While twelve may have basic temporal significance relating to the hours of the day and night (and hence, for example, the 12 goddesses of the night hours), as a multiple of both three and four the number may also connote the combined significance of those smaller numbers. Relatively few groups of twelve occur in ancient Egyptian mythology, however, one example being the four groups of three Egyptian gods with the head of ibises, jackals, falcons and pheonixes which represented the "royal ancestors" of the cities Hermopolis, Nekhen, Pe, and Heliopolis respectively. These deities are sometimes found in vignettes accompanying Chapters 107 and 111-16 of the Book of the Dead, though often not all twelve of the deities are depicted.
Leave a Comment on Egyptian Gods
