1.
Egyptian hieroglyphs
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Egyptian hieroglyphs were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt. It combined logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with a total of some 1,000 distinct characters, cursive hieroglyphs were used for religious literature on papyrus and wood. The later hieratic and demotic Egyptian scripts are derived from hieroglyphic writing, the writing system continued to be used throughout the Late Period, as well as the Persian and Ptolemaic periods. Late survivals of hieroglyphic use are found well into the Roman period, with the closing of pagan temples in the 5th century, knowledge of hieroglyphic writing was lost, and the script remained undeciphered throughout the medieval and early modern period. The decipherment of hieroglyphs would only be solved in the 1820s by Jean-François Champollion, the word hieroglyph comes from the Greek adjective ἱερογλυφικός, a compound of ἱερός and γλύφω, supposedly a calque of an Egyptian phrase mdw·w-nṯr gods words. The glyphs themselves were called τὰ ἱερογλυφικὰ γράμματα the sacred engraved letters, the word hieroglyph has become a noun in English, standing for an individual hieroglyphic character. As used in the sentence, the word hieroglyphic is an adjective. Hieroglyphs emerged from the artistic traditions of Egypt. For example, symbols on Gerzean pottery from c.4000 BC have been argued to resemble hieroglyphic writing, proto-hieroglyphic symbol systems develop in the second half of the 4th millennium BC, such as the clay labels of a Predynastic ruler called Scorpion I recovered at Abydos in 1998. The first full sentence written in hieroglyphs so far discovered was found on a seal found in the tomb of Seth-Peribsen at Umm el-Qaab. There are around 800 hieroglyphs dating back to the Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, by the Greco-Roman period, there are more than 5,000. However, given the lack of evidence, no definitive determination has been made as to the origin of hieroglyphics in ancient Egypt. Since the 1990s, and discoveries such as the Abydos glyphs, as writing developed and became more widespread among the Egyptian people, simplified glyph forms developed, resulting in the hieratic and demotic scripts. These variants were more suited than hieroglyphs for use on papyrus. Hieroglyphic writing was not, however, eclipsed, but existed alongside the other forms, especially in monumental, the Rosetta Stone contains three parallel scripts – hieroglyphic, demotic, and Greek. Hieroglyphs continued to be used under Persian rule, and after Alexander the Greats conquest of Egypt, during the ensuing Ptolemaic and Roman periods. It appears that the quality of comments from Greek and Roman writers about hieroglyphs came about, at least in part. Some believed that hieroglyphs may have functioned as a way to distinguish true Egyptians from some of the foreign conquerors, another reason may be the refusal to tackle a foreign culture on its own terms, which characterized Greco-Roman approaches to Egyptian culture generally
2.
Ancient Egyptian religion
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Ancient Egyptian religion was a complex system of polytheistic beliefs and rituals which were an integral part of ancient Egyptian society. It centered on the Egyptians interaction with many deities who were believed to be present in, and in control of, rituals such as prayers and offerings were efforts to provide for the gods and gain their favor. Formal religious practice centered on the pharaoh, the king of Egypt and he acted as the intermediary between his people and the gods and was obligated to sustain the gods through rituals and offerings so that they could maintain order in the universe. The state dedicated enormous resources to Egyptian rituals and to the construction of the temples, individuals could interact with the gods for their own purposes, appealing for their help through prayer or compelling them to act through magic. These practices were distinct from, but closely linked with, the formal rituals, the popular religious tradition grew more prominent in the course of Egyptian history as the status of the Pharaoh declined. Another important aspect was the belief in the afterlife and funerary practices, the Egyptians made great efforts to ensure the survival of their souls after death, providing tombs, grave goods, and offerings to preserve the bodies and spirits of the deceased. The religion had its roots in Egypts prehistory and lasted for more than 3,000 years, the details of religious belief changed over time as the importance of particular gods rose and declined, and their intricate relationships shifted. At various times, certain gods became preeminent over the others, including the sun god Ra, the creator god Amun, for a brief period, in the theology promulgated by the Pharaoh Akhenaten, a single god, the Aten, replaced the traditional pantheon. Ancient Egyptian religion and mythology left behind many writings and monuments, along with significant influences on ancient, the beliefs and rituals now referred to as ancient Egyptian religion were integral within every aspect of Egyptian culture. Their language possessed no single term corresponding to the modern European concept of religion, the characteristics of the gods who populated the divine realm were inextricably linked to the Egyptians understanding of the properties of the world in which they lived. The Egyptians believed that the phenomena of nature were divine forces in and these deified forces included the elements, animal characteristics, or abstract forces. The Egyptians believed in a pantheon of gods, which were involved in all aspects of nature and their religious practices were efforts to sustain and placate these phenomena and turn them to human advantage. This polytheistic system was complex, as some deities were believed to exist in many different manifestations. Conversely, many forces, such as the sun, were associated with multiple deities. The diverse pantheon ranged from gods with vital roles in the universe to minor deities or demons with very limited or localized functions. It could include gods adopted from foreign cultures, and sometimes humans, deceased Pharaohs were believed to be divine, and occasionally, distinguished commoners such as Imhotep also became deified. The depictions of the gods in art were not meant as representations of how the gods might appear if they were visible. Instead, these depictions gave recognizable forms to the deities by using symbolic imagery to indicate each gods role in nature
3.
Nehebkau
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In Egyptian mythology, Nehebkau was originally the explanation of the cause of binding of Ka and Ba after death. Thus his name, which brings together Ka. Since these aspects of the soul were said to bind after death, Nehebkau was said to have guarded the entrance to Duat, as a two-headed snake, he was viewed as fierce, being able to attack from two directions, and not having to fear as much confrontations. Consequently sometimes it was said that Atum, the god in these areas, had to keep his finger on him to prevent Nehebkau from getting out of control. Ka is also the Egyptian word for sustenance, and is associated with spirit
4.
Hermopolis
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Hermopolis was a major city in antiquity, located near the boundary between Lower and Upper Egypt. A provincial capital since the Old Kingdom period, Hermopolis developed into a city of Roman Egypt. It was abandoned after the Muslim invasion and its remains are located near the modern Egyptian town of El Ashmunein in Al Minya governorate. Khemenu, the Ancient Egyptian name of the city, means eight-town, after the Ogdoad, the name survived into Coptic as Ϣⲙⲟⲩⲛⲉⲓⲛ, from which the modern name, El Ashmunein, is derived. Thoth was associated in the way with the Semitic Eshmun. Inscriptions at the call the god The Lord of Eshmun. The city was the capital of the Hare nome in the Heptanomis, Hermopolis stood on the borders of Upper and Lower Egypt, and, for many ages, the Thebaïd or upper country extended much further to the north than in more recent periods. As the border town, Hermopolis was a place of resort and opulence. A little to south of the city was the castle of Hermopolis, the principal deities worshipped at Hermopolis were Typhôn and Thoth. Typhon was represented by a hippopotamus, on which sat a hawk fighting with a serpent, Thoth, whom the Ancient Greeks associated with Hermes because they were both gods of magic and writing, was represented by the Ibis. A surviving Oxyrhynchus Papyrus of the 3rd century AD indicates that buildings with seven stories existed in the town. The collection of Arabic papyri in the John Rylands Library, Manchester, contains many documents referring to Hermopolis, the city is still a titular diocese in the Roman Catholic Church, and in the Coptic Orthodox Church. The Ibis-headed god, was, with his accompanying emblems, the Ibis and the Cynocephalus or ape and his designation in inscriptions was The Lord of Eshmoon. The portico, the remnant of the temple, consists of a double row of pillars. The architraves are formed of five stones, each passes from the centre of one pillar to that of the next, the intercolumnation of the centre pillars is wider than that of the others, and the stone over the centre is twenty-five feet and six inches long. These columns were painted yellow, red, and blue in alternate bands, there is also a peculiarity in the pillars of the Hermopolitan portico peculiar to themselves, or, at least, discovered only again in the temple of Gournou. Instead of being formed of large masses placed horizontally above each other, they are composed of irregular pieces, the widest part of the intercolumnation is 17 feet, the other pillars are 13 feet apart. Currently there is a small museum in which stand two massive statues of Thoth as a baboon worshipping the sun, and a few carved blocks of masonry
5.
Thoth
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Thoth or Djehuti was one of the deities of the Egyptian pantheon. In art, he was depicted as a man with the head of an ibis or a baboon. His feminine counterpart was Seshat, and his wife was Maat, Thoths chief temple was located in the city of Khmun, later called Hermopolis Magna during the Greco-Roman era and Shmounein in the Coptic rendering, and was partially destroyed in 1826 CE. In that city, he led the Ogdoad pantheon of eight principal deities and he also had numerous shrines within the cities of Abydos, Hesert, Urit, Per-Ab, Rekhui, Ta-ur, Sep, Hat, Pselket, Talmsis, Antcha-Mutet, Bah, Amen-heri-ab, and Ta-kens. Thoth played many vital and prominent roles in Egyptian mythology, such as maintaining the universe, the final -y may even have been pronounced as a consonant, not a vowel. According to Theodor Hopfner, Thoths Egyptian name written as ḏḥwty originated from ḏḥw, the addition of -ty denotes that he possessed the attributes of the ibis. Hence his name means He who is like the ibis, Djehuty is sometimes alternatively rendered as Jehuti, Jehuty, Tahuti, Tehuti, Zehuti, Techu, or Tetu. Greek versions Thot, Thout and Thoth are derived from the letters ḏḥwty, not counting differences in spelling, Thoth had many names and titles, like other goddesses and gods. Among the names used are A, Sheps, Lord of Khemennu, Asten, Khenti, Mehi, Hab, in addition, Thoth was also known by specific aspects of himself, for instance the moon god Iah-Djehuty, representing the Moon for the entire month. The Greeks related Thoth to their god Hermes due to his similar attributes, One of Thoths titles, Thrice great was translated to the Greek τρισμέγιστος, making Hermes Trismegistus. Thoth has been depicted in many ways depending on the era, usually, he is depicted in his human form with the head of an ibis. In this form, he can be represented as the reckoner of times, when depicted as a form of Shu or Ankher, he was depicted to be wearing the respective gods headdress. Sometimes he was seen in art to be wearing the Atef crown or the United Crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt. When not depicted in this form, he sometimes takes the form of the ibis directly. He also appears as a baboon or a man with the head of a baboon when he is Aan. In the form of Aah-Djehuty he took a more human-looking form and these forms are all symbolic and are metaphors for Thoths attributes. The Egyptians did not believe these gods actually looked like humans with animal heads, for example, Maat is often depicted with an ostrich feather, the feather of truth, on her head, or with a feather for a head. Thoths roles in Egyptian mythology were many and he served as a mediating power, especially between good and evil, making sure neither had a decisive victory over the other
6.
Sistrum
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A sistrum is a musical instrument of the percussion family, chiefly associated with ancient Iraq and Egypt. It consists of a handle and a U-shaped metal frame, made of brass or bronze, when shaken the small rings or loops of thin metal on its movable crossbars produce a sound that can be from a soft clank to a loud jangling. Its name in the ancient Egyptian language was sekhem and sesheshet, sekhem is the simpler, hoop-like sistrum, while sesheshet is the naos-shaped one. The sistrum was an instrument in ancient Egypt. It was also shaken to avert the flooding of the Nile, isis in her role as mother and creator was depicted holding a pail symbolizing the flooding of the Nile, in one hand and a sistrum in the other. The goddess Bast too is often depicted holding a sistrum, symbolizing her role as a goddess of dance, joy, Sistra are still used in the Alexandrian Rite and Ethiopic Rite. Besides the depiction in Egyptian art with dancing and expressions of joy, the hieroglyph for the sistrum is shown. The ancient Minoans also used the sistrum, and a number of made of local clay have been found on the island of Crete. Five of these are displayed at the Archaeological Museum of Agios Nikolaos, a sistrum is also depicted on the Harvester Vase, an artifact found at the site of Agia Triada. The sistrum has remained a liturgical instrument in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church throughout the centuries and is played during the dance performed by the debtera on important church festivals and it is also occasionally found in NeoPagan worship & ritual. The sistrum was occasionally revived in 19th century Western orchestral music, nowadays, however, it is replaced by its close modern equivalent, the tambourine. The effect produced by the sistrum in music - when shaken in short, sharp, rhythmic pulses - is to arouse movement, the barcoo dog, a sheep herding tool used in Australian bush band music, is a type of sistrum. Sistrum Media related to Sistra at Wikimedia Commons Sistrum
7.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
8.
Maat
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Maat or Maat was the ancient Egyptian concept of truth, balance, order, harmony, law, morality, and justice. Maat was also personified as a goddess regulating the stars, seasons, cuneiform texts indicate that the word mˤ3t was pronounced /múʕʔa/ during the New Kingdom period, having lost the feminine ending t. Sound shifts from u to e later produced the cognate Coptic word ⲙⲉⲉ/ⲙⲉ truth, later, as a goddess in other traditions of the Egyptian pantheon, where most goddesses were paired with a male aspect, her masculine counterpart was Thoth, as their attributes are similar. In other accounts, Thoth was paired off with Seshat, goddess of writing and measure and her feather was the measure that determined whether the souls of the departed would reach the paradise of afterlife successfully. Pharaohs are often depicted with the emblems of Maat to emphasise their role in upholding the laws of the Creator, Maat represents the ethical and moral principle that every Egyptian citizen was expected to follow throughout their daily lives. They were expected to act with honor and truth in manners that involve family, the community, the nation, the environment, Maat as a principle was formed to meet the complex needs of the emergent Egyptian state that embraced diverse peoples with conflicting interests. The development of such rules sought to avert chaos and it became the basis of Egyptian law, from an early period the King would describe himself as the Lord of Maat who decreed with his mouth the Maat he conceived in his heart. The ancient Egyptians had a conviction of an underlying holiness. Cosmic harmony was achieved by public and ritual life. Any disturbance in cosmic harmony could have consequences for the individual as well as the state, an impious King could bring about famine or blasphemy blindness to an individual. In opposition to the order expressed in the concept of Maat is the concept of Isfet, chaos, lies. In one Middle Kingdom text the Creator declares I made every man like his fellow, a passage in the Instruction of Ptahhotep presents Maat as follows, Maat is good and its worth is lasting. It has not been disturbed since the day of its creator and it lies as a path in front even of him who knows nothing. Wrongdoing has never yet brought its venture to port and it is true that evil may gain wealth but the strength of truth is that it lasts, a man can say, It was the property of my father. There is little surviving literature that describes the practice of ancient Egyptian law, Maat was the spirit in which justice was applied rather than the detailed legalistic exposition of rules. Maat represented the normal and basic values that formed the backdrop for the application of justice that had to be carried out in the spirit of truth and fairness. From the 5th dynasty onwards the Vizier responsible for justice was called the Priest of Maat, later scholars and philosophers also would embody concepts from the wisdom literature, or Sebayt. These spiritual texts dealt with social or professional situations and how each was best to be resolved or addressed in the spirit of Maat
9.
Egyptian mythology
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Egyptian mythology is the collection of myths from ancient Egypt, which describe the actions of the Egyptian gods as a means of understanding the world. The beliefs that these myths express are an important part of ancient Egyptian religion, Myths appear frequently in Egyptian writings and art, particularly in short stories and in religious material such as hymns, ritual texts, funerary texts, and temple decoration. These sources rarely contain an account of a myth and often describe only brief fragments. Inspired by the cycles of nature, the Egyptians saw time in the present as a series of recurring patterns, Myths are set in these earliest times, and myth sets the pattern for the cycles of the present. Present events repeat the events of myth, and in doing so renew maat, events from the present that might be regarded as myths include Ras daily journey through the world and its otherworldly counterpart, the Duat. The details of these sacred events differ greatly from one text to another, Egyptian myths are primarily metaphorical, translating the essence and behavior of deities into terms that humans can understand. Each variant of a myth represents a different symbolic perspective, enriching the Egyptians understanding of the gods and it inspired or influenced many religious rituals and provided the ideological basis for kingship. Scenes and symbols from myth appeared in art in tombs, temples, in literature, myths or elements of them were used in stories that range from humor to allegory, demonstrating that the Egyptians adapted mythology to serve a wide variety of purposes. The development of Egyptian myth is difficult to trace, Egyptologists must make educated guesses about its earliest phases, based on written sources that appeared much later. One obvious influence on myth is the Egyptians natural surroundings, thus the Egyptians saw water and the sun as symbols of life and thought of time as a series of natural cycles. This orderly pattern was at constant risk of disruption, unusually low floods resulted in famine, the hospitable Nile valley was surrounded by harsh desert, populated by peoples the Egyptians regarded as uncivilized enemies of order. For these reasons, the Egyptians saw their land as an place of stability, or maat. These themes—order, chaos, and renewal—appear repeatedly in Egyptian religious thought, another possible source for mythology is ritual. Many rituals make reference to myths and are based directly on them. But it is difficult to determine whether a cultures myths developed before rituals or vice versa, questions about this relationship between myth and ritual have spawned much discussion among Egyptologists and scholars of comparative religion in general. In ancient Egypt, the earliest evidence of religious practices predates written myths, rituals early in Egyptian history included only a few motifs from myth. For these reasons, some scholars have argued that, in Egypt, but because the early evidence is so sparse, the question may never be resolved for certain. In private rituals, which are often called magical, the myth, many of the myth-like stories that appear in the rituals texts are not found in other sources
10.
Paganism
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Paganism is a term that derives from Latin word pagan, which means nonparticipant, one excluded from a more distinguished, professional group. The term was used in the 4th century, by early Christian community, the term competed with polytheism already in use in Judaism, by Philo in the 1st century. Pagans and paganism was a pejorative for the same polytheistic group, Paganism has broadly connoted religion of the peasantry, and for much of its history a derogatory term. Alternate terms in Christian texts for the group was hellene. In and after the Middle Ages, paganism was a pejorative that was applied to any non-Abrahamic or unfamiliar religion, there has been much scholarly debate as to the origin of the term paganism, especially since no one before the 20th century self-identified as a pagan. In the 19th century, paganism was re-adopted as a self-descriptor by members of various artistic groups inspired by the ancient world. Forms of these religions, influenced by various historical pagan beliefs of pre-modern Europe, exist today and are known as contemporary or modern paganism, while most pagan religions express a worldview that is pantheistic, polytheistic, or animistic, there are some monotheistic pagans. It is crucial to stress right from the start that until the 20th century people did not call themselves pagans to describe the religion they practised, the notion of paganism, as it is generally understood today, was created by the early Christian Church. It was a label that Christians applied to others, one of the antitheses that were central to the process of Christian self-definition, as such, throughout history it was generally used in a derogatory sense. The term pagan is from Late Latin paganus, revived during the Renaissance and it is related to pangere and ultimately comes from Proto-Indo-European *pag-. The evolution occurred only in the Latin west, and in connection with the Latin church, elsewhere, Hellene or gentile remained the word for pagan, and paganos continued as a purely secular term, with overtones of the inferior and the commonplace. However, this idea has multiple problems, first, the words usage as a reference to non-Christians pre-dates that period in history. Second, paganism within the Roman Empire centered on cities, the concept of an urban Christianity as opposed to a rural paganism would not have occurred to Romans during Early Christianity. Third, unlike words such as rusticitas, paganus had not yet acquired the meanings used to explain why it would have been applied to pagans. Paganus more likely acquired its meaning in Christian nomenclature via Roman military jargon, Early Christians adopted military motifs and saw themselves as Milites Christi. As early as the 5th century, paganos was metaphorically used to persons outside the bounds of the Christian community. In response, Augustine of Hippo wrote De Civitate Dei Contra Paganos, in it, he contrasted the fallen city of Man to the city of God of which all Christians were ultimately citizens. Hence, the invaders were not of the city or rural
11.
Pantheism
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Pantheism is the belief that all reality is identical with divinity, or that everything composes an all-encompassing, immanent god. Pantheists thus do not believe in a personal or anthropomorphic god. The term pantheism was not coined until after Spinozas death, and his work, Ethics, was the major source from which Western pantheism spread. Pantheistic concepts may date back thousands of years, and some religions in the East continue to contain pantheistic elements, Pantheism derives from the Greek πᾶν pan and θεός theos. There are a variety of definitions of pantheism, some consider it a theological and philosophical position concerning God. As a religious position, some describe pantheism as the polar opposite of atheism, from this standpoint, pantheism is the view that everything is part of an all-encompassing, immanent God. All forms of reality may then be considered either modes of that Being, some hold that pantheism is a non-religious philosophical position. To them, pantheism is the view that the Universe and God are identical, pantheistic tendencies existed in a number of early Gnostic groups, with pantheistic thought appearing throughout the Middle Ages. These included a section of Johannes Scotus Eriugenas 9th-century work De divisione naturae, the Roman Catholic Church has long regarded pantheistic ideas as heresy. Giordano Bruno, an Italian monk who evangelized about an immanent and he has since become known as a celebrated pantheist and martyr of science. Bruno influenced many later thinkers including Baruch Spinoza, in the West, pantheism was formalized as a separate theology and philosophy based on the work of the 17th-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza. Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher of Sephardi Portuguese origin, whose book Ethics was an answer to Descartes famous dualist theory that the body, Spinoza held the monist view that the two are the same, and monism is a fundamental part of his philosophy. He was described as a God-intoxicated man, and used the word God to describe the unity of all substance, although the term pantheism was not coined until after his death, Spinoza is regarded as its most celebrated advocate. His work, Ethics, was the source from which Western pantheism spread. The breadth and importance of Spinozas work was not fully realized until years after his death. Spinozas magnum opus, the posthumous Ethics, in which he opposed Descartes mind–body dualism, has earned him recognition as one of Western philosophys most important thinkers, Hegel said, You are either a Spinozist or not a philosopher at all. His philosophical accomplishments and moral character prompted 20th-century philosopher Gilles Deleuze to name him the prince of philosophers, Spinoza was raised in the Portuguese Jewish community in Amsterdam. He developed highly controversial ideas regarding the authenticity of the Hebrew Bible, the Jewish religious authorities issued a cherem against him, effectively excluding him from Jewish society at age 23
12.
Polytheism
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Polytheism is the worship of or belief in multiple deities, which are usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own religions and rituals. Polytheism is a type of theism, within theism, it contrasts with monotheism, the belief in a singular God, in most cases transcendent. Polytheists do not always worship all the gods equally, but they can be henotheists, other polytheists can be kathenotheists, worshiping different deities at different times. Polytheism was the form of religion during the Bronze Age and Iron Age up to the Axial Age and the development of Abrahamic religions. Important polytheistic religions practiced today include Chinese traditional religion, Hinduism, Japanese Shinto, the term comes from the Greek πολύ poly and θεός theos and was first invented by the Jewish writer Philo of Alexandria to argue with the Greeks. When Christianity spread throughout Europe and the Mediterranean, non-Christians were just called Gentiles or pagans or by the pejorative term idolaters. The modern usage of the term is first revived in French through Jean Bodin in 1580, a central, main division in polytheism is between soft polytheism and hard polytheism. Hard polytheism is the belief that gods are distinct, separate, real divine beings, hard polytheists reject the idea that all gods are one god. Hard polytheists do not necessarily consider the gods of all cultures as being equally real, Polytheism cannot be cleanly separated from the animist beliefs prevalent in most folk religions. The gods of polytheism are in cases the highest order of a continuum of supernatural beings or spirits. In some cases these spirits are divided into celestial or chthonic classes, since divinity is intellectual, and all intellect returns into itself, this myth expresses in allegory the essence of divinity. Myths may be regarded physically when they express the activities of gods in the world, the psychological way is to regard the activities of the soul itself and or the souls acts of thought. The material is to regard material objects to actually be gods, for example, to call the earth Gaia, ocean Okeanos, Some well-known historical polytheistic pantheons include the Sumerian gods and the Egyptian gods, and the classical-attested pantheon which includes the ancient Greek religion and Roman religion. Post-classical polytheistic religions include Norse Æsir and Vanir, the Yoruba Orisha, the Aztec gods, an example of a religious notion from this shared past is the concept of *dyēus, which is attested in several distinct religious systems. In many civilizations, pantheons tended to grow over time, deities first worshipped as the patrons of cities or places came to be collected together as empires extended over larger territories. Conquests could lead to the subordination of the elder cultures pantheon to a one, as in the Greek Titanomachia. Most ancient belief systems held that gods influenced human lives, epicurus believed that these gods were material, human-like, and that they inhabited the empty spaces between worlds. Though it is suggested that Hestia stepped down when Dionysus was invited to Mount Olympus, robert Graves The Greek Myths cites two sources that obviously do not suggest Hestia surrendered her seat, though he suggests she did
13.
Ancient Egyptian concept of the soul
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The ancient Egyptians believed that a human soul was made up of five parts, the Ren, the Ba, the Ka, the Sheut, and the Ib. In addition to these components of the soul there was the human body, the other souls were aakhu, khaibut, and khat. An important part of the Egyptian soul was thought to be the jb, the heart was believed to be formed from one drop of blood from the childs mothers heart, taken at conception. To ancient Egyptians, the heart was the seat of emotion, thought, will and this is evidenced by the many expressions in the Egyptian language which incorporate the word jb. This word was transcribed by E. A. Wallis Budge as Ab, in Egyptian religion, the heart was the key to the afterlife. It was conceived as surviving death in the world, where it gave evidence for, or against. It was thought that the heart was examined by Anubis and the deities during the Weighing of the Heart ceremony, if the heart weighed more than the feather of Maat, it was immediately consumed by the monster Ammit. A persons shadow or silhouette, Sheut, is always present, because of this, Egyptians surmised that a shadow contains something of the person it represents. Through this association, statues of people and deities were sometimes referred to as shadows, the shadow was also representative to Egyptians of a figure of death, or servant of Anubis, and was depicted graphically as a small human figure painted completely black. Sometimes people had a box in which part of their Sheut was stored. For example, part of the Book of Breathings, a derivative of the Book of the Dead, was a means to ensure the survival of the name, a cartouche often was used to surround the name and protect it. Conversely, the names of deceased enemies of the state, such as Akhenaten, were hacked out of monuments in a form of damnatio memoriae. Sometimes, however, they were removed in order to make room for the insertion of the name of a successor. The greater the number of places a name was used, the greater the possibility it would survive to be read, the Bâ was everything that makes an individual unique, similar to the notion of personality. In the Coffin Texts one form of the Bâ that comes into existence after death is corporeal, louis Žabkar argued that the Bâ is not part of the person but is the person himself, unlike the soul in Greek, or late Judaic, Christian or Muslim thought. The word bau, plural of the ba, meant something similar to impressiveness, power. When a deity intervened in human affairs, it was said that the Bau of the deity were at work. The Ka was the Egyptian concept of essence, which distinguishes the difference between a living and a dead person, with death occurring when the ka left the body
14.
Ancient Egyptian funerary practices
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The ancient Egyptians had an elaborate set of funerary practices that they believed were necessary to ensure their immortality after death. These rituals and protocols included mummifying the body, casting of magic spells, the burial process used by the ancient Egyptians evolved throughout time as old customs were discarded and new ones adopted, but several important elements of the process persisted. Although specific details changed over time, the preparation of the body, the rituals involved. Though no writing survives from Predynastic Egypt, scholars believe the importance of the physical body and this would explain why people of that time did not follow the common practice of cremation, but rather buried the dead. Some also believe they may have feared the bodies would rise again if mistreated after death, early bodies were buried in simple, shallow oval pits, with a few burial goods. Sometimes multiple people and animals were placed in the same grave, over time, graves became more complex, with the body placed in a wicker basket, then later in wooden or terracotta coffins. The latest tombs Egyptians made were sarcophaguses and these graves contained burial goods like jewelry, food, games and sharpened splint. This demonstrates that this ancient period had a sense of the afterlife and this may be because admission required that the deceased must be able to serve a purpose there. The pharaoh was allowed in because of his role in life, human sacrifices found in early royal tombs reinforce this view. These people were meant to serve the pharaoh during his eternal life. Eventually, figurines and wall paintings begin to replace human victims, some of these figurines may have been created to resemble certain people, so they could follow the pharaoh after their lives ended. Note that not only the classes had to rely on the pharaoh’s favor. They believed that when he died, the became a type of god. This belief existed from the period through the Old Kingdom. In the First Intermediate Period, however, the importance of the pharaoh declined, funerary texts, previously restricted to royal use, became more widely available. The first farmers in Egypt are known from the villages of Omari, the people of these villages buried their dead in a simple, round graves with one pot. The body was neither treated nor arranged in a way as would be the case later in the historical period. Without any written evidence, there is little to provide information about contemporary beliefs concerning the afterlife except for the inclusion of a single pot in the grave
15.
Mortuary temple
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Mortuary temples were temples that were erected adjacent to, or in the vicinity of, royal tombs in Ancient Egypt. The temples were designed to commemorate the reign of the Pharaoh by whom they were constructed, mortuary temples were built around pyramids in the Old Kingdom and Middle Kingdom. However, once the New Kingdom pharaohs began constructing tombs in the Valley of the Kings and these New Kingdom temples were called mansions of millions of years by the Egyptians. These temples were used as a resting place for the boat of Amun at the time of the Beautiful Festival of the Valley. The first mortuary temple was built for Amenhotep I of the 18th dynasty during the New Kingdom, later rulers of the 18th Dynasty either failed to build here at all or, in the case of Tutankhamun, Ay and Horemheb, their construction was not completed. The 19th Dynasty ruler Seti I constructed his temple at what is now known as Gurna. Ramesses II constructed his own temple, referred to as the Ramesseum, Temple of a years of Usermaatre Setepenre which is linked with Thebes-the-Quoted in the Field of Amun. Much later, during the 20th Dynasty, Ramesses III constructed his own temple at Medinet Habu
16.
Ancient Egyptian offering formula
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The Ancient Egyptian offering formula, generally referred to as the ḥtp-dỉ-nsw formula by Egyptologists, was written as an offering for the deceased in the ancient Egyptian religion. All ancient Egyptian offering formulas share the basic structure, but there is a great deal of variety in which deities and offerings are mentioned. That he may give a voice-offering of bread, beer, oxen, birds, alabaster, clothing, for the ka of the revered Senwosret, True of Voice. The offering formula is found carved or painted onto funerary stelae, false doors, coffins. Each person would, of course, have their own name, the offering formula was not a royal prerogative like some of the other religious texts such as the Litany of Re, and was used by anyone who could afford to have one made. The offering formula always begins with the phrase, ḥtp dỉ nsw This phrase comes from Old Egyptian, because the king was seen as an intermediary between the people of Egypt and the gods, the offering was made through him. Next the formula names a god of the dead and several of his epithets, usually Osiris, Anubis, or Geb or another deity. The following phrase is an invocation of Osiris, wsỉr nb ḏdw, nṯr ꜥꜣ, nb ꜣbḏw which means Osiris, the lord of Busiris, the great god. There was apparently no set rule about what epithets were used, however Lord of Busiris, Great God, after the list of deities and their titles, the formula proceeds with a list of the ḫrt-prw, or invocation offerings. The list is always preceded by the phrase, or dỉ=f prt-ḫrw or dỉ=sn prt-ḫrw which means He give invocation offerings, the last part of the offering formula lists the name and titles of the recipient of the invocation offerings. For example, n kꜣ n ỉmꜣḫy s-n-wsrt, mꜣꜥ-ḫrw which means for the ka of the revered Senwosret, Egyptian mythology Egyptian soul Ancient Egyptian burial customs Ancient Egyptian funerary texts Bennett, C. Growth of the ḤTP-DI-NSW Formula in the Middle Kingdom, the Middle Kingdom Offering Formulas—A Challenge. Die Opferformel des Alten Reiches unter Berücksichtigung einiger später Formen, mainz am Rhein, Verlag Philipp von Zabern. The Writing of the ḤTP-DI-NSW Formula in the Middle and New Kingdoms, telford, Mark Patrick, Death And The Afterlife
17.
Egyptian temple
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Egyptian temples were built for the official worship of the gods and in commemoration of the pharaohs in ancient Egypt and regions under Egyptian control. Temples were seen as houses for the gods or kings to whom they were dedicated and these rituals were seen as necessary for the gods to continue to uphold maat, the divine order of the universe. Housing and caring for the gods were the obligations of pharaohs, nevertheless, a temple was an important religious site for all classes of Egyptians, who went there to pray, give offerings, and seek oracular guidance from the god dwelling within. The most important part of the temple was the sanctuary, which contained a cult image. These edifices are among the largest and most enduring examples of Egyptian architecture and their typical design consisted of a series of enclosed halls, open courts, and massive entrance pylons aligned along the path used for festival processions. Beyond the temple proper was a wall enclosing a wide variety of secondary buildings. A large temple also owned sizable tracts of land and employed thousands of laymen to supply its needs, temples were therefore key economic as well as religious centers. The priests who managed these powerful institutions wielded considerable influence, temple-building in Egypt continued despite the nations decline and ultimate loss of independence to the Roman Empire. With the coming of Christianity, however, Egyptian religion faced increasing persecution, for centuries, the ancient buildings suffered destruction and neglect. Dozens of temples survive today, and some have become world-famous tourist attractions that contribute significantly to the modern Egyptian economy, Egyptologists continue to study the surviving temples and the remains of destroyed ones, as they are invaluable sources of information about ancient Egyptian society. Ancient Egyptian temples were meant as places for the gods to reside on earth, indeed, the term the Egyptians most commonly used to describe the temple building, ḥwt-nṯr, means mansion of a god. A gods presence in the temple linked the human and divine realms and these rituals, it was believed, sustained the god and allowed it to continue to play its proper role in nature. They were therefore a key part of the maintenance of maat, maintaining maat was the entire purpose of Egyptian religion, and it was the purpose of a temple as well. Because he was credited with divine power himself, the pharaoh, as a king, was regarded as Egypts representative to the gods. Thus, it was theoretically his duty to perform the temple rites, the pharaoh was nevertheless obligated to maintain, provide for, and expand the temples throughout his realm. Although the pharaoh delegated his authority, the performance of rituals was still an official duty. The participation of the populace in most ceremonies was prohibited. Much of the lay religious activity in Egypt instead took place in private and community shrines, however, as the primary link between the human and divine realms, temples attracted considerable veneration from ordinary Egyptians
18.
Veneration of the dead
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The veneration of the dead, including ones ancestors, is based on love and respect for the deceased. In some cultures, it is related to beliefs that the dead have a continued existence, the social or non-religious function of ancestor veneration is to cultivate kinship values, such as filial piety, family loyalty, and continuity of the family lineage. Ancestor veneration occurs in societies with every degree of social, political, and technological complexity, ancestor reverence is not the same as the worship of a deity or deities. In some Afro-diasporic cultures, ancestors are seen as being able to intercede on behalf of the living, as spirits who were once human themselves, they are seen as being better able to understand human needs than would a divine being. In other cultures, the purpose of ancestor veneration is not to ask for favors, some cultures believe that their ancestors actually need to be provided for by their descendants, and their practices include offerings of food and other provisions. Others do not believe that the ancestors are even aware of what their descendants do for them, most cultures who practice ancestor veneration do not call it ancestor worship. In English, the word usually refers to the reverent love. However, in cultures, this act of worship does not confer any belief that the departed ancestors have become some kind of deity. Rather, the act is a way to respect, honor, in this regard, many cultures and religions have similar practices. Some may visit the graves of their parents or other ancestors, leave flowers and pray to them in order to honor and remember them, however, this would not be considered as worshipping them since the term worship shows no such meaning. This is consistent with the meaning of the veneration in English. Although there is no accepted theory concerning the origins of ancestor veneration. Although some historians claim that ancient Egyptian society was a “death cult” because of its tombs and mummification rituals. The philosophy that “this world is but a vale of tears” and this was not to say that they were unacquainted with the harshness of life, rather, their ethos included a sense of continuity between this life and the next. Tombs were housing in the Hereafter and so they were constructed and decorated. Mummification was a way to preserve the corpse so the ka of the deceased could return to receive offerings of the things s/he enjoyed while alive, if mummification was not affordable, a “ka-statue” in the likeness of the deceased was carved for this purpose. The Blessed Dead were collectively called the akhu, or “shining ones” and they were described as “shining as gold in the belly of Nut and were indeed depicted as golden stars on the roofs of many tombs and temples. If the heart was in balance with the Feather of Maat, at this point only was the ka deemed worthy to be venerated by the living through rites and offerings
19.
Ancient Egyptian deities
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Ancient Egyptian deities are the gods and goddesses worshipped in ancient Egypt. The beliefs and rituals surrounding these gods formed the core of ancient Egyptian religion, the gods complex characteristics were expressed in myths and in intricate relationships between deities, family ties, loose groups and hierarchies, and combinations of separate gods into one. Deities diverse appearances in art—as animals, humans, objects, and combinations of different forms—also alluded, through symbolism, to their essential features. In different eras, various gods were said to hold the highest position in society, including the solar deity Ra, the mysterious god Amun. The highest deity was usually credited with the creation of the world, some scholars have argued, based in part on Egyptian writings, that the Egyptians came to recognize a single divine power that lay behind all things and was present in all the other deities. Gods were assumed to be present throughout the world, capable of influencing natural events, people interacted with them in temples and unofficial shrines, for personal reasons as well as for larger goals of state rites. Egyptians prayed for help, used rituals to compel deities to act. Humans relations with their gods were a part of Egyptian society. The beings in ancient Egyptian tradition who might be labeled as deities are difficult to count, Egyptian texts list the names of many deities whose nature is unknown and make vague, indirect references to other gods who are not even named. The Egyptologist James P. Allen estimates that more than 1,400 deities are named in Egyptian texts, the Egyptian languages terms for these beings were nṯr, god, and its feminine form nṯrt, goddess. Scholars have tried to discern the nature of the gods by proposing etymologies for these words, but none of these suggestions has gained acceptance. The hieroglyphs that were used as ideograms and determinatives in writing these words show some of the traits that the Egyptians connected with divinity, the most common of these signs is a flag flying from a pole. Similar objects were placed at the entrances of temples, representing the presence of a deity, other such hieroglyphs include a falcon, reminiscent of several early gods who were depicted as falcons, and a seated male or female deity. The feminine form could also be written with an egg as determinative, connecting goddesses with creation and birth, or with a cobra, the Egyptians distinguished nṯrw, gods, from rmṯ, people, but the meanings of the Egyptian and the English terms do not match perfectly. The term nṯr may have applied to any being that was in some way outside the sphere of everyday life, Egyptian religious art also depicts places, objects, and concepts in human form. These personified ideas range from deities that were important in myth and ritual to obscure beings, only mentioned once or twice, confronting these blurred distinctions between gods and other beings, scholars have proposed various definitions of a deity. One widely accepted definition, suggested by Jan Assmann, says that a deity has a cult, is involved in some aspect of the universe, according to a different definition, by Dimitri Meeks, nṯr applied to any being that was the focus of ritual. From this perspective, gods included the king, who was called a god after his coronation rites, and deceased souls, likewise, the preeminence of the great gods was maintained by the ritual devotion that was performed for them across Egypt
20.
Ogdoad (Egyptian)
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In Egyptian mythology, the Ogdoad were eight primordial deities worshipped in Hermopolis during the Old Kingdom period. Budge compares the concept to a group of four pairs of primeval gods mentioned in the Babylonian Enûma Eliš, texts of the Late Period describe them as having the heads of frogs and serpents, and they are often depicted in this way in reliefs of the Greco-Roman period. The eight deities were arranged in four pairs, as follows. The names of Nu and Nut are written with the determiners for sky and water, but from the context of a number of passages in which Ḥeḥu is mentioned, Brugsch also suggested that he may be a personification of the atmosphere between heaven and earth. The fourth pair appears with varying names, sometimes the name Qerḥ is replaced by Ni, Nenu, Nut, or Amun, the common meaning of qerḥ is night, but the determinative also suggests the principle of inactivity or repose. There is no way to attribute four functions to the four pairs of gods. Ennead Butler, Edward P. Hermopolitan Ogdoad
21.
Amun
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Amun was a major Ancient Egyptian deity. He was attested since the Old Kingdom together with his wife Amaunet, with the 11th dynasty, he rose to the position of patron deity of Thebes by replacing Monthu. After the rebellion of Thebes against the Hyksos and with the rule of Ahmose I, Amun acquired national importance, expressed in his fusion with the Sun god, Ra, Amun-Ra retained chief importance in the Egyptian pantheon throughout the New Kingdom. Amun-Ra in this period held the position of transcendental, self-created creator deity par excellence, he was the champion of the poor or troubled and his position as King of Gods developed to the point of virtual monotheism where other gods became manifestations of him. With Osiris, Amun-Ra is the most widely recorded of the Egyptian gods, as the chief deity of the Egyptian Empire, Amun-Ra also came to be worshipped outside of Egypt, according to the testimony of ancient Greek historiographers in Libya and Nubia. As Zeus Ammon he came to be identified with Zeus in Greece, Amun and Amaunet are mentioned in the Old Egyptian Pyramid Texts. The name Amun meant something like the one or invisible. Amun rose to the position of tutelary deity of Thebes after the end of the First Intermediate Period, as the patron of Thebes, his spouse was Mut. In Thebes, Amun as father, Mut as mother and the Moon god Khonsu formed a family or Theban Triad. The history of Amun as the god of Thebes begins in the 20th century BC. The city of Thebes does not appear to have been of great significance before the 11th dynasty, major construction work in the Precinct of Amun-Re took place during the 18th dynasty when Thebes became the capital of the unified ancient Egypt. Construction of the Hypostyle Hall may have begun during the 18th dynasty, though most building was undertaken under Seti I. Merenptah commemorated his victories over the Sea Peoples on the walls of the Cachette Court and this Great Inscription shows the kings campaigns and eventual return with booty and prisoners. Next to this inscription is the Victory Stela, which is largely a copy of the more famous Israel Stela found in the complex of Merenptah on the west bank of the Nile in Thebes. Merenptahs son Seti II added 2 small obelisks in front of the Second Pylon, and this was constructed of sandstone, with a chapel to Amun flanked by those of Mut and Khonsu. The last major change to the Precinct of Amun-Res layout was the addition of the first pylon, the local patron deity of Thebes, Amun, therefore became nationally important. The pharaohs of that new dynasty attributed all their enterprises to Amun. The victory accomplished by pharaohs who worshipped Amun against the rulers, brought him to be seen as a champion of the less fortunate
22.
Amunet
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Amunet was a primordial goddess in Ancient Egyptian religion. She is a member of the Ogdoad and the consort of Amun and her name, meaning the female hidden one, was simply the feminine form of Amuns own name. It is possible that she was never an independent deity, as the first mention of either of them is in a pair, at Karnak, Amuns cult center, priests were dedicated to Amunets service. The goddess also played a part in ceremonies such as the Sed festival. Amunet was depicted as a woman wearing the Red Crown and carrying a staff of papyrus, in late texts from Karnak she was syncretized with Neith, although she remained a distinct deity as late as the Ptolemaic period. In the TV series Penny Dreadful, the character of Vanessa Ives is implied to be an incarnation of Amunet, in the TV series Stargate SG-1, Amaunet is a recurring Goauld character and consort of Apophis. Amunet will appear portrayed by Sofia Boutella in a fictionalized characterization, the film will serve as the first official installment in the Universal Monsters Cinematic Universe
23.
Heh (god)
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Ḥeḥ was in Egyptian mythology, the deification of infinity or eternity in the Ogdoad, his name itself meaning endlessness. His female counterpart was known as Hauhet, which is simply the feminine form of his name, like the other concepts in the Ogdoad, his male form was often depicted as a frog, or a frog-headed human, and his female form as a snake or snake-headed human. Depictions of this also had a shen ring at the base of each palm stem. Depictions of Huh were also used in hieroglyphs to represent one million, thus this deity is also known as the god of millions of years. The primary meaning of the term ḥeḥ was million or millions, subsequently, together with his female counterpart Ḥauḥet, Ḥeḥ represented a member of the Ogdoad of eight primeval deities whose worship was centred at Hermopolis Magna. The other members of the Ogdoad are Nu and Naunet, Amun and Amaunet, Kuk, the god Ḥeḥ was usually depicted anthropomorphically, as in the hieroglyphic character, as a male figure with divine beard and lappet wig. Normally kneeling, the god typically holds in each hand a palm branch. Occasionally, a palm branch is worn on the gods head. The personified, somewhat abstract god of eternity Ḥeḥ possessed no known cult centre or sanctuary, rather, his veneration revolved around symbolism, barta, Winfried, Die Bedeutung der Personifikation Huh im Unterschied zu den Personifikationen Hah und Nun, Göttinger Miszellen 127, pp. 7–12
24.
Kek (mythology)
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Kek is the deification of the concept of primordial darkness in the Ancient Egyptian Ogdoad cosmogony. As a concept, Kek was viewed as androgynous, his form being known as Keket. Kek and Keket in some aspects also represent night and day, and were called raiser up of the light, the name is written as kk or kkwy with a variant of the sky hieroglyph in ligature with the staff associated with the word for darkness kkw. In the oldest representations, Kekui is given the head of a serpent, and Kekuit the head of either a frog or a cat. In one scene, they are identified with Ka and Kait, in this scene, Ka-Kekui has the head of a frog surmounted by a beetle and Kait-Kekuit has the head of a serpent surmounted by a disk. In the Greco-Roman period, Keks male form was depicted as a man. In relation to the 2016 United States presidential election, individuals associated with message boards, such as 4chan. This resulted in a resurgence of interest of the ancient deity, some members of 4chan jokingly attribute the victory of Donald J. Trump in the 2016 United States presidential election to meme magic. Kek and Kauket, Deities of Darkness, Obscurity and Night
25.
Nu (mythology)
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Nu, feminine Nut, is the deification of the primordial watery abyss in the Hermopolitan Ogdoad cosmogony of ancient Egyptian religion. The name is paralleled with nen inactivity in a play of words in, I raised them up out of the watery mass. The name has also been compared Coptic noun abyss, deep, Nut is also the name of the sky goddess of the Ennead of Heliopolis. The Ancient Egyptians envisaged the oceanic abyss of the Nun as surrounding a bubble in which the sphere of life is encapsulated, in Ancient Egyptian creation accounts the original mound of land comes forth from the waters of the Nun. The Nun is the source of all that appears in a world, encompassing all aspects of divine. In the Ennead cosmogony Nun is perceived as transcendent at the point of creation alongside Atum the creator god, beginning with the Middle Kingdom Nun is described as the Father of the Gods and he is depicted on temple walls throughout the rest of Ancient Egyptian religious history. The Ogdoad includes along with Naunet and Nun, Amaunet and Amun, Hauhet and Heh, like the other Ogdoad deities, Nu did not have temples or any center of worship. Even so, Nu was sometimes represented by a lake, or, as at Abydos. In the 12th Hour of the Book of Gates Nu is depicted with upraised arms holding a solar bark, the boat is occupied by eight deities, with the scarab deity Khepri standing in the middle surrounded by the seven other deities. During the late period when Egypt became occupied, the aspect of the Nun became the dominant perception. Abzu Benben stone E. A. Wallis Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians, Or, Studies in Egyptian Mythology, vol
26.
Ennead
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The Great Ennead was only one of several such groupings of nine deities in ancient Egypt and its claims to preëminence by its Heliopolitan priests were not respected throughout Egypt. As close as Memphis, the priests of Ptah celebrated him as superior to the Nine, Ennead is borrowing via Latin of the Greek name Enneás, meaning the Nine. The term was a calque of the Egyptian name, written Psḏt and its original pronunciation is uncertain, since hieroglyphs do not record vowels, but Egyptologists conventionally transcribe it as Pesedjet. The ancient Egyptians created several enneads as their unification under Dynasty I brought numerous local cults into contact with one another, the Pyramid Texts of Dynasties V and VI mention the Great Ennead, the Lesser Ennead, the Dual Ennead, and the Seven Enneads. Some pharaohs established enneads that incorporated themselves as gods, the most notable case is Seti I of Dynasty XIX, whose temple at Redesiyah celebrated an ennead of six major gods and three deified forms of himself. In the Calendar of Lucky and Unlucky Days, the ennead mentioned may reference the Pleiades, the most important was the Great or Heliopolitan Ennead of Awanu, known under the Greeks and Romans as Heliopolis. It celebrated the family of the sun god Atum and thrived from the Old Kingdom to the Ptolemaic period and its development remains uncertain, although it appears to have first appeared when Ras cult—supreme under Dynasty V—declined in importance under Dynasty VI. The most prominent of such deities was Osiris, god of vegetation and the afterlife, however, in the 20th century, some Egyptologists question the whole scenario. After the Great Ennead was well established, the cult of Ra—identified with Atum—recovered much of its importance until superseded by the cult of Horus, the two were then combined as Ra–Horus of the Horizons. According to the story of the Heliopolitan priests, the world originally consisted of the primeval waters personified as Nun. From it arose a mound, separately identified by the Memphite priests as Ptah, upon the mound sat the self-begotten god Atum, who was equated with the sun god Ra. Bored and alone, Atum either spat or masturbated, producing air personified as Shu, the siblings Shu and Tefnut mated to produce the earth personified as Geb and the nighttime sky personified as Nut. These siblings engaged in continuous copulation until separated by their father Shu, Geb and Nut were the parents of Osiris and Isis and of Set and Nephthys, who became respective couples in turn. Shifting Milestones of Natural Sciences, The Ancient Egyptian Discovery of Algols Period Confirmed, PLOS One, Vol.10, No
27.
Atum
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Atum, sometimes rendered as Atem or Tem, is an important deity in Egyptian mythology. Atums name is thought to be derived from the word tem which means to complete or finish, thus he has been interpreted as being the complete one and also the finisher of the world, which he returns to watery chaos at the end of the creative cycle. As creator he was seen as the substance of the world. In the Heliopolitan creation myth, Atum was considered to be the first god, having created himself, sitting on a mound, early myths state that Atum created the god Shu and goddess Tefnut by spitting them out of his mouth. To explain how Atum did this, the uses the metaphor of masturbation. Other interpretations state that he has made union with his shadow, in the Old Kingdom the Egyptians believed that Atum lifted the dead kings soul from his pyramid to the starry heavens. He was also a deity, associated with the primary sun god Ra. Atum was linked specifically with the sun, while Ra or the closely linked god Khepri were connected with the sun at morning. Atum is the god of pre-existence and post-existence, in the binary solar cycle, the serpentine Atum is contrasted with the ram-headed scarab Khepri—the young sun god, whose name is derived from the Egyptian hpr to come into existence. Khepri-Atum encompassed sunrise and sunset, thus reflecting the solar cycle. Atum was a deity, the first being to emerge from the darkness and endless watery abyss that existed before creation. A product of the energy and matter contained in this chaos, he created his children—the first deities and he produced from his own sneeze, or in some accounts, semen, Shu, the god of air, and Tefnut, the goddess of moisture. The brother and sister, curious about the waters that surrounded them, went to explore the waters. Unable to bear his loss, Atum sent a fiery messenger, the tears of joy he shed on their return were the first human beings. He is usually depicted as a man wearing either the royal head-cloth or the white and red crown of Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt. Sometimes he also is shown as a serpent, the form he returns to at the end of the creative cycle, atums cult centered on the city of Heliopolis. The only surviving remnant of Heliopolis is the Temple of Re-Atum obelisk located in Al-Masalla of Al-Matariyyah and it was erected by Senusret I of the Twelfth dynasty, and still stands in its original position. The 68 ft high red granite obelisk weighs 120 tons, band I, Die heiligen Tiere des Atum
28.
Shu (Egyptian god)
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Shu was one of the primordial Egyptian gods, a personification of air, one of the Ennead of Heliopolis. In some myths, Shu was the son of Atum and Iusaaset, in other versions, Shu and his sister Tefnut were created by Atum alone, via parthenogenesis. With Tefnut, Shu was the father of Nut and Geb and grandfather of Osiris, Isis, Set and his great-grandsons are Horus and Anubis. As the air, Shu was considered to be cooling, and thus calming, influence, due to the association with air, calm, and thus Maat, Shu was portrayed in art as wearing an ostrich feather. Shu was seen with one and four feathers. The ostrich feather was symbolic of lightness and emptiness, fog and clouds were also Shus elements and they were often called his bones. Because of his position between the sky and earth, he was known as the wind. In a much later myth, representing a terrible weather disaster at the end of the Old Kingdom, it was said that Tefnut and Shu once argued, and Tefnut left Egypt for Nubia. It was said that Shu quickly decided that he missed her, thoth, disguised, eventually succeeded in convincing her to return. The Greeks associated Shu with Atlas, the primordial Titan who held up the celestial spheres, according to the Heliopolitan cosmology, Shu and Tefnut, the first pair of cosmic elements, created the sky goddess, Nut, and the earth god, Geb. Shu separated Nut from Geb as they were in the act of love, creating duality in the manifest world, above and below, light and dark, good and evil. Prior to their separation, however, Nut had given birth to the gods Isis, Osiris, Nephthys, the Egyptians believed that if Shu did not hold Nut and Geb apart there would be no way for physically-manifest life to exist. Shu is mostly represented as a man, only in his function as a fighter and defender as the sun god does he sometimes receive a lions head. He carries an ankh, the symbol of life
29.
Tefnut
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Tefnut is a goddess of moisture, moist air, dew and rain in Ancient Egyptian religion. She is the sister and consort of the air god Shu, like most Egyptian deities, including her brother, Tefnut has no single ideograph or symbol. Her name in hieroglyphics consists of four single phonogram symbols t-f-n-t, although the n phonogram is a representation of waves on the surface of water, it was never used as an ideogram or determinative for the word water, or for anything associated with water. Tefnut is a daughter of the solar god Ra-Atum, married to her brother, Shu, she is mother of Nut, the sky and Geb, the earth. Tefnuts grandchildren were Osiris, Isis, Set, Nephthys, and in some versions and she was also a great grandmother of Horus the Younger. Alongside her father, brother, children, grandchildren, and great-grandchild, there are a number of variants to the myth of the creation of Tefnut and her twin brother Shu. In all versions, Tefnut is the product of parthenogenesis, in the Heliopolitan creation myth, the solar god Atum masturbates to produce Tefnut and Shu. Atum was creative in that he proceeded to himself in Heliopolis. He took his penis in his hand so that he obtain the pleasure of orgasm thereby. And brother and sister were born - that is Shu and Tefnut, Pyramid Text 527 In some versions of this myth, Atum also swallows his semen, and spits it out to form the twins, or else the spitting of his saliva forms the act of procreation. Both of these contain a play on words, the tef sound which forms the first syllable of the name Tefnut also constitutes a word meaning to spit or to expectorate. The Coffin Texts contain references to Shu being sneezed out by Atum from his nose, the Bremner-Rind Papyrus and the Memphite Theology describe Atum masturbating into his mouth, before spitting out his semen to form the twins. Tefnut is a deity, and appears as human with a lioness head when depicted as part of the Great Ennead of Heliopolis. The other frequent depiction is as a lioness, but Tefnut can also be depicted as fully human. In her fully or semi anthropomorphic form, she is depicted wearing a wig, topped either with a serpent, or a uraeus and solar disk. Her face is used in a double headed form with that of her brother Shu on collar counterpoises. During the 18th and 19th Dynasties, particularly during the Amarna period, Tefnut was depicted in human form wearing a low flat headdress, akhenatens mother, Tiye was depicted wearing a similar headdress, and identifying with Hathor-Tefnut. The iconic blue crown of Nefertiti is thought by archaeologist Joyce Tyldesley to be derived from Tiyes headdress, Heliopolis and Leontopolis were the primary cult centres
30.
Geb
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Geb was the Egyptian god of the Earth and later a member of the Ennead of Heliopolis. He had a snake around his head and was also considered the father of snakes. It was believed in ancient Egypt that Gebs laughter created earthquakes, the name was pronounced as such from the Greek period onward and was originally read as Seb or some guess as Keb. The original Egyptian was perhaps Seb/Keb and it was spelled with either initial -g-, or with -k-point. g. in a 30th Dynasty papyrus text in the Brooklyn Museum dealing with descriptions of and remedies against snakes. In later times he could also be depicted as a ram, Geb was frequently described mythologically as father of snakes. In a Coffin Texts spell Geb was described as father of the snake Nehebkau, in the latter case, one of his otherworldly attributes was an ominous jackal-headed stave rising from the ground onto which enemies could be bound. In this context, Geb was believed to have originally been engaged with Nut and had to be separated from her by Shu, consequently, in mythological depictions, Geb was shown as a man reclining, sometimes with his phallus still pointed towards Nut. As time progressed, the deity became more associated with the land of Egypt. He is also equated by classical authors as the Greek Titan Cronus, ptah and Ra, creator deities, usually begin the list of divine ancestors. There is speculation between Shu and Geb and who was the first god-king of Egypt, the story of how Shu, Geb, and Nut were separated in order to create the cosmos is now being interpreted in more human terms, exposing the hostility and sexual jealousy. Between the father son jealously and Shu rebelling against the divine order, Geb takes Shu’s mother, Tefnut, as his chief queen, separating Shu from his sister-wife. Just as Shu had previously done to him, in the book of the Heavenly Cow, it is implied that Geb is the heir of the departing sun god. After Geb passed on the throne to Osiris, his youngest son, some Egyptologists, have stated that Geb was associated with a mythological divine creator goose who had laid a world egg from which the sun and/or the world had sprung. This theory is assumed to be incorrect and to be a result of confusing the divine name Geb with that of a Whitefronted Goose, also called originally gb, lame one and this bird-sign is used only as a phonogram in order to spell the name of the god. An alternative ancient name for this species was trp meaning similarly walk like a drunk. The Whitefronted Goose is never found as a symbol or holy bird of Geb. A coloured vignet irrefutably depicts a Nile Goose with a beak in a context of solar creation on a mythological papyrus dating from the 21st Dynasty. Similar images of this bird are to be found on temple walls, showing a scene of the king standing on a papyrus raft
31.
Nut (goddess)
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Nut, also known by various other transcriptions, is the goddess of the sky in the Ennead of ancient Egyptian religion. She was seen as a nude woman arching over the earth. The pronunciation of ancient Egyptian is uncertain because vowels were long omitted from its writing and her name Nwt, itself also meaning Sky, is usually transcribed as Nut but also sometimes appears as Nunut, Nenet, Naunet, Newet, and the certainly erroneous Nuit. She also appears in the record by a number of epithets. Nut is a daughter of Shu and Tefnut and her brother and husband is Geb. She had four or five children, Osiris, Set, Isis, Nephthys and she is considered one of the oldest deities among the Egyptian pantheon, with her origin being found on the creation story of Heliopolis. She was originally the goddess of the sky, but eventually became referred to as simply the sky goddess. Her headdress was the hieroglyphic of part of her name, a pot, which may also symbolize the uterus. Mostly depicted in human form, Nut was also sometimes depicted in the form of a cow whose great body formed the sky and heavens. A sacred symbol of Nut was the used by Osiris to enter her heavenly skies. This ladder-symbol was called maqet and was placed in tombs to protect the deceased, Nut and her brother, Geb, may be considered enigmas in the world of mythology. In direct contrast to most other mythologies which usually develop a sky father associated with an Earth mother, she personified the sky, Osiris is killed by his brother Set and scattered over the Earth in 14 pieces which Isis gathers up and puts back together. Osiris then climbs a ladder into his mother Nut for safety, a huge cult developed about Osiris that lasted well into Roman times. Isis was her husbands queen in the underworld and the basis for the role of the queen on earth. It can be said that she was a version of the great goddess Hathor, like Hathor she not only had death and rebirth associations, but was the protector of children and the goddess of childbirth. Ra, the sun god, was the second to rule the world, Ra was a strong ruler but he feared anyone taking his throne. When he discovered that Nut was to have children, he was furious and he decreed, Nut shall not give birth any day of the year. At that time, the year was only 360 days, Nut spoke to Thoth, god of wisdom, and he had a plan
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Osiris
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Osiris was an Egyptian god, usually identified as the god of the afterlife, the underworld, and the dead, but more appropriately as the god of transition, resurrection, and regeneration. He was also associated with the epithet Khenti-Amentiu, meaning Foremost of the Westerners, as ruler of the dead, Osiris was also sometimes called king of the living, ancient Egyptians considered the blessed dead the living ones. Osiris was considered the brother of Isis, Set, Nephthys, and Horus the Elder and he was described as the Lord of love, He Who is Permanently Benign and Youthful and the Lord of Silence. The Kings of Egypt were associated with Osiris in death – as Osiris rose from the dead they would, in union with him, inherit eternal life through a process of imitative magic. By the New Kingdom all people, not just pharaohs, were believed to be associated with Osiris at death, Osiris was widely worshipped as Lord of the Dead until the suppression of the Egyptian religion during the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire. Osiris is a Latin transliteration of the Ancient Greek Ὄσιρις IPA, in Egyptian hieroglyphs the name is appears as wsjr or jsjrt. Since hieroglyphic writing lacks vowels, Egyptologists have vocalized the name in various ways as Asar, Yasar, Aser, Asaru, Ausar, Ausir, Wesir, Usir, several proposals have been made for the etymology and meaning of the original name wsjr. John Gwyn Griffiths proposed a derivation from wsr signifying the powerful, moreover, one of the oldest attestations of the god Osiris appears in the mastaba of the deceased Netjer-wser. David Lorton proposed that Wsjr is composed by the morphemes set-jret signifying ritual activity, wolfhart Westendorf proposed an etymology from Waset-jret she who bears the eye. He also carries the crook and flail, the crook is thought to represent Osiris as a shepherd god. The symbolism of the flail is more uncertain with shepherds whip, fly-whisk and he was commonly depicted as a pharaoh with a complexion of either green or black in mummiform. The Pyramid Texts describe early conceptions of an afterlife in terms of travelling with the sun god amongst the stars. Amongst these mortuary texts, at the beginning of the 4th dynasty, is found, An offering the king gives, by the end of the 5th dynasty, the formula in all tombs becomes An offering the king gives and Osiris. Osiris is the father of the god Horus, whose conception is described in the Osiris myth. The myth described Osiris as having been killed by his brother Set, Isis joined the fragmented pieces of Osiris, but the only body part missing was the phallus. Isis fashioned a golden phallus, and briefly brought Osiris back to life by use of a spell that she learned from her father and this spell gave her time to become pregnant by Osiris before he again died. Isis later gave birth to Horus, as such, since Horus was born after Osiris resurrection, Horus became thought of as a representation of new beginnings and the vanquisher of the evil Set. Ptah-Seker thus gradually became identified with Osiris, the two becoming Ptah-Seker-Osiris, Osiris soul, or rather his Ba, was occasionally worshipped in its own right, almost as if it were a distinct god, especially in the Delta city of Mendes
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Isis
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Isis is a goddess from the polytheistic pantheon of Egypt. She was first worshiped in ancient Egyptian religion, and later her worship spread throughout the Roman Empire, Isis was worshipped as the ideal mother and wife as well as the patroness of nature and magic. She was the friend of slaves, sinners, artisans and the downtrodden, Isis is often depicted as the mother of Horus, the falcon-headed deity associated with king and kingship. Isis is also known as protector of the dead and goddess of children, as the personification of the throne, she was an important representation of the pharaohs power. The pharaoh was depicted as her child, who sat on the throne she provided. Her cult was popular throughout Egypt, but her most important temples were at Behbeit El Hagar in the Nile delta, and, beginning in the reign with Nectanebo I, on the island of Philae in Upper Egypt. In the typical form of her myth, Isis was the first daughter of Geb, god of the Earth, and Nut, goddess of the Sky and she married her brother, Osiris, and she conceived Horus with him. Isis was instrumental in the resurrection of Osiris when he was murdered by Set, using her magical skills, she restored his body to life after having gathered the body parts that had been strewn about the earth by Set. This myth became very important during the Greco-Roman period, for example, it was believed that the Nile River flooded every year because of the tears of sorrow which Isis wept for Osiris. Osiriss death and rebirth was relived each year through rituals, the worship of Isis eventually spread throughout the Greco-Roman world, continuing until the suppression of paganism in the Christian era. The popular motif of Isis suckling her son Horus, however, the Greek name version of Isis is close to her original, Egyptian name spelling. Isis name was written with the signs of a throne seat. The grammar, spelling and used signs of Isis name never changed during time in any way, however, the symbolic and metaphoric meaning of Isis name remains unclear. The throne seat sign in her name might point to a role as a goddess of kingship. Thus, her name could mean she of the kings throne, but all other Egyptian deities have names that point to clear cosmological or nature elemental roles, thus the name of Isis shouldnt be connected to the king himself. The throne seat symbol might alternatively point to a meaning as throne-mother of the gods and this in turn would supply a very old existence of Isis, long before her first mentioning during the late Old Kingdom, but this hypothesis remains unproven. A third possible meaning might be hidden in the egg-symbol, that was used in Isis name. The egg-symbol always represented motherhood, implying a role of Isis
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Set (deity)
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Set /sɛt/ or Seth is a god of the desert, storms, disorder, violence, and foreigners in ancient Egyptian religion. In Ancient Greek, the name is given as Sēth. Set is not, however, a god to be ignored or avoided, he has a role where he is employed by Ra on his solar boat to repel Apep. Set had a role as a reconciled combatant. He was lord of the red land where he was the balance to Horus role as lord of the black land, in Egyptian mythology, Set is portrayed as the usurper who killed and mutilated his own brother Osiris. Osiris wife Isis reassembled Osiris corpse and resurrected him long enough to conceive his son, Horus sought revenge upon Set, and the myths describe their conflicts. This Osiris myth is a prominent theme in Egyptian mythology, Sets siblings are Osiris, Isis, and Nephthys. He married Nephthys and fathered Anubis, and in some accounts he had relationships with the foreign goddesses Anat, some early Egyptologists proposed that it was a stylised representation of the giraffe, owing to the large flat-topped horns which correspond to a giraffes ossicones. The Egyptians themselves, however, made a distinction between the giraffe and the Set animal, during the Late Period, Set is depicted as a donkey or as having a donkeys head. The earliest representations of what might be the Set animal comes from a dating to the Naqada I phase of the Predynastic Period. If these are ruled out, then the earliest Set animal appears on a head of the King Scorpion. The head and the tail of the Set animal are clearly present. In the mythology of Heliopolis, Set was born of the sky goddess Nut, Sets sister and wife was Nephthys. Nut and Geb also produced two children who became husband and wife, the divine Osiris and Isis, whose son was Horus. The Chester Beatty Papyrus No.1 contains the known as The Contendings of Horus. Classical authors also recorded the story, notably Plutarchs De Iside et Osiride and these myths generally portray Osiris as a wise lord, king, and bringer of civilization, happily married to his sister, Isis. Set was envious of his brother, and he killed and dismembered Osiris, Isis reassembled Osiris corpse and embalmed him. As the archetypal mummy, Osiris reigned over the afterworld as a king among deserving spirits of the dead, Osiris son Horus was conceived by Isis with Osiris corpse
35.
Nephthys
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Nephthys or Nebthet or Neber-Het was a goddess in ancient Egyptian religion. A member of the Great Ennead of Heliopolis in Egyptian mythology, she was a daughter of Nut, Nephthys was typically paired with her sister Isis in funerary rites because of their role as protectors of the mummy and the god Osiris and as the sister-wife of Set. Nephthys is the Greek form of an epithet and this is a pervasive error repeated in many commentaries concerning this deity. Her name means specifically, Lady of the Enclosure which associates her with the role of priestess. Along with her sister Isis, Nephthys represented the temple pylon or trapezoidal tower gateway entrance to the temple which also displayed the flagstaff and this entrance way symbolised the horizon or akhet. At the time of the Fifth Dynasty Pyramid Texts, Nephthys appears as a goddess of the Heliopolitan Ennead and she is the sister of Isis and companion of the war-like deity, Set. As sister of Isis and especially Osiris, Nephthys is a goddess who symbolizes the death experience. Nephthys was known in some ancient Egyptian temple theologies and cosmologies as the Useful Goddess or the Excellent Goddess and these late Ancient Egyptian temple texts describe a goddess who represented divine assistance and protective guardianship. Nephthys is regarded as the mother of the funerary-deity Anubis in some myths, alternatively Anubis appears as the son of Bastet or Isis. As the primary nursing mother of the incarnate Pharaonic-god, Horus, though other goddesses could assume this role, Nephthys was most usually portrayed in this function. In contrast Nephthys is sometimes featured as a ferocious and dangerous divinity. Nephthys was typically paired with her sister Isis in funerary rites because of their role as protectors of the mummy and the god Osiris and as the sister-wife of Set. Less well understood than her sister Isis, Nephthys was no less important in Egyptian Religion as confirmed by the work of E. Hornung, along with the work of noted scholars. Ascend and descend, descend with Nephthys, sink into darkness with the Night-bark, ascend and descend, ascend with Isis, rise with the Day-bark. Pyramid Text Utterance 222 line 210, in the funerary role, Nephthys often was depicted as a kite, or as a woman with falcon wings, usually outstretched as a symbol of protection. Nephthyss association with the kite or the Egyptian hawk evidently reminded the ancients of the lamentations usually offered for the dead by wailing women, in this capacity, it is easy to see how Nephthys could be associated with death and putrefaction in the Pyramid Texts. Nephthys was clearly viewed as a force of heavenly transition, i. e. the Pharaoh becomes strong for his journey to the afterlife through the intervention of Isis. The same divine power could be applied later to all of the dead and it should here be noted that Nephthys was not necessarily viewed as the polar opposite of Isis, but rather as a different reflection of the same reality, eternal life in transition
36.
Aker (deity)
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Aker was an Ancient Egyptian earth and death deity. Aker was first depicted as the torso of a recumbent lion with a widely opened mouth, later, he was depicted as two recumbent lion torsos merged with each other and still looking away from each other. From Middle Kingdom onwards Aker appears as a pair of lions, one named Duaj. Aker was thus often titled He whos looking forward and behind, when depicted as a lion pair, a hieroglyphic sign for horizon and a sun disc was put between the lions, the lions were sitting back-on-back. In later times, Aker can also appear as two merged torsos of recumbent sphinxes with human heads, Aker appears first time during the 1st dynasty under the kings Hor Aha and Djer. An unfinished decorative palette from the tomb of Djer at Abydos shows Aker devouring three hearts, the location of Akers main cult center is unknown, though. His mythological role is first time described in the famous Pyramid Texts of king Teti. Aker was first described as one of the earth gods guarding the gate to the yonder site and he protected the deceased king against the three demonic snakes Hemtet, Iqeru and Jagw. By encircling the deceased king, Aker sealed the deceased away from the breath of the snake demons. Another earth deity, who joined and promoted Akers work, was Geb, thus, Aker was connected with Geb. In other spells and prayers, Aker is connected with Seth and this is interesting, because Seth is described as a wind deity, not as an earth deity. In the famous Coffin Texts of Middle Kingdom period, Aker replaces the god Kherty, Aker protects the sun god during his nocturnal travelling through the underworld caverns. In other underworld scenes, Aker carries the nocturnal bark of Ra, during his journey, in which Aker is asked to hide the body of the dead Osiris beneath his womb, Aker is protected by the god Geb
37.
Ammit
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Ammit was a female demon in ancient Egyptian religion with a body that was part lion, hippopotamus and crocodile—the three largest man-eating animals known to ancient Egyptians. A funerary deity, her titles included Devourer of the Dead, Eater of Hearts, Ammit lived near the scales of justice in Duat, the Egyptian underworld. In the Hall of Two Truths, Anubis weighed the heart of a person against the feather of Maat, the goddess of truth, which was depicted as an ostrich feather. If the heart was judged to be not pure, Ammit would devour it, once Ammit swallowed the heart, the soul was believed to become restless forever, this was called to die a second time. Ammit was also said to stand by a lake of fire. In some traditions, the hearts were cast into the fiery lake to be destroyed. Some scholars believe Ammit and the lake represent the concept of destruction. Ammit was not worshipped, instead she embodied all that the Egyptians feared, Ammit has been linked with the goddess Tawaret, who has a similar physical appearance and, as a companion of Bes, also protected others from evil. Other authors have noted that Ammits lion characteristics, and the lake of fire, the relation to afterlife punishment and lake of fire location are also shared with the baboon deity Babi. Ammit was made male as a character in the Palladium RPG, a monster of the same name is also a card in Yu-Gi-Oh. In addition, Ammit also intermittenly appears in The Kane Chronicles, in the book series, Ammit follows suit as the original myths, being the servant and companion of Anubis. Ammit is also featured in the Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris video game, Ammit Cryearth is a Grimoire in form of a hand mirror that reflects the true form of the holder, it appears in BlazBlue, Remix Heart manga. Book of the Dead Media related to Ammit at Wikimedia Commons
38.
Anat
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Anat or Anath is a major northwest Semitic goddess. In the Ugaritic Ba‘al/Hadad cycle ‘Anat is a violent war-goddess, a virgin who is the sister and, according to a disputed theory. Ba‘al is usually called the son of Dagan and sometimes the son of El, ‘Anats titles used again and again are virgin ‘Anat and sister-in-law of the peoples. Her character in this passage anticipates her subsequent warlike role against the enemies of Baal. the daughter of El. Later, when Ba‘al is believed to be dead, she seeks after Ba‘al like a cow for its calf and finds his body and buries it with great sacrifices and weeping. Text CTA10 tells how ‘Anat seeks after Ba‘al who is out hunting, finds him, following the birth she brings the new calf to Ba‘al on Mount Zephon. Nowhere in these texts is ‘Anat explicitly Ba‘al Hadads consort, to judge from later traditions ‘Athtart is more likely to be Ba‘al Hadads consort. Complicating matters is that northwest Semitic culture permitted more than one wife and he then added to this insult by asking what would a woman do with a bow. Like Inanna in the Epic of Gilgamesh, ‘Anat complained to El, ‘Anat launched her attendant Yatpan in hawk form against Aqhat to knock the breath out of him and to steal the bow back. Her plan succeeds, but Aqhat is killed instead of merely beaten, in her rage against Yatpan, Yatpan runs away and the bow and arrows fall into the sea. ‘Anat mourned for Aqhat and for the curse that this act would bring upon the land, the focus of the story then turns to Paghat, the wise younger sister of Aqhat. She sets off to avenge her brothers death and to restore the land which has been devastated by drought as a result of the murder. It breaks at a dramatic moment when Paghat discovers that the mercenary whom she has hired to help her avenge the death is, in fact, Yatpan. The parallels between the story of ‘Anat and her revenge on Mot for the killing of her brother are obvious, in the end, the seasonal myth is played out on the human level. Gibson thinks Rahmay, co-wife of El with Athirat, is also the goddess ‘Anat, use of dual names of deities in Ugaritic poetry are an essential part of the verse form, and that two names for the same deity are traditionally mentioned in parallel lines. In the same way, Athirat is called Elath in paired couplets, the poetic structure can also be seen in early Hebrew verse forms. Anat first appears in Egypt in the 16th dynasty along with other northwest Semitic deities and she was especially worshiped in her aspect of a war goddess, often paired with the goddess Ashtart. In the Contest Between Horus and Set, these two appear as daughters of Re and are given as allies to the god Set
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Andjety
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Andjety is an Ancient Egyptian deity whose name is associated with the city of Andjet, which in the Greek language was called Busiris. This deity is known by the alternative names Anezti or Anedjti. Andjety is considered one of the earliest Egyptian gods, possibly with roots in Predynastic Egypt, Andjety is thought to have been a precursor of Osiris. Like Osiris he is depicted holding the crook and flail and has a similar to Osiriss Atef crown. King Sneferu of the 4th dynasty, builder of the first true pyramid, is wearing the crown of Andjety. In the Pyramid texts the power is associated with Andjety. In the temple of Seti I the king is offering incense to Osiris-Andjety who is accompanied by Isis. I immerse the waterways as Osiris, Lord of corruption, as Adjety, horus has revived you in this your name of Andjety
40.
Anhur
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In early Egyptian mythology, Anhur was originally a god of war who was worshipped in the Egyptian area of Abydos, and particularly in Thinis. Myths told that he had brought his wife, Mehit, who was his counterpart, from Nubia. One of his titles was Slayer of Enemies, Anhur was depicted as a bearded man wearing a robe and a headdress with four feathers, holding a spear or lance, or occasionally as a lion-headed god. In some depictions, the robe was more similar to a kilt, due to his position as a war god, he was patron of the ancient Egyptian army, and the personification of royal warriors. Indeed, at festivals honoring him, mock battles were staged, during the Roman era the Emperor Tiberius was depicted on the walls of Egyptian temples wearing the distinctive four-plumed crown of Anhur. The Greeks equated Anhur to their god of war, Ares, in the legend of Olympian gods fleeing from Typhon and taking animal form in Egypt, Ares was said to have taken the form of a fish as Lepidotus or Onuris. Anhurs name also could mean Sky Bearer and, due to the headdress, Anhur was later identified with Shu. He is the son of Ra and brother of Bastet if identified as Shu, amenhotep, from the time of Thutmose IV. Amenhoteps wife Henut was a songstress of Anhur and their sons Hat and Kenna were Chariot Warriors of His Majesty. Known from a now in the British Museum. Nebwenenef High Priest of Anhur during the reign of Sety I, was appointed High Priest of Amun in the beginning of the reign of Ramesses II. Hori Minmose, son of the High Priest of Anhur Hori, from the reign of Ramesses II. Anhurmose, from the time of Merenptah, sishepset, from the time of Ramesses III Harsiese, mentioned on an ostracon in Abydos Anhur is a playable character in the multiplayer online battle arena, SMITE. Anhur is a hunter and bears title the Slayer of Enemies and is shown in his lion form maintaining his beard, robe, Anhur is also a chaotic god in the computer game NetHack/SlashEM. Onuris has a role in the 2012 fantasy novel The Serpents Shadow as a presumed dead god who is revived in order to destroy the Lord of Chaos
41.
Anput
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Anput is a goddess in ancient Egyptian religion. Her name is also rendered Input, Inpewt and Yineput and her name is written in hieroglyphs as inpwt. Her name is the version of the name of her husband. She was the goddess of funerals and mummification, the mother of Kebechet and she was depicted as a woman wearing a standard topped by a jackal, or as a large black dog or jackal. Probably the most notable example is that of the triad of Menkaure, Hathor and she was occasionally depicted as a woman with the head of a jackal, but this is very rare. Anput is a counterpart of the god Anubis. She is also a goddess of the nome of Upper Egypt
42.
Anubis
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Anubis or Anpu is the Greek name of a god associated with mummification and the afterlife in ancient Egyptian religion, usually depicted as a canine or a man with a canine head. Like many ancient Egyptian deities, Anubis assumed different roles in various contexts, depicted as a protector of graves as early as the First Dynasty, Anubis was also an embalmer. By the Middle Kingdom he was replaced by Osiris in his role as lord of the underworld, one of his prominent roles was as a god who ushered souls into the afterlife. He attended the weighing scale during the Weighing of the Heart, despite being one of the most ancient and one of the most frequently depicted and mentioned gods in the Egyptian pantheon, Anubis played almost no role in Egyptian myths. Anubis was depicted in black, a color that symbolized both rebirth and the discoloration of the corpse after embalming, Anubis is associated with Wepwawet, another Egyptian god portrayed with a dogs head or in canine form, but with grey or white fur. Historians assume that the two figures were eventually combined and his daughter is the serpent goddess Kebechet. Anubis is a Greek rendering of this gods Egyptian name, in Egypts Early Dynastic period, Anubis was portrayed in full animal form, with a jackal head and body. A jackal god, probably Anubis, is depicted in stone inscriptions from the reigns of Hor-Aha, Djer, the oldest known textual mention of Anubis is in the Pyramid Texts of the Old Kingdom, where he is associated with the burial of the pharaoh. In the Old Kingdom, Anubis was the most important god of the dead and he was replaced in that role by Osiris during the Middle Kingdom. In the Roman era, which started in 30 BC, tomb paintings depict him holding the hand of deceased persons to them to Osiris. The parentage of Anubis varied between myths, times and sources, in early mythology, he was portrayed as a son of Ra. In the Coffin Texts, which were written in the First Intermediate Period, another tradition depicted him as the son of his father Ra and mother Nephthys. George Hart sees this story as an attempt to incorporate the independent deity Anubis into the Osirian pantheon, an Egyptian papyrus from the Roman period simply called Anubis the son of Isis. In the Ptolemaic period, when Egypt became a Hellenistic kingdom ruled by Greek pharaohs, Anubis was merged with the Greek god Hermes, the two gods were considered similar because they both guided souls to the afterlife. The center of this cult was in uten-ha/Sa-ka/ Cynopolis, a place whose Greek name means city of dogs, in Book XI of The Golden Ass by Apuleius, there is evidence that the worship of this god was continued in Rome through at least the 2nd century. Indeed, Hermanubis also appears in the alchemical and hermetical literature of the Middle Ages, in contrast to real wolves, Anubis was a protector of graves and cemeteries. Several epithets attached to his name in Egyptian texts and inscriptions referred to that role, the Jumilhac papyrus recounts another tale where Anubis protected the body of Osiris from Set. Set attempted to attack the body of Osiris by transforming himself into a leopard, Anubis stopped and subdued Set, however, and he branded Sets skin with a hot iron rod
