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Egyptian Mythology: Difference between revisions
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{{Useful Notes}}
[[File:st_osiris.jpg|frame|Osiris, followed by his two sons, Anubis and Horus]]
The Egyptians had quite a lot of deities, many of whom have "turned up" in fiction, especially in the [[Stargate Verse]] as Goa'uld. They show up in [[The Bible]], especially in the book of Exodus, most of which takes place in ancient Egypt. <ref>Most of the early story involves the Hebrew god and the Egyptian gods trying to show each other up with bigger or mutually-exclusive miracles... guess who wins?</ref>
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As with many other mythologies around the world there are different versions of many Egyptian myths, which results in a highly confusing mythology. Upper Egypt conquered Lower Egypt.<ref>That is, the kingdom in the South, which had a higher elevation and was ''up''stream on the Nile, conquered the one in the North.</ref> When the formerly-two kingdoms started to merge the pantheons into one things became a mess. Some deities were merged, renamed, or outright changed to try to keep the newly united kingdom's religion straight.
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{{creatortropes}}
* [[Action Girl]]: Many of the goddesses became one, particularly Isis, Sekhmet, and Hathor, plus Neith, goddess of war.
* [[Adaptational Villainy]]: Set, although an ambiguous deity in the earliest version of his myths, was worshipped like the other gods and protected Ra from Apep. After the division of Egypt, he became a [[God of Evil]] in the Lower Kingdom and even more so after the Hyksos invasion.
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* [[Anthropomorphic Personification]]
* [[Ax Crazy]]: When Sekhmet was sent to Egypt to punish traitors of Ra, she slaughtered half the population, mauling them and drinking their blood.
* [[Back
* [[Badass]]: Seth and Hathor qualify, as they are the only deities able to overcome the chaos demons.
* [[Badass Bookworm]]: Thoth. The book of spells he wrote had to be dumped in the deepest part of the Nile, guarded by scorpions and an immortal serpent, and put inside a gold box inside a silver box inside an ebony/ivory box inside a wooden box inside a bronze box inside an iron box. The person who recovered it turned into a living god until Thoth wiped him out.
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* [[Came Back Wrong]]: Less wrong than most versions, but Osiris came back ''green''. Some myths have this due to him turning into a vegetable or something. Also, he might be missing some bits, especially after that incident [[Groin Attack|with Set throwing a certain body part of his into the Nile where a fish ate it.]]
* [[Cessation of Existence]]: If a dead person's heart is heavier than Ma'at's feather, it's fed to the beast Ammit and the dead person ceases to exist. <ref>The very idea of a cessation of existence was one of the most terrifying things imaginable in ancient Egyptian religion, and even being forgotten after death is a big deal. One of the most common ways to strike at the legacy of a dead Pharaoh was to erase said Pharaoh's name anywhere one could find it, thereby invalidating their existence.</ref>
* [[Chaos Entity]]:
** Set or Seth is the god of deserts, storms, and chaos. He is considered one of the greatest gods of the Egyptian pantheon. He is also viewed as the god of foreigners and was equated to deities like Baal. The Greeks demonized him as evil, so he is regarded as antagonistic in later depictions. Set gets associated with the uncertainties and hardships of the desert, leading to his reputation becoming more ignoble. His conflicts with his mortal enemy, Apep, also lead him to be related to serpents. This is ironic because later interpretations led to him being seen as evil even though he is seen as one of the only gods who can defeat the chaotic serpent.
** Apep, or Apophis in Greek, was the snake god of chaos, evil, and darkness. He was often seen as a serpent but later became seen as a dragon. Apep is said to try to eat the sun from under the horizon where the Duat (the Egyptian Underworld) resides. He plagues Ra, tasked with raising the sun daily, but has guards, including his brother, Set.
* [[Continuity Snarl]]: Best describes the contradictory nature of Egyptian mythology.
* [[Dark Is Not Evil]]: Osiris once he became the god of death. Anubis as well, being portrayed as a black jackal.
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* [[God of Evil]]: Set, though he wasn't always: originally, he was the god of the desert and storms. He was [[Designated Villain|designated]] as evil after Egypt was invaded by a people who favored him. He even helped Ra fight against Apep the serpent every night (which doesn't change the fact that he ruthlessly killed Osiris). ''Apep'' on the other hand was the god of [[Obviously Evil|darkness and chaos]] but is oddly never really used in fiction as much as Set.
* [[Going to Give It More Energy]]: Sekhmet is let loose (in the form of a lioness) upon a sinful population. She gets out of control and the gods, taking pity on the humans, show them the way to stop her: they exploit her insatiable thirst for blood by flooding a nearby field with bloodred wine. When the crazed goddess passes by on her way to eat more people, she pounced on the lake of "blood" and drank it all. This results in the most severe hangover ever -- Sekhmet passes out and wakes up as a cow. This peaceful form of her is named Hathor.
* [[Hell Hound]]: Egypt was in ''love'' with these: Anubis is the most well-known, but there were also [[
* [[I Ate What?]]: During the battle between Horus and Set, Horus does something [[A Date with Rosie Palms|very naughty]] over Set's salad at one point...
* [[I Love the Dead]]: Isis and the corpse of Osiris.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Useful Notes/Egypt]]
[[Category:
[[Category:Egyptian Mythology]]
[[Category:Useful Notes/Religion]]
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