Religion and Egyptian Life

Religion and Egyptian Life

Thursday

Brain Break!

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Religion and Egyptian Life

• The ancient Egyptian's had strong religious beliefs.

• Worshiping the God was a part of their every day lives.

• Many Egyptian religious customs focused on what happened after people died.

The Gods of Egypt

• Like Mesopotamians, Egyptian's practice polytheism.

• Before the first dynasty, each village worshiped its own gods.

• During the old kingdom however, Egyptian officials tried to give some sort of structure to religious beliefs.

• Everyone was expected to worship the same God's, though how they worship the gods might differ from one region of Egypt to another.

Multiple Choice

After the Old Kingdom, were people expected to worship the same gods?

• Yes

• No

The Gods of Egypt

• The Egyptians built temples to the gods all over the kingdom.

• The temples collected payments from both the government and worshipers.

• These payments allow the temples to grow more influential.

The Gods of Egypt

• Overtime, certain cities became centers for the worship of certain cards.

• In Memphis, for example people prayed to Puah, the creator of the world.

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Multiple Choice

Who did Memphis pray to?

• Peter

• Ptah

The Gods of Egypt

• The Egyptian's had gods for nearly everything, including the sun, the sky and the earth.

• Many gods mixed human and animal forms.

• For example, Anubis the God of the dead, had a human body but a jackal's head.

Emphasis on the Afterlife

• Much of Egyptian religion focused on the afterlife, or life after death.

• The Egyptians believed that the afterlife was a happy place.

• Paintings from Egyptian tombs show the after life as an ideal world where all the people are young and healthy.

Fill in the Blank

Afterlife was a _________ thing. (good or bad?)

Emphasis on the Afterlife

• Egyptian's belief in the afterlife stem from their idea of ka, or a persons life force.

• When a person died his or her ka left the body and became a spirit.

• The ka however, remained linked to the body and could not leave it's burial site.

• The ka had all the same needs that the person had when here she was living.

Emphasis on the Afterlife

• To fulfill the ka's needs, people filled terms with objects for the after life.

• These objects included furniture, clothing, tools, jewelry and weapons.

• Relatives of the dead were expected to bring food and beverages to their loved ones tombs so ka would not be hungry or thirsty.

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Open Ended

Why was ka important?

Burial Practices

• Egyptian ideas about the afterlife shaped their burial practices.

• Egyptian's believed that a body had to be prepared for the after life before it could be buried.

• This meant the body had to be preserved.

• If the body decayed, it's spirit cannot recognize it.

• That would break the link between the body and spirit.

• The ka would then be unable to receive the food and drink it needed to have a good after life.

Burial Practices

• To keep the ka from suffering, the Egyptian's developed a method called embalming.

• Embalming allowed bodies to be preserved for many, many years as mummies, specially treated bodies wrapped in cloth.

• A body that was not embalmed with the decay quickly.

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Burial Practices

• Embalming was a complex process that took several weeks.

• When finished, the embalmers wrapped the body with linen cloth's and bandages.

• The mummy was then placed in a coffin.

• Relatives often wrote magic spells inside the coffin to help the mummy receive food and drink.

Burial Practices

• Only royalty and other members of Egypt elite, or people of wealth and power, could afford to have mummies made.

• Peasant family buried their dead in shallow graves at the edge of the desert.

• The hot dry sand and lack of moisture to preserve the bodies naturally.

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Open Ended

How did religious beliefs affect Egyptian burial practice?

Schoology Assignment