Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Goddesses, and Traditions of Ancient Egypt

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This book analyzes hundreds of gods and goddesses that helped to make Egypt the most theocratic society in ancient history, according to their evolution, worship, and final demise. The deities range from household names like Bes and Taweret to supreme beings like Amun and Re. Assmann covers ancient Egyptian views on good and evil, time, justice, political institutions (especially the pharaoh), the afterlife, monumental architecture like the Pyramids, burial customs such as mummification, the relationship between the spiritual and material worlds, the relationship between the sacred and history, the character and destiny of the Egyptian people and state, and more – as well as how views on all of those topics changed over the several millennia of ancient Egyptian civilization. Additionally, it gives historical overviews of the time periods in question, so that you can see how historical events and changing perceptions of the world went hand in hand. Yes, it really does cover that much ground, and does so in a refreshingly accessible and nontechnical writing style. As with The Search for God in Ancient Egypt, Assmann’s passion for the topic is as palpable as his unrivaled mastery of it. As we are dealing with thousands of years of cultural, social and religious heritage, the bibliography on Ancient Egypt is very extensive, although not as extensive as everything that happened in that long period. Nevertheless, we recommend that you start with our selection and then move on to a more specialized study.

The Egyptians' vision of time was influenced by their environment. Each day the sun rose and set, bringing light to the land and regulating human activity; each year the Nile flooded, renewing the fertility of the soil and allowing the highly productive agriculture that sustained Egyptian civilization. These periodic events inspired the Egyptians to see all of time as a series of recurring patterns regulated by maat, renewing the gods and the universe. [2] Although the Egyptians recognized that different historical eras differ in their particulars, mythic patterns dominate the Egyptian perception of history. [61]Morenz, Siegfried (1973) [German edition 1960]. Egyptian Religion. Translated by Ann E. Keep. Methuen. ISBN 0-8014-8029-9.

The Red Pyramid earned him the 2010 School Library Journal’s Best Book, 2011 Children’s Choice Book Awards: Fifth Grade to Sixth Grade Book of the Year, and the 2012 Indian Paintbrush Award.

Fiction

Donna Jo Napoli’s Treasury of Egyptian Mythology, published by National Geographic Kids, is one of two books that I would recommend the mostly highly for children. Napoli’s highly evocative retellings of the stories of Egyptian mythology are infused with a sense of wonder that’s very, well, childlike. She embellishes upon the often bare-bones structure of the original tales with charming descriptions of the characters’ feelings, motivations, etc. (She also refrains from mentioning the more lurid elements of ancient Egyptian mythology that some parents might find objectionable.) Hardcover Women of Myth: From Deer Woman and Mami Wata to Amaterasu and Athena, Your Guide to the Amazing and Diverse Women from World Mythology by Jenny Williamson and Genn McMenemy Another possible source for mythology is ritual. Many rituals make reference to myths and are sometimes based directly on them. [5] But it is difficult to determine whether a culture's myths developed before rituals or vice versa. [6] Questions about this relationship between myth and ritual have spawned much discussion among Egyptologists and scholars of comparative religion in general. In ancient Egypt, the earliest evidence of religious practices predates written myths. [5] Rituals early in Egyptian history included only a few motifs from myth. For these reasons, some scholars have argued that, in Egypt, rituals emerged before myths. [6] But because the early evidence is so sparse, the question may never be resolved for certain. [5]

Kaper, Olaf E. (2001). "Myths: Lunar Cycle". In Redford, Donald B. (ed.). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt. Vol.2. Oxford University Press. pp.480–482. ISBN 978-0-19-510234-5. The details of these sacred events differ greatly from one text to another and often seem contradictory. Egyptian myths are primarily metaphorical, translating the essence and behavior of deities into terms that humans can understand. Each variant of a myth represents a different symbolic perspective, enriching the Egyptians' understanding of the gods and the world. The Codex Borgia: A Full-Color Restoration of the Ancient Mexican Manuscript by Gisele Díaz and Alan Rodgers Mythology is defined by Merriam-Webster as an “allegorical narrative,” a “body of myths,” and “myths dealing with gods, demigods, and legendary heroes of a particular people.” When we think of mythology books for adults, we tend to just think of fantastical stories, epic poetry, and folktales, but most of these stories began their lives as religious narratives or mythologized history. The line between religion and mythology is quite thin. Myths helped create the basis for some religious rituals and practices, and help pass down cultural identity and religious teachings to the future generations of its culture.Further, it draws samples from Egyptian literature, artwork, hymns, and different inscriptions in the book. You can’t study the ancient Egyptian civilization without learning about the impact of mythology. Egyptian culture, art, literature, and architecture are all influenced by mythical figures and events. The Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Book of Going Forth by Daytranslated by Raymond Faulkner and Ogden Goelet

As with Assmann’s The Mind of Egypt (#9 above), the scope and ambition of this book are extremely impressive. It discusses the many different things that death meant to the ancient Egyptians, from hopeless isolation to continued social connectivity to dismemberment to an ascent to the blissful Field of Reeds to cyclical rebirth. Funerary rites are also discussed at length and in great detail. And as with Assmann’s other books, the writing is clear, jargon-free, and should be perfectly comprehensible to the lay reader.However, unlike Wilkinson’s or Pinch’s works, The Ancient Gods Speak is thoroughly academic. If you can’t stand academic writing, this book is definitely not for you. However, it’s still written for a lay audience, albeit probably a better-educated and/or more intellectual one than those other encyclopedia-esque introductory books. And the tradeoff for that lessened accessibility is, of course, greater scholarly rigor. However, Pinch’s book has some key differences in emphasis when compared to Wilkinson’s. Whereas Wilkinson’s focus is mostly on the deities, with everything else structured around that central concern, Pinch explores other aspects of the topic in more depth (and the gods in proportionately less depth). In the introductory chapters, Pinch devotes considerably more space to the history of ancient Egypt and to that civilization’s view of time. Discussions of the narratives of Egyptian mythology occur in that section. Pinch’s encyclopedia covers much more than just the gods – symbols, places, concepts, etc. – but, accordingly, covers fewer deities. Ra's movements through the sky and the Duat are not fully narrated in Egyptian sources, [89] although funerary texts like the Amduat, Book of Gates, and Book of Caverns relate the nighttime half of the journey in sequences of vignettes. [90] This journey is key to Ra's nature and to the sustenance of all life. [30] Ra on the solar barque, adored with the sun-disk