Question 1

Who is Horus, the Egyptian falcon god?

Accepted Answer

Horus (Egyptian Heru) was the falcon god of the sky and of kingship in ancient Egypt. In the best-known myth he is the son of Isis and Osiris: after Set murdered Osiris, Isis bore Horus and hid him in the marshes of the Nile Delta. Grown up, Horus fought Set and claimed his father’s throne. Every living king was seen as Horus on earth. The eye he lost in the fight and had made whole again became the Eye of Horus, a sign of protection.

Question 2

Who is Osiris, the Egyptian god of the dead?

Accepted Answer

Osiris (Egyptian Usir) was the god of the dead and of rebirth in ancient Egypt, and of the life that returned each year with the Nile flood and the new grain. In his myth he was a good king murdered by his brother Set. His wife Isis found his body and brought him back to life long enough to conceive their son, Horus. Osiris then became king and judge of the dead.

Question 3

Who is Isis, the Egyptian goddess of magic and motherhood?

Accepted Answer

Isis (Egyptian Aset) was one of the greatest goddesses of ancient Egypt: the wife of Osiris, the mother of Horus, and a goddess of magic and protection. When her husband was murdered by his brother Set, Isis searched for his body, mourned him and brought him back to life long enough to conceive their son. She hid the child Horus in the marshes of the Delta until he was grown and could claim his father’s throne. Her worship later spread across the Roman world.

Question 4

Who is Ra, the Egyptian sun god?

Accepted Answer

Ra (also written Re) was the sun god of ancient Egypt, a creator and, in many myths, king of the gods. By day he crossed the sky in a boat; by night he sailed through the world below, where the serpent Apep tried to stop him, and at dawn he was born again. His great cult centre was Heliopolis. He is most often shown as a falcon-headed man crowned with a sun disk and a cobra.

Question 5

Who is Thoth, the Egyptian god of writing?

Accepted Answer

Thoth (Egyptian Djehuty) was the god of writing, knowledge and the moon in ancient Egypt. He was the scribe of the gods: he kept the records, reckoned time by the moon, and was said to have given people writing itself. He is shown as a man with the head of an ibis, or as an ibis or a baboon. At the judgment of the dead he writes down the verdict when the heart is weighed.

Question 6

Who is Anubis, the Egyptian god of the dead?

Accepted Answer

Anubis (Egyptian Inpu, also written Anpu) was the jackal god of embalming and the guardian of the dead in ancient Egypt. He watched over cemeteries, prepared the body for its life after death, and led the dead to the judgment, where he is often shown checking the scales as the heart is weighed. He appears as a black jackal lying down, or as a man with a jackal’s head.

Question 7

Who is Set (Seth), the Egyptian god of storms and the desert?

Accepted Answer

Set, also spelled Seth, was the ancient Egyptian god of the desert, storms, disorder and foreign lands. In the best-known myth he murders his brother Osiris, then fights Osiris’s son Horus for the throne of Egypt, and Horus wins. Yet Set was not simply evil. A god of great strength, he rode at the front of the sun god’s boat and speared Apep, the serpent of chaos, and kings were named after him.

Question 8

Who is Hathor, the Egyptian goddess of love and music?

Accepted Answer

Hathor was one of the great goddesses of ancient Egypt: a goddess of the sky, of love and beauty, of music, dance and joy, and of mothers. Her name means “house of Horus”. She was called the daughter of the sun god Ra, and was one of the goddesses known as his Eye. She is shown as a cow, as a woman wearing cow’s horns with the sun disk between them, or as a face with a cow’s ears.

Question 9

What is Ma’at in ancient Egypt?

Accepted Answer

Ma’at was the ancient Egyptian idea of truth, justice, balance and the right order of the world, and the goddess who embodied it. Kings ruled to uphold Ma’at against chaos, and every person was expected to live by it. The goddess is shown as a woman with an ostrich feather on her head. In the Book of the Dead, a person’s heart is weighed against her feather at the judgment after death, and the dead speak 42 declarations of innocence, now often called the 42 Laws of Ma’at.

Question 10

Who is Amun (Amun-Ra), the Egyptian king of the gods?

Accepted Answer

Amun (Egyptian Imen, “the hidden one”) was the god of Thebes who became king of the gods in ancient Egypt. Joined with the sun god Ra as Amun-Ra, he was worshipped as the unseen power behind creation. He is shown as a man wearing a crown of two tall plumes, and the ram and the goose were his sacred animals. His great temple, Karnak, stands at Luxor.

Question 11

Who is Ptah, the Egyptian creator god of Memphis?

Accepted Answer

Ptah was the creator god of Memphis, Egypt’s ancient capital, and the patron of craftsmen: builders, sculptors and metalworkers. A famous text from Memphis says he made the world by thought and word, conceiving all things in his heart and calling them into being with his tongue. He is shown as a man wrapped tightly like a mummy, with a skullcap and a beard, holding a staff that joins the signs for life, power and stability.

Question 12

Who is Bastet, the Egyptian cat goddess?

Accepted Answer

Bastet, also called Bast, was the cat goddess of ancient Egypt. She began as a fierce lioness, a daughter of the sun god Ra, and in time became the gentler goddess shown as a cat or as a woman with a cat’s head. She protected the home, mothers and children. Her city was Bubastis in the Nile Delta, where great crowds came to her festival and many thousands of cats were buried in her honour.

Ancient Egypt, answered

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