1. Religion, Culture, & History
Ancient Egypt
Religion, Culture, & History

2. Civilization Developed between 4000 & 3000 B.C.E.
Golden Age: B.C.E.
Written Heritage: 3000 B.C.E.
1st great nation of the Western world

3. Hieroglyphics Picture-writing Symbols for meaning
Separated Egypt from surrounding cultures

4. The Nile River

5. Religion Death and Rebirth/Flood Cycle (Osiris) Sun God (Re, or Ra)
Temporary victories over evil -- never permanent (Set)
Incest (Osiris & Isis)
Fertility (Isis)
Agriculture

6. Ma’at Concept of truth, balance, morality, order, and justice.
Personified as goddess regulating stars, seasons, and actions of gods and men.
Prevents the universe from returning to chaos.
Her feather used to weigh hearts of the dead.

7. 4 Creation Myths of Egypt

8. Why So Many? Significantly different from each other
Each city had different patron deity, and thus different creation story
Thousands of cities and villages = thousands of Egyptian deities

9. What They All Have In Common
- Emerging from watery chaos -- Nun
Nun: endless, formless deep that existed at the beginning of time and was the source of the nile
“In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.” --Genesis

10. Memphis Oldest Egyptian creation myth
Ancient political capital of Egypt
Creator god: Ptah
Name “Egypt” came from Greek translation of his name

11. Ptah Chief deity of Memphis; god of craftsmen
Creation by thought and word alone - “Through his heart and through his tongue.”
Thinking heart (brain mere head- stuffing); through naming comes Ka
Scholars today still argue about parallels to Genesis
Greeks equated him with Hephaestus (Roman: Vulcan)

12. Hermopolis Greek name for Khemnu
Prosperous city built in honor of Thoth
Called Hermopolis because Greeks equated Thoth to Hermes
Ogdoad -- Group of Eight

13. Thoth 4 couples of frog-headed gods/snake-headed goddesses
Nun & Naunet: formless waters
Heh & Hauhet: Infinity and the flood
Kek and Kauket: Darkness
Amun & Amaunet: Hidden Powers

14. Hermopolis, cont. After Ogdoad, sun god born.
Re emerges from lotus flower on Nun
6 of 8 disappear; only Amun and Amaunet join other gods of Egypt

15. Elephantine Island -Focuses on making humans
-Khnum: ancient ram-headed creator deity

16. Khnum Molded people on potter’s wheel Controlled Nile’s floodwaters
Great fertility god

17. Heliopolis

18. Heliopolis Creation Myth
Most significant creation story in Egypt
Heliopolis: City of the Sun/ Modern-day Cairo
3000 B.C.E., unification of Upper and Lower Egypt
Dominant myth prominent in Pyramid Texts
Great infinite ocean -- Nun
Atum: Lord and father of the gods/Simply came into being
Stood on mound symbolic of land rising out of Nile

19. Atum Essence of Egypt: sun and water
Benben: mound; meteorite venerated by Egyptians; believed to be solidified semen of Atum; inspiration for pyramids
Creation through masturbation; swallows seed; sneezes out Shu & Tefnut (air and moisture)
Great Ennead -- Nine major deities (Atum, Shu, Tefnut, Get, Nut, Osiris, Isis, Seth, Nephthys)
Atum combines with Re to become Atum-Re/Atum-Ra