The Origin of the World According to Egyptian Mythology

02/09/2021

     How was the Origin of the World According to Egyptian Mythology? It is always important to say that Ancient Egypt has several explanations for the Creation of the World... We will give you the main one, know.

The Creation Myths of Ancient Egypt:

     Ancient Egyptian creation myths are tales about the creation of the world. The Pyramid Texts, tomb wall decorations, and scriptures dating back to the Old Kingdom period (2780 - 2250 BC) are the greatest sources on the most ancient creation myths in Egypt. These myths are among the oldest compilations of religious writings in the world. The ancient Egyptians believed in many creator gods who had many legends. Thus, the creation of the world, or more precisely, of Egypt, is reported in several different ways according to certain regions.

     All these myths say that the world emerged from an infinite and lifeless ocean when the sun first rose in those ancient times known as zp tpj: "The first moment." Different myths attribute creation to different gods: the group of eight primordial gods called Ogdad, the self-begotten Atum and his descendants, the contemplative god Ptah, or the mysterious and transcendent god Anum. While these different cosmologies competed, they can be considered to be complementary, as they enunciated different aspects of the Egyptian understanding of Creation.

Where did all these creation myths come from?

     The different stories about the origin of things were associated, each one, with the cult of a particular god and with one of the great cities of Egypt: Hermopolis, Heliopolis, Memphis and Thebes. To some extent these myths and their advocates competed with each other, but they were also seen as complementary in representing different aspects of the creation process.

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The Main and Most Accepted Myth of Creation:

     In Heliopolis, Creation is attributed to Atum, a deity closely related to Ra who, as it was said, already had a potential to exist in the Waters of Nun as an inert being. Atum was a self-begotten god. He was the source of all the elements and forces in the world. The Heliopolitan myth described the process by which it evolved from a single being to a multiplicity of elements.

     The process began when Atum appeared on the mound and expelled into the air the god Shu and his sister Tephnis, whose existence represented the creation of an empty space in the Waters. To explain how Atum did this, the myth uses the metaphor of masturbation. The hand he used in the act would represent the feminine principle that existed in himself.

     Other versions say he sneezed and "pushed" Shu and Tephnis out of himself, metaphors that punned the names of the gods. After that, Shu and Tephnis copulated to produce the earth god Geb and the sky goddess Nut, which defined the boundaries of the world. Geb and Nut then had four children who represented the forces of life: Osiris, god of fertility and regeneration; Isis, goddess of motherhood; Seti, god of male sexuality; and Nephthys, the female complement of Set.

     The myth, therefore, represents the process by which life became possible. These nine gods were theologically grouped together as an Ennead, but the last eight gods and all other things in the universe were, in short, seen as extensions or emanations from Atum.

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