Worship of Amun

Worship of Amun was widespread and the pharaohs presented the cult with land a part of the booty from conquering. One of the essential situations in the cult was the gods wife of Amun and the queen or queen-mother frequently fimagecentered this role. These women advanced power and portrayals show them making offers to gods.

Two fetes at Thebes taken the images of Amun and other gods traveling to other places:

1- During the Enjoyable Fete of the Valley, images of the Thebean Triad were drawn of Karnak. They traveled on a boat, across the Nile, to visit the mortuary temples on the west trust.

2- At the celebration of the Opet Festival, Amun traveled from the Big Temple at Karnak to the temple at Luxor. This festival celebrated the precious marriage between the deity (Pharaoh) and the gods wife (the queen).

Temples of Amun

Temples of Amun paid to Amun were constructed throughout Egypt, and Ramses II built or rebuilt different of them. Three of these temples are those at Deir el-Medina, Luxor and Karnak:

1- Deir el-Medina is located on the western bank of the Nile across from Thebes and good the Valley of the Kings. Ramses II developed this temple and two given to the other extremities of the Thebean Triad.

Amuns temple at Luxor

2- Amuns temple at Luxor was first built round 1500 BC and has been an open religious site up to the face day. People worshipped a special version of Amun, named Amenemope (Amun of Opet). Two names for the Luxor Temple are the Place of Privacy or the Southern Opet. This temple was in the heart of ancient Thebes and a prosodion road related it to Karnak.

3- The temple complex at Karnak is the largest temple complex constructed by humans and the Great Temple of Amun is its top jewel. Generations of pharaohs brought to or rebuilt sections of this temple. Criosphinxes (sphinxes with drive heads) line one of the processional ways. Various courts, obelisks, and pylons, carved with hieroglyphics, are role of this temple. Individual temples are division of this complex accepting one given to Aten. Akhenaten established it during the first 5 years of his predominate, before he moved the capital to Amarna (In Minya).

Amun a Fertility God

Amun a God of Fertility

Afterwards, when Egypt captured Kush, they discovered the chief deity of the Kushites as Amun. This Kush deity was depicted as ram-headed, more specifically a woolly ram with curved horns so God Amun grown associated with the ram. Indeed, due to the aged appearance of the Kush ram deity, the Egyptians came to trust that this image had been the original form of Amun and, that Kush was where he had been born. Since rams were seen a symbol of manfulness due to their furrowing behavior, Amun besides gone thought of as a fertility deity, and thus started to steep the identity of Min, becoming Amun-Min. This association with virility led to Amun-Min gaining the epithet Kamutef, meaning Bull of his mother, in which form he was found shown on the walls of Karnak, ithyphallic, and with a scourge, as Min was.

As the cult of Amun got in importance, Amun became discovered with the chief deity who was favorite in other regions during that period, Ra-Herakhty, the merged identity operators of Ra, and Horus. This designation led to another fusion of identities, with Amun becoming Amun-Ra. In the Hymn to Amen-Ra he is discovered as "Lord of truth, father of the Gods, maker of men, creator of totally animals, Lord of things that are, creator of the staff of life." By then Ra had been described as the father of Shu, Tefnut, and the rest of the Ennead, so Amun-Ra alike, became discovered as their father.

Ra-Herakhty had been a solar deity and this nature grown ascribed to Amun-Ra as well, Amun becoming considered the hidden aspect of the sun during the night, in demarcation to Ra-Herakhty as the open look during the day. Amun clearly meant the one who is hidden. This complexity over the sun led to a gradual movement toward the living of a more perfect form of deity.

By the later part of the 18th dynasty, the pharaoh Akhenaten (also known as Amenhotep IV) disliked the power of the temple of God Amun and modern the worship of the Aten, a deity whose power was manifested in the sun disk, both literally and symbolically. He defaced the symbolisation of many of the old deities and located his religious applies upon the deity, the Aten. He moved his capitol off from Thebes, but this heavy change was very unpopular with the priests of Amun, who now seen themselves without any of their gone power. The religion of Egypt was inexorably close to the leadership of the country, the pharaoh being the drawing card of both. The pharaoh was the fullest priest in the temple of the capital and the next lower level of divine leaders were important advisers to the pharaoh, many being executives of the bureaucracy that ran the country.

When Akhenaten died, the priests of Amun confirmed themselves. His name was took from Egyptian records, all of his religious and governmental modifications were out, and the capitol was given to Thebes. The return to the previous capital and its sponsor deity was set so swiftly that it looked this almost monotheistic cult and its governmental reforms had never existed. Worship of the Aten finished and adoration of Amun-Ra was repaired. The priests of Amun even persuaded his young son, Tutankhaten, whose name entailed (the living image of Aten) - and who later would went a pharaoh - to change his name to King Tutankhamun, (the living image of Amun).

Temple of Osiris at Abydos

The temple of Osiris at Abydos

Temple of Osiris was the leading shrine of Osiris in Abydos, now  visited  Kom el-Sultan  by  the  Egyptians. There were some sites of worship dedicated to Osiris in the  Nile  Valley  and  beyond,  but  the  gods  serious  cultic temple was located in Abydos, the city given to him. Only the ramparts of the temple are ready today. A limestone portico set up by King Ramses II (1290-1224 B.C.E.) is likewise evident. The temple, addressed the Osireion in some records, dates to the 3rd Dynasty (2649-2575 B.C.E.) or perchance  earlier.  This  is  older  than  the  Osireion reared by Seti I (1306-1290 B.C.E.).

Osiris Ceremonies

Osiris  ceremonies These were the sacred celebrations held  passim Egypt  to  honor  the  God Osiris,  peculiarly in the cult center of Abydos. The seasonal cycles of life were mirrored in these feasts, as nature was embodied in the death and resurrection of the god. The annual mysteries of Osiris and Isis, a form of passion play, was the most favorite observance. A ceremony held in November,  checking  to  the  modern  calendar,  was  fashioned  to Behold the Beauty of the Lord. This was observed on the 17th to the 20th of Athyr (November 1417) and was now and then Egypt's most well served honoring.

Another  celebrate called  the  Fall  of  the Nile, discovered the losing waters of the rivers and was a time of  mourning  for  Osiris.  The  Nile  described  Osiris content to renew the earth and regenerate life to the nation. In  modern  May,  on  the  19th  of  Pakhons,  the  Egyptians established to the river with small enshrines containing metal (sometimes  gold)  vessels. They  poured  water  into  the River Nile,  calling: Osiris  Is  Found.  Other  shrines  were cast  afloat  into  the  Nile.  Mud  and  spices  were  likewise molded into figures to honor Osiriss take.

This celebrate was similar to the Night of the Tear in modern  June. The  fete  rewarding  an  Osirian  symbol, the  djed or  djet column,  was  held  on  the  modern  January 19. The pillars were disturbed to welcome Osiris and the coming harvesting. The pharaoh and his court took part in this fete. The queens and their retinues spilled hymns for the function.

The Gardens of Osiris

The Gardens of Osiris is a special plantings were come out inside of molds worked  like the  mummified  deity. These  molds were filled with soil and fertilizers as well as grain cum and River Nile water. The Osiris gardens were  leaned  during festivals honoring the god. They sprouted, showing the powers of the god, in much the like fashion as the Osiris Beds.

Osiris and the Pharaohs

King Seti I addressing Osiris

In the Old Kingdom of ancient Egyptian hstory there is a link of paramount  grandness  between  the monarchy  and  Osiris.  Once  the  ruler  of Egypt has died he turns Osiris, King of  Duat.  The divinity of  the  pharaoh material  in  the  form  of  Horus on  the throne of Egypt takes on a new materialization  as  monarch  in  the  Underworld. Therefore, in the texts decorating the burial chamber of the last pyramid constructed in Dynasty V and  those  built  in the sixth Dynasty, the dead king is sometimes named to  under  the  deities  name,  e.g. Osiris Unas or Osiris Pepy. The opinion that the king has undergone a transmutation of  state  and  has  not  on  death  reached a result  of  existence  is  further emphasized by graphic phraseology, such as asserting that he has gone alive to sit on the throne of Osiris to give rates to the direct.

In  contrast  to  this  correspondence between  the  king  and  Osiris,  sentiments can be found that reveal an apprehensiveness or dread of the ruler of the Underworld. This ponders the underlying hope of the monarch to be with the sun-god in the sky as  a  raw  phenomenon  rather  than  to live  in  the  unknown  and  sick regions  of  Duat.  Therefore  one  text informs us that God Ra will not hand over the king  to  Osiris  while  another  orders  the Underworld-deity to leave the royal tomb outstanding of his bad. Even later when the tutelary  role  of  Osiris  offers  beyond  the sphere of royalty in the Middle Kingdom, in that location  exist  in  the  Coffin  Texts  descriptions of Osiris that stir up a picture of a threatening  demon.  He  glories  in massacre, utters cancerous spells against a dead person and works a mafia lying  of  executioners  called  Osiriss butcherers painful of fingers or Osiriss fishermen.  However,  this  darker  aspect of Osiris is never granted to overbalance his role  as  the  incarnation  of  dead kingship.

Temple of Philae as a cult place of Osiris

Temple of Philae

The cult of Osiris extended until the 6th century AD on the island of Philae in Upper Nile. The Theodosian edicts of the 390s, to ruin all  pagan  temples,  were  not  applied  there.  The  revere  of  Isis  and Osiris was allowed to continue at Philae until the time of Byzantin Emperor Justinian (527-565), by accord  between  the  Blemmyes-Nobadae  and  Diocletian.  Every  year they inspected Elephantine, and at certain time intervals took the image of Isis up  river  to  the  land  of  the  Blemmyes  for  prophetic  purposes.  The practices  done  when  Justinian I sent the famous byzantine commander (Narses)  to  demolish  sanctuaries, stay  priests,  and  seize  divine  images,  which  were  taken to.

Osiris as a Father of Horus

Horus, Osiris and  Anubis from a tomb's draw

The gods Anubis, Osiris,  and God Horus, from a tomb painting. Osiris  is  the  mythological  father  of  the  deity  Horus,  whose excogitation  is  described  in  the  Osiris  myth,  a  serious  myth  in ancient Egyptian belief. The myth described Osiris as having been defeated by his brother Set, who idolized Osiris' throne. Isis engaged the fragmented patches of Osiris, but the unique body part gone was the  phallus.  Isis  fashioned  a  golden  phallus,  and  briefly  got Osiris  back  to  life  by  use  of  a  piece  that  she  learned  from  her father.  This  charm  gave  her  time  to  grown  pregnant  by  Osiris before he once again died. Isis later broken birth to Horus. As such, since Horus was born afterwards Osiris' resurrection, Horus became view of as a representation of new starts and the vanquisher of the evil Set.

Ptah-Seker  (who  resulted  from  the  merge between Ptah  with Seker),  deity  of  re-incarnation,  thus  gradually  became  discovered with Osiris, the two proper Ptah-Seker-Osiris. As the sun was thought  to  drop  the  night  in  the  underworld,  and  was subsequently re-incarnated every morning, Ptah-Seker-Osiris was discovered  as  both  king  of  the  underworld,  and  god  of reincarnation.

Osiris in Greco-Roman Time

Serapis, the new
shapeof Osiris in
Greco-Roman time

Finally, in Egypt, the Hellenic pharaohs decided to raise a deity  that  would  be  acceptable  to  both  the  local  Egyptian population,  and  the  influx  of  Hellenic  visitors,  to  bring  the  two aggroup together, rather than allow a source of rising to grow. Thus Osiris was identified explicitly with Apis, real an aspect of Ptah, who had already been discovered as Osiris by this point, and a syncretism  of  the  2  was  created,  famous  as  Serapis,  and showed as a standard Greek god.

Horus as Sky god

From advance Egyptian prehistory times, the (concretist) understanding of the existence (described above) led to a complex recognition between deities, their animal delegacies / incarnations, and factors of the natural order. It was in this linguistic context that Horus, the best-famous of the falcon-headed gods, emerged. As a sky god, he "was supposed as a heavenly falcon whose right eye was the sun and left eye the moon. The laced feathers of his breast were probably stars and his flies the skywith their downsweep making the winds". The popularity of Horus led to his last eclipsing of different other falcon gods, including Nekheny (literally "falcon"), the frequenter of Nekhen (the city of the hawk), and Khenty-Kety, the sponsor of Athribis. One bad symbol affiliated with Horus in his divine incarnation was the djed pillar, which was understood to represent the "pillar holding the sky old the earth".

These divine connotations were searched in greater point in the myths, rituals, and iconographic portraying that characterized Horus as a solar deity.

Horus as a Child (Harpokrates)

God Horus as a Child

As a child, God Horus was famous as Harpokrates, "the babe Horus", and was portrayed as a baby being suckled by Isis. He was said to be common from the waist down. This may be because his father was gone when he was considered or possibly because he was born untimely. In later times he was affiliated with the newborn sun. Harpokrates is pictured as a child nursing his thumb and having his hair fashioned in a sidelock that symbolized his youth. On his head he wore the royal crown and uraeus. Also, in Egyptian art, such as the representative to the right, Harpokrates is presented as a child with the sidelock of youth straight on crocodiles and holding in one hand scorpions and in the other hand snakes.

Conflict between Horus and Set (Mythology)

The binary god Horus-Set

Horus and Set were ever placed in opposition to each other. However, the right nature of their relationship varied moderately over time. Set was the embodiment of disarray and chaos while Horus was the shape of order. Similarly, Horus represented the daylight sky while Set represented the dark time sky. However, in early times the two were besides seen as existing in a state of balance in which Horus and Set defended Upper and Lower Egypt respectively. They were often shown together to suggest the union of Upper and Lower Egypt and there is even a complex deity named Horus-Set, who was represented as a man with two heads (one of the pitch of Horus, the gone of the Set animal).

At this stage Horus was often considered to be Set's brother and equal and the fight between them was thought to be endless. Nonetheless, the rise in importance of the Ennead ensued in Horus being shape as the son of Osiris and so the nephew of Set. This changed the nature of the difference between them, as it was now achievable for Set to be overcome and for Horus to exact the throne of Egypt as his individual.

The Elder Horus (Haroeris)

The elder Horus is one of the earliest gods of Egypt, born of the organized between Geb (earth) and Nut (sky) shortly after the innovation of the world. His older brother Osiris was given the responsibleness of superior the earth along with Isis while Horus was given charge of the sky and, specifically, the sun. In different rendering of the story, Horus is the son of Hathor while, in others, she is his married woman and, sometimes, she is mother, wife, and daughter girl of Horus. The scholar Geraldine Pinch notes that "one of the earliest bright images experienced from Egypt is that of a falcon in a bark" representing Horus in the sun lighter traveling across the heavens. Horus is also depicted as a creator deity and big protector. There were many falcon gods (known as Avian Deities) in Egyptian organized religion who were eventually absorbed into the god experienced as Horus. Some, such as Dunanwi from Upper Egypt, look early in history while others, like Montu, were frequent later. Horus' early association with Dunanwi has been disputed by scholars but there is no doubt he was later combined with the deity as Horus-Anubis. Dunanwi was a local god of the 18th upper nome (province) while Horus was widely revered throughout the country. It is possible that, like Inanna in Mesopotamia, the figure of Horus got as a local deity such as Dunanwi but it appears more likely that Horus was fully seen early in Egypt's religious evolution.

Famous Egyptologist, Wilkinson (R. H.), remarks on how "Horus was one of the early of Egyptian deities. His name is attested from the beginning of the Dynastic Period and it is liable that early falcon gods such as that shown limiting the `marsh dwellers' on the Narmer Palette be this same god" (200) Rulers of the Predynastic Period in Egypt (6000-3150 BCE) were famous as "Followers of Horus" which manifests to an even advance point of idolatry in Egypt's history.

In his purpose as The Cold One he does the same job as The Distant Goddess, a office linked with Hathor (and a number of other female deities) who go forth from Ra and return, bringing transformation. The sun and the moon were taken Horus' eyes as he observed over the people of the world mean solar day and night but could also draw good to them in times of problem or doubt. Reckoned as a falcon, he could fly far from Ra and regaining with vital information and, in the said way, could quickly bring comfort to those in need.

Egyptian Myth of Creation, Horus with Isis and Osiris

From God Geb, the sky God, and Nut, the earth goddess got four children: Osiris, Isis, Set and Nepthys. Osiris was the oldest and thus got king of Egypt, and he married his sister Isis. Osiris was a good king and commanded the respect of all who went the earth and the gods who dwelled in the infernal region. However, Set was always jealous of Osiris, because he did not statement the respect of those on earth or those in the netherworld. One day, Set varied himself into a heavy monster and attacked Osiris, killing him. Set then cut Osiris into pieces and widespread them passim the length and largeness of Egypt.

With Osiris dead, Set gone king of Egypt, with his sister Nepthys as his married woman.  Nepthys, however, felt sorry for her sister Isis, who wept ceaselessly over her lost husband.  Isis, who had great magical powers, decided to find her husband and take him back to life long enough so that they could have a child.  Together with Nepthys, Isis wound the country, collection the men of her husbands body and reassembling them.  Once she completed this project, she ultrasonic the breather of life into his body and raised him.  They were unneurotic again, and Isis became significant soon after. Osiris was able to descend into the underworld, where he gone the lord of that domain. The child born to Isis was described Horus, the hawk-god.  When he grown an adult, Horus decided to make a case before the courtroom of gods that he, not Set, was the true king of Egypt.  A long period of controversy followed, and Set taken exception Horus to a repugn.  The winner would got pharaoh.

Set, still, did not play fair. After several matches in which Set wandered and was the master, Horus mother, Isis, decided to help her son and set a trap for Set. She hooked him, but Set begged for his life, and Isis let him go.  When he found out that she had let his enemy live, Horus gone angry with his mother, and rages against her, earning him the contempt of the other gods.  They settled that there would be one more catch, and Set would get to take what it would be. Set determined that the final round of the contest would be a boat race.  However, in order to make the contest a challenge, Set settled that he and Horus should speed boats made of stone.  Horus was tricky and established a boat made of wood, treated with limestone plasterwork, which seemed like stone.  As the gods gathered for the race, Set cut the top off of a mountain to serve as his boat and localized it in the water.  His boat settled right away, and all the other gods expressed joy at him.  Angry, Set translated himself into a hippo and assailed Horus boat.  Horus defended off Set, but the other gods broken him before he could kill Set.  The other gods decided that the match was a tie.  Many of the Egyptian gods were gentle to Horus, but thought his anger toward his mother for being clement to Set, and were unconscious to back him completely.

The gods who worked the court decided to write a letter to Osiris and ask for his advice.  Osiris replied with a decided answer: his son is the true king, and should be localized upon the throne. No one, said Osiris, should take the throne of Egypt through an pretend of dispatch, as Set had done.  Set had killed Osiris, but Horus did not defeated anyone, and was the better nominee.  The sun and the stars, who were Osiris allies, descended into the underworld, admitting the world in darkness.  Finally, the gods united that Horus should claim his birthright as king of Egypt.

Horuss Four Sons (Canopic Jars)

Canopic Jars

A set of 4 stone or ceramic containers made to take the mummified secret organs of the passed. Each jar was affiliated with one of the 4 sons of Horus, and each held a unique organ. The lids of the jars was the head of the sons. Mesti, the human-headed son, was guardian of the liver; Duamutef, the jackal-headed son, was the guardian  of  the  suffer; Hapi, the baboon-headed son, was defender of the lungs; Qebesenef, the hawk-headed son, was the guardian of the bowels.

The internal organs were covered and set in the canopic jars with a result of natron and water visited  the  liquid of the children of Horus. The four sealed jars were placed in a small chest with 4 compartments, one for every last jar, and a spiritual spell was recited to invoke the protection of the sons of Horus. In addition to this conjuration, magical spells were usually written on each jar to doubly ensure the auspices of the organs. Canopic jars took their name from the  Greek legend of Canopus, the navigate of Menelaus, the king of Sparta, who was sank in Egypt. Canopus was said to have been worshipped in the form of a jar with ft.

Horus and the Pharaohs

In Ancient Egypt the evolution of divine kingship enabled the sovereign to claim that his status as rule was approved of by the chief gods and that furthermore he himself was a god and one of their number. Horus relieved the first necessary by a prosperous  legal processes  before  the  gods: the  pharaoh  therefore  was  in a excellent position, being seen as a demonstration of the living Horus on the throne of Egypt.

According to the Turin Canon the late Predynastic rules of Egypt were followers of Horus. By the time of the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt in 3000 BC the  ruler  was Horus.  On  the  palette  in Cairo  Museum,  which  shows  King Narmer, the first ruler of a for good merged  Egyptian  state,  the  god  Horus  is shown holding a rope that passes through the  nose  of  the  out  northern  rival, symbolising  the  kings  victory  over  the Delta.  From  this  period  ahead  the Kings name is enclosed by the symbol of  the  Horus  falcon,  surmounting  a rectangular  form  which  has  a  base  part indicating a hard wall. This was called the serekh or proclaimer of  the  pharaoh, whose  make  was  written  in  the  upper section of the rectangle.

Ra as Creator

With the Ancient Egyptian's involved polytheistic beliefs, Ra was precious as the creator god to some Ancient Egyptians, more specifically his followings at Heliopolis. It was considered that Ra wept, and from the charges he wept got man. These cult-followers trusted that Ra was self-created, while followers of Ptah trusted that Ra was created by Ptah. It is considered  that this is the argue  for pyramids  of Old Kingdom worshipers at Heliopolis  rarely observing Ra.

In a passage of the Book of the Dead, Ra cuts  himself, and his blood transforms into two intellectual prosopopoeias: Hu, or authority, and Sia, or mind. Ra is also accredited  with  the creation of the flavors, months, plants, and animals.

The Role of Ra

God Ra riding the Solar boat

God Ra in the underworld: Ra was thought to travel on 2 solar boats called the Mandjet (the Boat of Millions of Years), or aurora boat and the  Mesektet, or evening  boat. These  boats  held  him  on  his  journey  through  the  sky  and  the Duat, the  literal Hades of Egypt. While Ra was on the Mesektet, he was in his ram-headed process.

When God Ra traveled in the sun boat he was companied by individual other deities accepting Sia (percept) and Hu (command) as well as Heka (magic  power).  Sometimes  members  of  the  Ennead  served  him  on  his  journey,  including  Set  who  overcome  the snake Apophis and Mehen who defended against the demons of the underworld. When god Ra was in the underworld, he would visit whole of his varied forms.

God Apophis, the God of chaos, was an great serpent who frustrated to stop the sun boat's journey every night by having it or by checking it in its tracks with a hypnotic stare. During the evening, the Egyptians thought that Ra set as Atum or in the form of a ram. The Mesektet, or the Night boat, would carry him through the underworld and back towards the east in homework for his reincarnation. These myths of Ra presented the sun future as the rebirth of the sun by the sky goddess Nut; thus attributing the concept of rebirth and replacement to Ra and toning up his role as a creator God as well. When Ra was in the underworld, he agreed with Osiris, the deity of the dead, and done it went the deity of the dead besides.

God Amun

God Amun

In the Pyramid texts he  is  already  observed  as  a  primeval god,  in  association  with  his  wife Amaunet. In Old Egyptian view he was the moving agent in the obscure breeze; thus he was venerated as deity of the wind and  ruler  of  the  air.  From  the  11th dynasty onwards he is attested as god of Thebes. Here, he coalesces with the sun God Ra to become Amun-Re, and, as Thebes  increased  in  power,  he  grown king of the gods and tutelary deity of the empire. In his content as earlier deity of creation  he  is  venerated  in  the  shape  of a goose; otherwise, the ram is his dedicated animal, a reference to his function as god of  fertility.  After  the  flow  of  Thebes  his cult flied high in Ethiopia and among the oasis inhabitants Ammon.

 Other features of Amun:

Amun as a Fertility God
Temples of Amun
Worship of Amun
Amun in Greece Period
Amun King of the Gods
Amun as a Creator