Synopsis of Egyptian Mythology
Synopsis of Egyptian Mythology
Egyptian Mythology is the religion of ancient Egypt. The Egyptian faith was based on a collection of ancient myths, nature worship, and many deities. The most interesting and famous of these myths are a divine hierarchy that is developed and the creation of the earth is explained.
According to the Egyptian's idea of creation, only the ocean existed at first. Then Ra, which is the sun, came out of an egg or a flower, and it appeared on the surface of the water. Ra had four children, the gods Shu and Geb and the goddesses Tefnut and Nut. Shu and Tefnut became the atmosphere. They stood on Geb, who became the earth, and raised up Nut, who became the sky. Ra ruled over all. Geb and Nut later had two sons, Set and Osiris, and two daughters, Isis and Nephthys. Osiris succeeded Ra as king of the earth, helped by Isis, his sister-wife. Set, however, hated his brother and killed him. Isis then embalmed her husband's body with the help of the god Anubis, who became the god of embalming. The powerful charms of Isis resurrected Osiris, who became king of the netherworld, the land of the dead. Horus, who was the son of Osiris and Isis, later defeated Set in a great battle and became king of the earth.
From this myth of creation came the idea of the ennead, a group of nine divinities, and the triad, consisting of a divine father, mother, and son. Every local temple in Egypt had its own ennead and triad. The most important ennead, was that of Ra and his children and grandchildren. This group was worshiped at Heliopolis, which was the center of sun worship. Some of the local gods were taken over from foreign religions like the animal gods of prehistoric Africa. Other important divinities included the gods Amon, Thoth, Ptah, Khnemu, and Hapi, and the goddesses Hathor, Mut, Neit, and Sekhet. Their importance increased with the political power of the localities where they were worshiped. As the religion became more involved, true deities were sometimes confused with human beings who had been glorified after death. During the 5th Dynasty the pharaohs began to claim divine ancestry and from that time on were worshiped as sons of Ra. Minor gods were also given places in local divine hierarchies.
The Egyptian gods were represented with human...