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To gain an insight to the gods of the ancient civilizations one
only has to look at creation myths of the Egyptians and the
Sumerians. It is from these two great cultures that the later of
Gods of Greece and Rome were evolved. At school much time was
devoted to the study of *"Ancient History"* i.e. Greece and
Rome, but no such time was spent on the truly ancient histories
of Egypt and Sumeria. It is here in the middle east that these
two great civilizations cast their vast shadows over the many
civilizations to follow.

The Cradle of Civilization.

Both the Egyptian and Sumerian civilizations over the millenia
evolved a rich, detailed and diverse mythology. Each culture
developed its own complex, polytheistic system of deities and
worship. But was there a convergence? Was there a starting point?

This the first in a series of Pages devoted to the Ancient Gods.
In this article I will look at the beginnings in Egypt, *Zep
Tepi (the First Time)*.

So where to begin? One of the best sources on the history of
Egypt is Manetho, a priest during the reigns of Ptolemy I and
Ptolemy II. He is said to have been involved in the creation of
the cult of Serapis - a god added to the Egyptian pantheon with
both Hellenistic and Egyptian traits during the reign of Ptolemy
I -, but this can not be confirmed.

Manetho owes his importance to the fact that he wrote the
*/Aegyptiaca/*, a collection of three books about the history of
Ancient Egypt, commissioned by Ptolemy II in his effort to bring
together the Egyptian and Hellenistic cultures.

In order to do so, Manetho had access to the archives of the
temple where he served as a priest. Such archives contained a
vast number of different kinds of writings, ranging in contents
from mythological texts to official records, from magical
formulas to scientific treaties. He thus had all the sources he
needed to write down the history of his country. With such
sources, however, we may not be surprised to find myths and
folk-tale mixed with the facts of the Egyptian history.

It is to Manetho's */Aegyptiaca/* that we owe the division of
Ancient Egyptian history in 30 dynasties. This division is not
always based on historical facts: it was in parts based on
mythology and in parts on divisions of ruling families already
established in the past.

Storytellers in cultures throughout time devote themselves to
answering that question by recalling the acts of divine creation.

In the land of Egypt, the ancient priests recited several
versions, each complementary story designed to highlight the
various aspects of divine creative energy.

Egyptian Mythology, specifically, the religion of ancient Egypt.
The religious beliefs of the ancient Egyptians were the
dominating influence in the development of their culture,
although a true religion, in the sense of a unified theological
system, never existed among them. The Egyptian faith was based
on an unorganized collection of ancient myths, nature worship,
and innumerable deities. In the most influential and famous of
these myths a divine hierarchy is developed and the creation of
the earth is explained

One myth begins in the great abyss. The firmament as yet
remained hidden in the awesome, chaotic potentiality of the
cosmic waters. All lay in darkness, and forms remained
invisible. Then Atum, the divine Being and Non-being, cries out
in the darkness. A thousand-petalled lotus arose from the
water?s murky depths. Its petals slowly unfurled, and the golden
light of the sun emerged as a child called Ra. His light
reflected onto Atum, so the priests said, ?Only after Atum
created Ra was he visible even to himself.?

In another myth, it is the goddess Neith (or Net) who uplifts
life from the cosmic waters. She is the primordial sea and a
great weaver. She casts her net, which is the fabric of her
being, into the water. From the waters of herself, she scoops
out all creatures? the fish, the fowl, the plants and animals,
and humankind. She names them one by one.

A third myth tells us that in this sea of possibility there
exist the Ogdoad, who are eight cosmic life principles. Four
male beings are frogs; four female beings are snakes. Paired
male and female, they represent the polarities of infinite time,
infinite space, darkness before dawn, and the impenetrable
mystery of life itself. These are the eight souls of Thoth,
divine architect of the universe whose laws govern all creation.

One myth known as the creation myth *(The First Time - Zep
Tepi)* sums up a lot about how the Egyptian gods were created.
In this myth, it tells of a time when there was nothing but a
powerful being called Nun. Nun was so powerful that a shining
egg arose from her, which was Ra. Ra was thought to have been so
mighty that he willed his children into being. The first was
Shu, who was considered the god of the space and light between
the sky and the earth. Next Ra created Tefnut, who was the
personification of the moisture of the sky. Then the god of the
earth, Geb was created. Next Nut was created. Nut was the
goddess of the daytime sky, but was later the goddess of the sky
in general. The final god to be made was Hapi, the ancient
Egyptian god of the Nile.

After all of the gods where created, Ra created men and went
down to earth in human form to rule as the first pharaoh of Egypt.

Nun carrying the Solar Barque, from the Papyrus of Anhai

The Egyptians believed that before the world was formed, there was a
watery mass of dark, direction less chaos. In this chaos lived the
Ogdoad of Khmunu (Hermopolis), four frog gods and four snake goddesses
of chaos. These deities were Nun and Naunet (water), Amen and Amaunet
(invisibility), Heh and Hauhet (infinity) and Kek and Kauket (darkness).
The name of the water of chaos was Nun.

It was from Nun (Nu) that Ra (or Amen, another of the Ogdoad who became
prominent Middle Kingdom onward, and joined with the sun god as Amen-Ra)
created himself, rising up on the first piece of land - the primeval
mound (Benben) out of the water lily (lotus) blossom, born from the
world egg, or as a /bnw/-bird who then found and landed on the mound.

The First Time then began and Ra was thought to have created the
universe, including his children - other gods. He brought Ma'at - order
- to chaos.

Ra

In Egyptian mythology, the supreme sun-god, father of all creation in
the form of Atum (also called Ra-Tem or Ra-Atem). Ra, like Horus,
encompassed numerous attributes and was often merged with other gods to
form composite gods like Amen-Ra (or Amun-Re). Pharaohs claimed their
legitimacy to the throne as descendents of Ra. The center of his worship
was the city of Heliopolis, which was located just east of the modern
city of Cairo.

Ra was the god of the sun during dynastic Egypt; the name is thought to
have meant "creative power", and as a proper name "Creator", similar to
English Christian usage of the term "Creator" to signify the "almighty
God." Very early in Egyptian history Ra was identified with Horus, who
as a hawk or falcon-god represented the loftiness of the skies. Ra is
represented either as a hawk-headed man or as a hawk. In order to travel
through the waters of Heaven and the Underworld, Ra was depicted as
traveling in a boat.

During dynastic Egypt Ra's cult center was Annu (Hebrew "On", Greek
"Heliopolis", modern-day "Cairo"). In Dynasty V, the first king,
Userkaf, was also Ra's high priest, and he added the term Sa-Ra ("Son of
Ra") to the titulary of the pharaohs.

Ra was father of Shu and Tefnut, grandfather of Nut and Geb,
great-grandfather of Osiris, Set, Isis, and Nephthys, and
great-great-grandfather to Horus. In later periods (about Dynasty 18 on)
Osiris and Isis superceded him in popularity, but he remained Ra
netjer-aa neb-pet ("Ra, the great God, Lord of Heaven") whether
worshiped in his own right or, in later times, as one aspect of the Lord
of the Universe, Amen-Ra.

The God Shu, from the Book of the Dead of Hunefer

Shu (Su) was the god of dry air, wind and the atmosphere. He was also
related to the sun, possibly as an aspect of sunlight. He was the son of
the creator god, father of the twin sky and the earth deities and the
one who held the sky off of the earth. He was one of the gods who
protected Ra on his journey through the underworld, using magic spells
to ward off Ra's enemy, the water snake-demon Apep. As with other
protector gods, he had a darker side - he was also a god of punishment
in the land of the dead, leading executioners and torturers to kill off
the corrupt souls.

He was generally depicted as a man wearing an ostrich feather headdress,
holding a scepter and the /ankh/ sign of life. Sometimes he was shown
wearing the sun disk on his head, linking him to the sun. Occasionally,
when shown with his sister-wife Tefnut, he is shown in lion form and the
two were known as the "twin lion gods". At other times, he was shown
with the hind part of a lion as his headdress, linking him to his
leonine form. Mostly, he was shown with his arms raised, holding up the
goddess Nut as the sky, standing on the body of Geb.

One story says that Shu and Tefnut went to explore the waters of Nun.
After some time, Ra believed that they were lost, and sent the his Eye
out into the chaos to find them. When his children were returned to him,
Ra wept, and his tears were believed to have turned into the first humans.

As a god of the wind, the people invoked him to give good wind to the
sails of the boats. It was he who was the personification of the cold
northern winds; he was the breath of life - the vital principle of all
living things. His bones were thought to be clouds. He was also called
to 'lift up' the spirits of the dead so that they might rise up to the
heavens, known as the 'light land', reached by means of a giant 'ladder'
that Shu was thought to hold up.

Tefnut with the Head of a Lioness from the Scribe Ani's Book of the Dead

Tefnut (Tefenet, Tefnet) was the lunar goddess of moisture, humidity and
water who was also a solar goddess connected with the sun and dryness
(more specifically, the absence of moisture). She was the daughter of
the creator god, mother of the twin sky and the earth deities and the
'Eye of Ra' as well as a creative force as the 'Tongue of Ptah'. Her
name itself is related to water - /tf/ is the root of the words for
'spit' and 'moist'. Her name translates to something like 'She of
Moisture'.

Tefnut was generally shown as a woman with a lion's head, or as a full
lioness. She was occasionally shown as a woman, but this is rare. She
was shown with the solar disk and uraeus, linking her with the sun. She
was often shown holding a sceptre and the /ankh/ sign of life.

Related to moisture, she was also linked to the moon, as were other
deities of moisture and wetness. She was originally thought to be the
Lunar Eye of Ra and thus linked to the night sky as well as to dew, rain
and mist.

As with other water deities, she took on some form of a goddess of
creation.

Geb, God of the Earth, In the Earth and Under the Earth...

Geb, from the Book of the Dead of Hunefer

Geb (Keb, Seb) was a god of the earth and fertility. He was also a god
who imprisoned the dead in his body. He could be a malevolent being as
well as beneficial deity. Originally he was a local god, worshiped as a
goose, though the specific city where he was first worshiped is unknown,
it seems to have been around the Iunu (On, Heliopolis) region.

Known as 'The Great Cackler', Geb sometimes took on the form of a goose,
but was usually shown as a man. Sometimes he was depicted wearing the
headdress of a goose, but more often he was shown as a reclining man -
sometimes ithphallyic - laying far underneath his sister-wife, the
goddess Nut. Sometimes he was coloured green to show that, as with the
ithphallyic form, he was a god of fertility. He was also sometimes shown
wearing the crown of Lower Egypt or the /atef/ crown.

As an earth god, the earthquakes were thought to be his laughter. It was
believed that he supplied the minerals and precious stones, and so was
also a god of the mines. The earth itself was referred to as ("The House
of Geb").

*Nut, Sky Goddess, Mother of the Gods...*

Nut Arching Above Geb, Seperated by Shu Who is Seated in a Boat To the
ancient Egyptians Nut (Nuit) was the personification of the sky
(originally she was a goddess of just the sky at day, where the clouds
formed) and the heavens. She was believed to be the daughter of the gods
Shu and Tefnut, the granddaughter of the sun god Ra. Her husband was
also her brother, Geb. She was thought to be the mother of five children
on the five extra days of the Egyptian calendar, won by Thoth - Osiris
who was born on the first day, Horus the Elder on the second,Set on the
third, Isis on the fourth, and Nephthys the last born on the fifth day.
The days on which these deities were born were known as the 'five
epagomenal days of the year', and they were celebrated all over Egypt:

Hapi, God of the Nile, Fertility, the North and South...

Statue of Hapi Underwater at the Sunken City of Heracleion

Hapi (Hep, Hap, Hapy) was a probably a pre-dynastic name for the Nile -
later on, the Egyptians just called the Nile /iterw/, meaning 'the
river' - and so it became the name of the god of the Nile. ('Nile' comes
from the Greek corruption - Neilos - of the Egyptian 'nwy' which means
'water'.) He was mentioned in the Pyramid Texts ("who comest forth from
Hep") where he was to send the river into the underworld from certain
caverns, where he was thought to have lived at the 1st Cataract. The
Nile was thought to have flowed from the primeval waters of Nun, through
the land of the dead, the heavens and finally flowing into Egypt where
it rose out of the ground between two mountains which lay between the
Islands of Abu (Elephantine) and the Island of Iat-Rek (Philae). Hapi
was also mentioned in the Pyramid Texts as a destructive power, but one
that worked for the pharaoh.

As a water god, Hapi was a deity of fertility - he provided water, food
and the yearly inundation of the Nile. He was also known as 'Lord of the
Fishes and Birds of the Marshes,'indicating that he provided these
creatures to the Egyptians along with the Nile itself. Without Hapi,
Egypt would have died, and so he was sometimes revered even above Ra,
the sun god.

Thoth, God of the Moon, Magic and Writing...

The Scribe-God Thoth

The wisest of the Egyptian gods was Thoth (Djhuty, Djehuty, Tehuty), the
baboon and ibis god of the moon. Thoth was the god who overcame the
curse of Ra, allowing Nut to give birth to her five children, with his
skill at games. It was he who helped Isis work the ritual to bring
Osiris back from the dead, and who drove the magical poison of Set from
her son, Horus with the power of his magic. He was Horus' supporter
during the young god's deadly battle with his uncle Set, helping Horus
with his wisdom and magic. It was Thoth who brought Tefnut, who left
Egypt for Nubia in a sulk after an argument with her father, back to
heaven to be reunited with Ra.

A Statue of Thoth, in Baboon Form

When Ra retired from the earth, he appointed Thoth and told him of his
desire to create a Light-soul in the Duat and in the Land of the Caves,
and it was over this region that the sun god appointed Thoth to rule,
ordering him to keep a register of those who were there, and to mete out
just punishments to them. Thoth became the representation of Ra in the
afterlife, seen at the judgement of the dead in the 'Halls of the
Double' Ma'at. The magical powers of Thoth were so great, that the
Egyptians had tales of a 'Book of Thoth', which would allow a person who
read the sacred book to become the most powerful magician in the world.
The Book which "the god of wisdom wrote with his own hand" was, though,
a deadly book that brought nothing but pain and tragedy to those that
read it, despite finding out about the "secrets of the gods themselves"
and "all that is hidden in the stars".

Anubis, Measuring the Heart in the Halls of Ma'ati

Anubis (Inpew, Yinepu, Anpu) was an ancient Egyptian god of the
underworld who guided and protected the spirits of the dead. He was
known as the 'Lord of the Hallowed Land' - the necropolis - and /Khenty
Amentiu/, 'Foremost of the Westerners' - the Land of the Dead was
thought to be to the west, where the Egyptians buried their dead.
(Khenty Amentiu was the name of a previous canine deity who was
superseded by Anubis.) The worship of Anubis was an ancient one - it was
probably even older than the worship of Osiris. In the pyramid texts of
Unas, his role was already very clear - he was associated with the Eye
of Horus and he was already thought to be the guide of the dead in the
afterlife, showing them the way to Osiris. In the text, it was written
that "Unas standeth with the Spirits, get thee onwards, Anubis, into
Amenti, onwards, onwards to Osiris."

He was generally depicted as a black jackal-headed man, or as a black
jackal. The Egyptians would have noticed the jackals prowling around the
graveyards, and so the link between the animal and the dead was formed
in their minds. (It has been noticed by Flinders Petrie that the best
guides to Egyptian tombs are the jackal-trails.) Anubis was painted
black to further link him with the deceased - a body that has been
embalmed became a pitch black colour. Black was also the colour of
fertility, and thus linked to death and rebirth in the afterlife. Anubis
was also seen as the deity of embalming, as well as a god of the dead.
To the Egyptians, Anubis was the protector of embalming and guardian of
both the mummy and the necropolis.

Anubis was often identified by the word /sab/, 'jackal' rather than
'dog' (/iwiw/). Though to the Egyptians there was not a great deal of
difference between the two canines, so there is some confusion over
which animal Anubis actually was. The animal is sometimes referred to as
the 'Anubis animal' as it is unknown which exact species of canine that
Anubis actually was based on.

*Ma'at, Goddess of Truth, Balance, Order...*

Ma'at, Symbol of Order

Ma'at, unlike Hathor and Nephthys, seemed to be more of a concept than
an actual goddess. Her name, literally, meant 'truth' in Egyptian. She
was truth, order, balance and justice personified. She was harmony, she
was what was right, she was what things should be. It was thought that
if Ma'at didn't exist, the universe would become chaos, once again!
Ma'at, Spreading her Protective Wings For the Egyptian believed that the
universe was above everything else an ordered and rational place. It
functioned with predictability and regularity; the cycles of the
universe always remained constant; in the moral sphere, purity was
rewarded and sin was punished. Both morally and physically, the universe
was in perfect balance.

Because of Ma'at, the Egyptians knew that the universe, that everything
in the universe, worked on a pattern, just as, later on, the Greeks
called the underlying order of the universe /logos/ (meaning, order,
pattern).

"In the beginning was the /logos/*, and the /logos/* was with God and
the /logos/* was God." - John 1:1

* /Logos/ was the 'Word', another name for Jesus.

Egypt, then, was seen to be nothing without Ma'at.

Unlike the Sumerian belief in a group of gods creating everything,
Egyptians believed Ra created the earth and living things. Also
Egyptians, like the Sumerians, believed that their religious leaders
were actually gods themselves. Egyptians did not believe that there was
a patron god for each city although each god had a city that was
considered their center of worship. Also, unlike the Sumerians, the
Egyptians did not have a complex system of levels for their deities,
although some deities defiantly stand out as being the prominent gods.

This is probably because those gods were thought to have affected the
everyday life of the Egyptians. Egyptian gods were worshiped in huge
temples that were scattered throughout Egypt. In many of these temples
hieroglyphic writings about many Egyptian gods, because of this we now
know an enormous amount of information about this cultures' gods.

Last updated on: Sunday, February 2, 103.

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