The Pantheon of Mythology
Jordan and I, occasionally, talk about and plot out story ideas.
One such story idea is a steampunk-pirate story that follows a young man (initially) as he leaves his father's house for a life on the sea.
One of our conceits for the story is that all of the water gods are interested in this young man for a variety of reasons. As a result, this young mans life is not (really) his own and the water gods are all out looking for him.
So, in that spirit, I was bouncing around the internet and came across a site (no link, sorry) that talked specifically about Egyptian Gods and Mythology. What caught my attention was the distinct lack of a water god.
Why does this interest me?
Well, going back to the conceit of the story, the protagonist is on a sailing/steam ship. As a result of this, he will interact with various water-born deity throughout the story(ies). The outcome has been (part-time), discovering what mythologies and deities he would encounter.
Now, the Romans and the Greeks have the same pantheon of Gods. Sure, different names, but the same group of Gods. The conceit could include both the Greek and Roman in a weird, related, gestalt, that allows for some conflict... but that gets ahead of myself.
However, in all of the mythologies of the world, the Egyptian one has spawned several stories (and the Stargate movie and TV series). What gets me with the lack of a water god is the amount of dependency ancient Egypt had on the Nile River. The flooding of the Nile would deposit sediment and that sediment allowed for a rich growing environment. As a result, one would think that the economic and ecological needs would also have created a water deity along with all of the others.
And yet, they don't have one.
This doesn't affect the nature of the story or its outcomes. We've talked about some offshoots of the story that might include other pantheons and allow for the inclusion of the Egyptian gods (or a single god... kind of partial to Hathor)... however, you know, that is when I can find the time to write what we've outlined and plotted.
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Comments
The egyptians had a very complex mythology as did many ancient cultures. They actually had multiple gods of the Nile. Emminent was Hapi or Hapy. There was also the crocodile god of the nile, but I don't recall his name. There is a god specifically for the flood and another for the fish, etc... but they had a number of water dieties.
Posted by: andy | April 7, 2008 8:32 PM