As a result, Egypt managed to inspire both awe and fear in the foreigner who came into contact with its culture. Of course he then goes on to state: “ are religious to excess” (II, 35-39).Įgypt was different from much of the rest of the ancient world, with its pantheon of fantastic deities, part animal, part human its rulers who were understood to be gods on earth its bizarre funerary practices that paid unheard of attention to the preparations for an afterlife and its enigmatic script that was written with recognizable pictures, but remained unreadable and therefore mysterious to the uninitiated. for I do not think that any one nation knows much more about such things than any other” (II, 4). He also wrote a disclaimer: “I am not anxious to repeat what I was told about the Egyptian religion. Greek historians often wrote about the mysterious ways in which the Egyptians worshipped their deities, such as this note by Herodotus: “There are not a great many wild animals in Egypt…Such as there are-both wild and tame-are without exception held to be sacred” (II, 65). The Greeks acknowledged that much ancient wisdom, such as the basics of mathematics, architecture, art, science, medicine, and even philosophy, ultimately derived from the Egyptians but they still had some difficulty in understanding, accepting, or even dealing with the alien and unfamiliar aspects of the religion.

Encounters with its strange customs have frequently led people, both ancient and modern, to have misconceptions about this land.

Throughout the centuries, ancient Egypt and its civilization have often been referred to in terms of the dark and mysterious. (The Metropolitan Museum of Art photograph by Harry Burton)

They that shall break the seal of this tomb shall meet death by a disease which no doctor can diagnose.” (Inscription reported to have been carved on an Egyptian royal tomb) Top of the lid of an unlaid wooden chest, picturing Tutankhamun and his wife Ankhesenamun. “Cursed be those that disturb the rest of Pharaoh.

The pharaoh's holy treasure