Three versions of the Creation of theworld

Three versions of the Creation of theworld

Hermopoltan_Heliopolitan_and_Memphite

Egyptian Mythology was the belief structure

and underlying form of ancient Egyptian culture from at least

4000 BCE

(as evidenced by burial practices and tomb paintings)

The Creation of the World

the journey began with the creation of the world and the universe out of darkness and swirling chaos

Once there was nothing but endless dark water without form or purpose.

Out of this chaos (`Nu’) rose the primordial hill

upon which stood the great god Atum

(or, in some versions of the myth, Ptah).

Atum looked upon the nothingness

he mated with his own shadow to give birth to two children,

Shu (god of air, whom Atum spat out)

and Tefnut

(goddess of moisture, whom Atum vomited out).

Shu gave to the early world the principles of life

while Tefnut contributed the principles of order.

they set out to establish the world.

In time,

Atum became concerned because his children were gone so long

and so removed his eye and sent it in search of them

. While his eye was gone,

Atum sat alone on the hill in the midst of chaos and contemplated eternity.

Shu and Tefnut returned with the eye of Atum

(later associated with the Udjat eye, the Eye of Ra, or the All-Seeing Eye)

Isis

These early creatures had nowhere to live,

and so Shu and Tefnut mated and gave birth to Geb (the earth) and Nut (the sky)

Geb and Nut,

fell deeply in love

Atum pushed Nut away from Geb,

high up into the heavens.

Nut was already pregnant by Geb,

gave birth to Osiris, Isis, Set, Nephthys,and Horus

the five Egyptian gods

Osiris and Set

Osiris administrated the world efficiently, co-ruling with his sister-wife Isis,

He created the land of Egypt in perfection with the Nile River providing for the needs of the people.

His brother Set became envious of the creation,

Set threw a great banquet to which he invited Osiris and seventy-two others.

At the end of the party he offered the great chest as a gift to the one who could best fit inside it _ Osiris, of course,

fit perfectly and, once he was inside the coffin,

Set slammed the lid on tight and threw it into the Nile River.

He then told everyone that Osiris was dead and assumed the rule of the world.

Isis refused to believe that her husband was dead and went searching for him

finally finding the coffin inside a tree at Byblos

She brought the body back to Egypt

Set began to worry that Isis might locate Osiris’ body

the coffin open,

and cutting the body into forty-two pieces

He then flung the fragments of Osiris all over the land of Egypt so that Isis would never be able to find them and

returned to his palace to rule.

When Isis returned and found the coffin destroyed and the body gone

The sisters then began searching the land for Osiris’ parts. Wherever they found a body part,

they would bury it on the spot and build a shrine to protect it from Set.

In this way the forty-two provinces of Egypt were established by the two goddesses

They finally assembled all of the body except for the penis,

Isis then created a replacement part for the phallus and mated with her husband,

becoming pregnant with her son Horus.

Osiris had been brought back to life successfully by Isis

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could not rule the world as he had before. He instead descended to the underworld to become the righteous judge and ruler of the land of the dead

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Horus

(sometimes known as Horus the Younger to differentiate from Horus the brother of Osiris)

having grown to manhood,

challenged his uncle for the rule of his father’s former kingdom. The battle raged for eighty years until Horus defeated Set and banished him from Egypt to dwell in the arid deserts

Horus then ruled with his mother Isis

and aunt Nephthys as his counselors and harmony was again restored to the land.

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Egyptian Creation Myth:

Heliopolis Version

Day One

Creation of light

In the beginning there was only water,

a chaos of churning

bubbling water

this the Egyptians called Nun.

It was out of Nun that everything began.

Then the sun god Ra emerged out of primeval chaos

surface of the water.

Ra gave light to the universe

Creation of light

In the beginning the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep water

these waters were very similar to the primordial watery chaos Nun

A wind from God swept over the face of the waters to give light

(just the same as Ra )

Unlike the Egyptian mythology,

God existed before the creation,

he was not born out as Ra

Day Two -

Creation of air and moisture -

Ra created the air god Shu and his wife Tefnut the goddess of moisture,

Creation of the sky

God said,

"Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters,

So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome from the waters that were above the dome, And it was so.

God called the dome Sky.

Day Three

Creation of Earth and Sky

Shu and Tefnut gave birth to the sky- goddess Nut

and the earth god Geb,

and so the physical universe was created.

Day Four

Creation of Calendar

Against Ra's orders

Geb and Nut married.

Ra was incensed and ordered Shu to separate them

which he did. But Nut was already pregnant,

although unable to give birth as Ra had decreed she could not give birth in any month of any year

Thoth, the god of learning,

decided to help her and gambling with the moon for extra light, was able to add five extra days to the 360-day calendar.

On those five days Nut gave birth to Osiris,

Horus the Elder, Seth, Isis, and Nephthys successively.

Creation of Calendar

God created day and night by making two great lights in the dome of the sky to give light,

the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night-and the stars.

This daily cycle allowed for the separation of seasons and years,

thus the calendar was created

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The Memphite version

centered on Ptah

who was the patron god of craftsmen.

he represented the craftsman's ability to envision a finished product,

and shape raw materials to create that product.

The Memphite theology said that Ptah created the world in a similar way

unlike the other Egyptian creations, was not a physical but an intellectual creation by the Word and the Mind of God. The ideas developed within Ptah's heart

were given form when he named them with his tongue.

By speaking these names,

Ptah produced the gods and all other things

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The Hermopolitan

Myth was developed at Hermopolis.

Here the god Thoth,

god of wisdom,

was the main player.

the creation was Thoth coming from a lotus flower which arose in the "Sea of Knives."