Return of the Eye, the Distant One

Scroll to myth

Searching for the Distant One

At this time of the year, the sun on the Northern hemisphere seems far away, our days are short and our nights are long. This must have seemed like a mystery to the ancients, who had no knowledge or understanding of the actual natural workings behind it. Instead they resorted to myths or legends, made up in times which were long gone already back then, and which explained the movements of the sun, the moon and other natural phenomena, as something which happened among the gods.

There is an elusive story, a myth about the "Wandering Goddess" or the "Return of the Distant One" or the "Return of the Eye". It is tempting to associate it to the Book of the Heavenly Cow and it has also a connection with the myth called the "Destruction of Mankind".

There was an old German egyptologist called Hermann Junker who lived 1877-1962. He did work at the Giza Plateau and lots of other things. Among these other things he made surveys of Greco-Roman temples. From the wall inscriptions in these, he pieced together things about this myth. He found references to the Eye of Re as a wild lioness in the form of Sekhmet/HetHert, who roamed the deserts and wadis in Nubia, far from Egypt, hunting and killing. She was in a rage, fire shot from her eyes and from her breath, nobody could come near her.

In short, it goes as this:
When HetHert/Sekhmet went to Nubia, the sungod Re wanted her back. Without her he had no protection from his enemies. (Other variations tell of Egypt being a sad land with no dancing, no singing, no merry-making while the Eye of Re in the shape of HetHert was gone.) So Re tells Djehuty (Gr: Thoth) and Shu, the god of air and winds) to go out and bring her back. Djehuty goes in his aspect of a baboon. It´s not clear if Shu uses baboon form too. They have to promise Sekhmet/HetHert in her lioness shape, that she will not have to work, she will have festivals and offerings and she can dance and make merry all the time, if only she comes back to Egypt. She agrees. ( I mean, who wouldn´t!) The place they enter Egypt again is by the 1st Cataract, Philae and the Abaton. (This reference places that version in the Late Period). The goddess is still in a temper, and Djehuty throws her into the water to cool her down. This helps, and she returns to her normal, beautiful and benevolent HetHert again. They can continue on their journey with no trouble.

The myth doesn´t tell why she went off in the first place. Was she getting impatient with Re for he was getting old and feeble? Or was it because she, when she was brought back to her senses after the "Destruction of Mankind", disliked the fact that the other gods interfered with her drinking and fooled her? Who knows. Answers are probably endless, myths are products of the human mind, they are ancient efforts to understand and explain the infathomable, the Divine. Myths have many purposes, in the best of cases they might get us closer to the Divine. In any case, they bring us into touch with what is most uniquely human - storytelling.

Glimpsing the Wandering Goddess

The earliest egyptological sources lie beyond my grasp at present, which is a bit irritating. I have to make do with secondary authors. But these all cite the same old guys so I guess I have to be content for now. The old guys are Hermann Junker who was the first one to decipher and write down the inscriptions on some Greco-Roman temple walls, Émile Chassinat, who made a complete documentation and publication of the Dendera temple, and Sylvie Cauville, who has translated the glyphs.

Inscriptions of the myth of the Distant Goddess, or, as it is also called, the Myth of the Return of the Eye, can be found on the temple walls of Dendera, Edfu and Dakka. Rundle-Clarke says that "stray allusions make it certain that it was in fact very ancient".

It´s clear that when in leonine form in Nubia, it is Sekhmet we´re dealing with. She transform into HetHert (Gr: Hathor) which is often said to be the benign form of Sekhmet but in some versions there is talk about Tefnut instead of Sekhmet. The reason for this might be that early on, both Shu (her spouse) and Tefnut were created in the form of two lion cubs. From this Tefnut got her leonine appearance, and here is a logical linking to Sekhmet, who was also depicted as a lion although the ears of Sekhmet are rounded, and the ones of Tefnut pointed.

One interesting thing is that in one version of the myth, Djehuty is said to entertain HetHert with animal fables in his efforts to pacify her and make her follow him back to Egypt. These fables have the theme of cosmic justice, one of them is the story called the Lion in Search of Man. It comes from the Leiden Demotic Papyrus I 384 and is published in Lichtheim, Vol III. Lichtheim is of the opinion that the myth about the Return of the Goddess is a narrative frame for these animal fables. I´m not sure I agree though the thought sort of presents a solution to the question of the origin and purpose of the myth. It would be more logical if it actually was a development out of the "Destruction of Mankind" but there´s another problem pertaining to that thought. (See below) Lichtheim gives as a possible reason for the myth being a framework; that animal fables were known since the New Kingdom, as a number of ostraca and illustrated papyrii from this period depicts animals in various human situations, exist. No textual evidence exists however, before the Late Period.

But why did she get angry with Re? It is told that HetHert/Tefnut had a quarrel with Re and went off in a huff. One thinks of the myth of the Destruction of Mankind and is inclined to say: "well of course, having been tricked by one´s friends into drinking a beastly lot of red beer and having been drunk to the point of falling asleep in the presence of said "friends", who wouldn´t be miffed?" But this version of the myth tells of HetHert being benign when waking up. No need to walk off. Hmmm.... another problem there.

Time periods might give a clue. When talking Egyptian myths it´s probably a good idea to differ between mythical time and linear time. The first one is a time-space continuum where gods live and act, where the universe is created, and where no humans yet appear. Existence seems to be circular, sort of. The second one, linear time, is definitely when humans have entered the stage and the gods have, (or are about to), withdrawn. So, without going into a long and winded explanation about the Eye of Re, let´s say that the myth of HetHert - also called Tefnut in this myth - is played out in the mythical time. That means that the reason for her being angry can´t be dependent on the myth about the Destruction of Mankind, can one? Humans weren´t supposedly created yet.

But if it was played out in linear time, then it could very well be so. But it doesn´t have to. For myth is myth after all, and we poor humans can´t sort it out, neither is it probably meant to be sorted out. All we can do, is to try and ponder and interprete, and for every interpretation, we may come a little bit closer to the Essence of the Divine, where no answers are neccessary. Definitively no definite ones *g*.

The Longest Night

The 21s of December, is the longest night here in the Northern hemisphere. This is visible in Egypt, probably by a difference of a couple of hours from the summer-period and there are egyptologists who hold the opinion that the myth "Return of the Goddess" was, at least in the Late Period, celebrating the sun´s return at this time. However, recent finds at Nekhen (Hierakonpolis) says that this festival was celebrated when the Inundation began, that is late June - early July.

There are inscriptions at the temple of Dakka in Nubia, which tells of how Hethert is coaxed back to Kemet by Djehuty (Gr: Thoth). He makes promises of festivites, music, dance and wine if she returns.

At the temple gateway at Medamud there is a hymn. Barbara Lesko ('The Great Goddesses of Ancient Egypt') says that it was sung at the celebration of HetHert´s return to Egypt from the southeast, where the wintersun rose. This is how it goes:

Come, oh Golden One, Who feeds on praise, because the food of her desire is dancing, who shines on the festival at the time of lighting [the lamps], who is content with the dancing at night. Come! The procession is in the place of inebriation, that hall of travelling through the marshes. Its performance is set, its order is in effect, without anything lacking therein.

When we in the northern lands begin to move towards the light, this myth is a suitable story. Like a fiery goddess, the sun will gain power for each day and life will return. As it always does.

Photo: Sunrise near Cairo -author