How old is egyptian religion

Secure sources for the aging of the adherents of Egyptian temple-cult in the 3rd century are lacking, but the steep decline of sources in hieroglyphic and demotic script in the 3rd and 4th century indicates that the educational facilities of the temples were failing. In the Roman period both these scripts became exclusive to priests educated at the House of Life, the temple institution in charge of educating young folks destined for priesthood Tait ; Finnestad By the late period, the number of hieroglyphic signs had multiplied tenfold from the classical period and had become quite an arcane and demanding script to master.

Even though the Gnomon of the Idios Logos made literacy in these scripts a prerequisite for priesthood, it seems likely that by the 3rd and 4th century many priests no longer knew Egyptian scripts, and therefore must either have been taught the rites orally or held their posts as a sinecure.

Of course, some young people would still be invested in keeping up the religion of their ancestors. For example, the archive of the scholasticus Ammon, in Panopolis, from the first half of the 4th century, gives us some insight into an elite priestly family in which it was still attractive for the youngsters to assume the priestly roles to which the family had a claim Bagnall —; Willis and Maresch ; Bull b: — Unfortunately, the Greek papyri give us no clue as to the degree of knowledge the incumbent priest had of traditional scripts, culture, and rituals.

Some scholars see such late pagan priesthoods as sinecures Cameron —, for Rome , yet it seems unsound to disregard the letters entirely as evidence for traditional Egyptian religion in early 4th-century Panopolis, since the contemporary Greek letters of the chief prophet of Hermopolis testify to his continued ritual responsibilities Matthews 20— It is to such an interaction between Neoplatonic philosophy and traditional Egyptian religion we shall now turn see Hadot 1— Canopus is located around 20 kilometers to the northeast of Alexandria, by the mouth of the Canopic branch of the Nile, though much of the site has now sunk under water in Abu Qir Bay.

Osiris had a temple here that became famous in late antiquity, and his spouse Isis had one in nearby Menouthis Goddio and Clauss —; pace Stolz The first-rank temple of Osiris itself was built by Ptolemy III in the Egyptian fashion, and the city was sufficiently prestigious that an ecumenical council of priests met there in his ninth regnal year — that is BCE — and issued the so-called Canopus decree, preserved on a stela in Hieroglyphic, Greek, and Demotic Budge 9.

When Strabo wrote about Canopus in the first century BCE , there is no mention of a temple of Osiris, only a temple of Serapis which was famous for cures and oracles Geo.

Since at least the first century CE , Osiris was worshiped in Canopus in the form of a jar filled with water, the lid shaped as the human head of the god Fraser , ; Bernand —; Koemoth This form was called Osiris Canopus or Hydreios, and several such statues are found.

Rufinus furnishes us with an etiology claiming this aqueous Osiris was devised by a priest of his to defeat the sacred fire of the Persians in a showdown between gods Rufinus, E. In Roman imperial times there are inscriptions registered until the time of Philip the Arab r. Papyri are of course not found in the humid Nile delta, so we must turn to two literary sources from around the turn of the 5th century for insight into the cult of Osiris right before it was violently shut down by the patriarch Theophilus.

These are the Lives of the Sophists by Eunapius ca. The conjunction of a pagan and a Christian source to the same events gives us a rare opportunity to see the other side of Christian triumphalism. Both sources are of course ideologically slanted, and cannot be taken at face value, but it is precisely these ideologies that were at stake during the events in Canopus toward the end of the 4th century.

Eunapius was an adherent of the Neoplatonic school in the tradition of Iamblichus of Chalcis, which employed rituals referred to as theurgy as part of spiritual formation and as a means to communicate with and have visions of divine powers.

One of the Neoplatonists portrayed by Eunapius is Antoninus, whose father and teacher were both students of Iamblichus, and whose mother was also a reputable theurgist. He crossed to Alexandria, and then so greatly admired and preferred the mouth of the Nile at Canobus, that he wholly dedicated and applied himself to the worship of the gods there, and to their secret rites. He made rapid progress towards affinity with the divine, despised his body, freed himself from its pleasures, and embraced a wisdom that was hidden from the crowd.

We cannot be sure when Antoninus arrived at Canopus, but he must have lived there for quite some time before his death around When Aelius Aristides went to Canopus in the 2nd century there was still a priest present who could give the correct Egyptian etymology for the name of his hometown, but we cannot be certain if that would still be the case two centuries later.

Around Epiphanius of Salamis complains about rites of ecstatic and lewd women in many localities in Egypt, including the neighbor of Canopus, Menouthis, where Isis had an important shrine De fide Antoninus settled in Canopus because of the divine rites carried out there and was not himself their originator pace Frankfurter — In fact, he is specifically said not to have practiced theurgic rites, out of caution toward the imperial authorities Vit.

However traditional the cult of Osiris in Canopus might or might not have been, it seems that its alliance with a famous Neoplatonic dynasty led to a revival of sorts. This rejuvenation would be short lived, however. Towards the end of his life Antoninus predicted that after his death the temples would be destroyed, and it seems likely that the prediction of Hermes in PD informed his sense of the demise of Egyptian temples Luck ; Fowden —; van den Broek ; pace Athanassiadi 15—16 :.

Though he himself still appeared to be human and he associated with human beings, he foretold to all his followers that after his death the temple would cease to be, and even the great and holy temples of Serapis would pass into formless darkness and be transformed, and that a fabulous and unseemly gloom would hold sway over the fairest things on earth.

To all these prophecies time bore witness, and in the end his prediction gained the force of an oracle … This, then, greatly increased the reputation of Antoninus also for foresight, in that he had foretold to all that the temples would become tombs.

The idea that the temples would become tombs definitely recalls the prophecy of Hermes, and the gloominess that surpasses the fair earth corresponds closely to the Chaosbeschreibung in which the world is no longer an object of wonder, but will be despised.

Eunapius might also have been familiar with PD , and the passage possibly reflects an editorial change to PD : our Coptic version, which is closest to the Greek original, states that the worst sinners, worthy of the most terrible punishment in the afterlife, are temple thieves, who violate both human and divine laws. In the corresponding passage, the Latin Asclepius has made the ultimate sinners those who die violent deaths, condemned by human laws, that is executed criminals Ascl.

In light of Eunapius, it seems likely that this interpolation took place during the 4th century, as a critique against the veneration of Christian martyrs, whose violent deaths indicates to Eunapius that they are not worthy of worship, since they then become biaiothanatoi , a class of vengeful spirits.

The transition from temples to tombs in our prophecy is thus interpreted by Eunapius as a passage from the reverent cult of the gods to the irreverent worship of vengeful specters carried out especially by monks. Rufinus does not mention Antoninus in his additions to the Church History of Eusebius, but agrees with Eunapius on the vitality of the cult at Canopus see Thelamon — :. As for Canopus, who could list the outrages connected with its superstitions?

There was what amounted to a state school of magic there under the guise of the study of the priestly writing, for so they call the ancient writing of the Egyptians sacerdotalium litterarum, ita etenim appellant antiquas Aegyptiorum litteras.

The pagans revered the place as a source and origin of demons to such an extent that its popularity was far greater than that of Alexandria. According to Rufinus, then, the priests of Canopus still mastered the Egyptian script, and we should not lightly discount his testimony, ideologically biased as it might be, since he had himself visited Alexandria and its environs before the destruction of the Serapeum. The passage indicates that the Canopus temple was not a largely defunct temple rebooted by Antoninus, acting as a pseudo-Egyptian high priest, but rather that the native priesthood must have collaborated with their visitor, and, as Eunapius relates, experienced a surge of interest from young people at the arrival of the international Neoplatonic celebrity.

According to the Coptic History of the Church , it was Pachomian monks Theophilus brought in to root out idolatry in Canopus Orlandi 12; pace Hahn , and they then formed the Metanoia convent there. In the 5th century there was another showdown with adherents of the temple of Isis in neighboring Menouthis, but that is another story see Athanassiadi 15; Haas —, —; Watts — This strikes me as overly pessimistic.

From the accounts of Eunapius and Rufinus, from opposite poles of the ideological spectrum, we can be fairly certain that after the attack on the Serapeum in Alexandria, Theophilus sent monks to violently level the notorious temple of Canopus, and to establish a monastery and a martyrium there. Other sources bear out this picture. The story of Antoninus moreover indicates that this attack was far from unexpected by the devotees assembled around the temple of Osiris, who saw the prophecy of Hermes Trismegistus realized before their eyes.

In this case, the triumphalist narrative of Rufinus is corroborated by the pagan Eunapius, which should serve as a warning not to reject out of hand similar triumphalist narratives where we have no sources for the opposing point of view. We cannot assume that the entire classical Egyptian culture was maintained in these localities, including knowledge of the priestly scripts and the whole gamut of arcane rituals to be practiced daily and on festival occasions.

Eunapius and Rufinus indicate that at Canopus, as at Philae, the traditional scripts and arcane knowledge were preserved, but we cannot confirm this since the moist climate would have ruined any papyri, and the epigraphical habit ceased even for Greek in the mid-3rd century. Both the writer of PD and Antoninus communicated their enthusiasm for Egyptian religion in the Greek language; the latter was a foreigner and likely never learned much of the local language, while the former might have been an Egyptian priest, though we will never know if he knew the priestly scripts.

For both, it was Hellenism that provided the idiom with which to defend traditional Egyptian religion see Bowersock 55—69; Frankfurter The Egyptian language would only survive as Coptic, a language used by Christians and Manichaeans , while the last Egyptian enthusiasts of Isis and Osiris in late 5th-century Alexandria would apparently formulate themselves in Greek and through the lens of Neoplatonism.

Despite the fact that most temples had long since been abandoned, destroyed, or adapted to other uses by the time of Antoninus, it is striking how he echoes the earlier prophecy of Hermes Trismegistus in seeing the Egyptian temple as the final redoubt of the divine cosmos, portraying the demise of temple-cult as leading to a godforsaken world, whereby moral, societal, and cosmic order collapses.

Amidon , Philip R. Rufinus of Aquileia: History of the Church. The Fathers of the Church, Assmann , Jan. Munich : C. Athanassiadi , Polymnia. Bagnall , Roger S. Egypt in Late Antiquity. Bowersock , Glen W. Hellenism in Late Antiquity. Budge , E. The Decrees of Memphis and Canopus. Books on Egypt and Chaldea 17— New York : Henry Frowde. Bull , Christian H. Religions in the Graeco-Roman World, Leiden : Brill. Cameron , Alan. The Last Pagans of Rome. Oxford : Oxford University Press.

Cancik , Hubert. Collins ed. Depauw , Mark , and Willy Clarysse. Onomastic Perspectives on Conversion. Dijkstra , Jitse H. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta, Leuven : Peeters. His eye, or udjat sometimes spelt wedjat , was a powerful protective amulet.

Rulers of Egypt were considered to be earthly representations of Horus so many falcon statues and images bear the crown of Upper and Lower Egypt. Falcon-headed Qebehsenuef , a son of Horus, protector of the intestines.

The ancient Egyptians feared death and decay and protected the deceased by removing the organs and mummifying the body. Thoth , a moon-god, was the god of wisdom, maker of laws and chief scribe to the gods.

He was also a guide and helper to the spirits of dead people travelling in the underworld. Artists depicted him as an ibis, a baboon or a man with the head of either of these animals. The Australian Museum respects and acknowledges the Gadigal people as the First Peoples and Traditional Custodians of the land and waterways on which the Museum stands.

Image credit: gadigal yilimung shield made by Uncle Charles Chicka Madden. This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Learn more. Skip to main content Skip to acknowledgement of country Skip to footer Osiris, chief god of the dead and the afterlife, is usually depicted as a mummy-shaped human wearing the atef crown a white crown flanked by ostrich feathers and holding a crook and a flail signs of kingship and justice Occasionally, Osiris' skin is green or black, a reference to his aspects of vegetation and fertile earth.

Religion Throughout Egypt's history beliefs and practices were constantly changing though the themes of fertility, rebirth, death and resurrection generally remained constant. Close Modal Dialog. Just as the forces of nature had complex interrelationships, so did Egyptian deities. Minor deities might be linked, or deities might come together based on the meaning of numbers in Egyptian mythology i.

Deities might also be linked through syncretism, creating a composite deity. Artistic depictions of gods were not literal representations, since their true nature was considered mysterious. However, symbolic imagery was used to indicate this nature. An example was Anubis, a funerary god, who was shown as a jackal to counter its traditional meaning as a scavenger, and create protection for the mummy. They were both mortuary temples to serve deceased pharaohs and temples for patron gods.

Starting as simple structures, they grew more elaborate, and were increasingly built from stone, with a common plan. Ritual duties were normally carried out by priests, or government officials serving in the role. In the New Kingdom, professional priesthood became common, and their wealth rivaled that of the pharaoh. At many sites, Egyptians worshipped specific animals that they believed to be manifestations of deities.

Examples include the Apis bull of the god Ptah , and mummified cats and other animals. Commoners and pharaohs asked questions of oracles, and answers could even be used during the New Kingdom to settle legal disputes.

This might involve asking a question while a divine image was being carried, and interpreting movement, or drawing lots. Privacy Policy. Skip to main content. Search for:. Key Points The religion of Ancient Egypt lasted for more than 3, years, and was polytheistic, meaning there were a multitude of deities, who were believed to reside within and control the forces of nature. It has always seemed to me that the default position is that people get along; that there is a huge area of our lives that we inhabit together without having to bump into irreconcilable differences.

That faith-based conflict is the aberrant position, and that it is always ignited by economic conditions or political obtuseness or manipulation. A short introductory film shows scenes of young Christians protecting Muslims at prayer and young Muslims carefully encircling a church. It killed more than 20 people. Christians, of course. Later, investigations proved what we had known all along: that police agents had planted the bomb.

This was not a solitary incident. I leave the film and tweet as I walk. I stop in front of the great mural of the ceiling of the church in the Red Monastery. Just before I left Cairo I went to a service for the Martyrs of Maspero, the 27 men murdered by the regime in October on a peaceful protest in front of the Egyptian Radio and Television building. Alaa first came to the attention of the generals when he and his comrades took over the morgue where the bodies of their friends were lying.

While the massacre was happening, state television was screaming at viewers that Christians were attacking the Egyptian army and Muslims should come out and defend it.

Consider how religions start out as revolutions, rising against the established regime and aristocracy. Then — if the citizens are lucky — part of the religious establishment will maintain independence and a distance from the state. In that distance there may be room for people to negotiate their lives. A book in a case in the next room brings me back to the exhibition and a moment of pleasure: the wonderful horned, hairy, paunchy demon in the late 14th-century Kitab al-Bulhan could be straight out of a Manga comic of today, and triggers happier thoughts of shared and divergent imaginations.

And then, on my phone screen, a young woman sits on the ground in Jerusalem. Ten — I count them — ten Israeli soldiers stand round her. In front of me a Hebrew bible in Arabic script and on the wall an image of the lost-to-Egypt treasure of the Jewish Geniza.