AMMON Also AMON; AMUN; AMEN "Hidden." King of the gods of Egypt. Patron
               of the Pharoahs. Originally a god of fertility, a local deity of
               Memphis. Ammon became linked with the sun god Ra through the royal 
               family, becoming Ammon-Ra.

               ANUBIS The jackal-headed god. Anubis can foresee a mortal's destiny and
               is associated with magic and divination. Anubis supervises the weighing 
               of the soul when the departed are brought to the hall of the dead.

               ASTARTE The Assyro-Babylonian goddess Ishtar, inducted into the Egyptian 
               pantheon and made a daughter of Ammon-Ra. Sometimes identified (or
               confused, which is the same thing) with Isis.

               ATUM The first of the gods, the self-created. By sheer will, Atum formed
               himself out of the stagnant waters of Nun. Atum was bisexual and was
               sometimes called "the great He-She." The Egyptians had two cosmogonies,
               one taught by the priests at Heliopolis and the other by the priests at
               Memphis. The priests at Memphis taught that Nun and Atum, together with
               Atum's children Shu and Tefnut, were aspects or forms of Ptah.

               BAST Also BASTET. The cat-headed goddess, a local deity of the delta.
               The kindly goddess of joy, music and dancing. Cats were sacred to Bast 
               as a symbol of animal passion. Bast's devotees celebrated their lady 
               with processions of flower-laden barges and orgiastic ceremonies. Her 
               festivals were licentious and quite popular.

               HATHOR A sky goddess, sometimes represented as a woman with cow's horns 
               between which hangs a solar disc, sometimes portrayed as a cow. Hathor 
               concerns herself with beauty, love and marriage, and watches over women 
               giving birth. Mother and wife of Ra. Hathor is also a goddess of death 
               and offers comfort to the newly dead as they pass into the afterworld.

               HORUS The falcon-headed god. A complex deity with many aspects. Some of
               them are: Horus the Elder, a sky god whose eyes are the sun and the 
               moon, continually at war with Set, the god of evil; Horus of the 
               Horizon, symbolized by the rising and setting sun; Horus the Child, 
               whose frequent depictions as a baby at the breast of his mother Isis 
               influenced Christian images of the Madonna and the Christ child; Horus, 
               son of Isis, avenger of Osiris. There were many others.

               ISIS Wife and sister of Osiris (the ancients had nothing against a 
               little divine incest). The ideal wife and mother. Generally a goddess of 
               the home and person rather than of the temple and the priest. After the 
               twenty sixth dynasty, Isis is increasingly portrayed as a nursing 
               mother, and her cult eventually spread throughout the Roman empire.

               MAAT Goddess of truth and justice. Her symbol is the feather.

               MIN A god of fertility and sexual potency. An ancient god of 
               pre-dynastic origins. His symbol is the thunderbolt. As orgiastic 
               festivials were held in his honor, Min was quite a popular god.

               NUN God of the primal waters. Nun was a mass of stagnant water which 
               filled all the universe.

               OSIRIS At first the god of corn; later the god of the dead. Osiris 
               brought civilization to the Egyptians, teaching them the uses of corn 
               and wine, weaving, sculpture, religion, music and law. Set slew Osiris 
               and dismembered th body; but Osiris' consort, Isis, reassembled the body 
               and brought Osiris back to life. Osiris then retired to the underworld. 
               Osiris is the god of the Nile which rises and falls every year; the god 
               of corn and the vine, which flourish, die, and flourish once more; and 
               the god of the rising and setting sun.

               PTAH The artificer. The creator god. According to the priests of 
               Memphis, the fount of all creation. God of artisans and artists, 
               designers, builders, architects, masons, metal workers. Ptah's consort 
               is Sekhmut, goddess of war.

               RA God of the sun; sometimes identified or considered synonomous with 
               Atum. Ra created man from his tears. At one time Ra became so digusted 
               with men that he orderd Hathor to kill them all. This Hathor did with 
               such zeal that Ra took pity on men and ordered Hathor to stop. Crazed 
               with blood, Hathor ignored the order, and Ra resorted to chicanery to 
               save humankind. Ra mixed beer with pomegranate juice and left pots of 
               the concoction about the battlefield. Thinking the mixture was blood, 
               Hathor drank it greedily and got too swacked to carry out her mission.

               SEKHMUT Goddess of war and battles, consort of Ptah. Hathor took 
               Sekhmut's shape when she made war on men. Sekhmut is usually portrayed 
               as a woman with the head of a lionness, sometimes brandishing a knife in 
               an upraised hand.

               SET Red of hair and eyes, pale of skin, Set is the god of evil, of 
               drought, of destruction, thunder and storm. Set tore himself from his 
               mother's womb in his hurry to be born. Every month Set attacks and 
               devours the moon, the sanctuary of Osiris and the gathering place of the 
               souls of the recently dead.

               THOTH "Thrice Greatest." God of wisdom, music, magic, medicine, 
               astronomy, geometry, surveying, art and and writing. Historian, scribe 
               and judge. Thoth's priests claimed Thoth was the Demi-Urge who created 
               everything from sound. It was said that Thoth wrote books in which he 
               set forth a fabulous knowldege of magic and incantation, and then 
               concealed them in a crypt.