Egyptian mythology
The Egyptian Mythology has been one of the biggest and most influential in the world. The daily lives of everyone from every class revolved around their believes and gods. Gods and other believes were often different per region, with the biggest difference between lower and upper Egypt. After Egypt became one country, these believes were often mixed or partially forgotten in favor of a religion for all.
When the Greek influence came to Egypt in the Hellenistic period, this often infuenced the Egyptian mythology. A perfect example of this is the god Hermes Trismegistus, being a mix of a Greek and Egyptian god. This is most notable during the Ptolemaic Kingdom, with notable members Ptolemy XIII and his older sister Cleopatra VII.[1][2]
Pharaohs
Pharaohs were deemed gods on earth. As a ruler of the Egyptian kingdom they were often praised and worshipped as the gods they are. Pharaohs had a busy live, with many different tasks laid out for them. Just like all other classes their daily live revolved around their religion. As gods they would often get offerings and when they died, huge pyramids were created to preserve their Ren, and smooth the transition of their Ba to the afterlife. Sometimes these tombs also contained a shadow box to preserve their Sheut.
These pyramids were often robbed by unbelievers who were in it for the money, as pyramids often contained vast treasures of gold and other valuables. To ensure grave robbers could not get to the actual body of the pharaoh, pyramids were build as mazes, with many hallways ending into empty rooms.
As Pharaohs were deemed gods they also got responsibilities that were realisticly out of their hands, including the job to make sure the Nile floods to irrigate the nearby farmlands.
Flooding of the Nile
Pharaohs were responsible for the Nile flooding and giving the lands and crops water, as they are gods on earth. Unfortunately they didn't have that kind of power as the flooding of the Nile relied on the seasons and the number of droughts. As such, Pharaohs came up with the idea that people had to make sacrafices for the Pharaoh to inspire him to flood the Nile. When Egypt saw more periods of drought than normal, and the Nile wouldn't flood, it was then to blame to the people themselves not scacrificing enough, instead of the Pharaoh not doing his duty.[2]
5 Parts of the soul
A human soul was believed to exist in five parts: the Ren, the Ba, the Ka, the Sheut, and the Ib.
Ib
The most important part was the Ib, or the heart. It was believed that the heart was created from a single drop of blood from the mother around conception. As Bayek often references, the heart is eventually weighted by Anubis against the weight of a feather of the goddess Ma'at at the so called Weighing of the Heart. Ma'at, being the personificiation of truth and justice is always depicted with this same feather, an ostrich feather.
Ba
The Ba of a human soul is the aspect of a person who would live on when a person died. the Ba is the part which makes a person, himself/herself, the personality. The Ba went on to the afterlife (Duat) where a person could live on on their 'lives' peacefully.[3]
Ka
The Ka is the part which makes a human body alive. When the Ka leaves the body of a human, the person dies. Humans were given the Ka at birth from a god, Heqet or Meskhenet, depending on the region. To keep a Ka alive people had to eat and drink.
Sheut
The Sheut was a person's shadow. As a shadow is always there, Egyptians believed that the shadow represents a part of the human soul.
Ren
The Ren was a part of the human soul that was bound to the name of a person. It contained the memories and experiences of someone. As long as the person's name was named or spoken, the Ren would live on. As such, throughout Ancient Egypt names of important people were often carved in stone or memorized in another way, supporting their Ren. Names of the enemies of the state were often removed from such stone buildings to ensure their Ren would not live, as happened with Akhenaten.
Afterlife
Gods
Amun
Amun was a very old deity, and the patron deity of the city of Thebes. Amun was the champion of poor and troubled. Amun was also considered the King of Gods. The Temple of Amun could be found in Siwa, Bayek's home region.
Eventually Amun was merged with Ra and got the name Amun-Ra.
Anubis
Anubis is considered the god of mummification and the afterlife. He is usually depicted as a human with the head of a jackal.
Anubis is the god of the afterlife and guides the Ba's of humans to their rightful location, reuniting people with their long deceased friends and families.
When Osiris was killed by Seth his body was embalmed by Anubis, thus leading to Anubis becoming the god of mummification.
Apep
Apep was the deity of chaos, and was often depicted as a giant snake, a monster that would eat the Ib of people. Thus he was the opponent of Ma'at, who embodied truth, justice and order.
During the 1st Century BCE, Bayek encountered Apep during a hallucination and battled and defeated him on Ra's solar barge.
Apis
Apis was a sacred bull worshipped as a god. During the Ptolemaic Kingdom Apis was depicted as an aspect creator god Ptah. Most bulls lived in the Temple of Ptah in Memphis where it served as an oracle to people.
It was believed that when Apis died, he reincarnated into another bull. Upon death the body of the bull was buried in a tomb and priests would search for Apis' reincarnation until it had been found. If the bull would have the correct markings on the back it would indicate Apis would be in that body.
In the 1st Century BCE Hetepi tried to poison the Apis bull by forcing two sisters, Taous and Tawe, to feed the bull poisonous fruits. Bayek and Aya eventually found out what caused the problems and the bull soon recovered.[4]
Aten
Aten was the disk of the sun and originally an aspect of the sun god Ra. When pharaoh Amenhotep IV reigned Egypt he found an old relic, and believed it was Aten himself. He soon changed his name to Akhenaten and ordered people to worship the god Aten, and solely him.
After Akhenaten died his name was stripped from most locations and the Egyptian people tried to erase him from history. During the 1st Century BCE most people alredy Bayek encountered some villages near Thebes that still worshipped Aten as their deity, mainly because of the current situation with the curse.
Baba
Baba, also known as Babi, was a deity and the detification of the hamadryas baboon and was considered as a god of the Duat. Baba was considered very bloodthirsty, mainly because baboons are omnivorous.
He was the god who would eat the souls that were weighted against the feather of Ma'at and who were deemed too heavy. In regions where Baba was worshipped, he was considered the first-born son of Osiris.
One of the urns were organs were put in during the mummification process had the depiction of the god Baba.[2]
Bastet
The goddess Bastet was most often revered by the citizens of Lower Egypt as the goddess of war. She was mostly depected as a cat. In Upper Egypt this was usually Sekhmet who was depicted as a lion. After the unification of Egypt she also became the protector of cats.
When Bayek is in Aten he mentions that Aya often used a statue of Bastet.[5]
Hermes Trismegistus
Hermes Trismegistus was a Greco-Egyptian god and a combination of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth.
During the 1st Century BCE, in the Ptolemic Kingdom, Hermes Trismegistus was worshipped by both Greek and Egyptian citizens. The citizens of Hermopolis had even replaced the statue of Thoth in the Temple of Thoth with a statue of Hermes Trismegistus, which inspired the wrath of some Egyptian citizens who went on a murdered the local priest.[1]
Horus
Horus was the Egyptian protector god of Nekhen in Upper Egypt. He was the son of Osiris and Isis and was often depicted as man with the head of a falcon.
After Osiris was betrayed by Seth he was killed and his body parts were scattered. Isis, his sister, managed to revive Osiris for one night and they made love, thus Horus was born.[2][6]
An insignia of Horus was often used by the Medjay of Egypt and was later the blueprint for the Hidden Ones logo.
Imhotep
Imhotep was an Egyptian chancellor to the pharaoh Djoser of the third Dynasty of Egypt and the high priest of Ra at Heliopolis. He also designed the Pyramid of Djoser.
Around 2000 years after he died, he was deified by Egyptians and worshipped as a god of medicine and healing.
Isis
Ma'at
Ma'at was a goddess of justice, truth and order. The opposite, chaos, was depicted by Apep. Ma'at was often depicted with an ostrich feather on her head, representing truth.
As Bayek often told his son Khemu, when someone dies their Ib (heart) is weighted against the weight of of the ostrich feather of Ma'at. Only if the Ib was equal in weight or lighter than the feather, somone's Ba would go to Aaru.