The religions of ancient Egypt and BabyloniaSayce, A. H. (Archibald Henry)
Religion
The religions of ancient Egypt and Babylonia
Sayce, A. H. (Archibald Henry)
Assyro-Babylonian religion; Egypt -- Religion
In the rock drawing, south of El-Kab, to which I have alluded a few
minutes ago, the two Horus hawks stand on the symbol of “gold,” the one
wearing the crown of Southern Egypt, the other that of the North. The
“Golden Horus” was, in fact, one of the titles assumed by the Pharaoh at
an early date. Whether the epithet applied to the god represented
originally the golden colour of the wings of the sparrow-hawk, or whether,
as is more probable, it denoted the Horus-hawk of gold who watched over
the destinies of the kings of Upper Egypt in their ancient capital of
Nekhen, it is now impossible to say.(46) Later ages explained it as
referring to the golden rays of the morning sun.
In the time of the Fourth Dynasty the title was attached indifferently to
the Ka or death name given to the Pharaoh after his death, and to the
living name given to him at his birth into this world. The Horus-hawk,
without the symbol of “gold,” surmounted, so far as we know, only the Ka
name. It was the double of the Pharaoh, rather than the Pharaoh himself,
in whom the god had been incarnated. Horus brings the captive northerner
to the king, and presides over his kingdom; but it is only over the royal
Ka that he actually watches.
At Nekhen, the Horus-hawk, to whom the city was dedicated, was represented
under the form of a mummy. It was here, perhaps, that the natron of El-Kab
was first employed to preserve the dead body from decay, and that Horus
was supposed to be entombed, like Osiris at Abydos. At any rate, there is
clearly a connection between the dead and mummified Horus and the Horus
who stands above the name of the Pharaoh’s double. It is probable,
therefore, that the identification of Horus with the kings of Upper Egypt
originated at Nekhen. The Horus-hawk was the token under which they fought
and ruled; it was Horus who had led them to victory, and in whose name the
Pharaonic Egyptians, with their weapons of metal, overcame the neolithic
population of the Nile.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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