References

Index:

• Abydos
• Amonet
• Anubis
• Apophis
• Carter
• Cartouche
• Giza
• Hathor
• Heru-ur
• Horus
• Isis
• Naquada
• Osirus
• Ra
• Seth
• Sokar
• Unas

Abydos:

(show) Abydos is the first planet that Our Heros rediscovered through the Stargate (in the movie). Ruled by Ra, it was inhabited by a culture transplanted from ancient Egypt.

(history) Abydos (originally known as Abdjw) is a sacred site on the west bank of the Nile, 50km south of modern Sohag, with many temples and tombs. It was the center of the cult of the god Osirus.

Amonet:

(show) In Stargate, the Gou'ald consort of Apophis. Her host was Sha're, Daniel Jackson's Abydossian wife.

(myth) The goddess Amonet was a member of the Ogdoad (Egyptian "khmun" - eight), a group of eight deities who created the world (in some versions of ancient Egyptian mythology). They were four frog-gods and four snake-goddesses. Amonet was the consort of Amun, not of Apophis.

(comparison) Presumably it was considered appropriate in Stargate for Amonet to be the consort of Apohpis because they were both snake-deities.

Anubis:

(show) Anubis was an old, very powerful System Lord, whom everyone thought was dead. But in "The Summit" it is revealed that he was not dead, but building his power in secret.

(myth) Anubis is the jackal-god of the dead and of mummification, particularly as he is supposed to have been the one to wrap the body of the dead Osirus. He is considered to be the guardian of the dead, one who watches over them. His symbol is a black jackal, black for putrefying corpses and the black soil of the Nile valley.

(comparison) This is rather interesting, considering that in Stargate, Osirus, rather than being a greater god than Anubis, goes into his service. That's politics for you.

Apophis:

(show) One of the Gou'ald System Lords, who took Sha're and Skarra to be hosts for Gou'ald. Sworn enemy of Our Heros.

(myth) Aphophis was a god of chaos and evil, a snake-god, of the underworld, usually considered to be the eternal adversary of the sun-god Ra. Some myths equate him with Seth, while others show Seth opposing him.

Apophis (Apepi) was also apparently the name one of the (the last?) Hyksos Pharoahs -- who apparently worshipped Seth. The Hyksos were a group from the Palestine area who invaded Lower Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period (though it is now considered doubtful that they actually invaded, rather, they infiltrated and then took over).

(comparison) In Stargate, Seth is a different Gou'ald to Apohpis. Another interesting point is that Apophis supposedly went into alliance with Ra in order to defeat Sokar. On the other hand, I expect such alliances tend to be shortlived, due to the eternally competitive nature of the System Lords.

Carter:

(show) Samantha Carter is one of the members of SG-1.

(history) I just wonder if she might not have been named after Howard Carter, who discovered the tomb of Tutankhamon.

Cartouche:

(show) Cartouche seems to have been used in Stargate SG-1 to refer to a set of inscriptions - specifically, the inscriptions found on Abydos giving a huge list of Stargate coordinates.

(history) However, in Egyptology, "cartouche" refers to the loop which surrounds royal names in Egyptian hieroglyphs. It comes from the French word "cartouche" which means scroll or cartridge (from the italian carta meaning paper) - refering to its shape. The symbol is an elongated "shen" hieroglyph, which derives from a knotted rope, and symbolises infinity and encircling protection.

(comparison) The confusing thing is, that Stargate co-ordinates also tend to be shown with cartouches around them, though in normal Egyptian writings, a cartouche is just used for royal names. But of course, these aren't Egyptian writings. The cartouche for Stargate coordinates could simply have been used for grouping them. One possible connection might be that, since Stargate coordinates are associated with the gods, since the gods come through the Stargate, the use of cartouches for royal names could be a way of associating royalty with the gods, something which the Egyptians did all the time, such as referring to the Pharoh as the "son of Horus" and so on.

Giza:

(show) The Giza plateau is where the Stargate was buried.

(history) Giza is more normally famous for being the location of the Pyramids and the Great Sphinx.

Hathor:

(show) In Stargate SG-1 Hathor is a Gou'ald who is said to have been the Goddess of Love - and certainly exerts an irresistable fascination on men.

(myth) The goddess Hathor, a cow-goddess, was not primarily a goddess of love, though that was one aspect of her. She was also a goddess of music and joy, and sometimes a goddess of vengeance (then in the form of a lion). The literal meaning of her name is "House of Horus", and she is the consort of Horus, as well as the daughter of Ra.

Heru-ur:

(show) A Gou'ald who is an enemy of Apophis.

(myth) Heru-ur means Horus the elder, as distinct from Horus the younger. The god Horus is depicted either in his child-aspect, as the son of the goddess Isis and the god Osirus, or in his grown aspect, Heru-ur. Horus is a hawk-god, god of the sky and of kingship. His chief exploits are the defeat of his uncle (or brother), the god Seth, to avenge the murder by Seth of Horus's father Osirus.

Horus:

See Heru-ur

Isis:

(show) Isis was the Queen/wife of Osirus and according to the episode "The Curse", "both Isis and Osirus suffered some sort of punishment or banishment" by being put (hostless) into suspended animation inside what looked like canopic jars. Because Isis's jar was damaged, she died.

(myth) Isis was indeed the wife of Osirus in Egyptian myth, but here, instead of pre-deceasing him, she mourned over his death at the hands of Seth and helped hers and Osirus's son Horus take revenge on Seth. She was a mother-goddess and is often shown suckling her son Horus. She was also very popular as a goddess of magic, and her cult survived even through to Greco-Roman times. She is associated with the royal throne, and her symbol was the hieroglyphic symbol of a throne.

Naquada:

(show) Naquada is the rare and amazing mineral out of which the Stargate is made, and is used in much Gou'ald technology.

(history) Naqada is one of the largest excavation sites in Egypt for Predynastic (that is, before the Pharohs) gravesites. It is on the west bank of the Nile, about 26km north of the town of Luxor.

Osirus:

(show) Osirus, "according to legend, was placed into a magic box and dumped into the Nile by his brother Seth"; though also in the same episode (The Curse), it indicates that both Isis and Osirus were sentenced to banishment by being put (gou'ald without hosts) into suspended animation in what looked like canopic jars. Daniel's old flame, Sarah Gardner, is the current host of Osirus, despite the fact that Osirus was traditionally male; when you're stuck in a canopic jar you take the first host you can get!

(myth) According to Egyptian mythology, Osirus was actually killed by Seth, and not punished or banished in any way. He, along with Isis, Seth, and Nephthys, were the children of the earth-god Ged and the sky-goddess Nut. He was a god of death, resurrection and fertility, one of the earliest and most powerful Egyptian gods. He is usually depicted as a mummy whose hands project through the wrappings to hold the royal insignia of crook and flail. He was supposedly the first mummy (as his body was wrapped by his mourning wife Isis) and rules the land of the dead. Interestingly enough, one of his chief places of worship in Egypt was Abydos.

(comparison) Considering the way the alliances of the System Lords change, what may have happened is that Seth managed to manouvre to get Osirus and Isis banished, and then in turn was made persona-non-grata at the hands of Horus (who according to Egyptian myth, was the son of Isis and Osirus, and avenged his father) and hence he was on the run and hiding out on Earth when we find him.

Ra:

(show) Ra is the supreme ruler of the Gou'ald - or was, until he was killed by Jack O'Neill and a nuclear bomb.

(myth) Ra is one of the oldest gods of Egypt, the god of the sun. He is usually portrayed with the head of a hawk, but when he rides his boat (with which he sails the sky during the day, and through the underwold at night) through the underworld, he is portrayed with the head of a ram. The snake-god Apophis is his enemy, and tries to kill Ra when he goes through the underworld.

Seth:

(show) Seth is a Gou'ald who hid on Earth, sought by the Gou'ald as an enemy of the System Lords. He had a tendency to start cults and then murder all his followers.

(myth) Seth is the god of chaos and confusion, lord of the desert. Also known as Set, Setekh, Suty or Sutekh, he is depicted as a human with the head of a mythical animal with a long nose and square ears - hence Teal'k's joke, in the episode "Seth", about Seth-guards and dripping noses. Seth was the son of the sky-goddes Nut, and brother of Osirus, Isis and Nephthys (who was also his wife). Seth murdered Osirus, and then contended with Osirus' son Horus, who defeated him. During the struggle, Seth put out Horus's eye, and Horus castrated Seth. Despite all this, Seth was considered a "companion of Ra" and supposedly helped to guard Ra as he traveled in his boat, particularly against Apophis. Mind you, his other task is to cause storms and bad weather, as one would expect a good god of chaos to do. He might also be prayed to to provide good weather by restraining himself. Some traditions viewed him ambivalently, others as purely evil.

Sokar:

(show) Sokar is described in "Serpent's Song" as a Gou'ald who once ruled all the System Lords, but defeated by an alliance of Gou'ald including Apophis and Ra. Daniel Jackson added that, according to the Book of the Dead, Sokar once ruled all of the earth, with Unas, and that his portion of Tuat, or the other world, was filled with lakes of fire where the wicked were thrown for punishment and mutilation - the original Satan.

(myth) The confusing thing about Sokar is that, depending on which references one looks at, Sokar is merely one of the gods of the dead, associated with Osirus, while other sources say that Sokar, lord of the land of the dead, is older than Osirus, possibly the oldest god of Egypt, more powerful than Ra, since not even Ra could enter Sokar's secret place. Note that Saqqara, the site of the necropolis of the ancient city of Memphis, is probably named after Sokar.

Sokar was also a god of craftsmen, later in association with the god Ptah. He is usually portrayed as a human mumified figure with the head of a hawk.

Unas:

(show) Unas, in Stargate SG-1 is the name of the first Jaffa, or of the first Gou'ald host, or of the race to which it belonged. Unas are stronger and fiercer and much harder to kill than human beings.

(history) Unas was the last ruler of the 5th Dynasty, which was during the Old Kingdom of Egypt. His reign was from 2375 to 2345 BC, but is poorly documented. Obviously, since he was the last pharoh of his line, things didn't go too well for him.