Egypt Travel Guide: Ancient egyptian gods and goddesses

Thoth, the god of writing and wisdom, was sometimes shown as a sacred ibis, a monkey, or as a man with an ibis head. He was credited with creating language, the hieroglyphic writing system, and acting as a scribe and advisor to the gods. Thoth, the god of wisdom, was...

Seth represented turmoil, violence, storms, and arid environments. He is Osiris' killer according to the Osiris myth (in some versions of the myth, he tricks Osiris into laying down in a coffin and then seals it shut.) The presence of Seth presents a challenge for Egyptologists. He is frequently shown...

In Egyptian mythology, Sekhmet, often spelled Sakhmet, was a goddess of war and the slayer of Re's foes. Sekhmet was linked to both illnesses and to recovery and medicine. She was referred to as the "Eye of Re," just like other violent goddesses in the Egyptian pantheon. She was Ptah's...

One of a number of gods connected to the sun, Re was frequently portrayed as having a human body and a hawk's head. During his nightly journey through the underworld, where he would have to vanquish the serpent god Apopis in order to rise again, it was thought that he...

The leader of a triad of gods venerated at Memphis was Ptah. The lion-headed goddess Sekhmet, Ptah's wife, and the god Nefertem, who might have been the couple's son, made up the other two members of the triad. The craftsmen and builders appear to have been Ptah's first connections. Imhotep,...

One of Egypt's most revered gods, Osiris, was the deity of the afterlife. He also represented the cycle of Nile floods that Egypt depended on for agricultural fertility, as well as death, the afterlife, and resurrection. The myth claims that Osiris was an Egyptian monarch who was killed and mutilated...

Isis's history is a mystery. She cannot be associated with a definite location, unlike many other gods, and she is not explicitly mentioned in any of the oldest Egyptian writings. She soon rose in stature though, rising to the position of the most significant goddess in the pantheon. Isis represented...

Horus was a sky god linked with battle and hunting, sometimes shown as a falcon or as a man with a falcon's head. He also represented divine kingship, and in some times and places, the prevailing monarch was seen as a manifestation of Horus. The Osiris myth states that Horus...

Hathor was frequently shown as a cow, a woman with a cow's head, or a woman with a cow's ears. It was thought that Hathor shielded women during childbirth because she represented motherhood and fertility. Because she was referred to as "the lady of the west," she also had a...

Anubis was interested in funeral customs and afterlife care. He was frequently shown as a jackal or as a man with a jackal's head. The Egyptians would have seen jackals scavenging around cemeteries, which is probably how the relationship between jackals and death and funerals came about. Prior to Osiris...