Egyptian Gods

Egypt was historically divided into two kingdoms. There was Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt. Upper Egypt seemed to contain a more educated or civilized peoples than Lower Egypt. The peoples of Upper Egypt were somewhat of a different race (a mixture of different ethnic groups) than those of Lower Egypt. The gods listed here (mostly from Upper Egypt), and their various depictions were in the main totally different in some aspect or another than the gods of Lower Egypt. For instance Ptah the great god of Upper Egypt is in Lower Egypt an ugly dwarf with an enlarged head carrying a club over his head as if threatening his worshippers with vengeance, and he is the father of a brood of children as ugly and malicious as himself whose main duty was to torture the wicked dead.

The Egyptian divinities are well-known for being portrayed with the heads and visages of various beasts. These creatures were not necessarily the only animals sacred to the God or Goddess they are connected with, or that they were the exclusive figure used to image the divinity - in some cases the God or Goddess claimed more than one animal, and in some cases the God or Goddess was portrayed with any of several different creatures faces. 

The Egyptian pantheon consisted of the many Gods worshipped by the Ancient Egyptians. A number of major deities are addressed as the creator of the cosmos. These include Atum, Ra, Amun (Amen) and Ptah amongst others, as well as composite forms of these Gods such as Amun-Ra. This was not seen as contradictory by the Egyptians.

 

Some Egyptian Gods;

Aker - deification of the horizon

Am-heh - minor underworld god

Ammit – crocodile-headed devourer in Duat, not a true deity

Amun or Amen – "the hidden one", a local creator deity later married to Mut after rising in importance

Amunet – female aspect of the primordial concept of air in the Ogdoad cosmogony; depicted as a cobra snake or a snake-headed woman

Andjety - god thought to be a precursor to Osiris

Anhur - god of war

Ankt - a minor war goddess

Anput - female aspect of Anubis

Anti - god of ferrymen

Anubis or Yinepu – dog or jackal God of embalming and tomb-caretaker who watches over the dead

Anuket - gazelle-headed goddess of the Nile River, the child of Satis and among the Elephantine triad of deities

Apep or Apophis – evil serpent of the Underworld and enemy of Ra; formed from a length of Neith's spit during her creation of the world

Apis – bull deity worshipped in the Memphis region

Ash - god of oases and the vineyards of the western Nile Delta

The Aten – sun god worshipped primarily during the period of Atenism in the eighteenth dynasty when Pharaoh Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten) introduced monotheistic worship

Atum – a creator deity, and the setting sun

Babi - baboon god associated with death and virility

Banebdjedet - ram god of fertility

Ba-Pef - minor underworld god

Bastet – protector of the pharaoh and solar goddess, depicted as a lioness, house cat, cat-bodied or cat-headed woman

Bat – cow goddess who gave authority to the king; her cult originated in Hu and persisted widely until absorbed as an aspect of Hathor after the eleventh dynasty

Bata - bull god

Bes – dwarfed demigod associated with protection of the household, particularly childbirth, and entertainment

Chenti-cheti - crocodile god

Geb –god of the Earth, first ruler of Egypt and husband of Nut

Ha - god of the western deserts

Hapi or Hapy – deification of the annual flooding of the Nile, associated with fertility

Hathor or Hethert – cow or cow-goddess of the sky, fertility, love, beauty and music

Hatmehit - fish goddess, originally a deification of the Nile River

Hedetet - scorpion goddess, later incorporated into Isis

Heka - deification of magic

Hemen - falcon god

Heqet – frog or a frog-headed goddess of childbirth and fertility

Hemsut - goddess of fate and protection

Heryshaf - ram god

Horus or Heru – falcon-headed god of the sky, pharaohs, war and protection

The four sons of Horus - personifications of the four canopic jars

Hu - deification of the first word

Huh - deification of eternity

Iabet - goddess of the east, consort of Min and cleanser of Ra

Iah - god of the moon

Iat - minor goddess of milk and, by association, of nurturing and childbirth

Imentet - goddess of the necropoleis west of the Nile

Isis or Aset – goddess of magic, motherhood and fertility and consort of Osiris; represented as the throne

Iusaaset – a primal goddess described as "the grandmother of all of the deities"

Kebechet - deification of embalming liquid

Khepri – the scarab beetle or scarab-headed god of rebirth and the sunrise

Kneph - a creator deity

Khnum – ram-headed creator god of the flooding of the Nile River

Khonsu – god of youth and the moon

Kuk –frog-headed personification of darkness, whose consort or female form was the snake-headed Kauket

Maahes – lion-headed god of war, weather.

Ma'at – goddess who personified concept of truth, balance, justice and order

Mafdet – goddess who protected against snakes and scorpions

Mehen - protective snake god which coils around the sun god Ra during his journey through the night

Menhit – goddess of war, associated with Sekhmet

Meret - goddess associated with rejoicing, singing and dancing

Meretseger – cobra-goddess of tomb builders and protector of royal tombs

Meskhenet – goddess of childbirth and the creator of each person's Ka, a part of their soul, which she breathed into them at the moment of birth

Min – god of fertility and lettuce, often represented as a man with an erect penis

Mnevis – the sacred bull of Heliopolis

Monthu - falcon god of war

Mut – mother goddess, associated with the waters from which everything was born

Nefertem - god of healing and beauty

Nehebkau - guardian of the entrance to the underworld

Neith – goddess of creation, weaving, war and the dead

Nekhbet – vulture goddess; patron of pharaohs and Upper Egypt

Neper - androgynous deification of grain

Nephthys or Nebthet – goddess of death, night and lamentation; the nursing mother of Horus and the pharaohs

Nu – deification of the primordial watery abyss

Nut – goddess of the sky and heavens

Osiris or Wesir – merciful judge of the dead in the afterlife and consort of Isis

Pakhet – a synthesis of Sekhmet and Bast

Petbe - god of revenge

Ptah – creator deity, also a god of craft

Qebui – god of the north wind

Ra – the sun, also a creator deity, whose chief cult centre was based in Heliopolis

Rem - fish god who fertilises the land with his tears

Renenutet - deification of the act of giving a true name during birth

Saa or Sia - deification of perception

Satet – goddess of war, hunting, fertility and the flooding of the Nile River

Sekhmet – lioness goddess of destruction, pestilence and war; fierce protector of the pharaoh, and later as an aspect of Hathor

Seker or Sokar - falcon god of the Memphite necropolis

Serket – scorpion goddess of healing stings and bites

Seshat – Goddess of writing, astronomy, astrology, architecture, and mathematics; depicted as a scribe

Set or Seth – god of the desert, storms and foreigners; later god of chaos

Shai - deification of the concept of fate

Shed - savior deity

Shezmu - god of execution, slaughter, blood, oil and wine

Shu - personification of air

Sobek – crocodile God of the Nile; patron of the military

Sobkou - messenger god

Sopdet - deification of the star Sothis (Sirius)

Sopdu - personification of the scorching heat of the sun

Ta-Bitjet - scorpion goddess identified as the consort of Horus

Tatenen - god of the primordial mound

Taweret – hippopotamus goddess of pregnant women and protector during childbirth

Tefnut – goddess of moisture, moist air, dew and rain.

Tenenet - goddess of beer

Thoth or Djehuty – ibis-headed god of the moon, drawing, writing, geometry, wisdom, medicine, music, astronomy and magic

Unut - snake goddess

Wadjet – snake goddess and protector of Lower Egypt

Wadj-wer – fertility God and personification of the Mediterranean Sea or lakes of the Nile Delta

Weneg - plant god supporting the heavens

Werethekau - personification of supernatural powers

Wepwawet – jackal god of warfare and hunting

Wosret – a localized guardian Goddess, protector of the young God Horus; an early consort of Amun, later superseded by Mut

 

 

Pantheons Index