Bøger af Asher Benowitz

A fabled district is known as Heliopolis, whose ancient classical name was derived from the name of the 'City of the Sun', once stood close to the pyramids of Abusir but on the east bank of the Nile River. The obelisks that now stand in London and New York once stood in Heliopolis. As Heliopolis remains today under tarmac roads and Cairo's northern suburbs, its monuments have largely been destroyed, leaving only a standing obelisk, some reconstructed columns, and a few stone blocks. As well as the mud-brick enclosure walls mapped by Napoleon, the sphinx avenue which so impressed the first European visitors have largely disappeared. Two centuries of desultory and often rapacious digging at Heliopolis uncovered a variety of relics dating back millennia, like Memphis on the other bank of the Nile. It is not uncommon that foundations dug for new villas or apartments in the area bring up the remains of priests' tombs, the mud-brick walls of ancient houses, or a scattering of more minor artifacts from prehistoric pottery of the last native Pharaoh. Despite its millennial celebrity, Heliopolis' most famous monument has gone undiscovered. According to ancient texts, there was a tremendous pharaonic shrine at Iunu. In the 1840s, there stood at its heart a mysterious monument that marked the center of Heliopolis' cult; the eroded wall of the temple's ancient enclosure still stands in the desert.As difficult as it is to trace the architecture of Re's shrine at Heliopolis is to uncover the origins of the god Re. Tradition has tended to read the later grand complexity of Re's role in the pharaonic kingdom back into the age of the god's beginnings. There is, however, very little evidence to support this idea.

Literature and mythologyFrom the New Kingdom, only ten narratives survive. These stories assume that their readers have a deep understanding of Egyptian mythology.It describes a prince who is doomed to die by a snake, crocodile, or dog, as the world's oldest fairy tale. There is no ending in the story, but it is likely that the prince was saved by the spirited princess whose hand he wins in a jumping contest.. As an extended version of the Osiris myth, Truth and Lies involves a dysfunctional family of deities whose son avenges his father, Truth, and defeats Lies' enemy. The plot revolves around a son who grows up to avenge his father, Truth, and beat his enemy, Lies. Isis is lustful and heartless, whereas the hero's mother is presented as passionate and cruel.This story contains a lot of mythological themes in a semi-disguised manner. As in the story of the Two Brothers, the female characters are also evil. A woman who the gods have blessed as a wife betrays the hero by falsely accusing him of raping his brother's wife. Anubis and Bata are two brothers with the same name as two gods (Anubis and Bata).. A time when it was still possible to meet gods and monsters just beyond Egypt's borders is depicted in the story. In both the Two Brothers and another New Kingdom tale about Seth's fight with an ocean god to save Astarte, the sea tries to capture a beautiful female. Astute is included under "Deities, Themes, and Concepts" as a partially Egyptianized myth. More fragmentary accounts describe a woman who becomes a lioness and the God Heryshef recruiting a human to help him fight a divine falcon.Contendings between Horus and Seth is the most controversial story from the New Kingdom. This is the most extended narrative that survives the conflict between the two gods and its resolution. But that does not mean it should be regarded as the only or standard version of the myth. Fables consist of all their performances, as many scholars have emphasized. This text was read aloud for entertainment, hence its narrative form. In addition to telling an ancient myth, the satire contains commentary about how difficult it is to obtain justice under New Kingdom legal systems and perhaps some veiled commentaries about recent problems with royal succession.

Today, we do not use our ancient cosmic orientation to relate to the natural world as we once did. It's no longer determined by where we are or what time it is by the Sun's daily motion across the sky. Our perception of the outside world has changed, and we have lost our sense of wholeness within a great system. Factors such as our work and play rhythms, clothing, diet, and travel are affected by climatic and seasonal factors. These factors affect our unconscious sense of timing and our ability to communicate with nature, which we often overlook.Often we marvel at the apparent serenity and spiritual confidence of ancient people, forgetting that their tools were taught and used within an environment that encouraged them to recognize and embrace natural and divine forces. These tools enabled one to maintain a profound sense of cosmic orientation, keep it, and view one's role as actual spiritual work. In ancient Egypt, a man named Al was gifted with a sense of cosmic orientation.As dams have been constructed in our era, the Nile no longer produces an annual flood, but understanding the rhythm of that event and others associated with it is essential to understanding Egyptian rituals and ceremonies. To restore cosmic orientation, we need to leave our temporal field of time and enter the visible universe of ancient Egypt, where cosmic rhythms sustained human life, nature, and even the gods.For Egyptians, both secular and spiritual matters were governed by the concept of time. Even though the gods' realms (Neheh) were considered eternal, they were also continuous and manifested in cycles. According to cosmic life's ebbs and flows, gods appeared at different times but were lasting and constant. Through the medium of heavenly bodies, events take place in linear time (Djet) and according to the ebb and flow of cosmic life. The three dimensions of cosmic activity were thought to be formed by three distinct rhythms, the lunar, solar, and stellar.