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

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Treasury of Egyptian Mythology: Classic Stories of Gods, Goddesses, Monsters, and Mortals by Donna Jo Napoli Foreign nations are associated with the hostile deserts in Egyptian ideology. Foreign people, likewise, are generally lumped in with the " nine bows", people who threaten pharaonic rule and the stability of maat, although peoples allied with or subject to Egypt may be viewed more positively. [60] For these reasons, events in Egyptian mythology rarely take place in foreign lands. While some stories pertain to the sky or the Duat, Egypt itself is usually the scene for the actions of the gods. Often, even the myths set in Egypt seem to take place on a plane of existence separate from that inhabited by living humans, although in other stories, humans and gods interact. In either case, the Egyptian gods are deeply tied to their home land. [58] Time [ edit ] In private rituals, which are often called "magical", the myth and the ritual are particularly closely tied. Many of the myth-like stories that appear in the rituals' texts are not found in other sources. Even the widespread motif of the goddess Isis rescuing her poisoned son Horus appears only in this type of text. The Egyptologist David Frankfurter argues that these rituals adapt basic mythic traditions to fit the specific ritual, creating elaborate new stories (called historiolas) based on myth. [7] In contrast, J. F. Borghouts says of magical texts that there is "not a shred of evidence that a specific kind of 'unorthodox' mythology was coined... for this genre." [8]

In the third phase of the story, Horus competes with Set for the kingship. Their struggle encompasses a great number of separate episodes and ranges in character from violent conflict to a legal judgment by the assembled gods. [84] In one important episode, Set tears out one or both of Horus' eyes, which are later restored by the healing efforts of Thoth or Hathor. For this reason, the Eye of Horus is a prominent symbol of life and well-being in Egyptian iconography. Because Horus is a sky god, with one eye equated with the sun and the other with the moon, the destruction and restoration of the single eye explains why the moon is less bright than the sun. [85]Tobin, Vincent Arieh (2001). "Myths: An Overview". In Redford, Donald B. (ed.). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt. Vol.2. Oxford University Press. pp.464–469. ISBN 978-0-19-510234-5.

Uphill, E. P. (2003). "The Ancient Egyptian View of World History". In Tait, John (ed.). 'Never Had the Like Occurred': Egypt's View of Its Past. UCL Press. pp. 15–29. ISBN 978-1-84472-007-1.The book combines a gripping family story with a historical tale that enthralls and entices readers. Talibah and Adom follow their father to modern Egypt during a research assignment for him. As they explore an ancient Egyptian mystery, they learn about a lost pharaoh—a rare queen ruler. Allusions to myth were very widespread in Egyptian art and architecture. In temple design, the central path of the temple axis was likened to the sun god's path across the sky, and the sanctuary at the end of the path represented the place of creation from which he rose. Temple decoration was filled with solar emblems that underscored this relationship. Similarly, the corridors of tombs were linked with the god's journey through the Duat, and the burial chamber with the tomb of Osiris. [112] The pyramid, the best-known of all Egyptian architectural forms, may have been inspired by mythic symbolism, for it represented the mound of creation and the original sunrise, appropriate for a monument intended to assure the owner's rebirth after death. [113] Symbols in Egyptian tradition were frequently reinterpreted, so that the meanings of mythical symbols could change and multiply over time like the myths themselves. [114] Due to that conceptual or philosophical focus, this book may be less accessible for some people than Wilkinson’s or Pinch’s. Assmann’s writing style is very comprehensible and engaging – you can really feel his passion for the topic – but since most people are more interested in isolated “facts” than the ideas that contextualize them and give them meaning, I’ve listed this one as #3. Ra, with the sun disk above his head, on the boat with which he traversed the sky and the underworld in his daily round