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butterflykikiSo this is going to be a mostly non-spoilery post, regarding such things as Egyptian gods, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and what I remember from reading Egyptian mythology when I was 11. Also just a general kind of wondering about the upcoming stuff in Moon Knight, based on Wikipedia and what I remember from ages ago.
So, Episode 3 rocked, I loved it, and here's a few things that stood out for me, with regard to Egyptian pantheons and rituals.
1) I remembered from ep.2 that Ammit's ushabti was mentioned, and I was pretty sure if I remembered right that those were the little figurines buried with the Egyptian dead, to do labor for those who died when they reached the afterlife. If you got tapped to work in the fields, the little ushabti could do the job for you. A novel I read in 5th grade also had it mentioned as a girl's nanny promising to put in an ushabti of herself with the girl if she dies of a bad fever, to keep the girl company until the nanny could get to the afterlife herself (I always thought that was sweet). Wikipedia confirms I wasn't remembering wrong on that.
Apparently in Moon Knight, "imprisoned in stone" means "turned into an ushabti", so Ammit is probably in a little action-figure-sized statue the same way Khonshu is right now. I do wonder how long or what's required to wake her, because I don't see the Egyptian gods letting her out on parole on their own recognizance.
2) Four gods out of the 9-10 that make up the Ennead showed up for the trial Khonshu requested: Osiris, Isis, Horus (who sometimes isn't included), and Tefnut. With the addition of non-Ennead Hathor, because she is Extra, and who doesn't want the goddess of sex'n'music to show up? (Also, this gave me some Stargate SG-1 flashbacks to Jack O'Neill calling her the goddess of "sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll", and made me laugh.) Those are heavy hitters, but means that six that are usually included were absent: Shu, Geb, Nut, Set, Nepthys, and Atum-Re. [All of my info is via Wikipedia, btw. Steven would tch-tch at me for that, but it's fastest.]
So where were those other 5-6, if they didn't feel like showing up? Do they not have avatars at the moment? Are they totally uninterested in anything on Earth any more? It is all very interesting.
Wikipedia also was kind enough to remind me that Egyptian gods were usually very geographic-specific, city by city; the Ennead was for the gods of Heliopolis. Others were in the same roles in other Egyptian cities, Memphis, Thebes, etc. They got re-combined, and were assumed to have no boundaries across time by the Egyptians; in other words, their myths kind of thrived on contradiction and vagueness. (At least compared to the Greeks and Romans, which (imo) all tended to get carted up into plays and long poems which tried to actually nail them into place and time and role, not to mention relationships with each other.) I like the Egyptian set-up better for the re-combinations and fiddly vague bits and how things waver in and out of definition, really.
Ahem.
3. Other Egyptian gods I remembered who did not show up, and no, I don't just know these names from having been in SG-1 fandom or reading American Gods: Bastet (of course), Sehkmet (lioness-god of drinking beer and blood; somewhere Queen Calanthe knows her patron), Anubis, Thoth (the scribe, and a buddy of Horus's), and Bes (the god of laughter, whose only mention I remember was from that same 5th grade Egyptian-mystery-novel). Wikipedia seems to indicate that these gods were one generation down from the Ennead, later gods whose popularity was more recent.
The MCU's approach to this whole 'god' thing is.. interesting. I mean, Bastet is still worshipped or at least revered in Wakanda. Will she ever show up in the MCU? I didn't get all the way through the Eternals, but they're clearly not extra-dimensional entities who can turn back the stars or anything like that. Thor & Loki (& their entire crew of Aesir) are goof-off alien princes who have some extra special magic powers. And then we get all the beings that Dr. Strange and his band of sorcerers are protecting the Earth from, who want to kinda eat us all from the next dimension over (like Ammit! Heck, Strange, why are you not on this??).
Which is me saying: consistency in the MCU, not a thing, what a shock.
4) Also, I'm hoping they do more with Marc/Steven being Jewish (both from the comics canon, and they *did* put a Star of David on him in the show, and put a mezuzah outside Steven's flat). I mean, the MCU has kind of completely avoided all mention of religion at all, and I get why, but at least the cultural stuff feels like it could be a good place to put this in.
5) Off-topic: How many soap operas did you watch in your younger years with bad representations of DID in them. Was it more than three? Five? Write an essay explaining why Moon Knight is better, and don't just say that Oscar Isaac rocks.
Okay, you can do that, but more would be nice.
5) Lastlies: Layla was a real person this week, yay. I want to go on a moonlit boat ride with someone like Marc or Steven at some point. There is definitely a third personality surfacing and going absolutely ballistic on people, ha. That's going to end well.
I still want someone to punch Donna-the-Museum-Supervisor. And I still want Steven's flat.
Definitely bed-time.
So, Episode 3 rocked, I loved it, and here's a few things that stood out for me, with regard to Egyptian pantheons and rituals.
1) I remembered from ep.2 that Ammit's ushabti was mentioned, and I was pretty sure if I remembered right that those were the little figurines buried with the Egyptian dead, to do labor for those who died when they reached the afterlife. If you got tapped to work in the fields, the little ushabti could do the job for you. A novel I read in 5th grade also had it mentioned as a girl's nanny promising to put in an ushabti of herself with the girl if she dies of a bad fever, to keep the girl company until the nanny could get to the afterlife herself (I always thought that was sweet). Wikipedia confirms I wasn't remembering wrong on that.
Apparently in Moon Knight, "imprisoned in stone" means "turned into an ushabti", so Ammit is probably in a little action-figure-sized statue the same way Khonshu is right now. I do wonder how long or what's required to wake her, because I don't see the Egyptian gods letting her out on parole on their own recognizance.
2) Four gods out of the 9-10 that make up the Ennead showed up for the trial Khonshu requested: Osiris, Isis, Horus (who sometimes isn't included), and Tefnut. With the addition of non-Ennead Hathor, because she is Extra, and who doesn't want the goddess of sex'n'music to show up? (Also, this gave me some Stargate SG-1 flashbacks to Jack O'Neill calling her the goddess of "sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll", and made me laugh.) Those are heavy hitters, but means that six that are usually included were absent: Shu, Geb, Nut, Set, Nepthys, and Atum-Re. [All of my info is via Wikipedia, btw. Steven would tch-tch at me for that, but it's fastest.]
So where were those other 5-6, if they didn't feel like showing up? Do they not have avatars at the moment? Are they totally uninterested in anything on Earth any more? It is all very interesting.
Wikipedia also was kind enough to remind me that Egyptian gods were usually very geographic-specific, city by city; the Ennead was for the gods of Heliopolis. Others were in the same roles in other Egyptian cities, Memphis, Thebes, etc. They got re-combined, and were assumed to have no boundaries across time by the Egyptians; in other words, their myths kind of thrived on contradiction and vagueness. (At least compared to the Greeks and Romans, which (imo) all tended to get carted up into plays and long poems which tried to actually nail them into place and time and role, not to mention relationships with each other.) I like the Egyptian set-up better for the re-combinations and fiddly vague bits and how things waver in and out of definition, really.
Ahem.
3. Other Egyptian gods I remembered who did not show up, and no, I don't just know these names from having been in SG-1 fandom or reading American Gods: Bastet (of course), Sehkmet (lioness-god of drinking beer and blood; somewhere Queen Calanthe knows her patron), Anubis, Thoth (the scribe, and a buddy of Horus's), and Bes (the god of laughter, whose only mention I remember was from that same 5th grade Egyptian-mystery-novel). Wikipedia seems to indicate that these gods were one generation down from the Ennead, later gods whose popularity was more recent.
The MCU's approach to this whole 'god' thing is.. interesting. I mean, Bastet is still worshipped or at least revered in Wakanda. Will she ever show up in the MCU? I didn't get all the way through the Eternals, but they're clearly not extra-dimensional entities who can turn back the stars or anything like that. Thor & Loki (& their entire crew of Aesir) are goof-off alien princes who have some extra special magic powers. And then we get all the beings that Dr. Strange and his band of sorcerers are protecting the Earth from, who want to kinda eat us all from the next dimension over (like Ammit! Heck, Strange, why are you not on this??).
Which is me saying: consistency in the MCU, not a thing, what a shock.
4) Also, I'm hoping they do more with Marc/Steven being Jewish (both from the comics canon, and they *did* put a Star of David on him in the show, and put a mezuzah outside Steven's flat). I mean, the MCU has kind of completely avoided all mention of religion at all, and I get why, but at least the cultural stuff feels like it could be a good place to put this in.
5) Off-topic: How many soap operas did you watch in your younger years with bad representations of DID in them. Was it more than three? Five? Write an essay explaining why Moon Knight is better, and don't just say that Oscar Isaac rocks.
Okay, you can do that, but more would be nice.
5) Lastlies: Layla was a real person this week, yay. I want to go on a moonlit boat ride with someone like Marc or Steven at some point. There is definitely a third personality surfacing and going absolutely ballistic on people, ha. That's going to end well.
I still want someone to punch Donna-the-Museum-Supervisor. And I still want Steven's flat.
Definitely bed-time.
