For nearly 3,000 years since around 3,100 BC, Egypt held a polytheistic (multiple gods) belief system. Their sun god (variously called Amon, Re (Ra), or Aten), was considered greater than other Egyptian deity. Equally important was the Nile River. Which was Egypt's primary source of it's deep sense of order. Because of the regularity of the sun's daily cycle and the Nile's annual overflow, ancient Egyptians felt security.
Because of the sun's regular cycle of rising and setting, the ancient Egyptians perceived both the inevitability of death and the promise of birth. "The Hymn to the Aten," a song of praise probably accompanied rituals of renewal honoring Egypt's pharaoh, the divinely appointed representatives of the sun god. Depictions of such rituals have been found on the walls of Egyptian temples and tombs showing the pharaoh receiving the gift of immortality (in the form of the ankh, symbolizing "life") from Amon. In visual arts and poetry, the sun is......
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