Egyptian gods guide the human race to paradise. They had human forms but were much more powerful.

Egyptians belief system was part totemism, polytheism, and part ancestor worship.

Many of their gods lived invisibly in the mortal world while acting through sacred things.

In Egypt not everyone believed in or worshipped the same gods.

Local areas, nomes, sometimes had special gods only known by that region.

Each god had 5 names associated with an element, celestial bodies, or a descritve statement about the god.

Amaunet- female counterpart to Amon

Amon- associated with wind and hidden things; became known as Amon-Re at Thebes

Re- sun god; becomes a national god and combined with Amon in the 5th Dynasty

Nut- mother of sun, moon heavenly bodies

Min- god of fertility joined together with Amon and Horus

Horus- sky-god; 1 of the earliest royal gods; the great sphinx is considered to be of him

Isis- mother of Horus, sister and companion of Osiris

There are many other gods also worshiped in Egypt.

Priests were directly under the king in religious matters because their duty was to take care of the images of the gods.

They prepared the statues or images for religious festivals.

Later on they were considered the voices of the oracles, and oracles were thought to be the peak decision of the gods.

Priests were thought to be what one would consider a wizard. They were hardly ever by people, excluding the king, unless reading texts of performing rituals.

In pre-dynastic times kings were thought to be gods. By the 3rd Dynasty kinfgs supposedly became transformed into gods.

Future kings had 2 aspects to themselves:

1. his physical being

2. his “ka”/ spiritual counterpart

1st Dynasty- the king Menes united upper and lower Egypt. At the capital Memphis he dedicated a temple to the god Ptah. All beliefs at that time were altered to coordinate this and almost all myths about gods came from this.

“Egyptian Mythology.” Egypt: Gods of Ancient Egypt Main Menu. 1996. http://ww.touregypt.net/gods1.htm (6 Oct. 2005).