This course looks at Egyptian religion, art and buildings as history: what Egyptians believed and did, as their own texts and monuments show it. If you took the Young Explorers course, you met some of the gods in Many Gods. Here we look more closely at how Egyptians thought about them.
Egyptians worshiped a great many gods. Some were known all over the country, like the sun god Ra or Osiris, the ruler of the dead. Others belonged to one town, one family or one task. The ordinary word for a god was nṯr (said "netjer"). It was written with a sign showing a cloth wound on a pole, the flag that stood in front of every temple.
Key idea
One god, many forms
Thoth, the god of writing, could be an ibis, a man with an ibis head, or a baboon. Hathor could be a cow or a woman wearing cow horns. The sun god had a form for each part of the day in one common scheme: Khepri, the scarab, at sunrise; Ra at noon; Atum, an old man, at evening. Egyptians did not see these as contradictions. Each form showed one side of a power too great for a single picture.
The reverse was also true. Several gods could do the same job. Ra, Atum, Khepri and Horus were all linked with the sun. Many gods and goddesses protected the king or the dead.
Why it works
Sacred animals
A few chosen animals were believed to house a god’s presence. The Apis bull at Memphis was linked with the god Ptah; when it died, it was buried with great honor in the Serapeum at Saqqara, and a new bull with the right markings was found. In the Late Period, visitors bought millions of mummified ibises, cats and falcons and gave them to gods as lasting offerings.
Worked example: One god or three?
- Look at the labels: both say Thoth.
- Thoth’s forms included the ibis, the ibis-headed man and the baboon.
- Different forms of one god were normal in Egypt.
Answer: One god, Thoth, shown in different forms.
Worked example: Reading an animal form
- Jackals were seen around the desert edge, where cemeteries were.
- The animal head shows the god’s nature and his place.
- It is a sign, not a claim that the god was an ordinary jackal.
Answer: The jackal suits his role as guardian of the dead.
Common mistake