Syncretism In Heliopolis

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The complicated agreement is that of religious syncretism, which is the idea of blending two or more cultures together. In this case it was Upper and Lower Egypt unifying their own beliefs into one. In the city of Heliopolis there were three main gods that were idolized. The three forms of spirits were Atum who was considered to be the first god, having created himself, sitting on a mound or identified with the mound itself. Next was Ra who merged with the god Horus and renamed Ra-Horakhty. Finally Khepry who was a dung beetle. This spirit form began when the Egyptians saw a dung beetle rolling balls of dung across the ground, an act that the Egyptians saw as a symbol of the forces that move the sun across the sky.