The inhabitants of the divine or supernatural world were an ever-present reality in the earthly lives of the Egyptians of Pharaonic Egypt; the entire cycle of life - from birth to eternal life in the afterlife - was numinous. A successful birth was attributed to a combination of the benign influence of the gods and the repulsion of hostile entities through the use of magic, or what the Egyptians called heka. This was a power that was available and accessible to all Egyptians as a gift from the gods to all of mankind in order to keep away the blow of events and to watch over them night and day, as described in the Instructions of Merikare. The gods themselves were imbued with innate heka, as was the king, while some priests were particularly skilled in its use. Heka itself was neutral - there was no concept of black or white magic - and it could be used for both positive and negative purposes. Indeed, heka and maat (order) can be considered as complementary forces underpinning the ordered functioning of the Egyptian cosmos. The key to the use of heka and the practice of religion was knowledge of the proper words, gestures, and materials necessary to achieve the desired aims. This knowledge could be acquired through various means. Some of the more complex and state related rituals were restricted to the use of selected priests and literate individuals who had access to texts stored probably in the scriptorium called the House of Life. For everyday applications, such as those associated with successful childbirth or emergency treatments for choking, the knowledge of proper practice would be transmitted orally and by example. Unfortunately, these leave little trace in the archaeological record. In either case, heka functioned in both the private and public spheres, and at both an individual and state level, within the context of religion. It also played a role in one of the most important functions of religion in Egyptian society, and that was to aid Egyptians in negotiating their relationships with the inhabitants of the afterlife.
Much of religious activity focused on negotiating relationships between humans and supernatural beings. Pharaonic Egyptians believed that there were basically three types of entities inhabiting the afterlife: the gods (netjeru), the justified dead (akhu), and the un-justified (mwt). At first glance there seem to be a virtually unlimited number of gods in Ancient Egypt, but this is in part an illusion created by the Egyptian practice of syncretism, combined with the practice of representing gods as theriomorphic entities. Specific animals represented specific attributes, and a deity could be represented with different forms to emphasize different facets of its personality. For example, the lioness represented rage and destructive power, and therefore when Ra sent out his daughter Hathor to destroy mankind, she took the form of the lioness-headed Sekhmet (meaning ‘‘the powerful female one’’). Once pacified, the goddess could appear with the head of a cat as Bastet, emphasizing her gentle nurturing qualities. Both Bastet and Sekhmet also had cults of their own, and as appropriate either could be appealed to in times of need. Distinct deities could also be represented with the same iconography. A headdress of cow horns was used to stress the maternal aspect of a goddess, and was worn by both Hathor or Isis. Indeed, in the tomb of Nefertari, for example, both goddesses are depicted identically - they are distinguishable only by their names written in hieroglyphs before them.
The deities were not gods of the animals, so Hathor did not represent cows, nor were the animals themselves worshipped. An exception can be found in the worship of the Apis, Mnevis, and Bucchis bulls, each of whom was believed to embody the essence of the gods (respectively) Ptah and Osiris, Re and Min, and Montu, Re and Osiris. In each case a specific bull was recognized through its markings as the incarnation of the associated deity, and it lived out its life as the focus of cult worship even to the extent of being afforded full mummification rituals after its death. Nevertheless, it was not the bull itself that was worshipped but rather the essence of the god temporarily incarnating the bull as its avatar - bulls as a species were not accorded any special favors. Although certain goddesses could be represented in the form of cows, and the king himself was described as a bull, cattle were slaughtered for rituals and for food offerings. Indeed animal cults, and the widespread use of animals as votive offerings and messengers to the gods did not begin until the Late Period. During that time, the animals were likely considered as closer to the gods, and therefore animals associated with specific deities such as the cat (Bastet) or ibis (Thoth) were raised by the thousands not to be worshipped, but to be sacrificed and provided to petitioners as votives.
The use of animals (and occasionally objects) to emphasize attributes also allowed the Egyptians to visually represent deities who were the product of syncretism. Syncretism consists of the temporary merging of one god with another to emphasize either the attributes of both, or more commonly, a specific aspect of one of the gods. The fusion is often reflected in the imagery, as well as the name. The particular aspect of the deities that is thus formed can have its own character and even its own cult, but the merging is temporary - the gods also retain their own identity. For example, the god Amun (‘‘Hidden One’’), originally a minor god with little power, merged with Re, the sun-god who was the preeminent deity through all of Egypt’s history from the Fifth Dynasty onwards, and was known as ‘‘Amun-Re’’ representing the hidden power of the sun-god. Eventually, Amun-Re took on many of the roles previously held only by Ra and his priesthood became the most powerful institution of the middle Eighteenth Dynasty. Even Akhenaten took advantage of the benefits of syncretism, promoting not only the Aten (the visible sun disk), but Aten-Re.
The flexibility that the Egyptians evinced regarding their deities is readily apparent in their easy acceptance of those of a foreign origin. If a specific foreign deity had attributes or elements that resonated with the Egyptian worldview but for which there was not an exact Egyptian counterpart, that deity could be incorporated into the Egyptian pantheon and receive an Egyptian-style cult. An example can be found in the Canaanite-Phoenician god Reshep, who was associated with plague and lightning. Attested mostly from the time of Amenhotep II onward, he became particularly popular in the Ramesside village of Deir el-Medina. There, he became known as ‘‘lord of heaven’’ and ‘‘one who listens to prayers.’’ Another example of the inclusion of foreign deities to reflect changing times is the goddess Astarte represented as a naked woman riding on horseback (see Hoffmeier 2007 for an unusual representation of Reshep together with Astarte). Because horses were a late introduction to Egypt, there were no ‘‘native’’ deities associated with them. Astarte, the female counterpart of Baal (also welcome in Egypt and associated with the god Seth) became a popular deity in the New Kingdom, and appears in her unique form on stelae and ostraka.
In the Near East, however, she was also associated with the fierce goddess Anat who also appeared naked, often standing on lions (Stuckey 2003) - the iconography of the ‘‘Mistress of Animals.’’ The association between the deities is so close that it is often impossible to determine which goddess, Astarte, Anat, Hathor, or Baalat is meant to be represented in the absence of accompanying inscriptions. Identification is even more difficult and perhaps unwarranted in cosmopolitan cities and areas such as military garrisons and administrative units where there was intense interaction between peoples of differing cultures living in intimate proximity to each other.
The deities varied in the nature and extent of their interaction with mankind. A divine being such as Re was considered to be omnipresent and universal, a god who was acknowledged by all. Other deities were appealed to throughout Egypt for particular purposes, such as Hathor, to whom petitions for fertility were addressed. Others were more localized, such as Satet and her partner Anuket, who were mostly associated with Elephantine which was believed to be the source of the annual inundation of the Nile. Some, known only by their attributes (such as ‘‘Swallower of Shadows’’), played a specific role only in the afterlife but had little to no impact on the society of the living. A number of the gods could be approached directly by all, but others could only be reached indirectly through the king, priests, or their avatars.
Besides the gods, the other supernatural entities included the justified dead and the damned. The justified dead were those who been successfully reborn into the afterlife by having gone through the proper funerary rituals, and having the correct knowledge required to navigate through the perilous ways of the afterlife. The damned were those who had failed to have the proper funerary rituals carried out, who had been forgotten, or who had transgressed against the gods or the king in some way. The latter in particular were considered enemies of the king, Re, or Osiris, and were doomed to be punished and tortured for eternity or even to die the second death (which consisted of utter and irrevocable annihilation). These convictions that were transmitted through the religious and funerary rituals helped to regulate society by instilling in each individual a particular set of values, ethics, and ways of behavior according to one’s place in society. The ingrained belief in the afterlife served a critical function in maintaining social mores, for a failure to uphold maat relegated one to the side of the forces of chaos - a fate that most Egyptians wanted to avoid. For some of course, poverty or greed outweighed religious convictions and beliefs, as is well-attested by the physical and textual evidence for tomb-robbery.
World History
