Through the Eras

Religionsecond was Baal the storm god associated with the Egyptiangod, Seth. Three important foreign goddesses appearedin Egypt. They included Astarte also called Ishtar,a goddess associated with healing, love, and war oftendepicted on horseback. Egyptians also worshipped theforeign war goddess Anat and the Syrian goddessQadesh, associated with sexuality and fertility.SOURCESErik Hornung, “Ancient Egyptian Religious Iconography,”in Civilizations of the Ancient Near East Volume III. Ed.Jack M. Sasson (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons,1995): 1711–1730.—, Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: The One andthe Many (Ithica, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1982).David Silverman, “Divinity and Deities in Ancient Egypt,”in Religion in Ancient Egypt: Gods, Myths, and PersonalPractice. Ed. Byron Shafer (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell UniversityPress, 1991): 7–87.EGYPTIAN MYTHSSTORIES. Myths are stories that have a beginning,middle, and end, and which describe the activities of superhumanbeings. Prior to the New Kingdom, myths arescarce in Egyptian texts, but allusions to myths are numerous.The reasons for this are uncertain, but it is probablyrelated to the types of text that have survived tomodern times. Allusions to the activities of the gods arefound in texts whose purpose is to provide for the successfultransition of the dead into the afterlife or textswhich accompany ritual activities. For these purposes,allusions to the doings of the gods are sufficient. Priorto the New Kingdom, Egyptian myths may only havebeen transmitted orally.CREATION MYTHS. While mythic narratives do notappear in the Egyptian records until the New Kingdom,the frequent allusions to the activities of the gods foundin the Pyramid Texts and Coffin Texts allow scholars toreconstruct a fairly comprehensive and consistent viewof the earliest Egyptian stories about the gods. One ofthe most important categories of myth for the Egyptianswas creation stories. The Egyptians believed that for existenceto continue, it had to be continually recreated ateach dawn, at each full moon, or each New Year. Onepart of the process of this recreation was to recall thefirst time of creation. Characteristically the Egyptians didnot have only one creation account, but the creation ofthe universe was ascribed to several gods, and even a goddess.These creation accounts are named after the locationwhere the creator god had a major temple.ATUM. The earliest of all creation accounts is associatedwith the god Atum at Iunu (Heliopolis in Greek,the biblical On), which scholars call the HeliopolitanCosmogony. A cosmogony is a story of how the worldcame to exist. In this version of creation, the universe isoriginally an infinite, dark, watery expanse called Nunor Nuu. Within this watery expanse, the god Atum essentiallycreates himself, and looks about for a place tostand. One tradition states that Atum stood on Mehetweret,a goddess in the form of a cow representing a solidemerging from the waters. According to another traditionAtum stood on the primeval hill located at Iunu,an image deriving from the emergence of land after theannual Nile flood recedes. After finding a place to stand,Atum masturbates with his hand (personified as the goddessIusaas, “she who comes and grows”), and from hissemen produces the first pair of gods, Shu (male) andTefnut (female). The name Shu means void or emptiness.The meaning of Tefnut is uncertain; one traditionmay associate her with moisture.BIRTH OF MANKIND. After Atum created them,Shu and Tefnut become separated from him in the darkexpanse of Nun. Atum, finding himself alone again,sends out his eye to find his missing children. While hiseye is away, Atum creates another eye to take its place.When the eye returns with Shu and Tefnut, it becomesangry at its replacement. Atum then puts the eye on hisforehead, where it becomes the protective, fire-spittingUraeus snake found on the headdress of Egyptian kingsand gods. A late tradition connects this event with thecreation of mankind. When the eye returned with Shuand Tefnut, Atum became so happy he wept, and fromhis remet (“tears”), remetj (“mankind”) came into being.FATHER EARTH. Shu and Tefnut mate and givebirth to the god Geb and the goddess Nut. Geb representsdry land, while his sister-wife Nut is the sky. Originally,Geb and Nut are locked in an embrace, and Gebimpregnates Nut. A significant event in the creativeprocess occurs when Shu separates Geb from Nut,thereby creating a space in which life can take place, abubble in the expanse of Nun. This act is represented asShu standing on a prone Geb while lifting the archingbody of Nut high overhead. Shu represents the air andlight separating the earth from the sky. A late text explainswhy Shu separated Geb and Nut; apparently theywere quarreling because Nut kept swallowing her ownchildren, that is, every morning the stars disappeared.Shu stepped in to stop the quarreling. One importantaspect of this myth is the gender of the earth and sky.In most societies the earth was thought of as female(mother earth) and the sky as male. In Egypt, this im-214 Arts and Humanities Through the Eras: Ancient Egypt (2675 B.C.E.–332 B.C.E.)