The Gods of the Egyptians, Volume 1: Volume 1

i have to keep reminding myself that this racist book was written over a century ago. i keep reading about the "half-savage" egyptians. the creators of civilization as savages can only be that old of a theory. it's pretty well accepted noww that they were brilliant, but at the time of the writting, they kept trying to give the credit for the achievements to the influence of aryans. there are several references to the religion of the egyptians as being "ridiculous" and hard for us to understand their pecularities.i can't believe that this kind of language was once acceptable for scholarly people to use as a legitimate method of describing a culture. describing the egyptians as "primative half-savages" because they came out of africa astonished me. this was a good read once you get past the racism (if you can), but i can only give it 4 stars because of it. there is full trasliteration of the hieroglyphs, but very often the footnotes are in german, french, or equally untranslated hieroglyphs. i have to remember that this was writen for the scholar and not the lay reader. another reason for only 4 stars.

Published more than 100 years ago, it still appears to carry authority. Very detailed account of Egyptian deities. Needs concentrated reading; of interest to people with more than a passing interest in the topic. New edition. A second volume follows this.

I disagree that Budge did not mention that Christianity came from Egyptian religion. He did mention, in one of the first chapters that both Judaism, Christianity and Islam all are rooted in traditional Egyptian religious practice. I found that statement highly enlightening. And although he does pay tribuite to the classical Western view that ancient Egyptians were "half savage," he does clarify that he disagrees with that statement. In Budge's opinion, the Egyptians are clearly complex in their religious beliefs depending on where they lived and no broad statements of condemnation can be made about what little we understand of them. I do think he holds a high opinion of the ancient Egyptians, and although I cannot read hieroglyphics I trust that what he writes is to the best of his knowledge (at the time) correct.