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72-752: The name of the month of Tobi comes from Amso Khem , a form of the Ancient Egyptian God Amun Ra . Toubeh, (the ancient Tobi) : the 5th Coptic month. Corn and flax should be cleared from weeds, and land that is to be devoted to cotton, sesame, and summer cucurbita , is prepared until the 1st of Amshir . Land destined for the growth of culcas ( colocasia ), and sugar, should be inundated. Lands found to be uncultivable should be marked out and declared unproductive, in order that they may be exempt from taxation. The first cutting of sugar cane takes place (hasab er-rcis) -. sufficient being left for seed, viz : — one kirat in every feddan . At

144-399: A bounteous harvest. 1 27 9 1 1 This article about subjects relating to Ancient Egypt is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This Oriental Orthodox Christianity –related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Amun B C D F G H I K M N P Q R S T U W Amun

216-543: A crowd. While not regarded as a dynasty, the High Priests of Amun at Thebes were nevertheless of such power and influence that they were effectively the rulers of Egypt from 1080 to c. 943 BC. By the time Herihor was proclaimed as the first ruling High Priest of Amun in 1080 BC—in the 19th Year of Ramesses XI —the Amun priesthood exercised an effective hold on Egypt's economy. The Amun priests owned two-thirds of all

288-467: A moment; none remains. His breath comes back to us in mercy ... May your ka be kind; may you forgive; It shall not happen again. Subsequently, when Egypt conquered Kush , they identified the chief deity of the Kushites as Amun. This Kush deity was depicted as ram-headed, more specifically a woolly ram with curved horns. Amun thus became associated with the ram arising from the aged appearance of

360-469: A pole mounting a pot, was a symbol associated both with Osiris as god of the underworld and with Anubis , god of mummification, was sometimes included among a deceased person's funerary equipment. The first phase of the festival was a public drama depicting the murder and dismemberment of Osiris, the search for his body by Isis, his triumphal return as the resurrected god, and the battle in which Horus defeated Set. According to Julius Firmicus Maternus of

432-499: A ram-specific necropolis . Banebdjed was consequently said to be Horus' father, as Banebdjed was an aspect of Osiris. Regarding the association of Osiris with the ram, the god's traditional crook and flail are the instruments of the shepherd, which has suggested to some scholars also an origin for Osiris in herding tribes of the upper Nile. Plutarch recounts one version of the Osiris myth in which Set (Osiris' brother), along with

504-633: A red tree in the forms of the sixteen dismembered parts of Osiris, the cakes of "divine" bread were made from each mold, placed in a silver chest and set near the head of the god with the inward parts of Osiris as described in the Book of the Dead (XVII). The idea of divine justice being exercised after death for wrongdoing during life is first encountered during the Old Kingdom in a Sixth Dynasty tomb containing fragments of what would be described later as

576-562: A shepherd god. The symbolism of the flail is more uncertain with shepherd's whip, fly-whisk, or association with the god Andjety of the ninth nome of Lower Egypt proposed. He was commonly depicted as a pharaoh with a complexion of either green (the color of rebirth) or black (alluding to the fertility of the Nile floodplain) in mummiform (wearing the trappings of mummification from chest downward). The Pyramid Texts describe early conceptions of an afterlife in terms of eternal travelling with

648-430: A symbol of virility, Amun also became thought of as a fertility deity, and so started to absorb the identity of Min , becoming Amun-Min. This association with virility led to Amun-Min gaining the epithet Kamutef , meaning "Bull of his mother", in which form he was found depicted on the walls of Karnak , ithyphallic , and with a "flail" , as Min was. As the cult of Amun grew in importance, Amun became identified with

720-399: A symbolic crook and flail . He was one of the first to be associated with the mummy wrap. When his brother Set cut him up into pieces after killing him, with her sister Nephthys, Osiris' wife, Isis, searched all over Egypt to find each part of Osiris. She collected all but one – Osiris’s manhood. She then wrapped his body up, enabling him to return to life. Osiris was widely worshipped until

792-721: Is Permanently Benign and Youthful". The first evidence of the worship of Osiris is from the middle of the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt (25th century BC), although it is likely that he was worshiped much earlier; the Khenti-Amentiu epithet dates to at least the First Dynasty , and was also used as a pharaonic title. Most information available on the Osiris myth is derived from allusions in the Pyramid Texts at

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864-646: Is just an unproven hypothesis since Amun was "[f]irst attested in the tomb of Pharaoh Unas " (ca. 2350 BCE) in Egypt, and not in Libya. Amun and Amaunet are mentioned in the Old Egyptian Pyramid Texts . The name Amun (written imn ) meant something like "the hidden one" or "invisible", which is also attested by epithets found in the Pyramid Texts "O You, the great god whose name

936-533: Is normal in being merciful. The Lord of Thebes does not spend an entire day angry. As for his anger – in the completion of a moment there is no remnant ... As thy Ka endures! thou wilt be merciful! In the Leiden hymns, Amun, Ptah , and Re are regarded as a trinity who are distinct gods but with unity in plurality. "The three gods are one yet the Egyptian elsewhere insists on the separate identity of each of

1008-618: Is now time for the sale of cattle. S. winds (Siba) are more prevalent than N. (Dabour). Taxes are now collected. There are various popular sayings respecting Toubeh, — e. g. that if rain falls on any of the first eleven days, but especially on the Festival of the Epiphany , it is a certain sign of good crops. The fellah says " Yfra en Nusrani" (the Christian is happy ) and asserts that God is contented with his people, and will reward them with

1080-431: Is taken by the devourer is subject first to terrifying punishment and then annihilated. These depictions of punishment may have influenced medieval perceptions of the inferno in hell via early Christian and Coptic texts. Purification for those who are considered justified may be found in the descriptions of "Flame Island", where they experience the triumph over evil and rebirth. For the damned, complete destruction into

1152-632: Is the Victory Stela , which is largely a copy of the more famous Merneptah Stele found in the funerary complex of Merenptah on the west bank of the Nile in Thebes. Merenptah's son Seti II added two small obelisks in front of the Second Pylon, and a triple bark-shrine to the north of the processional avenue in the same area. This was constructed of sandstone, with a chapel to Amun flanked by those of Mut and Khonsu . The last major change to

1224-540: Is unknown". Amun rose to the position of tutelary deity of Thebes after the end of the First Intermediate Period , under the 11th Dynasty . As the patron of Thebes, his spouse was Mut . In Thebes, Amun as father, Mut as mother, and the Moon god Khonsu as their son formed the divine family or the " Theban Triad ". The history of Amun as the patron god of Thebes begins in the 20th century BC, with

1296-539: The Egyptian language . In Egyptian hieroglyphs the name appears as wsjr , which some Egyptologists instead choose to transliterate as ꜣsjr or jsjrj . Since hieroglyphic writing lacks vowels , Egyptologists have vocalized the name in various ways, such as Asar, Ausar, Ausir, Wesir, Usir, or Usire. Several proposals have been made for the etymology and meaning of the original name; as Egyptologist Mark J. Smith notes, none are fully convincing. Most take wsjr as

1368-642: The Egyptian pantheon throughout the New Kingdom (with the exception of the " Atenist heresy " under Akhenaten ). Amun-Ra in this period (16th–11th centuries BC) held the position of transcendental , self-created creator deity "par excellence"; he was the champion of the poor or troubled and central to personal piety . With Osiris , Amun-Ra is the most widely recorded of the Egyptian gods. Ra's name simply means "sun". Like most gods in Egyptian mythologies, gods had multiple names; his additional names were Re, Amun-Re, Khepri, Ra-Horakhty, and Atum. As

1440-552: The Hymn to the Aten : When thou crossest the sky, all faces behold thee, but when thou departest, thou are hidden from their faces ... When thou settest in the western mountain, then they sleep in the manner of death ... The fashioner of that which the soil produces, ... a mother of profit to gods and men; a patient craftsman, greatly wearying himself as their maker ... valiant herdsman, driving his cattle, their refuge and

1512-622: The Kingdom of Kush . The Victory Stele of Piye at Gebel Barkal (8th century BC) now distinguishes between an "Amun of Napata " and an "Amun of Thebes". Tantamani (died 653 BC), the last pharaoh of the Nubian dynasty, still bore a theophoric name referring to Amun in the Nubian form Amani . In areas outside Egypt where the Egyptians had previously brought the cult of Amun his worship continued into classical antiquity . In Nubia, where his name

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1584-517: The Negative Confessions performed in front of the 42 Assessors of Ma'at . At death a person faced judgment by a tribunal of forty-two divine judges. If they led a life in conformance with the precepts of the goddess Ma'at , who represented truth and right living, the person was welcomed into the kingdom of Osiris. If found guilty, the person was thrown to the soul-eating demon Ammit and did not share in eternal life. The person who

1656-627: The Nile Delta , whose beneficial rule led to him being revered as a god. The accoutrements of the shepherd, the crook and the flail – once insignia of the Delta god Andjety , with whom Osiris was associated – support this theory. Osiris is a Latin transliteration of the Ancient Greek Ὄσιρις IPA: [ó.siː.ris] , which in turn is the Greek adaptation of the original name in

1728-582: The decline of ancient Egyptian religion during the rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire . Osiris was at times considered the eldest son of the earth god Geb and the sky goddess Nut , as well as being brother and husband of Isis , and brother of Set , Nephthys , and Horus the Elder , with Horus the Younger being considered his posthumously begotten son. Through syncretism with Iah , he

1800-575: The temple lands in Egypt and 90 percent of her ships and many other resources. Consequently, the Amun priests were as powerful as the pharaoh, if not more so. One of the sons of the High Priest Pinedjem would eventually assume the throne and rule Egypt for almost half a century as pharaoh Psusennes I , while the Theban High Priest Psusennes III would take the throne as king Psusennes II —the final ruler of

1872-601: The 21st Dynasty. In the 10th century BC, the overwhelming dominance of Amun over all of Egypt gradually began to decline. In Thebes, however, his worship continued unabated, especially under the Nubian Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt , as Amun was by now seen as a national god in Nubia. The Temple of Amun, Jebel Barkal , founded during the New Kingdom, came to be the center of the religious ideology of

1944-422: The 3rd century BC, slew them. Osiris Osiris ( / oʊ ˈ s aɪ r ɪ s / , from Egyptian wsjr ) was the god of fertility , agriculture, the afterlife , the dead, resurrection , life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion . He was classically depicted as a green-skinned deity with a pharaoh's beard, partially mummy -wrapped at the legs, wearing a distinctive atef crown, and holding

2016-473: The Aten ceased for the most part and worship of Amun-Ra was restored. During the reign of Horemheb, Akhenaten's name was struck from Egyptian records, all of his religious and governmental changes were undone, and the capital was returned to Thebes. The return to the previous capital and its patron deity was accomplished so swiftly that it seemed this monolatrist cult and its governmental reforms had never existed. The god of wind Amun came to be identified with

2088-569: The Hermapolite creation myth, his worship expanded. After the rebellion of Thebes against the Hyksos and with the rule of Ahmose I (16th century BC), Amun acquired national importance , expressed in his fusion with the Sun god , Ra , as Amun-Ra (alternatively spelled Amon-Ra or Amun-Re ). On his own, he was also thought to be the king of the gods . Amun-Ra retained chief importance in

2160-591: The Kush ram deity, and depictions related to Amun sometimes had small ram's horns, known as the Horns of Ammon . A solar deity in the form of a ram can be traced to the pre-literate Kerma culture in Nubia, contemporary to the Old Kingdom of Egypt. The later ( Meroitic period ) name of Nubian Amun was Amani , attested in numerous personal names such as Tanwetamani , Arkamani , and Amanitore . Since rams were considered

2232-732: The Precinct of Amun-Ra's layout was the addition of the first pylon and the massive enclosure walls that surrounded the whole Precinct, both constructed by Nectanebo I . When the army of the founder of the Eighteenth Dynasty expelled the Hyksos rulers from Egypt, the victor's city of origin, Thebes , became the most important city in Egypt, the capital of a new dynasty. The local patron deity of Thebes, Amun, therefore became nationally important . The pharaohs of that new dynasty attributed all of their successes to Amun, and they lavished much of their wealth and captured spoil on

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2304-576: The Queen of Ethiopia , conspired with 72 accomplices to plot the assassination of Osiris. Set fooled Osiris into getting into a box, which Set then shut, sealed with lead, and threw into the Nile. Osiris' wife, Isis , searched for his remains until she finally found him embedded in a tamarisk tree trunk, which was holding up the roof of a palace in Byblos on the Phoenician coast . She managed to remove

2376-524: The accepted transliteration, following Adolf Erman : However, recently alternative transliterations have been proposed: Osiris is represented in his most developed form of iconography wearing the Atef crown, which is similar to the White crown of Upper Egypt , but with the addition of two curling ostrich feathers at each side. He also carries the crook and flail . The crook is thought to represent Osiris as

2448-490: The artisans' village at Deir el-Medina record: [Amun] who comes at the voice of the poor in distress, who gives breath to him who is wretched ... You are Amun, the Lord of the silent, who comes at the voice of the poor; when I call to you in my distress You come and rescue me ... Though the servant was disposed to do evil, the Lord is disposed to forgive. The Lord of Thebes spends not a whole day in anger; His wrath passes in

2520-470: The aspect and form of Seker-Osiris. Osiris' soul, or rather his ba , was occasionally worshipped in its own right, almost as if it were a distinct god, especially in the Delta city of Mendes . This aspect of Osiris was referred to as Banebdjedet , which is grammatically feminine (also spelt " Banebded " or " Banebdjed "), literally "the ba of the lord of the djed , which roughly means The soul of

2592-408: The body of Osiris and hides it in the reeds where it is found and dismembered by Set. Isis retrieves and joins the fragmented pieces of Osiris, then briefly revives him by use of magic. This spell gives her time to become pregnant by Osiris. Isis later gives birth to Horus. Since Horus was born after Osiris' resurrection, Horus became thought of as a representation of new beginnings and the vanquisher of

2664-638: The chief deity of the Egyptian Empire , Amun-Ra also came to be worshiped outside Egypt, according to the testimony of ancient Greek historiographers in Libya and Nubia . As Zeus Ammon and Jupiter Ammon , he came to be identified with Zeus in Greece and Jupiter in Rome. In 1910 René Basset suggested that the cult of Amun first developed in ancient Libya before spreading to ancient Egypt. But this

2736-516: The chief deity who was worshipped in other areas during that period, namely the sun god Ra . This identification led to another merger of identities, with Amun becoming Amun-Ra. In the Hymn to Amun-Ra he is described as Lord of truth, father of the gods, maker of men, creator of all animals, Lord of things that are, creator of the staff of life. During the latter part of the Eighteenth dynasty ,

2808-410: The coffin and retrieve her husband's body. In one version of the myth, Isis used a spell to briefly revive Osiris so he could impregnate her. After embalming and burying Osiris, Isis conceived and gave birth to their son, Horus. Thereafter Osiris lived on as the god of the underworld. Because of his death and resurrection, Osiris was associated with the flooding and retreating of the Nile and thus with

2880-563: The construction of temples dedicated to Amun. The victory against the "foreign rulers" achieved by pharaohs who worshipped Amun caused him to be seen as a champion of the less fortunate , upholding the rights of justice for the poor. By aiding those who traveled in his name, he became the Protector of the road . Since he upheld Ma'at (truth, justice, and goodness), those who prayed to Amun were required first to demonstrate that they were worthy, by confessing their sins. Votive stelae from

2952-546: The construction of the Precinct of Amun-Ra at Karnak under Senusret I . The city of Thebes does not appear to have been of great significance before the 11th Dynasty. Major construction work in the Precinct of Amun-Ra took place during the 18th Dynasty when Thebes became the capital of the unified ancient Egypt. Construction of the Hypostyle Hall may have also begun during the 18th Dynasty, though most building

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3024-478: The dead, they would unite with him and inherit eternal life through imitative magic. Through the hope of new life after death , Osiris began to be associated with the cycles in nature, in particular the sprouting of vegetation and the annual flooding of the Nile River , as well as the heliacal rising of Orion and Sirius at the start of the new year. He became the sovereign that granted all life, "He Who

3096-432: The death of the god, on the same day that grain was planted in the ground (Isis and Osiris, 13). The annual festival involved the construction of "Osiris Beds" formed in shape of Osiris, filled with soil and sown with seed. The germinating seed symbolized Osiris rising from the dead. An almost pristine example was found in the tomb of Tutankhamun . The imiut emblem- an image of a stuffed, headless skin of an animal tied to

3168-584: The end of the Fifth Dynasty, later New Kingdom source documents such as the Shabaka Stone and " The Contendings of Horus and Seth ", and much later, in the narratives of Greek authors including Plutarch and Diodorus Siculus . Some Egyptologists believe the Osiris mythos may have originated in a former living ruler — possibly a shepherd who lived in Predynastic times (5500–3100 BC) in

3240-567: The end of the month work in canals and dykes should be taken in hand : and much care should be bestowed upon the repairing of sakhiehs ( water wheels), wells, &c. The Nile water is in its clearest and best state in Toubeh, and cisterns should be now filled in Cairo and all large towns. The flesh of sheep is better now than at any other season. Vegetables, especially carrots, are at their best. Horses and mules should be tethered in bersim , and it

3312-547: The extant information about the rites of Osiris can be found on the Ikhernofret Stela at Abydos erected in the Twelfth Dynasty by Ikhernofret , possibly a priest of Osiris or other official (the titles of Ikhernofret are described in his stela from Abydos) during the reign of Senwosret III (Pharaoh Sesostris, about 1875 BC). The ritual reenactment of Osiris's funeral rites were held in the last month of

3384-549: The fourth century, this play was re-enacted each year by worshippers who "beat their breasts and gashed their shoulders.... When they pretend that the mutilated remains of the god have been found and rejoined...they turn from mourning to rejoicing." ( De Errore Profanarum Religionum ). The passion of Osiris was reflected in his name 'Wenennefer" ("the one who continues to be perfect"), which also alludes to his post mortem power. B C D F G H I K M N P Q R S T U W Much of

3456-522: The inundation (the annual Nile flood), coinciding with Spring, and held at Abydos which was the traditional place where the body of Osiris drifted ashore after having been drowned in the Nile. The part of the myth recounting the chopping up of the body into 14 pieces by Set is not recounted in this particular stela. Although it is attested to be a part of the rituals by a version of the Papyrus Jumilhac, in which it took Isis 12 days to reassemble

3528-451: The lord of the pillar . The djed , a type of pillar, was usually understood as the backbone of Osiris. The Nile supplying water, and Osiris (strongly connected to the vegetable regeneration) who died only to be resurrected, represented continuity and stability. As Banebdjed , Osiris was given epithets such as Lord of the Sky and Life of the ( sun god ) Ra . Ba does not mean "soul" in

3600-433: The making of their living ... The sole Lord, who reaches the end of the lands every day, as one who sees them that tread thereon ... Every land chatters at his rising every day, in order to praise him. When Akhenaten died, Akhenaten's successor, Smenkhkare , became pharaoh and Atenism remained established during his brief 2-year reign. When Smenkhkare died, an enigmatic female pharaoh known as Neferneferuaten took

3672-435: The perfect king, Horus . Further, as attested by tomb-inscriptions, both women and men could syncretize (identify) with Osiris at their death, another set of evidence that underlines Osiris' androgynous nature. Plutarch and others have noted that the sacrifices to Osiris were "gloomy, solemn, and mournful..." (Isis and Osiris, 69) and that the great mystery festival, celebrated in two phases, began at Abydos commemorating

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3744-527: The pharaoh Akhenaten (also known as Amenhotep IV) advanced the worship of the Aten , a deity whose power was manifested in the sun disk, both literally and symbolically. He defaced the symbols of many of the old deities, and based his religious practices upon the deity, the Aten . He moved his capital away from Thebes, but this abrupt change was very unpopular with the priests of Amun, who now found themselves without any of their former power. The religion of Egypt

3816-608: The pieces, coinciding with the festival of ploughing. Some elements of the ceremony were held in the temple , while others involved public participation in a form of theatre. The Stela of Ikhernofret recounts the programme of events of the public elements over the five days of the Festival: Contrasting with the public "theatrical" ceremonies sourced from the Middle Kingdom Ikhernofret Stele, more esoteric ceremonies were performed inside

3888-404: The prayer, who comes at the cry of the poor and distressed...Beware of him! Repeat him to son and daughter, to great and small; relate him to generations of generations who have not yet come into being; relate him to fishes in the deep, to birds in heaven; repeat him to him who does not know him and to him who knows him ... Though it may be that the servant is normal in doing wrong, yet the Lord

3960-428: The solar god Ra and the god of fertility and creation Min , so that Amun-Ra had the main characteristic of a solar god , creator god and fertility god . He also adopted the aspect of the ram from the Nubian solar god, besides numerous other titles and aspects. As Amun-Ra, he was petitioned for mercy by those who believed suffering had come about as a result of their own or others' wrongdoing. Amun-Ra "who hears

4032-429: The sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going." A Leiden hymn to Amun describes how he calms stormy seas for the troubled sailor: The tempest moves aside for the sailor who remembers the name of Amon. The storm becomes a sweet breeze for he who invokes His name ... Amon is more effective than millions for he who places Him in his heart. Thanks to Him the single man becomes stronger than

4104-604: The substance of Earth and Water." ( Isis and Osiris, 39). Yet his accounts were still obscure, for he also wrote, "I pass over the cutting of the wood" – opting not to describe it, since he considered it as a most sacred ritual ( Ibid. 21). In the Osirian temple at Denderah , an inscription (translated by Budge, Chapter XV, Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection) describes in detail the making of wheat paste models of each dismembered piece of Osiris to be sent out to

4176-605: The sun god amongst the stars. Amongst these mortuary texts, at the beginning of the Fourth Dynasty , is found: "An offering the king gives and Anubis " . By the end of the Fifth Dynasty, the formula in all tombs becomes " An offering the king gives and Osiris ". Osiris is the mythological father of the god Horus , whose conception is described in the Osiris myth (a central myth in ancient Egyptian belief ). The myth describes Osiris as having been killed by his brother Set , who wanted Osiris' throne. His wife, Isis , finds

4248-404: The sunken city of Thonis-Heracleion . These ceremonies were fertility rites which symbolised the resurrection of Osiris. Recent scholars emphasize "the androgynous character of [Osiris'] fertility" clear from surviving material. For instance, Osiris' fertility has to come both from being castrated/cut-into-pieces and the reassembly by female Isis, whose embrace of her reassembled Osiris produces

4320-494: The temples by priests. Plutarch mentions that (for much later period) two days after the beginning of the festival "the priests bring forth a sacred chest containing a small golden coffer, into which they pour some potable water...and a great shout arises from the company for joy that Osiris is found (or resurrected). Then they knead some fertile soil with the water...and fashion therefrom a crescent-shaped figure, which they cloth and adorn, this indicating that they regard these gods as

4392-513: The three." This unity in plurality is expressed in one text: All gods are three: Amun, Re and Ptah, whom none equals. He who hides his name as Amun, he appears to the face as Re, his body is Ptah. Henri Frankfort suggested that Amun was originally a wind god and speculating pointed out that the implicit connection between the winds and mysteriousness was paralleled in a passage from the Gospel of John : "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear

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4464-411: The throne for a brief period but it is unclear what happened during her reign. After Neferneferuaten's death, Akhenaten's 9-year-old son Tutankhaten succeeded her. At the beginning of his reign, the young pharaoh reversed Atenism, re-establishing the old polytheistic religion and renaming himself Tutankhamun . His sister-wife, then named Ankhesenpaaten, followed him and was renamed Ankhesenamun. Worship of

4536-409: The town where each piece is discovered by Isis. At the temple of Mendes, figures of Osiris were made from wheat and paste placed in a trough on the day of the murder, then water was added for several days, until finally the mixture was kneaded into a mold of Osiris and taken to the temple to be buried (the sacred grain for these cakes were grown only in the temple fields). Molds were made from the wood of

4608-432: The usurper Set. Ptah-Seker (who resulted from the identification of the creator god Ptah with Seker ) thus gradually became identified with Osiris, the two becoming Ptah-Seker-Osiris . As the sun was thought to spend the night in the underworld, and was subsequently "reborn" every morning, Ptah-Seker-Osiris was identified as king of the underworld , god of the afterlife , life, death, and regeneration. Osiris also has

4680-400: The western sense, and has to do with power, reputation, force of character, especially in the case of a god. Since the ba was associated with power, and also happened to be a word for ram in Egyptian , Banebdjed was depicted as a ram, or as Ram-headed. A living, sacred ram was kept at Mendes and worshipped as the incarnation of the god, and upon death, the rams were mummified and buried in

4752-414: The yearly growth and death of crops along the Nile valley. Diodorus Siculus gives another version of the myth in which Osiris was described as an ancient king who taught the Egyptians the arts of civilization, including agriculture, then travelled the world with his sister Isis, the satyrs , and the nine muses , before finally returning to Egypt. Osiris was then murdered by his evil brother Typhon , who

4824-731: Was a major ancient Egyptian deity who appears as a member of the Hermopolitan Ogdoad . Amun was attested from the Old Kingdom together with his wife Amunet . His oracle in Siwa Oasis , located in Western Egypt near the Libyan Desert , remained the only oracle of Amun throughout. With the 11th Dynasty ( c.  21st century BC), Amun rose to the position of patron deity of Thebes by replacing Montu . Initially possibly one of eight deities in

4896-605: Was also a god of the Moon . Osiris was the judge and lord of the dead and the underworld , the "Lord of Silence" and Khenti-Amentiu , meaning "Foremost of the Westerners". In the Old Kingdom (2686–2181 BC) the pharaoh was considered a son of the sun god Ra who, after his death, ascended to join Ra in the sky. After the spread of the Osiris cult, however, the kings of Egypt were associated with Osiris in death – as Osiris rose from

4968-651: Was identified with Set. Typhon divided the body into twenty-six pieces, which he distributed amongst his fellow conspirators in order to implicate them in the murder. Isis and Hercules (Horus) avenged the death of Osiris and slew Typhon. Isis recovered all the parts of Osiris' body, except the phallus , and secretly buried them. She made replicas of them and distributed them to several locations, which then became centres of Osiris worship. Annual ceremonies were performed in honor of Osiris in various places across Egypt. Evidences of which were discovered during underwater archaeological excavations of Franck Goddio and his team in

5040-537: Was inexorably tied to the leadership of the country, the pharaoh being the leader of both. The pharaoh was the highest priest in the temple of the capital, and the next lower level of religious leaders were important advisers to the pharaoh, many being administrators of the bureaucracy that ran the country. The introduction of Atenism under Akhenaten constructed a monolatrist worship of Aten in direct competition with that of Amun. Praises of Amun on stelae are strikingly similar in language to those later used, in particular,

5112-465: Was pronounced Amane or Amani (written in meroitic hieroglyphs as "𐦀𐦉𐦊𐦂" and in cursive as "𐦠𐦨𐦩𐦢"), he remained a national deity, with his priests, at Meroe and Nobatia , regulating the whole government of the country via an oracle , choosing the ruler, and directing military expeditions. According to Diodorus Siculus , these religious leaders were even able to compel kings to commit suicide, although this tradition stopped when Arkamane , in

5184-583: Was undertaken under Seti I and Ramesses II . Merenptah commemorated his victories over the Sea Peoples on the walls of the Cachette Court , the start of the processional route to the Luxor Temple . This Great Inscription (which has now lost about a third of its content) shows the king's campaigns and eventual return with items of potential value and prisoners. Next to this inscription

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