Egyptian Creation
Myths
Isis and Osiris
Key Terms
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).
Horus
Amun
Isis
animals as mythical liminality
figures
Mercury
Anubis
mystery
Artemis
religions
Astarte
Nephthys
Atum
Nut
Book of the Dead
Osiris
Cronus
Pamylia
Demeter
Plutarch
Dionysus
Ptah
Egyptian centers of rationalization
learning and worship Re
Ennead
Rhea
Geb
ritual
Gnosticism
Seth
Harpocrates
Shu
Hathor
syncretism
Heliopolis
Tefnut/Tefenet
Heracles
Thoth
Hermes
Typhon
World of Ancient Egypt
Timeline of Ancient Egypt
c. 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.
Mythology, Religion and
Kingship in Egypt
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. )
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 jackalheaded 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 Centers
of Ancient Egypt
MEMPHIS
HELIOPOLIS
HERMOPOLIS
THEBES
MEMPHIS
Menes (Narmer)
unites Upper and Lower Egypt
with capital at Memphis. c.3100 B.C.
Narmer palette
Metropolitan Museum
of Art
New 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 Sekhmet
at Memphis
Shabaka Stone
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 him
In 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.
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
Memphis Creation Myth
c. 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 of
Creation 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 of
Middle 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 World
according 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
The Birth of Isis and Osiris
Note SYNCRETISM
The Rivalry of Seth and Horus
Cronus = Nut
Rhea = Geb
Osiris = Dionysus
Typhon = Seth
Castration of Uranus = Loss of
Osiris’ Penis
Wanderings of isis
Isis Finds the Coffin of Osiris
The Reawakening of Osiris
http://www.philae.nu/philae/IsisOsiris.html
Isis suckling the Horus-Child
in the papyrus swamps.
The Resurrection of Osiris
Ritual of Osiris
Flooding of the Nile
Rebirth of Egypt
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.)
Isis’ Quest for Osiris
Greco-Roman Isis
Temple of Isis at Pompeii
Ritual of Isis
Sistrum (rattle)
Key Terms
ADD:
Memphis
Heliopolitan Ennead
Hemopolis Ogdoad
Menes/Narmer
Apuleius’ Golden Ass
Coffin Texts
Pyramid Texts
Joseph Campbell
Hero Quest
Claude Levi-Strauss
Structuralism
Mediating contradictions
Lord Raglan
Hero Pattern
Horus
Amun
Isis
animals as mythical liminality
figures
Mercury
Anubis
mystery
Artemis
religions
Astarte
Nephthys
Atum
Nut
Book of the Dead
Osiris
Cronus
Pamylia
Demeter
Plutarch
Dionysus
Ptah
Egyptian centers of rationalization
learning and worship Re
Ennead
Rhea
Geb
ritual
Gnosticism
Seth
Harpocrates
Shu
Hathor
syncretism
Heliopolis
Tefnut/Tefenet
Heracles
Thoth
Hermes
Typhon