Ancient Egypt Religion Essay

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Writing Assignment #1 Mythology was such an important part of the lives of Ancient Egyptians, and was very closely intertwined with their religion. Through our study of Ancient Egyptian civilization, countless stories and explanations of the origin of humankind have been discovered and interpreted. Many of these accounts of religion and mythology are closely related to one another, while some seem to disagree with each other and cause confusion. This variety of explanations and descriptions of their religion can be described as a multiplicity of approaches. This means that the Egyptians used a wide variety of explanations for one phenomenon, and did not ultimately seek a single explanation. For example, the Egyptians’ approach to cosmogony,…show more content…
Hermopolitan cosmogony places much emphasis on a divine group similar to the Ennead, called the Ogdoad, which consists of eight gods instead of nine. These gods come in male/female pairs. Nun and Naunet (the primeval waters), Huh and Hauhet (the flood), Kuk and Kauket (darkness), Amun and Amaunet (concealed dynamism) comprise the Ogdoad, in which the former god of each pair is the male and the latter is the female. The Ogdoad represents the conditions before creation and at the arrival of the sun, and each primordial god and goddess is described as having a frog-head (male) or a snake-head (female). Hermopolis was named so by the Greeks because they identified the city’s chief god, Thoth, with their god Hermes. Although Thoth was the chief god of Hermopolis, the Hermopolitans recognized Amun of the Ogdoad as their primary god of creation. Amun is referred to as the “hidden one” and is described to be “manifested in the sun, the primeval mound (Ta-tenen), and the precreation universe.” [1]. Another interesting myth from the Hermopolitans is that of the egg which created everything. They explain a primordial egg, which hatches all things ever born, and a lotus flower from which the sun god

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