How many gods are there in Egyptian myths and legends? What are their names?

The so-called nation-state religion is a religion that arises within a certain nation or country and is limited to all members of the same nation or country who believe in the same religion. It is generally developed from the direct transformation of traditional clan and tribal religions, and it is the first stage and initial form of classical religion. It not only retains some impressions of primitive religion, but also has the basic characteristics of classical religion. Ethnic religion has seven main characteristics, which are the special features that distinguish it from primitive religion and other classical religious forms.

Universal and exclusive existence. National religion is a religion with strong national and local color, which is characterized by universality and exclusiveness of belief. First of all, ethnic religion is the common belief of all members of the nation and the country, and every member of the nation and the country is a natural and legitimate believer of ethnic religion. Its naturalness lies in the objective basis given to it by the same language, region and mode of production, which will inevitably lead to the historical process of spiritual and cultural unity and the same religious belief. Its legitimacy lies in that the social system and state management of * * * provide a unified ideology and religious belief, and regard religious belief of * * * as the compulsory obligation of the whole people. No matter who believes in a unified and official god according to national customs and national codes, there is no room for personal choice. In the early days of civilized society, China, Egyptian, Greek, Indian, Babylonian and other nationalities and countries, their national religions were universal. Accordingly, although some religions are also produced within a certain nation or country and only believed by some of its members, they cannot be classified as ethnic-ethnic religions because they are not universal, but are just ordinary ethnic religions. Taoism in China, for example, is a native religion, but it has never reached the point of universal belief, so it is not a state religion. Historically, due to the influence of social changes, religious development and mutual contact and exchanges with other nationalities and countries, some nationalities or countries have lost their popularity and only a few believers, and at the same time they have lost their qualifications as national and national religions. Brahmanism in India and Shintoism in Japan belong to this type. Although some ethnic groups have been scattered around the world because of the demise of ancient countries, their original ethnic group-ethnic religion has not lost its universality, and it is the same belief of ethnic members scattered all over the country, so it is still a national religion. This is Judaism.

Because the nation-state religion has grown up on the basis of the social conditions of various nationalities and countries, the differences in geographical environment, lifestyle and state rule of various nationalities and countries determine that the nation-state religion is exclusive. On the one hand, it only belongs to the belief of the members of the nation or country, and generally does not spread to the outside world except the nation and country it conquered; On the other hand, it is restricted by the unique social conditions of its own nation and country, and its content and form are strongly ethnic and local, which determines that it lacks extensive adaptability and can only survive under the social conditions of its own nation or country and similar nations and countries. This makes the fate of religion in the nation-state closely linked with the fate of the nation-state. When Persians and Greek Macedonians conquered the ancient Babylonian kingdom in the two river basins, Babylonian religion gradually died out. Rome's invasion of Greece led to the disappearance of ancient Greek religion. Mazda in Persia also declined with the conquest of King Alexander of Macedonia, and made a comeback after the nation and country gained independence.

Consistency between religious belief and national consciousness. With the formation and development of the nation-state, the national consciousness, which is different from the original clan and tribe consciousness with blood relationship as the main content, has gradually matured on the basis of the same geographical environment and cultural tradition. At the beginning of civilized society, the system of the integration of politics and religion closely linked the religion of nation-state with the social life of nation-state, which was the main form of national culture and ideology. It has penetrated deeply into the thoughts and emotions of the nation and has become an important part of the national spirit and national self-awareness. Ethnic consciousness and ethnic and religious beliefs are intertwined, reflecting the understanding, psychology and emotion of the nation and the basic beliefs and norms of the whole nation and its members to settle down. National consciousness also includes religious world outlook and outlook on life, including basic religious beliefs, doctrines and norms. Therefore, members of the whole nation-state regard their own ethnic religion as the orthodox cultural tradition and value basis, and learn from it the spiritual motivation and code of conduct of life. At this point, the relationship between religion and national consciousness in nation-state is quite similar to that between primitive religion and clan consciousness, and they are both the result of the system of the integration of politics and religion. For example, the ancient Han nationality in China paid attention to blood relationship, traditional customs and ethics, which was closely related to the religion of nation-state, that is, Confucianism, and was consistent with the basic teachings of Confucianism, such as worshipping heaven and worshipping ancestors, learning from the natural principles, Shinto teachings, etc., and permeated with the religious spirit of Confucianism.

The emergence of multifunctional gods and the hierarchy of gods. In the early days of polytheism worship in primitive religion, every thing and every phenomenon had its own gods, and the spiritual strength of the gods was extremely limited. Each god could only manage one thing and perform his duties. There is no difference between the two, and there is no affiliation between them. With the development of society and the growth of practical ability, people's contact surface has increased, their horizons have been broadened, and their rational ability has been enhanced, enabling them to discover the internal connection and the unity of diversity from various complex things and phenomena. Especially for the first time in human history, the social division of labor between agriculture and animal husbandry has led people to pay more and more attention to natural things and phenomena that directly affect their franchise production, and no longer pay attention to other irrelevant things. This change is reflected in the religious concept, that is, the original special and scattered gods are gradually unified, some gods are combined into one, some gods are transformed into functions, and some gods are endowed with greater divinity and more functions. For example, with the establishment of geographical villages, communities and tribes, a regional protector, the "social god", has emerged. The country god is a land god, which integrates all kinds of natural gods and country gods and their functions, and becomes a multifunctional god in charge of the prosperity of people and animals, the bumper harvest of crops and regional security. In ancient Greece, because navigation gained special significance in Greek life, Poseidon, the original land god, became the sea god to protect navigation. With the emergence of agriculture, the god of agriculture and animal husbandry has become the god of agriculture, and the goddess of hunting has become the goddess of harvest. In the historical process of the formation of the nation-state, this situation has become more and more serious with the merger and unification of social organizations, and finally only some multi-functional gods are left.

The enhancement of divinity and the diversification of functions will inevitably lead to the contrast and difference of divinity and function between gods, thus resulting in the division of size and strength. In particular, the social class differences formed by the emergence of class will inevitably leave its image in religious concepts. As a result, the gods were also organized and unified, forming a certain order and having a hierarchical relationship with each other. The Supreme God appears in the form of the Supreme God who transcends the gods and becomes the master and monarch of the world of gods, while the gods are subordinate to the Supreme God as their bureaucrats and subordinates. This is monotheism, the predecessor of monotheism. Minority religions generally worship the supreme God. For example, the traditional religion in China worships Heaven (God), which is the master of nature and the supreme god who commands the gods. In Oracle Bone Inscriptions, there are records of wind, thunder and rain. Brahmanism in India believes in Brahma, which is the root and cause of all things. Vishnu, Shiva and Brahma are manifestations of Brahma, and other gods are also manifestations of Brahma at different stages. Japanese Shintoism worships the gods of Shintoism, and other gods are under its jurisdiction. The ancient Greek religion believed in Zeus, who was the leader of the gods on Mount Olympus and dominated the whole natural and social order.

There are some special cases in history. For example, although the religion of ancient Egypt was also a supremacist religion, the supremacists it worshipped rotated with the change of the political center of the unified kingdom. When a certain area becomes the capital, its local god is upgraded to the highest god in the country. The supreme god of ancient Babylonian religion also rotated, but the reason was that the invaders always turned the supreme god of their own national beliefs into the supreme god worshipped by the conquered nation. Persian religion worships the God Er, whose good and evil are distinct. God is divided into two opposing groups, light and dark, and it is a dualistic supremacist religion. Judaism believes in the only God, Yahweh, and is the earliest and only monotheism in ancient national religions. However, all these ethnic religions reflect the hierarchy of class society in different forms.

The unity of the protector and the most high god. Patron worship has long existed in clan religion in primitive society and is an important content of primitive religion. However, the initial worship of patron saint was mainly based on clan ancestor worship, and later with the emergence of geographical villages and tribes, the local patron saint was also based on regional relations, all of which had certain natural characteristics. However, with the formation of tribal alliances that unite many tribes, especially the need of political rule during the period when the nation-state came into being, the worship of patron saint has increased more and more social content, and the political relationship between people has also been clearly reflected in it. In the historical process of the integration of social life organizations, the integration of the patron saint is also synchronized with the integration of religious beliefs. The country unifies the belief of the whole nation in the ruling class religion. In concrete manifestation, this unity is that the protector of the ruler belongs to the protector of other races, and then develops into the protector of the whole nation-state and the object of national worship. In order to strengthen the sacredness of the protector of the ruler and strengthen the sense of identity and belonging of the whole people to this protector, which is consistent with the position of the ruler in the world, his protector has also been promoted to the highest position in the sacred world and become the supreme god. Other gods were either abolished, merged or placed under the rule of the highest god. In this way, in the nation-state religion, the patron saint and the supreme god are integrated into one, becoming the creator of the world and the protector of the nation, with dual identities.

China's Confucian Heaven, Greek Zeus, Egyptian Sun God, Persian Ahura, Japanese Shinto God and Jewish Yahweh are all dualistic gods that unify the national protector and supreme creator. However, because these supreme gods are also protectors of the nation-state, their kingdom will never go beyond the territorial cities of the nation-state they protect. Beyond this limit, they will be ruled by protectors of other nation-States. In other words, the supreme significance of the patron saint of the nation-state is extremely limited, only applicable to the national scope, only applicable to the original patron saint of the ruled. Therefore, its survival is directly related to the survival of the nation-state and depends on its own protection ability. In ancient times, the supreme god worshipped by many nations and countries such as Babylon, Egypt, Greece and Persia, because it was the protector of the nation and country, all perished with the loss of the nation or country.

The combination of divine right and monarchical right. Clan chiefs and tribal chiefs are often religious leaders and ancestor worshippers at the same time, but this generally only shows that he is the leader who leads all members of his clan and tribe to serve the gods, and does not mean that he has any special relationship with the gods and is given any privileges. Since the era of tribal alliance, there has been a phenomenon that leaders have promoted themselves to be the only privileged figures who can communicate with the gods, thus monopolizing the power to worship heaven. The continuous development of this phenomenon, in the process of the formation of the nation-state, further produced the monarch of the nation-state, and linked his ancestors or protectors with the supreme god, making it have the performance of the supreme god. In this way, the king became a descendant or even incarnation of the most high god, and he himself was mysterious.

According to historical records, China called the emperor "the son of heaven" at least from the Zhou Dynasty. The kings of ancient Egypt regarded the supreme god worshipped by the nation, state and religion as their own protector and claimed to be the son of the supreme god. Babylonian religion also directly deified human rulers, thinking that their ancestors were gods or had certain divinity. Japanese Shintoism regards Zhao Tianshen as the ancestor of emperors in previous dynasties and respects them as gods. After the emergence of the monarchy in the Roman Empire, it also sanctified its king with the help of religion, resulting in the worship of "Emperor God". Sura is considered the darling of God. Caesar and caligula held a deification ceremony for themselves before their death, and Octavian also accepted the title of "Augustus (Saint)".

The deification of the king gives the position and power of the king a sacred source, and the kingship is granted by God. Thus, the king became a member of the natural nation-state and had to worship his ancestors. Naturally, the king is also the supreme leader of the national religion and the chief priest of ancestor worship activities. Only he is qualified to lead people to sacrifice to the supreme God. At this point, monarchical power is combined with theocracy, and political privilege is also combined with religious privilege. The king has all the power in one, and naturally becomes the sacred autocratic monarch of the nation-state. The emergence of this new form of integration of politics and religion, which is different from the primitive society, not only shows that new national politics has emerged in human society after the formation of classes and nationalities, but also reflects the turning point of religious content to socialization.

In ancient religions, China produced the idea of divine right of monarchy. He believes that the rule of kings over all peoples is appointed by heaven, which represents the education of heaven to mankind and embodies the will of heaven. The core of Japanese Shintoism is the doctrine of divine right of monarchy, which regards the emperor as the representative of the celestial god who rules the world and emphasizes that every citizen should only obey His Holiness and Chongqing. King Azores of Babylon always described all his actions as the decisions of the supreme God Azores, claiming that he was only the executor of God's will. Brahmanism in India believes that Brahmins are born with dharma, so they rank first among all beings and dominate everything in the world.

Of course, among the ancient national religions, some countries practiced the state religion system instead of the integration of politics and religion. The Roman Empire in its heyday is typical. This is mainly because the territory of the Roman Empire is constantly expanding, so that its national religion is constantly impacted by the religious beliefs of conquered nations and countries, and it has to rely on the power of the country to safeguard itself and unify its ideology. At the same time, the power of the emperor was greatly expanded by the strength of the empire, which exceeded the limits that religion could restrict. Therefore, the state religion of Rome has completely become a tool controlled by the emperor, and the religious power is dominated by the royal power.

The emergence of monk classes and normative forms. In order to meet the needs of religious reform and political rule, a large number of full-time wizards have emerged, and a special social class with religion as its occupation has gradually formed. They are not only agents of the increasing religious affairs among the people, but also special tools to help kings hold national festivals and help the ruling class use religion to ideologically control all members of society. This class, together with the political leading group of the nation-state, has formed the right-hand man of absolute monarchy, integrating theocracy and political power, so it also enjoys considerable privileges in society.

According to written records, professional religious figures appeared in China before the Shang Dynasty, and there was a division of labor among divination, history, witchcraft, prayer and even sacrifice. In the caste system maintained by Brahmanism in India, the dominant Brahman is a self-contained and handed down from generation to generation. The priestly system in the Roman Empire has a long history, and it began to form in the primitive commune period. The oldest priests included Pontifix, who was in charge of calendars and festivals, Fezia Liss, who served as a messenger and diplomatic mission, Ogur, who was good at divination, Rex Sacloren, who presided over sacrificial ceremonies, and Vestalis, who served the goddess Vesta. Caesar, Octavian and their successors all held the position of high priest in Pontifix. In order to serve the gods, the ancient Babylonians produced a large number of clergy who specially served their daily lives, including the high priest who conveyed enlightenment and explained scriptures, the music god who sang hymns and lamentations to praise and comfort God, the kitchen god who made food for God, the person who bathed God, the waiter who accompanied God to sleep in the bedroom and so on. In addition, there are priestesses who are considered as human wives who serve God, and prostitutes who devote themselves to holiness and prostitution. During the polis period, the priest was the core of the polis ruling group, and the ruler was the leader of the priest. Later, the priests formed a special aristocratic group, even clashed with the monarch for their own interests, and participated in major political events such as conspiracy to usurp the throne, the rise and fall of the dynasty, and foreign liaison.

In order to further strengthen the orthodoxy of national religion and its binding force on the thoughts and behaviors of all members of society, monks carried out a series of reforms and supplements on religious etiquette and organization according to political needs and religious teachings. Make it unified, systematic and institutionalized, establish etiquette rules and organizational system with witchcraft as the core, and make the nation-state have a standardized form in behavior and organization.

In the ancient nation-state, which practiced the system of combining politics with religion, this religious norm was unified with the political system, which not only realized the organization and standardization of all social members' religious behaviors and all social behaviors, but also became a powerful tool to directly maintain the political ruling order. Indian Brahmanism formulated a series of religious norms long ago, which were fixed in the Code of Manu in legal form. Ancient religions in China also formed various regulations on religious ceremonies and put forward a whole set of ancestor worship system. These norms closely combine religion with politics and ethics, and directly play a role in maintaining the patriarchal political system. Zhou Zhili, admired by Confucius, is a sample of this politicized and ethical religious norm. Religion in ancient Egypt is classified as a typical ritual religion by religious scholars, and the correct and standardized ritual actions controlled by priests and wizards even exceed the piety to the gods. When Moses founded Judaism, he formulated the Ten Commandments of Moses and a series of laws at the beginning, which not only stipulated the religious creed and etiquette, but also stipulated the code of conduct. Not only the religious system has been established, but also the social structure and national laws have been established.

Theological theory and the formation of religious classics. Primitive religion, as a spontaneous and natural religion, is good at action but not thinking. Apart from simple and scattered religious concepts and fantasy myths and legends, there is no abstract system theory, let alone religious classics. After the emergence of the nation-state, the progress of human rational thinking ability and the emergence of professional religious classes constitute very favorable conditions and lay the foundation for the establishment of theological theory. Monks began with the transformation of complex primitive religious concepts, and on the basis of unifying and confirming a series of myths about the origin and ancestors of nations, they gradually formed a relatively systematic doctrine system and preliminary theological thoughts, theorized religious concepts, and thus produced the earliest religious theology.

The emergence of theological theory not only marks the unification and consolidation of religious ideas within the nation-state, but also marks that the original, rough and spontaneous religious ideas have been replaced by new, exquisite and artificial religious theology, which also means that the persuasiveness and deception of religion have increased, and it is easier to maintain and develop religious beliefs through the conquest of human rationality. At the same time, it also provides the possibility for people to revise religious teachings and reinterpret religious concepts according to social changes and their own needs. On the one hand, it greatly increases the adaptability of religion to society and has stronger vitality and durability. On the other hand, it breeds the possibility of ideological division within religion, thus various sects and religions emerge one after another.

With the appearance of writing, religious classics describing theological theories have appeared in some nation countries with high cultural level, and religious theology often becomes the earliest written record. In China's Oracle Bone Inscriptions, most of the recorded contents are about religious concepts and sacrificial ceremonies, and the Book of Changes, which describes divination theory, is the oldest work. At the end of primitive society in ancient India, a special work, Rigveda, was formed to reflect the content of natural religion. After Brahmanism came into being, three Vedic classics were compiled: Samadha, Yale Veda and Avina Veda, which constituted the three major programs of classical Brahmanism, including the basic contents of its religious teachings and beliefs. The ancient Egyptians preserved some fragments of religious scriptures. The cultural materials handed down from ancient Babylon are mainly religious. In fact, ancient Greek philosophy is also an extension of religious theory, and the theories of some factions are even directly a theology, such as Pythagoras.