Religious Monopoly

Syncretism and Henotheism

     While true of Amun-Re and his two components, many other gods interacted with one another through merges, relations, and associations. Syncretism and henotheism were as integral to Egyptian religion as the sun since without ever-evolving associations, the religion would become gridlocked. Osiris is the most well documented case of henotheism because of his existence from the beginning of the Old Kingdom through the collapse of the Egyptian religion itself. Understanding the complexity of these associations between gods reveals the mindset that dictated the shifts of much of the ancient religion’s change through its existence.
     Foundational to the integration of gods deals with the universality of its acceptance. For example, all Egyptians believed that the underworld existed. Since all realms must have a king, Osiris successfully absorbed many others to become the sole king of the underworld throughout Egypt. Similarly, Ma’at dominated the definitions of truth, justice, and order while Nun represented doubt, chaos, and destruction.
     The expanding influence of a god was usually directed by the religious stability of that deistic belief in concordance with the current dynasty. Local gods’ assertions to the forefront of political activity quickened universal acceptance among Egyptians. Local gods had very strong specific powers in that particular region while greater gods had widespread power but remained ineffectual in a particular region until association with local gods was secured. The few foreign gods that gained limited success in the delta regions of Egypt also employed this method like Anat-Hathor in the Third Intermediate Period.
     The historic center of worship for a god was not always the origin as explained earlier with Amun. Most Egyptian gods had multiple functions that overlapped with other gods within that local region so that having three or four gods that served the same purpose was not uncommon. Classical Greek and Roman authors tried to specialize Egyptian god functions but oversimplified. The notable exceptions to this are Osiris, Isis, and Nephthys.
     As the popularity of gods grew, triads formed within areas of heaviest influence. The largest organizational attempt in Egyptian history occurred under Amenhotep III with systematic reinterpretation of national deities to emphasize connections with Re. Two major categories resulted. The first, hybrids, resulted in a third god with a hyphenated name that combined the depictions of both gods. Instead of reducing the overall number of gods like henotheism, hybrids created a new god altogether. Sobek-Re combined the powers of the crocodile god with that of the sun; this new god’s largest worship base was Memphis, a stronghold of neither Sobek nor Re. The second method drew connections through associations. Thoth and Re both held baboons sacred and thus, the two gods were linked through this. The largest problem from this second method is that there was little consistency in depiction since physical attributes only revealed part of a god’s attributes. This caused the creation of the third god. Also, the greater the god and the more gods he absorbed, the more representations depicted. Re’s symbolism is extremely varied.
     The process of syncretism resulted in the hyphenation of gods to show dual characteristics that provided two, three, or nine-fold strength. However, this often did not result in a more comprehensive, single god. Henotheism involved a blending of traits where one god obviously prevailed. This also occurred in two manners. If a greater god absorbed a lesser god, such as Osiris over Andjti, the inferior god completely disappeared with only reminiscent symbolism. To stave off this act, lesser gods could assume parts of a greater god as was widely done with sun gods and Re.
     Gods are merged based on similar traits, depictions, and character. Sekhmet and Bastet, both cat goddesses, often merged because of their similarity in depiction and realm of worship. A partial statue now located in the British Museum of Nature History contains a statue of Sekhment-Bastet, linked lioness-cat goddesses. As described by the Shorter, “The strangest feature of the object is the cat's face, which is made of bronze attached to the stone figure (the latter shows the ruff, and is therefore properly of Sekhmet) . . . the throne of Sekhmet-Bastet may be easily explained by the fact that [these cat goddesses] are known to be connected.” Linked names created composite gods like Re-Horakhty and combined different aspects similar deities like Atum-Khepri to combine the morning and evening sun. Syncretism
     recognizes presence of one god “in” another god when that first god adopts a role that was a primary function of the other. They did not become identical. Reaching outside the sphere of Egyptian religion, Amun’s weapon could be interpreted as a thunderbolt, the same weapon as the Greek god Zeus. Zeus-Amun became a recognized form of the ram sky god in the Late Period because of similar, overlapping attributes.

Religious Relations and Structure

     New Kingdom Egypt used triad structure to simplify divine plurality and unity. “In Egypt the triad was an extremely suitable structure for connecting plurality and unity, because the number three was not only a numeral, but also signified the indefinite plural. This is apparent, for instance, in hieroglyphic writing: to express the plural, an ideogram may be repeated three times or three strokes placed after the signs indicating a noun. Thus the triad was a structure capable of transforming polytheism into tritheism or differentiated monotheism.” The triads containing both sexes usually have the family structure: father, mother, and male child. Family in triad structure cannot exist as syncretized gods because of the female characteristic, thus retaining the pluralistic totality. As personalities they remain independent of each other. The most familiar example is Osiris, Isis, and Horus of Abydos. Other examples originated around the larger cities and became cemented during Amenhotep III’s reorganization attempts.
     Modalistic triads, composed only of male deities not families, have the gods appear under three aspects without becoming three gods. In essence, the members reflect three aspects of one deity. The three forms of the sun associated with the parts of the day, Khopri, Re, and Aten, may be interpreted in this way. A unique example is the Ptah-Shu-Tefnut group that displays traits of both the modalistic and tritheistic triads and, in fact, it seems to represent an intermediary form of the two.
     Osiris is the best documented example of how a god “conquered” lesser gods as he adapted and absorbed new symbolism. Osiris, originally a fertility god, assimilated easily with other deities of fertility and the afterlife. Osiris enacted as the “conquering god” by absorbing lands and features of other gods. Andjti, an old man representative of the afterlife, is the oldest known case of syncretism and occurred in pre-dynastic times. Osiris also engulfed Khenti-Amentiu, “Foremost of the Westerners,” in the early Old Kingdom. Osiris became more widespread with his incorporation into Heliopolis Ennead. The Old Kingdom recognized his powers of fearsome judgment but by the New Kingdom all that remained of this was “the terrible.” With the expansion of funerary rites in the Middle Kingdom, Osiris’s popularity spread, and with his spreading, other kings of the underworld died off.

Post-Pharaonic Religious Influences

     As Egyptian religion adapted to internal changes within Egypt, so to did it adjust to external influences from foreign invaders. Though the pharaonic age held the apex of Egypt’s religious might, invading peoples failed to weaken the resolve of the Egyptian people both politically and religiously.
     After 700 BC, pharaohs ceased to be a reliable source for religious strength because control of Egypt changed hands with Assyria, Persia, Greece, and Rome over the next millennium. Bad times in Egypt were ascribed to ungodliness and wavering faith; thus, Egyptians become more devout despite foreign invaders bringing different religions. However, after centuries of oppression, Egyptians became cynical, and many adopted an “eat, drink, and be merry” mentality, parading mummies through feasts to show the purposelessness of life. They held their religion close while embracing despair from the fall of Egypt.

Persian Enmity

     Part of the Egyptian’s resoluteness stemmed from their superiority complex. They saw the Persians as superior only in wine making. No people can become obedient and subservient to another when it believes that it is intrinsically better. Herodotus reports that the Egyptians viewed the Persians as inferior in every way except in the art of making wine, a process foreign to the Egyptians. The Late Period does reveal a cyclic nature to Egyptian religion even if that cycle is two-thousand years long. Pre-dynastic deities were almost all animalistic with the falcon and cow representing the cosmos. Pharaonic period gods incorporated human characteristics and mixed various animal forms. The Late Period returned to its origins with gods mainly depicted in animal form.
     The first major empire to subjugate the Egyptians, Persia, struggled with rebellion its entire reign. Even with attempts to portray the Shah-n-Shah as a son of Re and thus rightful pharaoh failed. Rebellions continued the entirety of Persian rule. Egypt stoutly defended its northern border from Persia, but Cambyses, the son of Cyrus, successfully invaded Egypt. The resulting havoc from his desecration of the Apis bull instigated an Egyptian rebellion that achieved its intent, pushing Persian control back. Throughout this period animal cults reached their peak. Little religious influence transferred to either society from the other. However, Horus of the Horizon, depicted as a winged-disc, increased acceptance of Ahura Mazda in the Syrian region. Egyptian stele standing for centuries with Horus carvings allowed the symbolism of the new Persian religion to re-purpose Egypt’s past glory. Both cultures placed the winged-disc over doorways as a protective symbol.

Hellenic Influence

     While Persia failed to absorb any theological lessons from Egypt, the Greeks differed. All non-Greeks were classified as barbarians, but Egyptians nearly reached an equatable standard due to an alliance with Greece against Persia. The Egyptian’s history of seemingly infinite grandeur held Greek merchants in awe. That said of all the lands the Greeks attempted to Hellenize, Egypt resisted the most successfully with almost no permanent impacts.
     Egyptians resisted conversion to Greek and Roman gods just as their ancestors had resisted a native pharaoh’s law to abandon all gods but Aten. No religious zeal left the Egyptian people in the intermediary years, and true to their ancestors, Egyptians regularly resisted the influence of foreign gods.
     In all, Hellenism of Egypt failed because the Greeks became Egyptianized. While Egyptian was supposed to be subservient to Greek linguistically, Egyptians successfully climbed the social structure through the Hellenizing process and became prominent officials that minimized Greek influence on Egypt at large.
     The Ptolemaic era’s center of intellectual influence fully embraced Egyptian religion by the end of the second generation. Greek versions of Egyptian myths failed to penetrate the population at large, and Greek settlements along the Mediterranean coast adopted Egyptians myths within decades. The Hellenic cult of Sarapis, a national deity, spread rapidly at this time. The cult spread faster in the Levant than in its Hellenistic-Egypt origin. The Sarapis cult contained both Egyptian and Greek ideas and was adopted as the state religion not for its popularity but as median ground between the two cultural and religious forces. A committee of Ptolemaic scholars sat down and compounded a god out of elements derived from various nations and religions selected to suit the needs of the moment as they understood them: Sarapis sought to attract Greek and Egyptian alike and to form a religious bond.
     Egyptian mythology came to influence the Hellenistic world at large. Greeks’ readily adopted Osiris and the Apis bull of Amun in their own cults. Greek settlers in Egypt, a conquered land, were almost unrecognizable to their European counterparts. The emotional individualism that had become characteristic of Egyptian religion post-New Kingdom successfully attracted crowds of new followers as mystery cults came to dominate the religious realm of the Hellenistic and early Roman eras.

Roman Severity

     Hellenization failed, especially when compared to the success of the Seleucid Empire since the Greek rulers were Egyptianized. Rome took a much stiffer rule with Egypt by politically regulating Egyptian overseers below Roman citizen status. The most important change to the political system was the stripping of Egyptian priests of land, wealth, and tax exemption. Since this upset the balance of Ma’at, Egypt rebelled against Rome for three consecutive years after the change in religious regulations in 66 AD. Ever resentful towards its master, Egypt rebelled again around 150 A.D. when an Egyptian priest initiated a century long rebellion in which the troops were composed of native Egyptian farmers that had been taxed off their land by Rome.
     Rome made no impact in altering Egyptian life except in resistance to Roman rule; Egyptians, influential even in defeat, originated a cult that came to dominate the Roman world before Christianity defeated a three thousand year old goddess. Isis, meaning “throne” in Egyptian, served as the devout wife of Osiris with a history dating back before the fifth dynasty. For most of history Isis was not worshiped separately but incorporated into other’s temples, notably connected to Osiris. Not until Ptolemy III were any temples dedicated to Isis specifically which occurred with her increasing fame as the goddess of the most popular mystery cult.
     Under the mystery cult which reached its height in the early Roman empire, Isis retained her affinity for healing which references the mythology of her recovering Osiris’s body after his murder by Set. In The Golden Ass when Lucius calls out while standing by the sea for the mercy of Isis to turn him from an ass back into a man, Isis responds by saying that she “represent[s] in one shape all gods and goddesses” and grants his request. This explanation harkens back to Amun-Re’s role of connecting with all other gods. The most popular instrument of choice for Egyptian religious ceremonies, the sistrum, is still used by Isis’s cult followers outside of Egyptian during the Roman period.
     The religious procession of the Isis mystery cult, while adoptive of non-Egyptian customs, remained largely reminiscent to the goddess’s Egyptian origin. The Egyptian gods Anubis and Hathor, the bovine goddess of beauty, accompanied the processions. Isis’s golden vase references Egyptian processions of a god’s ka, soul-possessing statue which traveled on a barque through the Nile. Osiris, husband to Isis, remains coupled with her though with less influence than during pharaonic rule. Lastly, ancient Egyptian priests strictly enforced religious scruples; Herodotus respected the sincerity of the Egyptians’ extreme devoutness including sexual abstinence in or the day before entering a holy place, dietary restrictions, and mandatory shaving of the head and body. Similarly, Apuleius restricts his diet for ten days before the initiation ceremony of the mystery cult. When entering the priesthood, Apuleius shaves himself since bodily hair lowered man to the status of an animal and only those that were clean shaven could serve the gods.
     Egypt successfully initiated some cultures into its religious ideology with widespread acceptance. Classically, Greece is credited with conquering her conqueror, but to a lesser extent, Egypt seems to succeed as well.

Christian Ascendancy

     By defeating it, Christianity made the first lasting impact on Egyptian religion in three thousand years. However, Christianity is imprinted by the Egyptians since Egyptian influence affected all cultures in the Roman period. The modern Coptic church still borrows symbolism from its Egyptian counterpart including abstinence in religious areas, worship of a man as the son of god, and the myth of a dying and rising god though it is not the only modern branch of Christianity with descriptions of the Judeo-Christian god.
      The Hebrew god Yahweh shares many things with Amun including association with the sky, a bellowing voice, his demand for bull and ram offerings, and control of the waters with their divisions in the heavens and the seas. The king as a both a priest and an intermediary between the gods and the people demonstrates connections to Christianity’s explanations of Jesus as king and priest.
     Christianity arose in Egypt in defiance to Rome. The first method involved the wide popularity of monasticism. By withdrawing into the wilderness, large numbers of Egyptians could simply ignore Roman governing practice. The second method of resistance dealt with the organization of the early Christian church within Egypt. Its foundation in Greek theological philosophy ostracized it from Rome, and the Egyptian church hierarchy never aligned with Rome or Constantinople. The most lasting imprint of Hellenization, Coptic, merged Greek and Egyptian letters. Under Roman rule, the lower classes widely used the Coptic language which was eventually adopted as the official language of the Egyptian Christian church.
     Egyptian religion died after Theodosius declared Christianity the official faith of the Roman Empire and banned all others. The Egyptian religion continued to be practiced underground until the early fifth century, but its practices were not conducive to secrecy. The political dominance of Christianity in the Roman period expunged these ancient Egyptian practices once foundational for the functioning of Egypt. This also marked the closing of Egypt’s rebellions. No longer motivated by the preservation of Ma’at, Egyptians accepted the Christian God’s eternal salvation from the unknown chaos and darkness so long essential to Egyptian understanding.
     The rise of the pharaohs and Egyptian religion alike dominated the government, culture, society, and landscape, of a people for over three millennium. Key to the resilience of this religion was its flexibility and devoutness which allowed the religion to prosper under times of prosperity, famine, and oppression. The Egyptian people’s devoutness to their gods despite the collapse of their empire gives an understanding to how vital the religion was to its worshipers. Resilient despite constant conflict for its last three hundred years, the downfall of Egyptian religion represents the end of Egypt more definitely than the fall of native pharaohs eight-hundred years prior.
     Though the great king of the gods, Amun-Re, eventually subsided into the backwaters of the Nile, Isis, an Egyptian creation, continued to testify to the greatness of Egyptian religious ideology and spread throughout the non-Egyptian world. Despite competition from religions of other cultures, Egyptian beliefs subverted most competing practices and became established within their oppressors’ empires. Religiously, Egyptian influence remains within the modern church because of its influences on ancient Judaism and Christianity. Through three millennia, the perseverance and stubbornness of the Egyptian people testified to their passionate following of whomever could justify himself as the son of the gods from pharaoh to Christ.

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Agatha Tyche