Ancient Egyptian religion

Overview

Ancient Egyptian religion shaped life along the Nile for more than three thousand years, from the first kings around 3100 BCE until Christian emperors closed the last temples. Egyptians honoured hundreds of gods, many shown with animal heads; the greatest were the sun god and Osiris, ruler of the dead. At the centre stood the king, charged with upholding maat, the right order of the world, against chaos, on everyone's behalf. Priests tended the gods' images inside temples, while ordinary people turned to household protectors, festivals and oracles. Egyptians also spent heavily on the next life, preserving bodies and burying the dead with spells to guide them. In its last centuries, Egypt's gods found worshippers across the Roman world.^{[1–3, 7, 9–16]}

History

Beginnings and the first kings c. 4000–2686 BCE

Before Egypt was one country, people were buried facing west, the land of the dead, with pots and belongings, a sign of belief in an afterlife; at Hierakonpolis, around 3500 BCE, some bodies were already being wrapped. Around 3100 BCE a single state formed under kings, and religion was bound up with kingship from the start. The king's oldest title, his Horus name, declared him a living form of Horus, the falcon sky god. The earliest kings were buried at Abydos.^[17–20]

The pyramid age c. 2686–2160 BCE

In the 4th Dynasty the sun god Ra rose to the head of the gods, and kings took the title "Son of Ra". The same dynasty raised the Giza pyramids for Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure, the largest built for Khufu. Around 2350 BCE King Unas had spells carved in his burial chambers at Saqqara. These Pyramid Texts, meant to protect the dead king and secure his life beyond death, are the oldest surviving body of Egyptian religious writing.^[21–23]

Osiris for everyone c. 2160–1550 BCE

From about 2000 BCE, every dead person, not only the king, was believed to be joined with Osiris at death. Officials and others who could pay had spells painted inside their coffins, the Coffin Texts. Abydos became Osiris's holy city, and pilgrims set up memorial stones to be near his tomb. At Thebes the god Amun rose to prominence; merged with the sun god as Amun-Ra, he was hailed as king of the gods for over a thousand years.^[24–27]

Empire and the Aten c. 1550–1070 BCE

In the New Kingdom, the wealth of empire flowed to Amun's temple at Karnak, which grew into a vast temple complex, and Book of the Dead papyri went into many burials. Then Akhenaten (reigned c. 1353–1336 BCE) raised the sun disc, the Aten, above all other gods, built a new capital at Amarna, and had Amun's name hacked from monuments. After his death the old gods were restored, Amarna was abandoned, and Tutankhaten, probably his son, became Tutankhamun, honouring Amun.^[28–31]

Late Egypt and the wider world c. 1070 BCE–300 CE

In the Late Period, animal cults grew enormously: ibises sacred to Thoth were buried by the million. After Alexander took Egypt in 332 BCE, the Greek Ptolemies ruled from Alexandria and promoted Serapis, a god combining Osiris and the Apis bull in Greek form. Isis became the Egyptian deity best known abroad. Her cult reached Delos, Rome and Pompeii, whose temple of Isis dates to the late 2nd century BCE, and she was worshipped from Britain to Afghanistan.^{[16, 32–33]}

The end of the temples 391–c. 537 CE

As the Roman empire turned Christian, Theodosius I suppressed the old cults, banning them in 391, the year the Serapeum of Alexandria was destroyed. Philae, an island at Egypt's southern frontier, held out longest; the last known hieroglyphic inscription was carved there in 394. The historian Procopius says Justinian had its temple of Isis closed and the priests arrested, an event dated c. 535–537. Many scholars now treat this as imperial propaganda, since the last evidence for active priests there dates to 456/457.^{[10, 34–35]}

Key moments

1. c. 2550 BCEThe pyramids of Giza · Giza, Egypt
2. c. 2350 BCEThe Pyramid Texts · Pyramid of Unas, Saqqara
3. c. 1550 BCEThe Book of the Dead · Egypt
4. c. 1353 BCEAkhenaten and the Aten · Amarna, Egypt
5. c. 1300 BCEThe tomb-builders of Deir el-Medina · Deir el-Medina, western Thebes, Egypt
6. c. 1259 BCEPuduhepa seals the peace with Egypt · Hattusa (Boğazköy), Anatolia, and Karnak, Egypt
7. c. 537 CEThe temple of Isis at Philae is closed · Philae, near Aswan, Egypt

Beliefs

Maat

truth, justice, cosmic order

Maat was the order set in place at creation, and also justice, truth and right conduct; she was personified as a goddess, daughter of the sun god. The king's task was to put maat in place of isfet, disorder. In temple scenes he offers a small figure of Maat to the gods, returning the order that came from them.^{[11, 36]}

The gods

netjer, "god"

The word netjer covered a wide range of divine beings, powerful but neither all-knowing nor all-powerful. Most gods had a chief cult centre and favoured animals: the falcon for Horus, the ibis for Thoth, the cow for Hathor. Gods were often fused, as in Amun-Ra, yet each also lived on separately. Heka, magic, was a divine force from creation, used in temple ritual, healing and protection.^[37–39]

Creation

Several creation accounts stood side by side. At Heliopolis the creator Atum produced Shu (air) and Tefnut (moisture), from whom came earth, sky and Osiris's family: nine gods in all. A text from Memphis has Ptah create through his heart and tongue, by thought and speech. At Hermopolis, four pairs of gods embodied the dark, watery chaos before creation.^[40–42]

Ka, ba and akh

A person had several aspects. The ka was the life force; it survived death and could dwell in a statue. The ba, often drawn as a human-headed bird, let the dead move about and change form. The akh was the transfigured spirit of the blessed dead.^[43]

Judgement of the dead

The dead faced judgement before Osiris. The heart was weighed against the feather of Maat; a heart heavy with wrongdoing was eaten by Ammut, part crocodile, lion and hippopotamus. Those who passed farmed for ever in the Field of Rushes, or Reeds; those who failed died a second death outside the ordered world.^[44–45]

Practice

Temple ritual and priests

At dawn, priests opened the shrine of a god's image, purified it, praised it, clothed it and offered food, then closed it for the night. This state duty, done in the king's name and largely out of public sight, kept the gods content. Early priests often served one month in four in rotating groups, keeping rules of purity; many women served as temple singers.^{[12, 46]}

Festivals and oracles

At festivals priests carried the god's image out of the temple in a portable boat-shrine, the main chance for most people to come near it. People put questions to the god, who answered by moving the shrine forward or back. Oracles settled local disputes and, late in the New Kingdom, steered affairs of state at Thebes.^{[14, 47]}

Mummification and burial

Egyptians preserved the body so the dead could live on. In the most elaborate method, embalmers removed most organs, dried the body with natron salt and wrapped it in linen, over about seventy days. At the tomb the Opening of the Mouth rite restored the dead person's senses. Full embalming was always too costly for most people.^{[15, 48–49]}

Animal cults

Some animals, such as the Apis bull of Memphis, were held to be living forms of a god, chosen by their markings and buried with ceremony. From the Late Period pilgrims also offered mummified animals, and cats, ibises, falcons and crocodiles filled vast cemeteries.^[50]

Religion at home

At home people made offerings and rites of protection and healing, calling on Bes, a dwarf god who guarded childbirth, and Taweret, part hippopotamus. They honoured dead relatives, and the literate sometimes left letters at tombs asking the dead for help.^{[13, 51]}

Holy days

Opet Festival

2nd month of Akhet, the flood season; 11 days, later 24

Thebes' great festival from the 18th Dynasty. Amun's boat-shrine, later joined by Mut's, Khonsu's and the king's, travelled from Karnak to Luxor Temple, renewing the king's power through the god. It ran 11 days under Thutmose III and 24 under Ramesses III.^[52]

Beautiful Feast of the Valley

Once a year, at Thebes

Amun's image crossed the Nile from Karnak to the temples of western Thebes, among them Hatshepsut's at Deir el-Bahri. Families gathered at their ancestors' tombs for banquets.^[53]

Opening of the Year

New Year's Day, signalled by the dawn rising of Sirius in midsummer

In the lunar calendar the new year began when Sirius reappeared before dawn. In late temples such as Dendera and Edfu, priests carried the gods' statues to a rooftop shrine so the sunlight would renew them.^[54]

Mysteries of Osiris

Month of Khoiak

At Abydos, Osiris's image was carried from his temple to his tomb in the desert, re-enacting his death and triumph. Other towns held similar rites, and Middle Kingdom pilgrims set up stelae along the route.^[55]

People

Scripture

Pyramid Texts

c. 2350–2100 BCE

Prayers, hymns and spells carved in the burial chambers of 5th- and 6th-Dynasty pyramids at Saqqara, starting with Unas's. They aimed to protect the dead king or queen and help them rise to new life in the sky.^{[23, 65]}

Coffin Texts

c. 2130–1630 BCE

Spells painted mostly on wooden coffins of the First Intermediate Period and Middle Kingdom. Derived largely from the Pyramid Texts and used by officials and other wealthy people, they became a main source of the Book of the Dead.^[66]

Book of the Dead · Spells for Going Forth by Day

from c. 1550 BCE

The modern name for some two hundred illustrated spells copied on papyrus rolls for burial. Spell 125 describes the judgement of the dead, with the dead person's declaration of innocence before the gods.^[67]

Amduat · "What is in the underworld"

New Kingdom

An illustrated underworld book painted in the Valley of the Kings, in the tombs of New Kingdom pharaohs. It follows the sun god through the twelve hours of the night to his rebirth at dawn, naming the many beings he meets.^[68]

Great Hymn to the Aten

c. 1340s BCE

A hymn from tombs at Amarna praising the sun disc as creator and sustainer of people, animals and plants in Egypt and foreign lands alike. Scholars have long compared it with the biblical Psalms, especially Psalm 104.^[69]

Places

Karnak and Luxor, Thebes

EGY · UNESCO World Heritage, 1979

Karnak, the temple precinct of Amun-Ra and Egypt's largest, was enlarged over many centuries; Luxor Temple, to the south, was the goal of the Opet procession. Both lie in the World Heritage property of Ancient Thebes.^[70]

Giza

EGY · UNESCO World Heritage, 1979

Plateau of the three 4th-Dynasty royal pyramids and the Great Sphinx, within the World Heritage property of Memphis and its necropolis.^[71]

Saqqara

EGY · UNESCO World Heritage, 1979

Cemetery of Memphis, Ptah's city: here are Unas's pyramid with the first Pyramid Texts, and the animal necropolis where pilgrims sought oracles and healing dreams.^[72]

Abydos

EGY

Burial ground of the earliest kings and later the chief cult centre of Osiris, whose tomb was believed to lie here. Thousands of stelae were set up by people wishing to be near him.^[73]

Tell el-Amarna

EGY

Site of Akhetaten, founded by Akhenaten around 1347 BCE as the home of the Aten's cult and abandoned soon after his death. The Great Hymn to the Aten was found in the tombs of its officials.^[74]

Philae (now Agilkia)

EGY · UNESCO World Heritage, 1979

Island sanctuary of Isis near Aswan and the last temple of the old religion. To save it from the Aswan dams' waters, its buildings were moved to nearby Agilkia in 1972–1980.^[75]

Where it spread

Art & objects

Public-domain objects from museum collections. Select one to see it at the museum.

Canopic Jar of AmenhotepEgypt, New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, reign of Amenhotep II (about 1427–1400 BCE)Stela of Amenemhat and HemetEgypt, Middle Kingdom, early Dynasty 12, about 1956–1877 BCEStatuette of the Goddess Isis Holding the God HorusEgypt, Third Intermediate Period–Late Period, Dynasty 21–31 (about 1069–332 BCE)Amulet of the Theban Triad: Amun, Mut, and KhonsuEgypt, Third Intermediate Period–Late Period, Dynasty 21–30 (about 1069–332 BCE)Statue of Ptah-Sokar-OsirisEgypt, Ptolemaic Period (332–30 BCE)Statue of HorusEgypt, Ptolemaic Period (332–30 BCE)Coffin and Mummy of PaankhaenamunThebes, Third Intermediate Period, Dynasty 22, reign of Osorkon I (about 924–889 BCE)Funerary Papyrus of TayuhenutmutEgypt, Third Intermediate Period, probably Dynasty 21 (about 1069-945 BCE)Coin Portraying Queen Cleopatra I as the Goddess IsisEgypt, 146-127 BCE, issued by Ptolemy VIII Euergetes IICoffin of BakenmutEgypt, Thebes, Third Intermediate (1069–715 BCE), Dynasties 21–22, c. 1000–900 BCETalatat: Nefertiti Offers to the AtenEgypt, Karnak, New Kingdom (1540–1069 BCE), Dynasty 18, reign of Akhenaten (1351–1334 BCE), 1353–1347 BCEHead of AmunNew Kingdom, ca. 1328–1300 BCEFunerary mask of HatneferNew Kingdom, ca. 1491–1473 BCEBook of the Dead for the Chantress of Amun, NaunyThird Intermediate Period, ca. 1050 BCE

How we know

Reading the hieroglyphs

The Rosetta Stone, a decree of Ptolemy V from 196 BCE in hieroglyphs, demotic and Greek, was found in 1799 and gave scholars a parallel text. In 1822 Jean-François Champollion, who knew Coptic, the last stage of Egyptian, worked out how hieroglyphs functioned. Since then temple walls, tomb inscriptions and papyri can be read in the Egyptians' own words.^[76–77]

A record tilted to tombs and elites

Much evidence comes from tombs and temples built in the dry desert, where they survived, and from monuments made for kings and officials. Towns and villages, where most people lived, have rarely been excavated, so everyday religion is far less known. This is one reason Egypt can seem obsessed with death.^[78]

Greek and Roman witnesses

Herodotus, in the 5th century BCE, called the Egyptians the most religious of people. Plutarch's essay on Isis and Osiris, written under Roman rule, gives the fullest surviving narrative of their myth. These outsiders' accounts are valuable but must be read alongside Egyptian sources.^[79]

Was Akhenaten a monotheist?

Since 1851 some scholars have called Akhenaten a monotheist. Others note that the Aten drew on older gods, that the king himself was treated as divine, and that people at Amarna kept household gods such as Bes and Taweret. Many prefer terms such as monolatry or henotheism, and the debate continues.^[80]

Common misconceptions

Glossary

Ammut

"Devourer": a monster, part crocodile, lion and hippopotamus, who ate the heart of a person who failed the judgement of the dead.^[44]

Anubis

Jackal god of embalming and cemeteries; chief god of the dead in early times, later overshadowed by Osiris.^[84]

Bastet

Goddess of Bubastis, first a lioness and later a cat; vast cemeteries of mummified cats grew up around her cult.^[85]

Canopic jars

Jars that held the embalmed lungs, stomach, liver and intestines, guarded by the four sons of Horus.^[15]

Ennead

A group of nine gods, above all the Great Ennead of Heliopolis: Atum, Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut, Osiris, Isis, Seth and Nephthys.^[40]

Isfet

Disorder, the opposite of maat, which the king was charged with driving out.^[11]

Ogdoad

The eight gods of Hermopolis: four male-female pairs embodying the chaos before creation, such as darkness and the primeval waters.^[42]

Ptah

Creator god of Memphis and patron of craftsmen, shown as a man wrapped like a mummy; with Sekhmet and Nefertem he formed the Memphite triad.^[86]

Sekhmet

Lion-headed goddess of war and disease who could also heal; a fierce "Eye of Ra" and companion of Ptah.^[87]

Shabti

A small figurine placed in the tomb to do farm work in the afterlife on the dead person's behalf.^[88]

Sobek

Crocodile god, worshipped especially in the Fayum and at Kom Ombo, where cemeteries of crocodiles mummified in his honour have been found.^[89]