~General Semantics
Michelangelo's Moses using the horns of Pan
I have always understood those (art scholars do teach this) as rays of light and wisdom that emanated from his being.
Moses was one tough S.O.B. in his own right as a man, let alone being considered a divinely inspired warrior.
Though, he was an agent of a lot of pandemonium for the pagan Egyptians, wasn't he???
There are a number of examples in Oedipus Rex that show some similarities to Judaic tradition. Moses was also cast off into the world like Oedipus as an infant. They were taken into royal households to become kings. Both could have claimed the kingdoms of two nations. Ultimately, neither of them did. Moses was forbidden entry into the Promised Land and declined to take the crown of pharaoh in the kingdom of Egypt, a crown which he very well could have taken.
...and objects bearing the names of Amenhotep II, Thutmose IV and Amenhotep III.
Confusing... I have noticed many stories written about such topics are so convoluted in chronology...
“In this connection it is interesting that Oedipus, whose parentage is regularly ascribed to Laius, is also called in some ancient sources the son of Helios (sun)1 Oedipus’ descent from Laius is a vital element in the legend; such an unmotivated change in the parentage of the legendary hero seems strange but is understandable if the prototype of the legendary hero was Akhnaton.A royal son and descendent of the god Ra, like other pharaohs before him, his claim to divinity soon demanded an equality with his father, Aton, the sun.
"Thou art an eternity like the Aten, beautiful like the Aten who gave him being, Nefer-kheperu-ra (Akhnaton), who fashions mankind and gives existence to generations. He is fixed as the heaven in which Aten is." 2
So wrote his foreign minister in a panegyric to the king. Next Akhnaton insisted that he had created himself, like Ra. Of Ra-Amon it was said he was the "husband of his mother." The "favorite concrete expression for a self-existent or self created being (was) ‘husband of his mother.’" 3
He claimed to be Ra-Aton, and in this spirit he also took over his father’s name, Nebmare (Neb maatre), as if he himself was his own father.
1. "Auch ein Helios wurde als Vater des Oedipus genannt." L.W. Daly’ in Pauly-Wissowa, Real- Encyclopädie der classichen Altertumswissenschaft, article "Oedipus," Vol. XVII, Col. 2108. Cf.Also W.H. Roscher, Ausführliches Lexikon der griechischen und römischen Mythologie, article "Oedipus" by O. Höfer, Vol. III, Cols. 703, 708.
2. The Tomb of Tutu (Davies, the Rock Tombs of el-Amarna, VI, 13).
3. W.M. Flinders Petrie, "Egyptian Tales" (XVIII-XIX Dynasties) (1895), pp. 125-126. More properly translated "bull of his mother."
He claimed to be Ra-Aton, and in this spirit he also took over his father’s name, Nebmare (Neb maatre), as if he himself was his own father.”
_
(Velikovsky, Immanuel. Oedipus and Akhnaton; Myth and History. New York: Doubleday, 1960., p 71-72)
Wasn't Akhenaten also Amenhotep IV, and had his father's name (Amenhotep III) effaced from all the temples (which was akin to murdering his soul)???
“Behold, I am Set, the creator of confusion, who creates both the tempest and the storm throughout the length and breadth of the heavens.”(Naville, Edouard, trans. Egyptian Book of the Dead of the XVIII to XX Dynasties, Berlin, 1886, p. 39.)
Eh? The horns on Moses were the result of a mistranslation in St. Jerome's Latin Vulgate. Instead of coming down from Mt. Sinai "with a burned face" (IIRC) Jerome translated it as "with horns." From Exodus:
34:29. And when Moses came down from the Mount Sinai, he held the two tables of the testimony, and he knew not that his face was horned from the conversation of the Lord.* Cumque descenderet Moses de monte Sinai tenebat duas tabulas testimonii et ignorabat quod cornuta esset facies sua ex consortio sermonis DeiAs for the putative neo-pagan Greeks: If they don't have Homer memorized, they are poseurs.
34:30. And Aaron and the children of Israel seeing the face of Moses horned, were afraid to come near. Videntes autem Aaron et filii Israhel cornutam Mosi faciem timuerunt prope accedere