I’ve been a polytheist for 10+ years now, and quite a devoted Gaulish polytheist for the last 5 of those. I’ve recently become very interested in Egyptian polytheism as I have followed the path of the Galatians into Egypt.
What books and articles would you all recommend for someone new to Egyptian polytheism, but not polytheism in general? I’ve read the kemet.org site and a lot of the posts here, but I would love some more indepth thing, like academic books. I looked at the recommended readings but it does appear it hasn’t been updated in a while (which I get), so I was wondering if there was any recent books that people found really good, before I start reading the older ones.
Also very excited to join the beginners class, though I know I may have missed the cutoff for the next one.
I highly recommend Erik Hornung’s “The One and the Many: The Concept of God in Ancient Egypt” and Jan Assmann’s “Solar Religion in the New Kingdom”. They are both academics who devoted their lives to Ancient Egyptian religion. Hornung’s is probably a little more accessible.
nice to meet you!
I think Hornung’s “The one and the Many” is still an excellent classic text, especially his comprehension of the Egyptian creation myth has given me a lot of insight.
,I would recommend getting a feel for the originals. There are some great online resources nowadays, with publications of some important ancient Egyptian texts. The Myth of the Destruction of Mankind, the Contendings of Horus and Seth, the Atum-Creation myth from the Pyramid texts and the Cairene “Hymn to Amun” - Those are texts I recommend you read in translation, not just some sort of free re-telling. This will give you a lot of insight on how the ancient Egyptian conceptualized their deities.
Here’s for a start: Vallée des rois = KV17 Site is French, but an English translation f the main text is included)
i have the other texts offline or in German only, but i am pretty sure they are online somewhere, I will post links as I find them.