Product Description

A compact guide to the gods and symbols of ancient Egypt, their interpretation, their significance and their cults. It answers questions such as why the jackal represents Anubis, the embalmer god, and why the dung beetle represents the sun god Khepri.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #321560 in Books
• Published on: 1982-02-15
• Original language: German
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 142 pages

Customer Reviews

Authoritative account
Lurker's encyclopedia is sufficiently engaging to be read straight through, while also being a solid reference book. It provides an authoritative introduction to the complex panorama of religious myths, symbolism and ceremonial of Ancient Egypt. The accounts of the legendary significance, religious roles, and evolution of key figures such a Osiris, Isis, Ra and Ptah are lively and intriguing.

The book's introduction, while perhaps a little constrained by the anthropological ideology of the author, and his, to my mind, misreading of the significance of archetypes, nevertheless contains some useful insights into the nature of symbolism in the mind-set and linguistic registers of Ancient Egyptians.

The rather literal translation leads occasionally to some rather eccentric vocabulary and sentence structure, but for the most part this adds to the charm of this excellent introduction.