The Aai

3 guardian deities in the ninth division of Duat; they are Ab-ta, Anhefta, and Ermen-ta

Aani

Aani was a protector, dog-headed ape, a creature sacred to the god Thoth.

Abtu

Abtu (Abdu or Abdju) is the name of a sacred fish who swam with Anet (Ant or Int or Inet) before the barge of Ra, the Atet. The pilot fish, Abtu and his companion and sister Anet were worshipped for protecting Ra - swimming on either side of the front of the prow of the sun barge as Ra sailed through the dark waters of Nun to sunrise, protecting it from any dangers of the underworld. Abtu was said to be a golden fish who would loudly proclaim the arrival and threat of Apep, while Anet was said to be a red fish who would physically defend the boat with the great gods.

Abtu, the golden fish was said to have, ‘a screaming voice… in the house of Neith’. The stela further reads - “a loud voice is in the Mouth of the Cat. Gods and Goddesses say: ‘Look, look at the Abtu fish and at its birth. Turn your steps away from me, wicked one. Look, Ra is furious and raging because of it. He has commanded your execution to be carried out. Turn back, wicked one!” (The wicked one being Apep)

As for the fish itself, we don’t know for certain what species it was meant to be, but at times is considered to be tilapia - which is also said to be a manifestation of Ra. Abtu was an edible species of fish as it is an ingredient in medical recipes and magical spells to protect spaces.

The goddess Isis was said to have transformed into the Abtu, the Great Fish of the Abyss, and within the city of Oxyrhynchus, was said to have been the fish that swallowed Osiris’s penis when he was dismembered by Set. The fish cult spread to many parts of Egypt.

Abtu was also the Egyptian word for the west which was the place where the sun’s passage of day across the sky ended - so for ancient Egypt where the sun dies each day and passes into the dark underworld.

A hymn said to have been sung by the Ogdoad to Amun-Ra makes reference to both fishes:

“…You navigate over your two heavens without an opponent,
your flaming breath has burned the evil one.
The red fishes are controlled by your boat,
the abdu fish has announced to you the wenti-snake,
the Ombite (Horus) has fixed his spear in his body. …“

See also - Anet

Abu

Abu was an early Egyptian God of Light that was likely worshiped in the city of Elephantine.

Ahti

A malevolent hippopotamus goddess

Akeru

Click to go to Akeru’s page for more!

Akeru (Aker/Akheru) was the horizon - deified; an earth god who was guardian of the Eastern and Western horizons and gates to the afterlife. He was a protective deity that guarded the gates of day and night. In later theology, Akeru’s two halves are called Sef (Yesterday) & Tuau/Dua (Today). Conjoined, they symbolize not just the guardians of two different times, but also the continuity of time, merging yesterday and tomorrow in the depths of the netherworld, 

Originally, Aker was the oldest lion god and earth god, older even than Gebb. Aker guarded the gate of dawn through which the sun god passed each morning. He was originally depicted as the torso of a recumbent lion with a widely opened mouth. 

As Egyptian mythology evolved to describe Ra’s journey through the night as through a dark tunnel, Aker became the pluralized, Akeru - two lions, guardians at each end of the tunnel through the Duat (underworld) through which Ra’s sun barge perilously traveled each night. In this dual form, he was instead depicted as two lions, seated back to back, supporting between them, the horizon and on it, the disk of the sun. And even, as two conjoined lion torsos, or sphinxes looking in opposite directions.

In some texts, Akeru also appears to embody the dark passageway itself - the earth from dusk to dawn, the Duat itself, through which the sun barge and Ra traveled. In the Book of the Earth, Akeru was said even to imprison within himself the coils of the great demon Apep when it was cut to pieces. 

In the 5th hour of the sun’s nightly journey through the underworld, Akeru was depicted on either side of the cavern of Sokar. In this cavern, it was said that the ‘secret flesh’ of the sun god’s sacred corpse was guarded by Sokar within the protective body of Akeru. This lifeless, subterranean form of the sun god (Osiris-Soker) was the form in which the morning renewal would begin, and the sun god could rise anew for the new day. As the double-headed sphinx on either side of Sokar’s cavern, Akeru represented the netherworld itself, tasked with guarding the ‘secret flesh’, the sacred corpse of the sun. 

As such, Akeru was a symbol of regeneration and potency - as his maw devours in the west, so too does it open and release new life in the east. Through him, all vitality and life force regenerates, both human and god. Akeru more than any other god, guards the mystery of regeneration, for within him lies not just the secret flesh of the sun god, but the corpse of every deceased human and their passage to an afterlife as the blessed living. In the most profound darkness of the earth, Aker guards the mystery of life’s potency - the Ka, and its renewal to conscious life. 

In Egyptian texts, it was said that Akeru would not seize upon the Pharaohs as they passed to the afterlife, suggesting that Akeru was, in fact, a threat to other mortals. Naturally, priests devised spells that were said to protect other mortals from Akeru. Despite this, Akeru was seen as a benevolent god and it was said that he could absorb the venom from snake bites and scorpion stings, even protecting the passage of the pharaoh to the underworld by restraining the various serpent demons which threatened him.  

Sphinxes - Because the gates of morning and evening itself were guarded by the lion god Akeru, Egyptians placed protective statues of lions at the entrances of palaces, temples, and tombs to guard against evil. These statues served as terrifying guardians, animated against the enemies of Egypt and the divine order. These statues were often given human heads - which are recognizable to us by the name given to them by the Greeks - Sphinxes.  These statues were, like Akeru, meant to guard the entrances against evil, either of flesh or spirit, that would harm those inside. Unlike the Greek sphinx, these were not winged or exclusively female; nor did they represent enigmatic wisdom - but rather served as guards to the enigmatic space beyond. These Sphinx guardians most often wore the face of a reigning King or Queen, embodying the power and duty of Egypt’s ruler and defender. The sphinxes could also have the heads of rams, hawks, or even the Seth monster. There were many sphinxes (including Tutu - the sun of Neith), but Akeru seems to have been singular in his role as the two-headed guardian of the dual horizon. 

Lions - It is thought that Akeru was represented by a now-extinct (except for a few Zoo specimens) lion - the massive Barbary lion. But some pictures of Akeru show him as two lions, covered with spots, which while not common has been documented as a natural occurrence in some lions. Usually, any markings fade as the lion becomes an adult, but rarely they persist. There are also rare instances of crossbreeding between lions and leopards which does result in offspring that appear to be lions with spots. The lion was sacred to the Egyptians though, and there are even carvings showing that some pharaohs (Ramses 2 and Ramses 3) had pet lions that accompanied them to battle and attacked the enemy - but their value seemed to exceed just their effectiveness in combat. They were valued more as symbols of the sun-god and his protective power.

Amathaunta

An ocean goddess

Am-heh

Am-heh was a dangerous god from the underworld whose name can be translated as ‘devourer of millions’, or eater of eternity. He lived in a lake of fire and was represented as a man with the head of a hunting dog. It was said he could only be repelled by the god Atum himself.

Amenhotep

Amenhotep (son of Hapu), along with Hardedef and Imhotep, was one of the few humans defied by the Egyptians. Amenhotep was the royal architect of Amunhotep III and was considered so wise that after his death he was deified. After his death, he acquired a cult as a healer and intermediary to the god Amun. He was worshiped alongside his fellow deified architect and healer, Imhotep. In a hymn, it is said of Amenhotep and Imhotep that they have a single ‘body’ and a single ‘ba’ (soul) - implying Amenhotep was a reincarnation of his deified colleague who lived a thousand years prior.

Amenhotep I

The second king of the eighteenth dynasty, deified.

Ammit

Ammit (Ammut) was a malevolent, demon goddess known as the ‘Devourer of Souls’. She was said to have a crocodile head, torso of a leopard, and hindquarters of a hippo - a combination of the most ferocious, terrifying animals to the Egyptians. She was also represented at times by an owl. In the hieroglyphs of her name, the first owl is phonetic for the ‘m’ sound and the second owl symbolizes death and the soul - showing her as the killer of the soul. She was also known as ‘Dweller in Amenty’ and ‘Devourer of Amenty’ - the place where the sun sets - the west. All of the Egyptian tombs were on the west side of the Nile. This sunset in the west was sometimes shown as a lake of fire that she lay beside.

Ammit was the supernatural demoness who attended the judgement of the soul, as the mortals actions in their earthly life were judged by Osiris, and 42 other deity judges, including Anubis. She waited in the Judgement Hall of the Two Truths while the heart was weighed. The physical heart was called the ‘ib’ and was the source of their good or evil. The physical heart was called the ‘haty’. When the heart was weighed against Ma’at’s feather of truth, she sat beneath the scales in the Hall of Truth in the afterlife. If the heart was found to be heavier than the feather, she devoured it, resulting in a true death of the soul rather than letting the soul pass to the next life. As such, she was the executioner of the afterlife. Once Ammit swallowed the 'Ib', the remaining parts of the soul were believed to become restless forever - this was called "to die a second time". The ancient Egyptians feared the "second-death" even more than the first death.

The soul was extremely important to the Egyptians and they had two variations - the Ka and the Ba. The Ka was the life force, the spiritual essence of the soul. The Ba was a physical essence of the soul that roamed as a bird, usually a hawk, with a human head. The Ba was used to symbolize the soul of the dead. When the two, Ka and Ba, were united they became the Akhu, the divine spark of the soul. Then the dead could enter the world of immortality. However, if they were deemed to have led a sinful life, their Ba would be given to Ammit and destroyed, denying them ever-lasting life.

Ammit was never worshipped and mortals were said to only ever encounter her once, upon their death.

The Book of the Dead was a guide to help ensure that the dead knew how to address the gods properly and convince them of their goodliness in life, as wrong answers to their questions or failure to answer properly would be sign of guilt. Only after passing this judgement without guilt would they be able to enter the ‘House of Reeds’, the Egyptian’s idea of heaven.

Amentet

Amentet was a goddess who lived in a tree near the gates of the underworld and she welcomed the dead with food and drink to the afterlife. She was a consort of the Divine Ferryman, daughter of Hathor and Horus, and was known as, ‘She of the West’.

Amn

A goddess who welcomed souls of the dead in the Underworld

Amu-Aa

*entry under construction

From Wikipedia - Amu-Aa (eater of the ass) or (eater of the phallus), is one of the gods that goes with Osiris during the second hour of the night. Amu-Aa would eat the bread made for the boat and use the perfume.

From Reddit - This is quite probably something Budge got wrong, and unfortunately whoever wrote that Wikipedia article is not aware that there has been a lot written on Egyptian religion since the beginning of the 20th century.

Although am can indeed mean "to devour," it also means "to know." Likewise, "donkey" is one of the translations of aA, but it also means "gate, door."

While "the one who devours the donkey" is an amusing translation, "the one who knows the gate/door" is the standard translation and makes a great deal more sense within the context of the sun god's nightly journey through the gates of the Duat.

Amun

Amun was one of the main manifestations of the creator sun god, the first of the gods. He, along with Ra and Ptah, were each in various myths, credited with creating the universe and being the divine light of creation. In one text they are defined as the same spirit - with Ra the face, Amun the spirit, and Ptah the body. To further support this, the Egyptians paired their gods together often and Amun is often commonly referred to as Amun-Ra. While he was originally painted with reddish skin, this was later changed after the revolution of Aten’s monotheism and its repudiation to blue skin, showing his connection to the air and being a primordial creation god. He was a god of air, the sky, the sun, as well as all things hidden.

Amun also is credited as being one of the Ogdoad (8 primordial beings - 4 pairs of male and female manifestations of abstract ideas). Sometimes he is referred to by the name Qerh or Nenu. As part of the Ogdoad he was a frog-headed god of air, said to represent invisibility, repose - but also quintessence, or the secret powers of creation. Amun, like the other creator gods, was said to have been self-created, rising from the chaotic waters of the Nun through his own willpower.

He was often symbolized as a man with the Amun crown which consisted of a flat-topped cylindrical crown base (called a modius) that was topped by tall, double ostrich feathers. The ostrich was a symbol of creation and light. He was also represented as the ram-headed sphinx, which was a potent symbol of fertility. Amun was sometimes referred to as "Lord of the Two Horns". In Thebes, there were 900 statues of the ram-headed sphinx. They were depicted with the body of a lion (never winged), the hooves of a ram or a goat, and the head of a ram. The ram-headed sphinx is called a criosphinx whereas the human-headed sphinx is called the androsphinx. Though, he was originally a minor fertility god, by the time of the New Kingdom, he was considered the most powerful, supreme god of Egypt and his worship bordered on monotheism. Other gods were considered merely aspects of him and his priesthood was the most powerful in Egypt. He was also called, “King of gods" and "Mysterious of form". He was the husband of Mut and father of Khonsu, the moon god.

Amun’s status changed drastically due to a religious revolution caused by the Pharaoh Akhenaten who decreed that the sun god Aten, was the only god of Egypt and forced the Egyptians to switch from a polytheistic religion to monotheism. He used the Egyptian military to destroy the old religion, targeting Amun particularly as he was nationally worshipped, throwing priests out of his temples and closing them, destroying them, or converting them to temples for Aten. Aten was worshipped for 16 years until Akhenaten’s death. His son, a boy-king, was forced by the influential priests of Amun to abandon his father’s home and change his name from Tutankhaten to Tutankhamun. There followed under his rule a purge, an attempt to obliterate all traces of Aten and his father. The people returned to their old gods. During the New Kingdom, Thebes became the capital of unified Egypt and became known as “Niwt-imn" meaning "The City of Amun." Amun became the national god of Egypt and head of the state pantheon. Records show that during the New Kingdom, temples dedicated to Amun had over 80,000 people working for them and owned enormous amounts of land, cattle, and hundreds of ships. The Amun priests owned two-thirds of all the temple lands in Egypt and 90 percent of her ships plus many other resources.

Anat

Anat was a foreign goddess, adopted as the Hyksos immigrated into Egypt, and she remained after the Hyksos were expelled from Egypt. She was originally from Syria or Canaan. Anat was a warrior goddess of fertility, sexuality, love and war. She is sometimes called ‘Queen of Heaven’ and associated with the Egyptian native goddess, Neith. She is usually shown carrying weapons. In the battle between Horus and Set, Anat and the goddess Ashtart were given as allies to Set. In another telling, she was given as a consort to Set at the suggestion of Neith. In some texts she is a virgin goddess, while in others she is sensuous and erotic, and in yet others, she is called the mother of the gods. In some texts she is called ‘Bin-Ptah’, Daughter of Ptah. In some she is the daughter of Ra and as such, sister to Astarte. She is associated with Aphrodite of Greece, Astarte of Phoenicia, Inanna of Mesopotamia, and Sauska of the Hittites.

Anet

Anet (Ant, Int or Inet) is the name of the sacred fish, sister and companion to Abtu who swam with the solar barge of Ra. The two pilot fish were worshipped for protecting Ra - swimming on either side of the front of the prow of the sun barge as Ra sailed through the dark waters of Nun to sunrise, protecting it from any dangers of the underworld.

Anet was said to be a red fish, a tilapia, who would physically defend the boat with the gods accompanying Ra, after her brother Abtu loudly alerted them to the arrival and threat of Apep.

The tilapia fish was sacred to Ra and was one of his manifestations, its red color hinting at its solar association. The color red was also considered an aggressive protection against the dangers of traveling at night (much the way red ochre was used to protect shrines, and a red bull protected Osiris). The tilapia was also sacred to Hathor, the eye of Ra, and as such was important in funerary rites leading to resurrection.

In some cases, Horus and Ra (sometimes one sometimes the other) were said to themselves become the tilapia to defend the barge against Apep. This made the tilapia even more vitally important for the deceased who were traveling through the Duat.

A hymn said to have been sung by the Ogdoad to Amun-Ra makes reference to both fishes:

“…You navigate over your two heavens without an opponent,
your flaming breath has burned the evil one.
The red fishes are controlled by your boat,
the abdu fish has announced to you the wenti-snake,
the Ombite (Horus) has fixed his spear in his body. …“

See Abtu

Anhefta

A protective spirit who guards one end of the ninth division of Duat

Anhur

(Han-her / Inhert) Anhur was a warrior and sky god of Abydos who was believed to have originated in Nubia, on the far south of the Egyptian border, also known as Kush, now Sudan. He was usually shown as a man, sometimes painted with dark blue skin (like Amun) who wore a tall crown of four ostrich feathers. The ostrich was symbol of creation and light as worn by the Gods Shu and Amun. He was an Egyptian god of war, patron of the Egyptian army and royal warriors. Anhur was the model warrior to the armies of the Pharaohs and believed to be the "saviour" of those in battle. Also, he was known as a protector of travelers.

Anhur was know as Onuris to the Greeks and as a god of war, was associated with Ares. He was said to hunt and slay the enemies of his father, the sun god.

His name, which literally means ‘He who leads back the distant one’ (but also could be interpreted as ‘Sky Bearer’) appears to refer to the myth in which he is said to have journeyed to Nubia for the sake of bringing back the ‘eye of Ra’ - the lioness goddess who became his consort Mekhit. While this myth is strikingly similar to another, in which the god Shu brought back the fearsome ‘eye of Ra’ as his consort (this time as Tefnut) the literal translation of Anhur’s name suggests that the myth may have originated with him. Nevertheless, this did lead to Anhur being equated with Shu, as well as Shu’s connection to Ra under the epithet, ‘Son of Amun-Ra’.

Ani

A god of festivals

Anit

Wife of Andjety

Anqet

Anqet (Anukit or Anuket) was known as the Embracing Lady, an epitaph for her role as a fertility goddess. She was also associated with hunting and childbirth and was thought to be a virgin goddess. A symbol associated with Anqet as the goddess of the hunt was the gazelle which was reflected in her title "Lady of the Gazelle", an animal that could be found grazing on the southernmost parts of the River Nile. Anqet was depicted in ancient Egyptian art with a crown of tall ostrich feathers which were the symbol of creation and light. The distinctive and unusual headdress is tied to her title as “Mistress of Nubia” as the style is very distinctive to African countries south of Egypt, worn by chiefs and male and female gods. The dwarf god Bes was also believed to be of African origin was also depicted wearing a similar crown.

Anqet was the goddess of the Nile cataracts and cultivated lands and fields. A cataract is a stretch of rocky islets, waterfalls, whirlpools, or white water rapids. There were six Nile cataracts, only one was in Egypt (Aswan) the others were in Nubia, now Sudan (aka Kush or Ethiopia). Anqet was a water goddess of the island Elephantine, and the cataract of the Nile River at Aswan. The cataracts were so dangerous that they were impassable except in seasons of high flood. The northernmost cataract of the Nile was on the border between Egypt and Nubia. Anqet was the goddess of all lands south of the Egyptian border and widely worshipped in Nubia, and given the title "Mistress of Nubia". There were no cataracts north of these to disrupt travel on the Nile in Egypt.

As the River Nile flowed towards the north, the annual flood waters entered Egypt by passing Elephantine and by the 18th Dynasty it became the cult center for the three gods: Anqet, the goddess of the cataracts, her mother Satet the war goddess of the flood or inundation and her father Khnum the water god who guarded and controlled the waters of the Nile. These three gods were the protectors of the River Nile and known collectively as the Elephantine Triad. As the Egyptian goddess of the treacherous Nile cataracts Anqet was particularly worshipped by the ancient Egyptian traders and sailors who left inscriptions on the rocks as a form of prayers to Anqet for their safe passage along the hazardous waters to Nubia or for their safe return to Egypt.

Elephantine was the capital of the state and for many years was the military stronghold of the Ancient Egyptian empire and a center of commerce and trade with the Nubians. The trading link with Nubia probably accounts for the name 'Elephantine' as there was a brisk trade in ivory at the island. The Nile god Hapi was believed to bring the silt to the banks of the Nile, making farming possible in the middle of the desert. It was believed that Anuket and the other two gods of the Elephantine Triad decided how much of Hapi's silt would be delivered during each year's flood.

The beginning of the harvest season, Shemu, was celebrated with the Festival of Anqet in which thanks were given for the harvesting of food crops such as wheat and barley, and industrial crops, such as flax and papyrus. Celebrations during the Festival of Anqet included a magnificent river procession, in which the other members of the Elephantine Triad, Khnum and Satet, were also honored. Statues of the gods were removed from the temple and ceremoniously placed on gilded ceremonial barques, equipped with long poles that were carried on the shoulders of their priests to the bigger river boats. The massive processions consisted of standard bearing Egyptian soldiers, priests, musicians, singers and dancers. Festivals were extremely noisy with shouting people, the chants of the temple choir, the blowing of trumpets, the beating of drums, the rattling of the sistra. The air would have been full of the smell of burning incense. Statues of other gods were added to the procession as different temples were passed. The people would enjoy the spectacle of the procession and celebrate with feasting. The people also gave offerings to the gods by throwing such items as jewelry and coins into the Nile to honor and appease the river gods.”

Anta

Anta was an aspect of the Mother Goddess Mut, worshipped at Tanis as the consort of Amun.

Anti

Anti was a Hawk god of Upper Egypt sometimes associated with Anat.

Antiwy

Antiwy, local god of the 10th nome of Upper Egypt has a name that is easily confused with Anty, the local god of the 12th nome of Upper Egypt. The main difference is that Antiwy is a duality of Anty. So if we were to read Anty as ‘having claws’ then we would read Antiwy as ‘the two having claws’.

The duality of Aniwy is sometimes represented as his name being written with two hawks in sacred boats. Sometimes, Antiwy is said to be the combined form of Horus and Set - embodying the bond created by their conflict.

*Anubis

Anubis was best known as a god of death, but it would be more accurate to say he was a judge of the soul. He would weigh the heart of the deceased against the feather of truth (Ma’at) and if it was as light as the feather, they could travel to the next life. If it was not, the heart would be fed to Ammit, a monstrous being, and the soul would be destroyed. He was almost always associated with a black hound or jackal and was one of the gods who aided Ra in battling off Apep each night.

*under construction*

“Anubis was depicted with the black head of the jackal even though real jackals are typically brown. The black jackal head of this jackal-god was characterized by its long, alert ears and a pointed muzzle. The color black was highly significant as it was a symbol of death, the color of rotting flesh, and symbolized the Underworld and the night. Black was also associated with the black soil of the Nile valley and as such also symbolized rebirth. There are many theories as to why the jackal was associated with Anubis. Some say it is because jackals were known to frequent the edges of the desert, near the cemeteries where the dead were buried. The first tombs were built to keep wild animals, like jackals, from desecrating the dead. Many statues representing Anubis were simply of a jackal upon a pedestal as seen in the beautiful examples from the tomb of Tutankhamun.

Anubis was said to be the son of Nephthys and Osiris. According to Egyptian mythology Nephthys had made Osiris drunk, drawn him to her arms without his knowledge, and gave birth to a son, the jackal god Anubis.
His mother, Nephthys, left her son exposed to the elements. Instead of dying, he was found by Isis, who then raised him. He became the faithful attendant of Isis. He was credited with the invention of embalming, an art he first practiced on the corpse of Osiris. After Set had killed Osiris and scattered his remains, Anubis helped Isis and Nephthys to rebuild his body and presided over the first mummification He was associated with with the process of embalming and mummification. He conducted and guided the dead through the Underworld to judgment in the Hall of Truths. During the embalming process, the head priest-embalmers (the "Higher Mysteries") wore a jackal mask bearing the image of Anubis.

Apuat was another form of Anubis. In other instances, Apuat was another name for Anubis or Wepwawet, another
jackal-headed god.”

Anuke

Anuke, one of the oldest deities of Egypt, was an ancient goddess of war and was represented as a woman in battle dress, carrying a bow and arrows. She was at times shown as a consort to Onuris, god of war. Later, she became associated with Nephthys, goddess of death and to a lesser degree, Nephthys’s sister Isis. In some texts, Anuke is referred to as their younger sister. Eventually, she evolved into a nurturing, mother goddess who the Greeks associated with Hestia.

Apedemak

Apedemak was a war god of Southern Nubia. While he was unknown and not worshipped in Egypt, in Nubia he was depicted in an Egyptianized style - shown as a lion headed man, sometimes winged, holding a sceptre that usually depicted a lion or lion headed serpent. He was almost always shown wearing an elaborate hemhem crown, also known as the ‘triple crown’, the name of which means, ‘war cry’. It consisted of three atef crowns (or bundles) mounted on ram’s horns, with a uraeus cobra on either side. Additionally, the three bundles sometimes were depicted with three falcons surmounted by a solar disk perched atop them.

Apep

Apep (Apophis / Apothis / Apepi) was an immortal, cosmic, star-devouring being that the Egyptian gods battled each night to preserve our world. He was a giant serpent, said to have the body of a serpent and a head made of flint. Apep embodied chaos, darkness and nothingness - everything opposite of the ordered universe that the gods cared for and preserved. The monstrous Apep, was described occasionally as a huge crocodile but usually as a highly dangerous, gigantic snake who swam in the eternally dark waters in the “Secret Cavern” of the Underworld (Duat). He was known as the “Serpent of the Nile", the "Evil Lizard", "He who spits", "The Destroyer" and the "Eater-up of Souls".

Apep constantly threatened divine order and was the mortal enemy of Ra, the Sun God. It was said he had a pointed head which was shaped like a dart with fangs sank into the flesh of Ra, and the fire of their poison entered into the god. Ra, the sun god, represented light, warmth, and growth which made Ra the Sun god supremely important and Apep a deadly enemy of mankind.

Apep represented a demonic obstacle to the daily resurrection of the sun. Ra was believed to traverse the sky each day in a sun boat and pass through the realms of the underworld each night on another solar barge. During his nightly travels in the terrifying Underworld, Ra was attacked by the serpent god Apep. According to mythology the monstrous Apep, the god of evil, chaos and destruction, could swallow the waters of the river with his wide-open mouth so that the Sun Boat might be wrecked. Apep was believed to have supernatural powers and was able to use a magical gaze to hypnotize Ra and his companion gods.

Occasionally he would be victorious in his battles with Ra and his entourage of gods, and the world would be plunged into darkness. The ancient Egyptians believed that these victories allowed storms, darkness, rain and the terrifying eclipse of the sun to occur. They were afraid of cloudy days believing this forewarned them of a victory of Apep. The Egyptians believed that prayers, incantations and magic spell would help Ra and the gods in their endless nightly fight on their Sun Boat against Apep.

The ancient Egyptians were highly superstitious and feared that even the mention of his name would bring the unwanted attention of this evil god. This fear extended to creating images of Apep. Fearing that even an image of the god Apep could give power to the evil spirit, paintings and other depictions of Apep would always include another deity fighting to subdue the monster, or a scene in which the god had already been vanquished.

The terrible serpent god was also seen as a potential barrier to the souls of the dead succeeding in their journey through the Underworld to the Afterlife. The priests therefore created various spells and provided protective amulets and talismans to defend the souls of the dead against Apep on their perilous journeys.

Apep the evil destroyer was never worshipped, quite the reverse. Most temple rituals of ancient Egypt were aimed correcting chaos and restoring order to the world. Because Apep was immortal he was able to emerge unscathed from any defeats by the gods. It was therefore important to the Egyptians to offer prayers and spells to help the gods overcome Apep the evil serpent. The "Book of the Overthrowing of Apep" provided temple visitors with a spell for repelling negativity, which was symbolized by the solar god Ra defeating Apep. These rituals and incantations were enacted nightly by the priests and Egyptians and were thought to help ensure the victory of Ra in his life-and-death struggle with darkness.

In ancient Egyptian mythology there are legends concerning the defeat of Apep by a great cat. The cat goddess Bastet represented both the home and the domestic cat but was also represented in the war-like aspect of a lioness, lynx or cheetah. Cat Goddesses were revered for both their powers of protection and their skills as fierce combatants. Mau and Bastet, both cat goddesses, were credited with killing the evil snake god Apep.

Apesh

A turtle god

Apet

A solar disc wearing goddess worshipped at Thebes

Apis

Apis was the divine bull and was worshiped in Memphis as an incarnation of the god Ptah. The bull-god was believed to be the manifestation or living image of Ptah.

“The bull-god was also revered as the 'Herald' of Ptah, acting as an intermediary between the bull-god and the Egyptian people. He was believed to possess the powers of prophecy and considered to be an oracle. Food was offered to the bull and if it took the offering this was deemed to be a good omen.

A black bull calf with a white flash diamond shape on its forehead was considered to be the personification of Apis. This special bull was believed to have been conceived through a divine flash of lightening. The mother of the bull-god was known as 'Isis' in reference to the ancient Egyptian 'mother goddess'. They were kept in a sacred sanctuary called the Apieion. The palatial Apieion was built in close proximity to the temple of Ptah and consisted of two huge chambers, one for the bull and the other for his mother. The roof of the chambers were supported with massive statues of bulls. Both the bull-god and its mother were given the greatest care and fed with the finest food. Only the most honored guests were allowed inside the Apieion sanctuary.

The bull-god left the Apieion for special festivals and would form part of a great procession of priests, dancers musicians and standard bearers. There were jubilee festivals and rituals that involved the bull-god and the Pharaoh. At such festivals religious rituals were conducted in relation to the rejuvenation of the powers of the Pharaoh and the king accompanied the bull-god in the parade and is referred to as the "Race of the Apis bull".

The average lifespan of the bull was 14 years. There was only ever one bull-god. When the bull-god died the whole of Egypt went into mourning. The body of the bull-god was embalmed by priests and ceremoniously entombed in the Serapeum, the name of the vast underground necropolis where the Apis bulls were buried.”

Aqen

Aqen was a deity of the underworld, where it was said he guided the sun god, Ra. He was described as the mouth of time, from which the gods and demons pulled the rope of time.

Arensnuphis

Arensnuphis was a benevolent Nubian deity who was depicted as a lion companion to the goddess Isis or a man with a feathered headdress.

Asclepius

Asclepius (Aesculapius) was a Greek god of healing but was also worshiped in Egypt and identified with the deified Imhotep. His symbol, possibly derived from the god Heka, was a staff with a serpent entwined about it, associated in the modern day with healing and the medical profession, known as the Rod of Asclepius.

Ash - (As)

Ash was a Libyan god who was associated with Set and the Libyan desert, as well as oases west of Egypt. Depicted as a man with the head of a hawk, he was known as the ‘Lord of Libya’ and ‘God of Sahara’. Ash was a benevolent deity who provided the oasis to help travelers.

Astarte

Astarte was a goddess of the battlefield who wore bull horns as a symbol of power and was associated with horses and chariots. Like Anat, she was from Canaan and Syria, and was given by the goddess Neith to Set as a wife or companion. She was also said to have a relationship with Yamm, the god of the sea.

In one fragmented papyrus it tells of Yamm demanding tribute from the gods, Renenutet in particular, whose place is taken by Astarte. Of interest though, is that in the text Astarte was called, ‘daughter of Ptah’, associating her as Egyptian rather than Canaan, Syrian or Phoenician, where she was a a goddess of fertility and sexuality. The writing is destroyed on the rest of the papyrus, but the assumption is that their liaison tempered the arrogance of Yamm. Like Anat, she was sometimes called the Queen of Heaven. She was closely associated with Aphrodite by the Greeks, with Inanna/Ishtar by the Mesopotamian, and Sauska of the Hittites.

*under construction*

This goddess of Egypt was 'adopted' during the New Kingdom period of ancient Egyptian history from the war goddess Ishtar who was worshipped in Mesopotamia, Canaan and Syria. / During the rise of the Egyptian Empire the ancient Egyptians were influenced by the cultures of many other countries / She became one of the recognized goddesses of ancient Egypt during the 18th Dynasty of the New Kingdom period. / She was the Egyptian goddess of Horses and Chariots and venerated as a powerful and violent war goddess. / The Hyksos, meaning "foreign rulers", introduced the horse and the chariot to ancient Egypt during the 13th dynasty of Egyptian kings and by the 18th dynasty the expert use of the horse and chariot Egyptians had enabled them to rise to the peak of the Egyptian Empire. / The worship of Astarte the goddess of war, horses and chariots is understandable during this time and she was revered by Egyptian soldiers. / The aggressive nature of the goddess was represented by the bull horns that were associated with her in Egyptian iconography. / The priests of Egypt 'modified' the creation myth to include the war goddess and she was named as a daughter of Ra and the wife of Set. In certain areas of Egypt she was named as the daughter of Ptah. / Depictions of the goddess were similar to that of Hathor, in her war-like manifestation of Sekhmet, the lioness goddess who was said to breathe fire at the enemies of the pharaoh. Sekhmet was seen as the protector of the pharaohs and led them in warfare. / Her symbols were the lion, the horse, the chariot, the sphinx, and a star within a circle indicating the planet Venus which was also closely associated with Hathor.

The Egyptians practice of merging gods is called 'syncretism' which means the fusion of religious beliefs and practices to form a new system or to create a new god. / The goddess was also connected with fertility and sexuality, and many images of the goddess portrayed her as naked, especially in the Post Empire period of Egyptian history. /This goddess takes her place in history as the original of all figureheads depicted on sailing ships. / Like her counterpart Ishtar she was depicted wearing a headdress consisting of four pairs of horns topped by a disc. / She was associated with sexuality as she was said to have taken many lovers. The bawdy aspect of her attributes strongly appealed to the ancient Egyptian military.

Astennu

A baboon god associated with Thoth.

Aton

As the cause for one of the greatest religious and social revolutions to ever raze through Egypt, Aton is one of the most complex and controversial figures in Egyptian Mythology. Aton was a manifestation of the literal disk of the sun - before the pharaoh, Akhenaton decreed him as the one and only god of Egypt where he reigned as the monotheistic sun god until the pharaoh’s death, whereupon he fell back to his humble place alongside the pantheon of Egyptian gods before being eradicated completely. 

Aton, the physical body of the sun, was represented as the circular disk of the sun with rays of light emitting downwards that ended in human hands. Aton embodied absolute power and was the source of all life. Aton was eternal, hymns proclaimed. He was beautiful and glorious and had created not only himself and his path across the heavens, but the heavens, the earth and every living thing as well. He maintained all life and determined its duration. All things came from Aton and all beings depended on him. 

Originally, he was an aspect of the sun gods such as Ra and Amun - namely the disk of the sun where they resided. The term ‘aton’ refers to the literal circle of the sun and traditionally, the word was used as a noun which meant ‘disc’ referring to anything circular, and even the term ‘silver aton’ was used to refer to the moon and even the surface of a mirror. Eventually, though, the word evolved from meaning a literal disk to being an aspect of other solar gods. That, in turn, evolved into him becoming an equal creator god alongside them and then quickly into Aton meaning the one and only god. 

Though Aton’s origins are obscure, traces show he was an obscure part of the worship of sun gods dating back to the Old Kingdom. Near Heliopolis, he was considered a form of the sun god and possibly had his own temple. Prior to Akhenaton, Aton was most often a symbol in which sun gods appeared. In a book of the dead based on Heliopolitan, Aton was mentioned in passages that show he was regarded as the physical body of the sun where Ra dwelt. It is a small step though, for the disk or the gods to become a god unto himself. 

During the reign of Amenhotep III, Aton grew significantly in importance. Amenhotep III shared his father’s alarm at the power of the priests of Amun and shared his reverence towards alternate sun gods. This was encouraged by his wife Thi, a foreign woman said to have come from a town near Heliopolis who also may have been a votary of Aton before marriage. Together, they encouraged the worship of Aton, and alternate forms of solar worship were evident in their building projects, much to the chagrin of the priests of Amun-Ra. It was during his reign that Aton began to be worshipped extensively as a god, depicted as a falcon-headed man much like Ra. Their strong religious connection to Aton was passed at an early age to their son Amenhotep IV. It is believed that the intensity of his love for Aton and hatred of Amun-Ra was due to his mother’s influence. 

*

Akhenaton (still named Amenhotep IV when he ascended the throne) succeeded his father without difficulty and for the first few years adhered to traditions, living in Thebes, offering sacrifices to Amun-Ra and appearing outwardly as a loyal servant to his namesake, Amun-Ra. Privately though, he worshipped Aton.

Akhenaton renamed Aton and the new designation upturned everything theologically in Egypt. As he elevated Aton above all other gods, the strain grew between Akhenaton and the priests of Thebes who declared Amun-Ra the king of gods. The mass of the population in Thebes sympathized with the priests. At growing odds with the priests and population of Thebes, Akhenaton began to build a new capital, Khut-Aton (Horizon of Aton) which included a palace for himself and homes for those who worshipped Aton and were prepared to follow their pharaoh there. 

In the 6th year of his reign, he left Thebes and took up residence in his new capital. To further signify his severance of ties to Amun-Ra, he discarded his birth name “Amenhotep IV” (Amun is content) and became Akhenaton (Glory of Aton). 

In the 9th year of Akhenaton’s reign, he changed Aton’s name once more, eliminating all mentions of Shu and Horakhty. The hawk-headed figure was no longer acceptable and replaced with the iconography of the solar disk with a uraeus and rays of light. Though this symbolism predated Akhenaton, it was now the sole manner in which Aton could be represented. 

Upon changing Aton’s name, Akhenaton ordered the closure of temples dedicated to the worship of any other gods in Egypt. Persecution of the worship of other gods began and armies of stonemasons spread across the lands, scouring away the names, symbols, and images of other gods, most especially those of Amun. Even the plural form of the word ‘god’ was eliminated. 

Aton was now lord of all, without the need of a goddess for companionship and without enemies who could threaten him. In the new capital, Khut-Aton, Akhenaton aggressively promoted Aton, proclaiming him the sole god. Akhenaton built his new theology on the bones of pre-existing solar-god theology which granted supremacy to the sun, ascribing it the symbolism of order, unity, and totality. Akhenaton’s worship of Aton was quite different from past worship of Aton though, which had been tolerant of other gods. Akhenaton’s worship of Aton was not. 

In this new form, the nature of Aton became intrinsically monotheistic and incompatible with the idea of there being any other gods. He was ascribed the quality of oneness whose very nature refuted the existence of others. This new theology could only absorb or be absorbed by the pantheon of Egyptian gods as their existences were mutually exclusive. Atonism began as a henotheistic religion (religion devoted to one god while accepting the existence of others) but evolved into a monotheistic system. 

Much of what we know of Aton is learned from Hymns to the god. They describe the wonders of nature and hail Aton as the absolute lord of all. When compared to the hymns of Ra we see aspects missing - most notably other deities. There is no mention of enemies such as Apep, Sebau, or Nak; no mention of Khepra rising or Thoth or Ma’at’s services. The hymns also contained none of the beautiful visions of life beyond death that are found in hymns to Ra. No longer were night and death the realms of Osiris and other gods, but rather simply the absence of Aton. They taught that night was a time to fear and that work is best done when the sun, Aton, is present. Aton did not have a creation myth, nor a family. 

In Akhenaton’s hymn to Aton, Aton’s mannerisms are depicted, showing a love for his creations: “Aton bends low, near the earth to watch over his creation. He takes his place in the sky for the same purpose. He wearies himself in the service of the creatures. He shines for them all. He gives them sun and sends them rain. The unborn child and the baby chick are cared for. Akhenaton asks his divine father to lift up the creatures for his sake, so that they might aspire to the condition of perfection of his father, Aton.” 

Inscriptions on temple walls regale the majesty and beneficence of Aton and representations of the visible emblem of the god were everywhere. He was depicted as the solar disk, from which rays of light stretch down, ending in hands that held the emblems of life. In these, the human-handed rays shone upon the king, queen, and their family. Despite a priesthood being devoted to Aton, it was only Akhenaton who could directly interact with the god; only he could know the will and commands of Aton. The god remained distant and incomprehensible to the general populace. It's quite possible the priesthood didn’t serve Aton so much as they did Akhenaton. The high-priest was even called the ‘Priest of Akhenaton’ indicating the supremacy of Akhenaton in his own theology and the effective barrier he formed between his priests and the god Aton. When one considers the conflict between the priests of Amun in Thebes with his family, it is possible this was as much a political strategy as it was theological. In carvings, Aton’s rays of light hold out eternal life in the form of ankhs to the royal family alone. Everyone else receives life from Akhenaton and his wife Nefertiti in exchange for loyalty to Aton. 

During Akhenaton’s reign temples were also built to Aton across Egypt. His temples were unique in their design that left them uncovered open to the sky and sun, rather than the dark enclosures of traditional Egyptian shrines. Aton was worshipped in open sunlight. We don’t have precise information on the nature of the worship of Aton, but we know the practice was sensuous and materialistic. Incense burned frequently and hymns sung to Aton were accompanied by harps and instruments. People vied to bring gifts - fruits and flowers - to the altars, which were never stained with the blood of animal sacrifice as in other temples. Aton’s worship was joyous and practiced in bright cheerful spaces, painted in lively colors. 

Artists employed by Akhenaton broke from old styles and indulged in new forms, colors, and treatments of the subjects they illustrated. The art in Khut-Aten advanced in a great leap forward - introducing shading and volumetric forms in their paintings, as well as an exploration into realism rather than symbols. These advancements in art styles did not last past Akhenaton’s reign however and it was only during this time that Egyptian artists worked with the effects of light and shadow in their work.  

In the ninth year of his reign, iconoclasm was enforced when he banned the use of all idols, excluding only a solar disk with rays. He also made it clear that the image of Aton was but a crude representation; that the god transcended creation. Aton, by nature, was everywhere and intangible, therefore he did not have a physical form; as such, he could never be fully understood or represented. He was beyond creation. Later, even sun disk depictions of Aton were prohibited by Akhenaton. In an edict, he commanded that Aton could only be represented by phonetically spelling out his name. 

For the last half of his reign, Akhenaton seems to have devoted himself to building his capital and cult, leading a prosperous life in his new capital, spending most of his time adorning it with beautiful buildings, sculptures and large gardens filled with every manner of tree and plant. It’s not known how old Akhenaton was when he died, though he was still a relatively young man. His rule did not last more than 20 years.

*

During his rule though, conditions worsened throughout Egypt. The furious priesthood of Amun-Ra fought to restore their god and themselves to rightful supremacy. Akhenaton’s death came as the opportunity they needed and they married one of his daughters to Tutankamun who immediately lifted the ban on worshipping the gods of Egypt. They began rebuilding what Akhenaton destroyed in Thebes, making peace with the priests and in proper time, returned the court to the capital of Thebes. Their reign was one of religious tolerance and Aton became but one of many gods among the reinstated pantheon. The return to the old ways was a popular one as most of the populace had not converted to Atonism and believed Egypt’s woes stemmed from abandoning the gods, who had abandoned them in turn. 

Their successor, Ai, though he had been a follower of Aton, forsook all connection to Aton when he took the throne. After his death, anarchy followed and not much is known of this time. The XVIII Dynasty was broken and Khut-Aton declined rapidly after Akhenaton’s death. By this time its population left and the deserted city was pillaged for its beautiful white limestone. 

When Horemheb came to power under the hand of the priests of Amun-Ra, he used his power to eradicate every trace of worship to Aton. Amun-Ra had conquered Aton. Thebes was once again the capital of Egypt. The priests of Amun-Ra had reclaimed their power. Less than twenty-five years after the death of Akhenaton his city was empty, his temples desecrated, his followers scattered and his enemies ruled the country. Aton fell into obscurity.

*Atum

Atum (Atem or Atmu / Tem or Temu) was another manifestation of the creator sun god. Unlike Ra, Amun and Ptah who were usually associated with the sun at the height of it’s zenith and power, or Khepra who was associated with the rising sun - Atum was associated with the setting sun. Atum was considered the first god, self-created from the waters of Nun. His name means the complete one, and he was said to also be a woman, known as the great he-she and as such, was able to create the universe by making love with his shadow. He was said to have created the first pair of gods - Shu and Tefnut. But Shu and Tefnut left him to explore the universe, and Atum was lost in despair with loneliness and fear of being alone forever. When Shu and Tefnut returned, he was so overjoyed, he wept tears of joy that turned into the first human beings.

Though he was a creator god, who helped battle off Apep each night, he also told Osiris in the book of the dead that eventually he would destroy and submerge the world back into the darkness of the waters of Nun - and only he and Osiris would survive in the form of serpents.

*under construction*

Atum, the Egyptian solar god of creation, the first of all the gods and the 'father of the Pharaohs. Atum emerged from the primeval ocean of chaos called Nun as the sun god at the beginning of time and was the creator of the world. According to ancient Egyptian mythology and their creation myth Atum spat out the elements of moisture and air that became the Goddess Tefnut and the God Shu. The sun was thought to have been a primary factor in the process of creation and so Atum was worshipped as a solar deity. Atum was later subsumed as the Ra, the Supreme Solar God is also closely associated with other ancient gods.

Atum was the first god, the Egyptian solar god of creation, god of the setting sun and 'father' of the Pharaohs. The Pharaohs of Egypt claimed descent from him and this connection is reflected in images of Atum in which he is depicted wearing the crowns or the headdresses worn by the Pharaohs.

As the culture of the Egyptians developed some of their older gods were subsumed (meaning absorbed) into newer gods. This practice is called 'syncretism' which means the fusion of religious beliefs and practices to form a new system. The Egyptians combined different deities into the identity of a single entity. The names of these composite gods were linked, creating names such as gods such as:

• Atum-Ra - the sun god

• Atum-Khepri - connected with the rising sun, the scarab beetle and the mythical creation of the world

• Atum-Horus - the solar god and protector of the monarchy

The name of Atum was eventually dropped and these gods were known by their new single names. The practice of syncretism, where an old god combines with a new god, causes significant confusion as the attributes and symbols associated with the older god merge into those of the new god. This results in Atum being closely associated with Ra, Khepri and Horus and his symbols change and expand according to the beliefs of the time. He is therefore referred to as embodiments of the newer gods

Each of these gods were solar deities, or sun gods:

Atum was the setting sun which travelled through the underworld every night
Khepri was the rising sun
Horus the solar god of god of the east and the sunrise
Ra was the midday sun
Ra-Harakhte was the winged solar disk

He was therefore identified with the setting sun who had to be regenerated during the night, to appear as Khepri at dawn and as Ra at the sun’s high point.

Auf-(Efu Ra)

Auf was the night aspect of the sun god Ra. He was a ram headed god who wore the solar disk and traveled at night through the Underworld waterways in the solar barge, traveling to reach the east in time for the new day. Through the night, he had to fight off the creatures of the underworld, while gods and demons pulled his boat. Auf stood in a deck house, while the serpent Mehen coiled above, warding off Apep who sought to devour the sun each night. The boat of the night was guarded also, by Hu, Saa, and Wepwawet.

Ba

A god of fertility

Ba’al

Ba’al was a Semetic sky god of storms and thunder, originally from Phoenicia, whose name means ‘Lord’. He was a major deity in Canaan, and only in the later period of the New Kingdom, was he worshiped in Egypt.

Ba’alet

(Ba'alat Gebal) Ba’alet was a Phoenician goddess and patroness of the city Byblos whose name meant Lady or Mistress. She was a protecting deity who became incorporated into Egyptian mythology due to her being associated with papyrus, which was imported into Egypt from Byblos.

Babi

He was an ancient deity, older even than most of the Egyptian pantheon, dating back to the Old Kingdom. His name translates as ‘bull of the baboons’ or ‘chief of the baboons’ - the dominant male. The Ancient Egyptians had strong opinions regarding baboons. Baboons are extremely aggressive and they were a symbol of high libido, violence, and frenzy. Accordingly, Babi was seen as a bloodthirsty being, living on entrails. Babi was a fierce, bloodthirsty god of virility who was depicted as a hamadryas baboon and symbolized male sexuality. His supernatural aggression was said to be a trait monarchs aspired towards. Unlike most other Egyptian deities, he stood out for his violence and his fury. He represented destruction.

Baboons were also believed to represent the dead, and in some cases, they were said to be the reincarnation of ancestors. Because of that, baboons were associated with death and with the affairs of the underworld. As such, Babi was a deity of the underworld, the Duat, and an executioner. Some sources say that he devoured humans to satiate his bloodlust. In other accounts, he was said to devour the souls of the unrighteous after they had been weighed against Ma’at - thus was said to reside by a lake of fire, representing destruction. This judgment was an important part of the underworld and as such, Babi was said to be the first-born son of Usir - who was the god of the dead in the regions that also worshipped Babi. In other areas, he was said to be the son of Osiris, in Osiris’s role as god of the dead.

His phallus is represented as, not only the mast of the underworld ferryboat, but also the bolt on the doors of heaven - crediting Babi with control of the darkness, opening the sky for the king. Not only was he credited with being able to control the dark waters, but also to ward off snakes. His symbol of virility is included in a spell where a man wanting to ensure his ability to have successful intercourse in the afterlife, identifies his sexuality with Babi. The Egyptians worshipped him not only to appease the violence he represented, but to have sexual virility in both life and death.

Banebdjedet

(Banebdjetet) Banebdjedet was a horned, fertility god of lower Egypt who appeared either as a ram or most notably - a man with four ram heads to represent the four Ba's (souls) of the first four gods to rule over Egypt: Atum, Shu, Geb, and Usir. In Egyptian, the words for soul and ram sounded identical, and ram deities were often regarded as the appearance or soul of other deities. He was the consort of the fish goddess Hatmehit and was associated with the city Mendes, which eventually became another name for Osiris.

One myth tells of when Horus and Set battled for the throne of the gods and Egypt, Banebdjedet leapt between them in the final battle and demanded a peaceful conclusion, arguing that if the god's abandoned Ma’at, it would result in universal disaster. He argued that the gods should consult with Neith and rely on her wisdom. Neith ruled that Horus was the rightly ruler, being the son of Osiris and that Set’s attempt to take the throne through violence and treachery invalidated his claim.

Ba’Pef

A little-known underworld deity; ram-headed god of the eighth hour, Ba’Pef was a god of terror, specifically spiritual terror. ‘Ba’ translates as soul and his name means, ‘that soul’. This obscure, malevolent deity was said to reside in the House of Woe in the afterlife and cause afflictions to the pharaoh. Though there existed a cult to help appease Ba’Pef and protect the pharaoh, he was never worshiped or had a temple.

Bastet

Bastet was a particularly beloved goddess, and families would invite cats into their home, inviting the spirit of her with them. The cats would protect the family from snakes and rodents, as Bastet protected them from evil spirits and contagious diseases (especially those related to women and children). So revered were cats because of her, that they would be mummified and families would be buried with their cats. She also represented fertility and sexuality - women would buy amulets and statues of her with kittens to assure their own fertility. She was a protector of hearth and home from both misfortune and evil.

Originally she was Bast, a fierce lioness closely paralleling the myths of Sekhmet, but when Egypt unified, she added the diminutive ‘et’ to her name and became the tame house-cat. She was also closely associated with Hathor, who like Sekhmet and Bastet was referred to as the daughter of Ra and the ‘eye of Ra’. So adored by the Egyptians was Bastet, that the Persians used that devotion to win the Battle of Pelusium by painting images of Bastet on their shields and driving cats in front of their army, knowing the Egyptians would rather surrender than offend their goddess Bastet.

Bat

Bat was an ancient, celestial, cow goddess associated with fertility and success, particularly in Upper Egypt. She was one of the oldest Egyptian goddesses, dating back to the early Predynastic Period (6000-3150 BC) and was eventually absorbed by Hathor who took on her characteristics, so that Bat became considered a permanent aspect of Hathor. Bat is usually depicted as a cow or woman with cow ears and horns. She is rarely depicted in Egyptian art, though she is likely the image at the top of the Narmer Palette as she was credited with the King’s success. Bat is found more often though in jewelry and amulets where the head is human, but bovine ears and horns grow from her temples. Her body is shaped in a way that suggests the sacred rattle, or sistrum. This is particularly fitting, since her cult center was in a district of Upper Egypt known as the ‘Mansion of the Sistrum’. It was said she blessed people, using her ability to see both the past and future.

Bata

Bata was an Egyptian god associated with the 17th Nome of Upper Egypt, along with his older brother Anubis. Originally, he was represented as a ram, but following the 18th dynasty, he was represented as a bull. One myth tells the story of how he and Anubis worked the fields together until Anubis’s wife tried to seduce Batu who refused her. Scorned she tried to turn Anubis on his brother, saying he had tried to seduce and beat her. Anubis set out to kill Batu, who escapes over a crocodile infested river where he is able to plead his innocence to his brother Anubis by cutting off his own genitals. He tells his brother he is leaving, but that his heart will be hidden in the highest blossom of a ceder tree. If ever Anubis should see his beer froth, he will know to come find his heart and return Bata to life. Anubis returns home and kills his wife.

Bata leaves and begins life anew, when the gods of the Ennead take pity on him and fashion him a godly wife. But his wife is seduced by the pharaoh and she has the ceder tree cut down, leaving Bata dead as she marries the Pharaoh. Anubis sees the froth in his beer and searches for years to find his brothers heart. He follows Batu’s instructions and returns his brother to life in the form of a bull. Batu travels to his wife, who recognizes him and his him killed yet again. Two drops of his blood fall to the ground and sprout as Persea trees. His wife cuts those down, and makes furniture and utensils with them, but manages to get a liver in her mouth and becomes impregnated with Bata’s child. She gives birth to a son who is a resurrected Bata, who becomes crown prince and eventually pharaoh. He appoints his brother Anubis as his crown prince and the rule Egypt together.

*Bennu

**entry under construction**

The Bennu bird was said to be a self-created being that was said to have flown over the primeval waters of chaos, the Nun, before creation. Where the waters receded at the beginning of time, it was believed that the Bennu had sacred pillars known as Ben-Ben stone where the blessed bird rested. The same primeval mound where creation began was said to have also been the birth place of the Bennu, and where it’s cry broke the primeval silence, marking the beginning of creation and time, making it the god of time. It’s cry was said to have determined what could and could not exist in creation.

The Bennu bird was depicted as a heron and was the myth that inspired the Phoenix.

The Bennu phoenix was also linked with the inundation of the Nile and the creation of all.

Bes

Bes was a fat, bearded dwarf god of music, play, and warfare - ugly to the point of being comical, with bow legs, an oversized head, goggle eyes, bushy tail, and large feathered headdress. He is often shown sticking out his tongue and holding a rattle. He was a god of humor, song, and dance, but also infants and childbirth.

As an apotropaic household protector, his statue was commonly put up in the home, often shown wearing a soldier’s tunic, appearing ready to launch an attack on any evil. He was responsible for many tasks, such as scaring away demons and evil spirits, killing snakes, guarding children - and even aiding women in labor by fighting off spirits - thus he was present with Tawaret at births.

The images of him, that were kept in homes, were quite different from those of the other gods. When carved or painted on a wall, he is never shown in profile, but always full-face, almost unique in Egyptian art. Normally Egyptian gods were shown in profile, but instead, Bes appeared in full-face portrait. There are also depictions of Bes with feline or leonine features.

Representations of an almost identical dwarf-god became widespread across the Near East during the first millennium BC and are common in Syria, Palestine, and Arabia. This god's name in Assyrian and Babylonian may have been Pessû. Bes seems to have been the only Egyptian god who became widely worshipped throughout Mesopotamia.

Besa

The spirit of corn

Beset

Beset was the female aspect of Bes. As Bas was a protective god, his female aspect was called on in ceremonial magic to ward off dark magic, ghosts, spirits, and demons.

Besna

Goddess of home security

Buchis

Buchis was the deification of the Ka (life force) of the war god Montu in the form of a living bull. Buchis was depicted as a running bull.

Cavern Deities

The Cavern Deities are a group of nameless deities who are usually represented as serpent-like beings who lived in caverns in the underworld. They would punish the wicked souls by beheading and devouring them, but they would also aid the justified dead. In the “Spell of the Twelve Caves” (the 168th spell in the book of the dead), it is told which offerings should be left for them. In honor of them, the Egyptians would leave offerings near caves for them.

Dedun

(Dedwen) Dedun was an anthropomorphic god of Nubia, who was at times worshiped in Egypt. He presided over Nubia and their access to resources such as incense. The royal aroma, in the Pyramid Texts, is of incense brough by Dedun for the gods, and Dedun was said to burn incense at royal births.

Denwen

(Denwin) Denwen was a fiery ancient serpent deity represented in the form of a dragon surrounded in flames. He held power over fire and was said to be so powerful that he would have caused a conflagration destroying all the gods with his breath of fire - but he was overpowered by the spirit of a dead king who saves all of creation.

Djebuty

A tutelary god of Djeba. (A tutelary is a minor-deity or spirit who is a guardian or patron of a particular place, person, lineage, nation, or occupation.)

Djefa

God of abundance

Dua

God of toiletry and sanitation

Duamutef

Duamutef was one of the Four Sons of Horus and was a protector god of the canopic jar containing the stomach. He presided over the east, had the form of a jackal, and was watched over by the goddess Neith.

The jackal is linked to Anubis and the act of embalming and also Wepwawet the "opener of the ways" who seeks out the paths of the dead. Duamutef’s role seems to have been to worship the dead person, and his name means literally "he who worships/adores his mother". The most common cause of death in war, was from injuries to the torso and stomach. Duamutef, who guards these organs, was associated with death by war and his name could also mean, ‘adoring his motherland’.

In the Coffin Texts, Horus calls upon him, "Come and worship my father N* for me, just as you went that you might worship my mother Isis in your name Duamutef." Not only was Isis the wife of Osiris and mother of Horus, but she was also the consort of Horus the Elder and thus the mother of the sons of Horus.

This ambiguity is added to when Duamutef calls Osiris, rather than Horus his father, although kinship terms were used very loosely and could mean descendant or ancestor rather than son or father. In the Book of the Dead Duamutef says, "I have come to rescue my father Osiris from his assailant ." Though the text does not specify who might assail Osiris, there are two main candidates: Set, the murderer of Osiris or the other possibility is Apophis, the serpent demon who prevents the Sun's passage and thus the resurrection of Osiris. Either way, Duamutef through his worship of Isis has the power to protect the deceased from harm.

Dunanwy

Dunanwy was said to have been the deity associated with the East, and was usually depicted as a hawk and refereed to as - He of the outstretched ‘wing’/’claw'. In the Pyramid Texts, the four cardinal points are represented by different gods - Thoth with the West, Seth with the South, Horus with the North and Dunanwy with the East. There has been some speculation that Dunanwy was not originally conceived of as a hawk, but rather a cheetah, possibly shown with wings to convey the idea of speed, or even representing a griffin.

This idea may have contributed to the symbolism of the Eye of Horus, the Wadjet, in that the eye is said to have incorporated elements of a human eye, a hawk eye, and a cheetah eye - elements that all have been fused together in Dunanwy.

Edjet

Edjet was a minor goddess, sometimes treated as a less common form of Hathor or Bast. She was depicted in the form of an ichneumon, an Egyptian mongoose. Her name specifically means female mongoose - though it also has connotations with ‘to be safe’ ‘to be whole’ as well as ‘to perceive’. As such, she was the savior, as well as the perceiver.

In several texts, she is credited, as Hathor, with killing Apophis. One Hymn of Hathor acclaims, “Edjet (who) killed Apophis in her form of a young predator.” and elsewhere, a caption states of Hathor, “You are ‘The Great One’ {Edjet} having killed Apophis in your form of a young predator” {The name placed here appears to be a byname of Edjet.}

Edjet could also be the consort of Herishef and as such, ‘Mistress of Herakleopolis’. In addition to her victories against Apophis, she was also entrusted according to Herakleopolitan tradition, with protecting a plant (possibly the caster oil plant) that was associated with the resurrection of Osiris. There is also evidence of the importance of worship of the mongoose at Herakleopolis.

Edjet may also have shared a festival with Bast and there, she appears interchangeable with Bast in the rite of sacrificing the oryx.

The Ennead

**entry under construction

An extended family of nine deities produced by Atum during the creation of the world. The Ennead usually consisted of Atum, his children Shu and Tefnut, their children Geb and Nut, and their children Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys

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After Atum, the four deities (Shu, Tefnut, Geb, and Nut) established the Cosmos, whereas the second set of deities (Osiris, Isis, Seth and Nephthys) mediated between humans and the cosmos.

The Ennead were the nine gods said to have

The nine gods worshipped at Heliopolis who formed the tribunal in the Osiris Myth: Atum, Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut, Osiris, Isis, Nephthys, and Set. These nine gods decide whether Set or Horus should rule in the story The Contendings of Horus and Set. They were known as The Great Ennead. There was also a Little Ennead venerated at Heliopolis of minor deities.

According to the Heliopolis doctrine, Geb came from a line of important gods. His parents were Shu, the god of air, and Tefnut, the goddess of moisture, who were in turn the children of Atum. Osiris, Isis, Seth and Nephthys were the children of Geb and Nut, and together these gods made up the Heliopolitan Ennad. After Atum, the four deities (Shu, Tefnut, Geb, and Nut) established the Cosmos, whereas the second set of deities (Osiris, Isis, Seth and Nephthys) mediated between humans and the cosmos.

Esna

A divine perch

Fa

A god of destiny

Fetket

Fetket was an Egyptian deity who cared for the inhabitants of the hereafter, responsible mainly for providing for the needs of the sun god, Ra, and the deceased pharaoh - though he also cared for the less prestigious dead. In the ‘Texts of the Pyramids,’ he would pour their drinks and hold the function of the cupbearer, serving as a butler to Ra, providing him with their drinks. A such, Fetket is the patron god of bartenders.

An interesting variation puts him as head of the divine household, “O you, Kitchen Masters and Drinking Attendants, recommend Téti [the deceased] to Fetket, the cupbearer of Re, whom Re recommends Téti to the Masters of Supply. When he bites, that he gives to Téti, when he sips, that he gives to Téti.”

Forty-two Judges

The judgement of the soul in the afterlife took place in the Hall of Truth (or the Hall of Two Maats - The double or twin Maat means the presence of extremes. In this context, the term sometimes used is the ‘Hall of Two Truths’. Two Truths refer to the dual construction of all things. For instance, there cannot be a poor man unless there is also a rich man.)

This judgement was presided over by Osiris - nine great judges (Ra, Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut, Isis, Nephthys, Horus, and Hathor) - as well as Forty-Two deities (also known as the Assessors of Maat). Each judge represented one of the nomes of Egypt, as well as different parts of the land - together forming the whole of Ancient Egypt. They were depicted as awe-inspiring and terrible beings bearing names such as Crusher of Bones, Eater of Entrails, and Eater of Shades. The Forty-Two Judges were not all horrifying and terrible of aspect, however, but would appear to be so to that soul who faced condemnation rather than reward for a life well-lived. The soul was expected to be able to recite the Negative Confession (also known as the Declaration of Innocence) in defense of one's life in order to be considered worthy to pass on to The Field of Reeds. Once the soul made their Negative Confessions the Forty-Two judges conferred with and advised Osiris on whether he should accept their confession.

1. Far Strider - represents the land: Heliopolis - punishes the sin: Falsehood

2. Fire Embracer - represents the land: Kheraha (possibly old Cairo) - punishes the sin: Robbery

3. Nosey - represents the land: Heliopolis/Khenmenu - punishes the sin: Rapaciousness

4. Swallower of Shades - represents the land: the Cavern - punishes the sin: Stealing

5. Dangerous One - represents the land: Rosetau (Giza Plateau) - punishes the sin: Murder

6. Double Lion - represents the land: the Sky - punishes the sin: Destruction of Food

7. Fiery Eyes - represents the land: Letopolis/Sekhem - punishes the sin: Crookedness

8. Flame - represents the land: One Who Come Backwards - punishes the sin: Stealing Offerings

9. Bone Breaker - represents the land: Heracleopolis - punishes the sin: Lying

10. Green of Flame - represents the land: Memphis - punishes the sin: Taking Food

11. You of the Cavern - represents the land: the West - punishes the sin: Sullenness

12. White of Teeth - represents the land: Faiyum/Ta-She - punishes the sin: Transgression

13. Blood Eater - represents the land: the Shambles - punishes the sin: Killing a Sacred Bull

14. Eater of Entrails - represents the land: House of Thirty - punishes the sin: Perjury

15. Lord of Truth - represents the land: Maaty - punishes the sin: Stealing Bread

16. Wanderer - represents the land: Bubastis - punishes the sin: Eavesdropping

17. Pale One - represents the land: Heliopolis - punishes the sin: Babbling

18. Doubly Evil - represents the land: Andjet/Ati - punishes the sin: Disputing

19. Wamemty Snake - represents the land: Place of Execution - punishes the sin: Adultery

20. See Whom You Bring - represents the land: House of Min/Temple of Amsu - punishes the sin: Misbehavior

21. Over the Old One - represents the land: Imau/Nehatu - punishes the sin: Terrorizing

22. Demolisher - represents the land: Xois/Lake of Kaui - punishes the sin: Trespassing Sacred Ground

23. Disturber - represents the land: Weryt - punishes the sin: Being Hot-Tempered

24. Youth - represents the land: Heliopolitan Nome/Lake Heqat - punishes the sin: Unhearing of Truth

25. Foreteller - represents the land: Wenes - punishes the sin: Making Disturbance

26. You of the Altar - represents the land: The Sacred Place - punishes the sin: Hoodwinking

27. Face Behind Him - represents the land: Cavern of Wrong - punishes the sin: Copulating with a Boy

28. Hot Foot - represents the land: The Dusk/Akhehu - punishes the sin: Neglect

29. You of the Darkness - represents the land: The Darkness/Kenemet - punishes the sin: Quarreling

30. Bringer of your Offerings - represents the land: Sais - punishes the sin: Unduly Active

31. Owner of Faces - represents the land: Nedjefet - punishes the sin: Impatience

32. Accuser - represents the land: Wetjenet - punishes the sin: Damaging a God’s Image

33. Owner of Horns - represents the land: Asyut - punishes the sin: Volubility of Speech

34. Nefertem - represents the land: Memphis - punishes the sin: Wrongdoing

35. Temsep - represents the land: Busiris/Tattu - punishes the sin: Conjuration against the King

36. You Who Acted Willfully - represents the land: Tjebu/Tebti - punishes the sin: Wading in Water

37. Water Smiter - represents the land: The Abyss/Nu - punishes the sin: Being Loud Voiced

38. Commander of Mankind - represents the land: Your House/Sua - punishes the sin: Reviling God

39. Bestower of Good - represents the land: Harpoon Nome - punishes the sin: Insolence

40. Bestower of Powers - represents the land: The City - punishes the sin: Making Distinctions for Self

41. Serpent with Raised Head - represents the land: Cavern/Your Dwelling - punishes the sin: Dishonest Wealth

42. Serpent who Brings and Gives - represents the land: Silent Land/Underworld - punishes the sin: Blasphemy

Four Sons of Horus

These four deities - Duamutef, Hapi, Imseti, and Qebehsenuef - watched over the viscera through four canopic jars placed in the tomb with the mummified bodies. Each had his own cardinal point, his own internal organ to protect, and was watched over by a specific goddess.

The heart, thought to embody the soul, was left outside the body. The brain, thought only to be a source of mucus, was liquified and discarded. The liver, lungs, large intestines, and stomach with small intestines were what remained - each embalmed and stored in its own jar. Believing the dead would need their organs in the afterlife, they were individually wrapped in linen and placed in the canopic jars, then a consecrated, resinous oil was poured over them. The canopic jars were then ritually closed for eternity inside a canopic chest. (In later dynasties, the organs were wrapped and returned to the body and the canopic jars remained empty and symbolic.) Amulets of the Sons of Horus were also attached to the bandages and other mummy wrappings as well as the coffin.

In addition to their role as the protectors of the canopic jars, the Four Sons of Horus appears as the four rudders of heaven, and as four of the seven celestial spirits summoned by Anubis in the Book of the Dead. Through this, they are connected to the circumpolar stars of the ‘Plough’ or ‘Great Bear’ constellation. The Book of the Dead directly associates all four of Horus's sons, described as the four pillars of Shu and one of the four rudders of heaven, with the four cardinal points of the compass.

Though these relationships of direction and goddess were hardly systematic, certain broadly consistent patterns emerge. More consistent seems to be the pattern with which they were arranged around the body, Duamutef and Qebehsenuf at either side of the feet (and the lower organs - stomach and intestines), and Imseti and Hapi at either side of the head (and the upper organs - lungs and liver). At least one text ascribes the left hand to Imseti and right to Hapi, the left foot to Duamutef and right to Qebehseuef. They are identified with stars in the Northern sky somewhere near Ursa Major. The Sons of Horus were originally either stars or 'pillars of the sky' that assisted Shu in his task of holding the sky up.

The Four Sons of Horus share in Shu and Tefnut’s task of providing for the deceased’s hunger and thirst. When the deceases were ferried to the Field of Reeds, the Four Sons of Horus accompany then, two per side. In one spell, they are said to steer the ferry boat, while in another they are said to row the boat Hetep (Lord of the Field of Offerings).

It is described in the Book of the Dead and earlier, in the Coffin Texts, how Horus lost his eye in a battle with Set as they contended over the crown of Egypt. Because of this, he was given the Four Sons of Horus. Another myth describes them as the sons (descendants) of Osiris and according to this telling, they were born from a lily flower which arose from the primaeval ocean. They were Sun Gods and also associated with creation, and retrieved from the waters of Nun by Sobek on the orders of Re. Many images of the Judgement of the Dead show the brothers in front of Osiris on a small lily flower. In the Hall of Ma'at they sat on a lotus flower in front of Osiris.

Interestingly, some spells could be interpreted to suggest that the four were originally independent from Horus. In one, Horus says, ‘I have placed Duamutef and Qebehsenuf with me so that I may watch over them, for they are a contentious company.’ implying their presence has been granted to Horus in the form of imprisonment - possibly, their allegiance was transferred to Horus from Set as part of the settlements from their conflict over cosmic sovereignty. The spell also indicates that Set will complain that Duamutef and Qebehsenuf are with Horus.

Isis was typically seen as the mother of the Four Sons of Horus, though Serket, goddess of medicine and magic was also credited with being their mother. As the Four Sons of Horus protected the dead’s organs, so too were they protected. In accordance to the Egyptian principles of male/female duality, the Four Sons’ protectors were each female.

In the Book of the Dead, spells describe ritual actions of the Four Sons of Horus. Qebehsenuf presents himself first as son, then father of the deceased and making constant references to earthly offerings, the spell seeming to address the relationship of the living to their ancestors. Meanwhile, Duamutef identifies himself throughout as the son of Horus. Hapi’s speech is fragmented. Imseti then says, ‘I have grown blessed and mighty in thy womb, O mother of Osiris,” appearing to gesture to a womb from which they were originally born. In another ritual, four flames are held by four men with the names of the Four Sons of Horus written on their upper arms. The flames are the extinguished in their own bowls of milk - milk being the offering to the Sons of Horus. The spell exhorts them to protect the deceased against Set and decay as they would for Osiris. Interestingly, the spell warns “Be very careful not to use it for anyone except thy own self - even thy father or thy son - inasmuch as it is a great secret of the west (the land of the setting sun and death), a mystery of the netherworld.”

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Duamutef was a protector god of the canopic jar containing the stomach. He presided over the east, had the form of a jackal, and was watched over by the goddess Neith. (Click name to read more in his individual listing.)

Hapi (Xapi/Hapy - not to be confused with another god of the same name) was a protector god of the canopic jar containing the lungs. He presided over the north, had the form of a hamadryas baboon, and was watched over by the goddess Nephthys. (Click name to read more in his individual listing.)

Imseti was a protector god of the canopic jar containing the liver. He presided over the south, had the form of a human, and was watched over by the goddess Isis. (Click name to read more in his individual listing.)

Qebehsenuef was a protector god of the canopic jar containing the large intestine. He presided over the west, had the form of a falcon, and was watched over by the goddess Serket. (Click name to read more in his individual listing.)

The Gate Deities

Many dangerous guardian deities at the gates of the underworld (flanked by divine Doorkeepers and Heralds), to be ingratiated by spells and knowing their names.

GeBb

Geb, (Seb, Keb or Geb) god of the earth, represented both the fertile land and the graves dug into that land. He was one of the most important deities of the Egyptians. He was the grandson of Ra (creator sun god), son of Shu (air) and Tefnut (moisture), consort of Nut (the starry sky goddess), and father to Osiris, Isis, Nephthys, and Set.

He was shown with skin dark like the soil of the Nile, or green like the vegetation with leaves decorating his skin - the colors representing rebirth and regeneration. Gebb also wore the ceremonial 'osird' or ‘divine beard’ with an upward pointing curl, which pharaohs could only wear after they died and often, wearing the Lower Egyptian crown or Atef crown. While most cultures associated the earth as a woman the Egyptians chose a male for this role. He was often depicted prone beneath the arching starred body of Nuit, his naked green body showing signs of his impressive fertility, his knees and elbows symbolizing hills and valleys, while Shu stands holding them apart. Gebb and Nuit, were said to be inseparable leaving no space between the sky and earth for Ra to continue creating. On the orders of Ra, their father Shu, forcibly separated them. Shu raised the goddess Nuit up high to form the starry sky and was often depicted standing over the figure of Gebb, struggling to get up to reach Nuit. Shu prevents him and raises his arms to hold up the starry figure of his daughter, Nuit.

Gebb was god of the Earth in all its bounty, vegetation and growing things, and later of the dead as well - as he represented the earth in which the deceased was laid (though this aspect is more often attributed to Aker). Rather than merely representing the earth as merely another piece of the cosmos, or just a receptacle for the dead, Gebb represented the supportive matrix of life, the continuity of life, which, from a cosmic perspective, counters the cycle of death and decay. He also symbolized the valleys and hills of the land, called "The House of Gebb".

Among animals Gebb was particularly associated with the goose and was said to be the father of snakes. Gebb was often depicted with a goose above his head and was said to fly through the air as a goose. The Goose symbolizes parenthood, productive power and vigilance. A variation of his name, ‘Seb’ was also the name of a specific species of goose. The symbol of the goose is also in allusion to the idea that he made the primeval egg from which the world came into being. Gebb is often called the ‘Great Cackler’, his laughter associated with the sound of the goose, but also, his laughter was said to be the cause of earthquakes that brought destruction but also fertility to the land. It was said that his son Set got his chaotic nature from his father, as to did his son Osiris receive his bountiful nature.

Gebb, sometimes referred to as "Erpa" meaning the "hereditary chief" of the gods, "father of the gods," in reference to his famous children Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys, was also the first king, or pharaoh, of Egypt. Gebb’s identity with life’s continuity underlies his function of ratifying the transition of cosmic sovereignty - from his grandfather and father, Atum and Shu - to his son Osiris. He then plays a pivotal role in awarding that sovereignty to his grandson, Horus, in his conflict with Set (his son). The pharaoh also, holds the throne of Gebb as his rightful heir; as king he is ‘the seed of Gebb’. Gebb’s attribute as the hereditary prince of gods is so intrinsic that at times it outweighs his identification as an earth god. Gebb’s function as the source of sovereignty for reign upon the earth is dominant from the earliest versions of him.

The sovereigns credited Gebb, ‘head of the Ennead as Gebb, chiefest of the Gods’ as the source of their reign, appearing before the Gods, ‘as Horus at the head of the living, as Gebb at the head of the Ennead, and as Osiris at the head of the spirits’. As the earth was the place all divine activity was felt, to the sovereigns it was said, ‘Gebb has given you all the Gods of Upper and Lower Egypt that they may raise you up; be mighty through them’. Gebb is also the source of all offerings to the gods, and as such, the essence (Ka) of all the gods. This transfer of the bounty of the earth to the continuity of civilization was a mirror to the transfer of sovereignty. Sovereignty is nothing less than the possession of all the ordered cosmos. Gebb makes possible the transcendence of the earthly to the spiritual so that the dead may bring to the gods that which came from the earth as divine offering, and in addition, is the judge of the use of these earthly gifts.

Geb is one of the gods who watches the weighing of the heart of the deceased. The righteous who were provided with the necessary words of power were able to make their escape from the earth but the wicked were held fast by Geb. Those who could move beyond, Geb guided to heaven and gave them meat and drink.

A special relationship between Gebb and his son Osiris is emphasized as ‘the sonship’ - “O Gebb…Osiris the King is your son; may you nourish your son with it, may your son be made hale by means of it,” This relationship is also considered reciprocal: “If [Osiris] lives, [Gebb] will live; if [Osiris] is hale, [Gebb] will be hale; [Gebb] will have effectiveness, O Gebb; you will have strength, O Gebb; you will have a soul, O Gebb; you will have power, O Gebb,”. While Gebb provides for Osiris’s existence by creating for all things, a continuity of life’s natural matrix, Osiris provides for Gebb’s existence by creating for all mortal beings the personal quality of ‘being’.

In some instances, Gebb seems responsible for the corporeal body of mortal beings, earth symbolizing solidity. Even in the resurrection of Osiris, Gebb’s role is comprehensively illustrated, fishing him from the water, putting bones in order, firm his soles and clean his nails. The parts of the body which are solid like the earth are emphasized in his reassembly, including the soles of the feet - which implies standing upright on the earth.

Gebb’s use of his voice is stressed at times, possibly as a symbol for the earth rendering up that which is within - resurrection, ‘Oh King, the mouth of the earth is split open for you, Gebb speaks to you”. When cataclysm threatened, it was said that Gebb would not speak, ‘the earth will not open, Gebb will not speak’. Gebb’s speech was simultaneously resurrection, the creation of food, and judgement of offerings. While Gebb rarely was credited with menacing symbolism of the earth, like refusing to release the dead or the rising sun, some myths do show the presence of more threatening attributes. One myth tells of Gebb as a boar who swallows the eye of Ra and it’s light. Though the eye rises to the surface of the boar’s flesh and is retrieved by Thoth, Gebb is subsequently punished. “the Great House, it is called the lair of the boar. One uses the fire-drill at its entrance. It is the house of the trap of Gebb when the Gods made him swallow urine, after he had taken the form of a boar.”

In Greek (Ptolemaic) times, Geb became identified with the Greek god Kronos.

Gengen Wer

Gengen Wer was a primeval Egyptian goose god whose name means Great Honker. He was also called the ‘Great Cackler’ ('Negeg' in ancient Egyptian). Gengen Wer was a force of creative energy and artistic expression. His imagery is of a cosmic goose carrying the egg from which all life emerges and Egyptian geese had enormous symbolic significance. He was present at the dawn of creation and guarded (or laid) the celestial egg containing the life force.

One myth tells of a primeval creator deity who took the form of a Nile goose to lay a golden cosmic egg from which hatched the sun, divinely personified as the sun god Ra. In addition to being associated with Geb, he was also associated with the solar creator gods, Amun and Ptah.

Interestingly, Gengen Wer is mentioned in a spell for breathing air underwater water: ‘I have guarded the egg of the Great Honker. It is sound, so I am sound. It lives, so I live. It breathes air, so I breathe air’.

He was a protector god who was worshipped very early in Egypt's history. A person in the Underworld might be described as closely guarding or actually being the egg within the Great Honker. Worshipers of Gengen Wer identified themselves with his protective attributes and wore talismans reminding them to respect life and honor the earth.

Griffin

Ha

Ha was a protective god, also known as Lord of the Libyans, and Lord of the Western Deserts. He personified the desert west of Egypt, both literally in regards to geography and figuratively, as the land of the setting sun and consequently, spiritualization. Here the geography of the west, as the site of desert nomads as well as the rich royal tombs, converges with its spiritual function as the netherworld and Duat Desert.

Ha provided protection from the Libyans and opened oases for travelers in the desert. Depicted anthropomorphically as a strong young man wearing the hieroglyphic sign for ‘desert’ or ‘foreign lands’ on his head (three hills), he carried a knife or bow, symbolizing not only the harshness of the land, but the warlike nature Egyptians attributed to the people there and the defense of Egypt from its enemies to the west.

Ha is associated with the west in a more symbolic sense as well, frequently invoked when the cardinal points are being secured, or the direction of the west needs to be indicated. In one spell, the West Wind is the brother of Ha and in this same spell, either the West Wind alone, or Ha as well is stated to be “the offspring of Iaaw”.

In a spell for being transformed into a falcon, Thoth affirms that “Those who shall come against you from the West shall be doomed to Ha, Lord of the West.” The netherworld ferry-boat has for its bow-piece the brow of Ha, possibly because it typically heads west. On the other hand, the fisher boat from which the deceased requires protection has for its adze, chisel and saw “what is on the mouth of Ha”.

In another spell, Hathor is invoked to protect one from the “constriction” or “deprivation” of Ha. When Ha is hostile, it is presumably as a personification of the desert. By contrast, a spell for “burial in the West as a blessed one, (and for) quelling strife in order that he may go down to his possessions which belong to the West [i.e. land of the dead]” says that “I am the child of Ha in his desert … My seat is his desert, the western desert is my horizon, and I am among those who are in it, the kings of Egypt.”

Hapi

Hapi (Xapi/Hapy - not to be confused with another god of the same name who was a fertility ggd of the Nile) as one of the Four Sons of Horus, was a protector god of the canopic jar containing the lungs. He presided over the north, had the form of a hamadryas baboon, and was watched over by the goddess Nephthys.

Since drowning was the form of death associated with the lungs, the deity gained the name geese, in reference to floating on water. His name includes a hieroglyph which is thought to be connected with steering a boat. For this reason he sometimes was associated with navigation, and early references call him the great runner, "You are the great runner; come, that you may join up my father N and not be far in this your name of Hapi, for you are the greatest of my children – so says Horus". Another says, ‘I am Hapi, and I have come to you (the dead). My father Horus said to me: Run after my father Osiris and open his mouth” ie - restore his ability to breathe.

Its possible the original form of Hapi’s name was Hepwy - the ‘-wy’ ending denoting a duality, indicating that like Imseti, Hapi was originally a pair of deities, in this case masculine.

The identification of the Four Sons with internal organs is not stressed in their spells, except when Hapi is asked to perform the ritual of the Opening of the Mouth of the deceased to allow them to breathe. Though this is typically associated with Anubis or Wepwawet, it is appropriate for Hapi who guards the lungs.

In the Book of the Dead, Hapi says: "I have come to be your protection. I have knit together your head and your limbs for you. I have smitten your enemies beneath you for you, and given you your head, eternally."

Hapy

Hapy (Hapi/Hapy-wet/Hapr/Hap/Hep - not to be confused with another god of the same name who was one of the Four Sons of Horus) was an Egyptian fertility god who was the personification of the Nile and it’s inundation which cased the river to overflow its banks. Every year, he would increase the Nile so that it would flood and deposit rich earth and silt which farmers relied on for their crops, which Egypt relied on for their agricultural productivity. He was said to dwell in a great subterranean cavern near the cataracts, where a retinue of crocodile gods and frog goddesses, helped him ensure that the Nile ran cool and clear. His symbol was running water.

Hapy was ancient even to the Egyptians, the root of his name possibly being derived from ‘hep’ a predynastic name for the Nile. Later, the Egyptians called the Nile ‘iterw’, which meant ‘the river’. 'Nile' comes from the Greek corruption - Neilos - of the Egyptian 'nwy' which means 'water'.)

He was depicted anthropomorphically as a blue or green skinned, rather well-fed man with the false beard of the pharaoh on his chin. The color of his skin indicated his role as a god of fertility, while the large breasts and protruding stomach indicated his ability to nourish the land through the annual flooding of the Nile. He was usually portrayed wearing a skimpy loincloth, wearing a crown of reeds and lotus blossoms, often carrying bundles of papyrus and lotus, or trays piled with offerings, representing the bounty of the Nile. Occasionally, representations of Hapy bore the facial features of the reigning monarch, indicating the land’s prosperity was due to that monarch’s performance of ritual duties, as well as his just rule.

As Egypt was divided between North (lower) and South (upper) Egypt, so to was Hapy both god of Upper and Lower Egypt. This duality was shown by having twin Hapi deities. One wore the papyrus of the North (lower Egypt) as a headdress, was called "Hap-Meht" and was though to be husband of the cobra goddess Wadjet (Buto/Uatchet/Uatch-Ura) who was the goddess of the North. The other wore the South's (upper Egypt) lotus as a headdress, was called "Hap-Reset" and was thought to be husband of the vulture goddess Nekhebet, who was the goddess of the South. When he was depicted as a god of the entire Nile, he was shown with both papyrus and lotus plants. Sometimes he was portrayed as doubled or twinned, together pouring water from a carried vase or together, tying the two plants into a knot with the ‘sema tawy’ hieroglyph for union, to symbolize the role of the Nile in uniting the North and South of Egypt.

Very early on, Hapy became associated with Nun, as the Nile’s source was believed to be located in the watery chaos of Nun, the primeval watery mass from which Ra and all of creation sprang. With the attributes of Nun or Nu, Hapy was husband to Nun’s wife, Naunet, the primeval goddess of the Ogdoad. As a result of his association with Nun, he was regarded as a father of all beings, which were believed to be derived from his handiwork and that of his offspring. In this way he was recognized as one of the most foundational and greatest of the Egyptian gods and he was credited with being the creator of everything from which life sprang. Considering how great the importance of the Nile to the Egyptians, Hapy’s unique position among the gods as rivaling Ra for importance is understandable. Hapy was also associated with Osiris, who was a water/river god originally.

In the Pyramid Texts, Hapy was said to send the river and inundation from the underworld through two subterranean caverns. The Nile was thought to have flown through the land of the dead, the heavens and finally flowing into Egypt where it rose, at divine behest, out of the ground between two mountains (Qer-Hapi and Mu-Hapi) which lay between the Islands of Abu (Elephantine) and the Island of Iat-Rek (Philae) at Aswan bordering northern Nubia. These caverns are typical examples in Egyptian thought for that which is secret, like the start of the inundation was. There is also a contrast between ‘Hapy of Egypt’, who emerges from the underworld, with ‘Hapy of the Sky’ or ‘Hapy from heaven for foreigners’ (the rain Egypt’s neighbors were dependent on for crops) which credits him as the maker of rain.

Hapy had a mysteriousness about him as the Egyptians had idea how or why the Nile flooded each year. He was said to slumber in his caverns during the dry season, rejuvenating himself and the flooding of the fields (personified by the goddess Sekhet) was commonly known as the "arrival of Hapi". Hapy was said to come with the inundation with a retinue of crocodile gods and frog goddesses. They believed the gods Khnemu, Anqet, and Satet (of the Elephantine Triad) were the guardians of the source of the Nile and their duty was to ensure the right amount of silt was released during the yearly inundation. Each year, each new flood, Khnum was said to fashion Hapy anew, that it, the ‘body’ of the flood is a different one each year, both regular yet variable, both comparable yet incommensurable as only that year’s inundation truly mattered to those who depended on it. The extant of the inundation, from inadequate to excessive, represented the integral concept of limits placed on human life by inscrutable phenomena in Egyptian thought. In one spell, Hapy affirms that he is ‘in charge of births’. This could be due to his role in providing sustenance or because of the connection between the Nile’s inundation and the waters of birth.

During the inundation, Egyptians would throw offerings, amulets and other sacrifices into the Nile at places sacred to Hapy to appease him, in the hopes that the flood would not be too high, nor too low. Statues of Hapi were carried about through the towns during the inundation so that the people could honor and pray to him. It was a solemn occasion. If the inundation was too high, many homes (usually made of mud) would be destroyed and if it was too low, there would not be enough water for the fields and cattle. Egypt would be in drought. Additionally, Hapy was known as 'Lord of Fishes and Birds of the Marsh' and ‘Lord of the River Bringing Vegetation’ further emphasizing his foundational role in all life, providing even these creatures to the Egyptians. Without Hapy, Egypt would die, and so he could at times be revered even above Ra, the sun god.

So integral was Hapy to the prosperity of Egypt that even Akhenaten, the 'heretic king', could not banish Hapi completely as he did with the other gods. Instead, Akhenaten suggested Hapi was an incarnation of the Aten (Akhenaten's god - the sun disk). The quantity of the inundation was a sign indicating the virtue of the population and government. Hapy was credited even with supplying the offerings made to the gods and as such, that he gave sacrifice for every god, or even that he had ‘made the gods… all the gods live according to his decree’; and that since all books are written on papyrus, ‘all books of godly words… exist through Hapy’. In one spell to transform into Hapy, Hapy is credited with being older even than the Ogdoad, the eight primeval gods.

*Hardedef

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The son of King Khufu (also known as Cheops, 2589-2566 BCE) who wrote a book known as Instruction in Wisdom. The work was so brilliant it was considered the work of a god and he was deified after death.

The Instruction of Hardjedef, also known as the Teaching of Hordedef and Teaching of Djedefhor, belongs to the didactic literature of the Egyptian Old Kingdom. It is possibly the oldest of all known Instructions, composed during the 5th Dynasty according to Miriam Lichtheim, predating The Instructions of Kagemni and The Maxims of Ptahhotep. Only a few fragments from the beginning of the text have survived on a handful of New Kingdom ostraca and a Late Period wooden tablet.

The first lines of the text establish Prince Djedefhor, Khufu's son, as the author of the Instruction, but this has been shown to be highly improbable. In antiquity Hardjedef enjoyed a reputation for wisdom,[1] his name appears in the Westcar Papyrus, and according to the Harper's lay from the tomb of King Intef, a copy of which survives in Papyrus Harris 500, he is mentioned in the same breath as Imhotep, his maxims having survived while his tomb had been lost.[2] His fame was especially great during periods of classicistic revival, when he and other Old Kingdom sages became role models for aspiring scribes.

Prince Hardedef, son of *Cheops who built the Great Pyramid at Giza, was revered by later generations as a sage. The Instruction in Wisdom which is accredited to him is the earliest extant example of this genre of literature, and, unlike some of the later texts, he may indeed have been the actual author of the piece. Addressed to his son, Au-ib-re, the text advises the boy to build wisely for the future, and is preserved on later records including a wooden tablet and ostraca. It was also claimed that Hardedef discovered certain spells from the Book of the Dead written in letters of lapis lazuli in the Temple of Thoth at Hermopolis.
He also occurrs in the Westcar Papyrus as one of the princes who provided diversions to entertain King *Cheops, in his case introducing the famous magician Djedi to the Court.

Hardedef probably received a personal cult and was certainly esteemed by later generations; in the Middle Kingdom hymn, which was reputed to come from the tomb of King *Intef, the harpist sings that he has '.. .heard the sayings of *Imhotep and Hardedef with whose words men speak so often,' but he concludes that it is writings and books which endure far more successfully than the funerary monuments of even these wise and learned men.

Hardedef's tomb has been discovered: at Giza, to the east of the tomb of Crown Prince Kawab (another son of *Cheops) and of the pyramid of *Cheops himself. The decorations in Hardedef's tomb-chapel show evidence of malicious damage and his name and inscriptions are barely legible. This destruction may have resulted from dissension in the royal family relating to the succession after *Cheops' death.

The Instructions of Hardjedef is said to be the oldest Egyptian philosophy and ethics in writing, the first set of teachings that others copied and preserved. Hardjedef was supposed to live at the same time as Khufu, the pharaoh who built the pyramid at Giza about four and a half thousand years ago. Only a few fragments from the beginning of the text survive, just like the work of many philosophers of Greece and other ancient cultures. Hardjedef had a reputation for great wisdom, his name appears in other texts and he is compared to Imhotep, the architect so magnificent he was made into a god like a pharaoh. Hardjedef and other sages became models for later Egyptians who looked back to past prosperous dynasties for wisdom and insight in troubled times. Hardjedef’s teachings are a public offering to his new baby son Auibre, who is still nursing and may not be able to appreciate the advice quite yet.

Clean yourself in your own eyes before someone can clean you.

When you grow, build a house.

Take a wife who has mastered her heart and multiply.

You build for your children when you house yourself.

Build a strong house in the grave and a noble place where the sun sets.

Death lowers us, life lifts us.

The house of death is for life.

Haroeris

Haroeris was Horus the Elder, or Horus the Great. (In Graeco-Roman times the Egyptian name got its Greek form and ‘Her-Wer’ or ‘Heru-ur’ became the name by which we know him best, Haroeris, Horus the Elder. His name, Her-Wer consisted of two elements - first Her or Horus which meant literally, ‘He who is distant/above’ - and then Wer which meant ‘great/elder’. The name Horus, meaning ‘Far away one’ was one of the oldest gods of ancient Egypt and was ascribed to several variants of both his lineage and his characteristics. Early versions of Horus absorbed a number of local gods - including a hawk god Nekheny and Wer (a god of light with the sun and moon for eyes known as the ‘great one’) in pre-dynastic Egypt.

The variant known as Horus the Elder in Egyptian mythology was a fifth child of Nuit and Gebb and as such, a tenth member of the Ennead. In this version, he was born after Osiris on the second day of the five epagomenal days of the year that Ra was tricked into giving to Nuit. In this version, Haroeris is the brother rather than the son of Osiris, in effect the uncle of his younger incarnation. Haroeris was also the version attributed to being the father of the Four Sons of Horus (Imseti, Hapi, Qebehsenuf and Duamutef) with Isis as their mother. Set, the Lord of the Red Land and storms, was Horus’s opposite, contrasting against calm blue skies.

(The younger version of Horus was the son of Osiris and Isis, thus a generation below the Ennead. He was called, Harsiëse, which in Egyptian was 'Her-sa-Aset', Horus the son of Isis. Yet another version claims he was the son of the sun god, Ra, and Hathor, the cow goddess. He was sometimes given the title Kemwer, meaning ‘great black one’ and other variants include Hor Merti 'Horus of the two eyes' and Horkhenti Irti.)

Confusion of Her-wer's attributes with Heru-sa-Aset's led in later times to both being intertwined. In early depictions, Her-wer was purely a celestial or solar divinity. It is only later that he became associated with the pharaohs. Haroeris was depicted as a man with the head of a hawk, wearing the double crown of upper and lower Egypt unified. He was worshipped with his female counterpart, Ta-sent-nefert, and their son, Pneb-taui, together forming a holy trinity. The Haroeris hawk came to be associated with kingship and was depicted seated atop the ruler's name in its hieroglyphic rendering. He was sometimes depicted fully as a falcon.

Haroeris was called the ‘Son of Truth’ indicating his vital role as an upholder of Ma’at. His right eye was the sun, and the left, the moon. In pre-dynastic Egpyt he was primarily a sky god depicted as a hawk. He was identified early on with the sun god, Ra, and in some cases functioned as his son. As a result, he ended up being identified with Shu, the god of air and sky and also, son to Ra. In some cases Haroeris is identified as the sky god Shu himself and then his son again.

In his associations with the sky god, Haroeris is involved in the concerning the eye of the sun god, which Haroeris retrieves from a far-off land. (This eye is sometimes said to be Tefnut herself.) In some myths, Haroeris brings back the eye to return it to its original owner and in others he is the original owner. The Egyptians often described multiple versions that seemed to contradict each other, which they saw as viewpoints that were multiple aspects of the one and only truth - called multiplicity of approaches. So it was not strange to them to see Haroeris as the son of the sky god who gives the eye back to its original owner - who was also Haroeris as the sky god.

Harpocrates

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The Greek and Roman name for Horus the Child, son of Osiris and Isis. Depicted as a young winged boy with his finger to his lips. He was venerated in Greece as the god of secrets, silence, and confidentiality.

Heru-pa-khered (Harpocrates to the Ptolemaic Greeks), also known as Horus the Younger, is represented in the form of a youth wearing a lock of hair (a sign of youth) on the right of his head while sucking his finger. In addition, he usually wears the united crowns of Egypt, the crown of Upper Egypt and the crown of Lower Egypt. He is a form of the rising sun, representing its earliest light.

Harsomtus

A child god of Edfu, an Egyptian city located on the west bank of the Nile between Esna and Aswan.

Hathor

Hathor was an extremely beloved Egyptian goddess - represented as a wild cow with elegant curving horns, often with the sun held between them. Most frequently she was depicted with horns or cow ears, and wearing royal raiments as she was seen as royalty, a queen. She represented female sexuality, as well as music, dance, intoxication, ecstasy, beauty, and passion - but also the sky. 

Her name literally means ‘the house of Horus’  which can also mean - my house is the sky / high heavenly house. Because of this, she is often associated with Horus as well - either as wife or mother. She was also seen as a protective deity, esp. for pregnant women, and became associated often with the mother of the pharaoh. Her own son Ihy, was a god of music and dancing. She was the daughter of Ra and Nuit (the sky goddess). Her association with Ra and Horus also included her in the realm of solar deities and she was said to have a luminance such that “her rays illuminate the whole earth”. 

As the daughter of Ra, Hathor was also said to be the embodiment of divine wrath as the  ‘Eye of Ra’. When the mortals were said to have plotted against Ra, she was sent to destroy them, and she did by the thousands. Many of the same stories that are ascribed to Sekhmet are also ascribed to her at times. She had strong cult followings and sometimes it was even believed that all other goddesses were manifestations of her. More than any other Egyptian goddess, Hathor embodied their ideas of femininity - a duality between violent and dangerous versus beautiful and joyful - encompassing the extremes of passion in fury and love. Hathor was the embodiment of success, single-mindedness, power, and seemed to have no doubts or insecurities. 

The Egyptians celebrated the joys of life in their religion - including music, dance, drunkenness, and beautiful perfumes and incense. Hathor’s worshippers would hold festivities in her honor and it was even thought that the joyful music, dance, and alcohol appeased her and made her manifest as the joyful Hathor, and not the dangerous eye of Ra. Hathor was associated with gold (‘The Golden’ is a common epithet of hers) and with turquoise, possibly because of its association with the sky. So associated was she with beauty, that one hymn says, “the beautiful, the lovely one, who stands at the head of the house of the beautiful; the Gods turn their heads away in order to see her better,” 

Hathor had a multitude of names, including ‘Lady of Turquoise’, as well as ‘Lady of Malachite’ and ‘Lady of Lapis-Lazul’. As such, she presided over the mines where these jewels were extracted, and as a goddess of beauty, she was associated with the fine jewelry made from them. Hathor was as devoutly worshipped by male miners, as she was by women planning childbirth. 

As the lady of the west, she was also associated with death, as well as foreign lands and all the goods that came from them. Goods brought from other lands were sometimes referred to as gifts from Hathor. As she could cross to foreign lands for trade and worship, so to could she cross between the land of the living and the Duat, the land of the dead. Hathor crossed between the worlds and was said to help the souls of the deceased make the journey to the afterlife. She was said to welcome them with the lavishness of food and drink - even being said to rule over a garden of bounty in the afterlife.  One of her festivals took place at a necropolis and was designed to bring joy to the dead that were interred there.  In the form of the seven Hathors, she was also associated with fortune-telling and it was said that the seven Hathors knew the length of every baby’s life the moment they were born and could act as oracles to interpret dreams. They are also seen questioning the dead on their way to the land of the dead. 

In addition to being most often represented with the cow, she also was sometimes represented as a hippo, cobra, lioness, and sycamore tree - in particular, the milky sap of the sycamore tree that was associated with life-giving milk, the Nile, and waters of creation. There are myths of her healing Horus’s eyesight with milk from a sycamore tree, as well as nourishing the dead at sycamore trees with the milk. Even her original association as Mistress of the Heavens was with the milky way - and the milky way was also associated with the milk of a fig from a sycamore tree.

*Hatmehyt

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(Hatmehit) fish-goddess worshipped in the Delta, particularly in the northeast at Mendes. The fish as a divinity is comparatively rare in the Egyptian pantheon, but Hatmehyt's name means "she who is in front of the fishes" referring to her pre-eminence in relation to the few rival fish cults. However, it could also be interpreted in a temporal sense to stress the goddess as the "beginning" i.e. earliest fish-goddess to exist when Egypt emerged from the primeval waters.

She was a fish goddess worshipped in the Delta region of Mendes. Her name means "Foremost of the Fish". She arose from the totemic symbol of the nome (province) of the region around Mendes, which was a fish.

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Hatmehyt was a fish-goddess worshipped in the Delta, particularly in the northeast at Mendes.

The fish as a divinity is comparatively rare in the Egyptian pantheon, but Hatmehyt's name means "she who is in front of the fishes" referring to her pre-eminence in relation to the few rival fish cults. However, it could also be interpreted in a temporal sense to stress the goddess as the "beginning" i.e. earliest fish-goddess to exist when Egypt emerged from the primeval waters.

She can be represented completely as a fish, the shape of which led to former suggestions that it was a dolphin. This has now been discarded in favor of an identification with the lepidotus fish, common in the Nile.

At Mendes, in a district for which the ancient standard was the fish symbol indicating that Hatmehyt was the senior deity in terms of residence there, her cult becomes subordinated to that of the ram-god Banebdjedet - interpreted after his arrival as her consort.

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Hatmehyt was the principal Goddess of the city of Djedet, a city in the Delta known to the Greeks as Mendes, and lends her name also to the nome, or district, in which it was located (the sixteenth nome of Lower Egypt). Her name means ‘Foremost among fish’ or ‘She who is foremost of the inundation’, and she is depicted as a woman with a fish emblem over her head or sometimes as a fish. The fish is typically identified as the schilbe (or ‘schilby’), but may also be the Nile carp, the tilapia, or even the dolphin (argued particularly by Meeks 1973), and perhaps there is no need for these identifications to be exclusive. The significance of the dolphin, which was known to venture occasionally some distance up the Nile, would lie in its position as the premier hunter of fish. Hence the Greeks referred to the dolphin as “king of the fish and ruler of the sea” (Meeks 215 and n. 10). An Egyptian calendar refers to the 28th day of the fourth month of the season of Akhet as a day on which “not to eat the eaters-of-fish in Mendes.” Pliny the Elder speaks of dolphins in the Nile as killing crocodiles with their sharp dorsal fins (Natural History 8, 91), and Seneca (Quaest. Nat. 4, 2, 13) speaks of dolphins and crocodiles fighting in the Canopic mouth of the Nile. Such reports may reflect Egyptian ideas about the dolphin. Hatmehyt is sometimes depicted in the solar boat, where her role may have been to dominate the ‘fish’ dwelling in the celestial ‘sea’. A wide-ranging symbolic value is attached to fish and fishermen in Egyptian thought, as can be seen by symbolic images of fishing in tombs and references in the afterlife literature to fishermen and fish-nets which threaten the deceased, implying an identification between fish and mortal souls as such and a concern that one be fisher rather than fish. In this regard it is worth noting that the word mehyt, ‘fish’, can also mean ‘drowned’, and is a term used of Osiris when he is cast into the Nile. The Nile carp, for its part, is otherwise important in Egyptian religion as the fish who consumed the detached phallus of Osiris, requiring Isis to craft a magical substitute phallus for the reconstituted Osiris in order to conceive Horus. There may be a reference to this myth in the Lamentations of Isis and Nephthys, where Nephthys addresses Osiris, asking him to “come to Djedet, O lusty bull … O lover of women, come to Hatmehyt,” (Lichtheim vol. 3, 119). Hatmehyt here is the district, not the Goddess, but the sexual terms in which the appeal is posed allude to the myth, in which Hatmehyt’s role seems to be to receive the phallus of Osiris on a ‘physical’ plane while Isis receives it on a ‘metaphysical’ one. Hatmehyt’s consort is Banebdjedet.

*Haurun

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earth-god of Canaan identified most importantly in Egypt with the Great Sphinx at Giza. Haurun is attested as a name in Egypt for over 1200 years from 1900 BC when he occurs in the name of a foreign prince w3hom the Egyptians ceremonially curse.  It is likely that a settlement of Canaanite-Syrian workers near the Sphinx in the New Kingdom made the initial analogy between the guardian figure of Khephren carved over a thousand years earlier, and Haurun. Possibly from its position on the western desert looking towards the rising sun, reinterpreted by this time as the sun-god Harmachis, the Sphinx suggested to the foreign artisans the god Haurun viewing the "City of the East" which Canaanite legend has him founding. A temple to this god, the "House of Haurun" as it was called, was constructed in front of the Sphinx. Haurun also figures in a magical spell against the dangers of wild animals such as lions or ferocious dogs; he provides the protection under his epithet "the victorious herdsman". There is an inherent contradiction (or dualism) in his character since his role as a healing god in Egypt must be balanced against his action as a god of doom in the Canaanite myth where Haurun is responsible for planting a "tree of death"

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Haurun was an earth-god of Canaan identified most importantly in Egypt with the Great Sphinx at Giza.

Haurun is attested as a name in Egypt for over 1200 years from 1900 BC when he occurs in the name of a foreign prince w3hom the Egyptians ceremonially curse.

It is likely that a settlement of Canaanite-Syrian workers near the Sphinx in the New Kingdom made the initial analogy between the guardian figure of Khephren carved over a thousand years earlier, and Haurun. Possibly from its position on the western desert looking towards the rising sun, reinterpreted by this time as the sun-god Harmachis, the Sphinx suggested to the foreign artisans the god Haurun viewing the "City of the East" which Canaanite legend has him founding. A temple to this god, the "House of Haurun" as it was called, was constructed in front of the Sphinx.

Haurun also figures in a magical spell against the dangers of wild animals such as lions or ferocious dogs; he provides the protection under his epithet "the victorious herdsman". There is an inherent contradiction (or dualism) in his character since his role as a healing god in Egypt must be balanced against his action as a god of doom in the Canaanite myth where Haurun is responsible for planting a "tree of death".

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A protector god associated with the Great Sphinx of Giza. He was originally a Canaanite god associated with destruction who planted a tree of death. When he was brought to Egypt by Canaanite and Syrian workers and merchants, he was transformed into a god of healing. His association with the Sphinx of Giza comes from these foreign workers who believed the Sphinx represented Haurun and built a shrine to their god in front of the statue. He is known as "The Victorious Herdsman" for a popular spell recited in his name for protection before going hunting.

Hauron is a Canaanite God imported into Egypt under the character of a divine herdsman; hence a spell “to be cast over the field,” (no. 83 in Borghouts) asserts to any predators who would attack the herd that “Hauron has waived your threats,” invoking him as “the victorious herdsman” who can turn the wild animals aside, directing them to feed instead “on the desert animals.” Hauron is generally depicted anthropomorphically, bearing arms, but sometimes as a falcon. A settlement of Canaanite or Syrian laborers near the Great Sphinx at Giza identified the latter with Hauron, and a temple of Hauron was constructed nearby, but Hauron belongs properly to the Canaanite pantheon.

*Hededyt

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Hededyt (Hedetat) is depicted as a woman with a scorpion on her head or, possibly, as a scorpion with a woman’s head. Her name perhaps means ‘the White’, linking her to certain species of scorpion which are whitish yellow in color. Many images of scorpion Goddess figures which are not labelled, and which are generally identified as Serket, may actually be images of Hededyt or of an even lesser known scorpion Goddess, Wehêt,  In some depictions, Hededyt can be distinguished from Serket in the position of the scorpion on her head. In Hededyt’s case, the scorpion is positioned further down on the forehead, and appears to be in motion, whereas the scorpion of Serket is atop the head, and appears fixed. The scorpion of Serket is also generally rendered symbolically harmless by being only partially drawn. This difference in iconography may derive from an initial difference in function. The sphere of activity of Serket is determined as early as the Pyramid Texts to be the defense of the deceased, whereas Hededyt is first conceived as part of the cadre of deities who form the defense of Re  

Goddess of scorpions and protectress against their venom, an early version of Serket.

Hededyt is depicted as a woman with a scorpion on her head or, possibly, as a scorpion with a woman’s head. Her name perhaps means ‘the White’, linking her to certain species of scorpion which are whitish yellow in color. Many images of scorpion Goddess figures which are not labelled, and which are generally identified as Serket, may actually be images of Hededyt or of an even lesser known scorpion Goddess, Wehêt, whom Jean-Claude Goyon argues was the Lower Egyptian counterpart to the Upper Egyptian Hededyt. In some depictions, Hededyt can be distinguished from Serket in the position of the scorpion on her head. In Hededyt’s case, the scorpion is positioned further down on the forehead, and appears to be in motion, whereas the scorpion of Serket is atop the head, and appears fixed. The scorpion of Serket is also generally rendered symbolically harmless by being only partially drawn. This difference in iconography may derive from an initial difference in function. The sphere of activity of Serket is determined as early as the Pyramid Texts to be the defense of the deceased, whereas Hededyt is first conceived as part of the cadre of deities who form the defense of Re. Hence Hededyt is referred to as ‘daughter of Re’ and uses her venom against the enemies of Re. The position of the scorpion on her forehead may therefore parallel the position of the uraeus cobra at the forehead of Re and other solar (or solarized) deities. The Hededyt scorpion, as cosmic defender, would not need to be neutralized, as would the Serket scorpion which is to be depicted in the tomb. When Hededyt acquires a role in defense of Osiris and Horus, it is through Isis appropriating her functions, and the form comes to be known almost exclusively as ‘Isis-Hededyt’ in the later period.

CT spell 283 (cp. BD spell 86), for “becoming a swallow” or, according to a variant, for “not dying again,” invokes Hededyt on behalf of the deceased by way of the deceased identifying him/herself with Re. The spell mentions Hededyt as the daughter of Re and as a “flame for N. [the operator of the spell, identified with Re] when he goes up from the horizon.” Hededyt is determined, however, not as a scorpion but as a swallow or some other kind of bird. This central conceit in the spell might be explained by the use in Egyptian hieroglyphs of the image of a swallow as the determiner for the word wer, ‘great’, as well as perhaps a pun involving the name of the swallow, mnt, and ‘not to die’, tm mt. CT spell 531 also mentions Hededyt, in the course of charging a funerary mask for the deceased emblazoned with diverse divine potencies and which is to grant vision to the deceased. The mask, which seems to be a sort of emanation of the solar disk itself, since it is said that it has been given the supports of the sky by Shu, that is, carried aloft just like the sun, is stated to be that which “Re gave to Osiris for the secret thing which was done against him, in order to end the injury by Seth against him … you are in front of N. [the deceased], and he will see by means of you.” The mask in question is said to have a braid of hair which is that of Hededyt, apparently comparing the braided lock of hair to the scorpion’s jointed tail as well as granting to the bearer Hededyt’s striking power. Hededyt also features in BD spell 39, “for driving off Rerek,” an epithet of Apophis or else an ally of Apophis similarly depicted as a snake; the body of the text does not refer again to Rerek, but only to Apophis; it is possible, therefore, that Rerek, a threat to the deceased, is combated by use of a spell adapted from a liturgy concerning the defense of Re against Apophis, his cosmic foe. Hededyt is mentioned as having placed bonds upon Apophis, who is then punished by Ma’et and apparently eaten by Hededyt (Apophis being, however, indestructible): “O Apophis, enemy of Re, more pleasing is thy taste than this sweet taste in Hededyt.”

Hedjhotep

Hedjhotep (also Hedj-hotep) was a minor deity of fabric and clothes, and less commonly, with weaving and the deceased. He was sometimes referred to as a goddess instead of god and is often depicted holding a wadj-septre and an ankh. It is possible that he originated from the northern part of Middle Egypt and the earliest references to him date back to the Twelth Dynasty of the Middle Kingdom.

A tomb of a man named Nebipu, who was titled, ‘Libationer’ and ‘Keeper of Cloth’ contained the only stella found to be explicitly dedicated to Hedjhotep. Though a cult center grew with a dedicated priesthood during this period of the Middle Kingdom, it does not seem to have been carried forward into subsequent periods of Egyptian history, appearing only sporadically on rituals dedicated to the king.

Later, in the New Kingdom though, Hedjhotep is given medicinal roles, as he is invoked in conjuction with Shezmu, the god of preparing unguents (treatments for headaches and stomachaches) as well as amulets, where Hedjhotep is responsible for crafting the cords. While Hedjhotep is seen as a benificial god of clothing, one text presents him as a harmful deity who committed some offense against Montu and one of his wives, after which, Hedjhotep is usually associated with the goddess of weaving, Tayt, and with Renenutet.

In the Late Period, Ptolemaic Kingdom and Roman period, he is more frequent and replaces Horus as the honored son of Isis in scenes of cloth-offerings. In the latest period, he becomes a son of Ra and is said to have invented clothing, being the first to have clothed the naked, though even then, Hedjhotep remains primarily the god who fashions the clothing for Kings, Gods and the deceased, which stimulates their resurrections.

*Hedjwer

entry under construction

*Huah &

Hauhet

entry under construction

“Heh, also known as Huh, embodied the concept of formlessness, boundlessness and infinity. He appeared as a frog or as a frog-headed man and his consort in the Ogdoad was Hehet. Huh was later identified with Shu and was a god of the wind, linked to the four pillars that held up the sky. According to some myths he was believed to hold up the Solar barque of Ra and raise it up into the sky at the end of its voyage through the Underworld.”

“Hehet, also known as Hauhet embodied the concept of formlessness, boundlessness, infinity the flood force and the primeval waters of Nun. She was depicted as a cobra snake or as a snake-headed woman. Her consort and male counterpart was Heh.”

God and goddess of infinity and eternity. Heh was depicted as a frog and Hauhet as a serpent. Their names mean "endlessness" and they were among the original gods of the Ogdoad.

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The Egyptians believed that before the world was formed, there was a watery mass of dark, directionless chaos. In this chaos lived the Ogdoad of Khmunu (Hermopolis), four frog gods and four snake goddesses of chaos. These deities were Nun and Naunet (water), Amun and Amaunet (invisibility), Heh and Hauhet (infinity) and Kek and Kauket (darkness). The water stretched infinitely off in all directions, as ever lasting as time itself. Heh and Hauhet came to symbolise infinity. After the Egyptians believed that time began, Heh and Hauhet came to symbolise limitless time, and long life.

Heh Holding Two Palm Fronds, Seated on the Symbol for Gold and Holding the Ankh Sign of Life

The frog or human headed god Heh (Huh) was one of the original eight gods of the Ogdoad of Khmunu (Hermopolis). He was the god of infinity and time, the god of long life and eternity. In his hand he is shown holding one or two palm fronds of 'A Million Years' in his hands, the Egyptian sign of long life. Sometimes he was shown wearing a palm frond on his head, as a headdress.

As a god of infinity, his name was linked to numbers. His determinative - an image of Heh with his arms raised million determinative - was used for 'one million'. It seems that 'million' was a number for eternity - the 'Barque of a Million Years' was the name of the boat that the sun god Ra travelled in during the day, which the Egyptians believed would happen until the end of time, when chaos took over the land once more.

Heh in the Pectoral of Sithathoryunet

This centerpiece of a princess' necklace is composed around the throne name of King Senusret II. It was found among the jewelry of Princess Sithathoryunet (sit-hathor-you-net) in a special niche of her underground tomb beside the pyramid of Senusret II at Lahun. Hieroglyphic signs... might be read as a text saying, "The god of the rising sun grants life and dominion over all that the sun encircles for one million one hundred thousand years [i.e., eternity] to King Khakheperre [Senwosret II]."

... The cartouche rests on the bent tops of palm fronds (signs for "year") that are held by a kneeling Heh, god of eternity and sign for "one million." A tadpole (sign for "one hundred thousand") dangles from the god's right elbow.

-- Pectoral of Princess Sithathoryunet, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

As well as being a god of time and infinity, he was also an air god. Identified with Shu, Heh was a god of the wind who was linked to the four pillars that held up the sky. Like Shu, he was sometimes shown with his arms raised to help hold up the sky.

O you eight chaos gods, keepers of the chambers of the sky, whom Shu made from the efflux of his limbs, who bound together the ladder of Atum...The bnbn [phoenix] of Ra was that from which Atum came to be as Heh... I am the one who begot the chaos gods again, as Heh, Nun, Amun, Kek. I am Shu who begot the gods.

The Eight Heh Gods and Heh, Lifting Up Nut as the Heavenly Cow, from the Tomb of Seti I

-- Coffin Text, Spell

Heh was also eight different gods - like Hathor and the seven Hathors - who were believed to support the great celestial cow in the heavens. He, like Nun, was also believed to hold up the solar barque of Ra, and to life it up into the sky at the end of its voyage through the land of the dead.

Some believe that Heh was a representation of fire at one point, though it seemed that he was regarded as representing different things over time. While being a god of fire, he was shown as a snake headed god. Hauhet, as a goddess personifying fire, was shown with the head of a cat.

Hauhet

The feminine of the god Heh, Hauhet (Hehet) was a much more obscure goddess than her husband. She was a snake-headed woman who ruled over infinity with her husband. He name was the same as her husband's, except with a feminine ending.

Heh and Hauhet are rather difficult ideas to grasp, perhaps active and passive infinity would be a good expression. This infinity is mostly conceived in relation to time, and is consequently equivalent to, and often described by the Greek Aion; as infinity of form it resembles Eros ... The first act of a creation is the formation of an egg, which rises upon the hands of Heh and Hauhet out of the proto-matter. Out of the egg arises the god of light, Ra, the immediate cause of life in this world.

-- Cosmogony, The Catholic Encyclopedia Hauhet was the feminine to Heh's masculine, more of a representation of duality than an actual goddess, so she was even less of a deity than Heh, and more of an abstract.

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Heh, whose name denotes an incalculable number, personifies unlimitedness, especially in the sense of unlimited time as reckoned by heavenly cycles. Along with his consort hehet, he is one of the Gods of the ogdoad, whose name Hehu, ‘Infinites’ (often translated ‘Chaos-Gods’), is the plural form of the same word. Because unlimited time is regarded as a boon, however, Heh does not share in the ambivalence which generally attaches to the Hehu as a group. Heh is depicted anthropomorphically, usually kneeling atop a collar of beads which is the sign for gold, regarded as an incorruptible metal, and grasping in each hand a notched palm-branch representing the marking off of time, and sometimes with a palm branch on his head. The palm branches may be augmented with the shen sign, a loop of rope signifying eternity in the sense of a closed (encircled) totality, which is also familiar as that within which the names of kings are written, in which case it is commonly known as a ‘cartouche’, and ankhs, the signs for life, may hang from his arms or hands.

In late period temple inscriptions, the symbol of Heh is shown being offered by kings to Gods or Goddesses in a manner similar to the offering of ma’et (J. F. Borghouts, “Heh, Darreichen des,” in Helck and Otto). Typical recipients of the symbol are shu, as bearer of the heavens, or hathor, as embodying the heavens. The symbol of Heh received by the God is described as their own image; that is, the king, granted an infinite reign, would offer to the Gods in return an image of themselves, upholding the cosmic order just as they do. The Heh symbol thus becomes a medium for identification between the king and the Gods. In earlier scenes of investiture, the king receives the Heh symbol as an expression of the eternity which is manifest in a king’s perfect fulfillment of his role in relation to the state, the world and the Gods. Often the Heh symbol is conceived metaphorically as air or the breath of life, and as a bouquet of eternal fragrance, an apt symbol for the permanence which is obtained for even that most fleeting of beings through its participation in perfection.

In CT spell 335, the affirmation “I am that great Phoenix which is in Iunu [Heliopolis], the supervisor of what exists,” has appended to it an ancient commentary which says, “As for what exists, it is eternity [neheh] and everlastingness [djet]. As for eternity, it is day; as for everlastingness, it is night.” This implies that neheh and djet are not synonyms, but are, taken together, inclusive of the whole of being. The manner in which to differentiate them is subject to dispute. Jan Assmann (2002, 18-19) has interpreted neheh as the cyclical time generated by the movement of the heavenly bodies, and therefore an eternity of motion and of ceaseless coming-to-be and transformation, whereas djet is the eternity of immutability and permanence, the eternity of that which is perfect and for which time has, as it were, either stopped or never begun.

(Hauhet) “The Infinite/Eternal” (fem.), a Goddess belonging to the Hermopolitan Ogdoad. Consort of the God Heh, they represent together the concept of neheh. There are two concepts of eternity in Egyptian thought, neheh and djet, which are clearly complementary, but precisely how has been a subject of controversy. Djet has been interpreted as the static eternity of that which stands outside of time, the perfect, permanent, or timeless but also, in some respect, lifeless or at any rate timelessly past; hence in a commentary on spell 335 of the Coffin Texts, djet is interpreted as night, neheh as day, insofar as night preceded the first sunrise with which cyclical time or neheh commenced. Neheh appears to have meant the eternity of cosmic time, embodied in the orderly revolutions of the heavenly bodies; thus Heh and Hehet are sometimes depicted in the twelfth hour of the night welcoming the reborn sun.

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Heh was the god of infinity and formlessness. He was shown as a crouching man holding out two palm ribs in his hands, each of which terminated with a tadplole and a shen ring. The shen ring was a traditional symbol of infinity. The palm ribs were symbols of the passage of time, in the temples they were notched to record cycles of time. The tadpole was a hieroglyph that represented the number 100,000.

The image of Heh himself was with his arms raised was the hieroglyph for the number one million.

Heh was a member of the Ogdoad of Hermopolis. He and his consort Hauhet together were the aspects of formlessness and endlessness that existed in the universe prior to the Creation. In Hermopolis, he was depicted as a serpent.

Heket was the Egyptian frog-goddess of childbirth. She was depicted as a frog or a woman with the head of a frog. On temple walls she was typically in anthropomorphic form, while on amulets Heket was usually in animal form.

Heket was initially described in a magic spell (PT 1312) of the Pyramid Texts -- which was designed to enable the pharoah to rise to the heavens.

Heket's association with childbirth was first clearly attributed with birth in the Westcar papyrus which dates to the Middle Kingdom. The text details the miraculous birth of the first three pharoahs of the 5th Dynasty. Heket hastened the final stages of labor and delivered the babies safely.

Pregnant women often wore amulets and scarabs featuring Heket to protect them during childbirth. She was often featured on ivory knives dating to the Middle Kingdom. These knives were used to magically protect the home. Midwives were called "servents of Heket."

Temple to her at Qus in Upper Egypt. In the tomb of Petosiris there is a text relating a story of how Heket led a processsion in her honor to her temple at Her-wer and requests its restoration. Her cult center may have been in Her-wer, but this has not been proven. Heket was featured on the temple walls at Abydos receiving an offering of wine from Seti I.

*Heka

entry under construction

god of magic - activation of the Ki - son of Atum cannibal must devour other gods for power - A man carrying a magic staff and a knife, the tools of a healer. magic and medicine (though to the ancient Egyptians, they were one and the same).

One of the oldest and most important gods in ancient Egypt. He was the patron god of magic and medicine but was also the primordial source of power in the universe. He existed before the gods and was present in the act of creation although, in later myths, he is seen as the son of Menhet and Khnum and part of the triad of Latopolis. He is depicted as a man carrying a staff and knife, and physicians were known as Priests of Heka. Magic was an integral part of medical practice in ancient Egypt, and so Heka became an important deity for doctors. He was said to have killed two serpents and entwined them on a staff as a symbol of his power; this image (borrowed from the Sumerians, actually) was passed on to the Greeks who associated it with their god Hermes and called it the caduceus. In the modern day, the caduceus is frequently confused with the Rod of Asclepius in iconography related to the medical profession.

Other Names: Heka / Patron of: magic and medicine (though to the ancient Egyptians, they were one and the same). / Appearance: A man carrying a magic staff and a knife, the tools of a healer. /

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(Sometimes Hike, possibly in closer accord with the actual pronunciation) The Egyptian word heka is generally translated as ‘magic’, and the God Heka is the anthropomorphic divine personification of this power. Occasionally Heka may be depicted holding a snake in each hand. Being a personification does not mean that Heka was without his own cult in diverse places (e.g., at Esna as the child of Khnum and Menhyt), but his relationships to other deities are conceptual rather than mythical.

Heka is one of the key concepts of Egyptian religious thought. Gods and humans alike draw upon the power of heka, and it is a constitutive force in the cosmos. The word heka contains as its principal component the word ka, which is frequently translated either as ‘spirit’ or as ‘double’, the latter because the ka of an individual is sometimes depicted as their twin. Ka is the force of vitality or of will in the individual, comparable to the Roman concept of the personal genius, of varying strength depending upon the individual’s degree of accomplishment or self-realization, while heka is the instrumentalization of that force. Although “to go to one’s ka” means to die, one’s ka is what supports one all through life as well as beyond. Food-offerings for the dead were directed to their kas, just as offerings to the Gods were directed to their kas. Since the ka is the source of sustenance and vitality, heka is in some sense the primary activity, the mobilization of vital energy as a movement of will prior to all other modes of activity. One’s ka is both one’s innate nature, and also the best that one can be, and heka manifests the striving to actualize the potential of one’s ka. The ka can also be understood as one’s luck or fortune, and heka as the effort to affect this element of ‘destiny’ or to deploy it as an effective force in the moment, in the now.

In PT utterance 539, the king, asserting his right to ascend to the sky, makes a series of what appear to be threats directed to the Gods if they do not assist him, the threats concerning for the most part the withholding of offerings. He states, however, that “It is not I who says this to you, you Gods, it is Heka who says this to you, you Gods.” This is not in the nature of a refusal of responsibility any more than the threats are an attempt at coercion. Rather, the invocation of Heka identifies the lack of offerings which the Gods will experience if the king is not helped to ascend as a function of the very structure of the cosmos. If the king is not able to ascend to the sky, then the cosmic project resulting in the cult of the Gods has in essence come to naught and all that has been invested in the constitution of the human spirit shall be lost rather than being recovered and returned to the Gods who are its origin. Heka is in this sense synonymous with the cosmic order and the will of the Gods themselves. The king threatens the Gods, therefore, with nothing more than their own failure to carry out their own will, which is meant to be manifestly impossible.

Spell 261 of the Coffin Texts is for becoming Heka, and reveals much about how the Egyptians conceived the exercise of heka. Here, Heka is identified with the primordial speech of Atum when he was yet alone, at the very moment in which the differentiated cosmos begins to emerge, and as the ongoing protection of that which Atum has commanded. Heka is thus at once the means by which the cosmos comes forth as well as the means of its maintenance and preservation. Heka says, “I am ‘If-he-wishes-he-does’, the father of the Gods,” the effective will being essential to the nature of a God. Indeed, Heka here identifies himself as “the son of Her who bore Atum,” thus placing himself prior even to the eldest among the Gods, “who was born without a mother.” This paradox, typical of Egyptian religious thought, expresses that heka is essential to the nature of the Gods and is therefore in a sense prior to them, albeit not in a generative sense, but simultaneous to their own, timeless existence. The relationship between heka and ka is underscored in Heka’s styling himself “Greatest of the owners of kas, the heir of Atum,” and in the reference to the two functions of the mouth of Atum, “the august God who speaks and eats with his mouth.” In spell 945 of the Coffin Texts, a spell for the divinization of the members of the body, the eyes are identified with Heka, and correlatively, a spell against crocodiles (no. 124 in Borghouts) affirms that their eyes are blinded by Heka. Heka can symbolize the powers of perception and cognition combined, as can be seen from the tendency for Heka to appear sometimes in place of Hu and Sia, the Gods representing the faculties of thought and perception respectively, in the boat of Re as it travels through the night in the Amduat books. In the ‘Teaching for Merikare’, it is said that heka was made by the divine for humans “as a weapon to oppose the blow of events.”

Hekt

The frog headed goddess of birth

*Hemen

entry under construction

minor falcon god associated with Horus

Hemen is depicted as a hawk-shaped idol of wood or stone, or as a mummified hawk. Hemen is mentioned in PT utterance 231, a spell occurring in a series dedicated to repelling dangerous serpents, where an unidentified creature is told, “Your bone is a harpoon and you are harpooned,” followed by some material of doubtful interpretation, and finishing off with the affirmation, “That is Hemen.” Although the context of the spell would tend to imply that the unnamed creature is, similarly, a snake, in light of other evidence it is assumed that Hemen wields a harpoon against a hippopotamus, a harpoon apparently made itself of hippopotamus bone. A text from the tomb of Ankhtifi at Mo’alla also associates Hemen with a hippopotamus. An inscription from this tomb says that the door of the tomb “has been brought from Elephantine like the hippopotamus who was enraged against the lord of the South,” the latter being identified with Hemen in this context (Mo’alla, 232). This text, in turn, suggests another in which a net or trap which captures Seth, who is himself sometimes associated with the hippopotamus, is called “the mysterious of form, which Hemen provides,” (BD spell 17). In PT utterance 483, the earth is being addressed: “O earth, hear this which Geb said when he spiritualized Osiris as a God; the watchers of Pe install him, the watchers of Nekhen ennoble him as Sokar … as Horus, Ha, and Hemen.” In CT spell 397, the cable of the netherworld ferry-boat is identified with “the nêu[‘smooth’]-serpent which is in the hand of Hemen,” alluding to Hemen’s power over serpents and suggesting an alternative interpretation for PT utterance 231. CT spell 415, which is extremely short, consists simply of the affirmation, “I have gone up into Pe, I have gone down in Dep, and Hemen is he who has done this work with me.” In CT spell 580, “Not to walk head downwards,” i.e., upside down, one of a genre of spells to prevent the deceased consuming products of excretion and decay, reference is made to a “house of Hemen.” In CT spell 659, “Spell for landing,” the deceased affirms that s/he shall go aboard the bark which is to take him/her to the northern sky “like Hemen who knows no weariness.” Spell 660 incorporates references to the same bark, as well as to not traveling upside down or coming into contact with excrement, and refers to the fire with which the deceased shall bake his/her bread in the netherworld as “the tears of Hemen.” A tantalizing reference to Hemen occurs in a medical spell to ease childbirth (Ramesseum Papyri IV, plate 18) which refers to Nephthys bearing a daughter by Hemen: “Hemen had intercourse with his mother Isis, he made pregnant his mother Nephthys with a daughter,” but no daughter of Hemen – or Nephthys, for that matter – is otherwise attested, and it seems rather that the spell identifies the woman in labor as a child of Hemen and Nephthys; BD spell 17, an ancient commentary upon which mentions Hemen, includes the affirmation by the operator, “I conceived through Isis; I begot through Nephthys.”

The Hemsut

entry under construction

(or Hemuset) Protective goddesses of Fate, destiny, and of the creation sprung from the primordial abyss; daughters of Ptah, linked to the concept of ka

Heneb

A god of grain.

*Henet

entry under construction

Goddess depicted as a pelican or with the head of a pelican; in translations, generally simply “the Pelican”

(Henut) A Goddess depicted as a pelican or with the head of a pelican; in translations, generally simply “the Pelican”. In PT utterance 318 (first T-text), it is said that “the Pelican [Ḥnt] is the King’s mother and the King is her son.” In CT spell 225 (BD spell 68), the deceased is assured that “the mouth of the Pelican is opened for you, the mouth of the Pelican is thrown open for you, the Pelican has caused you to go out into the day to the place where you wish to be,” where Faulkner (Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts, vol. I, p. 178) suggests the mouth of the Pelican to be a figurative way of referring to the doors of the tomb; but variants read “the Pelican opens your mouth”, implying instead a divinity active in the drama of resurrection.

The Pelican’s mouth may be the source of a prophetic utterance or judgment, as we see in PT utterance 254, where the king states, amidst threats for cataclysm if a place is not made for him by the “Lord of the horizon”, that “the ḥnt-pelican will prophesy, the psḏt-pelican will go up.” But CT spell 484 states, with a clearly positive connotation, “the Pelican prophesies, the Shining One [psḏt] goes forth, the dress of Hathor is woven, a path is prepared for me that I may pass by.” CT spell 622 repeats the formula “the pelican will prophesy, the shining one will go forth.” In both PT utt. 254 and CT spell 622, we find the threat that “the earth will speak no more” preceding the pelican prophecy formula; is there an implicit substitution here of the Pelican for Geb? Or an inversion of the normal state of affairs?

The enigmatic CT spell 243, “for opening up the West and for acquiring ꜥftt of the West in the realm of the dead,”—ꜥftt is an unknown abstract noun also occurring in spell 259, “Being introduced to them [viz., certain snakes] in the horizon”: “I open ꜥftt on the hands of that God who gives orders in accordance with what he knows”—has the formula “I am the Pelican who saw your birth, I have come that I may inspect my nest.” Similarly, spell 263 has “I am the Pelican who saw your birth, who saw your birth when you were born. I have come here seeking my fledglings.” Spell 264 perhaps clarifies the “you” in the former: “O Great One, loud of voice,” this being a common epithet of Seth, “N is the Pelican who sees your head”—i.e., behind him—“He [N] has come here that he may seek his fledglings.”

CT spell 622 indicates a reciprocity between the deceased and Henet established in ritual action while alive, with the formula “I have affixed my head to my neck”—an image of resurrection, comparable to opening of the mouth—“and my neck is on my trunk in this my name of Affixer-of-head, by means of which I affixed the head of the Pelican on the day of the head-festival of the Bull.”

Henkhisesui

God of the east wind.

Heptet

A knife holding goddess of death

*Heqet

entry under construction

frog goddess of childbirth and fertility goddess of childbirth, creation and grain germination. She was depicted as a frog, or a woman with the head of a frog, betraying her connection with water.

Goddess of fertility and childbirth, depicted as a frog or a woman with the head of a frog.

Heqet (Heket) was a goddess of childbirth, creation and grain germination. She was depicted as a frog, or a woman with the head of a frog, betraying her connection with water. As a water goddess, she was also a goddess of fertility where she was particularly associated with the later stages of labour. In this way, the title of "Servants of Heqet" may have been a title applied to her priestesses who were trained as midwives.

The ancient Egyptians saw thousands of frogs appear all along the Nile at certain times of the year. This appearance of the reptile came to symbolise fruitfulness and coming life.

She was thought to be the wife of Khnum, the god who creates men on his potter's wheel, and she gave the newly created being the breath of life before the child was placed to grow in the mother's womb.

In the story of the triplets who would be pharaohs, she was the goddess of magically "hastens the birth", in an unspecified manner.

A Clapper belonging to a female servant of Heqet

In Hatshepsut's birth colonnade, it is Heqet, with Khnum, who led Ahmose to the birthing room. She also was depicted as the goddess who held the ankh sign of life to Hatshepsut and her ka, fulfilling her job as the giver of life to the newly created child.

She originally appears in the pyramid texts where she helps the pharaoh ascend into the sky. She is also connected with the Osiris myth in the "Funeral of Osiris" at Dendera:

Osiris, ithyphallic and bearded, in mummied form, lying upon his bier; over his feet and his body hover the hawks. At the head kneels Hathor, "Mistress of Amentet, who weepeth for 'her brother'," and at the foot is a frog symbol of the goddess Heqet, beneath the bier are an ibis-headed god holding the Utchat, two serpents, and the god Bes.

As such, she was not only a goddess of birth, but of rebirth, because of her life-giving powers.

Amulets of Heqet were worn by women to protect them while they gave birth. During the Middle Kingdom ritual ivory knives and clappers (a type of percussional musical instrument) bore her name or image as protection for inside the home.

There was a Ptolemaic temple to Heqet at Qus, of which only a pylon remains. She was also known as "Lady of Her-wer": A tomb at Tuna el-Gebel has text speaks about a procession in her honour where she asks that the temple of Heqet at Her-wer be restored and protected from inundation, but this temple has not been found, yet.

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(Heket) A Goddess depicted either as a frog-headed woman or as a frog, Heqet is associated with the development of the fetus in the womb, with birth and with resurrection. Some of these associations may have come from witnessing frogs emerging from the mud after prolonged hibernation, an image evoking the idea of spontaneous generation in a manner somewhat akin to the life cycle of the scarab beetle as interpreted through the God Khepri.

In an ‘ascension’ spell from the Pyramid Texts (utterance 539), the “hinder-parts” of the king are identified with Heqet, perhaps because of the frog’s talent for jumping. In CT spell 175, the operator affirms that “I am the Great One whom Heqet created, who gathered together these bones of Osiris,” identifying the formation of the body prior to birth with the reconstitution of Osiris, which takes place in a marshy setting. In spell 234, reference is made to the “four basins of Khepri and Heqet,” to which breads are offered which symbolize “the mooring-post, the bow-warp and the stern-warp.” These basins have been identified with sacred lakes in the area of Saqqara and Abusir, across which the funerary procession would have crossed on the way to the cemetery. In spell 258, a spell for “not perishing forever,” Heqet is pluralized: “the Ennead [the nine Gods of Heliopolis] conduct to him [the deceased] the Heqets who bore Re, they serve for you your great ka‘s [spirits] in the midst of the horizon.” The eastern horizon, where Re is born, is conceived as a marsh and as the vulva of Nut, hence as places to which Heqet is appropriate both as frog and as divine midwife. Heqet is also referred to in the plural as a group of frog-Goddesses who attend Hapy, the God of the Nile’s inundation. She is paired with Khnum, for he shares both her association with the formation of the body and with the Nile, and with Haroeris (the ‘elder’ Horus), either as consort or as mother. A spell for the divinization of the members of the body (CT 945) identifies Heqet with the anus, for reasons which are obscure. In addition to amulets for protection during childbirth, Heqet appears frequently on ivory magical wands, indicating that she is a protector of health and home in general.

In the Westcar Papyrus, Heqet is one of the deities (the others being Isis, Nephthys, Meskhenet and Khnum) who are sent by Re to hasten the delivery of the royal mother Ruddedet. The Goddesses disguise themselves as dancing girls, Khum as their porter. Arriving at Ruddedet’s bedside, they assist her in giving birth to triplets, who are to be the first three kings of the fifth dynasty. Heqet’s specific role is to hasten the births, while Isis names the children, Meskhenet prophesies in regard to them, and Khnum grants health to their bodies (Lichtheim vol. 1, p. 220).

The biographical inscription of Petosiris (4th-3rd c. BCE) refers to an incident in which Petosiris, a high priest of Thoth, witnessed a festival of Heqet in which the statue of the Goddess being taken on procession halted at a spot outside of town where a temple of Heqet had formerly stood but had been washed away entirely by the Nile’s annual flood. Interpreting the behavior of the statue as a desire on the part of the Goddess that her temple be rebuilt, Petosiris recounts that he financed the reconstruction and rededication of the temple, this time with a rampart around it to protect it from the waters (Lichtheim vol. 3, pp. 47-8).

Heqet is depicted in reliefs from the temple of Hathor at Dendera participating in the resurrection of Osiris, and from dynasty 18 or 19 on a frog ideogram is sometimes added to the phrase wehem ankh, ‘repeating life’, i.e. born again or resurrected (Gardiner p. 475). The association of the frog with resurrection persisted even among the Christians of Egypt: Lanzone (Dizionario di mitologio egizia, p. 853) describes a lamp with the figure of a frog on it which proclaims, in Greek, “I am the resurrection.”

*Heret-Kau

entry under construction

A goddess who's name means, "She who is above the spirits", clearly indicating her dominating force in the Afterlife. She figures into temple foundation rituals in the Delta alongside Neith and Isis, and probably had a cult during the Old Kingdom, where we find reference to a priest of this goddess.

A protective goddess whose name means "She Who is Above the Spirits". She was worshipped during the period of the Old Kingdom (c. 2613-2181 BCE) as a life-giving spirit who also protected the souls of the dead in the afterlife. Her nurturing qualities were later absorbed by Isis.

The Her-Hequi

4 deities in the fifth division of Duat

Hert-ketit-s

A lioness headed goddess in the eleventh division of Duat

Hert-Nemmat-Set

A goddess in the eleventh division of Duat who punishes the damned

Hert-sefu-s

A goddess in the eleventh division of Duat

Heru

entry under construction

A hawk god - probably an aspect of Horus.

See also Aai, Horus, Unas

*Heru-em-Anpu

entry under construction

son of Set and Nephthys - (Hermanubis) Greek combined form of Hermes and Anubis

Heru-pa-kuat

entry under construction

Great mother - she is the mother and counterpart of her son Ba-neb-tettu, the creator god. She is depicted with a fish, the symbol of plenty and fecundity, on her head.

Hery-sha-duat

Underworld god in charge of the fields of Duat

Heryshaf

entry under construction

ancient ram deity - Heryshaf was a creator and fertility god who was born from the primordial waters. Ruler of the Riverbanks

A fertility god depicted as a man with the head of a ram. He is an ancient god going back to the Early Dynastic Period (c. 3150-2613 BCE). He was later associated with Atum (Ra) and Osiris who absorbed his qualities.

Heryshef was a Ram-god who was prominent in Middle Egypt at ancient Hnes (modern Ihnasya el-Medina) on the west bank of the Nile near Beni Suef. His cult apparently, as recorded on the annals inscribed on the Palermo Stone, existed at this location as early as the 1st Dynasty of the Old Kingdom.

However, the earliest cult site that can be attributed to him (at Hnes) is a temple that dates to the Middle Kingdom (12th Dynasty). From this time, there is a literary reference to the god in a narrative known as the "Eloquent Peasant". Here, in his fourth attempt to obtain redress for the unwarranted seizure of his donkeys and goods they were carrying, the peasant comes across the official to whom he has been putting his complaints coming out of the temple of Heryshef. This temple of Heryshef was considerably enlarged during the New Kingdom, particularly by Ramesses II, who was responsible for the monolithic granite columns with palm-leaf capitals that adorn the Hypostyle Hall, and appears to have thrived through the end of the Greek Period. was responsible for the monolithic granite columns with palm-leaf capitals that adorn the Hypostyle Hall within the temple.

A fine miniature gold statuette of Heryshef wearing the "Atef" was found at the temple, which now resides in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. It provides the name of the ruler who lived at Hnes about 734 BC as Peftuaubast when Egypt was invaded by the Nubian King Piye.

He is known to have risen to considerable importance during the First Intermediate period when, for a time, Hnes became the capital of northern Egypt.

His name literally means, "he who is upon his lake", and it has been suggested that he was a creator god who emerged from the waters of the first primeval lake. However, this may just as easily refer to a topographical feature at his cult center, perhaps the sacred lake in his temple, which nevertheless is an architectural attempt to recreate the primeval waters. Unfortunately, inscriptional evidence of this god is scant, so his exact nature is unclear. The Greek historical Plutarch rendered his name as Arsaphes, a word which means "manliness", though this seems to be based on an apparent etymology suggested by the procreative aspect that was part of the god's essential nature. However, George Hart believes that it is more likely derived from an original (and typical) Egyptian ply on words between "shef", meaning "his lake" and a word of similar consonantal sound translating as "respect" or "manly dignity". The Greeks associated Heryshef with Herakles and thus the gods major cult site, named Hnes by the Egyptians, became Herakleoplis (town of Herkles) during the Ptolemaic Period.

The best description of the god is from a stela originally set up at Hnes but discovered in the temple of Isis at Pompeii, and now in the Naples Museum. In it, the career of Somtutefnakht is recorded during the time of the last native Egyptian pharaoh through the second Persian rule of Egypt. The god assures Somtutefnakht in the stela that he will remain unharmed during this turbulent period. Then, Heryshef appears to him in a dream advising him to return to his home town of Hnes and serve in the temple. In the stela, the god is described as "king of the Two Lands" and "ruler of the riverbanks". These two titles ascribe the sovereignty of Egypt to Heryshaf, and solar symbolism is employed in the stela to invoke Heryshef as a manifestation of Re.

Heryshef became associated with both Osiris and Re and was known as the ba of these gods. He was also associated with Atum, who was linked with the sacred "naret" (perhaps sycamore) tree of Hnes.

Iconographical representations of the god were usually as a long-horned ram or ram-headed man. In the latter pose, he took on a kingly stature wearing a royal kilt though with the head of a ram. Since he was associated with Osiris, Heryshef also frequently wore the Atif Crown, and since he had links with Re, he could also be depicted wearing the sun disk.

In popular religion, Heryshef appears on ivory wands of the Middle Kingdom and is also clearly the deity represented by many ram or ram-headed amulets during later times.

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(Heryshaf, Arsaphes, Harsaphes) A God depicted as a long-horned ram or a ram-headed man, Herishef was, peculiarly, associated by the Greeks with their own Herakles, and so his cult center, the Upper Egyptian city of Hnes or Ninsu, became known to the Greeks as ‘Herakleopolis’. The name of Herishef means ‘He Who is Upon His Lake’, referring to a sacred lake at his temple and, by extension, to Herishef as a God emerging from the primeval waters and proceeding to the activity of creation. The –shef element in his name was also interpreted by Egyptians as deriving from a word meaning strength or bravery, which perhaps contributed to the Greek impression that Herishef was akin to Herakles, who had also through the Orphic writings taken on a cosmogonic function.

A remarkable stela dedicated by an official of the fourth century BCE named Somtutefnakht at the temple of Herishef at Hnes was found during the excavation of the temple of Isis at Pompeii, where it had been taken in antiquity. In this stela Somtutefnakht expresses his devotion to Herishef, his divine patron, whom he praises as “Lord of Gods … whose right eye is the sun-disk, whose left eye is the moon, whose ba [manifestation] is the sunlight, from whose nostrils comes the northwind, to make live all things,” (Lichtheim 1980 p. 42). Somtutefnakht narrates how Herishef enabled him to curry favor with the Persian king Artaxerxes III, who conquered Egypt in 341 BCE, then kept him safe as he witnessed at first hand the defeat of the Persians under Darius III by the Greek forces of Alexander the Great. Herishef then appears to Somtutefnakht in a dream, urging him to return through the turmoil of the Persian collapse to Hnes. Somtutefnakht attributes his “long lifetime in gladness” (ibid. p. 43) in the midst of such a turbulent age to the grace of Herishef: “My heart sought justice in your temple night and day, you rewarded me for it a million times,” (42).

In spell 17 of the Book of the Dead (spell 335 in the Coffin Texts), the deceased (or an operator reciting the spell while alive, inasmuch as the rubric to the spell remarks that “It goes well with one who recites them [the ‘extollations’ and ‘commemorations’ of the spell] on earth.”) affirms that s/he has been cleansed “in the two great, stately ponds that are in Herakleopolis on the day when the common folk make offerings to this great God who is therein,” the great God in question probably being Herishef, although the gloss on the spell says it is “Re himself.” Similarly among a list of epithets of Osiris in spell 142 we find “Osiris the lord of the lake, Osiris the lord of Herakleopolis.” These kinships with Re and with Osiris are expressed iconographically in the crowns worn by Herishef atop his horns, either the solar disk of Re or the atef crown of Osiris. The spell in the Coffin Texts corresponding to this spell (335) glosses the references to the cleansing in the two lakes as a reference to birth: “It means that his navel-string has been cut. Going out into the day … It means that he was cleansed after his birth,” (Faulkner 1973 p. 267). In spell 420 of the Coffin Texts, the deceased seeks the vision of Herishef in his “pillared hall” after bathing in the “Lake of Natron” (i.e. one of the sacred lakes mentioned above), praising him as “potent spirit who dwells in Ninsu, on whose head are the plumes of Soped and the atef crowns,” which are identified in one manuscript as the atef crowns of Re. This brief spell also characterizes Herishef as ‘lord of blood’ and ‘flourishing of slaughter’, referring possibly to either of two myths associated with Herakleopolis, the first being that of the slaughter of rebellious humanity by Sekhmet, which commences at Herakleopolis, the other being the myth which is alluded to in spell 1 of the Book of the Dead, where the deceased affirms that “It was I who seized the hoe on the day of fertilizing the earth in Herakleopolis,” which seems to relate to the fragmentary extension of spell 175, where the blood of Osiris is said to fertilize the earth in Herakleopolis. The references to slaughter in the epithets of Herishef therefore would seem to refer at once to the blood of birth and to the sacrifice of the ‘rebellious’ lower self implicit in the purification rites performed at Hnes under the supervision of Herishef. Spell 47 of the Coffin Texts says, for instance, “may your evil be purged in Ninsu.” References to the spilling of blood may also refer to animal offerings, which are consistently distinguished symbolically from non-animal offerings.

*Hesat

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(Heset) cow goddess ancient fertility goddess, though her cult was supplanted by the cult of Hathor, a very similar goddess. In later times she was changed to be a goddess of plenty or of food and drink. The ancient Egyptians referred to beer as the "milk of Heset." a cow carrying a tray of food on her horns with drink flowing from her udders.

Goddess of food and drink associated with beer and enjoyment. She was an early goddess of Egypt depicted as a cow with a tray of food on her horns and milk flowing freely from her udders. Beer was referred to as "the milk of Heset". She was later absorbed into Hathor. She was part of the Triad of Heliopolis along with Mnevis and Anubis.

Other Names: Hesat / Patron of: food and drink. / Appearance: a cow carrying a tray of food on her horns with drink flowing from her udders. / Description: Heset was an ancient fertility goddess, though her cult was supplanted by the cult of Hathor, a very similar goddess. In later times she was changed to be a goddess of plenty or of food and drink. The ancient Egyptians referred to beer as the "milk of Heset."

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(Hesis) Hesat is depicted as a cow, intended as a wild cow if her name means, as has been suggested, ‘the wild one’. Her name is also closely related to an Egyptian word for milk. In utterance 485A of the Pyramid Texts, the king addresses Re, saying “I have come to you, O Re, a calf of gold born of the sky, a fatted calf of gold which Hesat created.” In spell 175 of the Coffin Texts the deceased says “I am the white bull whom Hesat suckled,” (similarly in spell 343, 344). Hesat features particularly in connection with the ‘Field of Offerings’ in the netherworld. In a spell from the Coffin Texts for becoming Hetep, ‘Lord of the Field of Offerings [hetep]’ (467), the deceased says, “I close my eye, yet I shine on the day of Hesat; I have slept by night, I have restored the milk to its proper level [i.e. replenished it], and I am in my town.” In a similar spell (468, similar to BD spell 110) Hesat is called ‘Lady of the Winds’. In spell 826, Hesat is the provider, not only of milk, but of beer in the other world (unless the phrase “beer of Hesat” in this spell is simply a metaphor for milk). A “son of Hesat” is mentioned in utterance 696 of the Pyramid Texts, which is unfortunately fragmentary and does not allow us to identify who this son might be. In spell 605 of the Coffin Texts, a spell to create a bed in the other world, the operator says, “I am a son of Hesat.” In general, to be a son of Hesat is to be well provided for, the cow being the preeminent embodiment of maternal solicitude in Egyptian symbolism. The sons of Hesat in a somewhat more literal sense were the sacred Mnevis bulls, and Hesat was sometimes regarded as the mother of the Apis bulls as well. A living sacred cow of Hesat and Isis is attested, and the bond between these two paradigmatically maternal Goddesses is strengthened by the tendency to occasionally write Hesat’s name in a manner so as to incorporate the hieroglyph for Isis. Anubis was sometimes regarded as the son of Hesat. One reason for this may be on account of the connection between Hesat and the imy-wt or nebris. The nebris, an animal hide – possibly bovine – totem, is associated with Anubis and may also have been the symbolic antecedent for the ‘white crown’ of Upper Egypt, which may have been fashioned out of leather. The nebris is said, unsurprisingly, to be “born of Hesat” in utterance 688 of the Pyramid Texts, where this leather is a component of the ladder upon which the deceased king is to climb to the sky. A myth about the origins of the nebris, however, from the Jumilhac Papyrus, although enigmatic, is more informative. Here the origin of the nebris is traced back to the regeneration performed by Hesat upon Nemty, who has been skinned alive. Hesat restores his flesh with an unguent made of her milk, an act which is described as a rebirth, it having been explained earlier in the text that flesh and skin come from the mother’s milk, while bones come from the father’s semen. Hesat thus becomes a new mother to Nemty. While the text is enigmatic about the exact relationship of this story to the nebris, one can infer that the nebris is a symbol of regeneration, perhaps originating in ceremonies on behalf of slaughtered cattle, and is under the care of Anubis because he uses it to reconstitute Osiris. The domesticated dog’s employment in herding cattle may also have played a role in the association between Anubis and Hesat, Anubis being sometimes called ‘the good oxherd’.

*Hetepes-Sekhus

entry under construction

Hetepes-Sekhus was an Underworld cobra goddess who by virtue of her power as the eye of Re annihilates the souls of Osiris' enemies. her invincibility is enhanced by her entourage of crocodiles.

A personification of the Eye or Ra who appears as a cobra goddess in the afterlife and destroys the enemies of Osiris. She is depicted in the company of crocodiles.

Hetepes-Sekhus was an Underworld cobra goddess who by virtue of her power as the eye of Re annihilates the souls of Osiris' enemies. her invincibility is enhanced by her entourage of crocodiles.

Hieracosphinx

Horus

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Alternate forms of Horus:

• Heru-Ur (or Herwer/Haroeris) - Horus the Elder

• Heru-pa-khered (or Harpocrates) - Horus the younger

• Heru-Behdeti (Horus of Behdeti) - winged sun of Horus of Edfu, often depicted atop pylons throughout Egypt.

• Her-em-akhet (or Horemakhet/Harmakhis) - represented the dawn and early morning sun. He was often depicted as a sphinx with the head of a man, or a hieracosphinx (a creature with a lion body and falcon head - or occasionally a lion or ram head). This is possibly the inspiration for the great sphinx of Giza.

• Hor Merti - Horus of the two eyes

• Horkhenti Irti

• Her-sema-tawy (or Harsomptus) - Horus Uniter of the Two Lands - depicted like the double-crowned Horus.

• Her-iunmutef (or Iunmutef) - depicted as a priest with a leopard-skin over the torso

• Herui (or Horuses) - The double falcon - the 5th nome god of Upper Egypt in Coptos.

*Horit

entry under construction

The name ‘Horit’ is simply the feminine form of the name ‘Horus’, but in certain contexts, it designates a deity irreducible to a mere abstract complement. The term is occasionally attested as an epithet of other deities, in particular Hathor, as well as of certain queens, particularly in the Ptolemaic era (Meeks, Mythes et Légendes du Delta, pp. 49-50). A hieratic papyrus, however, known as the Delta Mythological Manual, makes reference to a unique mythic cycle pertaining to Horit, and the deity featured in this cycle must be strictly distinguished from casual occurrences of the ‘female Horus’ title. This Horit is the daughter of Osiris and mother, by him, of five sons, whom the text (Meeks, Mythes et Légendes, §24) names as (1) Humehen; (2) the “Son of the Two Lords”, analogous to Thoth; (3) Horus of Medenu (Philadelpheia in the Fayum); (4) Horus of the Upper Royal Child Nome (Im-Khent or “Prince of the South”, the 18th nome or province of Lower Egypt); and (5), somewhat paradoxically, Horus-son-of-Isis.

Of Humehen (Quack (Orientalia 77, 2008, p. 109) suggests the possibility of reading ‘Hauron‘ instead of ‘Humehen’ here), the first child conceived by Osiris upon Horit, the text tells us little except that Horit was a virgin (“her first time”, §24 [X, 2]), that she “lamented” the event, and that Humehen was ‘born’ in unusual fashion. The text is unclear, but Horit either deliberately aborts or spontaneously miscarries [X, 3] and the text states, cryptically, that this was “as it came about previously for Tefnut”, which Von Lieven 2015 sees as a reference to Tefnut’s rape by her son Geb. Whatever issues from Horit immediately departs for the “Western Wadj-Wer” (Lake Mareotis or the Mediterranean Sea).

Horit gives birth to her second child by Osiris in the Upper Royal Child nome. This child is abducted by a lioness, who eats him. Horit searches for him throughout this district, finding his remains at Bubastis, being protected by a serpent called ‘Great-of-Strength’ (this name being given to the leader of the demon collective often attached to Bast and known as the “Seven Arrows” (Rondot, BIFAO 89, p. 270 n. 45)). Thoth and Nephthys catch and flay the lioness, wrapping the remains of the child in her skin, which the text identifies at once with a womb and with a sacred chest associated with Bubastis, whence he is reborn as Horus-Hekenu, referred to elsewhere in this text as “the Divine Body of Horus” (§23 [IX, 8]).

Horit couples with Osiris again and gives birth to Horus of Medenu (Harmotes or Harmotnis; note that Horus of Medenu is said in an inscription from Edfu (Edfou IV, 192, 4) to be the son of Bitjet, i.e. Tabithet). Osiris succumbs to the attack upon him by Seth and Horit hides with Harmotes in the marshes, raising him to become the avenger of his father. Harmotes succeeds in capturing and binding Seth, but Harmotes’ mother frees Seth. Harmotes then decapitates her, after which the text states that Dedwen “made Horus fly off into the sky and inflicted the same thing [decapitation] upon him.”

With regard to the fourth and fifth offspring of Horit the text is somewhat confusing. On the one hand, Horus-Hekenu has already been identified as the child of Horit born in the Upper Royal Child nome. On the other hand, the text recounting the story of Horit’s children interpolates into the account of Harmotnis an account of the posthumous conception by Isis of Horus at Mendes (§24, XI, 1-3). Since this Horus is explicitly identified in the text not as the son of Horit, but of Isis, this Horus ought to be the fifth son of Horit, identified in the prologue as the son of Isis in a different respect.

The remaining son of Horit is according to the text (§25) the product of an assault by Seth upon Horit in the Lower Royal Child nome, that is, Im-Pehu, the 19th nome of Lower Egypt. This child is identified earlier as the “Son of the Two Lords” because he is Thoth as the child of Horus and Seth, who are the typical referents of the phrase “the Two Lords”. The text identifies this child as none other than “Thoth who emerges from the forehead” (XI, 4). This refers to the episode, best known from the Conflict of Horus and Seth (11-13), in which Seth attempts to implicate Horus in a passive homosexual encounter, but ends up ingesting the semen himself and giving birth from his forehead either to the lunar disk Thoth bears on his head, or apparently in some versions to Thoth himself. Thoth is thus on such an account the son of Horus and Seth, Seth’s seed having passed into Horus’ hand (in the version from the Conflict text) before being ingested by Seth himself. (Note that Horus’ hand plays a similar role in this respect to that of Atum, personified as Iusâas.) The text concerning Horit states that she “became pregnant from his [Seth’s] seed which has also become for him ‘Thoth who emerges from the forehead’,” (Meeks, Mythes et Légendes, §25 [XI, 4]). In this version, however, Horit gives birth prematurely (“without having completed her time” [XI, 4]), “ejecting her egg” (same terminology as above [X, 3], which Jørgensen 2015 argues refers to Horit’s first menstruation) into the water, where it is found by the black ibis, the variety of Thoth’s sacred bird associated with the dark moon. This child, the text states, has the form of a fetal monkey, a reference presumably to Thoth’s baboon form, but possibly also to certain perceived characteristics of a human fetus, the text stating that “he [Horit’s child] has not been born like the other Gods.” Jørgensen 2015 sees the wnšb object, frequently offered to Goddesses in the Distant/Returning Goddess cycle, as a virtual rebus of this myth, with baboon (sometimes mummified), uterus symbol, and receptacle, also suggesting that similar terminology is used in a Demotic ostracon (ODém.DelM 4-1) for the premature or otherwise irregular birth of Seth himself.

A further episode related of Horit concerns her imprisonment, likely by Geb, at Sebennytos (capital of the 12th nome of Lower Egypt). Meeks regards this episode as pertaining to Horit-as-Tefnut, in reference to the myth concerning her rape by Geb. Elsewhere, however, the present text has stated that “the beloved of Ptah who is in Memphis is Horit the great one of Osiris. This is Sekhmet of Sebennytos whom one calls the daughter of Re. Her son suffered after he acted against his father,” (§31 [XII, 11-XIII, 1]). The ‘father’ mentioned here is doubtless not Ptah, and so the text must refer, strictly speaking, not to Sekhmet but to Horit. If it is Horit as Tefnut, then we may say, with Meeks, that it is a question of Tefnut’s son Geb suffering for a wrong committed against Shu. On the other hand, if the ‘son’ is one of the sons of Horit, then the ‘father’ is Osiris, and elsewhere the same text recounts that Horus, in using a net to trap certain bꜣw, that is, ‘souls’, that have appeared in the form of birds in a sandy place near Letopolis, accidentally catches the ba of his father Osiris as well and injures him (§19). In any case, the text states that Horit was imprisoned in Sebennytos and that “her son Onuris drove away the abomination of his father, what Seth had done to his mother,” (§32 [XIII, 4-5], following Jørgensen 2014, p. 75). The introduction of Onuris as her son fails to resolve the ambiguity, inasmuch as Onuris is often identified on the one hand with Shu, which brings him into proximity with Tefnut, but not as her son; and on the other hand with Haroeris and thus with a form of Horus potentially identifiable as one of the troubled sons of Horit, who furthermore has already been recounted to suffer an attack from Seth. (The substitution of Seth for Geb in texts dealing with Geb’s violation of his mother is not uncommon.)

The text goes on to speak of a ritual celebration at Behbeit of the liberation from captivity of this Goddess, who has “come of age while she was imprisoned”: “They say, ‘May she be free!’ when she is liberated … The women strip and splash themselves with fresh water, making purification, purifying this Goddess, chasing away all evil,” (§33 [XIII, 7-9]). A ‘coming of age’ seems appropriate as an end to the series of mythic tribulations this text has attributed to Horit’s symbolic adolescence.

Horit, and other Goddesses identified with her, is also associated with the menkhet (mꜥnḫt), a necklace counterpoise sometimes shown as a weight surmounted by a falcon head. Horit is sometimes identified with the menkhet, or it is said to be her protection (Jørgensen 2014, p. 105-7).

Though not identifying her as Horit, a spell in the Pyramid Texts (utterances 482 & 670) refers to either Osiris or Horus having an “eldest daughter in Ḳdm” (an unknown locality): “He [Horus] smites him who smote you [Osiris], he binds him who bound you, he sets him under your [var. ‘his’] eldest [or ‘great’] daughter who is in Ḳdm.” (Alternately, it has been suggested that the unknown deity is an originally feminine form of Imsety.)

A text from Edfu, though its reference is orthographically ambiguous between Horit and bikt, ‘the female hawk’, an epithet of Hathor, nevertheless seems to evoke the Horit cycle from the Delta Manual and a connection between this cycle and that of the Distant/Returning Goddess when it speaks of the red Ahemu-resin that “came into being from the vagina of Horit/bikt after the sufferings of her heart in traversing Punt” (Edfou II, 206, 11-12; discussed in Jørgensen 2015, p. 141).

Abdalla 1991 notes the existence of depictions of a female Horus in terracotta from the Graeco-Roman period that could be images of Horit.

Hours of The
Day Deities

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12 divine embodiments of each hour of the day:

• 1st: Maat and Nenit

• 2nd: Hu and Ra em-nu

• 3rd:

• 4th: Ashespi-kha

• 5th: Nesbit and Agrit

• 6th: Ahait

• 7th: Horus and Nekait or Nekai-t

• 8th: Khensu and Kheprit

• 9th: Neten-her-netch-her and Ast em nebt ankh

• 10th: Urit-hekau or Hekau-ur

• 11th: Amanh, and partly lesser-known ones

• 12th: "The One Who Gives Protection In The Twilight”

Hours of the
Night Deities

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12 goddesses of each hour of the night, wearing a five-pointed star on their heads.

• 1st: Neb-t tehen and Neb-t heru

• 2nd: Apis or Hep (in reference) and Sarit-neb-s

• 3rd: M'k-neb-set

• 4th: Aa-t-shefit or Urit-shefit

• 5th: Heru-heri-uatch-f and Neb(t) ankh

• 6th: Ari-em-aua (or Uba-em-tu-f) and Mesperit, neb-t shekta or Neb-t tcheser

• 7th: Heru-em-sau-ab and Herit-t-chatcha-ah

• 8th: Ba-pefi and Ankh-em-neser-t or Merit-neser-t

• 9th: An-mut-f and Neb-t sent-t

• 10th: Amset or Neb neteru and M'k-neb-set

• 11th: Uba-em-tu-f and Khesef-khemit or M'kheskhemuit

• 12th: Khepera and Maa-neferut-Ra

*Hu

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God of the spoken word, personification of the first word spoken by Atum (Ra) at the dawn of creation which brought all into being. Linked with Sia and Heka. Sia represented the heart, Hu the tongue, and Heka their underlying force which gave them their power. Hu is often seen as a representation of the power of Heka or Atum and is depicted in funerary texts guiding the soul to the afterlife.

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The Egyptian god Hu was one of the minor gods in some respects, but he was one of the most important gods for those serious about Egyptian deities. Hu is the power of the spoken word. He personifies the authority of utterance.

One legend has it that the creator and Sun God, Re (Ra), evolved from the primeval waters of Egypt. Once alive, Re created the air (Shu) and the moisture (Tefnut). Next, the earth god, Geb and the sky goddess, Nut were created. Mortal men and women were created from the tears of Re. Re then drew blood from his own penis and created the gods Hu and Sia. These two gods represented the creative power of the gods.

Hu and Sia were partners. Sia was the personification of Divine Knowledge/Omniscience, the mind of the gods. Hu was the personification of Divine Utterance, the voice of authority. During Ancient times, Heka, the personification of Divine Power accompanied these two gods. Together, the three gods were very important to the rulers of Ancient Egypt. Along with the falcon-headed Sun God, they rode the Sunboat across the sky in order to create and sustain all life.

The act of the Sunboat traveling across the sky signifies that with each sunrise the world was created anew. Having traveled through the Underworld of night and making it past all the dangers therein, the Sunboat once again rises to confirm that life is created new each day.

Hu was particularly important because he was the epitome of the power and command of the ruler. Even after death, Hu was of the utmost importance to the Kings of Ancient Egypt. Hu acted as the Kings companion as the King entered the Afterlife. Through Hu, the King maintained his royal authority in the Afterlife. Hu allowed the King to cross the waters of his canal and acknowledged the Kings authority and supremacy.

So far, we know Hu as the personification of Divine Utterance. However, some legends maintain that he was not just a part of creation, but that he was the creator. It is said that as Hu drew his first breath, there was in that sound the essence of his name. Hence, we have the name Hu, which sounds remarkably like the sound of an expelling breath.

With each breath Hu expelled, creation took place. The first breath created the Soul of Osiris. His last creation was the Sun. So it is said that Hu is the Word of God, the first and the last breaths, Hu Hu.

The Ancient Egyptians recognized the Sphinx at the Giza Plateau as an image of Hu. The lion was a symbol of power and strength. Used as the body of the Sphinx, this was perfectly acceptable to the Ancient Egyptians. The face of the Sphinx wore the distinctive Red Crown of the Creator and the Osiris Beard. These were hallmarks of the time.

Its been suggested that Ancient Egyptians would use the Sphinx in a ritual that reenacted the creation of the Universe. It was performed at dusk, as night was falling upon Egypt. This was considered the time before creation begun, when Hu (the Sphinx) sat silent.

When the signal was given, the sound of the first word of creation filled the air, as people made the sound they recognized as that breath, Hhhhoooooooo.

This word, the Word of God, would be chanted all through the night symbolizing the night of progressive creating. The final act of the ritual came at sunrise. As the sun rose out of the East, the last breath of Hu was recognized.

Sri Harold Klemp, Spiritual Leader of Eckankar, notes, Hu is the ancient name of God, a love song to God. When Soul has heard this sound, Soul yearns to go home.

Eckankar uses the singing of Hus name as a spiritual connection to the Heart of God. They sing the name Hu to draw closer to the Divine Being. For the people who follow this faith, the desires are reported to be love, freedom, wisdom, and truth.

Eckankar teaches, A spiritual essence, the Light and Sound, connects everyone with the Heart of God. This Light and Sound is the ECK, or Holy Spirit. Direct Aspects of God opens the deep spiritual potential within each of us. The Light and Sound purify, uplift, and direct us on our journey to home.

The Egyptian Book of the Dead, The Papyrus of Ani, mentions the ceremonies of Hu and Sa. One can only speculate as to the nature of such rituals and ceremonies. Could they be talking about the ancient ritual involving the Sphinx?

Hu may be considered a minor god in some ways, but its obvious that Hu was a not-so-minor god to most Ancient Egyptians.

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Hu is the anthropomorphic divine personification of hu, a complex concept which involves both authority and utterance, that is, both the authority to speak and the exercise of that authority. In some texts it is only possible by context to distinguish this sense of hu from the similarly written hu, meaning food, which is sometimes personified as well. In at least one text, the two senses of hu converge completely. In a text from the temple of Horus at Edfu detailing a ritual for offering meat to a living sacred hawk kept at the temple, but which A. M. Blackman speculates to have been adapted from a ritual originally performed by the king prior to a sacred meal, the dinner table, as well as the hawk or king, is identified with the God Atum, while Shu, who provisions the table, is identified with Hu: “May he [Shu] dedicate to thee [Atum] all that he hath enchanted, for he hath become Hu,” (Blackman, p. 59; 153, 10). Hu, God of food, and Hu, God of authoritative utterance, are here virtually fused, since the product of Shu’s “enchantment” or authoritative utterance is in fact food for the sacred table. It is possible that one has here two aspects of the same divine potency, that is, the power of taste, which is also the power of judgment, akin to the metaphorical sense given to the term ‘taste’ in English. Hu frequently appears together with Sia, perception or understanding, helping to guide the boat of Re. In this pairing it seems as if the Egyptians regarded Sia as superior, insofar as Sia is specified (e.g., in PT utterance 250) as being “at the right hand of Re,” perhaps indicating that to perceive and to understand must come prior to utterance or action.

The personification of hu permits Egyptian theologians to speculate upon the sources of authority or authority of utterance. In PT utterance 401, the king states that he has “seen the Great Serpent” and “received the Great Serpent,” as a result of which he is able to say that “Hu has bowed his head to me, and I cross his canal with my serpent behind me.” The ‘Great Serpent’ here is perhaps to be identified with Wadjet. In CT spell 759, however, the operator says “I know the dark paths by which Hu and Sia come in with the four dark snakes which are made bright for those who follow them and those who precede them,” hinting at the dark and obscure origins of hu and sia. In PT utterance 627, in a particularly complicated formulation, it is said that “authority [hu] is given to the king from [or ‘as’] Him whose face suffers greatly in the presence of Him who is in the Abyss.” Since Atum is typically ‘Him who is in the Abyss’ it seems as if ‘authority’ derives either from being able to bear the discomfort of meeting Atum face-to-face, or accrues to the king instead of one whose suffering in the encounter with Atum made him unsuitable as a bearer of ‘authority’. A mythical account of the origins of Hu and Sia is given in a commentary on BD spell 17. Here, an appeal is made to the “Ancestors”: “Give me your hands. It is I, who came into being through you.” The ancient commentary states that this refers in some fashion to the drops of blood which came from Re’s phallus “when he set about cutting himself,” which “became the Gods that are in the presence of Re. They are Hu and Sia.” More interesting, perhaps, than the myth itself (for, being such intimate faculties of Re’s as the powers of perception and of authoritative utterance, Sia and Hu might be expected to have their origin from within Re’s own body) is that it stands as a commentary on a rather straightforward statement about the dependence upon the ancestors: it is the connection with the ancestors, it would seem, which constitutes these powers of understanding and of authoritative speech for the individual.

A similar note is perhaps struck by the several references to Hu in BD spell 78, which is entitled “Spell for Assuming the Form of a Divine Falcon,” i.e. Horus, embodiment of sovereignty over the idealized spiritual ‘territory’ of Egypt. First Geb is appealed to for ‘authority’ (hu), which is followed by the wish that “the Gods of the netherworld be afraid of me … when they see that thy [Geb’s] catches of fowl and fish are for me,” alluding perhaps to lordship over other, subordinate souls, which are at times represented by fish and fowl caught in nets, but also playing upon the two senses of hu. Later in the same spell, the operator, having “taken for myself the Gray-haired ones” (compare the reference in spell 17 to the ‘Ancestors’), proceeds to “Them That Preside over Their Pits … at the house of Osiris,” to “inform them that he [Horus] has taken over Authority [hu] and that Atum’s symbols of Might have been provided for him.” Finally, at the end of the spell, Atum passes on to the operator “what Hu has told him,” consisting of a series of praises of Horus. Here Hu gives weight to Atum’s speech as a perfect expression of the truth and a confirmation of the sovereignty of Horus from “Atum the Mighty, sole one of the Gods who changes not.” The praise of Horus which Atum delivers in the voice, as it were, of Hu, comes as the culmination of the efforts of the operator.

CT spell 325 is for “becoming Hu”. A variant manuscript titles the spell “becoming Heka,” which indicates the tight bond between authoritative utterance and magically effective utterance or heka (cf. spell 1130: “Hu is in company with Heka, felling yonder Ill-disposed One for me”). Unfortunately, the contents of the spell are rather obscure, but it seems to associate Hu with the pacification of the fiery Eye of Re, a role typically accorded to Shu or Thoth. The close relationship between Thoth and Hu is to be expected; accordingly, Thoth is asked at CT spell 617 to “commend me to Hu.” That hu plays a role in supplementing sia is indicated by CT spell 469, in which it is said that “the weary (or inert) Sia” sends for “the two Hu-Gods” – possibly the two senses of hu mentioned above, since it is said that they shall permit one to “eat magic” – who accordingly “shall have power over Sia the weary, who is not equipped with what he needs.” It is perhaps this partial independence of hu from sia which is indicated by a statement like that in CT spell 1136 that “Hu who speaks in darkness belongs to me.” Also related to this may be the characterization of Hu in PT utterance 245 as having for companion the “Lone Star” – that is, a star visible when no others can be seen, hence either Venus (Hesperus) or Jupiter (Journal of Near Eastern Studies 25, 160f).

Something of the nature of hu can be discerned from BD spell 84, where the operator says “What Hu tells me, that have I said. I have not told lies yesterday and truth today.” It is not simply that hu is inconsistent with lying; rather, hu seems to be a consistent ground for what one says. This accords well with the image presented in Egyptian didactic literature of the sage as a person of few words, but those well-chosen.

Iabet

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Goddess of fertility and rebirth

“(Iabtet, Iab, Abet, Abtet, Ab) cleanser of the sun goddess of the east Eastern Desert, of fertility and rebirth. She was a personification of the land of the east linked to the rising of the sun in the east. The chthonic goddess of the East, Iabet, who is far less important than her counterpart of the West, Amentet, does appear together with her in New Kingdom private tombs, on coffins and sarcophagi, and on funerary papyri in scenes relating to the course of the sun (variants are Isis = Amentet and Nephthys = Iabet). She is virtually absent in royal tombs of the New Kingdom (possibly present in the Amduat, 1st hour) Iabet had been charged to wash Re, and thus linked to Kebechet (Kabechet, Kebechet, Kebehut, Kebhut), daughter of Anubis, who was a deity of freshness and purification of the dead through water. At temples throughout Egypt, some of the priests had a special job as part of the daily ritual - that of purifying the temple deity. Using incense to purify the air, the deity was lifted out of his or her shrine, was washed, anointed with oils, dressed in white, green, red and blue cloths and fed. Iabet's washing of Re may have been related to a belief in Re's morning ritual, similar to the priestly ritual of serving the gods.”

Iah

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(Aah / Yah) A moon god - later absorbed into Khonsu

Iaqs

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“(Aqs, Ḥeḳes, Heqs, Ḥeḳas, Heqas, Heqy, Heqsy) Iaqs is depicted with a human, hawk, or ram head and wearing a crown of papyrus and lotus flowers or feathers and solar disk, sometimes carrying a tray of papyrus and lotus or bearing a spear or knife. His name has resisted interpretation, Iaqs is often depicted with Hepwy (or Ḥepḥep), whose name means “of the two fans”, thought to refer to fans carried by servants behind the pharaoh. Due to the close association of these two Gods, it has been speculated (without evidence) that Iaqs might embody some other article of the king’s, a “handkerchief, towel, or the like””

Iat

goddess of milk and nursing

Igai

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Igai is a God associated with the oases of Egypt’s western desert, bearing the title “Lord of the Oasis,” and often occurs together with Ha, the God of the western desert. Igai is depicted as a man with two wꜣs (uas) scepters over his head, the sign of his name.

Ihy

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A child deity born to Horus and Hathor, representing the music and joy produced by the sistrum.

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Sistrum player - son of hathor - child god of jubilation young god personifying the jubilation emanating from the sacred rattle The name of Ihy was interpreted by the Egyptians as "sistrum-player" which was the raison d'etre of this god. The sistrum was a cultic musical instrument used primarily (but not exclusively) in the worship of Hathor, mother of Ihy. At Dendera temple Ihy is the child of the union of Hathor and Horus and is depicted as a naked young boy wearing the sidelock of youth and with his finger to his mouth. He can hold the sacred rattle and necklace (menat). In the temple complex the birth house or "mammisi" was a sanctuary where the mystery of the conception and birth of the divine child Ihy was celebrated. His name is rarely found outside the confines of Dendera temple, though for example, we occasionally find it in spells of the Coffin Texts or Book of the Dead where he is called "lord of bread...in charge of beer", a possible reference to the celebrations of Dendera deliberately requiring a state of intoxication on the part of the acolyte in order to communicate with Hathor.

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The Egyptian god of music Ihy played a minor role in ancient Egyptian mythology. His name has been mentioned at very few places in the Book of the Dead and on the texts on the Coffin. he represented childhood, joy, and music. As a child god, Ihy was fit into the conception of gods being connected as a family.

At the Dandara temple in the Mammisi, Ihy is represented as a young boy who is naked. He wore side locks of braided hair which show that his age was not more than 14 years. One of his hands is seen holding a finger to his mouth while in the second he holds a Sistrum which is a rattle made of bronze or brass and is sacred. He is shown wearing the sacred menat necklace and a white and red Pshent crown which is decorated with the uraeus.

Ihy was often referred as "the sistrum player" where the sistrum is said to have a close link with Hathor who was also his mother. No temple specifically to the name of Ihy has been found but he was worshipped in the temple of Hathor located in the Dandara temple complex as the son of Horus and Hathor. His appearance in the coffin texts and as lord of bread in the Book of Dead is seen and was in charge of beer because maybe due to Hathor’s association with intoxication and beer.

Even being a minor god in Egypt, Ihy had an impressive family tree. He is said to be the child of Horus, Isis, Sekhmet or Neith. Later on, it was confirmed that Ihy was the first child of Ra and Hathor. His position as a perfect child made Ihy very loved in the family. Even being represented beautifully in all texts but Ihy was said to have been feared in ancient Egypt. Even being a child god Ihy was still seen with great respect. The conception and birth of Ihy have been memorialized in the birthing house at the temple of Hathor at Dandera. Also, Ihy along with his siblings were significant in transforming the perception of Hathor being a vengeful goddess and after this, she was also known as a kind and loving mother.

Ihy as the god of music represented the playful side of childhood. He was often viewed as actual joy that came after playing the sistrum and in Upper Egypt playing the sistrum was an important part of the worship of Hathor. Ihy over time was linked with much more than music. His connection with Hathor transformed him into a god of pleasure, lust, and fertility. He was also referred as "the Lord of Bread" and as in charge of beer. Many Egyptians believe that in order to connect with god Hathor the person must become intoxicated first and they believed that worshipping Ihy in this way could help in reaching his mother Hathor.

Imentet

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goddess of western regio of dead gave water to deceased. Though she has her own iconography, she is often shown just as a manifestation of Isis or Hathor.

Imhotep

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Architect and vizier to Djoser, eventually deified as a healer god

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he comes in peace - vizier of djoser - son of ptah - a man dressed in the robes of a noble with the punt beard and carrying the tools of a builder. architecture and the sciences. Not really a god in the truest sense of the word, Imhotep was a deified man. He was originally the chief architect, grand vizier, physician, and scientist under Zoser (III Dynasty, c.2635-2570 BC). He designed the Step Pyramid at Saqqara and formulated the architectural theories that would lead to the construction of the Pyramids of Giza only a few generations later. He was also an accomplished astronomer and physician. After his death a cult sprang up dedicated to him. It quickly grew in popularity among the learned people of Egypt (Imhotep's life had occurred during a sort of Renaissance) and continued for many centuries. His followers believed him to be the son of Ptah, the architect of the entire universe

Imiut

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god of mummification. His name means “He Who is in His Wrappings”. He was not generally depicted in art, instead being represented by the Imuit fetish which was used during the mummification process and may have been linked with his mummy wrappings. He was never a particularly famous god and was pretty much absorbed by Anubis (who took his name as an epithet) and Osiris (who was often depicted with the Imiut fetish).

Imseti

Imseti, as one of the Four Sons of Horus, a protector god of the canopic jar containing the liver. He presided over the south, had the form of a human, and was watched over by the goddess Isis.

Imseti, the human, may be linked to Osiris himself or Onuris the hunter. Because the Egyptians saw the liver as the seat of human emotion, the depiction of Imseti was, unlike his brothers, not associated with any animal but always depicted as a mummified human. Imseti was also associated with a broken heart or death due to excess of emotions, thus his name being translated as "the kindly one" in ancient Egyptian.

Imseti’s role seems to have been to revivify the corpse, as he is asked to lift them up by Horus, "You have come to N*; betake yourself beneath him and lift him up, do not be far from him, (even) N*, in your name of Imseti." To stand meant to be active, thus alive, while to be prone signified death. In the book of the dead, Imseti says, “I am your son, Osiris, I have come to be your protection. I have strengthened your house enduringly. As Ptah decreed in accordance with what Ra himself decrees.” The theme of revivifying, of making alive is alluded to with the metaphor of making his house to flourish. He does this with the authority of two creator gods Ptah and Ra.

His name is also transcribed: Imsety, Amset, Amsety, Mesti, and Mesta

Ipy

A mother goddess depicted as a hippopotamus

Isdis

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Often the name ‘Isdes’ appears to be an epithet of Thoth (particularly when the variant form ‘Isden’ or ‘Isten’ is used), or sometimes of Anubis, rather than designating an independent deity, and this makes it difficult to determine the God’s identity. Isdes seems chiefly associated with the defense and vindication of the deceased in their judgment in the netherworld. In BD spell 17 a § S 13, the “lords of truth” are glossed as Seth and “Isdes the lord of the west.” The association of Isdes with Seth may suggest that Isdes is here an epithet of Thoth, inasmuch as Thoth can substitute for Seth in contexts where, due to his association with the death of Osiris, Seth has come to seem unacceptable to theological redactors.

Ishtar

The east Semitic version of Astarte, occasionally mentioned in Egyptian texts

Isis

Iunit

minor deity consort to Montu

Iusaasat

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(Ausaas) A female counterpart to Atum; a solar disc wearing goddess worshipped at Heliopolis

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Iusaas) consort to Atum - woman with scarab head - Iusaas was a goddess of Heliopolis whose name means, "she comes who is great". Wearing a scarab beetle on her head she can easily be seen as a counterpart to the sun god Atum, and like Nebethetepet plays a crucial role as the feminine principle in the creation of the world. Late text equates her with the hand of Atum with which he masturbated to begin his creative act. 

Iw

A creation goddess

Kagemni

A vizier to Sneferu who wrote the Instructions of Kagemni - later deified

Kebehwet

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In Egyptian mythology, Kebehwet (spelt in hieroglyphs as Qeb-Hwt, and also transliterated as Khebhut, Kebehut, Qébéhout, Kabehchet and Kebechet) is a goddess of freshness, a deification of embalming liquid. Her name means cooling water.

Kebechet is a daughter of Anubis and his wife Anput. In the Pyramid Texts, Kebechet is referred to as a serpent who "refreshes and purifies" the pharaoh.

Kebechet was thought to give water to the spirits of the dead while they waited for the mummification process to be complete. She was probably related to mummification where she would fortify the body against corruption, so it would stay fresh for reanimation by the deceased's ka.

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cooling water daughter of Anubis and Anpuit embalming fluid  a serpent or ostrich bringing water. Kabechet is the daughter of Anubis, and she aids him in preparing the body for mummification. When Anubis washes the entrails, it is she who brings him the sacred water for the task. She also gives a cooling drink to the spirits of the dead who must wait while they are being mummified.

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(Qebehwet, Qebhut) Kebehwet’s name is interpreted as the Celestial Serpent, from qbHw, translated ‘firmament’ or ‘celestial waters’; the verb qbH also has the sense of watering, cleansing, and refreshing. Kebehwet is said at PT utterance 515 to be the daughter of Anubis.

Kek & Kauket

“Kek, also known as Kuk, embodied the concept of the primeval aspects of darkness and of life. He appeared as a frog or as a frog-headed man and his consort in the Ogdoad was the snake-headed goddess, Keket.”

“Keket, also known as Kauket, embodied the concept of darkness and obscurity. She was depicted as a cobra snake or as a snake-headed woman. Her consort and male counterpart was Kek. She was the goddess of the night, just after sunset.”

Ken

A goddess of love

Khefthenebes

A funerary deity

Khensut

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consort of its primary God, Soped Some have disputed a reference to the Goddess in this reference to a type of hairstyle or wig, but it would accord with other existing references to Khensut in which she is associated with the royal diadem: “Khensut who is upon the head of Re, great of decisions as Judge,”

Khenti-amentiu

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A necropolis deity.

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Khentiamentiu -- god of the necropolis at Abydos. It is thought that his temple at Abydos, founded in the late Predynastic period, was the first to be built there. The sun set (died) in the west and rose (was reborn) in the east so the name, which means “foremost of the westerners”, refers to the dead, not a geographical location. He was depicted as a man swathed in bandages (like the mumiform Osiris) wearing the crown of upper (southern) Egypt.

Khenty-Khety

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Crocodile god worshipped at Athribis.

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Khenty-khety, who had his cult center at Athribis (Tell Atrib) in Lower Egypt, is depicted as a crocodile, or a crocodile-headed man, or, later, as a hawk-headed man. His consort is Khuit.

Khepra

Kherty

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A netherworld god, usually depicted as a ram.

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Kherty was a ram god with a dual nature of hostility and protection. From Kherty the king has to be protected by no less a deity than Re. However, Kherty, as his name which means "Lower One" indicates, is an earth-god and so can act as the guardian of the royal tomb. The king's power over the winds is likened to the grasp of Kherty's hand. In the Old Kingdom Kherty is eminent enough to figure as a partner of Osiris and his ram form leads naturally to a relationship with Khnum. Kherty's major cult center appears to have been at Letopolis, northwest of Memphis.

Khesfu

A god who carries a spear in the tenth division of Duat

The Khnemiu

4 deities wearing red crowns in the eleventh division of Duat

Khnum

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(Khnemu, Khenmu) - (Chem, Kemu, Khem, Khnum) protector of the nile inundation, enricher god - created humans? Curly horned ram of the nile, potters wheel (Ptah duplicate?) Patron of: the creation of people and animals. a man with the head of a ram. Khenmu formed a triad with Anuket and Satis, and was possibly a Nubian god originally. The worship of Khenmu dates to the earliest of times in Egypt, the Unas Pyramid Text indicates that his cult was already old when that ancient document was written. Called "the Great Potter," Khenmu was the creator of people. He sculpted them out of clay from the Nile, held them up so that Ra could shine his life-giving rays upon them, and then placed them in the womb. His wife was the lioness-goddess Menhit, and their son was Hike. Originally a primal force deity of creation like Ptah, his role was later modified to fit him into the pantheon of the state religion.

Khonsu

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(Khons, Chons, Khensu) traveler, Theban god of the moon - also violent fed on hearts defender / young man in the posture of a mummy with the royal sidelock and punt beard. He wears the moon disk on his shoulders. // Patron of: the moon, time, knowledge. // Khonsu is the son of Amun and Mut, and is the god of the moon. He is also revered as the god of time, and is thus regarded as one of the companions of Thoth. Khonsu is a great lover of games, and is frequently shown playing a game of Senet against Thoth for one thing or another.

Khuit

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Khuit’s most characteristic epithet is ḥbs-nṯr, “who clothes the God,” with reference again to Osiris, especially as incarnate (i.e., clothed in the living form) in a sacred black bull known as Km-wr, “the Great Black One”, housed at Athribis. The ‘clothing’ Khuit supplies to the God is identified with the bandages that wrap the mummy, but not exclusively. Khuit extends her protection, frequently expressed as enfolding with her wings, also to Isis with the infant Horus, to Ihy, to Isis herself, as well as to other Gods and to their icons. Khuit’s action of ‘clothing’ the God can also be understood as concealing their form, as in a passage

Kneph

A ram creator god

Kolanthes

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Kolanthes is the son of Min and Triphis. The hieroglyphic form of his name appears to have been Qlndja, but there is no consensus on an interpretation, and some possibility that the name is of foreign origin; cf. qrnati, a Libyan word for the foreskin or a phallus sheath (Wörterbuch 5, 60f), an interesting possibility in light of Min’s ithyphallic depiction.

Lates-Fish

Maahes

Ma’at

Mafdet

A predatory goddess said to destroy dangerous creatures

Mahaf

Mandulis

A Lower Nubian solar deity who appeared in some Egyptian temples.

Matit

A funerary cat goddess who had a cult center at Thinis

Mau

Medjed

Mehen

A serpent god who protects the barque of Ra as it travels through the underworld

Mehet-Weret

A celestial cow goddess

Mehyt

A warrior lioness goddess originally from Nubia worshipped at Abydos, consort of Anhur

Mekhit

Menhit

(Menhyt)A solar lioness goddess who personified the brow of Ra

Meret

The goddess of music who established cosmic order

Meretseger

A cobra goddess who oversaw the Theban Necropolis

Merit

Merymutef

Meshkhent

(Mesenet)A goddess who presided over childbirth

Mesta

See Imseti

Mestjet

Mihos

See Maahes

Min

A god of virility, as well as the cities of Akhmim and Qift and the Eastern Desert beyond them.

Mnevis

A live bull god worshipped at Heliopolis as a manifestation of Ra

Montu

(Also known as Mentu)

Mut

Nakith

A goddess of the underworld

Naunet

female counterpart to Nun

Nebethetpet

A female counterpart to Atum

Nebt-Ankhiu

A goddess of the underworld

Nebt-Khu

A goddess of the underworld

Nebt-Mat

A goddess of the underworld

Nebt-Setau

A goddess of the underworld

Nebt-Shat

A goddess of the underworld

Nebt-Shefshefet

A goddess of the underworld

Nebtu

Nefer Hor

A son of Thoth

Neferhetep

Son of Hathor

Nefertari

The mother of Amenhotep I, deified

Nefertem

God of perfume who was an aspect of Atum, but later became a separate deity.

Nehebu-Kau)

(Nehebkau) A protective serpent god.

Nehmetawy

A minor goddess, the consort of Nehebu-Kau or Thoth

Nehy

Neith

Nekheny

Nemty

Neper

Nephthys

Nephthys was said to be barren and ruled the barren lands with her brother/husband Set. Osiris was the husband/brother of Isis and together they ruled the fertile lands of Egypt and had a son, Horus. Though Set was Osiris’s greatest rival and even killed and dismembered Osiris, Nephthys was dearly close to her sister Isis and helped her find his body to resurrect him and make him lord of the dead.

Nepit

Nepra

A spirit of corn

Nepry

Nik

Nu (Nun) &
Naunet

“Naunet the goddess of the primal waters of chaos from which all arose embodied the concept of the primeval waters. She was depicted as a cobra snake or as a snake-headed woman. Her consort and male counterpart was Nun. Naunet also personified the primordial abyss of the underworld.”

“The primeval mound of creation arose from the Nun. Nun played no part in Egyptian religious rituals and had no temples dedicated to him. He was symbolized by the sacred lakes associated with some temples, such as Karnak and Dendara. The depths of the primordial abyss of the underworld were also associated with the Nun. It was believed that the waters of Nun would eventually inundate the whole world, and once again the universe would become the primordial chaotic waters of Nun.”

Nuit

Ogdoad

A group of eight Gods—four Gods and four Goddesses—who feature in a cosmogony originating from the city of Shmun (Khemennu), lit. “Eight City”, known to the Greeks as Hermopolis. They represent a stage of the cosmos prior to the appearance of the land and the light, and in addition to being referred to as “the Eight”, are also known as the Hehu, or “infinites”, often translated “Chaos-Gods”. They are: Nun and Nunet, “the Abyss”; Heh and Hehet, “Unlimitedness”; Kek and Keket, “Darkness”; Amun and Amunet, “Hiddenness”. Occasionally Tenem and Tenemet (Tenemuit) are substituted for Amun and Amunet, the latter being increasingly distinguished from the rest of the Ogdoad as Amun rose to prominence as a God of national significance. Tenem, coming from a root meaning to go astray or become lost, is sometimes translated “Gloom”, but is perhaps better understood, in accord with the generally privative character of the members of the Ogdoad, as “the Nowhere” (J. P. Allen, 20). Other substitutions in the membership of the Hehu for Amun and Amunet are Gereh and Gerhet, “Night/Cessation”, and Niau and Niaut, “Emptiness”. The four Gods in the Ogdoad are represented with frogs’ heads, the four Goddesses with snakes’ heads, or in anthropomorphic form.

The original cosmogony involving the Ogdoad is unclear in its details, but as Siegfried Morenz has remarked it appears to represent a system “concerned with cosmic matter, not with organic life,” and he notes that “the stress laid on the physical qualities of the primeval substance” in the Hermopolitan cosmogony “testifies to the existence of a scientific spirit,” (175). Whether the qualities which the Hermopolitan cosmogony attributes to the primeval substance are ‘physical’ may be questioned; but clearly this cosmogony emphasized the nature of substance rather than other possible creative principles. The principal stages in the cosmogony involving the Ogdoad are typical of all Egyptian cosmogonies: the appearance of solidity amidst the watery abyss, in the form of a primeval mound of earth, followed by the coming forth of light. In the purest form of the Hermopolitan cosmogony, which may have existed at an early period or only developed later with the progress of speculative thought, the Gods and Goddesses of the Ogdoad are themselves the agents of cosmogenesis: “They step upon the primeval mound and create light,” as “fathers and mothers who made the light,” indeed, “as the radiance of their hearts,” (Sethe §96, 100); they are the “fathers and mothers who came into being in the beginning, who gave birth to the sun, who created Atum,” (Sethe, §100). Appropriations of the Hermopolitan cosmogony, however, generally treat the members of the Ogdoad as more akin to the material of cosmogenesis than its agents, in accord with their manifest attributes of indefiniteness and inertness. A catalyst of some kind is thus posited for whatever coagulation or reaction among the Ogdoad leads to the next stage in the creation, culminating in the advent of light at a mythical place known as the Isle of Flames, Iu-Neserser. Among the figures conceived as catalysts or first movers in relation to the Ogdoad are the serpents Kematef (“he who has completed his moment”) and Irta (“earth-maker”), who are generally taken as forms of Amun, as well as a number of major deities, especially Amun (transcending his own membership in the Ogdoad), Ptah, Tatenen, Atum, and Re.

The role of the Ogdoad as transitional creators or ‘proto-demiurges’ is often expressed in the symbolism of a primordial egg or lotus which is their proximate creation, an intermediate creation or matrix of transformation, a vessel in which the subsequent stages of cosmogenesis can, as it were, incubate. The lotus or egg may be created by the Ogdoad, or merely fertilized by them, or it may simply embody the moment at which they come to be in a determinate place, this determinacy being in itself a stage in the cosmogenesis. A version of the cosmogony from Karnak emphasizing Amun, for instance, states that “The land was yet in the depths of the waves. Amun gained a foothold upon it and it dissipated all the torpor that possessed him, when he installed himself upon its surface,” (Sauneron and Yoyotte 1959, 71). The removal of Amun’s ‘torpor’ or inertness is synonymous with his activation, and the unleashing of the creative potencies which were, so to speak, adrift in the abyss. The difference between the lotus and the egg as symbols of this primordial creative matrix seems to be that the egg represents a substantial precondition for the existence of what comes from it in a way which renders the egg an ambivalent symbol; hence in CT spell 76, Shu affirms his own self-sufficiency by stating “I was not built up in the womb, I was not knit together in the egg.” By contrast, the pharaoh is frequently depicted offering to the Gods images of the lotus wrought of precious metals and gems, and many of the surviving references to the Ogdoad occur specifically in the context of such scenes. The Ogdoad do not necessarily represent in themselves a problematic predetermination of divine autonomy due to their negative character; at any rate, it is a commonplace of Egyptian theology that deities recapitulate the conditions of their own emergence. The lotus in some sense expresses this very capacity, as in one text depicting the offering of the lotus, which is said to have “sprung forth from the body” of the Ogdoad and to be “the sum of the ancestors,” (Sauneron and Yoyotte 1959, 59).

Since the cosmogony involving the Ogdoad originated in Hermopolis, a prominent role was probably accorded to Thoth in early versions of the cosmogony. A text from Edfu (I, 289) seems to preserve elements of such a version. It states that the Ogdoad, “the august ones who came into being before the Gods … were engendered in the Nun, and born in the flood.” A second stage of the creation involves the emergence of the radiant lotus and the activity of Shu, from whose thought Thoth is begotten in the form of an ibis. It is said of Thoth that “his work is to create life,” and the notion of a transition to a new level of cosmic organization perhaps underlies what follows, in which it is said that “the God completed his first creative plan, and did not let it be known. He buried the Ancestors [the Ogdoad] after the completion of their span of life. He ferried over with them to the western district of Djeme, the netherworld of Kematef. And Shu crosses over to them bearing offerings every day.” Inasmuch as the members of the Ogdoad preexist the first real event in the cosmos, namely the advent of light, they could be regarded from a viewpoint within the constituted cosmos as being, in a peculiar sense, deceased, and they did indeed possess a necropolis cult at Djeme (Medinet Habu) along with Kematef. The notion that the members of the Ogdoad were in some sense ‘deceased’ expresses their incorporation into the framework of the evolved cosmos as passive or inert elements: thus another text from Edfu (II, 51) states of the Ogdoad that “[t]heir time on earth was completed [kem, as in “Kematef”], and their Ba [soul or manifestation] flew heavenwards … His majesty [Re] gave command that their bodies should be interred in the place where they were.” Shu, however, “crosses over” to the Ogdoad, maintaining a link to the primordial stages of the formation of the cosmos.

PT utterance 301 refers to two of the pairs, Nun and Nunet and Amun and Amunet, as “protectors of the Gods, who protect the Gods with their shadow,” i.e. rendering the Gods ineffable through their formlessness. In CT spells 76 and 78-80 the Ogdoad is said to have been created by Shu. This could be justified, among other ways, with recourse to the sense of Shu’s name, “Void”. In these spells the Gods of the Ogdoad seem to have been produced from the state of formlessness in which Atum, Shu and Tefnut existed at the beginning of the cosmos by giving names, and thus order, to the attributes of this state. The first stage in cosmogenesis, therefore, according to this version, is the acquisition of personality and intention by the primeval matter. The Ogdoad is sometimes seen playing an active role in cosmic maintenance, helping Shu to support the heavens, visualized as a great cow each of whose legs—the ‘pillars of heaven’ or cardinal points—has two of the Hehu supporting it. Sometimes, inasmuch as they represent a phase of the cosmos prior to the existence of form, they embody hostile forces of dissolution. Thus in the Book of Gates, some would interpret as the Ogdoad the “children of weakness” who are the allies of Apophis, in accord with an unambiguous reference to the “Hermopolitans” under this name in a commentary on CT spell 335/BD spell 17 (J. P. Allen, 70 n. 118). In CT spells 493 and 494, spells to permit a person’s soul to go out from or come into the netherworld as they wish, reference is made to “trappers who take away souls and constrain shades, who [i.e., the trapped souls] are put in the slaughterhouse of the Hehu.” In CT 494, it is said that Sia, the God personifying perception, “goes up into the shrine, for he has heard the sound of my soul saving itself from the trappers,” indicating that the achievement of perception is conterminous with avoiding the slaughterhouse of the “infinites”, that is, the abyss of formlessness. In CT spell 107, “Recitation for going out into the day,” the Hehu and Nun (God of the precosmic abyss) are together asked to make for the operator a way to “go forth and see men, and that the plebs may worship me.” The Hehu and Nun are invoked here specifically as powers of formlessness, as can be seen from the spell’s opening formula, which identifies the operator with natural symbols of vigor but also turmoil: “The crocodile and the pig have slept, the pig has passed by. Do they perish? Then I perish.” The operator’s rhetorical question—these forces will not perish, for one thing because they disrupt other things and cause them to perish—signals his/her appropriation of the durability of chaotic forces ordinarily thought of as hostile, an example of the tactical inversions typical of Egyptian magical practice. Sometimes the Ogdoad are conceived as having presided over the cosmos during a ‘Golden Age’ in which order (Ma’et) “came from the heavens and was united with those who were on the earth” and there was no evil, scarcity, or suffering (Sauneron and Yoyotte 1959, 54). This could, however, express an anticosmic sentiment sometimes found in Egyptian thought, as for instance in BD spell 175, in which Atum complains to Thoth of the “turmoil” and “carnage” committed by ‘the children of Nut’—that is, Gods such as Osiris, Isis and Seth who are associated with the most complex aspects of the cosmos, a complexity which, because it entails a mixture of good and evil, can appear from a certain perspective simply as evil.

A spell (no. 53 in Borghouts) to treat two unidentified maladies (for one of which epilepsy has been suggested as an identification, see Borghouts p. 104, n. 127) calls upon the members of the Ogdoad as “you eight Gods there who came forth from Nun and who have no clothes, who have no hair—as for their true name, it is a fact that it is not known,” followed by certain untranslatable hieroglyphs perhaps expressing the inscrutable name. The Ogdoad’s lack of clothes and hair here symbolize their formlessness. Another spell (no. 126 in Borghouts) called a “water song” invokes the Ogdoad to repel hazards (e.g., crocodiles) from a boat. A clay egg is fashioned, to be thrown upon the water from the boat’s prow if anything surfaces, the egg having been charged as “the egg-shells of the Ogdoad Gods.” The mechanism in the spell is thus a correspondence between the watery abyss of Nun and the earthly waters; since that which emerged from the mysterious waters of Nun was beneficent, the egg ensures that what emerges from the river will be harmless. Another spell against “lions on the desert-plateau, crocodiles in the river and all snakes that bite in their holes” (no. 125 in Borghouts) is to be recited “over an image of Amun with four faces on one neck, drawn on the ground, a crocodile below its feet and the Ogdoad at his right and his left side, adoring him.”

Onuris

See Anhur

Opet

Osiris

Overview - Osiris was one of the oldest and most widely worshiped gods of Ancient Egypt. He was the god of mortality - of fertility, life, death and rebirth. As a god of agriculture and fertility, he was lord of all life on earth, including vegetation, and responsible for the flooding of the Nile that brought life to the crops each year. In a harvest ritual, Osiris was symbolically killed in the form of barley, his body broken on the threshing room floor by the donkeys who symbolize Set. But each year, life would return to him and the land when the Nile would flood again. His death and rebirth was also associated with the sun’s daily death and rebirth. 

After his mythological death and resurrection, Osiris became Lord of the Blessed Living (as the Egyptians called the everlasting souls of the deceased) and of the underworld and deceased pharaohs. He was the only deity ever referred to simply as ‘God’ which gives some indication of his preeminence. Osiris’s exalted position among the gods was considered equal to and at some points superior even to his great grandfather, the sun god Ra, first of the gods. Osiris was known for the benevolence and upright justness of his rule, so that Ma’at, or the divine order, was in balance and graced the world under his reign and all he ruled over was blessed and praised his name.

The Bennu bird, a large heron like creature that was the Egyptian phoenix, was strongly correlated with Osiris - both represented life and rebirth, as well as the cyclical renewal of the Nile’s floods. While the Bennu bird represented the Ba of the sun god Ra, it was also considered a manifestation of Osiris’s resurrected body. 

Name - Osiris’s name, as he best known, is the Greek translation of his name. To the Egyptians, his name was translated as Asir or Wsir or Usar. The earliest, simplest form of his name is the hieroglyphs for a throne over an eye. This could be interpreted as ‘he sees the throne’ and ‘the strength of the eye’ as the first syllable of his name may have been associated with the meaning of the word ‘wsr’ meaning strength, power, and might. The throne is also the first symbol of Isis’s name - Osiris’s female counterpart, wife and sister. It’s also possible the eye refers to Ra’s ‘great eye of heaven’. The ‘ir’ component of his name is written as an eye, which may mean the verb - to make. The original intentions of the meaning of his name was mysterious even to the ancient Egyptians. In the late period, he was known as Unnefer - from ‘un’ (to open and make manifest) and ‘nefer’ (good things and beauty). An earlier translation of his name seems to be ‘One Who Does Not Decay’. 

Epithets - Osiris not only had many variations of his name but many epithets as he was so widely worshiped; many of these even he took from other gods as he became more prominent. He was known as ‘Lord of the West, Lord of Eternity’, ‘Lord of Busiris’, ‘Great God’, ‘Lord of Abydos’, and ‘Lord of Ma’at’. There are almost a hundred different epthets for him in the Book of the Dead alone. A widely accepted epithet of his was Wn-nfr (Onnophris) which meant, ‘Enduring in the good/well being’. Though Osiris was seen as an incredibly benificient deity who ruled with justice and compassion, during all periods, there appear in various texts warnings about his dangerous power. Included with all of the praising and positive epithets he was given in the book of the dead, ‘The Terrible’, was listed among them. There were spells created to protect pharaohs from him, as well as the living from terrifying demons Osiris was said to be able to send to drag them to the underworld. In fact, earliest accounts of Osiris cast him as a frightful spirit of the underworld. However, despite his more harsh beginnings and these scattered warnings throughout many texts, Osiris was universally loved for his mortal vulnerability and rebirth, for the loyalty of his family, and the compassionate order and prosperity he raised the cosmos to with his reign. 

Appearance - Handsome of countenance, Osiris was easily recognizable by his green skin. Originally, his skin was green and black in an attempt to represent putrefaction. As Osiris represented hope and renewal though, the colors came to be associated with green crops and the fertile black soil of the Nile. He was associated with both the growth and decay of vegetation. Some myths say that Osiris was a giant, fifteen and a half feet tall - which was said to aid him in his military campaigns. He was always represented in human form, wrapped in white linens like a mummified pharaoh. And like a pharaoh, he carried the crook and flail as symbols of his power and reign. He wore the Osird, the divine beard, which was a false pleated beard with an upward curl. Osiris was shown usually wearing the Atef crown, a tall, conical, white crown that had two feathers on either side, sometimes with ram horns and reeds as well. It was also said that when he came to power, Ra gave Osiris his sun crown, but as Osiris was not a sun god he began his reign with a wilted swollen face from the sheer heat. But Osiris did not succumb to the heat or power and became associated with Ra. He was also associated with the form of the sun god as the setting sun, which was said to merge with Osiris each evening to borrow Osiris’s regenerative powers and so be able to be born anew each morning. Osiris was also associated with the constellation of Orion (Sah) in the Pyramid Texts, and deceased kings were destined to join the ‘imperishable stars’. 

Family - As the great grandson of the first god Ra, Osiris was a member of the Ennead (the family of the nine original deities of Egypt according to the cosmology of Heliopolis). As such, he was the eldest of four children from Gebb (earth) and Nuit (starry sky). Though Ra had forbidden Nuit to give birth on any day of the year, Osiris was said to be born on the first day of the four extra days that Thoth cleverly won for Nuit to bear her children. Each day she gave birth to a child, starting with Osiris on the first, followed by a painful labor of his brother Set and then the following two days, sisters Isis and Nephthys, who were also their wives. At Osiris’s birth a voice proclaimed, ‘The lord of all advances into the light.’ and he was bodn bearing a crown. Though Ra had forbidden their births, when he saw the greatness of Osiris, he accepted him as his great grandson and heir. Osiris succeeded his father Gebb to rule as pharaoh with his sister Isis as queen. Though in some tellings, this transition was peaceful, in others, the transition from Gebb to Osiris as lord was violent and contentious. Yet inevitably, Osiris sat upon the throne of Gods and ruled over the land of the living, as Ra ruled over the gods. 

Originally, Osiris had human form and lived on Earth, taking the throne after his father Gebb abdicated. At that time, humans were barbaric cannibals with no civilization. Osiris was deeply disturbed by their state and went among the people, teaching them the art of agriculture and what to eat. (There is no historical evidence to show they were actually cannibals, but the myth illustrates how Osiris brought humans to order and established civilization.) He taught them to worship the gods and gave them laws by which to organize their society. Thoth assisted him by giving names to all things and inventing the arts and sciences. Osiris taught the Egyptians to make wine and bread, to build temples and statues to the gods. He built towns and set just laws for the people living there. He even invented two kinds of flutes to accompany ceremonial song. These accomplishments earned Osiris the admiration and recognition of the Egyptians as the greatest King, as he ruled through compassion and persuasion. With Egypt civilized, Osiris then traveled to other lands to teach other peoples as he had taught the Egyptians, leaving his wife Isis to rule in his absence as queen and regent. 

During his absence however, Isis was troubled by their brother - proud, noble Set who plotted to take the throne. Though Set, who guarded Ra’s sun barge each night from the destroyer Apep, was strong and brave - he also had a fierce temper and jealousy. He coveted Osiris’s power over the living world, his throne and queen, and he desired to take them from his brother. This rivalry of Osiris, the god of life and fertile soil, with his brother Set, the god of storms and desert, was symbolic of Egypt’s eternal struggle between the fertile lands of the Nile and the barren desert land just beyond. 

Though married to his sister Isis, Osiris was said to have a son, Anubis, with their sister Nephthys - who was wife to Set. Nephthys took the form of her sister Isis and seduced Osiris to conceive her son Anubis. This union is thought to be associated with a desert flower common in ancient Egypt that would go years without blooming until a vast flooding of the Nile caused it to flower. The symbolism describes Osiris, the floodwaters of the Nile washing over Nephthys, the red desert from which springs up a carpet of flowers and Osiris was said to have left his disguised lover with a beautiful garland of clover flowers. Thus, the barren desert, or Nephthys who was said to be barren, became fertile through the life-giving power of the Nile (Osiris) and in some myths, this resulted in their jackal headed son Anubis, the child of two benevolent death deities. Though this trickery did not anger Isis, Set was furious and this myth gives a more personal motive for Set’s vendetta against Osiris.

Story of Osiris’s Death and Rebirth - Narrative stories in Egyptian mythology are uncommon (except as retold by the Greeks) and are instead usually alluded to in hymns. Stories such as Osiris’s death can be vague or contradictory in the details, especially as the Egyptians were reluctant to dwell on such an inauspicious topic. In fact there were periods where the laws forbid the explicit depiction of events (such as Osiris’s murder) that threatened the order of Maat. But the story of Osiris’s death and resurrection is one of the most well known of Egyptian mythology. Though the details vary according to the version of the telling, this is a widely accepted version. It comes from later refinements to the myth of Osiris as his worship spread throughout Egypt, and early versions were much simpler - some of which being that Set had simply transformed into a wild beast on a stormy night and trampled him. In many versions Osiris is drowned in the Nile. But this more narrative version grew so widespread and integral to the myths of many other gods and worships through out Egypt that it can be seen as an ‘official’ culmination of the early myths. 

*

Upon Osiris’s return to Egypt, Set went to work on his treachery with 72 conspirators to murder Osiris and steal his throne through violence. Set crafted a beautiful cedar and ebony chest which he inscribed with wicked magic that would chain any who entered it from escaping. At a festival banquet for the gods, Set tricked Osiris into the chest. Some myths say through a contest of strength to who could break free and others say through a promise to gift the box to whoever fit it perfectly when it was clearly crafted to fit Osiris perfectly. However he tricked Osiris into the chest, Osiris laid himself willingly into it and Set quickly nailed it shut and poured it full of molten lead. Osiris tried to break free, but the wicked inscriptions held him fast and he died, the chest now becoming his coffin. Set hurled the chest into the Nile where it was swept away to the sea, eventually landing on a distant coast of Lebanon, near a Phoenician port of Byblos. Where the chest touched the land, a great Tamarisk tree grew overnight to protect it, enclosing the chest containing Osiris’s corpse within its trunk. The tree grew so large that the king of Byblos felled it and moved it to his palace to stand as a great pillar. Eventually this tree became associated with the tree of life, connected to fertility. 

With the evil task accomplished, Set claimed Osiris’s throne for himself. No other gods defied him, fearing they may share the same fate as Osiris. Even Ra did not stand against Set’s usurping treachery. Set was powerful, as well as needed as he was chiefly responsible for battling the great destroyer demon Apep, the cosmic serpent that tried each night to devour the sun and end the universe. This was a dark time. Where Osiris had been just and compassionate, Set was cruel and unkind, caring not for the divine order of Ma’at or for the children of the gods who lived upon the earth. War divided Egypt and lawlessness ruled. Ra turned a deaf ear to the cries of the people. 

Only blessed and beloved Isis stood against Set and heard the cries of the people. Isis cut her hair in mourning and changed to mourning clothes. She roamed the land lamenting, refusing to rest until she found her beloved. Eventually, she discovered the Tamarisk bush that had turned into a massive tree from the power of Osiris within the king’s palace. She convinced the king and queen to give her the tree - some myths say by saving a child from the deadly poison of snake bite, yet others say by revealing her identity after trying to give the prince immortality through sacred flame. Once she had possession of the tree, she drew forth the coffer, tore the chest open and wept over her husband’s lifeless body. It was said she wept so fiercely that one of the young princes died of terror. Isis then in haste brought the chest back to Egypt and placed it in the house of the gods (though some myths say it was hidden in the swamps of Buto to keep Set from discovering it). When Set learned Osiris’s body had been discovered though, he was able to steal the body. Set rent Osiris’s body into into 14 pieces (some myths say 16 and some even say 42 - one for each district of Egypt) that he then scattered throughout the Nile to ensure Osiris could never be reborn. 

Isis, refusing to despair, entreated her kind sister Nephthys, Set’s own wife, to help her find Osiris’s pieces. Together they searched long, bringing each piece to wise Thoth, so that he could work magic upon it. Wherever Isis and Nephthys found a piece of Osiris, they held a burial ceremony and so many temples throughout Egypt were known as the burial place of Osiris. Thoth, knower of all secrets, lord of knowledge, who had brought himself into existence by speaking his own name, knew that Osiris’s spirit had departed and his body was lost. So Thoth had to remake Osiris so that his spirit would recognize and rejoin the flesh. Together, he and Isis created the Ritual of Life that allows all mortal beings to live forever after death. With all the pieces of Osiris brought together, save one, Anubis washed the internal organs, embalmed him and wrapped him in linen. His mouth was opened so his spirit could re-enter his body. Though Set is said to try, with his conspirators to recapture the body it is well guarded now. Powerful in the use of voice magic, Isis was said to protect his prone body with the power of her word. She is referred to as ‘the clever tongued whose speech fails not, effective in the word of command’. He is also protected by the magic of Thoth and the fierceness of Anubis in his role as guardian of the tomb. 

Using wax, gold and magic to reconstitute Osiris’s body, Isis then used her magic to recreate the missing part of his body, his phallus, which had been consumed by now cursed oxyrhynchus fish of the Nile. This recreation symbolizes the magical resurrection of Osiris in general in which her magic makes him whole. Changing into a small bird of prey (usually a kite or kestrel) Isis flew around his body singing a song of mourning. It was written that she ‘creates breath with her wings’ as she hovered over him as he lay inert on a bier. Perched atop him, she cast the spell that is later given to the Egyptians so that they too could have eternal life. This spell, along with others, were collected in the ‘Book of Going Forth by Day’, colloquially known as the ‘Book of the Dead’. The spirit of the dead Osiris then returned and entered his renewed body. Together they conceived their son Horus, whose destiny it would be to avenge his father and rule in his stead. Some Hymns celebrate the exaltation of Isis when she knows she has conceived the child who ‘is king even in the egg’. Drawn by her triumphant cries, other deities bow to the unborn Horus, who will be king. 

However, nothing that has died, not even a god, may dwell in the land of the living according to the laws of Ma’at. Instead Osiris traveled to a seemingly dark and desolate place. In one passage in the Book of the Dead, Osiris is seen to lament on his new dwelling - of his loneliness and despair - but the creator sun god Atum (Ra) tells him he is favored and blessed above all to be granted eternal life in the ‘Land of Silence’, whereas his son Horus must instead be the perpetual ruler of the land of the living. Ra assured him that he would find peace here as Lord of the Dead (or the Blessed Living) until the time came when Ra would choose to unmake creation and return everything to the darkness from whence it came. This land was the Du’at or underworld, abode of the dead, where his son Anubis yielded his throne to his father and in his resurrected form, Osiris became Khenty Amentiu - foremost of the westerners - an epithet which refers to the west Amenti as the land of the setting sun and the dead. When Set learned Osiris lived he was appeased in knowing that Osiris could never return to the land of the living, and believed he would sit atop the throne of the gods for all eternity.

Isis fled to the marshes of Buto (or Wadjet) to give birth to their son Horus and hid him on an island far from his uncle Set’s gaze. The divine child was said at times to be hidden in a thicket of papyrus or on a floating island - the nest of Horus. Under the care of Buto/Wadjet, the cobra goddess of lower Egypt, Horus was raised to vindicate Osiris and reclaim their family’s sovereignty over the cosmos from Set. Hidden on his island, Horus grew in strength and manhood. When Set learned of the boy’s existence, he sent many serpents and demons to kill the boy, yet Horus defeated them and survived poisonings. When he was ready, his mother gave him great magic to use against Set and Thoth gifted him a magic knife. 

Still young, Horus challenged Set for the throne and the two battled fiercely for a great time. In the end after having his eye (or both eyes) ripped out by Set, Horus defeated his uncle Set, but being merciful, would not kill him and become like his cruel usurper uncle. Instead they turned their dueling claims for the throne to the other gods. The other gods argued amongst themselves, but eventually, Banebdjetet insisted a decision must be reached and Neith spoke up for Horus. Horus was proclaimed the rightful heir and Horus then cast Set into the darkness. Some myths say instead that the two reconciled, or that Set was taken into the heavens with Ra to remain with him instead - as Set was still vital to the protection of the cosmos and so must in some way be seen as being integrated into the new order. Another interesting note is that in some myths, Osiris is only fully restored after Horus offers up the sacrifice of his eye to his father after Set ripped it from his head. 

When Horus was found justified and granted sovereignty, there was universal jubilation as his succession represented the victory over death itself, as well as the triumph of legitimacy and justice over the rule of force. Horus became the ruler of Egypt, while his father ruled the land beyond this life. As such, pharaohs are said to be the embodiment of Horus, and deceased pharaohs are said to become Osiris. 

The dispute between Horus and Set can be interpreted as a dispute over the territory of Osiris’s body himself. The parts of his body are associated with the different nomes (districts) of Egypt, with the limbs of an ideal living body that represents every living being. The dismemberment of Osiris could be seen as decomposition into formlessness - in opposition to the form integral with life. By the deification of each part of a dead body with an individual god, we can see that the entire pantheon of gods had a stake in the resurrection of Osiris and are each represented in some part in his renewed body. The various resting places claimed throughout Egypt though some were specific to individual body parts, each location represented the resting place of his body entire - symbolizing the nation’s indivisibility rather than fragmentation. Each local cult incorporated Osiris’s body whole.  

The variations of his death that refer to dismemberment and drowning may not be indicating separate acts but rather - the immersion of Osiris into the Nile could be a symbol for disintegration, but also integrates Osiris into the Nile’s annual life giving flood. This idea could also be evidenced by the story that Osiris’s phallus was never recovered from the Nile but rather consumed by a fish, so that his power remained with the Nile. One of the words used to describe Osiris’s fate, ‘mhi’ does not actually mean drowned, but rather immersed - including immersed in thought or concern. This totality is continually emphasized in the theology of Osiris. In some of the earliest hymns, Osiris is called ‘the Complete’ or ‘Tem’ associating him with his grandfather Atum (in place of Ra), the setting sun god whose name literally means ‘The Complete One’. It is even said that Osiris would eventually merge with Atum when Atum was ready to end the universe. When this happens, there will no longer be a division between life or death and everything in the universe will undergo catastrophic change in which all will return to as it was before creation and only he and Apep (the chaos serpent of destruction and entropy) will remain. 

Osiris was known to merge with many different gods. One of the more notable merged gods was Ptah-Sokar-Asir (Asir being Osiris, while Ptah was the creator sun god of Memphis and Sokar a local falcon god who protected tombs and the workers who built them.). In this form, the deity represented the sun during it’s journey through the underworld each night before it was reborn at dawn each day. Eventually even, he became more than an underworld to counterpart to Ra, but in some cases was even considered as representing the body and soul of a single great god that was both Osiris and Ra in different lands. This fusion however was mainly a New Kingdom idea in very specific contexts and the two gods retained very distinct identities and characteristics. Osiris also absorbed many other deities all over Egypt, making his worship a constant feature across Egypt. 

Lord of the Du’at and the Blessed Living - The Du’at, the ‘Blessed Land’, where the dead lived, was said to be a gentle fertile land, lovely with all the beauties of earth but none of the pains or sorrows. This realm was said to lie beneath Nun, in the Northern heavens of the West. Here, Osiris was praised by souls of the just and worshiped as the God of the Afterlife, Lord of the Blessed Living as the souls of the dead were called. Even as ruler of the Du’at, Osiris was still a beloved god rather than feared. He represented the Egyptians' faith in rebirth and life eternal; their belief that order and justice prevailed even beyond the grave. His presence in the underworld brought comfort to those there as he was a good and beneficent ruler. Osiris assisted in the journey to the afterlife, as well as the judgment of the soul and once admitted, life beyond. Osiris would admit into his realm, all who had lived good lives, been buried with the correct ceremonies with the protections of amulets and proper divine words of power. 

In order to reach his kingdom, the deceased undertook a perilous journey which some texts refer to as the ‘journey through the perfect paths to the horizon’, aided by spells and amulets to reach the hall of judgment. Here Osiris presided, seated upon a great throne, as judge of the dead where he is referred to as ‘Lord of Ma’at’ meaning the divine law. The Ceremony of Justification took place in the Hall of Two Truths, witnessed by 42 judges who were other minor gods. Osiris presided while his son Anubis performed the ceremony of weighing the heart (the conscious) of the deceased against the feather of Ma’at (truth, cosmic order and justice). With this judgment, a person was not expected to be perfect but rather balanced. When the scales balanced, the dead would be welcomed by Osiris into the light of divinity. If the scales could not be balanced, the deceased was given the opportunity to explain their life on earth. They would proclaim a series of 42 negative confessions (ie - I never murdered anyone) rather than passively awaiting judgment. In some texts, even after the weighing of the heart, Osiris passes final judgment over the soul of the dead’s fate.Those who pass the test are found worthy and allowed to enter the underworld. The wicked, he condemned to the jaws of Ammut (a demon with the head of a crocodile and body of a hippo known as the ‘devourer of the dead’) to be devoured and die a death everlasting. This second death was far more serious than the original death of the body and suffered great punishments as they were considered a constant danger to the living. 

Banebdjed - Osiris’s ‘Ba’, was worshipped in its own form, as well. A person’s Ba was not exactly their soul, but rather, their essence - their power, charisma, and reputation. The hieroglyph for the Ba was a ram, and so Banebdjed was depicted as a ram headed man. A living, sacred ram that embodied Osiris’s essence was worshiped in the city of Djedet near Osiris’s cult center at Djedu. These rams were mummified and buried with all the ceremony of a pharaoh, interred in their own necropolis. Banebdjed was given many epithets - ‘Lord of the Sky’ and ‘Lord of Life’ which echoed titles of Osiris’s grandfather, the sun god Ra or Atum depending on the cosmologies. 

The name, Banebdjed, translates as ‘the Ba (essense/power) of the Lord of the Djed” - referring to the idea that the Djed Pillar (whose name is derived from the city Djedet where Osiris’s cult was based) that represents stability and durability was said to be the backbone of Osiris. This analogy is esy to see as the Djed pillar looks similar to a vertebrae, but also illustrates the great god’s stoic qualities. To the Egyptians, though they feared death, they still recognized the stability and balance inherent to the cycle of death and rebirth. The Djed Pillar was a simple fetish but it was also one of the forms Osiris was known to take early in history when he was still known for leading his prehisotirc followers into battle. 

The Djed Pillar was also associated with the Tree of Life and the ‘Raising the Djed Pillar’ ceremony represented the rebirth of Osiris. Originally, the trunk of a fir or some other conifer, stripped of its branches, the Djed pillar was a symbol of miraculous renewal of lifeless dy land on the eve of the Nile’s annual inundation. The ceremony for the ‘Raising of the Djed Pillar’ symbolized the resurrection of Osiris and marked the auspicious day that the old year ended on the last day of the month of Khoiak. The ceremony heralded in the new year and ‘peret’, the ‘Going Forth’ or ‘Season of Emergence’ in which the four following months the floodwaters receded and crops were planted in the dark silt. Seeds and dirt were pressed into molds to form the shape of Osiris, then planted in miniature seedbeds. Later figurines made from silt and seeds were also buried, and dug up each year.  ‘Corn mummies’ were constructed of seeded dirt that would be buried with the deceased. These mummies would germinate in the darkness of the tomb, representing life from death. 

Originally, in early Egyptian history, Osiris was a minor god of middle Egypt. But as King of the Afterlife, his popularity grew dramatically and seeing that his popularity would easily eclipse their own gods, many priests adopted him into their cosmogonies. Prayers of the bereaved were offered to him, and offerings sacrificed to him. Festivals were held throughout the year in celebration of Osiris. One was held in November to celebrate his beauty, while another, the ‘Fall of the Nile’ was held as a time of mourning as the Nile receded. It was believed he disappeared in the winter, taking the crops to the underworld. Egyptians took gifts to the shore of the Nile to show their grief at his death. When the Nile flooded again, another festival honored Osiris with sweet waters poured into the Nile and small shrines cast into the river, declaring the god found again.

Foreign Influences and Connections - Osiris shares many parallels to the Greek goddess, Persephone. Both are agricultural deities who suffer an untimely journey against their will to the underworld. Both end up trapped in the underworld through treachery of their relatives and the laws of the gods. Yet both are benevolent and beloved and return to life, bringing life and vegetation to the world anew each year. The Greeks however associated Osiris more closely to their gods Dionysus and Hades.

Pakhet

Panebtawy

A child god, son of Horus the Elder

Pataikos

Pelican

Goddess of the dead

Perit

A goddess of the underworld

Pesi

A goddess of the underworld

Petbe

God of revenge

Peteese and Pihor

Brothers who drowned in the Nile, later deified.

Ptah

Ptah-hotep

Writer of a Wisdom Text, later deified

Qebehsenuef

One of the Four Sons of Horus, who guarded the canopic jars containing the mummified dead’s organs, Qebehsenuef was a protector god of the canopic jar containing the large intestine. He presided over the west, had the form of a falcon, and was watched over by the goddess Serket.

The hawk is associated with Horus himself and also Seker the mummified necropolis god, while Qebhsenuef himself was depicted as a mummy with a falcon head. Soothsayers used the intestines of sacrificed animals to predict the future. The intestines were also significant to those who died by poison, as Qebhsenuef’s protective goddess was Serket, who bears the emblem of the scorpion.

Qebhsenuef’s role appears to be to refresh the dead, and his name means literally, “he who libates his siblings". Horus commands him, "Come refresh my father; betake yourself to him in your name of Qebehsenuef. You have come that you may make coolness for him after you." Libation (showering with cool water) was a form of worship in Egypt and there are many images of the pharaoh presenting libation to the gods - both cleansing and refreshing them. The service that Qebehsenuef gives to the dead is to reassemble their parts so they can be properly preserved. In the Book of the Dead he is given the following words to say: "I am your son, Osiris, I have come to be your protection. I have united your bones for you, I have assembled your limbs for you. have brought you your heart, and placed it for you at its place in your body." After Osiris was murdered by Set, Set cut the body into many pieces and scattered them through the Delta, an act anathema to the Egyptians. Osiris was restored life when Isis found the pieces of his body and put them back together to resurrect him.

In the Book of the Dead, Qebhsenuef saith: "I am thy son, Osiris, triumphant. I have come to protect thee. I have collected thy bones, and I have gathered together thy members. I have brought thy heart and I have placed it upon its throne within thy body. I have made thy house to flourish after thee, O thou who livest for ever.”

Qebui

God of the north winds

Qerhet

Goddess of the eight nomes of Lower Egypt

Qetesh

(Qudshu) A goddess of sexuality and sacred ecstasy from Syria and Canaan, adopted into Egyptian religion in the New Kingdom

Qudshu (Qadesh)

Ra

Raettawy

(Raet or Raet-Tawy) A female counterpart to Ra

Ra-Harakhte

A beautiful god

Rekhit

A goddess of the underworld

Renenutet

(also transliterated Ernūtet and Renenet) was a goddess of nourishment and the harvest in ancient Egyptian religion. The importance of the harvest caused people to make many offerings to Renenutet during harvest time. Initially, her cult was centered in Terenuthis. Renenutet was depicted as a cobra, or as a woman with the head of a cobra.

The Renniu

4 bearded gods in the eleventh division of Duat

Renpet

Goddess who personified the year

Reret

Reshep

A Syrian war god adopted into Egyptian religion in the New Kingdom, depicted with beard and the crown of Upper Egypt

Ruty

Sah

personification of the constellation Orion

Sahu

Sait

A goddess of the underworld

Satet

Satis

Sebeg

Personification of the planet Mercury

Sebiumeker

Guardian god of procreation and fertility. He was a major god in Meroe, Kush.

Sed

A jackal deity who protected kingship

Sefkhet-Abwy

Goddess of writing and temple libraries

Sehith

A goddess of the underworld

Seker

God of the Memphite Necropolis and of the afterlife in general

Sekhat-Hor

A cow goddess

Sekhet-Metu

A goddess of the underworld

Sekhemus

God of the fourth hour of Duat

Sekhet

Sekhmet

Selk

A scorpion goddess

Selket

Sepa

A centipede god who protected people from snake bites

Sepes

A god who lived in a tree

Septu

A bearded plume wearing god

Serapis

A Greco-Egyptian god from the Ptolemaic Period who fused traits of Osiris and Apis with those of several Greek gods. Husband of Isis who, like her, was adopted into Greek and Roman religion outside Egypt.

Seret

A lioness goddess possibly originally from Libya

Serpopard

Serqet

A scorpion goddess, invoked for healing and protection

Sesenet-Khu

A goddess of the underworld

Seshat

Goddess of writing and record-keeping, depicted as a scribe

Set

Set Animal

Seta-Ta

A mummified god in the fourth division of Duat

Setcheh

A serpent demon

Setem

A god of healing

The Setheniu-Tep

4 deities wearing white crowns in the eleventh division of Duat

Shai

Personification of fate

Shed

A god believed to save people from danger and misfortune

Shehbui

God of the south wind

Shemat-Khu

A goddess of the underworld

Shentayet

A protective goddess possibly of widows

Shenty

A cow goddess

Shepet

Shesmetet

A lioness goddess

Shesmu

Shezmu

A god of wine and oil presses who also slaughters condemned souls

Shu

Sia

Personification of perception

Sky Bull

Sobek

Sokar

Sopd

God of the eastern delta

Sopdu

Sopedu

Sopdet

see Sothis

Soqdet

Sothis

(Sopdet) Personification of the star Sirius, mother of Sopdu

Souls of
Nekhen & Pe

A set of gods personifying the predynastic rulers of Upper and Lower Egypt.

Star Deities

Sutekh

Swenet

Goddess related to the city Aswan

Ta-Bitjet

A minor scorpion goddess

Tabithet

Tafner

vulture headdress wearing goddess

Tapshay

Ta-senet-nofret

(Ta-Sent-Nefert) A wife of Horus the elder

Taweret

(Ta-Urt) The hippopotamus goddess of birth. (Thoeris) Hippopotamus goddess, protector of women in childbirth

Tayat

(Tayt/Tayet) - Goddess of weaving

Tefnut

Temet

A female counterpart to Atum

Temtith

A goddess of the underworld

Tenenet

Goddess of brewing

Tepu-yn

A spirit of corn

Tetrads

Theban Triad

consisted of Amun, his consort Mut and their son Khonsu

Themath

A goddess of the underworld

Thermuthis

Goddess of fate, fertility, and harvest

Thmei

Goddess of truth

Thoth

Thoth was the ibis-headed moon god of knowledge and wisdom, secrets, equilibrium, and writing. He was also associated with the arts and magic, as well as sacred texts. He is said to have invented writing, hieroglyphs, and language itself, and as such was the patron god of scribes. He was the advisor and scribe for the Egyptian gods.

The Egyptians claimed him to be the author of all works of science, mathematics, religion, philosophy, and magic. The Greeks expanded this to claim he was the author of every branch of knowledge, human and divine. Though Isis and Osiris were credited with creating civilization for mankind, Thoth was credited with inventing writing, medicine, magic, civil and religious practices, and law. He was even credited with inventing music, which was most commonly associated with Hathor.

Thoth was not only one of the oldest Egyptian gods, but one of the most important, worshipped throughout Egypt. He played many vital roles, including maintaining the universe. Thoth and his wife Ma’at (goddess of truth/order) stood on either side of Ra (the creator sun god) on his solar barge as it traveled across the sky; they may have even directed the course the boat took. They held this place of honor as it crossed the heavens by day. By night, Thoth helped rebuff and drive away the demon serpent Apep who tried every night to devour and destroy the sun god Ra. Thoth’s role in continually overthrowing Apep linked him to the cycle of night and day.

Thoth was often regarded as self-begotten in the beginning of creation, alongside Ra and Ma’at. He is credited with making the calculations for the establishment of the heavens and earth, and everything within them. Not just a scribe and advisor to the gods, Thoth was central to the order of existence - ma’at - and was known as 'He who Reckons the Heavens, the Counter of the Stars and the Measurer of the Earth'.

As Thoth was the inventor of the magical and hermetic arts, the Tarot is sometimes referred to as the Book of Thoth - not to be confused with the ‘Book of Thoth’ that he is said to have written which contains…

Thoth was closely associated with Ra and was said to be his counselor, messenger, and representative. It was also believed that as a moon god, he was meant to be the light that banished the darkness in the night while Ra traveled through the night. Ra was said to have charged him with a role in the underworld as well. In the underworld, during the weighing of the heart ceremony, Thoth appeared as an ape, Aani (the god of equilibrium), and was part of the judgment process. He recorded the results and reported them to the presiding god, Osiris.

Thoth was master of both physical and divine moral law, making proper use of ma'at (divine order). He was the unbiased judge and became widely associated with the arbitration of godly disputes.

NAME

Thoth was known to the Egyptians by the name Djehuty (Dhwty), which means ‘He who is like the Ibis’, though he is best known now by the Greek form of his name - Thoth.

Other forms of his name dhwty include - Djeguty, Djehuty, Djhuty, Jehuti, Jehuty, Tahuti, Techu, Tehuti, Tehurty, Tehuti, Tehuty, Tetu, and Zehuti.

He was also known as ‘Lord of Divine Words’ and ‘Lord of Ma’at’. He had many more titles including - the ‘Voice of Ra’, ‘God of the Equilibrium’, ‘He who balances’, the one who ‘measured out the heavens and planned the Earth’, ‘The lord of the divine body’, and he who understood 'all that is hidden under the heavenly vault'. Thoth was also known by specific aspects of himself - such as ‘Iah-Djehuty’, the moon god representing the entire month.

APPEARANCE, DEPICTIONS, & SYMBOLISM

Thoth’s two sacred animals were the ibis and the baboon. In art, Thoth was most often depicted as a man with the head of an ibis holding a scribe’s stylus and palette with which he records all things. With so many attributes, he was depicted with many different symbols. In the ‘Book of the Dead’, he carries a reed pen and palette to record the deeds of the dead. As a god of Egypt, he’s depicted holding an ankh, the symbol of life, and a scepter, the symbol of power. As voice of the sun god Ra, he carries the utchat (eye of Ra), the symbol of Ra’s omnipresent power.

In this human form, he is portrayed as the ‘reckoner of times and seasons’ by a headdress of the crescent moon and lunar disk. He was also portrayed occasionally wearing the Atef crown, or the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt. When depicted as a form of Shu or Ankher he was shown wearing their respective crown. Thoth also appears as a man with the head of a dog-faced baboon when he is A’an the god of equilibrium.

When not in these personified forms, he was also shown as totem animals sacred to him - a full ibis bird or as a dog-headed baboon holding aloft a crescent moon. The ibis was sacred to ancient Egyptians associated with wisdom, as well as a popular pet. The curve of the ibis’ beak is a symbol of crescent moon in the minds of the Egyptians. The dog-headed baboon is a nocturnal animal with the peculiar habit of greeting the sun with chattering noises each morning before going to sleep, as though the moon god Thoth was greeting Ra, the sun god, as he rose. Because Thoth could take the form of a baboon, he was sometimes seen as the partner of Astennu (a baboon who lived in the underworld), though Astennu was also said to be just an aspect of Thoth.

ATTRIBUTES OF THOTH

• SCRIBE, INVENTOR, KNOWLEDGE, WISDOM, MAGIC & SECRETS:

Thoth was credited with inventing the art of writing, creating the calendar, and controlling space and time. He is said to have created the written word which humanity used to record their history and knowledge. In some myths, Thoth gave the written word directly to humanity, while in others, his consort Seshat gave humanity his creation. In yet other variations, after Thoth invented the written word, Osiris and Isis gave it to humanity as they brought civilization to the world. Regardless of the myth though, Thoth is always the creator of written language, as well as the literary arts. He was the teacher of man. He also kept account of the days of human beings, often shown in images keeping track of the days and numbering the years so that Egyptian scribes could record their histories.

Thoth, known as the ‘excellent of understanding’, was considered to be the divine record-keeper - scribe of both the underworld and of all the other gods. He observed and recorded everything that happened and each morning reported it to Ra. He recorded the verdicts of the deceased in the hall of Ma’at and was given the epithets, ‘God of Equilibrium’,‘He who balances’, and ‘Scribe of the company of the Gods’.

Thoth was said to maintain a vast library of the gods with the help of his wife, Seshat (goddess of writing). Taking on many of the traditional roles of Seshat, she eventually became a dual, female version of Thoth. Thoth and Seshat knew the past as well as the future. They inscribed each person’s fate on the bricks upon which their mother gave birth to them. The length of each king’s reign they marked on the leaves of the Ished tree - the tree of life. As such, Thoth was linked with the concept of fate. This responsibility was shared in various myths with the Seven Hathors or other deities.

As the creator of language and record keeper of the gods, Thoth was naturally claimed as the patron god of scribes and they began each day honoring him, pouring out a drop of ink in his honor before they began their daily work. He was worshipped universally by Egyptian scribes who often had paintings and symbols of Thoth in their workspaces. One statue shows Thoth as a baboon, with the lunar disk atop his head, seated above a scribe working at his writing desk. If the scribe’s work was approved of by Thoth, he would then give leave to Seshat to protect them in earthly libraries and house them in their immortal library.

The Egyptians believed in the idea of writing making the author immortal, as the scribe’s work written in books lived on after his earthly death. That work was also known to the gods as Seshat safeguarded the words in her heavenly books. Diligent scribes believed they would be welcomed after their deaths into the Hall of Truth and pass through to paradise in the Field of Reeds.

Thoth was also credited as the author of the ‘Book of the Dead’ and the ‘Book of Breathings’ (also attributed to Isis) writing the powerful sacred spells. He was given the title, ‘Author of every work, on every branch of knowledge, both human and divine’.

In Plato’s dialogue, Phaedrus, he argues that writing leads to laziness and forgetfulness in a story of Thoth. In the myth. Thoth tells King Thamus that writing is a wonderful substitute for memory. But Thamus argues that it is a tool for reminding, not remembering - appearing to be wisdom but not actually the real wisdom. He argued that future generations would read much without being instructed properly and will falsely appear to be wise.

• MEDIATOR

Thoth was also a peacemaker - seen as the great mediator and persuader, he was continually seen in myths counseling the other gods and resolving disputes. The other gods frequently turned to him for advice and arbitration as he was seen as the wisest of the gods. He also regulated common everyday complaints as well as created new laws. When problems seemed intractable, Thoth gathered assemblies to discuss the complaints and work toward solutions as a group.

Thoth embodied the ideal of the incorruptible and just judge. He not only delineated the laws of ma’at, but also enforced them. As such, he was both a gracious conciliator, as well as a merciless executioner. Credited with the creation of the branches of knowledge, including law, Thoth was seen as an infallible judge whose decisions were unerringly just. In this way, Thoth preceded over justice on earth among humans, but also among the divine rituals as well.

He was said to arbitrate between Horus and Set as they battled for supremacy over Egypt, healing both of them at different times in their battle to ensure that neither gained an unfair advantage over the other; that both were equally capable so that the contest remained fair.

Thoth was also credited with pacifying the wrathful goddess (sometimes named Sekhmet, sometimes Hathor or Tefnut) and persuading her to return to her rightful role as goddess and daughter of Ra. His epithet ‘sehetep neseret’ means ‘one who pacifies the divine flame’. In this myth, he symbolically mediates between the mortal and divine realms - the fiery wrath of the goddess, called the neseret, forms a barrier between these two realms, and his persuasion to convince her to return restored it to its proper place.

• MOON GOOD

Thoth was also a lunar deity, associated with the moon (possibly due to the similarities in the shape of the crescent moon and the beak of an ibis) who had celestial functions. As a counterpart to Ra, the sun god of the day, Thoth replaced him in the sky each night. As the sun vanished with Ra’s passage through the underworld each night, Thoth was trusted with dispelling the darkness with his light. It was said that Thoth stood beside Ra on the barge through Ra’s nightly voyage, alongside Ma’at (the goddess of truth and order).

As a moon god, Thoth also made it so that time could be measured without the sun, as he measured and regulated time. The lunar phases were of significant importance to early Egyptian astronomy and astrology. Many of Egypt’s social or civil events and religious rituals were organized by the perceived cycles of the moon.

It follows that Thoth, as the god of writing and the moon, was credited with creating the Egyptian calendar and measuring the passage of time. Interestingly, Thoth was associated with both the lunar and solar calendars. Egyptians originally used a lunar calendar with 12 lunar months, with an additional 13th intercalary month to keep the seasons in place. As a moon god, Thoth was closely associated with this sacred calendar of old - but he was also credited with the addition of 5 extra days to the 360-day, solar calendar by winning those 5 days from Khonsu, the (other) moon god. (There is another story told of how Thoth won a portion of Khonsu's light.) This ‘civil’ calendar was introduced around 2800 BC, possibly for administrative or fiscal purposes, replacing the ‘sacred’ calendar of old. He was known by the epithets: ‘the one who measured out the heavens and planned the Earth’, ‘the reckoner of time and of seasons’, as well as ‘the one who made the calculations concerning the heavens, the stars, and the earth’.

In early myths, the moon and sun were said to be the left and right eyes of Horus. Horus’s left eye (the moon) was injured in a battle with Set, and Thoth restored the eye - known as the ‘wedjat’ or the ‘eye of Horus’. A key feature in Thoth’s role as a lunar deity is specifically in the aspect of healing the Wedjat (eye of Horus) which is embodied in the waxing moon as Thoth is the god who restores the light of the moon.

Thoth’s restoration of the eye of Horus is symbolic of his greater domain and purpose as a god, beyond even that of just the moon itself. In one text, Thoth states: “I have come that I may seek out the Eye of Horus, I have brought and examined it, and I have found it complete, fully numbered and intact.” In many older cultures, the moon symbolizes the power of human intelligence to build upon that which nature provides - and as a ‘nocturnal sun’ serve as an intermediary between divine and mortal realms.

Thoth is not only the embodiment of wisdom but also its advocate in the world: “Content are all the Gods … with this great and mighty word which issued from the mouth of Thoth for Osiris,”

LINEAGE & FAMILY

• CREATION:

While some myths place Thoth as the son of Ra - eventually Thoth came to be seen as a creator god himself. Thoth was said to be self-created at the beginning of time, creating himself through the power of language. This myth raises interesting parallels to the biblical phrase ‘in the beginning was the Word, and Word was with God, and the Word was God’.

In Khnum (Hlermopolis Magna) he was even venerated as one of, or the creator of, the 8 deities of the Ogdoad - the eight primordial beings who existed before creation. Thoth’s song was said to have created these four frog-headed gods (Nun, Heh, Kuk, and Amun) and four snake-headed goddesses (Nunet, Hauhet, Kuaket, and Amaunet) and they continued his song, aiding the sun in its journey across the sky.

In the form of an ibis, Thoth was said to have laid the cosmic egg from which Ra was born, as well as all creation. In all variations of the creation myth, however, Thoth is always closely associated with Ra, as well as the concept of divine order, justice, and time.

• FAMILY:

Though Thoth was said to be self-created at the beginning of time, he was often closely associated with several other goddesses - the most significant of whom was Ma’at, (goddess of truth) who also was said to have manifested into existence when the universe was created as she represented the integral divine order of all things. Together, Thoth and Ma’at were said to embody the foundational order of the universe. And together they flanked Ra on either side of his sun-barge, and their passage was that of the order of the heavens and life.

Ma’at was said to be both his counterpart and his wife. While she embodied the divine truth of existence, he codified. His epithets also include, ‘The Lord of Ma’at’, a title closely associating him intrinsically with both the abstract Egyptian principle of ma’at (divine balance) and the goddess Ma’at who personified this principle. Together, Ma’at and Thoth had eight children, the most important of which was Amon. They also both were important parts of the weighing of the heart ceremony for the dead. The dead’s heart was weighed against the feather of Ma’at to see if they followed ma’at in their life - and Thoth kept records of the trial as well as passed the results to Osirs, who presided over the ritual.

Another goddess Thoth was also closely linked to, in his role as scribe, was Seshet, who was seen as his counterpart, wife, or sometimes even daughter. Seshet was the goddess of writing and wisdom. Like Thoth, she was said to be a measurer and recorder of time. As scribe of the gods, Thoth was said to have kept a great library of scrolls, over which Seshat was mistress. Over time, Thoth gradually absorbed Seshat’s roles as she was seen primarily as his female aspect of himself. Together, however, they did have a child, Hornub.

Another consort of Thoth was the goddess Nehematawy, a protector goddess whose name means, ‘She who embraces those in need’. Thoth’s connection with Nehematamy emphasizes that, in addition to being a god of knowledge and magic, he was also the god of justice and truth. Thoth, as lord of laws, who judged that ma’at was upheld, was also said to vindicate and advocate for the loser, to rescue the needy from the powerful. With Nehematawy he had a child - the god Neferhor.

THOTH IN THE AFTERLIFE

As Ra retired from the Earth, he appointed Thoth to rule in the Land of Caves, a portion of the Duat. Ra wanted the underworld to be the domain of another Light-Soul and so he established Thoth as a helper, as well as punisher, of the dead as they tried to enter the afterlife. His home in the afterlife was known as the Mansion of Thoth, and it was here he offered a safe haven for souls to rest. Souls that feared they might not pass safely through the underworld or judgement could entreat Thoth for his help. Thoth could choose to bless them with magic spells that would help protect them from demons who would try to prevent them from reaching paradise.

Thoth is present in almost all major scenes involving the gods, but especially during the judgement of the dead where he appears alongside Osiris and Anubis. In the underworld, he was often represented in the form of A’an - a dog-headed baboon.

As a representative of Ra in the afterlife, Thoth was charged with presiding over the heart-weighing ceremony alongside Osiris, where the dead were judged. In the ‘Halls of the Double Ma’at’ or ‘Hall of Truth,’ Thoth would question the souls of the dead about their deeds in life before their heart was weighed against the feather of Ma’at.

Thoth would ensure that the rulings and punishments meted out were just. The ceremony determined if the soul was able to continue into the afterlife. If their heart (spirit) balanced with Ma’at’s Feather of Truth they passed into the afterlife as the concept of ma’at is of truth, justice, and that which is straight - and is tied intrinsically to the idea of cosmic order. It their heart was heavier than the feather, however, they did not pass, and instead their spirit was fed to the demon Amut, resulting in true death of the soul.

The baboon-headed Thoth was often shown sitting atop the scales weighing the heart, where he would announce to the ibis-headed Thoth when the scales reached their equilibrium. The ibis-headed Thoth would then make his report to the other gods as they deliberated judgement. Thoth also aided the funerary deities as a scribe, keeping a register of the life of the deceased soul, as well as the verdict of each ceremony. His role in this judgement was also tied to his reputation for truth and integrity and a good person was said to have lived his life in a manner, ‘straight and true’ like Thoth.

All funerary texts were said to be the works of Thoth, and he was said to be the author of all the spells of the Book of the Dead itself. For the Egyptians, writing was strongly associated with magic, and Thoth was believed to have written forty-two books containing all knowledge of the heavens, earth and afterlife. Some of these were said to be occult knowledge, revealed only to initiates who knew to not misuse the power. These books were hidden away for future generations of initiates.

HISTORY OF THE WORSHIP OF THOTH

Thoth, as a central god in the divine order of the universe, as well as mortal life, was worshipped extensively throughout Egypt. His worship began in Lower Egypt, likely in the pre-dynastic period (6000-3150 BC), and lasted until the end of the Ptolemaic period (330 BC) - making his enduring veneration one of the longest of not only Egyptian deities, but any deity from any civilization. Amulets to Thoth have been found spanning many periods of Egyptian history.

Thoth was widely worshipped throughout all of Egypt, but his main center of worship was at Khmun (Hermopolis). During the late period, his cult gained even more prominence when the city of Khmun became the capital. (Khmun was known to the Greeks as Hermopolis because of the Greek association of Thoth with their god Hermes.) His central temple, The Temple of Thoth, was located in the city. The Temple of Thoth, however, was mostly destroyed before the beginning of the Christian era. (Sadly, its incredibly large pronaos which stood till 1826 were demolished and used as fill for a sugar factory.)

Thoth’s cult center in Khmun was very popular. Pilgrims who traveled there for festivals were sold mummified ibises and baboons as votive offerings to the gods. Excavations of the area unearthed thousands of mummified ibises and baboons buried in honor of him - illustrating the widespread popularity that worship of Thoth continued to have during the later periods. His name was often taken by kings, scribes, and priests

His temples and shrines, as with other gods, served a vital role in the community. They were a resource for aid with food and medical treatment, as well as a source of counsel and spiritual advice. In Khmun he was worshipped not only as the great inventor of knowledge and language, the great scribe and mediator, but also as a creator god who, in the form of an ibis, laid the World Egg.

Priests of Thoth were highly educated scribes. Though his cult was closely linked with the ruling class, worship of him was much more widespread than just the educated elites and rulers. Amulets were worn by many of Thoth as an ibis or ibis-headed man, as well as in the form of a baboon. Because he was so closely tied to wisdom and magic, he was invoked often in popular magic spells and religion.

FOREIGN INTERPRETATIONS

The Greeks closely associated Thoth with their messenger god, Hermes due to their similar qualities and functions. They also renamed the Egyptian city Khmun, known for being Thoth’s cult center, Hermopolis - meaning city of Hermes. The Greeks translated one of Thoth’s titles, ‘Thrice Great’ (trismégistos), and combined it with Hermes - making Hermes Trismegistus, to whom important philosophical works were attributed. The body of literature known as the Hermetica was claimed to preserve the teachings of Hermes Trismegistus. Eventually, Hermes Trismegistus was reimagined as a great thinker who had lived thousands of years ago.

A priest in Alexandria is said to have made the claim that Hermes/Thoth authored the forty-two books containing all knowledge and it is largely this version of the Book of Thoth that has made it to modern understanding.

BOOK OF THOTH

Thoth’s magical powers and knowledge were so great that the Egyptians believed he authored a text known as the ‘Book of Thoth’. This book was said to be inscribed by the god of wisdom’s own hand with all the secrets of the universe and reading it would allow a person to become the most powerful sorcerer in the world. But though it was said to contain ‘all that is hidden in the stars’ and the ‘secrets of the gods themselves’, it was a deadly book that was said to curse the reader with their knowledge; cursing them to a life of great pain and tragedy. Despite these warnings, people have been searching for this book for centuries. A more outlandish theory even claims it is hidden in a secret chamber of the Great Pyramid. This book is also sometimes claimed to be the ‘Emerald Tablets of Thoth’ - a work that suggests Thoth and the other Egyptian Gods were from the lost city of Atlantis, though this work is of quite dubious authenticity.

STORIES OF THOTH WITH OTHER GODS

• THOTH AND THE FIVE DAYS OF MOONLIGHT FOR NUIT:

Egyptian Mythology credits Thoth with creating the 365-day calendar year (replacing the inaccurate 360-day calendar).

In this myth, Thoth was instrumental in the birth of five of the main gods of Egypt - Osiris, Isis, Set, Nephthys, and Horus (the elder). When their mother, Nuit became pregnant with Gebb at the beginning of the world, Ra was so angry he forbid her from giving birth on any day of the year.

According to myth, Thoth gambled over a game of dice with the moon god Khonsu (or sometimes Iah or Iabet) for 1/72 of the moonlight - five days worth of moonlight. With his clever skill at games, he won the gamble and divided the moonlight into five new days which were not part of the year of Ra’s decree.

Though Ra had been angry at his granddaughter Nuit, he relented, choosing instead to honor Thoth for his clever way around Ra’s decree. Freed from the curse, Nuit gave birth to one of her children on each of the five days.

• THOTH AND THE MAGIC PROTECTION OF ISIS:

Thoth also used his power as a great magician to aid and protect Isis. After Set murdered her husband Osiris and dismembered him, Thoth helped Isis to find the scattered pieces of his body. When the body was reassembled, Thoth with the help of Anubis created the first mummification ritual and invented the words of the spells. Then he helped Isis perform the spell to resurrect him (albeit, in the land of the dead), allowing the pair to conceive their child, Horus.

As Osiris could not remain on Earth after his resurrection, Thoth also protected Isis and their son Horus in his absence with the great power of his magic. When Horus was very young, he drove Set’s magical poison from his body, saving him from being murdered by his uncle. When Horus came of age and challenged Set for supremacy over Egypt, Thoth supported his fight to claim the throne that was rightfully his and even healed Horus’s eye when it was destroyed in battle with Set.

Tjenenet

Tenenit (Tenenet or Tjenenet or Tjenenyet) A protector goddess

Tjenmyt

Goddess of beer

Triphis

Tuamutef

See Duamutef

Tutu

An apotropaic god from the Greco-Roman era

The Twelve
Thoueris goddesses

Uat-Ur

See Wadj-Wer

Uajyt

See Wadjet

Uazet

Goddess of Lower Egypt.

Unut

A goddess represented as a snake or a hare, worshipped in the region of Hermopolis

Up-uaut

The jackal-god of Siut

Uraeus

Usir

Usit

A goddess of the underworld

Uto

See Wadjet

Wadjet

Wadj Wer

Wedjarenes

Wehk

Weng

Wenpy

Wennut

Unut (Wenet or Wenut)

Weneg

(Uneg) A plant god and son of Ra who maintains cosmic order

Wenenu

A protector god

Wepset

A protector serpent goddess

Wepwawet

A jackal god, the patron deity of Asyut, connected with warfare and the afterlife

Weret-hekau

(Werethekau) A goddess who protected the king

Wnety

Wosret

Yah

See Iah

Yamm

A Syrian god of the sea who appears in some Egyptian texts

Zenenet