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Harpocrates
Harpocrates (, Phoenician language, Phoenician: đ€đ€đ€đ€đ€đ€, romanized: áž„rpkráč, ''harpokratÄs'') is the god of silence, secrets and confidentiality in the Hellenistic religion developed in History of Alexandria#Ptolemaic era, Ptolemaic Alexandria (and also an Hope#In mythology, embodiment of hope, according to Plutarch). ancient Greece, Greeks syncretism , adapted Harpocrates from the ancient Egyptian religion, Egyptian child-god Horus, who represented the newborn sun, rising each day at dawn. The name "Harpocrates" originated as a Hellenization of the Egyptian language, Egyptian ''Har-pa-khered'' or ''Heru-pa-khered'', meaning "Horus the Child". Horus the Child was portrayed as a naked boy with his finger to his mouth as if sucking on it, an Egyptian artistic convention for representing a child. Greeks and Romans misunderstood this pose as a gesture of silence and interpreted Harpocrates as the god of secrecy. Horus In Egyptian mythology, Horus was the c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Horus
Horus (), also known as Heru, Har, Her, or Hor () in Egyptian language, Ancient Egyptian, is one of the most significant ancient Egyptian deities who served many functions, most notably as the god of kingship, healing, protection, the sun, and the sky. He was worshipped from at least the late prehistoric Egypt until the Ptolemaic Kingdom and Egypt (Roman province), Roman Egypt. Different forms of Horus are recorded in history, and these are treated as distinct gods by Egyptology, Egyptologists."The Oxford Guide: Essential Guide to Egyptian Mythology", Edited by Donald B. Redford, Horus: by Edmund S. Meltzer, pp. 164â168, Berkley, 2003, . These various forms may be different manifestations of the same multi-layered deity in which certain attributes or Syncretism, 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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isis
Isis was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingdom () as one of the main characters of the Osiris myth, in which she resurrects her slain brother and husband, the divine king Osiris, and produces and protects his heir, Horus. She was believed to help the dead enter the afterlife as she had helped Osiris, and she was considered the divine mother of the pharaoh, who was likened to Horus. Her maternal aid was invoked in healing spells to benefit ordinary people. Originally, she played a limited role in royal rituals and temple rites, although she was more prominent in funerary practices and magical texts. She was usually portrayed in art as a human woman wearing a throne-like hieroglyph on her head. During the New Kingdom (), as she took on traits that originally belonged to Hathor, the preeminent goddess of earlier times, Isis was portrayed wearing Hathor's headdress: a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hatmehit
Hatmehit or Hatmehyt () was an Ancient Egyptian goddess associated with the city in the Nile Delta known as Djedet () or Mendes (). Etymology Hatmehit's name is typically translated as "Foremost of Fish", literally from the words ''áž„êąt'' "Chief, head, foremost" and ''máž„yt'' "fish" (as a mass noun). However, the word ''máž„yt'' in Hatmehit's name does not include the fish determinative, which allows it to have a double meaning. The root of ''máž„yt'' is ''máž„j'', which also means "to flood". Therefore her name is sometimes considered to mean "Foremost of the Inundation", with a connection drawn between the floodwaters and the fish that come with them. Iconography In Ancient Egyptian art, Hatmehit was traditionally depicted either as a fish or a woman with a fish emblem or crown on her head. The fish can be directly above her head or presented on a standard, as in the nome symbol of Nome 16 of Lower Egypt. Due to that, it is difficult to distinguish images that depic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Serapis
Serapis or Sarapis is a Egyptian Greeks, Graeco-Egyptian god. A Religious syncretism, syncretic deity derived from the worship of the Egyptian Osiris and Apis (deity), Apis, Serapis was extensively popularized in the third century BC on the orders of Greek Pharaoh Ptolemy I Soter, as a means to unify the Greek and Egyptian subjects of the Ptolemaic Kingdom. The of Serapis was spread as a matter of deliberate policy by subsequent Ptolemaic kings. Serapis continued to increase in popularity during the Roman Empire, often replacing Osiris as the consort of Isis in temples outside Egypt. Alongside his Egyptian roots he gained attributes from other deities, such as chthonic powers linked to the Greek Hades and Demeter, and benevolence derived from associations with Dionysus. Etymology Originally known as Demotic (Egyptian), Demotic , ('Osiris-Apis (deity), Apis'), the name of the deity is derived from the syncretic worship of Osiris and the bull Apis as a single deity under the Egy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Interpretatio Graeca
, or "interpretation by means of Greek [models]", refers to the tendency of the ancient Greeks to identify foreign deities with their own gods. It is a discourse used to interpret or attempt to understand the mythology and religion of other cultures; a Comparative religion, comparative methodology using Religion in ancient Greece, ancient Greek religious concepts and practices, List of Greek deities, deities, and Greek mythology, myths, Comparative mythology, equivalencies, and shared characteristics. The phrase may describe Greek efforts to explain others' beliefs and myths, as when Herodotus describes ancient Egyptian religion, Egyptian religion in terms of perceived Greek analogues, or when Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Plutarch document Cult (religious practice), Roman cults, Roman temple, temples, and practices under the names of equivalent Greek deities. may also describe non-Greeks' interpretation of their own belief systems by comparison or assimilation with Greek model ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
History Of Alexandria
The history of Alexandria dates back to the city's founding, by Alexander the Great, in 331 BC. Yet, before that, there were large port cities just east of Alexandria, at the western edge of what is now Abu Qir Bay. The Canopic (westernmost) branch of the Nile Delta still existed at that time, and was widely used for shipping. After its foundation, Alexandria became the seat of the Ptolemaic Kingdom, and quickly grew to be one of the greatest cities of the Hellenistic world. Only Rome, which gained control of Egypt in 30 BC, eclipsed Alexandria in size and wealth. The city fell to the Arabs in AD 641, and a new capital of Egypt, Fustat, was founded on the Nile. After Alexandria's status as the country's capital ended, it fell into a long decline, which by the late Ottoman period, had seen it reduced to little more than a small fishing village. The French army under Napoleon captured the city in 1798 and the British soon captured it from the French, retaining Alexandria ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
KanaanÀische Und AramÀische Inschriften
KanaanÀische und AramÀische Inschriften (in English, Canaanite and Aramaic Inscriptions), or KAI, is the standard source for the original text of Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions not contained in the Hebrew Bible. It was first published from 1960 to 1964 in three volumes by the German orientalists Herbert Donner and Wolfgang Röllig, and has been updated in numerous subsequent editions. The work attempted to "integrate philology, palaeography and cultural history" in the commented re-editing of a selection of Canaanite and Aramaic Inscriptions, using the "pertinent source material for the Phoenician, Punic, Moabite, pre-exile-Hebrew and Ancient Aramaic cultures." Röllig and Donner had the support of William F. Albright in Baltimore, James Germain Février in Paris and Giorgio Levi Della Vida in Rome during the compilation of the first edition. Editions The 4th edition was published between 1966 and 1969, and a 5th edition was published in 2002. However, the 5th edit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ancient Egyptian Religion
Ancient Egyptian religion was a complex system of Polytheism, polytheistic beliefs and rituals that formed an integral part of ancient Egyptian culture. It centered on the Egyptians' interactions with Ancient Egyptian deities, many deities believed to be present and in control of the world. About 1,500 deities are known. Rituals such as prayer and offerings were provided to the gods to gain their favor. Formal religious practice centered on the pharaohs, the rulers of Egypt, believed to possess divine powers by virtue of their positions. They acted as intermediaries between their people and the gods, and were obligated to sustain the gods through rituals and offerings so that they could maintain Ma'at, the order of the cosmos, and repel Isfet (Egyptian mythology), Isfet, which was chaos. The state dedicated enormous resources to religious rituals and to the construction of Egyptian temple, temples. Individuals could interact with the gods for their own purposes, appealing for hel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Banebdjedet
Banebdjedet also spelled Banebdjed is an Ancient Egyptian ram god with a cult centre at Mendes. Khnum was the equivalent god in Upper Egypt. Most notably known for appearing in the myth of Horus and Set. Family His wife was the goddess Hatmehit ("Foremost of the Fishes"), who was perhaps the original deity of Mendes. Their offspring was " Horus the Child" and they formed the so-called "Mendesian Triad". Etymology The words for "ram" and "soul" sounded the same in Egyptian, so ram deities were at times regarded as appearances of other gods. Image Typically, the horned god Banebdjedet was depicted with four rams' heads to represent the four Bas of the sun god. He may also be linked to the first four gods to rule over Egypt (Osiris, Geb, Shu and Ra-Atum), with large granite shrines to each in the Mendes sanctuary. Accounts The '' Book of the Heavenly Cow'' describes the "Ram of Mendes" as being the ''Ba'' of Osiris, but this was not an exclusive association. A story dated t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chaos (cosmogony)
Chaos () is the cosmological void state preceding the creation of the universe (the cosmos) in early Greek cosmology. It can also refer to an early state of the cosmos constituted of nothing but undifferentiated and indistinguishable matter. Etymology Greek ''khĂĄos'' () means ' emptiness, vast void, chasm, abyss', related to the verbs ''khĂĄskĆ'' () and ''khaĂnĆ'' () 'gape, be wide open', from Proto-Indo-European ', cognate to Old English ''geanian'', 'to gape', whence English '' yawn''. It may also mean space, the expanse of air, the nether abyss, or infinite darkness. Pherecydes of Syros (fl. 6th century BC) interprets ''chaos'' as water, like something formless that can be differentiated. Greco-Roman tradition Hesiod and the pre-Socratics use the Greek term in the context of cosmogony. Hesiod's Chaos has been interpreted as either "the gaping void above the Earth created when Earth and Sky are separated from their primordial unity" or "the gaping space below the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hades
Hades (; , , later ), in the ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, is the god of the dead and the king of the Greek underworld, underworld, with which his name became synonymous. Hades was the eldest son of Cronus and Rhea (mythology), Rhea, although this also made him the last son to be Cronus#Mythology, regurgitated by his father. He and his brothers, Zeus and Poseidon, defeated their father's generation of gods, the Titan (mythology) , Titans, and claimed joint rulership over the cosmos. Hades received the underworld, Zeus the sky, and Poseidon the sea, with the solid earth (long the province of Gaia (mythology) , Gaia) available to all three concurrently. In artistic depictions, Hades is typically portrayed holding a bident and wearing his cap of invisibility , helm with Cerberus, the Polycephaly, three-headed dogs in religion#Religions, myths, legends, and cultures, guard-dog of the underworld, standing at his side. Roman-era mythographers eventually ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
