4 Egyptian Myths That Inspired Cinema

Egyptian mythology is one of the oldest surviving mythologies in the world. While not as prevalent in popular culture as the Greek and Roman myths which have formed the entire basis of classical dramaturgy, Egyptian myths have had their fair share of influence on literature, theater, and of course, cinema. From literal retellings of Egyptian epics to mummies, vampires, and even superheroes, the mythologies of this ancient civilization can still be spotted on the big screen today.

In Egyptian Mythology, Bastet was the goddess of love, music, fertility, and home. She presided over domestic issues and protected pregnant women from disease. She also served as inspiration for one of the most recognizable characters in Western popular culture—Catwoman.

Bastet was the daughter of the sun deity, Ra, who was the most sacred of all the gods. Each day, Ra would travel across the sky pulling the sun into its position to bestow life upon the earth. His daughter was said to accompany him on this journey to safeguard him from harm. Bastet had the body of a woman but the head of a domestic cat, and her duality as a half woman half animal made her fiercely protective.

At night, she shifted into her feline form to watch over Ra while he slept. Ra’s mortal enemy was a demon named Apep, who took the form of a serpent. Apep’s greatest desire was to sow chaos and he represented all that was evil and dark. As such, he made repeated attempts on Ra’s life who, in his capacity of sun-giver, embodied everything that Apep opposed.

In the most famous myth concerning Bastet, she took her cat form and descended into the underworld to slay Apep. Apep’s death meant that the sun would continue to shine and the crops would continue to grow, so Bastet was worshiped as the goddess of fertility thereafter. Another myth concerning Bastet explains the origins of turquoise. Allegedly this precious gemstone is formed from the drops of her menstrual blood.

This association between women and cats, forged in Egyptian mythology, has been incredibly enduring. The concept of a woman’s body with the head of a cat formed the basis of the character Catwoman, created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger in 1940 which has since become one of the most popular DC characters of all time. Julie Newmar was the first actress to play Catwoman in the 1966 Batman TV show.

2004’s Catwoman, starring Halle Berry as the titular superhero, makes direct reference to the character’s roots in Egyptian mythology. Berry’s character is injured and left for dead until she is bitten by an Egyptian Mau cat who not only revives her but also bestows supernatural, feline abilities upon her. Catwoman has appeared multiple times across TV and film and has been played by actresses like Michelle Pfeiffer, Lee Meriwether, Anne Hathaway, and Zoe Kravitz.

Another feline Goddess in ancient Egypt was Sekhmet, who was Batet’s more fearsome counterpart. Where Batet had the face of a domestic cat, Sekhmet had that of a lioness and her temperament mirrored the more feral attributes of her head. In many myths, she is described as being Batet’s sister and Ra’s daughter. In the most famous myth concerning her, her barbarous tendencies are apparent.

Ra decided that humankind deserved to be punished for their indifference to the Gods so he asked Sekhmet to teach them a lesson. Sekhmet, however, went completely out of control, wreaking havoc on her victims and draining their blood. When Ra saw how close she was to wiping out mankind entirely, he realized he’d made a grave mistake. He tried to stop Sekhmet but was unable to curb her bloodthirsty desires. Instead, he told the people to stain beer with pomegranate seeds and spread it on the ground. Sekhmet, who thought that it was blood, drank all of the beer and eventually fell asleep, so humanity was spared her wrath. After this, the Egyptians celebrated Sekhmet, whom they revered as the goddess of destruction and healing, by drinking red beer in her honor.

This tale of a bloodthirsty immortal is widely regarded as one of the earliest vampire stories and has gone on to inspire an entire genre of gothic films. Therefore, films from Bram Stoker’s Dracula to the Twilight series can trace their origins back to this early tale of vampirism. Sekhmet also appears in 2019’s Godzilla King of Monsters as one of the titans terrorizing the Earth, as well as in Captain America: Civil War and the Stargate SG-1 TV series.

Mummies tend to be most people’s first encounter with Egyptian lore and indeed, they are one of the most widely fictionalized aspects of the ancient civilization. Since the first ever mummy film, The Haunted Curiosity Shop, in 1901 the genre has seen hundreds of additions. The ritual of mummification was widespread in ancient Egypt and began during the fourth and fifth dynasties. The Egyptians believed in preserving the human form as much as possible in preparation for the afterlife and so they developed a process where this became possible through the extraction of moisture from corpses.

Special priests worked as embalmers during this procedure which took seventy days. Not everyone was granted such a luxury, however. The mummification process was incredibly expensive and so usually reserved for Pharaohs, members of the nobility, or particularly wealthy commoners.

The myth of Osiris and Isis tells the story of how the first mummy came about. Isis and Osiris were the Queen and King of ancient Egypt and were deeply in love. Osiris had a jealous brother named Seth who wished to take the throne. He fashioned a beautiful, custom coffin to fit Osiris’ exact dimensions and began asking people to try to fit inside. He promised whoever fit inside the coffin would win it as a prize. It wasn’t long before Osiris came along and decided to try it. As soon as Osiris lay down in the coffin, Seth slammed the lid shut and nailed it closed, casting the coffin into the river Nile.

When Isis learned of her husband’s disappearance, she began frantically searching far and wide. Seth hurried to where the coffin had washed up among the reeds and cut Osiris’ body into hundreds of pieces which he scattered in the four corners of the earth. When Isis found her beloved’s remains, she wrapped them in fine cloth, binding him back together. Then she used her powers to revive him from the dead, resurrecting him as the first-ever mummy. However, he was unable to live with her and instead passed into the afterlife where he lived forever as a God.

The 1932 film, The Mummy, incorporates aspects of this myth into its plot. In the film, the eponymous mummy, Imhotep, attempts to revive his long-lost love who has been murdered by a jealous Pharaoh. This film went on to spawn several sequels including, The Mummy’s Hand (1940), The Mummy’s Tomb (1942), and The Mummy’s Ghost (1944) as well as a 1999 remake The Mummy which itself has a 2017 reboot and many sequels such as The Mummy Returns (2001) and The Scorpion King (2002).

One of the most famous Egyptian myths is that of Seth and Horus who battled fiercely for the right to the throne after Osiris’ death. Horus was the son of Isis and Osiris who set out to avenge his Father’s murder at the hands of his brother. In the myth The Contendings of Horus and Seth, we learn that a group of nine gods came together after Osiris’ demise to decide who would be the next Pharaoh.

There was much dispute over the issue. Some of them felt that Horus was still too young, while others argued that Seth should not be allowed to take the throne as he was the one who had killed Osiris. Eventually, they decided to let Horus and Seth fight it out amongst themselves in a series of trials that would determine who was most worthy of the grand title. For the first trial, Seth decided they should turn into hippopotamuses and dive into the Nile.

Whoever held their breath the longest would be the winner. Seth was used to turning into a hippopotamus and was sure to win, however, Isis intervened, stabbing him with a spike to ensure her son’s victory. Seth later stole Horus’ eyes and ejaculated on his hand which Isis chopped off and threw into the Nile. Horus retaliated by ejaculating on Seth’s favorite lettuces forcing him to consume his bodily fluids and then revealing to all the Gods that he had done so. The battle was protracted, to say the least. However, in the end, Horus was named the champion and became one of the most revered Gods in the Egyptian pantheon.

This battle for the throne was depicted in the 2016 film, Gods of Egypt, which focuses on the story of Seth and Horus. It deviates from the original myth by omitting the trial section. Instead, the character of Seth immediately usurps the throne, plunging Egypt into chaos. Horus must then embark on an epic quest to reclaim his divine right, enlisting the help of some fictionalized characters along the way such as commoners Bek and Zaya. Aside from the deviations from the original myth, the film accurately includes other Egyptian Gods such as Toth and Apophis.

Parallels can also be drawn between Disney’s 1994 film The Lion King and the myth. This film is widely touted as an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet but the bard’s play may very well have taken inspiration from the myth of Horus and Seth. After all, Shakespeare was interested in ancient Egypt as evidenced by his 1607 play Antony and Cleopatra. One thing is for certain—scheming, jealous uncles have gripped the public’s imagination for millennia.