http://spacepiratevala.livejournal.com/ ([identity profile] spacepiratevala.livejournal.com) wrote in [community profile] fandomhigh2007-09-09 10:21 pm

Comparative Religions, Monday, Period 3, Week #2--Egypt

"Hello my class," Vala greeted everyone, once they were seated, and passed out some worksheets. "Today, our grand tour of the Earthen religions starts with one of my personal...well, I'm not sure favorites is the right word, but let's go with that until I'm fully alert and can think of something better. Ancient Egypt!"



One might think that Vala had been up all night worrying about something, then had a great deal of caffeine to make up for the lack of sleep. Or possibly that she'd had the weekend of a lifetime, and had caffeine to make up for the lack of sleep. Either way, that there had been a lot of caffeine involved somewhere in Vala's morning routine was pretty obvious.

"One of the earliest Earth religions, the Ancient Egyptians believed in a wide and diverse pantheon of gods, who took care of everything you could imagine an Ancient Egyptian might need or desire. However, notably absent from this list is the Goddess Qetesh, the goddess of love and beauty. She is often confused by scholars with the Goddess Hathor, but I am here to tell you that they are absolutely not the same individual--in addition to Hathor's role as the Goddess of fertility, inebriety, and music--which is clearly not the same thing as beauty and desire, thank you very much--Qetesh was known for her excessive beauty and charm and Hathor was known for sleeping with Daniel Jackson and wearing a really bad wig being the wife of Ra. Not that no one ever asked Qetesh to marry them, but she was against being controlled by a man."

She cleared her throat and tried to remember not to rant.

"In some dimensions, the roles of the Egyptian pantheon were actually usurped by a race of alien parasites, who lived within human bodies--called hosts--for thousands of years and enslaved humans to do their building. Because they wielded mysterious and powerful technology, they were believed to be gods come down to Earth and worshipped and given tribute accordingly. I have no idea whether this particular dimension is on that was or one that wasn't, but there was a revolt on Earth, causing most, if not all, of these god-pretenders to leave the planet in a hurry, leaving a few of their ships behind. You may recognize them of the pyramids of Giza, if you're into that kind of thing."

"Anyway, you have worksheets laying out the pantheon and creation story from the Egyptian point of view. You'll need to hang on to them for the final, which will be practical. There is also an online walking tour of the British Museum, if you're interested enough to learn more."

[ooc: OCD is up!]

Re: Take the Walking Tour

[identity profile] ecirpnellehada.livejournal.com 2007-09-10 03:42 am (UTC)(link)
This would be Adah, staring at the computer like it was some sort of ancient artifact built with the intention of sucking out her soul, under the assumption that she even had one. It barely even had all the planes and wheels that any of Luke's intriguing contraptions had, although she was thankful that it appeared to have fewer blinking lights. She studied the keyboard carefully; familiar interface, like a typewriter; didn't Dr. Keyworth mention updated typewriter devices used for communication? Her head tilted; she might easily be able to figure it out, perhaps, if only she knew where to start...

Re: Take the Walking Tour

[identity profile] way-black.livejournal.com 2007-09-10 03:58 am (UTC)(link)
Blackheart might have done well on the walking tour, except he really had no interest in helping 'Jane' find her way out of the museum. As it was, he just sat back and stared, somewhat bemused, at the monitor. Why should he ask a bunch of animal-headed Gods for advice?

"Wait until the museum opens again in the morning, stupid human," he told the screen with something of an air of superiority.

Re: Take the Walking Tour

[identity profile] irulan-atreides.livejournal.com 2007-09-10 09:56 am (UTC)(link)
History fascinated her and museums as well, but Irulan found none of the delight she had when visiting museums in this so-called 'walking tour'.

"Infernal machines," she cursed under her breath as the computer presented another error message.

Re: Take the Walking Tour

[identity profile] im-afrog.livejournal.com 2007-09-10 02:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Adam found helping Jane to be somewhat fun. He managed to complete the walking tour fairly quickly.