To the ancient Egyptians, sport and games were generally part of a pre-ordained, ritual process. That is to say, the winner was predetermined and the sports (like boxing and wrestling) were actual ritual bouts between a good side “Egypt; a benevolent God” and a bad side “Egypt’s enemies; a malevolent God.”

“Negative Confessions” were part of the judgment of the dead in Egyptian theology. The ancient Egyptians believed that a deceased individual had to first pass the judgment of Osiris before moving on to the afterlife. This was generally understood as a sort of trial, whereby an individual had to first deny a series of accusations of wrongdoing (“negative confessions”) and then had to pass the weighing of the heart.

Iconography was extremely important in Egyptian culture. It was used to promote uniformity of religious belief and adherence to the rule of the Pharaoh. One such example is the “Nine Bows.” The “Nine Bows” were meant to represent the various enemies of Egypt and were always shown under the power of the Pharaoh’s might. There is no concrete list of the “Nine Bows” and the nations they represented obviously changed throughout Egyptian history as Egypt developed new enemies.

The Palette of Narmer or the Great Hierakonpolis Palette represents an archaeologically excavated artifact with iconographic depictions of the early pharaoh Narmer and several gods/divine beings.

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In Egyptian mythology, Bennu (or Benu) was a legendary phoenix type creature. It was worshipped by some ancient Egyptians as early as the beginning of the dynastic era. The Bennu was thought to have helped create the world and was sometimes viewed as an incarnation of Ra or Atum. The Egyptians believed that Benu sat atop the benben (the location of the “primordial hill of creation” where the world was born) and that he controlled the constant process of rebirth at the heart of the cosmic cycle.

“The Smiting Scene” is a powerful component of Egyptian iconography and is commonly found throughout ancient Egyptian dynastic history. “The Smiting Scene” depicts the Pharaoh smiting his enemies and was meant to project Pharaonic power, rather than accurately depict historical events.

The Egyptians believed in ritual and superstition. The ritual destruction of red pots, for example, was believed to protect the tomb of a deceased ruler and to ward off evil spirits.

In most accounts of the Egyptian afterlife there is no such thing as hell. Instead, unworthy souls are forbidden from entrance into heaven (which the ancient Egyptians called “The Field of Reeds”) and banished into nonexistence.

In ancient Egyptian cosmology, Nu was the name given to the primordial, infinite ocean of creation that existed before the creation of the world. The Egyptians believed that Atum, the God of creation, had lived inside Nu for countless eons before he created the world from nothingness. The concept of “Nu” was an essential component of the Hermopolis interpretation of Egyptian theology.

All of these cities are correctly matched with the God of creation in its theology except Pi-Ramesses. In predynastic and early dynastic times, each Egyptian community had a different interpretation of the creation of the universe. These distinctions carried over into Pharaonic times and each city tended to be associated with the worship of a particular deity, such as Thebes and Amun. Pi-Ramesses was founded during the nineteenth dynasty, much later than the rest of these settlements, and so did not have time to develop an independent religious tradition.