The ancient Egyptian Religion played an important role in the life of the ancient Egyptian people. No force controlled their life as religion did because religion was an attempt to explain the phenomena surrounding the person. From here arose religion, which was not the dominant belief in man’s mind, that there are forces surrounding man and influencing him. Although man did not see these forces, he believed in their existence and created images of them in his imagination.
The Egyptians were among the most religious nations to the point that the ancient historian Herodotus said about them: (The Egyptians are the most religious people, and no people are known to have reached their level of religiosity. Their images, in their entirety, represent people praying before a god, and their books, in their entirety, are poems of worship and asceticism.)

The importance of Ancient Egyptian religion

Religion played an important role in every aspect of the life of the ancient Egyptians. Life on earth was seen as only one part of an eternal journey, and in order to continue this journey after death, one had to live a life worth continuing, and one was also expected to adhere to the principle of Maat, which means harmony.

With the awareness that one’s actions in life affect not only oneself but also the lives of others and the functioning of the universe, people were expected to depend on each other to maintain balance. They believed it was the gods’ will to produce the greatest pleasure and happiness for humans through a harmonious existence, enabling the gods to perform their tasks better.

The impact of Religion on the lives of the ancient Egyptians

Religion played an important role in the lives of the ancient Egyptians. Through it, life was viewed as part of an eternal journey. To follow that journey, searching for a reason to live for was necessary. The ancient Egyptian Religion expresses a mixture of beliefs related to various fields, such as science, medicine, Egyptian mythology, magic, and matters related to spirituality.

In general, ancient religious beliefs greatly influenced the lives of the ancient Egyptians, and this was represented by the following:

• Religion was considered a way for the ancient Egyptians to interpret events that occurred in their surroundings, such as the annual flood of the Nile River, and they also used it to interpret daily facts, such as sunrise and sunset, from a religious perspective. 
• The ancient Egyptian Religion was closely linked to the traditions of their ancestors, as the Egyptians believed deeply in it, never questioned the validity of the beliefs passed down to them by their ancestors and did not want to change them.
• The Egyptians would take their problems and sufferings and broadcast them to the gods, perform worship in their homes, and make sacrifices to the temples to solve their problems, as the problems were linked to a specific god to solve them.
• The ancient Egyptians believed in the tradition of divine kingship, that is, the belief that Pharaoh, the political ruler of Egypt, was not just a ruler but also a god. Therefore, the Pharaoh and the priests in ancient Egyptian civilization enjoyed great authority and power over the people. This results from those religious beliefs, represented by the Egyptians’ belief that the Pharaoh and the priests had an important and clear role in maintaining the nation’s order and stability.
• The life of the Egyptians was influenced by religious beliefs related to the afterlife, as they believed in the necessity of preserving the body so that their souls could reside in it in the afterlife. As a result, the method of mummification was developed to preserve the body after death.
• They built huge pyramids to be tombs for the pharaohs of ancient Egyptian civilization, and then coffins carved into the rock were used to bury the pharaoh kings in them.
• The use of amulets also represented the influence of religious beliefs on the lives of the ancient Egyptians. So, the Egyptians used various amulets as talismans to bring good luck. These amulets took a specific shape and were attached to necklaces, bracelets and belts. They were also used in the mummification process by wrapping them in mummy bandages by their loved ones upon death.

An ancient drawing showing king Akhenaten with his god (the sun rays).

Sources of Ancient Egyptian Religion

It is almost impossible to enumerate the gods of the ancient Egyptians because individual gods were able to temporarily merge to form syncretic gods, which combined elements of individual gods; a single god may also split into multiple forms, each with an independent cult and role. There are many aspects of Egyptian theology that scholars have not been able to explain.

This results from the fact that there was a tremendous development in religious ideas over the 3,000 years of Egyptian civilization, and most Egyptian gods also did not have specific characteristics. For example, Amun, one of the most prominent gods of the New Kingdom and the Late Period, is referred to vaguely in the secondary literature as “state god” because his power was so pervasive and comprehensive that it was impossible to define.

Modern and wide-ranging descriptions of ancient Egyptian culture from abroad are mainly derived from ancient Greek and Roman writers. Their works included many important observations about Egyptian religion, which were particularly interesting to the writers, as it fundamentally differed from their religions at the time of Late antiquity.

Herodotus also noted in the fifth century BC that the Egyptians were the most religious and pious people. Other important classical sources include Plutarch’s essay on Isis and Osiris in the first century AD, which gives the only known account associated with their myth, the writings of Apuleius in the second century AD, and others about the cult of Isis, which spread in Greece.

The importance of the gods in the lives of the ancient Egyptians

The gods and their diversity are among the distinctive features of ancient Egyptian civilization, and the following is an explanation of some of their characteristics and importance:

• Ancient Egyptian religious beliefs are characterized by a diversity of gods.
• Egypt gods were characterized by great power among the ancient Egyptians, according to their beliefs, incomparable to humans and their abilities. They were immortal and able to resist many problems. They also had the advantage of being in more than one place simultaneously.
• The basic form of the gods is a human, as many gods had only a human form, including very ancient figures such as the fertility god Min and the gods Osiris and Isis.
• The sun gods were considered one of the most important gods in the life of the ancient Egyptians, as they were associated with many supernatural beings and with Osiris, the god of the dead.
• The gods of ancient Egypt were seen as close friends of the people interested in helping them and guiding their lives on earth.
• The gods played a role in making the Egyptians so attached to their homeland and land that they avoided military campaigns outside their country’s borders for fear that they would die on foreign land and that they would not receive the appropriate rituals to complete their journey after death. The kings of Egypt also refused to marry their daughters to foreign rulers for the same reason. The gods of Egypt blessed the land.

Ancient Egyptian goddesses.

Characteristics of ancient Egyptian religion

The characteristics of ancient Egyptian religion are summarized as follows:

• Religious practices focus on the pharaoh

Formal religious practice centred on the pharaoh, or ruler of Egypt, who was believed to be a god and acted as an intermediary between the people and the gods, whose role was to preserve the gods so that they could maintain order in the universe.

• Believing that artistic images are not the truth

They believed that artistic depictions of gods did not represent or depict the true image of the gods, as they considered their true nature ambiguous. However, symbolic images were used to indicate the nature of these gods and what they looked like.

• Temples are a means of the state to support the gods

Their physical images were well-housed and cared for, and temples were not places of worship for the average person.

• Building graves and offering sacrifices

The Egyptians were very concerned about the fate of their souls after death. They built tombs and made sacrifices to preserve the bodies and souls of the dead. They believed that humans possessed the life force or “ka”, which left the body upon death, and one had to continue to receive food from Offerings made to carry the Ka after death, where he could consume its spiritual essence.

• The belief that there are spiritual characteristics for every person

They believed that humans also possessed the “ba”, a set of spiritual characteristics unique to each person, which remained in the body after death. Funeral rituals were intended to free the “ba” to move, join the “ka”, and live as the “ka”.