Post by Senbecc on Mar 11, 2007 22:10:59 GMT -5
Aset (Auset, Ese; GR Isis) - "The Throne," Aset is the power that makes kings; a feminine Name appearing in texts beginning in Dynasty IV as wife and sister to Wesir and daughter of Nut and Geb. In earliest times Aset is depicted as the "mistress of magic" (see Heka) Who learns Ra's true name and thus the secrets of the universe. In the cult of Wesir Aset is attributed with having prepared Him for burial and conceiving a son upon His dead body, which She magically reanimates long enough to complete (in Kemetic texts, Wesir's death is attributed to drowning; the dismemberment myth given by Plutarch does not appear until millennia later and may not even be Kemetic in origin. See Wesir.). In later periods and particularly after the New Kingdom, Aset was syncretized with a number of other Names, Hethert in particular, and took on "mother goddess" characteristics. During this period, Aset's importance as mother of Heru-sa-Aset ("Horus, son of Isis", a Name intimately connected with kingship and therefore within Aset's purview as kingmaker) became paramount, in ways strongly suggestive of the Christian cult of the Virgin Mary. The Romans declared all feminine Names to be forms of Aset, crowning Her "Goddess of Ten Thousand Names," though Kemetic mythology does not exhibit this specific archetype.
www.kemet.org/glossary/aset.html
ISIS and ASET are in effect two different deities. When the worship of Isis began to spread, Aset had already been forgotten for hundreds of years, for at this time only a small group of priests still knew how to read the hieroglyphs on the temple walls. Isis was a Roman deity, reminding of Demeter, a great and loving mother goddess, but her Egyptian origin had sunk into oblivion. The mixup with Aset comes from Greek and Roman interpretation.
The Egyptian Aset
ASET is the original ancient Egyptian deity, who we find mentioned for the first time in Dynasty IV. Then she was known in myth as the sister-spouse and mourner of Wesir (Gr: Osiris), mother of Heru (Gr: Horus) and sister of Nebt-Het (Gr: Nephtys) and Set, children of Geb and Nut of the Heliopolitan Ennead. Her name as it first appears, means "throne" or "seat", indicating the seat of kings, is the same as the hieroglyph above her head. This meant that she was the personified Throne of Egypt who made the kings. Thereby she was the King´s symbolical mother and as such of special significance to him, but in the early days she was not a mother goddess for common people.
Together with her sister Nebt-Het (Gr: Nephtys) she is frequently seen on coffins in the form of a kite with outstretched wings protecting the deceased or in the Hall of Judgment standing protectively behind the throne of Wesir. In this aspect she is more a mortuary deity than a mother goddess and she and Nebt-Het are also mentioned in the Pyramid Texts as the 'mooring posts' to which the deceased laid to after their hazardous travel in the Underworld.
In myth she comes forward much more fierce than a mother goddess, quite strongwilled and lashes out against attackers if need be. She sometimes appears as the scorpion goddess Serket and as the star Sopdet (Sirius, Gr: Sothis) she is considered to bring on the inundation of the Nile. The ancient Egyptians called her the "Eye of Re", thus giving her an association with the sun.
She could be quite cunning and earned the epithet "Great of Heka" (Mistress of Magic) as in myth she managed to trick Ra into revealing his secret name to her, thus getting access to the geratest of knowledge. In the "Contendings of Horus and Set" she uses all her magic and trickery to help her son regain the throne of Wesir (Osiris) from his uncle Set. And in the most well known myth about her it is told how she mourned and searched for her husband Wesir (Osiris) who had been murdered by Set, how she succeeded in bringing him back to life and beget his son Heru (Horus). This myth goes back to the early dynastic days and became widely known and elaborated upon in later Roman days.
In the Middle Kingdom her popularity rose among common people at the same time as the worship of her husband Wesir (Osiris) became spread among the non-royalties in the so-called 'Democratisation of the Afterlife'. During the New Kingdom Aset and Het-Hert began to merge and could only be identified, not by their iconography, but by their hieroglyphs. They were then both depicted wearing the sun-disc crowned with the two horns on top of their heads, which can lead to much confusion unless you can read their respective hieroglyphs.
Her cult continued to develop throughout the New Kingdom, and into the Late period. During this time she incorporated most of the traits of the other great goddesses and also some gods. It was probably easy for people to identify with her, especially for women, because of her sufferings in myth as a widow and lonely mother. She was also greatly worshipped for her healing and protective powers and love spells and amulets (tyet knot) connected to Aset were frequently used. Her popularity grew and endured longer than any other Egyptian goddess into the Greek and Roman days when she became interpreted according to their cultural values and religious viewpoints:
The Roman Isis
ISIS is the Goddess of Ten Thousand Names, the Great Mother Goddess. She is the goddess for all women, the protector at childbirth, for nurturing and caring of children. She absorbed most of the different Egyptian goddesses´ properties and abilities during the Roman days. At the same time she kept her rôle as mother of the King, which can be seen on many of the Ptolemeian reliefs around Egypt. Her popularity spread far beyond Egypt, all around the Mediterranean. She was even considered a Creator Goddess, as can be read in the various and quite common Aretalogies of Isis. Plutharch, who elaborated on the myth of Isis and Osiris, associated her with the moon, which must be considered a sign of Roman influence, since the older form, the Egyptian Aset was associated with the sun and also since in ancient days Djehuty (Thoth) was the ancient Egyptian moon deity. So there is a distinction to be made between the origins of Aset and the Romanized deity Isis. Both of them are equally valid, but to mention Isis and failing to make this distinction will blur the picture and be unfair to both aspects of the deity.
www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Post/740399
www.kemet.org/glossary/aset.html
ISIS and ASET are in effect two different deities. When the worship of Isis began to spread, Aset had already been forgotten for hundreds of years, for at this time only a small group of priests still knew how to read the hieroglyphs on the temple walls. Isis was a Roman deity, reminding of Demeter, a great and loving mother goddess, but her Egyptian origin had sunk into oblivion. The mixup with Aset comes from Greek and Roman interpretation.
The Egyptian Aset
ASET is the original ancient Egyptian deity, who we find mentioned for the first time in Dynasty IV. Then she was known in myth as the sister-spouse and mourner of Wesir (Gr: Osiris), mother of Heru (Gr: Horus) and sister of Nebt-Het (Gr: Nephtys) and Set, children of Geb and Nut of the Heliopolitan Ennead. Her name as it first appears, means "throne" or "seat", indicating the seat of kings, is the same as the hieroglyph above her head. This meant that she was the personified Throne of Egypt who made the kings. Thereby she was the King´s symbolical mother and as such of special significance to him, but in the early days she was not a mother goddess for common people.
Together with her sister Nebt-Het (Gr: Nephtys) she is frequently seen on coffins in the form of a kite with outstretched wings protecting the deceased or in the Hall of Judgment standing protectively behind the throne of Wesir. In this aspect she is more a mortuary deity than a mother goddess and she and Nebt-Het are also mentioned in the Pyramid Texts as the 'mooring posts' to which the deceased laid to after their hazardous travel in the Underworld.
In myth she comes forward much more fierce than a mother goddess, quite strongwilled and lashes out against attackers if need be. She sometimes appears as the scorpion goddess Serket and as the star Sopdet (Sirius, Gr: Sothis) she is considered to bring on the inundation of the Nile. The ancient Egyptians called her the "Eye of Re", thus giving her an association with the sun.
She could be quite cunning and earned the epithet "Great of Heka" (Mistress of Magic) as in myth she managed to trick Ra into revealing his secret name to her, thus getting access to the geratest of knowledge. In the "Contendings of Horus and Set" she uses all her magic and trickery to help her son regain the throne of Wesir (Osiris) from his uncle Set. And in the most well known myth about her it is told how she mourned and searched for her husband Wesir (Osiris) who had been murdered by Set, how she succeeded in bringing him back to life and beget his son Heru (Horus). This myth goes back to the early dynastic days and became widely known and elaborated upon in later Roman days.
In the Middle Kingdom her popularity rose among common people at the same time as the worship of her husband Wesir (Osiris) became spread among the non-royalties in the so-called 'Democratisation of the Afterlife'. During the New Kingdom Aset and Het-Hert began to merge and could only be identified, not by their iconography, but by their hieroglyphs. They were then both depicted wearing the sun-disc crowned with the two horns on top of their heads, which can lead to much confusion unless you can read their respective hieroglyphs.
Her cult continued to develop throughout the New Kingdom, and into the Late period. During this time she incorporated most of the traits of the other great goddesses and also some gods. It was probably easy for people to identify with her, especially for women, because of her sufferings in myth as a widow and lonely mother. She was also greatly worshipped for her healing and protective powers and love spells and amulets (tyet knot) connected to Aset were frequently used. Her popularity grew and endured longer than any other Egyptian goddess into the Greek and Roman days when she became interpreted according to their cultural values and religious viewpoints:
The Roman Isis
ISIS is the Goddess of Ten Thousand Names, the Great Mother Goddess. She is the goddess for all women, the protector at childbirth, for nurturing and caring of children. She absorbed most of the different Egyptian goddesses´ properties and abilities during the Roman days. At the same time she kept her rôle as mother of the King, which can be seen on many of the Ptolemeian reliefs around Egypt. Her popularity spread far beyond Egypt, all around the Mediterranean. She was even considered a Creator Goddess, as can be read in the various and quite common Aretalogies of Isis. Plutharch, who elaborated on the myth of Isis and Osiris, associated her with the moon, which must be considered a sign of Roman influence, since the older form, the Egyptian Aset was associated with the sun and also since in ancient days Djehuty (Thoth) was the ancient Egyptian moon deity. So there is a distinction to be made between the origins of Aset and the Romanized deity Isis. Both of them are equally valid, but to mention Isis and failing to make this distinction will blur the picture and be unfair to both aspects of the deity.
www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Post/740399
