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The Gods in Ancient Egyptian Culture

Egyptians were considered pagans, which mean that they believed in many Gods. The Egyptians had a god for everything and anything. They have a God for the sun, a God for agriculture, and several others. The Egyptian gods that we know today came from three different ages. They are the old kingdom (2,700-2,200 bce), the Middle kingdom (2,050-1,640 bce), and the New Kingdom (1570-1070 bce). When someone needed something, they would go to that specific God and ask for their favor.

These gods do not look like we do. Some look like dogs, cats, hippos, and even birds. Many Egyptians kept certain statues of their gods in their house. This god was usually the representative of the village. Others had a statue that represented their profession. Temples were also a very big thing in Egypt. They were usually large and had many large and small statues of their gods. These temples even contained crocodiles. Temples were different depending on the age.

In Egypt Gods changed, some were combined, and others were just destroyed. One example of this is when Akhenaten decided to make a minor god called Aten and made him the center of their religion. When Akhenaten died, Aten went back to being a minor god. Another example is when; they combined both the creator god and the sun god (Amun and Ra) into one god (Amun-Ra).

Egyptians also thought their leader was an incarnated God. This person was called the Pharaoh; he was the most influential person in Egypt. They were often referred to God-Kings because they were the incarnation of their gods thus making him closer to them than anyone else. This was probably to make sure no one would dare anger the gods by killing their chosen leader. Most of the most famous pharaohs, such as King Tut and Ramses the Great, ruled during the time of the new kingdom. One the worst thing to ever do to a Pharaoh was not to kill him, but to strike him from the afterlife.

Egyptians were big believers in the afterlife. They believed that a person was judged on their good deeds and, for Pharaohs in particular, their accomplishments. Pharaohs would order monuments to be made and hieroglyphs depicting them and their accomplishments be made. In rare cases, if a Pharaoh were a bad leader in the eyes of the people they would not only have him killed, or in most cases a family member killed had them assassinated, but they would also wipe out his identity. By getting rid of statues, paintings, and other forms of depictions of the Pharaoh they believed they were also making his spirit disappear from the afterlife.

Religion was a very large part of Egyptian society. Everything they did was for their gods and for their Pharaoh. Because after all, you would not want to make those who have great powers to be angry with you and make you suffer for angering them. Thus is the ways of Egyptians in the ancient world.

Works Cited

Egypt: New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period (1550-712 BC), www.cemml.colostate.edu/cultural/09476/egypt02-05enl.html. Accessed 27 Sept. 2017.

The Ancient Egyptian Gods, www.ancient-egypt-online.com/ancient-egyptian-gods.html. Accessed 27 Sept. 2017.