Overview of Egyptian gods and the afterlife

We know a lot about what the ancient Egyptians believed because so many temples, shrines and religious items have survived from their time.

These show us that the belief in the supernatural was significant in everyday Egyptian life.

Unlike much of the world today, Egyptian society was polytheistic, meaning that its people believed in worshipping more than one god.

In fact, historians still do not know exactly how many gods the Egyptians worshipped, as evidence exists for hundreds of different deities.

The most famous gods include Ra, Osiris, Seth, Isis, Anubis and Horus. Even the pharaoh himself was considered to be the god Horus during his reign, and after his death Egyptians believed he became the god Osiris in the afterlife.

Each Egyptian god was believed to hold power over different parts of the natural world. For example, Ra governed the sun.

Other kinds of gods were considered sacred to particular cities, villages or regions (called nomes). For instance, Amun served as the chief god of Thebes.

Unlike modern belief systems, ancient Egyptians did not separate religion from daily existence.

They thought that the wind on their skin was a god, and they saw the waters of the Nile as a kind of god as well.

As a result, religious belief was experienced on a personal level by many people in their daily lives.

Egyptians held that the gods determined the seasons, the harvests and an individual’s journey through life (otherwise known as their ‘fate’).

They believed that pleasing the gods through regular sacrifices and rituals would guarantee them prosperity. 

One feature of Egyptian gods involved their half-human, half-animal forms. Egyptians believed that certain animal traits could illustrate a god’s character.

If a god appeared dangerous or powerful in battle, artists depicted the deity as part lion.

As a result, birds, lions, cats, crocodiles and dogs frequently appeared in divine imagery.

Because gods existed in every aspect of Egyptian life, temples and priesthoods gained quite a bit of social significance.

Egyptians believed that a priest’s duties secured the nation’s success. Technically speaking, the pharaoh was the high priest of all temples and was expected to perform rituals to appease the gods.

For this reason, each town contained numerous temples devoted to different deities.

Since each god oversaw a distinct aspect of life or nature, worshippers wanted to honour as many deities as possible.

While hundreds of deities existed, they sometimes shared areas of influence.

Below is a list of the most famous gods and goddesses from ancient Egypt:

Egyptians were deeply interested in what happened to them after death. The decorated tomb walls help us see what they imagined the afterlife was like.

It appears that they saw it as a continuation of what life was like on earth. For example, paintings depict the dead person farming, playing sports and enjoying a regular family life.

However, ancient Egyptians believed that their behaviour during their time on earth determined their chances during the divine judgement after death.

Specifically, people who led honest lives qualified for a positive afterlife. Egyptians also believed that the body required preservation in order to live on after death.

Because of this, they perfected mummification techniques to prevent they body’s natural process of decay.

Once the body could last forever, the Egyptians thought that it also needed food, drink, tools and servants in the next world.

Therefore, they buried the dead with lots of grave goods.

When a person finally passed away, Egyptians believed that gods gathered their soul in the Hall of Truths for their judgement.

During this ceremony, Anubis, god of the dead, weighed the deceased’s heart against a feather.

If the heart proved lighter than the feather, which meant that they had an absence of guilt from mistakes and crimes committed, the deceased entered the afterlife.

If the heart was weighed down by their guilt and failures, the half-lion, half-crocodile monster Ammit devoured the soul.

This would destroy them forever.