Myths of Ancient Egypt

Have you ever wondered what secrets might be hidden in Egyptian myth? Was there any truth to these ancient beliefs? Egyptian mythology contains many important symbols and concepts that would be picked up by other cultures, including the Bible. In this course we attempt a general overview of Egyptian mythology with an eye to our wider series on comparative mythology.  This course follows Lecture series 1, 2, and 3 which looked at the beliefs of the South African san bushmen, shamanism, and the role played by altered states of consciousness in the formation of religious beliefs. Here we cover Egyptian mythology in detail as a precursor to our Lecture 5 series on the Pyramid Texts. The concepts and ideas found here are integral to understand religion and mythology in a broader context. We see the introduction the Jungian notion of the Self in the form of Osiris and Ra. Later, in Lecture 5, we see this concept fully developed in mythological terms.

Ultimately the goal with this course is to gain a familiarity with the language, symbols, and major concepts of Egyptian myth to prepare us for studying, in detail, the writings of the Pyramid Texts in the next lecture series.