Egyptian Gods and Goddesses

Grade level: Middle school and high school

Objectives for students:
· to recognize that the animal forms of the gods were based upon real animals living in the Nile Valley and surrounding deserts

· to understand that the Egyptians portrayed their gods in animal and human-animal combinations to symbolize the many kinds of divine power at work in the universe

· to understand the use of symbols, not only to illustrate certain characteristics of a god or person but also to identify that being

· to learn that in the art of past civilizations (as well as in contemporary religions), symbols can fill images with meaning understood by the peoples of a time and place

Visual materials:
The visual materials listed below are in an order that develops the progression of the lesson.

Sakhmet
Cat
Statuette of Amun
Statuette of an offering bearer
Section from a Book of the Dead
Magical stela
Temple of Dendur

Advance preparation:
Read the sections on Ancient Egyptian Beliefs and the detailed descriptions of the works of art (click on the images to get this information). Please be familiar with the descriptions of deities in the glossary. You also may want to print out and photocopy the common forms of major deities for the students.

Questions for looking at the works of art begin with simple observations followed by more detailed ones that involve more background information.

Class discussion:
Discuss the various human and animal forms used to portray Egyptian gods. Why did the Egyptians visualize their gods in these ways?

Ask the students to imagine that they believe a god controls a force of nature essential to life, such as the sun or water. How would they portray that god? How would they identify the god's powers?

Begin discussions about the visual materials by asking the class to describe what they see.

Sakhmet: What is the sculpture made of? What features identify her as a goddess? What do they indicate about her special powers? What does the lioness head tell us? In what mood is the goddess portrayed? How is that mood expressed (pose, expression of face)? What was the function of this sculpture?

Cat: The goddess Bastet was portrayed as a cat and sometimes as a woman with a cat's head. Are there visual clues showing that this figure of a cat is indeed Bastet and not an ordinary cat? What special powers would a goddess symbolized by a cat have? Why were cats important in a civilization whose livelihood was based upon farming? What is the sculpture made of? What was its function?

Compare Statuette of Amun with the figures of Sakhmet and Bastet (Cat). Is it different, and if so, in what ways? How might one guess this is a god instead of a king? What is he holding? What do these objects symbolize? What essential force for life on earth does Amun symbolize? What identifies him as Amun (the shape of his crown; the gold, which symbolizes the sun)? What identifying feature is missing? What do scholars think the function of this figure might have been?

Statuette of an offering bearer: At first this female figure appears to be an ordinary servant, but what details suggest she is much more than that (her adornment, her dress)? How would you describe the patterns of her dress? They are further indications of this figure's importance. In Egyptian art what special women are depicted wearing feathered dresses or headdresses (goddesses, queens)?

Section from a Book of the Dead: Ask the class to describe the scene and identify what is happening. Discuss the meaning and the function of this object, then focus on Osiris, his wife and sister Isis, and his other sister Nephthys, to make the point that many Egyptian gods were believed to live in families.

What is the material of Magical stela, and how was it made? Who is the main character? How has the artist made him stand out? What could be happening in this scene? How are the other figures in the main scene identified? Have a class member describe the actual narrative referred to here. Look closely at the carving. How was it done? What is the magical function of this stela?

Temple of Dendur: Describe the temple and gate. Ask the students what the material is and how the temple was constructed. Talk about the fact that a statue of the god honored in the temple would have been in the sanctuary. Where would the people worship the god? (A temple was believed to be the house for the god, and only the highest priests and the king were allowed inside the temple sanctuary to view the image of the god. The people worshiped the god in the temple's outer courtyard.) Statues of the god in temple sanctuaries were made of precious material; they have not survived. The Statuette of Amun gives a modest idea of the splendor of materials and craftsmanship that would have been seen in the god statue in a sanctuary.

Related Activities
Divine Power
Parts of Art and Culture