ODYSSEY/Egypt/Mythology (2024)

FAQs

What is the answer to the riddle the gods of Egypt? ›

The answer is… tomorrow – because it has yet to come, yet always seems to be coming. None has seen it yet, and it cannot be seen now, but those alive seem sure that it exists.

The gods and goddesses of Ancient Egypt were an integral part of the people's everyday lives. It is not surprising then that there were over 2,000 deities in the Egyptian pantheon.

2. A sacred cobra sat on Ra's head.

Osiris is said to have peacefully ruled Egypt with his wife and queen Isis and that there was harmony and prosperity throughout the land. Seth however became jealous of Osiris' success as ruler and then plotted to kill him and rule Egypt himself.

This was the Sphinx's riddle: “What goes on four feet in the morning, two feet in midday, and three feet in the evening?” At around this time Oedipus came to Thebes (since he didn't want to go back home to Corinth), and he solved the riddle. Oedipus said, “The answer is 'man'.

Oedipus was the first to answer the riddle correctly and, having heard Oedipus' answer, the Sphinx was astounded and inexplicably killed herself by throwing herself into the sea. Oedipus thereby won the freedom of the Thebans, the kingdom of that city, and as his wife, Jocasta, who was later revealed to be his mother.

By the Ptolemaic Period Amun was regarded as the Egyptian equivalent of Zeus. Amun was usually represented in human form wearing a kilt and double-plumed feather headdress, but he could also be seen with a ram's head.

Anubis wife is the goddess Anput. Anubis daughter is the goddess Kebechet. Usually Anubis is portrayed as the son of Nephthys and set.

For the Egyptians, the most powerful god is Ra, but they also believed that Ra stopped taking an active hand in the world a long time ago after 'growing old'.

Ra was said to be the creator of the universe as we know it in Egyptian mythology, which would make him more at the level of the Biblical character Yahweh.

Are there any evil Egyptian gods? ›

Apopis, ancient Egyptian demon of chaos, who had the form of a serpent and, as the foe of the sun god, Re, represented all that was outside the ordered cosmos. Although many serpents symbolized divinity and royalty, Apopis threatened the underworld and symbolized evil.

asp, anglicized form of aspis, name used in classical antiquity for a venomous snake, probably the Egyptian cobra, Naja haje. It was the symbol of royalty in Egypt, and its bite was used for the execution of favoured criminals in Greco-Roman times. Cleopatra is said to have killed herself with an asp (see also viper).

So the gardener told her: "He doesn't eat any vegetable here in my company except lettuce." And Isis added the sem*n of Horus onto it. Seth returned according to his daily habit and ate the lettuce, which he regularly ate. Thereupon he became pregnant with the sem*n of Horus.

The gods tell Horus and Seth to make peace and Seth invites Horus to stay in his house. During the night Seth tries to establish dominance by having sex with Horus, but Horus catches Seth's sem*n in his hand. He tells Isis, who cuts off his polluted hand and makes him a new one.

Osiris is obsessed with Seth and owning him, particularly bodily, to the point Osiris made Seth infertile so that he could not have a child with someone else. Osiris wanted to have a child with Seth, to demonstrate his love, before repeatedly assaulting him.

If he could answer correctly, he would be made the King of the city of Thebes, but if he answered incorrectly, the sphinx would eat him. The riddle asked of him was, ''What goes on four feet in the morning, two feet at noon, and three feet in the evening?'' Oedipus answered the riddle with the correct answer, a person.

He said that the answer is a human being, because a human being walks on all fours in early life, on two legs as an adult and with a walking stick in old age.

“First think of the person who lives in disguise,/ Who deals in secrets and tells naught but lies./ Next, tell me what's always the last thing to mend,/ The middle of middle and end of the end?/ And finally give me the sound often heard/ During the search for a hard-to-find word./ Now string them together, and answer ...