Medea

Her name literally means ‘planner, schemer.’ (This becomes relevant later, trust us!)

In Greek mythology, Medea is the daughter of King Aeetes of Colchis (modern-day Georgia, the country). She was also the granddaughter of the sun god, Helios. She was a niece of Circe, an enchantress goddess. Her mom may have been Idyia. This divine lineage gave her “golden eyes” & a terrifying intellectual capacity. She was wicked smart.

In most stories, Medea is known as a sorceress, an accomplished pharmakis, a worker in pharmakeia (medicinal magic), & is often depicted as a high-priestess of the goddess Hecate.

To the Athenians, Colchis was the edge of the known world. Medea represented the “Eastern” woman: dangerous, knowledgeable in “pharmaka” (drugs/magic), & unbound by Greek social norms. Medea was a priestess of Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft, crossroads, & the underworld.

She first appears in Hesiod’s Theogony around 700 BC. But is best known from Euripides’ 431 BCE Medea & Apollonius of Rhodes’ 3rd century BC epic Argonautica.

In the myth of the Argonauts, she helps Jason in his search for the Golden Fleece. She was struck by Eros (often pictured as the interference of Hera & Aphrodite), Medea betrays her dad, & kills her brother, to help Jason. To ensure Jason’s (& the Argonauts) escape, she unalives her own brother, Apsyrtus, scattering his remains in the sea so her dad would have to slow down to collect the remains for burial.

This act marked her transition from a domestic princess to a woman who’s “burned her bridges” to the world of men. ONce Jason finishes his quest, she abandons her homeland of Colchis & flees westward with Jason. Medea then marries Jason. She & Jason have at least 2 sons together.

They live in Corinth. Jason abandons Medea to marry the daughter of King Creon of Corinth, named Creusa/Glauce. He did this for political gain, after 10 years of marriage to Medea. Medea is then exiled from Corinth by King Creon.

She was offered asylum in Athens by King Aegeus. This asylum is given after Medea offers the king to give him an heir by using her magic. In some stories, it’s Medea who’s King Aegeus’ baby mama. But Medea wasn’t happy at being rejected by Jason after he made a vow to Hera to love Medea, & be only hers, forever.

This is where Medea’s divine lineage comes into play. Her “Sophia” (wisdom/cleverness) turns deadly. Medea decides the only way to truly destroy/hurt Jason is to unalive their 2 sons & his new bride (who is unalived by a poisoned crown/robes/dress).

Medea weighs her “thymos” (passion/rage) against her “bouleumata” (plans), & the rage wins. She did this so Jason would be without heirs or a legacy for the rest of his life. She didn’t even let Jason hold the bodies of their 2 dead sons, so that he could properly grieve.

Medea wasn’t punished for her actions. Her grandpa, the sun god Helios, sent a chariot pulled by dragons to rescue her. She escaped Athens, carrying the bodies of her children, leaving Jason a broken man.

Or according to Herodotus (in his Histories) mentions that she ended up leaving Athens & settling among the Aryans, who ended up changing their name to the Medes.

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Ma’at

She comprised the ancient Egyptian concepts of truth, balance, order, harmony, law, morality, & justice. Ma’at was also the goddess who personified these concepts, & regulated the stars, seasons, & the actions of mortals & the deities who had brought order from chaos at the moment of creation. Her ideological opposite is Isfet (Egyptian: jzft), meaning injustice, chaos, violence, or to do evil.

The earliest surviving records indicating that Ma’at is the norm for nature & society in this world & the next, were recorded during the Old Kingdom of Egypt. The earliest significant surviving examples being found in the Pyramid Texts of Unas (circa 2375 BCE-2345 BCE).

Most Egyptian goddesses were paired with a male counterpart. Her masculine equivalent was Thoth. This is because their traits are similar. In other accounts, Thoth was paired off with Seshat, the goddess of writing & measure, who’s a lesser-known deity.

After her role in creation & continuously preventing the universe from returning from & returning to chaos, her primary role in ancient Egyptian religion dealt with the Weighing of the Heart that took place in the Duat.

Her feather was the measure that determined whether the souls (considered to reside in the heart) of the departed would reach the paradise other afterlife successfully. In other versions, Ma’at was the feather as the personifications of truth, justice, & harmony.

Pharaohs are often shown with the emblems of Ma’at to emphasize their roles in upholding the laws & righteousness. From the 18th Dynasty (circa 1550-1295 BC), Ma’at was shown as the daughter of Ra, suggesting that Pharaohs were believed to rule through her authority.

As the goddess of harmony, justice, & truth, Ma’at was shown as a young woman. She’s sometimes shown with wings on each arm or as a woman with an ostrich feather on her head.

The sun-god Ra came from the primaeval mound of creation only after he set his daughter Ma’at in place of isfet (chaos). Kings inherited the duty to ensure Ma’at remained in place. They with Ra are said to “live on Ma’at,” with Akhenaten in particular emphasizing the concept to a degree that the king’s contemporaries are seen as intolerance & fanaticism. Some kings combined Ma’at into their names, being referred to as Lords of Ma’at or Meri-Ma’at (Beloved of Ma’at). Ma’at had a central role in the ceremony of the Weighing of the Heart.

Ma’at represented the ethical & moral principle that all Egyptian citizens were expected to follow throughout their daily lives. They were to act with honor & truth in matters that involve family, the community, the nation, the environment, & the gods.

Ma’at was the spirit in which justice was applied rather than the detailed legalistic account of rules. She represented the normal & basic values that formed the setting for the application of justice that had to be carried out in the spirit & fairness.

From the 5th Dynasty (circa 2510-2370 BC) onward, the vizier (Jafar’s job in Disney’s Aladdin, the 1st one.) was responsible for justice and was called the Priest of Ma’at. In later periods, judges wore images of Ma’at.

The goddess Ma’at was the daughter of the Egyptian sun-god Ra. She was/is the wife of Thoth, who’s the god of wisdom who invented writing. She’s associated with the judgment of the dead & whether a person has done what’s right in their life. To do Ma’at was to act in a manner unreproachable or innocent.

So revered was the concept of Ma’at that Egyptian kings would often pay tribute to gods, offering small statues of Ma’at. This indicated that they were successfully upholding the universal order.

The earliest evidence for a dedicated temple is in the New Kingdom (circa 1569-1081 BC) era. Amenhotep III commissioned a temple in the Karnek complex. While textual evidence indicates that other temples of Ma’at were located in Memphis & at Deir el-Medina. The Ma’at temple at Karnak was also used by courts to meet regarding the robberies of the royal tombs during the rule of Ramesses IX.

In the Duat, the Egyptian underworld, the hearts of the dead were said to be weighed against Ma’at’s single “Feather of Ma’at.” This symbolically represented the concept of Ma’at in the Hall of 2 Truths.

This is why hearts were left in the Egyptian mummies while other organs were removed, as the heart (called “ib”) was seen as part of the Egyptian soul. If the heart was found to be lighter or equal to the feather of Ma’at, the deceased had led a virtuous life & would go to Aaru. A heart that’s unworthy was devoured by the goddess Ammit & its owner condemned to remain to the Duat.

The Weighing of the Heart, as usually shown on papyrus in the Book of the Dead (or in tomb scenes) shows Anubis overseeing the weighing & Ammit seated awaiting the results to eat those who failed. The image contains a balancing scale with an upright heart standing on 1 side & the Shu-feather standing on the other.

Other traditions God that Anubis brought the soul before the posthumous Osiris who performed weighing while the heart was weighed the deceased recited the 42 Negative Confessions as the Assessors of Ma’at looked on.

The Assessors of Ma’at are the 42 deities listed in the Papyrus of Nebseni, to whom the deceased make the Negative Confession in the Papyrus of Ani. They represent the 42 united nomes of Egypt. They’re called “the hidden Ma’ati gods, who feed upon Ma’at during the years of their lives.”

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#1081BC #1550BC #1569BC #18thDynasty #2345BCE #2370BC #2375BCE #2510BC #42NegativeConfessions #5thDynasty #Akhenaten #Aladdin #AmenhotepIII #Ammit #Anubis #AssessorsOfMaAt #BelovedOfMaAt #BookOfTheDead #Chaos #DeirElMedina #Disney #Duat #Egypt #EgyptianBookOfTheDead #Feather #FeatherOfMaAt #Goddess #HallOfTwoTruths #Ib #Isfet #Jzft #Karnek #LordsOfMaAt #MaAt #Memphis #MeriMaAt #Mummies #NewKingdom #OldKingdomOfEgypt #Osiris #OstrichFeather #PapyrusOfAni #PapyrusOfNebseni #Pharaoh #PriestOfMaAt #PyramidTextsOfUnas #Ra #RamesesIX #Seshat #ShuFeather #SunGod #Thoth #Vizier #WeighingOfTheHeart

Музыка 🌾 Что символизирует золотой урожай в древней славянской культуре 🛡️

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd7-zhaihMM

#SlavicMythology #Dazhbog #FolkloreAnimation #DigitalArt #GamaunProject #AncientCulture #SunGod #WheatHarvest #LoopingVideo #EtherealBeauty #СлавянскаяМифология #Даждьбог #Фольклор #Анимация #ЦифровоеИскусство #ДревняяКультура #СолнечныйБог #УрожайПшеницы #ВідеоПетля #Слов'янськаМіфологія #Легенди #DigitalArtProject #SlavicFolklore

Today’s the 13th — Apollo’s monthly feast day.

Ancient Greeks made time for reverence. Music. Fire. Prophecy.

Ritual was their reset button.

Maybe we still need that.

#Brewminate #Apollo #SunGod #PaganTradition #AncientGreece ☀️🎶🔥

AO THROWBACK - The adoration of an ancient Sun God inspired the decision to celebrate Christmas on December 25th. https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-general/why-christmas-held-25th-december-001161

#AncientOrigins #History #Archaeology #HistoryMatters #HistoryFacts #HistoryLovers #Mythology #Ancient #Christmas #SunGod