Egyptian Animals Research Paper

Ancient Egypt is the origin to one of the most intricate belief systems in the world. This polytheistic religion was composed of various beliefs and rituals. Polytheistic means that they believed in many deities. All of which were linked to the common theme of immortality. Religion laid the foundation for all aspects of Egyptian lives, political structure, cultural achievement and art. Their religion consisted of up 2000 gods and goddess. Only some were worshiped universally throughout Egypt. They were often represented as being half human and half animal. As an example, the Egyptian god Anubis was half man and half jackal. He is associated with mummification and the afterlife in Egyptian mythology. Egyptian religion was oriented toward people 's’ attainment of immortality signified by mummification/preservation of the dead.

The practice religion and the worship of gods and goddesses had a significant role on everyday life in Ancient Egypt. Anubis was a god who had a jackal head but was a human. He also wore a green shirt and a brown and white skirt. He also wore a gold scarf. Anubis’s responsibilities were, he helped to embalm Osiris after he was killed by Seth. Also, he watched over the process of mummifying people where they died. People would pray to Anubis because, Anubis helped with really important things. Like, he sent people to heaven. That’s the best thing people want. To go to heaven peacefully. Which is what Anubis did. Religion was important to ancient egyptian’s because, everybody wanted to go to heaven peacefully. Which again, is what Anubis did

Herodotus talks a lot about the animals that the Egyptians see as sacred and those that are

BC) reign of Egypt. Ancient Egyptians built many shrines of their gods, some were more popular than others, so their temples were much larger. Pharaohs were believed to be gods in human form, and when they died they become gods in the afterlife. Only priest and pharaohs were allowed into temples because gods dwelled in these temples, and no common folk were allowed to enter. Almost every ancient Egyptian citizen had some sort of shrine in their home to pray to their favored god or goddess. There was also a family tree to show how all the many gods were related to each other. Certain animals were

Egyptians needed a way to understand the phenomenon of the sun due to their lack of scientific knowledge. They tended to use animals to describe certain characteristics of a god. This was especially the case with the ones they cannot see. “Thebes celebrated a different major god—Amun, the “Hidden One”—with powers so great he could not be visualized, yet because he had to be represented in some way in order to pay him homage, he was depicted as a man with a tall ostrich plume crown.” (Brier, Pg. 36).

Religion plays enormous role in the past and the present. It had shaped our laws, social norms, and purpose. Religion gives its people hope and understanding of many things that are unknown and a mystery. It provides security to its people. Religion has many roles which branch off due to the many different religions observed in the world. In ancient Egyptian literature, deities were important and mention a lot. The Egyptians worshiped and followed many gods and other sacred beings, which had diverse roles in its society. The functions of Egyptian deities provided understanding of the mysteries of world, accountability of life events, and control in society.

Egypt is located on the northeast corner of Africa. Egyptians are the population who lived in Egypt. They created an advanced civilization, with cutting-edge systems such as medicine, writing, farming and irrigation.

Illness is in no way a new thing, if you had happened to to sick at the time of ancient egyptians there probably was a treatment for it. However in ancient egypt, the medicine that we think of now was not the preferred way in treating diseases. The egyptians had a leg on on the other societies of the ancient world. This mostly relates to their embalming process where they religiously practiced removing and preserving human remains. The ancient egyptians believed that in order for a soul to travel to the afterlife the body must be preserved.Through the embalming process, egyptians had gained great knowledge of anatomy, dissection and preservation. The entire mummification process took multiple skilled prist and roughly 70 days to complete.

Ancient Egyptian religion was very different than most others. Ancient Egyptians were Polytheistic and they had over 4,000 gods that they worshipped. The most common gods that were worshipped were the Sun god, Re (The Sun god has many other names as well.) and Osiris, the god of the dead and ruler of the underworld. They believed that Re sailed across the sky in a boat.

The Egyptians seemed to look into nature for spiritual inspiration which affected their eating habits. This is shown in chapter four “history” when it said that “Egyptians never ate the heads of any animal”. I feel that the reasoning behind not eating these animal heads was because of the fact that the Egyptian gods all had heads of animals. They Egyptians gods most likely had these because the fact that the heads were of animals that ate because they helped sustain their actual lives physically. Therefore, they may have inferred that these same animals in some way helped nourish them spiritually. So, keeping that in mind it seems that they may have believed that eating something that would affect their spiritual lives, they made it a rule to avoid eating these heads of their gods like a taboo. I believe that Egyptians mixed religion with food not because food was nourishing and life sustaining, but because the Egyptians looked towards nature for inspiration and answers to questions of how the world works. Therefore, it is logical to believe that the Egyptians thought that some animals were sacred such as female calves and somewhere undesirable such as

Ancient Egyptians considered cats to be sacred. Killing a cat, even by accident could be punishable by death. About 60 BC, Greek historian, Diodorus Siculus, witnessed a Roman accidentally kill an Egyptian cat. An outraged mob gathered and killed the Roman despite pleas from their pharaoh. The Greek historian Herodotus wrote that in the event of a fire, men would guard the fire to make certain that no cats ran into the flame. Herodotus also wrote that when a cat died, the household would go into mourning as if for a human relative, and would often shave their eyebrows to signify their loss. The practice of mummification was extended to cats because of the deep respect the Egyptians had for them.

The ancient Egyptians are known for many of the incredible aspects of their culture and everything they have produced. Some of the well known ancient Egyptian relics are the ones like the ancient pyramids, the Great Sphinx of Giza, mummies, and their many forms of art. Ancient Egyptian art is one of the most recognized styles of art. The most commonly known types of ancient Egyptian art are types like paintings, ceramics, and sculptures. Not only is Egyptian art beautiful, but it carries a huge deal of value and significance with it. A great portion of the time, the art has some kind of religious meaning to it. Consequently it is very difficult to discuss the art itself without delving into the various gods and goddesses presented in it.

Did you know that there were over 2,000 gods and goddesses in Ancient Egypt? Some gods had the body of a human and the head of an animal. When I read that, I was shocked! I would’ve never guessed that there would be so many gods in Egypt. In addition, I found the idea of an animal head stuck to a human body disgusting! I just didn’t believe this, so I decided to find out for myself.

The ancient Egyptians were very religious minded. Gods and goddesses were part of everyday life of ancient Egyptians. They had gods and goddesses who they had persistent faith. Religious practices of ancient Egypt were linked to movements of holy bodies such as constellations, the sun, the moon, and the planets. Some of the most respected idols of ancient Egyptians are Osiris and Isis. Now, Egypt's population mainly consists of Sunni Muslims and Coptic Christians. People of both religions moderately follow their religious practices. Religious principles are quite noticeable in their daily lives.

The ancient Egyptian people were very religious. Their religion was very important to them; they worshiped their gods, and they glorified them. Their kings or pharaohs were also believed to be gods. The burial of their kings was a very important aspect for Egyptian life, and their belief in afterlife. This belief led to the construction of elaborate funerary architecture. These royal tomb structures were first known as mastabas,