Egyptian Gods

The Egyptians were polytheistic : this means they had lots of different gods. These gods were important to keep the peace and harmony that Egyptians valued more than anything else. Some of the gods created the world, others brought the annual flood, some protected the Egyptians from enemies and some protected them when they died.

The greatest of all gods was Re, the sun-god. Then there was Shu (god of the air) and Tefnut (goddess of water) . Their children were Geb (god of the earth) and Nut (goddess of the sky) . Shu lifted up Nut so that she became a canopy over Geb. Their children were Osiris (god of the dead), Isis (protectress of people in need) , Seth (god of chaos and destruction) and Nephthys (protectress of the dead).

The pharaoh, Amenhotep IV , tried to abolish all these gods and replace them with the one sun-god, Aten. He became the chief priest of this single god and renamed himself Akenaten. However this experiment was not successful and when he died the old gods were brought back.

Death and the Judgement

When an Egyptian died he or she had to pass through a judgement ceremony to see whether they were worthy of going to join Re in heaven. Tomb drawings show us how the dead person was led to the judgement scales, operated by Anubis (god of burial places) where their heart was weighed either against a feather or little symbols of truth. The person should have learnt lots of prayers and stated the Negative Confession. If he or she told the truth, and his life had been good, then his heart was lighter than the feather. Thoth (god of writing) noted the results and the person went to heaven. If the person was not telling the truth, and had lived badly, the heart was heavier than the feather and he was eaten by Baba, the Devourer.