God of the underworld in Egyptian mythology. Egyptian mythology

Each of the peoples of the Ancient World had their own deities, powerful and not very powerful. Many of them had unusual abilities and were the owners of wonderful artifacts that gave them additional strength, knowledge and, ultimately, power.

Amaterasu ("Great Goddess Who Illuminates the Heavens")

Country: Japan
Essence: Goddess of the Sun, ruler of the heavenly fields

Amaterasu is the eldest of the three children of the progenitor god Izanaki. She was born from the drops of water with which he washed his left eye. She took possession of the upper heavenly world, while her younger brothers got the night and the watery kingdom.

Amaterasu taught people how to cultivate rice and weave. The imperial house of Japan traces its lineage from her. She is considered the great-grandmother of the first Emperor Jimmu. The rice ear, mirror, sword and carved beads presented to her became sacred symbols of imperial power. By tradition, one of the emperor's daughters becomes the high priestess of Amaterasu.

Yu-Di ("Jade Sovereign")

Country: China
Essence: Supreme Lord, Emperor of the Universe

Yu-Di was born at the moment of the creation of the Earth and the Sky. He is subject to both the Heavenly, and the Ground, and the Underground worlds. All other deities and spirits are subordinate to him.
Yu-Di is absolutely impassive. He sits on a throne in a robe embroidered with dragons with a jade tablet in his hands. Yu Di has the exact address: the god lives in a palace on Mount Yujingshan, which resembles the court of Chinese emperors. Under it, heavenly councils function, which are responsible for various natural phenomena. They perform all sorts of actions, to which the lord of heaven himself does not condescend.

Quetzalcoatl ("Feathered Serpent")

Country: Central America
Essence: Creator of the world, lord of the elements, creator and teacher of people

Quetzalcoatl not only created the world and people, but also taught them the most important skills: from agriculture to astronomical observations. Despite his high status, Quetzalcoatl sometimes acted in a very peculiar way. For example, in order to get maize grains for people, he entered the anthill, turning himself into an ant, and stole them.

Quetzalcoatl was depicted both as a serpent covered with feathers (the body symbolized the Earth, and feathers - vegetation), and as a bearded man in a mask.
According to one legend, Quetzalcoatl voluntarily went into overseas exile on a raft of snakes, promising to return. Because of this, the Aztecs initially mistook the leader of the conquistadors, Cortes, for the returned Quetzalcoatl.

Baal (Balu, Vaal, "Lord")

Country: Middle East
Essence: Thunderer, god of rain and elements. In some myths - the creator of the world

Baal, as a rule, was depicted either in the form of a bull, or a warrior jumping on a cloud with a lightning spear. During the festivities in his honor, mass orgies took place, often accompanied by self-mutilation. It is believed that human sacrifices were made to Baal in some areas. From his name came the name of the biblical demon Beelzebub (Ball-Zebula, "Lord of the Flies").

Ishtar (Astarte, Inanna, "Lady of Heaven")

Country: Middle East
Essence: Goddess of fertility, sex and war

Ishtar, sister of the Sun and daughter of the Moon, was associated with the planet Venus. The legend of her journey to the underworld was associated with the myth of annually dying and resurrecting nature. Often she acted as an intercessor of people before the gods. At the same time, Ishtar was responsible for various feuds. The Sumerians even called the wars "the dances of Inanna." As a goddess of war, she was often depicted as riding a lion, and probably became the prototype of the Babylonian harlot sitting on a beast.
The passion of the loving Ishtar was fatal for both the gods and mortals. For her many lovers, everything usually ended in big trouble or even death. The worship of Ishtar included temple prostitution and was accompanied by mass orgies.

Ashur ("Father of the Gods")

Country: Assyria
Essence: God of War
Ashur - the main god of the Assyrians, the god of war and hunting. His weapon was a bow and arrows. As a rule, Ashur was depicted with bulls. Another of his symbols is the solar disk above the tree of life. Over time, when the Assyrians expanded their possessions, he began to be considered the spouse of Ishtar. The Assyrian king himself was the high priest of Ashur, and his name often became part of the royal name, as, for example, the famous Ashurbanipal, and the capital of Assyria was called Ashur.

Marduk ("Son of the Clear Sky")

Country: Mesopotamia
Essence: Patron of Babylon, god of wisdom, lord and judge of the gods
Marduk defeated the embodiment of chaos Tiamat, driving the "evil wind" into her mouth, and took possession of the book of fate that belonged to her. After that, he cut the body of Tiamat and created Heaven and Earth from them, and then created the entire modern, ordered world. Other gods, seeing the power of Marduk, recognized his supremacy.
The symbol of Marduk is the dragon Mushkhush, a mixture of a scorpion, a snake, an eagle and a lion. Various plants and animals were identified with the body parts and entrails of Marduk. The main temple of Marduk - a huge ziggurat (step pyramid) became, probably, the basis of the legend of the Tower of Babel.

Yahweh (Jehovah, "He Who Is")

Country: Middle East
Essence: The only tribal god of the Jews

The main function of Yahweh was to help the chosen people. He gave laws to the Jews and strictly enforced them. In clashes with enemies, Yahweh provided assistance to the chosen people, sometimes the most direct. In one of the battles, for example, he threw huge stones at the enemies, in another case, he canceled the law of nature by stopping the sun.
Unlike most of the other gods of the ancient world, Yahweh is extremely jealous, and forbids the worship of any deity other than himself. Severe punishment awaits the disobedient. The word "Yahweh" is a substitute for the secret name of God, which is forbidden to be spoken aloud. It was impossible to create his images. In Christianity, Yahweh is sometimes identified with God the Father.

Ahura Mazda (Ormuzd, "God the Wise")

Country: Persia
Essence: Creator of the World and all the good that is in it

Ahura Mazda created the laws by which the world exists. He endowed people with free will, and they can choose the path of good (then Ahura Mazda will favor them in every possible way) or the path of evil (serving the eternal enemy of Ahura Mazda Angra Mainyu). The helpers of Ahura Mazda are the good beings of Ahura created by him. He stays in their environment in the fabulous Garodman, the house of chants.
The image of Ahura Mazda is the Sun. He is older than the whole world, but at the same time, forever young. He knows both the past and the future. In the end, he will win the final victory over evil, and the world will be perfect.

Angra Mainyu (Ahriman, "Evil Spirit")

Country: Persia
Essence: The embodiment of evil among the ancient Persians
Angra Mainyu is the source of everything bad that happens in the world. He spoiled the perfect world created by Ahura Mazda, introducing lies and destruction into it. He sends diseases, crop failures, natural disasters, gives rise to predatory animals, poisonous plants and animals. Under the leadership of Angra Mainyu are the devas, evil spirits that fulfill his evil will. After Angra Mainyu and his henchmen are defeated, an era of eternal bliss must come.

Brahma ("Priest")

Country: India
Essence: God is the creator of the world
Brahma was born from a lotus flower and then created this world. After 100 years of Brahma, 311,040,000,000,000 earth years, he will die, and after the same period of time, a new Brahma will spontaneously arise and create a new world.
Brahma has four faces and four arms, which symbolizes the cardinal directions. His indispensable attributes are a book, a rosary, a vessel with water from the sacred Ganges, a crown and a lotus flower, symbols of knowledge and power. Brahma lives on the top of the sacred mountain Meru, moves on a white swan. The description of the operation of the Brahma weapon Brahmastra is reminiscent of the description of a nuclear weapon.

Vishnu ("All-inclusive")

Country: India
Essence: God is the guardian of the world

The main functions of Vishnu are the maintenance of the existing world and opposition to evil. Vishnu manifests in the world and acts through his incarnations, avatars, the most famous of which are Krishna and Rama. Vishnu has blue skin and wears yellow clothes. He has four arms in which he holds a lotus flower, mace, conch and Sudarshana (a spinning fire disk, his weapon). Vishnu reclines on the giant many-headed serpent Shesha, which swims in the world Causal Ocean.

Shiva ("The Merciful")

Country: India
Essence: God is the destroyer
The main task of Shiva is the destruction of the world at the end of each world cycle in order to make room for a new creation. This happens during the dance of Shiva - Tandava (therefore, Shiva is sometimes called the dancing god). However, he also has more peaceful functions - a healer and deliverer from death.
Shiva sits in a lotus position on a tiger skin. There are snake bracelets around his neck and wrists. Shiva has a third eye on his forehead (it appeared when Shiva's wife, Parvati, jokingly covered his eyes with her palms). Sometimes Shiva is depicted as a lingam (an erect penis). But sometimes he is also depicted as a hermaphrodite, symbolizing the unity of the male and female principles. According to popular beliefs, Shiva smokes marijuana, so some believers consider this activity a way of knowing him.

Ra (Amon, "The Sun")

Country: Egypt
Essence: God of the Sun
Ra, the main god of Ancient Egypt, was born from the primary ocean of his own free will, and then created the world, including the gods. He is the personification of the Sun, and daily, with a numerous retinue, passes through the sky in a magical boat, thanks to which life in Egypt becomes possible. At night, the boat of Ra sails along the underground Nile through the afterlife. The Eye of Ra (sometimes considered an independent deity) had the ability to pacify and subdue enemies. The Egyptian pharaohs were descended from Ra, and called themselves his sons.

Osiris (Usir, "The Mighty One")

Country: Egypt
Essence: God of rebirth, lord and judge of the underworld.

Osiris taught people about agriculture. His attributes are associated with plants: the crown and boat are made of papyrus, in his hands are bundles of reeds, and the throne is twined with greenery. Osiris was killed and cut to pieces by his brother, the evil god Seth, but was resurrected with the help of his wife and sister Isis. However, having conceived the son of Horus, Osiris did not remain in the world of the living, but became the lord and judge of the kingdom of the dead. Because of this, he was often depicted as a swaddled mummy with free hands, in which he holds a scepter and a flail. In ancient Egypt, the tomb of Osiris enjoyed great reverence.

Isis ("Throne")

Country: Egypt
Essence: Goddess intercessor.
Isis is the embodiment of femininity and motherhood. With pleas for help, all segments of the population turned to her, but, first of all, the oppressed. She especially patronized children. And sometimes she also acted as a defender of the dead before the afterlife court.
Isis was able to magically resurrect her husband and brother Osiris and give birth to his son Horus. The floods of the Nile in folk mythology were considered the tears of Isis, which she sheds about Osiris, who remained in the world of the dead. The Egyptian pharaohs were called children of Isis; sometimes she was even depicted as a mother feeding the pharaoh with milk from her breast.
The image of the "veil of Isis" is known, meaning the concealment of the secrets of nature. This image has long attracted mystics. No wonder the famous book by Blavatsky is called Isis Unveiled.

Odin (Wotan, "The Seer")

Country: Northern Europe
Essence: God of war and victory
Odin is the main god of the ancient Germans and Scandinavians. He travels on the eight-legged horse Sleipnir or on the ship Skidbladnir, the size of which can be arbitrarily changed. Odin's spear, Gugnir, always flies to the target and hits on the spot. He is accompanied by wise crows and predatory wolves. One lives in Valhalla with a retinue of the best fallen warriors and warlike Valkyrie maidens.
In order to gain wisdom, Odin sacrificed one eye, and for the sake of comprehending the meaning of the runes, he hung for nine days on the sacred tree Yggdrasil, nailed to it with his own spear. The future of Odin is predetermined: despite his power, on the day of Ragnarök (the battle preceding the end of the world), he will be killed by the giant wolf Fefnir.

Thor ("Thunder")

Country: Northern Europe
Essence: Thunderbolt

Thor is the god of the elements and fertility among the ancient Germans and Scandinavians. This is a god-bogatyr who protects not only people, but also other gods from monsters. Thor was portrayed as a giant with a red beard. His weapon is the magic hammer Mjolnir ("lightning"), which can only be held in iron gauntlets. Thor girds himself with a magical belt that doubles his strength. He rides across the sky in a goat-drawn chariot. Sometimes he eats goats, but then resurrects them with his magic hammer. On the day of Ragnarok, the last battle, Thor will deal with the world serpent Jörmungandr, but he himself will die from his poison.

In ancient Egypt, there were a very large number of gods. Each city had its own pantheon or ennead- 9 main deities that people worshiped. However, for the first time such an ennead appeared in the city of Heliopolis (Heliopolis). It has been known since the time of the Early Kingdom, that is, from the origins of Egyptian civilization.

The priests who lived in this city were considered the most influential and powerful. It was they who named the very first nine deities. Therefore, it is believed that the main gods of Ancient Egypt originated in Heliopolis, and the pantheon itself began to be called heliopolis or great ennead. Below is a list of the supreme deities and their brief description.

God Ra

This is the supreme ancient Egyptian deity. It personified the sun. After the creation of the world, Ra began to reign over him, and this was the most fertile time for people. The power of the god was in his mysterious name. Other celestials wanted to know this name in order to gain the same power, but the sun god did not tell anyone.

A very long time passed, and Ra grew old. He lost his vigilance and gave his mysterious name to his great-granddaughter Isis. After that, a period of chaos ensued, and people stopped obeying the supreme deity. Then the sun god decided to leave the earth and go to heaven.

But he did not forget the people and continued to take care of them. Every morning he boarded a boat called Atet, and the sun disk shone over his head. In this boat, Ra sailed through the sky and illuminated the earth from dawn until noon. Then, between noon and dusk, he transferred to another boat called Sektet and went to the underworld in it to illuminate the ordeals of the afterlife.

In this mournful place, the sun god met every night with the huge serpent Apep, who personified evil and darkness. A battle began between Ra and the serpent, and the sun god was always the winner. But evil and darkness were reborn by the next night, and the battle was repeated again.

The ancient Egyptians depicted the god Ra with the body of a man and the head of a falcon, which was crowned with a solar disk. On it lay the goddess Wajit in the form of a cobra. She was considered the patroness of Lower Egypt and its pharaohs. This god had other names in some religious centers. In Thebes he was called Amon-Ra, in Elephantine Khnum-Ra. But this did not change the main essence of the solar deity, who had the status of the main god of Ancient Egypt.

God Shu

This deity personified the airspace illuminated by the sun. Shu was the son of Ra, and when he ascended to heaven, he began to reign in his place. He ruled the sky, earth, mountains, winds, seas. As the millennia passed, Shu also ascended to heaven. According to its status, it was considered the second after Ra.

In some images, he was shown as a man with a lion's head. He sat on a throne carried by lions. But there are many more images of the god of air in the form of an ordinary person with a feather in his head. It symbolized the goddess of truth, Maat.

Goddess Tefnut

This deity also belonged to the main gods of Ancient Egypt. Tefnut is the goddess of heat and moisture. She was the daughter of the god Ra and was the wife of her brother Shu. The husband and wife were twins. But even before the marriage, the god Ra removed his daughter to Nubia, having quarreled with her, and a drought set in Egypt. Then the sun god returned his daughter, and she married Shu.

The return of Tefnut and her marriage became a symbol of the flowering of nature. Most often, the goddess was depicted as a man with the head of a lioness and a fiery disk above his head. The disk indicated her connection with the father of Ra, since the daughter was considered his fiery eye. When the sun god appeared early in the morning on the horizon, the fiery eye shone in his forehead and burned all enemies and ill-wishers.

God Geb

Geb is the god of the earth, the son of Shu and Tefnut. He married his sister Nut - the goddess of the sky - and this couple had children: Osiris, Isis, Set, Nephthys. It is noteworthy that Geb constantly quarreled with Nut, who before dawn ate her children - heavenly bodies, but again gave birth to them on the eve of twilight.

These quarrels tired Shu's father, and he separated the spouses. He lifted chickpeas high into the sky, and left Hebe on the ground. He reigned after his father, and then transferred his power to his son Osiris. He was most often depicted as a green man sitting on a throne with a royal crown on his head.

Goddess Nut

Nut is the goddess of the sky, the daughter of Shu and Tefnut, the sister and wife of Geb. She was the mother of Osiris, Isis, Seth and Nephthys. In the morning, the sky goddess swallowed the stars, and in the late evening she gave birth to them, thus symbolizing the change of day and night. She had an inextricable connection with the world of the dead.

She raised the dead into the sky and guarded the tombs of the dead. Depicted as a woman with a curved body. It stretched across the horizon and touched the ground with the tips of its fingers and toes. Often, under the curved body of Nut, Geb was depicted lying on the ground.

I must say that the main gods of Ancient Egypt would have lost a lot without Osiris. He was the great-great-grandson of the god Ra and ruled the earth after his father Geb. During his reign, he taught people many useful things. He married his own sister Isis, and Seth and Nephthys were his brother and sister. But Seth, who lived in the south of Egypt in the desert, began to envy his successful brother, killed him and appropriated royal power.

Set not only killed, but dismembered the body of Osiris into 14 pieces and scattered them across the lands of Egypt. But the faithful wife Isis found all the pieces, put them together and called a guide to the underworld of Anubis. He made a mummy from the body of Osiris, which became the first in Egypt. After that, Isis turned into a female kite, spread herself over the body of her husband and brother, and became pregnant from him. Thus was born Horus, who became the last of the gods who ruled the earth. After him, power passed to the pharaohs.

Horus defeated Set, sent him back south into the desert, and revived his father with his left eye. After that, he remained to rule on earth, and Osiris began to reign in the afterlife. God was depicted as a man in white clothes and with a green face. In his hands he held a flail and a scepter, and a crown crowned his head.

Isis (Isis) was extremely popular in ancient Egypt, was considered the goddess of fertility, symbolized motherhood and femininity. She was the wife of Osiris and the mother of Horus. The Egyptians believed that the Nile flooded when Isis cries, mourning Osiris, who left her and left to rule the kingdom of the dead.

The significance of this goddess increased significantly during the Middle Kingdom, when funerary texts began to be used not only by the pharaohs and their families, but also by all other inhabitants of Egypt. Isis was depicted as a man with a throne on his head, which personified the power of the pharaohs.

Set (Seth) - the youngest son of Geb and Nut, brother of Osiris, Isis and Nephthys. He married the latter. He was born on the third New Year's Day, jumping out of his mother's side. The ancient Egyptians considered this day unlucky, therefore, until the day ended, they did nothing. Set was considered the god of war, chaos and sandstorms. He personified evil, which is similar to Satan. After killing Osiris, he reigned for a short time on earth until he was overthrown by Horus. After that, he ended up in the desert in the south of Egypt, from where he sent sandstorms to fertile lands.

Set was depicted as a man with the head of an aardvark or a donkey. It had long ears and a red mane in many depictions. Sometimes this god was given red eyes. This color symbolized the sand of the desert and death. The pig was considered a sacred animal of the god of sandstorms. Therefore, pigs were classified as unclean animals.

The youngest of the children of Geb and Nut, named Nephthys, also belonged to the main gods of Ancient Egypt. She was born on the last day of the year. The ancient Egyptians saw this goddess as the complement of Isis. She was considered the goddess of creation, which permeates the entire world. Nephthys ruled over everything ephemeral, which could not be seen, touched or smelled. She had a connection with the world of the dead, and at night accompanied Ra in his voyage through the underworld.

She was considered the wife of Seth, but did not have the pronounced negative features characteristic of her husband. They portrayed this goddess in a human female form. Her head was crowned with a hieroglyph denoting the name of the goddess. She was depicted on sarcophagi as a woman with wings, symbolizing the protector of the dead.

Type: polytheism
Peculiarities: deification of animals, a developed funerary cult
Myth cycle: creation of the world, punishment of people for sins, struggle of the sun god Ra with Apophis, death and resurrection of Osiris

Ancient Egyptian religion - religious beliefs and rituals practiced in ancient Egypt, from the pre-dynastic period to the adoption of Christianity. Over its many thousands of years of history, the ancient Egyptian religion went through various stages of development: from the Ancient, Middle and New Kingdoms to the late and Greco-Roman period.

Early beliefs

The prehistoric tribes of the Nile Valley, like representatives of other primitive cultures, in all the diverse objects and natural phenomena inaccessible to their understanding, saw manifestations of powerful mysterious forces. A typical form of early religion for them was fetishism and totemism, which experienced various changes under the influence of the population's transition from nomadism to a settled way of life. The most famous ancient Egyptian fetishes are: Imiut, Ben-Ben stone, Iunu pillar, Djed pillar; Also, common Egyptian religious symbols originate from ancient fetishes: Ankh, Wadzhet, Was.

To a large extent, the beliefs of the primitive Egyptians, as well as their whole life, were influenced by the Nile, the annual flood of which brought fertile soil to the banks, which made it possible to collect good harvests (the personification of beneficent forces), but sometimes it caused significant disasters - floods (the personification of the destructive forces for a person). The periodicity of the flood of the river and the observation of the starry sky made it possible to create the ancient Egyptian calendar with sufficient accuracy, thanks to which the Egyptians early mastered the basics of astronomy, which also affected their beliefs. In the emerging first settlements-cities of the Egyptians, there were various deities, their own for each individual locality, usually in the form of a material fetish, but much more often in the form of an animal - a totem.

Animal cult

The deification of animals in dynastic Egypt took place over the centuries, going back to prehistoric totemism, with which in a number of cases it was very close, actually constituting phenomena of the same order. Nomes and cities were often compared and associated with their animal gods, which was reflected in their names (see the list of nomes of Ancient Egypt), and many hieroglyphs of Egyptian writing were symbols of animals, birds, reptiles, fish and insects, which were ideograms denoting which or deities.

Pantheon of the gods of Egypt

The ancient Egyptian religion, with all the variety of gods inherent in it, was the result of a fusion of independent tribal cults.

Appearance

Egyptian gods are distinguished by an unusual, sometimes very bizarre appearance. This is due to the fact that the religion of Egypt consisted of many local beliefs. Over time, some gods acquired aspects, and some merged with each other, for example, Amon and Ra formed a single god Amon-Ra. In total, Egyptian mythology has about 700 gods, although most of them were revered only in certain areas.

Most of the gods are a hybrid of man and animal, although for some only jewelry reminds of their nature, like the scorpion on the head of the goddess Selket. Several gods are represented by abstractions: Amon, Aton, Nun, Behdeti, Kuk, Niau, Heh, Gereh, Tenemu.

Deities of Ancient Egypt

God Ptah.

Ptah or Ptah, is one of the names of the Creator God in the ancient Egyptian religious tradition.

God Atum.

Atum (Jtm) is the god of creation in ancient Egyptian mythology. He symbolized the original and eternal unity of all things.

Geb and Nut. (Here the goddess of the cosmos is depicted as a woman, she is domed, has excessively long arms and legs (supports), and only touches the ground (depicted as a man) with the tips of her fingers and toes. Shu, who separates this couple, also does not look tense under the weight "celestial body")

Geb - the ancient Egyptian god of the earth, the son of Shu and Tefnut, the brother and husband of Nut and the father of Osiris, Isis, Set and Nephthys.

chickpeas (Well, Nuit) is the ancient Egyptian sky goddess, daughter of Shu and Tefnut, sister and wife of Geb, and mother of Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys. In the ancient conceptions of the Egyptians, Nut was a heavenly cow that gave birth to the sun and all the gods.

God Shu wearing an elaborate crown with four feathers

Shu - Egyptian deity of air, son of Atum, brother and husband of Tefnut. After the identification of Atum with Ra, he was considered the son of Ra. The veneration of Shu was especially expressive in Letopol in the delta.

Tefnut , also Tefnet, laudatory name Nubian cat - in Egyptian mythology, the goddess of moisture. she is also the eye of Ra, in this capacity Tefnut shines with a fiery eye in his forehead and burns the enemies of the great god. In this capacity, Tefnut was identified with the goddess Uto (Urey).

amon (Amen, Amun, Imen) - the ancient Egyptian god of the Sun, the king of the gods (nsw nTrw) and the patron of the power of the pharaohs.
Amon is the god of the sun in Egyptian mythology.

Goddess Mut

Mut , the Egyptian goddess (actually "mother") - the ancient Egyptian goddess, the queen of heaven, the second member of the Theban triad (Amon-Mut-Khonsu), the mother goddess and patroness of motherhood.

God Montu

Montu (mnṯw) - the ancient god of the city of Ermont, in the region of which Thebes, who rose and became the capital of Egypt, also revered Montu, whence his traditional epithet - "lord of Thebes".

God Khonsu

Khonsu - Egyptian god, revered in Thebes as the son of Amun and Mut, with whom he made up the Theban triad of gods, the deity of the moon. The latter brought him closer to Thoth already during the Middle Kingdom, when he was sometimes called a scribe of truth.

God Ra

Ra(ancient Greek Ρα; lat. Ra) - the ancient Egyptian god of the sun, the supreme deity of the ancient Egyptians. His name means "Sun". The center of the cult was Heliopolis.

God Osiris.

Osiris (Osiris) (Egypt. wsjr, other Greek Ὄσιρις, lat. Osiris) - the god of rebirth, the king of the underworld in ancient Egyptian mythology.

Goddess Isis.

Isis (Isis) (Egypt. js.t, other Greek Ἶσις, lat. Isis) is one of the greatest goddesses of antiquity, who became a model for understanding the Egyptian ideal of femininity and motherhood. She was revered as the sister and wife of Osiris, the mother of Horus, and, accordingly, of the Egyptian kings, who were originally considered earthly incarnations of the falcon-headed god.
Being very ancient, the cult of Isis probably comes from the Nile Delta. Here was one of the oldest cult centers of the goddess, Hebet, called by the Greeks Iseion.

God Horus

choir , Horus (ḥr - "height", "sky") - the god of the sky, royalty and the sun; the living ancient Egyptian king was represented as the incarnation of the god Horus.

Goddess Nephthys.

Nephthys (Greek), Nebetkhet (ancient Egyptian. "Lady of the monastery"). Its essence in Egyptian religious literature is almost not disclosed. Often Nephthys was depicted together with Isis as her opposite and at the same time as her complement, symbolizing inferiority, passivity, barren lands.
Nephthys, whose name in Egyptian is pronounced Nebetkhet, was considered by some authors as the goddess of death, and by others as an aspect of Black Isis. Plutarch described Nephthys as "the mistress of everything unmanifest and immaterial, while Isis rules over everything manifest and material." Despite the connection with the Lower World, Nephthys bore the title of "Goddess of Creation who lives in everything."

Heh in the image of the primordial ocean.

heh or Khukh - an abstract deity of Egyptian mythology, associated with the constancy of time and eternity, the personification of infinity, boundless space.

Nun (Ancient Egyptian “nwn” - “water”, “water”) - in ancient Egyptian mythology - the primordial ocean that existed at the beginning of time, from which Ra came out and began the creation of the world Atum.

God Khnum.

Khnum - the creator god, creating a man on a potter's wheel, the guardian of the Nile; a man with the head of a ram with spirally twisted horns.
“Khnum is the god of fertility in ancient Egyptian mythology, the demiurge god who created the world on a potter's wheel.

God Anubis.

Anubis (Greek), Inpu (ancient Egypt) - the deity of Ancient Egypt with the head of a jackal and the body of a man, the guide of the dead to the afterlife.

God Set

Set (Seth, Sutekh, Suta, Seti Egyptian Stẖ) - in ancient Egyptian mythology, the god of rage, sandstorms, destruction, chaos, war and death. However, he was originally revered as the "protector of the sun-Ra", the patron of royal power, his name was included in the titles and names of a number of pharaohs.

Goddess Hathor

Hathor , or Hathor ("house of Horus", that is, "sky") - in Egyptian mythology, the goddess of the sky, love, femininity, beauty, fun and dance.

Goddess Bast

Bast or Bastet - in ancient Egypt, the goddess of joy, fun and love, female beauty, fertility and the hearth, which was depicted as a cat or a woman with a cat's head. In the period of the early dynasties, before the domestication of the cat, it was depicted as a lioness.

Goddess Sekhmet

Sekhmet (Sokhmet) - the patron goddess of Memphis, the wife of Ptah. The goddess of war and the scorching sun, the formidable eye of the sun god Ra, a healer who had the magical power to spread diseases and heal them, patronized doctors who were considered her priests. Protected the pharaoh.

Goddess Neith

Nate - Egyptian goddess of hunting and war, patroness of Sais in the Western Delta. Perhaps Neith corresponds to the Carthaginian and Berber goddess Tanit. The cult of Neith was also widespread among the Libyans. Her hieroglyph was one of the signs of their tattoo. Sebek's mother.

God Sebek

Sebek (Sobek, Sobk, Sokhet, Sobki, Soknopais, in Greek Sukhos (Greek Σοῦχος)) - the ancient Egyptian god of water and the flood of the Nile, depicted with the head of a crocodile; it is believed that he scares away the forces of darkness and is the protector of gods and people. Sebek was the patron saint of crocodiles.

God Thoth

That (otherwise Teut, Tut, Tuut, Tout, Tehuti, other Greek Θώθ, Θόουτ from Egyptian ḏḥwty, possibly pronounced ḏiḥautī) - the ancient Egyptian god of wisdom and knowledge.

Goddess Maat

Maat (Ammaat) - the ancient Egyptian goddess personifying truth, justice, universal harmony, divine establishment and ethical norm.

Goddess Isis seated on a throne, bas-relief on the sarcophagus of Ramesses II

About Egyptian mythology

Sources for studying the mythology of Ancient Egypt are characterized by incompleteness and unsystematic presentation. The character and origin of many myths are reconstructed on the basis of later texts. The main monuments that reflected the mythological ideas of the Egyptians are a variety of religious texts: hymns and prayers to the gods, records of funeral rites on the walls of the tombs. The most significant of them are the "Pyramid Texts" - the oldest texts of royal funeral rituals carved on the walls of the interior of the pyramids of the pharaohs of the V and VI dynasties of the Old Kingdom (XXVI - XXIII centuries BC); "Texts of the sarcophagi", preserved on the sarcophagi of the Middle Kingdom (XXI - XVIII centuries BC), "The Book of the Dead" - compiled from the period of the New Kingdom to the end of the history of Egypt.

Egyptian mythology began to take shape in the 6th - 4th millennium BC, long before the emergence of a class society. Each region (nome) develops its own pantheon and the cult of gods embodied in heavenly bodies, stones, trees, birds, snakes, etc.

The significance of Egyptian myths is invaluable, they provide valuable material for a comparative study of religious ideas in the Ancient East, and for the study of the ideology of the Greco-Roman world, and for the history of the emergence and development of Christianity.

Cosmogonic myths

Judging by the data of archeology, in the most ancient period of Egyptian history there were no cosmic gods to whom the creation of the world was attributed. Scholars believe that the first version of this myth originated shortly before the unification of Egypt. According to this version, the sun was born from the union of earth and sky. This personification is undoubtedly older than the cosmogonic ideas of priests from large religious centers. As usual, the already existing myth was not abandoned, and the images of Geb (the earth god) and Nut (the sky goddess) as the parents of the sun god Ra have been preserved in religion throughout ancient history. Nut brings forth the sun every morning and hides it every night in her womb.

Ancient temple on the banks of the Nile

Theological systems that offered a different version of the creation of the world probably arose at the same time in several of the largest cult centers: Heliopolis, Hermopolis and Memphis. Each of these centers declared the creator of the world to be its main god, who, in turn, was the father of other gods who united around him.
Common to all cosmogonic concepts was the idea that the creation of the world was preceded by the chaos of water, immersed in eternal darkness. The beginning of the exit from chaos was associated with the emergence of light, the embodiment of which was the sun. The notion of an expanse of water from which a small hill initially emerges is closely related to Egyptian realities: it almost exactly corresponds to the annual flood of the Nile, the muddy waters of which covered the entire valley, and then, retreating, gradually opened up land ready for plowing. In this sense, the act of creation of the world, as it were, was repeated annually.

Egyptian myths about the beginning of the world do not represent a single, integral story. Often the same mythological events are depicted in different ways, and the gods in them appear in different guises. It is curious that with the multitude of cosmogonic plots explaining the creation of the world, very little space is given to the creation of man. It seemed to the ancient Egyptians that the gods created the world for people. In the written literary heritage of Egypt, there are very few direct indications of the creation of the human race, such indications are an exception. In the main, the Egyptians limited themselves to the belief that man owes his existence to the gods, who expect gratitude from him for this, understood very simply: a person must worship the gods, build and maintain temples, and regularly make sacrifices.

Atum with double crown

The priests of Heliopolis created their own version of the origin of the world, declaring it to be the creator of the sun god Ra, identified with other gods - the creators of Atum and Khepri (“Atum” means “Perfect”, the name “Khepri” can be translated as “He who arises” or “He who who brings it into being." Atum was usually depicted as a man, Khepri as a scarab, which means that his cult dates back to the time when the gods were given the form of animals. Curiously, Khepri never had a place of worship of its own. As the personification of the rising sun, he was identical with Atum - the setting sun and Ra - the shining day. The appearance of a scarab attached to it was associated with the belief that this beetle is able to reproduce on its own, hence its divine creative power. And the sight of a scarab pushing its ball suggested to the Egyptians the image of a god rolling the sun across the sky.

The myth of the creation of the world by Atum, Ra and Khepri is recorded in the Pyramid Texts, and by the time its text was first carved in stone, it probably existed for a long time and was widely known.

Statue of Ramses II at the Temple of Ptah in Memphis

According to the Pyramid Texts, Ra - Atum - Khepri created himself, emerging from the chaos called Nun. Nun, or the First Ocean, was usually depicted as a boundless pre-eternal body of water. Atum, emerging from it, did not find a place where he could hold on. Therefore, he created Ben-ben hill in the first place. Standing on this island of solid ground, Ra-Atum-Khepri began to create other cosmic gods. Since he was alone, he had to give birth to the first pair of gods himself. From the union of this first pair, other gods were born, thus, according to the Heliopolitan myth, the earth and the deities ruling it appeared. In the ongoing act of creation from the first pair of gods - Shu (Air) and Tefnut (Moisture) - Geb (Earth) and Nut (Sky) were born. They in turn gave birth to two gods and two goddesses: Osiris, Set, Isis and Nephthys. Thus arose the Great Nine gods - the Heliopolis Ennead. This version of the creation of the world was not the only one in Egyptian mythology. According to one of the legends, the creator of people was, for example, a potter - the god Khnum, who appeared in the form of a ram - who fashioned them from clay.

Memphis today

The theologians of Memphis, the largest political and religious center of Ancient Egypt, one of its capitals, included in their myth of the creation of the world many gods belonging to different religious centers, and subordinated them to Ptah as the creator of everything. The Memphis version of cosmogony is much more abstract compared to the Heliopolis version: the world and the gods were created not with the help of a physical act - as in the process of creation by Atum - but exclusively by thought and word.
Sometimes the vault of heaven was presented in the form of a cow with a body covered with stars, but there were also ideas according to which the sky is a water surface, the celestial Nile, along which the sun flows around the earth during the day. Under the ground there is also the Nile, along it the sun, having descended beyond the horizon, floats at night. The Nile, flowing through the earth, was personified in the image of the god Hapi, who contributed to the harvest with his fertile spills. The Nile itself was also inhabited by good and evil deities in the form of animals: crocodiles, hippos, frogs, scorpions, snakes, etc. The fertility of the fields was in charge of the goddess - the mistress of the bins and barns Renenutet, revered in the form of a snake that appears on the field during the harvest, careful harvesting. The grape harvest depended on the vine god Shai.

Anubis in the form of a dog. Figurine from the tomb of Tutankhamen

Anubis with a mummy. Painting on the wall of the tomb of Sennedjem

Mortuary cult myths

An important role in Egyptian mythology was played by ideas about the afterlife as a direct continuation of the earthly one, but only in the grave. Its necessary conditions are the preservation of the body of the deceased (hence the custom to mummify corpses), the provision of housing for him (tombs), food (commemorative gifts and sacrifices brought alive). Later, ideas arise that the dead (that is, their ba, soul) go out into the sunlight during the day, fly up to heaven to the gods, wander through the underworld (duat). The essence of a person was conceived in the inseparable unity of his body, souls (it was believed that there were several of them: ka, ba; the Russian word “soul”, however, is not an exact match of the Egyptian concept), name, shadow. All sorts of monsters lie in wait for the soul wandering through the underworld, and you can escape from them with the help of special spells and prayers. Over the deceased, Osiris, together with other gods, administers the afterlife judgment (the 125th chapter of the Book of the Dead is specially dedicated to him). Before the face of Osiris, psychostasia occurs: the weighing of the heart of the deceased on the scales, balanced by the truth (the image of the goddess Maat or her symbols). The sinner was devoured by the terrible monster Amt (a lion with the head of a crocodile), the righteous came to life for a happy life in the fields of Iaru. Justified at the court of Osiris could only be humble and patient in earthly life, one that did not steal, did not encroach on temple property, did not rebel, did not speak evil against the king, etc., as well as “pure in heart” (“I am pure , pure, pure," the deceased claims at the trial).

Goddess Isis with wings

Agricultural myths

The third main cycle of myths of Ancient Egypt is connected with Osiris. The cult of Osiris is associated with the spread of agriculture in Egypt. He is the god of the productive forces of nature (in the "Book of the Dead" he is called grain, in the "Pyramid Texts" - the god of the vine), withering and resurrecting vegetation. So, sowing was considered the funeral of grain - Osiris, the emergence of seedlings was perceived as his rebirth, and the cutting of ears during the harvest - as the killing of a god. These functions of Osiris were reflected in the extremely common legend describing his death and rebirth. Osiris, who happily reigned in Egypt, was treacherously killed by his younger brother, the evil Seth. The sisters of Osiris, Isis (at the same time being his wife) and Nephthys, look for the body of the murdered man for a long time, and when they find it, they mourn. Isis conceives from the dead husband of the son of Horus. Having matured, Horus enters the fight against Set, at the court of the gods, with the help of Isis, he achieves recognition of himself as the only eligible heir of Osiris. Having defeated Set, Horus resurrects his father. However, Osiris, not wanting to remain on earth, becomes the king of the underworld and the supreme judge over the dead. The throne of Osiris on earth passes to Horus. In another version of the myth, the resurrection of Osiris is associated with the annual floods of the Nile, which are explained by the fact that Isis, mourning Osiris, after the "night of tears" fills the river with her tears.

God Osiris. Painting of the tomb of Sennedzhem, XIII century BC

The myths associated with Osiris are reflected in numerous rituals. At the end of the last winter month "hoyak" - the beginning of the first month of spring "tibi", the mysteries of Osiris were performed, during which the main episodes of the myth about him were reproduced in dramatic form. The priestesses in the images of Isis and Nephthys depicted the search, mourning and burial of the god. Then there was a "great fight" between Horus and Seth. The drama ended with the erection of the “djed” pillar dedicated to Osiris, symbolizing the rebirth of God and, indirectly, of all nature. In the pre-dynastic period, the festival ended with a struggle between two groups of participants in the mysteries: one of them represented summer, and the other winter. Summer has always won (the resurrection of nature). After the unification of the country under the rule of the rulers of Upper Egypt, the nature of the mysteries changes. Now two groups are fighting, one of which is in the clothes of upper Egypt, and the other of Lower. The victory, of course, remains with the group symbolizing Upper Egypt. During the days of the mysteries of Osiris, the dramatized rites of the coronation of the pharaohs also celebrated. During the mystery, the young pharaoh acted as Horus, the son of Isis, and the deceased king was portrayed as Osiris sitting on the throne.

God Osiris. Painting, 8th century BC

The character of Osiris as the god of vegetation was reflected in another cycle of rites. In a special room of the temple, a likeness of the figure of Osiris made of clay was erected, which was sown with grain. By the feast of Osiris, his image was covered with green shoots, which symbolized the rebirth of the god. In the drawings, the mummy of Osiris is often found with shoots sprouting from it, which are watered by the priest.

The idea of ​​Osiris as a god of fertility was also transferred to the pharaoh, who was considered the magical focus of the country's fertility and therefore participated in all the main agricultural rites: with the onset of the rise of the Nile, he threw a scroll into the river - a decree that the beginning of the spill had come; the first solemnly began preparing the soil for sowing; he cut the first sheaf at the harvest festival, for the whole country he made a thanksgiving sacrifice to the goddess of the harvest Renenutet and the statues of the dead pharaohs after the end of the field work.

Bastet cat

A bright trace in Egyptian mythology was left by the cult of animals, widespread in all periods of Egyptian history. Gods in the form of animals, with the heads of birds and beasts, scorpion gods, serpent gods act in Egyptian myths along with deities in human form. The more powerful the god was considered, the more cult animals were attributed to him, in the guise of which he could appear before people.

The Egyptian myths reflect the peculiarities of the worldview of the inhabitants of the Nile Valley, their ideas about the origin of the world and its structure, which have developed over thousands of years and have their roots in primitive times. Here are attempts to find the origins of being in the biological act of the creation of the gods, the search for the original substance, personified by divine couples - the embryo of later teachings about the primary elements of the world, and, finally, as one of the highest achievements of Egyptian theological thought - the desire to explain the origin of the world, people and all culture as a result of the creative power embodied in the word of God.

Any religion or just belief appears when a person cannot explain many life events or natural phenomena that he does not understand. Today, science can interpret, if not everything, then a lot. IN Ancient Egypt for clarification, people turned to the gods through their servants on earth - the priests. The latter stood guard over the power of the kings. But it is not worth condemning the ancient Egyptians for this - their faith was subject to the realities of life.

What did the gods of Ancient Egypt grow out of?

Religion has been inherent in the social life of society since primitive times. Prehistoric people were just beginning to live in communities, but even then the first beliefs arose, called by some scientists proto-religion. It existed in the form of animism (the soul is an impersonal principle), totemism (the mystical connection of man with animals), fetishism (an object becomes a mystical power) or magic (all three of the above).

At different times, these beliefs were also inherent in the peoples of Ancient Egypt. From totemism later came the so-called local deities. They existed for millennia and disappeared with the development of the Egyptian religion - a system of beliefs and rituals.

The very first deities in these Egyptian lands of northeast Africa, in the representation of the Egyptians, looked like birds and animals. They believed in them, because then the main occupation was hunting. When the importance of hunting decreased and they began to intensively engage in agriculture and fishing in the Nile, the heads of some representatives of the fauna that were found there were still “attached” to the human body of the gods.

"Quid prodest" - who benefits from it?

The deities were fruitful for a reason. Who needed the ancient Egyptian pyramids, for the construction of which artisans and farmers, as well as slaves, broke away from their businesses and families for many years? Pharaohs! As evidence of the power of royal power, that is, the structure that dominates class society. The people eked out a miserable existence and worshiped unknown idols.

And this power needed to be constantly maintained not only by brute force, but also “spiritually”. The people were constantly convinced that the power was created by the gods forever. And they need to obey both the pharaohs and the common people. This was done by the priests-loafers. Therefore, the Egyptians silently waited for improvements from the gods - from pharaoh to pharaoh. From kingdom to kingdom.

Ancient pantheon of northeast Africa

Consider what the gods of Ancient Egypt were, their pictures and names, which of them are the main ones, and who are simpler. Their pantheon is very extensive. There were about one hundred and twenty deities. Of these, local (separate cities, relatively small territories), according to various estimates, twenty-five. Some of the local gods in different eras of the development of the ancient Egyptian kingdom passed into the rank of national gods, for example, goddesses Amaunet, Amentet, Maat, god Beh (Buhis). There were also so-called minor gods in general. For example, Duamutef is an astral deity.

In the named list there is also such a category of gods and goddesses when there is no image of them or at least a brief description. For example, the god or goddess Anejdti, Bata, Bennu, Mafdet, Nebej and others. They are waiting for their explorers.

There were other transitions of the gods from category to category. Belief in the famous god Amon originated in the Old Kingdom, when the centralization of the ancient Egyptian state took place. In the Middle Kingdom, he turns into a local deity, in the New he becomes a national god (18th century BC). At the beginning of our era, he was demoted in the “position” by the gods, who by that time had become general Egyptian: “husband” and “wife” Osiris and Isis.

Using the example of the god Amon, we will show how not only preferences for deities changed, but also their appearance on stone and in papyri. They are found in the largest quantities on rock paintings, on the sarcophagi of the tombs of many pharaohs and priests. At first, Amon was depicted on them as a man with the head of a frog; in two other kingdoms, the disk of the Sun already flaunted on his head.

How the gods competed

The same natural phenomena were personified by different gods of Ancient Egypt, their pictures and names differed, and what they mean. Consider the example of the sun gods.

The main in the hypostasis of the solar gods (mythologization of the luminary) in ancient Egypt were named Amon, Ra and Aten. Between them, or other deities, there was, as they say now, fierce competition for the minds of the Egyptians. It was developed, of course, by people, not mythological creatures.

The Aton was portrayed in a non-traditional religious way at the time - not as a man with someone's head or an animal with a human head. This was the only ancient artistic exception in depictions of the divine pantheon. Aten is a drawing of the solar disk with rays, as modern kids like to depict it. He flourished during the reign of the pharaoh Akhenaten. The pharaoh in Ancient Egypt was considered the conductor of the idea of ​​God on earth. Therefore, the name of God was added to the names of such kings.

Akhenaten recognized the role of only one god Aten, under him the cult of dozens of famous gods was stopped. When Akhenaten was replaced in his post by the boy-pharaoh Tutankh, he immediately returned polytheism. In protest, Akhenaten added Amon to his name. Now the whole modern world knows this pharaoh named Tutankhamen.

He paid for the fact that the solar disk was also depicted on the falcon head of this deity. God accompanied any ruling dynasty of pharaoh-kings in Thebes.

Displaced from the pantheon by the god Aten.

The solar deity was Atum. He also had a complex "relationship" with the god Ra from the solar pantheon. Atum moved from local gods to common Egyptian ones. But soon (at that time) Ra supplanted him. All the solar gods of Ancient Egypt went the same way. But it was not the gods who competed with each other, but the people in power, as it is said about Akhenaten, and the religious figures (priests) helped the ascent of the gods and their fall.

At this time, the sun god Ra became the main one, whom the ancient Egyptians endowed with the ability to create the earth, people, animals and birds, plants. Does Ra close her eyes? So it's dark and night.

Special gods

Let's name the gods that can be translated into separate groups of the pantheon. For example, the Nile River, which is just right to be called the god of fertility and a well-fed life of the Egyptians. The sun has become a god! The Nile is the nurse and drinker of the Egyptians. If today the question arose of recognizing the Nile as a god, then a prefix would be added to it - “honorable” and would be extolled as a god.

Probably, this opinion would be supported by the believers of another ten countries of the African continent, through which an uncontrolled river flows from south to north.

In ancient Egypt, the Nile flooded the earth with fertile silt. This turned the sands in the valleys closest to the river into fertile fields. But often in July, the Nile flooded and flooded the crops, dooming the people to starvation. Therefore, for the river, the ancient Egyptians invented a god - Hapi to help them. Hapi is depicted as a man with a female bust, which symbolized fertility.

Strengthen it and other gods: Sebek- the god of rivers and lakes, as well as the god of vegetation Osiris. The first was depicted in the guise of a crocodile or a man with the head of this aquatic animal.

But the cruel god demanded abundant and regular sacrifices. The god Hapi failed to tame the Nile until his disappearance from the firmament with the introduction of Christianity.

Sebek - God of rivers and lakes.

Osiris also leads a group of twelve gods in the so-called funerary cult of the ancient Egyptians. Five of them are his companions in the underworld. What is this god? In mythology, he is killed by an envious relative. The goddess Isis, almost like an experienced surgeon, collects Osiris in parts scattered throughout Egypt and buries. In the afterlife, he resurrected and became a judge there. Other gods of the cult include Aker, Amentet, Geb and others.

pharaoh plus god

Over time, the priests formed and spread in society the postulate that the pharaohs are descended from the gods. After all, the mythical deities had the same fictional families, relatives. And it’s not for nothing that they did it in advance. Already in the Early Kingdom, the pharaoh was perceived as the incarnation of the god Horus, and the human image and its properties were transferred to the deities. Remember the Russian folk tale about Baba Yaga. She is as anthropomorphic as the ancient Egyptian gods. The pharaohs allegedly received magical abilities, and the commoner could not approach him.