The three most important ancient Egyptian theogonies and cosmogonies (a text of Egyptologist Salima Ikram)
" Creation Myths
The ancient Egyptians had several myths dealing with the creation of the cosmos and all that it contained. Probably, many of these myths had local origins, but with the unification of the country, they were gathered together and regarded as equally believable, or, depending on a particular situation, one may have been favoured above the others for some time. From the evidence that remains, it does not seem that the Egyptians had difficulty holding onto fairly contradictory concurrent beliefs.
The Heliopolitan Cosmogony is one of the earliest creation myths and originated at the site of Iwnw (Heliopolis in Greek; biblical On), a major solar centre. In this myth, a group of nine gods (the Ennead) created the world. First, the god Atum ("the complete one", "the all") masturbated (in some stories, he spat) and from his ejaculation created a pair of gods, the male Shu ("air") and his female counterpart Tefnut ("moisture"). They gave birth to Geb ("earth") and Nut ("sky"). (The Egyptians are almost unique in having a male earth god and a female sky divinity.) In turn, Geb and Nut produced two sons, Osiris and Seth, and two daughters, Isis and Nephthys, who were also their brothers' consorts. Clearly, incest was not taboo for gods in Egyptian religion; it was also acceptable for kings, who were regarded as gods. Incest was a taboo for anyone else, however. The tale of Osiris, Isis, Seth, and Nephthys leads into the Osiris myth cycle. (Fig. 64.)
An equally important myth, the Hermopolitan Cosmogony, originated in the Middle Egyptian city of Khemnw (the Greek Hermopolis), which was sacred to the god Thoth. In this tale, a group of eight gods, an Ogdoad, consisting of four couples of male and female divinities, personified the elements of chaos, or pre-creation. These were "hiddeness" or "hidden potential", personified by Amun and Amunet; 'formlessness", personified by Huh and Hauhet; "darkness", embodied by Kuk and Kauket; and the primeval waters, incarnated in Nun and Naunet. These deities created an egg that contained the gods responsible for creating the other gods, the land, animals, plants, and humans. Thoth was probably this god originally, which was particularly appropriate since an ibis is hatched from an egg. However, Atum was inserted in this role in some versions of the myth.
The Memphite Theology is another significant creation myth. This was probably an old tale, but the most complete version known to us was recorded on the Shabaka Stone (ca 710 BC, Dynasty 25), named after the king who had the myth inscribed on this piece of basalt; another version, the Bremner-Rhind Papyrus (4th century BC), was written on papyrus. In this myth, Ptah created the world by conceiving it in his heart (equivalent to our mind) and then giving it life by articulating or naming each element of the world and its denizens. The idea of thinking of something (Hu) and then causing it to exist through the act of speech (Sia) is close to the later biblical story of God's creating the world through speaking it; this story has also parallels in Australian aboriginal myths and in other concepts of speaking or singing the world into being. In the Memphite theology, Ptah created Atum and the Ennead, and, through them, the rest of the world.
Minor variations exist for all these myths, and sometimes, in the Memphite theology, other gods, such Amun-Re, supplanted Ptah as supreme creator, although Ptah remained an important character in the myth. Alternate accounts also exist; for example, in "The Destruction of Mankind", Re was cast as the supreme being and self-creator, with other gods, such as Nefertum, also playing generative roles."
Salima Ikram Ancient Egypt. An Introduction, Cambridge University Press, 2009, pp 128-129
Nut, Shu, and Geb in the Greenfield Papyrus (10th century BCE). Source: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Shu-Egyptian-god
