Gods and Goddesses

In ancient Egypt the creator of all things was either Re, Amun, Ptah, Khnum or Aten, depending on which version of the myth was currently in use. The heavens were represented by Hathor, Bat, and Horus. Osiris was an earth god as was Ptah. The annual flooding of the Nile was Hapi. Storms, evil and confusion were Seth. His counterpart was Ma'at, who represented balance, justice and truth. The moon was Thoth and Khonsu. Re, the sun god, took on many forms, and transcended most of the borders that contained the other gods. The actual shape of the sun, the disk (or, aten), was deified into another god, Aten.

Ahemait An Egyptian underworld goddess who is part lion, part hippopotamus, and part crocodile, and who eats the souls of the unworthy dead.

Amaunet - A female counterpart to Amon and one of the primordial gods of the Hermopolitian Ogdoad (group of eight gods). She was also worshipped at Thebes along with Amon and Mut.

Ament - Goddess who lived in a tree at the edge of the desert where she watched the gates of the afterworld, welcoming the newly dead with bread and water.

Amenti - The abode of the dead.

Amon

Also called Amun, Ra or Re (the Sun), or Amun-Ra or Amen-Ra (the Great Sun), or Khepri. The king of the gods during the Theban dynasties, and the god of fertility. He was part of the Theban Triad, along with Mut and Khonsu. Usually associated with the wind, or things hidden.

Amset - One of the four lesser gods of the dead who supervised the mummification process. His name means "carpenter", and he is pictured with a man's head. See also Hepi, Smotef, and Snouf.

Ankt - A spear-carrying Egyptian war goddess.

Antaios - He was originally a falcon god, later believed to have merged into Horus. Antaios - He was originally a falcon god, "the two falcons", that was later joined with Horus to create one.

Anubis - Depending on the worship the offspring of Nephthys and Osiris or Nepthys and Set. He prepared the dead and led them into the underworld.

Anuket

An early Egyptian water goddess; she was later merged with Nephthys. She was associated with the gazelle.

Apepi or Apophis - The great snake of darkness, who sometimes rose up, mouth agape, to try to swallow Ra's solar barque in its travel across the heavens; Ra always managed to escape, but each of Apep's failed attempts resulted in fierce storms or solar eclipses.

Apis - It means "sacred bull". Depicted as a bull with a solar disk between its horns, Apis was another form of Ptah. He was seen as the bull with a solar disk between its horns.

Aten (Aton) - The Pharaoh Akhenaton decreed him to be the one and only god in his attempt to establish a monotheistic religion. He was worshipped at Armana

Atum - A primordial god that was represented in the form of a human and a serpent. The version of the Egyptian god Amon who creates Shu and his sister Tefnut by (I an so not joking) masturbation.

Bakha - A sacred bull that was an incarnation of Menthu, a personification of the heat of the sun. He would change his color every hour of the day.

Bast or Bastet - Bastet is the cat goddess, the patroness of the domestic cat and the home. She is often seen in human form with the head of a cat and holding the sacred rattle known as the sistrim. Bastet is also associated with the eye of Ra, the sun god, and acts as an instrument of his vengeance. She ruled over pleasure, dancing, music, and joy.

Bes - Bes means "dancing".

Busiris - A king of Egypt, who to avert famine for his people, ordered all strangers that landed on his shores be sacrificed to the gods. He made the mistake of capturing Hercules, who escaped his chains and slew the king.

Cadmus - A Phoenician prince who killed a dragon and sowed its teeth, from which sprang up an army of men who fought one another until only five survived. With these five men Cadmus founded the city of Thebes.

Candace - Title of the hereditary queens of the desert empire of Meroe. One of them led an army of 10,000 rebels against the Roman occupation of Egypt.

Chem - Also called Ham. He was the god of "increase", considered as the father of their race. He is usually pictured wearing a women's garment.

Chonso - Son of Amun-Ra and his wife Athor. Usually pictured with the new moon atop his head.

Geb and Nut

They were the children of Shu and Tefnut. Geb was the god of earth. Nut was the sky goddess.

Hapimou - Means the Nile. "He" was depicted with the beard of a man and the breasts of a child-bearing woman.

Hathor - The goddess of joy and love, she was a protector of women. Also worshipped as a sky goddess, Hathor is depicted wearing a sun disk held between the horns of a cow as a crown. Hathor was the patroness of all women, artists, music, dance, and happiness. At Thebes she was also the goddess of the dead. She was worshipped at Dendera as the consort of Horus and Edfu, and was associated with Isis at Byblos.

Hepi - Another of the four lesser gods of the dead. His name means digger, and he has an ape's head.

Het - Het is the Egyptian serpent goddess who rules fire.

Horus - The falcon-eyed son of Osiris and Isis, who was conceived miraculously by Isis and the dead Osiris. He swore to avenge his father's murder.

Imhotep - The god of science or medicine. Son of Ptah and Sekhet. Counselor-physician to Zoser, who founded Egypt's 3rd Dynasty. His name means "peace".

Isis

Sometimes Isitis, which means Earth or corn-bearing Land. She is the "mother of all creation". A daughter of Geb and Nut, she was the faithful wife of her brother Osiris. She became universally worshipped, is associated with love, motherhood, marital devotion, healing, eternal life, and the casting of magical spells and charms. Isis is the goddess of day, while her twin sister, Nephthys, is the goddess of night. Her sacred symbol is an amulet called the tyet. She is the mother of Horus.

Khepri - The scarab beetle god who rolled the sun through the sky.

Khnemu - The Egyptian god, who fashioned men and women on a potter's wheel, and was worshipped in the form of a ram.

Khonsu - The son of Amon and Mut, and one of the main gods of Egypt when the Theban dynasties ruled.

Kneph - The god of animal and spiritual life. He has the head and horns of a ram.

Ma'at

Ma'at is the Egyptian goddess of truth, justice and the underworld. She passed judgement over the souls of the dead in the Judgement Hall of Osiris. The "Law of Ma'at" was the basis of civil laws in ancient Egypt.

Min - A god of fertility.

Mo - Sometimes the god, sometimes the goddess, of Truth and Justice. Is depicted with ostrich feathers on the head.

Mut - Mut is seen as the mother, the nurturing force behind all things while her husband Amon is the great energy or creative force. In ancient Egyptian, 'mut' means mother. The mother of Khonsu. Mut is another name of Isis.

The Neb-Ti - The ruling goddesses of the north and south.

Neith - Means the Heavens. She is goddess of the Sky.

Nephthys

The twin sister of Isis, Nephthys is the goddess of night and the protectoress of the dead. She is also Set's sister and wife, although, through her subterfuge, she bore a child (the jackal-headed Anubis) by Osiris.

Nut

Mother of the sun, moon and heavenly bodies.

Osiris

He was the first child of Geb and Nut. He was the judge of the dead in the underworld. Osiris was killed by his jealous brother Set.

Pasht - The goddess of Virtue. She is pictured with a cat's head.

Ptah - Also spelled as Pthah. He was the god of fire and the creator. His figure is bandaged like a mummy, and his head is shaven like a priest.

Ra

The sun god, and leader of the gods, he was pictured as a child in the early morning, a man in his prime at noon, and an old man in the evening. He traveled through the underworld at night to be reborn at dawn.

Sati

also known as Satis and Satet, is an Egyptian archer goddess who personified the waterfalls of the river Nile.

Sebek (Sobek) - Also called Seb, means "crocodile". Was depicted as having a crocodile face. During the Middle Kingdom he was merged with Re (Sobek-Re) and was worshipped as primordial deity and creator-god.

Sekhet - The ennead of Memphis was headed by a triad composed of the father Ptah, the mother Sekhet, and the son Imhotep, main gods of Egypt during the Memphite dynasties.

Sekhmet - A sun-goddess, Sekhmet is also the lion goddess and her worship was centered in Memphis. Her name means 'powerful'; she was portrayed as either a lion or a woman with the head of a lion, often holding an ankh or sistrum. When Ra grew angry at the whinings and complaints of humankind, he ripped out one of his eyes and hurled it at the earth; this eye changed in flight to an avenging goddess, Sekhmet, who ravaged the earth, sucking blood from the peoples, and almost totally wiping out humankind before a remoseful Ra could stop her.

Serapis - Means "underworld". An ancient Egyptian god of the lower world, also worshiped in ancient Greece and Rome. He is shown as having a bull's head.

Selket - The beautiful scorpion goddess Selket, has her scorpion strike death to the wicked. She also saves the lives of the innocent stung by a scorpion.

Seth (Set) - The son of Geb and Nut. This powerful god was regarded as god of the desert. He was Osiris' evil brother and was considered the incarnation of wickedness. He tricked Osiris at a feast in Osiris' honor, and killed him, and took his place on the throne. In some myths he is called Typhon, and is associated with the "abominable" animals: the pig, donkey, and the hippopotamus. He was depicted as a strange being with a stiff, forked tail, a long gaunt body, a tapering snout, huge erect ears and protruding eyes.

Setekh - means "hound".

Shu and Tefnut

They were Ra's children. Shu was the god of air and held up the sky. Tefnut, his sister and wife, was the goddess of dew and rain. They were the parents of Geb and Nut.

Smotef - Another of the four lesser gods of the dead. His name means shaper, and he has a jackal's head.

Snouf - Another of the four lesser gods of the dead. His name means bleeder, and he has a hawk's head.

Sottef - He sometimes replaces Smotef as one of the four lesser gods of the dead. His name means cutter or purifier.

Tauret - means "hippopotamus". This was the animal form of the great mother goddess Mut. As a nurturing force Tauret was depicted as a pregnant hippopotamus with long teats, standing on her hind legs and carrying the scrolls of protection. As a fierce animal force protecting the children Tauret was pictured as a lion-headed hippo carrying a dagger.

Tefnut - Tefnut is the goddess of daybreak (the goddess of dew and rain) and is associated with the mountains from which the sun rises.

Thoth

The god of learning, he was the lunar god usually depicted with the head of an ibis, though he was worshipped as a baboon in Hermopolis. He acted as secretary to the gods, and was the master over writing, languages, laws, annals, and calculations.

Ua - Goddess of the underworld (as mentioned in the Book of the Dead).

Uadjet - A goddess of the underworld who endows justice and truth. She is pictured as a cobra (sometimes winged and crowned) or as a snake with the face of a woman. She is the sister of Nekhebet, and together they are known as the Nebti.

Uat - Goddess of water.

Udjat - There are two versions of the "Udjat eye": 1. It is the Eye of Ra (or of Heru). It refers to the eye of the falcon-headed god Horus after it had been torn out by Seth during one of their never-ending battles over the throne of Egypt. The eye was then healed by Thoth, hence it was considered a symbol of healing or revitalization.

2. According to some other texts, Atum (the creator) gave birth to his son by spitting him out. His daughter he vomited out. Shu (the son) represented the air and Tefnut (the daughter) was a goddess of moisture. After some time Shu and Tefnut became separated from their father and lost in the watery chaos of Nu. Atum, who had only one eye (the Udjat eye), which was removable, removed it and sent it in search of his children. In time they returned with the eye. At this reunion Atum wept tears of joy. Where these tears hit the ground, men grew (the beginning of the human race).

Umm s-Subyan - A death goddess who causes infants to die.

Unen-em-hetep - Goddess protector of the dead.

Urt-hekau - The lion goddess (sometimes the lion god) who is the protective power in the Eye of Horus.