"Sphinxes are legion in Egypt what is so special about this one? . . . We shall take a stroll around the monument itself, scrutinizing its special features and analyzing the changes it experienced throughout its history. The evidence linked to the statue will enable us to trace its evolution . . . down to the worship it received in the first centuries of our own era, when Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans mingled together in devotion to this colossus, illustrious witness to a past that was already more than two millennia old." from the IntroductionThe Great Sphinx of Giza is one of the few monuments from ancient Egypt familiar to nearly everyone. In a land where the colossal is part of the landscape, it still stands out, the largest known statue in Egypt. Originally constructed as the image of King Chephren, builder of the second of the Great Pyramids, the Sphinx later acquired new fame in the guise of the sun god Harmakhis. Major construction efforts in the New Kingdom and Roman Period transformed the monument and its environs into an impressive place of pilgrimage, visited until the end of pagan antiquity.Christiane Zivie-Coche, a distinguished Egyptologist, surveys the long history of the Great Sphinx and discusses its original appearance, its functions and religious significance, its relation to the many other Egyptian sphinxes, and the various discoveries connected with it. From votive objects deposited by the faithful and inscriptions that testify to details of worship, she reconstructs the cult of Harmakhis (in Egyptian, Har-em-akhet, or "Horus-in-the-horizon"), which arose around the monument in the second millennium. "We are faced," she writes, "with a religious phenomenon that is entirely original, though not unique: a theological reinterpretation turned an existing statue into the image of the god who had been invented on its basis."The coming of Christianity ended the Great Sphinx's religious role. The ever-present sand buried it, thus sparing it the fate that overtook the nearby pyramids, which were stripped of their stone by medieval builders. The monument remained untouched, covered by its desert blanket, until the first excavations. Zivie-Coche details the archaeological activity aimed at clearing the Sphinx and, later, at preserving it from the corrosive effects of a rising water table."

In their wide-ranging interpretation of the religion of ancient Egypt, Francoise Dunand and Christiane Zivie-Coche explore how, over a period of roughly 3500 years, the Egyptians conceptualized their relations with the gods. Drawing on the insights of anthropology, the authors discuss such topics as the identities, images, and functions of the gods; rituals and liturgies; personal forms of piety expressing humanity's need to establish a direct relation with the divine; and the afterlife, a central feature of Egyptian religion. That religion, the authors assert, was characterized by the remarkable continuity of its ritual practices and the ideas of which they were an expression.Throughout, Dunand and Zivie-Coche take advantage of the most recent archaeological discoveries and scholarship. Gods and Men in Egypt is unique in its coverage of Egyptian religious expression in the Ptolemaic and Roman periods. Written with nonspecialist readers in mind, it is largely concerned with the continuation of Egypt's traditional religion in these periods, but it also includes fascinating accounts of Judaism in Egypt and the appearance and spread of Christianity there."

In their wide-ranging interpretation of the religion of ancient Egypt, Francoise Dunand and Christiane Zivie-Coche explore how, over a period of roughly 3500 years, the Egyptians conceptualized their relations with the gods. Drawing on the insights of anthropology, the authors discuss such topics as the identities, images, and functions of the gods; rituals and liturgies; personal forms of piety expressing humanity's need to establish a direct relation with the divine; and the afterlife, a central feature of Egyptian religion. That religion, the authors assert, was characterized by the remarkable continuity of its ritual practices and the ideas of which they were an expression.Throughout, Dunand and Zivie-Coche take advantage of the most recent archaeological discoveries and scholarship. Gods and Men in Egypt is unique in its coverage of Egyptian religious expression in the Ptolemaic and Roman periods. Written with nonspecialist readers in mind, it is largely concerned with the continuation of Egypt's traditional religion in these periods, but it also includes fascinating accounts of Judaism in Egypt and the appearance and spread of Christianity there."

English summary: This Presentation takes Egypt's entire history into account. Reaching from the beginning to the end of this culture, it also takes the end of the religion of the pharaohs into account. Next to Greeks, Judeans, Syrians and Christians came to Egypt. How did the people of this poly cultural Old Egypt define the relationship to the gods during their lives and after their death? How did they construct the relationship between the real physical world and the invisible world, that was seen as just as real as the physical world. Along the questions these issues follow: relationship between the political and the religious, the term godly, service to the gods and personal devotion, the world of the dead and burial traditions. German description: In dieser Darstellung wird die gesamte Geschichte Agyptens in den Blick genommen: von ihren Anfangen bis zum Ende dieser Kultur, mit dem auch die Praxis der Religion der Pharaonen endete. Schon in fruhen Zeiten hatte Agypten Fremde und ihre Gotter aufgenommen, vor allem Gottheiten syro-palastinischen Ursprungs. Neben den Griechen lebten seit mehreren Jahrhunderten auch Judaer im Land, schliesslich kam das Christentum nach Agypten. Wie haben die Menschen dieses plurikulturellen Alten Agypten ihr Verhaltnis zu den Gottern, die sie sich gegeben hatten, zu Lebzeiten und nach dem Tod gesehen? Wie haben sie die Beziehungen zwischen ihrer realen physischen Welt und der Welt des Unsichtbaren, die als ebenso real galt wie die sichtbare, gestaltet? Unter diesen Fragestellungen ergeben sich die Themen: die Beziehungen zwischen dem Politischen und dem Religiosen; der Begriff des Gottlichen; der Dienst fur die Gotter und die personliche Frommigkeit; die Welt der Toten und die Bestattungspraktiken.