Blog Response #7: The Eye of Horus

 Firstly, I love how Egyptian Mythology and mathematics are connected through the story of the Eye of Horus. I think that this will prove to be something that my students would be interested in if I included it into one of my lesson plans. This may encourage them to be engaged to learn whatever comes after. 

From the story of the Eye of Horus, I learned that Horus was in dispute with his uncle Set over the Egyptian throne, and during the dispute Set ripped Horus’ eye into six pieces. The Egyptian god Thoth restored Horus’ eye, and now the Eye of Horus stands for wholeness. 

I find this story and the concept of wholeness in Ancient Egyptian mathematics most interesting. Each part of Horus’ Eye represented unit fractions (½, ¼, 1/8, 1/16, 1/32 & 1/64), which were used to measure grain. “From today’s perspective, this collection of numbers makes up the first six terms of a geometric series whose sum converges to one. It is interesting that the symbol for whole would only sum to 63/64 in Egyptian times. Some scholars think that the missing 1/64 represents the magic used to reassemble the eye to make it whole” (Windigo23, 2015, paragraph 5) 

The number in my life that I find interesting comes from my Christian beliefs, which I will have to admit, I do not fully understand. This number is 666 which stands for the mark of the devil or the anti-Christ. In the Bible, 7 is believed to represent completeness, therefore, the number less than 7, which is 6, stands for incompleteness. “The first six of the number 666 means the perfectly false religions of man under Satan's lead … the second six is for the deceived false governments of this world. The third six of 666 is symbolic of mankind's self-centered economic system” (Bible Study, n.d., paragraph 3) 

References 

Windigo23. (2015, February 23). Egyptian Fractions: From Mythology to Computation. 3010tangents. https://3010tangents.wordpress.com/2015/02/23/egyptian-fractions-from-mythology-to-computation/ 

Bible Study. (n.d.). The Meaning of Numbers: The Number 666.  

https://www.biblestudy.org/bibleref/meaning-of-numbers-in-bible/666.html 

 

Comments

  1. Amanda FritzlanNovember 9, 2022 at 11:45 AM

    Appu, I think that you are correct in that students would be intrigued by this number mythology. Also, thank you for sharing your beliefs about numbers. It is amazing how powerful these beliefs can be even if we don't often consciously think of them.

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