Ancient Egyptian Life

Unlike the secular government that we have today, ancient Egypt intertwined religion with politics, creating a vast network of gods that ruled over specific parts of Egyptian life. There were gods for the Nile, the sun, the afterlife, and even for chaos and disorder. The Egyptians believed wholeheartedly in their gods, and erected tombs, temples, and statues in their favor.

Because of this, there is no Egyptian word for “religion”. The gods were tied to all activities in daily life, and no Egyptian citizen believed that the gods were fallible. While there generally were slight differences with how the gods interacted with the world, most citizens had the same views. There were the chief deities, Horus and Amon-Re, and then there were gods of specific aspects of life.

An important god is Osiris, god of the afterlife. The afterlife was an essential part of the Egyptian society, and embalming a dead body was a great, ceremonious task that citizens went through. The embalming process was designed to assist the dead in navigating the afterlife and finding peace. There was even a process called the “opening of the mouth”, that allowed the dead to speak and retain their bodily functions.

The gods were the rulers of space and time, and the Pharaoh was believed to be a higher human himself. It was he (or she, in some cases) that talked to the gods and bridged their otherworldly bodies to the common folk. The Pharaoh was undeniable, and infallible, because to question the Pharaoh would be to question the gods. Ancient Egypt, for the most part, was a theocracy, ruled by a king and religion. The Pharaoh enacted policies dealing with taxes, where for the most part, included a labor task that required citizens to work on whatever was necessa...

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... advances are to satisfy their religious need, to maintain a civilized hierarchy, and to keep up with their evolving visions. With more advancements meant the ability to accomplish more. This momentum thus maintained the requirement for constant learning and technological advancement. The Egyptians were not people who were satisfied with accomplishments; there was always a need for more in their culture. Grandeur visions for their religious needs only meant that they would have to continue their advancements in engineering. None of this could be possible without a foundation and organization in their structure. Religion was their most basic need and through the collaboration of masses of people, they were able to accomplish an incredible number of advancements. Their unification is a great example of how civilization can accomplish much with a unified vision.