Usually depicted as a human female without overt animalistic traits, Isis demonstrated her animal ties in a more subtle way: She was often depicted with cowвЂ™s horns atop her head, a visual nod to Hathor. ( The pharaoh Hatshepsut claimed Amun was her father.)ДЄlthough she was known as вЂњthe golden one,вЂќ and would blaze brightly throughout centuries, HathorвЂ™s role would be subsumed by the rise in importance of Isis. Amun is often referred to as the вЂњgod of two horns.вЂќ Rams were linked with fertility and war, making him a powerful protector figure for the New Kingdom pharaohs. Often represented in his merged form with Re, Amun-Re is shown as a ram.ДЄmunвЂ™s ram associations go very far back to the ancient Egyptian god Khnum, creator of human beings. This shift had a theological impact, elevating the deity Amun to the position of state god, worshipped in Theban temples, such as Karnak.

Power shifts often led to a geographical shift, such as in the New Kingdom period (1539- 1075 B.C.), when pharaonic power moved from Memphis to Thebes. On proclamation as the new Apis bull, he was brought to the temple in Memphis and given his own вЂњharemвЂќ of cows. Then the search would begin for his successor, which had to display specific markings on his coat. When an Apis bull died, his body was interred at nearby Saqqara. The ritual of Apis, as an individual bull, dates to the Old Kingdom (2575-2150 B.C.), where he would be set to run in his home city of Memphis, symbolically fertilising the land. In EgyptвЂ™s bull cult, the divine aspect centred not on a species, but on an individual. In addition to HorusвЂ™s falcon form, male gods were depicted in the form of bulls and rams.

( Egypt's pharaohs could deliver divine justice from beyond the grave.) Horus is known to have emerged from numerous ancient avian and falcon gods: The name Horus means вЂњthe distant one,вЂќ with the sense of the one who flies high, and so establishing the link between birds, flight, and religious awe. This vessel, sailing across the sky and down into the underworld to rise again at dawn, was a central tenet of Egyptian theology it affirmed cosmic order, sustained by the gods, and their representative on earth, the pharaoh. Although he became associated with the sky, in very early iconography he is also shown in a solar bark. Horus was represented as a manвЂ™s body with a falconвЂ™s head. One of the most ancient was Horus the Elder. TransformationsД«y the time the Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza was built in the mid-third millennium B.C., gods and goddesses were taking on an array of animal forms. Re then merges with other gods, including Horus himself, to create a Re-Horus composite god, Re-Harakhty, who is also falcon-headed. The falcon-headed HorusвЂ™s very early role as a solar deity would be merged into Re, who was also often depicted as a falcon. As the kingdoms of Egypt changed over time, so too would its deities shift, evolve, and sometimes blend.

The Egyptian pantheon can appear bewildering, but itвЂ™s important to keep in mind that Egyptian cosmology lasted for millennia. Ancient Egyptian belief generated such exuberant creations as the scorpion goddess Selket the baboon-headed (or sometimes ibis-headed) god of learning, Thoth and Bes, a deity of the household and everyday pleasures, often depicted as comically ugly, with wings, and attributes of a lion or other beasts.

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