Various Depictions. Just as a god could have many different names, each revealing something about the nature of the deity, so could a god be depicted in many different ways. Egyptian gods could be shown as fully human, fully animal, or perhaps most familiar to even the most casual student of ancient Egypt, in a hybrid form combining both human and animal elements. When creating images of a god, the Egyptians were not attempting to depict the god as he really was, but rather their goal was to communicate something essential about the god's nature.

Animal Form. The earliest evidence for the depiction of Egyptian gods seems to indicate that in the prehistoric period the Egyptians worshiped divine powers in animal form. Around the beginning of the Early Dynastic Period (circa 3000-2675 B.C.E.), powers that had been worshiped as...