Ancient Egyptian deities

nthrt "Goddess" in hieroglyphs

File:Goddess ntrt simple.png

nthr "God" in hieroglyphs

Ancient Egyptian deities are the gods and goddesses who were worshipped in ancient Egypt. A number of major deities are addressed as the creators of the cosmos. These include Atum, Ra, Amun (Amen), and Ptah amongst others, as well as composite forms of these deities such as Amun-Ra. This was not seen as contradictory by the Egyptians. The development of Egyptian religion in the New Kingdom lead some early Egyptologists such as E. A. Wallis Budge to speculate that the Egyptians were in reality monotheistic. Others such as Sir Flinders Petrie considered the Egyptians to be polytheists. Erik Hornung argues that the best term to apply to their religion is 'henotheism' which describes 'worship of one god at a time but not a single god.'

The Egyptian term for goddess was netheret (nthrt; nethjeret, necheret) and the term for god was nether (nthr; also transliterated nethjer, necher). The hieroglyph represents a pole or staff wrapped in cloth with the free end of the cloth shown at the top. Alternative hieroglyphs for 'goddess' show the staff and cloth without the upright mark seen here in that for 'god'. The use of this sign has been connected to the flag poles at the entrance towers of Egyptian temples. Alternative glyphs for 'god' include a star, a squatting human figure similar to the format seen here for 'goddess', or a hawk on a perch.

Background and history

The head of an Egyptian goddess; the gender is suggested by the lack of a beard and the simple hairstyle points to the divine status of the subject

Predynastic artifacts: clockwise from top left: a Bat figurine, a Naqada jar, an ivory figurine, a porphyry jar, a flint knife, and a cosmetic palette

The Egyptian religion has a long history. Earliest images include the symbols for the goddess Neith, many fertility figurines and versions of the vulture goddess (Nekhbet) and cobra goddess (Wadjet) which were borne on Egyptian crowns from predynastic and protodynastic periods through their entire history to the end of the Roman period.

The many types of animals native to northern Africa were immensely influential in nearly every significant aspect of the Ancient Egyptian way of life. The people were highly dependent on, and sometimes equally highly cautious of, different animals in many differing ways. The presence of certain animals (or lack thereof) factored with their behavior and sheer numbers, could easily mean the difference between life and death to an individual Egyptian person in one common type of situation; just as easily as they could mean the difference between prosperity and poverty to a person in another type of situation. Perhaps most importantly, however, certain animals could also mean the difference between peace and war for the entire nation.

With regard to religion, there was a vast amount of varying forms of symbolism relating to animals embraced by the Ancient Egyptians—the symbols connoted by various animals were consistently recurring themes in their religious system. For instance, there were many cow goddesses, such as Hathor and Bat, reflecting the fact that cattle were domesticated in Egypt by 8,000 B.C. Stone-roofed subterranean chambers and other subterranean complexes in Nabta Playa were constructed by 5,500 B.C., for the express purpose of housing the tombs of ritually sacrificed cattle. Wild, as well as domesticated animals, inspired a truly enormous amount of religious symbolism, take for instance the fierce lioness, personified by Sekhmet as the warrior goddess in the south.

By 3000 B.C. Gerzean tomb-building was seen to include underground rooms and burial of furniture and amulets, a prelude to the funerary cult of Osiris, which appears in the Fifth Dynasty.

The pharaoh was deified after death, and bore the title of nṯr nfr "the good god". The title, "servant of god" was used for the priesthood, ḥmt-nṯr for 'priestesses' and ḥm-nṯr for 'priests'. Over the great period of time covered by Ancient Egyptian culture the importance of certain deities would rise and fall, often because of the religious allegiance of the king or the prominence of the city where their cult was centered. The worship of some deities, however, was more or less continuous.

Important companies of deities

Ancient Egyptian votive statues of the deities

• The Ennead of Heliopolis, meaning the nine – consisted of Ra/Atum, Shu and Tefnut, Geb and Nut, Osiris and Isis, Nephthys and Set, and Horus
• The triad of Memphis: Ptah, Sekhmet and Nefertem
• The Ogdoad of Hermopolis, eight deities who were worshipped in four female-male pairs; the females were associated with snakes and the males with frogs: Naunet and Nu, Amaunet and Amun, Kauket and Kuk, Hauhet and Huh
• The triad of Thebes: Amun, Mut and Khonsu

Animal worship

Main article: Animal worship

Many animals were considered sacred to particular deities:

Deity	Animal
Ptah	Bull
Thoth	Ibis or Baboon
Amun	Ram
Horus or Ra	Falcon or Hawk
Anubis	Jackal or Dog
Sobek	Crocodile
Hathor	Cow
Sekhmet	Lioness
Nekhbet	Vulture
Wadjet or Ejo	Egyptian cobra
Khepri	Scarab Beetle
Geb	Egyptian Goose or Snake
Bast or Bastet	Cat

List of deities of Ancient Egypt

File:Hathor Menkaure Bat triad fourth dynasty Cairo Museum.JPG

Hathor-Menkaure-Bat triad of the fourth dynasty – the deities flank the pharaoh and provide the authority to rule – Cairo Museum

Egyptian deities are too numerous to provide a complete list but the following gives examples of their types and roles:

Major cosmological deities

• Amun – "the hidden one", a creator deity with a cult centre in Thebes.
• Amunet – the primordial goddess, the in the Ogdoad cosmogony; depicted as a cobra snake or a snake-headed woman
• Apophis or Apep – evil serpent of the Underworld and enemy of Ra; formed from a length of Neith's spit during her creation of the world.
• Atum – the oldest creator deity with a cult centre in Heliopolis.
• The Aten – a sun deity worshipped prominently during the period of Atenism in the eighteenth dynasty under Pharaoh Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten)
• Bes – God of war, music, and protector of homes and children.
• Geb – god of the Earth, first ruler of Egypt and husband of Nut
• Hathor or Hethert – cow or cow-goddess of the sky, fertility, love, beauty, and music
• Horus or Heru – falcon-headed god of the sky war and kingship.
• Khepri – the scarab beetle or scarab-headed creator god identified with the rising sun.
• Khnum – ram-headed creator god who causes the Nile flood.
• Ma'at – goddess who personified the order and balance of the universe,and worked in the underworld to do the "weighing of the heart ceremony.
• Isis or Aset – goddess of magic, motherhood and fertility and consort of Osiris, represented as the throne
• Min – god of fertility, represented as a man with an erect penis.
• Mut – mother goddess, consort of Amun.
• Neith – goddess of creation, war, and hunting.
• Nu – deification of the primordial watery abyss.
• Nut – goddess of the sky and heavens.
• Osiris or Wesir – judge of the dead and ruler in the afterlife and consort of Isis.
• Ptah – creator deity, also a god of craft.
• Ra – the sun, also a creator deity, whose chief cult center was based in Heliopolis.
• Sekhmet – lioness goddess of the sun, destruction, pestilence, and war; fierce protector of the pharaoh, and later as an aspect of Hathor; later identified as a sister to Bast.
• Set or Seth – god of chaos evil; protector of Ra.
• Shu - god of the air.
• Tefnut – goddess of moisture, moist air, dew, and rain.
• Thoth or Djehuty – ibis-headed god of the moon, drawing, writing, geometry, wisdom, medicine, music, astronomy and magic.

Deities associated mainly with the funerary cult and underworld

• Am-heh - minor underworld god, "devourer of millions"
• Ammit – crocodile-headed female devourer in Duat, a funerary deity appearing in the Judgement Hall of Osiris.
• Anubis - dog or jackal god of embalming and tomb-caretaker who watches over the dead.
• Aken – boat keeper of the underworld ferry.
• Aker - earth deity.
• Ba-Pef - minor underworld god
• Heka - deification of magic
• The four sons of Horus - personifications of the four canopic jars
• Iabet - goddess, personification of the east.
• Imentet - goddess of the necropolis west of the Nile
• Hu - deification of authoritative utterance, or command.
• Mehen - protective snake god which coils around the sun god Ra during his journey through the night.
• Meretseger – cobra-goddess of tomb builders and protector of royal tombs.
• Nehebkau - 'uniter' or 'provider of ka's', a benign snake deity.
• Nephthys or Nebthet – goddess of death, night, and lamentation; the nursing mother of Horus and the pharaohs.
• Saa or Sia - deification of perception.
• Seker or Sokar - falcon god of the Memphite necropolis
• Shait or Shai - deification of the concept of fate.

Other significant deities

• Andjety - god thought to be a precursor to Osiris.
• Anhur - god of war at Abydos and Thinis.
• Anput - goddess who was the female aspect of Anubis, his wife.
• Anti - hawk god of Upper Egypt.
• Anuket - gazelle-headed goddess of the Nile River, the child of Satis, and among the Elephantine triad of deities.
• Apis – bull deity worshipped in the Memphis region.
• Ash - god of oases and the vineyards of the western Nile Delta.
• Amenhotep, son of Hapu – philosopher, god of healing
• Ahmose-Nefertari – Mistress of the sky, lady of the west
• Amenhotep I – god of oracles, god of Deir el-Medina
• Babi - baboon god associated with death and virility.
• Banebdjedet - ram god of fertility.
• Bast or Bastet – goddess depicted as a lioness, house cat, cat-bodied or cat-headed woman; after Greek occupation identified by them as a lunar deity.
• Bat – cow goddess who gave authority to the king, her cult originated in Upper Egypt and persisted widely until absorbed as an aspect of Hathor after the eleventh dynasty.
• Bata - bull god.
• Bes – dwarfed demigod associated with protection of the household, particularly childbirth, and entertainment.
• Chenti-cheti - crocodile god.
• Ha - god of the western deserts.
• Hapi or Hapy – deification of the annual flooding of the Nile, associated with fertility.
• Hatmehit - fish goddess, originally a deification of the Nile River.
• Hauhet - female personification of infinity or eternity
• Hedetet - scorpion goddess, later incorporated into Isis
• Hemen - falcon god
• Heqet – frog or a frog-headed goddess of childbirth and fertility
• Hemsut - goddess of fate and protection
• Heryshaf - ram god
• Huh - deification of eternity
• Iah - god of the moon
• Iat - minor goddess of milk and, by association, of nurturing and childbirth
• Iusaaset – a primal goddess described as "the grandmother of all of the deities"
• Imhotep – god of medicine and healing.
• Kauket - snake-headed female personification of darkness, whose consort was the frog-headed Kuk
• Kebechet - goddess of embalming liquid and purification, a snake or ostrich
• Kneph - a creator deity
• Khonsu – god of youth and the moon
• Kuk – frog-headed personification of darkness, whose consort or female form was the snake-headed Kauket
• Maahes – lion-headed god of war, weather
• Mafdet – goddess who protected against snakes and scorpions
• Menhit – goddess of war, associated with Sekhmet
• Meret - goddess associated with rejoicing, singing, and dancing
• Meskhenet – goddess of childbirth and the creator of each person's Ka, a part of their soul, which she breathed into them at the moment of birth
• Mnevis – the sacred bull of Heliopolis
• Monthu - falcon god of war
• Nefertem - god of healing and beauty
• Nekhbet – vulture goddess, patron of pharaohs and Upper Egypt
• Neper - a god of grain
• Pakhet – feline goddess, a synthesis of Sekhmet and Bast
• Petbe - god of revenge
• Qebui – god of the north wind
• Rem - fish god who fertilizes the land with his tears
• Renenutet - cobra or snake goddess worshipped in Lower Egypt, associated with Wadjet, fate, and deification of the act of giving a true name during birth, later Geb was her husband
• Satet – goddess of war, hunting, fertility, and the flooding of the Nile River
• Serket – scorpion goddess of healing stings and bites
• Seshat – goddess of writing, astronomy, astrology, architecture, and mathematics; depicted as a scribe
• Shed - saviour deity
• Shezmu - god of execution, slaughter, blood, oil, and wine
• Sobek – crocodile god of the Nile, patron of the military
• Sobkou - messenger god
• Sopdet - goddess seen as the personification of the star Sothis, (Sirius)
• Sopdu - personification of the scorching heat of the sun arriving after heliacal rising
• Ta-Bitjet - scorpion goddess identified as the consort of Horus
• Tatenen - androgynous deity of the primordial mound
• Taweret – hippopotamus goddess of pregnant women and protector during childbirth
• Tenenet - goddess of beer
• Unut - snake goddess
• Wadjet – snake goddess and protector of Lower Egypt
• Wadj-wer – fertility god and personification of the Mediterranean Sea or lakes of the Nile Delta
• Weneg - plant god supporting the heavens
• Werethekau - goddess of supernatural powers and protection of the deceased, associated with the crowns
• Wepwawet – jackal god of warfare and hunting
• Wosret – a guardian goddess of Thebes whose cult became prominent widely, protector of the young god Horus, an early consort of Amun, later superseded by Mut
• Evilus – an ancient god of sluttery and whores. Lus

See also

• Jinn
• Pantheon (gods)

External links

• The Gods of the Egyptians Vol. 1 by Budge HTML Formatted
• Goddesses and Gods of the Ancient Egyptians: A Theological Encyclopedia
• List of Mythological Deities. Deurer, 1997
• Gods and Goddesses. ancientegypt.co.uk.
• List of Gods and Goddesses from Ancient Egypt
• Egyptian Gods. gwydir.demon.co.uk.