Research Paper on Egyptian Gods
Research Paper on Egyptian Gods
What caught our attention about Egyptian gods was that there were so many of them and they each served their own purpose. The Egyptian gods each were used to explain a certain aspect of nature, such as the sun, stars, or rain.
Nut and Geb
The sky is Nut's body, arching from horizon to horizon. Geb is the Earth, lying beneath her. During the day, Nut and Geb are separated, but each evening Nut comes down to meet Geb and this causes darkness. If storms came during the day, it was believed that Nut had come closer to the earth.
Nut was married to the King of the Gods, Ra, but she was in love with Geb. When Ra found out, he was angry and said that Nut could not give birth to any children during the 360 days of the year. Nut was unhappy and asked the God of Wisdom, Thoth, to help. At this time, the Moon was as bright as the Sun. Thoth got some light from the Moon, so now the Moon gets bigger and smaller each month. With this light, Thoth made five new days, so now the year is 365 days long. Nut gave birth to her five children, on these five days. When Osiris, the oldest, was born, a loud voice said "The lord of all the earth is born." Seth, his brother, was born hating Osiris.
Ra
Ra is the sun god, and the King of all gods. He is a falcon crowned with a sun disk or a man with a falcon’s head.
Ra was the God of the Sun. He sailed across the heavens in a boat called the 'Barque of Millions of Years'. A crew of many gods joined him on this daily journey. The boat would sail through the twelve provinces, representing the twelve hours of daylight. At the end of each day Ra was thought to die and sailed on his night voyage through the Underworld, leaving the Moon to light the world above. The next dawn, he was born again.
It was not always smooth sailing on these ships. During the day Ra had to fight his chief enemy, a snake named Apep. Ra was usually won these battles. However, on stormy days, or during an eclipse, the Egyptians believed that Apep had been victorious and swallowed the sun.
Hathor (Sekhmet)
Hathor was the goddess of joy,...