‘Demons’ and Divine Intervention in Ancient Egypt

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Faculty of Tourism and Hotels- University of Sadat City

Abstract

Recently, there has been a tendency among Egyptologists to use the term ‘demon’ to identify supernatural beings, minor deities, and personifications in ancient Egypt. Some of these, including xAtyw, were thought to harm the living. xAtyw, and other supernatural beings were designated in this way by some scholars as demons. Therefore, this paper, on one hand, investigates the validity of the term demon and attempts at finding out to what extent it might fit into Egyptian thought. On the other, the in terms of divine intervention, instead of using ‘demon’, genuine Egyptian conceptions should be considered. Gods, of any rank, took forms. Among these were the baw, akh. Sticking to what ancient Egyptians’ texts say in inevitable for a reasonable interpretation of their culture. The application of the term demon to Egyptian entities results in establishing a category that does not fit into Egyptian thought.

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