Annika Prager
Period: 1
Word Count: 806
Compare and Contrast Essay: Ancient Egypt and Greece
There are many mysteries to life, ancient civilizations created religion to explain these mysteries. Many ancient civilizations believed in religions that worshiped more than one god or goddess, this is called polytheism. Both the Ancient Egyptians and the Ancient Greeks practiced polytheism. For both ancient civilizations religion was an important part of daily life. Ancient Egyptians and Ancient Greeks had similar creation stories and worshipped similar gods and goddesses yet there beliefs were still very different
Both the Ancient Egyptians worshipped many, many gods and goddesses. Each of these gods or goddesses was believed to have a special power, gift, or they ruled over a special land/life. The gods and goddesses from Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece were very similar. Both of these religions had major or “most powerful” god. In Ancient Greece Zeus, god of the skies and thunder, was believed to be the ruler of all the other gods and goddesses. The Ancient Egyptians believed in a god named Horus, god of the sky and protector of the Pharaoh. Horus was the most powerful god in Egyptian culture and the ruler of the sky just like Zeus. In both of these cultures if your family needed help you would pray to the god or goddess that you believed could best help your family.
These two polytheistic cultures have much in common. However, Greece and Egypt are 695.0 miles apart so the gods and goddesses they worship are not quite the same. The major difference between the two ancient civilizations is the way the gods and goddesses look. In Ancient Egyptian culture the gods and goddesses are depicted in a very unique way. Most of the Egyptian gods and goddesses are half animal half human; for example, the Egyptian goddess Bastet (goddess of protection) has the head of cat. Unlike the Ancient Egyptians, the Ancient Greeks believed their gods