Week 6 Reading: Anicent Egypt Part B

Sheet from the Tale of Two Brothers, Papyrus D'Orbiney, British Museum

 

Anpu (Anubis) - Brother of Bata. Kills his wife after she lied about Bata trying to seduce her.

"Before the Greeks arrived in Egypt, around the 7th century BC, the god was known as Anpu or Inpu. The root of the name in ancient Egyptian language means "a royal child." Inpu has a root to "inp," which means "to decay."" - wiki

 

Bata - Brother of Anpu. Anpu's wife tries to seduce him, then lies about it. He appeals to his brother, and tells him the truth. After he is resurrected, he confronts his wife as a bull, then as a tree. As he's being cut down, a splinter falls into his wife's mouth, impregnating her. He's reborn as their son, and takes the throne along with Anpu.

"Until the middle of the Eighteenth Dynasty Bata was represented as a ram and later as a bull. Bata is probably identical with the death god Bt of the Egyptian Old Kingdom, known from the Saqqara necropolis, for instance from the Mastaba of Ti. Bata is not mentioned in the Pyramid Texts and Coffin Texts." - wiki

Ennead - "Nine deities in Egyptian mythology worshiped at Heliopolis: the sun god Atum; his children Shu and Tefnut; their children Geb and Nut; and their children Osiris, Isis, Seth, and Nephthys." - wiki

Creates a wife for Bata

Bata's Wife - Divinely created, and sought after by the Pharaoh. After Bata's resurrection, she attempts to thwart him by eating his liver in his bull form, then cutting him down in his tree form. As the tree is cut down, a splinter falls into her mouth and impregnates her.