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| Egypt Flights Home » Egyptian Mythology » Religions of the Ancient near East |
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Religions of the Ancient near East |
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The Ancient near East is the vast region, which presently is known as the Middle East. Polytheistic was the religion of the majority of the people living in this region. Other religions were Henotheism and Ancient Greek religion that was vastly influenced by the Luwian pantheon. The Zoroastrianism was the main religion of the Achaemenid Empire that faced the influence of Elam religion.
While discussing about religions of the Ancient near East we get citations of various sub regions including Ancient Egyptian religion, Assyro Babylonian religion, Canaanite religion, Hittite mythology, Hurrian mythology and Minoan religion.
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Common traits between the religions of the Ancient near East: Religions of the Ancient near East have many rituals and practices in common for which they are often clubbed together. All the religions of the Ancient near East have similar patterns for purification as well as cleansing rituals. Magic, amulets and invocations were also commonly practiced in most of the religions of the Ancient near East. State sponsored religions and divination were also found to exist in these religions. Polytheism was also practiced. Almost all the religions practiced sacrifices of animals.
Gods in ancient Egyptian religion: The Egyptians followed various deities that were broadly split into 5 localized groups. The Amun-Mut-Chons’ chief god was Amun. The Ennead of Heliopolis was a group whose chief god was Atum-Ra or simply Atum.
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Another group was Ogdoad of Hermopolis whose chief god was Thot. The Ptah Sekhmet Nefertem chief god was Ptah. The Khum Satis Anuket group had Chnum as the chief god.
Ancient Egyptian religion is one of the major religions among religions of the Ancient near East. It includes all the rituals and beliefs of Ancient Egypt. Before Islam and Coptic Christianity became the major religions of the Egyptian; the Ancient Egyptian religion was widely followed by the people for almost over 3,000 years. The ancient Egyptian religions followed and believed several myths related to the creation of the world.
Death and afterlife was a major part of the religion of the Egyptian. They had an elaborate procedure of mummification of the body of the deceased. From their beliefs of life after death, the Egyptians developed a new methodology for preserving the dead body. Wrapped in linens the dead bodies were placed in tombs. There were several books of funeral texts that were placed with the mummy in the pyramids.
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