NEFERTARI was the main wife of pharaoh Ramses II and her tomb with its vivid wall paintings is one of the most beautiful tombs in Egypt. Noteworthy is that Nefertari’s husband, Ramses II, is absent in these scenes, indicating the queen’s high status that allowed her to directly interact with the deities without him; such depictions would not be possible for non-royal individuals.

Egyptologists believe that Nut was a sky goddess originally worshiped by the early tribes of the Nile Valley area. In Lower Egypt, the Milky Way was viewed as the celestial image of Nut. She was adopted into the family tree of the Egyptian gods as the daughter of Shu, the god of the air, and Tefnut, the goddess of moisture. She became the sky, while her brother Geb became the god of earth.

In the creation story, Egyptians viewed Nut and Geb as passionate lovers. At one time, they embraced so tightly that nothing could come between them. Shu became jealous and separated the two. Shu became the air that moves between the sky and the earth. This story explained the separation of the sky from the earth. The mythological separation came too late, and Nut was pregnant. She gave birth to all of the stars and planets. Her children would always stay close to her as she was the sky.

Despite a curse from her father which left her barren, Nut seduced the god Thoth. She gave birth to five more children on the epagomenal days of the Egyptian calendar. Her children, Osiris, Haroeris, Set, Isis and Nephthys, became five important gods in Egypt.

Two different Egyptian myths place Nut as having vital powers in the sequence of day and night. In reference to Nut as a lover, Egyptians believed that Nut and Geb separated during the day. In the evening, Nut would come down to Earth to meet with Geb. Her absence from the sky resulted in darkness.

The other myth refers to Nut as the mother of Ra. Ra uses her body as a pathway for the sun in the sky. Every night, Nut swallows Ra. She gives birth to Ra every morning to start the day anew. The Pyramid Texts of the pharaoh Pepi tell this story and reveals Nut as the “Great Goddess of the Sky”. In this form, she is the mother of all life and the one who receives all spirits.

Nut’s appearance varied in many ways throughout Egypt. Some pictures depict her sitting with a water pot on her head. The hieroglyph for her name is also a water pot. Egyptologists believe that the water pot represented a womb.

One of the most common forms of Nut features her as an arch stretching over the earth. This version of Nut is found in the tomb of Ramses VI in the Valley of the Kings. Her body forms a semi-circle with only her fingers and toes touching the ground. In some versions, her father, Shu, holds her up. Her husband, Geb, reclines underneath her and represents the hills and valleys of the earth. Golden stars cover her body to represent the souls of her children.

Nut is often featured inside of coffin lids as a symbol of the sky over the deceased soul in the afterlife. In this form, she was known as the goddess of death. Almost every sarcophagus located at the Cairo Museum features the figure or face of Nut inside the lid. Some coffins feature her as having protective wings, while others symbolize her as a ladder. Her role in the afterlife tied closely with the view of her as the ultimate mother. The journey of death would bring the dead back to the arms of the goddess-mother Nut, much like night would bring Ra back to her.

Other less common forms feature her as a giant sow with many suckling piglets. Egyptians believed her piglets to be the nighttime stars, which Nut would swallow every morning. In other representations, she a cow goddess with eyes representing the sun and the moon.

Although Nut’s chief cult center was located at Heliopolis, Egyptians at Memphis worshiped Nut as a healing goddess at a shrine called the House of Nut. A sycamore tree symbolized her home, but she was later replaced in the tree by the goddess Hathor. Despite being a central part of Egyptian worship, she had no known temples built exclusively for her.

Nut would also be associated with Hathor at Dendera. Texts at the Temple of the Birth of Isis reveal how Isis was born at Dendera under the watchful eye of Hathor. Tourists still view inscriptions and reliefs of Nut at Dendera which revealing her both astronomical importance and her religious importance as the mother of all creation.

• Sky Goddess
• One of the oldest Egyptian deities
• Mother of the stars, planets and cosmic bodies
• Protector of the living and the dead
• Responsible for day and night

Osiris is a Latin word. In Egyptian hieroglyphs the traditional rendering of the name is Wsjr. Some Egyptologists refer to the deity as Aser, Ausar, Asar, Asari, Ausir, Ausare, Usire, Usir, Wser, or Wesir. The English translation of the name is Almighty or The Powerful.

This is how he was perceived among the ancient Egyptians and his name was celebrated with much prayer and ritual activity for thousands of years. He was also worshiped as the shepherd god. Archaeologists point to him being pictured with the shepherd’s crook as evidence of this designation.

His name appears during Egypt’s Fifth Dynasty, although he is said to have been worshiped since the First Dynasty. He is also mentioned in later Egyptian documents, including the Contending of Horus and Seth, the Shabaka Stone and the writings of ancient Greek authors.

Osiris was given many titles. He is sometimes referred to as “King of the Living” and “Foremost of the Westerners”. Both of those titles were given to him because of his being the ruler of the dead, whom the ancient Egyptians called Westerners or The Living Ones.

Considered to be a merciful judge of people in the afterlife, Osiris is also credited with the fertile flooding of the Nile, the sprouting of vegetation, and the granting of all life. Some of his other titles and attributes include the Lord of Silence, the Lord of Love and He Who is Permanently Benign and Youthful.

Ancient paintings of Osiris often have him colored green or black. Green is said to be the color ancient Egyptians associated with rebirth. Black was the color associated with fertility: it was the color of the rich, fertile soil which stretched over the plains each year, when the River Nile overflowed, and played a huge role in Egypt’s prosperity.

In some rare instances, Osiris was depicted wearing a crown that included a rendering of the moon. This has led some researchers to surmise he was associated with the moon or the night.

Osiris is told to have been one of five children born to the god of the earth and the goddess of the skies, Geb and Nut respectively. Through this family tree he was also a great-grandson of one of the most popular Egyptian gods, Ra. Osiris had four younger siblings who would also play critical roles in his story: his brother Seth and two sisters known as Isis and Nephthys.

As the firstborn child and son of Geb and Nut, it fell to Osiris to inherit the throne of Egypt. Seth married Nephthys and Osiris married Isis. Together, Isis and Osiris seemed to have possession of numerous powers. Their marriage was not destined to be happy, however.

At one point, Nephthys appears to have magically taken on the appearance of Isis and presented herself to Osiris as his wife. Not knowing the difference, Osiris was seduced by Nephthys and she became pregnant and gave birth to Anubis.

Later, Seth developed a vendetta against his extremely popular sibling, possibly either because Osiris had inherited the throne or because he had gotten Seth’s wife pregnant. At any rate, Seth sought to kill him by luring him into a coffin and drowning him in the Nile. The annual flooding of the Nile River is still thought to be representative of this event.

Isis managed to recover her husband’s body; however Seth was very stealthy and stole away with it. After cutting up the body of the Egyptian god of the underworld, Seth hid the pieces throughout the Egyptian desert.

The connection between Isis and Osiris was so strong that the Egyptian goddess proceeded to spend a number of years searching for the mutilated body parts of her husband. She finally managed to find all of the pieces save one, and is believed to have used her magical powers to restore her husband’s body.

Although there are different versions to this part of the story, it seems Isis became pregnant, presumably by Osiris and gave birth to a son, Horus. Osiris died once again and descended to fully assume his duties as Egyptian god of the underworld.

Some versions of the history of Osiris state that when he descended into the underworld he took over several important roles and duties as Egyptian god of the underworld from Anubis, who was believed to have been his son. Other tales contend that he rightfully obtained the important role as Egyptian god of the underworld because he was the first god to have died. However he obtained the role, it became Osiris’ responsibility to judge the souls of the dead.

It is said the dead kings of Egypt would rise with Osiris and inherit eternal life. By Egypt’s New Kingdom it was said not only would the dead kings rise from the dead with him, but any Egyptian that performed the appropriate rituals would also. This belief that Osiris is responsible for new life after death caused him to be associated with the New Year and the cycles of nature.

His worship continued to be popular until the rise of Christianity. At that time the Romans began to suppress the Egyptian religion and actively promote Christianity. Even in the face of active Roman suppression of the Egyptian religion, many people, Egyptians and others, continued to revere, sacrifice to, and worship him secretly for hundreds of years.

To the ancient Egyptians, Osiris’ resurrection after being slain by his evil brother Set represents the new beginning for good after it has defeated evil. To them, the tale was symbolized by the sun going into the world of the dead each night and being reborn with each new day.

As such, he came to be identified as the Creator god who is king of the underworld and the afterlife and who controls life, death, rebirth, and resurrection. A pillar of continuity, representing the phallus created by Isis, became a symbol of the Ba or power of Osiris and was used in his worship.

Ancient Egyptians believed the deities Anubis, Ammut, Henefer, Ma'at, Osiris and Thoth would greet the person in the afterlife and perform the weighing of the heart ceremony. The person’s heart was weighed against the feather of Ma'at. If it was lighter than the feather they had lived a good, truthful life and would spend eternity in the kingdom of Osiris.

In ancient Egypt, worship of Osiris was an important part of their everyday life. The story of his death at the hands of Seth and his 72 accomplices was retold each year as part of their worship. It was a story of regeneration and rebirth they saw play out each year with the cycle of the flooding of the Nile.

Egypt was a very fertile place, one of the breadbaskets of the Old World. The ancient Egyptians attributed much of this to Osiris and they held many ceremonies to give praise to his name, actions, and attributes.

Seen as the first king of Egypt, his symbols, the flail and the shepherd’s staff, became important symbols of the pharaohs that came after him. His reign was viewed as the ideal which succeeding Egyptian rulers attempted to emulate. To his followers, he represented a time of peace, unity, and fertility.

Osiris was the good shepherd who was loved by his people and it was felt that paying homage and venerating him would help Egypt and Egyptians to be successful. It was believed worshiping him would forever ensure fertility, prosperity and plentiful crops on the banks of the Nile.

The celebrations dedicated to Osiris, including the Great Mystery Festival and a 5 day religious ritual, were held each spring. They included plays, story telling, religious services, feasting, and fun. Some of the celebrations commemorated his life by planting grain moistened with water from the Nile in gardens in the shape of Osiris. The grain’s subsequent germination and growth symbolized his death and resurrection.

Egyptians believed the sprouting grain symbolized his unwavering vitality and strength. The people praised Osiris as ‘The one who came from heaven and was the bread which sustained the lives of mankind’. He was called 'The one who continues to be perfect’. These celebrations were held in the last month of the inundation of the Nile.

• Osiris was one of Egypt’s most important deities.
• His exact origin is obscure, but he was known to have been a local god in Busiris, a city in Lower Egypt.
• He was worshiped in the temple at Abydos.
• He was later worshiped as the Hellenistic god Serapis.
• Greco-Roman writers associated him with Dionysus.
• Many modern people mistakenly refer to the Eye of Horus as the Eye of Osiris.

Anubis was either seen as a man with a jackal head or completely in the form of a jackal. In ancient Egypt, scavengers like jackals ruled the cemeteries. They dug up the freshly buried and tore at their flesh and ate it. Historians believe that this is what prompted the ancients to portray the god of the afterlife as a jackal, to fight fire with fire. New genetic research indicates that the ancient Egyptian jackal is not a jackal at all, but an ancient wolf.

Anubis’ skin is often depicted as black, while jackals are typically brown. The reason is that the color black is a symbol of death, but also a symbol of the Nile’s fertile and black soil.

In very ancient history Anubis was known to be the absolute ruler of the underworld (called Duat). Later theories indicate that this role was taken over by Osiris.

The Guardian of the Scales: one of his many roles surrounding the dead included the Guardian of Scales where he dictated the fate of souls. As depicted in the Book of the Dead, Anubis weighs the decedent’s heart against the weight of a feather. The feather represents “Ma’at” or truth. If the scale of justice tipped toward the heart, the dead person would be consumed by Ammit, a female demon the ancient Egyptian people dubbed “devourer of the dead.” If the scale of justice tipped toward the feather, Anubis would lead the decedent to Osiris so he could ascend to a worthy existence in heaven.

The God of embalming and mummification: Anubis held the important role of overseeing the embalming and mummification of the dead. The daughter of Anubis (Kebechet), is frequently seen as his assistant in the mummification process of the dead. Ancient Egyptians believed that Anubis sniffed the bodies of the dead, so they preserved them with sweet smelling herbs and plants. Anubis also assisted in the “opening of the mouth” ritual to ensure a good burial. This ritual was performed so the dead person could eat and speak in the afterlife.

Protector of Tombs: as the Egyptian god responsible for protecting the dead, many prayers to Anubis were carved into their tombs. Anubis held this role until Osiris gained popularity and took it over.

The mythology of the story varies, but according to legend: Osiris’ brother (Seth), killed Osiris by luring him into a fancy coffin, sealing it shut, and pushing it into the Nile.

Osiris’ wife and sister (Isis), retrieved Osiris’ body on the Phoenician coastline, but an angry Seth chopped up Osiris’ body and scattered it throughout Egypt. Anubis, Isis and Nephthys, set about to find the pieces and were successful (except for Osiris’ phallus).

Another Egyptian God called Thoth, helped restore the body and Anubis wrapped Osiris in linen, the action of which bestowed on him the title, “He Who is in the Place of Embalming”.

Several versions exist of how Anubis came into being:

Son of Nephthys and Osiris: the most popular version is that Anubis is the son of Nephthys and Osiris. As the Goddess of Darkness, Nephthys would naturally be mother to a god who oversaw the embalming process and also guided souls into the afterlife.

Son of Nephthys and Seth: it is also speculated that Seth is Anubis’ father. In this version, it is believed that Nephthys disguised herself as Osiris’ beautiful sister, Isis, to beget a half brother for Horus. As Seth is the God of darkness, storms and destruction, it is easy to see how Anubis could be his son. Son of Nephtys and Ra: in early mythology texts, Ra (the sun God), was depicted as being Anubis’ father, while his mother was speculated as being either Hesat the cow goddess, Bastet the cat-headed warfare goddess, or Nephthys.

Anubis’ wife is called Anput and has the body of a woman and the head of a jackal. Together they have a daughter called Kebechet, who is the goddess of purification.

Anubis was worshiped all over Egypt, and his cult center was in Cynopolis, located in the 17th nome (province) of Upper Egypt. Translated, Cynopolis is Greek for “city of the dog,” which fits well because of the close relation between jackals and dogs, and the fact that some scholars believe Anubis was indeed an ancient wolf.

A shrine for Anubis was discovered in King Tut’s tomb in 1922. Made of wood, plaster, lacquer and gold leaf, the statue depicts Anubis in animal form in a recumbent position exactly how he is in his hieroglyph. As the sledge it rested on would indicate, the shrine was probably used in the funeral procession of the great Pharaoh, and was oriented to the west to help guide the Pharaoh into the afterlife (which the ancient Egyptians believed was in the direction of the setting sun).

Aside from the Anubis statue discovered in King Tut’s tomb, his representation can be found frequently in ancient Egyptian art. In the Valley of the Kings, an image of Anubis in his role as “Jackal Ruler of the Bows” was often used to seal tombs. The nine bows represented all the enemies of Egypt, and it was believed that Anubis had defeated every one of them. Anubis masks and statuettes dating back to early to late Ptolemaic period (332-30 BC) exist in museums today.

• Anubis was the god of the dead and the underworld until the Middle Kingdom, when this role was taken over by Osiris.
• He is one of the oldest gods, references in text go back as far as the Old Kingdom.
• Anubis is the inventor and god of embalming and mummification.
• He guided the death through the underworld (called Duat).
• Anubis was the Guardian of the Scales, used to weigh the hearts of dead souls.
• His high level of anatomical knowledge due to embalming made him the patron of anesthesiology.
• A crouching statue of Anubis took a central place in Tutankhamun’s tomb.
• Priests who performed the embalming of dead corpses possibly wore a jackal mask.
• Greek mythology blends Hermes with Anubis to result in the god Hermanubis.

Papyrus bud columns in the courtyard of AMENHOTEP III in Luxor Temple