duminică, 16 decembrie 2007
The Egyptian word for "God" is "ntr" ,a word of an unknown origin. Some researchers associated the word "ntr" with the one used for "soda" (or "Sodium")because soda was used as soap and the notion of "God" is similar with "The Clean One". This explanation was abandoned ,however.
Other researchers tried to translate the word as "ax" because "ax" is a symbol of power.
The meaning of the hieroglyphic sign "ntr" is, more likely, a pole with a kerchief or a flag in its top. This way, "ntr" would represent a holy place and thus God would be nominated as holy, or The Holy One.
Because the Egyptian word "ntr" cannot fully express what the meaning of "God" is today, the researchers tried to use synonyms instead. The conclusion was that the Egyptian notion of "God" has a common meaning with "force" or "power".
Ancient Egypt Gods were mortals, just like humans. They were born and for this reason we could say that they were not immortals or eternals in an absolute way.
Ancient Egypt Gods were part of a complex of living beings where the force of life was moving from one being to the other. For the ancient Egyptians any individuality was part of a community and had it.
At some point, a God could merge with another God and become one individuality.