Intro to Egyptian Mythology

Hey guys, welcome to 2016!  I hope you had a good 2015, and I'm looking forward to geeking out about mythology with you this coming year.  I've got some fun things planned, and I hope you'll enjoy!

To kick off 2016 let's take a look at Egyptian mythology.

Egyptian mythology has long interested me because of its unique view of animals.  Many of the deities in Egyptian mythology have the bodies of humans but the heads of animals.  For instance:

Anubis, a god of the underworld, is depicted as having a human body with the head of a jackal.

Bast, the goddess of music and warfare, is shown with the head of a cat but the body of a woman.

Perhaps my favorite is Sobek, a protective military god with the head of a crocodile.

All of the above gods are very interesting, and I plan to do posts on them in the coming weeks.  However, the main players of Egyptian mythology are Isis, Osiris, Set, and Horus.  You know how the Star Wars movies all focus around the adventures and drama of one family, the Skywalkers?  Osiris and his family are basically the Skywalkers of Egyptian mythology.

We'll talk more about this in future posts, but the main conflict of Egyptian mythology revolves around those four characters.  Set and Osiris are brothers, and a jealous Set murders Osiris and literally tears him into pieces, scattering him to the corners of the world.  Isis, Osiris' wife, puts her husband back together again (much like Humpty Dumpty!).  Their son Horus winds up in an eternal conflict with his nefarious uncle Set.  Sounds like fun, right?

Another aspect of Egyptian mythology which I find fascinating is the way it personifies some forces of nature.  A perfect example of this is the Nile River.  The land around the Nile is particularly fertile, and is fantastic for growing crops.  The river is also prone to flooding at certain times of the year, leaving those who dwell with it with a healthy respect for the water.  This respect was represented in early Egyptian mythology by creating the Nile into a sort of deity.  Praises and hymns were written in its honor, because the Nile provided life to the surrounding lands.  Appeasements were also offered to the river in the hopes of preventing early flooding.

I'll leave you guys with that.  Have a great week, and I'll see you next Monday with a post about one of the gods!