The Mythology Of Ancient Egypt Essays - Religion, Egyptian Gods

The Mythology of Ancient Egypt CREATION Egyptian creation stories tell of several variations of how the world was composed. According to one variation, the ocean was the only thing in existence. Then the sun, Ra, came out of an egg (or a flower in some versions) that appeared on the surface of the water. Ra created four children. They were the gods Shu and Geb and the goddesses Tefnut and Nut. Shu and Tefnut became the air, who stood on Geb, the earth, and held up Nut, who became the sky. Ra ruled over all. It was not uncommon for siblings to have children in ancient Egypt, and Geb and Nut had two sons, Set and Osiris, and two daughters, Isis and Nephthys. Osiris succeeded Ra as the king of the earth, helped by Isis. However, Set hated his brother out of jealousy and killed him. Isis embalmed Osiris' body with the aid of the god Anubis, who then became the god of embalming. Isis then resurrected Osiris, and he became the god of the afterlife and the land of the dead. Horus, the son of Osiris and Isis, later defeated Set in an immense battle and became king of the earth. Another version tells that Ra emerged from primeval waters. From him came Shu, the god of air and Tefnut, the goddess of moisture. From their union came Geb and Nut, who held the same positions as the above version. Yet another version tells that Ra became the god of the afterlife, but was still supreme. GODS The ancient Egyptian theology dealt with hundreds of deities. These gods changed during the different dynasties and their importance depended on the views of the rulers of the kingdom. The Egyptians worshipped their gods at temples, and each was dedicated to a particular god. A statue of the god stood in the center of these temples. Every day, priests would clean and dress the statue and offer it meals before the worshipping ceremonies took place. Ra Ra means "creator." He is or was for a time, in nearly all accounts of Egyptian mythology, the supreme god. He was "the father of the gods, the fashioner of men, the creator of cattle, the lord of all being". He is the god of the sun in most of these accounts and is shown as a man with a falcon's head. He carries a staff and the symbol for life, the ankh. The symbol of the sun, also known as the solar disc, is above his head. Despite the fact that he was a very important figure to Egyptians, he had few temples dedicated to him. This was because of the fact that his importance was reflected in all other worshipping rituals. The pharaohs named themselves as sons of Ra. The passage of the sun across the sky obviously fascinated the Egyptians and from it rose many metaphors. At dawn the sun was regarded as a newborn child emerging from the womb of Nut. The sun was also associated with a falcon flying across the midday sun, thus Ra's appearance. He could also be a boat sailing across the great blue sea of the heavens. At dusk he was an old man stepping down to the land of the dead. Amon Amon is "the complete one". He was regarded as an important deity after the second millennium BC, and considered supreme, surpassing even Ra, after the sixteenth century B.C. He, like most other gods, had the body of a man. He had a human head, and wears a crown with two tall plumes on its top. Amon started out having power over the air or wind, but was not in complete control of these forces. He later acquired powers of fertility that had belonged to the god Min, the god of harvest. By being accepted as the supreme god, Ra was a rival. To satisfy the claims of supremacy made by Amon and Ra, the two deities merged to form the god Amon-Ra or Amon-Re. This new god was worshipped as king of the gods, creator of the universe, and the father of the pharaohs. Amon-Ra was said to have guided the pharaohs in the battlefield. During the battle of Kadesh, 1286 BC, Amon-Ra is supposed to have comforted the pharaoh by saying, "Forward! Your father is with you! My powerful hand will slay a hundred thousand men." Osiris Osiris was said to be the king and judge of the dead. Because the importance of the afterlife was so immense in the Egyptians, Osiris was a very important figure in worship cults.