The Ancient Egyptian
Religion
What was the basis for all life for the
Egyptians?
The Egyptians told many stories about
the creation of the world. Most of them start by imagining a time when there
was nothing but the Waters of Chaos. In some stories the first thing to emerge
from the water is a blue lotus whose petals hide the infant sun god. Others
start with the Primeval Mound, the first dry land, rising above the waters. To
the mound comes a phoenix or hawk or goose called the Great Cackler who lays
the world egg.
Egyptian gods and goddesses (deities)
were all forms of the Creator but they took on identities of their own. Some
had special areas of interest: Thoth was a god of wisdom and writing, and
Hathor a goddess of love and death.
STRANGE AND SACRED
CREATURES
The deities were often shown in
human form wearing distinctive headdresses and carrying sacred symbols. Some
deities had several forms. The god Sobek could appear as a crocodile or, as a
man with the head of a crocodile.
The goddess Hathor
might be shown as a beautiful woman, as the head of a woman with cow's ears,
or as a cow or cow-headed woman.
The sun god had
numerous forms, some of them worshipped as separate gods. The rising sun was
Khepri, shown as a scarab-beetle
, the noonday sun was Horus, the hawk
god, and the setting sun was Atum, shown as a ram-headed man.
Late in Egyptian history the cult of sacred animals
became very important. Creatures such as the ibises sacred to Thoth or the
crocodiles sacred to Sobek lived in temples and were given elaborate burials
when they died.
EGYPTIAN TEMPLES: PALACES OF THE
GODS
A temple was the palace of the deity
who lived in the cult statue. The statue was hidden inside a shrine or
sanctuary, the holiest part of the temple. Every morning the chief priest
entered the sanctuary and opened the shrine. Many rituals were performed,
including clothing and perfuming the statue and presenting a meal. In return
for these offerings the gods were asked to keep Egypt safe and prosperous.
Ordinary people could not watch the daily ritual but
they did join in festivals. At these festivles, divine statues were carried
outside the temple so the gods might "speak" to the people. Some temples were
centers of learning, artists and craftsmen made a wide range of goods in
temple workshops.
The major temples were
state-controlled so the goods were distributed by the government. Kings gave
estates, ships and slaves to support temples. In the 12th century BC the
temple of Amon at Karnak had over 100,000 people working for it.
This is a link that will take you to a page titled
Ancient
Egyptian Gods. On the page is a list of the ancient gods and what
there purpose was.