Gods

Topics in this section:	religion in ancient egypt | gods and goddesses | the afterlife | mummification | astronomy | the temple | funerary texts

Religion in ancient Egypt was an important part of everyday life. Priests attended daily to the needs of the gods, (who were thought to be manifested in their cult images), made offerings to them, and thus kept the forces of chaos at bay. Distinctions were sometimes made between the important state gods, such as Horus or Isis, and the local and "household" deities, such as Bes and Tawaret. However in practice, the only major difference between these gods and deities seems to be the lack of cult places and temples dedicated to the local and household deities. State religion tended to focus on the concerns of the state and kingship, whereas local and household deities seem to have been popular with individual ordinary Egyptians.

Most Egyptian gods and goddesses began their "lives" simply as local deities, with a specific town or village as being their cult centre.

Throughout the vast and complex history of Egypt, the dominant beliefs of the ancient Egyptians merged and mutated as leaders of different groups in  separate areas of the country would gain power. This process continued even after the end of the ancient Egyptian civilisation as we know it today. During the New Kingdom for instance, the separate deities of Re and Amun commonly "merged" (typically referred to as syncretism) to became known as Amun-Re. Even when taking part in such a syncretic relationship, the original god did not necessarily become completely "absorbed" into the combined deity.

Here we've compiled a list of some of the ancient Egyptian primary deities:

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	Amun/Amun Re Depicted as a man, and often shown seated on a throne, wearing a plain deep circlet headdress from which rise two tall straight plumes. One of the most important gods in the Egyptian pantheon, his name means "the hidden one". He is first mentioned in the 5th Dynasty pyramid texts and was originally thought to be simply a veneration of the concept of air and wind, one of the four fundamental concepts believed to have composed the primordial universe in the Ogdoad cosmogeny.  Gradually as a god of air, he came to be associated with the breath of life which created the ba, and as a creator god was titled "father of the gods". The temple of Amun at Karnak is the best surviving religious complex of the New Kingdom. In the jubilee chapel of Senusret I (1965-1920 BC) in Karnak, Amun is described as "the king of the gods" and by the time of the Ptolemies, he was regarded as the Egyptian equivalent of Zeus.
	Anubis Canine god of the dead, closely associated with embalming and mummification. Originally the god of the dead before Osiris became associated with the position. Anubis then became known as one of the sons of Osiris and the "conductor of souls" of the underworld. In the Old Kingdom pyramid texts of Unas, his role was already very clear - he was associated with the Eye of Horus and he was already thought to be the guide of the dead in the afterlife. Usually represented in the form of a seated black jackal-like dog or man with a black dog's head. It is still not entirely clear whether the dog in question - often identified by the Egyptian word "sab" was indeed a jackal. The deep black colour of Anubis's head (or body when shown in complete animal form) is not reflective of his actual colour but is instead symbolic of his position as a funerary deity. According to myth, the jackal-god was said to have wrapped the body of the deceased Osiris, thus establishing his particular association with the mummification process. The priest in charge of the funeral and embalming rights was known as the "hery seshta" (overseer of the mysteries), who took the part of the jackal god Anubis.
	Aten (sun disc) The 18th dynasty pharaoh Amenhotep IV took the name Akhenaten, built a new capital in Middle Egypt and declared that just a single deity should be worshipped - the sun disk Aten. Having no human form, the Aten was depicted with arm-like rays that ended in hands, bestowing life and peace to all. Akhenaten was a philosopher and a thinker. His father Amenhotep III had recognised the growing power of the priesthood of Amun and had sought to curb it - Akhenaten however took matters a lot further by introducing the new "monothesitic" cult of worship to the sun-disc Aten. This was not a new idea, as a minor aspect of the sun god Ra-Horakty, the Aten had been somewhat venerated in the Old Kingdom. Art took on a new distinctive style and the names of other deities were removed from temple walls in an attempt to reinforce the idea of the Aten as a single supreme deity. After the king's death the cult collapsed, and the capital Akhetaten was abandoned. Religious and political life relocated back to Thebes, and the cult of Amun was re-instated by the rule of Tutankhamun.
	Atum Creator god and solar deity of Heliopolis, where he was gradually combined with the sun god Re to become Re-Atum. In the creation myths, Atum is the primal creator. He arose on a mound out of Nun, the waters of chaos, and created the first gods, Shu and Tefnut from his spittle. The Memphite creation myth puts him as the first creation of Ptah, who simply said his name and he came into being. Atum was revered not only as the father of the gods but also as the father of the pharaohs. The title "Son of Atum" was included in the many titles of pharaoh. As such, he was regarded as a protective deity, particularly associated with the rituals of kingship. Atum lifted the dead king from his pyramid to the heavens in order to transform him into a star-god, and in later times he protected the deceased during their journey through the underworld.
	Bast/Bastet Cat goddess and local deity of the town of Bubastis, whose name means "she of the bast" (ointment jar). In her earliest known form, carved on stone vessels of the 2nd Dynasty ruler Hetepsekhemwy (c.2890 BC) at Saqqara, Bastet was represented as a woman with the head of a lioness or desert cat, frequently holding both the ankh sign and a sceptre. By the 1st Millennium BC she was widely portrayed as a cat-headed woman often carrying a sistrum (rattle) and accompanied by kittens. To those who were in her favour, she could bestow great blessings, but her wrath was legendary and she was sometimes listed as one of Re's avenging deities who punish the sinful and the enemies of Egypt. It was only in the New Kingdom that she was seen to become a more benevolent deity, adopting the head of a "domestic" cat. Closely connected (and often confused) with Sekhmet, although distinctly separate deities, Bast was a goddess from Lower Egypt whilst Sekhmet came from Upper Egypt.
	Bes A dwarf demi-god, Bes evolved to became a protector against evil spirits and misfortune. He was depicted in a sometimes androgyne way, with a full face, a bearded large head, bow legs and sometimes even a bushy tail. He would scare off any harmful or destructive influences by making a lot of noise with various musical instruments such as the sistrum, and armaments such as swords and knives. He was closely associated with Tawaret as a midwife, and as protector of the royal house, he became a very popular household deity.
	Geb Geb was thought to represent the earth, he is often seen reclining beneath the sky goddess Nut. Geb was called "the great cackler" because it was thought his laughter could bring on earthquakes. He was often depicted lying on the ground under the sky goddess Nut, or with a goose over his head. It was in this form that he was said to have laid the egg from which the sun was hatched. A fundamental deity of the divine ennead, Geb was the brother of Nut the sky goddess, and together they produced Osiris, Isis, Nepthys and Seth. The royal throne of Egypt was known as the "throne of Geb" in honour of his great reign.
	Hathor Important goddess generally worshiped in three forms: as a woman with the ears of a cow, or simply as a cow, or as a woman wearing a head-dress with wig, horns and sun disc. Hathor was an old protector of music, dancing and love, and being associated with the cow was considered to be the wife of the sacred bull Buchis of Armant, personifying fertility and motherhood. As such her popularity was unbroken during the whole Egyptian history. She and Horus protected the royal couple and she attended at the arrival of the dead king into the next world. Her associations and cult centres were among the most numerous and diverse of any of the Egyptian deities. The literal meaning of her name was "House of Horus" and since the pharaoh identified with Horus, Hathor was correspondingly regarded as the divine mother of each reigning king, and one of the royal titles was "Son of Hathor".
	Hapy/Hapi Androgynous (asexual) god of the Inundation (yearly flood), usually represented as a pot bellied man with pendulous breasts and a head-dress formed of aquatic plants. He was sometimes coloured blue, black or green to represent the mud from the Nile, and shown offering fruits and flowers and carrying the lotus and the papyrus, the symbols of Upper and Lower Egypt respectively. These attributes were designed to represent fertility and the abundance of produce resulting from the Nile silt left by the receding waters of the river after the Inundation. Common epithets for Hapy include "master of the river bringing vegetation" and "lord of the fishes and birds of the marshes". Although the flood was the source of the country's wealth and prosperity, no temples or sanctuaries were built specifically in honour of Hapy. Note: not to be confused with the baboon Hapy, one of the "four sons of Horus" who protected the deceased's entrails that were stored in canopic jars after mummification.
	Horus Falcon headed god, usually depicted as a man with the head of a falcon. Many falcon gods existed throughout Egypt, though over time a good number of these were assimilated into Horus, the most important. Horus was an early sky and solar god from Upper Egypt, worshipped before the unification, and one of the oldest gods in the Egyptian mythology. As the god of the sky and the embodiment of divine kingship, Horus was the protector of the reigning pharaoh. According to one of the most common myths, Horus was the child of the goddess Isis and the god Osiris. It was Horus who performed the rite of the "opening of the mouth" on his dead father, thus legitimising his succession to the throne as an earthly ruler. In a similar vein, priests (or eldest sons) wearing distinctive panther skins would ritually purify the path of the deceased's coffin.
	Isis She was the daughter of Nut and Geb, the sister and wife to Osiris, and the mother of Horus. Best known mythologically as the devoted wife of Osiris, whose body she sought, after his murder by his brother Seth. She is said to have made the first mummy from the dismembered limbs of Osiris, using her wings to breathe life into him and magically conceiving her son, Horus in the process. Her most famous temple is Philae near Aswan, but she was also widely worshipped universally, with cult centres at Dendera and Byblos in Syria-Palestine. As the major goddess of the Egyptian pantheon, Isis had many of the same attributes of other mother-goddesses, and was revered as the great protector, prayed to for guidance, and beseeched for peace. In addition to her temples that were found throughout Egypt, many houses also had shrines to her devotion, and her worship was even taken up by the Greeks and the Romans.
	Khepri The creator sun-god at dawn is represented by a scarab (dung) beetle pushing the sun disc upwards from the underworld. The Ancient Egyptians would have noticed the dung beetles busily rolling their balls of dirt across the ground. The beetles would lay their eggs in the dung balls, and emerge from inside them, apparently spontaneously, so it was quite logical for the Egyptians to use the beetles to symbolise Khepri "he who is coming into being", self created of his own accord without undergoing the natural cycle of reproduction. Khepri, in the form of a gigantic scarab, would roll the sun like a huge ball across the sky, then roll it down through the underworld to the eastern horizon. Each morning Khepri would renew the sun so that it could give life to all the world. As a deity closely associated with resurrection, Khepri was believed to be swallowed by Nut the sky goddess every evening, where he would pass through her body to be reborn in the morning.
	Khnum The ram headed god, whose strong association with the Nile inundation and the fertile soil contributed to his role as a potter-god. The creative symbolism of moulding pottery, the potency of the ram, and the fact that the Ancient Egyptian word for ram was "ba" meant that Khnum was also one of the principle creator gods. The Egyptians believed that the ram was a very potent animal, and thus Khnum was linked to fertility. He was also thought to help Re travel through the underworld each night on his solar barque. Sometimes Khnum was shown modelling the "ka" on his potter's wheel whilst forming the bodies of humanity. Khnum's principal cult centre was on the island of Elephantine at Aswan, where he was possibly worshipped from the Early Dynastic Period.
	Ma'at Goddess personifying truth, justice and the harmony of the universe. Usually portrayed as a seated woman with an ostrich feather, or sometimes simply as a feather, Ma'at represented the divine order of the universe as originally brought into being at the moment of creation. Ma'at's power was believed to regulate the seasons, movement of the stars and the relations between mankind and the gods. Ma'at was an integral part of the "weighing of the heart" ceremony where the heart of the deceased sits in one of the trays on the balance scales. The heart is weighed against either Ma'at or her feather, and if the scales balance then the deceased may enter the "field of reeds" and enjoy the afterlife.
	Nephthys Goddess of the Heliopolitan "Ennead". Her distinctive head-dress is in fact the heiroglyphs of her name, "neb-hut" meaning "Lady of the Mansion". She was usually said to have been the sister of Isis and Osiris and wife of the "evil" god Seth. Despite being the wife of Seth, she was seen as a loyal sister to Isis and Osiris, helping Isis to gather Osiris' scattered limbs in an attempt to bring him back to life. As such, Nephthys became associated with the dead, becoming a friend of the deceased. She offered guidance to the newly dead, and comfort to the family of the one who died, and in later tradition was regarded as the mother of Anubis from a union with Osiris. She was often depicted as a winged goddess, and sometimes in the form of a bird, making her a solar deity, as well as a deity of the dead. Nephthys was worshipped widely throughout all of Egypt, though unlike her sister Isis, she had no formal temple or cult.
	Nut Sky-goddess, (shown side-on) whose body symbolised the sky and heavens. Nut was the daughter of Shu and Tefnut, and united with her brother Geb, gave birth to Osiris, Isis, Seth and Nephthys. Nut's body was thought to be arched over the earth, with her arms and legs the pillars of the sky, and her hands and feet thought to touch the four cardinal points at the horizon. Every evening she swallowed the setting sun, Re, and every morning gave birth to him again. Depictions of this act are often found on the ceilings of temples, as well as in the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings, where they are accompanied on the walls by the nightly journey of the sun through the underworld.
	Osiris One of the most important deities of Ancient Egypt, whose principle association is with death, resurrection and fertility. He is usually depicted as a mummy whose hands project through his wrappings to hold the royal insignia of the crook and flail. Osiris was once an earthly ruler who governed well, and so aroused the jealousy of his evil brother Seth. Seth secretly discovered the measurements of his brother's body, had a magnificent casket made to fit Osiris, and organised a banquet to which he invited 72 accomplices as well as Osiris. During the feast he declared that whoever fitted the casket exactly should have it as a gift. Osiris stepped into the coffin and the lid was sealed with molten lead. Cast into the Nile it drifted to Byblos and caught in a cedar tree. Seth stumbled on the casket and angrily dismembered the body of his brother. Isis then searched for the pieces of her husband, and reassembled the body into a mummy, magically conceived Horus, who was said to have  avenged his father's death in a series of contests with his uncle. According to the myths, these struggles lasted for eighty years until Osiris was finally declared ruler of the underworld and Horus confirmed as ruler of the living, leaving Seth to rule the deserts as the god of chaos and evil.
	Ptah Creator god of Memphis, usually portrayed as a mummy with a tassle and a distinctive skull cap. His hands emerge from wrappings in front of his body holding a staff that combines the "djed" pillar, the "ankh" sign and "was" sceptre. From the Middle Kingdom (2055-1650 BC) onwards,  Ptah was represented with a straight beard. It was Ptah who was credited with having devised the "opening of the mouth" ceremony. Although associated predominantly with Memphis, Ptah is a universal deity found on all major sites in Egypt and Nubia.
	Re The old solar-god from Heliopolis and a major deity all over Egypt. He would travel across the sky every day in his solar barque with his life-giving sun disc. He stood for life, rebirth and was usually represented as a hawk-headed human figure wearing a sun-disc headdress. Re exerted such a strong influence on the rest of the Egyptian pantheon that virtually all of the most significant deities were eventually subsumed into the sun-cult by a process of "syncretism", thus Amun became Amun-Re and Horus became Re-Horakhty. It was during the reign of Akhenaten (1352-1336 BC)  that the concept of the sun god as a universal deity into whom all other deities could be absorbed took place. The "aten" (disc) is represented as a sun-disc from which arms stretch down, offering life and power to the royal family and is perhaps most famously portrayed upon the art and treasures of Tutankhamun.
	Sekhmet The popular goddess of war, usually depicted as a woman with the head of a lioness and sometimes with the sun disc and/or a cobra on top of her head. She was the sister and wife of Ptah, and was created by the fire of Re's eye as a weapon of vengeance to destroy mankind for their wicked ways and disobedience to him. In order to placate Sekhmet's wrath, her priesthood performed a ritual before a different statue of her on each day of the year. It was said that her priests protected her statues by coating them with anthrax, and so she became associated as a bringer of disease, and placating her was thought to cure such ills. The name "Sekhmet" literally became synonymous with doctors and surgeons during the Middle Kingdom.
	Seshat The goddess of writing and measurement, usually represented as a woman in a long panther skin dress and wearing a head-dress with a distinctive seven pointed star underneath a bow. Reliefs from the Old and Middle Kingdoms show her recording quantities of foreign captives and booty. As the divine measurer and scribe, she was believed to assist pharaoh in both these practices. Seshat recorded, by notching her palm, the time allotted to him by the gods for his stay on earth, and during the New Kingdom, she was involved in pharaoh's jubilee "sed" festival. She also assisted the pharaoh in the "Pedj Shes" ritual (literally "stretching the cord" which was a ceremony performed to work out the correct alignment for building temples), as well as recording the speeches made during crowning.
	Seth/Set Originally a local god of storms from upper Egypt, he evolved into the god of chaos and confusion, generally depicted with a human body and the head of a mysterious unknown animal, probably a mythical beast. Seth was the son of the sky-goddess Nut and the brother of Osiris, Isis and Nephthys (who was also his wife). According to the legend, Seth murdered his brother Osiris and was involved in a long and violent contest with his nephew Horus who sought to avenge the death of his father. Laying outside the "ordered universe" governed by Horus (ruler of the living) and Osiris (ruler of the underworld), Seth served as the necessary complement to divine order. In the New Kingdom he gained prominence when several rulers took his name - Seti.
	Sobek Crocodile god, either portrayed as a crocodile (often on a shrine or altar) or as a man with a crocodile's head, often wearing an elaborate head-dress consisting of the horned sun-disc and upright feathers. Originally a demon, as crocodiles were such feared creatures in a nation so dependent on the Nile, his worship began as an attempt to pacify the crocodile and so reduce the danger it posed. Gradually Sobek came to symbolise the produce of the Nile, and the fertility that it brought to the land, and so his status quickly became more ambiguous. Sometimes the ferocity of a crocodile was seen in a positive light, and such, Sobek was considered a patron of the army, representing strength and power. During the 12th and 13th Dynasties, the cult of Sobek was given particular prominence, as the names of such rulers as Sobekhotep and Sobekneferu indicate.
	Tawaret Household deity in the form of a female hippopotamus who was particularly associated with the protection of women in childbirth. Since childbirth was a particularly dangerous time in the lives of ordinary people, it is not surprising that Tawaret was one of the most popular household deities from the Old Kingdom onwards. She was often shown holding the "sa" hieroglyph of protection or the ankh hieroglyph of life. She was thought to assist women in labour by using magic to scare off demons and evil spirits that might harm the vulnerable mother or child.
	Thoth God of writing and knowledge, depicted in the form of two animals: the baboon and the sacred ibis. By the end of the Old Kingdom he was most frequently portrayed as an ibis-headed man, usually holding a scribal palette and a pen or a notched palm leaf. He was also often shown recording the results of the "weighing of the heart" of the deceased, and sometimes in addition, he is shown as a baboon perched on top of the scales. Thoth was a lunar deity and is often depicted wearing the lunar crescent on his head. Worshipped widely throughout all of Egypt, his cult centre was Hermopolis.