Egyptian Belief

Yet another significant god was Anubis, the god of the embalming, which is mummification, and also of the dead. He was also a human, but with the head of a jackal. Anubis’s job was to guide people to the underworld and check if they were worthy enough to enter the gates of it. To do this, he would weigh people’s hearts against a feather, which symbolised truth. If they had led a good life, their heart would weigh less then the feather. If it had not, the heart would be handed to the monster Sobek, the crocodile god of the Nile, to eat. If you were not permitted into the underworld, you would just die and there would be so such thing as one. Egyptians would strive to lead a good and truthful life because of this god, although since he was also the god of embalming, traditionally Egyptians would wear the jackal head mask while mummifying different pharaohs and other important people.

Anubis (courtesy of ancientegypt.co.uk)

Horus, mentioned in the story above, was one of the most significant gods in the Egyptian religion, and he was one of the gods of the sky. He was part human, like many other gods, and his head was one of a hawk. He killed the evil god Seth, after he had killed his father, when Seth was king of the earth. During the battle, he lost an eye, and the picture of his lost eye was used in the Egyptian number system to represent fractions. After a length of time, his eye was restored by one of his allies, and he had two eyes again. After he defeated Seth, he became king of the earth, as his father had before him.

(courtesy of ancientegypt.co.uk)

Another significant god was Thoth, god of writing and knowledge. He was a cross between 2 animals: the baboon and the ibis, as well as part human. He recorded the results on the weighing of the hearts. The test was performed by Anubis, with Sobek and Horus as well. As well as this, Egyptians believed that Thoth gave them the gift of hieroglyphic writing. Thoth was also connected with the moon, so he was also considered a god of time.

Thoth (courtesy of ancientegypt.co.uk)

This is a picture of the heart weighing ceremony, in the form of hieroglyphs. On the left, Anubis and another god are shown, and then a picture of Anubis operating the scales, Sobek, waiting for impure hearts, and Isis, busily recording the results. On the right, Osiris, king of the underworld, is watching the entire ceremony.

The Heart weighing ceremony (courtesy of home.cfl.rr.com)

The Egyptians believed that the gods with so much power couldn’t be human, so they decided that they must have the advantages of both human intellect and animal senses. Most of the gods had the head of an animal and the body of a human, although very few were all human or even all animal. Some examples of all human gods are Imsety, who guards the liver on one of the Canopic jars. Some of the gods were a combination of 2 or more animals and a human body, such as Isis, or just 2 or 3 combinations of different animals.

The Egyptian religion was probably one of the most complex religions in the ancient world. As well as over 700 gods and goddesses, they had one story to connect all of them together. There were evil gods and good gods, gods of water and gods of love, music and just about everything that the Egyptians could think of. Because of their gods, Egyptians would “know” why everything happens, most of which we have a scientific explanation for. The Egyptian religion is a fascinating subject, and I hope you found it just as interesting as I did.