In the beginning, there was only chaos, which stretched,
dark and silent, throughout all space and eternity. Later,
people in some parts of Egypt came to see this bottomless
abyss containing a limitless ocean of black, lifeless water
as a living being. They called the nothingness Nu and
worshipped him as a god. Whatever one chooses to call
this dismal and foreboding state of nonexistence, a time
came, long ago, when a dramatic and wonderful event
transformed nonexistence into existence. This was the
creation of Amun, the First One, the King of the Gods, the
maker of all things. No other god was needed to make him.
Indeed, because he had no father or mother, Amun
somehow created himself, in an invisible, secret way that
no human being has ever known or will ever discover.
[Picture By Steven Spavento]
As Amun mysteriously sprang into being, the deathly
stillness of the cosmos was shattered by his magnificent
piercing voice. This mighty blast set in motion all the rest
of creation. In some parts of Egypt people believed that in
this early stage of his existence Amun took the form of a
gigantic goose, the Great Honker. He certainly went on to
assume many other forms, as his will and needs dictated.
The first of the forms Amun took was that of one part of
the Ogdoad, the group of eight gods that later became
sacred to the priests at Hermopolis. These priests claimed
that the eight earliest gods (Nu, Naunet, Hey, Hauhet, Kek,
Kauket, Amun, and Amaunet), who had the heads of frogs
and serpents, swam through the dark waters of chaos. By
contrast, the priests at Thebes said that first the mighty
Amun created the other seven and then joined them as the
eighth member of the Ogdoad.
Next, said the Theban priests, Amun took the form of
the first dry land. On this so-called primeval mound he
proceeded to create the , the group of nine gods
that later became sacred to the priests at Heliopolis and
Memphis. These included Atum, Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut,
Osiris, Seth, Isis, and Nephthys. At this time, Amun also
created the ram-headed god Khnum and all the other
gods, spirits, and demons that inhabit the sky, earth, and
Underworld. In addition, in the center of the primeval
mound Amun fashioned the first city, sacred Thebes,
where at first many of the gods made their home.
The Rise of Humans, Cities, Animals, and Plants
After these strenuous acts of creation, Amun rose into the
sky and assumed the shape and features of the life-giving
sun (in which form he is often called Amun-Ra). As he
looked down from above, a new phase of creation began,namely that of the earth and the humans that inhabit it. To
complete this task, Amun chose the ram-headed god
Khnum, whom the Egyptians came to call, along with
Amun, one of the two Lords of Destiny. The destiny Khnum
controlled was that of the human race. He proceeded,
with Amun’s blessing, to model the first humans on his
divine potter’s wheel.
Khnum began by fashioning the bones from a special
clay. Over this inner frame he molded skin, veins carrying
blood, and various organs, including those for digestion,
breathing, and having children. He gave the bodies of the
first humans all the elements and details familiar in human
bodies today. But though the physical forms were
complete, they did not yet possess the sparks of life,
including movement and thought. So Khnum breathed
into his creations, passing them some of his own life force
and thereby animating them.
Immediately it became clear that these new creatures
Khnum had created would need someplace to live. With
the aid of Amun on high, Khmun rolled back the dark
waters surrounding the primeval mound, thus exposing
more dry land. And on this new land he helped the first
people to establish new cities, most of them modeled on
the plan of sacred Thebes. Khnum also populated the new
land, which became known as Egypt, with all manner of
living beasts, from birds, to fish, to crocodiles, to beetles;
and he made trees, crops, and other plants grow in
abundance on the face of the earth. In time, as the humans
had their own children and multiplied, other more distant
lands became populated. But Egypt remained the center of
the world shaped by Amun and the gods he himself had
created.