Egypt (4)

Trying to explore the Egyptian pantheon of gods proved to be
nearly an impossible task. Some of these gods must have arisen
thousands of years ago, probably first as forces of nature. The
Egyptians lived--and still live--close to the land; thus, perhaps,
this may be why some of the painting and statues of their gods
display animal characteristics attached to a human body. I
certainly could not be judgemental, in that early Greek myths
of our own Greco-Roman culture mixed up the human with
animal motifs. For us there's gods with wings, like Nike. There's
the satyr, a god that had human characteristics transposed on
horses and goats.

Eventually I was to discover a more sophisticated grouping of
Egyptian gods. There's Maat, a godddess who represented the
underlying order of the universe--somewhat aligned with Greek
philosophy's idea of the Logos, which also represents the
underlying Reason and Order of the universe. Than there's
Re/Ra, mixed with Amon, which is a sun-god--the supreme god
of-- the Egyptians. Further along, there's the son of Ra, Osiris,
who was to be the Lord of Egyptian gods. But his brother Set
killed him, and Osiris was doomed to live in the Land of the Dead.

Legend has it that Isis--a goddess of fertility--had been the wife
of Osiris. Though dead, Osiris' penis was re-fashioned by Isis;
and consequently she gave birth to a son named Horus, who
became protector of the pharaohs.

The religious cult of Isis, which I was given to understand, was
literally one of the oldest in Egypt. This fact was interesting, in
that her cult had spread to Asia Minor, Greece and Rome. As
her cult spread, Isis came to represent the symbolic journey of
death and resurrection. One could oft discover statues of her
as a mother holding her child, Horus.

Believe me, it took almost two years of listening, trying to
understand, observing, that has allowed me to make this small
synopsis of Egyptian gods. Trying to figure the entire pantheon
of the gods of Egypt would take far more than just one lifetime.
And I was to discover that soon I would be spending my life in
yet another place. My four years in Egypt were coming to an end.

Sadly, just before I was to leave Egypt, we Praetorians learned
that our Emperor Trajan had died on his way back to Rome--
following his Parthian campaign. It was said that he may have
died of a stroke. I felt a twinge of nostalgia, remembering that
day when I made the sacred oath of allegiance directly to him.
He was a great emperor! Now we had a successor, our Emperor
Hadrian who was a distant cousin to Trajan. Being so far away
we naturally did not know much about Hadrian, other than that
he had served honorably in the legions.

An assignment for a Speculator opened in the Province of
Asia Minor. Rather than returning to Rome, I decided to go
straight forth to Ephesus where I would embark on similar
duties--only in a totally new territory.

At least I will have left the camels behind.