It’s been quite an adventure in Egypt so far, and some of the most empowering information about Egypt is related to the ancient Goddesses that used to be widely worshiped throughout ancient times. Sailing the Nile River, the longest river in the world for three days this past week has been very informative. The Nile valley is a canyon running about 660 miles long and the delta of it spans about 8,500 square miles! For this reason, it became a major source of livelihood for the people of ancient Egypt. The Nile it itself, is said to essentially represent the people of Egypt throughout much of its existence. The river is a magnificent piece of the world’s history and has likewise, been referenced with personifying the floods of the Nile with fertility.
These connections lead to strong beliefs in female goddesses during that time period. The Nile’s flow is also connected to the ancient Egyptian calendar, which was very similar to the calendar much of the world follows today. It included twelve months of 30 days each. The months were divided into seasons based upon the cycles of the Nile. Sound familiar? While cruising the Nile, you can stop off to see several temples of ancient Goddesses among other popular sites. Three of the Goddesses we learned about that seem to stick out the most are the Goddess Isis, more commonly known throughout popular culture, the Goddess Hathor and the Goddess Ma’at.
The Goddess Isis is one of the most famous Goddesses of ancient Egypt. The temple of Isis is locat
ed in the Island of Philae, an island that houses many of the temples of Gods and Goddesses of ancient Egypt. It was a major center of worship through the ancient world. Likewise, many of the ancient female deities of Egypt such as Mut, Neith, Nekhbet and Sekmet were also honored in Philae along with Isis. Her popularity resonates with what was believed to be her many powers. She was known as the Goddess of Magic, fertility, and childbirth. Each of the roles of the other Gods and Goddesses in ancient Egypt to some degree served and connected to Isis in some way. Under ancient beliefs, other gods and goddesses merge into one under Isis. She was rated a supreme deity for a large period of time and the belief in Isis spanned well into ancient Roman times as well as early Christian times where it was last traced. Clearly, the influence of Isis was a crucial part of Egypt’s ancient history. Pictures and carvings of Isis often depicted her as a woman with a throne on the top of her headdress. She is also often shown as wearing birds wings. She was often worshiped highly by pharaohs and members of all classes in ancient Egyptian society.
The Goddess Hathor is the Goddess of love, pleasure and beauty. She is also known as goddess of the sky and often depicted wearing cow horns or as a cow. She was considered the protector of pregnant women and midwives. She was the patron of all women, no matter their station in life. Her appearance is usually that of a cow bearing the sun disk between her horns, or a woman wearing a sun disk and horns on her head. In later periods, both images seemed to be combined as one as a woman with a cow’s head. Her temple is located in Upper Egypt, in Dendera on the west bank of the Nile River.
The Goddess Ma’at is not as well known to the modern world, which is ironic since the concepts in which she represented certainly left a mark. Ma’at is known as the Goddess of cosmic order, truth and justice. She represents right relationship to all things. She is often seen in ancient paintings wearing one Ostrich feather on her head to represent truth. Her name literally meant truth in Egyptian. Order and rational was a highly practiced concept in ancient Egyptian history, which may explain the early successes of the country in the ancient world. The “laws” of Ma’at as a result, were heavily honored and respected as a form of “taboo.” Egypt was said “to be nothing without Ma’at,” at the time. The goddess was also known as the wife of Thoth, the moon god and the god of Wisdom. A small temple of Ma’at exists inside the Karnak Temple Complex. It is likely that a “Priest of Ma’at” in ancient times were often involved within Egypt’s justice system. In later times, the ancient Roman Goddess of Lady Justice also represented similar concepts to Ma’at and is often displayed as a symbol of justice within the American justice system. It appears that Isis, Ma’at and Lady Justice are all linked.
Isn’t it also interesting that all of these Goddesses are depicted as females? Now that’s a nice thought to swagger with don’t you think? If women prayed and believed in these goddesses nowadays, do you think we would have great swagger? To find out more about the goddesses mentioned in this blog, you can click on the Wikipedia link here. We’ll be back soon with more information and pics about the trip to Egypt. For now, connections are limited so please bare with us. Until then, insha’allah!
April 13th, 2012
Maybe you recently celebrated Easter – either in a religious way by going to church or in a fun way by having an Easter egg hunt. Did you ever wonder where the tradition of the Easter bunny bringing eggs came from? So often our celebrations are a mix of the religious and the traditional. We may not stop to wonder where the elements of our celebration came from. I’ve heard Christians say they resent that pagans are always trying to steal their holidays – not knowing that Christian holidays are often adaptations of much more ancient rituals.
