By the Zen Werewolf
To understand a society, we must look at the myths and
the religions produced by that society. By examining
the changes wrought upon a society’s myths throughout
its history, we can come to a greater understanding of
what life must have been like on a daily basis in that
society. Thus, when we examine the Neolithic Period
of Egyptian religion and mythology, and trace the
changes that occur in that mythology as the years
pass, we can see a pattern emerge portraying a slow
shift in the balance of power from women to men.
The matriarchal period of Egypt appears to
have extended from prehistoric time up until the first
appearance of Osiris c. 3000 BC. This gradual
introduction of a male deity into a society parallels
the slow colonization of Egypt by foreigners from the
north. However, the paradigm shift from a matriarchal
to a patriarchal society does not completely overtake
Egypt until the very beginning of the New Kingdom, c.
1570 BC.
Throughout all areas of the near and middle
east during the Neolithic period there appeared to
have been a widespread Goddess cult, based on the
recovery of the so-called “Venus figurines” from
widely scattered archeological sites. The similarity
of style in these figurines suggests that a similarity
of worship and rituals could also have existed. This
Goddess cult could very well have been the origin of
all matriarchal societies, especially those of an
agricultural bias, such as Egypt and its neighbors to
the northeast in the Mesopotamia.
The clans of Egypt were matrilineal, in that
the mother was seen as the primary parent of her
family, perhaps due to a lack of knowledge regarding
the processes of conception. If this were so, the act
of gestation and of giving birth must have seemed a
magical act. Thus it was that family lineage was
traced through the female gender, going from mother to
daughter instead of from father to son. After
countless generations of this type of culture, it is
easy to understand how the oldest ancestors of any
given clan could have first been revered, then
deified, and finally mythologized into becoming a
proto-goddess.
If this were the case, it would help explain
the similarities and the differences in Goddess
worship throughout prehistoric Egypt. Prior to c.
3000 BC, Egypt was divided into Upper Egypt, where the
Goddess was known as Nekhebt, and Lower Egypt, where
the Goddess was known as Ua Zit. Nekhebt was
personified in the form of a vulture, while Ua Zit was
personified as a cobra. In fact, the sigil of a cobra
eventually came to symbolize the word Goddess in
hieroglyphic writings.
Then, c. 3000 BC, there is evidence of an
invasion of Egypt by people from Mesopotamia. These
people brought with them the concept of kingship, as
well as the technology of brick building and writing,
as well as the introduction of Mesopotamian motifs
into Egyptian artwork. They also brought the concepts
of a male deity.
Up until this invasion, Ua Zit and Nekhebt were the
supreme deities in Egypt, but after the establishment
of a kingship, and the unification of Upper and Lower
Egypt under one king, Ua Zit and Nekhebt were
demoted. Interestingly enough, as this first
introduction of a male pantheon was underway, there
was the formation of a religion based around the Lady
of the Serpents on the isle of Crete. This seems to
indicate that refugees had fled the formation of the
First Dynasty of Egypt, bringing with them the worship
of their Goddess.
Ua Zit is also known as Hathor, who was the primal
serpent believed to exist at the beginning of time,
and who made the heaven, the earth, and all life.
Hathor also threatened to destroy all of creation and
return to Her primal state as a serpent behind all
things. This legend of creation seems to be another
form of the legend of Tiamet, from nearby Mesopotamia,
which also indicates the cultural influences of this
time in Egypt.
It is during this period of religious and social
upheaval that a great deal of changes in the pantheon
of the Egyptians takes place. Pictures from this time
show the sun God Hor-Wer riding in his boat of the
heavens. This deity is also known as Shu, or Lord
Air. Through examination of the hieroglyphs, we see
that the sign for air is a sail, and the sign for the
word God is a series of banners or pendants, such as
those seen at the prow of boats. Therefore, this
first male deity can be seen to be arriving in Egypt
as a part of an invasion force, rather than an
indigenous deity arising from amidst the population.
Even as the glyph for Goddess is rooted in the concept
of the serpent, as the cobra, so too the glyph for God
rooted in the concept of war banners.
The followers of Hor-Wer, or Horus, as He eventually
came to be known, formed an aristocracy of through
conquering and unifying Egypt. This aristocracy,
known as the Shemsu-Hor, came to influence all the
political aspects of Egypt. Records from this time
indicate that men with red hair were sacrificed at the
grave of Osiris. The red hair seems to indicate that
these men were foreigners, and the symbolism behind
their sacrifice ties into the legend of Osiris, Horus,
and Isis.
Isis is also a composite Goddess. It is important to
note that the name Isis is actually Greek, and that
Her Egyptian name was Au Set. In human form, Isis
also wore a cobra upon her forehead, much like Ua Zit,
and is represented as wearing the wings of Nekhebt,
indicating that She is the culmination of both
deities. Isis is attributed with the invention of
agriculture, with the establishment of the laws of the
land, and, until the arrival of Ptah, is credited with
the creation of the cosmos. She also appropriates the
position of Nut and Hathor. Prior to Hathor, Nut was
said to have existed when nothing else had been
created, and that She was responsible for all that had
come into being. Once Hathor became an important
deity, Nut’s importance was lessened, until Isis
appropriated the personality of Hathor. Nut was
thereafter known as the mother of Isis.
Because Isis was a later incarnation of Ua Zit, She
was also an incarnation of the Goddess Hathor, the
primal serpent. (It is interesting to note that the
symbol of a serpent as a symbol of a priestess or
prophetess still appears in our language in the word
‘pythoness.’)
Isis was not the only female deity of the time,
however. Maat, who represented the order of the
universe and all that was righteous, retained her own
individuality by becoming a possession of the male
deities. Maat became known as the Eye of Horus at
first, then later was known as the Eye of Ra, and
finally the Eye of Ptah. Maat is also understood to
represent the embodiment of the cobra, the essence of
wisdom. Along with Maat, there were countless other
lesser Goddesses, such as Bast, Iusaset, and Sekhmet.
Isis, however, was still in charge of Egypt, at least
in a mythological sense. This fact is reflected in
both her title as The Throne and in the dominance of
the Queen over the King in terms of political power.
Even wives enjoyed authority over their husbands, the
husbands having agreed formally in the marriage
contracts of the time. Anecdotes recounted by
Herodotus indicate that the women went to the
marketplace to carry out business affairs while their
husbands stayed home weaving on their looms.
Daughters, not sons, inherited the royal throne, and
all property went to the female line, from the rulers
on down through the social structure. The woman was
the mistress of the house, in complete control of all
decisions regarding her property. Egyptian women even
did all the wooing and often deliberately intoxicated
men to weaken their protestations.
Eventually a subtle shift came about in the ruling
class, whereupon brother-sister marriages developed,
allowing sons to gain the royal privilege. As this
shift in policy came about, it was reflected in the
myth of Isis and Osiris. Osiris, who was Isis’
brother, also became Her lover.
Then, c. 2400 BC, a series of aggressive invasions
began to move through Canaan down into Egypt. These
Indo-European invaders brought their own religion with
them, a patriarchal religion which worshiped a supreme
Father deity. These invaders introduced the concept
of light as good and dark as evil. This was a time of
war, for the invaders appear to have been involved in
a religious crusade of sorts.
The God which these invaders worshiped seems to have
been the Zoroastrian God Ahura Mazda, also known as
the ‘Lord of Light.’ In light of this fact, the
simultaneous appearance in the Pyramid Texts of the
equation of Horus with Ra becomes important. Ra, much
like Hor-Wer, is portrayed as the sun that rides the
heavens in His sacred boat, and is known by the name
‘Lord of Light.’ This indicates that the God of the
Indo-European invaders had invaded the mythological
structure of Egypt.
This illustrates the proposition that religion and
politics were identical, that no major event or battle
could occur without being replicated through cultural
mythology. As the invaders gained more territory, the
theologies of the area became intertwined. Despite
the conqueror's efforts to belittle and destroy
Goddess worship, Isis and Her many masks of divinity
continued to draw followers.
One example of this war between male and female
deities is the legend of Ra and Zet, later called
Apophis. Zet was the serpent of darkness Ra fought
daily when the sun rose. The undercurrent of this
myth can be seen as a struggle between the primal
Goddess, a serpent, and Ra, the new God from the north.
Another tactic in this struggle between conflicting
ideologies was the introduction of the God Ptah. Ptah
was credited with the creation of all existence
through an act of divine masturbation. This then
eliminated the need for either Isis or Nut in the
creation myths of Egypt. It was a deliberate attempt
to establish the male deities as either the dominant
husbands or the divine assassins of the female deities.
Then the northern groups, c. 1900 BC, brought
cuneiform to Egypt. The introduction of cuneiform to
Egypt at this time, when the patriarchal forces were
clashing so severely with the matriarchal, suggests
that existing tablets of laws could have been changed
to fit the patriarchal beliefs. This would account
for the gradual changes in the society of this time.
From c. 1900 BC up through c. 1570 BC, women lost
their right to choose their own partners at will, and
the wife became subject to her husbands lordship. It
was also during this period that children became
members of the father’s kin, as opposed to the mother.
By c. 1570 BC, the patriarchy was firmly entrenched in
Egypt, and the rulers had begun accepting wives sent
to them from neighboring countries as a form of
tribute. Hittite, Hurrian, and Kassite princesses
married Egyptian kings. It was also during this time
that there were no priestesses available in the
temples, and the word pharaoh came to be applied
solely to the king rather than the royal house. This
drastic change in the social structure culminated in
c. 1300 BC with the religious revolution of Ikhnaton.
Ikhnaton not only rejected all deities but Ra, who he
renamed Aten, but he also relocated the traditional
seat of power to El Amarna. In doing this, he
succeeded in finally establishing a patriarchal
society, nearly seventeen hundred years after the
first introduction of male deities to Egyptian
theology.
This did not completely decimate the worship of Isis
as a deity. Followers of Isis spread outward in a
variety of directions as the years progressed. A
Roman era temple of Isis on the banks of the Thames in
the British Isles attests to this very fact. But it
did signal the end to the era of the matriarchal
society in Egypt.
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