Summary of the Netjer

Summary of the Netjer - Page One

Thoth - God of scribes This is a summery of The Netjer & is arranged in alphabetical order. Please feel free to quote from this document, or print it for your own reference. Please do not use this on your own site. I have spent a great deal of time putting this together, if you wish to do this, please e-mail me and I shall be more than happy to help you out! Because of the amount of religous beings I have to summerise, this summery shall be rather large as it is all on the same page, pictures will also be given on seperate pages of the various Deities when possible. Just click on the rather long list below and it all instantly take you to that deity as I have anchor-linked them for more easier surfing! So hopefully it will be easier and more helpful. The names in brackets ( ) are the traditional Egyptian Names, the main names given before that are the Greek Variations or more popular names.
If anyone has anything they'd like to add to any of the summerys, e-mail me with the information & I'll place your information up on this site as soon as I can, full credit will be given.

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Amen ~ (Amon, Amun, Ammon, Amoun)
Amen's name means "The Hidden One". Amen was the patron God of the large city of Thebes from the earliest times in history. His consort was Amenet. He was viewed as one of the primary creation Gods (one of the first who created man, the world etc). Many Gods had their own sacred animals, Amen's were the Goose and the Ram. Right up to the time of the Middle Kingdom (see timeline) Amen was just a local deity in Thebes, worshipped only there, but when Thebe's came into it's own, so did Amon. By the time of the Dynasty XVIII, Amon was considered to be the King of the Gods, such as the like of Zeus & Jupiter (Greek and Roman deity's). Amen's most famous temple is in Karnak, and it is supposed to be the largest religious building created by man. Over time, when the New Kingdom was pronounced, Amon's consort changed, it became Mut, meaning Mother, who seems to be taken as the "Great Mother" in other religions. Their child was the moon god, Khons.

Amen-Ra ~ (Amon-Re)
Amen-Ra was created in the minds of man, not by another God, nor was he one of the primary deitys (like Amun). Amon-Re was an attempt by the priests of Egypt to unite the worship of Amen, with the older worship of Ra (or Re). This happened at about the time of the New Kingdom (Dynasty - XVIII to XXII). This meant that the figure of Ra could produce the powers of Amen, or vice versa. There are quite a few examples of this happening to the Egyptian Netjer.

Amset ~ (Imsety, Mestha (Golden Dawn), Ameshet)
Represented as a mummified man, Amset was the protector of the liver of the deceased. Amset was one of the four sons of Horus (see Four Sons). Amset was also protected by Isis, his grandmother (wife & consort to Osiris and mother to Horus)

Anubis ~ (Anpu, Golden Dawn, Ano-Oobist)
Anubis is actally, the greek name translated from the egyptian, Anpu. Born by Nephthys (sister to Osiris Isis and wife/consort to Set) and Set, but in other myths, Osiris is the father and Isis is the mother, it all depends upon the different versions. Depicted at a jackal headed man, it is thought that at the being the egyptian religion, Anubis was simply just visulised as a jackal. Anubis has always been associtated with the dead, could be from the fact that Jackals used to prowl at night around the tombs of the dead also. The embalming of the dead, and mummfication was performed by Anubis. He also played a part in the afterlife of the dead. Anubis monitered the Scales of Judgement, weighing the truth of heart of the dead person.

Anuket ~ (Anqet, Anukis)
The Goddess was generally thought to be the daughter of Khnum & Sati. Her sacred animal was the gazelle. Usually depicted as a human wearing a feathered crown, she was generally believed to be the giver of fresh, cool water.

Apis ~
This deity was from the earliest of the Egyptian Netjer & holds to his name the fact that he was the only God not to have a human image, he was the only all-animal deity. Apis was also closely linked with the God, Ptah. Many of the Netjer had their own "city" or place of worship, although worshipped all over Egypt (except a certain few) many had their own centres. Apis's centre was in the old capital of Memphis. Many bulls, viewed as Apis were buried in Memphis. Apis was viewed as the God of Fertility.

Aten ~ (Aton)
This is the most unusal of all the deitys of Egypt, or at least that is my opinion. Worshipped only for a very short period in the history, Aton was hated by many Egyptians as he was the God worshipped by the infamous Amenhotep IV, most well known for his other name, Akhenaten. This was the only deity who was worshipped as the ONLY God, Akhenaten brought into Egypt in his reign, the belief of One God (same belief as the Hebrews) and this was a very big change to Egypt's culture, one for which, it was not ready for. Many people (mainly priests of the "old" Gods who profitted greatly by the old religion) detested this God & found him hard to except, so upon the death of Ankhenaten, the old religion was instantly upon Egyptian culture once more.
Depicted as a Sun Disc, with rays coming off the disc, at the end of each of these rays were sometimes human heads, Aten was also shown to be giving the symbol of life to everyone under His rays. Many traces of Aten are now very hard to find as rogues desicrated the Tombs with these pictures shown.

Atum ~
One of the primary deitys, Atum is the father of Shu & Tefnut. He is also thought to be the god, Ra. Atum was worshipped mostly in the city, Heliopolis.

Bast ~ (Bastet)
This Goddess is depicted as a cat, or a woman wearing a cats head. She was an important deity, as cats (and dogs!) were considered as prized pets and were, many people of today, cherished. Also, in some tales of the Netjer, it is cats who kill the serpents which attack the sun god, Ra. Bastet's centre of worship was in the city, named after her, Bubastis. She was also viewed as the same with the Goddess, Sekhmet.

Bes ~
Not one of the original deities, Bes was introduced from some foreign country, such as Africa. Viewed as a deity of the pleasures of the home (music, entertainment, relaxation etc), Bes was also worshipped as a protector of children. Depicted by artists, face on (rare for egyptian art!) with the appearence of a dwarf, with a beard & a savage looking face.

Duamutef ~ (Tuamutef, Golden Dawn, Thmoomathph)
Being one of the four son's of Horus (see Four Sons), Duamutef has the job of guarding one of the major organs, protected for the afterlife. Duamutef protected the stomach. The guarden of Duamutef was the Goddess, Neith.

Edjo ~
A serpent Goddess. Edjo was the protectress of Lower Egypt, as was her counterpart - Nekhbet - the protectress of Upper Egypt. You can see Edjo in the crown of Lower Egypt.

Four Sons of Horus ~ (Amset, Duamutef, Hapi, Qebehsenuf)
The Protector's of the body parts of the deceased, The Four Sons of Horus held an important part in Egyptian religion, playing a regular part in the culture. The Four Sons were named: Amset, Duamutef, Hapi, and Qebhsenuf. They were protected themselves in turn by: Isis, Nephthys, Neith and Selket. The parts of the body protected were: the liver, the stomach, lungs and the intestines. These were protected as the Egyptian doctors knew the actual actions of these organs, the brain was not protected as the Egyptians could not see what it was used for. The organs were protected so that the deceased could use them again in the afterlife.

Geb ~ (Seb)
Geb, the god of the Earth was the son of Shu & Tefnut, and husband/brother to Nut. Also being father to the four gods & goddess's ~ Osiris, Isis, Nephthys & Set (Seth). He was usually represented as a man with either black or green skin (the colors of living things, and also, of the Nile mud). His scared animal was the Goose and was believed to hold onto and contain the souls of the evil and wicked, so stopping them from gaining access to Heaven. Geb was different from many other religions which believed the Earth to be feminine, Geb was male, masculine.

Hapi ~ (Golden Dawn, Ahephi)
Another Son of Horus, Hapi was the protector of the lungs. Defined as a human (mummified) with a baboon's head (see Four Sons) Hapi was protected by the Goddess, Neith. Hapi was also (not always) thought of as another God. Sometimes his name in heiroglyphics were changed slightly so that Hapi would then become the god of personification. Picture as a fat man (fat meaning abundance) he was sometimes seen with either a crown of lillies (representing Upper Egypt) or a crown of papyrus plants (Lower Egypt).

Hathur ~ (Hathor, Het-heru, Het-hert)
Hathur, whose other names Het-heru (meaning The House Above) and Het-hert (The House of Horus) was a sky goddess. Given the image of a woman wearing a cow's head, Hathur (greek corruption of the other names, Het-hert etc) was also equated with Isis. Worshipped as the consort of Horus, she was considered the goddess of the dead & was often seen in tombs, welcoming the dead into Duat. She was also the patron goddess of Love, alcohol, dance and foreign lands.

Harpocrates~ (Hor-pa-kraat, Golden Dawn, Hoor-pa-kraat)
This deity is classed as "Horus the Child". Totally different from Horus the Elder, the child version of Horus is often seen sucking on his finger, with a child's sidelock of hair. The Golden Dawn gave the gift of silence to Horus the child, probably because the image of sucking a finger is suggestive for "Shhh".

Heqet~
The consort of Khnum, Heqet was seen as one of the Primordial goddess's. She had the head of a frog and was worshipped as One of the Eight Gods at Hermopolis.

Horus~ (Hor)
Horus is one of the most important deities in Egyptian religion. While as a child (Harpocrates), Horus is seen as the child of Osiris and Isis. When reaching adulthood, Horus avenges his fathers death by castrating and defeating Set (Osiris's brother) in a battle. As an adult (Heru-Ur) Horus was seen as the patron of Upper Egypt (South Egypt) and was brother to Set, who was patron of Lower Egypt, but then, when Upper Egypt defeated Lower Egypt and they united, Horus was seen as the First ever Pharoah, the divine prototype which the Pharaohs were seen as by the civilians of Egypt.

Horus of Behedet ~ (Hadit)
Another version of Horus, worshipped in the city of Behdet. Horus was usually depicted as a sun with wings, and was usually above pictures and scenes of religious art. Crowley translated the name as Hadit - although this isn't altogether agreed upon.

Imhotep ~ (Imouthis)
Imhotep was never actally a God, he was instead the man who worked for Zoser, the Pharaoh of the III Dynasty (see timeline). The creator and designer of the famous Step Pyramid. Imhotep was not only architect to Zoser, he was also scribe, grand vizier, and physician. Because of this, in the Late period, he was viewed as a son of Ptah and a god of medicine. He was also viewed with Thoth as the patron of scribes. Some work found and noted were also acknowledged to be from the God, Ptahotep, both Ptah and Imhotep combined.

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