Ancient Egyptian deities - wikipedia Ancient Egyptian deities Jump to : navigation , search `` Gods of Egypt '' redirects here . For the 2016 fantasy film , see Gods of Egypt ( film ) . See also : List of Egyptian deities The gods Osiris , Anubis , and Horus Ancient Egyptian deities are the goddesses and gods worshipped in ancient Egypt . The beliefs and rituals surrounding these deities formed the core of ancient Egyptian religion , which emerged sometime in prehistory . Deities represented natural forces and phenomena , and the Egyptians supported and appeased them through offerings and rituals so that these forces would continue to function according to maat , or divine order . After the founding of the Egyptian state around 3100 BC , the authority to perform these tasks was controlled by the pharaoh , who claimed to be the representative of the deities and managed the temples where the rituals were carried out . The complex characteristics of the deities were expressed in myths and in intricate relationships between them : family ties , loose groups and hierarchies , and combinations of separate deities into one . Deities ' diverse appearances in art -- as animals , humans , objects , and combinations of different forms -- also alluded , through symbolism , to their essential features . In different eras , various deities were said to hold the highest position in divine society , including the solar deity Ra , the mysterious god Amun , and the mother goddess Isis . The highest deity was usually credited with the creation of the world and often connected with the life - giving power of the sun . Some scholars have argued , based in part on Egyptian writings , that the Egyptians came to recognize a single divine power that lay behind all things and was present in all the other deities . Yet they never abandoned their original polytheistic view of the world , except possibly during the era of Atenism in the fourteenth century BC , when official religion focused mainly on the impersonal sun god Aten . Deities were assumed by the ancient Egyptians to be present throughout the world , capable of influencing natural events and the course of human lives . People interacted with them in temples and unofficial shrines , for personal reasons as well as for larger goals of state rites . Egyptians prayed for divine help , used rituals to compel deities to act , and called upon them for advice . Humans ' relations with their deities were a fundamental part of Egyptian society . Contents ( hide ) 1 Definition 2 Origins 3 Characteristics 3.1 Roles 3.2 Behavior 3.3 Locations 3.4 Names and epithets 3.5 Relationships 3.6 Manifestations and combinations 3.7 Aten and possible monotheism 3.8 Unity of the divine in traditional religion 4 Descriptions and depictions 5 Interactions with humans 5.1 Relationship with the pharaoh 5.2 Presence in the human world 5.3 Intervention in human lives 5.4 Worship 6 See also 7 Notes and citations 8 Works cited 9 Further reading 10 External links Definition ( edit ) `` Deity '' in hieroglyphs or or nṯr `` god '' nṯr. t `` goddess '' The beings in ancient Egyptian tradition who might be labeled as deities are difficult to count . Egyptian texts list the names of many deities whose nature is unknown and make vague , indirect references to other deities who are not even named . The Egyptologist James P. Allen estimates that more than 1,400 deities are named in Egyptian texts , whereas his colleague Christian Leitz says there are `` thousands upon thousands '' of Egyptian deities . The Egyptian language 's terms for these beings were nṯr , `` god '' , and nṯrt , `` goddess '' . Scholars have tried to discern the original nature of the deities by proposing etymologies for these words , but none of these suggestions has gained acceptance , and the origin of the terms remains obscure . The hieroglyphs that were used as ideograms and determinatives in writing these words show some of the traits that the Egyptians connected with divinity . The most common of these signs is a flag flying from a pole . Similar objects were placed at the entrances of temples , representing the presence of a deity , throughout ancient Egyptian history . Other such hieroglyphs include a falcon , reminiscent of several early gods who were depicted as falcons , and a seated male or female deity . The feminine form could also be written with an egg as determinative , connecting goddesses with creation and birth , or with a cobra , reflecting the use of the cobra to depict many female deities . The Egyptians distinguished nṯrw , `` deities '' , from rmṯ , `` people '' , but the meanings of the Egyptian and the English terms do not match perfectly . The term nṯr may have applied to any being that was in some way outside the sphere of everyday life . Deceased humans were called nṯr because they were considered to be like the gods , whereas the term was rarely applied to many of Egypt 's lesser supernatural beings , which modern scholars often call `` demons '' . Egyptian religious art also depicts places , objects , and concepts in human form . These personified ideas range from deities that were important in myth and ritual to obscure beings , only mentioned once or twice , that may be little more than metaphors . Confronting these blurred distinctions between deities and other beings , scholars have proposed various definitions of a `` deity '' . One widely accepted definition , suggested by Jan Assmann , says that a deity has a cult , is involved in some aspect of the universe , and is described in mythology or other forms of written tradition . According to a different definition , by Dimitri Meeks , nṯr applied to any being that was the focus of ritual . From this perspective , `` deities '' included the king , called such after coronation rites , and deceased souls , who entered the divine realm through funeral ceremonies . Likewise , the preeminence of the great deities was maintained by the ritual devotion that was performed for them throughout Egypt . Origins ( edit ) The first written evidence of deities in Egypt comes from the Early Dynastic Period ( c. 3100 -- 2686 BC ) . Deities must have emerged sometime in the preceding Predynastic Period ( before 3100 BC ) and grown out of prehistoric religious beliefs . Predynastic artwork depicts a variety of animal and human figures . Some of these images , such as stars and cattle , are reminiscent of important features of Egyptian religion in later times , but in most cases there is not enough evidence to say whether the images are connected with deities . As Egyptian society grew more sophisticated , clearer signs of religious activity appeared . The earliest known temples appeared in the last centuries of the predynastic era , along with images that resemble the iconographies of known deities : the falcon that represents Horus and several other gods , the crossed arrows that stand for Neith , and the enigmatic `` Set animal '' that represents Set . Late Predynastic statue of the baboon deity Hedj - Wer Many Egyptologists and anthropologists have suggested theories about how the deities developed in these early times . Gustave Jéquier , for instance , thought the Egyptians first revered primitive fetishes , then deities in animal form , and finally deities in human form , whereas Henri Frankfort argued that the deities must have been envisioned in human form from the beginning . Some of these theories are now regarded as too simplistic , and more current ones , such as Siegfried Morenz ' hypothesis that deities emerged as humans began to distinguish themselves from and personify their environment , are difficult to prove . Predynastic Egypt originally consisted of small , independent villages . Because many deities in later times were strongly tied to particular towns and regions , many scholars have suggested that the pantheon formed as disparate communities coalesced into larger states , spreading and intermingling the worship of the old local deities . Others have argued , however , that the most important predynastic deities were , like other elements of Egyptian culture , present all across the country despite the political divisions within it . The final step in the formation of Egyptian religion was the unification of Egypt , in which rulers from Upper Egypt made themselves pharaohs of the entire country . These sacred kings and their subordinates assumed the exclusive right to interact with the deities , and kingship became the unifying focus of the religion . New deities continued to emerge after this transformation . Some important deities such as Isis and Amun are not known to have appeared until the Old Kingdom ( c. 2686 -- 2181 BC ) . Places and concepts could suddenly inspire the creation of a deity to represent them , and deities were sometimes created to serve as opposite - sex counterparts to established gods or goddesses . Kings were said to be divine , although only a few continued to be worshipped long after their deaths . Some non-royal humans were said to have the favor of the deities and were venerated accordingly . This veneration was usually short - lived , but the court architects Imhotep and Amenhotep son of Hapu were regarded as gods centuries after their lifetimes , as were some other officials . Through contact with neighboring civilizations , the Egyptians also adopted foreign deities . Dedun , who is first mentioned in the Old Kingdom , may have come from Nubia , and Baal , Anat , and Astarte , among others , were adopted from Canaanite religion during the New Kingdom ( c. 1550 -- 1070 BC ) . In Greek and Roman times , from 332 BC to the early centuries AD , deities from across the Mediterranean world were revered in Egypt , but the native deities remained , and they often absorbed the cults of these newcomers into their own worship . Characteristics ( edit ) Modern knowledge of Ancient Egyptian beliefs about their deities is mostly drawn from religious writings produced by their scribes and priests . These people were the elite of Egyptian society and were very distinct from the general populace , most of whom were illiterate . Little is known about how well this broader population knew or understood the sophisticated ideas that the elite developed . Commoner perceptions of the divine may have differed from those of the priests . The populace may , for example , have mistaken the religion 's symbolic statements about the deities and their actions , for literal truth . Overall , what little is known about popular religious belief is consistent with the elite tradition , however . The two traditions form a largely cohesive vision of the deities and their nature . Roles ( edit ) Isis , a mother goddess and a patroness of kingship , holds Pharaoh Seti I in her lap Most Egyptian deities represent natural or social phenomena . The deities were generally said to be immanent in these phenomena -- to be present within nature . The types of phenomena they represented include physical places and objects as well as abstract concepts and forces . The god Shu was the deification of all the world 's air ; the goddess Meretseger oversaw a limited region of the earth , the Theban Necropolis ; and the god Sia personified the abstract notion of perception . Major deities often had many roles and were involved in several types of phenomena . For instance , Khnum was the god of Elephantine Island in the midst of the Nile , the river that was essential to Egyptian civilization . He was credited with producing the annual Nile flood that fertilized the nation 's farmland . Perhaps as an outgrowth of this life - giving function , he was said to create all living things , fashioning their bodies on a potter 's wheel . Deities could share the same role in nature ; Ra , Atum , Khepri , Horus , and other deities acted as sun deities . Despite their diverse functions , most deities had an overarching role in common : maintaining maat , the universal order that was a central principle of Egyptian religion and was itself personified as a goddess . Some deities represented disruption to maat , however . Most prominently , Apep was the force of chaos , constantly threatening to annihilate the order of the universe , and Set was an ambivalent member of divine society who could both fight disorder and foment it . Not all aspects of existence were seen as deities . Although many deities were connected with the Nile , none personified it in the way that Ra personified the sun . Short - lived phenomena , such as rainbows or eclipses , were not represented by deities ; neither were elements such as fire , water , or many other components of the world . The roles of each deity were fluid , and each could expand its nature to take on new characteristics . As a result , their roles are difficult to categorize or define . Despite their flexibility , however , they had limited abilities and spheres of influence . Not even the creator deities could reach beyond the boundaries of the cosmos that they created , and even Isis , although she was said to be the cleverest of the deities , was not omniscient . Richard H. Wilkinson , however , argues that some texts from the late New Kingdom suggest that , as beliefs about the god Amun evolved , he was thought to approach omniscience and omnipresence and to transcend the limits of the world in a way that other deities did not . The deities with the most limited and specialized domains are often called `` minor divinities '' or `` demons '' in modern writing , although there is no firm definition for these terms . Some demons were guardians of particular places , especially in the Duat , the realm of the dead . Others wandered through the human world and the Duat , either as servants and messengers of the greater deities or as roving spirits who caused illness or other misfortunes among humans . Demons ' position in the divine hierarchy was not fixed . The protective goddesses Bes and Taweret originally had minor , demon - like roles , but over time they came to be credited with great influence . The most feared beings in the Duat were regarded as both disgusting and dangerous to humans . Over the course of Ancient Egyptian history , they came to be regarded as fundamentally inferior members of divine society , and to represent the opposite of the beneficial , life - giving major dieties . Sometimes even the most revered deities could exact vengeance on humans or each other , however , displaying a demon - like side to their character and blurring the boundaries between demons and deities . Behavior ( edit ) Divine behavior was believed to govern all of nature . Except for the few deities who disrupted the divine order , their actions maintained maat and created and sustained all living things . They did this work using a force the Egyptians called heka , a term usually translated as `` magic '' . Heka was a fundamental power that the creator used to form the world and the deities . The sky goddess Nut swallows the sun , which travels through her body at night to be reborn at dawn The actions of the deities in the present are described and praised in hymns and funerary texts . In contrast , mythology mainly concerns their actions during a vaguely imagined past in which the deities were present on earth and interacted directly with humans . The events of this past time set the pattern for the events of the present . Periodic occurrences were tied to events in the mythic past ; the succession of each new pharaoh , for instance , reenacted Horus ' accession to the throne of his father Osiris . Myths are metaphors for the actions the deities , which humans can not fully understand . They contain seemingly contradictory ideas , each expressing a particular perspective on divine events . The contradictions in myth are part of the Egyptians ' many - faceted approach to religious belief -- what Henri Frankfort called a `` multiplicity of approaches '' to understanding the deities . In myth , deities behave much like humans . They feel emotion ; they can eat , drink , fight , weep , sicken , and die . Some have unique character traits . Set is aggressive and impulsive , and Thoth , patron of writing and knowledge , is prone to long - winded speeches . Yet overall , deities are more like archetypes than well drawn characters . Their behavior is inconsistent , and their thoughts and motivations are rarely stated . Most myths about them lack highly developed characters and plots , because the symbolic meaning of the myths was more important than elaborate storytelling . The first divine act is the creation of the cosmos , described in several creation myths . They focus on different deities , each of which may act as creator . The eight deities of the Ogdoad , who represent the chaos that precedes creation , give birth to the sun deity , who establishes order in the newly formed world ; Ptah , who embodies thought and creativity , gives form to all things by envisioning and naming them ; Atum produces all things as emanations of himself ; and Amun , according to the theology promoted by his priesthood , preceded and created the other creator deities . These and other versions of the events of creation were not seen as contradictory . Each gives a different perspective on the complex process by which the organized universe and its many deities emerged from undifferentiated chaos . The period following creation , in which a series of gods rule as kings over the divine society , is the setting for most myths . They struggle against the forces of chaos and among each other before withdrawing from the human world and installing the historical kings of Egypt to rule in their place . A recurring theme in these myths is the effort of the deities to maintain maat against the forces of disorder . They fight vicious battles with the forces of chaos at the start of creation . Ra and Apep , battling each other each night , continue this struggle into the present . Another prominent theme is a gods ' death and revival . The clearest instance where a god dies is the myth of Osiris ' murder , in which that god is resurrected as ruler of the Duat . The sun god is also said to grow old during his daily journey across the sky , sink into the Duat at night , and emerge as a young child at dawn . In the process he comes into contact with the rejuvenating water of Nun , the primordial chaos . Funerary texts that depict Ra 's journey through the Duat also show the corpses of deities who are enlivened along with him . Instead of being changelessly immortal , periodically , deities died and were reborn by repeating the events of creation , thus renewing the whole world , but it was always possible for this cycle to be disrupted and for chaos to return . Some poorly understood Egyptian texts even suggest that this calamity is destined to happen -- that the creator god will one day dissolve the order of the world , leaving only himself and Osiris amid the primordial chaos . Locations ( edit ) Deities personifying provinces of Egypt Deities were linked with specific regions of the universe . In Egyptian tradition , the world includes the earth , the sky , and the Duat . Surrounding them is the dark formlessness that existed before creation . In general , the deities were said to dwell in the sky , although those whose roles were linked with other parts of the universe were said to live in those places instead . Most events of mythology , set in a time before the withdrawal of the deities from the human realm , take place in an earthly setting . The deities there sometimes interact with those in the sky . The Duat , in contrast , is treated as a remote and inaccessible place , and the deities who dwell there have difficulty communicating with those in the world of the living . The space outside the cosmos is said to be very distant . It too , is inhabited by deities , some hostile and some beneficial to the others and their orderly world . In the time after myth , most deities were said to be either in the sky or invisibly present within the world . Temples were their main means of contact with humanity . Each day , it was believed , they moved from the divine realm to their temples , their homes in the human world . There they inhabited the cult images , the statues that depicted deities and allowed humans to interact with them in temple rituals . This movement between realms was sometimes described as a journey between the sky and the earth . As temples were the focal points of Egyptian cities , the deity in a city 's main temple was the patron for the city and the surrounding region . Deities ' spheres of influence on earth centered on the towns and regions they presided over . Many had more than one cult center , and their local ties changed over time . They could establish themselves in new cities , or their range of influence could contract . Therefore , a given deity 's main cult center in historical times is not necessarily his or her place of origin . The political influence of a city could affect the importance of its patron deity . When kings from Thebes took control of the country at start of the Middle Kingdom ( c. 2055 -- 1650 BC ) , they elevated the patron gods of Thebes -- first the war god Montu and then Amun -- to national prominence . Names and epithets ( edit ) In Egyptian belief , names express the fundamental nature of the things to which they refer . In keeping with this belief , the names of deities often relate to their roles or origins . The name of the warrior goddess Sekhmet means `` powerful one '' , the name of the mysterious god Amun means `` hidden one '' , and the name of the goddess Nekhbet , who was worshipped in the city of Nekheb , means `` she of Nekheb '' . Many other names have no certain meaning , however , even when the deities who bear them are closely tied to a single role . The names of the sky goddess Nut and the earth god Geb do not resemble the Egyptian terms for sky and earth . The Egyptians also devised false etymologies giving more meanings to divine names . A passage in the Coffin Texts renders the name of the funerary god Sokar as sk r , meaning `` cleaning of the mouth '' , to link his name with his role in the Opening of the Mouth ritual , while one reference in the Pyramid Texts says the name is based on words shouted by Osiris in a moment of distress , connecting Sokar with the most important funerary deity . The deities were believed to have many names . Among them were secret names that conveyed their true natures more profoundly than others . To know the true name of a deity was to have power over it . The importance of names is demonstrated by a myth in which Isis poisons the superior god Ra and refuses to cure him unless he reveals his secret name to her . Upon learning the name , she tells it to her son , Horus , and by learning it they gain greater knowledge and power . In addition to their names , deities were given epithets , such as `` possessor of splendor '' , `` ruler of Abydos '' , or `` lord of the sky '' , that describe some aspect of their roles or their worship . Because of multiple and overlapping roles , deities may have many epithets -- with more important ones accumulating more titles -- and the same epithet may apply to many deities . Some epithets eventually became separate deities , as with Werethekau , an epithet applied to several goddesses meaning , `` great enchantress '' , which came to be treated as an independent goddess . The host of divine names and titles expresses the multifarious nature of the deities . Relationships ( edit ) Egyptian deities are connected in a complex and shifting array of relationships . A deities connections and interactions with others helped define its character . Thus Isis , as the mother and protector of Horus , was a great healer as well as the patroness of kings . Such relationships were the base material from which myths were formed . The deities Ptah and Sekhmet flank the king , who takes the role of their child , Nefertum . Family relationships are a common type of connection between deities . They often form female and male pairs , reflecting the importance of procreation in Egyptian religious thought . Families of three deities , with a father , mother , and child , represent the creation of new life and the succession of the parent by the child , a pattern that connects divine families with royal succession . Osiris , Isis , and Horus formed the quintessential family of this type . The pattern they set grew more widespread over time , so that many deities in local cult centers , such as Ptah , Sekhmet , and their child Nefertum at Memphis and Amun , Mut , and Khonsu at Thebes , were assembled into family triads . Genealogical connections such as these are changeable , in keeping with the multiple perspectives in Egyptian belief . Hathor , as a fertility goddess , could act as mother to any child deity , including the child form of the sun god , although in other circumstances she was the sun god 's daughter . Other divine groups were composed of deities with interrelated roles , or who together represented a region of the Egyptian mythological cosmos . There were sets of deities for the hours of the day and night and for each nome ( province ) of Egypt . Some of these groups contain a specific , symbolically important number of deities . Paired deities sometimes have similar roles , as do Isis and her sister Nephthys in their protection and support of Osiris . Other pairs stand for opposite , but interrelated concepts that are part of a greater unity . Ra , who is dynamic and light - producing , and Osiris , who is static and shrouded in darkness , merge into a single god each night . Groups of three are linked with plurality in ancient Egyptian thought , and groups of four connote completeness . Rulers in the late New Kingdom promoted a particularly important group of three gods above all others : Amun , Ra , and Ptah . These deities stood for the plurality of all deities , as well as for their own cult centers ( the major cities of Thebes , Heliopolis , and Memphis ) and for many threefold sets of concepts in Egyptian religious thought . Sometimes Set , the patron god of the Nineteenth Dynasty kings and the embodiment of disorder within the world , was added to this group , which emphasized a single coherent vision of the pantheon . Nine , the product of three times three , represents a multitude , so the Egyptians called several large groups `` enneads '' , or sets of nine , even if they had more than nine members . The most prominent ennead was the Ennead of Heliopolis , an extended family of deities descended from the creator god Atum , which incorporates many important deities . The term `` ennead '' was often extended to include all of ancient Egyptian deities . This divine assemblage had a vague and changeable hierarchy . Dieties with broad influence in the cosmos or who were mythologically older than others had higher positions in divine society . At the apex of this society was the king of the gods , who was usually identified with the creator deity . In different periods of Egyptian history , different deities were most frequently said to hold this exalted position . Horus was the most important god in the Early Dynastic Period , Ra rose to preeminence in the Old Kingdom , Amun was supreme in the New , and in the Ptolemaic and Roman periods , it was Isis as the divine queen and creator goddess . Newly prominent deities tended to adopt characteristics from their predecessors . Isis absorbed the traits of many other goddesses during her rise , and when Amun became the ruler of the pantheon , he was conjoined with Ra , the traditional king of the gods , to become a solar deity . Manifestations and combinations ( edit ) Amun - Ra - Kamutef , a form of Amun with the solar characteristics of Ra and the procreative powers connected with Min The solar disk on his headdress is taken from Ra , and his erect phallus comes from the iconography of Min . The deities were believed to manifest in many forms . The Egyptians had a complex conception of the human soul , consisting of several parts . The spirits of the deities were composed of many of these same elements . The ba was the component of the human or divine soul that affected the world around it . Any visible manifestation of the power of a deity could be called its ba ; thus , the sun was called the ba of Ra . A depiction of a deity was considered a ka , another component of its being , which acted as a vessel for that deity 's ba to inhabit . The cult images that were the focus of temple rituals , as well as the sacred animals that represented certain deities , were believed to house divine bas in this way . Deities could be ascribed many bas and kas , which were sometimes given names representing different aspects of their nature . Everything in existence was said to be one of the kas of Atum the creator god , who originally contained all things within himself , and one deity could be called the ba of another , meaning that the first one is a manifestation of the other 's power . Divine body parts could act as separate deities , such as the Eye of Ra and Hand of Atum , both of which were personified as goddesses . Deities were so full of life - giving power that even their bodily fluids could transform into other living things ; humankind was said to have sprung from the creator god 's tears , and the other deities from his sweat . Nationally important deities gave rise to local manifestations , which sometimes absorbed the characteristics of older regional deities . Horus had many forms tied to particular places , including Horus of Nekhen , Horus of Buhen , and Horus of Edfu . Such local manifestations could be treated almost as separate beings . During the New Kingdom , one man was accused of stealing clothes by an oracle supposed to communicate messages from Amun of Pe - Khenty . He consulted two other local oracles of Amun hoping for a different judgment . Manifestations of deities also differed according to their roles . Horus could be a powerful sky god or a vulnerable child , and these forms were sometimes counted as independent deities . Deities were combined with each other as easily as they were divided . One could be called the ba of another , or two or more deities could be joined into one with a combined name and iconography . Local deities were linked with greater ones , and deities with similar functions were combined . Ra was connected with the local deity Sobek to form Sobek - Ra ; with his fellow ruling god , Amun , to form Amun - Ra ; with the solar form of Horus to form Ra - Horakhty ; and with several solar deities as Horemakhet - Khepri - Ra - Atum . On rare occasion , even deities of different sexes were joined in this way , producing combinations such as Osiris - Neith and Mut - Min . This linking of deities is called syncretism . Unlike other situations for which this term is used , the Egyptian practice was not meant to fuse competing belief systems , although foreign deities could be syncretized with native ones . Instead , syncretism acknowledged the overlap between deities ' roles and extended the sphere of influence for each of them . Syncretic combinations were not permanent ; a deity who was involved in one combination continued to appear separately and to form new combinations with other deities , but closely connected deities did sometimes merge . Horus absorbed several falcon gods from various regions , such as Khenti - irty and Khenti - kheti , who became little more than local manifestations of him . Hathor subsumed a similar cow goddess , Bat , An early funerary god , Khenti - Amentiu , was supplanted by Osiris and Anubis . Aten and possible monotheism ( edit ) Main article : Atenism In the reign of Akhenaten ( c. 1353 -- 1336 BC ) in the mid-New Kingdom , a single solar deity , the Aten , became the major focus of the state religion . Akhenaten ceased to fund the temples of other deities and erased their names and images on some monuments . This new religious system , sometimes called Atenism , differed dramatically from the polytheistic worship of many deities in all other periods . Whereas , in earlier times , newly important deities were integrated into existing religious beliefs , Atenism stressed a single understanding of the divine that excluded the traditional multiplicity of perspectives . Yet Atenism was not full monotheism , which totally excludes belief in other deities . There is evidence suggesting that the general populace was still allowed to worship other deities . The picture is further complicated by Atenism 's apparent tolerance for some other deities , such as Shu and the retention of the patronage of Wadjet and Nekhbet . For these reasons , the Egyptologist Dominic Montserrat suggested that Akhenaten may have been monolatrous , worshipping a single deity while acknowledging the existence of others . In any case , Atenism 's aberrant theology did not take root among the Egyptian populace , and Akhenaten 's successors returned to traditional beliefs . Unity of the divine in traditional religion ( edit ) The god Bes with the attributes of many other deities , images such as this represent the presence of a multitude of divine powers within a single being . Scholars have long debated whether traditional Egyptian religion ever asserted that the multiple deities were , on a deeper level , unified . Reasons for this debate include the practice of syncretism , which might suggest that all the separate deities could ultimately merge into one , and the tendency of Egyptian texts to credit a particular one with power that surpasses all other deities . Another point of contention is the appearance of wisdom literature , where the term deity does not refer to a specific one or a group . In the early twentieth century , for instance , E.A. Wallis Budge believed that Egyptian commoners were polytheistic , but that knowledge of a monotheistic nature of the religion was reserved for the elite , who wrote the wisdom literature . His contemporary James Henry Breasted thought Egyptian religion was instead pantheistic , with the power of the sun god present in all other deities , while Hermann Junker argued that Egyptian civilization had been originally monotheistic and became polytheistic in the course of its history . In 1971 , Erik Hornung published a study rebutting these views . He points out that in any given period many deities , even minor ones , were described as superior to all others . He also argues that the unspecified `` god '' in the wisdom texts is a generic term for whichever deity the reader chooses to revere . Although the combinations , manifestations , and iconographies of each deity were constantly shifting , they were always restricted to a finite number of forms , never becoming fully interchangeable in a monotheistic or pantheistic way . Henotheism , Hornung says , describes Egyptian religion better than other labels . An Egyptian could worship any deity at a particular time and credit it with supreme power in that moment , without denying the others or merging them all with the deity that he or she focused on . Hornung concludes that the deities were fully unified only in myth , at the time before creation , after which the multitude emerged from a uniform nonexistence . Hornung 's arguments have greatly influenced other scholars of Egyptian religion , but some still believe that at times the deities were more unified than he allows . Jan Assmann maintains that the notion of a single deity developed slowly through the New Kingdom , beginning with a focus on Amun - Ra as the all - important sun god . In his view , Atenism was an extreme outgrowth of this trend . It equated the single deity with the sun and dismissed all others . Then , in the backlash against Atenism , priestly theologians described the universal god in a different way , one that coexisted with traditional polytheism . The one god was believed to transcend the world and all the other deities , while at the same time , the multiple deities were aspects of the one . According to Assmann , this one god was especially equated with Amun , the dominant god in the late New Kingdom , whereas for the rest of Egyptian history the universal deity could be identified with many others . James P. Allen says that coexisting notions of one or many deities would fit well with the `` multiplicity of approaches '' in Egyptian thought , as well as with the henotheistic practice of ordinary worshippers . He says that the Egyptians may have recognized the unity of the divine by `` identifying their uniform notion of ' god ' with a particular god , depending on the particular situation . '' Descriptions and depictions ( edit ) Egyptian writings describe the bodies of deities in detail . They are made of precious materials ; their flesh is gold , their bones are silver , and their hair is lapis lazuli . They give off a scent that the Egyptians likened to the incense used in rituals . Some texts give precise descriptions of particular deities , including their height and eye color . Yet these characteristics are not fixed ; in myths , deities change their appearances to suit their own purposes . Egyptian texts often refer to deities ' true , underlying forms as `` mysterious '' . The Ancient Egyptians ' visual representations of their deities therefore , were not literal . They symbolize specific aspects of each deity 's character , functioning much like the ideograms in hieroglyphic writing . For this reason , the funerary god Anubis is commonly shown in Egyptian art as a dog or jackal , a creature whose scavenging habits threaten the preservation of buried mummies , in an effort to counter this threat and employ it for protection . His black coloring alludes to the color of mummified flesh and to the fertile black soil that Egyptians saw as a symbol of resurrection . Most deities were depicted in several ways . Hathor could be a cow , cobra , lioness , or a woman with bovine horns or ears . By depicting a given deity in different ways , the Egyptians expressed different aspects of its essential nature . They are depicted in a finite number of these symbolic forms , so that deities often could be distinguished from one another by their iconographies . These forms include men and women ( anthropomorphism ) , animals ( zoomorphism ) , and , more rarely , inanimate objects . Combinations of forms , such as deities with human bodies and animal heads , are common . New forms and increasingly complex combinations arose in the course of history , with the most surreal forms often found among the demons of the underworld . Some deities can only be distinguished from others if they are labeled in writing , as with Isis and Hathor . Because of the close connection between these goddesses , they could both wear the cow - horn headdress that was originally Hathor 's alone . Statue of the crocodile god Sobek in fully animal form Certain features of divine images are more useful than others in determining its identity . The head of a given divine image is particularly significant . In a hybrid image , the head represents the original form of the being depicted , so that , as the Egyptologist Henry Fischer put it , `` a lion - headed goddess is a lion - goddess in human form , while a royal sphinx , conversely , is a man who has assumed the form of a lion . '' Divine headdresses , which range from the same types of crowns used by human kings to large hieroglyphs worn on the heads of deities , are another important indicator . In contrast , the objects held in deities ' hands tend to be generic . Male deities hold was staffs , goddesses hold stalks of papyrus , and both sexes carry ankh signs , representing the Egyptian word for `` life '' , to symbolize their life - giving power . The forms in which the deities are shown , although diverse , are limited in many ways . Many creatures that are widespread in Egypt were never used in divine iconography . Others could represent many deities , often because these deities had major characteristics in common . Bulls and rams were associated with virility , cows and falcons with the sky , hippopotami with maternal protection , felines with the sun deities , and serpents with both danger and renewal . Animals that were absent from Egypt in the early stages of its history were not used as divine images . For instance , the horse , which was only introduced in the Second Intermediate Period ( c. 1650 -- 1550 BC ) , never represented a deity . Similarly , the clothes worn by anthropomorphic deities in most periods changed little from the styles used in the Old Kingdom : a kilt , false beard , and often a shirt for male gods and a long , tight - fitting dress for goddesses . The basic anthropomorphic form varies . Child deities are depicted nude , as are some adult deities when their procreative powers are emphasized . Certain male deities are given heavy bellies and breasts , signifying either androgyny or prosperity and abundance . Whereas most gods have red skin and most goddesses are yellow -- the same colors used to depict Egyptian men and women -- some are given unusual , symbolic skin colors . Thus the blue skin and paunchy figure of the god Hapi alludes to the Nile flood he represents and the nourishing fertility it brought . A few deities , such as Osiris , Ptah , and Min , have a `` mummiform '' appearance , with their limbs tightly swathed in cloth . Although these gods resemble mummies , the earliest examples predate the cloth - wrapped style of mummification , and this form may instead , hark back to the earliest , limbless depictions of deities . Some inanimate objects that represent deities are drawn from nature , such as trees or the disk - like emblems for the sun and the moon . Some objects associated with a specific deity , such as the crossed bows representing Neith ( ) or the emblem of Min ( ) , symbolized the cults of those deities in Predynastic times . In many of these cases , the nature of the original object is mysterious . In the Predynastic and Early Dynastic Periods , deities were often represented by divine standards : poles topped by emblems of deities , including both animal forms and inanimate objects . Interactions with humans ( edit ) Relationship with the pharaoh ( edit ) Ramesses III presents offerings to Amun Further information : Pharaoh In official writings , pharaohs are said to be divine , and they are constantly depicted in the company of the deities of the pantheon . The majority of kings , later called pharaohs , were male . He and his predecessors were considered the successors of the deities who had ruled Egypt in mythic prehistory . Living kings were equated with Horus and called the `` son '' of many deities , particularly Osiris and Ra ; deceased kings were equated with these elder gods . The tradition tended to be similar for women who became pharaohs . They had their own mortuary temples where rituals were performed for them during their lives and after their deaths . Few pharaohs were worshipped as deities long after their lifetimes , and non-official texts portray kings in a human light . For these reasons , scholars disagree about how genuinely most Egyptians believed the king to be a deity . The king may only have been considered divine when performing ceremonies . However much it was believed , the king 's divine status was the rationale for a role as Egypt 's representative to the deities , forming a link between the divine and human realms . The Egyptians believed the deities needed temples to dwell in , as well as the periodic performance of rituals and presentation of offerings to nourish them . These things were provided by the cults that the king oversaw , with their priests and laborers . Yet , according to royal ideology , temple - building was exclusively the pharaoh 's work , as were the rituals that priests usually performed in his stead . These acts were a part of the king 's fundamental role : maintaining maat . The king and the entire nation provided the deities with maat so they could continue to perform their functions , which maintained maat in the cosmos so humans could continue to live . Presence in the human world ( edit ) Although the Egyptians believed their deities to be present in the world around them , contact between the human and divine realms was mostly limited to specific circumstances . In literature , deities may appear to humans in a physical form , but in real life the Egyptians were limited to more indirect means of communication . The ba of a deity was said to periodically leave the divine realm to dwell in the images of that deity . By inhabiting these images , the they left their concealed state and took on a physical form . To the Egyptians , a place or object that was ḏsr -- `` sacred '' -- was isolated and ritually pure , and thus fit for a deity to inhabit . Temple statues and reliefs , as well as particular sacred animals , such as the Apis bull , served as divine intermediaries in this way . Dreams and trances provided a very different venue for interaction . In these states , it was believed , people could come close to the deities and sometimes receive messages from them . Finally , according to Egyptian afterlife beliefs , human souls pass into the divine realm after death . The Egyptians therefore believed that in death , they would exist on the same level as the deities and fully understand their mysterious nature . Ramesses II ( second from right ) with the gods Ptah , Amun , and Ra in the sanctuary of the Great Temple at Abu Simbel Temples , where the state rituals were carried out , were filled with images of the deities . The most important temple image was the cult statue in the inner sanctuary . These statues were usually less than life - size , and made of the same precious materials that were said to form the bodies of the deities . Many temples had several sanctuaries , each with a cult statue representing one of the deities in a group , such as a family triad . The city 's primary deity was envisioned as its lord , employing many of the residents as servants in the divine household that the temple represented . The deities residing in the temples of Egypt collectively represented the entire pantheon , but many deities -- including some important ones as well as those who were minor or hostile -- were never given temples of their own , although some were represented in the temples of other deities . To insulate the sacred power in the sanctuary from the impurities of the outside world , the Egyptians enclosed temple sanctuaries and greatly restricted access to them . People other than kings and high priests were thus denied contact with cult statues . The only exception was during festival processions , when the cult statue was carried out of the temple , but still enclosed in a portable shrine . People did have less direct means of interaction . The more public parts of temples often incorporated small places for prayer , from doorways to freestanding chapels near the back of the temple building . Communities also built and managed small chapels for their own use , and some families had shrines inside their homes . Despite the gulf that separated humanity from the divine , the Egyptians were surrounded by opportunities to approach their deities . Intervention in human lives ( edit ) Egyptian deities were involved in human lives as well as in the overarching order of nature . This divine influence applied mainly to Egypt , as foreign peoples traditionally were believed to be outside the divine order . In the New Kingdom , however , when other nations were under Egyptian control , foreigners were said to be under the sun deity 's benign rule in the same way that Egyptians were . Thoth , as the overseer of time , was said to allot fixed lifespans to both humans and deities . Other deities were also said to govern the length of human lives , including Meskhenet and Renenutet , both of whom presided over birth , and Shai , the personification of fate . Thus the time and manner of death was the main meaning of the Egyptian concept of fate , although to some extent these deities governed other events in life as well . Several texts refer to deities influencing or inspiring human decisions , working through a person 's `` heart '' -- the seat of emotion and intellect in Egyptian belief . Deities were also believed to give commands , instructing the king in the governance of his realm and regulating the management of their temples . Egyptian texts rarely mention direct commands given to private persons , and these commands never evolved into a set of divinely enforced moral codes . Morality in ancient Egypt was based on the concept of maat , which , when applied to human society , meant that everyone should live in an orderly way that did not interfere with the well - being of other people . Because deities were the upholders of maat , morality was connected with them . For example , the deities judged humans ' moral righteousness after death , and by the New Kingdom , a verdict of innocence in this judgment was believed to be necessary for admittance into the afterlife . In general , however , morality was based on practical ways to uphold maat in daily life , rather than on strict rules that the dieties laid out . Amulet of the god Shed Humans had free will to ignore divine guidance and the behavior required by maat , but by doing so , they could bring divine punishment upon themselves . A deity carried out this punishment using its ba , the force that manifested the deity 's power in the human world . Natural disasters and human ailments were seen as the work of angry divine bas . Conversely , the deities could cure righteous people of illness or even extend their lifespans . Both these types of intervention were eventually represented by deities : Shed , who emerged in the New Kingdom to represent divine rescue from harm , and Petbe , an apotropaic god from the late eras of Egyptian history who was believed to avenge wrongdoing . Egyptian texts take different views on whether the deities are responsible when humans suffer unjustly . Misfortune was often seen as a product of isfet , the cosmic disorder that was the opposite of maat , and therefore the deities were not guilty of causing evil events . Some deities who were closely connected with isfet , such as Set , could be blamed for disorder within the world without placing guilt on the other deities , but some writings do accuse the deities of causing human misery , while others give theodicies in their defense . Beginning in the Middle Kingdom , several texts connected the issue of evil in the world with a myth in which a creator god fights a human rebellion against his rule and then withdraws from the earth . Because of this human misbehavior , the creator is distant from his creation , allowing suffering to exist . New Kingdom writings do not question the just nature of the deities so strongly as those of the Middle Kingdom . They emphasize humans ' direct , personal relationships with deities and the power of the deities to intervene in human events . People in this era put faith in specific deities who they hoped would help and protect them through their lives . As a result , upholding the ideals of maat grew less important than gaining the deities ' favor as a way to guarantee a good life . Even the pharaohs were regarded as dependent on divine aid , and after the New Kingdom came to an end , government was increasingly influenced by oracles communicating the will of the deities . Worship ( edit ) Official religious practices , which maintained maat for the benefit of all of Ancient Egypt , were related to , but distinct from , the religious practices of ordinary people , who sought help from deities for their personal problems . Official religion involved a variety of rituals , based in temples . Some rites were performed every day , whereas others were festivals , taking place at longer intervals and often , limited to a particular temple or deity . The deities received their offerings in daily ceremonies , in which their statues were clothed , anointed , and presented with food as hymns were recited in their honor . These offerings , in addition to maintaining maat for the deities , celebrated their life - giving generosity and encouraged them to remain benevolent rather than vengeful . A woman worships Ra - Horakhty , who blesses her with rays of light . Festivals often involved a ceremonial procession in which a cult image was carried out of the temple in a barque - shaped shrine . These processions served various purposes . In Roman times , when local deities of all kinds were believed to have power over the Nile inundation , processions in many communities carried temple images to the riverbanks so the deities could invoke a large and fruitful flood . Processions also traveled between temples , as when the image of Hathor from Dendera Temple visited her consort Horus at the Temple of Edfu . Rituals for a deity were often based in that deity 's mythology . Such rituals were meant to be repetitions of the events of the mythic past , renewing the beneficial effects of the original events . In the Khoiak festival in honor of Osiris , his death and resurrection were ritually reenacted at a time when crops were beginning to sprout . The returning greenery symbolized the renewal of the his own life . Personal interaction with the deities took many forms . People who wanted information or advice consulted oracles , run by temples , that were supposed to convey divine answers to questions . Amulets and other images of protective deities were used to ward off the demons who might threaten human well - being or to impart the deity 's positive characteristics to the wearer . Private rituals invoked the deities ' power to accomplish personal goals , from healing sickness to cursing enemies . These practices used heka , the same force of magic that the deities used , which the creator was said to have given to humans so they could fend off misfortune . The performer of a private rite often took on the role of a deity in a myth , or even threatened a deity , to involve the deity in accomplishing the goal . Such rituals coexisted with private offerings and prayers , and all three were accepted means of obtaining divine help . Prayer and private offerings , generally called `` personal piety '' , included : acts that reflect a close relationship between an individual and a deity . Evidence of personal piety is scant before the New Kingdom . Votive offerings and personal names , many of which are theophoric , suggest that commoners felt some connection between themselves and their deities , but firm evidence of devotion to deities became visible only in the New Kingdom , reaching a peak late in that era . Scholars disagree about the meaning of this change -- whether direct interaction with the deities was a new development or an outgrowth of older traditions . Egyptians then expressed their devotion through a new variety of activities in and around temples . They recorded their prayers and their thanks for divine help on stelae . They gave offerings of figurines that represented the deities they were praying to , or that symbolized the result they desired ; thus both a relief image of Hathor and a statuette of a woman could represent a prayer for fertility . Occasionally , a person took a particular deity as a patron , dedicating his or her property or labor to the deity 's cult . These practices continued into the latest periods of Ancient Egyptian history . These later eras saw more religious innovations , including the practice of giving animal mummies as offerings to deities depicted in animal form , such as the cat mummies given to the feline goddess Bastet . Some of the major deities from myth and official religion were rarely invoked in popular worship , but many of the great state deities were important in popular tradition . The worship of some Egyptian deities spread to neighboring lands , especially to Canaan and Nubia during the New Kingdom , when those regions were under pharaonic control . In Canaan , the exported deities , including Hathor , Amun , and Set , were often syncretized with native deities , who in turn spread to Egypt . The Egyptian deities may not have had permanent temples in Canaan , and their importance there waned after Egypt lost control of the region . In contrast , many temples to the major Egyptian deities and deified pharaohs were built in Nubia . After the end of Egyptian rule there , the imported deities , particularly Amun and Isis , were syncretized with local deities and remained part of the religion of Nubia 's independent Kingdom of Kush . These deities were incorporated into the Nubian ideology of kingship , much as they were in Egypt , so that Amun was considered the divine father of the king and Isis and other goddesses were linked with the Nubian queen , the kandake . Some deities reached farther . Taweret became a goddess in Minoan Crete , and Amun 's oracle at Siwa Oasis was known to and consulted by people across the Mediterranean region . Jupiter Ammon , a combination of Amun and the Roman god Jupiter Under the Greek Ptolemaic Dynasty and then Roman rule , Greeks and Romans introduced their own deities to Egypt . These newcomers equated the Egyptian deities with their own , as part of the Greco - Roman tradition of interpretatio graeca , but the worship of the native deities was not swallowed up by that of foreign ones . Instead , Greek and Roman deities were adopted as manifestations of Egyptian ones . Egyptian cults sometimes incorporated Greek language , philosophy , iconography , and even temple architecture . Meanwhile , the cults of several Egyptian deities -- particularly Isis , Osiris , Anubis , the form of Horus named Harpocrates , and the fused Greco - Egyptian god Serapis -- were adopted into Roman religion and spread across the Roman Empire . Roman emperors , like Ptolemaic kings before them , invoked Isis and Serapis to endorse their authority , inside and outside Egypt . In the empire 's complex mix of religious traditions , Thoth was transmuted into the legendary esoteric teacher Hermes Trismegistus , and Isis , who was venerated from Britain to Mesopotamia , became the focus of a Greek - style mystery cult . Isis and Hermes Trismegistus were both prominent in the Western esoteric tradition that grew from the Roman religious world . Temples and cults in Egypt declined as the Roman economy deteriorated in the third century AD , and beginning in the fourth century AD , Christians suppressed the veneration of Egyptian deities . The last formal cults , at Philae , died out in the fifth or sixth century . Most beliefs surrounding the Egyptian deities themselves disappeared within a few hundred years , remaining in magical texts into the seventh and eighth centuries . Many of the practices involved in their worship , such as processions and oracles , became adapted to fit Christian ideology and persisted as part of the Coptic Church . Given the great changes and diverse influences in Egyptian culture since that time , scholars disagree about whether any modern Coptic practices are descended from those of pharaonic religion , but many festivals and other traditions of modern Egyptians , both Christian and Muslim , resemble the worship of their ancestors ' deities . See also ( edit ) List of ancient Egyptian deities Notes and citations ( edit ) Notes Jump up ^ Egyptian texts do not expressly state that Osiris dies , and the same is true of other deities . The Egyptians avoided direct statements about inauspicious events such as the death of a beneficial deity . Nevertheless , the myth makes it clear that Osiris is murdered , and other pieces of evidence like the appearance of divine corpses in the Duat indicate that others die as well . By the Late Period ( c. 664 -- 323 BC ) , several sites across Egypt were said to be the burial places of particular deities . Jump up ^ The Egyptian word for `` group of nine '' was psḏt . The Greek - derived term `` ennead '' , which has the same meaning , is commonly used to translate it . Jump up ^ Der Eine und die Vielen , revised several times since 1971 . Its English translation , Conceptions of God in Egypt : The One and the Many , is listed in the `` Works cited '' section of this article . Jump up ^ Divine clothing was sometimes affected by changes in human dress . In the New Kingdom , goddesses were depicted with the same vulture - shaped headdress used by queens in that period , and in Roman times , many apotropaic gods were shown in armor and riding on horseback like soldiers . Jump up ^ No surviving statues of deities are known for certain to have been cult images , although a few have the correct characteristics to have served that purpose . Jump up ^ It was long thought that Philae was closed by the armies of Justinian I between AD 535 and 537 . Recent scholarship has challenged that view and argued that the temple cult ceased to function in the late fifth century , sometime after the last dated signs of activity in 456 or 457 . Citations ^ Jump up to : Allen 2000 , p. 461 Jump up ^ Wilkinson 2003 , p. 72 ^ Jump up to : Allen 1999 , pp. 44 -- 54 , 59 ^ Jump up to : Leitz , Christian , `` Deities and Demons : Egypt '' in Johnston 2004 , pp. 393 -- 394 Jump up ^ Hornung 1982 , p. 42 ^ Jump up to : Dunand & Zivie - Coche 2004 , pp. 8 -- 11 ^ Jump up to : Wilkinson 2003 , pp. 26 -- 28 Jump up ^ Baines 2001 , p. 216 Jump up ^ Hornung 1982 , p. 62 Jump up ^ Baines 2001 , pp. 76 -- 79 Jump up ^ Assmann 2001 , pp. 7 -- 8 , 83 Jump up ^ Dunand & Zivie - Coche 2004 , pp. 11 -- 12 Jump up ^ Wilkinson 1999 , pp. 225 -- 226 ^ Jump up to : Wilkinson 2003 , pp. 12 -- 15 Jump up ^ Gundlach , Rolf , `` Temples '' , in Redford 2001 , p. 363 , vol . III ^ Jump up to : Traunecker 2001 , pp. 25 -- 26 Jump up ^ Hart 2005 , p. 143 Jump up ^ Silverman , David P. , `` Divinity and Deities in Ancient Egypt '' , in Shafer 1991 , pp. 10 -- 13 Jump up ^ David 2002 , p. 57 Jump up ^ David 2002 , p. 50 Jump up ^ Wilkinson 1999 , pp. 264 -- 265 Jump up ^ Traunecker 2001 , p. 29 Jump up ^ Wilkinson 2003 , pp. 92,146 Jump up ^ Hornung 1982 , p. 74 Jump up ^ Wilkinson 2003 , p. 74 Jump up ^ Wildung 1977 , pp. 1 -- 3 , 31 Jump up ^ Wildung 1977 , pp. 31 , 83 Jump up ^ Baines , John , `` Society , Morality , and Religious Practice '' , in Shafer 1991 , pp. 158 -- 159 Jump up ^ Silverman , David P. , `` Divinity and Deities in Ancient Egypt '' , in Shafer 1991 , p. 58 Jump up ^ Frankfurter , David , `` Histories : Egypt , Later Period '' in Johnston 2004 , p. 160 Jump up ^ Englund , Gertie , `` Gods as a Frame of Reference : On Thinking and Concepts of Thought in Ancient Egypt '' , in Englund 1989 , pp. 9 -- 10 Jump up ^ Tobin 1989 , p. 18 ^ Jump up to : Englund , Gertie , `` Gods as a Frame of Reference : On Thinking and Concepts of Thought in Ancient Egypt '' , in Englund 1989 , pp. 19 -- 20 , 26 -- 27 Jump up ^ Allen 2000 , pp. 43 -- 45 Jump up ^ Dunand & Zivie - Coche 2004 , p. 26 Jump up ^ Hart 2005 , pp. 91 , 147 Jump up ^ Hart 2005 , pp. 85 -- 86 Jump up ^ David 2002 , pp. 58 , 227 ^ Jump up to : Tobin 1989 , pp. 197 -- 200 ^ Jump up to : Traunecker 2001 , pp. 85 -- 86 Jump up ^ Hornung 1982 , pp. 77 -- 79 Jump up ^ Assmann 2001 , p. 63 Jump up ^ David 2002 , pp. 57 -- 58 Jump up ^ Hornung 1982 , pp. 98 -- 99 , 166 -- 169 Jump up ^ Wilkinson 2003 , p. 39 ^ Jump up to : Meeks , Dimitri , `` Demons '' , in Redford 2001 , p. 375 , vol . I Jump up ^ Lucarelli , Rita , `` Demons ( benevolent and malevolent ) '' , 2010 , in Wendrich , pp. 2 -- 5 ^ Jump up to : Frandsen , Paul John , `` Faeces of the Creator or the Temptations of the Dead '' , in Kousoulis 2011 , pp. 59 -- 62 Jump up ^ Roccati , Alessandro , `` Demons as Reflections of Human Society '' , in Kousoulis 2011 , pp. 93 -- 96 Jump up ^ Ritner , Robert K. , `` An Eternal Curse upon the Reader of These Lines '' , in Kousoulis 2011 , pp. 3 -- 5 Jump up ^ Assmann 2001 , p. 68 Jump up ^ Hornung 1982 , pp. 207 -- 209 Jump up ^ Assmann 2001 , pp. 57 -- 64 Jump up ^ Pinch 2004 , pp. 57 , 68 , 84 , 86 ^ Jump up to : Traunecker 2001 , pp. 10 -- 12 Jump up ^ Meeks & Favard - Meeks 1996 , pp. 63 , 70 -- 72 , 80 Jump up ^ Wilkinson 2003 , p. 31 Jump up ^ Meeks & Favard - Meeks 1996 , pp. 101 -- 102 , 107 Jump up ^ Assmann 2001 , p. 112 Jump up ^ Tobin 1989 , pp. 38 -- 40 Jump up ^ David 2002 , pp. 81 -- 83 Jump up ^ Lesko , Leonard H. , `` Ancient Egyptian Cosmogonies and Cosmology '' , in Shafer 1991 , pp. 91 -- 96 Jump up ^ Lesko , Leonard H. , `` Ancient Egyptian Cosmogonies and Cosmology '' , in Shafer 1991 , pp. 104 -- 106 Jump up ^ Tobin 1989 , pp. 58 -- 59 Jump up ^ Pinch 2004 , pp. 76 , 85 Jump up ^ Meeks & Favard - Meeks 1996 , pp. 16 -- 17 , 19 -- 22 Jump up ^ Meeks & Favard - Meeks 1996 , pp. 21 -- 22 , 78 -- 80 ^ Jump up to : Hornung 1982 , pp. 152 -- 162 Jump up ^ Dunand & Zivie - Coche 2004 , pp. 66 -- 70 ^ Jump up to : Hornung 1982 , pp. 166 -- 169 Jump up ^ Meeks & Favard - Meeks 1996 , pp. 81 -- 82 , 87 -- 90 Jump up ^ Hornung 1982 , pp. 178 -- 182 ^ Jump up to : Assmann 2001 , pp. 17 -- 19 , 43 -- 47 Jump up ^ Silverman , David P. , `` Divinity and Deities in Ancient Egypt '' , in Shafer 1991 , pp. 38 -- 41 Jump up ^ David 2002 , pp. 154 -- 155 ^ Jump up to : Hornung 1982 , pp. 66 -- 68 , 72 Jump up ^ Graindorge , Catherine , `` Sokar '' , in Redford 2001 , pp. 305 -- 307 , vol . III Jump up ^ Wilkinson 2003 , p. 210 Jump up ^ Meeks & Favard - Meeks 1996 , pp. 97 -- 100 Jump up ^ Hornung 1982 , pp. 90 -- 91 Jump up ^ Budde , Dagmar , `` Epithets , Divine '' , 2011 , in Wendrich , pp. 6 -- 7 Jump up ^ Wilkinson 2003 , p. 228 Jump up ^ Hornung 1982 , p. 86 Jump up ^ Assmann 2001 , pp. 101 , 112 , 134 Jump up ^ Wilkinson 2003 , p. 75 Jump up ^ Tobin 1989 , pp. 51 -- 52 Jump up ^ Traunecker 2001 , pp. 58 -- 59 Jump up ^ Dunand & Zivie - Coche 2004 , pp. 29 -- 31 Jump up ^ Meeks & Favard - Meeks 1996 , p. 184 Jump up ^ Hornung 1982 , p. 146 Jump up ^ Pinch 2004 , pp. 137 -- 138 ^ Jump up to : Wilkinson 2003 , pp. 74 -- 79 , 83 -- 85 Jump up ^ Wilkinson 2003 , pp. 18 , 74 -- 75 , 160 Jump up ^ Englund , Gertie , `` The Treatment of Opposites in Temple Thinking and Wisdom Literature '' , in Englund 1989 , pp. 77 -- 79 , 81 Jump up ^ Assmann 2001 , pp. 238 -- 239 Jump up ^ David 2002 , p. 247 Jump up ^ Baines , John , `` Society , Morality , and Religious Practice '' , in Shafer 1991 , p. 188 ^ Jump up to : Meeks & Favard - Meeks 1996 , pp. 34 -- 36 Jump up ^ Wilkinson 2003 , p. 67 Jump up ^ Lesko 1999 , p. 84 Jump up ^ Wilkinson 2003 , pp. 92 -- 93 , 146 Jump up ^ Traunecker , Claude , `` Kamutef '' , in Redford 2001 , pp. 221 -- 222 , vol. 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I Jump up ^ Teeter 2011 , pp. 76 -- 77 Jump up ^ Morenz 1973 , pp. 49 -- 52 , 57 Jump up ^ Hornung 1982 , p. 155 Jump up ^ Hart 2005 , pp. 92 , 136 , 146 Jump up ^ Morenz 1973 , pp. 60 -- 67 , 72 Jump up ^ Tobin 1989 , pp. 180 -- 183 , 190 Jump up ^ Baines , John , `` Society , Morality , and Religious Practice '' , in Shafer 1991 , pp. 163 -- 164 Jump up ^ Traunecker 2001 , pp. 33 , 98 Jump up ^ Dunand & Zivie - Coche 2004 , pp. 138 -- 139 Jump up ^ Ockinga , Boyo , `` Piety '' , in Redford 2001 , pp. 44 -- 46 , vol . III Jump up ^ Frankfurter 1998 , pp. 116 -- 119 Jump up ^ Baines , John , `` Society , Morality , and Religious Practice '' , in Shafer 1991 , pp. 163 -- 164 , 186 -- 187 Jump up ^ Enmarch , Roland , `` Theodicy '' , 2008 , in Wendrich , pp. 1 -- 3 Jump up ^ Assmann 2001 , p. 242 Jump up ^ Baines , John , `` Society , Morality , and Religious Practice '' , in Shafer 1991 , pp. 126 -- 127 Jump up ^ Teeter 2011 , p. 76 Jump up ^ Dunand & Zivie - Coche 2004 , pp. 90 -- 91 Jump up ^ Hornung 1982 , pp. 203 -- 206 , 214 Jump up ^ Wilkinson 2003 , p. 33 ^ Jump up to : Dunand & Zivie - Coche 2004 , pp. 95 -- 96 Jump up ^ Frankfurter 1998 , p. 42 Jump up ^ Tobin 1989 , pp. 28 -- 30 Jump up ^ Teeter 2011 , pp. 58 -- 63 ^ Jump up to : Baines , John , `` Society , Morality , and Religious Practice '' , in Shafer 1991 , pp. 165 -- 172 Jump up ^ Frankfurter 1998 , pp. 119 , 175 Jump up ^ Andrews , Carol , `` Amulets '' , in Redford 2001 , p. 81 , vol . I Jump up ^ Ritner , Robert K. , `` Magic : An Overview '' , in Redford 2001 , pp. 321 -- 326 , vol. II Jump up ^ David 2002 , pp. 270 -- 272 , 283 -- 286 Jump up ^ Baines , John , `` Society , Morality , and Religious Practice '' , in Shafer 1991 , pp. 173 -- 179 Jump up ^ Luiselli , Michela , `` Personal Piety ( modern theories related to ) '' , 2008 , in Wendrich , pp. 1 -- 4 Jump up ^ Baines , John , `` Society , Morality , and Religious Practice '' , in Shafer 1991 , pp. 180 -- 184 Jump up ^ Teeter 2011 , pp. 78 -- 90 , 102 -- 103 Jump up ^ David 2002 , pp. 312 -- 315 ^ Jump up to : Morenz 1973 , pp. 235 -- 243 Jump up ^ Traunecker 2001 , pp. 108 -- 110 Jump up ^ Fisher et al. 2012 , pp. 122 -- 129 Jump up ^ Wilkinson 2003 , p. 186 Jump up ^ Mills , Anthony J. , `` Western Desert '' , in Redford 2001 , p. 500 , vol . III Jump up ^ Johnston 2004 , pp. 392 -- 393 ^ Jump up to : Frankfurter , David , `` Histories : Egypt , Later period '' , in Johnston 2004 , pp. 161 -- 163 Jump up ^ Bricault , Versluys & Meyboom 2007 , pp. 494 -- 498 , 545 -- 547 Jump up ^ Versluys , Miguel John , `` Aegyptiaca Romana : The Widening Debate '' , in Bricault , Versluys & Meyboom 2007 , pp. 3 -- 6 Jump up ^ Dunand & Zivie - Coche 2004 , pp. 218 -- 221 Jump up ^ Struck , Peter T. , `` Esotericism and Mysticism : Hermeticism '' , in Johnston 2004 , pp. 650 -- 652 Jump up ^ Wilkinson 2003 , p. 143 Jump up ^ Gasparro , Giulia Sfameni , `` The Hellenistic Face of Isis '' , in Bricault , Versluys & Meyboom 2007 , p. 41 Jump up ^ Kadish , Gerald E. , `` Wisdom Tradition '' , in Redford 2001 , pp. 507 -- 509 ^ Jump up to : Kockelmann , Holger , `` Philae '' , 2012 , in Wendrich , pp. 6 -- 8 Jump up ^ Naguib , Saphinaz - Amal , `` Survivals of Pharaonic Religious Practices in Contemporary Coptic Christianity '' , 2008 , in Wendrich , pp. 2 -- 5 Works cited ( edit ) Allen , James P. ( Jul -- Aug 1999 ) . `` Monotheism : The Egyptian Roots '' . Archaeology Odyssey. 2 ( 3 ) . Allen , James P. ( 2000 ) . Middle Egyptian : An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs . Cambridge University Press . ISBN 978 - 0 - 521 - 77483 - 3 . Assmann , Jan ( 2001 ) ( 1984 ) . The Search for God in Ancient Egypt . Translated by David Lorton . Cornell University Press . ISBN 0 - 8014 - 3786 - 5 . Baines , John ( 2001 ) ( 1985 ) . Fecundity Figures : Egyptian personification and the iconology of a genre . Griffith Institute . ISBN 978 - 0 - 8014 - 3786 - 1 . Bricault , Laurent ; Versluys , Miguel John ; Meyboom , Paul G.P. , eds. ( 2007 ) . Nile into Tiber : Egypt in the Roman World . Proceedings of the IIIrd International Conference of Isis Studies , Faculty of Archaeology , Leiden University , May 11 -- 14 , 2005 . Brill . ISBN 978 - 90 - 04 - 15420 - 9 . David , Rosalie ( 2002 ) . Religion and Magic in Ancient Egypt . Penguin . ISBN 978 - 0 - 14 - 026252 - 0 . Dunand , Françoise ; Zivie - Coche , Christiane ( 2004 ) ( 1991 ) . Gods and Men in Egypt : 3000 BCE to 395 CE . Translated by David Lorton . Cornell University Press . ISBN 978 - 0 - 8014 - 8853 - 5 . Englund , Gertie , ed. ( 1989 ) . The Religion of the Ancient Egyptians : Cognitive Structures and Popular Expressions . S. Academiae Ubsaliensis . ISBN 978 - 91 - 554 - 2433 - 6 . Fisher , Marjorie M. ; Lacovara , Peter ; Ikram , Salima ; et al. , eds. ( 2012 ) . Ancient Nubia : African Kingdoms on the Nile . The American University in Cairo Press . ISBN 978 - 977 - 416 - 478 - 1 . Frankfurter , David ( 1998 ) . Religion in Roman Egypt : Assimilation and Resistance . Princeton University Press . ISBN 978 - 0 - 691 - 07054 - 4 . Hart , George ( 2005 ) . The Routledge Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses , Second Edition . Routledge . ISBN 978 - 0 - 203 - 02362 - 4 . Hornung , Erik ( 1982 ) ( 1971 ) . Conceptions of God in Egypt : The One and the Many . Translated by John Baines . Cornell University Press . ISBN 978 - 0 - 8014 - 1223 - 3 . Johnston , Sarah Iles , ed. ( 2004 ) . Religions of the Ancient World : A Guide . The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press . ISBN 978 - 0 - 674 - 01517 - 3 . Kousoulis , Panagiotis , ed. ( 2011 ) . Ancient Egyptian Demonology : Studies on the Boundary between the Demonic and the Divine in Egyptian Magic . Peeters . ISBN 978 - 90 - 429 - 2040 - 8 . Lesko , Barbara S. ( 1999 ) . The Great Goddesses of Egypt . University of Oklahoma Press . ISBN 978 - 0 - 8061 - 3202 - 0 . Meeks , Dimitri ; Favard - Meeks , Christine ( 1996 ) ( 1993 ) . Daily Life of the Egyptian Gods . Translated by G.M. Goshgarian . Cornell University Press . ISBN 978 - 0 - 8014 - 8248 - 9 . Montserrat , Dominic ( 2000 ) . Akhenaten : History , Fantasy , and Ancient Egypt . Routledge . ISBN 978 - 0 - 415 - 18549 - 3 . Morenz , Siegfried ( 1973 ) ( 1960 ) . Ancient Egyptian Religion . Translated by Ann E. Keep . Methuen . ISBN 978 - 0 - 8014 - 8029 - 4 . Pinch , Geraldine ( 2004 ) ( 2002 ) . Egyptian Mythology : A Guide to the Gods , Goddesses , and Traditions of Ancient Egypt . Oxford University Press . ISBN 978 - 0 - 19 - 517024 - 5 . Redford , Donald B. , ed. ( 2001 ) . The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt . Oxford University Press . ISBN 978 - 0 - 19 - 510234 - 5 . Shafer , Byron E. , ed. ( 1991 ) . Religion in Ancient Egypt : Gods , Myths , and Personal Practice . Cornell University Press . ISBN 978 - 0 - 8014 - 9786 - 5 . Teeter , Emily ( 2011 ) . Religion and Ritual in Ancient Egypt . Cambridge University Press . ISBN 978 - 0 - 521 - 61300 - 2 . Tobin , Vincent Arieh ( 1989 ) . Theological Principles of Egyptian Religion . P. Lang . ISBN 978 - 0 - 8204 - 1082 - 1 . Traunecker , Claude ( 2001 ) ( 1992 ) . The Gods of Egypt . Translated by David Lorton . Cornell University Press . ISBN 978 - 0 - 8014 - 3834 - 9 . Wendrich , Willeke ( ed . ) . `` UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology '' . Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures , UC Los Angeles . Retrieved April 4 , 2013 . Wildung , Dietrich ( 1977 ) . Egyptian Saints : Deification in Pharaonic Egypt . New York University Press . ISBN 978 - 0 - 8147 - 9169 - 1 . Wilkinson , Richard H. ( 2003 ) . The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt . Thames & Hudson . ISBN 978 - 0 - 500 - 05120 - 7 . Wilkinson , Toby ( 1999 ) . Early Dynastic Egypt . Routledge . ISBN 978 - 0 - 203 - 02438 - 6 . Further reading ( edit ) Leitz , Christian , ed. ( 2002 ) . Lexikon der ägyptischen Götter und Götterbezeichnungen ( in German ) . Peeters . Vol . I : ISBN 978 - 90 - 429 - 1146 - 8 ; Vol. II : ISBN 978 - 90 - 429 - 1147 - 5 ; Vol . III : ISBN 978 - 90 - 429 - 1148 - 2 ; Vol. IV : ISBN 978 - 90 - 429 - 1149 - 9 ; Vol . V : ISBN 978 - 90 - 429 - 1150 - 5 ; Vol . VI : ISBN 978 - 90 - 429 - 1151 - 2 ; Vol . VII : ISBN 978 - 90 - 429 - 1152 - 9 ; Vol . VIII : ISBN 978 - 90 - 429 - 1376 - 9 . Watterson , Barbara ( 1984 ) . Gods of Ancient Egypt . Guild Publishing . ISBN 978 - 0 - 7134 - 4523 - 7 . External links ( edit ) Wikimedia Commons has media related to Egyptian deities . Gods and goddesses in ancient Egyptian belief at Digital Egypt for Universities Ancient Egyptian religion Mythology Paganism Pantheism Polytheism Emanationism Soul Neter - khertet Aaru Duat Isfet Numerology Deities Aker Akhty Ammit Amun Amunet Am - heh Anat Andjety Anhur Anput Anti Anubis Anuket Apedemak Apep Apis Apt Aqen Arensnuphis Ash Astarte Aten Atum Babi Banebdjedet Bastet Bat Bata Ba - Pef Bes Buchis Dedun Four sons of Horus Duamutef Hapi Imset Qebehsenuef Geb Ha Hapi Hathor Hatmehit Hedetet Heh Heka Hemen Hemsut Heqet Hermanubis Hesat Horus Heryshaf Hu Iabet Iah Iat Ihy Imentet Imhotep Isis Iunit Iusaaset Kebechet Kek Khensit Khenti - Amentiu Khenti - kheti Khepri Kherty Khnum Khonsu Kothar - wa - Khasis Maahes Ma'at Mandulis Medjed Mafdet Mehen Mehet - Weret Mehit Menhit Meret Meretseger Meskhenet Min Mnevis Montu Mut Nebethetepet Nebtuwi Nefertem Nehebkau Nehmetawy Neith Nekhbet Neper Nephthys Nu Nut Osiris Pakhet Petbe Ptah Qebui Qetesh Ra Raet - Tawy Rem Renenutet Renpet Repyt Resheph Sah Satis Sekhmet Seker Serapis Serket Seshat Set Shai Shed Shesmetet Shezmu Shu Sia Sobek Sopdet Sopdu Souls of Pe and Nekhen Tatenen Taweret Ta - Bitjet Tefnut Tenenet Thoth Hermes Trismegistus Tjenenyet Tutu Unut Wadjet Wadj - wer Weneg Wepset Wepwawet Werethekau Wosret Creatures Aani Abtu Bennu Griffin Hieracosphinx Medjed Serpopard Sha Sphinx Uraeus Symbols Ankh Atef Atet Benben Book of Thoth Cartouche Crook and flail Deshret Djed Egyptian obelisk Egyptian pool Ennead Eye of Horus Eye of Ra Flooding of the Nile Hedjet Heku Hemhem crown Hennu Imiut fetish Khepresh Kneph Land of Manu Maat Kheru Matet boat Menat Mortuary temple Nebu Nemes Neshmet Ogdoad Ouroboros Pschent Pyramid power Scarab Seqtet boat Serekh Shen ring The Indestructibles Tyet Ushabti Was - sceptre Winged sun Writings Amduat Books of Breathing Book of Caverns Book of the Dead Book of the Earth Book of Gates Coffin Texts Enigmatic Book of the Netherworld Litany of the Eye of Horus Litany of Re Pyramid Texts Beliefs Atenism Curse of the Pharaohs Funerals Offering formula Philosophy Temples Book Ancient Egypt portal Lists of mythological figures By geography Afghan ( pre-Islamic ) African Arabian ( pre-Islamic ) Armenian Anglo - Saxon Australian Aboriginal Aztec Buddhist Canaanite Celtic Chinese Egyptian Estonian Etruscan Georgian Germanic Greek Guanche Haudenosaunee Hawaiian Hebridean Hindu Hittite Indonesian Inuit Irish Japanese Komi Korean Lakota Lithuanian Māori Mā'ohi Maya Mesopotamian Micronesian Mycenaean Native American Ossetian Persian Philippine Roman Sami Samoan Slavic Turkic Tuvaluan Vainakh Yoruba By association Agriculture Art Chaos Death Fate and time Fertility Fire Health Hunting King of the Gods Knowledge Light Love or lust Moon Nations Nature Night Rain Sky Smithing Sun Thresholds Thunder Tree Trickery Vegetation War Water Weather Wind Portal Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ancient_Egyptian_deities&oldid=818351449 '' Categories : Egyptian deities African deities Middle Eastern deities Hidden categories : Featured articles Articles which use infobox templates with no data rows CS1 German - language sources ( de ) Talk Contents About Wikipedia Azərbaycanca Български Català Čeština Español Esperanto فارسی Français Bahasa Indonesia Íslenska Қазақша Македонски مصرى Occitan Português Slovenčina Српски / srpski Tagalog Türkçe Tiếng Việt Edit links This page was last edited on 3 January 2018 , at 01 : 40 . 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who says the following i like none of the gods who are worshipped at night
Ancient Egyptian deities are the goddesses and gods worshipped in ancient Egypt . The beliefs and rituals surrounding these deities formed the core of ancient Egyptian religion , which emerged sometime in prehistory . Deities represented natural forces and phenomena , and the Egyptians supported and appeased them through offerings and rituals so that these forces would continue to function according to maat , or divine order . After the founding of the Egyptian state around 3100 BC , the authority to perform these tasks was controlled by the pharaoh , who claimed to be the representative of the deities and managed the temples where the rituals were carried out . The complex characteristics of the deities were expressed in myths and in intricate relationships between them : family ties , loose groups and hierarchies , and combinations of separate deities into one . Deities ' diverse appearances in art -- as animals , humans , objects , and combinations of different forms -- also alluded , through symbolism , to their essential features . In different eras , various deities were said to hold the highest position in divine society , including the solar deity Ra , the mysterious god Amun , and the mother goddess Isis . The highest deity was usually credited with the creation of the world and often connected with the life - giving power of the sun . Some scholars have argued , based in part on Egyptian writings , that the Egyptians came to recognize a single divine power that lay behind all things and was present in all the other deities . Yet they never abandoned their original polytheistic view of the world , except possibly during the era of Atenism in the fourteenth century BC , when official religion focused mainly on the impersonal sun god Aten . Deities were assumed by the ancient Egyptians to be present throughout the world , capable of influencing natural events and the course of human lives . People interacted with them in temples and unofficial shrines , for personal reasons as well as for larger goals of state rites . Egyptians prayed for divine help , used rituals to compel deities to act , and called upon them for advice . Humans ' relations with their deities were a fundamental part of Egyptian society . `` Deity '' in hieroglyphs or or nṯr `` god '' nṯr. t `` goddess '' `` Deity '' in hieroglyphs or or nṯr `` god '' nṯr. t `` goddess '' The beings in ancient Egyptian tradition who might be labeled as deities are difficult to count . Egyptian texts list the names of many deities whose nature is unknown and make vague , indirect references to other deities who are not even named . The Egyptologist James P. Allen estimates that more than 1,400 deities are named in Egyptian texts , whereas his colleague Christian Leitz says there are `` thousands upon thousands '' of Egyptian deities . The Egyptian language 's terms for these beings were nṯr , `` god '' , and nṯrt , `` goddess '' . Scholars have tried to discern the original nature of the deities by proposing etymologies for these words , but none of these suggestions has gained acceptance , and the origin of the terms remains obscure . The hieroglyphs that were used as ideograms and determinatives in writing these words show some of the traits that the Egyptians connected with divinity . The most common of these signs is a flag flying from a pole . Similar objects were placed at the entrances of temples , representing the presence of a deity , throughout ancient Egyptian history . Other such hieroglyphs include a falcon , reminiscent of several early gods who were depicted as falcons , and a seated male or female deity . The feminine form could also be written with an egg as determinative , connecting goddesses with creation and birth , or with a cobra , reflecting the use of the cobra to depict many female deities . The Egyptians distinguished nṯrw , `` deities '' , from rmṯ , `` people '' , but the meanings of the Egyptian and the English terms do not match perfectly . The term nṯr may have applied to any being that was in some way outside the sphere of everyday life . Deceased humans were called nṯr because they were considered to be like the gods , whereas the term was rarely applied to many of Egypt 's lesser supernatural beings , which modern scholars often call `` demons '' . Egyptian religious art also depicts places , objects , and concepts in human form . These personified ideas range from deities that were important in myth and ritual to obscure beings , only mentioned once or twice , that may be little more than metaphors . Confronting these blurred distinctions between deities and other beings , scholars have proposed various definitions of a `` deity '' . One widely accepted definition , suggested by Jan Assmann , says that a deity has a cult , is involved in some aspect of the universe , and is described in mythology or other forms of written tradition . According to a different definition , by Dimitri Meeks , nṯr applied to any being that was the focus of ritual . From this perspective , `` deities '' included the king , called such after coronation rites , and deceased souls , who entered the divine realm through funeral ceremonies . Likewise , the preeminence of the great deities was maintained by the ritual devotion that was performed for them throughout Egypt . The first written evidence of deities in Egypt comes from the Early Dynastic Period ( c. 3100 -- 2686 BC ) . Deities must have emerged sometime in the preceding Predynastic Period ( before 3100 BC ) and grown out of prehistoric religious beliefs . Predynastic artwork depicts a variety of animal and human figures . Some of these images , such as stars and cattle , are reminiscent of important features of Egyptian religion in later times , but in most cases there is not enough evidence to say whether the images are connected with deities . As Egyptian society grew more sophisticated , clearer signs of religious activity appeared . The earliest known temples appeared in the last centuries of the predynastic era , along with images that resemble the iconographies of known deities : the falcon that represents Horus and several other gods , the crossed arrows that stand for Neith , and the enigmatic `` Set animal '' that represents Set . Many Egyptologists and anthropologists have suggested theories about how the deities developed in these early times . Gustave Jéquier , for instance , thought the Egyptians first revered primitive fetishes , then deities in animal form , and finally deities in human form , whereas Henri Frankfort argued that the deities must have been envisioned in human form from the beginning . Some of these theories are now regarded as too simplistic , and more current ones , such as Siegfried Morenz ' hypothesis that deities emerged as humans began to distinguish themselves from and personify their environment , are difficult to prove . Predynastic Egypt originally consisted of small , independent villages . Because many deities in later times were strongly tied to particular towns and regions , many scholars have suggested that the pantheon formed as disparate communities coalesced into larger states , spreading and intermingling the worship of the old local deities . Others have argued , however , that the most important predynastic deities were , like other elements of Egyptian culture , present all across the country despite the political divisions within it . The final step in the formation of Egyptian religion was the unification of Egypt , in which rulers from Upper Egypt made themselves pharaohs of the entire country . These sacred kings and their subordinates assumed the exclusive right to interact with the deities , and kingship became the unifying focus of the religion . New deities continued to emerge after this transformation . Some important deities such as Isis and Amun are not known to have appeared until the Old Kingdom ( c. 2686 -- 2181 BC ) . Places and concepts could suddenly inspire the creation of a deity to represent them , and deities were sometimes created to serve as opposite - sex counterparts to established gods or goddesses . Kings were said to be divine , although only a few continued to be worshipped long after their deaths . Some non-royal humans were said to have the favor of the deities and were venerated accordingly . This veneration was usually short - lived , but the court architects Imhotep and Amenhotep son of Hapu were regarded as gods centuries after their lifetimes , as were some other officials . Through contact with neighboring civilizations , the Egyptians also adopted foreign deities . Dedun , who is first mentioned in the Old Kingdom , may have come from Nubia , and Baal , Anat , and Astarte , among others , were adopted from Canaanite religion during the New Kingdom ( c. 1550 -- 1070 BC ) . In Greek and Roman times , from 332 BC to the early centuries AD , deities from across the Mediterranean world were revered in Egypt , but the native deities remained , and they often absorbed the cults of these newcomers into their own worship . Modern knowledge of Ancient Egyptian beliefs about their deities is mostly drawn from religious writings produced by their scribes and priests . These people were the elite of Egyptian society and were very distinct from the general populace , most of whom were illiterate . Little is known about how well this broader population knew or understood the sophisticated ideas that the elite developed . Commoner perceptions of the divine may have differed from those of the priests . The populace may , for example , have mistaken the religion 's symbolic statements about the deities and their actions , for literal truth . Overall , what little is known about popular religious belief is consistent with the elite tradition , however . The two traditions form a largely cohesive vision of the deities and their nature . Most Egyptian deities represent natural or social phenomena . The deities were generally said to be immanent in these phenomena -- to be present within nature . The types of phenomena they represented include physical places and objects as well as abstract concepts and forces . The god Shu was the deification of all the world 's air ; the goddess Meretseger oversaw a limited region of the earth , the Theban Necropolis ; and the god Sia personified the abstract notion of perception . Major deities often had many roles and were involved in several types of phenomena . For instance , Khnum was the god of Elephantine Island in the midst of the Nile , the river that was essential to Egyptian civilization . He was credited with producing the annual Nile flood that fertilized the nation 's farmland . Perhaps as an outgrowth of this life - giving function , he was said to create all living things , fashioning their bodies on a potter 's wheel . Deities could share the same role in nature ; Ra , Atum , Khepri , Horus , and other deities acted as sun deities . Despite their diverse functions , most deities had an overarching role in common : maintaining maat , the universal order that was a central principle of Egyptian religion and was itself personified as a goddess . Some deities represented disruption to maat , however . Most prominently , Apep was the force of chaos , constantly threatening to annihilate the order of the universe , and Set was an ambivalent member of divine society who could both fight disorder and foment it . Not all aspects of existence were seen as deities . Although many deities were connected with the Nile , none personified it in the way that Ra personified the sun . Short - lived phenomena , such as rainbows or eclipses , were not represented by deities ; neither were elements such as fire , water , or many other components of the world . The roles of each deity were fluid , and each could expand its nature to take on new characteristics . As a result , their roles are difficult to categorize or define . Despite their flexibility , however , they had limited abilities and spheres of influence . Not even the creator deities could reach beyond the boundaries of the cosmos that they created , and even Isis , although she was said to be the cleverest of the deities , was not omniscient . Richard H. Wilkinson , however , argues that some texts from the late New Kingdom suggest that , as beliefs about the god Amun evolved , he was thought to approach omniscience and omnipresence and to transcend the limits of the world in a way that other deities did not . The deities with the most limited and specialized domains are often called `` minor divinities '' or `` demons '' in modern writing , although there is no firm definition for these terms . Some demons were guardians of particular places , especially in the Duat , the realm of the dead . Others wandered through the human world and the Duat , either as servants and messengers of the greater deities or as roving spirits who caused illness or other misfortunes among humans . Demons ' position in the divine hierarchy was not fixed . The protective goddesses Bes and Taweret originally had minor , demon - like roles , but over time they came to be credited with great influence . The most feared beings in the Duat were regarded as both disgusting and dangerous to humans . Over the course of Ancient Egyptian history , they came to be regarded as fundamentally inferior members of divine society , and to represent the opposite of the beneficial , life - giving major dieties . Sometimes even the most revered deities could exact vengeance on humans or each other , however , displaying a demon - like side to their character and blurring the boundaries between demons and deities . Divine behavior was believed to govern all of nature . Except for the few deities who disrupted the divine order , their actions maintained maat and created and sustained all living things . They did this work using a force the Egyptians called heka , a term usually translated as `` magic '' . Heka was a fundamental power that the creator used to form the world and the deities . The actions of the deities in the present are described and praised in hymns and funerary texts . In contrast , mythology mainly concerns their actions during a vaguely imagined past in which the deities were present on earth and interacted directly with humans . The events of this past time set the pattern for the events of the present . Periodic occurrences were tied to events in the mythic past ; the succession of each new pharaoh , for instance , reenacted Horus ' accession to the throne of his father Osiris . Myths are metaphors for the actions the deities , which humans can not fully understand . They contain seemingly contradictory ideas , each expressing a particular perspective on divine events . The contradictions in myth are part of the Egyptians ' many - faceted approach to religious belief -- what Henri Frankfort called a `` multiplicity of approaches '' to understanding the deities . In myth , deities behave much like humans . They feel emotion ; they can eat , drink , fight , weep , sicken , and die . Some have unique character traits . Set is aggressive and impulsive , and Thoth , patron of writing and knowledge , is prone to long - winded speeches . Yet overall , deities are more like archetypes than well drawn characters . Their behavior is inconsistent , and their thoughts and motivations are rarely stated . Most myths about them lack highly developed characters and plots , because the symbolic meaning of the myths was more important than elaborate storytelling . The first divine act is the creation of the cosmos , described in several creation myths . They focus on different deities , each of which may act as creator . The eight deities of the Ogdoad , who represent the chaos that precedes creation , give birth to the sun deity , who establishes order in the newly formed world ; Ptah , who embodies thought and creativity , gives form to all things by envisioning and naming them ; Atum produces all things as emanations of himself ; and Amun , according to the theology promoted by his priesthood , preceded and created the other creator deities . These and other versions of the events of creation were not seen as contradictory . Each gives a different perspective on the complex process by which the organized universe and its many deities emerged from undifferentiated chaos . The period following creation , in which a series of gods rule as kings over the divine society , is the setting for most myths . They struggle against the forces of chaos and among each other before withdrawing from the human world and installing the historical kings of Egypt to rule in their place . A recurring theme in these myths is the effort of the deities to maintain maat against the forces of disorder . They fight vicious battles with the forces of chaos at the start of creation . Ra and Apep , battling each other each night , continue this struggle into the present . Another prominent theme is a gods ' death and revival . The clearest instance where a god dies is the myth of Osiris ' murder , in which that god is resurrected as ruler of the Duat . The sun god is also said to grow old during his daily journey across the sky , sink into the Duat at night , and emerge as a young child at dawn . In the process he comes into contact with the rejuvenating water of Nun , the primordial chaos . Funerary texts that depict Ra 's journey through the Duat also show the corpses of deities who are enlivened along with him . Instead of being changelessly immortal , periodically , deities died and were reborn by repeating the events of creation , thus renewing the whole world , but it was always possible for this cycle to be disrupted and for chaos to return . Some poorly understood Egyptian texts even suggest that this calamity is destined to happen -- that the creator god will one day dissolve the order of the world , leaving only himself and Osiris amid the primordial chaos . Deities were linked with specific regions of the universe . In Egyptian tradition , the world includes the earth , the sky , and the Duat . Surrounding them is the dark formlessness that existed before creation . In general , the deities were said to dwell in the sky , although those whose roles were linked with other parts of the universe were said to live in those places instead . Most events of mythology , set in a time before the withdrawal of the deities from the human realm , take place in an earthly setting . The deities there sometimes interact with those in the sky . The Duat , in contrast , is treated as a remote and inaccessible place , and the deities who dwell there have difficulty communicating with those in the world of the living . The space outside the cosmos is said to be very distant . It too , is inhabited by deities , some hostile and some beneficial to the others and their orderly world . In the time after myth , most deities were said to be either in the sky or invisibly present within the world . Temples were their main means of contact with humanity . Each day , it was believed , they moved from the divine realm to their temples , their homes in the human world . There they inhabited the cult images , the statues that depicted deities and allowed humans to interact with them in temple rituals . This movement between realms was sometimes described as a journey between the sky and the earth . As temples were the focal points of Egyptian cities , the deity in a city 's main temple was the patron for the city and the surrounding region . Deities ' spheres of influence on earth centered on the towns and regions they presided over . Many had more than one cult center , and their local ties changed over time . They could establish themselves in new cities , or their range of influence could contract . Therefore , a given deity 's main cult center in historical times is not necessarily his or her place of origin . The political influence of a city could affect the importance of its patron deity . When kings from Thebes took control of the country at start of the Middle Kingdom ( c. 2055 -- 1650 BC ) , they elevated the patron gods of Thebes -- first the war god Montu and then Amun -- to national prominence . In Egyptian belief , names express the fundamental nature of the things to which they refer . In keeping with this belief , the names of deities often relate to their roles or origins . The name of the warrior goddess Sekhmet means `` powerful one '' , the name of the mysterious god Amun means `` hidden one '' , and the name of the goddess Nekhbet , who was worshipped in the city of Nekheb , means `` she of Nekheb '' . Many other names have no certain meaning , however , even when the deities who bear them are closely tied to a single role . The names of the sky goddess Nut and the earth god Geb do not resemble the Egyptian terms for sky and earth . The Egyptians also devised false etymologies giving more meanings to divine names . A passage in the Coffin Texts renders the name of the funerary god Sokar as sk r , meaning `` cleaning of the mouth '' , to link his name with his role in the Opening of the Mouth ritual , while one reference in the Pyramid Texts says the name is based on words shouted by Osiris in a moment of distress , connecting Sokar with the most important funerary deity . The deities were believed to have many names . Among them were secret names that conveyed their true natures more profoundly than others . To know the true name of a deity was to have power over it . The importance of names is demonstrated by a myth in which Isis poisons the superior god Ra and refuses to cure him unless he reveals his secret name to her . Upon learning the name , she tells it to her son , Horus , and by learning it they gain greater knowledge and power . In addition to their names , deities were given epithets , such as `` possessor of splendor '' , `` ruler of Abydos '' , or `` lord of the sky '' , that describe some aspect of their roles or their worship . Because of multiple and overlapping roles , deities may have many epithets -- with more important ones accumulating more titles -- and the same epithet may apply to many deities . Some epithets eventually became separate deities , as with Werethekau , an epithet applied to several goddesses meaning , `` great enchantress '' , which came to be treated as an independent goddess . The host of divine names and titles expresses the multifarious nature of the deities . Egyptian deities are connected in a complex and shifting array of relationships . A deities connections and interactions with others helped define its character . Thus Isis , as the mother and protector of Horus , was a great healer as well as the patroness of kings . Such relationships were the base material from which myths were formed . Family relationships are a common type of connection between deities . They often form female and male pairs , reflecting the importance of procreation in Egyptian religious thought . Families of three deities , with a father , mother , and child , represent the creation of new life and the succession of the parent by the child , a pattern that connects divine families with royal succession . Osiris , Isis , and Horus formed the quintessential family of this type . The pattern they set grew more widespread over time , so that many deities in local cult centers , such as Ptah , Sekhmet , and their child Nefertum at Memphis and Amun , Mut , and Khonsu at Thebes , were assembled into family triads . Genealogical connections such as these are changeable , in keeping with the multiple perspectives in Egyptian belief . Hathor , as a fertility goddess , could act as mother to any child deity , including the child form of the sun god , although in other circumstances she was the sun god 's daughter . Other divine groups were composed of deities with interrelated roles , or who together represented a region of the Egyptian mythological cosmos . There were sets of deities for the hours of the day and night and for each nome ( province ) of Egypt . Some of these groups contain a specific , symbolically important number of deities . Paired deities sometimes have similar roles , as do Isis and her sister Nephthys in their protection and support of Osiris . Other pairs stand for opposite , but interrelated concepts that are part of a greater unity . Ra , who is dynamic and light - producing , and Osiris , who is static and shrouded in darkness , merge into a single god each night . Groups of three are linked with plurality in ancient Egyptian thought , and groups of four connote completeness . Rulers in the late New Kingdom promoted a particularly important group of three gods above all others : Amun , Ra , and Ptah . These deities stood for the plurality of all deities , as well as for their own cult centers ( the major cities of Thebes , Heliopolis , and Memphis ) and for many threefold sets of concepts in Egyptian religious thought . Sometimes Set , the patron god of the Nineteenth Dynasty kings and the embodiment of disorder within the world , was added to this group , which emphasized a single coherent vision of the pantheon . Nine , the product of three times three , represents a multitude , so the Egyptians called several large groups `` enneads '' , or sets of nine , even if they had more than nine members . The most prominent ennead was the Ennead of Heliopolis , an extended family of deities descended from the creator god Atum , which incorporates many important deities . The term `` ennead '' was often extended to include all of ancient Egyptian deities . This divine assemblage had a vague and changeable hierarchy . Dieties with broad influence in the cosmos or who were mythologically older than others had higher positions in divine society . At the apex of this society was the king of the gods , who was usually identified with the creator deity . In different periods of Egyptian history , different deities were most frequently said to hold this exalted position . Horus was the most important god in the Early Dynastic Period , Ra rose to preeminence in the Old Kingdom , Amun was supreme in the New , and in the Ptolemaic and Roman periods , it was Isis as the divine queen and creator goddess . Newly prominent deities tended to adopt characteristics from their predecessors . Isis absorbed the traits of many other goddesses during her rise , and when Amun became the ruler of the pantheon , he was conjoined with Ra , the traditional king of the gods , to become a solar deity . The deities were believed to manifest in many forms . The Egyptians had a complex conception of the human soul , consisting of several parts . The spirits of the deities were composed of many of these same elements . The ba was the component of the human or divine soul that affected the world around it . Any visible manifestation of the power of a deity could be called its ba ; thus , the sun was called the ba of Ra . A depiction of a deity was considered a ka , another component of its being , which acted as a vessel for that deity 's ba to inhabit . The cult images that were the focus of temple rituals , as well as the sacred animals that represented certain deities , were believed to house divine bas in this way . Deities could be ascribed many bas and kas , which were sometimes given names representing different aspects of their nature . Everything in existence was said to be one of the kas of Atum the creator god , who originally contained all things within himself , and one deity could be called the ba of another , meaning that the first one is a manifestation of the other 's power . Divine body parts could act as separate deities , such as the Eye of Ra and Hand of Atum , both of which were personified as goddesses . Deities were so full of life - giving power that even their bodily fluids could transform into other living things ; humankind was said to have sprung from the creator god 's tears , and the other deities from his sweat . Nationally important deities gave rise to local manifestations , which sometimes absorbed the characteristics of older regional deities . Horus had many forms tied to particular places , including Horus of Nekhen , Horus of Buhen , and Horus of Edfu . Such local manifestations could be treated almost as separate beings . During the New Kingdom , one man was accused of stealing clothes by an oracle supposed to communicate messages from Amun of Pe - Khenty . He consulted two other local oracles of Amun hoping for a different judgment . Manifestations of deities also differed according to their roles . Horus could be a powerful sky god or a vulnerable child , and these forms were sometimes counted as independent deities . Deities were combined with each other as easily as they were divided . One could be called the ba of another , or two or more deities could be joined into one with a combined name and iconography . Local deities were linked with greater ones , and deities with similar functions were combined . Ra was connected with the local deity Sobek to form Sobek - Ra ; with his fellow ruling god , Amun , to form Amun - Ra ; with the solar form of Horus to form Ra - Horakhty ; and with several solar deities as Horemakhet - Khepri - Ra - Atum . On rare occasion , even deities of different sexes were joined in this way , producing combinations such as Osiris - Neith and Mut - Min . This linking of deities is called syncretism . Unlike other situations for which this term is used , the Egyptian practice was not meant to fuse competing belief systems , although foreign deities could be syncretized with native ones . Instead , syncretism acknowledged the overlap between deities ' roles and extended the sphere of influence for each of them . Syncretic combinations were not permanent ; a deity who was involved in one combination continued to appear separately and to form new combinations with other deities , but closely connected deities did sometimes merge . Horus absorbed several falcon gods from various regions , such as Khenti - irty and Khenti - kheti , who became little more than local manifestations of him . Hathor subsumed a similar cow goddess , Bat , An early funerary god , Khenti - Amentiu , was supplanted by Osiris and Anubis . In the reign of Akhenaten ( c. 1353 -- 1336 BC ) in the mid-New Kingdom , a single solar deity , the Aten , became the major focus of the state religion . Akhenaten ceased to fund the temples of other deities and erased their names and images on some monuments . This new religious system , sometimes called Atenism , differed dramatically from the polytheistic worship of many deities in all other periods . Whereas , in earlier times , newly important deities were integrated into existing religious beliefs , Atenism stressed a single understanding of the divine that excluded the traditional multiplicity of perspectives . Yet Atenism was not full monotheism , which totally excludes belief in other deities . There is evidence suggesting that the general populace was still allowed to worship other deities . The picture is further complicated by Atenism 's apparent tolerance for some other deities , such as Shu and the retention of the patronage of Wadjet and Nekhbet . For these reasons , the Egyptologist Dominic Montserrat suggested that Akhenaten may have been monolatrous , worshipping a single deity while acknowledging the existence of others . In any case , Atenism 's aberrant theology did not take root among the Egyptian populace , and Akhenaten 's successors returned to traditional beliefs . Scholars have long debated whether traditional Egyptian religion ever asserted that the multiple deities were , on a deeper level , unified . Reasons for this debate include the practice of syncretism , which might suggest that all the separate deities could ultimately merge into one , and the tendency of Egyptian texts to credit a particular one with power that surpasses all other deities . Another point of contention is the appearance of wisdom literature , where the term deity does not refer to a specific one or a group . In the early twentieth century , for instance , E.A. Wallis Budge believed that Egyptian commoners were polytheistic , but that knowledge of a monotheistic nature of the religion was reserved for the elite , who wrote the wisdom literature . His contemporary James Henry Breasted thought Egyptian religion was instead pantheistic , with the power of the sun god present in all other deities , while Hermann Junker argued that Egyptian civilization had been originally monotheistic and became polytheistic in the course of its history . In 1971 , Erik Hornung published a study rebutting these views . He points out that in any given period many deities , even minor ones , were described as superior to all others . He also argues that the unspecified `` god '' in the wisdom texts is a generic term for whichever deity the reader chooses to revere . Although the combinations , manifestations , and iconographies of each deity were constantly shifting , they were always restricted to a finite number of forms , never becoming fully interchangeable in a monotheistic or pantheistic way . Henotheism , Hornung says , describes Egyptian religion better than other labels . An Egyptian could worship any deity at a particular time and credit it with supreme power in that moment , without denying the others or merging them all with the deity that he or she focused on . Hornung concludes that the deities were fully unified only in myth , at the time before creation , after which the multitude emerged from a uniform nonexistence . Hornung 's arguments have greatly influenced other scholars of Egyptian religion , but some still believe that at times the deities were more unified than he allows . Jan Assmann maintains that the notion of a single deity developed slowly through the New Kingdom , beginning with a focus on Amun - Ra as the all - important sun god . In his view , Atenism was an extreme outgrowth of this trend . It equated the single deity with the sun and dismissed all others . Then , in the backlash against Atenism , priestly theologians described the universal god in a different way , one that coexisted with traditional polytheism . The one god was believed to transcend the world and all the other deities , while at the same time , the multiple deities were aspects of the one . According to Assmann , this one god was especially equated with Amun , the dominant god in the late New Kingdom , whereas for the rest of Egyptian history the universal deity could be identified with many others . James P. Allen says that coexisting notions of one or many deities would fit well with the `` multiplicity of approaches '' in Egyptian thought , as well as with the henotheistic practice of ordinary worshippers . He says that the Egyptians may have recognized the unity of the divine by `` identifying their uniform notion of ' god ' with a particular god , depending on the particular situation . '' Egyptian writings describe the bodies of deities in detail . They are made of precious materials ; their flesh is gold , their bones are silver , and their hair is lapis lazuli . They give off a scent that the Egyptians likened to the incense used in rituals . Some texts give precise descriptions of particular deities , including their height and eye color . Yet these characteristics are not fixed ; in myths , deities change their appearances to suit their own purposes . Egyptian texts often refer to deities ' true , underlying forms as `` mysterious '' . The Ancient Egyptians ' visual representations of their deities therefore , were not literal . They symbolize specific aspects of each deity 's character , functioning much like the ideograms in hieroglyphic writing . For this reason , the funerary god Anubis is commonly shown in Egyptian art as a dog or jackal , a creature whose scavenging habits threaten the preservation of buried mummies , in an effort to counter this threat and employ it for protection . His black coloring alludes to the color of mummified flesh and to the fertile black soil that Egyptians saw as a symbol of resurrection . Most deities were depicted in several ways . Hathor could be a cow , cobra , lioness , or a woman with bovine horns or ears . By depicting a given deity in different ways , the Egyptians expressed different aspects of its essential nature . They are depicted in a finite number of these symbolic forms , so that deities often could be distinguished from one another by their iconographies . These forms include men and women ( anthropomorphism ) , animals ( zoomorphism ) , and , more rarely , inanimate objects . Combinations of forms , such as deities with human bodies and animal heads , are common . New forms and increasingly complex combinations arose in the course of history , with the most surreal forms often found among the demons of the underworld . Some deities can only be distinguished from others if they are labeled in writing , as with Isis and Hathor . Because of the close connection between these goddesses , they could both wear the cow - horn headdress that was originally Hathor 's alone . Certain features of divine images are more useful than others in determining its identity . The head of a given divine image is particularly significant . In a hybrid image , the head represents the original form of the being depicted , so that , as the Egyptologist Henry Fischer put it , `` a lion - headed goddess is a lion - goddess in human form , while a royal sphinx , conversely , is a man who has assumed the form of a lion . '' Divine headdresses , which range from the same types of crowns used by human kings to large hieroglyphs worn on the heads of deities , are another important indicator . In contrast , the objects held in deities ' hands tend to be generic . Male deities hold was staffs , goddesses hold stalks of papyrus , and both sexes carry ankh signs , representing the Egyptian word for `` life '' , to symbolize their life - giving power . The forms in which the deities are shown , although diverse , are limited in many ways . Many creatures that are widespread in Egypt were never used in divine iconography . Others could represent many deities , often because these deities had major characteristics in common . Bulls and rams were associated with virility , cows and falcons with the sky , hippopotami with maternal protection , felines with the sun deities , and serpents with both danger and renewal . Animals that were absent from Egypt in the early stages of its history were not used as divine images . For instance , the horse , which was only introduced in the Second Intermediate Period ( c. 1650 -- 1550 BC ) , never represented a deity . Similarly , the clothes worn by anthropomorphic deities in most periods changed little from the styles used in the Old Kingdom : a kilt , false beard , and often a shirt for male gods and a long , tight - fitting dress for goddesses . The basic anthropomorphic form varies . Child deities are depicted nude , as are some adult deities when their procreative powers are emphasized . Certain male deities are given heavy bellies and breasts , signifying either androgyny or prosperity and abundance . Whereas most gods have red skin and most goddesses are yellow -- the same colors used to depict Egyptian men and women -- some are given unusual , symbolic skin colors . Thus the blue skin and paunchy figure of the god Hapi alludes to the Nile flood he represents and the nourishing fertility it brought . A few deities , such as Osiris , Ptah , and Min , have a `` mummiform '' appearance , with their limbs tightly swathed in cloth . Although these gods resemble mummies , the earliest examples predate the cloth - wrapped style of mummification , and this form may instead , hark back to the earliest , limbless depictions of deities . In official writings , pharaohs are said to be divine , and they are constantly depicted in the company of the deities of the pantheon . The majority of kings , later called pharaohs , were male . He and his predecessors were considered the successors of the deities who had ruled Egypt in mythic prehistory . Living kings were equated with Horus and called the `` son '' of many deities , particularly Osiris and Ra ; deceased kings were equated with these elder gods . The tradition tended to be similar for women who became pharaohs . They had their own mortuary temples where rituals were performed for them during their lives and after their deaths . Few pharaohs were worshipped as deities long after their lifetimes , and non-official texts portray kings in a human light . For these reasons , scholars disagree about how genuinely most Egyptians believed the king to be a deity . The king may only have been considered divine when performing ceremonies . However much it was believed , the king 's divine status was the rationale for a role as Egypt 's representative to the deities , forming a link between the divine and human realms . The Egyptians believed the deities needed temples to dwell in , as well as the periodic performance of rituals and presentation of offerings to nourish them . These things were provided by the cults that the king oversaw , with their priests and laborers . Yet , according to royal ideology , temple - building was exclusively the pharaoh 's work , as were the rituals that priests usually performed in his stead . These acts were a part of the king 's fundamental role : maintaining maat . The king and the entire nation provided the deities with maat so they could continue to perform their functions , which maintained maat in the cosmos so humans could continue to live . Although the Egyptians believed their deities to be present in the world around them , contact between the human and divine realms was mostly limited to specific circumstances . In literature , deities may appear to humans in a physical form , but in real life the Egyptians were limited to more indirect means of communication . The ba of a deity was said to periodically leave the divine realm to dwell in the images of that deity . By inhabiting these images , the they left their concealed state and took on a physical form . To the Egyptians , a place or object that was ḏsr -- `` sacred '' -- was isolated and ritually pure , and thus fit for a deity to inhabit . Temple statues and reliefs , as well as particular sacred animals , such as the Apis bull , served as divine intermediaries in this way . Dreams and trances provided a very different venue for interaction . In these states , it was believed , people could come close to the deities and sometimes receive messages from them . Finally , according to Egyptian afterlife beliefs , human souls pass into the divine realm after death . The Egyptians therefore believed that in death , they would exist on the same level as the deities and fully understand their mysterious nature . Temples , where the state rituals were carried out , were filled with images of the deities . The most important temple image was the cult statue in the inner sanctuary . These statues were usually less than life - size , and made of the same precious materials that were said to form the bodies of the deities . Many temples had several sanctuaries , each with a cult statue representing one of the deities in a group , such as a family triad . The city 's primary deity was envisioned as its lord , employing many of the residents as servants in the divine household that the temple represented . The deities residing in the temples of Egypt collectively represented the entire pantheon , but many deities -- including some important ones as well as those who were minor or hostile -- were never given temples of their own , although some were represented in the temples of other deities . To insulate the sacred power in the sanctuary from the impurities of the outside world , the Egyptians enclosed temple sanctuaries and greatly restricted access to them . People other than kings and high priests were thus denied contact with cult statues . The only exception was during festival processions , when the cult statue was carried out of the temple , but still enclosed in a portable shrine . People did have less direct means of interaction . The more public parts of temples often incorporated small places for prayer , from doorways to freestanding chapels near the back of the temple building . Communities also built and managed small chapels for their own use , and some families had shrines inside their homes . Despite the gulf that separated humanity from the divine , the Egyptians were surrounded by opportunities to approach their deities . Egyptian deities were involved in human lives as well as in the overarching order of nature . This divine influence applied mainly to Egypt , as foreign peoples traditionally were believed to be outside the divine order . In the New Kingdom , however , when other nations were under Egyptian control , foreigners were said to be under the sun deity 's benign rule in the same way that Egyptians were . Thoth , as the overseer of time , was said to allot fixed lifespans to both humans and deities . Other deities were also said to govern the length of human lives , including Meskhenet and Renenutet , both of whom presided over birth , and Shai , the personification of fate . Thus the time and manner of death was the main meaning of the Egyptian concept of fate , although to some extent these deities governed other events in life as well . Several texts refer to deities influencing or inspiring human decisions , working through a person 's `` heart '' -- the seat of emotion and intellect in Egyptian belief . Deities were also believed to give commands , instructing the king in the governance of his realm and regulating the management of their temples . Egyptian texts rarely mention direct commands given to private persons , and these commands never evolved into a set of divinely enforced moral codes . Morality in ancient Egypt was based on the concept of maat , which , when applied to human society , meant that everyone should live in an orderly way that did not interfere with the well - being of other people . Because deities were the upholders of maat , morality was connected with them . For example , the deities judged humans ' moral righteousness after death , and by the New Kingdom , a verdict of innocence in this judgment was believed to be necessary for admittance into the afterlife . In general , however , morality was based on practical ways to uphold maat in daily life , rather than on strict rules that the dieties laid out . Humans had free will to ignore divine guidance and the behavior required by maat , but by doing so , they could bring divine punishment upon themselves . A deity carried out this punishment using its ba , the force that manifested the deity 's power in the human world . Natural disasters and human ailments were seen as the work of angry divine bas . Conversely , the deities could cure righteous people of illness or even extend their lifespans . Both these types of intervention were eventually represented by deities : Shed , who emerged in the New Kingdom to represent divine rescue from harm , and Petbe , an apotropaic god from the late eras of Egyptian history who was believed to avenge wrongdoing . Egyptian texts take different views on whether the deities are responsible when humans suffer unjustly . Misfortune was often seen as a product of isfet , the cosmic disorder that was the opposite of maat , and therefore the deities were not guilty of causing evil events . Some deities who were closely connected with isfet , such as Set , could be blamed for disorder within the world without placing guilt on the other deities , but some writings do accuse the deities of causing human misery , while others give theodicies in their defense . Beginning in the Middle Kingdom , several texts connected the issue of evil in the world with a myth in which a creator god fights a human rebellion against his rule and then withdraws from the earth . Because of this human misbehavior , the creator is distant from his creation , allowing suffering to exist . New Kingdom writings do not question the just nature of the deities so strongly as those of the Middle Kingdom . They emphasize humans ' direct , personal relationships with deities and the power of the deities to intervene in human events . People in this era put faith in specific deities who they hoped would help and protect them through their lives . As a result , upholding the ideals of maat grew less important than gaining the deities ' favor as a way to guarantee a good life . Even the pharaohs were regarded as dependent on divine aid , and after the New Kingdom came to an end , government was increasingly influenced by oracles communicating the will of the deities . Official religious practices , which maintained maat for the benefit of all of Ancient Egypt , were related to , but distinct from , the religious practices of ordinary people , who sought help from deities for their personal problems . Official religion involved a variety of rituals , based in temples . Some rites were performed every day , whereas others were festivals , taking place at longer intervals and often , limited to a particular temple or deity . The deities received their offerings in daily ceremonies , in which their statues were clothed , anointed , and presented with food as hymns were recited in their honor . These offerings , in addition to maintaining maat for the deities , celebrated their life - giving generosity and encouraged them to remain benevolent rather than vengeful . Festivals often involved a ceremonial procession in which a cult image was carried out of the temple in a barque - shaped shrine . These processions served various purposes . In Roman times , when local deities of all kinds were believed to have power over the Nile inundation , processions in many communities carried temple images to the riverbanks so the deities could invoke a large and fruitful flood . Processions also traveled between temples , as when the image of Hathor from Dendera Temple visited her consort Horus at the Temple of Edfu . Rituals for a deity were often based in that deity 's mythology . Such rituals were meant to be repetitions of the events of the mythic past , renewing the beneficial effects of the original events . In the Khoiak festival in honor of Osiris , his death and resurrection were ritually reenacted at a time when crops were beginning to sprout . The returning greenery symbolized the renewal of the his own life . Personal interaction with the deities took many forms . People who wanted information or advice consulted oracles , run by temples , that were supposed to convey divine answers to questions . Amulets and other images of protective deities were used to ward off the demons who might threaten human well - being or to impart the deity 's positive characteristics to the wearer . Private rituals invoked the deities ' power to accomplish personal goals , from healing sickness to cursing enemies . These practices used heka , the same force of magic that the deities used , which the creator was said to have given to humans so they could fend off misfortune . The performer of a private rite often took on the role of a deity in a myth , or even threatened a deity , to involve the deity in accomplishing the goal . Such rituals coexisted with private offerings and prayers , and all three were accepted means of obtaining divine help . Prayer and private offerings , generally called `` personal piety '' , included : acts that reflect a close relationship between an individual and a deity . Evidence of personal piety is scant before the New Kingdom . Votive offerings and personal names , many of which are theophoric , suggest that commoners felt some connection between themselves and their deities , but firm evidence of devotion to deities became visible only in the New Kingdom , reaching a peak late in that era . Scholars disagree about the meaning of this change -- whether direct interaction with the deities was a new development or an outgrowth of older traditions . Egyptians then expressed their devotion through a new variety of activities in and around temples . They recorded their prayers and their thanks for divine help on stelae . They gave offerings of figurines that represented the deities they were praying to , or that symbolized the result they desired ; thus both a relief image of Hathor and a statuette of a woman could represent a prayer for fertility . Occasionally , a person took a particular deity as a patron , dedicating his or her property or labor to the deity 's cult . These practices continued into the latest periods of Ancient Egyptian history . These later eras saw more religious innovations , including the practice of giving animal mummies as offerings to deities depicted in animal form , such as the cat mummies given to the feline goddess Bastet . Some of the major deities from myth and official religion were rarely invoked in popular worship , but many of the great state deities were important in popular tradition . The worship of some Egyptian deities spread to neighboring lands , especially to Canaan and Nubia during the New Kingdom , when those regions were under pharaonic control . In Canaan , the exported deities , including Hathor , Amun , and Set , were often syncretized with native deities , who in turn spread to Egypt . The Egyptian deities may not have had permanent temples in Canaan , and their importance there waned after Egypt lost control of the region . In contrast , many temples to the major Egyptian deities and deified pharaohs were built in Nubia . After the end of Egyptian rule there , the imported deities , particularly Amun and Isis , were syncretized with local deities and remained part of the religion of Nubia 's independent Kingdom of Kush . These deities were incorporated into the Nubian ideology of kingship , much as they were in Egypt , so that Amun was considered the divine father of the king and Isis and other goddesses were linked with the Nubian queen , the kandake . Some deities reached farther . Taweret became a goddess in Minoan Crete , and Amun 's oracle at Siwa Oasis was known to and consulted by people across the Mediterranean region . Under the Greek Ptolemaic Dynasty and then Roman rule , Greeks and Romans introduced their own deities to Egypt . These newcomers equated the Egyptian deities with their own , as part of the Greco - Roman tradition of interpretatio graeca , but the worship of the native deities was not swallowed up by that of foreign ones . Instead , Greek and Roman deities were adopted as manifestations of Egyptian ones . Egyptian cults sometimes incorporated Greek language , philosophy , iconography , and even temple architecture . Meanwhile , the cults of several Egyptian deities -- particularly Isis , Osiris , Anubis , the form of Horus named Harpocrates , and the fused Greco - Egyptian god Serapis -- were adopted into Roman religion and spread across the Roman Empire . Roman emperors , like Ptolemaic kings before them , invoked Isis and Serapis to endorse their authority , inside and outside Egypt . In the empire 's complex mix of religious traditions , Thoth was transmuted into the legendary esoteric teacher Hermes Trismegistus , and Isis , who was venerated from Britain to Mesopotamia , became the focus of a Greek - style mystery cult . Isis and Hermes Trismegistus were both prominent in the Western esoteric tradition that grew from the Roman religious world . Temples and cults in Egypt declined as the Roman economy deteriorated in the third century AD , and beginning in the fourth century AD , Christians suppressed the veneration of Egyptian deities . The last formal cults , at Philae , died out in the fifth or sixth century . Most beliefs surrounding the Egyptian deities themselves disappeared within a few hundred years , remaining in magical texts into the seventh and eighth centuries . Many of the practices involved in their worship , such as processions and oracles , became adapted to fit Christian ideology and persisted as part of the Coptic Church . Given the great changes and diverse influences in Egyptian culture since that time , scholars disagree about whether any modern Coptic practices are descended from those of pharaonic religion , but many festivals and other traditions of modern Egyptians , both Christian and Muslim , resemble the worship of their ancestors ' deities .