Category Archives: History

DENDARA – PTOLEMAIC MAGIC IN THE HOME OF THE COW-EARED GODDESS

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Entry facade at Denara Temple with mudbrick enclosure wall on the right.
Entry facade at Denara Temple with mudbrick enclosure wall on the right.

Egypt was ruled for 300 years by the Greek Ptolemaic dynasty. For the Land of the Two Kingdoms, foreign domination was not a new phenomenon. The secret to rule is on display at the Temple of Dendara lying a few miles to the west of the Nile riverside town of Qena. Letting locals keep running things for a large part – as long as taxes were sent to Alexandria – the Ptolemies also co-opted the indigenous gods, goddesses and myths with their own. By trying to impose a foreign culture upon Egypt, internal disorder was kept to a minimum. Dendara, Edfu and Philae (near Aswan) are all examples of Ptolemaic admiration for the local religious hierarchy.

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OREGON LAND CLAIMS – THE METHODISTS TAKE ON THE GOOD DOCTOR

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Original platt map for Oregon City.
Original plat map for Oregon City.

Problems of Land Claims without a Government – illustrated by the case of Dr. John McLoughlin. How does one stake out land claims in lieu of a functioning government?

Before 1812, most of the Pacific Coast north of today’s San Francisco, featured a landscape claimed by several Euro-centric countries. To the north, Imperial Russia slowly crept southward. Spain maintained claims on much of the coastline from California northwards to today’s Vancouver Island. Both the United Kingdom and the United States focused on the region drained by the Columbia River and its tributaries, though that focus stretched far beyond the drainage basin. The various claims based themselves upon discoveries made by explorers of the various nations. Ideas that the land somehow was owned by local Native Americans was put aside for the most part by the nations in question.

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KOM OMBO – CROCODILES, FALCONS AND MAGIC ON THE NILE

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Temple at Kom Ombo from the river. The Nile used to run right up next to the walkway below the base.
Temple at Kom Ombo from the river. The Nile used to run right up next to the walkway below the base.

Rule in ancient Egypt was always a top-down affair. Absolute power lay absolutely in the hands of the divine Pharaohs seen as gods on earth. The demise of the New Kingdom with its assortment of Ramses (I and II during the Nineteenth Dynasty and III through IX with the Twentieth) eventually led to foreign invasions bringing in foreigners to rule the Land of the Two Kingdoms. Most successful were the Greeks in the form of one of the favorite generals of Alexander, Ptolemy I.  They would rule Egypt for 300 years before the Romans would take their own turn. Here, on the east bank of the Nile, about fifteen miles downstream from Aswan in southern Egypt, at the town of Kom Ombo, a temple exists in good, restored condition showing off a bit of how the Greeks were able to successfully pull off leadership of the country for three centuries.

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TEMPLE OF EDFU, GODS AND KINGS MAGIC AMID DIVINITY

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Ptolemy XII helps the gods pound stakes to delineate the boundaries of the temple.
Ptolemy XII helps Sekhet pound stakes to delineate the boundaries of the temple while Horus watches.

To say Egyptian mythology and the pantheon of gods and goddesses presents itself in a straightforward, easy to understand approach means you have probably already given up trying. No god presents themselves in a more confused manner than the falcon-headed Horus. The particular Horus getting worshipped depends on where in Egypt you visited. But even here in Edfu, local rules do not apply.

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HATSHEPSUT, OZYMANDIAS – MAGIC DENIED IN THE SANDS OF HISTORY

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Courtyard and final causeway leading into the mortuary temple of Hatshepsut.
Courtyard and final causeway leading into the mortuary temple of Hatshepsut.

Most tourist visits to Egypt include life, death and the afterlife, or at least an ancient Egyptian look at how all intertwine. The Necropolis of Thebes, much like that seen further north in the Giza-Saqqara-Dashur necropolis of Memphis, extends for many miles beyond the main attraction, the Valley of the Kings. Mortuary temples built by New Kingdom pharaohs front the desert mountains rising to the west. Mortuary temples arose as early as the Old Kingdom. The temples commemorated a specific king who reigned during the construction of the temple. Most prominent of all was to the peculiar Queen-King Hatshepsut.

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CIVIL WAR GENERALS – LEADERSHIP LEARNED ON THE JOB

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Monument to the 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment and the Field Headquarters of General William Rosecrans 20 September 1863 at Chickamauga.
Monument to the 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry Regiment and the Field Headquarters of General William Rosecrans 20 September 1863 at Chickamauga.

For over the nation’s first century, defense of America for various wars, stayed in the hands of state militias – War of 1812, Mexican War, Civil War, Spanish American War, World War 1 and even to a significant role in World War 2. The US Congress always remained desirous to maintain a small regular army during peacetime which could change in times of war with massive influx of militia brought in from the states. This led to a series of problems in each war America involved itself in. One of the major problems became that of leadership.  Captains went from commanding company-sized groups – 100-250 men – to commanding generals leading armies of several thousands. On the job learning in warfare costs lives. Here, we will focus mainly on Civil War generals.

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ROYAL AFRICAN COMPANY – RUPERT’S ROYAL ADVENTURERS LOSE THEIR MAGIC

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Insurrection aboard a slave ship is meet with gunfire from behind the protective wall known as a barricado.
Insurrection aboard a slave ship is meet with gunfire from behind the protective wall known as a barricado.

Before the advent of “The Governor and Company of Adventurers of England, trading into Hudson’s Bay” – the Hudson’s Bay Company or HBC – there was another royally sponsored affair known as the “Company of Royal Adventurers Trading to Africa” – better known as the Royal Africa Company or RAC. The key man in both ventures was one Prince Rupert of the Rhine, cousin to the Stuart King Charles II.

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VALLEY OF THE KINGS – PHARAONIC GLORY HIDDEN

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Constellations of the night decorate the ceiling of the vaulted burial chamber.
Constellations of the night decorate the ceiling of the vaulted burial chamber of Seti I.

The west side of the Nile at Thebes – Waset to the Egyptians, like further upstream at Memphis, was reserved for the next life. At both sites, the bank of the setting sun became the home for the Afterlife. Cemeteries predominately lay on the west side of the river as Egyptians believed human life paralleled the path of the sun, rising in the east and setting in the west. In the land of the setting sun lie the underworld. Line up with the others to witness the Egyptian version of eternity.

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LEYTE GULF – DIRECT FROM THE NORTHWEST TO SAMAR

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The CVE-66 USS White Plains in for repairs after the Battle off Samar.
The CVE-66 USS White Plains in for repairs after the Battle off Samar.

A recent trip to Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery inspired this post. Coming from Portland, Oregon, I knew of the massive efforts provided by the Kaiser Shipyards on behalf of the American war effort in World War II. My grandfather served as a foreman in the Portland – Swan Island -yard. I also knew of the old slips which can still be seen on the north – Vancouver – shore of the Columbia River nearly opposite Portland’s international airport. I knew of the battle of Leyte Gulf and the sacrifice of two escort carriers and three ships from their destroyer screen but did not realize the escort carriers came from the Vancouver shipyard. In fact, some fifty carriers were built there between 1943 and 1946. All of the escort carriers off the island of Samar fighting totally outclassed on 25 October 1944 came out of those same shipyards.

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LUXOR TEMPLE – APOTHEOSIS ON THE NILE

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The Solar Courtyard of Amenhotep III shines in the darkening dusk light.
The Solar Courtyard of Amenhotep III shines in the darkening dusk light.

Luxor Temple stands at the southern end of the Avenue of the Sphinxes in the center of the City of Luxor. Along with Karnak, Luxor Temple rates as one of the most popular visitor sites in Egypt. The temple (Ipet Resyt or Southern Opet to ancient Egyptians) became dedicated to Amememopet, “Amun in Opet”. This particular form of Amun-Ra was specific to this temple, especially tied in the idea of royal ka or the spirit of kingship entering into a king’s body at the time of his coronation. Evey year the Opet Festival took place in which the king visited the Luxor Temple in order for the royal ka to be ritually reborn, reconfirmed and re-energized.

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