Similarities Between Ancient Egypt And Ancient Greece

The word “ancient” can be a hard word to describe. It has no specific time period, but also does at the same time. When something is described as ancient, it is something that is extremely old, or was in the very distant past. Ancient Egyptian and Ancient Greek civilizations co-existed from 1150BC to 146BC. They had different systems, beliefs, and life styles, just like how different countries do today. There were also similarities, such as both having a single person be the ruler, not giving equal power to everyone. For Greeks, this would be a king and for Egyptians, and Pharaoh. Both Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece believed in mythology – a similarity between the two. However, much of their mythology was different. Although both Egypt

and Greece civilizations had god and goddess figures, their beliefs on what mythology in all stood for were mostly divergent, so in all their religious practices and beliefs were more different than similar.

Ancient Greece and Ancient Egypt were both similar in the way that they both had numerous gods and goddesses that they believed in. To begin with, the Greek and Roman gods had similar roles and duties. They also had a god to represent just about every part of life and everything that happened. Ra, who is a part of Egyptian mythology, and Zeus, who is a part of Greek mythology, are considered to be king of the gods. Zeus represents the sky and Ra represents the sun. Pharaohs, who were rulers of Ancient Egypt were considered to be sons of Ra. Also, both civilizations gave much respect to their gods & deities. They would build huge temples and pantheons for them, made of stone and bricks. Isis was one of the central gods of the Egyptian Pantheon. He and Demeter are similar through their symbolism of fertility in how they “give birth to heaven and earth”. Demeter is one of the central Olympian gods. In most religions now days, there is a holy book. Some examples of this might be The Bible, The Qur’an, The Book of Mormon, and there are many others. Similarly, for both Greek and Egyptian mythology, there is no single original text. Both civilizations believed in many gods and goddesses, so they were polytheistic. In addition, a big part of their mythology was what they thought would happen in the afterlife. Greeks believed that their gods would take care of them when they died, and Egyptians believed that once they had died they would travel to another world to live with gods and goddesses.

Furthermore, both the Greeks and Egyptians were convinced of having more power once they were dead. Egyptians theory was that when a pharaoh died he became a god, and the Greeks notion was that the heroes they worshipped that were mythical humans became very powerful after they died. Therefore, with there being so much to Egyptian and Greek mythology, there are actually very few similarities between the two.

Although there is some similarity between religion in Ancient Greece and Ancient Egypt, they are mostly different. For starters, Greek worshipers believed that the gods would treat them well and meet their needs if they offered them animal sacrifices and fruits of the harvest. To the Greeks, animal sacrifice was similar to prayer. It was the central ritual act in Ancient Greece especially of oxen, goats, and sheep. A sacrifice would mainly take place when someone decided that they owed something to or wanted something from a god, there was also regular times in the year meant for sacrifices. Many sacrifices were family matters, like if someone was sick, perhaps one or two chickens might be sacrificed with the family standing around, and then the family would eat the chickens for dinner. Opposite of how the Greeks, Egyptians

considered some animals to be holy. These animals were the bull, the cat, the crocodile, cheetahs, a frog and a dragonfly, horses, and fish. Religion to the Ancient Greeks was very important because they believed it made their lives better while living. To the Egyptians it was important because they believed that “if they lived a good and honorable life by obeying their superiors, assisting and protecting the poor, and showing proper respect to the gods, they would gain admittance into the paradise of the afterlife.” Furthermore, when Egyptian gods were angry, they might be portrayed as a lion; and when gentle a cat. When Greek gods were angry like for example if Zeus was, he would show it by sending huge thunderstorms. Another difference between Egyptian and Greek mythology is that Egyptian gods and goddesses were often represented as part human and part animal. Greek gods and goddesses were just very large humans with powers that were immortal. They were believed to be about 100 feet tall. The gods of the underworld lived in caves, and the peaks of Mount Olympus were home to the great Olympic Gods. The Greeks thought that the gods existed because each god and goddess had control of different things in the world and of human behavior. All Greeks believed that all the gods were descendants of Gaia (the earth) and Uranos (the sky). To the Egyptians their mythology was expressions of sacred meanings they experienced with the universe and it’s regularly occurring rhythms. Very important religious rituals to the Greeks were sports, entertainment, war, and politics. A major ritual to Egyptians was mummification. They believed that after they died a new life would begin and they would live in their tombs as they would on earth. They believed that everyone had a ba, or soul, and a ka, an invisible twin of the person. The ba would keep in contact with the living family and friends of the dead. The ka traveled back and forth from the body to the other world. In order for an Egyptian to “live forever”, the ba and ka had to be able to recognize the body or they could not return to it, that is why the body had to be preserved or mummified. The Egyptians believed every Egyptian, except the most object criminal, was entitled to be embalmed and receive a decent burial. The afterlife for Egyptians was said to be where all of life’s good things could be enjoyed without having to endure any of its suffering. In Egyptian mythology, they had demons, in Greek mythology they did not. The demons were more powerful than humans but not as powerful as gods were. They were immortal, could be in more than one place at a time, and could affect the world and people in a supernatural way. The most important figure was Ammut – the devourer of the dead – part crocodile, part lion, and part hippopotamus. Although the Greeks did not have demons, they had an ancient monster names Chimera. She was a fire-breathing goat with a lion’s head. Overall, their religious practices and beliefs were very different.