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ancient Egyptian art
ancient Egyptian gods
Egypt on tour
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Isis, the Egyptian goddess of motherhood and fertility. Isis is the sister and wife of Osiris. (Occupying the about the same role as Mary, mother of Jesus, in Christianity). | ||||||||
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Osirus is the son of ancient Egyptian earth-god Seb and sky-goddess Nut. He was a real person and ruler of Egypt. He was killed by Seth and distributed in fourteen pieces, each hidden in a different part of Egypt. Using the magic of Troth, Isis, his sister and wife, reassembled and resurrected him. After his resurrection he became a god and became known as lord of the underworld and as the moon-god. (He is sort of the equivalent of Christ in Christianity.) By the 18th dynasty he was the equal of Ra. Eventually, he became the most important of the Egyptian gods, taking over the function of Ra, and he assumed the role of all the nature gods which then just represented aspects of his divine resurrection. |
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Seth, the brother of Osiris and god of wars; storms; deserts and disorder. Seth murdered his brother and seized rule of Egypt until defeated by Horus. He represents disorder and unrest. Seth roughly plays the part of the devil in Egyptian religion, except he does his damage on earth; he does not preside over an equivalent of the Christian hell. | ||||||||
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Nepthys (also Nebt-het and Nebhet), wife of Seth, sister of Isis, Osiris, and Seth. Her son is Anubis, either by Osiris or Seth. It was Nepthys affair with Osiris that angered Seth and was the motive for the murder of Osiris. The symbol on her head is her hieroglyphic name. Cult center is Heliopolis. | ||||||||
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Horus, son of Isis and Osirus. He battles Seth and restores Egypt to his father. | ||||||||
The Four Sons of HorusIn the pre-dynastic period there was a god named Horus. He was not the son of Osiris, but he exhibited himself in four aspects. These were named Mestha, Hapi, Tuamutef, and Qebhsennuf. Each aspect was associated with a pillar that held up the sky at each of the four cardinal points of the compass: North, East, South, and West, respectively. Later sometime in the first couple of dynasties, the Isis and Osiris story of resurrection and revenge became common, and the Horus of old became Horus--son of Osirus. The four aspects of the old Horus became the sons of Horus, the grandsons of Osiris. Hapy is the only one to retain his original name. When a person is mummified, the internal organs must be removed because they will rot, and the rot will contaminate the body of the deceased causing it to disintegrate. To prevent this, the internal organs are removed and placed in four jars. These jars are called canopic jars. The lid of each canopic jar contains a model of each one of the sons of Horus. And each is placed in a specific direction (North, East, South, and West) where the pillars that supported the heavens were supposed to be. The heart was left with the body to be weighed in the underworld to see if the person was worthy of eternal life. If not it was given to Amemet to eat.
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Anubis is the god who guarded the body of a dead man while it was being embalmed and after it had been placed in the tomb. He was represented as a man with a jackal's head. | ||||||||
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Amemet is the god who gets to eat a man's heart if it is found wanting on the scales of the underworld. Without a heart the ka no longer has a home and it is left to wander the earth. | ||||||||
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Nechbet, the ancient Egyptian goddess of the monarch often depicted as a vulture holding the rod of the gods' authority and the eternity symbol. | ||||||||
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Troth, Egyptian god of magic, writing and counting. Troth gave Isis the magic to bring Osirus back to life. |
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Ptah, the chief god of Memphis in ancient Egypt. Ptah was a creator god; patron of craftsmen. As an early pre-dynastic god he was the god of the sunrise, while Tema or Atun was the closer of the day, god of sunset. He was the consort of Sekbet, the lion goddess. Later he was merged into Osirus and the representation on the bottom shows him as a mummified pharaoh. Ptah is the god that features in Verdi's opera Aida, which has an Egyptian setting. |
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Mayhet (or Ma'at or Mayet) the goddess of truth and justice and personification of the divine order. Patroness of judges, magistrates, and other court officials. It is the feather on her head that the hearts of the deceased are weighted against in the underworld. |
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Khnum, protector god, god of wealth. He is a potter who makes the ka and the earthly bodies of all living things from clay. He breathes life into the bodies he makes. His sacred site is Abu, considered the place of creation. Consort of Anuket (Anket). |
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Anuket, protectress of the Nile. In pre-dynastic times she was considered the daughter of Ra. |
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Apedemak, a Nubian warrior god. |
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2002-09-26
