Egypt

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Egypt

• Encampment at the Nile

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Egyptian Dynasties

• Written records of Egypt began around 3100 BCE.
  The source of their trade, commerce, development,
  etc was the Nile. They invented hieroglyphics
  and left written records about their religious
  practices.

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Worldview
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Worldview

• The sky, earth, river and sun are sources of life
  and symbolized them using the forms of human,
  animals and human-animal combinations. The sun
  was the highest god and had different names
  depending on the time of day.

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Egyptian Deities
THE ENNEAD Ra, Geb, Nut, Shu, Tefnut, Osiris,
Isis, Set, and Nephythys. Images
http//www.crystalinks.com/egyptgods.html
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Osiris and Isis

• Osiris and Isis were husband and wife deities and
  represented the "self-renewing vitality in
  nature."

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Horus - The Offspring of the Gods

• Horus was the off-spring of Isis and Osiris and
  was symbolized by the falcon and was king of the
  gods.

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The Composite

• Amon-Re, a composite of Ra, was symbolized by a
  headdress of the noon sun.

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Aton

• Aton, the sun and symbolized by a disk, was
  declared by Pharaoh Akhenaton as the only god.

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Hathor The Creator

• The Creator of Earth
• The creator of the earth was a female deity who
  had a female body and the head of a cow her name
  was Hathor.

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Maat - Truth

• The Truth
• Mayet, (Maat) symbolized by a feather, was the
  the goddess of order and truth.

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Egyptians Admired Traits

• Egyptians admired traits of the animals and thus
  used them to symbolize their gods. The Egyptians
  "honored" dependability.

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Rituals and Symbols
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Rituals and Symbols

• The Egyptian temple represented the mansion of
  god, his home on earth. The priests cared for the
  gods as if literally alive. The pharaoh was
  the intermediary between the god and the people.
  The high priests performed priestly duties.

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Life After Death
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Life After Death

• Immortality includes common people and not just
  royalty. It was a complicated process. There is
  "ka, a spiritual form that mirrored the body."
  Its physical needs were met after death with food
  and offerings. Ba was the spirit that flew like
  a bird to heaven. A person could be recreated
  through the mummified process and funeral rites.

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Judgment Afterlife

• Each person's works had to be judged and
  therefore that person appeared before Mayet in
  the kingdom of Osiris. If ones works were
  judged a good one went to heaven.
• Heaven was a place filled with plenty of food and
  one could go in and out as one pleased.

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Relationship to Other Religions

• Impact on Western Cultures

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Relationship to Other Religions

• Ancient Egyptian religion has had a tremendous
  impact on Western civilization. It was admired
  by the Greeks and Romans and many stories can
  trace their origins to ancient Egypt. Ancient
  Egyptian religion has influenced Judaism and
  Christianity.