Survivals of the Ancient Religion in Egypt

A religion with a past of about four thousand years does not disappear suddenly as a result of state interdictory orders. In Egypt, it was the year 391 when the decree of Emperor Theodosius ended the official form of ancient religions. The long conflict between the Christian Church and paganism came to a dramatic conclusion with the destruction of the Serapeum in Alexandria. However, suppressing the cults in the temples did not lead to a radical change in the minds of the formerly pagan population. The heathen gods, regarded by the Christians as frightful demons, did not vanish from the folk religion with the closing of their temples. The study of the survivals of the ancient Pharaonic religion raises the question of how far the gods of the past can be recognized or identified in the sources of Coptic and Arabic Egypt.