BURMESE ANIMISTIC RELIGION

Asians are some of the most superstitious people in the world. Local legends and cultural beliefs have been heavily influenced by Buddh'Ism and Hindu'Ism (Burma is over 90% Buddh"Ist). A wide variety of mythical creatures are found in Burmese (Myanm'Ar) folklore that influenced not only South East Asia culture but world and literary culture as well. A precise origins of it are not known. However at the time King Ana'Wrahta (1044-1077) was ruling, spirit worship was rampant.
The Chinthe is a leo-gryph (lion-like creature). According to Burmese (Myanm'Ar) legends, lions are noted for their bravery and magnificent and thus considered the best guardians for religious shrines, pagodas, and edifices. They are often seen at the entrances of pagodas and temples, often depicted in pairs and locals believe they serve to protect the pagoda. The Burmese people revered and loved the Chinthe and is used symbolically on the royal thrones. Predating the use of coins, brass weights cast in the shape of mythical beasts like the lion were commonly used to measure standard quantities of staple items. Today, the Chinthe  is featured prominently on the Kyat, Burmese's currency.
The Man'Ussiha is a combination of Pali man'ussa (man, representing wisdom) and siha (lion, representing strength). A half-lion half-man mythical creature that is a symbol of a guardian and usually found guarding the 4 corners of a pagoda, it has a human head and torso and lion hindquarters. It is comparable to the sphinx. The mythological figure is said to be more than 2,000 years old.
The Belu, with straight fangs, is a giant ogre similar to an oriental gargoyle. It is a common creature representing a huge, cruel, humanoid, shape-shifting and man-eating monster. However, as an example of a benevolent Belu is the famed Popa Medaw (Queen-Mother of Popa, Lady of Popa, or Mei Wunna)  the namesake of Mount Popa in Shan State. Popa Medaw is a spirit (nat) of Burma (Myanm'Ar). She was a flower-eating ogress of an extinct volcano 50km/31mi South East of the Site of Bagan.
The Magan is a mythical sea monster resembling a crocodile with a prehensile snout and vice-like jaws. In Hindu mythology, can be depicted as a half-terrestrial animal in the frontal part (stag, deer, crocodile or elephant) and half-aquatic in its hindquarters (usually a fish or seal tail, though sometimes a peacock or even a floral tail is depicted). Also known as Makara, it can take many different forms throughout Asia. In Hindu astrology, Makara is equivalent to the sign of Capricorn.
The Pyinsa Rupa is a creature made from the amalgamation of parts of five different animals: elephant, bullock, horse, carp, and dragon. An alternative belief is that it consists of lion, elephant, buffalo, carp, and hintha. It is the official mascot of Myanm'Ar (Burma) Airways International.
An amalgamation of 9 animals in one creature, the Nawa Rupa (Nawayupa) is a national symbol of Rakhine State (formerly Ar'Akan State). The locals believe this symbol brings good luck and is commonly found throughout the ancient kingdom of M'Rauk U.
The Karaweik Bird is a mythical creature of a bird that supposedly possesses a pleasant and melodious cry. Traditionally, a barge in the shape of the bird was used in formal ceremonies as a royal commuter boat. The Karaweik Palace at Kandawgyi Lake in Yangon is the most well-known symbol of the Karaweik Bird.
Pretas are mythical creatures believed to have been false, corrupted, compulsive, deceitful, jealous or greedy people in a previous life. As a result of their karma, they are afflicted with insatiable hunger for a particular substance or object. Traditionally, this is something repugnant or humiliating, such as cadavers or feces, though in more recent stories, it can be anything, however bizarre.

THE OVERCONFIDENCE OF THE SUPER EGO.

Confidence has a common meaning of a certainty about handling something, such as work, family, social events, or relationships. It can be defined as the self-fulfilling prediction that directly or indirectly causes itself to become true, due to the positive feedback between belief and behavior. Those without it may fail or not try because they lack it.
Some others have defined confidence as a state of being certain that a hypothesis or prediction is correct or that a chosen course of action is the best or most effective.
The term Arrogance (Hubris) in this comparison is described as a personality quality of extreme or foolish pride or dangerous overconfidence without any regard of failure.
Overconfidence defies the normal course of confidence which in turn brings about the downfall, or nemesis, of the perpetrators. It has been called the most pervasive and potentially catastrophic of all the cognitive biases in which human beings fall victim.
Daniel Kahneman (March 5, 19340), an Israeli-American psychologist notable for his work on the psychology of judgment and decision-making, says: "Overconfident professionals sincerely believe they have expertise, act as experts, and look like experts. You will have to struggle to remind yourself that they may be in the grip of an illusion."
The ingredients of overconfidence can be defined in 3 distinct ways: overestimation of one's actual performance; over-placement of one's performance relative to others; and over-precision in expressing unwarranted certainty in the accuracy of one's beliefs.
The most common way in which overconfidence has been studied is by asking people how confident they are of specific beliefs they hold or answers they provide. The responses show that confidence systematically exceeds accuracy as the subject is answering hard questions about an unfamiliar topic, implying people are more sure that they correct than they deserve to be. This includes the illusion of control, and planning fallacy. Illusion of control describes the tendency for people to behave as if they might have control when in fact they have none. The planning fallacy describes the tendency for people to overestimate their rate of work or to underestimate how long it will take them to get things done.
Motivation theories have suggested that a successful performance hinges on both skill and will. Yet, even a motivated and skilled individual can fail if he/she does not have a personal certainty belief that he/she can handle what it takes or what needs to be done. Faith and Trust are synonyms of confidence when used in this sense. Then overconfidence, in this case, can be a powerful ingredient beneficial to individual self-esteem as well as giving an individual then will to succeed in their desired goal. Just believing and trusting in the right way to do things may give one the will to take one's endeavours further than those who do not.

AFRICAN CREATION MYTHS.

Many African Creation Myths strongly feature the idea of infusing God's power energy into the human being and also focus on the theme of destiny and fate of man. They also explore the challenges of chaos and the benefits of establishing order. They also initiate the processes of human birth and death by giving cosmic reasons for life and mortality.
The Crossroads is a major concept. It is an idea that suggests there is a point where good and evil, humanity and divinity, the living and the dead, the night and the day, and all other contradictions, opposites, and situations involving decisions must meet.
At this point, there exists an intermediary to open the way, to provide humans with choice, and to teach wisdom at the gate.
In Eastern and Southern Africa, there are a variety of creation legends. The Kamba in Eastern Kenya and Northern Tanzania (into South Western Kenya) believe that the Supreme God, Ngai, created man and that man's ancestors communicate with God.
In East South Africa, among the Zulu, the great God, Unkulunkulu, rises from a primordial marshland to go on and create the Earth. The Southern African creation stories consistently feature the work of the Supreme Being.
The Lozi in Zambia are witness to the creation of Kamura (the first human beings) by Nyambe. He created everything, including man, his own wife, and mother.
In Malawi, God Chuita created the Earth and became aligned with rain and fertility among the Tumbuka people.
In the Congo region, Efile Mokulu, God among the Baluba, not only created the World and mankind -but gave human beings their heart energy and balanced all the forces of Nature.
The Bambuti (BaMbuti) god, Khonvoum, created the World and then made man from the Earth. Further, Bumba, god of the Bushongo, also created the Heavens, plants, animals, and human beings.
In North East Africa and the Sudan, God is consistently self-existing. Among the Dinka in South Eastern Sudan and South Western Ethiopia, the Supreme being Nhialic was present at the moment of Creation. Associated with sky and rain, Nhialic also controls the fate of all living things.
The ancient Egyptians of North Eastern Africa have one of the oldest sets of creation narratives in the World. One of the most persistent involves the preexisting primordial waters (the chaos of pre-creation) in which Ra-Atum rose and created Shu and telfnut (Air and Moisture). They created Nut and Geb (Sky and Earth), who produced the God pantheon: Osiris, Isis, Seth, Nepthys, and Horus-the-Elder.
The creation of the Earth out of chaos sets the stage for the drama of good and evil, birth and resurrection among the ancient Egyptians.
In West Africa, particularly in Ghana, the Supreme Being is omnipresent and omniscient.
Among the Akan, Brekyerchunuade is the high God who knows everything within the affairs of mankind.
In the Ashanti tradition, Nyame, the Supreme Being is married to Goddess Asase Yaa (an Earth goddess). They give birth to the divine children, Bia and Tano. Tano is the father of the divinities within this pantheon.
The Fon of Benin recognize Mawu/Lisa, the God who created the World and brought order and balance to it. Mawu/Lisa created plants, animals, and humans, and gives humans everything to be successful in the World.
In Nigeria and Cameroon, the creator, Abassi, and his goddess wife, Atai, created two human children who were the first people on the Earth.
The Igbo (Ibo) of South Eastern Nigeria believe that the Great Spirit Chukwu created everything that exists.
The Dogon of Mali and Burkino Faso believe that the creator God Amma fashioned the Earth out of clay and populated it with the four ancestral pairs: Arou, Dyon, Ono, and Domnu.
In the Yoruba tradition, the Supreme Being, Olorun Oludumare, tasked Oduduwa to create the Earth and take sacred clay and create human beings. In one version of the narrative, Oduduwa accidentally creates the earth on top of the primordial waters at Ile Ife, and Obatala goes on to bring humans into being. Important symbol implements of this creation include the metal with which a rooster scratched and expanded the land and the palm seed that provided the plant matter.
African Creation Myths seek to describe divine justice and the rules that human beings should follow.
In the sense that the crossroads is the place where several paths cross, where several roads intersect, it is really a symbolic concept. As such, the idea is that, at the point of decision, the human has the possibility of touching divinity or forever remained locked in mortality.

THE STRANGE WATERS OF THE OASIS IN SIWA, EGYPT.

In the ancient times, the remote desert settlement of the Siwa people in the Oasis, was particularly disconnected to the outside World. The fossilized marine shells and like forms found further South from the ancient place suggests that the desert used to be an ocean.
The Oasis is located in the middle of the harsh terrain of the desert and is surrounded by endless of perfectly flat and featureless desert land in which easily anyone can be lost. There is no natural landmarks or points of reference in the desert land, and, in the ancient times, they used the flight of specific birds to get there. Now, in recent times, a point of reference was made, marking exactly half way in the desert before reaching the Oasis, with an isolated  roadside cafeteria with its own mosque. The road then dips and descends into the Oasis.
Siwa's settlement with its own specific language was known in ancient Egypt as the Land of Palms, and home for countless  centuries to the legendary Oracle of Ammon.
The temple is set on a cliff, at the edge of a rock hill. The floor plan of it reveals a hidden passage and a chamber in which it would have been possible for a person or entity to conceal itself. Whatever was said or happened to Alexander the Great here, he took it with him to his grave 8 years later. Extensive works have been undertaken to prevent, or at least postpone, its toppling.
From the temple, a lush expanse of Palms make the more substantial Siwa Shali fortress be overlooked. The fortress itself is on height about 4 km away from the temple making it looks like 2 Islands on a green sea. The location provides the necessary impact rather than the scale of the unimpressive physical layout of the temple, enclosed by the remains of the ancient Siwa town, which, like the fortress has crumbled over time. The village was abandoned in early 20th century, after prolonged rainfall caused the mud-mortared structures, built from broken bits of the ancient temple, to collapse. In the modern Siwa town the fortress towers above its center, around its base is the town square and market with its grocers, butchers, eateries and coffee shops; also there is a busy trade in handicrafts and furniture.
It is here where that the distinction between Siwan culture and that of Cairo and the Nile Valley is at its most striking view. In a ruinous state, the old town still looks attractive even though the evidence on a large scale of inexorable time have changed it. Whatever it once was, it has been eroded both by weather and by the shifting sands of human needs and aspiration. Much of its fallen structures done by the forces of nature, especially the palm wood beams that held the buildings together have been recycled by the today Siwans for the building of new homes elsewhere. In Siwa language, differences between what was and what is, between private and public is very complex and sometimes looks very contradictory.
The Siwa Shali fortress, at the hub of the Oasis, was the fortified home of the Siwan families in the ancient times, and its people only slept within its fortified walls. The ancient remains of the town still crumble there. Just a few miles South of the town, are the home of parallel dunes, a sea of sand, some of them as high as 50 meters.
Outside the fortified walls, and inside the date palm gardens, lived the Zaggalah. They were men employed by wealthy Siwans to tend the gardens, and it was not permitted to them to marry before the age of 40. They constitute a separate social class in Siwan society, and for the Zaggalah, who would rarely was able to see a woman, homosexuality was commonplace. Even formal marriages between man and boy were accepted. King Fu'Ad of Egypt pronounced the custom forbidden in 1928, when he visited the Oasis, but the practice has continued in secrecy.
The traditional Siwa people has its own way of life  and its custom is very particular according to its purpose in the affairs of their world. Women has their face covered and men are not able to see them uncovered in their everyday life. Married women rarely leave their home, except to visit relatives, but never go alone.  Women wrap themselves in traditional Tarfottet, a blue embroidered garment made in the Nile Valley exclusively for the Women of the Oasis, that covers them head to foot. Siwan women have long been famed for all their public modesty, and for the finery of their garment and jewelry, the display of which is confined to private time and space.
The Oasis was visited by Alexander the Great and Ptolomy, his right hand as chief of his army, to seek legitimacy as holder of the power to make him ruler of the whole World and Ptolemy as the one in charge of the designing plan for the transmission of such power to the future generations. They bathed themselves in the deep and hot pool of water of the Oasis, surrounded by a strange garden of dates.
The Spring is circular and hemmed in by a low wall and surrounded on all sides by date palms. From time to time bubbles rise through the clear water from its depths giving an impression that the Spring boils at that specific time that usually is during the night. The warm temperature is constant, but feels different to a cold hand at midnight than to a hot hand in the afternoon. Where the pool of hot water makes a clearing in the groves, the sky forms a starlit canopy.
The name of the Spring varied since it was open to the World and it is also known as Ayn al-Hammam,
the Spring of Bath, but it is referred more often these days as Cleopatra's Bath.
The Siwan's language is only comprehended by its particular inhabitants and not known by the neighboring people, as it occurs with its closest neighbors, the inhabitants of Marsah, on the side of the Libyan border.
In our time, the deep pool of water of the Oasis, home of the date gardens surrounding the place, is already more connected to the outside World, thanks to the completion of the asphalt road that reach the place, done in the mid-eighties. This is Ammon territory and its temple erected in its honor is just steps away from the pool of water, and beyond that is the Oracle itself, perched on the Hill of Aghurmi.
The Siwans of today have internet connections, and mobile phones, making it very accessible and easy to welcome any traveler who wants to visit the place. The fact that the place now has plans to accommodate commercial flights at a nearby airport will also make it easy for travelers who do not want to experience the long hours of traveling by ground transportation, in the very near future.
From the ancient town where the ancient Siwans used to live, there is another Spring, the Spring of Juba (Ayn al-Gubah). Also, close to it, is Bir Wahed where there are hot and cold Springs. A run-off water from the hot Spring is used to irrigate a small garden. The garden bring birds so its singing can be heard around because its sound is trapped by the dunes on all sides. These type of birds were the ones who guided Alexander the great and his companion to the Oasis in the middle of the desert.
From the crest of a dune at the sun setting time the deep desert can be contemplated as nothing but dunes interspersed with rocky crags from the Qattara Depression to the Sudan. Al close quarters the sand is as beguiling as it is in the distance. Patterns are all around as a result of wind and time. Some of them were not there a day before but today they are and will be vanished tomorrow. Other patterns seems to take longer, looking undisturbed, with no probability of taking a shape, even though the World outside them change quickly.
Travelers get to the Oasis for New Year celebrations in which a gathering is concentrated there. Fires are lit and goats are roasted over the fires on spits. A circle of Siwans then plays drums and pipes and one of them dances around the circle. Even though the coming of the New Year means nothing to them they invite the visitors to perform whatever they feel to do along with their music. Some of the travelers fall in love with the deep sound of the notes played by the musicians and its instruments and get possessed by it and start dancing around the fire suggestively without control. This behavior is judged inappropriate by conservative travelers who have a different perspective about the nature of the place and are not moved to fall and get possessed by the sound of the notes. The music is very percussive with a distinctive and repetitive pattern targeting the subconscious of the visitor. The only light in the area comes from the fires used to roast the goats making it looks like a kind of ritual.
A kind of sensory deprivation of having being separated from the supposedly safe and familiar vertical way of modern city life environments is somehow felt in the emotions of the ground travelers who spend 9 hours of traveling in flat and straight road surrounded by desert land.
The image of the new town built in the middle of the desert by the Shiva people of today around the ruins, particularly on the margins at the foot of the hill where the old town used to be make the visitor think about what is the meaning of life. The new houses of today have been built from the wood of the old and beautiful palm tree garden that existed long ago, and some of them now serve as a lodging place to accommodate travelers of the today world, after having a very long trip across the desert land.
From Cairo to Marsah Matruh on Egypt's Mediterranean Coast, the traveling by ground transportation is 5 hours across the flat land, and from there 4 hours more South West into the Sahara Desert.

WHO WAS PTOLEMY I SOTER.

Ptolemy I Soter (305-283/2 BC) served with Alexander from his first campaigns, and played a principal part in the later campaigns in Afghanistan and India.
Ptolemy I participated in the Battle of Issus (Nov. 33BC), the 2nd great battle of Alexander's conquest of Asia, that occurred in Southern Anatolia, between the Hellenic League led by Alexander the Great and the Achaemenid Empire, led by Darius III.
During Alexander's campaign to conquer the Persian Empire, Ptolemy was the one who accompanied him during his journey to the Oracle in the Siwa Oasis, in Egypt, supposedly by following birds across the desert. The Oracle confirmed him as both a divine personage and the legitimate Pharaoh of Egypt and he was proclaimed a son of Zeus.
The earliest evidence of the place in connection with ancient Egypt is in the 26th Dynasty, when a large cemetery with elaborated tomb monuments was established (necropolis) there. During Ptolemaic period its ancient Egyptian name was "Field of Trees." Greek settlers of Cyrene, the oldest and most important of the 5 Greek cities in the region and later a Roman city, made the connection with the Oracle as mediums around 7th BC and the Oracle temple of Zeus (Amun, Ammon) took the image of a "ram." According to the historian Herodotus, the "Fountain of the Sun" was placed there which ran coldest in the noontide heat. Iarbas, a mythological king of Libya, was also considered a son of Ammon.
The Siwa Oasis, is a deep depression that reaches below sea level, to about -19m. To the West the Jaghbub Oasis lies in a similar depression and to the East the large Katara Depression. Siwa is between the Katara Depression and the Egyptian Sand Sea in the Western Desert, near East of the Libyan border and 560km/348mi from Cairo. The Oasis is about 80km/50mi in length and 20km/12mi wide, and it is one of the most isolated settlements, with 23,000 people, mostly Berbers who developed a unique culture and a distinct language called Siwi. It is a branch of an Afro-Asiatic language of North Africa, and now spoken by large populations in Algeria and Morocco, and by smaller populations in Libya, Tunisia, Northern Mali, Wester and Northern Niger, Northern Burkina Faso, and Mauritania. The region is believed to have been inhabited by Berbers from at least 10,000 BC. Its fame lies primarily in its ancient role as the home to the Oracle. The solitary Oracle was a place considered to provide to its representatives or mediums, by using a form of divination, a wise and insightful counsel or prophetic predictions or precognition of the future.
Ptolemy had his first independent command during the campaign against the rebel Bessus, also known as Arta'Xerxes V, a prominent Persian Strap of Bactria in Persia, and later self-proclaimed King of Kings of Persia. He killed his predecesor and relative, Darius III, after the Persian army had been defeated by Alexander the Great. After hours of intense  and fierce fighting, Arta'Xerxes survived the battle and remained with Darius, his king, whose routed army eluded Alexander's forces and spent  the Winter in Ecbatana literally meaning "the place of gathering, an ancient city in Media, best known for having been the political and cultural base of the Medes. The next year Darius attempted to flee to Bactria in the East. Arta'Xerxes, conspiring with fellow satraps, deposed Darius and put him in golden chains.  He may have intended to surrender the deposed king to the Macedonians and obtain a political gain through it, but Alexander ordered his forces to continue to pursue the Persians. The panicked conspirators stabbed Darius and left him dying in a cart yo be found by a Macedonian soldier. Arta'Xerxes immediately proclaimed himself King of Kings of Persia, but since most of the Persian Empire had already been conquered, he was not regarded as that. Ptolemy captured Arta'Xerxes and handed him over to Alexander for execution. He was executed in 329 BC.
During Alexander's campaign in the Indian subcontinent Ptolemy was in command of the advance guard at the siege of Aornos (meaning 'fortified place'), the ancient Greek name for the site of Alexander's last siege at a mountain site located in modern Pakistan. The rocky mountain had a flat summit well supplied with natural springs and wide enough to grow crops. Neighboring tribesmen who surrender to Alexander offered to lead him to the best point of access. Then the Battle of Hydaspes was fought by Alexander in 326 BC against King Porus of the Paurava kingdom on the banks of the River Hydaspes (now Jhelum) in the Punjab near Bhera. Alexander decision to cross the monsoon-swollen River despite close Indian surveillance, in order to catch Porus' army in the flank. Monsoon is defined as a seasonal reversed wind accompanied by changes in precipitation with the heating of land and sea.
The Battle historically opened up India to Greek political and cultural influences which continued to have a profound impact in the following centuries.
When Alexander died in 323 BC, Ptolemy is said to have instigated the resettlement of the empire made at Babylon. Through the Partition of Babylon, he was appointed satrap of Egypt.  In 321BC, Perdicass, the imperial regent, attempted to invade Egypt only to fall at the hands of his own men. He was murdered in his tent by two of his subordinates. Ptolemy was consistent in his policy of securing a power base, while never succumbing to the temptation of risking all to succeed Alexander. His first goal was to hold Egypt securely, and his second was to secure control in the outlying areas: Cyrenaica and Cyprus, as well as Syria, including the province of Judea. Ptolemy seems to have mingled as little as possible in the rivalries between Asia Minor and Greece; he lost what he held in Greece, but re-conquered Cyprus in 295/294. Cyrene, after a series of rebellions, was finally subjugated about 300 BC and placed under his stepson Magas.
In 289, Ptolemy made his son by Berenice -Ptolemy II Philadelphus- his co-regent. His eldest legitimate son, Ptolemy Keraunos, whose mother Eurydice, daughter of Antipater, had been repudiated, fled to the court of Lysimachus. Ptolemy also has a consort, Thais, a famous Greek hetaera (a member of a class of highly cultured courtesans), famous for instigating the burning of Persepolis, the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid empire, as a retribution for Arta'Xerxes' burning of the old Temple of Athena on the Acropolis in Athens (the site on the extant Parthenon).  She is said to have been very witty and entertaining. She bored Ptolemy three children. She also was one of Alexander's companions in his conquest of the ancient World.
Ptolemy I Soter died in winter 283 BC at the age of 84. Shrewd and cautious, he had a compact and well-ordered realm to show at the end of 40 years of war. His reputation attached the floating soldier- class of Macedonians and other Greeks to his service. He was a ready patron of letters, founding the Great Library of Alexandria.

THE CULT OF SERAPIS.

The cult of Serapis was the one of ancient Egyptian religion that have survived the longest into the Greek and Roman periods.
The name Serapis is a combination of Osiris and Apis. He is actually the deceased Apis, a fertility god from Memphis in the shape of a bull, who had become immortal as Serapis, hence the connection with the Egyptian god of the Underworld, Osiris. The god was already being worshiped as god of the Underworld in Memphis (2nd BC), so he was not a new deity, but his cult was.
Serapis as reincarnation of the fertility god Apis, is a fertility god himself as well. This is clearly shown by the corn measure the deity wears on his head. Furthermore Osiris is a cereal god as well, and god of the underworld. Like the Greek god of the underworld Hades he is accompanied by a 3-headed dog. This dog has a strong resemblance to the Greek Cerberus, but usually a snake is twined around his body and he bears the head of a dog, a wolf, and a lion. As a revived god, Serapis is also a healing god with a reputation at least equal to that of the Greek Asclepius. His healing power is symbolized by the snake. As god of the sea he replaced the Greek Poseidon as well. Because the Greeks were not interested in the traditional Egyptian's animal gods, so Serapis was made in human form, but his traditional name was preserved. Being worship as a fertility and underworld god, he became a medicine god, patron of the sailors and his followers even regarded him as the new chief god instead of Zeus. At his temple. the Serapeum in Alexandria, he was represented as a robed and bearded figure, with a three headed dog at his right hand, and a scepter in his left hand. In this role he was a sun god, and a god of fertility and healing.
Ptolemy chose Serapis as the god to be worship by the Greeks as well as the Egyptians, and Serapis's jurisdiction extended as well and became the most popular god of the new Hellenistic capital Alexandria. Although the deity was Egyptian, his cult itself was purely Greek-Hellenistic, spreading to the entire Greek-Roman World, and his mystery cults became a threat to the traditional Roman religion. Emperors Augustus and Tiberius banned the cult but nevertheless it became increasingly more popular and reached their peak in the 3rd century CE.
The universal Serapis was therefore the right god for the Gnostic movement in Egypt. This philosophic-religious movement in the first centuries CE was a combination of Eastern religious ideas from Syria, Persia and Judaism, and Greek philosophical elements from Plato and Neo-Platonism, from Pythagoras and Neo-Pythagoreanism and from Stoicism. Gnostics believed knowledge was the only way to salvation. To them religion was thinking about the questions of life and studying secret texts, although important mystical aspects were involved as well. Furthermore they considered everything as a struggle between god and evil. There were several different fractions however, namely Jewish, Christian, and pagan Gnostics. Because they believed the World was created by the Highest God, the pagan Gnostics needed a deity superior to all the others.
In the Egyptian city of Alexandria, the most important intellectual centre in the Mediterranean and an important Gnostic centre, Serapis was an obvious choice. Serapis became the object of a mystery cult with similarities to other mystery religions as Christianity and the Mithras cult, which were both strongly influenced by Gnostic movement.




.

THE FALCON GOD IN EGYPT.

MONTU was a falcon-god of war. Montu's name shown in the Egyptian hieroglyphics, is technically transcribed as "MNTW". Because of the difficulty in transcribing ancient Egyptian language, it is often regarded as Mont, Montu, or Menthu.
In ancient Egyptian art, he was pictured as a falcon-headed or bull-headed man who wore the sun-disk, with 2 plumes on his head, the falcon representing the sky, an an element of its nature, and the bull representing strength and war, as earth elements of its nature. He would hold various weaponry, including scimitars, bows and arrows, and knives in his hands.
The name itself means "Nomad,"originally a manifestation of the scorching effect of the sun, Ra, and as such often appeared under the epithet Mont-Ra. The destructiveness of this nature or characteristic of its mind led him to gain a warrior symbolism, and eventually becoming a war-god.
Because of the association of wild ranging bulls with strength and war, Montu was also said to manifest his energy and force in a white bull with a black face, which was referred to as the "Bakh"or "Buchis."
The manifestation of the his powerful force of life was deified as KA, and was worshiped in the region of Hermonth'Is, in Luxor Governorate, on the West bank of the Nile. The Bucheum, the burial place of the sacred Buchis bulls of Hermonth'Is, is on the desert edge North of the city. The earliest bull burial dates to Necta'Nebo II, and the complex remained in use until the mid 4th century AC. The burial place of the Mother of Buchis cows has also been located. Extensive cemeteries of all periods are found in the neighborhood or Hemonth'Is.
Montu had several consorts, including the goddess Tenenet, known as the "goddess of brewing", the goddess Iunit, whose name represented the region from which the god chose his sacred bulls.
A temple dedicated to him at Meda'Mud was probably began during the Old Kingdom era. Temples to Montu include one located adjacent to the Middle Kingdom fortress of Uronarti on an island on the Nile River, near the 2nd Cataract, specifically to the South of it. It stands out from the other fortresses because of its triangular-shaped geography. Important additions were made in the temple design during the 12th dynasty and during the New Kingdom. Destroyed during the Late Period, a new temple was started in the reign of Necta'Nebo II and was continued by the Ptolemis.
Cleopatra VII, under whom Hermonth'Is became capital of the 4th Upper Egyptian nome and Ptolemy XV Caesarion added a birth house with a sacred lake. The building remained visible until the 19th century, when it was recycled to built a sugar factory. Only the remains of the pylon of Thutmose III (Thoth is born), who created the largest empire Egypt had ever seen, are visible today.
Two Gates, one of them built by Antoninus Pius, the Roman Emperor from 138 to 161, and one of the 5 Good Emperors in the Nerva-Antonine dynasty and the Aurelii, have also been found. He acquired the name Pius after his ascension to the throne, either because he compelled the Senate to deify his adoptive father Hadrian, or because he had saved senators sentenced to death by Hadrian in his later years. He died of illness in 161 AC and was succeded by his adopted sons Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus as co-emperors.
Egypt's greatest general-kings called themselves "Mighty Bulls," the son of Montu. In the narrative of the Battle of Kadesh, Ramesses II was said to have seen the enemy and "raged at them like Montu, Lord of Thebes".
Mentu'Hotep, a name given to several pharaohs in the Middle Kingdom, means "Montu is satisfied."