The transmutation of the belief in the sun god during the Old Kingdom of Egypt
From the early dynasties to the Old Kingdom, the belief in the sun god in the Old Kingdom of Egypt also went through many stages, from the initial obscure period to mature development, in the process, the worship of the sun god and the formation of royal power produced some complex relationships.
The early dynasty was the germination of the sun god belief, and there were very few records of the sun god belief at this time, but when the pyramids were built in the later period, there were scattered records of the sun god belief in that period. In the Fourth Dynasty, the monarch successfully linked the sun god with the monarch and the afterlife for the symbol of the sun god on earth, and for the deceased monarch, it became an important part of the belief in the worship of the sun god.
By the time of the Fifth Dynasty, it was the heyday of the belief in the sun god, and when the bureaucracy and royal power were evolving, the belief in the sun god was also institutionalized, and the separate temple of the sun god built by the monarch and the monarch dedicated to the sun god were also separated.
In the Sixth Dynasty, the belief of Osiris appeared, and merged with the belief in the sun god, becoming the position of the monarch in the belief in the afterlife was replaced by Oserys, and finally the three elements of the sun god kingship and Osiris became the three elements of the afterlife belief, and also became the foundation of the later Egyptian theological system.
Sun god beliefs before the Old Kingdom
The oldest religious belief in Egypt dates back to the late Neolithic period, when nomadic tribes in the western desert of the Nile began to worship the sun god in the sixth millennium BC, and this discovery was also discovered by archaeologists, who found stone henges to record the position of the sun and stars in the Nabuta area, as well as cows buried intact in the land.
This discovery led archaeologists to believe that the sun god in this period believed in the cow, because they believed that the cow was a messenger sent by God to the world, a sign of observing humans, so they worshipped the cow as a god. The cow is the symbol of the goddess Hato, which refers to the companion of the sun god, and is very closely related to the sun god belief in the Old Kingdom, but from these it can be seen that the tombs of the stone henge and the ox have some relationship with the sun god belief in this area.
Mythical monarch, development of the belief in the sun god
After the period of the germination of the sun god, by the fourth dynasty, the ancient Egyptian state had a high degree of centralized development, which made the sun god and the royal power have a very close combination, and became the main core of the funeral god and the concept of the afterlife.
During this period, there was a name that frequently appeared in the name of the monarch, that is, "Ra God", and the name of the third successor monarch of the Fourth Dynasty, Jedev, was meant to mean "La God is its foundation", which shows that the sun god belief has been completely combined with royal power.
In addition to the monarch's name as the title of "La God", the sun god belief has also been very obvious in the form of funerary architecture, such as the first monarch of the Fourth Dynasty, Sneferu, who built three pyramids, completing the transformation of stepped pyramids to real pyramids, and the establishment of pyramids completely changed the direction of pyramid builders at that time.
At the beginning, the pyramid orientation is towards the sun, indicating the worship of the pyramid, the east rise and west setting of the sun indicates the trajectory of the sun, in the direction of the setting of the sun, it means death, and the dead king held funeral ceremonies in the Nile, and finally transported to the inside of the pyramid, so that the architectural form and religious ceremony were combined together, following the early rise and setting of the sun, not only the symbol of that period, but also the meaning of the symbol of the religious ceremony became the carrier of reality.
Construction of independent temples of the sun, institutionalization of royal power and belief in the sun god
During this period, the cult of the sun god by people and monarchs reached its peak in the Fifth Dynasty, and a cursive document from the Middle Kingdom records the prosperity of the Fifth Dynasty's belief in the sun god.
When it came to the fifth dynasty, the society at that time arose a practice of building a sun temple, which was not only to improve its own status at that time, but also to prepare for his own death later, the sun god belief in the fifth dynasty is the most important feature is the construction of the sun temple, in the edge of Abshir in the fifth dynasty of the sixth successor monarch, built a very magnificent sun temple, which was the first in history and the first in history.
And each temple of the sun has its own name, which also contains the name of the god Ra.
It is also very similar to the pyramid group, and the Sun Temple is also composed of three parts, which is also very influential with the construction of the Sun Temple behind, and also has a very large relationship with the new buildings behind.
The upper temple is the center of the entire complex for the temple of the sun, and there is an obelisk and an altar in the center, while the temple of the sun belongs to an open building, and the obelisk and altar can be directly bathed in the sun, which is in stark contrast to the dark and closed environment of the later temples of the pyramid.
From the above three aspects, it can be seen that the sun temple of Abhir and Abu Grabo is very close to the deceased monarch is very obvious, that is, the sun temple is essentially a funerary building, from the first architectural layout, it can be seen that the sun temple is a common structure with the pyramid construction method, all composed of the upper temple, the lower temple and the long Yong road.
And the lower temple of the sun temple of Utherkaf and the lower temple of the crooked pyramid of Snephru are very similar, these architectural forms and religious rituals can be expressed, the sun temple is a funerary building built for the dead monarch, are used to serve the dead monarch to become the sun god.
Finally, the system of independent beliefs directly led to the belief in the afterlife of Osiris becoming one of the mainstream beliefs accepted by everyone in the royal family. #历史开讲 #
