Cult of Gods

Egyptian

Nile Valley, c. 3000 BCE to the Roman period.

There was no single Egyptian creation story. Different temple centres taught different ones: Heliopolis with Atum and the Ennead, Memphis with Ptah, Hermopolis with the Ogdoad, Thebes with Amun. Gods merge (Amun-Ra) and take many forms, so a single family tree is always a simplification.

Papyrus of Ani, British Museum (New Kingdom), a Book of the Dead.
Papyrus of Ani, British Museum (New Kingdom), a Book of the Dead.

Family graph

Parent lines run downward, partners are joined by a thicker line. Select a deity to trace its ancestry.

Choose a deity to see where it comes from. Dashed lines are links the sources describe that are not parent and child.

NunAtumRaAmunShuTefnutMaatHathorSekhmetPtahGebNutAnubisThothSobekOsirisIsisSethNephthysHorus

The deities

Nunthe primeval watersAtumcreator, the completed oneRasun, kingship, orderShuair, sunlightTefnutmoisture, the lion's rageGebearthNutsky, starsOsirisafterlife, resurrection, fertility of the floodIsismagic, protection, motherhoodSethstorm, desert, chaosNephthysmourning, protection of the deadHoruskingship, skyAnubisembalming, guide of the deadThothwriting, moon, wisdomMaattruth, order, justiceHathorlove, music, joySekhmetwar, plague, healingPtahcraftsmen, creation by speechSobekNile, fertility, kingshipAmunthe hidden, king of the gods in the New Kingdom

Today

Ancient Egyptian religion ended as Christianity and then Islam became dominant in the first millennium CE. A small number of modern Kemetic reconstructionist groups practise it today; they are not continuous with the ancient cult.

More traditions

Odin rides to Hel, W. G. Collingwood, after the Poetic Edda.NorseA chaos monster and a sun god, drawn by L. Gruner for A. H. Layard's Monuments of Nineveh.MesopotamianVishvarupa Vishnu, Kashmir or Himachal, in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art collection.HinduFolio 309r of the Book of Kells (Trinity College Dublin), c. 800.Celtic (Irish)

Sources used

  • Pyramid Texts (Old Kingdom royal tombs, c. 2400-2300 BCE)
  • Coffin Texts (Middle Kingdom)
  • Book of the Dead / Book of Going Forth by Day (New Kingdom papyri, e.g. Papyrus of Ani)
  • Shabaka Stone (Memphite Theology, copied c. 700 BCE)
  • Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride (c. 100 CE; a Greek outsider's account)