The historical period of Egypt began at the turn of the third and fourth millennia before the
birth of Christ. The ancient cultural tradition, undergoing the influence of the invaders and internal perturbations, lasted until the adoption of Christianity in the fourth century of a new era. For almost three and a half thousand years, the list and functions of the Egyptian gods have undergone significant changes.
Egyptian gods acquired the features and names characteristic of neighbors - Assyrians, Hittites, Hyksos, Hellenes.
After the unification of Egypt under the authority of a single ruler, many gods of certain regions and tribes of the country entered the general pantheon, but most of them were revered only in the environment where the origins of their cult were. Some gods gradually acquired pan-Egyptian significance. The cat-headed goddess Bastet, no doubt, grew out of the cult of venerating cats as keepers of cereal stocks from mice. Agriculture played a huge role in Egypt, in contrast, for example, from Hellas, which rose mainly due to trade and military conquests. Anthropomorphic Egyptian gods often endowed the head of the animal, on the basis of the veneration of which a particular cult arose. For example, the god Thoth had the head of an ibis, the goddess Sohmet (Sekhmet) - the head of a lion, Anubis - the head of a dog.
As certain areas of the country rose, dynasties changed or the capital moved to a new place, the Egyptian gods of the "first echelon" also changed. An interesting feature of the ancient Egyptian religion was the presence of a large number of cosmogonic myths (that is, versions of the origin of the world), and in each locality the main role in this difficult matter was assigned to the local deity.
The Egyptian gods in such a large number, becoming the basis for local separatism, no doubt, did not need a single country. In addition, numerous cults demanded the expenditure of a large amount of material resources, which could be spent with much greater benefit on the internal arrangement of the country, on the maintenance of the army, and so on. And having great wealth and influence, the priestly clans directly threatened the sole power of the pharaoh.
Considering all circumstances, Pharaoh Amenhotep IV, having adopted the name Akhenaten, introduces the cult of the secondary regional deity Aton (deified solar disk) as a pan-Egyptian religion. But the inertia of the tradition was too strong, and Akhenaten dies before he reaches the age of forty. According to the most convincing version, he was poisoned. True, the families did not touch the persecution, and his wife (the famous Nefertiti) remained alive many years after the death of her husband.
After the Persian, and later Hellenic conquest of the country, the Egyptian gods and goddesses gradually begin to lose their former influence, are declining. They merge with the gods of the invaders. For example, Alexander of Macedon was revered in Egypt as the son of Zeus-Amon, a syncretic Egyptian-Hellenistic deity.
When the Egyptian gods, whose names were of both local and mixed origin, began to give way to a new religion - Christianity, the oblivion of ancient Egyptian writing gradually began. During the reign of Emperor Constantine, the last bearer of the Egyptian religious tradition died, after which for many centuries the names of the ancient Egyptian gods were known only from the works of Greek and Roman historians. But both those and others became acquainted with Egyptian culture at a time when it was already declining, and it is unlikely that the priests ordained strangers (often aggressive) into the secrets of their religion.
Attempts to decipher ancient hieroglyphs have been made repeatedly by both Arab scholars and Europeans, but to no avail. And only at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the brilliant linguist Francois Champollion managed to find the key to deciphering Egyptian texts. From this moment began the modern era of studying the history and culture of Ancient Egypt.