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A Primer On The Ancient Gods Of Egypt
I have to admit a weakness of mine, I seem to be interested in all things from ancient Egypt. I don't know why I am, but I have always had a certain fascination for that country. Maybe it is the mystery factor. I have always found ancient Egypt quite mysterious. There are the pyramids, sphinx, mummies and all sorts of unexplained objects and curses. there is nothing like a good curse to get one going. I thought it might be interesting to review the Gods of ancient Egypt, but there were tons of them so here are the more important ones:
Amun An important god. He had a great temple built for him in Thebes. He was combined with the sun god at one point and the new name was Amun-Ra. Amun was the god that created all things. An invisible god that would appear when you called Amun-Re or Amun-Ra, it seems he was called both.
Anubis Anubis was the god that invented embalming and he embalmed Osiris who was the first mummy. He had the head of a jackal and was also the god of the dead. But why was a Jackal used to represent the god of the dead? The question is simple to answer, Jackals were often seen in cemeteries.
Atum The
first god to exist on earth was Atum. He created all the other gods when he rose from the waters of chaos.
Bastet Some times this goddess was also called bast. This goddess is the goddess of cats. She originally had the head of a lion, but later on had the head of a cat. The goddess protected cats which were highly respected in ancient Egypt. If a cat died, the family would shave their eyebrows as a sign of their sorrow. If you killed a cat you were subject to the death penalty.
Hathor Hathor was the goddess of love and joy. A temple was built at Dandera to honor her. She was sort of like a patron saint. She was the goddess of the turquoise mines in the Sinai. Hathor was a busy goddess, she was also the protector of women and the goddess of music and dancing
Horus Horus was the god of the sky. Horus was believed to be the son of the gods Isis and Osiris. He was the chosen ruler of the land of the living after he defeated Seth the brother of his father who had murdered his father.
Isis Isis could control magic and used powerful spells to help people. Her lap was the first throne that Horus sat on. A temple was built in her honor at Philae. Isis got her magic powers by tricking Ra.
Khnum Khnum created people from the mud of the Nile and he was also the god of the innundation, which was the yearly flooding of the Nile.
MeAt MeAt, sometimes written Me'At, was the goddess of truth, justice and harmony. She was the daughter of Ra and was responsible for the balance of things on earth. The vizier was in charge of the courts of law and was known as the priest of Ma 'At.
Nut & Geb Nut was the goddess of the sky and was the sister and wife of Geb, who was the god of the earth. It was believed that Nut swallowed the sun god Ra and gave birth to him again the next day.
Osiris Osiris was the god of the dead. I wonder how he and Anubis, the other god of the dead, got along? Osiris was killed by his own brother Seth, who nailed a coffin shut with Osiris alive in it and threw it into the Nile.
Ptah Craftsmen had their own god and it was Ptah.
Ra Ra was the Sun god and perhaps the best known of all ancient Egyptian gods. He would sail across the heavens and die, only to be reborn again the next day. Apep, the snake, was his main enemy and sometimes other gods had to help him get past Apep.
Sekhmet Sekhmet was known as the powerful one because she was the goddess of war. This explanation comes from the British Museum but some say she was the goddess of the sun and was really Hathor who had two sides, the second was that of the goddess of the sun and it was destructive. This is interesting because the Egyptians knew that the sun brought life but if you stayed out in it too long it could kill you.
Seth Seth was a god that caused discord. He killed his brother Osiris. Seth was the desert god. He was the god of storms and violence but he was sometimes helpful. He helped Ra fight the snake Apep during the day.
Troth Troth was the god of writing and knowledge. He gave the ancient Egyptians the knowledge to use hieroglyphics. He measured the earth and counted the stars. There was a book of Troth that contained only two spells. The first spell, if read out loud, gave you knowledge about everything, the second brought the dead back to life. All gods with human heads wore beards. |
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