Numbers in Egyptian mythology
Encyclopedia
Certain numbers were considered sacred, holy, or magical by the ancient Egyptians, particularly 2, 3, 4, 7, and their multiples and sums.

Three: symbol of plurality

The basic symbol for plurality among the ancient Egyptians
Egyptians
Egyptians are nation an ethnic group made up of Mediterranean North Africans, the indigenous people of Egypt.Egyptian identity is closely tied to geography. The population of Egypt is concentrated in the lower Nile Valley, the small strip of cultivable land stretching from the First Cataract to...

 was the number three: even the way they wrote the word for "plurality" in hieroglyphics consisted of three vertical marks ( | | | ). Triads of deities were also used in Egyptian religion to signify a complete system. Examples include references to the god Atum "when he was one and became three" when he gave birth to Shu
Shu
Shu may refer to:*Shū ** , Japanese Kanji.*Shu * 蜀 , an abbreviation of Sichuan province of the People's Republic of China, as well as the following historical regimes that have existed in this region:...

 and Tefnut
Tefnut
In Ancient Egyptian religion, Tefnut, transliterated tfnt is a goddess of moisture, moist air, dew and rain. She is the sister and consort of the air god Shu and the mother of Geb and Nut.- Etymology :...

, and the triad of Horus
Horus
Horus is one of the oldest and most significant deities in the Ancient Egyptian religion, who was worshipped from at least the late Predynastic period through to Greco-Roman times. Different forms of Horus are recorded in history and these are treated as distinct gods by Egyptologists...

, Osiris
Osiris
Osiris is an Egyptian god, usually identified as the god of the afterlife, the underworld and the dead. He is classically depicted as a green-skinned man with a pharaoh's beard, partially mummy-wrapped at the legs, wearing a distinctive crown with two large ostrich feathers at either side, and...

, and Isis
Isis
Isis or in original more likely Aset is a goddess in Ancient Egyptian religious beliefs, whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. She was worshipped as the ideal mother and wife as well as the matron of nature and magic...

.

Examples
  • The beer used to trick Sekhmet
    Sekhmet
    In Egyptian mythology, Sekhmet , was originally the warrior goddess as well as goddess of healing for Upper Egypt. She is depicted as a lioness, the fiercest hunter known to the Egyptians. It was said that her breath created the desert...

     soaked three hands into the ground.
  • The second god, Re
    Ra
    Ra is the ancient Egyptian sun god. By the Fifth Dynasty he had become a major deity in ancient Egyptian religion, identified primarily with the mid-day sun...

    , named three times to define the sun: dawn, noon, and evening.
  • Thoth
    Thoth
    Thoth was considered one of the more important deities of the Egyptian pantheon. In art, he was often depicted as a man with the head of an ibis or a baboon, animals sacred to him. His feminine counterpart was Seshat...

     is described as the “thrice-great god of wisdom”.
  • A doomed prince was doomed to three fates: to die by a crocodile
    Crocodile
    A crocodile is any species belonging to the family Crocodylidae . The term can also be used more loosely to include all extant members of the order Crocodilia: i.e...

    , a serpent
    Serpent (symbolism)
    Serpent in Latin means: Rory Collins :&, in turn, from the Biblical Hebrew word of: "saraf" with root letters of: which refers to something burning-as, the pain of poisonous snake's bite was likened to internal burning.This word is commonly used in a specifically mythic or religious context,...

    , or a dog
    Dog
    The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...

    .
  • Three groups of three attempts each (nine attempts) were required for a legendary peasant to recover his stolen goods.
  • A boasting mage claimed to be able to cast a great darkness to last three days.
  • After asking Thoth for help, a King of Ethiopia
    Ethiopia
    Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

     was brought to Thebes and publicly beaten three further times.
  • An Ethiopian mage tried—and failed—three times to defeat the greatest mage of Egypt
    Egypt
    Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

    .
  • An Egyptian mage, in an attempt to enter the land of the dead
    Afterlife
    The afterlife is the belief that a part of, or essence of, or soul of an individual, which carries with it and confers personal identity, survives the death of the body of this world and this lifetime, by natural or supernatural means, in contrast to the belief in eternal...

    , threw a certain powder on a fire three times.
  • There are twelve (three times four) sections of the Egyptian land of the dead. The dead disembark at the third.
  • The Knot of Isis, representing life, has three loops.

Five

Examples
  • The second god,
    Re
    Re, bre, moré is an interjection common to Cypriot Greek, the languages of the Balkans, Turkish, and Venetian, with its "locus... more in the Greek world than elsewhere". It is used in colloquial speech to gain someone's attention, add emphasis, insult, or express surprise or astonishment, like...

    , named five gods and goddesses.
  • Thoth
    Thoth
    Thoth was considered one of the more important deities of the Egyptian pantheon. In art, he was often depicted as a man with the head of an ibis or a baboon, animals sacred to him. His feminine counterpart was Seshat...

     added five days to the year by winning the light from the moon in a game of gambling.
  • It took five days for the five children of Nut
    Nut (goddess)
    In the Ennead of Egyptian mythology, Nut was the goddess of the sky.-Goddess of the sky:...

     to be born. These are Osiris, Nephthys
    Nephthys
    In Egyptian mythology, Nephthys is a member of the Great Ennead of Heliopolis, a daughter of Nut and Geb. Nephthys was typically paired with her sister Isis in funerary rites because of their role as protectors of the mummy and the god Osiris and as the sister-wife of Seth.Nephthys is regarded as...

    , Isis, Set
    Set (mythology)
    Set was in Ancient Egyptian religion, a god of the desert, storms, and foreigners. In later myths he was also the god of darkness, and chaos...

     and Horus the Elder - this should not be mistaken with Harpocrates
    Harpocrates
    In late Greek mythology as developed in Ptolemaic Alexandria, Harpocrates is the god of silence. Harpocrates was adapted by the Greeks from the Egyptian child god Horus. To the ancient Egyptians, Horus represented the new-born Sun, rising each day at dawn...

     (Horus the Infant) who defeated Set in battle.
  • A boasting mage claimed to be able to bring the Pharaoh
    Pharaoh
    Pharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. The title originates in the term "pr-aa" which means "great house" and describes the royal palace...

     of Egypt to Ethiopia and by magic, have him beaten with a rod five hundred (five times five times five times four) times, and return him to Egypt in the space of five hours.
  • An Ethiopian mage comes to challenge Egypt’s greatest mage—to reading of a sealed letter—five hundred (five times five times five times four) years after the atrocity depicted in it occurred.
  • The star, or pentagram
    Pentagram
    A pentagram is the shape of a five-pointed star drawn with five straight strokes...

    , representing the afterlife
    Afterlife
    The afterlife is the belief that a part of, or essence of, or soul of an individual, which carries with it and confers personal identity, survives the death of the body of this world and this lifetime, by natural or supernatural means, in contrast to the belief in eternal...

    , has five points.

Fives are less common in Egyptian mythology.

Seven: symbol of perfection, effectiveness, completeness

The number seven was apparently the Egyptian symbol of such ideas as perfection, effectiveness, and completeness.

Examples
  • Seven thousand barrels of red beer were used to trick Sekhmet
    Sekhmet
    In Egyptian mythology, Sekhmet , was originally the warrior goddess as well as goddess of healing for Upper Egypt. She is depicted as a lioness, the fiercest hunter known to the Egyptians. It was said that her breath created the desert...

     out of killing.
  • In her search for her husband’s pieces, the goddess Isis
    Isis
    Isis or in original more likely Aset is a goddess in Ancient Egyptian religious beliefs, whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. She was worshipped as the ideal mother and wife as well as the matron of nature and magic...

     was guarded by seven scorpions.
  • A legendary famine lasted seven years.
  • The lowest amount that the Nile flooded to solve the famine was seven cubits. The highest was four times seven (28) cubits.
  • A doomed prince found a tower seventy (ten times seven) cubits high with seventy (ten times seven) windows.
  • Set tore the god Osiris
    Osiris
    Osiris is an Egyptian god, usually identified as the god of the afterlife, the underworld and the dead. He is classically depicted as a green-skinned man with a pharaoh's beard, partially mummy-wrapped at the legs, wearing a distinctive crown with two large ostrich feathers at either side, and...

    ’ body into fourteen pieces: seven each for the two regions of Upper and Lower Egypt
    Egypt
    Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

    .
  • The Pool
    Egyptian pool
    The pool symbol in Egyptian mythology represents water. It is a rectangle, longer horizontally than vertically, with seven equally spaced vertical zigzag lines within it....

     symbol, representing water
    Water
    Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...

    , contains seven zigzag lines.
  • The Gold
    Nebu
    Nebu is the Egyptian symbol for gold. It depicts a golden collar with the ends hanging off the sides and seven spines dangling from the middle....

     symbol has seven spines on its underside.

See also

  • Numerology
    Numerology
    Numerology is any study of the purported mystical relationship between a count or measurement and life. It has many systems and traditions and beliefs...

  • Numbers in Norse mythology
    Numbers in Norse mythology
    The numbers three and nine are significant numbers in Norse mythology and paganism. Both numbers appear throughout surviving attestations of Norse paganism, in both mythology and cultic practice....

  • Numbers in Greek mythology
  • Egyptian mythology
    Egyptian mythology
    Ancient Egyptian religion was a complex system of polytheistic beliefs and rituals which were an integral part of ancient Egyptian society. It centered on the Egyptians' interaction with a multitude of deities who were believed to be present in, and in control of, the forces and elements of nature...

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK