Ancient Egyptian Religion - Research Paper Example

? Ancient Egyptian Religion Introduction Most of the people know Egypt due to one of the wonders of the world “pyramids”. It is better to know about the roots of religion Egypt possess in ancient times. This religion affected social and moral lives of Egyptian people. More convenient to say, the whole civilization Egypt was based on religious concepts people had in ancient times. While studying ancient religion of Egypt it is clearly understood that most of the concepts of that religion was due to the people’s observation of environment surrounding. The basis of the religion was based on the concepts like attraction and worship of sunlight, satisfaction gained by changing tones of the nature (Watson). Agriculture due to changes in flow of river Nile was also in the core concepts of the ancient religion of Egypt. Every aspect of Egyptian culture like laws, medicine, arts and crafts carried a clear image of religious concepts. Another concept greatly raised during those days of Egypt was concept of gods. It is very difficult to differentiate between gods worshipped by Egyptians. There was a time when Egyptians worshipped 2000 gods. Gods of Ancient Egypt Gods worshipped by ancient Egyptians were evolved and diminished with time. These gods had some individual properties and they also used to fight one another to get hold of the powers possessed by each other. One God was used to split into multiple forms of gods at a time like Amun-em-Opet, Amun-Ka-Mutef, and Amun of Ipet-swt (Teeter, E., & Brewer, 2004). Every God had a specific role to play for the people used to worship them. Gods were in human form, they were used to born and die after a certain age and some of them had rebirth. They were like human males and females and families. One of the common such case is Amun, his wife Mut and their child Khonsu. Ancient Egyptian civilization was over the era of 3000 years. Creation of World Egyptians used to have different concepts regarding creation of the world. According to one of the beliefs the whole world was a part of a big dark ocean. Suddenly a large portion of land appeared with reappearance of Sun god. Sun as a god is of great importance in ancient Egyptian religion as it created all things. This Sun god had many versions one of them is the emerging of Sun god from a large piece of mud. This concept was believed by most of ancient Egyptians. One of the great evolutions the ancient Egyptian civilization gave to mankind was place of worship to gods (Brown, 2007). Temples were considered as sacred places where Gods should be worshiped by the people. There was a time in ancient Egypt when every city had its own god and its own temple for the worship of that god. These were the places where communications with those gods was supposed to happen. Priest was an essential part of society. Priest was responsible for taking care of god and fulfilling the needs of god. Also these priests used to advise people for their problems. One example that needs to be mentioned for such case was ancient Egyptians thought Nile as a god. Each ever a virgin girl was sacrificed to keep god Nile happy by drowning her in river Nile. In return Nile irrigated crops of the people. Concept of Life and Death. Ancient Egyptians having unique civilization also had a unique concept of life. They believe in life after death and considered life as a preparation period for the life after death. Many civil laws of ancient Egypt were based on this concept of life. It is amazing to note that in present day modern world this concept of life after death is adapted or believed by followers of major religions of the world (Parsons, 2011). Ancient Egyptians considered death as a transfer to life after death. This concept of death is an important part in the funerals that took place at that time. The body was preserved for the next life with help of “Natron” and placed in a coffin. These bodies are now known as mummies. After 70 days the final ritual performed on the mummy was “opening of mouth”. It was indication that body would be prepared to eat and drink as well. These mummies were buried with jewels. Many mummies are recovered during digging of ancient Egypt. It is amazing to know that process of body preservation was accurate to the extent that even after hundreds of years these mummies are recovered in then preserved form. The process of body preservation of modern world is not up to that quality even in these days medical advancement. Era of Pharaohs Era of Pharohs is an important part of Ancient Egyptian history. Family mostly known by Their tombs “pyramid” to modern world. Family of Pharohs established a strong state of Egypt which they ruled. As ancient Egyptians religion is based on environment surrounding them. These Pharohs were worshipped by most people of Egypt. Pharaohs also considered themselves as family gods made to rule people. Pharaohs were actually warlords gaining power with passage of time. These warlords so called gods provided protection to people and saw to their needs. Egyptians start thinking that the god name as Pharaoh had support of all other gods. Gradually all other gods vanished expect Pharaoh and his family. Pharaoh became center of Egyptian civilization. Pharaoh led religious rituals performed to withhold Egypt (Bucaille, 1990). Pharaoh was not only the god-king of Egypt but also responsible for order of the land. Pharaoh was soon thought to be divine god-king having support and power of all other gods. This idea of divinity gave Egypt centralization. Once a Pharaoh died this centralizations also got to be thrown away and chaos in country continued until a new god-king Pharaoh took place as a ruler. Role of Women Egyptian civilization was a man dominant civilization yet women had an integral part in the civilization of ancient Egypt. In addition to household and domestic many women of reputed families also used to participate in religious rituals performed at temple. The greatest rank a woman can get in ancient Egyptian civilization was the role of God’s wife. Almost all of the art and documents recovered from ancient civilization there is a clear indication of Women as top ranked religious leaders. They served as God’s wife for most of the period. An example of such role is as Kamak became king of Upper Egypt daughter of High priest filled the role of God’s wives. Also they craved their names in ruling history of the world. Hundreds of non-royal women also served as priest. In the era of old kingdom women are also considered as prophets or goddess. In addition women also had careers and jobs outside the temple. Era of middle kingdom also gives clear indication of women as priest in religious society of Egypt. Their duty was to sing and play for god-king. There are traces of women serving as financial advisors, estates and security of their goddess. It gives a clear indication that even in that era of negligence as man was worshiping thousands of gods at a time, yet women had played integral role in stabilizing of society and served as important personalities of establishment. As there are many civilizations vanished from the face of the earth Egyptian civilization also blown away. World only knows about ancient Egyptian civilization as myth yet this civilization has given this world a golden era. Concepts like formation of a strong centralized state and places to worship are given by this civilization to the modern world. References Brown, N. J. (1997). The rule of law in the Arab world: courts in Egypt and the Gulf (Vol. 6). Cambridge University Press. Bucaille, M. (1990). Mummies of the pharaohs: modern medical investigations. St. Martin's Press. Inc.. Watson, J. (n.d.). An Overview of Ancient Egyptian Religion. Retrieved from http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/religion.htm Teeter, E., & Brewer, D. J. (2004). Religion in the Lives of the Ancient Egyptians. Retrieved from http://fathom.lib.uchicago.edu/1/777777190168/ Parsons, M (2011). Egypt: Women in Religion in the Old-New Kingdoms, Part I, A Feature Tour Egypt Story. Retrieved from http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/women1.htm Read More