Horus - An early avian god who became one of the most important deities in ancient Egypt. She was thought to live in sycamore trees and so was also known as 'The Lady of the Sycamore." They painted images of Bastet on their shields and drove animals in front of their army knowing the Egyptians would rather surrender than offend their goddess. The connection between the gods and goddesses to the animals is the combination of the god’s power and animal’s characteristics. His association with the primordial mound linked him with Ptah and, through Ptah, with Atum and Ra, the other names for the creator god/sun god. Serapis - The hybrid god created by Ptolemy I Soter of Egypt (r. 323-283 BCE), first ruler of the Ptolemaic Dynasty (323-30 BCE), the last dynasty to rule Egypt before it was taken under Roman governance. In this tale, the Eye of Ra goes forth from Egypt and transforms itself into a lion. In some inscriptions it is synonymous with the Field of Reeds. The scholar Wilkinson cites a text known as Instructions of Amenemopet which states, "None can ignore Shay" (128). Supreme king of the gods in some periods, though originally a minor fertility god. He drives his sun barge across the heavens by day, showing another aspect of himself with each advance of the sun across the sky, and then dives into the underworld at evening where the barge is threatened by the primordial serpent Apep (Apophis) and must be defended by the other gods and souls of the justified dead. In the Pyramid Texts, he attempts to kill all the gods with his breath of fire but is overpowered by the spirit of the dead king who saves creation. The goddess Neith was originally a war goddess who became the epitome of the Mother Goddess, a nurturing figure, to whom the gods would turn to settle their disputes. He had a major temple in western Thebes and a healing center at Deir el-Bahri. The gods evolved from an animistic belief system to one which was highly anthropomorphic and imbued with magic. Triads - Important groupings of three deities, usually a father-god, mother-god, and child-god, the two best known being the Theban Triad of Amun, Mut, and Khons and the Abydos Triad of Osiris, Isis, and Horus. Many ancient Egyptian gods had symbols which meant different things. Probably some parts are real and some parts are not. Worshipped in the period of the Middle Kingdom (2040-1782 BCE). With your help we create free content that helps millions of people learn history all around the world. Here are a few of the most important deities to know. In his association with Ra he appeared as a child, symbolizing the morning sun, and as an adult representing later day. Beer was referred to as "the milk of Heset". When Pegasus decided to make them into cards, everyone involved in the project was attacked by the spirits of the \"Egyptia… But these could change over time as gods rose and fell in importance and evolved in ways that corresponded to developments in Egyptian society. Although these developments are sometimes noted below, the gods are generally described in the roles they were best known for at the peak of their popularity. Mark, Joshua J. She was originally from Syria or Canaan. He is depicted as a falcon with a flail over the right wing or as a bearded man with a crown featuring two feathers. Nephthys is widely, and incorrectly, regarded as a minor deity when actually she was worshipped throughout Egypt from the earliest periods to the last dynasty to rule Egypt. He is depicted as a red beast with cloven hooves and a forked tale and is the prototype for the later iconography of the Christian Devil. Sah - An astral god, personification of the constellation Orion, usually paired with Sothis (Sopdet) as representations of the astral forms of Osiris and Isis. Banebdjedet - A fertility/virility god who appears as a ram or a man with a ram's head, associated with the city of Mendes, eventually another name for Osiris. He was said to have killed two serpents and entwined them on a staff as a symbol of his power; this image (borrowed from the Sumerians, actually) was passed on to the Greeks who associated it with their god Hermes and called it the caduceus. In the text The Lamentations of Isis and Nephthys she calls the soul of Osiris back from the dead. Ancient History Encyclopedia, 14 Apr 2016. A freelance writer and former part-time Professor of Philosophy at Marist College, New York, Joshua J. Heryshaf - A fertility god depicted as a man with the head of a ram. She is an aspect of Wadjet, sister of Nekhbet, in later images from Lower Egypt. Neper predates Osiris and may have been one of the earlier gods who prefigure the Osiris Myth. Hu is often seen as a representation of the power of Heka or Atum and is depicted in funerary texts guiding the soul to the afterlife. Heh was depicted as a frog and Hauhet as a serpent. Nekhbet - A protector goddess in the form of a vulture who guarded Upper Egypt. Amunet  - The female counterpart of Amun, member of the Ogdoad. Originally a Nubian deity. Fetket - The butler of the sun god Ra who served him his drinks, patron god of bartenders. Among her titles is Weret-Hekau, meaning "Great of Magic" and she was regularly invoked for protection against demons, bad luck, or ghosts. In the Ptolemaic period she came to be associated with the Greek goddess Artemis, the divine hunter and goddess of the moon. Set was originally a hero-god who drove away the serpent Apep (Apophis) from the barge of the sun god and killed it nightly. Sia is depicted as a man standing at the right side of Ptah (later, Atum/Ra) and held his papyrus scroll. Statue of Horus at his temple in IdfÅ«, Egypt. Ra had a vat of beer dyed red to attract Sekhmet's blood lust and left it at Dendera where she drank it and fell into a deep sleep; when she woke she was the benevolent Hathor. During the Ptolemaic Dynasty (323-30 BCE), when Egyptian gods were hellenized, he was known as Agathadaimon, the serpent deity who could tell one's future. Tasenetnofret - A protective goddess of Kom Ombo whose name means "The Good Sister" or "The Beautiful Sister". Along with Hardedef and Imhotep, one of the few human beings deified by the Egyptians. The male hippopotamus was very aggressive and considered one of the most dangerous animals in Egypt so he was associated with the god Set resulting in images of Taweret as consort of Set even though the two deities had nothing in common.

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