The Book of the Heavenly Cow is an Egyptian myth about the re-ordering of the universe by Ra (Re), God of the Sun. It takes place when Ra is old and the mortals rebel against his rule. He calls upon the Eye of Ra, in this case his daughter goddess Hathor.
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Ra sends the Eye of Ra in her fury to quell the rebellion. Hathor is the divine cow goddess of ancient Egypt. Her nurturing aspects bring abundance, but her wrath can destroy lives and cities. She tramples men and can bring on famine.
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The Eye of Ra is the rightful rage of the goddess against elements of chaos, those who don't respect the gods, enemies of Ra and threats to his rulership. Often the persona of the Eye is Sekhmet, Goddess of War and Medicine.
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There are similarities. Ra tricks the bloodthirsty goddess, Hathor or Sekhmet, into drinking beer dyed red when her rage is out of control. Other Eye of Ra goddesses include Wadjet the winged cobra, and Mut the Earth Mother, who can shatter civilizations.
The Myth of the Heavenly Cow
The story takes place when Sun god Ra is in his dotage. Mankind stirs up rebellion against his rule. Ra seeks advice from the council of gods. He sends Hathor his daughter as the ferocious Eye of Ra to destroy the usurpers.
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She goes out in full fury and slays a multitude. When she comes back that evening, Ra feels pity for the mortals and decides to stop killing them. To appease the raging Eye goddess he orders beer to be mixed with red ochre, to resemble blood.
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It's spread through Egypt in the night. Next morning, the bloodthirsty goddess guzzles the drink. She gets drunk, returns to the realm of the gods and leaves the rest of the humans alone.
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In another version, the Sun God decides to abscond from the earth and live in the sky. The firmament is created for him as the Heavenly Cow, an aspect of sky goddess Nut. His departure leaves the humans without gods on earth.
The Sun God reorders the cosmos into three layers of existence. They are the sky, the earth and the beyond, or realm of death. Ra delegates certain tasks to gods Geb, earth god and brother of Nut; Osiris, god of the dead; and Thoth, god of wisdom, scribes and the moon.
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The Book of the Heavenly Cow is first discovered in one of the four gilded shrines of Tutankhamun. This version isn't complete. Archaeologists discover three more versions of the text in the tombs of Seti I, Ramesses I, and Ramesses II.
The story preserved in the tomb of Seti I is probably the most complete. It includes the entire sequence of events, rubrics with ritual instructions and three vignettes.
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The origin of the book is obscure but may be related to the dawn myths of the Pyramid Texts (c. 2400 - 2300 BCE). By the New Kingdom (c. 1550 BCE) the concept is used to explain death and suffering in an imperfect creation.
The Book of the Heavenly Cow can be seen as a form of theodicy, an attempt to construct and deal with how belief systems work. It explains the existence of deities and evil within society. The Book is also seen as a magical text to ensure the king's ascent to heaven.
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As the Cow Goddess Hathor is a patron of women, motherhood, beauty, love and abundance. The identity of the ancient Egyptian bovine goddess goes back to the concept of the Cosmic Cow who exists at the time of creation.
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