After a nice picnic in the gardens outside of the Louvre, where we ate some odds and ends that we had found at Monoprix including peppers stuffed with tuna which we stuck in these croissants because we were trying to not get our hands greasy ...
and after Chris quickly jotting down a few ideas he got for the first chapter of his dissertation ...
we entered not just the Louvre ...
but the land of the gods, more than 2 thousand years ago!!!!!!!!
(A page from the book of the dead)
Ever wonder why the Egyptians first started to mummify the dead?
It all began when the god Osiris, god of the earth and agriculture, was killed by his brother Seth. Isis mummified her dead husband and with magical powers was able to bring him back to life for a short time - just long enough for her to get pregnant with her son Horus.
(Going clock-wise: Isis, Seth is standing on the platform, and then Osiris,
green from being god of fertility)
Isis took her son Horus to a mythological island so that she could hide him from his uncle, Seth. When Horus was old enough he then overtook Seth. So, while Horus became the god of the earth, his father Osiris, became the god of the dead. The Pharaoh's authority rested on the belief that he embodied Horus, as ruler over the land, and the hope of the people when they died, was that when they were mummified, they would embody Osiris.
(Horus)
Similar looking to Horus, was Osiris's great grandfather, Ra, the sun god. Each evening he would pass into the west and go through the 12 stages of the underworld on his bark (boat) before rising in the east. He also was a symbol for incarnation.
A few more pictures from our night ...
(the mummified fish, offerings given to the gods in their temples)
