In the Eye of the Beholder

Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but some things are unequivocally beautiful, like rainbows.

    Arco Iris, "Rainbow" in Spanish -photo by JulieO. /chthonickore

The Greek goddess Iris was the messenger of the gods personified as the rainbow. Hermes was also called "messenger of the gods"(Angelus Athanaton). Both Hermes and Iris were shown in art with the common symbol of a staff called a kerykeion or caduceus. 

    Iris Goddess with Caduceus and Ewer of Water from River Styx, Attic Red-figure pottery, c. 480 BC

If we call Hermes the messenger of the gods, as in the "ear"(ancient Egyptian mesedjer), then Iris can be said to be the "eye"(ancient Egyptian ir) of the gods.  But even here we can see a connection between Iris and Hermes in the English. The "Ir", in Iris can be pronounced like "eye" or "ear." And we hear with our ears (Hear-mes). We are given information by way of our ears and eyes. They are our messengers.

An iris is a part of an eye.

The word iris comes from Greek and "was used of any bright circle [OE]," even the eye-like markings on peacock feathers.

    Eyespots on Peacock Feathers - Irides[Iri-days] or Irises

And remember any rainbow in the sky is actually a circle so it is an iris, i.e., a bright circle, however we usually see just part of the circle so we see a bow or an arc.

The Hebrew letter ayin (eye-yeen),

    Found this Ayin on my Driveway, photo by Julie O. /chthonickore

was derived from the Proto-Semitic ayin. It is a letter of the Phoenician alphabet as well, but has a circular "eye" or "O" shape.  It was derived "perhaps" from the ancient Egyptian hieroglyph ir / iri / irt, jr- "eye". This eye hieroglyph / pictograph was used as a determinative (it represented the word) for certain verbs such as "see, make, watch, create, beget, construct, do, act". These meanings are not too far off then in concept to the verb "go," in Latin which is ire "to go" and eo "I go". 

Eye Hieroglyph - ir / iri / irt "eye";  mAa "make"; mAA "see"; rs "watch, be awake"; schp "to be blind"                     

The Hebrew word aiyn is "eye; to see", but as in ancient Egyptian and other languages, it is a complex word and has many extended meanings including that of "spring"(of water). In English, for example, we say that the spots on potatoes are "eyes," or "eye" can refer to someone's opinion, "How does this seem in your eyes?"or a certain ability, "She has a good eye for fashion." And we say, "I see what you mean," when we understand.

Uraeus from Greek ouraîos ούραiος "on its tail", was the name given by the Greeks to the symbol for the ancient Egyptian snake goddess Wadjet (Wadjat / Uadjet / Uadjat), from wadj, "papyrus / green," whom they called Buto (from the name of her city), in her depiction as a rearing cobra. So maybe we could say Uraeus is ouraîos "on its tail," as in "raised up," or even "tail-ed"so to speak, from Greek ourá  ουρά "tail," not as in having a tail, but tailed up, or up "on its tail".

Uraeus is the Greek name for the ancient Egyptian symbol transliterated [in English] as iaret / iyret, j'r.t, with the meaning, "rearing cobra, risen one," in ancient Egyptian. We can see that iaret is similar to the word ir "eye" with the feminine ending "-et" added, like eye-et. The eye is in fact the "risen one", that is, when the eye opens one is awake and alive, or conscious, and the dawn is the rising of the eye in the sky. So there is a very complex and mystical connotation to the notion of an open eye.

Iaret (rearing cobra) is a symbol for the snake goddess, and a rearing cobra does have visual similarities with an eye or eyes.

    Egyptian Cobra (Rearing Cobra or Eye of God?)

The hieroglyphic symbols known as the "Eye of Horus" and "Eye of Ra," were adorned painted eyes with particular markings underneath. The personified Eye of Horus was also called wadjet / udjat (the name of the snake goddess "green / papyrus [one]"). Like many important symbols in ancient Egypt these eyes were often used as protective amulets.

    Eye of Ra/Solar Eye/Eye of Horus/Wadjet - Right Eye

Sometimes the markings on the wadjet, the Eye of Horus, are said to come from the face markings of a falcon. Horus and Ra are both portrayed with the head of a falcon in ancient Egyptian artistic representations. Falcons are known for having keen eyesight.

    Lanner Falcon

The right eye is often said to be associated with the sun, and called the Solar Eye, and Eye of Ra, and the left eye with Horus, or other times, the Lunar god Thoth, and the moon. However, there seems to be a lot of confusion regarding the exact distinctions. The lack of clarity seems to illustrates how the varying ancient traditions, in an attempt to explain the complex mythology through many different, but similar stories, often overlap. And so there is a lot of mingling of ideas from one concept, or god / goddess, to the next, as well as the influence that changing cultures and power structures have over the expression, understanding and practice of the religion over long periods of time. 

    Eye of Horus/Eye of Thoth/Lunar Eye/Wadjet - Left Eye

     A Left Ir "eye", Wadj "green" Colored Eye, photo by Julie O. /chthonickore

Some people say the markings are reminiscent of the eye markings on a cheetah as well. Cheetah is from chitakra, Sanskrit "hunting leopard, tiger," with the literal meaning of "speckled," from chitra-s "distinctly marked, variegated, many-colored, bright, clear", from proposed PIE *kit-ro, root (s)kai- "bright, shining," like the sky.  So we might say a rainbow is chitra "colored, bright" and irises are chitra and a rainbow is found in the sky (skai- "bright, shining"). 

The goddess Iris also traveled swiftly, like a cheetah, in the sky where we can see her rainbow.

Cheetah skin in ancient Egypt was thought to represent the stars, the night sky and eternity. Cheetah or Leopard skins, or painted cloths representations skins were worn by lumutef-priests in ancient Egypt.

"Leopard-skin" robe of the priest, Harnedjitef, probably 1st century A.D., Roman Period, The Met

Chaya from Sanskrit means "shadow; brilliance, luster" in Greek skia means "shade".

A meaning of both brilliance, luster and shadow? The pattern of shade that leaves make under a tree can be variegated light and dark and might look like cheetah skin, the pattern which can also be likened to the stars in night sky. The night sky which is "brilliant" and "lustrous".

  Cheetah- Vicky Potts, Earthwatch

The Egyptian goddess Seshet / Seshat, sSt meaning "scribe, record keeper" with "-et " feminine ending, was the goddess of knowledge, wisdom and writing, also reading, arithmetic and architecture, building, surveying, astronomy, astrology. She was shown wearing a cheetah or leopard hide in art. Seshet was the female counterpart of Thoth, sometimes called his daughter or at other times, his wife.

    Seshet (with cheetah skin garment) at Amun Temple, Luxor c. 1250 BCE

Sesh, sS means "scribe," and also "chord" as in, a mason's line which is used for measuring and aligning foundations for buildings. So the chord (sesh) was a string with a record or memory of a certain length.  

In music, a chord or string on an instrument vibrates in a bow shape. And when you play a certain chord you get a certain sound. So its memory is present to us in the name of the cord. A composer then scrivens (as a scribe) the chords on a paper, musicians read and play the music, and it can then be audibly recorded.

Seshet has an interesting symbol on her head dress or crown. What does it mean? 


   Seshet 

There are many ideas about the meaning of the symbol, which is also the hieroglyph for her name. Some people say that the dome (bow, arc) or "umbrella"(from Latin umbra "shade, shadow") is a pair of downturned horns, which were maybe originally a crescent, linking Seshet to Thoth the moon god. And some people say that the seven point object is maybe a papyrus plant, i.e., wadj, linking to her role as inventor of writing, and as mistress of the library. One of her titles is translated as "Mistress of the house of books." Some people even claim that it is a cannabis plant and that Seshat is the goddess of cannabis (maybe her title would be Meri ("beloved" Egyptian) - juana, and her association with rolled "paper" couldn't hurt either). There may be truth to some or all of these, but something is still missing. 

The whole symbol actually reminds me of the enchanted rose in Disney's "Beauty and the Beast." The enchanted rose is protected under a glass case that has a bell or dome shape. The prince, who was turned into a beast by an enchantress, was required to learn to love before the last petal fell from his rose, in order for the spell to be broken. Also, the reason why Belle has to go live with the beast, in the first place, is because the only present she wanted from her father was a rose, and he takes a rose from the beast's garden for her. In the classic story, when the teardrops (dew) from Beauty / Belle's eyes fall (rain) on the beast, after she returns to him when he is at the point of death, the beast turns back into handsome prince.

  The Enchanted Rose (or "Dew"?), from Disney's Beauty and the Beast,Protected by a Glass Bell (Belle?)

It is true that a rose does not look like the kind of "flower" that is in the Seshet hieroglyph, however, there would undoubtedly be some merging and morphing between words and symbols in myths and fairy tales over thousands of years of time.

Rosa is "rose" in Latin and Ros is "dew." One of the epithets of Iris was Roscida "dewey" in Latin. So we could say that the goddess might be represented by a rose, when originally she was represented by ros "dew". 

       Dew Dops on a Rose, photo by Ailis O'Reilly

In ancient Egyptian id / idt / iad had the meaning "to cense", "pour out a libation", and as a noun "incense", "incense offering," "dew." This connection between incense and dew makes sense perhaps if we think of incense as being made from drops of resin from trees like myrrh and frankincense, and the scent then rains down or "dews" upon burning it. Also, water, is often ritually sprinkled, and sometimes together with the incense being burned, so they would both rain down or "dew" together. 

This passage here talks about a "sprinkling" ritual that was supposed to be carried out every morning in Heliopolis,

The washing or sprinkling of the living and the dead king seems to have been a feature of the sun-cult of Heliopolis. The sun-god Rē -Atum was supposed to wash or be washed every morning before he appeared above the eastern horizon. As a result of his daily matutinal ablutions, at which, according to one conception, Horus and Thōth acted as his bath-attendants, the sun-god was thought to be reborn. Some Notes on the Ancient Egyptian Practice of Washing of the Dead, by Aylward M. Blackman, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology Vol. 5, No. 2 (Apr., 1918, p 117

And isn't this reminiscent of the "ritual" which nature preforms each day at dawn, before the rising of the sun. Perhaps we could say the rising sun is bathed or sprinkled with dew each morning, and the evaporation of this dew steam often looks smoke-like in the sunlight. Interestingly enough the word for "dawn" in ancient Egyptian was andu, anDw [from Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, Paul Dickson] 

In Coptic (the ancient Egyptian language converted to the Greek alphabet) eiote means "dew, mist, vapor, rain-storm, moisture and exudation." The Greek letter iota was derived from the Phonecian yod and corresponds to the Hebrew letter yod/yud as well.

"Amen, I say to you, till heaven [ouranos] and earth [gé] pass away, not an ióta, not a keraia (small stroke), will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Matthew 5:18

So is that eiote "dew" like the drop or dot on an "i", like the yod, the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet, written hanging up in the air?

    Yod He Waw He -read right to left

The dome on the headdress of Seshet could represent the dome of the heavens and the "dew" which rains down upon the earth from heaven. And the "flower" could represent the goddess.

In cuneiform the ideogram an meaning "sky, heaven"[also the supreme god An] is represented by a similar symbol to the seven point object on Seshat's headdress and resembles a star or a flower. It was used also  as a determinative [like an emoji] for deity [called dinger] and precedes the name of the goddess Inanna, who was called "Queen / Lady of Heaven / Sky," she came to be equated with the goddess Ishtar / Astarte. The earliest form of the symbol looks an eight pointed star similar to an asterix ("little star") *. 

    Dingir, "Sky/God", Archaic Cuneiform c. 2400 BC

Inanna represented the planet Venus and her symbol was an eight point star.

    Inanna/Ishtar Star

It is true that Seshat's symbol is said to have only seven points, however that is not counting the final arm on the symbol which connects the headdress with her head. We shouldn't necessarily discount that one.

In this representation of the symbol, on the Amun Temple at Luxor, there is even another five or six (whether you count the bottom or not) pointed star at the center. Both five and six pointed stars are used at various times to represent feminine divinities as well. The five pointed star is also associated with the planet Venus. 

    Seshet, Amun Temple, Luxor

Furthermore, the wedge mark of the cuneiform stylus (which were often made from cut reeds) resembles a papyrus (wadj) hieroglyph.


   Papyrus Stem Hieroglyph, Wadj 

  Simple Cuneiform

So, the symbol could have connections to papyrus, a star, heaven, and the goddess at the same time.

Perhaps, then, Seshat's symbol could be representative of the goddess(of knowledge and wisdom) that comes down like the "dew" (ros)? The Holy Spirit (Ghost / Shade / Umbra / Skia) or Wisdom bringing knowledge to the world. The bright morning star. The light-bringer. The wisdom that rains from heaven like the manna in the desert, "When the dew fell upon the camp in the night, the manna fell with it."[Numbers 11:9]

You are indeed Holy, oh Lord, the font of all holiness. Make holy, therefore, these gifts[bread and wine] we pray, by sending down your Spirit upon them like the dewfall [spiritus rore (from ros) tui, literally "by the dew of your spirit"], so that they may become the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Catholic Eucharistic Prayer II

The Hebrew word translated as rainbow in Genesis is qesheth "bow." According to Strong's Concordence it is "from qashah in the original sense (of qowsh) of bending: a bow, for shooting (hence, figuratively, strength) or the iris . . . " Qashah is "to be hard, severe, fierce" in the sense of qowsh "bend, be harsh," so, like a bow that is strung. For something that is a beautiful sign of hope it also carries with it the association of something that is bent or stressed. Like the light from the sun that is refracted and reflected in the water droplets. Maybe also, like God was "bowed" to become man.

Another word with a similar sounding first element, qaddish means "holy one, saint" as in qodesh "sacred, holy",  from qadash "to be set apart, consecrated". The watchers in Daniel 4:13, 17, 23,  are called "holy ones" qaddish.

"I saw in the visions of my head while on my bed, and there was a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven." Daniel 4:13

Watcher is a translation of the Aramaic er / iyr / ir (s.) erin / iyrin / irin (pl.) "waking, wakeful one." Maybe having "eyes open"? Ir is from a root corresponding to ur "awake"[the word ur also has the meaning of "bare, exposed", root of arom "naked"] The qaddish (holy one) may be perceived as qowsh (harsh) at times, think of the root of the words "ire, irate". The irin "watchers," holy ones, may quash the enemies of the Most High.

The class of angels known as "The Watcher's" are called Grigori from egregoroi  έγρήγοροι "wakeful," in biblical Greek egeiró έγείρω / egeiran ήγειραν "to awaken, arise." 

    A Variegated Watcher/Grigori in Shadow 

Jesus says to his disciples in the garden of Gethsemane (meaning "oil press"), on the Mount of Olives, 

My soul is very sorrowful, even unto death; remain here and watch with me [in Greek, "meinate hode kai gregoreite γρηγορεϊτε "] Mt 26:38 

But none of them could keep their dang eyes open and be an angel for him in his hour of need, for Christ's sake! 

    A Watcher / Ir - an Eye, photo by Julie O. /chthonickore

The English word, ire "wrath" is said to be etymologically connected (by the same root) to the Greek hieros "filled with the divine, holy". Those irin "watchers" can be wrathful if it is what God chooses. Perhaps someday they'll have their day . . . of wrath, dies irae.

So, the ir "watcher" is an "eye" ir of God.

As the saying goes, "The eyes are the windows to the soul." But now with computer programs like Windows, windows are the eyes to the soul of the world. And in fact, the word "window" comes from Old Norse vindauga, vinder "wind" + auga "eye", which replaced the Old English eagpyrl "eye-hole", and eagduru "eye -door". So, windows are "doors" for the eyes. Eyes are the "wind eyes" or "spirit eyes" to the soul. Or, we could say eyes are gadgets / widgets (wadjets?) for seeing into the soul.