[MUSIC] Other gods and goddesses can also become prominent figures or featured players in the stories of creation as well as in related narratives that become associated with them. An example would be the deity, Nefertem. He is known, both in the funerary text and in the local cult of Memphis. His symbol is the lotus blossom, the first form of life that appears from the primeval mound, after the waters of chaos have receded. In all levels of the divine hierarchy, and in fact, in all levels of Egyptian society as a whole, there existed the unifying concept of balance and harmony and that is Maat. The process is well illustrated in the scene of weighing the heart. Passing this step successfully was critical in attaining a afterlife. The creation myths describe the earliest periods in the memory of human kind as pure chaos and they record that out of this disorder came some form of harmony. The resulting state of calm than became the world as the Egyptians knew it and how they wanted it to continue to exist. The gods were responsible for maintaining order and presenting it to the king and he in turn reinforces that very same process by presenting Maat to the gods. Humankind must live according to its rules and regulations, no one is exempt. Funerary text frequently refer to the individual acting according to Maat. So important was the concept of order and balance in the universe, that it was deified as a goddess and her name was Maat. It is not unusual for one god or goddess to be associated with another as I mentioned earlier. Sometimes they are in family pairs, or duos that reflect two opposing elements of the environment such as light and darkness, air and moisture. There are also same sex pairs, such as the cobra and vulture goddesses, Wadjet and Nekhbet. And these two represent the original lands of Ancient Egypt, upper and lower Egypt. The Egyptians also formed family groups such as the triad, and these are composed of three members. One example of this type, consisted of Ptah, the father, Sekhmet, the mother and their son, Khonsu. And this triad was centered first in Memphis. Three deities together, like these, in one area might have come into being because of political considerations. It was more common after the 18th dynasty, and it could link not only primary deities like Amun, Re, and Ptah, but also their cult places Thebes, Heliopolis and Memphis. There were also quartets, like the four sons of Horus. The Egyptians also formed ogdoads, groups of eight, and an ennead, a group of nine. These assemblages of deities indicate the Ancient Egyptian need or desire to organize as much as possible. Both in the world they lived in as well as the perceived world of the gods that they envisioned. A more closely bound connection among gods also existed. In these cases, deities are amalgamated with one or more divinities. Some examples are Ra Atum, Khnum Ra, Ptah-Sokar-Osiris, and Amun Ra. In these divine links, one god became an extension of another, one was combined with another, and the elements of each would become unified in the composite figure. Although in theory there is no loss of the component god's original identity, one of the gods seems to predominate in each case. This unification also meant that the temple and it's priesthood were joined. And this would make the combined deity and its staff more politically powerful than either of its components. This point is especially clear in the synchrotized god Amun-Ra, who's wealth and power were great by the beginning of the 18th dynasty. This power may well have been an influential factor in the Amarna revolution later in the 18th dynasty when the Pharoah Amenhotep IV changed his name to Akhenaten and closed down the temples of AmunRa and disbanded their staffs and set up his new religion with temples at a new capital called Amarna. He installed priests who followed the new doctrines there. It was a focus on a single deity, the disc of the sun.