Hathor and Sistrums and "cobra at rest"
Jul. 4th, 2021 11:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
agoodwinsmithJust because the province is burning down, and I've been medically tested to the eyebrows, doesn't mean that I have stopped obsessing about Hathor.[1] I don't feel that I wish to revive her worship, since, for heck's sake, I don't know where to start; but I wouldn't mind stealing some of the trappings, such as the sistrum.
The sistrum is a rattle, and it was used for several thousand years prior to current era, and a little bit into current era, and the coptic church still uses it. So we're talking three or four thousand years - and people's ideas change. It could be made of wood or metal or fired clay. It could have its rattles hidden inside a miniature shrine. It could be a forked stick with rattles between the forks. It could be a metal hoop on a metal handle, with the rattles on loose metal wires. It often had a Hathor head at the join between the hoop and the handle - one on each side. Interestingly, in the later Greek and Roman versions there are four wires without rattles, but in Egyptian ones there are three. In a few metal sistrums there are only the three wires and no rattles. The sound comes from the loose wires shifting back and forth.
Sometimes the wires, whether with rattles or not, are in the shape of the "cobra at rest" hieroglyph. Here is the "cobra at rest" hieroglyph:
https://wordsimilarity.com/en/biliteral
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_Egyptian_hieroglyphs&curid=24883394#I
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Cobra_at_rest_(dj_hieroglyph)
Hieroglyphs work the same way letters do in our alphabet: each one has a sound, and when said together a word is made. Asking the meaning of "G" in isolation is mostly meaningless. However, some letters do get some extra meaning baggage, such as "A" meaning first or best, and "F" meaning failure, and "Z" meaning end. The "cobra at rest" hieroglyph has a little bit of that. The Uraeus is the rearing cobra featured on the king's crown, and is the protector of the king. The "cobra at rest" is unthreatened. The hieroglyph alone can mean "to speak".
Here are examples of the sistrums that have "cobra at rest" shaped wires:
https://collections.mfa.org/objects/164263
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/553814
Some of them even go so far as to put cobra heads on the short upturned ends.
The sistrum was used to worship Hathor, and people speak of the sound of the sistrum being pleasing and soothing to Hathor. How cool that the wires could be shaped into a "letter" that had extra meaning.
Here are a couple of good "make your own" resources:
http://aws.cricketmedia.com/media/20160315161902/Music-Activity.pdf
https://kingshillbwmat.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2020/11/9-Make-an-Ancient-Egyptian-Sistrum-Craft-Instructions.pdf
[1] - important to remember that I think the deity of the universe is the universe and not human, and that any god labels we use are human generated and can't capture the whole being. So, investigating a human construct is interesting, since it points to things we're currently missing, but it is still a human construct.
The sistrum is a rattle, and it was used for several thousand years prior to current era, and a little bit into current era, and the coptic church still uses it. So we're talking three or four thousand years - and people's ideas change. It could be made of wood or metal or fired clay. It could have its rattles hidden inside a miniature shrine. It could be a forked stick with rattles between the forks. It could be a metal hoop on a metal handle, with the rattles on loose metal wires. It often had a Hathor head at the join between the hoop and the handle - one on each side. Interestingly, in the later Greek and Roman versions there are four wires without rattles, but in Egyptian ones there are three. In a few metal sistrums there are only the three wires and no rattles. The sound comes from the loose wires shifting back and forth.
Sometimes the wires, whether with rattles or not, are in the shape of the "cobra at rest" hieroglyph. Here is the "cobra at rest" hieroglyph:
https://wordsimilarity.com/en/biliteral
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_Egyptian_hieroglyphs&curid=24883394#I
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Cobra_at_rest_(dj_hieroglyph)
Hieroglyphs work the same way letters do in our alphabet: each one has a sound, and when said together a word is made. Asking the meaning of "G" in isolation is mostly meaningless. However, some letters do get some extra meaning baggage, such as "A" meaning first or best, and "F" meaning failure, and "Z" meaning end. The "cobra at rest" hieroglyph has a little bit of that. The Uraeus is the rearing cobra featured on the king's crown, and is the protector of the king. The "cobra at rest" is unthreatened. The hieroglyph alone can mean "to speak".
Here are examples of the sistrums that have "cobra at rest" shaped wires:
https://collections.mfa.org/objects/164263
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/553814
Some of them even go so far as to put cobra heads on the short upturned ends.
The sistrum was used to worship Hathor, and people speak of the sound of the sistrum being pleasing and soothing to Hathor. How cool that the wires could be shaped into a "letter" that had extra meaning.
Here are a couple of good "make your own" resources:
http://aws.cricketmedia.com/media/20160315161902/Music-Activity.pdf
https://kingshillbwmat.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2020/11/9-Make-an-Ancient-Egyptian-Sistrum-Craft-Instructions.pdf
[1] - important to remember that I think the deity of the universe is the universe and not human, and that any god labels we use are human generated and can't capture the whole being. So, investigating a human construct is interesting, since it points to things we're currently missing, but it is still a human construct.
