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represented the sun. Annubis, with his jackal head, watched over graves and tombs and
guarded the entrance to the other world (often depicted as a field of reeds, looking out over
rich fields of grain, a happy place presided over by Osiris, king of the dead). Horus, the
now and future king, was the far-seeing falcon, forever scanning the horizon for enemies of
his kingdom, including the forces of disorder, the chaos that his father Osiris had banished
from Egypt and which Horus had also pushed away from human affairs by overpowering
the evil Seth. Isis had become Hathor, the cow-goddess of nurturing and fertility, and Osiris
merged with Ra, god of the sun, whose daily rebirth gives promise of immortality and re-
surrection. Toth, the god of wisdom and learning, appears as the sacred Ibis (sometimes as
a baboon), while the female hippopotamus signifies fertility and is guardian god of preg-
nant women. Dozens, if not hundreds, of gods populated the Egyptian pantheon. Even the
lowly beetle, the sacred scarab beetle, has a place in the roster of gods: out of beetle eggs,
rolled across the desert in a casing of dung, new life emerges, thus reaffirming the miracu-
lous cycle of life and death.
Egypt's plenitude of gods reflects the continuity of Egyptian history: a language-shar-
ing people (the language of Egypt became Arabic in the seventh century, reflecting con-
quest by the Muslims) bound together for more than 5,000 years by a slowly changing
kingship, along with slow changes in other aspects of a common culture—arts, technology,
agriculture, and theology. Egypt was and is a geographic entity defined by the Nile: a nar-
row strip of fertile land on either side of the river, stretching now as in the past about 4,000
miles south to north, with desert and death to the east and west where river water does not
flow. The desert was always to be feared. With no fixed human settlement, it was a continu-
ation of the disorder, the chaos that Osiris had banished from the Nile's banks. The western
desert was a metaphor for death, the place where the sun went down every night.
WHAT ROLE DID THE GODS PLAY IN EGYPTIAN LIFE?
The gods of Egypt did more than preside over various corners of the cosmos. They were
active in the service and disservice of the human realm. Accordingly, they required atten-
tion and supplication. Local gods might be venerated directly by common folk (such as
barren women seeking to conceive), while national gods required kingly prayers to protect
the kingdom from invaders or to ensure that the Nile would rise high in the yearly rain.
Gods must be prayed to; the more important the god, the greater his or her temple, and the
greater the number of priests in attendance.
The gods were cloaked in mystery. Religion was not congregational. Only priests and
occasionally high nobles could enter the temple. Ordinary Egyptians remained outside the
temple gates and walls. On certain days devoted to the god, priests, or only the high priest,
would break the seal of the temple doors. The god's statue would be washed, anointed, and
prayed to. Flowers and food would be laid before the god.
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