Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
a hawk, or a man with a hawk's head crowned with the crown of all Egypt
Horus is shown as a hawk, or a man with a hawk's head and
the crown of all Egypt. This makes him look similar to Ra, but
Ra is crowned with the sun disk. Horus' crown is made of two
parts. The white part is the crown of Upper Egypt (in the
south) and the red part is the crown of Lower Egypt (including
the Nile delta). Together they show that Horus ruled all Egypt.
During their reign, Pharoahs identified themselves with Horus.
After they died, they became Osiris.
This story begins on Nut and
Geb's page. When Horus was a
baby, his father Osiris was killed
by Seth. Horus and his mother
Isis hid in the papyrus reeds in
the delta of the Nile until Horus
grew up. The he went to war with Seth to get his father's
crown and kingdom. The battles raged for a long time. Once
Seth managed to blind Horus by taking out his eye and tearing
it to bits, but Thoth, the God of Wisdom, managed to heal the
eye. So how did the war end? See Isis's page.
The Eye of Horus, healed by Thoth, was an amulet, or magic
charm. The Ancient Egyptians also used it to describe
fractions. The Egyptians sometimes had had two eye symbols,
with the left eye being the Eye of Horus, symbolising the moon, and the right eye being
symbolising the Eye of Ra, or the sun.
Osiris - God of the Dead
dressed in white with crook and flail and white crown
Osiris is shown as a man with a beard wearing white mummy wrappings. His crown is the white
crown of Upper Egypt surrounded by red feathers. His skin is green to represent vegetation. He
holds the symbols of supreme power, the flail and crook. The crook is used by shepherds to catch
their sheep. The flail is used in threshing, to separate the grains from the outer husks. Osiris was the
God of the Dead. You would expect that such a god would be gloomy or even evil, but the
Egyptians thought about death a lot. They mummified their dead and buried them with their
cobra round it. A cobra appears on the forehead of Pharaohs, like Tutankhamun.
Ra was the greatest of the gods and he kept his power in his secret name, which only he knew. He
had started to grow old, and sometimes he dribbled. Isis collected some of his saliva and made it
into a snake. She hid the snake where Ra would walk. When Ra trod on it, it bit him, and Ra
screamed in pain. All the gods gathered round, but none could heal him. Isis said "If you tell me
your secret name, this will give me enough magic power to heal you." Ra didn't want to do this, but
eventually the pain was so bad that he had to. Isis healed him, and ever since then she has the magic
powers that Ra had.
Geb the
Earth
God
colour
of plants
and
fertile
Nile
mud
The sky is Nut's body, arching from horizon to horizon.
Geb is the Earth, lying beneath her. During the day, Nut
and Geb are separated, but each evening Nut comes
down to meet Geb and this causes darkness. If storms
came during the day, it was believed that Nut had come
closer to the earth.
Nut was married to the King of
the Gods, Ra, but she was in
love with Geb. When Ra found
out, he was angry and said that Nut could not give birth to any children
during the 360 days of the year. Nut was unhappy and asked the God of
Wisdom, Thoth, to help. At this time, the Moon was as bright as the Sun.
Thoth got some light from the Moon, so now the Moon gets bigger and
smaller each month. With this light, Thoth made five new days, so now the year is 365 days long.
Nut gave birth to her five children, on these five days. When Osiris, the oldest, was born, a loud
voice said "The lord of all the earth is born." Seth, his brother, was born hating Osiris. If you want
to know what Seth did to Osiris, go to Osiris' page.
"Run and fetch my magic amulets. Only they can save me!" He then sank into the ground up to his
chin. His brother ran out of the tomb. Setna played the fourth game as slowly as he could, trying
desperately not to lose, but the mummy was too good at draughts. Just as he had nearly lost for the
final time, his brother Anhurerau returned with the amulets, and put them on Setna's head. The spell
was broken, and Setna grabbed the Book of Thoth, and ran as hard as he could out of the tomb.
As Setna tried to read the Book, he saw a beautiful woman walking past. He fell in love with her,
and tried to persuade her to marry him. She demanded that he kill his existing wife and children.
Completely besotted with her, he agreed. When he had done this, she vanished, and he was appalled
at what he had done. But he discovered that it was all a dream. He realised that he was being
punished for stealing the Book of Thoth, and next time it might not be a dream, so he returned the
Book to the tomb of Neferkeptah and resealed the burial chamber. Ever since then, no-one has seen
the Book of Thoth.
The magic amulet may have been a scarab. The scarab or dung beetle makes a ball of dung by
rolling it along the ground, and then lays its eggs in it. The Ancient Egyptians imagined a scarab
rolling the sun across the sky.
The feather of Ma'at was an ostrich plume. She wore it on her head.
The chief judge in charge of the Egyptian law courts was known as the "priest of Ma'at". He began
court hearings by wearing the feather of Ma'at. The judge gave the feather to the person who won
his case in the law courts.
The pharaoh had to promise that he would follow Ma'at. This means that he would be a just
pharaoh, and keep order in Egypt.
Neith
Great Goddess.
Cult Center: Sais in the western Delta
Attributes: Neith was a goddess of the hunt. She may have also been a
war goddess. Her worship dates from pre dynastic history. In early times
she was called 'mother of the gods' and 'Great Goddess'. She was
considered the guardian of men and gods.
Later, Neith was seen as a protector of the dead, she is often seen standing
with Nephthys at the head of coffins. Or assisting Isis, Nephthys, and
Serqet to guard the Canopic jars. As 'Opener of the Ways', she was a guide
in the underworld, a female Anubis. In the Eighteenth Dynasty she took on
the attributes of Hathor, as a protector of women. As a creative deity she
was said to be the wife of Khnum at Elephantine. She was appealed to for
her wisdom as an arbitrator during the great quarrel of Horus and Seth.
Neith assumed the role of state deity during the Twenty-sixth Dynasty,
when the kings of Sais repeled the invading Assyrians and reunited Egypt.
This period lasted for about a century and a half and the tendency in art and religion was to
try to regain the glories of the past. This was a suitable time for the worship of an ancient
goddess.
Representation: Neith was pictured as a woman wearing the red crown of Lower Egypt,
holding a bow and crossed arrows. Her cult sign was a shield and crossed arrows.
Occasionally she was represented as the great cow, mother of Ra.
Relations: Varied with time period. Mother of Sobek, Isis, Horus and Osiris. Or mother of
Ra. The pharaoh Nectanebo II of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, claimed her as his Mother. Wife
of Khnum.
Bastet was the proctress of cats. The Ancient Egyptians had a great respect for cats since they
protected the grain from mice and rats. Rats can also cause disease. Killing a cat was punishable by
death. When a cat died, the family mourned it, shaving their eyebrows to mark their sadness. Cats
were sometimes mummified, like people, and their mummies have been found.