What is the Ancient Egyptian Creation Story?

Answer 1

The Egyptian Creation Story is known as The Story of Re. It tells of the creation of the Earth, and of how the god Re grew angry with mankind and tried to destroy them using his daughter, the terrible goddess Sekhmet.

In the beginning, there was an all-powerful god Re. He made the other gods: Shu - the winds that blew; Tefnut - the rain that fell; Geb - the earth; and Nut - the sky goddess. And Re also made the god Hapi - the river Nile that flowed and made Egypt fertile. Then Re made all things on Earth and he also made man. Re ruled as Pharaoh for thousands of years and it was such a time of goodness and plenty that people spoke of it fondly for ever after.

But it came to pass that Re grew old and men no longer feared or obeyed him. So Re became angry, and summoned all the other gods to him. They advised him, "Send destruction upon men and turn your Eye against them."

So Re sent his Eye against them, in the form of his daughter Sekhmet, the fiercest and most terrible of all goddesses. Like a lion rushing upon its prey, she fell upon the people of Upper and Lower Egypt and slew all those who had disobeyed her father, Re. She killed everyone she saw and rejoiced in the slaughter, delighting in the taste of blood.

The Nile itself ran red with the blood of man, and eventually Re felt sorry for the people, but even he couldn't stop Sekhmet's blood-thirsty rampage, she was so carried away with cruelty.

Re realised he would have to trick Sekhmet into stopping, so he ordered messengers to take red ochre form the isle of Elephantine, and then bring it to him in the town of Heliopolis, where the women had been brew all day long at Re's command. The red ochre was mixed with the 7 thousand jars of beer and then poured out over the land where Sekhmet was planning her next slaughter.

When the sun rose the next day, Sekhmet saw the ground all flooded with the red beer and, thinking that it was the blood of those she had killed, she laughed with joy and drank deeply of it. She drank so much that the strength of the beer made her powerless. She could no longer slay, but instead slept the day away and then staggered back to her father.

Re said, "You come in peace, sweet one," and from that moment onwards she became the goddess Hathor, as sweet and strong as love itself. Each new year afterwards, the priestesses of Hathor drank the beer of Heliopolis coloured with red ochre from Elephantine to celebrate her festival.

Re continued to rule, but he was growing old and losing his wisdom. None of the other gods could take his wisdom as they didn't know his secret name of power. But then Geb and Nut had children, and the younger gods and goddesses were born: Osiris, Seth, Isis and Nephthys. Isis was the wisest of these four, and she managed to trick Re into telling her the secret name of his power.

From that time on, Re was pharaoh no longer, but took his place in the heavens, travelling across the sky each day, and crossing the Underworld each night in the Boat of Re, taking with him the souls of the dead.

Re is also known as Ra.

Seth is pronounced Set.

Sekhmet is pronounced Sec-Met.

Nephthys is pronounced Nep-thes