Hi all! Please excuse the rather academic sounding title of this post, and perhaps its seemingly disturbing subject matter. It’s not my intent to be macabre or grim, but rather just a chance to write about some of the research rabbit holes I’ve fallen down and ‘show my work’ while reading the works of others, or attempting to write my own fiction. If you’ve read my Food in Ancient Egypt post, this is something along the same lines.
It may later relate to an ARC I’m hoping to review on the blog Tuesday, it may turn out to be nothing (aka I didn’t finish reading the book on time).
Anyway, here’s some notes on Death as personified in history and fiction. Enjoy!
Summary
The personification of death is a common trope in fiction, history and mythology. Mostly, death is personified as a god or goddess, or at the very least, a shadowy figure meant to inspire fear.
The Notes . . .
The Grim Reaper
Usually a skeletal figure, shrouded in a dark, hooded robe and carrying a scythe to “reap” human souls.
The Grim Reaper seems to have appeared in Europe during the 14th century, when the continent was dealing with the Black Death believed to be the result of the plague. Nearly a third of Europe’s entire population perished as a result of this pandemic.
While the symbolism of the skeleton is obvious enough (a dead and decayed human body) the dark robes are not as obvious. It’s believed that they are reminiscent of the robes of religious figures of the time conducting funerary services. The scythe was probably a very prevalent image for farmers of the time, using this tool to harvest crops. As such, The Grim Reaper becomes a harvester of souls.
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
In The Bible, Death is personified as one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the others being Pestilence, War, and Famine. Each of the horsemen ride a different color horse (White/Pestilence, Red/War; Black/Famine) with Death coming last on a “Pale” horse. It is believed that this coloring is meant to represent the paleness of a corpse, and is sometimes depicted as green or greenish yellow as the original Greek is ‘khloros’ (like chlorophyll or chlorine).
While the other horsemen carry objects, Death is accompanied only by ‘Hades’. Though Hades is often personified as a greek god, it seems that in this instance, the name is meant to represent the underworld which the dead will go to. Death is the only one of the horsemen explicitly given a name: Thanatos.
More modern depictions of Death as the final horsemen often add the imagery of the Grim Reaper with death as a black-robed skeleton, wielding a scythe.
Gods of Death
In Ancient Egypt
The Ancient Egyptian god of the underworld was Osiris, and as a human mummy, he is probably the best candidate for a personification of death within the Ancient Egyptian pantheon. However, his roll in their mythology was primarily that of a judge, and it is not obvious that he ever left the Duat.
Perhaps more similar to Christian personifications of death, is the Ancient Egyptian god Anubis who is responsible for overseeing funerary rites, protecting graves, and guiding souls through the Duat.
Since Anubis is generally represented as a jackal, or a jackal headed man, it is uncertain whether this counts as “personification”, but it is certainly similar.
Death was personified by a woman whose name is slightly different depending on the language, but generally known as Morana (Marena in Russian, Marzanna in Polish etc).
Specifically, she was associated with the death of winter, rebirth and dreams.
Potential Reading List For This Trope
Obviously, this list is not exhaustive, but these are the titles which are on my radar recently. You’ll notice quite a few humorous offerings on the list, which might just reflect what I’m interested in right now. I’ll add links to any reviews I do here as I go. Please leave me recommendations in the comments!
Nothing too much as of yet, but I’m definitely fascinated by these personifications, and hope to research them more and add to this post as I learn. Are there any cultures I should look at right away? Any books I missed on the reading list?
It’s Wednesday morning, so that means it’s time for another review / theory discussion of Moon Knight!
Before we get into the meat of things however, I just wanted to point out that if you’re wanting to catch up with any of my previous episode reviews, you can just click the Moon Knight Unwrapped tag, and it should list them all as they’re posted.
Finally, if you’re like me, the coolest draw of this show is the ways in which it interacts with Egyptian history and myth. There’s all kinds of other books, movies and shows that do this as well, and so if you’re just into Ancient Egyptian stuff like me, please check out my Ancient Egypt tag (right now a lot Moon Knightstuff will be floating to the top, but I’m thinking of making it separate).
Ok, onto the review . . .
— Spoilers from here on —
Of course, another great episode. We learned so much, both about our characters, and about our setting. It was so great to be able to see a modern Cairo in this episode. I’ve been wanting to travel there for quite some time, and this just reinforces that desire.
I have a few favorite parts of the episode, but I think the most interesting part was certainly the ‘trial’ inside the Pyramid of Giza. Now, as Roxane Bicker explains in her post, „Moon Knight“ – Die altägyptischen Hintergründe erklärt, Teil 5 (god bless google translate), Khufu’s pyramid does not have such a massive room inside it. But given just how cool this scene is, and how amazing the room looks, I’m willing to more than overlook it because . . .
FINALLY we get to meet some other Ancient Egyptian Gods! We meet Hathor, Tefnut, Horus, Osiris, and Isis. That is exactly zero of the gods I hoped/predicted we’d see, but we’ve only met five of the possible nine that make up the Ennead so perhaps there is hope yet (none of the others I predicted are in the historical Ennead, but the show seems to be taking liberties with that as well).
I have hope, based on the statuary that we do find in the tomb, that we’ll meet Sobek, and Thoth at least, and possibly Sekhmet (because Hathor).
My next favorite scene was definitely when Mark and Layla go to visit Mogart. I had never heard of the El-Mermah games before so that was definitely an interesting glimpse into Arabian culture. I’m definitely interested in learning more about this when I get the chance. Also, makes for a pretty awesome and violent fight scene.
I think those were the main scenes that stood out to me. Obviously, Khonshu causing an eclipse and moving the night sky back 2,000 years were amazing bits of special effects, and possibly have huge implications for the show and MCU, but I still enjoyed some of these ‘less epic’ scenes a little more.
Anyway, that’s all I have for reviewing, let’s move on to the theories!
Theories . . .
Marc is already dead and journeying through the underworld?
One theory that I saw online, is that Marc is already dead, and that we are watching Marc’s journey through the Ancient Egyptian Underworld. I do kind of like this theory, as it makes a very good arc for the six episodes. Ammit (who is the big bad of the series), is a very prominent figure at the Weighing of the Heart, when an Ancient Egyptian’s soul was thought to be judged by the Court of Gods. It kind of has a certain sense to it.
However, that judgement is just one aspect of the Ancient Egyptian journey through the underworld, known as the Duat. A little research reveals the Duat to be a complete terrain, with lakes (of fire), mountains, fields etc. Also, the journey requires one to cross Twelve Underworld Gates guarded by Gate Deities. This seems like a task that would take more than six episodes (unless we’re flying through two gates an episode) and considering we’re only just starting to see all the players on the board, I don’t think this theory is gonna pan out.
Khonshu just took Earth back 2,000 years?
This theory was put forth in the New Rockstar’s Moon Knight Episode 3 Easter Egg Breakdown, and then expanded on in the How Khonshu Moved the Sky episode. This would effectively retcon the entire MCU AGAIN! For like the third or forth time in Phase 4 alone. Personally, it doesn’t seem to make much sense. Why would Marvel/Disney would want to do this as it invalidates like 23+ movies and shows? They want you to HAVE TO WATCH all of them to understand what’s happening next so retconning them doesn’t really make sense, even if they have written themselves into plot corners (which I haven’t really felt like they have).
But I also have another reason for thinking this theory is false. Upon second watching of the episode, I noticed that Steven is complaining about how painful turning time back is, and he encourages Layla to hurry up and take the pictures with her tablet because he isn’t sure how much longer he can hold it. This makes me think that yes, they turned back time to the night the star chart was made, but that it is kind of like winding up a spring, eventually it unwinds (when Khonshu gets turned into a tiny statue), and I believe they go back to the present, even though we are not shown the sky while this is happening (Steven is too busy fainting).
Just my theory
That’s all folks!
And that’s all I’ve got this time around. Thank you all for reading. I enjoyed this episode just as much as the last two, and I’m really looking forward to watching the 4th episode later tonight.
How did you enjoy the episode? What was your favorite part? Have any theories? Did Khonshu retcon the MCU? Is Marc already dead?
Leave your thoughts in the comments. I’m excited to talk about this one!
So, I’ve finally watched the trailer for the next addition to Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, Moon Knight, and let me tell you . . .
I’m . . . so . . . stoked!
Until now, I had only seen the teaser put out on Disney+ Day back in November (2021), and I’ll admit that I completely misunderstood what it was going to be, and given that a million other trailers that were released that day, I was not really all that enthusiastic for it. I was looking ahead to Hawke Eye, What If?Season 2, Loki Season 2, and maybe Marvel Zombies as I’d just watched What If? Season 1 and the zombies in that had seemed a bit of a wacky kind of thing, not a full series.
Anyway, I had never heard of Mark Spector, Steven Grant, Jake Lockely, or any of the various alter-egos the Moon Knight is purported to contain.
Now that there’s a full trailer, there is still a lot we don’t know, but I’m much, much, more excited about this show for primarily one reason:
It incorporates Ancient Egyptian mythology and iconography into its very premise.
I’ve been building up quite a fascination for Ancient Egypt, and all things related to it, so I’m excited to see what aspects of this ancient culture they will include, and what role in the story it will take.
If you haven’t yet watched the trailer, please watch the Moon Knight trailer now. Also, shout out to Erik Voss and his break down video which inspired me to do something similar but with a more Ancient Egyptian vein instead of comic books.
Below (and probably why you clicked this link) is the 9 things that I hope they’ll include in the series:
Khonsu
Not really a question of IF, but a question of HOW they will represent this Ancient Egyptian deity. One thing that I noticed straight away, was Khonshu’s — in the MCU it’s spelt with a second H in the mix — large beak and undead-mummy vibe. Khonsu (according to wikipedia) is often depicted as a human mummy with a child’s sidelock, but sometimes shown as a falcon akin to Horus.
His name means “Traveler”, and is usually given epithets of “Embracer”, “Pathfinder”, and “Defender”. Defender feels like a superhero term, but the character in the trailer does not seem to do much embracing. Like Horus, he is thought of as a protector (often from animals) and a healer.
Interestingly, the trailer seems to give us almost the opposite of this unless protection and healing involves a healthy dose of horror and beating things up in a bathroom. But the Moon Knight seems to have many natures, and we haven’t been given the full picture yet so perhaps we’ll see these more beneficent natures later on.
The Rest of the Ancient Egyptian Pantheon
Because why not? We actually have heard some references to other Ancient Egyptian deities in other MCU films such as The Black Panther (specifically Bast and Sekhmet). Also, The Eternals each had names of Greek gods, goddesses, and heroes (and some other ancient cultures though I didn’t catch any Ancient Egyptian ones), so perhaps something like that will come into play.
There is apparently some precedence for this in the comics with the Heliopitans which all have their own mythology separate from those we know from ancient history (aka IRL). Comicbook.com mentions Khonsu, Anubis, Osiris, and Ra as likely candidates. Here’s who I’m hoping to see:
Bastet (Bast) – An Ancient Egyptian cat goddess associated with pregnancy, childbirth, and fertility, but also a warrior. She is sometimes known as “eye of the moon” (fitting for this show). She’s already been mentioned and seems to be pretty much a total badass.
Sekhmet – Also a cat goddess, often said to be a another aspect of Bastet, only much more violent. Known as a warrior she is thought to be so ruthless, and brutal, that her name is invoked in medical texts to indicate disease. One myth I know of her is that she supposedly took such pleasure in the taste of blood, that she scourged Egypt and was so powerful that none of the other gods could do anything about it. Eventually, she was tricked into drinking beer by the god Ra, and only once she was good and wasted could they bring her to yield. Frightening but also hilarious.
Thoth – The Ancient Egyptian god of wisdom, writing, hieroglyphs, and the arts. He was the first moon deity I’d ever heard of. There’s a myth that Thoth became the moon by gambling. Doesn’t seem very wise, but apparently it worked out for him. There’s all sorts of legends of Thoth traveling to other worlds (or perhaps universes) to gain wisdom. I think this could fit nicely into Marvel’s multiverse and give Khonsu some competition as a god of the moon.
Sobek – A crocodile god, associated with both the dangers of, and protection from, the Nile. Of all the gods he’s represented as having the most animalistic qualities, militaristic, and viscous. But some scholars read his name as being derived from an Ancient Egyptian verb to unite. There’s several crocodiles in the Moon Knight trailer (one as a display in the museum and one on the phone screen), so it will be interesting to see how they represent this very dualistic figure.
Anubis – A jackal god responsible for leading souls to the afterlife. I’ll talk more about this later but he is very important to an Ancient Egyptian’s conception of divine order, justice, and judgement. Regardless of all that weighty importance, I think he’ll always be one of my favorites because who doesn’t love dogs? If only there were a whole city devoted to them . . .
Anyway, it seems likely this god will be of importance in Moon Knight considering we see this god, or perhaps a minion or aspect of him, in the trailer. We’ll see!
Honestly, everyone else too. There’s so many interesting gods and goddesses in the Ancient Egyptian pantheon, that this could probably be the whole post, but I’ll move on to the next thing.
Oneiromancy!
Don’t worry I had to google it as well. Apparently, oneiromancy is a form of divination upon dreams and also uses dreams to predict the future. The best way to receive divine revelation was through dreaming or “incubating” dreams. Ancient Egyptians had special sanctuaries in which they used “dream beds” in hope of receiving advice or comfort from the gods. Also, there are mentions of using drugs to induce the dreams and revelations.
Off the top of my head, I can’t really think of any other MCU characters or shows that have had any type of fortune telling (maybe Dr. Strange?), or predicting the future, but I think this could be a very likely aspect of Moon Knight. After all, one of the titular lines of this trailer is: “I can’t Tell the Difference Between Life and Dreams.”
Plus, seeing that strange set-up he has around his bed with the crazy ring of sand (side note: rings were used in Ancient Egyptian magic for protection), it wouldn’t be hard to think it a modern take of the “dream beds” mentioned above. If the Moon Knight can predict the future, he might not be able to change it. I could see that exacerbating, if not downright causing the madness we see him dealing with in the trailer.
Ma’at and Isfet (divine order vs chaos)
I think it’s pretty hard to get remotely deep or philosophical in relationship to Ancient Egypt without first understanding the concept of Ma’at (order), and it’s opposite Isfet (chaos). Obviously, this is much more complicated than I’m making it, but the main gloss is that for Ancient Egyptians, order was more than making sure all your laundry was folded, and your books where shelved according to author name instead of spine color. It was truth and divinity. It was a stable kingdom, dependable crops, and everyone in their rightful place.
Isfet was the opposite of this. Upheaval, famine, and staring at your bookshelf for hours looking for that one reference you need but never bothered to file correctly. It was Chaos (with a capital C). Akin to evil.
Interesting that one of the main lines that we hear during this trailer is “There is chaos in you . . . Embrace the chaos.”
A Soul With Many Parts
Unlike our western conception of the soul — a single immortal essence tethered to a body of mundane flesh and blood — Ancient Egyptians conceived of the soul as having multiple parts. While we might practice mindfulness, or cross-fit, or whatever else during life, it seemed more important to the Ancient Egyptians to take care of themselves after death. They thought of the soul in parts as:
Wouldn’t it be interesting if each of these parts of the soul were taken to the extreme and each represented by a different personality altogether. Considering the dark vibe we get from the Moon Knight trailer, it seems that perhaps the Shut or “shadow” might be of particular interest, but I hope that they also focus on the Ka (double) and Ba (personality) as these are common things we see referenced in ancient texts.
Book of the Dead
The Book of the Dead is probably one of the things that Ancient Egypt is most famous for. It’s a group of funerary texts (mostly prayers and spells and such) which would guide a soul from this life into the next. Eric Voss notices that there is a puzzle of the Book of the Dead in the giftshop where Steven Grant(?) — one of Moon Knight’s alters — works, and I hope that this is not just a throwaway, but that Moon Knight may have his own kind of journey into the underworld . . .
Weighing of the Heart, Anubis + Amitt, and the 42 Negative Confessions
So, for most Ancient Egyptians, the weighing of one’s heart is more or less the quintessential moment of eternity. You come up to the court of gods, with every sin, careless act, and good deed you’ve ever done sitting in your heart, and that heart is weighed against the feather of Ma’at (mentioned earlier). Osiris is the primary judge of this moment and Anubis is working the scales . . .
If your heart does not weigh the same as Ma’at’s feather . . .
You’re fed to the demon Amitt, a horrifying mix of crocodile, lion, and hippopotamus.
If it seems like a lot of pressure, it’s because it is! Ancient Egyptian souls would come before this council (I should mention that a TON of other gods are present at this moment but for the brevity of this already long article, and my general narrative purposes they were not included), and recite the 42 Negative Confessions, and if any are found to be false? Well the scales shift and Ammit’s jaws open wider.
These confessions are written as phrases like:
I have not uttered lies
I have not stolen
I have not attacked any man
I am not a man of violence
I have not commanded to kill
Given the gritty-type hero we’re presented with in the trailer, how many of these confessions could he actually utter in truth? I’m sensing a bit of a redemption arc in progress . . .
Significance of Ancient Egyptian Colors
White was a color of purity among the ancients of Egypt, sacred and simple. Most often the color of linen clothing, I imagine it was hard to keep any cloth or clothing the pure white that we can get with Tide and modern laundry machines. Of course this signals a kind of privilege to any who wore it openly.
I imagine that the Moon Knight’s white costume has less to do with privilege and more to do with being sacred, and apparently:
I wear it so they’ll see me coming. So they’ll know who it is. Cause when they see white it doesn’t matter how good a target I am their hands shake so bad they couldn’t hit the moon.
In any case, this coloring is significant in terms of ancient mythology so . . . I hope they use it.
It seems like they do have some knowledge of Ancient Egyptian color symbolism (maybe not Khonsu-ously) because they clothe the apparent villain of the series, Arthur Harrow, in red . . . the color of desher . . . or Chaos! I’m picking up what you’re putting down Marvel. I see you.
Egyptian Numerology: 2, 3, and 9
So, admittedly 2 does not seem to mean much on its own.
But think of the dual contexts it could have applied to Ancient Egypt. For example, the whole of Egypt was known as the Two Lands. The Pharaoh wore a dual crown of Upper, and Lower Egypt (also the symbols of upper and lower kingdoms were White and Red. Might have something to do with the color symbolism mentioned above).
Two separate things that were also one.
Suddenly Order and Chaos inside the Moon Knight seem less like opposites, and more like two parts of a single whole.
The Ancient Egyptians used the number 3 as the symbol for anything that existed in plural. So far, Moon Knight has exhibited three personalities . . .
Conclusion.
The inclusion of the number 9 is just for me. In Ancient Egypt, nine is three threes, or ALL of something. Mostly this was used to talk about enemies. But I used it here to number the amount of Ancient Egyptian themes, icons, and essences I hope The Moon Knight takes into account when creating what already appears to be an awesome show.
I can’t wait to find out when the show premiers March 30th.
Thank you for reading all of this. What are your favorite Ancient Egyptian myths and legends? What would you most like to see from Disney’s upcoming release? Let me know in the comments and thank you again for reading. See you next week!
alligators and aneurysms! 