Hi Graham,
> "Surely the first concerns were the presence and
> absence of light, the sun. Especially the absence,
> since that would have been the most dangerous time
> for the humans and bordering directly to their
> very survival"
>
> This is often brought up but I ask ... was this a
> dangerous time for you in childhood or at any
> stage in life?
I think you are missing a point of importance, and that is the time when the basic beliefs (in this case seen in the ancient Egypt) were formed. Surely you don't believe that the AEs sat down at the beginning of the dynastic times and decided what to believe in? That is not the way belief systems are formed. The beliefs are passed down from generation to generation orally, sine no other means of recording were available, to be finally written down and recorded in one form or another. Of course, the beliefs are modified on the way to better reflect the culture and it's internal changes, such as "scientific" understanding of certain natural phenomena, or even personal preferences of a certain dynasty. Still, the basic beliefs hark to the time unknown and forgotten by the people in question.
Hence, comparing me and my beliefs/fears, based on modern knowledge and scientific understanding of the phenomena in question, to the ancient Egyptians is a red herring. A very red one at that.
> The sun comes up with monotonous regularity and
> even the Egyptians knew that. No one cowers in
> fear when Re sets, they just look up at the stars.
> The presence or absence of light may have
> threatened their survival but it never happened
> unexpectedly, except during eclipses and even that
> may have been predicted.
Yes, the ancient Egyptians saw the sun come up each morning with "monotonous regularity". And yet, their texts talk about the danger of the sun being swallowed by Apep during the night. Each night. And hence the need of the stars to drag the sun's boat through the dwat and even the need of Seth at the brow of that boat, him being the only one strong enough to fight back Apep. Note well: fight back, not kill. Because Apep was there again the next night! And these texts remains practically the same throughout the dynastic times. Hmmmm?
Transposing your own knowledge and beliefs on the ancient ones can be very, very misleading, Graham.
Ritva