History of EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY and characteristics

One of the classic beliefs with the greatest number of followers due to the mysticism that has always surrounded it is the egyptian mythology. The set of beliefs that make up the legends of Ancient Egypt have been studied for centuries by historians, serving to understand the culture of the Egyptians. To know all this in depth in this lesson from a PROFESSOR we offer you a summary of Egyptian mythology and characteristics.

The egyptian mythology It is one of the classic beliefs that was maintained for the longest time in the history of mankind, since we can talk about its existence from the predynastic stage to the arrival of Christianity and the prohibition of pagan religions by Justinian I. Being therefore a religion that existed for many centuries, and that managed to withstand the attack of dozens of peoples who sought to subdue the powerful Egyptian people.

The development of Egyptian mythology is the evolution of its people, beginning with a few gods, but evolving as they conquered peoples and their power increased. Like most ancient mythologies, the Egyptians

added gods of conquered peoples to their beliefs, but their gods and myths They also evolved when their area was occupied by more powerful peoples such as the Greeks or Romans.

The evolution of Egyptian mythology was enormous due to the great number of years that the Ancient Egypt, but we can talk about a series of common characteristics throughout all these centuries, some of these being the following:

• Death was a central element within Egyptian belief, since their beliefs revolve around the existence of a world after death, ruled by one of his most important gods and where a judgment is made on his soul.
• They were polytheists, that is to say, in their religion there were numerous gods and each one of them occupied a position within their broad beliefs.
• A common element within Egyptian beliefs was that the gods could be animals or half animals and half people, being clear examples of deities such as Anubis and Horus.
• The soul was a key value, being an element that had to be taken care of and that in the afterlife was considered in judgment to know the end of human beings.
• Certain animals were sacred, being especially used to represent certain gods that had a similar appearance to them.
• The main infrastructures created to represent the gods were temples, but very few of them have survived to this day.

To continue with this summary of Egyptian mythology we must talk about the Egyptian gods, in order to understand the pantheon so wide that it existed and how important the large number of gods existing in it was. There were hundreds of gods, but we must talk about the main ones of all of them and, therefore, the Egyptian gods more important are as follows:

• AmmonCreator God, main deity of the New Kingdom and protector of the city of Thebes.
• Hapi: Representation of the Nile flood.
• Horus: Represented with the head of a falcon, he was one of the main gods of Egypt, united to heaven and to royalty he was often united to pharaoh.
• Osiris: God of death who rules in the Underworld.
• Ra: God of the Sun and one of the most important gods of Egypt.
• Set: God of chaos and violence, guilty of the murder of Osiris.
• Sobek: Crocodile God worshiped in cities near this animal.
• Thot: God of writing and scribes.
• Bastet: With feline form she was the protector against evil.
• Hathor: With more than 10 attributes she was one of the main Egyptian goddesses.
• Isis: Goddess of motherhood and magic, considered as the mother or wife of the pharaohs.
• Anubis: God of the dead and embalming.

To conclude this lesson on Egyptian mythology we must talk about the main myths of the Egyptian beliefs, in order to understand how broad and interesting the legends and stories of this town.

The Egyptian creation

In Egyptian belief it is said that at first there was only a huge ocean known as Nun, one day the world realized its existence and it the god Ra arose. From that moment the solar deity began a long process to create all the elements that will form the world, demonstrating his great talent in it.

Isis and the seven scorpions

It is said that Seth's hatred for his brother Osiris caused the god of chaos to lock up his wife and son, known as Isis and Horus. To help them, the god Thot sent seven scorpions, which fulfilled their mission by saving the couple. In their flight they reached the city of Per-sui, where a rich woman did not want to take them in for fear of scorpions but a poor woman did. The scorpions took revenge on the rich woman by stinging her son, but Isis had compassion and saved the infant's life.

Ra's secret name

The names in the Egyptian belief had a very important role, there are cases of people who came to have up to three secret names. Because of this detail, all the gods wanted to know the name of the supreme god Ra, in order to control him and rule Egypt. At a time when Ra was poisoned, the goddess Isis told him that she could heal him but only if she told him her True name, the solar god did it and thanks to it Isis had the power for her son to rule Egypt years later.

The death of Osiris

In some myths it is said that Osiris was the governor of Egypt, which caused his brother Seth to envy him. The god of chaos tricked his brother into entering a coffin and then threw him into the Nile to drown him. After the death of Osiris it was Seth who took control of Egypt, but the son of Osiris Horus managed over the years to regain the throne and expel Seth.