Why are there so many different myths or versions of myths to explain the same phenomenon?
Unlike the famous Greek myths that would consist of a single story to explain a certain event (for example, the kidnapping of Persephone resulting in the season of winter) the Egyptians’ stories of how things came to be rarely were so homogenous. There are various myths of creation. Within the individual myths, there are conflicting details. A reason for this is that each community of Egypt had their own principal gods and goddesses which they revered above all others (for examples of various community cosmogonies, please visit “the Land” section). Yet each group of people would have myths to explain the same common phenomenon: The creation of the earth, the sun’s daily travels, life after death. Thus multiple myths developed in Egypt explaining the same thing. As noted above, the Egyptians were very tolerant of other explanations and not too picky about plot details. To them, multiple explanations were not conflicting in their eyes, but rather enhanced the story of the phenomenon by a