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Egyptian Notes

Section One, Mythology

Characters in story; Ptah, Thoth, Sehkmet, Hathor

Ptah: Known as the god who made himself, he is the creator of all things, yet also nothing, in Egyptian mythology and is the only one to only have consorts (denoting some higher authority I think), his consort(s) are Sekhmet, and later Bast(et) and Sehkmet, as the two differing aspects of Sekhmet became Sehkmet and Bast(et). He is the patron god of Craftsmen and has sired between 2-3 children with Sekhmet (the core two were divided between Sehkmet and Bast). He is, according to the best sources I can find (The British and Egyptian museums on such matters), both Ra, and Not Ra, as Memphis and Thebes (Men-Nefer and Waset respectively) were always the two largest cities and had a rivalry unlike any two cities today. Back in time, before the Scorpion King (likely of Mesopotamian stock) united Upper and Lower Egypt the two were separate Pharodoms had a roughly similar mythology, however even after the roughly 3000 years of on-and-off union, the two held radically different beliefs about the nature and creation of, the universe. Ptah was of the Men-Nefer cult, and unlike the Ra of Waset, did not die, nor was Horus made manifest on Earth as Pharaoh, though that last bit may have been a tad political as Men-Nefer and Waset were at war or divided for about 1200 of their shared 3000 years, to which side, I do not know. Ptah, unlike Ra, did not have an "eye" which began as Hathor who became mad for a time creating Sehkmet. Instead, in Men-Nefer, Sekhmet and Hathor were completely separate entities, and how the calmed with raging lioness god, was also different, where Waset believed Ra made her drunk with red-dyed beer, Men-Nefer believed it was that an a happy marriage to Ptah. This is where their similarities end, as Ptah didn't die or control the sun, even if he made both the underworld and heavens while Horus ruled the less primordial gods.

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How to resolve this conflict in Forging Thoth's Daughter

I have taken the Rick Rioran approach, lower egypt was less populous but more devoted to their gods.

Hathor/Sehkmet

Hathor-Sehkmet-Bast is a curious trio of goddesses that frankly baffle me. Nearly every region, including the Hebrews and Greeks, wrote, and recorded different stories surrounding these three. Best I can tell, Hathor and Sehkmet began as separate gods in the predynastic and early dynastic period but at some point in the middle kingdom were briefly fused with Hathor being the eye of Ra and became the war god Sehkmet and Hathor and Sehkmet were split off (again), and Sehkmet was further divided between Sehkmet and Bastet. Either way, Hathor is the goddess of love and marriage, she is cunning and not promiscuous in the legends however documentation about her temples suggests at some point there were something akin to a brothel complex installed in a few, this does coincide with foreign domination, however the Lybians shared the same Pantheon so it may have simply been raising their more extreme interpretation of the goddess. She is described as a beautiful woman.

Her worship was centered in Lower Egypt but was never the primary goddess of any major city. Sehkmet's worship, like Ptah was centered in Memphis (Men-Nefer), she (from the predynastic period to the New Kingdom) was the goddess of war and motherhood, namely the protector aspect, and when Egypt was invaded she would be the god praised, one of Sekhmet and Ptah sons would be the god of offensive war and aggression. However her split into Sekhmet and Bastet would result in Bastet taking over the nurturing role of the mother, and spiritual protection of all, relegating Sekhmet to a physical protector, this seemed to not take off in Upper Egypt however. Her and Hathor's shared myth is that when Ra had created man he made Hathor his eye (In Egypt this was a great honor, hence the eye of horus and all that stuff) however the cruelty of man drove her mad and she descended from the heavens and began to massacre all life on earth creating the Sahara desert in her warpath, this new goddess sprouted the "likeness of a lioness" and became Sekhmet. Her rampage quickly became a thirst for blood and she would slaughter herd, beast, and city alike to create great lakes of blood and drink it all. Ptah/Ra devised a scheme with Thoth to created a lake of fake blood using red dye and 7000 barrels of beer at Men-Nefer (Memphis), when Sekhmet's rampage reached the Nile she had not realized she hadn't massacred the people and drank the whole lake of red beer, in her stupor she fell asleep. This is where the legend diverges, in the Memphis cult, Sekhmet and Hathor became entirely separate gods with animosity, and the motherhood element of her being came from the fact that in exchange for giving up the role of "Eye of Ptah" she would become his wife, thus giving the honor to Osirus and later Horus. In the Waset cult, Sekhmet ceases to exist when Hathor is pleased and Ra rules alone. Anyways, I suspect Sekhmet is an older god given the blood drinking being very common among pre-agrarian societies.

Resolution- Commit to the Men-Nefer Cult

Thoth

A remarkably consistent god, but has all the hallmarks of a post-agrarian god. His worship was centered in Hermopolis, a ruin known by Egyptologies as Khemenu or to Copts as Shmun. He was the god of scribes, the moon, writing, art, knowledge and wisdom. He was wed to Ma'at, goddess of morality, balance, order, law, and justice, and the pair had a daughter, Seshat, who's name meant female scribe and invented writing. The whole family had either human, baboon, or Ibis heads, though the Ibis was by far the most common in all cults. Thoth is a key god to the Egyptian legends who gambled with the moon for its light so Nut and Geb could birth Osirus, Isis, Set and Nebet-Het. He would later provide words to revive Osirus after Set killed him so Horus could be conceived, then acted as his coach and mentor during the two's battle. Interesting fellow.

Hittite Notes

It is virtually impossible to find the legends of the Hittites in enough, and consistent enough detail due to their society being destroyed rather than conquered. However I simply went with what the British and Chicago University College of Ancient Studies agreed on with who and what they were the patrons of. I used the names and my knowledge of other Indo-European Pantheons to create personalities and legends. Anyways:

Pirwa is the God of Horses, a near enough to male counterpart to the Celtic Epona that assumed him to be a mix of Hermes and Frigg personality wise.

Hasameli seems to be a standard Indo-European smith god. Beyond that, few were relevant to the story, so I didn't include them.

If you want to know, the king of their pantheon was the storm god/ skyfather of all Indo-European pantheons, probably wed to either the goddess of fertility or love (always different) like Odin and Freja.

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Society

Inadvertently, a romance between what we would consider two rather lower-middle class jobs today would be quite the high-class event of ages yore. Scribes in Ancient Egypt were ranked higher than Soldiers and just below Priests and Nobles, whereas chariot-makers and maintainers were like the famed artillery engineers of the 1400s, few in number and the best able to fetch a salary higher than the rents of entire provinces. Neither were noble of course, but if there were openings, after the champions and the nobles both were not far behind on the "to be landed" list.

Iron, best I can tell, was used as early as the 20th century BC but was definitely in use by the 16th Century BC to make nails. Bronze would remain the king of the metals well into the 5th Century BC but the rise of the Diadochi and Western Mediterranean Republics, paired with the spread of Celtic invented chainmail and longswords would finally see Iron take, and keep its place as preferred metal into the 21st century and likely all time.

The Hittites were far less stratified than the Egyptians, as Indo-European cultures tend to be more egalitarian among the men as they continue to believe every man can raise a spear, while the Egyptians were Niotolic Semites and were very stratified between their societal roles, though you could rise through them with enough willpower. Both societies of course were already far less stratified than that of the Indian Caste System which was the Indo-Aryan attempt to keep their Indian holdings after their conquest of the Gangetic plain or even early China were the Emperor was not a mere avatar of a god like the Pharaoh was, but the manifestation of their will in flesh and their conduit upon the earth. Women were more equal in Egypt than in the Hittite Realm(s?) but overall to say one is fairer than the other is fool thing given were cannot know the ebbs and flows of their society.