In the ancient world, society was driven by religious ideals and ways of thinking, just as it often still is today. Though many religions bear the similarities of following gods or a god and worshiping them, they often hold many differences as well. By taking a look into Egyptian, Hebrew, and Greek religions, the same thought stands where, though they may have a few similarities, they also hold remarkable differences.
The Egyptian religion follows many gods; therefore, it is a polytheistic faith. In this religion, it is customary to pray to a god that symbolizes what it is one wants. If someone wanted their crops to prosper, they would likely pray to a river or land deity. As one jumps further into this religion, they see the importance of prayer and confession. "The Egyptian Negative Confession," is a list of good things that a man has done, which he admits to the goddesses of truth after he dies, which shows the importance of faith to the Egyptians, even after death. In this culture, it was also believed that the god Osiris brought civilization to Egypt, showing that the people believed they were brought for a reason by
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Their religion is also polytheistic, and they pray and give sacrifices to the gods of what they need. If they wanted wisdom, they might pray and make sacrifices to the goddess Athena, or if they wanted glory in war, they might pray and make sacrifices to the god of war, Ares. Just as it is in Egyptian culture, religion was central to everyday life in Greek culture, and many of the people in Greece believed that their gods created the world and ruled over things such as the sky, the underworld, and the sea. In Virgil's The Aeneid, which is Roman, gods are mentioned and believed to be behind every event that happens. Characters in this story are driven by fate and their wish to obey what the gods want. Religion in this culture is central to everything and drives
Ancient China and ancient Egypt were both two sophisticated civilizations that created a religion as a way to explain the natural phenomena they encountered and the unknown. Although different in many ways, their religions do share many similarities with each other. One of these similarities is that both of the religions are polytheistic. In both Chinese and Egyptian religion, there are many different gods, and each god rules in their own domain. However, not only do both religions have more than one god in them, but also many of the gods from both religions are very similar to each other in the sense that they rule over the exact same thing. For example in ancient Chinese religion there is a sky god, just like the sky god in ancient Egyptian religion. Another similarity that both religions have in common with each other is that each religion has it’s own “high god” that rules above all of the other gods. For the Chinese it is Shang-Ti, the supreme god who rules above
The Greeks had their own principle divinities, these were twelve major gods called, “The Olympians.” The Olympians includes, Zeus: god of gods, the sky, men and weather; Poseidon: the god of the sea, horses and earthquakes; Hades: the god of the underworld, death and precious stones; Aphrodite: the goddess of love and sexual encounters; Ares: the god of war and believed to be the god of discord, wreaking chaos among people; Hermes: the god of messengers, thieves, vagabonds, science and invention; Hephaestus: the god of fire, metal workers and inventors; Athena: the goddess of wisdom, weaving and war strategy; Hera: the goddess of women, marriage, heaven and believed to be the goddess of harvest; Apollo: the twin god of light, sun, poetry and music; Artemis: the twin of Apollo and she is the goddess of the hunt, the moon and virgin maidens; Hestia: the goddess of hearth and welfare; Demeter: the goddess of farming, harvest and farmers. The Greeks believed that the Olympians ruled over nature under their own individual domain. They felt weak and pathetic to the forces of nature without
Ptah was also a creator god who built the boats that carried the souls of the dead into the Underworld. Osiris was the ruler of the Underworld and husband to Isis, the goddess of fertility and the ideal wife. Isis’ song, Horus, was the god of the sky and depicted with a hawk-like head often portrayed with a double crown. These deities were worshipped daily by the Egyptians in temples built by the ruling pharaoh and his priests. The pharaoh was viewed as the intermediary between the deities and his people. Through his kingship and divine power, he was expected to maintain universal peace and order. Egyptians also underwent extensive and excessive processes to preserve their souls after death through tombs, mummification, and offerings to the gods for preservation of the deceased bodies (“Ancient Egyptian Religion”). The concept of life after death is rooted in ancient Egyptian religion where funerary processes and burial rituals were fundamental and crucial to an afterlife.
Greek vs. Egyptian Religion There aren’t many similarities of Greek and Egyptian religions but there are a few. They are both a polytheistic religion, which means that they believe in more than one deity. The gods they worshipped were to believe to have a specific kind of power or domain that they ruled over. They had ideas about how things came into being and how the earth and nature was formed. They built temples to honor their gods as well as a vision of an “after-life”, or life after death.
There are many similarities, but also a lot of differences comparing Egyptian and Greek mytholigy. A similariie is that they both are polytheistic, which means that people believen multiple gods. Another similarity is that both of these are based on myths, for example how RĀ nevr existed and neither did Odiyious, never happened and don't exist.
The ancient world was comprised of mysteries. There were no scientific explanations for the structure of the world, the existence of humans, or the meaning of life. To explain these dilemmas they turned to religion and mythology. However, as were often isolated geographically there was no universal answer to any of these questions, though many cultures many have derived similar solutions to certain questions, despite being separated by large physical distances, such as the Greeks and Egyptians. Although there are minor differences, Greek and Egyptian mythologies share many similarities.
The ancient Egyptian and ancient Greek civilizations are two of the oldest known civilizations in our history. The Egyptian civilization, based in the eastern part of North Africa, is believed to have started around 3150 BC and continued till the end of the Pharaoh rule in 31 BC. The ancient Greek civilization is believed to have been in effect from 1100 BC till about 146 BC. Many similarities and differences existed between these two civilizations, as even though they co-existed during a certain timeframe (1150 BC to 146 BC), they were located in different geographical areas. Because of these differences in geography, both these civilizations were subjected to different kinds of exposure, which included contact with other civilization and cultural inheritance. In the political sphere, we find that the Egyptian civilization had stronger emphasis on central authority, while the Greeks had a more decentralized structure, where powers were distributed over the cities and the states as well. As far as art is concerned, we find that the Egyptians were more involved in creating great monumental and gaudy structures, while the Greeks were more involved in creating smaller, more literary pieces of art.
The Idols of Egypt & The God of the Israelites Although the Egyptian gods and the God of Israel seem utterly different, similarities bleed through the surface as we investigate the history of both the Egyptians and the Israelites. No matter what century or civilization you are apart of you believe in something. The power of technology, a God or goddess, social media, a person, a celebrity, a statue of something or someone, there are countless of different idols or God(s) you can believe in.
The religions and beliefs of ancient cultures shaped the world we live in today. Many of these religions share common beliefs, but also strong disagreements. The Hebrew and Egyptian religion are both alike and different. For example, they both believe in an afterlife, and a creator figure, but unlike the Hebrew religion the Egyptians believe in many deities, and unlike the Egyptian religion the Hebrews believe that their god is perfect and all powerful.
The religion of Greece in early times was polytheistic. The religion was incorporated into every aspect of the culture including art, and literature. This was the religion that was practiced during the "Golden Age" of Greece. The gods of Hellenistic Greece existed in every form and fashion. There were gods for everything in life like government, sex, month of birth, trade, and human traits (i.e. wisdom, love, war, birth, rain, etc.)
Two of the oldest known civilizations in the history of mankind are the Egyptians and the Greeks. Located in the eastern section of North Africa, civilization of the Egyptians is hypothesized to have began around 3150 B.C. continuing through the end of the rule of the pharaoh in 31 B.C. Greece is located at the southeast end of Europe and is the southernmost country of the Balkan Peninsula. The ancient Greek civilization is considered to have began around 1100 B.C. and lasted until approximately 146 B.C. These two civilizations are thousands of miles apart, and they share a few similarities but have a notable amount of differences when comparing and contrasting their religious beliefs.
Ancient Egypt (3000 BCE – 30 BCE) and Ancient Greece (1200 BCE – 146 BCE) based their entire lives around their religious beliefs. These beliefs led to their religious practices which were included in every aspect of their lives. Since ancient Greece’s and ancient Egypt’s beliefs differ greatly, endless differences can be shown between their religious practices. However, between the two cultures, many surprising similarities can be seen in these religious practices despite the tremendous differences. Through learning about where their religious beliefs and practices started, the bigger picture of history in general can be learned. As well, the similarities between ancient Greece’s and ancient Egypt’s religious practices can be seen as not
Religion is one the most important aspects defining culture. There is no one dominant faith on the
The myths about the gods and goddesses not only told stories of the gods but taught moral lessons which were used to teach the Greeks. Religion also impacted the arts during this time period and help the advancement in many ways. In addition, religion influenced many famous writers such as Homer and his two most famous pieces, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Religion impacted morality, art and literature in Greek civilization.
Over the years of art history, there are many great empires that we think of and two of those were ancient Greek and Egyptian. When talking about Greek and Egyptian art history, it is the sculptures that come to mind when you are comparing and contrasting artworks. Egyptian art and Greek art both had mesmerizing sculptures but Egyptian art was more oriented towards religion and Greek art was more focused on philosophy. The Egyptian statue of the Menkaure and a Queen was similar to the Greek statue of Metropolitan Kouros in their posture but both of these statues also had many differences. Menkaure and a queen statue was created from an unusual stone and the statue was discovered in Menkaure’s valley temple. The sculpture has a hard texture and because of the time-consuming task of polishing this sculpture was never completely polished. So, the sculpture is greywacke and has traces of red paint on king’s face, ears and neck because male figures were traditionally painted red and there are traces of black in queen’s hair. The sculpture itself is 54 ½ inches in height and is displayed in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Metropolitan Kouros was created from marble which seems like it has a rough and hard texture. The statue is 6 feet in height and is displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.