Egyptian mythology: Encyclopedia - Egyptian mythology

Egyptian mythology

Egyptian mythology or Egyptian religion is the succession of tentative beliefs held by the people of Egypt for over three thousand years, prior to major exposure to Christianity and Islam.

Egyptian mythology - Gods

Early beliefs can be split into 5 distinct localized groups,

• the Ennead of Heliopolis, whose chief god was Atum
• the Ogdoad of Hermopolis, where the chief god was Ra
• the Chnum-Satet-Anuket triad of Elephantine, where the chief god was Chnum
• the Amun-Mut-Chons triad of Thebes, where the chief god was Amun
• the Ptah-Sekhmet-Nefertem triad of Memphis, unusual in that the gods were unconnected before the triad was formalised, where the chief god was Ptah

Throughout the vast and complex history of Egypt, the dominant beliefs of the Ancient Egyptians merged and mutated as leaders of different groups gained power. This process continued even after the end of the Egyptian civilisation as we know it today. As an example, during the New Kindgom Ra and Amun became Amun-Ra. This "merging" into a single god is typically refered to as syncretism. Syncretism should be distinguished from mere groupings, also refered to as "families" such as Amun, Mut and Khonsu, where no "merging" takes place. Over time, dieties took part in multiple syncretic relationships, for instance, the combination of Ra and Horus into Ra-Herakty. However, even when taking part in such a syncretic relationship, the original dieties did not become completely "absorbed" into the combined diety, although the individuality of the one was often greatly weakened. Also, these syncretic relationships sometimes invloved more than just two deities, for instance, Ptah, Seker and Osiris, becoming Ptah-Seker-Osiris. The goddesses followed a similar pattern. Also important to keep in mind is that sometimes the attributes of one diety got closely associated with another, without any "formal" syncretism taking place. For instance, the loose association of Hathor with Isis.

An interesting aspect of Ancient Egyptian religion is that dieties sometimes played different conflicting roles. As an example, the lioness Sekhmet being sent out by Ra to devour the humans for having rebelled against him, but later on becoming a fierce protectress of the kindgom, life in general and the sick. Even more complex is the roles of Set. By looking at the mythology of Set from a modern perspective it is very easy to cast Set in the role of arch villain and source of evil, especially if one only looks at the mythology surrounding Set's relationship with Osiris. This is however wrong as Set was earlier playing the role of destroyer of Apep, in the service of Ra on his barge, and thus serving to uphold Ma'at (Truth, Justice and Harmony).

Given the diverse tapestry of religeous history in Ancient Egypt, it comes as no surprise that many different forms of theism evolved. Although mainly henotheistic in nature, at some point even monotheism, as introduced by Akhenaten thrived. What is important to realise is that it is very dangerous to try and cast the religion of the Ancient Egyptians in any particular theistic form. Even more dangerous to claim is that, towards the end of the Egyptian civilisation, a drive toward monotheism was taking place. The evidence of the time (Greaco-Roman period) seems counter to this belief: although syncretism was stil taking place (sometimes and more frequently between Egyptian and non-Egyptian dieties), many deities were still revered and served. As an example the following which Thoth enjoyed during these later periods. This is quite evident when one simply looks at the vast number of mummified Ibis birds offerd to him. Also, the belief in Egyptian dieties were spreading to countries other than Egypt. For instance the Roman belief in, and following of.

The egyptians believed that in the beginning, the universe was filled with the dark waters of chaos. The first god, Re-Atum, appeared from the water as the land of Egypt appears every year out of the flood waters of the Nile.Re-Atum spat and out of the spittle came out the gods Shu(air) and Tefnut(moisture).The world was created when Shu & Tefnut gave birth to 2 children:Nut(sky)& Geb (the Earth).Humans were created when Shu & Tefnut went wandering in the dark wastes and got lost.Re-Atum sent his eye to find them.On reuniting, his tears of joy turned into people. Osiris was the son of Re-Atum and king of Egypt.His brother Seth represented evil in the universe.He murdered Osiris and himself became the king.After killing Osiris Seth tore his body into pieces, but Isis rescued most of the pieces for burial beneath the temple.Seth made himself king but was challenged by Osiris's son-Horus.Seth lost and was sent to the desert.He became the God of terrible storms.Osiris was mummified by Anubis and became God of the dead. Horus became the King and from him descended the pharaohs.

Egyptian mythology - Death

Egypt was possibly the first civilization to have any belief in an afterlife, and probably the first to have a positive outlook on it. Beliefs about the soul and afterlife focused heavily on preservation of the body, or ba (The soul was known as the ka). This meant that embalming and mummification were practiced, in order to preserve the individual's identity in the afterlife. Originally the dead were buried in reed caskets in the searing hot sand, which caused the remains to dry quickly, preventing decomposition, and were subsequently buried. Later, they started constructing wooden tombs, and the extensive process of mummification and associated burial rituals and rules began. Embalming was developed by the Egyptians around the 4th Dynasty. All soft tissues were removed, and the cavities washed and packed with natron, then the exterior body was buried in natron as well. Since it was a stoneable offence to harm the body of the Pharaoh, even after death, the person who made the cut in the abdomen with a rock knife was ceremonially chased away and had rocks thrown at him.

After coming out of the natron, the bodies were coated inside and out with resin to preserve them, then wrapped with linen bandages, embedded with religious amulets and tailsmans. In the case of royalty, this was usually then placed inside a series of nested coffins the outermost of which was a stone sarcophagus. The intestines, lungs, liver and the stomach were preserved separately and stored in canopic jars protected by the Four sons of Horus. Other creatures were also mummified, sometimes thought to be pets of Egyptian families, but more frequently or more likely they were the representations of the Gods. The ibis, crocodile, cats, nile perch and baboon can be found in perfect mummified forms.

The Book of the Dead were a series of almost two hundred sectional texts, songs and pictures written on papyrus, individually customised for the individual, which were buried along with the dead, or painted on the tomb walls, in order to ease their passage into the underworld. In some tombs, the Book of the Dead has also been found painted on the walls. One of the best examples of the Book of the Dead is The Papyrus of Ani, created around 1240 BC, which, in addition to the texts themselves, also contains many pictures of Ani and his wife on their journey through the land of the dead.

In later belief, the soul of the deceased is led into a hall of judgement in Duat, by Anubis,god of mummification, and the deceased's heart, which was the record of the morality of the owner, is weighed against a single feather representing Maàt's (the concept of truth, and order). If the outcome is favourable, the deceased is taken to Osiris, god of the afterlife, in Aaru, but the demon Ammit (Eater of Hearts) – part crocodile, part lion, and part hippopotamus – destroys those hearts whom the verdict is against, leaving the owner to remain in Duat. [1]

Egyptian mythology - The monotheistic period

A short interval of monotheism (Atenism) occurred under the reign of Akhenaten, focused on the Egyptian sun deity Aten. Akhenaten outlawed the worship of any other god and built a new capital (Amarna) with temples for Aten. The religious change survived only until the death of Akhenaten, and the old religion was quickly restored during the reign of Tutankhamun, most likely Akhenaten's son by a minor wife. Interestingly, Tutankhamun and several other post-restoration pharaohs were excluded from future king lists, as well as the heretics Akhenaten and Smenkhare.

While most historians regard this period as monotheistic, some researchers do not regard Atenism as such. They state that people did not worship Aten, but worshipped the royal family as a pantheon of gods who received their divine power from the Aten. That point of view is largely dismissed by the historical community. Some researches go as far as to suggest that Akhenaten or some of his viziers were the Byblical Moses; the scientific community dismisses these claims as wishful thinking, since none of the theories are based on proper research, and the well-documented worship of Aten has nothing in common with the religion of Moses.

After the fall of the Amarna dynasty, the original Egyptian pantheon survived more or less as the dominant faith, until the establishment of Coptic Christianity and later Islam, even though the Egyptians continued to have relations with the other monotheistic cultures (e.g. Hebrews). Egyptian mythology put up surprisingly little resistance to the spread of Christianity, sometimes explained by claiming that Jesus was originally a syncretism based predominantly on Horus, with Isis and her worship becoming Mary and veneration (see Jesus myth).

Egyptian mythology - Temples

Many temples are still standing today. Others are in ruins from wear and tear, while others have been lost entirely. Pharaoh Ramses II was a particularly prolific builder of temples.

Some known temples include:

• Abu Simbel – Complex of two massive rock temples in southern Egypt on the western bank of the Nile.
• Abydos (Great Temple of Abydos) – Adoration of the early kings, whose cemetery, to which it forms a great funerary chapel, lies behind it.
• Ain el-Muftella (Bahariya Oasis) [2] – Could have served as the city center of El Qasr. It was probably built around the 26th Dynasty.
• Karnak – Once part of the ancient capital of Egypt, Thebes.
• Bani Hasan al Shurruq [3] – Located in Middle Egypt near to Al-Minya and survived the reconstruction of the New Kingdom.
• Edfu – Ptolemaic temple that is located between Aswan and Luxor.
• Temple of Kom Ombo – Controlled the trade routes from Nubia to the Nile Valley.
• Luxor – Built largely by Amenhotep III and Ramesses II, it was the centre of the Opet Festival.
• Medinet Habu [4] (Memorial Temple of Ramesses III)– Temple and a complex of temples dating from the New Kingdom.
• Temple of Hatshepsut – Mortuary temple complex at Deir el-Bahri with a colonnaded structure of perfect harmony, built nearly one thousand years before the Parthenon.
• Philae – Island of Philae with Temple of Aset which was constructed in the 30th Dynasty.
• Ramesseum (Memorial Temple of Ramesses II) – The main building, dedicated to the funerary cult, comprised two stone pylons (gateways, some 60 m wide), one after the other, each leading into a courtyard. Beyond the second courtyard, at the centre of the complex, was a covered 48-column hypostyle hall, surrounding the inner sanctuary.
• Dendera Temple complex – Several temples but the all overshadowing building in the complex is the main temple, the Hathor temple.

Egyptian mythology - External influences

Egypt exchanged ideas with Libya during its early unsettled period. Egypt was also influenced by the Greek Ptolemaic dynasties, which ruled Egypt for 300 years. Cleopatra was the only Ptolemaic queen to rule on her own. Egypt was incorporated into the Roman Empire, and was ruled first from Rome and then from Constantinople (until the Arab conquest).

Main article: Third Intermediate Period of Egypt
22nd - 25th Dynasty

Egypt has long had ties with Libya. After the death of Rameses XI, the priesthood in the person of Herihor wrest control of Egypt away from the Pharaohs until they were superseded (without any apparent struggle) by the Libyan kings of the 22nd Dynasty. The first king of the new Dynasty, Shoshenq I, served as a general under the last ruler of the 21st Dynasty. It is known that he appointed his own son to be the High Priest of Amun, a post that was previously a hereditary appointment. The scant and patchy nature of the written records from this period suggest that it was unsettled. There appear to have been many subversive groups which eventually led to the creation of the 23rd dynasty which ran concurrent with the 22nd.

Main article: Greek Egypt
304 BC - 30 BC

Started with Ptolemy I of Egypt and ended with Cleopatra VII. As Ptolemy I Soter ("Saviour"), he founded the Ptolemaic dynasty, which was to rule Egypt for 300 years. All the male rulers of the dynasty took the name "Ptolemy". Because the Ptolemaic kings adopted the Egyptian custom of marrying their sisters, many of the kings ruled jointly with their spouses, who were also of the royal house. This custom made Ptolemaic politics confusingly incestuous, and the later Ptolemies were increasingly feeble. The last of the Ptolemies, the famous Cleopatra, was the only Ptolemaic queen to rule on her own, after the death of her brother/husband, Ptolemy XIII.

Main article: Roman Egypt
30 BC - 639 AD

Egypt was incorporated into the Roman Empire and was ruled first from Rome and then from Constantinople (until the Arab conquest). The most revolutionary event in the history of Roman Egypt was the introduction of Christianity in the 2nd century. It was at first vigorously persecuted by the Roman authorities, who feared religious discord more than anything else in a country where religion had always been paramount. But it soon gained adherents among the Jews of Alexandria. From them it rapidly passed to the Greeks, and then to the native Egyptians, who found its promise of personal salvation and its teachings of social equality appealing.

Egyptian mythology - Notes on pronunciation

A "received pronunciation" of the names of ancient Egyptian deities has formed. By and large, this pronunciation is acceptable for most consonants and utterly wrong for the vowels. Egyptologists developed a set of conventions to make it easier to talk about the terms they used. Two distinct different glottal consonants were both replaced with "a". A consonant similar to the "y" in the English word "yet" was replaced with "i". A consonant similar to the "w" in the English word "well" was replaced with "u". Then, "e" was inserted between other consonants. Thus, for example, the Egyptian king whose name is most accurately transcribed as Rˁ-ms-sw is known as "Rameses", meaning "Ra has Fashioned (lit. "Borne") Him".

See also

• Ancient Egyptian eschatology
• Ancient Egyptian Funerary Texts
  • Book of the Dead
  • Book of Gates
• Egyptian soul
• Egyptian iconography
• Sun mythology
• List of Egyptian mythology topics (which also lists the particular deities).
• Numbers in Egyptian Mythology

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Egyptian mythology", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki