The Four Sons of Horus

David Grant Stewart, Sr.

(c) 2007

Introduction

There are few topics as basic to Egyptology as the “four sons of Horus,” the figures on canopic jars where organs of the deceased were placed.  These figures served a ritual function in Egyptian religion.  It is also well-known that the four canopic jars could also be used to represent the “four corners of the earth.”

Figure 1.  Facsimile No. 1 from the Book of Abraham

Facsimile Nº 1 of the Book of Abraham contains a representation of the figures on the four canopic jars universally known to Egyptologists as the “four sons of Horus,” but designated by Joseph Smith as the idolatrous gods of (5) Elkenah, (6) Libnah, (7) Mahmackrah, and (8) Korash.

Many theories have been proposed as to why Joseph Smith translated hieroglyphics differently from modern scholars.  Some have asserted that the text was given by revelation and had nothing to do with the documents at hand, while others have suggested that a translation process occurred, but that we do not have the original documents.  Critics have seized upon the discrepancies to claim that Joseph Smith could not translate and was a false prophet, and that the facsimiles and Book of Abraham text are fabrications of an imaginative mind.

I propose another explanation suggesting that the text provided by Joseph Smith represents a real and accurate translation, while still rendering to Egyptologists their due respect.  This explanation centers upon changes in the Egyptian language over time, with the characters having the sounds given by Joseph Smith in the early period, and those given by Egyptologists in the late period of Egyptian literature.

Derivation of Modern Hieroglyphic Readings

Champollion mapped Egyptian hieroglyphs onto Coptic letters and then, having a critical mass, mapped Coptic sounds back onto Egyptian hieroglyphs. Champollion did a magnificent job for what he had to work with. To get an idea of how hard it is to determine the exact sound of a hieroglyph, consider the fact that any hieroglyph may be written with or without phonetic complements or determinatives. Even if one has an idea from Coptic as to how a word should be transliterated, one must determine which of the hieroglyphs are determinatives and which are phonetic complements. This can be very difficult to establish because many hieroglyphs can play either role, and which are used is often arbitrary.

Traditional Hieroglyphic Transliterations

Here is my chart of the common Egyptian hieroglyphs and their transliterations by scholars over the last 170 years: