Religion
in the Lives of the Ancient Egyptians
Because the role of religion in Euro-American culture differs
so greatly from that in ancient Egypt, it is difficult to fully
appreciate its significance in everyday Egyptian life. In Egypt,
religion and life were so interwoven that it would have been impossible
to be agnostic. Astronomy, medicine, geography, agriculture, art,
and civil law — virtually every aspect of Egyptian culture
and civilization — were manifestations of religious beliefs.
Most aspects of Egyptian religion can be traced to the people's
observation of the environment. Fundamental was the love of sunlight,
the solar cycle and the comfort brought by the regular rhythms
of nature, and the agricultural cycle surrounding the rise and
fall of the Nile. Egyptian theology attempted, above all else,
to explain these cosmic phenomena, incomprehensible to humans,
by means of a series of understandable metaphors based upon natural
cycles and understandable experiences. Hence, the movement of
the sun across the sky was represented by images of the sun in
his celestial boat crossing the vault of heaven or of the sun
flying over the sky in the form of a scarab beetle. Similarly,
the concept of death was transformed from the cessation of life
into a mirror image of life wherein the deceased had the same
material requirements and desires.
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Figure
1: A priest of Hathor. »
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