According to the official theory, the Egyptian civilization is the second to have emerged in the world after the Sumerian one. Around 3100 BC, Men / Menes or Narmer unified Upper and Lower Egypt, becoming the first pharaoh of the entire country and the founder of the first dynasty. Researchers, especially Egyptologists, persist in ignoring what ancient Egyptians told us through several sources, such as the writings of the priest Manetho, of the Greek historian Herodotus, The Turin Papyrus or The Palermo Stone: before the first pharaoh unified Egypt, the country was ruled by two dynasties of gods, one of demigods and a transitory one of humans.
The Greek historian Plutarch (Ploutarkhos in Greek), who changed his name to Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus after obtaining Roman citizenship, said about the religion of the Egyptians that it was a dark and enigmatic science. The Egyptians called their deities „neteru” (with the forms „neter” for masculine and „netert” for feminine), a word that has been conventionally translated by Egyptologists as „gods”. However, in ancient Egyptian, „neter” means „guardian” or, in other words, „watcher„, a name with the same meaning as „igigi” of the Sumerians. Each important city had its own „neteru„, which were only apparently different. It is possible that their name comes from Anšar / Anshar, the father of Anu in Akkadian myths. As his name was written „nšr” (in Semitic languages only consonants are written, not the vowels), and the Egyptian letter „ț” is equivalent to the Semitic „š„, Anšar becomes „nțr” in Egyptian hieroglyphs, which was transformed into „ntr” and read „neter„.
Iunu (occasionally written Annu), called Helioupolis by the Greeks, Egypt’s most important religious center of, worshiped the Great Ennead, consisting of Ra, Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut, Osiris, Seth, Isis and Nephthys. Ra or Re, the Sun, was the leader of the pantheon. The Sun god, present in most cultures, symbolize the role of supreme god. Just as the Sun is at the center of the solar system, with planets orbiting around it, the supreme god was in the middle of the other gods, who „orbited” around him. Although Egyptologists have tried to translate the name of the god in different ways, its true meaning is found in Sumerian, where among the multiple meanings of the word „ra” is that of „ruler”. The Egyptians called their supreme god „The Ruler”, attributing to him the role of the Sun god to reinforce his authority. The suffix „ra” is found in the names of many deities with leadership functions in various cultures. For example, Indra is the king of gods in Hinduism. His name correctly translates to „Ruler of the Indus”. In Egypt, Amun-Ra does not represent the combination of two rival deities, as interpreted by Egyptologists. Since the word „amun” means „hidden”, Amun-Ra was the epithet of the god considered by the Egyptians as the „Hidden Ruler”. Born from the ocean Nun (the primordial chaos), Ra was represented as a falcon or a man with a falcon head and his symbol was the obelisk. His cult was first attested around 2865 BC, as can be seen in the name of the pharaoh Reneb of the Second Dynasty. Its influence grew during the Fifth Dynasty, when three pharaohs declared themselves his sons. Ra’s main cult center was called Helioupolis by the Greeks, On by the Hebrews and Assyrians and Iunu or Annu by the Egyptians. The name Annu proves that the Egyptians identified their Ra with the supreme deity of Mesopotamia, as seen in the name of the goddess Anuket (Anukis for the Greeks), translated as „Daughter of Ra”, even though Anu’s name appears in the goddess’ name, not Ra’s. And the god Inpu was called Anubis by the Greeks, meaning „Twice Anu”. In The Book of the Dead it is said that Ra cut off his own phallus, from which drops of blood fell on the ground, giving rise to two personifications of intellect: Hu („Authority”) and Saa („Intellect”). These two children are in fact the two sons of Anu, Enlil (the authoritarian king of the Earth) and Enki (the god of intelligence and wisdom). Another Egyptian myth says that Ra’s first children were Shu (the warm air) and Tefenet (the moisture), called Tefnut by the Greeks. Once again we encounter the two sons of Anu: Enlil (the god of air) and Enki (the god of water). According to The Coffin Texts, Ra lost his beard on „the day of rebellion” and in The Book of the Dead he destroyed „the children of rebellion„. There are no legends to explain what this rebellion was about, but it seems to be the same one that the Mesopotamians mentioned: the rebellion of Enki and the fallen gods Igigi against Anu and Enlil. In Sumerian mythology, the goddess of love and beauty, Inanna, became the consort of An. The Egyptians had a similar myth in which Ra, being upset, was cheered up by his daughter, Hathor (the goddess of love), after she danced naked in front of him and then began to tickle him. We do not know what the ancient Egyptians understood from this story, but when a naked goddess touches the old Ra and dances provocatively in front of him, then he leaves the room in a very good mood, we can only think of sex. It seems that the priests knew the truth because, in a procession from the temple of Hathor in Dendera, her statue was carried from the interior of the sanctuary to the roof, where a special chapel had been built for the ceremony of the goddess’ union with the Sun.
In the Heliopolitan religion, Geb or Keb was the god of the Earth. As the primordial ruler of Egypt, he was initially represented as a bearded man, later depicted as a ram, bull, crocodile or a man with a serpent head. In some myths he is even called „the father of serpents„. At Heliopolis he was the husband of Nut, the goddess of heaven. He was associated with vegetation but also with the Underworld. His name, which means „earth” in Egyptian, comes from the Sumerian word „gi„, which has the same meaning. As the god of the Earth, represented as a serpent, crocodile or ram, associated with the Underworld, Geb („Earth”) is the Sumerian Enki („Lord of the Earth”). His sister and wife, Nut, the goddess of heaven, is Ninhursag, also known in many cultures as „The Queen of Heaven„.
In the ancient myths Geb was Enki, but in the newer ones he seems to have replaced Ra / Anu. If the most important gods in Mesopotamia were the children of heaven and Earth (An and Ki), the Egyptians adopted the same belief. Geb, the personification of the Earth, and Nut, the goddess of heaven, had four children, who became the most important gods for the Egyptians: Asar, Sutah, Aset and Nebthet. The first among them was Wsjr (pronounced Asar, Yasar, Aser, Asaru, Ausar, Ausir, Wesir, Usir, Usire or Ausare), called Osiris by the Greeks. Historians Plutarch and Diodorus Siculus believed the Greek name of the god means „The One with Many Eyes„, being made up of „os” („many”) and „iris” („eyes”). However, their translation is not accurate, as Osiris actually means „The Open Eye” („os” = „open”, „iris” = „eye”). The hieroglyph of this deity’s name is composed of a kneeling deity next to a throne, above which an eye is depicted. Osiris, the first ruler of Earth, was killed by his younger brother, Seth, the god of storms and deserts, who took his throne. Thus, Osiris became the ruler of the Underworld, Duat. Horus, the son of Osiris and Isis, took over his father’s throne after a long war against his usurping uncle. With the royal scepter and shepherd crook in his hands, Osiris was often depicted with spread ram horns and sometimes with a crescent moon crown. The Moon and the ram are symbols of the Sumerian god Enki, also a son of the deity symbolizing heaven. The main cult center of Osiris was the city of Abju, called Abydos by the Greeks. Enki’s underground house was Abzu, Abju and Abzu being almost identical, which means the ancient Egyptians correctly identified Osiris with Enki. By building the city of Abydos, they tried to persuade the god to live among them, moving his house from underground to surface. Aset, the wife of Osiris, was called Isis by the Greeks, a name formed by doubling the first syllable of the Akkadian goddess Ishtar’s name, the consort of Ea / Enki. Enki’s son, Marduk, was called Amar Utu in Sumerian („Solar Calf”). Isis was often depicted with a cow head and Osiris was called „the bull of Amenti„, which symbolically transforms their son, Horus, into a calf. In a different myth, Horus is the son of Hathor, also considered a cow goddess. Hathor, the Egyptian goddess of love and war, is another manifestation of the Akkadian goddess of love and war, Ishtar, who in many myths is considered the mother of Marduk. And the bovine horns of cow goddesses or bull / calf gods represent nothing more than the crescent moon, the main symbol of Enki’s family. Osiris is said to have invented the flute and lyre. He civilized people, taking them out of the half-animal state. Diodorus Siculus wrote that the god made them give up cannibalism. Osiris also discovered the grapevine, taught people viticulture and horticulture, how to build cities and irrigation canals and how to honor the gods. His wife, Isis, gave humans laws, language and agriculture. In Mesopotamia, Enki is responsible for all these things. In On Isis and Osiris („De Iside et Osiride” in Latin), the historian Plutarch wrote that for some Egyptians, Seth symbolizes the solar world and Osiris the lunar world. The status of lunar god was bestowed upon Osiris by the Heliopolis priests because the influence of the Moon is associated with thinking and wisdom, opposed to the strong and violent influence of the Sun. He is even called „The lord of the Moon’s horns” in The Egyptian Book of the Dead. However, in Mesopotamia, the god of thought and wisdom, associated with the Moon, was Enki. Isis, the wife of Osiris, was considered an unmatched magician, and in the same Book of the Dead Osiris protects himself from demon attacks with magical barriers. In Mesopotamia, Enki was the one who mastered magic. In The Book of the Dead, Osiris is called „prince in the kingdom of the silent” and „lord of the land of the dead„. In Sumer, Enki held the title of Grand Prince. The name Asar is just one of the Akkadian epithets of Enki, which means „Prince of Waters”. In Chapter 183 of The Book of the Dead, Osiris is called „un-nefer„, meaning „The Beautiful One”, an epithet of Enki as Dumuzi / Tammuz. Plutarch wrote that Osiris was identified with the Nile, and Homer and Thales of Miletus considered him the ocean, Enki being the god of the waters in Mesopotamia. Although conventionally Geb and Nut were the parents of Osiris, Ra is his father for Plutarch. And Ra, as we have seen, was An of the Sumerians, the father of Enki.
Although the Mesopotamians tried their best to present Enki in a positive way, his evil side is visible in his aspect of the demon Pazuzu. The Egyptians tried to do the same with Osiris, but they left us more details about the true nature of the first ruler of our planet. According to Plutarch, the Egyptians believed that Osiris was born on the right and would die on the left. As the right signifies good and the left evil, we can understand that Enki was initially viewed as a positive deity and later as a negative one, probably after his rebellion against his father, alongside the Igigi gods. This is why Osiris was often called „the first among those of the sunset„, the west symbolizing the left side and the east the right side. In The Pyramid Texts there are descriptions of Osiris as a threatening demon who enjoys the shedding of blood, utters malicious spells against deceased people and leads a „mafia” of assassins called „Osiris’ butchers with fingers that bring pain” or „Osiris’ fishermen„. In The Book of the Dead, Osiris is named „lord over souls, who sows terror„. In the same book the entire Earth trembles before him, god Atum sows the terror of Osiris’ name in everyone’s hearts, his emanations destroy the souls of sinners and Thoth says that the gods born of Nut (Osiris, Isis and their brothers) invented wars, unleashed disasters, wrought havoc and injustice and invented demons (chapter 175). Although Osiris was usually represented with green skin, Plutarch claims the god was black. Moreover, The Book of the Dead even calls him „the great black one„. The Egyptians called their country Kmit (Kemi in Coptic language), which means „black”, an allusion to the color of their favorite god. All of these descriptions make us think about a diabolical ruler of the Underworld, different from the benefactor of humanity as his followers described him.
We have concrete evidence of the Osirian myth from the time of the last pharaoh of the Fifth Dynasty, Djedkare Izezi, who ruled approximately between 2414 and 2375 BC. If Enki / Osiris did indeed rebelled against his father, we can find him in Egyptian religions under a different identity before this period. Indeed, there is Denwen, a violent serpent-god attested in the Pyramid Age, about whom not much information has been preserved. All we know about him is that he caused a conflagration to destroy other deities and was countered by a king. Probably Denwen is another name for Apep (Apophis in Greek), the first god of evil, later considered a demon, the personification of darkness, chaos and evil, opponent of light and Ma’at (order or truth), enemy of Ra and the husband of the goddess Taweret. Apophis has the form of a gigantic serpent, crocodile, lizard or dragon and was also called „the Nile serpent” or „the maleficent lizard„. In The Book of the Dead, he resides in the Underworld, where every night he attacks Ra’s boat, fighting with him and his companions, including Seth, the god of storms. This daily struggle is nothing but a reenactment of one from long ago when Apophis attacked Ra, just like Kumarbi attacked Anu for the Hittites. Seth and other gods fought alongside their leader, managing to defeat the Great Serpent and imprison him in the Underworld. This myth identifies Apophis with Enki and Osiris. Enlil, the storm god in Sumerian mythology, sent Enki, his older brother, to the Underworld, just as Seth, the storm god in Egyptian mythology, did with his brother, Osiris, but also with Apophis. After the emergence of his cult, Osiris was considered the good god and Seth was matched with Apophis and labeled as the god of chaos and evil. However, the original myth proves the opposite.
The god of storm and desert, initially considered a positive entity, Swth (pronounced Sutah, Setesh, Sutekh, Setekh or Suty), called Seth by the Greeks, was the one who fought alongside Ra against the giant serpent Apophis. At the end of the 6th Dynasty, in the 21st century BC, with the rise of Osiris’ cult, Seth was discredited and transformed into a demon by the followers of Osiris. However, the pharaoh Aasehre Nehesy of the 14th Dynasty rehabilitated the image of the god in the 17th century BC. Seth’s symbol is an unidentified animal that seams to be a donkey. As the storm god who represented the east (the right side) and the Sun, while his older brother had as symbols the west (the left side) and the Moon, Seth is the Sumerian god Enlil. While the Mesopotamians believed that Enki, the first ruler of the Earth, „slept” in the Underworld, where he was sent by his younger brother, who took his throne and was succeeded by Marduk, Enki’s son, the Egyptians were more direct. For them, Osiris, the first ruler of the Earth, was killed by his younger brother, Seth, who took his throne and was succeeded by Horus, the son of Osiris.
The son of Osiris and Isis, Horus, was called Haru („Falcon”) or Heru by the Egyptians, Hor and Har-si-ese („Horus, son of Isis”) in Coptic and Horos by the Greeks. The Egyptians also called him Har-pa-khered or Heru-pa-khered („Child Horus”), translated by the Greeks as Harpokratis. His wife was Hathor („House / Wife of Horus”), the daughter of Ra. After Seth killed Osiris and took his throne, Horus fought him for supremacy, ultimately defeating him and inheriting his father’s throne. The Hunefer Papyrus states that Horus was not only given the throne of Egypt, but also sovereignty over the entire world. As we have already seen, Osiris was Enki to the Sumerians and Seth was Enlil. In addition to his function as the god of the sky, Horus was also the god of war, just like Marduk. Therefore, Horus, the son of Osiris, is Marduk, the son of Enki. In both myths, Osiris / Enki ruled the Earth, his brother Seth / Enlil dethroned him, and later Horus / Marduk took his place, becoming the ruler of the world. Although no Mesopotamian myth survived to describe a direct battle between Marduk and Enlil, as in Egypt, we can assume the storm god did not give up his throne peacefully.
Before the cult of Osiris emerged, the older brother of Seth was named Heru-ur. His name could mean „Horus the Elder” or „Old Falcon”. This Horus, Seth’s brother, is a different entity from Har-si-ese („Horus, son of Isis”) or Horus the Younger. While the translation „Horus the Elder” has been accepted by most Egyptologists, it is possible that Heru-ur means „Horus of Ur” or „Falcon of Ur”, with Ur being a very important Sumerian city-state. The Falcon of Ur can only be the god of that city, namely Nanna, the god of the Moon, which would identify Horus the Elder with Nanna / Enki. Furthermore, one of Horus the Elder’s epithets was „Kemwer„, meaning „The Great Black One”, the epithet of Osiris in The Book of the Dead. On the Shabaka Stone it is written that the two brothers, Horus and Seth, fought for the supremacy of Egypt. Their father, Geb, gave Upper Egypt to Seth and Lower Egypt to Horus, with the border being „the limit of the two lands„, namely the apex of the Nile Delta at Memphis. Later, Geb changed his mind and gave all of Egypt to Horus, a decision accepted amicably by the two rivals. In The Book of the Dead, Horus is called „the elder son” and „the firstborn of Ra„. Ra was the Egyptian equivalent of the Sumerian An and the first born of An, „the elder son„, was Enki. The Egyptian storm god, Seth, is the Sumerian storm god, Enlil. Both Seth and Enlil fought their older brothers for supremacy. Horus the Elder and Osiris, along with Enki and Nanna, represent the same deity. In many inscriptions, the pharaoh (regardless of his name), who identified with Horus, is called „the son of Hathor„. This epithet confused Egyptologists because the pharaoh, as the reincarnation of Horus, is the son of Isis. However, in the original myth, Hathor was the mother of the falcon god. She gave up her place to Isis with the emergence of the cult of Osiris, being forced to settle for the role of Horus’ wife.
The division of Egypt between the two sons of Geb (Upper Egypt to Seth / Enlil and Lower Egypt to Horus the Elder / Enki) only symbolizes the domains of the two brothers. Enlil’s house was the heaven, so he received Upper Egypt, while Enki’s was the Underworld, thus symbolically receiving Lower Egypt. This symbolic division is found not only in this myth, as the cobra goddess Wadjet protected Lower Egypt, while the eagle goddess Nekhbet protected Upper Egypt. As the symbol of Enki’s family was the serpent and that of Enlil’s family was the eagle, the two protective deities of Egypt also symbolize the domains of the two divine clans.
In Khemenu (Hermoupolis Magna for the Greeks) the Great Ogdoad was venerated, with Dhwty (pronounced Djehuty, Jehuti, Jehuty, Tahuti, Tehuti, Zehuti, Techu or Tetu) as the leader of the eight gods, known to the Greeks as Thoth, Thot or Thout. He was a moon-god with the aspect of an ibis or a baboon, about whom Plutarch wrote that he had one arm shorter than the other. He was the patron of scribes and the god of knowledge, the inventor of hieroglyphic writing, grammar, mathematics, laws, astronomy and the calendar. He was the scribe of the gods, a great master in the art of magic, who possessed the science of healing. The priest Manetho, cited by the Neoplatonist Iamblichus, wrote that the god understood the mysteries of „all that is hidden under the celestial vault„. In the inscription of the statue of the pharaoh Horemheb, represented as a scribe, Thoth is called „the son of Ra„. Likewise in The Book of the Dead, where he is also „the son of Aner„. Since Ra was for the Egyptians what An was for the Sumerians, we can conclude that Aner is another name for Ra, which even contains the Sumerian one. Among Thoth’s epithets are „The Most Powerful of the Gods„, „The Lord of Sacred Words” and „The Bull of Khemenu„. His consort was Nehmatauay or Ma’at. It is said that Thoth controlled the turquoise mines in Sinai, a peninsula that represented the territory of Sin, the Akkadian god of the Moon, already identified with Enki. As a god of the Moon and knowledge, a master in the art of healing and magic, the inventor of writing, mathematics, laws, astronomy and the calendar, the son of Ra / An, Thoth is undoubtedly the Sumerian Enki. Moreover, the writer Graham Hancock noted the same thing about Thoth in Fingerprints of the Gods: „he closely resembles his predecessor Osiris, the high god of the Pyramid Texts and the fourth divine pharaoh of Egypt„. The British Egyptologist Walter Brian Emery observed in Archaic Egypt that the Egyptians and Sumerians worshiped identical lunar deities: Thoth and Sin. Also, the eminent Egyptologist Ernest Alfred Thompson Wallis Budge wrote in From Fetish to God in Ancient Egypt about the same gods: „The similarities between the two gods are too big to be accidental… It would be wrong to say the Sumerians borrowed from the Egyptians or the Egyptians from the Sumerians, but rather that the intellectuals of both peoples borrowed their theological systems from a common, exceptionally ancient source„.
Besides this Thoth it seems there was another deity with the same name. Represented as a baboon, the first was the supreme god of the city of Hermopolis Magna (Khemenu for the Egyptians), the leader of a group of eight deities, the god of fertility, the Moon, wisdom and magic, the one who created himself through thought, the inventor of religion and astronomy, none other than Enki. The second Thoth became the god of scribes, the creator of the alphabet and writing, the mediator of conflicts between gods and the scribe of Osiris in the Underworld. His physical appearance was different from the first, being represented as a man with an ibis head. The first Thoth was the god of the Moon, while the second had connections to the Sun. In a myth, he won five days from the Moon, which he added to the existing 360, thus inventing the solar year of 365 days. The historian Manetho claimed that Thoth wrote 36,525 books, an obvious reference to the 365.25 days of the solar year. This second Thoth can only be Nabu, the son, minister, heir and scribe of Marduk, the god of writing, wisdom and sometimes of the waters and fertility of the fields. The latter attributes were inherited by Nabu from his grandfather, Enki, just as the second Thoth inherited those of the first one.
The Greeks of Alexandria combined Thoth with their god, Hermes, resulting in Hermes Trismegistus („thrice great”), the god of wisdom and writing, the patron of astrology and alchemy, who led souls into the afterlife. Of the thousands of texts attributed to him, the most famous are The Emerald Tablets, Asclepius and Corpus Hermeticum. In the latter, Hermes Trismegistus is described as a man who became a god or as a man who was the son of a god, very accurate descriptions of Nabu. In The Hitat, a collection of texts from the 15th century that includes writings of the Coptic chroniclers (Christians from Egypt), it is said about Hermes Trismegistus that „information about him varies. It is said that he was one of the seven Watchers, with the mission of watching over the seven houses (planets) and that he was supposed to follow the orders of Utarid (Mercury), who was also named after him; for Utarid means Hermes in the language of the Chaldeans. According to others, he wandered through Egypt for various reasons and ruled the country as a king; he was the wise man of his time„. In this quote, we find both deities named Thoth, referring to both Enki and Nabu, as well as evidence that the second one received the name of the first one. We also note that he is called „one of the seven Watchers„, a passage that reminds us of both the seven great gods of the Mesopotamians and the Watcher role that we also find with the „Eyes of the Earth” Igigi in Mesopotamia and the „open eye” Osiris, but also to the deities who held the title of the „Eye of Ra” (such as Sekhmet, Hathor, Bastet, Wadjet and Mut) or the „Eye of Horus”.
In Memphis and Nubia, the creator god was Ptah. He was identified with the falcon god Seker, and the new deity, Ptah-Seker, was considered a deity of the Underworld. In the Middle Kingdom he was also assimilated with Osiris, the ruler of the Underworld, becoming known as Ptah-Seker-Asar. According to The Shabaka Stone, Ptah created the world by thinking it, then speaking it into existence. It is said he is the one who brought the land of Egypt out from under the waters, a story similar to that of Enki, who did the same thing with Sumer. Initially a god of fertility, Ptah became the patron of the arts and crafts, just like Enki. His wife was the lioness Sekhmet and their son, Nefertum, was the god of the lotus flower. Enki’s wife and daughter, Ishtar, was most often represented riding a lioness. Ptah created the opening ceremony of the mouth, officiated by priests at funerals, to release the soul of the deceased from the body. For the Sumerians, Enki is the one who brought priestly rituals to humans. Ptah was represented similarly to Osiris, as a bearded mummified man with green skin, holding in his hands the ankh (the Egyptian cross), the was scepter and the djed, symbols of life, power and stability. The name Egypt derives from that of the temple of Ptah in Memphis, Hut-ka-Ptah („The House of Ptah’s Soul”), translated into Greek as Aiguptos and into Latin as Aegyptus. Memphis (Inbu-Hedj / Men-nefer for the Egyptians), Ptah’s city, is the place where Osiris, who was born in the same area at Rosetau in the Western Desert, was believed to have drowned. Ptah and Osiris share the same epithet, „Lord of Truth„. One of the god’s epithets in Memphis was „Ptah nefer-her” („Ptah with a beautiful face”), an epithet also shared by Osiris and the Mesopotamian Dumuzi / Tammuz. Therefore, if Ptah is Enki / Osiris, his wife Sekhmet can only be Ninhursag / Isis and their son, Nefertum, Marduk / Horus.
Osoroapis or Serapis was an anthropomorphic deity with Egyptian and Hellenistic attributes. From Zeus and Helios he took the aspects of sovereignty and sun god, from Dionysos the fruitfulness in nature, and from Hades and Asclepius the connections with the afterlife and healing. The god’s name is composed of those of two other deities, Asar / Osiris and Apis. The Roman historian Tacitus suggested that Serapis originated in Asia Minor. Indeed, Serapis was another name for the Sumerian Enki.
Apis was an agricultural deity with the appearance of a bull, initially considered the reincarnation of Ptah, then associated with Osiris. According to the historian Mnaseas of Patrae, Dionysos, Osiris and Serapis were different names of Apis. The geographer Strabo (63 BC – 26 CE) wrote in his Geography about the temples of Memphis: „One of them is dedicated to Apis, who is the same as Osiris„. Also, in 1857, Auguste Mariette noted in Le Sérapéum de Memphis, referring to the tombs he discovered in Saqqara: „Eighteen statues with human heads, bearing the inscription ‘Osiris-Apis, Great God, Lord of Eternity’, were scattered around„. This clearly demonstrates the true identity of Apis.
One of the oldest deities of Egypt was Khnum, the ram-headed god of the Nile waters. It was believed that he created humans and other deities from clay, which is why he was called „the Divine Potter” or „Lord who created things from himself„. In Elephantine his consort was Satis and their daughter was Anuket (called Anukis by the Greeks). Although he was considered the ba (soul) of the sun god Ra, at Herwer he seems to be the ba of Geb, while at Shashotep is the ba of Osiris. At Esna, Khnum is represented with a crocodile head, he and the goddess Neith being considered here the creator gods and parents of Ra, called Khnum-Re here. Khnum’s main consorts are Nebt-uu and the lioness goddess Menhit, and his eldest son and successor is Heka. As a ram-headed god of the waters and creator of humans, Khnum can only be identified with Osiris / Ptah / Enki. That is why, in the temple of Ramses II at Beit el-Wali, alongside the statue of Khnum there are statues of the gods Satis, Anuket (his wife and daughter in Elephantine), Isis and Horus (his wife and son in Heliopolis).
The ram god Banebdjedet („The ba Lord of Djedet”) was venerated in the northeast of the Nile Delta together with his consort, the fish goddess Hatmehit, and their son Harpocrates. As the father of Horus, Banebdjedet is Osiris, while the ram and the fish represent Enki of the Sumerians. On a stela from the funerary temple of Ramses III at Medinet Habu, in the western part of the city of Thebes, there is an account in which the god Ptah-Tanen tells the king, whom he considers his son, that he turned into Banebdjedet to copulate with the pharaoh’s mother. For Plutarch, Banebdjedet was the incarnation of Osiris. In Chester Beatty Papyrus I, Banebdjedet is described as residing in Setit (the island of Seheil), located at the first cataract of the Nile in Aswan, which identifies him with the god Khnum. Indeed, Banebdjedet was another name for Osiris, Ptah, Khnum or Enki.
Thebes (Waset for the Egyptians and Thebai for the Greeks), the capital of Egypt in the second millennium BC, was the city of Amun or Amen („The Hidden One”), the god known as „King of the Gods”, called Ammon by the Greeks. According to Plutarch, the name Hades (the god of the Underworld in Greek mythology) also means the same thing. His name comes from the anagram of the Akkadian word „Anum”, one of the alternative names for the supreme god Anu. Amun was depicted with blue skin (the color of water), a ram’s head and an enormous phallus. The phallus symbolizes fertility, like the djed of Osiris, and this, along with the ram’s horns and water, identifies him with Enki. At Thebes, his wife was Mut and their son was Khonsu, the god of the Moon. At Hermopolis, his consort was Amaunet. According to Plutarch, sometimes the god was equated with Ptah, and a statue of Ptah was found in the temple of Amun at Karnak. Amun Kem-atef („Amun who has completed his form”) was the god’s form as an ancient serpent deity. The oldest serpent deity is Enki of the Sumerians or Ea of the Akkadians. The cult of Amun as a serpent is attested by the historian Herodotus in Thebes, where the horned viper was sacred. Amun Kamutef („Amun, the bull of his mother”) is the phallic form of the god. In The Book of the Dead, Amun is called „the son of the goddess Nut„, an epithet that matched him with Osiris, but also „prince of the gods„, like Enki and Osiris. As the bull symbolizes fertility and its horns represent the Moon, we can conclude that this „hidden ruler” was Enki. He was most likely named Amun („The Hidden One”) after he was sent to the Underworld, where he could no longer be seen by his followers. By analogy, Amaunet or Mut is Isis or Ninhursag of the Sumerians, and their son, Khonsu, is Heru or Marduk. During the 20th Dynasty, Amun held 160 cities in Egypt and nine in the Middle East. After the city of Thebes was destroyed by Arabs in 664 BC, the cult of Amun lost its supremacy in Egypt.
Menu (Min in Greek), whose cult originated in the predynastic period (4th millennium BC), was the god of fertility for ancient Egyptians. Adored mainly in Gebtu (Koptos) and Akhmim, Min was represented in many forms, most often as a black-skinned man with giant feathers on his head, his right hand raised and his left hand holding his erected penis. In the Middle Kingdom, Min was associated with Horus and was called Menu-Heru. In the New Kingdom, he was equated with Amun and was known as Menu-Amen-kamutef („Min-Amun, the bull of his mother”). Sometimes Isis is his consort and Horus is their child. In an archaic form, Min is represented in mummy wrappings, similar to Osiris and Ptah. As a god of fertility, with dark skin and associated with Horus (the Elder, Heru-ur) and Amun, husband of Isis and father of Horus (the Younger), Min can only be Osiris / Enki. The position of his hands in graphical representations is identical to that of Ashur in Assyria and Pazuzu in Mesopotamia, two of the alter-egos of the same god of wisdom.
Andjety („The One from Andjet”) is considered to be the god from whom Osiris evolved. He was represented holding two scepters in his hands and wearing the conical crown with two feathers of Osiris on his head. In The Coffin Texts he is called „bull of the vultures„. In the temple of Seti I in Abydos, the king is depicted burning incense for Osiris-Andjety, who is accompanied by Isis.
Letopolis (Khem for the Egyptians and Letous Polis for the Greeks), a city northwest of Memphis, was the main center of worship for Kherty („The One from Below”), a ram-god whom Ra had to protect the pharaoh from. In the Old Kingdom, Kherty was associated with Osiris as his partner. We can guess who „the one from below” was, the ram-god associated with Osiris, who wanted to harm the pharaoh.
In The Coffin Texts is mentioned a god of grain named Neper, who „lives after he dies„. Nothing else is known about him, but there is a good chance that this Neper is Osiris, the god who lives in the afterlife after being killed in this one.
The oldest moon god of the Egyptians was Yah, comparable to Thoth and Khonsu, sometimes identified with Osiris. His symbols are the Moon, the ibis and the falcon. His importance in Egypt is demonstrated by his presence in many personal names, such as Ahmose („Yah’s heir”), Yah-hotep („Yah is satisfied”) or Sit-Yah („Yah’s daughter”). As a moon god he is Osiris or Thoth, as the falcon he is Horus the Elder and as an ibis he is also Thoth, none other than Enki.
Aset (known as Isis by the Greeks), the most important goddess of the Egyptian pantheon, served as a model for many queens, such as Nefertiti, Hatshepsut and Cleopatra. Wife of Osiris and mother of Horus, her name was conventionally translated as „The Throne”. For Diodorus Siculus, Isis means „The Ancient One”. In reality, her Greek name was formed by doubling the first syllable of the Akkadian goddess Ishtar’s name. Herodotus wrote the largest temple dedicated to her was in Busiris („The Place of Osiris”), the capital of the ninth nome. Identified with the Earth, she was associated with the star Sothis (Sirius), while Osiris was the constellation Orion. According to The Chester-Beatty Papyrus, currently housed at the British Museum, Isis was „a wise woman, more intelligent than countless other gods… Nothing in the heavens or on Earth was unknown to her„. According to Ernest Alfred Thompson Wallis Budge in Egyptian Magic and The Gods of the Egyptians, Isis was „eloquent„, meaning that she mastered the words of power „which she knew with correct pronunciation and did not falter in speech, being perfect both in giving commands and in pronouncing words„. As the wife of Osiris / Enki and mother of Horus / Marduk, identified with the Earth and an expert in magic, Isis is the Sumerian goddess Ninhursag. On a stela discovered in 1850, now housed at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, it is stated that the pharaoh Khufu (Cheops) laid the foundations of „the house of Isis, the mistress of the pyramid, near the house of the Sphinx„. Considering the pyramids as artificial mountains in miniature, the epithet „mistress of the pyramid” is strikingly similar to the name Ninhursag, meaning „Lady of the High Mountain”, and the Great Pyramid of Giza can be considered the tallest artificial mountain. The best evidence that Isis was worshiped throughout the world under different names in various religions is offered by the Latin writer Lucius Apuleius Platonicus, who lived in the second century. In Metamorphoses he wrote: „Unique power, I am praised by the entire Universe under many forms, with varied religious ceremonies, with thousands of different names. The Phrygians, the first born on Earth, call me the goddess of Pesinunt and the mother of the gods; the Athenians call me Minerva Cecropiana; the Cypriots, who float on the waves, Venus of Paphos; the Cretans, skilled in archery, Diana Dictynna; the Sicilians, who speak three languages, Proserpina Stigiana; the inhabitants of Eleusis call me Bellona, some call me Hecate, others Nemesis Rhamnusia. But those who are the first to be illuminated by the divine rays of the Sun when it begins to rise, and the last when they bend toward the horizon, the inhabitants of the two Ethiopias and the powerful Egyptians through their ancient knowledge, they alone honor me with holy services and the worship that is due to me, they alone call me by my true queen name, Isis„.
Bastet (also known as Bast, Baast, Baset or Ubasti), the cat goddess of the Egyptians, was the protector of Lower Egypt. By the third millennium BC she was depicted as a lioness or as a woman with a lioness head. In the first millennium BC, when cats became pets in Egypt, Bastet began to be imagined as a cat or as a woman with a cat head. Daughter and „Eye of Ra”, Bastet was the goddess of perfumes, cats and family. Although the Greeks identified her with their Artemis, the Egyptians equated her with Sekhmet, Tefenet, Mut, Hathor and Isis. Surprisingly, Egyptologists translated her name as „She of the Perfume Jar”, although the exact interpretation is more than obvious. For anyone with minimal knowledge of the Egyptian language, Baast or Bast correctly translates as „Ba (soul) of Aset (Isis)”. And this interpretation connects her to the same goddess called Ninhursag by the Sumerians.
At Memphis and Thebes, Ptah’s consort was the lioness Sekhmet. She was identified with Mut and Amaunet, the wives of Amun at Thebes and Hermopolis. Because Ptah is Enki / Osiris / Amun, his wife can only be Ninhursag / Isis. In the temple of Ptah at Karnak there was a representation of Sekhmet, although the main goddess of the temple was Hathor, which reminds us of Hathor in the original myths, the daughter of Ra and the mother of Horus.
If in Mesopotamia Ninhursag was often confused with her daughter, both goddesses being called sometimes Inanna / Ishtar, the same happened in Egypt with Isis and Hathor. The goddess of love, music, joy and war, Hathor, was Horus’ mother in the original myth, later being replaced by Isis, both being represented with cow heads. The first Hathor, the daughter of Ra and the mother of Horus, was the Sumerian Ninhursag or the Egyptian Isis. The second Hathor, the fierce warrior wife of Horus, who almost destroyed humanity, is Ninsar / Ishtar, the sister and wife of Marduk in Mesopotamia. To eliminate the confusion, in the myths where the two goddesses appeared together, they were called either Isis and Nephthys, or Bastet and Hathor. Once again, we find a confirmation of Sumerian myths: if Enlil slept with Ishtar / Ereshkigal, thus giving birth to Namtar, the god of death, in the myth of Seth and Nephthys she was his wife. Here also the goddess gave birth to the god of death, called by the Greeks Anubis and by the Egyptians Inpu. However, some chroniclers, such as Plutarch, considered Anubis the son of Osiris, who mistaked Nephthys for his wife, Isis.
Inpw (pronounced Inpu or Anpu by Egyptians and Anapa in The Amarna Letters), called Anubis by the Greeks, was one of the most beloved gods of the Egyptians. According to tradition, Anubis was the son of Ra and Nephthys. At Atfih, his parents were Mnevis and Hesat. For Plutarch, Osiris and Nephthys were the parents of the jackal god, while in The Coffin Texts the god’s mother was either Hesat or Bastet. With the aspect of a jackal or just with a jackal head and a human body, Anubis had epithets such as „Khenty-Imentiu” („Foremost of the Westerners”), „Tepy-dju-ef” („He Who is on his Mountain”) or „Neb-ta-djeser” („Lord of the Sacred Land”). Some DNA tests from 2015 proves that Anubis’s sacred animal, which researchers considered to be a variant of the golden jackal, is actually related to the gray wolf, and has since been called „the African wolf” (Canis lupaster) or „golden wolf”. The ancient Greeks knew this, which is why they called the city of Zawty, the main center of Anubis’ cult, Lykopolis or „City of the Wolf”. In the Greco-Roman period it was believed that Anubis brought light to the human race and contributed to its future by creating effective love potions. He was represented with the lower part of his body in the form of a snake. During the Pyramid Age he was depicted as a snake ruling over the city of Heliopolis. The original god of death, he was eventually replaced by Osiris. Just like in the case of Thoth and Horus, we also encounter here two deities with the same name. The serpent god of death, who brought light to the human race, „Foremost of the Westerners” (associated with the left side), the son of Ra, was known as Enki to the Sumerians. The new Anubis, who became the son of Osiris, was Namtar, the god of death in Mesopotamia. At some point, Anubis was identified with Horus / Marduk. The two never show up together in Egyptian mythology, but only in some graphic representations. As in Mesopotamia, where Nergal was the negative aspect of Marduk, Anubis became the dark side of Horus.
In Zawty, in addition to Anubis, another deity with a wolf head (which had white or gray fur) was also venerated: Wepwawet, the son of Anubis. The two had been mistaken for each other, thus apparing the third Anubis, none other than Nabu of the Babylonians, who is the Great White Wolf in the myths of the Dacians. Funerary seals from the New Kingdom depict Anubis seated above nine bows, symbolizing Egypt’s domination over its enemies. Number nine is the symbol of Nabu, the planet attributed to him being the ninth in our solar system (counting from outside towards the Sun). In The Book of the Dead, Anubis weighs the hearts of the deceased on the scales of Ma’at (the wife of Thoth). In occultism inspired by Egyptian magic, Anubis takes the place of Thoth and together with Ma’at they are the entities that connect the spirit to knowledge. He is associated with the Moon (the traditional symbol of Thoth), is called „The Guardian of the Veil” or „The Opener of the Way” and determines in which interdimensional portals people can step in according to their spiritual evolution. Thus, we can say that Nabu, as the god of scribes, wisdom and knowledge, was the second Thoth in Egypt, and as a divine messenger and guide of souls he was the third Anubis (or, more precisely, Wepwawet), roles that the Greeks had combined into a single deity, Hermes. It is also worth mentioning the similarity between the name Anapa (attributed to Anubis in The Amarna Letters) and Adapa, one of Nabu’s Mesopotamian alter egos.
The Sumerian goddess Qetesh was adopted by the Egyptians from Canaanite religion. Other names for her were Qadshu, Qudsu, Qodes, Qades, Qadasu, Qadesa, Qedeshet, Kedesh and Kodesh, all of which come from the Semitic root „Q-D-Š„, which means „Holy”. Qetesh is called „Lover of the Gods” (like Inana / Ishtar), „Mistress of the Stars in the Sky„, „Great Magician, Lover of the Stars” („Great Magician” was a title of Isis), „Beloved by Ptah” (the title of Sekhmet), „the Eye of Ra, the One Without Equal” (like Hathor and Sekhmet). On the Stela of Kaha from the 19th Dynasty, Qetesh is naked, riding a lion, flanked by two gods, offering lotus flowers to the Egyptian Min (the god of fertility) and serpents to the Canaanite Reshep (the god of war). The two gods are not only her husband and son, but also symbols of the two aspects of the goddess. She was represented just like Inanna / Ishtar in Mesopotamia, and in her husband and son we easily recognize Enki and Marduk. Therefore, Qetesh can only be Ninhursag.
For the ancient Egyptians, at least according to Egyptologists, the Sun had three names: Atum or Atem at sunrise, Ra or Re at noon and Khepri or Khepra at sunset. Although this is the conventional opinion of Egyptologists, it might not be a god with three names, but rather three sun deities (leaders). For the peoples of Mesopotamia, the Council of the Gods was presided by Anu. To his right was his younger son, Enlil, and to his left was Enki. Right and left were not only the places occupied by those deities, but also the way the initiates described good and evil. The Sun in the central position, Ra, is Anu in the Council of the Gods. Atum at sunrise is the god on his right, Enlil, and Khepri at sunset is the one on his left, Enki. Aten, the god of the pharaoh Akhenaten, comes from Atem / Atum. The first temple of Aten was built in Tjaru / Zarw, where the main deity was Seth, and Atum and Seth are two of the names of the Sumerian Enlil. When Akhenaten forcibly imposed the cult of Aten, prohibiting the worship of the other Egyptian deities, the public enemy number one became Amun / Enki. Thus, we can conclude that the fight between the pharaoh and the priesthood of Thebes was not only one for power, but also a continuation of the fight between the two divine brothers, through their followers.
The creator goddess in Zau (Sais for the Greeks), one of the oldest Egyptian cities, was Neit, Nit, Net or Neith, who had the epithet „Mistress of the Sky, Leader of Arrows„. She was associated with the unseen and infinite sky, as opposed to Nut, who was the visible sky. From the predynastic era until the 6th Dynasty, she was called „Opener of the Ways„. She is considered the oldest goddess, about whom it was said that she was „born first, at a time when there were no births„, as noted by George St. Clair in Creation Records Discovered in Egypt from 1898. Archaeologist Flinders Petrie stated that her symbols were still found in predynastic Egypt. In the 6th century BC, Neith was considered the inventor of childbirth, the goddess of war and hunting, believed to guard the bodies of warriors after death, one of her symbols being two crossed arrows on a shield. In Esneh it was believed that she was the one who appeared in the primordial waters to create the world, not Ra. After bringing the Earth out of the cosmic ocean waters, she birthed 30 gods. Because she gave birth alone, without a male, she was called the „Virgin Mother Goddess„. Her most famous sons were Sobek, Ra and Apophis. Neith was represented as a woman who wore the red crown of Lower Egypt, holding a bow and arrow or a harpoon in her hand. She often carried the royal scepter and the ankh (the symbol of life). Over time, she became the personification of the primordial waters of creation. In an inscription mentioned by Barbara S. Lesko in The Great Goddesses of Egypt (1999), she is called „the unique, mysterious and great goddess, who came to exist at the beginning and caused everything to exist (…) the divine mother of Ra, who shines on the horizon„. Indeed, she is surrounded by mystery, considering that, although she was the creator of the world, she is absent from myths, with her only role being that of mediator in the war between Horus and Seth. It seems that mystery has always surrounded her, as evidenced by an inscription in her temple in Sais: „I am all that has been, that is and that will be. No mortal has yet been able to lift the veil that covers me„, a passage plagiarized by Isis in the Hermetic text Virgin of the World („Kore Kosmou”) from Corpus Hermeticum: „I, Isis, am all that has been, is and will be, and no mortal has lifted my veil„. This prompts us to try to lift that veil at least partially. The first goddess, the mother of the gods and the Universe, the personification of the primordial waters, can only be Tiamat / Omoroca of Babylon or Namma / Nammu of the Sumerians. And Nu / Nun („the Abyss”), the primordial ocean from which Neith created the world, nicknamed „Father of the gods”, is Abzu / Apsu („the Abyss”) of the Mesopotamians. Although she is almost completely absent from the myths of all three cultures, which deepens her mystery, Neith / Namma / Tiamat is perhaps the most important deity, the creator of the entire material world.
We also encounter Neith under the aspect of Ma’at, the principle of truth, balance, order, law, morality and justice. Her earliest mention, in The Pyramid Texts, regards her as a norm that society and nature must abide by. As a goddess, she was the one who established the order of the Universe at the moment of creation, the movement of the stars, the seasons, the destinies of the gods and mortals, and also the one who ensured the world will not return to the chaos from which it was born. She was represented as a young woman, holding the royal scepter in one hand and the ankh in the other, with wings on each hand and a feather on her head. In the kingdom of Osiris, at the judgment of the dead, her feather was the measure that determined the weight of souls. Later, when each goddess was assigned a male counterpart, Thoth was considered her husband and Ra her father. This aspect matched her with Ninhursag, although the original Ma’at was the primordial goddess Neith / Namma / Tiamat.
Another representation of her seems to be the goddess Iusaas, Iusaaset, Iuesaes, Ausaas or Iusas (called Saosis by the Greeks), described as „the grandmother of all gods„. She was represented as a woman wearing a crown in the shape of a cobra with eagle wings and horns above, between which there was the solar disk, holding the ankh in one hand and a scepter in the other. Although her equivalence with Neith is evident, the horns, crown and solar disk indicate a connection with Hathor, and her name contains the one of Aset / Isis, both being alter-egos of the Sumerian Ninhursag.
Another lesser-known aspect of the primordial goddess seems to be the god Heka, the personification of magic. He was considered the son of Atum or Khnum and represented as a man strangling two giant coiled snakes. Heka is the Egyptian word for magic, but translated literally means „Activation of Ka”, which was the essence of life for the ancient Egyptians. In The Coffin Texts it is written that Heka existed „before duality came into being„, which means that he can only be the primordial being and the creator of life, the goddess Neith. And the two coiled snakes he strangled represent the duality mentioned in The Coffin Texts. Magic, namely Heka, was an important part in the lives of ancient Egyptians, for whom religion was always intertwined with daily life. It was used as a form of protection against angry deities, ghosts, demons and sorcerers who caused illness, accidents, poverty and sterility. Medicine was also seen as a form of magic, so the priests of Heka also served as doctors. Magical rituals mixed with medical practices represented a form of therapy, both spiritual and physical. Therefore, Heka was more a part of the lives of Egyptians than other deities.
In addition to myths, Egypt also hides other mysteries. Here are a few examples:
– At 800 kilometers south of Cairo, in the Nubian Desert of Egypt, at Nabta Playa, there is one of the oldest astronomical observatories in the world. The site was discovered in 1974 by archaeologist Fred Wendorf. Research indicates the astronomical observatory is seven millennia old, one thousand years older than Stonehenge.
– In 1994, Robert Bauval demonstrated the pyramids at Giza are arranged in a precise order to mirror the three stars of the constellation Orion’s Belt. And if the pyramids at Giza are built from stone blocks weighing 2-3 tons each, the nearby temples are made of blocks weighing 200-300 tons each.
– Engineer specialist Christopher Dunn found a deep-cut granite block at Abu Rawash. He believes the only way to make such a cut is to use an 11-meter-diameter saw. Near the pyramids at Giza are ditches for these huge saws.
– A fresco in the temple of the goddess Hathor in Dendera depicts two people carrying huge light bulbs.
– In 1891, in a tomb from 200 BC from Saqqara in Egypt, French archaeologists found a small sycamore wood plane. The tomb belonged to Pa-di-imen, who lived in the 3rd century BC. Although Egyptologists consider it just a bird, not everyone has accepted this version. In 2006, aeronautical and aerodynamic expert Simon Sanderson built a five-times larger scale model of the same plane. To the surprise of many, the plane flew, thus demonstrating that the „bird” from Saqqara is a representation of a glider.
– Also in Egypt, the walls of a temple in Abydos depict representations of a helicopter, an airplane and a submarine.
Unfortunately, not much has been left of the ancient Egyptian religions and what has been preserved has often been misinterpreted by Egyptologists. Hermes Trismegistus was right when he said in the Asclepius text of Corpus Hermeticum: „O Egypt, Egypt, of thy religion nothing will remain but an empty tale, which thine own children in time to come will not believe” (24:3), just like the Latin writer Lucius Apuleius: „O Egypt, Egypt, of thy knowledge nothing will remain but legends, which will seem incredible to later generations„. Despite the wall of ignorance that most „specialists” in Egyptology have raised before our eyes, we have managed to decipher some of the secrets of ancient Egypt, as the ancient Egyptians themselves urged us to do in what could represent a true testament to them, recorded in The Egyptian Papyrus of Anana: „Read, O children of the future, and learn the secrets of the past, which to you is so far away and yet in truth so near„. And the secrets of the Egyptians have helped us to fill the incomplete Mesopotamian myths. Thus we were able to learn that Enki was indeed the first ruler of our planet, and he was imprisoned in the Underworld by his brother, Enlil, who took his throne. Eventually, Enki’s son, Marduk, received the leadership of Earth after a long war with his uncle. To discover the other missing pieces of the giant puzzle of Earth’s history, we only have to continue decoding the myths of ancient cultures.
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