A comprehensible knowledge of Egyptian religion is indispensable for anyone who wishes to grasp the essence of the Egyptian civilization. Religion deeply dominated all aspects of the Egyptian culture, its art, science, government, and law. In many ways it was the womb of that ancient culture. Egyptian religion can be characterized by its infinite complexity and diversity. This diversity is justified by the constant change of religious beliefs over many centuries during which new ideas were introduced without ever discarding any old ones (except during the reign of Akhenaten). Therefore, to the ancient Egyptian this diversity of beliefs and Gods was acceptable, consequently each divine power was approached by a variety of images related to nature, animal and human life.
Much of our knowledge about religion comes from the surviving religious literature in the form of hymns, charms, spells, and other religious texts inscribed on the walls of the tombs & temples, and on coffins, stelae, statues and papyri. The earliest religious writings were the Pyramid Texts written on the walls of the burial chambers of the Fifth and Sixth Dynastic rulers within their pyramids. In the Middle Kingdom these were transferred from the structure of the tomb to the coffins, thus given the name the Coffin Texts. In the New Kingdom these are replaced by what is known as the "Book of the Dead" (190 chapters), which were rolls of papyrus buried with the dead in their coffins. Apart from the Book of the Dead various other 'books' are known as the Am-duat, Book of the Gates, Book of the Day and Night etc... The texts in their various forms were concentrated on primarily one subject, mainly the welfare of the dead and the journey and trials of the after-life.
The Egyptian pantheon was so diversified that it included many Gods and Goddesses who varied in character and form; some being defined by myth, and others by geographical location and organization into groups.
Ancient Egypt was composed of many local areas referred to as Nomes. Each district possessed its own traditions and customs with its own Gods and Goddesses that were worshipped by the local inhabitants. These Deities shared the fate of their localities. This meant that depending on the political and economic importance of the locality, some of the deities were promoted to State Gods whose cults spread all over the country. [example: Ptah of Memphis, Amon of Thebes and Re of Heliopolis.]
There were other Gods and Goddesses who did not have a strictly local basis of support and veneration. They participated and fulfilled their roles in general myths of Creation like Nun who was a personification of Chaos before Creation, or Ma'at who was seen as a personification of Universal Truth.
Most Egyptians did not have an access to the State Gods in the Temples' shrines, which represented the most sacred place. The people could only approach the Gods in the national Festivals. However there were additional deities who answered the everyday life wishes and were connected with the family. These are referred to as household deities. The most popular were Bes and Tawert who were associated with child birth and fertility as well as sex.
Gods represented Themselves in various forms and manifested many human behaviors. They thought, they spoke, they dined, and they had emotions. Sometimes They went into battle and traveled by boat, some even drank to excess, as illustrated by the behavior of the Goddess Hathor in the myth of The Destruction of Mankind. The forms of the deities were numerous. They could be human such as the Gods Amon and Ptah, or animal such as the Gods Anubis as a jackal and Sobek as a crocodile. The Egyptians sometimes combined human and animal forms in one image such as the God Horus shown as a falcon-headed man and the Goddess Sekhmet as a lioness headed woman. Often the same deity possessed more than one form of representation and to further complicate matters shared attributes and myths with other Gods or Goddesses.
Gods were assimilated together to form sets composed of three deities, two adults and one youthful deity.(The concept of a Holy Trinity did not originate in Christianity, it is a far older idea.) These were referred to as Triads like The Theban Triad composed of Amon- Re with the Goddess Mut as His Consort and Khonsu as Their "child". Another common way of combining Gods together is referred to as syncretism, it is when a deity takes the name and character of a more important one, therefore Amon Re means Amon in the form of Re.
In the Egyptian view of the Universe, both the divine and human worlds had come into being at the time of the Creation, before which there was only an "uncreated matter". The Act of Creation took place when this matter was separated into the myriad different forms that make up the created world. There were mainly three major Creation Myths in ancient Egypt. One of the major Creation myths was associated with the religious centre of Heliopolis. The creator God who was self generated began the Creation by masturbation; thus creating the first pair of male and female deities, who in turn produced another pair ...etc.
The Temple was considered the dwelling house of the God or Goddess who inhabited it, making it a miniature picture of the world at the moment of Creation. The Temple was conceived as the Center of Creation. This symbolic role of the Temple was expressed in its location and design as well as the decoration of its walls and ceilings. The structure was separated from the outside world by a massive mud brick enclosure wall which symbolize the watery state of the cosmos at Creation. Within this lay the main wall or the entrance wall, decorated with scenes of the King slaughtering his enemies. The pylon is the largest element in the temple symbolizing the hieroglyph of the horizon with its two massive columns and the gap between them. The orientation of the Temple was always east-west, therefore the sun rises in the pylon gateway penetrating with its rays to the sanctuary (or shrine in which the statue of the God or Goddess was kept) which is placed in axis. The sanctuary represented the mound of creation.
Therefore, in passing through the Temple, toward the Sanctuaries, one goes through the various phases of Creation. The hypostyle hall encompasses the decorative scheme of the whole. The hall with its columns represented the marsh of Creation while the ceiling is decorated with reliefs of the sky. On the walls, the activity of the world is represented, and in terms of the Temple the give and take relationship between the King and the God or Goddess becomes the core of world activity.
There was a consistent general pattern of Temple building. This pattern ensured that a gradual approach was made to the Divinity. The arrangement consisted of a gradual move from light to shadow, with a rise in the ground floor and lowering of the ceiling.
The Temple's daily Ritual was a dramatization of the God's daily life. The main services at dawn, midday, and night consisted of washing, anointment, adornment with clothing and feeding of the Deity with offerings. The Great Festivals represented the God's social life when He or She was taken in Procession to visit another Deity in Their House or received such a visit. These procedures stand in sharp contrast with the religious practices of the majority of the Egyptians who no doubt enjoyed the Spectacle and got a day off from working in the fields...
In the daily Rituals the public had no role, in fact access to the inner parts of the Temples were strictly forbidden to the common people, they could only participate in the Great Festivals. Each Temple had a calendar of its Feast Days. One of the most important Festivals was The Feast of Opet held in Thebes during the second month of the Season of the Inundation. At this feast Amon embarked from Karnak to Luxor accompanied by the boats of Mut and Khonsu.
Another important Festival was The New Year Feast. There was also the visit of the Goddess Hathor of Dendara to the God Horus of Edfu. The Procession of the Goddess Hathor used to leave Dandara and arrive at Edfu covering a distance of approx. 90 miles. Details of this Great Festival are depicted on the walls of the Court of the Temple at Edfu.
Egyptians were particularly religious people obsessed by death and burial; however their preoccupation with the after-life originated essentially from the Egyptian's devotion to life and the perfect harmony they found in the geographical environment. In general it was believed that the best existence of man after life is composed of (what was thought as) the best and the most desired style of life on earth. In death as in life, the Egyptians expected to belong to an hierarchical society in which the best was reserved for the King/Queen and the nobles. It is from their tombs that we can gather most of the information about the Egyptian customs.
It is difficult to give an account of the beliefs of all the social classes, however, as what we have to go by is limited to the ruling classes.( persons wealthy enough to afford tombs in the first place) It is assumed that at every level the Egyptian's conception of his existence after death was that it should consist of the best of what was available to him in his life on earth.
In order to achieve the desirable end, the deceased needed to assure that his name continued to exist, his body remain intact, and be supplied with all the necessary food and drink. This led to the development of exquisite tombs containing "incorruptible mummy" and inscribed with texts with the owner's name and scenes that would secure for him by magical means food, drink and other desirable objects.
The New Kingdom witnessed the first attempt of monotheism when Amenhotep IV established Aten as the sole Universal God of Egypt and "eliminated" all the traditional deities in the Egyptian pantheon. This God was not in fact unknown to the Egyptians. (Aten originally represented the light and heat of the sun.) His name appeared frequently in texts, and used in expressions, the most common was [All that Aten encompasses] referring to the Universe. Akhenaten's "new" doctrine did not last long after his death. The return to the orthodox worship of Amon- Re took place under the influence of the Divine Father Ay who guided the steps of the young Heir to the Pharonic Throne, the boy-King Tutankhaten. During "Tut's" reign the Priesthood of Amon-Re regained a supremacy that lasted untill the end of the Egyptian Empire.
