Questions tagged [egyptian]

For questions on the myths, legends, and religious beliefs of the people of Ancient Egypt.

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What is the original ancient Egyptian names for the "Book of Two Ways"?

After much research, I am asking for help with this matter. I can find no reverse translation for the "Book of Two Ways." Is it like the "Book of the Dead," a modern convenience ...
Walter's user avatar
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175 views

Are there group names for gods in Egyptian mythology, similar to the Norse and Greek mythologies primordials, titans, Æsir, Vanir?

Like in the title said is there? If there is mind anyone help me by listing them?
user84527's user avatar
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What is the story behind / are the circumstances surrounding the conception of Bastet by Ra and Isis?

Wikipedia lists them both as parents but gives no detail as to how it came about to be.
Hans's user avatar
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2 answers
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Is there any evidence of Christianization of Egyptian myths?

Christian symbolism can be found in Irish and Scandinavian mythologies, as the authors that recorded it were Christian and probably wrote about it centuries later. Was there ever a Christianization of ...
Marduk Trimegistus's user avatar
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1 answer
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Is there any source before the decipherment of hieroglyphic scripts that mentions that the ancient Egyptians deified their kings?

According to Wikipedia: Although the Egyptians recognized that the pharaoh was human and subject to human weakness, they simultaneously viewed him as a god, because the divine power of kingship was ...
capri reds's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
276 views

What is the ancient Egyptian name for "The Book of Gates"?

The Book of Gates is an ancient Egyptian funerary text which describes the various bxn.t (gates), also known as a pylon (πυλών) in ancient Greek. I have been unable to find the full name of the Book ...
Walter's user avatar
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Prostration before bricks

The Talmud in Sanhedrin 107b and Sotah 47a brings a story about a sage named Yehoshua ben Perachiah and one of his students, called Jesus (whether this Jesus is the famous one of Christianity is ...
Harel13's user avatar
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4 answers
559 views

Do any Mediterranean mythologies depict souls escaping from the Underworld without the help of a living rescuer?

Persephone was rescued from the Underworld (for a little while) by Hermes, who brought her back to Demeter. Eurydice was (almost) rescued from the Underworld by Orpheus. Semele was rescued from the ...
Nerrolken's user avatar
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1 answer
107 views

Did the ancient Egyptians have a word for "cult"?

The ancient cultures of Greece, Rome, and Egypt did not have a word for religion, at least in our modern understanding of the word. Greece and Rome did have terms for religious practices though, ...
Walter's user avatar
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1 answer
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Why does the Greek Silenus and the Egyptian Bes look similar?

Today I was going through an old book on Greek sculpture and I notice that a number of pre-classical Greek statues feature Silenus and form in which he is depicted, full frontal nudity with tongue ...
Tyler Durden's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
666 views

What is the ancient Egyptian word for crocodiles?

I am doing research on the ancient Egyptian (Kemetic) gods, and am currently working on Sobek (Sbk). This made me wonder what the word for crocodile is in ancient Egyptian. I have found db or dbj, and ...
Walter's user avatar
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Was there a concept of bringing about a perfect world in ancient pagan religions?

I was wondering whether there was a concept of bringing about a perfected world in ancient pagan religions, whether as something the gods were expected to do, something that mankind was expected to do,...
Harel13's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
228 views

Skagganauk abyss?

In Roger Zelazney's Creatures of Light and Darkness, he imagines the Egyptian Typhon, brother of Set, as a void that often takes the form of a stallion. He calls this entity "Skagganauk Abyss&...
DukeZhou's user avatar
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7 votes
1 answer
302 views

Egyptian Goddess Nakith

I am searching for background information on the ancient Egyptian goddess Nakith. Wikipedia says she's a goddess of the underworld. Apart from that I was unable to find more on the web, and Wikipedia ...
Matt's user avatar
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Was Aaru considered part of the Duat (underworld) in ancient Egypt?

The sources I've found don't make a clear statement of whether Aaru was formally considered part of the Duat or distinct from it. I'm trying to understand if the deceased pass through the Duat and ...
crispyduck's user avatar
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1 answer
294 views

Do the myths of Malayalam Onam, Egyptian Osiris Myth and Vietnamese Tet show cultural contacts?

Were there any contacts between the ancient Egyptian, Keralan (South Indian), and Vietnamese civilizations that may have been significant enough for these people to have borrowed elements from each ...
Jayadevan Vijayan's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
167 views

What is the name of Ancient Egyptian "water jousting"

I have come across a form of combat from ancient Egypt called 'water jousting'. Does anyone know the actual Egyptian term for this, or any other ancient Egyptian terms for things like wrestling, which ...
Walter's user avatar
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Do any ancient sources describe Set as a mortal? And could Set be Sekhen?

Set Set /sɛt/ or Seth /sɛθ/ (Egyptian: stẖ;[a]) is a god of deserts, storms, disorder, violence, and foreigners in ancient Egyptian religion.1 In Ancient Greek, the god's name is given as Sēth (Σήθ). ...
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3 votes
1 answer
201 views

Was the historical Hyksos account, the real story behind the biblical exodus narrative?

Hyksos The Hyksos (/ˈhɪksɒs/; Egyptian ḥqꜣ(w)-ḫꜣswt, Egyptological pronunciation: hekau khasut,[4] "ruler(s) of foreign lands"; Ancient Greek: Ὑκσώς, Ὑξώς) were people of probable Levantine ...
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1 answer
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Who came first, Egyptian pharoah Horus-Aha 3100bc, or, Horus the Deity?

Horus-Aha Hor-Aha (or Aha or Horus Aha) is considered the second pharaoh of the First Dynasty of Egypt by some Egyptologists, others consider him the first one and corresponding to Menes. He lived ...
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3 votes
1 answer
158 views

Is there a myth about someone who constantly creates their own demise?

Since this is certainly a common theme, I'm wondering if there is a myth about someone who ignorantly walks themselves repeatedly into ill-fate or their own misery. It would be like Sisyphus, but ...
Matt Weiler's user avatar
7 votes
2 answers
1k views

Hall of Two Truths: Ancient Egypt

Does anyone know what the proper ancient Egyptian name for the Hall of Truth, Hall of Two Truths, or Hall of Judgement is? This is the hall where a soul is weighed on a scale against the feather of Ma'...
Walter's user avatar
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"Decipher me or I devour you" has been cited in Brazil for decades as a challenge of the Sphinx. Is it actually made up?

"Decifra-me ou te devoro"/"Decipher me or I'll devour you" Just recently I remembered hearing this phrase when I was kid.. I'm brasilian and I was thinking how bad*ss it is and all ...
Breno Salgado's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
19k views

What's the connection between the Greek and Egyptian gods?

I heard from a story once that when Cronus attacked the gods, most of them were so scared of him that they fled to Egypt and adopted animal characteristics (except for Zeus and Hermes). That's why you ...
user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
126 views

Why mythical god-like figures share common attributes like wings or lion body parts in different mythologies/cultures

I know some of this mythological depictions are supposed to represent many things like nature forces, and I know Jung's Archetypes theory about symbols founded on the unconscious mind. However I want ...
Santi Tinjacá Rivera's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
120 views

School in the Sky?

I'm looking for references to schools in the sky. Was there a school that the Greek gods attended? A university frequented by the Norse pantheon? An academy in Tian? I'd love any pointers you've ...
bill frumpterton's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
2k views

Are there any common concepts in Egypt and Norse mythology / civilization?

I'm looking for some concepts (could be objects, weapons, creatures, traditions, ...) that are common between both Egypt and Norse mythology/folklore or history/civilization. Context: I'm working on ...
Jimmy Praet's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
201 views

Did the ancient Egyptians worship Cats and Dogs deities at the same period?

Did Egyptians worship feline and canine gods at the same period in history?
drago mothra's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
85 views

Could it be the the Dendera Zodiak is a Glyphed description of the Egyptian Book of the Dead?

Deckenrelief (Kopie des Tierkreises) in der Kapelle des Tierkreises (Zodiak) auf dem Dach des Hathor-Tempels von Dendera, Ägypten, 16 October 2014 by Olaf Tausch Dear Egyptomaniacs, ...
Wolves' Shepherd.'s user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
4k views

Did ancient Egypt use the abbreviation IHS for "Isis, Horus, and Seb"?

The Chick Publications tract "Are Roman Catholics Christians?" has all sorts of questionable content (including many fundamental misunderstandings of Roman Catholicism), but there is one historical ...
Thunderforge's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
1k views

If any Ancient Egyptian Texts exist as Hieroglyphics in Online Documents

Wondering if anyone has copied any Ancient Egyptian texts such as this into Unicode Hieroglyphs or something similar, rather than English translations. Or if not, if there are photographs of the ...
Lance's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
142 views

What is the creation story of Taweret?

How was the goddess Taweret created? Is there a creation story, or was she just the child of two gods?
ds_secret's user avatar
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5 votes
3 answers
3k views

Mother Earth or Father Earth?

To explain my title, we humans call the earth 'Mother Earth'. I can trace this back to Gaia, the Greek goddess of the earth, Demeter, the Greek goddess of agriculture and others. But, I remembered ...
Andrew Johnson's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
122 views

How many lost continents are in Mythology?

A majority of people will know of Atlantis. It is a Greek, fictional island, misregarded as oral history. Atlantis is mentioned in Plato's works Timaeus and Critias and is placed in the Atlantic Ocean....
Andrew Johnson's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
259 views

Did the inhabitants of the ancient Near East believe in an ocean in the sky?

An ocean in the sky shows up quite a lot in depictions, for example Psalms 148:4: Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens! But finding good evidence for it in Egyptian ...
Reggie O'Donoghue's user avatar
8 votes
3 answers
2k views

Do the Egyptian gods bleed?

In the 2016 film Gods of Egypt the gods bleed a bright golden liquid when hurt (which happens often). I wonder if there's any basis for this in Egyptian mythology, an Egyptian equivalent to the ...
Ouroboros's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
1k views

What do we know about the ram-headed deities helping Shu support Nut in the Greenfield Papyrus?

The "Greenfield Papyrus" is a funerary illustrated manuscript from the "Book of the Dead" of Nestanebetisheru: According to the British Museum curator's comments: This scene is a symbolic ...
yannis's user avatar
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5 votes
2 answers
740 views

Why did mankind rebel against Ra?

The Book of the Heavenly Cow revolves around mankind's rebellion against Ra: The central theme of The Book of the Heavenly Cow is mankind's rebellion against the elder sun god, Re, resulting in the ...
yannis's user avatar
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10 votes
2 answers
382 views

How did Atenism explain night-time?

Atenism was Egypt's state religion during the reign of Akhenaten. The religion considered Aten - the sun disc - as the supreme and only god, a radical departure from traditional beliefs. I realize ...
yannis's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
346 views

Why was Nekhbet depicted as a vulture?

Nekhbet, a predynastic goddess that eventually became the patron of Upper Egypt, was commonly depicted in art as a vulture. Why is that? The vulture seems - at least to me - like an odd choice for ...
yannis's user avatar
  • 17k
4 votes
0 answers
375 views

Are the Memphis and Heliopolis cosmogonies competing or reconciliatory?

The Heliopolitan cosmogony attributes creation to Atum, the first god who created himself from the primordial waters. The Memphis creation myth, however, places Ptah, god of craftsmen and architects,...
yannis's user avatar
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7 votes
2 answers
2k views

What is known about A’ani, the ancient Egyptian God of Equilibrium?

Wikipedia’s article on Thoth states that A’ani is a form of Thoth, which is consistent with what I know about Thoth, although much of the information I'm working with comes through the hermeticism. ...
DukeZhou's user avatar
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5 votes
1 answer
10k views

What animals were represented in gods in ancient Egypt?

I cannot find many animals that were represented as gods and I am writing an essay on ancient Egypt.
user4358's user avatar
7 votes
2 answers
624 views

Is there an Egyptian Old Man of the Sea?

In Book VI of the Odyssey, the sea-nymph Eidothea identifies her father Proteus, the Old Man of the Sea, as an Egyptian: "'Stranger,' replied she, 'I will make it all quite clear to you. There ...
yannis's user avatar
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3 votes
1 answer
231 views

Anyone know what this symbol means?

Someone drew this symbol on my arm, and said it was an egyptian one and had some meaning, but I can't find it anywhere. The top that is obscured curls to the left.
RobKohr's user avatar
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7 votes
1 answer
145 views

Do vegetation deities tend to be connected with the Moon?

Egyptian Osiris is associated with vegetation and this is what Wikipedia says about him: Through syncretism with Iah, he is also the god of the Moon. This is what Wikipedia says about Jarilo, ...
Roman's user avatar
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5 votes
2 answers
726 views

Why were the lungs left inside the mummy of Herakleides, instead of the heart?

In ancient Egyptian mummies, the heart was the only organ that stayed in the body. This was because the heart would be weighed against the feather of Ma'at in the Hall of Two Truths. The Romano-...
yannis's user avatar
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4 votes
0 answers
1k views

Who are the twelve Egyptian gods?

Herodotus mentions an Egyptian Dodekatheon in Book 2: The Egyptians, they went on to affirm, first brought into use the names of the twelve gods, which the Greeks adopted from them; and first erected ...
yannis's user avatar
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12 votes
2 answers
1k views

Why did Heracles transform into a fawn, during the gods flight to Egypt?

In some tellings of Typhon's revolt, the gods take animal forms and flee to Egypt in panic. The version in the Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis references Nicander of Colophon and explicitly ...
yannis's user avatar
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8 votes
1 answer
3k views

Is there a 'Messenger of the Gods' figure in Egyptian mythology?

While Thoth is often equated with Hermes, he seems to be more of a keeper of secret wisdom than a messenger. Is there any such figure in Egyptian mythology?
Drew Stevens's user avatar