r/EgyptianMythology

I don't mean that in the same way as Zeus, Jupiter, Odin, or Anu/Enlil.

I mean that in the sense of like Vishnu, Shiva, or Mahavedi.

An almost all-powerful being that controlled every faced of existence.

To start off with, Egyptians had the concept of Nebertcher, meaning "Lord to the uttermost limit" or "Lord of the Universe," who was described as coming into existence by it's/his own will and taking the form of Khepera.

That is clearly influenced by an older Egyptian creation myth at Heliopolis where god Atum created himself through pure will and created the gods Shu and Tefnut.

Shu and Tefnut were described as already existing as one with Atum before he spat or masterbated them out.

This shows as everything existing as The One before multiplication.

Now, the interesting part of this is that in the city of Memphis, the god Ptah was seen as an all-powerful deity who created the universe from his thoughts and words. Even gods like Atum and Amun (we'll get to him later) were seen as lower workings of Ptah's creation who developed the world further.

Ptah has a few interesting epithets and names, like:

"Ptah the God who made himself to be God.",

"Ptah the begetter of the first beginning.",

"Ptah lord of eternity.",

"Ptah the double being.",

With the introduction of Aten, this gets even clearer.

After the abandonment of Aten in the New Kingdom, Amun seems to assimilate Aten's and Ra's attributes.

We get hymns like this:

>HAIL to thee, Amun-Ra, Lord of the thrones of the earth, the oldest existence, ancient of heaven, support of all things; Chief of the gods, lord of truth; father of the gods, maker of men and beasts and herbs; maker of all things above and below; Deliverer of the sufferer and oppressed, judging the poor; Lord of wisdom, lord of mercy; most loving, opener of every eye, source of joy, in whose goodness the gods rejoice, thou whose name is hidden. Thou art the one, maker of all that is, the one; the only one; maker of gods and men; giving food to all. Hail to thee, thou one with many heads; sleepless when all others sleep, adoration to thee. Hail to thee from all creatures from every land, from the height of heaven, from the depth of the sea. The spirits thou hast made extol thee, saying, welcome to thee, father of the fathers of the gods; we worship thy spirit which is in us.

This hymn presents Amun-Ra as an all-powerful being with the lines like "The oldest existence", "support of all things," and "maker of all that is, the one; the only one; maker of gods and men."

He is described as unborn and undesigned:

>He created himself. He was not born... Being undesigned, thou didst mould into form thy body.

Other hymns describe him as "Without his equal."

In some creation myths, Amun has two primary forms Kematef and Irta.

Kematef is his primordial serpent form that manifested itself from the infinite waters of Nu and created the universe.

Irta, on the other hand, is the creator of the Earth.

The word Irta means "The Earth maker."

So, to ask a question, can a later Egyptian religion be seen as a form of complex polytheism, pantheism, or some kind of Henotheism?

If you count all named gods, spirits, personifications, and others like (for Greeks) nymphs, Keres, Apate, Adikia and etcetera, and (for Egyptians) Shamayw, Hatayw, Akhu, etcetera.

From my research, Neith dates to at least 3600–3350 BCE to prehistory.

My next question would be, do we know what prehistoric Egyptian religion looked like?

Who was the most popular god, and did they have a creator deity before Atum, or is he the first and the oldest deity to be described as creating the world?

The most recent example is the new Mummy movie.

Christians inserting their own beliefs in an ancient Pre-Judaism and Pre-Christian stories and culture.

The other example is calling Mesopotamian gods "fallen angels" (although this goes for any polytheistic religion. Like Egyptian gods, Norse gods and Greek gods as examples.)

They are so insecure they're gonna call everything they don't understand 'demonic' and 'evil'.

They are gonna swear on their god that Genesis influenced Epic of Gilgamesh and Enuma Elish and ignore any actual evidence of their book being borrowed from other civilizations and cultures.

The most annoying and infuriating shit they do is say stuff like "Yahweh destroyed Egyptian gods in Exodus".

Like, no, he didn't. That whole book is a propaganda to devalue Egyptian gods and make their god seem stronger to their audiences.

hey! ive always quite liked the marvel character moon knight and cause of him i also want to learn a bit more about Egyptian mythology as a whole (stupid reason ik). but, are there any good videos, shows and/or books which go into the mythology and gods?? im like a complete beginner lol

Stuff like Amun Chanters and 8 papyri.

i dont know what his issue is but i love him a lot, i'm planning on getting a giant poster of just this image. I don't know why but i love him so much, he's just there man and i love him for that. There's barely anything about Medjed but that's okay. I love him guys. (mods if you see this im sorry)

https://preview.redd.it/kkf9bqcojx0h1.png?width=1014&format=png&auto=webp&s=600293d5dccf844b64815bb2f56b33dae8af802c