Main	Deities A-Y	Cult Temples	History of Religion	Philosophy	Mythology	Festivals	Priesthood	Daily Life
Aset/Isis	Deities Specific	Abydos	Dendera	Karnak	Philae	Saqqara	Women	Other

Akhet - The Horizon

The Book of the Heavenly Cow

and

The Destruction of Mankind

Scroll to myth

The Book of the Heavenly Cow is one of the several books of the Afterlife though of an unusual kind. Its first appearance is from the tomb of Tutankhamun. It was inscribed on the outermost of the four gilded shrines, in incomplete form. Other and later, versions are to be found in the tombs of Set I, Ramesses II and Ramesses III. Each of them were inscribed in a subsidiary room of the burial chamber, especially set apart for this purpose but unfortunately none of these are complete. There is also a short excerpt of it in the tomb of Ramesses VI in one of the corridors, and an even shorter piece in a Ramesside papyrus in Turin. Altogether these make up six incomplete versions . After the New Kingdom the book fell out of use for the exception of it being included in the Book of the Fayium from the Roman period. It is unclear if all the pieces were originally present in all the tombs or if parts of them were simply excluded.

Early visitors copied the image of the cow from the tomb of Seti, and the first translation of its text came in French already 1876 and later same year also in English. Parallels to the biblical story of the Flood was drawn and a great interest was therefore raised. Since then the text has been translated and referred to quite often. A modern translation was done in 1983 by Erik Hornung, this one was complemented by a second edition with supplements and corrections in 1991.

The Book of the Heavenly Cow is not a regular manual for the King on how to get through the Afterlife. It is built on the myth called the "Destruction of Humanity" , which tells about the Sungod´s retiring from the earth and the subsequent restructuring of the Cosmos. This myth explains the world as it was structured in the ancient days with its divisions into heaven, earth, underworld and afterworld.

The 'Destruction of Humanity' is the central theme of the first part of the Book of the Heavenly Cow and it places emphasis on the Sungod as ruler. The importance for above mentioned kings to use the book in their tombs must be sought in this, as they were expected to "rise like Ra" to the skies after death, hopefully upon the back of the Heavenly Cow.

The latter part of the book deals with the concept of the Ba and its relation to the power of magic by which certain animals are the ba of special deities.

In the tale, the sky goddess Nut transforms herself into a cow on the order of Nun. Since Hathor too often is depicted as a cow, these two deities sometimes change places so that Nut takes on the role of Hathor as a funerary deity, depicted on the inside of coffin lids, and Hathor takes on the role of 'Sky Goddess'. Though this switching of roles sometimes happnes, Hathor has also her own special association with cows.

Here it is, freely retold:

The Destruction of Humanity

Or: From HetHert to Sekhmet

"In the Beginning, in the Golden Age, when Earth was a paradise and gods and humans lived together, Ra was the ruler of both gods and men. Day and night did not yet exist, for Ra had not begun his journey across they sky. Neither did death exist, thus there was no Netherworld. But Ra grew old, his bones became silver, his flesh became gold and his hair turned into lapis-lazuli. Then humanity started to plot against him, saying that he was too feeble to rule. Ra then called to him all the gods and goddesses; his "Eye", which was Hathor, and all the ancient fathers and mothers who were with him when he was resting in the Nun, the Primeval Waters, like Shu, Tefnut, Geb and Nut. Also Nun himself was called to come, and they all came.

When they were all gathered in secret, without humans knowing about it, and when they had all touched the grounds before Ra with their heads, as a sign of respect, Ra spoke and told them about the humans plotting against him. He asked them all what was to be done about it. And they all conferred and advised him to send against them his Eye, which was Hathor, to take revenge.

Hathor turned on her rage, she pursued humankind out into the desert and smote them and wallowed in their blood and drank it. Then she returned to Ra and told him: "I have overpowered humanity and it was sweet to my heart" and that she had earned herself a new name: "Sekhmet, She Who Prevails". The next day she intended to go down to earth and continue her slaughter, but Ra decided it was enough and wanted her to stop. He feared that she would kill all of humanity and therefore he summoned the "Side-Lock Wearer of Iunu", which is a title of the high priest of Ra at Iunu and asked him and his priesthood to grind a great amount of red mineral, which had been collected from the area around the 1st Cataract, into a powder. This was mixed with thousands of jars of beer so that it became red like blood. The beer was transported to the place where the goddess next intended to kill humankind and Ra let it be poured out over the fields.

When the goddess arrived, she saw her own reflection in the red beer, took it for blood and drank until she fell asleep from drunkenness without having given humanity a thought. When she woke up, she was changed back to her normal sweet Hathor and Ra welcomed her back. From that day onwards, alcohol was drunk at festivals of Hathor.

But after this uproar of the humans, the world can never be as it was before. Things have changed and a new order has to be established. Ra felt sick and weary, and decided to leave Earth to withdraw to the skies. So Nun then commands Nut to change herself into a cow so that Ra could rest on her back while she transports him to the heavens. Thus the Heavenly Cow came about. And because her dress had the color blue, the sky became the same color.

When the humans saw Ra leaving earth on the back of a cow and the Earth darken, some humans begged him to stay. They shot at his enemies and thus war and death comes about. From now on, humans have to fight and die, to maintain the Divine order.

Ra then asks Nut to ascend even higher so that he can observe the earth peacefully from a distance. Up there he created the Field of Abundance for the Heavenly Cow to graze on. He also created the Field of Reeds for men to come to in the Afterlife. Then he created the stars and the planets. Because of the height up there, Nut begins to tremble and Ra then creates the eight Heh gods who live in twilight, to help Shu to support the body of Nut. Also Neheh and Djet who are Time, helps with the support.

Up in the heavens, Ra also establishes the Netherworld for the dead, and populates it with serpents, whom he gives to Geb to rule over. As ruler of humankind, he puts Osiris, who rules over them together with his sister-spouse Isis. And as his own deputy he calls on the moon god Djehuty to rule the night sky. Thus begins the time when lesser gods rule the Earth.

Sources:
Ancient Egyptian Literature Vol II The New Kingdom - Miriam Lichtheim
The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife - Erik Hornung
Handbook of Egyptian Mythology - Geraldine Pinch
Gods of Ancient Egypt - Barbara Watterson