page_title: Ancient Egyptian religion
section_title: Mythology
hierarchical_section_title: Ancient Egyptian religion / Writings / Mythology
caption_attribution_description: English: Ra traveling through the underworld in his barque, from the copy of the Book of Gates in the tomb of Ramses I (KV16).
context_page_description: Ancient Egyptian religion was a complex system of polytheistic beliefs and rituals that formed an integral part of ancient Egyptian society. It centered on the Egyptians' interactions with many deities believed to be present in, and in control of, the world. Rituals such as prayer and offerings were provided to the gods to gain their favor. Formal religious practice centered on the pharaohs, the rulers of Egypt, believed to possess divine powers by virtue of their positions. They acted as intermediaries between their people and the gods, and were obligated to sustain the gods through rituals and offerings so that they could maintain Ma'at, the order of the cosmos, and repel Isfet, which was chaos. The state dedicated enormous resources to religious rituals and to the construction of temples.
  Individuals could interact with the gods for their own purposes, appealing for help through prayer or compelling the gods to act through magic. These practices were distinct from, but closely linked with, the formal rituals and institutions. The popular religious tradition grew more prominent over the course of Egyptian history as the status of the pharaoh declined.
context_section_description: Egyptian myths were metaphorical stories intended to illustrate and explain the gods' actions and roles in nature. The details of the events they recounted could change to convey different symbolic perspectives on the mysterious divine events they described, so many myths exist in different and conflicting versions.  Mythical narratives were rarely written in full, and more often texts only contain episodes from or allusions to a larger myth.  Knowledge of Egyptian mythology, therefore, is derived mostly from hymns that detail the roles of specific deities, from ritual and magical texts which describe actions related to mythic events, and from funerary texts which mention the roles of many deities in the afterlife. Some information is also provided by allusions in secular texts.  Finally, Greeks and Romans such as Plutarch recorded some of the extant myths late in Egyptian history.
  Among the significant Egyptian myths were the creation myths. According to these stories, the world emerged as a dry space in the primordial ocean of chaos.  Because the sun is essential to life on earth, the first rising of Ra marked the moment of this emergence. Different forms of the myth describe the process of creation in various ways: a transformation of the primordial god Atum into the elements that form the world, as the creative speech of the intellectual god Ptah, and as an act of the hidden power of Amun.  Regardless of these variations, the act of creation represented the initial establishment of maat and the pattern for the subsequent cycles of time.
  The most important of all Egyptian myths was the Osiris myth.  It tells of the divine ruler Osiris, who was murdered by his jealous brother Set, a god often associated with chaos.  Osiris's sister and wife Isis resurrected him so that he could conceive an heir, Horus.  Osiris then entered the underworld and became the ruler of the dead.  Once grown, Horus fought and defeated Set to become king himself.  Set's association with chaos, and the identification of Osiris and Horus as the rightful rulers, provided a rationale for Pharaonic succession and portrayed the Pharaohs as the upholders of order.  At the same time, Osiris's death and rebirth were related to the Egyptian agricultural cycle, in which crops grew in the wake of the Nile inundation, and provided a template for the resurrection of human souls after death.
  Another important mythic motif was the journey of Ra through the Duat each night. In the course of this journey, Ra met with Osiris, who again acted as an agent of regeneration, so that his life was renewed. He also fought each night with Apep, a serpentine god representing chaos. The defeat of Apep and the meeting with Osiris ensured the rising of the sun the next morning, an event that represented rebirth and the victory of order over chaos.
caption: Ra (at center) travels through the underworld in his barque, accompanied by other gods[41]
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