EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY
Posted by Darshana Sanrakshak Shambhala on February 9, 2011 at 7:02am in The Egyptians
Ancient Egyptian Mythology encompasses the beliefs and rituals of Ancient Egypt. It was followed in Egypt for over three thousand years until the establishment of Coptic Christianity and Islam. Throughout the vast and complex history of Egypt, the dominant beliefs of the ancient Egyptians merged and developed as leaders of different groups gained power. This process continued even after the end of the ancient Egyptian civilization as we know it today. As an example, during the New Kingdom Ra and Amun became Amun-Ra. Syncretism should be distinguished from mere groupings, also referred to as "families" such as Amun, Mut, and Khonsu, where no "merging" takes place. Over time, deities took part in multiple syncretic relationships, for instance, the combination of Ra and Horus into Ra-Herakty. However, even when taking part in such a syncretic relationship, the original deities did not become completely "absorbed" into the combined deity, although the individuality of the one was often greatly weakened. Also, these syncretic relationships sometimes involved more than just two deities, for instance, Ptah, Seker, and Osiris, becoming Ptah-Seker-Osiris. Also important to keep in mind is that sometimes the attributes of one deity got closely associated with another, without any "formal" syncretism taking place. For instance, the loose association of Hathor with Isis.
Gods Further information: List of Egyptian gods
Early Egyptian Mythology beliefs can be split into five distinct localized groups:the Ennead of Heliopolis, whose chief god was Atum or Atum-Rathe Ogdoad of Hermopolis, where the chief god was Thoththe Khnum-Satet-Anuket triad of Elephantine, whose chief god was Chnumthe Amun-Mut-Chons triad of Thebes, whose chief god was Amunthe Ptah-Sekhmet-Nefertem triad of Memphis.
Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Goddesses, and Traditions of Ancient Egypt
One aspect of ancient Egyptian Mythology is that deities sometimes played different, and at times conflicting, roles. As an example, the lioness Sekhmet being sent out by Ra to devour the humans for having rebelled against him, but later on becoming a fierce protectress of the kingdom, life in general, and the sick. Even more complex is the roles of Set. Judging the mythology of Set from a modern perspective, especially the mythology surrounding Set's relationship with Osiris, it is easy to cast Set as the arch villain and source of evil. This is wrong, however, as Set was earlier playing the role of destroyer of Apep, in the service of Ra on his barge, and thus serving to uphold Ma'at (Truth, Justice, and Harmony).
Origin myths in Egyptian Mythology:The Egyptians believed that in the beginning, the universe was filled with the dark waters of chaos. The first god, Re-Atum, also Ra-Atum appeared from the Water as the land of Egypt appears every year out of the flood waters of the Nile. Re-Atum spat and out of the spittle came out the gods Shu (air) and Tefnut (moisture). The world was created when Shu and Tefnut gave birth to two children: Nut (Sky) and Geb (the Earth). Humans were created when Shu and Tefnut went wandering in the dark wastes and got lost. Re-Atum sent his eye to find them. On reuniting, his tears of joy turned into people. Geb and Nut copulated, and upon Shu's learning of his children's fornication, he separated the two, effectively becoming the air between the sky and ground. He also decreed that the pregnant Nut should not give birth any day of the year. Nut pleaded with Thoth, who on her behalf gambled with the moon-god Yah and won five more days to be added onto the then 360-day year. Nut had one child on each of these days: Osiris, Isis, Set, Nephthys, and Horus-the-Elder. Osiris, by different accounts, was either the son of Re-Atum or Geb, and king of Egypt. His brother Set represented evil in the universe. He murdered Osiris and himself became the king. After killing Osiris, Set tore his body into pieces, but Isis rescued most of the pieces for burial beneath the temple. Set made himself king, but was challenged by Osiris's son - Horus. Set lost and was sent to the desert. He became the god of terrible storms. Osiris was mummified by Isis and became god of the dead. Horus became the king and from him descended the pharaohs. They were worshiped by all!
Ancient Egyptian Myths and Legends
The ancient Greeks believed that their gods and goddesses were the origins of the Egyptian deities. According to ancient Greek Mythology, during the period of time when the titan Typhon was free to roam the earth, all of the Greek gods except for Hermes and Zeus fled from Greece to Egypt. While in Egypt many of the gods took on the shape or form of animals as a means to hide themselves from the wrath of Typhon.[6] Thus they related, the Egyptian deities were born.
Death in Egyptian Mythology:Egypt had a highly developed view of the afterlife with elaborate rituals for preparing the body and soul for an eternal life after death. Beliefs about the soul and afterlife focused heavily on preservation of the body. This meant that embalming and mummification were practised, in order to preserve the individual's identity in the afterlife. Originally the dead were buried in shallow pits in the searing hot sand, at times wrapped in reed mats, which caused the remains to dry quickly, preventing decomposition. Later, they started constructing subterranean tombs with wood or sun-baked bricks, and a process of mummification was developed around the Fourth Dynasty, mostly for the benefit of the pharaohs and their relatives. Most inner organs were removed through an incision in the abdomen, while the brain was scooped out through a nostril after breaking the thin bone encasing it. The cavities were washed and packed with natron, then the whole body was covered in natron and left to dry. Since it was a stoneable offense to harm the body of the Pharaoh, even after death, the person who made the incision in the abdomen with a rock knife was ceremonially chased away and had rocks thrown at him. The heart was left in place because it was thought to be the home of the soul. The standard length of the mummification process was seventy days. If during the Old Kingdom embalmment was reserved for a selected few, it became available to wider sections of society as time went by. Animals were also mummified, sometimes thought to have been pets of Egyptian families, but more frequently or more likely, they were the representations of deities. The ibis, crocodile, cat, Nile perch, falcon, and baboon can be found in perfect mummified forms. During the Ptolemaic Period, animals were especially bred for the purpose.
The Book of the Dead in Egyptian Mythology was a series of almost two hundred spells represented as sectional texts, songs, and pictures written on papyrus, individually customized for the deceased, which were buried along with the dead in order to ease their passage into the underworld. In some tombs, the Book of the Dead has also been found painted on the walls, although the practice of painting on the tomb walls appears to predate the formalization of the Book of the Dead as a bound text. One of the best examples of the Book of the Dead is The Papyrus of Ani, created around 1240 BC, which, in addition to the texts themselves, also contains many pictures of Ani and his wife on their journey through the land of the dead. After a person dies their soul is led into a hall of judgment in Duat by Anubis (god of mummification) and the deceased's heart, which was the record of the morality of the owner, is weighed against a single feather representing Ma'at (the concept of truth and order). If the outcome is favorable, the deceased is taken to Osiris, god of the afterlife, in Aaru, but the demon Ammit (Eater of Hearts) part crocodile, part lion, and part hippopotamus destroys those hearts whom the verdict is against, leaving the owner to remain in Duat. A heart that weighed less than the feather was considered a pure heart, not weighed down by the guilt or sins of one's actions in life, resulting in a favorable verdict; a heart heavy with guilt and sin from one's life weighed more than the feather, and so the heart would be eaten by Ammit. An individual without a heart in the afterlife in essence, did not exist as Egyptians believed the heart to be the center of reason and emotion as opposed to the brain which was removed and discarded during mummification. Many times a person would be buried with a "surrogate" heart to replace their own for the weighing of the heart ceremony.
The monotheistic period in Egyptian Mythology:A short interval of monotheism (Atenism) occurred under the reign of Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV), focused on the Egyptian sun deity Aten. The Aten is typically shown as a sun disk with rays coming out of all sides. Akhenaten built a new capital at Amarna with temples for the Aten. This was a symbolic act as Akhenaten wanted a place of worship for the Aten that was not tainted by the visage of other deities. The religious change survived only until the death of Akhenaten, and the old religion was quickly restored during the reign of Tutankhamun, Akhenaten's son by his wife, Kiya. Tutankhamun and several other post-restoration pharaohs were erased from the history, because they were regarded as heretics. After the fall of the Amarna dynasty, the original Egyptian pantheon survived more or less as the dominant religion, until the establishment of Coptic Christianity and later Islam, even though the Egyptians continued to have relations with the other monotheistic cultures (e.g. Hebrews). Egyptian mythology put up surprisingly little resistance to the spread of Christianity, sometimes explained by claiming that Jesus was originally a syncretism based predominantly on Horus, with Isis and her worship becoming Mary and veneration (see Jesus as myth).
Temples in Egyptian Mythology:Although many temples are still standing today, others are in ruins while some have disappeared entirely. Pharaoh Ramses II was a particularly prolific builder of temples.
Some known Egyptian Mythology temples include:
Abu Simbel : Complex of two massive rock temples in southern Egypt on the western bank of the Nile. Abydos (Great Temple of Abydos) : Adoration of the early kings, whose cemetery, to which it forms a great funerary chapel, lies behind it. Ain el-Muftella (Bahariya Oasis) : Could have served as the city center of El Qasr. It was probably built around the 26th Dynasty. Karnak : Once part of the ancient capital of Egypt, Thebes. Bani Hasan al Shurruq : Located in Middle Egypt near to Al-Minya and survived the reconstruction of the New Kingdom. Edfu : Ptolemaic temple that is located between Aswan and Luxor. Temple of Kom Ombo : Controlled the trade routes from Nubia to the Nile Valley. Luxor : Built largely by Amenhotep III and Ramesses II, it was the centre of the Opet Festival. Medinet Habu (Memorial Temple of Ramesses III): Temple and a complex of temples dating from the New Kingdom. Temple of Hatshepsut : Her mortuary temple complex at Deir el-Bahri with a colonnaded structure of perfect harmony, was built nearly one thousand years before the Parthenon. Philae : Island of Philae with Temple of Hathor which was constructed in the 30th Dynasty and expanded into a complex to include Isis (Aset) and Osiris under Greek and Roman rule. Ramesseum (Memorial Temple of Ramesses II) : The main building, dedicated to the funerary cult, comprised two stone pylons (gateways, some 60 m wide), one after the other, each leading into a courtyard. Beyond the second courtyard, at the centre of the complex, was a covered 48-column hypostyle hall, surrounding the inner sanctuary. Dendera Temple complex : Several temples but the all overshadowing building in the complex is the main temple, the Hathor temple.