Ancient Egyptian religion

Ancient Egyptian religion was a complex system of polytheistic beliefs and rituals that formed an integral part of ancient Egyptian culture. It centered on the Egyptians' interactions with many deities believed to be present and in control of the world. About 1500 deities are known. Rituals such as prayer and offerings were provided to the gods to gain their favor. Formal religious practice centered on the pharaohs, the rulers of Egypt, believed to possess divine powers by virtue of their positions. They acted as intermediaries between their people and the gods, and were obligated to sustain the gods through rituals and offerings so that they could maintain Ma'at, the order of the cosmos, and repel Isfet, which was chaos. The state dedicated enormous resources to religious rituals and to the construction of temples.

Quotes

• Nor is Osiris seen
  In Memphian Grove, or Green,
    Trampling the unshowr’d Grasse with lowings loud:
  Nor can he be at rest
  Within his sacred chest,
    Naught but profoundest Hell can be his shroud,
  In vain with Timbrel’d Anthems dark
  The sable-stolèd Sorcerers bear his worshipt Ark.
  • John Milton, "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity", Poems (1645)

• [...] After these appear’d
  A crew who under Names of old Renown,
  Osiris, Isis, Orus and their Train
  With monstrous shapes and sorceries abus’d
  Fanatic Egypt and her Priests, to seek
  Thir wandring Gods disguis’d in brutish forms
  Rather then human. [...]
  • John Milton Paradise Lost, Book I

• O tell me, were you standing by when Isis to Osiris knelt?
  • Oscar Wilde, "The Sphinx" (1894)

• Pomp of Egypt’s elder day,
  Shade of the mighty passed away,
  Whose giant works still frown sublime
  Mid the twilight shades of Time;
  Fanes, of sculpture vast and rude,
  That strew the sandy solitude,
  Lo! before our startled eyes,
  As at a wizard’s wand, ye rise,
  Glimmering larger through the gloom!
  While on the secrets of the tomb,
  Rapt in other times, we gaze,
  The Mother Queen of ancient days,
  Her mystic symbol in her hand,
  Great Isis, seems herself to stand.
  From mazy vaults, high-arched and dim,
  Hark! heard ye not Osiris’ hymn?
  And saw ye not in order dread
  The long procession of the dead?
  • William Lisle Bowles, "The Egyptian Tomb", Poetical Works, II (1855)

• You died, believing in Horus and Pasht,
    Isis, Osiris, and priestly lore;
  And found, of course, such theories smash’d
    By actual fact on the heavenly shore.
  • Sir Edwin Arnold, "To a Pair of Egyptian Slippers", Potiphar's Wife and Other Poems (1895)

See also

• Atenism