Deity – The Archaeology of Ancient Magic & Ritual Practice

Anubis, bronze with gilt, gold inlay, ca. 747-525 BCE, Egypt, Karnak, Temple of Amun 20.8 x 14.4 x 5.3 cm. The Walteres Art Museum, 54.400. CC0 1.0

A Worshipper Kneeling Before the Egyptian God Anubis

Date: ca. 747-525 BCE Findspot: Egypt, Karnak, Temple of Amun (Karnak Cachette) Location: The Walters Art Museum, 54.400 A bronze statuette of the anthropomorphic god…

Scene from a Magical Papyrus, 664-525 B.C.E. Papyrus, ink. Dimensions: 4 15/16 × 92 11/16 in. (12.5 × 235.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, 47.218.156a-d. Bequest of Theodora Wilbour from the collection of her father, Charles Edwin Wilbour. Photo: Brooklyn Museum.

Bes-Pantheos as Polymorphic Deity and Atum as Serpent Deity

This ancient Egyptian magical papyrus contains spells against snakes and scorpions for the protection of women and children at night. Seen here are Bes-Pantheos as…

Fate has a Daughter

In this ancient Egyptian spell against poison we learn that the Egyptian god of fate, who is called Schay, has a daughter named Sarbytha. The…

From the Coptic-Gnostic Book “Pistis Sophia”, chapter 147:

Bainchôôôch in the Coptic-Gnostic Book “Pistis Sophia”

In Gnostic belief Bainchôôôch was a triple-powered deity, not a “vox magica” and not an epithet of a higher power. “Jesus said: If the time…

The So-called Pantheos – On Polymorphic Deities In Late Egyptian Religion

Overview Author: Joachim Friedrich Quack Publication Date: 2006 Published in: Györi, H. (Hrsg.): Aegyptus et Pannonia III. Acta Symposii Anno 2004. Budapest 2006, S. 175-190…

Solid cast bronze figure of the ancient Egyptian crocodile god Sobek, Ptolemaic?, Egypt. British Museum, London, EA37450 © The Trustees of the British Museum

The Crocodile God Sobek

The crocodile was particularly feared because not only did it kill, it ate the body of its victim without which there could be no afterlife.…

Pantheistic Bes, ca. 250-100 BCE, Egypt. Walteres Art Museum, 54.540. Creative Commons License

A Pantheistic Bes Statuette

This bronze statuette shows a composite deity who has the attributes of various different gods: the face of the god Bes, the twin plumes and…

The ancient Egyptian Goddess Repit

Relief of the ancient Egyptian goddess Repit. Repit (also Repyt) is commonly depicted as a lion-headed goddess with the sun-disc on her head guarded by…

From Isis and Horus in the Delta to Mary and Jesus in Ireland

Overview Author: Lloyd Graham Publication Date: 2022 Publication in: Göttinger Miszellen, vol. 265, 2022, pp. 77-105. Paper, 29 pages Available for free at Humanities Commons…

Knucklebone depicting the deities Baubo, Eros, and Kronos (or Ganymedes), gabbro, late Ptolemaic to the 1st century AD, Egypt. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, O.C.428

Erotic knucklebone dice for the search for love, sex and fertility?

This rare knucklebone made of gabbro depicts figures of the deities Baubo, Eros, and Kronos (or Ganymedes) in association with Harpocrates. It is interpreted as…