Katy Perry Dark Horse Video Conjures Ancient Egyptian Magick In Day-Glow Turquoise; Colorful, Yes, But Historically Accurate? Yes, Except Those Twinkies (Video)

Katy Perry's Dark Horse music video plays on a theme of ancient Egyptian magic. After accusations of Katy Perry satanic performance at Grammys, Egyptian Queen Katy Patra plays further into the gossip by tuning into her Eye of Horus and turning her suitor (John Mayer?) into a dog.

Katy Perry's "Dark Horse" video is set in ancient Egypt. The Dark Horse lyrics conjure a magical ethos. Katy Perry's Egypt-themed "Dark Horse" may look a little too Hollywood to accurately reflect Egyptian history, but Time.com says Egyptologists say the video is closer than you might think. Well, there were no Twinkies in Ancient Egypt.

The director was conjuring the duality of Memphis, the Memphis of Ancient Egypt and the rising Hip Hop artistic community in Memphis, Tenn., that gave rise Juicy J.

Director Mathew Cullen (who also directed Katy Perry's "California Gurls" video) explained "[Perry] said that there's actually a place in Egypt called Memphis, and she thought it was so interesting that Juicy J is from Memphis, Tenn. She basically came to me and said, 'I want to do something Egyptian and I want to combine it with Memphis hip-hop.' That's music to my ears - when an artist has a couple concepts that they want to mash up to create something fresh."

Cullen didn't have Egyptologists at the shoot, Katy Perry's team went online to research the land of the Pharaohs and pyramids so they could "respect the symbolism" of what Cullen calls our "shared collective mythology."

Cullen explains to Time.com "We're only here because we build on the stories of every human being since the beginning of mankind. The most important thing is that when you create something, and this is actually something Katy and I worked to do - you bring a new spin to it."

Time.com contacted Egyptologists to get to the bottom of Katy Perry's references and found the music video was closer than most would think.

Robert K. Ritner, Professor of Egyptology at the University of Chicago, told Time.com "I find this really very wonderful, but I'm willing to bend my formal standards. Whoever put this together actually knew something about the myth of Cleopatra. There are a number of features in here that I could use in class."

Ritner, along with and David P. Silverman, Professor of Egyptology at the University of Pennsylvania and Curator of Penn Museum's Egyptian Section, pointed out that Ancient Egyptian art was based on colors that appear in nature. Katy's turquoise make-up was used in Ancient Egypt, you can still see the colors in Egyptian tombs.

Cleopatra couldn't really make lightning bolts come out of her hands, but the Queen's subjects did believe their rulers were part of a divine royalty.

The paintings that you see behind Perry's throne in the video are based on real paintings found in Egyptian thone.

The Eye of Horus was an Egyptian symbol of health and stability, not the Illuminati.

Ritner says "The many discussions of the Illuminati are nonsense."