The Collision And Fusion: Religion Of Ancient Egypt During The Ptolemaic Period

Religion played an important role in the process of the emergence anddevelopment of ancient Egyptian civilization. Before the Ptolemaic dynasty, the mostimportant features of ancient Egyptian religion was that the close relationship betweengod and man. The ancient Egyptian civilian through the communication with godpursued the purpose of life. The rulers of Egypt’s royal family were by increasing thecontact with the god to strengthen legitimacy and stability of their domination. Inancient Egypt, the creationism and afterlife were important parts of the ancientEgyptian religious myths and they are the foundation of the ancient Egyptian religion.Therefore, ancient Egyptian religion before the age of Hellenization laid the deepcornerstone in the Egyptian religion of Ptolemaic dynasty.The ancient Egyptian religion of Ptolemaic dynasty, mainly through the fusion ofancient Egyptian and Greek religion, achieved the goal of religious identity. Duringthis process, the two ethnic groups were trying to keep their own culture. LocalEgyptians were impossible to worship in the gods like Sarapis and give up theworship in Osiris, the same as the Greeks would not believe in Amun and give up theworship in Zeus. But during the whole Ptolemaic dynasty, promoting two religiouscultures was one of the rulers’ political means.Each nation’s religion was a cultural system. The religious cultures of all ethnicgroups of collision were in the process of communication, which the result hadformed the religious cultural fusion phenomenon. During the reign of Ptolemy, therelationship with the eastern Mediterranean world religion of Egypt showed atendency of bilateral and mutual fusion phenomenon. On the one hand, we saw theancient Egyptian religion which represented by the worship in Osiris and Isisspreading in Greek and Roman world; on the other hand, we also saw the influence ofGreek religious culture in the ancient Egyptian religion. During this period to form ofGnosticism and Hermes, and the same period of Judaism and later appeared some teachings of Islam.