The scent of the Gods! It should smell divine. It’s known enough that this ceremony is also used in other religions, like Christians, Jews, and Muslims. But of course, the odours are different!? The Frankincense (Weihrauch) is by Christians and Jews, to make their ceremony well-smelled, in Islam, rose water is the common utensil. And the Egyptians? What was their magical aroma?
With heartfelt thanks, let’s enjoy this brilliant description of the “Divine Aroma” of the Egyptian Gods & Goddesses by Marie Grillot.
Arm censer – gilded wood discovered in 1893 in Medinet Dimaï Cairo Museum – JE 30700
In the worship of gods and divinities, the fumigation of incense is, along with the libation of water, one of the most important rituals of the Pharaonic liturgy. Its high function was to “restore life by incense supposed to be an emission from the body of Osiris”. This scene is often reproduced on the walls of temples or tombs, most often performed by a sem priest or by Pharaoh himself.
The perfume of resinous secretions is placed in a censer to allow them to burn, be consumed and thus to spread their fragrant and purifying benefits.
Sethi I offering a casserole of incense to a deity in his temple of Abydos temple de sethi Ier – abydos
This “utensil” of worship can take the form of a cup, a simple pot or a casserole dish. It was in the Middle Kingdom that censers in the shape of an arm appeared. This form continues to be used in the New Kingdom and until the Greco-Roman era. The censer of this type has the shape and size of a human arm ending in a hand. The length of censers kept in museums is around 50 cm when they are full. ; the largest up to 60 cm. This length corresponds to the Egyptian cubit of 52.5 cm.
Jean-François Champollion used to call this “utensil” of worship “amschir”.
Arm censer – gilded wood discovered in 1893 in Medinet Dimaï Cairo Museum – JE 30700
This censer was recorded in the Journal des Entrées of the Cairo Museum under the reference JE 30700. It was found in the Fayoum at Medinet Dimai in 1893 and dates from the Ptolemaic period when the Greco-Roman city was called Soknopaiou Nesos. Its Greek name means “the island of the Crocodile-god”, and within its enclosure was a temple dedicated “to Soknopaios, who was a form of the crocodile god Sobek”.
Detail of the censer with arms – gilded wood discovered in 1893 in Medinet Dimaï Cairo Museum – JE 30700
While most are bronze, this one is made of gilded wood. It measures 55 cm, and one of its ends represents a falcon’s head, treated in a very realistic way. The eyes, of a dark blue, being particularly well worked. In the middle of the handle is an oval, cartridge-shaped box, which presumably had a lid. It was intended to “store” a small supply of the precious substance. “The papyrus flower begins just after the reserve and is followed by a well-sculpted hand in the round.” The represented hand is the right one. It is flat, palm open, and fingers extended. The nails are carefully sculpted.
Detail of the censer with arms – gilded wood discovered in 1893 in Medinet Dimaï Cairo Museum – JE 30700
In the centre of the palm is a dish, relatively high, wider at the top than at the bottom, in which incense burned during religious ceremonies or cults rendered to Pharaoh. From this receptacle then escaped, in a halo of smoke, the purifying and perfuming vapours released by the aromatic resins.
Ramses III offering incense on the walls of his million-year-old temple in Medinet Habu Arm censer – gilded wood – discovered in 1893 in Medinet Dimaï Cairo Museum – JE 30700
In the “Visitor’s Guide to the Cairo Museum, 1915, Gaston Maspero presents it as follows:” At the top of the cage, on the upper plaque, lies a gilded wooden censer (n ° 4220) consisting of a head handle of a falcon which ends in an elongated hand carrying a vase: It is discovered in Diméh, and it dates from the Ptolemaic period. But it is identical in shape to the censers, which can be seen on monuments from the Pharaonic period “.
“The priests offered Re (Ra) three kinds of incense every day, one at his rising, one at midday, and one at bedtime.” The atmosphere of the temples was then filled with vapours and smells quite conducive to entering into communion with the divine.
Sethi I. holding the censer – scene from the temple of Abydos
Frankincense, a rare product in Egypt, was mainly dedicated to the worship of divinities and the pharaoh, but it was also used as a household or a simple perfume (incense cones) and to repel dangerous animals such as snakes or scorpions.
It could be olibanum, terebinth, myrrh, or styrax … but the most sought after, the most prized, was kyphi, produced by a mixture of 10 to 50 substances. “Ideally, it consisted of 16 ingredients which included, among others, old wine, honey, seeded raisins, terebinth resin, asphalt, myrrh, mastic, two species of juniper and cardamom.” (Jean-Pierre Corteggiani, Ancient Egypt and its gods).
Incense was considered a divine fragrance, assimilated to the Eye of Horus. Adorned with this incredible power to allow “humans” to enter into close communion with the gods. The recognition given to him was such that hymns were even dedicated to him!
“Orientalia”, Vol. 78, No. 3 Ancient Egypt and its gods, Jean-Pierre Corteggiani, 2007 “Treasures of Ancient Egypt at the Cairo Museum”, National Geographic Visitor’s Guide to the Cairo Museum, Gaston Maspero, 1915
I have got to know him in the early seventies. I have read almost all his works, and he had changed my life forever. Let’s have some words from him.
One year ago, it was Autumn, I was travelling by train in Germany, and once, of confusion, I missed a station which would have to get off and change the train. I got off at the next station. It was about three pm, with the clear sky. It was a small town. They showed me a hotel because I had to wait for the next train, which would come at eleven pm. I was not in hurry at all, and even happy somehow! It was a small stinking hotel but surrounded with greens and plants and also flowers. I got a small room and dinner, which I ate with an appetite, and because of the long travel, went into a deep sleep.
I’ve dreamed an unexpected dream. Whereas I haven’t before. All of my dreams were always stupid or scary. There was in Dresden an exhibition, with a painting by Claude Laurent, under the name: Acis et Galatée. I don’t know why I always called it The Golden Age. I have seen it before, and when I came by there, I have seen it. I’ve always gone there on purpose to see this. I think all my purpose was to go to Dresden just to see this work. This was in my dream, though not as a painting but in real. (Shortened) It was about three thousand before time: in the Greek archipelago. Sun was shining on everything, and everyone was happy and free. The tears were dripping down my face, and even when I woke up, I was still dreaming! (From “Demons” ) Translated in English, from my old translated from Russian in Persian book! 😜
Stefan Zweig, who himself is one of the greatest contemporary writers, in the introduction to Dostoevsky’s biography, wrote:
“It is very difficult, if not impossible, to explain Dostoevsky’s importance to the world because the power and influence of his character are beyond our rules and precision. There is a magical genius in the world which he has, by the power of his imagination, created, is impossible for us to comprehend.”
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, (11 November 1821 – 9 February 1881) or Dostoyevsky is, of course, one of the greatest authors in the history of lecture, and everyone who likes books should know him well. Therefore, I don’t need to introduce him to you.
Among Dostoevsky’s last words was his quotation of Matthew 3:14–15: “But John forbad him, saying, I have a need to be baptised of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness”, and he finished with “Hear now—permit it. Do not restrain me!
Here are some very useful quotes, which are fitting our today situation. Our today’s constrictions of information and freedoms. From our wise friends; Searching The Meaning Of Life! 🙏
Because the secret of human existence is this: He does not only want to live but also to know why he lives. If a man does not have a fixed fantasy of the purpose for which he lives, he will refuse to live. He will prefer to annihilate himself. Dostoevsky, Fedor Michajlovic.
Notes from the book “The Great Examiner ” by Dostojevskij Fedor Michajlovic
✔ Now, right now, people are more than ever convinced that they are free, completely free, and yet they themselves brought us their freedom and enslaved it at our feet.
✔They finally managed to conquer freedom and make people happy in this way. Man was born a revolutionary. But can revolutionaries be happy?
✔Because for the people and their society, nothing has ever been given more intolerable than freedom.
✔Do you see the stones in this bare and fiery desert? Make the bread, and humanity will follow you like a flock, full of gratitude and submission, although it will always live with the anguish that you could pull your hand away and stop giving it your bread …
✔ What kind of freedom is this when it is redeemed with bread? In the name of this earthly bread, the spirit of the earth will rebel against You…
✔Mankind through the mouths of its sages and intellectuals will declare that there were no crimes, therefore no sins, there were only hungry people “Satisfy them and only then demand from them so much virtue”
✔And the end will be for them to lay their freedom on our feet and tell us “Make us slaves but satisfy us”… They can never be free because they are weak, full of flaws, insignificant, troublemakers.
✔What about the millions and billions who do not have the power to despise earthly bread for the sake of heaven?
✔Man, when liberated, has no more lasting and torturous care than how to find as soon as possible someone he can worship, who can deliver to him as quickly as possible the gift of freedom with that, which this unhappy creature comes to people.
✔Because these miserable creatures care to find something that everyone believes in and absolutely loves. For this common worship, they kill each other: this will happen until the end of the world even when the gods disappear from the world, and then they will still kneel before idols.
✔Only the one who can reassure their conscience becomes the master of people’s freedom.
✔Because the secret of human existence is this: He does not only want to live but also to know why he lives. If a man does not have a fixed fantasy of the purpose for which he lives, he will refuse to live. He will prefer to annihilate himself.
✔Man prefers silence and even death to the free choice of knowledge of good and evil. There is nothing more attractive to man than the freedom of conscience but nothing more torturous.
✔There are only three forces on earth with which one can conquer and forever capture the consciousness of these weak troublemakers: miracle, mystery and power.
✔And because man cannot live without a miracle, he will create for himself a multitude of miracles, his own miracles, and he will worship them even though he is a thousand times a rebel, a heretical denier of God.
✔ You thirsted for love and freedom and not for the slavish charm of a slave in the face of a power that enslaved him forever.
✔What does it mean that he is rebelling everywhere against our power and even boasts that he is a revolutionary? This is the pride of a small child… they are weak insurgents who can not stand even their own rebellion…
✔Because the tendency towards a unity that includes the whole world is the last torment of humanity. As a whole, it always tends to be organized globally.
✔ We will convince them that they will only be free when they give up their freedom for our sake and when they are devoted to us.
✔ Freedom, unrestrained spirit and science will drag them into such labyrinths, will bring them before such miracles in unsolved mysteries, that some of them, stubborn and savage will self-deny, and others, the weak ones, yet stubborn will eat each other. However, the weak and unhappy ones will come crawling to our feet and shouting: save us from ourselves.
✔The herd will gather again, will submit again, but this time everything in the century. Then we will give them quiet humble happiness, the happiness of the weak creatures, happiness in their measure. We will take away their pride… We will show them that they are weak and that they are only poor children, but also that their childish happiness is sweeter than any other happiness. They will be frightened, ashamed and will look at us with respect while they will gather around us like spinners on a spinning top. They will admire us and tremble…In their weakness, they will tremble before our wrath, their spirit will become small-minded, and their eyes will weep like the eyes of children and women.
✔ We will force them to work, but in their free time, we will shape their life into a children’s game… We will even allow them to make mistakes because they are weak and powerless, and they will love us for it like children because we forgive their mistakes. We will tell them that all mistakes are erased when they are made with our consent, that we allow them to sin only because we love them… They will bring the most secret, the most torturous doubts of their conscience to us, and we will solve them .. we will free them from the great worry and the heavy torture of personal and free decision.
✔. I told you before: I just want to live like thirty years (old), and then I say goodbye to you.
Skiathos is the westernmost island in the Northern Sporades group, east of the Pelion peninsula in Magnesia on the mainland, and west of the island of Skopelos. And as I have heard, this island, in ancient times, was only important for strategic protections against Persian!
For me, it is a paradise on Earth. Just to relax, away from the world: (news; because of no TV/Radio, media, because of having only my Smartphone with me, and my eyes are not good enough, anymore, for reading such long texts), and also free of thick clothes!
Honestly, I am such a person who loves to be free of clothes, as naked as possible. You might say I’d be a nudist (Free Body Culture?!). Why not! I think that humans are born naked, and they can live on in this form. It only must be warm enough!! And yes, here in Germany, the summer is like a lottery. Every four or five years, we can have a normal summer, but mostly it is variable. When the sun shines, it is warm, but suddenly, when covered by clouds, the temperature in a second falls five or six degrees down.
I know that it is the wishing weather for the Germans, especially the elders, who are afraid of the heat. I understand it, but I am accustomed to the four-season as I grown-up within Tehran.
Anyway, I must apologise to some of my friends whom I read their posts and support gladly might have missed my magical presence! And now, as I am back again in front of my dear computer, I am confronted with hundreds and hundreds of EMails. Sorry again, I must pass!!
Now let’s back to paradise. I love Greece, not only because of the beauty and glorious landscape, and its lovely weather and of course their fascinating Mythology. I love the Greek people. They are one of the noblest and honest people in the world. Of course, one might have had a bad experience, it is surely possible, in every country and by every folk. For me, I had not one in there.
I have taken a lot of photos and don’t know how and from which I must begin. Anyhow, I will try my best, and if needed, I will make a continuation.
It is a beginning, isn’t it? Na! I should try more if you’d like it.
PS: it seems that I am out of practice! Never mind, have a great weekend, lovely friends.
Satamon armchair – stuccoed wood and gold leaf – 18th Dynasty – Reign of Amenhotep III From the tomb of Youya and Touya (Valley of the Kings – KV 46) discovered in February 1905 by Theodore Monroe Davis on behalf of the Antiquities Department Egyptian Museum in Cairo – CG 51113
There we go again! A story about a throne, which is so beautiful that, by sitting on it, we must feel like a Queen or King. Another amazing reportage by Marie Grillot with a lovely anecdote at the end. 😊🙏💖
The pharaohs and their relatives were, for their beyond, accompanied by objects, witnesses of their environment, which were to last for their eternity. We must also not forget that they were beings who had loved, who were loved and mourned when they died.
Thus in their funeral material, we find memories of their venerated ancestors or even testimonies of affection that their relatives left with one can imagine, intense emotion, in their last home.
How not to mention the coffin of Queen Ahhotep in which were, among other things, bracelets and weapons in the name of Ahmosis I? Or, the tomb of Tutankhamun where were found, in small sarcophagi, a gold statuette-pendant of Amenophis III wearing the khepresh (an ancient Egyptian royal headdress) as well as a lock of hair of Queen Tiyi carefully placed in a linen cloth, testimonies of the deep attachment that bound him to these two sovereigns who, according to the assumptions of Howard Carter, were perhaps his grandparents.
Satamon armchair – stuccoed wood and gold leaf – 18th Dynasty – Reign of Amenhotep III From the tomb of Youya and Touya (Valley of the Kings – KV 46) discovered in February 1905 by Theodore Monroe Davis on behalf of the Antiquities Department Egyptian Museum in Cairo – CG 51113
In KV 46, the tomb of Yuya and Touya, Tiyi’s parents, there is also a touching proof of attachment: it was left there by Satamon …
Satamon (The Daughter of Amun) was the eldest daughter of Tiyi and Amenhotep III – the great pharaoh who ruled the Two Lands for over thirty years – and therefore the granddaughter of Yuya and Touya. “She especially distinguished herself towards the end of the reign of Amenhotep III by becoming the wife of her own father herself. Educated in the harem of Miour, she had grown up in the entourage of her maternal grandparents, and this is probably a token of affection that, during the funeral of Yuya or Touya in the Valley of the Kings, she had a superb armchair in gilded wood placed in their common tomb “, specifies Christian Leblanc in his” Queens of the Nile “.
Satamon armchair – stuccoed wood and gold leaf – 18th Dynasty – Reign of Amenhotep III From the tomb of Youya and Touya (Valley of the Kings – KV 46) discovered in February 1905 by Theodore Monroe Davis on behalf of the Antiquities Department Egyptian Museum in Cairo – CG 51113
This magnificent piece of furniture testifies to the refinement which then reigned at the court and the degree of mastery achieved by the cabinetmakers of this flourishing period.
The four feet take the form of the lion’s paws; the two front legs and the two rear legs are connected and fixed by a wooden crosspiece whose end caps are gilded. The seat is wide and seems comfortable … As for the backrest, it can only charm us …
Detail of Satamon’s armchair – stuccoed wood and gold leaf – 18th Dynasty – Reign of Amenhotep III From the tomb of Youya and Touya (Valley of the Kings – KV 46) discovered in February 1905 by Theodore Monroe Davis on behalf of the Antiquities Department Egyptian Museum in Cairo – CG 51113
Under the solar disk, with long outstretched wings, gilded with gold leaf, is represented – also with gold leaf – a scene in two sequences, quite charming and delicate.
In “Treasures of Egypt – The Wonders of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo”, Francesco Tiradritti gives this interesting description: “Inside a pergola, whose roof is decorated with lotus flowers in turn open and in buds, the figurative field is divided into two parts, where the same scene is repeated in the mirror, with a few variations. A woman whom the hieroglyphic inscriptions designate as “the king’s daughter the great, his beloved one Satamon, is seated on a seat placed on a mat”. The princess wears a short wig, from which hangs on the side a long braid, held by a band, which ends on the forehead with a gazelle’s head. On the head stands the hieroglyph of the plant of papyrus, a symbol of fertility and rebirth. Only dressed in a long transparent skirt, decorated with wavy folds, Satamon holds the sistrum in her right hand, and the ‘Menat’ necklace in her left hand: these two musical instruments were shaken by women during processions where the simulacrum of the divinity carried outside the temple; the sound emitted was so loud and unpleasant that it was supposed to ward off evil spirits.
Besides earrings, the princess wears a large necklace and bracelets on the wrists. A young girl, who is standing in front of her, presents her with a necklace on a tray. Wearing a short wig held by a headband, she wears earrings, a large necklace, bracelets and a skirt that goes down to the ankles. A rectangular object is placed on her head: it could be a lump of scented fat, although these bits are usually shaped like a cone. Similar objects are found on the heads of dancers adorning the walls of tombs from the same period. The hieroglyphic inscription which surmounts the young girl describes her gesture: ‘to carry the gold of the foreign countries of the south’. “
The armrests, high and wide, tell a whole story: gilded, again, with gold leaf, it is available in several scenes which are reproduced on their interior and their exterior.
Detail of an armrest from Satamon’s armchair – stuccoed wood and gold leaf – 18th Dynasty – Reign of Amenhotep III From the tomb of Youya and Touya (Valley of the Kings – KV 46) discovered in February 1905 by Theodore Monroe Davis on behalf of the Antiquities Department Egyptian Museum in Cairo – CG 51113
On the right armrest, on the outside, the god Bes is represented three times: the first two play the drum while the last dances with knives in his hands.
Detail of an armrest from Satamon’s armchair – stuccoed wood and gold leaf – 18th Dynasty – Reign of Amenhotep III From the tomb of Youya and Touya (Valley of the Kings – KV 46) discovered in February 1905 by Theodore Monroe Davis on behalf of the Antiquities Department Egyptian Museum in Cairo – CG 51113
On the left armrest, on the outside, this theme is repeated in part: two representations of Bes – one playing the drum and the other dancing with the knives – surround a goddess Thouéris who seems unfazed by the noise and the rhythm.
Detail of an armrest from Satamon’s armchair – stuccoed wood and gold leaf – 18th Dynasty – Reign of Amenhotep III From the tomb of Youya and Touya (Valley of the Kings – KV 46) discovered in February 1905 by Theodore Monroe Davis on behalf of the Antiquities Department Egyptian Museum in Cairo – CG 51113
As for the scenes adorning the inside of the armrests, they are very touching: they represent a procession of four slender, elegant young girls, identically dressed and carrying the hieroglyph of the papyrus plant on their heads. They hold trays in their hands-on which are placed gold rings.
Detail of Satamon’s armchair – stuccoed wood and gold leaf – 18th Dynasty – Reign of Amenhotep III From the tomb of Youya and Touya (Valley of the Kings – KV 46) discovered in February 1905 by Theodore Monroe Davis on behalf of the Antiquities Department Egyptian Museum in Cairo – CG 51113
At the front of the end of the armrest, in their lower part, with a female head whose face, neck, collar and crown, are covered with gold. Her wig, rather short and nicely crafted, has retained the natural colour of the wood.
The tomb of Yuya and Touya was unearthed in 1905 by the team of Theodore Monroe Davis, who had obtained from Gaston Maspero, in 1902, the concession of the Valley of the Kings.
Although it was looted at least twice in antiquity, the hypogeum could deliver not only the couple’s mummies but also magnificent funerary furniture, jewellery, scarabs, seals, crockery, musical instruments, statues…
Satamon armchair – stuccoed wood and gold leaf – 18th Dynasty – Reign of Amenhotep III From the tomb of Youya and Touya (Valley of the Kings – KV 46) discovered in February 1905 by Theodore Monroe Davis on behalf of the Antiquities Department Egyptian Museum in Cairo – CG 51113 Watercolour by Howard Carter published in “The tomb of Iouiya and Touiyou: the finding of the tomb” by T.M. Davis
The excavation of the tomb will be supervised by James Edward Quibell, who then replaced Howard Carter as Inspector General of Upper Egyptian Monuments in Thebes.
In his excellent work “History of the Valley of the Kings”, John Romer relates an incredible story that Quibell liked to relate: “During the cleaning of the tomb of Yuya and Tchouiou, one afternoon he received the visit of an old lady, wearing a dirty old coat and wearing a funny cloche hat. Her companion, a hurried-looking man, called her ‘Your Highness’. Quibell, unaware of the identity of her interlocutor, did the same. He deeply regretted it and explained to his hosts that the tomb had been emptied of almost all of its riches and begged them to excuse him for having no seat to offer them. Seeing Satamon’s chair, the old lady assured him that it was a perfect fit for her and sat down without further ado. Fortunately, the siege resisted! The archaeologists, much embarrassed, found themselves compelled to ask ‘Her Highness’ to stand up. “
During his final trip to Egypt in 1905, Empress Eugènie will visit the tomb of Yuya and Touya.
It was, in fact, Empress Eugenie, widow of Napoleon III, who, at 79 years old, accompanied by her cousin, the Count Joseph Napoléon Primoli, made her second trip to Egypt. The first one, surrounded by an incredible splendour, took place in the fall of 1869, on the occasion of the inauguration of the Suez Canal, preceded by a trip to Upper Egypt with Auguste Mariette as a guide.
This armchair is exhibited at the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square in Cairo, where, is registered in the general catalogue under the reference CG 51113.
Tomb of Yuaa and Thuiu, Quibell, James Edward, 1867-1935; Egypt. Maslahat al-Athar, Cairo: Impr. from the French Institute of Oriental Archeology, 1908
Queens of the Nile, Christian Leblanc, The Library of the Untraceable, 2009The complete Valley of the Kings, Nicholas Reeves, Richard H. Wilkinson, The American University in Cairo Press History of the Valley of the Kings, John Romer, Vernal – Philippe Lebaud, 1991 Treasures of Egypt – The Wonders of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Francesco Tiradritti 12 queens of Egypt who changed history, Pierre Tallet The treasures of ancient Egypt at the Cairo museum, National Geographic
It will be another (not so important) announcement to my running vacuous for the next two weeks! I know you will miss me (please, please miss me!!) That’s because we dare to take a vacation in Greece (Skiathos). Of course, I can’t be silent, and I’ll get on your nerves now and then, and it might be helpful to do something different. Now, I share the last part of my trilogy on Dualism. And hope, despite this long part, you will find joy by reading it.
In fact, Manicheism is a successor of Zoroastrianism, but similar to Cathars, its beliefs based on the Divine. Manichaeism is a combination of religions with its own theology. Manichean doctrine is far more dualistic than Zoroastrianism. Manicheans believe that the physical world and physical matter is evil, a work of the evil spirit.
Manichaeism considered Zoroaster to be a figure (along with the Buddha and Jesus) in a line of prophets of which Mani (216–276) was the culmination. Zoroaster’s ethical dualism is—to an extent—incorporated in Mani’s doctrine, which viewed the world as being locked in an epic battle between opposing forces of good and evil. Manicheanism also incorporated other elements of Zoroastrian tradition, particularly the names of supernatural beings; however, many of these other Zoroastrian elements are either not part of Zoroaster’s own teachings or are used quite differently from how they are used in Zoroastrianism.
Academics also note that much of what is known about Manichaeism comes from later 10th- and 11th-century Muslim historians like Al-Biruni and especially ibn al-Nadim (and his Fihrist), who “ascribed to Mani the claim to be the Seal of the Prophets.” However, given the Islamic milieu of Arabia and Persia at the time, it stands to reason that Manichaeans would regularly assert in their evangelism that Mani, not Muhammad, was the “Seal of the Prophets”. In reality, for Mani the metaphorical expression “Seal of Prophets” is not a reference to his finality in a long succession of prophets, as it is in Islam, but, rather to his followers, who testify or attest his message, as a seal does.
Another source of Mani’s scriptures was original Aramaic writings relating to the Book of Enoch literature (see the Book of Enoch and the Second Book of Enoch), as well as an otherwise unknown section of the Book of Enoch called The Book of Giants. This book was quoted directly, and expanded on by Mani, becoming one of the original six Syriac writings of the Manichaean Church. Besides brief references by non-Manichaean authors through the centuries, no sources of The Book of Giants (which is actually part six of the Book of Enoch) were available until the 20th century.
Not to make it too long, it is fascinating to know how impressive was the idea of Dualism in religious history.
One can be enjoyed if interested in this, just have a look at here
Around AD 240, Mani had begun his preaching mission. His preaching but was distinctly not Zoroastrianism. Therefore he has been forced to exile. Of course, in his exile to India, Mani had got the chance to preach his idea and had great success to have followers there. And after Ardeshir, the first king of the Sasanian dynasty, a convinced Zoroastrian died, Mani came back to Persian and got permission from king Shahpur the first, to continue preaching. The king protected Mani to do what he wished throughout the Persian Empire. Thereafter, Manichaeism won converts at a phenomenal rate causing intense resentment and jealousy amongst the Zoroastrian priesthood. Therefore, they persuaded the king to exile Mani for a second time.
Anyway, after back and forth with the kings’ changing, king Hormuzd, despite his faith to Zoroastrianism, tolerated Mani and his followers. But it doesn’t last so long that the officers arrested him at Gundeshapur in southwestern Persia. He was then subjected to four days of inquisition-style by the Magi (Zoroastrian priests) and declared to be “Zandic” = a heresy. A month of imprisonment in heavy chains, followed after which he was flayed alive and then decapitated. His head was impaled on the city gate, from which his skin, stuffed with straw, was also suspended; what remained of his body was thrown to the dogs.
No doubt, the level of brutality in his execution was commensurate with the level of threat that Magi saw in Mani’s new religion, which was everywhere overtaking them. And just as the case with the destruction of Catharism by the Roman Catholic Church, a thousand years later, it was also a determined attempt made by the Zoroastrians to wipe out Manicheism completely. How horrible it seems, it is a sad old story, which we can find permanently in our history!
This might not be known as the other sects or way of beliefs.
The Manichaeans had not become so famous as the Zoroastrian religion. It might because the latter had aimed to destroy its serious enemy. And after that, when the Arabs came, with their destructive swords, remained no chance for the Manichaeans to go any further.
Let’s have some declarations in detail: (Hopefully, it’s not becoming boring!)
Mani, Messenger of Light
It’s known as Manicheism after its founder Mani. It’s younger than some of the Christian Gnostic movements but a century older than the Messalians. It too was viciously persecuted by the Church as heresy, rather than as a pagan religion.
There’s a dispute amongst scholars as to whether Manicheism was Christian in any meaningful sense at all. Certainly, it was much less Christian than the religion of Bogomils and the Cathars, and that, as I have explained before, accurately can’t be described as Christianity. It said that Mani claimed to be the Apostle of Christ, though there is another claim which he had uttered himself as the Apostle of God. He meant that he was an emissary or messenger, and he placed himself as the successor to Christ at the end of a line of earlier, non-Christian apostles.
Obviously, the Church saw this as heresy. It involved Chris but clearly devalued the unique quality of his mission by putting him on a par with the founders of well-known pagan religions. One of Mani’s surviving statements on the matter in his Book of the King,Shapur (circa AD 250) makes this completely clear.
From age to age, the Apostles of God did not cease to bring here the wisdom and works of the spirit. Thus in one age, their coming was into the countries of India, through the Apostle, that was the Buddha. In another age, into the land of Persia, through Zoroaster. Into another, the land of the West, through Jesus. After that, into this last age, this revelation came down, and this prophethood arrived through me, Mani, the Apostle of the true God, into the land of Bable.
[…] More directly, it’s known that Mani was reared amongst an obscure sect of Jewish Christians called the Elchasaitans (considered to have been Gnostics and linked by some scholars with the Essens of Dead Sea Scrolls fame). They were mystics and visionaries with strict purity laws and respective rituals that Mani rebelled against. But through them, he was exposed to an additional vital influence on his thinking – the teachings of the Christian Gnostics. Although later to be persecuted as heresy, these teachings were still in free circulation in the first half of the third century and are generally agreed to have greatly impacted the construction of Mani’s own distinctively Gnostic religion.[…]
…guarded by the might of the Light-angels the exceedingly strong powers, who had a command from Jesus the Splendour for my safekeeping… They nourished me with visions and signs which they made known to me, slight and quite brief, as far as I was able, for, sometimes like a flash of lightning, he came.
Though, Manichaeism is very similar to Catharism and Bogomilism, as far as the divine concerns. And there are two Gods: The one of the Light and the other:
It is the Prince of Darkness who spoke with Moses, the jews, and their priests. Thus, the Christians, the Jews (the Muslims), and the Pagans are involved in the same error when they worship this god. For he led them astray in the lusts that he thought them, since he was not the God of Truth.
Actually, if we take a deep look to the world and these all happening today, it sounds mysteriously true! The question that remains in my mind is: what went wrong after thousands of years of human’s cultural progress, it’s still so much misery and injustice in the world. It seems that the right way was there, and we didn’t catch it up! I can only hope if there’d be light at the end of this long and dark tunnel.
As I noticed right now, there is something strange that happened to my WordPress site. I posted this some minutes ago but couldn’t see it, and I found it dated 2 June! 😮 As I still know, today is June 10th. The only way to get back to the future, I thought I must reblog it before I’d drown in the past… 😜🤦♂️
Ramses II, or the Great; ‘Rais the one who bore him’ or ‘born of Ra’, (Rhaméssēs),c.1303 BC– July or August 1213; reigned 1279–1213 BC, was the thirdpharaohof theNineteenth Dynasty of Egypt. He is often regarded as the greatest, most celebrated, and most powerful pharaoh of theNew Kingdom, itself the most powerful period ofAncient Egypt.His successors and later Egyptians called him the “Great Ancestor”. He is known asOzymandiasin Greek sources (Koinē Greek:Οσυμανδύας,romanized:Osymandýas),from the first part of Ramesses’sregnal name,UsermaatreSetepenre, “TheMaatofRais powerful, Chosen of Ra”. More on Wikipedia
He was undoubtedly the greatest pharaoh of the 19th Dynasty – and one of the most important leaders of ancient Egypt. The ostentatious pharaoh is best remembered for his exploits at the Battle of Kadesh, his…
I’m absent this weekend! It happened spontaneously by a decision, to get a ride to northern Germany to meet friends after so long distance in the time of Corona.
I’ve just thought it might be for interest of few friends 😉
Thank you for being there and wish you all a great weekend 💞😊❤️😘🙏
Ramses II, or the Great; ‘Ra is the one who bore him’ or ‘born of Ra’, (Rhaméssēs), c. 1303 BC – July or August 1213; reigned 1279–1213 BC, was the third pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt. He is often regarded as the greatest, most celebrated, and most powerful pharaoh of the New Kingdom, itself the most powerful period of Ancient Egypt. His successors and later Egyptians called him the “Great Ancestor”. He is known as Ozymandias in Greek sources (Koinē Greek: Οσυμανδύας, romanized: Osymandýas), from the first part of Ramesses’s regnal name, Usermaatre Setepenre, “The Maat of Ra is powerful, Chosen of Ra”. More on Wikipedia
He was undoubtedly the greatest pharaoh of the 19th Dynasty – and one of the most important leaders of ancient Egypt. The ostentatious pharaoh is best remembered for his exploits at the Battle of Kadesh, his architectural legacy, and for bringing Egypt into its golden age. Here
Here again, is another fascinating article by Marie Grillot, and this time, about this giant statue of the great pharaoh, Ramses II, how it’s been found and restored. It is magical, a spell! 😊💖🙏
Statue of Ramses II – Granodiorite – New Kingdom Discovered at Karnak in 1818 by Jean-Jacques Rifaud on behalf of Bernardino Drovetti Museo Egizio in Turin – C 1380
This magnificent statue of Ramses II is undoubtedly one of the most emblematic pieces of the Egyptian Museum in Turin. With a height approaching 2 m, carved in a block of black diorite (or black granite, or granodiorite, or polished basanite according to the descriptions), of perfect execution, it represents the pharaoh seated on his throne, bearing the emblem power, face and attitude-filled with serenity. This work of art of absolute perfection can only arouse unconditional admiration.
Inscription engraved by J.-J. Rifaud on the right side of the statue of Ramses II – Granodiorite – New Kingdomwhich he discovered in Karnak in 1818 on behalf of Bernardino Drovetti – Museo Egizio de Turin – C 1380
As evidenced by the inscription engraved on the right side of the throne: “Dt par Jj – Rifaud in the service of Mr Drovetti in Thebes SR (?) 1818”, it was discovered by the Marseillais Jean-Jacques Rifaud in 1818, then that he was starting excavations at Karnak on behalf of Bernardino Drovetti – French consul and… Italian antique dealer – who had hired him two years earlier.
The head of Ramses II appears in n ° 3 in “Granite statues, discovered by Jean-Jacques Rifaud, in his excavations in Thebes, in the eastern part of the great temple of Karnak”. Lithograph by Könitzer after the original drawing by Mr. Rifaud
It seems difficult to pinpoint the exact location of the find. Volume II of “Porter & Moss”, which presents it as follows: “Ramesses II, seated, with statuettes of Queen Nefertari on left and of Prince Amenirkhopshef on right, granite, in Turin Mus. 1380” refers us to a chapter of the ‘work by Jean-Jacques Rifaud “Table of Egypt, Nubia and surrounding places, or Itinerary for the use of travellers who visit these regions”. It “would” be referenced in Karnak’s discoveries “From Rifaud excavations. Presumably from here” in enumeration 9: “Three shrines, square pillars, statues, caryatids, the number of black granite statues, a white marble monolith -, a pink granite sacrificial altar, forty-two columns in one direction, and eight in another part: these are the results of the excavations undertaken from the surrounding wall to the eastern gate of the palace… “
Cracks still visible today testify to the condition in which the statue of Ramses II was found – photo Marie Grillot
Broken discovery: “it was transported to Turin in shapeless fragments”. And also, it seems, according to some sources, that he had to suffer from a fire when he arrived in Italy.
At the start of summer 1824, Jean-François Champollion was at the Turin museum where he came to discover and write the “descriptive and reasoned” catalogue of Egyptian treasures that His Majesty, the King of Sardinia, had just acquired: he proceeds; this is the first “Drovetti” collection.
On this pencil and watercolor drawing by Marco Nicolosino made around 1832, we can recognize, at the back of the room, the statue of Ramses II
With thanks to his insistence and to the intervention of the knight “Jules Cordero di San Quintino”, the first curator of the Museum, that the statue was able to be reconstituted. Champollion relates the facts thus: “I finally got the pieces of the statue assembled… Nothing is missing.” Throughout his stay, he never ceased to consider: “the beauty and the admirable perfection of this colossal figure” and admits: “For six whole months every day I see him and always believe to see him for the first time … In short, I’m in love with it. “
Why not, therefore, let the man in love and passionate describe it?
Statue of Ramses II – Granodiorite – New Kingdom Discovered at Karnak in 1818 by Jean-Jacques Rifaud on behalf of Bernardino Drovetti – Museo Egizio de Turin – C 1380
“The king is represented seated on a throne in military dress. The head of the statue of Ramses the Great wears the royal helmet, armour which, according to the green colour that is applied to him in the painted bas-reliefs, was to be in bronze adorned with more precious metals: kinds of nails or small relief discs, similar to the figurative character which, in hieroglyphic texts, expresses the idea of the sun, covering the entire surface of the helmet, except a sort of rim or rather of a visor which protrudes over the entire contour of the forehead; above this visor rises the royal badge, the urœus, the body of which first forms several coils, and then extends in a straight line to the highest part of the helmet.
The face of this statue, as had been worked like all the other parts with extreme care, is of perfection that I did not expect to find in any works of Egyptian ancient style. The expression is both sweet and proud, and with a very brief examination, it is enough to convince that this is a true portrait. The eyes, of medium size, are less prominent than those of most other statues; the eyebrows are strongly marked; the external angle of the eyes is not exaggerated as usual; the nose is long and aquiline, and the mouth small, although the lips are always a little strong. Full cheeks and a rounded chin give the oval face a noticeable elegance and grace. The ears, of excellent shape, but the upper extremity of which always protrudes beyond the line of the eye, an essential characteristic of any figure in true Egyptian style, are pierced as if to hang some precious ornament thereon. Ramses the Great is beardless … A rich necklace, with six divisions ending in a row of dangling pearls, covers the Pharaoh’s chest:
The artist represented him dressed in a loose and long tunic with wide sleeves, striped and pleated, and all the openings, as well as the bottom, are embroidered and adorned with fringes, and this is undoubtedly this famous Egyptian tunic known as ‘calasiris’. The right sleeve, raised above the elbow, gives passage to the arm which, folded against the chest, supports this sceptre in the form of a hook, as often placed in the hand of kings as in that of certain deities; the left arm, extended along the side and resting on the thigh, is covered almost entirely by the sleeve of the tunic, the fringes of which descend to the wrist; the closed hand holds a cylindrical body, quite like a roll of papyrus depressed by the effort of the fingers which grip it. The shoes imitating as sandals, down to the smallest details, in palm leaves, and finely woven, which we still find in the hypogeums, are attached to the feet of the statue that are moreover of a very beautiful shape. And in a fair proportion. The execution of the hands leaves nothing to be desired in these same respects. I will also point out that the artist, as if to express that the Pharaoh’s feet rest on a mat, has traced below and in a single line, on the surface of the footstool of the throne, long leaves of plants similar to those of certain reeds.
Statue of Ramses II: on the right is a representation of Amonherkhepshef, one of his sons, and, on the left, a representation of his wife Nefertari “the beloved of the Theban goddess Mut”
Finally, to the right and left of the legs of the statue, are two full-relief figures leaning against the front of the throne and carved in its mass: one represents a queen adorned with the insignia of Athyr, and the other a young man costumed as the god Horus and wearing the emblem of Victory; two columns of hieroglyphics, engraved near this last statuette, teach us that the colossus was dedicated by the son of the king whom he loves… The legend which accompanies the statuette of woman consists only of these words: His royal and powerful wife who loves him; it undoubtedly relates to the queen, wife of Ramses and mother of Amonh…. (This proper name ends with two characters whose sound is still unknown to me, he specifies in a note): these two figures, one foot high, and wearing small sandals like the colossus, are of a very fine and very careful work.
The cartridges of Ramses II appear in particular
on his right and left forearms and on his belt – photo Marie Grillot
The proper name Ramses, engraved on the belt of the great statue, the particular first name of Ramses VI or the Great, and his proper name, carved, one on the right forearm, the other on the front- left arm, would prove sufficiently that this beautiful statue represents the least ancient, but the most famous of the Egyptian conquerors, all the same, a long inscription, starting from the clip of the belt and going down to the bottom of the tunic, would not tell us that this is indeed the image of the living and beneficent God, the Representative of Ammon, of Mars and the Sun in the high region, the king Re-Saté approved by Phré, the Director and the Guardian of Egypt: The Child of the Gods, The Son of the Sun, The Darling of Ammon: Ramses, The Eternal Awakener. “
Could Ramses II hope for a more wonderful description of his statue, studied, looked at, and interpreted with the greatest and most respectful attention?
As for Jean-François Champollion, it is certainly in order not to leave him totally and definitively that he will return to Paris with a: “good plaster of the entire bust of this statue” …
In fact, I do not adhere to the belief that the lost ones should be remembered once a year. As you might have noticed, I have mostly mentioned my brother’s name in my articles. But every year on this very day, I miss his closeness, his advice. Therefore, let me calm my heart and drop some words.
What is dead, broken, or achieving the ideal?
Sorry, I’d like to take help often from the Master of the psyche, Dr Jung:
It must be true. As we begin the second half of our life, and we carry the experiences from the last into the new, we can take a little time and think of the end or a new beginning.
As I remember, since I was eighteen and after our mother died, I thought that I couldn’t be sadder than that. My eyes were dried by shedding so many tears. But I was wrong!
Yes! I want to write another tribute to my beloved brother, Al. It is my fourteenth tribute, though I have such a feeling as it is still the first one. It was 2006 when the killer tumour appeared in his genius brain, (he had got an epileptic attack), and then we’d been driven to the hospital with the ambulance. They wanted to keep him for a night to make an EEG test, and I walked all the way back home. It was Mars the fifth, and was heavily snowing. That’s why when I arrived home, I just looked like a snowman, and I haven’t even noticed it.
It had been a back and forth till he got surgery (I don’t want to get into the details.) After he came back home, he was very fit and happy and told me that he wanted to win cancer, as Lance Armstrong did, who had got cancer but won over it with doing sport with biking and winning many tournaments, amongst Tour de France, though with a little help from doping! Al’s dopping was only smoking!
He was the coolest one after brain surgery. 💖
Anyway, Al had put an aim with an exercise bike, which we’d bought, and he began to practice. Every day, when I came home from work, (How I’d wish that I had the chance to have the possibility to leave the job and had more time with him, my beloved one.) I saw him biking and listening to the Beatles. We loved them since our childhood and had all the LPs from them. Once, he told me that he had discovered something as he listened to the Beatles: they had made so many songs that none is similar to the other, how fascinating! He said, and he was right.
We didn’t like Iranian music, except some rare traditional ones. From an early age, with the help of our older brother Soroosh, we got to know western culture and music and fell in love with it. Yes, we were Aliens in Iran and remained Aliens in Germany! It lasted only one year, and this very year was a good year. He was happy, therefore I was, and he was trying to back to his work: writing. But the killer tumour came back to finished its job. That’s another sad story, might be told later.
At Al’s funeral, I have chosen some songs (an unusual dead ceremony!) which Al loved most. Like Leonard Cohen once sang: We are ugly, but we have the music.
…And clenching your fist for the ones like us Who are oppressed by the figures of beauty You fixed yourself, you said: Well, never mind We are ugly but we have the music…
And, I’ve had added a song from our most loving duet: Simon & Garfunkel. This describes his worldview (Weltanschauung), which shows with no doubt, A Most Peculiar Man .
The last one, I thought it must make fun, as he always marked: Happiness is all! I have just thought of Dean Martin‘s Sway, and that’s it!
Have you ever thought of sway into another world? Anyway, I thought that it is a wonderful idea to dance so far until to change the level! As Al always did believe in: Be happy and thanks for the music which has been given to us. Love and Light, as an adorable forever friend always said. 🙏🙏💖🤗
lampmagician 
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