Pace - Ancient Egypt - Gods & Religion

Re/Ra

Chief Egyptian god, god of the sun. Father of all other gods and father of all pharaohs.

Geb

Egyptian god of the earth; husband to Nut.

Nut

Goddess of the sky; wife to Geb.

Shu

God of air and space, son of Atum/Ra, husband to Tefnut.

Tefnut

Goddess of moisture and rain, daughter of Atum/Ra, wife to Shu.

Osiris

Egyptian god of the underworld and judge of the dead. He was Egypt's first pharaoh, overthrown by his brother.

Isis

Goddess of fertility and healing. She was wife of Osiris, and she healed him after he was killed by Seth.

Nephthys

Goddess of the dead, mourning, and lamentation. She was sister to Isis and helped her in restoring Osiris.

Seth

God of chaos, storms, desert, and destruction. He overthrew Egypt's first pharaoh, his brother Osiris, and was in turn overthrown by his nephew Horus.

Horus

Falcon-headed solar god and protector of pharaohs. Son of Osiris who avenged his father, overthrowing Seth, and becoming the third king of Egypt.

Anubis

Jackal-headed God of mummification, embalming, and the dead. He weighs the heart of the deceased against a feather to decide if they have an afterlife.

Thoth

Ibis-headed Egyptian god of writing and knowledge. He restored the eye of Horus after Seth knocked it out.

Ma'at

Egyptian term for the concept of divinely created and maintained order in the universe. Reflecting the ancient Egyptians' belief in an essentially beneficent world, the divine ruler was the earthly guarantor of this order.

Ostrich feather

According to the Egyptians, a heart is weighed against a this to determine if the soul can go to the afterlife or will instead be eaten by the Ammit (crocodile/lion/hippo) who devours the dead.

Polytheism

A belief or worship of many Gods. Egyptians worshipped at least 1500 different known gods.

Monotheism

Belief in one God; the Egyptians practiced this under the pharaoh Akhenaten, who promoted the worship of one sun god, Aten.

West bank of the Nile

This is where the bodies of pharaohs are buried and the pyramids were built.

Valley of the Kings

An area in Upper Egypt were many tombs where built in the New Kingdom after the great pyramids because hidden tombs were easier to keep safe from grave robbers.

Mastaba

An ancient Egyptian mud brick building with a rectangular base and sloping sides and flat roof. These were built as palaces atop the tombs of the earliest pharaohs.

Son of Ra

The Ancient Egyptians believed all pharaohs were this; the representative of Re/Ra (later Amun-Ra) on earth and the God's biological son.