Depiction of Egyptian Mythology in media

[Sigma]

I'm writing this post partially as to meet new cryteria for PM but also I think it could be intresting topic of discusion, so I was watching new season of Doctor Who and they braught back Sutekh (aka Set) who previously appeared in 1975 serial Pyramids of Mars, that made me thinking about how sporadicly egyptian mythology is refrenced in media in actually meaningfull detail, because I realised that most people don't know egyptian mythology beyond anubis, and like I can't recall any show actually using it in a meaningful way for plotpoints like beyond being refrence for like mummies tombs trope, but beyond that the only show I would say was using egyptian mythology very heavily was papyrus (french cartoon and comic series) that kinda uses elements of myths and using characters of gods to tell classical heros journey narrative. So why is egyptian mythology not widely recognised or used in media?

 

[Robert Ramsay]

You might want to look at Marvel's "Moon Knight" series. "Stargate" was also heavily influenced by Egyptian mythology. Enki Bilal's "Nikopol Trilogy" of graphic novels has the Egyptian gods (a spacefaring race of aliens) returning to Earth. There are many more examples, but those are three good ones.

 

[Rowena]

So why is egyptian mythology not widely recognised or used in media?

Perhaps because it's seen as old-fashioned.
There was a huge interest in all things Egyptian from the Napoleonic period through to the 1920s, but interest seems to have waned somewhat since then.

 

[Taudefindi]

how sporadicly egyptian mythology is refrenced in media in actually meaningfull detail

Let's be honest, aside maybe Greek(and maybe Roman)mythology, most mythologies are "sporadically referenced in meaningful detail".

Norse mythology has seen a boon in popularity in the last years, sometimes we still see Celtic myths show up as well.But how about the less spoken of mythologies?Slavic mythology?Polinesian?Thai?Caribbean?Inuit?Persian?Incan?Mayan?We don't see much of those, even more so than Egyptian.

the only show I would say was using egyptian mythology very heavily was papyrus (french cartoon and comic series)

Despite the bad cast of many characters for the movie, and the seemingly "high-tech aspect of gods", I do think that there were many things done correctly when it came to the representation of the mythology of egypt in that movie "Gods of Egypt".We also have the entire Rick Riordan books of fiction that deal with many mythologies(of course many things are changed to adapt to a Young Adult plot, but I do think they/he do their/his due diligence in showing more of the myths).

"Stargate" was also heavily influenced by Egyptian mythology

Glad I wasn't the only oldie here that remembered that bit.I never watche much of it, but the few I saw always made me wonder "why there are Egyptians in space?".

Perhaps because it's seen as old-fashioned.
There was a huge interest in all things Egyptian from the Napoleonic period through to the 1920s, but interest seems to have waned somewhat since then.

Now it's Norse mythology, maybe Irish mythology too.I'm also seeing a boon in Chinese and Japanese mythology due to more works of those countries being more exported to the rest of the world through fictional media like animations and webtoons.

 

[Robert Ramsay]

Glad I wasn't the only oldie here that remembered that bit.I never watche much of it, but the few I saw always made me wonder "why there are Egyptians in space?".

As I recall, the aliens basically exported Egyptians from Earth as slave labour, through the Stargate, to the rest of their empire.

 

[neilwilkes]

Nerd Alert! I am a huge Stargate fan, all 3 series (SG-1, SG-A and also SG-U)
Stargate SG-1 wasn't just Egyptian mythology, not by a long, long way.
It went like this (very basically - I can give more details if anyone wants)
Ra (the first of a race called the Goa'Uld) came to Earth in pre-dynastic times and took a host from the locals, and ended up shipping thousands to different planets. The Goa'Uld are parasitic aliens who take over the host body, subsuming it's host mind & becoming dominant over it. They all took the names of various 'Gods' because they use False Religion as a means of power & control, causing the subjugated humans to worship them as Gods. Some took Egyptian forms (Hathor, Seth, Apophis etc) and others took other names (The Jade Emperor (whose name escapes me), and many others) and it goes on from there as SG-1 meet other races (The Knoxx, The Asgard (who look like Roswell Greys) and so on.
It's a whole heap of fun

 

[Xenophon]

I'm writing this post partially as to meet new cryteria for PM but also I think it could be intresting topic of discusion, so I was watching new season of Doctor Who and they braught back Sutekh (aka Set) who previously appeared in 1975 serial Pyramids of Mars, that made me thinking about how sporadicly egyptian mythology is refrenced in media in actually meaningfull detail, because I realised that most people don't know egyptian mythology beyond anubis, and like I can't recall any show actually using it in a meaningful way for plotpoints like beyond being refrence for like mummies tombs trope, but beyond that the only show I would say was using egyptian mythology very heavily was papyrus (french cartoon and comic series) that kinda uses elements of myths and using characters of gods to tell classical heros journey narrative. So why is egyptian mythology not widely recognised or used in media?

Egyptian mythology is rather complex and writers are working against a deadline. So they tend to wiki-paste their pastiches together with an eye on the clock, not veracity. I quit watching TV with my doctor sister because during medical shows she says, "That's not what doctors do!" about as often as Brandon De Wilde screams "Shane!" in the eponymous movie. (Say, three times a minute.) There's an old saying about film technical advisers: "The producers get to slap an authority's name on the credits; the adviser? He just gets ulcers and high-blood pressure from being ignored."

 

[Robert Ramsay]

Egyptian mythology is rather complex and writers are working against a deadline. So they tend to wiki-paste their pastiches together with an eye on the clock, not veracity. I quit watching TV with my doctor sister because during medical shows she says, "That's not what doctors do!" about as often as Brandon De Wilde screams "Shane!" in the eponymous movie. (Say, three times a minute.) There's an old saying about film technical advisers: "The producers get to slap an authority's name on the credits; the adviser? He just gets ulcers and high-blood pressure from being ignored."

I'm glad I know only a little about Egyptian mythology in that case

I have friends who know a lot about WW2 military history, and their codename for this is "That's the wrong kind of tank"

I am like this with quantum physics

I still enjoyed Moon Knight, regardless of how accurate/inaccurate it was.

 

[Xenophon]

I'm glad I know only a little about Egyptian mythology in that case

I have friends who know a lot about WW2 military history, and their codename for this is "That's the wrong kind of tank"

I am like this with quantum physics

I still enjoyed Moon Knight, regardless of how accurate/inaccurate it was.

Aristotle says appreciation of dramatic art sometimes calls for "the willing suspension of disbelief." Something occultists, like other experts, often balk at. See it's like you have to bracket your technical knowledge and make this leap of faith into the writer's world. A process exactly analogous to the quantum leap in contemporary physics, might I add.

 

[Robert Ramsay]

A process exactly analogous to the quantum leap in contemporary physics, might I add.

It's only like that because the usual 'explanation' of quantum physics is not an explanation at all. As Pauli was fond of saying: "It's not even wrong"

 

[Xenophon]

It's only like that because the usual 'explanation' of quantum physics is not an explanation at all. As Pauli was fond of saying: "It's not even wrong"

I was just funnin' there Marshall. Din't mean no harm. Still can you imagine what Hollywood could do with a film about Egyptian myths and quantum physics?

 

[Robert Ramsay]

I was just funnin' there Marshall. Din't mean no harm. Still can you imagine what Hollywood could do with a film about Egyptian myths and quantum physics?

I believe you just described Stargate @neilwilkes can confirm

 

[Xenophon]

I believe you just described Stargate @neilwilkes can confirm

Did Stargate actually have quantum physics or just unexplained science? I mean, if you have McGyver you don't need no stinkin' quantum physics.

 

[neilwilkes]

Did Stargate actually have quantum physics or just unexplained science? I mean, if you have McGyver you don't need no stinkin' quantum physics.

Stargate was surprisingly well done, all things considered - probably because it wasn't made in Hollywood where the main drive seems to be 'The Message' & political agendas first, entertainment second (just look at how Disney have murdered Star Wars and jumped up & down all over it's cold, dead corpse!)
Personally speaking I don't buy into things like Black Holes and the whole 'Gravity only' theories of modern times but in Stargate we get a plethora of concepts - Quantum Physics is something I feel instinctively is incorrect but there was a whole series of storylines that dealt with a 'Quantum Mirror' that functioned as a gateway to alternate realities (based on the so-called 'Copenhagen Interpretation' of Quantum Mechanics IIRC, AKA the 'Multiverse' idea - again something that I think is simply batshit crazy, but this probably isn't the thread to expound on my personal cosmology so suffice it to say that I am firmly convined there are indeed many dimensions (or as Dee called them 'Aethyrs') but they could probably be better described as 'overlapping realities' - for example, our eyesight is pitifully inadequate & we literally cannot see most of what is going on around us on a daily basis. We see the world in a very different way to other creatures we can percieve and I am certain that there are many creatures or beings that co-exist in our world but that are literally invisible to us. But yet again I digress and apologise for doing so.
Stargate took so much more than just Egyptian myth - it also used Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Mayan, Norse - the race called the Goa'Uld used 'false religion' as their means of controlling their slave labour by pretending to be Gods when in truth they were just parasites with genetic memory.
The 2 spinoff shows - Stargate Atlantis & Stargate Universe (sadly scrapped after just 2 seasons) were just as good as the original SG-1 series, which itself was infinitely superior to the hollywood Roland Emmerich directed film, and casting Richard Dean Anderson in the part of Jack O'Neill was pure genius in the TV series because he brought the character to life & made him plausible in all the ways that the original actor playing him in the film just didn't do (his name escapes me at the time of writing this - if I can recall it I'll edit this later).
If you're in the USA there is a superb Blu-ray uprez set of all 10 seasons available, but it's not available outside the USA (although a PM may secure a set of these in MP4.....)

 

[Robert Ramsay]

there was a whole series of storylines that dealt with a 'Quantum Mirror' that functioned as a gateway to alternate realities (based on the so-called 'Copenhagen Interpretation' of Quantum Mechanics IIRC, AKA the 'Multiverse' idea

The Copenhagen Interpretation is actually the opposite of any Multiverse interpretation - you may just have remembered it wrong, or they messed up

 

[Xenophon]

The Copenhagen Interpretation is actually the opposite of any Multiverse interpretation - you may just have remembered it wrong, or they messed up

Nah, they couldn't mess up. I just read in the "Irony and Magick" how the movies are a reliable guide to life.

 

[neilwilkes]

The Copenhagen Interpretation is actually the opposite of any Multiverse interpretation - you may just have remembered it wrong, or they messed up

Sorry about that, and thank you for the correction. It is me who messed up here

Post automatically merged: Jul 16, 2024

Back to the Stargate SG-1 and the Goa-Uld though, and how they were drawing from so much more than just Egyptian Pantheons, although it is from the Egyptian side that we see the most.
Whilst the 'supreme' system lord was Ra, who ruled over all of the System Lords, each of the system lords used a god form from Earth's past (there is a good reason for this in the series, but for those who have not seen it I don't want to spoil the story as there is an over-tiding arc across all seasons in addition to the episodic & separate one-off storylines). There were (not limited to & in no particular order) some of the following:
Egyptian Entities:
Apophis - Ra's brother
Anubis - Banished by the others because they considered him too much, which really is saying something.
Also making appearances were Seth, Heru'ur, Bastet, Hathor and a whole pantheon of minor ones - see

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Non-Egyptian:
Yu - The Chinese Jade Emperor
Kali - Indian goddess
Cronos - one of the Greek Titans
Amaterasu - Japanese Sun Goddess
Baal - CaananiteStorm Deity
Camulus - Celtic Briton God of War
Morrigan (an Irish version of Hecate)

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- Hindu Goddess of Death, Decay & Sorrow
Olokun - African God of The Sea
Ares - Greek God of War