mirrored file at http://SaturnianCosmology.Org/ For complete access to all the files of this collection see http://SaturnianCosmology.org/search.php ========================================================== The great gods confront us already at the dawn of history. The Egyptian Horus is a case in point, his preeminence in early Egyptian religion being everywhere apparent. The pharaoh himself was considered to be the earthly incarnation of the god, an idea reflected in the so-called Horus names borne by early rulers. The fact that the deceased pharaoh was identified with Horus in the Pyramid Texts attests to the same general belief.1 Yet if it is agreed that Horus represents the quintessential Egyptian god, there is little consensus as to his fundamental nature. That he was a celestial power all authorities acknowledge. The question, rather, is what celestial power best describes Horus' fundamental role in Egyptian religion? A survey of the relevant scholarship on the matter reveals that Horus has most commonly been identified with the sun.2 That said, other scholars have advanced arguments that the god is to be identified with the planet Venus3; with the star Sirius4; and with the amorphous sky.5 In the present chapter we will attempt to offer a definitive answer to the god's celestial identity. The cult of Horus is prominent already in Pre Dynastic times (Writing itself is first attested in Egypt during the Pre Dynastic Period, c. 3200 BCE, in the Abydos tomb known as U-j.6). Rulers at Nekhen, for example, worshipped the falcon-god prior to the unification of Egypt. In the Early Dynastic Period (c. 3000-2600 BCE), Horus is explicitly identified as a star. This much is evident from the fact that early kings named royal domains after the astral god. The domain established by Anedjib was called Hr-sba-ht, "Horus, star of the corporation (of gods)."7 Hetepsekhemwy established a domain called Hr-'qj-sba, "Horus risen as a star."8 Khasekhemwy founded a new domain called Hr-sba-baw, "Horus, the star of souls."9 Most informative, perhaps, is the domain established at the beginning of the Third Dynasty by Djoser, named Hr-sba-nti-pt, "Horus at the front of the sky" (Toby Wilkinson translates this name as "foremost star of the sky.")10 To judge by the evidence of these names, Horus was originally conceived as a stellar power--indeed, as the "foremost star of the sky." That said, the extant texts are of little help in determining which particular celestial body represented Horus during this period. In addition to the god's astral connection, there is clear evidence that Horus was envisioned as a powerful warrior during early Egyptian times. Here, too, the names of Egyptian kings bear witness to this idea, as Wilkinson points out: "The Horus names of several First Dynasty kings expressed the aggressive authority of Horus, perhaps reflecting the coercive power of kingship at this stage of Egyptian statehood. Names like `Horus the fighter' (Aha), `Horus the strong' (Djer) or `arm raising Horus' (Qaa) call to mind the warlike iconography of the earliest royal monuments from the period of state formation."11 This evidence, taken in conjunction with the Early Dynastic domain names, raises the strong presumption that the stellar Horus was imagined as a valiant warrior. This portrait of the god constitutes a decisive clue as to his stellar identity. Additional testimony regarding the star-god Horus is to be found in the Pyramid Texts dating from roughly a half millennium later (c. 2200 BCE). That Horus was not the sun, as often maintained, is suggested by numerous passages wherein the god is described as a star and clearly distinguished from the ancient sun god Ra. For example, the following passage implores Horus (as the deceased king) to ascend to heaven and join Re: "Re summons you into the zenith (?) of the sky as the Jackal, the Governor of the Two Enneads, and as Horus Ónty-mnit.f; may he set you as the Morning Star in the midst of the Field of Rushes."12 Here, as in four other passages in the Pyramid Texts, Horus is identified with the "Morning Star." In this guise Horus is described as the "son" of the sun god and would thus appear to represent a distinct celestial body altogether--presumably a particularly prominent planet or star. In order to understand the origins of Horus' cult it will be necessary to identify the celestial body signified by the epithet "Morning Star." Unfortunately, this is not a simple matter to determine from the Egyptian texts alone. The earliest texts, such as the Pyramid and Coffin Texts, never describe the star in such a manner or context that its identification with a familiar asterism is obvious or conclusive. Instead we read that the Morning Star, as Horus or the deceased king, ascended to heaven in order to join Ra in the celestial Hereafter. Raymond Faulkner, among others, considered it a foregone conclusion that Venus must be the stellar body referenced by the phrase "Morning Star." In a survey of Egyptian star-lore Faulkner wrote as follows: "As regards the identification of the Morning Star and the Lone Star with actual celestial bodies, there can be little doubt that, as elsewhere, the Morning Star is Phosphorus, Venus as seen at dawn."13 Rolf Krauss would also identify Horus with the planet Venus, citing various passages in the Pyramid Texts which describe the star as shining in the "eastern" portion of the morning sky yet also as moving with respect to other stars, a characteristic of planets rather than stars.14 Krauss offered the following conclusions deriving from his researches: "As early as the beginning of dynastic times Horus seems to be identified with the planet Venus. The names of the so-called royal vineyards describe Horus as a star. The name of Djoser's vineyard reveals that Horus is a particular star `at the front of the sky'. The identification of Horus with Venus as known from the Pyramid Texts suggests itself...Royal ideology and ideas about the Hereafter seem to have had cosmological and stellar foundations which may well go back to predynastic times."15 But the identification of Horus with the planet Venus is not known from the Pyramid Texts--quite to the contrary, as we intend to show. Here Krauss has simply assumed what has yet to be proven--that early references to Horus as the "Morning Star" have reference to Venus--and argued in a wholly circular fashion. That said, we would agree with Krauss's conclusion that Egyptian ideas about the Hereafter reflect astronomical conceptions. Lord of the Netherworld An analysis of Horus's various epithets offers additional insight into his astral origins. A recurring epithet of the god is Duat, traditionally translated as "Netherworld." The word Duat, in turn, is derived from the root dwa, "morning," whence comes Horus' epithet Neter Dua, "Morning Star (or God)."16 The etymology of Duat thus makes it probable that Horus's identity as the Morning Star is indissolubly connected to his role as Lord of the "Netherworld." In a passage from the Pyramid Texts the association between the "Morning Star" and the Duat is made explicit: "O Morning Star, Horus of the Netherworld, divine Falcon, w3d3d-bird whom the sky bore..."17 Although often sought for underground, the earliest texts make it clear that the Duat is celestial in nature.18 The following passage is most telling in this regard: "Make the sky clear and shine on them as a god; may you be enduring at the head of the sky as Horus of the Netherworld."19 Horus is here described as standing at the "head" or front of the sky as Lord of the Duat. This would appear to constitute a clear indication of the Duat's location in plain and prominent view. Equally indicative of the Duat's celestial location are those statements to the effect that it is to be found in the immediate vicinity of the ancient sun-god. Indeed, ancient Egyptian sources state that the sun god was wont to make his daily appearance from the Duat.20 Consider the following passage from the Pyramid Texts, wherein the deceased king ascends to the Duat in order to be near Re: "Lift up your faces, you gods who are in the Netherworld [Duat], for the King has come that you may see him, he having become the great god. The king is ushered in with trembling, the King is robed. Guard yourselves, all of you, for the King governs men, the King judges the living within the domain of Re...The King sits with those who row the bark of Re, the King commands what is good and does it, for the King is the great god."21 Samuel Mercer, in his commentary to this passage, emphasized the fundamental identity of the Duat and the domain of Re: "The Dwa.t here is heaven, identical with the `land of Re' (273b), which is heaven, where the king becomes a great god, 272b."22 The intimate association between Horus and the Duat and the region of the sky occupied by the ancient sun god is also apparent in the following passage, wherein Horus is said to "illuminate" the sky from his station in the Duat near Re: "Re has [taken?] me to himself, to the sky, to the eastern side of the sky; As this Horus, as the dweller in the Netherworld, as this star which illumines the sky."23 Horus' capacity for "illuminating" the sky, like his status as the star at the "head" or "front" of the sky, is a recurring theme in Egyptian literature and confirms that the god originally signified a most prominent celestial body. Far from being of a general nature, such epithets--as we will document--serve to place the god in a specific station in the sky and commemorate his singular role in the spectacular events recalled as Creation. In apparent contradiction to its intimate association with the ancient sun-god, the Pyramid Texts elsewhere describe the Duat as located in the circumpolar region. Thus, in the following passage the deceased king is identified with Horus Duat and set amongst the Circumpolar Stars: "May you go up as Horus of the Netherworld who is at the head of the Imperishable Stars."24 In this passage Horus is described with the epithet flntj j.flmw-skjw, translated alternately as "head" or "front" of the Imperishable Stars.25 As Krauss points out, the epithet describes Horus Duat with specific relation to the Imperishable Stars; i.e., it presents him as standing at their "front" or vertex. That said, this passage poses a seemingly insurmountable problem for Krauss's hypothesis that Horus is to be identified with the planet Venus, as that planet can hardly be said to stand at the "front" or vertex of the circumpolar stars. In the current skies, Venus never moves more than 45 degrees from the ecliptic and is thus far removed from the circumpolar region at all times. The Ascent of Horus A key to understanding the celestial identity and mythological primacy of Horus is his propensity for "ascending" to heaven. The prototypical ascent of Horus at the Dawn of Time forms a prominent motif in the Pyramid Texts and in later Egyptian literature. Thus it is that the deceased king sought to emulate Horus in ascending to heaven so that he might join the stellar entourage of the ancient sun god. This idea is attested in the following passage, wherein the king is identified with Horus as the ascending Morning Star: "O King, may you ascend as the Morning Star, may you be rowed as the Lake-dweller."26 The same idea is apparent in the following passages from the Pyramid Texts: "You ascend to the sky as a star, as the Morning Star."27 "Re` has summoned you from the zenith (?) of the sky as Horus...He sets you as the Morning Star in the middle of the Field of Rushes, you being seated on your throne."28 There are good grounds for believing that Horus's primeval ascent to heaven served as the exemplary model for Egyptian funerary beliefs, wherein early pharaohs sought to ascend to heaven in order to obtain immortalization as a stellar body alongside the Sun. Thus, a prominent theme in both the Pyramid and Coffin Texts makes the king mount a ladder, stair, or some other structure in order to reach the kingdom of the Sun.29 A typical passage is as follows: "A ladder to the sky shall be put together for you and Nut will extend her hands towards you...."30 Similar passages follow: "A ladder is set up for him that he may ascend on it."31 "A stairway to the sky is set up for me that I may ascend on it to the sky, as I ascend on the smoke of the great censing."32 "Stairs to the sky are laid for him that he may ascend thereon to the sky."33 "A stairway to the sky is set up for you among the Circumpolar Stars."34 The king is elsewhere implored to mount the ladder as a "star" in order to join Re: "The King is a star in the sky among the gods...bring to the king [the ladder] which Khnum has made that the King may ascend on it to the sky and escort Re in the sky."35 That the "star" in question was Horus as the Morning Star is evident from the Pyramid Texts. Witness the following text, wherein Horus announces his intention to escort Re in heaven: "Let the ladder of the god be given to me, let the ladder of Set be given to me, that I may ascend on it to the sky and escort Re..."36 Horus elsewhere mounts a pole-like contrivance--the sdsd--in order to ascend to heaven. Here, too, the god is clearly identified as a star: "You will ascend to the sky as Horus upon the sdsd of the sky...as Horus who is at the head of the spirits...May you remove yourself to the sky, for the roads of the celestial expanses which lead up to Horus are cleared for you...for you have traversed the Winding Waterway in the north of the sky as a star crossing the sea which is beneath the sky...."37 It will be noted that the ladder-to-heaven is said to lead not only to the kingdom of Re but also to the north circumpolar region (the "spirits" mentioned in this passage are explicitly identified with the Circumpolar Stars in PT 656c, as elsewhere). Horus's intimate connection with the celestial ladder is everywhere apparent and confirmed by the god's epithet nb mak.t, "lord of the ladder."38 Horus and Nergal Horus's original character can be further clarified by comparing the Egyptian traditions surrounding the astral god with those known from ancient astronomies elsewhere. Here the Babylonian system is especially informative. In the very earliest Egyptian sources, as we have seen, Horus was represented as a prominent star and warrior. In Babylonian astronomical texts it is the planet Mars--as Nergal--that is regarded as the warrior-star par excellence.39 A comparative analysis of the cults of Horus and Nergal will readily reveal their fundamental affinity. Both gods were represented as great warriors, waging combat against the forces of chaos. As Nergal was described as raging against the rebel lands (see Chapter X) so, too, was Horus was credited with defeating the powers of darkness and reestablishing order. The god's rites at Edfu celebrated his epiphany at the Dawn of Time wherein, as a falcon, he brought light to a world overcome by darkness and chaos: "All was in darkness and the waters of Nun covered the earth...A falcon [Horus] emerged from the surrounding darkness and alighted on the stick. Immediately, light broke over Chaos, and the falcon sitting on his perch transformed the island into a holy place. The antiquity of this tradition is attested by the fact that, in the Archaic Period, the hieroglyphic sign for `god' consisted of a falcon sitting on a perch."40 As we have seen, Horus was known as the "Lord of the Netherworld" (Duat). Here one finds a precise parallel in the cult of Nergal, the latter being invoked as Lugal-kes-da, "King of the Netherworld."41 The epithet "Enlil of the Kur" attests to the same idea.42 Nergal is elsewhere described by the epithet Lugal-IGI.DU-anna, "king at the front of heaven." 43 It will be obvious at once that this epithet forms an exact semantic analogue to Horus' epithet sba-nti-pt, "star at the front of the sky," cited earlier. The fact that the latter epithet is attested already in the Third Dynasty confirms its archaic and likely archetypal nature. In the Coffin Texts, Horus is described as "raging" against the gods.44 Here, as elsewhere, the word used to describe the god's terrible wrath is dndn.45 In ancient Mesopotamia Nergal is repeatedly described as a raging warrior. The following passage, quoted earlier, is typical in this regard: "Warrior! Raging storm-tide, who flattens the lands in upheaval, Warrior! Lord of the Underworld...Raging storm-tide, who has no rival, Who wields the weapon, who raises the troops."46 Nergal, too, was described as raging against the gods. Witness the following passage: "O warrior, splendid one...Mighty of arms, broad of chest, perfect one without rival among all the gods, Who grasps the pitiless deluge-weapon, who massacres the enemy, Lion clad in splendor, at the flaring-up of whose fierce brilliance, The gods of the inhabited world took to secret places..."47 Of the numerous words used to describe Nergal's power dandannu is particularly common.48 The latter word, interestingly, would appear to be cognate with the Egyptian verb used to describe Horus' raging. An early epithet of Horus describes him as "strong." The same is true of Nergal, who is described as dingir-ir9-ra, "the strong one."49 As the "strong one," Nergal is compared to a raging fire, as earlier noted. In the Pyramid and Coffin Texts Horus is intimately associated with the place of sunrise, or akhet, conventionally translated as "horizon." As various scholars have noted, however, there was a very concrete reference to the akhet, impossible to reconcile with the modern term "horizon." As its hieroglyph reveals--Z--the akhet originally signified the celestial mountain over which the ancient sun god appeared.50 The epithet Harachte--"Horus of the horizon(s)"--confirms that the god was believed to bear an intimate relationship to this place. The planet-god Nergal is likewise associated with the mountain of sunrise. Thus it is said of Nergal that he "rises in the mountain where the sun rises."51 According to the Sumerian hymn Enlil and Ninlil, Nergal was assigned the mountain of sunrise (as Hursag) at his birth during Creation.52 Nergal was elsewhere connected with the mountain associated with the sun's descent. Witness the epithet Lugal-ki-du-su-a, "King of the Site of the Sun's going down."53 The epithet Lugal-usu[a]--"Lord of the sunset"--is of like import. 54 Significantly, a precise parallel can be found in Egypt, where Horus was associated with Manu, the mountain of the Sun's descent. Indeed the name Harachte reflects this relationship, as the word achti is plural and has reference to the site of the Sun's "ascent" as well as that associated with its "descent." These traditions linking Horus with the dual "horizons, " needless to say, have proven particularly puzzling to those scholars who would see in this god a personification of Sirius. For how could a relatively stationary star like Sirius appear to rise in the East with the Sun and set in the West? Obviously baffled, Kakosy commented as follows upon this apparent incongruity: "Strange to say, the God is split into a western and eastern Sothis-Horus."55 A wealth of evidence indicates that it was the planet Mars, not Sirius or Venus, which formed the subject of these peculiar traditions surrounding Horus. Thus, it is relevant to note that Egyptian astronomical texts from the early New Kingdom identified Mars as Harachte--"Horus of the horizon(s)"--the very god identified with Horus as the star Spd.w.56 Recalling Horus's intimate relation to the ladder-to-heaven, it is significant to note that a striking parallel can be found in the mythology surrounding the Mars-god Nergal. In an epic known as Nergal and Ereshkigal a curious episode finds Nergal ascending a stairway to heaven, ostensibly to reach the assembly of the gods: "Nergal came up the long stairway of heaven. When he arrived at the gate of Anu, Ellil, and Ea, Anu, Ellil, and Ea saw him and said, `The son of Ishtar has come back to us.'"57 As a result of his climbing the stairway--or perhaps it was because of his impudence in confronting the gods--the Babylonian war-god is said to have "shrunk" in size or become otherwise deformed. Thus Nergal is described as "withered," "crooked," "bald," and with wildly rolling eyes.58 The myth telling of Nergal's ascent to heaven, together with the Egyptian traditions describing Horus as "lord of the ladder," recall a tradition from the Makiritare of South America, wherein the planet Mars was celebrated as the "builder" of the ladder-to-heaven. 59 According to the sacred traditions recorded in the Watunna, it was Mars that appeared as the "first star" at Creation after ascending the ladder: "We're going to heaven. Okay. Who'll go? Who'll be first? Who's going with the arrows?" There was another man named Ahishama. He was very wise. "Can you?" Wlaha asked? "I'll go," Ahishama answered...He turned him into a bird. He was beautiful, brilliant, with orange-colored feathers, and very fast and light. His name was Ahishama, the troupial [a species of bird]. There was another man. "Can you?" "I'll go." He turned him into a frog...They called him Kutto...Wlaha shot. The arrow sped out. It flew up. Troupial flew up. Frog leapt. Wlaha screamed: "Fly! Jump! Catch it! Tie it! Ahishama was carrying the end of a vine in his beak. We call that vine he had sahudiwa, vine-chain. It's a long, long vine, all wrinkled and creased...The seven Wlaha shot another arrow and then another and another. Seven arrows in all. They hung there in space, seven rungs tied to that big vine. It was the ladder, the road to Heaven. That Troupial and Frog built. Ahishama and Kutto. They climbed up without a ladder. When they built it there was no road. They were the first ones to arrive. Right away they changed. They started shining. They were the first two stars in the black night. The very first was Ahishama, then Kutto. Now that Troupial named Ahishama burns orange (Mars). He built the ladder in space. That's what they say."60 As a warrior-star, the star "at the front of the sky," Lord of the Netherworld, Strong One, and Lord of the Ladder--not to mention his intimate association with the mountain of sunrise/sunset and the combat against the powers of chaos--Horus shares a precise and complex pattern of characteristics with Nergal. The fact that Horus and Nergal share analogous epithets of such specificity strongly suggests that both gods have reference to a common celestial prototype. It is our thesis that there is a perfectly logical explanation for the striking structural parallelisms between the cults of Horus and Nergal: Both gods originated as personifications of the planet Mars. The Red Horus In Egyptian astronomical texts dating from the Hellenistic period the planet Mars was known as the "Red Horus." Although late in nature, there is the possibility that this identification preserves ideas of great antiquity. In Egyptian magical tradition the color red was associated with anger and rage.61 In this connection one thinks naturally of the red-eyed Horus, whom the Pyramid Texts represented as a raging celestial power: "Beware of the red-eyed Horus, violent of power, whose might none can withstand."62 Here it is interesting to note the word hrs, signifying a "red stone" but also "rage, wrath."63 The latter word, needless to say, would appear to be cognate with Horus. It is our opinion that this perceived relationship between red and "raging" and Horus stems from the primeval appearance of the planet Mars, known everywhere as the "raging" or angry planet. ........ 1 PT 316, 436, 466, 493, 503, etc. as translated by R. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts (Oxford, 1969). All passages from the Pyramid Texts are from Faulkner's translation unless otherwise indicated. 2 T. Allen, Horus in the Pyramid Texts (Chicago, 1916), p. 11, writes: "The solar element in Horus clearly predominates." A similar opinion was expressed by Sethe, Budge, and Breasted. 3 R. Krauss, Astronomische Konzepte und Jenseitsvorstellungen in den Pyramidentexten (Wiesbaden, 1997), pp. 216-234. 4 R. Anthes, "Horus als Sirius in den Pyramidentexten," ZAS 102 (1975), pp. 1-10. 5 W. Schenkel, "Horus," LÄ III (Berlin, 1977), col. 14, writes: "The oldest function of Horus may have been that of a Heaven-god." 6 T. Wilkinson, Early Dynastic Egypt (London, 2001), p. 19. 7 T. Wilkinson, Early Dynastic Egypt (London, 2001), p. 121. 8 Ibid., p. 121. 9 Ibid., p. 121. 10 Ibid., p. 122. 11 Ibid., p. 202. 12 PT 1719d. 13 R. Faulkner, "The King and the Star-Religion in the Pyramid Texts," JNES 25 (1966), p. 161. 14 R. Krauss, Astronomische Konzepte und Jenseitsvorstellungen in den Pyramidentexten (Wiesbaden, 1997), pp. 216-234. 15 R. Krauss, "The Eye of Horus and the Planet Venus: Astronomical and Mythological References," in J. Steele & A. Imhausen eds., Under One Sky (Münster, 2002), p. 205. 16 J. Allen, "The Cosmology of the Pyramid Texts," in J. Allen et al eds., Religion and Philosophy in Ancient Egypt (New Haven, 1989), p. 23. 17 PT 1207. 18 E. Hornung, "Dat," LÄ I (Berlin, 1977), col. 994. See also L. Lesko, "Ancient Egyptian Cosmogonies and Cosmology," in B. Shafer ed., Religion in Ancient Egypt (Ithaca, 1991), pp. 119-120. 19 PT 1948. 20 J. Allen, Genesis in Egypt (New Haven, 1988), p. 5. See also the discussion in S. Mercer, The Pyramid Texts Vol. 4 (New York, 1952), p. 34; and H. Brugsch, Die Agyptologie (Amsterdam, 1970), p. 327. 21 PT 272-274. 25 R. Krauss, op. cit., p. 229 renders this passage as follows: "Mogest du herausgehen als Datischer Horus, `befindlich an der Spitze' der `Unverganglichen Sterne'." This translates as "the one who is present at the point/spike/vertex of the imperishable Stars." 26 PT 871. 27 PT 1366. See also PT 2014. 28 PT 805. 29See the discussion in W. Davis, "The Ascension-Myth in the Pyramid Texts," JNES 36:3 (1977), pp. 161 179. See also H. Blok, "Zur altägyptischen Vorstellung der Himmelsleiter," Acta Orientalia 6 (1928), pp. 257-269. 30 R. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts, Vol. 1 (Warminster, 1973), p. 58. 31 PT 1431. 32 PT 365. 33Pyramid Texts 1108 (hereafter PT). See also J. Breasted, Development of Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt (Philadelphia, 1959), p. 110. 34 PT 773-774. See R. Faulkner, "The King and the Star-Religion in the Pyramid Texts," JNES 25 (1966), p. 156. 35 PT 1586. 36 PT 973-975. 37 PT 800ff. See also the following passages: 539, 540, 1036. 38 PT 974, 980. See also T. Allen, Horus in the Pyramid Texts (Chicago, 1916), p. 17. 39 See the extensive analysis in E. Cochrane, Martian Metamorphoses (Ames, 1997), pp. 15-26. 40 X, pp. 105-106. 41 42 F. Wiggerman, "Nergal," RA 9 (1999), p. 218. 43 W. Lambert, "Lugal-IGI.DU-anna," RA, p. 142. 44 CT 1:51. 45 R. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts (Oxford, 1973), p. 10. 46J. Curtis, "An Investigation of the Mount of Olives in the Judaeo-Christian Tradition," HUCA 28 (1957), p. 156. 47 B. Foster, Before the Muses: An Anthology of Akkadian Literature (Bethesda, 1993), p. 622. 48 E. von Weiher, Der babylonische Gott Nergal (Berlin, 1971), p. 72. 49 F. Wiggerman, op. cit., p. 217. 50 J. Assmann, "Horizont," LÄ III (Berlin, 1977), col. 3-7. 51 A. Sjöberg & E. Bergmann, The Collection of the Sumerian Temple Hymns (Locust Valley, 1969), pp. 106. 52 Ibid., pp. 51, 88. See also "A tigi to Nergal (Nergal C)," in J. Black et al., The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature (http://www-etcsl.orient.ox.ac.uk/) (Oxford, 1998). 53 D. Katz, The Image of the Netherworld in the Sumerian Sources (Bethesda, 2003), p. 172. 54 D. Katz, The Image of the Netherworld in the Sumerian Sources (Bethesda, 2003), p. 172, citing Isme Dagan T:27. 55 L. Kakosy, "Die Mannweibliche Natur des Sirius in Agypten," Studia Aegyptiaca II (1976), p. 42. 56 O. Neugebauer & R. Parker, Egyptian Astronomical Texts, Vol. 3 (London, 1960), p. 179. On the cult of Horus Spd.w, see E. Cochrane, "Sothis and Morning Star in the Pyramid Texts," Aeon 3:5 (1994), pp. 77 94. 57Translation from S. Dalley, Myths from Mesopotamia (Oxford, 1991), p. 171. See also the discussion in E. von Weiher, Der babylonische Gott Nergal (Berlin, 1971), p. 52; and O. Gurney, "The Sultantepe Tablets," Anatolian Studies 10 (1960), pp. 125, 130. 58E. von Weiher, op. cit., p. 52. 59 See the discussion in E. Cochrane, "The Stairway to Heaven," Aeon 5:1 (1997), pp. 69-78. 60Ibid., pp. 113-114. 61 E.B. T., "Farber," LÄ, col. 124. There he writes: "Rote ist Metapher fur `heid' und `Wut.'" 62 PT 253. 63 According to H. Junker, Der Auszug der Hathor-Tefnut aus Nubien (Berlin, 1911), p. 84 hrs is a red stone: "wie dsr mr-tj bedeutet rote=grimmige, blutunterlaufene Augen, also hrs=Zorn, Wut."