Egyptian Deities

Lately I've been doing a bit more on Egyptian mythology with Immortal's Keep, and I decided to start posting about it in here as well.

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Back in ancient Egypt, before the country had been united, the Nile area was divided into about 40 nommes or provinces. Each of these had its fair share of independent, self governed tribes with their own deities of worship. This led to Egyptian mythology having more than 2,000 deities worshiped around Egyptian territory. Each god and goddess may have been known by various names through out the country.

At first, it was clear that Egyptian deities were idolized animal-like forms. Ranging from crocodiles, cats, dogs, serpents, hippos, cattle, and many more types of animals, were personified with duties and aspects of indestructible forces of nature such as the Nile flooding each year, and aspects of human-kind like irrigation and pottery. Eventually these deities took on more human-like appearances, yet still often viewed with animal characteristics, such as the more commonly seen human with an animal head.
Not all Egyptian deities were either a certain animal, or a human body with certain animal features, some of them were shown with multiple types of animal features and either just a few or no human features. Perhaps a body of a hippo, and the head of a bee.

With Egyptian deities there is a perfection and flaw factor seen with many polytheistic religions. Instead of having nothing but utter perfection, like in Christianity, Egyptian deities had strengths and weaknesses. They also would enjoy down-to-earth pleasures such as partying and sleeping in. :P
These deities could very well be compared to humans in their behavior, they marry (normally of the opposite sex), they fight and argue, they have families, etc...
Females/feminine Egyptian deities, compared with the male/masculine Egyptian deities from an upright position were usually easy to depict from one another; goddesses would have their legs positioned together, and gods would be shown in mid-stride as if walking.

To be continued...

Gods of Creation

The very first god was said to be Atum.
Atum , "The All" or "Perfection"; he is shown wearing the double crown.
He rose from Nun to create the older gods.

Khepri , "He Who is Coming into Being"; this god is shown with the head of a scarab beetle.
Ancient Egyptians believed Scarab Beetles came from nowhere (they actually hatch from balls of dung) just as this god did. He was thought to push the Sun through the sky for the day.

Khnum , he was seen as a god with the head of a curly horned ram.
Also being a god of inundation, using the mud of the Nile in clay to throw humans/mold humans on a wheel.

Nun , the waters of chaos, symbolized by a man carrying a barque.
He was all that existed on Earth before land itself.

Bastet, Daughter of Ra & Atum.

From the third millennium BC, when Bastet begins to appear in our record, she is depicted as either a fierce lioness or a woman with the head of a lion.Most images of Bast were created from a local stone, alabaster.

rzr, please remember to cite your sources. It would be a shame to have to delete information due to lack of proper credit.

Hi Rashnu,

I changed it from original quite a bit ^_^

But for future I will quote :^)

Ty,
Razor

Paraphrasing without citation still counts as plagiarism. Changing two words doesn't avoid this lol.

For the record, this information can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bastet

Other than that, thanks for the addition to the post.

Lol Rashnu.

(I will quote for future lol)

Sry,

Razor

Tenenet
Tenenet, alts. Zenenet, Tanenet, Tenenit, Manuel de Codage transliteration Tnn.t, was an ancient Egyptian goddess of beer. She is mentioned in texts dating from the Ptolemaic period as well as in the Book of the Dead.

Wadj-wer
Wadj-wer is an Egyptian fertility god whose name means the "Great Green". Sometimes depicted in androgynous form, he is a personification of the Mediterranean Sea or of the major lakes of the Nile delta. He is depicted as carrying the ankh.

In late Egyptian mythology, Wepwawet (hieroglyphic wp-w3w.t; also rendered Upuaut, Wep-wawet, Wepawet, and Ophois) was originally a war deity, whose cult centre was Asyut in Upper Egypt (Lycopolis in the Greco-Roman period). His name means, opener of the ways.

Anit
Anit, also spelled Enit, and it is a name of an ancient Egyptian goddess. She was depicted as a female wearing a headdress similar to that of Meskhenet. She is often referred to as the consort of Menthu.

In Egyptian mythology, Anuket (also spelt Anqet, and in Greek, Anukis) originally was the personification and goddess of the Nile river, in areas such as Elephantine, at the start of the Nile's journey through Egypt, and in nearby regions of Nubia. Her temple was erected at the Island of Seheil. Since the flooding of the Nile is what nourishes the fields, she gained her name, which means embracer, in the sense of the Nile embracing the fields.

Chensit
In Egyptian mythology, Chensit (also spelled Khensit), which means placenta, was the patron goddess of the twentieth nome of Lower Egypt. Chensit was the wife of Sopdu and the daughter of Ra, and was depicted as an uraeus.

In Egyptian mythology, Hatmehit, or Hatmehyt (reconstructed to have been pronounced *Hwit-Mayat in Egyptian) was a fish-goddess, originally a deification of the Nile River, by the people in the area around the delta city of Per-banebdjedet, Mendes. Her name translates as House of Mehit, (Hat Mehit), implying she may have some connection to Hathor, one of the oldest deities of Egypt who also went by the name Mehit, meaning great flood.

Hemsut
In Egyptian mythology, Hemsut (or Hemuset) was the goddess of fate and protection. She is representative of the ka. Her headdress bears a shield, above which are two crossed arrows.

n Egyptian mythology, Hesat (also spelt Hesahet, and Hesaret) was the manifestation of Hathor, the divine sky-cow, in earthly form. Like Hathor, she was seen as the wife of Ra. Since she was the more earthly cow-goddess, Milk was said to be the beer of Hesat, a rather meaningless phrase as Hesat means milk anyway. As a dairy cow, Hesat was seen as the wet-nurse of the other gods, the one who creates all nourishment.

(Earthy cow goddess I think I knew a few of those lol)

Junit
In Egyptian mythology, Junit was a minor goddess, whose name means (female one who) was brought. She is associated with Menthu.

Mafdet
In early Egyptian mythology, Mafdet (also spelled Maftet) was a goddess who protected against snakes and scorpions and was often represented as either some sort of feline or mongoose. Her name means (she who) runs swiftly.

Source (http://www.freebase.com/view/base/ancientegypt/views/gallery_of_deities?page=1)

(Happy Rashnu? lol)

Thanks for posting this you both :D. Egyptian mythology is fascinating, of course my favourite myth would have to be the "The death of Osirius and the reign of Horus" >:). Perhaps I'll post a bit on the lesser known gods of Egyptian deities soon :).

mmmmm... I love Egyptian mythology nice posts! There are "lesser gods" with interesting "powers", any clue which ones are? ^;^