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Lecture Notes

I would like to begin this presentation by noting that the material upon which this lecture is based was taken in part from The History Guide and from the Tehuti Research Foundation web pages, available at www.historyguide.org and www.egypt-tehuti.org, respectively. Now on to our content. Religion was integral to Egyptian life. Religious beliefs formed the basis of Egyptian art, medicine, astronomy, literature and government. Let me give you some examples of the centrality of religion to these areas of Egyptian culture. The first example is the great pyramids. The pyramids were tombs for the pharaohs, who originally were revered as gods on earth. Another example is the fact that prayers and incantations were an important part of medical practices, since disease was attributed to the gods. The science of astronomy was first developed to determine the correct time to perform religious rites and sacrifices. The earliest examples of literature dealt almost entirely with religious themes. The pharaoh was considered a sacrosanct monarch who served as the intermediary between the gods and man. Justice too, was conceived in religious terms, something bestowed upon man by the creator-god. Finally, the Egyptians developed an ethical code which they believed the gods had approved. Ancient Egyptians were in fact so faithful and devoted to religious practice that the Greek historian Herodotus (ca 500 B.C.E.) said about them that "Of all the nations of the world, the Egyptians are the happiest, healthiest and most religious." Because it was shared by most Egyptians, religion served as the unifying agent in ancient Egypt. That is, religion and religious practices made Egyptians a single people with a common religious tradition. This unifying nature of religion is reflected in the fact that the pharaoh indicated his concern for his people by worshipping the local deities in public ceremonies. Another reflection is the fact that the gods were believed to protect all Egyptians and to guarantee them an afterlife. The Egyptians believed they were living in a fixed, static or unchanging universe in which life and death were part of a continuous, rhythmic cycle. Certain patterns came to be expected - grain had to be harvested, irrigation canals had to be built and pyramids had to be built. Just as the sun rose in the east and set in the west, so too all human life and death passed through regular and predictable patterns shaped in great part by religion.