Ancient Egypt

Beliefs and Mythology

Egyptian Mythology• the belief structure and underlying form

of ancient Egyptian culture from at least approx 4000 BCE (as evidenced by burial practices and tomb paintings) to 30 CE with the death of Cleopatra VII, the last of the Ptolemaic rulers.

• informed every aspect of ancient Egyptian life through the stories which related to the creation of the world and the sustaining of that world by the gods.

Lasting Influence• Egyptian religious beliefs influenced other

cultures through transmission via trade and became especially wide-spread after the opening of the Silk Road in 130 BCE as the Egyptian city of Alexandria was an important commercial center.

• The significance of Egyptian mythology to other cultures was in its development of the concept of an eternal life after death, benevolent deities, and reincarnation.

Re/Ra• Ra was believed to

have arisen from Nun as a great, shining egg.

• Ra was all powerful and could take many forms. Often known as the sun god

• When he spoke others’ names they would come into being.

Atum• In all Egyptian myths,

Atum was one of the most ancient gods of Egypt.

• He was originally an earth god and then became associated with Re.

• He was considered to be the setting sun.

• He was originally a serpent in Nun and will return to that form.

Shu and Tefnut

• Shu means "dry, parched, withered." • He was the god of the air.• If he were ever removed from his place

then chaos would reign over the earth.• He was believed to hold power over

snakes• He held the ladder the deceased used to

climb to heaven.

• The goddess‘s name is related to the root tef, "to spit, be moist" and nu, "sky, waters".

• She is depicted in the form of a woman who wears a solar disc with 2 cobras.

• Sometimes she has the head of a lioness or is shown as being one.

Shu and Tefnut were twins from Atum and believed to be two parts of one soul

Geb and Nut

• Geb was a god of the earth.

• He guided the dead to heaven and gave them food and drink.

• He became “heir of the gods”.

• He is usually shown as a man wearing a crown of the north or the south.

• It was believed that Geb’s laughter caused earthquakes.

• He is often shown as having green or dark skin with leaves on him.

• Nut was the goddess of the sky.

• She was portrayed as a woman who wears a vase of water on her head.

• She is often shown as a woman whose hands and feet touch the earth, forming a semi-circle representing the heavens.

Geb and Nut were brother and sister, husband and wifeThey had four children – Isis, Osiris, Nepthys and Set

Isis• Isis was married to her brother, Osiris.• She wears a vulture headdress with the

solar disc between a pair of horns.• She was a great magician.• Isis was the greatest goddess of Egypt.• She was the purest example of a loving

wife and mother which made the people adore her even more.

• She is regarded as the giver of life and food to the dead.

• Her son was Horus.

Osiris• Osiris was a god of the earth and

vegetation.• He was the first child of Nut and

Geb.• He became king and taught the

people what to eat to stop them from cannibalism.

• He was a god-king and believed to have given Egypt its civilization.

• He was killed by this brother Seth, and became the great god of the dead afterwards.

• He is shown as a mummified human with a beard.

Seth• Seth was represented by a big-

eared imaginary animal with red hair resembling a donkey or maybe an aardvark.

• He was Lord of Lower Egypt.• Seth was married to his sister,

Nepthys.• Seth was exiled to the desert

for all time after killing his brother, Osiris.

• Seth never had any children.

Nepthys

• The name "Nebt-het" means the "lady of the house."

• Nephthys was portrayed as a woman wearing on her head the symbol of her name.

• Her son was Anubis, whose father was Osiris.

• It was Nepthys’ affair with Osiris that is believed to have caused Seth to kill him.

• Nepthys helped Isis restore Osiris from the dead.

• She was depicted as the loyal friend and sister to Isis

Horus• Horus was portrayed as a falcon headed

god.• Horus carries a falcon-headed staff• He was the son of Osiris and Isis.• He was conceived magically by Isis after

the murder of his father.• His uncle Seth tried to kill him but his

mother protected him.• He eventually banished his uncle to the

desert for eternity.• He was one of the most important gods of

Egypt.• It was said the Pharaoh was the human

body of Horus.

Anubis• Anubis was the son of Nephthys, and his father was

Osiris.• He is the jackal-god of mummification who helps the

dead be admitted to the Underworld.• He had three important functions:

– Embalming the dead– Receiving the mummy into the tomb and

performing the Opening of the Mouth ceremony and then conducting the soul in the Field of Celestial Offerings

– Most importantly he monitored the Scales of Truth to protect the dead from deception and eternal death

• Anubis is portrayed as a man with the head of a jackal holding the divine scepter carried by kings and gods.

• Egyptians worshipped Anubis to help protect their dead from jackals and the decay of death.

BELIEFS

• The ancient Egyptians were the first to develop the beginnings of a religion, and their beliefs developed slowly over the centuries.

• These beliefs eventually developed into a world view shared by the people of the Nile.

• There was no single belief system, but the Egyptians shared an understanding of how the world was created and believed that chaos would reign if the destructive powers of the universe were unleashed.

The Importance of Ma’at• Ma’at – the principle of harmonious

balance – is at the heart of all Egyptian myths and is necessary to prevent chaos.

• Everything in the universe was thought to be maintained in a constant balance without end.

• Humans were part of the balanced universe and therefore participated in the eternal balance.

• Their main goal was to keep chaos at bay.

The Afterlife• The two most important

concepts concerning the afterlife were the ka and the Ba.

• The ka was a kind of other self that guided the fortunes of the person in life.

• When people died they were said to have joined their ka.

• The Ba is loosely the person’s soul.

• Represented as a bird, the Ba was the manifestation of the individual after death.

The Underworld

• The Egyptians believed that when they died they would journey to another world – the Underworld – where they would lead a new life.

• They would need all of their earthly possessions in this other life which is why their most treasured belongings were put into their tombs.

• In order to pass into the afterlife they believed that they would have to face great perils and go through dangerous places.

• These places would have such obstacles as monsters, fires, boiling lakes, and spitting, poisonous snakes.

• After these obstacles, they would reach the place of judgment.

Hall of Two Truths• The soul appeared before Osiris in the Hall of Two Truths

where the person’s heart (this was the only organ left in the body) was weighed.

• The heart was placed on one side of a balance scale and on the other was place the white feather of Ma’at.

• The heart held all of the person’s lies and sins from their life and if the heart was found to be lighter than the feather, the soul was allowed to move on to the Field of Reeds, the place for eternal bliss.

The Devourer or Gobbler• If the deceased’s heart was

heavier than the feather, the heart dropped to the floor where it was eaten by the monster Ammut (devourer/gobbler)

• The devourer was part hippopotamus, part lion, and part crocodile.

• Once the dead person’s heart was eaten by Ammut, that person’s soul was gone forever.

• This “non-existence” interrupts the universal journey and was more terrifying to an ancient Egyptian than eternal pain or torment.

One Creation MythAt first there was only Nun, the At first there was only Nun, the dark waters of chaos. A hill called dark waters of chaos. A hill called

Ben-ben rose up out of the Ben-ben rose up out of the water. On the hill was the first water. On the hill was the first

god, Atum, who coughed out Shu god, Atum, who coughed out Shu (the god of air) and spat out (the god of air) and spat out

Tefnut (the goddess of moisture). Tefnut (the goddess of moisture).

Creation

• Shu and Tefnut had two children:

• Geb – the god of the earth

• Nut – the goddess of the sky

• Shu lifted Nut up to be a canopy over Geb.

The First Earthly Gods• Nut and Geb had

four children named Osiris, Isis, Seth and Nephthys.

• Osiris showed Atum that he was a thoughtful and judicious god and was given the rule of the world by Atum.

Seth was jealous…

• Osiris is the focus of a famous legend in which he was killed by the rival god Seth. At a banquet of the gods, Seth fooled Osiris into stepping into a coffin, which he promptly slammed shut and cast into the Nile.

• Isis, the wife of Osiris, discovered the coffin and brought it back. Seth took advantage of Isis's temporary absence on one occasion, cut the body of Osiris into 42 pieces (representing the different provinces of Egypt), and cast them into the Nile.

The dedication of Isis

• Isis searched the land for the body parts of Osiris, and was

• eventually able to piece together his body, except for one piece which had been swallowed by a crocodile or a fish.

• Because Osiris was not complete, he could not return to earth and became the god of the underworld.