Our chairman Andrew Ward took a broad-brush approach to a very complex and extensive subject. After a short introduction, looking at the origins of worship in the natural world, Andy decided to focus on the creation myths in order to bring some structure to the subject. There were four main centres of theological thinking:
1)The Heliopolitan gods: the Great Ennead of nine gods centred at Heliopolis with its emphasis on Atum.
2)The Hermopolitan gods: the Ogdoad of eight gods centred on Hermopolis which included the “hidden, unknowable” god, Atum, who would become so central in the Theban theology.
3)The Memphite theology: with its emphasis on Ptah the craftsman-creator god centred on Memphis
4) The Theban theology centred at Karnak in Thebes: focused on the family of gods of the Ennead but with the increasing dominance of Amun and later the syncretic god Amun-Ra. The myths surrounding this theology are very interesting but not for the delicate minded!
A brief look at the role of Khnum in the creation of all living things completed this part of the talk.
The place of Ra, the sun god, was discussed and the Armana Heresy with the focus on the sun disc, the Aten, was also covered.
A review of the roles of some of the other divine players, such as Hathor, Bastet, Sekhmet, Thoth, Mnevis, Hapi and Mut wrapped up the review and whetted the appetite to find out more.
It was a very well thought out presentation for the broad minded, told in a clear and graphic(!) way.