Egyptian belief system is fluid and the creation myth assumes many forms. Underneath them lies the basic experience of the Sun's action upon the slime left by the receding waters of the Nile flood.. The earliest form of the myth, modified later by the theologies of Heliopolis and Memphis, presents the sun-god Atum-Re, seated upon the primeval hillock, and bringing into existence 'the gods who are in his following'. But Atum himself is depicted as rising out of Nun, the primeval ocean (This sounds familiar! Someone must have done some stealing).
In the form of the myth which belonged to Hermopolis, in Middle Egypt, the emergence of Atum was due to the activity of the Ogdoad (These were conceived of as animal forms, four snakes and four dogs, representing primeval chaos. Their names were Nun and his consort Naunet, Kuk and Kauket, Huh and Hauhet and lastly Amon and Amaunet). Atum, emerging from the waters, brings the elements of chaos into order, so that they appear in the texts as gods functioning in their proper places.
In an early form of the myth, according to the Pyramid Texts, Atum is represented as fertilizing himself and producing Shu (air) and Tefnut (moisture); from the union of this pair came Geb (earth-god) and Nut (sky-goddess); here the Heliopolitan theology introduced the figures of the Osirian group, and made Geb and Nut give birth to Osiris and Isis, side by side with Seth and Nephthys, thus completing the Heliopolitan Ennead.
There is another form of the myth arising from the desire of Memphis to vindicate its importance as the new capital of the first dynasties of Egypt. Ptah was the local god of Memphis. The Memphite Theology, as the document which contains this form of the myth is usually called, has transformed the Heliopolitan Ennead by giving the primacy in the activity of creation to Ptah.
In the part of the Memphite Theology which concerns creation, Ptah is equated with Nun, the primeval ocean, and is presented as bringing Atum and all the gods of the Heliopolitan Ennead into existence by his divine word (Here it is again! The power of the word). What might be called the creed of the Memphite Theology is briefly summarized in the following passage of the text:
- "Ptah who is upon the Great Throne
- Ptah-Nun, the father who begot Atum;
- Ptah-Naunet, the mother who bore Atum;
- Ptah the Great, that is, the heart and tongue of the Ennead
- (Ptah) who gave birth to the gods."
