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A Look Into Egyptian Religion
By: Kadence Buchanan
By far, the ancient Egyptian culture represents one of the least understood and most interesting facets of beliefs throughout human history. In this article, we'll give you a basic idea of what modern day man knows about what the ancient Egyptians put their faith in.
Our understanding of Egyptian religion is far from complete. Many of the things that we know about their religion seem incomplete; we seem to have found alternate gods they've worshipped that served the same purposes, as well as conflicting stories about what they believed about how the world was formed. While our knowledge is somewhat lacking, we'll focus on what we do know.
Many researchers feel that one of the most basic forms of religious identity that the Egyptians performed was the worship of animals. The tribes of Egypt that existed pre-dynasty often worshipped different animals as gods that represented their feelings of which animal was in most relation to their way of life. Many of these gods were shown in pictures and writings to have an animal head on a human body, with an example being Ophois, the god of war, who had a wolf's head. Some gods were identified with multiple animals, as well, such as Thoth, who was associated with the ibis, the baboon, and the moon. The creationist beliefs of the Egyptians varied from tribe to tribe. Some felt that the god Khnum had built the world on a potter's wheel, while others felt that the existence of the universe was due to the spiritual thought of the god Ptah.
Organized religion found its way into Egypt at around 3200 BC, when Egypt became organized as a state. Many of the gods that the ruling class were in favor of received the most acclaim throughout the land, with the god Amon receiving much more acclaim than he had previously. The Egyptian religious experience was unique in that over time, the ruling class had the power to directly influence which gods received the most praise. As time changed, different gods came into the limelight. Any way you put it, we still don't have a concrete knowledge of the beliefs held by these ancient peoples. Hopefully, time and exploration can help us to clear up many of the difficult questions posed by Egyptian religion.
Kadence Buchanan writes articles on many topics including Religion, Employment, and Aging |
