Drinking from the Nile

An Ancient Egyptian wall painting depicting a man kneeling under a date palm tree full of ripe fruits, and (seemingly) drinking water (from a river?)...

The tree is Zaghloul, or red dates palm, with fruits with a deep red to burgundy skin – resemble giant red grapes. They are native to Egypt and are synonymous with Egyptian autumn...

The harvest season for Zaghloul dates starts in September...

Just before that, while the date trees are still laden with fruit, Nile flood peaks...

I talk about Nile Flood mythology in many of my posts...

I talk about another tree calendar marker for Nile Flood, Sycamore fig, in my post "Sycamore tree goddess"

That's it. To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...

Nut

This is my 4th Horus post...

Ra-Horakhty (Ra as Horus) in his Solar Barque, traversing the horizon on a Heavenly Nile, during the day (the time when we can see the world) from east, dawn (left eye) to west, dusk (right eye). From a Book of the Dead dated to 1552–1069 BC, Currently in Louvre, Paris...

The same scene, from another Book of the Dead, dated to 1387–1350 BC, currently in Egyptian Museum, Cairo. Except here instead of Heavenly Nile, the Solar Barque of Ra-Horakhty (Ra as Horus) is traversing the horizon on the Milky Way...

I talked about the (symbolic) link between sun (light) and eye (sight) first in my post "Svetovid"...

Utu, Sun: 𒀭𒌓

According to this table, this means god, heaven + day = sun...

Did the god sign originally mean shiny thing? Did the day sign originally mean "eye"? 

If so: shiny thing + eye = to see = sun? 

Like Slavic Svetovid = light + to see  

And then in my post "Sun eyes"...

Skull with amber discs on clay in eye-sockets. Dated to the 4th mill BC. Latvia. One of many amber "sun" disc (obverse (sun cross), reverse (sun rays) and cross-section) made by the same culture...

Rememeber, the Sumerian symbol for sun was Sun + Eye = Sight

Ancient Egyptians believed in a "Heavenly Nile" that mirrored the earthly Nile and flowed through the sky as its divine counterpart. and they linked this celestial Nile with Nut, the Sky Goddess...

She is typically depicted as a  naked woman, arched over the earth god Geb...Like on the outer coffin of  Butehamun dated to 1076–944 BC and currently in the Turin Museum....

She was believed to stretch across the sky from eastern horizon to western horizon, and that she swallows the sun every evening and gives birth to it every morning...

This is why on this papyrus from the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the sun god Ra was depicted as sailing across her body in his solar barque...

Nut was often depicted with stars in her body. There's been suspicion that she might have been in some way linked to the Milky Way, and recent discovery of this depiction of Nut from the outer coffin of Nesitaudjatakhet (I think) has finally confirmed this...

You can see that Nut’s body is covered in stars as well as a thick, undulating black curve that runs from the soles of her feet to the tips of her fingers. This curve, surrounded by stars on both sides, is reminiscent of the Milky Way’s Great Rift...

You can read more about this in the latest study by Dr. Or Graur, Professor of Astrophysics at University of Portsmouth

In which he builds on his previous work, in which he cross-referenced ancient Egyptian texts with astrophysical simulations...

And had concluded that references to Nut found in the Pyramid Texts, Coffin Texts, and the Book of Nut are descriptions of seasonal changes of the sky in correlation with Nut which can only be understood if Nut was in some way linked to Milky Way...

There is (I think) one more proof that Nut was (linked with) Milky Way and Heavenly Nile.

In the Egypt, the brightest part of the Milky Way, its galactic core, is visible towards the south, from Feb to Oct...

During Apr/May/Jun it can be seen in the southeast/south as a bright (roughly) East - West oriented arch stretching across the sky...

Going across and above the Nile river...

During Jul/Aug/Sep it can be seen in the south/southwest, as towering vertical "river" in the sky...

Running parallel to the Nile and touching it far down south/southwest, at it's source...

Which is very interesting because Jul/Aug/Sep is the time of the annual Nile flood, and this is the same time when the Milky Way, the Heavenly Nile truly becomes the reflection of the Terrestrial Nile. Or is it the other way round? As above so below?

In the this paper we can read that in the Book of Nut,  the centre of Nut’s torso was marked with "I Akhet when Sothis rises".

The heliacal rising of Sirius, known in Egypt as Sothis or Sopdet in the month of I Akhet, Jul/Aug, marks the beginning of the annual Nile flood...

So it is not surprising then that Nut was one of the Sycamore goddesses (Hathor and Isis, both linked to the annual flood were the other ones)...

Texts from the Book of the Dead directly invoke this aspect: "Hail, thou Sycamore Tree of the Goddess Nut! Give me of the water...which is in thee..."

Here is Nut, standing upright (just like Milky Way during the peak of the annual flood), pouring "the water of life", the flood water of both terrestrial and heavenly Nile, and giving bread (of life) which is the result of the flood which makes agriculture in the Nile valley, Egypt, possible...

I talked about this in my post "Sycamore tree goddess"...

Nut was also directly linked to the annual Nile flood through the celestial cow goddess Mehet-Weret whose name means "Great Flood" and, in some cases, the two were equated...

Nut herself was sometimes depicted as a Heavenly Cow, eating the stars each morning and giving birth to them at twilight...

I talked about celestial cows in my posts "Holy cow", "Cow and calf ivory" and "Inanna in Egypt", in which I explained why is Hathor as Mehet Weret (flood) was depicted as a cow and why she was depicted emerging out of papyris thickets...

But at the time when I wrote these posts, I didn't think of this:

Auroch calving season starts in Apr/May. After calving, cows would begin producing milk, with milk production rising until it reaches peak after 40 - 60 days, with peak lasting 20 days...

That's Jun/Jul, just before Jul/Aug, the beginning of the Akhet season, the season of the annual Flood...The milk of the celestial cow, who was the Milky Way, and the Celestial Nile, filling the Terrestrial Nile and causing the annual flood...

Now this is all super cool, but it gets cooler. Here is something I have stumbled across while reading this article:

"...birds [with] human faces [that speak] in human language [come from] Nut's northwest side to her northeast side, from the primeval darkness, the ḳbḥw of the gods [from] Duat, located on [Nut's] northern side..."

These "birds with human faces" are Ba birds. 

I talked about the link between birds as carriers of souls in European and Mesopotamian cultures in several of my articles:

In my post "Nav", in which I talked about how in Slavic mythology, souls of the dead entered birds, like these cranes, who brought them to Irij, paradise. Birds then brought the souls back when they were ready to be reborn...

And in my post "Soul birds" about the Ancient Greek depictions of human souls as birds with human heads...

And in my post "Bes" in which I explained why among the Lake Onega petroglyphs, Russia, made c. 4000BC, the only two petroglyphs which were Christianised were "The Devil" and a swan... 

The term "qbḥw", often-abbreviated in writing to only the sign representing a tall water-jug with liquid pouring from it, is generally translated as "cool waters"...

This term was also used as a designation of the celestial vault, because of the belief that the sky is a liquid surface between the atmosphere and outer space, on which the celestial bodies were imagined to navigate during the day and the night...

Additionally, "qbḥw" is used to mean the source of Nile and its inundation, which issued directly from the Nun, the primordial ocean, which lay on the other side of Nut...

Dr Graur interprets the above depiction of the arrival of the Ba birds from Duat as the autumn bird migration into Egypt, which starts in Aug and ends in Nov. During this time the Milky Way orientation flips from northeast - southwest to northwest - southeast...

Dr Graur then goes to say that "the [above] passage, however, notes that the entrance to the Duat is 'on Nut's northern side', not the west, where the Sun sets daily"...

And then he suggests, "this tension may be due to evolving perceptions of the Duat between the era of the Old Kingdom and the era(s) when the Fundamentals (The Book of Nut) and its commentaries were written"...

But I think that this is just another proof that when Ancient Egyptians are talking about Nut, they are indeed talking about the Milky Way. Remember, Jul/Aug/Sep/Oct is when Milky Way assumes vertical, North - South position over Egypt...

Which means that if the Duat is at the end of Nut, then the position of Duat is not fixed, but instead it moves as Nut moves across the sky. And when the autumn bird migration starts in Aug, Duat is indeed North of Nut, because Nut is now pointing North - South...

How cool is this? But there is something even cooler.

There are two bird migration seasons during which millions of birds fly along the river Nile over Egypt:

Northward spring migration to Duat, Feb/Mar - Apr/May

Southward autumn migration from Duat, Aug/Sep - Oct/Nov

The beginning of the spring migration and the end of the autumn migration mark the beginning and the end of the period during which the galactic core, Nut's body, can be seen in the skies over Egypt...

This would explain Nut’s role in the transition of the deceased to the afterlife (as described in spells from the Pyramid Texts and  Coffin Texts)...

Cool? I think so...But there is something even even cooler:

Now on the corner of this map found in in this paper, which depicts the northern portion of the cosmos, the same area where the Book of Nut situates an opening of the Duat, we find the phrase "Qbḥw Ḥrw" meaning "the cool waters/firmament of Horus"...

How cool is this? The North, the direction from which migratory birds come to Egypt in the Autumn following the "Path of Birds", the Milky Way, Celestial Nile as well as Terrestrial Nile is marked as "The part of the sky of Horus"??? Why?

Well...Because of animal calendar markers...Deified animal calendar markers...Of course...I will talk about this soon...I promise...

In the meantime you might want to also read my first Horus post "Great duel", my second Horus post "Horus the Elder", and my third Horus post "Horizon...

That's it. If you are interested in reading more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, which are at the root of all our mythologies, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...

Sycamore tree goddess

Sycamore tree goddess, originally Hathor, and later Isis, both goddess of flood, or Nut, goddess of Heavenly Nile (Milky Way), pouring water which is depicted with ankh (life) symbols inside it...Tomb, Siwa Oasis, 400-600 BC. Egypt...

Why would a goddess of flood be depicted as a sycamore fig tree?

Most likely because sycamore bears fruit between May and Sep...

The time of the rise of the water level in the Nile. Which means that the sycamore full of fruit announces the arrival of the flood, the thing that makes life possible in Egypt...

I talked about Hather, the sycamore tree and the Nile flood in my post "Holy cow"...

And in my post "The white calf", in which I tried to answer the question why is this white calf standing between two sycamore trees under a red sun? 

Why was Nile Flood water depicted containing ankh (life) symbols? Cause the Annual Nile flood is what makes life possible in the Nile Valley, what originally created Egypt and what recreates it every year...Without the annual Nile flood there would be no Egypt...I talk about this in my post "Beautiful boy"...

BTW, Speaking about Ankh = Water, check my post "Goddess on a horse"...

Post in which I talk about the link between ankh, papyrus (flowers at the beginning of the Nile flood), lotus (flowers at the peak of the Nile flood) and the flood...And few other related things...

You also might like this: Baboons feed on figs in a sycamore tree on a painting in the tomb of Khnumhotep at Beni Hasan c. 1950 BC…

Both Sycamore tree and Baboons were animal calendar markers found imbedded in parts of Egyptian mythology related to water and flood. I talk about this in my post "Baboon"...

Finally I think that it's very interesting that we find "sacred fig goddess" in both Ancient Egypt and Ancient Indus Valley civilisations...

Check my post "Sacred fig goddess", in which I talk about the Indian one (different fig same link to water, this time monsoon rain water) with references to the Egyptian one...And about plant and animal calendar markers in both cultures...

That's that. 

If you are interested in reading more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, which are at the root of all our mythologies, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...

Baboon

This is a beautiful Menat, a sacred necklace/instrument of the Goddess Hathor, the Deified Nile flood. 

It depicts goddess Tefnut and god Shu. You can read more about this amazing artefact and its meaning in my post "Menat". 

Tefnut (literally "That Water") was the deity of moisture in Ancient Egypt. She is the twin sister and wife of the air god Shu...What do you get when you marry rain and air? Monsoon which feeds the Nile flood. 

In the earlier Pyramid Texts she is said to produce pure waters from her vagina...So when one day, she got pissed off :) with Egyptians for taking the piss :) and not giving her enough kudos, she stopped producing pure waters from her vagina, and pissed off :) to Nubia...

There, Tefnut, in a form of an angry lioness, became the terror of the land, attacking both men and animals. She blew smoke and fire from her nostrils and eyes and fed on the flesh and blood of her victims...

Leo, the end of summer, beginning of autumn, the time of maximum heat and no rain, would be the time of droughts and death in Egypt, if it weren't for Tefnut, the monsoon moisture which feeds the Nile...It is this moisture that transforms Leo into time of inundation and life...

Sun god Ra, Tefnut's father, missed his daughter and so he sent Shu (Tefnut's husband) and Thoth (god of wisdom) as his emissaries to ask her to return home. Of course he missed her. Because no Tefnut means no Nile. And no Nile means no Egypt. And no Egypt means no Ra...

For some weird reason, Thoth, disguised himself as a baboon (!!!) and went looking for Tefnut.

When he finally found her (which was probably not that hard, he just had to fallow the trail of destruction), he tried to persuade her to go back to Egypt. First he told her that she should go back to Egypt because it was a much more civilised place than the wilds of the Nubian desert...Blah blah blah...Seeing that the mention of civilisation didn't really have much effect on the crazed murderous fire breathing lioness, Thoth then said that Tefnut should go back to Egypt because of her worshipers. They adore her and miss her and would throw huge party in her honour if she returns and would place on her altars the game she was now having to run down and kill for herself...OooooK...Listening...

At that moment Tefnut's husband and twin brother Shu joined in, and he eventually persuaded Tefnut to go (back) to Egypt...Well moisture (Tefnut) can't go anywhere without wind (Shu)...

Tefnut's return trip became a triumphant procession through the Egyptian villages, just like Thoth promised. The goddess, accompanied by Nubian musicians, clowns, and baboons (???) was greeted by people who rejoiced in her presence, and wild drunken festivals were held in her honour...

As Tefnut progressed down the Nile, she lost her ferocity and became kind and gentle again and the heavenly flow returned :) 

Self explanatory, right? 

Well, all except the baboons. I mean WTF? Why did Thoth dress up like a baboon? And why did baboons follow Tefnut back to Egypt?

Well this monkey business is very important for understanding this story. Forget about Thoth's yapping about civilisation and such crap. That did nothing. It was the baboon costume 🙂 that did it...It was the fact that Thoth was dressed as baboon that made Tefnut return to Egypt...

Baboons are known as "water finders". They need open drinking water, so during dry season they stay near open watering holes. And so if you wanted to find water during droughts, all you need to do is find baboons and then follow them to their watering hole, around which they gather every evening...

Also, Baboons don't live and never lived in Egypt. They live in Sudan and in...Ethiopian highlands. The same place where monsoon (Tefnut-moisture + Shu-wind) causes enormous precipitations starting in March, with the full blown monsoon starting from April/May/June depending on the season and peaking in Jul/Aug...

Which is the source of the great flood, which is the source of life in Egypt...

Baboons don't have a breeding season. Instead, they breed year-round with "peak period in May-July"...In the middle of the monsoon season...And at the exact time when the Nile water level starts to rise...

So you could say that baboons "find and brings forth Tefnut (moisture, rain)". Well actually it's her "husband" Shu (wind) who finally "brings her forth", but it is Thoth (baboon) who "persuades" her to return...

And so the "moisture from the wind" (monsoon rain), pisses :) on the Ethiopian highlands (and on pissed off :) wet baboons). 

And from there it flows as Nile to Nubia and then to Egypt. The triumphant return of Tefnut (accompanied by Nubian musicians, clowns, and baboons :))

Now here is something that I just discovered about the baboons in Ancient Egypt: They were often depicted picking sycamore figs...

Some people think that this means that Egyptians trained baboons to pick the figs for them. 

Well, these ones don't look like they have any intention of giving any figs to the people. They are too busy eating them...It is the man actually picking the figs...I don't think this is the correct interpretation of these images...

Here is what I think: Sycamore fig was "the tree of life" of the Ancient Egyptians. Here is Goddess Hathor, the Nile flood deified, the source of grain and life, depicted coming out of a sycamore tree bringing bread to people...

Why?

Here's why: "Sycamore has three main harvests: May, June, August/September". So basically, the sacred tree of Hathor, was full of orange-red ripe fruit from May, beginning of monsoon which was the source of the great flood, until September, the end of the great flood...

You can read more about the animal and plant symbolism related to the Nile flood in my article "Holy Cow"...  

Did I mention that the peak mating season of the Hamadryas baboons, the ones who "persuade Tefnut, the rain water, to go Egypt", starts in May, the exact time when the sycamore fig harvest starts?

Could the depictions of the baboons in sycamore trees stuffing themselves with figs be symbolic? Like "The baboons are stealing our figs! Rejoice! Tefnut's vagina is back in business! The heavenly flow (the flood) will reach us soon..." Or something like this?

Anyway...It's gonna rain here soon. Gotta go for a walk before it starts...Take care...And don't look up when it's raining. Who knows what you might see :)