ancient egyptian religion

Ancient Egyptian Religion

The Idea of the Soul• -3 parts—Ba, Ka, Akh• -one part couldn’t live

w/o other, one died—all died

• -mummification was to keep them together

• -Ba—personality, character of the person, human headed bird,

• could leave the tomb, visit living in any form

• -Ka—double of the body in the heart, had to stay in the tomb near the body

• -Ka was why body had to be preserved and objects and food left in the tomb

• -Akh—immortality of the person, represented as a ghost, shadow, take any shape

• traveled to the underworld to take its place in afterlife

Cats• -Egypt became first to use

cats as pets, first used to ward off snakes, and rodents along the Nile

• cats painted in many tomb stories—represented a protector of children and the home

• two cat gods—one a protector, the other represented war and pestilence (disease)

• when cats died owners mourned deeply, shaved eyebrows, cats were mummified and left with bowls of milk, dead mice and rats

• law said if you killed a cat—punishment was death

• Persia used this against Egyptian—cats on battlefield

Gods and Goddesses • -polytheistic with gods related and

many stories• Ra—sun god, hawk and sun disk,

died every night and boat through underworld

• Osiris—god of the dead, and resurrection, killed by brother Seth, mummified man, white with feathers

• Seth—god of Chaos, killed Osiris cut up his body, defeated by Horus, animal head but not clear the type

• -Isis—wife of Osiris, mother of Horus—goddess of protection, fertility, tears were when the Nile flooded

• Horus—son of Isis and Osiris, god of the sky, defeated Seth, lost an eye, god who protects Egypt, Pharaoh seen as the living Horus, eye of Horus symbol important, falcon

• -Thoth—symbol—Ibis (bird), god of writing and knowledge

• Hathor—goddess of love and joy, wife of Horus, seen as mother of the Pharaoh, sun disk and cow horns

• -Anubis-god of mummification and embalming, jackal, weighing of the heart, took the dead to Osiris

Symbols

• -ankh—symbol of life and love, like the Christian cross

• -scarab—beetle, often created as jewelry in mummy wrappings, protector of dead

• Eye of Horus—symbol of sun god, protection, part of ying and yang