The Message Of The Sphinx Part 8

The world view of the ancient Egyptians, which they appear to have inherited intact and fully formed at the very beginning of their historical civilization some 5000 years ago, was profoundly dualistic and cosmological. The foundation of Pharaonic theocracy, the unification of the 'Two Lands' of Upper and Lower Egypt into one kingdom, the notions that they had of their own past and ancestry, their laws and calendrical measures, the architecture of their temples and pyramid complexes, and even the land of Egypt itself and the Nile-all these were cosmological concepts to them. Indeed, they saw their cosmic environment (the sky, the Milky Way, the sun and the stars, the moon and the planets, and all their cycles) as being bound together in perfect duality with their earthly environment (their land and the Nile, their living king and his ancestors, and the cycles of the seasons and epochs).

We suspect that the history of ancient Egypt, to the extent that it was written down at all in papyri and tablets and inscriptions, was frequently expressed in a kind of 'cosmic code' ritualistically and symbolically linked-like the Pyramids themselves-to the ever-changing patterns of the sky. From this it follows that we must look to the sky, just as the Egyptians did, if we wish to understand the ideas that they were trying to communicate in their (on the face of things) extremely strange and problematic religious writings. These writings include mysterious and archaic texts aimed at guiding the afterlife journey of the deceased, such as the Book of the Dead (which the ancient Egyptians knew as Per-em-Hru, the Book of 'Coming Forth By Day'), the Book of Two Ways, the Book of Gates, the Book of What is in the Duat and the Coffin Texts. Oldest and most enigmatic of all these funerary and rebirth doc.u.ments however, are the so-called Pyramid Texts which began to be copied and compiled from older sources in the second half of the third millennium bc. These remarkable records have come down to us in the form of lavish hieroglyphic inscriptions on the tomb walls of a number of Fifth-and Sixth-Dynasty pyramids at Saqqara, some ten miles to the south of the Giza necropolis, and offer us a hitherto neglected key by means of which the secrets of the great Pyramids and the Sphinx can be unlocked.

Astronomical essence

All the above-named doc.u.ments, and many more, have been translated into modern languages during the past hundred years, and all have been studied by scholars-the majority of whom would not dispute that they incorporate a complex network of astronomical references, symbols, allegories and allusions.[280] Only a handful of researchers, however, have considered the possibility that these astronomical characteristics could const.i.tute the essence of the texts. In this group the late Giorgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend, whose study, Hamlet's Mill, we encountered in Chapter 4, have commented on the manner in which the soul of the deceased Pharaoh was thought of as having travelled through the skies: ... well-equipped ... with his Pyramid Text or Coffin Text, which represented his indispensable timetable and contained the ordained addresses of every celestial individual he was expected to meet. The Pharaoh relied upon his particular text as the less distinguished dead relied upon his copy of chapters from the Book of the Dead, and he was prepared to change shape into the ... semblance of whatever celestial 'station' must be pa.s.sed, and to recite the fitting formulae to overcome hostile beings ...[281]

Santillana and von Dechend also comment, somewhat witheringly, on the hopeless inadequacy of many of the translations that scholars work with today-translations which treat the astronomical aspects of the texts as though they are of no particular relevance: So the elaborate instructions in the Book of the Dead, referring to the soul's celestial voyage, translate into 'mystical' talk, and must be treated as holy mumbo jumbo. But then, modern translators believe so firmly in their own invention, according to which the underworld has to be looked for in the interior of our globe-instead of in the sky-that even 370 specific astronomical terms would not cause them to stumble.[282]

The problem identified here is, we will demonstrate, a large and multi-faceted one which has led scholarly a.n.a.lysis of the texts into a blind alley through a complete and conspicuous neglect of: (a) the most important religious concept of the ancient Egyptians; (b) the most vital feature of their land and sky and (c) the most fundamental element of their spiritual and cosmological beliefs.

Otherworld

In the earliest religious writings that have survived from ancient Egypt a powerful symbolic terminology is used to describe the cosmic 'world of the dead' and its features. This world is referred to as the Duat[283]-a concept that is routinely translated by modern Egyptologists as 'the Underworld' (or sometimes as the 'Netherworld').[284] In the Pyramid Texts, however, the Duat is clearly a location in the starry sky-as many distinguished Egyptologists of earlier generations such as Selim Ha.s.san, Sir E. A. Wallis Budge and Kurt Sethe were undoubtedly aware.[285] Yet even these pioneers failed to get to grips with the full implications and characteristics of the concept because they lacked familiarity with astronomy.

For example, in his a.n.a.lysis of the various ways in which the word Duat was inscribed in hieroglyphic characters throughout the whole span of Egyptian history, Selim Ha.s.san makes the following comment: 'If we consider the evidence afforded by the meaning of its name during the Old Kingdom [the Pyramid Age], we shall see that the original Duat, the future Underworld, was localized in the sky.'[286] He then cites the view of Kurt Sethe that 'the Duat could be either the red glow of twilight which precedes the dawn (i.e. the "false dawn") or the s.p.a.cious region in the east of the sky where this glow appears ...'[287]

Ha.s.san goes on to quote from line 151 of the Pyramid Texts: 'Orion has been enveloped by the Duat; while he who lives in the Horizon (i.e. Re [the sun-G.o.d]) purifies himself; Sothis [Sirius] has been enveloped by the Duat ... in the embrace of [their] father Atum.'

In Ha.s.san's opinion: 'This clearly shows how, as the sun rises and purifies himself in the Horizon, the stars Orion and Sothis [Sirius], with whom the King is identified, are enveloped by the Duat. This is a true observation of nature, and it really appears as though the stars are swallowed up each morning in the increasing glow of the dawn. Perhaps the determinative of the word Duat, the star within a circle, ill.u.s.trates the idea of this enveloping of the star. When on his way to join the stars, the dead king must first pa.s.s by (or through) the Duat which will serve to guide him in the right direction. Thus we see in Utterance 610 [of the Pyramid Texts]: "The Duat guides your feet to the Dwelling-place of Orion ... The Duat guides your hand to the Dwelling-place of Orion." ...'[288]

Stars rising with the sun

Ha.s.san's a.s.sessment of the celestial landscape of the Duat is only accurate in as much as he realizes that it is in the east, that the moment of observation is the pre-dawn (which he calls 'false dawn', and that the constellation of Orion (Osiris), the star Sirius (Isis), the sun (Re), and some other cosmic feature representing 'Atum' (the 'Father' of the G.o.ds), are all to be found in the Duat. Because he is not conversant with basic celestial mechanics, however, and because he fails to set the relevant lines from the Pyramid Texts in the context of their time and their place, he then goes on to make a serious error of interpretation which has subsequently been compounded by numerous other astronomically illiterate scholars: 1. The time the Pyramid Texts were compiled was the epoch of 2800 bc to 2300 bc approximately.[289]

2. The place of observation of the sky was just south of modern Cairo in the so-called 'Memphite necropolis' (named after Men-nefer, later 'Memphis', the first historically recognized capital of ancient Egypt), where stand the great Pyramids of Giza (and also lesser Old Kingdom pyramids such as those at Abu Roash, Abusir, Saqqara, Dahshur and Meidum).[290]

3. The error that Ha.s.san makes is his a.s.sumption that the stars in question-i.e. Orion and Sirius-are swallowed up 'each morning' in the 'increasing glow of the dawn.'

34. The 'Memphite necropolis'-Pyramid fields from Abu Roash to Dahshur.

35. Rising points of the sun at the solstices and equinoxes as observed from the Memphite necropolis. In the epoch of 2500 bc-the 'Pyramid Age'-the Duat was observed and considered to be active only at the time of the summer solstice when the stars of Orion and Sirius rose heliacally (i.e. just ahead of the sun) at dawn.

In fact there is only one time of the year when this 'swallowing-up' occurs-a time that slowly alters down the epochs because of the earth's precessional motion. The long and the short of it is that in the Pyramid Age the specific phenomena described in the texts, and addressed by Ha.s.san (phenomena known technically as the 'heliacal risings' of Orion and Sirius, i.e. the risings of these stars just ahead of the sun at dawn) could only have been observed at around midsummer-i.e. at the summer solstice.[291] The Duat, in other words, was considered by the ancient Egyptians to be active only at the time of the summer solstice when Orion and Sirius rose heliacally and not, as Ha.s.san suggests, throughout the year.

With these facts in mind, let us attempt to reinterpret the cosmic Duat, this time placing it in its proper astronomical context.

Cosmic river

One of the most salient features of the Duat, as it is described in the ancient Egyptian texts, is its relationship to a great cosmic 'river' called the 'Winding Waterway'. Several studies have confirmed beyond any serious doubt that the 'Winding Waterway' was the magical band of light meandering across the sky that we know as the 'Milky Way'.[292] It is also evident that the ancient priest-astronomers who compiled the Pyramid Texts identified the terrestrial counterpart of this 'Winding Waterway' in the sky as the River Nile and its yearly flood, the 'Great Inundation', which also happened to coincide with the summer solstice:[293]

The Winding Waterway is flooded, the Fields of Rushes are filled with water, and I am ferried over thereon to yonder eastern side of the Sky, the place where the G.o.ds fashioned me ... [Orion's] sister is Sothis [Sirius] ...[294]

I have come to my waterways which are in the bank of the Flood of the Great Inundation, to the place of contentment ... which is in the Horizon ...[295]

May you lift me and raise me to the Winding Waterway, may you set me among the G.o.ds, the Imperishable stars ...[296]

As Sir E. A. Wallis Budge rightly observed: 'the Egyptians ... from the earliest times ... depicted to themselves a material heaven [the Duat] ... on the banks of a Heavenly Nile, whereon they built cities.'[297] And similarly the philologist Raymond Faulkner, who translated the Pyramid Texts and much of the other religious literature of ancient Egypt into English, could not avoid making the obvious correlations between the 'celestial river', the 'Winding Waterway' and the Milky Way.[298]

Kingdom of Osiris in the sky

The stars of Orion and Sirius are located on the right bank of the Milky Way, which-at the summer solstice in the Pyramid Age-would have appeared as a vertical 'cosmic river' in the pre-dawn in the east.

To the ancient Egyptians, therefore, the Duat could not possibly have been seen merely as some vague, blank, rose-tinted region somewhere over the eastern horizon. On the contrary, it clearly had an extremely specific address in the sky-the 'Dwelling Place' of 'Orion and Sirius' on the banks of the 'celestial Nile': Be firm O Osiris-King [Orion] on the underside of the sky with the Beautiful Star [Sirius] upon the bend of the Winding Waterway ...[299]

Betake yourself to the Waterway ... May a stairway to the Duat be set for you to the place where Orion is ...[300]

O King, you are this Great Star, the companion of Orion, who traverses the sky with Orion, who navigates [in] the Duat with Osiris ...'[301]

36. The sky region of the Duat with the stars of Orion and Sirius rising heliacally just ahead of the sun at dawn on the summer solstice. It was at this time of the year, and at this moment only, that the Duat was considered to be 'active'. Note that the Milky Way at this same moment appeared as a vertical 'cosmic river' in the east. Also shown is the trajectory of the Orion stars after their dawn rising until their culmination at the meridian.

With this starry landscape in mind, we can begin to conjure up a fairly detailed image of the Duat, the 'Kingdom of Osiris' in the sky-a distinct pattern of stars, at a specific celestial location, that comes complete with its own 'cosmic Nile'.

But when was this cosmic kingdom 'founded'?

'First Time'

In their most profound and beautiful religious texts, as we noted in Part I, the ancient Egyptians spoke of 'the time of the G.o.ds', Zep Tepi (literally the 'First Time') with the unshakeable conviction that there had indeed been such an epoch. In other words, they believed that Zep Tepi had been an actual, historical event. In line with their prevailing dualism they also believed that it had been projected and 'recorded' in the catalogue of the starry sky. Indeed it was a story that was re-enacted endlessly in the cosmic setting by the cyclical displays of the celestial orbs and the constellations.

What they had in mind, in other words, was a kind of cosmic 'pa.s.sion play', expressed in the language of allegorical astronomy, in which each main character was identified with a specific celestial body. Re was the sun, Osiris was Orion, Isis was the star Sirius, Thoth was the moon-and so on and so forth. Nor was the drama only confined to the celestial realms; on the contrary, as one might expect in dualistic ancient Egypt, it was also re-enacted on the ground, amidst the cosmic ambiance of the astronomical Pyramids of Giza, where the events of the 'First Time' were commemorated for millennia in secret rituals and liturgies.[302]

Very little is known about these liturgies, or about the myths they expressed. As the Egyptologist R. T. Rundle Clark explains: The creation of the myths was founded on certain principles. These are strange and, as yet, only partially understood. The most important element seems to have been as follows: (a) The basic principles of life, nature and society were determined by the G.o.ds long ago, before the establishment of kingship. This epoch-Zep Tepi-'the First Time'-stretched from the first stirring of the High G.o.d in the Primeval Waters to the settling of Horus upon the throne and the redemption of Osiris. All proper myths relate events or manifestations of this epoch.

(b) Anything whose existence or authority had to be justified or explained must be referred to the 'First Time'. This was true for natural phenomena, rituals, royal insignia, the plans of temples, magical or medical formulae, the hieroglyphic system of writing, the calendar-the whole paraphernalia of the civilization ...[303]

Rundle Clark has also recognized that Egyptian art 'is nearly all symbolism', that 'the architectural arrangements and decoration were a kind of mythical landscape' worked down to the last detail, and that everything had a meaning: The shrine [tomb or pyramid complex] of the G.o.d [the king], for instance, was the 'Horizon', the land of glorious light beyond the dawn horizon where the G.o.ds dwelt. The Temple was an image of the universe as it now existed and, at the same time, the land on which it stood was the Primeval Mound which arose from the waters of the Primeval Ocean at Creation ... At the close of the daily temple service, the priests raised a small figure of Maat (the G.o.ddess of Law and Order) in front of the divine image. This act was meant to a.s.sert that Tightness and order had been re-established, but it was also a repet.i.tion of an event that took place at the beginning of the world ... of some mythical happening in the time of the G.o.ds ...[304]

Golden Age and the entry of evil

In later chapters we shall be returning to take a closer look at this 'First Time' of the G.o.ds. Here, however, it is sufficient to note that Zep Tepi was regarded as a mysterious and wonderful golden age that had immediately followed Creation. Furthermore, in the minds of the ancient Egyptians at least, this golden age had not occurred in some hard-to-find never-never land like the Biblical 'Garden of Eden' but in a familiar and unmistakably real physical and historical setting. Indeed it was their emphatic belief that the huge triangular region just south of the apex of the Nile Delta encompa.s.sing Heliopolis, Memphis and Giza was the actual geographical location of the events of the 'First Time'-a real 'Garden of Eden', in short, with real geographical features and places. It was here, amidst this sacred landscape, that the G.o.ds of the 'First Time' were said in the texts to have established their earthly kingdom.[305]

And what was the cultural character of that Kingdom? Rundle Clark gives the best summary: ... all that was good or efficacious was established on the principles laid down in the 'First Time'-which was, therefore, a golden age of absolute perfection-'before rage or clamour or strife or uproar had come about'. No death, disease or disaster occurred in this blissful epoch, known variously as 'the time of Re', 'the time of Osiris', or 'the time of Horus' ...[306]

37. The huge triangular region just south of the apex of the Nile Delta encompa.s.sing Heliopolis, Memphis and Giza was regarded by the ancient Egyptians as the actual geographical location of the events of the 'First Time'-a sort of geodetic 'Garden of Eden' focused on astronomical lat.i.tude 30 degrees north.

The G.o.ds Osiris and Horus, together with Re (in his composite form as Re-Atum, the 'Father' of the G.o.ds) were regarded by the ancient Egyptians as the supreme expressions and exemplars of the 'blissful epoch of the "First Time" '.[307]

Osiris they remembered in particular for having been the first to sit on the throne of this divine Kingdom, which he ruled jointly with his consort Isis.[308] The golden age of plenty over which the royal couple presided (during which agriculture and animal husbandry were taught to humans and laws and religious doctrines were set for them) was however brought to an abrupt and violent halt when Osiris was murdered by his brother, Seth. Left without child, Isis brought the dead Osiris back to life for long enough to receive his seed. As a result of this union she, in due course, gave birth to Horus whose destiny it was to wrangle back the 'kingdom of Osiris' from the clutches of his evil uncle Seth.

Shabaka texts

In all its essential elements this is, of course, the story that we know as Hamlet (which has a far older pedigree than the Shakespeare play[309]), and it is also, in its most recent Hollywood manifestation, the story of the Lion King (brother murders brother, bereaved son of the murder victim takes revenge on his uncle and sets the Kingdom to rights).

The original Egyptian version of the story-the so-called 'Memphite Theology'-is found in texts inscribed on a monument known as the 'Shabaka Stone', now in the British Museum.[310] Here we read how, after a great quarrel between Horus and Seth (in which Horus lost an eye and Seth a t.e.s.t.i.c.l.e) Geb, the earth-G.o.d (the father of Osiris and Isis), summoned the Great Council of the G.o.ds-the nine-member 'Ennead' of Heliopolis-and with them pa.s.sed judgement between Horus and Seth: Geb, lord of the G.o.ds, commanded the Nine G.o.ds to gather to him. He judged between Horus and Seth; he ended their quarrel. He made Seth king of Upper Egypt, up to the place in which he was born, which is Su. And Geb made Horus king of Lower Egypt, up to the place in which his father [Osiris] was drowned[311] which is 'Division-of-the-Two-Lands'. Thus Horus stood over one region, and Seth stood over one region. They made peace over the Two Lands at Ayan. That was the division of the Two Lands ...[312]

Let us note in pa.s.sing that Ayan is not a mythical place but was an actual, physical location in ancient Egypt immediately to the north of Memphis, the Early Dynastic capital city.[313] The judgement that was made here was later changed, as the Shabaka Texts go on to tell us: Then it seemed wrong to Geb that the portion of Horus was like the portion of Seth. So Geb gave to Horus his [Seth's] inheritance, for he [Horus] is the son of his first born [Osiris] ...

Then Horus stood over the two lands. He is the uniter of the Two Lands, proclaimed in the great name: Ta-tenen, 'South-of-his-Wall', 'Lord of Eternity'... He is Horus, who arose as King of Upper and Lower Egypt, who united the Two Lands in the [District] of the Wall [Memphis], the place where the Two Lands were united ...[314]

Treasure trail

What we have in this amazing story is a sort of treasure trail of clues as to how the ancient Egyptians themselves saw the mythical-historical transfer of the 'deeds' or keys of the 'Kingdom of Osiris' to Horus by the Great Ennead and Geb.

It seems clear, for example, that this momentous event was thought to have taken place at Ayan, immediately to the north of Memphis, i.e. about 10 miles or so south of modern Cairo.[315]

And as for the dead Osiris, the Shabaka Texts tell us how the G.o.d was taken and buried 'in the land of Sokar': This is the land ... the burial [place] of Osiris in the House of Sokar ... Horus speaks to Isis and [her sister] Nepthys: 'Hurry, grasp him ...' Isis and Nepthys speak to Osiris: 'We come, we take you ...' They heeded in time and brought him to land. He entered the hidden portals in the glory of the Lords of Eternity. Thus Osiris came into the Earth, at the Royal Fortress, to the north of the land to which he had come. And his son Horus as king of Upper Egypt, arose as king of Lower Egypt in the embrace of his father Osiris ...[316]

Where, what, and whose was the 'land of Sokar'?

It turns out to have been an epithet used by the ancient Egyptians to describe the extensive 'Memphite necropolis' incorporating the Pyramid-field of Giza. According to Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, for example: 'The dominions of Sokar were situated in the deserts round about Memphis and were supposed to cover a large extent of territory.'[317] I. E. S. Edwards tells us that the name 'Sokar' was that of 'the G.o.d of the Memphite necropolis'-a predynastic deity of the dead-and that 'by Pyramid times Osiris had become identified with Sokar'.[318] R. T. Rundle Clark then further complicates the picture by speaking of 'Rostau, the modern Giza, the burial place of Memphis and the home of a form of Osiris known as Sokar'.[319]

What confronts us, therefore, appears to be a linked sequence of ideas involving Osiris, Sokar, the 'land of Sokar' (identified with the Memphite necropolis), and now 'Rostau', the ancient Egyptian name for the Pyramid-field at Giza-a name that is in fact carved in hieroglyphs on the granite stela, which we encountered in Part I, that stands to this day between the paws of the Great Sphinx.[320] That same stela also describes Giza in more general terms as 'the Splendid Place of the "First Time" ' and speaks of the Sphinx as standing beside 'the House of Sokar'.[321]

So the clues on the treasure trail, as well as Osiris, Sokar, the land of Sokar and Rostau-Giza, now also include the 'House of Sokar' and lead us back towards Zep Tepi, the 'First Time'.

Bearing all this in mind, let us return for a final look at the Memphite theology as it is expressed in the Shabaka Texts.

We find Horus firmly in possession of the earthly 'Kingdom of Osiris' (which had of course been founded in the 'First Time') and we find the body of Osiris himself safely installed in 'the House of Sokar'.[322] Under these ideal conditions, according to the texts, the spiritualized form of Osiris was freed to depart to the sky-and to a specific location in the sky that we have already identified: 'the place where Orion is'.[323] There it was held that he had established the Duat-the cosmic 'Otherworld' on the right bank of the Milky Way-as a sort of celestial 'Kingdom of Osiris' for the Dead.[324]

Sphinx G.o.d