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Before dealing with the special varieties of the Egyptians' belief in gods, it is best to try to avoid a misunderstanding of their whole conception of the supernatural. The term god has come to tacitly imply to our minds such a highly specialized group of attributes, that we can hardly throw our ideas back into the more remote conceptions to which we also attach the same name. It is unfortunate that every other word for supernatural intelligence has become debased so that we cannot well speak of demons, devils, ghosts, or fairies without implying a noxious or a trifling meaning, quite unsuited to the ancient deities that were so beneficent and powerful. If then we use the word god for such c...
At the beginning of time, there was only Nun, the primeval waters of chaos, then in a great flood, the Sun got interned, rose from the water, and willed himself into creation. Atum then created Ayr, a son he named shu and moisture, a daughter he named Tefnut. They were the first divine pair and soon had children of their own. The earth named gab and the sky called nut the second divine pair then had four children: Osiris, Isis, Seth, and Neftis. They were completing the group of nine primeval gods known as the Ennead. Osiris then married his sister Isis, and the two ruled over Egypt together in an unprecedented time of peace and prosperity; however they're jealous, brother Seth desired the t...
In ancient Egyptian history, some dynasties prospered, and some faded out of existence. They are traditionally divided into thirty-two pharaonic dynasties; they are classified into "kingdoms" and "intermediate periods" from these dynasties.Manetho, the third-century Egyptian priest, gives us the first thirty dynasties, which he published in Aegytiaca, now lost to ravages of time. These likely stems from the Ptolemaic rule in Egypt. The Ptolemaic Dynasty and the 31st dynasty form the remaining two.While widely used and valuable, the system does have its weaknesses. Some dynasties only governed part of Egypt and endured concurrently with other dynasties based in other cities. The Seventh might...
THE PYRAMID TEXTS The king offers an offering! Anubis gives the offering! From the highlands come to thee your thousand young antelope with bowed heads. What a gift! Anubis gives this offering! Thank you for your thousand loaves! Thank you for your thousand beers! From the palace hall, you sent forth a thousand incenses! Everything pleasant in thy thousand! There are a thousand cattle in your herd! Everything thou eatest you eat in a thousand, on which thy desire is set! In addition to his work on the Berlin dictionary, Sethe's most significant contribution to Egyptology was an edition of hand-copied hieroglyphs, translations, and commentaries of all texts engraved in pyramids at the time. S...
These four Vedas comprise a highly developed religious system - the Rig, Sama, Atharva, and Yajur Vedas. Through the worship of the demigods, or the Vedic gods, these Vedas were primarily intended to encourage the satisfaction of material desires. Thus, the Vedas clearly explain how to perform the required worship and sacrifices or rituals to these devas (demigods) to receive the blessings required to increase one's power and position or reach the heavens in the future or for other purposes. The point is that the devas participate and affect all universal management and activities, including the weather or who is blessed with certain opulence, such as riches, beautiful spouses, large familie...
A Mysterious Group of People came to settle in southern Mesopotamia, sometime around 5400BC. What is now the modern state of Iraq, the first city of Mesopotamia was founded named Eridu. Although historians have generally regarded this as the world’s first city, we have seen this challenged on numerous occasions by recent discoveries too numerous to mention here. Eridu had all the things we ordinarily associate with an ancient city: temples, administrative buildings, housing, agriculture, markets, art, and, of course, walls to keep out unsavoury characters.The elusive aspect is we have absolutely no idea where they acquired their language, and bizarre language it is, we have no idea what th...
Where did the Sumerian civilization come from? You would think scholars, academics, and historians have been struggling to solve this cultural riddle, yet we still have hundreds of thousands of Sumerian clay writings crumbling to dust in museums rather than getting them all translated. The Sumerians were a multi-ethnic civilization, including the people who lived in Sumer and other people brought in from outside. The early Sumerian civilization builders came from the Zagros Mountains of western Iran and migrated south into what is now known as Iraq. This we know for sure. They comprise two groups, The Anunnaki Rulers, later called gods and deified, and Sumerian peoples, or indigenous people of the earth. Several Semitic peoples settled in Sumer, according to ancient historical records, starting around 4500 BCE. These immigrants settled throughout Mesopotamia and intermarried with the local population. Over time, these groups created their own cultures and languages but still followed many of the customs of their Anunnaki overlords.
There are a host of ancient ruins in South America, claimed by the Inca, inherited by the Inca, conquered by the Inca and built by the Inca. Although one label has stuck on each monument or ancient site, it is clear there are many layers of construction, physically and conceptually. Academics and Scholars still debate who built these, monuments, did they inherit them? Was there a Pre-Inca culture, but everyone can appreciate how advanced the ‘Inca Ancient Ruins’ found in the highlands of South America. The Inca were largest empire ever seen in the Americas and the largest in the world at that time, yet doubt is cast on their monuments and origins. Tiahuanaco, a region of Bolivia that hol...
Pyramids have been around for thousands of years, but we still don't know exactly how they were built. The oldest pyramids are found at Giza and Saqqara. The Great Pyramid at Giza is one of the Seven Wonders of the World and was built during the fourth dynasty (2575-2150 BC). During this time, there was also an increase in writing, literature, and artisanship. The Westcar Papyrus tells us of three royal women who lived during the 4th dynasty: Khufu's mother Henutsen, his wife Hetepheres I, and her sister Meresankh II. The latter was also his daughter-in-law because she married his son Khafre (ruled 2558–2532 BC). She may have been buried inside this pyramid when she died at age 26. The fir...
ANCIENT INDIA'S HINDU ORIGIN The reprimand of Lord Shiva by Brahma for harboring sexual feelings for his own daughter, Sandhya, led him to consult Daksha and his other sons about what to do. Due to his high status as a yogi and his lack of knowledge of women and passion, Shiva had little understanding of sexual feelings. Trying to make Shiva suffer from love's pangs, Brahma enlisted the help of Kama and Rati, his wife. The creation will continue to be mediocre unless Shiva indulges in sexual activity. Only Kama's power can triumph over Shiva, who is highly detached." Thus saying, Brahma requested the Kama to try his wiles on Lord Shiva. Vasanta was also created for the Kama to be his constan...