Horus - Son of Osiris

a hawk, or a man with a hawk's head crowned with the crown of all Egypt
Horus is shown as a hawk, or a man with a hawk's head and
the crown of all Egypt. This makes him look similar to Ra, but
Ra is crowned with the sun disk. Horus' crown is made of two
parts. The white part is the crown of Upper Egypt (in the
south) and the red part is the crown of Lower Egypt (including
the Nile delta). Together they show that Horus ruled all Egypt.
During their reign, Pharoahs identified themselves with Horus.
After they died, they became Osiris.
This story begins on Nut and
Geb's page. When Horus was a
baby, his father Osiris was killed
by Seth. Horus and his mother
Isis hid in the papyrus reeds in
the delta of the Nile until Horus
grew up. The he went to war with Seth to get his father's
crown and kingdom. The battles raged for a long time. Once
Seth managed to blind Horus by taking out his eye and tearing
it to bits, but Thoth, the God of Wisdom, managed to heal the
eye. So how did the war end? See Isis's page.
The Eye of Horus, healed by Thoth, was an amulet, or magic
charm. The Ancient Egyptians also used it to describe
fractions. The Egyptians sometimes had had two eye symbols,
with the left eye being the Eye of Horus, symbolising the moon, and the right eye being
symbolising the Eye of Ra, or the sun.
Osiris - God of the Dead
dressed in white with crook and flail and white crown

Osiris is shown as a man with a beard wearing white mummy wrappings. His crown is the white
crown of Upper Egypt surrounded by red feathers. His skin is green to represent vegetation. He
holds the symbols of supreme power, the flail and crook. The crook is used by shepherds to catch
their sheep. The flail is used in threshing, to separate the grains from the outer husks. Osiris was the
God of the Dead. You would expect that such a god would be gloomy or even evil, but the
Egyptians thought about death a lot. They mummified their dead and buried them with their

belongings so they could enjoy themselves in the afterlife.

This story begins on Nut and Geb's page. Osiris ruled over the Egyptians and taught them farming.
His brother Seth had always hated him, and wanted to kill him. Seth made a beautiful box, like a
coffin, made to the exact measurements of Osiris. Then Seth invited Osiris and other people to a
great feast. When everyone had finished eating, Seth displayed the box, and said that he'd give it to
anyone who fitted inside. Everyone tried, but only Osiris fitted. While he was still inside, Seth and
his friends quickly slammed on the lid and threw the box in the Nile river. But what happened next?
See Seth's page.

Isis - Queen of Goddess

with a throne or sun disk and horns on her head
Isis was the great mother-goddess. Her son was Horus, the enemy of Seth.
Sometimes she has the baby Horus on her lap. Sometimes she has a throne
on her head, as she is Queen of the goddesses. Sometimes she has a sun
disk and horns, like Hathor.
Isis was also a great healer and magician. She got her magic powers by
tricking Ra (see Ra's webpage).
This story begins on Nut and Geb's page. The war between Horus and his
enemy Seth had lasted a long time. Isis decided to help her son Horus. She
met Seth, and asked for his help. She described someone killing a man and taking all he had away
from the man's son. Seth said that killer should pay for his crimes. Isis said that Seth himself was
the killer, and he had condemned himself. The other gods agreed, and Seth was driven out into the
Sahara Desert. This is the end of the story.

Ra - Sun God, King of the Gods

a falcon crowned with a sun disk or a man with a falcon's
head
Ra was the God of the Sun. He sailed across the heavens in a
boat called the 'Barque of Millions of Years'. At the end of
each day Ra was thought to die and sailed on his night
voyage through the Underworld, leaving the Moon to light
the world above. The boat would sail through the twelve
doors, representing the twelve hours of night-time. The next
dawn, he was born again.
It was not always smooth sailing.
During the day Ra had to fight his
chief enemy, a snake called Apep. He
was helped by the other gods, such as
Seth and Bastet.
The sun disk on Ra's head often has a

cobra round it. A cobra appears on the forehead of Pharaohs, like Tutankhamun.
Ra was the greatest of the gods and he kept his power in his secret name, which only he knew. He
had started to grow old, and sometimes he dribbled. Isis collected some of his saliva and made it
into a snake. She hid the snake where Ra would walk. When Ra trod on it, it bit him, and Ra
screamed in pain. All the gods gathered round, but none could heal him. Isis said "If you tell me
your secret name, this will give me enough magic power to heal you." Ra didn't want to do this, but
eventually the pain was so bad that he had to. Isis healed him, and ever since then she has the magic
powers that Ra had.

Hathor - the Goddess of love,

music, dance
cow horns and sundisk on head

Sekhmet - the Goddess of

the sun
woman with lion's head head
Hathor was the goddess of joy, motherhood, and love. She looked
after all women. She was the goddess of music and dancing, as
well. Dead women were identified with Hathor, as men were
identified with Osiris. She has a sun disk on her head and cow
horns. Sometimes she had cow's ears or was a whole cow.
But she had another side as well, as Sekhmet, the Eye of Ra, the
destructive Sun Goddess. The Egyptians knew that the Sun
brought life, but they also knew that the desert Sun could kill you.
Ra, the Sun God, was angry with mankind, because they laughed at him. He
said that he'd send down his anger as Sekhmet, the Eye of Ra. She went
down to Earth, killing men, and drinking their blood. She started to frighten
Ra, who only wanted to punish Mankind, not destroy them all. So he dyed
some beer red, to look like blood. When Sekhmet saw the beer, she was
thristy for blood, so she drank it all, got drunk and went to sleep. When she
woke up, Ra persuaded her to stop killing Mankind.

Nut - the Sky Goddess

blue with golden stars

Geb the
Earth
God
colour
of plants
and
fertile
Nile

mud
The sky is Nut's body, arching from horizon to horizon.
Geb is the Earth, lying beneath her. During the day, Nut
and Geb are separated, but each evening Nut comes
down to meet Geb and this causes darkness. If storms
came during the day, it was believed that Nut had come
closer to the earth.
Nut was married to the King of
the Gods, Ra, but she was in
love with Geb. When Ra found
out, he was angry and said that Nut could not give birth to any children
during the 360 days of the year. Nut was unhappy and asked the God of
Wisdom, Thoth, to help. At this time, the Moon was as bright as the Sun.
Thoth got some light from the Moon, so now the Moon gets bigger and
smaller each month. With this light, Thoth made five new days, so now the year is 365 days long.
Nut gave birth to her five children, on these five days. When Osiris, the oldest, was born, a loud
voice said "The lord of all the earth is born." Seth, his brother, was born hating Osiris. If you want
to know what Seth did to Osiris, go to Osiris' page.

Thoth - God of Wisdom, Time, Writing and the Moon

head of an ibis
Thoth invented hieroglyphs, the
picture writing of Ancient Egypt.
He was the measurer of the earth
and the counter of the stars, the
keeper and recorder of all
knowledge. The ibis is a bird
rather like a stork, with long legs
and a long beak which it uses for
prodding in the mud to find small
fish. It was a symbol of wisdom
and learning because it has a beak shaped like a pen which it dips
in the mud, as if it was ink.
The Book of Thoth had two spells in it. If you read the first spell aloud, you would be able to
understand every beast and bird, and summon the fishes in the sea. If you read the second spell, you
could bring the dead to life. Prince Setna, the son of a Pharaoh, knew the book was hidden in a
royal tomb in the City of the Dead. With his brother Anhurerau, he broke into the tomb of
Neferkeptah. When they found the burial chamber, they saw the mummy of Neferkaptah, and his
wife and young son. The wife spoke to them, and warned them against taking the book of Thoth.
She said that her husband had stolen the Book from Thoth, and had read the spells, but Thoth was
angry and had drowned her and her son in the Nile, and Neferkeptah had then killed himself. But
Setna ignored her and moved towards the Book. The mummy of Neferkaptah sat up and said "Play
me at four games of draughts. If you win, you can take the Book." Setna was terrified, but agreed.
He played the first game, and lost. He started to sink into the ground, up to his ankles. Then he lost
the next game, and sunk up to his hips. As he was losing the third game, he shouted to his brother,

"Run and fetch my magic amulets. Only they can save me!" He then sank into the ground up to his
chin. His brother ran out of the tomb. Setna played the fourth game as slowly as he could, trying
desperately not to lose, but the mummy was too good at draughts. Just as he had nearly lost for the
final time, his brother Anhurerau returned with the amulets, and put them on Setna's head. The spell
was broken, and Setna grabbed the Book of Thoth, and ran as hard as he could out of the tomb.
As Setna tried to read the Book, he saw a beautiful woman walking past. He fell in love with her,
and tried to persuade her to marry him. She demanded that he kill his existing wife and children.
Completely besotted with her, he agreed. When he had done this, she vanished, and he was appalled
at what he had done. But he discovered that it was all a dream. He realised that he was being
punished for stealing the Book of Thoth, and next time it might not be a dream, so he returned the
Book to the tomb of Neferkeptah and resealed the burial chamber. Ever since then, no-one has seen
the Book of Thoth.
The magic amulet may have been a scarab. The scarab or dung beetle makes a ball of dung by
rolling it along the ground, and then lays its eggs in it. The Ancient Egyptians imagined a scarab
rolling the sun across the sky.

Ma'at - Goddess of Justice

ostrich feather in her hair
Ma'at was the goddess of truth,
justice and harmony. She was
the wife of Thoth, the god of
wisdom, since you need
wisdom to find truth and
justice. Both Ma'at and Thoth
helped at the Weighing of the
Heart.

The feather of Ma'at was an ostrich plume. She wore it on her head.
The chief judge in charge of the Egyptian law courts was known as the "priest of Ma'at". He began
court hearings by wearing the feather of Ma'at. The judge gave the feather to the person who won
his case in the law courts.
The pharaoh had to promise that he would follow Ma'at. This means that he would be a just
pharaoh, and keep order in Egypt.

Amun - God of Creation

crowned with ostrich feathers
Amun was an important god, but there are no stories about
him. He created all things. At the same time, he remained
apart from creation, totally different from it, and fully
independent from it. In fact, he was invisible, so you couldn't
have a picture of him! However, if you called him Amun-Re,
this allowed people to see him. Then he had a hat with ostrich
feathers on, and like all gods with human heads, a beard. Re is
another way of spelling Ra, the sun god.
Tutankhamun's name
contains the name of
Amun. It also contains
the Ankh, which means
Life. His name means
"Long life to Amun."
The ankh was a very
important amulet or
magic charm. See how
many ankhs you can
find on this website!
Amun is sometimes spelled Ammon. The fossil ammonites are called after him, because his sacred
animal is a ram, and ammonites are shaped like ram's horns.
Mut
Lady of Heaven.

Cult Center: Thebes.

Attributes: Mut was the divine mother, the queen of all gods. She was the
female counterpart of Amun. Mut usurped many of the other Egyptian
goddess that exhibited the attributes of motherhood. During the New
Kingdom, The marriage of Mut and Amun was one of the great annual
celebrations. Amun would be brought from his temple at Karnak, a great
following would escort him to visit Mut at her temple at Luxor. In spite of
her marriage to Amun, Mut was bisexual, perhaps to reinforce her position
as the mother of all things. Her hieroglyphic symbol was a vulture, it was
worn on the crowns of Egypt's queens to typify their motherhood.
Representation: A woman wearing a vulture headdress, with the double
crown of upper and lower Egypt. In some pictures the heads of vultures
project from her shoulders. Sometimes she holds a papyrus sceptre.
Relations: Wife of Amun, mother of all the gods, mother of all living things.

Neith

Great Goddess.
Cult Center: Sais in the western Delta
Attributes: Neith was a goddess of the hunt. She may have also been a
war goddess. Her worship dates from pre dynastic history. In early times
she was called 'mother of the gods' and 'Great Goddess'. She was
considered the guardian of men and gods.
Later, Neith was seen as a protector of the dead, she is often seen standing
with Nephthys at the head of coffins. Or assisting Isis, Nephthys, and
Serqet to guard the Canopic jars. As 'Opener of the Ways', she was a guide
in the underworld, a female Anubis. In the Eighteenth Dynasty she took on
the attributes of Hathor, as a protector of women. As a creative deity she
was said to be the wife of Khnum at Elephantine. She was appealed to for
her wisdom as an arbitrator during the great quarrel of Horus and Seth.
Neith assumed the role of state deity during the Twenty-sixth Dynasty,
when the kings of Sais repeled the invading Assyrians and reunited Egypt.
This period lasted for about a century and a half and the tendency in art and religion was to
try to regain the glories of the past. This was a suitable time for the worship of an ancient
goddess.
Representation: Neith was pictured as a woman wearing the red crown of Lower Egypt,
holding a bow and crossed arrows. Her cult sign was a shield and crossed arrows.
Occasionally she was represented as the great cow, mother of Ra.
Relations: Varied with time period. Mother of Sobek, Isis, Horus and Osiris. Or mother of
Ra. The pharaoh Nectanebo II of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, claimed her as his Mother. Wife
of Khnum.

Bastet - Proctectress of Cats

cat or head of a cat
Bastet was sometimes called bast. She was the goddess of cats. She is a cat, or has the head of a cat,
but originally she had the head of a lion.
Every day the sun god Ra would travel in his ship
across the sky. Every night the snake Apep tried to
stop the sun god's ship on his journey through the
underworld. Ra was usually won these battles.
However, on stormy days, or during an eclipse, the
Egyptians believed that Apep had been victorious and
swallowed the sun. Bastet defended her father Ra
against the snake.

Bastet was the proctress of cats. The Ancient Egyptians had a great respect for cats since they
protected the grain from mice and rats. Rats can also cause disease. Killing a cat was punishable by
death. When a cat died, the family mourned it, shaving their eyebrows to mark their sadness. Cats
were sometimes mummified, like people, and their mummies have been found.