This is an index of Egyptian mythology articles.
Many synonyms exist for Egyptian deities; what follows is a list of each distinct entry, and does not contain any synonyms of the names for deities.
This is an index of Egyptian mythology articles.
Many synonyms exist for Egyptian deities; what follows is a list of each distinct entry, and does not contain any synonyms of the names for deities.
Afterlife – Ancient Egyptian concept of the soul – Isfet – Maat
Aken – Aker – Akhty – Am-heh – Amun – Amunet – Ammit – Anat – Andjety – Anhur – Anput – Anubis – Anuket – Apedemak – Apep – Apis – Aqen – Arensnuphis – Ash – Astarte – Aten – Atum – Babi – Banebdjedet – Bakha – Ba-Pef – Bastet – Bat – Bata – Bennu – Bes – Dedun – Duamutef – Geb – Ha – Hapy – Hathor – Hatmehit – Hedetet – Hedjhotep – Heh – Heka – Hemen – Hemsut – Heqet – Heryshaf – Hesat – Horus – Hu – Iabet – Iah – Iat – Ihy – Imentet – Imhotep – Imset – Isis – Iunit – Iusaaset – Kebechet – Kek – Khensit – Khenti-Amentiu – Khenti-kheti – Khepri – Khnum – Khonsu – Maahes – Maat – Mafdet – Medjed – Mehen – Mehit – Menhit – Meret – Meretseger – Meskhenet – Min – Mnevis – Montu – Mut – Nebethetepet – Nebtuwi – Nefertem – Nehebkau – Neith – Nekhbet – Nemty – Neper – Nephthys – Nu – Nut – Osiris – Pakhet – Petbe – Ptah – Qebehsenuef – Qebui – Qetesh – Ra – Raet-Tawy – Rem – Renenutet – Renpet – Repyt – Resheph – Sah – Shai – Satet – Seker – Sekhmet – Serapis – Serket – Seshat – Shed – Shezmu – Set – Shu – Sia – Sobek – Sopdet – Sopdu – Tatenen – Taweret – Tayt – Tefnut – Tenenet – Thoth – Tjenenyet – Tutu – Unut – Wadjet – Wadj-wer – Weneg – Wepset – Wepwawet – Werethekau – Wosret
Assessors of Maat – Cavern deities – Ennead – Four sons of Horus – Gate deities – Ogdoad – Theban Triad
Aani – Abtu - Akhekh – Griffin – Hieracosphinx – Medjed – Serpopard – Set animal – Sphinx - Teka-her - Uraeus
Aaru – Akhet – Benben – Duat – Land of Manu – Neter-khertet
Ankh – Crook and flail – Djed – Eye of Horus – Eye of Ra – Hennu – Horns of Ammon – Imiut fetish – Nebu – Ouroboros – Scarab – Tyet – Uraeus – Was – Winged sun
Book of the Dead – Book of the Dead spells – Book of Gates – Book of Thoth – The Contendings of Horus and Seth – Great Hymn to the Aten
Osiris is the god of fertility, agriculture, the afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He was classically depicted as a green-skinned deity with a pharaoh's beard, partially mummy-wrapped at the legs, wearing a distinctive atef crown, and holding a symbolic crook and flail. He was one of the first to be associated with the mummy wrap. When his brother Set cut him up into pieces after killing him, Osiris' wife Isis found all the pieces and wrapped his body up, enabling him to return to life. Osiris was widely worshipped until the decline of ancient Egyptian religion during the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire.
Horus, also known as Heru, Har, Her, or Hor in Ancient Egyptian, is one of the most significant ancient Egyptian deities who served many functions, most notably as the god of kingship, healing, protection, the sun, and the sky. He was worshipped from at least the late prehistoric Egypt until the Ptolemaic Kingdom and Roman Egypt. Different forms of Horus are recorded in history, and these are treated as distinct gods by Egyptologists. These various forms may be different manifestations of the same multi-layered deity in which certain attributes or syncretic relationships are emphasized, not necessarily in opposition but complementary to one another, consistent with how the Ancient Egyptians viewed the multiple facets of reality. He was most often depicted as a falcon, most likely a lanner falcon or peregrine falcon, or as a man with a falcon head.
The Osiris myth is the most elaborate and influential story in ancient Egyptian mythology. It concerns the murder of the god Osiris, a primeval king of Egypt, and its consequences. Osiris's murderer, his brother Set, usurps his throne. Meanwhile, Osiris's wife Isis restores her husband's body, allowing him to posthumously conceive their son, Horus. The remainder of the story focuses on Horus, the product of the union of Isis and Osiris, who is at first a vulnerable child protected by his mother and then becomes Set's rival for the throne. Their often violent conflict ends with Horus's triumph, which restores maat to Egypt after Set's unrighteous reign and completes the process of Osiris's resurrection.
Set is a god of deserts, storms, disorder, violence, and foreigners in ancient Egyptian religion. In Ancient Greek, the god's name is given as Sēth. Set had a positive role where he accompanies Ra on his barque to repel Apep, the serpent of Chaos. Set had a vital role as a reconciled combatant. He was lord of the Red Land (desert), where he was the balance to Horus' role as lord of the Black Land.
Thoth is an ancient Egyptian deity. In art, he was often depicted as a man with the head of an ibis or a baboon, animals sacred to him. His feminine counterpart was Seshat, and his wife was Ma'at. He was the god of the Moon, wisdom, knowledge, writing, hieroglyphs, science, magic, art and judgment.
Nut, also known by various other transcriptions, is the goddess of the sky, stars, cosmos, mothers, astronomy, and the universe in the ancient Egyptian religion. She was seen as a star-covered nude woman arching over the Earth, or as a cow. She was depicted wearing the water-pot sign (nw) that identifies her.
Tefnut is a deity of moisture, moist air, dew and rain in Ancient Egyptian religion. She is the sister and consort of the air god Shu and the mother of Geb and Nut.
The Duat is the underworld in ancient Egyptian mythology. It has been represented in hieroglyphs as a star-in-circle: 𓇽. The god Osiris was believed to be the lord of the underworld. He was the first mummy as depicted in the Osiris myth and he personified rebirth and life after death. The underworld was also the residence of various other gods along with Osiris.
Nehebkau was the primordial snake god in ancient Egyptian mythology. Although originally considered an evil spirit, he later functions as a funerary god associated with the afterlife. As one of the forty-two assessors of Ma’at, Nehebkau was believed to judge the deceased after death and provide their souls with ka – the part of the soul that distinguished the living from the dead.
Articles related to Egypt include:
The Eye of Horus, also known as left wedjat eye or udjat eye, specular to the Eye of Ra, is a concept and symbol in ancient Egyptian religion that represents well-being, healing, and protection. It derives from the mythical conflict between the god Horus with his rival Set, in which Set tore out or destroyed one or both of Horus's eyes and the eye was subsequently healed or returned to Horus with the assistance of another deity, such as Thoth. Horus subsequently offered the eye to his deceased father Osiris, and its revitalizing power sustained Osiris in the afterlife. The Eye of Horus was thus equated with funerary offerings, as well as with all the offerings given to deities in temple ritual. It could also represent other concepts, such as the moon, whose waxing and waning was likened to the injury and restoration of the eye.
The Eye of Ra or Eye of Re, usually depicted as sun disk or right wedjat-eye, is an entity in ancient Egyptian mythology that functions as an extension of the sun god Ra's power, equated with the disk of the sun, but it often behaves as an independent goddess, a feminine counterpart to Ra and a violent force that subdues his enemies. This goddess, also known with the theonym Wedjat, can be equated with several particular deities, including Hathor, Sekhmet, Bastet, Raet-Tawy, and Mut. The eye goddess acts as mother, sibling, consort, and daughter of the sun god. She is his partner in the creative cycle in which he begets the renewed form of himself that is born at dawn. The eye's violent aspect defends Ra against the agents of disorder that threaten his rule. This dangerous aspect of the eye goddess is often represented by a lioness or by the uraeus, or cobra, a symbol of protection and royal authority. The disastrous fury and rampages of the eye goddess and the efforts of the gods to appease her are a prominent motif in Egyptian mythology.
The Book of Gates is an ancient Egyptian funerary text dating from the New Kingdom. The Book of Gates is long and detailed, consisting of one hundred scenes. It narrates the passage of a newly deceased soul into the next world journeying with of the sun god, Ra, through the underworld during the hours of the night towards his resurrection. The soul is required to pass through a series of 'gates' at each hour of the journey. Each gate is guarded by a different serpent deity that is associated with a different goddess. It is important that the deceased knows the names of each guardian. Depictions of the judgment of the dead are shown in the last three hours. The text implies that some people will pass through unharmed, but others will suffer torment in a lake of fire. At the end of Ra's journey through the underworld, he emerges anew to take his place back in the sky.
Ancient Egyptian deities are the gods and goddesses worshipped in ancient Egypt. The beliefs and rituals surrounding these gods formed the core of ancient Egyptian religion, which emerged sometime in prehistory. Deities represented natural forces and phenomena, and the Egyptians supported and appeased them through offerings and rituals so that these forces would continue to function according to maat, or divine order. After the founding of the Egyptian state around 3100 BC, the authority to perform these tasks was controlled by the pharaoh, who claimed to be the gods' representative and managed the temples where the rituals were carried out.
Ra or Re was the ancient Egyptian deity of the Sun. By the Fifth Dynasty, in the 25th and 24th centuries BC, he had become one of the most important gods in ancient Egyptian religion, identified primarily with the noon-day sun. Ra ruled in all parts of the created world: the sky, the Earth, and the underworld. He was believed to have ruled as the first pharaoh of Ancient Egypt. He was the god of the sun, order, kings and the sky.
Egyptian mythology is the collection of myths from ancient Egypt, which describe the actions of the Egyptian gods as a means of understanding the world around them. The beliefs that these myths express are an important part of ancient Egyptian religion. Myths appear frequently in Egyptian writings and art, particularly in short stories and in religious material such as hymns, ritual texts, funerary texts, and temple decoration. These sources rarely contain a complete account of a myth and often describe only brief fragments.
The following outline is provided as an overview of a topical guide to ancient Egypt:
The gate deities of the underworld were ancient Egyptian minor deities charged with guarding the gates of the Egyptian underworld.
