Re – The Sun

Re was the Sun god and was also known as Ra. He was the most important god of the ancient Egyptians. Ancient scripts drew him as a man with hawk head and headdress with a sun disk resting above him. The ancient Egyptians believed that Re was swallowed every night by the sky goddess Nut, and was reborn every morning.

The centre of Re worship was at Iunu, often referred to under its Greek name Heliopolis, which translates as City of the Sun. Here Re took several other forms: as the evening sun he was known as Atum; as the morning sun, he was depicted as a scarab and called Khepri. Re was also known as Horakhty, most famously represented by the magnificent Sphinx sculpture at Giza.

Re was head of a group of nine gods who were particularly important to the ancient Egyptians. The nine were known together as the Great Ennead and within this group Re’s role was as the supreme judge of the dead.

Ptah – The Master Builder

Many ancient Egyptians believed Ptah was a creator-god who brought the world into being through thought and speech. We know this because this belief was recorded on the so-called Shabaka Stone, which is on display at London’s British Museum.

Depicted as a mummified man standing inside a shrine, Ptah is also always holding a measuring rod to show that he was also seen to be the god of craftsmen. He was one of the three deities worshipped at Memphis, near modern-day Cairo. The second was his wife Sekhmet, and the third was their son, the lotus god Nefertem.

Osiris – Lord of the Dead

Depicted as a mummified King, Osiris was another member of the Great Ennead. He was god and chief judge of the underworld, as well as god of resurrection and vegetation; the ancient Egyptians believed that Osiris gave them the gift of barley, one of their most important crops.

According to the myth surrounding Osiris, he was an elightened king murdered by his jealous brother Seth. However, Osiris was resurrected, much to Seth’s annoyance! He was universally loved and respected by all Egyptians as he represented the hope of eternal life. G

Isis – Divine Mother

This goddess was revered for her magical powers and for her devotion to her husband, Osiris, and to their son, Horus. Isis was essentially protective goddess, who used powerful magic spells to help people in need. As a result she was the most popular member of the Egyptian deities.

As every Pharaoh was known as ‘the living Horus’, it followed he should be particular in honour of the divine mother. Therefore Isis was revered especially by the Egyptian kings. Her chief centre of worship was at Philae, where the temple built in her honour still stands today.

Horus – Soaring Hawk

According to Egyptian mythology Horus was born to Isis after the murder of her husband Osiris. He was then raised by Isis to avenge his father's murder. This struggle lasted eighty years before the gods finally awarded him victory and the throne of Egypt.

Horus was originally revered as the sky-god, drawn as a man with the head of a hawk but his mythology also endured that he was considered the divine protector and patron of the king.

Hours was also part of the Great Ennead and is significant for being the ruler of the world of the living. One of the best-preserved temples in Egypt today was dedicated to Horus. It is located in Upper Egypt at a town called Edfu.

Seth – Chaos Incarnate

As you’ve probably gathered by now, Seth wasn’t very nice. Also known as the Red God, Seth was god of the desert and chaos, creator of thunderstorms and violence. Seth was one of Egypt's oldest deities, and the Egyptians both feared him yet also admired his strength and ferocity.

Represented as a man with the head of an unidentified animal, Seth has often been depicted with the graceful body of a greyhound, but with a long, stiff, forked tail and square-topped ears unlike any other dog. As a result of this ambiguity, the pig, the donkey, the hippopotamus, the okapi and the oryx are all animals that have been identified with him.

Hathor – Goddess of Love

This goddess was known as the Golden One, Lady of Love, Music and Intoxication and was depicted as a cow, a cow-headed woman, or a woman with a cow's horns and ears. Hathor was a symbol of motherhood and fertility and the patron-goddess of unmarried women. It was Hathor who helped protect women in childbirth.

As with many Egyptian deities, she played varying roles in different regions; as Hathor-of-the-West she was a goddess of the dead, while she was also patron-goddess of the mining region in Sinai. She was also the wife of Horus.

Anubis – The Great Embalmer

Anubis was universally worshipped by ancient Egyptians as the god of the dead. Because Egyptians often saw wild jackals scavenging in cemeteries, Anubis was depicted as a black jackal-like creature, or a man with a jackal's head.

According to myth, Anubis was the lord and guardian of the underworld before Osiris; it was he who carried out the first mummification of Osiris’ body, and as a result became patron-god of embalmers. Anubis’ role was to guide the dead on the paths of the underworld and so prayers for the dead were chiefly addressed to him.

Thoth – The Great Scribe

With the head of an ibis, Thoth was a moon god, as well as the inventor of writing and scribe to the gods. As both the ibis and ape were considered sacred to him, he has also been depicted as a baboon.

When the dead were tried in the Hall of Judgement, it was Thoth who wrote down the details. It was also believed that Thoth inscribed the number of years a pharaoh had allotted to him for his reign. Arguably the most learned of the gods, Thoth was believed to have a book containing all the wisdom of the world within it.

Bastet – The Great Protector

Bastet was depicted with the head of a wild cat, an animal sacred to the ancient Egyptians. As a result they made many statues of cats to honour her. Bastet was usually seen as a gentle protective goddess, although she sometimes appeared in Egyptian art with the head of a lioness to protect the king in battle.

Bastet was one of the daughters of the sun god, Re. During the later period of ancient Egypt her popularity was so great that a great temple was built in her honour at Bubastis in the Delta, to which worshippers flocked for the annual festival held in her honour.

Amun – The All Powerful

Amun was depicted as a man wearing two tall plumes on his head, was always one of the most important gods in ancient Egypt, but his authority increased during the Middle Kingdom period, when he became identified with the sun god Re: as Amen-Re, he became the most powerful of all the gods.

During this period he rose to political importance as the favourite god of the kings and this royal patronage ensured that he outstripped all other gods in power and prestige. The great temple built in his honour at Karnak is a clear demonstration of his status as king of the gods.