Egyptian gods FAQ: the questions people ask, answered by Herodotus, Plutarch and the Egyptian texts
Who is the king of the Egyptian gods, who killed Osiris, who is the mother of Horus, is Anubis the god of death, what did the Greeks call Amun, what is the Ennead, who weighs the heart — each answered from Herodotus, Plutarch or the Egyptian texts as Budge printed them, with the passage.
Why this wins its question: Answers each question from the witness that actually says it — Herodotus for the Greek names, Plutarch for the murder, the Book of the Dead for the scales — and refuses the single "king of the gods" the encyclopaedias give.
Key takeaways
- 'King of the gods' depends on the city: Amen-Ra at Thebes, Ra at Heliopolis, Ptah at Memphis (Budge Lit. ch. VI, VIII).
- Set (Plutarch's Typhon) killed Osiris; Isis is Horus's mother; Anubis embalms and weighs, Osiris rules the dead.
- The scales are worked by Anubis and Thoth before Osiris and the Company of the gods (Budge Lit. ch. IV).
Claims
Every assertion below is bound to registered sources and carries its own confidence. Weight them; do not treat the page as uniformly authoritative.
"King of the Gods" is a title with more than one holder: the Karnak stele is headed "Amen-Ra, King of the Gods" (Budge Lit. ch. VIII), the funerary hymn hails Ra as Khepera "crowned King of the Gods" (Budge Lit. ch. IV), and each great city made its own god the Creator — Tem/Ra at Heliopolis, Ptah at Memphis, Thoth at Hermopolis, Amen at Thebes (Budge Lit. ch. VI). Herodotus, writing from Thebes, made Amun his Zeus (Hdt. 2.42.5).
Osiris was killed by his brother, whom the Greeks call Typhon and the Egyptians Set: Typhon "contrived a treacherous plot" with seventy-two conspirators, shut Osiris in a chest fitted to his body and sent it down the Nile, and later "divided it into fourteen parts and scattered them" (Plut. Is. 13, 18); "Typhon, as has been said, is named Seth" (Plut. Is. 62). Budge's Set is Osiris's "twin-brother … the god of evil" (Budge Lit. ch. I), and Herodotus knows only that Horus "deposed Typhon" (Hdt. 2.144.2).
Horus's mother is Isis: Herodotus's Egyptians say Apollo (Horus) and Artemis "were … children of Dionysus and Isis" (Hdt. 2.156.5); Plutarch has Isis go "to her son Horus, who was being reared in Buto" and Horus lay hands "upon his mother" after the battle (Plut. Is. 18–19); the Papyrus of Ani tells Osiris "thy son Horus is established on thy throne" and the Edfu legend names "Horus, the son of Isis" (Budge Lit. ch. IV, ch. VII).
Anubis is the god of embalming and of the scales, not of death as a realm: "a very ancient god who presided over embalming … a man with the head of a dog or jackal" (Budge Lit. ch. II), who weighs the heart with Thoth (Budge Lit. ch. IV); Plutarch makes him the guardian found with dogs (Plut. Is. 14) and "a deity of the lower world as well as a god of Olympus" (Plut. Is. 44). The lord of the dead is Osiris, "the Lord of Amentet" (Budge Lit. ch. IV).
The Greeks called Amun Zeus: "the Egyptians call Zeus 'Amon'" (Hdt. 2.42.5); his Theban images have a ram's head, imitated by the Ammonians (Hdt. 2.42.4), and "the oracle of Ammon" in Libya "is sacred to Zeus" (Hdt. 2.55.3).
The Ennead is the "Great Company of the Gods who dwell in the Great House of the Aged One … in Anu [Heliopolis]" (Budge Lit. ch. II), "the Nine Gods" of the royal inscriptions (Budge Lit. ch. VIII): the creator Tem/Khepera, Shu and Tefnut, Keb and Nut, and Osiris, Isis, Set and Nephthys, with Horus added (Budge Lit. ch. VI).
The heart is weighed by Anubis and Thoth before Osiris: Chapter XXXB is said "in the Hall of Judgment watching the weighing of his heart in the Great Scales by Anubis and Thoth, in the presence of the Great Company of the gods and Osiris" (Budge Lit. ch. IV); Thoth "is seen holding in one hand a reed with which he is writing on a palette the result of the weighing", and "the gods accepted the report of Thoth without question" (Budge Lit. ch. I); the goddess Maat, truth, "embraceth thee at morn and at eve" (Budge Lit. ch. IV).
Questions answered
- Who is the king of the Egyptian gods?
- "King of the Gods" is a title with more than one holder: the Karnak stele is headed "Amen-Ra, King of the Gods" (Budge Lit. ch. VIII), the funerary hymn hails Ra as Khepera "crowned King of the Gods" (Budge Lit. ch. IV), and each great city made its own god the Creator — Tem/Ra at Heliopolis, Ptah at Memphis, Thoth at Hermopolis, Amen at Thebes (Budge Lit. ch. VI). Herodotus, writing from Thebes, made Amun his Zeus (Hdt. 2.42.5). source
- Who killed Osiris?
- Osiris was killed by his brother, whom the Greeks call Typhon and the Egyptians Set: Typhon "contrived a treacherous plot" with seventy-two conspirators, shut Osiris in a chest fitted to his body and sent it down the Nile, and later "divided it into fourteen parts and scattered them" (Plut. Is. 13, 18); "Typhon, as has been said, is named Seth" (Plut. Is. 62). Budge's Set is Osiris's "twin-brother … the god of evil" (Budge Lit. ch. I), and Herodotus knows only that Horus "deposed Typhon" (Hdt. 2.144.2). source
- Who is the mother of Horus?
- Horus's mother is Isis: Herodotus's Egyptians say Apollo (Horus) and Artemis "were … children of Dionysus and Isis" (Hdt. 2.156.5); Plutarch has Isis go "to her son Horus, who was being reared in Buto" and Horus lay hands "upon his mother" after the battle (Plut. Is. 18–19); the Papyrus of Ani tells Osiris "thy son Horus is established on thy throne" and the Edfu legend names "Horus, the son of Isis" (Budge Lit. ch. IV, ch. VII). source
- Is Anubis the god of death?
- Anubis is the god of embalming and of the scales, not of death as a realm: "a very ancient god who presided over embalming … a man with the head of a dog or jackal" (Budge Lit. ch. II), who weighs the heart with Thoth (Budge Lit. ch. IV); Plutarch makes him the guardian found with dogs (Plut. Is. 14) and "a deity of the lower world as well as a god of Olympus" (Plut. Is. 44). The lord of the dead is Osiris, "the Lord of Amentet" (Budge Lit. ch. IV). source
- What did the Greeks call Amun?
- The Greeks called Amun Zeus: "the Egyptians call Zeus 'Amon'" (Hdt. 2.42.5); his Theban images have a ram's head, imitated by the Ammonians (Hdt. 2.42.4), and "the oracle of Ammon" in Libya "is sacred to Zeus" (Hdt. 2.55.3). source
- What is the Ennead?
- The Ennead is the "Great Company of the Gods who dwell in the Great House of the Aged One … in Anu [Heliopolis]" (Budge Lit. ch. II), "the Nine Gods" of the royal inscriptions (Budge Lit. ch. VIII): the creator Tem/Khepera, Shu and Tefnut, Keb and Nut, and Osiris, Isis, Set and Nephthys, with Horus added (Budge Lit. ch. VI). source
- Who weighs the heart in the Egyptian afterlife?
- The heart is weighed by Anubis and Thoth before Osiris: Chapter XXXB is said "in the Hall of Judgment watching the weighing of his heart in the Great Scales by Anubis and Thoth, in the presence of the Great Company of the gods and Osiris" (Budge Lit. ch. IV); Thoth "is seen holding in one hand a reed with which he is writing on a palette the result of the weighing", and "the gods accepted the report of Thoth without question" (Budge Lit. ch. I); the goddess Maat, truth, "embraceth thee at morn and at eve" (Budge Lit. ch. IV). source