1: Hieroglyphics

    Hieroglyphics are sprinkled liberally over the ancient monuments, artworks, and artifacts in Egypt. You find them also copied, sometimes incorrectly, on lots of tourist items for sale. But does the average Egyptian know anything about hieroglyphics. No. Can the average guide read the hieroglyphics. No again. Wouldn’t it be interesting to be able to decipher some of the hieroglyphic texts if you visit Egypt. Most certainly. Well, I will be covering some aspects of hieroglyphics, and if you know these, you’ll know more than the guides and you will immensely enjoy your trip more.

    Deciphering hieroglyphics has not been easy and lots of savants have for years futilely tried to break the code. Progress started with the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, created around 205 BC under the reign of Ptolemy V, dug up by the French Army under Napoleon in 1798, captured by the British from the French in 1801, and finally deciphered by the Frenchman Jean-François Champollion in 1822. It now resides in the British Museum as one of the most viewed artifacts in its collection. The stone shows a text in classical Greek, the similar text in demotic, (which is the every day writing of the people) and, most importantly the same text in ancient hieroglyphics.

      In hieroglyphics, there are some 700 signs, but only 50 or so are used frequently. If they are in a vertical column, they are obviously read from top to bottom. In a horizontal line they are usually read from right to left, as Arabic is now written and read. But sometimes hieroglyphics is also written from left to right if it is esthetically more pleasing. It is actually very easy to see. You read in the direction opposite to the direction the pictures in the hieroglyphics are drawn. If the characters looking like birds or sitting persons look to the right; then you read from right to left, and vv.

     On walls or on sarcophagi, e.g., , where there is a vertical separation line, you may see the text go from left to right on the right side, and the same text going right to left on the left side. Look at the silver sheet from Tutankamun’s chest shown above. About 1/3 from the left is a barely visible line. To the left the figures look to the right, so you should read from the right to the left; to the right of the line, the figures look to the left, so you should read from the left to the right.  I suspect that the line corresponds to the 90 degree corner of the chest, and that this plate was hammered flat to remove the kink. So you read away from the corner.

     Esthetics are important, so the letters may not be shown in consecutive order.   How do you read them? Not that easy. With 700 signs, the characters do not always signify a tone, such as in the alphabet. Our alphabet only has 26 letters, and you don’t need much more to cover all the tones in your spoken language. On the other hand, if the sign is a pictogram, such as in Chinese, then 700 is too little. You need several thousand to cover everything you want to say.

    It appears that some of the hieroglyphics are actually pictograms; they describe a word or concept. The flower hieroglyph (see left bottom on cartouche of Tutankhamun or in the top of the left cartouche of Ramses II below) stands for the papyrus plant; it can also stand for thousand, it can also stand for a certain sound; it is also the heraldic symbol for Upper Egypt. A semicircle with the flat side on the bottom stands for bread. It can also mean “lord of”. It can also mean the transliteration of the letter t. This flower with two or more semicircles next to each other means thousands of loaves of bread. This you see a lot in tombs showing offerings for the departed.

left: The Hieroglyphic “alphabet”. There are 24 consonants. An arabic text is also provided for your convenience. Note that the symbols are facing left, for reading from left to right. There are no vowels.

  

    So here is the important point. The hieroglyphics shown here are the 24 consonants.  For instance, a wavy line stands for water; it can also stand for the letter n, it can also stand for the preposition to or for. A straight horizontal line with two small lines perpendicular in the middle stands for a door bolt or the tone of z or sh. A picture of a hand can stand for a hand or for the letter d, depending on the context. There are no vowels in this “alphabet”.

    Almost every hieroglyphic character in the names of the ancients stands for a “letter” in their “alphabet”. The tourist industry has seen the commercial potential of all this. So now you are able to show your name in hieroglyphics. They have embroidered names on T-shirts; golden and silver pendants with names engraved on them, the inscribed chamber pot you were going to give to dear aunt Martha, and a host of other things.

    But there are no vowels. Having no vowels makes it hard, but if you know a language you can easily guess the vowels, e.g., you would easily understand the following:  2nd flr aprtmt , 4 lge rms, exclnt lcn nr ctr, prkg, hdwd flrs, ldry. However, five thousand years from now, it would be difficult for a person not knowing the language to pronounce the words correctly. Heck, even now there is not always consensus.

     And what about the vowels? Well, for that they have found some characters where the tone is rather similar to the vowels we have. And voila, everybody is happy, and now you can write your name in hieroglyphics with vowels also. Note that these are not used in the ancient hieroglyphic texts, only on modern tourist items.

      So, walking through the monuments it is nice to be able to decipher some of the writings. One thing you very often see are the cartouches, which are hieroglyphic characters enclosed in an oval like what is shown on the right.  The oval ring around a name means it belongs to a king, queen, or god.

    a: Tutankhamun

   If you have not been to Egypt, then the name of the most familiar pharaoh is Tutankhamun. As a pharaoh he was just a minor figure in the history of Egypt, (1341 - 1323 BC); he was only 18 when he died. But in 1922 his nearly intact tomb was discovered, containing a huge quantity of treasures. And because many of these artifacts have been displayed all over the world, people are familiar with his name.

right: Cartouches of Tutankhamun

    The cartouches seen bearing his name is shown here. The one on the left is the one before he became pharaoh; the one on the right is after he became pharaoh. Look at the cartouche on the left.

    You read from right to left. Start with the middle portion. The semicircle with the flat bottom in the middle of the picture here can stand for a loaf of bread, but here it stands for the transliteration of t; the quail chick is w, so the combination of these three character reads twt. See the picture of the “alphabet” above.  To the left of it is the ankh sign, a circle above a cross, symbol of life. Reading from left to right you get twt-ankh.

    The top portion consists of a reed leaf, for i or y; to the left of it is a game board, with the pieces on it on the top, but which is here used as a transliteration of m; and the wavy line below it is water, or n. The combination of this three stands for imn, or the god Amun, at some times the most important deity in the Egyptian universe.  Since the god had precedence, his name is on the top. The cartouche hence reads hence twt-ankh-imn, or Tutankhamun as we know it.

    The three symbols in the bottom are often, but not always, added to his name. There is a shepherd’s crook, symbol for ruler; the column in the middle is the symbol for Heliopolis, a city near Cairo, and the heraldic plant in bloom to the left stands for Upper Egypt. Heliopolis of Upper Egypt is another term for Thebes, the ancient capital of Egypt. So what you see is Tutankhamun, Ruler of Thebes. Thebes was the capital of Egypt during the period of the Middle and New Kingdoms, when the ancient Egyptian civilization was at its height.

    On the chiseled silver sheet, at the top at the barely visible dividing line there are snakes opposing each other. The snake sign means: “Words spoken by”, and below the snakes are the symbols for amn (the reed and the rod) and -ré, symbolized by the sitting god. So this means: Thus said Amun-Ré ...... The first symbols on the right are that of the goddess Nephthys, sister to Isis and Osiris. The first symbols on the left are that of Isis, wife of Osiris.

   b: Ramses II

     The two cartouches you see most often see on the monuments are of Ramses II, he being the big builder in ancient history.  He was the greatest pharaoh in ancient Egypt and lived long enough to build numerous memorials to himself, liberally emblazoned with his name. On older monuments his cohorts even chiseled his name over the names of many older pharaohs.

left: Detail from the Abydos King List, showing the names of Ramses II.

    Of the  two cartouches you see the right one stands for Ramses II before he became pharaoh; the left cartouche shows his name after he became a pharaoh.

    In the cartouche on the right note that the top three symbols stand for the god Amun, similar to that seen in Tutankhamun’s cartouche shown earlier.  Below them is a rectangular box, a picture of a canal, but in this case stands for the word mr and also for the verb “love”.

    Below these symbols is a sitting man, a god. With the sun disk above him he is the ideogram of the god Ré, the sun god2. Next to him is the plant with the three hanging stalks; this stands for the word ms; the staff to the left stands for the letter s. So the bottom part is mr-ms-s, which is “Ramses” because in ancient hieroglyphics there are no vowels.

    We really do not know how his name was pronounced in his time, and he would most probably not recognize the name Ramses, if somebody shouted it to him.  For all I know he could have responded to Umromasosa. But at a certain time an Egyptologist suggested the name Ramses and the name stuck. The whole cartouche stands for “Rmss (son of Re) beloved of Amun.”  This cartouche shows his nomen, or his name before he became king.

    Just like the popes of today, the person assumes another name after he is elevated to his office. The left cartouche is the one you see most; it is of his praenomen, the name after he was elevated to pharaoh.

      In the top is a disk, symbol of the sun god Ré. Below it is a jackal-headed staff, which is the word wsr. To its left is the Goddess Ma’at, the goddess of justice, recognizable by the feather above her head. She is holding the Ankh sign in her hand, which is the symbol for life. The Ankh sign is the circle, sometimes elongated, attached above a cross.   Below that is an axe on wood, which stands for the word stp and below that is the wavy sign for water, or the letter n, so the cartouche reads: Usermaatre-setepenre, the official name of Ramses II after he became king. There is an agreement that you usually use the e in the first go-around since nobody knows what the correct vowels are.

    From this word is derived the name Ozymandias, the name you may recall from Shelley’s poem,

“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings,

look upon my works, ye mighty, and despair.!”

    The cartouches on the pillar in the Hypostyle Hall in Karnak as shown on the right is from a later date. The cartouche on the right is similar to the one on the left in the Abydos King list, but there are differences between the left cartouche on the pillar and the right cartouche on the List.

right:  Cartouches bearing the names of Rames II everywhere on the huge pillars in the Hypostyle Hall in Karnak

  

     Here you see a sitting man with the sun disk on his head. He is the sun god Ré, holding the Ankh staff. Opposite him is Maat, holding the jackal-headed staff. On the bottom there are now two staffs, each signifying an s. The symbols for Amun are not there anymore. The new cartouche is an indication of the decline of the power of Amun in relation to Ré.

    c: Funerary Scene from the Book of the Dead.

    This is a modernized copy of a drawing found in the compilation of funerary texts, also called the Book of the Dead. This drawing is often copied on papyrus and sold to commoners to be placed in their tombs. You can purchase this drawing in many tourist shops in Egypt. It describes the journey of the soul of a deceased person in the netherworld.  The background material was papyrus, ostensibly made according to the ancient recipes. I am using this drawing to discuss some of the more important deities in the ancient Egyptian pantheon.

   The top left panel shows the deceased on the left, pleading his case before a panel of 14 gods who will vote on his fate.  The first one on the left is Horus, the falcon-headed god with the sun disk on his head and the son of Isis and Osiris. Osiris and Isis are the great-grandchildren of the Ré, the God of the Sun. The second figure is that of Isis, sister and wife of Osiris, because she wears the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt, and Isis often sits in as a judge of the dead. The third is Ma’at, goddess of law, order, justice, and truth. She is recognized by the feather in her hair and the symbol of Ankh in her hand. This feather is also used in the Scales of Justice to weigh the hearts of the deceased against.  Ma’at is also included in the name of the great Pharaoh Ramses II. She is also the wife of Thoth. The sixth one could have been Hapy, one of the four sons of Horus, who is usually portrayed as a mummy with the head of a baboon. His job is to protect the lungs of the deceased; he is also the Guardian of the North. The seven judges on the left voted for eternal life by holding up the “Ankh”-key, the key of life.  The other seven voted for eternal damnation by just sitting there.

    Because of the tie, the soul of the deceased (the person at the extreme left on the lower level) is led by the jackal-headed god Anubis into Judgement. This is shown in the lower left panel. Anubis was the original God of the Dead, until Osiris took over that position. His job was then changed to the god of mummification (to ensure that mummification is performed correctly) and to be the guide for the dead in their travel though the underworld. Anubis is also the son of Nephthys; his father is Osiris. One story is that Nephthys succeeded in making Osiris drunk and the resultant union brought forth Anubis. Nephthys was a sister of both Isis and Osiris.

    The middle panel shows, in the Hall of the Two Truths, the deceased and Anubis in front of the Scales of Justice, where his heart (on the left scale) is weighed against Ma’at’s feather on the right scale. If the heart is heavy with sin and impurity, the scale will tip to the left, the person is  damned and his soul will be devoured by Ammit, the demon with the head of a crocodile,   the torso of a leopard, and the hindquarters of a hippopotamus. Ammit is waiting right there. But this man’s heart is pure and lighter than a feather, so he is awarded eternal life.

    Going to the right he is led by Thoth on his left and the falcon-headed god Horus on his right to the throne-room of Osiris.  Horus, also known as the God of Protection, is the son of Isis and  Osiris. The kings of Egypt associated themselves with him, and he is therefore one of their most important gods. He is often shown with the sun disk on his head. It is good to be under the protection of Horus.  On the left of the deceased is Thoth, the ibis-headed god from Hermopolis.  He is the scribe of the gods. He is the inventor of writing and the great god of all knowledge. One  of his jobs is to record the confessions and affirmations of the dead in his scrolls, as well as who went into Paradise and who was eaten by Ammit.

    The deceased is now led into the throne room of Osiris, the God of the Underworld. Throughout the height of Egyptian civilization, he was the primary deity, second only to his father, Ré, the god of the Sun. Osiris is shown here in his chamber in the Underworld, in the garb of a mummy, being praised by the souls who have successfully passed the tests. He wears the Atef crown and he holds in his hands the crook and the whip, emblematic of authority and dominion.  In front of him is a lotus and two papyrus stalks. The lotus is the heraldic symbol of Lower Egypt, and the papyrus stalk is the heraldic symbol of Upper Egypt. On the lotus are the four gods of the cardinal points, who are also the sons of Horus, i.e., Mesthá, with the head of a man, Hăpi, with the head of an ape, Tuamăutef, with the head of a jackal, and Qebhsennuf, with the head of a hawk.  Behind Osiris are his two sisters, powerful gods in their own right. The one in the back  is Isis, recognized by the hieroglyphic symbol of a throne above her head. The one in front is Nephthys, the goddess who guards coffins and canopic jars.  In the top left of his throne room there is a falcon, a heraldic symbol of royalty. The three gods welcome the deceased into the underworld.

    d: The Goddess Hathor.

    The goddess Hathor has been associated with a large number of neat thing and is highly revered. She is the goddess of love, music, beauty, and dance. The ancient Greeks identified her with Aphrodite and the ancient Romans considered her the equivalent of Venus. She is also the celestial nurse taking care of women, fertility, children and childbirth.

     In the afterlife, she is called the Mistress of the West, welcoming the dead into their afterlife and giving sustenance to the deceased to give them strength for their mummification, their journey to the judgement hall and then during the weighing of their soul.  In the picture shown above she is wearing a menat necklace, a symbol of rebirth.

    Hathor is commonly depicted as a beautiful young woman with the horns of a cow on her head. Between the horns is wedged the sun disc, from which a Uraeus3 hangs. You will see her image everywhere in the ancient world. She is a good god to have as your friend in Facebook.