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= = = international = = =
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= = awards = =
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cullen is the namesake of the john cullen award previously given to key ihl players
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= sms erzherzog ferdinand max =
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for the ironclad present at the battle of lissa of the same name see sms erzherzog ferdinand max ( 1865 )
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sms erzherzog ferdinand max ( german his majesty 's ship archduke ferdinand max ) was a pre @@ dreadnought battleship built by the austro @@ hungarian navy in 1902 the second ship of the erzherzog karl class she was launched on 3 october 1903 she was assigned to the iii battleship division
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for most of world war i erzherzog ferdinand max remained in her home port of pola in present @@ day croatia except for four engagements in 1914 she formed part of the austro @@ hungarian flotilla sent to protect the escape of the german ships sms goeben and sms breslau from the british @@ held mediterranean she advanced as far as brindisi before being recalled to her home port her sole combat engagement occurred in late may 1915 when she participated in the bombardment of the italian port city of ancona she also took part in suppressing a major mutiny among the crew members of several armored cruisers stationed in cattaro between 1 3 february 1918 she also attempted to break through the otranto barrage in june of that year but had to retreat when the dreadnought sms szent istván was sunk after the war erzherzog ferdinand max was awarded to the united kingdom as a war prize in 1920
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= = design = =
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erzherzog ferdinand max displaced 10 @@ 472 long tons ( 10 @@ 640 t ) she was 414 feet 2 inches ( 126 @@ 2 m ) long had a beam of 71 feet 5 inches ( 21 @@ 8 m ) and a draft of 24 feet 7 inches ( 7 @@ 5 m ) she was manned by 700 men she and her sisters were the last and largest pre @@ dreadnought class built by the austro @@ hungarian navy surpassing the habsburg class by approximately 2 @@ 000 tonnes ( 1 @@ 968 long tons ) she was propelled by two two @@ shaft four cylinder vertical triple expansion steam engines on trials they developed 18 @@ 000 ihp ( 13 @@ 423 kw ) which propelled the ship at a speed of 20 @@ 5 knots ( 38 @@ 0 km / h 23 @@ 6 mph )
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erzherzog ferdinand max carried a primary armament of four 24 @@ centimeter ( 9 @@ 4 in ) / 40 caliber guns in two twin turrets on the centerline these guns were an austro @@ hungarian replica of the british 24 cm / 40 ( 9 @@ 4 ) krupp c / 94 which was used on the habsburgs her secondary armament consisted of twelve 19 @@ centimeter ( 7 @@ 5 in ) / 42 caliber guns also made by škoda mounted in eight single casemates on either wing of the ship and two twin turrets on the <unk> shell 20 @@ 000 metres ( 22 @@ 000 yd ) at maximum elevation with a muzzle velocity of 800 metres per second ( 2 @@ 600 ft / s ) the gun weighed 12 @@ 1 tons and could fire three rounds per <unk> ships had a tertiary armament for protection against torpedo boats in the form of the 6 @@ 6 centimetres ( 2 @@ 6 in ) / 45 caliber gun also manufactured by škoda anti @@ aircraft and airship protection was covered by the four 37 @@ millimeter ( 1 @@ 5 in ) vickers anti @@ aircraft guns on the ship bought from britain in 1910 and mounted onto erzherzog karl erzherzog ferdinand max was also fitted with two above water 45 @@ centimeter ( 17 @@ 7 in ) torpedo tubes although rarely used
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= = service history = =
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at the outbreak of world war i erzherzog ferdinand max was in the iii division of the austrian @@ hungarian battle @@ fleet she was mobilized on the eve of the war along with the remainder of the fleet to support the flight of sms goeben and sms breslau the two german ships were attempting to break out of messina which was surrounded by british troops and make their way to turkey the breakout succeeded when the flotilla had advanced as far south as brindisi in south eastern italy the austro @@ hungarian ships were recalled in company with other units of the austro hungarian navy erzherzog ferdinand max took a minor part in the bombardment of ancona on 24 may 1915 there she and her sisters expended 24 rounds of 240 mm armor @@ piercing shells at signal and semaphore stations as well as 74 rounds of 190 mm shells aimed at italian gun @@ batteries and other port installations
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a major mutiny among crews of the armored cruisers stationed in cattaro including sankt georg and kaiser karl vi began on 1 february 1918 two days later erzherzog ferdinand max and her sisters arrived in the port and assisted with the suppression of the mutiny following the restoration of order in the naval base the armored cruisers sankt georg and kaiser karl vi were decommissioned and erzherzog ferdinand max and her sisters were stationed in cattaro in their place on the morning of 11 june admiral miklos horthy planned a major assault on the otranto barrage the three erzherzog karls and the four tegetthoff @@ class battleships were to provide support for the novara @@ class cruisers on an assault on the allied defenses at the strait of otranto the plan was intended to replicate the success of the raid conducted one year earlier horthy 's plan was to destroy the blockading fleet by luring allied ships to the cruisers and lighter ships which were protected from the heavier guns of the battleships including the guns of the erzherzog karl class however on the morning of 10 june the dreadnought szent istván was torpedoed and sunk by an italian torpedo boat horthy felt that the element of surprise had been compromised and therefore called off the operation this was to be the last military action erzherzog ferdinand max was to take part in and she and her sisters spent the rest of their career in port
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near the end of world war i the erzherzog karl @@ class battleships were handed over to the newly formed state of slovenes croats and serbs but erzherzog ferdinand max was later transferred to great britain as a war reparation she was later broken up for scrap in 1921
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= ancient egyptian deities =
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ancient egyptian deities are the gods and goddesses worshipped in ancient egypt the beliefs and rituals surrounding these gods formed the core of ancient egyptian religion which emerged sometime in prehistory deities represented natural forces and phenomena and the egyptians supported and appeased them through offerings and rituals so that these forces would continue to function according to maat or divine order after the founding of the egyptian state around 3100 bc the authority to perform these tasks was controlled by the pharaoh who claimed to be the gods ' representative and managed the temples where the rituals were carried out
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the gods ' complex characteristics were expressed in myths and in intricate relationships between deities family ties loose groups and hierarchies and combinations of separate gods into one deities ' diverse appearances in art as animals humans objects and combinations of different forms also alluded through symbolism to their essential features
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in different eras various gods were said to hold the highest position in divine society including the solar deity ra the mysterious god amun and the mother goddess isis the highest deity was usually credited with the creation of the world and often connected with the life @@ giving power of the sun some scholars have argued based in part on egyptian writings that the egyptians came to recognize a single divine power that lay behind all things and was present in all the other deities yet they never abandoned their original polytheistic view of the world except possibly during the era of atenism in the 14th century bc when official religion focused exclusively on the impersonal sun god aten
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gods were assumed to be present throughout the world capable of influencing natural events and the course of human lives people interacted with them in temples and unofficial shrines for personal reasons as well as for larger goals of state rites egyptians prayed for divine help used rituals to compel deities to act and called upon them for advice humans ' relations with their gods were a fundamental part of egyptian society
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= = definition = =
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the beings in ancient egyptian tradition who might be labeled as deities are difficult to count egyptian texts list the names of many deities whose nature is unknown and make vague indirect references to other gods who are not even named the egyptologist james p allen estimates that more than 1 @@ 400 deities are named in egyptian texts whereas his colleague christian leitz says there are thousands upon thousands of gods
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the egyptian language 's terms for these beings were nṯr god and its feminine form <unk> goddess scholars have tried to discern the original nature of the gods by proposing etymologies for these words but none of these suggestions has gained acceptance and the terms ' origin remains obscure the hieroglyphs that were used as ideograms and determinatives in writing these words show some of the traits that the egyptians connected with divinity the most common of these signs is a flag flying from a pole similar objects were placed at the entrances of temples representing the presence of a deity throughout ancient egyptian history other such hieroglyphs include a falcon reminiscent of several early gods who were depicted as falcons and a seated male or female deity the feminine form could also be written with an egg as determinative connecting goddesses with creation and birth or with a cobra reflecting the use of the cobra to depict many female deities
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the egyptians distinguished <unk> gods from <unk> people but the meanings of the egyptian and the english terms do not match perfectly the term nṯr may have applied to any being that was in some way outside the sphere of everyday life deceased humans were called nṯr because they were considered to be like the gods whereas the term was rarely applied to many of egypt 's lesser supernatural beings which modern scholars often call demons egyptian religious art also depicts places objects and concepts in human form these personified ideas range from deities that were important in myth and ritual to obscure beings only mentioned once or twice that may be little more than metaphors
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confronting these blurred distinctions between gods and other beings scholars have proposed various definitions of a deity one widely accepted definition suggested by jan assmann says that a deity has a cult is involved in some aspect of the universe and is described in mythology or other forms of written tradition according to a different definition by dimitri meeks nṯr applied to any being that was the focus of ritual from this perspective gods included the king who was called a god after his coronation rites and deceased souls who entered the divine realm through funeral ceremonies likewise the preeminence of the great gods was maintained by the ritual devotion that was performed for them across egypt
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= = origins = =
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the first written evidence of deities in egypt comes from the early dynastic period ( c 3100 2686 bc ) deities must have emerged sometime in the preceding predynastic period ( before 3100 bc ) and grown out of prehistoric religious beliefs predynastic artwork depicts a variety of animal and human figures some of these images such as stars and cattle are reminiscent of important features of egyptian religion in later times but in most cases there is not enough evidence to say whether the images are connected with deities as egyptian society grew more sophisticated clearer signs of religious activity appeared the earliest known temples appeared in the last centuries of the predynastic era along with images that resemble the iconographies of known deities the falcon that represents horus and several other gods the crossed arrows that stand for neith and the enigmatic set animal that represents set
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many egyptologists and anthropologists have suggested theories about how the gods developed in these early times gustave <unk> for instance thought the egyptians first revered primitive fetishes then deities in animal form and finally deities in human form whereas henri frankfort argued that the gods must have been envisioned in human form from the beginning some of these theories are now regarded as too simplistic and more current ones such as siegfried morenz ' hypothesis that deities emerged as humans began to distinguish themselves from and personify their environment are difficult to prove
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predynastic egypt originally consisted of small independent villages because many deities in later times were strongly tied to particular towns and regions many scholars have suggested that the pantheon formed as disparate communities coalesced into larger states spreading and intermingling the worship of the old local deities but others have argued that the most important predynastic gods were like other elements of egyptian culture present all across the country despite the political divisions within it
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the final step in the formation of egyptian religion was the unification of egypt in which rulers from upper egypt made themselves pharaohs of the entire country these sacred kings and their subordinates assumed the exclusive right to interact with the gods and kingship became the unifying focus of the religion
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new gods continued to emerge after this transformation some important deities like isis and amun are not known to have appeared until the old kingdom ( c 2686 2181 bc ) places and concepts could suddenly inspire the creation of a deity to represent them and deities were sometimes created to serve as opposite @@ sex counterparts to established gods or goddesses kings were said to be divine although only a few continued to be worshipped long after their deaths some non @@ royal humans were said to have the favor of the gods and were venerated accordingly this veneration was usually short @@ lived but the court architects imhotep and amenhotep son of <unk> were regarded as gods centuries after their lifetimes as were some other officials
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through contact with neighboring civilizations the egyptians also adopted foreign deities <unk> who is first mentioned in the old kingdom may have come from nubia and baal anat and astarte among others were adopted from canaanite religion during the new kingdom ( c 1550 1070 bc ) in greek and roman times from 332 bc to the early centuries ad deities from across the mediterranean world were revered in egypt but the native gods remained and they often absorbed the cults of these newcomers into their own worship
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= = characteristics = =
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modern knowledge of egyptian beliefs about the gods is mostly drawn from religious writings produced by the nation 's scribes and priests these people were the elite of egyptian society and were very distinct from the general populace most of whom were illiterate little is known about how well this broader population knew or understood the sophisticated ideas that the elite developed commoners ' perceptions of the divine may have differed from those of the priests the populace may for example have mistaken the religion 's symbolic statements about the gods and their actions for literal truth but overall what little is known about popular religious belief is consistent with the elite tradition the two traditions form a largely cohesive vision of the gods and their nature
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= = = roles = = =
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most egyptian deities represent natural or social phenomena the gods were generally said to be immanent in these phenomena to be present within nature the types of phenomena they represented include physical places and objects as well as abstract concepts and forces the god shu was the deification of all the world 's air the goddess <unk> oversaw a limited region of the earth the theban necropolis and the god sia personified the abstract notion of perception major gods often had many roles and were involved in several types of phenomena for instance khnum was the god of elephantine island in the midst of the nile the river that was essential to egyptian civilization he was credited with producing the annual nile flood that fertilized the nation 's farmland perhaps as an outgrowth of this life @@ giving function he was said to create all living things fashioning their bodies on a potter 's wheel gods could share the same role in nature ra atum <unk> horus and other deities acted as sun gods despite their diverse functions most gods had an overarching role in common maintaining maat the universal order that was a central principle of egyptian religion and was itself personified as a goddess but some deities represented disruption to maat most prominently apep was the force of chaos constantly threatening to annihilate the order of the universe and set was an ambivalent member of divine society who could both fight disorder and foment it
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not all aspects of existence were seen as deities although many deities were connected with the nile no god personified it in the way that ra personified the sun short @@ lived phenomena like rainbows or eclipses were not represented by gods neither were elements like fire and water or many other components of the world
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the roles of each deity were fluid and each god could expand its nature to take on new characteristics as a result gods ' roles are difficult to categorize or define but despite their flexibility the gods had limited abilities and spheres of influence not even the creator god could reach beyond the boundaries of the cosmos that he created and even isis though she was said to be the cleverest of the gods was not omniscient richard h wilkinson however argues that some texts from the late new kingdom suggest that as beliefs about the god amun evolved he was thought to approach omniscience and omnipresence and to transcend the limits of the world in a way that other deities did not
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the deities with the most limited and specialized domains are often called minor divinities or demons in modern writing although there is no firm definition for these terms among these lesser deities egyptologist claude <unk> draws a distinction between genies specialized patron spirits of certain places objects or activities such as the sea or marsh god <unk> @@ wer and the harvest goddess renenutet and demons who have a more dangerous character many demons are hostile causing illness and other troubles among humans their power can also be protective they may guard certain places in the duat the realm of the dead or advise and watch over humans egyptians believed the landscape was full of these unpredictable divine powers demons often act as servants and messengers to the greater gods but their position in the hierarchy is not fixed the protective deities <unk> and <unk> originally had minor demon @@ like roles but over time they came to be credited with great influence
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= = = behavior = = =
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divine behavior was believed to govern all of nature except for the few deities who disrupted the divine order the gods ' actions maintained maat and created and sustained all living things they did this work using a force the egyptians called heka a term usually translated as magic <unk> was a fundamental power that the creator god used to form the world and the gods themselves
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the gods ' actions in the present are described and praised in hymns and funerary texts in contrast mythology mainly concerns the gods ' actions during a vaguely imagined past in which the gods were present on earth and interacted directly with humans the events of this past time set the pattern for the events of the present periodic occurrences were tied to events in the mythic past the succession of each new pharaoh for instance reenacted horus ' accession to the throne of his father osiris myths are metaphors for the gods ' actions which humans cannot fully understand they contain seemingly contradictory ideas each expressing a particular perspective on divine events the contradictions in myth are part of the egyptians ' many @@ faceted approach to religious belief what henri frankfort called a multiplicity of approaches to understanding the gods
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in myth the gods behave much like humans they feel emotion they can eat drink fight weep sicken and die some have unique character traits set is aggressive and impulsive and thoth patron of writing and knowledge is prone to long @@ winded speeches yet overall the gods are more like archetypes than well drawn characters their behavior is inconsistent and their thoughts and motivations are rarely stated most myths about them lack highly developed characters and plots because the symbolic meaning of the myths was more important than elaborate storytelling
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the first divine act is the creation of the cosmos described in several creation myths they focus on different gods each of which may act as creator deities the eight gods of the <unk> who represent the chaos that precedes creation give birth to the sun god who establishes order in the newly formed world ptah who embodies thought and creativity gives form to all things by envisioning and naming them atum produces all things as emanations of himself and amun according to the myths promoted by his priesthood preceded and created the other creator gods these and other versions of the events of creation were not seen as contradictory each gives a different perspective on the complex process by which the organized universe and its many deities emerged from undifferentiated chaos the period following creation in which a series of gods rule as kings over the divine society is the setting for most myths the gods struggle against the forces of chaos and among each other before withdrawing from the human world and installing the historical kings of egypt to rule in their place
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a recurring theme in these myths is the effort of the gods to maintain maat against the forces of disorder they fight vicious battles with the forces of chaos at the start of creation ra and apep battling each other each night continue this struggle into the present another prominent theme is the gods ' death and revival the clearest instance where a god dies is the myth of osiris ' murder in which that god is resurrected as ruler of the duat the sun god is also said to grow old during his daily journey across the sky sink into the duat at night and emerge as a young child at dawn in the process he comes into contact with the rejuvenating water of primordial chaos funerary texts that depict ra 's journey through the duat also show the corpses of gods who are enlivened along with him instead of being <unk> immortal the gods periodically died and were reborn by repeating the events of creation thus renewing the whole world but it was always possible for this cycle to be disrupted and for chaos to return some poorly understood egyptian texts even suggest that this calamity is destined to happen that the creator god will one day dissolve the order of the world leaving only himself and osiris amid the primordial chaos
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= = = locations = = =
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gods were linked with specific regions of the universe in egyptian tradition the world includes the earth the sky and the duat surrounding them is the dark formlessness that existed before creation the gods in general were said to dwell in the sky although gods whose roles were linked with other parts of the universe were said to live in those places instead most events of mythology set in a time before the gods ' withdrawal from the human realm take place in an earthly setting the deities there sometimes interact with those in the sky the duat in contrast is treated as a remote and inaccessible place and the gods who dwell there have difficulty communicating with those in the world of the living the space outside the cosmos is also said to be very distant it too is inhabited by deities some hostile and some beneficial to the other gods and their orderly world
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in the time after myth most gods were said to be either in the sky or invisibly present within the world temples were their main means of contact with humanity each day it was believed the gods moved from the divine realm to their temples their homes in the human world there they inhabited the cult images the statues that depicted deities and allowed humans to interact with them in temple rituals this movement between realms was sometimes described as a journey between the sky and the earth as temples were the focal points of egyptian cities the god in a city 's main temple was the patron god for the city and the surrounding region deities ' spheres of influence on earth centered on the towns and regions they presided over many gods had more than one cult center and their local ties changed over time they could establish themselves in new cities or their range of influence could contract therefore a given deity 's main cult center in historical times is not necessarily his or her place of origin the political influence of a city could affect the importance of its patron deity when kings from thebes took control of the country at start of the middle kingdom ( c 2055 1650 bc ) they elevated thebes ' patron gods first the war god montu and then amun to national prominence
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= = = names and epithets = = =
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in egyptian belief names express the fundamental nature of the things to which they refer in keeping with this belief the names of deities often relate to their roles or origins the name of the predatory goddess sekhmet means powerful one the name of the mysterious god amun means hidden one and the name of the goddess nekhbet who was worshipped in the city of <unk> means she of <unk> but many other names have no certain meaning even when the gods who bear them are closely tied to a single role the names of the sky goddess nut and the earth god geb do not resemble the egyptian terms for sky and earth
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the egyptians also devised false etymologies giving more meanings to divine names a passage in the coffin texts renders the name of the funerary god <unk> as sk r meaning cleaning of the mouth to link his name with his role in the opening of the mouth ritual while one in the pyramid texts says the name is based on words shouted by osiris connecting <unk> with the most important funerary deity
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the gods were believed to have many names among them were secret names that conveyed their true natures more profoundly than others to know the true name of a deity was to have power over it the importance of names is demonstrated by a myth in which isis poisons the superior god ra and refuses to cure him unless he reveals his secret name to her upon learning the name she tells it to her son horus and by learning it they gain greater knowledge and power
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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 with more important gods accumulating more titles and the same epithet can apply to many deities some epithets eventually became separate deities as with <unk> 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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= = = relationships = = =
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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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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 <unk> 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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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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nine the product of three and three represents a multitude so the egyptians called several large groups <unk> 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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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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= = = manifestations and combinations = = =
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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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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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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 @@ <unk> and with several solar deities as <unk> @@ <unk> @@ 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 <unk> 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 @@ <unk> and khenty @@ <unk> who became little more than local manifestations of him hathor subsumed a similar cow goddess bat and an early funerary god <unk> @@ <unk> was supplanted by osiris and anubis
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= = = the aten and possible monotheism = = =
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in the reign of akhenaten ( c 1353 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 <unk> 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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