The spirit of religiosity has prevailed over the ancient Egyptians since the beginnings of the existence of the Egyptian man on the good land of Egypt, and the animals of all kinds shared with him his spacious environment full of all beings, and he did not have the ability to control them, and the ancient Egyptians realized with time that these animals have a great capacity greater than his own. The same, did the pharaohs sanctify the animals?
Dr. Hussein Abdel-Basir, Director of the Museum of Antiquities of the Library of Alexandria, said that the pharaohs extended reverence, love and reverence for these animals for fear of them due to their ability and power greater than his ability and strength, so he tended to reverence them to prevent their oppression and calm them and ward off their evil and a desire to protect them and their strength from beings and phenomena The other surrounding him, which exceeds his limited capacity.
And Dr. Hussein Abdel-Basir continued, and we cannot forget the Egyptian man’s admiration for the power of the supernatural animals that he was missing, and these animals were distinguished by their ability to supply the ancient Egyptian with a great deal of good things such as milk and meat that he used to feed on, and skins that protected him from the harsh cold of winter. So, between the ancient Egyptians and those animals, an unlimited kind of unspoken intimacy was created, and he bestowed upon them great holiness, attention and reverence, given the abundant generosity, love and sacrifice offered to him, such as the bird Ipis, or "Abu Erdan", the sacred symbol of the god Jahouti, the Lord of wisdom in ancient Egypt. .
Dr. Hussein Abdel-Basir explained, undoubtedly, that the issue of animal reverence in ancient Egypt is one of the most controversial matters and is still a matter of wonder and astonishment among some, ancient and modern, and the most prominent of them was the father of history or the father of lies, the most famous Greek historian Herodotus, and some scholars believed that the ancient Egyptians worshiped Animals and made them particular gods with special symbols, and some of them vehemently rejected this view.
The director of the Alexandria Museum of Antiquities noted that the reverence of animals was known in Egypt since ancient times, and it disappeared with time, but sanctification became a kind of respect and as a tradition inherited from ancient times to historical times, but the most important reason for respecting and revering animals in ancient Egypt and the motivation behind worshiping it is due, most Thinking that the ancient Egyptians sanctified the sublime spirit that lies in the animal, not the animal itself, and did not sanctify all kinds of animals, as happens in India with regard to reverence for all kinds of cows, but the choice was made on a specific type of animals, and not all animals were sanctified by Crocodiles, cows, rams, hawks, etc., but the selection of the specific animal was made by a group of scholars in "Bar Ankh" or "House of Life", the place of knowledge and scholars present in temples in ancient Egypt, and when the required conditions are met precisely in that animal, then the announcement is made On the choice of that sacred animal, and great celebrations are held in the temple of the god, and when this sacred animal dies, it is mummified and buried in a great procession.
Dr. Hussein Abdel-Basir confirmed that the animal was a mediator between the ancient Egyptian man and the god that was symbolized by that type of animal, and the power of the deity was manifested in this animal symbol, and the matter turned into a kind of holiness that revered the spirit of the animal, not the animal itself, and it was the spirit of The deity is manifested in that animal or this bird or in any of the reptiles, and in this it illustrates the lifting of God and his detachment from the material state and his disappearance from view, and the walk of God and his elevation to a higher level of transcendence and the exclusion of tangible materials to the heavenly and immaterial world where the supremacy of the self to the kingdom of descent As for all earthly attributes, this respect came from the reverence of the spirit of the deity present in the animal, not in the spirit of the animal, and the domestic animals received a great deal of sympathy and care of the ancient Egyptians in the vicinity of the Egyptian family, as they represent good spirits in the vicinity of the family home.
Wed, Feb. 3, 2021
