Breaking the Chains
Page 9
In Egyptian tradition the chaos demon, and enemy of the sun-god, was Apopis; also called Apepi or Rerek. From the end of the New Kingdom (about 1075 BC) this evil serpent began to be identified with Seth and the Greek Typhon. The image of Seth as an escort to the sun-god and slayer of Apopis was promoted by the Ramesside pharaohs (1292 -1075). Pharaoh had five names. The first was Horus. Horus was a sun-god with a falcon form. Seth and Horus have been everlasting adversaries from the 1st dynasty (2775 - 2525 BC). Ancient Egyptians did not agree about Seth’s form. He was often depicted as an animal pastiche: forked or tufted tail, canine body, long snout, slanting eyes, and square-tipped ears. Typhon, on the other hand, supposedly had a hundred dragon heads. His mate was half-maiden and half-serpent. Her name, Echidna, means snake. Typhon and Echidna had a number of offspring, including the dragon who protected the Golden Fleece, and the dragon who protected the Golden Apples.
According to Greek mythology Typhon is the youngest son of Gaea and Tartarus. He attempted to overthrow the gods but was defeated by Zeus. The Greek poet Hesiod represents Tartarus as one of the first four divine entities to come into existence; the other three being Eros, Gaea, and Chaos. It was at the instigation of Gaea that Cronus and the other Titans rebelled against Uranus. Zeus, in his turn, began a rebellion against Cronus. After ten years of fighting, Zeus imprisoned the Titans who opposed him beneath Tartarus. Zeus and the Olympians also engaged in a struggle with the Gigantes, who were represented as half-human and half-serpent. The Titans and the Gigantes were children of Gaea. Like Tiamat she was the mother of many dragons. Typhon threatened the supreme divinity in Greece. Apopis threatened the supreme divinity in Egypt. Both can be described as a dragon or serpent.
Mesopotamian lore presents the dragon as a matriarch overthrown by revolution. Indo-European mythologies depict the dragon as a figure that had to be overcome by a weather god, as a revolutionary that threatened the supreme divinity, and as a usurper of the first ruler. Hindu sources would tolerate the suggestion that the dragon was important in Harappan civilisation. Certain forms of Yoga promote a female serpent power as instrumental in achieving union with the divine. Chinese legend advises that a dragon with a human face has replaced the sun, that the Celestial Dragon guards the heavenly dwellings of the gods, and that dragons helped to make the world acceptable for human habitation. In Egyptian tradition a dragon threatens the sun-god, a serpent goddess protected Lower Egypt before the unification and helped Isis protect Horus from Seth. From the end of the New Kingdom Seth was identified with Apopis and Typhon. The antipathy between Horus and Seth echoes the enmity Garuda entertains for nagas.
The unification of Egypt was accomplished by Nekhen kings. The king of Nekhen was presumed to be a manifestation of the falcon god Horus. A solar god whose eyes were the sun and the moon, Horus had many names: Horus in the Horizon, Horus the Child, Horus the Elder, Horus the son of Isis. Isis occurred in many guises. Her principal guise was as a sorceress whose power surpassed that of the other gods. Her name is the Greek form of an ancient term that is probably akin to the word throne. She is shown with a throne symbol on her head. The early development of the cult of Isis is obscure. Some traditions contain material indicative of conflict between Re and Isis.
One legend tells how Isis used her occult power to cause Re to become sick and disclose his true name. After the disclosure Isis exercised her power to make Re well again. In order to effect the extortion Isis crafted an invisible serpent from a secretion that trickled from the ancient creator god. The bite of the invisible serpent induced in Re sweating, shaking, vomiting, diarrhoea, and other symptoms. Despite her identification with the star Sirius, Isis had a serpent form, and her apparent sway over Buto, the cobra goddess of Lower Egypt, coupled with her ability to craft invisible serpents would probably permit a closer association of Isis and serpent.
Isis was a sorceress associable with the serpent or dragon. She was probably able to exploit a knowledge of poison to dupe Re. As the proliferation of religions is ordinarily due to human activity, it is possible the story concerning the appropriation of Re’s power contains information about real people and events. Doubtless it is legitimate to conjecture plants to have been a major source of poison, and membership of an agricultural society the optimal placement from which to acquire a knowledge of plants. Crop cultivation arrived in Egypt after 5000 BC and travelled south. The techniques may have spread from the Near East as some of the food plants grown were native to that region. An exploration of the same region for a plant producing a poison that could be employed to achieve political supremacy accordant with the modus operandi of Isis appears justifiable.
Serpent or dragon mythi mention an apple believed to bestow immortality and a tree whose fruit can transform the consumer into a godlike entity. Greek mythology records that Gaea, the first divine matriarch, gave a golden apple producing tree to the titan Hera as a wedding present. It was this tree that the dragon Ladon was sentinelling in the garden of the Hesperides. Aphrodite gave three golden apples to Hippomenes before his race with Atalanta. The goddess Eris sent the wedding guests of Thetis a golden apple inscribed ‘For the most beautiful’. It was instrumental in starting the Trojan War. Heracles had to obtain golden apples from the garden of the Hesperides. Norse mythology relates that the goddess Idun was the keeper of the apples of immortality. When the apples were seized by the giant Thiassi, the gods began to age rapidly. The golden apple or apple of immortality is probably synonymous with the pomegranate in the story of the abduction of Persephone. In the Adam and Eve story the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil is equivalent to the food of death.