In many sources, Egyptian mythology is presented with slight differences, and they do not show a systematic presentation. In this regard, historians have identified the most reliable sources in which information about the mythological representations of the Egyptians is presented, they clearly recognized religious texts. They represent the prayers and hymns to the gods that have been preserved to this day, the records on the walls of the tombs, where funeral rites were performed.
The ancient Egyptians were very sensitive to the kingdom of the dead, believing in the existence of the afterlife, therefore, Egyptian mythology is based on the cult of the other world and the dead. The most significant of the records, allowing to open the veil of secrets of Egypt's myths, are the most ancient “Texts of the Pyramids”, the requiem royal rituals carved on the inner walls of the pyramids of the pharaohs belonging to the V and VI dynasties. “Sarcophagus Texts” and “Book of the Dead” can also be included in the sources. The last artifact was compiled from the very beginning of the period of the New Kingdom and up to the end of the history of ancient Egypt.
Long before the onset of class society, Egyptian mythology began to take shape, the first information about which dates back to the 6th-4th millennium BC. Each area of life had its own cult of the gods, who were embodied in celestial bodies, trees, stones, animals, snakes, birds, etc.
It is difficult to overestimate the significance of Egyptian myths. This is a unique material that allows you to study the religious beliefs that existed in the Ancient East, to conduct comparative characteristics and explore the ideology of the Greco-Roman world. It provides an invaluable service for understanding the history of the emergence, appearance and development of the Christian religion.
Egyptian mythology at the very initial stage of its origin was not based on the cosmic gods, who were usually credited with creating the world. According to scientists, large priests turned to cosmogonic ideas later. The first version of the emergence of the world in the then existing high society of the country was the union of Earth and Sky, from which the Sun was born. This is what Egyptian mythology tells us. The gods personifying the earth (Heb), heaven (Nut) and the sun (Ra) are present in all sources that have survived to this day. They are described throughout the history of Ancient Egypt in the scriptures, and their images are in many tombs of the pharaohs. According to the ideas of the Egyptians, the goddess of heaven, Nut, gave birth to Ra - the god of the sun every morning, and hid him in her womb every evening.
The largest religious centers of Egypt (Heliopolis, Germopolis and Memphis) had their own system, which assumed a different version in the creation of the world. Each of them had its own creator, and, therefore, its main god. He, in turn, was the ancestor of all the gods surrounding him.
The religion of the Egyptians had a general concept, which was based on the idea of the chaos of water immersed in eternal darkness, which preceded the emergence of the world. The appearance of light, according to their ideas, was the beginning of a way out of chaos, and its embodiment was the sun. Such views from the point of view of historians are quite explainable, since the population of Egypt every year witnessed the spill of the Nile, and then observed a decline in water. For them, this was the annual creation of the world.
If we talk about such a thing as Egyptian mythology, the gods are represented in it by various images. A curious fact, despite the cosmogonic plots, is the little attention paid to the creation of man. There is almost no mention of this in the country's literary heritage. The religion of the Egyptians testifies to the fact that the gods created the world for people, and that man owes his birth to God. The priests of Heliopolis considered the creator of the world of the god Ra, identifying him with Atum in the image of man and Khepri in the form of a scarab beetle. This is indicated by the "Texts of the Pyramids."