by Jennifer Gray

Created on: April 08, 2009

Whether they are sandstone or granite, basalt or bronze or even gold, the Egyptian gods and goddesses are a sight to behold. They will possess a human head but most often they will don an animal muzzle or the beak of a bird. Their likenesses are found on mummy cases or sculptured on stalae and stone blocks that have been stripped from temple walls. They are also found pictured on the papyric of the Book of the Dead, dated around 1240 BC.

The names are known as well as their likenesses but little is known of the nature or legends of these divinities. The god Osiris' myth is the only one that has been transmitted though out time. It was written by a Greek by the name of Plutarch who wrote about events that were twenty-five centuries before his time. These events were then confirmed in the ancient texts from the old kings of the sixth dynasty which had been engraved inside their pyramids.

The earliest depiction of Egyptian gods appeared about the middle of the fourth millennium, long before the first hieroglyphs were seen. At this time, each of the tribes of the Nile valley had their own gods who were in the form of an animal, bird or other fixation. These gods are immediately identifiable by their head-dresses and by the form they have taken. The gods would carry sceptres with one end forked and the other decorated by the head of an animal. Goddesses held a simple stalk of papyrus in their hand.

Once towns and villages were built, it is transcribed, that each area would have it's own god with the title "Lord of the City". Conceived in the image of a man with infinite strength and power, he renewed himself with a vital fluid called "sa". Though old age, and eventual death occurred, he was then reincarnated into at temple statue, a fixation or a chosen animal which could be recognized by certain symbols. The god was known to marry and have a son, forming a divine triad or trinity. With his family, the god would live in a temple or palace and he would have other gods surround him. Only the Pharaoh had the right to appear before him.

The Egyptians also worshipped the divinities of nature; the Sky, the Earth, the Sun, the Moon and the Nile. In the Egyptian language, the word for 'sky' is feminine, therefore they made the sky a goddess, Nut or Hathor, who was represented by either a cow standing on all four feet on the earth or as a woman whose body touches the earth with the tips of her toes and fingers.

The word for 'earth' is masculine, thus the god is represented by

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