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Ancient Egyptian Gods and Goddesses

© Lucy Charlotte Acland Johnson

The very important thing that made the rule of the Pharaohs what it was was their gods and goddesses.

The gods were important for the entire civilisation, and each stood for something different such as "the power of the sun to ripen crops". Some gods looked after places, such as the dangerous cataracts in the river Nile.

Many gods were represented by animals, which the Ancient Egyptians thought bore a resemblance to the thing the god represented. A good example of this is the jackal god, Anubis; Anubis represented embalming (a process of mummification) and looked after the place where the bodies were mummified. He was represented as a jackal because jackals used to "haunt cemeteries" so it was natural that they should have something to do with death and mummification.

The Egyptians worshipped hundreds of gods and goddesses and dedicated huge temples to some of them (some were more important than others.) Among the most important and famous were:

Osiris: Osiris stood for well cultivated land and was probably originally a harvest and fertility god. His brother, Set (or Seth), hated him and killed him so Osiris went to rule the underworld, which was the place the Ancient Egyptians hoped they would go when they died. It was meant to look a lot like Egypt. Set stood for disorder and desertland and Osiris' son, Horus is said to be fighting Set to avenge the death of his father.

Amun-Re: Amun-Re was made up of the gods Re (sun god) and Amun, and he became the most important god of the "New Kingdom" (the civilisation was split into 3 parts-the Old, Middle and New Kingdoms). Amun-Re was said to have a hidden personality-Amun means hidden. Amun-Re was supposed to hand the "scimitar of conquest" to the great warrior pharaohs of the New Kingdom, such as Ramses (or Ramesses) the second and Tuthmosis the third. The great temple of Karnak, Thebes was dedicated to him.

Thoth: Thoth was normally represented with the head of an ibis (a bird), although he is sometimes shown as a baboon. He was the god of the moon (ibis'have curved beaks which the Egyptians thought looked like a crescent moon)and was responsible for calendars, measuring time, mathematics, writing and medicine. He became the patron of scribes (men who could read and write hieroglyphs and who had completed hard training).

Bastet: Bastet was represented as a cat (although she was originally a lion). She represented fertility, the power of the sun to ripen crops and models of her were used for protection. She was supposed to be the daughter of the sungod Re (or Ra).

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