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Egyptian
Gods and
Goddesses
Gods and Goddesses
The ancient Egyptians
worshiped a whole bunch of
gods, over 2000 of them. Their
gods were very unique.
For example, the eye of Ra
was considered a separate
being from Ra, the Sun God,
even though it was his eye.
Gods and Goddesses
In the ancient world around the
Mediterranean, most civilizations
had gods that looked like people,
at least sort of like people. This
was not true in ancient Egypt.
The ancient Egyptian gods had
animal heads or green bodies or
something that set them apart
from people.
Gods and Goddesses
In the ancient world around the
Mediterranean, most
civilizations built many temples
to honor their gods. But each
temple honored only one god.
This was not true in ancient
Egypt. There were many cities
built along the Nile River.
Gods and Goddesses
These cities built many temples.
Each temple was used for a
variety of purposes including
store rooms, guest rooms, school
rooms, and more. Each Egyptian
temple was also used to honor
many gods. The statues inside a
temple were called temple gods.
What you did was pray to one or
more temple gods. The temple
god would get the word to the
god you wanted to reach.
Ra
The sun god Ra was worshipped in
many forms, including an old king, a
falcon, a scarab beetle and a ram.
He was believed to have come into
being as a child at the beginning of
creation, rising out of a lotus (waterlily).
Ra was considered to be the father of
the kings of Egypt.
He was involved in mortuary rituals and
in the daily crossing of the sun in the
heaven.
Maat
The goddess of law, order, and
truth.
She made sure the sun rose
each day at the appointed place
and at the appointed time with
absolute reliability.
Her symbol is a feather.
Osiris
Osiris began as a fertility god but in later
eras became the judge of the dead.
He judged and sentenced souls in his realm
in the West.
He was the lord of Duat, the Underworld,
and personified dead kings and other
deceased.
He was normally depicted as a man in
mummy wrappings, wearing a plumed
crown.
Isis
Isis, a perfect wife and mother, was the
sister and wife of Osiris as well as the
mother of Horus.
She was one of the longest-lived deities
of Egypt, surviving into Roman times.
She was perhaps the most traveled as
well, for she became a popular goddess
in Italy, worshipped by the Romans, who
often adopted and brought home gods
and goddesses of other cultures.
She was shown as a woman with a
throne headdress.
A protector of the living and the dead,
she was especially revered for her
magical powers.
Horus
The sky god, whose eyes were the sun and
moon.
Known as the falcon god, sky deity and the
living ruler, he was eventually incorporated
into the Isis-Osiris myths to connect the
ruler of Egypt with the idea of rebirth.
Worshipped originally in Upper and Lower
Egypt, he became the first state god of
Egypt, whose spirit entered the king.
This strengthened the power of the royal
families.
Thoth
The God of scribes and
knowledge, and keeper of all
sacred and magic knowledge,
Thoth was usually depicted in
one of three forms: as an ibis, a
man with the head of an ibis, or
as a baboon.
He assisted the Pharaoh in
deciding where his pyramid
would be built.
Ptah
The creator god who invented the arts,
and the local god of Memphis, Ptah was
depicted as a man in the form of a
mummy, holding the djed.
Over time he was merged with Sokar
and Osiris to become Ptah-Sokar-Osiris,
connected with the bull of Apis.
Hathor
Known as a patroness of pleasure and
music, Hathor was represented as a
woman wearing the sun disk and cow
horns, or as a cow holding the
sistrum.
Called the “Golden One,” it was she
who raised the sun up to heaven on
her horns.
A favorite in Egypt for centuries, she
was goddess of love, beauty, and
children, goddess of the sacred
sycamore, and an important sky
goddess honored at Dendera, Thebes,
Memphis, Abu, Simbel and other
important sites.
Anubis
God of cemeteries and embalming, and
guardian of the land of the dead, he
was usually represented in one of two
forms: as a crouching black jackal or as
a priest wearing a mask of a jackal.
The early Egyptians who buried their
dead in shallow graves had probably
seen desert jackals feed on the bodies.
In order to protect the corpses, they
adopted the jackal as god and protector.
Hapi
The personification of the Nile,
honoring the river’s inundations
and fertile deposits on the fields
of Egypt, Hapi was normally
depicted as a fat man holding
the symbols of abundance.
In some reliefs he was depicted
as two men, in a mirror image.
Sobek
Particularly worshipped at the Faiyum,
where crocodiles abounded, he was
normally represented by the crocodile
or as a man wearing a crocodile’s head.
Sobek was associated in legends with
Egypt’s first king, Aha.
Wadjet
Shown as a woman with a cobra
head or as a cobra about to
strike at the nation’s enemies,
Wadjet was always viewed as a
protectress of Egypt.
She was patroness of Lower
Egypt, involved in the
coronation rituals, and part of
the Osirian myths.
Bastet
A goddess with an ancient cult center at
Bubastis in the Delta, she was depicted
as a cat-headed woman or as a lioness.
She was the goddess of life and fertility,
love and joy.
She was at times a war goddess and at
other times the protector of pregnant
women.
Nekhbet
Depicted as a vulture or as a
woman wearing the white
crown of Upper Egypt, she was
the patroness of Upper Egypt.
She was involved in the
coronation rituals.
Mut
Given as a wife of Amon at Thebes, she
was depicted as a woman with a vulture
head-dress or crowns, or as a lionheaded woman.
She was a war goddess whose great
temple at Thebes demonstrated her
position of honor in Egypt.
Khons
A moon god usually depicted as
a mummified youth with a lock
of hair on his head and
sometimes with the crescent of
the moon, Khons could be
depicted with a falcon’s head as
well.
He was associated with both
Amon and Mut at Thebes.
Bes
Always shown as a hideous dwarf or
pygmy, Bes had a wide, snub-nosed face
with a shaggy beard and huge eyes under
shaggy eyebrows.
His protruding tongue and ears that stuck
out from his head provoked laughter and
were meant to frighten off evil spirits.
He was one of the most popular gods, for
he was the bearer of happiness to homes,
a bearer of peace to the dead, and
protector of the family, of women in
childbirth, and their newborn babies.
He was married to Taurt.
Taurt
Depicted as a female
Hippopotamus, with the paws
of a lion and the tail of a
crocodile, she was the protector
of women in childbirth.