Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Traditional festivals - Religion in ancient Egypt

Religion in ancient Egypt

The religion of ancient Egypt is an ancient religion in the primitive period of mankind. It is characterized by grotesque animal gods, human and animal heads, humanoid gods, two or three hundred gods and idols worshipped by local gods. The towering pyramids, mysterious tombs, colorful murals and buried mummies in ancient Egypt ... all these cultural relics are closely related to religious beliefs.

The Nile was an objective condition for the survival of ancient Egyptians. Every day, the ancient Egyptians saw the sun rising from Hedong and "entering the ground" in Hexi. They also saw various animals chasing or playing with each other on the shore and in the river. They don't understand why the sun rises and sets, why the Nile overflows and why there are so many animals. They imagine that the sun, the moon, lions, cows, sheep, cats, snakes, crocodiles … even dung beetles are all gods. Every day, with the rising of the sun, black dung beetles come out of the ground, crawl around in animal feces, roll dung balls and hatch small dung beetles. The ancient Egyptians thought it was a god of creation, a symbol of resurrection and eternal life, and a talisman to protect people from evil. They returned to daydreaming, thinking that the world was in chaos and heaven and earth could not be separated. One day, a lotus rose from the water with a red sun, and so did Ran Ran. The sun god "pulled out", the world was separated, and the earth was spring. Once, I cried, and my tears suddenly became a living person. Humans were born.

In tribal society, every region and every tribe has its own living environment. Therefore, each tribe has its own worship of animal and plant gods, which is bizarre and varied. This is the initial totem worship of mankind.

With the birth of the country and the unification of the north and the south, the ancient Egyptians enhanced their self-awareness, and various animal gods gradually evolved into various individual animal gods and humanized humanoid gods. Religion began to combine with politics, and Pharaoh was regarded as the incarnation of God and ruled the country on behalf of God's will. Religion has become a tool for rulers.

Sun La Shen.

The sun god pulls, with many shapes, and sometimes pushes the scarab in sun gear (that is, dung beetles); Sometimes it is sun gear overhead, with five shackles in his left hand and "An He" (the key to life) in his right hand. La God is the god of heaven and earth, in charge of all things in the universe. It is busy patrolling every day, taking boats in the sky during the day and in the underworld at night. From the fourth dynasty, it became the national god of Egypt.

Eamon

Amon, humanoid, wearing a leather crown with two long feathers on it and holding a scepter. It was originally an air god, and was later honored as the first creator god. Since the eleventh dynasty, it has been called the national god. In the then capital Thebes (now Luxor), the Karnak Temple was established as the center of its worship. From then on, it became one with La God and was named Meng Yi La God.

Legend of Osiris

There is a story about God. The most popular, touching and human stories in mythology are those of Osiris, Izz and Horace. (Ancient Egyptians' view of the afterlife: mummies)

Many gods in ancient Egypt not only spread widely in Egypt, but also spread to European countries such as Greece, such as Osiris and Ezekiel. In Christian legend, the prototype of the Virgin Mary holding the baby Jesus is the image of Izz holding the baby Horace. Imhotep, the prime minister of the third king of Egypt, King Sayre, was the designer of the "stepped pyramid". From the above situation, we can see the influence of ancient Egyptian culture on European culture and Christianity.