Egyptian Gods And Monotheism, a review of some Egyptian deities. Options

To our eyes the monotheism of ancient Egyptian religion has all the appearances of fetishism,that is not true,However it should be recognized that the innumerable Gods of the egyptian pantheon are nothing more than manifestations of the supreme being in his different roles,agents or representations of the eternal aspect of divinity this is the meaning which must be attached to the cult of the sun,of the earth and of every cult,the Totemic animal gods of Egypt,refer to existance in its every form you can think of.the key concept is that (everything is sacred),every God and Godess reffer to an aspect of the universe,for example The Ibis God thot represent the aspects of wisdom,science,language,and astronomy as well as medical sciences.

In this thread I will view some of the Gods and Goddesses of Egypt and the aspect they represent along with pictures of the Deities :

Re or Raa :
The solar sun Disk God,the source of creation,and the raw material of all the Gods living beings and planets and life as we know it

Amon or amun :

he symbolized the generative force of creation in which from the light of Raa the whole universe was created by the the power of merging amon with Raa

(IMG:http://www.geocities.com/miss_gothica_bizzara/egypt/amun.JPG)

Osiris :
The God of the after world who was the God of the moon before he was killed by his brother seth,he is the husband and brother of Isis and the teacher of mankind ,he has the plummed crown with two feathers on its side,he taught agriculture.his task before his assasination was to show mankind survival and teach and lead them.when he was killed by seth ,he was sent to the underworld to judge over the dead.he is the male fertilizing force,the seed and the tree of life.
(IMG:http://hstrial-cmorrow8.homestead.com/osiris16_351174431_std.jpg)

Isis :
she is the loyal wife of osiris and the godess of,Magick, creation and restorer of the dead,her crown is the throne of Egypt,
The loyal wife of Osiris,she is the mother of Horus.
(IMG:http://www.touregypt.net/magazine/mag08012001/isis3.jpg)
(IMG:http://z.about.com/d/ancienthistory/1/7/z/j/2/Isis.jpg)

Horus :
The Falcon God ,Son of Isis and Osiris,was born after a ray of light from Osiris empregnated Isis,he is the protector of Kemet,and the Rightful king of egypt,there are many versions of Horus (as a matter of fact these are his children),he takes many forms Horus the elder,horus the son,which one of his names is Harakhte(crown of a serpent and solar disk) but horus the elder's symbol is the unfied crown of Upper and lower egypt.he is the avenger of Osiris,Each morning he is reborn from the western lands (the underworld) to fight Seth and goes back to the underworld at sunset,he represents the power of Goodness as apposed to the evil.his birth is announced by the rise of star Sirius in the eastern sky.
(IMG:http://matematika.mingl.org/images/imagesforworksheets/horus.jpg)

Nuit :
The Mother,the body of stars,she is the sky in the ancient tradition,she arches over Geb (the earth God) and is supported by (tefnut and shu),Nuit was joined with Geb in an endless intercourse,resulting in what is called premordial Chaos,she was separated by Shu (air) and Tefnut(movement,fire).
(IMG:http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Delphi/2093/nut.jpg)

Geb:
The earth God,sometimes called the father of snakes,he is the generative power of agriculture and vegetation.his phalus pointing towards the sky (Nuit).
(IMG:http://www.crystalinks.com/geb2.gif)


Anubis:
The God of mumification,he has the body of a human and the head of a jackal,sometimes the whole body of the jackal,he accompanies the ka of the dead to the western land where it will get its final judgment and either,go to Lalu (the egyptian paradise) or fall into the pit of fire where it will be devoured by Demonic entities.
anubis also have the power to raise the dead,he is a guard of the gates of Duat.
(IMG:http://interlost.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/anubis.jpg)


Thoth:
the God of wisdom,knowledge and keeper of the divine secrets,he has the head of an Ibis,with a human body,he gives knowledge of all sciences,medical science,astronomy,the virtues of Herbs and plants,and acts as the greek Hermes ,as the messenger of the Gods to humans,he aided Horus in his war with seth,where seth took of the eye of Horus and it was broken,Thoth gave Horus the sun and the moon as his immortal eyes.
(IMG:http://www.brandonu.ca/academic/arts/Departments/English/Kramer/Images/thoth_01.jpg)



Maat:
The Goddess of Divine justice,law and morality,she is the Goddess of Order and the preventor of Chaos,she is personified by a feather,the same feather which is measured with the heart of the dead in the final judgement.
(IMG:http://showcase.netins.net/web/ankh/maat.gif)



Hathoor :
the Goddess of female fertility and love,she personified by the cow,sometimes a human female with Horns holding the solar disk.Her cult is present in Dandera,she was identified as the queen of the necropolis.
(IMG:http://www.kenseamedia.com/egyptian_gods/images/hathor_sky_cow.jpg)
(IMG:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/Hathor-Meyers.png)


Seth:
The God of darkness,Chaos and hostility,he is personified by a monsterous animal,looking like an ass or a dog,he killed his brother Osiris by persuading him to perform the ceremony of Death and mumification,he then cut his body to pieces and distributed them among all the providences of egypt.he fights every day Horus which sworn to avenge his father.
seth is one of the ennead of heliopolis which features nine Gods,which features Geb,Nuit,Isis,Osiris and seth as well as others.
(IMG:http://www.artyfactory.org/egyptian_art/egyptian_gods/images/seth.jpg)


Sekhmet:
The lioness goddess of war, distruction and divine vengence,she is the wrath of Raa ,According to a tale known as "The Destruction of Mankind" Sakhmet was the "Eye of Re", a vengeful aspect of the usually benevolent goddess Hathor. The sun god Re sent Sakhmet to slay mortals who were plotting against him. Sakhmet became so enthusiastic about her task that she nearly slew all of humanity. Re prevented this by tricking her into drinking vast quantities of beer which had been colored to look like blood. The intoxicated goddess had to abandon the slaughter and humanity was saved.
(IMG:http://www.hwt-hrw.com/Sekhmet.GIF)



I gave a basic review of the Egyptian pantheon,not all the Gods are present here nor all the information,as they are many,but i will try to post the rest when i can.

hope you find thi information useful

May the eternal Falcon watch over you
Azareth

As far as I know the Egyptian religion was / is Pantheistic with Amon being the Supreme God.
Akhenaten's rule was short and unpopular, immediately following his reign the Egyptians converted back to Pantheism.

As for Akhenaten's monotheism, I cannot help but view it as the forerunner to the Abrahamic religions that came later through Moses.

This post has been edited by Ankhhape: Apr 25 2009, 02:08 PM

As far as I know the Egyptian religion was / is Pantheistic with Amon being the Supreme God.
Akhenaten's rule was short and unpopular, immediately following his reign the Egyptians converted back to Pantheism.

As for Akhenaten's monotheism, I cannot help but view it as the forerunner to the Abrahamic religions that came later through Moses.

http://egregores.blogspot.com/2009/09/akhe...history-of.html

Here is one blogger's take on Akhenaten and his role in the development on monotheism. His blog is sometimes interesting on religious history and philosophy.

.lol. At that archaeologist, the guy blind sides people on a constant basis, a stifling bias exists out there. The Arabs defeated the 'egyptians' in the 600's and took to much of the north of Africa from there where much of the culture was the same as it is throughout Africa, theology now downplayed as ''shamanic'' and primitive perpetuating a further bias. The Arab - African war has continued to this day in places like Sudan and further south where again much of the culture still exists.

Would be interesting to hear someone explain how 'egypt' was ever Polytheistic. They had a main God and its name is mentioned in texts if its looked for... hold that there are NO truly polythiestic cultures in the world and there never has been, all deity ties back to an original source residing within a well of inspiration there may have been a deity of a particular nome that was worked with but again it quite simply had to tie back to a source through which they were all united.

.lol. At that archaeologist, the guy blind sides people on a constant basis, a stifling bias exists out there. The Arabs defeated the 'egyptians' in the 600's and took to much of the north of Africa from there where much of the culture was the same as it is throughout Africa, theology now downplayed as ''shamanic'' and primitive perpetuating a further bias. The Arab - African war has continued to this day in places like Sudan and further south where again much of the culture still exists.

Would be interesting to hear someone explain how 'egypt' was ever Polytheistic. They had a main God and its name is mentioned in texts if its looked for... hold that there are NO truly polythiestic cultures in the world and there never has been, all deity ties back to an original source residing within a well of inspiration there may have been a deity of a particular nome that was worked with but again it quite simply had to tie back to a source through which they were all united.

My understanding is that Egypt was 'Pantheistic' meaning there was One God created (Amon) from which the other Gods descended from. Certain Gods manifest to the physical plane and become available to Mankind.

Urgh.... guess those old priests are rubbing off on me.

Yeah, theres Amon but if you look ''it'' mentions its name... difficult talking through a 4000 year period as someone further up mentioned but kicking it old school and sticking to the old system of Ancient Egypt/Kamit a name is given. Would of course spell it out if I could remember it myself .lol. Will have to post back later when I can bump into someone who can jog my memory. Its well known... if I'm right... used quite a bit in films and appears in later mythology.