Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt
Most of the gods of Ancient Egypt were related to nature. Interestingly, the lives of the gods mimicked the lives of their human followers. For example, Osiris who was king of the underworld had a son, Horus, and many tales focused on the relationship between father and son (there are also stories about Horus and his mother, Isis, and Osiris and Isis). There were also many stories that explored the intricacies and steps that were necessary before Horus could inherit his father’s kingdom. The gods and their positions in the divine world also corresponded to their human counterparts on earth. For instance, the gods also had a king, Amun-Ra. This mirroring of social rank, royal protocol, and family interactions created the link between the gods and the Ancient pharaohs and between the gods and their human subjects that helped to further legitimize the pharaoh’s claim to the throne as the pharaoh was initially considered a god reincarnate, and later, a divine representative on earth.
As we have seen in many ancient cultures, the Ancient Egyptians used stories to explain and understand the world around them. The myths answered questions like, Who created the world? How did the gods appear? How did we get here? For the Ancient Egyptians, the god Atum created the air (Shu), and moisture (Tefnut), with his spit. Shu and Tefnut in turn created the earth and the sky which they separated thus creating the earth. Later, Shu and Tefnut created the gods Osiris and Isis. This is why Atum is known as the Creator god. He was later merged with the Sun god Re and this later becomes the new deity Re-Atum.
Among the gods, Osiris and Horus were among the two most important. Osiris not only represented the afterlife but was also associated with the Nile River. In mythology, Osiris was killed by his jealous brother Set who envied him. Why did Seth envy him you may ask? As Osiris was the oldest of the children begat by Geb (earth) and Nut (sky), he was made the King of the Earth. Seeing how brutish and uncivilized the Egyptians were, he gave them culture, religion, law, and agriculture. Under Osiris’ rule, Egypt flourished. The straw that broke the proverbial back was when Set’s wife Nephthys disguised herself as Isis and seduced Osiris, becoming pregnant with Anubis. In a rage, Set chopped up Osiris and scattered his remains in the Nile river. Heartbroken, Isis, collected all of Osiris’ body parts and with the help of Nephthys, puts him together again. Therefore, Osiris represented death and rebirth. This was an important motif to the Ancient Egyptians who interpreted the yearly flooding of the Nile river as its rebirth. For the Ancient Egyptians, the Nile was life itself. Not only was it a means of traveling and transporting but a source of water and the nutrient-rich mud which was deposited on the banks of the Nile each year after the yearly flood. The mud was responsible for the rich soil that guaranteed that Egypt had a steady source of crop yield each year (unlike their neighbors who often faced famine and food shortages).
In the Creation myth, the early beginning of mankind was pure chaos. Out of this disorder came harmony and this new, ordered world became the earth as the Ancient Egyptians knew it. In this world, the gods maintained the delicate balance of order which they presented to the king. The king in turn maintained this order by presenting Maat to the gods. Maat was a goddess who was born at the moment of creation itself. Her name translates as ‘that which is straight’ and gives us a good idea of how important she was to the harmony and balance of the world. Unlike the gods Osiris or Isis, Maat was considered more of a spiritual essence that imbued the very universe. In fact, she is considered to be part of the very foundation of creation, and therefore, the foundation of civilization and Egyptian society. She is often depicted wearing a white ostrich feather, known as the feather of truth. This feather is seen in the important ‘Weighing of the Heart’ ceremony (as seen on the right).
In death, if one’s heart was lighter than Maat’s feather, they were able to pass through into the afterlife. If one’s heart was found to be heavier than the feather of Maat, the beast Ammut would be waiting to devour your heart, in which case, you would cease to exist. In this way, a system of checks and balance was deeply rooted in Ancient Egyptian society where your actions on earth would eventually be taken into account after death.
