Walk Like an Egyptian: Rey and the Gift of the Mother
This is one of my obsessions, when I read a novel or watch a movie, to always pay attention to details about clothing or hairstyles. I have never thought it was not significant on any level. So, there was something about Rey’s appearance in TFA that always had me thinking until today it finally clicked. The draping and off-white color of her dress was always kind of goddessy to me, but I do not think it is any Goddess. Rey’s costume is Egyptian inspired, and there may be one particular Goddess behind it… Hear me out… She lives in the desert, among ruins, so the setting is right. Now, look at the draping, the staff, and above all the hairstyle. They insisted particularly on this type of three knots (that she lets go of at the end of TLJ) when they introduced the character. This type of “knot” (and they called it expressly a bun-knot) looks very much like the Tyet also called an Isis knot, that is one of the symbols of the Goddess and is supposed to echo the ankh, the cross of life. And I saw recently someone wondering about the style of bandages on Rey’s arms… It does look cool ,but it could also be a nod to the bandages on mummies. Note that Kylo has more or less the same bandaging on his arms. So it might all go with the theme of death and rebirth that Isis and Osiris embody in Egyptian mythology.
Isis has a lot of different representations, but the most recurring ones are teh winged goddess, the one on the throne, and the goddess with the scepter. Isis has been one of the most enduring goddesses, under different cultures and different names, from Ancient Egypt to the Roman Empire. As the figure of the Mother, with her babe at her breast, she is also credited as an earlier representation of the Madonna and Child. The story of Isis in Egyptian mythology is honestly quite convoluted and complicated. But there are some interesting key elements to maybe ponder:
Isis is married to her twin brother, Osiris, the God of Death, of reincarnation, and the Underworld
Isis has to go on a litteral scavenger hunt to find the dead body of her husband, first to find his coffin, then to collect the dismembered parts of his body
Isis and Osiris have one child together (do not get me started about how that happened, because the guy was dead), and its name is Horus, the Falcon-headed God.
Isis is the Goddess of marriage, fertility, motherhood, death, and rebirth
She was believed to have healing powers
She was often represented on coffins
In a particular story, she was the only Goddess who was able to learn the name of Ra, or also Re (/reɪ/)
Among her many symbols (scepter and tyet), there are also the vulture and the solar disc with horns
There is already quite a lot to look at. First, I am going to very clear, even though Isis is married to her brother I am NOT saying that Kylo is her twin brother. In Greek, Roman, and Egyptian myths, the Gods and Goddesses are always brothers and sisters, but this is not a hint at any kind of incest. Game of Thrones this is not. Though it could explain why some people got misled in the first installment. I do not think they are aiming at the brother and sister relationship but rather at the notion of soulmate. They are metaphorical twins, the two halves of one being, which was really what they meant in mythology with the sister and brother thing… Yet, Kylo as Osiris is rather interesting for the obvious reason. He ends up in the underworld, the Dark Side, and has to be rescued by his wife who relentlessly goes after him. Isis on a scavenger hunt? Well, Rey is a scavenger. Check. Let’s look at the other checks:
Horus looks like a falcon/ She flies the Millennium Falcon
Isis is represented on coffins/ Rey shipped herself to Kylo on a pod that Rian Johnson insisted should be designed like a coffin
The name that Isis stole from the Sun God sounds very much like our heroine’s name: Re/Rey
the vulture and solar disc with horns, well, what about these two pictures of Jakku?
Solar disc above, the two horns may be kind of a stretch, granted…
Some more interesting points about Isis… In the Egyptian Book of the Dead, she is called:
She who seeks shelter for the weak people
She who seeks justice for the poor people
She who seeks the righteousness in her people
All of the above resonate rather well with Rey’s persona, as well as with the last moments of TLJ first when Rey shelters the last of the Rebels in the MF, and finally with the last scene which focuses on orphans and slave children. It also fits rather well with Rey as the Symbolic Nurturing Mother, and the themes of the nest and rebirth, as I recently posted https://clairen45.tumblr.com/post/169917680088/crait-and-symbolism-blood-wounds-salt-foxes
Another thing that may validate the figure of Isis as an influence for the ST is the fact that in his book The Power of Myth, Joseph Campbell devotes an entire chapter to what he calls The Gift of the Mother, and the main figure he discusses in this chapter is that of Isis, “the Goddess who goes in quest of her lost spouse or lover, and through loyalty and a descent into the realm of death, becomes his redeemer”. To me, EVERY word there screams REYLO. And probably a good blueprint for episode IX. But maybe it is just me… And what particular gift does the Mother give (besides the obvious life and so forth and so on): COMPASSION, a word that has been used very early in the ST about Rey and Kylo. Why on earth would Kylo feel compassion for Rey? Because compassion, unconditional love Anakin iused to call it, maybe her gift to him, the gift of the Mother. From the moment he knows of her, through compassion, it means he is already on the path back to humanity.
On a funny note… there is one part of her husband Isis has struggled to find in order to make his body whole again… I will let you guess. Could it be the reason for that lightsaber she finds in a box… and that she will need to fix…
areudirty
izzy806
ellievsbear
dailybridgerton
prguitarman
