Ancient Egypt had built an immensely intricate, complex and all-pervading
religious system that wielded an overwhelming influence on all aspects
of life. Cosmology and cosmogony, presented by myths and iconography, explained
the beginnings and rules of the universe. The world was created in primeval
time by the self-engendered god, coming out of the watery abyss. It was
maintained thanks to continuous daily journey of the sun-god, travelling
in his boat across the sky and the Underworld [
01],
being thus the source of all life. Worship of the gods and goddesses in
the temples enabled communication and reciprocal exchange between humanity
and the divine. The vast world of Egyptians deities is represented at the
exhibition by several bronze figurines [
02],
[
03], [
04],
[
05], [
06].
Belief in the afterlife resulted in eschatology, dealing with individual
fate, with complex anthropological ideas of various elements of a human
being (
ka,
ba,
akh,
shadow, name, etc.), as well as ethics based on the concept of
maat,
the world, social and moral order [
07].
