Title The Egyptian Myths: A Guide to the Ancient Gods and Legends Series --- Author Garry J. Shaw Cover Art --- Publisher Thames and Hudson - 2015 First Printing 2014 Category Mythology Warnings Rape and other explicit sexual references Main Characters Re, Isis, Osiris, Horus, Seth, Thoth, etc Main Elements Gods, demons

How did the ancient Egyptians imagine the creation of the world? How did they explain the sun's movement and its disappeance at night? In what way did mythology permeate their lives? And what did they believe happened in the aferlife?

This handy guide to Egyptian mythology explores how the ancient Nile-dwellers explained the world around them. It delves into the creation and evolution of the world and the reigns of the gods on earth, before introducing us to the manifestations of Egypt's deities in the natural environment; the inventive ways in which the Egyptians dealt with the invisible forces all around them; and their beliefs about life after death.

Through his engaging and enjoyable narrative, Garry J. Shaw guides us through the mythic adventures of such famous deities as Osiris, the god murdered by his jealous brother Seth; the magical and sometimes devious Isis, who plotted to gain the power of the sun god Re; and Horus, who defeated his uncle Seth to become king of Egypt. He also introduces us to lesser known myths, such as the rebellions against Re; Geb's quest for Re's magical wig; and the flaying of the unfortunate god Nemty. From stars and heavenly bodies sailing on boats, ghosts and demons - beings that could be aggressive, helpful, wise or dangerous - Shaw goes on to explain how the Egyptians encountered the mythological in their everyday lives.

Much more than a straightforward retelling of the myths, this accessible yet authoritatize guide sheds new light on an ancient way of understanding the world.

This year I have delved into Greek/Roman, Christian/Judaic, and Norse mythology. It was time to tackle ancient Egypt. I was looking forward to this one because I didn't really know any "stories" about the Egyptian gods, I knew many of their names, their powers, the appearance but other than the death, dismemberment and reconstruction of Orisis, I couldn't think of much else.

Turns out there is a reason for this, the stories are fragmented, confusing and short. For example, Thoth is an ibis-headed man, except when he's a baboon, or a lion, or various other creatures. Re is the sun god, except when it is Amun or sometimes Horus. I must admit I found the information a bit overwhelming and hard to keep straight, so I basically didn't bother trying to memorize anything like I had when reading the other mythologies.

To be fair, the Egyptian civilization spanned about 3000 years, at one point conquered by the Greeks, then by the Romans. While the Egyptians were prolific in their writing (unlike the Norse where it was mainly a oral tradition), what we have now are fragments written on the walls of tombs. Each city also worshipped in different ways, picking different, I guess you could call them patron, gods for their region, often variations on the same god. So the tales varied, got muddled, and changed over time.

Thus I appreciate the challenge the author had in putting this together into something vaguely coherent. And I also appreciated his occassionally snarky comments that livened up what was otherwise a less than engrossing book, comments like "...wise god Thoth (whose technical lack of existence in creation at this point we'll quietly ignore for the moment)" or "Seth, perhaps unwilling to spend the eternity as support for a corpse's buttocks, fled into the desert...". I particularly enjoyed his guidebook to the afterlife, somewhat of a cross between The Hitchhicker's Guide to the Galaxy and a video game walkthrough.

And the myths themselves. I'd always thought of the Egyptian gods as being sort of personalityless, very likely due to the lack of stories about them. But they were as violent and unstable as any of the Greek or Norse gods, just as capable of screwing up badly and having some very human faults. One big difference though is how they interacted with us, they didn't tend to consort with humans, nor created offspring with us. In fact they didn't really tend to manifest physically, though their essence could possess people or objects. I now have much more respect for Rick Riordan's Kane Chronicles, he really got it right by going with magicians instead of demi-gods, since the Egyptians gods were a very different kind of divine being.

Oh, and a warning, they were obsessed with the penis, constantly cutting it off each other, or using giant phalluses as masts of ships or to bar doorways. And the gods could be brutal, while the Greek gods raped their fair share, the Egytian myths are something darker and crueler. Such as when Isis turns into a dog to escape Seth, she's not just any dog, she has a blade on her tail. Their demons and monsters seem scarier too.

So I can't say this was exactly the most enlightening nor entertaining mythology read I've had this year, and while it came with illustrations and photos, they were pretty hard to see, the photos too small and blurry to make out the detail. But in the end I enjoyed it well enough, having been exposed to the best modern archeologists have been able to figure out about the nature of this ancient religion, and while I may not remember most of the "stories" I will remember the, I guess you could it the world-building or magic system as to how this mythology functioned, and will be able to compare that with modern retellings.