Egyptian Gods: A Brief Guide to Ancient Egyptian Deities

This is a short but well-done book. It starts off talking about ancient Egypt, hieroglyphics, dynasties, the pyramids, some rulers, how it was taken over by other countries, Egypt's culture, agriculture, architecture, religion, the physical and spiritual nature of people, a person's soul and life force, Egyptian art and a variety of other topics.

It then goes into a brief summary of the various gods, goddesses and those who were involved both ways. It discusses what they were known as and usually what their physical appearance is on Egyptian artwork and what the field of responsibility was.

They also cover major and minor gods and goddesses.

What I found really most interesting is the job descriptions/characteristic of the various gods and goddesses. Sometimes it makes sense as with Maat whose jobs are truth, balance, harmony, morality and justice. All those make sense and they seem to work together well.

On the other hand there are descriptions like this for Nephthys whose jobs include healing, festivity, mourning, nighttime, child birth, the deceased, protection, magic, health, embalming and beer.

Which of those are not like the others? Most of them, actually. How did they ever come up with job descriptions like that?

Another interesting thing is how the gods and goddesses are drawn. This part is from the list of minor gods and goddesses. Often the being would be drawn with a human body and the head of an animal. This could include a crocodile, jackal, pig, hawk, lion, lioness, serpent, turtle, bull, cobra, ram, dragon, sphinx, jackal, centipede, hippo, fish, cow and so on. Females tended to the cow/hippo/fish,lioness group.

It's an interesting if at times puzzling book.

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