ANCIENT EGYPTIAN ORIGIN STORY Macquarie University Big History School: Core

READING 0.2.2 ANCIENT EGYPTIAN ORIGIN STORY Macquarie University Big History School: Core

Lexile® measure: 900L MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY BIG HISTORY SCHOOL: CORE - READING 0.2.2. ORIGIN STORY: ANCIENT EGYPTIAN - 900L 2

Ancient Egypt was one of the world’s first agrarian civilisations, stretching back over 5000 years to the unification of the Upper and Lower Kingdoms. Long before the arrival of either Christianity or Islam, Egyptians worshipped a pantheon of gods. ANCIENT EGYPTIAN ORIGIN STORY By David Baker

Because Ancient Egypt existed for thousands of years, the society produced multiple origin stories. Each story varies in detail. Either by time period or region, different gods were favoured with a more flattering role in the creation of the Universe. Nevertheless each story has common traits that seem to imply that they were part of the original story crafted by Ancient Egyptians in the earliest phases of their society. Egypt provides us with one of the earliest and richest examples of human origin stories, from one of the first societies to set that origin story to writing. The Universe began as an eventless and blank eternity. There was no change and no history. Below, the only thing that existed was an endless abyss that was filled with a lifeless ocean. This dismal ocean was personified as the god Nu, for whom there were no temples and no worshippers. Above, there was nothing but an endless sky cloaked in darkness. The personification of this endless night was the god Kek. All was chaos and disorder. It lasted millions (10 lakhs) and millions (10 lakhs) of years without sign of stopping, an eternity personified by the god Heh. The gods Nu, Kek, and Heh, all had male and female forms and formed six of the eight primordial gods of the “Ogdoad” or “the group of eight”. MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY BIG HISTORY SCHOOL: CORE - READING 0.2.2. ORIGIN STORY: ANCIENT EGYPTIAN - 900L 3

The final two gods of the Ogdoad were the most mysterious. They were the male and female representations of Amun. They existed in a giant bubble somewhere deep within the dismal ocean. They represented all that is mystical and unknowable about the Universe. They were the fundamental forces of the cosmos. What drives things into being and brings order from the chaos. There they dwelt in their bubble, deep beneath the surface of the dismal ocean, under the pitch black sky. The female half of the Ogdoad took the form of snakes. The male half of the Ogdoad took the form of frogs. After millions (10 lakhs) and millions (10 lakhs) of years, the snakes and the frogs combined within the ocean. The waters trembled. The skies shook. A deafening roar rumbled up from the abyss. There arose from that wretched ocean a small mound that formed the first land on Earth. This was a “benben”, a miniature pyramid, the shape of which Ancient Egyptians cherished and revered. From the top of the small pyramid arose the god Ra in the form of a falcon. Osiris paired with Isis. They gave birth to Horus, the god of kingship and Within the eye of Ra was contained the Sun. Ra soared up into the sky and the ancestor of the Egyptian pharaohs. Horus is generally depicted with lit up the sky, dispelling the darkness and nurturing the Earth with his a falcon’s head. Meanwhile, Set paired with Nepthys. They gave birth to warmth. Order was brought to disorder. Light was brought to darkness. Anubis, god of the dead and mummification. Anubis is generally depicted Ra was the god of the Sun and foremost among the deities of Egypt. with the head of a wolf. Without him, life would not exist. Meanwhile the Sun god, Ra, lost sight of his children, Shu and Tefnut. Ra took his hand and laid it upon himself. He spat onto the benben and He worried they would be lost amongst the remaining chaos and what there arose his children, Shu and Tefnut. Shu was the god of the dry was left of the dismal sea. Ra cast his eye across the Universe trying to calming winds. Tefnut was the goddess of moisture. They created the find them, and spotted them on Earth. He also spotted their children, Earth’s atmosphere. Shu and Tefnut had two children: Geb and Nut. Geb grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Ra wept with joy when he saw was god of the Earth and produced fertile land from which plants could this. The tears fell to Earth and transformed into the first humans. These grow. Nut was goddess of the sky, with her body festooned with twinkling humans were to be ruled by the god-kings who had descended from stars. Horus. Nut laid on top of Geb, forming the structure of the Earth and sky. As they Thus began the Universe, Earth, and history. Emerging from the dark lay together, they had children: Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys. Osiris was ocean of the abyss, just as fertile soils for crops emerge from the flooding the god of the afterlife and of regeneration, and he fostered Earth’s life of the Nile. into being. Isis was goddess of motherhood and wisdom, who practiced magic more powerful than any other deity. Set was the god of violence and chaos, of barren desert and terrifying storms. Nephthys was the goddess of guardianship, death, and funerals, fierce and capable of incinerating her enemies with her fiery breath. MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY BIG HISTORY SCHOOL: CORE - READING 0.2.2. ORIGIN STORY: ANCIENT EGYPTIAN - 900L 4

REFERENCES Dunand, Francoise and Christiane Zivie-Coche. Gods and Men in Egypt: 3.000 BCE to 395 CE. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2004. Seton-Williams, MV. Egyptian Legends and Stories. Bloomington: Rubicon Press, 1988. Sproul, Barbara. Primal Myths: Creation Myths around the World. San Francisco: Harper, 1991.

IMAGE CREDITS ‘Bonaparte Before the Sphinx’ Credit: Jean-Léon Gérôme/California State Parks https:// commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jean-L%C3%A9on_G%C3%A9r%C3%B4me_003.jpg ‘Nun Raises the Sun’ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nun_Raises_the_Sun.jpg ‘Sunrise at Creation’ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sunrise_at_Creation.jpg

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