Amen-Moses

OK here is my first thread starter on this board.

The standard view of Egyptian (ancient that is) theology is that of multiple gods and this is always contrasted with so-called monotheistic cultures such as Judaism, Islam or Christianity.

Now one of the tricks of my (amatuer) trade of Archeology is to always ask yourself the following question:

"If I saw similar evidence from my own culture 2000 years from now, what would be my conclusions regarding it?"

For example if you were in 2000 years time to excavate Rome and you found buildings venerating different individuals (like St Peter, St Andrew or St Mary) would you assume monotheism? or would you be more likely to think that these individuals were all deities within a form of pantheon?

(Especially if your only frame of reference was based upon Roman or Greek pantheons)

Now personally I would not be so quick to assume that the Horus (who was personified in the current Pharoah), Isis, Thoth or Osiris were really seen as gods in the same way as say Allah or Odin, in fact you could equally say that ancient Egyptians thought of them as real people who just happened to be in the favour of the one god (i.e the Amen), just as Saints are seen and venerated by Catholics.

Ask yourself the following question, if archeologists in thousands of years from now, dig up the superbowl and similar structures will they assume that the US population looked upon the Dolphins and Bears as gods?

Amen-Moses

Jayman

You have a point if we were merely looking at archeaology. However, we also have religious texts. What they say has bearing on our interpretation of ancient Egyptian religion.

Amen-Moses

And who interpreted those texts?

Amen-Moses

Jayman

I've never studied ancient Egyptian texts so I don't know. My point was that the texts play just as much (if not more) of a role in understanding Egyptian religion as archaeology.

wordsmyth

I am admittedly not an expert on egyptian culture or mythology, but you do raise an interesting point. It is my understanding that the Pharoahs were themselves considered gods incarnate, which might lend some support to your theory.

Do you have any other evidence that might support your theory?

Amen-Moses

It isn't so much a theory as a line of thought that keeps reoccuring to me. The latest trigger was the recent realisation by archeologists studying the Mayan culture that the "god" written about all over Capan was in actual fact a human being, they know this because the have dug up his skeleton! Until that find they were quite happy interpretting the glyphs as referring to a mythical god but now they are having to rethink their approach.

Now I'm not saying that all periods of Egyptian culture were monotheistic because I believe that during the final Greek period under the Ptolomy's much of Greek mythology became merged into Egyptian theology but prior to this one can make a case that in reality only one real god (as we would think of a god, with all the omni characteristics) existed in their "pantheon" with the others either being venerated ancestors, like Thoth, or very humanlike individuals like Osiris, Isis and Set.

I suppose another way of looking at it is that these characters could have been their equivelent of Saints or Apostles or indeed could even be similar to Angels.

Amen-Moses

Marduk

There was a three hour special on Discovery called ... ta da "The Gods of Egypt" Their religion was quite complex for a variety of reasons;

Around 3000 BCE Upper and Lower Egypt was unified, each part had it's own traditions & gods and they were merged.

You had a preistly class with political clout who would change the Myths to suit their needs, there is also a gap between what the common people were taught and the 'secret' wisdom of the preists

Not only did Upper and Lower Egypt have their own traditions but so did every town, somtimes Anubis was gaurdian of the dead, sometimes Osiris.

There was no cannonization of text like the Jews and Christians, they just kept on adding things till it got to the point only the high preists knew what the hell was going on.

There is or may well have been a difference betwee the Neteru (the gods like Isis and Osiris who have a lot in common with the Sumerian Pantheon of gods) and the bigtime Creator of the Universe type of god. It is possible that Isis and Osiris were real people at one time in prehistory, but this was so long ago that it is probably a moot point.

There is the Ammon, the allgod who created the gods & the universe so this could be considered monotheism, first he created the gods than the gods made man.

Mostly the Egyptians were concerned with balance & harmony, keeping chaos at bay and nature kind and orderly, the annual flooding of the Nile, keep the chaotic desert away from our doorstep. Each god had good and bad, old and young aspects.
So were Isis and Sekmet and Hathor one god or three? Who the hell knows, it gets very confusing.
Was Ra the Sun god? or Was it Horus? Yes and no, There was Ra in the morning, afternoon and evening. Ra at night was Osiris except for when he wasn't???
The Aten is the solar disk but not Ra. The Pharoah was Ra in the form of Horus, when he died he became Osiris the soul of Ra and the new Pharoah became Horus.
I am so glad I didn't have to go to Sunday school as an Egyptian child 3000 years ago!