Free Don’t Know Much About® Mythology by Kenneth C. Davis Page A

was being formed in the first meetings on the Capitoline Hill. It was already old and blighted when the Germans and Celts of the north European forest were still hunting bears. When the First Dynasty came into power about five thousand years ago…marvelous cultural forms had already been evolved in the land of the Nile. And when the Twenty-sixth Dynasty died out, still five hundred years separated European history from our era. The Libyans ruled the land, then the Ethiopians, the Assyrians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans—all before the star shone over the stable at Bethlehem.
    —C. W. C ERAM , Gods,
Graves and Scholars (1951)
     
     

 
    How did myths “rule” in ancient Egypt?
    Why was Egypt the “gift of the Nile”?
     
    What do we know about Egyptian myth and how do we know it?
     
    Who was the first family of Egyptian myth?
     
    How does “creation by masturbation” work?
     
    Who was Re?
     
    Which god became Egypt’s lord of the dead?
     
    Who was Egypt’s most significant goddess?
     
    What did Christians think of Isis?
     
    What was the “weighing of the heart”?
     
    Who’s Who of Egyptian Myths
     
    Why are there so many animals—real and imaginary—in Egypt’s myths?
     
    What did the pyramids have to do with the gods?
     
    What’s so great about the “Great Pyramid”?
     
    What is an Egyptian pyramid doing on the U.S. dollar bill?
     
    Was the ruler of Egypt always a pharaoh?
     
    Did a pharaoh inspire Moses to worship one god?
     
    Does Egyptian myth matter?
     

 
    MYTHICAL MILESTONES
     
    Egypt
     
    All dates are BCE, Before the Common Era. Egyptian history covers thousands of years, and while the order of kings is reasonably well established, many precise dates are more problematic and are often approximated. Many of the dates in this chronology are drawn from The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt .
     
5000 to 4001 The Egyptian calendar is devised, regulated by sun and moon; 360 days; divided into twelve 30-day months.
4000 Sails are used.
3300 First walled towns are built.
3200 Earliest hieroglyphic script appears.
    Early Dynastic Period c. 3100–2686
     
3100 King Narmer/Menes (?) unites Upper and Lower Egypt.
Memphis is founded as the capital of unified Egypt.
Beginning of systematic astronomical observations in Egypt.
3050 Introduction of the 365-day calendar.
     
    Old Kingdom 2686–2160
2667–2648 Third Dynasty ruler Djoser rules with counselor (vizier) Imhotep, who makes the first known efforts to find medical as well as religious methods for treating diseases.
2650 Beginning of period of pyramid building; the first monumental building in stone is the Step Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara, initiated by Imhotep.
2575 Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops), largest of the Egyptian pyramids, is built at Giza.
2550 The Great Sphinx at Giza is carved under the reign of Khafra (Chephren).
2500 to 2001 Division of the day into twenty-four units. Cult of Isis and Osiris develops. First use of mummification.
2375–2300 In the pyramid of King Unas, the first known use of “Pyramid Texts” these are funerary texts inscribed on walls of pyramids; they are the oldest known religious writings in the world.
     
    First Intermediate Period 2160–2055
2150 Series of floods brings famine and discontent; collapse of the Old Kingdom.
     
    Middle Kingdom 2055–1650
c. 2055 Egypt is reunited under Middle Kingdom pharaohs.
1991 Book of the Dead is collected; it is known to Egyptians as “The Chapters of Coming Forth by Day.”
c. 1965 Nubia (modern Sudan) is conquered by Egypt.
c. 1800 Horse is introduced to Egypt.
1700–1500 Biblical patriarch Joseph in Egypt (?).
     
    Second Intermediate Period 1650–1550
c. 1660 Invasion of Semitic Hyksos from Palestine, Syria, and farther north. They are excellent archers, wear sandals, and use horse-drawn chariots to conquer the Nile Delta; eventually they rule much of Egypt.
    New Kingdom 1550–1069
1567 Expulsion of the Hyksos by Ahmose.
1550 Rise of the New