Raising California Homeschool: Ancient Civilizations/Geography/Art/English Lesson 4 Egyptian Report

Egyptian Religion

A Report by E.G.Lenac

Egyptian Wall Carving

This is a report on Egyptian Religion, from sacred animals to revolts from kings. Many things happened during the period of the Egyptians. Some became Greek, Roman, Christian, Islamic, and Jewish. Some decided to make their own religion, such as saying that there was only one god.
Only one god? The Egyptians believed in many gods. Each for a different purpose or help.
Some of the major gods are:
Amon: The sky god. He is depicted as a blue frog. He is dead set into Egyptian literature.
Ra: The sun god. He is extremely popular in hieroglyphs and has been combined with Amon to form Amon-Ra, the supreme deity.
Osiris: This guy has a story to himself, which will be told later. He went from being the god of nature to god of the Afterlife.
Isis: The goddess of love and beauty. She resurrected Osiris as the first mummy.

Now I will tell the story of how Osiris became god of the Afterlife.
The myth says that Osiris was killed by a wooden sarcophagus secretly being made to fit his measurements by Seth, who was jealous of Osiris's position as king, and so plotted to kill him and take his place. A party had been held where the coffin was offered to whoever could fit inside. A few people tried to fit in, but no one could. Osiris was told to try, but as soon as he got in, the lid slammed on him and was locked. It was then sealed with lead and thrown into the Nile. After hearing that Osiris was gone, Isis went to look for him. She later heard that the coffin had floated down the Nile River up to the coast of Byblos and gotten stuck in the trunk of a tree. She also heard that the tree had been taken and used as a pillar for a palace of Byblos. After explaining the situation to the queen of Byblos and getting her permission, she managed to take out the coffin without collapsing the palace and took Osiris' body out into the desert and buried him back in Egypt.
Again, Seth found Osiris' coffin, took his body out, and sliced him into 13 parts, scattering them across Egypt. Each part represented one of the 13 full moons (each year has 12 or 13 full moons).
Once again Isis set out to look for the pieces and she was able to find and put together 12 of the 13 parts, but was unable to find the 13th, his private spot, which was eaten by the Oxyrhynchus fish (a fish with an unusual curved snout resembling temple pictures of Seth). Instead, she made an, um, decoy out of gold and sang a song around Osiris until he came back to life.
Osiris was resurrected. So Isis gave birth to Horus. Because of this experience, Osiris became Lord of the Dead, and the Afterlife.

I will now give a list of all the gods and goddesses.

Anubis is the god of mummification.
Bastet is the cat goddess.
Sehkmet is the goddess of fire, war and plague.
Nut is the mother of gods.
Geb is the green god of Earth.
Osiris is the god of fertility/the Afterlife.
Isis is the goddess of love, wife of Osiris.
Seth is the god of deserts and evil.
Thoth is the scribe god.
Horus is the god with falcon's head, god of heaven.

Anubis and Horus.

Thoth.

Ma'at is the goddess of truth.
Amun is the god of the sky.
Wadjet is the goddess of pregnancy and motherhood, goddess in snake form.
Anuket is the goddess of river Nile.
Ra is the god of the sun.

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Now I will tell the story of Akhenaten, the “Heretic Pharoh.”

In the early years of his rule, Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV) lived at Thebes with Nefertiti and his 6 daughters. The king's religious revolt might have begun with his decision to celebrate a Sed festival (a sort of royal party used to increase the Pharaoh's supposed godly powers). The friendship between Akhenaten and the priests of Amun-Ra (The sun and sky god) slowly drained away. In Year 5 of his reign, Akhenaten took slow steps to establish the Aten (Disk of the sun) as the uber, one and only god of Egypt. To encourage his full loyalty to the Aten, the king officially changed his name from Amenhotep IV to Akhenaten or 'Servant of the Aten.'
Akhenaten's fifth year also marked the beginning of construction on his new capital of Egypt, Akhetaten or 'Horizon of Aten', at the place known today as Amarna. Very soon afterwards, he dumped all Egyptian religious prayers, marriages, temples, etc. in Akhetaten, though construction of the city seems to have continued for several more years. In honor of Aten, Akhenaten also directed the construction of some of the hugest temple complexes in ancient Egypt. In these new temples, Aten was worshipped in the outside, rather than in dark temple hallways, as had been the previous custom.
By Year 9 of his reign Akhenaten declared that Aten was not just the supreme god, but the only god, and that he himself was half Aten, and half Pharaoh. He ordered the recalibrating of Amun-Ra's temples throughout Egypt, and in a number of temples, hieroglyphs of the plural 'gods' were also removed.

Egyptian upper-classes often had sacred animals to keep them company. They kept greyhounds, which explains why Anubis looks for all the world like a wolf combined with a barracuda. Dogs were used for hunting, work, and companionship. Cats were related to the goddess Bast, and therefore should be worshipped, right? Baboons and monkeys were common pets also.

Egyptians wasted their lives for their afterlife that they never got. They never slowed down and enjoyed the ride. It was because of this hurriedness that they built all their amazing temples and mounuments, so they would be in
the good part of the underworld. No other people in Africa were as advanced as they. All others were just tribes. In conclusion, Egypt was the star of Africa.

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