Title:
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Egyptian Religion under the Influence of Syro-Palestinian deities in the New Kingdom
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This thesis takes a hermeneutic approach in examining how six Syro-Palestinian deities Baal,
Reshef, Hauron, Anat, Astarte and Qadesh - were worshipped and integrated into Egyptian
religion, predominantly from the New Kingdom onwards.
Chapter I introduces general observations about Syro-Palestinian deities venerated in New
Kingdom Egypt with a history of previous research on this topic, as well as explanation of sources
and methodology applied in this research: comparative studies and the 'translative adaptation'
theory.
Chapter 2 consists of three sections discussing the six Syro-Palestinian deities in their
Egyptian contexts. Section 1 presents the iconographical and textual materials showing these six
deities in Egyptian contexts. The analyses on each deity are further synthesised in succeeding
sections. In Section 2, an iconographical approach is conducted, and Section 3 demonstrates the
result of a conceptual approach to these six deities in New Kingdom Egypt. Needless to say, these
tasks require us to make comparisons with the way of existence of these six deities in
Syria-Palestine in order to evaluate them in Egypt.
Chapter 3 focuses on these six deities in selected Egyptian royal contexts during the New
Kingdom. The investigation concludes that the six Syro-Palestinian deities are employed by
Egyptian kings not necessarily just as war-gods and warrior goddesses, although this view has been
central to previous interpretation of them. They are also involved in royal ideological and
theological discourses in order to claim and sustain Egyptian royal dignity. The political and
religious circumstances at the time would probably be reflected in the appearance of the six
Syro-Palestinian deities in New Kingdom Egypt.
In another sphere, it is demonstrated in Chapter 4 that these six Syro-Palestinian deities are
also revered with Egyptian styles ofworship among ordinary people in the New Kingdom.
Chapter 5 illustrates the fact that the six Syro-Palestinian deities are interpreted and integrated
into the Egyptian indigenous pantheon by 'translation' of their attributes into those of Egyptian
deities, and in some cases, with the assistance ofHorus and Hathor playing the role ofmediators.
Consequently Chapter 6 concludes that it is possible to interpret the six Syro-Palestinian
deities in New Kingdom Egypt by a hermeneutic approach with the employment of two
anthropological theories. It is attested that the 'tributary relationship' exists between Egyptian kings
and five Syro-Palestinian deities (except for Qadesh) as well as between the kings and Egyptian
indigenous deities. This can be expanded to the relationship between ordinary people and the six
deities. Also, it is very clear that the six Syro-Palestinian deities are integrated into the Egyptian
religious framework by 'translative adaptation'. Furthermore, it can be assumed that the six
Syro-Palestinian deities in question may have been singled out for theoretical accordance with the
Egyptian cosmos: the Heliopolitan theology and Osirian myth.
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