Discussion 7 - Hyksos Charioteers and Monotheism PDF

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Discussion 7 - Hyksos Charioteers and Monotheism...

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September 13, 2018 Hyksos Charioteers and Monotheism In the time of the Hyksos, the Egyptians had an established religion worshiping many gods and deities. The rule of the Hyksos, however, imposed a new political, social, and cultural order on the Egyptians. Along with these changes, the Hyksos sought to impose their religious system on the Egyptians, chiefly by the actions of the king of the Hyksos, Apapi, the longest ruling king of the Hyksos in Egypt. Apapi had adopted a religion that worshiped one god. He built a temple and created festivals and sacrifice rites for the one god's worship. He also commanded the worship of his monotheistic deity for the Egyptians. Apapi's one god, Sutech, was identified with the Egyptian god Seth, who came to be associated with darkness and chaos. Seth had originally been a benevolent deity that blessed the dead, but as time went on, the character of the god changed, and, perhaps because of the close association between Seth and Sutech of the invasion and upsetting the established order by the Hyksos, the character and rule of Seth changed to being seen as associated with darkness and chaos. Further evidence of this association is the fact that the city that became a religious center for the worship of Seth was Avaris, which was the capital city of the Hyksos rule. Long after the Hyksos had been driven out of Egypt, in the Eighteenth Dynasty, the Pharaoh Akhenaten sought to overthrow the traditional Egyptian religion of many gods with a new monotheistic religion based on the worship of the sun god Aten. However, the rule of Akhenaten was eventually violently overthrown, and the traditional multi-theistic religion of the Egyptians was restored.

Therefore, there were at least two attempts in Egyptian history to change the traditional multi-theistic religion of the Egyptians to monotheistic religious beliefs. In the end, both were overthrown: The Hyksos and their religious beliefs were driven from Egypt, and Pharaoh Akhenaten's rule and monotheistic religion were overthrown. After both instances, the Egyptians returned to their traditional multi-theistic religion.

Works Cited “Apepi, King of Egypt.” Geni.com. 2018. https://www.geni.com/people/Apepi-Pharaoh-of-Egypt/6000000001423084181 . Accessed 7 September 2018. “The Egyptian God Seth.” Ancient-egypt-online.com. 2018. https://www.ancient-egypt-online.com/seth.html . Accessed 7 September 2018. “A Fragment Describing the Hyksos Period.” PDF document. Tedlouks. “Pharaoh Akhenaten: A Different View of the Heretic King.” https://www.ancient-origins.net/ancient-places-africa/pharaohakhenaten-different-view2018. 

heretic-king-005249 . Accessed 7 September...