Philae was formerly an island in the River Nile and was the site of an ancient Egyptian temple. And I say was because the temple was dismantled and relocated to make way for the construction of the Aswan Dam. The Temple itself was dedicated to the goddess Isis, the wife of Osiris and
mother of Horus. These three characters dominate ancient Egyptian
culture and their story is all about
tragedy. The god Osiris is murdered and dismembered by his brother Seth.
Isis searches for the fragments, collects them together and with her
magic powers brings Osiris back to life. They then conceive the god
Horus. Osiris becomes god of the under world and judge of the dead – who
must answer to him for their deeds on Earth. Meanwhile Isis gives birth
to Horus and protects the young god. Later when Horus is grown he
avenges his father by defeating Seth in combat... are you keeping up? Of course like the Icarus myth the story becomes appropriated and misappropriated. But there is a story to it in the new Philae, you see pictured above. This Philae was indeed named after the island in the Nile, where an obelisk was also found and used alongside the Rosetta Stone to decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics. And then it makes sense, the Philae was launched from the spacecraft Rosetta in the pursuit of knowledge, in pursuit of the narrative of our very existence, the alphabet soup of our DNA - neat huh? It doesn't mean a huge amount set out like this but I so like the idea of knowledge and language and ideas still being connected to their antecedents and their roots. Knowledge is never primitive, it is always of the moment, always of its own time and all we do is add to it. We couldn't know what we know now, without that which came before. If you hear the intro it is a song about 'sirens' seducing in the 'Oh Brother Where Art Thou' movie...
