religion 343Egyptians did not demand a system of logical devel-
opment of their religion. All that was necessary were the
observances of the cultic rites and the festivals so that the
people could mirror the divine order as interpreted by the
priests. While the cults and celebrations represented
regional or national preoccupation with particular deities,
the individual Egyptians were quite free to worship a god
according to their own inclinations. The people exercised
free will in this regard, which led to an awareness of
social and religious obligations, especially in the obser-
vance of the spirit of MA’AT.
Surrounded by a variety of gods, Egyptians still
maintained belief in one supreme deity who was self-exis-
tent, immortal, invisible, omniscient, the maker of
heaven and earth and the Underworld, TUAT. The various
gods assumed the supreme rank as the sole deity when
addressed by their particular worshiper.
Ré was credited with having announced that all men
were the equal recipients of sunlight, air, water, and har-
vests. Ré also instructed all men to live as brothers and to
think on the West. AMENTI, the symbol of the grave and
the afterlife. Amun was believed capable of nurturing and
protecting each Egyptian as an individual while he also
sustained the creatures of the field and the river and led
the nation’s military and cultural advances.
Religious beliefs were not codified in doctrines,
tenets, or theologies. Most Egyptians did not long to
explore the mystical or esoteric aspects of theology. The
celebrations were sufficient, because they provided a pro-
found sense of the spiritual and aroused an emotional
response on the part of adorers. Hymns to the gods, pro-
cessions, and cultic celebrations provided a continuing
infusion of spiritual idealism into the daily life of the
people.
In the First Intermediate Period (2134–2040 B.C.E.)
following the fall of the Old Kingdom, the local or
regional gods reassumed importance because of the lack
of a centralized government. The god of the capital
region usually assumed leadership over the other gods
and assimilated their cults. Although Ré, Horus, Osiris,
and Isis held universal sway, and Ptah remained popular,
other deities began to assume rank. MONTUof HERMON-
THIS, Amun of Thebes, SOBEKin the FAIYUM, and other
local deities drew worshipers. The COFFIN TEXTSemerged
at this time, making available to nonroyal personages the
mortuary rites once exclusive to the kings.
When MONTUHOTEP II put an end to the Herak-
leopolitan royal line in 2040 B.C.E., ushering in the Mid-
dle Kingdom, the religious life of Egypt was altered.
Montuhotep and his successors strengthened the solar
cult, which had implications for the royal cults as well,
the king being the model of the creator god on earth.
Also during the Middle Kingdom ABYDOSbecame the
focal point of Osiris Mysteries, and pilgrims flocked to
the city. Osiris was identified with the dead pharaoh, the
ruler of the realm of the dead. Those judged as righteous
by Osiris and his Underworld companions were entitled
to paradise.
The Second Intermediate Period (1640–1550 B.C.E.)
did not have a tremendous impact on the religious life of
the nation because the HYKSOS, who dominated the Delta
regions, and the Thebans, who controlled Upper Egypt,
stayed constant in their observances. To enhance their
legitimacy the Hyksos and their Asiatic allies were quick
to assume the cultic observances of the previous kings.
When ’AHMOSEousted the Hyksos, ushering in the New
Kingdom (1550–1070 B.C.E.), the royal cult again pre-
dominated, but alongside it Amun, the god of Thebes,
assumed importance. The brief ’AMARNAperiod, in which
AKHENATENtried to erase the Amunite cult and replace it
with that of the god ATEN, was too short-lived to have had
lasting impact. Akhenaten, Aten, and the temporary capi-
tal at el-’Amarna were obliterated by later kings.
HOREMHAB(r. 1319–1307 B.C.E.) went so far as to date his
reign, which followed the ’Amarna episode, from the
close of AMENHOTEP III’s reign, so as to eradicate all traces
of Akhenaten and his three successors.
The Ramessid kings upheld the royal cult and the
established pantheon. PER-RAMESSES, the new capital in
the eastern Delta, was a great conglomeration of temples
and stages for cultic festivals. Until the New Kingdom
collapsed in 1070 B.C.E., the spiritual traditions were
maintained, and later eras saw again the same religious
patterns along the Nile. During the Third Intermediate
Period and the Late Period, religious fervor in the Nile
Valley remained constant but was dependent upon nome
enthusiasm rather than state-operated cultic observances.
The Ptolemaic Period stressed Greek heritage but allowed
the native Egyptians to maintain their traditional forms of
worship and even tried to unite the Greek and Egyptian
factions by forming new deities that were a combination
of the traditions of both nations.
One last aspect of Egyptian religion that needs to be
understood is the use of animal figures or animal heads
in the portrayals of the divine beings of Egypt. The vari-
ous depictions of such creatures in the ruins of the tem-
ples and shrines have given rise to exotic interpretations
and to esoteric explanations of those images. The current
understanding of the use of such animals is that these
creatures were viewed as THEOPHANIES, images that were
devised to represent the gods in different manifestations
or forms. The Egyptians lived close to nature, surrounded
by animals, birds, insects, serpents, and fish. Some of
these were used as representations of the local nome gods
before the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt in 3000
B.C.E. Serving as the local fetish or totem, they disap-
peared or were absorbed into the cults of the various gods
in time. The Egyptians did not worship animals or ser-
pents but relied upon their familiar forms to demonstrate
what they believed to be spiritual truths.