Egyptian Goddess Nut

Kemp creates masterful sounds of ancient Egypt

It was vast and immense and difficult to describe. But London's Poet Laureate Penn Kemp has tried.

It was in 1985 that Kemp spent two nights between the paws of the Sphinx in Egypt while on a familiarization tour for teachers of metaphysics, an experience that affected her deeply.

"It was such a strange feeling, like you were in eternity," Kemp says. "It's really permeated through a lot of my writing. To try and articulate some of that experience that was so far beyond words, into words has been my endeavour."

The result is Helwa! a sound opera experiencing ancient Egypt, a multimedia production that was performed at the Aeolian Hall July 24. Featuring live music and belly dancing, as well as performed poetry, the sound opera is Kemp's attempt 'to lift poetry off the page' and transmit the experience behind it to the audience.

Taking the stage along with Kemp were musicians Mary Ashton and Panayiotis Giannarapis (artistic directors of London's Light of East Ensemble), as well as percussionist Jocelyn Drainie, belly dancer Ishra Blanco and Egyptologist Daniel Kolos. Arabic for 'beautiful,' Helwa promises to carry the audience back across the ancient land to "trace the soul's journey across the nocturnal sky to rebirth the next day, a classical Egyptian journey that the star goddess Nut took nightly."

With previous performances at Toronto's Drake Hotel, as well as King's College and Brescia in London this isn't the first time the sound opera has been performed. But it is the first time that it's been aimed at a larger London audience as part of Aeolian Hall's Summer Soiree Festival.

Touched by the recent revolution in Egypt, Kemp says she was inspired to pick up the material again and to take it further with the publication of a new chapbook by Pigeonbike Press to go along with the opera.

"I was so moved and inspired by the Cairo revolution in the spring, that I wanted to write it as a tribute to the people of Egypt," Kemp says. "So it's dedicated to the people of Egypt."

For Kemp, the opera also highlights the contrast 'between immensities' — the urban sprawl of Cairo and the silence at the pyramids.

"There's a huge contrast between the 'urban chaos' of Cairo and the peace of the (desert)," says Kemp, whose trip included a night spent inside one of the pyramids alone.

It's a contrast that might not seem so foreign to Canadians, who tend to be infatuated with the vastness of the land.

The Basics of Ancient Egypt's Gods |

Egypt Tours – Explore the Wonders of Ancient Egypt

In ancient Egyptian religion the gods and goddesses often appear in families of 3 or of 9. Every larger town had its divine family to whom they built shrines. Many of the same divine names occur in multiple towns and divine families at the same time.

Ancient Egypt’s Gods were invisible to humans, but they were able to ascend to earth and inhabit statues or animals, and through these manifest their will to the priests, who then delivered the messages to ordinary people.

Ancient Egyptian Gods are represented as animals or humans, or half of each. The animal with which the god or goddess is identified often has some qualities that are affiliated with the divinity. moreover, they have different crowns to help characterize them.

Following is a list of some of the more important gods and goddesses in ancient Egyptian religion:

Amun Aten is the solar disc, and the source of life and heat. He is first mentioned as a divinity under Amenhotep III. However, it was during the rule of Amenhotep IV – Akhenaten – that his cult, principally instituted to counter the authority of the priesthood of Amun, was precisely codified and started to become far-flung in Egypt. When Akhenaten died the adoration of Aten was suppressed.

Atum Maat was the ancient egypt goddess of justice and the little girl of Ra. She is shown as a woman wearing an ostrich feather on her head. She represents the principal of order, which inspires the king as he governs the ostrich feather. She also appears as a counterweight to the dead person’s heart on Anubis’s weighing scale when the dead are judged.

Nephthys Seth was the ancient Egyptian god of darkness, death, the desert and chaos. He killed his brother Osiris.

Five Thousand Years of History Waits!

Not everyone is a specialist on the historical sites in Egypt, but with our proficient assistance you can be sure to see the best of Egypt’s museums, monuments, temples and historical locations. Travel to Egypt!