The Ancient Egyptian Pantheon

memorize all the ancient egyptian gods

Ra

Ra was the patron god of the sun, creation,

and was the ruler of the gods. In the creation myths, Ra is the primal creator.

He created himself (or arose out of nothing) and created the first gods, Shu and Tefnut, from his spittle.

Ra was revered not only as the father of the gods but also as the father of the pharaohs. The title "Son of Ra" was included in the many

titles of the king.

Shu

Shu is the Patron god of cool dry air. Shu (along with his sister Tefnut) were the first two gods created by Ra.

He is the god of cool air & the upper sky.

He was responsible, like Atlas, for holding up the atmosphere & separating it from the Earth.

As the lord of air, he is also creator of the wind.

Tefnut

Tefnut was patron goddess of hot, damp air. She (along with her brother Shu) was the first god created by Ra at the beginning of time.

She was goddess of rain (remember that even in ancient times, very little rain fell in Egypt) and of the warm, humid air near the Nile.

Legends say that she once argued with her father, Ra, and left Egypt for Nubia in the south.

She returned only after the god Thoth, god of wisdom, persuaded her.

Geb & Nut

After Ra, four deities (Shu, Tefnut, Geb, and Nut) established the Egyptian cosmos.

Geb was the earth god; the Earth was his body and was called the “House of Geb”, just as the atmosphere was called the “House of Shu”.

Nut, his wife, was the goddess of the stars. She protected the world from the darkness of outer space & the demonic creatures that dwelt in its darkness.

Osiris

Osiris was god of the Afterlife, the dead, & past pharaohs.

He appears as a green-skinned, mummified pharaoh.

Osiris was the goddess Isis’s husband & the father of their son, Horus, god of living pharaohs.

Osiris was killed by his jealous, evil brother Set so, even though he was a god, he no longer dwelt in the land of the living.

In the Afterlife, he sits on a great throne, where he is praised by the souls of the just & good who reside there.

Those who pass the tests to enter the Afterlife become worthy to enter The Blessed Light Land, that part existence that is like the mortal world, but without sorrow or pain.

Set

Set was god of whirlwinds, storms, chaos, evil, & darkness.

He had a human body with the head of a jackal.

In the Legend of Osiris, Set kills Osiris and scatters his body in the Nile, then claims the throne of the gods for his own.

He is later struck down by Horus, the son of Osiris, who restores order to the world.

Set & Horus continue to battle for control of the world, setting up an epic conflict of good vs. evil.

Isis

Isis was the goddess of sexuality, birth, healing, and magic.

She was the greatest Egpytian goddess, wife, and sister of Osiris, mother of Nephthys, and daughter of Geb and Nut

She searched for Osiris’s body, retrieved and reassembled it, also taking on the role of goddess of the dead as a result.

Nephthys

Nephthys was the goddess who protected the dead crossing into the afterlife.

She piloted the “night boat” of the Afterlife, meeting the deceased's spirit and accompanied them into “Light Land”.

Nephthys had connections with life as well as death: she stood at the head of the birth-bed to comfort & assist the mother giving birth

Horus

Horus was the god of the sky & the living pharaohs.

He was Isis & Osiris’s son & battled his evil uncle Set to help his mother magically resurrect his father.

Horus is traditionally depicted as having the body of a human and the head of a falcon or other bird of prey.

Anubis

Anubis was the funerary god of embalming & mummification.

He is the child of Nephthys & Set.

Anubis’s mother, Nephthys, exposed her son at birth in the desert.

Instead of dying, he was found by Isis, who then raised him; Anubis then became the attendant of Isis.

Anubis is depicted as a jackal-headed man.

Bastet

Bastet was the goddess of fire, cats, the home, & pregnant women.

She was usually represented as a woman with the head of a domesticated cat.

Bastet seemed to have two sides to her personality: docile & aggressive.

Her docile & gentle side was displayed in her duties as a protector of the home & pregnant women.

Her aggressive & vicious nature is described in the accounts of battles wherein the pharaoh was said to slay the enemy “as Bastet slaughtered her victims”.

Hathor

Hathor was the cow-eared goddess of the sky, the sun, the queen, music, dance & the arts.

Music & dance were part of worship of Hathor like no other god in Egypt.

Hathor herself was the incarnation of dance, and stories were told of how Hathor danced before Ra when he was sad to cheer him up.

Inspiration was also Hathor’s power, and artists would come to the temples of Hathor to have their dreams explained or to beseech her for aid in creating their works.

Khepri

Khepri was a unique Egyptian god connected with a particular animal: the sacred scarab.

The scarab is a type of dung beetle common throughout Egypt.

The scarab's habit of laying eggs in animal dung (as well as the bodies of dead scarabs) was noticed by the Egyptians.

The subsequent hatching of the eggs from this seemingly unpromising material led to the Egyptians associating the scarab with renewal, rebirth & resurrection.

Khnum

Khnum was depicted as a ram-headed human.

He was the Egyptian water god & the potter god who created humanity.

It was believed that he created the first human children on his potter's wheel using clay from the banks of the Nile.

Khnum also protected the sun (in the form of the god Ra) on its daily journey through the underworld.

Every night, Ra & Khnum sailed together through the underworld in the solar boat until the sun safely rose again at the dawn of the next day.

Ma’at

Ma'at was the goddess of truth, balance, & order.

Ma’at (unlike Hathor & Nephthys) was more of a concept than an actual goddess.

Her name literally meant “truth” in Egyptian.

Ma’at was truth, order, balance, & justice embodied.

She was harmony, she was what was right, she was the way things should be.

It was thought that if Ma'at didn't exist, the universe would become chaos once again.

Nekhbet

Nekhbet was the goddess of vultures.

In ancient times, she was the protector of the pharaohs of Upper Egypt - if they proved themselves strong enough.

Over time, Nekhbet came to represent the white crown of Upper Egypt & protection of the pharaoh.

She was later paired with the snake-goddess Wadjet, who represented Lower Egypt.

Wadjet

Wadjet was the cobra goddess of Lower Egypt.

She was depicted as a cobra.

Legends say that Wadjet was nurse to the infant god Horus and helped Isis, his mother, protect him from his treacherous uncle, Set.

Wadjet & Nekhbet were the protective goddesses of the united kingdom and were often paired on the pharaoh’s crown, symbolizing his reign over all of Egypt.

The form of the rearing cobra on a crown is called a uraeus.

Skekhmet

In Egyptian mythology, Sekhmet was originally the lioness-headed warrior goddess, as well as goddess of healing for Upper Egypt.

She is depicted as a lioness, the fiercest hunter known to the Egyptians.

It was said that her breath created the desert.

She was seen as the protector of the pharaohs and led them in warfare.

Sobek

Sobek was the crocodile god.

He was god of the Nile River, which was believed to have been created from Sobek’s sweat.

Sobek possessed both the strength & nature of a crocodile, which the Egyptians both feared & respected; he eventually became a symbol of the pharaoh's power.

The Nile, which was full of crocodiles, was important to the livelihood of the Egyptians – in both agriculture & transport.

Therefore, it made good sense to have a god like Sobek - who could appease the ferocious beasts!

Taweret

Taweret was goddess of pregnancy, childbirth, and a protector of women & children.

Like Bastet, she could be a ferocious demon as well as a protective and nurturing god.

She was comparable to the lion, the crocodile, and the hippo: all animals that were feared by the Egyptians but also highly respected.

Thoth

The god Thoth was depicted with a human body & an ibis head.

He was the god of wisdom, writing, numbers, knowledge, astronomy, & learning.

He was also a god of the Afterlife: he oversaw Ma’at’s scales in the Weighing of the Heart Ceremony.

Thoth used the scales to weigh the heart of the deceased against Ma’at’s Feather of Truth to determine if they were worthy to enter the Afterlife.

As the scribe of the gods, Thoth recorded the result of each judgment.