Ancient Egypt: Apis Bull, Myth of Hathor, Myth of Osiris
Timeline
- First Hominins Period: The earliest, dating 7-6 million years ago.
- Early Hominins Period: From 2.7 - 1.5 million years ago.
- Paleolithic Period: Roughly from 2.5 million years ago to 10,000 B.C.
- Neolithic Period: From around 4300 BC down to 2000 BC
Indigenous Caribbean 1492 AD (Spider web idea)
Syncretic Caribbean 2022 AD (Spider web idea)
- Copper or Chalcolithic Age: 3500 to 2300 BCE.
- Bronze Age: 3300 BC to 1200 BC,
- Iron Age: 1200 B.C. and 600 B.C.
- The Portuguese, in the 16th century, were the first to buy slaves from West African slavers and transport them across the Atlantic. In 1526, they completed the first transatlantic slave voyage to Brazil, and other Europeans soon followed.
- Syncretic Caribbean: 2022 AD (Spider Web idea)
- Ancient Egypt: First Dynasty: 3150 - 2890 B.C. / Apis Bull Ritual or The Running of Apis
- Old Kingdom / 2,700-2,200 B.C.,
- Middle Kingdom, / 2,050-1,800 B.C.,
- New Kingdom / until about 343 B.C.
- Old Kingdom / 2,700-2,200 B.C. / King Radjedef:
Radjedef) (also known as Djedefra and Djedre) was an ancient Egyptian king (pharaoh) of the 4th Dynasty during the Old Kingdom. He is well known by the Hellenized form of his name Rhatoisēs (Ῥατοίσης) by Manetho. Djedefre was the son and immediate throne successor of Khufu, the builder of the Great Pyramid of Giza; his mother is not known for certain. He is the king who introduced the royal title Sa-Rê (meaning “Son of Ra”) and the first to connect his cartouche name with the sun god Ra.
- Middle Kingdom, / 2,050-1,800 B.C. /
The first known priestess of Hathor was Neferhtepes, (pharaoh of the mid Thirteenth Dynasty ruling in the second half of the 18th century BC during the late Middle Kindom) daughter of King Radjedef in the Old Kingdom.
- New Kingdom / until about 343 B.C.
Greek rule: The Isis-Moon connection first started when Egypt came under Greek rule
in the 3rd century BCE, following the conquest by Alexander the Great.
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Unit: Ancient Egypt
Theme: Apis Bull Ritual, Myth of Hathor, Myth of Osiris,
Introduction
Ancient Egypt was a civilization in Northeast Africa situated in the Nile Valley. Ancient Egyptian civilization followed prehistoric Egypt and coalesced around 3100 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under Menes. Ancient Egypt lasted for three main periods in history: the old Kingdom, which lasted from 2,700-2,200 B.C., the Middle Kingdom, from 2,050-1,800 B.C., and the New Kingdom, which reigned until about 343 B.C.
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Learning Objectives
- Understand the historic period in which Ancient Egypt existed
- Explain the main characteristics of Ancient Egypt
- Gain an awareness of the possible way Ancient Egyptian dances were performed
- Experience the creation of the Apis Bull ritual, the Myth of Hathor and the Myth of Osiris in the subjunctive mood
III
Main Lesson
1
Scholars generally agree that the earliest form of writing appeared almost 5,500 years ago in Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq). Early pictorial signs were gradually substituted by a complex system of characters representing the sounds of Sumerian (the language of Sumer in Southern Mesopotamia) and other languages.
Because Egypt presents an important succession of organized kingdoms, it becomes a useful frame in the study of ancient history and its dance.
2
Ancient Egypt Timeline
Questions
1. Which two regions groups the original city states of what became known as Egypt?
2. In which way was the pharaoh similar to a shaman?
3. According to the narrator, why are the pyramids historically significant?
4. Why is hieroglyphic writing an important system for the development of the arts?
3
(00:00 - 29:40)
Questions
5. Who was Menes?
6. Why was Menes important?
4
The Bangles
The Bangles - Walk Like an Egyptian (Official Video)
https://youtu.be/Cv6tuzHUuuk?si=HkcZUj2j5O3XhJJH
5
LINK
Ancient Egypt Dances by Irena Lexova
(Pages 8 & 9)
Question 7 & 8
Which were the main differences between dances for men and women?
In what context was dance performed?
(Page 21)
See all the dances that existed then. Focus on the religious.
6
Group 1
Encyclopedia's Link
Questions
9. Why were funeral dances important for Ancient Egyptians?
10. What was the importance of the Apis Bull in the context of funeral dances?
IV
A Note to Remember
The power of a myth for humans is that it lets them know what the patterns of life have been throughout the centuries and their role within them. Egypt presents an important succession of organized kingdoms, it becomes a useful frame in the study of ancient history and its dance.
V
Case Study
Group 2
Art of Ancient Egypt Through Dance
Hathor was the ancient Egyptian deity of many realms: mother to Horus, god of the sky, and Ra, the sun god. Horus, Egyptian Hor, Har, Her, or Heru, in ancient Egyptian religion, a god in the form of a falcon whose right eye was the sun or morning star, representing power and quintessence, and whose left eye was the moon or evening star, representing healing.(2)
Production Consultant: Glorianna Davenport
G. Davenport is a New York-born media maker. In 1979, Davenport, working with cinematographer Richard Leacock, filmed Art of Ancient Egypt Through Dance. (3)
Glorianna Davenport is a New York-born media maker. A co-founder of the MIT Media Lab. Davenport directed the Interactive Cinema research group from 1987–2004 and the Media Fabrics research group from 2004-2008. Davenport retired from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Summer of 2008. From 2008 to the present, she has managed the transition of Tidmarsh Farms, a former 610 acre cranberry farm in Plymouth Massachusetts, into conservation and wetland restoration. In 2011, Davenport founded Living Observatory, a non-profit, learning collaborative that focuses on documenting and sharing the long term story of wetland restoration of former cranberry farms. In this work, Davenport returned as a visiting scientist at the MIT Media Lab where she works closely with the Responsive Environments Group
Innovative documentary filmmaker Richard Leacock, helped create the cinéma vérité style and was a driving force behind the film program at MIT. Leacock was best known for expanding the possibilities of documentary film through the use of small, mobile, hand-held cameras, which provided documentaries with greater immediacy and opened up the range of subjects and scenes that could be filmed. He also helped devise some of the technical innovations necessary to provide high-quality sound for hand-held cameras.
Questions 11 & 12
If you were to guess, who would you say these characters (in the video) represent in the myth?
What part of the myth are they representing?
VI
Activity
- Please, get in your groups. Read the Information about the Apis Bull Ritual (above), the Myth of Hathor and the Myth of Osiris (bellow) and summarize the content. Share your summary with the rest of the group.
- Stage a tableau in which you represent the ancient Egyptian myths. Create 8 frames for your tableau in which you summarize the main aspects of the myths.
1
Hathor was the ancient Egyptian deity of many realms: mother to Horus, god of the sky, and Ra, the sun god; and goddess of beauty (including cosmetics), sensuality, music, dancing, and maternity. She is often depicted wearing a headdress of cow horns with a sun disk between them, or as a cow or lioness. Worshiped across ancient Egypt and Nubia, from royal temples to domestic family altars, Hathor was one of the most important divinities in the ancient Egyptian and Nubian pantheons.
“The
worship of Hathor spread from Egypt to Nubia,” says Solange Ashby, a
scholar of ancient Egyptian language and Nubian religion. “The oldest
evidence of worship can be found in Egypt in the Old Kingdom, or the
earliest period (around 2300 BCE).” Hathor
is one of the pre-dynastic deities of the Ancient Egyptian pantheon.
She is important to us because she was the goddess of the arts. (1)
Hathor
Hathor played various roles such as: the goddess of heaven, wife of the celestial god Horus and the solar god Ra. Hathor was the mythological mother of their earthly regents, pharaohs.
The name Hathor, translates as “The House of Horus”, for her role as a mother and in many cases wife of Horus, which identified her as the queen of Egypt, with her name Hathor.
Her name can be seen as a hawk inside a square representing the house, and that means a divine mother who revives all the obvious.
Questions
13) Who was Hathor?
14) Which roles did Hathor play?
Group 4
b) Goddess of the Arts
Hathor represented the musical arts and dance, reason why the arts were kept under her domain. The first known priestess of Hathor was Neferhtepes, (pharaoh of the mid Thirteenth Dynasty ruling in the second half of the 18th century BC during the late Middle Kindom) daughter of King Radjedef, during the old kingdom.
Neferhtepes
Hathorian priestesses were part of the court circle. Given Hathor's strong links to music and dance, one may assume that all priestesses of the goddess played musical instruments and dance.
Graves-Brown (2010) describes Old Kingdom depictions of women dancing, shaking sistra and offering menit-necklaces for Hathor, such as in the tomb of Senebei at Meir.
Hathor’s cult was unusual, as both men and women were her priests (most Egyptian deities had clerics of the same gender as they). Those priests were also dancers, singers, and other entertainers.
Banquet scene from the tomb chapel ofNebamun, 14th century BC.
Its imagery of music and dancing alludes to Hathor.
During the Old Kingdom a large number of high-class women were priestesses of Hathor, with the priestly rank of hemet netjer. Hemet netjer was the feminine form of a common male priest title called hem netjer, which donated a type of priest within the temple hierarchy. This title seems to be in use until the Middle Kingdom.
There were also women who ‘performed wab service for Hathor’ during the Old Kingdom and received the same payment as male wab priests. The title used was wabet, which is from wab meaning ‘to be pure.’
Many of them were dancers, actors, singers, artisans, musicians, and acrobats who turned their talents into creating rituals that were nothing short of works of art.
Music and dance were part of the worship of Hathor like no other deity in Egypt. Belly dancing was considered especially sacred to Hathor. … Hathor’s priestesses wore patterned red dresses, long red scarves, and beaded menat necklaces. The priestesses of Hathor were also oracles and midwives.
Also, a special kind or variant of the funeral dance dating to the Middle and New Kingdom was performed in honor of Hathor. It was characterized by leaping or skipping and was meant to celebrate the coming of that goddess.
Hathor could represent the comely aspect of the dangerous Sekhmet, but she was also the goddess who met the dead at the entrance of the underworld.
She was responsible for helping the deceased enter the underworld and was the main agent of their rebirth, so an appeal to her was recited or sung, accompanied by the clapping of hands and sticks and the use of other percussion instruments.
Question 15
What is the importance of Hathor from a dance history point of view?
Group 5
c) Instruments
Sistrum
Menit-Necklance
The menit is a ceremonial object associated with the goddess Hathor whose priestesses are commonly shown holding the emblem. Queens and ladies of waiting, when officiating as priestesses also wore or carried it. Like the sistrum, this elaborate necklace may have actually functioned as a kind of percussion instrument in certain religious contests.
As an important attribute of Hathor, the menit seems to have functioned as a medium through which the goddess' power was transmitted, and many representations show her proffering the menit to the king. She performs this act in two ways. At times, she may wear the menit, lifting up the front section toward the king. Otherwise, she simply holds the object in her hands while offering it to the king.
Question 16
Why would the menit be an important object to characterize Hathor in an Ancient Egypt scene?
Group 6
d) Festival of Hathor
During the festival of Hathor, the priestesses of the goddess would go from door to door shaking menits and sistras to endow the occupants of each house with the favors of life, health, and rebirth.
According to Graves-Brown (2010), in the Old Kingdom most priests of Hathor were female, but it was men who were overseers of these priests. While women were overseers of dancers and singers, men were overseers of professional musicians who were nearly always men.
Question 17
2
Myth of Osiris
Group 7
a) Isis Osiris and the Rites of Spring
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Question 18
The myth of Osiris is the most elaborate and influential story in Ancient Egyptian mythology. It refers to the murder of the God Osiris, a primeval king of Egypt, and its consequences.
1) At the start of the story, Osiris rules Egypt, having inherited the kingship from his ancestors in a lineage stretching back to the creator of the world, Ra.
2) Osiris's murderer, his brother Set, usurps his throne out of revenge towards Osiris who had slept with his wife Nephthys.
3) Osiris's death is followed by a period in which Set assumes the kingship
4) while Isis (becoming a bird) searches for her husband's body with the aid of Nephthys and other deities, including Thoth, a deity credited with great magical and healing powers, and Anubis, the god of embalming ane funeral rites.
5) Set or his followers try to damage the corpse, and Isis and her allies must protect it.
6) Once Osiris is made whole (becoming the first mummy), Isis, still in bird form, fans breath and life into Osiris's body with her wings and copulates with him.
7) Isis conceives Osiris son and rightful heir, Horus.
8) The remainder of the story focuses on Horus, the product of the union of Isis and Osiris, who is at first a vulnerable child protected by his mother and then becomes Set's rival for the throne.
Their often violent conflict ends with Horus's triumph, which restores Maat (cosmic and social order) to Egypt after Set's unrighteous reign and completes the process of Osiris's resurrection. Although he lives on only in the Duat, he and the kingship he stands for will, in a sense, be reborn in his son.
Question 19
Briefly explain the story of the myth of Osiris.
Group 9
c) The Power of Myth
According to Campbell (2010, 1:00 - 1:21) myth lets one know where one is at. Myth knows what the patterns of life have been through centuries in that position one is now entering or holding. That is the power of myth for human kind.
Question 20
Why is the study of myth important? Illustrate.
Group 10
d) A Strong Sense of Family Loyalty
Embodying Osiris by Tom F. Cavalli
(Page 17, last paragraph & page 18 next 2 paragraphs)
Thus, the myth of Osiris was deeply influential in ancient Egyptian people because of its primary religious meaning, which implied that any dead person can reach a pleasant afterlife.
Another reason is that the characters and their emotions are more reminiscent of the lives of real people than those in most Egyptian myths, making the story more appealing to the general populace.
In particular, the myth conveys a "strong sense of family loyalty and devotion which is illustrated by the relationships between Osiris, Isis, and Horus.
Question 21
What would be an equivalent American myth that has kept the country together since its creation?
e) Intersection
Goddess
Isis with the Horus Child - Bronze - very rare with a Vulture Head -
Ancient Egypt, Late Period - Ptolemaic Period, 664 - 32 BC Material:
Solid Bronze. Size: 19,2 cm H. without stand. Provenance: Old Parisian
collection. Acquired in the T. M. auction house, Paris, 2016.
Group 11
Isis and Hathor: Intersecting Mythologies
Sometimes Isis and Hathor are considered
to be the same Egyptian female deity. That's because the worshipers of
Isis borrowed, assimilated, and adapted Hathor's attributes to the
extent it is often difficult to distinguish the two goddesses from one
another. While both embodied motherhood and family ties, the two
goddesses are not the same. Hathor is the more feminine deity of
pleasure, dance and the arts, while the mythology of Isis is focused on
love, loyalty, death, resurrection, and transformation.
Thus, Isis became one of the most important goddesses of ancient Egypt. She was a great magician, whose power transcended that of all other deities. In the first millennium BCE, Osiris and Isis became the most widely worshiped Egyptian deities, and Isis absorbed traits from many other goddesses. Rulers in Egypt and its neighbor to the south, Nubia, built temples dedicated primarily to Isis, and her temple at Philae was a religious center for Egyptians and Nubians alike.
Question 22
Explain is which way the Myth of Hathor and the Myth of Osiris Intersect?
For the ancient Egyptians, the goddess Isis was the model of the loyal wife and mother, as well as a powerful magician. She was the wife of the god Osiris and the mother of Horus. Just as the king of Egypt was associated with Horus in life and Osiris in death, queens of Egypt were linked with Isis, and their visual representations have similarities with the goddess. For example, both may be depicted wearing the vulture headdress shown above. The crown composed of a sun-disk and cow horns originally belonged to Hathor, but was assimilated by Isis.
Question 23
Why was Isis an important character in the Myth of Osiris?
Isis' reputed magical power was greater than that of all other gods, and she was said to protect the kingdom from its enemies, govern the skies and the natural world, and have power over fate itself. Perhaps inspired by the picture above, the producers of the video bellow created the dance concept produced by G. Davenport.
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VII
Journaling
VIII
Glossary
IX
Sources
X
Students' Work
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