In Moon Knight episode three, we met several of the MCU’s ancient Egyptian gods. Okay, well, in a sense. The only Egyptian god we’ve seen embody his true form thus far has been Khonshu. But Moon Knight‘s latest episode brought a surprise.
In Moon Knight episode four, Marvel’s version of the ancient Egyptian Goddess Taweret came to life on our screens. In mythology, Taweret often takes the form of a woman with the head of a hippo. And the MCU has now delivered the goddess in all her hippo glory, even keeping the detail of Taweret’s human hair. But who is Taweret and how will she impact Moon Knight?
Who Is Moon Knight‘s God Taweret in Egyptian Mythology?
In ancient Egyptian mythology, Taweret was known as the goddess of pregnancy and motherhood. Taweret was a protector goddess of women and children. The myths about Taweret initially depicted her as a violent goddess, hence her association with animals such as the hippo. As mentioned, Taweret often gets depicted with the head of a hippo. Although in mythology, she also has associations with the lion and the crocodile. Interestingly, she keeps her human hair.
Eventually, though, Taweret came to be seen as possessing a different kind of fierceness. The later incarnations of this goddess focus more on her motherly ferociousness, the kind that comes from any mother protecting her young. In time, Egyptian myths even depicted Taweret as a nurturing force, as a kind of nurse who warded off evil spirits determined to harm mothers.
Moon Knight episode four manages to capture this duality of the goddess. Though Taweret’s MCU appearance initially seems fearsome, scaring both Marc Spector and Steven Grant, her high-pitched, even somewhat timid, “Hi!” belies that initial impression. It seems that like her ancient Egyptian counterpart, Taweret will be more of a helper than an enemy.
Interestingly, according to the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, “Taweret guarded the paths to the mountains of the west which led to the underworld and could also use magic to help the deceased pass safely through that dangerous and frightening land.” Given the MCU’s propensity to widen the Multiverse, perhaps Tawaret’s presence in the Marvel show indicates the realm of the underworld or afterlife could be around the corner.
Getting Taweret into the MCU
Head Writer/Executive Producer Jeremy Slater shared a bit more about how we arrived at the MCU’s image of the goddess.
He notes:
Right from the very first week, Marvel provided us with a ton of reference material on Egyptology, and on ancient Egyptian gods and deities. One of those pieces of material was a laminated poster that had like a little kid, cartoon drawings of all the different gods — one of those gods was Taweret. I spent that entire first week of our writers’ room, just staring at that. Then finally, at some point, I couldn’t take any more. I interrupted whatever we were talking about and I was like, ‘Guys, we have something much more important, which is, how do I get this hippo into the show?’”
I was like, no, stop laughing. I’m very serious. We’re putting her in the show. I think that was the first moment everyone realized, oh, we have permission to get weird, here. We have permission to do some things you wouldn’t necessarily get to do if you weren’t working at a place like Marvel Studios… This gave me my weird swing. And most importantly, it got my favorite hippo into the show.
We do love a hippo goddess and we love that Moon Knight gets a little weird. We also can’t help but recall the hippopotamus plush one we saw in episode one of Moon Knight. The clues to the MCU’s Taweret were there the whole time. In Moon Knight, Taweret is played by Antonia Salib.
What Does Taweret’s Presence Mean For Moon Knight‘s Marc Spector and Steven Grant?
But now that Tawaeret has made her grand appearance, in all her hippopotamus glory, what does that mean for Marvel’s universe and for Moon Knight? Although Moon Knight does not seem to involve any mothers or children, to date, the show has also introduced the Goddess Hathor, in previous. Hathor is the goddess of women and love, which seems to go hand-in-hand with being the goddess of women and children. Additionally, Hathor seems to have had a past with the MCU’s version of Khonshu. So perhaps, Taweret’s appearance links to Hathor in some fashion.
We also know that in Moon Knight, Marc Spector was shot by Arthur Harrow. And, as he descends into his dream world, he falls through water. So perhaps this is the reason for Taweret’s appearance. If our Moon Knight is on the edge of death, he may meet Taweret, a guardian of the realm, on his journey to the afterlife.
Additionally, according to Marvel, “Taweret is the Egyptian goddess of childbirth. While she is the wife of Bes, the god of luck and probability, she becomes a cohort to Sobek, the god of rivers.” And we also see the Nile River, as though we are in it, in Moon Knight‘s closing credits. Perhaps, in this case, the river is a kind of limbo space in the MCU, leading us to the underworld proper. We wouldn’t be surprised if we met the crocodile god Sobek next. Sobek is, after all, a myhtological representation of the river.
Given the prominent role the afterlife plays in ancient Egyptian mythology, its presence in the MCU makes a ton of sense to us. And the introduction of the goddess Taweret into Marvel’s world seems to bring us one step closer to this new space in the multiverse.
The post Which God Appears in MOON KNIGHT Episode 4’s Final Moments? appeared first on Nerdist.
0 Comments