“The knot, a symbol of Hapi, represents the union of Upper and Lower Egypt. Relief from the temple in Luxor.
Hapi offers sacrificial offerings. The temple of Ramses II in Abydos.
The ancient Egyptians did not concern themselves with this because for them, the Nile was a reflection of the celestial river that traveled through the underworld and the earthly world. The source of the Nile was heavenly, just like everything that exists.
Without the Nile, there would be no Egypt, as Herodotus recorded: “Egypt is a gift of the Nile.” The floods that ensured bountiful harvests began with the rising of Sirius in the morning sky during the summer solstice, after which the Nile would flood the land for a hundred days, bringing fertility to it. Herodotus says that the Egyptians invested less effort in cultivating their fields than any other people. When the Nile receded, he says, they would sow the seed and then let pigs trample it; after that, they just had to wait for the harvest. They called the flood itself the arrival of Hapi. But it wasn’t always like that. It is recorded that once every five years, the water level of the Nile would It could be too high, and the villages would be destroyed by flood, or too low, so the land would turn into dust, threatening famine.
If someone from Egypt or foreigners drowned in the river, the city near which the water would eject the body took on the obligation to embalm the drowned person and bury them with all honors in a consecrated tomb.
The Colossi of Memnon. The symbol of Hapi is found on thrones.
HAPI – GOD OF THE NILE
Long live the good God,
favorite of Nun
Hapi, father of the Gods and Ennead
Opening lines from the Hymn to the Nile
Hapi was the Nile, life, and renewal. Although he did not belong to any ennead of gods, he was called the father of gods and associated with Nun, the primordial waters from which everything originated. There is no temple dedicated to Hapi himself, but there is no temple without at least one representation of this unusual deity or symbols associated with him, or at least a hieroglyph of his name or his symbol of the knot, a connection that unites Upper and Lower Egypt. He appears on sculptures and reliefs. Hapi has been depicted since ancient times, as well as during the New Kingdom and the Ptolemaic period. He is portrayed as a hermaphrodite, both male and female. His light blue or green body prominently features a protruding belly and large breasts, symbols of fertility and his ability to give and sustain life. He wore a symbol of Upper Egypt, a papyrus, or Lower Egypt, a lotus, on his head, as well as a knotted beard. He is almost always shown making sacrificial offerings consisting of papyrus, lotus, and two vases, or pouring a libation as a sacrifice.
Because of this duality, two Hapi figures often appear in depictions, facing each other, tying lotus and papyrus stems into a knot with the hieroglyph sema, symbolizing the unity of Upper and Lower Egypt. This hieroglyph can be found on every pharaoh’s throne, as well as on the thrones of all gods, indicating that it represents not only the connection of Upper and Lower Egypt, but also the vertical connection between heavenly and earthly Egypt. It is customary for this hieroglyph to always appear when a deity is sitting on a square throne.
THE NIL-OMETER
Since ancient times, the Egyptians built nilometers as part of the temples located along the Nile, which served as “monitoring” points for measuring the river’s water level. The most important nilometers were located on the island of Philae, as well as in Edfu, Esna, Kom Ombo, and Dendera, although the most famous one is on the island of Elephantine near Aswan.
The Egyptian calendar was based on the cycles of the Nile and consisted of twelve months of thirty days, further divided into three seasons: akhet, the flood season, peret, the growing season, and shemu, the dry season.
The Egyptians believed that the gods Khnum, Anuket, and Satis were the guardians of the Nile’s sources, and that Hapy was responsible for the waters that flooded the Egyptian land every year. During the floods, statues of Hapy were carried through cities and villages so that people could express their reverence and convey their prayers. Sacrifices were offered to him at dedicated locations.
teruje na ideju o kontinuiranom životnom ciklusu i obnovi. Hello and greetings to you,
God of the waters you are!
I come to you with water in hand!
I drink the water
that is as smooth as your work
before the great God
when the Nile comes to him,
when the crops are born for him
and the greenery grows for him.
And Bo The ox needs to be announced
when he peacefully appears!
Do not hinder the Nile from coming to me
so that I may reach the green fields!
I am forever
your beloved son!
A little further in the text, the righteous Sesostris speaks:
Kher ah’a is an area around the city of Heliopolis, revered as the end, the end of the Nile. The entire course of the Nile River is imagined as a snake stretching from the first cataract (Elephantine) to Kher ah’a at the beginning of the delta. Egyptians actually believed that the source of the Nile was on the island of Elephantine, and its end near Heliopolis (Egyptian Annu or On), which was located near present-day Cairo. We know that this is where the Nile delta begins, and when the pharaoh in the previous text calls upon the gods of Heliopolis, it means that his journey from the underworld to the light of day ends here, because the delta is no longer the Nile, it symbolically represents Sekhtet-Hetep, the Fields of Peace, or Sekhtet-Aaru, the Fields of Reeds, where the deceased would begin their new heavenly life.
It is not a coincidence that even the name of the city of Heliopolis, as the Greeks called it, means G
In Heliopolis, there was a stone called Ben Ben, according to ancient tradition, on which the Sun appeared in the form of a Phoenix, which the Egyptians called Ben – spirit, soul, light. In ancient times, this term also referred to the pyramids.
O you level in Kher ah’a that approaches the Nile from Busirida!
You let the Nile come and give birth to wheat
to be offered as food with your lips.
You offer a divine sacrifice to the gods, and the “sacrifice of emergence” (funerary sacrifice)
you give to the souls and the blessed deceased.
Within it (the level) is the serpent at the source rocks
in Elephantine – at the source of the Nile.
It comes in the waters and remains within the circle of Kher ah’a,
in the company of the Gods on the waters, until
its peaceful departure to West.
Oh, Gods of Kher ah’i, divine family,
open your waters to me!
Open your canals so that I may reach the water and enjoy it.
To eat from God’s grain and be satiated with food.
I rise with a proud heart equal to God in Kher ah’i.
Let them bring me sacrifices. I am supplied with the power of Osiris
from which I will never be separated!
All the potentials of future life are found in it. Only after that comes creation, as recorded about Atum in the Pyramid Texts (Pyramid of Pepi II.):
He who was born in Nun(nu)
When heaven was not yet created,
When earth was not yet created.
So we come again to what was said at the beginning: Hapi is the father of the gods. Born before all others, when neither heaven nor earth were yet created. He is the principle of the Father-Mother, giving and sustaining life. That is why perhaps the best expression for him is Happiness or the Bringer of Happiness, as the Egyptians called him. He has a miraculous ability to establish connections, for he is the Way, in this life and beyond. He is in a way that most sublime force of love, which has a need to give itself, constantly bringing life in all dimensions, not keeping anything for itself.
The Nile did not need temples to be built, it itself was the greatest Egyptian temple.