List of Heliopolitans

Heliopolitans
The Heliopolitans in Thor & Hercules: Encyclopaedia Mythologica #1 (September 2009). Art by Kevin Sharpe
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Marvel Tales #96 (June 1950)
Created by	Stan Lee (Writer) Werner Roth (Artist)
Characteristics
Pantheon	Ancient Egyptian deities
Notable members	Anubis Atum Bast Bes Geb Horus Isis Khonshu Neith Nun Nut Osiris Sekhmet Set Seth Sobek Thoth

The Heliopolitans are a fictional group of gods based on Ancient Egyptian deities appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.

Characters based on ancient Egyptian deities were first mentioned in Captain America Comics #20 (November 1942), published by Marvel Comics' predecessor Timely Comics, in which Captain America and Bucky investigate the murder of Colonel Fitzpatrick, who was studying the Book of Thoth while stationed in Egypt. The Heliopoitans first full Golden Age appearance was in the story "The Terror That Creeps" by Stan Lee and Werner Roth, published in Marvel Tales #96 (June 1950), and involves a man that fails to convince the public that the Great Sphinx of Giza is slowly moving to the edge of the desert, where it will be empowered by Set and destroy mankind. The god Bast would later make his first appearance (as a totem) with the Black Panther in Fantastic Four #52 (July 1966). Many of the other deities, including Horus, Isis and Osiris, were introduced in Thor #239 (September 1975).Khonshu, who became associated with Moon Knight, first appeared in Moon Knight #1 (November 1980). Joseph Muszynski argued in his book Everything I Needed to Know About Life I Learned from Marvel Comics that the introduction of Egyptian deities "excited our tendency to enjoy variety" as the pantheon contained multiple gods and personalities as opposed to the Judeo-Christian religions. Ed Strauss contended that Marvel was able to dive into ancient Egyptian religion because it "had been long been retired into the realm of mythology" unlike Christianity.