Creation Myths in egyptian Religion

Creation of light
- In the beginning there was only water, a chaos of churning, bubbling water, this the Egyptians called Nu or Nun. It was out of Nu that everything began.
- Then the sun god  "ra" emerged out of primeval chaos, he came out of a blue giant "louts" flower that appeared on the surface of the water.
- "ra" gave light to the universe 

Ra
  Creation of air and moisture

Ra created the air god "shu" and his wife "tefnut" the goddess of moisture, 
 
 Creation of Earth and Sky
shu"and" tefnut" gave birth to the sky- goddess "nut" and the earth god "geb" and so the physical universe was created.
- "ra" seems to rest while his sons and daughters are completing the task of creation, this is in accordance with the polytheistic beliefs of ancient Egyptians
Geb ,Nut And Shu
Creation of Calendar
 Against"ra’s" orders,"geb" and "nut" married."ra" was incensed and ordered "shu"to separate them, which he did. But "nut" was already pregnant, although unable to give birth as"ra" had decreed she could not give birth in any month of any year.
- "thoth", the god of learning, decided to help her and gambling with the moon for extra light, was able to add five extra days to the 360-day calendar. On those five days"nut" gave birth to "osiris", Horus the Elder, "seth" "isis", and"nephtys" successively.
- Even the heavenly bodies are seen as serving human needs, by providing the basis for a calendar.
thoth
seth
osir,isis and hor

Creation of Life
  khnum" created the living creatures on his potter's wheel.
- He modeled the animals, plants and people of the earth.
- A detailed description of how he created humans is found at esna temple. It describes how he orders the bloodstream to cover the bones, and makes the skin enclose the body. He then makes the respiratory system and the food digestion.
- In contrast with the Hebrew mythology, the work of "khnum" was seen as a continuous task, he was seen as a deity sitting on his potter's wheel constantly working in creating life.
khnum

Egyptian Afterlife


Underworld Gods

In Egyptian mythology there where many deities, each has an specific function, dominion and cult center. 

- Gods like Ra and Amun seem to have little role in the underworld.

- The undisputed Lord of the underworld was Osiris
 
Mummification
 
The Egyptian people believed that the human soul used the first night after death to travel into the afterlife. 

- However, the body, which the Egyptians believed was an essential element to the afterlife had to be mummified to preserve it for eternity.

- The Mummification process took 72 days to perform properly. This was the time to put finishing touches on the tomb and to pack all the deceased's worldly possessions, which surely would be needed in the afterlife.

Tombs & Funerals
 Eternal life was only granted to those who had a proper tomb and funeral, thus rich men had greater chance of achieving eternity - this idea of justice by modern standards seems unjust by itself!!

- The dead were provided with food and drink, weapons, and toiletry articles.

- Tombs were often visited by the family, who brought new offerings. The practice of feeding the dead continues in Egypt even in our own day!!

- Proper precautions and care for the dead were mandatory to insure immortality.
Judgment
Hall of Maat
The Hall of Maat is located in the underworld, here the judgment of the dead was performed in the afterlife.

- This was done by weighing one's heart (conscience) against the feather of Maat (truth and justice).

- The concept of hell did not exist in Egyptian mythology until the 19th Dynasty, Ammut was a daemon who devoured the heart of sinners, but no eternal punishment for sinners was recorded

Starting from the 20th Dynasty a new funerary text called "The Book of Caverns" appeared, focusing on the rewards and punishments in afterlife, this text is the first view of the Egyptian concept of Hell  

Paradise  
Fields of Reeds
 In the Egyptian paradise or Fields of Reeds, there was a continuation of the earthly necessities and challenges such as eating, drinking and fighting

Magic in Ancient Egypt


In Egyptian myth, magic (heka) was one of the forces used by the creator to make the world. Through heka, symbolic actions could have practical effects. All deities and people were thought to possess this force in some degree, but there were rules about why and how it could be used.


Priests were the main practitioners of magic in pharaonic Egypt, where they were seen as guardians of a secret knowledge given by the gods to humanity to 'ward off the blows of fate'. The most respected users of magic were the lector priests, who could read the ancient books of magic kept in temple and palace libraries. In popular stories such men were credited with the power to bring wax animals to life, or roll back the waters of a lake.



Real lector priests performed magical rituals to protect their king, and to help the dead to rebirth. By the first millennium BC, their role seems to have been taken over by magicians (hekau). Healing magic was a speciality of the priests who served Sekhmet, the fearsome goddess of plague.


Gods Sekhmet

 
Lower in status were the scorpion-charmers, who used magic to rid an area of poisonous reptiles and insects. Midwives and nurses also included magic among their skills, and wise women might be consulted about which ghost or deity was causing a person trouble.



Amulets were another source of magic power, obtainable from 'protection-makers', who could be male or female. None of these uses of magic was disapproved of - either by the state or the priesthood. Only foreigners were regularly accused of using evil magic. It is not until the Roman period that there is much evidence of individual magicians practising harmful magic for financial reward.



The Real Cleopatra

The Great Pyramid film

Part 1




Part 2


Part 3

 


Part 4

 


Part 5

 


Part 6

 


Part 7

 

Epic of Gilgamesh



The Epic of Gilgamesh is an anci Mesopotamia (present day Iraq, as well ent poem fromas southeast Turkey, Syria, and southwest Iran) and is among the earliest known works of literature. Scholars believe that it originated as a series of Sumerian legends and poems about the mythological hero-king Gilgamesh, which were gathered into a longer Akkadian epic much later. The most complete version existing today is preserved on 12 clay tablets from the library collection of 7th-century BC Assyrian king Ashurbanipal. It was originally titled He who Saw the Deep (Sha naqba īmuru) or Surpassing All Other Kings (Shūtur eli sharrī). Gilgamesh was probably a real ruler in the late Early Dynastic II period (ca. 27th century BC).[1]



The story revolves around a relationship between Gilgamesh and his close companion, Enkidu. Enkidu is a wild man created by the gods as Gilgamesh's equal to distract him from oppressing the citizens of Uruk. Together they undertake dangerous quests that incur the displeasure of the gods. Firstly, they journey to the Cedar Mountain to defeat Humbaba, its monstrous guardian. Later they kill the Bull of Heaven that the goddess Ishtar has sent to punish Gilgamesh for spurning her advances.



The latter part of the epic focuses on Gilgamesh's distressed reaction to Enkidu's death, which takes the form of a quest for immortality. Gilgamesh attempts to learn the secret of eternal life by undertaking a long and perilous journey to meet the immortal flood hero, Utnapishtim. Ultimately the poignant words addressed to Gilgamesh in the midst of his quest foreshadow the end result: "The life that you are seeking you will never find. When the gods created man they allotted to him death, but life they retained in their own keeping." Gilgamesh, however, was celebrated by posterity for his building achievements, and for bringing back long-lost cultic knowledge to Uruk as a result of his meeting with Utnapishti. The story is widely read in translation, and the protagonist, Gilgamesh, has become an icon of popular culture.


history
Many original and distinct souand those from a late period have yielded significant enough finds to enable a coherent intro-translation. Therefore, the old Sumerian poems, and a later Akkadian version, which is now referred to as the standard edition, are the most frequently referenced. The standard edition is the basis of modern translations, and the old version only supplements the standard version when the lacunae–or gaps in the cuneiform tablet–are great.
Note that although revised versions rces exist over a 2,000-year timeframe, but only the oldest based on newly discovered information have been published, the epic is not complete.[2]
The earliest Sumerian versions of the epic date from as early as the Third Dynasty of Ur (2150-2000 BC) (Dalley 1989: 41-42). The earliest Akkadian versions are dated to the early second millennium (Dalley 1989: 45). The "standard" Akkadian version, consisting of 12 tablets, was edited by Sin-liqe-unninni sometime between 1300 and 1000 BC and was found in the library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is widely known today. The first modern translation of the epic was published in the early 1870s by George Smith.[3] More recent translations into English include one undertaken with the assistance of the American novelist John Gardner, and John Maier, published in 1984. In 2001, Benjamin Foster produced a reading in the Norton Critical Edition Series that fills in many of the blanks of the standard edition with previous material.

The most definitive [4] translation is contained in a two-volume critical work by Andrew George. This represents the fullest treatment of the standard edition material. George discusses at length the archaeological state of the material, provides a tablet-by-tablet exegesis, and furnishes a dual language side-by-side translation. This translation was also published in a general reader edition under the Penguin Classics imprint in 2000. In 2004, Stephen Mitchell released a controversial edition, which is his interpretation of previous scholarly translations into what he calls "a new English version", published by FreePress, a division of Simon and Schuster. The first direct Arabic translation from the original tablets was in the 1960s by the Iraqi archeologist Taha Baqir.

The discovery of artifacts (ca. 2600 BC) associated with Enmebaragesi of Kish, who is mentioned in the legends as the father of one of Gilgamesh's adversaries, has lent credibility to the historical existence of Gilgamesh (Dalley 1989: 40-41).[5]


Standard Akkadian version

The standard version was discovered by Austen Henry Layard in the library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh in
1849 It was written in standard Babylonian, a dialect of Akkadian that was only used for literary purposes. This version was compiled by Sin-liqe-unninni sometime between 1300 and 1000 BC out of older legends.



The standard version and earlier old Babylonian version are differentiated based on the opening words, or incipit. The older version begins with the words "Surpassing all other kings", while the standard version's incipit is "He who saw the deep" (ša nagbu amāru). The Akkadian word nagbu, "deep", is probably to be interpreted here as referring to "unknown mysteries".[citation needed] However, Andrew George believes that it refers to the specific knowledge that Gilgamesh brought back from his meeting with Uta-Napishti (Utnapishtim): he gains knowledge of the realm of Ea, whose cosmic realm is seen as the fountain of wisdom (George 1999: L [pg. 50 of the introduction]). In general, interpreters feel that Gilgamesh was given knowledge of how to worship the gods, of why death was ordained for human beings, of what makes a good king, and of the true nature of how to live a good life. Utnapishtim, the hero of the Flood myth, tells his story to Gilgamesh, which is related to the Babylonian Epic of Atrahasis.



The 12th tablet is appended to the epic representing a sequel to the original 11, and was most probably added at a later date. This tablet has commonly been omitted until recent years. It has the startling narrative inconsistency of introducing Enkidu alive, and bears seemingly little relation to the well-crafted and finished 11-tablet epic; indeed, the epic is framed around a ring structure in which the beginning lines of the epic are quoted at the end of the 11th tablet to give it at the same time circularity and finality. Tablet 12 is actually a near copy of an earlier Sumerian tale, a prequel, in which Gilgamesh sends Enkidu to retrieve some objects of his from the Underworld, but Enkidu dies and returns in the form of a spirit to relate the nature of the Underworld to Gilgamesh–an event which seems to many superfluous given Enkidu's dream of the underworld in Tablet VII.[6]

The rule of Paris


is more common in mythology Greco




Once invited Hera  , Aphrodite, and Athens to a wedding of Peleus on Thetis,




Iris _God's conflict_ had been not invited to this wedding, Angry and threw a dinner party to raise a conflict, including a golden apple inscribed «Best of» In the case of a dispute between three goddesses:
Who has more right to this apple
?
 
To resolve the conflict that ride, Zeus decided to appeal to the most beautiful human beings from men, Paris, son of Priam King of Troy, and was living
Then over Mountian Ida. And then moved to Hermes and announced the news to him and brought him the three goddesses. and tried all of them that Seduced him to her to judge her by the apple 

  Hera promised him greatness of royal  ,

Athens promised victory in the war,

And Aphrodite promised the most beautiful women in the world to be his wife

 in the end the rule was to the last"Aphrodite" by the apple.

And their aid was able to escape by stealth Bhelen wife of Menelaos   he was younger brother of Agamemnon the king of Argus  


And thus bring himself to hate the other two goddesses, also raised the hate  of all the fiancer Helen, who swore to respect their choice of any of them to be her husbands.
Such was the Trojan War. So, too, made the will of Zeus, who believed that the human race is increasing dramatically, even weighed down the land.



And then decided to reduce the number of this devastating war. And prepared ships and organized themselves into the ranks of the soldiers went on alert to leave under the leadership of Agamemnon the great. And arrived at news of this military Valiant to Troy, so give men brave preparing to confront the enemy, and sounded the drums, the sound of the horn, and the army reached the Greeks, and hit the blockade barrier on the walls of Troy, rolled battles, the losses on both sides heavy, and the long siege and a ten-year full of  horrors .