Egyptian Pantheon

Egyptian Pantheon

Ancient Egyptian deities are the gods and goddesses who were worshipped in ancient Egypt. A number of major deities are addressed as the creators of the cosmos. These include Atum, Ra, Amun (Amen), and Ptah amongst others, as well as composite forms of these deities such as Amun-Ra. This was not seen as contradictory by the Egyptians. The development of Egyptian religion in the New Kingdom lead some early Egyptologists such as E. A. Wallis Budge to speculate that the Egyptians were in reality monotheistic. Others such as Sir Flinders Petrie considered the Egyptians to be polytheists. Erik Hornung argues that the best term to apply to their religion is 'henotheism' which describes 'worship of one god at a time but not a single god.'

The Egyptian term for goddess was neṯeret (nṯrt; netjeret, nečeret) and the term for god was neṯer (nṯr; also transliterated netjer, nečer). The hieroglyph represents a pole or staff wrapped in cloth with the free end of the cloth shown at the top. Alternative hieroglyphs for 'goddess' show the staff and cloth without the upright mark seen here in that for 'god'. The use of this sign has been connected to the flag poles at the entrance towers of Egyptian temples. Alternative glyphs for 'god' include a star, a squatting human figure similar to the format seen here for 'goddess', or a hawk on a perch.