Egyptian Mythology Essay Example for Free

Egyptian Mythology Essay Mythology is a collection of stories believed to be true by any culture, where these stories are used to interpret and explain natural and supernatural phenomenon. Myths play a prominent role in religion. The abstract concept of god that is dealt with by religion is made concrete through the development of myths. Earliest mythologies concerned themselves with the immense powers of nature which might have confounded the brain of the primitive human beings. Therefore they worshipped nature rain, sun, water, wind, animals, birds, and trees. The evolution of mythology started with a feeling of terror and awe when confronted with these forces of nature over which man had very little power (Conway, 1876). The brain of human beings is constructed in such a manner that it seeks explanations for events. It is wired to look for causes behind consequences. Human beings used myths to provide reasons for the manner in which nature functioned. For example, thunder was considered to be the anger of gods. Many temples were built in order to propitiate the gods of their myths. Some of the most famous temples of Ancient Egypt are Abu Simbel, Abydos, Karnak, Luxor, and Ramesseum. Myths of different characteristics are found in ancient Egypt †¢ origin myths, †¢ ritual myths, †¢ creation myths, †¢ social myths, and †¢ eschatological myths. Of these, the creation myths are most interesting from the point of view of Egyptian mythology as well as those of other mythologies. According to the Egyptian mythology, there are three different cosmogonies: first involves the emergence of land and life from primordial waters known as Neith, second involves the creation of Ra from the interaction of water, air, darkness and eternity, and the third one is similar to the Judeo-Christian creation myth whereby Ptah, the eternal god, spoke and all creation was manifested. Origin of life for the Egyptians begins with the creation of the nine primeval deities known as Pesedjet. Out of these deities the most important one is Atum, who is known to be the ‘complete one’ or the ‘one absolute’. He is created from the primordial soup known as Neith. His breath becomes dryness and semen becomes moisture. Through an interaction of dryness and moisture, emerge the earth and sky. They separated to form life and death, and desert and fertile land. The creation of earth and life from chaos is a theory central to the Hindu, Cherokee, Babylonian, Nordic and Germanic mythologies. The other important motifs of creation myths are the separation of the male (father) and female (mother) gods, emergence of land from water and the creation of everything from nothing. According to the Ancient Finns, the world is formed from a broken egg. In ancient Egyptian mythology, the sun god, Ra, opened in an egg. As life exists because of the energy derived from sunlight, it is easy to notice that the creation of life is linked to the creation of the sun. Origin myths are known as aetiologies. They are used to explain the causes of certain cult myths. They are related to the creation myths in the sense that they explain the causes of the creation myths. Many animals were considered sacred. Nowhere is this more evident than in Egyptian mythology. The Egyptian pantheon was essentially zoomorphic. Some of the common sacred animals of the ancient Egyptian pantheon are Anubis, the jackal or dog; Apis, the bull; Hathor, the cow; Horus, the falcon; Satis, the gazelle; Sekhmet, the lioness; and Selket, the scorpion. All these animals were attributed with divine powers but the god himself or herself (as the case may be) was anthropomorphic. Gods created good and evil. Thus there was no need for a devil in ancient Egypt (Conway, 1876). Propitiating the gods with rites and rituals bestowed men with good fortune. For the ancient Egyptians though, it was not life that was important. They placed immense import on the after-life. All of life was a preparation for life after death. All the Egyptian myths speak about the after-life at some point or the other. In order to explain what happened to human beings after death, they believed that the soul of a person goes into a judgement hall by Anubis. The heart of the dead person is weighed on a balancing scale against a single feather that symbolizes Ma’at, who stands of truth. If the heart is outweighed by the feather, the dead soul goes to ‘live’ in the presence of Osiris, who is the lord of the after-life. If the heart outweighs the feather, Ammit, who is part lion, part crocodile and part hippopotamus, eats the heart. The reason for this is that a heavy heart is one that is burdened by sin and guilt and a light heart is a pure one (Budge, 1991). One of the most prominent deities in the ancient Egyptian mythology is the sun. Many deities were associated with the sun such as Bast, Bat, Hathor, Menhit, Nut, Sekhmet and Wadjet. The sun’s god was known as Ra who was the creator of everything. He was represented by a man’s body and a hawk’s head and holding a sceptre and an ankh. Horus was another representative of the sun. The sun would travel across the sky every day in a barque and travel in the underworld during the night. Ra would fight a battle with Apep everyday during darkness in order to remerge during the day. After their death, the members of the royal household were believed to travel with the sun each day in the barque. The kings considered themselves to be the sons of the sun and therefore, a Pharaoh was born divine. The king was ‘Son of Amen’ and therefore a personification of the sun, the father (Bard, 1999). The concept lingers to this day in the form of Jesus Christ who is the son of God, the Father. Jesus is in absolute likeliness of the God, the Father. Sun has similar importance in the mythologies of other cultures too. The Aztecs worshipped the sun as Toniatiuh, ‘movement of the sun’ in Nahuatl. For them, sun was the leader of heaven. According to them, the present sun was the fifth sun with its own cosmological time span. There were four other suns before this one. According to the Chinese cosmology there were ten suns. Hou Yi was the hero who shot nine of the ten suns so that there would just enough light and heat to sustain the planet. Most Vedic hymns are dedicated to Surya, the sun god. Savita was the personification of the deity. There were twelve Adityas or solar deities. Ancient Egyptian mythology is rift with rituals. Rituals were central to the religion, state and culture of this great civilization. Many texts were used to assist in the rituals †¢ Books of Breathing, †¢ Book of the Earth, †¢ Book of the Dead, †¢ Book of the Netherworld, †¢ Book of the Gates, †¢ Book of Caverns and †¢ Amduat. Of these, the Book of the Dead is most famous. It contains many spells and incantations. It was buried along with the dead in order to help them pass through the underworld in a safe manner. The ancient Egyptian funerary rituals included mummification, casting of incantations and spells, and burial. The bodies of the dead were mummified because the ancient Egyptians believed that the soul needed to the body even after death. The mummified bodies were buried along with many grave goods such as tools, implements, jewels, clothes and weapons. Many mummies would be placed in funerary boats. Burial rituals were always accompanied by funerary literature. For a long time it was thought that mummification was unique to the ancient Egyptians until mummies began to be discovered by archaeologists in China and Latin America. The process of mummification also appears to have been similar and they also appear to have been accompanied by rituals and incantations. The presence of megalithic structures in ancient Egypt has interesting parallels in Crete, Ireland, and even Melanesia. These are a group of complex building built in a labyrinthine fashion near a lake. They associated essentially with animal sacrifice and funerary rituals (Campbell, 1959). Ancient Egyptian mythologies extend even to the trees. They considered that a spirit dwelled in a leafy-tree and that there was a well of water at the bottom of the tree. Some of the common sacred trees in Egypt were the sycamore, palm, and persea (Buhl, 1947). Hathor, the cow was also known as a tree-goddess in the Old Kingdom and many tree-goddess cults prevailed in that region. Hathor was also known as ‘The Mistress of the Southern Sycamore’. Not only females but even males were associated with tree divinity. â€Å"He who is under a moringa tree† was a common statement in tree cults and referred to various tree deities. Mythologies abound even today in many religious systems. Many Judeo-Christians believe that the Genesis is a literal account of creation. It has sparked many a controversy with the evolutionary theory of life. Comparative mythologists such as Joseph Campbell and Rollo May claim that the loss of connection with ancient myths is one of the causes of greatest concerns for the modern man. Myths act as guides. They are the signposts of the soul. The stories they tell are very similar to the lives we lead. The morals they provide are sure to help man in solving the problems of his own life. REFERENCES: http://www. solarnavigator. net/egyptian_solar_boat. htm Moncure D. Conway, â€Å"On Mythology†. The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 5, (1876), pp. 202-212. Budge, E. A. Wallis, â€Å"Egyptian Religion: Egyptian Ideas of the Future Life (Library of the Mystic Arts)†. Citadel Press. August 1, 1991. Kathryn Bard, â€Å"`Encyclopedia of the Archeology of Ancient Egypt†. Routledge. 1999. Joseph Campbell, â€Å"Primitive Mythologies†. Penguin Books. 1959. Marie-Louise Buhl, â€Å"The Goddesses of the Egyptian Tree Cult†. Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 6, No. 2 (Apr. , 1947), pp. 80-97