What Were Some Beliefs of the Ancient Egyptians?

The Egyptians represent one of the oldest cultures and civilizations in recorded history. They also have an instantly recognizable walk that you could do while listening to the Bangles. Let's not forget that Abbott and Costello met a mummy on Egyptian territory. Is there anything that the Egyptians weren't responsible for? Good question since you wil find out that quite a few contemporary ideas can be traced back, at least partially, to the ancient Egyptians.

What is known about Egyptian ideas that began more than 5,000 years ago comes from a series of writings and drawings, many of which remained hidden beneath the desert sands for millennia. Many of the ideas central to Egyptian culture resemble beliefs of other civilizations separated from Egypt by thousands of miles and hundreds of years. Those civilizations that share some of their ideas with Egypt include the very civilization in which you find yourself.

Duality
One of the central beliefs of the Egyptians was in the duality that existed between order and chaos. Though the ideal was a strong sense of order, it was also acknowledged that chaos must be present in order to create equilibrium. That harmonic balance of nature would be realized in the belief of a god of order, Horus, and a god of chaos, Seth.

Ghosts
The presence of the dead existing among the living for the purpose of haunting them has been handed down to other generations and is still widely believed around the world today. Personal disasters from sickness to the loss of a working animal would be attributed to the spirit of someone who had died.

Fortune Telling
The belief in the wisdom of oracles was a major mythic element in Egyptian society. Oracles would be consulted on festival days with a procession that brought a statue of the oracle god to that god's temple or shrine. One interesting element associated with the consultation of oracles were that they were often utilized for the purposes of criminal investigations in which suspects would be listed and named. The oracle was not necessarily judge and jury as a tribunal would be assembled to assist in the judicial matter at hand.

Dream Interpretation
Long before Sigmund Freug and Carl Jung came along to tell us what our dreams mean, the Egyptians were doing the same thing. According to Egyptians, what a person dreamed could potentially play a concrete role in their waking lives. Dreams were the source material for predicting the future. A series of "Dream Books" gave a list of what specific dreams might mean for the future of the person who dreamed them.

Epagomenal Days
Epagomenal days is a term given to certain days throughout the year. On these days any activity considered consequential were taboo. Egyptians believed that the five Epagomenal days were the birthdays of the gods Osiris, Isis, Seth, Nepthys and Horus the Elder. Another name given to these days by the Egyptians was "days of the demon."

The Role of Women
Egyptian beliefs about women varied little from the procession of history following the height of this culture. Women were expected to have children and run the household. Women of lesser stature were also expected to take part in harvesting of food. Jobs considered suitable for women included dancers and musicians.

Flood Myth
Belief in the potential of the god Re to become tired of humanity and wipe them out with a flood may have been the original source of the story of Noah and the ark in the Bible. Flooding was high on the minds of Egyptians due to the regular flooding of the Nile between July and October. This actual flooding was manipulated for a positive influence on Egyptian life, but the fear that it could one day become a fatal disaster for all was ever present.