EGYPTIAN RELIGION

EGYPTIAN RELIGION

• LEVEL: 1ºde ESO

• UNIT: “First historic civilizations: Ancient Egypt.”

GOALS

CONTENTS:• To know general features of Egyptian

religion.• To recognize and identify main

Egyptian gods.• To learn about Egyptian beliefs about

life afterlife and his relationship with another aspect of Egyptian civilization like art, politic, hieroglyphic writing …

GOALS

LANGUAGE:

• To extend general vocabulary and specific words about religion and culture.

• To practice descriptions

EGYPTIAN RELIGION: MAIN FEATURES

1. Egyptian religion already was an authentic religion, with all elements

2. Egyptian religion polytheistic, that is, they believed in various gods and goddesses, not in just one.

3. Egyptians had intense beliefs in life after death, what had a big influence in his whole life: art, policy…

1. Elements of his religion

A) A pantheon of gods and divinities.

B) Priests: At the service of religion, we could find priests, who had great power, accumulating great wealth in their temples, and they were owners of a large part of the country's land.

C) Ceremonies and rituals: They had several rituals, the most important of which was dedicated to favoring the wishes of the rising of the Nile River, which was very necessary for agriculture. Rites were necessary to preserve the order of the universe.

D) Temples: Religious rites were carried out in the

temples. There were priests for each god and a great

temple was built to keep the statue of the god where he could be worshipped.

Temples had colossal dimensions and they were decorated with enormous columns. The most famous temples are those of Karnak and Luxor, both in Thebes, and that of Abu Simbel.

2. Polytheism: his gods and goddnesses

• The deities had a half human (anthropomorphic) appearance, half animal (zoomorphic).

• Or only animal or only human appearance.

• The Egyptians also worshipped natural elements (earth, river Nile) and some animals that were considered sacred: cocodrile, cat and beetle.

• The pharaoh was considered a god.

Main divinities

• The main god was the sun, the god creator, called in different ways: Ra, Amun or Atum.:

• When is Ra, he has head of falcon and sun disk above his head.

• When is Amón he is crowned with feathers.

• Atum was the title that Amenofis IV named him.

• Geb(god of the Earth) and Nut (goddess of the sky and heavens) were married and they had 2 daughters and 2 sons:Neftis, Isis, Set and Osiris.

• The most important of all Egyptian myths was the myth of Osiris and Isis.

• Osiris was the god of the underworld, judge of the dead in the afterlife and consort of Isis

• Isis: the moon. Goddess of magic, motherhood and fertility and sister and consort of Osiris; represented as thethrone.

• Seth: god of the desert, storms and foreigners; later god of chaos

• Neftis: goddess of death, night and lamentation; the nursing mother of Horus and the pharaohs

Who is who?

• It has head of falcon and body of a human.

• She is blue, with golden stars in her body and she is curved, with her hands on the floor.

• It is a cow or is wearing horns like a cow and solar disk between horns.

• Horus, the sky god, had the head of a hawk, and body of a human. Falcon headed god of the sky, pharaohs, war and protection

• Anubis: dog or jackal. God of embalming and tomb-caretaker who watches over the dead

• Apis: bull deity worshipped in the Menphis region

• Hathor:cow-goddess of the sky, fertility, love, beauty and music.

• Now, you have to describe these divinities:

• A) Sebek.• B) Anubis• C)Thoth

Others

• Destruction Sekhmet head of lion • Sky Nut blue with golden stars Earth• Geb colour of plants and Nile mud.• Dead Osiris dressed in white with crook and flail • Desert Seth: animal head with long curved

snout• Wisdom Thoth head of ibis Embalming • Anubis head of jackal • Justice Ma'at feather in her hair • Cats Bastet head of cat

3. Afterlife beliefs

• The Egyptians thought that there was life after death, or in other words, an afterlife. The dead were buried in monumental tombs: pyramids, mastabas, or hypogeum)

Tombs

• They believed that humans possessed a ka, or life-force, which left the body at the point of death. In life, the ka received its sustenance from food and drink, so it was believed that, to endure after death, the ka must continue to receive offerings of food, whose spiritual essence it could still consume.

• Each person also had a ba, the set of spiritual characteristics unique to each individual.Unlike the ka, the ba remained attached to the body after death. Egyptian funeral rituals were intended to release the ba from the body so that it could move freely, and to rejoin it with the ka so that it could live on as an akh

• So, they had to keep intact the bodies for the new life. Dead people were converted into mummies, that is, corpses were dried and wrapped with bandages. Mummies were put into a sarcophagus and buried in tombs.

• The sarcophagus was surrounded by different things that the deceased could need in their life after death: food, clothing, servants, statutes... This was the treasure.

Osiris´Judgment

• When a person died, he had to undergo to Osiris´Judgment.

• In this judgment, Anubis would weigh your soul against a feather, and if your soul was heavier than the feather (with bad deeds), you would be punished. This was called the Weighing of the Heart

Osiris´Judgment

The book of the dead

• The Egyptian "Book of the Dead" contains the major ideas and beliefs in the ancient Egyptian religion.

• In it is explained how was the Weighing of the Heart, which amulets and instructions you must follow for arriving afterlife.

MUMMIFICATION

• A product of the belief in the afterlife was mummification or the preparation of the dead for the next life. The bodies were subjectedto a long process during which their intestines were extracted (and deposited in glasses called “canopic jars”) and, through the coated in different substances, they were carefully wrapped in bandage to preserve the appearance they had when they were alive.

Vocabulary

• Politheism• Mummification• Afterlife• Canopic jars• To embalm• Mastaba• Hieroglyphic writing