The Land of Pharaohs

The ancient Egyptian belief is considered one of the most mysterious issues in the ancient Egyptian life. That is why we will try to throw light on the ideological thinking of the ancient Egyptian and the effect of the belief and worship on his life. At the beginning, the ancient Egyptian belief might look a bit uncertain and contradictive, but after reading it and going carefully and deeply through it, we will discover how lofty and civilized it was.

The religious belief is divided into two main categories: -

1. The Development of religion and some information about Gods and priests.
2. The idea of death and immortality.

The religious thought and daily life of the ancient Egyptian mixed together to form one whole block where the religious thoughts controlled the Egyptian’s behavior and also his social life.

The idea of the gods came out as a result of the effect of the surrounding environment on the ancient Egyptian. They started making a god out of any that made them feel awe and fear. They idolized them to avoid their evil powers. After some time idolatry wasn’t only out of fear. They took gods for their great value and importance to their lives. They started taking anything useful around them as a god when ancient Egyptians admired the skills of some animal; they took it as a god. An example of animals idolized out of fear is the lioness represented in goddess “ Sakhmet ” and an example of gods idolized out of greatness and appreciation is the sun represented in god “ Ra’ ” where old Egyptians were affected by the view of the sun sending its rays allover the Egyptian lands withal its owe and beauty. Also, the river Nile was taken as a god represented in God “ Osoris ". That’s because the river Nile was the donner of life of to Egypt. Also provided the Egyptian lands with fertile clay during inundation which turned the Nile valley in to a fertile land suitable for agriculture and helped the growth of the ancient Egyptian civilization due to the way it helped the Egyptians settle down. An example of the god idolized out of admiration is the sheep represented in god “ Khanoom ” where the Egyptians admired its sexual abilities, so they took him as a god that creates human. They illustrated him as making the human out of two statues, one for the human and the other of his associate.

In addition to the common gods, each region had its own local god which was looked at as its protector and was considered the highest authority that every thing lies under his control and planning. After connection has been made between the province districts through commerce, some local gods started to vanish and others were raised to higher ranks. Also during the war, the god of the victorious city took the power and was idolized in both the victorious and defeated provinces. Sometimes a group of small gods get together under the power of a greater god and form a whole new god.

After the union of upper and lower Egypt by king “ Narmer ” who thinks that he himself is king “ Meena ", the god of the capital became the main idol and all the other gods turned into secondary gods which forced the priests of these gods to announce that their gods are copies “ aknoom ” of the main god to keep their status in the Egyptian society.

Egyptian gods are divided into many categories in order to make it easier t o recognize them and differentiate between them.

1. Local gods: First they were in the shape of animals, but later they were represented in the shape of a human with an animal head.
2. “ Osoris ” and his followers.
3. Idols with no temples of their own that belonged to the pharaoh alone.
4. The sun and other public gods.

All the religious rites hat took place in the Egyptian temples were under the cost of the king. They took place secretly in a special place in any temple which was considered the most sacred place I that temple in which the main idol is placed and offering oblation takes place public people were not allowed to take to part in these rites. Only priest were allowed under the name of the king: First of all the priest had to wash in the “ Morning House ” (the place in which the slaughter of oblation for the gods takes place). The statue of the god is placed in a coffin and was stamped with a stamp made of clay after slaughter and offering oblation at the end of the day. In the morning, after the priest has washed he heads to the most seared place to remove the stamp and take the statue out of the coffin. After wards, the priest bows and incenses the idol and sings some religious songs. Until then the statue is not a god yet, so the priest gives him life by offering him the “ eye of Horus ” which he took off “ set ” and was found by the gods. Then he’s offers him a small statue of the goddess “ Ma’at ” the daughter of “ Ra’ ” (" Ma’at ” means truth). Then the idol comes out of the coffin and the priest starts decorating washing and incensing it. Finally the priest dresses him up and puts him buck in the coffin the offering him all kinds of food then burns him (the priest puts the food in his hands and offers it to the idol, and since the idol doesn’t eat so the priest throws him in the fire). This way the god is considered to have accepted oblation. At the end of the day the priest cleans every thing, closes the coffin and clay stamps it. Then the priest retreats with his face towards the god removing his footprints on his way out.

As we already mentioned, the only people who saw the idol were the priests and the pharaoh, that because the gods which had temples of their own belonged to the pharaoh alone. Public people idolized public gods with no temples. But later some of the public gods got higher ranks so they got their own temples. Also, the public started idolizing the gods of the pharaoh who was considered the son of the gods and was idolized after his death following his ancestors.

If any of the public people wanted to ask one of the gods’ advice, he had to do that during the procession of the god since it is the only time in which the public people can see the idol. Consultancies had to be in the god’s presence as it is not just asking him a favor or asking for his help as the public always did in the temple without seeing the god.

An example of those consultancies: selection of employees or blaming someone for a crime or proving possession of something. The answer was either inspired orally or by writing the positive and negative answer on two different pieces of papyri and put in front of the God in the procession. It was thought that the god leads the procession in the direction of the right answer. When a person is asks for a prophecy, it was believed that the god leads the caravan forward which meant a positive answer or backward which meant a negative answer.

After awhile some kind of merging took place between the pharaoh gods and the public gods. What proves this is the reconciliation that took place between “ Osoris ” and “ Ra’ ” where the priests of “ Ra’ ” said that he used to visit the kingdom of “ Osoris ” at night and the priests of “ Osoris ” that he used to rise up to the day so they can go to “ Osoris ” earthly heaven where they experience permanent luxury.

The public was able to ask the gods for favors and consult them, but there was no way they could reach the most sacred place in a temple and see the idol. The only way they could see him was when he cam out to them at least once a year where crowds of those who believed in him watched out for such an important chance. They received him with happiness playing flutes and drums and singing.

Temple priests were divided into four categories. Each serves the temple for one month consecutively. The two main levels of priests were: -

“ Alham Natar ” which meant the sever of the god.

“ Alwa’b ” which meant the pure.

“ Alwa’b ” was considered lower in standard.

Women took part in priesthood where there were priestesses in some temples. The queen was considered the head priestess of “ Amoun ” and the wiof the god while the other priestesses were his concubines and their role in serving god was just music playing.

This is concerning priests. As for the temple, the temple had schools to teach to teach reading and writing institutes. It also had art schools form which talented draughtsman, engravers and sculptors who had a role in helping priests later on. This is in addition to libraries for all sciences. In temples, they cared about studying astrology and other sciences. Priests also taught religious sciences to young students to form a new generation of priests from the best among them. Some temples had guards and prisons. In the west bank there was a group of guards on the borders called “ mejaiou " their job was to execute the god’s judgments by arresting criminals.

The pharaoh and the gods:

The pharaoh had a special status and a double personality. This is because Egyptians considered him a human, but not like themselves as in the same time he was considered a god. As a god, his role was to give every thing to his people and as a human he was just one of the creation of the gods. The pharaoh inherited the throne as a rightful heir and as a son of the greatest god. That ‘s why the god had to visit the queen in a visible way so she could give birth to his son and that’s how the pharaoh legally takes over the throne as a human and as a god. When the pharaoh got old, the Egyptians had to find an explanation that would make it rational and easy to understand. So, they started thinking that only his human body got old while his soul is eternally perfect. In order to prevent any effect of age on the soul, they had to sacrifice the old body so that the soul would takeover a young body. Thus, they could keep the immortal soul.

The first was by slaughter where the ground had to be drowned in blood.

The second was by burning where the ashes were scattered on the ground. Rarely it was scattered on running water as an in carnation for rain to fall.

The third was by choking either by drowning, strangling, or hanging and then the body’s parts are scattered in different parts of the land.

To avoid sacrificing the king himself, he employed a substitute who plays the king’s role for a few weeks until the time of sacrifice comes. It isn’t known we whether the old pharaoh kept the throne after the sacrifice or passed it to old his heir. It is thought that the throne was then passed to the heir, but we don’t have evidence for this because the heir took over only after the pharaoh’s death and if this was true, then these ceremonies are meaningless and we don’t know which was right, so we mentioned the two opinions.

Ancient Egyptians thought that humans and gods lived together on the same land long ago. This is called “ the time of gods ” where these gods ruled Egypt. The lists that had all those who ruled Egypt one divided into two categories: -

First: humans and kings by names and time when they ruled.

Second: Gods and the time they lived in Egypt. For example, god “ Tahout ” lived 3726 years, the god “ Gab ” lived 1773 years and “ Horus ” lived 300 years.

The first movement towards unification::

Ancient Egyptians lived for king “ Ekhnatoun ” who led the first movement towards unification. He unified all the gods and represented them all in one god which he called “ Atone ” who had the shape of the sun disk sending its rays on the Egyptian lands. He also called himself “ Ekhnatoun ” (the satisfier of “ Atone "). “ Ekhnatoun ” didn’t take care of the army and that’s because of his weak body and poor health. May be that’s why he cared about religious thoughts. But the idea of unification caused a revolution where the priests of “ Amoun ” had a great authority at that time and they used it against him so in turn he persecuted them and tried to remove the memory of god “ Amoun ” from all temples. He also worked on encouraging the worship of “ Atone ” all over the Egyptian lands. He used an area nearly midway between the two cities of “ Tiba ” and “ Manf ” near “ Amarnah ” village in Middle Egypt and made it the capital and called it “ Akhitatoun."

“ Ekhnatoun ” was busy worshipping Atone. He neglected the current events in the Egyptian possessions in Syria and Palestine that they were almost talcum by the enemies. After the death of “ Ekhnatoun ”, he was buried in the original capital “ Tiba ” and “ Toutankhatoun ” took over. " Toutankhamoun ” means the living image of “ Atone ". At his time, worshipping of

“ Amoun ” was allowed and he changed his name to

“ Toutankhamoun ". The capital was back in “ Tiba ” to show tolerance. He also drove away the enemies and won many battles. Priests explain these victories as the old Gods approved of him and gave him power. But during the time of

“ Ekhnatoun ” the gods got angry so they made the army powerless. Therefore, Egypt went back to the time of idolizing numerous gods.