The document provides an overview of ancient Egyptian religion and mythology. It discusses how the Egyptians viewed their pantheon of gods and goddesses, many of whom were associated with nature. Key deities mentioned include Ra, the sun god; Osiris, god of the underworld; Isis, his wife; and Horus, their son who battled the god Set. The document also describes some of the myths and stories surrounding these figures that were important to Egyptian religious beliefs.

2. The Journey To Eternity!
Ancient Egyptian Religion
Mythology In Art & Literature
Professor Will Adams
Valencia College

3. Ancient Egypt: Gift of the Nile
§ The ancient Egyptians inhabited the
fertile valley of the Nile.
§ The river's annual flood deposited a
fresh layer of silt, renewing the
fertility of the soil & ensuring that,
for the most part, the country was
prosperous & the population
sufficiently fed.
§ For much of the year, most people
would be involved in agricultural
labor of some kind, but during the
Inundation (July – October) the
workforce was used by the state
for building & other major projects
such as "rehabilitation" of the land
following the flood.

4. Ancient Egyptian Religion

5. Ancient Egyptian Religion
§ Man's first gods were the forces of nature.
§ Terrifying and unpredictable, they were feared
rather than revered by our ancestors.
§ Yet while much of the world was in darkness,
worshipping cruel incarnations of natural forces, a
river valley in Africa held a people who followed a
different path.
§ They worshipped gods that were beautiful to
behold, luminous beings that walked the earth,
guiding the human race to Paradise.

6. Ancient Egyptian Religion
§ They had human forms but were much more powerful; yet
like humans, they got angry, despaired, fought with one
another, had children, and fell in love.
§ They lived lives that were very much like those of the
people who worshipped them, the ancient Egyptians.
§ They were gods to be feared yes, as all gods are, but they
were also gods to be loved.
§ What's more, the Egyptians enjoyed talking about the
gods.
§ Like the gods of the Greeks and Romans, the Egyptian
gods seemed to be made for storytelling.

7. Ancient Egyptian Religion
§ There were tales to educate, tales to entertain, and
tales with morals, and in those stories, the gods didn't
seem so far away and unreachable.
§ It was comforting to hear that the gods also wept for
those they had lost, to hear about the gods laughing,
to learn that the gods faced many of the same
problems that the people did, albeit on a grander
scale.
§ In learning about the gods on such an intimate level,
the Egyptians could better relate to the universe
around them.

8. Ancient Egyptian Religion
§ The ancient Egyptians practiced a belief system that
was part totemism, part polytheism, and part
ancestor worship.
§ There were numerous gods, but rather than living on
an isolated mountain or in an unreachable heaven,
many of them lived invisibly in the mortal world,
acting through sacred sites, items, animals, or even
chosen people.
§ Furthermore, the spirits of the deceased, if
remembered and honored, could aid and guide the
living from the Afterlife.

9. The Ancient Egyptian Pantheon

10. The Ancient Egyptian Pantheon!
Ra
§ Ra was the patron god of the sun,
creation, and was the ruler of the
gods.
§ In the creation myths, Ra is the
primal creator.
§ He created himself (or arose out of
nothing) and created the first
gods, Shu and Tefnut, from his
spittle.
§ Ra was revered not only as the
father of the gods but also as the
father of the pharaohs.
§ The title "Son of Ra" was included
in the many titles of the king.

11. The Ancient Egyptian Pantheon!
Shu
§ Shu is the Patron god of cool
dry air.
§ Shu, along with his sister
Tefnut, were the first deities to
be created by Ra.
§ He is the lord of cool air and the
upper sky.
§ He was believed to be the one
responsible, like Atlas, for
holding up the firmament and
separating it from the earth.
§ In his capacity as the lord of air,
he is also the creator of the
wind.

12. The Ancient Egyptian Pantheon!
Tefnut
§ Tefnut was patron goddess
of moist, warm air.
§ Tefnut, along with her brother
Shu, was the first deity created
by Ra in the beginning.
§ She was the goddess of
moisture (remember that even
in ancient times, very little rain
fell in Egypt) and of the warm
moist air near the Nile.
§ At one time she argued with her
father and left Egypt for Nubia.
§ Only Thoth could persuade her
to return.

13. The Ancient Egyptian Pantheon!
Geb & Nut
§ After Ra, the four deities (Shu,
Tefnut, Geb, and Nut)
established the Cosmos.
§ Geb was the God of earth, the
earth formed his body and was
called the “House of Geb”, just
as the air was called the “House
of Shu”.
§ Nut was the ancient sky-
goddess.
§ Nut protected the world from
the darkness outside it and all
the demonic creatures that
dwelt in that darkness.

14. The Ancient Egyptian Pantheon!
Osiris
§ Osiris was patron of the Underworld, the
dead, and past Pharaohs.
§ He appears as a green-skinned man in the
form of a mummified pharaoh.
§ He was the husband of Isis and the father
of Horus.
§ Osiris resided in the underworld as the
lord of the dead, as after being killed
by Set, even though he was a god, he could
no longer dwell in the land of the living.
§ In the underworld, Osiris sits on a great
throne, where he is praised by the souls of
the just.
§ All those who pass the tests of the
underworld become worthy to enter The
Blessed Land, that part of the underworld
that is like the land of the living, but
without sorrow or pain.

15. The Ancient Egyptian Pantheon!
Set
§ Set was patron god of winds,
storms, chaos, evil, & darkness.
§ He was a man with the head of a
jackal-like animal.
§ In the Legend of Osiris, Set kills
Osiris and scatters his body in the
Nile, then claims the throne of
the gods for his own.
§ He is later struck down by Horus,
the son of Osiris, who restores
order to the world.
§ Set and Horus continue to battle
for control of the world, setting
up an epic conflict of good versus
evil.

16. The Ancient Egyptian Pantheon!
Isis
§ Isis was patron goddess of
sexuality, birth, and magic.
§ She was the greatest
Egyptian goddess, wife of
Osiris, mother of Horus,
sister of Osiris, Set, and
Nephthys, and daughter of
Geb and Nut
§ She searched for her
husband's body, retrieved
and reassembled Osiris,
taking on the role of goddess
of the dead.

17. The Ancient Egyptian Pantheon!
Nephthys
§ Nephthys was the protective
goddess of the dead.
§ She rode the “night boat” of
the underworld, meeting the
deceased king's spirit and
accompanied them into
“Lightland.”
§ Nephthys had connections
with life as well as death --
she stood at the head of the
birth-bed to comfort and
assist the mother giving
birth

18. The Ancient Egyptian Pantheon!
Horus
§ Horus was the patron god
of the sky, and the
pharaohs.
§ He was Isis’ son, and battled
his evil uncle Set in order to
help his mother magically
resurrect his father.
§ He is traditionally depicted
as having the body of a man
and the head of a falcon or
other bird of prey.

19. The Ancient Egyptian Pantheon!
Anubis
§ Anubis was the funerary god of
embalming & mummification.
§ Anubis is referred to as the child
of Nephthys and Set or Osiris.
§ Anubis' mother Nephthys
exposed her son.
§ Instead of dying, he was found
by Isis, who then raised him;
Anubis became the attendant of
Isis.
§ He is depicted as a jackal-
headed man.

20. The Ancient Egyptian Pantheon!
Bastet
§ Bastet was the goddess of fire, cats,
of the home and pregnant women.
§ The goddess Bastet was usually
represented as a woman with the
head of a domesticated cat.
§ Bastet seemed to have two sides to
her personality, docile and
aggressive.
§ Her docile and gentle side was
displayed in her duties as a protector
of the home, and pregnant women.
§ Her aggressive and vicious nature
was exposed in the accounts of
battles in which the pharaoh was said
to have slaughtered the enemy as
Bastet slaughtered her victims.

21. The Ancient Egyptian Pantheon!
Hathor
§ Hathor was the cow-eared patron
goddess of the sky, the sun, the
queen, music, dance & the arts.
§ Music and dance were part of the
worship of Hathor like no other
deity in Egypt.
§ Hathor herself was the incarnation
of dance, and stories were told of
how Hathor danced
before Ra when he was in despair
to cheer him up.
§ Inspiration was also Hathor's
bailiwick, and many would come to
the temples of Hathor to have their
dreams explained or to beseech her
for her aid in creation.

22. The Ancient Egyptian Pantheon!
Khepri
§ Khepri was the one of the class of
Egyptian gods associated with a
particular animal.
§ Khepri was the sacred scarab.
§ The scarab is a type of dung beetle
common throughout Egypt.
§ The scarab's habit of laying eggs in
animal dung as well as the bodies
of dead scarabs was noticed by the
Egyptians.
§ The subsequent hatching of the
eggs from this seemingly
unpromising material lead to the
Egyptians associating the scarab
with renewal, rebirth and
resurrection.

23. The Ancient Egyptian Pantheon!
Khnum
§ Khnum was depicted as a ram.
§ He was the Egyptian water god
and the potter god of creation.
§ It was believed that he created
the first children on his potter's
wheel with clay from the banks of
the Nile.
§ Khnum also protected the sun (in
the form of the god Ra) on its
daily journey through the
underworld.
§ Every night they sailed together
in the solar barque until the sun
safely rose again at the dawn of
the new day.

24. The Ancient Egyptian Pantheon!
Ma’at
§ Ma'at was the goddess of truth,
balance, & order.
§ Ma'at, unlike Hathor and Nephthys,
seemed to be more of a concept
than an actual goddess.
§ Her name, literally, meant “truth”
in Egyptian.
§ She was truth, order, balance and
justice personified.
§ She was harmony, she was what
was right, she was what things
should be.
§ It was thought that if Ma'at didn't
exist, the universe would become
chaos, once again

25. The Ancient Egyptian Pantheon!
Nekhbet
§ Nekhbet was the Egyptian
goddess of vultures.
§ In ancient times she was a
protector of the pharaohs if
they proved themselves
strong enough.
§ Overtime she can to represent
the white crown of Upper
Egypt and a protector of the
pharaoh.
§ She was often paired with the
snake-goddess Wadjet who
represented Lower Egypt.

26. The Ancient Egyptian Pantheon!
Wadjet
§ Wadjet was the cobra goddess of
Lower Egypt.
§ She was often depicted as a cobra
twined around a papyrus stem.
§ Wadjet was nurse to the infant god
Horus and helped Isis, his mother,
protect him from his treacherous
uncle, Set.
§ Wadjet and Nekhbet were the
protective goddesses of the king and
were sometimes represented
together on the king’s diadem,
symbolizing his reign over all of
Egypt.
§ The form of the rearing cobra on a
crown is termed the uraeus.

27. The Ancient Egyptian Pantheon!
Sekhmet
§ In Egyptian
mythology, Sekhmet was
originally the lioness-headed
warrior goddess, as well as
goddess of healing for Upper
Egypt.
§ She is depicted as a lioness, the
fiercest hunter known to the
Egyptians.
§ It was said that her breath
created the desert.
§ She was seen as the protector
of the pharaohs and led them in
warfare.

28. The Ancient Egyptian Pantheon!
Sobek
§ Sobek was depicted as a crocodile.
§ He was the Egyptian god of the Nile
which was believed to have been
created from his sweat.
§ As Sobek possessed the strength
and nature of a crocodile, which the
Egyptians both feared and
respected, he became a symbol of
the Pharaoh's power.
§ The Nile, which was full of
crocodiles, was important to the
livelihood of the Egyptians.
§ It therefore made good sense to
have a god like Sobek who could
appease these ferocious beasts.

29. The Ancient Egyptian Pantheon!
Taweret
§ Taweret was an ancient
Egyptian patron of childbirth
and a protector of women and
children.
§ Like Bastet, she was
considered to be a ferocious
demon as well as a protective
and nurturing deity.
§ She was associated with the
lion, the crocodile, and the
hippo; all animals which were
feared by the Egyptians but
also highly respected.

30. The Ancient Egyptian Pantheon!
Thoth
§ Thoth was depicted as an ibis.
§ Thoth was the Egyptian god of
wisdom, writing, numbers, the
arts, astronomy and magic.
§ He was also a god of the
underworld, in charge of the
scales in the Hall of Judgment.
§ Thoth used the scales to weigh the
heart of the deceased against the
feather of truth to determine if
they were worthy to enter the
afterlife.
§ As the scribe of the gods, Thoth
recorded the result of each
judgment.

31. The Ancient Egyptian Pantheon
§ Next we will explore how
the religion of the ancient
Egyptians affected their
lives and their cultural
development.
§ But most importantly, we
will try to understand a
people through what they
believed and in doing so,
give them that which they
sought most: immortality.