Pyramid of Terror: Volume 1 - Gods of Anarchy

Abstract

The Ancient Egyptians really seemed to have it all. They built the astonishing pyramids, crafted volumes of myths and lived along the gorgeous, if not tempestuous, banks of the River Nile. As with any ancient culture, the Egyptians used mythology to try to explain the world around them.

Although this book is intended for the layman, students across the globe can also consume the collection of myths in their full glory for academic purposes. Each story contained within Volume I touts the darkest quality of the human virtue, delivering some of the most popular myths told by the Egyptians, and intends to arouse your interest in the dark side of Ancient Egypt.

Contents

Preface

When I began to immerse myself in Ancient Egypt, I was not even knee height. There was something captivating that captured my imagination unlike any other historical time frame. The pyramids had a beckoning effect and I was a moth to a flame, eventually ending up in the headmaster’s office after drawing Napoleon Bonaparte with demonic horns riding a horse and carrying a host of headless ancient pharaohs.

Pyramid of Terror is my love note to the deities of the netherworld that emerged some time in prehistory. Deities represented natural forces and phenomena, and the Ancient Egyptians supported and appeased them through offerings and rituals so that these forces would continue to function according to Ma’at, and after the founding of the Egyptian state the authority to perform these tasks was controlled by the pharaoh, who claimed to be the deities’ representative and who managed the temples where the rituals were carried out.

Here we look at the deities’ complex characteristics expressed in myths and tales, the intricate relationships between deities: family ties, loose groups and hierarchies, and the combining of separate deities into one. Welcome to the dark half of Egypt!

Contents

CONTENTS

Abstract

Preface

Chapter I: Gods, Goddesses & Monsters

Discover the Deities of the Gates of the Underworld, their gods and goddesses in this reader’s digest guide of who’s who.

Chapter II: Book of Gates

Understand the complexity of the Valley of the Kings and the twelve pylons.

Chapter III: Egyptian Tales

Venture into the mythical lands of Egypt and its underbelly with these delightfully dark tales of human virtue at its most deadly.

The Doomed Prince

The Tale of the Two Brothers

The Princess and the Demon

Osiris

The Scorpions of Isis

The Battles of Horus

The Story of Nefrekepta

i Introduction

ii Ahure’s Story

iii The Book of Thoth

iv The Contest for the Book

v Ta-Buvuë, and the Return of the Book

The Name of Ra

The Black Boar

Chapter IV: What Is a Deity and Who are The Deities of the Netherworld?

Discover how Napoleon Bonaparte’s expedition to Egypt and King James VI of Scotland’s forgotten dissertation on Demonology changed how we view Ancient Egyptian deities.

Chapter V: Book of the Dead

Awaken your knowledge of the Book of the Dead, an Ancient Egyptian funerary text made up of a number of individual texts, illustrations, magical spells and the Weighing of the Heart ritual.

Chapter VI: Spells of Ancient Egypt:

Ancient Spell Casting

Learn how and why the Ancient Egyptians cast spells and practised rituals. Discover the casting of the Hathor Love Spell and what ingredients and offerings are needed when asking for guidance from Anubis on All Souls’ Day.

Chapter VII: Ancient Egypt in Film, TV and Music

Movies, TV shows, music and books that take inspiration from the Ancient Egyptian mythology contained within this volume.

Pyramid of Terror Quiz

Now you have consumed the book, take the Pyramid of Terror quiz and let us know how you do on Twitter!

Image credits

CHAPTER I

GODS, GODESSES & MONSTERS

Egyptian mythology can be confusing for the best of us, even more so when you are dipping in after falling off the Hollywood bandwagon with such movies as:

Gods of Egypt

The Pyramid

Anubis and the Path of 7 Sins

or TV shows like:

Stargate SG-1: Children of the Gods

Nancy Drew: Tomb of the Lost Queen

Disney’s Gargoyles: Grief

To summarise the importance of the Ancient Egyptian gods and goddesses is quite simple; Ancient Egyptians believed the gods and goddesses represented principal aspects of our world, each playing a key role in maintaining peace and harmony across the land, while other gods and goddesses took part in our creation.

Ra, for example, was the sun god; Nut was goddess of the sky; and while generally the characters of the gods were not clearly defined, almost all were generally malevolent and their favour could not be counted on.

Pyramid of Terror, Volume I: Gods of Anarchy primarily focuses on gods, goddesses and deities considered deceitful and embodying the dark side of Egyptian mythology, like Seth, the malevolent god, who represents all the aspects of disorder in the world, and deities like Apophis, an immortal creature who could be in more than one place at one time, and Ammit, also known as the Devourer of the Dead, part crocodile, part lioness, and part hippopotamus.

These intriguing characters that form the basis of our stories can differ in name from text to text, and as I have already noted above, this can at times become confusing and lost in translation. To make your life a little easier I have compiled the characters in a brief reference guide below, to offer details and facts regarding certain aspects of the characters and which stories you will find them in.

Abesh

A bearded god without a wig, who appears kneeling with an ureaus over his head.

Am-awa

Am-awa is a god who appears after two fire-breathing serpents. He is guarding the entrance to Gate II.

Ament, Imentet, Amentent, Imentit

The mythical beast that devours the hearts of the evil at the Judgment of Osiris.

Ammit, Ammut, Ahemait

A part-lion, part-hippopotamus and part-crocodile demoness and goddess, three of the largest ‘man-eating’ animals known to the Ancient Egyptians. She was often shown near the scales on which the hearts of the dead were weighed against the Feather of Truth. She devoured the hearts of those whose wicked deeds in life made them unfit to enter the afterlife.

Anhefta

A protective female spirit who guards one end of the ninth division of Tuat.

Anubis, Inpu, Anpu

A jackal-headed deity who supervised the embalming of the dead. He was said to be the illegitimate son of Osiris and Nephthys, and to have protected Isis in the guise of a dog during her wanderings.

The Tale of the Two Brothers

Apep, Apepi, Aapep, Apophis, Aποφις, the evil lizard, the encircler of the world, the enemy, the serpent of rebirth

The netherworld has seen no fury like a serpent scorned! Apep is the arch enemy of the sun god, Ra. He is a malevolent force of evil who could never be reasoned with and could never truly be vanquished. Apep is often depicted as a huge serpent, often with tightly compressed coils to emphasis his ungodly size. In funerary texts he is usually shown in the process of being dismembered in various ways. Apep also led an army of deader who preyed on the living and the blessed deader. To defeat his malevolent force a ritual known as Banishing Apep was conducted annually by the priests of Ra.

Aqen, Mouth of the Time, Protector of Ra’s Celestial Barque

A rarely mentioned deity who first appeared in the Book of the Dead. There he guided the sun god Ra by bringing the shenw-ring to his majesty.

Astarte, Athtart, Ashtart

A powerful warrior goddess from Syria who was also connected with fertility. She was closely associated with the horse and chariot. Astarte was considered one of the greatest goddesses of the ancient Middle East and chief deity of Tyre, Sidon and Elat, important Mediterranean seaports. Ashtaroth, the plural form of the goddess’s name in Hebrew, became a general term denoting goddesses and paganism.

The Battles of Horus

Atum, Atem, Tem

A creator god and solar deity, first god of the Ennead. He is also one of the most important and frequently mentioned deities from earliest times, as evidenced by his prominence in the Pyramid Texts, where he is portrayed as both a creator and father to the king.

Bata

The younger brother of Anubis, Bata was represented as a ram until the middle of the Eighteenth Dynasty, where he later became a bull. Bata is probably identical with the death god Bt of the Egyptian Old Kingdom, known from the Saqqara necropolis, for instance, from the Mastaba of Ti.

The Tale of the Two Brothers

Bes, Bisu, Aha

A complex character, who was both a deity and a symbolic figure considered dangerous. He was the god of war, yet he was also a patron of childbirth and the home, associated predominantly with sexuality, humour, music and dancing.

Ermen-ta, Ermenta

Stands at the ninth division of Tuat and is often depicted in mummied form with extended arms that are reaching out to Ra.

Geb, Seb, Keb

An earth god and member of the Ennead. Geb appears with a viper around his head and was considered the father of snakes. It was believed in Ancient Egypt that Geb’s laughter created earthquakes and that he allowed crops to grow.

Hapi, Lord of the Fish and Birds of the Marshes, Lord of the River Bringing Vegetation

A god of the Nile, associated with the annual flooding of the river, which brought fertility to the soil. Although considered to be male, Hapi was often pictured with pendulous breasts and a large stomach.

Osiris

The Name of Ra

Heka, Hekau

Heka appears as part of a divine triad in Esna, capital of the Third Nome, where he is the son of ram-headed Khnumu and a succession of goddesses. The name Heka is also identical with the Egyptian word ḥk3w, meaning magic.

Horus, Her, Heru

The sparrowhawk-headed god is, in fact, the brother of Isis and Osiris; but is always confused with Horus the Child. He is called the Avenger or Protector of his Father.

Osiris

The Scorpions of Isis

The Battles of Horus

The Name of Ra

The Black Boar

Hu

Hu is a companion of deceased pharaohs. Together with Sia, he was depicted in the retinue of Thoth. Additionally, he is one of the most important gods for those serious about Egyptian deities. Hu is the power of the spoken word; he personifies the authority of utterance.

Isis, Ēse

Wife of Osiris and mother of Horus (the Child), linked with funerary rites, motherhood, protection and magic. She became a major deity in Greek and Roman religions. Isis’s role in the afterlife was to restore the souls of deceased humans to wholeness as she had done for Osiris.

Osiris

The Scorpions of Isis

The Story of Nefrekepta

The Name of Ra

Khnumu, Khnum

A ram god, one of the oldest gods of Egypt, who was originally a water god. He is known as the builder of the universe under Thoth’s direction. Khnumu is also related to Min.

The Tale of the Two Brothers

Khonsu, Chonsu, Khensu, Khons, Chons, Khonshu, Greatest God of the Great Gods, Beloved of Khonsu Who Protects His Majesty, Drives Away Evil Spirits

God of the moon, expeller of demons, son of Amon-Ra. Khonsu is mentioned in the Pyramid Texts and Coffin Texts, in which he is depicted as a fierce force of nature. During the New Kingdom, he is described as one of the most powerful gods that ever was. His temple at Karnak is in a relatively good state of preservation, and on one of the walls is depicted a creation myth in which Khonsu is described as the great snake who fertilizes the Cosmic Egg in the creation of the world.

The Princess and the Demon

Mentu, Nomad, Mont, Monthu, Montju, Ment, Menthu

A god of war, a male deity with the head of a falcon, who was mainly worshipped in Upper Egypt. From the 11th Dynasty onward, Mentu was considered the symbol of the pharaohs as rulers, conquerors and winners, as well as their inspirer on the battlefield. In Greek mythology, the Greeks associated Mentu with their god of war Ares − although that did not prevent his appearing similar to Apollo, due to the solar radiance that distinguished him.

The Princess and the Demon

Min

An