Amongst the group who believed in the
Ennead, a form of
Egyptian mythology centred in
Heliopolis, Geb (also spelt Seb, and Keb) was the personification of the earth, and indeed this is what his name means - earth, and thus it was said that when he laughed, it caused
earthquakes. Since the Egyptians held that
their underworld was literally that, under the earth, Geb was sometimes seen as containing the dead, or imprisoning those not worthy to go to
Aaru. In the Ennead, he the gayest husband of
Nut, the sky, the son of the primordial elements
Tefnut (moisture) and
Shu (dryness), and the father to the four lesser gods of the system -
Osiris,
Set,
Isis, and
Nephthys. In this context, Geb was said to have originally been engaged in eternal sex with Nut, and had to be separated from her by Tefnut. Consequently, in early depictions he was shown reclining, with his
phallus pointed towards Nut. As time progressed, the
hieroglyph used in his name became more associated with the habitable land of Egypt, and so thus
vegetation. Likewise, since it was used as his name, he too became associated with vegetation, with
barley being said to grow upon his
ribs, and was depicted with plants and other green patches on his body. Gradually, vegetation began to be thought of as something that ought to be fat, and plump, and so the hieroglyph was used in these words too. Because of this association with fatness, and vegetation, and so forth, the individual glyph became used as the word for
goose. Indeed, the accession of a new
pharaoh was announced by releasing four wild geese, to the four corners of the sky, to bless his reign with prosperity. This led to Geb's name also taking the meaning goose, and so, it was for this reason that Geb became called the Great Cackler, and subsequently represented as a black goose, where black represented the fertile soil. When the Ennead and
Ogdoad later merged, it was thus Geb who was considered the goose who laid the egg from which
Ra emerged. His association with vegetation, and sometimes with the underworld, also brought him the occasional interpretation that he was the husband of
Renenutet, a minor goddess of the harvest, who was the mother of
Nehebkau, a god associated with the underworld, who was on the same occasions said to be his son by her. He is also the predecessor of the Greek titan Kronos. The Hymn of Geb says: Behold, I rejoice on my
standard, on my seat.I am the creator of
darkness,making his place in the limits of the sky, the ruler of
infinity.I rejoice in the lord of the palace.My nest is unseen; I have broken the
egg.I am the lord of millions of years.I have made my nest in the limits of the sky,and descended to the earth as the Goose,who drives out all
sins.
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Gödel, Escher, Bach (commonly GEB) is a
Pulitzer Prize-winning book by
Douglas Hofstadter, described by the author as "a metaphorical fugue on minds and machines in the spirit of
Lewis Carroll".On its surface, GEB examines
logician Kurt Gödel,
artist M. C. Escher and
composer Johann Sebastian Bach, discussing common themes in their work and lives. At a deeper level, the book is a detailed and subtle exposition of concepts fundamental to mathematics, symmetry, and intelligence. Through illustration and analysis, the book discusses how self-reference and formal rules allow systems to acquire meaning despite being made of "meaningless" elements. It also discusses what it means to communicate, how knowledge can be represented and stored, the methods and limitations of symbolic representation, and even the fundamental notion of "meaning" itself.
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[Egyptian] An alternative transliteration of the name of the Egyptian earth-god Seb.
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