CLAA05H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Solar Deity, Tefnut, Sekhmet
Document Summary
Egyptian religion and the book of the heavenly cow. Grouping by numbers: gods categorized into one or more of : dyad: groups of 2: usually male-female, e. g. sokar/sokaret or shasha/ Sheshat, but can be two gods of the same sex, e. g. horus/seth, isis/nephthys: triad: groups of 3: usually divine family (father-mother-child triad), e. g. horus-osiris-isis or amun-mut-khonsu, ogdoad: groups of 8 (four pairs) The ogdoad of heliopolis consisting of frogs (male) vs. snakes (female); incudes nun/naunet (primeval water), heh/hauhet (infinity, flood force), Kek/kauket (darkness), amun/amaunet (hiddenness, concealed dynamism: ennead (pesdjet): groups of 9, e. g. ennead of heliopolis (atum, tefnut, shu, Grouping by region: cavern deities, gate deities, hours of the day deities, hours of the night deities, judgement deities, nome deities (remember nome is like a county) There is no answer to how many gods are there in egypt since one god may have many manifestations, different city states had their own deities, deities might be syncretised etc.
