Ancient Egyptian Mythology Quiz

Mythology is a collection of myths from ancient Egypt that describe the actions of the Egyptian gods as a means of understanding the world around them.

The beliefs that these myths express are an important part of ancient Egyptian religion.

Myths appear frequently in Egyptian writings and art, particularly in short stories and in religious material such as hymns, ritual texts, funerary texts, and temple decoration.

These sources rarely contain a complete account of a myth and often describe only brief fragments.

Inspired by the cycles of nature, the Egyptians saw time in the present as a series of recurring patterns, whereas the earliest periods of time were linear.

Myths are set in these earliest times, and myth sets the pattern for the cycles of the present.

Present events repeat the events of myth, and in doing so renew maat, the fundamental order of the universe.

Amongst the most important episodes from the mythic past are the creation myths, in which the gods form the universe out of primordial chaos; the stories of the reign of the sun god Ra upon the earth; and the Osiris myth, concerning the struggles of the gods Osiris, Isis, and Horus against the disruptive god Set.

Events from the present that might be regarded as myths include Ra's daily journey through the world and its otherworldly counterpart, the Duat.

Recurring themes in these mythic episodes include the conflict between the upholders of maat and the forces of disorder, the importance of the pharaoh in maintaining maat, and the continual death and regeneration of the gods.

The details of these sacred events differ greatly from one text to another and often seem contradictory.

Egyptian myths are primarily metaphorical, translating the essence and behavior of deities into terms that humans can understand.

Each variant of a myth represents a different symbolic perspective, enriching the Egyptians' understanding of the gods and the world.

Mythology profoundly influenced Egyptian culture. It inspired or influenced many religious rituals and provided the ideological basis for kingship.

Scenes and symbols from myth appeared in art in tombs, temples, and amulets. In literature, myths or elements of them were used in stories that range from humor to allegory, demonstrating that the Egyptians adapted mythology to serve a wide variety of purposes.

Origins are difficult to trace, but one obvious influence on myth is the Egyptians' natural surroundings.

Questions about this relationship between myth and ritual remain unanswered.

Rituals predate written myths in ancient Egypt

The earliest evidence of religious practices includes only a few motifs from myth

Rituals adapt basic mythic traditions to fit the specific ritual, creating elaborate new stories (called historiolas) based on myth

After these early times, most changes to mythology developed and adapted preexisting concepts rather than creating new ones

Many scholars have suggested that the myth of the sun god withdrawing into the sky, leaving humans to fight among themselves, was inspired by the breakdown of royal authority and national unity at the end of the Old Kingdom

In the New Kingdom, minor myths developed around deities like Yam and Anat who had been adopted from Canaanite religion

During the Greek and Roman eras, Greco-Roman culture had little influence on Egyptian mythology

Egyptian myths serve to justify human traditions and to address fundamental questions about the world.

The Egyptians explained these profound issues through statements about the gods.

Most of Egypt's gods, including many of the major ones, do not have significant roles in any mythic narratives.

However, their nature and relationships with other deities are often established in lists or bare statements without narration.

For the gods who are deeply involved in narratives, mythic events are very important expressions of their roles in the cosmos.

Egyptian myths are not, therefore, fully developed tales. Their importance lay in their underlying meaning, not their characteristics as stories.

So flexible were Egyptian myths that they could seemingly conflict with each other.

Many descriptions of the creation of the world and the movements of the sun occur in Egyptian texts, some very different from each other.

The relationships between gods were fluid, so that, for instance, the goddess Hathor could be called the mother, wife, or daughter of the sun god Ra.

Separate deities could even be syncretized, or linked

Egyptian mythology is a collection of stories that focus on the gods and their interactions with humans.

Egyptian mythology is complex and contains many different versions of the same story.

Some of the contradictory ideas in Egyptian mythology are a result of the different purposes that different texts were written for.

Egyptian mythology is based on oral traditions, but very little evidence of this tradition has survived.

The first major source of Egyptian mythology is the Pyramid Texts, which were written in the Old Kingdom.

Egyptian mythology is poorly understood due to the scarcity of sources from earlier periods.