Egyptian Mythology

 

These are the stories that Egyptian parents would have told their children to explain big questions, like the beginning of the world or what happens when a person dies.

 

The gods worshipped by the Egyptians changed a lot over time, as did their stories. The most important gods in Egyptian mythology were worshipped in temples, and people had other ways of honoring them outside the temples. Their stories shaped the way that Egyptians saw the world.

 

Creation Mythology

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Creation myths are stories about the beginning of the world. There were several different creation myths from ancient Egypt, depending on whom you asked. In one city, the story could be quite different than somewhere else.

 

Say you went to the city of Heliopolis, “the city of the Sun.” An Egyptian there might tell you that the universe started in darkness, in nothingness, in the absence of anything. Then a pyramid arose out of the nothingness and the god Amun declared himself the first living being.

 

Amun’s name means “everything” and “nothing” at the same time. He created most of the other gods: the air god Shu and Tefnut, who created earth and sky, the gods Geb and Nut. Then Geb and Nut had their own children: Osiris and Isis, Seth and Nephthys. These nine gods were the main figures that the Egyptians worshipped, and they were known as The Ennead (the Nine). Other gods, local and family gods, could be found in home shrines, but these were the gods who appeared in major temples.

 

Earth and sky were separated and the world as we know it was born. After that, the earth kept growing. The waters of the Nile, the source of life for ancient Egyptians, started with a pyramid like the one from which Amun rose. The cycle of night and day was another way to see the creation of the world all over again.

 

Suppose you then went on to Hermopolis, to ask an ordinary Egyptian how he thought the world began. He would say that there was another group of gods who came before the Ennead (the Nine). They were called The Ogdoad (the Eight). Their names were Nun and Naunet, Huh and Hauhet, Kuk and Kauket, and Amun and Amaunet. Then the creator of the Ennead hatched from an egg to create the Nine gods. When the world was created, the Ogdoad went down into the underworld, the land of the dead. The Nile floods, which are vital for agriculture, are said to be caused by these gods.

 

If you went up to Memphis, near the Nile Delta, where the god Ptah was supreme, you would hear a story that praises their own god as the reason for creation. Memphites said that Ptah was the pyramid on which Amun stood when he created the world, which meant that Ptah was truly the foundation of the universe. Ptah gave life to the gods by imagining them, then speaking their names aloud. There is a similar story in the Book of Genesis, in the Bible – where “the Word” is one of the first things created, and it creates almost everything else. Names and words were powerful in ancient stories.

 

Take a look inside the tomb of a mummy, and his coffin would have yet another story to tell. The writings inscribed on the insides of coffins, known as “Coffin Texts,” give stories of the afterlife and judgment, but sometimes they also tell of the creation of the world. The Coffin Texts tell almost exactly the same story, but they also include the creator’s words about why he created the world, the gods, and human beings. He wanted to balance the presence of evil in the world with beings who were good and pious.

 

Perhaps the strangest thing to us, looking at Egyptian creation myths from a modern perspective, is the fact that human beings are just another part of the universal order. People are not exceptional in Egyptian mythology, they just exist, as any other part of the world. People are just a part of nature.