Egyptian religion

The religion practiced in ancient Egypt. Much of the evidence for Egyptian religion comes from burial practices. Clearly, Egyptians gave the afterlife a great deal of attention (see AFTERLIFE IN WORLD RELIGIONS). But their religion dealt with life in this world, too. HISTORY Ancient historians divided the history of Egypt into 30 dynasties or families of rulers. Modern scholars have divided Egyptian history into several periods. Some were more important for religion than others. Egyptian history begins around 3100 B.C.E. At that time a king whom the Greeks called Menes unifi ed Upper and Lower Egypt. Like virtually every king after him, he claimed to be the god HORUS on Earth. Menes established his capital at Memphis, where Upper and Lower Egypt meet. He built a temple for the nation there. The temple served the god PTAH. During the fi rst part of the Old Kingdom (Dynasties 3–6, 2650–2180 B.C.E.), the kings of Egypt built massive stone tombs. These include the great pyramids at Giza outside Cairo. During the second half of the Old Kingdom, a new god, Re, the sun god of Heliopolis, became dominant. Many texts about him have survived. After the Old Kingdom, Egypt fragmented into local districts that competed with one another. The Middle Kingdom (Dynasty 12, 2050–1800 B.C.E.) interrupted this disorder briefl y. At that time the god AMON fi rst became associated with the southern city of Thebes. But Amon and Thebes achieved much greater glory during the New Kingdom (Dynasties 18–20, 1570–1080 B.C.E.). Amon- Re became the national god. His temple at Karnak near Thebes became a powerful institution. During the New Kingdom, many people were buried with texts to help them in the next life. Today these texts are known as The Book of Going Forth by Day or, more popularly, The Egyptian Book of the Dead. During the 18th dynasty the king AKHENATON directed his religious attention to the disk of the sun, known as the Aton. Some have seen him as an early monotheist. In 332 B.C.E. Alexander the Great conquered Egypt. One of his generals, Ptolemy, began a Greek dynasty there. It ruled Egypt until the Romans annexed the region around the time of JESUS. The Ptolemies lavishly sponsored Egyptian religion. In particular, they built great temples. Their temples at Edfu, Dendera, and Philae are especially wellknown. During this period the "mysteries" of the Egyptian GODDESS Isis spread throughout the region of the Mediterranean Sea (see MYSTERY RELIGIONS). CHRISTIANITY came to Egypt as early as the fi rst century C.E. It thrived there, but some Egyptians continued to practice the traditional religion. In the fourth century C.E. Christianity became fi rst a legal religion, then the required religion. Some Egyptians persisted in traditional ways. In 415, Christians stoned an Egyptian woman philosopher and mathematician named Hypatia. By the end of the fi fth century, the last functioning non-Christian temple in the Roman Empire, the temple of Isis at Philae, had shut down. BELIEFS Many writings tell us about Egyptian beliefs. They include writings from tombs: the Pyramid Texts (Old Kingdom), the Coffi n Texts (Middle Kingdom), and the so-called Book of the Dead. These and other writings often portray Egyptian gods with the heads of animals. The heads helped distinguish one god from another. There is little evidence that Egyptians actually worshipped animals. Most Egyptian gods began as the gods of particular places. When Egypt became unifi ed, priests at different temples tried to fi t all the gods together. Different temples developed different systems. One infl uential system was the "ennead," or group of nine gods, which developed during the Old Kingdom at Heliopolis. According to this system, the fi rst god, Atum, produced two others, the god Shu (air) and the goddess Tefnut (moisture). These two produced the god Geb (the earth) and the goddess Nut (the sky). Geb and Nut gave birth to two couples, Osiris and Isis, and Seth and Nephthys. The EVIL god Seth killed his brother Osiris. Osiris's son Horus avenged his father by killing Seth. Horus ruled as the living god of Egypt; Osiris was the god of the dead. The Egyptian language did not sharply separate gods from human beings. The king was a living god. The same word was also applied to important nobles. In general, the Egyptians thought human beings had three different parts that we might call "souls." The ba was a birdlike spirit that went up into the sky at death. The ka was a spirit that resided in an image of the person after death. The akh went to the realm of the dead and sometimes returned as a ghost. A famous illustration from the so-called Book of the Dead shows the heart of a dead person being weighed in a balance against a feather. The feather is the sign of Maat, goddess of truth and justice. PRACTICES Egyptian WORSHIP centered on temples. Temples were buildings that housed images of the gods. The RITUALS of the temples helped maintain the harmony of the universe and of human beings within it. A series of reliefs from a temple in Abydos shows what happened in these temples every day. A privileged group of priests entered the chamber where the image lived. They bathed it, clothed it, fed it, and praised it. As they left the chamber, they were careful to remove every trace of their footsteps. On special occasions called festivals the images would leave their temples and travel. During festivals the gods were visible to ordinary people. Many temples also had places at the backs of their sanctuaries where common people could consult the gods. ORGANIZATION The distinction between religion and politics that is common in North America was unknown in Egypt. In theory the king was the chief priest of all Egyptian temples. The reliefs at Abydos show the king worshipping the gods. In practice priests worshipped the gods on the king's behalf. Only the highest priests could enter the gods' chambers. Priests who were experts in writing produced the many texts that are found in Egyptian tombs. Temples also had many lower order priests that we might call servants. SIGNIFICANCE Although Jews, Christians, and Muslims may be reluctant to trace their beliefs and practices back to ancient Egyptian religion, some similarities are certainly suggestive. The name MOSES is Egyptian. Although Jewish MONOTHEISM almost certainly does not derive from the religion of AKHENATON, as some have suggested, JUDAISM probably preserves general cultural elements that spread from Egypt to ancient Phoenicia, Israel, and Judah. The infl uential Neo-Platonic philosopher Plotinus thought of the universe as emanating from a single principle. Triads of Egyptian gods may have infl uenced the Christian notion of the TRINITY. At Luxor near Thebes, Muslims hold processions of boats at the feast of the SAINT Abul Hagag. They look much like processions at ancient Egyptian festivals.