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What was the Religion of Ancient Egypt?
        THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT EGYPT
        In religion the ancient Egyptians had an idea of one supreme, self-existent creator, but this idea was mixed with the basest forms of polytheism and idolatry. Every town had its local divinities and its sacred animal or fetish. Herodotus remarked that it was easier to find a god than a man on the Nile. Seth, the destructive power of Nature, was for many centuries the special divinity of Lower Egypt, but he was at length displaced. There appear to have been various orders of gods, each town having a cycle called a society of the gods, or "the nine gods." The Egyptians explained this cycle as the self-development of Ra, the chief or supreme god, already mentioned, and who appears to be identified in Egyptian history of the "eighteenth dynasty" with the sun and sunworship.
         Two lists of their deities are given: the first is according to the system of Memphis, the earlier capital, whose chief gods were Ptah, Ra, Shu or Mu, Seb, Hesiri or Osiris, Hes, Seth or Sethos, and Har. Those of the system of Thebes, the later capital, were, according to Lepsius, Amen, Mentu, Atmu, Shu, Seb, Hesiri, Set, liar, and Sebek. These two systems, however, may be treated as one, consisting of male divinities with whom are associated goddesses. Wilkinson gives a list of thirteen triads of gods, two of whom were usually of equal rank and the third subordinate. At Philae was the triad of Osiris, Isis, and Horus. Sun-worship was the primitive form of the Egyptian religion. Ra was represented as a hawk-headed man, generally bearing on his head the solar disk. Osiris (in Egyptian Heairi) was usually represented as a mummy with a royal cap having ostrich plumes; he is the good being, the judge of all the dead, and is opposed to Seth, the evil being. The worship of these gods required priests, sacrifices, offerings of fruits, libations, and at some early periods human victims. Vast temples were built in honor of the deities, each town usually having at least one temple, and immense tombs were also constructed as a religious duty and connected with the worship of some of the gods, usually that of Osiris or a divinity of that group.
         The Egyptians had a very strong belief in a future life, and were taught to consider their abode here merely as an inn upon the road to a future existence where there was no distinction in rank. After death the body was embalmed and often kept in the house for months or a year before the burial. See Embalm. The mummy of a deceased friend was sometimes introduced at their parties and placed in a seat at the table as one of the guests. Herodotus says that the Egyptians were the first to maintain the immortality of the soul. They also believed in the transmigration of souls. Though "Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians," the system of worship and religion which was given to the Hebrews under him is in marked contrast to the polytheistic and idolatrous forms of Egypt, and attests its divine origin.


Bibliography Information
Schaff, Philip, Dr. "Biblical Definition for 'religion of ancient egypt' in Schaffs Bible Dictionary".
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