And the story continues; the youths’ uprising moves on despite they were executed every cock crowing time: They will never surrender!
Artwork: Renato Guttuso
As hard as this weather is, wait for me
“This time is difficult, wait for me: we will live it out vividly. give me your tiny hand: let us rise up and suffer, let us experience and rejoice.
We are once more the pair who lived in bristling places, in harsh nests in the rock. This time is difficult, wait for me with a basket, with a shovel, with your shoes and your clothes.
Now, we need each other not only for the carnations’ sake, not only to look for honey: we need our hands to wash with and to make fire, and just let the hard times dare to challenge the infinity,
What matter is with you? Regina, my wife, asked me a few days ago. I looked at her with confusion and asked what she meant. She said she was referring to my lack of enthusiasm towards my work; I used to be excitedly busy with my WordPress and would run to my room every morning to write a new story, but she noticed that I had lost that passion lately. After considering this, I had to admit that she was right. I seem to be losing the drive and motivation to create new stories. As I analysed myself, like so often I do, I have noticed that I am (too much) involved in very high themes with such great individuals like Dr Jung, Nietzsche, Gibran, etc., and I feel a bit exhausted, “intermingle with the greats is not everybody’s job!”
Hercules and the Lernaean Hydra, 1875-1876, by Gustave Moreau – Art Institute of Chicago
I believe that one’s expectations are crucial in determining success. I have noticed that with each article I write, I tend to push myself to do better and aim higher, which might be good. (I must thank YOU, all my lovely friends, who inspired me so much).🙏💖🙏 But, I have also realized that sometimes I may have gone too far, just like Icarus, whose wings melted in the sun’s rays and fell. This is where the book ‘Great Expectations’ by Charles Dickens becomes relevant. We must be honest with ourselves and know where we stand. Ultimately, happiness is not an unachievable goal but a state of inner peace and calmness.
Hence, I decided to come down and take it more easily. Although this new post is from Nietzsche, as I stumbled upon lately, it is a short text and relevant today: losing the child inside us! This child gives us the imagination to have fantasies. Nietzsche noticed it centuries ago, and it is didactic.
The Free Spirit, from Beyond Good and Evil, par. 31, by Friedrich Nitzsche
I had to work on translation to make Nietzsche’s complex grammar more understandable!😉
At a young age, one worships and despises without that art of nuance, which is the best gain in life, and one has to pay a fair amount of punishment for having attacked people and things with Yes and No in this way. Everything is set up so that the worst of all tastes, the taste for the unconditional, is cruelly fooled and abused until people learn to put a little art into their feelings and rather dare to try something artistic, like the right ones do Artists of Life do. The anger and awe that characterizes youth does not seem to rest until it has manipulated people and things so that it can be vented on them – youth is itself something more counterfeit and deceitful. Later, when the young soul, tormented by loud disappointments, finally turns back suspiciously on itself, still hot and wild, even in its suspicion and remorse: How angry they are now, tearing themselves apart impatiently, how taking revenge for their long self-delusion as if they had been voluntary blindness! In this transition, one punishes oneself by distrusting the feelings; one tortures one’s enthusiasm through doubt; one even feels one’s good conscience as a danger, as it were as a self-concealment and a weariness of one’s finer honesty; and above all, they take orientation, fundamentally oriented against ‘youth’. – A decade later, they realize that all of this was still -youth!
I am an orphan, alone; nevertheless, I am found everywhere. I am one but opposed to myself. I am a youth and an old man at one and the same time. I have known neither father nor mother because I have had to be fetched out of the deep like a fish or fell like a white stone from heaven. In woods and mountains, I roam, but I am hidden in the innermost soul of man. I am mortal for everyone, yet I am not touched by the cycle of aeons.
Illustrated by Petra Glimmdall 💖🙏
C. G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, p.227. (Bollingen Tower)
I made this part separately to show how instructive Dr Jung is, even though he didn’t want to teach! After describing his dreams, with the last one ending full of hope with him standing in front of a tree bearing leaves but no fruit, which then transforms into sweet grapes full of healing juice, Dr Jung, although humble, shares his wisdom and knowledge from his vast experience. Despite his insistence that he never intends to teach or give lessons, we can appreciate the profound wisdom contained within his words.
Title image: “Bleeding Light” By Jeffrey Smith.
Drawings by Jane Adams
Liber Primus fol.i(v)
In reality, now, it was so: At the time when the great war broke out between the peoples of Europe, I found myself in Scotland, compiled by the war to choose the fastest ship and shortest road home. I encountered the colossal cold that froze everything; I met up with the flood, the sea of blood, and found my barren tree whose leaves the frost had transformed into a remedy. And I plucked the ripe fruit and gave it to you, and I do not know what I poured out for you, what bittersweet intoxicating drink left an aftertaste of blood on your tongues.
Believe me (my friends): It is no teaching and no instruction that I give you. On what basis should I presume to teach you? I provide you with news of this man’s way but not of your own way. My path is not your path; therefore, I / cannot teach you! (CF. the contrast to John 14:6: “Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth and the life: no man cometh unto the father but by me.) The way is within us, but not in Gods, nor in teachings, nor in laws. Within us is the way, the truth, and the life.
Woe betide those who live by way of examples! Life is not with them. If you live according to an example, you thus live the life of that example, but who should live your own life if not yourself? So live yourselves. (This is not a law, but notice of the fact that the time of example and law, and of the straight line drawn in advance, has become overripe”p.10)
The signposts have fallen; unblazed trails lie before us. (My tongue shall wither if I serve up laws if I prattle to you about teaching. Those who seek such will leave my table hungry!) Do not be greedy to gobble up the fruits of foreign fields. Do you not know that you yourselves are the fertile acre which bears everything that avails you?
Salvador_dali-self-portrait_1954
Yet, who today knows this? Who knows the way to eternally fruitful climes of the soul? You seek the way through mere appearances, you study books and give an ear to all kinds of opinions. What good is all that? There is only one way, and that is your way. (only one law exists, and that is your law. Only one truth exists, and that is your truth”p.10)
May each go their own way!
I will be no saviour, no lawgiver, no master teacher unto you. You are no longer little children. (One should not turn people into sheep, but sheep into people. The spirit of the depth demands this, who is beyond present and past. Speak and write for those who want to listen and read. But do not run after someone so you do not soil the dignity of humanity- it is a rare good. A sad demise in dignity is better than an undignified healing. Whoever wants to be a doctor of the soul sees people as being sick. He offends human dignity. It is presumptuous to say that man is sick. Whoever wants to be the soul’s shepherd treats people like sheep. He violates human dignity. It is insolent to say that people are like sheep. Who gives you the right to say that man is sick and a sheep? Give them human dignity so they may find their ascendancy or downfall, their way”p. 11)
Art by Josephine Wall
Giving laws, bettering, making things easier, has all become wrong and evil. May each one seek out their own way. This way leads to mutual love in the community. Men will come to see and feel the similarity and community of their ways. Laws and teachings held in common compel people to solitude so that they may escape the pressure of undesirable contact, but solitude makes people hostile and venomous.
Therefore, give people dignity and let each of them stand apart so that each may find their own fellowship and love it. Power stands against power, contempt against contempt, love against love. Give humanity dignity and trust that life will find a better way. The one eye of the Godhead is blind, the one ear of the Godhead is deaf, and the order of its being is crossed by chaos. So be patient with the crippleness of the world and do not overvalue its consummate beauty. (This is all, my dear friends, that I can tell you about the grounds and aims of my message, which I am burdened with like the patient donkey with a heavy load. He is glad to put it down!”p.12)
Originally called Pa-ra-mes-su, Ramesses I, was of non-royal birth, born into a noble military family from the Nile Delta region, perhaps near the former Hyksos capital of Avaris. He was the son of a troop commander called Seti. His uncle Khaemwaset, an army officer, married Tamwadjesy, the matron of Tutankhamun’s Harem of Amun, a relative of Huy, the viceroy of Kush, a vital state post. This shows the high status of Ramesses’ family. Ramesses I found favour with Horemheb, the last pharaoh of the tumultuous Eighteenth Dynasty, who appointed the former as his vizier. Ramesses also served as the High Priest of Set – as such, he would have played an important role in restoring the old religion following the Amarna heresy of a generation earlier, under Akhenaten.
Ramses I making an offering before Osiris. Amsterdam. Alland Pierson Museum (Wikipedia)
I once published an article about this amazing Pharaoh (Here), and now we are reading a supplement on this fascinating story.
Here, we will read Marie Grillot‘s excellent description of the mysteries surrounding the mummy of Pharaoh Ramses I.
The image at the top, Egyptian Antiquities: Pharaoh Ramses I (1320-1310 BC), represents burning incense and pouring water at a ceremony. Volume of Ramses I, Valley of the Kings, Egypt (Meisterdrucke)
The tomb of Ramses I and the questions about his mummy…
Pharaoh is welcomed into the afterlife by Anubis and Horus Tomb of Ramesses I – Valley of the Kings – KV 16 – 19th dynasty Discovered on October 11, 1817, by Giovanni Battista Belzoni on behalf of Consul Henry Salt
At the beginning of October 1817, Giovanni Battista Belzoni, working on behalf of the British consul Henry Salt, commissioned a team of around twenty fellahs to carry out surveys in the Valley of the Kings. On October 11, while they were at work in the southeastern wadi, their research was crowned by an extraordinary discovery. Belzoni thus relates it in “Journey to Egypt and Nubia”: “Around midday, I was told that the entrance to the tomb discovered the day before had been widened enough for us to enter… I was the first to enter the opening, which had just been made to see if the way was passable. After having traversed a passage thirty-two feet long and eight wide, I descended a staircase of thirty-eight feet and arrived in a room quite large and decorated with beautiful paintings.
Tomb of Ramesses I – Valley of the Kings KV 16 – 19th dynasty Discovered on October 11, 1817, by Giovanni Battista Belzoni on behalf of Consul Henry Salt
The key to reading the hieroglyphs was unknown; its “owner” – Ramesses I – would only be identified a few years later.
With an area of barely 148 m2, this tomb – referenced KV 16 – is one of the smallest in the necropolis. Its architectural plan is simple and rectilinear, with a stepped entrance followed by a sloping corridor that leads to a second staircase directly serving the burial chamber.
Signage panel with plan of the tomb of Ramesses I – Valley of the Kings KV 16 – 19th dynasty Discovered on October 11, 1817, by Giovanni Battista Belzoni on behalf of Consul Henry Salt
“It is clear that the plan owes much to the tomb of Horemheb (KV 57). This appears particularly in the decorative style, using blue-grey as a background for the scenes and texts. Some think that the same artists were at the origin of these two tombs,” specifies Kent Weeks.
The scenes for which “we have renounced all relief” (Erik Hornung) reveal a high pictorial quality and seduce with their chromatic richness of luminous harmony. The hieroglyphs are of extraordinary finesse, and the king’s cartouches are set against a white background. The lower part of the vignettes is, all around, bordered by two thick bands of colour: the first yellow bordered with black, the second red ocher. Then, the rest of the wall, down to the ground, is painted black. As for the upper part bordering the ceiling, which has not been painted, is composed of a frieze of Khekerous resting on a strip of alternating coloured rectangles.
A priest standing before Osiris prepares to receive Ramses I, led by Horus, Atum and Neith Tomb of Ramesses I – Valley of the Kings KV 16 – 19th dynasty discovered on October 11, 1817, by Giovanni Battista Belzoni on behalf of Consul Henry Salt
“The entrance to the sepulchral chamber is guarded by two figures of the goddess Maat, who welcome the deceased; the king is represented in the presence of the Memphite gods, Ptah and Nefertoum, and the deities of Abydos represented by the pillar-djed of ‘Osiris and the knot of lsis. On the side walls, several scenes from the Book of Doors evoke the Sun’s nocturnal journey. The back wall combines an Osirian scene on the right and a solar scene on the left. Far left, the king is shown in a position of jubilation, surrounded by the Souls of Pé and the Souls of Nekhen, the mythical ancestors of royalty.
Ramses I facing the god Nefertum Tomb of Ramesses I – Valley of the Kings KV 16 – 19th dynasty Discovered on October 11, 1817, by Giovanni Battista Belzoni on behalf of Consul Henry Salt
The room has three small “annexe” rooms. The one dug into the southwest wall has a very beautiful scene representing Osiris standing between a divinity with the head of a ram and the serpent goddess Nesret, “the fiery breath” (it is, in fact, the Uræus ).
At the height, we note the presence of four small niches intended to accommodate the “magic bricks. “
One of the niches intended to accommodate the “magic bricks.” Tomb of Ramesses I – Valley of the Kings KV 16 – 19th dynasty Discovered on October 11, 1817, by Giovanni Battista Belzoni on behalf of Consul Henry Salt
Most of the room is occupied by an imposing red granite sarcophagus. Although damaged during looting, its domed lid is still there. “The sarcophagus was hastily finished, as evidenced by its decoration. Indeed, it is painted yellow, the texts and figures not having had time to be incised. In addition, the representations of the two goddesses, sisters and protectors of their dead brother Osiris are quite clumsily made. As is customary, Isis is at the foot, and Nephthys is at the head of the sarcophagus. The two goddesses stand on the hieroglyphic sign “Noub”, which represents gold”, explains Thierry Benderitter (osirisnet).
The imposing red granite sarcophagus Tomb of Ramesses I – Valley of the Kings KV 16 – 19th dynasty Discovered on October 11, 1817, by Giovanni Battista Belzoni on behalf of Consul Henry Salt
As Ali Reda Mohamed, the site inspector, told us, this tomb, which had been closed since 2008 for restoration by an Egyptian team, was reopened to the public on January 2, 2021.
Upon Khaled el-Enani’s inauguration, the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities detailed the work carried out: “The floors we” e restored, and the walls were cleaned of bird and bat droppings… The existing inscriptions were also restored and cleaned, and the soot was removed… The sarcophagus also benefited from the care of the restorers, and the lighting system was improved”…
A member of the Egyptian restoration team cleaning the sarcophagus Tomb of Ramesses I – Valley of the Kings – KV 16 – 19th dynasty discovered on October 11, 1817, by Giovanni Battista Belzoni on behalf of Consul Henry Salt reopened to the public after restoration on January 2, 2021 – photo Ali Reda Mohamed
When Pa-Ramessou, a high dignitary and seasoned soldier, was chosen by Horemheb to succeed him, he was already around fifty years old. Around 1306-1307 BC, he became Pharaoh under Ramses I. Thus, this 19th dynasty, initiated by his predecessor, was marked by “the arrival to power of a family from the Delta (Ramses I, Séthy I)” and then marked “the transition to the Ramesside Empire”.
Pa-Ramessou is particularly known for two identical black granite statues representing him “as a scribe, ” discovered by Georges Legrain near the 10th pylon of Karnak on October 25, 1913 (Egyptian Museum in Cairo – JE 44863 – JE 44864).
One of the two granite statues representing Pa-Ramessou as a scribe – future Ramses I discoveries near the 10th pylon of Karnak, October 25, 1913, by Georges Legrain Egyptian Museum in Cairo – JE 44863
According to Manetho, his reign was short: 1 year and four months. This simple observation could explain the modest size of his tomb and its unfinished state.
If, in his account, Belzoni points out that the sarcophagus contained two mummies, these were not the remains of the sovereign…
Indeed, after the looting that occurred in the necropolis, his mummy, like that of Ramses II, would first have passed through the tomb of Sethy I before joining the “hiding place of the royal mummies” (DB 320), where it was placed in the tomb and sheltered by the high priests of Amun during the 21st dynasty. This collective tomb was discovered in Deir el-Bahari by the Abd el-Rassoul family in 1871. The Antiquities Service only became aware of it in July 1881 and then transported all the mummies to the Boulaq Museum.
“Rediscovery”, in July 1881, by the Antiquities Service, of the Cache of the Royal Mummies (DB 320) discovered in 1871 by the Abd el-Rassoul Brothers near Deir el-Bahari
In “The Find of Deir-el-Bahari”, Gaston Maspero thus evokes the successive “displacements” which are “recorded” on the coffins of the sovereigns before their final reburial in DB 320: “The three mummies of the 19th dynasty had a common destiny. The coffins of Seti I and Ramses II bear three identical inscriptions or almost, and which date back to three different periods; what remains of the coffin of Ramses I bears the remains of a hieratic text similar to the second inscription of the text of Seti I”.
What really happened to Ramses I’s mummy? How can we imagine that after these “post-mortem” wanderings, he has not yet found rest? How could it have been sold to an American, then passed through a museum in Ontario before being exhibited at the Michael Carlos Museum in Atlanta?
In 1909, in his “General Catalogue of Egyptian antiquities from the Cairo Museum – Coffins of Royal Hiding Places”, Georges Daressy thus presents, under the ref. CG 61018, the: “Fragment of coffin in the name of Ramses I. Sycamore wood – The original coffin of Ramses I having been destroyed, his mummy had been placed in another coffin of the XXIst dynasty; but this second coffin was it – even broken during the multiple transports of the royal mummies and only two fragments have come down to us: the lid and the head of the vat. The question then arises as to whether the mummy resting inside was indeed that of the sovereign?
On the other hand, in the 1900s, in order to overcome its financial problems, the Cairo Museum did not hesitate to get rid of a number of antiquities; it actually had its own auction room, but from there, it separated from a royal mummy…
The exact scenario still remains an enigma…
Still, in an article dated March 6, 2004, on the Atlanta mummy entitled “Rameses I Mummy Returned to Cairo”, the magazine “World Archeology” reports that: “After three years of intensive investigation into the royal mummy, including X-rays, CAT Scan, radiocarbon dating, computer imaging and other techniques, researchers are 95% certain that this is the mummy of Ramesses I. Arms crossed on the chest indicates that the mummy is indeed royal because this specific position was only reserved for royal characters”…
In 2003, through Zahi Hawass, it was finally returned to Egypt… Since March 9, 2004, it has been exhibited at the Louqsor Museum in the room dedicated to the glory of ancient Thebes… On its cartel, however, a doubt remains: “It is a royal mummy from the end of the 18th dynasty – beginning of the 19th. It may be that of Ramses I, founder of the 19th dynasty”…
Mummy attributed to Ramses I exhibited since March 2004 at the Louqsor Museum in the hall to the glory of ancient Thebes
I remember on a cold, foggy evening, as the misty meadow spread in the yard, we sat in the room, listening to Melanie’s song, Leftover Wine, in one of her concerts, which was playing from the cassette recorder. When she had ended her song, the audience clapped, and suddenly, someone shouted, ” We Love You! ” And she said in her extraordinary hoarse voice, ” It is so lovely sometimes somebody says something! “
Melanie Anne Safka Schekeryk, professionally known as Melanie or Melanie Safka, was an American singer-songwriter.
“I don’t know how much you have heard of her or know her songs, but Al and I got to know Melanie during Woodstock. It was probably the most remarkable collection of half a million seekers of love, freedom, and peace who proved it was possible to live all in peace together. And she was one of them.
I left my body’: during Woodstock, turned a 22-year-old nobody into a superstar.
I’m the one I found the birthday of the sun But all things change And I think it’s the birthday of the rain
If I never said goodbye To all that I’ve known I would never be alone But still, I will not cry…
A few days ago, when I saw a ten-by-ten cm announcement in the newspaper about her death, it felt like something had stabbed my heart.”
She was a messenger of love and peace and nothing else throughout her life, and she profoundly impacted our lives, which still lingers in my mind. We had almost all of their songs on cassettes and maybe one or two vinyl records, and she had always warmed our hearts with her beautiful, hoarse and heart-touching voice among her deep-meaning poems.
Although saying goodbye might be the saddest thing, she had sung sad songs often, but her last words were always ” love, ” love, love, and being alive.
“The Saddest Thing”
And the saddest thing Under the sun above Is to say goodbye To the ones you love
All the things that I have known Be came my life my very own But before you know, you say goodbye Oh, good time, goodbye It’s time to cry But I will not weep nor make a scene Just say, “thank you Life for having been.”
And the hardest thing Under the sun above Is to say goodbye to the ones you love No, I will not weep nor make a scene I’m gonna say, “thank you Life for having been.”
And the loudest cry Under the sun above Is to silent goodbye From the ones you love
Let’s not say goodbye to this flower cause she stays with us with her hoarse voice and beautiful poems about the sun, life and love.💖🙏🌹🌻💥🌞
Our moral freedom reaches as far as our consciousness and, thus, our liberation from compulsion and captivity. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, pages 546-547 (from C.J. Depth Psychology)
By Petra Glimmdall 💖🙏
These days, because of my activities in helping the Iranian people, I have been deeply involved in establishing a fair and just system based on sound laws to help the Iranian people. However, finding a suitable constitution for a young nation (in the term of democracy) is not easy. It is not only the laws that make society fair; every individual must learn how to live in a democratic society.
Understanding freedom depends on the laws and anti-laws we legislate! Kahlil Gibran has an excellent explanation. I hope you enjoy it.
From The Prophet
Painting by Kahlil Gibran 1883-1931 – Tutt’Art@
People of Orphalese, you can muffle the drum, and you can loosen the strings of the lyre, but who shall command the skylark not to sing?
Then the lawyer said, but what of our laws, master? And he answered: You delight in laying down laws, Yet you delight more in breaking them. Like children playing by the ocean who build sand towers with constancy and then destroy them with laughter. But while you build your sand towers, the ocean brings more sand to the shore, and when you destroy them, the ocean laughs with you. Verily, the ocean always laughs with the innocent.
But what of those to whom life is not an ocean, and man-made laws are not sand towers, But to whom life is a rock, and the law a chisel with which they would carve it in their own likeness? What of the cripple who hates dancers? What of the ox who loves his yoke and deems the elk and deer of the forest stray and vagrant thin?
What of the old serpent who cannot shed his skin and calls all others naked and shameless? And of him who comes early to the wedding feast and, when over-fed and tired, goes his way, saying that all feasts are violations and all feasters are lawbreakers?
What shall I say of these save that they, too, stand in the sunlight, but with their backs to the sun? They see only their shadows, and their shadows are their laws. And what is the sun to them but a caster of shadows? And what is it to acknowledge the laws but to stoop down and trace their shadows upon the earth? But you who walk facing the sun, what images drawn on the earth can hold you? You who travel with the wind, what weather vane shall direct your course? What man’s law shall bind you if you break your yoke but upon no man’s prison door? What shall you fear if you dance but stumble against no man’s iron chains? And who is he that shall bring you to judgment if you tear off your garment yet leave it in no man’s path?
People of Orphalese, you can muffle the drum and loosen the strings of the lyre, but who shall command the skylark not to sing?
Peoples and Fatherlands, Para. 242 (Or a word about a common Europe!)
In Iran, I put a lot of value on the West and its people, especially the Europeans. After WWII, the engagement by England and France to make a common Europe, which came to fruition by Germany and France, made me sincerely wish to belong to this intellectual and cultivated community. I had a dream in Iran of seeing people in all of Europe holding books in their hands as they walked on the streets, and yet, when we escaped and arrived in Germany, I realized that it was a dream after all! Great expectations? It might be; in any case, I still had high expectations from European society. But as I followed this beloved idea wholeheartedly, I became increasingly upset. I found those gatherings of the European governments, apart from significant fundamental differences in understanding freedom, a group under solid influence by lobbyists trying to get their own wins on their business.
Long story short, I want to present the opinion of the great philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche here. As we will notice, he recognized, however tough, the problems of this idea and predicted them beforehand.
Translated from “Werke in vier Bänden, Band 3, Jenseits von Gut und Böse”
Call it “civilization”, “humanization”, or “progress,” where the distinction of Europeans is now sought. Let’s simply call it, without praising or blaming, with a personal formula, the democratic movement of Europe: behind all the moral and political backgrounds that are pointed out with such a formula, an enormous philosophical process is taking place that is becoming more and more fluid – the process of similarity between Europeans, their growing detachment from the conditions under which climatically and class-bound races arise, their increasing independence from every particular milieu that for centuries wants to inscribe itself in soul and body with the same demands – i.e. the slow emergence of an essentially supranational and nomadic type of human being who, physiologically speaking, has a maximum of the art of adaptation and – strength as its typical distinction. This process of becoming a European can be delayed in speed by significant relapses. However, perhaps because of this, it gains and grows in intensity and depth – the now still raging Storm and Stress of the “national feeling” belongs here, as does the anarchism that has just emerged -: this process probably leads to results that its naive promoters and eulogists, the apostles of “modern ideas”, least want to count on. The same new conditions under which, on average, a levelling and mediation of people will emerge – a valuable, industrious, multi-purpose and employable herd animal; humans -are highly capable of giving rise to exceptional people with the most dangerous and attractive qualities. While that power of adaptation, which constantly tries out changing conditions and begins a new work with every gender, almost with every decade, does not make the power of the type possible at all, as the overall impression of such future Europeans will probably be that of many talkative, poor-willed and extremely employable jobs that require the master, the commanding one, like daily bread; while the democratization of Europe amounts to the creation of a type prepared for slavery in the finest sense: In individual and exceptional cases, the strong person will have to become stronger and more prosperous than he has perhaps ever been before – thanks to the unprejudiced nature of his training, thanks to the enormous diversity of practice, art and mask. I wanted to say that the democratization of Europe is simultaneously an involuntary event for the breeding of tyrants – the word understood in every sense, including the spiritual one.
It is unimaginable that this Stele is over five thousand years old. Thanks to human curiosity and the joy of discovery, fascinating artefacts continued to appear.
Djet, also known as Wadj and Zet, was the fourth pharaoh of the First Dynasty and Djer’s successor. Djet’s Horus name means “Horus Cobra” or “Serpent of Horus. “.
Here, we read the story of this huge ancient stele by brilliant Marie Grillot, which shows humans merging with the divines.
This large limestone stele, with a current height of 1.43 m and a width of 0.65 m, is one of the oldest monuments in the Egyptian department of the Louvre Museum.
It is dated 3100 – 2900 BC. It comes from the tomb of one of the founding sovereigns of the 1st dynasty and thus bears witness, with elegance and sobriety, to a page of history 5000 years old.
It was discovered in 1895 – 1896 by Émile Amélineau. This Egyptologist, a graduate of the École Pratique des Hautes Études where his teachers included Gaston Maspero and Eugène Grébaut, and also a member of the French Archaeological Mission in Cairo, returned to Egypt in November 1895 to carry out research excavations on a site that he does not yet know… “It was not without great apprehension that I agreed to go and excavate the necropolis of Abydos: the shadow of the great Mariette seemed to guard it against any rash attempt, and I knew, having read his works, that he had searched it for eighteen years. From then on, I wondered what I could discover in such circumstances because I had never been to Abydos… Therefore, I set to work with ardour, and he relates this ardour I preserved during the five months that “the campaign lasted, despite many setbacks and disappointments ” in “The New Excavations of Abydos”.
“Map of the Abydos necropolis, according to Mariette” – published by Émile Amélineau in “New excavations of Abydos … full account of the excavations description of the monuments and objects discovered” in 1899
In the necropolis of El-Araba el-Madfouna, “Oumm el-Qaab” (the “Mother of jugs” or “Mother of pots”), of which Jacques de Morgan had granted him the concession, he brought numerous tombs to light – with the help of more than 450 workers! – and several royal burials from the “Thinite” period (- 3100 – 2700 BC). “To the west of the large hill, almost perpendicular to the tomb of Osiris and in the first line”, he relates, he discovers that of the one he will identify as “the Serpent King, whom others have called Dja, or even Djet”. Son and successor of Djer, he was the fourth sovereign of the 1st dynasty and the father of Den, to whom he left power.
This royal tomb – later referenced as “Z” – notably contained this stele, broken into three pieces. “The lower fragment, undecorated, must have been left on site. The stele, which measured 2.50 meters or 2.60 meters in its original state, was significantly more slender. Sculpted in relief on a recessed background, the name of the sovereign is written, one of his names rather, since the kings of the time generally had two,” specifies Jean-Louis de Cenival in “A century of French excavations in Egypt, 1880 -1980”.
Stele of the Serpent King – limestone – circa 3100 – 2900 BC – discovered at Abydos, in the royal tomb (“Z”) of Djet Necropolis of El-Araba el-Madfouna – Oumm el-Qaab – by Émile Amélineau during the excavations of 1895 – 1896 Department of Egyptian Antiquities of the Louvre Museum E 11007 (by acquisition in November 1904 in Drouot of lot 303 of the Amélineau sale) published by Émile Amélineau in “The new excavations of Abydos, Report of the excavations of Abydos, 1896-1898”)
In “Ancient Egypt at the Louvre”, Christiane Ziegler makes this enlightening reading: “The sovereign image of a large falcon dominates that of a snake framed by the enclosure of a fortress; the whole reads like a royal name, the name of the Serpent King. The falcon is the personification of the god Horus, protector of royalty. The serpent is the hieroglyph reading DJ or the sign used to write the name of the cobra. The enclosure is the image of the palace, with its raw brick walls reminiscent of a fortress with defence towers; the walls, pierced with high doors, present a succession of projections and recesses crowned with a cornice “.
For Georges Bénédite (“The so-called stele of the Serpent King” ): “It is logical to consider the building illustrated by the serekh as the residence of the Double, that is to say, the Tomb”… In “The Serekh as an Aspect of the Iconography of Early Kingship”, Alexandra A. O’Brien gives us these precious explanations: “The serekh is a way of writing the king’s name. It is generally made up of three elements: at the bottom, a part of the facade in a niche; above, a panel on which the king’s name is written; and, seated on it, a falcon. This is the ‘classic’ model. Sometimes, the falcon is joined by a Sethian animal, replaced by another, completely absent, or joined by a second falcon. This may seem like a simple motive, as the implication of each element is quite easy to explain. The facade of the niches probably represents a large building associated with the king – his palace perhaps or his tomb, and either would serve to represent the wealth, power and authority of the monarch”…
During these three excavation missions from 1895 to 1898, Émile Amélineau discovered hundreds, even thousands of artefacts. According to the legislation in force (law on antiquities of 1891), they were distributed between Egypt and the “digger” during a “division carried out in Abydos under the supervision of Jquier, who replaced Morgan, who was bedridden at this period”, specifies Marc Étienne in “Émile Amélineau (1850-1915). The misunderstood scholar”.
The missions have been financed by a company of shareholders (bankers, collectors, etc.), and they expect a fair return on their investments… On his return to France, Émile Amélineau is responsible for selling the artefacts to be able to compensate them. But, faced with the difficulties encountered and the sales deadlines, which promise to be long, he will be forced to reimburse the investors, thus becoming the owner of all the objects brought back. The transactions he then pursued, notably with the Louvre to which he hoped to sell the entire collection, for obscure reasons, did not succeed… Finally, the Egyptologist decided to put his collection up for public sale at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris on November 3 and 4, 1904… “Due to the clauses of the shareholders’ company, three groups were formed by the remains unearthed during the excavations; this is what Amélineau designated in 1904 in the preface to the sales catalogue by the terms ‘first, second and third collection’, designating respectively the product of the excavations of the campaigns of winter 1895 – spring 1896, winter 1896 – spring 1897 and finally winter 1897 – spring 1898 (Amélineau sale, 1904)” specifies Marc Étienne.
At this sale, the Louvre Museum will acquire this stele of King Serpent, presented under number 303. Thus, it will enter its collections under inventory number E 11007.
Amélineau sale – Egyptian antiquities found in Abydos. Ivories, carved wood, enamelled earthenware, amulets, scarabs, funerary statuettes, gold and bronze objects, flint, terracotta, and pottery, various sculptures, hard stone vases and cups, steles, tables, and fragments with hieroglyphic inscriptions, etc. Hôtel Drouot Paris, February 8-9, 1904 https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1247688b/f6.item
Christiane Desroches Noblecourt, Jean Vercoutter, A century of French excavations in Egypt, 1880 – 1980, cat. exp. (Paris, Musée d’Art et d’Essai, Palais de Tokyo, May 21 – October 15, 1981), Cairo, French Institute of Oriental Archeology (IFAO), 1981, p. 6, illus. p. 6, no. 2 Alexandra A. O’Brien, The Serekh as an Aspect of the Iconography of Early Kingship, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt Flight. 33, 1996, pp. 123-138 (16 pages) https://www.jstor.org/stable/40000610
Guillemette Andreu, Marie-Hélène Rutschowscaya, Christiane Ziegler, Ancient Egypt at the Louvre, Paris, Hachette, 1997, p. 43; 250-251 Marc Etienne, Émile Amélineau (1850-1915). The misunderstood scholar, Archéonil, 17, 2007, p. 27-38, p. 30, fig. 4 https://www.persee.fr/doc/arnil_1161-0492_2007_num_17_1_929
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