The Gods of the Egyptians or Studies in Egyptian Mythology: Volume 2

by E.A. Wallis Budge

This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1904 edition by Methuen & Co., London.

Genres: Egypt, Mythology, History, Nonfiction, Religion, Egyptology, Egyptian Literature

Paperback

First published June 1, 1969

About the author

Sir Ernest Alfred Thompson Wallis Budge was an English Egyptologist, Orientalist, and philologist who worked for the British Museum and published numerous works on the ancient Near East.

Reviews

[Brandy Manuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

lots of information

[Jeszika · Rating 5 out of 5]

These two volumes are some of my favorite references to Egyptian mythology. They cover a wide range of deities and have a lot of attention to detail that I appreciate.

[Sam Rothenberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has helped me write my own books. E Eallis Budge is an amazing scholar and he doesn't mix his own opinions on the matter either. He states plainly that the Egyptians are an AFRICAN people.

[DAJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Volume 1 discussed the general characteristics of the gods, followed by chapters on Ra, Thoth, Hathor, Horus, Ptah, Sekhmet, and Imhotep. This volume features Amun, Hapi, Khnum and the triad of Elephantine, the Aten, the Ennead of Heliopolis, Osiris, Serapis, Isis, Anubis, the cippi of Horus, foreign gods, a miscellaneous collection of minor deities, and sacred animals. The chapter on miscellaneous deities incorporates groups like the hours of the day and the night, the winds, the senses, the gods connected with various stars, and the deities mentioned in the Book of the Dead. It thus rivals and perhaps surpasses any recent book (except the mammoth Lexikon der ägyptischen Götter und Götterbezeichnungen) in the number of minor deities it lists. However, many of those deities are mere names found in ancient Egyptian lists, so there isn't anything to say about their characteristics. And this chapter, like the book as a whole, is haphazardly organized.

The advantage of these two volumes is that they discuss each of the major deities in more detail than you can find in most overview books. A lot of the details Budge includes are translations of original Egyptian texts, for which Budge was not the best translator, but they do give a sense of the character of each deity. Unlike Volume 1, this one isn't weighed down as much by Budge's obsolete interpretations of Egyptian theology, but there's still reason to take many of its claims with a grain of salt. In the chapter on miscellaneous deities, for instance, there's a rather cryptic section where he interprets the Egyptian concept of "ba" as a "World-Soul". I'm not entirely sure what he's trying to convey in this section, but it seems far off the beam.

Nowadays, the standard lists of Egyptian deities are The Routledge Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses and The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt, though most of their entries on individual deities are short. The latter also includes an excellent, readable discussion of Egyptian theology. Books that describe major deities at greater length include Gods and Myths of Ancient Egypt by Robert Armour and The Gods of Ancient Egypt by Barbara Watterson, though they are both somewhat superficial, and The Ancient Gods Speak: A Guide to Egyptian Religion.

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great addition to any Egyptian library collection. Although dated, it is still a great reference tool.

[Nancy Raines]

Gods Volume II