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Anubis Priest
Random Afterlife pics
pharaohs be like
Assassin’s Creed Origins Anubis resting in the shade in Heb Sed
Hathor Rising: Chapts 2-3
No matter what form, age, or time of day, Ra always has the uraeus by his side. Which suggests that Ra is never without Hathor or Sekhmet.
“In the sphere of Hathor, nothing is certain, fixed or assured. The king must do everything within his means to harness and channel her power if he is to be reborn, thrive, or reach the zenith of the sky.”
Heb Sed:
Foreigners participated. (and actively wanted to participate)
aka Jubilee Festival
Celebrated at the 30th year of rule, traditionally.
Lasted several days, culminates in a series of nocturnal rituals in honor of the uraeus.
Reliefs show the king, queen and Hathor surveying these rites.
In a particular relief of the Heb Sed:
In the upper-most register, a group of officials is shown towing the king (in his heb sed garment) and queen in “the evening boat of the sun god.”
Like the western sun god, the king has lost his vitality in this scene, and he must sink into the west, following the way of the sun. Suggested that the heb sed garment is tight to mimick limitations, similar to O being engulfed by a snake in his mysteries. (This could link the garment to an imywt fetish?)
It’s at this point that the king must enter the Duat to renew himself and all of Egypt in the process.
Musical tradition seemed to play a role in this festival/mystery. Roberts mentions that Plato claimed Egyptian musical tradition imparted traditional values to the youth and was rooted in ancient practices.
The dancers in this relief are invoking Hathor “Gold” to rise and be propitiated through these dances. They implore thhat she take the king to the east where “the doors of the sky open and a god goes forth pure.”
Roberts believes that the music “brings the king into a nighttime realm of rhythm and movement in which all divisions between sky and earth are annihilated by the fiery goddess” She posits that the king will have a sort of union with Hathor, which triggers the rebirth.
This meeting is compared to grinding grains down to create a new form. “A new royal body has to be roasted and created by the female if the king is to be reborn again”
She believes that the dancing is meant to mimic the transformation the king is undergoing, making something that is invisible, visible.
In this ritual, the king makes “Ihy-music” for Hathor, though this isn’t directly shown in relief, due to heka. There are two examples of the king doing this, spread out across 700 years. And by making music, they become incarnations of Hathor’s child -- Ihy.
Ihy is represented in the relief as a leaping frisky bull calf at the head of the dancers. Roberts goes in-depth about Ihy, which you can read here.
Hathor’s musical offspring, who rises “from his secret mansion like Ra shining in his horizon” brings renewal and life by enticing others to make difficult journeys.
In this relief, the queen is standing in for ma’at. “In the following of the king, like ma’at in the following of Re”
The queen could be considered a director or guide, guiding Hathor’s energies that facilitate the rebirth.
Everything “lives by ma’at, in ma’at, and through ma’at. She is the way of the world which the Egyptian king seeks to uphold as the son of Re.” All English words fall short of defining her, Westendorf describes her as “she who guides.”
A breach of ma’at causes quarrels, offends neighbors, disturbs the natural order producing disequilibrium in nature and the cosmos called isfet.
“I have magnified ma’at, whom he (re) loves. I know that he lives from her, she is my bread, I feed off her dew and I am of one body with him.”
Ma’at can only truly guide if united with Hathor. There are passages that link order and intoxication/drunkenness. Roberts posits that Ma’at directs and guides, and Hathor’s energy is what moves desire for life and existence, via the direction Ma’at gives.
Allied with Hathor, the guidance of Ma’at becomes something living and beautiful. Without Hathor, the king’s decisions and methods would be arid and lacking in softness or joy.
“Renewal through Hathor only comes about by surrendering, letting go and moving to her rhythms”
Jubilee Festival buildings of Pharaoh Djoser, part of the step pyramid complex at Saqqara.
Jubilees (Heb Sed) were traditionally celebrated thirty years into a Pharaoh's reign. They served a dual purpose, first as a series of magical rituals that would rejuvenate and reinvigorate the king, and second as a PR exercise, to show the people that the king was still a young, strong, competent ruler. Hence, a number of rituals seem to demonstrate the king's physical and athletic abilities. These included demonstrations (symbolic or otherwise) of his prowess as a hunter, and his symbolically running the length and breadth of Egypt.
Such rituals required large, open courts in which the demonstrations could take place, and they were presided over by gods and people alike.