Egyptian mythology

In many sources, Egyptian mythologyis presented with slight differences, and also the systematic presentation is not traced in them. In connection with this historians, the most reliable sources were identified, in which information about the mythological representations of the Egyptians is presented, they unequivocally recognized religious texts. They represent surviving prayers and hymns to the gods, records on the walls of tombs, where funeral rites were performed.

The ancient Egyptians were very sensitive tothe kingdom of the dead, believing in the existence of the afterlife, therefore Egyptian mythology is based on the cult of the other world and the dead. The most significant of the records that allow us to open the veil of the secrets of the myths of Egypt are the ancient "Pyramid Texts", the funeral royal rituals carved on the inner walls of the pyramids of the pharaohs belonging to the V and VI dynasties. Sources also include "Sarkophage texts" and "Book of the Dead". The last artifact was composed from the very beginning of the period of the New Kingdom and until the end of the history of ancient Egypt.

Long before the beginning of the emergence of the classsociety began to form Egyptian mythology, the first information about which is attributed to the VI - IV thousand BC. In every area of ​​life there was a cult of the gods, who were embodied in heavenly stars, trees, stones, animals, snakes, birds, etc.

It is difficult to overestimate the importance of Egyptian myths. This is a unique material that allows you to study religious beliefs that existed in the Ancient East, to carry out comparative characteristics and explore the ideology of the Greco-Roman world. He provides an invaluable service for understanding the history of the emergence, appearance and development of the Christian religion.

Egyptian mythology at the very beginningIts origin was not based on the cosmic gods, which were usually attributed to the creation of the world. According to scientists, the major priests turned to cosmogonic ideas later. The first version of the origin of the world in the then high society of the country was the union of Earth and Heaven, from which the Sun was born. This is evidenced by Egyptian mythology. The gods personifying the earth (Geb), the sky (Nut) and the sun (Ra) are present in all sources that have survived to this day. They are described throughout the history of ancient Egypt in the scriptures, and their images are in many tombs of the pharaohs. According to the Egyptians, the goddess of the sky Nut every morning produced Ra - the sun-god, and every evening she hid it in her womb.

The largest cult centers of Egypt (Heliopolis,Hermopolis and Memphis) had their own system, which assumed a different version in the creation of the world. Each of them had his own creator, and, consequently, his main god. He, in turn, was the progenitor of all the gods that surrounded him.

The religion of the Egyptians had a common concept, at the corewhich lay the idea of ​​the existence of chaos of water, immersed in the eternal darkness, which preceded the emergence of the world. The appearance of light, according to their ideas, was the beginning of an exit from chaos, and its embodiment was the sun. Such views from the point of view of historians are quite understandable, as the Egyptian population witnessed the Nile flood every year, and then observed a decline in water. For them, this represented an annual act of the creation of the world.

If we talk about such a concept as the Egyptianmythology, gods are represented in it by various images. An interesting fact, in spite of cosmogonic plots, is the small attention paid to the creation of man. In the literary heritage of the country, there is almost no mention of this. The religion of the Egyptians testifies that the gods created a world for people, and by their birth man is indebted to God. The priests of Heliopolis were considered the creator of the world of the god Ra, identifying him with Atum in the image of man and Hepri in the form of a scarab beetle. This is what the "Pyramid Texts" say.