In the beginning was Atum, the sun. He had created himself by leaving the great primordial ocean, the Noun. Then Atoum created Chou, divinity of breath and Tefnut, divinity of humidity. Chou separated the sky and the earth. Thus was born Nut, goddess of the sky and Geb, god of the earth.
Nut and Geb had two sons, Osiris and Seth, and two daughters, Isis and Nephtys. Osiris was the first pharaoh and reigned with his wife Isis in peace and Wisdom. Seth, jealous, murdered his brother Osiris. Isis resuscitated her husband and conceived a child, Horus; Horus avenged his father by causing Seth to duel. After defeating him, he reigned on earth. Osiris withdrew into darkness and became sovereign of the kingdom of the dead.
The invisible world of the gods is the replica of the terrestrial world. Through pharaoh, their heir and their representative on earth, the deities guarantee universal harmony. It is life and not death which is the ultimate reason. of the Egyptian religion. From the origin, the Egyptians have the feeling of a divine and cosmic unity, dominated by “the great god”, that it is called, Atoum, the creator, Ra and Amon, the solar god. The god is the personification of life, of universal energy and like it, he is multiform. In a world where we fear that chaos will upset the universal order, divine action plays the role of guardrail supreme. Its mission is to safeguard life, and the supremacy of the forces of good, to take care to maintain the original balance, that of the cosmos, nature, and humanity.
The pharaoh’s people reproduce infinitely the representations of the omnipresent God. Considered as “the one” and “the multiple”, it is worshiped under different aspects according to the cities and the regions. The gods of Egypt intervene on all the natural events, and form part of the daily newspaper of the men. The divinities are responsible for the beneficial flood of the Nile, good or bad harvests, the most diverse diseases and pests.
It is thanks to their intervention that the Sun and the Light rotate in their orbit, that the cycle of the seasons repeats itself unchangingly. All the gods are part of nature and are deeply rooted in their terroirs. They are the colloquially honored lords. The worship system allows each Egyptian to go to the nearest shrine, and to speak in privacy, to their local god. The gods of ancient Egypt appear in a mixed form: characters with animal heads, or animals with human heads.The human form of the gods, makes them accessible, closer to men and more open to their daily concerns, their animal form is the metaphor for their function.
