The Religion of Ancient Egypt — William Matthew Flinders Petri

Before dealing with the special varieties of the Egyptians belief in gods it is best to tr y to avoid a misunderstanding of their whole conception of the supernatural The term god has come to tacitly imply to our minds such a highly specialised group of attributes that we can hardly throw our ideas back into the more remote conceptions to which we also attach the same name It is unfortunate that ever y other word for supernatural intelligences has become debased so that we cannot well speak of demons devils ghosts or fairies without implying a noxious or a trifling meaning quite unsuited to the ancient deities that were so beneficent and powerful If then we use the word god for such conceptions it must always be with the reser vation that the word has now a ver y different meaning from what it had to ancient minds