The Duat, tartarus and the mist

Question

In the Kane Chronicles while trying to dissuade Carter Kane from resurrecting Ra, the sun god, Horus says:

I am showing you this place in a way you can understand. If you were here in person you would burn to ashes. If you saw this place as it really is your mortal senses would melt

While in the book House of Hades we hear from Percy Jackson almost the same things but this time about Tartarus:

Percy realized that what he saw of Tartarus was only a watered-down version of its true horror—only what his demigod brain could handle. The worst of it was veiled, the same way the Mist veiled monsters from mortal sight.

But the job of separating the world of natural from that of supernatural is the mists' job which makes mortals and sometimes supernaturals see the world only as their minds could handle

So my question is, are these three Mist, Tartarus, and Duat somehow related and can Egyptian magicians and Greek demigods cross into Tartarus and Duat respectively? Also do Egyptian magicians have any sort of control over the mist?

Answer 1

The Mist, the Duat, and Ginnungagap are essentially the same thing

The Duat refers to the layers of reality beyond what mortals can perceive. The Mist is the uppermost layer thereof: the only layer that most ordinary, non-magical humans can see:

After Annabeth’s adventure on Rockaway Beach, she’d told me how frightening it was to see the Duat. She wondered whether the Egyptian Duat was somehow related to the Greek concept of Mist – the magical veil that kept mortals from recognizing gods and monsters.

With Nekhbet in my mind, I knew the answer. Of course the Mist was related. The Mist was simply a Greek name for the uppermost layer between the worlds – the layer that Setne was now shredding.

_{The Crown of Ptolemy}

Basically, these are two different ways of describing the same thing. The Norse demigods of the Magnus Chase series are also aware of the Mist, providing a third way of describing it:

Still a sword, Hearth signed. Mortals are not good at seeing magical things. Between Ice and Fire is Mist, G-i-n-n-u-n-g-a-g-a-p. Obscures appearances. Hard to explain in signs.

_{Magnus Chase and the Sword of Summer}

The function of the Mist in all the series is basically the same, however it may be described: to obscure the true nature of things from mortal (and perhaps somewhat less than mortal) minds.

---

As such, anyone with magic can manipulate them

It’s also clear that the Mist can certainly be manipulated both by magicians and demigods:

Still, we were both disturbed by the way Setne’s spell tore through the Mist. He wasn’t just manipulating it. Magicians did that all the time.

_{The House of Hades}

Manipulating the Mist (or lower layers of the Duat) is how magicians accomplish their magic. This should come as no surprise: Hecate, the goddess (really Titan) of magic, maintains the Mist (though we can’t say for sure that she’s the only such entity):

“I am the goddess of the Mist,” Hecate explained. “I am responsible for keeping the veil that separates the world of the gods from the world of mortals. My children learn to use the Mist to their advantage, to create illusions or influence the minds of mortals. Other demigods can do this as well. And so must you, Hazel, if you are to help your friends.”

_{The House of Hades}

She’s not only the goddess of Greek magicians: Hazel’s mother practiced gris-gris, and Hecate took notice of her:

“The point is, Hazel Levesque, your mother may have claimed not to believe, but she had true magic. Eventually, she realized this. When she searched for a spell to summon the god Pluto, I helped her find it.”

_{The House of Hades}

In a similar way, the connection between magic and the Mist is not limited to Greek magicians. Nonetheless, it’s implied that there are some distinctions between Greek and Egyptian magic:

His body sucked in energy from every direction, destroying the boundaries between the Duat and the mortal world, between Greek magic and Egyptian magic – slowly transforming him into an immortal.

_{The Crown of Ptolemy}

Perhaps these distinctions are also part of the Mist, or the layers of reality represented by the Duat?

In essence, the Mist is something that anyone with magical ability can use.

Answer 2

The Mist, Tartarus, and Duat are interrelated.

In the two series involving Percy Jackson, the Mist manipulates reality and normal human beings see normal, predictable things. However, demigods can actually this reality to a certain degree. On the other hand, as many deities have told Percy Jackson and his fellow Greeks, if they see the gods/goddesses in their true form, they would disintegrate. The Mist covers this true reality and only allows demigods see the gods/goddesses in their human forms and also other less powerful forms.

When the worlds of Percy Jackson and the Kanes were joined in a trilogy, it was mentioned in the third book called The Crown of Ptolemy that the Mist is the upper layer of Duat.

The worlds of the Greek and Egyptian mythology overlap, so it is, indeed, possible for Greek and Egyptian magicians/demigods to enter Duat and Tartarus, respectively. They might see things differently (due to the Mist), but they are able to physically enter and exit these Realms.

Finally, Egyptian magicians are able to manipulate the Mist. I might be assuming a lot here, but you see them do almost anything. These magicians are able to awake Apophis, they're able to destroy Apophis as well. They can summon fire, water, and other earth elements. They're able to heal, harm, and destroy. Why not control the Mist? There should be some spell from the Book of Thoth that allows this.

Also, Horus states to Carter that if he (Carter) sees the god's true form, he would melt/disintegrate. This is very similar to the Greek world.

In the second Percy Jackson series, Hazel is able to manipulate the Mist. She's demigod. Why can't an Egyptian magician (who can also be a demigod, like Hazel) manipulate the Mist? It's totally possible. And it probably is.

Note: The Mist does not exist in Ancient Greek mythology.

Hope this answer helped!