Sobek: The Carnivorous Croc

Hey guys!  Today we're taking a look at a very fun god from Egyptian mythology...Sobek.

Sobek (also spelled Sebek) is one of my absolute favorite deities.  "Why?" one might ask.

The answer is simple.

Sobek has the head of a crocodile.

Is that not amazing?!

*Ahem*.

Besides possessing an amazing reptilian face, Sobek is also a pretty neat god.  He's a deity of protection and battle.  While he can be fierce, he's also seen as a very defensive-based god.  To put it in video game terminology, Sobek is a tank.

Unfortunately for this god, Sobek is also a giant carnivorous crocodile.  Sometimes his predatory instincts get the best of him.

There are several stories in which this happens.  In one, Sobek goes out and slaughters a group of robbers - villainous scum, all of them, so their deaths are perfectly justified.  Seeing their bodies lying dead with tasty smelling blood dripping from the wounds, Sobek got a little carried away.  He ate all of the bodies and then carried the heads back to the gods as proof of the villains' deaths.  The gods were horrified by his actions and hid all of their meat, placating him with bread instead.

I'm amused by this.

Another story about Sobek's appetite is rather interesting.  I mentioned in my post about Osiris that the dead god was torn to pieces by his brother Set, and the pieces were then scattered across the land.  When Isis recovered these pieces she reassembled them and brought her husband back to life.  Unfortunately, a rather crucial male appendage was missing, leaving the god incomplete.

In some versions of this story Osiris' penis was eaten by a fish, leaving Isis unable to retrieve it.

In others...Sobek got hungry and had a little snack.

Sobek felt completely ashamed when he realized what he had done.  As punishment for his actions the gods had his tongue removed.  According to Egyptian mythology, this is why crocodiles do not have tongues.

I'll end my post with a few small asides:

Some of Sobek's temples were full of tamed crocodiles.  These crocodiles were bedecked in jewels and gold jewelry, including bracelets and earrings.

One of the earliest miniature games I can remember playing is called Wargods of Ægyptus.  It's a fun game, and I love both the setting and the story...but the minis are by far my favorite thing about it.  The armies all are heavily inspired by the Egyptian myths.  I grew up playing the Sebeki, a race of fearsome (and adorable) crocodile men.

Take care guys!  I'll see you next week, where I'll wrap up this series of Egyptian posts with a special write-up about a certain body of water.

(Oh, and I'm curious - did any of you go see Gods of Egypt?  I haven't been yet, so I'd love to hear your opinions on it!)

Anubis: The Cosmic Canine

Hey guys!

When last I did an Egyptian post we talked about the goddess of cats.  Today we're focusing on a dog-based deity.

Anubis is a very cool mythological character, and is one of my favorite gods of the underworld.  He is said to have the head of a jackal and the body of a man, and artwork of him can be absolutely gorgeous.

 

The origins of Anubis explain part of his nature.  I mentioned in this post that part of why Set murdered his brother Osiris was because Osiris had slept with Set's wife Nepthys.  Nepthys is a funerary goddess and Osiris became the king of the dead, so it makes sense that the product of their union, Anubis, would be associated with death.

It is the way Anubis is tied to death that fascinates me.  He was viewed as a protector of the dead, having stood guard over Osiris while Isis (with the help of Nepthys) performed the rituals to restore her husband to life.  Because of this pictures and statues of Anubis can often be found in ancient Egyptian tombs.

Anubis' role as a defender of the dead also extended to cemeteries in ancient Egypt, which are often marked with depictions of the deity.  Cemeteries were sacred to him and were considered the home of Anubis, where he guarded the dead.

Anubis is viewed in Egyptian mythology as the watchdog of the gods.  He presides over the weighing of a soul in the afterlife, where if their heart is as light (and therefore innocent) as the feather of truth the dead will become immortal.

Anubis is fiercely loyal and is also seen as presiding over the rites of mummification.

In short, he's a pretty cool god - at least to me!

What did you guys think?

Well, I've now done cats and dogs.  Tune in next week for a special post for reptile lovers!

Valentine's Day: Hearts, Wolves, and Christianity

Hey guys!  Given our proximity to Valentine's Day, I thought that I would interrupt our series on Egyptian mythology to take a look at the origins of the holiday.

 

To accomplish that, we'll have to take a look at several different things.  An ancient Roman festival called Lupercalia (a reference to which appears in Shakespeare's works), the story of Saint Valentine, the holidays of Candlemas/Groundhog Day, and the modern celebration distilled from all of those shall all be discussed in this post...along with several gods and goddesses from Roman mythology.

 

Interested?  Awesome!  Let's get started, then.

 

Lupercalia

 

Blood is crimson

Milk is white

Central to a holiday

Long out of sight.

 

Sorry.  I tried, alright?  Poetry and I are not close associates.

 

Alright!  So, Lupercalia.  Lupercalia was an ancient festival in Rome, celebrated around February 15th.  I know I haven't begun my series on Roman mythology yet, but the celebration was closely tied to several figures from the myths.  The most prominent of these are Romulus and Remus.

 

I'll talk more about the duo when I do a post about them, but let me give you the basics.  Romulus and Remus were born the children of Mars, god of war, and a woman who was sworn to be a virgin.  These twins were the rightful heir to the throne.  Enraged by their birth, the relative who had seized the throne and forced their mother to take the oaths of virginity in the first place had the babies abandoned, exposed by a river to die.

 

Instead, the two boys were found by a female wolf, one who had recently had pups of her own and was lactating.  She suckled the boys and raised them until they were taken in by a human shepherd.  The cave where she is said to have cared for them is called the Lupercal.

 

Romulus and Remus went on to become the founders of Rome (though one of them was killed by the other).  They were exceptionally powerful, virile young men, and this aspect of their personality is glorified in the celebration of Lupercalia.

 

The religious rituals during the celebration of Lupercalia are quite interesting to me.  At the beginning of the festival priests would gather in the Lupercal and sacrifice both a goat and a dog.  Two young males would then strip down to loincloths.  The blood of the goat and the dog was smeared onto their foreheads, and then wiped away by a cloth dipped in milk.

 

The use of the goat and the dog as the sacrificial animals interests me.  The goat was associated with both virility and lust.  The dog was seen as a protector of fields and herds.  Lupercalia was both a fertility festival, and a festival of protection - the young men who had blood and milk both smeared across their foreheads ran around the boundary of Rome to place a circle of protection around the city.

 

(I feel that here I should point out the two dominant colors of the holiday so far - red and white.  Both colors are often seen on modern Valentine's Day cards, but I was quite amused to find the reason behind those colors while researching for this post.  As one sourcebook I have says, assuming that Valentine's Day has its origins in Lupercalia...

"If this is the case, then the red that dominates so many modern Valentine cards may have derived from the sacrificial blood of the Lupercalia."

Think of that the next time you send a card to your sweetheart!)

 

The sacrificial goat was used for another purpose.  It was skinned, and its hide was used to make whips for both of the young men.  The men would then run through the city, still clad only in loincloths, and whip everyone that they saw.  These whips were called februa, and women very much wanted to be whipped, as it was believed that a lashing from the goat-skin could make them more fertile.

 

 

This practice in referenced in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, in which Antony is advised to whip his wife during the holiday to cure her barren womb.  I thought that was a very interesting reference.

 

A few more tidbits of information about Lupercalia, and then we'll move on:

 

I discussed in a post about Greek mythology the story of Hades, Demeter, and Persephone.  The same tale can be found in Roman mythology, with the names replaced as Pluto, Ceres, and Proserpina.  A very brief rundown of the story is that Proserpina represents spring, while her mother Ceres is goddess of the harvest.  When Proserpina is carried to the Underworld to be the bride of Pluto, Ceres mourns for her and refuses to tend to her divine duties, allowing all plant life to die - thus causing winter.  Ceres wanders the earth in search of Proserpina, eventually managing to find her and return her to the earth for part of each year.

 

This tale is celebrated during Lupercalia, since it is a fertility festival and harvest deities are generally associated with fertility.  The celebration revolved around a torchlight procession, meant to represent Ceres searching for her daughter.  We'll talk a bit more about that in the next section of this post.

 

Lastly: Before the beginning of the festival it was common for a box to go around with the names of all of the young women.  The men would each pick a name from this box, and the girl whose name they chose would be paired with them for the celebration of Lupercalia.  This becomes a very important link between holidays as we move to:

 

Candlemas/Groundhog Day

 

Candlemas has its origins in the feast of Lupercalia.  It is intricately tied to the procession representing Ceres' search.  When Christianity and the church arrived in Rome they took issue with the pagan rituals they found in Lupercalia and sought to change them to something more appropriate to the church.

 

This led to the creation of Candlemas.

 

There is a tradition in Jewish culture that the firstborn son of a family is taken to the Temple to be dedicated to God 40 days after his birth, with a sacrificial offering taking place.  After the birth of Jesus, Mary took Him to be dedicated 40 days after His birth.

 

Candlemas is celebrated on February 2nd - 40 days after Christmas.  The celebration is marked by a procession in which the people all hold candles - replacing the torches used in Lupercalia.

 

(While this doesn't necessarily tie into Valentine's Day, I thought it was interesting to note that Candlemas eventually became Groundhog Day.  On this day in the US a groundhog is checked upon.  Whether or not it can see its shadow determines whether winter is still in swing or if spring is coming.  This tradition can be found in many countries, though groundhogs are not always the animals used - sometimes they are a hedgehog, a badger, or "the Candlemas Bear".  Kind of cool, right?)

 

You might be wondering why I'm mentioning Candlemas and Groundhog Day in a post about Valentine's Day - after all, wasn't Groundhog Day on February 2nd?  Well, according to what I've read Groundhog Day was originally held around February 14th, before shenanigans occurred as the type of calendar used was changed in some parts of the world.

All of this ties together to bring us to the original reason for the post...

Valentine's Day

As is the case with so many holidays, a lot changed once the church arrived.  The Christian leaders of the early part of this millennia looked at the pagan rituals of Lupercalia and were horrified by what they saw.  The Pope at that time (469AD), one Pope Gelasius, decided to set aside the day of February 14th to honor a Saint who had been martyred on the same day centuries earlier.  That Saint was Valentine.

There are a lot of stories attached to Valentine.  He was a Christian living in Rome who refused to renounce his faith in God, and so was executed as punishment.  This was enough to make him a martyr, and he was later made a saint because of it.

However, stories also say that Valentine was associated with several romantic legends.  According to some he married young couples in love during a time when marriages were forbidden by the emperor (don't ask me why).

 

 

In others Valentine fell in love with a young woman who was blind.  His faith allowed her sight to be restored, and before he was executed he left her a note signed "From your Valentine."

This last story particularly suits Valentine's Day, though I have no idea how accurate it is.

Regardless of his accomplishments in life, Valentine was the saint tied to February 14th.  The day was declared the Feast of St. Valentine, later shortened to Valentine's Day.

The way Valentine's Day was celebrated changed throughout the centuries, but it retained many links to its earlier origins.  The Lupercalia tradition of drawing names from a jar to assign sweethearts remained, though those who were drawn were now dubbed valentines.

The cards which we now call valentines actually did not appear commercially until sometime around the 1800s, though records exist of individuals creating them long before - for instance, a Duke named Charles who was imprisoned over Valentine's Day wrote poems and sent them to his wife around the holiday.

Speaking of valentines...let's complicate matters a little more and throw in some:

Roman Mythology

Now, today a lot of valentines have ties to modern pop culture.  I myself gave out Star Wars valentines this holiday.  In the past I've handed out Avengers ones, Harry Potter ones, Pirates of the Caribbean valentines, additional Star Wars ones...you get the picture.  Tiny pieces of paper with geeky images and bad, vaguely flirtatious jokes are the norm now.

(I rest my case.)

 

But older valentines (and some of the classier ones, in addition to cards, that are around today), along with the thematic images still associated with the holiday, have their roots in Roman mythology.  Let's take a look at two things: doves and Cupid.

Doves are also called lovebirds.  These birds can be seen on many cards, balloons, and valentines around Valentine's Day.  Doves mate for life, and so are considered very romantic.  This is part of why they're tied to the holiday of Valentine's Day, but the other reason has to do with Roman mythology.  You see, doves were considered a sacred symbol of Venus, the goddess of love, and were offered to her as sacrifices.

Speaking of Venus...the Roman goddess of love is the mother of Cupid, god of love.  You can read more about Cupid in my post about him, but suffice it to say that he was not always depicted as the chubby winged baby with a bow and arrow that now graces many a card.  I've read theories that the god gained this appearance as Valentine's Day grew more commercial in order to better market to women, and that may or may not be so.

Still, a chubby baby he remains on most cards.  Cupid was famous in mythology for his skills with a bow and arrow - not because he was a fantastic archer, but because of what his shots could do.  Anyone struck with an arrow fired by Cupid would fall in love with the next person they saw.

This is another symbol commonly associated with Valentine's Day - that of a heart, pierced by an arrow.

(Behold!  Doves, heart, and Cupid!)

 

I hope you all enjoyed this post!  Did you enjoy your Valentine's Day?  What did you think of the origins of the holiday?

I'll see you next week with a return to the myths of Egypt!

Bast: Feline Fury

Hello everyone!

For those of you who watched the Super Bowl, I hope you were happy with the outcome.  My thoughts were two-fold:
1. The orange guys won!  Woo?  (I don't watch much American football, if you couldn't tell...)
2. I tuned in too late to see the Civil War trailer, so I had to YouTube it after the show.  Curses!  Ah well.

On with the myth part of the blog!

If you've read my post about The White Cat, you probably know that I'm a cat lover.

In fact, as I'm typing this my blind kitty has just rolled upside down in her cat bed and is begging for belly rubbings.  Excuse me for a minute.

Alright, I have returned!  On with the post.

At any rate, I love most critters, but cats have always held a special place in my heart.  Because of this I rather adore Egyptian mythology, because it has a cat goddess.

That goddess' name is Bast (also sometimes called Bastet), and she is rather fantastic.  Let me tell you about her.

Cats are rather fickle creatures.  They can be gentle and affectionate one minute, then fearsome hunters the next.  They demand, beg, or disdain everything from food to love to chew toys (all of which my hands have been used for...).  Bast is intriguing because she represents these multiple aspects of feline nature.

For starters, Bast is a goddess associated with dance and music.  She is frequently depicted holding a musical instrument called a sistrum, a sort of rattle.  Festivals to Bast were lively and featured much drinking, dancing, and merriment.

On the other hand, Bast is also a goddess of vengeance.  She is the daughter of Ra, god of the sun, and is shown to be the defender of her father in numerous occasions.  She can be wrathful and fierce, and she strikes fear into the hearts of her enemies.

Bast was also thought to be a protector of pregnant women, and was associated with both hearth and home.

Interesting mix, right?  I think it rather suits her feline persona.

 

I'll end this post with a bit of interesting trivia: Cats were considered sacred to Bast.  Statues and jewelry carved in the image of cats were often left as sacrifices in her temples.  So too were mummified cats sold especially for that purpose - something that I find fascinating.

I'll see you guys next week with a special holiday themed post!

Set: The Red Renegade

Greetings, readers!  I hope this post finds you well.

Ahhh.  We come at last to the end of our family drama - and today the tale focuses upon Set, god of Egypt, and his conflict with his nephew Horus.

Set is one of the more interesting characters in mythology.  Much like Loki in the Norse myths, he isn't always bad.  He is not necessarily evil (though he has had that label attached to him quite often).  It's more a case of Set being portrayed with the same emotions and impulses a human might have.  He was jealous of his brother Osiris' power, and so he stole his throne.  He feared that his nephew Horus might take it away from him, and so he sought to have him disposed of.  Just about every action that he takes is due to Set trying to maintain the position he feels rightly belongs to him.

When we begin our tale today, Set's efforts have thus far been pretty unsuccessful.  Sure, he's the king of Egypt.  Unfortunately for Set, that's about all he has going for him.  He murdered his brother Osiris...who was then brought back to life.  Set captured his sister Isis, only to have the pregnant goddess escape and give birth to Horus, the rightful heir to the throne.  Set tried to have Horus killed, only to have Thoth raise the kid from the dead. (Resurrections apparently run in the family.)

 

(I keep mentioning him, so I figured I should post a picture of Thoth.)

Our story begins when Horus is a fully grown man, at last ready to challenge his uncle's power.  The tale is long and somewhat convoluted (depending on what sources you read from), but I'll do my best to give you the Cliff notes.

As I mentioned in my last post, Horus had been raised in hiding to protect him from the wrath of his uncle Set.  When he at last reached adulthood the god came out of hiding and accused Set before the gods of having killed Osiris and taken his throne.  As Osiris' son Horus was the rightful heir, and he demanded that his father's throne be given to him.

Most of the gods were in agreement that Horus had the stronger claim to the throne, though some debate occurred.  It was pointed out that Set was the elder and had more experience; should not the youth defer to his uncle?  A counter argument ran that Set had seized the throne when he had no right to it, and should never have been allowed to rule.

Set himself arrived before the council of the gods and spoke in his own defense.  A furious Isis stepped forward to defend her son's claim, which made Set quite angry.  The debate raged on, and it was eventually decided that the two gods should continue the trial for the right of the throne on an island where Isis and her meddling could not intervene.

The council of the gods reconvened on this island, leaving the ferryman with strict orders to not ferry across Isis or any woman who might be the goddess.  Isis used her spells to disguise herself and managed to bribe the ferryman to shuttle her across the water nonetheless.  When she arrived on the island she made herself look like a beautiful widow, and the goddess then approached her brother Set.

Knowing that her brother could not resist a pretty face, Isis began to cry.  Set immediately asked what was wrong, and the goddess spun a tall tale about her husband, a herder of cattle, having been killed.  His possessions were left to her son, who would have done well had it not been for an awful stranger who stepped in and took the cattle that rightfully belonged to her child.

Isis is a cunning one.

Set, not thinking to clearly while distracted by the goddess' beauty, immediately swore to champion her son's honor.  He insisted that the stranger had no claim to the cattle, and that Set would see them returned to the woman's son.

At this point Isis busted out laughing and removed her magical disguise, revealing her true form.  I would imagine Set facepalmed as he realized that he had just condemned his own actions.

It was hard for Set to recover from having judged his own crime inexcusable, but he managed to sweet talk his way through it, leaving the gods in debate over who should rule.  The god is impressive at persuasion, I'll give him that!

The trial for the throne continued, and there are many variations in the stories of the tests given to Set and Horus to determine who should reign over Egypt.

In some accounts the two are pitted in a combative contest while shapeshifted into hippos.

In others, Set finds Horus wandering in the desert and rips out his eyes, leaving the young god blind and in agony.  The eyes are eventually returned to the falcon-headed god through the healing powers of the goddess Hathor.

Eventually the trial culminates in a sailing contest, wherein Set challenged Horus to see who could sail the farthest in a boat carved from stone.  Horus was sneaky and carved his boat from wood instead, merely plastering the outside to resemble stone.  Because of this Set's boat sank almost immediately, while Horus' carried on a ways down the water before an enraged Set broke the wooden vessel apart.

In the end the council of the gods grew weary of the animosity and the constant struggle.  (It helped that Osiris threatened to set the forces of the dead upon the gods should they not name Horus king, and pointed out that even the gods eventually die...Ahhh, the blackmail of angry fathers!)  Horus was granted his father's rule and made king of Egypt.

Set was given control of the desert and the barren lands, as well as being made the god of thunder.  While overtures were made towards peace, both gods remained somewhat hostile to one another throughout the myths.

I'm interested to report that the stories in this post may soon make it to the big screen (though, inevitably, they will be modified by Hollywood).  The conflict between Set and Horus is the main focus of the upcoming film Gods of Egypt, which I'll definitely be going to see in theatres.

As an interesting side note (coming from a red head), Set is associated in mythology with the color red.  The red sands of the desert, animals with red fur, and people with red hair were all considered to be tied to the god, either signifying him, being sacred to him, or being thought of as worshipping him.

I hope you guys enjoyed the big familial drama of Egyptian mythology!  I love how much of the myths are tied around the conflict between Set and Horus.

I'll see you next week with a post that's great for cat lovers!