Sopdet
| Sopdet in hieroglyphics | ||||||||
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Sopdet Spd.t The dangerous goddess |
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| Greek | Σωθις (Sothis) or Sirius | |||||||
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Sopdet (also Greek Sothis, Satis ) has been documented as the ancient Egyptian sky and New Year goddess since the early dynastic period . As the embodiment of the star Sirius and patron goddess of the late king ( Pharaoh ), she helped him with his subsequent ascent into the sky . Thus Sopdet is also the goddess of fertility, rebirth and the origin of the world.
presentation
There are different representations of Sopdet. Mostly she is depicted as a standing woman, often in a boat. Some images show her with feather headdresses, a crown made of bundles of reeds (like the goddess Anuket ) or with the horned crown of Hathor .
In fusion with Satet , to Sopdet-Satet, she wears the Upper Egyptian crown and antelope horns with a star in between. In her connection to Satet, Sopdet also receives a bow and arrow. In Deir el-Medina she appears in the form of a cow with a star on the solar disk.
Mythological connections
Sopdet and the Nile flood
From the early dynastic period to the Middle Kingdom , Sopdet initially acted as “herald of the Nile flood ”. From the Middle to the New Kingdom , Sopdet took on the role of “mother of the Nile flood, which she gives birth to every year”. Since the end of the New Kingdom, the flooding of the Nile has been considered the "sweat of the primeval ocean " due to its occurrence in summer . It was not until the Ptolemaic period that it was nicknamed "Bringerin of the Nile inundation".
In the book of Fayum , which was written in the Ptolemaic period, Sopdet, in association with Anukis and Satis as the “Bringer of the Nile inundation”, used the additional surnames “Mistress of the Nile ” and “Mistress of Elephantine”: She (Sopdet) pours the Nile into Elephantine, to flood the area of Schedet and Neni-nisu . Later in the Greco-Roman period comes from the inscriptions of the Temple of Esna which again changing role of Sopdet out that no longer appeared as a "bearer of inundation", but only during the flood to Egypt returned home : How good is your rising in the midst of the high tide, the heavy flood that's on the water .
Sopdet as the sky goddess
As the embodiment of Hathor, sometimes also as Isis , Sopdet plays a central role in the night sky together with Osiris and his constellation Sah . She is said to have been present at the act of creation; the state of the heavenly bodies at the time of the heliacal rising of Sirius is equated with the first day of the world. Because of this importance, the “coming of the Sopdet” has always been a great and much-acclaimed New Year celebration . In the second century BC Chr. Symbolized the "emergence" the birth of Sopdet after their return from the underworld .
Sirius is the brightest star in the sky and is directly related to the Egyptian Sothis calendar . As the embodiment of Sirius Sopdet also received the names goddess of birth of stars and companion of dying stars , as their constellation Sopdet one hand in the morning ( heliacal rising ) at birth and the other in the evening ( akronychischer rise ) in their transition to the underworld in the twilight stages before is visible first to all other stars above the horizon . Its special role in the heliacal rising is described in the mythological texts:
“What is done on 1st Achet I in view of the emergence of Sopdet: All stars are created through the emergence of Sopdet. It is so that Sopdet appears together with Re at the rise and follows the path of the stars, which is described in the book of dissolution . "
Cult and cult places
A distinctive cult developed early on in connection with the Nile flood, which was vital for the life of the Egyptians. Sopdet was therefore responsible, among other things, for the fertility of the land. In Elephantine, the local goddess Satet performed a similar function, especially since the 1st cataract there was regarded as a source of the Nile in predynastic times . Together with Sah and Sopdu , Sopdet formed a triad . Further equations were made with Tefnut and Sachmet . Sopdet found veneration in: Elephantine, Philae , Dendera , Memphis and the Fayum.
See also
literature
- Hans Bonnet : Lexicon of the Egyptian religious history. Nikol, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-937872-08-6 .
- Heinrich Brugsch : Thesaurus inscriptionum Aegyptiacarum - Ancient Egyptian inscriptions - (Reprint 1883). Akademie-Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, Graz 1968.
- Christian Leitz u. a .: Lexicon of Egyptian gods and names of gods (LGG) - Vol. 6: H̱ - s (= series of publications: Orientalia Lovaniensia analecta. (OLA) Vol. 115). Peeters, Leuven 2002, ISBN 90-429-1151-4 .
- Alexandra von Lieven : Floor plan of the course of the stars - the so-called groove book. The Carsten Niebuhr Institute of Ancient Eastern Studies (among others), Copenhagen 2007, ISBN 978-87-635-0406-5 .
- Alexandra von Lieven: The sky over Esna - A case study on religious astronomy in Egypt using the example of the cosmological ceiling and architrave inscriptions in the temple of Esna. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2000, ISBN 3-447-04324-5 .
- Alexandra von Lieven: Wine, women and song - rituals for the dangerous goddess. In: Carola Metzner-Nebelsick: Rituals in prehistory, antiquity and the present. Studies in Near Eastern, Prehistoric and Classical Archeology, Egyptology, Ancient History, Theology and Religious Studies. Interdisciplinary conference from 1-2. February 2002 at the Free University of Berlin (= International Archeology. Vol. 4). Leidorf, Rahden 2003, ISBN 978-3-89646-434-7 , pp. 47-55.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Pyramid Text 151b .
- ↑ Alexandra von Lieven: Wine, women and song - rituals for the dangerous goddess. P. 47.
- ↑ Horst Beinlich : The Book of Fayum: For the religious self-understanding of an Egyptian landscape. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1991, ISBN 3-447-03117-4 , pp. 15 and 77-78.
- ^ Christian Leitz: LGG . P. 293.
- ↑ Alexandra von Lieven: The sky over Esna. P. 76.
- ↑ Alexandra von Lieven: Of stars and pigs. Religious astronomy in ancient Egypt. Archeology online: October 12, 2007 , p. 5.
- ↑ Alexandra von Lieven: Plan of the course of the stars. P. 61.