The first episode of Moon Knight is a perfect setup of what to expect for the series and while it establishes the difficulties of Steven Grant wrapping his mind around everything that is happening to him, there are some nitty-gritty details that would just spark some speculations as to what could be the main reason why he is having problems like that. For one thing, what is Ennead and why is he reading so much about it?
Warning! This article contains spoilers for Moon Knight! Read at your own risk!
Moon Knight: What is Ennead?
Moon Knight Episode 1, The Goldfish Problem, has a lot of information and Easter Eggs here and there that piling all those in one episode is so cohesive that there are a lot of things that pass people by, not eagle-eyed fans though, every little detail in the episode matters and it would surely be connected to something else in the next few episodes.
One of the details that many might have missed would be when Steven subjected himself to Staying Awake where he seems to be training his mind not to sleep because clearly, he’s having difficulties determining which are dreams and whatnot. During the experiment, Steven plays with a Rubik’s cube while staring at the ceiling and the instructions tell him to read, too.
What makes his readings interesting is that he looks for something over and over again: Ennead. He has tons of Egyptian books and he’s really into reading it considering that it is the only thing he wants to see in each of the books. In the English language, ennead simply means nine but in the Egyptian myths, it is much more than a number.
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In one of the texts he was reading, it says, “Originally the Egyptian reverenced on God only whose likeness was never represented, “he is being worshipped in silence. His characteristics, however, were represented by visible… To make this plainer, what they thought… exercising his power in different… by figures, to each…”
Illustrations of Egyptian gods in what seems like a hierarchy in the following order: Osiris, Horus, Isis, Atum, Shu, and Hathor. Others were covered by Steven’s hands considering that there were nine of them. The next text contains, the Ennead described as the “rift between God and man” and below that has the text “The Great Rift: Gods turn away from man.”
In the Egyptian myths, the Great Ennead are nine gods from ancient Egypt: Osiris, Shu, Atum, Geb, Isis, Tefnut, Nut, Nepthys, and Seth. These ancient gods possess the power of light, water, earth, sky, air, and the others were that of the world after creation. In Moon Knight, the text included Horus, the son of Osiris and Isis.
In the Marvel mythos, the Ennead are the Egyptian gods from Celestial Heliopolis which is a pocket dimension on the side of Earth where an interdimensional nexus could be found in Egypt, giving them a way to get through Earth. They could do magic where they could alter their appearance and matter, and have some cosmic and elemental energies that they could wield at will.
Like in Thor where the Norse gods were considered as such after they visited Earth to later become the Norse myths, the Egyptian gods also came into Earth the same way, they are interdimensional beings who arrived on Earth when everyone are still so clueless about things, pioneering various improvements to society like the Eternals.
Given that Moon Knight’s power is intertwined with that of Khonshu, the Egyptian god of the moon, and his antagonist, Arthur Harrow draws his from Ammit, the devourer of the dead, the Ennead is expected to come up again in the succeeding episodes.
Also, their point of origin is a pocket universe. It is just about time they arrive in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, especially with the concept of the multiverse is being dealt with for the fourth phase, making the arrival of Moon Knight really timely.
Moon Knight Episode 1 is now streaming on Disney Plus. Episode 2 will arrive next week on April 6, 2022 at 3 AM, available in 4k.
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