Transcript Egyptian Mythology

Ancient Egypt
Beliefs and Mythology
Egyptian Mythology
• the belief structure and underlying form
of ancient Egyptian culture from at least
approx 4000 BCE (as evidenced
by burial practices and tomb paintings)
to 30 CE with the death of Cleopatra VII,
the last of the Ptolemaic rulers.
• informed every aspect of ancient
Egyptian life through the stories which
related to the creation of the world and
the sustaining of that world by the
gods.
Lasting Influence
• Egyptian religious beliefs influenced other
cultures through transmission via trade
and became especially wide-spread after
the opening of the Silk Road in 130 BCE
as the Egyptian city of Alexandria was an
important commercial center.
• The significance of Egyptian mythology to
other cultures was in its development of
the concept of an eternal life after death,
benevolent deities, and reincarnation.
Re/Ra
• Ra was believed to
have arisen from Nun
as a great, shining egg.
• Ra was all powerful and
could take many forms.
Often known as the
sun god
• When he spoke others’
names they would
come into being.
Atum
• In all Egyptian myths, Atum
was one of the most ancient
gods of Egypt.
• He was originally an earth
god and then became
associated with Re.
• He was considered to be the
setting sun.
• He was originally a serpent
in Nun and will return to
that form.
Shu and Tefnut
Shu and Tefnut were twins from Atum and believed to be two parts of one
soul
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Shu means "dry, parched, withered."
He was the god of the air.
If he were ever removed from his place
then chaos would reign over the earth.
He was believed to hold power over snakes
He held the ladder the deceased used to
climb to heaven.
The goddess‘s name is related
to the root tef, "to spit, be
moist" and nu, "sky, waters".
She is depicted in the form of a
woman who wears a solar disc
with 2 cobras.
Sometimes she has the head of
a lioness or is shown as being
one.
Geb and Nut
Geb and Nut were brother and sister, husband and wife
They had four children – Isis, Osiris, Nepthys and Set
• Geb was a god of the earth.
• He guided the dead to heaven
and gave them food and drink.
• He became “heir of the gods”.
• He is usually shown as a man
wearing a crown of the north or
the south.
• It was believed that Geb’s
laughter caused earthquakes.
• He is often shown as having
green or dark skin with leaves
on him.
• Nut was the goddess of the
sky.
• She was portrayed as a
woman who wears a vase of
water on her head.
• She is often shown as a
woman whose hands and feet
touch the earth, forming a
semi-circle representing the
heavens.
Isis
• Isis was married to her brother, Osiris.
• She wears a vulture headdress with the
solar disc between a pair of horns.
• She was a great magician.
• Isis was the greatest goddess of Egypt.
• She was the purest example of a loving
wife and mother which made the people
adore her even more.
• She is regarded as the giver of life and
food to the dead.
• Her son was Horus.
Osiris
• Osiris was a god of the earth and
vegetation.
• He was the first child of Nut and
Geb.
• He became king and taught the
people what to eat to stop them
from cannibalism.
• He was a god-king and believed to
have given Egypt its civilization.
• He was killed by this brother Seth,
and became the great god of the
dead afterwards.
• He is shown as a mummified human
with a beard.
Seth
• Seth was represented by a bigeared imaginary animal with red
hair resembling a donkey or
maybe an aardvark.
• He was Lord of Lower Egypt.
• Seth was married to his sister,
Nepthys.
• Seth was exiled to the desert for
all time after killing his brother,
Osiris.
• Seth never had any children.
Nepthys
• The name "Nebthet" means the
"lady of the
house."
• Nephthys was
portrayed as a
woman wearing
on her head the
symbol of her
name.
• Her son was
Anubis, whose
father was Osiris.
• It was Nepthys’
affair with Osiris
that is believed
to have caused
Seth to kill him.
• Nepthys helped
Isis restore Osiris
from the dead.
• She was depicted
as the loyal
friend and sister
to Isis
Horus
• Horus was portrayed as a falcon headed
god.
• Horus carries a falcon-headed staff
• He was the son of Osiris and Isis.
• He was conceived magically by Isis after the
murder of his father.
• His uncle Seth tried to kill him but his
mother protected him.
• He eventually banished his uncle to the
desert for eternity.
• He was one of the most important gods of
Egypt.
• It was said the Pharaoh was the human body
of Horus.
Anubis
• Anubis was the son of Nephthys, and his father was
Osiris.
• He is the jackal-god of mummification who helps the
dead be admitted to the Underworld.
• He had three important functions:
– Embalming the dead
– Receiving the mummy into the tomb and
performing the Opening of the Mouth ceremony
and then conducting the soul in the Field of
Celestial Offerings
– Most importantly he monitored the Scales of Truth
to protect the dead from deception and eternal
death
• Anubis is portrayed as a man with the head of a jackal
holding the divine scepter carried by kings and gods.
• Egyptians worshipped Anubis to help protect their
dead from jackals and the decay of death.
BELIEFS
• The ancient Egyptians were the first to
develop the beginnings of a religion, and
their beliefs developed slowly over the
centuries.
• These beliefs eventually developed into a
world view shared by the people of the
Nile.
• There was no single belief system, but
the Egyptians shared an understanding of
how the world was created and believed
that chaos would reign if the destructive
powers of the universe were unleashed.
The Importance of Ma’at
• Ma’at – the principle of harmonious
balance – is at the heart of all Egyptian
myths and is necessary to prevent chaos.
• Everything in the universe was thought to
be maintained in a constant balance
without end.
• Humans were part of the balanced
universe and therefore participated in the
eternal balance.
• Their main goal was to keep chaos at bay.
The Afterlife
• The two most important
concepts concerning the
afterlife were the ka and the
Ba.
• The ka was a kind of other
self that guided the
fortunes of the person in
life.
• When people died they were
said to have joined their ka.
• The Ba is loosely the
person’s soul.
• Represented as a bird, the
Ba was the manifestation of
the individual after death.
The Underworld
• The Egyptians believed that when they died they would journey
to another world – the Underworld – where they would lead a
new life.
• They would need all of their earthly possessions in this other
life which is why their most treasured belongings were put into
their tombs.
• In order to pass into the afterlife they believed that they would
have to face great perils and go through dangerous places.
• These places would have such obstacles as monsters, fires,
boiling lakes, and spitting, poisonous snakes.
• After these obstacles, they would reach the place of judgment.
Hall of Two Truths
• The soul appeared before Osiris in the Hall of Two Truths
where the person’s heart (this was the only organ left in the
body) was weighed.
• The heart was placed on one side of a balance scale and on
the other was place the white feather of Ma’at.
• The heart held all of the person’s lies and sins from their life
and if the heart was found to be lighter than the feather, the
soul was allowed to move on to the Field of Reeds, the place
for eternal bliss.
The Devourer or Gobbler
• If the deceased’s heart was heavier
than the feather, the heart dropped
to the floor where it was eaten by
the monster Ammut
(devourer/gobbler)
• The devourer was part
hippopotamus, part lion, and part
crocodile.
• Once the dead person’s heart was
eaten by Ammut, that person’s
soul was gone forever.
• This “non-existence” interrupts the
universal journey and was more
terrifying to an ancient Egyptian
than eternal pain or torment.
One Creation Myth
At first there was only Nun, the
dark waters of chaos. A hill called
Ben-ben rose up out of the water.
On the hill was the first god,
Atum, who coughed out Shu (the
god of air) and spat out Tefnut
(the goddess of moisture).
Creation
• Shu and Tefnut had
two children:
• Geb – the god of
the earth
• Nut – the goddess
of the sky
• Shu lifted Nut up to
be a canopy over
Geb.
The First Earthly Gods
• Nut and Geb had
four children
named Osiris, Isis,
Seth and Nephthys.
• Osiris showed
Atum that he was a
thoughtful and
judicious god and
was given the rule
of the world by
Atum.
Seth was jealous…
• Osiris is the focus of a famous legend in which he
was killed by the rival god Seth. At a banquet of the
gods, Seth fooled Osiris into stepping into a coffin,
which he promptly slammed shut and cast into the
Nile.
• Isis, the wife of Osiris, discovered the coffin and
brought it back. Seth took advantage of Isis's
temporary absence on one occasion, cut the body
of Osiris into 42 pieces (representing the different
provinces of Egypt), and cast them into the Nile.
The dedication of Isis
• Isis searched the land for
the body parts of Osiris,
and was
• eventually able to piece
together his body, except
for one piece which had
been swallowed by a
crocodile or a fish.
• Because Osiris was not
complete, he could not
return to earth and became
the god of the underworld.