title: Egyptian Religion under the Influence of Syro-Palestinian deities in the New Kingdom
Creators: name: Tazawa, Keiko
Publisher: name: University of Liverpool Repository
Year: 2023

description: This thesis takes a hermeneutic approach in examining how six Syro-Palestinian deities Baal, Reshef, Hauron, Anat, Astarte and Qadesh - were worshipped and integrated into Egyptian religion, predominantly from the New Kingdom onwards. Chapter I introduces general observations about Syro-Palestinian deities venerated in New Kingdom Egypt with a history of previous research on this topic, as well as explanation of sources and methodology applied in this research: comparative studies and the 'translative adaptation' theory. Chapter 2 consists of three sections discussing the six Syro-Palestinian deities in their Egyptian contexts. Section 1 presents the iconographical and textual materials showing these six deities in Egyptian contexts. The analyses on each deity are further synthesised in succeeding sections. In Section 2, an iconographical approach is conducted, and Section 3 demonstrates the result of a conceptual approach to these six deities in New Kingdom Egypt. Needless to say, these tasks require us to make comparisons with the way of existence of these six deities in Syria-Palestine in order to evaluate them in Egypt. Chapter 3 focuses on these six deities in selected Egyptian royal contexts during the New Kingdom. The investigation concludes that the six Syro-Palestinian deities are employed by Egyptian kings not necessarily just as war-gods and warrior goddesses, although this view has been central to previous interpretation of them. They are also involved in royal ideological and theological discourses in order to claim and sustain Egyptian royal dignity. The political and religious circumstances at the time would probably be reflected in the appearance of the six Syro-Palestinian deities in New Kingdom Egypt. In another sphere, it is demonstrated in Chapter 4 that these six Syro-Palestinian deities are also revered with Egyptian styles ofworship among ordinary people in the New Kingdom. Chapter 5 illustrates the fact that the six Syro-Palestinian deities are interpreted and integrated into the Egyptian indigenous pantheon by 'translation' of their attributes into those of Egyptian deities, and in some cases, with the assistance ofHorus and Hathor playing the role ofmediators. Consequently Chapter 6 concludes that it is possible to interpret the six Syro-Palestinian deities in New Kingdom Egypt by a hermeneutic approach with the employment of two anthropological theories. It is attested that the 'tributary relationship' exists between Egyptian kings and five Syro-Palestinian deities (except for Qadesh) as well as between the kings and Egyptian indigenous deities. This can be expanded to the relationship between ordinary people and the six deities. Also, it is very clear that the six Syro-Palestinian deities are integrated into the Egyptian religious framework by 'translative adaptation'. Furthermore, it can be assumed that the six Syro-Palestinian deities in question may have been singled out for theoretical accordance with the Egyptian cosmos: the Heliopolitan theology and Osirian myth.