ILLUSTRATIONS: Jean Magalhães
You may have heard of Ra and Osiris, but what about Bastet and Thoth? Ancient Egypt had over 1,500 deities, including several whose meaning or function within that mythology is unknown. Next, meet the main names of the pantheon.
set
The god of chaos is responsible for wars and darkness. He killed his brother, Osiris, but lost the supremacy of Egypt to his nephew Horus. It is shaped like an anteater – a rare animal from Africa.
Ra-Atum
Main Egyptian god, Ra is responsible for the creation of the world and represents the Sun. He is described in several ways, from the face of a bird of prey to a scarab. The Egyptians believed that their king (the pharaoh) was the incarnation of Ra.
Isis
Owner of magical powers, protective and pious, the sister-wife of Osiris was very popular – she was the last Egyptian deity to be worshiped in Europe before the arrival of Christianity. The Nile River was born from the tears she shed when Osiris died.
osiris
A direct descendant of Ra (the god of creation), Osiris is the eldest son of the couple Geb and Nut. He reigned over the Earth as the first pharaoh of Egypt. This until he was murdered by his brother Set. From then on, Osiris became the supreme god and judge of the world of the dead.
Nephthys
In the vale-tudo of mythology, she was the sister-wife of Set and Osiris. After his death, she separated from Set and joined her sister Isis in mourning. She is associated with the cult of the dead and is sometimes shown as a woman beside sarcophagi.
Horus
Son of Osiris and Isis, he has the head of a falcon and is the protector of pharaohs and families. When he lost his father, he fought Set for the throne of Egypt’s chief god. After the intervention of Osiris, straight from the “Beyond”, the other gods acclaimed Horus as their supreme leader.
hathor
The wife of Horus is the guardian goddess of women (especially pregnant women) and protector of lovers. In ancient Egypt, the cow was considered a gentle animal, so Hathor was depicted with the head or ears of a cow.
anubis
The jackal-headed god was born from the union of Osiris and Nephthys. It was he who created the first mummy, preparing the body of his murdered father. He plays an important role in the passage to the world of the dead.
bast
Linked to fertility, she is the goddess of sexuality and childbirth. After the year 1000 BC, her image took the form of a cat – an animal that brought good luck to the Egyptians. She is another one of Ra’s daughters.
Sekhmeth
The powerful goddess with the head of a lioness is the daughter of Ra, but reflects the destructive aspect of the Sun. She was sent by Ra to punish humans who had come to worship a god in the form of a serpent.
Thoth
His origin is controversial: some texts present him as the son of Ra, others as the son of Set. With the head of a bird – the ibis – he is the god of the moon, wisdom and healing. He is the patron saint of scribes and brought hieroglyphs to Egypt.
THE CREATION MYTH
Separation of brother gods marks the origin of the world of humans
1. The first children of Ra were Shu (god of air) and Tefnut (goddess of moisture). As is common in this mythology, the brothers formed a couple and had Geb (god of the earth) and Nut (goddess of the heavens) as children. At birth, Ra’s grandchildren joined in an embrace, forming another couple.
two. Ra didn’t like this story very much and ordered Shu to separate the children. This one pushed Nut up and pressed Geb down. While Nut became the sky that covers the world, Geb became the land we live on. And Shu remained among the children, representing the air that people breathe.
FINAL JUDGMENT
“Hell” for the Egyptians was to be devoured by a god after death
1. Every dying person was received by the god Anubis. He had the mission of weighing the hearts of the dead on a scale, a kind of assessment of how the person had behaved in life.
two. After having a heavy heart, the dead person was forwarded to a final judgment before Osiris, who questioned him about various passages of life. In this conversation, Osiris could even lighten the bar for anyone whose heart “failed the balance”.
3. Those approved would live forever in an Earth-like paradise in the company of the gods. The reprobates were devoured by Amnut, the goddess represented by the three most feared animals in Egypt: she had a crocodile’s head and a body with parts of a lion and a hippopotamus.
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