A look at the past: the mythology of Egypt, the gods
Egypt is renowned for legends, for the various fantastic elaborations and for the connected choreographies; the findings of archaeological research confirm the link of the population (from the simple servant to the Pharaoh) to myths and magic.
For the Egyptians, magic was considered the most effective protection against the inability to face difficulties. When they felt helpless and opposed, they practiced magic formulas so that everyday life was strengthened and preserved from all kinds of evil.
The cults of the ancient Egyptians were very many and the gods were never of a unitary character for all of Egypt. In fact, each city had its particular divinities, and these were represented in different ways: in the form of animals, in the form of men, in the form of men - animals. Each god had different representations and at least one temple dedicated to him.
Religion, therefore, characterized by polytheism, was a mixture of tribal cults and magic that was handed down from generation to generation. The 10 plagues inflicted by God on the Egyptians (Exodus chapters 7-12) are in stark contrast to their main divinities, this highlights the supremacy of God over everything; He is infinitely above every principality.
The following representation illustrates how the intervention of God neutralized and dismantled the occult powers, not only, but also demolished the solidity in which the Egyptians trusted. The God presented by Moses proves to be superior to the gods, to the magicians, to the occult forces of evil and His intervention is for those who invoke him; His explained strength has dismantled the much-proclaimed, venerated and feared "power".
Pharaoh and Moses confront each other, both are aware of having a supreme "help", one advances in the name of ATON that is "solar disk", the other in that of the I AM namely "He who is" (Ex. 3: 12-14; 7: 9-13 - 2nd Tim 3: 8). The two forces meet, confront each other and then reach a single result: JHWH is the absolute and unique God.
We observe the prevalence and lordship of the Almighty over the seductions and the subtle deceptions operating in the mythological world: His intervention highlights the absolute superiority over the elements and over the natural and preternatural spheres, His power is not contrary, but superior as it is True, Unique and Almighty God. (Isaiah 45: 6 - Col. 1: 15-17).
The intervention of magicians in being able to only partially imitate two of the ten plagues, denotes their limits and their deceptions (Matt. 24:24 - 2 Thess. 2: 9) because their powers were not to consist only in bringing frogs from ponds and rivers but also to make them go back. In the same way it had to occur for water changed into blood; if there had really been a real power, the spellcasters would have had to turn their blood into water instead of waiting for the cessation of the plague that was seven days.
The mirror shown below is relevant to the 10 plagues, and clearly shows the absolute superiority of God over witchcraft, divinities, occult forces, magic, etc ..., since the "protectors" have never been able to defend their own cause.
1st plague * water changed into blood Sobek, god of water and swamps
2nd plague * frogs Thoth and Maat, gods of time and order
3rd plague * mosquitoes Geb, god of the earth
4th plague * poisonous flies Khepri, the divine scarab
5th plague * livestock mortality Bees, the sacred bull and Hathor, the cow goddess
6th plague * ulcers Ptah, the powerful healer
7th plague * hail Horus and Nut, gods of heaven
8th plague * locusts Isis, goddess of nature and agriculture
9th plague * darkness Amon-Ra, sovereign god of the sun
10th plague * the death of the firstborn Osiris, Anubis and Seth, gods of death
Furthermore, the goddess Sekhmet and the god Neith (gods of war) could not stand before the power of the Creator. God fought for his people, protecting them by day, with a cloud and by night, with a pillar of fire. He opened the sea allowing the passage of Jews on dry land and closed it on the Egyptians to their detriment (Ex. 14: 14.25).
In the Egyptian pantheon, the list of the gods is very long, we will mention only a few. Their depictions have a human appearance with an animal's head or the appearance of an animal itself:
Heket, the frog goddess
She was the divine midwife of ancient Egypt, the protector of new life and was frequently invoked to bring protection to the birth process or to defend the family unit and keep the house. The amulets and scarabs worn by women as protection at the time of birth often bore her image, it was believed that she brought relief to her mother. Heket's influence manifested itself in infusing the first signs of life to an unborn child, and in accelerating the last moments of labor. The midwives were called "Heket's servants" in honor of their duty to dispense life.
She was represented as a frog or as a woman with a frog's head and her colors were green and pink. But why this animal? The frogs had existed since the beginning of civilization, thousands of years into the waters of the Nile and for the Egyptians life began precisely from the primordial waters. For similitude the child, being born from the broken waters in the maternal womb, was associated to the frogs that emerged from the water.
Min, the god of fertility
The god Min represented sexual procreation, thus protecting fertility and crops. He was a natural spirit who celebrated the fertility of the earth and the free sexuality of all living things.
Black, ithyphallic, mummiform with two feathers on his head, he holds the scourge in his raised fist.
Khunum (or Khnum), the ram god
The Creator of New Life and Abundance. Khnum presided over the birth beside the Heket frog deity. It was believed that he created all the children on his potter's wheel, carefully forging them from clay and planting them like a seed in his mother's womb. He was a god of fertility and procreation and articulated life cycles, blessing the womb with new life, the earth with new crops and the Egyptian peoples with prosperity and abundance. It was also believed that the veneration of Khnum, with adequate money offerings to his temple, ensured the prosperity of Egypt. He was also associated with the creation of animals, birds, fish and other deities; perhaps it represented the creative process and the potential of creation and also regulated the floods of the Nile, in fact it was also called "the lord of the waterfall". He was usually represented with the head of a goat with twisted horns.
Enenutet, the serpent goddess
An Egyptian divinity of fertility and abundance, she protected births and nurses because she was linked to the reproductive cycle of life and was the protector of crops.
She was depicted as a woman with a snake's head or body.
Satet, the Elefantina goddess
As a deity of the cataracts it protected the southern boundaries, and was the dispenser of cold water that came from Elephantine.
The depictions of the goddess show her with the crown of Upper Egypt, a tiara headdress decorated laterally with gazelle horns.
Ekhmet, the lioness goddess
Goddess of war and the wrath of Ra; his name meant "the mighty". In fact this goddess, with the body of a woman and the head of a lioness, was the terrible enemy of those who threatened the sovereign, was vindictive and spat fire at her enemies. She was also the patron of doctors and magicians.
Tefnut, goddess of humid air
Tefnut means: "the saliva of Atum". Tefnut, as morning dew, welcomed the sun god, which is why he was also called "the eye of Ra". Its name means "spit" and is written with the shape of a mouth from which a spray of water comes out.
She was represented as a woman, sometimes with the head of a lioness, who wore a solar disk on her head and a snake named uraeus.
Bastet, the cat goddess
The legends tell that Bastet was originally the goddess Sekhmet who, after spending a period of time in exile, returned to Egypt with the appearance of a "quiet kitten" and with a new name. Probably its transformation from ruthless warrior to peacemaker expresses a political change of ancient Egypt, therefore it symbolizes the taming of the wild and bestial forces of human nature or the triumph of civilization and diplomacy over conflict. From the images represented in the hieroglyphics and in the funerary paintings we deduce that Bastet was a divinity with different roles: she was given the task of protecting the family and the home but she was also considered a goddess of pleasure and of lesbianism, and still a lady of the arts and generosity, bearer of fertility and abundance, goddess of the sun and the moon, of truth and civilization, and ultimately protector of cats. Bastet was often represented with a woman's body and a cat's head, in her left hand there was a sacred eye-shaped amulet that took the name of Utchat, from which most of the names used to identify the cat (cat, katte, cattus, cat, gatous).
Shu, the god of space between earth and sky
Dio del vuoto e dell’aria e quindi dei venti, in forma di leone o di uomo diademato del disco solare.
Secondo la mitologia egizia, era dio dell’aria e dopo essere nato dal dio Atum insieme alla sorella Tefnut, separò il cielo dalla terra. Gli egizi ritenevano che gli dèi necessitavano dell’aria come gli uomini, per questo le aperture presenti nei templi venivano chiamate "finestre di Shu".
Tueret (o Tauert), the Goddess ippopotamo
Protector of the house and pregnancy, Tauert was a domestic goddess, that is, worshiped at home and not in temples. She was represented as a female pregnant with hippopotamus, and assisted all women, from queen to peasant, during the birth of their children.
Selkis (or selket), the scorpion goddess
Selkis played an important role in the context of funerary beliefs; with Isis, Nephtis and Neith, she protected the teeth, the bowels of the dead and the mummified stomach. She was represented on the sarcophagi as a scorpion with a woman's head, or as a woman with a scorpion on her head. In Egyptian mythological thought, the scorpion symbolized the breath of the universe.
Nekhbet, the vulture goddess
She was the patron of the pharaoh and the kingdom and all the queens were considered her earthly incarnation.
She looks like a vulture or a woman with a vulture-shaped headdress.
Wadjet, the cobra goddess
First of all it is useful to know that the snake, and in particular the female of the cobra, is an animal that, if threatened, can dilate the back of the head and stretch the skin of the neck until it assumes a shape similar to a racket, a position which allows him to spit venom at the attacker. According to Egyptian mythological tales, the female of the cobra is the symbol of Wadjet, the eye of the solar god Ra, who had detached herself from her father and then returned and placed herself permanently on her forehead. In this capacity the image of the female serpent was placed on the pharaoh's forehead, the one who represented the solar god Ra on earth. Then the serpent on the crown of the sovereign symbolizes the destructive force, at the service of the sovereign to exterminate his enemies, who are then also the enemies of Egypt. Wadjet protected the pharaoh (and the sun) by spitting his poison against their enemies. Wadjet means "The Green", "That of the color of the papyrus", and became the symbol of the protector of Lower Egypt, the one who protected the flood necessary for the survival of the country. Wadjet was therefore a kind of "good snake", which kept watch so that the world would not fall into chaos; in general, instead, snakes were mostly seen as dangerous animals, regardless of whether the species they belonged to was poisonous or not. It was believed that the afterlife was full of snakes that represented the power of chaos, which threatened the good functioning of the world.
.... and many others that with time, beyond adoration and devotion, were miniaturized and used in the form of jewels and lucky charms for spells, magic and divinations; even today, these representations continue to exist through the influences caused by amulets.
