The pantheon of the ancient Egyptian gods is rich, varied and exotic. The Pyramid Texts, inscribed inside the monumental tombs of the kings, and the surviving papyri are the oldest part of Egyptian funerary and religious literature, containing information about the era of the First Time and about the deepest respect of the ancient Egyptians for their gods.
The texts speak of the power and wisdom of these gods, their mysterious "high-tech" devices, objects of incomprehensible purpose and principle of action. In the attributes of Amun, Nut, Khonsu, Iha and other numerous gods worshiped in Egypt in the epochs of the Ancient and Early kingdoms closer to us (3100-2150 BC), nothing of the kind was found.
The first to rule in Egypt
The ancient Egyptians believed that their civilization and all the knowledge of the priests came to them from the gods, who were "the first to rule in Egypt." The years of reign and the names of each of them are recorded in the Turin papyrus and in the "History of Egypt" by the priest Manetho. After the flood and chaos of the universal cataclysm, the gods brought the few surviving, degraded people out of the state of savagery.
The gods themselves possessed supernatural powers. But they had the features of mortal people and were more like representatives of a highly developed technical civilization than like gods. According to legend, despite their great power, they could get sick, grow old and die, and under certain circumstances they could even be killed. For example, it is described how the once young and energetic first ruler of Egypt, blue-eyed Ra, grew old and became completely weak.
It was believed that the gods have a homeland, a fabulous and distant land, called in ancient texts Ta-Ne-Teru, the Land of the Gods. You could get there only by sea, by ship.
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The famous Osiris
In the temple of Pharaoh Seti I, who repaired many old buildings, the god Osiris is almost physically present in a stunning symphony of bas-reliefs that adorn the walls, keeping for centuries the image of a civilizing king sitting on a throne in the company of his beautiful and mysterious sister Isis. In the images of Osiris, one can see the spiral ceremonial headdress of the gods of the First Time and bizarre crowns. Particularly interesting is the so-called atef crown.
It was a white battle helmet - a hedge, and on it - an urey - not just a symbol of royal power in the form of a cobra ready to attack, but an unknown weapon, the principle of operation of which we still have no idea (according to the text - “a divine serpent, capable scatter opponents ). Two thin metal plates rose from the sides of the helmet, and in front there was some kind of device of two wavy blades. Several bas-reliefs depict Osiris wearing the atef crown.
According to the Book of the Dead, Ra gave him the crown: “But on the very first day when Osiris put it on, his head began to ache painfully, and when Ra returned in the evening, he found Osiris with his head sore and swollen from the hot crown. Ra even had to release pus and blood. What is this crown that is so hot that the skin begins to bleed and become covered with boils? For all the years of excavations, archaeologists have not found even a piece of such a headdress!
Osiris wearing the crown of Atef
Osiris suppressed cannibalism in Egypt, taught the Egyptians agriculture, animal husbandry and viticulture, gave them a code of laws and the cult of the gods, introduced them to the art of writing, architecture and music. He possessed practical and scientific knowledge, characteristic of a highly developed civilization, disinterestedly using it for the benefit of people. Osiris organized a series of large-scale hydraulic engineering works: "He built canals with sluice gates and regulators … he raised the river banks and took measures to keep the Nile from overflowing …" At the same time, Osiris "did not force people to follow their instructions by force, but through gentle persuasion and appealing to their common sense …".
But when necessary, he showed firmness. When Osiris considered that he had brought order to Egypt, he left the country for many years, handing over the rule to Isis. Osiris went on a mission to the Ancient World: first to Ethiopia, where he taught hunter-gatherer agriculture, founded many cities in India, and so on. According to myths, Osiris was killed by his brother Set and became the god of the dead, whom the Egyptians then worshiped for many thousands of years.
Deeds of strange gods
According to the texts, for Isis "there was nothing in heaven or earth that she did not know about," and the goddess was remembered for her spells. She "mastered the art of both command and the coveted word." People believed that with one voice, Isis was able to change the surrounding reality. The Egyptians attributed even greater abilities to the god of wisdom Thoth, who was depicted in the mask of an ibis bird, "responsible for all sacred calculations and interpretations, the lord and multiplier of time, the inventor of the alphabet."
His name is especially associated with medicine, astronomy, mathematics, geodesy and geometry: "He understands the secrets of everything that is hidden under the firmament." He was a "great lord of magic" who could move objects with the power of his voice, a great sage in all fields of knowledge: "He who knows the heavens, able to count the stars, enumerate everything that is on Earth, and measure the Earth itself." He combined an ancient scientist and a civilizer.
Timeless artifacts
The older the dynasty, the higher its technical achievements. According to scientists, the so-called House of Osiris and a number of other similar buildings are among the most ancient structures on Earth. Their load-bearing structures are made of giant monoliths weighing over 200 tons. And there are hundreds of such blocks! The accuracy of dimensions and orientation in the space of grandiose structures is incredible. The power of the ancients, who were able to deliver Cyclopean blocks from afar and arrange them so jewelry, is striking.
The stone-cutting technique of the ancients is also mysterious. The tremendous cutting speed of granite and basalt was determined by the traces left by unknown tools. And thousands of different vessels, smooth, with thin, almost transparent walls, mysteriously carved from the hardest rocks! Tall vases with long narrow necks and a wide inner cavity! Modern stone carvers are not capable of this either; they have not yet invented tools for such work.
The cutting speed of basalt and granite was determined from the traces left by an unknown tool
Attributes
An atmosphere of technical (and not safe!) Wisdom surrounds the gods of the First Time. The myth tells of the "golden box" in which Ra put his things, including the scepter and ureus. This box, a powerful and mysterious "talisman", was hidden in a fortress "on the eastern border" of Egypt for many years after Ra's ascension to heaven. When Geb came to power, he ordered to bring the box and open it. From there, a flame burst out, called in the text "the breath of the divine snake", killed all those present and mortally burned Geb himself. It seems that this is a distorted description of an accident in the event of a malfunction of some device dangerous to humans (or did the protection work?).
The priests gradually lost the ancient knowledge received from the gods. The blue-gold columns of the hieroglyphs of the Pyramid Texts contain amazing information. This is an attempt to tell about complex scientific and technical things for which there were no adequate names in the ancient Egyptian language. For example, special equipment and devices for the movement of the pharaoh in the heavens are described:
"The king is a flame moving ahead of the wind to the edge of the sky and to the edge of the earth." It follows from the texts that the ladder was lowered to him from the sky, from the “iron plate” (plate?) Hanging in the sky: “O my father, great king, the opening of the heavenly window is open for you … Sit on your iron throne, like That Great … Go to heaven on your iron throne … ". And there are many such examples.
Inevitable conclusions
The peoples of the Earth had many powerful gods, but gods with such "high-tech" attributes were rare and only at the dawn of mankind. "Pyramid Texts" connect a short period of the past, information about which has been preserved in history, with a long "dark" period, vaguely revealing to us a vanished world.
It is likely that the antediluvian civilization called Atlantis actually existed, and the strange gods of the First Time were its representatives. Fulfilling their mission as civilizers in Egypt, in the eyes of half-savage people, they really looked like gods. Both esoteric sources and scientists speak about the connection between Ancient Egypt and Atlantis.