Cavern Deities | Regional Egyptian Gods Groups

cav·ern Noun /ˈkavərn/ 

Synonyms:
noun: grotto, den, cavity, hole
caverns plural

1. A cave, or a chamber in a cave, typically a large one

Scene from the fifth section of the Book of Caverns in the Tomb of  Ramesses VI, Valley of the Kings, western Thebes.
According to this funerary work the  netherworld contained a number of caves or caverns in which various deities
dispensed punishment or assistance to the deceased. 20th Dynasty.

According to the ancient Egyptian conception of the underworld, there existed a number of caves or caverns in the nether regions which contained various deities who were involved in the punishment of the wicked. These cavern deities were systematically enumerated in the so-called "Spell of the Twelve Caves", a composition known from a papyrus of the time of Amenophis II (Cairo 24742), and from the walls of the southern chamber of the Osireion at Abydos. Part of this text (cave 8-12) was also included int he Book of the Dead since the 18th Dynasty and is found as Chapter 168 in that work. The caverns are places of punishment and execution -usually by beheading - of the enemies of Ra, but the deities in these texts also aid the justified dead. The first seven caverns contain alternating groups of three mummiform and three anthropomorphic deities, two being male and one female in each group. The eighth to twelfth caverns contain varying numbers of deities with the eighth cavern having seven individuals and groups, for example, and ninth having as many as twenty. Beneath the representations of these cavern deities, their names and numbers are listed along with the offerings prescribed for them and in some cases the beneficent deeds the deities perform on behalf of the deceased, such as the ability to move freely in the underworld, or to have light, food and protection. Understandably, offerings were sometimes made by living ancient Egyptians to these Egyptian gods.

The deities of the tenth cavern are representative of the types of individual and group deities found in these texts:

Deities of the tenth cavern - Action performed for the deceased
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Those who belong to the sunshine - given light.
Those who take hold - grant that the deceased by acclaimed.
The nine gods who guard those in the cavern - give the breath of life.
The nine gods whose arms are hidden - grant that the deceased by a worthy spirit.
The hidden goddess - grants that the deceased's soul be strong and his corpse intact.
The souls of the gods who became members of Osiris- grant that the deceased have peace.
Those who worship Ra - grant the deceased not be turned back from any gate of the underworld.
Those whose faces are warlike - grant that the deceased be cool in the place of heat.

Cavern Deities (from the royal tombs of the Valley of the Kings)
Cavern Representative Deities - Enemies of Re
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1 Serpent guardians of the Silent Region, Osiris - Beheaded, bound
2 Flame-breathing serpent, Osiris, deities in sarcophagi - Bound, decapitated, upside down
3 Aker, catfish-headed gods, forms of Osiris - Upside-down females
4 Serpent Great One on his belly, forms of Osiris - Upside-down,bound, without bau
5 Nut, Osiris, Tatenen - Punished in the cauldrons
6 Anubis, Horus, Osiris - Beheaded males, bound females, bau and shadows punished

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