Egyptian Gods
Ancient Egyptian Gods and Goddesses
Nehemtawy
Female Anthropomorphic Egyptian Gods
A minor goddess known mainly as the consort of the serpent deity Nehebu-Kau or of Thoth. Nehemtawy usually appears in anthropomorphic form and was frequently depicted in the shape of a goddess nursing an infant on her lap. In representations of this type she can usually only be distinguished from other nursing goddesses such as Isis and Mut by her headdress which is usually in the form of a sistrum. Little is known of the worship of the goddess other than that she was venerated with Thoth in his cult centers, especially that of Hermopolis in Middle Egypt.
Merit
Merit was a minor goddess of music who was nevertheless credited as having helped in the establishment of cosmic order by means of her music, song and gestures associated with musical direction.
Iunit
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| This grey granite statue of Iunit, spouse of the Theban god Montu, is the first known representation of this goddess.18th Dynasty. Luxor Cachette statue. Luxor Museum. |
Female Anthropomorphic Egyptian Gods: Iunit
A goddess of family localized importance in the Theban region, Iunit was incorporated into the local ennead of Karnak in New Kingdom times. Along with the goddess Tjenenyet, she was venerated as the consort of the ancient falcon war god Montu in the town of Armant (Hermonthis) a little to the south of Thebes. Her name means 'She-of-Armant', and although the goddess first appears in reliefs dated to the reign of Mentuhotep III of the 11th Dynasty, it is thought that she may have been worshipped there from very early times. It is perhaps possible, though not likely, that she is the goddess of the same name mentioned in the Pyramid Texts (PT 1066). The female deity Raet, also known from the Theban region, seems to be related to Iunit and may possibly represented a solar aspect of the goddess of Armant.
Male Anthropomorphic Egyptian Gods
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| The male god Atum, seated on a royal throne and crowned with the Double Crown of Egypt. 18th Dynasty. Luxor Museum. Egypt. |
- an·thro·po·mor·phism Noun /ËŒanTHrÉ™pəˈmôrËŒfizÉ™m/ The attribution of human characteristics or behavior to a god, animal, or object
- Amenophis Son of Hapu
- Amun Ra
- Andjety
- Arensnuphis
- Ash
- Atum
- Ba-Pef
- Baal
- Bes
- Celestial Ferryman
- Dedwen
- Geb
- Ha
- Hapy
- Hauron
- Heh
- Heka
- Horus the Child
- Hu
- Iah
- Ihy
- Imhotep
- Khonsu
- Mandulis
- Min
- Neferhotep
- Nefertem
- Neper
- Nun
- Onuris
- Osiris
- Panebtawy
- Pataikos
- Peteese
- Pihor
- Ptah
- Serapis
- Shai (Shay)
- Shed
- Shezmu
- Shu
- Sia
- Tatenen
- Wadj-Wer
- Weneg
Shed
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| The protective child god Shed depicted grasping serpents and wild animals and standing on crocodiles. Pectoral, 18th/19th Dynasty. Roemer and Pelizaeus Museum, Hildesheim. |
Male Anthropomorphic Egyptian Gods: Egyptian Child Gods: Shed
Mythology of Shed
Shed, 'He who rescues' or 'the enchanter', was a protective god venerated mainly from New Kingdom times, though he is attested earlier. He was the master of wild beasts of the desert and river as well as weapons of war so that he was believed to provide protection from dangerous animals and martial harm as well as against illness and inimical magic. Shed was connected with Horus, sometimes appearing in the form Horus-Shed, to the extent that by the Late Period he was largely subsumed by the greater god.Iconography of Shed
Shed was depicted as a child or young man, usually with a shaved head except for the sidelock of youth, wearing a kilt and sometimes with a broad collar and with a quiver slung over his back. He usually grasps serpents and wild, symbolically noxious animals and stands on the back of one or more crocodiles - essentially the same iconographic attributes found on cippi of Horus.Worship of Shed
Shed was primarily a god of popular religion without his own temples and cultic service. He is attested in personal names, and representations of the god on protective plaques, pendants, etc, are known from a variety of contexts. Two stelae dedicated to Shed were found in a chapel in the workmen's village at Amarna showing the god's popularity and persistence in even that restrictive period.
Nefertem
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| This painted wooden head of Tutankhamun emerging from the blue lotus appears to depict the king as Nefertem.Chapter 81of the Book of the Dead provides a spell for the deceased to be reborn in the form of thelotus of this god. Egyptian Museum, Cairo. |
Male Anthropomorphic Egyptian Gods: Egyptian Child Gods: Nefertem
Mythology of Nefertem
Nefertem is often thought of as the god of perfumes, but this association is a secondary one and he was primarily the youthful god of the lotus blossom which rose from the primeval waters according to Egyptian myth. Nefertem was thus not only identified with the blue lotus (Nymphaea caerulae) but also with the sun god who emerged from it, and his association with Ra is common. In the Pyramid Texts he is called 'the lotus blossom which is before the nose of Ra' (PT 266), showing that his association with perfume was an early and natural one. In later times Nefertem was also closely associated with Horus the son of Ra and the two deities were sometimes merged. At Memphis, Nefertem came to be grouped with the pre-eminent Ptah and his consort Sekhmet in a particularly important triad in which he was commonly viewed as their child.Other ancient Egyptian cities also claimed Nefertem, however. At Buto he was the son of the cobra goddess Wadjett and he was also sometimes viewed as the son of the feline goddess Bastet.Iconography of Nefertem
In his representations, Nefertem is usually depicted anthropomorphically as a male god wearing a lotus blossom upon his head. Sometimes this lotus headdress is augmented by two upright plumes and twin necklace counterpoises which which hang at its sides. Occasionally Nefertem is also depicted as a lion-headed god (in reference to his leonine 'mother' Sekhmet) or standing on the back of a lion (perhaps also relating to his solar connections). In a few cases, depictions of Nefertem as a lion wearing his distinction lotus headdress also are found. The god usually wears a short kilt and may hold a khepesh sickle sword - perhaps in association with one of his epithets, khener tawy 'protector of the Two Lands'. Because of his association with the primeval creation myths Nefertem may be represented as a child seated on a lotus blossom, and a variation on this motif is found in examples which show only the head of the god emerging from the lotus - as in the famous painted wooden example found in the tomb of Tutankhamun. In these images the association of Nefertem and the infant sun god is particularly close, and such depictions might be seen as representing the king as one or the other, or even both of these Egyptian gods.Worship of Nefertem
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| Nefertem, whose lotiform headdress symbolized both his identity as 'lord of perfumes' and the regeneration and rebirth implicit in the lotus' mythic role in creation. 18th Dynasty. Tomb of Horemheb. Valley of the Kings. Western Thebes. |
Nefertem's mythological characteristics meant that he was primarily a deity of royal and divine monuments. He was not commonly worshipped and, in fact, was popularly more often feared as the son of the ferocious Sekhmet. Amuletic 'divine decrees' of the Third Intermediate Period, made when a child was born, thus often promise to protect the child from manifestations of Nefertem along with other Egyptian gods who were considered potentially harmful. On the other land, a few protective amulets depicting the god were also made in this period.
Tatenen
Male Anthropomorphic Egyptian Gods: Memphite Gods: Tatenen
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| Ramesses II next to Tatenen |
Mythology of Tatenen
Taten was a Memphite god who first clearly appears in the Middle Kingdom, although he may be identical to an earlier deity known as Khenty-Tjenenet attested in Old Kingdom times. The god's name means 'risen land' and, like the Heliopolitan ben-ben, he symbolized the emerging of the primeval mound from the waters of original creation, though in a secondary sense Tatenen could also symbolize the emergence of the fertile silt from the Nile's annual inundation, and by extension the resultant vegetation. From Ramessid times Tatenen was associated with the great Memphite god Ptah and was often viewed as a manifestation of that god and fused with him as Ptah-Tatenen. As an earth god Tatenen could also be symbolize Egypt itself and could be associated with the earth god Geb. His primeval aspect meant that he could be viewed as a bisexual deity and in one text he is called the creator and 'mother' of all the Egyptian gods. Tatenen also had a chthonic aspect in which he was viewed as a protector of the deceased king in the netherworld. In the New Kingdom Litany of Ra he is cited as the personification of the phallus of the dead king, perhaps based on a linguistic play on the idea of rising or risen conveyed in his name.Iconography of Tatenen
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| Tatenen in Hieroglyphics |
Worship of Tatenen
The cult of Tatenen is known to have flourished at Memphis, and although the god may be found in temples in other areas of Egypt, his own sanctuaries remained primarily in the Memphite area.
Sia
Male Anthropomorphic Egyptian Gods: Sia / Saa
Sia was the personification of perception and could b said to be the equivalent of the 'heart' of mind of the god Ptah which underlay creation in the Memphite theology. According to myth, Sia, like Hu - the god personifying spoken command or utterance - came into existence from drops of blood spilled from the cult phallus of the sun god Ra. Hu also might be equated with the spoken creative word of Ptah, so that just as Ptah created everything through the two aspects of mind and word, the two deities Sia and Hu form a dyad which would seem to represent the same aspects of the mind and word of Ra. Usually depicted in anthropomorphic form, during the Old Kingdom Sia was visualized as a kind of divine functionary who stood at the right side of Ra and held the god's sacred papyrus scroll. In the New Kingdomo too, Sia was depicted, along with Hu and other Egyptian gods, accompanying the sun god in his underworld barque, as in a number of the tombs in the Valley of the Kings.
Iah
Male Anthropomorphic Egyptian Gods: Iah
Iah was lunar god whose name means "Moon" and who is known from relatively early times. Originally an independent deity, he was later largely absorbed by Khonsu and is thus sometimes viewed as an adult form of that god and sometimes independently. Iah appears in the Pyramid Texts where the deceased king announces that the moon (Iah) is his brother (PT 1001) and father (PT 1104), but by New Kingdom times Khonsu and Thoth play more dominant roles as lunar deities. Nevertheless, Iah is found as an amulet and in other representations in later dynasties in which he is depicted as a standing man, often wrapped in the same manner as Khonsu, and wearing the same full and crescent moon symbols, though often these are surmounted by an Atef Crown with yet another disk above it. In addition to the divine beard, the god usually wears a long tripartite wig rather than the sidelock of Khonsu, and he may also carry a tall staff. To a somewhat lesser degree Iah was also fused with Thoth and he may be depicted as ibis-headed like that god. One of Tutankhamun's pectorals has a winged scarab holding up the boat of the lunar eye above which is a crescent moon and disc - imagery which could refer to Iah.
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