Em Hotep!

An Ancient Egyptian phrase meaning “in peace”
used as a greeting and on departing. Think aloha!

This website started with a simple question:  What should I do with all of the pictures I took while in Egypt?  The plan had always been to put them on the internet in some format, even as I was taking them.  This was before the era of blogs, but even then I knew I was doing something that I wanted to share.

I spent a month in Egypt in May/June, 1997, as part of a summer study course on the development of religious thought in the Mediterranean region.  My interests originally revolved around the roots of Judeo-Christian religious ideas, and how deeply these roots reached into Ancient Egypt.  While I still think there is some fertile ground to be explored in this line of pursuit, my interests shifted into more general directions, and so the original web project was postponed.

So 1000+ pictures languished while life went on.  Every now and again I would come across a few that had found their way out of their boxes, or I might be cleaning the dust off of the frame of one of my favorites that actually made it to the wall, and a pang of guilt would surface.  I really need to do something with these.

In March of 2009 I began the arduous task of organizing, classifying, identifying, and trying to wrap my head around how to present these pictures.  I decided at first to do a photo-blog.  I figured the easiest approach would be to scan my favorites and put them into a blog, grouped by whatever themes suggested themselves.  So next came scanning, adjusting levels, and doing pixel editing on the Chosen Ones, one by one by one.

I started with a prototype site on Wordpress.com, and during the several months I spent learning Wordpress and experimenting with different ideas, the project grew beyond a simple photo blog.  The nature of my posts evolved.  I am just an amateur photographer, and barely that.  But I am a professional writer.  I found my posts growing into articles, my articles growing into more defined categories, and my categories growing beyond a blog and into a more traditional website.  I found a third party server and left the Wordpress.com nest.

The result is this—Em Hotep!  It is still a place for me to post my photos.  But it is also a general introduction to the places and history of Egypt, broken down by location and period.  It is written in a manner which is intended to be accessible to the layman, the traveler, and those with a growing interest in Egypt and her history.

In terms of content, Em Hotep is for intermediate-level aficionados.  Undergraduate (and possibly high school) paper-writers will find much here to inspire them, and my intent is to provide a reference resource and starting point.  Other than the pictures, there is not much here a graduate student in Egyptology is going to find that they haven’t already seen, but their input and comments are much appreciated! 

However, if you are an amateur Egyptologist like me, or have an interest in the latter periods of Egyptian history—particularly Roman, Byzantine, and Islamic—then what you will find here is a well organized and very photo-intense introduction to these subjects.

Madinat al-Louis?

I am also exploring ways of presenting material of local appeal.  I am located in Louisville, KY, and finding connections between Egyptology and Kentuckiana (Louisville and surrounding areas, including Indiana) will be a challenge, so we’ll see how it goes.  I plan to keep an eye on relevant classes being offered at local colleges and universities, events at museums and libraries, and even restaurants where you can eat like an Egyptian–Where is the best hummus, Bardstown Road or Frankfort Avenue?  Stay tuned!

So, what do the Hieroglyphs say?

I’m glad you asked!

The Cartouche

The first, and most simple, is the cartouche to the left of the “scroll” where all the content pops up.  The hieroglyphs simply spell out “Em hotep,” the name of the website.  It means “in peace,” and was an Egyptian greeting, sort of like aloha, or hola.

 The Fringe

The glyphs that appear on the fringe, the top of the papyrus on the right-side of the scroll, are a letter-for-letter spelling of “Nam-myoho-renge-kyo,” which is what us Nichiren Buddhists chant as the central part of our practice (it is also called the Daimoku).  What does it have to do with Egypt?  Nothing that I know of.  But it gives me this brief opportunity to explain what Nam-myoho-renge-kyo means, or better yet, to quote the World Tribune Glossary:

Nam-myoho-renge-kyo—The fundamental Law of the universe expounded in Nichiren Buddhism, it expresses the true aspect of life.  Chanting it allows people to directly tap their enlightened nature and is the primary practice of SGI [Soka Gakkai International] members.  Although the deepest meaning of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is revealed only through its practice, the literal meaning is: Nam (devotion), the action of practicing Buddhism; myoho (Mystic Law), the essential Law of the universe and its manifestations; renge (lotus flower), the simultaneity of cause and effect; kyo (Buddha’s teaching), voice, sound.

Myoho-renge-kyo is the title of the Lotus Sutra, the central teaching of Nichiren Buddhism, and by chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo we are acknowledging that we put the teachings of that sutra into action with our lives, that all of our actions are causes which create effects, and we endeavor to create good causes with our actions.  Please click here for a much better explanation.

My inclusion of the Daimoku in hieroglyphs is just a way of personalizing the site with an expression of my values, without getting too preachy, and giving a word-out to my fellow Buddhist brothers and sisters who visit here!

The Top of the Header

You may have noticed there are some hieroglyphs at the top of the header, the part where the title and logo of the blog appear.  Well, that is also the Daimoku, but taken a step further.  Whereas the fringe is just Nam-myoho-renge-kyo spelled out in hieroglyphs, on the header I made an attempt to translate the Daimoku into Ancient Egyptian before spelling it out in hieroglyphics.

The glyphs spell out the phrase “lw imAx I hp xt nt Dd mdw sSn,” which translates to “I revere (nam) the pervading Law (myoho) of the lotus (renge) recitation (kyo).  I believe I got the grammar correct as well (Hieroglyphs.net is a great resource for this), but if hieroglyphs are your area and you have any recommendations, I am all ears!

Thus endeth the lesson in Buddhism.  If you are interested, ask, otherwise I won’t proselytize.

Please enjoy the website, and please feel free to get a dialog started.  That is why each article has a comments area!

The photograph entitled “Madinat al-Louis” is an altered version of “800px-Louisville_Skyline” by Chris Watson and is provided courtesy of Wikimedia Commons  and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License. In short: you are free to share and make derivative works of the file under the conditions that you appropriately attribute it, and that you distribute it only under a license identical to this one. Official license 

ALL OTHER photographs and text are copyright 2009, all rights reserved.