THE PYRAMIDS of the COLD • Chapter 47 The Eye of Horus: how its restoration is about the reconnection of the impactor with the hauling plug and Eye goddess Hathor

In summary: in this chapter of The Pyramids of the Cold, it is the Eye of Horus which will be deciphered, one if not the most important iconic symbol of the ancient Egyptian civilization. First, of course the Eye of Horus isn’t different from any other symbol already deciphered in the study: the Eye of Horus is nothing but another metaphor of how was operated the Great Pyramid of Khufu. It took me some time, but at the end it really wasn’t so difficult after all, because the deciphering of Horus himself had been made since a very long time; but I guess for the Eye of Horus to be understood, and the Eye of Ra, and the Eye goddess Hathor by the way, there was some minimum reconstitution of the impactor’s operation in the Grand Gallery that had to be made prior to the understanding of the Eye of Horus.

Because actually, there is nothing else to do that to invite you to look at the last version of the diagram of the operation of the Grand Gallery; once you have spotted Horus, you have his eyes right in front of you. The Eye of Horus is nothing but the association of the bollards of the impactor with the two eyes of the connecting plug. And because we’ve already seen that the impactor had been glorified into both Horus and Ra, well it is the Eye of Horus and the Eye of Ra that are appearing onto the wooden structure of the impactor.

We’ve also seen that when the impactor was released, the ropes and their connecting plug had to be disconnected to avoid any damage once the impactor is speeding inside the central wooden Djed caisson, and ramming into the waters of the inclined well. That exact moment, when the eyes of the connecting plug are disconnected with the bollards of the impactor, that is the moment when the Eye of Horus is broken and lost.

We'll see that when Egyptian texts are describing Hathor "restoring the Eye of Horus to the god", this is only their way of telling the story; today we would say instead that it was Hesat who brought back the Eye, and that once restored, this Eye became as much the Eye of Horus, as it became the Eye of Hathor.

[illustration] “Facsimile of a vignette from the Book of the Dead of Ani. Hathor, as the Mistress of the West (a goddess of the afterlife) emerges from a hill representing the Theban necropolis. She is depicted as a cow, wearing her typical the horns and sun-disk, along with a menat-necklace. Her eye is shaped like the sacred Eye of Horus. At bottom right is a stylized tomb.” Published by James Wasserman; facsimile made by E. A. Wallis Budge; original artist unknown - Scanned from The Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Book of Going Forth by Day by James Wasserman et al. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hathor#/media/File:BD_Hathor_Mistress_of_the_West.jpg

It only is when the impactor (which has been glorified into Horus and Ra) is connected though its two bollards to the hauling plug (which has been glorified into the Eye goddess Hathor) that the Eye of Horus and the Eye of Ra are finally restored, and the hauling process is thus underway.

47.01  When Hathor and Isis can't be distinguished one from another

“Hathor was often depicted as a cow bearing the sun disk between her horns, especially when shown nursing the king. She could also appear as a woman with the head of a cow. Her most common form, however, was a woman wearing a headdress of the horns and sun disk, often with a red or turquoise sheath dress, or a dress combining both colors. Sometimes the horns stood atop a low modius or the vulture headdress that Egyptian queens often wore in the New Kingdom. Because Isis adopted the same headdress during the New Kingdom, the two goddesses can be distinguished only if labeled in writing.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hathor

47.02  The ancient Egyptian way of telling the story of the restoration of the Eye of Horus: Hathor brings it back

We’ve already seen that it is extremely difficult to distinguish Hathor from Isis, and the reason is because they were all tied up together, Hathor being a deification of the hauling plug and Isis a deification of the hauling ropes; here, we learn that it is Hathor who is bringing his Eye back to Horus; but this is the ancient Egyptian way of seeing what happened. Today, we would rather say that this isn’t Hathor, but another kind of Hathor who is bringing the Eye back: and that is Hesat, the Hathor-like cow goddess with the flail pointing toward her back.

“Hathor's relationship with Horus gave a healing aspect to her character, as she was said to have restored Horus's missing eye or eyes after Set attacked him. In the version of this episode in "The Contendings of Horus and Set", Hathor finds Horus with his eyes torn out and heals the wounds with gazelle's milk.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hathor

Operating diagram of the Great Pyramid of Khufu for flash-evaporative cold production.

Hesat is the hauling plug with her own eyes, that has been released in the central wooden Djed caisson of the Grand Gallery, 'running' to rejoin the impactor Horus, reconnect with him and restore the two incomplete Eyes of Horus.

47.03  The modern way of telling the story of the restoration of the Eye of Horus: Hesat brings it back

The above diagram of the Grand Gallery’s operation in the Great Pyramid, explains the whole story about Horus loosing his Eye, and why it is said that the Eye of Horus has been broken. Everything about the Eye of Horus is about:

•  the fact that the impactor of the Great Pyramid has been glorified into Horus

• the fact that the two bollards of the impactor, could be either connected to the hauling plug and its two eyes (whether they were real complete rings or ramshorn hooks), or not.

When the plug is connected, Horus has his two complete eyes, and when the plug is disconnected, then the two parts of the eyes are separated and the eyes are broken and lost. And when the hauling plug is coming back to rejoin the floating impactor in the inclined well, the eyes of Horus are now restored.

It is important to note that if it is Hesat, descending the Grand Gallery with water plumes on her back (the flail), it only is when Hesat connects with the impactor and becomes Hathor that Horus gets his complete eyes back. In short, when the hauling plug is connected to Horus, it becomes Hathor and Horus has his two complete Eyes back.

“Hathor's relationship with Horus gave a healing aspect to her character, as she was said to have restored Horus's missing eye or eyes after Set attacked him. In the version of this episode in "The Contendings of Horus and Set", Hathor finds Horus with his eyes torn out and heals the wounds with gazelle's milk.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hathor

“Hesat (Heset, Hesahet, or Hesaret) was a cow goddess of Ancient Egypt who was considered to be the earthly manifestation of Hathor.” https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/hesat/

47.04  Hesat: the Hathor-like cow goddess with the flail pointing to her back

With Hesat, we have the umpteenth illustration of one of the most important and revealing modus operandi used by ancient Egyptians to create their fantastic bestiary of gods and goddesses. The term ‘bestiary’ is really appropriate here, because Egyptians found in animals all the analogies necessary to encode all the information they wanted to brag about, and hide it all at the same time. What they really were obsessed with, is the notion of cycle; and they didn’t do what I’m doing in talking about the hauling plug ascending or descending the Grand Gallery: instead they created one goddess for the ascending plug (that is ‘regular’ Hathor), and they created another goddess to represent the same plug descending the Gallery, and that is Hesat (the one with the flail).

And again, the flail is the key because it is the Egyptian way of representing the plumes of water created at the back of the descending and speeding hauling plug inside the hollow wooden wet guide rails of the central wooden Djed caisson. In short, the plug and the impactor used the same guide rails and water was used in both cases as lubricant; hence the flail pointing to the back of Hesat, just like we’ve already seen with the Apis bull (remember that Hesat is the weighed plug descending the Gallery, and the Apis bull precisely is about the weight that accompanies the plug).

This is why Hesat is so strongly connected to bulls, and to Anubis (remember that Anubis known as ‘the Opener to the ways to the North’ is the glorification of the idea of ‘skate blades sliding into wet guide rails to the North of the Gallery’)

“Hesat is an ancient Egyptian goddess in the form of a cow. She was said to provide humanity with milk (called "the beer of Hesat") and in particular to suckle the pharaoh and several ancient Egyptian bull gods. In the Pyramid Texts she is said to be the mother of Anubis and of the deceased king. She was especially connected with Mnevis, the living bull god worshipped at Heliopolis, and the mothers of Mnevis bulls were buried in a cemetery dedicated to Hesat. In Ptolemaic times (304–30 BC) she was closely linked with the goddess Isis” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesat

47.05  The ‘recumbent’ Hesat carrying the Eye is actually Hathor speeding down the Grand Gallery with water plumes behind its path

So, Hathor is the glorification of the hauling plug, towing up the impactor toward the top of the Grand Gallery, that’s fine; but we’ve already seen many times that Egyptians used to represent not just individual parts of an operating system, but the full operating cycle of operation. And this is what Hesat, ‘one of Hathor’s manifestations’, is all about. Hesat is always represented in what egyptologists describe as ‘recumbent’, and it is right to say that in the way that the Hesat cow isn’t about the hauling process; but Hesat isn’t really recumbent at all: she is about the hauling plug descending the Grand Gallery after being released from the top of the Gallery so that she could be reattached with the floating impactor.

The above painting is certainly one of the most beautiful pieces of evidence describing the operation of the Grand Gallery: just like the impactor, the hauling plug also had to move by sliding into the hollow guide rails in which water was running through at some point; and this is exactly what is described here. And again, because Hesat was speeding into wet hollow guide rails, she was projecting massive water plumes behind her path: this is why there is also a flail pointing toward her back (see the Annex section for more examples of the use of the flail).

“In Egyptian mythology, Hathor is one of the main cattle deities as she is the mother of Horus and Ra and closely associated with the role of royalty and kingship. Hesat is one of Hathor's manifestations, usually portrayed as a white cow representing purity and the milk that she produces to give life to humanity.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesat

'Book of the Dead' of Ani (frame 37): Spell 185 continued. “The text above her is in praise of Hathor, patroness of the west, who is represented as a cow emerging from the western mountain at Thebes into the clumps of papyrus that fringe the Nile Valley.” This is the last frame of the funerary papyrus belonging to the Royal Scribe and Granary Overseer, Ani. Papyrus EA10470,37 at the British Museum: britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA10470-37

47.06  Hathor, Hesat or both?

Here, it is supposed to be Hathor descending a hill, but if I’m right it would actually be the other form of Hathor: Hesat, descending the Grand Gallery at full speed because of the counterweight the goddess has on her back, and presenting the connecting eye that is the Menat necklace in front of her. Maybe ancient Egyptians saw both goddesses as one single deity, the same way I do, calling her the ‘hauling plug’; one part of the cycle she was going up, participating in the hauling process, and the other part she was going down to reconnect with the floating impactor.

Preface

Next chapter

Previous chapter

Table of contents

Operating diagrams of the Great Pyramid

Timelines

Index