EGYPT: The Creation Epic Myth

ANCIENT EGYPT: The Creation Epic Myth

Historical Thesis Essay

World History

Maria Landrum

One of the first civilizations was Egypt, which primarily began around 3100 B.C.E, and was heavily dependent upon rivers to sustain the agricultural economy (Strayer 74,77). The Nile River, known as “that green gash of teeming life” was at the core of life for Egyptians and their culture reflected a stable, and hopeful attitude toward life (Strayer 75). The mythological belief in gods’ powers and blessing on the lives of Egyptians culturally held a strong grasp and wove into the fabric of Egypt’s advanced literature and engineering of the time (Strayer 75).

Egyptians primarily believed in mythology and focused on their Pharaoh as a ruler to be a god

Egypt held an elite literature culture that held the belief that pyramids were for pharaohs and other high-ranking people, who could successfully make the journey to eternal life in the Land of the West (Strayer 75). The afterlife which included abundance and tranquility was expanded over time as more people aside from the elite higher-ups were allowed to possess the afterlife as well if they lived a moral life (Strayer, 75). The Egyptian Creation Epic is where Egyptian mythology

Inside these primordial deep waters existed Ogdoad which was eight gods which made up infinite space, deities of darkness, and the deities of the invisible which all guarded the Great Egg housing the Creator (Leitch). After a time, the egg hatched and split into which divided the upper and lower; the original creator arose as a Lotus flower shining rays out into the expansive universe; He was Thoth: The self-created, the Logos, the Wisdom (Leitch). The mythology continues as Thoth was lonely and created the god of the Rising Son and Ptah, the architect of the world and all its creatures (Leitch). Two of the gods he created were lost to the deep and he found himself alone again, so he took his own eye, filled it with his own power, called it his daughter (goddess of the sky), and sent her out to find his other children (Leitch). His other children were found and yet those two gods loved each other and the female named Tefnut gave birth to twins-one was the Geb the god of the earth and the other was Nut the goddess of the heavens (Leitch). The universe was formless and chaotic because the goddess longed for Geb but was married to Re. In his anger, Re disallowed Nut to give birth, ever and her children were locked inside her (Leitch). Thoth pitied her and attempted to help her by creating a game to gamble and