What is an Ibis ?

If you want to know what is an Ibis then read this.



An Ibis is a type of bird and it is found all over the world but not in Australia according to Encyclopedia Americana. These are long legged wading birds with long beaks and can be of various colors depending on their genetic inheritence. The Ibis are found in the sacred myths of certain ancient cultures. They play a great role in the history of the ancient Egyptian culture.



While Encyclopedia Americana claims there are no Ibis in Australia, wikipedia carries a photo of a white Ibis with a black head and black feet which is called the Australian White Ibis.



The ancient Egyptians used hb or hib to describe what later came to be known as the Ibis by the Greeks.





The Sacred Ibis of Africa is also white with a black head and dark feet. The African Sacred Ibis was once found in abundance in Egypt and was honoured as a symbol of the deity Thoth. This bird breeds in the sub Saharan area of Africa. The Sacred Ibis nests in trees and loves to wade in marshlands where it feeds on small reptiles, fish, insects....



According to Herodotus and Pliny the Elder the Sacred Ibis was summoned to protect the Egyptian against the sudden invasion or hostile entrance of serpents into their land or perhaps as a metaphor to protect the psychological impact of demonic infiltration into the psyche.



Another tale has it that the Sacred Ibis was kept close by due to it's insect eating habit. By eating the insects somehow the bird was keeping the Egyptian tribe healthy. Today this might be better understood has a method of preventing malaria which is a mosquito borne infectious disease widespread in subtropical and tropical areas where marshlands are plentiful and bugs even more plentiful.



As a token to lord Thoth the Egyptians took to mummifying the Sacred Ibis as part of their religious death rituals. The Ibis would help the dead to journey safely to the world beyond.



The account of Herodotus is this....



In Arabia, very near to the city of Buto, is a place to which I went to inquire about the winged serpents. On my arrival I saw a great quantity of bones and backbones of serpents scattered about, of all sizes, in a place where a narrow gorge between the hills opens upon an extensive plain contiguous to the valley of Egypt.



These serpents are reported to fly from Arabia into Egypt about the beginning of spring, when the Ibises, meeting them at the opening of this defile, prevent their passing, and destroy them: in gratitude for which service, the Arabs say that the Egyptians have great veneration for the Ibis; and they themselves allow it is for this reason they honour that bird.



There are two kinds of Ibis.



The first is of the size of a crex, with very black plumage; the eggs like those of a crane, and the beak curved. This kind attacks the serpent.



The other Ibises are more common, and often seen. They have the head, and all the neck, without feathers; their plumage is white, except the head, neck, and extremity of the wings and tail, all which are quite black; the legs and beak being the same as in the other species. The winged serpent is in figure like a water snake; its wings are without feathers, and exactly like those of a bat.



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According to Herodotus the Sacred Iris is what the Egyptians mummified to honour the Iris which rescued them each spring from the flying serpent. But in reality it was the other type of Ibis which did the job of keeping them safe. The Northern Bald Ibis is glossy black and feeds on lizards and insects. It is also called the hermit Ibis and was once widespread in northern Africa. Some fossil remains of this Ibis have been dated back a million and a half years. Ironically the Northern Bald Ibis is mostly extinct and one of the main causes is pesticide poisoning. Another great human condition snafu where we kill the beast who kills the pest and do so for the better good, or the better of two evils.



This isn't to say that Herodotus was considering the Northern Bald Ibis as the fighter of the winged serpent ( Apep ). Another interesting thing about the Northern Bald is that it does not wade and prefers to harbor on hillsides than in trees.



The Glossy Ibis is another dark Ibis but does not seem like a serpent killer. It was found in Africa and was very widespread and would migrate.



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What is an Ibis ?







Well it's a bird obviously. But in the case of the Egyptian myths the Ibis is a religiously sacred spirit.

A certain type of Ibis is responsible for fighting off winged serpents. Mythologically speaking anyways. The winged serpent in the Herodotus account has never been identified according to Sir John Gardner Wilkinson who writes of them in a centuries old book called Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians...Volume 2.



Wilkinson goes on to say that Herodotus must have been fooling with peoples minds since no artifacts or archeological evidence exists to demonstrate that such a winged serpent was a concern of the ancient Egyptians.



Yet, in other tales we are told that the very mention or honour of the nonbeing Apep, winged serpent of the night, would bring an end to a person's soul and that there would be no victory in the duat. So just maybe, there was a reason why no inscriptions were located to prove the existence of such a winged serpent.



You asked, What is an Ibis?



I'm just the messenger...don't shoot me......



But wait there is more.



Wilkinson goes on to give clues to what type of Ibis Herodotus was talking about. He speculates that it was either the Numenius Ibis or the Ibis Religiosa (Sacred Ibis).



Numenius Ibis was named by Cuvier in the early 1800's. Cuvier is mentioned in an article by WH Rosser found in the Gentleman's Magazine, Volume 160, of 1836.



This article is full of mysterious information such as:



" the black Ibis of the ancients is probably the bird known in Europe under the name green curlew "



"a bird was discovered ( in Ethiopia ) which is there called Abou-Hannes (father John), and on comparing it with the embalmed individuals, he discovered it to be the the true black and white Ibis of the ancients"



" they (Egyptians) ascribed their deliverance to these creatures; and, to make them a grateful return, it was ordained for a law, that none of these creatures, whose representations were formerly thus carried, should be killed, but religiously and carefully adored. "



Rosser concludes the article by stating that " I cannot but think that the true cause of the veneration for the brute creation among the Egyptians, is among those mysteries of that highly mysterious people which have never yet been fathomed, and probably never will , unless the more perfect knowledge of the hieroglyphic inscriptions shall admit us, among the initiated, to some of the secrets of the Egyptian priests."



Interestingly Thoth is the Egyptian equivalent of Mercury and to the Romans Mercury was the deity who fathered Remus and Romulus. In that tale Romulus kills Remus and founds Rome in the 8th century BC. Mercury, like Thoth, is the protector of sciences, the organizer of human society, the inventor of writing and the written code of law, and the patron of all useful arts.



Again interestingly, some artifacts of the winged serpent and Ibis battles begin to be imprinted in Roman art. Somehow that suggests that the Romans who were rising in power while the Greeks controlled had no fear of honouring the winged serpent. Of course that is just speculation on my part.



The Arabs call the mortuary temple of Ramesses II, Medinet Habu. Since Habu refers to father, I imagine this means "house of the father". Ramesses II was pharoah in the 19th dynasty. He was the son of Seti I. Dynasty 19 Egypt is circa 1250 BC. Seti I was the son of Ramesses I.





All kinds of interesting things are happening when Ramesses II reigns Egypt.

• 1275 BC Khumbannumena expands the Elamite empire
• 1274 BC Ramesses II is defeated by the Hittite king Muwatallis II at the city of Kadesh
• 1259 BC Ramesses II and the new Hittite king Hattusili III sign peace agreements
• 1250 BC the Hebrews return from Egypt and establish a kingdom in Palestine (???)
• 1250 BC the Assyrians make headway with numbers by figuring out the 360 degree circle and gain iron working knowledge which leads to better arms
• 1250 BC the Elamites build the largest Ziggurat of all times at Choga Zambil
• 1237 BC Hattusili III dies, Tudhaliya IV, his son becomes king of the Hittite and erects a palace at the acropolis inbuilds an acropolis at Hattusa
• 1225 BC the Assyrians capture Babylon
• 1200 BC the Phoenician move to the Meditteranean coast from the Arabian peninsula

By some accounts Moses in 1272 BC, the Hebrew leader of the newly formed Jewish people and founder to be of Israel is about to lead the monotheists to the promised land. The reason for leaving is a matter of life and death. The pharoah (not certain whether it is Ramses II or an Hyksos Pharoah ) is on to the conversion schemes of the monotheist and has put a bounty on all converts. The terms of the bounty state that any convert is to be put to death by drowning in the Nile. During this journey Moses goes up on Mount Sinai and receives the commandments of his supreme host. Check out the passage about the mysteries of high priests trained in esoteric arts and laws written of above and consider that the alters of the highest orders of priests were almost always situated high up on mountains. They were fire alters ( consider the precipitation of metals ) and very few select priests knew the incantations or spells required to summon the psychic source.

Then consider what really happened at the fire alters of Mount Sinai. It all just speculation.



What is an Ibis ? If you are still reading and you don't yet know what an Ibis is then I apologize.



We are now in act two, or five, and we are considering the mythical possibility of What an Ibis might have been to the ancients. It's some sort of bird, either real or fictional.



Though Thoth, Theuth as some say, was a deity and a member of the Egyptian pagan pantheon, He was also a supernatural king priest in the eyes of his cult followers in Egypt. Medinet Habu was Djanet to the ancient Egyptians and it is situated only a few kilometers from the Ramesseum where the major cult of influence was to Amun. Today there is a Djanet in Algeria but not the same. It was a place dedicated to Thoth and here Thoth was symbolized with the head of an Isis according to the Gentleman Magazine article referenced before.

The Ramesseum itself was in the time of Ramesses II and earlier a worship center to the eight divinities of creation according to the Ogdoad myths. It was here that the cultists believed these gods of creation had been buried.

Much more could be said about What is an Ibis?.

For instance, much of the ability for the Pharoah to keep Egypt under his rule came by his ability to keep the Nubians, those from Ethiopia, and along the Blue Nile and White Nile into Sudan and closer to the Lake Victoria, at peace, or in balance through the divine law of Ma'at (aka Thoth ), with the people of the North or Lower Nile.

What the true meaning or the true role of the Ibis was in these affairs is a mystery lost in mythos just as much as what the reality of the fire alter sacrifices were to the initiated high priests who climbed mountains only to come back to announce revelation to the sheep flock or cult members.

What is an Ibis ?

It's a bird full of mystery.

Does the Ibis play a role in the story of Apep the fiery demon serpent of the night ?

An equally mysterious possibility which could take volumes to speculate about.