Reviews

054

The Search for God in Ancient Egypt

Jan Assmann, trans. David Lorton
(Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 2001) 275 pp., $45.00 (cloth), $19.95 (paper)

The Gods of Egypt

Claude Traunecker, trans. David Lorton
(Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 2001) 134 pp., $27.95

Newcomers to Egyptian religion often find the vast profusion of deities confusing, especially because many of them appear in a multitude of different forms and in seemingly contradictory roles. The same goddess, for example, may sometimes be a benevolent maternal icon and at other times a raging murderess bent on destroying humanity.

A related question has occupied scholars since the earliest days of Egyptology: Were these many gods and goddesses believed to be manifestations of a single divine being? Were the Egyptians in some way really monotheists?

Jan Assmann’s The Search for God in Ancient Egypt, originally published in German in 1984, is among the most important books on Egyptian religion of the last half century. Assmann distinguishes between explicit theology, the attempt by humankind to define the divine, and implicit theology, the actual practice of religion. He suggests that the latter—which includes mythology, cosmology and ritual—leads toward polytheism while the former leads toward monotheism. In ancient Egypt, these two approaches to the divine world continuously ran counter to one another, so that the Egyptians simultaneously held conflicting beliefs in a multiplicity of gods, on the one hand, and in an overarching divine being on the other.

The bulk of Assmann’s book deals with implicit theology, the practice of religion. Human beings, he observes, are almost naturally disposed to view the divine realm as a parallel universe mirroring the earthly world. For the ancient Egyptians, then, interaction with the gods required the creation of a physical form for the deity (a cult statue), a dwelling (the temple) and a staff of workers (the priesthood). This arrangement gave the Egyptian temple a local aspect, as the city god’s residence and as an economic and political center. The temple also had a mythic aspect, representing the universe in microcosm, with the sanctuary symbolizing the mound that emerged from the primeval waters at the time of creation.

As early as the 1st Dynasty (2920–2770 B.C.), Assmann argues, solar theology drove the Egyptian concept of the universe and even of the world of the dead. The so-called Books of the Netherworld (not to be confused with the Book of the Dead), which appear on the walls of New Kingdom (1550–1070 B.C.) royal tombs and depict the sun god’s journey through the afterlife, served not as guides through the afterlife, as sometimes thought, but as the codification of cosmological knowledge necessary to survive the dangerous journey.

Assmann also discusses the nature and structure of the Egyptian cosmos, particularly the concepts of djet and neheh. Although these concepts are usually both translated as “eternity,” Assmann demonstrates that their meanings are not identical: Djet means “the continuation of the completed,” and neheh means “change and occurrence.” Whereas the former suggests that eternity is a static state of perfection, the latter suggests that it is cyclical and self-renewing, exemplified by the daily 056cycle of the sun. Here, again, we find that ancient Egyptian religious beliefs were saturated with multiple meanings and nuances.

In The Gods of Egypt, originally published in French in 1993, Claude Traunecker seeks to sort out Egypt’s confusing multiplicity of deities for general readers. The Egyptian gods, he argues, should be understood as the animating forces of nature. Therefore, Egypt’s natural landscape was the source of its religious beliefs and practices. While this concept is hardly new, Traunecker’s book is useful in drawing on primary sources to support, explain and expand on this idea.

Like Assmann, Traunecker observes that cult statues gave form to the gods and cultic ritual enabled worshipers to interact with them in mutually beneficial ways. He describes the nature of the gods and the universe they inhabit, and he provides clear definitions of many complex Egyptian concepts—including ba, ka and akh, often inadequately translated as “soul,” as well as djet and neheh, following Assmann’s interpretation. The book also contains a useful chapter on the appearance of the gods, exploring the significance of their age, sex and animal forms. Ultimately, Traunecker observes, the gods are anthropomorphic in their interactions and, like human beings, dwell in a hierarchical society. His treatment of the cosmological hierarchy—involving deities, the transfigured dead, the king and ordinary humanity—is engaging and informative, particularly in its discussion of intermediaries who bridge the gap between different levels of the hierarchy.

These works are part of an ongoing project by Cornell University Press to translate major foreign works on Egyptian religion. Now English speakers will have first-hand access to arguments that have shaped modern understanding of this fascinating subject.

The Search for God in Ancient Egypt