mirrored file at http://SaturnianCosmology.Org/ For complete access to all the files of this collection see http://SaturnianCosmology.org/search.php ========================================================== [1]Home - [2]Gods - [3]Temples - [4]Priesthood - [5]Creation Myths - [6]Women - [7]Wisdom Texts - [8]History - [9]Sitemap The Ennead (Pesdjet) of Heliopolis Part I - Creation Atum Atum Shu Shu Tefnut Tefnut Nut&Geb Nut & Geb Osiris Osiris Isis & child Isis Nephtys Nephtys Seth Seth Horus Horus Atum, Original Creator _Pesdjet_ or _Ennead_: The term Ennead is Greek and mostly used when speaking of these nine gods of Heliopolis. The word Pesdjet is Egyptian and apparently denotes any collection of deities. That is to say that there was an ennead (or pesdjet) in the temple of Abydos consisting of seven deities and in the temple complex at Karnak there was as many as fifteen. Signs grouped in threes in hieroglyphs signifies a plural of plurals so the word pesdjet could apparently mean any number of deities in any temple, not just the Ennead of Heliopolis. We will come back to the other enneads at another time. _Heliopolis_ The ruins of Iunu lies under the suburbs of north-east Cairo. It was known to Herodotus ca 450 B.C. as Heliopolis. But already about 3000 B.C. this was where one of the most important and influential myths of creation was formulated. The earliest written source of this are the Pyramid Texts of Dynasty V and VI, the largest single collection of religious writings. They were probably composed mostly by the priesthood. They held their position and developed through time, until [10]Amun became the state god at Thebes. [11]Nun or _The Primeval Waters_ Before the structured cosmos was created there was only darkness which held a limitless water; the primeval [12]Nun, also called _the Father of Gods_. There were no temples built to [13]Nun, but this deity is made present in many shrines as the sacred lake which symbolizes the non-existence before creation. The concept of the Primeval waters are common to all Egyptian creation myths. Even if their details differ, they are all explanations of how light and order was formed in the unordered, unstructured chaos of darkness and timelessness. [14]Atum Out of [15]Nun rose the creator of the world [16]Atum or the _Primeval Mound_, "lord to the limit of the sky" and "lord of Heliopolis", who self-developed into a being, standing on a raised mound; i.e. the primeval mound, which became the _Benben_, a pyramid shaped stone, regarded as the dwelling place of the sun god. [17]Atum is therefore the creator god who created the universe, he is the supreme being and master of the forces and elements of the universe. Utterance 600 in the Pyramid Texts: _"O Atum! When you came into being you rose up as a High Hill, You shone as the Benben Stone in the Temple of the Phoenix in Heliopolis."_ Here [18]Atum is the Primeval Mound itself. This is understandable when we think of how the ground and banks along the Nile rose from the receding waters each year, soon sprouting new weeds and greenery, and animals and insects would inhabit them again. Life seemed to come out of the ground itself. This is the idea behind [19]Atum, the Primeval Mound, the Creator god who within him contains the possibilities of every life form. Then [20]Atum created [21]Shuand [22]Tefnut, an extract from Papyrus Brehmer-Rhind states: _"All manifestations came into being after I developed...no sky existed no earth existed...I created on my own every being...my fist became my spouse...I copulated with my hand...I sneezed out [23]Shu...I spat out [24]Tefnut...Next Shu and Tefnut produced [25]Geb and [26]Nut...Geb and Nut then gave birth to [27]Osiris...[28]Seth, [29]Isis, and [30]Nephtys>...ultimately they produced the population of this land."_ [31]Shu and [32]Tefnut. So [33]Shu and [34]Tefnut was the parents of [35]Geb and [36]Nut. In the _Book of Going forth By Day_ (the Book of the Dead) the air god [37]Shu is seen wearing an ostrich plume, which is the hieroglyph for his name. He is depicted lifting up the sky goddess [38]Nut on his arms, separating her from her spouse [39]Geb, the earth god, and thus acting like a barrier between them. The earth was considered male while the sky was female according to the Egyptian way of looking at things. More of this at another time. [40]Tefnut´s connection with moisture or dew is mentioned in the _Pyramid Texts_. Maybe she is also the atmosphere of the Underworld, but the most noteworthy thing about her might be that she, as the daughter of the sun god has direct access to him and is therefore called the "Eye of [41]Ra". [42]Nut and [43]Geb [44]Nut, whose body is arched over [45]Geb but separated from him after giving birth to their four children, became a very important deity, depicted with outstretched arms and legs, her body forming the sky, strewn with stars. She swallows the sun god at the end of every day. During the twelve hours of night he passes through her body and at dawn she gives birth to him on the eastern horizon. This is as far as the cosmic myth and the strict Ennead goes. What happens next is probably a clever invention of the Heliopolitan priests; they incorporated the [46]Osiris cycle of myths into the ennead. [47]Continue _Other Creation Myths:_ [48]The Ennead of Heliopolis, part I [49]The Ennead of Heliopolis, part II [50]Amun, Creator at Thebes" [51]Ptah of Memphis [52]The Ogdoad of Hermopolis [53]Khmun and the Potter's Wheel [54]Nit - Creatrix Sources: Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt by R.T. Rundle Clark, Thames & Hudson, pbk 1993. Egyptian Myths by George Hart, British Museum Press, 1997. Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt by Erik Hornung, Cornell Paperbacks, 1996. Ancient Egyptian Literature by Miriam Lichtheim, University of California Press, 1976. The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Egypt by Manfred Lurker, Thames & Hudson, 1995. Religion in Ancient Egypt, edited by Byron E. Shafer, Cornell University Press, 1991. Ancient Egyptian Religion by Stephen Quirke, British Museum Press, 1992 [55]Home - [56]Gods - [57]Temples - [58]Priesthood - [59]Creation Myths - [60]Women - [61]Wisdom Texts - [62]History - [63]Sitemap Copyright 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003. All right reserved. No text or images may be used without permission from the webmistress or the photographer.