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The ancient Egyptians possessed a complex and intricate religion. The Egyptians were polytheists and worshipped literally hundreds of different gods, including their pharaohs, all of whom were believed to be gods in the form of men. For the most part, Egyptians held to polytheism, and the only time the Egyptians neared monotheism was during the reign of Akhenaton, who recognized only one god, Aton, as deity and denied all other gods. This belief was extinguished after the death of Akhenaton, as it was not accept by most Egyptians at that time. The Egyptians were also animists. They believed the gods personified.forces in nature, such as wind, water, rain, and fire. Most of their gods were represented as half animal, half person.
Although the ancient Egyptians did worship hundreds of different gods, there were several gods whose cults were more popular than others. Amon-Re was the primary Egyptian god, supposed to be self-created. He was thought to be all-powerful and in result was thought to have created the entire world by simply speaking it into being. While at first he wasn’t one of the more prominent gods, he eventually replaced Egypt’s war god and became such an important god that he was recognized as the king of all gods. The main center for worship of Amon-Re was in Thebes.
Osiris, probably the most well known of the Egyptian gods, was considered to be the god of vegetation, the god of the resurrection, but most importantly, the god of the Underworld. According to Egyptian mythology, Osiris was sent to earth by Amon-Re and he ruled peacefully over it until his brother, Set, became jealous of his good position and enticed him into a coffin, which he sent down the Nile River. The coffin was found by Isis, wife to Osiris, enclosed in a tree in Lebanon. She brought it back to Egypt, but during a temporary absence, Set stole the body of Osiris from Isis and cut into pieces, scattering the pieces throughout the land. Isis recovered to pieces and using magic, was supposed to have resurrected Osiris as a God-King. Osiris then became the ruler of the Underworld and the judge of the dead.
Brother and rival of Osiris, Set is the Egyptian god of chaos, sometimes known as the god of storms, wind, war, and deserts. After the incident in which Egyptian mythology claims that Set murdered Osiris, Horus, the son of Osiris, came after Set in anger because of Set’s murder of his father. The two of them fought endless battle until Horus was finally victorious. Set was then banished by the gods.
Isis, the goddess of fertility and motherhood, is the first Egyptian goddess
and also most likely the longest lasting. Worship of Isis was popular all over
Egypt, but she had two main worship centers solely devoted to her; one at Giza
and one at Behbeit El-Hagar. As the wife and sister of Osiris, Isis was considered
to be the goddess of the dead, and also the goddess of magic, as she used magic
to resurrect Osiris from the dead. The goddess Isis is the personification of
the throne and the hieroglyphic for throne is the same as her name.
A big part of ancient Egyptian religion was their belief in the afterlife. Egyptians
believed the soul to be made up of three parts. The “ba” was supposed
to be person’s character or personality, the “ka” was the
double of the person. Finally, the “akh” represented the person’s
spirit after they died. The Egyptian practice of mummification was a crucial
part of their religious system. It was believed that unless the dead person’s
body was preserved, the person’s soul and body could not reunited and
thus they person would not be able to participate in the afterlife.
As seen, Egyptian religion was complex and complicated, as well as crucial to any Egyptian, but their polytheistic beliefs surely caused problems. As, “god-kings,” a lot of pressure was placed on the pharaohs. They were blamed for when the land did not produce well, when there were problems with other countries, and so on. The Egyptian gods were never considered by them to be very personal. As is almost always the case with false, polytheistic religions, the gods were distant and their relationship with common people was not strong.
The ancient Egyptian religion; the belief in gods like Osiris, Isis, and Amon-Re are not very popular any longer, although there are still scattered cults for these gods. The downfall of this religion began when Egypt was brought under Roman rule around 31 B.C. After this, Christianity spread rapidly through Egypt, just as it spread through the whole of the Roman Empire. In 389 A.D., all temples were forced to be closed accept those which were Christian and all pagan worship was strictly forbidden. This caused the end of ancient Egyptian religion.
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