Ancient Egyptian Forum

[Ramsekh]

I take it you don't have what I have, writer's block. It seems like you just came up with all that in an instant. It was good. I get spontaneous ideas for the story then I type them up and thenI realize they're just scattered. I have 2 and a half pages of this story. THis happens all the time. It takes me a long time to get one paragraph for a story and then I can't think of how to think everything together,

What I'll do is try to find the story on my computer then I'll post it for those who want to read what I have. Only if I can get this stupid XP to get the story off of the floppy. I hate the XP computers!!!
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[Google]

[Psusennes I]

XP is naff- it looks like how I imagine a nursery computer. All multi-coloured and 'user-friendly' to the extreme.


About the story- I started typing something completely different about the Priests of Amun, but it wasn't twisted enough, so I just went back and wrote that instead. I did came up with it off the top of my head, whilst thinking about what the priests would do. I quite liked the idea of having thr gods as characters in stories about Egypt, even if they just sit back and do nothing.
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[Ramsekh]

I thought of an Egyptian rip-off of Pokemon & Digimon and have Egyptian gods come out of tablets inscribed with hieroglyphs (pokemon). They'd fight the gods similar to Seth. I know it'd be much better than Yugioh. I was thinkin I could call it Egygods. (This was like at 9 or 10 so yeah, it's stupid.
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[Psusennes I]

Yu-Gi-Oh does have some 'Egytian god cards', I know this because my brother used to be obsessed with these rubbishy card crazes. However they have no relevance to the Egyptian gods whatsoever.

Check them out, and laugh at their stupidity at:

http://www.planetnintendo.com/yugioh/egyptian.shtml

I think an Egyptian card game would be pretty cool if it was actually based on the gods themselves, maybe a few pharaohs and famous royals as well.

The name needs work though. How about Egypto-Warriors? Or Egyptomon? The list of ridiculous possibilities is infinite.
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[Si-amun]

I know you all think I am a bit too oversensitive about this but I am going to say it anyway. i actually find those cards quite offensive. They take a delicate and ancient religous principle and twist it, blending it with a myriad of other less sophisticated beliefs then have the audacity to call it Egyptian! This is a subject quite close to my heart to be honest, I hate it when stupid bigots in offices take an idea from Egypt and make it so commercial that nothing Egyptian survives. No wonder people have such negative and archaic views on such a glorious civilisation.
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Thou dost appear beautiful on the horizon of heaven, oh living Amun, he who was the first to live.

[Ramsekh]

You all have a better vocab and better speaking skills than I do. I have no idea what most of you are talking about.
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[Psusennes I]

Although I do not share your point-of-view, I can see where you are coming from. If somebody marketed a game in which weapon sporting Hindu gods were forced to fight each other in order to gain prizes, I expect that any Hindu would be greatly offended by it.

The same could be said of the Yu-Gi-Oh cards I suppose, but one must remember that the gods have not been worshipped for near enough to 2000 years. It reminds me of my favourite poem, Ozymandias by Percy Shelley:

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read,
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed,
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Although the Egyptian civilisation is all but gone, we should respect them as the first great civilisation to grace this earth- and not deface and mispresent their gods. More importantly in opinion is the fact that Yu-Gi-Oh cards misconstrue the gods of Egypt completely, and now a whole generation of kids believe that 'Great Obelisk of Blue-Eyed Ra' is a true god.

Also, more pressing still is the fact that Yu-Gi-Oh is nonsensical consumerist trash designed only to leech money from our decadent Western culture.
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[Neb-Ma'at-Re]

I have an 8 year old son who I has been exposed to the Ancient Egyptian history all of his life through my interests. He has about as many (childrens) books on the subject as I do. Even as young as 4, he could tell you step by step the whole mummification process, the names of many Egyptian deities, Pharaohs (even their throne names!). In 2nd grade, as part of a school project , he even wrote his name in hieroglyphs inside a cartouche, however, he also collects Yugi-Oh cards. He knows the difference between the true Egyptian deities and their aspects, and the phony aspects of the Yugi-Oh. When he plays the game or trades with his friend's, he passes on his knowledge of Ancient Egypt to them.

For all the faults we find of the Yugi-Oh cards, at least they show REAL heiroglyphs (I belive they are taken from the Papyrus of Ani) on some of the cards and packaging. That is soooo one of my pet peeves...when someone plasters fake Egyptian hieroglyphs all over something and tries to pass them off as real, like in movies and stuff.

For example, this $925 6ft "King Tut" sarcophagus book case. Look at the glyphs running down the center. They make absolutely no sense, I especially love the 3 martini glasses enclosed in a cartouche. I was disgusted the first time I saw this in bookcase the Discovery stall in the mall.


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[Psusennes I]

For $925 each, you would have thought the manufacturers could have at least got the hieroglyphs right! Anyone who would want to buy such a hideous bookcase in the first place would surely realise that the hieroglyphs are fake. This sort of thing doesn't infuriate me, it just annoys me slightly. In the case that you pointed out however, I had to supress a slight giggle. (the martini glasses!)

If you think that is bad, then try reading some Athanasias Kircher, or Horapolla! I know that they were writing in the seventeenth and fourth centuries AD respectively, but their crazy ideas do make for some good reading.
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[Ankhesenamun3]

That is sad that the hieroglyphs on that are so very wrong.

[Ramsekh]

Those look like wine glasses.
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[Si-amun]

I fully understand that YOUR son knows the difference and I really quite admire his knowledge at such a young age. However most children do not read books extensively in the field and most who play with Yo-Gi-Oh will not understand the intracate nature of the Egyptian Pantheon and the delicate nature of the Gods.
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Thou dost appear beautiful on the horizon of heaven, oh living Amun, he who was the first to live.

[Psusennes I]

I agree. You cannot assume that all young children will have the same knowledge of Ancient Egypt, as that of a child whoes child is an Egyptologist (?)
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[Neb-Ma'at-Re]

Thanks Psuennes, but I'm no Egyptologist, just an enthusiast, however I do understand what you and Si-Amun are saying. But look at it this way, at least it is some type of exposure to Ancient Egypt, that they might not otherwise experience. Perhaps it might spark some interest in a child's mind to pick up a book and want to learn about the real gods of Ancient Egypt...or maybe not.

Believe me I am in no way in support of the fact that Yugi-Oh exploits Ancient Egypt and misconstrues the true aspects of AE gods and culture, just that it is some type of introduction to AE , albeit untruthful. Ya never know ...a child might be sitting watching TV and a show about King Tut comes on. The kid hears the word "Pharaoh" and says"Hey I know that word from Yugi-Oh", so he watches. He learns that Pharaohs were real living people who believed in all these strange gods, and so starts his real interest in Ancient Egypt.

Just a hopeful scenario I guess.
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[Si-amun]

Well, I know you lot must be beginning to think I am a bit oversensitive about this but I find the Egyptian Gods far less "strange" than any Christian angle on God. In all fairness Christianity's view on God will not seem strange to most of us as it is what we all grew up with. If however you strip it down and analyse his immutable, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient powers then I find him to be the strangest of all. At least the Egyptian Gods were understandable as figures, I would feel closer to a deity capable of my full range of emotion, to a deity who is not infallible like the Christian God is supposed to be. Admittedly I am a committed agnostic so I am quite neutral when it comes to religion but please dont spout off at me about it. We have had this debate, that is my view and no one will be able to change it except me! So there! lol
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Thou dost appear beautiful on the horizon of heaven, oh living Amun, he who was the first to live.