Introducing the Egyptian Gods


Kemet (KMT), commonly known as Ancient Egypt, had a number of deities (Gods & Goddesses). These deities are normally misunderstood by many people. For you to understand the Gods and Goddesses properly, it is important to first understand how life was in Kemet/ Ancient Egypt more than 5000 years ago. Ancient Africans in general and Ancient Egyptians, in particular, were all farmers at that time. Agriculture was one of the most important elements of that society. This also go for the River Nile.

The Egyptian gods are primeval forces that were once worshiped by the Ancient Egyptians. The gods are also created entities, like humans, but are much more powerful. They serve as a bridge between the natural world and the human world. Ancient Egyptian deities represent natural and social phenomena, as well as abstract concepts. These gods and goddesses appear in virtually every aspect of ancient Egyptian civilization, and more than 1,500 of them are known by name.

The Ogdoad, also called the Hehu or Infinites, were the celestial rulers of a cosmic age. Considered to have come long before the Egyptian religious system currently recognized, the Ogdoad were concerned with the preservation and flourishing of the celestial world, and later—as well as indirectly—the formation of the human race. Considered to have come into creation before the world did, the Ogdoad consist of four couples—eight individual deities—who balance one another and the nature of the cosmos. Each pair correlated with one of the primary elements of the universe in the Egyptian belief system, i.e., water, air, light, and time. Each first name in these sets is the male avatar, while the second is the female, thereby creating an equal balance of genders as well. The Ogdoad, of Infinites, continued to be acknowledged as Osiris' and his pantheon's predecessors, and it was believed for a time that the Ogdoad themselves continued to thrive in the Underworld, keeping the rivers of the Nile flowing and the sun forever rising.

  • Nu and Naunet were responsible for the development and continued renewal of the primordial waters of the universe. 
  • Amun and Amaunet were the care takers of air
  • Kuk and Kauket were the harbingers of darkness. 
  • Huh and Hauhet, the last pair, were weighted with the responsibility of maintaining eternity and infinity.

List of the (Some) Gods

Anubis


  •   Aker – A god of the earth and the horizon
  •   Amun – A creator god, patron deity of the city of Thebes, and the preeminent deity in Egypt during the New Kingdom
  •   Anhur – A god of war and hunting
  •   Anubis: The god of death, embalming, and funeral rites. He is the son of Nephthys and Set but was raised by Osiris. 
  •   Apophis: The god of chaos, darkness and night, Lord of Isfet. 
  •   Babi: The god of Baboons. He represents the other characteristics of primates such as being uncontrolled and wild. 
  •   Bast: Cat-Headed Goddess of Cats, Warfare, Protection, Joy, Dance, Music, Family and Lower Egypt. She was thought of as a great protector, particularly of farms as cats killed many pests, and the Eye of Ra
  •   Bes: Dwarf God of Protection and Dwarves. 
  •   Geb: God of earth. He was separated from his wife, Nut, for disobeying Ra. 
  •   Hapi – Personification of the Nile flood
  •   Hathor: is the cow-headed Goddess of Love, Beauty, and Music. Hathor (meaning – ‘Domain of Horus’) was closely associated (or was the successor) to Mehet-Weret, the primeval divine cow entity/goddess who was perceived as being responsible for bringing the floods to the Nile, thus in the process fertilizing the land. Continuing with this possibly pre-dynastic concept, Hathor was also regarded as the mother of the sun god Ra.
  •   Heket: The frog-goddess of birth and rebirth. Khnum, her husband, made children out of clay in his potter's wheel and Heket gave them the breath of life and placed them in their mother's womb.
  •   Horus: The falcon God of the Sky, Revenge and Pharaohs. Current King of the Gods. He is the son of Isis and Osiris.
  •   Isis: Queen of Heaven and the Dead. She is also the Goddess of Magic, Healing, Life and Motherhood. The wife of Osiris and the mother of Horus.
  •   Khonsu: The God of the Moon. He was defeated by Nut in a gambling game, thus having Nut win enough moonlight to create the Demon Days. He has also the ability to control, reverse, and create time (out of moonlight).
  •   Khnum: God of fertility, water, and procreation. He made man out of clay in his potter's wheel. He is the evening and 3rd aspect of Ra.
  •   Maahes – A lion god, son of Bastet
  •   Mekhit: The minor lioness-goddess of war. 
  •   Min: God of Male Fertility, Fertility and Reproduction also associated with agriculture and the growth of crops.
  •   Mut: Consort of Amun, worshipped at Thebes. She was Mother Goddess of Thebes.
  •   Nefertum: God of the lotus blossom from which the sun god rose at the beginning of time. Son of Ptah and Sekhmet.
  •   Neith: Goddess of hunting, wisdom, battle, and weaving.  She is also the Goddess of Creation and the Universe and Mother of Sobek
  •   Nekhbet: The goddess of vultures, who protects the pharaoh if he proved himself to be strong enough. She is also Protector Goddess of the Upper Egypt
  •   Nemty: Falcon god, worshipped in Middle Egypt, who appears in myth as a ferryman for greater gods
  •   Neper: A god of grain
  •   Nephthys: The goddess of river and sleep. She is Set's wife. 
  •   Nepit – A goddess of grain, the female counterpart of Neper
  •   Nut: Goddess of the sky and Heaven and wife to Geb. She was forced away from her husband because she defied Ra. Nut is also the mother of Osiris, Isis, Seth, and Nephthys.
  •   Onuris: A war god. His spouse is Mekhit.
  •   Osiris: Lord of the Dead, husband to Isis. 
  •   Pakhet – A lioness-goddess mainly worshipped in the area around Beni Hasan
  •   Ptah: God of Craftsman and Creation. Ptah was regarded as the patron deity of sculptors, painters, builders, and other artisans.
  •   Ra: The God of the Sun. 
    • Atum: Creator of the World & Evening Sun
    • Khepri: God of the Morning Sun. He is the morning and 2nd aspect of Ra.
  •   Renenutet – snake goddess and protector of the harvest
  •   Satet – A goddess of Egypt’s southern frontier regions
  •   Sekhmet: Sekhmet is the lioness-headed goddess of war and the previous Eye of Ra. She was often given the epithet of ‘Sekhmet the Powerful’ and represented as the fiercest hunter in all of Egypt whose very breath formed the desert (while her pedigree was also associated with the Solar deity). Given such regal characteristics, it doesn’t really come as a surprise that many Pharaohs regarded her as their protector in battles.
  •   Serqet: The goddess of scorpions.
  •   Shu: God of the wind and father of Geb and Nut. He keeps them apart as part of their punishment by Ra.
  •   Sobek: The crocodile God of the Nile River, Power, Virility and Fertility, who is loyal to Ra. Sobek controlled the waters, and also the fertility of the soil.
  •   Sons of Horus - Four gods who protected the mummified body, particularly the internal organs in canopic jars. 
    • Hapi
    • Qebehsenuef
    • Duamutef
    • Imset
  •   Set: The god of Storms and the Desert and husband to Nephthys. 
  •   Sopdu – A god of the sky and of Egypt’s eastern border regions
  •   Tatenen – Personification of the first mound of earth to emerge from chaos in ancient Egyptian creation myths
  •   Tawaret: Goddess of hippos and the protector of pregnant mothers.
  •   Thoth: The god of knowledge, wisdom, magic, ibises, and baboons. 
  •   Wadj-wer – Personification of the Mediterranean Sea or lakes of the Nile Delta
  •   Wadjet/ Buto: She is also Protector Goddess of the Lower Egypt


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Egyptian Big Bang

Image
The Egyptians had more than one version of their creation myth, but one stand out. In one ancient Egyptian creation myth, the world and all of creation came into existence through nothing other than an act of masturbation. It starts sort of like the Bible but with a little extra detail that will probably never show up in a middle school curriculum: In the beginning, the story says, there was nothing, until the first god, Atum, was created. Atum was both genders, with a “female part” in his hand. He created the first gods and then declared to the universe, in graphic detail, exactly how he did it. “I had union with my hand,” Atum announced. “I poured seed into my own mouth, and I sent forth from myself issue [meaning he spat out his seed] in the form of the gods Shu and Tefnut.” And so, the universe began. Thus, the first act of creation was performed. This myth laid the groundwork for what would be a uniquely strange culture in the way of sex, and it would actually be present in other ...
Read more

Interviews from Eye of Ra

Image
The Eye of Ra serves an important function as a representative of Ra and reporter of information to him, she also becomes a warrior and champion of Ra at some point and destroy his enemies.  Sekhmet - this is par for the course, but Hathor is so firmly associated with ideas of joy, beauty and feminine gentleness that the story of her rampage across the world is a surprising one that doesn't match up with most of her other stories. In that myth, humanity begins to disrespect Ra and plot to overthrow his worship, so he sends Hathor to lay waste to the offenders. Hathor asked her sister Sekhmet to do the deed. Sekhmet does so thoroughly that the world is in danger of being entirely depopulated, and the gods are forced to then corral her and prevent her from overzealously wiping all of humanity off the face of the earth in her desire to please the sun god. Wadjet is the daughter of Atum (Ra) who had sent her as his "eye" to find Tefnut and Shu when they were lost in the wat...
Read more

Bring in Good Luck

Image
 2020 was hell of a year. I say we pray to Lady Luck for some good luck this year. One of the aliases for Lady Luck is Tyche, the Greek Goddess of Fortune. Tyche is the Goddess of Fortune and Fate. She is known as Tyche of the Greeks and Fortuna of the Romans. Her name Tyche comes from the word tynchano which means “made to happen”. She is from the time of the Titans who ruled long before the Olympians came to be power. Her parents Tethys and Oceanus, she is an Oceanid and she draw upon the wisdom of the waters. She is all three of the Fates, Klotho, Atropos, and Lachesis, for all three make her, Tyche. It is funny for compared to most Goddesses of mythology she has not great story, no myth, but yet had one of the largest cult followings among the Greeks, Romans, and gamblers. For her existence is based upon a concept. A concept that is both intrigued and inspired the ancient Greek poets and philosophers. It’s statement that represented not only fortune, but also luck, success an...
Read more