What was the significance of the Egyptian Gods in Ancient Egyptian Society?This is a specific area I've tried to find about in my Essay - it's not...

Ancient Egypt was a polytheistic society in which proper
respect for the Gods was an important responsibility. Their concept of the Gods changed
from time to time, but not their importance. Their chief God was Re, the Sun, who was
shown with the head of a hawk and the body of a man. During the Middle Kingdom, the
concept of Re was conjoined with the worship of Amon to create the God Amon-Re, again
the Sun. The following is a hymn to
Amon-Re:

Splendid you rise in
heaven's lightland,
O living Aten, creator of life!
When you have
dawned in eastern lightland,
You fill every land with your
beauty
You are beauteous, great radian,
High over every
land
Your rays embrace the lands,
To the limit of all that you
made.

Your rays nurse all fields
When
you shine, they live, they grow for you,
You made the seasons to foster all
that you made,
Winter to cool them, heat that they taste you,
You
made the sky to shine therein,
To behold all that you made;
You
alone, shining in your form of living Aten,
Risen, radiant, distant,
near.
You made millions of forms from yourself shine,
Towns,
villages, fields, the river's course:
All eyes observe you upon
them,
For you are the Aten of daytime on
high.

The Nile River was not
a God, but was highly venerated, so much so that hymns to the Nile were frequently
written and recited. Life after death was an important element of Egyptian religion, as
indicated by the practice of Mummification. The Egyptians also worshipped a God of
Mummification, known as Anubis.

A brief attempt at
monotheism was instituted by Pharaoh Amenhotep IV who insisted on worship of a single
god, Aten, representing the Sun. He even changed his name to Akhenaton to honor this
god. After his death, his movement quickly dissipated.

Cult
religions also appeared through Egypt, particularly the worship of Osiris, a god of the
earth and fertility and who was associated with the Nile. Followers believed that he had
been transformed into the god of the underworld who weighed the hearts of deceased
persons against a feather. Those who had lived good lives had light hearts and were
rewarded with immortality; those whose hearts were heavy with sin were not so
rewarded.