The ancient Egyptian gods
Egyptian religion has many variations in both the gods and their names depending on the religious center considered. Moreover, often the same deity is represented in different forms and, alongside the main gods, there are many minor ones with local cults. Here we will mainly follow the Heliopolitan (Memphis) tradition, which is also the best known and most widespread. Note that, in classical iconography, gods with male characters, with the exception of Osiris and Ptah, wore, inserted in their belts, a bull's tail as a symbol of power. They were then represented with a special symbol above their heads that allowed them to be identified and recognized.
Amon/Ra. Originally one of the eight primordial deities worshiped in Hermopolis. He then becomes the supreme god, the solar deity Amon-Ra.
He was originally the local god of the tribes in the Thebes area. Then when the princes of Thebes seized the throne of Egypt he became the supreme deity of the pantheon, assimilating with the solar god Ra under the name Amon-Ra. The largest temple of Amun was that of Karnak. His priests rivaled Pharaoh in power. Consecrated to him were the goose (according to myth, the sun was born from a primordial egg) and the ram with curved horns. He was depicted in human form, as ruler, with two tall feathers on his head, and sometimes with ram's head Aton.
The city of Thebes is the main center of his worship. His means "the mysterious," together with his wife Muth and son Khons he forms the triad of Thebes. His animal is the ram, as can be guessed from the ceremonial avenue of his main temple at Karnak.
Anubis. Jackal god of Cynopolis, assists Horus and Thot in weighing the hearts of the dead, in charge of secrets.
He is the god who had embalmed Osiris and presided over mummification. Patron of embalmers and "lord of the necropolis". He is illegitimate son of Osiris and Nephthi. In the underworld he presided over funeral ceremonies, guarding the deceased and ensuring their food and good burial. The center of his cult was in Cynopolis, but he was also widely worshipped elsewhere. His name can be translated as "jackal"; he was in fact represented in the form of a jackal or black dog, often crouched on a funerary chapel model or naos, with a red band around his neck and a scourge between his hind legs. He was also sometimes represented in human form with a dog's head, ankh cross in one hand and scepter in the other. In the cult of Osiris, he became the latter's brother; according to other versions of the myth, he helped bury his body.
Anuket. Goddess of the island of Sehel and of the first cataract; she was depicted wearing a headdress of strange fashion, perhaps of foreign origin.Together with Khnum and Satet she formed the Elephantine triad.
Apis. Sacred bull, considered the incarnation of Ptah. Name of the sacred bulls of Memphis, with a black coat and white triangle on their heads, and with vultures with outstretched wings on their backs. Worshipped in ancient Egypt, they were likened to the sun and were depicted with the solar disk between their horns. In Ptolemaic times they were sacred to Serapis; embalmed, they were buried in the Serapeum at Memphis. Aton. The deified solar disk, giver of life. In a religious reform, Pharaoh Amenhotep IV/Akhenaten of the 18th dynasty, during the Amarna period, declared him the sole deity. He became the main symbol of solar monotheism and was regarded as the universal power that dispensed light, warmth and life to humankind. Although the word is encountered in much older Egyptian texts, Akhenaten gave it a special meaning, changing his own name of Amenophis to Akhenaten and giving his sons and city names that included the word Aton. Depictions show the god as a disk, from which descend several rays ending in small hands, offering the pharaoh and his wife the symbol of life.
Apofi. Name of the serpent who in the realm of Duat (otherworldly) struggles against the sun god to thwart his landing in the east.
Atum. Heliopolis' main god, the creator, was later identified with the sun. His sacred animals were the lion and the serpent.
Bastet. Goddess of Bubasti. Depicted with cat's head, she is part of a myth in which she is the last transformation of the cycle: the eye of the sun had become enraged and transformed into a lioness (Sekhmet) she had fled to Nubia; here, reached by Thot, she was calmed by the god.More tranquil, she was transformed into a cat-headed woman of a more peaceful disposition.
Goddess with the head of a lioness or cat, worshipped in Bubasti. She was the goddess of joy and the warmth of the sun. Protector of Pharaoh, she was a dynastic deity when her city became capital with the XXII Dynasty. Depicted with a woman's body and cat's head, she holds the aegis and sistrum.
Bes. Nume protector of the home and children. Minor deity of Egyptian mythology, whose cult was widely spread in the late period. Grotesque-looking as a dwarf, with a large head, dangling tongue and bowed legs, often wearing a feather crown and a lion's mane, he was depicted on amulets and other objects. He was revered throughout Egypt as a kind of household genius, domestic deity, and god of fertility, marriage, and pregnancy. He was also the god of music and dance. He was probably worshipped in local tabernacles, never having owned his own temples.
Duamutef. Son of Horus, jackal-headed. Funerary god, depicted on the canopic jar containing the stomach. He is placed under the protection of Neith.
Geb. God of the earth, husband and brother of Nut. God son of Shu and Tefnut, brother of Nut. He represented the earth. He is depicted in human guise with a red crown or tripartite wig on which a goose, the ideogram of his name, is resting. He often appears on sarcophagi together with the sky goddess Nut, considered his sister and bride, while the air god Shu intervenes to interrupt their intercourse. Sometimes drawings of leaves appear on her body.
Hator. Goddess of Aphroditopolis and Dendera. Goddess of love, patroness of music and dance. Goddess of music, love and dance, she was also goddess of the sky, nurturer of the ruler, and was associated with Isis as mother of Horus. One of her largest temples was at Dendara, but she also had a chapel in the temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahri. Outside Egypt she was worshipped in Biblo, Punt and at communities of miners at Sinai. A personification of the heavenly vault, she was depicted as a heifer. She could also take the form of a woman with a bovine or human head, but always with horns and bovine ears between which was the solar disk flanked by two tall ostrich feathers. Dressed in a long tunic with suspenders and collar, she was sometimes represented with a tripartite wig, on which the ideogram of her name stood out. As a funerary deity she welcomed the deceased into the afterlife, dispensing food and drink to them. Her emblem was the sistrum.
Hapi. Deity representing the Nile. This is not the deified river, but rather its spirit, its dynamic essence. He was represented as a man with heavy breasts and a prominent belly, symbolizing abundance; the deity always brought gifts, flowers and plants.
Hapy. Son of Horus, baboon-headed. Funerary god, depicted on canopic jar containing lungs. He is placed under the protection of Nephthi.
Heh. They are in the millions, associated with other Heh represent the presence of air
Horus. One of the major and oldest Egyptian deities. God of Behdet. Hawk god split into Horus the Great and Horus Child. In mythology, god of heaven, light and goodness. A major Egyptian deity, Horus was the son of Isis, goddess of nature, and Osiris, god of the underworld. When Osiris was killed by his evil brother, Seth, god of darkness and evil, Horus avenged his father's death by killing his uncle. Usually depicted in the figure of a hawk (or with a hawk's head), he is also depicted as a child with a finger on his lips (which is why he was believed by the Romans to be the god of silence). Horus was known to the Greeks and Romans as Harpocrates.
Worshipped throughout the country but especially in Hieraconpolis, he appears as a hawk with solar disk and uraeus on his head and outstretched wings, or as a man with a hawk's head. A figure in the Osiris myth, as he is considered a posthumous son of Osiris and Isis, he is depicted as a boy with his index finger between his lips (Harpocrates). He presided over the observance of rites and laws, and Pharaoh represented his earthly embodiment.
Imset. Son of Horus, human-headed. Funerary god, depicted on the canopic jar containing the liver. He is placed under the protection of Isis.
Isis. One of the major Egyptian deities. Protector of wealth, births, seafarers and the state. She is the great sorceress, the mother goddess and queen. Osiris is her husband-brother, Horus her son. The name Isis means "the throne". She played a key role in the myth of Osiris, the groom killed and dismembered by his brother Seth, whose remains she sought and reassembled, restoring him to life and conceiving his son Horus. She sometimes appears as a sparrowhawk or in female form, with the solar disk between two bovine horns (as likened to Hator), or with her hieroglyph (a seat) on her head and the Isiac knot on her dress. As the wife of Osiris, Isis became a symbol of the ideal companion and mother. She became a typical mother goddess figure. Although until the arrival of the Romans Isis did not have her own rites or temples, the cult continued and spread outside Egypt after the decline of Egyptian civilization. In mythology she was the sister of Naphtis and her own husband Osiris. Her son was Horus, the little one who was generally depicted sitting on her lap.
Khepri. Name indicating the morning appearance of the sun, generally represented as a scarab.
Khons. God of Thebes associated with the moon. With Amon and Muth he formed the triad of Thebes.
Khnum. Ancient Egyptian god depicted with human body and ram's head or as a ram, worshipped especially at Esna and Elephantine. Goat god of Hypselis, Esna and Elephantine, inventor of men (fashioned at the potter's wheel) and, as "Lord of the Waterfall," regulated the floods of the Nile.
Creator of humans and various forms of life, he was believed to have forged humankind on his potter's wheel. He was also guardian of the sources of the Nile and presided over floods. He is depicted in scenes depicting coronations while performing portraits of the ruler.
Maat. Symbol of truth and justice. Figure in the ceremony of the judgment of the deceased. Goddess of the "rule" that men, kings and gods had to abide by.
Min. God of the earth and fertility, appellation of Horus. He was the local god of Coptos and the desert region between the Nile and the Red Sea, as well as of Panopolis. He was always represented as an ithyphallic god.
Montu. Warrior god, patron of war and its arts.
Muth. Goddess of a locality near Karnak, where her temple stands. She is depicted in the form of a woman or a vulture. The headdresses of queens, which often feature wings and a vulture's head, are named after the goddess, wife of Amun.
Nefertum. God of the region of Memphis. He was the son of Ptah and Sekhmet.
Nephthi. Goddess of Diospolis Parva. Daughter of Geb and Nut, sister of Osiris, Isis and Seth, of the latter also wife (though not in love) and mother of Anubis.
Neith. Goddess of Sais. Her cult, of tribal derivation, continued into the age of history, when she became the funerary deity known as Mehurt. Creator goddess of war, later goddess of the hunt. In Esna she was a companion of Khnum.
Nekhbet. Vulture goddess of El Kab. she was associated with royalty.
Nun. Primordial liquid mass from which the sun-god Atum-ra emerged. In addition to the creation myths, he appears in that of the destruction of humankind as the deity who advised Ra to send his eye against the rebels.
Nut. Sky goddess, sister and wife of Geb, mother of Osiris,Isis, Seth and Nephthi.
Osiris. God of Busiris. He is the god-king of Egypt, the husband-brother of Isis and the father of Horus.After death he reigns over the afterlife where, in addition to being ruler, he is supreme judge.As god of vegetation he is often represented in the form of a mummy from which plants sprout.
Ptah. God of Memphis and creator of the universe. His existence would predate that of Atum-Ra.Patron of sculptors and forgers, his sacred animal was the bull Apis.
Quebhsenuf. Son of Horus, falcon-headed. Funerary god, depicted on canopic jar containing intestines. He is placed under the protection of Selket.
Serket. She belongs to the circle of sorceress goddesses associated with Isis. Scorpion goddess, she was represented as a woman-headed scorpion or as a woman with a scorpion on her head. According to local legends she was the mother of Harakhte (the sun on the horizon) and bride of Horus.
Satet. Goddess of Elephantine and bride of Khnum.
Seth. God of Ombos, brother and husband of Nephthi. God of drought and bad weather, destructive power, symbol of evil.According to legend he was the slayer of his brother Osiris. He is depicted as an indefinable animal, perhaps because he is extinct today, somewhere between a donkey and a dog.
Sobek crocodile god of Fayum and Kom Ombo, connected to waters and fertility. Later creator god.
Shu. God of dry air, son of Atum-ra and twin of Tefnut. He begets Geb and Nut.
Sekmet. Goddess of Rehesu, she was the goddess of health and evil at the same time, patroness of medicine war. Depicted in lion form, she is believed to be the bride of Ptat. She was related to Bastet, the cat goddess, into whom she was believed to have been transformed.
Seshat. Goddess of destiny
Sokar. God of the Memphite necropolis, patron of metallurgy and blacksmiths.
Tefnut. Goddess of Oxyrhynchos. Goddess of moist air, daughter of Atum-ra and twin and bride of Shu.
Thot. God of Hermopolis. God of wisdom, messenger of the gods.In the afterlife he assists in the weighing of the heart of the deceased.Represented with the head of a baboon he is the god of science, writing, magical arts and phases of the moon.
Tueret. Hippopotamus goddess, protector of the home and pregnancy.
Uaget. Serpent goddess of Buto, she was patroness of royalty and associated with Nekhbet in pharaoh's titles.
Upuaut. The road opener
