Wars of Gods and Men - Zecharia Sitchin-pages

Page 31 of 368

Page 31 of 368
Wars of Gods and Men - Zecharia Sitchin-pages

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2X Therefore is he named from that day on "The Winged Mea- surer.". And they named after Horus, the Winged Measurer, the city of Hut "Behutet," from that day on. It was in Upper Egypt that the first battle, above reported, had taken place between Horus and "the enemies." Heinrich Brugsch, who first published the text of the inscription back in 1870 (Die Sage von der geflugten Sonnenscheibe), suggested that the "Land of Khenn" was Nubia, and that Horus had spotted the enemies at Syene (today's Aswan). More recent studies, such as Egypt in Nu- bia by Walter B. Emery, agree that Ta-Khenn was Nubia and that Ua-Ua was the name of its northern part, the area between the Nile's first and second cataracts. (The southern part of Nubia was called Kush.) These identifications seem valid, since the city of Behutet. which was granted to Horus as a prize for his first victory, was the very city of Edfu, which has been dedicated to Horus ever since. metal foundry, at which unique weapons made of "divine iron" were forged. It was there, too. that Horus trained an army of mesniu—"Metal People." They were depicted on the walls of the temple of Edfu as men with shaven heads, wearing a short tunic and a deep collar, carrying weapons in each hand. A depiction of an unidentified, harpoonlike weapon + was included in the hi- eroglyphic words for "divine iron" and "metal people." The mesniu were, according to Egyptian traditions, the first men ever to have been armed by the gods with weapons made of metal. They also were, as we shall soon gather from the unfolding tale, the first men to have been enlisted by a god to fight in the wars be- va Le wn. 4n The area between Aswan and Edfu now firmly secured, and men-warriors armed and trained, the gods were ready to advance northward, toward the heartland of Egypt. The initial victories ap- parently also strengthened the alliance of the gods, for we are told that the Asiatic goddess Ishtar (the Egyptian text calls her by her Canaanite name, Ashtoreth) had joined the group. Hovering in the sky, Horus called on Ra to scout the land below: And Horus said: "Advance, O Ra! Look for the enemies who are lying below, upon the land!" Then Ra, the Holy One, travelled forth; and Ashtoreth was THE WARS OF GODS AND MEN Traditions held that Edfu was where Horus established a divine tween the gods.