Daily Life- Religious beliefs

Sophia Khoudary

In Egypt there were many beliefs you could have. For instance you might have believed in a “god” that was part human if you had lived in that time.  You would praise them and glorify them along with your king who was also a “god” in the Egyptian’s eyes. Listed below are some “gods” and beliefs the Egyptians believed.

• People believed in and worshiped “gods”.
• Some “gods” were more important than others.
• Many “gods” were partly human such as “Anubis” who had a head of a jackal and the body of a human.
• Not all “gods” were part human. A “god” named “Bast” was purely cat.
• Kings were considered “gods” and people believed that he could control the water flow of the Nile and communicate to other “gods” and etc.

In Egypt, you could not do very much for your “god” as a person because your main goals were to have enough food, to be sheltered by something, and to have enough currency to support themselves. Yet somehow people the found time and currency to do so. Listed below are some expectations from the Egyptians and ways they worshiped their “gods”.

• They made offerings such as mummified animals to their “gods”.
• They held celebrations which some of them consisted of the temples people made for them.
• The people hoped for an after life because in their belief you would get eaten by a monster if you did not pass the test.
• Egyptians made temples which were where you were to worship your “gods”
• They made sacrifices to help please the “gods” because if they didn’t get many sacrifices the Egyptians believed the “gods” would get very angry.

Once you died there was belief that you had a second chance to live. Listed below is the belief which determined if you pasted the test or not.

• One of the beliefs was to weigh a dead person heart weight against ostrich feather,
• If the heart was lighter the person would have an everlasting life
• If it not they would be “eaten” by the “Swallower”, a monster with the head of the crocodile and the body of a lion and a hippo.

One of the “gods”, Bast, (who was a cat,) was responsible for many other cat’s deaths because of how the Egyptians worshiped her. Listed below are the ways they worshipped Bast.

•  Egyptian people are believed to have killed cats by breaking their necks.
•  They would mummify cats as an offering to Bast.
•  Some say that the Egyptians bred cats just to mummify them. 

  

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  Citations:

  Akhet Egyptology.The Horizon to the Past.http://www.akhet.co.uk/cairo.htm.  9/15/2015 .Web