Amun-Ra Lord of the Sky (article)

An interesting article from the British Museum discusses New Kingdom (the time of Tutankamun and Hatshepsut and Ramsses the Great) inscriptions (graffiti) mentioning Amun-Ra, Lord of the Sky, found in an area in the Western Desert. They are found along the route from Kharga and Dakhla oases, a route that was in constant use since prehistory (over 6,000 years ago.)

The inscriptions are found at and near the "Seth Rock"; a rock that has a lot of graffiti depicting the "Seth animal" - a form of the deity Set/Seth/Sethos. Set's presence is not unexpected, since he was the Lord of the Desert and this is, frankly, a rocky and barren place. It's unusual, however, to find Amun-Ra mentioned here with only one title ("Lord of the Sky") rather than with his usual string of titles.

Our rock inscriptions display the natural wish to invoke a powerful deity, but it is much
less obvious why Amun-Ra should always be labelled exclusively as ‘lord of the sky’, without
his other common epithets, such as ‘king of the gods’ or ‘lord of the Two Lands’.32 Few
other texts name Amun-Re solely as ‘lord of the sky’...

The tl;dr conclusion is:

In sum, the invocations of ‘Amun-Ra, lord of the sky’ at Seth Rock and Amun Rock may
be best explained as a pragmatic choice by a group of New Kingdom travellers, who sought
divine protection in these desolate surroundings. They picked one of the period’s most
powerful deities, interweaving his profile with those of other deities of local significance, all
of whom were thought to watch over vulnerable desert travellers.

Research, details, and discussion at this British Museum PDF link

a reply to: Byrd

The concept of God/gods and who was the big boss borrowed terms . The God of the sky may have been similar in understanding to the one who rides the clouds . books.google.ca... rPs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj8oObqyIXPAhVCNiYKHYHmBoUQ6AEIPDAF#v=onepage&q=the%20one%20who%20rides%20the%20clouds&f=false

originally posted by: Byrd
Lord of the Sky

a reply to: Byrd

Anything about this got you thinking?

originally posted by: Logarock
a reply to: Byrd

Anything about this got you thinking?

Nothing in particular. I thought it was interesting. The material that I want to research is Middle Kingdom, not New Kingdom and from a different area of Egypt so it's not one of my primary studies. As the article says, though, it's an interesting anomaly - which makes it a bit of a mystery why they invoked Amun-Ra with that particular title and not the rest of them.

One of his titles is "Lord of the Silent." (""(Amun) who comes at the voice of the poor in distress, who gives breath to him who is wretched..You are Amun, the Lord of the silent, who comes at the voice of the poor; when I call to you in my distress You come and rescue me...Though the servant was disposed to do evil, the Lord is disposed to forgive. The Lord of Thebes spends not a whole day in anger; His wrath passes in a moment; none remains. His breath comes back to us in mercy..May your ka be kind; may you forgive; It shall not happen again.") That's from a New Kingdom stele.

As the authors said, it's hard to tell if this is the work of a few people who came through at a single time or a few people over many decades.

a reply to: Byrd

Here you go Byrd!



Always interesting.

originally posted by: randyvs
a reply to: Byrd

Here you go Byrd!

Always interesting.

(gets out the Fish of Thwapping and waves it at you) Now STOP that!

(heavens what a mess that film looks to be!)

a reply to: Byrd

Byrd, that film is so bad it's a must see of hilarity.

Also, thank you for another interesting Insight into the collective realm of Egypt.

Fascinating stuff, but I'm a novice to the entire field so I can't contribute anything else right now.

a reply to: GENERAL EYES

But Girard. lol

originally posted by: GENERAL EYES
a reply to: Byrd

Byrd, that film is so bad it's a must see of hilarity.

I suspect it would work better with a total rewrite. Some of the CGI in the clip were interesting, however.... but not enough to make me want to watch the whole thing.

a reply to: Byrd

Is Amun-Ra a daytime deity, as in blue Sky while the Sun is up?
If the Set character is the Desert, perhaps his protection is sufficient for the night.

Our rock inscriptions display the natural wish to invoke a powerful deity, but it is much less obvious why Amun-Ra should always be labelled exclusively as ‘lord of the sky’, without his other common epithets, such as ‘king of the gods’ or ‘lord of the Two Lands’.
- pg 50

Because they were traveling under the Sky. King of gods? Doesn't matter much if king or less, He's the guy who will be with them during the whole journey. 'Lord of the Two Lands'? Doesn't matter unless it's a military or diplomatic mission.
'Lord of the Sky', yes, that's what's important.

On a long journey, when your departure point is out of sight, destination not yet in sight, you become 'the person on this trip', your past and future fade away, as if you have always been traveling and always will be. Then, you see the goal, and remember where you came from, and why you were traveling.

Probably something like that.

a reply to: the2ofusr1

The God of the sky may have been similar in understanding to the one who rides the clouds .

The guy in the clouds would have relevance to people whose crops and livestock relied upon rainfall. The people who were centered around ever flowing rivers, not much, if at all.

a reply to: Byrd


Nice prayer.