by
Damien F. Mackey
According to Plato’s
dialogue, Timaeus, the Egyptian
goddess Neith
was the same as,
in Greek mythology, the goddess Athena.
The
hoary-with-age Egyptian priest of the Timaeus
had spoken of the Greeks as being like children with their lack of ancient
traditions. Following that sort of sentiment, I wrote in:
of
the Egyptian traditions and legends as being prior to those of the Greeks:
…. the
fanciful Greek and Roman mythologies had their origins in the real antediluvian
histories of which the Book of Genesis provides only the barest of details.
According to my revised estimation, these real histories would largely (perhaps
not entirely) have come second-hand to Egypt, then third-hand, or
worse, to Greece.
[End
of quote]
The goddess Athena, whose antediluvian origins some would trace to
Naamah, the sister of Tubalcain, was, as Neith, a most ancient goddess of the
Egyptian pantheon. In “A black Athena”,
I further wrote of:
… the
Greek goddess Athena, whom biblical aficionados would identify in her origins
with the biblical Eve, or with Naamah, the wife of Ham - and possibly as having
black skin, as Roy Schulz has suggested here http://www.book.dislib.info/b1-history/4036992-14-compiled-roy-schulz-social-studies-department-imperial-schools-pa.php
…. Jewish
tradition does tell us who Ham married! HAM MARRIED NAAMAH, THE DAUGHTER OF
LAMECH BY ZILLAH! (See Jameison, Faucett, and Brown Commentary). Zillah,
remember was the first truly black woman in history! And, quite late in
Lamech's life, his black wife, Zillah, had a daughter named Naamah. Naamah
became famous as a weaver of cloth -- and this is who Ham married! Ham should
not have married this beautiful and famous dark woman, a daughter of Lamech.
But he could not resist her beauty and so he married her on impulse, against
the wishes of others, particularly Noah.
Ancient
sources tell us that, after their marriage, an agreement was made whereby
Naamah could spend some time with her family and some time with her husband's
family. Remember that Noah had remained separate from the line of Cain -- and
he would insist on keeping his family separate, and so after Ham married this
woman, a difficult situation had been created. A compromise was agreed upon
whereby she could still spend time with her non-white relatives.
Naamah
was a famous individual in the pre-Flood world. Her brother was Tubalcain, a
great military leader, and she took on some of his war-like characteristics.
The ancient Greeks, who applied to her the name Athena, pictured her
brandishing a spear and regarded her as a goddess of war. She is said to have make
a war on the giants during the lifetime of Tubalcain. She had an interesting
variety of characteristics because she was also pictured as being a goddess of
wisdom as well as of war, in addition to being especially famous as the goddess
of weaving or womanly industry. In no connection is she ever pictured as a
harlot of prostitution as was Venus of Aphrodite. This is the woman who Ham
married. She is the one who carried the WAY OF CAIN THROUGH THE FLOOD! The line
of Cain did not die with the Flood, as might easily be supposed! A descendant
of Cain and Lamech lived on into the post-Flood world. It was none other than
this Naamah to whom God calls our attention in Genesis 4:22. This is why her
name is in the Bible! From Ham and Naamah came the Negroid stock after the
Flood -- the line of Cush (Gen. 10:6).
[End of quote]
In Wikipedia, we read of the interesting
goddess Neith (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neith):
Neith (… also spelled Nit, Net, or Neit) was an early
goddess in the Egyptian pantheon. She was the patron deity
of Sais,
where her cult was centered in the Western Nile Delta
of Egypt and
attested as early as the First Dynasty.[1] The Ancient
Egyptian name of this city was Zau.
….
Symbolism …
Neith was a goddess of war and of hunting and had as her symbol, two
arrows crossed over a shield. However, she is a far more complex goddess than
is generally known, and of whom ancient texts only hint of her true nature. In
her usual representations, she is portrayed as a fierce deity, a human female
wearing the Red Crown, occasionally holding or using the bow and arrow, in
others a harpoon. In fact, the hieroglyphs of her name are usually followed by
a determinative containing the archery elements, with the shield symbol of the
name being explained as either double bows (facing one another), intersected by
two arrows (usually lashed to the bows), or by other imagery associated with
her worship. Her symbol also identified the city of Sais.[2] This symbol
was displayed on top of her head in Egyptian art. In her form as a goddess of
war, she was said to make the weapons of warriors and to guard their bodies
when they died.
Mackey’s
comment: Most interesting here is Neith’s connection with “the Great Flood” and
“the primeval waters”:
As a deity, Neith is normally shown carrying the was
scepter (symbol of rule and power) and the ankh (symbol of life).
She is also called such cosmic epithets as the "Cow of Heaven", a
sky-goddess similar to Nut, and as the Great Flood, Mehet-Weret
(MHt wr.t), as a cow who gives birth to the sun daily. In these forms, she is
associated with creation of both the primeval time and daily
"re-creation". As protectress of the Royal House, she is represented
as a uraeus, and functions with the fiery fury of the sun, In time, this led to
her being considered as the personification
of the primordial waters of creation. She is identified as a great mother goddess
in this role as a creator. As a female deity and personification of the
primeval waters, Neith encompasses masculine elements, making her able to give
birth (create) without the opposite sex. She is a feminine version of Ptah-Nun, with her
feminine nature complemented with masculine attributes symbolized with her
association with the bow and arrow. In the same manner, her personification as
the primeval waters is Mehetweret (MHt wr.t), the Great Flood, conceptualized
as streaming water, related to another use of the verb sti, meaning 'to
pour'.
Neith is one of the most ancient deities associated with ancient
Egyptian culture. Flinders Petrie (Diopolis Parva, 1901) noted the
earliest depictions of her standards were known in predynastic periods, as can
be seen from a representation of a barque bearing her crossed arrow standards
in the Predynastic Period, as displayed in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
Her first anthropomorphic representations occur in the early dynastic
period, on a diorite vase of King Ny-Netjer of the Second Dynasty, found in the
Step Pyramid of Djoser (Third Dynasty) as Saqqara. That her worship
predominated the early dynastic periods is shown by a preponderance of
theophoric names (personal names which incorporate the name of a deity) within
which Neith appears as an element. Predominance of Neith's name in nearly forty
percent of early dynastic names, and particularly in the names of four royal
women of the First Dynasty, only emphasizes the importance of this goddess in
relation to the early society of Egypt, with special emphasis upon the Royal
House. In the very early periods of Egyptian history, the main iconographic
representations of this goddess appear to have been limited to her hunting and
war characteristics, although there is no Egyptian mythological reference to
support the concept this was her primary function as a deity.
….
It appears from textual/iconographic evidence she was something of a
national goddess for Old Kingdom Egypt, with her own sanctuary in Memphis
indicated the political high regard held for her, where she was known as
"North of her Wall," as counterpoise to Ptah’s "South of
his Wall" epithet. While Neith is generally regarded as a deity of Lower
Egypt, her worship was not consistently located in that region.
….
Neith's symbol and part of her hieroglyph
also bore a resemblance to a loom, and so in later syncretisation of Egyptian myths by the
Greek ruling class, she also became goddess of weaving. At this time her role
as a creator conflated with that of Athena, as a deity
who wove all of the world and existence into being on her loom.
Mackey’s
comment: Pictures added (of Neith weaving; of Athena weaving).
The article proceeds
to tell of Neith’s great antiquity:
Neith was considered to be eldest of the gods, and was appealed to as an
arbiter in the dispute between Horus and Seth. Neith is said to have been
"born the first, in the time when as yet there had been no birth."
(St. Clair, Creation Records: 176). In the Pyramid Texts, Neith is
paired with Selket as braces for the sky, which places these two deities as the
two supports for the heavens (see PT 1040a-d, following J. Gwyn Griffths, The
Conflict of Horus and Seth, (London, 1961) p. 1). This ties in with
the vignette in the Contendings of Seth and Horus when Neith is
asked by the gods, as the most ancient of goddesses, to decide who should rule.
In her message of reply, Neith selects Horus, and says she will "cause the
sky to crash to the earth" if he is not selected.
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