42. Μίσης, θυμίαμα στύρακα.
To Mise, Egyptian Goddess of Parturition(?)
Divine medium: styrax/storax
Θεσμοφόρον καλέω ναρθηκοφόρον Διόνυσον,
Law-bearer I call, fennel-stalk bearing Dionysian,
σπέρμα πολύμνηστον, πολυώνυμον Εὐβουλῆος,
Seed of many memories, many-named Good-Counselor,
ἁγνήν εὐίερόν τε Μίσην ἄρρητον ἄνασσαν,
Pure, holy, unspoken-of Queen Mise.
ἄρσενα καὶ θῆλυν, διφυῆ, λύσειον Ἴακχον·
Male and female, of two natures, liberating Iakchian.
εἴτ' ἐν Ἐλευσῖνος τέρπηι νηωι θυόεντι,
Whether in Eleusis’ joyful dwelling divine,
εἴτε καὶ ἐν Φρυγίηι σὺν Μητέρι μυστιπολεύεις,
Whether in Phrygia with the Mother of many mysteries,
ἢ Κύπρωι τέρπηι σὺν ἐυστεφάνωι Κυθερείηι,
Or in Kypros rejoicing with well-crowned Kytheria,
ἢ καὶ πυροφόροις πεδίοις ἐπαγάλλεαι ἁγνοῖς
Or on the wheat-bearing plain, glorious, pure,
σὺν σῆι μητρὶ θεᾶι μελανηφόρωι Ἴσιδι σεμνῆι,
With thou Mother divine, black-bearing Isis revered,
Αἰγύπτου παρὰ χεῦμα σὺν ἀμφιπόλοισι τιθήναις·
Egypt’s stream together with the surrounding cities are nursed.
εὐμενέουσ' ἔλθοις ἀγαθοῖς τελεουσ' ἐπ' ἀέθλοις.
Graciously come in goodness, bestow completion upon contestants.
NOTES
Mise is Egyptian Coptic for “to give birth.”[1]
The prefix mis- (μίσ-) is translated by the Liddell-Scott Lexicon as “hate” as in, misanthropia (μισανθρωπία), hatred of people; misogynia (μῑσογῠνία), hatred of women; or misandria (μῑσανδρία), hatred of men. However, that translation makes no sense in the context of this hymn. The Lexicon also shows the prefix “misth- (μισθ-)” as meaning hired, paid, wages.
Since Isis and the Nile are mentioned in this hymn there is reason to think that Mise is the Egyptian deity Mise. D.M. Murdock in his book Did Moses Exist? says that, “The Egyptian term for ‘birth’ is basically ms or mes (Collier, 155), while in Coptic it is mise” (Allen, J.P. (2000), 9). It is not uncommon for an Egyptian deity to be described as both male and female.
According to Barbara S. Lesko in The Great Goddesses of Egypt, Meskhenet is the Goddess who presides over childbirth. “…she represented one of the magical bricks on which the ancient woman squatted to give birth…She is found, assisting Isis and Nephthys, in the funerary rites.” (ps. 269-270) Meskhenet is often depicted as the actual birthing bricks a woman squatted on. She declares the child’s destiny at birth.
Meskhent is associated with both birth and with death. According to E.A. Wallis Budge in “The Shrine of Osiris on Water” (ps. 240-241), “Tradition declared that when Isis and Horus had reunited the members of the body of Osiris that Set had scattered, and wished to revivify the reconstituted body, they wrapped it up in the skin of the cow or bull which had been slain for the funeral sacrifice. This skin thus symbolized the human placenta, and when Osiris was enveloped in it he received ‘new life,’ and his exit therefore was regarded as his ‘new birth,’ i.e., ‘re-birth.’ The skin was called ‘Meskhent’ or ‘birthplace,’ but later the name was given to the tomb in general and even to the whole of a tomb region, or necropolis. (See Moret, Mysteres Egyptiens, p. 29; Junker, Die Stundenwachen, pp. 51ff.)”
A similar term is used to describe the tool used in the Egyptian “Opening of the Mouth” ceremony. In “The Book of the Opening of the Mouth” Budge translates, “With the iron tool (meskhet) wherewith he opened the mouths of the [Goddesses and G]ods doth he open the mouth.” (p. 253)
Thesmosphoros means law-bearer, an epithet of the immortal Goddess Demeter.
The “thyrsos” staff born by Dionysos/Bacchos and his devotees is made from a stalk of fennel topped by a pine cone and/or metal spike and adorned with grape-vines.
Dionysos is the immortal God of wine and its effects. Wine is a medium of union with the divine.
Anassa means Queen, Lady; addressed to Goddesses.
Iakchos is a mystic name of Dionysos shouted at his festivals.
Eleusis is a holy city on the Rarian Plain of Greece, home of the Eleusinian Mysteries of Demeter and her daughter, Kore.
Phrygia is in modern day Turkey.
Kypros (Cyprus) is a Greek island sacred to the immortal Goddess of love, Aphrodite.
Kythera (Cythera) is also a Greek island sacred to Aphrodite.
Interestingly, the word for fire and root are identical: puro (πυρο), literally "under-the-same-roof (π) + pure (υ) + flow (ρ) + ο."
Isis is the immortal Goddess of Egypt. The Nile River brought black mud to the agricultural fields each summer when it flooded.[2] The Egyptian stream is presumably the Nile River.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Allen, James P. Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs. Cambridge University Press, 2000.
--The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2005.
Budge, E.A.Wallis. The Book of the Dead. New York: Bell Publishing, 1960.
Collier, Mark, and Bill Manley. How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs. Berkeley/Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2003.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Parameter Theory & Linguistic Change, ed. Charlotte Galves, et. al., Oxford Studies in Diachronic & Historical Linguistics, Oxford University Press, Clarendon Street, Oxford, UK, 2012, p. 139. https://books.google.com/books?id=culoAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA139&lpg=PA139&dq=coptic+mise&source=bl&ots=TCGhdBxRv5&sig=f0JgsVoMSYhMzxufnv1_3wRRWFk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjiuM3_7LjKAhUFRiYKHezpC5gQ6AEIHzAC#v=onepage&q=coptic%20mise&f=false
Sudden Genius? The Gradual Path to Creative Breakthroughs, Andrew Robinson, Oxford University Press, Clarendon St, Oxford, UK, 2010.
https://books.google.com/books?id=k0ffIUIc5U0C&pg=PT246&lpg=PT246&dq=coptic+mise&source=bl&ots=hiYSFtRsf_&sig=nbcOdt1H9BkXuHFCerWiGv92Q3w&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwik6IOt7bjKAhVDKyYKHR-6BaIQ6AEIGTAA#v=onepage&q=coptic%20mise&f=false
Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, James P. Allen, Cambridge University Press, UK, 2014, p. 11
https://books.google.com/books?id=6KUdBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=coptic+mise&source=bl&ots=O5gk3Ee7Ow&sig=hC_OYy_21V5HP9Ca2x_Dj_4TGG4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi4nvK97bjKAhXKHR4KHf77Cn8Q6AEIIzAE#v=onepage&q=coptic%20mise&f=false
[2] http://www.ancient-egypt-online.com/river-nile-facts.html
To Mise, Egyptian Goddess of Parturition(?)
Divine medium: styrax/storax
Θεσμοφόρον καλέω ναρθηκοφόρον Διόνυσον,
Law-bearer I call, fennel-stalk bearing Dionysian,
σπέρμα πολύμνηστον, πολυώνυμον Εὐβουλῆος,
Seed of many memories, many-named Good-Counselor,
ἁγνήν εὐίερόν τε Μίσην ἄρρητον ἄνασσαν,
Pure, holy, unspoken-of Queen Mise.
ἄρσενα καὶ θῆλυν, διφυῆ, λύσειον Ἴακχον·
Male and female, of two natures, liberating Iakchian.
εἴτ' ἐν Ἐλευσῖνος τέρπηι νηωι θυόεντι,
Whether in Eleusis’ joyful dwelling divine,
εἴτε καὶ ἐν Φρυγίηι σὺν Μητέρι μυστιπολεύεις,
Whether in Phrygia with the Mother of many mysteries,
ἢ Κύπρωι τέρπηι σὺν ἐυστεφάνωι Κυθερείηι,
Or in Kypros rejoicing with well-crowned Kytheria,
ἢ καὶ πυροφόροις πεδίοις ἐπαγάλλεαι ἁγνοῖς
Or on the wheat-bearing plain, glorious, pure,
σὺν σῆι μητρὶ θεᾶι μελανηφόρωι Ἴσιδι σεμνῆι,
With thou Mother divine, black-bearing Isis revered,
Αἰγύπτου παρὰ χεῦμα σὺν ἀμφιπόλοισι τιθήναις·
Egypt’s stream together with the surrounding cities are nursed.
εὐμενέουσ' ἔλθοις ἀγαθοῖς τελεουσ' ἐπ' ἀέθλοις.
Graciously come in goodness, bestow completion upon contestants.
NOTES
Mise is Egyptian Coptic for “to give birth.”[1]
The prefix mis- (μίσ-) is translated by the Liddell-Scott Lexicon as “hate” as in, misanthropia (μισανθρωπία), hatred of people; misogynia (μῑσογῠνία), hatred of women; or misandria (μῑσανδρία), hatred of men. However, that translation makes no sense in the context of this hymn. The Lexicon also shows the prefix “misth- (μισθ-)” as meaning hired, paid, wages.
Since Isis and the Nile are mentioned in this hymn there is reason to think that Mise is the Egyptian deity Mise. D.M. Murdock in his book Did Moses Exist? says that, “The Egyptian term for ‘birth’ is basically ms or mes (Collier, 155), while in Coptic it is mise” (Allen, J.P. (2000), 9). It is not uncommon for an Egyptian deity to be described as both male and female.
According to Barbara S. Lesko in The Great Goddesses of Egypt, Meskhenet is the Goddess who presides over childbirth. “…she represented one of the magical bricks on which the ancient woman squatted to give birth…She is found, assisting Isis and Nephthys, in the funerary rites.” (ps. 269-270) Meskhenet is often depicted as the actual birthing bricks a woman squatted on. She declares the child’s destiny at birth.
Meskhent is associated with both birth and with death. According to E.A. Wallis Budge in “The Shrine of Osiris on Water” (ps. 240-241), “Tradition declared that when Isis and Horus had reunited the members of the body of Osiris that Set had scattered, and wished to revivify the reconstituted body, they wrapped it up in the skin of the cow or bull which had been slain for the funeral sacrifice. This skin thus symbolized the human placenta, and when Osiris was enveloped in it he received ‘new life,’ and his exit therefore was regarded as his ‘new birth,’ i.e., ‘re-birth.’ The skin was called ‘Meskhent’ or ‘birthplace,’ but later the name was given to the tomb in general and even to the whole of a tomb region, or necropolis. (See Moret, Mysteres Egyptiens, p. 29; Junker, Die Stundenwachen, pp. 51ff.)”
A similar term is used to describe the tool used in the Egyptian “Opening of the Mouth” ceremony. In “The Book of the Opening of the Mouth” Budge translates, “With the iron tool (meskhet) wherewith he opened the mouths of the [Goddesses and G]ods doth he open the mouth.” (p. 253)
Thesmosphoros means law-bearer, an epithet of the immortal Goddess Demeter.
The “thyrsos” staff born by Dionysos/Bacchos and his devotees is made from a stalk of fennel topped by a pine cone and/or metal spike and adorned with grape-vines.
Dionysos is the immortal God of wine and its effects. Wine is a medium of union with the divine.
Anassa means Queen, Lady; addressed to Goddesses.
Iakchos is a mystic name of Dionysos shouted at his festivals.
Eleusis is a holy city on the Rarian Plain of Greece, home of the Eleusinian Mysteries of Demeter and her daughter, Kore.
Phrygia is in modern day Turkey.
Kypros (Cyprus) is a Greek island sacred to the immortal Goddess of love, Aphrodite.
Kythera (Cythera) is also a Greek island sacred to Aphrodite.
Interestingly, the word for fire and root are identical: puro (πυρο), literally "under-the-same-roof (π) + pure (υ) + flow (ρ) + ο."
Isis is the immortal Goddess of Egypt. The Nile River brought black mud to the agricultural fields each summer when it flooded.[2] The Egyptian stream is presumably the Nile River.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Allen, James P. Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs. Cambridge University Press, 2000.
--The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2005.
Budge, E.A.Wallis. The Book of the Dead. New York: Bell Publishing, 1960.
Collier, Mark, and Bill Manley. How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs. Berkeley/Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2003.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Parameter Theory & Linguistic Change, ed. Charlotte Galves, et. al., Oxford Studies in Diachronic & Historical Linguistics, Oxford University Press, Clarendon Street, Oxford, UK, 2012, p. 139. https://books.google.com/books?id=culoAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA139&lpg=PA139&dq=coptic+mise&source=bl&ots=TCGhdBxRv5&sig=f0JgsVoMSYhMzxufnv1_3wRRWFk&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjiuM3_7LjKAhUFRiYKHezpC5gQ6AEIHzAC#v=onepage&q=coptic%20mise&f=false
Sudden Genius? The Gradual Path to Creative Breakthroughs, Andrew Robinson, Oxford University Press, Clarendon St, Oxford, UK, 2010.
https://books.google.com/books?id=k0ffIUIc5U0C&pg=PT246&lpg=PT246&dq=coptic+mise&source=bl&ots=hiYSFtRsf_&sig=nbcOdt1H9BkXuHFCerWiGv92Q3w&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwik6IOt7bjKAhVDKyYKHR-6BaIQ6AEIGTAA#v=onepage&q=coptic%20mise&f=false
Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, James P. Allen, Cambridge University Press, UK, 2014, p. 11
https://books.google.com/books?id=6KUdBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=coptic+mise&source=bl&ots=O5gk3Ee7Ow&sig=hC_OYy_21V5HP9Ca2x_Dj_4TGG4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi4nvK97bjKAhXKHR4KHf77Cn8Q6AEIIzAE#v=onepage&q=coptic%20mise&f=false
[2] http://www.ancient-egypt-online.com/river-nile-facts.html
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