Some Egyptian gods existed in animal form; some in very weird animal/human combinations; and some largely in human appearance. It is important to remember that the Egyptian gods were not static; their characteristics and functions changed and developed over centuries.
The forms taken by the the Egyptian gods were much different than those of the Greeks. In both cases, these were very imaginative religious pantheons. Here is some information from my old lecture notes on Ancient Egypt for the History of Western Civilization I course (HIS 101) at Northern Virginia Community College.
- Religion dominated everything in Ancient Egypt--art, architecture, lit, philo, government
- In the beginning, each city had its own gods, then merged
- Countless gods who had human and animal qualities
- believed that gods manifested themselves in animal shapes, e.g., cats, crocodiles, bulls.
- also things like the sky, sun, moon
- Major ones
- re, or Ra, (or Amon)--sun god
- Osiris--river, death and resurrection
- his cult gradually grew in popularity, especially his idea of death and resurrection in middle kingdom
- Pharaoh too was considered a god
- Cult of the dead, eternity
- at first just applied to pharaoh, but then nobles got in on it and later the commoners too
- Believed in body and soul
- Ka
- shadow of the human being, spirit being
- it needed all the essentials of a live person, so they placed goods in the tomb until it decided to re-inhabit the body
- Ba
- the body of a hawk with a human head
- symbolized the eternal soul that visited places he loved during the day and then returned at night to guard body from evil spirits
- Egyptians thought if body decayed, the ka would cease to exist and ba would get lost among the many tombs
- so they evolved a very complicated process of mummification
- cut out organs, which they kept in canopic jars
- pickled you
- salted you
- tarred you
- wrapped you
- Book of Dead in Egyptian tombs was to help pharaohs find their way to the world of the dead
- legend said that at one time Osiris was a benevolent ruler, but he was killed by his brother Seth and cut into 14 pieces
- Isis, his wife and sister, retrieved the pieces from around Egypt, wound them up in bandages, put them together, preserved him and then breathed life into him
- after a brief reign, Osiris then moved to the underworld to judge the dead
- Horus avenged his father's death
- legend said that at one time Osiris was a benevolent ruler, but he was killed by his brother Seth and cut into 14 pieces
- later less naive concept
- Immortality to every good man.
- The dead were judged by Osiris.
- the his heart was weighed against a feather (the symbol of truth) and either a form of heaven or hell awaited him
- whoever passed went to realm of physical delights (marshes of lotus leaves)
- others destroyed (chewed up by some monster)
- The Amarna Revolution, 1375-25 BCE
- not just modern vs conservative, but also pharaoh vs. priests
- Amenhotep 4 (1364-50) challenged the power of the priests
- after a period of time when religion debased into nothing more than magical charms, he wanted to crush old system
- suggested only one god, the sun disk "aten"
- "universal cherishing of all living things in all countries"
- no human or physical shape
- the creator of all
- "truth" was part of the revolution
- took name akh-en-aten, which means "Aten is satisfied"
- built new capital, El-Amarna
- married his sister Nefer-iti (6 daughters)
- champion of the new in religion, art, lit,
- a 1 man revolution
- did not last because not accessible at large, and there were still at least two gods (pharaoh was one)
- *****his successor was king Tut, who went back to old ways*****