College of Teacher Education
First Semester, A.Y. 2021-2022
MODULE 15
The Gods and Goddesses of Egyptian Mythology
Course Title: Mythology and Folklore
Course Code: EL 112
Name:
Course and Year:
Date and Time Allotment:
Introduction
Egypt had one of the largest and most complex pantheons of gods of any civilization in the ancient world.
Over the course of Egyptian history hundreds of gods and goddesses were worshipped. The characteristics of
individual gods could be hard to pin down. Most had a principle association (for example, with the sun or the underworld)
and form. But these could change over time as gods rose and fell in importance and evolved in ways that corresponded
to developments in Egyptian society. Here are a few of the most important deities to know.
I. Objectives
At the end of this module, you would be able to:
1. know the major deities and creature in Egyptian mythology;
2. compare and contrast the qualities and characteristics of Egyptian’ Gods and Goddesses to Greek and
Roman myth; and
3. explore the beauty of Egyptian myth and creation by answering questions.
II. Lecture
The Creation of the World
To the Egyptians, the journey began with the creation of the world and the universe out of darkness and swirling
chaos. Once there was nothing but endless dark water without form or purpose. Existing within this void was Heka (god
of magic) who awaited the moment of creation. Out of this watery silence (Nu) rose the primordial hill, known as the benben, upon which stood the great god Atum (or, in some versions of the myth, Ptah). Atum looked upon the nothingness
and recognized his aloneness and so, through the agency of magic, he mated with his own shadow to give birth to two
children, Shu (god of air, whom Atum spat out) and Tefnut (goddess of moisture, whom Atum vomited out). Shu gave
to the early world the principles of life while Tefnut contributed the principles of order.
Leaving their father on the ben-ben, they set out to establish the world. In time, Atum became concerned
because his children were gone so long and so removed his eye and sent it in search of them. While his eye was gone,
Atum sat alone on the hill in the midst of chaos and contemplated eternity. Shu and Tefnut returned with the eye of
Atum (later associated with the Udjat eye, the Eye of Ra, or the All-Seeing Eye) and their father, grateful for their safe
return, shed tears of joy. These tears, dropping onto the dark, fertile earth of the ben-ben, gave birth to men and women.
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11 Egyptian Gods and Goddesses
1. Osiris, one of Egypt’s most important deities, was god of the underworld. He also symbolized death, resurrection,
and the cycle of Nile floods that Egypt relied on for agricultural fertility.
According to the myth, Osiris was a king of Egypt who was murdered and dismembered by his brother Seth. His wife,
Isis, reassembled his body and resurrected him, allowing them to conceive a son, the god Horus. He was represented
as a mummified king, wearing wrappings that left only the green skin of his hands and face exposed.
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These early creatures had nowhere to live, however, and so Shu and Tefnut mated and gave birth to Geb
(the earth) and Nut (the sky). Geb and Nut, though brother and sister, fell deeply in love and were inseparable. Atum
found their behavior unacceptable and pushed Nut away from Geb, high up into the heavens. The two lovers were
forever able to see each other but were no longer able to touch. Nut was already pregnant by Geb, however, and
eventually gave birth to Osiris, Isis, Set, Nephthys, and Horus – the five Egyptian gods most often recognized as the
earliest or, at least, the most familiar representations of older god-figures. Osiris showed himself a thoughtful and
judicious god and was given rule of the world by Atum who then went off to attend to his own affairs.
2. Isis. The origins of Isis are obscure. Unlike many gods, she can’t be tied to a specific town, and there are no certain
mentions of her in the earliest Egyptian literature. Over time she grew in importance, though, eventually becoming the
most important goddess in the pantheon. As the devoted wife who resurrected Osiris after his murder and raised their
son, Horus, Isis embodied the traditional Egyptian virtues of a wife and mother.
As the wife of the god of the underworld, Isis was also one of the main deities concerned with rites for the dead. Along
with her sister Nephthys, Isis acted as a divine mourner, and her maternal care was often depicted as extending to the
dead in the underworld.
3. Horus. Depicted as a falcon or as a man with a falcon’s head, Horus was a sky god associated with war and hunting.
He was also the embodiment of the divine kingship, and in some eras the reigning king was considered to be a
manifestation of Horus.
According to the Osiris myth, Horus was the son of Isis and Osiris, magically conceived after the murder of Osiris by
his brother Seth. Horus was raised to avenge his father’s murder. One tradition holds that Horus lost his left eye fighting
with Seth, but his eye was magically healed by the god Thoth. Because the right and left eyes of Horus were associated,
respectively, with the sun and the moon, the loss and restoration of Horus’s left eye gave a mythical explanation for
the phases of the moon.
4. Seth was the god of chaos, violence, deserts, and storms. In the Osiris myth, he is the murderer of Osiris (in some
versions of the myth, he tricks Osiris into laying down in a coffin and then seals it shut.)
Seth’s appearance poses a problem for Egyptologists. He is often depicted as an animal or as a human with the head
of an animal. But they can’t figure out what animal he’s supposed to be. He usually has a long snout and long ears that
are squared at the tips. In his fully animal form, he has a thin doglike body and a straight tail with a tuft on the end.
Many scholars now believe that no such animal ever existed and that the Seth animal is some sort of mythical
composite
5. Ptah was the head of a triad of gods worshipped at Memphis. The other two members of the triad were Ptah’s wife,
the lion-headed goddess Sekhmet, and the god Nefertem, who may have been the couple’s son. Ptah’s original
association seems to have been with craftsmen and builders. The 4th-dynasty architect Imhotep was deified after his
death as a son of Ptah.
6. Re. One of several deities associated with the sun, the god Re was usually represented with a human body and the
head of a hawk. It was believed that he sailed across the sky in a boat each day and then made a passage through
the underworld each night, during which he would have to defeat the snake god Apopis in order to rise again. Re’s cult
was centered in Heliopolis, now a suburb of Cairo. Over time, Re came to be syncretized with other sun deities,
especially Amon.
7. Hathor. The goddess Hathor was usually depicted as a cow, as a woman with the head of a cow, or as a woman
with cow’s ears. Hathor embodied motherhood and fertility, and it was believed that she protected women in childbirth.
She also had an important funerary aspect, being known as “the lady of the west.” (Tombs were generally built on the
west bank of the Nile.) In some traditions, she would welcome the setting sun every night; living people hoped to be
welcomed into the afterlife in the same way.
8. Anubis was concerned with funerary practices and the care of the dead. He was usually represented as a jackal or
as a man with the head of a jackal. The association of jackals with death and funerals likely arose because Egyptians
would have observed jackals scavenging around cemeteries.
9. Thoth, the god of writing and wisdom, could be depicted in the form of a baboon or a sacred ibis or as a man with
the head of an ibis. He was believed to have invented language and the hieroglyphic script and to serve as a scribe
and adviser for the gods. As the god of wisdom, Thoth was said to possess knowledge of magic and secrets unavailable
to the other gods. In underworld scenes showing the judgment undergone by the deceased after their deaths, Thoth is
depicted as weighing the hearts of the deceased and reporting the verdict to Osiris, the god of the dead.
10. Bastet. In her earliest forms, the cat goddess Bastet was represented as a woman with the head of a lion or a wild
cat. She took the less ferocious form of a domestic cat in the first millennium BCE.
In later periods she was often represented as a regal-looking seated cat, sometimes wearing rings in her ears or nose.
In the Ptolemaic period she came to be associated with the Greek goddess Artemis, the divine hunter and goddess of
the moon.
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11. Amon. Before rising to national importance in the New Kingdom (c. 1539–1292 BCE), the god Amon was
worshipped locally in the southern city of Thebes. Amon was a god of the air, and the name probably means the
“Hidden One.” He was usually represented as a man wearing a crown with two vertical plumes. His animal symbols
were the ram and the goose.
III. Application/Activity
Activity 1: Question and Answer
Instruction: Research on the following questions then provide justifications to your answer/claim. 1 paragraph per
question with 5-8 sentences.
1. What form did the gods and goddesses of the Ancient Egyptians typically take? Why?
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2. In Egyptian myth, why was it important that the body be preserved after death?
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3. Pharaoh was considered to be the living version of which god? Why?
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IV. Assessment
Instruction: Answer the following assessment questions below. Your answer to the question should not exceed to 150
words and not lesser than 100 words. Scoring criteria are presented below for your guide in constructing your
answers.
1. What are the distinct events, elements, characters, etc. you have observed from Egyptian Mythology that
are NOT existed in Greek, Roman, and Norse myth?
Scoring Guide
FOCUS
The single controlling
point is made with an
awareness of task about a
specific topic.
5pts
CONTENT
The presence of ideas
developed through facts,
details, opinions, etc.
ORGANIZATION
The order was developed
and sustainable within
and across paragraphs.
5pts
5pts
CONVENTION
Grammar, Mechanics,
Spelling, usage, and
sentence formation
5pts
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V. Other References
https://www.ancient.eu/Egyptian_Mythology/
https://www.britannica.com/list/11-egyptian-gods-and-goddesses