Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Goddesses, and Traditions of Ancient Egypt

Product Information

Gujaareh, however, has a problem. The most famous, Gatherer Ehiru, uncovers a plot in which innocent people are killed in the name of the local goddess.

As with Assmann’s The Mind of Egypt (#9 above), the scope and ambition of this book are extremely impressive. It discusses the many different things that death meant to the ancient Egyptians, from hopeless isolation to continued social connectivity to dismemberment to an ascent to the blissful Field of Reeds to cyclical rebirth. Funerary rites are also discussed at length and in great detail. And as with Assmann’s other books, the writing is clear, jargon-free, and should be perfectly comprehensible to the lay reader. The Codex Borgia: A Full-Color Restoration of the Ancient Mexican Manuscript by Gisele Díaz and Alan Rodgers Ritner, Robert Kriech (1993). The Mechanics of Ancient Egyptian Magical Practice. The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. ISBN 0-918986-75-3. During the First Intermediate Period (c. 2181–2055 BC), the Pyramid Texts developed into the Coffin Texts, which contain similar material and were available to non-royals. Succeeding funerary texts, like the Book of the Dead in the New Kingdom and the Books of Breathing from the Late Period (664–323 BC) and after, developed out of these earlier collections. The New Kingdom also saw the development of another type of funerary text, containing detailed and cohesive descriptions of the nocturnal journey of the sun god. Texts of this type include the Amduat, the Book of Gates, and the Book of Caverns. [42] Temple decoration at Dendera, depicting the goddesses Isis and Nephthys watching over the corpse of their brother Osiris Assmann covers ancient Egyptian views on good and evil, time, justice, political institutions (especially the pharaoh), the afterlife, monumental architecture like the Pyramids, burial customs such as mummification, the relationship between the spiritual and material worlds, the relationship between the sacred and history, the character and destiny of the Egyptian people and state, and more – as well as how views on all of those topics changed over the several millennia of ancient Egyptian civilization. Additionally, it gives historical overviews of the time periods in question, so that you can see how historical events and changing perceptions of the world went hand in hand. Yes, it really does cover that much ground, and does so in a refreshingly accessible and nontechnical writing style. As with The Search for God in Ancient Egypt, Assmann’s passion for the topic is as palpable as his unrivaled mastery of it.Erik Hornung’s Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: The One and the Many is widely considered to be the standard book on ancient Egyptian theology, and with very good reason. Tobin, Vincent Arieh (2001). "Myths: An Overview". In Redford, Donald B. (ed.). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt. Vol.2. Oxford University Press. pp.464–469. ISBN 978-0-19-510234-5. Few complete stories appear in Egyptian mythological sources. These sources often contain nothing more than allusions to the events to which they relate, and texts that contain actual narratives tell only portions of a larger story. Thus, for any given myth the Egyptians may have had only the general outlines of a story, from which fragments describing particular incidents were drawn. [24] Moreover, the gods are not well-defined characters, and the motivations for their sometimes inconsistent actions are rarely given. [31] Egyptian myths are not, therefore, fully developed tales. Their importance lay in their underlying meaning, not their characteristics as stories. Instead of coalescing into lengthy, fixed narratives, they remained highly flexible and non- dogmatic. [28] The Red Pyramid earned him the 2010 School Library Journal’s Best Book, 2011 Children’s Choice Book Awards: Fifth Grade to Sixth Grade Book of the Year, and the 2012 Indian Paintbrush Award. Uphill, E. P. (2003). "The Ancient Egyptian View of World History". In Tait, John (ed.). 'Never Had the Like Occurred': Egypt's View of Its Past. UCL Press. pp. 15–29. ISBN 978-1-84472-007-1.

Because the Egyptians rarely described theological ideas explicitly, the implicit ideas of mythology formed much of the basis for Egyptian religion. The purpose of Egyptian religion was the maintenance of maat, and the concepts that myths express were believed to be essential to maat. The rituals of Egyptian religion were meant to make the mythic events, and the concepts they represented, real once more, thereby renewing maat. [64] The rituals were believed to achieve this effect through the force of heka, the same connection between the physical and divine realms that enabled the original creation. [103]Illustrations of gods and mythical events appear extensively alongside religious writing in tombs, temples, and funerary texts. [42] Mythological scenes in Egyptian artwork are rarely placed in sequence as a narrative, but individual scenes, particularly depicting the resurrection of Osiris, do sometimes appear in religious artwork. [111] Ra's movements through the sky and the Duat are not fully narrated in Egyptian sources, [89] although funerary texts like the Amduat, Book of Gates, and Book of Caverns relate the nighttime half of the journey in sequences of vignettes. [90] This journey is key to Ra's nature and to the sustenance of all life. [30] Ra on the solar barque, adored with the sun-disk Many gods appear in artwork from the Early Dynastic Period of Egypt's history (c. 3100–2686 BC), but little about the gods' actions can be gleaned from these sources because they include minimal writing. The Egyptians began using writing more extensively in the Old Kingdom, in which appeared the first major source of Egyptian mythology: the Pyramid Texts. These texts are a collection of several hundred incantations inscribed in the interiors of pyramids beginning in the 24th century BC. They were the first Egyptian funerary texts, intended to ensure that the kings buried in the pyramid would pass safely through the afterlife. Many of the incantations allude to myths related to the afterlife, including creation myths and the myth of Osiris. Many of the texts are likely much older than their first known written copies, and they therefore provide clues about the early stages of Egyptian religious belief. [45]

The attitudes toward myth in nonreligious Egyptian texts vary greatly. Some stories resemble the narratives from magical texts, while others are more clearly meant as entertainment and even contain humorous episodes. [50] Your child will find this book easy to follow and understand. The author uses simple vocabulary and short sentences to help young readers understand what they are reading. In addition, many pictures show the children what they are reading about. The pictures help them understand what they are learning about because they can see what things look like and how they are used in everyday life. te Velde, Herman (2001). "Seth". In Redford, Donald B. (ed.). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt. Vol.3. Oxford University Press. pp.269–271. ISBN 978-0-19-510234-5. Allusions to myth were very widespread in Egyptian art and architecture. In temple design, the central path of the temple axis was likened to the sun god's path across the sky, and the sanctuary at the end of the path represented the place of creation from which he rose. Temple decoration was filled with solar emblems that underscored this relationship. Similarly, the corridors of tombs were linked with the god's journey through the Duat, and the burial chamber with the tomb of Osiris. [112] The pyramid, the best-known of all Egyptian architectural forms, may have been inspired by mythic symbolism, for it represented the mound of creation and the original sunrise, appropriate for a monument intended to assure the owner's rebirth after death. [113] Symbols in Egyptian tradition were frequently reinterpreted, so that the meanings of mythical symbols could change and multiply over time like the myths themselves. [114]Egyptologists in the early twentieth century thought that politically motivated changes like these were the principal reason for the contradictory imagery in Egyptian myth. However, in the 1940s, Henri Frankfort, realizing the symbolic nature of Egyptian mythology, argued that apparently contradictory ideas are part of the "multiplicity of approaches" that the Egyptians used to understand the divine realm. Frankfort's arguments are the basis for much of the more recent analysis of Egyptian beliefs. [41] Political changes affected Egyptian beliefs, but the ideas that emerged through those changes also have deeper meaning. Multiple versions of the same myth express different aspects of the same phenomenon; different gods that behave in a similar way reflect the close connections between natural forces. The varying symbols of Egyptian mythology express ideas too complex to be seen through a single lens. [28] Sources [ edit ] Roth, Ann Macy (2001). "Opening of the Mouth". In Redford, Donald B. (ed.). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt. Vol.2. Oxford University Press. pp.605–609. ISBN 978-0-19-510234-5. The culture of Ancient Egypt is a must for anyone who wants to increase their cultural knowledge. We invite you to consult our Egyptian mythology books in PDF, a free collection that will allow you to take an entertaining walk through thousands of years of this great civilization. Hornung, Erik (1982) [German edition 1971]. Conceptions of God in Egypt: The One and the Many. Translated by John Baines. Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-1223-4.

Kaper, Olaf E. (2001). "Myths: Lunar Cycle". In Redford, Donald B. (ed.). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt. Vol.2. Oxford University Press. pp.480–482. ISBN 978-0-19-510234-5. Griffiths, J. Gwyn (2001). "Isis". In Redford, Donald B. (ed.). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt. Vol.2. Oxford University Press. pp.188–191. ISBN 978-0-19-510234-5. Ra, with the sun disk above his head, on the boat with which he traversed the sky and the underworld in his daily roundAllen, James P. (1988). Genesis in Egypt: The Philosophy of Ancient Egyptian Creation Accounts. Yale Egyptological Seminar. ISBN 0-912532-14-9. Andrews, Carol A. R. (2001). "Amulets". In Redford, Donald B. (ed.). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt. Vol.1. Oxford University Press. pp.75–82. ISBN 978-0-19-510234-5. Wilkinson presents all of this in very clear, simple, and jargon-free prose that should be perfectly comprehensible to any layperson. It’s extremely newbie-friendly. As the title implies, this book allows readers to view ancient Egypt through the lens of ancient Egyptians. It spans almost all of predynastic to post-pharaonic Ancient Egyptian history. The ancient Egyptians were perhaps more preoccupied with mortality than any other human society, past or present, and have left behind an extraordinarily rich and mysterious body of texts and artifacts that give clues about their views on death and the afterlife. Virtually everything in ancient Egypt, from mummies to pyramids to theology, had to do with death and immortality in some way or another.