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Pharaoh - the divine
and the mortal |
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The idea of
kingship and the divinity of the pharaoh were
central to Egyptian society and religion, with
each king considered to be a combination of the
divine and the mortal.
Ideally the
kingship was passed down from father to son, and
each king was usually keen to demonstrate to his
subjects that he was the "chosen" heir whose
right to rule was ensured by his own divinity.
Reliefs in temples, tombs and palaces stress the
King's divine birth and his function as a
representative of the gods was to preserve and
restore the original harmony of the universe,
imposing order and preventing chaos. |
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Amoun/Amun/Amun Ra. One of
the most important gods in the
Egyptian pantheon. He is first
mentioned in the 5th Dynasty pyramid
texts. His temple at Karnak is the
best surviving religious complex of
the New Kingdom. In the jubilee
chapel of Senusret I (1965-1920 BC)
in Karnak, Amoun is described as
"the king of the gods" and by the
time of the Ptolemies, he was
regarded as the Egyptian equivalent
of Zeus. |
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Anubis. Canine god of the
dead, closely associated with
embalming and mummification. Usually
represented in the form of a seated
black dog or man with a dog's head.
It is not clear whether the dog in
question - often identified by the
Egyptian word "sab" was a jackal.
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. |
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Hathor. Important goddess
worshiped in three forms: as a woman
with the ears of a cow, as a cow,
and as a woman wearing a head-dress
with wig, horns and sun disc. 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". |
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Horus. Falcon headed god,
usually depicted as a hawk or as a
man with the head of a hawk. Horus
was the god of the sky and the
embodiment of divine kingship,
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 earthly
ruler. In a similar vein, priests
(or eldest sons) wearing distinctive
panther skins would ritually purify
the path of the deceased's coffin. |
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Isis. She was the sister-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. |
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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 also
emerge from inside the balls,
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. |
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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. 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.
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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. |
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Seth. 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. |
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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. |
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