marți, 31 iulie 2007

a little from egypt

Egyptian Gods

Ancient Egypt had by tradition a great variety of gods and what today can be labelled as "spirits" and "fairies".
The total of them all was over 2.000, but many of them had similar characteristics and appeared all over the country by different names. The huge diversity is due to the fact that before the country was united the Nile Valley was split up into about forty self ruling areas (later to be provinces - so called nomes) where the ruling tribe had its own deities. Almost all gods had one thing in common - they had a count- erpart of the opposite sex and manifested themselves on earth through animals.


God Aah

Aah (like "awe"), was an old moon god in charge of the moon-year (12x30 days). Besides "moon" his name meant "collar", "to embrace" and "defender".
His duties were shadowy and he was seen as a moon crescent often with sun disk upon it (picture on the left). He accompanied mainly Thot and Khons, but also others. Rarely he was upon the head of a sitting Osiris with whom he was known in texts as Osiris-Aah. He could be seen as Thoth-Aah with a crescent upon a pedestal standing in a boat. He took part in "The Book of the Dead" where he was quoted in a prayer presenting himself by saying: "I am the moon-god Aah, the dweller among the gods". His most famous roll in Egyptian mythology was in a tale where he gambled with Thoth and made him help the pair Nut and Geb to raise a family.