The volume presents a collection of papers read during three workshops held in Leipzig (2016), Jerusalem (2017), and Vienna (2018). International scholars from different disciplines and methodological approaches explored gender-specific constructions of foreignness/strangeness in the Old Testament, Egypt, and Mesopotamia from their particular perspectives. They showed that when combined, strangeness/foreignness and gender can take on very different forms. Various processes of the "othering" of women are of importance, which differ from the "othering" of men. The contributions investigate specific questions, individual female figures and individual phenomena as model cases. The basic question was when, where, how and for what purpose the categories of foreignness and gender were connected and activated in literary tradition. The collection is a preliminary and basic work for further study of gender-specific concepts of foreignness/strangeness in the ancient Mediterranean cultures of the first millennium BCE.

From stories of resurrected mummies and thousand-year-old curses to powerful pharaohs and the coveted treasures of the Great Pyramids, ancient Egypt has had an unfaltering grip on the modern imagination. Now, in Egyptian Mythology, Geraldine Pinch offers a comprehensive introduction that untangles the mystery of Egyptian Myth.
Spanning Ancient Egyptian culture--from 3200 BC to AD 400--Pinch opens a door to this hidden world and casts light on its often misunderstood belief system. She discusses the nature of myths and the history of Egypt, from the predynastic to the postpharaonic period. She explains how Egyptian culture developed around the flooding of the Nile, or the "inundation," a phenomenon on which the whole welfare of the country depended, and how aspects of the inundation were personified as deities. She explains that the usually cloudless skies made for a preoccupation with the stars and planets. Indeed, much early Egyptian mythology may have developed to explain the movement of these celestial bodies. She provides a timeline covering the seven stages in the mythical history of Egypt and outlining the major events of each stage, such as the reign of the sun God. A substantial A to Z section covers the principal themes and concepts of Egyptian mythology as well as the most important deities, demons, and other characters. For anyone who wants to know about Anubis, the terrifying canine god who presided over the mummification of bodies and guarded burials, or Hathor, the golden goddess who helped women to give birth and the dead to be reborn, or an explanation of the nun, the primeval ocean from which all life came, Egyptian Mythology is the place to look.

In attempting even a brief and imperfect outline of the history of Egyptian queens the author has undertaken no easy task and craves indulgence for its modest fulfillment. The aim has been merely to put the little that is known in a readable and popular form, to gather from many sources the fragments that remain, partly historic, partly legendary, of a dead past. To present -- however imperfectl -- sketches of the women who once lived and breathed as Queens of Egypt.

Examining the power of hieroglyphic thinking--how thoughts create reality--and the multiple meanings behind every word of power, the author shows how, with the Neteru, we imagine the world into existence, casting a spell of consciousness over the material world. Uncovering the deep layers of meaning and symbol within the myths of the Egyptian gods and goddesses, Ellis investigates the shamanic journeys that ancient Egyptian priests used to view the unconscious and the afterlife and shares their initiations for immaculate conception, transubstantiation, resurrection, and eternal life - initiations that later became part of the Christian mystery school. Revealing the words of power used by these ancient priests/sorcerers, she explains how to search for the deeper, hidden truths beneath their spells and shows how ancient Egyptian consciousness holds the secret of life itself. Revealing the initiatory secrets of the Osirian Mystery school, Ellis provides the essential teachings and shamanic tools needed to return to Zep Tepi--the creative source--as we face the transitional time of radical change currently at hand.

For thousands of years, our world has been shaped by biblical monotheism. But its hallmark - a distinction between one true God and many false gods - was once a new and radical idea. ""Of God and Gods"" explores the revolutionary newness of biblical theology against a background of the polytheism that was once so commonplace.Jan Assmann, one of the most distinguished scholars of ancient Egypt working today, traces the concept of a true religion back to its earliest beginnings in Egypt and describes how this new idea took shape in the context of the older polytheistic world that it rejected. He offers readers a deepened understanding of Egyptian polytheism and elaborates on his concept of the ""Mosaic distinction,"" which conceives an exclusive and emphatic Truth that sets religion apart from beliefs shunned as superstition, paganism, or heresy.Without a theory of polytheism, Assmann contends, any adequate understanding of monotheism is impossible. This work will be of great interest to anyone seeking to understand the relationship between God and gods.

What is the Tekenu? What was its function? What are its origins? These are questions upon which Egyptologists have long pondered. However, Egyptologists, until now, have avoided any major work on the topic. Previous treatments of the Tekenu largely adopt a selective approach focusing on a specific form. Rarely has the Tekenu been examined profoundly in all of its forms or contexts with its possible origins commented upon merely in passing. The aim of The Tekenu and Ancient Egyptian Funerary Ritual is to provide a provocative examination and interpretation of the Tekenu in an endeavour to proffer plausible answers hitherto eluding scholars. Attested from the Fifth Dynasty until, and including the Saite Period, the Tekenu is a puzzling icon which is depicted within the funerary scenes in the tombs of some ancient Egyptian nobles. In this work four distinct types of Tekenu are identified and classified and then a Corpus Catalogue is formed. The Tekenu is appraised within the context of the wall scene. Two tombs are dealt with in greater detail.

The Bible says that a river flowed through the Garden of Eden and then split into four branches. There is only one river in the Near East that does exactly this, and that is the long oasis-garden of the Nile valley and its division into the (originally) four branches of the Nile Delta. This observation takes Ralph into the depths of the Genesis account, and it would seem that Adam and Eve were actually Akhenaton and Nefertiti; and so the Genesis story is actually a distillation of Akhenaton's Hymn to the Aten. Thus the Garden of Eden was originally the Garden of Aten (Akhenaton's god), and it resided at Amarna in Middle Egypt. The book also demonstrates that Hebrew is a direct descendant of the ancient Egyptian language, and that the Bible was written in Egyptian. This allows us to see that much of the Old Testament was based upon very ancient Egyptian law, stories and morality-tales.

The eighteen articles collected in this volume are the results of the international workshop, "Teaching Morality in Antiquity: Wisdom Texts, Oral Traditions, and Images," held at the Bibliotheca Albertina of the University of Leipzig between November 29th and December 1st, 2016 with the financial support of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. During the workshop, fruitful discussions on diverse issues related to the theme "wisdom texts and morality" developed regarding biblical wisdom texts and their parallels from the ancient Egypt, ancient Mesopotamia, and the ancient Levant - more specifically: moral messages and rhetoric in wisdom texts; the dissemination of wisdom teachings; teachings about the divine realm as the core of moral principles or human social order; visualization of divine authority; questions of theodicy; and modern analyses of ancient morality through the eyes of cognitive science.

This volume explores the earliest appearances and functions of the five major Egyptian goddesses Neith, Hathor, Nut, Isis and Nephthys. Although their importance endured throughout more than three millennia of ancient Egyptian history, their origins, earliest roles, and relationships in religion, myth, and cult have never before been studied together in detail. Showcasing the latest research with carefully chosen illustrations and a full bibliography, Susan Tower Hollis suggests that the origins of the goddesses derived primarily from their functions, as, shown by their first appearances in the text and art of the Protodynastic, Early Dynastic, and Old Kingdom periods of the late fourth and third millennia BCE. The roles of the goddess Bat are also explored where she is viewed both as an independent figure and in her specific connections to Hathor, including the background to their shared bovine iconography. Hollis provides evidence of the goddesses' close ties with royalty and, in the case of Neith, her special connections to early queens. Vital reading for all scholars of Egyptian religion and other ancient religions and mythology, this volume brings to light the earliest origins of these goddesses who would go on to play major parts in later narratives, myths, and mortuary cult.

For more than 2,000 years, between 1500 BCE and 600 CE, the Egyptian processional oracle was one of the main points of contact between temple-based religion and the general population. In a public ceremony, a god would indicate its will or answer questions through the movements of a portable cult statue borne by priests or important members of the community. The Egyptian Oracle Project is an interactive performance that adapts this ceremony to serve as the basis for a mixed-reality educational experience for children and young adults, using both virtual reality and live performance. The scene is set in a virtual Egyptian temple projected onto a wall. An oracle led by a high priest avatar (controlled by a live human puppeteer) is brought into the presence of a live audience, who act in the role of the Egyptian populace. Through the mediation of an actress, the audience interacts with the avatar, recreating the event. The series of carefully focused essays in this book provides vital background to this path-breaking project in three sections. After a brief introduction to educational theatre and virtual reality, the first section describes the ancient ceremony and its development, along with cross-cultural connections. Then the development of the script and its performance in the context of mixed-reality and educational theatre are examined. The final set of essays describes the virtual temple setting in more detail and explores the wider implications of this project for virtual heritage.

Unknown until it was discovered by archaeologists on the Temple of the Sun, the mystic Egyptian horoscopes are divided into 12 signs, each one ruled by a different Egyptian god. This extraordinary system is 4000 years old, but Storm Constantine, a recognised authority on Egyptian Mythology, brings it right up to date, with telling new insights into your personality. After extensive research, she has extrapolated the personalities of the gods and godesses and interpreted this ancient system for today's readers. For each sign, she reveals:the positive and negative characteristics of each sign• advice on maintaining health and the most suitable job• how to relate to partner, child, or friend according to their sign• your fate and fortune through the year.

Volume 2 of the work providing thorough coverage of numerous gods of ancient Egypt by foremost Egyptologist. Information on evolution of cults, rites and gods; the cult of Osiris; the Book of the Dead and its rites; the sacred animals and birds; Heaven and Hell; and more.

This seventh volume of The Carlsberg Papyri is dedicated to hieratic manuscripts from the Egyptian Tebtunis temple. The Tebtunis temple library is the only ancient temple library of which substantial remains are preserved, and the immense materialestimated at several hundred manuscriptsmakes it by far the richest, single source of Egyptian literary texts. This present volume is introduced by a survey of the hieratic and hieroglyphic manuscripts from the temple library. The survey is followed by full editions of a series of religious texts: an Osiris liturgy, the Ritual of Bringing Sokar out of the Shetit (previously known only from monumental hieroglyphic versions from temples and manuscripts for funerary use), the Votive Cubit (otherwise known essentially from fragments of the original stone cubits), the Nine-Headed Bes (a parallel to the famous illustrated Brooklyn papyrus but with a fuller description of how the practitioner should proceed), and the Ritual of Opening the Mouth (on

First published in 1988. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

In continuation of the demotic votive inscriptions collected in Short Texts Volume I, this volume brings together some 650 demotic and Greek-demotic mummy labels. These are in principle all labels published to date, but this number also contains some fifty unpublished labels as well as some fifty of which only the Greek, not the demotic side had been published previously. Of some two-hundred labels from which the names had been excerpted for use in our onomastic repertoria, the complete text is here published for the first time. In order to enhance the usefulness of this volume, also the demotic inscriptions on mummy linen, coffins, mummy boards and mummy masks, as well as those on the containers of mummified fauna and a number of small funerary papyri are included in this volume, some 260 texts in all. Thus the funerary theme has been treated fairly completely for the demotic texts, except for the demotic funerary stelae which will make up a separate Short Texts volume of their own.The volume is of course completed by Concordances with previous editions and by full Word Indices. Five Appendices treat of various textual, onomastic and palaeographic problems chiefly concerning the mummy labels, which bring new insights in these domains for the Roman period.