Myths are not mere entertaining stories that replicate certain people’s imagination and culture; they are rather the neonatal steps in the human path for interpreting the surrounding world.
African mythology is one of the most antique mythologies worldwide, while the most primeval African mythology is the ancient Egyptian.[1]
Egyptian myths define the ancient Egyptian understanding of the world, aspects of ancient Egyptian religion, ancient Egyptian cultural and social life. As one of the most marvelous civilizations and a source of glory and honor for contemporary Egyptian people, who share DNA with their ancestors[2], it is worth mentioning that the ancient Egyptian heritage has fought time and kept itself it vivid in modern Egyptian society, notably, in Egyptian villages, despite the domination of Abrahamic religions, on top of them: Islam.
Origins:
Confessing that wherever and whenever you dig in Egypt you will find a monument that belongs to prehistoric ages; it is difficult to trace the source of ancient Egyptian mythology; Egyptologists just have to dig more and more to resolve the enigma. Till this moment, Egyptologists deduct some conjectures from what they found.
The source could be the surrounding environment; a milieu that Egyptians throughout history sang for: The Sun, the Nile river, Warmth, green landscapes. Being peasants since the dawn of history, Egyptians could have created their concept of interpreting the world through the process of cultivation.
It was suggested that religious rituals were a good source for myths[3], nevertheless, the relationship between rituals and myths is still a mystery; which one came before the other? A question that is not yet decisively answered.[4]
They Egyptian mythology developed through time by the power of politics and the evolution of religions.
We are going to mention here the most prominent myths that mirror the ancient Egyptian doctrine.
Creation Narrative:
Ancient Egyptians established several chronicles for the creation of the world. The narratives of creation were collected from different sources notably: the Pyramid Texts, the Coffin Texts, and the Book of the Dead.[5] The common feature of these different stories is that the world was created from the water emerged from a chaos; a feature that is close enough to the later biblical narrative.
It is stipulated in one narrative a story that is quiet similar to the Abrahamic narrative: “Atum is he who (once) came into being, who masturbated in On. He took his phallus in his grasp that he might create orgasm by means of it, and so were born the twins Shu and Tefenet. May they put the King between them and set the King among the gods in front of the Field of offerings.”[6]
Another narrative represents the eight gods of Ogdoad, these gods whom circulation created the Sun, and the sun is represented by “Ra”. When “Ra” was born, a light has emerged, and darkness has been defeated.
Atum created the earth and sky, and then he created Osiris, Isis and their opponent “Seth”, god of darkness.
Osiris and Isis:
An inspiring narrative that clutched the infatuation of humankind throughout history; Osiris and Isis; a love story, a mystical philosophy which represents the first human sense of justice.
Osiris: king of Egypt, god of fertility, son of Geb (earth) and (Nut) sky and victim of the first conflict with evil. Isis: Queen of Egypt, loyal wife, caring mother, strong woman, daughter of earth and sky like her brother and husband Osiris, goddess of motherhood and healing. His brother “Seth”, god of disorder, darkness, desert and storm became jealous of his brother who was revered by the public for guarding harmony and order. Through astuteness, “Seth” was able to kill his brother and throw him into the Nile, taking power and governing Egypt.
Isis vowed to search for her husband and find him. She was able to find her husband’s body. “Seth” discovered that the body was left with Isis’s sister, so he started his vengeance, arresting the body, cutting it into 42 pieces, and throwing it into the river. Isis was dismayed by what he did, yet, she insisted on gathering her loving husband’s body again, walking throughout the “Holy Valley” starting from Upper Egypt, collecting each piece from a certain place until she reached the mouth of the Nile. Her tears filled the Nile and irrigated the harvest.
She raised her son Horus, to take revenge from his uncle.[7]
It is interesting to mention that the journey of Saint Marry in Egypt resembles the trip of Isis and that in many ways Osiris resembles Christ, as he was raised to the sky after Isis collected his body. Also there is a folkloric story in Egypt, narrated till this moment, titled “Hassan and Naeima”, in which “Hassan” is killed by Naeima’s cousin who threw Hassan’s body into the Nile and Naeima walks through the valley searching for her beloved’s body.
The Ancient Egyptian mythology is very hard to summarize, trace or grasp, however, the Egyptian villages are still keeping some of its secrets along with the soil of Egypt.
[1] https://geography.name/mythology/#:~:text=The%20oldest%20known%20mythology%20in%20Africa%20is%20that,and%20inscriptions%20that%20are%20thousands%20of%20years%20old.
[2] https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=mcafee&ei=UTF-8&p=dna+of+contemporary+egyptians+and+ancient+egypt&type=E210US91213G0#id=1&vid=448ae1caff44d6d6e6f597e2dbcf74df&action=click
[3] https://franklin.library.upenn.edu/catalog/FRANKLIN_994717763503681
[4] https://archive.org/details/neverhadlikeoccu0000unse/page/155/mode/2up
[5] https://dailyhistory.org/What_Were_the_Ancient_Egyptian_Creation_Myths#:~:text=The%20oldest%20of%20the%20three%20Egyptian%20creation%20myths,which%20birthed%20the%20Ogdoad%2C%20or%20eight%20original%20deities.
[6] https://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Egyptian-Pyramid-Faulkner-2007-01-01/dp/B019ND80LU
[7] https://www.tripsinegypt.com/the-story-of-osiris-and-isis/
