wish granting)

The other appellation of Jinn :

• Daevas
• One Thousand and One Nights
• Qareen
• Winged genie
• Genius
• Genius loci
• Ghoul
• Grine
• Houri
• Yazata

Modern Sudani Superstitions

고대 이집트의 관념과 믿음을 유지하고 있음

수단(Sudan)

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수단의 제벨 바르칼(Jebel Barkal)

The Nubia region today. Nubia is a region along the Nile river, which is located in northern Sudan and southern Egypt.

The peoples of the Eastern Sûdân, who are also Muḥammadans, have inherited many ideas and beliefs from the ancient Egyptians, and this is not to be wondered at when we remember that the civilization of Nubia from the beginning of the XVIIIth Dynasty to the end of the XXVIth, i.e., from about B.C. 1550 to about B.C. 550, was nothing but a slavish (맹종하는) copy of that of Egypt. A stay of some months in the village at the foot of Jebel Barkal, which marks the site of a part of the old Nubian city of Napata, convinced me of this fact, and visits to other places in the Eastern Sûdân proved that these ideas and beliefs were widespread.

The hills and deserts are, according to native belief, peopled with spirits, which are chiefly of a disposition unfriendly to man, and they are supposed to have the power of entering both human beings and animals almost at pleasure. Palm-trees die or become unfruitful, and cattle fall sick through the operations of evil spirits, and any misfortune which comes upon the community or upon the individual is referred to the same cause.

The pyramids, which they call tarabîl, on the hill, are viewed with almost childish fear by the natives who, curiously enough, speak of the royal personages [Page 15] buried therein as illâhầt, or “gods,” and none of them, if it can possibly be avoided, will go up after sundown (일몰) into “the mountain,” as they call the sandstone (사암) ridge (능선) on which they are built. Tombs and cemeteries are carefully avoided at night as a matter of course, but to approach the pyramids at night is regarded as a wilful (고의적인, 의도적인) act which is sure to bring down upon the visitor the wrath of the spirits of the kings, who have by some means acquired a divine character in the eyes of the natives.

When I was opening one of the pyramids at Jebel Barkal in 1897, Muḥammad wad Ibrahîm, the shêkh (셰흐) of the village, tried to keep the workmen at work as long as daylight (햇빛) lasted, but after this had been done for two or three evenings, several of the wives of the men appeared and carried off their husbands, fearing they should either be bewitched (마법을 걸다), or suffer some penalty for intrusion in that place at the time when, in popular opinion, the spirits of the dead came forth to enjoy the cool of the evening. The same idea prevailed further south among the people who lived on the river near the pyramids of Baḳrawîyeh, which mark the site of the royal necropolis (묘지) of the ancient city of Berua, or Marua, i.e., Meroë.

The local shekh was appointed to go with me and to help in taking measurements of some of the pyramids at this place, but when we were about half a mile from them he dismounted, and said he could go no further because he was afraid of the spirits of the gods, Illâhât, who were buried there.

After much persuasion he consented to accompany me, but nothing would induce him to let the donkeys go to the pyramids; having hobbled (두 다리를 묶다) them and tied them to a large stone he came on (우연히 만나다[발견하다]), but seated himself on the ground at the northern end of the main group of pyramids, and nothing would persuade him to move about among the ruins. The natives of Jebel Barkal viewed the work of excavation with great disfavour (탐탁찮음) from the very first, and their hostile opinion was confirmed by the appearance at the pyramids of great numbers of wasps (말벌), which, they declared, were larger than any which they had seen before; they were convinced that they were evil spirits who had taken the form of wasps, and that evil was coming upon (들이닥치다) their village.

It was useless to explain to them that the wasps only came there to drink from the waterskins (물 담는 가죽 부대), which were kept full and hung there on pegs (못[핀]) driven into the [Page 16] masonry for the use of the workmen; and when a harmless snake, about eight feet long, which had also crawled there to drink, was killed one morning by the men, their fears of impending evil were confirmed, for they were certain that the spirit of a king had been killed, and they expected that vengeance would be taken upon them by the divine spirits of his companions.

About halfway up Jebel Barkal there lived four large hawks which always seemed to be following any person who ascended the mountain, but yet never came very near; these were always regarded by the natives as the embodied spirits of the gods whose figures still remain sculptured and painted on the walls of the rock-hewn (바위를 깎아 세운) sanctuary at the foot of the hill, and I never heard of any attempt being made to shoot or snare (덫[올가미]으로 잡다) them by the people of the villages of Barkal, Shibba, or Marâwi. The inhabitants could not know that the hawk was probably the first living creature which was worshipped in the Nile Valley, and therefore the respect which they paid to the hawks must have been due to a tradition which had been handed down to them through countless generations from a past age. Their connecting the hawks with the figures of the gods sculptured in the sanctuary of Ȧmen-Râ is worthy of note, for it seems to show that on such matters they thought along the same lines as their ancestors.

UNESCO World Heritage Site

Gebel Barkal and the Sites of the Napatan Region
Name as inscribed on the World Heritage List
Country	Sudan
Type	Cultural
Criteria	i, ii, iii, iv, vi
Reference	1073
UNESCO region	Arab States
Inscription history
Inscription	2003 (27th Session)

Jebel Barkal or Gebel Barkal (جبل بركل) is a very small mountain located some 400 km north of Khartoum, in Karima town in Northern State in Sudan, on a large bend of the Nile River, in the region called Nubia. The mountain is 98 m tall, has a flat top, and apparently was used as a landmark by the traders in the important route between central Africa, Arabia, and Egypt, as the point where it was easier to cross the great river. In 2003, the mountain, together with the historical city of Napata (which sits at its feet), were named World Heritage Sites by UNESCO.

History

Around 1450 BCE, the Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose III extended his empire to that region and considered Gebel Barkal its southern limit. There, he campaigned near the city of Napata that, about 300 years later, became the capital of the independent kingdom of Kush. The 25th Dynasty Nubian king Piye later greatly enlarged the New Kingdom Temple of Amun in this city and erected his Year 20 Victory stela within it.

Ruins

The ruins around Gebel Barkal include at least 13 temples and 3 palaces, that were for the first time described by European explorers in the 1820s. In 1862 five inscriptions from the Third Intermediate Period were recovered by an Egyptian officer and transported to the Cairo Museum, but not until 1916 were scientific archeological excavations performed by a joint expedition of Harvard University and the Museum of Fine Arts of Boston under the direction of George Reisner. From the 1970s, explorations continued by a team from the University of Rome La Sapienza, under the direction of Sergio Donadoni, that was joined by another team from the Boston Museum, in the 1980s, under the direction of Timothy Kendall. The larger temples, such as that of Amun, are even today considered sacred to the local population.

Pyramids

Jebel Barkal served as a royal cemetery during the Meroitic Kingdom. The earliest burials date back to the 3rd century BC.

• Bar. 1 King from the middle of the 1st century BCE
• Bar. 2 King Teriqas (ca. 29-25 BCE)
• Bar. 4 Queen Amenirenas ? (1st century BCE)
• Bar. 6 Queen Nawidemak (1st century BCE)
• Bar. 7 King Sabrakamani? (3rd century BCE)
• Bar. 9 King or Queen of the early 2nd century CE
• Bar. 11 King Aktisanes or Aryamani (3rd century BCE)
• Bar. 14 King Aktisanes or Aryamani (3rd century BCE)
• Bar. 15 King Kash[…] ?(3rd century BCE)

Gallery

• 
  Pyramids near Jebel Barkal
• 
  Pyramids in the southern group
• 
  The last standing pillars of Napata's temple of Amun at the foot of Jebel Barkal

See also

• List of World Heritage Sites in Africa

External links

• LearningSites.com - Gebel Barkal
• UNESCO World Heritage Centre - Gebel Barkal and the Sites of the Napatan Region
• The Victory Stela of Piye

Napata in hieroglyphs
npt

Napatan necklace spacer made of gold (6th century BC). It is inscribed with Egyptian hieroglyphs.

The last standing pillars of the temple of Amun at the foot of Jebel Barkal

Napata was a city-state of ancient Nubia on the west bank of the Nile River, at the site of modern Karima, Northern Sudan.

Early history

Napata was founded by Thutmose III in the 15th century BC after his conquest of Nubia. The nearby Jebel Barkal was taken to mark the southern border of the New Kingdom.

In 1075 BC, the High Priest of Amun at Thebes, capital of Egypt, became powerful enough to limit the power of the pharaoh over Upper Egypt. This was the beginning of the Third Intermediate Period (1075 BC-664 BC). The fragmentation of power in Egypt allowed the Nubians to regain autonomy. They founded a new kingdom, Kush, and centered it at Napata.

Napatan period

In 750 BC, Napata was a developed city, while Egypt was still suffering political instability. King Kashta ("the Cushite") profited from it, and attacked Upper Egypt. His policy was pursued by his successors Piye, and Shabaka (721–707 BC), who eventually brought the whole Nile Valley under Kushitic control in the second year of his reign. Shabaka also launched a monument-building policy in Egypt and Nubia. Overall, the Kushite kings ruled Upper Egypt for approximately one century and the whole Egypt for approximately 57 years, from 721 to 664 BC. They constitute the Twenty-fifth Dynasty in Manetho’s work, Aegyptiaca. The reunited Nile valley empire of the 25th dynasty was as large as it had been since the New Kingdom. The 25th dynasty ushered in a renaissance period for Ancient Egypt. Religion, the arts, and architecture were restored to their glorious Old, Middle, and New Kingdom forms. Pharaohs, such as Taharqa, built or restored temples and monuments throughout the Nile valley, including at Memphis, Karnak, Kawa, Jebel Barkal, etc. It was during the 25th dynasty that the Nile valley saw the first widespread construction of pyramids (many in modern Sudan) since the Middle Kingdom. However, Pharaoh Taharqa's reign and that of his successor, (his cousin) Tanutamun, was filled with constant conflict with the Assyrians. In 664 BC the Assyrians laid the final blow, sacking Thebes and Memphis. The 25th dynasty ended with its rulers retreating to their spiritual homeland at Napata. It was there (at El-Kurru and Nuri) that all 25th dynasty pharaohs are buried under the first pyramids that the Nile valley had seen in centuries. The Napatan dynasty led to the Kingdom of Kush, which flourished in Napata and Meroe until at least the 2nd century AD.

Assyrian invasion and end of the Nubian dynasty

Around 670 BC, the Assyrian King Esarhaddon (681–669 BC) conquered Lower Egypt, but allowed local kingdoms in Lower Egypt to exist, in order to enlist them as his allies against the Kushite rulers of Upper Egypt, who had been accepted with reluctance.

When King Assurbanipal succeeded Esarhaddon, the Kushite king Taharqa convinced some rulers of Lower Egypt to break with Assyrians. However, Asshurbanipal overpowered the coalition and deported the Egyptian leaders to his capital, Niniveh. He appointed the Libyan chief Necho, ruler of Memphis and Sais. Necho I was the first king of the Saite Twenty-sixth Dynasty (664 BC-525 BC) of Egypt.

A new Kushite King Tantamani (664–653 BC) killed him the same year that Taharqa died, in 664 BC when Tantamani invaded Lower Egypt. However, Tantamani was unable to defeat the Assyrians who backed Necho’s son Psammetichus I. Tantamani eventually abandoned his attempt to conquer Lower Egypt and retreated to Napata. However, his authority over Upper Egypt was acknowledged until the 8th regnal year of his reign at Thebes (or 656 BC) when Psamtik I dispatched a naval fleet to Upper Egypt and succeeded in placing all of Egypt under his control.

Late Napatan kingdom

Nuri pyramids

Napata remained the center of the Kingdom of Kush for another two generations, from the 650s to 590 BC. Its economy was essentially based on gold, with 26th dynasty Egypt an important economic ally.

The people of Napata at the time were culturally Egyptianized. Napatan architecture, paintings, writing script, and other artistic and cultural forms were in the Egyptian style. Egyptian burial customs were practiced, including the resurrection of pyramid building. The Napatan dynasty and their successors built the first pyramids the Nile Valley had seen since the Middle Kingdom. Also, several Egyptian gods were worshipped. The most important god was Amun, a Theban deity, his temple was the most important at Napata, located at the foot of Jebel Barkal.

After the Persian conquest of Egypt, Napata lost its economic influence. The Napatan region itself was desiccating, leading to less cattle and agriculture. A Persian raid had seriously affected Napata in 591 BC. Finally, Napata was losing its role of economic capital to Meroë. The Island of Meroë, the Peninsula formed by the Nile and the Atbara courses, was an area rich in iron, which was becoming an essential source of wealth. Meroe eventually became the capital of the kingdom of Kush, leading to the abandonment of Napata.

In 23 BC, the Roman prefect of Egypt invaded the kingdom after an initial attack by the queen of Meröe, razing Napata to the ground. In "The Deeds of the Divine Augustus," Augustus claims that "a penetration was made as far as the town of Napata, which is next to Meroe..."

The word in Arabic stems from a triliteral root connected with age and aging: ش-ي-خ, shīn-yā'-khā'. The term literally means a man of old age, and it is used in that sense of all men in Qur'anic Arabic. Later it came to be a title meaning leader, elder, or noble, especially in the Arabian Peninsula, where shaikh became a traditional title of a Bedouin tribal leader in recent centuries. Due to the cultural impact of Arab civilization, and especially through the spread of Islam, the word has gained currency as a religious term or general honorific in many other parts of the world as well, notably in Muslim cultures in Africa and Asia.

While the title can be used religiously by Muslims to designate a learned person, as an Arabic word it is essentially independent of religion. It is notably used by Druze for their religious men, but also by Arab Christians for elder men of stature. Its usage and meaning is similar to the Latin senex meaning "old [man]", from which the Latin (and English) "senator" is derived. Accordingly, the Arabic term for most legislative bodies termed Senate (e.g. the United States Senate) is majlis al-shuyūkh, literally meaning "Council of Senators."

The Nubia region today

Nubia is a region along the Nile river, which is located in northern Sudan and southern Egypt.

There were a number of small Nubian kingdoms throughout the Middle Ages, the last of which collapsed in 1504, when Nubia became divided between Egypt and the Sennar sultanate resulting in the Arabization of much of the Nubian population. Nubia was again united within Ottoman Egypt in the 19th century, and within Anglo-Egyptian Sudan from 1899 to 1956.

The name Nubia is derived from that of the Noba people, nomads who settled the area in the 4th century, with the collapse of the kingdom of Meroë. The Noba spoke a Nilo-Saharan language, ancestral to Old Nubian. Old Nubian was mostly used in religious texts dating from the 8th and 15th centuries AD. Before the 4th century, and throughout classical antiquity, Nubia was known as Kush, or, in Classical Greek usage, included under the name Ethiopia (Aithiopia).

Historically, the people of Nubia spoke at least two varieties of the Nubian language group, a subfamily which includes Nobiin (the descendant of Old Nubian), Kenuzi-Dongola, Midob and several related varieties in the northern part of the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan. A variety Birgid was spoken (at least until 1970) north of Nyala in Darfur but is now extinct.

Geography

Nubia is divided into three regions: “Lower Nubia”, "Upper Nubia", and "Southern Nubia." "Lower Nubia" was in modern southern Egypt, which lies between the First and Second Cataract. “Upper Nubia and Southern Nubia" were in modern-day northern Sudan, between the Second and Sixth Cataracts of the Nile river. Lower Nubia and Upper Nubia are so called because the Nile flows north, so Upper Nubia was farther upstream and of higher elevation, even though it lies geographically south of Lower Nubia.

History

Shell bracelet from a c.1800 BC Nubian mercenary grave

Prehistory

Early settlements sprouted in both Upper and Lower Nubia: The Restricted flood plains of Lower Nubia.틀:Clarification Egyptians referred to Nubia as "Ta-Seti." The Nubians were known to be expert archers and thus their land earned the appellation, "Ta-Seti", or land of the bow. Modern scholars typically refer to the people from this area as the “A-Group” culture. Fertile farmland just south of the Third Cataract is known as the “pre-Kerma” culture in Upper Nubia, as they are the ancestors Civilization originated in 5000 BC in Upper Nubia.

The Neolithic people in the Nile Valley likely came from Sudan, as well as the Sahara, and there was shared culture with the two areas and with that of Egypt during this time period. By the 5th millennium BC, the people who inhabited what is now called Nubia participated in the Neolithic revolution. Saharan rock reliefs depict scenes that have been thought to be suggestive of a cattle cult, typical of those seen throughout parts of Eastern Africa and the Nile Valley even to this day. Megaliths discovered at Nabta Playa are early examples of what seems to be one of the world's first astronomical devices, predating Stonehenge by almost 2,000 years. This complexity as observed at Nabta Playa, and as expressed by different levels of authority within the society there, likely formed the basis for the structure of both the Neolithic society at Nabta and the Old Kingdom of Egypt. Around 3800 BC, the second "Nubian" culture, termed the A-Group, arose. It was a contemporary of, and ethnically and culturally very similar to, the polities in predynastic Naqada of Upper Egypt. Around 3300 BC, there is evidence of a unified kingdom, as shown by the finds at Qustul, that maintained substantial interactions (both cultural and genetic) with the culture of Naqadan Upper Egypt. The Nubian culture may have even contributed to the unification of the Nile Valley. Also, the Nubians very likely contributed some pharaonic iconography, such as the white crown and serekh, to the Northern Egyptian kings†. Around the turn of the protodynastic period, Naqada, in its bid to conquer and unify the whole Nile Valley, seems to have conquered Ta-Seti (the kingdom where Qustul was located) and harmonized it with the Egyptian state. Thus, Nubia became the first nome of Upper Egypt. At the time of the first dynasty, the A-Group area seems to have been entirely depopulated, most likely due to immigration to areas west and south.

This culture began to decline in the early 28th century BC. The succeeding culture is known as the B-Group. Previously, the B-Group people were thought to have invaded from elsewhere. Today, most historians believe that B-Group was merely A-Group but far poorer. The causes of this are uncertain, but it was perhaps caused by Egyptian invasions and pillaging that began at this time. Nubia is believed to have served as a trade corridor between Egypt and tropical Africa long before 3100 BC. Egyptian craftsmen of the period used ivory and ebony wood from tropical Africa which came through Nubia.

In 2300 BC, Nubia was first mentioned in Old Kingdom Egyptian accounts of trade missions. From Aswan, right above the First Cataract, the southern limit of Egyptian control at the time, Egyptians imported gold, incense, ebony, copper, ivory, and exotic animals from tropical Africa through Nubia. As trade between Egypt and Nubia increased, so did wealth and stability. By the Egyptian 6th dynasty, Nubia was divided into a series of small kingdoms. There is debate over whether these C-Group peoples, who flourished from c. 2240 BC to c. 2150 BC, were another internal evolution or invaders. There are definite similarities between the pottery of the A-Group and C-Group, so it may be a return of the ousted Group-As, or an internal revival of lost arts. At this time, the Sahara Desert was becoming too arid to support human beings, and it is possible that there was a sudden influx of Saharan nomads. C-Group pottery is characterized by all-over incised geometric lines with white infill and impressed imitations of basketry.

During the Egyptian Middle Kingdom (c. 2040–1640 BC), Egypt began expanding into Nubia to gain more control over the trade routes in Northern Nubia and direct access to trade with Southern Nubia. They erected a chain of forts down the Nile below the Second Cataract. These garrisons seemed to have peaceful relations with the local Nubian people but little interaction during the period. A contemporaneous but distinct culture from the C-Group was the Pan Grave culture, so called because of their shallow graves. The Pan Graves are associated with the East bank of the Nile, but the Pan Graves and C-Group definitely interacted. Their pottery is characterized by incised lines of a more limited character than those of the C-Group, generally having interspersed undecorated spaces within the geometric schemes.

† The idea that Nubia contributed to the pharaonic iconography of the Ancient Egyptians based on the Qustul Incense Burner is outdated. According to Kathryn A. Bard:

“Bruce Williams (University of Chicago) has proposed that a fragmented stone incense burner from Qustul Cemetery L has iconographic evidence of the earliest king, who was Nubian. Part of the scene carved on the incense burner is of a seated ruler in a boat holding a flail and wearing the White Crown (two symbols of Egyptian king-ship). The more recently excavated evidence by German archaeologists, at Cemeteries U and B at Abydos, however, suggests that the earliest royal burials were there – in Egypt. The Qustul incense burner was probably imported into Nubia, where it was buried in a tomb that belonged to a very high status Nubian.”

Nubia and Ancient Egypt

배우는사람/문서:Chapter I - The Gods Of Egypt (1-17) in hieroglyphs
Ta-seti T3-stj Curved land
Setiu Stjw Curved land of the Nubians
Nehset / Nehsyu / Nehsi Nḥst / Nḥsyw / Nḥsj Nubia / Nubians
Nubia

Ancient Egypt conquered Nubian territory in various eras, and incorporated parts of the area into its provinces. The Nubians in turn were to conquer Egypt under its 25th Dynasty.

However, relations between the two peoples also show peaceful cultural interchange and cooperation, including mixed marriages. The Medjay –from mDA, represents the name Ancient Egyptians gave to a region in northern Sudan–where an ancient people of Nubia inhabited. They became part of the Ancient Egyptian military as scouts and minor workers.

During the Middle Kingdom "Medjay" no longer referred to the district of Medja, but to a tribe or clan of people. It is not known what happened to the district, but, after the First Intermediate Period, it and other districts in Nubia were no longer mentioned in the written record. Written accounts detail the Medjay as nomadic desert people. Over time they were incorporated into the Egyptian army. In the army, the Medjay served as garrison troops in Egyptian fortifications in Nubia and patrolled the deserts as a kind of gendarmerie. This was done in the hopes of preventing their fellow Medjay tribespeople from further attacking Egyptian assets in the region. They were even later used during Kamose’s campaign against the Hyksos and became instrumental in making the Egyptian state into a military power. By the 18th Dynasty of the New Kingdom period the Medjay were an elite paramilitary police force. No longer did the term refer to an ethnic group and over time the new meaning became synonymous with the policing occupation in general. Being an elite police force, the Medjay were often used to protect valuable areas, especially royal and religious complexes. Though they are most notable for their protection of the royal palaces and tombs in Thebes and the surrounding areas, the Medjay were known to have been used throughout Upper and Lower Egypt.

Various pharaohs of Nubian origin are held by some Egyptologists to have played an important part towards the area in different eras of Egyptian history, particularly the 12th Dynasty. These rulers handled matters in typical Egyptian fashion, reflecting the close cultural influences between the two regions.

...the XIIth Dynasty (1991–1786 B.C.E.) originated from the Aswan region. As expected, strong Nubian features and dark coloring are seen in their sculpture and relief work. This dynasty ranks as among the greatest, whose fame far outlived its actual tenure on the throne. Especially interesting, it was a member of this dynasty that decreed that no Nehsy (riverine Nubian of the principality of Kush), except such as came for trade or diplomatic reasons, should pass by the Egyptian fortress and cops at the southern end of the Second Nile Cataract. Why would this royal family of Nubian ancestry ban other Nubians from coming into Egyptian territory? Because the Egyptian rulers of Nubian ancestry had become Egyptians culturally; as pharaohs, they exhibited typical Egyptian attitudes and adopted typical Egyptian policies. (Yurco 1989)

In the New Kingdom, Nubians and Egyptians were often so closely related that some scholars consider them virtually indistinguishable, as the two cultures melded and mixed together.

It is an extremely difficult task to attempt to describe the Nubians during the course of Egypt's New Kingdom, because their presence appears to have virtually evaporated from the archaeological record. The result has been described as a wholesale Nubian assimilation into Egyptian society. This assimilation was so complete that it masked all Nubian ethnic identities insofar as archaeological remains are concerned beneath the impenetrable veneer of Egypt's material culture. In the Kushite Period, when Nubians ruled as Pharaohs in their own right, the material culture of Dynasty XXV (about 750–655 B.C.E.) was decidedly Egyptian in character. Nubia's entire landscape up to the region of the Third Cataract was dotted with temples indistinguishable in style and decoration from contemporary temples erected in Egypt. The same observation obtains for the smaller number of typically Egyptian tombs in which these elite Nubian princes were interred.

Kerma

Main article: Kingdom of Kerma

The Turin Papyrus Map

From the pre-Kerma culture, the first kingdom to unify much of the region arose. The Kingdom of Kerma, named for its presumed capital at Kerma, was one of the earliest urban centers in the Nile region. By 1750 BC, the kings of Kerma were powerful enough to organize the labor for monumental walls and structures of mud brick. They also had rich tombs with possessions for the afterlife and large human sacrifices. George Reisner excavated sites at Kerma and found large tombs and a palace-like structures. The structures, named (Deffufa), alluded to the early stability in the region. At one point, Kerma came very close to conquering Egypt. Egypt suffered a serious defeat at the hands of the Kushites. According to Davies, head of the joint British Museum and Egyptian archaeological team, the attack was so devastating that if the Kerma forces chose to stay and occupy Egypt, they might have eliminated it for good and brought the nation to extinction. When Egyptian power revived under the New Kingdom (c. 1532–1070 BC) they began to expand further southwards. The Egyptians destroyed Kerma's kingdom and capitol and expanded the Egyptian empire to the Fourth Cataract. By the end of the reign of Thutmose I (1520 BC), all of northern Nubia had been annexed. The Egyptians built a new administrative center at Napata, and used the area to produce gold. The Nubian gold production made Egypt a prime source of the precious metal in the Middle East. The primitive working conditions for the slaves are recorded by Diodorus Siculus who saw some of the mines at a later time. One of the oldest maps known is of a gold mine in Nubia, the Turin Papyrus Map dating to about 1160 BC.

Kush

Main article: Kingdom of Kush

Nubian Pharaohs

When the Egyptians pulled out of the Napata region, they left a lasting legacy that was merged with indigenous customs forming the kingdom of Kush. Archaeologists have found several burials in the area which seem to belong to local leaders. The Kushites were buried there soon after the Egyptians decolonized the Nubian frontier. Kush adopted many Egyptian practices, such as their religion. The Kingdom of Kush survived longer than that of Egypt, invaded Egypt (under the leadership of king Piye), and controlled Egypt during the 8th century, Kushite dynasty. The Kushites held sway over their northern neighbors for nearly 100 years, until they were eventually repelled by the invading Assyrians. The Assyrians forced them to move farther south, where they eventually established their capital at Meroë. Of the Nubian kings of this era, Taharqa is perhaps the best known. Taharqa, a son and the third successor of King Piye, was crowned king in Memphis in c.690. Taharqa ruled over both Nubia and Egypt, restored Egyptian temples at Karnak, and built new temples and pyramids in Nubia, before being driven from Egypt by the Assyrians.

Meroë

Main article: Meroë

Aerial view at Nubian pyramids, Meroe

Meroë (800 BC – c. AD 350) in southern Nubia lay on the east bank of the Nile about 6 km north-east of the Kabushiya station near Shendi, Sudan, ca. 200 km north-east of Khartoum. The people there preserved many ancient Egyptian customs but were unique in many respects. They developed their own form of writing, first utilizing Egyptian hieroglyphs, and later using an alphabetic script with 23 signs. Many pyramids were built in Meroë during this period and the kingdom consisted of an impressive standing military force. Strabo also describes a clash with the Romans in which the Romans were defeated by Nubian archers under the leadership of a "one-eyed" (blind in one eye) queen. During this time, the different parts of the region divided into smaller groups with individual leaders, or generals, each commanding small armies of mercenaries. They fought for control of what is now Nubia and its surrounding territories, leaving the entire region weak and vulnerable to attack. Meroë would eventually meet defeat by a new rising kingdom to their south, Aksum, under King Ezana.

The classification of the Meroitic language is uncertain, it was long assumed to have been of the Afro-Asiatic group, but is now considered to have likely been an Eastern Sudanic language.

At some point during the 4th century, the region was conquered by the Noba people, from which the name Nubia may derive (another possibility is that it comes from Nub, the Egyptian word for gold). From then on, the Romans referred to the area as the Nobatae.

Christian Nubia

Main articles: Makuria, Nobadia, and Alodia

Around AD 350, the area was invaded by the Kingdom of Aksum and the kingdom collapsed. Eventually, three smaller kingdoms replaced it: northernmost was Nobatia between the first and second cataract of the Nile River, with its capital at Pachoras (modern-day Faras); in the middle was Makuria, with its capital at Old Dongola; and southernmost was Alodia, with its capital at Soba (near Khartoum). King Silky of Nobatia crushed the Blemmyes, and recorded his victory in a Greek inscription carved in the wall of the temple of Talmis (modern Kalabsha) around AD 500.

While bishop Athanasius of Alexandria consecrated one Marcus as bishop of Philae before his death in 373, showing that Christianity had penetrated the region by the 4th century, John of Ephesus records that a Monophysite priest named Julian converted the king and his nobles of Nobatia around 545. John of Ephesus also writes that the kingdom of Alodia was converted around 569. However, John of Biclarum records that the kingdom of Makuria was converted to Catholicism the same year, suggesting that John of Ephesus might be mistaken. Further doubt is cast on John's testimony by an entry in the chronicle of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Alexandria Eutychius, which states that in 719 the church of Nubia transferred its allegiance from the Greek to the Coptic Church.

By the 7th century, Makuria expanded becoming the dominant power in the region. It was strong enough to halt the southern expansion of Islam after the Arabs had taken Egypt. After several failed invasions the new rulers agreed to a treaty with Dongola allowing for peaceful coexistence and trade. This treaty held for six hundred years. Over time the influx of Arab traders introduced Islam to Nubia and it gradually supplanted Christianity. While there are records of a bishop at Qasr Ibrim in 1372, his see had come to include that located at Faras. It is also clear that the cathedral of Dongola had been converted to a mosque in 1317.

The influx of Arabs and Nubians to Egypt and Sudan had contributed to the suppression of the Nubian identity following the collapse of the last Nubian kingdom around 1504. A major part of the modern Nubian population became totally Arabized and some claimed to be Arabs (Jaa'leen – the majority of Northern Sudanese – and some Donglawes in Sudan). A vast majority of the Nubian population is currently Muslim, and the Arabic language is their main medium of communication in addition to their indigenous old Nubian language. The unique characteristic of Nubian is shown in their culture (dress, dances, traditions, and music).

Islamic Nubia

Main article: Islamization of Sudan

Nubian woman circa 1900

In the 14th century, the Dongolan government collapsed and the region became divided and dominated by Arabs. The next centuries would see several Arab invasions of the region, as well as the establishment of a number of smaller kingdoms. Northern Nubia was brought under Egyptian control while the south came under the control of the Kingdom of Sennar in the 16th century. The entire region would come under Egyptian control during the rule of Mehemet Ali in the early 19th century, and later became a joint Anglo-Egyptian condominium.

Contemporary issues

Further information: Nubian people

With the end of colonialism and the establishment of the Republic of Egypt (1953), and the secession of the Republic of Sudan from unity with Egypt (1956), Nubia was divided between Egypt and Sudan.

In the 1970s, many Egyptian Nubians were forcibly resettled to make room for Lake Nasser after the construction of the dams at Aswan. Nubian villages can now be found north of Aswan on the west bank of the Nile and on Elephantine Island, and many Nubians today live in large cities such as Cairo.

See also

• Twenty-fifth dynasty of Egypt
• Nubiology
• Nubian languages
• Pyramids of Nubia
• Nubian architecture
• Aida
• Nubian Desert
• Nubian Archaeological Expeditions
• Nubia (Mesolithic) / Nile boat

호신부에 대한 태도

Concerning amulets, the Sudânî man is as superstitious as were his ancestors thousands of years ago, and he still believes that stones of certain colours possess magical properties, especially when inscribed with certain symbols, of the meaning of which, however, he has no knowledge, but which are due, he says, to the presence of spirits in them. Women and children, especially female children, protect many parts of their bodies with strings of beads made of magical stones, and sometimes with plaques (명판) of metal or stone, which are cut into various shapes and ornamented with signs of magical power; the positions of such plaques on the body are frequently identical with those whereon the dynastic Egyptians laid amulets on the dead, and, if we could learn from the Sudânî folk the reasons which prompt (유도하다) them to make use of such things, we should probably find that the beliefs which underlie the customs are also identical.

The above facts concerning the Sûdíinî belief in spirits might be [Page 17] greatly multiplied, and they are not so remotely connected with the beliefs of the dynastic, and even predynastic, Egyptians, as may appear to be the case at first sight, and the writer believes that a large amount of information of a similar kind awaits the investigator, who will devote the necessary time to living in some of the out-of-the-way (벽지의) villages of the black (not negro) peoples who dwell on the eastern bank of the Nile and of the Blue Nile.

Around 1442 the Portuguese first arrived in sub-Saharan Africa while trying to find a sea route to India. The term negro, literally meaning "black", was used by the Spanish and Portuguese as a simple description to refer to people. From the 18th century to the late 1960s, "negro" (later capitalized) was considered to be the proper English-language term for certain people of sub-Saharan African origin.

Ideas About The Beetle (딱정벌레)

나무 숭배

In many isolated places in Southern Nubia and the Eastern Sûdân are trees which men regard with reverence, but this may be the result of contact with the natives of Central Africa, where people pray to trees on certain occasions,⁷⁾ believing that the spirits which are supposed to dwell in them can bestow gifts upon those whom they regard with favour, and ensure safety both to themselves and their animals when travelling.

⁷⁾ “Under the wide-spreading branches of an enormous heglik-tree, and on a spot beautifully clean and sprinkled with fine sand, the Bedeyat beseech an unknown god to direct them in their undertakings and to protect them from danger.” Slatin Pasha, Fire-and Sword in the Sudan, London, 1896, p. 114.

Escape from captivity

At length, after over eleven years captivity, he was able to escape, with the help of Sir Reginald (then Major) Wingate of the Egyptian Intelligence Department and 틀:Reference necessary, in a perilous 1000 km. and three-week journey across the desert, reaching Aswan, Egypt in March 1895. In a remarkable book, Fire and Sword in the Sudan, written in the same year and issued in English and German in 1896, Slatin gave not only a personal narrative of fighting and serving the dervishes but a comprehensive account of the Sudan under the rule of the Khalifa. The book, edited by F. R. Wingate, became a bestseller. Originally published in English in 1896 entitled "Fire and Sword in the Sudan", it was also published in German in 1896 by the Brockhaus Verlag in Leipzig entitled "Feuer und Schwert im Sudan. Meine Kämpfe mit den Derwischen, meine Gefangenschaft und Flucht.1879–1895." His book became an important inspiration for the German author Karl May and his trilogy "Im Lande des Mahdi". He also published another book entitled "Elf Jahre in der Gefangenschaft des Mahdi"

Raised to the rank of Pasha by the Khedive, Slatin was appointed an honorary Companion of the Order of the Bath by Queen Victoria. In autumn 1895, he was granted an audience with Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria. Queen Victoria made him an honorary Member (fourth class) of the Royal Victorian Order in 1896.

Major-General Rudolf Anton Carl Freiherr von Slatin or Slatin Pasha, Geh. Rat, GCVO, KCMG, CB (7 June 1857, Ober-Sankt-Veit, Hietzing, Vienna – 4 October 1932, Vienna) was an Anglo-Austrian soldier and administrator in the Sudan.

cynocephalus ape (비비) 숭배

Still further to the south certain animals, e.g., the cynocephalus ape (비비), which plays such a prominent part in dynastic Egyptian mythology, are supposed to be inhabited by divine spirits and to possess extraordinary powers of intelligence in consequence (그 결과로서),

scarabaei (딱정벌레) 숭배

and the various kinds of scarabaei, or beetles, are thought to be animated by spirits, which the natives connect with the sun.

The dead bodies of these insects were, in former days, often eaten by women who wished to become mothers of large families, and to this day parts of them are cooked, and treated with oil, and made into medicines⁸⁾ for the cure of sore eyes (눈병), etc. The dynastic Egyptians believed that the scarab (풍뎅이, 스카라베) was connected [Page 18] with the Sun-god Rā, and in religious texts of all periods it is said that the beetle occupied a place in the boat of this god.

⁸⁾ Ibrahîm Rûshdî, Clerk of Telegraphs at Benha, in Lower Egypt, told me in January, 1895, that in many districts the beetles were boiled, and the grease extracted from them; as they are being boiled the shells come off. The bodies are next roasted in olive oil, and then steeped (담그다) in myrrh (몰약(감람과 미르나무속 나무에서 나오는 수지. 향수 · 향료의 원료로 사용됨)), and after this they are macerated (불리다) in that liquid, and strained ((체 같은 것을 받쳐) 물기를 빼다[거르다]) through muslin (모슬린(속이 거의 다 비치는 고운 면직물)); the liquid which runs through is believed to cure the itching (가려움) which is caused by a certain internal ailment. Some men drink a few drops of it in each cup of coffee, and women drink it to make them fat. The old women have a prescription for sore eyes (눈병), which is as follows: — Stick a splinter (조각, 가시) of wood through a series of beetles for twelve hours when a child is about to be born; when the child is born, pull the splinter out of the last beetle, and dip it in kohil (콜(특히 동양 일부 국가에서 여성들이 화장용으로 눈가에 바르는 검은 가루)), and rub the eyes of the child with it. If this be done in the proper way the child will never suffer from sore eyes.

Scarab may refer to:

Beetles

• Scarabaeus sacer, the scarab beetle worshiped by Ancient Egyptians
• A scarab (artifact) was an object symbolizing the holy beetle in Ancient Egypt
• Other members of Scarabaeidae, the scarab beetle family

"Satyre" from Edward Topsell's The History of Four-footed Beasts (1607)

Satyrus (also known as callitrix, cericopithicus, and cynocephalus) is a species of ape described in some medieval bestiaries. It is said to always give birth to twins. Of these twins, it hates one, but loves the other. The ape is also described as lively and having a pleasant face.

Source

• bestiary.ca, The medieval bestiary

This is a page about the mythical creature. For the black metal musician, see Astennu (musician).

In Egyptian mythology, Astennu (also spelt Asten, Isten, Astes, and Isdes) refers to a baboon associated with Thoth. It was also stated that Astennu was merely another aspect of Thoth, as the god could take the form of a baboon. He was one of four baboons who stood around the lake of fire at the place of judgement in Duat, and consequently associated with Utennu.

He appears in spell 17 of the Book of the Dead. The name Astennu means the moon.

Baboon may be an equivalent term for dog-headed ape. Among the Egyptians several kinds of apes were regarded as sacred animals, but the most revered of all was that which was the companion of Thoth, and which is commonly known as the Dog-headed Ape. This animal seems to have been brought in old, as in modern, times from the country far to the south of Nubia, but whether this be so or not it is certain that the Cynocephalus ape found its way into Egyptian mythology at a very early period. In the Judgment Scene he sits upon the standard of the Great Scales, and his duty was to report to his associate Thoth when the pointer marked the middle of the beam.

Scarabaeus
Scarabaeus pius
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Coleoptera
Family:	Scarabaeidae
Subfamily:	Scarabaeinae
Tribe:	Scarabaeini
Genus:	Scarabaeus Linnaeus, 1758
species
>30

The genus Scarabaeus consists of a number of Old World dung beetle species, including the "sacred scarab beetle", Scarabaeus sacer. These beetles feed exclusively on dung, which they accomplish by rolling a piece of dung some distance from where it was deposited, and burying it in order to feed on it underground. They also prepare food for their larvae by excavating an underground chamber, and filling it with balls that have eggs laid in them. The growing larva feeds upon the dung ball, pupates, and eventually emerges as an adult.

A "scarabaeus" is also a now outdated term (OED 2) for an object in the form of a scarab beetle in art. The scarab was a popular form of amulet in Ancient Egypt, and in ancient Greek art engraved gems were often carved as scarabs on the rest of the stone behind the main flattish face, which was used for sealing documents.

A creature identified as Scarabaeus appears in "The Gold-Bug" by Edgar Allan Poe, and a poem entitled "Scarabæus sisyphus" was created by Mathilde Blind.

Gallery

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  Scarabaeus ambiguus
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  Scarabaeus catenatus
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  Scarabaeus jalof
• 
  Scarabaeus nitidicollis
• 
  Scarabaeus satyrus

Scarabaeus sacer
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Coleoptera
Family:	Scarabaeidae
Genus:	Scarabaeus
Species:	S. sacer
Binomial name
Scarabaeus sacer Linnaeus, 1758

Scarabaeus sacer is a species of dung beetle. It occurs in coastal dunes and marshes around the Mediterranean Basin. Among the coprophagous species of beetles, it is typical of those that collect dung into balls. Such a beetle rolls its ball to a suitable location, where it digs an underground chamber in which it hides the ball. It then either eats the ball itself, or lays an egg in it, covers the chamber, and departs, repeating the procedure as many times as it can. The larva feeds on the ball of dung after the egg hatches. This behaviour inspired the Ancient Egyptians to compare Scarabaeus sacer to Khepri, their Sun god. They accordingly held the species to be sacred.

Description

The head of Scarabaeus sacer has a distinctive array of six projections, resembling rays. The projections are uniform with four more projections on the each of the tibiae of the front legs, creating an arc of fourteen "rays". (See illustration.) Functionally the projections are adaptations for digging and for shaping the ball of dung.

Like the front legs of other beetles in its genus, but unlike those of dung beetles in most other genera, the front legs of Scarabaeus sacer are unusual; they do not end in any recognisable tarsus, the foot that bears the claws. There is only a vestigial claw-like structure that might be of some assistance in digging. The mid- and hind-legs of Scarabaeus have normal, well-developed 5-segmented tarsi, but the front legs are specialised for excavation and for forming balls of dung.

Life cycle and ecology

Scarabaeus sacer is found across North Africa, southern Europe and parts of Asia. In the Camargue, S. sacer is almost exclusively a coastal species, living only in dunes and coastal marshes.

The beetles roll most of the balls they make to where it is convenient for them to dig chambers in which they eat the dung, a process that may take several days. When the female is ready to breed she selects especially fine-textured dung to make her breeding ball, and digs an especially deep and large chamber for it. There she sculpts it into a pear-shape with a hollow cavity in the narrow part. In that cavity she lays a single large egg. She then seals the cavity and departs to repeat the process elsewhere. Typically a successful female Scarabaeus sacer will produce only about half a dozen young in her life.

Scarabaeus sacer serves as the host for the phoretic mite Macrocheles saceri.

Human significance

Carved relief of the cartouche representing Thutmose III on the wall of the Precinct of Amun-Re, Karnak

Scarabaeus sacer is the most famous of the scarab beetles. To the Ancient Egyptians, S. sacer was a symbol of Khepri, the early morning manifestation of the sun god Ra, from an analogy between the beetle's behaviour of rolling a ball of dung across the ground and Khepri's task of rolling the sun across the sky.

The Egyptians also observed young beetles emerging from the ball of dung, from which they mistakenly inferred that the female beetle was able to reproduce without needing a male. From this, they drew parallels with their god Atum, who also begat children alone.

Scarabaeus sacer was the species which first piqued the interest of William Sharp Macleay and drew him into a career in entomology.

The related species Scarabaeus laticollis rolling a ball of dung

Taxonomy

Scarabaeus sacer was described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae, the starting point of zoological nomenclature. It has since been treated by "the vast majority of authors" as the type species of the genus Scarabaeus, even though strict application of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature would require Scarabaeus hercules (now usually called Dynastes hercules) to be the type species, following Pierre André Latreille's 1810 type designation.

See also

• Scarab in Ancient Egypt
  • Scarab (artifact)
  • Commemorative scarabs of Amenhotep III

External links

External identifiers for Scarabaeus sacer
Encyclopedia of Life	141039
NCBI	166335
Also found in: Wikispecies

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