Myths and Mythology in Ancient Egypt

The sunrise and the sunset, the road between life and death, the world beyond, nature and the cycle of seasons, these are all aspects of life that the ancient Egyptians tried to explain to themselves throw mythology. Each element, from plants to animals and planets has its own story.

The creation of the world

Atum was alone, so he united with his shadow and brought into the world his son, Shu, and his daughter Tefnut. Shu was the air, and Tefnut was the rain. Atum separated from his children, but in the end they met again and cried because of their joy. The tears of the god reached the Earth and gave birth to people. In this way, Atum started to create the World.

Shu and Tefnut brought into this world two children: Geb, god of the earth, and Nut, the goddess of heaven. Geb and Nut had four children: Isis, Seth, Nephthys and Osiris, the first king.

The death of Osiris

Seth, the brother of Osiris, was envying him for its power and popularity. He killed Osiris by luring him into a coffin which he sealed with lead and left it to float on the Nile. The coffin was carried away by water in Lebanon, where a strong tree grew around it.

A king cut the tree and brought Osiris to his palace. In this time, Osiris wife, Isis, could not rest knowing that her husband was not buried according to the Egyptian traditions. She found the coffin and brought it back to Egypt, but Seth become full of anger, cutting the dead body into pieces and spreading them all over Egypt. However, Isis found the pieces, made wax copies of them in order to be worshiped in the temple and, by bringing together the pieces in cotton bandages, she gave life again to the body of Osiris.

In this way, Osiros rises again as a god of the world beyond.

The destruction of mankind

Sekhmet was delighted by this bloodshed. It devastated the entire Egypt until the Nile became red because of the blood.

Re was feeling compassion for the mortals, but not even he succeeded to stop the revengeful Sekhmet. He had sent messengers on Elephantine Island, in order to bring him red ocher, which he asked them to combine with beer and spread it over the plains where Sekhmet was planing the next slaughter. When she saw the beer, the goddess thought that she had already destroyed the people and, because of her joy, she drank the blood until she got drunk and never managed to kill anyone.

Re changed her name to Hathor and, from then on, she could no longer do more than touch people with the power of love.

Trees, plants and flowers

One of the plants with the greatest mystical meaning was the papyrus (the mehyt), a symbol of life itself, as the swamp from which were arising all forms of life. The Egyptians believed that the canopy of heaven is supported by pillars of papyrus. This plant was the symbol of Egypt. Equally important was also the lotus (seshen), a flower that closes at night and descend under the water. For this reason, the lotus became a symbol of the sun and creation for the ancient Egyptians who believed that Amun was born from a lotus flower.

As a symbol of the Renaissance, the lotus was associated with Osiris and with the cult of the dead. Also, it was the symbol of the Upper Egypt.

The most respected trees were the comor, which rises to the gates of the sky and the willow tree, which grown around the tomb of Osiris.

Sources: www.exodus.ro

www.enigme.ro

www.wikipedia.org