Western Civ 1 Sept 12, 2008 1201 Homework Assignment The idiom “near east” is a relatively new term that has absolutely no scholarly significance and thus no place in any history class. Contemporary historians however have coined the term to mean a small area north of the Arabian Peninsula and north east of the present day, continental boundaries of Africa. The countries that presently occupy this artificial boundary are Turkey, Iraq, Palestine, Israel, Jordan, and some of the Caucasus states. Egypt is separated from the “near east” by the Suez Canal, and on an entire separate continent. Several geographers group Egypt with the “Middle East” which is an equally doltish title, also with very little scholarly utility.
Egypt, is thought by some to have risen somewhere around the third millennium BCE. Many of the ideals, and schools of thought that the world runs on today are heavily borrowed from the ancient people of Kemet(Egypt). According to BBC Science, the Greek alpha numeric system was copied from that used by the Egyptians.1 Libraries of books can (and have) be written on what else the world has “borrowed” from Egypt, but the focus today is on her influence, through the religions centered around the high Goddess Isis Much of the religions that began around the Mediterranean, Tigress and Euphrates have been found to have many links to the spiritual customs of Egypt. Specifically, the Coptic deities have been known to show up in other societies. A Roman philosopher, Lucius Apuleius wrote in of Isis in his classic work, The Golden Ass: Phrygians(Anatolian Turks) call me the mother of
1 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3109806.stm
the Gods: the Athenians, Minerva: the Cyprians, Venus: the Candians, Diana: the Sicilians Proserpina: the Eleusians, Ceres: some Juno, other Bellona, other Hecate: and principally the Aethiopians which dwell in the Orient, and the Aegyptians which are excellent in all kind of ancient doctrine, and by their proper ceremonies accustome to worship mee, doe call me Queene Isis.”2 She was so loved by her adherents, that over the thousands of years that she was worshiped, her religion spread far and wide. According to British historian, William MacQuitty, the cult of Isis continued well into the Common Era when most other gods and goddesses had long been forgotten. There were temples to her all the way from ancient Abyssinia, and Babylon, to “classic” Greece, Germany and Italy.3 4 It’s been discovered that even in the British Isles, she had devotees and great temples.5 The Christian church, even today, has many rituals, prayers, idols, customs and beliefs that are almost identical to those of pre-Islamic Egypt6. An example is the belief in resurrection. The pre-dynastic Kemetic people believed the Nile was created with the tears that flowed from Isis as she mourned her slain husband Osiris. They also believed that with great hard work she resurrected him, and thus, according to Eloise McKinney-Johnson7 “Initiated the whole concept of resurrection.” While on the subject of Christianity, many historians have found that early 2 http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/bl_apuleius_bookxi.htm
3 “A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome P. 211 By Lawrence Richardson
4 http://hunter.apana.org.au/~gallae/QueerStuff/religion/mirror/thtfmw8.html#note35
5 http://www.roman-britain.org/places/londinium.htm
6 http://3mpub.com/bargeman/egypt.html
Christians truly equated of Isis with the virgin Mary. E. A. Wallis Budge, who was an Egyptologist that worked for the British Museum published many works dealing with the correlation of Isis and Mary. He said of them in the book, The Gods of the Egyptians “…and the pictures and sculptures wherein she is represented in the act of suckling Horus formed the foundation of the Christian paintings of the Madonna and Child” he also says “…many of the attributes of Isis, the God-mother, the mother of Horus(Isis’ son)...are identical with those of Mary the mother of Christ.” On
the final page, I placed a picture of an old Polish Madonna and Child next to the original Madonna (Isis) suckling Horus. I also placed a 17th century Greek Madonna. Notice the location of Isis’ hand, similar to Mary’s, the location of the baby, and finally the similar halo above each Madonna. With this paper I attempted to give a brief correlation between some of the diets of the ancient world with those of the modern world, and subsequently, show a few of the elements that survived the sands of time to affect the world in which we live. I could go on for many pages about the relationship between the Christian, and even the old religions of Rome and Greece (Heru-Hercules, Appolo-Horus, etc) and how they are just reflections of what the ancients picked up in Egypt. That however, would take much more than a small essay to explain. So for now, we’ll leave it at the “Mother of the Nile”, and the Mother of the new god , Christ.
7 EMK Johnson is a professor at Lanley College, Oakland, CA.
Original
After
Way After
Isis & Horus
Mary and Jesus
White Mary and Jesus
