Geb And Nut: The Role Of The Gods In Ancient Egypt

Egyptians would bury their dead with treasures like gold and other things that they believed that they could use in the afterlife. Egyptians also mummified the people so that they could preserve their bodies. Nowadays people just have a funeral or cremate the

Nearly everything could be represented by a god or goddess. Death and the afterlife was represented by Osiris. Aten and Ra were sun gods. The Egyptians felt that they needed to pray and build temples for these gods and goddesses to stay in their favor. These gods were believed to control everything, and if the Egyptians pleased them they would be rewarded. They worshipped their gods by making offerings. They would leave flowers and food in temples to show their respect. Commoners were not often allowed in temples. Priests had plenty of power because the gods were often feared. Most Egyptians did not actually love the gods, but feared their wrath. Commoners could occasionally attend ceremonies. At these ceremonies animals were often sacrificed.

The Egyptians believed that “if they were righteous, could expect a happy existence in the life after death” (15). Their idea of the underworld consisted of “lavish and well-equipped tombs,” providing all needs (20). However, not all Egyptians had these grand tombs, “but all had the hope of continuing to be after death” (20). Elaborate funeral rituals were held for the deceased for judgment by the gods. A series of sacred texts known as the Book of the Dead held the funeral rites, which was intended as a “manual of spells, incantations, and declarations” that would ease passage through the underworld and the afterlife (21). In the ritual, each spirit had to approach the Hall of Two Truths where the gods challenged the dead’s virtues, while they (the dead) proclaimed the sins they did not commit. Once satisfying all gods, the spirit was ready for final ritual, presenting

They would bury their loved ones in the ground, pray for their journey to the afterlife, and move along with their day. However, as time went on the rich became unsatisfied. They wanted their life after death to be as great as there life on Earth. So, they came up with the ideas of tombs. This small idea eventually expanded to the burial of Pharaohs in the pyramids. Some Pharaohs also requested that all their slaves be put to death along with them, so that they can be of use to them in the afterlife. Along with riches, foods, and servants these kings would be prepped and shined for the burial process. All of this prayer and sacrifice would, in hopes, lead to a successful afterlife. The significance displayed in these burials is the repeating theme of human life. The selfishness displayed in killing all of ones servants just so that they continue serving him in the afterlife is pure

Once you got there you would face judgment. How you got judged would decide where you went to the Underworld. This process was what all Greeks believed about death. Now you might be wondering why did they believe this, and that leads me to my next topic.

Origin is a fundamental aspect of religion. Every early society needed deities to explain all kinds of phenomena including the weather, fertility, food, etc. The Ancient Egyptians needed to explain different aspects of their lives and for everything that needed to be explained, they could create a god for it. Ancient Egyptian religion was a polytheistic religion that worshiped as many as 2000 gods and goddesses. Some, such as Amun, were worshipped throughout the whole country, while others had only a local following. Often gods and goddesses were represented as part human and part animal. Some gods and goddesses took part in creation, some brought the flood every year, some offered protection, and some took care of people after they died. Others were either local gods who represented towns, or minor gods

As humans we understand that unfortunately part of life, is indeed death. We have one chance on this Earth to find meaning and to fulfill our wishes and desires. With that being said each and every person chooses to deal with death in different ways. In chapter three one of the most interesting topics we learned and discussed about was how the Chinese culture dealt with the passing of their loved ones in ancient times. The Chinese held the belief that their ancestors went to a place like heaven and once they reached that destination their ancestors became mediators between heaven and Earth. For this reason the Chinese made graves for their loved ones in which they would often bring food and wine as offerings and they even went as far into making sacrifices for their ancestors.

the ocean. Ra created four children: the gods Shu and Geb and the goddesses Tefnut and Nut. Shu and Tefnut were the atmosphere. Geb was the earth and Nut was the sky. Ra was the King of the gods. Geb and Nut eventually created two sons, Set and Osiris, and two daughters, Isis and Nephthys. Osiris later on takes the throne from Ra, with the help of Isis, his sister wife. Set killed his brother Osiris out of pure hatred. Isis and Anubis, the son of Set, preserved Osiris’s body. Anubis

The people of ancient Egypt prepared for the afterlife by having their name written down on somewhere, anywhere. They would also have to have a good, caring, hard working life. Finally in order to be prepared they would need to be mummified. Their preserved body would be used so that their Ba and Ka (the two halves of your soul) could find their way back to their tomb. If the Ba and ka got lost you would no longer be able to Land of two

In Ancient Egypt death was long process, it could take up to ten days to bury someone. Egyptians were very infatuated with the concept of death and what would happen after death. The Egyptians thought they had the answers behind the mystery of death, as they believed the afterlife as a long and hazardous

In this tradition, people would be mummified after death. Once this threshold had been crossed, a person's spirit or ba could be manifested in many places at once. After judgment, which could be cheated with magic, a person's ba could travel with Ra or rest with Osiris in the underworld (Egyptian 119). There were many different dangers to the dead and having a complete body with which to return to for rest was very important for the Egyptians. Human remains were not the objects of reverence and worship as Christian saints are these days.

Myth has it that Nut and Geb were inseparable which left no room for creation by Atum Ra, the creator god Atum Ra and Shu, who was jealous of the closeness between Nut and Geb, also did not want them to have children. Shu separated them by lifting Nut up she continued to form sky while Geb remained beneath her Myth featuring Ra,Nut is referred

Once the body was prepared, a spiritual ceremony where death rites are made by priests over a dead body began. People of higher social status could have a their death rites read for a week while most working class people had a fairly quick funeral. The body would then be buried near their family home. They were buried as it makes the journey to the underworld easier for them. The grave of the dead was near the family

After the souls of the deceased person reaches the Hall of Final Judgement they would have to plead their innocence to 42 divine Judges of any wrongdoing in their life. They are given the Book of the Dead which provided them with the correct words for each of the Judges, ensuring that they would pass this part of the Judgement process even if they

As the Wikipedia article "The Book of the Dead" mentions, The Book of the Dead consists of a loose collection of funerary text from Ancient Egypt containing magic spells supposed to aid the deceased in his journey to the afterlife (2016). The Egyptians maintained the soul makes a journey through the underworld, called Duat, into the afterlife (2016). The souls weighed on a pair of scales against Maat, the goddess of truth and justice, often represented by a feather (2016). If out of balance with Maat, the devourer, Ammit, ate the heart. If the scales balanced with Maat, the deceased, then vindicated, had secured his afterlife (2016).