"and to continue the rituals that sustain them and their activities. In Egyptian belief, the disorder that predates the ordered world exists beyond the world as an infinite expanse of formless water, personified by the god Nun. The earth, personified by the god Geb, is a flat piece of land over which arches the sky, usually represented by the goddess Nut. The two are separated by the personification of air, Shu. The sun god Ra is said to travel through the sky, across the body of Nut, enlivening the world with his light. At night Ra passes beyond the western"
"Ra Ra (; or ""rˤ;"" also transliterated ""rˤw;"" cuneiform: ""ri-a"" or ""ri-ia"") or Re (; , ""Rē"") is the ancient Egyptian deity of the sun. By the Fifth Dynasty in the 25th and 24th centuries BC, he had become one of the most important gods in ancient Egyptian religion, identified primarily with the noon sun. In later Egyptian dynastic times, Ra was merged with the major god Horus into Ra-Horakhty (""Ra, who is Horus of the Two Horizons""). He was believed to rule in all parts of the created world: the sky, the Earth, and the underworld. He was synonymous"
"credited with producing the annual Nile flood that fertilized the nation's farmland. Perhaps as an outgrowth of this life-giving function, he was said to create all living things, fashioning their bodies on a potter's wheel. Gods could share the same role in nature; Ra, Atum, Khepri, Horus, and other deities acted as sun gods. Despite their diverse functions, most gods had an overarching role in common: maintaining ""maat"", the universal order that was a central principle of Egyptian religion and was itself personified as a goddess. But some deities represented disruption to ""maat"". Most prominently, Apep was the force of"
"said to have first risen from the mound, as the general sun-god Ra or as the god Khepri, who represented the newly-risen sun. There were many versions of the sun's emergence, and it was said to have emerged directly from the mound or from a lotus flower that grew from the mound, in the form of a heron, falcon, scarab beetle, or human child. Another common element of Egyptian cosmogonies is the familiar figure of the cosmic egg, a substitute for the primeval waters or the primeval mound. One variant of the cosmic egg version teaches that the sun god,"
"which arched the sky goddess Nut. The two were separated by Shu, the god of air. Beneath the earth lay a parallel underworld and undersky, and beyond the skies lay the infinite expanse of Nu, the chaos that had existed before creation. The Egyptians also believed in a place called the Duat, a mysterious region associated with death and rebirth, that may have lain in the underworld or in the sky. Each day, Ra traveled over the earth across the underside of the sky, and at night he passed through the Duat to be reborn at dawn. In Egyptian belief,"
"To the Aztec, Earth was called Tonantzin—""our mother""; to the Incas, Earth was called Pachamama—""mother earth"". The Chinese Earth goddess Hou Tu is similar to Gaia, the Greek goddess personifying the Earth. To Hindus it is called Bhuma Devi, the Goddess of Earth. (See also Graha.) The Tuluva people of Tulunadu in Southern India celebrate a Three Day ""Earth Day"" called Keddaso. This festival comes in usually on 10th,12th,13 February every Calendar year. In Norse mythology, the Earth giantess Jörð was the mother of Thor and the daughter of Annar. Ancient Egyptian mythology is different from that of other cultures"
"first pair of cosmic elements, created the sky goddess, Nut, and the earth god, Geb. Shu separated Nut from Geb as they were in the act of love, creating duality in the manifest world: above and below, light and dark, good and evil. Prior to their separation, however, Nut had given birth to the gods Isis, Osiris, Nephthys (Horus) and Set. The Egyptians believed that if Shu did not hold Nut (sky) and Geb (earth) apart there would be no way for physically-manifest life to exist. Shu is mostly represented as a man. Only in his function as a fighter"
"""Pachamama""—""mother earth"". The Chinese Earth goddess Hou Tu is similar to Gaia, the Greek goddess personifying the Earth. Bhuma Devi is the goddess of Earth in Hinduism, influenced by Graha. In Norse mythology, the Earth giantess Jörð was the mother of Thor and the daughter of Annar. Ancient Egyptian mythology is different from that of other cultures because Earth (Geb) is male and sky (Nut) is female. In the past, there were varying levels of belief in a flat Earth. The Jewish conception of a flat earth is found in both biblical and post-biblical times. In early Egyptian and Mesopotamian"
"Set (deity) Set or Seth (Egyptian: ""stẖ;"" also transliterated Setesh, Sutekh, Setekh, or Suty) is a god of chaos, the desert, storms, disorder, violence, and foreigners in ancient Egyptian religion. In Ancient Greek, the god's name is given as ""Sēth"" (Σήθ). Set had a positive role where he accompanies Ra on his solar boat to repel Apep, the serpent of Chaos. Set had a vital role as a reconciled combatant. He was lord of the red (desert) land where he was the balance to Horus' role as lord of the black (soil) land. In Egyptian mythology, Set is portrayed as"
"was said to dwell in the sky with Ra and other gods who personified the sun. Egyptians thought of the sky as a body of water through which the sun god sailed, and they connected it with the waters from which, according to their creation myths, the sun emerged at the beginning of time. This cosmic mother goddess was often represented as a cow. Hathor and Mehet-Weret were both thought of as the cow who gave birth to the sun god and placed him between her horns. Like another celestial goddess, Nut, Hathor was also said to give birth to"
"for deities were ""nṯr"" (god), and feminine ""nṯrt"" (goddess); however, these terms may also have applied to any being – spirits and deceased human beings, but not demons – who in some way were outside the sphere of everyday life. Egyptian deities typically had an associated cult, role and mythologies. Around 200 deities are prominent in the Pyramid texts and ancient temples of Egypt, many zoomorphic. Among these, were ""Min"" (fertility god), ""Neith"" (creator goddess), ""Anubis"", ""Atum"", ""Bes"", ""Horus"", ""Isis"", ""Ra"", ""Meretseger"", ""Nut"", ""Osiris"", ""Shu"", ""Sia"" and ""Thoth"". Most Egyptian deities represented natural phenomenon, physical objects or social aspects of"
"Tatenen Tatenen (also Ta-tenen, Tatjenen, Tathenen, Tanen, Tenen, Tanenu, and Tanuu) was the god of the primordial mound in ancient Egyptian religion. His name means ""risen land"" or ""exalted earth"", as well as referring to the silt of the Nile. As a primeval chthonic deity, Tatenen was identified with creation. He was an androgynous protector of nature from the Memphis area (then known as ""Men-nefer""), the ancient capital of the Aneb-Hetch nome in Lower Egypt. Tatenen represented the Earth and was born in the moment it rose from the watery chaos, analogous to the primeval mound of the benben and"
"Enlil Enlil, later known as Elil, is an ancient Mesopotamian god associated with wind, air, earth, and storms. He is first attested as the chief deity of the Sumerian pantheon, but he was later worshipped by the Akkadians, Babylonians, Assyrians, and Hurrians. Enlil's primary center of worship was the Ekur temple in the city of Nippur, which was believed to have been built by Enlil himself and was regarded as the ""mooring-rope"" of heaven and earth. He is also sometimes referred to in Sumerian texts as Nunamnir. According to one Sumerian hymn, Enlil himself was so holy that not even"
"identity was often combined with other gods, forming an interconnection between deities. Ra Ra (; or ""rˤ;"" also transliterated ""rˤw;"" cuneiform: ""ri-a"" or ""ri-ia"") or Re (; , ""Rē"") is the ancient Egyptian deity of the sun. By the Fifth Dynasty in the 25th and 24th centuries BC, he had become one of the most important gods in ancient Egyptian religion, identified primarily with the noon sun. In later Egyptian dynastic times, Ra was merged with the major god Horus into Ra-Horakhty (""Ra, who is Horus of the Two Horizons""). He was believed to rule in all parts of the"
"a living god (especially of the falcon-headed Horus, patron god to the Egyptian kings), while the latter two names (the king's throne name and birth name) refer to Egypt's division and unification. The second line, a dedicatory introduction, claims that the stone is a copy of the surviving contents of a worm-ridden, decaying papyrus found by the pharaoh Shabaka as he was inspecting the Great Temple of Ptah. Lines 3 to 47 describe the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the god Horus at Memphis. The text first declares the political and theological supremacy of the Memphite god Ptah,"
"Aegyptus According to Greek mythology, Aegyptus or Ægyptus (; , ""Aigyptos"" means ""burnt-face"") is a descendant of the heifer maiden, Io, and the river-god Nilus, and was a king in Egypt. Aegyptos was the son of King Belus of Egypt and Achiroe, a naiad daughter of Nile. He was the twin brother of Danaus, king of Libya while Euripides adds two others, Cepheus, king of Ethiopia and Phineus, betrothed of Andromeda. Aegyptus fathered 50 sons by different women: six of whom by a woman of royal blood called Argyphia; 10 by an Arabian woman; seven by a Phoenician woman; three"
"Mehet-Weret Mehet-Weret () is an ancient Egyptian deity of the sky in ancient Egyptian religion. Her name means ""Great Flood"". She was mentioned in the Pyramid Texts. In ancient Egyptian creation myths, she gives birth to the sun at the beginning of time, and in art she is portrayed as a cow with a sun disk between her horns. She is associated with the goddesses Neith, Hathor, and Isis, all of whom have similar characteristics, and like them she could be called the ""Eye of Ra"". Mehet-Weret is primarily known as being the “Celestial Cow” or “Cow Goddess” because of"
"Khnum Khnum (; , , also romanised Khnemu) was one of the earliest-known Egyptian deities, originally the god of the source of the Nile. Since the annual flooding of the Nile brought with it silt and clay, and its water brought life to its surroundings, he was thought to be the creator of the bodies of human children, which he made at a potter's wheel, from clay, and placed in their mothers' uteruses. He later was described as having moulded the other deities, and he had the titles ""Divine Potter"" and ""Lord of created things from himself"". The worship of"
"the supreme deity is androgynous with male-female aspects, envisioned as the giver of rain, treated simultaneously as the god of darkness and light and is called ""Mwari Shona"". In the Lake Victoria region, the term for a deity is ""Lubaale"", or alternatively ""Jok"". Ancient Egyptian culture revered numerous deities. Egyptian records and inscriptions list the names of many whose nature is unknown and make vague references to other unnamed deities. Egyptologist James P. Allen estimates that more than 1,400 deities are named in Egyptian texts, whereas Christian Leitz offers an estimate of ""thousands upon thousands"" of Egyptian deities. Their terms"
"only himself and Osiris amid the primordial chaos. Gods were linked to specific regions of the universe. In Egyptian tradition, the world includes the earth, the sky, and the Duat. Surrounding them is the dark formlessness that existed before creation. The gods in general were said to dwell in the sky, although gods whose roles were linked with other parts of the universe were said to live in those places instead. Most events of mythology, set in a time before the gods' withdrawal from the human realm, take place in an earthly setting. The deities there sometimes interact with those"
"Geb Geb was the Egyptian god of the Earth and later a member of the Ennead of Heliopolis. He had a viper around his head and was thus also considered the father of snakes. It was believed in ancient Egypt that Geb's laughter created earthquakes and that he allowed crops to grow. The name was pronounced as such from the Greek period onward and was originally read as Seb or some guess as Keb. The original Egyptian was perhaps ""Seb""/""Keb"". It was spelled with either initial -g- (all periods), or with -k-point (""gj""). The latter initial root consonant occurs once"
"Egyptus In Latter-day Saint theology (also known as Mormon theology), Egyptus () is the name of two women in the Book of Abraham in the Pearl of Great Price. One is the wife of Ham, son of Noah, who bears his children. The other is their daughter, who discovered Egypt while ""it was under water"" (1:23). The younger Egyptus places her eldest son on the throne as Pharaoh, the first king of Egypt (1:25). Pharaoh was a descendant of the Canaanites (1:22), a race of people who had been cursed with black skin (Moses 7:8). Mormon leaders have taught that"
"Khonsu Khonsu (also Chonsu, Khensu, Khons, Chons or Khonshu) is the Ancient Egyptian god of the moon. His name means ""traveller"", and this may relate to the nightly travel of the moon across the sky. Along with Thoth he marked the passage of time. Khonsu was instrumental in the creation of new life in all living creatures. At Thebes he formed part of a family triad (the ""Theban Triad"") with Mut as his mother and Amun his father. Khonsu's name reflects the fact that the Moon (referred to as Iah in Egyptian) travels across the night sky, for it means"
"Weneg (Egyptian deity) Weneg (also read as Uneg) was a sky and death deity from ancient Egyptian religion, who was said to protect the earth and her inhabitants against the arrival of the ""great chaos"". The first known mention of a god named Weneg appears in a spell from the ""Pyramid Texts"" from the Sixth Dynasty, where he is described both as a death deity and as the deceased king. He is addressed as ""Son of Ra"". The texts contain several prayers asking that the king receive safe travel across the sky together with Ra in his celestial barque. The"
"mythology, the unification of Egypt is portrayed as the falcon-god, called Horus and identified with Lower Egypt, as conquering and subduing the god Set, who was identified with Upper Egypt. Divine kingship, which would persist in Egypt for the next three millennia, was firmly established as the basis of Egypt's government. The unification of societies along the Nile has also been linked to the drying of the Sahara. Funeral practices for the peasants would have been the same as in predynastic times, but the rich demanded something more. Thus, the Egyptians began construction of the mastabas which became models for"
"weighs 120 tons (108.9 t, 240,000 lbs, 108,900 kg), the weight of about 20 African elephants. Atum Atum (, Egyptian: ""jtm(w)"" or ""tm(w);"" Coptic ""Atoum""), sometimes rendered as Atem or Tem, is an important deity in Egyptian mythology. Atum's name is thought to be derived from the verb ""tm"" which means to complete or finish. Thus he has been interpreted as being the ""complete one"" and also the finisher of the world, which he returns to watery chaos at the end of the creative cycle. As creator he was seen as the underlying substance of the world, the deities and"
"Atum Atum (, Egyptian: ""jtm(w)"" or ""tm(w);"" Coptic ""Atoum""), sometimes rendered as Atem or Tem, is an important deity in Egyptian mythology. Atum's name is thought to be derived from the verb ""tm"" which means to complete or finish. Thus he has been interpreted as being the ""complete one"" and also the finisher of the world, which he returns to watery chaos at the end of the creative cycle. As creator he was seen as the underlying substance of the world, the deities and all things being made of his flesh or alternatively being his ka. Atum is one of"
"Horus Horus is one of the most significant ancient Egyptian deities. He was worshipped from at least the late prehistoric Egypt until the Ptolemaic Kingdom and Roman Egypt. Different forms of Horus are recorded in history and these are treated as distinct gods by Egyptologists. These various forms may possibly be different manifestations of the same multi-layered deity in which certain attributes or syncretic relationships are emphasized, not necessarily in opposition but complementary to one another, consistent with how the Ancient Egyptians viewed the multiple facets of reality. He was most often depicted as a falcon, most likely a lanner"
"emerged from an infinite, lifeless sea when the sun rose for the first time, in a distant period known as ""zp tpj"" (sometimes transcribed as Zep Tepi), ""the first occasion"". Different myths attributed the creation to different gods: the set of eight primordial deities called the Ogdoad, the self-engendered god Atum and his offspring, the contemplative deity Ptah, and the mysterious, transcendent god Amun. While these differing cosmogonies competed to some extent, in other ways they were complementary, as different aspects of the Egyptian understanding of creation. The different creation myths have some elements in common. They all held that"
"important part of the Egyptian view of the cosmos was the conception of time, which was greatly concerned with the maintenance of Maat. Throughout the linear passage of time, a cyclical pattern recurred, in which Maat was renewed by periodic events which echoed the original creation. Among these events were the annual Nile flood and the succession from one king to another, but the most important was the daily journey of the sun god Ra. When thinking of the shape of the cosmos, the Egyptians saw the earth as a flat expanse of land, personified by the god Geb, over"
"his immortal element, which flows through his whole being and dwells in it"". This made him the son of Ra, the sun god, Horus, the falcon god, and Osiris, the god of life, death and fertility. From the Middle Kingdom on, the Pharaoh also came to be seen as the son of Amon, the king of Egyptian gods, until his cult faded in later centuries. At his death, the king became fully divine, according to Egyptian belief, being assimilated with Osiris and Ra. Upon the death of the reigning Pharaoh, his successor was named immediately, so that the nation's cosmic"
"Semitic title Ba‘al. According to some sources Belus was the son of Poseidon by Libya, he is associated with Babylon and Assyria, and his name is an echo of the Canaanite god ""Baal"" (Redfield, 1989, pp. 28 & 30-31), which are linguistically synonymous with ""Enlil"" and ""Marduk"", and also in ancient Levantine/Canaanite mythology, a fertility god, whose attributes are lightning, rainstorms and the forces of nature. Redfield, B.G. (1989) ""The Concise Dictionary of Mythology"", Peerage Books, London, pp. 28 & 30-31. Belus of Egypt Belus (, ""Bē̂los"") was in Greek mythology a king of Egypt and father of Aegyptus and"
"ground, claimed by some to represent sexual energy. The legs are bandaged because of his chthonic force, in the same manner as Ptah and Osiris. The large phallus is circumcised. In ""Hymn to Min"" it is said: Min's wives were Iabet and Repyt (Repit). Min (god) Min (Egyptian mnw) is an ancient Egyptian god whose cult originated in the predynastic period (4th millennium BCE). He was represented in many different forms, but was most often represented in male human form, shown with an erect penis which he holds in his left hand and an upheld right arm holding a flail."