ANCIENT EGYPTIAN RELIGION
What did the people of this ancient empire believe?
By Edee Polyakovsky
GODS, GODDESSES AND MYTHS
Below is a picture showing Ra
on his night time journey
through the Duat. Every night
when the sun sets, Nut swallows
Ra and every morning she gives
birth and the sun rises.
This painting shows Nut the sky
goddess, Geb the earth god and
Shu the air god. It is Shu’s job to
keep Nut and Geb apart.
Above is a picture of
Osiris, the lord of the
underworld siting on his
throne.
EVERY DAY RELIGIOUS LIFE
On the right is a painting
of Egyptian workers
getting grain ready for
sacrifices. The picture
shows all of the steps
that they would go
through to make food
“edible” for their gods.
Below is a picture of the Ancient
Egyptians and the god Anubis putting
together a sarcophagus. The Ancient
Egyptians integrated their religious
practices into their society very well.
Even common peasants were religious,
though they didn’t get fancy burials.
Religion wasn’t the only
thing in the Ancient
Egyptian’s lives. They still
had to provide for
themselves. The picture on
the left shows a man
plowing his field (the cows
are hitched to the plow).
THE PHARAOH’S RELIGIOUS JOB
The Ancient Egyptians
believed that the Pharaoh
was almost like a god and
he/she could use magical
powers. The Pharaoh’s
chief adviser was the
head magician (in the
leopard skin).
The Pharaohs were not sit by kings.
They were the kind of kings that
were examples in both the military
and religion. In fact, the pharaoh
was presumed to be the most
religious person (along with the
priests).
The Ancient Egyptians
believed that the Pharaohs
ruled side by side with the kings
of the gods.
DEATH
The picture on the right is
another image from the
Book of the Dead. This
painting shows one of
Anubis’ servants and
Ammit the devourer, the
demon that ate the
hearts that were heavier
than the feather of truth.
Above is a painting depicting
Anubis weighing a heart against the
feather of truth. This picture is right
out of the Ancient Egyptian Book of
the Dead that all Pharaohs were
buried with.
This picture is a painting
on a tomb wall showing
the god Anubis caring for
a mummy. Mummifying
was a very important
religious practice for the
Ancient Egyptians.
THE PARTS OF THE SOUL
The picture below shows
both a ba (flying above)
and a seut or shadow (in
the doorway).
This picture shows a ba rising off of a
mummy. The ba was a spirit like
form that usually took the form of a
bird. A person could see through
the eyes of their ba and it could go
anywhere.
Above is another picture
of a ba. It is watching a
heart being weighed
against the feather of
truth (the rest of scales
and other things are not
shown).
Many Greek and Roman scholars
wrote about the Ancient Egyptians,
including Plutaren, who in the 1st
Century CE wrote an essay on Osiris
and Isis and the myths that involve
them together.
INTERPRETATIONS
Writings about the
Ancient Egyptians
were mostly done by
the Greeks and
Romans, like on the
Rosetta Stone
(below).
Almost every thing we know
about the Ancient Egyptians
was written down in/on the
tombs of the Pharaohs and
nobles.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
• "Ancient Egyptian Gods and Godesses." N.p., n.d. Web.
• "Ancient Egyptian Religion." N.p., n.d. Web.
• "Egyptian Religion." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.
Web. 30 Nov. 2015. <http://www.britannica.com/topic/Egyptian-religion>.
• "Ancient Egypt." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web.
02 Dec. 2015. <http://www.britannica.com/place/ancient-Egypt>.
• "The Cultural Background." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia
Britannica, n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2015.
<http://www.britannica.com/science/death/The-cultural-background#toc22184>.
• "Body and Soul." Ancient Egypt:. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Dec. 2015.
<http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/religion/body_and_soul.htm>.
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