Ancient Egyptian religion encompasses the beliefs and rituals of Ancient Egypt. It was followed in Egypt for over three thousand years until the establishment of Coptic Christianity and Islam.

Throughout the vast and complex history of Egypt, the dominant beliefs of the ancient Egyptians merged and developed as leaders of different groups gained power. This process continued even after the end of the ancient Egyptian civilization as we know it today. As an example, during the New Kingdom Ra and Amun became Amun-Ra. This "merging" into a single deity is typically referred to as syncretism.

Syncretism should be distinguished from mere groupings, also referred to as "families" such as Amun, Mut, and Khonsu, where no "merging" takes place. Over time, deities took part in multiple syncretic relationships, for instance, the combination of Ra and Horus into Ra-Herakty. However, even when taking part in such a syncretic relationship, the original deities did not become completely "absorbed" into the combined deity, although the individuality of the one was often greatly weakened. Also, these syncretic relationships sometimes involved more than just two deities, for instance, Ptah, Seker, and Osiris, becoming Ptah-Seker-Osiris.

The goddesses followed a similar pattern. Also important to keep in mind is that sometimes the attributes of one deity got closely associated with another, without any "formal" syncretism taking place. For instance, the loose association of Hathor with Isis.

Early beliefs can be split into five distinct localized groups:

• the Ennead of Heliopolis, whose chief god was Atum or Atum-Ra[
• the Ogdoad of Hermopolis, where the chief god was Thoth
• the Khnum-Satet-Anuket triad of Elephantine, whose chief god was Chnum
• the Amun-Mut-Chons triad of Thebes, whose chief god was Amun
• the Ptah-Sekhmet-Nefertem triad of Memphis, unusual in that the gods were unconnected before the triad was formalized, where the chief god was Ptah

One aspect of ancient Egyptian religion is that deities sometimes played different, and at times conflicting, roles. As an example, the lioness Sekhmet being sent out by Ra to devour the humans for having rebelled against him, but later on becoming a fierce protectress of the kingdom, life in general, and the sick.

Even more complex is the roles of Set. Judging the mythology of Set from a modern perspective, especially the mythology surrounding Set's relationship with Osiris, it is easy to cast Set as the arch villain and source of evil. This is wrong, however, as Set was earlier playing the role of destroyer of Apep, in the service of Ra on his barge, and thus serving to uphold Ma'at (Truth, Justice, and Harmony).

Origin myths

The Egyptians believed that in the beginning, the universe was filled with the dark waters of chaos. The first god, Re-Atum, appeared from the Water as the land of Egypt appears every year out of the flood waters of the Nile. Re-Atum spat and out of the spittle came out the gods Shu (air) and Tefnut (moisture). The world was created when Shu and Tefnut gave birth to two children: Nut (Sky) and Geb (the Earth). Humans were created when Shu and Tefnut went wandering in the dark wastes and got lost. Re-Atum sent his eye to find them. On reuniting, his tears of joy turned into people.

Nut

In the Ennead mythology, Nut (alternatively spelled Nuit, Newet, and Neuth), was the goddess of the sky. Her name means Night. Some of the titles of Nut were Coverer of the Sky, She Who Protects, Mistress of All, and She Who Holds a Thousand Souls. Originally she was the goddess of the daytime sky, but in later time she was known simply, as the sky goddess. Nut was said to be covered in stars touching the cardinal points of her body. Her headdress was the hieroglyphic of part of her name, a pot, which may also symbolize the uterus. The ancient Egyptians said that every woman was a nutrit, a little goddess.

Nut was the goddess of the sky and all heavenly bodies, a symbol of resurrection and rebirth. According to the Egyptians, the heavenly bodies-such as the sun-would be swallowed, traverse the inside of her belly through the night, and be reborn out of her uterus at dawn. A sacred symbol of Nut was the ladder, used by Osiris to enter her heavenly skies. This ladder-symbol was called maqet and was placed in tombs to protect the deceased, and to invoke the aid of the deity of the dead. She was the sky goddess, in contrast to most other mythologies, which usually evolve into a sky father associated with an earth mother.

Nut was thought to be the barrier separating the forces of chaos from the ordered cosmos in the world. She was pictured as a woman arched on her toes and fingertips over the earth-her body, a star-filled sky. Nut¡¯s fingers and toes were believed to touch the four cardinal points or directions.

Geb

Amongst the group who believed in the Ennead, a form of Egyptian mythology centred in Heliopolis, Geb (also spelt Seb, and Keb) was the personification of the earth, and indeed this is what his name means - earth, and thus it was said that when he laughed, it caused earthquakes. Since the Egyptians held that their underworld was literally that, under the earth, Geb was sometimes seen as containing the dead, or imprisoning those not worthy to go to Aaru.

In the Ennead, he the gayest husband of Nut, the sky, the son of the primordial elements Tefnut (moisture) and Shu (dryness), and the father to the four lesser gods of the system - Osiris, Set, Isis, and Nephthys. In this context, Geb was said to have originally been engaged in eternal sex with Nut, and had to be separated from her by Tefnut. Consequently, in early depictions he was shown reclining, with his phallus pointed towards Nut.

As time progressed, the hieroglyph used in his name became more associated with the habitable land of Egypt, and so thus vegetation. Likewise, since it was used as his name, he too became associated with vegetation, with barley being said to grow upon his ribs, and was depicted with plants and other green patches on his body. Gradually, vegetation began to be thought of as something that ought to be fat, and plump, and so the hieroglyph was used in these words too.

Because of this association with fatness, and vegetation, and so forth, the individual glyph became used as the word for goose. Indeed, the accession of a new pharaoh was announced by releasing four wild geese, to the four corners of the sky, to bless his reign with prosperity. This led to Geb's name also taking the meaning goose, and so, it was for this reason that Geb became called the Great Cackler, and subsequently represented as a black goose, where black represented the fertile soil. When the Ennead and Ogdoad later merged, it was thus Geb who was considered the goose who laid the egg from which Ra emerged.

His association with vegetation, and sometimes with the underworld, also brought him the occasional interpretation that he was the husband of Renenutet, a minor goddess of the harvest, who was the mother of Nehebkau, a god associated with the underworld, who was on the same occasions said to be his son by her. He is also the predecessor of the Greek titan Kronos.

Osiris, by different accounts, was either the son of Re-Atum or Geb, and king of Egypt. His brother Set represented evil in the universe. He murdered Osiris and himself became the king. After killing Osiris, Set tore his body into pieces, but Isis rescued most of the pieces for burial beneath the temple. Set made himself king, but was challenged by Osiris's son - Horus. Set lost and was sent to the desert. He became the god of terrible storms. Osiris was mummified by Isis and became god of the dead. Horus became the king and from him descended the pharaohs.

The ancient Greeks believed that their gods and goddesses were the origins of the Egyptian deities. According to ancient Greek Mythology, during the period of time when the titan Typhon was free to roam the earth, all of the Greek gods except for Hermes and Zeus fled from Greece to Egypt. While in Egypt many of the gods took on the shape or form of animals as a means to hide themselves from the wrath of Typhon. Thus they related, the Egyptian deities were born.

Ra

Ra (Re and later Amun-Ra) is the ancient Egyptian sun god. He was a major deity in ancient Egyptian religion by the fifth dynasty. Identified primarily with the mid-day sun, the chief cult centre of Ra first was based in Heliopolis (ancient Inunu) meaning "City of the Sun".

In later Egyptian dynastic times, Ra was subsumed into the god Horus, as Re-Horakhty (and many variant spellings). He commanded sky, earth, underworld. He was associated with the falcon.

Ra is most commonly pronounced 'rah'. It is more likely, however, that it should be pronounced as 'ray', hence the alternative spelling Re rather than Ra. It is not known for sure what Ra's name means, but it is thought it may be a variant of or linked to 'creative', if not an original word for 'sun'.

As his cult arose in the Egyptian pantheon, Ra often replaces Atum as the father, grandfather and great-grandfather of the deities of the Ennead, and becomes the creator of the world. Ra then was seen to have created Sekhmet, who becomes Hathor, the cow goddess, after she has sufficiently punished mankind as an avenging Eye of Ra, and so he is often said to be the father of both and brother to the god, Osiris. Eventually, humans were supposedly created from Ra's tears or sweat, leading to the Egyptians calling themselves the "Cattle of Ra".

Egypt had a highly developed view of the afterlife with elaborate rituals for preparing the body and soul for an eternal life after death. Beliefs about the soul and afterlife focused heavily on preservation of the body. This was because they believed that the vitality or double, the ka, was still associated with the body after death and it was necessary for the ka to be reunited with the ba, the spirit or soul, to support the akh, hoped to ascend to the heavens and take its place among the stars.

This meant that embalming and mummification were practised, in order to preserve the individual's identity in the afterlife. Originally the dead were buried in shallow pits in the searing hot sand, at times wrapped in reed mats, which caused the remains to dry quickly, preventing decomposition. Later, they started constructing subterranean tombs with wood or sun-baked bricks, and a process of mummification was developed around the Fourth Dynasty, mostly for the benefit of the pharaohs and their relatives. Most inner organs were removed through an incision in the abdomen, while the brain was scooped out through a nostril after breaking the thin bone encasing it.

After removing the natron, the bodies were coated inside and out with resin to preserve them, then wrapped with linen bandages, embedded with religious amulets and talismans. In the case of royalty, the mummy was usually placed inside a series of nested coffins, the outermost of which was a stone sarcophagus.

The intestines, lungs, liver, and the stomach were preserved separately and stored in canopic jars protected by the four sons of Horus. The heart was left in place because it was thought to be the home of the soul. The standard length of the mummification process was seventy days.

If during the Old Kingdom embalmment was reserved for a selected few, it became available to wider sections of society as time went by. Animals were also mummified, sometimes thought to have been pets of Egyptian families, but more frequently or more likely, they were the representations of deities. The ibis, crocodile, cat, Nile perch, falcon, and baboon can be found in perfect mummified forms. During the Ptolemaic Period, animals were especially bred for the purpose.

The Book of the dead was a series of almost two hundred spells represented as sectional texts, songs, and pictures written on papyrus, individually customized for the deceased, which were buried along with the dead in order to ease their passage into the underworld. In some tombs, the Book of the dead has also been found painted on the walls, although the practice of painting on the tomb walls appears to predate the formalization of the Book of the Dead as a bound text.

One of the best examples of the Book of the Dead is The Papyrus of Ani, created around 1240 BC, which, in addition to the texts themselves, also contains many pictures of Ani and his wife on their journey through the land of the dead. After a person dies their soul is led into a hall of judgment in Duat by Anubis (god of mummification) and the deceased's heart, which was the record of the morality of the owner, is weighed against a single feather representing Ma'at (the concept of truth and order).

If the outcome is favorable, the deceased is taken to Osiris, god of the afterlife, in Aaru, but the demon Ammit (Eater of Hearts) - part crocodile, part lion, and part hippopotamus - destroys those hearts whom the verdict is against, leaving the owner to remain in Duat. A heart that weighed less than the feather was considered a pure heart, not weighed down by the guilt or sins of one's actions in life, resulting in a favorable verdict; a heart heavy with guilt and sin from one's life weighed more than the feather, and so the heart would be eaten by Ammit.

An individual without a heart in the afterlife in essence, did not exist as Egyptians believed the heart to be the center of reason and emotion as opposed to the brain which was removed and discarded during mummification. Many times a person would be buried with a "surrogate" heart to replace their own for the weighing of the heart ceremony.

A short interval of monotheism (Atenism) occurred under the reign of Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV), focused on the Egyptian sun deity Aten. The Aten is typically shown as a sun disk with rays coming out of all sides. Akhenaten built a new capital at Amarna with temples for the Aten. This was a symbolic act as Akhenaten wanted a place of worship for the Aten that was not tainted by the visage of other deities.

The religious change survived only until the death of Akhenaten, and the old religion was quickly restored during the reign of Tutankhamun, Akhenaten's son by his wife, Kiya. Tutankhamun and several other post-restoration pharaohs were erased from the history, because they were regarded as heretics.

John Tuthill, a professor at the University of Guam, believes that Akhenaten's reasons for religious reform were political. By the time of Akhenaten's reign, the god Amun had risen to such a high status that the priests of Amun had become even more wealthy and powerful than the pharaohs. However, it may be that Akhenaten was influenced by his family members, particularly his wife or mother (Dunham, 1963, p. 4; Mertz, 1966, p. 269).

There was a certain trend in Akhenaten's family toward sun-worship. Toward the end of the reign of Akhenaten's father, Amenhotep III, Aten was depicted increasingly often. Some historians have suggested that the same religious revolution would have happened even if Akhenaten had never become pharaoh at all.

This seems unlikely given the violent reaction that followed Akhenaten's death. Many details of Akhenaten's revolution remain a mystery. After the death of Akhenaten, his son, the famous Tutankhamun reinstated the polytheistic (pantheon) religion that was in place before the time of the Aten.

After the fall of the Amarna dynasty, the original Egyptian pantheon survived more or less as the dominant religion, until the establishment of Coptic Christianity and later Islam, even though the Egyptians continued to have relations with the other monotheistic cultures (e.g. Hebrews). Egyptian mythology put up surprisingly little resistance to the spread of Christianity, sometimes explained by claiming that Jesus was originally a syncretism based predominantly on Horus, with Isis and her worship becoming Mary and veneration.