\paperw4095 \margr0\margl0 \plain \fs20 \f1 The Egyptians of ancient times saw their world as a closed box.\par
In the north lay the ôGreat Green,ö as they called the sea, in th
e south the Cataract, in the west the Libyan Desert and in the East the Sinai and the mountains of Arabia.\par
The sky arched above, the earth lay below. The sky rested on four great mountains, or pillars, situated at the four cardinal points, and it wa
s the Mother Goddess Nut who supported the heavenly bodies.\par
The two oldest cults in Egypt were worship of the sun and worship of nature.\par
The prime figure in the first was the sun god Amon-Ra, the Creator, while in the latter it was Osiris.
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Everyday Amon-Ra crossed the sky in his boat. Since darkness fell when he went beneath the earth, he had Thoth, the moon god, take his place.\par
Amon-Ra had four children: Shu, god of air, Tefnut, goddess of dew and rain, Geb, the earth god, and Nut,
goddess of the sky.\par
The sky goddess Nut and earth god Geb also had four children.\par
These were the gods of nature: Osiris, Isis, Seth and Nephthys.\par
Osiris and Isis had a son, Horus.\par
When Horus was grown up and sufficiently strong, he av
enged the death of his father, killed by Seth.\par
Horus traveled a long time in search of Seth, his fatherÆs murderer, facing innumerable dangers: he was the protagonist of many adventures, all narrated in myths.\par
This was how Horus mounted the ear
thly throne of his father, Osiris, and became the first ancestor of the king, who from then on was believed to be his reincarnation.\par
The prehistoric traditions of local animal worship survived in religion.\par
In the Fayyum and at Kom Ombo, the cro
codile god Sebek was worshiped. At Oxyrhynchus a species of fish living in the Nile was venerated.\par
The worship of dogs, cats and ichneumons persisted locally until the advent of Christianity.
