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Religion In Ancient Egypt

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The Western world’s depiction of Ancient Egypt has been very limited, our closest accounts of primary sources come from Greek writers between the 6th and 5th Century BCE. Some of these, many times the most detailed are still questioned whether they are such as Homer’s Iliad and the chapter of Exodus in the Hebrew Bible. While many hieroglyphs have been deciphered and translated, most murals remain with an unknown meaning. However Szapakowska (2010) argues that religion in Ancient Egypt has been denoted to have three principle features. One was Maat, maintenance of order over chaos. The other, a belief in the numinous nature of the world, and finally the hope of living an eternal afterlife in the Duat, the afterlife inhabited by the Gods and …show more content…
Maat, coming from Horus’ triumphant battle against the fratricidal Seth. The numinous nature of the world also comes from the actions of a god, specifically Re. He repeatedly rises in the morning giving us light and air, and then set in the west at night battling chaos, to then rise again the next day. And finally the hope of eternal afterlife, comes from the act of resurrection carried out by Isis, after Osiris had been murdered by Seth. Death since before the dynastic period in Egypt has been an important concept, great cemeteries are built for the dead, they are buried with their goods such as figurines or pieces of pottery, and there are various depictions of festivals and offerings on the tomb walls. The defunct were even classified into justified or unjustified dead depending on their actions during their time as the living and the funerary rituals received. The Pharaoh, also known as the King of Egypt, while being human he was believed to be of theistic descent. He was the mediator between the people and the gods, having to sustain the latter through offerings and rituals so that Maat was kept in the …show more content…
This belief grew out of our attempt to understand life and death. The analysis is based solely on the definition and not the complete thesis coming from it. Therefore, the simplicity of the definition allows it to be quite broadly interpreted, there is no distinction of what he means by spiritual beings , is he referring to gods or simply spirits? Therefore in relation to Ancient Egyptian religion, it applies to the people believing in deities, and although belief might have not been the crucial goal enjoying eternal life was, it was a feature of it. Rather than an option to believe in the gods, it was more an assumption and punishment was more due to transgression towards them, which would lead to not being allowed into the after life, rather than a lack of belief in them as it occurs in the Christian faith (Thessalonians 1:8). This non-specification of what a spiritual being is also allows us the freedom to interpret whether it refers to monotheism or polytheism. So again it does apply to Egyptian Religion, as they worshipped various gods, most notably those that seemed more relevant to their lives. However this definition’s strengths are also its downfall. The definition is too simple. J.G. Frazer while following Tylor’s definition in his book the Golden Bough criticised it. He argued that it

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