In Egyptian mythology there were no common ideas about the creation of the world. The main religious centers of Ancient Egypt - Heliopolis, Hermopolis and Memphis - developed various versions of cosmogony and theogony.
The priests of Heliopolis (Heliopolis), the center of the cult of the Sun, placed the solar god Ra at the center of the universe. He and his eight descendants formed the so-called Ennead of Heliopolis. According to the Heliopolis legend, Atum emerged from the primordial waters, and by his will the sacred stone Benben began to grow from them. Standing on its top, Atum gave birth to Shu, the god of air, and Tefnut, the goddess of moisture. This couple gave birth to their children, Geb, god of the earth, and Nut, goddess of the sky. These first generations of gods represent the basis of creation in the Ennead. Geb and Nut gave birth to Osiris, Isis, Set and Nephthys, representing the fertile floodplain of the Nile and the barren desert, respectively.
The opposite version existed in the city of Hermopolis, where it was believed that the world originated from eight ancient deities, the so-called Ogdoad. This eight consisted of four pairs of gods and goddesses, symbolizing the elements of creation. Nun and Naunet correspond to the primordial waters, Hu and Khauchet to the infinity of space, Kuk and Kauket to eternal darkness. The fourth pair has changed several times, but since the New Kingdom it consists of Amon and Amaunet, representing invisibility and air. According to the Hermopolis version, these deities were the mothers and fathers of the sun god, who brought light and further creation to the world.
Another version of creation appeared in Memphis and placed Ptah, the patron god of crafts, builders and the city itself, at the center of the creation myth. Memphis theology has many similarities with Heliopolis, but teaches that Ptah preceded the sun god, and the latter was created by his tongue and heart. This is the first known theology based on the principle of logos, that is, creation by word and will.
Isis and Osiris
Heliopolis Ennead
The Ennead (Greek Ἐννεάς - “nine”) is the nine main gods in Ancient Egypt, which originally arose in the city of Heliopolis.
The oldest theogonic and cosmogonic system known in Egypt. The Ennead gods were considered the first kings of Egypt. Other cities of Egypt created their own nine gods based on the model of Heliopolis.
Ennead in hieroglyphs
Ennead Gods
Ra (Atum, Amon, Ptah, Ptah)— arises from the original water Chaos Nun
Shu- air
Tefnut- moisture
Geb- Earth
Chickpeas- sky. Female deity.
Osiris- god of the underworld
Isis- goddess of fertility
Seth (Seth)- the personification of thunderstorms, lightning, natural elements, the lord of vitality.
Nephthys (Nephthys, Nevtis)- goddess of the underworld, second sister of Osiris.
Memphis Triad - Ptah, Sekhmet and Nefertum
Memphis Triad
Ptah (+Hep)- creator god
Sekhmet- goddess of war and medicine
Nefertum- god of vegetation
Hermopolis Ogdoad
Hermopolitan Ogdoad
Ogdoad (Greek ογδοάς, lit. “eight”) - in Egyptian mythology - the eight primordial gods of the city of Hermopolis (Khemenu).
Ogdoad in hieroglyphs
The Ogdoad included four pairs of cosmic deities from which the world arose. The gods were depicted with the heads of frogs, and the goddesses with the heads of snakes. Their names are known from the Sarcophagi Texts: Nun And Naunet(water element), Hu And Hauhet(infinity in space), Cook And Kauket(darkness), Amon And Amaunet(hidden). The last pair apparently replaced the gods Niau And Niaut(negation, nothing) and was brought into the Ogdoad by Theban priests. With the transformation of Amon into the main god of Egypt during the New Kingdom, a myth was created about the emergence of the Ogdoad, led by Amon, in Thebes. In the Ptolemaic era, a myth arose about Amun's journey to establish the Ogdoad from Thebes down the Nile and his return to Thebes.
Theban Triad - Amun, Mut and Khonsu
Theban Triad
The Theban Triad are the three most revered gods of the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes: Amun, his wife Mut and their son Khonsu. The XVIII and XX dynasties of the New Kingdom became the heyday of the triad. These gods acted as the main objects of worship in the massive temple complex of Karnak. Temples and shrines of the triad exist throughout Egypt, one of them is even located in Deir el-Hagar, near the Dakhla oasis. Amenhotep I, the pharaoh who built the monumental temple gate and colossal statue at the Karnak temple complex, was often depicted among these gods.
Amon, Mut and Khonsu. Temple of Ramesses III in Medinet Habu
The Obelisk of Senusret I is the only surviving structure of ancient Heliopolis: height 20.4 meters, weight - 121 tons.
On the occasion of the anniversary (heb-sed) of Senusret I, two obelisks were erected in front of the temple of Atum in Heliopolis (one has survived).
Heliopolis cosmogony
Heliopolis (biblical) has never been the political center of the state, however, from the era of the Old Kingdom until the end of the Late Period, the city did not lose its significance as the most important theological center and the main cult center of the solar gods. The cosmogonic version of Gapiopolis, which developed in the V dynasty, was the most widespread, and the main gods of the Heliopolis pantheon were especially popular throughout the country. The Egyptian name of the city - Iunu ("City of Pillars") is associated with the cult of obelisks.
In the beginning there was Chaos, which was called Nun - an endless, motionless and cold surface of water, shrouded in darkness. Millennia passed, but nothing disturbed the peace: the Primordial Ocean remained unshakable.
But one day the god Atum appeared from the Ocean - the first god in the universe.
The universe was still frozen, and everything was plunged into darkness. Atum began to look for a solid place in the Primordial Ocean - some island, but there was nothing around except the motionless water of Chaos Nun. And then God created Ben-Ben Hill - the Primordial Hill.
According to another version of this myth, Atum was himself a Hill. The ray of the god Ra reached Chaos, and the Hill came to life, becoming Atum.
Having found the ground under his feet, Atum began to ponder what he should do next. First of all, it was necessary to create other gods. But who? Maybe the god of air and wind? - after all, only the wind can set the dead Ocean in motion. However, if the world begins to move, then whatever Atum creates after that will be immediately destroyed and will again turn into Chaos. Creative activity is completely meaningless as long as there is no stability, order and laws in the world. Therefore, Atum decided that, simultaneously with the wind, it was necessary to create a goddess who would protect and support the law established once and for all.
Having made this wise decision after many years of deliberation, Atum finally began to create the world. He spewed the seed into his mouth, fertilizing himself, and soon spat Shu, the god of wind and air, from his mouth and vomited Tefnut, the goddess of world order.
Nun, seeing Shu and Tefnut, exclaimed: “May they increase!” And Atum breathed Ka into his children.
But light had not yet been created. Everywhere, as before, there was darkness and darkness - and the children of Atum were lost in the Primordial Ocean. Atum sent his Eye to search for Shu and Tefnut. While it wandered through the watery desert, God created a new Eye and called it “Magnificent.” Meanwhile, the Old Eye found Shu and Tefnut and brought them back. Atum began to cry with joy. His tears fell on Ben-Ben Hill and turned into people.
According to another (Elephantine) version, not related to the Heliopolis cosmogonic legend, but quite widespread and popular in Egypt, people and their Ka were fashioned from clay by the ram-headed god Khnum, the main demiurge in Elephantine cosmogony.
The Old Eye was very angry when he saw that Atum had created a new one in its place. To calm the Eye, Atum placed it on his forehead and entrusted it with a great mission - to be the guardian of Atum himself and the world order established by him and the goddess Tefnut-Maat.
Since then, all the gods, and then the pharaohs, who inherited earthly power from the gods, began to wear the Solar Eye in the form of a cobra snake on their crowns. The Sol Eye in the form of a cobra is called by rei. Placed on the forehead or crown, the uraeus emits dazzling rays that incinerate all enemies encountered along the way. Thus, the uraeus protects and preserves the laws of the universe established by the goddess Maat.
Some versions of the Heliopolis cosmogonic myth mention the primordial divine bird Venu, like Atum, not created by anyone. At the beginning of the universe, Venu (Bennu, or Phoenix) flew over the waters of Nun and made a nest in the branches of a willow on Ben-Ben Hill (therefore, the willow was considered a sacred plant).
Bennu bird
On Ben-Ben Hill, people subsequently built the main temple of Heliopolis - the sanctuary of Ra-Atum. Obelisks became symbols of the Hill. The pyramidal tops of the obelisks, covered with sheet copper or gold, were considered to be the location of the Sun at noon.
From the marriage of Shu and Tefput a second divine couple was born: the earth god Geb and his sister and wife, the sky goddess Nut. Nut gave birth to Osiris (Egyptian Usir(e)), Horus, Set (Egyptian Sutekh), Isis (Egyptian Iset) and Nephthys (Egyptian Nebtot, Nebethet). Atum, Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut, Nephthys, Set, Isis and Osiris make up the Great Ennead of Heliopolis, or the Great Nine of Gods.
Ancient Egyptian image of the creator god Ptah
Memphis cosmogony
According to the legend conveyed by Herodotus, Memphis was founded by the first pharaoh Less (Egypt. Aha? Narmer?), who united Northern and Southern Egypt into a single state. Memphis was the capital throughout the era of the Old Kingdom, until the collapse of the centralized state (VI Dynasty).
The original name of the city - Het-Ka-Pta - "House (of the soul) of Ka (god) Ptah", apparently, was subsequently assigned to the entire country in the Greek "Aypoptos". Since the VI Dynasty, the city received the name Mennefer ("Beautiful Dwelling"), which sounded in Coptic "Menfe" and was transformed by the Greeks into Memphis.
At first, when the lifeless Ocean of Nun stretched everywhere, Ptah, who himself was the earth, decided to incarnate into a deity. By an effort of will, he created his flesh-body from the earth and became a god.
Having existed, Ptah decided to create the world and other gods. First, he created their Ka and the sign of life "ankh", then - the creative power of the future gods, so that, upon being born, they would immediately gain power and help Ptah in his creativity. Since Ptah had no other materials for activity, he decided that he would create everything that exists from himself - from the earth, which was his flesh.
Creation happened like this: in the heart of God the Thought about Atum arose, and in the tongue - the Word “Atum”; God pronounced this name - and at that same moment Atum was born from the Primordial Chaos. He began to help his father in the work of creation, but he did not act independently, but only fulfilled the will of Ptah and was its guide. By the will of Ptah, Atum created the Great Nine; Ptah gave all the gods power and endowed them with wisdom.
After Ptah created the world, he created divine magic words and spells and established justice on earth. And life was given to the peace-loving man, and death was given to the criminal, and all kinds of works and all kinds of arts were created, the labors of the hands, the walking of the feet, the movement of all members, according to this command, conceived by the heart and expressed by the tongue, and creating the purpose of all things. Out of him (Bird) came all things: food and food, food of the gods and all other beautiful things. And so it was found and recognized that his power is greater than all other gods.
Ptah built cities, founded nomes, placed stone statues of gods in their sanctuaries and introduced the ritual of sacrifice. The gods inhabited their statues in temples. Having looked at his work, Ptah was satisfied.
The flesh and spirit of this great god reside in everything living and inanimate that is in the world. He is revered as the patron of the arts, crafts, shipbuilding and architecture. Ptah, his wife, the lioness goddess Sokhmet, and their son, the vegetation god Nefertum, make up the Memphis Triad.
Amulet - Unut.
The goddess Unut, from the archaic period, was revered in the guise of a hare, as the eternal mother goddess who created the world.
Egypt, Ptolemaic period; I - II centuries BC
Hermopolitan cosmogony
Hermopolis, the capital of the 15th Upper Egyptian (Hare) nome, was not an important political center. In the era of the Old Kingdom it was called Unut - after the patron goddess Noma, depicted in the guise of a hare. In the First Transitional Period (IX-X dynasties), Memphis loses its status as the capital of a centralized state, power is concentrated in the hands of the nomarchs of Heracleopolis (Egyptian Khensu, Neninesut), who declared themselves pharaohs; Accordingly, the political importance of the Hare nome neighboring Herakleopolis increases, whose rulers were allies of the Herakleopolis pharaohs; The popularity and significance of the cosmogonic doctrine of Hermopolis are growing. The city of Unut receives the name Hemenu (Coptic Shmunu) - “Eight”, “Eight” - in honor of the eight original creator gods revered there. The cosmogonic version of Hermopolis spread everywhere, but was much less popular than the Heliopolitan and Memphis cosmogonies. Much more important was the role of Hermopolis as a cult center of the moon god and the wisdom of Thoth and the sacred ibises. The Greeks identified Thoth with Hermes, hence the Greek name for the city.
In the beginning there was Chaos. The forces of destruction reigned in Chaos: Infinity, Nothingness, Nothingness and Darkness.
In some sources, three pairs of deities are considered among the “negative” primordial forces of Chaos: Tenemu and his female parallel Tenemuit (Darkness, Disappearance), Niau and Niaut (Emptiness, Nothingness), Gerech and Gerecht (Absence, Night).
The destructive forces of Primordial Chaos were opposed by creative forces - four pairs of deities personifying the elements - the Great Eight, the Ogdoad. The male deities of the Eight - Huh (Infinity), Nun (Water), Kuk (Darkness) and Amon ("Invisible", i.e. Air) - had the appearance of people with the heads of frogs. They corresponded to female couples: Khauhet, Naunet, Kauket and Amaunet - goddesses with snake heads.
Nun. Papyrus Ani. XIX dynasty
Gods of the Hermopolitan Ogdoad. To the right are Nun and Naunet, his wife.
Painted wall reliefs in the Ptolemaic Temple at Deir el-Medina.
The Gods of the Great Eight swam in the Primordial Ocean. They created an Egg from earth and water and laid it on the Primordial Hill - “Fire Island”. And there, on the island, the Sun God Khepri, “young Pa,” hatched from the Egg.
Khepri
According to another version, the solar deity, who illuminated the earth in darkness, was born from a lotus flower that grew on the Primordial Hill; The baby Ra began to cry with joy, and from his tears that fell on the Hill, people arose. This version was common throughout Egypt. “The most ancient myths speak about the lotus that grew on the Hill near the city of Hemenu and gave life to the young solar god, and images of this lotus with a baby sitting in its petals, found until Roman times, show that this legend became one of the official versions of the later Egyptian cosmogony.
In the "Book of the Dead" fragments of another mythological version are preserved, associated with the cosmogonic doctrine of Hermopolis (but obviously going back to the most ancient, archaic ideas): the egg from which the Sun god was born was laid on the Primordial Hill by the Great Gogotun - the white bird that first flew into the darkness and broke the eternal silence of Chaos. The Great Gogotun was depicted as a white goose - the sacred bird of the earth god Heb.
Ra created Shu and Tefnut - the first divine couple, from which all the other gods descended.
Luxor Temple.
Luxor Temple is the ruins of the central temple of Amun-Ra, on the right bank of the Nile, in the southern part of Thebes, within the modern city of Luxor.
Theban cosmogony
Thebes (Egyptian Waset) was the capital of Ancient Egypt during the Middle and New Kingdoms. Before the emergence of Thebes as a political center, the following were revered there: the heavenly god Min, the god Amon (“Invisible”, “Invisible” - i.e., obviously, “Hidden”, “Incomprehensible by reason”), and the god of war Montu; Montu's wife in Thebes was considered the goddess Rattavi, in Hermont (Egyptian Iuni), the second cult center of Montu, the goddess Tenenet and Iunit, identified with her.
In the First Transitional Period, the cult of Min acquires a different quality: Min becomes the deity of fertility, moisture, livestock reproduction and human sexual potency.
God Montu
The first emergence of Thebes as a political center occurs during the reign of the 11th dynasty and is associated with the unification of the North and South into a single state under the auspices of this city. The greatest flowering of the Montu cult dates back to this period; The pharaohs of the 11th dynasty take names in honor of Montu: Mentuhotep (“Montu is pleased”). Montu becomes the main god of the pantheon, his veneration becomes universal and is closely intertwined with the solar cult: Montu acts as one of the hypostases of Ra, called the “Living Soul of Ra”, “Bull of the Mountains of the Sunrise and the West”, sometimes personifies the power of the Sun; from this time on, images of Montu appear, the iconography of which is similar to the iconography of Ra - in the form of a man with the head of a falcon. Appearance<; этого же времени изображений Мина, держащего в одной руке свой фаллос (символ" акта самосовокупления бога-творца; сравн. с самооплодотворением Атума в гелиопольской космогонии), а в другой руке тройную плеть (символ владычества над миром), свидетельствует о слиянии к началу Среднего царства образов Мина и Атума и почитании Мина, как бога-творца.
In the era of the Middle Kingdom, the importance of the cult of the Theban Amon sharply increased; The pharaohs of the XII dynasty take names in his honor: Amenemhet (“Amon at the head”). Obviously, the new rulers were forced to reckon with the cosmogonic doctrine of Hermopolis, which from the First Transitional Period continued to play one of the leading roles in the national religion - the Theban priesthood replaced the cult of Montu with the cult of Amun, i.e. a god with the same name as one of the gods of the Hermopolitan Eight. During this same period, the identification of Amon and Min occurs. The cult of Amun is quickly compared in importance to the ancient traditional cult of the sun god Ra, and until the New Kingdom the cults of Ra and Amun coexisted in parallel; in the New Kingdom they merge (see below).
In the 17th century BC. e. Egypt is conquered by the Hyksos (Egyptian "hikhaset"). This word is sometimes translated "shepherd kings" - the invaders were nomadic cattle-breeding tribes - but a more accurate translation seems to be "foreign kings" - "foreign kings". (The Greeks interpreted the word "Hyksos" literally as the name of the people.) The Hyksos founded the XV Dynasty, crowning one of their generals, and reigned during the Second Intermediate Period in the North - at the same time as the Theban dynasty reigned in the South; the capital of the Hyksos was the city of Avaris (Greek; Egyptian: Hauara, later PerRamses, Jane).
The second rise of Thebes and its return to the status of the capital occurs at the beginning of the 18th dynasty due to the fact that the struggle against the Hyksos, which ended in their expulsion, was led by the Theban rulers - (brothers?) Seqenenra, Cameo and Ahmes (Amasis) 1, who reigned successively from about 1580 to 1557 BC e.
In the New Kingdom, the cults of Amon and Ra quickly merge, and the deity Amon-Ra arises; at the same time, the cults of Ra and Amun continue to exist as “independent” hypostases. Amon (Ra) is declared the creator of the world, he is the father of fathers and all gods, who raised the sky and established the earth, the only image that created all things. In the most ancient cosmogonic myths, he now appears as the main character, while different cosmogonies often merge into one: people came out of (the tears of) his eyes, gods became from his mouth (that is, they were created by his Word), says the hymn. He is the most powerful god, the king over all gods, the ruler of the world, the father and patron of the pharaohs.
Creator God Amon.
Temple of Amun-Ra at Karnak
Amon was depicted as a man wearing a crown “atef” - a crown of two tall feathers, and in the form of a ram; Amun's sacred animals are the ram and the white goose. Amon-Ra was depicted as a man wearing an “atef” crown and with a solar disk; sacred animals - ram, white goose, snake. The “container of the soul” of Amun-Ra were considered to be ram-headed sphinxes (the alley of ram-headed sphinxes led to the Great Temple of Amon-Ra - the main temple of the Karnak temple complex), the appearance of which contains symbolism: a ram is a symbol of fertility and the sacred animal of Amon, a lion's body is the body of Egyptian sphinxes, which, among other things, were associated with Ra and the solar cult. The goddess Mut was considered the wife of Amun(-Ra), their son was Khonsu, the lunar deity and god of time. Amun(-Ra), Mut and Khonsu made up the Theban Triad. The cult of Amun spread widely outside of Egypt.
Khonsou
A text from the Ptolemaic period reports a late compilative cosmogonic myth. According to him, “at the beginning of the world there was a serpent named Kem-atef (hypostasis of Amon), who, dying, bequeathed to his son Irta to create the Great Eight. Having arisen, the Eight set off on a journey to the lower reaches of the Nile, to Hermopolis, to give birth to the sun god there, and then to Memphis and Heliopolis, where she gave birth to Ptah and Atum. Having completed this great mission, the eight gods returned to Thebes and died there. The gods were buried in Medinet Abu (modern, Egyptian Dzhem), in the temple of their creator Kematef, and established there cult of the dead.
In this way, the priests of Amun resolved the issues of creation, subordinating all previously existing concepts of the origin of the world and the gods to Amon, who was completely absent in the Heliopolitan cosmogony, and played only a tertiary role in the Hermopolitan cosmogony."
Edfu. The entrance to the Temple of Horus is guarded by two black granite statues representing the god Horus in the form of a falcon. I century BC.
Ancient Beliefs
Information about the cosmogonic myths of the Predynastic and Early Dynastic periods is reconstructed from fragmentary and chaotic fragments contained in later sources, which preserved traces of ancient ideas, and from the iconography of the gods in later images.
One of the most ancient gods revered in the Nile Valley is Horus (Horus): a falcon flying through space; Horus's left eye is the Moon, his right eye is the Sun; Obviously, changes in seasons and time of day were associated with the flight of the falcon. Together with Horus, the similar god of sky and light Ver (Ur) was revered. The image of the sun-eyed bird greatly influenced the myths, religious ideas and beliefs that developed later: gods with the name Horus or derivatives from it (Hor - the son of Isis, Horus of Bekhdet, Kharsomt, etc.) were often depicted in the form of a falcon, the god Pa - in in the form of a falcon-headed man, in many texts the Sun and Moon are called the eyes of Ra or Amun(-Ra):
And there was light after you (Amon-Ra) arose.
You illuminated Egypt with your rays,
When your disk began to shine.
People saw the light when your right eye sparkled for the first time,
Your left eye drove away the darkness of the night.
Falcon God Horus
Temple of Horus in Edfu
“In many legends, the role of the deity who gives birth to the Sun and creates the world is played by an animal or bird. Thus, traces of a legend have been preserved according to which it was believed that the Sun was born in the form of a golden calf by the sky, which was represented by a huge cow with stars scattered throughout its body The Pyramid Texts also speak of “Pa, the golden calf born of heaven,” and later images show this Celestial Cow with luminaries floating on her body.
Heavenly Cow Nut
We find echoes of this legend, which, apparently, was once one of the main Egyptian myths about the origin of the world, in other texts and on a number of pictorial monuments, and sometimes the myth of the Heavenly Cow is preserved in a revised form, and sometimes it is even intertwined with Other legends. Thus, the Heavenly Cow is found in scenes of the birth of a solar baby from a lotus: on many ritual vessels two Heavenly Cows are visible, standing on the sides of the lotus on which the newborn Sun sits. The mention of the Celestial Cow was also preserved in the text, which tells how, immediately after his birth, the solar baby “sat on the back of the Celestial Cow Mehet Urt and swam across the horizon.” For a long time, there was an idea about the daily birth and death of the Sun. According to him , the sky goddess Nut, taking the form of a cow Mehet Urt, in the morning gives birth to a golden calf (the pink color of dawn is the blood of the goddess during childbirth); during the day the calf matures, becomes Bull-Ra; in the evening the Bull copulates with the Heavenly Cow - Nut, after which the goddess swallows the solar Bull, and in the morning gives birth again, and everything repeats itself; the widespread epithets of Ra “The Bull of his mother” and “He who is resurrected in his son” are associated with this idea. “Remnants of the most ancient ideas that conception occurs and as a result of swallowing live for a very long time in the religion of historical Egypt, and until later periods we encounter the image of a heavenly goddess giving birth to the Sun in the morning, and swallowing it in the evening, so that, having conceived again, she would give birth to it again at dawn the next day,” and the Egyptian pharaohs, “like the Sun Ra, They portray themselves as sons of the Heavenly Cow, either in the form of a baby sucking her milk, or in the form of a mature husband standing under her protection.
The sky goddess Nut in the form of a pig.
According to myth, Nut, who took the form of a pig, swallowed her star children, therefore, a pig eating (sometimes feeding) piglets acts as a symbol of the sky goddess.
According to other legends, the emergence of the world was associated with other animals; for example, there was a myth according to which the sky was represented by a pig, and the stars as the piglets born by it. Various animals or reptiles in general are often found in cosmogonic legends in different roles. Thus, in the image of the birth of Ra from the lotus behind the Celestial Cow, one can see monkeys greeting the solar baby with a raise of their hands. There were stories that the Sun was a huge ball that the sun beetle rolled across the sky, just as dung beetles roll their balls along the ground.
In one of these legends, the sky is thought of as the female goddess Nut, whose body is curved above the earth, and her fingers and toes rest on the ground
In other tales, the creators of the world are not animals and birds, but gods and goddesses. In one such legend, the sky is thought of as the female goddess Nut, whose body is curved above the earth, and her fingers and toes rest on the ground. Nut gives birth to a solar baby, who then creates gods and people. The “Pyramid Texts,” despite the fact that the dominant idea in them is the sole creation of the world by the creator god, still contains lines that glorify the goddess Nut, who was once revered as the greatest mother of both the Sun itself and the entire universe:
Mighty is your heart
O Great One who became the sky
You fill every month
then with its beauty.
The whole earth lies before you - you have embraced it,
You surrounded the earth and all things with your own hands.
Nut, you shine like the queen of Lower Egypt.
And you are mighty above the gods,
Their souls are yours, and their inheritance is yours,
Their sacrifices are yours, and all their property is yours.
Scarab and god Khnum
According to another legend, the creator god Khnum sculpted the entire world on a potter's wheel and created people and animals in the same way. This idea lives on until later times, and we see images of Khnum sculpting the bodies and souls of newborn children on a pottery circle."
In Egyptian mythology there were no common ideas about the creation of the world. The main religious centers of Ancient Egypt - Heliopolis, Hermopolis and Memphis - developed various versions of cosmogony and theogony.
The priests of Heliopolis (Heliopolis), the center of the cult of the Sun, placed the solar god Ra at the center of the universe. He and his eight descendants formed the so-called Ennead of Heliopolis. According to the Heliopolis legend, Atum emerged from the primordial waters, and by his will the sacred stone Benben began to grow from them. Standing on its top, Atum gave birth to Shu, the god of air, and Tefnut, the goddess of moisture. This couple gave birth to their children, Geb, god of the earth, and Nut, goddess of the sky. These first generations of gods represent the basis of creation in the Ennead. Geb and Nut gave birth to Osiris, Isis, Set and Nephthys, representing the fertile floodplain of the Nile and the barren desert, respectively.
The opposite version existed in the city of Hermopolis, where it was believed that the world originated from eight ancient deities, the so-called Ogdoad. This eight consisted of four pairs of gods and goddesses, symbolizing the elements of creation. Nun and Naunet correspond to the primordial waters, Hu and Khauchet to the infinity of space, Kuk and Kauket to eternal darkness. The fourth pair has changed several times, but since the New Kingdom it consists of Amon and Amaunet, representing invisibility and air. According to the Hermopolis version, these deities were the mothers and fathers of the sun god, who brought light and further creation to the world.
Another version of creation appeared in Memphis and placed Ptah, the patron god of crafts, builders and the city itself, at the center of the creation myth. Memphis theology has many similarities with Heliopolis, but teaches that Ptah preceded the sun god, and the latter was created by his tongue and heart. This is the first known theology based on the principle of logos, that is, creation by word and will.
Isis and Osiris
Heliopolis Ennead
The Ennead (Greek Ἐννεάς - “nine”) is the nine main gods in Ancient Egypt, which originally arose in the city of Heliopolis.
The oldest theogonic and cosmogonic system known in Egypt. The Ennead gods were considered the first kings of Egypt. Other cities of Egypt created their own nine gods based on the model of Heliopolis.
Ennead in hieroglyphs
Ennead Gods
Ra (Atum, Amon, Ptah, Ptah)— arises from the original water Chaos Nun
Shu- air
Tefnut- moisture
Geb- Earth
Chickpeas- sky. Female deity.
Osiris- god of the underworld
Isis- goddess of fertility
Seth (Seth)- the personification of thunderstorms, lightning, natural elements, the lord of vitality.
Nephthys (Nephthys, Nevtis)- goddess of the underworld, second sister of Osiris.
Memphis Triad - Ptah, Sekhmet and Nefertum
Memphis Triad
Ptah (+Hep)- creator god
Sekhmet- goddess of war and medicine
Nefertum- god of vegetation
Hermopolis Ogdoad
Hermopolitan Ogdoad
Ogdoad (Greek ογδοάς, lit. “eight”) - in Egyptian mythology - the eight primordial gods of the city of Hermopolis (Khemenu).
Ogdoad in hieroglyphs
The Ogdoad included four pairs of cosmic deities from which the world arose. The gods were depicted with the heads of frogs, and the goddesses with the heads of snakes. Their names are known from the Sarcophagi Texts: Nun And Naunet(water element), Hu And Hauhet(infinity in space), Cook And Kauket(darkness), Amon And Amaunet(hidden). The last pair apparently replaced the gods Niau And Niaut(negation, nothing) and was brought into the Ogdoad by Theban priests. With the transformation of Amon into the main god of Egypt during the New Kingdom, a myth was created about the emergence of the Ogdoad, led by Amon, in Thebes. In the Ptolemaic era, a myth arose about Amun's journey to establish the Ogdoad from Thebes down the Nile and his return to Thebes.
Theban Triad - Amun, Mut and Khonsu
Theban Triad
The Theban Triad are the three most revered gods of the ancient Egyptian city of Thebes: Amun, his wife Mut and their son Khonsu. The XVIII and XX dynasties of the New Kingdom became the heyday of the triad. These gods acted as the main objects of worship in the massive temple complex of Karnak. Temples and shrines of the triad exist throughout Egypt, one of them is even located in Deir el-Hagar, near the Dakhla oasis. Amenhotep I, the pharaoh who built the monumental temple gate and colossal statue at the Karnak temple complex, was often depicted among these gods.
Amon, Mut and Khonsu. Temple of Ramesses III in Medinet Habu
The Obelisk of Senusret I is the only surviving structure of ancient Heliopolis: height 20.4 meters, weight - 121 tons.
On the occasion of the anniversary (heb-sed) of Senusret I, two obelisks were erected in front of the temple of Atum in Heliopolis (one has survived).
Heliopolis cosmogony
Heliopolis (biblical) has never been the political center of the state, however, from the era of the Old Kingdom until the end of the Late Period, the city did not lose its significance as the most important theological center and the main cult center of the solar gods. The cosmogonic version of Gapiopolis, which developed in the V dynasty, was the most widespread, and the main gods of the Heliopolis pantheon were especially popular throughout the country. The Egyptian name of the city - Iunu ("City of Pillars") is associated with the cult of obelisks.
In the beginning there was Chaos, which was called Nun - an endless, motionless and cold surface of water, shrouded in darkness. Millennia passed, but nothing disturbed the peace: the Primordial Ocean remained unshakable.
But one day the god Atum appeared from the Ocean - the first god in the universe.
The universe was still frozen, and everything was plunged into darkness. Atum began to look for a solid place in the Primordial Ocean - some island, but there was nothing around except the motionless water of Chaos Nun. And then God created Ben-Ben Hill - the Primordial Hill.
According to another version of this myth, Atum was himself a Hill. The ray of the god Ra reached Chaos, and the Hill came to life, becoming Atum.
Having found the ground under his feet, Atum began to ponder what he should do next. First of all, it was necessary to create other gods. But who? Maybe the god of air and wind? - after all, only the wind can set the dead Ocean in motion. However, if the world begins to move, then whatever Atum creates after that will be immediately destroyed and will again turn into Chaos. Creative activity is completely meaningless as long as there is no stability, order and laws in the world. Therefore, Atum decided that, simultaneously with the wind, it was necessary to create a goddess who would protect and support the law established once and for all.
Having made this wise decision after many years of deliberation, Atum finally began to create the world. He spewed the seed into his mouth, fertilizing himself, and soon spat Shu, the god of wind and air, from his mouth and vomited Tefnut, the goddess of world order.
Nun, seeing Shu and Tefnut, exclaimed: “May they increase!” And Atum breathed Ka into his children.
But light had not yet been created. Everywhere, as before, there was darkness and darkness - and the children of Atum were lost in the Primordial Ocean. Atum sent his Eye to search for Shu and Tefnut. While it wandered through the watery desert, God created a new Eye and called it “Magnificent.” Meanwhile, the Old Eye found Shu and Tefnut and brought them back. Atum began to cry with joy. His tears fell on Ben-Ben Hill and turned into people.
According to another (Elephantine) version, not related to the Heliopolis cosmogonic legend, but quite widespread and popular in Egypt, people and their Ka were fashioned from clay by the ram-headed god Khnum, the main demiurge in Elephantine cosmogony.
The Old Eye was very angry when he saw that Atum had created a new one in its place. To calm the Eye, Atum placed it on his forehead and entrusted it with a great mission - to be the guardian of Atum himself and the world order established by him and the goddess Tefnut-Maat.
Since then, all the gods, and then the pharaohs, who inherited earthly power from the gods, began to wear the Solar Eye in the form of a cobra snake on their crowns. The Sol Eye in the form of a cobra is called by rei. Placed on the forehead or crown, the uraeus emits dazzling rays that incinerate all enemies encountered along the way. Thus, the uraeus protects and preserves the laws of the universe established by the goddess Maat.
Some versions of the Heliopolis cosmogonic myth mention the primordial divine bird Venu, like Atum, not created by anyone. At the beginning of the universe, Venu (Bennu, or Phoenix) flew over the waters of Nun and made a nest in the branches of a willow on Ben-Ben Hill (therefore, the willow was considered a sacred plant).
Bennu bird
On Ben-Ben Hill, people subsequently built the main temple of Heliopolis - the sanctuary of Ra-Atum. Obelisks became symbols of the Hill. The pyramidal tops of the obelisks, covered with sheet copper or gold, were considered to be the location of the Sun at noon.
From the marriage of Shu and Tefput a second divine couple was born: the earth god Geb and his sister and wife, the sky goddess Nut. Nut gave birth to Osiris (Egyptian Usir(e)), Horus, Set (Egyptian Sutekh), Isis (Egyptian Iset) and Nephthys (Egyptian Nebtot, Nebethet). Atum, Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut, Nephthys, Set, Isis and Osiris make up the Great Ennead of Heliopolis, or the Great Nine of Gods.
Ancient Egyptian image of the creator god Ptah
Memphis cosmogony
According to the legend conveyed by Herodotus, Memphis was founded by the first pharaoh Less (Egypt. Aha? Narmer?), who united Northern and Southern Egypt into a single state. Memphis was the capital throughout the era of the Old Kingdom, until the collapse of the centralized state (VI Dynasty).
The original name of the city - Het-Ka-Pta - "House (of the soul) of Ka (god) Ptah", apparently, was subsequently assigned to the entire country in the Greek "Aypoptos". Since the VI Dynasty, the city received the name Mennefer ("Beautiful Dwelling"), which sounded in Coptic "Menfe" and was transformed by the Greeks into Memphis.
At first, when the lifeless Ocean of Nun stretched everywhere, Ptah, who himself was the earth, decided to incarnate into a deity. By an effort of will, he created his flesh-body from the earth and became a god.
Having existed, Ptah decided to create the world and other gods. First, he created their Ka and the sign of life "ankh", then - the creative power of the future gods, so that, upon being born, they would immediately gain power and help Ptah in his creativity. Since Ptah had no other materials for activity, he decided that he would create everything that exists from himself - from the earth, which was his flesh.
Creation happened like this: in the heart of God the Thought about Atum arose, and in the tongue - the Word “Atum”; God pronounced this name - and at that same moment Atum was born from the Primordial Chaos. He began to help his father in the work of creation, but he did not act independently, but only fulfilled the will of Ptah and was its guide. By the will of Ptah, Atum created the Great Nine; Ptah gave all the gods power and endowed them with wisdom.
After Ptah created the world, he created divine magic words and spells and established justice on earth. And life was given to the peace-loving man, and death was given to the criminal, and all kinds of works and all kinds of arts were created, the labors of the hands, the walking of the feet, the movement of all members, according to this command, conceived by the heart and expressed by the tongue, and creating the purpose of all things. Out of him (Bird) came all things: food and food, food of the gods and all other beautiful things. And so it was found and recognized that his power is greater than all other gods.
Ptah built cities, founded nomes, placed stone statues of gods in their sanctuaries and introduced the ritual of sacrifice. The gods inhabited their statues in temples. Having looked at his work, Ptah was satisfied.
The flesh and spirit of this great god reside in everything living and inanimate that is in the world. He is revered as the patron of the arts, crafts, shipbuilding and architecture. Ptah, his wife, the lioness goddess Sokhmet, and their son, the vegetation god Nefertum, make up the Memphis Triad.
Amulet - Unut.
The goddess Unut, from the archaic period, was revered in the guise of a hare, as the eternal mother goddess who created the world.
Egypt, Ptolemaic period; I - II centuries BC
Hermopolitan cosmogony
Hermopolis, the capital of the 15th Upper Egyptian (Hare) nome, was not an important political center. In the era of the Old Kingdom it was called Unut - after the patron goddess Noma, depicted in the guise of a hare. In the First Transitional Period (IX-X dynasties), Memphis loses its status as the capital of a centralized state, power is concentrated in the hands of the nomarchs of Heracleopolis (Egyptian Khensu, Neninesut), who declared themselves pharaohs; Accordingly, the political importance of the Hare nome neighboring Herakleopolis increases, whose rulers were allies of the Herakleopolis pharaohs; The popularity and significance of the cosmogonic doctrine of Hermopolis are growing. The city of Unut receives the name Hemenu (Coptic Shmunu) - “Eight”, “Eight” - in honor of the eight original creator gods revered there. The cosmogonic version of Hermopolis spread everywhere, but was much less popular than the Heliopolitan and Memphis cosmogonies. Much more important was the role of Hermopolis as a cult center of the moon god and the wisdom of Thoth and the sacred ibises. The Greeks identified Thoth with Hermes, hence the Greek name for the city.
In the beginning there was Chaos. The forces of destruction reigned in Chaos: Infinity, Nothingness, Nothingness and Darkness.
In some sources, three pairs of deities are considered among the “negative” primordial forces of Chaos: Tenemu and his female parallel Tenemuit (Darkness, Disappearance), Niau and Niaut (Emptiness, Nothingness), Gerech and Gerecht (Absence, Night).
The destructive forces of Primordial Chaos were opposed by creative forces - four pairs of deities personifying the elements - the Great Eight, the Ogdoad. The male deities of the Eight - Huh (Infinity), Nun (Water), Kuk (Darkness) and Amon ("Invisible", i.e. Air) - had the appearance of people with the heads of frogs. They corresponded to female couples: Khauhet, Naunet, Kauket and Amaunet - goddesses with snake heads.
Nun. Papyrus Ani. XIX dynasty
Gods of the Hermopolitan Ogdoad. To the right are Nun and Naunet, his wife.
Painted wall reliefs in the Ptolemaic Temple at Deir el-Medina.
The Gods of the Great Eight swam in the Primordial Ocean. They created an Egg from earth and water and laid it on the Primordial Hill - “Fire Island”. And there, on the island, the Sun God Khepri, “young Pa,” hatched from the Egg.
Khepri
According to another version, the solar deity, who illuminated the earth in darkness, was born from a lotus flower that grew on the Primordial Hill; The baby Ra began to cry with joy, and from his tears that fell on the Hill, people arose. This version was common throughout Egypt. “The most ancient myths speak about the lotus that grew on the Hill near the city of Hemenu and gave life to the young solar god, and images of this lotus with a baby sitting in its petals, found until Roman times, show that this legend became one of the official versions of the later Egyptian cosmogony.
In the "Book of the Dead" fragments of another mythological version are preserved, associated with the cosmogonic doctrine of Hermopolis (but obviously going back to the most ancient, archaic ideas): the egg from which the Sun god was born was laid on the Primordial Hill by the Great Gogotun - the white bird that first flew into the darkness and broke the eternal silence of Chaos. The Great Gogotun was depicted as a white goose - the sacred bird of the earth god Heb.
Ra created Shu and Tefnut - the first divine couple, from which all the other gods descended.
Luxor Temple.
Luxor Temple is the ruins of the central temple of Amun-Ra, on the right bank of the Nile, in the southern part of Thebes, within the modern city of Luxor.
Theban cosmogony
Thebes (Egyptian Waset) was the capital of Ancient Egypt during the Middle and New Kingdoms. Before the emergence of Thebes as a political center, the following were revered there: the heavenly god Min, the god Amon (“Invisible”, “Invisible” - i.e., obviously, “Hidden”, “Incomprehensible by reason”), and the god of war Montu; Montu's wife in Thebes was considered the goddess Rattavi, in Hermont (Egyptian Iuni), the second cult center of Montu, the goddess Tenenet and Iunit, identified with her.
In the First Transitional Period, the cult of Min acquires a different quality: Min becomes the deity of fertility, moisture, livestock reproduction and human sexual potency.
God Montu
The first emergence of Thebes as a political center occurs during the reign of the 11th dynasty and is associated with the unification of the North and South into a single state under the auspices of this city. The greatest flowering of the Montu cult dates back to this period; The pharaohs of the 11th dynasty take names in honor of Montu: Mentuhotep (“Montu is pleased”). Montu becomes the main god of the pantheon, his veneration becomes universal and is closely intertwined with the solar cult: Montu acts as one of the hypostases of Ra, called the “Living Soul of Ra”, “Bull of the Mountains of the Sunrise and the West”, sometimes personifies the power of the Sun; from this time on, images of Montu appear, the iconography of which is similar to the iconography of Ra - in the form of a man with the head of a falcon. Appearance<; этого же времени изображений Мина, держащего в одной руке свой фаллос (символ" акта самосовокупления бога-творца; сравн. с самооплодотворением Атума в гелиопольской космогонии), а в другой руке тройную плеть (символ владычества над миром), свидетельствует о слиянии к началу Среднего царства образов Мина и Атума и почитании Мина, как бога-творца.
In the era of the Middle Kingdom, the importance of the cult of the Theban Amon sharply increased; The pharaohs of the XII dynasty take names in his honor: Amenemhet (“Amon at the head”). Obviously, the new rulers were forced to reckon with the cosmogonic doctrine of Hermopolis, which from the First Transitional Period continued to play one of the leading roles in the national religion - the Theban priesthood replaced the cult of Montu with the cult of Amun, i.e. a god with the same name as one of the gods of the Hermopolitan Eight. During this same period, the identification of Amon and Min occurs. The cult of Amun is quickly compared in importance to the ancient traditional cult of the sun god Ra, and until the New Kingdom the cults of Ra and Amun coexisted in parallel; in the New Kingdom they merge (see below).
In the 17th century BC. e. Egypt is conquered by the Hyksos (Egyptian "hikhaset"). This word is sometimes translated "shepherd kings" - the invaders were nomadic cattle-breeding tribes - but a more accurate translation seems to be "foreign kings" - "foreign kings". (The Greeks interpreted the word "Hyksos" literally as the name of the people.) The Hyksos founded the XV Dynasty, crowning one of their generals, and reigned during the Second Intermediate Period in the North - at the same time as the Theban dynasty reigned in the South; the capital of the Hyksos was the city of Avaris (Greek; Egyptian: Hauara, later PerRamses, Jane).
The second rise of Thebes and its return to the status of the capital occurs at the beginning of the 18th dynasty due to the fact that the struggle against the Hyksos, which ended in their expulsion, was led by the Theban rulers - (brothers?) Seqenenra, Cameo and Ahmes (Amasis) 1, who reigned successively from about 1580 to 1557 BC e.
In the New Kingdom, the cults of Amon and Ra quickly merge, and the deity Amon-Ra arises; at the same time, the cults of Ra and Amun continue to exist as “independent” hypostases. Amon (Ra) is declared the creator of the world, he is the father of fathers and all gods, who raised the sky and established the earth, the only image that created all things. In the most ancient cosmogonic myths, he now appears as the main character, while different cosmogonies often merge into one: people came out of (the tears of) his eyes, gods became from his mouth (that is, they were created by his Word), says the hymn. He is the most powerful god, the king over all gods, the ruler of the world, the father and patron of the pharaohs.
Creator God Amon.
Temple of Amun-Ra at Karnak
Amon was depicted as a man wearing a crown “atef” - a crown of two tall feathers, and in the form of a ram; Amun's sacred animals are the ram and the white goose. Amon-Ra was depicted as a man wearing an “atef” crown and with a solar disk; sacred animals - ram, white goose, snake. The “container of the soul” of Amun-Ra were considered to be ram-headed sphinxes (the alley of ram-headed sphinxes led to the Great Temple of Amon-Ra - the main temple of the Karnak temple complex), the appearance of which contains symbolism: a ram is a symbol of fertility and the sacred animal of Amon, a lion's body is the body of Egyptian sphinxes, which, among other things, were associated with Ra and the solar cult. The goddess Mut was considered the wife of Amun(-Ra), their son was Khonsu, the lunar deity and god of time. Amun(-Ra), Mut and Khonsu made up the Theban Triad. The cult of Amun spread widely outside of Egypt.
Khonsou
A text from the Ptolemaic period reports a late compilative cosmogonic myth. According to him, “at the beginning of the world there was a serpent named Kem-atef (hypostasis of Amon), who, dying, bequeathed to his son Irta to create the Great Eight. Having arisen, the Eight set off on a journey to the lower reaches of the Nile, to Hermopolis, to give birth to the sun god there, and then to Memphis and Heliopolis, where she gave birth to Ptah and Atum. Having completed this great mission, the eight gods returned to Thebes and died there. The gods were buried in Medinet Abu (modern, Egyptian Dzhem), in the temple of their creator Kematef, and established there cult of the dead.
In this way, the priests of Amun resolved the issues of creation, subordinating all previously existing concepts of the origin of the world and the gods to Amon, who was completely absent in the Heliopolitan cosmogony, and played only a tertiary role in the Hermopolitan cosmogony."
Edfu. The entrance to the Temple of Horus is guarded by two black granite statues representing the god Horus in the form of a falcon. I century BC.
Ancient Beliefs
Information about the cosmogonic myths of the Predynastic and Early Dynastic periods is reconstructed from fragmentary and chaotic fragments contained in later sources, which preserved traces of ancient ideas, and from the iconography of the gods in later images.
One of the most ancient gods revered in the Nile Valley is Horus (Horus): a falcon flying through space; Horus's left eye is the Moon, his right eye is the Sun; Obviously, changes in seasons and time of day were associated with the flight of the falcon. Together with Horus, the similar god of sky and light Ver (Ur) was revered. The image of the sun-eyed bird greatly influenced the myths, religious ideas and beliefs that developed later: gods with the name Horus or derivatives from it (Hor - the son of Isis, Horus of Bekhdet, Kharsomt, etc.) were often depicted in the form of a falcon, the god Pa - in in the form of a falcon-headed man, in many texts the Sun and Moon are called the eyes of Ra or Amun(-Ra):
And there was light after you (Amon-Ra) arose.
You illuminated Egypt with your rays,
When your disk began to shine.
People saw the light when your right eye sparkled for the first time,
Your left eye drove away the darkness of the night.
Falcon God Horus
Temple of Horus in Edfu
“In many legends, the role of the deity who gives birth to the Sun and creates the world is played by an animal or bird. Thus, traces of a legend have been preserved according to which it was believed that the Sun was born in the form of a golden calf by the sky, which was represented by a huge cow with stars scattered throughout its body The Pyramid Texts also speak of “Pa, the golden calf born of heaven,” and later images show this Celestial Cow with luminaries floating on her body.
Heavenly Cow Nut
We find echoes of this legend, which, apparently, was once one of the main Egyptian myths about the origin of the world, in other texts and on a number of pictorial monuments, and sometimes the myth of the Heavenly Cow is preserved in a revised form, and sometimes it is even intertwined with Other legends. Thus, the Heavenly Cow is found in scenes of the birth of a solar baby from a lotus: on many ritual vessels two Heavenly Cows are visible, standing on the sides of the lotus on which the newborn Sun sits. The mention of the Celestial Cow was also preserved in the text, which tells how, immediately after his birth, the solar baby “sat on the back of the Celestial Cow Mehet Urt and swam across the horizon.” For a long time, there was an idea about the daily birth and death of the Sun. According to him , the sky goddess Nut, taking the form of a cow Mehet Urt, in the morning gives birth to a golden calf (the pink color of dawn is the blood of the goddess during childbirth); during the day the calf matures, becomes Bull-Ra; in the evening the Bull copulates with the Heavenly Cow - Nut, after which the goddess swallows the solar Bull, and in the morning gives birth again, and everything repeats itself; the widespread epithets of Ra “The Bull of his mother” and “He who is resurrected in his son” are associated with this idea. “Remnants of the most ancient ideas that conception occurs and as a result of swallowing live for a very long time in the religion of historical Egypt, and until later periods we encounter the image of a heavenly goddess giving birth to the Sun in the morning, and swallowing it in the evening, so that, having conceived again, she would give birth to it again at dawn the next day,” and the Egyptian pharaohs, “like the Sun Ra, They portray themselves as sons of the Heavenly Cow, either in the form of a baby sucking her milk, or in the form of a mature husband standing under her protection.
The sky goddess Nut in the form of a pig.
According to myth, Nut, who took the form of a pig, swallowed her star children, therefore, a pig eating (sometimes feeding) piglets acts as a symbol of the sky goddess.
According to other legends, the emergence of the world was associated with other animals; for example, there was a myth according to which the sky was represented by a pig, and the stars as the piglets born by it. Various animals or reptiles in general are often found in cosmogonic legends in different roles. Thus, in the image of the birth of Ra from the lotus behind the Celestial Cow, one can see monkeys greeting the solar baby with a raise of their hands. There were stories that the Sun was a huge ball that the sun beetle rolled across the sky, just as dung beetles roll their balls along the ground.
In one of these legends, the sky is thought of as the female goddess Nut, whose body is curved above the earth, and her fingers and toes rest on the ground
In other tales, the creators of the world are not animals and birds, but gods and goddesses. In one such legend, the sky is thought of as the female goddess Nut, whose body is curved above the earth, and her fingers and toes rest on the ground. Nut gives birth to a solar baby, who then creates gods and people. The “Pyramid Texts,” despite the fact that the dominant idea in them is the sole creation of the world by the creator god, still contains lines that glorify the goddess Nut, who was once revered as the greatest mother of both the Sun itself and the entire universe:
Mighty is your heart
O Great One who became the sky
You fill every place with your beauty.
The whole earth lies before you - you have embraced it,
You surrounded the earth and all things with your own hands.
Nut, you shine like the queen of Lower Egypt.
And you are mighty above the gods,
Their souls are yours, and their inheritance is yours,
Their sacrifices are yours, and all their property is yours.
Scarab and god Khnum
According to another legend, the creator god Khnum sculpted the entire world on a potter's wheel and created people and animals in the same way. This idea lives on until later times, and we see images of Khnum sculpting the bodies and souls of newborn children on a pottery circle."
Myths about the creation of the world § Egyptian mythology § Myths of Ancient Greece § Myths of the ancient Slavs § Myths of Scandinavia
Egyptian tales about the creation of the world Among the ancient Egyptian myths that have come down to us, tales about the creation of the world and people occupy a large place. At first glance, they may strike the reader with their contradictory diversity.
The creators of gods, people and the universe in Egyptian myths of different periods in different parts of the country are either animals, or birds, or gods and goddesses. According to one legend, the sun is born from a celestial cow, according to another, it comes out of a lotus, according to a third, from a goose egg. The only thing common to all legends is the idea of primeval chaos, from which various gods gradually emerged and created the world in different ways.
Most of the stories about the creation of the world appeared in the Nile Valley. According to some myths, the origin of the world was associated with a plant. According to one legend, the solar child, who “illuminated the earth that was in darkness,” appeared from a blossoming lotus flower, which grew on a hill that rose from the primeval chaos, from “the lotus that arose at the beginning of time. . . sacred lotus over the great lake."
In scenes of the birth of a solar baby from a lotus, a celestial cow appears: on many ritual vessels two celestial cows are visible, standing on the sides of the lotus on which the newborn sun sits. According to other legends, the emergence of the world was associated with other animals; for example, there was a myth according to which the sky was represented by a pig, and the stars as the piglets born by it.
Greek legends about the creation of the world There was nothing: neither Heaven, nor Earth, and only Chaos - dark and boundless - filled everything. He was the source and beginning of life. Everything came from it: the world, the Earth, and the immortal gods.
At first, Gaia, the goddess of the Earth, emerged from Chaos, a universal safe haven, giving life to everything that lives and grows on it. In the depths of the deep earth, in its darkest core, the gloomy Tartarus was born - a terrible abyss full of darkness. As far from the earth as from the bright Sky, so far lies Tartarus. Tartarus is fenced off from the world with a copper fence, night reigns in his kingdom, the roots of the earth entangle him and he is washed by the bitter-salty sea. From Chaos was also born the most beautiful Eros, which, with the power of Love, spilled in the world forever, can conquer hearts.
n n n Boundless Chaos gave birth to the Eternal Darkness - Erebus and the Black Night - Nyukta, they, combined, gave birth to the eternal Light - Ether and the bright Day - Hemera. The light spread throughout the world, and night and day began to replace each other. The foremother of the gods, Gaia, gave birth to an equal Starry Sky - Uranus, which, like an endless cover, envelops the Earth. Gaia-Earth reaches out to him, raising sharp mountain peaks, giving birth, not yet united with Uranus, to the eternally noisy Sea. Mother Earth gave birth to the Sky, Mountains and Sea, and they have no father.
n n Uranus took the fertile Gaia as his wife, and six sons and daughters - powerful titans - were born to the divine couple. Their firstborn son is the deep ocean whose waters gently wash the Earth. The gray Ocean gave birth to three thousand sons - river gods and three thousand oceanid daughters, so that they would give joy and prosperity to all living things, filling them with moisture. Another pair of titans - Hyperion and Theia - gave birth to the Sun-Helios, Selene-Moon and the beautiful Eos-Dawn. From Eos came the stars that sparkle in the sky at night, and the winds - the swift northern wind Boreas, the eastern wind Eurus, the moisture-filled southern Not and the gentle western wind Zephyr, bringing white foam clouds of rain.
Creation of the world: version of the ancient Slavs At the beginning of time, the world was in darkness. But the Almighty revealed the Golden Egg, which contained the Rod - the Parent of all things. The clan gave birth to Love - Mother Lada and, by the power of Love, destroying its prison, gave birth to the Universe, many star worlds and our earthly world. The sun then came out of His face. The moon is bright from His chest. The stars are frequent from His eyes. The clear dawns are from His eyebrows. The nights are dark and out of His thoughts. The winds are violent from the breath. . .
So Rod gave birth to everything that we see around - everything that comes with Rod - everything that we call Nature. The genus separated the visible, revealed world, that is, Reality, from the invisible, spiritual world from Novi. Rod separated Truth from Falsehood. In the chariot of fire, Rod affirmed thunder.
The clan gave birth to the Cow Zemun and the Goat Sedun, milk spilled from their teats and became the Milky Way. Then he created the Alatyr stone, with which he began to churn this Milk. From the butter obtained after churning, Mother Earth of Cheese was created.
Creation of the world among the Scandinavians At first there was nothing: no earth, no sky, no sand, no cold waves. There was only one huge black abyss. To the north of it lay the kingdom of mists, and to the south the kingdom of fire. It was quiet, light and hot there, so hot that no one except the children of this country, the fiery giants, could live there; in the kingdom of fogs, on the contrary, eternal cold and darkness reigned.
But in the kingdom of fogs a spring began to flow. Twelve powerful streams took their origin from it and quickly flowed to the south, falling into the abyss. The severe frost of the kingdom of fogs turned the water of these streams into ice, but the source beat continuously, the ice blocks grew and moved closer and closer to the kingdom of fire. Finally the ice came so close to him that it began to melt. The sparks flying from the kingdom of fire mixed with the melted ice and breathed life into it. And then, over the endless expanses of ice, a gigantic figure suddenly rose from the abyss. It was the giant Ymir, the first living creature in the world.
On the same day, a boy and a girl appeared under Ymir’s left hand, and from his feet the six-headed giant Trudgelmir was born. This was the beginning of a family of giants, cruel and treacherous, like the ice and fire that created them. At the same time as the giants, the giant cow Audumla emerged from the melting ice. Four rivers of milk flowed from the teats of her udder, providing food for Ymir and his children. There were no green pastures yet, and Audumla grazed on the ice, licking salty ice blocks.
By the end of the first day, hair appeared on the top of one of these blocks, the next day a whole head, and by the end of the third day the mighty giant Storm emerged from the block. Then the brothers took Ymir's skull and made the vault of heaven from it, from his bones they made mountains, from his hair trees, from his teeth stones, and from his brain clouds.
The gods turned each of the four corners of the firmament into the shape of a horn and planted them in each horn according to the wind: in the northern - Nordri, in the southern - Sudri, in the western - Vestri and in the eastern - Austri. From sparks flying from the kingdom of fire, the gods made stars and decorated the firmament with them. They fixed some of the stars motionless, while others, in order to recognize the time, placed them so that they moved in a circle, going around it in one year. The gods cut them down and made a man out of the ash tree and a woman out of the alder tree. Then one of the gods breathed life into them, another gave them reason, and the third gave them blood and rosy cheeks. This is how the first people appeared, and their names were: the man was Ask, and the woman was Embla.
Despite the fact that myths cannot be called scientific ideas about the creation and structure of the world, many of them are similar to scientific theories about the creation of the world: 1. Most myths assume that before the creation of the world there was something called CHAOS. In scientific theories (for example, in the Big Bang theory), it is assumed that the Universe arose 13.7 ± 0.2 billion years ago from some initial state with gigantic temperature and density. It is clear that at high temperatures, just as in chaos, nothing could exist. Scandinavian myths also suggest that before the creation of the world there was a kingdom of fire, which also corresponds to the scientific hypothesis. 2. In most myths, from chaos, first of all, the heavenly bodies, stars, the Sun, the Milky Way (galaxy), and then the Earth (firmament) are born, which suggests that ancient people (Egyptians, Slavs) understood that the heavenly bodies - the source of life on planets.
3. According to scientific data, the most important condition for the emergence of life on Earth was the presence of water. In Scandinavian, Egyptian, Chinese, etc. myths, when the world was created, water appears first on ours. It can be assumed that Mother Earth, which arose after the heavenly bodies (in Russian mythology), is called Raw for the same reason. 4. In some myths, one can see a reflection of Darwin’s theory, since man appeared in them after plants and animals. 5. Also in our time, there are supporters of the version of the Divine origin of the Universe and life on Earth. The main difference between this version and scientific theories is the belief in the spirituality of creation and the recognition of the existence of the Creator who gave birth to the World. Mythology also talks about the gods who created the world, about their creation of the spiritual and material world.
A long time ago, many millions of years ago, there was Chaos - an endless and bottomless ocean. This ocean was called Nun.
He was a gloomy sight! The petrified cold waters of Nun seemed to be forever frozen in motionlessness. Nothing disturbed the peace. Centuries and millennia passed, and the Nun Ocean remained motionless. But one day a miracle happened. The water suddenly splashed, swayed, and the great god Atum appeared on the surface.
I exist! I will create the world! I have no father and no mother; I am the first god in the Universe, and I will create other gods! With incredible effort, Atum broke away from the water, soared over the abyss and, raising his hands, cast a magic spell. At the same moment, a deafening roar was heard, and Ben-Ben Hill rose from the abyss amid the foamy spray. Atum sank down onto the hill and began to ponder what he should do next. I will create the wind - this is how Atum thought. Without wind, this ocean will freeze again and remain motionless forever.
And I will also create a goddess of rain and moisture - so that the water of the ocean will obey her. And Atum created the wind god Shu and the goddess Tefnut - a woman with the head of a fierce lioness. This was the first divine couple on earth. But then a misfortune happened. Impenetrable darkness still shrouded the Universe, and in the darkness of Chaos Atum lost his children. No matter how much he called them, no matter how much he shouted, deafening the watery desert with crying and lamentations, the answer to him was silence.
In complete despair, Atum tore out his Eye and, turning to him, exclaimed: “My Eye!” Do what I tell you. Go to the ocean, find my children Shu and Tefnut and return them to me.
The eye went into the ocean, and Atum sat down and began to wait for his return. Having finally lost all hope of seeing his children again, Atum shouted: - Oh woe! What should I do? Not only did I forever lose my son Shu and my daughter Tefnut, I also lost my Eye! And he created a new Eye and placed it in his empty socket. After many years of searching, the Faithful Eye finally found them in the ocean.
As soon as Shu and Tefnut stepped onto the hill, the god rushed to meet them in order to quickly hug them, when suddenly the Eye, all ablaze with rage, jumped up to Atum and angrily croaked: “What does this mean?!” Was it not at your word that I went to the Ocean of Nun and returned the lost children to you! I have done you a great service, and you... “Don’t be angry,” said Atum. - I will place you on my forehead, and from there you will contemplate the world that I will create, you will admire its beauty. But the offended Eye did not want to listen to any excuses.
In an effort to punish God for betrayal at all costs, he turned into a poisonous cobra snake. With a threatening hiss, the cobra swollen its neck and revealed its deadly teeth, aimed straight at Atum. However, God calmly took the snake in his hands and placed it on his forehead. Since then, the snake eye has adorned the crowns of gods and pharaohs. This snake is called a uraeus. A white lotus grew from the waters of the ocean. The bud opened, and the sun god Ra flew out from there, bringing the long-awaited light to the world.
Tales of the Creation of the World
Myth of the creation of the Earth
A long time ago, many millions of years ago, there was Chaos - an endless and bottomless ocean. This ocean was called Nun.
He was a gloomy sight! The petrified cold waters of Nun seemed to be forever frozen in motionlessness. Nothing disturbed the peace. Centuries and millennia passed, and the Nun Ocean remained motionless. But one day a miracle happened. The water suddenly splashed, swayed, and the great god Atum appeared on the surface.
I exist! I will create the world! I have no father and no mother; I am the first god in the Universe, and I will create other gods! With incredible effort, Atum broke away from the water, soared over the abyss and, raising his hands, cast a magic spell. At the same moment, a deafening roar was heard, and Ben-Ben Hill rose from the abyss amid the foamy spray. Atum sank down onto the hill and began to ponder what he should do next. I will create the wind - this is how Atum thought. Without wind, this ocean will freeze again and remain motionless forever.
And I will also create a goddess of rain and moisture - so that the water of the ocean will obey her. And Atum created the wind god Shu and the goddess Tefnut - a woman with the head of a fierce lioness. This was the first divine couple on earth. But then a misfortune happened. Impenetrable darkness still shrouded the Universe, and in the darkness of Chaos Atum lost his children. No matter how much he called them, no matter how much he shouted, deafening the watery desert with crying and lamentations, the answer to him was silence.
In complete despair, Atum tore out his Eye and, turning to him, exclaimed: “My Eye!” Do what I tell you. Go to the ocean, find my children Shu and Tefnut and return them to me.
The eye went into the ocean, and Atum sat down and began to wait for his return. Having finally lost all hope of seeing his children again, Atum shouted: - Oh woe! What should I do? Not only did I forever lose my son Shu and my daughter Tefnut, I also lost my Eye! And he created a new Eye and placed it in his empty socket. After many years of searching, the Faithful Eye finally found them in the ocean.
As soon as Shu and Tefnut stepped onto the hill, the god rushed to meet them in order to quickly hug them, when suddenly the Eye, all ablaze with rage, jumped up to Atum and angrily croaked: “What does this mean?!” Was it not at your word that I went to the Ocean of Nun and returned the lost children to you! I have done you a great service, and you... “Don’t be angry,” said Atum. - I will place you on my forehead, and from there you will contemplate the world that I will create, you will admire its beauty. But the offended Eye did not want to listen to any excuses.
In an effort to punish God for betrayal at all costs, he turned into a poisonous cobra snake. With a threatening hiss, the cobra swollen its neck and revealed its deadly teeth, aimed straight at Atum. However, God calmly took the snake in his hands and placed it on his forehead. Since then, the snake eye has adorned the crowns of gods and pharaohs. This snake is called a uraeus. A white lotus grew from the waters of the ocean. The bud opened, and the sun god Ra flew out from there, bringing the long-awaited light to the world.
Seeing Atum and his children, Ra began to cry with joy. His tears fell to the ground and turned into people.
Heliopolis cosmogony
Heliopolis (biblical) has never been the political center of the state, however, from the era of the Old Kingdom until the end of the Late Period, the city did not lose its significance as the most important theological center and the main cult center of the solar gods. The cosmogonic version of Gapiopolis, which developed in the V dynasty, was the most widespread, and the main gods of the Heliopolis pantheon were especially popular throughout the country. The Egyptian name of the city - Iunu (“City of Pillars”) is associated with the cult of obelisks.
In the beginning there was Chaos, which was called Nun - an endless, motionless and cold surface of water, shrouded in darkness. Millennia passed, but nothing disturbed the peace: the Primordial Ocean remained unshakable.
But one day the god Atum appeared from the Ocean - the first god in the universe.
The universe was still shackled by cold, and everything was plunged into darkness. Atum began to look for a solid place in the Primordial Ocean - some island, but there was nothing around except the motionless water of Chaos Nun. And then God created Ben-Ben Hill - the Primordial Hill.
According to another version of this myth, Atum was himself a Hill. The ray of the god Ra reached Chaos, and the Hill came to life, becoming Atum.
Having found the ground under his feet, Atum began to ponder what he should do next. First of all, it was necessary to create other gods. But who? Maybe the god of air and wind? - after all, only the wind can set the dead Ocean in motion. However, if the world begins to move, then whatever Atum creates after that will be immediately destroyed and will again turn into Chaos. Creative activity is completely meaningless as long as there is no stability, order and laws in the world. Therefore, Atum decided that, simultaneously with the wind, it was necessary to create a goddess who would protect and support the law established once and for all.
Having made this wise decision after many years of deliberation, Atum finally began to create the world. He spewed the seed into his mouth, fertilizing himself, and soon spat Shu, the god of wind and air, from his mouth and vomited Tefnut, the goddess of world order.
Nun, seeing Shu and Tefnut, exclaimed: “May they grow!” And Atum breathed Ka into his children.
But light had not yet been created. Everywhere, as before, there was darkness and darkness - and the children of Atum were lost in the Primordial Ocean. Atum sent his Eye to search for Shu and Tefnut. While it wandered through the watery desert, God created a new Eye and called it “Magnificent.” Meanwhile, the Old Eye found Shu and Tefnut and brought them back. Atum began to cry with joy. His tears fell on Ben-Ben Hill and turned into people.
According to another. (Elephantine) version, which is not plot-related to the Heliopolis cosmogonic legend, but quite widespread and popular in Egypt, people and their Ka were fashioned from clay by the ram-headed god Khnum, the main demiurge in Elephantine cosmogony.
The Old Eye was very angry when he saw that Atum had created a new one in its place. To calm the Eye, Atum placed it on his forehead and entrusted it with a great mission - to be the guardian of Atum himself and the world order established by him and the goddess Tefnut-Maat.
Since then, all the gods, and then the pharaohs, who inherited earthly power from the gods, began to wear the Solar Eye in the form of a cobra snake on their crowns. The Sol Eye in the form of a cobra is called by rei. Placed on the forehead or crown, the uraeus emits dazzling rays that incinerate all enemies encountered along the way. Thus, the uraeus protects and preserves the laws of the universe established by the goddess Maat.
Some versions of the Heliopolis cosmogonic myth mention the primordial divine bird Venu, like Atum, not created by anyone. At the beginning of the universe, Venu flew over the waters of Nun and built a nest in the branches of a willow on Ben-Ben Hill (therefore, the willow was considered a sacred plant).
On Ben-Ben Hill, people subsequently built the main temple of Heliopolis - the sanctuary of Ra-Atum. Obelisks became symbols of the Hill. The pyramidal tops of the obelisks, covered with sheet copper or gold, were considered to be the location of the Sun at noon.
From the marriage of Shu and Tefput a second divine couple was born: the earth god Geb and his sister and wife, the sky goddess Nut. Nut gave birth to Osiris (Egyptian Usir(e)), Horus, Set (Egyptian Sutekh), Isis (Egyptian Iset) and Nephthys (Egyptian Nebtot, Nebethet). Atum, Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut, Nephthys, Set, Isis and Osiris make up the Great Ennead of Heliopolis, or the Great Nine of Gods.
Memphis cosmogony
According to the legend conveyed by Herodotus, Memphis was founded by the first pharaoh Less (Egypt. Aha? Narmer?), who united Northern and Southern Egypt into a single state. Memphis was the capital throughout the era of the Old Kingdom - until the collapse of the centralized state (VI Dynasty).
The original name of the city - Het-Ka-Pta - “House (of the soul) of Ka (god) Ptah”, apparently, was subsequently assigned to the entire country in the Greek “Aipoptos”. Since the VI Dynasty, the city received the name Mennefer (“Beautiful Dwelling”), which sounded in Coptic “Menfe” and was transformed by the Greeks into Memphis.
At first, when the lifeless Ocean of Nun stretched everywhere, Ptah, who himself was the earth, decided to incarnate into a deity. By an effort of will, he created his flesh-body from the earth and became a god.
Having existed, Ptah decided to create the world and other gods. First, he created their Ka and the sign of life “ankh”, then - the creative power of the future gods, so that, upon being born, they would immediately gain power and help Ptah in his creativity. Since Ptah had no other materials for activity, he decided that he would create everything that exists from himself - from the earth, which was his flesh.
Creation happened like this: in the heart of God the Thought about Atum arose, and in the tongue - the Word “Atum”; God pronounced this name - and at that same moment Atum was born from the Primordial Chaos. He began to help his father in the work of creation, but he did not act independently, but only fulfilled the will of Ptah and was its guide. By the will of Ptah, Atum created the Great Nine; Ptah gave all the gods power and endowed them with wisdom.
After Ptah created the world, he created divine magic words and spells and established justice on earth. And life was given to the peace-loving man, and death was given to the criminal, and all kinds of works and all kinds of arts were created, the labors of the hands, the walking of the feet, the movement of all members, according to this command, conceived by the heart and expressed by the tongue, and creating the purpose of all things. Out of him (Bird) came all things: food and food, food of the gods and all other beautiful things. And so it was found and recognized that his power is greater than all other gods.
Ptah built cities, founded nomes, placed stone statues of gods in their sanctuaries and introduced the ritual of sacrifice. The gods inhabited their statues in temples. Having looked at his work, Ptah was satisfied.
The flesh and spirit of this great god reside in everything living and inanimate that is in the world. He is revered as the patron of the arts, crafts, shipbuilding and architecture. Ptah, his wife, the lioness goddess Sokhmet, and their son, the vegetation god Nefertum, make up the Memphis Triad.
Hermopolitan cosmogony
Hermopolis, the capital of the 15th Upper Egyptian (Hare) nome, was not an important political center. In the era of the Old Kingdom it was called Unut - after the patron goddess Noma, depicted in the guise of a hare. In the First Transitional Period (IX-X dynasties), Memphis loses its status as the capital of a centralized state, power is concentrated in the hands of the nomarchs of Heracleopolis (Egyptian Khensu, Neninesut), who declared themselves pharaohs; Accordingly, the political importance of the Hare nome neighboring Herakleopolis increases, whose rulers were allies of the Herakleopolis pharaohs; The popularity and significance of the cosmogonic doctrine of Hermopolis are growing. The city of Unut receives the name Hemenu (Coptic Shmunu) - “Eight”, “Eight” - in honor of the eight original creator gods revered there. The cosmogonic version of Hermopolis spread everywhere, but was much less popular than the Heliopolitan and Memphis cosmogonies. Much more important was the role of Hermopolis as a cult center of the moon god and the wisdom of Thoth and the sacred ibises. The Greeks identified Thoth with Hermes - hence the Greek name of the city.
In the beginning there was Chaos. The forces of destruction reigned in Chaos: Infinity, Nothingness, Nothingness and Darkness.
In some sources, three pairs of deities are ranked among the “negative” primordial forces of Chaos: Tenemu and his female parallel Tenemuit (Darkness, Disappearance), Niau and Niaut (Emptiness, Nothingness), Gerech and Gerecht (Absence, Night).
The destructive forces of Primordial Chaos were opposed by creative forces - four pairs of deities personifying the elements - the Great Eight, the Ogdoad. The male deities of the Eight - Huh (Infinity), Nun (Water), Kuk (Darkness) and Amon ("Invisible", i.e. Air) - had the appearance of people with the heads of frogs. They corresponded to female couples: Khauhet, Naunet, Kauket and Amaunet - goddesses with snake heads.
The Gods of the Great Eight swam in the Primordial Ocean. They created an Egg from earth and water and laid it on the Primordial Hill - “Fire Island”. And there, on the island, the Sun God Khepri, “young Pa,” hatched from the Egg.
According to another version, the solar deity, who illuminated the earth in darkness, was born from a lotus flower that grew on the Primordial Hill; The baby Ra began to cry with joy, and from his tears that fell on the Hill, people arose. This version was common throughout Egypt. The most ancient myths speak about the lotus that grew on the Hill near the city of Hemenu and gave life to the young solar god, and images of this lotus with a baby sitting in its petals, found until Roman times, show that this legend became one of the official versions of later Egyptian cosmogonies .
In the “Book of the Dead,” fragments of another mythological version are preserved, associated with the cosmogonic doctrine of Hermopolis (but obviously going back to the most ancient, archaic ideas): the egg from which the Sun god was born was laid on the Primordial Hill by the Great Gogotun, the white bird that first flew into the darkness and broke the eternal silence of Chaos. The Great Gogotun was depicted as a white goose - the sacred bird of the earth god Geb.
Ra created Shu and Tefnut - the first divine couple, from which all the other gods descended.
Theban cosmogony
Thebes (Egyptian Waset) was the capital of Ancient Egypt during the Middle and New Kingdoms. Before the emergence of Thebes as a political center, the following were revered there: the heavenly god Min, the god Amun (“Invisible”, “Invisible” - i.e., obviously, “Hidden”, “Incomprehensible to reason”), and the god of war Montu; Montu's wife in Thebes was considered the goddess Rattavi, in Hermont (Egyptian Iuni), the second cult center of Montu, the goddess Tenenet and Iunit, identified with her. In the First Transitional Period, the cult of Min acquires a different quality: Min becomes the deity of fertility, moisture, livestock reproduction and human sexual potency.
The first emergence of Thebes as a political center occurs during the reign of the 11th dynasty and is associated with the unification of the North and South into a single state under the auspices of this city. The greatest flowering of the Montu cult dates back to this period; The pharaohs of the 11th Dynasty take names in honor of Montu: Mentuhotep (“Montu is pleased”). Montu becomes the main god of the pantheon, his veneration becomes universal and is closely intertwined with the solar cult: Montu acts as one of the hypostases of Ra, called the “Living Soul of Ra”, “Bull of the Mountains of the Sunrise and the West”, sometimes personifies the power of the Sun; from this time on, images of Montu appear, the iconography of which is similar to the iconography of Ra - in the form of a man with the head of a falcon. Appearance
In the era of the Middle Kingdom, the importance of the cult of the Theban Amon sharply increased; The pharaohs of the XII dynasty take names in his honor: Amenemhet (“Amon at the head”). Obviously, the new rulers were forced to reckon with the cosmogonic doctrine of Hermopolis, which from the First Transitional Period continued to play one of the leading roles in the national religion - the Theban priesthood replaced the cult of Montu with the cult of Amun, i.e. a god with the same name as one of gods of the Hermopolis Eight. During this same period, the identification of Amon and Min occurs. The cult of Amun is quickly compared in importance to the ancient traditional cult of the sun god Ra, and until the New Kingdom the cults of Ra and Amun coexisted in parallel; in the New Kingdom they merge (see below).
In the 17th century BC e. Egypt is conquered by the Hyksos (Egyptian “hikhaset”). This word is sometimes translated “shepherd kings” - the invaders were nomadic cattle-breeding tribes - but a more accurate translation seems to be “foreign kings” or “foreign kings”. (The Greeks interpreted the word "Hyksos" literally as the name of the people.) The Hyksos founded the XV Dynasty, crowning one of their generals, and reigned during the Second Intermediate Period in the North - at the same time as the Theban dynasty reigned in the South; the capital of the Hyksos was the city of Avaris (Greek; Egyptian: Hauara, later PerRamses, Jane).
The second rise of Thebes and its return to the status of the capital occurs at the beginning of the 18th dynasty due to the fact that the struggle against the Hyksos, which ended in their expulsion, was led by the Theban rulers - (brothers?) Seqenenra, Cameo and Ahmes (Amasis) 1, who reigned successively from about 1580 to 1557 BC e.
In the New Kingdom, the cults of Amon and Ra quickly merge, and the deity Amon-Ra arises; at the same time, the cults of Ra and Amon continue to exist as “independent” hypostases. Amon (Ra) is declared the creator of the world, he is the father of fathers and all gods, who raised the sky and established the earth, the only image that created all things. In the most ancient cosmogonic myths, he now appears as the main character, while different cosmogonies often merge into one: people came out of (the tears of) his eyes, gods became from his mouth (that is, they were created by his Word), says the hymn. He is the most powerful god, the king over all gods, the ruler of the world, the father and patron of the pharaohs.
Amon was depicted as a man wearing an “atef” crown - a crown of two tall feathers, and in the form of a ram; Amun's sacred animals are the ram and the white goose. Amon-Ra was depicted as a man wearing an “atef” crown and with a solar disk; sacred animals - ram, white goose, snake. The “container of the soul” of Amon-Ra were considered to be ram-headed sphinxes (the alley of ram-headed sphinxes led to the Great Temple of Amon-Ra - the main temple of the Karnak temple complex), the appearance of which contains symbolism: the ram is a symbol of fertility and the sacred animal of Amun, the lion's body is the body of the Egyptian sphinxes, which, among other things, were associated with Ra and the solar cult. The goddess Mut was considered the wife of Amun(-Ra), their son was Khonsu, the lunar deity and god of time. Amun(-Ra), Mut and Khonsu made up the Theban Triad. The cult of Amun spread widely outside of Egypt.
A text from the Ptolemaic period reports a late compilative cosmogonic myth. According to him, “at the beginning of the world there was a serpent named Kem-atef (hypostasis of Amon), who, dying, bequeathed to his son Irta to create the Great Eight. Having arisen, the Eight set off on a journey to the lower reaches of the Nile, to Hermopolis, to give birth to the sun god there, and then to Memphis and Heliopolis, where it gave birth to Ptah and Atum. Having completed this great mission, the eight gods returned to Thebes and died there. The gods were buried in Medinet Abu (modern, Egyptian Djem), in the temple of their creator Kematef, and a cult of the dead was established there.
In this way, the priests of Amun resolved the issues of creation, subordinating all previously existing concepts of the origin of the world and the gods to Amun, who was completely absent in the Heliopolitan cosmogony, and played only a tertiary role in the Hermopolitan cosmogony.”
Ancient Beliefs
Information about the cosmogonic myths of the Predynastic and Early Dynastic periods is reconstructed from fragmentary and chaotic fragments contained in later sources, which preserved traces of ancient ideas, and from the iconography of the gods in later images.
One of the most ancient gods revered in the Nile Valley is Horus (Horus): a falcon flying through space; Horus's left eye is the Moon, his right eye is the Sun; Obviously, the flight of the falcon was associated with changes in seasons and time of day. Together with Horus, the similar god of sky and light Ver (Ur) was revered. The image of the sunbird greatly influenced the myths, religious ideas and beliefs that developed later: gods with the name Horus or derivatives from it (Hor - the son of Isis, Horus of Bekhdet, Kharsomt, etc.) were often depicted in the form of a falcon, the god Pa - in in the form of a falcon-headed man, in many texts the Sun and Moon are called the eyes of Ra or Amun(-Ra):
And there was light after you (Amon-Ra) arose.
You illuminated Egypt with your rays,
When your disk began to shine.
People saw the light when your right eye sparkled for the first time,
Your left eye drove away the darkness of the night.
“In many legends, the role of the deity who gives birth to the Sun and creates the world is played by an animal or a bird. Thus, traces of a legend have been preserved, according to which it was believed that the Sun was born in the form of a golden calf by the sky, which was represented by a huge cow with stars scattered throughout its body. The Pyramid Texts also speak of “Pa, the golden calf born of heaven,” and later images show this Celestial Cow with luminaries floating on her body.
We find echoes of this legend, which, apparently, was once one of the main Egyptian myths about the origin of the world, in other texts and on a number of visual monuments, and sometimes the myth of the Heavenly Cow is preserved in a revised form, and sometimes it is even intertwined with Other legends. Thus, the Heavenly Cow is found in scenes of the birth of a solar baby from a lotus: on many ritual vessels two Heavenly Cows are visible, standing on the sides of the lotus on which the newborn Sun sits. The mention of the Heavenly Cow was also preserved in the text, which tells how, immediately after his birth, the solar baby “sat on the back of the Heavenly Cow Mehet Urt and swam across the horizon.” For a long time there was an idea of the daily birth and death of the Luminary. According to him, the sky goddess Nut, taking the form of the cow Mehet Urt, gives birth to a golden calf in the morning (the pink color of dawn is the blood of the goddess during childbirth); within a day the calf grows up and becomes Bull-Ra; in the evening the Bull copulates with the Heavenly Cow - Nut, after which the goddess swallows the solar Bull, and in the morning she gives birth again, and everything repeats; The widespread epithets of Ra, “The Bull of His Mother” and “He Who Resurrects in His Son,” are associated with this idea. “The remnants of the most ancient ideas that conception occurs and as a result of swallowing live for a very long time in the religion of historical Egypt, and until later periods we encounter the image of a heavenly goddess giving birth to the Sun in the morning, and swallowing it in the evening in order to, having conceived again, give birth to it again at dawn the next day,” and the Egyptian pharaohs, “like the Sun Ra, portray themselves as the sons of the Heavenly Cow, either in the form of a baby sucking her milk, or in the form of a mature husband standing under her protection.
According to other legends, the emergence of the world was associated with other animals; for example, there was a myth according to which the sky was represented by a pig, and the stars as the piglets born by it. Various animals or reptiles in general are often found in cosmogonic legends in different roles. Thus, in the image of the birth of Ra from the lotus behind the Celestial Cow, one can see monkeys greeting the solar baby with a raise of their hands. There were stories that the Sun was a huge ball that the sun beetle rolled across the sky, just as dung beetles roll their balls along the ground.
In other tales, the creators of the world are not animals and birds, but gods and goddesses. In one of these legends, the sky is imagined in the form of the female goddess Nut, whose body is curved above the earth, and her fingers and toes rest on the ground. Nut gives birth to a solar baby, who then creates gods and people. The Pyramid Texts, despite the fact that the dominant idea in them is the sole creation of the world by the creator god, still contains lines that glorify the goddess Nut, who was once revered as the greatest mother of both the Sun itself and the entire universe:
Mighty heart is yours
O Great One who became the sky
You fill every place with your beauty.
The whole earth lies before you - you have embraced it,
You surrounded the earth and all things with your own hands.
Nut, you shine like the queen of Lower Egypt.
And you are mighty above the gods,
Their souls are yours, and their inheritance is yours,
Their sacrifices are yours, and all their property is yours.
According to another legend, the creator god Khnum sculpted the entire world on a potter's wheel and created people and animals in the same way. This idea lives on until later times, and we see images of Khnum sculpting the bodies and souls of newborn children on a pottery circle.”
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From the book Legends and parables, stories about yoga author Byazirev GeorgyBIBLE STORIES Each nation has its own traditions, its own rules for worshiping God. In our country, for example, many worldly people believe in God Jesus Christ and read Orthodox prayers. In Iraq they believe in Allah, in India - in God Vishnu. But all religions have one root -
From the book The History of Man's Relationship with the Devil author Orlov Mikhail AlexandrovichSECTION ONE. Views on evil spirits and legends about them in the Middle Ages I. Opinions on the existence of evil spirits It is most interesting to study views on the existence of demons and their activities among people from the works of writers of the 16th and 17th centuries. Curious about these writings
From the book Avatars of Shambhala by Marianis AnnaLEGENDS AND TALES As one might expect, such a significant phenomenon as Shambhala could not help but leave its mark on earthly history, despite all the secrecy and inaccessibility of the monastery of the White Brotherhood to ordinary people. One way or another, but information about the mysterious
From the book The Power of Karma. Continuous reincarnation author Nikolaeva Maria VladimirovnaLEGENDS AND STORIES It is interesting that the version of Christ’s stay in India was shared by the famous British diplomat Sir Francis Youngusband, who wrote about this in his book “Kashmir”: “About 1900 years ago in Kashmir there lived a man named Yus Asaf, who preached in the form
From the book The Twelfth Planet [ill., official] author Sitchin ZechariahParables and stories In Indian folk art, many religious ideas were mixed and layered on top of each other, especially in a later era. There are several collections of such works, where karma turns out to be the factor that
From the book To Be by Aleph Zor From the book Agni Yoga. Sacred Signs (collection) author Roerich Elena IvanovnaCHAPTER V. TEACHING ABOUT THE CREATION OF THE WORLD “Know that before the beginning of creation there was only the highest light that filled everything. And there was no free unfilled space - Only an endless, even light flooded everything. And when He decided to create the worlds and the creatures that inhabit them, with this
From the book The Dark Side of Russia author Kalistratova Tatyana From the book Symbol Language [Collection of articles] author Team of authorsAncient legends and recent ones Have you ever heard the legend about Kitezh-grad? Well, many people have definitely heard the name. So, in the Nizhny Novgorod region there is a wonderful lake Svetloyar. Fabulously picturesque and covered in poetic legends. They say that it is under him
From the book Aurora, or Morning Dawn in Ascent, or... author Boehme JacobTales of the Living Sun Today, even a child knows that the bright stars in the sky are also suns, the same centers of other worlds. Spacecraft explore the abysses of stars, sending scientific information to Earth. Solar flares and magnetic storms on Earth have become for us
From the book Cryptograms of the East (collection) author Roerich Elena IvanovnaChapter IV ON THE CREATION OF HOLY ANGELS. INDICATIONS, OR THE OPEN GATES OF HEAVEN Scientists and almost all writers have put a lot of care, research, invention and research into nature and have also expressed many different opinions about when and how or from what the holy angels were created; A
From the author's bookChapter XVIII ON THE CREATION OF HEAVEN AND EARTH AND THE FIRST DAY Moses writes about this in his first book, as if he were present and saw it himself: no doubt, he received it in the scriptures from his ancestors; although, perhaps, he acquired somewhat greater knowledge about this spirit,
From the author's book7. Legends Cosmogonic tale A cosmogonic Hindu tale says: there lived a terrible monster who devoured people. One day the monster pursued its intended victim. The man dived into the lake to escape. The monster jumped after him. Seeking salvation, the swimmer jumped onto his back
