The ancient Egyptian religion
These few lines come to talk about long pages from an aspect of Egyptian civilization, which is the religion of the ancient Egyptians.
That mythical envelope that surrounded it, that huge and terrible still shrouded in mystery and surrounded by a halo of sparkle, grabs the eye and captivates the heart.
The Egyptian religion is the product of the creative Egyptian genius since the ancient Egyptian knew stability and began to think about what was around him. The environment in which the ancient Egyptian lived had a great impact on his idea and beliefs. The environment and its conditions, so his ideas mixed with imagination, or they may be all wild imagination.
The ancient Egyptian gods were not the same. Still, they varied in style and name, and in many cases a form, where the Egyptians symbolized them with forms of elements from different beings, which gave them mystery and magic and gave the Egyptian civilization a special character from other ancient civilizations and achieved his deities fame in the ancient world, such as the Egyptian Isa, which Temples were built for her all over the ancient world…
The religion of the ancient Egyptians. . .
Religion played an important role. . . And there was no power to control it. Religion controlled everything, and without the existence of the ancient Egyptian religion and its beliefs, temples, tombs, statues, mummification, and others would not have appeared.
According to the Czechoslovak Egyptologist, it is the first written document that was discovered about that civilization.
Egypt was the scene of the first human religion that appeared on the planet.
All nations were interested in unveiling the religion of the ancient Egyptians to know their secrets and what was going on in their heads.
Description of the Egyptian religion
One of the descriptions of the ancient nations is the most important part of the history of the ancient Egyptians. That religion, legends of worship, their ceremonies, etc., are the greatness of the Egyptians. On this subject, we had only foreign sources such as Herodotus and Plutarch.
The hieroglyphic symbols have solved the matter for the researchers, and the religions are generally characterized by complexity, especially the religion of the ancient Egyptians, due to the permeation of religion in all aspects of life.
Some believe that the Egyptians did not find a specific word for religion because they did not separate religion from the state; as we said, religion has entered all parts of life.
Religion is a word that means obedience and devotion to God, and its plural is religions.
The characteristics of the Egyptian religion are the weaving of ideas about the creation of the universe and myths about many deities from the environment, animals, birds, insects and fish. . . etc.
The fundamental belief was that there was a supernatural power, and imagination did exist.
And the Egyptians worshipped an infinite number of gods or deities, and each region, even small, had its deity or deity.
And the development of religion reached monotheism during the reign of King Akhenaten, but it was a pagan monotheism.
They believed that there was another day for resurrection and another life awaiting them, which is the life of immortality.
The ancient Egyptian believed in five sacred elements upon which his civilizations were based:
1/ Ka K3 or Al-Qurain. It represented the formation of two arms extended upwards. It represents the human companion who is completely similar to him and accompanies him in the life of this world and the hereafter, so he assists him.
2/ Alba B3 or Soul. She is represented in a composite image of the body of a bird with a human head, and it is either good or bad. If it is good, its destiny is Paradise, and it is for them like the world in terms of food and drink and……… but it contradicts the world that it remains immortal, and the righteous man was by order of Osir. He offers him gifts and drinks, and he gives clothes of linen, restores his heart, and sets his right hand in the heavenly Paradise.
3 / Ghat or the dead body. It is the physical image of the human being that he tried, by all means, to preserve it from affliction, hence the mummification.
4/ Shut or shadow: Ah, a philosophy similar to the philosophy of the companion, in that the shadow accompanies its owner to the end until he dwells in his dwelling in the grave.
5 / run-never:. It is never intended by a beautiful name, but rather a good biography or a good deed that a person does in his life and then ends with his death…
* Animal sanctification in ancient Egypt.
The bodies in which the Egyptian deities were depicted varied between human bodies or purely animal bodies, or composite bodies that combined the human and animal forms, or the bodies of birds and insects.
The reasons behind this diversity and difference varied according to the nature of each deity and the Egyptian view of it. Still, the common principle in the formation of this or that body was represented in the Egyptian view of some characteristics related to the animal or the bird, which elevated it to the rank of sanctification.
The Egyptian used to sanctify some of them in the hope of benefiting from good qualities in them, such as “the cow”, which was a symbol of motherhood and giving, because of what he saw of the cow’s care for her suckling and the amount of human benefit from it.
The ancient Egyptian also sanctified some animals to avoid evil or harm from them, such as the jackal animal that used to dig up graves and destroy the bodies of moony. The Egyptians also sanctified some animals for the characteristics of strength and a special ability that characterize this or that being, such as the falcon. For his ability to fly and fly and the accuracy of pouncing on his prey.
The veneration of some animals for their distinctive nature in one matter, such as the snake and the frog, as two amphibious creatures that can live both in water and land, and their ability to reproduce and regenerate. It was noticed that the snake could change its skin, so they thought that it would be born again. The frog hibernates, then returns and reproduces significantly during the summer. And other qualities and characteristics that distinguish each organism, which the Egyptian was able to identify by careful observation, and trace it through the long ages since pre-dynastic times.
According to the oldest evidence and archaeological evidence that confirms this, the Egyptians sanctified these beings since pre-dynastic times. And they depicted their deities in the images of some of these beings in a pure form, or a double form, or a compound form between more than one being, that is, between a human and an animal, or a human and a bird, or some insects and reptiles. Still, they were very careful that this composition or blending is acceptable in terms of artistic form.
*Ehrman saw*:
This scientist sees that these half-human images have emerged from pure animal forms so that God can express all he desires of things and actions that an animal cannot perform, such as love, hate, give and take, etc. That the human head is an animal.
*saw Wiedemann*
Where Wiedemann believes that it was necessary for the ancient Egyptian to depict man from a large part of the forms of semi-humans, and that these forms with an animal head establish dialogue on an equal footing with the human beings of kings, nobles and other human beings, and it is remarkable that the ancient Egyptian art He may represent the characters in sizes commensurate with their status, such as the gods, kings and ordinary people, each of them has a statue that suits his position, and that the king who makes offerings to the God sometimes exceeds the size of the God than the king, but the animal shape was not suitable to represent this relationship and therefore the ancient Egyptian artist overcame this problem So he represented the animal on a high base so that it would be at the level of the representative in front of people, but a problem arose, which is how the statue of this animal deity could take or give the king, such as giving the king the power or the crown, or when he receives offerings from him.
Therefore, it was necessary to add the human form, and this opinion is more likely.
We reached the end of the article; the question remains here
What is the religion of the ancient Egyptians?
Were the ancient Egyptians monotheists or pagans?