<P> Divine behavior was believed to govern all of nature . Except for the few deities who disrupted the divine order, the gods' actions maintained maat and created and sustained all living things . They did this work using a force the Egyptians called heka, a term usually translated as "magic". Heka was a fundamental power that the creator god used to form the world and the gods themselves . </P> <P> The gods' actions in the present are described and praised in hymns and funerary texts . In contrast, mythology mainly concerns the gods' actions during a vaguely imagined past in which the gods were present on earth and interacted directly with humans . The events of this past time set the pattern for the events of the present . Periodic occurrences were tied to events in the mythic past; the succession of each new pharaoh, for instance, reenacted Horus's accession to the throne of his father Osiris . </P> <P> Myths are metaphors for the gods' actions, which humans cannot fully understand . They contain seemingly contradictory ideas, each expressing a particular perspective on divine events . The contradictions in myth are part of the Egyptians' many - faceted approach to religious belief--what Henri Frankfort called a "multiplicity of approaches" to understanding the gods . </P> <P> In myth, the gods behave much like humans . They feel emotion; they can eat, drink, fight, weep, sicken, and die . Some have unique character traits . Set is aggressive and impulsive, and Thoth, patron of writing and knowledge, is prone to long - winded speeches . Yet overall, the gods are more like archetypes than well drawn characters . Different versions of a myth could portray different deities playing the same archetypal role, as in the myths of the Eye of Ra, a feminine aspect of the sun god who was represented by many goddesses . Deities' mythic behavior is inconsistent, and their thoughts and motivations are rarely stated . Most myths lack highly developed characters and plots, because their symbolic meaning was more important than elaborate storytelling . </P>

Egyptian kings were believed to combine divine and moral qualities