Thegate deities of the underworldwereancient Egyptianminordeitiescharged with guarding the gates of theEgyptian underworld.[2][3][4]
Description and partition
editThe Egyptians believed that in thenetherworld,theDuat,there were various gates, doors andpylonscrossed every night by the solar boat (Atet) of thesun-godRaand by thesoulsdirected to the world of the dead.[4]
Ancient funerary texts provide many different descriptions of theafterlifegates. Sometimes more than 1,000 guardian deities are listed.[3]According to a more general view, every gate was guarded by a minor god who allowed access only to the souls capable of pronouncing the secret name of the god himself, as a sort of "password".[3]The walls of manyPharaonictombs in theValley of the Kingsare decorated with the texts of theBook of Gates,which describes the twelve gates or pylons of the underworld: in spite of being imagined as architectural barriers to all intents and purposes, the gates were individually named as goddesses.[4]Chapter 144 of theBook of the Deadmentions seven gates, each with its own God, a Doorkeeper and a Herald: for example, the 7th gate is guarded by the god "Sharpest Of Them All", by the doorkeeper "Strident Of Voice" and by the herald "Rejector Of Rebels".[3]
Other funerary texts mention 21 "Secret Portals Of The Mansion OfOsirisIn The Field Of Reeds "with their own names and epithets and protected by zoo-anthropomorfic deities often depicted crouched on the ground and holding large, threatening knives.[3]The names of these last accesses — still feminine — are from time to time disturbing as the 14th ( "Mistress Of Anger – Dancing On Blood" ) or harmless as the 3rd ( "Mistress Of The Altar" ). The guardian-gods too were given names that inspired terror and, above all, evoked their fearful powers: for example "Swallower Of Sinners" and "Existing On Maggots" — even if some texts avoided directly indicating their names, adding these largely unnamed gate deities of the underworld to the group of Egyptian divinities known to scholars, but impossible to inventory.[3]
Gates described in the wall paintings of the Valley of the Kings
editAccording to the descriptions provided by the wall paintings in regal tombs of the Valley of the Kings, each gate or pylon consisted of three elements:a)a spitfire snake placed in front of the access,b)the gate itself, described both as a true architectural portal and as a goddess,c)and its guardian deities. The solar boat's travel through such gates can be described as follows.[2]
1st gate:Sia(deification ofperception)[5]standing on the prow of the sun boat, invites a snake called "Desert-Protector" to unlock the gate to the arrival of Ra who, in the form of the godAtum(deification of thesunsetsun[6]), observes his enemies being massacred.
2nd gate:the guardian god is called "Swallower Of Sinners"and his gate precedes a lake of fire.
3rd gate:its guardian snake is "Stinger" while the portal itself is the goddess "Mistress Of Food";some jackals watch over the" Lake of Life "interdicted to the dead because it is the place where Ra draws his breath.
4th gate:some deities carry ropes to measure the extension of the netherworld fields — as well as, in the daily life of the Egyptians, the measurement of the fields was carried out for tax purposes; this is also where the four humanethnic groups(according to the Egyptians) were depicted: the "cattle of Ra", i.e. Egyptians themselves,Levantines,Libyans,andNubians.
5th gate:this gate is the goddess "Lady Of Duration"while its guardian serpent is" Flame-Eyed "; this access is inhabited by the perfidious demonApep— embodiment ofevilandchaos(Isfet), bitter enemy of Ra[7]— here called "Evil Of Face". 20 deities manage to stem his devastating power by continuing to dissect it, while the heads of those he devoured emerge from his coils. The sun boat moves on and Ra leaves this dramatic region.
6th gate:Ra's boat approaches to seven jackal-headed poles with two enemies bound to each one, waiting to be beheaded.
7th gate:this gate is the goddess "Shining One"and beyond it there are 20 gods holding a rope ending in fourwhips,fourfalconheads and fourhuman heads.This is an Enigma tic and barely understandable point.
8th gate:this access is inhabited by a flaming snake who burns up the enemies of Osiris.
9th gate:here standHorusandSeton ahawk-headedlion.
10th gate:Apep appears again, but chained in order not to harm Ra in his transit.
11th gate:this gate is called "Mysterious Of Approaches" and is overseen by the cat-headed godMeeyuty(meowonomatopoeia).
12th gate:here stand the goddessesIsisandNephthysin the form of snakes: the journey through the gates of the afterlife is finished and thesunrises on the world in the form of asacred scarab(Khepri,deification of themorningsun[8]).
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Gate deities depicted in the tomb of Nefertari (QV66)
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Gatekeepers ofAaru,painting on the southern wall of the tomb ofSennedjeminDayr al-Madīnah,Thebes, Egypt,around 1775 BC.
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Acrocodile-god guardian of the underworld — from the tomb (KV17) of Pharaoh Seti I.
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The journey of thesolar boatof Ra through the gates of the netherworld and its deities — from a 4th century BCsarcophagus.Louvre,Paris.
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The journey of Ra among the underworld deities — from the tomb of PharaohMerneptah(c. 1213–1203 BC).
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The 11th hour of the book Amduat.
Gates described in funerary papyri
editTheBritishEgyptologistGeorge Hart thus outlined, in hisDictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses(1986), the evocative names of these deities and their positions in the netherworld as described in the funeralpapyriknown to scholars:[9]
Gods of the Seven Gates
editGate | God | Title | Doorkeeper | Herald |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | "Upside Down Of Face – Manifold Of Forms" | "Secret Listener" | "Miserable Of Voice" | |
2 | "Stretched Out Of Forehead" | "Seqed(?) Faced " | "Glowing" | |
3 | "Eater Of The Foulness From His Hindquarters" | "Watchful Of Face" | "Curser" | |
4 | "Hostile Of Face – Loquacious" | "Perceptive" | "Great Of Face – Crocodile-Repeller" | |
5 | "Existing On Maggots" | "Ashbu" | "Hippopotamus Face – Furious Of Onslaught" | |
6 | "Raging Of Voice" | "Face-Eraser" | "Sharp Of Face" | |
7 | "Sharpest Of Them" | "Strident Of Voice" | "Rebuffing Insurgents" |
Deities of the Twenty-One Secret Portals of the Mansion of Osiris in the Field of Rushes
editPortal | Name of Portal as Goddess | Guardian God |
---|---|---|
1 | "Mistress Of Trembling" | "Dreadful" |
2 | "Mistress Of The Sky" | "Born Of The Hindquarters" |
3 | "Mistress Of The Altar" | "Cleanser" |
4 | "Powerful Of Knives" | "Long-Horned Bull" |
5 | "Fiery One" | "Killer Of Opponents" |
6 | "Mistress Of Darkness" | "Destroyer" |
7 | "Veiler Of The Weary One (Osiris) " | "Ikenti" |
8 | "Lighter Of Flames – Extinguisher Of Heat" | "Protector Of His Body" |
9 | "Foremost" | "Fowler" |
10 | "Piercing Of Voice"or"High Of Double Doors" | "Great Embracer" |
11 | "Ceaseless In Knifing – Scorcher Of Rebels" | "Cook Of His Braziers" |
12 | "Invoked By HerTwo Lands" | "Cat" |
13 | "She Above Whom Osiris (or:Isis,Ennead) Stretches His Arms " | "Destroyer Of The Robber" |
14 | "Mistress Of Anger – Dancing On Blood" | "Screecher" |
15 | "Great Of Valour" | "Vigilant Of Face" |
16 | "Dread" | "Clever In Bowing" |
17 | "Great On TheHorizon" | "Spirit" |
18 | "Lover Of Heat" | "Anointed" |
19 | "She Who Foretells Mornings Throughout Her Lifespan –
Possessor Of The Writings ofThoth" |
nameless |
20 | "Dweller Within the Cavern Of Her Lord" | nameless |
21 | "Sharpener Of Flint To Speak For Her" | "Giraffe" ( "Memy") |
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Two 'gate spells'. On the top register, Ani and his wife face the 'seven gates of the House of Osiris'. Below, they encounter ten of the 21 'mysterious portals of the House of Osiris in the Field of Reeds'. All are guarded by unpleasant protectors.[10]
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Book of the Deadof Hori: supernatural creatures guarding the netherworld.Cleveland Museum of Art,Cleveland.
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PharaohNectanebo I(c. 379–361 BC) adoring underworld demons.The Archaeological Civic Museum (MCA) of Bologna.
See also
editReferences
editNotes
edit- ^Erik Hornung,Rolf Krauss & David Warburton (editors), Ancient Egyptian Chronology (Handbook of Oriental Studies), Brill: 2006, p. 493.
- ^abHart 1986, pp. 68–72.
- ^abcdefWilkinson 2003, pp. 81–2.
- ^abc"Minor Netherworld Deities of Ancient Egypt".touregypt.net(in Russian).Retrieved2018-04-23.
- ^"Hu, Sia, and Heh | Egyptian religion".Encyclopedia Britannica.Retrieved2018-04-23.
- ^"Atum | Definition & Facts".Encyclopedia Britannica.Retrieved2018-04-23.
- ^"Gods of ancient Egypt: Apep (Apophis)".ancientegyptonline.co.uk.Retrieved2018-04-23.
- ^"Ancient Egypt Online".ancientegyptonline.co.uk.Archived fromthe originalon 2011-10-08.Retrieved2018-04-23.
- ^Hart 1986, pp. 70–2.
- ^Taylor 2010, p.143
Bibliography
edit- Hart, George,A Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses,Routledge, 1986,ISBN0-415-05909-7.
- Wilkinson, Richard H.,The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt,Thames & Hudson, 2003,ISBN0-500-05120-8.