Egyptian CreationMyths

Isis and Osiris

Key TermsAmunanimals as mythical figuresAnubisArtemisAstarteAtumBook of the DeadCronusDemeterDionysusEgyptian centers of learning and worshipEnneadGebGnosticismHarpocratesHathorHeliopolisHeraclesHermes

HorusIsisliminalityMercurymystery religionsNephthysNutOsirisPamyliaPlutarchPtahrationalizationReRhearitualSethShusyncretismTefnut/TefenetThothTyphon

Painted papyrus depicting Shu, the air god, raising his daughter Nut, the sky goddess, above her brother Geb, the earth god, thus creating the world).

World of Ancient Egypt

Timeline of Ancient Egyptc. 4500-3000 Predynastic Period c. 3100-2890 Early Dynastic: Dynasty 1 c. 2890-2686 Early Dynastic: Dynasty 2 c. 2686-2613 Early Dynastic: Dynasty 3 c. 2613-2494 Old Kingdom Dynasty 4 c. 2494-2345 Old Kingdom Dynasty 5 c. 2345-2181 Old Kingdom Dynasty 6 c. 2181-2125 Old Kingdom Dynasties 7 & 8 c. 2125-2025 First Intermediate Period: Dynasties 9-11 c. 2025-1700 Middle Kingdom Dynasties 11-13 c. 1700-1550 Second Intermediate Period Dynasty 13-17 c. 1550-1295 New Kingdom Dynasty 18 c. 1295-1186 New Kingdom Dynasty 19 c. 1186-1069 New Kingdom Dynasty 20 c. 1069-945   Third Intermediate Period Dynasty 21 c. 945-727     Third Intermediate Period Dynasties 22-23 c. 727-332     Late Period Dynasties 24-30 and Persian Occupation     332-30       Ptolemaic Period     30 BC - 330 AD Roman Period     330 AD - 641 Byzantine Period

Theriomorphism: Manifestation of some aspect of the god’s power

E.g., Hathor as cow. Cow as symbol of fertility.

Official state religion King as priest:

Pharaoh as Horus or son of Re and, after death, Osiris

The pharaoh Chephren with Horus. (The statue originally stood with twenty-two other royal figures as centerpiece of the statue cult in the king's valley temple, Giza. Fourth Dynasty circa 2550 BC. )

Mythology, Religion and Kingship in Egypt

Tutankhamun as Osiris ( Dynasty XVIII tomb painting, from the north wall of the tomb of Tutankhamun, Valley of the Kings).

Afterlife

Illustration from the Book of the Dead (shows deceased being led to judgment by jackal- headed god Anubis, where his heart is weighed against a feather, symbol of truth, in the presence of Thoth, ibis- headed god of wisdom who wears the wide sash of a priest; he notes the results of the weighing. Then, the deceased is led to the supreme judge of the dead and ruler of the underworld, Osiris, who is shown enthroned with attendants. From Thebes. Painted papyrus from the Nineteenth Dynasty ca. 1285 B.C. )

Religious/Cult Centersof Ancient Egypt

MEMPHIS

HELIOPOLIS

HERMOPOLIS

THEBES

MEMPHIS

Menes (Narmer) unites Upper and Lower Egyptwith capital at Memphis. c.3100 B.C.

Narmer paletteMetropolitan Museum of ArtNew York

Ptah, Creator god of Memphis

Temple of Denderah.This engraving represents a pharaoh making offerings to the god Ptah and to the goddess Sekhmet, his wife.

Temple of Ptah and Sekhmetat Memphis

Shabaka Stone

Shabaka (712-698 B.C.), the first Ethiopian born pharaoh

On the Shabaka Stone: http://maat.sophiatopia.org/shabaka.htm Translation: http://www.touregypt.net/shabakastone.htm

He (Ptah) gave birth to the gods,He made the towns,He established the nomes,He placed the gods in their shrines,He settled their offerings,He established their shrines,He made their bodies according to their wishes.Thus the gods entered into their bodies,Of every wood, every stone, every clay,Every thing that grows upon himIn which they came to be.Thus were gathered to him all the gods and their kas,Content, united with the Lord of the Two Lands.

Memphis Creation Mythc. 2900 B.C.

political goal:

1.) to celebrate Ptah, the local god of Memphis

2.) unification of Two Egypts

Ptah in primaeval water comes to Heliopolis and calls it Memphis

act of creation = Ptah desires himself eight other gods = Ogdoad

Heliopolis (Modern Cairo)Dominant city of the Old Kingdom

Synthesis ofCreation story of Atum

and the story of Osiris

The oldest surviving obelisk in the world, c.2000 B.C.

Heliopolitan Ennead

From Heliopolis: Nun (watery chaos) Atum (sun) Shu (air) Tefnut (moisture) Geb (Earth) Nut (sky) Osiris, Isis, Seth, Nephthys

Seven of nine members of the Heliopolitan Ennead, as represented in the judgment scene on the Papyrus of Ani. From right to left: Atum, Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut and sitting next to each other, Isis and Nephthys. Other members of the Ennead include Osiris, Seth, Horus and Thot.

Shu and Nut

Painted papyrus depicting Shu, the air god, raising his daughter Nut, the sky goddess, above her brother Geb, the earth god, thus creating the world.

Hermopolis

Administrative center ofMiddle Kindgom

The City of Thoth, the scribe of the gods

Located in Middle Egypt

Thoth

Hermopolis Ogdoad

From Hermopolis:

Deities representing the four characteristics of Chaos:

Nun and Naunet (primordial water)

Heh and Hehet (infinite space)

Kek and Keket (darkness)

Amun and Amunet (invisibility).

Geese representing the

Ogdoad of Hermopolis and Thoth.

Thebes

Capital of Egypt after the First Intermediate Period (2040 B.C.)

All gods are projections of Amun (“The Hidden One”)

Creation of the Worldaccording to Heliopolis

Development of the Ennead

Birth of Isis and Osiris

Death and Resurrection of Osiris

The Ennead Cyclical Struggle:

Osiris (Underworld) and Seth (Chaos)

Prominence of Horus (King of Egypt)

Sources

Pyramid Texts, as early as 2375-2345 B.C.)

Coffin Texts

Coffin Text

Creation via masturbation

Atum spit me [Shu] out

Pyramid Text

Hymn to Osiris

Coffin as Geb (Earth)

Lid as Nut (Sky)

Nut on a coffin lid

Plutarch’s Isis and Osiris

http://www.philae.nu/philae/IsisOsiris.html

The Birth of Isis and Osiris

The Rivalry of Seth and Horus

Wanderings of isis

Isis Finds the Coffin of Osiris

The Reawakening of Osiris

Note SYNCRETISM

Cronus = NutRhea = GebOsiris = DionysusTyphon = SethCastration of Uranus = Loss of Osiris’ Penis

Isis suckling the Horus-Child

in the papyrus swamps.

The Resurrection of Osiris

The Osiris Mysteries as portrayed in the Temple of Isis at Philae.(images After H. Rosellini, Monumenti dell'Egitto e della Nubia, Vol. III (Pisa, 1844), Pl.

XXIII.) 

Ritual of Osiris

Flooding of the Nile

Rebirth of Egypt

Isis’ Quest for Osiris

Greco-Roman Isis

Temple of Isis at Pompeii

Ritual of Isis

Sistrum (rattle)

Key TermsAmunanimals as mythical figuresAnubisArtemisAstarteAtumBook of the DeadCronusDemeterDionysusEgyptian centers of learning and worshipEnneadGebGnosticismHarpocratesHathorHeliopolisHeraclesHermes

HorusIsisliminalityMercurymystery religionsNephthysNutOsirisPamyliaPlutarchPtahrationalizationReRhearitualSethShusyncretismTefnut/TefenetThothTyphon

ADD:MemphisHeliopolitan EnneadHemopolis Ogdoad Menes/NarmerApuleius’ Golden AssCoffin TextsPyramid TextsJoseph CampbellHero QuestClaude Levi-StraussStructuralismMediating contradictionsLord RaglanHero Pattern