Tag Archives: Horus

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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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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