Through the Eras

Religionish, and kills those conspirators who had fled into thedesert. Before Hathor can complete the job of destroyingmankind, Re has a change of heart. He concocts aplan to get Hathor drunk on what she thinks is humanblood, and in her altered state she fails to continue inher destructive work. Re preserves mankind, but as a resultof their rebellion he withdraws to the sky on theback of his daughter, Nut, the sky, who takes the formof a cow.FATE. The ancient Egyptians believed that at birth,a person’s name, profession, length of life, and time andmanner of death were assigned by a god or goddess.Some texts describe the manner of death of an individualas decreed by deities referred to as the SevenHathors. In The Doomed Prince, the Seven Hathors attendthe birth of a prince, and decree that he shall dieby means of a crocodile, a snake, or dog. In The Storyof Two Brothers, the Seven Hathors attend the creationof a wife for one of the brothers, Bata, and decree thatshe shall die through execution by means of a knife. Inthe Middle Kingdom Khufu and the Magicians, Re sendsthe goddess Meskhenet to attend the birth of his threechildren, and to decree that each will in turn assumethe kingship of all Egypt. Other deities involved withdetermining a person’s fate include the goddess Shay,the personification of fate who was thought of as allottinga person’s length of life and manner of death, andRenenet, the goddess of harvest and fertility. Renenetcould assume the form of a woman suckling a child orof a serpent, and was thought of as assigning those physicalaspects of a person that seem to be beyond an individual’scontrol, such as height, weight, complexion,and even material goods and prosperity. Gods were alsothought to control fate, and Amun, Khnum, and Horuswere each said to assign an individual’s fate. In atext known as A Calendar of Lucky and Unlucky Days,a particular date is listed as being lucky or unlucky basedon mythological events which were thought to have occurredon that date. Some dates contain a notation thatassigns a particular fate to anyone born on that date.Anyone born on day three of the first month of Akhetwould die by a crocodile, while anyone born on day sixof the second month would die on account of drunkenness.Day five preserves a particularly interesting fate;one born on that date was fated to die “of copulation.”The extent to which one’s decreed fate was unalterableis uncertain. In The Doomed Prince mentioned above,the flow of the narrative seems to suggest that the princewill eventually escape his three ordained fates, but sincethe end of the papyrus is missing, this conclusion cannotbe certain.EVIL IN INSTRUCTION FOR MERYKAREINTRODUCTION: The Teachings for Merykare primarilydiscusses the king’s obligations to his people. In onedigression, however, the author describes both creationand the way that evil entered the worldthrough mankind’s rebellion against the gods.Well tended is mankind—god’s cattle,He made sky and earth for their sake,He subdued the water monster,He made breath for their noses to live.They are his images, who came from his body,He shines in the sky for their sake;He made for them plants and cattle,Fowl and fish to feed them.He slew his foes, reduced his children,When they thought of making rebellion.He makes daylight for their sake,He sails by to see them.He has built his shrine around them,When they weep he hears.He made for them rulers in the egg,Leaders to raise the back of the weak.He made for them magic as weaponsTo ward off the blow of events.SOURCE: “Instruction for Merykare,” in The Old and MiddleKingdoms. Vol. 1 of Ancient Egyptian Literature. Trans.Miriam Lichtheim (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University ofCalifornia Press, 1973): 106.SOURCESJan Assmann, The Mind of Egypt (New York: MetropolitanBooks, 2002).Bob Brier, Ancient Egyptian Magic (New York: Quill, 1981).Susan Tower Hollis, The Ancient Egyptian “Tale of TwoBrothers” (Norman, Okla.: University of OklahomaPress, 1990).Frank T. Miosi, “God, Fate and Free Will in Egyptian WisdomLiterature,” in Studies in Philology in Honour ofRonald James Williams. Eds. Gerald Kadish and GeoffreyFreeman (Toronto: SSEA Publications, 1982): 69–111.ANIMALS IN EGYPTIAN RELIGIONSIGNIFICANCE. Animals played an important role inEgyptian religion. Most of the Egyptian gods could at timesbe depicted either as an animal or as an animal-headedArts and Humanities Through the Eras: Ancient Egypt (2675 B.C.E.–332 B.C.E.) 221