Egyptian Gods
It is hard to arrive at a consensus as to the total number of Egyptian gods, but they are believed to be about 2000. Each town or province had their own gods and goddesses and this was one reason for the profusion of deities. All gods had a counterpart of equal prominence and opposite gender. They were not single entities but rather family units with children. The male gods wore shorter garments and were depicted as if mid- stride, while the goddesses wore longer robes and stood with feet together. The garments were simple, usually white, but the elaborate crowns and headgear distinguished them from each other. They are shown as having the head of animals or birds that stood for some quality or trait. For instance the goddess of war, Sekhmet sported the head of a lioness to show courage and ferocity.
Atum image by Jeff Dahl
There being so many of them, no job was considered too small and no domain too insignificant; and so there were gods for digestion, feasting, dancing, writing, gardens, beasts, seas, and anything you could think of. The gods themselves engaged in day to day activities like eating, drinking, down to sowing and harvesting, which made it easy for the mortals to identify with them. Besides, the gods themselves exhibited weaknesses along with their divine powers.
Amun by Jeff Dahl
Atum was believed to be the first god that came into being from the mountain, Ben-ben that arose in the middle of chaos, known as Nun. He is supposed to have then created the other gods, Shu, the god of air and Tefnut the goddess of water. These two soon got busy and their offspring were Geb, the god of Earth and Nut, the goddess of the sky. Shu rushed in between the two and held Nut up and so now we literally have the earth and the sky separated by air. Shu didn’t move fast enough, for by then Nut and Geb had four of their own offspring, Osiris, Isis, Seth, and Nephthys. Osiris and Isis ruled over the earth and were supposed to be bountiful and well-loved.
Sibling rivalry soon cropped up and Seth killed Osiris to usurp the throne and Isis, with whom he had a son Horus. Now Horus soon figured out the family history and took revenge by killing Seth and seizing power. He is represented as having a hawk head and is supposed to be the protector of the Egyptian ruler. By association, the pharaoh was believed to be Horus re-incarnated.
One of the most powerful in the pantheon was Amun, the king of gods. This power increased by leaps and bounds when he joined forces with Ra, the sun god. He then became the awesome Amun-Ra. The sun god, Ra, had another form, Aten, which was that of a golden disc with rays emanating in the form of hands. The god with a jackal head was Anubis who was in charge of an all-important Egyptian ritual—that of embalming the dead.
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Hathor was worshipped in ancient Egypt as the winged cow of creation who held up the whole universe on her four feet. She was depicted as having cow’s horns with the sun in the middle. These days she would have to be called the goddess of multi-tasking for there was nothing she couldn’t do. She [...]