FINALLY posted this story to my Wordpress! Yay! (Also I made my Wordpress accessible again since I’ll be writing for it again.)
This upsets me, because for a starters it assumes that people didn’t want to preserve the language during the Greco-Roman period. Hellenic library, like the library of Alexandria, because of the prevalence of Native culture and the fear that Hellenic culture would be corrupted… So you stick all you have written down in a room and keep your past safe… This worked a little too well as it overtook Egyptian language. However there were many Egyptian libraries which were formed in response, I think Oxyrincus was one such place where there was papyrus libraries.
Secondly, it assumes that Egypt was the only place where Egyptian culture was prevent. Nubia! Nubia, the beautiful land to the south that continued being ruled by Pharonic Kings and continued the culture till about 600 CE. For example there is a Kushite crown with shows purely Egyptian iconography, but using Byzantium stylistic techniques, from about 500 CE. Also one of the most remarkable achievements of Egyptian language I would say belongs to the Nubian pharaoh Piye, the ‘Victory stele’ which is an epic - poem - that describes the state of Egypt, the religious unrest, the Nubian piety and therefore justification to conquer Egypt.
Finally, wasn’t Djehuty only the second in the list of kings to rule Egypt, followed by Osirus, then Horus, then the rest of them according to ancient mythology.
Sorry, that was very ranting, and the story was an interesting idea… But the Nubiologist within couldn’t help but make a post.
I don’t think you have to be upset about this one, really.
May be the chronology of the MYTH is slightly messed up, but remember, this is a myth. Myth explaining the decline of Hieroglyphics as punishment. It does not have to be perfectly aligned with the events of human history.
And, the myth is especially about the loss of Hieroglyphics; not the aesthetics, not the style, not the iconography.
The ideals of egyptian culture were preserved. But the gift of understanding of Hieroglyphics itself was taken away as a punishment, and - here’s the chronology of the mythological interpretation isn’t 100% correct - most likely, the punishment started with the rise of christian fanaticism.
So, again, this is not a myth about the Egyptian Culture, but only the knowledge of Hieroglyphs themselves.Okay, then to clarify, my mythological standpoint is Theban-Nubian, so I may have got some wires crossed. And I studied middle Egyptian language.
So, when we now learn the language we use hieroglyphs because they are standard, rather than cursive which is handwriting. I don’t like the myth in itself because it assumes that the deities and whatnot thought that this was bad. I feel from everything I know and understand about Ancient Egyptian culture, which is not separate from the language is that the idea of the lost of hieroglyphs is a wholy modern assumption. The language was retained, the writing styles were retains, for example the temple of Isis at Philae had the last written hieroglyphs relatively late, but I can’t remember off hand the exact date.
Furthermore, understanding written language, let’s say middle Egyptian which was first created in the new Kingdom and lasted until end of the 18th dynasty, was to most people from the 15th dynasty onwards like reading Shakespeare to a modern English speaker, reading middle Egyptian to a Greco-Roman period Egyptian speaker would have been like reading Beowolf to the modern English speaker. I would have made sense… Just needed some translation.
Also, targeting the Christians as evidence for destroying Egyptian language is wrong. Point blank, I hope I don’t have to explain why. But let’s just say without those monotheists, ancient Egyptian would have been much harder to translate into English. The first French translated whose name I shamefully forget at this moment, only made such a breakthrough because of his understanding of the Coptic language.
Finally, this myth assumes that change is wrong, which it is not. I’m sorry, but separating one aspect of written language of an ancient culture is painful to watch. You can justify it as being a myth and that may be who you feel, but I cannot accept it for what it is.
Again, this is a myth based on UPG, and it’s not about the evolution of the language, and not about the culture.
It’s about hieroglyphs as Medu-Netjer, the divine language filled with special heka-power. Not about the spoken/written language of people, but about metaphysical Language, key to the mysteries of the Universe. This is about symbolical connection between humanity and the Netjeru, too.
I’m very sorry that the myth did not resonate with you.
P.S. I also studied middle-egyptian. This myth was inspired by some of my UPG, and my communications with Djehuty. But I don’t insist that you take it as literal truth. First of all it’s myth and allegory told from particular points of view.
Egypt Book of the Dead
Why they keep lightened up the skin of the gods?? Not accurate
This is papyrus of Hunefer. May be this picture above is not the best quality photo of this papyrus, but anyway, in this papyrus the Netjeru have light-brown skin color - neither white, nor dark black.
You may see the official webpage of British Museum highlighting this artifact:
http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/aes/p/page_from_the_book_of_the_dead.aspx
アヌビス「整いました」女「やぁこれは立派どすなぁ」男達「ほなお口開けまひょか」
Ancient Egyptian Afterlife
The Egyptians had elaborate beliefs about death and the afterlife. They believed that humans possessed a ka, or life-force, which left the body at the point of death. In life, the ka received its sustenance from food and drink, so it was believed that, to endure after death, the ka must continue to receive offerings of food, whose spiritual essence it could still consume. Each person also had a ba, the set of spiritual characteristics unique to each individual. Unlike the ka, the ba remained attached to the body after death. Egyptian funeral rituals were intended to release the ba from the body so that it could move freely, and to rejoin it with the ka so that it could live on as an akh. However, it was also important that the body of the deceased be preserved, as the Egyptians believed that the ba returned to its body each night to receive new life, before emerging in the morning as an akh.
Originally, however, the Egyptians believed that only the pharaoh had a ba, and only he could become one with the gods; dead commoners passed into a dark, bleak realm that represented the opposite of life. The nobles received tombs and the resources for their upkeep as gifts from the king, and their ability to enter the afterlife was believed to be dependent on these royal favors. In early times the deceased pharaoh was believed to ascend to the sky and dwell among the stars. Over the course of the Old Kingdom (c. 2686–2181 BC), however, he came to be more closely associated with the daily rebirth of the sun god Ra and with the underworld ruler Osiris as those deities grew more important.
During the late Old Kingdom and the First Intermediate Period (c. 2181–2055 BC), the Egyptians gradually came to believe that possession of a ba and the possibility of a paradisiacal afterlife extended to everyone. In the fully developed afterlife beliefs of the New Kingdom, the soul had to avoid a variety of supernatural dangers in the Duat, before undergoing a final judgment known as the “Weighing of the Heart”. In this judgment, the gods compared the actions of the deceased while alive (symbolized by the heart) to Ma'at, to determine whether he or she had behaved in accordance with Ma'at. If the deceased was judged worthy, his or her ka and ba were united into an akh. Several beliefs coexisted about the akh’s destination. Often the dead were said to dwell in the realm of Osiris, a lush and pleasant land in the underworld. The solar vision of the afterlife, in which the deceased soul traveled with Ra on his daily journey, was still primarily associated with royalty, but could extend to other people as well. Over the course of the Middle and New Kingdoms, the notion that the akh could also travel in the world of the living, and to some degree magically affect events there, became increasingly prevalent.
Personal project I may or may not be submitting to an anthology project with some friends/classmates. The story is a prologue of sorts for my upcoming webcomic ‘Glyphic’, so it wound up being a practice round with a deadline. It has its strengths and weaknesses, but overall I’m happy enough with it to move onto the next project on my list. Obvious disclaimer, but this is a loose interpretation of Egyptian mythology, and draws on various/occasionally conflicting myths as source material for ideas. If you want to know more or are curious about the characters/deities depicted I’d be happy to share books and references! (I am a HUGE nerd and love chatting about mythology/folklore/etc!)
Let me know what y’all think!
(PS Tumblr was being wiggy uploading things so be sure to follow the link to the full comic.)
