The most worshiped ancient Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, one of the most exciting things is knowing the details of Egyptian history and how the beliefs of the ancient Egyptians developed, as they invested heavily in what they believed to be the afterlife.
They built the pyramids as the largest tombs where they would be buried. And from where they will travel to the other world.
The most worshiped ancient Egyptian Gods and Goddesses are a group of deities from the religion of ancient Egypt (3150 BC–31 B.C.), which was one of the most influential civilizations in North Africa at the time.
This civilization thrived on the banks of the Nile River. It spread its cultural, economic, and political influence to the Euphrates, the Red Sea, the Sinai Peninsula, and a part of the Mediterranean Sea.
Egypt’s religion was polytheistic, meaning it had many ancient Egyptian Gods and Goddesses with many different and complicated rituals. Because of them, people can win over the gods in charge of natural forces.
But, unlike many other ancient religions, they didn’t believe in temporary things like rainbows or eclipses and didn’t think about basic things like fire and water. Also, it can be hard to determine where each god’s power lies since their myths show that these areas are often flexible and changeable.
Where they were significant to how they ran society and where the pharaohs were often their representatives on the ground, the land where the Egyptian cult of the dead took place was ruled by gods.
Who Were the Most Worshiped Ancient Egyptian Gods and Goddesses?
Ancient Egypt was one of the most critical agricultural societies. It began in northeast Africa along the middle and lower reaches of the Nile River.
Its rich and complicated history goes back more than 3,100 years, from 3100 B.C. to 332 B.C., when its territory ranged from the Nile River delta on the Mediterranean Sea to the river’s fourth cataract in the south, as well as the large desert areas east and west of the Nile.
Ancient Egypt had a lot of power in the area at its peak, including the far coasts of Anatolia, Cyprus, and the Hellenic peninsula. It was known for its architecture, which looked like the great pyramids and sphinx. Many mummies of rulers have been found inside these structures.
Ancient Egypt was a very religious and hierarchical society. It was ruled by an absolute theocratic monarchy, with the pharaoh (or, in rare cases, the pharaohs) at the top. The people looked up to the pharaoh as a god (in fact, they thought he was the god Horus himself), and it was his job to give out justice, lead the army, and lead the religious cult.
Ancient Egyptian religion was based on the sun, cycles, and on many Egyptian Gods and Goddesses. It was based on Maat, the cosmic balance or equilibrium. It was the force that kept the world going as it was and depended greatly on how happy its many gods were. The latter was complicated and had many different parts they could often put together. It led to a mix of gods and cults.
Other than that, they showed different parts of nature and human life. Even though the government officially ran the cult, people could pray to them or give them gifts to get help with their problems. Egyptians thought a lot about the afterlife and the afterlife of the dead. The gods listed below were some of the most worshiped ancient Egyptian Gods and Goddesses.
In this article, we talked about the main Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt, what they were like, and what stories they were in.
Top 19 Ancient Egyptian Gods and Goddesses and Their Power
Ancient Egyptian Gods
1. The Ancient Egyptian God: Ra
The Egyptian god of the sun was one of the most worshiped ancient Egyptian Gods and Goddesses who gave life and was a symbol of sunlight and was in charge of the eternal cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. He was one of the most influential figures in the religion of the pharaohs and his children.
Ra was supposed to travel east to West in the sky on his barge. His name changed depending on where he was in the sky: Horajti at noon, Jepri at dawn, and Atum at dusk.
Early on, Ra was just one of many sun gods in early Egyptian religion. Still, he was influential in the Egyptian pantheon because he was part of the official cult of the pharaohs and merged with the Theban god Amun to become Amun-Ra the Egyptian God during Dynasty V (2500-2350 BC). They especially respected him in Heliopolis, which was the center of his cult, and in the area of Abu Ghurab on the west bank of the Nile.
Ra was shown as a man with the head of a falcon, and the sun was placed above him. According to the myth, he has been around since the beginning, when the world was dark and had only a large body of water (Nun).
A big, bright egg came from the water where Ra was born. His first job was to make the sun light up the horizons. By his word, they made the wind, the rain, and the Nile (Hapiapi). Ra then turned into a person and became the first ruler of Egypt.
You may also be interested to read about: The Egyptian Eye of Ra Symbol.
2. The Ancient Egyptian God: Osiris
The God and ancient Egyptian king Osiris was one of the most influential figures in Egyptian mythology, and he was thought to have started farming, religion, and Egyptian civilization. His story in Egyptian mythology gave rise to many traditions and celebrations, like the New Year festivals.
His cult lasted from the 25th century B.C. until the 6th century A.D. when Emperor Justinian shut down the last temple built in his honor.
The myth says that Osiris is the son of Nut, the Egyptian sky goddess, and Geb, the Egyptian god of the Earth. Seth, Nephthys, and Isis were his actual siblings. He was deeply in love with Isis from the time he was in the womb.
Osiris was the favorite son, which helped him get to the throne of Egypt, which he got from Geb, and was crowned by Atum-Ra in the city of Nen-nesu, according to the Book of the Dead. Osiris taught people how to worship the gods and tell themselves apart from animals, which was the start of Egyptian culture and religion.
But his brother Seth, who was in charge of the desert and other hostile and foreign places, planned to kill him, drown him in the Nile, cut him up, and spread his body parts all over Egypt.
So, Seth took over the throne of Egypt, while Isis and Nephthys, with the help of the god Toth, gathered Osiris’s body parts and put them back together, with the help of the god Anubis. Once Osiris was mummified, he was brought back to life and became the king of the kingdom of the dead, and he became the god of death and rebirth.
Osiris was often shown as a pharaoh with green or blue skin to show that he was human or as a pharaoh who had been mummified. They strongly connected his image to rebirth, the start of new natural cycles, and how plant stems grow from the ground after a seed has been buried.
3. The Ancient Egyptian God: Seth
Seth or Set is the Greek name for Suty or Sutekh, the Egyptian God of chaos, the uncontrollable, brute force, and the drought in the African desert. He was the brother of Osiris, Isis, and Nephthys. In some myths, he was also Nephthys’s husband. He killed his brother, which started the mythical cycle of mummification and resurrection at the center of the Egyptian religion’s view of the world.
But he was respected as a god and was thought to protect the Egyptians, especially during war. His most important places of worship were Avaris, Abydos, and Pi-Ramses.
Seth was shown as a man with a greyhound or desert dog’s head (so described in hieroglyphs). But it needs to be clarified what animals he looks like. Pigs, hounds, asses, oryxes, crocodiles, hippos, snakes, and fish were all given to him as offerings.
Some people even think that Seth’s animal face is that of a made-up animal. They also showed him carrying a wand, a straight rod with a forked end and a strange animal’s head on the other end, and an ankh, which was the Egyptian symbol of life.
Even though he was the bad guy in the myth, Seth wasn’t a lousy god; he was just a bit crazy. He killed his brother because he thought the Egyptian land was unfairly divided, giving him the deserts and Osiris’ fertile land near the river. Horus sent him away and made him live in the desert as a punishment for his actions.
4. The Ancient Egyptian God: Horus
Horus or Hor in Coptic, is one of the most worshiped ancient Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, he was the son of Isis and Osiris, a god of war and hunting. After taking over his father’s throne after his death, he was also the official start of Egyptian civilization. People often say that he looks like the Greek god Apollo.
He is shown as a man with a falcon’s head who wears the double crown of the Egyptian Empire. He is also offered as a falcon (called Edfu), or a sun disc with two wings spread. He could even be shown as a sphinx, called a “Harmajis.”
According to an Egyptian myth, Isis hid and protected Horus when he was born and then gave him to the god Thoth so that he could grow up to be a strong and wise warrior. So, when he was old enough, Horus beat Seth and took back his father’s throne. During the fierce battle, he lost his left eye, which he gave to his father as a sacrifice to make him see again.
At first, Seth was the god of Upper Egypt, and Horus was the god of Lower Egypt. It was a sign of the conflict between the people who lived along the Nile and those who lived in the desert. But in the end, Horus won and took both crowns for himself, making Isis-Hathor queen.
Horus is the Egyptian god who is most like people, and it is said that he takes messages from the dead to his father in the afterlife. Seth also protects Ra, the boat of the sun, from Apep, a snake that stands for the evil forces of darkness.
5. The Ancient Egyptian God: Thot
The Egyptian god of wisdom, writing in hieroglyphs, science, magic, the arts, and the law is a very old god named Thoth, whose female name is Seshat. The myth says that Thoth was with the goddess Ma’at, who stood for balance, harmony, and cosmic justice. Together, they were in charge of all the other gods in the pantheon.
Thoth was not a warrior god like the other Egyptian gods. Instead, he was a moon god, the sacred scribe, and the lord of inventors. He was often shown as a man with the head of an ibis or a baboon, two of his sacred animals. He also held an ankh in one hand and a brush or tablet with hieroglyphs in another.
In the first month of the lunar calendar, Thoth was made a god. In the cities of Khemnu (Greek: Hermopolis Magna), Bah (Greek: Hermopolis Parva), Sarabjit al-Khadim, and Tuna el-Yebel, they worshipped him.
Anubis, or Anoup in Coptic, is the Greek name of the Egyptian god who watched over tombs, the underworld, and the afterlife. He was usually shown as a man with the head of a jackal, a common animal in the area that eats garbage. During the three thousand years of his religion, Egypt worshipped him as an important god of the dead.
It’s not clear where the god came from in mythology, and he could be the illegitimate child of Nephthys and Osiris, the child of Nephthys and her husband Seth, or even the child of Netphys and the god Ra.
Anubis helped Osiris get his body ready for the afterlife, which started the Egyptian tradition of mummification. Since then, people have thought of him as the guardian of the dead. When someone dies, their heart is put on a scale, and a feather is placed in the other pan.
6. The Ancient Egyptian God: Ptah
Ptah, the ancient Egyptian god of magic, was thought to have created the world and protected artisans, masons, architects, and builders. He was also supposed to have healing powers. Ptah was a god who was similar to the Greek god Hephaestus. He was shown as a man with a straight beard wrapped in a shroud and stood on a pedestal representing the Maat. He was dressed in an Egyptian way.
Ptah was a significant god in Ancient Egypt. He was married to Sekhmet and was the father of Nefertum. He was thought to have made the other gods, built cities and temples, and set up the places where they worshiped each god. But Ra and Amun, with whom he formed a great triad of the kingdom during the Ramesid period, soon overshadowed him (Dynasties XIX-XX).
7. The Ancient Egyptian God: Serapis
Serapis, the god of healing and the afterlife, is usually represented as a bearded man with curly hair and clothes on his head. His most important temple was the Serapeum in Alexandria, where patients worldwide came to be healed.
Serapis symbolized light, fertility, and death. Her companion was Isis, wife of Osiris and one of the most prominent deities of Egypt during the Ptolemaic period. Serapis had a long beard, Greek hairstyle, and clothing. He was wearing baskets. He is often represented as a serpent to commemorate his underworld and fertility ties.
8. The Ancient Egyptian God: Bes
The New Kingdom god Bes was famous. He terrifies terrible guys as a troll with puffy cheeks and a fan-shaped chin. Honored as the shield-and-sword-wielding wizard in Roman times, he is often remembered at the Temple of Dendera.
The god Bes, the only deity shown in frontal view, was one of ancient Egypt’s most beloved minor deities. Bes protects the home and children, especially during childbirth and animal attacks. Perhaps the oldest. Bes’ biological activity area expanded his image onto various ancient Egyptian daily life items, from headrests, as the helpless sleeping was seen, to personal care items.
9. The Ancient Egyptian God: Sobek
Subic, also called Sobek, is the Egyptian god of nature, one of the most worshiped ancient Egyptian Gods and Goddesses. He was linked to royal power, having children, and being good at war. He was also seen as a god who protected against dangers and kept evil away. The flooding of the Nile was seen as a particular danger he defended against.
People believe that the Egyptian army and the pharaoh are protected by the god Sobek. During the time of the old kingdom, many people worshipped him. The Pyramid Texts, the oldest religious text from ancient Egypt, mention the name, Sobek. The Pyramid Texts of Unas says that Pharaoh Unas is “Sobek with a green feather, with an alert face and a raised brow.”
10. The Ancient Egyptian God: Atum
Atom was one of the most important gods in ancient Egyptian mythology. His name, “complete,” was linked to several important Egyptian gods, including Ra, Petah, and finally, Ozor. God Atum is one of the nine main gods of the Egyptian city Heliopolis.
He is also one of the most important gods in Egyptian mythology because he created the universe. Atum is also called Atem, Items, Atum-Ra, and Tem. In Egyptian mythology, he was created when a god came out of the original ocean, which was there before he made the world. Atum was the one who created the world because he gave life to his two sons, Shu and Tefnut, who were the gods of air and humidity, respectively.
11. The Ancient Egyptian God: Khonsu
In Egyptian mythology, Khonsu was known as the moon god. He was connected to medicine and was thought to protect the sick and drive away evil spirits. He even stands for birth and fertility on Earth. Since ancient times, people have known him as the son of “Amun and Mut.” His temple at Karnak is in great shape.
The Pyramid and Sarcophagus Texts says that he is a rather cruel and even aggressive god who feeds the Egyptian gods and helps the pharaoh hunt and protect himself from evil races. Khonsu is also considered a god whose boat travels with the sky at night. He is the son of Mut and Amun. It makes him part of what people call the “Theban Trinity.” People think of him as a bearded man in a marching stance and an ancient imperial who can turn into a child and wear a crescent moon on his head.
12. The Ancient Egyptian God: Khnum
Khnum was the god of Tire in ancient Egypt. He looked like a ram or a man with a ram’s head and two horns. The ancient Egyptians believed that Khnum used a potter’s wheel to make a man out of Nile clay. In places like Aswan, Esna, and Memphis in Egypt, people worshiped him as a god who brought the Nile River to live on its banks.
This god was known as the god of the waters flowing in the underworld, and when the sun set and night fell, Khnum joined him. In the Egyptian religion, one of the most important things this god did was create people and gods. He did this with a potter’s wheel, where many believe the first egg came from.
13. The Ancient Egyptian God: Anubis
Anubis, the god of the underworld and mummification, guarded the glass of his canopy while he watched the process. In ancient Egypt, Anubis was seen as the god of the afterlife because people thought he was in charge of the entrance to the kingdom of the dead. Some believe he is the son of Osiris and assisted Isis in the mummification and burial of Osiris. I came up with certain rituals directed towards Anubis, pleading with him to watch after Osiris’s body.
Ancient Egyptian Goddesses
14. The Ancient Egyptian Goddess: Isis
Isis, or Iset in Coptic, is the most important goddess in Egyptian religion. Her worship spread to the Greco-Roman world, where she was combined with other local gods and given different names. Her role in the story of Osiris is vital. She not only helped put her husband’s body back together and bring him back to life, but she also gave birth to Horus, who became the ruler of all people.
Isis, the wife of Osiris, was the Goddess of the moon, symbolized by a lady with a moon disk on her forehead. She is the goddess of magic. Her devotion grew outside of Egypt under the Ptolemies and the Romans, and she had temples, festivals, and priests throughout the Roman state, becoming the official goddess of the universe.
Isis is an essential Egyptian deity who is the wife and half-sister of Osiris. Isis, the goddess of life and magic, protected women and children. She treated others with her illness. Ankh, wings, and a throne headdress were her emblems.
In most Egyptian funeral ceremonies, Isis was called on to help the dead go to the underworld, just like she did for her husband. She was both the goddess of motherhood and marriage and the guardian of all people. She was connected to magic and wisdom, and her actions to protect Horus and the body of Osiris showed that she was a fierce protector of what was holy.
Isis is a complicated figure who goes through many stages in Egyptian history. Because she was so popular, she took on the traits of other local goddesses and even mixed them with goddesses from different religions, especially after the Greeks took over Egypt.
So, her ways of being seen can be very different. In general, the Egyptians drew her as a woman with the hieroglyphic throne on her head, holding a staff and an Egyptian cross, or ankh.
15. The Ancient Egyptian Goddess: Nephthys
There could be more detail about where the goddess Nephthys came from. Her name means “Priestess,” and she was often merged with other gods like Seshat and Anukis. But in the myth of Osiris, she is said to be Isis’s sister and Seth’s wife. With Seth, she had the god Anubis.
In other versions of the myth, she was Osiris’s lover, but she had to trick him by pretending to be his sister. If Seth’s brother had done something like that, he would have killed him.
After Osiris was cut into pieces, Nephthys was sad about her brother’s death and worked with Isis to find and gather his fourteen details and the rituals that would bring him back to life.
Nephthys was a goddess of death, just like Isis and Selket. Still, she stood out because she was a happy god honored with beer, and it was common to ask for her help when giving birth. Her most important places of worship were Hut-Sejm, which in Greek is called Diospolis Parva, Komir, Sepermeru, and Memphis.
16. The Ancient Egyptian Goddess: Bastet
Bastet has been worshipped since the Second Dynasty (around 2890 BC). She is the goddess of love, harmony, and protection, and they called her upon to protect homes and temples. She is usually shown as a woman with the head of a cat or lioness, holding an ankh in one hand and a musical instrument (a sistrum) in the other, or as a cat because cats and lionesses were sacred to her.
She was a kind and unpredictable goddess linked to the moon and the sun’s warm rays. She was often confused with other goddesses like Sekhmet or Sumerian Inanna. She is mentioned in the Pyramid Texts and the Book of the Dead. In the Nile delta, she was the patron goddess of Bubastis, where cats lived in her temples.
People say that these animals were so important to the ancient Egyptians that the Persian invaders drew them on their shields to make it harder for them to hit.
17. The Ancient Egyptian Goddess: Hathor
Another one of the great Egyptian goddesses was connected to the celestial vault and had different roles at different times. She was linked to music, dance, happiness, love, and being sexual.
She was simultaneous with many gods, including Ra and Horus and the pharaohs, their children, or representatives on Earth. She was often shown as a woman with cow horns on her head and a sun disc in between them or as a cow, lioness, or sycamore tree.
During the Old Empire, more temples were built for Hathor than any other goddess, and she often had her room in the temples of her male consorts. On the other hand, other gods like Isis and Mut took her place during the New Empire, but they were never able to completely replace her in people’s minds. Women who wanted to have babies looked up to her the most.
18. The Ancient Egyptian Goddess: Amunet
Amunet is one of the spirits of Thoth, a group of eight primordial Egyptian deities, also known as the Ajdad. She is Amun’s wife, considered the female variant of this deity, and was always shown at his side, without any record of solitary representations. She was depicted as a woman with a red crown holding a papyrus scroll and worshiped as the pharaoh’s protector.
19. The Ancient Egyptian Goddess: Mut
Ancient Egyptians revered Mut, one of the earliest sky deities. Amenhotep III created a holy lake for Mut in the Temple of Karnak during the New Kingdom. Egyptians call the vulture “mother,” representing Mut.
Her iconography shows her with a colorful vulture-shaped headdress and the twofold crown of Upper and Lower Egypt. Her Temple of Asher was near Thebes. Mut was established as a lady with vulture wings, clutching an ankh (key of life), wearing the twin crown of Upper and Lower Egypt, a crimson or blue garment, and Maat’s feather at her feet.
Explore the Wonders of Ancient Egypt
Find out more about Egypt and religion in ancient Egypt, which was an essential thing in the life of the ancient Egyptians. It is a reason to travel to Egypt with Amon Ra Tours to learn about this diverse deity, the ancient Egyptians.
Our qualified Egyptologists will accompany you to explain all the religious symbols, and you will learn about the gods of ancient Egypt, which will be an excellent introduction to your travels in Egypt. Also, if you have a few days for Egypt tour packages, you will learn many mysteries and stories. Book now your journey to the land of Pharaohs and explore the wonders of ancient Egyptian Gods and Goddesses.
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