The word ogdoad has the same ending on it as "triad" -- a word that should be familiar, possibly from a game played on Battlestar Galactica or movies about Chinese organized crime. Triad refers to a group of 3. An ogdoad is a group of 8. In Egyptian mythology from Hermopolis (near the modern El Ashmunein), there was a group of 8 creator gods known as the Ogdoad of Hermopolis. Like creator gods in Greek mythology, after these creator gods did their world-forming work, they faded from active service.

In

"Otiose Deities and the Ancient Egyptian Pantheon"
Susan Tower Hollis
Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Vol. 35, (1998), pp. 61-72,

Hollis describes gods who no longer work hard as otiose (leisured). The Hermopolitan retirees are sometimes described as dead and in the Underworld. Nonetheless, they continue to supervise the basic world order by making sure the Nile flows and the sun shines. Otherwise, they aren't involved with mankind.

Read more about the Ogdoad of Hermopolis and Creation Stories.

* There is already much material on this site on the topic of mythology (especially, Gods and Goddesses and The Stories of the Ancient Greeks). In Myth Mondays I attempt to bring up an element of mythology that is either timely or less well known.

This was originally a blog post with URL: http://ancienthistory.D106/b/2010/05/10/myth-monday-the-otiose-ogdoad.htm

 

For your convenience, here is the complete list of 2010 Myth Monday topics:

• Greek Underworld Myths
• Freyja
• The Story of Anat and Aqhat

• The Cult of the Emperor
• Kvasir, the Norse Muse
• Hyperborea and the Swans
• What Did the Ancient Romans Believe?
• Rama and Sita
• Lugalbanda and Hermes
• The Woodpecker Harbinger of Rain
• How to Seduce Zeus - Hera's Dios Apate
• The 3 Families
• Hekate Goddess of the Crossroads
• A Horned God
• Chalchiuhtlicue
• Cupid and Psyche
• Leto
• Riordan's Mythological References
• Family Constellations of Atlas
• The Family of Eris
• Tyche
• Odin
• Min
• Thoth
• Who Is Your Favorite God or Goddess?
• Thanatos
• Chinese Origin for Discworld?
• The Greek God Ares
• Marduk
• Shiva Nataraja
• Interconnectedness of the Greek Heroes
• The Otiose Ogdoad
• Mother Goddess Nut
• Constantine's Flora
• Flora's Festival( Floralia)
• Roman Republican Actors
• Who Lost His Life Because He Was Cleverer Than Odysseus?
• Mystery Cults
• The Staff of the Healing God
• Veneralia
• Bona Dea
• Liber's Festival
• Why "Pallas" Athena?
• Limits to Aphrodite's Power
• Poseidon's Son Orion Shared His Appetite for Women
• The 1st Olympics
• Percy and Cheiron
• Another Mouse God
• The Elephant-Headed God
• Rosy-Fingered Eos Loved a Mortal
• Who Is the Winged Abductor?
• A Good Serpent