Egyptian

//(http://www.ancient-egypt-online.com/ancient-egypt-map.html)//

Here is an ancient Egypt map, showing the major cities of the Dynastic period (3150 BC to 30 BC)

[|Ancient Egyptian Map]Here is a link that you can see more clearer into different areas of ancient Egypt. The place where the Creation myth of Heliopolis took place, can be found on the top area in the map. Heliopolis belongs to Lower Egypt, along the shores of the Nile Delta (where the Nile River divides itself into different "roots"). __**The Story:**__ (you can follow the pictures by scrolling down while you're listening to the story)


 * If you can't play the recording, you can read the story below as a document:**



media type="file" key="Ben.mp3" width="240" height="20"

0rigial Picture: Väsk. "373-374 (Nordisk Familjebok / Uggleupplagan. 2. Armatoler - Bergsund)." //Project Runeberg//. 12 Nov. 2005. Web. 13 Dec. 2010. . Dimensions: 394×861 (27 KB)

0rigial Picture: Väsk. "373-374 (Nordisk Familjebok / Uggleupplagan. 2. Armatoler - Bergsund)." //Project Runeberg//. 12 Nov. 2005. Web. 13 Dec. 2010. . Dimensions: 394×861 (27 KB)

Daniel, Moshe. //And the Alchemy of the Elixir of Life in the Form of a Spherical Cell//. 2 June 2009. Web. 3 Dec. 2010. .

Bekibunny. "Nut and Geb Card." //Zazzle | Custom T-Shirts, Personalized Gifts, Posters, Art, and More//. 1 Nov. 2010. Web. 13 Dec. 2010. . Weasely, Monica. "Osiris Image on Photobucket." //Image Hosting, Free Photo Sharing & Video Sharing at Photobucket//. Web. 13 Dec. 2010. .

__**What is a motif?**__ A motif is a recurring theme that applies to creation myths. Depending on the region and creation myth, one of the following motifs will extracted. 1. Land emerging out of the ocean 2. Separation/ division 3. Fractionation of things from primordial chaos = meaning order established out of chaos 4. Creation ex nihilo- creation out of nothing


 * __Motif Paragraph- the Creation myth of Heliopolis__**

The principle underlying in the creation myth of Heliopolis is that order is established out of chaos. The chaos in the myth was a state of lifeless wateriness, personified with a name, Nun. Later on, the creator god Atum arose from this watery chaos, and brought order to the world by giving birth to other gods. The idea of life arising out of lifeless water reflects the annual flooding of the Nile and how it is an essential natural event that nurtured the Egyptian Culture. The chaos Nun is symbolizing the disastrous flood of the Nile, but after the disastrous flood, the Egyptian land can gain moisture and therefore farming became possible for a country surrounded by desert. The Egyptian myth was written this way because it was the existence of the Nile that allows the Egyptians to develop agriculture that feeds the people. Therefore it is reasonable to consider that this myth is portraying that the essential need of human is established out of the Nile, which is the motif of order is established out of chaos.

__**What other purposes do creation myths serve other than explaining how the world came to be?**__

Are creation myths only there for the purpose of explaining how the world came to be? Not necessarily. They can serve other purposes in a culture. In the Egyptian creation myth of Heliopolis, it explained how the Egyptian world came to be. However, that’s not the only thing that was given in the myth. Within the creation myth of Heliopolis, the other aspects that were absorbed by the Egyptian culture were the model of marriage and the model for authority.

The principle of Egyptian Marriage was to ensure the purity in family blood. This is because that the children of Atum, Tefnut and Shu, formed a brother-sister union and gave birth to Geb and Nut. Geb and Nut followed their parents’ model and gave birth to Osiris, Isis, Seth and Nephthys. The four children form two pairs of brother-sister union too. These deities were powerful, and gained their power from their close-relatively married parents. Therefore to the Egyptians, marrying close-relatives was necessary for maintaining the purity of family blood, which the Egyptians believed as where power originated. This is especially essential within royal families, since they had the most powerful aspect of all Egyptians, the power of ruling (Gahlin, 57). In order to maintain this power, it is necessary for the pharaoh to marry close-relatives to ensure that the family is pure in blood, also to prevent the common people from getting the power of ruling.

The creation myth of Heliopolis also provided the idea of one above all in Egyptian hierarchy. In the myth, the creator god, Atum, arose from the watery chaos, Nun, and from his breathe, he created the other deities. Atum in this scene was associated much with Kingship, portraying that only one can be the all-mighty figure to bring order to the world (Gahlin, 32). This is how the Egyptian government became like a pyramid; the pharaoh was located at the top, having absolute power over all the people in the society (Egyptian Myths, "The Ennead of Heliopolis").

Myths provide directions to how people of the region should behave, such as the Egyptian following the close-relatives marriage model. Therefore, creation myths can serve not only as an explanation of how the world came to be, but also as models to the people in how to behave or act in a society.

__**Annotations of my 2 best and favorite sources:**__ Gahlin, Lucia. The Myths and Mythology of Ancient Egypt: a Comprehensive Guide to the Mysteries of Creation, Life and Death. London: Southwater, 2003. Print.

This book by Lucia Gahlin was a wonderful guide for me. The main idea I've absorbed from the book is that all Egyptain creation myths were built upon the motif of "order estalished out of chaos".

This is a very reliable source, because Gahlin was a teacher of Egyptology for the Universities of Bristol and Exeter and also an Honorary Research Associate of UCL's Institute of Archaeology. Her highly granted profession in these areas were the best support to believe that these information will certainly be reliable.

This is a great source because it contains a lot of information, and many were very critical to my topic. For every single myth, Gahlin always include a further understanding page to make deeper analysations of the myth. Therefore it is because of her effort and profession, I was able to identify the marriage model that is hidden within the creation myth of Heliopolis, and it became one of my examples in stating that creation myths can have other purposes other than explaining how the world came to be.

"The Ennead of Heliopolis." Ancient Egypt: the Mythology and Egyptian Myths. Egyptian Myths, 27 Aug. 2010. Web. 5 Dec. 2010. . This is another good website created by a study groupd that they simply called themselves"Egyptian Myths". This website has the information of all deities in Egyptian mythology, and provides detailed information to the symbolism of each diety.

This is a reliable source because firstly it does obtain a copy right sign at the bottom of all its works.It is also up to date, and it also provides contact information to the author, even though he/she name was not found on the site.

This is a wonderful source that helped me in understanding the symbolic aspects of all the deities in the myth of Heliopolis. It especially tells how Atum is dedicated to Kingship and how he became influential to the Ancient Egyptian Society. Because of his creational power, Atum was symbolic as a ruler over every created object.

__**Bibliography Document:**__