Amentet
Goddess of
The West
Amun
God of
Air
Creator of universe and everything in it
Depicted in human form, bearded, double plumed headdress.
Eventually merged with Ra (sun god) to become Amun-Ra.
Amun-Ra
Became both a visible and invisible deity, appealing to Ma’at or balance.
Protector of the pharaoh.
Subject of a cult.
Royal women were in spiritual relationships with Amun.
Anubis / Inpu
God of
Cemeteries
Embalming
Protector of Graves
Name means ‘little dog’.
Jackals were associated with death as they lurked around cemeteries and ate decomposing bodies.
By making Anubis patron of jackals, Egyptians hoped to protect the dead.
Helped mummify people when they died.
Black represents fertile soil thus believed to be a color of fortune and rebirth.
Bastet/Bast
Statuette of Bastet
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Photo by Brenna Reistad
Goddess of
Protection
Pleasure
Bringer of good health
Associations
Moon
Sun
Nicknames
All-Seeing Eye
Goddess of the Moon and believed to be the eye of Ra.
Goddess of the Rising Sun
The Lady of the East
The Sacred
She had the head of a cat and a female body.
Bastet was the daughter of Ra, sister of Sekhmet, the wife of Ptah, and the mother of Mihos.
It was believed that every day she would ride through the sky with her father, the sun god Ra. As his boat pulled the sun through the sky she would watch over and protect him. At night, she would turn into a cat to protect Ra from his greatest enemy, the serpent Apep
Her worship started during the Second Dynasty.
Bastet was worshiped as a deity, most commonly in Lower Egypt.
Cats were considered demi-deities by the Egyptians.
Bes
Amulet of the God Bes
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Photo by Brenna Reistad
God of
Childbirth
Merriment
Music
Protector of children
Protector of couples (he was worshipped by newlyweds)
Typically depicted in bedrooms to protect the household.
Considered an ‘imperfect’ human, and very odd among the deities and their chosen depictions. Shown as dwarf like, and arms too long for his body. It is believed a possibility for his misshapen body is a result from his encounters with evil spirits.
Distinct Features
Lion’s mask
Loud instrument
Unruly beard
Wild dancing
These parts of him were also thought to drive away any evil spirits that attempted to infiltrate the homes of his followers.
It was common for Egyptians to use cups or vessels in the shape of Bes’s head, especially for medicinal purposes. It was believed that the liquid poured into the containers would acquire the healing powers of the god.
"The animal-headed god Bes was a household deity who guided women and children through the perils of pregnancy, childbirth, and infancy. This Bes wears a leopard skin arranged around his neck, a feature that appeared during the Nubian rule of Egypt (Dynasty 25)".
Geb
Image From the Inner/Outer Coffin of the Charioteer Iotefamun
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Photo by Brenna Reistad
God of
Earth
Air
Moisture
Central to the creation myth, the pharos considered themselves descendants of Geb, so that they could tie themselves to the gods.
The royal throne was referred to as ‘The Throne of Geb’.
Called the ‘Father of snakes’, he is sometimes depicted with the head of a snake or a goose.
His hieroglyph means ‘goose’.
The word for Earth translated to ‘House of Geb’.
He was the twin of Nut, the sky goddess.
Hathor
Image From the Inner/Outer Coffin of the Charioteer Iotefamun
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Photo by Brenna Reistad
Goddess of:
Beauty
Dancing
‘Eye of Ra’ (Shared with Bast, Sekhmet, and others)
Fertility
Love
Music
Patroness of music
Patron of cosmetics
Pleasure
Being the wife of Horus, she became associated with two people
The mother of the pharaoh, and caring for them
The wife of the pharaoh
Protector of women, though also worshipped by men.
She was the daughter of Ra, and his defender.
Wearing cosmetics was seen as a form of worship to her.
Favored among her offerings were mirrors and cosmetic pallets.
A common motif is the deceased giving offerings to Hathor in the form of a cow, at the same time receiving water from a woman standing in a tree nearby, the Goddess of the West.
Hatméhyt
A deity central to the city of Mendes, she was the goddess of fish.
She was also the image representing the administrative region of the city.
Horus
God of
War
Sky
Husband of Hathor.
As the religion progressed, Horus became the son of Osiris and Isis, as well as the opponent of Seth.
This then brought the myth of Horus and Seth and their rivalry, murder, and resurrection.
Pharaohs became associated with Horus as he was considered the embodiment of the god, and the pharaoh was supposed to be a living god.
He was commonly depicted as a falcon-headed god with a double crown.
The Wadjat symbol, also called the Eye of Horus, is made of 6 pieces, each representing a sense, including thought.
Isis/Aset
Isis and Horus
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Photo by Brenna Reistad
Goddess of / nicknames
Bringer of cosmic order
Bringer of magic
Great mother
Healing
Magic
Protector of children
Protector of the dead
Protector of women
Queen of the universe
Winged Goddess
Known to the Egyptians as Aset, the Greeks named her Isis.
Her name translates to ‘throne’ or ‘Queen of the Throne’, and she is depicted with a headdress in the shape of a throne.
She may be depicted with traits of Mut (vulture head/headdress), and Hathor (disk with horns). This happened because people began to combine those traits into Isis.
By the Roman period, she was believed to control the power of fate itself.
She was very popular with the Romans and was venerated along with Osiris until the 3rd century.
The last known Temple of Isis was in Southern Egypt, on the island of Philae. It closed between 535-537 AD.
Both deities enjoyed great veneration throughout the Roman Empire until the 3rd century. Her image lived on in the Christian representation of the Virgin Mary with the boy Jesus.
The last Temple of Isis on the island of Philae in southern Egypt, near the first cataract of the Nile, was only closed between 535 AD and 537 AD.
Khnum
Amulet of the God Khnum
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Photo by Brenna Reistad
God of
Divine potter
Fertility
Lord of created things
Source of the Nile River
One of earliest known deities, he is depicted with a human body and a green ram’s head.It was believed he created children on a potter wheel and placed them inside a woman’s womb.
Important as when the Nile flooded, it brought life to the land around is via silt, clay, and extra water.
Ma’at
Goddess of
Balance
Justice
Order
Truth
Created when Ra arose from the waters of Nun (chaos). Becoming its balance, order.
Daughter of Ra and married to Thoth.
Ma’at kept balance in the universe, and guided the Egyptians in their sense of justice and morality.
Depicted as a winged woman sitting or standing, and an ostrich feather on her head.
Extremely important in death, her feather was what the deceased’s heart was weighted against in the Hall of Judgement.
Neith
Goddess of
Creation
Creator of Birth
Funerary
War
Weaving
Wisdom
Believed to be there at the creation of the world, she has been worshipped from early
Predynastic era until Roman Rule.
Sometimes believed to be the mother of Ra or Sobek.
Guided other deities with her wisdom and helped to settled disputes.
Had multiple roles in the afterlife, including dressing the deceased in cloth, and shooting arrows at their enemies.
Nekhbet
Appears as a vulture
Goddess of Upper Egypt
Protector of royal children
Later became protector of expectant mothers and all children
Called “Hedjet” meaning “White Crown”
Appears with Wadjet to represent the whole of Egypt
Nephthys
Goddess of/Nicknames
Air (‘head’ of the world’)
Mistress of the House (‘head of the family’)
Associated with
Beer
Childbirth
Embalming
Health
Magic
Mourning
Night/Darkness
Protection
Service (temples)
The dead
Vultures
The daughter of Geb and Nut, and sister to Isis and Seth. Married to Seth she is the mother of Anubis.
She is sometimes used to represent Lower Egypt.
In some stories she is barren.
After Osiris was killed by Seth, she aided her sister Isis to bring Osiris back from the dead.
Thus, she became associated with protecting the dead, and is typically depicted on coffins and tombs, as well as being associated with the organs in canopic jars.
She can only be differentiated from her sister Isis in art by their headdresses. Nephthys usually has a basket on her head.
May be depicted as a hawk or mourning woman.
Nut
Mummy Cartonage (Mask)
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Photo by Brenna Reistad
Goddess of
Sky
Heavens
Pronounced ‘newt’.
Daughter of Shu (God of vital breath) and Tefnut (Goddess of heat). Wife and protector of Geb.
Usually placed on the front of coffins, she uses her wings to protect the dead. She protects them until they are reborn in the afterlife, associating her with coffins and sarcophagi.
Depicted as a celestial cow, or a woman bent over earth, with her head in the west and feet east.
She swallowed Ra at night and gave birth to him in the morning, then swallowed Thoth and gave birth to him at night.
The city of Heliopolis believed her to be a part of the origin of the universe.
Osiris
Image From the Inner/Outer Coffin of the Charioteer Iotefamun
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Photo by Brenna Reistad
God of
The deceased
Eldest son of Geb and Nut, brother to Seth. Brother and husband to Isis.
Murdered by Seth and brought back to life via Isis.
Fathered Horus, then descended to the underworld, becoming its ruler.
Ptah / Pataikos
Amulet Representing Pataikos
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Photo by Brenna Reistad
God of/nicknames
God who created all other deities
‘Whose breath gave life to everything at the beginning’
Associations
Patron of craftspeople and architects
Invented masonry (the famous architect Imhotep claimed to be his son)
Aphis bull
His temple (‘temple of the soul of Ptah’) being in the capitol city of Memphis helped spread his worship across Egypt.
Pharaohs were typically coronated in his temple.
The Greeks shortened his name to ‘pt’ and used it in reference to the country, thus creating the name Egypt.
Ra
God of/nicknames
Father of all creation
King of deities
Universal power of the sun
Associated with
Heaven
Kingship
Light
Patron of the sun
Power
May be both a representation of the sun and day or could be the literal sun.
Ra-Horakhty
(‘Ra-Horus in the horizon’).
The reborn sun god
Depicted as a falcon head on the shoulders of mummies on their collar
Khepri
Beetle who moved the sun across the sky.
Then passed it through the underworld on a barge.
Other
Could take the forms of his daughters Sekhmet and Hathor.
Sekhmet
Sekhmet
Chrysler Museum of Fine Arts
Photo by Brenna Reistad
Goddess of
Chaos
Healing
Plague
Sun
War
Associations
Patron of physicians and healers
Protector of the pharaohs and led them in war
When calm, becomes the household cat goddess Bastet.
“She who is powerful” or “One who loves Ma’at”.
Created by Ra when he looked upon earth, she is a weapon to destroy humans when they do not follow the principals of Ma’at.
Sometimes said to be the daughter of Geb and Nut.
Body of a woman, with a lion head and sun disk.
Followers of Sekhmet would whisper prayers in the ears of mummified cats and offer them as tribute, believing them to be a direct connection to her. They also would offer her food and drink, burn incense, and play music for her.
Seth
God of
Desert
Earthquakes
Eclipses
Foreign lands
Thunderstorms
Associations
Patron god of the pharaohs
Protected the dead on the way to the afterlife
Son of Geb and Nut, brother to Osiris.
After killing Osiris and being defeated by Horus, he was adopted by Ra. He became protector of Ra from the serpent Apophis.
Typically depicted as a dog-like animal with a forked tail, usually called ‘Seth-animal’.
Sobek
God of
Crocodiles
Associated with
Chaos (occasionally)
Created the Nile River
Creating order by some sects
Ferocity
Fertility (people and crops)
Patron of the Army
One of the oldest known deities, he is depicted with a crocodile head.
Mummified crocodiles found in tombs are believed to be associated with him.
Tawaret / Toeri
Amulet of the God Taurt
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Photo by Brenna Reistad
Goddess of
Childbirth
Fertility
Shown as a humanoid-hippopotamus, feline attributes, human female breasts, back and tail of a crocodile, and limbs and paws of a lion.
Under protection of Thot, she is shown as a baboon.
Third Intermediate to late period
‘She who is great’, ‘great one’ a pacificator way to address dangerous deities
Thoth / Djehuty
Figure of Thoth
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Photo by Brenna Reistad
God of
Moon
Wisdom
Associations
Art
Divine Order
Hieroglyphics
Judgement
Justice
Magic
Master of knowledge
Mathematics
Messenger/recorder of the deities
Patron of scribes
Ra
Sacred texts
Sciences
The dead
Writing
‘Djehuty’, name in Egyptian, ‘he who is like the Ibis’.
Depicted as an ibis bid or a baboon.
Self-created at the beginning of time, then in the form of an ibis lays the cosmic egg.
Records results of the heart-weighing ceremony.
Unut
Rare goddess with a hare’s head
Wadjet
Image From the Inner/Outer Coffin of the Charioteer Iotefamun
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Photo by Brenna Reistad
Protective goddess of Lower Egypt.
Cobra twined around a papyrus stem, or with a cobra head.
Sometimes represented on the kings diadem with Nekhbet, symbolizing the reign of all of Egypt.
Wepwawet
‘Way opener’.
Secondary jackal god. He was probably originally an aspect of Anubis. One who was possibly tied to domesticated jackals, becoming protective of their owners. Whereas in the wild would be digging up and eating corpses.
The Kings protector.
Differentiated from Anubis by his upright and attentive posture.
Shown with gray, or white fur to tie to more wolf like origins.
Mentioned during the Third Dynasty.
Later depicted in various dog and wolf forms; jackal, wolf, or a man with the head of either jackal or wolf.
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