- Seshat
In
Egyptian mythology , Seshat (also spelled Safkhet, Sesat, Seshet, Sesheta, and Seshata) was theAncient Egyptian goddess ofwisdom ,knowledge , andwriting . She was seen as ascribe and record keeper, and her name means "she who scrivens" (i.e. "she who is the scribe"), and is credited with inventing writing. She also became identified as the goddess ofarchitecture ,astronomy ,astrology ,building ,mathematics , andsurveying . These are all professions that relied upon expertise in her skills. She is identified as Safekh-Aubi in some late texts. [http://books.google.com/books?id=ltJI5KhFTRUC&pg=PA783&lpg=PA783&dq=safkhet&source=web&ots=S4rnUdVejk&sig=cF27qkWoJq1jGjOY61W77-rPRa4]"Mistress of the House of Books" is another title for Seshat, being the deity whose priests oversaw the
library in which scrolls of the most important knowledge was assembled and spells were preserved. One prince of the fourth dynasty, Wep-em-nefret, is noted as the "Overseer of the Royal Scribes, Priest of Seshat" on a slab stela.Heliopolis was the location of her principal sanctuary. She is described as the goddess of history.In
art , she was depicted as a woman, with a stylisedpapyrus plant above her head. Thepapyrus symbolised writing because the ancient Egyptians wrote on a material derived from papyrus. The papyrus plant, hersymbol , was shown as having six spurs from the tip of the central stem, making it resemble a seven-pointedstar .Usually, she also is shown holding a palm stem, bearing
notch es to denote the recording of the passage oftime , especially for keeping track of the allotment of time for the life of the pharaoh. She also was depicted holding other tools and, often, holding the wound cords that were stretched to survey land and structures.She frequently is shown dressed in a
cheetah orleopard hide, a symbol of funerarypriest s. If not shown with the hide over a dress, the pattern of the dress is that of the spotted feline. The pattern on the natural hide was thought to represent thestar s, being a symbol ofeternity , and to be associated with the night sky.As the divine measurer and scribe, Seshat was believed to appear to assist the
pharaoh in both of these practices. It was she who recorded, by notching her palm, the time allotted to the pharaoh for his stay on earth. Seshat assisted the pharaoh in the "stretching the cord" ritual. This ritual is related to laying out the foundations of temples and other important structures in order to determine and assure the sacred alignments and the precision of the dimensions. Her skills were necessary for surveying the land after the annual floods to reestablish boundary lines. The priestess who officiated at these functions in her name also oversaw the staff of others who performed similar duties and were trained in mathematics and the related store of knowledge. Much of this knowledge was considered quite sacred and not shared beyond the ranks of the highest professionals such as architects and certain scribes. She also was responsible for recording the speeches the pharaoh made during the crowning ceremony and approving the inventory of foreign captives and goods gained in military campaigns. During theNew Kingdom , she was involved in theSed festival held by the pharaohs who could celebrate thirty years of reign.Later, when the cult of the moon deity,
Thoth , became prominent and he became identified as a god of wisdom, the role of Seshat changed in theEgyptian pantheon when counterparts were created for most older deities. The lower ranks of herpriestess es were displaced by the priests of Thoth. First, she was identified as his daughter, and later as his wife. However, as late as the eighteenth dynasty, in a temple constructed during the reign ofHatshepsut , there is an image of the pharaoh directing Thoth to obtain answers to important questions from Seshat. [ [http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/seshat.htm Egypt: Seshat, Female Scribe, Goddess of Writing Measurement, A Feature Tour Egypt Story ] ] After the paring with Thoth the stylised papyrus of Seshat was shown surmounted by a crescentmoon , which, over time, degenerated into being shown as two horns arranged to form a crescent shape, but pointing downward (in an atypical fashion for Egyptian art). When the crescent moon symbol had degenerated into the horns, she sometimes was known as Safekh-Aubi, meaning "she who wears the two horns". In a few images the "horns" resemble two cobras, as depicted inhieroglyph s, but facing each other with heads touching.References
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