|
EGYPTIAN
 Ancient
Egyptian civilisation emerged in the Nile Valley at about the
same time as the Sumerian civilisation emerged in the plains
of the Tigris and Euphrates, circa 3500 BC. As in
Sumer, the Egyptian state was virtually indistinguishable
from the religion,
and the people were in thrall to the Gods. Against the relative
stability of the Nile backdrop, Egyptian religion endured
for
four thousand years in virtually unchanged form.
The
defining feature of the Egyptian state and religion was the monarchy,
which was said to have existed since the beginning
of
the world. Each king was believed to be the living image of
the
Creator-God in the sense that he embodied the spirit of the
Great God. The king thus bore the title Horus after the God who
had
soared up falcon-like at the beginning of time – the
Great God whose ‘eyes’ were
the Sun and the Moon.
All
religious ritual in Egypt was aimed at re-enacting the creation,
so as to reaffirm the cosmic
order (maat) which had
been established
by the Great God. The king, as the living image of the Creator-God,
was ideally qualified to perform these magic rituals either
directly or through his delegates, the priests. By re-enacting
the creation,
the Egyptians rejuvenated the great magic of creation, thus
ensuring that the Sun and Moon would always rise, that the
celestial vault
would always turn, and that the Nile would always flood in
its due season. With the king at the helm, the sky would
never fall,
the Sun disc would never be hidden, the Nile would never
run dry, and the land would never sink into the abyss. As one
king
replaced
another, in an unbroken chain of succession, the era of maat would
be continued for ever.
Whilst
the key cities of Egypt were united politically, they were rivals
religiously in that
they worshipped the Creator-God
under
different names and forms and via different cult practices.
In Heliopolis, the God was called Atum, Shu, Geb, or Re;
in Memphis,
the God was called Ptah; in Rostau, he was called Sokar;
in Hermopolis, he was called Thoth; in Abydos, he was called
Osiris;
in Koptos,
he was called Min; in Thebes, he was called Amun; in Hierakonpolis
and Edfu, he was called Horus; and in Elephantine, he was
called Khnum. In addition, the Great Goddess was worshipped
at various
cities under various names, such as Neit, Tefnut, Nut,
Sakhmet, Hathor, Isis, and Mut. This is to mention only the most
popular
Gods and Goddesses.
Originally,
each of these Gods would have been the Creator-God in his own
right. But in later times
many became specialised:
Shu as the god of light, Geb as the earth-god, Re as
the Sun-god, Sokar
as god of the underworld, Thoth as the god of writing
and wisdom, Osiris as god of the earth and the underworld,
Min as the god
of fertility, Horus as the sky-god, and Khnum as the
god of the source
of the Nile. As for the Goddesses, Tefnut became the
Moon-goddess, Nut the sky-goddess, and Sakhmet the Sun-goddess,
whilst
others became identified with Mother Earth and the seat
of kingship.
Each of these specialisations represents a key aspect
of the creation
of the Universe.
Each
cult centre in Egypt had its own myth of creation. Whilst the
accounts are often brief and bear
superficial
differences,
a template can be determined which is fundamental to
them all.
The
Egyptian creation myth is geocentric. Its starting point is a
pre-existent proto-earth – a living
being of body and soul – which
has ‘died’ following an ill-defined,
violent event. This living being is personified by
the Creator-God
(or strictly
speaking by the duality of the Creator-God and the
Creator-Goddess).
The
soul of the Great God awakens from ‘death’, frees
itself from its body – the proto-earth – and
rises up into the nascent sky. At the same time,
the proto-earth gathers
itself together, rises up from the watery abyss,
splits open, and ejects the primeval matter from
which the sky-ocean, the stars,
the Sun, and the Moon will be born. This is the
myth of the separation of the heavens from the
earth.
Note that the separation takes the
form of a cataclysm.
After
a period of chaos in the sky, the Universe is created and order
prevails.
The Great God becomes
manifest
in
the entire created Universe – the
sky-ocean, the stars, the Sun, and the Moon.
In
the final act of creation, the Creator-God
turns back to embrace his body, the newly-risen
earth,
and infuses
it with
his ka,
the vital spirit of life.
In
short, the Egyptian creation myth describes the ‘death’ of
an old Universe and its rebirth as a new Universe,
this entire process being personified by the ‘death’ and
rebirth of the Creator-God.
The
creation myth thus provides the archetype
for the death and rebirth cults that were
so important
in ancient
Egypt – the
death and rebirth of the Sun (daily, at the
winter solstice, and at eclipses); the death
and rebirth of the Moon (monthly, and at
eclipses); the death and rebirth of the stars
(daily, and at longer intervals, for example
the reappearance of Sirius after seventy
days spent below the horizon); the death
and rebirth of the Nile and agriculture;
and the
death and rebirth of the king. All of
these natural, recurring events were a perpetual
reminder of the one death and rebirth that
really mattered – the original
one without which none of the other deaths
and rebirths could happen – the
death and rebirth of the Universe, personified
by the death and rebirth of the Creator-God.
The
true God of ancient Egypt was therefore
not the Sun-god – whose
death and rebirth were merely symbolic – but
the Creator-God, who had manifested himself
in the Sun (and the other celestial
bodies) at the beginning of time.
Conclusion
Ancient
Egyptian religion was not a Sun cult, as Egyptologists believe,
but a ‘cult of creation’. The Great God and
Great Goddess personified the proto-earth,
the cataclysm of creation, and the formative Universe.
The
Egyptian creation myth differs markedly from the Sumerian, despite
sharing
a common geocentric
framework.
Whilst the
Sumerian myth focuses on a primary ‘fall
of the sky’ in which
the Great God and Goddess descend
cataclysmically into the proto-earth
as a prelude to
the act of creation, the Egyptian
myth begins with
the proto-earth in crisis and focuses
on the ensuing geocentric ‘big
bang’. In doing so, it wraps
the origin of the Divine Powers in
a cloak of mystery, but explains
a great deal about the separation
of the heavens from the earth (an
act
which remains opaque in Sumerian
mythology).
Reading
List
A.F.
Alford, ‘Pyramid of Secrets’, Eridu Books,
2003.
AF.
Alford, ‘The Midnight Sun’, Eridu Books,
2004.
J.P.
Allen, ‘Genesis in Egypt: the Philosophy
of Ancient Egyptian Creation Accounts’, New Haven,
CT, 1988.
R.
David, ‘Religion and Magic in Ancient
Egypt’, Penguin
Books, 2002.
R.O.
Faulkner, ‘The
Ancient Egyptian Book
of the Dead’,
British Museum Publications,
1985 edition.
R.O.
Faulkner, ‘The
Ancient Egyptian Pyramid
Texts’,
Oxford University Press
1969, reprinted by
Aris and Phillips.
R.O.
Faulkner, ‘The
Ancient Egyptian
Coffin Texts’,
Volumes I-III, Aris
and Phillips, 1973,
1977, 1978.
H.
Frankfort, ‘Kingship
and the Gods’,
University of Chicago
Press, 1978 edition.
H.
Frankfort, ‘Ancient
Egyptian Religion:
An Interpretation’,
Dover edition
2000 (first published
by Columbia University
Press, New York,
1948).
G.
Hart, ‘Egyptian
Myths’,
British Museum
Press, 1990.
E.
Hornung, ‘Conceptions
of God in
Ancient Egypt’,
Cornell University
Press, Ithaca,
New York,
1982.
E.
Hornung, ‘The
Ancient
Egyptian Books of
the Afterlife’,
Cornell
University
Press,
1999.
D.
Meeks
and C.
Favard-Meeks, ‘Daily
Life
of the
Egyptian
Gods’,
John
Murray,
London,
1997.
J.B.
Pritchard
ed., ‘ANET’ (‘Ancient
Near
Eastern
Texts
Relating
to
the
Old
Testament’),
Princeton
University
Press,
3rd
edition,
1969.
E.A.E.
Reymond, ‘The
Mythical
Origin
of
the
Egyptian
Temple’,
Manchester
University
Press,
1969.
R.
T. Rundle
Clark, ‘Myth
and Symbol
in Ancient
Egypt’,
Thames and
Hudson, 1993
edition (first
published 1959).
E.A.
Wallis Budge, ‘Legends of the Egyptian Gods’,
Dover edition, 1994.
E.A.
Wallis Budge, ‘The Egyptian Heaven and Hell’,
Dover Pubs., 1996 combined edition (first published by
Kegan, Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co Ltd, London, 1905,
as 3 volumes in the series ‘Books
on Egypt and Chaldaea’). |
