REVIEW ESSAY

Robert F. Smith review (Aug 27, 1973) of David H. Kelley, The Nine Lords of the Night,
Contributions of the University of California Archaeological Research Facility, Number 16
(Berkeley: U. C. Department of Anthropology, October 1972), 53-68,

One might begin by asking whatever happened to the Vasus opposite Quetzalcoatl who
was . . . the leader of the Nine Gods of Mesoamerica?1 The Hindu Vasus were presumably the
9 earth-gods set as #22 among the gods of the Hindu lunar mansions,2 and it is doubtful that
Kelley meant this to refer to the 9 Visva-devas of the Vedas (10 in the Vishnu-Purna),3 since
this is #19 in the same lunar-mansion god list.

As far as can be determined, the Vasus were an ogdoad (group of eight), and the
children of either Dharma (Justice) or Prajpati Manu (= Brahm) and Aditi (Unending,
Boundless Durg), mother of the world and of the gods in the form of a cow:

1. Dhara Earth
2. Dhruva Polaris
3. Soma Moon (= Avestan Haoma The Pressed Juice, Rigveda IV:27)
4. Aha Water (Yucatec-Tzeltal-Huave ha water), which can be replaced by Svitra Impeller,
Instigator (= Srya Sun), or by pa(s) Water (cf. Ape, Gappe Cloudy, Drop, in the Zapotec Day-
name list).
5. Anila, Anilu Wind?
6. Anala Fire
7. Pratysha Light
8. Prabhsa Dawn

Ogdoads may of course become enneads simply by placing an additional god at their
head. Such is certainly the case for the Egyptian god Thoth, the Lord of the Ogdoad (nb
mnw) of Hermopolis Magna (mnw Eight-city) in Upper Egypt.:

1. Nw (Coptic Noun), Primeval Ocean, Waters (cf. Hebrew tohu)

2. Nwt
3. ? (cf. Hebrew bohu)
4. wt ?
5. Kkw(y) Darkness (varies with K) (cf. Hebrew oek)
6. Kkwyt (varies with Kyt)
7. Imn Hidden? (varies with w Daylight; Air) (cf. Hebrew rua)
8. Imnt (varies with Tfnt Rain: Dew)

1
D. H. Kelley in Moran & Kelley, The Alphabet and Ancient Calendar Signs, 2nd ed., 159.
2
Kelley in Moran & Kelley, The Alphabet and Ancient Calendar Signs, 2nd ed., Fig. 19.
3
Halls edition, III:178,188-189.
1
The final pair also varies with Qr and Qrt Night, Darkness, or with Ny and Nnw, etc.4

Pyramid Texts

In any case, ancient Egypt was blessed with an almost incredible variety of lists of gods,
such that the lists of India and Mesoamerica appear simple and unforbidding in comparison.
Take the canonical Ennead of n, for example. Not only are there slight variants from pyramid
to pyramid for the standard Nine Gods (Pd.t > Coptic psit, psite, psis nine), but we have
several completely different enneads:

1) The Great Ennead (Pd.t .t or Pd.t wr.t)5

2) The Lesser Ennead (Pd.t nd.t)

3) other enneads, either unspecified as to content, or having numbers of gods not restricted to
nine.6 Herein we shall be concerned only with the Great Ennead. Correlations with the others
do not appear promising.

Within the Great Ennead one finds some variety in number, but the usual variant from
nine is ten. This occurs due to the addition (or displacement) of the deceased or of competing
local gods wherever the Ennead is employed.7 Thus, while the most important variation of the
Great Ennead is that of Heliopolis (n), headed always by a solar deity, e.g., (R-)Atum,
Khopri,8 we are not surprised to see the list headed by Amon (Imn) and Mont (Mntw) at
Thebes, by Pta (Pt) at Memphis (cf. Manethos list as interpreted by Farina), or Khnum
(nmw) and Pta at Philae. There are other changes of this sort which are of some significance,

4
See E. A. W. Budge, Gods of the Egyptians, I:282-292; Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead: The
Papyrus of Ani (NY: Dover, 1967), xcix; cf. H. Nibley, Improvement Era, 72 (Aug 1969): 85; D. Ames,
trans., Egyptian Mythology (NY: Tudor, 1965), 35-36; W. F. Albright, Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan
(NY, 1968), 148-149, and nn. 104-105.
5
A. Erman & H. Grapow, Wrterbuch der gyptischen Sprache, I:550 (Leipzig, 1926); cf. K. Sethe, ZS, 47
(1910):8-10.
6
A. Erman, Die Religion der gypter (Berlin/Leipzig, 1934), 90-91; S. Morenz, gyptische Religion (W.
Kohlhammer, 1960), 25,153,172; A. Erman, A Handbook of Egyptian Religion, 27; cf. Pyramid Text 511,
Wnis.
7
Erman, Handbook, 28; see also B. van de Walle, LEnnade dHliopolis dans les textes des
pyramides, in S. A. B. Mercer, The Pyramid Texts, IV:6-18 (Longmans, Green & Co., 1952), Excursus II; cf.
Budge, From Fetish to God in Ancient Egypt (Oxford, 1934), 9; J. H. Breasted, The Development of
Religion and Thought in Ancient Egypt (Harper & Row, 1959), 42.
8
D. A. MacKenzie, Egyptian Myth and Legend (London), 161-162; cf. A. Erman, La religion des Egyptiens,
trans. H. Wild (Paris, 1952), 86-87; Egyptian Mythology, 45; Budge, Book of the Dead: Papyrus of Ani,
plate 3, the Heart-weighing scene in the Hall of Double Judgment, has R-arakhte (R-Horus-of-the-
horizon) at the head of a similarly ordered group of gods (the Papyrus Hunefer, below, has R),
displacing Atum to number 2 position.
2
e.g., at Abydos, Seth and Nephthys are replaced by Thoth. However, within the 3 rd and 4th
millennium B.C. Pyramid Texts,9 we already have, among the copious references to the
enneads, claims that perhaps Min (Pyr. 256, 1928). Gb (2, 895, 1645, 1834, 1919, 2103, 2226),
R (483, heading both the Great & Lesser Enneads; 510, 1238, 1906), or the deceased king (2,
895), is to become head of the Great Ennead, i.e., the heir, though the actual lists do not exhibit
such variety.

In addition to the lists claiming sosme sort of Great Ennead status, there are longer
and shorter lists of gods in the same general sequence or grouping. Of the following several
such lists, I will include only the relevant portions of the sequences for purposes of comparison:

Pyr.10 1655 Pyr. 1521 Pyr. 167-178 Pyr. 1661-1671 Pap. Hunefer (BD)
(geographic)
1. Atum Atum Atum Atum R
2. Shu Shu Shu Shu Atum
3. Tefnet Tefnet Tefnet Tefnet Shu
4. Gb11 Gb Gb Gb Tefnet
5. Nt Nt Nt Nt Gb
6. Osiris Osiris Isis12 Osiris Nt
7. Isis [Isis] Seth Osiris Horus
8. Seth Seth Nephthys Seth Isis
9. Nephthys Neith Thoth Horus Nephthys
10. Horus R w Word, Power
11. nt-irty i Intelligence
12. Wedjoyet Wt-rt South
13. Wt-mt North
14. Wt-imnt West

Some of these and the following lists appear, by titles at least, to be quite unrelated to
the Great Ennead. Yet, as the Pyramid Texts themselves make clear, the Great Ennead was
closely related to groupings of gods bearing very different titles. Thus, in Pyr. 202b Nine
Bows Ennead, where Faulkner prefers the translation Nine Gods to Sethes Nine
Bows.13 We also find the parallel of Ennead Two Conclaves,14 or Great Conclaves.15

9
Albright, Yahweh and the Gods of Canaan, 3 n. 6.
10
See the excellent translation by R. O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts (Oxford, 1969); for
texts and commentaries, see K. Sethe, Die altgyptischen Pyramidentexte (Leipzig, 1908-1922).
11
Cf. Geb Earth-god (Egyptian Gb, Gbb > Greek Keb), with Maya kab earth, as in Caban, Ekab, etc.
12
Osiris is the subject of each section in Pyr. 167-178; the list is the earliest available, but is not
specifically stated to be an ennead.
13
Cf. Pyr. 161a, 162b, 163a, 164c-166d, 1655 (Faulkner, Pyr. s.v. 161-166 n. 1); normally Nine Bows
(Pdwt) are identified with foreign tribes.
14
Pyr. 255-256, 1262; on the Two Conclaves (itrty), see Gardiner, JEA, 30 (1944):27-28.
3
The Two Conclaves of the gods fit,as do the frequent Two Enneads, into the standard
Egyptian uses of dualisms to creat wholes.16 In other instances, the Imperishable Stars
company of the Ennead of n (Pyr. 2225-2226). In this case, the reference is to the
circumpolar stars, and we have seen a similar concept biblically.17 We have also brought forth
examples from the Book of the Dead Weighing of the Heart illustration, the top registers of
which often display a line of 12 or more seated gods easily identified as members of the Great
Ennead in their proper order with additional gods obviously tacked on at the end (which can
usually be derived from a specific source).

Papyrus of Ani (BD) Day Gods18 Gods of the 28 Finger- Epigomenae: the five
Breadths of the Royal intercalary days19
Cubit20
1. R-arakhte Atum R
2. Atum Shu Shu
3. Shu Tefnet nt
4. Tefnet Gb Gb
5. Gb Nt Nt
6. Nt Horus Osiris 1. Osiris
7. Isis Isis Isis 2. Horus (aroeris)
8. Nephthys21 Nephthys Seth 3. Seth
9. Horus rw-m-t- Nephthys 4. Isis
10. Hathor Imt, South Horus 5. Nephthys
11. w py, North Imty
12. i Dw-mwt.f, East py
13. Qb-nw.f, West Dw-mwt.f
14. ? (unnamed) Qb-nw.f
etc. etc.

In Pyramid Text 1174 there is implied another context in which we have a judicial body
of nine gods, either the Tribunal of the Magistrates of the Abyss, or the Corporation of the

15
Pyr. 1251.
16
H. Frankfort, Kingship and the Gods, 3rd ed. (Chicago, 1958), 19.
17
See Isaiah 14:13 (2 Nephi 24:13), for Hebrew kkb El Stars of El, Circumpolar Stars = Egyptian
imw n sk The Indestructible Stars (Pyr. 733, 782, 1123, 2051; JEA, 21:5 n. 2; Albright, YGC, 232, and n.
69).
18
Budge, GOE, I:413; cf. however, the sequence given in GOE, II:292, for night-gods and goddesses: 1)
Shu, 2) Tefnet, 3) Gb, 4) Nt, 5) Inpt, 6) nt, etc.
19
A. Gardiner, Egyptian Grammar, 203; Budge, GOE, II:293-294; Urkunden I, 25, 11; Egyptian Mythology,
53, as sons of Nut; known as Dwtyt or diw ryw-rnpt.
20
Budge, GOE, II:291; the common cubit (m) was only 24 finger-breadths or 17.7 inches (45 cm),
whereas the regal cubit was 20.7 inches (52.5 cm); this was the Hebrew system also R. B. Y. Scott, BA,
22 (May 1959):24.
21
Actually sits with Isis here.
4
Gods (ddt ntrw, Pyr. 786c, 1689a), the Great Court (ddt wrt/t) of Heliopolis,22 the
Lords of Truth (nbw mt),23 and it is very likely these gods who sit as overseers in the
aforementioned Book of the Dead scene in the Hall of Double Judgment.

It should of course be made clear, as every Egyptologist knows, that the Great Ennead
was familiar and widely used throughout all periods of the more than 3,000 years of Egyptian
history. The comments and lists presented here are but preliminary to a more careful study
which ought to be designed with a view to establishing a date for the most likely borrowing
whatever the source, recipient, or intermediary to account for the traits-in-common visible in
our charts.

Ancient Ecumene

From what little is known of it, one might suggest that a close examlnation be made of
the widest (and earliest) parameters of the Old World ecumene, i.e., from the Indus to the Nile.
Students of Indic religions often call upon comparisons with the pantheons of nearby Iran and
Mitanni,24 as well as to survey the likely linguistic and religious sources of the pre-Indo-Aryan
peoples particularly insofar as they represent still surviving remnants of the Elamites (or their
closest relatives) in southwest Pakistan (=Baluchistan), and in south India (= Dravidan).25
Correlations have of course been made on a much wider basis,26 i.e., comparing Mesopotamia,
Persia, India, China, Japan, and Mexico, as direct lines of borrowing.27

Traits

Of the Levant proper little need be said, and the late William F. Albright was only
expressing a logical process and conclusion (in agreeing with Marvin Pope) when saying that
coincidence can scarcely be the only explanation for the traits in common between Canaanite

22
Book of the Dead, spell 18:1 = Grapow, Religise Urkunden, 115.
23
R. Grieshammer, Das Jenseitsgericht in den Sargtexten, gyptischen Abhandlungen 70 (Wiesbaden:
Harrassowitz, 1970), 82, 87, 95.
24
For example, Mithra Varua and Indra are mentioned in Mitannian records ca. 1400 B.C. Bhaga
Bountiful (one of the dityas), is an epithet of Indra and of Persian Ahura Mazda; cf. Slavonic bog
god.
25
Khz was replaced by Persian; Brahui is probably the latest form of the language used by the
civilization of Harrapa and Mohenjo-daro; Dravidian is represented by Tamil, Telugu, etc.; see W. F.
Albright & T. Lambdin, The Evidence of Language, Cambridge Ancient History, 2nd ed., fascicle #54
(1966), 35-36 = CAH, 3rd ed., I, part 1; M. Wheeler, The Indus Civilization, Suppl. Vol. to CAH, 3rd ed.
(1968), reviewed in JAOS, 90:409.
26
H. L. Thomas, Near Eastern, Mediterranean and European Chronology, 2 vols. (1967).
27
Budge, Amulets and Superstitions (Oxford, 1930), 412-413.
5
Anath and Indic Kl or Durg.28 Anaths ancient Near Eastern associations are well known, and
the general statement by Jaroslav ern is most apropos:

Naturally, Egyptian settlers and garrisons abroad built sanctuaries there to their
own gods, but towards the native gods they behaved as they so often did in
Egypt towards the god or goddess of another town: they simply considered them
as different names and forms of their own Egyptian deities.29

And why not? Particularly if a common prehistoric substratum had existed. Linguistically this is
thought more and more to be the case.30 Borrowing might only renew or modernize older
relationships. Rather than scan such relationships exhaustively, I shall mention a few salient
correlative points of interest as I run through the list of our nine gods (and their variants) in
order:

1. The differing names for solar deities according to time of day, age, and function is one
common factor between Indic and Egyptian examples; the creation myths have similar variety,
and the solar gods each slay serpent-demons by fire. In the Old World-New World context,
Xiutecuhtlis sacrificial role is shared by Agni (whose fire cult was derived from Iran thravan;
cf. Iranian tar). As Dhma-ketu Whose-sign-is-smoke, Agni presents a striking parallel to
Tezcatlipoca; the lame Horus-child (Harpocrates), though attested late,31 is certainly likewise
parallel to Xiutecuhtli and Ah Bolon Tzacab. In both the Mesoamerican eagle and in the Egptian
falcon we have the main symbols of our solar deity crossing the sky (cf. the bird-symbol used
for Agni). Xiutecuhtli and Horus (#10) are both year-lords.32

2. Shu is the air or empty area between the celestial and earthly regions and correlates in a
general way with Zapotec Beydo/bidshi. We dont know whether Vyu is acftually placed here
at all, but we cannot identify Vyana. Shu might be considered a god of agriculture in his role of
feeding the dead (Pyr. texts). He does, however, represent sun and sunlight as does Tonatiuh.

3. Tefnet does not correlate well at all. Compare Thoth, god of the moon and of esoteric arts
in the Lesser Ennead.

28
Albright, YGC, 131 (and n. 51); cf. J. Kaster, Wings of the Falcon, 66, 69 n. 6.
29
ern, Ancient Egyptian Religion, 41; Faulkner regularly employs the term avatara in an ancient
Egyptian context.
30
S. Moscati, et al., Introduction to the Comparative Grammar of the Semitic Languages, 1.4 5.6;
Albright & Lambdin, CAH, 2nd ed., #54; T. Thacker, Relationship of the Semitic and Egyptian Verbal
Systems (Oxford, 1954); H. J. Polotsky, Semitics, and Egyptian, in E. A. Speiser, ed., At the Dawn of
Civilization: The World Hisory of the Jewish People, I (Tel Aviv, 1964).
31
Putarch, Isis and Osiris, 19.
32
Pyr. 1520 has Osiris as Lord of the Year. This is unusual and, as Faulkner notes (Ancient Egyptian
Pyramid Texts, 232 n.2), Osiris is the living Horus when resurrected.
6
4. Gb as the earth (and place of burial) was a god of the dead Mictlan-tecuhtli.

5. Nt as a celestial water-goddess is a fine parallel to Zapotec Ndan and to Aztec Jade-skirt,

while her Aztec appearance as a frog matches the vhana of Brihaspati, the Guru and father of
the gods (Gb was also father of the gods in one context in the Pyramid texts). Cf. Indic
Dyaus Sky (= Zeus?) as Father Sky (Jupiter < Dyaus pitar).

6. Osiris is a well attested parallel to the Greek god of the phallus, Dionysus, 33 who is in turn
identified with Shiva,34 god of the linga, the former and latter being husbands of the love
goddess (whom Albright sees as the same throughout the ancient world, and who is the
standard variant or correlate here as Isis-Hator, Prvat-Durg-Kl-Dev-Kma-Aditi, etc., or
Tlazolteotl).35 Osiris was also the Nile and the personification of Egypt as the fertile Black-
earth, the dying and rising god (like Attis-Adonis), who so often competed with his brother
Seth.36 Osiris frequently disappears from the sequence, but this is of little consequence in view
of the fertility functions of his sister-wife, and in view of the fact that Shiva (and Prajpati) could
be androgynous.

7. Isis is always either here or at #6 in the sequence. Her associations in the ancient world are
the best known of the Egyptian pantheon and survived the demise of Egyptian religion as much
because of her close correlation with the Virgin Mary as anything. The perpetually virginal Isis
is familiar as the Mother of God (Theotokos of the early Christian fathers in Egypt), and was
often represented with the Horus-child at her breast.37 As #6 she immediately follows Nt, who
as Mistress of Heaven bore some of the characteristics of Isis-ator. She was very close to her
sister Nephthys as wel, #9 in some texts. The chart below is almost self-explanatory, but it
should be added that, in her early Canaanite and Classical Egyptian associations, Isis- ator
was represented standing on a lion38 (cf. Indic Sinha-rath), and as having disheveled hair39 (cf.
Indic Mukti-Kes). The 9th Zapotec cycle goddess, Mbaz (Tlazolteotl), may have exchanged
sequence with Mse, the 8th, though other associations appear equally strong.

8. Seth is placed either here or at #7. He is the god of storms and violence par excellence 40 and
as such matches Tlaloc Quiauitecuhtli, or Zapotec Mdi, or even Itzam Na as Itzam Noh Ku, the

33
Herodotus, ca. 450 B.C.
34
By Megasthenes, ca. 300 B.C.
35
For example, the Stoics saw Aphrodite, Astarte, and Isis as a single reality; see H. I. Bell, Cults and
Creeds in Graeco-Roman Egypt (Liverpool, 1953/1954), 10,15,19,33; cf. note 28, above.
36
Egyptian Mythology, 54-56.
37
Budge, GOE, I:xvi; II:220-221.
38
Budge, GOE, II:276; Albright, Biblical Period from Abraham to Ezra, 13; Albright, YGC, 121-122, 146;
pictured in Ancient Near East in Pictures, 471-474; J. Gray, The Canaanites, plate 20.
39
Papyrus Berlin 3024:4-5, 25, in H. Goedicke, The Herdsman, Chronique dgypte, 45 (1970):256-258.
40
H. te Velde, Seth, God of Confusion (Brill, 1967).
7
god of hail, lord of Lake Pelha, and Lord of the Crocodiles.41 One of Seths typhonic animals is
the crocodile,42 and the other listed on my large chart, below are an excellent match for
Prajpati, as well as a source of the serpent associations. As pointed out by J. L. Sorenson in his
trait-comparison list in the Man Across the Sea volume, the full-bearded nature of mountain-
rain-cloud deities is attested in both Mesoamerica (Tlaloc) and in Syro-Palestine (Baal-
Hadad).43 Seth was later assimilated to Canaanite Baal as Seth of apuna almost as a matter of
course.44 As lord of the dead (a kind of Satan in Late Egypt) he is equal to Tepeyollotl for yet
another reason.

9. Nephthys, Neith (Nt), and Thoth are the variants for this position, and, while the character of
Seth carries over to the extent that there are storm-god associations, Nephthys, sister-wife of
Seth and a goddess of the dead, is an excellent parallel to Quiauitecuhtli Lady-of-the-rain.
Moreover, Neith gets into the act since she parallels Egyptian qt, a frog goddess, and we all
know of the rain-frog association in Mesoamerica. Neith is, in any case, an aquatic goddess of
Sais (Sw). Nephthys, as Nbt-wt, laady-of-the-House, -Mansion, has a name-element, wt
house, matching the na house in Izamna, who is androgynous.45 In addition, Nephthys
writes on leaves just as did Seshat, the wife of our other variant, Thoth,46 and it is Thoth who
fills the role of god of knowledge of every kind like Itzamna. In his equation with Hermes, he
is like Zapotec Ndozin, and in his capacity as recorder at the weighing of the heart he is a judge
of the dead. In particular, the long tapir-like snout of Chac is best compared with the strange
Ibis-beak of Thoth.

10. Finally, we have Horus, whom we discussed earlier as a solar deity. Here we wish to point
out that his sons are the four cardinal points like the fourfold Itzamnas or Tlalocs so closely
associated with rain. They are listed by name twice on page 4, above.

We shall not discuss other variants, since we have already established a prima facie case
for a substantial, non-accidental relationship between the various sources of our nine lords. It
seems likely that the relationships may go much further and deeper than we now anticipate.47

41
Thompson, Maya History and Religion (Univ. of Oklahoma, 1970), 21 (citing Bruce, 1967), 205 (= God
D?).
42
Budge, GOE, II:247-248.
43
Gray, Canaanites (Praeger, 1964), 162-163, and plate 28,
44
Albright, YGC. 124 n. 37; cf. Gray, Canaanites, 51 and plate 22.
45
Thompson, Maya History and Religion, 21.
46
Thoth is also connected with Tlaloc for other reasons than the sequence here; cf. UAS Newsletter 70.1,
and the R. F. Smith letter of June 25, 1971 to J. L. Sorenson.
47
Cf. David H. Kelley, "Calendar Animals and Deities," Southwestern Journal of Anthropology, 16/3
(Autumn 1960): 317337, online at https://www.jstor.org/stable/3629035 .
8

Aztec Lords of Night
(1. Xiutecuhtli, Year-lord;
Lord of Fire; mass sacrifices
to Izcalli)
2. Itztli Obsidian
(= Tezcatlipoca Smoking-
Mirror,who lost one foot;
also = Metztli Moon)
3. Piltzintecuhtli Lord-
noble-prince (= Tonatiuh
Sun)
4. Centeotl Maize-god
5. Mictlantecuhtli Lord-
of-the=place-of-the-dead
6. Chalchihuitlicue Jade-
skirt, a goddess of water;
appears as a frog
7. Tlatzolteotl Earth-
mother, goddess of love
Teteoinnan Mother-of-Gods
8. Tepeyollotl Moutain-
heart (assoc with interior
of earth); lord of animals
with jaguar traits
9. Tlaloc Rain-god (four-
fold), with snake traits;
Quiauitecuhtli Lady of the
Rain
1. Xiuhtecuhtli Year-lord;
Lord of Fire; mass sacrifices
to Izcalli)
MESOAMERICAN NINE LORDS
(following D.H. Kelley)
South Zapotec Cycle Lords
(no Zapotec sun-god)
3. Ndoyet Nine-image,
Nine-spirit (Bdiyet?)
4. Beydo Wind; Seeds,
god of wind and of agri-
culture (cf. bidi seed; dry)
5. Dubdo Maize (cf. uba
maize; Cozobi Maize)
6. Kedo Judge; God of Justice;
deputy of Dubdo (cf. Ndozin)
7. Ndan, Supreme God and
androgynous; god of Ocean;
goddess of Ocean at Santa Lucia
8. Mse; Evil Spirit?
9. Mbaz goddess of earth
(Tlatzolteotl); or an earth god,
and lord of the animals; sometimes
a seven-headed serpent
1. Mdi Thunder, Lightning
(four at cardinal points, send rain);
Iguana shape (cf. Zapotec Cociho;
Otom Muye)
2. Ndozin Thirteen-spirit,
Thirteen-image; messenger of
Ndan; a god of justice and of
death (cf. Kedo)
9
Maya Lords (glyphs)
Bolon-ti-ku
G1. Nine (Fish-in-hand or
God C-in-hand; cf. God K);
probably Ah Bolon Tzacab
Nine-generations, a god of
agriculture and the sun, has one
serpent-foot (Hun Ahau One-
flower = sun)
G2.
G3. Shield probably war;
number three
G4. Seven and Moon glyph
(= twenty-seven?); maize?
G5. Five? Mam?
G6.
G7. Seven-black? Considered
one of the black gods; assoc
with war, hunting, and
merchants. Jaguar?
G8. Cum Pot (Itzamn
iguana-house, fourfold?
Front head of celestial rain-
dragon? Cumku, Cumhau
Lucifer?); Itzamn in human-
form, first priest, who taught
writing; Itzam lizard, whale;
androgynous; God of healing &
medicine; cf. Bacabs
G9. Sun-god, with blackness
(probably = Kinich Ahau Itzamn
Sun-eye-lord Night-sun);
possibly rear head of rain-dragon,
associated with eclipses. Itzamn is
Lord of Crocodiles.
 ANCIENT EGYPTIAN PD.T NINE

Great Ennead of n (Heliopolis) Ennead Variants according to Pyr. 167-178,

according to Pyramid 1655 483, 510, 1238, 1906

(10. Horus Sky (rw); falcon; sun-god (= Apollo);

Lord of the Year (nb rnpt Pyr. 449a); The Great
Black (km wr); is the Lame Harpocrates (rw p
hrd, Plutarch & Louvre C286:16); conflated as R-
arakhte; cf. Phoenix).
1. Atum Complete, Closer? (Itmw); ancient 1. R Sun; Day (R); symbolized by solar disk,
solar- and creator-god; represents the night or falcon, bull, and cobra, but commonly appeared
evening sun when closely assoc with R and Khopri, as human; cf. Iranian Mithra & Yama-Yima, and
the day and morning suns resp; born from the Assyro-Babyl Shamash; was called Ruler of the
primeval waters in the form of a stone or mountain Two Enneads, Mdi Limit less (Pyr. 1518c), and
(later identified with R, the bird which first landed rode across the sky in a boat (the Mndt or Mktt,
on the primeval hill (bnbn)). Conflated as R-Atum day and night barks).
in Pyr. 145, 1694.
2. Shu Dry; Sunlight (w); god of air who held up 2. Shu Emptiness ?
the sky, Nt; = Atlas; twin and spouse of Tefnet,
children of the Sun-god; takes hunger from deceased.
3. Tefnet Moisture, Dew; The Spitter? (Tfnt); 3. Tefnet; cf. Artemis, as a lion-headed goddess.
appears as woman with head of lioness; takes thirst .
From deceased; head surmounted with sun-disk and
cobra (irt).
4. Gb Earth; Gander (Gb, Gbb); god of earth, some- 4. Gb (kr Earth-god); = Kronos (Plutarch)
times head of the Ennead, god of the dead, and the
Great Cackler (Goose) who laid an egg from which
sprang the world.
5. Nt Sky; Celestial-Ocean (Nwt); twin and wife of 5. Nt ator Anat (of Canaan); all are called
Gb; rain fell to earth her tears or perspiration; appears Mistress of Heaven; = Tennt of Carthage = Juno
with head of snake or of a cat; carried R to sky as a Caelestis; counterpart of male gods: Anu (Babyl),
cow; ator; called The Brilliant (Pyr. 1a) Ouranos, and Jupiter; cf. Indic Vru
6. Osiris Strong; Eye; Throne? (Wsir); considered the 6. Isis = Demeter (Herodotus 450 BC); She-of-
Nile and The Black Earth; Egypt (t-kmt); wise king, many-names, Greek polyonymos; ator =
lawgiver, and grain-god (dying and rising god of Astarte = Aphrodite; Ishtar Anat Indic Prvat-
fertility and the phallus); Tammuz-Adonis Telepinus; Durg-Kl-Dev-Kma, in each case being the
Dionysos (Herodotus); brother and spouse of Isis; goddess of love and of violence; cf. also the conflate
appears as a mummified king, or deceased incarnate, Atargatis-Kybele
holding scepter and crook and wearing an ostrich-
plumed tfw-crown; Lord of the Dwt (Netherworld),
i.e., horizon & earth
7. Isis Throne (st); Daughter of Gb and Nt; sister- 7. Seth; son of Gb and Nt; brother and
wife of Osiris; goddess of love; mother of Horus (also competitor for crown with Osiris; brother and
called mwt ntr mother of god, i.e., Theotokos): husband of Nephthys; appears as a human with
closely assoc with Sothis (Spdt Sirius); called great fantastic head (jackal-like, but non-existent) of
mother; divine mother; as ator Qudshu Baalat, long snout, ears; the Seth-animal has a jackal-
she stands on a lion; as a cow (ator) she is the Eye body, but a tail like lightning; his animals include
of R from whom mankind is born as tears; cf. Indic asses, antelopes, boars, scorpions, snakes, croco-

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Aditi Durg.
8. Seth (t, St, t); god of confusion; lord of the
typhonic animals; lord of storms (nb qri Pyr. 261a),
thunder, and earthquake; = Typhon (Herodotus;
Hittite stories see him as half-human, half-serpent, as
pp at war with Horus?) Baal Hadad; Seth of apuna
= Baal ephon
9. Nephthys Lady-of-the-Temple, -House (Nbt-wt);
goddess of the dead; companion of Isis; wrote names
of kings on leaves of sacred tree, as did Seshat in
Heliopolis.
diles, turtles, hippos, etc.
8. Nephthys; sister of Isis; sister-wife of Seth.
9. Thoth Ibis (Dwty); god of wisdom, order,
and of the moon nsw; called the beaked one;
inventor of arts, magic, music, medicine, arith-
metic, priesthood, hieroglyphs, and sciences; =
Hermes; husband of Seshat, goddess of writing
and history who wrote on leaves of sacred tree.
10. Horus Sky (rw); falcon; sun-god; lord of
the year (nb rnpt); = Apollo (Herodotus 450 BC).
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Nine Planets in Day-Name Order
1. Sun
Cf. Mitra Sun (Iranian Mithra);
Srya Sun (from Iran?) = Saviti
Impeller, Instigator
Cf.Aja-ekapd One-footed-goat,
a producer of lightning and possibly
solar.
2. Moon
Cf. Lakm, goddess of abundance and
wealth, sprung from sea (Sr).
Cf. also Soma, Haoma, god of celestial
ambrosia.
3. Mars
= Krttikeya, war-god (Subrahmanya).
4. Mercury
= Budha Wise, Intelligent
5. Jupiter
Cf. Jupiter-Pluvius, rain-god.
Bihaspati, name of a planet; sitting
on a frog; teacher and priest to gods;
has an iron axe.
6. Venus
Cf. Iranian Dava Brightly-Shining One, brilliant = Shakti-Um-Ambik-Prvat-Durg-
Enemy of Mazda = Lucifer = Venus
(evening and morning star).
7. Saturn
= ani, appearing as a black man
dressed in black; called Saptrchi
Seven-rayed, represents a seventh
layer of heaven, and seven-headed
snake likely assoc; cf. Sakha or
Cakshabhadra; (= Kronos).
8. Rhu Head
The ascending node (head of eclipse
dragon cut off from his body).
INDIC NAVAGRAHAS
The Nine Seizers
(following D. H. Kelley)
Gods of the Nine Planets Modern Assoc.
1. Agni Fire; lord of Vasus; he is called Sunday (Ravi)
Dhma=-ketu Whose-sign-is-smoke;
son of Brahm, or of the waters, or is
lightning from heaven; he is Mitra in the
morning, Saviti at midday, and Varua at
evening; appears as bird or bull; is the
Slayer of Vitra, and of the Rakases-
demons by fire; sometimes headless and
footless.
2. Vyana (cf. Indo-Iranian Vyu Wind, Air Monday (Soma)
= Indra; same as Iranian Vta, and Indic
Rudra, the breath of the gods; like Wodan
(Odhin?).
3. Kalmsha(-pda) Spotted-, Stained(-foot); Tuesday
dirt; sin; a vicious and cannibalistic god. (Magala)
4. Vishnu The Active; The Preserver? (in Wednesday
origin, a sun-god); his avatars are Rma and (Budha)
Kisha (-vasudeva). = Herakles (300 BC).
5. ukra (Suchi) The Bright, a name of Thursday (Guru;
Venus; author of a code of laws as Bihaspati or Bihaspati)
Lord of Devotion (cf. also Brahmanaspati).
6. Gaur The Radiant-White One, yellow, Friday (ukra)
Kl; wife of Shiva (sometimes of Varua);
= Dev Goddess, called Jagan-mt Mother-
of-the-world, and Mah-Dev Great-goddess,
and Kma Desire, as goddess of sex (Aphro-
dite Isis-ator), and Kanya Virgin, and
Mukti-kes With-dishevelled-hair, and Sinha-
rath Riding-on-a-lion.
7. Prajpati Lord-of-Crearures, -offspring; Saturday (ani)
high god in deer shape = Shiva-mahadv?,
(possibly a form of Shiva, the armed, black
Destroyer, called Paupati Lord of Creatures,
and Bhairava, or Bhairon The Fearful).
8. Gaapati = Gaea, the elephant-headed
patron of learning and literature, or wisdom
Head was cut off and replaced with that of
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9, Ketu Tail
The descending node (tail of eclipse-
dragon; cf. Greek ketos sea-monster;
whale; Zapotec Kedo).
elephant; cf. maha-nga great-snake (sender
of rain), and the four elephants at the cardinal
points who sent rain.
9. Visvakarm, Visvakarman All-creator, -maker;
Omnificent used for thirteen (Vedic Tvashi)
Lord of the arts, crafts, architecture,weaponry,
Mechanics, etc., and called Deva-vardhika builder
of the gods; cut away part of the sun.
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