English 10

INTRODUCTION TO MYTHOLOGY
“Which came first- chicken or egg?” Surely you have been asked this silly question. This could be timeless
questions asked by our ancestor, along with questions, “How did the word began? Could I have come to this world by
chance?”
In the absence of a systematic and objective manner of dealing with these questions, our ancestors speculated
and turned to their Gods as they try to make sense of themselves and the world around them.
Their answers came forth in what we call now myths, stories revered as sacred that explains natural phenomena
and are also fundamental to a culture.
Long before there were civilizations, Myths existed in the form of arts in cave walls as a form of prayer for
protection.

MYTHOLOGY
 From the Greek word “mythos” for story of the people and “logos” for word of speech, so it’s the spoken story of
people.
 Study and interpretation of often sacred tales.
 Tells stories of ancestors and the origin of human and the world, the gods, supernatural beings, heroes with
super-human abilities

GODS OF EGYPT
1. Ra/ Re (Sun God)
Most important god of the ancient Egyptians
Depicted to be a Man with hawk head crowned with a sun disk and the sacred serpent however, in the
underworld through which he passes each night, he is depicted as ram-headed.
Each day, Ra travelled across the sky in the form of the sun, riding in his solar boat, and each night he
journeyed through the underworld where he defeated the allies of chaos.
He is reborn each morning in the form of the sunrise.
Cult center was at Heliopolis.

2. Atem/ Atum
Originally, he was a serpent in Nun and will return to that form at the end of time
Depicted in art as a man wearing the Double Crown of Upper and Lower Egypt. As such, he is the first
living man god conceived of by the ancient Egyptians until then, their gods were all forms of animals.
Symbols: phoenix, lotus/blue water lily, obelisks and pyramids

3. Khepera
Means “he who has come into being”
Depicted as a Scarab beetle or as a man with a scarab for a head and is also known as, Khepri, Khepra,
Khepre.
Re’s form at dawn

4. Shu
Means "dry, parched, withered”
God of air and depicted as a man wearing a headdress with feathers and the Brother and husband
of Tefnut.
Held up the figure of Nut, his daughter, so that the earth and the sky were separated
Was believed to hold power over snakes and he was the one that held the Ladder the deceased used to
climb to heaven.
Symbols: ostrich feathers, wind, flags, lion
Cult Centre: Heliopolis

5. Tefnut
Means tef, "to spit, be moist" and nut, "sky, waters”
Goddess of moisture or rain and the sister and Wife of Shu.
Depicted in the form of a woman who wears on her head the solar disk circled by two cobras.
She holds in her hands the scepter and ankh. Many times she has the head of a lioness.
Symbols: throne, rain, lion
Cult Center: Heliopolis
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6. Mut
Vulture goddess, depicted to be a woman with a vulture headdress surmounted by a double crown.
Represents the Eye of Ra, the ferocious goddess of retribution and the wife of Amun, and mother of
Khonsu
7. Amun
Means means “Hidden one, mysterious of form.”
Called the 'King of the Gods' and was depicted to be a Man with ram-head or a man wearing an ostrich
plumed hat but he is sometimes depicted as a ram or a goose.
His true identity can never be revealed.
Cult center: Karnak, Ethiopia, Nubia, Libya, Palestine
Known as Amen, Amun, Ammon

8. Nut
Sky goddess, depicted as a woman whose body arches across the sky, wearing a dress decorated with
stars.
Wife of Geb and the mother of Osiris, Seth, Isis and Nephthys.
Symbols: stars, the night sky, cows
Cult Center: Heliopolis

9. Geb
God of the earth
Depicted to be a man lying down below the arch of the sky goddess Nut or Man with a goose on his head.
Shown either as a dark or green skinned man (the colors of life, the soil of the Nile and vegetation,
respectively) with leaves on his skin.
Ancient Egyptians believed that earthquakes were Geb's laughter.
Husband and brother of Nut and also the father of Osiris, Isis, Nephthys and Seth.
Symbols: goose, earth
Cult Center: Heliopolis

10. Hapi
God of the river Nile’s inundation depicted as a man with a pot belly, shown with water plants.
Was thought to live in the caves of the first cataract.
Cult Center: Aswan

11. Knum
Creator god molding people on a potter's wheel, and a god of inundation.
Depicted to be a man with the head of a curly-horned ram.
Sanctuary was on Elephantine Island but his best-preserved temple is at Esna. The “Famine Stele”, which
is a carved stone tablet, contains appeals to Khnum during a famine caused by a low inundation of the
Nile.

12. Khonsu
Means "khens" to travel, to move about, to run
He was a moon god and was depicted to be a man with the head of a hawk wearing the lunar disk.
Was said that when Khonsu caused the cresent moon to shine, women conceived, cattle became fertile,
and all nostrils and every throat were filled with fresh air.
Symbols: crescent moon, hawks, knives
Cult Center: Thebes

13. Thoth
God of writing and knowledge
Depicted to be a man with the head of an ibis holding a writing palette.
Ancient Egyptians believed that Thoth gave them the gift of hieroglyphic writing, also it was widely
believed that Thoth invented the magical and hermetic arts, and thus the Tarot deck is frequently referred
to as the "Book of Thoth.”
It was also believed that The Book of the Dead was written by him.
Symbols: ibis, baboon, writing palette and reed pens
Cult Center: Hermopolis
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14. Osiris
Ancient Egyptian god of the dead, the underworld, and the afterlife is sometimes referred to as "King of
the Living" and "Foremost of the Westerners".
Depicted to be a mummified man wearing a white cone-like headdress with feathers.
Brother and husband of Isis, and the brother of Nephthys and Seth and father of Horus.

15. Seth
God of chaos and represents everything that threatened harmony in Egypt.
Also known as Set, Setekh, Suty and Sutekh
Brother and husband of Nephthys and the brother of Osiris and Isis, father of Anubis
Depicted to be a man with the head of an unidentified animal.
Seth murdered his brother, Osiris, and usurped the throne of Egypt and most of the other gods despised
him.
Cult Centre: Naqada

16. Isis
Protective goddess, she used powerful magic spells to help people in need.
Depicted to be a woman with headdress in the shape of a throne and a pair of cow horns with a sun disk.
Wife of Osiris and the mother of Horus.
She represented the ideal wife and mother; loving, Devoted, and caring.
Cult Centre: Philae

17. Nephthys
Known as the 'Lady of the Mansion‘.
Depicted to be a woman with headdress showing her name in hieroglyphs and a protective goddess of
the dead.
Sister of Isis and Osiris, and the sister/wife of Set, mother of Anubis.
She seems to have had no temple or cult center of her own and is often shown on coffins, or in funerary
scenes. 

18. Horus
God of the sky and the divine protector of kings
His name means 'The One far above‘
Depicted as a man with the head of a hawk.
The Son of Osiris and Isis and the enemy of the wicked God Seth.
Egyptians believed that the pharaoh was the 'living Horus'

19. Sekhmet
The goddess of war and healing depicted to be a woman with the head of a lioness
Her name means ‘the powerful one’.

20. Hathor
Protective goddess and the goddess of love and joy.
Transformation of Sekhmet, consort of Horus and sometimes thought of as the mother of the pharaoh.
Her name means ‘house of Horus.
Depicted as a woman with the ears of a cow or a woman with a headdress of horns and a sun disk.

21. Anubis
God of embalming and the protector of the dead
Depicted to be a Man with a jackal head .
It was him who conducted the deceased to the hall of judgment.
Since jackals were often seen in cemeteries, the ancient Egyptians believed that Anubis watched over the
dead.
His father was Seth and his mother Nephthys.
Cult Center: Cynopolis
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CREATION OF THE WORLD ACCORDING TO EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

The journey began with the creation of the world and the universe out of darkness and swirling chaos. There was
nothing but endless dark water without a form or purpose. Existing within this void was HEKA, the god of magic, waiting
the moment of creation. Out of the watery silence, NU rose from the primordial hill called BEN-BEN upon which the
creator god Atum or Ptah stood.
Atum look upon the nothingness and realized his loneliness so he mated with his shadow to give birth to two
children, SHU AND TEFNUT.
The two left their father to establish the word. In time Atum became worried of his children so he removed his eye
and sent it in search for Shu and Tefnut. The two children returned with the eye of their father (later became associated as
the eye of Ra or the all-seeing eye), grateful for their safe return, Atum shed tears of happiness dropping into the fertile
earth of ben-ben giving birth to men and women.
These early creatures had nowhere to live so Tefnut and Shu mated giving birth to Geb (the earth) and Nut (the
sky). Although siblings, they fell in love deeply with each other. Atum found their behavior unacceptable so he pushed Nut
away from Geb, high up into the heavens never to see and touch each other again. However, Nut was already pregnant
giving birth to the new generation of gods, Osiris, Isis, Seth, Nephthys, and Horus.

Osiris and Set

Osiris administrated the word efficiently, co ruling with his sister-wife Isis, decided to where trees would grow and
the water flow most sweetly. He created the river Nile
Set became envious of his brothers’ creation, power and glory so he had his brother’s exact measurements taken
in secret and then ordered a chest precisely to those specifications. When the chest was completed, Set threw a banquet
inviting his brother and sister, Osiris and Isis. At the end of the party he offered the chest as a gift. Once Osiris was inside
the coffin, Seth slammed the chest and threw it into the Nile river. He then told Osiris was dead and assumed rule of the
world.
Isis refused to believe that Osiris is dead so she searched and found the coffin inside a tree at BYLOS. She
brought the body back to Egypt and set forth to gather herbs that would bring Osiris back to life leaving Nephthys, to
guard the body.
At the same time, Seth began worrying that Isis would find the body of Osiris. Upon finding that Isis was gone, he
went and asked Nephthys and found out the goddess was lying to him. Seth was able to get the body, tearing it into 42
pieces (some claim to be 14) and flung it all over Egypt.
Isis cried in despair when she found out what happened in her return. Nephthys being guilty, offered help in
finding the body of Isis. The two sisters set of in finding the body part of Osiris and whenever they found a body part, they
would bury it on the spot and build a shrine to protect it from Seth. In this way the 42 provinces of Egypt was established.
They finally assembled the body but it was missing a part which had been eaten by a fish. Nonetheless, Osiris
was successfully brought back to life. Two finally reunited giving birth to a son, Horus. Because of his incomplete body,
Osiris can’t rule the world as before so he descended into the underworld becoming the judge and ruler of the land of the
dead.
Horus was secretly raised to protect him from Seth. Having grown to a man, he challenged his uncle. The battle
continued for 80 years until Seth was defeated and banished out of Egypt. Horus then ruled Egypt and harmony was
restored.