Ancient Egyptian religion and myths

Most of the Egyptian myths are motivated by the ancient Egyptian desire to know the origin of the universe. These myths were depicting the Ancient Egyptian culture and usually contain elements such as the Lotus Flower, the mysteries of nature, the daily renewal, and the revival of the soul-and politics. These ancient Egyptian myths are still admired by people from various countries and culture, thus they are used in many literary works such as Bob Dylan's song Isis to support their success. Tourists are always fascinated with the ancient Egyptian myths of Truth , Anubis , and Bess .This fame makes many companies in Egypt and all over the world uses their names and faces as a means for attracting people.

Lotus Flower Myth

According to the ancient Egyptian Myth of Creation, before life the whole world was nothing but a wide dismal sea until the Lummous Lotus Flower came out of the water bringing light and perfume to the world. This Lotus was regarded as a symbol for the sun that break forth from the water every morning with a beautiful bloom that looks like the shafts of the sunlight . The ancient Egyptians believed that the sun was the origin of every this and the petals of the Lotus's blooms were known as the as the Redolent Flower in which the Soul of the god of Sun Ra hides. The dead people were using one of the spells of the Book of the Dead to become a Lotus Flower after their death. The Lotus was used as a political symbol for Upper Egypt and it appears on the walls of the temples in that region.

Heliopolis (the City of Sun)

Heliopolis or the city of sun, as the Greeks called it, is an ancient Egyptian city that was called by the Egyptians Annu. It was erected by the priests of Ra as a religious capital of Egypt that included a temple for Ra and college with a great library . The historians say that many great thinkers like Thales, Plato, and Plutarch came to this city and made use of its valuable library. In the 5th dynasty, the priests of Ra established the temple of Ra on an artificial hill known as the high sand to the north of the town. This high sand was a symbol for the place from which Ra arose to the universe. The interior plan of the temple involved an open court in which there was a Benben Stone that was believed to catch the sun rays every morning to highlight that Ra was in his temple. In the lower part of this Benben stone or obelisk there was a place for leaving the sacrifices for the sun god. As it is recorded, about 100, 600 meals of bread, beer, and cake were sacrificed by the kings, priests and royal court for the god of sun. The main plan of the temple was surrounded by a thick, high wall. It is registered that a large mud-brick replica was established next to this thick wall to be the place of Ra's solar sun. The old temple was renovated at the reign of Sesotris I who added two handsome granite obelisks with metal caps on their top to reflect the rays of the sun in the entrance of the temple. Some historians say that Mary rested in that city and washed the clothes of her son Jesus in the water of the temple's fountain that was located nearby the temple. The major part of this city disappeared now but the myths around it still exist. The religious system of Heliopolis remained from the third to the fifth dynasty. After that the mythology of Memphis appeared and the two mythologies began to merge together. Since the fifth dynasty , and after the priests of Heliopolis attempts to spread the name of their god allover Egypt , the Egyptian Kings paid a great attention to the association of themselves to the gods by making up new myths such as the ennead which is a group of nine gods .

Horus, the King of the Earth

Horus is one of the prominent and most influential gods in the ancient Egyptian mythology and the hero of several myths. The priests of Ra placed Horus in the Ennead as the son of Isis and Osiris and he is known as the younger Horus . He played a great role in taking his revenge from his malicious uncle Seth and this qualified him to be the heir of Ra.

The Sacred Family of Abidos

In the ancient Egyptian mythology, Osiris was the Chief Judge of the dead in the under world, the husband of Isis and the father of Horus the younger. He was regarded as the reason for fertility of the land and the power of resurrection. On the other hand, Isis was the loyal wife of Osiris who suffered a lot during her journey of looking for the parts of her husband's body and protecting her son from his vicious uncle who was trying to kill him like his father. The myth of Isis and her great role in hunting for her husband's body is one of the most interesting and well known myths all over the world. It highlights the ancient Egyptians' belief in life after death and their interest in tales and stories about gods and goddesses. The myth of Osiris was mainly an immortal god but he grew up to be a great leader among the humans. It says that in the moment of his birth, one of the people who were standing in the temple of Thebes heard a voice telling him that the lord of the whole world was born in that moment and asked him to tell all the people about that. Osiris served as the civilizing power for the savage and uncivilized people of Egypt since he asked them to behave in a more civilized and refined manner and taught them some spells and rituals to perform for their gods. He also taught them how to plant the corn and vines and other things that helped the people in being more civilized in their treatment. The major assistant of Osiris in his attempts for civilizing the people was Thuth who managed to invent music, astronomy, and other things including the alphabet letters and the names of things. Osiris is credited to spreading civilization not only in Egypt but also in the surrounding areas such as Ethiopia, Arabia and India. He taught the people of these uncivilized places many beneficial things such as the ways of plantation and built dames to protect them from the floods and to save the water. Osiris, the king, reached to Europe and killed one of the kings who refused to obey him and help him in achieving his noble goal. Isis was the ruler of Egypt and Thuth was her assistant during Osiris' journey.

The Goddess Hathor

Hathor in the ancient Egyptian religion was presented as the Earth mother who was called in the Coffin Text "the Primeval or the Lady of All" . The origin of Hathor is a highly controversial issue since some of the myths say that she came to the world at the same time with Ra and thus was regarded as the goddess of Sun and was always depicted as a black-skinned or reddish-black goddess. Yet other versions demonstrate that she was the daughter of Nut and Ra. One of the major myths say that she was the wife of Horus when he became the sun god and she was placed next to him on the solar boat with a solar disk over her head . The statue of Hathor and her pictures beautify the walls of many temples in Egypt . The temple of Ramsses II in Abu Simbel that he dedicated to Queen Nefertari and supplied it with a lot of the marvelous pictures of Hathor . The temple of Dandara is one of the major places that display the statues and pictures of this goddess since it was the center of its worship. The temple of Phyla in Aswan is another place that was established as a cult center for Hathor also and stands next to another one for the worship of Horus. The temple of Hatshepsut in Luxor also is rich with paintings for Hathor surrounded by the queen and other members of her family. One of the worth seeing statues of Hathor, is currently displayed in the Egyptian museum in which it is portrayed as a cow nursing the baby who was Amenophis II. Another statue for her with a wooden head of a cow with copper corns and eyes that look like those of Horus is shown in the Museum of Luxor.

The Triad of Memphis..

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