Religion in Ancient Egypt : Introduction To The Region

The people of predynastic Egypt were ruled by a bewildering array of local gods representing the cosmos, the natural elements, animals, and the life-cycle. As Egypt was united, these local gods were combined and unified into one syncretic pantheon. The importance of gods often waxed and waned with the fortunes of their home provinces. The basic framework of religious belief, however, remained stable through the three millennia of pharaonic rule.

The central myth of Egyptian religion was the Osiris cycle. Seth murdered his brother Osiris, a king from time immemorial, and scattered the pieces of his body throughout Egypt. Subsequently > Osiris’s wife and sister Isis conceived and gave birth to Horus, who became Osiris’s son and heir. Young Horus avenged Osiris and took back the crown from his usurping uncle. The pharaohs saw Horus as the ideal of the rightful and strong ruler, and identified themselves with Horus while on earth. Upon death they were identified with Osiris, now the king of the dead. The phanioh was thus literally a god and worshiped as such, and the religious fervor he engendered united the country.