Transcript Anubis

Amoun/Amun/Amun Ra
• One of the most important gods in the
Egyptian pantheon. He is first mentioned in
the 5th Dynasty pyramid texts. His temple at
Karnak is the best surviving religious
complex of the New Kingdom. In the jubilee
chapel of Senusret I (1965-1920 BC) in
Karnak, Amoun is described as "the king of
the gods" and by the time of the Ptolemies,
he was regarded as the Egyptian equivalent
of Zeus
Anubis
Canine god of the dead, closely associated with
embalming and mummification. Usually
represented in the form of a seated black dog
or man with a dog's head. It is not clear
whether the dog in question - often identified
by the Egyptian word "sab" was a jackal.
According to myth, the jackal-god was said to
have wrapped the body of the deceased
Osiris, thus establishing his particular
association with the mummification process.
The priest in charge of the funeral and
embalming rights was known as the "hery
seshta" (overseer of the mysteries), who
took the part of the jackal god Anubis
Hathor
• Important goddess worshiped in three
forms: as a woman with the ears of a
cow, as a cow, and as a woman wearing
a head-dress with wig, horns and sun
disc. Her associations and cult centres
were among the most numerous and
diverse of any of the Egyptian deities.
The literal meaning of her name was
"House of Horus" and since the pharaoh
identified with Horus, Hathor was
correspondingly regarded as the divine
mother of each reigning king, and one of
the royal titles was "Son of Hathor".
Horus
• Falcon headed god, usually depicted as a
hawk or as a man with the head of a hawk.
Horus was the god of the sky and the
embodiment of divine kingship, protector of
the reigning pharaoh. According to one of
the most common myths, Horus was the
child of the goddess Isis and the god Osiris.
It was Horus who performed the rite of the
"opening of the mouth" on his dead father,
thus legitimising his succession to the
throne as earthly ruler. In a similar vein,
priests (or eldest sons) wearing distinctive
panther skins would ritually purify the path of
the deceased's coffin.
Isis.
• She was the sister-wife to Osiris and the
mother of Horus. Best known mythologically
as the devoted wife of Osiris, whose body she
sought, after his murder by his brother Seth.
She is said to have made the first mummy
from the dismembered limbs of Osiris, using
her wings to breathe life into him and
magically conceiving her son, Horus in the
process. Her most famous temple is Philae
near Aswan, but she was also widely
worshipped universally, with cult centres at
Dendera and Byblos in Syria-Palestine.
Khepri
• The creator sun-god at dawn is represented
by a scarab (dung) beetle pushing the sun
disc upwards from the underworld. The
Ancient Egyptians would have noticed the
dung beetles busily rolling their balls of dirt
across the ground. The beetles would also
emerge from inside the balls, apparently
spontaneously, so it was quite logical for the
Egyptians to use the beetles to symbolise
Khepri "he who is coming into being", self
created of his own accord without
undergoing the natural cycle of reproduction.
Khnum
• The ram headed god, whose strong
association with the Nile inundation and
the fertile soil contributed to his role as a
potter-god. The creative symbolism of
molding pottery, the potency of the ram,
and the fact that the Ancient Egyptian
word for ram was "ba" meant that Khnum
was also one of the principle creator
gods. Sometimes Khnum was shown
modeling the "ka" on his potter's wheel
whilst forming the bodies of humanity.
Khnum's principal cult centre was on the
island of Elephantine at Aswan, where
he was possibly worshipped from the
Early Dynastic Period.
Osiris
• One of the most important deities of Ancient
Egypt, whose principle association is with
death, resurrection and fertility. He is usually
depicted as a mummy whose hands project
through his wrappings to hold the royal
insignia of the crook and flail. Osiris was
once an earthly ruler who governed well,
and so aroused the jealousy of his evil
brother Seth. Seth secretly discovered the
measurements of his brother's body, had a
magnificent casket made to fit Osiris, and
organized a banquet to which he invited 72
accomplices as well as Osiris.
Osiris Continued…
• During the feast he declared that whoever fitted the
casket exactly should have it as a gift. Osiris stepped
into the coffin and the lid was sealed with molten lead.
Cast into the Nile it drifted to Byblos and caught in a
cedar tree. Seth stumbled on the casket and angrily
dismembered the body of his brother. Isis then searched
for the pieces of her husband, and reassembled the
body into a mummy, magically conceived Horus, who
was said to have avenged his father's death in a series
of contests with his uncle. According to the myths, these
struggles lasted for eighty years until Osiris was finally
declared ruler of the underworld and Horus confirmed as
ruler of the living, leaving Seth to rule the deserts as the
god of chaos and evil.
Seth.
• The God of chaos and confusion, generally
depicted with a human body and the head of
a mysterious unknown animal, probably a
mythical beast. Seth was the son of the skygoddess Nut and the brother of Osiris, Isis
and Nephthys (who was also his wife).
According to the legend, Seth murdered his
brother Osiris and was involved in a long and
violent contest with his nephew Horus who
sought to avenge the death of his father.
Laying outside the "ordered universe"
governed by Horus (ruler of the living) and
Osiris (ruler of the underworld), Seth served
as the necessary complement to divine order.
Thoth.
• God of writing and knowledge,
depicted in the form of two animals:
the baboon and the sacred ibis. By the
end of the Old Kingdom he was most
frequently portrayed as an ibis-headed
man, usually holding a scribal palette
and a pen or a notched palm leaf. He
was also often shown recording the
results of the "weighing of the heart" of
the deceased, and sometimes in
addition, he is shown as a baboon