Certain numbers were considered sacred, holy, or magical by the ancient Egyptians, particularly 2, 3, 4, 7, and their multiples and sums.^[1]

Three: symbol of plurality

The basic symbol for plurality among the ancient Egyptians 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 and Tefnut, and the triad of Horus, Osiris, and Isis. ^[2]

Examples

• The beer used to trick Sekhmet soaked three hands into the ground.
• The second god, Re, named three times to define the sun: dawn, noon, and evening.
• Thoth is described as the “thrice-great god of wisdom”. ^[3]
• A doomed prince was doomed to three fates: to die by a crocodile, a serpent, or a dog. ^[4]
• Three groups of three attempts each (nine attempts) were required for a legendary peasant to recover his stolen goods.^[5]
• A boasting mage claimed to be able to cast a great darkness to last three days. ^[6]
• After asking Thoth for help, a King of Ethiopia was brought to Thebes and publicly beaten three further times. ^[7]
• An Ethiopian mage tried—and failed—three times to defeat the greatest mage of Egypt. ^[8]
• An Egyptian mage, in an attempt to enter the land of the dead, threw a certain powder on a fire three times.^[9]
• There are twelve (three times four) sections of the Egyptian land of the dead. The dead disembark at the third.^[10]
• The Knot of Isis, representing life, has three loops.^[11]

Genera Mecistops Crocodylus Osteolaemus See full taxonomy. ... For other uses, see Serpent (disambiguation). ... Trinomial name Canis lupus familiaris The dog (Canis lupus familiaris) is a domestic subspecies of the wolf, a mammal of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. ... John Dee and Edward Kelley evoking a spirit: Elizabethans who claimed magical knowledge A magician is a person skilled in the mysterious and hidden art of magic, which can be described as either the act of entertaining with tricks that are in apparent violation of natural law, such as those... For the ancient capital of Boeotia, see Thebes, Greece. ... For other uses, see Afterlife (disambiguation). ... The Knot of Isis is a symbol of Egyptian mythology. ...

Five

Examples

• The second god, Re, named five gods and goddesses.^[12]
• Thoth added five days to the year by winning the light from the moon in a game of gambling. ^[13]
• It took five days for the five children of Nut to be born. These are Osiris, Nephthys, Isis, Set and Horus the Elder - this should not be mistaken with Harpocrates (Horus the Infant) whom defeated Set in battle. ^[14]
• A boasting mage claimed to be able to bring the Pharaoh 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.^[15]
• 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.^[16]
• The star, or pentagram, representing the afterlife, has five points.^[17]

Fives are less common in Egyptian mythology. Re or bre (also in form more/mori and numerous variations thereof) is an interjection common to languages of Balkan linguistic union (Albanian, Bulgarian, Greek, Macedonian, Romanian, Serbian and Turkish). ... Thoth (Ramesseum, Luxor) Thoth (his Greek name derived from the Egyptian *, written by Egyptians as ) was considered one of the most important deities of the Egyptian pantheon, often depicted with the head of an ibis. ... In Egyptian mythology, Nuit or Nut was the sky goddess, in contrast to most other mythologies, which usually have a sky father. ... For other uses, see Pharaoh (disambiguation). ... A pentagram A pentagram (sometimes known as a pentalpha or pentangle or, more formally, as a star pentagon) is the shape of a five-pointed star drawn with five straight strokes. ... For other uses, see Afterlife (disambiguation). ...

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 out of killing. ^[18]
• In her search for her husband’s pieces, the goddess Isis was guarded by seven scorpions. ^[19]
• A legendary famine lasted seven years. ^[20]
• The lowest amount that the Nile flooded to solve the famine was seven cubits. The highest was four times seven (28) cubits. ^[21]
• A doomed prince found a tower seventy cubits high with seventy windows. ^[22]
• Set tore the god Osiris’ body into fourteen pieces: seven each for the two regions of Upper and Lower Egypt. ^[23]
• The Pool symbol, representing water, contains seven zigzag lines.^[24]
• The Gold symbol has seven spines on its underside.^[25]

For other uses, see Sekhmet (disambiguation). ... This article discusses the ancient goddess Isis. ... There is also Nile, a death metal band from South Carolina, USA. The Nile in Egypt Length 6 695 km Elevation of the source 1 134 m Average discharge 2 830 m³/s Area watershed 3 400 000 km² Origin Africa Mouth the Mediterranean Basin countries Uganda - Sudan - Egypt The... For other uses, see Osiris (disambiguation). ... The Pool symbol in Egyptian mythology represents water. ... Impact from a water drop causes an upward rebound jet surrounded by circular capillary waves. ... Nebu is the Egyptian symbolof gold. ...

Notes

1. ^  "Meaning in Many: The Symbolism of Numbers," Symbol & Magic in Egyptian Art, by Richard H. Wilkinson, Thames and Hudson, 1994, page 127.
2. ^  "Meaning in Many: The Symbolism of Numbers," Symbol & Magic in Egyptian Art, by Richard H. Wilkinson, Thames and Hudson, 1994, page 131-133.
3. ^  See Hermes Trismegistus.
4. ^  "Tale of the Doomed Prince," Egyptian Myth and Legend, Donald Mackenzie, chapter 23. 1907.
5. ^  "The Peasant and the Workman"
6. ^  "Se-Osiris and the Sealed Letter"
7. ^  "Se-Osiris and the Sealed Letter"
8. ^  "Se-Osiris and the Sealed Letter"
9. ^  "The Land of the Dead"
10. ^  "The Land of the Dead"
11. ^  "The Knot of Isis (tiet, tit, thet, tiyet)"
12. ^  "The Story of Re"
13. ^  Associated with the five "extra" days in the Egyptian calendar. From "The Story of Isis and Osiris".
14. ^  Associated with the five "extra" days in the Egyptian calendar. From "The Story of Isis and Osiris".
15. ^  "Se-Osiris and the Sealed Letter"
16. ^  "Se-Osiris and the Sealed Letter"
17. ^  "The Star {seba)"
18. ^  "Creation Legend of Sun Worshippers," Egyptian Myth and Legend, Donald Mackenzie, chapter 1. 1907.
19. ^  "The Tragedy of Osiris," Egyptian Myth and Legend, Donald Mackenzie, chapter 2. 1907.
20. ^  "The Tradition of Seven Lean Years in Egypt," The Ancient Near East Voume 1, James B. Pritchard, ed., page 24-27. Princeton University Press, 1958.
21. ^  "The Tradition of Seven Lean Years in Egypt," The Ancient Near East Voume 1, James B. Pritchard, ed., page 26. Princeton University Press, 1958.
22. ^  "Tale of the Doomed Prince," Egyptian Myth and Legend, Donald Mackenzie, chapter 23. 1907.
23. ^  According to Plutarch. "Osiris, the murdered god," A History of Religious Ideas, Vol. 1: From the Stone Age to the Eleusinian Mysteries, Mircea Eliade, page 97, note 35. University of Chicago Press, 1978.
24. ^  "The Pool (she)"
25. ^  "Gold (nebu)"

Hermes Trismegistus (Greek: , thrice-great Hermes; Latin: Mercurius ter Maximus) is the syncretism of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth. ... The ancient civil Egyptian Calendar, known as the Annus Vagus or Wandering Year, had a year that was 365 days long, consisting of 12 months of 30 days each, plus 5 extra days at the end of the year. ... The ancient civil Egyptian Calendar, known as the Annus Vagus or Wandering Year, had a year that was 365 days long, consisting of 12 months of 30 days each, plus 5 extra days at the end of the year. ... The American archaeologist James Bennett Pritchard (October 4, 1909 – January 1, 1997) explicated the interrelationships of the religions of ancient Israel, Canaan, Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon. ... The American archaeologist James Bennett Pritchard (October 4, 1909 – January 1, 1997) explicated the interrelationships of the religions of ancient Israel, Canaan, Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon. ... Mestrius Plutarchus (Greek: Πλούταρχος; 46 - 127), better known in English as Plutarch, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist. ... Mircea Eliade (March 13 [O.S. February 28] 1907 – April 22, 1986) was a Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. ...

See also

• Numbers in Norse mythology
• Numbers in Greek mythology
• Egyptian mythology

Numbers are significant in Norse mythology although not to the extent which they are in some traditions e. ... Egyptian mythology or Egyptian religion is the succession of tentative beliefs held by the people of Egypt for over three thousand years, prior to major exposure to Christianity and Islam. ...

General Sources

• "Ancient Egypt: the Mythology"