Khnum was one of the earliest known Egyptian deities, closely associated with the flooding of the Nile, the river that brought life to the Nile valley and the Egyptian people with its annual flood. As an extension of his role of bringing life to the land of Egypt, he became known as the creator of... Continue Reading →

While the Nile River was a source of life in ancient Egypt that nourished the land, it was also dangerous. Few things represented that danger more than the Nile crocodile, who actively hunt humans and still kills hundreds each year. In early Egyptian animistic religion, the Nile crocodile was a dangerous deity to be appeased,... Continue Reading →

The names of almost 2,000 gods survive from ancient Egypt today. This is because ancient Egyptian religion started locally, with local communities having their own gods. When Egypt was unified, central leadership under the pharaohs imposed some alignment. This meant that religion and politics were intertwined, with the supreme god at any given time often... Continue Reading →

Thoth was the ancient Egyptian god of the moon and wisdom, specifically associated with writing, science, and magic, with the lines between these three concepts blurred in the Egyptian world. He was known by the Egyptian name Djehuty, which means “he who is like an ibis,” which was a symbol of wisdom in Egypt. With... Continue Reading →

Seshat, whose name means “female scribe,” was a goddess of writing, wisdom, and knowledge. Often considered the female counterpart of Thoth,  as mother or daughter, she was associated with many of the sciences, including architecture, astronomy, geometry, and more. Some stories suggest that it was actually Seshat who invented writing, and Thoth only taught it... Continue Reading →

In ancient Egyptian religion, Anubis was the jackal-headed god of the dead, considered a protector of the dead who guided them on their journey into the afterlife. Anubis is actually the Greek rendering of the name, better rendered as “Anpu” or “Inpu” in ancient Egyptian, meaning “to decay.” He was also called the first of... Continue Reading →

Apophis is the Greek name for the Egyptian god Apep, who embodies the darkness and disorder, who threatens to destabilize the harmony of existence, known as Ma’at. This was embodied by the ancient Egyptians in a nightly conflict with the sun god Ra on his sun barque. He is vanquished every night, but he can... Continue Reading →

The Book of the Dead is what we call an Egyptian funerary text placed in the coffin or burial chamber of the deceased that contained spells that helped the deceased successfully pass into the afterlife, called the Duat. It was used from the beginning of the New Kingdom, around 1500 BCE, to around 50 BCE,... Continue Reading →

The Egyptian goddess Bastet, or Bast, was the goddess of cats, creatures seen as protectors in the Egyptian world. She was closely linked to Sekhmet, the fierce lion-headed goddess who was both a protector and a punisher. These are the feline goddesses of the ancient Egyptian pantheon. Bastet: Egyptian Cat Goddess Ancient Egyptian statue of... Continue Reading →

Ma’at is a complex ancient Egyptian goddess who represented the energy of balance, order, and harmony that governed the universe and was the personification of that “natural order.” She was also the personification of the feather of Ma’at, against which the heart of the deceased was weighed in the weighing of the heart ceremony, allowing... Continue Reading →