r/ancientegypt

I’ve recently listened to Bob Brier’s history of ancient Egypt where he discusses the early kings and the Narmer Palette and something struck me, the artwork on the palette shows a clearly defined Egyptian culture that appears to be really well formed and that there must have been a gradual lead up to that rather than a light switch that went from nomadic farmers to a fully developed civilisation. What if any evidence is there of this transition and can anyone point me towards some more reading material? Thank you!

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 his 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?