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450 In addition to their names , gods were given epithets , like " possessor of splendor " , " ruler of Abydos " , or " lord of the sky " , that describe some aspect of their roles or their worship . Because of the gods ' multiple and overlapping roles , deities can have many epithets β with more important gods accumulating more titles β and the same epithet can apply to many deities . Some epithets eventually became separate deities , as with Werethekau , an epithet applied to several goddesses meaning " great enchantress " , which came to be treated as an independent goddess . The host of divine names and titles expresses the gods ' multifarious nature .
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451 = = = Relationships = = =
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452 Egyptian deities are connected in a complex and shifting array of relationships . A god 's connections and interactions with other deities helped define its character . Thus Isis , as the mother and protector of Horus , was a great healer as well as the patroness of kings . Such relationships were the base material from which myths were formed .
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453 Family relationships are a common type of connection between gods . Deities often form male and female pairs , reflecting the importance of procreation in Egyptian religious thought . Families of three deities , with a father , mother , and child , represent the creation of new life and the succession of the father by the child , a pattern that connects divine families with royal succession . Osiris , Isis , and Horus formed the quintessential family of this type . The pattern they set grew more widespread over time , so that many deities in local cult centers , like Ptah , Sekhmet , and their child Nefertum at Memphis and Amun , Mut , and Khonsu at Thebes , were assembled into family triads . Genealogical connections like these are changeable , in keeping with the multiple perspectives in Egyptian belief . Hathor , as a fertility goddess , could act as mother to any child god , including the child form of the sun god , although in other circumstances she was the sun god 's daughter .
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454 Other divine groups were composed of deities with interrelated roles , or who together represented a region of the Egyptian mythological cosmos . There were sets of gods for the hours of the day and night and for each nome ( province ) of Egypt . Some of these groups contain a specific , symbolically important number of deities . Paired gods can stand for opposite but interrelated concepts that are part of a greater unity . Ra , who is dynamic and light @-@ producing , and Osiris , who is static and shrouded in darkness , merge into a single god each night . Groups of three are linked with plurality in ancient Egyptian thought , and groups of four connote completeness . Rulers in the late New Kingdom promoted a particularly important group of three gods above all others : Amun , Ra , and Ptah . These deities stood for the plurality of all gods , as well as for their own cult centers ( the major cities of Thebes , Heliopolis , and Memphis ) and for many threefold sets of concepts in Egyptian religious thought . Sometimes Set , the patron god of the Nineteenth Dynasty kings and the embodiment of disorder within the world , was added to this group , which emphasized a single coherent vision of the pantheon .
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455 Nine , the product of three and three , represents a multitude , so the Egyptians called several large groups " enneads " , or sets of nine , even if they had more than nine members . The most prominent ennead was the Ennead of Heliopolis , an extended family of deities descended from the creator god Atum , which incorporates many important gods . The term " ennead " was often extended to include all of Egypt 's deities .
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456 This divine assemblage had a vague and changeable hierarchy . Gods with broad influence in the cosmos or who were mythologically older than others had higher positions in divine society . At the apex of this society was the king of the gods , who was usually identified with the creator deity . In different periods of Egyptian history , different gods were most frequently said to hold this exalted position . Horus was the most important god in the Early Dynastic Period , Ra rose to preeminence in the Old Kingdom , Amun was supreme in the New , and in the Ptolemaic and Roman periods , Isis was the divine queen and creator goddess . Newly prominent gods tended to adopt characteristics from their predecessors . Isis absorbed the traits of many other goddesses during her rise , and when Amun became the ruler of the pantheon , he was conjoined with Ra , the traditional king of the gods , to become a solar deity .
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457 = = = Manifestations and combinations = = =
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458 The gods were believed to manifest in many forms . The Egyptians had complex conception of the human soul , consisting of several parts . The spirits of the gods were composed of many of these same elements . The ba was the component of the human or divine soul that affected the world around it . Any visible manifestation of a god 's power could be called its ba ; thus , the sun was called the ba of Ra . A depiction of a deity was considered a ka , another component of its being , which acted as a vessel for that deity 's ba to inhabit . The cult images of gods that were the focus of temple rituals , as well as the sacred animals that represented certain deities , were believed to house divine bas in this way . Gods could be ascribed many bas and kas , which were sometimes given names representing different aspects of the god 's nature . Everything in existence was said to be one of the kas of Atum the creator god , who originally contained all things within himself , and one deity could be called the ba of another , meaning that the first god is a manifestation of the other 's power . Divine body parts could act as separate deities , like the Eye of Ra and Hand of Atum , both of which were personified as goddesses .
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459 Nationally important deities gave rise to local manifestations , which sometimes absorbed the characteristics of older regional gods . Horus had many forms tied to particular places , including Horus of Nekhen , Horus of Buhen , and Horus of Edfu . Such local manifestations could be treated almost as separate beings . During the New Kingdom , one man was accused of stealing clothes by an oracle supposed to communicate messages from Amun of Pe @-@ Khenty . He consulted two other local oracles of Amun hoping for a different judgment . Gods ' manifestations also differed according to their roles . Horus could be a powerful sky god or vulnerable child , and these forms were sometimes counted as independent deities .
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460 Gods were combined with each other as easily as they were divided . A god could be called the ba of another , or two or more deities could be joined into one god with a combined name and iconography . Local gods were linked with greater ones , and deities with similar functions were combined . Ra was connected with the local deity Sobek to form Sobek @-@ Ra ; with his fellow ruling god , Amun , to form Amun @-@ Ra ; with the solar form of Horus to form Ra @-@ Horakhty ; and with several solar deities as Horemakhet @-@ Khepri @-@ Ra @-@ Atum . On rare occasion , even deities of different sexes were joined in this way , producing combinations like Osiris @-@ Neith and Mut @-@ Min . This linking of deities is called syncretism . Unlike other situations for which this term is used , the Egyptian practice was not meant to fuse competing belief systems , although foreign deities could be syncretized with native ones . Instead , syncretism acknowledged the overlap between their roles , and extended the sphere of influence for each of them . Syncretic combinations were not permanent ; a god who was involved in one combination continued to appear separately and to form new combinations with other deities . But closely connected deities did sometimes merge . Horus absorbed several falcon gods from various regions , such as Khenty @-@ irty and Khenty @-@ khety , who became little more than local manifestations of him ; Hathor subsumed a similar cow goddess , Bat ; and an early funerary god , Khenti @-@ Amentiu , was supplanted by Osiris and Anubis .
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461 = = = The Aten and possible monotheism = = =
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462 In the reign of Akhenaten ( c . 1353 β 1336 BC ) in the mid @-@ New Kingdom , a single solar deity , the Aten , became the sole focus of the state religion . Akhenaten ceased to fund the temples of other deities and erased the gods ' names and images on monuments , targeting Amun in particular . This new religious system , sometimes called Atenism , differed dramatically from the polytheistic worship of many gods in all other periods . Whereas , in earlier times , newly important gods were integrated into existing religious beliefs , Atenism insisted on a single understanding of the divine that excluded the traditional multiplicity of perspectives . Yet Atenism may not have been full monotheism , which totally excludes belief in other deities . There is evidence suggesting that the general populace was still allowed to worship other gods in private . The picture is further complicated by Atenism 's apparent tolerance for some other deities , like Shu . For these reasons , the Egyptologist Dominic Montserrat suggested that Akhenaten may have been monolatrous , worshipping a single deity while acknowledging the existence of others . In any case , Atenism 's aberrant theology did not take root among the Egyptian populace , and Akhenaten 's successors returned to traditional beliefs .
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463 = = = Unity of the divine in traditional religion = = =
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464 Scholars have long debated whether traditional Egyptian religion ever asserted that the multiple gods were , on a deeper level , unified . Reasons for this debate include the practice of syncretism , which might suggest that all the separate gods could ultimately merge into one , and the tendency of Egyptian texts to credit a particular god with power that surpasses all other deities . Another point of contention is the appearance of the word " god " in wisdom literature , where the term does not refer to a specific deity or group of deities . In the early 20th century , for instance , E. A. Wallis Budge believed that Egyptian commoners were polytheistic , but knowledge of the true monotheistic nature of the religion was reserved for the elite , who wrote the wisdom literature . His contemporary James Henry Breasted thought Egyptian religion was instead pantheistic , with the power of the sun god present in all other gods , while Hermann Junker argued that Egyptian civilization had been originally monotheistic and became polytheistic in the course of its history .
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465 In 1971 , Erik Hornung published a study rebutting these views . He points out that in any given period many deities , even minor ones , were described as superior to all others . He also argues that the unspecified " god " in the wisdom texts is a generic term for whichever deity the reader chooses to revere . Although the combinations , manifestations , and iconographies of each god were constantly shifting , they were always restricted to a finite number of forms , never becoming fully interchangeable in a monotheistic or pantheistic way . Henotheism , Hornung says , describes Egyptian religion better than other labels . An Egyptian could worship any deity at a particular time and credit it with supreme power in that moment , without denying the other gods or merging them all with the god that he or she focused on . Hornung concludes that the gods were fully unified only in myth , at the time before creation , after which the multitude of gods emerged from a uniform nonexistence .
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466 Hornung 's arguments have greatly influenced other scholars of Egyptian religion , but some still believe that at times the gods were more unified than he allows . Jan Assmann maintains that the notion of a single deity developed slowly through the New Kingdom , beginning with a focus on Amun @-@ Ra as the all @-@ important sun god . In his view , Atenism was an extreme outgrowth of this trend . It equated the single deity with the sun and dismissed all other gods . Then , in the backlash against Atenism , priestly theologians described the universal god in a different way , one that coexisted with traditional polytheism . The one god was believed to transcend the world and all the other deities , while at the same time , the multiple gods were aspects of the one . According to Assmann , this one god was especially equated with Amun , the dominant god in the late New Kingdom , whereas for the rest of Egyptian history the universal deity could be identified with many other gods . James P. Allen says that coexisting notions of one god and many gods would fit well with the " multiplicity of approaches " in Egyptian thought , as well as with the henotheistic practice of ordinary worshippers . He says that the Egyptians may have recognized the unity of the divine by " identifying their uniform notion of ' god ' with a particular god , depending on the particular situation . "
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467 = = Descriptions and depictions = =
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468 Egyptian writings describe the gods ' bodies in detail . They are made of precious materials ; their flesh is gold , their bones are silver , and their hair is lapis lazuli . They give off a scent that the Egyptians likened to the incense used in rituals . Some texts give precise descriptions of particular deities , including their height and eye color . Yet these characteristics are not fixed ; in myths , gods change their appearances to suit their own purposes . Egyptian texts often refer to deities ' true , underlying forms as " mysterious " . The Egyptians ' visual representations of their gods are therefore not literal . They symbolize specific aspects of each deity 's character , functioning much like the ideograms in hieroglyphic writing . For this reason , the funerary god Anubis is commonly shown in Egyptian art as a dog or jackal , a creature whose scavenging habits threaten the preservation of buried mummies , in an effort to counter this threat and employ it for protection . His black coloring alludes to the color of mummified flesh and to the fertile black soil that Egyptians saw as a symbol of resurrection .
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469 Most gods were depicted in several ways . Hathor could be a cow , cobra , lioness , or a woman with bovine horns or ears . By depicting a given god in different ways , the Egyptians expressed different aspects of its essential nature . The gods are depicted in a finite number of these symbolic forms , so that deities can often be distinguished from one another by their iconographies . These forms include men and women ( anthropomorphism ) , animals ( zoomorphism ) , and , more rarely , inanimate objects . Combinations of forms , such as gods with human bodies and animal heads , are common . New forms and increasingly complex combinations arose in the course of history . Some gods can only be distinguished from others if they are labeled in writing , as with Isis and Hathor . Because of the close connection between these goddesses , they could both wear the cow @-@ horn headdress that was originally Hathor 's alone .
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470 Certain features of divine images are more useful than others in determining a god 's identity . The head of a given divine image is particularly significant . In a hybrid image , the head represents the original form of the being depicted , so that , as the Egyptologist Henry Fischer put it , " a lion @-@ headed goddess is a lion @-@ goddess in human form , while a royal sphinx , conversely , is a man who has assumed the form of a lion . " Divine headdresses , which range from the same types of crowns used by human kings to large hieroglyphs worn on gods ' heads , are another important indicator . In contrast , the objects held in gods ' hands tend to be generic . Male deities hold was staffs , goddesses hold stalks of papyrus , and both sexes carry ankh signs , representing the Egyptian word for " life " , to symbolize their life @-@ giving power .
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471 The forms in which the gods are shown , although diverse , are limited in many ways . Many creatures that are widespread in Egypt were never used in divine iconography , whereas a few , such as falcons , cobras , and cattle , can each represent many deities . Animals that were absent from Egypt in the early stages of its history were not used as divine images . For instance , the horse , which was only introduced in the Second Intermediate Period ( c . 1650 β 1550 BC ) , never represented a god . Similarly , the clothes worn by anthropomorphic deities in all periods changed little from the styles used in the Old Kingdom : a kilt , false beard , and often a shirt for male gods and a long , tight @-@ fitting dress for goddesses .
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472 The basic anthropomorphic form varies . Child gods are depicted nude , as are some adult gods when their procreative powers are emphasized . Certain male deities are given heavy bellies and breasts , signifying either androgyny or prosperity and abundance . Whereas most male gods have red skin and most goddesses are yellow β the same colors used to depict Egyptian men and women β some are given unusual , symbolic skin colors . Thus the blue skin and paunchy figure of the god Hapi alludes to the Nile flood he represents and the nourishing fertility it brought . A few deities , such as Osiris , Ptah , and Min , have a " mummiform " appearance , with their limbs tightly swathed in cloth . Although these gods resemble mummies , the earliest examples predate the cloth @-@ wrapped style of mummification , and this form may instead hark back to the earliest , limbless depictions of deities .
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473 = = Interactions with humans = =
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474 = = = Relationship with the pharaoh = = =
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475 In official writings , pharaohs are said to be divine , and they are constantly depicted in the company of the deities of the pantheon . Each pharaoh and his predecessors were considered the successors of the gods who had ruled Egypt in mythic prehistory . Living kings were equated with Horus and called the " son " of many deities , particularly Osiris and Ra ; deceased kings were equated with these elder gods . Pharaohs had their own mortuary temples where rituals were performed for them during their lives and after their deaths . But few pharaohs were worshipped as gods long after their lifetimes , and non @-@ official texts portray kings in a human light . For these reasons , scholars disagree about how genuinely most Egyptians believed the king to be a god . He may only have been considered divine when he was performing ceremonies .
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476 However much it was believed , the king 's divine status was the rationale for his role as Egypt 's representative to the gods , as he formed a link between the divine and human realms . The Egyptians believed the gods needed temples to dwell in , as well as the periodic performance of rituals and presentation of offerings to nourish them . These things were provided by the cults that the king oversaw , with their priests and laborers . Yet , according to royal ideology , temple @-@ building was exclusively the pharaoh 's work , as were the rituals that priests usually performed in his stead . These acts were a part of the king 's fundamental role : maintaining maat . The king and the nation he represented provided the gods with maat so they could continue to perform their functions , which maintained maat in the cosmos so humans could continue to live .
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477 = = = Presence in the human world = = =
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478 Although the Egyptians believed their gods to be present in the world around them , contact between the human and divine realms was mostly limited to specific circumstances . In literature , gods may appear to humans in a physical form , but in real life the Egyptians were limited to more indirect means of communication .
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479 The ba of a god was said to periodically leave the divine realm to dwell in the images of that god . By inhabiting these images , the gods left their concealed state and took on a physical form . To the Egyptians , a place or object that was αΈsr β " sacred " β was isolated and ritually pure , and thus fit for a god to inhabit . Temple statues and reliefs , as well as particular sacred animals , like the Apis bull , served as divine intermediaries in this way . Dreams and trances provided a very different venue for interaction . In these states , it was believed , people could come close to the gods and sometimes receive messages from them . Finally , according to Egyptian afterlife beliefs , human souls pass into the divine realm after death . The Egyptians therefore believed that in death they would exist on the same level as the gods and fully understand their mysterious nature .
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480 Temples , where the state rituals were carried out , were filled with images of the gods . The most important temple image was the cult statue in the inner sanctuary . These statues were usually less than life @-@ size , and made of the same precious materials that were said to form the gods ' bodies . Many temples had several sanctuaries , each with a cult statue representing one of the gods in a group such as a family triad . The city 's primary god was envisioned as its lord , employing many of the residents as servants in the divine household that the temple represented . The gods residing in the temples of Egypt collectively represented the entire pantheon . But many deities β including some important gods as well as those that were minor or hostile β were never given temples of their own , although some were represented in the temples of other gods .
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481 To insulate the sacred power in the sanctuary from the impurities of the outside world , the Egyptians enclosed temple sanctuaries and greatly restricted access to them . People other than kings and high priests were thus denied contact with cult statues . The only exception was during festival processions , when the statue was carried out of the temple but still enclosed in a portable shrine . People did have less direct means of interaction . The more public parts of temples often incorporated small places for prayer , from doorways to freestanding chapels near the back of the temple building . Communities also built and managed small chapels for their own use , and some families had shrines inside their homes . Despite the gulf that separated humanity from the divine , the Egyptians were surrounded by opportunities to approach their gods .
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482 = = = Intervention in human lives = = =
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483 Egyptian gods were involved in human lives as well as in the overarching order of nature . This divine influence applied mainly to Egypt , as foreign peoples were traditionally believed to be outside the divine order . But in the New Kingdom , when other nations were under Egyptian control , foreigners were said to be under the sun god 's benign rule in the same way that Egyptians were .
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484 Thoth , as the overseer of time , was said to allot fixed lifespans to both humans and gods . Other gods were also said to govern the length of human lives , including Meskhenet , who presided over birth , and Shai , the personification of fate . Thus the time and manner of death was the main meaning of the Egyptian concept of fate , although to some extent these deities governed other events in life as well . Several texts refer to gods influencing or inspiring human decisions , working through a person 's " heart " β the seat of emotion and intellect in Egyptian belief . Deities were also believed to give commands , instructing the king in the governance of his realm and regulating the management of their temples . Egyptian texts rarely mention direct commands given to private persons , and these commands never evolved into a set of divinely enforced moral codes . Morality in ancient Egypt was based on the concept of maat , which , when applied to human society , meant that everyone should live in an orderly way that did not interfere with the well @-@ being of other people . Because deities were the upholders of maat , morality was connected with them . For example , the gods judged humans ' moral righteousness after death , and by the New Kingdom , a verdict of innocence in this judgment was believed to be necessary for admittance into the afterlife . But in general , morality was based on practical ways to uphold maat in daily life , rather than on strict rules that the gods laid out .
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485 Humans had free will to ignore divine guidance and the behavior required by maat , but by doing so they could bring divine punishment upon themselves . A deity carried out this punishment using its ba , the force that manifested the god 's power in the human world . Natural disasters and human ailments were seen as the work of angry divine bas . Conversely , the gods could cure righteous people of illness or even extend their lifespans . Both these types of intervention were eventually represented by deities : Shed , who emerged in the New Kingdom to represent divine rescue from harm , and Petbe , an apotropaic god from the late eras of Egyptian history who was believed to avenge wrongdoing .
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486 Egyptian texts take different views on whether the gods are responsible when humans suffer unjustly . Misfortune was often seen as a product of isfet , the cosmic disorder that was the opposite of maat , and therefore the gods were not guilty of causing evil events . Some deities who were closely connected with isfet , such as Set , could be blamed for disorder within the world without placing guilt on the other gods . But some writings do accuse the deities of causing human misery , while others give theodicies in the gods ' defense . Beginning in the Middle Kingdom , several texts connected the issue of evil in the world with a myth in which the creator god fights a human rebellion against his rule and then withdraws from the earth . Because of this human misbehavior , the creator is distant from his creation , allowing suffering to exist . New Kingdom writings do not question the just nature of the gods as strongly as those of the Middle Kingdom . They emphasize humans ' direct , personal relationships with deities and the gods ' power to intervene in human events . People in this era put faith in specific gods who they hoped would help and protect them through their lives . As a result , upholding the ideals of maat grew less important than gaining the gods ' favor as a way to guarantee a good life . Even the pharaohs were regarded as dependent on divine aid , and after the New Kingdom came to an end , government was increasingly influenced by oracles communicating the gods ' will .
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487 = = = Worship = = =
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488 Official religious practices , which maintained maat for the benefit of all Egypt , were related to , but distinct from , the religious practices of ordinary people , who sought the gods ' help for their personal problems .
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489 Official religion involved a variety of rituals , based in temples . Some rites were performed every day , whereas others were festivals , taking place at longer intervals and often limited to a particular temple or deity . The gods received their offerings in daily ceremonies , in which their statues were clothed , anointed , and presented with food as hymns were recited in their honor . These offerings , in addition to maintaining maat for the gods , celebrated deities ' life @-@ giving generosity and encouraged them to remain benevolent rather than vengeful .
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490 Festivals often involved a ceremonial procession in which a cult image was carried out of the temple in a barque @-@ shaped shrine . These processions served various purposes . In Roman times , when local deities of all kinds were believed to have power over the Nile inundation , processions in many communities carried temple images to the riverbanks so the gods could invoke a large and fruitful flood . Processions also traveled between temples , as when the image of Hathor from Dendera Temple visited her consort Horus at the Temple of Edfu . Rituals for a god were often based in that deity 's mythology . Such rituals were meant to be repetitions of the events of the mythic past , renewing the beneficial effects of the original events . In the Khoiak festival in honor of Osiris , his death and resurrection were ritually reenacted at a time when crops were beginning to sprout . The returning greenery symbolized the renewal of the god 's own life .
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491 Personal interaction with the gods took many forms . People who wanted information or advice consulted oracles , run by temples , that were supposed to convey gods ' answers to questions . Amulets and other images of protective deities were used to ward off the demons that might threaten human well @-@ being or to impart the god 's positive characteristics to the wearer . Private rituals invoked the gods ' power to accomplish personal goals , from healing sickness to cursing enemies . These practices used heka , the same force of magic that the gods used , which the creator was said to have given to humans so they could fend off misfortune . The performer of a private rite often took on the role of a god in a myth , or even threatened a deity , to involve the gods in accomplishing the goal . Such rituals coexisted with private offerings and prayers , and all three were accepted means of obtaining divine help .
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492 Prayer and private offerings are generally called " personal piety " : acts that reflect a close relationship between an individual and a god . Evidence of personal piety is scant before the New Kingdom . Votive offerings and personal names , many of which are theophoric , suggest that commoners felt some connection between themselves and their gods . But firm evidence of devotion to deities became visible only in the New Kingdom , reaching a peak late in that era . Scholars disagree about the meaning of this change β whether direct interaction with the gods was a new development or an outgrowth of older traditions . Egyptians now expressed their devotion through a new variety of activities in and around temples . They recorded their prayers and their thanks for divine help on stelae . They gave offerings of figurines that represented the gods they were praying to , or that symbolized the result they desired ; thus a relief image of Hathor and a statuette of a woman could both represent a prayer for fertility . Occasionally , a person took a particular god as a patron , dedicating his or her property or labor to the god 's cult . These practices continued into the latest periods of Egyptian history . These later eras saw more religious innovations , including the practice of giving animal mummies as offerings to deities depicted in animal form , such as the cat mummies given to the feline goddess Bastet . Some of the major deities from myth and official religion were rarely invoked in popular worship , but many of the great state gods were important in popular tradition .
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493 The worship of some Egyptian gods spread to neighboring lands , especially to Canaan and Nubia during the New Kingdom , when those regions were under pharaonic control . In Canaan , the exported deities , including Hathor , Amun , and Set , were often syncretized with native gods , who in turn spread to Egypt . The Egyptian deities may not have had permanent temples in Canaan , and their importance there waned after Egypt lost control of the region . In contrast , many temples to the major Egyptian gods and deified pharaohs were built in Nubia . After the end of Egyptian rule there , the imported gods , particularly Amun and Isis , were syncretized with local deities and remained part of the religion of Nubia 's independent Kingdom of Kush . These gods were incorporated into the Nubian ideology of kingship much as they were in Egypt , so that Amun was considered the divine father of the king and Isis and other goddesses were linked with the Nubian queen , the kandake . Some deities reached farther . Taweret became a goddess in Minoan Crete , and Amun 's oracle at Siwa Oasis was known to and consulted by people across the Mediterranean region .
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494 Under the Greek Ptolemaic Dynasty and then Roman rule , Greeks and Romans introduced their own deities to Egypt . These newcomers equated the Egyptian gods with their own , as part of the Greco @-@ Roman tradition of interpretatio graeca . But the worship of the native gods was not swallowed up by that of foreign ones . Instead , Greek and Roman gods were adopted as manifestations of Egyptian ones . Egyptian cults sometimes incorporated Greek language , philosophy , iconography , and even temple architecture . Meanwhile , the cults of several Egyptian deities β particularly Isis , Osiris , Anubis , the form of Horus named Harpocrates , and the fused Greco @-@ Egyptian god Serapis β were adopted into Roman religion and spread across the Roman Empire . Roman emperors , like Ptolemaic kings before them , invoked Isis and Serapis to endorse their authority , inside and outside Egypt . In the empire 's complex mix of religious traditions , Thoth was transmuted into the legendary esoteric teacher Hermes Trismegistus , and Isis , who was venerated from Britain to Mesopotamia , became the focus of a Greek @-@ style mystery cult . Isis and Hermes Trismegistus were both prominent in the Western esoteric tradition that grew from the Roman religious world .
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495 Temples and cults in Egypt itself declined as the Roman economy deteriorated in the third century AD , and beginning in the fourth century , Christians suppressed the veneration of Egyptian deities . The last formal cults , at Philae , died out in the fifth or sixth century . Most beliefs surrounding the gods themselves disappeared within a few hundred years , remaining in magical texts into the seventh and eighth centuries . But many of the practices involved in their worship , such as processions and oracles , were adapted to fit Christian ideology and persisted as part of the Coptic Church . Given the great changes and diverse influences in Egyptian culture since that time , scholars disagree about whether any modern Coptic practices are descended from those of pharaonic religion . But many festivals and other traditions of modern Egyptians , both Christian and Muslim , resemble the worship of their ancestors ' gods .
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41.89676284790039 159 WikiText2
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496 = South of Heaven =
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974.7111206054688 5 WikiText2
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497 South of Heaven is the fourth studio album by American thrash metal band Slayer . Released on July 5 , 1988 , the album was the band 's second collaboration with record producer Rick Rubin , whose production skills on Slayer 's previous album Reign in Blood had helped the band 's sound evolve .
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31.078344345092773 55 WikiText2
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498 South of Heaven was Slayer 's second album to enter the Billboard 200 , and its last to be released by Def Jam Recordings , although the album became an American Recordings album after Rick Rubin ended his partnership with Russell Simmons . It was one of only two Def Jam titles to be distributed by Geffen Records through Warner Bros. Records because of original distributor Columbia Records ' refusal to release work by the band . The release peaked at number 57 and in 1992 was awarded a gold certification by the Recording Industry Association of America .
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29.675689697265625 99 WikiText2
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499 In order to offset the pace of the group 's previous album , Slayer deliberately slowed down the album 's tempo . In contrast to their previous albums , the band utilized undistorted guitars and toned @-@ down vocals . While some critics praised this musical change , others β more accustomed to the style of earlier releases β were disappointed . The songs " Mandatory Suicide " and the title track , however , have become permanent features of the band 's live setlist .
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