UNESCO Ancient Civilizations of Africa (Editor G. Mokhtar)

Pharaonic Egypt
were filled by countless spirits. These spirits, they believed, made their
earthly abode in animals or plants, or in any object remarkable for its
size or form. Subsequently, however, they no longer considered the
animals or objects themselves as gods, for they progressively came to
believe rather that these were the visible manifestation or seat of an
abstract divine force. The animal or object selected as the manifestation
of a god could be either a friendly and useful beast such as the cow, the
ram, the dog or the cat, or a savage and awe-inspiring creature such as the
hippopotamus, the crocodile or the cobra. In each case the Egyptian would
pay homage and make sacrifices to one single specimen on earth. He worshipped
the cow, yet he slaughtered it to supply himself with meat. He
also worshipped the crocodile yet he would kill it to defend himself.
These were local gods and each in his own district was the supreme god
and the undisputed master of the territory, with one exception. The local
god of a town in which the chief of a group rose to power took precedence.
If the chief ascended the throne and succeeded in uniting the southern and
the northern kingdoms, this local god would be promoted to be the state
god of the whole land.
Moreover, the first Egyptians saw divine forces present in the sun, the
moon, the stars, the sky and the Nile floods. They must have feared these
phenomena and felt their influence, for they worshipped them and made
powerful gods out of them, namely, the cosmic gods such as Re the
sun, Nut the sky, Nun the ocean, Shu the atmosphere, Geb the earth and
Hapi the flood. 7
They were represented in human or in animal form and their worship
was not confined to any specific locality. Goddesses, too, played a decisive
role in religion and enjoyed widespread reverence. The number, however,
could not have exceeded a dozen though some, such as Hathor, Isis, Neith
and Bastet, played important roles throughout the whole country. Hathor
was usually connected with Horus, Isis with Osiris, Neith was the protective
goddess of the prehistoric capital of the Delta, and Bastet (the Catgoddess)
enjoyed great popularity after the second dynasty in the eighteenth
nome of Lower Egypt.
Among no other peoples, ancient or modern, has the idea of a life beyond
the grave played such a prominent part and so influenced the lives of the
believers as among the ancient Egyptians. 8 The belief in the hereafter was
no doubt both favoured and influenced by the natural conditions of Egypt
where the dryness of the soil and the hot climate resulted in a remarkable
preservation of dead bodies. This must have greatly stimulated the conviction
in a continuation of life after death.
During the course of history, the Egyptians came to believe that their
7. A detailed systematic account of Egyptian beliefs is to be found in H. Kees, 1041.
8. The amplified basic work on the funerary beliefs of the Egyptians is by H. Kees,
1926; 2nd edn., 1956.
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