Clive Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Kat:
>
> From Wikipedia… (Moderator's note: )
>
> 1) “…In Egyptian mythology, Seshat (also spelt
> Sesat, Sesheta, and Seshata) was originally the
> deification of the concept of wisdom, and so
> became a goddess of writing, astronomy/astrology,
> architecture, and mathematics. As goddess of
> writing, she was seen as a scribe, and record
> keeper, and her name itself means (she who)
> scrivens (i.e. she who is a scribe). When Thoth
> also became a god of wisdom, Seshat was identified
> as Thoth's daughter, or variably as his wife….”
>
> Note, to this point in history, Seshat relates to
> the sciences and the keeping of records…including
> astronomy.

You know, referring me to a darned Wikipedia article is just about as lame as one can get, IMO. If you trust Wikipedia as your sole source on the subject of Seshat, you're already in trouble. My point remains: there was nothing in your previous post's URL which referred to the goddess Seshat and so, IMO, was not related to discussion of the topic of Seshat.

You may want to note that I was the one who provided the Egyptological background on the original iconography behind Seshat's headdress in the previous thread, including a very long, but clear quote from Wainwright about the original meaning of the headdress of Seshat and her function in the Egyptian pantheon. I also gave a rather scholarly bibliography on the topic as well.

Seshat was not intimately attached to astronomy, but was a tally-keeper, or someone who reckoned or measured. She is not a goddess of writing, as Wikipedia wrongly alleges, nor was she "concept of wisdom." While you should read the entire Wainwright quote I gave previously, it's also clear that Seshat's headdress is not "stylised papyrus was shown surmounted by a crescent moon, which, over time, degenerated into being shown as two horns arranged to form a crescent shape between them." I'll leave you to read my original posting of the Wainwright article why we know this is not true.

As to Seshat's function, Wainwright specifically states Seshat is not related to writing, learning, nor was she a "goddess of wisdom":

"Thus, like her /Hry wDb/* she was primarily a tally-keeper; an early form of an account-keeper, rather than an actual scribe or clerk. So much was this her mission that it was said of her that she 'reckoneth all things on earth'. She never seems to have been connected with wisdom and learning like Thoth, though naturally she is closely associated with her more erudite colleague, and became 'Mistress of the House of Books','Lady of Writings in the House of Life'. As has just been said, by far the most important of her activities was to grant the king sed-festivals and to mark his life-period on the primitive palm-stick. While other gods may present the king with the tally-(palm-)sticks of sed festivals, she, alone or with Thoth, marks them for him. Sometimes the chief god of the temple instructs her to mark the sed-festivals. Her other mission from the earliest to the latest times was to help the king to measure out the ground-plan of buildings. Hence came her title 'Lady of Builders', which she already bears in the Pyramid Texts, § 616, though the actual work of building she left to other gods, such as Khnum and Ptah. So even here her business was once again with reckoning and measurement." (Wainwright 1940: 31-32)

Source: Wainwright, G. A. 1940. Seshat and the pharaoh. JEA 26: 30-40.

* (From Wainwright's notes, p. 32, n. 15) "A /Hry wDb/ appears elsewhere at the 'counting of the cattle, goats, and sheep', von Bissing and Kees, Re-Heiligtum III, p. 6 and Untersuchungen z. d. Reliefs aus d. Re-Heiligtum d. Rathures (Abh. München 32/I), 20, 21. In the royal household the /Hry wDb/ was concerned with the food supplies, catered for the wants of the guests, and apportioned the king's largess whether to gods or men, Gardiner in JEA 24, 88. Once again the /Hry wDb/ was a counter and measurer."

Perhaps rather than referring me to a simplistic Wikipedia article, you may care to read the bibliogaphy I provided in my previous post in the other thread, before you can say, with certainty, what was the function of Seshat.

Further, as has been pointed out, my name is not "Kat," and I'm not Katherine (Kat) Reece.

Katherine Griffis-Greenberg

Doctoral Candidate
Oriental Institute
Doctoral Programme in Oriental Studies [Egyptology]
Oxford University
Oxford, United Kingdom