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CONCEPTIONS ' '

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 -1,-.:
._'. .: ~ ,:...~f '' <1• • , _..- .· . :

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~ ERIK HORNUNG

Conceptions of God
in Ancient Egypt
THE ONE AND THE MANY

Translated by
JOHN BAINES

.......,)........
\,,,I--~ ..........

.-i: · ~·
:·:1antz-ar,on-
Of the Arexan-
u.r;~ i..iCf.aty(GOAL)

-) :5u~lneca c>flezandwla

Routledge & Kegan Paul

London, Melbourne and Henley Iq rI
Der Eine und die Vielen, published 197I by Wissenschaftliche
Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt. © Wissenschaftliche
Buchgesellschaft I 971

This translation first published in Great Britain in 1983

by Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd,
39 Store Street, London WClE 7DD,
296 Beaconsfield Parade, Middle Park,
Melbourne, 3206, Australia and
Broadway House, Newtown Road,
Henley-on-Thames, Oxon RG9 JEN

Printed in Great Britain by

T. J. Press (Padstow) ltd, Padstow, Cornwall

English translation an<;l_additional material in this edition

copyright © 1982 by Cornell University Press

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without

permission from the publisher, except for the quotation of
brief passages in criticism.

ISBN O 7100 9481 7

 '-\.Contents

Pr face to the English Edition 7

Translator's Note 9
Preface to the German Edition 11

1. Historical Introduction 15
2. Egyptian Terms for God and Their Use 33
n!r and its basic meaning, 33; The use of the word n!r,
42; Other basic terms for divine forces, 60; The adjective
"divine," 63.
3. Names and Combinations of Gods 66
Introduction, 66; Personifications, 74; Female doublets,
83; Multiplicity and hierarchy of names, 86; Syncretism,
91.

4. Depiction and Manifestation of the Gods 100

The first stages, 100; The "mixed form" and its interpre-
tation, 109; Multiplicity of forms and pantheism, 125; The
gods in their "true" appearance, 128; Images of gods; The
king, 135.
5. Characteristics of the Gods 143
Origins, 143; Old age and death, 151; The limits of divine
power and efficacy, 166; Diversity, 170; Excursus: The
challenge of the nonexistent, 172; The uniqueness of god,
185; The greatness and transcendence of god, 186.
6. Divine Action and Human Response 197
5
 I I ;·; fti.
Contents
7. Classification and Articulation of the Pantheon
Numerical and genealogical classification, 2l? · L 217
classification, 223; Excursus: The abode of the god ocal
Social class1'f'icahon;
. h eno th e1sm,
· 230; Excursus· Th s ' 227·'
. 237; Excursus: Th e 1n1hahve
lem Of log1c, · · · · of Akhenaten
. e prob-
244, I

8. Conclusion
251
Chronological Table
Abbreviations and Bibliography 261
Sources for Figures · 262
Sources for Plates 269
Glossary of Gods 273
Index 274
285
 '\\ Preface to the English Edition

Ten years ago Der Eine und die Vielen was published in Ger-
man. The book was intended to stimulate renewed reflection
on the nature and meaning of the gods both within and beyond
the confines of egyptology, and to help overcome the bewilder-
ment that is felt by many people in the face of the "abstruse"
figures of gods "invented" by priestly schools. These aims seem
to have been achieved, but the book's influence and critical
analysis of it have been confined mostly to German-speaking
countries.
It has therefore been a pleasure for me that Cornell Univer-
sity Press have proposed art English edition on their own initia-
tive and have kept to their plan despite many difficulties. It
was particularly fortunate to find a translator, John Baines,
who has already produced a magisterial rendering of the dif-
ficult German of Heinrich Schafer's Von iigyptischerKunst (Prin-
ciplesof Egyptian Art)-1 hope my German has caused him fewer
problems-and who is also very familiar with the subject of the
Egyptian gods. I am extremely grateful to him not just for
translating my book but also for working through it critically
and in many places correcting it, making it more precise and
more complete. In the process some errors and wrong refer-
ences have been removed, and references to recent publica-
tions have been added where necessary. So the English edition
is an improved version of the original German.
The debate about the foundations of Egyptian thought and
Egyptian ontology, which has been taken up by Jan Assmann
7
 \

Pref ce to th English Edition

. particular, 1 is still in progress. I therefore thought .

111 • . . 1t be
leave 1ny text OJ~ thfese fquelsttond~as It _was, so that it can sst to
s a starting point or urt 1er 1scussion; any modif . erve
a . h . b h ication
extension of 1t wo~ld ave _een muc too _p_rovisionaI. h or
1
that the debate will be continued and clarified furth . Ope
English-speaking world. There is no end to the questi~r inf the
. . no th
gods and their meaning. e

Basel, March 1981

'J. Assmann, Zeit und Ewigkeit im a/ten Agypten (AHAW 1975, 1) es
1~28, and "Ewigkeit," in W. Heick et al., eds., Lexikon der AgyptologieII fwPP·
baden 1977) 47-54; for a partial response see E. Hornung, "Zeitliches J I~s-
.. ense1ts
im alten Agypten," Eranos-Jahrbuch 47 (1978, Frankfurt a.M. 1981) 269-307
pp. 291-307. 'esp.
 \.\.Translator's Note

In this edition references to material in English have been

added where possible in the footnotes. The list of abbreviations
also gives details of easily available English translations of
Egyptian texts cited.
The translations of ancient texts quoted in the Getman edition
are new versions from the originals; they were made with an
eye to the German renderings, but may differ occasionally from
them. All quotations from modern writers have been translated
into English. Where the German cites German editions of works
first published in other languages, either the original (for En-
glish) or a translation from the original language is given here.
The text of the English edition has been amplified in a few
places to make it more accessible to the general reader.
I am greatly indebted to Erik Hornung, who has read the
complete draft translation, and to John Tait, who for the sec-
ond time has read the text of an entire book, suggested hun-
dreds of improvements, and checked classical material. Eliza-
beth Mansour typed the manuscript. For further advice I am
grateful to Sebastian Brock, David Constantine, John Eland,
Brian McGuinness, Nigel Palmer, Peter Parsons, S. S. Prawer,
John Rea, and T. J. Reed.
The cost of preparing the translation was borne by Inter Na-
tiones of Bonn.
JOHN BAINES
Oxford, April 1981

9
 _,,, .
.' - .·
I ~ •.

~~ ~ .'

~ Preface to the German Edition

For various reasons it was necessary to complete this book to

a fixed deadline. My colleagues in the Agyptologisches Semi--
nar in Basel helped me to meet the deadline. I am grateful to all
of them, and especially to Elisabeth Staehelin and Andreas
Brodbeck, for their contribution and for relieving me of other
work. I should also like to thank Wissenschaftliche Buchgesell-
schaft for their growing interest in egyptology.
In the course of work it became increasingly clear that a
study of this sort is never "finished." A god is generally con-
sidered to be something without end in space or time. Even if
one questions this familiar assumption, one cannot deny that
the problem of the gods tends toward the infinite and has no
final solution.
The main focus of my inquiry is the notion of "the one and
the many," and my immediate aim is to provide a critical re-
view of existing opinions in the field and to open up new
approaches. But an examination of this particular issue should
be related to the totality of Egyptian thought and life.
The reader is free to emphasize other aspects of the abun-
dant material and to choose a different approach or different
criteria of analysis. Anyone who takes history seriously will not
accept a single method as definitive; the same should be true
of anyone who studies belief seriously. Modesty is appropriate
to these age-old problems of mankind. Every "final" insight is
only a signpost on a road that leads farther and may be trod-
den in the company of others who think differently.
This book, which often takes issue with Siegfried Morenz
11
Conceptions of God
in Ancient Egypt
 1 ~ Historical Introduction

In classical antiquit~ the seemi~gly abstruse deities of Egypt

already aroused reactions of antipathy and scornful rejection.
For some people the bewildering array of strange forms and
the unfamiliar mixtures of human body and animal head were
the symbolic garb of deep mysteries, but others found them an
offensive contradiction of their ideas of what a god or a pan-
theon should be. In the second century A.D. Lucian placed
the two attitudes on opposing sides in a dialogue;1 Momos,
"Blame," is the spokesman for rejection:

MoMos: But you, you dog-faced Egyptian, dressed-up in linen,

who do you think you are, my friend? How do you expect to
pass for a god, when you howl as you do? And what does that
bull from Memphis with the fancy markings mean with his wor-
shipers prostrating themselves before him, and his oracular pro-
nouncements and his attendant priests? I am ashamed to mention
the ibises and the apes, or the goats and the other far more
ridiculous creatures from Egypt who have been crammed into
heaven, goodness knows how. How, gods, can you tolerate see-
ing them worshiped on equal terms with yourselves or even hon-
ored above you? And you, Zeus, how can you bear it when they
transplant a ram's horns onto you?
ZEus: These things you observe about the Egyptians are truly
shocking. All the same, Momos, the greater part of them has a
mystic significance, and it is not at all right to laugh at them, just
because you are not one of the initiated.
1
Deorumconcilium10-11. [I am grateful to John Tait for the English translation.
-tr.]
15
 . s of God in Ancient Egypt
Conception
=•
C ertainly need the enlightenment of the Myste .
MoMos: We C d d d , nes,
t recognize the Go s as go s, an dogs heads ment
Zeus, to Ie u S as
dogs' heads! exist
11
,.. Tll
2

Transm1·tte d by the early Christian fathers, Momos' re1·ecti·on for l

. b
. to modern times, but 1t has een complemented re- plai~
,. Iasted 1n
those who believed that there were deep mysterie anc1
peate dl y by . 1· . Th s Egy
J
benea th the surface of Egyptian re 1g1on. e appearance of
I! f · " aes

(
ll
E
an1ma
t
t' n deities continued to seem a con using patchwork of
gyp heads and human bodies" (Jean PauP), and who can
, h . .
forget the resonance of Goethe s s arp re1echon:
the
as
I
of
)
Now I must take my pleasure by the Nile se
! in extolling dog-headed gods;
( P'
oh if my halls were only rid e:
I
of Isis and Osiris! tl
J
·, f
In fact these lines in the series of poems Zahme Xenien (1820)
I'j

were not directed specifically against the Egyptian gods, but '
rather against a journal of the times called Isis,4 while they
also attacked modern egyptomania and its offshoots, which
disguised their own, often absurd, ideas in the forms of Egyp-
tian gods. But these lines on the "dog-headed gods" and an
earlier passage concerning the Indian "ape Hanuman" betray
a deeper rejection of both Indian and Egyptian forms of divin-
ity which goes beyond the immediate occasion of the piece.
Goethe's contemporaries themselves interpreted the poem in
this way. His condemnation of Indian gods was objected to by
F. W. von Schelling in his lectures published as Introductionto
the Philosophyof Myth, which I shall cite often in the following
pages: "they cannot be dismissed with a simple pronounce-

2
F. Zimmermann, DieiigyptischeReligionnachder Darstellungder Kirchenschrift-
steller(Paderborn 1912) e.g. 81, 87££;even among the Church fathers the sym-
bolic interpretation propounded by Lucian's Zeus occurs alongside mockery
(p. 89). On ancient polemics against animal forms for gods see also G. Michael-
ides, BIFAO 49 (1950)23-43.
3
Preface to his early novel Die unsichtbareLoge(1792).
4
_ S. Morenz, Die BegegnungEuropasmit Agypten (SBSAW 113, 5, 1968) 163

with n. 6 = (2d ed., Zurich and Stuttgart 1969) 141 with n. 32.
16
 Historical Introduction

me n
t of distaste; detestable
.
or not, they exist , an d since
.
the
·st they must be exp 1a1ned. " 5
Y
eXI .
That is .a most pertinent observation ' and one equa 11 .
y vahd
for Egyptian gods. Of course, we no longer attempt to "ex-
lain" gods-the farther we penetrate into the world f th
P · 1 . o ese
ancient images. the ess we can explain what a god is. Even in
Egypt the ch?1ce ~f forms f_or the gods was influenced by
aesthetic considerations, as will become clear in Chapter 4. But
the crucial point is that Schelling perceived clearly the existence
as against the changing forms, of the gods . '
Egyptology has often been less able to tackle the existence
of Egyptian gods, as it is encountered in the texts and repre-
sentations of the ancient culture of the Nile valley, than have
people outside the subject. For long stretches of its history,
egyptology has suffered from the chasm that appears to divide
the cultural and ethical achievements of ancient Egypt, on
the one hand, and Egyptian conceptions of god, which have
widely been considered to be "unworthy," on the other.
At a time when there was beginning to be a more profound
encounter with Egypt and its gods, as we find in the works of
Rilke and Thomas Mann; when the poet sensed "the might of
these lands that were/ once permeated by gods" and wished to
appeal to his own time:

Let none of the gods vanish. We need each and every one,
every one should matter to us, every perfected image.6

at that _time Adolf Erman published his standard work Die

iigyptischeReligion, in which, at the end of a description of the
chief Egyptian deities, he could provide no more commentary
for his readers than an embarrassed confession that "many
readers may have had more than enough of the deities men-
tioned, but they are only a small proportion of the total num-
ber worshiped in Egypt" (1st ed. [1905] p. 24).
5
Einleitungin die Philosophieder Mythologie (Sammtliche Werke, Zweite Ab-
theilung I, Stuttgart and Augsburg 1856, reprinted Darmstadt 1957) 24.
6
Rainer Maria Rilke, posthumously published poem related to the Sonettean
Orpheus. See SiimtlicheWerkeII (Wiesbaden: Insel Verlag 1956)468; for th e 0th er
phrase see p . 79.
17
 . or uuu u, ~Ul'-H--""' ~b1t"'"
Conceptions
er tain that Erman was not alone in his opi· . HistoricalIntroduction
We can be c f h l'k n1on
CON aders approved o p rases 1 e these. His p .
d that mos t r e
INAI
Osiri:
an
tion was 1tse
nd controver
.
.
d
.
. If the result of qmte a 1ong penod of developrn
h d .
sy in the subJect, an was reac e m response t
h' I . 1·· . .
os1-
ent
o
g
Here de Rouge based himself on the precise word'
E Yptian texts, which undoubtedly have a monotheistic
. . t th t
eming to antic1pa e
h' f
e eac mgs o the later founders f
0
ng,
f
,, ,:g
these se B h h' o
a ts to prove that t 1s mu tip 1C1tyof deities w world religioi:is, ot 1s argum~nts ~nd the authority of his
gods; early attemp . h h fE as
comp "super fic1a . 1,, and inessential,
. . ,, w ereas t e core o gyptian rel·1- opinion provided welcome confirmation of the view, which
endle . n was "monotheistic. was widespread among cultured people of the nineteenth cen-
ancier gt~ t I have taken a leap forward in tracing the history of our tury, that monotheis~ precede~ p~lytheism; 11 as early as 1845
ErikH
dislin1 uti. and must now consider the nineteenth-century at- Edgar Allan Poe provided an J..Torucalgloss on it in his story
ques on, . f h . f . .. 12
bases I tern ts to cleanse the Egyptians o t e tamt o pnm1tive idol- "Some Words with a Mummy ." As so often happens, egyptol-
reapp1 trypan d to show that they were hearly representatives of the ogy was dependent on the ques_tions an~ solu~ons of its time;
book,, ahigher ·
religions, or even of monot e1stic e 1e . · b 1· f its history mirrors the general history of ideas m the West.
anEng1
In the middle of the last century, after a period of stagna- A decade later the English egyptologist and historian of reli-
exlensi
oftheri tion following the premature death of Champollion, Emmanuel ion Sir Peter le Page Renouf published his Lectureson the
Hornm de Rouge initiated a new and lasting period of achievement ~rigin and Growth of Religion (London 1880), in which he took
sphere! in French egyptology. He was probably the first explicit expo- over with few reservations the views of his French colleague.
Egyplia He believed that although some of the passages in ancient texts
lhecom nent of the conviction that Egyptian religion was originally and
fundamentally monotheistic. 7 For de Rouge its "enduring and cited by de Rouge had "a somewhat different meaning . . . ,
usedlo1
disentar sublime foundation" was the unity of the Supreme Being, his the facts upon which he relies are in the main unassailable. It
contrad1 eternity and ornnipotence,8 which were never "smothered" by is incontestably true that the sublimer portions of the Egyp-
whicht~ tian religion are not the comparatively late result of a pr~cess
polytheism.9 In a lecture of 1869 de Rouge declared:
lUestion of development or elimination from the grosser. The sublimer
fid the E: portions are demonstra bl y anc1en • t . . . ."13
:ods?Di, I said God,not the gods.The first characteristic of [Egyptian] reli-
rnpersor The element le Page Renouf called "sublime" was monothe-
gion is the Unity [of God] most energetically expressed: God, ism· to him it was obvious that this was the highest form of
ltemulti
One, Sole and Only; no others with Him.-He is the Only Being
vokesth reli~on. The gods who were "unwofthy" in their characteris-
iereligi« -living in truth.-Thou art One, and millions of beings proceed
tics and their forms-the "dog-heads" of Lucian-were for le
ufofthE fromthee.-He has made everything, and he alone has not been
made.... Page Renouf a later degeneration, of l~ss~r importance than th:
1eboolc
1yonein · · · One idea predominates, that of a single and primeval God; sublime, primeval grandeur of the belief m the One and Only.
;eientre everywhereand always it is One Substance, self-existent and an His primary concern, however, was not to study what Egyp-
ligion,a unapproachableGod.10 tian texts have to say about god and gods, but to evaluate
10larso-
thropo~ ;According to E A w B d 11
E.g. Schelling, Einleitungin die Philosophieder Mythologie(n. 5 above)esp. P·
Mythology
1 (Lo d ·1 · u ge, TheGodsof the Egyptiansor Studies in Egyptian 83 where he states: "It has been considered virtuallyimpossiblethat polythe-
phererof the :er~n ~~ l~, Champollion-Figeac
,nslated , the brother of the deci-
1ptolog
, could arise except through the corruption
ism . of a purer reI'1gion · · · ·"·, cf· also
terpretation of Egypgltian_YP
li~pt, had alreadyproposed a "monotheistic" in-
, editior so- .. re o-
'"On . the summary, p. 119. .
ncvue arche,JI=
·
latedw 'Ibid.357. ~15rque n.s. 1, 1 (1860)72-73.
12
The Works of EdgarAllan Poe in Ten VolumesII (Chicago1894)298-
ctershis; m,'Conference sur la eli . 13Lectures(4th ed., 1897 [1st ed. 1880])91. . . of his Lectures(p.
14
chrff - r &ondes a · . Note however that in the preface to the second edition h d t ted
t"ne =>th ser. 20(1869)33()· E glis~~ensEgyptiens,"Anna/es de philosophie '
xv, reprinted in the' 4th ed.) le Page Renouf deme · d expIiO·t1Y that he ,,a s...;~~n
a
nou, LecturesB9-9o. · ' n translationquoted from le Page Re- · " that he was a pa,, ......
that "the Egyptians commenced with monothe1sm, or .
18
of 'primitive henotheism'" (see Chapter 7).
19
..J Conceptionsof God in Ancient Egypt
Egyptian beliefs and to provide an al:>0logia directed aga ·
( t
revious denigrations of them . In this evaluation all m InS
I P . . d d f Ono-
theistic features an d ten d enc1es are JU ge avorably and 0 1
(
theistic ones unfavorably, and the critic starts with pr! Y-
I
ceived, very definite ideas of what a god should be. con-
f their early works the great scholars of the generation that
Fixed values of this sort can provide the safe, positive poi t
E of reference which are lacking in many disciplines today. T~;
a un er
I allow the data to be ordered, but do not provide the mea
C for describing and elucidating them correctly. And since~:
t seems inevitable--especially in the humanities-that our own
r values should influence whatever is evaluated, they must be
t
• reassessed from time to time and their fitness must be tested .
E We must therefore guard against two kinds of reaction: first,
C against concluding that the interpretations of le Page Renouf
t and his contemporaries are wrong because of the criteria they
s used; second, against taking over the criteria without testing
f
ti their validity .
u Le Page Renouf formulated his interpretation of Egyptian
d religion as a primeval monotheism with emphatic clarity and
C
well-considered method. He was the inost important, but by
" gods is only due to the personification of "the attributes, charac-
q no means the only, successor of de Rouge. In the 1870s French
d egyptologists unanimously propounded the "monotheistic" in-
g terpretation of Egyptian religion, with only the slightest of
ir variations . In 1870 Eugene Grebaut wrote that the monotheism
ti
e'
was "incontestable," 15 and in 1879 Paul Pierret gave to the first
tt chapter of his Essai sur la mythologieegyptienne (Paris) the title
at "Le monotheisme egyptien." For Pierret Egyptian religion ap-
Tl peared polytheistic, but was "essentially" monotheistic, and it
a, could not be otherwise, for "God is one, or he does not exist"
ill
"E
("Dieu est un ou il n'est pas," p. 6)-polytheism would there-
;c fore be a denial of God, unless it were viewed as "purely sym-
II bolic" and the gods as different roles or functions of the su-
·, preme, single, hidden God (p . 7), for whom Egyptian religious
'
1
texts contain many apparently "monotheistic" epithets (pp . 8-
16). For Fran~ois Joseph Chabas, too, the many gods are only
15
Rec. lra v . l (1870)120,in an article"Des deux yeux du disque solaire " in
which he maintainsat other points too that there was a solar monotheis~ in
Egypt.
20
HistoricalIntroduction
ts of the One, 16 while the great excavator Auguste Mariette
aspec ed that there was a single, immortal, uncreated, invis-
~s:i:nd hidden God "reserved for those initiated into the
1bl , ,m
sanctuary.
i{'
1
ed de Rouge, Pierret, and Mariette were still completely
fo dowthe influence of this interpretation, which had been self-
.
"dent to their teachers. Thus, m an early lecture on ancient
evi tian religious literature, Gaston Maspero, Mariette's suc-
Egy~r as director of the Egyptian Antiquities Service, speaks of
cess"immaterial G o d , " w h o o nl y secon d a ril y "b ecame flesh" m
.
:;e 18
multiplicity of _deities. _ Eugene Le~ebure he~d f?r man~
to the belief m Egyptian monotheism, but m his case 1t
year S h . . h 19
quired a more pant e1stic ue.
ac A passage in le Page Ren~uf' s Lectures shows how wide-
spread this view of the Egyptian pantheon was around 1880:
There are many very eminent scholars who, with full knowledge
of all that can be said to the contrary, maintain that the Egyptian
religion is essentially monotheistic, and that the multiplicity of
ters and offices of the supreme God ." (p. 89)
Among these "eminent scholars" was Heinrich Brugsch, who
was, next to Carl Richard Lepsius, the leading German egyp-
tologist of the day .. In 1885 there appeared the first ~olume ?f
his standard work, Religion und Mythologie der alten Agypter, m
1•Lecalendrierdes jours fastes et nefastesde l'anneeegyptiemze(Chalons-sur-Saone
and Paris1870)110.This "unique, uncreatedgod" is, however,the god onlyof
the "initiates."
17Noticedes principauxmonuments exposesdans les galeriesprovisoires
du Museedes
antiquitesegyptiennes(2d ed., Alexandria1868)20 = (5th ed., Cairo1874)21..
w•sur la litteraturereligieusedes anciensegyptiens,"Revuepolitiqueel litterazre
2d ser. 2 (1872)460-66;reprinted in Eludes de myt!wlogieet d'archeologie egyp-
liennes II (Bibliothequeegyptologique2, Paris 1893)44~2; passagecited on
pp. 446-47 of the latter. For the later developmentof Maspero'sviews see
below.
1"E.g. RHR 14 (1886)35; compare also pp. 44-45 for Lefebure's
version_of ~he
viewsof de Rouge and Chabas, which he saw as continuingthoseof Fnednch
Creuzer.
21
- Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt HistoricalIntroduction

which he professed his conviction that "already in the li many Alfred Wiedemann wrote in Die Religionder alten
. In G er ~
times" the Egyptians a d ore d "th e one, nameless, incoear est Agypter (Munster 1890):
hensible, eternal God in his highest purity. " 20 In 1889 Vict:pre-
. d d h . r von t has often been deduced that passages whe~e, for example, god
Strauss und Tomey s till d ~pic~e , un er t e influence of Schel- 1 d is praised, or god knows the wicked, grants a field
ling's ideas about the denvation of the gods, a "mytholo ic or a go · · · '
1 the obedient, etc. refer to the true, eternal God. This can-
m~n~theis~" "' i~ the god Nun at the beginning of Egy:tia: loveshowever, be maintained without qualification;the same texts
rehg1ous history . - not, ake these statements also speak of individual deities and
The view that the Egyptians were at first purely monotheisti · that
showmthat the writer meant by " gfod"h"h"1s own partibcu . l~r god , the
could not be maintained for long in this exaggerated forrnc d of his nome, ... who was or 1m an a11-em racmg power,
Shortly before the appearance of Brugsch's great work, which go hose existence did not exclude that of others, which might
but w . .
was for _long the standa~d pre_s~~tation of Egy~tian religion, O
ther men be more important or higher .... But although
for
expressions of this sort cann?t _m ·
th emhselv~s profv1"dedanhy_phroo f
J. Lieblem had made the first cntiasm of the received opinion, 22
ori<Yinal,
pure monotheistic appre ens1on o go w 1c re-
while as early as 1880 Maspero had been sharply critical of o f an o- . f . .
( d to the Egyptians' consciousness rom time to time, one
Pierret and his monotheistic "preconception," 23 stating that turne f h • · · h h
I
monotheism was a secondary phenomenon, "deriving from an canno,t On the other hand, prove rom t e mscnptions t at sue
s a belief did not exist.
f earlier polytheism." From 1888 on Maspero admitted that inde-
t pendent study of Egyptian religious texts had led him to aban- Wiedemann explains his studied caution by saying that "so
IJ
d don his earlier views about Egyptian monotheism-to which f r only a small part of the material preserved from ancient
C Brugsch continued to adhere . In his detailed reviews of his ;g~pt is available." He therefore guards against throwing out
'1 German colleague's work 2' Maspero rejected the earlier inter- the baby with the bathwater; he is content_ to indicate t_hep~ob-
q pretation quite explicitly: lematic character of the evidence for Egyptian monotheism cited
d
g;
since the time of de Rouge. His clear presentation of his argu-
ifi I believe, in contrast to what [Brugsch] says, that the Egyptians ment could have saved some modem proponents of Egyptian
tt were first of all polytheists, and that if they arrived at the concep- monotheism from untenable conclusions, but his voice was
e, tion of a single deity, that deity was not exclusive or jealous. (p. scarcely heeded in the controversy.
th 185) In the next decade the early dynastic period in Egypt was
ar I take [the Egyptian religion] to be what it says it is, a polythe-
Tl discovered, principally through the excavations of Emile Ame-
ism with all its contradictions, repetitions, doctrines that are to lineau and W. M. F. Petrie at Abydos, 2h while in 1893 Gaston
ar modern eyes sometimes indecent, sometimes cruel, sometimes
afi Maspero completed the first edition of the Fifth a~d Sixth Dy-
ridiculous . . . . (p. 278)
re nasty Pyramid Texts. 27 Neither in this early collection of spellS,
SC
an "'Vol.II appearedin 1888, and the new editionin one volumein 1891. Quota- Pp. 62-63; English edition, Religion of the Ancient Egyptians(London1897)
23

Tr. tion from p. 90. 109-10 ; retranslated here. ..

Eg 21
GotterglaubeI (1889) passim,esp. pp. 47-48; in the second volumeof the work Wfhehistory of the discovery is described by W. Wolf, Funde in Agypten
thi (1891) von Strauss und Tomey still placed a single god at the beginning of (Gottingen1966) 1~38 . .h db
up religion(p. 72). 2
7rhe texts were discovered in 1880-81 (cf. ibid. 107-8) and pubhs e Y
·e, -ziEgyptianReligion(Christianiaand Leipzig1884). Masperoin Rec. trav. 3 (1882)-14 (1893) . Brugsch,as well as Maspero,at donh~
. . ·· 881] 1-15 an 1s
recogmzedthe importance of these ntual texts (see ZAS 1~ 11
23
RHR 1 (1880) 119-29, reprintedin Etudesde mythologiel (n. 18 above) 115-27; ~SO)but
phrase quoted on p. 124 of the latter.
2
autobiographyMein· Leben und mein Wandern [2d ed., Berlin ~941347 od:
1 f
_ 'Revue critiqued'histoireet de Iitteraturen.s. 26 (1888, 2) 445-48; RHR 18 (1888) was not able to evaluate them for the problem of conceptionsof g ' or
253-79; 19 (1889) 1-45; reprintedin Eludesde mythologieII (n. 18 above) 183-278. 23
22
 Conception s of God in Ancient Egy pt Historical Introduction

C inscribed from 2350 u.c. on, nor in the inscriptions and ,, . h riests" obscur~d the "pure:' mo~otheistic belief that
II sentations of the pre- and early dynastic periods coul;prhe- f
foobs . d in Egypt smce the earliest times, and which he
CJ original an d ,,pure "E gyp tian mono th e1sm, · which had b te had ex~s ed he could find especially in wisdom texts. Like 29

ti assumed a priori, be found . Rather, what is especially st -k~en rnai1_1tarneBudge assumed that Egyptian beliefs ran down two
g,
Cl in_these arch ~1c . sourckes1s r · of deities . Together
. thhe mu ltihpd1c1ty n Ing Manette, olution that still seems easy-far too easy-to many
et with the ear 11er attac on t e met o s used to establish th pat~s, a scessors: the One for the wise, the many for the mass .
a, hypothesis, this great increase in our sources had the r le of _h; sucnn soon attacked the idea of a "monotheism for ini-
fl th at th e 1·ctea of an ongma
. . I monot h e1sm,
. w h ich had for so esu
1
t ~ie e,?1as one might call it, 30 but this did not stop the "neo-
di
bi been the received dogma, was quietly dropped. ong tiates,tha'stic" school which I discuss below, from taking up
rnono e1 '
l'E Egyptological writings of the next few decades give the · _
be pression that interest in defining the Egyptian conceptio imf Budge's idea. d h . I "G d (E ti. )" 1
Wiedemann contribute t e artic e _o gy_p_an to v~ -
a, god disappeared with the old dogma. The positivist conce;
0
_ ix of James Hastings's Encyclopaediaof Religion and Ethics
e,
ol tion on the "~oncret~" (das "Tatsiich/iche"), on the immedi;~ ~; 1; s 274--79)-a happy choice by the editor, for Wiedemann
H facts of Egyptian beh_efs, was no lo~ger sidetracked by argu- ( \n a few pages a well-organized and considered survey
gave . E . . f d
Sf] ments over monotheism or pantheism or polytheism. Adolf f the basic issues concerning gyptian conceptions o go .
EE Ern:1an's presenta_tion of Egyptian religion, the first edition of ~e devoted a separate section (pp. 275-77) to the question
th which appeared m 1905, provided a new model that becam
us
"Monotheism or Henotheism ?"-the chief problem in the
di the guiding light of t~e next generation. Hermann Kees's De; previous literature-and argued decisively both against the as-
CCi Gotterglaubeim a/ten Agypten, first published in 1941, crowned sumption of an original monotheism and against the idea of a
wl almost a lifetime's research and remains the standard work on monotheistic god for "initiates" in wisdom texts . The phrase-
q, the outward forms and facts of these beliefs, but does not
di,
ology of Egyptian sources, on which de Rouge and his con-
tackle the problem of defining the nature of the object of study ; temporaries had based their arguments, must be explained in
8'1
irr Jaroslav Cerny' s Ancient Egyptian Religion (Hutchinson's Uni- a different way: "The apparently monotheistic expressions on
th versity Library, London 1952) also belongs in the same tradi- Egyptian monuments rest in reality upon henotheistic modes
ev tion . But in its own way, a half-century 's abstinence from con- of thought" (p. 276). In an article "The Egyptian Pantheon," 31
th sidering our problem has advanced it-we must acknowledge
an which appeared at almost the same time, Gunther Roeder ex-
Th gratefully that the basic facts, on which new definitions of the pressed a similar view in rather different terms. He rejected the
an nature of Egyptian beliefs can be based, have been assembled theory of an original monotheism as decisively as Wiedemann
an and established . did, and assumed that there had been a process of "selection"
rel T~e few writers who took up the question of Egyptian con- among the mass of original deities, which he compared with
sci ceptions of ~od early in this century (especially James Henry
an the then popular "survival of the fittest" of living creatures.
Tr. Breaste~) v,reJected explicitly the monotheistic interpretation and
!ended instead to see pantheistic features in Egyptian religion. The great deities become many-sided, acquire many names and
EgJ
thi fhe concept of henotheism also appears again and again (see qualities, and their adherents can end by thinking that their god
up
re.
also Chapter 7). Only E. A. Wallis Budge held to the view that I •
10
2
•G~ds I, 138-45; passage quoted from p . 144. He maintained the same position
Osrns and the Egyptian ResurrectionI (London and New York 1911) 348ff. Von
".Vi
edcmann too this new source remained un the periph ery. The latest tran sla- Strauss und Tomey had already taken issue with this idea and compared the
tion of the texts is R. 0 . Faulkner , The Ancient EgvptirmPyramidTexts (Oxford use of /ficos in Homer (Gotterglaube1, 340ff) .
1969). · 30
P. 276 of the article cited in the next paragraph.
'-"The Development of Relixion and Thouxht in Ancient Ef(ypt(New York 1912). 31
Archivfiir Rcligionswissenschaft15 (1912) 59-98 .
24
25
 Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt Historical Introduction

is the only one and omnipotent. Thus Egyptian theolo . . ny real appreciation of the methods and approaches of
monotheistic features as a result of secondary identific~ acquires haVIIlgh a In his critique of Beth, Grapow missed the opportu-
nowhere does it discard its polytheistic structure . (p. 95) ons , but th.e otto er. . l . f
illuminate the essentia meamng o n!r "god" offered by

The new phrase "monotheistic feature" had omm

n~;
~
1
knowledge of the ''.thou~a~ds of ~xamples of n!r'~ in the
f the Berlin Egyptian dictionary; mstead he took messen-
sequences, 1or€ •
1t contri.bute d to t h e imprecision
. of the ous con- ~I~sdotails for his target . But Beth's comparisons of n!r with el
used by the neomonotheistic school and hence to the _concepts tiad eakondaare unsatisfactory for egyptologists, while his as-
ness in treating the entire problem . But for the mo Ir vague- an wtion of a special n!r in wisdom texts (pp . 180-83) or of a
. f E · . ment the ~umpt All-Neter" (pp. 182-83) follows familiar paths. The wider
question o gyptian conceptions of god was thought t
quire no further discussion, if we except the thesis of G odre- !::~ective of a historian of religion did, however, enable Beth
. . erar us
van d er Leeuw (1916), which 1s concerned specificall .h io formulate one insight that had not been vouchsafed to spe-
concep ti.ons of go d m . th e p yramid Texts-that is y With
·th
I ,WI te cialists:
I
ear Iiest group of sources whi~h c~uld then be examined .J2 This
I study by the great Dutch historian of religion supports d Monotheism or polytheism? This has been the great issue in egyp-
expands the new poly~heistidhenotheistic interpretation w~~h tology since the discovery of the first Egyptian texts. The survey
I we have already seen m the works of Wiedemann and Roed er. I have given here shows that both answers have their justification;
I Van d er Leeuw was unable to discover any elements of m it also shows that the proponents of both use these concepts like
l
_
(
·
th e1~m or of a "hi gh go d " in the earliest known Egyptian ono con- slogans , yet neither concept can characterize the true individu-
( ception of god; rather he compared it with the concept of god ality of Egyptian religion. (p . 183)
established by Konrad Theodor Preuss for the Cora Indians of
'
C
the Mexican Sierra Madre. It is not possible to speak of a At that point the discussion had reached a dead end, and it
C
"transcendent" god in Old Kingdom Egypt, but rather of a must have seemed pointless to return to it without opening up
p
i1 "pantheistically tinged" confidence in the continuation of exis- new approaches to "the true individuality of religion." The first
t tenc~. In talking of a certain "vagueness" in the Egyptian con- new stimulus to studying Egyptian conceptions of god came
e cep_tion of god van der Leeuw made an important point, to from Hermann Junker, who identified an alleged ancient high
ti god, the "Great One" (Wr), about 1930, and thus came close to
a
whic_hI shall re~rn at the end of Chapter 3; but the question of
1 morusm or dualism, to which he devoted much space, is now Father Wilhelm Schmidt's idea of a "primal monotheism" (Ur-
a dated and less fruitful for the study of our problem. monotheismus).Since Junker treated a divine epithet in isola-
a Equally unfruitful was the 1916-20 controversy between Karl tion, I shall leave his idea aside and return to it toward the end
,, Be_th and Hermann Grapow in Zeitschriftfur die alttestamentliche of Chapter 5 in the section on the divine quality of greatness.
Si
W1~s~nschaft; 33
this is a classic example of how a historian of The monotheistic interpretation of the Egyptian conception
a
T religion and a philologist can address each other without either ?fgod was reaffirmed by French egyptologists, just as the orig-
E ~al ~heory had been put forward by a Frenchman. The initia-
tJ ~,Godsvoorstel/ingen e Pymmidetexten (Leiden 1916), esp . chap.
in de 011daegyptisch tive m forming a "neomonotheistic school" came from Abbe
u 4 ( The Concept of God .. . ," pp. 117-49), from which the quotations below
are taken.
Etienne Drioton, who was then the influential director-gen-
n
33 eral of the Egyptian Antiquities Service. The first two editions
K. Beth, "El und Neter," ZAW 36 (1916) 129-86; H. Grapow, "Zu dem Auf-
s~t~ von Prof. Beth 'El und Neter,"' ZAW 37 (1917) 199-208; K. Beth, "Noch of the volume L'Egypte (Paris 1938, 1946), which Drioton and
~m•ges_zum agyptischen Neter, " ZAW 38 (1920) 87-104. Quotation from the J~cques Vandier made into a fundamental treatment of Egyp-
first article. tian political and intellectual history, do not waste any words
26 27

I
 Historical Introduction
Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt
rd Otto assumed in an article "The
on Egyptian monotheism, bu~ from the third edition (19Si) thus Eb er h a E . f
tologists; . E t in the Late Period" that gyptians o
the topic is central to the section on Egyptian religion .34 on, egYPept of God in gyP d the multiple manifestations of de-
Drioton had already developed his ideas in 1948 in his f cone . d "experience d' .
late pen° . tions of an anonymous 1vme power
"Le monotheisme de l'ancienne Egypte," 35 where he main:~ icle h
t e 1
possible rea iza
. . E ained 'ties as h m ,,39
that there h a d b een monot h e1sm m gypt long before th ~hat lay _behind t e ~as more explicit still in seeing in Egyptian
forms of Akhenaten. For him the vital sources are the wis~ re- Siegfried M~renz ursors of the modern theology of re -
texts with their "god of the wise " ("dieu des sages") , who ohm ians direct prec
. dm. an ear 1·1er arhc. Ie .36 Al t h ough Drioton referred
m toe theo log . . .
had d1scusse vealed religion .
Junker, he assumed that there was a very ancient, but not . . . ·pal ways of thinking about the rela-
original , monotheism; the new doctrine is that Egyptian mono- un their pnnci d h .
In the long r . ·th one another and with the One, an t eir
theism was a secondary growth on the soil of polytheism. Th tionships of deities wdi . s and the links between god and image
predominance of polytheism at all periods of Egyptian histo; ideas ab ou t the bounh ane sought the great , single rea 1·ity o f G o d be -
could no longer be questioned, so that the monotheism that favored all thos~ w ~ his manifestations. A religion that has de-
was proposed had to be one for "initiates," as Mariette and hind the _pro~usion ~ut has never experienced the breakthrough
Budge had already assumed . veloped i~ his;::; inevitably carry with it the burden of a long
Although there was no lack of critical voices and reservations of revelation,ful ld of different deities. The best that theo-
pas_ t- a colorld d wor· the face of this burden o f tra d 1tion' · was t o
about Drioton's method of argument, 37 many more recent French
Jogians cou . o liendeity firmly in the depths of the single divine
egyptologists have succumbed to the attractions of his formu- chor every smg ful · hi
lations, and the monotheistic interpretation has again become an E tian relil7ious thinkers were so success m t s
essence. gyp 0
- h hi t · l t d cy
popular outside France , too. Thus in A Dictionary of Egyptian that we may legitimately seek and observe t. e s _o~ca ~nd en
tr nscendence in all their deities, and with this m mm may
Civilization (edited by Georges Posener), Serge Sauneron spoke
::cit; substitute the singular where literal interp!etation of texts
of "a very general belief . . . in the universality and singleness
and pictures would require us to read the plural.
of a nameless divine being, without form, but able to take on
'
i
I
any form." 38 Drioton's views were soon adopted by German The "profusion of manifestations," the colo _rf_ul abund~nc~ of
E 34
Esp. pp. 63--64, 109-10 ; cf. J. Leclant, Rd£ 15 (1963) 137. Drioton expressed polytheism , is again set aside as being s~J:>erfic1al. But t~1s time
t himself more cautiously in his contribution to the collectionDie Religionendes there is no distant perspective of an ongmal monotheism that
il A/ten Orients (in the encyclopediaDer Christ in der Welt, Zurich 1958). Cf. alsoJ. had been obscured in the course of history. Instead, the van-
l Vandier, La religion egyptienne (Paris 1944) 227-29 , and the careful criticismsof
il
ishing point is in the "depths of the single divine essence";
R. Weill, BIFAO 47 (1948) 140.
il behind and intersecting with all the stage wings of history is
,. 35

36
CHE 1 (1948) 149--08; resume in Or 18 (1949) 503-4.
"La religionegyptienne dans ses grandes lignes," La revue du Caire84 (1945) the one and only God of revelation.
s 3-23; reprinted in Pages d'egyptologie (Cairo 1957) 77-110 . Cf. his remarks al- This is a grandiose, western-style perspective-but it has lit-
a ready in ASA£ 43 (1943) 43, on Ramessid monotheism as a consequenceof the
11 tle in common with Egyptian ways of looking and thinking.
Amama period. Egyptians knew no stage wings and no depth of perspective.
E 37
E.g. H . Stock, Saeculum1 (1950) 631-35 (againstJunker and Drioton). Cf. also
ti R. Weill (n. 34 above) and S. A. B. Mercer, The Religion of Ancient Egypt (Lon- Behind a god may be his retinue; the foundations of the world
u may be divine, but they are not a god. It is fascinating to ar-
don 1949) 306-7 , for whom Egyptian religion "was always polytheistic, without
n
exception." F. Daumas, Les dieux de /'Egypte (Que sais-je 1194, Paris 1965) 115ff., range the Egyptian pantheon in three dimensions and to make
followsDrioton in the main, but denies that there was an "exclusivemonothe- 39
ism" in Egypt. FuF 35 (1961) 278.
38
Dictionnaire de lacivilisationegyptienne (Paris1959) 87 = A Dictionaryof Egyptian . '"G
. ott und Mensch 116. Schelling had already expressed similar ideas, Einleitung
Civilization (London 1962) 110; retranslated here. 111d
,e PlII·1osoph,e
· der Myt/10/ogie (n. 5 above) 74 .

28 29
 Historical Introduction

enz justified h~s choice with unambiguou~ clarity; but this jus-
tification was itself ~ffered a_sa ~ypothes1s, and demands the
ki d of critical scrutiny that mev1tably leads to the wider issue
otthe Egyptian conception_ of god. .
One must ask how ancient Egyptians imagined gods or a
single god; whether and in what form _they saw or worshiped
an impersonal, anonymous power beside or behind the great
variety of their deities; and whether their deities can be seen as
precursors of _monotheistic religions. _ _
Such questions as these mark the begmnmg of a laborious
road that must be traveled by anyone who seeks a correct an-
swer. The irlformation we need must be wrested from sources
that are often difficult to interpret and ambiguous; a number
of apparently dry and recondite studies are necessary if we are
to establish safe and solid foundations for our answer. There is
the danger that the chief objectives of research will be lost in
the mass of detailed evidence from three millennia and in a
labyrinth of minor issues. But I hope always to keep visible
on the horizon the broader question whose ramifications ex-
tend beyond Egypt to man's understanding of himself and his
world: What is a god? What does a god mean to those who
believe in him? What does the seeker encounter in so personal
a form when he engages in a dialogue with the deity which
determines his own existence? There is no need to enter into
. - li questions of belief, of the existence or nonexistence of God or
FriedootSchleiennacher,
addressed
as of gods. The historical reality of the Egyptian gods is amply
· lenment U1'r dieRtligi
on.Rtdtn
an demonstrated by the fact that the Egyptians lived with them
· I799) = OnReligion.
5~,rhe;loIt; and carried on a lively dialogue with them for thousands of
years. They are legitimate, even necessary objects of an inqui~
, -rta.+.mT.in;chriftendrrgri:-ht,h· that does not ask about their existence, their essence, or their
f,o#t undMm.qjr
ima/ImAgypltn value, but about their appearance and their meaning for be-
uthorsalsostudiedtheEgyptian con
· lievers and for the cultures elaborated by those believers.
•Monotheistische m
Tendenz_en It was of great value for my study that several new, thorough ,
'O·•zumGottesbegllff derag
yp- and detailed monographs on Egyptian deities appeared during
ll - . er Polytheismus Eine
Altagyp~ HerauJkun ffdestra
~,- my work on it, providing me with repeated opportunities to
. Morenz , JC,tsch,~hteT!-119, reexamine and refine my questions and answers. These studies
==Rt'ligionun ()ct 18,11JM also remove still more of the obligation to examine the nature
. .. unf.trz,,tun sI nn~awork of individual deities-Osiris, Amun, Re, Ptah, Anubis, and so
011pa ·ng[)ir
.u i1mmL,;1
w. •. G. '[haus1, forth. Such an examination would involve a separate, lengthy
r te~, _see943) viii. 31
1
Tt.ttf71(Le1pll8
 Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt Historical Introduction

cc the One the vanishing point-but does there not lie behi d . tified his choice with unambiguous clarity; but this jus-
IN such an exercise the old apologist's endeavor to render t~ enz J~S s itself offered as a hypothesis, and demands the
Os Egyptian gods more credible to us? Must we really pro e tificatiofn~ti~calscrutiny that inevitably leads to the wider issue
,,· do en
lhf against Karl Barth' 1 and other_"cu1t1:1r~ddenigrators" 42 of n;~~ ...,in E tian conception of god. . . .
g01 Christian religions, that Egyptian rehg1on also belongs to God's of the gypt ask how ancient Egyptians 1magmed gods or a
COi
only recognized "elite"? Is ~here not a dang~r here that our . One mus d· whether and in what form th ey saw or wors hi ped
elll
am discipline will be perverted mto theology? If 1t is to count a sin~le go ~nal anonymous power beside or behind the great
Eril egyptology, the :°ature, sp~ere of action, and meaning of Egyp~ an ~mpe~\he; deities; and whether their deities can be seen as
variety O • • . •
dis tian gods must first be studied, and one must ask above all how O
rs of monotheistic re 11gions.
ha! Egyptians themselves .saw and understood their gods before · P recurs stions as these mar kht e b eginmng . . o f a lb.
a onous
rea Sueh qUe k
boc even considering any question of evaluation . What is needed is road that must be traveled by anyone who see s a correct an-
anl a comprehensive study of Egyptian conceptions of god which The information we need must be wrested from sources
ed will draw on the sources in breadth and in depth; in the flood swer. .
ften difficult to mterpret an d am b'1guous; a num b er
oft
th a t ar e O . . .
of writing on ancient Egyptian religion such a work has been arently dry and recondite studies are necessary 1f we are
0 f app
Ho lacking. tablish safe and solid foun ations or our answer. Th ere 1s
d · f .
sph to es · · f h ·11 b I ·
Egt The lack of such a work provided a challenge that I took up the danger that the chief obJectives o resear~ w1_ e o~t m
the originally in the form of lectures on the Egyptian concept of the mass of detailed evidence from three m1llenma and. ~ a
use god in the summer semester of 1965 at the University of Mun- labyrinth of minor issues. But I hope always to keep v1S1ble
di54 ster in Westphalia and in the summer semester of 1968 at the on the horizon the broader question whose ramifications ex-
COii
University of Basel. The immediate stimulus was provided by tend beyond Egypt to man's understanding of himself and his
whi
qUE critical study of two books, published independently by Sieg- world: What is a god? What does a god mean to those who
did fried Morenz and Eberhard Otto in the same year, 1964, and believe in him? What does the seeker encounter in so personal
god under the same title, God and Man. 43 Both authors chose the a form when he engages in a dialogue with the deity which
imJi singular God quite deliberately, and as we have just seen, Mor- determines his own existence? There is no need to enter into
the
evo questions of belief, of the existence or nonexistence of God or
"Morenz criticizes him, Gott und Mensch 15.
the of gods. The historical reality of the Egyptian gods is amply
"[An allusion to the famous work of Friedrich Schleiermacher, addressed as
and an apologia to the proponents of the Enlightenment: Uberdie Religion. Redenan demonstrated by the fact that the Egyptians lived with them
The die Gebildeten1111/erihren Veriichtem(Berlin 1799) = 011 Religion. Speechesto Its and carried on a lively dialogue with them for thousands of
any CulturedDespisers(London 1893)-tr .] years . They are legitimate, even necessary objects of an inquiry
anc "E. Otto, Gott und Mensch nachden iigyptischenTempelinschriftender griechisch-
reli1 that does not ask about their existence, their essence, or their
r6mischenZeit (AHAW 1964, l); S. Morenz, Gott und Mensch im a/ten Agypten
schc value, but about their appearance and their meaning for be-
(Leipzig 1964; Heidelberg 1%5). Both authors also studied the Egyptian con-
anti ception of god in a number of articles : E. Otto, "Monotheistische Tendenzen in lievers and for the cultures elaborated by those believers.
Trar ~er iigyptischen Religion," WdO 2 (1955) 99-110; "Zurn Gottesbegriff der iigyp- It was of great value for my study that several new, thorough,
Egy1 tischen _Spatz~_it,"FuF 35 (1961) 277-80; "Altiigyptischer Polytheismus . Eine and detailed monographs on Egyptian deities appeared during
this Be;hreibung, _Sa~culum14 (1963) 249-85; S. Morenz, Die Heraufkunft des.trans-
upd my work on it, providing me with repeated opportunities to
;;". entenGottesm Agypten(SBSAW.109, 2, 1964) = Religionund Geschichte77-119; reexamine and refine my questions and answers. These studies
reac Die Gesch1chte Gottes im alten Agypten," Neue Ziircher Zeitung Oct. 18, 1964.
8:fore the Second World War the WienerTotenbuchko111111issio11 planned a work also remove still more of the obligation to examine the nature
entitled "Gott und Mensc h 1m · We Itbilde
. ··
der Agypter"; see G. Thausing, Der of individual deities-Osiris, Amun, Re, Ptah, Anubis, and so
Aufer5lehungsgedanke in iigyptischenreligiosenTexten (Leipzig 1943) viii . forth. Such an examination would involve a separate, lengthy
30 31

_J
 •·

.· .
,- F·

Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt

study for each deity . We are concerned her .

features ~hat ~re common to Egyptian O e i:inmarily with
th~ ,elationsh,ps of Egyptians with in~i ds m gene,a\ an;h,
w,th the ge~e,ahty of the Egyptian conce v._dual god~that to
of couo;e, aun to construct an abst,act ption of god. I don IB,
\ /·
. . ~atic sup«-god; it is always necess.,; ~:::al entity, a sc~;_
.:··
,.~..
v1dual hvmg deities we encounter m · our sources.
rt from the ind·1- tiall 'f erJilS for God
'·,
2 ~ Eg)'P
and their lJ se

tt!T and its basic meaning

f E tian conceptions of god must take
Since any studY_ o hgyp·mnal E=tian texts and representa-
1
as its st arting point t ·the on
the0 --terminology
01" they used th emse ves.
nons,
. f d W1
i·t must start fined this methodological . requuemen
· t very
Le page Renou e
sharply and clearly:
-ughout tbe whole ,ange ol [ancient] Egyptian lite,atu"', no
la<~ a pea< to be mo<e certainly pmved than thOS" (l) that the
d~' ol one God and that ol m,.ny gods we<• taught by _the
,ame men; (2) that no inconsistency between the two doctnn"'
w.s thought ol. Nothing, ol rou,se, can be more absu<d ,f the
Egyptiansattached the same meaning to the wo,d God that we
do. But there ,nay pe,haps be a sense of the woni which admits
of its use for many as well as for one. We cannot do better at
starting than endeavour to ascertain what the Egyptians really
meant when they used the word nutar [ntr1, which we translate
"god." (Lectures p. 92) -

This is my first task, and since the reader cannot be assumed

to kno"'. the Egyptian language, 1 shall be as sparing with
philological argument as possible.
The Egyptian word we translate "god" has the form nutar in
e wntings o le Page Renouf and other early egyptologists.
th ·· f
Our present transcription gives it the form ntr in which t is a
prepalatal stop that is more usually rendered- c'.Our meth~d of
33

32
-
Conceptions of God in Ancient Egyp t Egyptian Terms for God

. forms of the sign, some of which go back to the

<l 1
neearl_ieS ri·od are of the type illustrated in Figure le
t
predyna 5 UC bl peshow ' a staff with streamers . The number of the'
a['ld proba \ich are clearly separated as late as the Third Dv-
strea me~, . w between
· two an df our. Th e sign
. d oes not reach its
.
nastY: _vanfesrm (Figure la) until the Old Kingdom. This form
de fi111uve trip
o of cloth instead of the streamers; carefully exe-
shows a :,pies show that the entire staff is wrapped. More re-
cu teddexa,.,
finitions take account o f t h.1s; t h e most precise
. 1s. that
cent Ee Newberry: "a pole wrapped round with a band of doth,
of P. d · by a cord, the en d proiectmg
· · as a fl ap or streamer." ;
bo~nf r definitions are those of the Berlin Dictionary (Wb. II
Brie e . " . ,
12): "staff wrapped with cloth, or of Alan H. Gardiner :
a b 357/ 1 // 8
C "cloth wound on a po e.
Figure1. The hieroglyph for "god," "s taff bou n d wit. h cloth ." It cannot be disputed that this more recent identification is in
principle correct_-Th_e Egy_Pti_ansthe~selves seem to have inter-
transcription s~ows only the consonantal skeleton of E . preted the_ ntr _sign m a similar_ fashion, although th~ evidence
words, so that 1t tells us nothing about the·ir pronunc1ati . gyptian for their view 1s of the late penod or the late New Kingdom at
order to make a form such as ntr pronounceable w . ?n. In the earliest; its date can scarcely be earlier than 1200 s.c. In the
consonants
E . with e and say net;- ~ JOm the
·er· Th e true vocahzaf "enigmatic" or cryptographic form of the hieroglyphic script
gyptia~ words is gradually being reconstructed with th10n of the sign has the value w on a number of scarabs; Drioton de-
?f cuneiform, Greek, Coptic, and other full voca . e help rived this from wt "wrap, bind." 9 From an early period wt is the
m otur·case_it is ro_ughlyndtjir(feminine natjfrat "g~~~:ssf?,)r~s; title of an embalmer and the word for mummy wrappings.
n r is wntten with ah ' l h' . · These can also-not before the late period-be called ntr; (Wb.
sho~n in Figure la B1erog y~ ic sign whose normal form is II, 365, 14; cf. also II, 363, 19), while the fragmentar y -Roman
. ecause 1t has a .
found in earlier periods F' rare pomted variant period papyrus from Tanis which lists and glosses hieroglyphic
later egyptologists inter ~e:!~r~ lb), Champollion2 and som; signs has for the nfr sign jw.f qrs "he is buried. " HI 11
have a quite different / e t a~ an ax. But Egyptian axes Newberry already pointed out these associations, and they
f
wrapped around as our p a~ance, and their handles are not provide a concrete background for the practice of calling the
correctly dismissed th 'd1gnis. For this reason W. M F Petr1·e
b e I entific f · ·
~ IOn as an ax as early as 1892
4
ut some scholars still t . •some are collected by P. E. Newberry, /£A 33 (1947) 90 figs. 1-3 .
re amed it decades later . s , 'Ibid.
• 8Egyptia11Grammar (Oxford 1927, 3d ed . London 1957) sign list no. RS. In
'W. Vycichl, ZDMG Su 1 accordance with standard practice, hieroglyphs are cited below by the numbers
1Dictionnaire
b11.1pt
· ( pp/. (1%9) 26.
3Se o:, ren posthum . of this sign list.
e __E. Kiihnert-E b ous, Pans 1841) 345
ten(MAS15 1%9 gge recht, Dre Axt a/s Wa . 9
Kemi14 (1957) 22-23 .
'Medum(Lond ). 1 ffe und Werkzeug im a/ten Agyp- 1°F. L. Griffith in W. M. F. Petrie, Two Hierogl_VPlricPapyrifmm Tanis(MEEF9,
s on 892) 32 · 1889) 16 (xv, 2). F. Calice, Grundlage11 der ag_vptisclr-st'llritisclren
Wort1,.•rsleid11u'.g
284~.g. Bu~ge, GodsI, 63-65 a .
' A. Wiedemann in J ' nd in other work (WZ.KM Beiheft 1, 1936) 35, suggested that ,f!r derived from a common sem11tc
(1913)275; K. Beth ZAW ~astings, ed., Encyc/os; ;melineau, ProlegomenesI,
34 ' (1920)92. pae ra of Religionand Ethics VI root kr "bind, wrap ."
11
fEA 33 (1947) 91.
35
 ~·t;.
""
.·
_:-

. :• - ·:

Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt

Egyptian T errns for God
deceased ntrw "gods," which is found from an ea 1
- d . r Y PenOd
Several writers have cited ethnographic parallels:" until very
( through being wrappe , a practice attested earlier th :
I recently flagpoles wer_e set up at the entrances to holy tombs
~ummification, the deceased became a n{r in the sens::/rue
C wrapped cloth fetish shown by the sign. For Egyptian the throughout North Afnca and the Sudan as part of a millennia-
ti old tradition, which evidently originated in ancient Egypt. lt is
g, lived in a world of allusions, such associations as thess, Who
Cl doubtless very immediate, but for us they are for the me Were significant that, as A. M. Blackman recorded for the Nubians of
· 1 11 ornent Derr, the flag is identified with the numen itself, the "sheikh";
~
et
a,
too vague and hypothetica to. a. ?~ us to go any further in this the sign has reverted to being a fetish.
;
Er direction than to suggest poss1bihties . In any case, if we p
. . . . . h . ursue Strips of cloth are found on other important Egyptian cult
di! this line of inqmry we may ~am vita 1ms1g ts mto the nature of objects. They are scarcely ever absent from the common depic-
ba mummification, but hardly mto the nature of the Egyptian con-
re, tions of wooden carrying poles with sacred objects that are
bo
ception of god. charged with power ("standards"), which are found as early as
an There are two alternative interpretations of the significance predynastic times; normally there are two strips hanging down
ext of the sign, as "cult flag" or as "wrapped fetish." Kurt Sethe from the pole .19 Similar strips of cloth are attached to the sacred
oft among others, explained the sign as "a sort of flag"; 12 the histor~ djed pillar, which is associated with the cult of Osiris, and are
HOI ian of religion Kurt Goldammer also identified it as a "cult flag" shown in New Kingdom representations of the columns that
sph
Eg)'I or "cloth or flag fetish," in the most comprehensive study of support both the kiosk surrounding the king on his throne and
the, the "god" hieroglyph to date .13 In this context writers always the shrines of gods. 20 Here too belong the fluttering streamers
usec refer to the tall flagpoles that dominate the entrance towers attached to the royal headgear which give life to Amama pe-
diset (pylons) of Egyptian temples. With their fluttering strips of riod reliefs in particular, as well as the innumerable long pen-
cont, dant strips that form part of the dress of deities, royalty, and
whic cloth they recall the earliest form of the sign for "god" (Figure
20), and they may already have stood in front of sanctuaries of private individuals. 21 All these strips of cloth are certainly more
quest
did th the early dynastic period. 14 From the Ptolemaic period we know than simply "decorative" in function .
gods? of masts with white, green, and red pennants. 15 The same com- But to interpret the hieroglyph for "god" as a "cult flag" or
imper
them, bination of colors is found once under Amenophis III, 16 but in 1111d
A11111n
pl. Ill . I was not able to work systematically through the entire
evoke other colored representations of the New Kingdom we find material, and may have missed some exceptions.
the rel only white and red strips. 17 18E.g . P. E. Newberry, JEA 33 (1947) 90 n. 2, referring to A. J. Arkell, /EA 19
. andof (1933) 175-76 with pl. 30-31; A . M. Blackman, Man 10 (1910) no. 11, P· 28; M.
"Urgeschichte(1930) §10, and before him H . Schafer, ZAS 34 (1896) 159 n. 3;
A. Murray in Studies Presentedto F. LI. Griffith(London 1932) 312-15; Goldam-
' Thebq
A. M. Blackman, The RockTombsof Meir II (ASE 23, 1915) 35.
t{: ""D(e hei!fge ~ahne. Zur Geschichte und Phiinomenologie eines religii.isen
Ur-ObJekts, Trrbus n.s. 4/5 (1954-5, Stuttgart 1956) 13-55; quotation from
mer, "Die heilige Fahne" (n . 13 above) 19 with n . 30.
19For a collection of examples see M. Raphael, Prehistoric
. .. .
PotteryandCrurhzahon
in Egypt (Bollingen Series 8, [New York} 1947) pl. 36.1. Murray and Goldammer
religioi p. 16.
schola1 also refer to these strips of cloth. •
anthroi E 7rom th e e_arly dynastic period on (W. M. F. Petrie, The Royal Tombs of the "'The pictures of kiosks to which • Goldammer re fers '"Di , e h ei'lige Fahne •.
Transla a~iest Dynastres II [MEEF 21, 1901) pl. 3A) two flags, which are almost always 19) are collected by J. Vandier, Ma1111el IV, 544-71; see also Ali Ra~wan, Di~
Egypto lected b G
Y •
.
Matth1ae
°
pointed, are shown in fro t f th
n
Scandone,
e sanctuary of Neith; see the examples co -
OrAnt 6 (1967) 145-68.
1
Darstel/ungendes regierendenKiinigs 1111d • ·1·
semer Fam,renangeonger h" · 1 rn den Pn·
.
thisedi 15 ~~tgriibernder 18. Dynastie (MAS 21, 1969); K. P. Kuhlmann, Dfr Thronrm altrn
Junker, DergrossePylon79 9
update
reader!
16
Kiosk scene from Theb
al J TheL M
T· b
an om 226, Luxor Museum J.134· [J. F. Romano et
Agypten (ADIK 10, 1977) 5!>-101.
21
.
O
n E tian
! am grateful to Elisabeth Staehelin for a collection of examples SYP h
i'
P·
'v11-theuxcorl~seumof EgyptianArt: Catalogue(Cairo 1979) ~o 101 with color
, o or 1s very p d · clothing; she also refers to the strips of cloth on boats an
d ·n
Th'
1
I the cult o t e
terial
"Checked on th k' k oor, an_ green has printed as blue. dead-not to speak of the "handkerchief" in the hands of_statues. hisma
e ios scenes m Theb t b d · t be presented ere·
on the columns of shr· f an om s (references n . 20 below) an would repay a separate study, and is too extensive 0
mes or gods; for a colored reproduction cf. Otto, Osiris 37
36
3pY·,.,t.:
-:.
Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt

something similar and to cite parallel usages of Stri Egyptian Terms for God
· bl . ifi d' · ps of cl h
in Egyptian cu~t 1s tdo dur,,a s1gdnthcant 1stinction. The ternoptl
e ~o1umns are mostly st e
1
flagpoles, the stan ar s, an
• pillars, or architectural elements denved from plants, to w a~fs,
t the strip of cloth is attached, usually at the top .22In the hihtch
!
C glyph for "god," however, the entire staff is wrapped ;r~-
e therefore possible that the "cult flag" is a secondary d · .t 15
a form and that the primary object is a staff which is .:Vraenved
E , . PPed
d that is, clothed and hence charged with power. Before th'
b. appearance of anthropomorphic forms for gods the wrap ~
n staff, together with animal fo~ms, mar have embodied all f:at
be was numinous; when the scnpt was invented none of the a _
ar,
ex imal forms may have been sufficiently representative to sta~
of for "god" in general. In the underworld book known as Am-
H, duat the name of the hieroglyph for god, nirjt, is determined a b
spl
Egi
with the sign of a staff, 23 and thus classified with sacred staffs Figure2. Other hieroglyphs for "god ."
the and scepters.
use Goldammer clearly also reckons with the possibility that the In a schematic history of Egyptian religion, such as that of
disc "cult flag" is secondary: "the flag probably derived from the
con Gustave Jequier in his Considerationssur !es religionsegyptiennes
whi
wrapped staff" ("Die heilige Fahne," n. 13 above, p. 39). It is not (Neuchatel 1946), fetishism is the earliest, most primitive stage,
que the god himself, but an attribute of him, a signal indicating the which is followed by the higher stages of zoolatry (the venera-
didt place of residence of the god (p. 32).24 I doubt whether the tion of deities in animal form) and anthropomorphism (the
god! sacred flag and its precursor should be separated into the two veneration of deities in human form). It is significant that the
imp
ther
elements of staff and wrappings, each with its own meaning other two Egyptian hieroglyphs for "god" belong to these two
evoli (pp. 27, 38); here Goldammer is partly following M. A. Mur- "higher" stages . One of these shows a hawk, one of the most
~ ther ray .25The n{r sign is wrapped all over, forming a unity that important embodiments of divinity, on a carrying pole (Figure
[ andt ~ust be interpreted as a unity. 2a); the most frequent use of this sign is as a semogram or
I Thel The commonest Egyptian hieroglyph for "god" can therefore sense sign in the Egyptian cursive script (hieratic), while it is
anyo
ar,cic be interpreted as evidence of the veneration of "inanimate" found more rarely in the monumental hieroglyphic script and
religi objects, that is, as a representation of a fetish whose direct only occasionally as a logogram for nfr "god ." This h!erogly_ph
scho descendants are probably the flags and other strips of cloth is just as old as the fetish sign; both date back to the mvenhon
anth1 used in the cult, right down to contemporary national flags. of the script at the turning point between the prehistoric and
Tram historical periods. 2•
Egyp
thise 22J3elowthe capital on columns, and on "standards" often in the middle of the The third, anthropomorphic sign for "god," which ~hows~
carrying pole. squatting god with a formless body, wearing the braided di-
upda
readt ziAmduat
2 I, 7~79, the only attestation of the Egyptian name of the sign.
~C?nthe role of the strips of cloth as signals cf. M. A. Murray, in Studies • · · 2•Earliest example on the "cities palette" of King Scorpion, shortly after_3(XX)
. t t Monumenta Onentis
Griffith (n. 18 above) 314. Chaos en beheersmg(Documen a e
B.c. : H . Asselberghs, f p
25
Ibid. 312- 15- The occasional use of a tree as a determinative in the Amduat Antiqui 8, Leiden 1961) pl. 92 fig. 164. For early examples as a logogram c · ·
(n. 23 above) would fit this. Kaplony, CdE 41/81 (1966) 90.
39
38
 ...

Conceptions oi God in Ancient Eg ypt

Egyptian Terms for God

~
C
I ~~~~,~~t~~~~~!ffll .
Figure 3. Gar d mer h.1erogIyp h.IC sign
. 1·1st, category C. 19 20
One might expect the ety_mologyof the word n!r "god" to be
more revealing, but, as with Sumerian dingir and semitic el,
attempts to define the meaning of n!r in etymological terms
C have not been convincing . The first etymology, "to rejuvenate,
e renew ," which _was a~sumed by de_Rouge/' ' Pierret, and many
vine ceremonial beard, is evidently not so ancient (Figur

d
a
E It occurs in reliefs as early as the beginning of the Old
dom (see Chapter 4), but is adopted as a determinative for t;e
2
k:)~ others to be qmte obVIous, would fit excellently with the Egyp-
tian conception of god; but the writing of n!r with the "year
b. rib," on which it is based, is purely phonetic (the sign has
rE names of gods only tmvard the end of that period; 27 it is used the value tr), and so cannot provide evidence for an etymol-
tx occasionally as a logogram for nfr "god . " :?8 ogy. After an exemplary, clear, and methodical start le Page
a,; Apart from these three general hieroglyphs for god, there • Renouf's study turned up a blind alley, because he derived the
ell
of
a whole series of pictorial signs for particular zoomorphic an~ word from an adjective nfrj, which I shall discuss below and
H< anthropomorphic deities (group C of the sign lists); these were which is clearly a secondary formation deriving from the sub-
spl particularly favored in the Ramessid period as abbreviated writ- stantive nfr. 3/J
EgJ ings of the names of gods (Figure 3). In studying the problem F. W. van Bissing's more recent attempt to derive ntr from
the o_ft~e Egyptian conc~ption of god we can disregard these spe- "natron" (an ancient Egyptian word), and hence to rel~te it to
use cultic purity, is not convincing .31 M. A. Murray's explanation of
dis. oalized signs. The hieroglyph of a star {Nl4), which is said in
con Horapollo to be the sign for "god" (HieroglyphicaI, 13; II, 1), the word as nj-tr "He of the Poplar-Tree" is still more unlikely.:u
whi acquired this meaning very late, for it is attested only from the M. A. Murray wished to interpret the Egyptian word for "god"
que beginning of the Ptolemaic period on . as being derived from trt "willow" and to link it with tree cults,
didt which are certainly well attested in Egypt;ll but at no period
god! . The ~on~lusion, therefore, is that deities occur in the Egyp-
tian scnpt m human, animal, and fetish form. The human form were they as central to the Egyptian conception of god as
imJ)(
!Jen her hypothesis would imply. Attempts to find an illuminating
is by several centuries more recent than the other two, which
etymology for ntr by comparison within the Afro-Asiatic lan-
~~ are among the oldest elements in the Egyptian script. The de-
~elopment of the script does not establish any priority of fetish-
guage family have not so far been any more successful. The
ando parallel with inkira or enkera, meaning "soul, life, demon" in
Theb ism o~er zoolatry, as Jequier proposed in his scheme, and other
Kushi tic languages, 34 is of little use: the difference in time is too
anyor ~gyptian material does not suggest that this idea is likely to be great, and the word could be a secondary derivation.
anciet r:ght, although it is not possible to disprove it. The commonest
religi, sign for ,,?o d" sh ows a fetish in the form of a wrapped staff "Revue archeologiquen.s. 1, 1 (1860) 351; P. Pierret, Essai sur la mythofogie
schol. e~yptienne (Paris 1879) 8; cf. also H . Brugsch, Religion1mdMyt/10/ogie der a/ten
anthr, ~nd acquamts us with a manifestation of divine power that was Agypter (Berlin 1885 and 1891) 93.
Transl ~~fortant fo~ predynastic and early dynastic Egyptians; but it "'Lectures93-100 .
Egypt1 e st·us nothmg further about the nature of the Egyptian con- "Versuch zur Bestimmung der Gnmdbedeutrmgdes Wortes NUTR fiir Gott im
thisecj cep ion of god. Altiigyptischen(SBBAW 1951, 2); see the criticisms of S. Morenz, OLZ 49 (1954)
updat, 123-25.
3
reade1 vp_ Kaplony, Or 37 (1968)24 f . . 'Studies .. . Griffith (n. 18 above) 314-15.
Dynasty tomb of Ti ( ' n. rom 23, refers to examples in the m1d-F1fth "The material is collected in the unpublished Giittingen dissertation of Ramses
65, 1939] pl. 39 top ~;\;; E~ron and F. Daumas, Le tombeau de Ti l [MIF~~ ~oftah, "Die heiligen Baume im alten Agypten" (1959); see also M.-L. Buhl,
and of the akh "tr fi 1Y ases are mostly in writings of the name Osins
"'K ans gured spirit " The Goddesses of the Egyptian Tree Cult," JNES 6 (1947)80-97.
aplony, Or 37 (1968)23-26 . . "Calice, Gr1111dlagen (n. 10 above) 167; I am grateful to W. Vycichl for the
confused in this context f E · '.he two similar signs A40 and A41 are often reference. ,
40 ' c . . Dnoton , ASAE 44 (1944) 2l(a) .
41
 .-, ·.

Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt

Finally, it has been proposed that ntr did not or·1 . Egyptian Terms for God
Js - gmaUy f
to deities, but to th e d ecease d , or more narrowly to th re er
king. 36 We shall see at the end of Chapter 4 that the 1.. e deact usage that is typical of semitic languages, it is applied to two
. lVJng deities who belong closely together, such as Horus and 5 th
perhaps also the dea d k mg could be called ntr as 1 anct Isis and Nephthys, and occasionally for pairs of gods.'" e or
early dynastic period, but it would be overly hasty :a~y ~s the The plural is more import~nt. I~o~curs from the early dynas-
t~ assume th~t the Egyptian word for god was restri~edc~cul~r tic period down to temple. ms~nptions of the Roman period,
smgle usage m the pre- and early dynastic periods. Th th1s that is, throughout t~e entire literate history of Egyptian reli-
(
dynastic sources, which consist of personal names ande ;arly gion. Sir Harold Idns Bell, the expert on Greek papyri from
t do not support the hypothesis of a general equivalence 0 :leS, Egypt, remarked that "it is of 'gods' in the plural that we hear
with the deceased, or with the dead king . ntr most often" ;39 even the Christian Copts were willing to tolerate
"
b the plural in personal names. Just once there was an attempt to
The conclusion is virtually inescapable that neither the _
a1
mology nor the "original meaning" of the word ntr ca e6 eliminate the plural "gods": Akhenaten, whose religious views
el
ol established, so that this approach, like the study of th~ wri~ e we shall encounter several times, occasionally had the plural
H does not provide any insight into the nature of the Egyp:g, form of the word erased, in order to satisfy the exclusiveclaims
sp conception of god. We must leave these problems aside a~~ of his god Aten. 40 For the moment we can disregard this unique
Eg case and retain the conclusion that the plural "gods" remained
trn concentrate on the use of the word; this will take us a few ste s
farther along our road. p in common use until the end of ancient Egyptian culture. It
US4
dis refers either to a limited number of gods (the gods of a place or
COi The use of the word ntr a country, or a group of gods) or, mostly in lists, to the vir-
wh tually unlimited totality of all gods (or of the deceased).
que ~n the bilingual decrees of the Ptolemaic period, one of which For the question that concerns us here the most important
did is t~e famous Rosetta Stone, ntr is equivalent to Greek theos. usage is that of the singular "god." Concentrating for the mo-
god
~hnstian Egyptians (the Copts) took the word over in its Cop- ment on the issue of monotheism, one may say that, if any-
tic form noute for the Christian God; the Copts even continued thing can prove the existence of an Egyptian monotheism, this
to use the plural form enter, but only in magical spells against usage of the singular should do so. We must exclude from
demons and in personal names. 37 consideration all cases in which a god who has been named
C. ~ptic
. sh ows that, at least m
· the latest phase of Egyptian earlier in a text or in some way defined is referred to as n!r;
~eligi?n, nt, = noutecould be used in a monotheistic sense, and these are not relevant to our question of whether there is a
a~y? monotheistic use of ntr. The same applies to cases of n!r with a r
anci« m this respect too is synonymous with theos Our translation
religi "god , " w hi ch is
· vague and has a wide range. of meaning is possessive suffix, when a believer speaks of "my god" and
schol th erefore J·ustified h t ' . means a quite specific god, for example, his city god or the god
anthr times. ' w a ever ntr may have meant in archaic
who is being addressed in a prayer. At Amarna, however, this
Trans
usage is attested even for the unique God Aten .~1
Egypt . In Egyptian
. texts th e wor d occurs m
. the singular
. .
ntr (fem1-
mne ntrt) m the d 1 . . . -
thisec ntn.o(f '. . ua ntrw; (femmme ntrtj) and in the plural
updat '"W. C. Hayes, /EA 32 (1946) 15 n . 9.
- e~mme n!n.ot).The dual need not concern us here; in a 39
reade 35
A detailed presentation based th
Prolegomenes
Le1•d
I 294- 317. ' roughout on late evidence is Amelineau,
, see also J F Bo h '
/EA 34 (1948) 84.
Ra;~
-iourk. IV, 160, 6; 162, 17; 165, 17; N . de G. Davies, Tl1eTombof the Vizier
en I 348 =' OMRO 51 ( · · rg outs, The Magical Texts of Papyrus (Mond Excavations at Thebes 1 London 1941) 4 n. l ; Ahmed Fakhry, ASA
1970 (l 943) 457 (tomb of Kheruef, ~ow republished : The Epigraphic Survey, The
'''W.Westendorf in Fest abe [_1971))45 n. (22).
'7W. E. Crum, A, Coptic5icf fur Dr. Walter Will (Cologne etc . 1966) 220-31. Tomb of Kheruef [OIP 102, 1980]).
41
42 ronary(Oxford 1939) 230-31. For examples see E. Drioton, ASAE 43 (1943) 28-29.
43
 Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt
Egyptian Terms for God
We must study more carefully cases in which .
without discernible reference to a particular god · thn!r is Used Jm'-jb-n!r"god is well ?i~p,?sed" (418-19), probably two dif-
. , ese ar h
ones that the proponen t s o f a pnmary or seconda et e ferent people. Also Jm -Jb the well-disposed one," name of
ism in Egyptian religion have used as their chief ev% monothe- princess (417-18); additional names formed with jm' (419). a
absolute use of ntris found especially in Egyptian d~~ce._ 1 T~is Jn{jw-n!r"whom go~ saves" (425)_-~so Jnq-n-ljnm"whom
E erature, the "wisdom" or "instruction texts"; a seco dactic ht- I(hnum has saved (425), and similar formations with the
use , which I shall discuss first for chronolocncal reasnons,
ar~a goddess Satis and the ka (425).
a
E
o· is of
. Jrj-n!r "whom god create~;• (428). Also Jrj-n-'?tj_"whom the
d
personal names. lI\
horizon god has created (427), and many similar combina-
h In his Die lnschriftender iigyptischenFruhzeit (I, 379-67 2)42an tions with Anubis, Satis, Neith, and the ka.45
in a later supplement° Peter Kaplony has assembled conve- d
"
be niently a11t h e ear l d
.
1
y ynastic persona names that are kno ~~
Jht-nfr "property of god" (432). Also Jbt-" "property of the
- greatest (god)", Jbt-w' "property of the unique (god)," and
ar .
ell far. The matenal he has colle~ted belongs to the period be- similar formations with Neith, the ka, ba ("soul"[?]) and the
of tween_3000 ~~d 2600_B.C.,and 1s thus from the earliest stage of king (njswt).
He Egyptian religion which we can study. One can indeed say th t "-b'w-n!r "the might (Kaplony: authority) of god is great"
spj
Egi
among sources now available Egyptian personal names of t~ (444). Also "-qnd-Nt "the anger(?) of Neith is great" (445);
the early dynastic period are the oldest of all written evidence of "-njswt "the king is great" (444), and many combinations with
USE human religiosity. Neither from western Asia nor from the Far the synonymous wr "great" (467-69).
di54 East are there comparable sources dating to the first centuries 'nb-n!r "may god live'.' (454). Also "may Ptah live" (452), "may
COIi
of the third millennium B.C. This is a new, so far unexploited Neith live" (454) and "may (my) ka live" (455).
whi Bnr(t)-nfr, woman's name "the sweet one of god" or "god is
que field, which should provide many insights for our problem of
didi the Egyptian conception of god and for a number of other gracious" (475). 46 No parallel, apart from Bnr(t)"the gracious
god: questions. The reading and interpretation of some of these one" as a woman's name (475).
imp
archaic personal names are still disputed, but this scarcely af- Mrj-nfr "whom god loves" (497). Many parallels: "whom
the, Anubis loves" and similarly with Wepwawet, Neith, the
fects the issue at hand because the two signs for "god" which
fl"°'
"ther, are used (fetish and hawk on carrying pole) are unmistakable. "two lords," Re, Khnum, Thoth, the ka, the king, and vari-
and, ous divine epithets.
~ong the considerable number of these personal names
Thet Nj-'nb-ntr "god possesses life" (513). Parallels with Anubis,
anyo
which are "theophorous," that is contain a statement about a
44 Hathor, and Sakhmet (uncertain) (512-13).
ancie deity, nineteen use simple ntr "~od." I list these names here, Nj-ntr-nbtj "god belongs to the Two Ladies" (51~19), name
religi, fol~~wedby parallel name forms that use the names of specific of a prince. It seems to me most unlikely that n!r is an
schoL deities (or the divine power of the ka), drawn from the same
anthr, abstraction, "divine power," as Kaplony translates. No paral-
sources. (Numbers are page references to Kaplony, lnschriftenI. lels.
Transl
Egypt, Most of the renderings follow Kaplony.)
Nfr-ntr-wq-'nb "perfect is the god who grants life" (Kaplony:
thise<
updat ::3
vols. (AgAbh 8, 1963). "kindly is the god who lets (me?) live") (545). The order of
reade1 KleineBeitriigezu den 1nschriften
40--41.
. der iigyptischenFruhzeit (AgAbh 15, 1966) ~
5
With Jrtj?-n!r-"(428--29)it is not clear whether the adjective belongs with n!r
"Cf. K. Hoffmann, Die th h .. .. or is an addition to the whole name .
1, 1915); w. Heick ,, d eop orenPersonnamendes iilterenAgyptens (UGAA
2 th
?, '6S. Schott , Hieroglyphen(AMAW 1950, 24) 123 fig. 15 no. 14, takes the Hhawk
79 (1954)27-33. ' u en eophoren Eigennamen des Alten Reiches," ZAS on pole" here as a determinative .
45
44
 Conct!ption s of God in Ancient Egy pt
Egyptian Terms for God
elements in the name is uncertain· the
, re are no
this precise form, b ut numerous comb· . Parallel . that ntr was in origin only the (deceased) king. It
· · name (M aat, M"m, Sobek, and epith Inations With. nfrs to
divme assumption thinkable - that N1-n!r
· proc laime
· d as th e motto of his ·
lft11-n!r "god is gracious" (593). Many paral~!~~ (S~l-SO). -+- is alm0st ufnt that he belonged to his dead predecessor, " while
Nemty, Ptah, Neith, Horus, Khnum, Seshat Wit~ Anubis re1·gn the ·ct ac ntly wished to give
· h 1mse
" lf, th e re1gmng
. . k.mg, a
and others (586-98). ' Satis, the ka, o·J? ser
. ed osition among a number o emgs w h o possessed
eVI e f b .
S'~1-11{r"whom the god approaches" (617) No ' pnVIle\ty~f being nfr.50 On the other hand, his Horus name is
1
the early material, but Kaplony compares ·th p· parallels in th~ qua that the king-whether living or dead-can count as a
kin g ,s name S'/.rw- R' " w h om Re approache ,,e ifth Dynasty evidence of the personal names listed above would also fit
1
nf'.;severa ption well. The early material does not therefore
form S'{rjor S'~1w.The reading seems to m/to ~:d th e .short this ~ssu~th the hypothesis that the later use of "god" for the
Sjm'-nfr "the one who gladdens god," name of a d:ertain. conflict
king waswialready normal. But 1t · wou ld b e ab sur d to cone lu d e
Content of the name paralleled in the Sixth O ar_f(619).
· f H khuf ynasty insc · t re ferred to the king in all cases.
(
(
tion ~ dard h, whhere : dwarf or pygmy is brought
will g 1a en t e eart (shmlj jb, snlj 'b' jb) of the . 0
w1- that 11
. -r· portant to note that almost a11t h e names ate
It is limthat cnve not the un d e fine d n!r b ut a particu
. d h ave
. lar go d' s
t through his "god's dancing" (Urk. I, 130, 4-5). king para lles o- hi h . h . "d .
s r the ka the "life force," w c 1s muc m eVI ence m
E Smr-n!r "companion of god" (624). Kaplony gives later name
this material. It follows that t e c aractenstics an capaaties o f
o ' h h · · d · ·
ti lels under the short form Smr . paral- ntr are not, so far as can be disc~ve~e~ from ~~e personal
u
d
Cl
w
Sps-n!r"god is glorious" (647). Also "Wepwawet is glo ·
_ "th e ka 1s. g 1onous,
. ,, an d s imil"ar formations (647-48). nous,
Sm~-n!r "the one who follows god" (with a problematic addi-
,,
:~e
- mes different from those of the md1v1dual deities, so that
c:nnot find here an anonymous "high god" behind the
deities. Of the two exceptions here for which no parallels can
q1 tional element, 649). Corresponding early combinations with be cited, one is without significance (Bnrt-n!r), but the other is
di ~e goddess Neith and the ka, as well as numerous parallels very revealing. Nj-ntr-nbtj "god belongs to the Two Ladies"
gel
• m later personal names (649-50). signifies that the vulture and the snake goddesses of the two
im
tlll Sdj-nfr "whom go~ rears (?)" (651, masculine; 652, feminine). lands 51 are superior to the nfr; in this name he can only be the
ev, Early parall~ls w1_t~the ka and with the god Min (uncertain) king or a particular god , for example, the god of a particular
tht (651-52); sdJ+ divme name occurs frequently in later peri- place. And, as we shall see in the discussion of divine names,
ant local gods often have no personal names, but are called "he of
TIii ods, ~robably with the meaning "save, preserve";4 7 here the
an, mearung "suckle, rear," which is attested from the Fourth place A" or "the one upon his lake" or, for a goddess, "the
mighty one (feminine)."
am .~asty on, 48 seems more likely.
reli Q J-k -ntr "the god's ka is exalted" (653-54) . Also "Neith is The question of whether ntr means an abstract divine entity
sch of a higher order or one of the many individual deities can be
anti e~alted" and from later periods several other combinations
q'j + divine name (653). settled still more decisively in favor of the latter solution. In
Trar
Egyt addition to the nineteen personal names of the early dynastic
In a dd"ition
· to these personal names there are the Horus
this, period that have nfr "god" as one of their elements, three con-
upd. names,,
of a king 0 f th e s~con d Dynasty,' N1-n!r
. . to
"belonging tain a similarly undefined feminine n!rt "goddess" :
read g0 d, a~d one of the Third, Ntrj-ht "most divine one of the
corporation (of god ) " N . h - - .'"The same would apply to the uncertain throne name Jrj-ntrof the next-to-last
s · e1t er of these names supports the ki~g of the First Dynasty; cf. B. Grdseloff, ASA£ 44 (1944) 287.
"Wb . IV, 563 states th t I·1 · . On the "corporation (of gods)" see Chapter 7
"'Wb. IV, 564--65· cf a is ~lleSled from the Middle Kingdom on . 51
Their names , Nekhbet and Wad jet, are not attested
·
' · Junker, GizaI, 225 no . 11; H. Goedicke RdE 11 (1975) 160. before the Old Kingdom .
46 '
47
 ~
...
., ., ,.-~
..·• ,·

Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt

Egyptian Terms for God
Wn-k'-n{rt "the ka of the goddess exists" (466) th" (477). The use of a personal pronoun
1-n-f "h e
f . J.
dynastic period ka is often attributed to the g dd In the eart one w h o goesd or
t
I
Wr-ntrt "the goddess is great" (467). Uncertainp
i
in a name like Wpj-k'-Nt "the ka of Neith is e:~s Neith, fs
(466).
is
referring
•ty is still briefer and less precise:
~?~:)
e'inh-f "he lives" (452), Rqj-f "he has give_n"
has come ( _ "he i; content" (587). In all _these_cases, which
!
<
·IBgr~ t" (467). parallel "'~~
• (562), or fftp ~ be •nning of the third millennium s.c., v:e
Shr7·-11trt "the one who keeps the goddess ct· t date from t~nl git think of the Christian He or of a deity
'
a
· - 1s ant" (
Compare Sbrj-m't "the one who keeps the lioness . 629). should certai dy ~o t of a periphrasis for the individual god the
E (629), which gives the explanation of our name: ad distant" behind the go s, . u had in mind, to whom he felt an obliga-
. name giver d . l
d
h and threatening deity, who could harm the newbor::~~ro~s EgyPti an . hip between the name giver an a parttcu ar
.
tton- 1
This re attons
. why we almost never find persona l names
l"E to be kept away. ild, 1s
be deity also exp 1ams " d us1
. • the plural go s.
ar. There is much to be said for the assumption that in th fir containing 1 t the picture of the use of nfr in Egypt in the
T? co~p e ~ 1 period I should refer to the Egyptian priestly
ex 8
name the goddess Neith is meant and in the last the "lio: ,~
of
H< who is later embodied in various goddesses. Nobody ~~ earhest hi 5t~~ca ant of god," which occurs first at this time,
title hm-ntr serv
spl inclined to understand the "goddess" as an abstract fonnati · • h ch specific forms as "servant o f Kh num ,, or ,,ser-
EgJ and so such an interpretation for the "god" of the perso~:j along wfiht kins~,,54 By the time of the Old Kingdom the element
the vant• otht etitle g. ·
is invariable, so that pnestesses o f t h e godd esses
names becomes even less likely. When devising a name for a
use ntr m e N "th are "servants (feminine) of the god"; here nfr
dist child an Egyptian had in mind a particular one among the Hathor or el • h
con many deities. It is quite possible that when he composed a . 1 the most general abstract concept, which covers t e
1ear Y
1s clti · " t f th d" is
whi, name, all divinity-the entire extent of divine action-was in- li ·ty of divine manifestations-- servan o e go
que corporated in the single deity who was invoked, who thus :i:ais ~e chief priest, irrespective of whi~h deities (there are
didt
gods became quite simply "god" for him; I shall return to this phe- often several!) he serves on behalf of the king.
impt nomenon of "henotheism" in Chapter 7. But it is also con- 1 shall now turn to the second group of sources in which the
then ceivable that the name giver wanted to leave undefined which word "god" is used in a sense that ap~ears _at ~st_reading to
evoi(, of the innumerable deities was responsible for the successful be undefined and general; this is Egyptian didactic literature or
:.Jlie
ri birth and development of the child; I shall give below examples "wisdom texts." 55 Here we encounter one of the chief types of
~.:1ndo evidence cited by proponents of a monotheistic interpretation
of this undefined use of the word. Because before the Amama
A -~ period written Egyptian has no articles, it is always possible to of Egyptian religion.
translate ntr as "a(ny) god." However that may be, we can
exclude one interpretation of the early personal names, and, by
53 Kaplony has only one example: S~'-ntrw "whom the gods recall" (630-31~.
"'Kaplony, InschriftenII, 1208-10 (index). The uncertain name f:Jm(t)-n!r(572)1s
analogy, of later ones: ntr "god" does not mean a different god, omitted from the list above .
7..,.
";.
of a higher order than the other gods. "See E. Hornung, Einfiihrung in die Agyptologie (Darmstadt 1967) §20.. En-
Egypt There are other ways in which early personal names replace glish translations and bibliography are available in Simpson, Literature'.Li~ht-
thisec the actual ~ame of a deity with undefined expressions, for heim, LiteratureI-III. Many texts are unpublished or in course of pubbcatio_n.
updat For a recent collection of studies see E. Hornung and 0. Keel, eds., Studien
reade
example, with such epithets as "the living one," "the great
iu altiigyptischenLebenslehren(Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 28, Fribourg and Got-
one", an d so f ort h . Here too belong combinations with 11b
tingen 1979); see also the review article with extensive bibliography by R. ).
} 0rd ," per~aps better understood as nb.j "my lord": W'q-nb Williams, "The Sages of Ancient Egypt in the Light of Recent Scholarship,"
(~y) lord 1s one who flourishes" (462),sz or Prj-nb "(my) lord Journalof the AmericanOriental Society 101 (1981) 1-19. For~ -recent study of the
''Numbers in brackets are agam
· page references to Kaplony, lnschriftenI. problem discussed in the following pages see W. Barta, ZAS 103 (1976) 79-$.
48 49

_
.......
 Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt

In the maxims of the wisdom teachers th

.
declarations a b ou t "go d" w h 1c
" h could if tak
ere are. d ien f Egyptian Term for God
0
be thought to come from a tract of one , of then in .s0Jati5 o d there ar e no indication s that there
1
Religions of the Book. I shall limit myself to a se ~ 000 theisti~011 . t wisdom t~ac~er , a~ e be for e hi s date, that is, in the early
in order to illustrate the tone of the maxims . ..., rna I selection, bes ny didactic htera~ eason s that have to do with the
was a . d · for variou s r h ·1 .
stic perJO ' . t d the s tructure of t e state, 1 1s
dynealopment bl
dev of thethat schnp
t ere a•~ere an y . It seems, therefore , that
600
Do not boast of (your) strength ... it is not kno h
happen , (nor) what god does when he punishes Wn What wi·1I
(K most improba e of "instructions" was created arou~~ 2
.
Do not do v10Jence to men, for god punishes · with~em~
th the literar y gen~e "' when there wa s alread~ a trad11Jo~ of
... Man's plans are never fulfilled . What happens is ~ sarne.
C
e. . at the earliest ·es at, t h e Iea st , in which proper names . and
f titles
commands. (Ptahhotpe , Sixth maxim, II . ] 15-16) w at god everal
suse d II_trcentun '
as. a. deliberate 1y v ague or general designation or some
•
f
One who hears ( = obeys) is one whom god loves · th
whom god hates cannot hear . (Ptahhotpe, Thirty-ninth, maxie one quite sp~ofic de1di~t of chronology itself raises doubts as to
CJ
JJ. 545-56) rn, This simple _P
~ t h wisdom teac h er s would have given the h .word
. 11!r
whether e . t eaning-a clearly monot e1sttc one .
~
Sf Celebrate the festival of your god and repeat it at its (right)
Ei time. Gods are angry if it is missed . . .. (As for) the one who does a complete!~ dC1ffherent this interpretation was maintained
tlr it, the god will make his name great. (Ani 3, 3-4, 9) w m ap er ' · d Sa
As we sa tolo ists and more recently by Dnoton an u-
U!
A bushel that the god has given to you is better than five by early egyp g I ,, onotheism is , in fact, a phenome-
di
CCI
thousand wrongly (acquired). (Amenemope, Sixth chapter) neron, ,. for examh e- _ ;om texts ,, as Drioton phrased it. It
wl Man is mud and straw; the god is his builder . He destroys and non restricted to t be w1:ted that ;his view is not universall)
h Id however, e n . . h h I
qu he builds daily . He makes a thousand poor men as he wishes and s ou ' f . t nee considered 1t possible t at t e re e-
di< he makes a thousand men into chiefs when he is in his hour of held ; Morenzd or ms ~taci~ly implied when 'god' is spoken of
go, life. How joyful is he who has reached the West (the realm of the vant localusmg
without ?o sa we~~cular
pa · name." "' In order to find a path be- ·
imi dead) and is safe in the hand of the god . (Amenemope , Twenty-
the! fifth chapter) tween th ese two diametrically opposed views . we musth examme
I
. aterial that is the instruction texts t emse ves.
the pnmary m '
This task can be accomplished
'
quite
b · fl · J f Ver
ne y, smce _oze . -
In order to avoid constructing a distorted picture from these
and many similar declarations about "god" it is necessary to gote assembled the statements about god and gods m th~ m-
struction texts in a lecture , "La notion de Dieu dans !es hvres
locate them in their general context, in terms both of date and
of content. The "instructions" are later than the archaic names de sages se egyptiens" (n . 5~ above), delivered _to the. 196~
and titles we have been considering . The earliest instruction of Strasbourg colloquium on ancient Near Easte _rn w~s~om htera
which some fragments are preserved was composed roughly at ture . Vergote offers a detailed critique of Dnoton s 1_dea_of an
Egyptian monotheism, and, very usefully for us, hsts m an
the time of the pyramid builder Cheops (2530 B.c.), and is
ascribed to Djedefhor , one of the sons of Cheops. A still earlier Brunner, Gn111
'' H. 11.
1966) dziigc ei11,·rGcschichtc da a/tii:,1 ::d1,·11Lilt'r<1l11r(D.1rmsladt
_111•ti
instruction, which has not come down to us, is connected with
t~e name of the wise man Imhotep, the master builder of the "'The original dates of these texts are disputed by Lichtheim, L1t,•rut11r,·I. 6.
who would place most of them a century or two after the dates of the authors
~rstt st~p pyramid at Saqqara (c. 2600B.c.). In a chronological to whom they are attributed, and by W. Heick, WZKM 63--<>4 (19n) 6-2 , wh
liS dating to the New Kingdom Imhotep is named as the ear- would place them in the first intermediate period (esp. pp. 16-19). 0

"'Unlessnoted sep t J • " s,G. Posener, ed., A Dictio1111ry

of Egypti1111Ci11iliuitio11(London 1962)_I09-:IO.
araine n.
and in. the bookscited Y, 55
sourcesare given in Vergote, " La notion de D1eu,
above. E. Driotonand J. Vandier, L'Egypli' (3d ed., Paris 1952)63--<>4
p."'63. ; quotahon lrom
50 •
1
H,,raufk1111
ft 8 "' 80.

51
 .,..

Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt

Egyptian Terms for God
appendix all the passages in EgYPtian instru .
. . of the land; in Egypt there was n~ _cult,
"god" in general, "gods" in the plural O Ction texts Wh arious deities f tr beside or behind the traditional
, r a pafti uI ere the v . thood o a n ,, nk
mentione d . In th e same collective volume c ar god . mple or pnes h theie was the idea of an u nown
18
text of the late period is described by Ge a new instructi te ·o·es any rnor~ t an f the famous description in the lnstruc-
. F G o~a~ ~ de1 ,, The sarne 1s true O · d'
Jean Samte are amot (Papyrus Brooklyn 47 _
218 35
s_ener and d who has been vm 1cated m · th e
57). Here, too, Posener refers to the occun · 1 , PP- 153-. g.od · of the b1esse d decease h ' h is the earliest completely clear
. ence side b non ft death w ic be "lik
of p' ntr " th e go d " (with the article at thi d Y Side ·udgrnent a er . ' t' when the deceased is said to e
specific deities as Re, Horus, Thoth, Sia, or t:e c~te) and such ~ention of the Judgmben . d the word ntr certainly does not
.,. ) . the eyon ' -
of the "ennead"; he deduces that "in formal te mplete group (a) god" (n!r inf h hilosophers." I shall return in Chapter 4
I is clearly polytheistic" (p . 156). rms th e context refer to a "gohd~'litke:~ss (snn) of god" (l. 132), a phrase that
l Drioton attempted to maintain his monotheisti - n as t e
a to ma e first time in this text. . .
e
tion of ntr despite this significant coincidence . c mterpreta- occurs for th . tructi'on which 1s put m the mouth of
- f 11 him . Both scholars assumem thusage a d Ii htly 1ater ms . .
0 h ere Vergote o ows t . ' n_ In the ~ef of the Twelfth Dynasty, Amenemhat I, the ~g is
ti texts the Egyptian wise men attempted to take ace a m e1r th the foun d b the grain god and the god of the mun-
Sf · f ount of th ·ally favore Y . b k ·
q po 1yt h e1sm o the people as well as the "philosophic l" e esp~ci th passage there is an allusion to the ar m
· An · di b" · a mono- d non In ano er imil'
di th e1sm. rmme ate _o Jection to this interpretation is that a. ·h god travels across the sky. There are s ar
hich t e sun . d h
us t h ese _texts were certainly never_ intended for the "people," w - 1 allusions in the later instruction texts, an t e
di! mytho1ogica e ·ties named in the texts increases · · t h e N ew
m
even if a few of them became widely used in scribal schools· number of d 1 f h .
co rn and late period, no doubt as a result o c anges m
wl they are addressed to a single pupil who is called in Egypti ' Kin g d O
th e ,,s_on ,, o f t h e teac h er, or at most to the group of pupils an theology which led to a greater emp h as1s · on v1~1 . 'bl e f orms. 62
qu of
die the wise teacher. They do not need, therefore, to have a dual The very mixed terminology used by Egyptian teachers_ of
gOI character of that sort. wisdom ("god," "gods," individual gods' names, mytholo?1cal
im1 allusions) does not permit one to speak of any properly defined
the But that is not the decisive argument. A much more impor-
eve tant P?int is that, while wisdom teachers do as a rule speak "monotheism" in their texts, for there is never the exclusivity
about Just "god," they are not deterred from invoking numer- that must be part of any definition of monotheism. I shall con-
;-,~
ous d~ities of the polytheistic pantheon, and by no means sider below whether one may speak in a weaker sense, with
solely-in insigriificant set phrases . In the Instruction of Ptah- Eberhard Otto, of "monotheistic tendencies" in this literary
hotpe one could explain the "time of Osiris" or the "servant of genre, tendencies that did not result in the exclusion of the
H_orus," who is an obedient son, as set phrases, but in the multiplicity of polytheistic gods . First one must note that Egyp-
slightly later Instruction for Merikare, the "lords of eternity" tian religion, 'Yhich retained its plurality of gods to the end,
and the "judges" in the next world appear unambiguously in never became a monotheistic faith, even in its most "philo-
ra-n sophically" tinged utterances . The authors of instructions from
Egyp !,he plural, even the plural "gods" is used once (I. 140), and the
thise one who came with Osiris" is mentioned (I. 42). There is no ;,tahh~tpe to t~e demotic texts do not hesitate to use the plural
upda clear reason why these phrases should be "concessions to pop- gods from time to time or to refer to the plurality of dei-
read« ular belief."
'2Ame
. ·
nemope mentions by name the sun god Re (as well as various of his
The o~casional use of the singular "god" in the Instruction th
eRpiets and his uraeus), Khnum, Thoth, and the deities of destiny Shay and
for Merika
h
· ·n . .
re is sti more informative. At several pomts the enenet. In Ankhsh es h onq, Hapy, Ne1th
. and Re are named, and m . Pap .
.
1
aut or appeals (as does the later Ani) for the correct perfor- s:~~:~e~
, ~ath~r, Horus, Isis, Mut, Re, Sakhmet, and Thoth , as well as the
mance of the cult of " d ,, d . u1s Ap1s and Mnevis.
go , an 1t is clear that by this he means
52
53
 ;, ..,

. T m for God
Egyptian er
Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt
. for Merikare, who
of the lnstruct1on f "god" in the
ties by means of a plural suffix. 63 The in tru . h author h ·or be ore ,,
'd fir ti' f s . Ction texts d ,,1,5 Like t e tions for be av1 f the philosophers,
ProVI e con ma on even o a monoth e1sm w·th· on earth-ctical instruc n by rr!r a "god o but a specific god
gion that was professed only during partic 1 _1n theo not.
1 1 uives pr~ does not rnekaown to the rnassehs, lt and visible to
particular individuals . Such a monotheismw uar penocts an;ebi- t, · I j\nl .s un n . d in t e cu
. d b Akh · h as certa·n1 Y cut,. ne who 1 ho is worsh1pe od Re, because
p1~nhe d~ en~tit~nin the blatli~phase of his refo:,_y charn. that ,s, o ttributes w t be the old sun g d roost
wit an in oppos1 on to t e e efs of the peo le .... s, along . h solar a . it need no O iris I(hnurn, an
wit_ rocessions, Arnun, Ptah, s , of Egypt can be
7, second Excursus). Monotheism of this sort p (see Chapter all in p J.(ingdorn, d even goddesses . t ·n the
. cannot e il in the NeW reat gods an late instruction tex 1
commo d ate t h e use o f b ot h singular and plural for as Y ac-
clearly shown by the case of Akhenaten. gods, as is of the other g olar deities. In the to be Re,,., and Amen-
understood as :us the rr!r seerns c::r~~ various epithets of !he
The wisdom teachers' striking preference for th . . .
BrooklYnpapYveral tirnes the na_m f Ankhsheshonq there is a
designation ntr over the names of individual gods edindefinite ses se t ction o 11

ever, reqmre · exp lana ti'on. W e can use as a startingoes,. how· ernopeu the dernotic Ins _ru with a land, then . . . '.
sun god. In 5 "If Re is angry d than ten times m
important observation by Vergote ("La notion de Di/~~ an . in column , f the sun go more
htanY the old narne o
Amenemope, whose Instruction has been dated to tuh, R63l- which~ses67 that Ani or one of
e am-
:;i::~:
•

s
I
essid period by recent researc h , makes clear and frequent ll _
sions to Thoth, the god of writing and hence of literature:~ u~~~:~~~re are ~o gro:::!s : ~ 0 0
new usag~ of the
t his predecessors mtrod 'bl that in the earlier instruction texts
u wisdom: b~t n~mes him ?nly ~nee; ~ the o~her cases he desig-
d nates him indirectly by invoking his marufestations, such as word ntr "god," it is pos~1R: or another creator god (fro~ the

w
Cl

Ql
the ibis, baboon, or moon.
If we read carefully with this example in mind it is easy to
ntr conceals the sun go 11
t tor gods have solar attnbutes
l~te Old Kingdorn on, th;~eaof course, ask why the wisdom
and epithets). One rnus_ 1' " d,, "your god,, or "god of
d~ observe that the ntr of many instruction texts has clearly solar lly call him on Y go ' ' ("L
go features, which leads one to suspect that the sun god is meant. teachers norrna A or Ptah. Vergote answers a
l d,, and not Re, mun, d . h th .
im
th«
eve
the
Since the late Old Kingdom the sun god had been worshiped
under various names as the most important deity and as the
creator and sustainer of all creatures and things. In the light of
this an , . ,,
~o:o~d~:1~:;:;es 1::~ that for them the various go s wit
only hypostases or manifestations of the
~n~v~hom they call n!r. But if we admit this answer ~e must
eu

our knowledge of other areas of Egyptian religion, the descrip-
tion in the Instruction for Merikare of ntr as creator and sus-
tainer and the designation of human b~ings as "images" ~r
"likenesses" (snn) of this deity6l fit the sun god only; an e~ami-
nation of later wisdom texts renders this suspicion a certainty.
In one of his maxims Ani speaks of how one should behave
before "god" when he is in procession; then, before a further
exhortation to observe the cult, there is the sentence "(The)
thisE
upda god of this land is the sun in the horizon, and his images are
read« 63
Vergote, "La notion de Dieu," gives examples of the first usage; add A~kh-
sheshonq 2, x + 22; 3, x + 4. For cases with a suffix see Ptahhotpe II. 118 (Sixth
maxim, cited above, which speaks of "god"), 216, 218; Ani 6, 9. . ln.,S. R. K. Glanville, Catalogueof Demotic Papyri in the British Museum II The
_..In later periods the "image" definitely describes · a relationship of th e king
with the sun god, cf. Hornung, "Mensch als Bild Gottes."
54
assume that the concept n!r is ambiguous, becaus~ 1t would
then refer on the one hand to the deity worshiped m the cult
(Ani, Instruction for Merikare, Papyrus Brooklyn 47.218.135),
and on the other to the unique divine essence that revealed
itself in the cult .
So long as we consider only the instruction texts, Vergote's
answer and interpretation, in which he seeks to soften Drio-
ton's harsh juxtaposition of monotheism and polytheism, seems
quite possible. The idea that all gods are fundamentally mani-
"'Volten,Anii 111 (7, 16).
'"G. Posener in Les sagesses156.
Sfructronsof 'Onkhsheshonqy(London 1955) 16-17 .
55
 Conception s of God in Anci ent Egypt
Egy ptian Term s for God
festations or hypostases of another god oc
. . h curs a
times m E~ypban t eo Iogy and religious poet nu~ber of f m the social context of didactic literature among
the New Kmgdom . One example is the Lita ry, especially of shoUId start . roThe instruction texts are not p h'lI osop h.1caI t:rea-
the Egypa;ns . t seek to make definitive statements about god ,
scribed in tombs around 1500 B.c., which inv~ky of Re, first in.
tises and
O
· Ii tany, m
. " a II h.1s forms.· " In this case on!es for
the su n god, ~o"last thing s," but are addres sed to the pupil who
as ma the worl~, and ced to the wa y of the world and given inciden-
priate to the underworld are included but y Ills appr0 • . intro u -
. . h ' part of the is being . 1 t·ps 1 and pragmatic ad vice about . how he should
theon, m any case, 1s t us turned into a set of d"ff _Pan. ract1ca
I taIIY P h • sue is how one should beha,e m concrete, pre-
manifestations of a single sun god. MThere are als erentiated behave . Tf_ edtssituations in relation to one' s fellow human be-
in which all deities are seen as forms of the onomany hymns . ly de me. s colleagues, and subordinates-and
CISe . also be fore
. be" . k d V . e creator g d ·ing s-supenor
who 1s ~ng mvo e . ~rgote 1~ therefore citing a he 0 Th people who moved in o 1c1a ctrc es, to w h om
' ff" · I · I
enon that 1s well attested m Egyptian religion and wh·\ norn. the ?ods. fo~s were addressed, were concerned not just with
1
consider in more detail in Chapter 7 under the h ic d.1 shall the m st rulc 0 ds but with a variety of deities. Royal business
"henothe1sm." . ea mg of their loca g ' · . ·
them to the remotest provinces of the countT) or
It must be said at once, however, that in one resp t V could ta ke d and hence into th e o ften cIose Iy cucumscn= . · L-...t
' . . b
gote s i_nterpr~tah~n-cannot e retained. The one god who re-
ec er- even ab roa ' · · E h
· fluence of quite different deities. ven t e c .1e e1ty h ' f d ·
areas of m . . .
veals himself m millions of forms and in all other divine n time could change with a new kmg or a new royal res1-
aIways has a spec1"fi c, tra d"1hona
. 1name, whether it is Re Am ames o f t h e ·n the Old Kingdom there was ne1t "h er an unc h angmg .
Ptah, or some other. Even Akhenaten called his uniqu; god ':tt~ d ence; 1
h
c 1e _
.
. f deity nor an unchanging deity of the residence .
d
.
h .
"Aten, " never simply "god"; indeed, as we shall see, he was As a rule, Egyptian officials did not nee to ave contact m
QU( ~istinctly wary of t~e designation n!r and avoided or replaced their work or in private with the totality of the pantheon, but
did 1t as much as possible. When, after the Amarna period, the with a particular single deity, who might change from situation
god tri-unity of god is postulated for the first time in the Leiden to situation. Therefore the wisdom teachers seldom use the
imp
the, hymn to Amun, the text does not say "god reveals himself in plural "gods," and use a divine proper name, such as Khnum,
evof three forms"; the plural form is used: "All gods are three: only when a specific characteristic or activity of that deity is
Jhe1 Amun, Re, and Ptah . ... His name is hidden as Amun, he is meant-in the case of Khnum; his forming mankind on the
~ per~eived as Re, his body is Ptah" 69-a plural that is taken up potter's wheel. Otherwise they fall back on the undefined word
agam by a singular suffix . "god," not in order to characterize a god of the highest order
~p till now we have found no examples in Egyptian texts in who is by nature anonymous, but as a neutral term that will
which the one god who is behind the gods may have been cover any individual deity and hence any particular situation
~eferred to simply as ntr "god." The assumption that the wis- that the pupil, and later the official, might encounter.
om t~achers meant by nJr the one, highest god of the theolo- A statement like "god created humanity" could claim general
Tr,in:
gians _15_ therefore most questionable, not to say improbable, validity, whether one wished to address Ptah, Re, or Khnum
Egyp
lhise even if 1~ cannot be rigorously disproved. But in rejecting this as the creator; "Ptah created humanity," on the other hand ,
upc:b explanat10n
th . we are again · confronted by the quest10n • of w hy wo_uldhave been a one-sided theological affirmation that could

I read. the

·•H
mstruction

~ tanza --300
56
text

,•. Za
s mvo e simply "god" so much more o ften
·
an any proper name of a god
In order to fi d d
k

.
·

.
n an a equate solution and explanation we
ornung. Ruch der Anbet
ung; Piankoff, Litany.
. ndee, De l1y m11e11111111A1110 11 pl. 4, 21-22 .
.
claim validity only in specific contexts. Because of the wisdom
!eachers' position in the state (the earliest were all viziers, that
is, the highest officials) and because of their aims in writing the
texts, they could not restrict themselves to one-sided propa-
ganda for a cult. The "god" they refer to is any god the person
57

V
 Egyptian Terms for God
Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt
236- 3S). As well as invoking
being addressed might encounter in a particular . '!
rne of rnine" (CT ,h to prove that he is one of
. s1tuatio et it, this. ~a the deceased w1s es
as Henri Frankfort put it apt 1y and clearly in 1948 "t n; or, g •fie deitie s , 1f ntr · Egyptian
with whom you have to reckon in the circumstanc ' ,,70he god spec• alling hirnse - : . ns that were set up m
In rare cases, as with Ani and his "sun in the hes._ thern by c. raphical inscnptio the deceased addresses
. . onzon,, th In the b1ogthe fourth Dynasty on, to whom his own local
Egyptian wise men leave one m no doubt as to who th ' e tornbs froJll ·ests of the royal r~s~ence probably means little.
by their undefined "god"; but as a rule the referen ey _mean officialsor pnhe rnay have m mm h, very rd ntr is of assistance,
ce 1s de-
liberately left vague. If we free ourselves from mon th . .
. h . 1 o e1stic god ,
whorn r dity of t ef wo
the genera 1 va i . .
-
officials the "King" un er
d
Preconceptions t ere 1s. no onger any need to assu me t hat }-leret~o biographical inscnptionfs o d to not the name of a
there are c~mpletely diffe~e~t usag~s of the word "god ." In . st as in d may be re erre , . t the
addition to its occurrence m mstruction texts, personal na JU they serve without reservation o
whoJll . We must return . .
. d fi ·t . attested in yet other
mes
and titles, th e genera 1, m e m e usage 1s P.
articular kmgd. b Hermann Kees m 1941 .
categories of texts, for example, the Onomasticon of Amene- forrnulate Y .
view . f ,, od " which is found m
mope. This taxonomic list of the New Kingdom is presented eral invocation o g , hin f
,.
C I my opinion the g~n fr Ptahhotpe on, reveals not g ~
like the instruction texts, as a didactic work; it is meant t~ t~e wisdom instructions_ omnk r's "primal monotheism"]. This
Sj record the entire inventory of living and dead features of the this special"d belief [that is, Jul el"d"tyso that the speaker did not
Ei cosmos. In it the general term "god" heads the listing of living l ·m to genera va 1 1 , . hi l l
tt. literaturela1 c a1 l d who was anchored w1t n a oca
U!
beings, and is supplemented by the feminine "goddess." 71 Here, intend t~ trouble any ~~~d?,otherefore stands simply_for "(a~y)
di: of course, what is meant is all the divine beings of the cosmos [theological]sy~~-:- there are numerous examples m Egyptian
co (divided into genders); they do not then need to be recorded god" .... In a l on, s highest god was not meant, but
wf here the anonymou fr h
individually-if they had been, the onomasticon would have texts . . . w . . t th t the hearer should be ee to c oose
qu the_ahuthort~eul\::•mg!io~::nd:rstood as being implied by "god .""
did
extended endlessly. n{r is the abstract, general concept. Every whic par 1c
goc god is a n{r, and the word is occasionally placed like a title
imp before the proper name of a god. n K ' gument was directed against the notion of Egyptian
the If one is saved from danger and is in doubt as to which deity ri;:f ~:notheism proposed by Hermann Junk~r under the
to thank, one addresses in general whichever "god" it was or influence of Father Wilhelm Schmidt. But, as Pierre Mon!~t
offers to the "gods" all together; there are many examples of pointed out in the discussion of Vergote' s Str~s~ourg lecture, . it
this practice in the stories of the Shipwrecked Sailor and of applies just as much to Drioton and Vergote s idea of a special
Sinuhe. On a group of scarabs inscribed with religious maxims monotheism of Egyptian wisdom teachers.
the use of "god" is evidently intended to extend the validity of Our survey of the sources has shown that by _n!rthe _Egyp-
the maxim.73 In funerary texts the deceased occasionally depart tians meant "whichever god you wish." Sometimes _this i~ a
from the normal usage and do not identify themselves with particular god, such as Amun, Re, Ptah, and so on, m which
Tran specific deities. Spell 411 of the Coffin Texts contains several case a demonstrative pronoun is often added; in the under-
Egyp occurrences of the statement "'God' is my name. I do not for- world books, for example, the sun god is almost always called
this1
"Religion67. "this god" or "this great god." In other cases "god" is us~d
updc
read "Gardiner, Onomastica J 13• when the hearer or reader may himself choose to put a partic-
"G R , .
"E•Doeder, ASAE 52 (1954)341 I. 16 "god Thoth" (Nineteenth Dyn.) . ular proper name in place of the general concept n!r, but with-
• noton "M ·
197-202 0 ' aximesmorales sur les scarabees egyptiens," Latom11s 28 (1957) 1'Gotterglaube
273.
deities~re ~!he sc~rabs Drioton published in BSFE 19 (1955) quite specific 75
ln Lessagesses18<>-87.
resse as the "lords" of the wearers .
58 59
 -.
- .....
, -·

Egyptian Terms for God

Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt

out excluding the other possibilities, that is all th B ·nkmann, o

'° n the other hand, . reaffirms
I
the
ti
proper names of gods. ' e remaining Marie Wo lf- n bl . terprets the matena more sa s-
Elske f I(ees, and proba / ~:mid Texts (Pyr. §1689) the "two
So far it has not been possible to prove in any vjeW~ As early as the yf part of the "souls" of Heliop-
. h example
in the instruction texts, t at an Egyptian meant by ,, od"' ~Ven facto dy. (of gods)" seem to tormell-known deities are included
the Only-without there being any other god-or t;e Oneither ea s C ffin Tex s w be
e~n while in the o ul u s, Where the b' w are personal -
Highest of the gods . Contrary to what is continually e and olis, the various "so s. h to be "divine beings" in the
. asserted· 10 among th efore take t em " od " "2
imprecise terms, the Egyptian concept of god never . . we may er metimes identical with the g s.
. . . .thin . . me1uded
monotheIStic notions WI its terrrunology; even henoth . . ings dest sense, who are so f the word b'w which is attested in
th . . ti tb rtainl .d e1stic broa Ider usage o ' I . th Old
or pan e1ds~~ndo,?Thins
of the wor go .
_cannbo eti_ced y 1 entified in the use
s o serva on oes not affect the iss f
There is an ° 1 mes and more frequent y m e
0 early dynastic perso;: ~r: made about the abstract b'w of par-
whether th e "go d" o f t h e w1s . d om teac h ers should be con ue .d-
I(ingdom-83Stateme Pt h Sokar) and goddesses (Hatho~,
ered a monotheistic god because of his attributes. I shall ex:~- ticular gods (I<hnum,th ab':V of the ka and of the king. &<This
ine this question in Chapter 5, when I tum to the characteris- nd about e l
Sakhmet,) a . . If" (h'J;) and in all dear examp es means
tics of Egyptian deities. I shall reserve also for that chapter the "manifest itse - ,,, fir ·t h uite
b'w can t from the deity; at st 1 as a q
s study of such designations as "the greatest god" and "the only ffi that emana es "od . be
an e cacy h rid but in later pen s it comes
E god," limiting myself for the moment to a consideration of the . . . pact on t e wo , f th
ti
positive IID f egative In the general collapse o e
basic concepts. To establish what a n!r is requires an examina- d more o ten n · l
u: more an f th Admonitions of lpuwer can no anger
di tion of all his aspects . world the a~~hor tthe :reator god, while an expedition leader
cc discern !the t~ ~nasty ascribes his success to the b'w of Min . s
wt of thheENeve~ngdom on the other hand, the b'w of god causes
qu Other basic terms for divine forces In t e ew ' d d · t l f King Ahmose So
die d tating storm that is recor e m a s e a o .'
goc Since the word ntr occurs in the earliest written material avail- a dev_asth New Kingdom and late period b'w means qwte
imt an m e · ll7 • C t· fin lly it
able to us, the e;istence of earlier terms for divine forces can- clearly the "anger" or the ''.rag~:~of a deity; m op IC, a ,
the
e\10
not be proved; those that have been proposed are conjectural. means "act of violence, cnme.
Wolfgang Heick, for example, wished to see in the word b'w an
older designation of local numina, because of the use of b'w "'Versuch einer Deutung des Begriffes'b3' anhand d~ Uberlieferungder Fruhuil und
desAllen Reiches(Dissertation , Basel 1966; Freiburg im Breisgau 1968) 64--M.
for the "souls " (as they are conventionally translated) of Buto,
'References in Zabkar, Ba Concept 29.
Hierakonpolis, Heliopolis, or Hermopolis. 76 "As in Pyr. spell 217 (cf . Wolf-Brinkmann, Versuch, n. 80 above, -n) and
These "souls" have been interpreted in various ways . Sethe Amduat 11, 63 no . (10) .
considered that they were ancient, deceased kings of these .,Examples collected by Wolf-Brinkmann, Versuch (n . 80 above) 17-24.
77
anth places, while for Kees they were "certain very ancient groups "Certain cases in the names of estates, ibid. 26-27.
Tran
Egyp
of deities of these places, whose number and nature is not
73
1
' Both cited ibid. 87. In CT IV, 146m the inundation is the b'w of the god Hapy .

"'C. Vandersleyen, Rd£ 19 (1967) pl. 9 I. 14. There too "god" is in the un-
..
. _.

fixed," so that he does not restrict the terms to kings. Among

thisc defined singular .
recent interpretations Louis V. Zabkar' s 79 is close to Sethe' s;
u~ r, A. H. Gardiner, /EA 48 (1962) 62 n. 3; particularly clear example Edwards ,
read ~ecreespl. 23 I. 84 (contrasted with (tip) . As early as the Ramessid period the
"ArOr 18 (1950)139. bw of the king is "(worse) than death" : see M. A. Green, in J. Ruffle et al.,
" Urgeschichte§§172-73 d . . eds., Glimpsesof Ancient Egypt: Studies in Honour of H. W. Fainnan(Warminster
"In Bo an pass1111;also Bonnet, Reallex1ko11129.
7 1979
opinionsn=t~~kallexikon 4; cf. also Kees, Giitterglaube188-91. For a survey of 111
)_108 (list of examples) , 111-12 (with a different interpretation) .
"Bar---•
-'""I"
r, Ba Cone""/16-17
15-36, -r · beu: R. Kasser, Complements au Dictiom1aire copte de Crum (lFAO Bibi. d'Etudes
copies 7, 1964) 9 R.
60
61
 ., .

Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt

Egyptian Terms for God
The original meaning of b'w must have been m - of the meaning of shm, which comes to
than is implied by the renderings "fame " or "estee or~, con<:rete the later evolution f 7
od)" in the New Kingdom. 93
The old est
often the case, it is probably impossible to find a tm.l As 1s so mean ·mage
11
1 (o a g · h
f shm seem to refer, hke t ose o b'w, to anf
ruyeq -
clear examp 1e~
0
lent word in a modern language . Such translations ,, _uiva- f-deities or a charisma, so that it embodies
,, . as rntght ,,
"will," or more recen tly energy, creative power" (WOIf . , active emanation ° er"9' that can attach to any m · ct·1v1·ctua l d e1·ty
mann) do not fit all examples, and at best overlap iBnnk- 1
an "imperso~a P11 °wvisible in the shm scepter which is held by
limited extent with the true meaning of the Egyptian on Y to a and is · additiona Ybol of authority. - Inasmuch as t h e d ecease d
seems certam . th at b'w a lways re fers to an active, visibl
word : It . 1·als as ,,a od
off1c sym ,, he also acquires the quality· o f b emg · sh_m (P yr.
. . d . th h " l e side becomes a ~ 1' the Pyramid Texts there are many parallel
of the d 1vme pers_on, anf 1hs e ve 1~e, and perhaps also the
r cause, of the actions o t e gods, Just as visible activ·ty . §§752b-
753
a ~ the ba and the sl]m "power" or "might ."95 The
b
Ii . . f h 1 IS
statementhsa ouddess Sakhmet shows that she is the "mightiest
a
an important ch aractenstic o t e conception of the ba.89 Th
e equivalence of action and person, so that deities are term ~ name,, of h"lt e go
• later periods Amun m . h"1s ro le as supreme
0 b'w, is certainly not the beginning of the word's history bet 0 ne
'
w Ie m
• s a similar epithet ("mightiest o f t h e m1g . h ty ") ;96 m
•

H
god acquire h . ff w
is attested from an early period . There is a comparable dev~- the enemy god Seth the same power . a_s a fnbeg~tivehe ecth.
SJ: opment in the concept of z' "magical protection"; in the Old . 11deities possess this charactenstic o emg s _m, t e
EE
Kingdom this is a function of deities, 90 but on the apotropaic Smee a .h h l l ,, d ".98 t
th plural of the word can alternate wit t e p uraf . gbo _s , nod
us "magic wands" of the Middle Kingdom it means the protective until the Ptolemaic period is ther~ _a c1ear case _o its em~ us;
di! demons depicted on these objects and alternates with ntrw merely for a specific group _ofdeities of a particular lo_cahty.
COi "gods ."91 It is not surprising that terms for the deceased, s~ch Images of deities are ~es1gnate~ by another extensive range
wh as 'bw "transfigured spirits" or d'tjw "underworld dwellers," of terms which will be discussed m Chapter 4.
quc
did are also drawn into this circle of interchangeable concepts, for
goo the dead are called "gods" from an early period on.
The adjective "divine"
im,: After ntr, sbm is undoubtedly the next most important Egyp-
the tian term for gods. It is normally translated "power," and thus From the time of the Old Kingdom Pyramid Texts on, a large
evokes associations with the term numen used in the historical number of beings and things are stated to be "divine," through
study of religions and leads us to the much disputed question use of the adjective· "divine" or of the adjective verb "to be
of whether there were "powers" before there were "gods ."92 divine" (n!rj). This is, of course, an attribute of all deities, but,
Analysis of the terminology cannot solve this problem; the as with sbm, some deities are "divine" in greater measure than
most we can say is that, like b'w and ntr, sbm occurs in the others; Isis above all is simply "the divine one," or "great of
earliest Egyptian texts, and so cannot be proved to be older or 3
younger than the other two words. I have studied elsewhere 'Hornung, "Mensch als Bild Gottes" 137-39.
"As van der Leeuw calls it in his study of shm in the Pyramid Texts (Gods-
voorstellingen 22-25). ·
~In the underworld books the ba of the deceased is the part that is visibly "Ibid. 17ff.
active, conversing, for example, with the sun god, finding its place in the god's ~New Kingdom and later examples are given in Wb. IV, 244, 7; see also E.
retinue, or going to meet the corpse. D~oton, ASAE 44 (1944) 14) (Karnak, Ptolemaic) .
"'F
"Hor the Pyramid
.. Texts see van der Leeuw, Godsvoorstellzngen
· 27-3 O. Moret, Rituel 9.
M _-hAlltenmuller , Die Apotropaiaund die GotterMitteliigyptens I (Dissertation, . B ·t ..
umc 965) 67. ·· ' cf· p · Kaplan Y, Kl e111e
F •·hPyr.. §894d
'18 e, rage zu den lnschnften
. .. .
der agypt1sche11
"E.g. Morenz Gottu d M h r~ ze,t (AgAbh 15, 1966) 63 with n . 238.
comprehended~ods." n ensc 33: "I believe that man knew powers before he For the specific d .f O f 1
Gutbub K· . ei ies a P ace, such as the ennead of a temple chapel : A.
17
' em, (l964) 46 with references in n. 4.
62

63
ii
Conception
s of God in Ancient Egypt
11100 EgyptianTerms for God
divine-ness. Among the range of persons and thin
be "divine" listed in the Worterbuchder iigyptischen gs that can ttributed to personal divine forces and their emana-
· h uman be.mgs are absent. 5Sacred
II, 363--64),only Iivmg Prache('A'b
•v . is alw~ys a er becomes an abstract idea or a personified con-
. s·' it nev
oon . d above, or m · add 1tion
" · to th e god s. For th e Egyp-
mals, sacred objects, and the blessed dead are often "ct· . alli.
but here agam · th e termmo
· logy preserves th e distance
• be1v1ne, ,, cept behtn
th ;as nothing that was simply "divine" separate from
those living on earth and the gods. Even the reignin ~en tians ere of specific gods . This is one reason why we should
whose titulary makes him a "perfect god" and who rg . g, the fi?ures at restraint in using this neutral term for the de-
innumerable divine epithets, is qualified by the adjecti:~e~;~s ex~ra_se gr: Egyptian religion, or, better still, dispense with it
scnpnon o
vine" only in rare and exceptional cases. 101 d1- th
aJtoge er. now pass on from the Egyptian terminology. Al-
Characteristic of such exceptional ~ases i~ a text that attnb. We hcan ·11 · · · · ht
utes to Queen Hatshepsut the quality n!r; "divine-ness." A th 1·t has helped to provide some 1 ummating ms1g s,
the return of the great trading expedition that Hatshepsut s t it oug
has no t been able to take us to the . heart of d our problem .
to the distant African incense land of Punt, the assembled s~~~ to make Egyptian conceptions of go emerge more
In or d er h· h h · I
jects adore and acclaim the queen "in the instances (zpw) f l we must turn to the realities for w 1c t e termmo ogy
cleardy
was ev1·sed . As with every individual deity, we. can attempt to
her divine-ness" and "because of the greatness of the marv~l
that happened for her" (Urk. IV, 340, 5-6). This is not an ev- define the nature of the gods in general, accordmg to the three
·t ·a of the seventh Platonic letter (342a-b): onoma (name),
eryday event or action of the queen, but a solemn and exalted en en(definition), and eidolon (image),
·
logos w h 1c
. h toget h er proVI"de
moment when her divine-ness is manifest to the whole world
· t-me- true knowledge and insight into the nature of what
when her vow to the King of the Gods, Amun, that she will epts e , . . h d"ff
we are studying. 102 I shall therefore examme, ma rat er 1 erent
make his terrace temple into an incense land in the midst of
order from that of Plato, first the names of the gods, _then ~he
Egypt, is about to be fulfilled. The queen regnant shows herself
image the Egyptians had of the gods and the form m which
t~ be "divine" through her divine aroma and the golden ra-
they are represented, and finally what the texts say about the
diance, both of which emanate from the gods (see Chapter 4).
attributes, nature, and actions of the gods.
Alth~ugh clear examples such as this one are rare, it seems to
be this special emanation, which can be perceived by humans, cf. E. Otto, Saeculum 14 (1963) 271 with n . 55.
102

~t makes human beings, animals, or sacred objects into "di-

vine" entities.

. Divine-ness is therefore not a matter of a definition that is

fixed by an abstract statement of dogma, but an emanation that
:~ be perceive~ ~irectly and is produced not only by the gods
f also by their images and manifestations. It should not be
bor~otten,~Iso,_ that n!rj is an adjective of the nisbe type whose
as1cmeaning is "belonving t0 ( ) d ,,
times h o· a go , and therefore can at
. a~~ nuances other than "divine.,,
15
Th. d1vine-nessor stat O f bel .
e ongmg to god is a quality that
. or the first epithet cf. Wb. II, 364 22· t
first Dynasty: Edwards, Decrees103 ~o 'I he second occurs once in the Twenty-
E.g. Medi~t HabuVIIJ I 636 . ( ).
11
king. p· · I-i, in an unusually informal scene with the
64

65
 Name s and Combinati ons of Gods

terminology intoh?ur ,~wn. Atum. is thhegod who "in the begin-

. g was everyt mg, comp 1ete m t e sense of being an undif-
nin · a~d at th e s~me ti.me none~1stent,
ferentiated ~mty ·
because
I
(
existence is 1mposs1blebefore his work of creation.
il
Of the most important Egyptian gods only a small number
f have names whose meaning is more or less clear and assists us
d toward a better understanding of their nature and function;
b 3 '\\ Names and Combinations most have names of quite uncertain meaning. No convincing
r, etymology has yet been given for Re, Min, Ptah, Osiris, or
b
,lJ
of Gods Seth, although many hypotheses have been put forward. The
f!:
Egyptians themselves relished wordplay and the coincidence of
(JI words and concepts, and they too tried their hand at providing
H Introduction etymologies for these names ,5 so that Osiris was interpreted as
SJ "the strong one" or "the many-eyed one," • and Re as "the one
Many of the names of Egyptian deities allude to • who ascends." 7 Papyrus Jumilhac gives examples of the fantas-
E1
th ha t · r f h • particular
c ra~ ens _,cs ho tf e1r holders, and the full range of their tic wordplays and explanations concocted by Egyptians of the
lit meaning w111 t ere ore be discussed in Chapter 5 A Ptolemaic period; Anubis is interpreted as, among other things,
di . • mong such
cases are very important deities such as Amun "the h'dd the "wind-water-mountain. "8
CCI one" o. r Sakh · h ty one (feminine)," as well Ias en
. m~t. "th e m,g all In form and meaning the modem "scientific" etymologies
wl
qCJ the pnmeval de1he~, who embody characteristics of the chaotic are no more credible than these Egyptian "folk etymologies";
dif world before creation: Nun, the "weary" or "inert" p · Osiris, for example, has been interpreted variously" as "seat
~ flood, Huh "endlessness," Kuk "darkness ,, Atum th nml~va1 of the eye," "the occupier-of-the-throne" (that is, king),' 0 "he
Im creator d ~ h . , e ear ,est
. . go or w om we have evidence, also seems to have a with the forelock," 11 or as an offshoot of a foreign deity like the
h,
,,, 7
1 1
s lar ~If-explanatory name, which is, however, more diffi-
C::U. t .to interpret. The verb tm, of which the name is a ar-
'Goethe, Faust Part I, I. 1349; this is the implication of the phrase jtmw nb Im,
CT Ill, 27b.
hap1al fo';?1a~ion,can mean "not to be" or alternatively "t% be 'For the importance of the name in general see H. Brunner, in H. von Stieten-
cron , ed ., Der Name Gottes(Diisseldorf 1975) 33-45; Piankoff, Litany3--9.
ttimplete. It ,snot easy to reduce these two to a single formu- •Plutarch, De /side et Osiride 37: J. G. Griffiths, Plutarch'sDe /side et Osiride
t
t: ~:;a~:~ ;;f~e;~ tran~ato~s 0 the god's name often resort (University of Wales 1970) 176-77, ombrimos,from wsr "strong"; 10 (Griffiths
132-33): polyophthalmos,from ·~•-jrt "many-eyed ." The former derivation has
Anth . t m,_wns. o cite Just a few examples Rudolf
es m erprets 1t as "he wh · • ,, ' been proposed again by J. G. Griffiths, TireOrixi11sof Osirisand His C11/t(SHR
"h h . o is an entirety, i Hans Bonnet as 40, 1980 [1st ed ., The Origins of Osiris (MAS 9, 1966) 60)) 94-95. F. Zimmer-
is ~o7 y~/5 not ye~113complete,"2 and Hermann Kees as "he who mann, Die iigyptischeReligionnachder Darsie/lungder Kirchenschriftsteller (Pader-
one" ·s present. I myself believe that "the undifferentiated born 1912) 42 n . 2, gives examples of the wordplay Wsjrlwsr. .
, a more apt rendering b .. 'Wordplay with (j)'r "ascend, approach," e.g. Amduat l, 20, 1-2; Moret, R1tue/
but this too is onl . ecause it includes both aspects;
.. Y an imperfect attempt to translate Egyptian 135 II. 10--11.
1 HJ.Vandier, Le papyrus fumi/hac ([Paris 1961)) 102-3, with further interpreta-
ZAS 82 (1957) 2 with f th d . . .
(1959)209-10. ' ur er efm1hons; cf. id., ZAS BO(1955) 86; /NES 18 tions.
'Survey in Griffiths, Origins (n. 6 above) 87-99.
?e.allexikon71, referring to CT II, 174e IDH.S. K. Bakry,ASA£ 59 (1966) 1, following M. A. Murray. .. . ..
Gotterglaube215, and similar! . .. 11P. Kaplony, Kleine Beitriigez11 den l11schrifte11
~er iigyptische11
Fmhzert(AgAbh
OLZ 46 (1943)404: "that which ~!sS~~tt,tZA~ 78 (1943) 9; but see also Kees,
66 ye exist completely." 15, 1966) 69-70; see the criticisms of W. Barta, BrOr 25 (1969) 176.
67
 Conceptions of God in Ancient E
gypt

Names and Combinationsof Gods

A art from these divine names whose meaning is no longer
p there were from the beginning of history "divine names
'th clear conceptua I re ference, ,, w h ose h oIders are oft en, fol-
clear,
wi . g Hermann Usener, 13 termed "special gods" (Sondergotter) .
Jowin . . .
h 's Die agyptische Relzgwn nach der Darstellung der Kzrchen-
Inl ;!tsteller(Paderborn 1912), Friedrich Zimmermann devoted
sc zr1, E . ,, •a1 od ,, hich
a separate chapter to gyptian spea g s, among w
h included gods in plant form and the decans. But other egyp-
t ~ogists have not adopted Usener's terminology of "special
~ds" and "momentary gods" (Augenblicksgotter),and rightly
!0
for it is ill suited to the nature of Egyptian deities. Only
p:rsonified functions, such as the "tetherer" who ties up the
damned in the underworld, the "destroyer" who destroys
s them, the "devourer of the dead," and similar demonic beings"
E
ti
can be considered "special gods" in Usener's sense, and these
u too the Egyptians tended to see not as independent deities but
d Figure4 Sh as manifestations of the "great" gods . These latter, however,
. u separates the sky and th
c, e earth (sh • are not restricted to a single concept, as Usener's "special gods"
Nut). own m the form of Geb and
QI " Assyrian chief god A
are : the "mighty" Sakhmet, for example, or the cataract god
Khnum, whose name is probably connected with the word
di
gt
~ens, " an~ scholars ::::·n"!;~see areballl at best "vague specula- for "well," are many-sided and so cannot be categorized as
in "o .sarne
. " 1s tru e of mterpretati
. en a e to offer anyt hi ng better; "special gods."
th re~; /~ Osiris, Se!h, or Ptaho:do: the na~e Ptah. ,2 Both the In the case of Khnum, on the other hand, there arises the
e\
It . 1:"~as to us . he mearung of their names question of geographical restrictions, which are certainly more
th . is Striking that th
an relevant to Egyptian deities than conceptual restrictions. Khnum
unlike those of e names of the "cos . ,, ..
n elements in th Greece, are not the sa m1c deities of Egypt, is the local god of Elephantine, the large island in the Nile
an the earth od ~ cosmos Which the e me as the words for the north of the rapids of the first cataract which was for millennia
an
rel
Nut (Figu~e t
4
Geb, and the skiis mbody . The earth is t' but the southern frontier of Egypt. His main sanctuary was in the
southern part of the island, 15 where the goddesses Anukis and
sci for the sun di~kthe sun god Re sta:~ but t~e s~y goddess is
an early moon od' and the moon . s beside Jtn, the term Satis were worshiped along with him. These deities are in-
Tr~
a d Kh g s are Th is called .,h h'
n ons (probabJ ,, oth (Q~zvtj, no / . ,_ w ile the two voked especially in the countless inscriptions of quarrying ex-
1 E8i names and phen y the Wanderer") Th_plausible etymology) "Gottemamen: Vers11cl1 g (Bonn1896, 3d
ei11erLehret lOII der relig iose11Begriffebildun
fAi a deity a "m omena should w . is distinction between
• ii
-

"M. Sandman
oon god"
cosmic deities is
arn us .
or an "earth d" against hastily dubbing
much rich go -the
er and more m ~ature of Egyptian
ed . Frankfurt a .M. 1948). On "special gods" see pp. 75ff.
"The god of fishing Khededu (Hddw, see B. Grdseloff, BIFAO 45 (1947) 181
with n. l; Baines, Fecundity Fig ur,,; §2.3.2 n . I) may belong here, if the category
efforts With h Holmberg -n.. Ultifarious ha~ any validity .
tena ' "'"Go<iPth · "H. Ricke and 5. Sauneron, Der Tempt>/Nektanebos' II i11Elephantine (Beitrag~ Bf
68 me Seth cf. le Veldt,_ ~1~tn7d 1946) 7-II On 6• 1960). On Khnum see Ahmad Mohamad Badawi, lxr Gott Chnum (Gluck-
- · comparable
stadt etc . 1937). For preliminary reports on the recent excavations see W. Kaiser
et al. , MDAIK 26ff. (1970ff.). .

69
 Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt
Names and Combinations of Gods
peditions in the first cataract region; for the ex d' .
and their subordinates they were protective d Pt~ ttion leaders
g the intellectual elite of the court-at the very beginning
wit· h'm w h ose sp h ere of m
· fluence the expedit'ei ies of th e area, arnon
1 0
f recorded history .
ing. The other places with cults of Khnum a ~nshwere Work- Other examples of this phenomenon abound . The goddess
desses are not so significant. n t e two god. N •th (perhaps "the terrifying one"), whom we connect primar-
. The results of t~e recent excavations suggest that n;1with Sais, her chief cult center in the Nile delta, had from
tine was of some importance in the early dy t' Elephan- the First Dynasty on a domi~a~t role at th~ _royalcourt, a role
from the time of King Huni (c. 2580 B c) 1-t bnas IC period, but that survived a number of rehg10us and political changes. Even
and strategically much more prominent W d
· · ecame r•
po IticaUy latively minor deities are revealed on close inspection to have
· e o not ho
encounter Khnum, or the goddesses associated wi~ ~ev~r, re surprisingly wide currency. Jacques Vandier presented an
the cataract area until much later. h him, in ~nusually full documentation for the "Heliopolitan" goddesses
•
E ~he gen~rally accepted view is that locally based de' . Iusaas and Nebethetepet, 20 showing how much importance was
C ~mred a w1~~rcurrency only gradually, through shif !ties ~c- accorded, in all the temples of the land, to these deities who at
•
Sj
1caland religious power, but the opposite can b h ts m poht-
~e o~the deities of the cataract area. In inscript:~s ow~ to be
first sight seem to have a strongly local character . It would,
of course, be possible in this case to cite in explanation the
E
ti c1allym ~ersonal names of the early dynastic period ~ esp~- geographical and intellectual proximity of the royal residence;
u named with striking frequency, 16 but no .1 . num is similarly, a "political" explanation of the position of the goddess
d Elephantine can be seen S ti' . 1 fspec1a connection with Neith has been attempted-that she is the representative at the
· a s is a so ound seve 1 t·
Cl the same material·'1 on) A ki ra 1mes in residence of Lower Egypt, which had been placed in subjection
be the daughter ;f the ~th nu~, :ho was later considered to by Upper Egypt. Thus Khnum and Satis provide a more telling
"
q1 means that these apparent; I ol da~~ears to be absent. This example, because in their case no "political" explanation can
di tant in the early centers f oca e1ties were already impor-
g, be found. Elephantine first gained great political importance
in and must doubtless h o royal rule, Memphis and Abydos under its potentates of the late Sixth Dynasty, and although
th occurs quite often in t~ve possessed cults there . Khnum als~ the sour_ce of the Nile was located there, as a religious center
e, Fifth dynasties. '9 e names of servants of the Fourth and it never had a discernible influence on the country as a whole.
1
· 1\'
---
th One must therefore be care£ 1 . There were of course in Egypt's long history deities whose
an Egyptian religion as the d ~ ~ot to interpret the history of importance was at first purely local and who gradually-or
n acceptance in the entir g~a ~a nse of !ocal deities to universal
-- , ar. suddenly-became dominant in the entire land, and, as a visible
an extension of their natu e an .' concomitant with a continuing sign of their new position, placed the kingship under their pro-
. Th res until they . d
rel mg. e example of th Kh acquire a universal mean- tection. This is the case with the hawk-headed god Mont, who
sci tance could be universa~-ch:~m/~atis illustrates how accep- was worshiped in the Theban nome, and whose first occur-
y m th e royal residence and rence in royal inscriptions is in the Sixth Dynasty . The earliest
"Kaplony, InschriftenI 463 468 49
n . 1863; I 406-11 d ' ' ' 8, 546-47 550 604 certain examples of his name 21 are all from the reign of Phiops I
(1969) n~ 3 ' an Supplement(AgAbh 9' ' etc .; see also I, 376 with
1964
''Kaplony . Jnsch ,, ' ) ll, 13; E. Schott , RdE 21 '°RdE 16 (1964}-18 (1966), also published as a separate volume; supplement
"Lab' ' rr,,1en I, 425 42S-29 5
" tb Habachi, ASAE 50 (1950 ' 97, 644(?), 655. Rd£ 20 (1968) 135-48 . See especially the remark Rd£ 16, 123: "It seems thu s that
B: L. Begelsbacher-Fischer ) 501-7. the goddesses of Heliopolis had a more important role in the cosmogon y of
(Orb1s Biblicus et Orientalis 37' i~ers11chunge11z11r Giittenve/t d Al . th eologians than in local religion ."
' 1 ourg and Gtitf es ten Re1chs "Pyr . §§1081a-b, 1378b; cylinder seal, H. Goedicke, MDAIK 17 (1961) 80-81
70 ingen 1981) 43-4 5 _
(no . XII).

71

I~
 J. .~ .. -. ~
4,..rb.-~
j - .

d Combinations of Gods
Names an
These indefinite,
Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt nonymous . d . . ·s
damenta 11y a . ce of these e1t1es i
the deity fun ow that the infl~en ecialized areas of
(C. 2292-2260 u.c.), whose
.
widespread
. th
building activiti
.
.
es dis 1eavesalname forms ~hnever channe~ed into ~~h, and represents
d
ge~;cted in sp~c:s ~~ aU-encompa;sin~tb::re
play a newly kindle mterest m_ e pfrovmces and their deities.
The earliest known representation o Mont dates to the e d · focused by a lens
re t•vity· it acqu1r f divine power , as
the Sixth Dynasty (c. 2200).22 For the Theban Eleventh Dy~ of ac i ' tent o d
of a century later, which united the country a second tiasty the entire ex ·nt in the worl . . d created a still more gen-
Mont occupied the leading position among all deities-unti~, on a single poidate the Egypna~s h~ od. ,, u, The earliest known
was displaced by Amun . The rise of Re, Osiris, and Amun2Jto: By an earlYich means simply loca ;f a cloaked anthropom~r-
dominant position in Egyptian religion was as sudden as that eral term,_wt~e early dynastic ~tatu;ollection in Lucerne, ~hi~~
of Mont, but I think it is meaningless to interpret these com- exarnpl~ is . the I(ofler-T~mger_ f "belonging to the oty.
plex, universal deities as having originally been local deities. phic dei~y inl hie inscription nJWJ ne that occurs very f:e-
has a h1erog yp ailable a phrase-0 d generality with
The emphasis on local cults, which has prevailed since the time s thus av d fi iteness an
of Carl Richard Lepsius ,2' is too one-sided and needs correcting. There wa rable in its in e n d . truction texts. Crim-
tly-<:ompa l ames an ms O . .
In addition to clearly local gods , whose existence should cer- quen " od" in persona n . ent of the king, sins,
tainly not be denied, there is a circle of gods, attested from the the use of ge handed over to "the_Judgm_ ed more closely who
inals could bl d" 211 without its being de~n. to tombs could
earliest inscriptions of the thirtieth century B.c., who were cur-
rent at the royal court as well as having their own cult places, :at:~~s:~;si~fe for the judfg:::\:n ~:~~~r:ods (Urk. I, 2:8,
which may already have been spread over the whole country. be addressed as devotees o . dom teachers, one could t .us
Genuinely local deities can often be recognized by a particu- 13)· as with the n!r of the w1s articular deity. An indication
lar form of name, which is derived directly from the place , .d referring too narrowly to a ~ h ld not be interpreted
where they are manifest. Thus the vulture goddess of Nekheb athvotithe significance of local go s sl ou . s their occurrence in
a rticular p ace l h
(el-Kab) is called Nekhbet, the heron god of the delta city strictly as confined to a p§a891) the royal burial ritual of t e
Buto (c_ib'w)is Djebauti, and the anthropomorphic god of the the Pyramid Texts (Pyr. a '
ninth Lower Egyptian nome ('ncjt), who was assimilated early Old Kingdom.
29
• • b tween the old local deities
to Osiris, is Anedjti. Other local and nome deities owe their One must distingui~h. c1ear 1Y ~ . names, and the local
e'
names to specific topographical features-"he who is on his with their often indefimte, descriptive h as Amun of Karnak,
tt la~e" (I-Jrjsf
, Greek Harsaphes), for example, is the name of the manifestations of the "great godS, sue
at chief ?od of He_rakleopolis-or to typical features of their mani-
Tl . 18 where there are further penetrating
festati~n, as with Pakhet, "tearer apart," who was worshiped " Paraphrasing Bonnet, Reallex1kon2 ,
~ ar as a lioness at the mouths of wadis. Khentamenti, "foremost remarks about local deities . . t • st "town" but any
a, " ntr-njwtj,literally "town god," although n1wt mea~s nAloJU R . h" (Disserta-
before the _Westerners" (later a manifestation of Osiris) who - ,, ·· r Stadt 1m ten eic
r(- was worshiped at Abydos, has as a name a paraphrase that settlement: see M. Atzler , Erwagungen zu of the "local

1u i
t Eg
" In the mortuary temple of Ph·
PepiII II (Servi·c d A . . t0ps 11, see G. Jequier, Le mo1111m
47. A Second Dynasty
e11tf1merairede
e es ntrqu1tesde l'Egypte, Fouilles a Saqqarah, Cairo 1938)
tion, Leipzig 1968). There is no monograph on the phenomenon
god" and its meaning . .
27H. W. Muller, Agyptische Kunstwerke, Klemfunde u nd ~las
. d Sammlung E.
III

11ndM. Kofler-Truniger,Luz.mi (MAS 5, 1964) 40-41 ; also ll~St rate

1
erd . W Wolf
10
· '
th, "Accordingto F Da exampB/e I (Kaplony, lnsclrriften I, 467) is very doubtful. 69 2
· umas, FA065(1% 7
FriiheHochkulturen(Belser Stilgeschichte 1, Stuttgart 19 ) fi~- 1. . U k 1 75
up of the ''Theban" Amun also d t ) 213-14, the earliest certain example " Urk. l, 305, 15-306, 1. The "local god" is also named as a 1udge
10
r · ' '
re; MDAIK 25 (1969) 212-1 _
9 a es to the hme of Phiops I; but see D. Wildung, 9· . h 1 1·n a list of the
"Giitt
• erkreis 173 = 17· "No h
· w ere was th · fl " "Local gods " and "nome gods" are also named m t e P1ura
pnestly theology so strong as in Egypt.,, e m uence of local cults on general entirety of the gods in Pyr. §1522c.
72 73
 ..... .,,
'
.
..: /4',l, :.

Names and Combinations of Gods

Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt

ebu or the various provincial Horuses. These f

Re of Sakh ' . . . f h f . orrns
nstitute a d1stillation o t e unction .and
. signifi'cance
do not Co .
of all divine power, but focus ~n a,,qmte specific deity for the
benefit of a limited "congregation._ In many cases, however
e may suspect that local forms hke these adopt the herit '
on . . . h . age
of local deities and gam a umversa 1 meaning t at is similar to
theirs.

Personifications
Localitiesand nomes may also be personified. If a particular
place was experienced in personal form, a personification could
< be created anew at any time during the historical period . Thus
f in the Eighteenth Dynasty there appears a goddess Khefther-
s nebes personifying the Theban necropolis, whose name she
E Fig11re5. The goddess Maat.
t1 bears. She is important in the papyri of the Twenty-first Dy-
u nasty,JO but then disappears from texts and pictures. Even so
d short-liveda deity as this should not be called a "free invention" abstraction." But this "empty abstraction" was imbued with ~he
C
,,. or an "empty abstraction";3' ancient cultures had a capacity, reality of a cult, having her own priesthood from the F_ifth
q which is difficult for us to comprehend, for encountering their Dynasty at the latest,3 2 and, in the New Kingdom, !empl;s 11:a
d env~onment in personal form-for seeing the face of a deity in number of different places. In the Theban area we find a s~~
g, a salient or even an insignificant feature of the landscape, such and overseer of the cattle of Maat" in the cortege of the v121er
in as a tree or an animal. Ramose," and the "herds" of her temple in Thebes are men-
tt . In :gyptian religion there are other, much older "personifica- tioned in a Ramessid tomb. 34 Evidence for a cult of her in the
e,
th tions . who remained the objects of belief for millennia. The delta includes the title "scribe of the temple of Maat" on a stela
a, ~ost unportant is the goddess Maat (Figure 5), the personifica- from the delta capital of the Ramessids now in Hildesheim 35 and
TI tion of ~heorder of the world which was established at the time the offering formula on the door jamb of the vizier Paser, 36 both
~ - M" of creation, who was for Adolf Erman "no more than an empty "C. J. Bleeker , De beteekenisvan de egyptischegodin Ma-a-I (Leiden 1929) 77 with
illl
YJA. Piankoff and N Rambo . n. 1, gave a few references. Viziers in particular are attested as "prophets of
re
Chassinat, BIFAO3 (190 ) va, Myl h010
g,ca/ Pap~ri(ERT 3, 1957) passim; E. Maat" from the Fifth Dynasty on, but the title is found with other legal offi-
SC 3 142
(London 1948)27 n 2. W H · See also A. H. Gardiner, The W1/bourPapyrusJI ci~ls: W. Heick, U,1ters11chungen zu den Beamtentiteln des iigyptischenAllen Reiches
ments a personificati ··on' w· f ehlck,MDAIK 23 (1968) 119-20. Heick also <locu- (AgFo 18, 1954) 74; W. C. Hayes , The Scepter of Egypt I (New York 1953) 106,
s -n ff "v t ·
second intermediate pe .od - . •c onous Thebes," who is found from the 110. The title occurs as late as the Twenty-fifth Dynasty: J. Leclant, /NES 13
.
Zwischenuif n on (rd H' f . h .
.. . (KleineA . ·, zsorzsc -b,ographischeJnschriftender 2. (1954)163, 166 n . 73 with pl. 13. See also P. Vernus, BIFAO 75 (1975) 105 n. (d) .
f
but she can scarcelybe a P~he Texte, Wiesbaden 1975) 45 I. 5 of original), "N . de G. Davies, The Tomb of the Vizier Ramose (Mond Excavations at Thebes
likely to be an independentevgode odpmentof Thebes, as he suggests · she is more l, London 1941) pl. 27 lower.
re, "Erman, Rt/" ess· '
1g10n1st ed 24 3d "Theban Tomb 409: M. Abdul-Qader Muhammed, ASAE 59 (1966) 180. On
5
~::~~~a:~~efollowed hi~ (ASAEe~ : on the personification of Maat . B. Maat at Thebes see also A . Varille, "lnventaire d'objets cultuels d'un temple
• I• '

-~it-. theologians" (J:1dess lusaas, like the I

9 40 19
1 3), and even J. Vandier sug· thebain de Maat," B/FAO 41 (1942) 135-39.
IS U966J 120n. 4) ennead, was "created in Heliopolis by ''G . Roeder, ZAS 61 (1926) 61; Labib Habachi, ASAE 52 (1954) 488.
74 . "'Labib Habachi, ASAE 52 (1954) 480 with pl. 20.

75
 ... ,':' ~

,,
-:t, 'a '- ~-

~ -....:: • , ' ~#

Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt

Names and Combinations of Gods
dating to the reign of Ramesses II. There ar
1
names in which Maat is referred to as a goddes: ! so Personal include A tum, Amun, an~ Ptah u~der this heading .0 I believe,
"Conceptual personifications"-or, to avoid thi. d ever, that the term 1s excessively narrow, and positively
misleading term, deities whose names are ide tis an~erous]y !~;eading, even for the deities of this sort who have no cult.
Iigious concept-may therefore acquire a cult nb ctahwith a re-
I
the Book of Gates Sia appears as the sun god's herald who
1
necessan·1y do so. The creator god has at his ' ud " t ey d0 not ~ nds at the bow of the solar bark, a function that can scarcely
speci_al po~er~ tha! ~elp ~~ to plan and execut:Sfu~s~ three ~ traced back to the concep~ sj' ." ~e departs still furthe! from
creation: Sia, perc1p1ence m planning the w k- H 0 rk of
the concept }:lk', as when he 1s worshiped as a moon god . Such
"utterance"; Hike , the " 'magic" ' that bring orth' u, creative servations apply still more strongly to the highly complex
bem?. s e World .
?ut of !he c~eative word (see Chapter 6). All thre Into ~:tures of Atum and Amun. Like all others, these deities have
as d1vme bemgs m human form, as when th e occur a life of their own which does not necessarily submit to the
th e sun go d m . h. . ey accompan laws of the concepts they "personify."
is Journey across the sky and throu y
underworld . Hu and Hike play an active t gh the A number of deities who are manifest in the cosmos or in
Coffin Texts, in which they "fell " the s kpar as early as the nature are often considered to be "personifications." In the
. na e enemy of th
god , m order that he may appear again e sun case of sky and earth we have already seen that the words
h . 38 B unopposed on th
o~on . ut of these three similar helping gods on] . e "earth" and "sky" are different from the names of the deities,
acquu_ed a cult, which is documented by priesth d ~ Hike but the "empty" space between them appears as the god Shu
Old Kingdoml9and late period .-lO Hu ands· oo s m the (Figure 4), an "abstraction" derived from the verb swj "to be
~emained without a cult, so far as we kno~\ ~~:h~ o~herfhhand, empty"; by the Old Kingdom Shu played an important part in
gods who aid tbe realization of h . . c1rc e o t ese creation, and from the Ramessid period at the latest he was
Schott) is enlarged iri the late N t e_ d1vme will" (Siegfried worshiped widely in the cult .-11>
of "sight" (frJ·) and "h . ,, r d ew_Kingdom by the addition There is a striking lack of personifications of waterways or
eanng (5 m) ·'- th t·
the scribes of the d Th - , ey occur irst as aides of stretches of water in the Egyptian pantheon. The so-called "Nile
Sethos I and Rames!~s ~I t ~~ and Seshat in the temples of gods," more recently termed "fecundity figures" (Figure 6),"
ated with Hu and s· B a ydos , and later are often associ- personify general concepts of abundance and its causes, among
. ia. ecause the d . . .
the mam temples all f y were ep1cted m reliefs in which the most prominent is the inundation. They may bring
ar
Tl cu!t of the gods,' eveno~~o:e~e :ble to_partake in the general offerings to the king in his mortuary temple, or with the king
priests or rituals . g hey did not have their own
~? ~ they bring them to the gods in a normal cult temple; they can
,11] One · h scarcely be termed deities. There is neither a river god of the
. m1g t be tempted to folio
re figures "conceptual gods" (Be r:' E_?erhard Otto and call such Nile (there are of course no other rivers in Egypt), nor deities
'"MorenzGott d g iffsgotter);Otto wished also to
'"CT ' u11 Mensch 138 0
Saeculum 14 (1963) 255. For H. Stock,on the other hand, Atumis a "specula-
Vil, 466. On th .
"Se . e enemy (A . tion": Saeculum l (1950) 622 .
e eviden ~e cited b H _pop1s)se~ Chapter5.
i~t
1
siZ;h~: ~i 81 09~) 1 i;,~~:;~
~
BIFAO 62 (l"'•)met in the thirdLowe E' olemaic)
z~s 90 (~963) 39 nn. 4- 5_
; on the cult of Hike along-
"This placingmay reflectin part Sia's precedenceover Hu, whichis visibleas
early as the PyramidTexts (Pyr. §§267-68) ; cf. H. Kees, SIG 19 (1966) 125.
"P. Derchainin LA lune (Sourcesorientales5, Paris 1962) 51.
re, I
empleof Esna ""' 170-71 H·k
(G . the third
· 1 e is r gyptiannome see H. de Meulenaere, "'A. de Buck, Plaats en betekenisvan Sjoe in de egyptische theologie(Mededeel-
l'IFA0, 1959-) passraeco-Roman period)cf ms eSmber of the divine triad in the ingen der Kon. NederlandscheAk. van Wetenschappen,Afd. Letterkunden.s.
"For otheraspect mi. f ' · · auneron, Esna (Publicationsde 10, 9, Amsterdam1947). On the name see G. Fecht, ZAS 85 (1960) 104ff. For
"E. B s c · A. H . an alternativeetymologysee p . Derchain, "Sur le nom de Chouet sa fonction,"
runner-Traut in F . Gardiner,PSBA 38
76 rage11125-42. (1916) 43--54, 83--95. RdE 27 (1975) 110--16.
"Baines, Fecundity Figures, esp. §2.2.2 .
77

,;i
 Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt
Names and Combinations of Gods

of the larger Jakes, although the _Faiyum with the Birket Qarun,
-~...: d the delta branches of the Nile, are found among fecundity
•••~~-,...,....--'-~t, ~;ures as are probably the bitter lakes to the east of the delta."'
Th re is no god of the sea before the New Kingdom, when a
J.,, \tic god was "imported" for the purpose." The only fecun-
t, sem
dity figure who ta k es on an m. d ~pen d en t eXIstence
. as a d eity
. is.
~
50
the inundation, Hapy. Otherwise, waters are under the tute-
lage of gods in crocodile form, especially Sobek (Greek Suchos),
' who is the lord of the fishes, 51 while the ram god Khnum is the
I
ii
patron of the first cataract with its my!hical c~vems,_ which
E were considered to be the sources of the inundation. It is note-
c; worthy that, apart from the goddess Hatmehit "she who is
•
s,
before the fishes," 52 we find no deities in fish form comparable
with the countless gods in bird form. This lack probably re-
E
ti flects a partial and selective taboo on fish. Nevertheless, fish
u can be manifestations of some major deities: Atum may be an
d
C,
'"Baines, Fecundity Figures §2.3.1, g, I, p, q . For the Birket Qarun (w'q-wr) see
~
Farouk Gomaa, Chaemwese(AgAbh 27, 1973) 85, 122 (no. 54). The delta branches
QI of the Nile (jtm, " , p' mw II p' R' etc .) are attested in series of fecundity figures
di from the Nineteenth Dynasty on, and the bitter lakes(?) and swamp areas of
g1 the country (p~ww) from the reign of Hatshepsut on: E. Naville, Deir el Bahari
in . V (Egypt Exploration Fund, London n.d.) pl. 128; P. Lacau et al., Une chapelle
th de Hatchepso11t a Karnak I (Service des Antiquites de l'Egypte and IFAO. Cairo
e\ 1977) 88-91.
th "Yamm, the god of the sea, occurs only in the myth of the" Astarte papyrus ";
ar see R. Stadelmann , Syrisclr-palesti11e11sisclreGottlreite11i11 Agypte11(PA 5, 1967)
TI 125-31. The w'q-wr that occurs among fecundity figures from the Fifth Dynasty
an on (Figure 6) may be a personification of the delta lagoons (Lakes Mariut, ldku,
an Burullus, and Manzala) rather than of the open sea . Cf. also W. Heick, "Meer, "
re, in Heick et al. , eds., Lexiko11der Agyptologie III (Wiesbaden 1980) 1276-79.
sci ~he fundamental study is A. de Buck, "On the meaning of the name l:{'PJ,"
~.
-......
an in OrientaliaNeer/a11dica (Leiden 1948) 1-22. On the god of the inundation in the
Graeco-Roman period cf. D. Bonneau, La crue du Nil ... (Etudes et Commen-
taires 52, Paris 1964) pt. 3.
"E . Edel, 211den lnsc/1riftena11fden Jalrreszeitenreliefs
der "We/tkammer"a11 s dem
S01111enl1eiligt11111
des Ni11serreII (NAWG 1963, 5) 144.
" Worshiped in the delta, especially in the nome of Mendes (no. 16), and also
in the third nome and in the lseum of Behbeit el-Hagar (P. Montet, Kt'rr,i 10
(1949] 45). On the identification of the fish (possibly a lepidot11s , previousl y
thought to be a dolphin) see L. Keimer, B11/leti11 de la Socit!lt'arc/1rologiq11e
d'Alt'X-
an.drie41 (1956) 97-101; I. Gamer-Wallert, Fiscl,e11ndFisclrk111t,, im 11/teri
Agyptm
(AgAbh 21, 1970) 9S---101.

79
 -~., . .
,. ~·· ~..c::. !·
. . ~

. " ~.; .
. ,.1'•;..~r .

Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt

Names and Combinations of Gods
eels.1(evidently by analogy with his form as a snak )
/ates fish.s. e and Neith a taphor for vast numbers 59 and also embodied the souls of
Like the waterways, the elements fire, earth • ahmedead. Because t h ese sou Is coun te d as " god s, " the stars
were never personified in Egypt, and I doubt ve'-ry a1r, a nd Water t e e considered to be gods in the latest periods of Egyptian re-
er there was in ancient Egypt a doctrine of the fmuch Wheth- wer
.. . n and the wor d " go d" came to b e wn'tt en wit. h a star (see
11g10 ,
similar to that of the Greeks .55 There are of course our elements Chapter 2).
. . sue h as sna kes who spit fire bIarge
of "f"1ery" d e1hes, t h numbe. rs The funerary papyrus of a chantress of Amun of the Twenty-
god of fire or of water . Air and earth are als~ ~ t ere is no first Dynasty contai~s a num~er of interesting scenes, one of
several deities: Shu as "empty" space, Amun as ~n~d am~ng which is quite exceptional: agamst a background of stars stands
or_the VI
·vuy· b h
mg reat of wind , and Seth in the des
s air in moti
_on a winged snake with two pairs of legs, its snak~ bo~y te~minat-
nught of storms; in addition to Geb Aker and T t tructive ing in front in a bearded human head and behmd ma Jackal's
' a enen (al
E ca11ed Ptah-Tatenen), at least, there are other gods wh so head.'° As a caption tells us, it is "death, the great god, who
C body the earth. According to a recent study Tate . 0 em- made gods and men"-a personification of death as a creator
, nen 1s the g0 d
t ?f t_he depths of the earth or the "primeval earth" (Urerde god and an impressive visual realization of the idea that death
s
E
1s linked only secondarily with the primeval hill· and )p is a necessary feature of the world of creation, that is, of the
ti Tatenen he e'.11bodiest~e earth in a much more general f::hiot~~ existent in general (Chapter 5, Excursus). But this is the only
u The Egyptians conceived of only a few of the most . . occurrence of death as a deity which has so far been identified
d stars and constellations as deities Apart from th important from Egypt; in a whole series of texts, death is called a "rob-
c, . · e sun and the ber" "who sees but is not seen," who snatches men away from
moon, on1y Soth1s, the brightest fixed star Sirius a . d
"
q1 cul~as the herald of the inundation . From the e;rl c(j_wre _a
penod on she was worshiped in cow form s, but war yna~tilc
life stealthily and suddenly, but this usage is no more than a
metaphor. •1
di
to be a manifestati f . . ' soon 1e t Nor did the Egyptians experience other fundamental attri-
on o 1sis, Just as Osiris was recognized in
w::~li~~~~:
~~).
gi 0 . E
in butes of human life--emotions such as love, fear, terror, and
tli T~; na~es of the planets show that they so on-as deities. Feelings proceed from the deity and belong
e\ as deities only in a:.:m es~a~ons of the god Horus; they occur to every god and his relationship with humanity, 02 but they are
th evening stars had no ~~mica scenes . Even the morning and
ar
not perceived as forms separate from the gods .63 Nor are all the
the early Old Ki d cu) ; nor did the Pole star (a Draconis in

-
_,,,
.
n
a,;
an
re
sci
• ng om despite ·t
fixed pole of the sky d 'th
·
I s great importance as the
the sky.'" For the E an . e goal of the dead king's ascent into
gyphans th e great mass of other stars was
"_!'orthe animal forms of Atu
" Examples cited by R. A. Caminos, The Chronicleof Prince Osorkon (AnOr 37,
1958) 98-99 . The "many faces that are in the sky" (CT VI, 92n) may also be the
stars.
'°Papyrus of Henuttawy, BM 10018, reproduced by S. Schott , Zum Weltbildder
Jenseitsfuhrerdes Neuen Reiches (NAWG 1%5, 11) 195 with pl. 4; Egyptian Mythol-
(HAB • 1978).
,. ~. m see K· MY3, ,.1w1ec
· , Studien zum Golt Alum I
For an old ogy (London et_c.: Paul Hamlyn 1%5) 26. See also K. My§liwiec, Studien zum
6~ - survey of the worship and . Gott Alum I (HAB 5, 1978) 103.
"B ' ; 0;e _recently Gamer-Waller! F' :voidance of fish see Kees, Giiltergla11be "On death as a "robber" see H. Grapow, ZAS 72 (1936) 76-77; P. Derchain,
"H . tncker, Degeboorte van H, rsc e und Frschkulte(n . 52 above). CdE 33/65 (1958) 29-32; id., Le papyrus Salt 825 177 no . (136); E. F. Wente , /NES
· A. Schlogl D orus II (MVEOL 17 19
(Orbis Biblicuset, _er Gott Tatenennach Texte , . 68). 21 (1962) 126(a), 127. It is possible that all the examples identified so far refer
"G Goel Onentalis 29 Fribo n und Bildern des Neuen Reiches only to a premature death as "theft ." The article by G. Thausing, "Uber die
ment(AgA~~n9, BIFAO57 (1958)143-;g and Giittingen 1980). Perso!'lifikatfon des Todes ," AAA 1 (1938) 215-21, deals with the demon Nbd,
. .
frcati , 1964)20 • h . ~. parallel in K I .
on with 1 . Wit fig. 1008 F ap ony , lnschriften Supple- and is not relevant here . Quotation from Wente, p. 124 (translation), p. 127
" srs see R A h .. · or argum t . ' (text) .
• R. 0 . Faulkner "Th. nt es, ZAS 1020975) 3--en s against an early identi-
2~ (1966)153-61. , e Kingand the Star-Reli . 5.
gion in the Pyramid Texts," JNES
:w. K. Simpso~, "~mor dei : ntr mrr rnt! m IJ w3," in Fragen 49~98.
Among fecundity figures there are occasional examples of 'wt-jb "well-being·
80
(Baines, Fecundity Figures §2.3.1, a) s11b"health," and ·11~ "life" (§2.3.1, f). In

81

f'
 -----
........ ~ : -. .

Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt

main features of the cosmos experienced • Names and Combinations of Gods

gods . There is, for example , no trace f in personal form nther Mafdet, the "runner, "68 and the scorpion god-
night before the fifth century B.c .. theo adp~rsonification as th
· ti' f E ' n, unng th of haps elkipa(srqt"the one who causes to breathe"). 69 These epi-
d omma on o gypt, we find a couple G hi e Persi dess Se s ames are commoner than pure anrma · 1 names, but
,, ti ,, r Grht " . an 1
per h aps cessa on, among the pairs of . · · ll.ight " thet-sty e ontbe used as evidence for an original phase of zo-
. . pruneval d 'ti ' or they cann
temp_1e of Hib 1s m el-Kharga oasis. e1 ei es in the . Egyptian worship. The names of the gods do not pro-
This example comes from a period wh 0!atry in support for a hypothetical stage of development in
. en new v1de · more p 1aus1'ble t h at fetis
figures appear more frequently, often as personific~ _speculative h' hany ·
all gods were anrmals · 1s
; 1t · h es,
cepts, but are hardly current outside the c f' tions of con- w .ic powers and abstract powers of nature existed side
anima 1 ' .
.
saence of th e divme · .65 I shall therefore noton dInes of. a Pnestiy
·
h . 1 ea 1 with .. by SI'de . Jequier's scheme of the development h of Egyptian re-
hi JU
p enomena m temp e texts of Graeco-Rom tim SUnilar ·
Jigion from fetishism through zoolatry to ant ropomorp sm
myself to earlier periods . an es, but limit . 1 h'
doubtedly simplifies excessively the ear y 1story.
unBefore concluding this chapter we must examme . thr ee ad -
Although animal form is characteristic of th ·
E ti. d . . . e iconograph 0 f ditional characteristics of Egyptian divine names: feminine
gyp an e1ties-and will be discussed in Ch Y
are only a few gods with animal names all of hapter 4-t~ere doublets to masculine names of gods, multiplicity of names,
fi d · ' w om are nun and syncretism. This examination will enrich significantly our
gures unng the historical period. One example is th ,, or
goddess Wenut in the Hermopolitan nome who he hare" understanding of Egyptian conceptions of god.
n t h b · ' may, owever
o ave een interpreted as a hare until th G '
. d d e raeco-Roman
peno , ~n may originally have been a snake goddess W
"the swift one "66 M . enut Female doublets
. . ore certam animal names are those of th
~!';eumon god Khatery6' and the millipede Sepa. Other deitie: These name forms, which are distinguished from the corre-
in ~;~mes _thatare not words for animals but epithets describ- sponding masculine names of gods only by their feminine end-
"t!are;u anu~al natures; among these are the lioness Pakhet ings, and probably by a different vocalization, seem to be an-
____ ap_ar_t_, _and a number of other deities, including per- other manifestation of the desire for differentiation, which was
e,
the Graeco-Roman period the "active " .
so highly developed in Egypt . The most characteristic doubl-
ti,
was also personifi d quality of smj "fear " or "fearfulness " ings are the four pairs of primeval deities, each of which gives
ar e , among others · E von B "D 5
Panehemisis," Jahrbuchd K . ·.· ergmann, er arkophag des form to a category of the world before creation (primeval flood,
TI 11 no. 7. er 11nsth1
storrschenSamm/ungen in Wien 1-2 (1883-84)
~ ar darkness, boundlessness, and others). 71 In the couples that rep-
ari seum of Art Egyptian E J.
..N. de G. Davies, The Tem / ·• •
e of H,b,s 111el Khargeh Oasis Ill (Metropolitan Mu- resent these negative categories the goddesses clearly have

/)
I ~~ , 1;1
: both cases the couple ocxpe Ilion Publication 17, New York 1953) pl. 21, 33. In
.,,..._
1 nere were
"th h . '
how
e eanng ear" i th G
curs with the pa · Of •
Ir pnmeva 1gods called "darkness ."
ever, popular cults O f Sh
ay
"d .
estiny " and Mestasytmis
"'W. Westendorf, ZAS 92 (1966) 137, who also discusses the identification of
the animal (leopard?) ; id., ZDMG 118 (1968) 248-56; on earlier identifications
tgyptren
• Sha,.. (Orientalia
n e raeco-Roma
L .
· d·
n per 10 , see J. Quaeg ebeur Le d1e11
.
, I see H . de Meulenae re, BiOr 7 (1950) 104. The hawk god who se name was
and J Q ovamensia Anal t 2 L '
· uaegebeur, "Une ded· ec a , ouvain 1975); G. Wagner formerly read Ant y "he with claws" is now read Nem ty "wanderer" : 0 . D.
la part de son synode " B/FAOl~acegrecque au dieu egyptien Mestasytmis de Berlev, Vestnik drevnej istorii 1 (107) (1969) 3-30 .
up "'Assmann L't ' 3 (1973) 41~
Wenut J' ,_urg. Lieder 306 n. (4) F ·. . "'The full form of the name is Srqt-/1tjt"she who causes the throat to breathe";
re, B4l-42 see equ,er, Consid t rationsl2Jff or earlier collect1ons of material about cf. Bonnet , Real/exiko11196-97 , 722- 23. The name may be apotropaic in meaning .
"E
8
· runner-Traut 5 •t
., esp . PP· 152-53; Bonnet , Reallexikon '"Considerations 14-25.
71
1%5, 7) 150-57_ , pr zmausr111d lcir11eu111on
a/s T' d S See the fundamental study of K. Sethe , A11111111111d die acl1tUrgiitter 0011 Her-
rere es 01111e11gotts(NA WG mopolis(APAW 1929, 4). The names were evidently not rigidly fixed, for there
82 are many variations .
83

--...
 f •

Conception s of God in Ancient Egy pt

·no independent role. The couples did not rec . . 'ame s and Combinations of Gods
least until. the late penod;
. .
the Egyptians probablyeive
f a CU1t, at
nature was too abstract for worship . This is note 1~hat their . f a force d ' a rtificial,
. or abstract dcreation
. kn . She . thibe-
. press1on ° ·th Mont as his consort an 1s own m s
ever of the pair Amun/Amaunet, which was m·t e, how_ irnrnes
'
the system of the ogdoa d only at the beginning ofegrated
the ·
into co . associated - us wi
temp Ies i·n the Theban area, in reliefsRof the
O le from vano d later ·Min the late and Graeco- ornan
riod.n The doublet Amaunet cannot be described in UIate Pe- r
la Ki gdom an , H •1
te New n h other of the young sun god arpre .
words as "more a play of language than a reli<riou sener's Periods s h e was t de m rnentary evidence for a cutI o f h er . s·ix
tion, ,,.;; for she was ma d e th e obJect
. o · a s concep
of a cult at . - · I o some ocu h I
There 1s. a ss of ,,prop h e t s ,, of Raet are known from t .e centra d
early penod. . Th ere are severa priests of this goddess re 1tt
l . ativeJy generation S2

• g the Twen ty-fifth and Twenty-sixth dynasties, drian an

from the Eighteenth Dynasty , including even a "second; es~ed delta dunn I f hers was still flourishing under Ha
of Arnaunet. ,,;, This evidence shows that the cult of Amrop et a Theban temp~ oAntoninus Pius (138-61) .D The cult of this
must have been served at that time . by at least two high-raunet
nk- (A.D- 117-38) an ely more important than can easily be seen
oddess was sur .
ing priests ("prophets"), as well as lector priests and hum~! g tr y pieces of eVIdence .
!
~~ priests .;; Tutankhamun had a colossal statue pair of t;; from these sl ad blets of the gods of the dead Anubis and
divine ~?uple Amun and _Ama~net set up in the temple of The fema e ou A Sokar t
f ather more peripheral to the pantheon. e
Karnak, and her cult survived mto the late period , at least in Sokar ar~ rth ·tual of burial .. while an Input plays some part
~ Thebes. Horakhbit, the high priest of Amun at the beginning of appears m e n ' . as d ·
d . the cu lt s O f the Seventeenth Upper Egyptian
m d •· nome an IS It
the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, was also prophet of Amaunet in the · Jly depicted. 86 None of these .e1ties. was ever
C
temple of Karnak, n and the Ptolemaic buildings of Thebes con- occas10na · lif a· cu t
fi re of the first rank, but their role m re 1igious e ~ oo
q"' tain a number of representations and mentions of the goddess .,. ~ortant for them to have been no more than learned pnestly
d In the New Kingdom even the sun god Re acquired a female speculations .
~ doublet Raet (or "Raet of the Two Lands "), who occurs in the
i, (1968) 138. See also J. Leclant, Reclrerc/res s11r/es mo1111111
ents tliebains de la XX V'"
ti most varied mythological contexts, ;,,and does not at all give the
dynastie dite etlriopie1111
e (IFAO BE 36, 1965) 261. .
e- "'E.g. Twentieth Dynasty reliefs in the temple of Khons at Karnak:The Ep,-
tl "As observed by P. Barguet , Le temple d'Amon-Re a Karnak (IFAO RAPH 21,
., 1%2) 20, and G. A. Wainwright , /EA 49 (1963) 21-23 , whereas Sethe believed
that Amun came originally from Herm opolis and its ennead .
graphic Survey , Scenes of King Heri/rorin the Court (The Temple of Khons~ I,
OIP 100, Chicago 1979) pl. 37, 88, 93; common in the ~raeco-Roman penod,
TI "Gottemamen{n. 13 above) 31. see especiall y M . T. Derch~in-Urtel, Sy11kr etism11
s in iigypllscher lko11 .~
ograpl11e
Gollin Tjenenet (GOF 8, 1979) 55ff .
"On funerary cones in the Metropolitan Mu seum of Art : W. C. Hayes , Tire
Sci;rer 0/ Egypt II (New York 1959) 54. " In the Twenty-fifth Dynasty she suckles the king in the form of '":farpre
' For a wab and lector p · t Of A . . (Leclant , Reclrerclres [n . 79 above) 88--89, pl. 55); for Graeco-Roman matenal see
.,....,' Thebanr: . nes maun et see Nma M. Davies , Scenes f rom Some J. Vandier , RdE 18 (1966) 113. .
. attested
ts ombs (Pnvate
earlier Tombs
in the Tw atlfth
Thebes
Dy 4, Oxford
. 1963) 17 with pl. 19. Amaunet
"'Labib Habachi , Cd£ 42183(1967) 30--40
. She appears th ere next to Ptah and IS
cult: P. Lacau and H C .e nas ty, m a cont ext that alread y implies a equated with Werethekau .
Antiquites de l'E · he~ner , Une chape/fe de Sesostris I" a Karnak (Service des
Han,. Horemhebgypte, Cairo 1956-{;9)85 §215' scene 16' pl · 19 · "S. V. WAngstedt , Orientalia Sueca11a12 (1963) 55 (Hadri a n); 16 (1967) 40--41
271-72. (Antoninu s Pius) . The goddess is her e "Raet of the Two Lands ," and ha s at her
"R. A. Parker, A Saite Oracle p . . dispo sal a "god ' s father " and wab pri ests . ,
4, Providence, R.I. !% 2) 29_ apyrus from Thebes (Brown Egyptolo g1cal Studies ..J. Settga st, U11ters11c/1u11
gen w a/tiigyptisc/ren lks tattu11
g sdarstellu11
gen (ADIK 3,
"Sethe, Amu11 §§54-6 2; cf. E. D . . 1963) 55 with n . 3. On the bark person ification Skrt see J. C. Go yo n , Rd£ 20
Mllanges Mariette (IFAO BE 32 l%n oton, ASAE 44 (1944) 154; A . Gutbub m (1968) 67 n . 2.
"Quee H h • 1) 336
s n . ats epsut as Raet: Urk IV . .,H _ Kees, MIO 6 (1958) 170-75.
tela there 1s even a R't-Jtmwt f · • 332, I I. On a Twen ty-second Dynasty ""A. Mariette , Denderal, IV (Paris 1873) pl. 80. J. Leibovitch , BIE 25 (194J )
· a emale doubi t Of R
84 e e-Atum : J. Vandier , Rd£ 20 187--88 with fig. 6, studi ed thi s sce ne, referrin g to a statu ette of the godd ess m
Turin .

85

______
... __
 Conception s of God in Ancient Egy pt Na me s and Combination s of Gods

Multiplicity and hierarchy of names

Multiplicity of names is a fundamental feature of the
which is common to all polytheistic religions. In particul.:~:
great gods, such as Amun, Re, and Osiris, are not cont
with presenting themse 1ves to th e1r. wors hi pers under only ent
0
name. The "lord of all" Atu?' is found already in the Cof~
Texts as "with many names m the mouth of the ennead" (CT
VII, 469d): the host of gods surrounding him (the "ennead")
knows about the many names that all refer to the one god
Atum, and both priests and laymen are careful not to limit this
number in a dogmatic fashion. Litanies are sung to "Osiris in
all his names," 87 and these names are collected in long lists; from
an early date Osiris has the epithet 's'-rnw "he of many names."'"
Hymns credit Amun with a similar multiplicity of names, "he
of many names, the number of which is not known . "89 In the
Graeco-Roman period the goddess Isis was still simply the "one
of many names," as was appropriate to the richness and di-
versity of her nature. '°
Everywhere and at all periods the gods thrive on an abun-
dance that tolerates no dogmatic restriction. The multiplicity
of names, of manifestations, and of possible ways of encoun-
tering these deities is an outward sign of this abundance . But
the innumerable names, in which the richness of the gods'
unrestricted nature is manifest , are not all of equal value and
status. The Egyptians were familiar with a hierarchy of names
wh_ich found its classic formulation in a New Kingdom mytho-
logical story, known as Isis and Re, that occurs on Ramessid
" R. 0 . Faulkner, /EA 40 (1954)34-39, and, more fully, id., An Ancient Egyptian
Bookof Hours (Oxford 1958). ·
"'E.g. at the beginning of the great hymn lo Osiris Louvre C286: A. Moret ,
BIFAO 30 (1930)7Q-5()· . .. . ' . .
'A ssmann, Al-JGno. 213; L1chthe1m, L1terat11r
"G r,;' baut, I-/y1m,e2J-24. e 11, 81.
·~o n bis poly611ym os sc, H
1
IIJJ (Livern.·.,1 Mr no h . . e · · Bell, Cults and Creeds i11Graeco-Ro1111111El(ypt
rr. r ~• ' grap s m Archaeolov d O · I "3)
16. An altar at Mon p h . ' nY an m,nta Studil.'s, Liverpool 19:,
and J. Franz'ous co' orpl yntcs was dedicalcd lo Isis 11111r i611y111
0s: A. Boeckh
· , rp11 s 11 scrir1t ·0 11111 G ·
4713b; sce further H Lew '. ' '. mecar111nIII (Berlin 1853) 353-54 no . F(~urt· 7. Isis ,ind Os iris .
l<itiabiiha). · y, ASAL 44 (1944) 228 I. 21 (Gree k inscription al
86
87
 ·-• .

Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt

Names and Combinations of Gods
91
Papyri and ostraca. The story describes the aged sun .
. a he eludes the mysterious and auto~atic
d h. t h god
graphic terms an , as is ophp?ne~,.' t he great magician god- in
his na me · In fthis wer
w Ythat we ca II "magic" and the Egyptians
dess Isis, who knows everyt mg m t e sky and on earth" nexation ° po operate only if the name and nature
except the sun god's (true) name . But even this most at~med hike (~k'). It catn· is known· knowledge of the name
knowledge of al1 will n_ot remamh. h I'dd en from ~er any longer.
secret e . t of the ac 10n , . d
By means of her magic arts s e creates a poisonous snak o_ the magician the power both to repel evil an to coerce
f the obJec
gives . 93
whose "fire" makes the god suf~er acute agony . Only Isis th:
other bemgs. Ki dom this magical importance of the name
magician can release Re from his agony through her knowJ-
In the N~w n~~n of fantastic name forms of a type very
edge of a powerful spell against snake bite, but she demands t
led to the mve . 1 . of the Graeco-Roman period and
know his name before she will use it, for "a man lives if he i~ familiar from magicaopapyf~he thousands of ostraca from the
addressed by his name."_ The sun god then enumerates a long G stic texts. ne O fI ·
list of epithets that are his due as creator and guarantor of the from no . t Deir el-Medina combines the story o sis
workmen's villa?e af ,, tic" divine names such as Hetebteni
world, ending with his three chief manifestations: "Khepry in d Re with a hst o exo d f th
the morning, Re at midday, Atum in the evening." But the an b • the bizarre forms of which, compose o e
5 d Asem em, It · cl
I poison remains in his body, because his true name is not any an t varied elements, prefigure Graeco-Roman ones. 1s ear
I of these appellations. In his agony he finally whispers this last, :~: this is a novel, "abnormal" category. of na~es, becau~
II most secret name into Isis' ear, and then the poison leaves the d nr otherwise almost unattested, 1s applied to them,
d "burning god," releasing him from his pain. Isis, the cunning athis
wormay be, a form of the norma 1 w_ord rn. ,,name, " "perverted"
,, ,,
C
magician, has achieved her purpose and learned the most secret b metathesis and evoking associations ~1th w~rds for terror
q" thing of ail; she is even permitted to share her knowledge with yd "protection."" One motive for the invention of all these
d her son Horus. :~tificial forms was certainly the desire to find the_ right name,
g, whatever the circumstances and however fantastic and unfa-
The story, which was intended as an effective spell against
ir
II snake bite, shows clearly that the chief god, at least, possesses miliar that name might be. The same desire ma_y be present,
eo secret names in addition to those he bears in cult and myth. consciously or unconsciously, in the pious worshii:ier wh~ us~s
It S~~~ texts _give the impression that there was a ritual pro- as many names as possible when he addresses his god m his
a, hibition agamst pronouncing some divine names; Ramesses IV prayers. .
Tl asserts on his stela from Abydos that "I have not pronounced For Egyptian conceptions of god, however, the reality of the
:_f. ~ ar
a, the
th name of Tatenen. ,,., It is unlikely that the name referred to is name, even outside the context of magic, is more important.
re e well-known name Tatenen itself· it must rather be another For the skeptical man in the Dispute of a Man with his ba, the
name which is to be kept secret. '
SC name is the only thing that certainly survives death; 95 like maat,
d As early _as the Pyramid Texts (Pyr. §394c) it is said of the it has a substance and is an "effective nourishment" for the
eceased kmg at the end of his journey to the sky when he 96
deceased, forming part of the nature and substance of every
appears among the g0 d h h '
does not know his . name"
s as tl'ke ighest
h god, that "his mother .,,,, know you, I know your names" : CT III, 133e; similar : CT IV, 67e. On
tricked, the deceased ki ; 1 e t . e sun god before he was the general importance of the name cf . Piankoff, Litany 3ff.; on the impor-
re, ng shares with no one the knowledge of tance of the name in Greek magical spells from Egypt see D. Wortmann, Bonner
''Translation and biblio h Jal,rbiicher168 (1968) % .
passage translated: Gardi!rapChy : Piankoff, Litany 56-59; ANET 12-14. Text of "G . Posener, Cataloguedes ostracahii!ratiq11L'S litterairi:sde Deir el Mtdineh II, 2
er, esterBeattyPI· 65, 3, 2.
" M · A • Korostovtsev BIFAO (IFAO DF 18, 1952) no . 1212; id., RdE 16 (1964) 214.
45 94 158 95
taboo. see also Moren·~,
,' Re1·1g1on (l 7J
· 22-23 = _1.l7 = KR! VJ, 23, 13• On the name W. Barta, Das Gespriic/1ei11esMa1111i:s mil sei11emBA (MAS 18, 1969) II. 36--37.
88 21 22· ,.Berlin leather roll with a later copy of an inscription of Sesostris I: A. de Buck
in Sti,dia AegyptiacaI (AnOr 17, 1938) 50.

89
 ' l ·, ' · ·.:.:·
.·.,..
v/J:•• .·. :-:•"'..

Conceptionsof God in Ancient Egypt Names and Combinations of Gods

living being . Thus in the case of divine n ,, are common to all of them . The natures
ames and .h
nature an d sphere of influence of a god ep1t ets th "lord of th e s ky d h
. are extend d , e being . . idual ods are not clearly demarcate , so t at as-
num ber of hi s names increases . By us· e as th of the mdiv d gan be identical with those of another. Here
. 'fi mg
beI1ever testi es to the abundant nature a d . many e . h e
pit ets the pects of one go ~enomenon that is of the greatest importance
. d . n nch and
su bstance em bod 1e m the god who is add P0 werfu1 encounter a p .. ,, ti' ,,
. 'bl . h ressed Just we . eligion and its deities: syncre sm .
VIS! e image en ances the reality of the god as every C for Egyptian r
also does every name or epithet that is a . d( hapter 4), so
PP 11e to him h
th e ten dency of hymns and litanies to do k - ence Syncretism . . .
..
Re, O sms, A a great gods h ho studies Egyptian syncretism 1s much indebted
or mun in a mass of epithets d sue as
· th · h
praise em wit ever more names. Among th ' an to addre ss and Anybo d Y wnnet's fundainental contn ·butions · to th e top1c.
. "" Al -
the beginning of a Ramessid hymn to O . . e many examples to Hans Bo . h 1· .
h B nnet aptly characterized syncretism as t e rea ization
fr om a num ber of copies, should suffice assms, which is k ' thoug "'dea . . , (E.mwohnung), "''' ones ti.IIcon ti.nues to
o of 'inhab1tmg
a ill . nown
n ustration : of tdh estatements
I
that syncretism means t h at go d s are "fu se d , ,,
0 • • • Osiris, foremost of the westerners . tifi d rea
,, uated " or "identified." Even "m · h a b'1ting
· " 1s · se Id om 1as tin. g;
~ndlessness, ruler of eternity, oldest so~ ·;.,~~: ~ebgod, lord of rather it is transitory, and the hnk can be 1ssoIve d at any time.
eq ' · d ' .
first one of the womb of Nut lord of B . . 1 begot, the The syncretistic formula Amon-Re "simply observes that Re is
. , usms, ru er of Abyd
sovereignover the land of silence (the realm of the d os, in Amun" (ZAS 75, 45)-the degree of intimacy and the dura-
:sor of splendor, great of terror, sacred ram before Na:~d)d_p~s- tion of the combination vary from case to case. Bonnet gave
fh conltendt
with Maat, greater than his father, mightier ;ha~~~e
mo er, or of what came into bein th h h. is another excellent definition of the formula Amon-Re in his
the great, chief of his brothers, son o~th:o:~ -t imself, greatest of Reallexikonder iigyptischenReligionsgeschichte:
red crown bore, lord of lords, ruler of ruler~e ;rown'. whom the
gods. .. _., , overe1gn, god of The formula Amon-Re does not signify that Amun is subsumed in
Re or Re in Amun. Nor does it establish that they are identical;
These are not mere glorifyin h Amun does not equal Re. It observes that Re is in Amun in such a
e' being worshiped· beh· d g p rases for the god who is way that he is not lost in Amun, but remains himself just as much
ti a reality of myth or :ul~very _nazi:ieand ev_ery epithet there is as Amun does, so that both gods can again be manifest separately
a,
directly into the invo ti ' w:1ch is often incorporated more or in other combinations. (p. 239)
Tl
because these epithet~\ ons y m~ans of wordplay. But just
~ ar We then face the problem of how and why such syncretistic
restricted to a particul da~e a reality they are not necessarily
to other gods Th ar e1ty;_almost all of them can be applied formulas arose and one god came to "inhabit" another. The
· e most vaned gOd · 1 . sun god provides perhaps the best illustration of the process.
second rank may b s, me udmg ones of the
" , even e termed ,, The sun god Re gained steadily in importance throughout the
god (Chapter 5 end) 0- . greatest god" or "unique
gods like the ir~n fil: iv_me epithets are attracted to different central period of the Old Kingdom; the earliest evidence for
th . mgs m a m ti f' this development dates to the Second Dynasty. 100 Most of the
e1r greater powers of ttr . agne c ield, and because of
most epithets. a action, th e leading gods acquire the "'"Zurn Verstandnisdes Synkretismus,"ZAS 75 (1939) 40-52; id., Reallexiko11
If Egyptian gods of uite . 237-47. Among later works see especiallyMorenz, Religio11147ff. = 140ff.;
example, "lord of the ~k "~1f!erent character are called, for Junker,Geistesha/tung130ff.; W . Schenkel,SAK 1 (1974) 275--88.
99
2;\S 75 (1939) 45; Real/exiko11
239.
14-~madanel Sayed,Document:;eltf:h1sattribute and this reality of "x,Royal
name Raneb"Re is (my)lord"(?). On further personalnamesof the
a •saSais et d' · •
:···i~
..... 90 ses ,vm,tes (IFAO BE 69, 1975) periodthat maycontainthe elementResee Kaplony,l11schriften I, 422, 555, 561,
:,;c~.;- 604.

91
 Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt Names and Combinations of Gods

names of the kings of the Fourth and Fifth dynasti· • the following types can be distirlguished, each
es conta· syncrettsm
the element Re; the ground plan of the sphinx tem in fro°:' subdivisions of its own:
I
adapted to the sun god's journey through the hour p ef Was haVlilg_ h" . deity may be the son, spouse, brother, or the
O th 1. Kins 1p. a .
day and the night;'0' from the time of Djedefre the sues e
.d d h , cessor of e
lik ' of another . ,.,_ ) . th ,,. ,, ,, .
Cheops, the kings cons1 ere t emselves to hold their offi ts that a god (or the 1'mg 1s e rmage, maru-
,, ce as 2 Statemen . f thi
"son of Re. 1 · . " ba of another . A revealmg example o s type
Jn the F~ Dynasty_the do~ance of the sun god was made festatton,h or it is said of Amun irJ his syncretistic form as
occurs w ere anif . (h ) R ,, 1115
visible architecturally m speaal solar temples, and in the Sixth -R that he "made his first m estation _prw as e :
he was so much the true creator god that other gods who Amon. e · · f
rt from his syncretisttc orm, m w · hich h e assumes
qwte apa Amun can be .
manifest for a moment comp 1 1
were thought of as creators appeared to believers as X-R features o f Re , . ete y
combined syncretistically with the sun god . The Pyramid Te~ R When we study the manifestations of the gods m Chap-
speak of a god Re-Atum (Pyr. §145b--<:and passim), meanin as
ter 4e.we shall consider irJ more d_etail w h at 1s · mean t b y th e
Atum as creator, that is, as Re. '03 From the Middle Kingdom O g "image" or "manifestation" of a deity. . .
such links become much commoner; examples are Sobek-R: 3. Finally, there are occasional complicated theological s~te-
and Khnum-Re, and, the most familiar, Amon-Re, the new ments about the union of two gods. Apart from the Leiden
state god Amun in his solar and creator aspect as Re. hymn to Amun, in which Re and Amun -~e united,
106
these
. These syn~etism~ may be interpreted as meaning that Egyp- statements relate to the union of Re and Osins, the theology of
tians recogruze Re m all these very different gods as soon as which was evidently rethought repeatedly; irJ the late period
they encounter them as creator gods, just as they "recognize"'°' the union was even enacted irJ the cult . 107 In the Coffin Texts a
the great hawk of the sky Horus in the most various gods who common formulation is that Osiris has "appeared as Re" (CT I,
have hawk form. It is also dear that every deity whom another 19lg-192a), while elsewhere it is said that the bas of Osiris and
dei_ty"inhabits" acquires an extended nature and sphere of Re meet each other in Mendes and there become the "united
action. But all these formulations are no more than irlitial at- ba" (CT IV, 276-81); according to the stela of Rarnesses IV from
tempts to grasp the meaning of syncretism. In order to achieve Abydos this united baspeaks "with one mouth."'ll! A well-known
e'
tJ a deeper ~nde~standing first we must place the phenomenon relief in the tomb of Nefretiri is virtually an illustration of this
ill of syncretism m context with other ways of combining gods idea (Plate I). It shows a ram-headed mummy between Isis and
Tl a_nd not_view it in isolation, and then we must demarcate the Nephthys captioned "This is Re when he has come to rest (Mp)
~~., nch vanety of its forms more precisely . in Osiris" and "This is Osiris when he has come to rest irJ Re";' 09
r1 lnEgyti
k P an rer·
igion there are many ways of formulating a it is thus deliberately left open which god has come to rest irJ
hn between two deities, and these formulations seem to be the other.
c osen very carefully d . d
or ev1se anew to suit each case. Apart
""Abdel Mohsen Bakir, ASA£ 42 (1943) 87 with pl. 411. 13-14 , in a hymn of the
end of the Eighteenth Dynasty ; Assmann, AHG no . 88 .
""S. Schott, " Letemple du S h " .
BSFE 5>-54 (1969) 31-4I · ;/ '.~-x a G1Zaet Jes deux axes du monde egyptien," '""Stanza "200" : Zandee, De hynmerr aan Amo11pl. 4, 13. The sentence HRe
himself is united in his (Amun's) body" may mean that Re, in the entire
Uf!
zum Bau des Tempel
10
tempels," in Beitrage Bf (l97'0":gyptische Quellen zum Plan des Sphinx·
) :>l- 79; R. Anthes, "Was veranlasste Chefren richness of his nature, is present in Amun (as Amon-Re) .
re.
He bet R' c. s vor der Sphinx'" . A f .. 7
lll Derchain , Le papyrus Salt 825 35-37, 153-56 .
' ' ic"" (Beitrage Bf 12 · in u satze zum 70. Geb11rtstag von
H W M"II - .. ' 1971147-58. "~M. A . Korostovtsev, BIFAO 45 (1947) 158 I. 10 = KRI VI, 23, I. The name
,,,, · · u er, ZAS 91 (1964) l3I O
. Here the "older" god At . · n this formula see Chapter 5 end . "united one" in the Litany of Re also belongs in this context : Hornung , Buch der
hon of solar od um is placed second I h , A11bet11ng I, l, 122, 179, 180, 239; 11, 61, n, 84, 92 .
'" F
ormulation of H. Bonn t
92
z_e
g s, Re-Harakhte R . . . · n t e other common combina·
,s_again in first position .
e , AS 7:, (1939) 46.
'"'These phrases are from the Litany of Re: Hornung, Buchdrr A11bttu11g
11, 83 = Piankoff , Lita11y35; for the scene cf. Hornung II, 53-54, 60 .
I, 178;

93
 Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt
Names and Combinations of Gods

·mil ly in programmatic scenes above the entrances to

51 ~~ r~yal tombs Isis and Nephthys worship the sun disk,
Raml~ss_ig both Re and their brother Osiris in the one heavenly
~~m
In the Book of the Dead the two gods are f elt to be a
bod·ty
y. to such an extent t h at m . many passages th eu. names
0
um ar to be interchangeable, " while in the Amduat the corpse
appe
f the sun god is at the same time· t h e corpse o f O sms
· · . 111 At th e
~ dgment of the dead it is not clear which of the two entirely
~fferent gods properly should preside. One might think that
the syncretistic formula Re-Osiris would be suitable here and
would resolve all the difficulties and variations in naming . But
the Egyptian "theologians"-here, for once, the word is ap-
propriate-deliberately avoided viewing this link between Re
and Osiris as a syncretism. 112 This careful discrimination is a great
help to us when we try to separate syncretism from other ways
of combining gods.
The correct approach is suggested by a Ramessid variant of
the formula in the tomb of Nofretiri which describes the union
of Re and Osiris in the ram-headed mummy. In this variant the
text is followed by the adverb "daily,""' thus showing how it
should be understood: Re enters into Osiris and Osiris enters
into Re daily, and the combination is dissolved again daily. The
Egyptians encounter in the form of the murdered god Osiris
e' the ineluctable fate of death, from which even the gods are not

d:':
..
ti
"
0
Especially Urk. V, 15, 12ff.; see also the gloss 88, 15-16 .
'"Sixth hour, cf. A111d11atII , 124, with further bibliographv on this combination.

~: l Ti which I wrongly termed "syncretism" (corrected in Amd,;al Ill, fH) . See also C.
Lalouette , Fidt'lesdu soleil (Facult e des Lettres et Sciences Humaines de Pa ris.

t!;i
i(J
I,', {;)
Groupe d' etudes egyptologiques, 1963) 52ff.; E. Feucht-Putz. Di,· k,,11i~lich,m
Peklora/e (Dissertation , Munich; Bamberg 1967) 12J-25; J. Zandt'<.'. An .'i11<'i.-nl
E:,:yptia11 Crossword P11zzll'(MVEOL 15, i966) 27-28; Z,1bkar. 8t1 ,,,,,,.,., t 36- 39;
·t,, Assmann , Lit11rgi sc/1eLieda 101-5.
E11 "'In the Tw enty-first Dynasty the form "Re-Osiris, !ht• greatest god " occurs for
th the first time: A. Piankoff and N. Rambova. My tlwlogiml Pt11'11ri (ERT 3, 1957)
us: no. 7, scenes 3, 5.
re. mTheban Tomb 290; see the color reproduction in R. Bo ulang er, ,(~_1!'I ti;.-!11'
1111I
a/torie11ta/iscl,eMalerei (Weltgeschichte der Malerei 2. L.1usa nne 1961) 2S lo,wr .
For further parallels to the scene in Tomb s 335 ,ind 336 cf. 8 . Bru, ·t're , Rt111~"'
s11r/es fo11illesde Deir,•/ Mi'di11eh(1924-19251 (FIFAO 3. 3. 1926) 1:'16 with figs .
PlateI. Re and O . . 67, 92; on the formula in thl' Book of the Dead set' Ass mann . /.i111 rg1. It,· Li,·tier
sins united ~
94 . , •tween Isis and Nephthys . 101-5.
95
 ' /. ,.
. .,~

;:.,·.... , ..
4"j,,' • •

Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt

Names and Combination s of God s
exempted (Chapter 5). Through the ge . .
. il nera 1IZation Of f rrns' 17 and even, on occasion, ones of opposite sex."'
na1ly royal pnv ege every deceased pe f an orj •
d om an d Iater became an "Osiris ,, bearson •
o the M·d
h I die Kin
g1- dif~eren}t: not just two but three or four gods form a new
a title or designation of role in front n~gh.
does n~t bet oken a genuine . . 0
t e god's name
1s own Th· e
lif 0
Q~it\ t ~s the object of a cult. Beside tripartite forms such as
unit t \ar-Osiris there are quadripartite ones like Amon-Re-
identity with the rul · is usage 5
rather, 1t means that through his own ff er of the dead· Ptah·k:te-Atum "• or Harmachis-Khepry-Re-Atum (Urk. IV, 1542,
takes on a previously determined rol: ~hrtsttbhehuman being' r~~~n such cases one is .rem.inded of che~cal compounds; ~ike
Osiris. '" s·imilar Iy, in
· h is
' daily descent into tha ears th e name syncretistic combmations can be dissolved at any time
the sun god Re must also become "O . . : realm of the dead
. h
appears in t e underworld as a "corpse ,, B t .
sms, for he d'
. ies and
.::~heir
th

i~her
constituent elements, which can also form part of
combinations without sacrificing their individuality.
0
Egyptians imagine that there is a tru ·. u in this case the Is the purpose of these combinations a clever priestly "equal-
th d d R e union. Unlike th ization" of conflicting religious claims, as Bonnet, like his pre-
. e ecease , e does not assume the title "O .. "· . e rest of
mcorporates the ruler of the dead . t h. sins , instead he decessors, assumed? 120 Must gods be "equated" with one another
foun diy tha t both have one body in od is own ,, being so pro- until one finishes with a vague, solar-tinged pantheism? Such
mouth." Osiris does indeed seem toa~e ~n bspe~k with one an interchange of attributes, which leads toward uniformity,
becomes the night sun, which awakens
ers from the sleep of death.
t sor ed into Re, and
he underworld dwell-
is un-Egyptian; if anything it is Hellenistic . The Egyptians place
I the tensions and contradictions of the world beside one an-
(
But this linking of the two . other and then live with them . Amon-Re is not the synthesis of
~en the sun god appears ag!r:~ng~h:s ~s ?f sh?rt duration .
(
Amun and Re but a new form that exists along with the two
C ' mg he is no longer Osiris . . onzon in the mom- older gods. In this case one could, if necessary, provide argu-
(l death. An "image" of him' i:~df isbfr~e fr?m all the fetters of ments for an "equalization" required by religious politics--
g underworld-the outward sh ~ t f ehind in the depths of the however questionable such a method may be-but what could
;, Osiris in one 111 Th. d ·1 e o the god who was Re and be the purpose of "equalizing" Horus and Sothis or Harmachis,
tJ duration of which is:Ie:;{ ;:~~:~e~ uni?n of two gods, the
e Khepry, Re, and Atum? In the last example, the three daily
from the syncretistic b~ . , is a different phenomenon forms of the sun god are evidently present together in the
tJ s·impIy because of its com ination Amon-Re
multi r . . Great Sphinx (Harmachis): the sun is Khepry in the morning,
theism poses the problem of p ia~ of names and forms, poly- Re or Harakhte in the middle of the day, and Atum in the
·, or not it attempts to o d h rel~hons between gods-whether
7) Th E r er t em m a large t
· e gyptians evident! £ h. . _r sys em (see Chapter
1
!
to solve it by means of a y e t . '.s d1ff1culty, and attempted
"'T he hawk-form Horus , for example, can be combined with the most various
of deiti es. Cf . Bonnet, ZAS 75, 45 : " Inhabiting is not identity , and does not re-
mulas. The most import ~ultipl1c1ty of carefully ranked for- quire identity of form ."
fo~ulas is syncretism :n , and . one of the oldest , 11• of these "' Bonnet excluded this possibility (ZAS 75, 47), but occurrences have since
fusion of the gods inv~Iv:~a~:e it does ~ot imply identity or been found of Neith-Osiris (Amduat I, 188 no. 803), Mut-Min (H . G . Fischer ,
1 illscriptions from tire Coptite Nome [AnOr 40, 1964) 38; H . Goedicke , /ARCE 3
"'F ' can combine deities who have
or reference 5 11964] 45), and Horus-Sothis (Edwards, Decrees 24 with n . 12, 114: Sothi s- Horu s,
"'Amdu see my Geschichteal the later form) . Thus this unusual type of combination is not restricted to
"''Th at II, 193 (fourth scene) s Fest (Darmstadt 1966) 24 with 55
ere may be a combi . . n. . androgynous deities such as Neith .
;:ee Zaki Saad, CdE 21! nation Horus-Min as e "'P . Barguet, Le temple d'Amo11 -Re tl Karnak(IFAO RAPH 21, 1962) 256 (Eigh-
syncretism is not ad 42 (1946) 198; Junker G . arly as the Second Dynasty, teenth Dyna sty) ; Medi11 et Hab11VI pl. 430B col. I; with the last tw o element s
Egy r1 evelopm , e1stesha//ung132 3
P an thought" (Ziis ent [of the hist . . - 3. For Bonnet rever se d: M. Plantikow -Mun ster, ZAS 95 (1969) l20(a) .
• 75 11939) 41). onca 1 periodJ ; ii is fundamental to '"'Reallexikon 237, cf. also 238: "cult-political considerations ." E. Otto spoke
96
more cautiously of "exchange," but also of "union " (Saec11/um14 f1963J 272).
97
 Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt Names and Combinations of Gods

evening. The deity's human partner-not just the . s with as clear and well defined a na~re
, genera 1-recogruzes· · t h e divine imaPnest ' but t themselves to u f G ece The conception of god which
believers m m sen h gods o re · bl But we
Great ?Phinx_both_th~ sun god in his threefold form, !et:: ~h~
s that of t e . fluid unfinished, changea e .
versality of his daily J~urney_ across the world, and the S ~-
~e encounter here is the E ptians confused conceptions . ~f
should not impute t~ea is ?ontradicted by numerous speofic
which is itself a marufestation of the sun god Togethp ' their gods ; such an ~efined statements throughout _the texts .
. · erthe
f
tetrad of 1:ames and orms .prodfuces ak~mgle new partner for
d etails and bclearly
other reasons
for the vagueness of this concep-
b tudym
· g the
the worship and cu 1t service o man md; for the cult t00 There mu st e . be discovered only Y s
something new arises from the syncretistic combination. 1;, ' f d which can S)
It is clear that syncretism does not contain any "monotheistic ~;p~a;:;tion of existent~o~~i;~~!e~ods to be strictly de-
tendency," but rather forms a strong counter-current to mono- It is evidentl~ unnatu~a fluid state to which we are not
theism-so long as it is kept within bounds. Syncretism softens fined . Their being remains ad matic final definition and can
henotheism, the concentration of worship on a single god, and accustomed; it escapes ev~~er ~ffferentiated. The combinations
stops it from turning into monotheism, for ultimately syncre- always be extended or fud are transitory in many respects and
tism means that a single god is not isolated from the others : in gods form with other go _s Thi fluidity leaves no room for
Amun one apprehends and worships also Re, or in Harmachis can be dissolved ~t any tim_~· If :n unambiguous definitions.
other forms of the sun god. In this way the awareness is sharp- monotheism, which basest~es:tudy of the manifestations ~d
ened that the divine partner of humanity is not one but many. Let us now see whether d frms this initial impression .
characteristics of Egyptian go s con 1
The names of the gods, which may be obscure in meaning or
may be periphrases that leave their possessors fundamentally
I
anonymous, can tell us little about Egyptian conceptions of
C
god. But the accumulation of names, syncretism, and the inter-
( changeability of epithets lead straight to the problem of the one
l and the many. Together with multiplicity of forms discussed in
i Chapter 4, they make up a trait of the Egyptian conception of
t
god which Gerard us van der Leeuw 122and Henri Frankfort 123 called
e
tJ its _"vagueness ." The form, name, and epithets of an Egyptian
a deity seem to be variable almost at will, and are largely inter-
T changeable with those of other deities. The deceased Egyptian
~ a, who takes on the role of a god in the next world also wishes
a1
r,, to assume many forms and appear under many names; the
~~merous "transformation spells" in the mortuary texts help
. r 1m to achieve this goal.

~l 1f We shall find repeat edly that Egyptian deities do not pre-

f.:thE! 121According to J, s ie el
O .
1953)622-23, the firsf lg ' as Werden der a/tiigyptischen HOfhkultur (Heidelberg
UJ
re
.
is to be worshiped in the 1

'"God
123
e ement m the c b' ,

_svoorstellingen 120. ,
om ma tion is the form in which the go
d
true only to a limited ext:: t t, As Junker showed (Geisteslraltung 131-32), this is \
Rtlrg,on 26 ,
99
98
\
\
 Depiction and Manifestation of the Gods

Jtifarious and highly differentiated. The main sites are, in

~o:er Egypt, Maadi and Heliopolis, and, in Upper Egypt,
B dari and Naqada . Animal burials have been found in all
t:ese places, most commonly of ga~elles and d~gs (or_jackals),
nd more rarely of cattle and rams. - The care with which these

4 ~ Depiction and Manifestation

\imals were buried and provided with grave goods is evi-
~ence for a cult of sacred animals or of divine powers in animal
form. The cosmetic palettes now assume animal form, and fi-
of the Gods nally, at the end of the predynastic period, they are richly dec-
orated with animal figures in relief, the most notable examples
being the "animal palettes" in Oxford and in the Louvre. 3 From
The first stages the Naqada I period there are also figures of animals on deco-
rated vases and in the form of clay statuettes.
The names of the gods are a source for h In view of the numbers of these representations and of the
conceptions of god as far back as th tb e ~tu~y of Egyptian evidence for animal burial, there can be scarcely any doubt
around 3000 e.c . Representations . ~ egmnmg of literacy that in the last centuries of prehistory the Egyptians for the
back another millennium wh . h . of dJVme powers can take us most part worshiped divine powers in animal form . But even
putative origins of these ~on ic t_1s as near as we can get to the in that period there was no pure zoolatry . From Naqada II
Th t . cep 10ns. times and from the beginning of the historical period the ani-
e rue neolithic period in E .
mals on "standards" and archaic objects of uncertain character
bcultures)
. has not so iar ' pro d uced gypt any (Menmda and Faiyum
e interpreted With certain . . represen _tations that can which were carried on poles are evidence for the worship of
powers. No conclusions ty a~ depictions or symbols of divine sacred objects.' To judge by the representations, this fetishism
dence, because the art ot:{; ~ drawn from this lack of evi- was much less important than animal worship, but because
and the first cosmetic alet e _time consists of pottery vessels of the chances of preservation and other factors they may be
man beings, animals, :. ob_tes, the~e are no depictions of hu- an imperfect record. The later nome standards evolved for-
t? establish from archeoJo J_ects. 1~is, for example, impossible mally from the predynastic carrying poles, and, as we saw in
t'.~es there Wasa Worship ~~c;1/~1dence whether in neolithic Chapter 2, the commonest hieroglyph for "god" shows a fetish
of a similar type .
na s. !he absence of anim I : '~ es made of perishable mate-
r~veahng. Here, too ne a . unals seems to me to be more It is disputed whether the third stage of development posited
picture, but the Worshipo7 finds could suddenly change the by Gustave Jequier (cf. p . 39-anthropomorphism or the wor-
important as 1·1 sacred animal
The h 1 . was in later Egypt" . ~ was probably not so ' Fur a summar y of the subj!!ct S!!e SIG 20 (1967) 74-75, with the mos t important
f c a eolithic period I . ian rel1g1on.' rd !!rences in nn . 51-52 (especi a lly H. Behren s, "Neolithi sch-fruhmetallzeitliche
ou_rthmillennium , . asting in E
8 Tie rskelet _tfunde a us dem Nilgebiet und ihre religi onsgesc hichtlich e Bedeu -
belief in god h" -C. , bnngs the f gypt for much of the tun g," ZAS 88 fl 963J 75-83).
. s, w 1ch is alread . ,rst clear evidence for a
Coni,a,t th . d Y at th,s earl t 'l_n e .g . H. Asse lberghs , Chaos 1·11 Behcers i11:,:
(Documenta e t Monumenta Ori-
makriaJ in 11 / c:a, c:vidc:nc., for a bt!H. . . Y s age surprisingly en_i,, Antiqui 8, Leiden 196 1) figs. 122- 24, 127- 30 .
Prc:d . . · A. Murray " I' . t f •n l1fo after d
Yna5t,c l:;;ypt .. f f"A 42, ,un aJ u,1,,m ea th at thi s tim e · selected p On th e : ta_ndard s sec• W. Kais!!r ZAS 84 (1959) 119- 32; 85 ( 1960) 118- 37;
' · (J9- · ' and lJ 1· ' . · Munro , ZAS 86 (1961) 6 1- 74. For the ma terial set• M . Raphael , Prehi torrc
10() "6/ -'s6-9r,
_ e •ef in th!! Her eafter in
Pottay and Civiliw tio11i11Egypt (Bollingen Se ric•s 8, [New Yorkj 1947); Vand ier,
Mt11111e/
l (1952), esp . the collectio n o f examplt• s p . 341 and fig . 231.

IO I
 Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt
Depiction and Manifestation of the Gods
hip of deities in human form-was reached in pr d
stimes. Human figures of clay an d ivory
. are occasional]e Ynasti
f c rship of anthropomorphic deities in pre-
fort h e w O . 0 . h
in the Badari culture an_d become common in the Naqrdaound eviden~e t Deities such as Min, e1th, and nuns, w om
rures; these have bee~ mterpr_eted repeatedly as deities. Th~- dynastic Egyp ." h man form at the beginning of history, were
·oct- b
have even been explained as figures of the "great mother J we enc
ounter m u .
most probab
1
Y
d
shiped already in the Naqa a pen ,' ut
worgraphy is known only from historical times
dess," e, en though by no means all of them are clearly f g - . human icono . . d
. .
there are no attri bu tes o f di v1ruty, an d a nude "motherernaJe' their little about the earlier peno .
dess" is quite unknown in Egypt in the earlier historical pe~::- and thus tells uturs of the nonliterate evidence from prehistory
· in the na e
1 15 • d
One should be equally skeptical about the attempt to ide tify . t inf tion it provides about the gods 1s sparse an
naked , bearded figures as gods. s In reliefs and paintings ~ the that _the o~a a few of the historical deities of Egypt can be
time pointed beards of the sort found on several figurines a
0 ambiguous . for~ distance into prehistory . The "standards"
often worn by enemies, while in late predynastic and ear~e traced ba~he exiftence of early hawk cults, but they do not
dynastic times nakedness is reserved for subjugated enemies J do:::~ether
sh
the gods are Horus or other hawk g~s. Nor can
t f Horus the violent and destructive Seth, be
Egypt. The fragile material of the clay figurines also decreases the opponen ° ' hi
made out with certainty in the gloom of pre story. m y, e
e F all th
the probability of their representing deities. No attributes that
are comparable to those of deities have been found so far. oddess in cow form, who is fo~nd on_ the Narmer palette
A monograph by Peter J. Ucko deals with the problems of rF 9) and about three centunes earlier on a palette from
authenticity, dating, and interpretation raised by these figures.• G~r~ is 'iconographically closer to Bat, a goddess who was
After a careful analysis Ucko rejects the interpretation of them later ~orshiped in the seventh Upper Egyptian no~e, 10 than to
as idols. He refers to the wide variety of uses and meanings the better-known Hathor; the stars added to the image show
that such figurines can have in other cultures, and assumes that she is already a sky goddess. . .
that there was a comparable diversity in Egypt. Some could be The predynastic Egyptians' view of the relationship betw~n
dolls, others magically efficacious images that were used for animal and human being can probably be seen most cl~arly m
~arious rituals or as votive offerings. He considers the possibil- the "Battlefield" palette, of which there are fragments m Lon-
ity that some were pieces cf equipment used in initiation rit- don and Oxford (Figure 8). 11 The recto of this cosme~c palette
uals, but do_es not find adequate reasons for identifying any shows a battlefield covered with the contorted bodies of de-
of them as images of deities. There is, therefore, no certain feated enemies; other enemies are being captured and led away
,1
,.. . 'Beards_a~e used as a tentative criterion of divinity ("The pointed beard may
indicate divine status ") b W N di ,, .
'Certain only for Neith and for Min, whose fetish (not yet convi~cingly iden-
RoyaI Ontano • ee
tified) is found, like the crossed arrows of Neith , on predynastic standards
S4 . Museum · "Y /ARCE - 1er, 51}(Predynastic Human Figures in the (Vandier , Manuel I, 340--41) and on the "Scorpion" mace head (J . E. Qu1bell,
'11 15)· Bead r s are fa1rly
. wides
'. d::,·( 966)
I 11-17 with pl. 5-9 (quotation from p. HierakonpolisI [Egyptian Research Account 4, London 1900] pl. 26c, 1). On the
' J, occur on 50 fi prea m ate predynastic sculpture and relief and
me gures that are b bl -h . . . problem of the colossi of Min see below.

~
the animal kee h pro a Y ne1t er enemies nor divine, such as 'Te Velde , Seth 7-12 .
pers on t e recto of th N .
Hirmer, Agypten!Egypt(4th ~ armer palette , m e.g . K. Lange and M. "W. Kaiser, ZAS 91 (1964) 119.
.
Anthropomorphic r,·gurrnes
. ed., Munich 1967/London 1968) pl. 4.
of Predyn t' E " H. G. Fischer, "The Cult and Nome of the Goddess Bat," /ARCE 1 (1962)
atrvtMaterialfromthe Preh15 .t . as rc gyp/ and NeolithicCrete, with Compar-
7-23; 2 (1963) ~51. I owe this reference to E. Staehelin, who studied Bat and
the interpretation see orrc NearEaS/and Mainland Greece(London 1968; for
I t. pp. 409-44) · 1'd I the bat pendant in her U11ters11cl11111gen zur iigyptischen Trac/rt i111Allen Reich
ns rtutes26 (1963)20:>-22 . ' · , ournal of the Warburg and Co11rta11ld (MAS 8, 1966) 128-35.
Ivory f' . (with H W M H d .
(1% igunnes from Egypt ,, /0 · · · o ges); id., "Anthropomorphic "There is a probable third fragment: J. R. Harris , /EA 46 (1960) 104-5; H. v, ·
5) 214--39 ' urnal o' th R 1 . • 5
• J e oya Anthropologrcal/ns/1/11/e9 Muller, Agyptische Kwrstwerke, Kleinf1111de 1111d
Glas in der Sa111111l1mg E. 1111
d ~.f.
102 Kofler-Trrmiger , Luzern (MAS 5, 1964) no . A3.

103
 Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt
Depiction and Manifestation of the Gods

tt of the time and in predynastic rock drawings. 12 But it

pale escertain, at least, that men of this period (c. 3000 e.c.) felt
seems elves defenseless wit. h out an aruma. 1 d.1sgmse.
. Animal s
thems
still appear to be the most _power _ . an e. cac10us mgs, .far
ful d ffi · be.
erior to men in all theu capaaties. This probably explams
s0
!y in late predynastic times the powers that determine the
:urse of events were mostly conceived in animal form.
c At the beginning of the historical period this view of man's
position and of the supe~~rity of an~als chang~d radically.
The earliest kings of a unified Egypt still have ammal names:
Scorpion, Catfish, Kite (?), Cobra, "Wing-spreader" (that is,
probabl y, "bird of prey") . Toward the end of the First Dy-
nasty (c. 2800 e.c.) , however, this type of name disappears for
good. In the extraordinary exertions of intellectual and physical
power which produced the first civilizations, man also achieved
a new self-awareness. He ordered the world creatively and
subjected it to his planning and interpreting mind, no longer
feeling himself to be the plaything of incomprehensible powers .
This process may be related to the fact that the powers that
were worshiped as deities came more and more to show a hu-
man face, and their original animal or inanimate form changed
into a human one.
This evolution "from dynamism to personalism"IJ took place
between 3000 and 2800 e.c. There are certainly many repeti-
tions of it and parallels for it in the history of religions, but only
Fig ure 8. The "Battlefield" I in Egypt can its history be observed and documented. The "an-
pa ette, obver se.
thropomorphization of powers" (Vennenschlich11ngder Miichte),
in fetters. Naked and ·th as it has been termed more aptly, produced the first gods in
· h wi outw human form, but other methods of depicting this anthropo-
m uman form-is an ima eapons, the subjugated party-
to~s, to whom the defeatele of utter defenselessness. The vic- morphization appear at the same time . The cow heads that
~m;_al powers: lion bird o;urrender helplessly, are shown as crown the Narmer palette (Figure 9) contain a human face that
y irds. The figur: on th prey, and standards surmounted looks at the viewer , and the subjugated "land of papyrus " has
Iower part · e extrem · h a human head; this personal mode of encounter with a foreign
throu h it is pre_served, partakes e ng . t, of whom only the
we ca~notskclothmg; Without the o~ a~1mal potency at least "Cf. E. Hornung, SIG 20 (1967) 73 with n. 43.
now wh h missing f "As A . Bertholet termed it, in W. J. Kooiman and J. M. va n Veen, eds. ,
butes as an . et er it was "d ' . part o the palette
animal, as are the h isguised" with other attri- Pro regno pro sa11ct11ario(Nijkerk 1950) 35ff. The fundament al treatment s of
104 uman h the subj ect in Egypt a_re Seth e, Urs_esc
lrichte §§30--37; S. Schott , Mytlre urrd
unters on the other
Mythe11bild1111
g im a/ten Agypten (UGAA 15, 1945) 88-97.
105
 °'~t\<·:'
J ~. . · ;-

Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt

Depiction and Manifestation of the Gods

is also shown on a stela fragment of King Khasekhem

coun try 1•
of the Second Dynasty. . . .
M st of the earliest depictions of gods m human form show
b ~y without separate limbs. The use of this iconography cer-
0
a . 1y does not reflect a Jack of artistic skill, but must have some
tam . . .
other, as yet undiscovered, meanmg. Mummy form, which 1s
depicted in simila~ fashion, cannot ~ave be~n the model ~-
cause mummification . was not practiced until some centunes
later; it is, indeed, more likely that the mummy form of the
deceased, who become "gods," relates to the archaic form of
the earliest anthropomorphic gods. I should rather seek an
interpretation in another direction, in the deliberate concentra-
tion on essential and unavoidable features of the human form,
and ignoring of all dispensable details, which can be seen so
clearly in sculpture at the beginning of the early dynastic pe-
riod. This same schematic outline is used in the Egyptian script,
which was invented at the same time, as a classifier for all
words that mean "representation" or, more generally, "image."
The archaic figure of a god shows no more and no less than is
necessary to evoke an image in human form; there are early
parallels in the images of divine animals, such as a hawk or a
cow, which are drawn with similarly schematic outlines. Should
we see here a deliberate restraint, in which no more is said
about the gods than is absolutely necessary? The only firm
conclusion that we can draw is that their appearance can be
human from now on .
At first the number of these gods in human form is small.
From the First Dynasty the annal stone in Palermo records the
making of a statue of Min which already has the familiar hu-
man form of the god with a raised flail and erect penis (line
2); in line 5 the production of a statue of Min is recorded
again, in the Third Dynasty. 15 Strictly speaking, however, this
is not contemporary evidence . The annal stone, which records
years down to the Fifth Dynasty, is based on a late copy from
Figure9 Th
early records, so that its sign forms may be influenced by later
. e Nanner
palette, verso. "J. E. Quibell and F. W. Green , HierakonpolisII (Egyptian Research Account 5,
London 1902) pl. 58; W. B. Emery, Archaic Egypt (Harmondsworth 1961) 100
106 fig. 64.
"H. Schafer , Ein Bruchstiicka/tiigyptischerAnnalen (APAW, Anhang 1902).
107
 Concepti o ns of God in Ancient Eg y pt Depiction and Manifestation of the Gods

models. But it is much more likely to be genuine .

tradition than a matter of chance that in the late pe _a~cient
Egyptians placed Min at the beginning of histor y no ~he
, creatin
a link between him and the legendary founder of th g
e state
"Menes."'•
The colossal "archaic" statues of Min from Koptos a
. A re of
uncertain value as evidence. s monumental sculpture in st
they can scarcely be earlier than the Third Dynasty, and one
even date d down mto . the f"1rst mterme
. d.1ate period by Were
E J
Baumgartel.,; But an image of Ptah incised on a stone vase fr. ·
Tarkhan can definitely be placed in the early dynastic peri:~
(Figure 10'. extreme ~ight)." ~or other deities such as the god-
desses Ne1th and Sahs there 1s so far only the evidence of early
personal names, and we can do no more than guess that th Fig11r
e 10. Figures of gods on early dynastic objects .
assumed human form during the first two dynasties., . Relie~
fragments in Turin provide an example of Geb in the ear~ During the first two dynasties the group of purely anthro-
Third Dynasty;20 like him, the other cosmic deities are in hum y pomorphic deities appears in addition to the gods in purely
form (Figure 4): t-:Jut_(the sky), Shu (air), and Atum, the god:~ animal form, who are still predominant-Horus and Seth, the
the primeval begmnmg . We can assume that in the Third o _ Apis bull, and the baboon-form "great white one." What is
nasty, at the beginning of the Old Kingdom, all these deiti!s lacking at the beginning of the early dynastic period is the
were already familiar to Egyptians in the form that was later "mixed form" of gods, combining human and animal elements,
normal for _them, although our fragmentary evidence does not which is so characteristic of Egypt. Toward the end of the
so far provide proof of this point. Second Dynasty the first gods in human form with animal
heads (hawk and the fabulous Seth animal) appear on cylinder
'"See the post humou s article of
99 (1973) X- XVJ - R 1· .
s M
. . oren z,
"T ..
rad1tionen um Menes," ZAS
.. seal impressions of King Peribsen (Figure 10); the earliest ex-
,- - e rg,on1111d Geschrchte 162-73 amples show the god Ash, "lord of Libya . " 21 The first example
'ASAE 48 (1948) 533--53; cf. also J C . ·. . ..
inson's Univers ity Library L d · " erny , Ancrent Egyptian Rel1g1011(Hutch- of the mixed form with a hawk's head is on a Third Dynasty
, on on 19:,2) 28 V d ' M
to the Second or Third D t · an •er, nnuel I, 986 dates them stela in the Louvre; 22 this is the god Horus, who in the First
" ynas y.
For another early dynastic picture of Dynasty had been shown exclusively in animal form _ There is
pyramideti degres V (Servic d A . _P_tah see P. Laca u a nd J.- P . Lauer , Lil
Cairo• e es nt1qu1tes d l'E
1965) 18-19 fig. 28· eight e . e gy pt e, Fouilles a Saqq a rah ,
also a pair of figures with birdlike heads and ram's horns on a
' ar 1Y ca 1cite va ·h very early, but not precisely datable, small stone shrine.:?.!
are re ferred to on pp . 19-20 ses wit repr es entati o n s of Min
"F .
or Neit h this development can b d
(c._2840) and Ninetjer (c. 2700 s.c.), :ee ated mor e _precise ly between kings Djet
he1l1gt11111des Kiinigs Userkaf II (Beitrages?s Schott in E. Edel et al., Das So1111e11- The "mixed form" and its interpretation
e_arly dynastic stat uette of a goddess(') f ' 1969) 125-26 . In Munich th ere is an
t1sc/rer K1111 st (Mu · h 197 · rom Abydo . St 1. Although this fusion of human body and animal head never
,,, . . nic 6) 34, AS 1512 s. ant re/reSm1111il11w,:iigvp-
W. ~rn;;:,:t:u,ldmg in Heli~poHs, publi~hed b . . ' .
superseded the representation of gods in purely human or
ed London,IA94H9),s113o? of EgyplranSc11 lpt11r(' a/d RP. Weill, Sp/1111:r15 (1912) 9-26; "Kaplony, lnsc/1riften III pl. 76--80.
., .,_37 fig· 48- 5 n111t111g· ti
111 . 22
E 25982: J. Vandier, CRAIBL 1968, 16-22; id., Muset· d11Lo11vrr.le de,111rteme11/
this se ries whi'ch
,
h s.
uses I e same ·
3. Seth , too ev·d •e
, 1 ently h
Old K111gdo111(2d
fig 50 3) iconograph y f as a hum an h ead in des nntiq11it
es egyptie1111es,
g11idesommaire (Pari s 1973) pl. 2, 2.
· , · or all th d .. 23
H . W . Muller, Agyptisclie K1111s/werkt
• ... Smnm/Jmg ... Ko/1er-Trwiiger. . .
e eihes shown (Smith
108 (n . 11 above) no . A31.

109
 Of God in Anci e n t Egy pt . 1.o n a n d Ma nif es(;) tio n o f t h e God
De p 1Cl'
Conc· p i
. -,J form ' but add
ur Jv anim.u . ed a valuabl e ne w typ e , 1t
. ha
P. 1•, been taken as what LS mo st characteri stic of the E s
wide } · f d i. A I h d gyp.
ti.an depiction and concepti o~ o go . s hs owe at the begin.
.. f the first chapt er, this type was w .at caused the e
rungo . . fE t· . . ary
d assionate reiection o gyp 1an re 11g1on . Egyptian g d.1
an p h d d" . d o s
are certainly not all '.'dog- ea : . or et1ppe _wi_thother ani- .,,'
mal heads, but this iconograp y LS so c aractensttc of and irn.
rtant for the Egyptian image of the gods that we should
~d\ it in more detail. We must not treat this mixed form in ,,1~ _.
J

~
:O iation, but must view it in the context of all the possible
ways of representin~ a ~eity. . . .. . .
There is an astomshmgly nch vanety of poss1b~1ties; only
to a very limited extent can one speak of a canonically fixed
iconography of a god . The goddess H~thor is a good example
(Plate 11). Her normal iconograp hy, .which !s
familiar to us,
shows a slim woman who wears a wig covenng her head and
on top of it a pair of cow horns with a sun disk between them .
There are, in add ition, three more ways of imagining Hathor.
In direct contrast to her completely human form, the goddess
may have a pure animal form, as, for example, in the Hathor
shrines of Deir el-Bahri, where she is depicted as a cow from
whose udder the king drinks or as a cow stepping forth from
the western mountains of Thebes and taking the deceased into
her protection. In between there is the unusual form of the
capital of a Hathor column or pillar (Figure 11), which is well
known to everybody who visits the temples of Deir el-Bahri or
Dendara : a cow head with human face , whose ears are animal
.
f.,. ...
·-~ )
' ,ilt,,,.
.... .

and whose eyes, nose, and mouth are human . Finally, the
r ~orm of human body with animal head is not lacking; Hathor is
d
s m
,a th eed less th
commonly shown as a woman with a cow ' s head
an in o er forms, but without searching too far one can find
T
E m~~{ e~amples in two and three dimensions (as in Plate III,
-ti w ic s ows Mehetweret rather than Hathor). 25
U/ _ 'O n the mixed form in general 5 . . . . •
JOnsgeschichtliche Versuche und v:e R. Merz, Dre 11u111111 oseM,schgestalt (Rehg·
" Bron1,estatuettes of the lat , . rarbeiten 31, Berlin 1978).
(CCC, 1905) nos. 39133(M ·h c penod in Cairo: G. Daress y Statues di· diui11it es
t etwcret') 39!34- '
u,rd Mc11 S<h I07 fig. 31; st•e also W. · ' ~9140bis (Hathor); Morenz , Gott
13
Isis); in Brooklyn: Frankfort R 1. . · Emery, /EA 56 (1970) pl 9 J (publish ed as
, f 1111011 fig 14· . . . . . P/11t
e II . Th,• kin~ bdc •n• I lnth ur .
I IO · ' in Leiden: C. J. Bleeker, Ha//wra11tl

1
....
...
Conceptionsof God in Ancient Egypt Depiction and Manifestation of the Gods

different forms show the same goddess Hathor,

All the~e veryraphy appears still richer when one recalls that
an d her 1conog
. gined as a lioness, a sna k e (uraeus ) , a h 1ppopot-
.
h
s e is also ima .
d tree nymph. Although the various arms are notf
amuS, a~ ald 26 we are not observing a historical development
~ll eq~ahy one' form replaced another; at all periods different
O
1n whic depicting · ly ex1ste
· d s1.d e b y s1'd e. A
the goddess s1mp
ways Of L
most unusual group statue m t e ouvre b nngs
· h · toget h er m
. a

~,c:
-r-:;1 • s fashion cow lion-headed
cunou with sistrum on
d ess 27
goddess, uraeus, and god-
' her head, showing . four forms of the
goddess next to one another.
, .\!L-~ "\ We should not, therefore, assume that the Egyptians imag-
~' ~---=
·- ·. , 1·" ined Hathor as a woman with a cow's head. It is more plausi-

. -.-/
,....
\·

;" '.
- -~ ,. ,
ble to see the cow as one possible manifestation of Hathor, and
the cow's head and cow's horns as attributes that allude to a
... \
' ~.... ' . ··• .. ~ -~ . manifestation of the goddess or a part of her nature. In Hathor

'' J;\ .-,-.":,~'~~!

~- , ,

there is the maternal tenderness of the cow, but, among many

other characteristics, also the wildness of the lioness and the
unpredictability of the snake. Any iconography can be no more
than an attempt to indicate something of her complex nature. I
shall review some examples which show still more clearly that
. ,;-''._.,. •-. ,
',

Thoth (SHR26, Leiden 1973)pl. 3a. The earliest examples in relief date to the
Ramessidperiod; tombs of Tawosret (Mehetweret, Plate llI here) and Ramesses
111;stela showing Hathor as a tree goddess with a cow's head: 5 . Bosticco,
C M11seoarcl1eologico reg110(Rome 1965)no.
di Firenze, Le stele egiziane de! 1111ovo
48 = Ramses Moftah, ZAS 92 (1965)44 fig. 4; shrine: W. M . F. Petrie and G.
. . Brunton, Sed111e11t II (BSAE,27th year 1921, 1924)pl. 74; lintel in Brooklyn: J.
.. Berlandini-Grenier , BIFAO 74 (1974)pl. 3. As Hathor-Hecatethe same form is
found on magical gems of the Graeco-Romanperiod: P. Delatte and P. Der-
C..
chain, Les intail/es 111agiq11esgreco-egyptie1111es (BibliothequeNationale, Cabinet
' ', ~es medailleset antiques, Paris 1964)155-56. There are several examplesof Isis
I, ,
m the form in the Graeco-Romanperiod (she has cow's horns as early as CT I,
I 'i'
~- .- ' \
<· .
215b).
'"Treenymphs and the mixed form with a cow's head are not attested before
~
• • I ' o
the New Kingdom, but the suckling Hathor cow occurs in the Twelfth Dy-
. I; ;_' .. :·' ~-~~·
, • ~- ,} 1' • ~-· '
nasty, while cow's horns with inset sun disk are familiar from the Old King-
, . "il;_\ ..· "' . dom (e.g. the triad statues of Mycerinus).
... ~ 1/ ,
27] , Vandier, La revue du Louvreet des museesde France19 (1969)49-54with fig.
' ;1 /;,;,'
14; id., "Une groupe du Louvre representant la deesse Hathor sous quatre
de ses aspects," Melanges de l'Universite Saint-Josep/145 (Beirut 1969)159-83;
PlateIII. Mehetw
eretWithth h Ptolemaic(?).
112 e ead of a cow. 113
 - ~~
, ; ,.,.,,

Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt

Depiction and Manifestation of the Gods

b"1 ation of animal head and human body can be

and the co~ 0 ~ly for Hathor but also for Anubis (canine form),
observe? ~o d baboon form), and many other deities. Even
th (ibis an . .
Th O h ossibility of alluding to the ammal element by
furt er P .
th e f the ears only is, although unusual, not restricted
0
means . nography of Hathor. The demon "violent of face"
t0 the 1co ,
) • the seventh hour of the Amduat has a cat s head
(1nds-ir1 m
• opies but in earlier ones he has a human head and
in ,later sc ,. A punishing
' demon with . cats, h ea d a lso appears m
.
cats ear • . b • ) 29 d h
h Book of Caverns (fourth section, ottom register , - an t e
t e od himself can take on the form of the "great tomcat"
sun g . h h" • 30
(F re 12) in order to pums 1s enerrues.
~ with mammals and birds, so also with amphibians and
reptiles the Egyptians do not hesitate to combine a human
body with the relevant animal's head; the long tripartite wig
worn by almost all gods neatly disguises the transition be-
tween human and animal nature (Plate IV). The goddess Heqet,
who helps woman in childbirth, appears as a frog or with a
frog's head, while among crocodile-headed gods Sobek (Greek
Suchos) is predominant; among the many snake goddesses I
shall confine myself to the harvest goddess Renenutet, who is
shown with a snake's head in relief and even in sculpture. 31
Here too the long wig disguises the transition, but the figure's
appearance verges nonetheless on the grotesque; one step fur-
ther, for example, to gods with insect heads, and the sphere of
the eery or the ridiculous would be reached.
The Egyptians themselves also felt that forms such as this
, one were at the limit of what was acceptable in this type of
s iconography. "As elsewhere, the Egyptians' feeling for dignity
a
1
E "'No. 495 (cf. Amduat II, 128).
,.A. Piankoff, Le liure des quererts (Cairo 1946) 43.
.1
:'1' "'Shown in a well-known vignette to chap . 17 of the Book of the Dead (e.g.
Hornung , Tote11b11c/r69), and earlie·i-on a Middle Kingdom "ivorv wand" in the
Figure11. Hathor pillar .
Metropolitan Museum of Art: W. C. Hayes, Tire Sce11terof Egv,;t I (New York
pictures of gods h 1953) 249 fig. 159. - .
· .
descnptions of s ould not be und "Statuette of Renenutet suckling, from Sa el-Hagar : G. Michailidis, BIE 33
parts of the natuappearances,but ratherstood as illustrations or (1952) 153 with pl. l; 37, 1 (1956) 19lff. with pl. 4. The best-known versions of
. .
A vanation re and fu . er as all s • . the motif in relief are in the tombs of Khaemhat (Theban Tomb 57, reign of
in · nction of d . . u ions to essential
iconography be e1ties. Amenophis III) and Ramesses III; cf. also J. Leibovitch, /NES 12 (1953) 7J-l 13.
114 tween co There are also pictures of Renenutet in purely reptile form. See in addition J.
mpletely animal form
Broekhuis, De godi11Re11e111vetet (Assen 1971) chap . 2.
115
unr~ptilln~ l'f ,od in 1-\ncitmt Eg_\pt
Depiction and Manifestation of the Gods

1
l'P 1]0U_
---•-"'-\
·----,.
~

,·----
,..,.,.
..._. ..~
._. ..
.,.....
..... them" (Hans
.

' . Bonne
which is always characteristic. of them and
and moderation, . d ,lging in crude fantasy, did not desert
'kept tI,em from in t)t 32 Where insects, plants, or mammate
·
h divine essence or a 11
. .
ob-
u d e to go d s, th e Egyp-
jects share ill It e ethods of representation. It is exceptional
·
t1ans chose ot Kh,er m to have a beetle m· place o f a h ea d (Plate
th
for e g~:ll , 1 ~f:Y matutinal, newly existing manifestation of
IV); norn d) arries the scarab (the hieroglyph for "to become,
the SUn~ot ~xistence") above his human head. Similarly, the
O
to come
d ill
Selkis always carries a scorpion·
on h er h ea d , w hil e
gNodf etss carries the lotus flower in which he is embodied, and
e er em oddess sometimes carries her tree. l3 Th e same app 1·ies
t.he Iree g dd . . .
--_/~
to the throne with which the name of the ~o ess 1sis is wn~-
ten (Figure 7). Still other deities have hieroglyphs on their
.,/" _/ __ heads: Geb has a goose, Maat an ostrich feather, the goddess
f \ .\
__\C t ~ of the west the sign for "west," and Nephthys her entire name
("mistress of the house"). Here the distinction between caption
I'
and attribute or between picture and writing becomes blurred.
Marginal cases such as these should warn us once more
r
.. I
1:J
- - - ·-
::'" -' .~•-~
'• ,._.
. -,i I
against taking Egyptian representations of gods as pictures of
them . Henri Frankfort proposed much more aptly that they

•...
r a,\ '
f- - .! -_ \~ ~· -· '
should be taken as "ideograms".1-1or as pictorial signs that con-
'- - \ e~ meaning in a metalanguage (see Chapter 8). The gods may
f
·- - I
indeed inhabit these representations as the y may inhabit any
image, but their true form is "hidden" and "mysterious," as
Eg) ptian texts emphasize continually . Attributes ·ma y allude to
the natures of deities and indicate that a deity is present, but
no god is comprehended totall y in his attributes. The same is
certainly true also of other religions and conceptions of god.
. The Egyptian iconography of gods acquires an unmistakable
mdividualit y through a rule that I should like to term the "inter-
changeabilit y of head and attribute." Here again, the Egyptians
brought the rule into harmon y with their well-developed sense

·" Rmllexiko11220, where there are other pertinent remarks on the Egyptian
iconography oi deities.
' 'E.g . tomb of Nakht (mid-Eighteenth Dynasty): A . Mt•khitarian. Es.111 ti w
Pni11ti11g (Geneva etc . 195-t, Lond on etc. 1978) 18: Bai1ws. F,nmdit _v Fis11rr,:
:.JI,-11· §1.3.2 .2.
l l - The god Kh
epry . ·"Rd(~i, 11112.
I I7
~~~ .~..
-~t~ . i.

_, ·, ,--..

Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt

. tt·on and Manifestation of the Gods
Dep1c
of moderation, order, and beauty. They very rare!
monstrous effects, and then only in areas that Were Created ii{
h d d
Iiminal in relation to t e or ere world. Birth and theany be case
which the mother suckles her child are surrounded b d 0 n
grotesque but helpful deities Bes and Thoeris While th y e
th
terious desert houses fabul ous animals,
. such, as the &riff
e ll'lys.
or the Seth animal of inde~er~ate species; above all, the doe~
ceased is in danger of falling into the clutches of monstrous
demons of the next world.
The limit set by aesthetic sensibility is exceeded much more
frequently_in the third inte:mediate and late p~riods . The Egyp.
tians' feeling for moderation and for what 1s appropriate to
divine majesty becomes uncer.tain, and mummiform coffins
come to be covered with demons who have feathers, torches
and other objects in place of heads; often there are several
heads belonging to different animals emerging from a single
neck. Careful observation in any of the larger Egyptian collec-
tions will reveal countless of these grotesque creations among
this material, which has not been worked through and is largely
unpublished .35
From the New Kingdom, however, I know only of isolated,
quite exceptional cases where an object is shown in place of a
god's head. I was puzzled by one of these strange figures for
some time before the riddle was solved by a coincidence; the
figure is also another clear and convincing example of the rule
that the heads and attributes of deities are interchangeable. At
two points in the underworld book Amduat, a divine being is
r shown who_has two strange protuberances in place of a head
s (Plate V). Like earlier commentators, I was unable to explain
th
e nature and meaning of these "arteries" in my edition of the
Y "For a good example see the coffin Grenoble Inv. 3572 G Kueny and J.
oyotte, GrenobleMuseedes B A ' · J
' fran~aises eaux-
lections pu bl'1ques 23 p rts.
. Collectionegyptienne(Inventaire des co·
have instead of he d th ' ans 1979) 83-86no . 108, on which figures
the mountain, and: ;air :;::ts of N~fertem, the Hathor cow emerging from
/EA 5 (1918) with pl 6 (b d holding a sun disk; see also A . M. Blackman,
. rea or veget bl f h
The sanctuary in the temple of H'b• 1 a . e or ead); Piankoff , Litany 66-128 .
comparable figures: N. de C O . is (fifth century B.c .) contains numerous
(Publications of the Metropoi°ita:~~~eThe Templeof Hibis in el-KhargehOasis III
York 1953) pis. 2-5. um of Art Egyptian Expedition 17, New
118
Plate V. Figure of a god in the Amduat .
119
->
' / .'
~·
- .- :-.
. \

Conceptionsof God in Ancient Egypt

Depiction and Manifestation of the Gods

. n of this being, which is to bind the damned in the

fundJO or!d. The underworld demon Njkw does the same thing;
uoclerW egister of the seventh hour of the Amduat he grips
. the top r 1.
in that fetters the damned, who are ymg helpless before
the. ~op~he i·udge of the dead. This demon carries in his hand
0s1ns,t ibute that is appropriate
· to h 1s
' fu nction
· an d nature,
the a tr " · " h
hil the demon with the arteries as 1 m p ace of a h ea d .
·t · l
w Th: principle that the outward appea_rance .of deities is dis-
. uished by attributes that they carry m their hands was not
tin:lied consistently until the advent of Greek religion. As the
~~ookand "flail" in the hands of Osiris show, it was not foreign
to the Egyptians, but from the early dynastic period on, the
hands of the great Egyptian gods hold different, more general
attributes that are common to all gods : the hieroglyphs for
"life" ('nb) and "power" (w's), the most important benefits that
the gods dispense to the world of creation. The deceased man
who wishes to take on the role of the creator god, the "lord of
all," takes hold of these attributes, showing that he is the "lord"
of life, who has control over life and can dispense it to other
beings. 38 I shall consider in Chapter 6 the significant pictorial
motif of a deity holding the sign of life to the king's nose.
Here all that need be recalled is that the hands of Egyptian
deities hold only the general attributes of their divinity, and
that specific attributes are therefore placed elsewhere: on the
head or in place of a head.
The dress of Egyptian deities is also relatively uniform, sel-
dom allowing the viewer to distinguish one from another. At
r all periods goddesses wear a long close-fitting garment with
Fig 11re12 F' shoulder straps, while gods mostly wear an archaic short kilt
s . igures of gods in the Litany of Re.
which is sometimes combined with a shirt with shoulder straps .
book.36Only later" d'd I
tuberances among t~e s:ncounter a figure with the same pro- T~e entire bodies of Osiris, Ptah, Min, and some other gods
god depicted in the cont venty-four manifestations of the sun disappear within a close-fitting wrapping. In Egypt only gods
who are considered to be children are shown nude, for ex-
!~:L!!;a~ ~~w easy toet:;;::r t~i~a;y of Re (Figure 12 bot- ample, Harpokrates or the sun child on the flower; in addition,
ent "art . I~, e revealing name "h igure, whose caption in
enes proved to be rop e who fetters." The appar- "'CT VII, 467b-d . In addition to the king and the queen , both of whom hold
es, an attrib u te th at indicates the the sign of life relatively often, especially when deceased, there are rare ex-
"'Amd11atII
"C , 87 no. 310- 165 amples with private individuals : H. G. Fischer, "An Eleventh Dynasty Couple
orrected in A d ' no. 710
m Ila/ III, 63; cf . Holding the Sign of Life," Zt\S 100 (1974) 16-28; Abd el Hamid Zayed , RdE
12 0 · Hornung , B11clr
d 20 (1968) 152 with pl. 8a: deceased "singer of Amonrasonther."
g 11, 118 n. (178).
er A11bet1111
121
,r:-;
.\ :t;~L,;__ :\-:~\t ·/ <-:.~- -~\: :~_:,,_:·
~y:'··.
, ..
• ~' :,· ~
-:
·\
. ..
~~1
. ..
:.·····:..,; .~· ·.
~~~ ~-~.,~ ~ ·.-
· .. : ··:
~""
. .
. .

Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt Depiction and Manifestation of the Gods

the sky goddess Nut i~ depicted nude.3 Egyptian 9 ..
exempt from the vagaries of fashion . Onl y very deities are
spirit of the times be seen in their dress, as when :~;ly can the
completely diaphanous garments of the late E· h elaborate,
1
nasty occur exceptionally on a set of statues ~ teenth Dy.
0
whose style is influenced by that of Amarna.'° goddesses,
More distinctions are possible among the crown f h
than in the rest of their clothing (Figure 7) Mosti?ft e gods
feath ers, h oms, an d sun disk . allude to the nature
· of sthsuch as that sits on an animal body. In all these cultures the
ers, and render their divinity visible., But crowns a e wear- man h ead ,, h h . ti'
ear in human form after the ant ropomorp iza on
• d
d om restricte .
to a particular . ·
deity, and one can rebon 1y seJ- . god s app bl · · t ttn ·
of the powers," and the animal, vegeta e, ~r maruma e a . -
1ater peno •d . . o serve in
s an mcreasmg tendency to mix eleme t bute serves to define the figure more precisely; the way m
.
ference f_or con:ipohsite n s and a
pthre crowns, in which the individuality of h' h the two are combined is irrelevant to the nature of the
e wear~r 1s 1ost m t e plethora of symbols of divine power :ei~. Here too the Egyptians were ~ev~r dogmatic, but kept
. I~ the ico~ogra~hy _of oth~r religions we find many ways ~f several possibilities open. The combination of a human body
linking a deity pictonally with an attribute. The Greeks and with an attribute for head may be claimed to be specifically
Romans tended to put the attribute in the deity's hand h'l Egyptian, but it is not the only alternative and should not be
1
the Hittites placed deities on animals that relate to their'n:tu e equated with the Egyptian image of gods.
and manife~tation-a tradition that can be traced back throu;~ The opposite solution, which was elaborated more thoroughly
the decoration of seals of the Akkad dynasty to the b · · in Mesopotamia, is best known from Egypt in the form of the
of S . . ·1· egmnmg
umenan civ11zation." Mesopotamian deities can have a hu- sphinx;u here the animal body is crowned by a human head,
which may in extreme cases have the ears and mane of the
co;;~\;s" ~~e
cei~~gs of Ramessid royal tombs and on post-New Kingdom animal, so that only the face remains human. The iconography
on the flo~rs o; lg~ es_sof the west (i.e. Hathor) is occasionally shown nude of one Egyptian "soul" concept, the ba, also has the mixed form
Volkerkunde (In: _e1fi~~~c;offms; th ere is an example in the Basel Museum fiir in reverse: the "soul bird" has a human head and often human
"'The protective goddes f h . arms, which it uses in a gesture of adoration or when scoop-
I. E. S Edwards T ses rom t e canop1c shrine of Tutankhamun, see e.g.
· , reasuresof Tutankh (U S . .. ing up water (Figure 13). This form is used more frequently
ropolitan Museum of Art N amun · .A. exh1b1tion catalogue , Met-
(exhibition catalogue Ag ' ti e: York 1976) no . 43, pis. 24-25; T11tanchm111111 for personified objects. The executioner's tools (sms), which
"See below o ' YP sc es Museum, Berlin 1980) no . 1. go in front of the sun god, who acts as judge, and his bark
· n crowns see the .
Abd el Monem Joussef Ab b k genera 1studies of Bonnet, Real/exikon394-95 ; on his nightly journey through the underworld, have human
(Gliickstadt etc. 1937) Thu a. r, Untersuc/umgen11berdie altiigyptische11 Kronen
development. De Roch ere is no st udy of the crowns of gods and their heads, showing that they are personal, independent powers ...
R t emonte1x collect d f . The underworld books of the New Kingdom, in particular, are
ec. rav. 6 (1885)29-35 with 1 e orty-e1ght types of divine crown :
"For the earliest case (c 32
Umk-Warka(D ·
J· ·
2
B.c.) see H J L
full of similar personifications. The stelae that surround the
l% 5) 1 eutsc~es Archaologisches · · _enzen, X~/ . vorliiufigerBerichl. : .
su li~d i9,
a seal impression on a cla Institut, Abtedung Baghdad, Berhn
PP h Y M. A. Brandes) I a~ Y cone (reference and interpretation
"Cf . in general H . Demisch, Die Sphinx. Gescl,ichteilrrer Darstellrmg van den
Anfiingen bis zur Gegemvart(Stuttgart 1977). .
from t e Akkad d · '" grateful to R ...
Demircio"I D an Old Babylonian p . d . O p1f1c1usfor many examples .. Amduat II, 146, with addendum lll, 65. The personified birth brick with
o u, er Gott a11f d eno s· fo A . human head in pictures of judgment after d_eath belongs he,re, cf. C. Seeber,
/ahrbuchdes Deut h -~rnStier(Dissert t' ' r _ssyna and Urartu cf. H.
sc en Archaologischen lnstitu~io8nl, Berhn 1939); H .-V. Hermann , U11ters11cl111nge11
zur Darstel/1111g
des Toteirgenclrts1111 altm Agypten (MAS 35,
122 5 (1966) 92ff. 1976) 83-88 .
123
 Conception s of God in Ancient Egypt
Depiction and Manifestation of the Gods
"lake of fire" in the Book of Gates and the
the seventh hour of the Amduat-all suc~r;v _es of the gods . . may be shown in animal form or with the head of an
perienced as persons can be seen to I k hmgs that a 1n 11sts,
oo at u . re el(. ·rnal..s
faces. Th e verso of the Narmer palette . h . s With hu ani f these images shows the true form of a god, and
.fi d . h , wit its e rnan None o . .
persom e m t e same way, shows th t h. nemy cou t n encompass the full richness of his nature-hence the
. . a t is m 0 d n ry none ca f E · d h· h · Id
sentation 1s even older than the "no ,, . e of rep variable iconography o . gyfptian Ego s,. w IC . 1s s~ om fre-
rma 1 mix d f re-
man body and animal head , and that •t . . _e orm of h d to a fixed, canomca 1 orm. very image 1s an imper ect
" h I s origin is a ct· u- duce
uct of t h e ant ropomorphization of the owe " _irectprod. means of making a go d v1s1 · "ble, ~.h arac tenzmg
. . h.1s nature, an d
Whatever combination the Egyptian hp rs (Figure 9). distinguishing him from othe~ deities . In _th~e~rly days of egyp-
. d s c ose the .
of th eir go s is nothing other than h. ' nuxed forrn tology Lepsius already perceived that this intimate and wholly
"writing" not the name but the nature a d i;roglf ph, a way of successful fusion of attribute and human, personal manifesta-
in question. The Egyptians do not he:nt t unction ~f the deity tion was the essence of the mixed form : "[The gods] can be
,, d ,,,; d I a e to call hie I distinguished easily, partly through the many symbols they
go. s, an even to equate individual signs i h r~g YPhs
particular gods ;"' it is quite in keeping with th: .t e_script with wear on their heads or in place of a head, and partly through
images of the gods as signs in a met I ir views to see their names, which are always written next to them."' 9
E . a anguage As is t
~very gyptian hieroglyph, they are more tha : . rue of
lifeless symbols; the god can inhabit the h. n Just _ciphers or Multiplicity of forms and pantheism
normally be in the same form and h . 11_1 , is cult image will
1 b . , 1s priests may ass hi Every image can constitute a powerful but, in the last analysis,
ro e y wearing animal masks--r · L ume s
this priestly animal costume was1~~e ~c~u even assumed that limited and imperfect expression of the nature and reality of
for gods ." e origm of the mixed form the deity who is shown. This imperfection is the root of the
But none of these animals I . multiple forms of Egyptian gods, which is analogous to the
to the manifestation of d / p a~ts, and ob1ects that are related multiplicity of their names (see Chapter 3), for a name, too,
true form of a deit A e1 _1es gives any information about the can express only one aspect of a god's complex nature. This
den " and ,, t ~- ccordmg to the texts the true form is "h1·d- multiplicity of forms renders the iconography of Egyptian gods
mys enous" · th c ff
No thinking Egyptian :o~I~e
of Amun was a ma .h
:o~m
.
deceased may know th, e o m Texts tell us that only the
of a _god (CT VI, 69c, 72d).
a\ e imagined that the true form
often difficult and co~fusing. Scarcely any important deity is re-
stricted to a single form and manifestation. The canine form of
Anubis and the mixed crocodile, lion, and hippopotamus form
power that may be n wit _ a ram's head. Amun is the divine of Thoeris are relatively fixed, but the rest of the major deities
h seen in the im f are true to their common epithet "rich in manifestations" and
ot_ ers, as Horus shows himself . ag~ o a ram, among many
wings span the sky d A _In_th e image of the hawk whose behave, to quote another epithet, as "lord of manifestations, "50 in
nine ("jackal") who :n . nu~is in the image of the black ca- which the word "lord" means that they have power over some-
d eser t • s·•milarl
. y Ch ·us1e . s himself
. aroun d the tombs in the
' nstian saints · " Cf. Demisch, Die Sphinx (n . 43 above) 21S-19 with figs . 59S-99 (evangelists),
' especially the four evange- 600 (C~rist).
" Giitterkreis 1-2 = 157-58 .
' Urk I 7 JI . J
••v· . . . , un ker, Giza XI 8• o• "'CT V, 21 If , referrin g to Alum ; further exam ples in Ass mann , Lit11r,,t
. Li,Yler
" • inter, U 11t ers11
cI11111~, ·11 76-84
' T-O:> .
. . 216-17 no . (46). In th e sun hymn that Assmann tran slates and comments
See J Saint. F , Baines f , d . .
. · € are Ca rnot A · ' <Clllt 1/1/ F1~11rcs §I 3 2 2 upon , eve n thi s "multiform" appearance of the sun god is onl y one of his
f ran~a1 s d'arche0 1 . . , S/>ects de/'£ ·. ' · · • •
og,e, Collection E6s C gy pl e ~llltq1te (Publications de l'/n s titut man y manifestation s (~1pnv).Contrary to Ass mann , I would see th e epithet a
124 ' airo 19:,9) 21. marking a further intensification of this aspect of the god .

125
Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt
thing. Parallel epithets refe_r to_the multiplicity of "faces"
which the gods have at their disposal; the most varied
termed "many-face" 51 or are "lord of faces " 52 The . gods are
(~nu)
· iconogr h
of the gods shows that epithets such as these refer t ap Y
known reality: a deity shows many faces to an Egyp: a Well-
presents himself to him in many forms . an and
Thus the god Thoth appears as an ibis, a baboon h Wie e mkan-Osiris is "a being who is viewed pantheistically and
. l h
moon, but also m pure y uman form or in a mixed f
, or t e
consisting of some of these elements, which can never exh onn
the full richness of his nature . With deities who are comb;u~
syncretistically with other deities (Chapter 3), and so may t:~e
on the form of other gods, the range of possibilities is vastl
wider. Apar~ from his own pkto~al forms of human beini
ram, and Nile goose, Amun acquires the sun disk from Re
and ithyphallic form from Min. And Isis, whose "many names"
and "many forms" continue to be emphasized in the Graeco-
Roman period, hides her nature in a bewildering number of
attributes and forms, from a mother suckling her child to snake,
scorpion, and bird, and appears as well in the forms of the
goddesses with whom she is combined syncretistically; 53 from
the New Kingdom on, Isis and Hathor can often be distin-
guished only by the captions giving their names, not by their
iconography. 54
"What a confusion!" one might cry in the words of Adolf
Erman. The one creator god "made himself into millions" (see
Chapter 5), into the differentiated richness of the pantheon,
whose forms may be exchanged at will. As we have seen, only
a_few go~s are fixed in their iconography, while conversely a
single arumal or object can be a manifestation of many deities.
~or example, how many gods and goddesses may be embeidied
m th e form of a lion-or in the sun, in which one may adore
almost any of the great deities, including even Osiris!
"Amduat II, 119· additional f
Kakosy, ZAS 90 (l% ) _ re erences from the Coffin Texts to Philae in L.
3 67
"J. C. Goyon, RdE 20 (1968) 59 . Egypt (London 1949) 308, correctly points out that pantheism is not cultic m
"rich in manifestation ,, d no. (4), gives reference for Sokar-parallel to
,, s -an other gods
For a collection of material wh· · "5 . Pfiirtner in vol. 8 (1963) col. 27.
201-3. ' ich could easily be extended, see Munster, /sis
"Ibid. 119-20· this is h
, , owever, certainly not "rando ,,
126 m.
Depiction and Manifestation of the Gods
E" hteenth Dynasty Litany of Re the sun god is equated
t::e:ost
_In various deities. 55 The first editor of the text, Ed-
with N ·11e saw these equations as the product of a panthe-
0 uard
. .
avi56 and
' for Breasted too "solar pant h e1sm"
· was one of
57
iStlCvi~w,lements in the Egyptian conception of god. For Alfred
th~ i;sic e n not only is Amon-Re a "pantheistic deity," but
Ptah- 50 ar d encompasses everyt h.mg. " 58 Van d er· Leeuw, ;<JB oI)-
who rulesa n k f
60 d many other recent and contemporary authors spea o
net, ~n pantheism; the Lexikon fur Theologie und Kirche still
Egyp"tah: Egyptian cult of the gods and of the dead" as being
sees . "61
" ervaded by pantheistic conceptions. .
pAt a first glance gods such as Re, Amun, and Ptah, with
· ultiplicity of names and manifestations, might seem to
tmm
h if .
be identified with everything that exists. But one exarru~es
the material more closely, there emerge clearly the constraints
that rendered impossible any steady progress toward panthe-
ism in the sense of the deification of everything and the "es-
62
sential identity of God with everything that exists. " The numb~r
of manifestations of a god is limited; Amun may appear m
the most various forms, but never as the moon, a tree, or a
" Piankoff, Litany; Hornung, Buch der Anbetung, where I demo~strate ~II, 3(}..
36) that the figures in the litany were originally no more than illustratio _ns to
the invocations to the sun god , which were then reinterpreted secondanly as
manifestations of the god. .
,.La litanie du soleil (Leipzig 1876) 6, 122. According to his Religion, the Heho-
politan cosmogony (pp . 115-16 = 135-37) and some solar hymns (p. 124 = 146-
47) are pantheistic in character.
57Development360, and a "national pantheism" pp . 312, 357, 362.
""Religion139 = 260; 76 = 136. Elsewhere in the book Wiedemann speaks sev-
eral times of pantheism, esp. pp. 166ff. = 301ff.
" " Altagyptischer Pantheismus," in H . Frick, ed ., R11~~If-Otto-Elm111g ':' Q11 el-
lenst11dienzur Religionsgeschichte(Aus der Welt der Rehg1on n.s . 1, Berlin 1~)
16-38. The article is essentially a commentary on spell 215 of the Pyramid
Texts, but the vital line §147b can be interpreted differently as "Atum (and)
every god"; the two do not have to be identified . . . _.
"'Reallexikon244, with reservations . 5. A . B. Mercer, The Relzg1011 of An~,e~t
character and is therefore un-Egyptian .
.
02oefinition from Lexikonfiir Theologie1111d Kirclie8 (2d ed ., Fre1burg 1963), art .
"Pantheismus ."
127
 Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt
Depiction and Manifestation of the Gods
stretch of water. And , as Wiedemann alreact
"f · " E f d Y saw amid The description of the ?od:s appearance in the story of the
,, uhs10n g~ ian go s nfuev~rsacrifice their sep;rate all the
T e resu 1t 1s a genera 1 sion of forms th t h natures• Sh. wrecked SailorMcontams important details, and is notewor -
have led to pantheism. This did not happen ~ s ouJct logically h ipalso because the deity who is revealed is new and previ-
tians did not want to sacrifice the individu~Jitcause the ~gYp- t y ly unknown to the protagonist . An Egyptian official has been
0
even though the. y were .identified with one anoythof each ~!pwrecked while sailing through the Red Sea and thrown
er,, ., figure,
So although m Egyptian religion the accu I .· ~by a wave of the sea" onto a lonely island . He spends three
.
festahons d b' . mu ation of days there, finds vegetable and animal nourishment in great
an com mations of deities prod d mani-
that are reminiscent of pantheism , the rese;~; ph~nomena abundance, and makes a burnt offering in order to thank the
dental a~d superficial. The Egyptians never had ~~;~ is _co~ci- "gods " for his rescue. Then the atmosphere grows strange, and
or the wish to deify everything . The Egyptia nchnaton he relates:
. . n creator god
man ifest h 1mself m his creation but he is not b b . may
' a sor ed mt O . Then I heard a noise of thunder; I thought it was a wave of the
Hi s nature may be extended by new forms and 'th It.
. . epi ets but ·t sea; trees cracked and the earth quaked. I uncovered my face
never becomes identical with the "all," which for E ' . 1
(again) and found that it was a snake coming. It was thirty cubits
certainly included realms that are not divine Th fgyptians (long, about fifteen meters), and its (divine) beard was more than
• ere ore one
cannot spea k of pantheism , in the strict sense · E . two cubits (one meter). Its flesh was gilded and its eyebrows were
religion. ' m gyptian
of genuine lapis lazuli.

The gods in their "true" appearance The snake god threatens the intruding castaway with death
by fire, and the man faints out of fright. But then the deity
If the de~icti?n of the ~ods is not a picture of their bodies but a proves to be friendly and full of prophetic insight into the
charactenzation of their nature , a sign, or a hieroglyph in a future. He dismisses with a laugh the material offerings that
metalanguage, what, then , is their true form? In order to know the rescued man promises him, because he lives in plenty and
the ~e form of the gods one must have seen them. So we his rule on earth is only transitory: the shipwrecked man will
mus\first pursue the question of how and in what form deities never see the island again, for it will "become water." The god
;~m e st _th emselves to mankind . The sources that tell us about does not say what will happen to him then, but he has already
is are 1iterary because w t . .
dence for the :'true" e canno use pictonal forms as evi- recounted the destruction of his seventy-four relatives, which
appearance of the gods . This situation he alone survived, in a story within the story. We must assume
may seem paradox · I b f I
r the nature of the E1ca, . ut _ o lows from our understanding of that the snake god, too, is a mortal, transitory being, and this
s E .. gyphan iconography of god s may relate to the only favor he asks of the shipwrecked man on
gyphan gods do not m· I f I . .
they may be encountered o mg_e _re~ y with people on earth; his return home, which is to make him known in Egypt. The
of mankind and th nly m hmmal areas where the world god is not named at any point, and he is only indirectly spoken
e world of the d · of as a n{r "god"-otherwise he is called simply a snake (a
on a distant island f . go s come mto contact-
'
wrecked Sailor or in d or instance a · th
' s m e story of the Ship- masculine word in Egyptian)-but the story leaves us in no
t , a ream But a t . . doubt that the shipwrecked man sees in him the manifestation
exts produces a good · sys ematic review of the
any is described espe ~l~n~ 0th er cases in which a theoph-
the hereafter. ' cia Y m hymns and in literature about ...Text : MES 41-48; passage quoted below 43, 5-9; tran slations : Simpson, Litt-r•
at11re 52; Lichtheim, Literature I, 212. On the god cf. M. T. Derchain-Urtel, SAK
.,Religion 139 = 260; 76 = 1 (1974) 83-104, who relates the seventy-four relatives to the seven ty-four mani-
136. Retranslated he
128 re. festation s in the Litany of Re (n. 55 above).
129
 Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt
Depiction and Manifestation of the Gods
o~ a god and the revel~tion _of a hitherto unkn
distant lands. The form m which the god ap own deity . . a dream is "seeing the upper (or: chief?) god : good . It
. d l . pears to th in
that o f an animate cu t image of the finest . e Illan • see in ch food ." Here the god does not act but is seen-in
. . . . materials ( 1s means mu 68
Iap1s lazuli), complete with a divine attribute (a bea gold and at form is not stated . . . . .
The appearance of known and familiar d •r rd ). wh 'f stations in dreams are generally 111-smted to g1vmg us
Manie .
occur in a dream, is rather different The efi IeS, Which Illay t the true apearance of the gods, even though m the
· h · act that f clues a b O U . •
Egyptians t ere were dreams "by night and b da ,, or the tian view the sleeper dwells m the world of the gods, m
~~i~ates tha_t the . concept of a "dream " (rs1
11 65
ft)
al~o ~robabJy Egyp t world as Adriaan de Buck demonstrated ... In order to
the nex , .
v1s1ons, ep1phaneia, especially since the wo d . Includes k rogress in this matter and to complement the mforma-
"awaking." r st rictly means ~a ef pornthe story of the Shipwrecked Sailor, we must search
tion r .
The best-known dreams or visions are those Of N . t texts that are directly concerned with the next world and
dom kings. Hunting in the desert while still a pri /w King. ~:e appearance of gods in the world of the dead . There we are
th • a world in which the gods are at home (cf. Chapter 7), from
I~ lay down at midday in the shadow of the G~::t Su ?1°sis
GIZa,_and slumber "seized" him. Then "he found th!hinx at :hich they emerge into this world only on specific occasions.
of this noble god speaking with his own mouth person The first stanza of the notorious "cannibal spell" in the Pyra-
k t h . ,, , as a father mid Texts (spell 273-74) runs:
spe~ s o is _son. . . . Thus he heard the mouth of the Gre
Sphinx speaking. For the Egyptians the Sphinx was H ~t
("H orus in · th H · ")
e orizon , a manifestation of the sun
armach1s
d b The sky is clouded, the stars disturbed, '"
Tuth_n:iosis IV does not seem to have considered it gt~ be u: the "bows" quake, the bones of the earth god tremble .
But those who move are still when they have seen the King
spec1f1cform of the god-at least this is not stated · th • with (his) soul manifest, as a god
. t· b
scnp 1Onto e the case (Urk. IV, 1542).
m em-
who lives on his fathers and feeds on his mothers .
Gods were _manifested to other New Kingdom kin s in
dreams on th~u campaigns, but the descriptions of thes~ are As in the story of the Shipwrecked Sailor, a great commotion
even shorter . The person of this noble god" A in nature announces the appearance of the deity (who is here the
the sleepin A h' ,,. mun appears to
(U k IV g meno~ is II m order to give valor to his son" deceased king). In other texts, too, the quaking of the earth or
13 of the heavenly bodies accompanies the appearance of deities/'
r · 'f 06-~). King Merneptah receives a similar encour-
~~=:snt roml his favorite god, Ptah. 66 From the appearances in
we earn something b t th · ""For a case in which Hathor appears in a dream to a private individualsee J.
of the god b . a ou e actions and statements Assmann, RdE 30 (1978)22-50.
s, ut nothing about th . f Th .
I the Nineteenth O eir arms . e dream book in "'De godsdienstige opvatting van den slaap (MVEOL4, 1939)esp. p. 29.
s Egyptians-n t . ynasty Papyrus Chester Beatty III shows that '"Allrecenttranslators,includingR. 0 . Faulkner, The Ancient EgyptianPyramid
o Just the king b t Texts (Oxford 1969)80, and H. Altenmilller,in Fragen20, follow the Wiirter-
see a deity in a dre 67 A ' u anyone-could sometimes
buclr's suggested rendering of j~j "to become dark(?)" (Wb. I, 121,8), although
am. mong the many phenomena one can
the word is a passive participle of /rwj "to strike, drive, heave"; comparealso
"'Cf. F. Daumas BIFAO56 the writingwith the "strikingman" in CT VI, 177b. Roeder's translation"quake"
e Schriften75)is t
Politisch (l 95~ 54-55. Even if Merikare I. 137 (Volten, [brbe11 e11wr Religion des nltc11Agyptcn [Jena 1915)191)is also possible.
J (Urk1111d
establ' h d rans 1ated d1ffereti h f
1s e . n Y, t e act of daydreaming remains The meaning is best expressed by Schiller's "In the sky is busy movement"
"G. PosenerDeI d'1 . (~nl!ensteins Tod 5, 3, I. 3405). My rendering is followed by M. Lichtheim,
1960)8 5 ' a v111 ite du ph 11 (
"G ~- · Sauneronin Lessonge:~~ Cahiersde la Societeasiatique 15, Paris Gott111ger Miszellen 41 (1980)67.
(n :,r iner,ChesterBeattyI, 12 II ourcesorientales2, Paris 1959)24-25. . "Referencesto the PyramidTexts in J. S. Karig, "Die Landschaftsdarstellung
· above)86. ' pl. 5 (recto2, 14); cf. also Posener, Divinite m den Privatgriiberndes Allen Reiches" (Dissertation,Gtitlingen1962)146. Cf.
130 also CT II, 209d; VII, 252a;BP/ 242 and passim. There are countlessparallelsin
131
 ,. . ~). ~:--·
~ . ....
,!:..·. ~ ~ ..,. .

Conceptions of God in Ancient Egy pt

reflecting the huge amount of Depi ction and Manifestation of the Gods
power wh· h

t ::es
them-power that the dead king h ic ernanat
an Assmann has collecte~ this passage an_d a num~er of
his role as a god. On the sarco
Ankhnesneferibre (sixth century
the role of the goddess Hatho
)
to possess hi: fro~
g~s of the "god' seJ~1n
/~) t e deceased ap s wife"
J.
sirn1 1 o
. ar- che
nes from the Pyramid Texts and Coffm Textsn m his
Lieder an den Sonnengott, an d compares them with
Lrturgis . .
eye of the sun: "no man and nor!~ d endara as the dettruears _in . . r descriptions m solar hymns of the New Kingdom. In all
11
·11· b' n sees her . Ctiv sthe
1rn texts
a the awesome qua 1·t f th d' 'f · ·
1 y o . e go . s_ mam es~ati?~ 1s
a mi 10n cu . its. of fire are on all h er ways " n · · . if she is
· see e
Charactenstic of a god's approa h . h. n, expressed by listing an accumulation ?f v1s1ble and mv1s1ble
. C IS t at m rnbols of power. These are the vehicles of power, and to
announce h I?1,~nd his form is defined b o~strous event
::present them is to evoke that power. The attributes we have
that are at his disposal and surrou d h' y ~he signs of pow s
"cannibal spell" quoted above the n
epiphany·
im hke an aura. In
Y are part of the de e
tt encountered in the iconography of gods also form part of their
true appearance, in which they are vehicles of power; but in
· ceased's addition to these outward signs there are presentiments, feel-
ings , and effects that cannot be depicted . Radiance and aroma,
The kas of the King are arou d h . . which are the "mildest" signs of divine presence, can be iden-
His "gods" (crowns ?) are on nh. I~'. his hemusets at his feet.
the "leading snake" of the K' I~ , is urae1 are on his brow
tified only in textual sources.
mg 1s on his f h d ' When the god Amun approaches the sleeping Queen Ahmose
the powers (wsnv) of the Ki . . ore a . .. '
ng are m their place. (Pyr. §396) in order to beget the later Queen Hatshepsut by her , "the
palace is flooded with divine aroma ."" The aroma wakes the
. In the same spell the king swallows c . queen and indicates to her that the god is present, even before
m order to annex their po f rowns m the next world he Jets her see his true "form of a god" (jnv n n!r; he has taken
· wers, or the att 'b
signs , but carriers of divine t h n utes are not just on the form of her husband Tuthmosis I).r.; We are not given
Texts describes in great detai~ :1~~~t . Spell 422 of the Pyramid any more details, but this much is clear, that the manifestation
are part of a god's 'f . ese symbols of power which of the god produces a pervasive aroma "like that of (the in-
mam estahon:
cense land) Punt." The divine aroma is well attested elsewhere,
Your ba. is yours w'th
1 m · you, among Christian martyrs, for example /• and it is the "ozone of a
your might is yours around you god" that Dr. Riemer in Thomas Mann's Lotte in Weimar senses
your wrrt crown is you ' around the great prince of poets, Goethe. 77 Already in the early
.
Your m1zwt rs, on you
crow . , dynastic period an unguent has the name "aroma of Horus," 71!
n is yours on
your face is befo your shoulder
re you yo d . , and in the Ptolemaic temple of Horus at Edfu we still read "the
the retinue of a gO d . ' ~r a oration is before you
b
efore you,
1s behmd '
you, the noble ones of a god are
throat breathes from your aroma." "' In the great Eighteenth Dy-
performing "A d nasty hymn to Amun in the Cairo Museum the god is the one
go comes a god
' comes . · · ·" (Pyr. §§753a-754b) " Pyr. §§1089~, 1374--75; CT V, 392e--i.
the history 0 f 1. . " Restored from a par allel: H . Brunner , Die Gd111rtcles Gottko11i gs (AgAbh
.. re 1g1ons--.fro .
ken uber die Holl m 1 Kings 19·11 12 10, 1964) pl. 4, fourth col. at right, pp. 35---5 8; on the god's aroma see p. 51.
here. enfahrt Jesu Christi" ;:._ to Goet~ e' s "Poe tische Gedan· 75
Urk. IV, 220, l ; Brunner , Di,•Gd111rt(n . 74 abov e) pl. 4, third col. at right . The
0765 6 th
nc_ E. Sa d ut ere is no ne ed to cite them terminology di stingui shes clearl y betw een the god 's true and ass umed forms.
(C n er-Hansen 0- ..
openhagen 1937) 126 11 ' ie re/1
g1iise11Texte au ''T. Baumeister , Martyr /11uict11 s (Forschun ge n zur Volkskund c .U,, Mun ster
103: the "secret way f · 407-10; for an earl' f dem Sarg der An chnesneferibre 1972) 44.
Isis." o the land of Sok " . ier parallel see A111d11al I 90-91 · JI 77
ln Gesa111melte Werke II (Frank furt a .M.: S. Fisch,•r Verlag 1960) 445 .
ar is "full ' , ,
of flames from the mouth of "'Kaplony, /11 sclrrifte11I, 291.
13 2
"'Ed/011I, 293, 1-2 (cf . Ott o, Gott 1111d
Me11 sd1 150. 18 with no . 329).
133

-
,.,
liWNL.
 Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt

"whose aroma the gods love when he comes from p ,, Depiction and Manifestation of the Gods
the deceased, too, as ,,0 . . ,, ,,
sms or as god," achieves a 80 wh·
unt, . Ile
d ay be grasp ed as a subi·ective . reality, whereas
81
fragrance. In the underworld books, however, it is divine .
. visible go m . 1'bl to the believer only m images, because
·
ficult to dishngms · h b e t ~een th e " aroma" of divineoften .d"f 1- h can be ma de v1s h e no fixed contours and 1s
1n · su ffu se d w1·th
and the "stink" of decaymg corpses, because the Egy 6. eings e pearance as 1· b 1· E
his true ap . ce. 87 Unlike Jewish and Mu~ 1m e 1evers, gyp-
ways speaks o f s!J · " sme 11, " rt1 era IIy " w h at pours forth Phan
,, al-
blinding radian b'dden from making an image of a god, but
Next to aroma, radiance is what betrays the presence.of E tians are not _for I f II between the image and the "true
tian deities. When Queen Hatshepsut receives the exp d~P- . t· gmsh care u y . h t
they dis m1 I d to human eyes only m t e mos excep-
to Punt on its . return home an d enters the role of a goct112 e 1hon
. h. ch is revea e 'bl th
form," w the next world it may be poss1 e to see e
"myrrh on her Iim b s, ,, an d ct· 1vme. f ragrance pouring forth fWith tional cases. In th god himself but here on earth the
her, "her aroma mingled with (the divine incense of) Punt. ~Ill. nd hence e , . . d 1·
true form a f 11b k on images and intermed1anes, an 1ves
skin was gilded with white gold, glittering, as the stars der believer mu~t _ad lac ·ng to behold the "perfection" (nfnv)-
. unsahsf1e ong1 . . f h d
within the festival hall, before the entire land" (Urk. IV, 3 ~' m an often means the physical mamfestahon-o t ego .
3 which
13-340, 2). A related idea, attested from the Middle Kingdo~
on, is that the "flesh" of the gods is of gold and their bodies of
the most precious materials. 83 The bark in which the sun god Images of gods; the king
travels is golden and radiant, 84 and the blessed deceased wishes . to the s stematic theology of the New Kingdom, as
to become "one body~' with the god and hence to partake in his
precious, radiant substance. 85
A god may be sensed and seen not only in his attributes of
f
or:~
According y I . the Leiden hymn to Amun, s.• the
lated for examp e, m h" b d
in the sky in order to illuminate the world, s<>. is o y
go . the underworld and on earth among men images of
fragrance, radiance and power, but also and more forcefully in rests
h . bear witness to his presence. Th ese images
m ' · too may
. .be the
the way he affects men's hearts--in the love, fear, terror, re- im h" h h
"bodies" of the gods, into w 1c t ey e ,, nter · "~ The most 1mpor-
hi h
spectful awe, and other feelings that his presence evokes. In tant are the cult images, that is, the temple statues on w c
his LiturgischeLiederan den Sonnengott, which I have already the daily cult is performed. In order to resemble the true body
cited several times, Jan Assmann has analyzed with a sure of the god as closely as possible they were made of the most
touch how a god is experienced in the human heart-leaving recious materials, and almost all have succumbed to human
aside the problem of his objective existence. 86 In these cases the ~reed; only very rarely have the originals been prese1:e~- ~v~r
lllGrebaut, Hymne 6. the millennia. The cult image normally partook m the im 1s1btl-
"'Sand_er-Hansen, Die religiiisenTexte (n . 72 above) 44 . The "sweet smell" of the ity of the deity; it was set up in the dark sanct1:1ary a nd was
blessed is also_stressed in the Book of Gates (BP/ 289), but this probably relates
to the prevention of bodily decay.
. . •
accessible only to the o ff1ciahng · t ' who daily celebrated
pnes . the
the ritual on it and before it . During the great festivals
"'The sub1ects acclaim her "in the instances of her divine-ness ." (cf. P· 64).
Thus the text emphasizes th t h k h " d"· 87
for t h e k'mg m. the role of a god a s see
e ma A unique figure of a winged "angel" of uncertain identity in a sce nehott·
alsoesbelow
er appearance and acts as a go ,
'°References in p Seibe t D · h · .. judgment after death in a Ramessid tom b 1s • surroun d e d b)' fhckenng . Ime _ s .t a
m ann, L't L'1eder· 81 with
r' n re1C, arakteristik (AgAbh . 17' 1967) 121-22; . . pr ese_nce or th e rapid fluttenng
Smith ,otTh,·
wmgsArt
1 urg.
6 J y , · Ass-
d could indicate the radiance of a divme .
Hautes Eludes V' Sect• 79 · ' · oyotte, Annuaire de I Ecole prat1q11ees (there are other "normal" figure s of deitie s m the scene) . W. 5 · . th )
' IOn (1971-72) 16"
" A. Massart, MDA/K 15 (1 S7) :>. .
and Architecture of Ancient Egypt (P e I'ican H.15torv. of Art ' Harmond
. s\\
·/ or
. i,,, 1938
a/ten
9
" Cf . Ass mann , Lllurg.
' 184
Lieder101 his, verso
- V, 7 :
pl. 168; C. Seeber, U11ters11ch1111s1 de, 1t!lcnga, 11~ ·
•11 :11r D11r,;tcl/1111g
as the "body of the god"). ( n . =>7 also gives references for the mummy
Agypten (MAS 35, 1976) 206 n. 10. with relerence s.
"'Esp. Liturg. Lieder64-oa,250-{, _ ""Zandee, De Hy11111e11 aa11 A111011 pl. IV, l<>-17.
2 ""Urk. IV, 1676, 19, referring to Amun.
134
"°Junker, Giitterlehre 65.

135

C l
 , .

Conceptions of God in An cient Egy pt

Depiction and Manife station of the Gods

cults in Egypt , 93 we see the worship of a ~ingle mem-

other bull . . only when all members of a speoes are wor-
0 f a species , ,,
be~ one speak of "animal cults.
shiped ~an! Its as in names and manifestations, we encoun-
1 anima cu , . .
n b"l"ty
11
of Egyptian gods to extend theu existence almost
ter the a -to be manifest not iust · · one 1"b"1s or croco d 1"]e, b ut
m
1
~oclle~sb_Yor all crocodiles. This multiplication is another ex-
in all I ises d l . . h
1 0
f a tendency we have encountere severa times m t e
amp eh_ conception of god; but even in this form the tendency
Egyp an d to pantheism for only certam · species· are re late d
does no t lea ' . . .
to a deity , and they are often worshiped m only one locahty.
The multiplication of visible i°:'ages makes _the g~d more ac-
cessible and visible for the believer, and bnngs him close on
earth, so that the concerns of individuals can reach him more
easily. Animal cults are therefore part of a pop~lar piety, ~nd
may be compared in many respects to the Catholic cult of relics,
whose proliferations they also share. Here we need not go any
further into Egyptian animal cults 94 because their logical exten-
Fig ure 14 . The cult statue of a god in procession .
sion, which was not put into practice before the late period,
teaches us a misunderstanding rather than a genuine compre-
portable image of the d . hension of the Egyptian conception of god . Individual animals
world on the should g~ ~as earned out into the outside are not the god , but the god may take up his abode in them;
was thus accessible t er~ o pnests (Figure 14), gave oracles and they allude to him and are images and vessels of him. This is
by the reliefs, it rem o_ utan _c~nce:n~; but even then, to judge why, despite innumerable manifestations in animals, Egyptian
to see a god' . ame mv1s1blem its covered shrine. 91 Even deities only rarely have animal names: their nature is not sub-
s image was a s . I . .
daily only to the ff" . . pecia pnvilege that was accorded sumed in these manifestations.
. o 1c1ahng pri t f h
shnne of the god' . es , a ter e had opened the For simple worshipers image and deity may merge, and they
s image •2
Just as a god may resid~ i . may encounter the god Thoth personally in every ibis, but the
he may reside in th b d n a cult image of stone or wood, so theology of the priests always distinguishes carefully, in for-
these living cult · e O . Y of an animal. The best known of mulations that vary from period to period, between animal and
images is the A . b .
was worshiped as a pis ull m Memphis which deity . For the priests the animal remains a symbol in the fore-
d I separate deit b h '
an ater as an embod· Y Y t e early dynastic period,
iment of th d .
e go Ptah . Here, as with
.,A " E. Otto, Beitriige z11r Geschic/1/e der Stierk11/te i11 Agypte11 (UGAA 13,
n exception is the unsh . 1938); S. Morenz, "Rote Stiere--Unbeacht etes zu Buchis und Mnevi s," in 0 .
at Thebes see J (: rouded cult ima 0 f
(Brown E~ t 1 · . erny in R. A. Park g; Amenophis I on the west bank Firchow , ed ., Agyptologische St11di e11 (Grapow Festschrift] (Deut sche Aka-
"'Cf. the ct o tog1caflStudies 4, Provide~~ RSa1te Oracle Papyrus from Thebes demie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, Institut fiir Orientfor schung, Veroffentlich-
P ero the dail t e, .I. 1962) 42-43 ung 29, Berlin 1955) 238-43 = Religion 1111d Geschichte 360-65; A. Herm ann , "Der
the opening of the h . Y emple ritual "s . ·
d . s nne · Mo t . eemg the gOd ,, h " f Ietzte Apis stier ," Jahrb11
ch fiir A11tike u11dCliriste11l11111
3 (1960) 34-50.
go in the realm of the d~a re , R1tue155--56_ For , w 1ch comes a ter
d see Amd11atII 1 references to "seeing " the "See E. Hornung , "Die Bedeutung des Tieres im al ten Agypten," SIG 20
136 ' 6-17; Iii, 59. (1967) 69-84 (with earlier reference s).
137
 Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt
. . an d Manifestation of the God s
Depiction
ground, an intermediary between man and god. As "s e
or "heralds" of the god the sacred bulls may dispen P akers'' . new definition of the king as
in ,vhich the
95
god reveals his will. All sacred animals Se oracles d interme diate penod . aas deve Iope d · I have analyzed
. h
of a deity the visi. "ble mam "festation
. o f an invisible pare the uci
i._ and secon ,, f the same d~ity w here.1 02 For the Egyptians t e
the wind is, the ba of th e air
. go d Sh u and the visible suower
. ' as the "irna~e ~f this in detail el~e~larity between the king and a
ba of the sun god. At the end o f t_h e pagan period inn Eis the
Celsus still h~ld them to b;,. sacred signs o,~deities, aenigma~t.tt
the rneani~g
vital point :e~; t the outward sim
which migh _t :~h~uf;livid~al
Particular h god Amun wit
sted for example, by
features of the
. ·1 ·ty of deed as well as
Human bemgs are also images of god ; rare but unamb·
uous references show that this is true of_al~human beings. 1
the stories of Papyrus Westcar even a cnmmal condemned t
t statues oT f t tankhamun.
thful u
you_ .
e
f appearance;
T h ere .is sim1
the kmg ac
ts an
"like Mont (the go d o f
· ··
R ,, All the similanties p_om
· t
death is one of the "sacred herd" of god. 97 In the Instruction foo sim1Ianty
)" or '~li-ke his father Amon- ed. ntal kinship that !mks
. d fun ame ,,.
Merikare (first intermediate period, c. 2060 B.c.) mankind, thi; war comprehensive an be called simply image
tow:~d awith all deities, so that he2~:~ 2)· so Egyptians are not
(U~~~~V8!;:11
"herd of god," is said to be "his likenesses (snn) who came
95 0
forth from his flesh, " and for the teacher Ani of the end of the ~~;) iF!e gods" :;~ut s;ys 'that she is the "like-
Eighteenth Dynasty, "Men are the equals (sn-nw) of god (be- disturbed when Q n-Re )l)J •
5
cause of) their custom of listening to a man who brings a plea. nes ,, of the male
. lt image .o f a god , is normally hidden,
hgod A~o h h
Not only the wise99 man is his equal, as if the rest (were) so The king, hke t e cu I . his palace. But w en e
many cattle .. . . " Thus all men may be god's children from being separated fr~_m the .fe~p ~ i~is subjects, surrounded by
birth (Merikare), or may prove by their actions that they are steps outside and is mam es. he becomes the deus praesens
images of god; the man with knowledge is also said elsewhere symbols of power and pr~~e~hon, eo le allowing them to feel
to be a10"likeness
1 (mjtj) of god" 100and sons "images" of their for the adulating and re101ci:i 1:h~se' deeds he accomplishes
fathers; in these cases what is meant is not a simple similarity the presence of the cr~a~?r g , k of men"; his words are
agam. . What he does is . not 1£ the11111-1
wor
but a fundamental kinship of action, nature, and rank.
But the reigning king is the prime son and image of the "the utterances of go~ himse . . d in the appearance of the
creator god; almost all Egyptian references to man as the "image The god who is chiefly recognize f the world. "You are
of god" relate to him. From the Fourth Dynasty on-that is, king is Re, the creator and pres~rv~r; c out to the king;1ll5
from the time of the Great Pyramid at Giza-the king is the Re ,, high officials of the New King o ryh t III (1844-1797
' . I K
earlier, in the Midd e mg . ' dom Amenem
. h . ays " 1""A century
"son" of the sun god, and in the course of the Middle Kingdom
e.c.) is said to be "R e · · · w ho is seen m . is rads ". )(17 and in the
"Morenz, Religion165--66= 157-58; E. Otto, Saeculum 14 (1963) 259--60.
later the king is said to be "Re of foreign 1an '
'"'Cited by2,T.B_oHopfner,
re~gionum Fontes
nn 1923)352 historiae
(Origen , religionis
). aegyptiacae (Fontes historiae
th 3 19 . '?ottes "·'cf . a lso
""Hornung, "Mensch als B1!d with ,ods, U11ter
. Blumenthal see s11cl11111
ge119S-.
Ali Radwan
99. For the pictorial idenhf1callon of the kmg g
K. Se e, Agypt,sche l..esestiicke (2d ed ., Leipzig 1928) 30, 24--31, 2. For
tra; slallons see _Simpson, Literature24; Lichtheim, Literature I, 219. MDAJK 31 (1975) 99-108 . I • in the feminine) .
99 Volten, Po/1t1sch
e Schriften73 II. _
Volten, Anii 161-{;3. 131 32· ,mUrk IV 244 14 (the word for image [s1111tis f Amun) · 165 13-both
""Urk.· IV,' 1236,' 2 (the action is attribute
• d to th e powe r o • ·
' Amduat /, 22, 2-3· III r
13 statements are about Tuthmosis Ill. . Tl ., SI rim-sand Rock i,,,..·,ipti on;
Egyptian terms for ,,.' ,'.ne ; VoJten, Anii 171 (10, IS) . For the various
image and th d'ff h . II· R A Camino s, 1' 1
"Mensch als Bild Gottes.,, e I erences between them cf. Hornung, '"'Usersatet to Amenop IS · · · h b to• Tutankhamun. • Ha ri0 ·
,a,Urk. IV, 1383, I I, in the text about t . . /brim (ASE 32, 1968) 70 wit. h P1. . 28 1. 9·' . Harem a
. in Leiden).
t
Hornung , "Mensch als Bild G t ,, •he lnS allation of the vizier Useramun, cf. Horem/,eb pl. 19 I. 4 (tomb relief from Saqqar\ with other gods pp . 99-103.
13 8 o tes I J2 With n. 46. '°"Blumenthal, U11ter s11c/11111
g,•11100; exa mple; . H G()('dicke , MDA IK 19 (1963)
""O Thirteenth Dyna sty sea ls from Byblo . .
1-,;, .;; F. Albright , BASOR 176 (t964) <4-4S. 139
 Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt
Depiction and Manifestation of the Gods
New Kingdom "Re of the kings" a d "R
ses II 1s· "l"Ik eness of Re illum; n ti e of th e rulers " 'OS . Our concern is the nature and manifesta-
, uuna ng th· . R. tian royal ide_ology·ds and I shall restrict myself to this aspect
disk, "' 09.and his successor Merneptah is ,,1s wo~ld like th:rnes.
':ho dnves darki:iess from Egypt. ,,110 Th/un disk of rnankisun ° .
tion f Egyptian
ship
N gohall' I discuss the de ifi"cation
or s
· o f nonroya l m-
h 111
·
likeness , companson and identifi . boundaries b nd, of king · h. h ·s for the most part a 1ate p enomenon .
. . ' cation etw 1
and a manifestation "like Re" b seem blurred een dividual~, \ t~tl:s and epithets appear to show that he is in
. ecomes i to The king od In his official titulary he is called "per-
festation "as Re."" ' It is sa1·d of A mperceptibly us,
. menophi III a ma · fulleSt mea(sutrefra)g in. the early Old Kingdom even "greatest
his statues correspond[s] to a m "f s_ that "every n1-
R~" (1:]rk._IV, 1724, 14). There is a~1;~:~on
this king m particular-and later of R
~f the pers::e
senes of statues
~! fecd t god" n r n , .
,,11, and i~ the third intermediate penod once, most anac o-
g? '. 11 f the time "greater than the gods ." There are also115
hr

mstica Y·f·or cclamations ' as the sun god which · I h ave re ferre d to
objects of cults during the ruler ' s 0 /~'7s~s II-that were tt the spec1 1ca . M
statues of Ramesses II have the namen"R1etime. m Some of th: nd comparable phrases that call the king Horus, ont,
b
a ove, a d hi "b th 11116 d
the god , " w h tc " h seems to refer to a d "f amesses--M
. eryamun Khnum, Sakhmet, and so on. The go s are s _ ro ers, an
ruler, as does the entire ph e1 icatton of the Ji,,;~ one is often uncertain whether the word n!r m a text refers to
. enomenon of t tu · .,,g the king or to a "genuir:'e" deity . It i~ understandable, t~ere-
contrast with his statues the k h. . s a e cult. But in
tion': (bprw) of the sun g~d, eve:fho~mself is not a "manifesta- fore, that the king continues to be viewed as a god or god
of him; during his lifetime h . gh he may be an "image" king," or at least as the "incarna~on " _ofa_deity. .
from a true cult image or a sa~r:~c:;i:a70 cult, thus differing But despite all this , the Egyptian king 1s not a deity. In the
book referred to above, Georges Posener showed how greatly
. ~e come now unavoidably to th ..
vm1ty-a question that has been e questioi:1 of the king's di- the king's qualities and capacities differ from, and are inferior
ways, from the work of Alex d answered m many different to, those of the gods-even if one concedes both that the very
de Ia royaute pharaonique(P . anl9re Moret , Du caracterereligieux human traits of Posener's "roi des contes" can also be found in
dtvzmt e du pharaon (C h " ans 02) to G eorges p osener's De la
• -, the gods in myths and that Posener measures the king against
117
1960). Is the king hi a i~rs de la . Societe Asiatique 15, Paris a view of the gods which is perhaps too idealized . Siegfried
"sun king," or does ~s~ a god , ts he only metaphorically a Morenz presented the subordination of the king to the gods as
god? It would be foolhe dave a dual nature, half man and half a logical process that lasted millennia, which he saw as the Rise
to analyze here the co: y, and b~yond the scope of this book, of the Transcendent God (the title of one of his books, discussed
'°' plex and involved problems of Egyp- in Chapter 5). It has also been possible to add to the picture by
1gave exam I f identifying subtle features of the terminology that defines the
42· add . p es o this and other ,, ,, .
, h the king as "Re of the n· bsolar epith e ts in StG 18 (1965) 76 with n
Ha rem ab on (H - me ows" (i II · '" Cf. D. Wildung, Egyptian Saints: Deificatio11in Pl1araoni c Egypt (New York
lands" (Uk IV an , Horemhebpl. 5l 53) .e. a peoples) from the reign of
""G L r · . • 887, 16). ' and Tuthmo sis III as "sun disk of all 1977).
· egram, Statu "'Snofru and some of his successors in Sinai inscriptions, possibly a forerunner
See also D . es et statuettes de rois e . of the later n!r 11fr : D. Wildung, Die Rolle iigyptischer Kiinige im Bew11 sstsein
(1973) 33-41.. W1ldung, "Ramses, die t ~e partzculiers H _(CGC, Cairo 1909) 9.
ihrer Nachwelt I (MAS 17, 1969) 112. For the king as 11!rin private names
""A. H. Cardi g osse Sonne Agypten s, " zAs 99
"'Cf. M T D ner,h Lat see H . G. Fische r, ZAS 105 (1978) 42-43 . ..
. e-EgYPt1a11
· Misce// .
"' E. Otto , Die biographischen I11
schrifte11der iigyptisclren Spiitzeit (PA 2. 1954)
"'Detail~d . r ere a1n-Urtel, "Gott ode antes (BiAe 7, 1937) 15, 10-11.
// (ADIK 4, i 9:; )~ntahon by Labib Hab/hMe~sch?" SAK 3 (1975) 25-41. 135 (inscription 4, Twenty-second Dynasty) . .
116Pyr. §28c and passim, but probably alway s used of the deceased kmg .
d Ph , see the · C 1, reature ,r I
es arao," OLZ 68 )review article by D Ws 0, 1ie Deification of Ramesses 117Cf. th e reviews of H . Kees, OLZ 57 (1%2) 476-78; J. G. Griffith s, /EA 49
09 73 549--65 · ildung ' "G··
140 · ott 1·1ch ke1tsstufen
·
(1963) 189- 92.
141
 Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt

king's divinity and its limits. 118 Even for the Egyptia h' .
ity of the king was a problem, which they tried
ever more formu 1as an d d e fm1. ·t·ions. Th ey knew that
t 1s d1vin.
o so
th1ve \V'Ith
ts
no simple identity between the king and the god I-Iere was
between king and sun god. As early as the Fourth ;rus or
the famous diorite-gneiss statue of Khephren shows th Y~~sty
whose titulary states that he is "Horus in the palace ,,e Ing,
· of th e s ky go d H orus, w h'Ile the same king
the protection ' under
. h
"son of Re," and so subordinate to the sun god. Is t e
The larg_ern_umbers ~f texts _that ~egi~ to become available
with the first intermediate penod give firmer outlines to th
s~ Characteristics of the Gods
king's divinity. The king is destined to rule "in the egg," tha~
is, from birth, but he is not divine from birth on. 11• He acquires
his divinity only during the rituals of accession to the throne· it is a separate figure wi~h. unmis-
from then on it is his ex officio. "Appear as a god," Amenem~ For the believer, every !~i~h are certain charactenstics t~at
hat I {1991-1962B.c.) encourages his successor Sesostris I in his takable features, among 't In our study of the Egyptian
posthumous Instruction, and Sesostris says in a building in- are shared with nohothe~nddei·viidual qualities of particular godds
scription, "I arrived as Horus after I had grown mature. " • o f god t ese hi e that are common to a 11gods an
conception
120
So the king clothes himself with the insignia that he acquires are less important than t os . E tian eyes, a god was.
at his accession and places himself in the role of the creator that provide evidence f~r :What, u~w~io all gods there stands
god, securing for himself, by means of rites and symbols of Among the charactensh~e c~;ties disconcertingly transit~ry
might, the power of the gods. In this role all the terms and out a group that renders t . tian ods have a begm-
epithets that are fitting for the gods are his due also . The king and subject to th~ ~arch of tu:;~ ~~~~ or cr!ated, they chan?e
is not a god, but so long as there remained anything of the ning and an end m hme. They . and one day they will exist
original reality of Egyptian kingship, he was a token of the with time, they grow old ~n? die, ntrast sharply with our ac-
efficacious power of the creator god in this world. no more. These charactenshcs co od should be, and need to
cepted notions of :What and how a g
"'H. Goedicke, Die Stellung des Kiinigs im A/ten Reich (AgAbh 2, 1960); E. be studied in detail.
H~1mung, Geschichte
th al~Fest(Darmstadt 1966) 23ff.; Otto, Gott und Mensch 63-83.
. "rh_e my of the divine birth of the king (nn . 74-75 above) does not contra-
dict120this, because only the b' th f k' · · · · d
. t . Ir o ings who are already re1gnmg 1s dep1cte • Origins ·h
Berlin ,:"·leather
de Buck rollinthS ud,a Aegyptiaca
ti I (AnOr 17' 1938) SO (1' 14)· In the same
. fectly consistent wit our
· . L'1ch t h e1m,
ti on.
"god" or "d ' · ,,
. . e cour Iers116-I?)
Literature
8 '
reply to F"their god ' "i.e. the king (2, 1) (transla-
· or further examples of the king as a
ivine see lumenthal, Untersuchungen94ff.
The idea that gods are born IS re~l
th
normal conception~. _The my s ~d:
or supernatural ongms of the g
f~:
. tt
pies tell of the natural
great gods of Gree~e
even though their
h not unbego en, ·
are immortal but t ey_are . some supernatural way. Mag~c
birth may be accomplished ;nA hrodite Anadyomene, who is
surrounds the emergence O P forth from the head
born of the foam of t h e sea,. Athene comest als the cattle o f h '
of Zeus; while the new b orn Hermes s e, 15
142
brother Apollo. t' myth of the birth and you th
The finest and richest Egyp ,an 143

.....
 Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt
. . of the Gods
CharactenstJcs
of a god concerns the child Horus. It assoCJ. · t
·
Osiris; since · su bor d mates
It " the older sky god ai esh lio rus \vith
the later ant hropomorp h1c . . the myth cann awk forrnto
. 0 sins,
the oldest m · th e Nil e va lley, b ut It
· Is
· recognizablnotfrbe among
allusions as early as the Pyramid Texts .' Harsiese
of-Isis" and Harpokrates "Horus-the-child" beco.rn °Z-Us-son.
om many \i
specific forms for the youthful Ho:us whom Isis ha: ~~:rate,
reared. In the Graeco-Roman penod there is an equ ti and
Harpokrates and Eros, in which the feature that is co: on of
the two gods is not their function, but the fact that thmon10
children. In the myth we hear of a time "when Horus : are
child"; then his 2meat offeri~g still consisted of pigs, w~:c~
were later taboo. So Horus IS not eternally a child, but ages
with time.
Isis conceives Horus after the death of her brother and hus-
band Osiris, hovering
3
over the corpse of the murdered god in
the form of a kite. Horus is protected by the gods while he is
still in his mother's womb (CT spell 148), until he comes into
the world in Chemmis in the delta (Pyr. §1703) and is brought
up "in solitude, one knows not where he was, " 4 well hidden in
the marshy thickets of the Nile delta (Figure 15). The magical
prowess of his mother Isis protects him from the persecution of
his opponent Seth and saves him from wild animals; Nephthys
and the crown goddesses Wadjet and Nekhbet care for him as
nurses and servants. When he has grown up he goes out into
the world in order to wage the struggle for his father's inheri-
tance, until, after many battles, he finally triumphs over Seth,
F.1gure15 • Horus in a marsh thicket.

'On the childhood of Horus see Munster , Isis 5-12 , who bases her exposition
Primarily on spell 148 of the Coffin Texts (CT II, 209c-226a) ; for bibliograph y
his eternal adversary, and is . ceremonially
rt f ods established ~n the
in Heliopolis.
n. I.R. 0. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts I (Warminster 1973)
see
126 inheritance of his father by th e cou ? g f the birth, growth,
'Munster, Isis 11-12 with n . 164.
There is no other Egyptian narrahv~e o or dwells with such
' Depicted17
frequently
20 from the New Kingdom on ; examples in Otto , Osiris
1111d
and youth of a deity w h ic. h is
· a s extens1v however numerous a I-
~mu~,. pl~ - - See also id., "Eine Darstellung der 'Osiris-Mysterien ' in The-
st
d t
delight on concrete e a · ils There are, '
rticular gods, are "born"
wi~ Pt 4 r:elck , ~d., Fe schrift fiir SiegfriedSchott (Wiesbaden 1968) 99-I0
5 lusions to the fact that all gods, ':; ~~ere are other child gods
while CTiv , ;/og states
st umous " (. his implied already in Pyr. §§632, 1635,
conception
that "But O (msj), and in Egyptian ic?~ograp riorus · the moon god Khons
'Louvre C 286· A M
theim, Literature JI,
rn t e delta) is the place of delivery.
· oret' BIFAQ 30 (1930) 743; Assmann , AHG
· 83. ·· 441; L.ICh- or youthful gods in addition to
k f th II
the sun go
d as the "child on the
11
]44 with the "Joe o you ' H s' own "children.
flower" (Figure 16), as well as oru 145
 r !;~·:'.
. - ~, -._~
.

Conceptionsof God in An .
c1ent Egypt
Characteristics of the Gods

ing to the Coffin Texts / often has

oon accor d · f
ts and the rn h O bore the gods." This epithet re ers to
TeX
the epithe t "shed' w d ·1
whorn the sky goddess a1 y ears " an d
"b
the heavenly bo ,,~' idea that leads to the depiction of Nut
again "swallows h an1·n late texts the goddess Neith is called
as a sow. But w den ,, the reference is to her long-esta bl'1sh e d
6

"mother of th e gfoso\ek and of Re just as Isis, the mother of

roe1 as mother o ' ,17
is called simply "mother of the god . The examp 1e
I-1°n:1 s ' h s how this role of mother may be extended, for
0 f Isis also s ow . Ki d s
. Ir dy called "mother of all gods" m the New ng om .
shehi~a ea the "gods" are not just the heavenly bodies, as Nut
Int 1scase
· other of the stars, but literally all deities.
is Corresponding
m to the 1'd ea o f a umversa
· I " mo th er o f th e
ods" is that of a "father of the gods," to whom all other
~eities owe their origin. At first Amun and only a little later
other gods such as Ptah and Horus acquire an epithet in com-
mon which seems to have been coined in the New Kingdom:
Figure 16. The sun god "father of the fathers of all gods." It is first attested before the
.
th e pnmeval as a child
lotus. on
Amarna period, in the Cairo hymn to Amun, and is used as
In the system of the Helio . late as the early centuries A.o .; the Egyptians also applied a
erations of deities can be ~~l~~n e_nnead five successive gen- somewhat modified form of it to the chief gods of their Asiatic
~um _creates the first coupl:s ~~~u1shed: the primeval deity neighbors. 9 Still more widespread than this intensified form is
m in the usual way · th . and Tefnut, who are not the epithet "father of the gods," which is applied to Atum,
ea~h, and Nut, the goddes:1ro;~fspring ~eb, the god of the Geb, and Shu in addition to the gods just mentioned-that is,
children-O siris, Seth I . he sky, in turn produce four to deities who have an essential role in the process of creation. 10
son of Osiris and Is1· s' s1sh, and Nephthys . With Horus the From the Middle Kingdom on it is associated especially with
ea J' , w o do · ' the god Nun, 11 who is the primeval waters, from which all the
hr ier, schematic ennead es not in fact belong to the
} e four "sons of Horus" ~ ~~ reach the fifth generation and 'Sun : Pyr. §§1688b, 1835; CT II , 3& ; 398a; VI, 270a. Moon : CT Ill , 397b.
do: _t~e Eg~ptians the pre~~e even be counted as a sixth. But _'·H. Grap ow, "Die Himm elsgo llin Nut als Mutt erschw ein," ZA S 71 (1934)
45-4 7. The text from th e Os ireion is republi shed by Neuge bauer-Park er EAT I
. os 1ve point; it can eve b order of generation s is not the 67ff. ' '
~fn appear as the paren: 0 ; g~~ged , so that Shu and Tefnut ' H. Ranke listed exa mpl es with Ncith , Hath or, and Isis: MDAIK 12 (1943) I 19
no_-(6). O n Isis called "mother" sec Mun ster , Isis 205--6.
pant~eor ~f Horus. What is im sms, an_d Seth as the brother of
A on is ordered geneaJ . portant is the principle that the A Ramessi d exampl e Mun ster, Isis 205; for later evidence (also with Mui and
in parthtfrom the goddesseog1cally(see Chapter 7). Hathor) cf. Bergman , /ch bin Isis 132-33.
my , there 1·5 h s who "bo " h ' References in Zand ee, De hym11enaa11Amon 93; W. Heick, "Valer der Vii/er"
bears all the t e idea of a ,, re ot er specific deities (NAWG 1965, 9); Ass mann , Wur g. Lieder 327 with n . 62.
sky godd gods. In the N . mother of the gods" who "'Zande c, De lrymnen aa11Amon 93-9 4; H. Altcnmull er, SAK 2 (1975) 14-15.
ess Nut h O ew Kingd "CT IV, 188/189c; addition al exampl es in M. 5. H. G. Heerm a van Vo s, De
14 6
' w bore the om and late period the
sun accord mg
' oudste versie van Dode11 boek 17a (Leiden 1963) 51 n . 42. The epith et i · born e qu ite
to the Pyramid frequently by Hapy , th e god of the inundation .
147
 .,......
i ~
. ,,,.
•,r , . ... , ~
.
!...•:

Conceptionsof God in Ancient Egypt

Characteristics of the Gods
gods indeed originated in divi f
.
h 1s dA " ' . ne orm Akh
go ten. mother and father of w h atyo · enaten even a conception in his mind, or whether he "forms"
aspec t as primeval and creator god-a . u created"12in calls wOrd from · not spea "fie d any more closely, it is
') in a way that 1s
1
oldest god, who brings the first d . ~gical descripf Aten's thern (m\tic of the Egyptian conception of god that god created
female aid. eihes into b . Ion of the
eing w·1 characdtenThis statement is found so frequently from the Pyra-
The reigning king addresses th thout the go s. on that we can con fine ourse lves to a small selection
the goddesses as his "mothers"· i
gods as his "father "
greet them as his "siblings ,, 0 ' nly after his death s anct
mid Texts
of examples.
. . · ver and ab rnay h New Kingdom hymns the creator god is praised again and
is a primeval, universal "fathe O f h ove all of the e 1 18
Ii · b · r t e god " rn ther ag;n as "he who created the gods" (jrjw-ntrw), an epithet that
vmg emgs . But even this primeval f s, who created e tains the same form as late as the native temple texts of the
has not been present for all ete ·t ather has a genes· . all ~raeco-Roman period. 19 There is a related statement in the daily
the idea is formulated in a text 1· rthmypbut arose at creatio1s,he
A d" n e tolema · t n, as temple ritual of the New Kingdom, according to which Arnun
· ccor. mg to other sources he 1s . a Iready Ic empJe of Edfu 11 "formed all the gods. 1120 In earlier periods only gods are found in
tion m the primeval ocean , ,. a n d arose in . present
·t ,, f before crea- . these formulas; not until relatively late are gods and mankind
ord. er. to accomplish the work f .
o creation a d I o. himself" .
in placed in parallel, so that the creator is praised as "he who
o~1g1~of the world. The oldest god ·th n set m motion the created everything that exists, who built (qd) men and created
k~ng identifies himself in the Pyra '.;~ whom the deceased the gods," 21 or fo-.: "bringing mankind into being, forming the
his father ~tum," before earth and r;;:
h:xts, wa~ "formed by gods and creating all that exists ." 22 But as early as the Coffin
h~d come mto being (Pyr. §1466)· for ~he man b:mgs, or gods Texts all living beings have their origin in the creator god, as is
~tual of Amun creation was a ti " New Kingdom Berlin proclaimed in the "monologue of the creator god" in spell 1130:
mto being and no name had b i:ne when no god had come "I brought the gods into being from my sweat; men are from
world before creation 1·s th efen invented for anything. ,,,sThe t~e tears_of my eye ."23 Here the origin of the types of being is
th . ere ore a wo Id . h
. ere anses mysteriously-"of hi If ~ wit out gods. In it differentiated-the "sweat" of god is a term for the fragrance
first primeval god h h mse , without being born"'•-~ that emanates from him, and which we have already encoun-
· ' w O t en calls th f ---..
entir~ cosmos into being. e rest o the gods and the tered as betokening the presence of a god; incense, the per-
This is not the place for des . .
of the world and the . . cnbmg the process of the creation "Cairo hymn to Amun· 2, 7: Grebaut, Hymne 7; J. Zandee, JEOL 16 (1964) 61
would require a long c~:1g:; of the go_ds in detail, a task that I. 6; 18 (1965) 258.
"Junker-Winter, Geb11rtslza11s 37, 16, about Khnum; for a similar late period
whether the creator b . p on ~gyptian creation myths." But
fo~mula with qm'w-n!rw cf. H . ~e _Meulenaere, JEOL 20 (1968) 3 n . 12.
from his own semen ;mgs the first divine couple into being ,, Moret, R1l11el127 I. 5, and s1m1larly 133 I. 2. The same is said of Ptah in the
Y masturbatio h . .
"Sandman, Texts . n or t rough his creative Memph1te Theology " (I. 59: Junker , Giitterlehre65). E. A. E. Reymond, Cd£
12
MDAIK 12 (194 ' 8--l2, Twenty-sixth D 40/79 (1965) 64-65 , gives examples of the "forming" of the gods from the
13
£dl 3) 126 no . (53) ynasty parallel cited by H. Ranke temple of Edfu .
,. 1011 I, 498, 16. · '
''.J- Spiegel , ASAE 40 (1940) 258 I. 5 (Twentieth Dynasty) ; similar example E.
Especially clear in U k
SIG 18 (1965) 73 r · VIII, 117 no . 144 0 f Dnoton, ASAE 44 (1944) 118 (Ptolemaic).
';Moret R - ' g, Ptah ; I gave other examples in 22
Edfo11VI, 16, 4 .
' I 1lie1 129 23
'"Ceiling inscri r · • CT VII, 464g--465a. According to the Cairo hymn to Amun 6, 3 (Grebaut,
copy). p ion in Theban Tomb 59 refe . Hymne 16) the gods arose from the utterance and men from the eye of the
"The best surve . ( rrmg to Re-Harakhte; my own creator (cf. also 4, 2, Grebaut p . 11: he "commanded, and the gods came into
(5ources Orientale ys 1IS pby .s. sauneron and J y . being"). For the survival of this distinction cf. Otto, Golt 11111JMmsclz 58; on the
' ans 1959) 17-91. · oyotte 111 U1 naissance du 111011de later extension to the gods of the origin from tears see H. H. Nelson, JNES 8
148 (1949) 342 fig . 40 II. 14--15.
149

-,-, -~
 Conceptions of God in Ancient E
gypt
Characteristics of the Gods
fume used in the cult of the O .
god" (Wb. I, 582, 8-9). Hur!a!s, ,is al~o called the ,, Excursus below). That he should have created
hence from the eye of the creato ~ s bongin from "t sweat of world onl~ (~eefundamental to the nature of the creator god,
the words for "human being" dr ~~ ased on a pl ears" and · all the go s is ent that he did so also tells us something impor-
d 1 . an tear ,, Lik ay betw
wor pay, this one reveals a dee f . .. e every E een and the st atthemontology of the gods: they have a beginning that
that are associated, showing th ,pha finity between th gyPtian tant about •th e the beginning of the ordere d wor Id .
· fl e armo ,, e enti · cides w1 .
is re ected in language. The dich ~y of the World t_ies coin f the primeval gods and for the creator god himself
nated as if by lightning-"w otomy in our oric,;n . _which Only or
. b ·nning not precise y 1 fix d
e . Th e1r roo s are m ti.me-
. t .
. ea 11came fro h " o• is illun-.· is this egiefore creation and so pose pro bl ems, b ot h for t h e
weeping eye of god which wa . m is eye, "2•fr ...1- b
ness. "The weeping I did was sbafflicted by temporaryoblll1· the tessness .
. ns and for us, which we shall
h ave to tac kl e be! ow.
me· nkind b ecause of th Ind- ti
, ma elongs to the blindness that . e u_proar against
Egyp a · · d
The Egyptian solution is a p~r~, ox. m t_ · · . Tex~s, f
h e Co ffin 0!
11
Nun as the creator god in the C ffin T is behind me ,, example, Horus was born of Isis before Isis came mto bemg ;
ove_rcamethe affliction of his eyoe b texts ~CT VI, 344f-g,).Gsayds r Isis herself is said to be "older than her mother. "26
h d . , u man s o . . o 0
.e is es tined never to partake in the . ngin means that But all other gods are defined clearly: their existence has a
~n ?lights everything he sees, thinks ac~~a~sight of god; afflic- beginning-they were born or created. Does death correspond
t s ,image fr~m an early civilization and
man s soul bnngs home to us the .
;:es.
How painfully
om the depths of
to this birth, does an end in time correspond to a beginning in
it? I consider these questions in the next section.
exact t_heoryof origin! inadequacy of even the most
Agam and again the statement tha Old age and death
has been cited, with the ar men t a g?d created the gods
and 2, as proof of an alle e~ E ts_I reviewed in chapters 1 The example of the murder of Osiris taught earlier students of
wrong to cite them th gb gyptian monotheism. But it is religion that Egyptian gods can be mortal. This phenomenon
us, ecause th · d h
god s and to whom the h I is go , w o created the fitted badly with ideas about the nature of gods which were
. . w o e cosmos ·t •
no t a speafic god b h " d O wes i s existence is then current-gods simply had to be immortal. For Victor von
• e in and abo 11 d '
particular creator god in . ve a go s, but simply the Strauss und Tomey:
or Atum-in principle anques~on. H~ may be_Ptah, Re, Amun,
~ superficial analysis of ~h~om who is worshiped as a creator. The death of Usiri is an enigma, not because of the events sur-
m the monothei·stic . t any and various examples as rounding it, about which I have already said all that is needed,
ine~re~ti ,
conclusion that th d on, would lead logically to the but because it is the death of a god, which does not otherwise
ego s created occur in Egyptian legends of the gods . .. one must ask what are
created all the gods th . . one another reciprocally: Ptah
thus including Ptah· u~ including Re; Re created all the gods the characteristics of a god who can die . .. and be buried."
?id not think so n~rr:°wl so on .. It is cl~a~ that the Egyptian~
m the nature of a creat y. Their conviction was that it was Only a year later, in 1890, Alfred Wiedemann proposed an
created everything that ;r . go~, whoever he might be, to have explanation that was still being championed by S. A. B. Mercer
uJVments to "the lord whox1sts,Tuthmosis IV dedicated his mon- thirty years ago: the gods were formed in the image of man,
' 1540 16) T created e h'
the d' · he creator god veryt mg that exists" (Urk. 5
, go s, who .
are in Egypt" must ther
· e fore a 1so have created
CT IV, 76c; cf. Munster, Isis 10.
'From a Ra . Ian ontology " Bergman, /c/Jbi11Isis 280. In the "Memphite Tht•olog y" the cn•Jtor god A tum,
no. 193 messid hymn: A E .. powers of the existent who elsewhere ha s no origin, is credited with Ptah-Nun and Pt,1h-1 .iunet as
. . rman, lAS 38 I ..
I 50 · ( 900) 28 I. 2; Assmann, AHG parent s (II. 50-51 : Junk er, Giillaldm · 16).
" Giittergla11/Jt
• I ( 1889) 91.
151
 'I,.

Conceptionsof God in Ancient E

gy pt
and are therefore both mort 1 Characteristics of the Gods
"B t h a and sub ·
u even t e gods are no differe Ject to other c
were longer, but they too end nt _from man. True onstraints• . . th"nkable that the death of Osiris or his dismem-
greater, but still limited. For the ~d m _death; their , ~heir live~ vieWit is un :h should be represented pictorially and thus be
5
was in all spheres the measure f ghyptians man anctp Wer Was berrnent b~ h~ened more intense reality. So we must content
. . n a he1g , . h l
expIanahon, which was fa il"o t mgs . " 28 This all-trnan aIone give ith allusions--wh1ch are, owever, c ear enough.
satisfactory; but unlike von~~:~ already in antiquto-~uinan ourselvhe;~e !side et Osiride, which is free from Egyptian re-
realized that the mortality of E s~ und Torney , wZ' is not
pJutarc
. • sforms us even about th e gory d e t ails o f th e story ;30 a
straint, inbefore him Diodorus (I, 22) mentioned the burial of
to O~iris and thus confrontedgr:ti~n god_s was not c~e~ann century
In this he was followed b G e issue m its full b nfined
latter took the analysis tu\h erardus van der Leeuw ~eadth. Isi:~om the Nineteenth Drnasty onward _the _sun god's "old
of things: "Everything, in:lu~;~;ot~hed ?~tological fo~n:::tithe e" in the evening after his long, exhausting Journey through
sofar as it dies, but is also en . e ivme, has an en ~n ~:e day is part of a common formula , in which the "old man"
According to van der Lee dless, ~nsofar as it is reborn~ ~ In- in the evening is contrasted with the newborn "child" in the
~ot, has an ineluctable limit thuwt'. ex1st~nce, whether divin morning .31 At the same time--in the late New Kingdom-the
mg d . a 1s not fmal b t . e or Egyptians were not afraid to incorporate this motif in iconog-
. p~sse m the return to life I sh I . u is constantly be-
~h1sview of Egyptian ontolo . . a I consider below wheth raphy and to depict the sun god in reliefs and paintings as a
m eschatology we meet gbyis correct , or whether at I er "tired old man" leaning heavily on his stick, either in the sun
, a ounda th , east disk or in his bark; 32 this image contrasts sharply with earlier
gressed-a final, def1·n 1·t·1ve h onzon
d. . t ry . at cannot be trans-
iate question is whether th . o existence. But our imme pictures, which show the evening or night manifestation of the
t? all Egyptian gods, as it w1~u%ortalitydoes apply in principl~ sun god as an erect man with a ram's head .
c1ple" because we cannot ex apJ?ear to do-I say "in prin- Apart from this daily aging , the sun god grows definitively
of each of the many deif pect to fmd evidence for the death older through the eons, a process that is described in some-
Th . I ies. what drastic terms in two Egyptian myths. The Book of the
e v10ent death of O . .
known that we may ha ~ms a~ the hands of Seth is so well Divine Cow, which asssumed its canonical form during the
references to it are chapp ty ~m_1t to document it in detail But Amarna period , 33 describes the old and weary sun god whose
th E · rac enshc of th • · condition provokes an evil mankind to rebel. "His Person
e gyphans report the death . e restraint with which
t~e tomb and the resurrecti of ~h_e1r gods. Texts speak of (the sun god Re) had become old, his bones being of silver, his
o!
p1cted pictorially· there a olnl Osms , and both are even de-
to him h. ,, ' re a us1ons t0 h h.
~esh gold, and his hair true la pis lazuli" -a description of an
. ' is deathly tiredne ,, w at 1s enemies "did" image of a god in precious materials , but at the same time an
Ish1sand Nephthys, are menst~' and the laments of his sisters ""J. G. Griffith s, P/11tarch's De /side et Osiride (University of Wales 1970) 134--47;
P arao · • 1oned b E ' Ott o, Osiris und A1111111 58-60 = 61--{j3.
ti nic period never sa th t - ut gyptian texts of the
gi~ , of t_h; Osiris myth at 'e f: ~si~is died . In the cult celebra- . '.'Wb. 11, 313, 12; add Medine/ Hab11VI pl. 424 B, 4 (Atum as the "old man who
is In th e Nun "); see also A. W. Shorter, Catalog11 e of Egyptian Religio11s Pal'Yriin
we f~ vd1ohent death-rema 1·ns s iva at Abydos this detail-the the British Mu seum, Copies of the Book pr(t}-111
-lm v from the XVI/Ith to the XX/Ind
t is • unmenf d .
t:
in I
whoever th avoidance of explicit t t JOne . Again and again Dynasty I (London 1938) pl. 5, fourth col. from right; W. Wolf. ZA S 64 (1929) ''
would fix god may be; for the te: t emen~s that a god died, 34--35 (Berlin hymn to Ptah) .
e event and even , and still more the image ''Two referenc es cited A111d11at
11, 21; add A. Piank off and N . Rambo va, Myth -
"Ri:lixio1191 = 173 . render it eter l I . , ological Papyri (ERT 3, 1957) no. 24, and some very clear Graeco-Roman · ex-
cient Exypt (Lo d , retran, latt,d he • _ na · n the Egyptian ampl es I owe to J. Assmann : H . Brugsch, Tht•sa11r11 s inscriptio1111111
aegyptiacarum I
' 'G0 d5 n on 1948) 302 rt,. Cf. S. A. B M -
voorstelli11
xe11124_ · · <,rc<,r, 1lie Reiix io11of An- (Leipzig 1883) 57; id., ZAS 5 (1867) 24-25; Edfo11I pl. 33c; J. Baines, / £A 58
(1972) 304-5 .
l 52 llC. Maystre, BIFA O 40 (1941) SS-59; the earliest copy is on one of the gilded
shr ines of Tutankhamun .
153
 Conceptions of God in Ancient E
gypt
"Osiris," entering into the role Characteristics of the Gods
wh ose d eat h was archetypal L·k , nature a d
1 e d ecea' dn h forrn Of th
. · t 0 down into the west, the rea.lm of the dead, on the
acquires the quality of 1·,n'/1 "reve
-
Apart from the tombs of the soia
rence" ·
se urnan b . e god
in the Underw
ein
l{e f5' god muS l who is himself mortal (Urk. V, 14). New King-
those of many other deities r c.orpse, the Arnctu or d."' orders of ~ch place gods and men on a par by stating that
· h , espec1aUy · at sh dom texts; wo down into the realm of Osiris, 49 show that the
bo ~~s stch statements are not just the blessed dead. In
e1g th hours of the night. In the late . in the seventh ows th
also depicted and mentioned in text~enod t?mbs of gods and
"gods ~54 of the Book of the Dead the fate of death, which is
Thebes even the tombs of the ei ht r · as being on earth a~e
chapte~ to as "decay" and "disappearance," is claimed to await
not created and should thereforegr ph1mbevaIgods,., who ,::in referre Od every goddess, a ll amrna · ls, an d all msec
· ts, "50 an d
wor Id b efore creation but who f II eac ack in· to the death!
.. ere "every g '
. , a prey to th ess th 1·s a similar statement at the beginning of the Book of
tension of the idea of mortality wh· h e consistent
Th b 1c encamp ex- G etre in which the sun god "assigned (mankind) to the hid-
e est-known tombs are those of O . . ~sses all deities
d Ab d 44 sms at Phila •2 o · d a es,place, to which men and gods, a II amma · ls an d all insects
·
an y os (among many other places) A e, endara," w~m this great god created, betook themselves" (Bpf 1-2) .
teenth nome of Upper Egypt also s eaks ~f text ~om the eigh-
As in Book of the Dead 17, so here the creator of the world
of tombs of gods, 4s and the sites cI;
to b a~ entire necropolis
is responsible not only for the existence of all living beings
from Edfu and Hermopolis. 46 m s o gods are known
but also for their end, without himself being imperishable; the
Facts such as these reinforce the su . . .
Egyptian fixation with death· in th per!c1al impression of an Book of Gates in particular contains impressive images of his
nightly sojourn in the realm of the dead.
Egypt seems to be the countr, wher: ~or s of Thomas Mann,
your gods dead , "4 7 F y your dead are gods and Are there any exceptions to this general rule; are any gods
. rom an early period " d " immortal? Hans Bonnet claimed that Seth-the murderer of
mon word for the inhabitants of th th go s was a com-
Eleventh Dynasty the nee r . e o er world, and from the Osiris-was immortal. 51 He cited in support a passage in the
gods are.411 Chapter 17 of t~o~o is/sfcahlled the place where the Pyramid Texts in which the king wishes to evade his day of
e oo o t e Dead states that every death as Seth did: "The King has evaded his day of death like
; Amduat I, 195-96; II, 187. Seth's evasion of his day of death; the King has evaded his
,,~ethe, Amun §§10~--4 . half-months of death like Seth's evasion of his half-months of
.. Junker , Das Gotterdekret iiber d death; the King has evaded his months of death like Seth's
der W1ssenschaften , Phil -h · t Kl a,: Aba'.011(Denkschriften der Kais . Akad . evasion of his months of death; the King has evaded his year of
" F. Daumas Dendara ; 's · asse :,6, Vienna 1913).
1
; ouo , Osiri; und A11111: ~?~ 1'Hatltor (IFAO RAPH 29, 1969) 67-69. death like Seth's evasion of his year of death" (Pyr. §1453).
'}. Vandier Le . - 7--48. Bonnet related this unambiguous example to the gods' prophecy
. "'Edfu : Der 'h . papyrus/111111lhac (!Paris 19611) 126, 139
c a,n , Lepapyrus Salt 825 10 . · to Queen Hatshepsut that in addition to the "share of Horus"
mermann , Die iigyptische R 1· . 2. Hermopo/1s , tomb of Thoth · F Zim- she would receive the "years of Seth"-which are therefore an
s(Padelrborn
ee a so T H f
1912) 61, who c:::~~';s ,h1~ch die£, Darstel/ung der Kirc/11msc/1~if;steller
imse with " h . . especially long stretch of time .52 Finally, he cited Seth's invinci-
f;~~::;;r_
.1 9· op ner , Plutarch iiber . a eu e m enshc " explanation.
, Prague 1940) 161-62. Mls1 ;md Osiris I (Monographien des Archiv
1
l'IFAO 19~~3--27;S. Sauneron, Le~fet~s r ;o1
'. Le C//l'.ed'Horus Ii Edfou II (JFAO BE '"A . H. Gardiner , l.Jlte-Egyptian Stories (BiAe 1, 1932) 58, 11-12.
50
.,1 ) 329-30. e tgieuses d Esna (Esna 5, Publications de Naville, Todtenb11chI, 179; Allen, Bookof /ht•Dmd 154; Hornun~, Totenb11ch
332 .
oseph und seine Briider (' Cf . also C. E. Sander-Hansen, Da Begriff dc•sTodes /Jeidm Agy/Jlem (DVSM
Verlag 1960)) 108" in Gesa111111elteW k
" For refer e :,, end of the chapter "Dr /' heV (Frankfurt a .M. : S. Fischer 29, 2, 1942) 8; Morenz, Religion 25 = 24. The deceased is not striving for "per-
H G F' h . nces see A111d11at // 7· /// "9 e, ac e r Austausch " manence," as Morenz suggests, but for freedom from bodily decay .
· · isc er lnsc · 11011· 5 ' ' , :, The 5·t I ( . · " Reallexikon714 .
' rip fro111 11,
e Coptit~ N ea rum Bal/as is republished by
I 56 °111
e (AnOr 40, 1964) no . 45 . " Urk. IV, 244, 16-17 ; Middle Kingdom parallel in H . Schafor, in St11diesPrt'-
sented to F. LI. Griffith (London 1932) 428.

157
 '';-·, -- ✓-·~ -_ :jj.{~: ··_:_.:", _L_·_:_.:
-~,-:.\ _,>·~~r·
,l . · .. '<;i~~·-i •: .·. ,
· _----~
:\\ ·:----~ -~
',, .
r r

Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt

Characteristics of the Gods
bility, which serves, together with his violent natu
come coercive force for magicians who wish to achr:, as_a Wel-
mate ends .53 1eve illegiti-
..
Only the passage in the Pyramid Texts can really b
evidence of a search for immortality. The "years of; t~~~ as
the other hand, ar~ _"a reign full of power and frui;~ , on
which may last 'millions of years' but is in the last 1n es~,
contame· d wit· h'm time,
· " as Wo lfh art Westendorf put it.><
anaH 1ys1s
man te Velde has pointed out mummiform representatio er-
Seth,55of which ther~ are several dating to the Nineteenthn~~
nasty and later, which show that even this ambivalent d
shares the mortality of all living beings. As a corollary he hf~
beginning, although his birth is ·irregular and displays his twi~
light nature, which partakes of the existent and of the nonexis-
tent: he erupts violently from his mother's womb, spreading d He is already there at the creation of the world a~d must
disorder from the day of his birth .56 :: defeated for the first time by the creator god and dnven ~ut
Seth, whose realm is the desert and other marginal areas of f the ordered world of existence .59 From then on he contin-
the world, exists on the boundary between the transitory and ~all opposes the sun god in his path and thre~tens the de-
the everlasting . The same boundary separates order and chaos, cea?ed in the underworld. Every day and every mght power~!
the existent and nonexistent. Apopis, the eternal enemy of the gl·c is necessary to repel him from the solar bark; he ts
gods (Figure 17), does not belong with the existent,5 7 and has no
ma
burned up and "destroyed"-he is called qmte
. srmp
. I_y "th_e
beginning or end. Only the latest temple in Egypt, the temple destroyed one" (BPf 346)-but he is ~!ways there aga_m. His
of Esna, contains a reference to the origin of Apopis; he is existence cannot be extinguished, as 1s shown most impres-
interpreted etymologically as the "one who was spat out," the sively in a scene in the Book of Gates, where he appears, ~s
product of the goddess Neith ' s saliva in the primeval water. 58 In always, as a snake, but twelve human heads emerge from his
earlier periods his existence seems to know no beginning or coils; the accompanying text says that these are the heads of the
people he has swallowed (BPf 210-15). As the sun god travels
wr. Hopfner gavc numerous examp les of evoca tion of Seth from the Gracco- past, the situation is reversed at his behest: the heads c~~e out
Roman period: ArOr 3 (1931) 131- 38. For Seth in gencral le Velde, Seth; E. of the coils and "consume" the snake's body so that it per-
liornu,ng, Symho/011
n.b. 2 ( 1974) 49-63 . ishes" and Apopis is "destroyed." But as soo_n~,s the ~un god
"Z AS 92 ( 1966) 141.
" Srt/J IIJ4n. <,, has passed "the heads enter their coils (agam) -which_ th_ey
27 have only just "consumed." The enemy's snake body 1s in-
o ("· Se!,"
sin c." - 21!, In the N ·w Kingd11mhis day of birth was called the "bc.,inni o ng
destructible; only for a moment can his threat be counte _red.
" I Ii~ "d ·stru lion" j • · • The sun god and the other gods are indeed there all the hme,
a Iso
. Ill'/ 346), and elaborat.,,J ~ mcnlu11wd•in hthe Amduat and the Hook of Gales (sec
The ,,111 ,yms /Ir I J<I1I 1 up<1n1111 c later llook of Apopi s (It O. Faulkner,
but in a different way, in the alternation of ~eath and resurre~-
/It IIIIA,, 3 19331) A I' I
I' II/I CY•
Ptol••mai · st..Ja in I ,._, . 1 •. · ' · · ccnrt 1111110 th• cur se formu a on a tion, not in the unchanging endlessness that 1s the lot of Apop1s
11. d,· M1>ul1•na1•n : -< '" n, I.11'
Ori• 111 r.v1nlatnr . w,, ,
of ',1 1om b 'II l'kc Apop1s,
. "not ex1•s I" : as a power of chaos.
.. s
"-S • a11111
•r11n111 ' '' 1'111
, ' M~lflllX• 11 11
'" "'' fi lfiIIFA
o Murlr•/1, (1%6)
1 101((. I . I~ .
•1•5(n . 41\,,bov,•)iM.
rl'(fxlr·11 t c IIE 32, 1% 1) 235- 36; id., /.1•s /~/es '"In (crrc d 111
· d ,rec
' tiy friJm Urk · V , 7, 1- 3 ' .where the
,, . msw•ll{/M,
,, who arr: clo cly
I ''>l
s related to Apopi s, arc destroyed on the pmneval hill.
159
 Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt

Like men, the gods die, but they are not de d T . Characteristics of the Gods
istence-an d a II ex1stence-1s
· · not an unchanging a · di heir ex-
·1 to mouth is called "world-encircler";"' made vis-
but rather constant renewal. From an early periodenth essn,, ess, walk 1fro_m
·t IS tthaie W orld-en'compassing boundary .
between world .
are only the damned, that is, those who are condemn:d ~eact" ible, Id the existent and the nonexistent. Regeneration
judgment after death, or hostile powers;'° to be dead ?' the and non~bolr .' the ordered and defined world. It can happen
the same as not to exist. Siegfried Morenz emphasized th~: ,~ot · poss1
is im. h te •mold and worn becomes immerse d m · t h e bo un d -
the Egyptians constant regeneration was part of duration ~.~ only if ~ a t~ t surround creation-in the healing and dissolv-
The blessed dead and the gods are rejuvenated in death · Jess regions f atheprimeval ocean Nun. The sun god in his bark
regenerate themselves at the wellsprings of their existenc and . g powers o . h . h I d
1Il . d fr 0 Nun every morning, as 1s s own m t e cone u -
Many passages in texts and, from the New Kingdome. is
. rais_e
picture ~m the Book of Gates. Those who sleep are reju-
pictures show that from a very early period the Egyptians sa 0 n,
ing
venate md · Nun , and in a Ramessid hymn
. the ddeceased
h hcry out
try
rejuvenation and regeneration as the true meaning of death; god that they too are reiuvenate t roug
h
to t e sun . . d ,, en t ,,
"You sleep that you may wake; you die that you may live," as . N "slough off" their prev10us existence, an pu on
the Pyramid Texts formulate the hope with archaic brevity (Pyr. into un, · · th t
anot h er, ,, as a snake does its skin. It is. not surpnsmg k a·
§1975b), and in this early collection of spells the deceased also
the enar· cling and rei·uvenating element 1s• seen d ·as da sna · em
becomes a small "young child with his finger in his mouth" the Amduat. But this mysterious process 1s epIC~e ~n many
(§66Sa). In the Coffin Texts the deceased is "a rejuvenated god • s which are not mutually exclusive: the sun s reiuvenat-
whom the perfect West (the realm of the dead) bore" (CT I, image ' . hi th bod
ing journey through the night can take place_wit n . e ,,, y
88b), and he renews ("repeats") "life after death, like Atum, of the sky goddess .. or in the body of a gigantic crocodile. _ T~e
daily" (V, 291k). By providing burial equipment for his officials "awakening" of the gods and sacred objects in the ~orrung 1s
the king enables them to "rejuvenate" themselves as "revered described in many texts; 70 the entire world emerges reiuvenated
(deceased) ones" (a hymn to Sesostris IIl' 3), while the weak, from the chaos of night. .
aged Sinuhe hopes that through his "departure" to the next In temporal terms, too, regeneration is possi~le only outside
world his body will be "rejuvenated.,,., the ordered world of creation. In order to be reiuvenated, ~at
At the beginning of the New Kingdom the Amduat pre- is to reverse the course of time, one must step for a little
sented this old and well-known idea in a striking new image.' 5 o~tside time and see oneself at the begirming of the temporal
In the last hour of the night the sun god and his innumerable world, at creation or even in the world before creation, which
retinue of gods and blessed dead enter as "old one," "old knows no time. Rebirth in the morning is therefore a renewal
man,". "weak with age," and "gray-haired one" into the body of creation and is achieved with the help of the primeval gods,
1

of a giant snake, 1,300 cubits long, in order to leave it reju- who sent t he sun forth from their midst on the "first occasion"
venated as "young children ." The snake, through which they at the beginning of creation; 71 like the creation of the world,
"'Hornung , Ho//envorste// gen 35. " Following L. Kakosy, OrA11t3 (1964) 19 n . 26, a better rendering than that
1111 given in Amduat II, 178.
"Religionund Geschicl I I 222 ( . . . 67
w~IIer z1111165.• Geburtstag e[Leipzigrepnnted from Asiatica. Festschrift fiir Fnedncl1
1954] 420).
Gardiner, Chester Beatty I, 34, II pl. 17 (11, 8-9) . .
For a selection which 0 Id . " A. Piankoff, Le livre du jour et de la 1111it
(IFAO BE 13, 1942); 1d., Ramesses VI
" H · Grapow , M,IO 1 (l 9:>3): u 198easi 1Y be expanded, see Amduat II, 193-95 . pis. 149-59, 186-96 ; and frequently elsewhere . . .
I 8
"' MES 30 (8167--{,SJ_ . . .. E. Brunner-Traut in W. Heick , ed. , Festschrift fiir SiegfriedSchott (Wiesbaden
,;Amd11atII, 188-91 With the 1968) 32ff.
' names nos . 857--{,8, "'See Assmann, Liturg. Lieder 183 with n . 76.
160
"Amduat II, l91 , and often in later compositions .

161
 ..

Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt

Characteristics of the God s
sunrise can thus be called the "first occasion." "' In the
Caverns the sun god announces to the underworld d Book of are themselves not "in order" and
enter into the world from which I came forth I WeUers,''/ . . order, and_ so which has been successfull y
73 the ex1st1n_gded· otherwise chaos, . We can therefore as-
place of my) first birth. " He therefore return's t~e:~ on (the avo1 , . red up agam. h
before creation , from which he went forth on the
casion" and ever again goes forth. According to a lat
World
_Oc-
,,t
rt
t,etter
. hed nu ·ght be
ban1s th~t the possi i _
bil'ty of a time w1'thout gods was much
conJU
E
.
tians' awareness than t e
sume firrn}y grounded m the gyp t A phrase such as m c!rw
text, the aging gods return to their place of origin, the~ ~ alion
rnoreI ar allusions to it wou~d ~~?g:~ sense of "so long as the
world of creation "where they lived, were small, and :;:ievaJ
J~\
youths." "
The idea that the gods must be renewed each day is not b
doned even at Amarna; the Aten, the sole god of Akhenat: a~-
came
n!:
few c"~nthe realm of the
go
(Wb. V,
are there," is fou~
586 4)· otherwise
' ~ Us
i;; Graeco-Roman temple texts
e::hatology is for the most part the
· d
"b
om m· th k d i1 (
e s y a y anew ), " 75 an d th us expenences
. the san, 1s domain of magical sp: . which I have already mentione . a
cycle of death and rebirth as the traditional gods. Seen
this point of view, according to which rejuvenation and renew:
fr:e The Coffin Texts, ~m eath of the sun god, also _m-
magical spell that im_phes t~:o~ of Two Ways which contains
I
are possible only through death, the mortality of Egyptian gods cu de a famous spell t ent m theh
about t e en d of all time (spell 1130). ks
the first clear sta,,em f II ,, by which is meant Atum, s~a
is less surprising . It enables them to become young again and
again, and to escape from the disintegration that is the ineVi- The anonymous lord i°
:;rk· "I made millions of years mto
to the crew of the so ar d t.hat weary-hearted one, the son
table product of time. It might seem that the gods of Egypt, al- 'I
though mortal and, as Plutarch says, "not imperishable," '• were i1 something between . ~e an n I shall dwell with him in one
of Geb (that is, Osms) . Th~ . d cities mounds, and estate
in the last analysis eternal, ever-growing through their cyclical /I d
renewal : the sun god himself is called "the one who rejuve- place. Moun s wi·u,,become cities an e-468b). After the ,,rru·1li~ ns
467
will destroy estate _(CT VII, . th ma hem before creation
nates daily, without reaching his end . " n The difficulty we ex-
of years" of differentiate _d cre~tiond (1tu~ and Osiris will re-
perience in conceiving of perishable gods would then seem to
will return; only the pnml eva go parated in space and time.
be eliminated . But the solution is not so simple, for there are . ,,. lace" -no onger se . th" fi al
pas_s~g_es in texts of various periods which speak of a final, mam m one p 175 descnbes IS m
The later Book of the Dead, c_h~t~~r ear~h will return to the
definitive end to the time of the gods , a sort of "twilight of
the gods" which sets a limit to their "eternal" renewal. state of affairs still more clea~~~~s (fl~:d) as in its first sta~e- I
primeval ~ater _(Nun)_,_to efn I have transformed myself mto
. We should not expect this removal of the gods at the end of shall remam with Osms a ter k d the gods do not
hme to be_well documented . The Egyptians were not given to another snake w h IC . h m en do not now . an I er be men an d
eschatological utterances, which place a question mark over
nNeugebauer-Parker, EAT I text H
see." "' At the end of the world t~ere w1lll~~;ex~~~the temple of
gods, as is clear from a Ptol_ema1~ _para berhard Otto : "There
: A. Piankoff , Leliure des Q11er
erts (Cairo 1946) pl. 15, 3. Opet at Karnak , which was idenhfted by E_H ke him self er-
H . Junk er, D1t• St1111de11Wach · d O . . .
111 11
Akad · der . w·rsse nschaften Ph 1'f e,, h · e K sms 111y · sterie11(Denkschriften der Kars. is no god, there is no goddess, who w1 hma d· "The trans -
self into anot h er sna ke ""'-or , as Otto parap hrase • witnesses
d
an man, 7:exts 14-but ' in onJ ·• rst. lasse 54, Vienna 1910) 87 .
see also G. Fecht, ZA's94 (!% 7) Y one copy of the text. For this idea at Amama formed primeval god is alone and no longer as any
''J· G · Gnffrth
. . s, Pl11tarr1 42 wrth .n.. JO·
1•5 De I ·d ,
51 1
chap . 21. e ' Osmdt•(Univer sity of Wales 1970) 150-51,
nPap . _Berlin 3049, 9, 3: Hieratische Pa r .. . . . ·E A w Bud ge, r,,,.
Hookof //rt• D,·11dIll ( Book s o n E • ·pt •am! ·/ , h.1ld.w,1
- :'
fl (Le1pz1g 1905) 74; Ass mann , AHc
162 28
'7115 nus de11
ko111g/1clr,·11Musee zu Ber/111
11
L d· n ·1 '
o""C.
910) 74· Allen , H,~,k of llrt" D,~rd I~ ; Ho rnur , 8, · r,,tm/,1
n o de Wit , Lt-;
' i11
. II II • (<l"S
scri11ti,ms .!11tm111/,• d .OJN'I . 'I ,-;,muik I (8 1A,• , -
·
t 11- 1.l

co l. 13; Ill (BiAe 13. 1968) 59 .

l
I
 ,,

Characteristics of the Gods

Id no doubt in the hope that they will nev~r have

of the1t their
wo~ t'h rea ts into effect, and in the process provide ma-
to pt para liefs with the nuclear age:
cabre

If the one on th e water

' {the crocodile) opens his mouth,
·r he shakes with his two arms,
1 . .
I shall cause the earth
' to go down into the pnmeval water,
d the south will be the north
an d .,
and the earth will tum roun .

h be a time without gods not only at the end of the

Figure18. The sun god as a child within the Ouroboros .
to his existence.""' Only he and Osiris can change back into the
enduring, original form of a snake, that is, into the same form-
or rather formlessness-which the eternal enemy of the gods,
Apopis, possesses as a power of chaos. It is also visible in the
Ouroboros , the snake biting its own tail (Figure 18), as the re-
generating nonexistence that encircles the world . The snake
remains, but th~ world it encloses sinks away into the primeval
water and_ vanishes with the gods and all living beings; the
state of things before creation returns
th
. In of
tion magical_ texts
creation the aretua number.of allusions to the cessa-
and ere . Weltende," Analecta Biblica 12 (1959) 319-30; L. Kakosy, "Schiipfung und Welt-
A I t
s a as resort magician re thrn to the chaos of the beginnmg d.
s reaten to bring about the en
"'CdE 37174(1%2) 251-55· quotat· f
' •on rorn p. 253.
164
T ere can . •d f hi · I
world but also, as an interregnum, m the rm st o stonca
• According to Queen Hatshepsut, the hated Hyksos ruled
~;hout Re" and hence illegally; 112and Tutankhamun saw the
time before his accession as one when the gods and goddesses
of Egypt remained aloof, did not respond to any prayer, and
"destroyed what was created" (Urk. IV, 2027, 15--20). The Israel
stela of Memeptah speaks of how the sun god "turned back to
Egypt" after the horrors of the Libyan invasion had been over-
come ."' This, however, is a temporary absence of the gods from
this world which is overcome with the accession of a new king;
only in the forms of expression employed is it comparable with
the "twilight of the gods" at the end of all time.
It has become dear that the Egyptian gods are indeed, as
Plutarch maintained, "neither unbegotten nor imperishable." "
They begin with time, are born or created, are subject to con-
tinuous change, age, die, and at the end of time sink back into
the chaotic primal state of the world. The nature of the Egyp-
tian gods, whose temporal limitations we have just learned, is
finite in other respects too.
''H . 0 . Lange, Der magische Papyrus Harris (DVSM 14, 2, 1927) 57. For further
threats of this sort see especially S. Schott, "Altagyptische Vorstellungen vom
untergang in der agyptischen Religion," Acta A11tiq11aArnd<'mia, · Scieutiarum
H1111garicae 11 (1963) 17-30.
" Urk. IV, 390, 9 = /EA 32 (1946) pl. 6 col. 38.
'' Line 25:. KR! IV, 18-19. There are similar phrases at the beginning of the
inscription
"'Cf. n. 76 above .

165
 ..
_
·.' . ~' :
"'S • .,

. ..::-
~

-~.:..:
..:.
... ,,

onl'~ptionsof od in Anci~nt Egypt

Charact e ristics of the Gods

h New Kingdom , when Egypt was a world power, the

The limits of di, ine pmver and efficacy
In t J quired more universal pretensions that went beyond
Onl) a fe\\ Egyptian gods had any power outsid sun go _acs narrow spatial limits. Foreign peoples were drawn
circumscribed geog~aphical area. For the most partet~ closely h' prev1ou <
. is the Egyptian creator god's sphere of influence: like the
"respon_sibl~ _''.only tor a tow~, a nome, or a region of the Y Were into rid he created them and keeps them alive. Akhenaten
whoewoI ' h h.
and their etficacy decreased m proportion to the dist World, •bes in the great hymn to the Aten ow 1s god separated
· cuIt centers . As a resu It, travelers prayed to the ance descn . .
then- d . .frorn . nguages distinguished the1.r characters, and cares for
their 1a ' .
the areas in which they were at the time, 85 so that for eities of • sustenance. ""In the Book of Gates, which was composed at
heir .
expedition leaders placed themselves under the' protex:mple, th end of the Amarna peno , t ese cosmopo 1·
d h " 1tan,, I'd eas con-
the deities responsible for desert tracks and mines orec on.of ~:ue to have an impact. All of humanity-represented by the
where :"ey worked; the gods of their home towns coJ~a:~s four "races": "mankind" (that is, Egyptians), Asiatics, Nubians,
them little when they were far away. This is why N b· P and Libyans--is represented in the underworld . Horus greets
. .
As 1atic, an d L'b d
I yan go s acqwre
. d such importance for uE ian' them collectively as the "cattle of Re," and promises them a
tian~ who cross_ed_ the b~undaries of their own country . In~ blessed existence in the afterlife.'"' Here the creator is a shepherd
ub1an and Asiatic proVInces of their empires the pharaohs of who tends all of humanity as his "flock. "9 1 It is only logical
the Middle and New Kingdoms worshiped the deities who h d that his power extends far beyond Egypt, so that at the battle
power there-in Nubia, for example, Dedwen, who wa a f of Qadesh in Syria he hurries to the aid of the hard-pressed
virtu~ y no significance north of Aswan. 86 Doubts could aris: ;s Ramesses II and brings him victory:
to ~h1ch god w~s responsible for a particular area or sphere of
action; at such times people often fell back on the most general I pray from the ends of the foreign lands
te~ for god, n!r, as is shown by the example of Sinuhe in and my voice resounds in Southern Heliopolis( = Thebes).
Asia. I found Amun had come when I cried out to him.
He gave me his hand, and I rejoiced."'
.Portable statues enabled the gods to be effective at great

~true t
~tances, as for example, when King Tushratta of Mitanni sent
Ishtar of iniveh to the sick Amenophis III. Statues
gyp an gods can scarcely have gone on such long 1·oumeys·
There is a suggestion here that space and time have been
overcome and that the deity has become transcendent. Other
evidence from the late New Kingdom points in the same direc-
the .only attested case 1s· th at of the image of Amun-of-the-way '
tion: Amun "hears the prayer of the one who calls to him; in a
;hJCh was taken to Byblos around 1070 by the Theban official moment ('t) he comes from afar to the one who cries out to
enamun.t> Images of god Id h
distance in f r . s cou , owever, travel a certain him"; 'IJof the same god it is said that "every day is for you a
to . 1
hes iva processions, and reciprocal "visits" of gods
one anot er are well documented. M moment; it perishes when you set (as the sun).""'
Siegfried Morenz interpreted these three passages as evi-
"'T. E. P1:et, Uniuersity of I ·
( l'.r.lOJ119....C,O
. -'"utrpool, Annals of Archaeology and AnlhrO/JOlogy17
¥•Sandman , Texts 94-95 ; Ass mann , AHG 219; Lichlhc•im, Literat11r r II. 9 .
•·r . Di:rch;,in, Cd/. 37r14 (l%4 '" Bl'/ 176-81; Hornung, U11tmv1•/tsbilchcr21, 233-35 ; Piank off. Rames.<1-s
\ I 169.
l-.bl1:hnung frernd •r Kul , · d _l 266- S1:c also E. Otto "An e rk e nnung und
·r a, r1 h -
rd
. '"
. A . ~I. ardine r, l.alt•([<yp
n~la l(m " !nrn~m / 1 .
1,P
tia,,
one~
,
_,;c en Welt," Saern/1111119 (1968) 330-43.
(BiA e I 1932) 64 ( I 34) 72 (2 55)·
' ' F. Hintze , ZAS 78 (1942) 55-56; D. Muller, "Der gu tc Hirte ," ZAS 86 (1961)
12&-44.
"'A I- • . ,··- , . , era/ure 143 1"2· . '. , , , ' '"C. Kucntz, La bat11il/ede Q111lt-
ch (MIFAO 55, 1928) 252- ·3 = KRI II. 42--43.
166 22 h
· I. •Mdin ·r, //./; W (l<;,3) ~ l.i hth ·1m , Literat11r
W1t n . I.
e II 225, 228.
, '''Zandee, 01• hy11111en
an11A111011pl. 3, 17.
''' Hymn of Suty and Hor, Urk. IV, 1944, 13; A smann, AHG no . 89.

167

., .I

Co nce pti o n o f Go d in An cie nt Egy pt
1 not appr o~c by a ray of light nor penetrat ed even by the voice
dence . .for tran scendt ence "in d th e traditi
d ..;o nal,'" gener a sen
of aimin g to . .. ran scen th spac e an ..
I . . . me . ~ But I b e 1.ieve. th
they attest to hn~ k":o re dan at·re at1v1zahon of space and tin.at
the god s are t in ing an ac ing on a grander scale . Th . ,..e:
before the b~ginning o_fhistory, who~e preci se length i~ir rule
is recorded in th e Tunn Canon of Kmg s and in Maneth~~~s
vastly long er than that of any histor ical . king-but
. it is a 11m1ted
Id
measurable span. In t h e next wor time 1s also measur d 0 0 '
different scale, so that the judges of the dead "regard a eti
as an hour ""' b ut wit. h ou t s t eppmg
. outs1'd e t h e categories off
and space . The Book of Gates shows in visible form how be_irne
in the next world are assign ed a lifetime Cf w) from at ·gs
exhaustible store, which is envisaged as a snake (BPf 181-8S)n-
l shall consider Morenz's view of the "transcendence" · f
Egyptian gods in more detail !n a later _se:tion of this chapte~.
Here I am concerned only with estabhshmg that in Egyptian
thought there was no "true" transcendence of space and time
and shall cite only two additional pieces of evidence, one co; -
cerning this world and one the next . A New Kingdom cosmo-
logical text that is very close in time to the Qadesh poem of
Ramesses 11 states : "The distant region of the sky is in total
darkness. Its limits (qr) to south , north, west and east are not
known. These (cardinal points) are fixed in the primeval waters
as '."':eary ones :' . .. Its land is not known . . . by the gods and
spmts . There 1s no light there at all, (and) it stretches under
every place. . . .'""'
So the dark, watery world before creation lies outside the
path of_the sun god, and is characterized by the primeval ocean
and primeval darkness . In it the cardinal points are abrogated
("wear Y")·, ·t
1 knows no boundaries and cannot be penetrated
by th e rays of the sun or reached by any of the gods. The
bdoun~ary of the created world , which the cosmological text
escnbes
wh ere th asd enclosing th e sk Y, also includes the underworl d ,
e amned muSt dwell in realms that the sun god does
Hcra11 1ft 6-7 = 78
fk111
'"CL n . 34 above . · ""Hornun g, Hiill1•1m1rstd/1111
_:,...- ·: _vo ltcn, l'o/itisclrt' Sc/1riftw 26 I. 155
Pap . Carlsberg I, 2, 20-) l ·. Ncu~ebaue
. .. · r-Parke r [A T I 52-54
168 ' •
C h a rac tc ri!>tic , o f th e Gods
h durin g his nightly journ ey , and which are never
se illurn nat e god oarkn ess-eonceived mos tly as the "prime-
• .. 1 . 1mg
o the creator ,, bef.ore creation an d enc1rc · . .s th us quite
1t-1 .
r dark\ne:e boundary of th e ordered world and the limit of
val
general ~ t ..,,
t e king sh rule. creator of all cannot pass this farthest boundary .
h £ve\t ~ ffin Texts on he is often called nb-r-qr,' which we
. '. is fro:~II e tr~nslate "lord of all" but which me~ns literall y "lord
nor y d (or limit) " and thus includes the idea of a bound-
·r . a to the.ken the one in 'the underworld that cannot be passe d by
etirne
ary' \I e
hisNor creative
is theword .
power and knowledge of the gods boun~less ;
strictly speaking, even the most powerful creator g~ 1s not
"omnipotent." In the story of Isis and Re the god fails_to per-
ceive Isis' stratagem and appears to be powerless against the
snake she has created to torture him (Chapter 3, n . 91). But
even she, the cleverest of all the gods and the greatest ma-
·c·an '"' does not know the creator ' s most secret name, al-
g1 l , . .
though "god knows every name, " as the Instrucn~n for Men-
kare puts it. "': The boundary is alwa ys the~e. but m the wo~ld
of the gods it is thought to be very, very distant . The gods lwe
on a different scale and have a vastly increased but not endless
existence . Countless eyes and ears intensify the power of their
senses' 03 and enhance their abilit y to combat the enem y Apapi s .
who is deprived of his sense organs and cannot see or hear.
In the late period the solar ram has not only four heads but
also "777 ears, millions and millions of eyes, and hundreds of
thousands of horns" (Urk . Vl, 75, 18-21}-immeasurabl y in-
creased faculties.
..,Fo r refe re nces see E. H o rnun g, StG IS (\ %5 ) 78; Amdua l II. 7~"-.
""CT VI, 131j- k, in parall el with 11l >-lltl " lo rd of all"; s,-t• .1lso CT I. 251,, .
'"'Cf. Mun ste r , Isis 196 .
'"'Volte n, Politisd l(' Schr iftn 1 75 I. \ 38.
'"' Late p e riod exa mpl es o f thi s id e.t w ,·r,· giv,•n by S. S.,um •ron . BIFA 62
( 1962) 3 1. As ea rly as th• · Ne w Kin gd l>lll the sun god s,-e~ .,nd h,,,, r,; all: ).
Za nd ee, / £O L IS (\ %5) 264 .
:-1·11\.\ with n . \2. \ 69
·
 Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt

Characteristics of the Gods

Diversity
ally to t h e er eator god, whatever named' he. may. bear.
I .
The limits to the gods' nature in time, space, power, anct kn quite generth f s felt there was no contra 1ction m og1c
Evidently e EgypAi~:n and in another Ptah manifested him-
edge which we have seen in a number of texts are p 0 wJ.
when in on~ c~lsl~ ,, Nor is "pantheism" at work here, but
more' general phenomenon of their diversity (Difterenz
, art. of
h th
.e · the mi IOns. ·1 d . d
self m . . h that the world is necessan y 1verse an
This fundamental characteristic of everything that eXisztert ezt~. rather the m~ig tes this state to the creator god.
·
divers1ty-ren d ers 1t
· 1mposs1
· 'ble to ere d 1t
· the gods Withs-th1s
b multiform an owd_ si·ty in time space and form, there is the
lute qualities or absolute existence . When we turn to Egy\so . ddition to iver , ,. . f 1.
ontology in the next section we will be able to gain a an ct! In a
difference of stwex.
L"ke all beings, a deity 1s male or ema e,
O !exes is largely restricted to the primeval
understanding of this phenomenon; here I present evidenc:~er · of the s iff · d
it from a number of different contexts . or fusion
d the one, an d is . thus characteristic
. of the und
109 erentiate
1 f 1
The large number of the gods is itself an aspect of the·
go ' r n The creator 1sandrogynous, ma e- ema e,
~nte~e!1~~~r;a~~~r~ and mother of the mothers: " 110 Akhen~ten
diversity. The essence of the primeval god is that at first he i~ fat h' od Aten mother-father and, according to the illu-
one and then, with creation and the diversity it brings, he is ca!led_ is_~er retation of Maurice Pillet"1 and Wolfhart Westen-
many. In the New Kingdom "the one, who made himself into ;~~a,~negn:sa:ed himself in the same way, in his role as _repre-
millions" is a common epithet of the creator which renders this , · of the creator god·' the nude but sexless
105
characteristic explicit. "Millions" -enormous and unfathom- sentative • colossi
• from
· 1
Karnak are evidence of this. The process of creation is pr~ase y
able but not infinite multiplicity-are the reality of the world of
the emergence from the single creat~r god,. ~hose sex 1s not
creation, of all that exists. This insight is preserved as late as differentiated, of a sexually differen~ated d1vme couple, Shu
the temple texts of the Graeco-Roman period, which apply new d Tefnut who in their turn conceive other couples of both
formulations of the old epithet to Amun ; he is "a million mil- ::xes and thus initiate procreation and birth. One of the c~ar-
lions in his name" (Urk. VIII no. 138b), and his city, Thebes, acteristics of the world before creation is therefore that "b~h
can be called the "container (hn) of a million," that is, the had not come into being" in it, m and the oldest god had t~ an~e
vessel of the richly diverse Amun. 106 In the temple of Edfu it is "of himself." As early as the Coffin Texts the deceased m his
stated explicitly that "he made himself into millions of gods," role as creator god considers himself not to have been born (CT
and what is meant is really gods, not just beings of various I, 344c). . 'fi
types, or manifestations. 107 When, at Philae, Amun and Ptah are The origin of the created world in a process ~f divers~ ca-
~eparately given 1 the ancient epithet "he who made (himself tion, of the separation of elements that were prev10usly umt~d,
mto) millions" °"in the same building (the birth house) in the dominates Egyptian ideas of creation. Earth and sky, which
temple complex of Isis, we see again how this quality belongs were originally united, are separated by Shu; light comes forth
""For Ramessid exampl G •· from darkness; land emerges from the primeval water; the cre-
JEOL 18 (1965) 255-56. es see · Fecht, ZAS 94 (1967) 33 n. 7; J. Zandee,
-, Period and G
raeco-Roman examples Saec11/11111
' J. Assmann, S h 23 (1972) 125 with n. 62; for late "NS. Sauneron in Mt'/n11g es Marie/It•(IFAO BE 32, 1961) 244 n . I. J. Leclant g.ive
'""Sethe, A11111
11 §§200.+ E . see et e, A1111111 §200. many refe rences to androgyn y in Egypt in Syria 37 (1960) 7-S.
primary reference is to th' · ~~oton , ASAE 44 (1944) 127(c); in the latter the ""As with Ptah-Tenen at Philac (n . 108 above).
""Ed/011111, 34, 10. ego eh, but "million " is at leas t implied. 111 Melanges Mariette (IFAO BE 32, 1961) 91. . . . hv••'t'
""Junker -Winter, Gt•burt shaus .. "' Pantheon21 (1963) 269-77 . For a differ••nt view and rcc,•nt b1bhograp . ·
49 47
sw 111!1!1w)
. ' (Amun: ll!rw'tjjrj /1/1);29, B (Ptah-Tenen :Jr/ Baines, Fcrn11dit,11
Fis11res§2.2 .3.1. . . ., •= IFAO
170 "' Inscription of Udjah orrcsnet : G. Poscner , L,,
prc11111
1n· d,m111 11 /I< · (
11111,
BE 11, 1936) 6--7 with n. s.

171
 ..
. • ,t":
~ · ': • _.. . i ,,

Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt Characteristics of the Gods

ator god "divided (wpj) the nature of the one fro
other,"'" thus endowing every being with its un: th at of the e three exa mp les chosen almost at. random from the
dividuality . This is the background to the surpn ·s· IS takabJe in. These ar O f ages in which the Egyptians speak of non-
• Texts that Hike, the god of
ing stat_eznent mber pass · h bl
in spell 261 of the Coffin large nu . . What do they mean? Up till nowt e pro ems
created by the "sole lord before two things had corn n:iagic,Was exi~tent ent!ties;hese statements have been a~oided by translat-
in this world" (CT III, 382e, 383a). e Into being in inter~reti;g"nonexistence " (or "the nonex1s_tent"), an? then
If we are to understand the nature, origin and death f ing as simp Y k. in a footnote that what 1s meant 1s that
ost remar mg . II . d
tian gods, their characteristically limited nature and tho E?YP- athm ich does no Y exist , which could potentia
t et . y eXIst-an
,,
. ~ f ~h e pant h eo~, we must study_ Egyptian ontolo
s1ty ' e. diver- w . th end of the matter . But the "noneXIstent ones men-
to this m the following excursus, which is based on rngy 1 turn t~at is : who are to be swallowed by the gate in the
lished inaugural lecture in Basel, "Agyptens Aus! unpub- tionedf a ove, deprived of all potential to exist; they constitute
herea ter, are bl . t t I
setzung mit dem Nichtsein" (February 18, 1969). ina nd er- . that is definitively and irrevoca y nonex1s en . n
somet h mg h k" d h"
many o the r cases ' as ' for example, when t e mg ren · ers ti. 15
·
Excursus: The challenge of the nonexistent enemies· "nonexistent ' " the interpretation as not • yet eXIs ng f h15
not appropriate, even though i~ may be vahd for one o t e
~en an Egyptian had to answer for his deeds on earth at the many aspects of Egyptian nonexistence. .
Judgment after death , he cast his self-justification in the f So the problem remains unsolved, the more so sm_cethe only
of
. denials,
h which make up the celebrated "negative confess ~ •0 ~ attempt to deal with it th~s far reaches _the p_ara~~ ~ICal con~lu-
m c apter 125 of the Book of the Dead. One of these den · I · sion that "being and nothingness [are] identical. 1 In ta_c~ng
"I d o not know the nonexistent. " 115 1as 1s the question afresh I am well aware of the conceptual ~1fficul-
. ~en the deceased is accepted at the judgment as one of the ties involved: in the background of any stud y of noneXIstence
Justified and blessed, and is allowed to proceed to the pastures stands the entire field of modern ontology . Here there is a risk
of the her:aft:r, his way passes by many dangerous places, of writing no more than amateur philosophy . Only when the
an:iong which sources have been identified and analyzed , and their content
exist" (BPf 45).1s a gate called "swallower of those who do not
has been clarified, can philosophy elucidate the concepts im-
Finally he reaches Osiris, the ruler of the dead· he is then plied by our topic . Only then will it be possible to examine the
before a god who is h · ' conceptual framework of Egyptian ontology and perhaps to fit
as one "t 0 h c aractenzed by one among many epithets
jwtt).""• w om comes that which is and that which is not (nit it into the historical perspective of what Martin Heidegger calls
the "contemplation of the existent as existent "-into the his-
'"Cairo hymn to Amun 4 , G tory of philosophy . I shall therefore leave open the question of
3
"di vided " in Pyr. §2064_ ' · rebaut , Hymn£' I I. The mount ain s are already whether we should properly speak of "nonexistence" or of "the
"'C.Maystre, Lesdt'clara11011
11
·
5
,. nonexi stent," and beg indulgence over inconsistencies. We
d mnoccncc(IFAO RAPH 8 1937) 26
. ''K. Sethe' A e:<yp ·
t,scl,c l..escstiickc (2d d . . ' · should certainly not speak of the "being of the existent " or of
Lieder. 240 with n . 163. For th e same hc ·, Le1pz1g 1928) 63, 5·, Ass mann , Li111r g.
J. Spic_gel, Die Wl'lt des Orients 2 (19 _~ rase Used of th e holy city of Abyd os cf. the "noth -ing of the nonexistent ";"" the se terms are inappropri-
4 ate for ancient Egypt . Philologically we are on firm ground, for
4the existent, to whom belo 5 h :>::,) 0I · Both Amun and O siris ar e "lord of
2 (1943) 86 I. 4 with pl. 4 c:' A~s: nonexi5 lent ": Abd el-Mohse n Bakir , ASAE such Egyptian terms as t111w 1111and 1111w11 are clear negat ions
The
130 th of Kherit<'f(OIP 102, 1980) ~nn,
1hTomb 21
A_I-IG no, 88); The Epig raphic Surve y,
'" P. Derchain , "Zijn en niet- zijn vo lge ns de Egypti sche filoso fie" (in Dutch and
10 th e~e texts are of thl• New Ki: · • righ t column , text p. 39 with 40 n . w. French] , dialoo1t2 (1962) 171-89 .
c Middle Kingdom . gdom, whereas the firs t formula goes back
l 72 "' (" Das Nicht en d es Nichts, " an allu sion to Martin Heide gge r, Was i~I M.-ta-
physik? (1929, collected ed ition Frank furt a .M., forth coming) .-tr .(

173
 Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt
Characteristics of th e Gods
of the verb "to be"-the former conta 1· ·
• ning a ne ·
the latter a particle . There is also the ne ti gahve verb b his raising of the sky above the earth, which
(jwtj!jwtt) and a substantive derived fro!a 1·t·vl~relative adiec:.nd earth and sky y cess of creation. The primeval elements lie
t f the pro . .
th ese can on ly mean " th at which is not " , 1teraJJy ,, translat •ve is par O
h unsepar ated , leaving
· no space free m which the cre- .
. t " Th E .
no t ex1s . . e gyptians also dis tin uish or that •··h· ed
.... 1ch d0e' toget er,could stand and creation could emerge . ,2<1A later vanant
ver_bs such as "to be, " "to become " angd "t · el~ clearly betwe s ator god t ents adds the underworld to earth and sky (Urk.
' o 1ve " B en st
they mean when they speak of "that ,.,h · h d · ut Whatd of these a :;')--the realm of the dead does not yet exist either.
The none xistent. •• 1c oes t . o 34
VIII, d . no.t another relatively late text the creator god has not
, which by its nature no exJSt" ?
cannot be se Accor mg o ace on which he cou Id stan d "'- -a stn.k.mg 1y terse
pre h en d ed ' may be sought wherever th . en or com yet foun d a Pl
. e existent i I k" -
tempora I terms this means before creati E ~ ac mg; in d •al of the existence of space .
all periods state that the existent-anytii~ - tf Ptia~ texts of eThrue is no space, nor are there living beings who might
created, and so has a bevinning Eve th g at exists-was er
• h bit it· both gods and men have yet to come mto · be mg-
"
. <r · n e creator d in a , . h Ii I ,.,.,La
created everythmg that exists and hence f h go , Who another idea that is found m t e ~ar est re evant texts . - ter
well as for us-cannot himself have be - or t e ~gyptians as allusions to creation assume that 1t was preceded by a state of
. . en created is not .
ou t an ongin; as it _is often phrased in epithets ~f W1th- affairs in which "there was not announced the name of any-
cr~ted the world, m particular the sun od h ,,gods ~ho thing, " 123 referring thus to the work of the creator god, in which
~ g by himself'' (l]pr-(js.f) or "began (th g , e came into he calls all creatures and things into being. This is an indirect
mt be. "H e process of) c · statement , confirmed by other sources, that before creation
. o ~ng. e has a beginning; outside that bevi . ommg
IS nothing that exists or came into be " o-nnmg there there is "no thing ," that is, no matter, whether animate or not ,
nonexistence, which is described b u~ing, but ~nly a state of for that which is nameless does not exist . m
parallels for this are the Bab Ionia y E ng ne~ations. Obvious There is no death 125-how could there be, when life is com-
ation, the Indian Rig V d y d n numa elts or Epic of Cre- pletely absent?-but it is still characteristic of the Egyptian
. · - e a an man y ti
cultures; here, however 1' h ll crea on myths of other etiology of the existent that as early as the Pyramid Texts of the
ideas . , s a concentrate on the Egyptian third millennium e.c. the phenomenon of death is seen as a
The Egyptian langua e
form, one use of wh · t. .
possesses a speaaJ negative verb
necessary concomitant of creation; here is the context for the
idea that even the gods are mortal. Before creation there is also
fore creation: the n sd~~ : to des?i~ how things were be-

-t1t··
had not yet. . .. " In ~n In
rm, whic~ 1s translated "when . . .
Creation " publish d . portant article on "The World before
no birth; the first gods do not come into being through sexual
procreation . The rhythmical alternation of day and night is
~7 !. ' · e m 1931 m H
'..,,,,. features of the created world ' . ermann Grapow listed the '"'References for all these statements are in the article by Grapo w. n . 119
catalogue, which can now i:h1ch are negated in this way; his abo ve . ·
good starting point f somewhat extended , makes a mR. 0 . Faulkner . The Papyrus Bremner-Rhind (BiAe 3, 1933) 60. 6 (26, 23); 70, 9
.
~tence ." or an attem Pt tO d e fine Egyptian "non- (28, 24) .
rnpy, . §1466d ; tomb of Paser : Grapow , zAs 67 (1931) 36. Cf. also CT IV.
The spatial nature of the w . lOlh : _"when the nature (s~rw) of the gods had not yet been made n and . for
have not yet come into be· orld JS negated : earth and sky speafic deitie s, CT VI, 28la-< .
yet taken place-that is thing,_and the "raising of Shu" has not "' Pap. Berlin 3055, 16, J.-4 : Moret , Rit11el 129.
, e air god Sh h " ' Grapow , ZAS 67 (1931) 36-3 7 (Philae). According to Pap . Bremner-Rh ind
' "Die Welt vor der Scho f ., _ u as not yet separated
non- Egyptian creatio p un g, ZAS 67 (1931 28, _23 (n. 121 abo ve) there were " no forms (/rpm •)".
erbs 8. · n myths . Cf. also H Do ) 34:38, with parallels from "' Pyr. §1466d . According to a later text there is no death in the prime val oce an
· nn er, ZAS 82 (1957) 9 on Prov- un : 5 . Schott , Die Rei11i g Pl,nraos i11einem memplrit iscl,m Tem,,.,/ ( AWG
g1111
17 4 ' 1957, 3) 55.

17 5
 . ·...::·
..::_-.....
.. .-;.: . .

Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt

Characteristics of the Gods
Jacking, as is time itself, which the Egyptians c t .
ambiguously with the existent. a egonze un. h state o f no ne xistence are two: limitless waters or
The negations I have mentioned so far, which h constitute t e d (Nun in Egyptian), and completely opaque,
the state of nonexistence before creation, are of a t c aractenze the primeval flo;kw zm'w in Egyptian) . Additional features are
to us from other cultures . The ancient sta.tement ~~e f~rniliar total darkness ( . t· abysmal depth, and boundlessness of
. ess or mer ia, h . h 1
state "conflict had not yet come into being" may at in this the weann b t these are really no more t an penp era
. val state, u f h ·
bizarre (Pyr. §1040c; 1463d). This . 1s. a specific allusseem· rn0 re the pnme the logical concomitants o t e two pn-
. ·tt·O ns that are d d k
conflict of Horus and Seth, that is, to the figures and .nt to_the 10 defini 126 The belief that primeval flood an ar ness
of myth , but at th e same time . . 1s
1t . far more generallysi Uations meval ele~~:t:~ate before creation is among the oldest known
tion of all positive struggle, as can be seen from the affj: ne?a- constitute _
ti n ideas a b ou t creation '· in the ancient world the concep-. .
description of this state as being "weary" or "inert"· thmati~e Egyp a d natural that it was adopted even by Chnstian
ti.0 n seeme so . f h ,v
not h.mg that cou Id move or begm · to struggle-there · isere is
total .
Gnostics, w O
h combined it with the Greek notion o c aos.
· d h · t d f
repose. So far aImos t a II t he evidence I have cite as cons1s e . o
Then comes the surprising observation that there were ,, .
myt h 1ca 1 1 ·mages of a type familiar in other cultures.
• Egyptian
t · t
yet two things" (CT II , 396b; III, 383a), an apparently unne no~ onto 1ogy is · based on the insight that the nonexisten
li . d1sCno
sary r~petition, sine~ there was in any case "no thing at a~~~, simply transformed into the existent and thus _e mmate . re-
B~t this statement 1~ an explicit expression of the Egyptian ti does not remove what was there before 1t; as well as the
view that before creation there was a unity, which could not b :u: total of existence there is a remai1_1derwhich is endless
divided into two things, just as the creator god is often calle~ d which is never transformed into existence. For the world
an b f .
the "one, who made himself into millions " (n. 105 above) of creation the elements from which the state e ore cr~ation
"T~o things " and "millions" are here the opposite poles of is constituted-primeval flood, primeval darkness, weann~ss,
a smgle phenomenon-the diversity of the existent-which is and negation-are present in two way _s. The~ ar~ the final
denied in the case of the nonexistent . Nonexistence is one limit, or the realm beyond all boundanes, which 1s encoun-
and u~differentiated. The creator god mediates between it and te;ed when one reaches outside the limited world of being; and
the existent and separates them. He is the original one, who they are also present in our midst within the ordered world of
en:erges ~rom the _no~existe~t and marks the "beginning" of creation. I have already discussed the nonexistent as the bound-
:he proce~s of c~m1_n?m~? bemg by differentiating himself into ary that cannot be crossed, where the efficacy of the gods and
he plurality of m1lhons -the multiplicity of the existent and of the king reaches its limit. In an astronomical text it is de-
of the gods. scribed as being in the sky, beyond the path of the sun; under-
This is the intellectual f d • f . . world books testify to its presence in the depths. In chapter 175
.
insofar . exists
as 1t . th d'1 ·oun ation o Egyptian polytheism: of the Book of th~ Dead the underworld is said to be "utterly
to refer to a unity . in
, thee vme must be .differentiated . In order
the d ua 1 or Juxtapose
. rea Im O f th e existent the Egyptians use
two c .
the "Two Lands" or " U 1
omp ementary concepts: Egypt 1s "'Fo r weariness or inertia see CT 11,33f; V, 166h (of the primeval god, as in
Pap . Bremner-Rhind 28, 24 [n. 121 above]); V, 312f (of Nun, as frequently) ; on
and earth" · time · 11 pper and Lower Egypt"; space is "sky the remaining categories see E. Hornung, ZAS 81 (1956) 29-32. . .
, is n 1 1 and dt· the t t J' f h .
able is "the existent · ·d h - ' . o a 1ty o w at is conce1v- "' See the references I gave in SIG 18 (1965) 74. For the Gnostic text which
. an
I h ave now cited enou h t e nonexistent
. · " states the chaos of the beginning was darkness and "bottomless water" see A.
There are also a few veg d~e~ati~edefinitions of nonexistence. Bohlig and Pahor Labib, Die koptisc/1 Tile/ a11sCode.~ll 00."
-gnostischeSchrift ol111e
Nag Hammadi (Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, lnshtut fur
.
situation . before creatiory Th istinctive po s1't•1ve d e f'1mhons
.. o f th e Orientforschung, Veroffentlichung 58, 1962) 36ff. = Tlie FacsimileEdi/1011 of th,·
176 n. st
e mo important elements that Nag Hammadi Codices,Codex /I (Leiden 1974) 11, <97>ff.
177
 .., ..·~. . . , .
~L .

Concept ions of God in Ancient Egypt

Characteristic s of the God s
deep, utterl y dark, utter!}:' endles _s . " 128 In it, a dark , Wate
opens up and swallows sinners like the jaws of hell. 1 ~ abyss rm of the "curled sna ke (m.h "') is
falls down there into the bottomless depths "does not . oever
29
.
:o
. s give the visual The snake curled back on itself en-
Egyptian tial and tempora .' I orld that has an end-which
U I) )

it is stated m . as m~ny _words ;_ after the deceased has exist " as b both spa a fourd-dimens1ona w h sics also present .as turned
assigned to destruction m the Judgment of the dead h een rnpasses I f modern p Y
become a "nonexistent one." e has co
the sp h erical moh eOuroboros
so seem s to be the only v1sua1 sym-
These limitless depths also house the enemies of the god . k on itself; t e . back on itself.
particular Apopis , who daily stretches out his snake's hea~ ;: b~f that shows this turn~~fyg:for the Egyptians the entire ~xtent
attack the sun god, and ~ust forever be driven back into non- b To re peat and to hamp · space an d m . ti'me, is embedded m the
f the existent , bot mh existent The nonexistent does not
existence . For the Egyptians the form of a snake , which is oJ'mitless expan ses of ht e bnonndaries of · the ex1sten
· t ' b u t pene-
appropriate for this archenemy , has a particular affinity With
I stop short at t e ou ·cal and cosmological text I
nonexistence. The primeval god who outlives the existent world even ti n The astronomi . . t t I
changes into a snake at the end of time, and after the Amarna trates all of crea o . t "the distant region of the sky ism o _a
·ted earlier states tha . Id "in which darkness (that JS,
period the Egyptians devised the image of the snake coiled c1 ,, d that this wor , I e" is
back on itself, called "tail-in-mouth" ; in the Roman period this darkness an . " "stretches under every p ac :--
the nonexistent) is pr:sen;, No wonder, then, that Egyptians
image 30 was called the Ouroboros , the "tail-swallower" (Figure
18). ' The complete circle of the snake's body illustrates-so far omnipresent (n. 98 ~
encounter the nonex1s end
tv:
~herever they go . If they dig a foun-
ter in it reminds them of the state
as it is possible to depict it-the none xistent , which encom- dation trench, the groun wa d to make a new "primeval
passes the world continually on all sides . In late Antiquity this ti. and they pour san I t
before crea on , from the primeva wa er,
image rema ined so powerful as a symbol that Gnostic writings hill " so that the existent may ~merr i:M The yearl y inundation
and magical gems influenced by Gnosticism used it freely; in which is present in the gr_ounb w a ke~.ntothe world of creation
them the Ouroboros stiJI sign ifies the "outer darkness" that h • less nonexistent ac I ty
brings t e time . ,, t xt of the Twenty-fifth Dynas
encircles the world , that is, ultimately, the nonexistent or the and "the earth is Nun, . ~s ~ e of the wind "goes forth
extreme circumference of the world-the two amount to the phrases it. m Even the v1v1fym~ bhrte ~~rkness returns, the state
same . 13'
h N n ,,,:i,,and every mg h ' " i l7
There is a similar image in the New Kingdom underworld from t e u , ,,. th beginning everyt mg ;
which for the Egyptians too was m e . able)"ll8and
books : a snake, out of which one hour after another is myste- h . kes them unrecogmz
it "obliterates faces (t at is, ma ·1 d' solving the outlines of
riously "born ," and then "swallowed" again when the hour is extinguishes all forms , temporan y is
past-which thus embod ies the limitless, vertiginous aspect of
time. m This extreme circumference of the existent , to which the th e earli es t repr es entation of th e Ouro b ohrost· 130 abo ve) he is calll'd i11111•
. (n . snake
hd h h rs " that as t e 1me · w ith "tail -in-mou th "
umwl " he wh o i es t e o u , ' t plac ed
'"'E. A. W. Bud ge , The Book of the Dead Ill (Books o n Egy pt a n d Ch a ldea 30, rnTh is is th e o ldes t nam e o f the Ou ro boro s, 1a er re
~~ 1d on l~IOJ 73; Allen, Book of the Dea
d 184; Ho rnun g, Totenbuch 366 .
On thi s and what follows see Hornun g, /·fiillenvorste//1111xe1131-3 4.
'~'Earliest exampl e on the seco nd gilded sh rine o f Tu ta nkh a mun : A . Pia nk off,
(sd-111-r
'). . .
"'A . Mo ret, D11came/ere re/1x1e11 x de la royVIII
Facult e d es le ttr e s, Pari s 1902) 134; Edfou . '
i37
aute lu1rt1
oniqtri•(Uni w rsite d e Pa ri •
(sce ne title s); P. Ba rgue t et
The Shri11 es of Tut-A nkh-A111
011(ERT 2, 1955) pl. 48.
7
al. , Karnak Nord IV (FIFAO 25, 1954) 11 w~t~ ~ ~ nd on 1949) 25, fourth line . The
"'C.
1 Schmidt and V. MacDerm ot, /'istis Sophia (Nag Ha mmadi Studi e s 9, Lei· '"M. F, L. Maca d a m, The T1·111plt ·s of ~au ( . z d., D,· hl(11111m aan Amo11.
de n :,78) bk._Ill, chap . 126. Comp are also the snake th a t "e ncircl es th e ca ve of
A1on , la ud, a n , De cu11 su/n111 Slilicho11i s II 424-36 (cf p D, h · "A prop os idea is att es ted car r1e r, .an th'
• c New_ ,.Kingdom . 24
(l900) a n =cc,Ass ma.nn, A. HG 39-1· .
d , J· cJ' 38
, ,a u . 1en, ['..Ioge cJc St1hchnn,
C,, •,,
IJ 424-436' ," Z;\'s I. • e4-6),
re a in , sta nza "600", pl. 5, 21; A . Erm a nH,~S d ' ne r 7'/w Tomi, of H11_y (Thl•b.1n To mbs
'~Nin a d e G , Davi es a nd A. · ar 1 '
81 19561
h Earfht
o ur r, ch·~t r~phrct·iu:f hnere
e nw a r •Amduu/
ta tum 0 ·1J
,
11, 17J 76 (tra nsla te di
· " time") ' in th e ele venth Se ries 4, Lond o n 1926) pl. 38C I. 3·
117
178 ,,, ' ' , <J s vcra cxamp lcs in th e Boo k o f Ga tes (/JI'/) . In Goe thc, Faus/ Pa rt I, I. 1349 · , AHG 395.
"•A. Erman , ZA"s 38 (1900) 27 "' Assma nn , I 79
 .·.,.
..

Conceptions of God in Ancient E

gypt
the existent . Sleepers, who lie there ,, . Characteristics of the Gods
the primeval ocean, as Adriaan de B a~ if dead," dwell . ·f he continues to transgress, falls into t~e abyss of non-
the Egyptian conception of sleep·' J9~c showed in his~~ Nun, an_d, elnce So in the regions of the damned m the Egyptian
~bysmal depth. If mere sleep betoken reams Well up froUdy~f exist · Id the aim is not to torture the condemned sinners,
m the depths of the cosmos th s a ~emporary sub rn this undenvor ·nguish their existence at t h e s1ms· · ter Iy name d " paces
I
h· h • , e same 1s rnersi but to ext1
w ic remmds one of the final I' . more true of ct on
brutal fashion, even if it doe J~Jt of the existent in th eath, 0
f annihilation."
W can now understand rather better the "negative confes-
This excursion through thesl no! itself constitute that li;.rnost . ,~ at the ·i·udgment after death, which I quoted at the begin-
could be extended · everywhean ~capheof the existent in E1t. sion
. The deceased, w h o 1s. b emg
. cross-examine . d , says, "I d o
' re m t e J ct gypt ning . h h · th
come _across the nonexistent, especiall tn scape we WouJct t know the nonexistent, t us s owmg11
a t h e ·1s someone
contains fabulous animals that d Y_ n the desert wh· h noho has stayed within the boundaries of order and hence of
to our chief concern. Where tho not ex~st. But let us ~ove I~ ;e existent and has not overstepped the limits that have been
all I e nonexistent is n
. '. on y on the remotest horizons of th . present, if at laid down; he therefore arrives in the expectation that he will
it is presupposed before creation and e existent, as when continue to be alive and existent after crossing the threshold
the end of time, it is scarcely more th may one day return at of death with its associated dangers. There is a similar state-
material for speculation in a vacuum 1:n an abstract problem, ment about the blessed deceased in the Coffin Texts: "His
the world will no longer ex1·st . f . hastronomy tells us that abomination is the nonexistent (jwtt); he has not seen that
· m our t ousa d ·1r which is disordered (jsft)" (CT VI, 136k). "' Here "abomination"
t!me, the news leaves us cold and will not n m1 ion years'
hves-the prospect is too distant B make ~s change our also means that which is ritually prohibited or taboo . And since,
-nonexistent is felt to be . ut where, as m Egypt, the as ruler of the dead, Osiris is lord of the blessed and of the
is not confronted in anp _re:~t everywhere and all the time, it damned, he is praised as a god "to whom comes the existent
gages man entirely . m e ectual , abstract fashion, but en- and the nonexistent. 11

The challenge presented to th E . But there is also the other side of nonexistence , its potential
present reality of th . e gyptians by the constantly for fertility, renewal, and rejuvenation. Daily the sun dip s into
hostil e, the other fru~tfnolnexd1stent has _two main aspects, one the primeval ocean, which daily enfolds all living beings in
T . u an rege nerative.
he hostile confrontation is with h sleep. It purifies and vivifies, and the sun's re-emergence from
the nonexi stent outside . t_ e powers that belong to the Nun at dawn is a rebirth in the fullest sense, in which
be driven out of •t It . ~eation but mvade creation and must the world momenta~ily attains again its state of perfection
this. Ramesses 1// i_s
d t e task of the king and the gods to do at the time of creation. In the natural cvde of the war the
makes rebellious f s s~1 '1among other epith ets, to be "he who fertile land of the Nile Valley is also submerg ed in the primeval
ore1gn ands •
said of man y th k' nonexi stent, "'"' and similarly it is flood in the form of the inundation of the ile, which "iom1s
th
is, disloyal for:i ,~r mgs at th ey render "reb ellious ," that (msj) that which exists,"" : bringing to it new tren gth and fer-
i~ not enough togkill~~~~ esf "nonexi sten~" or "uncr eated." It tility. Anything that exists becomes exhauslt:•d ,rnd nt:'eds re-
f
I
life
•1st emer<> ,.,es frum d ea ti1· the' or th e Egyptian. s believe that new generation, which can be achieved only through the temp or,uy
, .
cnt world. Thi!>
.
' . _Ymu st be dnv en out of the ex-
. expu 1sion is n ·, .
removal and negation of existence; this necessit is tht:' b.1si·
enemies uf Egypt and 0 f . · . ecessary not only for political
th • fix d 1. . its k1nv· l'V
c 1m1ts of urd . d ' . ,.,, eryun e who transgres ses '"C f. C . Kadis h , "Th,, Scatup l1<1g u 11s Eg ·pl i,in ." /011r11,1/" t!t,, . n1·1.v ,,, th,·
<:r istances I . If Study uf E,1:ypti1111 A11tiq11iti,•
; 9 ( IQ79) 20 17. wllll inlL'rpn•t• tlw nunw ru u, p,1<·
" 'IJe 7.or/4d 11.,,, iim se from th e existent
..-J. Y,, ,, . , 't' u1mn1111
1
1x va,, d,·,,r./r,11, . sages in tlw ofli n Tt•xts .il>;,ut " nut ,·,,till): ,•, cn· nwnl " ,,nJ · m •t ~,uni: up, id,~
K· h y fl l, Kn 11110 ( 1\14\1)pl 7 I (MVJ :OL 4 1939) ( 13 dn,vn" in 111u r h thl· ~,Hill' w,1y , ns ;,,!o,•rtil,n~,,t .1 nh,r.,I , ,n,nutn,t•nt hl the
li e l'n , /LA =;o(1'1(,-1)~2 f,1
~• • 1.
. , 2; 11 (19 ~0) p l7 . .. -
· · , 4, s11n,J,1r phr.l Sl' K. A . corre ct order 11flhin>:•·
l k (J " ' Za nd,• e, V,· lt,1111111, t\111,.,, l'I. V. 2 1- 22 (st.rn,., "t\lJO").
·11,11111

181
 ·. , .-:-:'":'",
... ,"'; . ',; ;'~ '
, ,_ ·.

Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt

Characteristics of the Gods
of the positive, indeed absolute! .
what _theEgyptians call the nonexi~e~:sen~1~l, . _significan . the task entrusted by Egyptian society to its su-
negative. ' w Ich is anyth· ce of This was ntative the king: to complete what was unfin-
Ing b rne represe , f" . h d d
For the Egyptians even death itself ut pre -form creatively what was mis e , an to preserve
. hed to re
15 b . . . d .
or abrogate living existence more th cannot call into que ti '. t not as a status quo ut m a continuing, ynamic,
bnngs· .h . an tempo ri1 s on the ex1stenlutionary
, f d 1· d .
process o remo e mg an improvement.
wit 1t a very great danger th t . ra y. It aJ,..
·h d d · a ex1stenc rvays even revo I . . t .
gu1s e , an this danger must be cou t d . e may be exti The idea of perpetual rev_o ~tion 1sdno so new _as 1tfahppears
. . h" . n ere with n- aims itself to be; 1t 1s a fun amenta 1 notion o uman-
precau tions; m t 1s light Egyptian exp d " extraordina an d proc l . . . I .
ti.on, buna· I, and grave goods beco en 1ture o n mummificry . nd at least in Egypt, 1t has its roots m onto ogy, m the
from anot h er pomt . mes compr h . a- ity, apti~n that finality, that is, fixity is appropriate only to the
of view as we h e ens1ble. But perce . . I h
d il d ' ave a 1ready . nonexistent. Anything that exists 1s a w~ys on_t e move.
eta , eath means rejuvenation, renewal of al seen _in some
the gateway to an enhanced life i·n the I that exists, and The Egyptian concept of the nonexistent includes aspects
· I · next world s that we consider to belong with the unconscious, such as the
particu ar reveals the ambivalence of th . . o death in
Egyp tians can be not just a reality but ae nonexistent .. , w h"ich for sleeper who dwells in the Nun; the fact that wine comes from
essential reality. Only through th po~1hve and absolutely the Nun and is thus a portent of the nonexistent; 1• 3 and every
b . e nonexistent d . state that is anarchical or inchoate. One could say that in Egypt
ecome possible, so that the gods and th k" oes creation
depe~dent on it for the perpetual rene:al i~g are_especially "the nonexistent" signified quite generally that which is incho-
creation and fo~ the _avoidance of lifeless finalio their work of ate, undifferentiated, unarticulated, and unlimited; or, in af-
In the Egyptian VIew the existent is in ty . firmative form, the entirety of what is possible, the absolute,
generation from the depths of th . need of constant re- the definitive . In comparison with the nonexistent, the existent
maintain its living existence It . e ~onex1stent; only then can it is clearly defined, and articulated by boundaries and discrimi-
the negative, corrosive de~dl is, "d ow~ver, lost if it overlooks nations. It can be set in order and experienced: there are di-
Egyptians are aware th~t every s1 e o the_ non_existent. The dactic works (the "onomastica") which teach one to know
gods, must die; but the Y pe~~onal bemg, including the "everything (or better: every category) that exists"-in fact, of
istent is dead in the s y statfebs~ec1fi_cally that only the nonex- course, only a selection of it. 144
E~~tians remain detached ense o emg m d .
and b an en un~g st~te. The Since the created world is bounded and ordered in time and
nihilism or abrogating the self b alanced, a~d avoid fallmg into ~pace, it follows that it has an end and must disappear; it is an
state of nonexistence in whi h y sur~end_ermg to an unlimited island or an "episode" (Thomas Mann) "between nothingness
attitudes would constitut c ~veryth1~g is possible ; both these and nothingness." 145 It has duration, but there is no such thing as
a fixation with the ~ a evaluation of the existent and eternal existence, whicn would be a contradiction in terms. The
. nonexistent Se .
quite correctly that t · vera 1 writers have stressed pair of Egyptian words we translate "eternity" (11{,band cjt) in
· no race of m f ·
c1ent Egypt. The Eg t· ys ic1sm can be found in an- fact means "time"; for this reason the only preserved explicit
t0 fi d . YP ians never su b d
n m the transcend ccum e to the temptation statement about the existent defines it as nbband cjt. ,..,
imper fection, · ence
dissolut1·0 f h of th ·
e existent release from all
~ 1"th th e universe.
· °
The n remt .e self 'or 1·mmers10n • m . and union "
3
H. P. Blok, Acta Orienta/in 8 (1930) 200 (libation vessel in the Louvre) .
'"Gardiner, Onomastica.
thn~ly matter-of-fact; a~y so:ted active and often, to us, star- 'H"Lob der Verganglichkeit" (1952, in Gcsamme/1,•Wake X [Frankfurt a.M.: 5.
their a_ttitudes . For them the of ecs_tasyappears quite alien to Fischer Verlag 1960] 383ff.); Beke1111t11issc
des Hochst11plmfr/ix Krull (1954). bk. 3,
~nreah~ed primal matter theno7ex1stent is the inexhaustible, chap. 5 (Gesammellt· Werke VII, 546-47).

e~:~gt . and which chall~nges ~:'oma from which they take

without qualification or h" dern to create something that
'"CT IV, 198-203b; see further E. Hornung, "Zum iigyptischen Ewigkeitsbe-
griff," F11F39 (1965) 334-36 . The entirety of this "time"-not "eternity "-i s the
"_lifetime " of the gods . See now also J. Assmann, Zcit 1111d Ewigkt"il i111altm
I 82 in ranee . A,1typle11 (AHAW 1975, 1); p . 8 n . I above.
183
 ~-
.. -·· .
~.•5;!_!'~
· . .

Conception s oi God in Anci ent Egy pt

Characteri stics of the Gods
The significance of the Eg)' ptian d .
. or enng 0 f h
not on I) II1at 1t was the earliest att . t e exist . illion s "; mankind can experience him only in the
. . empt m h ent 1·
ear Iy as the third millennium 8 c t uman histo s himself _•~to mfthe created mortal, and changing gods . In them
• · .- o work
bas1s of an ontology, but still more th t hou the intellect s t ry_a lt'phc1t y o ' . .
n,u 1 . s encounter an existent reaht) that does not need
· he d I1ad a practical utility. Th Ea I e. bas1s
esta bl is · Which Ual the Egy pttanendent in order to be the greatest and the most
be transc
an ab stract intellectual structure b te gy_phans did not er Was to f I unique and incomparable .
· d . , u retained eate per ec,
h~u e to _their ontology, using concepts the a pragmatic at-
w1th, which sustained their own 1. Y were able to Ii
I' . 1ves. 5carcely ve The uniqueness of god
1zahon has integrated the nonexistent d . any other civ,·
• . an its ere r ·
s~ per fectl y mto its way of life, acknowled in a ive potential "Unique god, without equal"; this common imocation of Egyp-
without falling prey to it. Perhaps th· . hg g the nonexistent . n gods sounds as monotheistic as anything can be . But
. . is is t e source O f E
cre~hv1ty , of the balance and sense of the gyptian •ust as almost any Egyptian go d can be Ih e " greatest " (see
tia
which ~e encounter in all manifestations of~easu~e of things ~elow), he can also be "unique"; even the dom palm and the
and \-v h1ch are striking especially • . gyphan culture Asiatic goddess Qudshu are addressed as "unique god ""• and
Eastern cultures of the time Th m comparison .
w·th
I
h
ot er Near
'
"without equal""" respectively . The epithet "unique" is attested
. E ,, . e seriousness of th "b
m gy pt which Holderlin praised "; and th . . . e rothers as an independent appellation of a god in the early d ynastic
to characterize all Egyptian artisti~ for e rig1d1ty _that _seems period, "" and in the Pyramid Texts the god Nefertem is "without
fact that the Egyptians lived a full lif;~~annot d1s~u1se the equal" (Pyr. §483b-c). '' '
flowed at festivals even tho h ose energies over- The apparent contradiction in logic between the epithet
remained con stant!~ aw~re oft~! h (~r pre~isel7 ~ecause) they "unique" and the many deities to whom it is applied is easily
existe nce. They were aware of theo~~lon t at lm:11~sthis earthly explained. Extended and more precise forms of the epithet
order can be maintained onl . . . e that a hvmg, humane make clear its true referent, which is the unique character of the
appropriate component of dis: d1f it mcludes within itself an divine in general. Every Egyptian god is "unique in his fashion
existent within and a d r er and acknowledges the non- (w' !rr trw.l)": 1' ' there is no other who is the same as him. In the
roun us
Thi long excursus h b . daily cult service the priest must declare before the god who is
th e background a ' ainst as . een necessary in. order to provide being worshiped, "I have not equated your nature with that of
tian god s which gt f' which those characteristics of the Egyp-
a 1rst seem mo st
We can no w see bett e r wh th
r b
a ie~ can e comprehended .
another god." "-' Despite the multiplicity of the names and forms
of god s and despite the phenomenon of syncretism. the Egyp-
closed th eological s , Y e Egyptian s never constructed a tian s attach great importance to maintaining the uniqueness of
ys 1em or produced · • ••
t h e natur e of a d e·1t . a normative def1111honof each of their deities . This emphasis has nothing to do with
. )'- except 111tl A .
that 1s dogm atically r· d b 1e marna period . Anything monothei s tic conceptions or "tendencies, " but prevents the
ixe ecom es t
and mu st end by co n· . . es rang ed from the existent ~od s from being equated indiscriminatel y with one another .
For th - , . n ic 1mg with reality
e Egyptian s the fact that I . . . " 'I. WJIJe rt , Dfr, Pa/1111'11 i11111/tt'IIA:,:yp/1
'11(MA I, 1%-) 1.l-1.
th ey are subject to th e . . . ' t 1eir gods exist means that
ize JI . 1irnr1atron s and d . . ""M . Tos i ,ind A . Roccat i, Slt•k ,. 11/tr,·rp1:,:ri1f1 ti, O.,,r .-1i\fo /11u ( ,11.,l,1~,
> J.-1
a exrst ·nee Tl . ' 1vers1ty that character-
diff · · ,e undifferentiat d · Mu se o t•gi,:k, di Torino 2, I, Turin 1972) !OJ no . 5(-XW,.
erentrated him se lf tJ . e one ot the beginning '" Kaplon y, /11st'l1r1/ll'II I, -tJ l~12.
uoug 11 hi s w k O f '' 'L. A. C hri s to ph, -. AS A [ 5 1 (195 1) :4 9 with n . I. )liw s ,·,ampl, •~ ,,1 this
· or creation, he "made
_ " ' I·. I lold,·rlin , IJ,·r T,~/ ,/,·, ~pitlwt with th,· g,,ddc ss ~s Mut. Mmll , and S.1kh11wt.
Gross,., Stull l . •duk/,•s JJ v .·
l. ,11,~ ' 'J. Sa inh ' Fare G,1mc>tin us;. 1gt'S....·s 18 90, r,·f,•rring hi l\'1>.111,2Il- , -tf ,; ror
JJJj_
g, rt,.,r Au, g,lb,, IV i l W,t I er s111nII. 325- 30 (Sii1111/i
cJi,, Wak, ,, addition ,,! ,•xamplc•s ~•·•• E. Edl'I. Z.AS'N (195-1)76.
184 "JMord , R1t111'1 59.
185
 \'
~.,-;,
:,._ ;
._,_.,.~

Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt

Characteristics of the Gods
The significance of the Egyptian d .
. or enng 0 f
not on 1y th at 1t was the earliest attem . the existe . .
. ·11
If into m1 10
· ns"· mankind can experience him only in the
, .
early as the third millennium B c t pt m human histo nt is hunse . . f the created mortal, and changing gods. In them
• · .- o work t ry_a 5 · 1 city o '
bas1s of an ontology but still mo th
. , re at th b .
ou the intell
ectuaJ
rnu1np . 1
encounter an existent reality that does not need
Egyptians
established had a practical utility . Th E ~ as1s Which the ndent in order to be the greatest and the most
be transce
an abstract intellectual structure b te gy_Phans did not crWas t0 f t unique and incomparable.
· d . · , u retained eate per ec ,
ti~u e to _their ontology, using concepts the a pragmatic at-
S y were able to Ii
rw1th, · which
h
sustained their own 11
ization as integrated the nonexistent
·v
es. carcely
d . any other civ1
ve
· The uniqueness of god
. . an its ere f -
s~ per fect IY_into its way of life, acknowled in a Ive potential "Unique god, without equal"; this common invocation of Egyp-
without falling prey to it. Perhaps th · . hg g the nonexistent . gods sounds as monotheistic as anything can be. But
. . is is t e sourc f E tian ·
cre~hv1ty, of the balance and sense of th e o gyptian • st as almost any Egyptian go d can be th e " grea tes t" (see
which ':"e encounter in all manifestations :t~easu~e of things blow), he can also be "unique"; even the dom palm and the
and which are striking especially 1-n co . gyphan culture e
Asiatic goddess Qu d s h u are a dd resse d as " umque
· go d" 1.s an d
Eastern cultures of the time Th mpanson with h '
. ot er Near "without equal"" • respectively. The epithet "unique" is attested
. E " . . e senousness of the "b
m gypt which Holderlin praised "' and th . ·ct· rothers as an independent appellation of a god in the early dynastic
to characterize all Egyptian arti·st-' f e ngi ity that seems period, 150 and in the Pyramid Texts the god Nefertem is "without
f h IC orms, cannot ct· .
act t at the Egyptians lived a full life h is~1se the equal" (Pyr. §483b-c) . '51
flowed at festivals, even thou h or w . ose energies over- The apparent contradiction in logic between the epithet
remained constantly aware of th! h ( . pre~1sely ?eca~se) they "unique " and the many deities to whom it is applied is easily
existence . They were aware of th onzlon ht at lm:11~s this earthly explained. Extended and more precise forms of the epithet
e ru e t at a bvmg h
or d er can be maintained o I 'f . .
appropriate component of
existent within and arou d
di:: di it i;clukdes within itself an
r er an ac nowledges the non-
, umane make clear its true referent, which is the unique character of the
divine in general. Every Egyptian god is "unique in his fashion
(w' !1r~w.f)" :152 there is no other who is the same as him. In the
n us .
Th is long excursus ha b . daily cult service the priest must declare before the god who is
the background a ainst s . een necessary m order to provide being worshiped, "I have not equated your nature with that of
tian gods which a~ first ;~;h those ~haracteristics of the Egyp- another god." 153 Despite the multiplicity of the names and forms
We can now see better wh tmost ahe~ can be comprehended. of gods and despite the phenomenon of syncretism, the Egyp-
closed theological s t Y he Egyptians never constructed a tians attach great importance to maintaining the uniqueness of
ys em or produced · • ..
th e nature of a de 't . a normative defm1tion of each of their deities . This emphasis has nothing to do with
h . I y-except m the A . .
t at is dogmatically fixed beco mama penod . Anything monotheistic conceptions or "tendencies," but prevents the
and must end by conff f mes e st ranged from the existent gods from being equated indiscriminately with one another.
For the Egypt · hie mg with reality.
ians t e fact that h . '"I. Waller!, Dir Pa/men im alien Agyptm (MAS 1, 1962) 134.
they are subject to the 1. . . t eir gods exist means that "' M. Tosi and A . Roccati, Stele e a/Ire epigmfi di Dt•ir!'I Mtdi11,1(Catalogo del
. II . im1tations a d d 1. .
ize a existence The d'ff n vers1ty that character- Museo egiz io di Torin o 2, 1, Turin 1972) 103 no . 50066.
d.ff · · un 1 erenf t d
I erentiated himself throu h . Ia e one of the beginning "' Kap lony, l11
sclrrif ten I, 431-32 .
g his work of creation, he "made "'L. A. Christophe, ASAE 51 (1951) 349 with n . I, gives examples of this
"'F. 1-foldcrlin , Der Tod d _ epithet with the goddesses Mut , Maat, and Sakhmet. .
Grosse Stull ,a , es b npedokles, 3d v .· "'J. Sainte Fare Carnot in Les sagess.·s189-90, referring to W/,. 111.216, -Ht.; for
g, rter Ausgabe IV (1961J 133) ersion II. 325-30 (Sii111Jlicl1e
Wake, additional examp l~s see E. Edel. ZiiS 79 (1954) 76.
184 . "' Mor et, Ri/111'1
59.
185
 . -~·• :. ! ~ f•,,:r,:
;:.. .. ;
~ {;·.__
~- :.:...
,,

Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt

Characteristics of the Gods
Not until the radical change in th
does the epithet "unique" acquire th ought. Under Akh . teristic of the Egyptian conception of god that the
. h e meamn . enate
ar~ ta miliar; t e truly unique God Aten ~t is c~a;:~test god" can be given to the most varied deities,
g With Which n
eX1stenceof gods other than himself O ~oes not tolerat We !
eP1th~t single text. In the Pyramid Texts the sun god is often
often in t t god ,, as is the blessed deceased in two passages, 15'
we should take the word "unique'; 1·tuts1de this brief ep~ the h "grea es ,
• b • 1 erally O I isode t e_ . the underworld books of the New Kingdom "greatest
ence 1s emg made to the creator d n Y When f
b . . d ,, go , who Was . re er- wh~~ ind "this great god" are the normal designations of the
egmnmg an made himself into m 1·u · unique in th
of creation)." ions (through h' e god a~ Re But in this latter group of texts Osiris, Atum,
is Work
Only outside the world of creatio . h sun b~osHor~s Mekhentienirti, and winged snakes also receive
f . n, m t e fie ti Anu I ,
h epithet "greatest g.od . ,,,ss Th e genuine. Iy ,,great ,, go d s o f
rom noneX1stence to existence, do the E . e ng transition
absolute oneness of god In h ' . gyptians encounter th ~g:pt all have this epithet: as well as to Re and his vari_o~s
• • . II · 1s creative Jabo h e
m~~a y unique god dissolves oneness into t rs ~ e first and anifestations (Harakhte, Atum, Khepry, and so forth), Osms,
phc1ty that makes every de1·ty . he diverse multi :d Amun, itis applied to Anubis, 159 Thoth, 161
Ptah, '6() and a number
. unique and · · 162
spite the many characteristics they sh . incomparable, de- of others . Even gods whose importance is purely local acquire
are m common. the epithet: the lion god Mahes, 163Soknopaios'"' in the Faiyum,
and local manifestations of Horus, 165 as well as the deities who
The greatness and transcendence of god
texts from Saqqara : T. C. Skeat and E. G. Turner, /EA 54 (1968) 207--8; J. D.
The Islamic motto Allahu akbar "G d . Ray, The Archive of J:lor(Egypt Exploration Society , Texts from Excavations 2,
also to ancient Egypt and h I o ~s the greatest" applies London 1976) 20 n. t. See also M.-T . and P. Derchain, G6tti11gerMiszellen 15
tian gods alludes to this qua~:; ~ e senes of epithets of Egyp- (1975) 7-10. For Thoth "five times great" see R. K. Ritner, G6tti11gerMiszellen
tian language possesses no o greaftness. Because the Egyp- 49 (1981) 73--75; 50 (1981) 67--68.
. .
th e adJective separate orm for th . ';'Examples in J. C. Goyon, Le papyrus du Louvre N .3279 (IFAO BE 42, 1966)
"great" probabl corres . e superlative, 61~2 n . 8.
to our superlative "greatest/ th ,,gonds m many instances 158
Amd11atI, 67 no . 285; 94 no . 394; the rest of the examples are in the Book of
royal title which is familiar 't e . reat House" (pr ")-the Caverns : A. Piankoff , Le Livre des Q11er erts (Cairo 1946) = id., Ramesses VI 45-
should be understood as th ?,us m the form "pharaoh"- 135, pl. 7-34.
"great god" (ntr ") . th e greatest house," and similarly ';o,Several examples in the tomb of Haremhab in the Valley of the Kings : E.
god." . m e texts should be taken as "greatest" Hornung, Das Grab des Haremhabim Tai der Kiinige(Bern 1971); also at Abydos :
Edouard B. Ghazouli, ASAE 58 (1964) 130 fig. 17; in the Book of Caverns (seen .
A. number of extended for 158 above); and elsewhere.
ambiguously-for exam I ms express the superlative un- ""'Case of Ptah-Sokar-Osiris already in the Twelfth Dynasty: Ahmed Fakhry,
great gods ,, wh1'ch . p e, the formula "greatest god of the Monuments of Sneferu at Dahs/111r II , 2 (Cairo 1961) 67 fig. 388 .
Dynasty .1si' In the cours
1s attested f Kh
f or
.
ons m the Twenty-first "'Hari, Horemheb 373 (Abahuda near Gebel Adda in Nubia) .
fr~m being "twice great'~/t t~~ l~te period Thoth is elevated ,.,Geb: A. Piankoff, ASAE 49 (1949) 135 (Twenty-first Dynasty) = A. Piankoff
0 and N. Rambova , MythologicalPapyri (ERT 3, 1957) no. 1, p . 74; Seth: W . Barta,
Tnsmegistos. 156 t nee great," the Greek Hermes
MDA/K 20 (1965) 100 (Nineteenth Dynasty); Khnum: Hari, Horemhel> 372 (Eigh-
'"Ed teenth Dynasty); Nefertem : pl. ·ss;Harsiese: pl. 59; Reshef : Labib Habachi, ASAE
to be ,,wards, Decreespl. 29 II. 111-12 I . 52 (1954) 541, and J. M. A. Janssen, CdE 25150(1950) 210 fig. 18 (both Ramessid);
"' Fro8:ie;~:rtan any_god" : S. Sau~e~!~e ~i~Eteenth Dynasty Amun is stated Amset: W. F. Reineke, Forsclu111ge11 1111dBerichte 8 (1967) 62~ (Twentieth /
'"At D d wenty-s1xth Dynasty . c ' 52 (1952) 146 l. 2. Twenty-first Dynasty) .
en ara (D d on. R H h
MDAIK 20 [1965] l;n ara I, 30, 13; II 104 4) ug es, /NES 17 (1958) 8. "' Edwards, Decrees pl. 19 I. 59 (Twent y-first Dyna sty).
= Hermes Trismegisl(' T;e oldest ce;tain ~xama~d Tuna el-Gebel (V. Girgis, '"'E. Winter , Der E11tw11rf fiir eine Tiirinsc/rrifta11f,·inem iigyptischen Pa1,yr11
s
os ate to about 165 P es of the equivalence Thoth (NAWG 1967, 3) 68 (Ptolemaic) .
186 e.c. and are in Greek and demotic ' Horus of Baki, a local form in Nubia : J. CernS,, /EA 33 (1947) 55 no . 38.
05

187
 Conceptions of God in Ancient Egy pt
Characteristics of the Gods
appear at the king's jubilee or sed festival 1.. d d ..
There is no corresponding epithet for godd/nb eified kings ,., that th e "greatest one ' " or the "god" of the
ible to prove h d an independent cult . In the case of Atum,
one '' (or agam. ,,th e greatest one"?) 1"' is attestedsses
f ' .ut "th e great . 5
· texts ' a th t he displays specia I ch aractenstics · · as
or 1sis 1.. 5 k ·nstruction
(Urk. IV , 1763, 12-13), and the cataract godd S ' . a hmet • we know a k .
ess atis · i~1 There however, Id and a primeval god , and parta es m
must be many more examples: both for god t 0 of the wor d b hi d
desses, the material I cite in the footnotes he s _and for god- the crea ~ b t he is in no way a god above an e n
the nonexistent , u
. .
recent pu b)1cations and could undoubtedly bre .is taken ftom of the gods. d . .
. . not mentioned he re. e Increased and the res t ,, ·s indeed an ancient an important ep1-
exten d ed to d e1hes ' h reatest one 1 d
'T e g m but as early as the Old Kingdom other go s are
The fact that literally an_y go_d can be the "greatest" of thet ofI Atud ' b e the "greatest ' " and the. pattern .of use of the
~ods should warn us agamst isolating the "greatest od~ll the ·me to
als_o c _ai t support the assumption that 1t refers to a
figure separate from the other deities. The sam • lg as a
th e_statement th at one god created all the otherse ais da sof true adJe~tJve ddo~stno ho is otherwise anonymous. i,, There is little
h of mcular e1 y w h . .
of n[r for a god m · the instruction
• texts. In each n t e use
. ° pa. .
Pomt m. specu
lating about the original names, c aractenstics,
. be!. f .
.
th at th e spec if1c, well-known deities of the Egypti·a
case we find
h or IocaI1zat·ons 1 of gods ' for the beginnings
. .of. Egyptian h 1e m
were meant, never a supergod behind the gods. n pant eon d e earlier than the invention of wnting, or at t e very
least earlier than the oldest religious texts . Th e "M
~SH
. emp hit e
Ye_tHermann J~nker , o~e of the most important and wide-
rangmg egyptolog1sts of his generation attempted ford d th eo Iogy , " which was for Junker one . of the most important
· Iate the ,,greatest one " (Wr) as a separate
to 1so ' deity heca es pieces of evidence for the belief in a High God, has n?w been
th e ongma
· · I, universal
· god of wo rld and sky . In 1934 hw o was d ted not to the early Old Kingdom , where he placed 1t, but to
d t il d .. f .
. ea e expos1hon o his theory in the second volume f h"
e gave a t:e Ramessid '75 or perhaps the late period; 17• it certainly does not
171
immense work, Giza, and in his later books he repeated); pr~~ reflect the Old Kingdom conception of god .
pounded th~ same hypothesis , although in a markedly weaker We must limit our study of the Egyptian pantheon to the
f?rm. in In his last publication on the subject he no longer con- developed form that we find in the historical pe~od . There is
sider,;d the "greatest one " to be any more than the "original simpl y no evidence for its earlier origins. Nor 1s there any
term for the later Atum , 173 thus acknowledging that it is impos- indication that its origins are of a uniform character, as our
habits of thought predispose us to expect. Experience consis-
:~E. Uphill, JNES 24 (1965) 375.
'· See Chap . 4 n . 114 above. tently teaches us that the causes both of historical and of re-
''•wrt In E
·
r h
gyp ian t ere are two word s for "g rea t ,, ·• a d h .
ligious phenomena are complex, and that our simplifications
and usage are not f II d "st . f , n wr, w ose meaning do violence to the material.
normally used fo ~ y i mct rom each ot her . Here it is noteworthy that " is
de sses.
r great(est)" gods wh
'
.
ereas wr is norm a lly appli ed to god-
This is not to condemn all simplification or generalization,
:: ~un ster, Isis 203 (from the Pyramid Texts on). '" See es pecially the critique of Zandee, De hy11111e11aa11Amon 120-27. Cf. also R.
• Dunham and J. M. A Janssen , Anthes , OLZ 40 (1937) 222-23; Kees , Giittergla11be270-78 ; Gardiner, 011omas/1ca
Boston, Mass . 1960) 27_ · ' 5C/11/,a K11111111a(Seco nd Cataract Forts I,
fl , 267•-o9•; H. Stock , Saern/11111 1 (1950) 631-35 ; H . Frankfort, Kingship a11dthe
" c·
1
iza 11• 47-57; ear lier brief prese nt . . . Gods (Chicag o 1948) 356; Morenz, Rel(~io11156--57 = 149-50; J. G. Griffiths , Cd£
Schn ure r. eds ., Geschic hte dl'r 11.. d alJ_on m H. Fmke , H . Junk er, and G.
burg 1933) 31. 1 1Ire// en Vu/ka 3 Volker des a11tikenOrie11/s(Frei- 33/66 (1958) 18~9 .
"'Gotter/el,re25-37· p 1111 ·d . ',;Datin g of H . Schlogl, Der Goll Tal<'11e11(Orbis Biblicus el Ori entali s 29. Fri-
A.. ,, . ' yra e11 zc11(Einsied •I , - bour g and Go llingen 1980) 110-17. L. Holden compare s so me features of the
gypter , . m F. Konig•' ed ., Cliri·s, us 11//(/ d ", 11
70-88 R etc.
/"1 . 1949) b-25 ; "Die Religion der
1011 text with Coffin Texts s pell 647 (CT VI. 267-09), A11lt'ric1m RCS<'a
rch Cenlt•r 111
" ,n ; Giza XII, 97- 109; Geisteshaltu,, " e :< e11der Erd,•II (Vienna 1951)
Ge1steshaltu11x 134_ X 134-37. Exypt, A111111a/ Meeti11.~(Boston 1981) 36. .. . ,,
"•F. Junge, "Zur Fehldalierung de s sog . Denk ma ls memph1ll scher Theolog,e,
188 MDAIK 29 (1973) 195--204.
189
 :----· · . ...,·_.,l
._•......
~.5-;,..
~ "'- ~. -
·. ,
... _..,.p....
i J - ~.
- - -

""

Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt Characteristics of the Gods

for it is often a valuable aid to the elucidation of d • • lly • But it is necessary to test whether
and may be necessary for their identification in a eveJoprnents ted cntica b
nnot be tes h ' God for example, transcendence, can e
rial. For example, Siegfried Morenz, in The Rise oft~ss ;f rnate- ca ·sties oft is ' . f ,,.
characten . cient Egyptian behe . . .
dent God in Egypt (1964), m traced very clearly a co ~ ranscen-
dency of Egyptian religion through almost thre:si st
Compression of this sort clarifies much that would :h;nn_ia .
t~n- ~t d iscovered lil ~n "t nscendent" in the sense that his bemg
Every go d 1s d th rat of this world and its · norms; m · t h e nc
· h-
r eaches beyon a d ·n his range of activity he is always
be obscured by the enormous quantity of data. But rwise h ' nature an 1 f
ness o f is . h an beings . Simply because the locus o
constantly bear in mind that general developments in h~e rnust P enor to um be
· clu d mg
' vastly su . f Egyptian gods is not on earth, they must
m t h ose m · th e h 1story
' o f religion-are only istory_. . a nd action
being ,, o t in Egypt one cannot spea k o f a tru e tr an-
mately and discontinuously rectilinear; rather, they meapdproxi- 8
. I. Th e sma II se Iection · "transcendent . u Id raise a deity above space, time, and fate
spua of phenomena cited by Jan an Za er or scendencedt~:: ;;~g into the realms of the absolute and limit-
.m h 1s' review
. o f M orenz s wor , m which he deliberately Indee
, k . .
th e "d ev1'I's a d voca te, "' 78 ren d ers t h e " nse
. " much more dp'ffu
ayed and extenh een earlier in this chapter that all the passages
1 ss We ave s . d" . t d t
and reverses its direction at some points. 1 se e · h ' h rru'ght be taken to point in this 1rection en o
· texts w ic · f d
m . . ther than abrogate, the categones o space an
. But there is a simplification of a different type, whose method relahv1ze, ra . M d t
. h ' h apply to the world of creation. orenz oes no ,
1s comIp~rabhleto th~t of ]hunker, which is much more danger- time w IC k h' t rtm
·
h f P ursue this line of thought but ta es as 1s s a g
ous. t 1s t e assertion t at a "transcendent god" exists t ere ore, . . E h h' h t
. h as a · t "that in the early dynastic penod m gypt t e 1g es
separate entity; t is ass~rtion is based not on an epithet but on
podm embodied in the ruler and hence (from the point of
other features of Egyptian gods. If simplification is taken too go was · h'
~ar, the "star ~f the first magnitude," whose path is to be stud- · of Egyptian society) immanent" (p. 6 = 78); m t 1s per-
view i • hd I f d
ied, could easily become an artificial satellite, a product of the spective transcendence is "the !n~~ea,~i~g- wit rawa o go
modern scholar's mind. Morenz was aware of these dangers. from this immanence and access1b1hty (1b1d .).
He stated explicitly that his term "transcendent god" "does It is quite clear that throughout Egyptian his_tory _royal power
~ot [refer to_]a particular deity, but [characterizes] the Egyp- becomes continually weaker; the king submits himself mo~e
tian conception of god as such, and in all its manifestations" and more profoundly to the might and will of the gods, and his
(p. 8 = 79); he also pointed out that the characteristics he was dependence on other human and earthly possessors of _pow~r
concerned with are found in the most various deities, among increases. The development of royal tombs, from the gigantic
whom the "great gods," Re, Amun, and Ptah "lead the way" pyramids on the plateau of Giza, through the modest brick
(tbtd.). So we have on the one hand a unitary conception of god pyramids of the Middle Kingdom and the concealed rock tombs
and on th_~other many_gods of different types-the same prob- of the New Kingdom, to the relatively very small tomb cham-
lem that is alluded to m the title of this book. It is clear from bers of the third intermediate period in Tanis, is probably the
many statements by More . th t h ,, most striking illustration of the king's diminishing prestige. "''
. nz a e saw the great and single
~eahty o_~Go~ b~hind his many manifestations"; in ~ther words In the early dynastic period the king is like a terrestrial polar
star, around which revolve all the constellations of civil, and to
toerycoo~ Slre~rg~onts ~; ht~eone, transcendent God of the later his~
• s mes through" a · d . a considerable extent of religious, life . During the time of the
ligious world of the E . .. . . gain an agam in the re-
1
gyphans . his s a declaration of faith that
1
,,.,The evidence mentioned in the res t of this chapter is pr ese nted in Morenz ,
"' Morenz, I frm11/kllt1ft.
to which refe rence should be made for docum entati on.
/-/era11f1w11ft,
"'ThLZ 9_J ( 1966) 261--65; cf. also id., /·let o, . . , , . '"'Even here the development is not linear; rath er, there is a recurring tenden, -y
e11(Leiden 1966) 13- 14.
fc1111r ,g,tlifftrwf1em/r dC11kC11
dl'r o11deE,'?.
VP·
to elaborate a hierarchy , in which the king and his tomb have dearlv defined
190 privilege s, as I have shown in ZAS 105 (1978) 59-66 .
191
 ~--i,.._.,,

'i!.f
.:-
i. .· . . ,
::..t.Y
.

Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt

pyramid build ers in the central Old K' Characteristics of the Gods
kmg•
ascends to the polar star inc the sk ingdon b .1 the dere .
sor 1·s from now on the "so n of Pe ,,Y,. . ut . . his .1·1v1ng
• su~ascd I wh1c . h re quir es th e king s. of Egypt to repeat on earth
k. , 11 def •
mg s re 1ationship with the su n god' · h . 11s ' · " 11tion of,res
th· of ru e, of the sun god a t creation,- . .
th F 1 the deeds 'f h Dyna sty ther e is a s1m1lar dev elopment in the
e ourt h Dyna sty, has always been, ws 1c . 1 was . f?rmulilfed . e th
t t . . I1as b een not ed that at th, een In e Fi.t ship with Osiris . The "rise" of thi s new ruler
s a us, an d 1t b as . ' a d1m1nution
. in
D , e egmnin 0 f . of king relation
. 's
I
. h d
f the dead res ult s in t e ecease
d k'mg ' s bemg
.
. ynasty ~he royal funerary monument takes sec~ !he Fifth of ~he rea ~'~siri s," which do es not mean that th e two are
size and importance to the solar 1. nd Plilce ·
• c emp 1es Prop 1n define~ a: t that the king acquires a further divine role .
view have always assumed that i'n th I. onents of th·
k. e ea r y dyn ·f 1s equate
Later 'd ev
u elopments follow . very closely the direction
. indi-
mg ha. d been, as "Horus ,, ent1·r,.ly d as ic period thn
d • ' " a go so th t · ~ d b Morenz-if one disregards some short periods of re-
an Fifth dynasties he s ubordinated h' .'If a m the Fourth
h. h . d imse as the ,, . ,, cat~ 1 \ch as are found in all history. At the end of the Old
I~ est go . But I hav e shown at the end of C son of !he versa s
I h h f . . 'f'
qwte uncertain that as "Ho rus" th k ' ha~ter 4 that it is - d o-m the kingship is broug. t to t e verge o 111
King s1g111
f h ,cance
or a;1 "incarnation " of Horus All e mg was identical With and has to bow before the might of the ~ods an_d o !
e great
f · · we can s f J · feudal lords. Phiops 1 (c. 229~-2260 e.c.) 1s the fi~st ~m_gto _be
rom th~ beginning of Egyptian his tor the a_e y sa~ is that
Horus , Just as from the Fifth D . y king was termed depicted kneeling while offermg to the gods, and 111_h_isinscrip-
was. termed Osiris· . for th . I dynasty . on the de ceased king . tions he display s a hitherto unknown regard for deities who se
d ' e ear Y ynast1c period d sphere of influence is far away in the provinces. As the king's
om we do not know precise! . an Old King.
between Horus and th . k' y m what _form the relationship power on earth continues to decline, men turn more and more
textual evidence of the eM 1'ddl mg was env, sage d · Th e extensive to the gods as the ultimate cause and sanction of events; in the
th - e and New k' d turmoil of the first intermediate period (c. 2140-2040 e.c.) the
. at at his accession Pharaoh took ing oms suggests
his death he took on the role of O ~n. _the role_of Horus, and at gods are credited for the first time with responsibility for polit-
of these god s without bein, 'd s'.ris, a~optmg the attributes ical affairs (p. 211, below) .
of divinity does not relate/!, ~ -entical w_1th them . This form When, at the beginning of the Middle Kingdom, Egyptian
office. o im as an individual but to his kingship is reformulated and meditates upon its ideological
. In assuming that od wa . . . . foundations, divine authority continues to take precedence
s,ble" in the king Mg 0
s originally immanent and "acces over it; from now on the king makes reference to his "election"
' ~mproJ~tdb · by a god and acts according to the "commands" of the god .
opmental tendency that c e ackward in time a devel-
. d cannot be d Even the most important ruler of the New Kingdom, Tuth-
perio ' and thus started f h ocumented before a later
point of departure It· . rom a ypothetical, and questionable mosis III (1490-1436 e.c. ), bases his claim to the throne on an
f · is equally . ,
orn:iula that the king is the "s ,,que stionabl e to interpret the oracular pronouncement of the god Amun and ascribes his
a w,t?drawal from an earlier ~n of the s un god as indicating victories to the god's agency . This development culminates
no evidence at all). It seems r ~man ence (for which we have in the "theocracy" of the Twenty-first Dynasty, in which the
do~-~or whatever reasons-t~I er that in the early Old King- oracular decisions of Amun regulate everything that happens
wh,~h in t_he end forced the kin ere wa~ a "~ise" of the sun god down to relatively insignificant administrative and political mat-
relat,ons_h,p With that god Thg ~odefine his previously vague ters; even the installation of an official and the solution of a
~ecc: sa_rily signify a reduciion ~ ormula of sonship does not case of theft are governed by divine oracle . "Amun is King,"
rac etmg, Which henceforth in status; rather it is a kind of the name of one of the kings of the Twenty-first Dynasty who
very closely with his lik connects the lord of th d resided in Tanis, marks the culmination of a development in
eness 011 earth e go s
192 ' or a collective program which the king becomes ever more dependent on the power
and decisions of the gods .

193

....
l
 ··...

Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt

But historical space is spherical· ho

I Characteristics of the Gods
any d eve Iopment may seem to us, ultWever ' stra·ig h t the Jin
I th d b ' imate 1y it the "waning" king of Egypt does not confront a
c e; e en may e displaced a little b th t comes full e .of Akhenaten ,_ ,, od who becomes ever more transcendent , but
nevertheless it lies close to the point ; d e Orce of events ~Ir.
single "~axmgf gods who buttress his authority . Among them
true here, too, for the slogan "Amun? K~parture. The sa..:, ~t ltiphe1ty o g h f
. 1s mg" h ..,e is a rnu d 1• his various forms and names sets t e tone, or
imman_ence of god in the historical, terrestrial wera 1ds a greater the sun go. .n I creator whose deeds every king must repeat.
from his assumed transcendence In te f Orld, a desce th
ce f f h' · rms o the Eg nt he is e ongm;s and human beings together inhabit the ex-
_P mn o istory the beginning and the end Yptian con. ~o the ordered world of creation . .The truly Iran-
still closer together; the Royal Canon of Turi~f the process are . tInnt Egyhptt
t a 1s,
is e ' t lms of the universe are godless, bemg reserved for
an ~arly Ramessid systematization (thirteen h , which records cenden rea . . h' h
sthe "enem1·es , ,, the powers
. of chaos . The
,, nonexistent,
d ,,m w. 1c
h
earlier ideas about the succession of kin s t century B.c.) of
b
gods on earth at the beginning of the I' t g races the rule of the prime · val deities are m some sense. transcen. ent, as 1s t e
This idea was influenced by a _is'1 e ore all the kings crea tor god at the beginning of creahon, begms where bound-
·t rev,va of th t • anes• and diversity end . We .must accustom . ourselves to the
s, uate the gods more firmly within h ' t e endency to
reflect unintentionally the true s ·t t· is ory , but it may also fact that by their nature Egyphan gods are neither transcendent
h ,s
' tory, w h en the gods were associ iua1onatthebe ·.
ginning of nor eternal , unconditional, absolute. The "anonymous" god of
events on earth. The inanimate and a~ed I more closely With the instruction texts is no exception, even though he is often
suggest that they were original! . anima forms of the gods cited as the chief evidence for transcendent features or "mono-
fetish used as the hiero I h f y imm~nent, and the cloth theistic tendencies" in the Egyptian conception of god.
evidence for an immane~/~, or ~bold,s particularly strong The lecture given by Jozef Vergote at Strasbourg ("La no-
. . , access, e" god H M tion de Dieu"), which I have already used in the discussion
pro1ection backward in time f I . ere orenz's
/ustified, even if one disputes r:~ a_te_r dev~l?pments seems of terminology in Chapter 2, also contains a list of the most
in the king or in the predy f h _ongmal divine immanence important characteristics that are ascribed to the anonymous
In Tl R' nas ic c ief
ie ise of !he TranscendentGod M. . ntr of the instruction texts (pp . 16~70), characteristics that con-
and presented in a concentrated a d or~nz ,d~ntified correctly stitute for Drioton and Vergote a further confirmation of their
portant tendency in the d I n stimulating form an im- monotheistic interpretation . But if one reviews the phrases
th . I eve opment of Eg f .
e 111e he gave to his k . YP Jan religion . But cited, one discovers no attributes of a different order from what
religion astray . In Egypt ;~r can_easily lead the historian of I have cited so far, nothing that might point to a single, tran-
"rise" of various major ~ ~s possible to observe the historical scendent God. The headings "The Unique God" and "The

,
!..{;~~

:;
~

,f;

'. ·
,,,
w
Amun. Shifts from imma o s, such as Re, Osiris, Ptah and
. ay round-can be seen in the
nence to trans d
ce~ ence-and the other
ti~e was there a transcendent Cm~s_t various deities. But at no
~,s~ f !he TranscendentGod wh · ~ in ~gypt, and a fortiori no
0

History of Cod in Anc,·ent'E ic was indeed for Morenz the

. "'"o ic ·. c.csch1ch1e
in lhc Neue Zfirclr
. Cottes im
gypt . "••• With th
er Zei/11;1 alien Agyplcn ," lillc of a s
e sole exception of
.
' Omnipotent God" (both p. 168) are misleading, for they do not
accord at all with the content of their respective sections . A god
who created the world is not "omnipotent" because he is a
creator god, and the arguments for a "unique " god are still
weaker : "The uniqueness of the transcendent God can thus be
deduced only from the monotheistic character of the maxims as
a whole" (p . 168).
tra11 e111e11Cottes is a X, Oct. 18, 1964, 6_ (The
sze11d : ummary of his work The reasoning has become circular-the conclusion that is to
way in Which the E J' mb1guous in lhat ii may II d Germ a n Nera11fk1111f/ des
~t
out the amb iguity is is~n ,ndcring doc s not· ana I~ e to_the single God in a
0
be proved is assumed in advance . A monotheistic, transcen-
dent God who stands high above all gods should show himself
• ie ise ! Cr)(/'s Tra11
scelld a crnativc form lhal brings
194 e11
ce.-1r .1 to be what he is through his nature and his actions. But the
instruction texts do not say any more than that he intervenes in
195

- ---------=
.....
=---
---·-
-
..

a!fairs o: ·.·:o ri a d rings his "ord ,,

jltliges , re;-.•:ards, and punishes, hat nerotsh_ to fruition, H-
·"--• . him ing ca .,..,
·.,,.m.....
. . agai - ; alJ hese are quarti·
1
n Su.er... ,
.
· ···' •d - •-- .es and
·~ n are ac.u attribu ed lo \•arious specific . ~es Of
---.:o
~- g _of Praise for 'he Transcendent cc:!t
~ties_ he
,.~ = 1 chapter 1 of he Instructio n O f A. (\.forenz
·,,.-' er:e •'' e supeno· · . o f god over man . . men emnn,,
, • - _ . JS indeed -ye,
empnasiz.ed, the famous condu dm g Jin= ··th . strong!\·
· · "" wi their t · ·
~ 2ge:5 _ep ct ~h god and man as being in the sa s nking
·. tan,.5wn~ 1".th:e ship's rudder, and the Lord of me ~ t:
t · Continwng the same metap hor one All JS its
6 ~ Divine Action and
. ,._ , ma v sav tha
s hip 1s me corade . of the existent on the oc -f
ean o the - t thi5
. Human Response
tent, across which both god and man must . nonexJS-
f n he course of Egyptian historv the auth navigate to th
f ?e er.
. t 1·• - , ors o the m5 tru
on ex s, JJU? the king submit more and c-
th ·11 . , more complet I Human beings live in a world in which the gods are invisibly
e w1 , action, and percipience of the d ·ty . e y to
I . ,, . e1 ; m the "a f but powerfully active. Every morning, when an Egyptian priest
persona piety, to wh1eh Ame nemope (c. 1200 ge o
opens the sealed shrines in a temple sanctuary, the god's awe-
longs, man surrenders himself entirel v into god' B.~.) ~1sobe-
scarceh· even hopes for solace from h - . s an s, and someness and majesty take possession of him; in the daily
to the ~'eT\end both belong to th uma:1 actions. But down ritual for Amon-Re, the king of the gods, he says, "Your awe-
- e same existent world d 1 someness is in my body and your majesty pervades my limbs." '
upo n each othe r as partner s. I consider th . ~n- re y
next chapter. e1r partnership m the "Awesomeness" and "majesty" represent attempts to render
the Egyptian terms snqt and sfsft in a modem language; snr!t
-=1..ange, Amenmwpt' 98. can also mean "fear" of someone, and sfsft the commanding
"authority" that surrounds a dignitary.
When the priest sees the image of the god, he feels the
power that emanates from the divine being; when the god
himself appears, lie manifests the same power in radiance,
aroma, and fire (see Chapter 4). The first emotion that grips an
Egyptian who encounters a deity or the image of a god is fear,
mixed with wonder and exultation. At a theophany earth and
sky rejoice, the entire world . jubilates, and laughter and festiv-
ity abound .2 But in order to make any kind of meeting possible
an Egyptian deity must also say "fear not," as is recorded in
the story of the Shipwrecked Sailor-for the gods are superior,
unpredictable, sometimes uncanny powers . As well as love
and kindness, their faces project terror.
But the gods are not there in the world in order to spread

'Moret, Rit11e/66.
' Assmann , Lil11rg. Li1•der250-60, cites a wealth of exampll•s.
197
 ~ '
.~·,,,.
.;.;
/:1.
.,~.."' ,

Conceptionsof God in Ancient Egypt

Divine Action and Human Response
fear and terror and to turn their h
U~np
sIaves--only man is capable of such . h artners int .
h e exerases power over other men Thm uman conduct hn.·
· °
·••Id
. e of the deeds
That 1son at their hearts should not forget the west,
1 caused th . be presented to the gods of the nomes.
and ensure that not only mankind. b e gods ~reated th' When
. . ut all be1 e World so ~hatoffe;i;!s deeds . (CT Vil , 462d--464f)
grow m 1t. But to what end? Wh t ngs can 11·
· a made th Vea Thal 15one o
h
t e world and all its creatures into b . e creator god lld
~ing? No Egyptian text is known wh~~~g ~nd keep themc~IJ 1•5 almost an Egyptian program of "Liberty,
b1guous answers to questions of th · gives direct u in This passage .t ,, proclaimed as the foundation of a new
·ty fraterni y, h · f ·
d I d. .
ent Y 1d not consider these to be se .
is sort: th E , narn.
. e gyptians e . Equal1 ' the collapse of the _Old Kingdom. T e creah~n o air,
can create only that which is perfect! n~us issues . The g~1- order after uality of opportunity, and constant mvolve-
·shment, eq f
state of the world is one of per'e ti. y ormed, and the fi s noun . h th realm of the dead and the gods are the our
ent wit e . l
be',ore creation
. . ,, c on and b I
is not worth str1· . f
rst
a ance. The stat rn d. deeds of the creator god, and also the matena
d • . vmg a ter even £ e outstan mg .
go -s1~ce he IS alone in it, all that the , . f or_the creator d spiritual basis of human eXIstence.
logue with that which does not a re is or him is a dia anThrough the initial separation of earth and sky, sp~ce comes
· d d . nswer and wh · h · into being, and with it the breath of life-the mos~ important
~ ee exist. By differentiatin h. If ic does not
istence he initiates the dialogu! an1:;s~ and coming into ex- ·ft of the gods to mankind . From the late New Kingdom on
gods and mankind live. give-and-take from Which ~ere are scenes of protective goddesses wafting breath to the
Expressed in our terms , an E . . .. deceased with their wings, for air is life; in the arid desert
ation of the world might h gyptian Justification of the ere climate of Egypt every "breath of the north wind" vivifies and
k ave resembled th -
s etched, but no such stateme t . e one I have just refreshes. The hieroglyph for life, which is the commonest at-
ever, in the Coffin Texts (c 200~ is preserved. There is, how. tribute held in the hands of gods, signifies that they possess
of the creator god,, h. h ·. B.c.) the famous "monologu and dispense life . Countless scenes on the walls of temples and
. , w ic is an enu . e
important deeds of creation : meration of the four most tombs show them holding this hieroglyph to the nose of the
king, who represents all of humanity, and through whose nose
I did four good deeds the breath of life enters human beings (Plate II) .
within the portal of the h . ' We, who belong to a breathless age, should be able to ap-
I made the f . onzon.
our wmds preciate the deep and timeless significance of these scenes. Is
so that every man mi ht b . not the creative breath of life, which dilates and liberates the
That is one of the deed; reathe m his surroundings .•
soul, the most precious attribute of a worthwhile human ex-
I made the great flood .
so that poor and . h . istence? Is there not a risk that in our time humanity will be
That is one of th dnc might have power ; suffocated by inhuman systematization or by the waste prod-
I made every e .eeds· ·
ucts of technology? Are there not many who risk their lives in
I d.d man hke his fellow
i_ not ordain that the . order to be able once more to breathe freely? The Egyptians
their hearts disobe d y do wrong (jzft)· could be confident that their gods would always give them "a
ye what I had . '
'I.e. even beforeh said. new space to breathe in," as Rilke hoped the gods would re-
.
terrestnalworld e stepped out of the honzon
.
• . and turn to do for his generation.• Within this "space for breath"
Becausethe "surroundin ,, , was manifestin the and for freedom, a great and creative culture arose.
I haverenderedthe wo d . gs (h w) canbe unde t
'I r in th·
.e. sharein the fecu d.1 is generalway rs ood · or temporally
spatially Life and freedom are visibly held in the hands of Egyptian
n ty of the · , . · ' gods and are destined for all living beings, not just for human-
198 Nilesinundation .
'R. M. Rilke,Siimllich e Werke II (Wiesbaden
: lnsel Verlag1956) 185.
199
 . .,.
, .

-~-~..:
._ ,- r
" .

. p~X~.

Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt

Divine Action and Human Response
ity. As early as the Old Kingdo t .
creator's loving care affects all ofm omb reliefs show h · ages that were already familiar in the great
nature and . ow th tnu~s~ .
ment even for the hedgehog in it provides n e Akhena e At in which the creator dispenses the breath of
h th . . s nest. In New Ki outish hymn to : th en,tures--most notably when he speaks of the
ymns ere 1s the image of the chick in ngdorn s · . II his crea . .
god e~ables to breathe and keeps alive th: e?g Which the olar hfe •tok ~in th e eg g •,, This motif continues to be used m later
Egyptians used in their script as a s· . ih1s
image, Whichs~n "chic . t ranging from Ramessid hymns to the temple
·..,es 'f in h texGraeco-Roman
s
adverb "within,,, , is the most absol ign or the prepositio t e t1,.. period. '" Th e fu nction
· o f sustammg
· ·
wardness" of the gods' const t ute expression of th ~.or t~xts. O t t eexclusive to the sun god; every go d w h o 1s · wor-
f an care for th e in
rays o the sun , it penetrates all the wo Id ef World. Like th. hfe isdno creator also sustains life-if he did not take lasting
hipe as a .
great hymn to the Aten Akhenat r o creation · in the srespons1·b·1 11·ty , his work of creation would be. meaningless. . Thus
velop all lands as far as the end efn proclaims, "Your ;ays e . • aid of Ptah that he "created everythmg that exists . ..
A h o everyth · en. . h h' ( f
t t e ~ame time Akhenaten 's artists m? you created."• JI JS s
(and) keeps everyone alive wit_ . 1s era tsman ,s) finger~- "II
the sun disk with rays (Figure 20) th dev1~ed the image of This truly inexhaustible prov1s1on for all-the sun god 1soften
~ymbols of the loving care of the s~n ~dmost imp~essive of all said to be the one who "does not sleep" on his way 12--expresses
h~e, as he sustains the world. The f g ' ~hose light signifies not only the god's responsibility but also his love of all that he
disk terminate in human hands tha/r-reachm~ rays of the sun created. From the beginning of the historical period names in
the _noses of the royal family. With told the s1g~ of life out to the form "the one whom god loves" 13 provide evidence for di-
depIC~slight as the bearer of the a undant ~lanty this image vine "love" of humanity, while a form of royal epithet which
even m the dark realm of th d d breath of life. Light is life states that the king is "beloved" of a god is first attested in the
passes . The New Kin do e ea through which the sun god mid-Fifth Dynasty under Neferirkare (c. 2446--2427 e.c.) and
wherever the sun god'sg m underworld books describe how later becomes extremely common. 1•
d rays and his c t' ,
oors ~pring open, the cri Jin rea iv~ word reach, sealed In the Eighteenth Dynasty this formula occurs in an intensi-
dead nse up to renewed Ii~~ g darkness is banished, and the fied form, in which the king is said to be loved by the deity
Before the time of Akh "more than all other kings," or, better expressed, has been "se-
praised the rich blessings thenaten the Cairo hymn to Amun lected" from among all kings. '5 This "love," in the sense of selec-
e sun god bestows on all creatures: tion, is graded into hierarchies; it is destined especially for the
He who makes fodder th . king, and almost always emanates from the superior being, 1•
and "wood of life" (f d at nounshes cattle, from god to king, from king to his subjects, from parents to
who makes what th or° hplants?) for mankind· child, husband to wife, mankind to things. Even in the highly
and the birds in th e _1s in the river live upo~
e air . ,
He wh · '"Examples are cited by Otto, Gott 1111d Mrnsclr 144-45.
o gives breath t h "J. Spiegel, ASA£ 40 (1940) 258 II. 5-6 (Twentieth Dvnastv) .
and causes the yo o t e one in the egg
h ung of th ' "Assmann, AHG 87 I. 123; 133 II. 8--9. ' '
w o makes what m . e salamander to live " Kaplony, lnsclrriften I, 491-506 ; H. Ranke, Dit• ii~y11tisclren P,·rsi.m,w,ammI
and Worms and fl osqu1toes live on ' (Gluckstadt 1935) 155-61. '
eas likewise . .. . ' ,
"P. Kaplony, MDAIK 20 (1965) 33.
'A. HC'rmann "R'lk .. . '_'S. Morenz, "Die Erwahlung zwi schen Gott und Konig in Agypten , • in Rr-
pl. 2 (ri,printed ,Dar~ s: s agyplische Gesichte " ligwn 1111d Gesclriclrte120-38 (reprinted from Si110-/1111<111im . fr;t:<e.lrri
f l Andri1 Wed,~
:5andman , Texts 93 adt ~966). , Symposio114 (1955) 440-41 with 1111
'yer ?11111
80. Ge/111rts/11
g [Leipzig 19561 118--37). St.'C also Blumt.'nthal , t/11/c'"'"clr•
Greba t /- ' J4--1:,. A .. 1111
ge1175 (t.'arlier example with St.•so stri s I); W . K. Simp son , "Amor Dei .. . ,"
'u, ly11111t• 17. , ssmann , A'Hc216.
in Frage11493-99 .
200
"J. Omlin," Ament.'mhet I und Sesostris I" (Dissertation , Ht.'idelberg 1962) 20.
201
 - . \ -.
, '' ..
· - ' "": .~ · - I,.

,.. .. ,.>: ~·

Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt

Divine Action and Human Response
emotional Amarna period the Aten's "lo ,,
. ve app
been destined only for Akhenaten. In earlier _ears to hav . birds flutter their wings, fish leap in the
statement that a god loves "mankind" is . periods the O le animals Jump u~he king joins, with the divine baboons, in the
.
Sh1pwrec ked Sa1·1or, 17 and the converse th m the st ory of th nY ter and even
"I " d . f , at hurna e wa ' 1 · bilation .25
" ove a Igo. 't '~, nofth?und before the Ramessid perio ndbeings genera _Ju doration is the strongest response that there is
persona pie y o t 1s period in which all t · In th Th. 1·s. Joyous a
e involvement in earthly affairs. Any return on the part
for succor depend on the gra~e · of god th rus~ and all hop/ to d,vink. d eems paltry when measured against what the gods
, e rec1proc 1 1 s of man What ,n s are all matenal · gi·fts, sue h as b rea d , b eer, meat,
god an d man comes to the fore as a "fre a ove of
f h e act of gra grant. . in comparison with freedom, the breath of the ere-
part o t e god, unrelated to human actions ,,,. I h ce on the
period there are formulas on scarabs such. ~ t e Rarnessid and wine,
ator, w1·th protection , succor, . and rescue om a
fr II d 1stress.
. 7 Th
e
one who loves him" or "Ptah loves those has! god _loves the d who dispense everything, themselves possess a super-
m. a h ymn Thot h 1s . even loved by "e w o ove ,, h1rn' "" and !~u~dance of everything. In the story_ of_t~,e Ship~reck~d Sailor
" . ff· veryone 21) Thoth
g1v~san o ice to the one he Joves,"21so that hi· ,, also "there was nothing which was not within the distant island of
acquires a material significance. s act of grace" the gods, 2• and the snake god of the island laughs when, in
But this phraseology is part of a late and his simplicity, the stranded Egyptian promises him all the
ment within Egyptian religion in wh · h ,separate develop- treasures of Egypt, despite the fact that the snake's realm al-
d rk , IC man s status .
an i eness of god is strongly emphasized I _asa child ready has an abundance of everything. The one thing that the
between god and man. 22In earlier times it w a ong with "love" snake god asks of the man as he returns home sounds modest
~;enf thoug_ht _unseemly to stress the subject'~~~:;:~?~;~~ t~ve enough : that he should "give (the god) a good name" in Egypt. 27
0 The Egyptian gods desire that mankind should respond to
rev~re~ti~;'Z~n~; , ~: -~propriate de~eanor would beea~:~
their presence and their actions. They do not require to receive
tion of a higher bein i/o~s ac:l~~ahon at the direct revela-
height of heaven to fh
b th,~ reJ01Cmgall of creation-"to the
a cult and do not have to have material offerings, but they
rejoice over the echoes that their creative word produces, and
sea""-unites in ~rder ; rea_ th of the sky, to the depth of the
world. "All those wh o praise the creator and sustainer of the they are happy to receive both tangible and intangible gifts
om you created dance before you"u-wild from mankind . The most important thing is the dialogue that is
manifest in this form. To "enter" into a god's presence is to
"MES 46, 4-5 (IJ. 147--48)· cf s· "make direct contact,"is and the king, as the representative of
"H. Brunner in Lessa ' · impson (n. 15 above) .
"E. Drioton " · gesses108· mankind, does not wish to come empty-handed into the god's
(19- 9 '. MaXJmes relatives a l'a . presence . The offering he brings is not a tribute demanded
57
h :, ) ~; id., Kemi 14 (1957) _ mour po~~ les d1eux," Analecta Biblica12
21 23 from him and he does not seek to compel a return; it is a gift,:s
P l, see Brunner in Lessagesses108 · For additional examples and bibliogra-
A. H. Cardine LA · and contains something of the freedom that the gods dispense
" P. Boylan, Tho;hth:~Egyptia11 Miscellanies(BiAe 7 1938) r 10
7 (1950) 72. ermesof Egypt (London etc. 1922) 200~,G p. Rd£
to mankind with the creator 's breath.
"Cf. Hom ,, , . osener , In describing the cult of the gods I have deliberately em-
2lr ung, Mensch als B'ld
1...airohymn to A I
Gottes" 150-51 phasized a side of it that is very different from the common
fo d · mun 7 4· Greb ·
un tn Graeco-Roma ' · aut , Hymne 19 Th . . .
new words for such i; temple texts; see Wb vi _ e same emphasis on JOY1s "Medine/ Habu VI pl. 421, 424 (reign of Rames ses JU); cf . J. Assmann , Der
Daumas, Les mam . . eas are noted· see · ' :,5 and passim, where many Kiinig a/s So1111e11pri
ester (ADIK 7, 1970) 7-8 .
3d . m1s1sdes tern 1 ' a1so e g th F
senes 32, Paris 1958) P es egyptiens(A · · e texts collected by . "'MES 43, 4.
"Sandman , Texts 14, /1. 2 chap . 3. nnales de l' Universite de Lyon "MES 46, 14.
202 "'Winter, U11ters11c/11111
ge1155.
" Ibid.
203

.I
 - ....
.. /

Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt

Divine Action and Human Response
catch-phrase
. do ut des (I g·ive so that
use d m the explanation of you may • . comes in festal rejoicing and an increased echo
t~ apply well to some area:n~f srt of _cult. Theg;~;' Whichis whose cJunaxrld of creation, and thus signifies an enhanced
httle and should certainly n t b gyphan cult but _aseseem orn the wo he gods. Again an d again . m . roya I mscnptions
. . .
Bf k' o e used h ' it ex I s fr t
e ore man md gives anythin th as t e only p ains ·stence
ext . for .
f the gods are said to be extended and ennched, new
everything .JO g, e gods have aIreact
approach
. • 1 O e established and the temples, which house the cult,
feSt '.vals
Here, as so often it i·s th y given festtva s ar ' .
h' ' e poet h are indefatigably cared for. Nfew a~d mo re costlyh~uhlth1mages
Im to perceive what reall tak w ose sensitivi 1
de and the number o carrying po es on w IC t ey are
sented, and his intuition i~ c ef~place when offeringty enables are rna orted' in processions 1s . continua
. II. y increase
. d . Th'1s pro-
Faeed wit· h th e countless off on . urned by th e primary s are pre. ~~!~n for the cult of the gods is an essential part of the king's
the temple of Karnak and ;~mg scenes that cover the sources. role in history; it is also an important element in the economy
senses how what is . e other temples in E Wallsof and remains significant in our modern view of Egyptian history.
god and man acquir~~t';;~;urable in the relationsh~~t, t Rilke The Egyptians believed that by performing the cult and pre-
man, who in the last anal :e:~ure of offering," which ea;een senting themselves before the god they were at least increasing
to be "the giver." )' Ev th~ ways offers himself " I ows his existence and presence, while also keeping his negative,
ery mg tends toward ' a ways"
dangerous side at a distance. Cult actions do not coerce but
they do encourage the gods to show their gracious side-for
the place where the king's J'k
I
-the god- l'k eness . the converse of a god ' s love of mankind is his violent aspect,
I e a child at the b
takes the 'lk . reast, is suckled, which is always present beneath the surface and must be as-
mi and smiles H' suaged by means of appropriate cult services. In the myth of
never ceases to breath . is sanctuary
............. e. He takes and takes, the Destruction of Mankind the violent goddess whom the sun
god sends out against an insubordinate humanity is mollified
Here too a creative b . by an intoxicating drink that calms her ire and turns her from a
and b . . reath IS prese t " raging lioness into a friendly cat. In the cult wine is used for
rhmgmgconstant increase Tnh' never ceasing to breathe"
ebveryt
. ing ' can a 1ways acce t· e gods , wh o a Iready possess ' the ritual assuaging of deities, especially goddesses in lioness
;:nhg, which is great but not iim?1tlore, and the extent of their form . It neutralizes their dangerous, unpredictable side-which
is also an aspect of the divine king's makeup-and demon-
and fave seen th'is constant tendeI ess ' can alw ays be increased.
.
~rms of the gods · ·t . ncy to extension in the names strates the "theological significance of drunkenness," about
spond1ng to ti ' I is also prese t . which Hellmut Brunner has written. "
festation "th 1e . epithets "rich in n m the cult. Corre- Thus the cult is not only mankind's response to the god but
Like al~ , _ereis the-much rar ., nam_es" ~nd "rich in mani-
also protection against the god's threatening side. The Co11ce11-
icance, bu~p1t;;ets, this one is noe/-ep1thet 'rich in festivals ."))
tro11sof Hell in the Egyptian underworld books, which I have
vats referr ~e ects reality on eartl a1~rnament without signif- studied in another book ,-"'are emphatic and impressive evidence
ec 10 betokens th . 1 · ie large number of festi-
vnw s,J111 e mtensity Of I1uman response of how terrifying the gods can be. The entire, uncontrollable
11
.f lhnt rage of the deity is directed against those who have been con-
ii frul' F,nsl,not a "nccompitni
,• LS specche . I
1 ••

''All thl'Sl'
, . , quotation
sin1tJJt · is. presl•nts "'Y gods· in 0 ff,l' nng
. . ,111eot · scenes is therefore demned in the judgment after death, who fall from the ordered,
N,1chlas, d •s G s .ire frun 1 ti · ""D ie theologische Bedeutung der Trunkl·nheit, " ZAS 79 ( 1954) SI~"-'· f. als<>
120· f . ~- rafen C.W .. . le pue111ab
'')' nrkan llltl'rpretatiun ~f W<'rk,·~>lu(IWKarnak
AS/i1111/id1,• in the cycle "Au s deni iii ., "Das Besi\nflif;ungslil'd in Sinulw ," Zi\ S RO (19:i5) 5- 11; K,'<'s, G()tt,·"!111111/>t•
un l'r•Wint er, Gd, rt</ia· · · I le r111
11
ann in S · '' i en : lnsel Verlag 1956)
resba
S- 11.
204 . us .JS, 20 (rl'!atin11-~::11~:io11 (n. 7 above) . ~Hornung , Hii/l,•,n,vrstd/1111s,
·11.
diemetnw ni). 205
.~-_,-
:~
::.~
~it
,.
:-~
·:(.i~
~~7;
:if,;\~.~
~~:~-;1,:·~~~. I·;

Conceptionsof God in Ancient Egypt

existent world and then, tortured in eve . . Divine Action and Human Response
"destroyed," are consigned to nonexist ry imaginable wa
of th e1r
. sense organs, must walk on thence . h. Th ey are depy .and Of ower go forth from the gods of Egypt, and
own excrement; they are burned in ov e1r ead s and eat nved th . The waves P mong them . The gods are the great . and
k . d tosses a
swim in their own blood, which Shezm:nsti nd cauldrons a eir man in ho make a mockery of human pretensions.
press, has squeezed out of them. ' e god of the v/d powerful
. ones
. "th wefficacious one, who cannot b e repe IIe d m· th e
Against the terrifying cruelty of the d . ine The deity is th ~ 38 the great builder in whose hands mankind is
5ky or on ear , . I .
mortuary texts does not just threaten sin~:r:,b W~ich in earlier d tr w. ")9 The Egyptians evident y never expenence a
a general danger of the hereafter ma ut is taken to be "mu~ a~ s ~ion with the deity . They keep their distance from
. 1s whose correct performance , neutr
ntua n protects
. h unself
' With longmdg or ~om no one can approach too closely without being
t f th d • a 1IZes the d the go s, w Id b d
~ pee o e e1ty and guarantees that the WorJ . angerous
S
Pums• h ed·, but their hopes for the .
next wor are f ase
h on
m the proper, ordered fashion. Js From th ti d Will continue becoming· "li'ke a god ' ""°on assummg the role of one o t e great
Texts, the earliest collection of spells ,: eth me of ~he Pyrarnict d and thus themselves affecting the course of the world.
find
appea ls of the deceased to variouwr ed afterlit e, We also goltsis worth considering a little further the way in which the
from all the dangers and obstacles of t~ego s to protect hirn gods affect the world. Here our theme is power, e~ergy, and
stop other gods or the dead men fr h n~xt World and to efficacy, and my exposition may aptly be couched m the ter-
•
tions of this sort can be raised to th oml arming
l h im.
· Invoca- minology of physics. I have already spoken of a "field" of force
th e eve of a thr . which should be imagined as surrounding every deity and pro-
e gods36-a new and surprising variant . th eat _against
between god and man. m e relationship ducing on mankind an effect of a specific intensity . In this
What we have learned so far b . field, which is envisaged as limited and having an end (see
gods cannot be better sum . a out th~ actions of Egyptian Chapter 5), the "hidden" gods manifest themselves through
lines from "Limits of Huma:;~,~;d than m Goethe's timeless their effect on human beings and on other objects of their
attention. The force that operates in this field is called in Egyp-
What separates
gods from men?
Many waves roll forth
before the gods,
I
/
, tian bk', which is generally translated "magic"; I put the word
in quotes in order to avoid misleading associations with what is
normally understood by magic.
In every presentation of Egyptian religion some space must
an endless stream· be devoted to the role of magic. This consideration traditionally
a wave lifts us ' carries a pejorative undertone, so that magic becomes identical
a wave swaJJo~s us with superstition and is seen as a cancerous growth on the
and we sink. , pure, sublime body of belief. According to the widely quoted
formulation of Adolf Erman, "Magic is a wild offshoot of re-
"For thisaspectof th ligion; it attempts to coerce the forces that govern the fate of
DerchainLe e cult, WhichJ do
Orientale~7 ppapyrusSalt 825; s Sau not here consider any further, see mankind . . . beside the noble plant of religion flourishes the
, ans 1966)dn • · neron in Le rampant weed of magic.""
"H. Grapow,, -.v--t2;J. F. Borh ' monde du sorcier (Sources
(1911)48-54. E' Bedrohungen der G"tgt outs, OMRO 51 (1970) 30-31. As with the problem of monotheism or polytheism, here too
, rman R /' • o er du h d
Sauneron,BSFE8 (I9/ igion, 3d ed. 300+ M re en Verstorbenen," ZAS 49
th
e destructionof th l) 11-21. On thest ' orenz,Religion27-28 = 2f>..27 ; S. JKE_ Otto, Das iig_vpti
sche M1111d (AgAbh 3,
offni111ssrit11al 1960) I, 128, JI, 117:
""G e World rongestf "Wadjet,mistressof flame."
renzender Menschh.'.~ee ChapterS, at orm of these threats, that of "'Lange,Ame11emope120.
206
e1t (c. 177~ on
---ov).
n. 81; below' n· 50·
'"MerikareJ. 56: Volten,Politische Schri/11'11
26 .
"Religion (1sted., 1905) 148.

207
.,_

'~ '
·j. ~~~
·.··..,.~ '
..
•-

Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt

Divine Action and Human Respon se
value judgments obstruct a clear ob · t·
, Jee 1ve p · 1
nomenon. Ph y sical rather than ho t · ic Ure of th . ·mplies that "magic " preceded creation (CT IU,
. . r ICU1tural e Phe same collect10n I
appropriate to it-magic is not a plant b metaphor ·
.1s va Iue- f ree, so long as the way in ' h' uth a . fo_rce. Every sf are 383
. . w IC It IS Orce 382e- c!" 1 force not only rendered creation possible but
en d s 1t 1s made to serve are not the . . Used and th Thi~ pnhmehv~ds--or rather the mouths-of the most various
E · . mam cons1d • e
gyptian texts make 1t plain that hk' ,, 'ma . , :r _ations . a!so. '. in t e esa to maintain its existence . Th e un d erwor Id teems
the Py ramid Texts (Pyr. §94Ob-c) and C ff ' gic is a force 1 de1t1es , serv h "b h f th . ( ) th ,,.,,
.t . d . o m Texts (CT . n with beings who live from t e reat o , e1r ~wn modu .hs
1 1s use m parallel with ' t , another term for ,, IV, 98j) h the repetition of the sun god s creative wor ; ere
tenth hour of the Book of Gates anth power .,, In th or th roug . 1· d . ti
b b ropomorph . d . . e • the "magic " of the creative utterance 1s rea ize mstan y.
a oons are shown holding nets in th . h ic e1ties and again • H · h'
,,, . ,, , h . e1r ands and . With her "magic" Isis protects the g~~wmg orus agam_st 1s
magic t at is on and in the nets to prate t th using the enemies, and , together with other deities, she takes part m the
render har?'less his enem y Apopis (BPf 341~5) e sun god and "bewitching" of Apopis . Standing forward in the solar bark
is a true field of force which is mad . 'bl .. Here too there (Amduat, seventh hour), she conjures him, and , like a flash of
the nets and is filled with the . . 'bel vb1s1 e m the form of "lightning," "magic" " strikes the enemy of the gods and de-
,, , . ' mv1s1 e ut potent
magic. " In Egy ptian ph y sics ener . . energy of prives him of his senses , so that he "cannot find himself' (BP/
be en visaged as a substance · it is gy of t~1s sort can also 75) and is "destroyed " without great difficulty .
is "swallowed " or "eat " , h co_m _m?,~ly said that " 'magic"' Here "magic " is a weapon of the gods which strikes the
E ti " . " . en, or t at It is m the body ,,,2
gyp an magic is an energ y that k . enem y unawares, annihilates his attack, and thus grants pro-
instantl y and requires no a f I wo~ s automatically and tection , security, and freedom to the constantl y threatened
sion . When the god ' p _r ICU ar medmm for its transmis-
,, . ,, s creative word has b world of order . The powers of the chaos before creation are
magic ensure s that it b . een pronounced , never conquered entirely, but provoke a continual struggle
Amun it is said of th ecomes realit y . In fhe Cairo hymn to
which is fought by the gods in the sky and in the undem •orld .
the gods cam e into b;i su~ ..? od Re _that he "commanded, and and on earth primarily by the king. In strict terms the most
ified as Hike (hk') . ng. For thi s reason "magic," person-
b . , is one of the three h J . powerful weapon, the creative energy of "magic," should be
Y the sun god and al e ping powers that stand available only to the gods; a magician on earth must therefore
Chapt er 3). The inst t~ays a~compan y him on his course (see take o n th e role of a deity in order lo exploit thi s d a ngerou s
ative word of god . an ormati o n of thin gs ac cording to the ere-
is accompli shed b and potent force. Th e king, who pla ys the part of th e creator
energy; with out it th . Y m ean s of this "magical " god on ea rth ex offici o, has the magi cal pow er of creati ve ut-
sible . Jan Za ndee h e creati on of th e world wo uld not be pos- teran ce automatically at h is dispo sal. Through th e mag ical force
as amasse d .
pa sage s referring to th an ex ten sive collecti o n of text of his wo rd in ritual he impo ses his w ill o n di stant la nd s."
here l mention onl e creativ e wo rd of go d and its effect;" In thi s w ay "magic"-which o ne mig ht tem1 th e "nud ear
the 1·d · Y one exampl · h
. ea 1s present · • e m t e Coffin Texts where energy of early civili zation s " becau se o f its dan ge rou sne ss and
is sa 1·d t0 h in its very st '
h' ave brought 1,· ran ges t form : th e creator god its pow e r to tran s form th e world -co mes to be used b · man-
1
" mag ical power (CT ~ sf o wn body int o be in g by means of kind, and, as is bound to happ e n, men e ploit it to d o wwn g,
"t-- ih 1
, 344b)· " A n d h en ce a text in the thu s alienating it from its ori ginal purp ose . The creat or god gave
IJr . " ' ' of 11
1L',e fo r
L11·d
cr JW, n 22. f mufatlon, 'l ' l' lh "ma gic" to hum a n be ing s a a "wea pon " spt.'l.·ifically for _sdf -
, · ' " ' ~wallow·1 L' l'X,1m pl -, · :I b · d e fen se-as it is formulat ed in th e Instru ction for ~frnkan•
C.rf•bM,t. 11~11111• n11.,nd '-'" tin f '-'S ClleL y Ass mann , L 1t11rg .
11
"" D 'x h ' (4, 2). II C . l' ,)I . CT V ] 'I,. VII 2)8 '
"' up f,,, ~" " I un -I • - I, , '-'.
'>tud, ., l h••ul,,r,,c,, l<h , " I ·n Ai;yp ll'n ., . V "-'S{'c es p . Amdomt fourth a nd h'f t II Iwur • (t h,. sna k••s n, ,. • •' •>I • •l~Q ..~• '" ''""
--o
" JI l n,,. J, 111 , tn ,,,1 (F
.,.. l,orr,,·Jy ,y n ' •1 t,n,_, 1, u1 I 111 111 ·e,t ,c hr ift 11 W Obbink, f ro m o lh l•r " vt>kc , ": nu, . J l 7, J2J, J.17. 39 1- '12).
,- 11n yon11
u, w""' ,1 ' . 11 fl/(>4) l ) .. f,(:
f l 'l · · " Ph rnsc I thu s in II d lffcro•nt cu ntc , t: A""'""' I, 1'1. 7.
2!Jk }111" u,, ,d ht•rL• . ,. ..M . A llio !. R,IC 5 (l \>-16)l~'J .
1
· he crl'n lor 1111d is Nun .
20 9
 ,
,._ ..
, ~
~- .
~· ...
""' ...,,
:.•, -:,
,,,...
.

Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt Divine Action and Human Response

around 2060 e.c." But people are captivated by what
with "magic," and do not consider the consequen one can do are never fu Jfilled '· what happens is what h god
u•Kan's
JV1
plans . t
d n SJ Later ins r uctions repeatedly reformulate
h t e same
actions. They do not hesitate to turn defensive weces of their cornrnan s. ope states, "The words t at men say
offensive o~es _and ;,o us~ ~~em against the gods-to aponsw int ° when Amenem .
idea, as . . what the god does 1s anot er.
h ""'
_
they owe this gift of magic. Threats against the god horn are one thin~, the superior will and efficacy of the
early as the Pyramid . Texts. These threats are intendeds occur
. . . a5 Egyptians sense 'd f thi
. m1tially The . !"ti I life. The earliest dear ev1 ence or s
to defend the deceased agamst gods who might prevent . gods also m p_o I ~~tions of the nomarch Ankhtifi, of the time
ascent to the heavenly hereafter: "Every god who does n t his belief is in thef~nstcn llapse of the state (c. 2120 e.c .).'s After this
.
(the King) to th e sky wil. I not be respected, will not haveo take
ba f0 II0 wing the irs co . . . . ,, h
much as Morenz descnbes m his Rise o1 t e
will not taste a cake, will not go forth to the mansion of Ha '
which is in the sky .. ." (Pyr. §1027). orus
the ideaddetvG
Transcenen
1
·
ei:;
From the Middle Kingdom on the "command
· d d
Soon the force of "magic" comes to serve highly egoistic a d of the god," which has the effect of t~e cre~tive wtorbe at~
aggressive purposes, especially in love charms, and the man__ demands to be fulfilled at once, tends mcreas1_ng1yh o e
cian thinks nothing of threatening the powers that are invok!~ exclusive arbiter of royal policy. I ha~e referred m C_ apter 5 to
with the ultimate and most dire of events, the destruction of the high point and termination of this development m _the The-
50
the world . In human hands the force of "magic," which had ban "theocracy," in which the god A mun ruled .as k!n_g. T~e
ori~nally been value-free, becomes perverted . The conspirators kings of the New Kingdom and late _period require d1vme aid
agamst Ramesses II (c. 1184-1153 e.c.) attempted with some to lead their campaigns; Ramesses II, m danger from the enemy
~uccess to em~loy written "magic" against the legitimate king at the Battle of Qadesh (1285 e.c .), and his much later successor
m order to achieve their own personal goals. 51 Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II (145-116 e.c .) rely on the helping
Here the beneficial force seems to have become an instrument deity, who is "more effective than a million soldiers ."
of arbitrary aggression, and in the late period the Egyptians felt We know from the story of Sinuhe and other sources that
that unfettered "magic" was the antithesis of "law" (hp).52 So private individuals also attribute their actions in critical situa-
there can now be a "black" "magic" that serves evil and is tions to a divine, and often incomprehensible, will."' The more
far-removed from the will of the gods. state authority fails, the more important is the gods' role as
From an_early period the Egyptians believed that mankind helpers of individuals in need; in the New Kingdom this side
could act independently or even against the gods. But they '-'Z . Zaba , Les111axi111e
s de Pta~!rolep(Ceskosloven ska Akademie V~d. Prague 1956)
wer~ also convinced that only the will of the gods is finally 25 II. 115-16. Cf . also p . 50 above . . .
nd
realized a prod uces lasting achievements The earliest com- " Lange, A111ene111ope 9711. 16-17 (chap . 18). Aksel Vo lten coll,-cted thi; and simi-
lar maxims in Anii 118 124-25· add now Ankhsheshonq 22. x + b: 5 . R. K.
' . ' pletely preserved inst ruction text, that of Pta.hhotpe, states that Glanville , Catalo,~11eof 'Dc111olic 'Papyri in //,,. Brili,/r M11s,•11111 II (Lo nd on _ 1955)
50--51. See also H . Brunner, " Der freie Wille Gottes in der agyplls ,:hen
'.' V_ohen, Po/itisclreSc/1rift
e1175 (II. 136-37) Weisheit ," in Les sage,ses 103-20. . •.
"S1m1lar threats occur also . G · · " G .. Fecht in W . Heick , ed ., Fes/sc/rriftfiir Sit·~rit-dSc/r<,/1 (Wiesbaden 1968) 54.
mann, Bonner/alrrbiiclrer168 (I~~ re~~-love charms from Egypt, e.g . D. Wort· "'Morenz, Hera11fk1mfl; cf. Chapter 5, last section . , ··•
92
do what I tell you th e s . ) · If you refuse to listen and do not swiftly "C. Ku e ntz, La bataille de Qadt•c/r(MIFAO 55, 1928) 251 = KRI. II, •ll _(R~m• - ·
, un w,11not t b
nor th e Co smos (cont inue lo) exist ,, se eneath the earth, neither will Hades ses II)· Winter U11ters11c/r11n om 101 (Ptolem y VIII, unpubli shed m scnp ho n ut
tran slation ,-tr. J · II am grateful to John Rea for the English . ' ' ''
Ph1lae) . Similar statement by Ram esses 111:W. Heick, ZA 83 (19.58) 35 II. ·s
" H. Goedicke, " Was Magic U . 10-11. ,
Ill?" /EA 49 (1963)71-92. sed •n th e Harim Conspiracy against Rames ses . to th e r.1ace d o ni,in
" From the first intermediate period . I"•n·od ·· .J· J·. Cl~re. R,IE
" C. F. Nim s, /NES 7 (1948)245 (" 6 (1951) 153-54. These c•xampk•s ma y ut• L e, , . •
1cho ns.. Ill t'<n d <-d to ru•tJfr
· ; mor.1 . , 11
·V
21 0 in a demotic text) . · nable achons
qu es tio • , s,•e J. Bmnt's
· -, /E·; I L""u (191P)
• - -'O- U ·· s,, . .,Jsc• n. 5:, ab<)\< .
211
 '\. -. .. ; ·: .. ~; ......

$) ·"
...
,•,/~:" ,
I.
... ,
. ..
- - .....
~
- ': ..

Divine Action and Human Response

Conception s of God in Ancient Egy pt
. ti'f god in the face of the injustice and
oi the gods crystallizes into a separate deity , the god Shed, the eed to JUS Y · d h
There is no n Id Evil is inherent in the nonexistent an e~ce
,,sa,,1·or, " who is addressed on. countless stelae by people seek-
. 59
•
ing help or praising him for his help . On a char'.ot that is often
drawn by griffons She~ pursues dangerous animals, keeping
is older than th e go
ning. The gods cann\at
s:
evil in the wor · d nd present in the world from the begm-
be made responsible for it, but are the
evil and continually drive it out from
them away from mankind; he therefore takes over function 0 wers that com nki d] d
that in earlier periods belonged exclusively to the king, th! very P_ orld. "I did not ordain that [ma n o wrong
st
the ex1 e_nt w d' obeyed what I had said," says the creator
great hunter and conqueror of threatening a~imals. Now peo- . ft)· their hearts is . 'fi . f h'
ple are entitled to hope for mo~e from th~ dtvm~ sphere than (JZ '. C ff' Texts in the celebrated JUSti cation o 1s
d m the o m , . b I th
the king could ever have provided; confidence m the divine go rk of crea t·10n..2 It is the fault of human beings, ut a so e
rescuer is so great as to fuel the hope that he might increase wo f their origin in blindness, that they leave space
the predetermined span of a lifetime and even "save the one he consequencde _ong in their hearts (the organ that determines
for wrong 01
loves who is in the underworld and place someone else (there) action). . . d
in exchange for him .""-' The gods of Egypt can be ternfymg, danger?us , an unpre-
In extreme cases god the helper of those in need can bring dict-able, but they cannot be evil. Originally this was true e_ven
human beings as near as possible to immortality , but here he f Seth the murderer of Osiris. Battle, constant confrontation,
meets the absolute limit of existence to which the Egyptian ~onfusi~n, and questioning of the established order, in all of
gods, as powers of the existent world, are subject. They are which Seth engages as a sort of "trickster, " "3 are all necessaiy
neither immortal nor omnipotent, and this remains so until the features of the existent world and of the limited disorder that 1s
end of Egyptian religion. The development I have sketched essential to a living order. But gods and people must together
never, therefore, leads to an absolute control of events by the ensure that disorder does ncit come to overpower justice and
will of god; there is always room for human initiative , which in order ; this is the meaning of their common obligation toward
ancient Egypt is never subject to anything like the Islamic in sha maat.
al/ah "God willing.""'
The concept of maat , which we have encountered so far only
Since the Egyptian gods are unable to transcend the bound- as a personification, the goddess Maat, has been very much
ary of the existent, the problem of theodicy doe s not arise. discussed, but still awaits the thorough study necessary to do
••on Shed see G. Loukianoff, BIE 13 (1930) 67--84; B. Bruyere, Rapport 511r/es justice to its complexity and importance. Stated briefly, maat is
[01111/
es de Om cl MM111 eh 11935- 1940) (FIFAO 20, 3, 1952) 138- 70; Bonnet, R1• 11/-
the order , the just measure of things, that underlies the world;
l~x,kon 676-77; H . Brunner, MD/\ /K 16 (1958) 13- 19; E. Otto, "Gott als Retter in
Agypkn ," in G. Je'.emias et al., eds., Tr11ditio1111111/G/11
1/1J,•. 0 11
5friihe Chrislen/11111 it is the perfect state of things toward which one should strive
111
semer Umwe/t. I 1• txalx· fiir K. G. K11/111
2 1111165. Geb11rt stax (Gotting en 1972) and which is in harmony with the creator god's intentions .
9- 22.
This state is always being disturbed, and unremitting effort is
" l:.dward~, Decrees 5 n 34 ~ E IJ • h . . -
. · •· rugsc , /.11 tr11/e f11
kheb ( a,ru 1889) pl 5· funerary I . 1 f th ..
1e1ram · de /a J'm1ces5e /51111·
. necess ary in order to recreate it in its original purit y . Like the
. . · · en o e 1wenty-first Dynasty. Thi' same idea injur ed and perpetually healed "eye of Horu s, " 111n11t therefore
occurs earlier, w1thuut the "replacement" t'f . h . _A .
Zande ,, Oe hy 11111,,11111111A IIIIJII mu 1 , 111 I e Leiden hymn to mun. symbolizes this pristine state of the world. .
I 3 16 t
name .,f th . fourth ent ~ · · (, anza "70") . According to a personal So the Egyptian s could view maat as a substanc e, a matenal
th
MIJ/\ IK 25 (1%9) 221 n (u f)rys"·' · 1 . gud I loru, "killed dea th ": K .· T . Zauzich,
( 1970- 71) WS.
' · · ··a st , C I'
ce70
,iri• t/11Culli:x,·de Fm11
· usener, /\11 11111 element up on which the wh ole world lives, which is the nour-
' •·1lw(m tlwlu11t 611dnd , irn,lar ph "'For the full text sec pp . 198- 99 abov e .
J<,,man l:.11yp1 (I~:~\~
: If . I. llt·II, /I.It 14 '"1fir~t found in C ree k letters from " C L the intN prct ation of tl· Veldl•, S,•t/1; E. H o rnun 11, Sy mlx,lon n.s. 2 (1974 )
49-nJ .
2 12
2 13
 ~·::'~{
'~>::/_~
/; .~ ~.
•, ,_

i::~S
:•--

· -./;·- -. . .. . • <,' .,
-·._::,~-,-~
t)--;~·'.:!:::
.'!,· . : ~ .:.. .
·-

Conceptionsof God in Ancient Egypt

Divine Action and Human Response
ishment of the living and the dead, .. of gods and o{ men F
fi T
the Cof n exts on, th-edgodhs "I"Ivieon maa t , "65 b ut according
. roin
to
texts of the same peno s t ey a so created maat and can ct·
pense it-Amenemope even sees maat as th e ,,great burde !S-
god," which he may share out as he wishes .06 According to tn otf
of the Graeco-Roman peno·d , •' maatd escen dde at creation fro exs
the sky to earth, and thus c_ame also. to be in the hands ~
mankind. From an early penod the king of Egypt was very
closely connected with maat, 08 and he too "lives on maat."
There is scarcely an Egyptian temple that does not include
among its many representations of cult scenes the "offering of
maat" (Figure 19). The king, who when in the presence of the
gods is the representative of the entire world of humanity,
holds up and presents a figure of maat, which is shown as a
squatting goddess with the hieroglyph of an ostrich feather on
her head. As is demonstrated by the daily temple ritual, every
material thing that is presented in the cult, such as bread, beer,
incense, and so forth, can be identified with maat.69 The "offer-
ing of maat" therefore summarizes in a highly charged image
everything that cult, offering, and response to the gods' actions
signify. The officiant's restrained gesture of holding up maatin
visible form to the gods constitutes a sign that the world of
mankind, and all the constantly endangered and fragile rela-
tionships and connections on which it depends, are in order,
just as they were at th~ time of creation.
This is the response the gods need, and it brings full circle
~ our analysis, which took the gods' actions as its starting point. Fig ure 19. King Ramesses II (1290-1224 s.c.) offers Maat to Ptah.
ii,? The gods do not need any material gifts, but they do need
t:}?: human response to their existence; they want to be experienced
in the hearts of men, for only then d oes th e1r · work ofd creation
silence
~
.,-,::
. "CT II, 35g, VII, 23&1 ; A. H. Gardiner , /EA 32 (1946) 50 n . (h); L. A. Chris- .
acquire its lastmg . 'f'ICance · Lack of response .an
s1gm Id
·"'-~ ~ tophe , BIFAO49 (1950) 133 no. 9, cf. 142 n. (h) = Moret, Rit11e/142. are characteristics of the nonexis• ten t·, within the existent dwor d
l~- : E.g. CT VII, 468e, of the "lord of all"; Urk. IV, 384, 16, of Amun.
there is the lively, uninterrupted dialog~e b;reen ~ofea:n
~ 208_Lange, Amenemopel04 I. 5 (chap. 20). On the passage cf. Bergman, /ch bin Isis
man, which is contained within the polantr o ove ant the.m
76
Ed,;UrkV
,ou ., VIII,
85, 13.k = P. Clere, ui ported'Euergete aKamak (MIFAO 84, 1961) pl . 67; Maat which came from the gods at creation, return~ 0 od
'"L. A. Christophe collected be f 9 from the hands of men; it symbt~~s th.e P;~;pet::~ 1~e~{gfon.
(l 96950) l3S-4 6 . a num r o relevant titles and epithets : 8/FAO 4 and man which is brought to ru1tion m ·s the key to the
Moret , Rituel 138--{;5
_ . h' fon and response, 1
This partnership, t is ac .1 f d of free will and pre-
214 otherwise inexplicable mixture we m
215
 ..- .
t(: ...

1 ''
I~ '1 I

·"

..,_,,

"' :- .. ,:r., I

lh

·--.,
 ·•·..• ," , .,_. .
-r.-:.·}~:>--
,.

:~·) C-~.-~i.i;{
-·~-~-:-•·_.~f;~---
..~._~
;_-~
:~
.~-·--_
:__
....,.,
_,... L.\: :z:·-~·-..f-_
~-~•,· ,. ·:;~
.~-~-::~7lJ
..~~
-~.
·'-~~.:)~
.:·:->
,;·*,.,... -... .
:~-·_;
2_._ -~_17:.::
• • .:,;- • • 0 - M ~
. --

Conceptions of God in A nc1ent

. Egypt

destination .;oThrough creation

task: to maintain their existenc!ods ~nd men acquire
unendmg nonexistent and to ;hwh1ch has an end a c~rnrnon
allows space for creative breatr ander does to build
not ba livi; gagainst the
order th
~o th· ecome t at
. n ... 1s guestion see G. Fecht, Lit. . . _ a rophie
1111
gke1t
"M m Agypt,•11(AHAW 1965 · I) 1'2r311fnsd1t•
f a Z,•11g11isse
d zur ../Jt'rson/"·/
.. d.
a e. oren z, Religion69- -_ 66--74. ·• 'n on the p ro blem of "'"''
" gods
Frand
··
on,.
f t 78

7 ~ Classification and
Articulation of the Pantheon

In his Uber den ersten iigyptischen Gotterkreis (On the Earliest

Gro11p of Egyptian Gods) of 1851 Carl Richard Lepsius identified
"some closed groups" in the seemingly limitless and formless
mass of Egyptian deities .' The Egyptians used various meth-
ods of ordering their endless pantheon; as elsewhere in their
thought , these principles do not compete with one another,
but coexist equally . In this chapter I follow the useful categor-
ization of the methods of classification presented
2
by Eberhard
Otto in his survey of Egyptian polytheism . The only term of
his that I wish to avoid is "numerical schemata" (Zahlensche-
mata): I prefer to speak of a numerical and genealogical class-
ification, which is to be distinguished from local and social
classifications .

Numerical and genealogical classification

The simplest and smallest grouping of gods is the pair or cou-
ple. Very few pairs are of the same sex; exceptions are the
sisters Isis and Nephthys and the hostile pair of brothers Horus
and Seth, whose eternal conflict, which Thoth can settle only
temporarily, reflects the complementary duality of the world
and the necessity for constant confrontation.
As a rule, pairs or couples of gods are divided by sex into

'Giitterkuis
'Saeculum 14 = 11.260ff. On numerical classification see especiallY Kees,
167(1963)

Giitterglaube155--71. 217
216
 ., :

0a s ifial ion and Ar iCl.llaion of ., Pa

5
Conceptions of God in Anci ·n Ei:,•p
h - h is in d icated in the Egy ptian script by hree
god and goddess, as illustrated b th the p(liraL w 1~ ·f n g sign three tim e s; there are also texts in
and Hau het, Kuk and Kauket r ..
make up the ogdoad of Hermo y Ii ~ foiur pair s of d,-·.
un and . ·a~l tJt:<,
rable fem.ale doublets of mal~ d~ _un and Amaunetnt-t, liu
·-✓1-io tro1'e5 or
5;,·hJC
-n-.e
"
bY/:
- h "thr
e?'1stence
•
11e1q uate d quite explicitl v w ith the plura l.'
. ee 1.5of a la rge num ber of deities'
h .
an d the pre ferr~___.
f them into triads come toget er .in t h e . .ew King-
' •"''•n as ear I" as the Pvram1·d T ivme nam es and d. .(:Qr;
_, ' , exts but e1t1
14
. !'!npa. 1
articuJa~on ° trinity, o r tri-uni ty -n ot of God but of the god s
"' Ieature of Egyptia n relioion i·n 1
·t s ono,n
' . . can
I f hardly •L _ ve i.., ar dorn to _orrncul:plac es The classical fo rmula tio n of th is specifi-
~
• o- , __

!:'\' er more doublets are found s h o- a orm . In late E

nd their tian trinity ·w as achie ve d at the end of the El.gh teenth
...,, _ • I... ' uc as th e "f r hfll(; 3
...,~.-y m ne early Eighteenth Dy emal e Re" (RaCb ~~~jlate fourteenth century s.c.) ;n the t.,;deo hvmn to
An
these ubis" and "female Sokar,,· I h anasty , and ·later the "f emale
ve shown Et-
are not bloodless abstractions . m Chapter 3 that Arnun:
iJ,.~n a son or daught er is added to a .. All gods are thre e: Amun, Re, Pt.ah; the y have no equal. His
resul t _JS a triad, the preferred and most fre d1vme couple the name is hidden as Amun , he is perceived as Re {literally, he is~
grouping of Egy ptian deit ies. Our quently encounter ed before {men)), and his bod y is Pt.ah. Their cities on earth remarn
that • . . . sources are so .
"'e must remam in doubt as to wh th inadequate forever: Thebes , HelioPolis, and Memphis, for all time:
an addition-that is, w hether we sho~ld e~-the th_ird figure is
call_y_as two plus one. In historical terms th:ew triads histori- This trinity of Amun / Re / Ptah is also found elsewhere ; its
Osins are followed at once by th triads gods Arnun and earliest attestation is not Ramessid, as Otto stated: but dates to
Tutankhamun (1347-1338 s.c.), the successor of Akhenaten.
or Osiris
- / lsis / Horus ' wi thout the ere be 1ng a d I Mut"bl/ Khons
" Amu~
One of the trumpets from the burial treasure of the prema-
venmg stage with a couple Amun / M -~erm e inter-
case of the triad of Elephanti th ut or Osms / lsis. In the turel y deceased king is decorated with a single scene showing
attested until much later thann~ e daughter Anukis is not the king before the new state triad ." Amun , who is still nomi-
who are very prominent in t e parents Khn~m and Satis, nally the highest and most active of the three gods, holds out
Chapter 3), but it is b he early dynastic period (see the sign of life to the king's nose; behind Amun stands Re (in the
of history Khnum an/. s"~ means certain that at the beginning form of the hawk-headed Harakhte}, and behind the king is

form a Memphite tn!'d Th~ ~re

~=
br
and the goddess Sakh at s ;ere seen as a divine couple . Ptah
side by side in Mem exampl _e,_ were long worshiped
th 01
ey J ~ed with Nefertem to
Ptah (the silver trumpet from the tomb shows a similar group-
ing of the gods , but no figure of the king). On the " restoration
stela" of the same king-with which he brought to an end,
the New Kin d d is atter can first be documented in
then found inga :m a::e th us follows the pattern which is by
'P. Kaplony,MIO 11 (1966) 161 n. 91.
The genealo ic~i":: r ?~ot~er places in the country. 'Cf. ). G. Griffiths, "Triune Conception
s of Deityin AncientEgypt." ZAS 100
already be see~ clel las~1hcahon of the pantheon, which can (1973) 28--32.
ar y .,mb the p yrami .d T exts, was very impor- 'Zandee, De hymnen aan Amon pl. 4, 21-22 (stanza • 3()0" ).
tant from an early dat
assum ing that th -d~' ut we should follow Eberhard Otto in 'Saeculum 14 (1963)
' L. Manniche, 268. /11strume11fs
Musical (Tut'ank·
from th,· Tomb of Tufa11kJia1111i11
sented 1s . secondae I .10m of k'ms h.1P m . which. triads are pre- hamiin's TombSeries6, Oxford 1976) pis. 10 (silver trumpet). 11 (gildedtn1m·
port ant symbolismry fm hcompa nson · · the ancient and im-
with pet). The gilded trumpet is much published: To11ta11k/w11011et "°" um1 (Le P~tlt
Palais, Paris 1967) 183; I'- E. S. Edwards!, Trfllsures of Tutankliamun (Bn!lS h
pleSt and hence th~ t ef number three: "Three" is the sim- Museum 1972) no. 45; id .• Tm1surt'S(>{Tuta11kl,amun (USA e hibition c3t;ilogue,
'Cf. also H. te Veld ,,
pre erred way Of expressing "many" or MetropolitanMuseum of Art. New York 1976) 103; Tuta11chaP111"1 (<'x
hibition
Tnads," /EA
'Saeculum e, Some
971) 80--86
57(\ 1% . Remarks on the Structure of EgyptianDivine catalogue,AgyptischesMuseum.Berlin1980) 78 . 2 19
14 3) 267.
218
 .. -_. .,;t, ::.:. .·
-~
~ • ..
-•·

. d Articulation of the Pantheon

Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt Classification an
leteness or tota lI·ty . ,. Four
probably in 1345 e.c., the short period of tran •ti s a symbol of ~omp f the winds , and of the
heJlla, evidentrt~e cardinal p01;ts , tthe children of Nut ~~d
which Aten an d A mun coex1ste . d equally-he exp s1 on dunng
Jicitude for all the gods and goddesses Akhenatenresses
cuted, especially for Amun and Ptah.
.
h h·•s so.
ad Perse.
~; the numf~~eo sky, and,
Pports o H rus· there are
in:::
s~:eral groups of four deities
su f o ' d ,s · d the
A number of studies have shown that after the d he sons o e decease . d of Hermopohs, an
. opinion
Akhenaten there was , contrar y to earlier . no ,,eath 0 f ~ho protect th doubled as the og:~a cult center Hermopolis as
.
tion" or instant return to t h e pnmacy
. of the state, god ~~
A four occur\ " was given to t e1r doad and related ideas
nor did the capital revert to "Amun's city, " Thebes. Rattu~ , name "eight-c\J Kingdom . Thus the og central Old Kingdom ,
is possible to observe as late as the reign of Haremhab (l~:3; early as th~~ may be posited for t~;s of primeval deities are
1306 e.c .) a marked reserve in the attitude to Amun , 10 while th about crea h the names of the _four he names themselves vary,
deities of Heliopolis and Memphis are given preference; th: even thougd until the late penod. Th to four couples of gods
not atteste dd p to eight , or rat er
new capital city was Memphis, only a few kilometers from I ays a u
the cult center of the sun god in Heliopolis. After the failure of but a wddesses . ,. .. schema is the ennead, an
the religious revolution, Akhenaten's successors were evidently and go t important classificatory. · three) first attested in
not prepared to return to the previous state of affairs and replace . The . 1:°l form of the plural _(three ti~:Ss the model for further
intensif1 ad of Heliopolis , which servlte listing of the nine gods
Amun in his old position of primac y as "king of the gods. " As
11 the enne h • a comp e e • h th
Hari has shown , Haremhab avoids using the phrase Amonra- enneads in the pant eon;arnid Texts. ,1 It is uncert~m w e ~~
sonther "Amon -Re, king of the gods ," which had previously occurs as early as the Py on fra ments in Tunn from t
been much favored . Amun must now share with Re and Ptah the figures of Geb and Set~ Cha te~ 4 n . 20) form part of an
his primacy among the other gods . The succeeding period, the time of Djoser (c. 2600 e.c., s t~ have been an earlier group-
Ramessid , brings a true renaissance of Amun as king of the "ennea d , " because there seem . "' " The Horus. name
. 11 d ht "corporation.
gods , while the god Seth is added as a fourth to the triad ing of gods which was ca e - P er Sur /'orientation et I ordre des
Amun, Re, Ptah , although the triad survives as well. " The four 32163 957) 35-39; G. osen '
"C. de Wit, Cd£ (l . NAWG 1965, 2) 74. mber
main divisions of the Egyptian army , with which Sethos I (1304- points cardi11a11
x cl1ez !es Egyptrens ( h he also gave examples of the nu
1290 e.c .) and Ramesses II (1290-1244 e.c.) conduct their cam- "Cf. Kees, Cotlerg!aube 167-71, w ere
I . 111terpre
. ta lion of
paigns in the Near East, are now named after these four gods . four in the cu I. . .d nee for them . His . thes ma-
'"Seth e Am1111, collected the ev1 e h I pie must be corrected with re ~ 1
The dating of the celebrated stela of the year 400, which terial which remains fundamental 103I e 7; . F •Dauma s, "L'origine d' Amon e
Ramesses II set up in his new capital city in hono r of the god to th~ origins of Amun , cf. Chapter n. • . .
Seth, contains a striking and clearly intentional series of fours: Karnak ," BIFAO 65 (1967) 201-14. . s of the evidence for the ennead and it~
"Year 400, month 4 of the smw season, da y 4."" Did his theo- "Pyr §1655b. For detailed presentahon79 ( 'th history of research PP· 59-<>Sh ),
· · Rd£ 6 (1951) 49- WI . b R Ant es
logians mean to allude through this fictitious date to Seth as the problem s see R. Weill, 56 There are also several articles_ y .that the
]. G. Griffiths , Or 28 (1959) 34- · l96S) ls-35) , who believes See
fourth god alongside the state triad? The number four does (esp /NES l!l [1959) 194-97; MDOdC 96·1h(Atum and his divine proge9n 73y). 'd
occur elsewhere in the Egyptian pantheon as a classificatory · ,
enn ead origirall y ha no
d th 111
· g to O wt
C "tt •rkreis der Ne1111h
· MAS 28 I
e1t ( • ; 1 ..
also W. Bart ' U11t ers11cl11111
ge11zum o e • • '.
'"See especially Hari, Horemlreb386ff. 34 • 5 and 111a king s
BiOr 33 (197 131- . th First D nasty in names of domain cf. K. Sethe .
"Ibid. 248.
" fl is still promin ent in the reign of Ramesses JV, cf. R. Anth es, MO OG 96
"Discernibl e as early as e. T x:S it is clear in Pyr. §§I04la
nam e (S11rr-~I); in the Pyram1dd. e /tii~yptisc/r,•11Pyr1m1identextmI 7!_77
t Gliickstadt
(1965) 16 (on the Great Harris Papyrus). Ubersetz1111g 1111d
11
Kommentar zu ~ a fu~iher R. Weill, Rd£ 6 <1951) ·
" P. Montet , Kemi 4 (1933) 197, pl. 11, 15. etc. n.d .) 318, 320-21), § 1462d . ee 221
220

a
 Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt Classification and Articulation of the Pantheon

of Djoser himself states that h . " th symbolism of the number nine. From the
corpora ti"on, " w h"J . e IS the mo s t ct·ivme
J e his successor . "
. on
significa_nt_wt5 f ~gyptian thought ("The Problem of Logic"
the corporation," and the Ho IS the most powerf elof the dual pnnc!p e O e at an early date the curious idea of the "two
th . rus name of M u on
e corporation"'' is parallel to "b II ( ycerinus "b e of be IOw) there
,, aros · ·
h. h are often d1stmgms · h e d as th e " grea t" one
nead" in the Pyramid Texts . It . tu t~at is, lord) of thull of ads
enne 'II" w ic · Ie " ennea d
one· in comparison wit h t h e " simp
,, . ,, 1s empting t0 e en
corporation was replaced by th ,, suggest th · an d the "sma '
ether signify a more complete totality, as does the pl~-
that the rise of the sun god e ennead" at the sam at _the they tog ,, neads " which is attested as early as the Pyramid
. was accompl" h e tun
groupings originally referred to th . d Is ed, and that b he ral form en '
d · e m efin •t I ot
go s, Just as at a later period "th . I e p urality of II Texhts ." rpose of all these numerical principles, whether they
"the entirety of the gods ""lD e entire ennead" can a e pu
I · mean T the number two or three as t h eu· b ase, 1s
. to crea t e or d er m
.
n. t~e ennead the numerical and . ut antheon; for the Egyptians this is always a diverse, plural
classification are combined Th
d h ·
. genealogical method f
e pnmeval be·
~r~ t rough self-impregnation the firs
so t ~!. Without abandoning the principle of plurality or exclud-
mg A_tumengen- ~~g a single deity from the pantheon, its unmanageable multi-
divme couple, Shu and Tefnut, and fro t sexually differentiated plicity is condensed into a number that can be comprehended.
generation of gods, Geb and Nut· th m ~hem is born the next Only under Akhenaten was an attempt made t? reduce the
and sky goddess produces the sibline su~o _n _of this earth god large number of deities to fewer than three (which of course
Nephthys, who complete the en dg sms, Seth, Isis, and
Th t . h nea stands for "many") .
a is t e usual composition of ih
canonical, nor, perhaps is it the . . ~ ennead, but it is not
the New Kingdom on Seth . f ongma one (see above) . From Local classification
and replaced by Hor~s, whi~: ~t~; banis_hed £J:omthe ennead According to the principle of local classification, every deity
god may substitute for Atum·,, . t~ m;_mfestations of the sun acquires a fixed cult home, and the ranking of cult places more
"male ennead" in which th , f m e mduat there is even a or less automatically results in a hierarchy of their deities, at
four gods .22 e our goddesses are replaced by the head of which stands the chief god of the capital city. Thus
. Nor is the number of members f ,, in the Eighteenth Dynasty Amun, who was worshiped as the
fu_<edat nine, even thou h the o the ennea~" canonically highest god in the royal residence, Thebes, was the "state god ."
Isis because of that nujber g~n_ealogyends with Osiris and Amun, whose nature was extended to be the most universal
four "sons of Horus" Th I
om1ttmg their son Horus and the and transcendent possible in Egyptian terms, is particularly
throughout the coun·tr e ~ter enneads, which were devised closely linked with "his" city Thebes, which was known as the
25
olis, sometimes have y i°n t e model of the ennead of Heliop- "city of Amun" from the late Eighteenth Dynasty on. Univer-
other cases fifteen aon_y sTehven
members, as at Abydos but in sality and local connections do not have to be mutually exclu-
E • t ' s m ebes · 23 Wh at was evidently' most
19 sive, as is clear from the example of Amun, but often they
"' . Ono on, ASAE 45 (1947) 53--54.
E.g. M.A . Korostovtsev BIFA045 947 are-as with Meresger, the goddess of the Theban peak,,. whose
of,~messes IV from Abyd~s). (l ) 154 1.4 = KRI VI, 22, 6 (inscription "Pyr. §§278c, 511c ("7 enneads" in one variant), 1064b (the great ennead is
Early example of both th
"Amduat II, 122-23_ ese changes: Amd11atII, 94-95. said to be "mistress of enneads").
"The designation survives in the Old Testament and Greek terminology for
"Surv .ey m
· Bonnet, Real/exikon523-- .
the city, see Sethe, Am1111§1; for another Twenty-first Dynasty example see A.
~:o~hs/a~ period: J. Vercoutter BI~~~d ~ an ennead of Harsaphes at Hera- Piankoff, ASAE 49 (1949) 132 with pl. 2.
4
Tjenen;t (GOFe;cham-Urtel, Sy11kre;ism11s in __(1950] 90); for the Theban ennead "'B. Bruyere, Merl-Segera Deir el Medinelr(MIFAO 58, 1930), and, on the form
, 1979) 13--23. agyptischer Ikongraphie. Die Gollin of the name, L. Keimer, BiOr 5 (1948) 24. In the Wadi Hammamat even the
222 223

i
Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt Classification and Articulation of the Pantheon

importance and influence do not extend b . of religion as the religious politics of particular
.
con fmes of .the desert hills of weste rn Th ebeeyond the narro . the history
111g d priesthoods .
places an es it may be justifiable to assume that there were
. Th e way
. m wh ich Egyptian deitie s are bound s. 'IV
t 1es vanes greatl y, from their being f' d
ixe to a to
. their 1ocaJi In some cascults" '" at the beginning of history , but there is no
the Iandscape to the ir loose incorporaf . particular point . · "local. fnatureneralizing the assumption. · Wh enever 1·t 1s
· poss1'ble
" d d " . h ion m a lo 1 ,, in basis or~: making their appearance in history, we find that
or og oa , as 1s t e case w ith cosmic d . ca enneact"
The local . principle
. does not begin t o be system
an primeval
ti deit'1es. to ~ee g~re is comple x from the beginning of their attestation
ate ~~no?; m early times cult topograph is a zed until the their
and thatna the geography o f t h eir · _worsh 1p' 1s ' 1~
· correspon d,~~g
I
class1hcation
. I of the pantheon . A w . Yh not
ag m1g t say th central to the x The connection of all the important gods whose nse
c1p e was never applied consistentl y at this prin. can be1e observed-Re,
comp . · · Pt a h , an d A mun-w1 'th a pa m·c-
O sins,
E . or comprehen . 1
?yptians but onl y by a particular school of m s1ve y by the lar cult place is clearly secondary .
gists . Hermann Kees" laid the intellectual fou odde'.negyptolo- u We have seen in the introduction to Chapter 3 that at the
cult_-topographical school, the influence of wh~ ha~ons for this beginning of history the cult of a number of deities was wide-
until _very rec:ntly . The value of research of ~his as been felt spread throughout the country. We first encounter the ostensi-
questionable ; it has advanced considerabl the anal type is un. bly "local" gods of Elephantine , Sais , and Bubao;tis not as local
cults .and the understanding of the re 11g10us · . y Iandscape ys1s of local
Of E
but as universal deities. So it should not be surprising or dis-
an d 1t has cast light on the reality of the g 0 d . h gypt, concerting that Re, Osiris, Ptah, and Amun take on the role
their cults. s m t e context of of universal gods from the beginning, without ever being re-
But the method ' s "geographic atomizin " h' stricted to a single place or to a single aspect of their nature .
~
Frankfort _criticiz:d, the dissection of religiou~'iife :n:~h _H_enri Osiris is not in origin the god of cattle nomads in the eastern
geographical umts, does not contribute at all to d mmu~al delta , nor is Amun originally a wind god. The rich and complex
the nature of the ods Th . un erstandmg nature of the gods cannot be accommodated to the excessively
i~to thinking that 1f th~ ori;~;~; c:re~: da~ger of ~e~ng ~~led simple conceptual categories that we devise ; no god can be
his origin and historical . t p ~e o a god is identified, caught in such a coarse-meshed net.
tempts to find an o . . :~por ance will be explained . All at- The fact that a god's cult becomes established in a place that
quite fruitless Butr~a . ome for Horus or Osiris have been feels a special affinity for him may tell us one thing-among
search for the ."h I i; ~mpossible to halt modern scholars' many-about his nature, but it constitutes no more than a stage
od for wear tome o t e cult " or the "original nature " of a
g ' e oo accustomed to I00 k' f . in his historical development. In the course of time his local
everything. And th . . mg or a smgle cause for connections become stronger . In the New Kingdom, and still
ere is still a seductive simplicity in view -
more in the late period, there is a strong tendency to form fixed
uni ve rsal Amun can be worshi ed .
(1949) 357- 58.
.
p ma mountain ou s peak : G . Goyon , A SA£ 49
links between any deity , or manifestation of the great gods,
and specific cult places; the most impressive evidence for this
"""G rund
.. . .satzliches zur Auf gab enstellun g d ..
1e,
Gollmg1 .scl,e Ge/e/,rfe Anzei er agy pti.sc h en Religio n sgeschich· tendency is in long catalogues of gods which are similar to
19
of articles in th e ZAS entitl gde,," 8 <1936) 49-6 1; Gottergla11 be ch ap . 2; a series litanies. But Old Kingdom belief seems to have had a different
.. e . " o n pr ecursors of th e
t rag hKultt o po g ra p h isc
' h e und my th olog ische Bei·
· · e met od h . structure, in which topography was not at all prominent . This
cisms o f th em by Corn elio Pietr T' • sue as Rich ard Pietschmann , and crili· apparent difference does not arise solely from the smaller
1
la Sau ssaye, ed ., /.,el,rbucl, dl'r Re~ . ie e, cf. _H. 0 . Lange , in P. D. Ch ant epie de
Le~ ~ ann , Tub inge n 1925) I, ~ ~nsxesclucl,t<'(4 th ed. , ed . A . Be rth o le t and E.
amount of evidence we possess for beliefs of the earlier period.
44
B,Or 10 (1953) 159 220- 21 F ·. .
u ·se•d as part o r the m,ithod
' cf.· Hor cnhci ·sm 0 f 1h e po litical
. int erpr e tatio n s often
0

"'"Naturh afte Ort skult e": Kees, Giittcrgla11

bi 2.
224 . 8 runner , MDA IK 16 (1958) 12- 13. 225

.\

I .(
 ... ... ~- '
...,.
.,, ' .
·:-_

Conceptions of God in Ancient E

gypt
Classification and Articulation of the Pantheon
There are other significant i'nd'
1cators s h
any god of the royal residence or t' t uc as the ab hich I have already touched upon several
· I evidence
arc h eo Iog1ca . s a e g0 d , and th sence of roblem , w
for m •
aJor tempi eI ter the P the Egyptians cons1'd ere d t h e1r . go d s to res1'd e.
could be compared to Midd! es of the g d ack of of where
. I e and New K· o s wh· tiJlleS,
There 1s a so the evidence of • . mgdorn •ch
mscnption .
be_en analyzed in detaiV' and the lac s, which has n p1es. tem . The abode of the gods
Excursus.
priesthood before the Fifth Dynasty . k of a professiona10:Yet f this book two observations have so far been
he course O .
_In Egypt the local principle of clas 'f . OcaJ In I t the abode of the gods . First , statements about the
~a~U ,
w_1despread in religion until relativet1 ~cation did not beco Jllas' "true " appearance ~how _that Egyptians saw countless
Kingdom on it leads to fixed combina~o~te. Frorn the Mid:e ~od f the deities in their environment, but encountered the
b~t:ween gods and cult places and to a s_a~d even equatione iJllageshomselvesonly in exceptional circumstances (Chapter 4).
gods td e we know from a number of passages o f texts, which .
I
v1s10nof deities between the two halves distinctly artificialdi~
and Lower Egypt. The fixin of Hor of the country, U Secon
. d ·n' the discussion of t h e morta 1·
1ty o f t h e go d s .
m Ch apter
0~ I .
sentatives of the two parts gof th us and Seth as the r:pper 5 that the next world was the preferred soiourn of the gods . It
di h e country h . re- r~mains here to enlarge upon these two points and to define
en ~ss ypotheses about their "original" as given rise to
role m prehistory. The distinction b t provenance and their their place in history . . .
Lower Eg t' w e ween an Up The earliest home of the gods that we can discern 1s the sky.
YP ian epwawet is attested in th M'd per and a
In the Book of Gates that is unde th . fl e I die Kingdom" On the Narmer palette, at the beginning of histor y, two heads
Pen~ · d ' ' r e m uence of th
, even the foreign Asiatic, Lib an . e Amarna
· of the sky goddess, whose form is a cow, look down at events
acqurre their own protective deities y h, and Nub1~n peoples on earth (Figure 9); on the ivory comb of the early dynastic
(BPf 176--81). Finally in the late , . w o are Egyptian deities King Djet (c. 2840 e.c.) we have the first example of a deity
velops the entire Eg;ptian pa th period !~cal classification en- traveling across the sky in a bark, a scene that is repeated
that egyptologists were firstn be!on-and It was this late phase countless times in later iconography .
quence of the way our s b. a e to study • so 1·t 1s · a conse- In an Old Kingdom tomb inscription the deceased walks on
influenced so much by t~eJ:~t has ~eveloped that it has been the beautiful ways of the necropolis "to the gods," ~ and the
metho~ of classifying gods · t~: ~f !~cal_gods" and the local reference is probably to another world in the sky, which is
to earlier Egyptian r I' . ' pphcation of that principle described in more detail in the Pyramid Texts. In these spells
clusions. e igion can very easily lead to false con- the sky, in which the gods live and the domains of the blessed
Because every local s stem .. are situated , is evidently the goal of the king's journey into the
the presence of the gody . of class1fication must start from next world. When Old Kingdom texts speak of a "god " on
. contradicts ts m the cult ' from th e1r
on eart h , 1t • "availability" earth, they probably always refer to the reigning king in the
which is often emphas · od~ome extent their "hidden" nature role of the creator god.
1ze m E t' ,
gyp ian texts. Here we encoun- In the intellectual ferment after the collapse of the Old King-
"'I'he material is now colle . dom the question of the abode of the gods becomes an urgent
zur Giitterwe[tde Al
Gottingen 1981) s te11Re1c/1
" K A K' h ·
es (Orbis Biblicus e:c
. cted in B. L. Begelsb h .
e_r-F1sc_her, U11ters11cl11111
Onentahs 37, Fribourg and
gen issue for Egyptians, because the earthl y "god," the king, is no
longer the guarantor of an enduring order of society. When
· • 1tc en JEA 47 (196
GreatGodat Abyd~s . 1) 10 with pl. 2; W . the Admonitions of Ipuwer say "If I knew where god is, I
S New H (Publication s of the p · K. Simpson, The Terraceo'1 tire would serve him," ·" they express a common sentiment, but they
' aven and Ph 'I d ennsylva · y
but identical figur ~ a elphia 1974) pis. 19 (IO nia- ale Expedition to Egypt
e an composition) . · 2), 73 (66. 1), 81 (59.1, Anubis , " A. Mariette, Lt•s 111a
st11I
N1Sdt· /'A11ci,•11E11111ir,• (Paris 18&1--85)l4'l .
226 " A. H. Gardiner , Th,· Ad111(111 s of 1111f. (V/ ll i1111 5'1s,• (Ll'ipzi~ 19()'1) -U--t2 .
itio11
22 7

~ ' \, ....
___ ►
 ... ..

Conceptions of God m
. A nc1ent
. Egypt
Classification and Articulation of the Pantheon
combine
d it with an exp)'ic1't exh t .
go s--and thus to anch or ation to t
d . ·s thought to be present in the entire ordered
We can see the effects or ?od more firrnJ end the cult
whose kings devote m of this attitude in thy~ -earthly of the Thus the eittf ~ but in differing manner and differing forms.
10 '
did their predecessors o;eh1'attdention to the c~Jt ifdd!el<.inrgedality_ wor_Id of crea
Old Kingdom, so also now t h e pre ferre d ab o d e 1s
.
dep t f · s evelo o th om AS inkt~e erhaps for this reason certain liminal regions of the
ar ure or an increased prnent provid e gods th ,
the \ y, Jorld that are especially close to the sky are called
gods and for the use of a I emphasis on the c ,es the Poin/n
o~~f~~s~m
eartdh'Y d ""' The underworld is a secondary and temporary
sk In. the Middle Kingdom of classi~c::rne of 1:: "go s Ifansoi·ourn,
. in which the ba and the corpse are umted .
y is complemented b th exts the next n. lace O ·ght On earth however, t h e go d s 11ve
· on Iy m . images,
.
P
~~m . , . . .
n~tely described in the iew e ~nderwor!d, Which~orlct in the . the king as an image of god, m cult images m the temples,
dichotomy of sky and un Kingdom underworl is then l'lli- in d in sacred animals, plants, an d o b'iects.
the abode of the gods . der;orld for the afterlife d books. The anBut for the Egyptians an image is not "merely" an image ; it
'.'1~;" Kingdom texts. I~ i:h:e e~ted endlessly in s~;nct alsofor constitutes a reality and a physical presence . The temple is a
I~ ~he greatest one of the Cairo hymn to Amun n{ehrasesin "sky" on earth, which contains the efficacious image of the god
s1mllarly, in the tomb f Khsky, the oldest one of th sun god and may serve as an abode for the god himself. When the
~IIthe god is "the oldes~ aemhat of the reign of Ae earth";~ priest opens the sealed doors of the shrine in the morning he is
m texts make i·t cl hone of sky and earth ,,,s 0th menoph1s opening the "doors of the sky" so that he may see the image of
ear t at ,, h" . · er pa
underworld In anoth h eart m this context ssages god in the earthly "sky."" The exhortation to perform the cult
tions in the ~k . er ymn Amon-Re is "r' h . means the regularly, which is heard in the text of Ipuwer, is also a prom-
ses III at M dr and m the earth, "Jb and in th tic m manifesta-
o e met Habu "all ods . e emple of Rames- ise of divine presence, one that is formulated more forcefully in
f ds who are in the earth" g who are m the sky" and " II
gyptians always dist1·ngu· hare represented side by side J, Tha
the Instruction for Merikare (which also dates to the period of
transition between the Old and Middle Kingdoms): "He (the
rep ·t· 1 caref JI b
P ·os1 ions ' betwe en b e1ngs . s th u y, y means of d'ff ·
I erent
e creator) has built himself a chapel behind them (mankind) . If
are in the earth th t . . at are on earth and b . h they weep, he hears."" There, in his shrine on earth, the god
The Leiden h, a is, m the underworld emgs t at can be reached and addressed at any time, even though his
· ymn to Am . ·
mg ~he reign of Akhenate un , which dates to the years follow- true abode may be far away in the sky . Therefore one, and by
hprec1sely
· ·J8 In t h'is scheme n, th systematiz
b es d ivme
' · presence more no means the least, of the aims of the cult is to make the earth
is corpse is in the underwo;ld a~~ the _cr_eator god is in the sky, an attractive place for the gods to live, to create in the temple a
"Greb ' d his image (bntj)3• on earth. worthy residence for the god's image and a likeness of the sky,
"J 2a aut, Hy11111e 4 (! , 4).
and to tend the cult image so well that it is happy to live
. ndee, /EOL 16 I among men.
"'Abdel Mohsen B (_964) 56 withpl 1 - It should also be mentioned that the Egyptians believed that
.. "W. Westendorf ;k1r, ASA£ 42 (1943);; H: ~- Stewart,/EA 46 (1960)88-<'19 .
1118, Srn/pture and A ~s_nlte Agypte11(Kunst. w~. pl. 4 I. 3; Assmann, AHG 207. a human being could take a god into his heart and pro, ide
Yorketc. 1968)193 ;~i1tect11re of Ancient £ im Id, 1 Baden-Baden1968)= Pninl·
t
texthere); Medine/ I~ translationtheresh~y~~(Panoramaof WorldAri, New
offi.gures, withsev..n 111Vil pl. 5060-.E Thou . be correctedas indicatedin the temple of Soleb the statue of till' king, which is worshiJX '-1 ,1s 11 i:od . is th,·
sty!,e ha II of the tem-ra.1 add't'
110nalcatego · • ere 1s a better-preservedparallelset "living~111tjon earth": LabibHabachi,f,11t1m ':' t>{th,· Drifi,•11ti,111,,, Rllm..,._-6II
"'Zandee, De liy11111Pe
' 'I
1 ~,f Ra
c11
. Ii atnes,
messes Ab ond the pillars
· of the secondhypo· (ADIK5, 1969)48 fig. 32 : LD3. !\Sc.
,,. n the New Kin•d 1111111\111"11pl. 4 I y os (unpublished) ~'As pointed out to m,· by Jan Ass1m11m .
image" of the. sun g, don, this · Word(/ ' 6-17.. . ·
"Assmann, Litur.~. Lit-,lt-r260-61 with n. 59.
228
go , sec 1-J
ornung,"Mensch .,t•
-'111/) IS oft
used for the king as the
5 BildGottes" 134--35 . In the
"Volten, /'()/itisrl1t·Sclirift,·1175 II. IJ+-..'l5 .
229
 .,-. -- , -

. d Articulation of the Pantheon

Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt Classification an
. of "life" and " power " in their h_ands,
an abode for him there .° From the New Kingd
· I re ferences to a "go d w h o 1s
· m orn,,°n there
· man ·n the attributes ther divine beings . According to
are occas1ona and hold• g ith the mass of o ) d "small" (ndsw) gods, and
conception, which has been studied chiefly by Han ' but lhis in contrast~;:.e are "grea~". (w~a:~e "studied" -the great gods
8
combines ele~~nt~ of _su~h varied origin that it wo~i/:~1 ,~ the texts IV states expbc1tldy 1· •·nstruction text of lnsinger
possible to utiltze 1t w1thm the present context witho •rn- RaJ"l\
esses
the sma .
11•• The emo ic . .
against desp1smg a sma
II
tensive and detailed study . u 1 an ex. more than the other hand , warns
In the tomb of Aya at el-Amarna the Aten is said t rus, on 50 •
paPY. ce he too has power. _ te · we must now seek evi-
"before us (literally in our face), but we do not know his bodo~ god sinh texts are relatively la .' . ds The title "king
In this the god of Akhenaten follows the gods of earlie y. Both t ese . f ods in earher peno . .
e for the ranking o ~ .
riods; despite his being revealed in the sun disk he
visible to everyone . The earth is his field of action, but ~t
pe. i: ttested just once, in the ntual
d;~~e gods" (nj swt-n!rw) is_hr:\a c 2292~2260 s.c.),5' where it is
o ells in the pyramid of Phio~ -~ .the Pyramid Texts has long
himself is hidden in the heavenly beyond and requires an in~ sp h god Horus, w O I h perhaps
given to t e h l ding position that e may
termediary in order to come into contact with mankind , for he ceased to occupy t ~ ea f ori ·n of the Egyptian pan _theon .
has no cult images on earth.
Many centuries after the Amarna period Egyptian religion
have held in the penod ~cal
The title then becomes typ
or
Amun, who was the chief g?d
k' doms until he was d1s-
came no longer to make a precise distinction between gods in M ' ddle and New mg ' h
throughout the i . . of the late period. From t e
the sky and in the underworld and images of the gods on laced by Osiris at the begmnmg ) Amun is continually
P · I (1971-1926 B.C . on,
earth. The first occurrence known to me of the blanket formula reign of Sesostns . ,, . of the ods" or "king of the Two
"every .god and goddess of sky, earth and underworld" dates attested with the ~t~e kmg N g Kingdom on, ,,Amon-Re,
to the Twenty-first Dynasty; 46 it is then found in the Twenty- Lands" (njswt t'~!); ~· frGomteAm::rasonther) is a normal ap-
second Dynasty , on an arm band of Queen Karomama (c. 850 king of the gods . (m ree ,
B.c.)," and continues to be used , with a number of variants, pellation of the h1~he~t god. . t d to Amun. From an early
down to the Graeco-Roman period ..a Now that primacy is given But kingly dignity is not _~estnc e bear the titles "king of the
to the worship of visible images, the original ideas about the date a number of other deities al; ,, As early as the Pyramid
abode of the gods become greatly simplified; that abode is now gods" and "king ?f the Two L~ s~f the next world without
identical with the ordered world in its threefold hierarchy of Texts Re is descnbed as the g
sky, earth , and underworld .
••M A Korostovtsev , BIFAO 45 (1947l 157 1. ~- t Ill 204 with bibliogra-
. · L' hth ·m Lrtera ure , '
"'Pap . lnsinger 24, 6; translation, tc et , h ·nstead of temples only
Social classification; henotheism phy p . 186. On the really sma_
,, ll" d ·ties who ave 1
ei_ 'E tian Relig ion (Hutch inson s m·
, U .

homely shrines, cf. e .g . J. Cerny, Ancrent gyp

For th~ Egyptians deities were not all of equal rank. In iconog-
raphy trnportant gods are often singled out by being enthroned
versity Library, London 1952) 71.
" Pyr. §1458e , with a _parallel from the
the kingship of gods m general see J·
~::e:, .d of his successor Merenre. On
"Gott isl Konig. Komgssy:
,, in c. J. Bleeker et al., eds.' p •
" E. Drioton , ASAE 44 (1944) 20 (dj sw m .b/) bolismus in den an tiken Gottesvor st ellunge~ , tlie /ntemational Ass,x-iatron of th•
.. "Der Gott im Mensche "· 5 d.I • 1· · •, · ial Conl{ress 0,
ceedings of tire Xlltlr lntemat ror
;ret:
" .

" Sandman , Texts 89, 14- 15_

n, m tu m memoriadi Ippolito Rosellini I (Univers,t•
d eg I.I Stu d.1 d'1 p·1sa, p·1sa 1949) 237_52 . summa
'
. .
. ry m Real/exrkon 22S-28 .
16 78
" P Lacau and H . Chev rier, Une c rape
e
History of Religions (SHR 31, 1975) ;- j1 de 5esostris r' ti Kamak (Se;
23 p 122 §337, pl. 34; 1 . · P · t.
"'Edwards , Decrees 104. · . l 956-69) I 68 no. · ·h · h s 111sm -
An tiqu ites de l'Egypte , Cairo title of earthly kings, " tc 1
" P. Monte!, Kimi 9 (1942) 40 fig. 28 , . . 1 the norma I
The phrase njswt t WJ is no
'"Junker -Winter, Geburtshaus9, B--lS. ijij . 231
230
 ·,
..:.. (. -

Conceptions of God in Anc1ent

. Egypt Classification and Articulation of the Pantheon

being given the title of k' the kingship of the sun god is given a still more
moon god Thoth ' who 1·s "v1~g.'
1z1er At"5 3the head of h'1s Jn later texts d he becomes a king of kings . A hymn to the
on often the "representative" / and from the N court is th
earthlY cast,
d . anBerlin encourages him . to protect King Ramesses
be included as the "scribe" i~ J) of Re;s.ithe deceasew ~ngdo e
cre~tor go 1~otect the gods who come into being in [this land],
~ere the form of kingship on ea:~e .sun. god's staffe: W1s~es: J)( as you p their king (njswt-bjtj) ; your rule was in all lands,
m the next world. the E . h is mirrored a f official for en
you ouareheld the kingship of the two Ian d s (t h at 1s,
· U pper
h ' gyphan · rnon th s
ereafter as continuing the stat sf v1~w many featug e god~
. By ~he New Kingdom at the ~ao thmgs on earth . res of the ::d Lfwer Egypt : nsjt t'~j)." 517e~ple texts of the Gra:co~Rom~,~58
• d describe in detail god s kingly rule over the eXIstent
is.proiected onto history . The Pal test, the kingship of h peno l ·l k. h' h "kin h
history of the first five d . ermo Stone, which t e gods and elaborate upon his king y ht e, ma mg 1m t e gw o
59
Egypt in the form of annJ~ashe~ of the double ~~cords the rules (nsj) kings. " not collected them systematically, examples
Although I have
before the historical period thentnes, places at the beg~o~ of
probably the upper , k'mg d,om e Th rule Tof kings of the Iower
ginning, of the title of king applied to other gods seem to occur usually
• with those who , according to the Turin Canon of Kings, did in
t eenth Dynasty, on the other . e urm Canon of the , ~nd fact rule on earth. This is true of Ptah "°and Horus ,"' and especi-
gods on earth before the . ~and, reckons with the Nine-
ally of Osiris, wh0 is worshiped as "king of the gods" from the
Menes, the founder of the h~sto~ICal period, which begin:le _of
Middle Kingdom to Ptolemaic times, •2 while as ruler of the dead
was adopted by th G s at_e, a millennium later th' with 63
Manetho · e reek historians of EgYPt, mostis schema he sometimes bears the title "king of the living" as well as the
notabl
common "ruler of the living" (for the Egyptians the blessed
p At the head of th 1s · 11st
· of d y dead are "living ones "). He is the first god to have his name
tah , Re, and Shu ; then follo!o s who . r~led on earth come enclosed in a royal cartouche; the earliest example of this dates
At the end are Thoth M Geb, Osms, Seth, and Ho
Horu k" , aat , and a d rus. to the end of the Middle Kingdom. "' .
"d ~• ma mg a total of ten god ;econ manifestation of Harsaphes, the ram god who is the principal god of Hera-
em1-gods" (akh spirits) f s, a ter whom a dynasty of kleopolis in northern Middle Egypt, occurs as "king of the Two
~~ the historical period. In ~~;~ the tr~nsition to the dynasties Lands" 65 but is not one of the ten gods who ruled on earth in the
; sun god on earth is looked :m:ss1d period the kingship of beginning. Here again we encounter the tendency to apply
;~ urn ?f which is hoped for a ac to a~ a "perfect time," the
e Cairo hymn to Amun t _the accession of a new king ,; In ..·,w. Wolf, ZAS 64 (1928) 42 (xii, 6-7); Assmann, Liturg. Lieder240 n. 65; id.•
nast,y, the name of the ,;k:,-VhIChdates to the Eighteenth ·oy- AHG 333.
"'E. Orioton , ASAE 44 (1944) 122 (Amonrasonther in Karnak) . On the kingship
enc
titulaosed in _a cartouche ,'"'antici
mg of . the go d s, " the sun god, is
of Amun see also G . Posener , ZAS 93 (1966) 119.
. drydevised by Akhenat pfatmg the highly elaborate royal "'Horu s of Edfu : M. Alliot , Rd£ 5 (1946) 103 with n . -l; in the same passage
eno · en or hi s go d Aten in the Amarna Horu s is also "ru ler of rulers ."
P "'M. Sandman Holmberg , TireGod Ptah (Lund 1946) 77, 105, cf. E. Hornung ,
Das Grabdes Haremlrabim Tai der Konig,· (Bern 1971) pl. 16b.
''Cf. D Lowl ·
Honour oi
. the dress
m
H
h
m J· Ruffle
.ofW.aeFa1rma11 el al ., eds ., Gi1111p
(Warminster 1979)
.
ses 0.r .
, Anc,e11tEgypt: Studiesi11
"'Harsiese : Hari , Horem/reL> pl. 5911. 19ff.; also called "greatest god" in the same
passage .
" W b. IV, 8, 4; p uman · ·
Bo vizier. 50-54 PI· 1, where Thoth is shown , "'Selim Hassa n , Hymnes religieuxdu Moym Empire(Service d.-s Antiquitt's de
I Egypte , Cairo 1928) 106--7; K. A . Kitchen, Or 29 (1960) 81--83,
Urk. IV, 1469 8· A.h ylan, Thoth tire H,.
th ;;Cf. e._ mad Bhad awi, ASAE,rmes
' ' Christ
g. L.A. of Egypt (London etc. 1922) 81-82;
44 (1944 "'References in Assmann , Liturg. Lieder240 with nn . 61--62.
"'British Museum , HieroglyphicTexts from EgyptianSft•laeetc. III (London 1912)
e Wad, Hamma op e, BIFAO48 ( 19 ) 192 (XIII) .
"Greba ut, Hy11111e
mat).
6( 48) 8 (in scn·phon
• of Ramesses IV in pl."' 28
2, 2). H . no.
Kees1367 (Wnn-11/nv).
in Bonnet , R,•a/laikon 249-50; P. Kaplony. MIO II (1966) 152 n. SO.
233
232
 I ;

Conceptionsof God in Anc·tent Egypt

Classification and Articulation of the Pantheon
titles
• • and
66
epithets of the h'igh est god
d e1ties. The number of th ese deities . . b to comp arativ . I toward monotheistic thought," ;' and the aim
.. . WI'thout. doublbt to make one god kmg · o f t h e ot h ers an d Ior d
add ition to the title of kin ecomes st'IJ e y ll1in [1s)
that characterize the god ?' we take into conside1 greater if or is unqueSt~ona yrld· but at least since the publications of Raf-
or the "lord," and thus pl•::oh~e other way as t~:tnhepithe~~ of the entire wo i we , know that belief in a supreme bemg . and a
of deities. im at the top of th ig_est one faele Pt~zz:s-whom the Greeks also worshiped in Zeus-
Th E' h e soc1aJ
e 1g teenth Dynasty C . h Order king O tt eong stitute a stage of development from polytheism to
cited frequently conta1· a_1ro ymn to Amun h' does no c
' ns an 1mpre · , w tch I h monotheism. 75 'I d f II" . . t . I d.
macy of Amon-Re the k' f ss1ve descriptio f ave Further, the translation ' or o a 1s JUS as mis ea mg as
his feet like do s, w mg o the gods: "The o n o the Pri-
the rendering of qt and nbb as "eternity," and can easily give
lord" ;6' yet Amu~ is ten they recognize his pfes~s kowtowat
rise to a falsification of the Egyptian conception of god. "Lord
all the gods "68 On . ~ no means the only "lord" ncdeas their
· uns 1s als 0 "l d an " h' of all" is not what is meant, but quite literally "lord to the
lioness Pakhet wh . or of the gods 11111 d c tefof end"-to the spatial and temporal end of the created world; as
, o 1s worsh · d • , an ev
as a both d ipe m the v1·c· · en the
angerous a d h 1 mity of Be · H we have seen in Chapter 5, the power of even the highest
"chief (brjt) of all the n ,~ pful local deity, is givenn1 a~an god ends at that point, so that this title should not be taken
tion;'° her elevatio gods on a scarab in the Gr ~hetitle as evidence that the god to whom it is applied is genuinely
ary beliefs fr hn m_aybe related to her im t op~1 collec-
om t e time of th C . por ance m fun transcendent.
ro~~ court of the Eighteenth
e most encompassin
a:d itfin Texts, and later at t~r~
. meteenth dynasties"
By the end of the Old Kingdom at the latest, the Egyptians
1
had developed their conception of a supreme being • who is
of creation is the tit! b g expression of a deity's ru1 . "king" and "lord" of all that is created, and is also the creator
Th' . e n -r-dr wh· h . e over all
th ts tit!~ was devised in th; fi ic_ Is translated "lord of all." and sustainer of "everything that exists." In Egypt, however,
oe Coffin Texts it is commont5t intermediate period, and in th~ qualities of this supreme being do not attach to a particular
g d as the supreme b . y used to characterize th de1_ty, but may be attributed to any deity, even to relatively
~:~ ~tl_eof "lord of a1/:;!i:In_
th
e Instruction of Amene;h:~~ unimportant local gods. In our sources the qualities of a creator
t ts applied to members gf1vehn to the new king Sesostris I n god and ruler are most commonly found attributed to the sun
frequently th • o t e Egyp t·tan pantheon far less '
F Eb an ts the title of k' god R~ and gods who are combined syncretistically with him,
or erhard Otto "th mg. but th1_sgroup was formed in the course of the historical period
e tendency 0 f h
..K . t ese appellations ... and _dissolved again in the late period, so that it was truly
ees m Bonnet R
wawet and M' , ea//exikon247-SI dominant only during the Middle and New kingdoms .
' m. He be!' , gave furth
t~e case of Wepwawet ieved that these e ith er examples with Onuris, Wep- . At any time an Egyptian believer could credit some other de-
lian history . he dated these ri PI. ets reflected political rivalries· in ity, who was for him the most important god in the cult in his
"G va nes back t h ,
.. n!baut, Hymne ( 5-6
7 2
° t e beginning of Egyp·
/brd. 3 (I , I), 4 (1, ~ ). .. " Saecu/11111 14 (1963) 274. See also id., "Monotheistische Tendenzen in dt•r
J-
111
J. CI~re, /EA 54 (19~ In Urk. IV, 1898 11 .
"E . Drioton, ASA£ 44 ) 137, E3. , he is "lord of lords.,,
agyptischen Religion," Die Welt des Orierrts2 (1955) 99-110 .
'' ~ · Pettazzoni, L't•ssere supremo rre/1,• rd(~iorri 1•rimitil\·' (/'01111is,
:i,•11:adi Dio)
Amduat 1J "a , 9 (1944) 29-30 (Tunn 1957) = Der a//wisserrdt• Gott (Frankfurt a .M. 1960), with appt'ndi x. • LJ
n ' vo-o ; add CT · 11
J. C. Goyon Le V, 388i 399 formazione . del monoteismo" pp . 227--44. This book is a short wrsi<>n of L'o -
examples With At papyrus du Louv;e N a. 111scre11zn di Dio (Turin 1955) = r,,.. All-K1wwi11sGOii(London 1956). but the
"W . Heick um and Re. .3279 (IFAO larger work does not contain a separate section on monotheism .
Texte w· b, Der Text der l.eitreA BE 42, 1966) 57 n. 6, cites
, ies aden 1969) §I me11em/1ets I f" . " Cf. J. Assmann , "Primal und Transzend,•nz. Struktur und G,•nese der agy p-
c. . llr semen S It .. tischen Vorstellung eines 'Hochstes Wt•sens,' " in W. Westend orf, t'd .. As1,.·kt, •
234 ° 11 (Kleine Agyptische
der splitagyptisclwrrReligiorr (GOF 9, 1979) 7-12 .
235
 ,, ' _,

..
,. , '

. d Articulation of the Pantheon

Conceptionsof God in Ancient Egypt Classification an
·ngle god . All the rest disap-
home town, or who incorporated a regio f th ·1 on every s1 . d .
rnust entai d h only who is to fulfil their esires
w_as signific~nt to him at the time, withn a~J e World \v 1. . f gods .. an e . ..,
1tYof [Tl the v1s1on· · · 'the eyes of the worshippers .
tnbutes of d1vme power, even if the deity the supre h ch pear ro full light before
syncretistically with Re or Amun. In Herma wa~ not corn~~at. 5
tands ,n . ,, hich was coined by Sch e 11 '
mg an d
a royal stela in the temple of Thoth calls Th 0th
pohs_ the auth •ned "henothe1sm, w l p R f
terrn taken over by e age enou , von
the "son of Re," that is, subordinate to R simuitane or of The --ner was d ·b
" . t II h
gods, superior o a as t e supreme bein n I
e, and ,, h · oust,,
c 1ef of thJ adopted by M u e '., Wiedemann,8 2 and many others to escn e
Thebes, the stronghold of Amon-Re, and g. h, n !'Jew l<ingd e trauss und Torn y, d at a time but not of a single god. The
. h • , w at 1s m om S ·p of one go b E · h w· t
tomb of a h 1g pnest of Amun, Osiris · ore, in th this wors h I t " which has been proposed y nc m er
supreme kmg:
. "U . k'
mque mg, whose like th
is address d
. e as th
e terrn "rno~olaMry, nz83and has long been used for Near Eastern
. fned f ored .. also describes well the nature o f t h'1s a t -
again, king of kings .... ""' Here any ex I er~ Wdl never ~ and 5ie~
religious politics would be quite absurd. if anation in terms f concept•0~ 0d . g_~e' which still lives on in Hinduism.
. f , we are to h ' o titude to t e 1v1 , .
un derstan .d mg
. o . the phenomenon , 1·t 1s
· c1early ac ieve an
approach 1t m a different way. necessary to
In· the act •of worship ' whether it be m · prayer h Excursus: The problem of logic
praise, or ethical attachment and obligation, the E ' .Ymn of However one describes the emphasizing of_the one among the
gle out one god, who for them at that . gyptians sin. rnany, the phenomenon itself leads us_ st~a1ght to the proble~
. h 1· . moment s1gnif
th mg; t e 1m_1tedyet colossal might and reatn ies every. of logical thought. According to t~e. pnnc1ples o~ ~estem logic
concentrated m and focused on the d •ty g ess of god is it would be an impossible contradiction for the d1vme to appear
beside whom all other gods vanish into~1 . w~f? is addressed to the believer as one and almost absolute, and then again
'b ms1gm icance d ,
even be d elI erately devalued. "God k . an may as a bewildering multiplicity; we find it surprising that in Egyp-
k k.
ma ea mg, but Amun has made me,,
Piye _(c. 750-712 a.c.) on a stela from
who is addressed is superior to th
are.
'c:~:t
s ma e a kmg
te
d
an men
K~hite King
d h . arkal. The god
e go s, e is more than they
tian thought these two fundamentally different formulations
are evidently not mutually exclusive but complementary.
the Egyptians think wrongly, imprecisely, or simply in a dif-
Did

ferent way?
This religious phenomenon who This question about Egyptian thought, which we must con-
of religions is not confined t ,E se occurrence in the history
Schelling, and F Max M "JI o gypt, was termed henotheismby sider here, has been answered in the most various ways. Egyp-
'f . · u er studied it in de th . tian thought has long been said to be "illogical" or at the least
~am estahon in Egyptian and I d ' . . P , especially its "prelogical," and in this way the contradictions that are en-
hshed in 1859 he said: n ian religion . In a lecture pub-
..,F. MaxMuller, Lectures011tireOrigin and Growth of Religionas Illustratedby the
Each god is to the mind of the . Religions of India (new ed., London 1891) 285, quoting from an earlier work of
!'fe is felt at the time as s~~p_hcantas good as all the gods 1859, for which no referenceis cited; quoted by le Page Renouf, ux·tures 217-18.
m sp·t1e Of the necessaryaJireal
•t d1v1mty
. ' as supreme and absolute · Le Page Renouf devoted an entire section of his book to Egyptianhenotheism
m1ahons wh' h ,
n ic ' to our mind, a plural- (pp. 217-30) .
G. Roeder , ASA£ 52 (1954
:J. Zandee, A11AncientEg )t380 (ThirtiethDynasty).
G. A. Reisner zAs YP/all Crossword Puzzl
"'Religion8
, esp. II, 88-91.
" Giitterglaube
= 11.
"E. Winter in F. Konig, ed., Religionswissensclraftliches ch (freiburg
Wort,•r/m
cites a typicallyhenot 66_(1931) 90 II. 22-23 e (MVEOL15, 1966) 311. 2-3. 1956) col. 173 (used of Akhenaten); Morenz, Religion157 = 149.
unpublishedpapyrusinh~:ittcNew Kingdomd~n_dee, Crossword Puzzle 66, "'B. Meissner, Baby/011ien1111d AssyriC>J II (Heidelberg1925) 48; H. Schm6kel,
den. nphon of Amun from an
scl1iclrtedes alien Orient (Stuttgart 1961) 274, 296-97 .
ed ., K11/t11rge
236
237
 .. ...
I ;
·· , '

•
•·.
Conceptions of God in Ancient Egyp! . . · and Articulation of the Pantheon
C1ass1hcat1on
countered have been set aside . ,, invoked by Anthes, which solves
Edouard Naville's remarks abas imperfections in .
.h d . out Egy t· its t the "cornrnon. sense not through app 1teahon
· . o f a sys t em
pu bl1s e m 1906, are typical o f many Judg .P Jan "so u 1,, scol°llctii te. traYbterns pragrnattca_11
YIcontradictions . This is the reason for
men ts: ncep15
prot is free from _log1cad relevance of these maxims--the prob-
All these. doctrines are
. very vague and 1·11 . 1ha
. •
h timeless validity an d conflict in social h·fe h ave remame · d
all Egyptianideas, there is an ab 1
so ute lack-defined•' herane, as \\ •rtfi
of system . t e f coexistence an
terns o arne .
In sharp contrast, Rudolf Anthes . d logic. largely the s thought in theology, philosophy and soence,
Bui forrna 1 d by well-defined calculi , is quite another mat-
role that rational thought and . points to the ,,
vate life in Egypt. ,,,,,He wishes tacfi~onpl~yed in pubJ~ndeniabJe . h is governe
w hic bl s cannot be solve d b y ,,common sense, " an d
th h . o nd this ,, . ic and 1er. Her_epro etmrueof ancient Egypt. The highl y systematic
oug t, wh1eh he relates to timele ,, rational" (Vern.. Pti- - · 5 ust as .
s111d1er Menschenverstand), i·n Egyptian . ss r common s this 1 1, f the ew Kingdom is a ·formal conceptual structure,
• ense"Unft,·g)
and he rejects the assumption that th re ~g1on and myth (ge. the~log) 0 t be studied according to strict, formal criteria that
thought which is "mythopoeic ,, as ere '.s a different rn ology, which mus f ,, ,, ,,
cannot be derived from a loose concept o reason or com-
Hermann Junker had alread , d Henn Frankfort te Odeof
Y a opted th rrned ·t rnon sense ." . . .
mad e th e same criticisms of Frank£, . e_same position I • An y application of a two-valued logIC, whICh is b~sed on
but he was forced to place "a ti ?rtm his last major and a not-a distinctions and on the law of the excluded m1ddle, to
conceptual , Id
\\Or proper to ma . .
contradictions by reference to
m\•ths.
~ -
~~:ns,
n rational ma1nc" . " Work,<;
,, _o·
bowh~le
sym be charact
m a se
explainin/:t~te
er
~~~
I
Egyptian philosophical and theological thought leads at once to
in;oluble contradictions. We cannot avoid this fact, and "com-
rnon sense " is no help here. We must choose between two alter-
is a~p~oach cannot produce a v· . natives . Either we equate truly logical thought with two-valued
. one res iableJ solution to th ese weU
known d1fficulties · Bu t m logic, in which case Egyptian thought is undeniabl y "illogical "
undoubtedh • right: in o d ·1 _pect unker and Anth - or "prelogical" ; or we admit the possibility of a different type of
cieh~tEgyptians long befou:eu:1 r~1vei5 w~ follow, like the:
w Kh are in no wav h , pu ses m thought and . -
=~e logic which is not self-contradictory, which can onl y be a many-
~re faithful to them~ oo7,,of _formal logic. Often enou ~tion valued logic.
This choice is be yond the competence of an egyptologist. He
mg its opposite ,, try· domg one thing while not g I we
the lo ·ca1 ' mg to avoid narr . neg ect- can do no more than observe in his material that the Egyptian s
be .£ ?1 alternatives of yes and n A o;mg our decisions to stro ve earnestly after system, and that the y certainly did not
I it were not the art of co o. . n where would politics proceed carelessly in their thought ; he can al.so sense that their
that contradict all formal I . ? mpromise , of yes-but decisio system of thought has a coherence of its own which can often
Ethics, also ca ogic. ns
icaJ syste , n never be accomm d . . convince the emotions, even though it cannot be anal yzed with-
m. The maxims of the E o . ated m a ngorously log- out contradiction according to western criteria, or defined in
'>4--
&1,g11J11 55 = gyphan wisdom teachers be- formal terms. Recent attempts to isolate the characteristics of
on the contents of 63-64
; retranslated here Se .
MOOG% I - he Book of the Dead · T, . e also h, _ similarremarksofl 886 this thought and find a suitable descriptive term for it have
der ge<,und ~ J S; for his views as · h odtenbuch, Etnleitung 21- 22.
965 been concerned too much with the general "cast of mind "' of
Difference L~_- enschenverstand in Aa w ole see this articl e, "Mytholnoie und
=~1ec-n E . gypten " d . -,,.
the Egyptians and not enough with the formal side of their
and Sixth Cen u gyptran and Greek Seu! , an earlie r id.. "Affinity and thought. If Egyptian thought is stated to be "aspecti ve, ""' that
11%3)6(J..JjJ. ne,; B.C.," Prrx:udi 11:,:s ·of th:~u; e ~
nd Th ~ught in the Seventh
Cei5 tNholtun
;,:12-l5. me an Plulosop!rica/ Society 107 "'E. Brunner-Traut , " Die As pekt ive ," ep ilog ue to H . -h afl'r, I cm ax_vI ~
K1111
st (4th ed ., Wiesbad e n 1963) 395-12 • Pnrrn pl.-s ( _~_vpr rr A rt ( ord
238 1974) 421-28; 1d.• " As pektr ve, " in W. Heick and E. O tto. l.'ds . I.J d
239
...,,,
 Concepti ons of Cod in Ancient Egypt
Class•·f·1cah.on and Articulation of the Pantheon
sratement says nothing about its 1 .
"undifferentiated" "' lead s us on th ogical structure T able to be both picture and letter,
been
ferentiat-ionis one of the most d' et_wr~ng track, for. he te...., ·gns ha d a (ways . t this •
principle · I shou Id emp h asize
1s. ·
. h ., . . JS inctive f care[ I .,,, ual s• h w anaen Id I
Ih oug I, m comparison with whi h h eatures of E u dif. trates O b ,, because we shou not exc u et h e
d
i]Jus ,, re able to e, • h' h
or "rational" (rational)thought whc_ht _e concept of,, gyPtia11 t they we E tians had special cases m w JC a par-
. , ic is int d anaJyr tha . . that the gyp · ·
opposite, can exhibit a startling I k . en ed as •t 1," ssibil1ty !ways a. For the Egyptians two tunes two
. n x was a
versity. Finally, the fact that in E ac _of d1fferentiatio1 s Polar pO
ticUlargive ' anything else . But t e s y 1s a num be r o f
h k .
considered to be contradicmry b gtY_Ptianthought rnytnh~r di. is always w ba four ' Idac hin , water , woman-it . · 1s
never · t h e go dd ess N ut
. , u 1s exp! 01·t d 1s 0 . . h
mode of discourse , is not sufficient e as a legiti not things--<'. d, Hathor and in syncretism a deity a 1s at t e
thought as a whole "mythical" o ,, cause for us to le rnate d the god ess ,
d f . r mythopo . ,, rrn th an . e another, not-a .
mo e o discourse among many and . . .eic ; rnyth is e
11 is in any case 0 ne same ~ al lecture in Amsterdam Jan Zandee presented
form of thought. ' In his maugur . d
. ture of Egyptian thought clearly, and pomte out
0 t . I not a t stru c H ·1
ne yp1ca Egyptian form of thou ht . this laS
. tr diets the law of identity m ogic . - e c ass1'fi e d 1
· · · J · ., I
has long been identified and is often dg ~b uahstic thought
f E . escn ed •• A,. -
that it con
under h 1s
a ,,
. key concept of undifferentiate· · d" t oug , w 1c I
h ht h. h
rom_ gyphan ontology, the order establish . ,. we learned t consider to be adequate; but he also followed John A .
~od 1s characterized by "two thin s" d ed by the creato do no
Wilson" in using the term "comp ementary._
I ,, Th'1s conc~pt 1s ·
hon o~ diversity; this idea is incorgora~~ _thus by differentia~
Egypt is the "Two Lands" and in a e in the leaching that
fo?11a totality only if taken togethe':1a_;~ of other pairs that can
~:e Juable in two ways : it provides a more prease formulation of
alternative logic alluded to above, and it gives us the in-
sight that if we are to solve our specialized problem we must
ce1vable is "the existent and th . ~ greatest totality con- go beyond the confines of our own discipline.
dualistic _t~rms the divine is evid<:?en~;~:~~tent,,, and in these The concept of complementarity has long played an impor-
Oppositions such as these are real b t one ~nd many. tant part in the debate over the extension of "classical" logic. In
eel each other out; they complem 1' uh the p,Hrs do not can- 1927 Niels Bohr introduced it in physics in order to describe the
b~ both a and not-a: tertium dat:r;._~~c other . A given x can ambiguous behavior of energy in quantum mechanics and to
middle does not apply Th E . e _law of the excluded
. e gyptian script, in which individ- explain the simultaneous factors of position and momentum,
or of wave and particle, wl-.ich it seemed impossible to explain
ii.gyptologieI (Wiesbaden 197") l in terms of the models of traditional logic . The discussion about
term is JI :, cos 474-88 I d
we suited to a number of s; . . o not mean to deny that this the potential and limitations of a "quantum logic" or "logic of
~~~ :~ ::ould distinguis h terminolo;~:~1~sb1~ art , language , and world view, complementarity" still continues, and I cannot give a survey of
""J Za de one hand , and formal thought , et;een observation and formula-
. n ee, Heto11gediffere11t
. d on e other. its extent or its problems here ...
M~~/'' Kosmos21 (1%5) 74-;;er e de11ke11
der oude Egypte11aren(Leiden 1966); id., For us what is important at this stage is to be aware of this
. e.g. the remarks on I debate and to follow its course as it develops-and it can do
or,~~ut the,. divinity of th/kin38g about the distinction between god and image,
e ear test stud . .
ii.gyp/er(EntwickJu y is probably H. Schneider " Cf . n . 89 above. The term "complementary" is introduced on pp . 14ff. of Het
Leeuw God ngsgeschichte der Me hh . ' Ku/fur 1111dDe11k
e11der a/ten
• s1100rstel/inge
11 13 nsc e1t J Le 1· · 190 011gediffere11tieerdede11ke11
.
~xplanation; E. Otto .. 7-38, who alread re·: P~tg .. 7); then van der " In H. Frankfort et al., The l11tel/ect11al
Adt,e11t11re
of Ancient Ma11(Chicago 1946)
agyptischen Religion~ D,e_Lehre von den ~id J cte~ a pohti _cal/geographical 45 = id., Before Phi/osophl/ (Harmondsworth 1949) 54.
For a collection of co gesch1chte," in StudiaAe en Landern Agyptens in der "'Of the extensive lite;ature on the subject I have used especially C. F. von
Essaysin Dua/ 5 bo rnparative material gyptiaca 1 (AnOr 17 1938) 10-35 Weizsacker, "Komplementaritat und Logik," Die Nat11n11i ss,·1s1chafte1142 (19~)
· Ym lie CJa 551c,·1 . see R. Ne dh ' ·
1 cat1011
(Chica e am, ed., Right and Left: 521-29, 545-55 ; Aage Peter se n, Q11a11t11111
Physics a11dIii,• Pililosopl11ca/Tmd1t1011
240 g O and London 1973). ·
(Cambridge, Ma ss . 1968).
241
 . . . and Articulation of the Pantheon
Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt Class1ficanon
. ontrary to the Egyptian conception
egyptologists no harm to familiarize th
!ems and concepts of modern scien emsel~es With th te feature O f go d ' is cxi·stent god can have abso lute qua 1· 1-
abSOheIu existent; 0 nly a none•c now shows that for the Egypnans .
ever more specialized it is comforti ce. As disciplines ~Prob. of 1
search into fundamen;al problems Angdto see the Unity corne . t This excurs us on og1 .
eness of god was unthinkable, . th e
in
. · n toda of oes-exclusive . un ity ord onbecause they thought in . terms of com-
valued logic of yes / no decisions is I b Y, when the r:e- an
the field of data processing the lim·tce ef ~ating triumph ?- '-•ll sense O f the wor. . ,ns We can also see that monot h e1sm ·
. d . ' i s o its a 1· s tn ....
iernentary propOSl.
0O · .
si'ble in Egyptian logic, and hence never
bee ommg earer m many other areas T h PP 1cabiiity been ,mpos .
· if · o t e out ·d are P
1t seems. as . traditional
. formal logic,
• rather liksi e,, observer maYhave . despite all the steps taken toward it .
mech amcs, 1s meanmgful and valid onl e classical" .....
beCa.. , e a rea 1ity,
fr thi·s last as yet open question, 1·t h as now
·
th Qui e·t apart . logical terms, why monotheism does not arise
om
the field, whereas perspectives are disio;;~r e center of
and smallest extremes , and new conceptu I at the largest be. . olytheism by way of a slow accumu Iation
come dear m . f ,,
o ~ono-
necessary. a structures becorne wit~ pt dencies " but requires a complete transformation of
So the1shc en ms 'Tendencies to classify · the pant h eon s h ould
. long as the
. intellectual basis of a many-valued I . pa tte with
thoughtequated · . . . · . Th e
mam_s uncertam, we can indicate only possibil'ti ogic re- an inclination toward monotheism
solutions. If the basis is not established E i_ es, not definite not be b
nly "monotheistic tendency" that can e accepte as sue 1s
d h .
all "pre-Greek"95thought will continue t'0 bgyptian thought and ~enotheism, but even there the designation is not very apt. It
. · e open to h
arb1trarmess or confusion If it is fo d c arges of is true that according to Pettazzoni henotheism is a "relative
comprehend the one and ;he many a un , wle shall be able to and rudimentary monotheism," 97 which for a moment makes the
ti s comp ementary
ons, whose truth values w1·th1·n a many -vaIued 1 · proposi- one, omnipotent , exclusive god into a relative reality , that is, a
muh_Jallyexclusive, but contribute togeth t h ogic are not god whose absolute nature is relativized by the complementary
god IS a unity in worship and revelation er o t e_wh~le truth: conception of the mass of deities in the pantheon. But in log-
and manifestation 9' A s1·mila . h' and multiple m nature
· r case 1s t e mass f ical terms this distinction between relative and absolute reality
tary substances which in the Egy ti . o complemen-
both a divine and a human p an view together make up is decisive; between them lies a transformation. Some tenden-
is also a ba, and so on- 'th~erson-every person has a ba, but cies may prepare the way for this transformation, but only a
not be so bewi!deri ' w~ m a many-valued logic this would complete revolution in thought allows henotheism-of exactly
to be. ng an unsystematic as it now seems to us Pettazzoni's type-or monolatry to change into monotheism.
When polytheism is suddenly negated, the complementarity of
This journey to the Ii · .
easy to become lost" :~1
leads through an u f ~its of what IS at present thinkable
·tr, kbizarre landscape in which it is
things and allows · tu 1 ta es us behind the appearance of
god and gods is denied, and one of the two propositions-that
concerning the multiplicity of gods-is assumed to be null and
void .
us o sense so th · This last hypothesis, which I have deduced initially from the
lated. Our study of E . me mg of how they are re-
that an absolute u •tygypttan ontology in Chapter 5 showed structure of Egyptian thought, can be confirmed historically. In
.., m and tran seen d ence of god , indeed any the fourteenth century e.c. there occurred the earliest attested
abov.
A term used .
extensively by Hein . .
case of this fundamental transformation of thought, in the per-
, ., c), 1~ characterfae nonper specf nch Schafer, Von iigyptischerKunst (n. 88 son of Akhenaten and his teachings .
1_use revelation" (Offenba ive art, including Egyptian art
t
manifest to a • g1
for the muff 5
. rung) here for · . ·
e believer (see Cha I 4 cases in which a god makes himself
1P iaty of possible forms pfer ), and "manifestation" (Erscheinung)
"'L'esseresupremo(n . 75 above) 233 = I 12, a description of the views of Schell·
242 o a god . ing .
243
 .,. '"'on and Articulation of the Pantheon
Conceptions of God in Ancient Egy pt Class• 1cau
. fashion and his eventual failure was
• virtuoso '
. ,ornrnan d in It of a Joss of political control.
Excursus: The initiative of Akhenaten )11Sably no t the resu f hi·s reign (1361 e.c.), d urmg . t h e d ec1s1ve
. .
prob th year o . .
I have referred at several points to pecur • . . In the four of the revolution, the h_1gh pnest of Amun, the
' . f ianties in K· •rutial phase . h to been the most important, was sent on a
aten s conception o god, but there are g 00 d ing Akh 1
"d · f reaso f en. od w ho had hit d ·t·ern quite literally ,,.mto t h e w1·1demess, " an d
a cons1 era hon o the conception as h ns or pla •
. d" I f a w ole at h" c1ng g ·ng expe ' ,o , h . I . A
1mme 1atey a ter the excursus on the p bl t 1s po· quartY1 ke t at a remove from events in t e capita city. t
In the middle of the fourteenth cent~o em of logic."' •nt, thus was . P Amun was replaced by Aten at the head of the
8
enced a revolution "from above " which 7or /· ~gypt experi- the sarne ttmed a series of temples to the new state go d ,¥, m ·
fected almost all spheres of life. It has a Iways pro bnef period af- antheon, an
P . Akhenaten incorporated f h f' . h'
or t e 1rst time 1s new a s- rti'
d
to comprehend the essential features of th " ve difficult wh1ch
. •d was built at the ancient · sacre d s1·t e o f Ka ma k .
cause, as is becoming steadily clearer ·1 is revolution, be- nc I eas,
On the surface these first steps do not appear to damag~ t~;
the most part in conventional forms. T~e ei;essed itself for
ditional structure of henothe1sm; and Norman de G. Davies
hymns of Akhenaten is paralleled more P aseology of the
1
. 1· or ess word f ::d Hanns Stock, "'' for example, interpreted Akhenaten's con-
in ear 1er texts; his god Aten was venerated u d or. word ception of god without reservation as henotheism. Akhenaten
predecessors; and many motifs in Arna n er his two
.h rna art such chose Aten from among all the gods as his preferred god, but
wit rays or the prostrated figure s of th b'. as the disk
for a long time, at leas t as literary imageess~ J~ts, h~d existed for at least another year he bore the name Amun in his birth
the _New Kingdom was alway s open to ~ovnel~e social sphere name Amenophis, and assigned a favored position beside Aten
oluho~-a nd the change of capital city had b y-e~e~ to rev- to the ancient solar deities Re, Harakhte, and Shu. On a private
the Middle Kingdom Since th e . een anticipated in stela of this period Harakhte is even said to be "the god like
. . re is so much th t . f . whom there is no other"; 1112 this epithet does not belittle Aten,
what is truly revolutionary in Akhenaten' . a ,s amdiar,
/ believe it to be the implied t f s ~chons and ideas? but singles out the god who is being addressed, quite in the
terns, in which all the traditi o:aai"~ ormat1on of thought pat- spirit of earlier henotheistic worship.
glare of a nc:-wlight which th , E ~rm s were bathed in the Syncretism too was very much alive; Harakhte and Aten were
able. &:~nninv with th . h <: ~ypt1an s came to find intoler- combined in the hawk-headed figure of Re-Harakhte-Aten, and
• ,., <: c ang e Jn the k' , , b. h
which the name of th . d mg s ,rt name, from Re-Harakhte was placed at the head of the earlier "royaJ titu·
t go Amun wa <, re d h
" ·p-by-step pn>Ce% of eliminat" move , t e re was a lary" that was established for the god Aten as ruler of the
/\ :"' mythical sta tern ·nt by / on ., Amun wa s replac ed by world . In the early years of the reign the complementary status
Jcr,4.1by two-valu ·d I • h ra iuna '>latement, m.:ny-valued of god and gods was not attacked, but the hitherto vast range
r,rnpli'lh ·d according~~~~ -~Jgod~. ~y od. All thi s wa ac- of the pantheon was restricted in unprecedented fashion to its
/dd11:naten wa • . . ·co nce1v ·d plan . solar aspect. The dark world of the gods of the dead, Osiris
, .'I certainly not a ,, ..
I a1 raticma!i,,t. I /ir; r ·f . ~••11o
n ary"; he was a method- and Sokar, was drawn into the light of the sun god, and finally
~-< urrn'I w ·re 1m J
. K~n a,; he ne •<;<; ary p . . P emented on e by one as v,Cf. R. W. Smith and D . B. Redford, Tht Akhrrwltn Tnnplr Project I (Warmin·
/ hi'! Ph'f 1 ,ca1 <md 1·r
(I I 1 ' .
1 1""-<1ph1:r un the thr •oni, had been created ~ter 1976).
ru unwurldly . If . manipu la7~d· <A_th . pharaohc, wa certainly ""/ f.A 9 (1923) 150.
· 1•.rr" " Z ,. ,...,, t
th pr,w ·r of th· ins titution at ''''Saecu/um I (1950) 631.
ff M ,, , ,
1 "' ' " ,, , , . (ff1 f I " E. Drioton. ASA£ 43 ( 1943) 29.
{ fl , I fl,, ff4,,,.,.~, ,/, . ff • ( ffffl >, ( ,/ Al:/J,. ..
~ w,n., 111 2" ~ h f,,,4 ,,r;-;. ,. n.,11:n•~ 1: !:~"'· i~lly 1 A'i+ ,,n . Aldred. / £A 45 (1959) 19-22 with pl. 3.
• 1 '-'' · " pt.-,t,, tin /,'. . r· ' •
21,j •.,n;,,n;,-kt: Ji~ir,n ," S11
ern/11111 ""O n th e d oo r jamb of Hatiai (Drioto n. ASA£ 43 f 1943) 35-43) , esp«ially in the
hymn to Obiris.
245

..
 . : . ·, - ....

. an d Articulation of the Pantheon

Classification
Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt

b nished completely from the image of the cosmos Ii

a change was accomp 1·1sh e d step by step , not once
the · ere
for tOo
This well-considered approach seems to be the result f au.
planning rather than of the development of the kin;, c~retu1
The transformation of Egypt's intellectual landscape Was ideas.
uncontrolled outpounng. of an m . d IV!
" "d ua l' s ideas
. put intosnot .an
without regard for th e rea Iities
. o f 1·tI e. action
Sometime between the king's sixth and ninth years of .
this well-planned program reac h e d I·t s prov1s1onal. . goal. Th reign
were the first years Akh enaten spent m 1s new capital ese
. h" .ty
Akhetaten (el-Amama! , far from the ancie~t religious cen~rs
of Thebes and Memphis. The Aten now received a new titulary
in which even Harakhte ("Horus of the horizon"), who had
hitherto been greatly venerated, no longer appeared; his name
was replaced with the newly coined phrase "horizon-ruler.,,
Thus the deity's hawk form, which had been one of the most
ancient and favorite manifestations of the sun-god, was re-
moved; but the hawk, like the uraeus snake, remained one of
the few divine animals that were tolerated at Amama .
Now, for the first time in history , the divine has become
one, without a complementary multiplicity ; henotheism has
been transformed into monotheism . The mass of divine forms
is reduced to the single manifestation of the Aten with rays
(Figure 20), and out of the mass of names of gods all that is left
is one double name: Re, who reveals himself ("has come") as
Aten. A god "without equal" has become, at an enormous
remove, a god "without any other except for himself," and the
king too is now the "sole king like Aten ; there is no other great
one except for him. " 105
For Egyptian ears, as well as ours , such statements consti-
tuted as radical a claim to uniqueness as could be imagined.
Although Christian Egyptians did not hesitate to apply the
ancient word ntr to their god, Akhenaten often tried to avoid
it;""'for him there was no "god " in the traditional sense, only
the Aten, in whom everything was contained.
r,:.-;:;,rr,
::s andman , Texts 7, 7. for the king see Urk. IV, , l3 .
repi:C':de~;~~;;f;;~ !,~~
. 1 1999
)ot~n, ASAE 43..(1943)42 n. 2 (the title "perfect god"
r • · Kees, ZAS 84 (1959) 61 ("god' s offering" re-
246
247

' ""7z I.
 Classification and Articulation of the Pantheon
Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt
ly and consistently by means of highly
Anyth!n? that does not fit with the more c1ose . ..
longer d1vme, and its existence is - d erned
~atureth of the Aten · . ated ever . d definitions. Although his qualities are
. . 1 hJ1Jlle 5
pie" titulan~ anmonotheistic God by virtue of his claims to
mg mentioned . The hymns of Akh rough it s no
phraseology to praise the Aten , d 1"ffenaten, cot absolut e, he .15 a i·ealous God, who tolerates no other gods
. . er fro which u ses fa not .be.
nO . ·ty-he 1s a
c1pa11 y m what they omit · Th e re 1ahon . hm. earlier hy mn llltliar e)(c1us1v1_
death and the Aten is purely ne ti s 1P between _sPtin. beside him - . the transformation to which thought has been
of t~e god's presence. Along wit;~h;e-they are the ~ght _or Nowhere is learly visible than in the unparalleled persecu-
abolished . The Aten's nature • gods, myth mu st als gahon . t more dc·n·onal gods Akhenaten , s stonemasons swarmed
subJec
. 1s not reveal d . 0
but 1s accessible only through . t e in mythical . f the
E trapt 1and even abroad
· . order to remove the name
. 11
in e ectual ff •mag be
. 11011 0 m
an d h ence 1s not revealed to everyone b e ort and 1•ns1gh . es, all over ,~om all accessible monuments, even on the tips of
and those whom he teaches I th ' ut only to Akh t- of Arnun
. k under the gilding on co Iumns, an d m · t h e cune1·form
king emphasizes that "ther~ i: e great hymn to the Atnaten obeIi5 in s, the archives; for us to d ay t h e erasure or 1ater restora-
and he is constantl y given the epni~hoent eWelse who knows eyn 0 th~ letters . an 1mpor
• t ant en·t enon
· for d ating
· a
of Re. " aenre "th e unique. u, tion of the name of Amun 1s
one
onurnent to the period before Amarna.
!he Ate~, which is so far removed a .
quires an mtermediary in order t b s to
Intermediaries had become .
b: inscrutable
_o e accessible to mank'. re-
mOnly the name of the god Amun, who had previously been
preeminent, was removed with such zeal, but the other gods
d . . increasingly i . ind and sometimes even the plural "gods" were also persecuted,
om rehg10n before Amar Hr. d mportant in New K· .
development. But wherea;~o a~- Akhenaten continued ~~ft albeit much less consistently. From this evidence we can see
~otum to a variety of interme~~aJers had hith~rto been ab:; that Akhenaten's aim was not just to dethrone Amun, but in
m tem~les, dead men who had bes-sac~~d animals, statues principle to deny the existence of all gods except the Aten . This
course is now the king th I een deified-their only goes against all traditional logic: before Akhenaten the placing
of gods is reduced to 'o e so~ prophet of God . As the m re- of one god in a privileged position never threatened the ex-
. ne, so 1s the . ass
The fa1thful of the Amarna penod . p massh of intermed1·a nes . istence of the rest of the gods. The one and the many had been
a1ta_r that contains a picture of the
whICh Morenz saw as the f
r:r at Orne,_in front of a~
ng and his family, and
treated as complementary statements that were not mutually
exclusive . Now they were mutually exclusive, and we witness
oi a!l political complexions~r~:un~:~ of portraits of the Leader the formulation of a new logic.
~ e idea that Akhenaten is' the re/g~ous cont_ext, however, is In Egypt the shift in thought which can be observed here
m Amarna-period hymns . The so e intermediary, as is stated was a leap away from the central tradition, and it did not
~~~med up in the formula "th;r:w. creed could, indeed, be survive the reign of Akhenaten . But it renders Akhenaten's
e~aten is his prophet" is no god but Aten and proclamation fundamentally different from everything that
As 1s hard] . . · th ' preceded it, which otherwise appears similar in many ways.
y surpnsmg
~~arna !s dogmatic in f~rm e f~ocla~ation of the sole god at The change in logic is surely the intellectual core of his rev-
en whICh the king himself. l bere is a "teaching" about the olution-which for a few years anticipated western modes of
ea orates, and his nature is de- thought.
placed b\' It is significant that the "restoration" after the death of Akhen-
- , ..Aten's offenn
. ") Se
aten began with the gods. It was some decades before Akhen-
9:,, on the a\'oida g · e also L. y lab
tinu es to be used n~e l-J of th e determinati\'e ·f kar , fNES 13 (1954) 93 with n. aten' s memory was persecuted , and in art his influence was
' "Cf · .\.forenz, Gott
see .d Brunn
M er, • ZAS.. 97 (1 or )god . For cases w h ere ntr con-
u11 e11scl,64-{,-
971 14
. even longer lasting; for a few years the Aten remained the
24 8 :,_ leading god, and its name never was persecuted. The first step
249
 Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt

of the
· · restoration was to retu m th e othe
positions, and thus to reestablish the r gods to thei .
god and gods . Tutankhamun's t complernenta r rightful
gramatic name "he who sets th emple at Paras h ry status of
ing the one, the Egyptians weree gods at rest. " Wh1·a1s the Pro.
ti I d . not read t e Wo h
p e an multivalent nature of the d ' . y o sacrifice th rs ip.
1vme. e rnuJ.

~ conclusion
8

E rything we have learned in the preceding seven chapters

-::s from the statements of human beings about the gods
dofenEgypt. In some cases these statements were presente d m ·
the form of self-revelations by gods, but these were always re-
corded in word and image by men, and hence subject to the
blindness in which the Egyptians placed the origin of mankind.
As are all forms of historical research, the study of the gods is
conducted through the medium of words and images; direct
contact with the objects of study is impossible . But contact with
these objects could only be conversion; in that moment of in-
volvement with the deity questioning would cease and obser-
vation would be blinded.
Any sort of contact with the world of the Egyptians silences
one question, that of the existence and reality of these gods .
Egyptian religion lived on the fact that gods exist, and this
certainty pervaded all of Egyptian life. If we remove the gods
from the Egyptians' world, all that remains is a dark, unin-
habited shell that would not repay study. The gods are part of
Egyptian reality and hence are for us at the least historical
realities that should be taken seriously . The more clearly we
comprehend them, the more clearly we see the human beings
~horn we wish to study. In order to understand the forces that

rlj:'
[
1 ~·
-1'!~
circumscribe the very closed and homogeneous world of the
Egyptians, we must inquire after their gods and employ all our
conceptual armory in order to seek out the reality of these
gods-a reality that was not invented by human beings but
250
experiencedby them .
~
251
tr·~

----.
 I

i~
.~
, ' ~

-\: .
'

l • ' • .:~-~-
::->.\>•
:.\::~•>~'J'
, ,..:•.,:
~•
;,/?i~.
. .°""· --· _..\'~ ,:-•. . ,', -~ l;
., '

Conclusion
Conceptions of God in Ancient Egy pt
for new approaches, every apt term and im-
The attempt to see in Egyptian cone f the search . f a problem must be welcome . It can do
of monotheistic belief has. the charaeptc erions
of of god pre curs0 Jn ° ··
addition to the traditional concepts o f et h no 1ogy,
roved f~r~ ulation
leads us away from this reality, whil h an apologi rs
P 11arm1fin . . and psychology we use those of modern
theism/polytheism does not seem to p e ~de opposition a and nhistory
O f rebg1ons, .b h
. t I f I rov1 e the k rnono O . f mation theory . In order to descn et e char-
1s oo narrow y ormu ated . The conce t of ~y, becaus .- . or of in or d. . ..
removed from the reality of the cultpt bpanthe1srn is to e it phYs'.cs_ but at first sight logically contra 1ctory, 1uxtapos1tion
Egypt. The stud y of our topic is in do e suited to an o far actenStlC, d the many, we found that the concept of heno-
. II h anger of b . c1ent of the one a~ded an initial approximation , but only "comple-
down m a t . ese -isms; .it needs to be rev1tahzed
. . emg bogged
In confronhng the topic in this book ' I h ad mev . · ·t b the1.sm .prOVl
,, ave us the key that may open up a new logical .
I
an d test repeatedly the chief concepts th a t h ave bee a ly to use rnentanty } which both these propositions about the reality of
research up till now. I think that in th e future w n current in · structure, I true without excluding .
eac h ot h er .
be
we11to aban d on the conceptual framew k h e Would do g F the Egyptians the world emerges from the one, because
o d can
f · h or t at th h oronexistent is one . In his work of creation the creator god
or 1t as proved to be inadequate and d ey provide
realities of the Egyptian pantheon Ab oelslz:iot clarify th; ~i;f;entiates not only the world but also himself . From the one
f 1 'fi h · ove a 1t ob merges the duality of "two things" and the diversity of the
a s1 _es t e problem of logic which is alluded . scures or
of this book-the one and the man y-an d w h 1ch ' to ·m the title ~millions" of created forms . God divided, creation is division ;
opens up a new approach to the reality of god m my view only man jumbles everything together again . The divided ele-
. ~nothe _r conceptual schema I have used ul ments are interdependent , but remain divided so long as they
s1m1larlyinadequate, but it does pro 'd q . te frequently is are existent . Only the return of nonexistence fuses what is
d" . v1 e a quick pr ti I
1cation of the outstanding aspect of d' ' ac ca in- divided and once more annuls differentiation.
the classification of deities under head ·a go shnature. This is By becoming existent , the divine loses the absolute, exclusive
"mother goddess " "earth god " "sk mgdsdsuc as "sun god," unity of the beginning of things. But wherever one turns to the
' , Y go ess" d
Often such a characterization succe d . , . ~n so forth. divine in worship, addresses it and tends it in the cult, it ap-
rough approximation, but equally o~t s m pr;v1dmg an initial pears as a single, well-defined figure that can for a moment
?siris or Amun, it leads the search ;n, as or example with unite all divinity within itself and does not share it with any
m a new, unprofitable direction T o~ the nature of a god other god . And the human being who encounters god becomes
parts of the divine reality which ;rms hke these des~ribe only
a single person who has no other beside him and embodies all
the sole significant ones E e _should not consider to be
humanity. This divine and human unity is, however, always
ably never encompass ~h ven ~ew , improved terms will prob-
Nonetheless we are not ; entire richness of a god's nature . relative and never excludes the fundamental plurality that per-
mits all other approaches to the nature of god .
compr~hend a larger part o~et~~/rom the obligati~n to try to
Only Akhenaten attempted to claim absolute and normative
approximation to it. Here the E nat~re and to achieve a closer
ample for us· for the th gyphans themselves set an ex- value for one of these approaches and sought forcibly to block
through a "~ultiplic; ; nature of a god becomes accessible the others . In this he failed, even though his deeds and his
reign had a lasting impact . But he had successors throughout
taken together can the oh alpproaches ";' only when these are
w o e be comprehended. the world ; the worship of the one became the worship of the
Unique One. The revelation of a sole God who excludes all
'H . Frankfor t et I Tl
16 = ; , _a ·, ,e lntellect11a/A others came together with a new stage in the development of
osophy (Harm d dventure 0/ A ncient Man (Chicago 1946)
d. • B,fore P/11/ human consciousness; a mode of thought which seeks to de-
s. v. · on sworth 1949) 25,. Frankfort , Reh}?
. tO
. n, index
rive all phenomena from a single cause and strives after the
252 253
 :
•
I

Conception of God in An cie nt Egy pl

Conclu sion
absolute; and a two-valued logic based
This stage of consciou sne ss present do~ Yes/no disti . ull to Amun or Zeu s. But the pre sent world of the sole
definitive until our time, when it has ~ . itself as absoJn~li0 ns. 0 ((erab d I be the final one. Both correspond to stages of
The "revaluation of all values " whi'ch N~come unsure ouf~ and God nee nociousness, so that t h e categorie· s o f true and false
' 1etzs h
already coming to pass. As believers and lo~ c e Proclaimede ~-
lls I t,urnan consJicable to them . Th "1s 1.s not an agnostic. attitude,
in the absolute nature of the moment b ers we may b , 15 are not lapt-~ization of the point of view . Both of these worlds
h 1story
" 1 bu1area1•tent within . their. own terms o ffre erence, but neither
.
we k now th at nothing existent '• dut f whe .. n We obse Ost cons1s .
history destroys all "eternal" and "absol ist ,; mihve. lnexorervble are ds historical space or can claim absolute validity .
. . u e values a y transcen . or d er to p 1ace the historical
.
strates th e re Iativ1ty of every absolute . and dem . discussion was necessary m
k . point of ref on. Trth JS of the Egyptian pant h eon m
. a b roa d er context. Now we
we see to establish. Hence the fanati 1 ~~ence Whi h
thing historical-or scorn for it which ctakopposition to ancy :~~?return to the characteristics of the gods and differentiate
I d. . a es the f .
scrupu ous 1storhon-on the part of tho h . orm of un. ore precisely among them .
O
lish definitive, binding norms. se w wish to estab. rnThese characteristics strive after a universal scope, but do not
One church , one state, one order of socie f become immeasurable. Again and again we saw how Egyptian
the equalizing compulsion of one syste tyf or all mankind gods can extend their being endlessly, can enter into more and
. m or all-th '
many ot h er a bsolutisms have taken to absu d I ese and more names, ·combinations, manifestations , modes of action
th and response in the cult, and yet remain limited in their nature
of tho~ght which followed the Jaw of unity a~d ~~g s a mode
plurality. Although this mode of thought t· not tolerate and their existence. Here too Egyptian religion is the opposite
tri h . . con mues to celeb of an "absolute religion ." It places in doubt the "eternal values"
ump s, m pnnciple it has reached the end f . rate
ment, b~t~ because it is not equal to the tasks of ~h;t:u develop- to which we aspire and wrenches our thinking away from its
because it is no longer in tune with the ch d _ture and all too familiar paths.
0f k" d A ange consc1ousne Even for Walter F. Otto , who made the reality of the gods
~an m . s soon as the dominant mode of thou h ss
to fit the structure of the dominant mode of . g t ceases accessible for us again, ' there was no question that the gods
be<Yi t d consciousness it belonged to the "sphere of the eternal." He showed that in
o-~s _o egenerate into something inhuman which ,
despite its coercive force change the mod Of . cannot, their mode of being the Greek gods of tragedy are so far re-
All th ·d ' e consc10usness
e;~
future w~ll p~:~:li:~~~~~s
th
at hun:an so~ie~ of the ne.ar
all. In all spheres of life it ·1~~dogmatic-or it will not exist at
moved from death that they must not come into contact with
the death of mortal human beings. The gods of Egypt are quite
different: there is a deep and necessary connection between
of possibilities, without ex:tudi avet~o allow for the multiplicity them and death. Egyptian ontology teaches that the world of
After the shock thera . ng e one as an extreme case. the eternal and of immortality is a nonexistent world, the god-
th1
will be thorough! s/{ ~f s ce~t~ry I believe that society less world before creation . This limitless 11/eromaregenerates
0
values." It is u 1·ky h dogmatic ideologies and "absolute all the existent, including the constantly rejuvenated gods, but
fected by the newly t
I
n I e y t at huma
f
r . b
n re igious elief will be unaf- it also fuses all the existent into formlessness, into the original
faith, in particular ~an: ormed mode of consciousness. Deep undifferentiated state of things . For the Egyptians, departure
. his last word even' • utsh accept that God has never spoken into the eternal would be departure into nonexistence .
-----
1·
'
stage of consciousness .
m e revel ti
a on °
f
the sole God. A new This finite character of the divine, to which omnipresence,
0 f w h 1c. h cannot be pr isct·open to a n· ew reve Ia hon . the nature
ferent. e icted at all, except that it' will be dif- 'Die Gotter Griechenlands(3d ed ., Frankfurt a.M . 1947) = Tlr,· /·lom.-ri.-G(Kls
! 'i The world of the ma Da G,·ist der altgried1is,:
(London [19561); see also id., Tlreoplrm1i11. lre11Rt'ii,~i;m
ny gods is past· . .
,.~
f~

~-
254 , no one will ever agam (rowohlts deutsch e enzyklopadie, Hamburg 1956).
255

1
 r_-

Con ception s of God in Ancient Egypt Conclusion

omnipotence, and "tn:e" transcendence are alien ithin all this something exists and exercises
. . • , present know that w
with unfamiliar forms o f d 1vrne reve 1atron, which a s us t,ut we
fined to Egypt. t sets a rna 1m1t to t e propensity ret not con.
I f . I 1· . h wer. . ere always aware of this formulalike char-
p0The Eg·y. pt1ansh
w • ·
n especially by syncrehshc com mahons o
b' · f
and to change, beyond which only the primeval god ohextend
.
the nonexistent and th e existent, , w o links
can go; he alone alter acter, as is ~ howames and forms are not the decisive factor,
· ht d · whic n •
a way one m1g escn e as amp I rous," between nates
'b " h 'b• th ' in gods, hin t they s ta nd for , what they bear witness to . Hence .
the
.
spheres. e two t,ut w_ a , •ningness to adopt new gods, to recognize theu
In their constantly changing nature and manifest t· Egyptians . w~ reign ones who appear in quite different forms,
the Egyptian· go d s resem bl e t he country ' s temples, whicha 10 ns· ow °
n g ods in late" the names o f Asiatic · · or G ree k d e1hes· . mto
.
and to "trans
never finished and comple _te, but al~ays "under constructi:~r~ . own language •
The axial form of temples rn Egypt 1s clearly ordered and t: their h Greeks as for the Egyptians, every god is a world of
ar tc- · a spec1·fi c f.1gure. Bu t th e Gree ks
ulated, and yet never excludes the possibility of conti . For t e hich is revealed m
. k. d nua_1 his own ·ze w more the figure that 1s · revea 1e d , t h e Egyphans
.
extension an d a Iteratron; every rng can a d new cult cha th e
bers, halls, courtyards, and pylons without affecting the und: . emp h as1 . .b h f
at it communicates, which descn es t e content o
lying form of the temple. In this Egypt differs markedly frorn formu Ia th . f
h "world" in question. Normal language 1s not adequate or
Greece, where both the temples and the gods are r~IativeJ t/ description; a higher, formalized language is needed, which
finished and complete. However much information we assen{. : ~~ inclined to call a "metalanguage," although not in _the
ble about Egyptian gods, and however receptive we become to trict sense of a language in which another language (the obJect
their reality, we will never be able to see them as the clear ~anguage) is discussed . Here again, my concern is with the
figures that Walter F. Otto perceived in the gods of Greece . formulalike character of deities and with the initially astonish-
The gods of Egypt cannot be characterized aptly as "the vital ing fact that in Egypt the_ir iconog_raphy see~s to_be so_little
essence of a form of existence that recurs in the most diverse fixed and varies so very widely. Evidently a smgle image 1s not
circumstances ."' They are formulas rather than forms, and in adequate for the metalanguage, which depends on continually
their world one is sometimes as if displaced into the world changing combinations of many signs.
of elementary particles . In his edition of Papyrus Salt 825 The outward form of these signs is not decisive. The Egyp-
Philippe Derchain used similes derived from physics, explicitly tians are not concerned to give them as pleasing a form as
disregarding the "moral aspect" of the gods and analyzing them possible, but to show what they wish to express. The "mixed
dispassionately. ' And what striking conceptual parallels there form," which aroused such antipathy in antiquity and more
are between the smallest and the greatest! A god is combined recently, is only one of many possible combinations; it is not
with another and becomes a new being with new characteris- the god, but it makes a statement about him. We may feel that
tics, and then at the next moment separates into a number of the mixture of the animal and the human is grotesque, but we
entities . What he is remains hidden, but his luminous trail can should recall the saying of Christian Morgenstern: "The m~-
be seen, his reaction with others is clear, and his actions can be terial manifestation of God is necessarily grotesque ." 5 In this
felt. _He i_smaterial and spiritual, a force and a figure, he is matter the Egyptians were aesthetes enough not to overstep
mamfe~t m changing forms that should be mutually exclusive, the limit and produce monstrosities.
The image of a god was quite certainly more than a formula
' W. F. Otto, Die GotterGriec/1n 11/ 11
d -r .
, a s 123 = , he Homeric Gods 122· retranslated
here . '
'St 11
fe11. Ei11e £ 11twicke/1111g
i11Aphorisme111111d
Tagel111c/111otizc11
(Munich: Piper
'Le papyrus Salt 825 esp. pp . ll-! 2.
1927) 256.
256 257

l
 Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt Conclu sion

to the Egyptians ; it had a separate reality and w .

. f mat10n t h ey convey in a different,
h'
respect and worship, for the god's reality was pres:sn~~r~hy of xpre S s the m orWe sense that they say somet hmg
the formulalike character which I am speaking of a I" It. But
to the many im~ges u_sed_in the !anguage to descrftfe 1~s also 1:: pts to e language . k'nd But no language as
ambigu~s world and a~ou~~::es~ c~n compare with that
1 lid about hose express1v~ d gain they refer us back to
vine. Without d1scussmg m detail myth and its man he d,. va nd w Again an a · , t J
dated problems , I have made use many times of the irny ass?. been fou themselves . h r itations of our concep ua
which the Egyptians speak about their gods . These irna ages 111 of the gods revealing to us the ;;he world we still need the
theJT\selves,
If we are to compre en
not be transpose d mto
. formu Ia1c
. d e f·m1hons
.. in words ges can
. · universe.
.
mathematical . I f ormu Ias; they have their owor into
or phys1ca f gods.
mulalike character an d serve to express a content that cann or-
haps be appropriately expressed only in this way . Per-
l maintain , in opposition to the widespread prejudice agai
metaphorical an d representationa. .
1 images . modern scientifi
m nst
research, that images are ~mon_g the legitimate s~sterns of sign~
with which we are provided m order to descnbe the World.
The language in which we speak of the world will never be
contained entirely in mathematical formulas, nor will it be con-
tained entirely in words. So long as there is content that cannot
be expressed in a univalent form, at every stage of conscious-
ness language will turn to images as an adequate descriptive
medium .
The nature and appearance of Egyptian gods are inimical to
any closed, final, or univalent definition. We see them develop
in history, and we see them leading a constantly changing life
of their own. What a god is cannot be defined. Whatever state-
ment we make about him, it does not exclude a mass of other
statements . Seen in another way, every god contains within
himself all the information about a particular content, which
took form in him and entered human consciousness in that
form . For the Egyptians the gods are powers that explain the
world but do not themselves need any elucidation because they
convey information in a language which can be understood di-
rectly-that of myth . Every myth exhibits and interprets no
more than a part of reality, but the totality of the gods and
,./ their relationships with one another exhibits and interprets the
entire reality of the world.

1"~
ti Whatever the nature of the gods may or may not be, in
whatever system of concepts or network of associations we
may place them, all attempts to "explain" them have been at-
258 259
 ~ chronological Table

C. 2900-2628 B.C.
Early dynastic period (First-Second Dynasty)
c. 26:ZS...2134
Old Kingdom (Third-Eighth Dynasty)
JnstrUction texts from 2600
ryramid Texts from 2350
c. 2134-2040
first intennediate period (Ninth-Eleventh Dynasty)
Coffin Texts from 2100
C. 2040-1650
Middle Kingdom (Eleventh-Fourteenth Dynasty)
c. 1650-1551
Second intennediate period (Hyksos)
1551-1070
New Kingdom (Seventeenth-Twentieth Dynasty)
Eighteenth Dynasty (Book of the Dead , Amduat ,
1527-1306
Litany of Re, Book of Gates)
1306-1070
Ramessid period (Nineteenth-Twentieth Dynasty)
Third intennediate period (Twenty-first-Twenty-fifth
107~
Dynasty)
664-332
Late period (Twenty-sixth-Thirty-first Dynasty)
332-304
Macedon ian period
304-30 B.C.
Ptolemaic period
30 B.C.-A . D. 395
Roman period

261

? .Si&&&!
 Abbreviations and Bibliography

. Orientalnl (Prague 1929-)

ArOr A rcluv d Servicedes Antiquites de l'Egypte (Cairo 1900-)
•SA£ Arma/esdlu gen der Sachsischen Akademie der Wissenschaften ,
" Abhan un . .
;.SAW . -historische Klasse (Le1pz1g) .
philologisch ·cal Survey of Egypt (Egypt Exploration Fund [later Soci-
E Archaeo 1ogt
AS L ndon 1893-) ..
ety], 0 ..HG J. Assmann , Agyptische Hymneu w,d Gebete(BAW, 1975)
Assinann, A . Lieder J. Assmann, LiturgisclreLieder au de11So1111eugott .
nn L1turg. . ··
1-\.Abbreviations and B"bl As5tn3 ' h en zur a/tiigyptischenHymn,k I (MAS 19, 1969) .
J. Baines, Fecu11dityFigures:Egyptiau Perso11ificatio11
I iography U11tersucwd,gtyFigures
5a· es Fec,m ,
,nd ;,.e /conologyof a Ge11re(Warminster, in the press)
an Blllletillof tireAmerican Sc/roolsof Or1e11tal Research(New Haven 192~)
BASOR Die Bibliothek der Alten Welt (Zurich and Stuttgart)
BAW_ Bf Beitrage zur agyptischen Bauforschung und Altertumskunde
All series abbreviations and abbreviated . Beitrage
text and m the Glossary of Gods are 1· t dhtles of books used . (Cairo 1937-)
. - is e here D in th an /ch bin Isis J. Bergman , /ch bin Isis. Studien 211111memphitisc/renHi11-
pu bl icanons of Egyptian texts are followed . etails of Prim e ae;er;;,u11d der grieclrische11 lsisaretalogien(Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis , Historia
references to translations into Engl · h , where possible b bary Religionum 3, Uppsala 1968)
. 1s or Ger I ' Y rief
wor k s cited frequently, ANET wh . h .
translations of many important ,Egy I:
puan texts .
. man . n addition t h
is widely available conot ~ e
' a1ns
BiAe
Bl£
B/FAO
Bibliotheca Aegyptiaca (Brussels 1932-)
Bulletin de l'lnstitut d'Egypte (Cairo 1919-)
Bu/l~in de /'lnstitut franfais d'archeologieorienta/e(Cairo 1901-)
AAA Archivfur ii""plisch
ADIK o, e A rehao
.. Iog,e
. (Vienna 1938) BiOr BibliothecaOrienta/is (Leiden 194~)
. Abhandlungen des Deutschen Arch ·· . Blumenthal, Untersuchungen E. Blumenthal, Untersuchungenzum iigyptische11
• Karro (Gluckstadt etc. 1958-) aolog1schen lnstituts Abt il Ko11igtu111 des Mittleren ReichesI (ASAW 61, 1, 1970)
A Abh • ' e ung
Ag o • Agyptol~gische Abhandlungen (Wiesbaden 1 Bonnet, Reallexikon H. Bonnet, Rea/lexikonder iigyptischenReligio11sgesc/richte
gFH Agyptolog1sche Forschungen (Gluckst dt 960-J (Berlin 1952)
A Aegyptia H J - a etc . 1936--) Book of the Dead see Naville, Todtenbuch; Allen, Bookof the Dead;Hornung,
ca e vetica (Geneva 1974-)
AHA_W ~bhandlungen der Heidelber . Totenb11ch
Phtlosoph1sch-historische Klass ger Akadem,e der Wissenschaft Book of Gates see BP/
Allen, Bookof the Dead T G AeJJ en, BP/ E. Hornung et al., Das B11chvon de11Pforte11des /e11seitsI (AH 7, 1979).
Day (Th o - · · en, The Book of tJ D Translations: Hornung, Untenoeltsbiicher197-308; English: Piankoff, Ramesses
. e nental Institute of the U . . re ead or Going Forthby
oent Oriental Civilization 37 Ch " n1vers1ty of Chicago, Studies in A VI 137-224. The divisions of the text used by Hornung and Piankoff are dif-
AMAW Ak d . , tcago 1974) n- ferent
h a emie der Wissenschaft
andlungen der Geistes- und S . I en und der Literature [Mainz] A!>- Breasted, Development J. H. Breasted, The Developmentof Religiona11dThought
1950-) OZtaWtssenschaftlichen Klasse rw· b d i11Ancient Egypt (New York 1912)
Amduat E Hor ies a en
BSAE Egyptian Research Account 1896-1905, British School of Archaeology
AgAbh . nung , Das Amduat Die S J :,
. 7:13, 1%3-67). Other t . J . c lrl1f des verborge11e11
194, Enghsh· p· k f
Rn11111es (3 vols. in Egypt (London 1906-53); cited by "xth year"
rans ations· Hornu U ' BSFE B11/leti11
de la Societe fra11raised'egyptologie(Paris 1949-)
Amel · tan o f, RamessesVI 227_ · ng , 11tenoeltsbaclter59-
e meau, Prolegome11es E Am . 318 Budge, Gods E. A. W. Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians or St11diesi11Egy11tia11
:;~~;;'; (2 vols.,_Bibliothe~ue d~•;;:~I Prolegomenesti l'ct11dede la religion Mythology (2 vols ., London 1904)
1 Cd£ Chro11iqued'Egypte (Brussels 1926-). The citations give both volume
ANET , 30, _Pans1908-16) e des hautes etudes, Sciences reli-
J. B. Pntchard d number and issue number
me11t(3d ed p . ' e ·, A11cre11t
Near E
AnOr A ·• nnceton 1%9) aS/en, Texts Relat111g
lo the Old Testa- CGC Service des Antiquites de l'Egypte, Catalogue general des antiquites
AP na1ecta Orient r egyptiennes du Musee du Caire (Cairo and other places 1901-)
AW (Koniglich) p/'~ (Rome 1931-) CHE Cahiersd'histoire egyptie1111e (Cairo 1948-)
Jungen dcr Philoso h". cuss_ische Akademi' d' .
P •sch-h,storischen Kl .e er Wissenschaften , Abhand- Coffin Texts see CT
262 assc (Berlin) CRA/BL Comp/es re11d11s ti /'Academiedes i11scriptio11s
et belles-letln'S (Paris)
263
 • • •• ~· ~ • • 'i_ l '
.....: -· ..
,, , . ,:.,

Abbreviations and Bibliography

Abbreviations and Bibi.JOgraphy

CT A. de Buck' rt,,
.
Ev,YPt Ill/I
· C0,((·I11
deutschen 1ns
tituts fur wissenschaftliche Padagogik, Munich
R. 0 . Faulkner , The 11• . , JJ Texts (7 v . 1
78) 11cuIll Egy11tia11 Coffi111"o s ., 0/P 19J~ ,
D d exts (3 v I ---<>1) i (SCh,;lief' deS
23--56 ..
E Hornung , Das Totenbuch der Agypter (BAW, 1979)
en ara E. Chassinal, Lt· tc11 o s ., War,;,· ransfatio 196
71g y 1e11b11cl
1 1 •• · E Hornung, Agyp!ische Unterweltsbucher (BAW,
1934-); from vol. VI : E. '.fJ/c de Dcll(/ara 1- p . •ris ler 19 n: 0 1,er
J-lornun• u111erivelfs/111c .
De~chain, Le l'"l'.1/"'S Salt 8~;ass1;11 and F. Dau~a~bhcation s de l'fF 73... 72) , • d'archeologieorientale, Cairo ; monograph series :
J-fornuns
rit11,
·I pour la ro11 s,·mati1111 dr I ·. Derchain , Lt· pa, Ao, Cairo flul fran,;a1s
19
Classe dt•s lellres M(' . a vie en E«yptc (A 1,Ynts Salt 825 (/J 1FAO fn:ii~th~que d'etude (1908--)
DOAW A •• ·mo1res, oclav 2'· cadcmi, ,M 1 BE 131 rncnts de fouilles (1934-) . . , . _
. . v slerreichi sche _ ~•· cl series SB . " royale "" · ()/JSJJ,
hrston sche Klass e D ' k . Akadem,e der w·,, , Brussels 1965) Belgi,10, Df [)oC~echerchcs d'archeologie, de ph1lol~g1e et d h1st01re (1930-)
DVSM ' en ~clrnflen (V" , •ssen schafl , "· JU\PH of the American ResearchCenter ,n Egypt (n .p . 1%2-)
Del Kgl. Dan ske Vid , 1u111
a) en , l'hilos I
delelser (Copenh agen) crn s k;,bernes Selskab 1,· , OphiSch. /Jl/lCf. fo"r "a{ Egyptian Archaeology (London 1914-)
Cd/011 E. hassinat / , , •sluri i,k-filoJ . ,~,,
o I '··ri
I cltl van Itel Voorazmt,sclt·
Jo1miao · · " hG enoolscItap EO
Egyptisc x riente Lux
archfologiqu c frar '. '-' hwplc d'f rlfo11( 14 v I <>g 1sk Mt•d- /COL anr""
M I ' ii;ms,, au ·,i P o s., Mer . (Leiden l 933-) .
. . ct: l<od1t·montdx ' fl' , ari s 1892- 97 , no1res de la . ll,quicr, Cot1sidt!ratw11s G . Jcquier, Consideralions sur /es religions egyplitnnes
l;dw..,cJs, /Jr· ,,.,,. ., . _ ' a,ru 1918-.); v I Mission
Kl / 1. "· S Edw ,rd O " · I w·th (NcuchMcl 1946)
, "X' or11(2 vols., I lier,11ic· I', • . , s, mrn /11r111111,lcti c IJ ' /Nf.5 /ournal of Near Eastern Studies _(Chi~ago 1942-) .. _
I %OJ ' pyn ,n lh e llrili sh i:crr,·s of 1/11
•I Junker, Geistesltaltu11g H . _Junker, D'.e Ge,steshaltung de~Agypt~r ,n d~r Fr~huit
Lrm,111 , /(1·/i'(io11 I\ I , Mu seurn 4111serit•s ~,,,, New
(<Jslcrrcichischc Akadem1e der W1sscnschaften, Ph1losoph1sch-h1stonschc
f>u, her c1,'.r klin J, I' ,· ;rm,,n , /Ji,• 11,'( llflt i•.c/w /(1·I1 1111 . , -undon
rl II ien Mt . . '< 1 ( I I Klassc, Sit1.ungsberichte 237, I, Graz etc. 1%1)
gum ,Irr 11
xy11trr. /hr W · ,."'"l'II /.11Berlin, llerlin 190 s and 2d eels. , fl Junker, Giza H . Junker, GiUI (12 vols ., Akademie der Wissenschaften in
Ld p1.iv, 1914) " "" 1111,i thr V.·r'<chm ;,1 . , l'JO'J; J d eel . o· an,J.
l:lfl I· , ,,,,., /al1rt,11, ~•111/ , .. Ir' /(1'1 ;. Wien, Philusophisch-historische Klassc, Dcnkschriften, Vienna 1929-55)
N. .v,y pt l,111l(,·111111,u s ·r . I . u1 , Ut·rlln and Junker, G/Jttcrlelirc H . Junker, Die G/Jtterlehre von Memphis (Schabalca-lnschrift!
l w Y11r k l9'l4 74/ lX s ,111J l<l'prt· S1·111I'
Hl •AO h,111 '11 ·.' I ,, u,n s (IJollinvcn .enc. , 41 (AP/\W 1939, 23, 1940)
, .,, U l' 'I f' " Junker, Der grossc Pylon H . Junker, Der grosse Pylon des Tt'mptls dtr Isis in
I mx,·11 I A " " ,tut lr,1111,1 1, I' ·I , !,
, filHJl,11111 •·I I .t • l ,rrt 1h,lo~d•• ( i
( ,>'l ln1k,·11 '' ·' ' '"'" ·, I m•,I·11111 I ' ,r ent,,lc ( air , I, 2 . Philil (00/\W, Sonderband 1958)
111111
l·1,111 klurt, U,·/1:,:,:::: l .l•·;t,111rl,I U//11(Wil'Nl;,,dp n ',:, ;~ )11/t llxl/11/i•,rft,, l.ltrmtt~r ~/1 /)' Junker-Winier, Geb11rtslta11s H . Junker and E. Winter, Das Geburtshaus des
I 11/ I · • •r,111k1, rt • · "1r11 fot11'rls dcr Isis in Pltilll (Philil•Publikation 2, OOAW, Sonderband 1965)
t1n.rl11111 w·n I ' , .ri111 w111I i.:1 ,1 Kaplony,.. lmicltriflc11 P. Kaplony, Die lnschrifte11 der iJgyptischtn Frllhuit (3
<..11dl11,·r C/1,·,,1," If 1111, I orh, ftri/1,• ((j.,rJln l 'J2.. / I 11111 /frfi x w11(New Y, k I
, ' " >'//1/11 A , 67) ir 'J41:!) vols., AgAbh 8, 1%3; Supplemcnl AgAbh 9, 1964)
1·11•yrt In tlw Uri · I 1. c;,,rtJJ, 11,r •1
( ,.,rtJ1111 •r r IJ,,f, M11,11 •111r1 1d ' , t•·11 t,·r 11,.,,11,,,if/ (2 Kc •ff, Gill lcrxl1111l1C H . Kees, Drr G/Jllerxlaubc im altc11lixypttn (Mitteilung1.-n
I • l1111111 m,f /11 1 I\ I I . wrlp1,, l.1111dr,11 J!J1q) v11I ~., I licralk
dcr vurdcra siali ch-!lgypti5Chen Gesellschaft 45 Leipzig 1941· 2d ed. ~rlin
( (II -11nd11nj l'147J · · C,,,rtJJ111 •r, n11,w
• 11tJ , , l'J I\) , ,
<, I . C,1ltti11w- r Orf,, I ,Xl/fJt11111 ( /11111111111/ir// ( vol
,1/•l,,1111 , I I,111111, nt "' '"hung. t 11, 411,lll'r/,.,. /I s., KRI K. A. Kitchen, Rammidc lnscriptio11s, Historical and Biographical(Oxford
M · lo, ( f•I _
11, 1,, ,/,• lt11 11fo ,11Hll>IJ /,' "'"I, 1/1111111, • ,> 1111111 , ,11yptc 11(Wi,_•, badcn l'J7J ) 1968-)
)li•JII•·· ,., h I II , , ., ,.,, . dt· ,.,. I
J,,ti,,n, : A •• "' '''"' ''' 21, l',,r l, IH74t ;~; ,. "•·• r,,,ut,, , (·t11d1• H
"'" (11 t/1•11 ,~,,,y '
i/:;11 'X.1//1//nt
-
s ,/11
Lange, /\111c11c111ope H. O. Lange, Das Weishcitsbuchdes Amtnrmopt (DVSM
I I, 2, 1925). Translations: Simpson, Uteraturt 241-65; Lichthcim, Littraturt II,
I IA/f •rir1111n11 , II/ /I ; n11 H q 111111· p,11,.,. t' , . , cnc..N phllol11-
lI I llld1•,l11•ln11•r/\ . 7; b111fl•h · 11N / '/ 11 ,,rry b111hdar,, , I) Tr 146-63
..,.,, I /11 r,·111h,·I, I( HYJ >lol, •HI" ht• II :1 · h~ r,7 · ,111N• LO • R. Lcpsius, Denkmatler aus Atgypltn und Aethiopitn (6 Abtheilungrn
1111
, lu- IC,·111 •v,, I'll ~ I l,,rl, ll11r,·111h, ·l1,·t ,'1 lr,111 1· (I lild1•, lwlm 197(; 1· in 12 vols. , cited by Abthellung, Berlin n .d. (1849-59))
I 1,,rn, l-1/ ' ,, .,,,, . M, / , ' L · Page Renouf, LLctures I' . le Page Renouf, ucturrs on thL Orixin 11mlGrowth
"'I \, "'" h ,,,., 11,,,•., ( II 111 •rlt1'//11'/ Ill/ /11f/11 I' I
bW
,.,,,.,,,,~ .,,,,,,.,,,,1u,,, ""g ,. '
.,J 12 . .. l•,rnun /
, ""''' .
v· of Rt•lixio11as Illu s/ rated by tht Rtlix/011of A11cit11I£gy11t(Thr Hibbert t..«tures
11/f, l .1I,,, • vrol, ., Al I H, 111 1>/l1ut, r/,·r
I l11m11111• 111
111111 2 1, l'J7~ 7(,) , . I l111h,·t1111x ,/1•9 /fr 1111 11\79,London 1880, 4th ed. 1897)
,, '!'1 1•·11I •,r ' I,.II1111 . :111 1, Mt Ir,,n , I,,tiun ; l'i,,n · Lcpsi1'K, G/J/lerkrcis R. Lepsius, Ol~•r d,·11,•rstm IIXYPtis;•/1t•11
Gottrr!·m u11d
I A',/\ W 11,
,·11 I· .
s,·i11cxcsclticl111icl1
-my//mloxisclic C11t ,11(APA"'. 1851. 4 p852)). PJg•• rd·
str/11111
fl ,,rn • , l 116HJ .. fl11r,11111)1
' 111111 . "MI'll " ''' I I ,
11/1 IIXl//l/1,11 ,·ft,· 11··11 er •nces to academy volume and IO separalc prin1tng an· given
L 111t, ,,· In /I ., h hid C11tt,,,, J/ ('/1Ut1r ~/1•1/1111x1 •11 Lichthcim , Literature M. Llchthclrn, 1111cie11t £gy1'tia11Ltlrraturr : A Bllok of
2h4 ll}'f'l••n " I '
, n l! . I .on ,11., IJ11• I'
:. C11 11rnu11 ,,
)I, Der Men s h als 'Hild Rcadi11xs(J vols ., Berkeley etc . 1973-80) .
,,,lf,•fo·11hil1/lid1k ,· I Litany of Re sec Hornung, Buch ,t,•r A11brtu11,11
; Plankoff, LI/atty
(/ 1 I I'S M 1·11 .'4h,•11 265

II
C
 •~ I a" ·• ,' · " ·~ - . .._ ·•
.:t;•~. ,:· •. ·. ..

Abbreviations and Bibliography

MAS Munchner agyptologische Studien (Berlin 1962-)

MDAIK Mittei/u~ge,, des Deutsc/re,,Arc/rii~logisclren
_Inslituts, Abt .
(until 1944: M1tte1/1111ge,,
des Deutsc/renInstrtuts fur AgyptiscJ, Al e,tung k,i;, Abbre viations and Bibliograph y
in Kairo) (Augsburg 1930--35, Berlin 1936--44, Wiesbaden ; S:::,umskt,nd, 0 OMRO Oudheidk1mdig e Medede(e/li11//e11
uil's (later: hct) Rijksmus,um L'On Oud-
1970--) 9 hede11te Leide11n .s. (Leiden 1920--)
9, Mai.nl
MOOG Mittei/u11ge11
der Deutsc/renOrient-Gese//sciraft(Berlin 99.- Or Orientalia n.s. (Rome 1932-)
MedinetHabu The Epigraphic Survey, Medine/ Habu (8 vols .,18OJp)
OrAnt Orie,,s A11tiq11u
s (Rome 1962-)
MEEF/S Memoirs of the Egypt Exploration Fund (later Society')1930-.70) Otto, Gott ,md Mensch ~- Otto, Go!t und Menschruuhden iigyptisc!rrnTemp,l-
inschriften der grrech1sch-rormschen
Ze,t (AHAW 1964, I)
1884--) (London
MES A. M. Blackman, Middle-Egyptian Stories (BiAe 2, 193 ). C . Otto , Osiris und Armm . E. Otto, Osiris u11dAmun. Kult und hrilig, Stiitt,n
2
Sinuhe and the Shipwrecked Sailor; translations : Simpson, Literatureonta ins (Munich 1966) = Egyptian Art and the Cults of Osirisand Amon(London 1968).
Lichtheim, LiteratureI, 222-35, 211-15 S0...74; Page references are _to German and English editions, in that order
PA Probleme der Agyptologie (Leiden 1953-77)
MIFAO Memoires de l'lnstitut fran~ais d'archeologie orientale (Cair Piankoff, Litany A. Piankoff, The Lita11y
of Re (ERT4, 1964)
MIO Mittei/ungen des lnstituts fur Orientforschung (Berlin 1953-72) 0 1902-)
Piankoff, Ramesses VI A. Piankoff, The Tombof Ramesses VI (2 vols., ERT 1.
Morenz, Gott und Mensch S. Morenz , Gott und Mensch im a/ten A.gyp/en(Le· 1954)
zig 1964, Heidelberg 1965) P-
1 PSBA Proceedingsof the Societyof Biblia,IArchaeology(London 1879-1918)
Morenz,
1 H~aufkunft S. Morenz , Die Herauf!:unJt~es lranszendenten Gottes Pyr. K. Sethe, Die altiigypti~hen Pyramidentexte (4 vols., Leipzig 190S-22);
m a/ten Agypten (SBSAW 109, 2, 1964); repnnted m Morenz , Religion Und cited by §. Translations: id., Uberset zung imd Kommmtarzu den altdgyptisclrrn
Geschichte77-119 . Page references are to the two editions , in the order given
here Pyramidentexten(incomplete, 6 vols., Gluckstadt n.d .); R. 0 . Faulkner, n,,
Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts (Oxford 1969)
Morenz, Religion S. Morenz , A.gyptischeReligion (Die Religionen der Men- Pyramid Texts see Pyr.
schheit 8, Stuttgart 1960) = Egyptian Religion (London and Ithaca, N. Y. 1973). RdE Revue d'egyptologie(Paris 1933, Cairo 1936-51, Paris 1950--)
Pagereferences are to German and English editions, in that order Rec. trav. Recuei/de travaux relatifsd la philologieet a /'archtologietgyptitnnes
Morenz, Religionund Geschichte S. Morenz, Religion und Geschichtedes a/ten
et assyriennes(Paris 1870--1923)
Agypten. GesammelteAufsiitze, ed . E. Blumenthal et al. (Weimar 1975) RHR Revue de l'histoiredes religions(Paris 1880-)
Moret, Ritue/ A. Moret, Le ritue/ du cu/te divin journa/ier en Egypte (Annales Les sagesses Les sagessesdu Proche -Orient ancien, Colloquedt Strasbourg17-19
du MuStt Guimet, Bibliotheque d'Etudes 14, Paris 1902) mai 1962 (Bibliotheque des Centres d'~tudes superieures specialises, Travaux
Munster, Isis . M. Munster , Untersuchungen zur Gollin Isis (MAS 11, 1968) du Centre . .. histoire des religions de Strasbourg, Paris 1963)
SAK Studien zur altiigyptische,,Kultur (Hamburg 1974-)
MVEOL Mededeelingen en Verhandelingen van het Vooraziatisch Egyptisch
Gezelschap "Ex Oriente Lux" (Leiden 1934-) Sandman , Texts M. Sandman, Texts from the Time of Aklienaten(BiAe 8,
1938)
Naville, Religion E. Naville, LA religion des anciens Egyptiens (Annales du
MuStt Guimet, Bibliotheque de vulgarisation 23, Paris 1906) = The Old Egyp- SBBAW Sitzungsberichte der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften,
Philosophisch -historische Klasse (Munich)
tian Faith(Crown's Theological Library 30, London and New York 1909). Page
references are to French and English editions, in that order SBSAW Sitzungsberichte (until 1962: Berichte uber die Verhandlungen)
der Sachsischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, Philologisch-
Naville, Todtenbuch E. Naville, Das aegyplischeTodtenbuchder XV/l/ . bis XX. historische Klasse
Dynaslie (3 vols., 1-11and Einleitung, Berlin 1886). Translations : Allen , Book
ofthe ~d; Homung, Totenbuch Sethe, Amun K. Sethe , Amun und die acht Urglittervon Hennopoli
s (APAW
1929, 4) . . _
NAWG_ Nachri~hte~ (von) der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Gottingen, Sethe, Urgeschichte . K. Sethe, Urgeschic/rte1111diilteste Re!1g1011der Agypter
1, Philolog,.sch-h1stonscheKlasse (earlier; Nachrichten von der Gesellschaft (Abhandlungen fur die Kunde des Morgenlandes 18, 4, Leipzig 1930)
der Wissenschaften zu Gottingen, Philologisch-Historische Klasse) Shipwrecked Sailor see MES .
Neuge_bauer-Parker, EAT 0 . Neugebauer and R. A. Parker, Egyptian Astro- SHR Studies in the History of Religions (Supplements to N11men)(Leiden
nom,':"/ Texts (3 vols. in
Providence, R.I. 1960-69) 4, Brown Egyptological Studies 3' 5-o' London and
OIP The University of Ch· 0 • Si!9p5!'~ Literature W. K. Simpson , ed ., The LiteratureofA11citntEgypt (New
192 4-) icago, nental Institute Publications (Chicago Haven' and London 1972; 2d ed . 1973; later reprints with alterations)
Sinuhe see MES
OL~ OrientalistischeLiteraturzeitung(Berlin 1898--1908 L . . JOl\n ., Be -
Im 1953-) , e1pz1g 7V:7-"t't, r SIG Studium Ge11erale (Berlin etc. 1948--) . .. , 77)
266 Te Velde , Seth H. te Velde, Set/r, God of Co11/11
s1on(PA 6, 1967, 2d ed. 19
ThLZ TheologischeLiterat11mit1111g(Leipzig 187(>...)

267
 ·· i -

'\ 't~ t -~·

Abbreviations and Bibliography

UGAA Untersuchungen zur Geschichte und Altertum k _

(Leipzig 18%-1945, Berlin 1952-56) s u nd e Agyptens
Urk. Urk1111de11des 11gyptisc/1e11 Altertums (Leipzig 1903--39 Be .
· ' 1
rm195~,
Van der Leeuw, Godsvoorstellmgen G . van der Leeuw God _,._,,l)
de 011d-aegyptische pyramidetexte11 (Leiden 1916) ' svoarsteliingenin
Vandier, Ma1111el ]. Vandier, Ma1111e/ d'archeologieegyptien1te( v .
6
Paris 1952-78) ols . in 9,
Vergote, " La notion de Dieu " J. Vergote, " La notion de D ' d
de sagesse egy ptiens ," in Les sagesses153--90 ieu ans les livres
Volten, A11ii A. Volten, St11die11 Zlllll Weisheitsbuchdes Allii (DV
1937). Translation: Lichtheim, LiteratureII, 135-46 SM 23, 3,
Volten, Po/itischeScliriften A. Volten, Zwei altiigyptische politische Sch . ~ Sources for Figures
(Analecta Aegyptiaca 4, Copenhagen 1945). Translations of the
I
riften
for Merikare: Lichtheim, LiteratureI, 97-109; Simpson, Literature 1~:Uction
Von Strauss und Tomey , Gotterglaube V. von Strauss und Tome ;
tiigyptischeGottergla11be (2 vols., Heidelberg 1889-91) y, er a/-
Wb. A. Ennan and H . Grapow, Worterbuchder iigyptischen Sprach (
7 vols. I. The hieroglyph for "god," "staff bound with cloth."
in 12, Leipzig 1926-40, Berlin 1950-63) e Original sources : (a) P. E. Newberry (see citation below) stales the source to
WdO Die Welt des Orie11ts(G6ttingen 1947-) be M . A . Murray, SaqqaraMastabasI (Egyptian Research Account , tenth vear
Wiedemann , Religio11 A . Wiedemann , Die Religion der a/ten Agypter (Dar- 1904, London 1905) pl. 1 (Third Dyn .), but this precise form does not ~r
stellungen aus dem Gebiete der nichtchristlichen Religionsgeschi ht there. The source may be pl. 8 or pl. 20 (both Fifth Dyn., the date Newberrv
Munster 1890) = Religio11 of the Ancient Egyptians (London 1897) p c ef 3• gives), where very similar but not identical forms occur ; (b) h •orv label fro.;.
ences are to German and English editions , in that order · age re er- the tomb of King Aha at Abydos (First Dyn .), W. M. F. Petrie, Tht. RoyalTombs
Winter , _Unters11c/1u111{e11 E. Winter , Unters11c/1u11gen zu den iigyptischenTem _ of the Earliest Dynasties, 1901 II (MEEF 21, 1901) pl. 3A no . 5; (c) Pottery mark
mschriftender griech1sch-romische11 Zeit (DOAW 98, 1968) pe
1 of the First Dynasty, Petrie, Royal Tombs pl. 55A no. 151.
WZKM Wie11er Zeitschriftfiir die K1111de des Morgen/ands (Vienna 1886-) Drawing by A. Brodbeck after P. E. Newberry, /EA 33 (1947) 90 fig. 3d (•
Zabkar , Ba Co11cept L. V. Zabkar, A Study of the Ba Concept in Ancient Egy here); fig. 4 (b here); fig. 2 (c here) .
lra11 .Texts (The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago Stud· P-
A naen t Onen . ta I c·1v1
·11zation
· 34, Chicago 1968) , tes m
2. Other hieroglyphs for "god."
Zandee , De hy11111en
na11Amo11 ]. Zandee, De hym 11 e11aa11Amon van Papyrus Mastaba of Ptahhotpe at Saqqara (Fifth Dyn.) .
Leide11I 350 = OMRO 28 (1947). Translation of parts: Assmann AHG nos Drawing by A . Brodbeck after N. de G. Davies, The Mastabaof Ptalwtrp and
132-42, 194 ' . Akl,ethetep at Saqqara/1I (ASE ·s,
1900) pl. 7 no. 87 (a here [part only!) ; pl. 4
zAs Zcit_schrift fifr iigyptischeSpracheu11dAltert/h)umskunde (Leipzig 1863-- no. 11 (b here).
.. 1943, Berhn and Le1pz1g1956-)
ZAW Z•it I ft{ " d'
. , sc m ur I<' altt1•stame111/ic/1e
hn 1933-J
Wisse11sc/1a't
/'
(Giessen 1881 1933 Be
- , r- 3. Gardiner hieroglyphic sign list, category C.
ZDMG Zeitschriftdrr D,•utsc/,11 M .. . Reproduced from A . H. Gardiner , Egyptia11 Grammar(3d ..ct.. London 1957)
1944, Wiesbaden 1950-) " orgm1n11
dischm Gesel/schaft(Leipzig 1846- 544 (after models of various periods) .

4 . Shu separates the sky and the earth (shown in the form of Geb nnd Nut) .
"Mythological" mortuary papyrus of Tentamun , Paris, Bibliothequt• Nn-
tionale no. 172 (Twenty-first Dyn.) . _
Reproduced from S. Morenz, Gott 1md Me11S< ·l1 im_altm Agy1•trn(Heidel~~
1965) 131 fig . 40, who reproduces from H . Schafer, Agy111Jsd1t• 1111d
hruflgr Kun, t
1md Weltgebiiudeder alte11Agypter (Berlin and Leipzig 1928) 105 fig. 29. who
redraws from R. V. Lanzone, Dizio111irio ,ti mitologi11t•gizia(Turin 1881-86) pl. 155
upper = vol. I p . 401, who gives a wrong source reference . The s..--,me is pub-
268 lished in a photograph by A. Piankolf, EgYJ1tia11 Rrligio114, I (1936) 63 fig. 4.
269
 • l

Sources (or Figures

Sou rces fo r Flv,urt•
5 The godde ss Mani.
· Drawing t,y A. l.lrodueck after a h'.erug lyph, N . de G . Davies M publication C. . Desroche s Nobl ecou rl and Kuentz, I.L p,lil rcn,,,1, ,l'l\ bou
l'lahlll'll'/ I I (fig. 2 above) pl. 4 no. IJ (Hfth Dyn .). . , lls/11/
x, uf Si111/Jcl
(Cairo 1961:1)pis. 21:1--29
, 59- 65 .

6. fecundity figures. 12. Figures of gods In the Litany of Re.

North side of subsidiary . e ntrance ) lo mortu ary temple of King Sah Painting in the tomb of Tuthrno sis Ill (1490-1436 •.c.) in the V11tit,y of lhe
' Ur~, no
Cairo Museum JE 39534 (Fifth Dyn . . w Kings.
Reproduced from W. S. Smith, A Hislory of Egyplia11Sc11lpt rc t1t1dp . . .
11 Reproduced from Piankoff, Littrny 15 lig. B (bottom three register . recon-
/hr Old Kingdom(Lond on 1946) 183 fig. 71. Original source : L. Borcha:'t'"K 111 structed order). Piankoff reproduce s and rearrange s from P. Bucher, f..n lt l lt s
Das Gra/xle11kmal des K/i11i
gs SaJ1111 -Re' II (Ausgrabungcn der Dcutschen Oct ,"1·, des to111bc
s de Tlw11tmosisIll ct Ambwphis II I (MIFAO 60, 1932) pl. 26, 25. Now
Gcscllschafl in ~busir 1902- 190~ 7, Leipzig 1913) pl. 30. The figures ar:\~~ also reproduced in Hornung, Buchdcr A11brt1m g II, 57.
first, third , and fifth 111a se t of six.
13. "Soul" birds.
Figures in the Book of Gates in the tomb of Ramesse s VI (1142-1135 a.c.)
7. Isis and Osiris .
in the Valley of the Kings .
Mortuary papyru s of Neslanebetishru (Pap . Greenfield), British Museum
Reproduced from Piankoff, Ramesses VI 192 fig. 55.
10554 (Twenty-first Dyn .).
Reproduced from G . Roeder , Die iigyptisclieGiillerwe/1(Die agyptische Reli-
14. The cult statue of a god in procession .
gion in Texten und Bildern I, BAW 1959) 130 fig. 16. Published in photograph
Bark of Amun, relief on the shrine of Philip Arrhidaeus (323--316 a.c .) at
by E. A. W. Budge, Tlie Greenfield Papyrus i11/lie Brilisli M11se11m
(London 1912) Karnak, south exterior wall, middle register , second scene from left .
pl. 89. Reproduced from A . Piankoff and N . Rambova, MythologicalPapyri (ERT 3,
1957) 18 fig. 1.
8. The "Battlefield" palette , recto .
British Museum 20791 (lower); Oxford , Ashmolean Museum 1171-1892 (up- 15. Horus in a marsh thicket.
per) (late predynastic) . Relief of the reign of Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II (145--116 a.c.) in the birth
Reproduced from W. S. Smith, History of Egyptian Sculpture (fig . 6 above) house of the temple of Isis at Philae , sanctuary, north wall.
112 fig. 27. Reproduced from G . Roeder, Mythen und l.egendenum iigyptischtGotthtitrn
und Pharaonen(Die agyptische Religion in Texten und Bildern 11,BAW 1960)
9. The Narrner palette, verso . 158 fig . 32, which is probably reproduced from LO 4, 36b. Now published in
Cairo Museum CG 14716 (late predynastic) . Junker-Winter, Geburtsha11s 18.
Reproduced from J. E. Quibell , "Slate Palette from Hieraconpolis, " ZAS 36
(1898) pl. 13. 16. The sun god as a child on the primeval lotus .
Relief in the birth house of the temple of Mont and Raettawy at Armant,
10. Figures of gods on early dynastic objects . inner hall, architrave in west hall (now destroyed; reign of Ptolemy XV Cae-
. Late Second Dynasty jar scalings and a figure incised on an early dynastic sarion, 44-30 B.c.) .
Jar (no. 6). Reproduced from H . Bonnet in H. Haas, ed ., Bilderatlaszur Rtligiousgrschichte
Reproduced _from W. S. Smith, History of Egyptian Sculpture (fig . 6 above) fasc. 2-4 "Agyptische Religion" (Leipzig and Erlangen 1924) fig. 8, who re-
122
fig. 40. Snut_h reproduces from (figures numbered from left to right) Petrie, produces from LO 4, 61g .
Royal TombsII (fig. 1 above): (1) pl. 22 no. 178--79, (2, 3) pl. 21 no. 176, (4) pl. 23
no . 192, (5) pl. 23 no . 199· w I-,•! F p . . 17. Apopis, bound . _
(BSAE runeteen
• th ' · · · etrte et a 1., Tarkhan I and Mempli,s V
year. 1913) pl. 3, I. Figure in the Book of Gates in the tomb of Ramesscs VI (1142-113:, a.c.)
in the Valley of the Kings .
11. Hathor pil1u .
Reproduced from Piankoff, RamessesVI 218 fig. 71.
Small temple at Abu Sirnbel, pillared h IJ ( . 90--
a.c.). a reign of Ramesses II , 12 1224
18. The sun god as a child within the Ouroboros. . " •
Reproduced from G. Jequier \.la I . . "Mythological" mortuary papyrus of Hirweben A, Cairo Museum no . 133
/'ardtitmu re (Paris 1924) 189 fi, ' ~ue d archiolog1eegyptienne. Les elements de
114 (Twenty-first Dyn.).
g. • who reproduces from LO 3 192c Full
270 ' ·
271
 ., ' ,"·:./:?➔?:-;}Et}?·~~ ·
.. ."1\ ~~;·~
:.~
\~. --
-~-.-
f',r

Sources for Figures

Reproduced from Piankoff and Rambova, Mythological Pa . .

22 fig. 3. Photograph ibid. no. I. pyr, (fig. 14 above),

19. King Ramesses II (1290-1224 s.c .) offers Maat to Ptah .

Relief on the south endosure wall of the central area of the t
Reproduced from Bonnet, in Bilderatlas (fig . 16 above), fig~~le of Karnak.
duces from LO 3, 147b. Photograph : W. Heick.. , Die Rit 11
alszerren auf
' Who
der Urepro-
,
sma11erRamses' II. i11Knmak plate vol. (AgAbh 18, 1968) 27 Bild 36 m,ass-
111111

20. The sun disk with rays shining over Akhenaten (1364-1347
temple. B.c.) and the
~ Sources for Plates
Relief in the tomb of Meryre I at el-Amarna.
Reproduced from N . de . G. Davies , The Rock Tombs of El Amarna I (AS
1903) pl. 27. E 13,

I. Re and Osiris united, between Isis and Nephthys .

Tomb of Nofretiri in the Valley of the Queens (reign ol Ramesses II, 1290-
1224). Photo A . Brack . Reproduced in color in G . Thausing and H. Goedicke ,
Nofrelari (Monumenta Scriptorum , Graz 1971) pl. 41.

II. The king before Hathor.

Tomb ol Tuthmosis IV (1412-1402 s.c .) in the Valley ol the Kings . Photo
A . Brack .

III. Mehetweret with the head of a cow .

Pillar in the tomb of Tawosret (llSS-1186 s.c .) in the Valley ol the Kings .
Photo A. Brack .

IV. The god Khepry.

Tomb of Nofretiri in the Valley of the Queens (reign of Ramesses ll, 1290-
1224 s.c .). Photo U . Schweitzer. Reproduced in color in Thausing-Goedicke ,
Nofretari (Pl. I above) pis . 24, 31, 131.

V. Figure of a god in the Amduat.

Tomb of Sethos I (1304-1290 s .c.) in the Valley of the Kings . Photo A. Brack.

272 273

'\
 Glossary of Gods

ure all the characteristics of the creator _and sustainer of the world. Bibliog-
raphy : K. Sethe, Amun und die acht Urg~ttervo11 Hermo"'.'lis
(APAW1929, 4).
E Otto Osiris und Amun . Kull und he1hgeStatten (Muruch 1966) = Egyptian
A.rt an/ the Cults of Osiris and Amon (London 1968).

Anedjti, "He of Andjet" (in the ninth Lower Egyptian nome), was absorbed at
an early date by Osiris, who may have taken over from him the ruler's at-
tributes of crook and flail.

'\).Glossary of Gods Anubis, "Puppy " (?), the god responsible for embalming, who is also lord of
the necropolis . Depicted as a black canine ("jackal"), or in the mixed form,
with a "dog's" head and human body.

Anukis, anthropomorphic goddess who wears a crown of leathers. From the

In order to give nonspecialist readers some orientation among th
mass of names of Egyptian ~od_s, I have add~d a brief descriptio~
after each name . These descnptions can only indicate a few sali t
aspects of the deity ; they cannot supply an adequate characterizati~n
Apis, bull worshiped in Memphis from the early dynastic period on, guarantor
For more detailed and more precise information the reader is referr~
to H. Bonnet, Reallexikon deriigypt_!schen
Religionsgeschichte
(Berlin 1952);
W. Hel~ et al. eds ._, Lexikonder Agyptologie(Wiesbaden 1972-); and to
the bibliography given at the ends of entries . Only the most im-
portant syncretistic combinations are included.
All names of gods are in italics.
Aker, ancient personificationof the earth and hence also of the underworld
Depicted as a strip of land with a human head; a form with a human head
on either side is elaborated into a double lion or double sphinx . Acts as guard
at the entrance to and exit fr_om the underworld, and may be threatening or
~elpful to the deceased. Bibliography: C. de Wit, Le role et le sens du lion dans
I Egypteancienne(Leiden 1951) 91-106 .
Akhti, "He of. the horizon," appellation
· of th e sun god when he is manifest
on the honzon (seealso Harakhte) .
New Kingdom on she is grouped with Khnum and Salis to form the divine
triad of Elephantine . Her sacred animal is the gazelle. Bibliography: D. Val-
belle, Salis et Anoukis (Mainz 1980).
of the fertility of the land; later becomes a form or a "herald" of the god
Ptah. The A pis bull has special markings on its hide and wears the sun
disk between its horns (later reinterpreted as a lunar disk); occasionallyde-
picted as a human being wi~ a bull' s head_. Bibliography: E. Otto, ~tnige
zur Geschichteder Stierkulte in Agypten (UGAA 13, 1938). G . J. F. Kater-S1bbes
and M. J. Vermaseren , Apis I (Etudes pr~liminaires aux religions orienta!es
dans \'Empire romain 48, Leiden 1975).
Apopis, the snake enemy of the sun god, who must constantly be_repulsed
from the solar bark, and thus embodies the continual threat of disorder to
the ordered world.
Ash, god of the western desert who is often called "lord of Libya." He ~ be
shown in human form or with a hawk's head, and occasionally with the
head of the Seth animal.

Amaunet, "The hidden one" (f ) f

Aten, "Sun disk," not worshiped as a deity until the New ~gdom ; raised
Akhenaten to the status of the unique , exclusive God. Depicted at first wit
~h
of her own B"1bli h em. ' emale counterpart of Amun , with a cult
· ograp y: see Amun. a hawk's head, and then as a sun disk with rays that terminate in human
Amon-Rt hands .

Amun, "The hidden one.,, Shown .th Alum "The undifferentiated one, " at once primeval being an! '7~o~ of~:.
the form of Min, as well a Wi a tall crown of feathers; often also in wo~ld. In mythology he is placed at the head_of the ~nnea . o feth~ni'.
. the Theban nome but hes .ram and
m . goose fOrms. His cult is attested first in later periods he is worshiped as the evening manifefstationB _boliography
·
•
1ater times ' to th IS mentioned earIier as a pnmeval
he belongs . . and in.
deity ted in purely human orm. 1 ·
e system of th H . ' versa! sun god . Usu ally represen . - • 8 1978--79).
10 1360 B.c. he is preeminent amon d ~. ermopolitan ogdoad . From 2000 K. Mysliwiec, Studien z11mGott Alum I-II (lll forthcoming) (HAB:,, •
27 g eities, and combines in a single fig- 275
4
 ...
· , - 1, _...
. --:
./ .
. ··'

Glossary of Gods
Glossary of Gods
Bat, goddess of the seventh Upper Egyptian nome; her form w·
head relates her closely to Hat/tor. Bibliography: H . G F' 1th a cow•
Papers and Other Early_Middle Kingdom Documents(Metropolitan Museum of
and Nome of the Godd ess Bat , " /ARCE 1 (1962) 7-23; 2 ·( 1963
tscher "Th e Cults
) so'.-s1, Art, Egyptian Exped1h0n, New York 1962) 122-24.
Bes general term for various dwarf gods with monstrous fac Harsiese,"Horus son of Isis," aspect of Horus as a son, sometimes contrasted
' d r ' es Who oft
a crown of feathers an a 10n s mane. They are helping d 1'ti en have with Haroeris"the elder Horus ."
evil, especially at the birth of a child_. Bibliography: F . Bal~ d es Who repel
0
wr Geschic I1te der zwergI1a
•f/, en G"tt
1
. Agyp ten (D 1ssertation,
o er III ' ' Pro/ego
Munich· 11Jena Hatlror,"House of Horus," probably the most universal Egyptian goddess, who
1913). 'Moscow has marked characteristics of a mother, but, as the "eye of Re," also brings
ruin to all enemies, and in addition is worshiped as a goddess of the dead .
Creator god._The most varied deities can be the creator god , but th especially in Thebes . Usually shown as a woman with cow's horn s and sun
important 1s the sun god; often the creator 1s anonymous. e most disk or as a cow, but also as a lioness, snake, tree nymph . and so forth .
(MAS 4, 1963). C. J. Bleeker,
Bibliography : S. Allam , B,•itrnge zum Hat/1ork11lt
Dedwe11,
Nubian god attested sporadically in Egyptian texts from the p ra . Hatlrorand T/rotlr(SHR 26, Leiden I 973).
Texts on . Y rntd
Hatmehit, "She who is before the fishes," goddess of the nome of Mendes in
Djeba11ti
. "He of Djebaut ," god worshiped at Buto in the form of a heron. the delta , depicted as a fish or as a woman with the fish symbol on her
head. Bibliography: I. Gamer-Waller!, Fisclre1111d Fischkulteim altm Agyptm
Gel,, earth god of a more universal character than Aker; Geb is both jud (AgAbh 21, 1970) 98-101.
"hereditary prince" or "father" of the gods, especially of Osiris De ·gt ~~d
purely human form (see also N11t). · ptc e m Heqet, goddess in frog form who has a helping function in childbirth and more
generally; as a primeval deity she is often the consort of K/111111,r. Her most
Grain god, in Egyptian Nepri, shown in human form, often as a child suckled important cult places are in Middle Egypt .
by Re11e1111tet.
Hike, '" Magic,"' anthropomorphic personification of this creative fon:e. also
Gr(,_(Gereli)
, "Night" or perhaps "Cessation," forms a pair of primeval gods revered in the cult from an early date, especially in the delta and at Esna ;
with his female doublet Ger/Jet;attested on a single monument of the late frequently accompanies the sun god. Bibliography : H . le Velde, "The God
penod . Heka in Egyptian Theology," JEOL 21 (1970) 175-86.

Hapy. "Inundation" o! the Nile, personification of the fecundity inherent in the Homs, "The distant one " (?), ancient god of the sky and of the kingship who
~tie and hence_depicted as an obese human figure. Bibliography : A. de Buck, absorbed a whole set of gods with hawk form . His close links with the sun
°;; th
e meaning of the name l:J'PJ," in Orienla/ia Neerlandica (Leiden 1948)
1- · J. Baines, Fmmdity Figures(Warminster, in the press).
god and later with Osiris and Isis lead to many new associations, and his
martial and youthful aspects become especially prominent .

Harak/Jt,
•, "Horus of the hori ,, th d . Hu, personification of the "Utterance" with which the creator god calls things
as a hawk . h f zon, e aytime form of the sun god, depicted
' O r m uman orm with a h aw k' s h ea d surmounted by a sun disk. into being . With Hike and Sia he is one of the three creative forces that con•
stantly accompany the sun god; not worshiped in the cult.
Harmachis, "Horus in the hori ,,
Giza . zon, th e name for the deified Great Sphinx of
Hu/r, "Endlessness," forms , with his female doublet Ha11lrrt,one of the four
pairs of primeval gods of Hermopolis . Bibliography : K. Sethe , Amun u,rddie
Harpukrates
, "Horus the child ,, 'f
acht Urgiitter 0011Hermopolis(APAW 1929, 4).
. • man1 estatio
w h o 1s saved from every dan er· . n
f H
°
oms as a threatened child
,, g ' particularly popular in the late period .
Harpre, Horus the sun (god) ,, l11p11t,"Bitch " (?), female doublet of Anubis. the god of embalming, with a cult
. h ' name of the of her own in the seventeenth Upper Egyptian nome .
'" . t e Theban area in the late and Gr young s1111god attested primarily
with Mont and Raettawy . aeco-Roman periods; forms a triad
Ishtar of Ni11i1,e/J
Harsaphes
, "He who is on his lake ,,
of wo h 1' . H k • creator god . • for "th rone, " th,e sister and wife
Isis whose name is written with the sign .
of
rs P is era leopolis . Bibliography: r',"tm form, whose chief place • . .f nny dnn<•,•rs m her
Osiris and mother of Horus, whom she prot,-cts rom m . • o
276 · H. James, The 1:feJµmak/rte
277
 ·,.

Glossary of Gods
Glossary of Gods
role as the magician goddess . Usually shown as
"throne " on her head, but also depicted because ;f whoman With the sig , onification of the "Order " of the world which was established at
wit· h oth er godd esses, m· countless other
' forms erhmultipJ e connecli
n 1or Maat, pers shown as a woman w1"th a feath er ·m her ha1~
creation; · . She was considered
" mu Iii"',orm one " par exceIIence . B1bbography
. . · M' soM ··t at she beCornesons
th
·· 11, 1968). J. Bergman /ch· bi· · unster u e be the daughter of the creator god (Re), had a widespread cult, and is
zur Glittin Isis (MAS . ' ntersuchun t~ found doubled as the "two Maats" from an early period. Bibliography:
. Hi t . R 1· . ' n 1sis (Acta U . gen
Upsa Iiens1s, s ona e 1gionum 3, Uppsala 1968) . n1versita1is ~~~- Bleeker, De beteekenis van de egyptischegodinMa-a-I(Leiden (19291).
Iusaas, "She comes, being great ," worshiped as a co Mafdet, the "Runner" (f~m-), violent go_ddes~ in panther form who is one of
. nsort of Alum d
sent ed as a woman with a scarab on her head . B"bli an repre. the protective powers m the king's Slllte. B1bhography: W. Westendorf, "Die
"lusaas et (Hathor) -Nebet-Hetepet," RdE 16 (1964) 5's_. i~af;Y = J. Vandier, Pantherkatze Mafdet," ZDMG 118 (1968) 248-56 .
1
18 (1966) 67-142 ; 20 (1968) 135-48· also published a ' (l96S) 89-176 •
' · s a vo 1ume. , Mahes, "Raging lion, " god in lion form who was worshiped chiefly in the delta.
Jrj (lri) "Sight," worshiped from the New Kingdom Bibliography : C. de Wit, Le r61e et le sens du lion dans l'Egypteancienne(Leiden
0
,?
that help the creator god . Bibliography : E. Brunner-Tn ats ne of the forces
- rau' _ 0 erSehg 0 tt und
.m L"1teratur und Theologie," in Fragen 5-4
1951) 230-34 .
der Horgott
12 5 Mehetweret, Greek Methyer, perhaps "The great flood;" goddess of the primeval
flood who is closely related to Hathor;depicted in cow form, or in the mixed
Khatery, "Ichneumon," manifestation of Horus as a sun d B"bJ" form with a cow's head .
E. Brunner-Traut, Spitzmaus und Ichneumona/s Tiere des go · 1 iography:
1965, 7). 5onnengottes(NAWG
Meresger, "She loves silence," protective goddess of the Theban necropolis,
depicted in the form of a snake; worshiped especially in the form of the
Khededu,the god of fishing, attested from the Old Kingdom on . mountain peak that dominates the necropolis . Bibliography: B. Bruyere, Mert
Segera Deir el Medineh (MIFAO 58, 1930).
Khefthernebes
, "She who is_opposite her lord (that is, Amun) ," personifi .
of the Theban necropolis , attested from the Eighteenth to the T cafirs~on Mestasytmis, personification of "The hearing ear," attested primarily in the
Dynasty. See also Thebes. wenty- t
Graeco-Roman period . Bibliography: G. Wagner and J. Quaegebeur, "Une
dedicace grecque au dieu egyptien Mestasytmis de la part de son synode,"
BIFAO 73 (1973) 41-60 .
~~:::~;::,~r::~::::~h:h~e:~st~:e;r ancient god of the dead (the
end of the Old Kin dom Kh P_ . Abydos, m dog form. After the
Min, god worshiped in fetish form in predynastic times, and in the historical
the universal od g enta~e~ti is no more than an epithet of Osiris,
period as a man with erect penis . He is the lord of procreation and protector
107. J. Spiegi Die~ 0:: !:a~;J;:~l~ft ; ~eyer, ZAS 41 (1904) 97-
1 73 of tracks in the desert , while at the festival of Min the fertility of the land is
renewed . His most important cult places are Akhmim and Koptos . Bibliog•
Khepry, "He who is coming into bein " the . raphy: C. J. Bleeker , Die Geburteines Gottes(SHR 3, Leiden 1956).
sun god · usuall h g, morning manifestation of the
scarab f;r a heaJ. s own as a scarab, more rarely in human form with a
Mnevis, attested from the New Kingdom on as the sacred bull of Heliopolis,
who is a manifestation or "herald" of the sun god; he is occasionally shown
Khnum, ram-headed god h
on, active chiefly in thew i°was worshiped from the early dynastic period
red like the sun . Bibliography : E. Otto, Beitriigezur Geschichteder Stierkulte
in Agypten (UGAA 13, 1938) 34-40 . S. Morenz , "Rote Stiere, Unbeachtetes zu
dom and later he was wocasha_racdtarheaa~ound Elephantine. In the New King·
·
A nuk1s r ipe t ere m a t · d · h h Buchis und Mnevis," in Religionund Geschichte~ -
. Bibliography: A"rnad Moh na . wit t e goddesses Salis and
etc. 1937). amad Badaw1, Der Gott Cltnum (Gliickstadt Mont, "The wild one" (?), ancient principal god of the Theban area; in the N~w
Kingdom worshiped primarily as a war god whose role the fighting king
Khans, "The wanderer " adopts . Mostly shown with a hawk ' s head, which is surmounted by th e
the ' moon god show · h
moon on his head . As the "child" ~ m uman form with the sign for sun disk with uraeus, or double uraeus, and feathers.
grouped to form a triad, he also wears ~ A~un and Mut , with whom he is
Kuk "D kn ,, e s1delock symbolic of youth. ·th the double crown;
Mut "Mother " shown as a vulture or as a woman WI • k ·th
, ar ess, forms With h.
of primeval deities 0 f is female doublet Ka11k
w~rshiped ht
Thebes as the consort of A'.nun. ~roug~ her closeu~~ sr:er
Hermopolis. Bibi· et one of the four pairs other goddesses Mut, who was at first an ms1gmficant figure, acq
278 iography : see Huh. more universal characteristics .
279
 Glo ssa ry of Gods
Glossary of Gods
,\ ebrlhet~t , "Mistress of offering " (or possibl y "Mistress of
festation of Hathor wh o was worshiped chiefl v at H . th e Vulva"), . . . th od who suffered a violent death ; depicted in human form without
. _ , e 11opofis Bib(· lllan1. 0 5_"'d 5
'. ~ ngof limbs . His attributes of crook and flail allude to ancient finks
see Iu;;aa,. · iography: I.I1 1ca11o . .
with the kingship and with pastoralism ; other features provide analogies
, · mem, god of the prime val lotus, shown as a hu fi . h the death and resurgence of nature . But the most unportant aspect of
the head , or as a child sun god on the lotus . In ::: gure With a lotus on ~: most complex of gods _is his role as ruler of th~ ~ead . At an early period
" i th Ptah and Sakhmet . phi s he forrns a triad Ab dos becomes his most important cult center. Bibliography: E. Otto, Osiris
u,.J Amun. Kull und heilige Stiitlen (Munich 1966) = Egyptian Art and the Cults
.Veith, "The terrifying one " (?, fem.) , goddess whose attnb of Osiris and Amun (London 1%8) . J. G. Griffiths , The Origins of Osiris and
(arrows and shield) held in the hand or shown abo ve th~!~ are Weapons His Cult (SHR 40, 1980).
godd~s (often andro gyn ous ) and protector of the kin . hi ead . Prirnevaf
Sais and Esna. Bibliography: 5. Schott , "Ein Kult de~~ . e~cult centers are Pakhet, "Tearer apart " (fem.) , goddess in the form of a lioness who was wor-
Edel et al., Das Sonnenhei ligtum des Konigs User'·-f (Be· ottin Neith ," in E shiped at the mouth of a wadi in Middle Egypt, and also acquired some im-
, "" 1trage Bf 8 1969 · portance at the royal court and in beliefs about the afterlife .
38. Ramadan el-Sayed , Documents re/atife a Sais et ses d . - . . ' ) 123-.
1975). rvmrtes (!FAQ BE 69,
Primeval gods . The gods or divine couples who embod y the categories of the
.Vekhbet, "She of Nekheb (el-Kab)," upper Egyptian world before creation . In Hermopolis the y were grouped to form the "og-
. g odd ess m
- vuJtu ,
doad" (four couples) , of which Nun and Kuk are the most important mem-
w h o protects the king . Her most important cult place is I Kab . . re •0 rrn
· Fowl/es
-\ I - \\" e rb rou ck, m · e·
de El Kab. Document s II (Fondati · B1bhogr h
- ap y: bers ; they were later joined by Amun . Bibliography : see Huh .
Reine Elisabeth, Brussels 1940) 46-60 . on egyptologique
Ptah, depicted in human form without indication of the limbs; in Memphis he
is combined from an early period with Apis and Sokar, and later with Tatenen .
.\'emty, 'The wanderer " (formerl v read An ty) ha wk-f od
U E · · ' orm g of the tw ffth Worshiped mainly as a creator god and as the patron of every type of crafts-
pper gyptian nome. Bibliographv : O. D. Berlev '" Sok 1 1 .. e
51 manship. Bibliography : M. Sandman Holmberg , The God Ptah (Lund 1946).
ieroglif i bog, " Vestnik drevnej istorii J (107) (l%'}) 3-3() \-~~ J_v lad'e,'
a hieroglyph and a god ," \\i th English summa ry .) . a con m boat,'
Rael, often called Raettawy "Raet of the Two Lands,'' female doublet of the
sun god Re; depicted as a female figure with cow's horns and sun disk. She
.\'~thy ~ "i\-listres s of the house ," anthropomorphic goddess who is seld had a cult of her own.
\\ Ors peel except m connection \\i th her sister Isis. om
Re, the most important and most widespread name of the sun god, who is
.'<epri
. see Grain god . combined syncretistically with many other gods ; usually depicted in human
form, and worshiped primarily as the creator and sustainer of the world .
un. personification of the prime val , t fr . He travels in a bark through the sky by day and the underworld by night.
hence "father of the god s,, t t\~rs om whICh everything arose, and From an earl y date Heliopolis was his chief cult center.
his female doublet Naunet ,heo~ o wh ICh the sun comes dail y anew . With
primeval deities of H lisorms . 1 e mo St important of the four pairs of
ermopo - B1bhography: see Huh . Re-Alum

·u1,the ancient goddess of the sk , w . Renenet, "She who nourishes ," goddess of destin y who is named primarily in
the earth god Geb Sh . . } ' ho is shown as a woman arching over conjunction with Shay. Bibliography : S. Morenz and D. Muller, Untmuch -
· e gives birth t0 d h
bodies, but also takes th d . an t en swallows all the heavenly ungen zur Rolle des Schicksals in der iigyptischen Religion (ASAW 52, 1, 1960).
e eceased mto her protection .
G. Fecht , "Schicksalsgottin und Konig in der 'Lehre eines Mannes fiir seinen
Onuris, "He who brin . Sohn,'" ZAS 105 (1978) 14-42.
w h"ped gs the distant (godd ) ,,
ors I as an anthropom h" ess , an ancient god of hunting
~oma_in is the desert at thee~~~~ !god with four feather s on his head . Hi~ Renenutet , "Snake who nourishes " (fem.), goddess of the harvest and mother
e bnngs back the eye of th g he_world , and from this "distant " region of the grain god Nepri , worshiped especiall y in the Faiyum (Greek name
(Ka1serliche Akad . e sun . B1bhography· H J k . Thermuthis) . Shown as a snake or a woman with a snake's head . Bibliog-
59 _ . em1e der Wissensch f _- · un er, D,e Onur islegende
' 1 2, Vienna 1917). a ten , Phil.-hist . Klasse , Denkschriften raphy : J. Leibovitch, "Gods of Agriculture and Welfare in Ancient Egypt,•
280 JNES 12 (1953) 73-113. J. Broekhuis , De godin Renenwrl et (Assen 1971).
281

.,,,,.....,
_
 Glossary of Gods
Glossary of Gods
"Gott als Retter in Agypten ," in G . Jeremias et al. , eds .,
Sakhmet
, "The most powerful one " (fem.), goddess with the ambivalent n · 13--19, E. Otto ,/ be Das friihe Christen/um in seiner Umwelt. Festgabefiir K.G.
. . und Gau . 22
Of a lioness, usually shown. as a woman with the head of a 11oness . · ature Trad1t1on65 Geburts tag (Gottingen 1972) 9-- .
shiped primarily in Memphis , where she forms a triad with Ptah d ' Wor. [(uhn zum ·
· ·
tem. Sakhmet d1ssemmates an d cures d 1sease,
' an d , m th N"'er
· her role asan ·1• • d of the wine press , who thr _eatens the dead. Bibliography: S.
destructive eye, attacks hostile powers . Bibliography: S.-E. Hoen e sun's Shezmu, 1~,e g~ blutrunstige Keltergerat," ZAS 74 {1938) 88-93 . B. J. Peterson,
suchungenzu Wese11 .. /' S h (H
und KuII der Got in ac met abelts Dissertationsd es, Unter . Schott, Da 12 {l963) 83-88 M . Ciccarrello, "Shesmu the Letopolite,"
Agyptologie 1, Bonn 1976). rucke, • ntalia Suecana
0 rie · . . .
. . H nor of GeorgeR. Hughes {The Onental Institute of the Uruver-
Salis "She of (the island) Sehel, " goddess wor shiped on Elephantine d .
in Sludieshi_n
sity of C 1cago,
°
Studie s in Ancient Oriental Civilization 39, Chicago 1977)
' · · hal • · an its 43--54,
neighbonng islands and adtt e roy f cour t, s~owhn m human form with the
Upper Egyptian crown an a pair o ante 1ope s orns . Together with Kh
and Anukis she forms the triad of Elephantine , which dispenses the ,,num u od of the space between earth and sky and of the light _that fills t~at
Sh/ a~e. Through hi s separation of earth and s~y Shu _tai;es part m _th~ creation
water" of the sources of the inundation . Bibliography : D. Valbelle SatcooI
Anoukis (Mainz 1980). ' rs et f he world . Depicted in human form or with a hon s head . Bibliography :
~- tde Buck, Plaats en betekenis van Sjoe in de egyptische theologie(Mededeelin-
Stjm (Sedjem), "Hearing," revered from the New Kingdom on as one of th gen der Kon . Nederlandsche Ak . van Wetenschapen, Afd . Letterkunde, n .s.
forces that aid the creator god . Bibliography: see frj . e 10, 9, Amsterdam 1947).

Se/kis,"She who causes (the throat) to breathe , " deity who protects the de- Sia, personification of the planning "Percipience " which , together with Hu and
ceased, shown in human form with a scorpion on her head. Isis can also Hike, renders the work of creation possible.
appear in the form of Selkis.
Sobek, Greek Suchos, lord of str4:tches of water , worshiped in crocodile form or
Sepa, "Millipede," helping deity who protects against malicious animals, wor- as a human being with crocodile head , especially in the lakeside area of the
shiped especially in Heliopolis; as a god of the dead he is combined with Faiyum . Bibliography : C. Dolzani, II dio Sobk {Alli dell ' Accadernia nazionale
Osiris from an early date . Bibliography: H. Kees, ZAS 58 (1923) 82-90. dei Lincei , Memorie, Scienze morali, 8th series , 10, 4, pp . 163--269, Rome
1961).
Seshat, the goddess of writing and of learning , often the companion of Thoth.
She plays an important part in foundation ceremonies . Shown in human Sokar, god of craftsmanship and of the dead , worshiped in Memphis ; closely
form with her symbol, which has not as yet been elucidated, on her head . connected with Ptah from the Old Kingdom on, and later also with Osiris.
Shown as a hawk or with a hawk ' s head and a human body whose limbs
Seth, violent and ambivalent god who is shown as a fabulous animal (the "Seth are not indicated .
animal"),_or as a human being with the head of the same animal; connected
with for~1gncountries, the desert , and marginal regions of the ordered world . Sokaret, female doublet of Sokar, attested in the ritual of burial.
His fratnadal conflict with Osiris and Horus clothes the constant struggle of
the _world ma co~prehensible form; he also, however , helps the sun god Sons of Horus, the four gods who protect the deceased and his internal organs.
againstApop,s. B1bhography: H. te Velde, Seth, God of Confusion {PA 6, 1967;
2d
. ed. 1977)· E· Homun g, "Seth . Gesc h 1c. h te und Bedeutung eines agyp- Sothis, the star Sirius, worshiped
from an early date as the harbinger of the
lischen Gottes," Symbo/or,n.s. 2 (1974) 49-63.
inundation . Depicted in human form or as a cow; often a manifestation of
Isis.
Shay, personification of " De ti ,, h .
in h f s ny, I e Agathoda1111on of the Greeks . Depicted
uman orm, and at a late dat k . .
D. Muller u I h e as a sna e . B1bhography : S. Morenz and Sun god . Many Egyptian gods can be the sun god , especiall y Re, Alum, Amun.
, II ersuctmge11zur Rolled S I11. k I .
(ASAW 52 1 l960) J es c c sa s III der iigyptischen Religion and manifestations of Horus. Even Osiris appears as the night form of the
' ' · • Quaegebeur Le d. e • sun god in the New Kingdom . It is often not defined which particular sun
l'onoma
stique(Orientalia L . . ' ,eu gypt,en Shai da11sla relig ion et
ovamens1a Analecta 2, Louvain 1975). god is meant in a given instance .
Sh~d, "The savior," helper of manki . .
is close to Horus in character S-~~ m times of need; as a youthful god he Tatenen, interpreted as meaning "risen land ." Embodiment of the depths of t~e
1
2S . iography : H. Brunner , MDAIK 16 (1958) earth, combined w ith Ptah in Memphis from the New Kingdom on, also 10
2
283
\

Glossary of Gods
the form Ptah-Tenen . Depicted in human form with ram's homs a d
of feathers. Bibliography: H. A. Schlogl, Der Gott Tate11e
11(Orbis ; 1.~ 1_crown
Orientalis 29, Fribourg and Gottingen 1980). cus et

Tefnut, goddess who forms, with 5h11 , the first divine couple , engendered b
Atum without a female partner . S/111 and Tef1111t are envisaged as a air Y
lions, and Tefn11talso appears as the eye of the sun. P of

Thebt'S,often called_"Victorious Thebes" (w'st-11~1/, fem.), personification of

Thebes with martial assoaations , depicted as a woman with the hi·e
. rog1Yph
~
for the Theban nome on her head , holding mace, bow and arrows • h
hands. Bibliography: W. Heick, MDAIK 23 (1968) 119-26.
10
er Index
Thoeris, "The great one" (fem_.), popular protective goddess attested by
countless amulets; together with _Besshe protects mothers in childbirth and
during the 1mhal penod of suckling. Depicted as a fat hippopotamus with
pendulous human breasts, lion's paws, and crocodile's tail, or, more rarely Italic numbers refer to pages on which illustrations occur . The words
with a human head . '
"monotheism" and "polytheism," which recur constantly throughout
Thoth, moon god, messenger of the gods and patron of the art of writing, as the text, are not indexed. For identification and descriptions of deities,
well as mediator m the conflict of Horus and Seth. His chief cult places are see also the Glossary of Gods.
two towns, called Hermopolis in Greek, in Middle Egypt and in the delta ·
commonest manifestations are as ibis and baboon. Bibliography : P. Boylan'. abode, gods', 135, 227-230 Amama period (s« Akhenaten)
Thoththe Hermesof Egypt (London etc. 1922). C. ]. Bleeker, Hathor and Thoth absolutism , 254, 255 Amaunet, 84, 218
(SHR 26, Leiden 1973). abundance, gods', 203 Amduat, 38, 115, 118; described , 155;
Abydos, 23, 70, 108n19; conceptual ennead in, 222; faces in, 124; magic
Wadjet,"The papyrus-colored one" (fem.), protective goddess in snake form personifications at , 76; ennead at, in, 209; rebirth in, 155; rejuvenating
from lower Egypt, also shown with the head of a lioness ; worshiped ri- 222; Khentamenti at, 72-73, 278; snake in, 160-161
marily at -~uto. Bibliography: J..Vandier, "Ouadjet et ('Horus leontocepi;,.le stele of Ramesses IV, 88; Re at, 93; Amelineau, Emile , 23
de Bouto, Fondahon Eugene P1ot, Mo1111111ents et Memoires 55 (1967) 7-75. Wepwawet at, 284 Amenemhat I, 53, 136n91, 142
Admonitions of lpuwer, 61, 227-228 , Amenemhat Ill, 139
We1111t
'. "The swift one" (fem.), goddess in Middle Egypt (Hermopolis) who 229 Amenemope, 53n62, 54, 55, 196, 211,
ongmally had snake form but was later interpreted as a hare. adoration, 202-203 214 (see alsoOnomasticon of Amene-
aging, gods', 153--155 mope)
Wepwmvet,"Opener of ways," god in jackal form who was worshiped pri- Ahmose, King, 61 Amenophis III, 36, 140, 166, 228
marily at Asyut; at Abydos he is linked with the cult of Osiris. Ahmose, Queen , 133 Amon-Re, 91, 92, 93, 96, 97, 127, 139,
air: deities and, 80; as life, 199 197,220,228,231,235,236
W::\~e~kh"She who is rich in magic," epithet of various goddesses , espe - Aker, 80 Amun , 31, 55, 56, 59, 6.3,64, 66, 72,
__j yk met, also known as a goddess in her own right , who is shown as Akhenaten, 43, 54, 167, 244-250; on 73, 77, 80, 84, 86, 90, 91, 92, 93, 97,
a sna e or with the head of a lioness.
Aten 's gifts , 200; E. Drioton on , 28; 98, 108, 124, 126, 127, 130, 133, 135,
West, goddess of the (Ame11tet) dd on mother-father role, 171; 11/rand, 139, 147, 148, 149, 150, 154, 166, 167,
hieroglyph for "w t" h ' go ess of the dead who is shown with the 56; reduced gods , 223; significance 170, 171, 172nll6, 186nl54. 187,
es on er head, mostly a manifestation of Isis or of Hathor. of, 253--254; successors and, 220; 190, 194, 200, 208, 211. 218, 219,
Yamm,semitic personification of the sea. titulary by , 232; transcendence and, 220, 22lnl6, 223, 224n26, 225. 228,
194-195 231,235,236,244,245 ,249,25 2,255
Akhetaten (city, see el-Amarna) androgyny, 171, 222, 284
284 Akhti, 45 Anedjti , 72
Amarna (see el-Amarna) Ani , 52, 54-55, 138, 170
285

/ ·•·- 1

Index
ani,nals: burial of. J00-10 I; sacred .
64, 81, JOO-JOI,137-138, 129, 274-
ist (~ a.ls birds; bulls; cows ; lio
oonesses; mixed form of gods )
Ankhnesnefenbre, 132
..\nkhsheshonq, 53n62, 55
Ankhriii, 211
annihilation.ISi
Anthes , Rudolf, 66, 238, 239
anthropomorphism, 83, 101- 103, 109;
defined , 39
anthropomorphization of powers ,
J0>-107, 123, U4
An toninus Pius , 85
A..'!Ubis , 31, 45, 46, 67, 85. 115, U4,
ill, 187, 218
Anulcis, 69, ·70, 218
Apis, 53n62, 109, 136
Apopis, 158, 159, 164, 169, 178, 208,
1f1,
army, 220, 279, 284 (see also Qadesh )
aroma, gods' , 64, 133-134, 149--150,
197
art, 244, 245 (sa also iconography )
articles, definite/indefinite , 48
Ash, 109
Asia, 147, 167, ll.6, 257
Aten. 43, 56, 148, 162, 167, 171, 186,
200,201, 202, 220, 230, 232, 244. 245,
246, 248, 249 (sa also Akhenaten )
Atum. 66, 67, 77, 79, 86. 88, 92, 97,
146. 147, 148, 150, 15ln26, 153n3I,
160. 163, 187, 188, 189, 22lnl7 , 222
attributes, divine, signs of, 121, 122-
123 (sa also nature , gods ')
ax in nJr, 34
b'w, use of tenn , ~2
ba,_b', :45,
62, 242; iconography of, 123;
linking gods by, 93; location of,
228; as manifestations of powers
138 ' classification of gods, 217-226 , 230-
Badari, !OJ, 102
Barth, Kart, 30
Bat, 103
"Battl~fiel_d"_palette, l03-I05, 104
behavior in instruction texts, 56-57
286
belie f in gods , 100-101
Beni Hasan . 234
Bes, 118
Beth , Karl, 26-27
b~ds (seehawks; soul birds)
birth , 171; gods', lU-151; kings· di
vine, 142; Seth's , 158 (see also •
sis ; rebirth) gene-
Bonnet , Hans , 66, 91, 127, 157
Book of Caverns , 114, 115, 162
Book of Gates , 77, 123-124, 157
168 '
167'
Book of the Dead, 95, 156-157, 172
177-178 ' conflict , nonexistence an~. 1?6, ~80
Book of the Dh,ine Cow, 153-154
Book of the Two Ways, 155, 163
boundaries, 1~169, 177, 181
Breasted , James Heruv 24
breath of life, 199 ,'
Brugsch , Heinrich, 21-22
Bubastis, 225
Budge , E. A. Wallis, 24-25
bulls , 136-137, 138, 275
burials, animals' , 100-101
Buto, 60, 144n3, '1:16,284
Byblos , 166
Cairo hymn to Amun , 200-201, 208,
228, 232, 234
cataract , first, 69--70, 79, 278
Celsus , 138
chalcolithic period , 100-101
chaos, 66, 163, 164, 165, 195, 209
charm, love, 210
Cheops , 50
chick in the egg, 200, 201
children , 164; naming of, 48
Christians , 124-125 , 177, 246 (see also
Copts)
Church fathers , 16
236, 252, 258-259
clothes , 121-122
cloth on cult objects, 34-40
Coffin texts, 5S-59, 151; conceptual
personifications , 76; creator , 149,
150, 169, 171, 19S-199; deities , 146-
ts (continued) .
coffin tex __ 172 234· end of tune ,
147, 154, l:, :,' . m;uic ,' 208, 208-209;
14
163•. ,naat' 2 ' l81 .erpower svm bols ,
onexistence, , k .. 228·
n ·uvenation, 160; s y, '
J33 ; reJ tism 93· wrong-
souls , 61; syncre ' '
doing , 313
binations of gods , 91-99
corn 238 239
mmon sense , •
:mplementarity , logic of, 237, 241-
242, 253 .
f god 58; persorufied , 76-
concep ts O '
77, 82
consciousness stages, 10:,, 253-254 ,
258
constellations as deities , 80
Copts/Coptic, 34,42 , 43
•corporation of gods," 46-47, 221-222
cosmic deities : human form, 108;
names, 68
cosmopolitanism, 167
couples, divine, 217-218
court , royal: Sais at, 71; universal
gods at, n
cows , 103, 110-113 , 276
creation, 66, 67, 148-151; death and,
81; as diversification, 171-ln , 253;
god's uniqueness in , 186; magic
and, 208-209 ; maintenance of, 209;
nonexistence and, 174-177 ; purpose
of, 198-199 ; rejuvenation and, 161-
162; transcendence and, 195
creativity, 184, 216
creator god, 55, 56, 57, 61, 66, 76, 81,
92, 121, 128, 138, 139, 142, 148, 149,
150, 151, 159, 167, 169, 170, 171,
1n, 174,175,176,186,195 , 198, 199,
200,201 , 203,208,209,213,227 , 228,
229,233,235,240,253
creatures, rejoicing of, 202
crowns : gods' , 122; power of, 132
cruelty, gods', 206
cult, 53, 203-206 , 236; of animals, 137-
138; divine uniqueness in , 185; of
female doublets, 83--84; gods' pres-
ence and, 229; home of, 223-226;
Index
of kings' statues, 13:,-136, 140;
m.aatin, T>-76, 214; of
personifications, 76; of primeval
deities, 83-84 ; of Shu , 77;
syncretism and , 98
damnation , 160
darkness, primeval, 169; nonexistence
and, 176-177 , 178,179
daughter in triad, 218
dead persons, 160, 281, 282, 283, 284;
corpses, 134, 228, 229; destruction
of, 178; as gods , SS-59, 62, 63, 96,
98; location of, 227-228; names of,
88; n!r and , 42, 59 (ser alsojudgment
after death ; underworld)
death, 255,281; cosmos's depths and ,
180; before creation, 175; as god , 81;
gods', 142, 151-153 , 15:,-158, 160,
162-165; rejuvenation in, 182 (ser
also rebirth)
Dedwen , 166
deification , 140-142 , '1fJ7
Deir el-Bahri, 110
Deir el-Medina, 89
demi-gods/demons, f:8, 232
Dendara , 110, 156, 186nl56
depth, abysmal , 176, 176-177, 178
desert , 275, 279, 280, 282
Destruction of Mankind, myth of, 205
dialogue with gods, 31
didactic literature, 48-60, 195, 196
differentiation/unity, 66-67, 176, 240,
241; creator and, 171, 184-185, 198,
253, 275; female doublets and, 83
(ser also diversity)
Diodorus, 153
disguises, animal, 104-105
Dispute of a Man with his bo, 89
diversity, 126, 17l~ln
divine/divine-ness, 63-65
Djebauti, n
Djedefhor , 50
Djedefre, 92
Djet, 108nl9, 227
Djoser, 47, 221-222
dogmatism, 184
287
 :.
Index
dream s: gods in, 130-131; use of term ,
130
Drioton, Etienne , 27-29, .51, 52, 55,
59, 195
dualistic thought , 223, 240-241
dual number , 42-13
earth : gods and , 68, 80, 230, 28}-284;
as underworld , 228
econom y, cult and , 205
ecstasy , 182
Edfu, 133, 148, 156, 170
el-Amama , 43, 162, 246
Elephantine , 69, 70, 71, 218, 22.5,275, Frankfort , Henri , .58, 98 , 117 2
278, 282
el-Kharga oasis, 82
emanation, di vine, 64, 65
emotion s, 81, 135
enemies : gods ', 178; iconography of,
102, IOJ---104
enneads , 86, 221-223, 234, 275
epithets : interchangeability of, 98; of
Osiris, 90
equality , human s', 199
Erman, Adolf, 17-18, 24, 74-75
eschatology, 162-165
Esna, 158, 277, 280
eternity , 183
etymology of gods ' name s, 67~
evil, respo ns ibility for, 212-213
existencel_c -xistent , 150--15!, 186, 195, g rain god, 53
196, 21:,, 216; evil and , 212; non-
exis tent and , 179-180, 183; notion
of, 99; reju venati on of, 182-183 (see greatne ss, gods ', l86-l 89 , 231_ 237
also nonexis tence/nonexistent )
exIStence of gods , 25 I
<:xperien ce of god s, 251
eye: god's , 149, 150; sun 's 154 280
282, 2M ' ' • instruction texts, 48--W,I 95, 196
fan -s, god s', l2J-J24, 126
Fa1yum , 79, 100, 186, 281
fathers, divine, 147- 151
fear of gods, 197
fecundity figure s, 77_79
female doubl ets go o • 27
' J-O:J, 6, 280 281
288 ' Harpre , 85
festivals, 204--20.5
fetishism , 36, 37, 39 40
figurines , anthropo~o
fire, gods' , 197
'!3
• !OJ, 194
rp IC, 102-103
fishes , gods and , 79-80, 278
flags/s tandards , cultic, 36-38
floo? (see ocean, primeval
foreigners, 166, 180, 257, 2 k
form(s): god's true , 124-!2.5 •
tiplicity of gods' 98 12• ' !3:, ; muf-
, , :>-128 (
also manifestations ; mixed f0 see
gods) rm of
formulas, gods as, 256-2.57, 258
freedom, 199-2()(), 203 ' 24, 238
free wi ll, 215--216
Gardiner , Alan H ., 35
Gel:, 68, 80, 90, 108, I 17, 146 147
154, 163, 221, 223, 232 ' '
genea _logy, gods', 146, 217, 218, 222
g~nes1s , primeval gods ', 148
gifts , 203, 204
Gir✓-a , 103
Giza , 191
Gno sti cism , 89, 177, 178
Goethe , Johann Wolfgang von !6-! 7
133, 206 ' '
Goldammer, Kurt, 36, 38
grace , 202
Grapow , Hermann , 26-27, 174-175
g rea t m o th er goddess, 102
Great Sphinx, 97, 98, 276
Greece /Greek s, 9S-99, 122 232 234
2.55, 2.56, 2.57 ' ' , Instruction of Amenemope (s« Amen-
Grh (IJ (Gereh), 82
Hadrian, 85
hand s, attributes of gods in 121 122
Hapy , 53, 77, 79, 147nl 1 ' ' 157, 167, 176, 187, 192, 209, 210,
Harakhte , 97, 187, 219, 245, 246
Haremhab , 139nl05 , l86n159 , 220
Harmachis, 97, 98, 130
Harpokrates , 121, 144
J-{arsaphes, 12, 222n2J, 233
J-{arsiese, -144
4
49 53n62, 61 , 103, 110,
J-{athorl,13:,,114 115 I18 , 122n39 , 126,
711, , , , gods , 214-216 (see also anthropo-
n6B, 132, J47n7 , 241
131
J-{atrnehit, 79
J-{atshepsut , 64, 84n79, 133, 134, 139,
157, 165
hawks , 39, 103, 246, 275 , 276, 277 ,
280, 283
head : attribute for, 122-123 (see
also mixed form of gods)
heart, 134-135, 229-230
J-{eidegger, Martin, 173
J-{eliopolis, 108, 145, 275, 279, 282;
chalcolithic, 101; ennead, 221, 222;
genealogy , 146; local deities, 71;
preference for, 220; souls of, 60, 61
hell, 205--206
helpers, gods as, 211-212, 282-283
henotheism, 48, 56, 60, 98, 243, 245,
253; controversy over, 24, 25,
26, 236-237
Heqet, 115
Harakleopolis, n , 233, 277
Hermes Trismegistos, 186
Hermopolis , 60, 84nn, 156, 277, 278,
280, 281, 284; gods ' tombs, 156; og-
doad, 218; Thoth , 236, 284
Hierakonpolis, 60
hierarchies, 86-88, 201-202, 223
hieroglyph : for god, 34-40, 194; on
gods ' heads, 117
Hike , 76, 77, 1n , 208
history, Egyptian idea of, 194
Hittites , 122
Horakhbit , 84
Horapollo , 40
Horus, 43, 46, 47, 52, 53n62, 74, 80,
88, 92 , 97, 103, 109, 124, 133, 141,
142, 144, 145, 146, 147, 151, 154,
212n60, 213, 217, 218, 221, 222, 224,
225, 231, 232, 233
Hu, 76, 77n44
Huh, 66,218
humans : creation of, 149-150; god in,
i,.
Index
229-230; as gods' images, 54, 13S-
142; gods in form of, 107-109; help
for individual, 211-212; as measure
of things, 151-152; relationship to
morphism ; anthropomorphization
of powers ; mixed form of gods)
Huni , 70
hymns, 56; Akhenaten's, 244, 248; to
Osiris, 90 (seealso Cairo hymn to
Amun; Leiden hymn to Amun)
hypostases (seemanifestations)
iconography, 100--125, 257-258;
anthropomorphic, of gods , 103,
107-108; mixed form in, 109-125
(seealso art)
ideograms , gods as, 117
images, gods ', 135-138, '2:19,330; an-
thropomorphic, 102-103 ; as divine ,
64; linking gods by, 93; men as , 54;
versus true form, 135 (seealso ico-
nography)
lmhotep , 50--51
immanence, divine , 191, 192, 194,
229-230; in king , 192 (s« also tran-
scendence)
immortality, 255; gods ', 212
incense, 64, 147-148
India, 16, 236, 237
individuality in syncretism, 97
Input, 85
insects, 115, 117
Instruction for Merikare, 52-53, 54, 55,
138, 169, 225
emope)
intermediaries, 230, 248
inundation, 53, 79, 179, 181, 276, 283
Ishtar of Nineveh, 166
Isis , 16, 43, 53n62, 63, 80, 86, 87, 88,
89, 93, 94, 95, 113n25, 117, 126, 144,
146, 147, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155n38,
169, 170, 188, 209, 217, 218, 222
Isis and Re (story), 86-87 , 154
289

lndex
Ju~ , 71, 74.nJI. 169. 170. 188, 2m ,
217. 218. 222
J~ uier. Gu tave, 39. 83. lOl
/7 , 76
judgment airer deat h, in , 178, !Bl ,
205-206
Junker, Hermann, 27, :,9, 98, 98nl21,
188-189. 238
/:Jz,44. 45, 46, 47, 48; defined, 47
K.-ipl
ony, Peter, 44-46
K.-irnak
, 73, 84, 85n&I, 163, 171, 204,
245
K.-irornama, 230
Kees, Hermann, 24, 59, 60, 61, 66,224
Kharga, el- (s,,e el-Kharga oasis)
Khasekhem, 107
Khatery, 82
Khededu, 69nl4
Khefthernebes, 74
Khentamenti, 72
Khephren, l 42
Khepry, 88, 97, 116, 117, 155, 187
Khnum, 45, 46, 49, 53n62, 55, 57, 61,
69, 70, 71, 79, 141, 218
Khons, 68, 145, l55n36, 186, 218
king of the gods, 231-232, 233, 234
king ruler, 191- 195, 196; accession
o(, 142; animal names o(, 105; as
creator, 227; cult o(, 140; as soul,
60; as divine, 64, 140-142; dreams
o(, 130-131;gifts from, 203;
god as, 192, 232- 236; as image of
gods, 13S-142; love for, 200-
201; maat and, 214; magic of,
209; versus nonexistent, 180;
power of dead, 131-132; role of,
182, 211-212, 227-228; as soul, 60,
228; sun god and , 54, 139-140
kinship, deities linked by, 93
Koptos, 109
Kuk, 66, 218
lakes, deities. and, 77, 79
Lefebure, Eugene, 19
Leiden hymn to Amun, 56, 93, 135
219, 228-229 ' Merikare (seeInstruction for Merikare)
290
le Page Renouf, Peter, 19-20 33
237 , , 41,
~ius ?rJ
, Richard, 21, 72, 125,
217
Libya, 16:,, 166, 167, 226, 275
life/living, 231, 23_3; gilt of, 19'}; lord
of, 121; sus taining of, 200-20J
light, 200 (see also radiance )
Jion.s/lione sses, 205, 274, 278, 28! 282
283, 284 ' '
Litany of Re, 56, 127
local god s, 51, 60, 69-74, lli6-J 87
localities, gods ', 223-226, 228
logic, 237-243, 252; Akh enaten 's , 249
lords, 48-49, 90--91, 121, l2S-126, 193
234, 235
love: lor gods, 202; god s' , 200, 201-202
Lower Egypt , 71, IOI, 226, 284
Lucian, I S-16
Maadi, IOI
Maat, 46, 74, 75, 76, 90, 117, 185nl51,
213, 214, 275, 232
maat, 213-216
Mafdet , 83
magic, 158, 164, 207-209, 277, 284;
name s and, 87-89; for protection, 62
magical texts, 164-165
Mahes, 187
Manetho, 154n34, 168, 232
manifestations, 29; defined , 242n96;
divine-ne ss in, 64; god s', 54, 55,
5S-56, 113-114; kings', 139; linking
gods by, 93 (see also forms)
mankind (see humans)
Mann, Thoma s, 17, 156, 183
Mariette, Auguste, 21
Maspero, Gaston, 21, 22, 23-24
Medine! Habu, 228
Mehetweret, 110, l 72, 1!3n25
Memphis: deiti es, 70, 136-137, 275,
280, 281, 282, 283; preference for,
220; triad, 218
Memphite theology, 189
Mendes, 79n52, 93, 277
Menes, 108, 232
Meresger, 223
Merimda culture , 100
-· - I -
tah !30 140. 165
~ern ep . . '22 123
Mesopotamia, I :
Mestasyt mis. 82n6:> _
metalangua ge, ]17, 256
Middle Egypt . 2BJ, 2M
M"ddl e Kingd om, 228
'. 67 97nll 8, 103, 107. 108,
Mm, 46 , 61, '
12L 126
Mitanni , 166 _ _
mixed form of gods, l:>-16, 109-12:,,
257
Mnevis, 53n62
monolatry , 237, 243
Mons Porphyrite s, 86n90
' Mont , 48, 71, 72, 85, 139, 141
Morenz, Siegfried , 141, 160, 211, 248;
on immanence /transcendence, 167-
168, 190-192, 193, 194; on monothe-
ism, 29, 30-31, 51, 237
Morgenstern, Chri stian, 257
mother(s), divine, 146-147, 148
moth e r goddes s, 102
MOiier, F. Max, 236-237
mummies , anthropomorphic god s
and , 107; 11/rand, 36
Mut, 53n62, 97n118, 185n151, 218
Mycerinus, 222
myste ries , deities and, 2, 117
mysticism, 182
myth, 238, 240, 244, 248, 258
"mythopo eic" thought, 238, 240
nakedness, 102; gods', 121-122
names : creation and, 174; gods', 66-
99; multiplicity of, 125; personal,
44--48 (seealso female doublets ;
personifications; syncretism)
Naqada, 101, 102, 103
Narmer palette, 103, 105, 106,
124, 227
nature, creator's care for, 199-200
nature, gods', 184, 252, 258
nature cults, 225
Naville, Edouard , 238
Nebethetepet, 71
necropolis , 275; gods', 156
Neferirkare, 201
Index
, ·efertem, 117, 118, 1.85.218
• ·eith, 36nl 4, 4.5. 46, ~ - 49, 53 2.
6 1. 80, 9i, 103, JOB, 147, 1·
!',;ekhbet, 47n5I. n . 144
Nek heb, n
Ne mty. 46, 83nb8
neolith ic period, 100
Ne ph thys, 43, 93. 94. 95, l 17, 144, W ,.
152, 217. 222
Ne pri . 155
Ne wberry , P. E.. 35
New Kingdom, 211-212. ~229;
dr eam5 durin g, 130-131; theology
in, 53
Nietzsche, Friedrich . 2.54
night, deiti es as, 82
Nile : god s and , 77, 79; source. 71 (S<t
also cataract, first; inundati on)
Ninetjer, 108n19
Njkw, 121
njwtj, 73
Nofretiri , 93, 95
nome, deitie s of, 72
nonexistence /nonexistent , 172-183.
186, 195, 196; of damned . 206; eter-
nity and, 255; evil and, 213: god
versus, 180; existence versus.
216; as one , 253; ilence and . 215
nouri shment, 213-214
11011le,42
1tlr, 27, 166, 246; dual forms. 42-43;
etymology of, 41-42; as general con-
cept, 58; plural forms. 42-43; singu-
lar forms of, 43; use of word . 42~
11!rj,41, 63-65
11!rjt, 38, 42
11lrt,47-48
Nubia, 37, 166, 167, 187n16.5, 226. 276
number s: of gods , 1~171 ; of gods in
group, 217-223 (S<'t' also couples:
ennl'ads; ogdoads: one: thn--e:
triads)
numen /num ina . 37, 38. 62: b'ui as. 60
Nun, 22. 66, 147, 150, 151n26, 153n31.
161. 163, 175nl25. 177, 179, 180.
181, 183, 208n45, 218
Nut , 68, 90, 108. 122. 146, 147. 221.
222, 241
291
I
 • I .~ • •
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Index Index

objects, gods as inanimate, 177;
sacred. 6-1, IOI
ocean, primeval, 147, 148, 161, 163,
279,280; nonexistence and, 176-177;
rejuvenates . 181; transcendence
and, 168
officials, didactic literature and , 57
ogdoads, 221, 224, 274, 281
Old Kingdom , 91-92, 227; sun god in,
54
omnipotence, 169, 195, 212, 256
one, 252 (seealso uniqueness of god)
onomastica, 183
Onomasticon of Amenemope, 58
ontology, 150--151,152, 173, 184, 240,
242-243, 255; differentiation in,
240; revolution and, 183
Onuris , !03, 235
oracle, divine, 193
order /disorder, 212-216; in pantheon,
217, 222
Osiris, 16, 31, 37, 40n27, 52, 55, 67,
68, 72, 73, 80, 86, 87, 90, 93, 94,
95, 96, 121, 126, 127, 134, 144, 146,
151, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156, 157, 163,
172, 181, 187, 192, 193,194,218,222,
224, 225, 231, 233, 236, 245, 252
Otto , Eberhard, 29, 30-31, 53, 76--77,
163--164, 217, 255-256
Ouroboros, 164, 17S-179
Pakhet, 72, 82, 234
Palermo annal stone , 107-108, 232
palettes, 100, IOI, 103 (seealso"Battle-
field " palette; Narmer palette)
pantheism, 21, 24, 26, 127-128, 252;
animal cults and, 137; word "god "
and, 60
Papyrus Brooklyn, 55
,.J
Papyrus Insinger, 53n62, 231
Papyrus Jumilhac , 67
Paser, 74
Peribsen , 109
persecution , 43, 249
Persians in Egypt , 82
personifications, 74-82
Petric, W. M. F., 23, 34
292
Pettazzoni, Raffaele, 235, 243
Philae, 156, 170
philosophers , god of, 52, 53 , 55
Phiops I, 71-72 , 193, 231
Pierret, Paul, 20-21 , 22, 41
piety , 137, 196
Piye , 236
planets , deities and, 80
plants, 117, 229
Plato, 65
plural , grammatical, 42-43, 49, 52
Plutarch, 153, 162
Poe , Edgar Allen, 19
politics , 71, 193, 196, 211, 234n66 ,
244-245
Posener, Georges, 52, 140, 141
powers , divine, 76, 131-133, 207, 231;
animals as , 103-105; anthropomor-
phization of, 105-107; geographical
limitations, 166--169; human reac-
tion to, 197-198 ; in prehistory, 100-
105; terms for , 60-63 (seealso om-
nipotence)
prayers, 166, 206
predestination, 215-216
predynastic period (seeprehistory)
prehistory , 100-105, 232
priestesses, titles of, 49
priests, 53, 226, 229, 245; of Amaunet,
84; animal cults and, 137-138; gods'
images and , 135-136, 197; on gods'
uniqueness, 185; title of, 49
primeval gods, 18, 66, 82, 83, 148, 151,
156, 161, 163, 170, 171, 178, 195,221,
224, 256
primeval ocean (seeocean, primeval)
primeval state, 174-182
processions, gods in, 54
procreation, 133, 148--149, 175, 279
prophets of female doublets, 84, 85
Ptah , 31, 45, 46, 55, 56, 57, 59, 61,
67, 68, 77, 85n82, 97, 108, 121, 127,
130, 136, 147, 149n20 , 150, 151n26,
154, 170, 171, 187, 190, 194,201,202 ,
215, 218, 219, 220, 2i5, 232, 233
Ptahhotpe, 52, 52-53, 210-211
Ptolemy VIII Euergetes JI, 211
Rosetta Stone, 42
runt, 64, 133, 134 - •
.1 wisdom texts for, :,2, :,7 Rouge, Emmanuel de, IS-19 , 19, 20,
pup• s,_d Texts 26, 61, 63, 88, 93; 41
Pyram• ' _
divine uniqueness in, 18:,; ennead,
221, 222, 223; epiphan,'.es, 131-133;
female doublets, 218; greatest Sais, 71, 225, 280
god," 187; Horus, 144, 23~; immor- Sakhebu, 74
tality in, 158; invocati?ns m, 206; . Sakhmet, 45, 53n62, 61, 63, 66, 69,
local gods in , 73; magic m, 208, 210, 141, 185nl51 , 188, 218
Nut, 146--147; oldest god, 148,. Saqqara, 50, 186--187n156
149; Re, 92, 231-232 ; regeneration Satis, 45, 46, 69, 70, 71, 108, 188, 218
in, 160 Sauneron, Serge, 28, 51
scarab, 117
Qadesh, 167, 168, 211 scepter, 63
Schelling , F. W. von, 16--17, 236
radiance, gods', 63, 134, 135, 197 Sqm, 76
Rael, 84, 85, 218 sea, 284; god of, 79
Ramesses II, 76, 140, 167, 210, 211, Selkis, 83, 117
215,220 Sepa, 82
Ramesses Ill , 228 Seshat, 46, 76
Ramesses IV, 88, 93, 231 Sesostris I, 89n96, 142, 231
Ramesses IX, 233 Sesostris m, 160
Ramessid period, 54, 202, 220-221 Seth, 43, 63, 67, 68, 80, 103, 108n20,
rationality/rationalist, 238, 244 109, 118, 144, 146, 152, 153. 157, 158,
Re, 31, 45, 46, 52, 53n62, 55, 56, 57, 176,213,217,220,221,222,226 , 232
59, 67, 68, 72, 74, 84, 86, 88, 89, 90, Sethos I, 76, 220
91, 92, 93, 94, 95, %, 97, 98, 120, sexes , 217-218, 222; gods', 171; union
126, 127, 139, 140, 142, 147, 150, 153, of opposite, ~97 (Stt alsoandrog-
154,155,156 , 157, 165,167,169,187, yny; procreation)
190,192,194,208,219,220,225,231, Shay, 53n62, 82n65
232, 235, 236, 245, 246 Shed, 212
Re-Atum, 84n79, 92, 97 Shezmu, 206
Shipwrecked Sailor, 58, 12S-130, 131.
rebirth/regeneration, 155--156, 160-162
Red Sea, 129 197, 202, 203
regeneration (see rebirth; rejuvena- s/1111,62~
shrines, 136, 197, 229
tion)
Shu, 68, 77, 80, 108, 138, 146, 1~7,
reign, gods', duration of, 154, 168
rejuvenation: after death, 160-162 ; 154, 171, 174, 222, 232, 245
from nonexistence, 182 Sia, 52, 76, 77
Renenet, 53n62 Sinuhe, 58, 160, 166, 211
Renenutet, 115 sky, 67, 177, 179, 227, 228, 229, 230,
revelation, 28--29, 242, 251, 254, 259 241
revolution, 244, 245; perpetual, 183 sleep, primeval ocean and, 180 (SMal;,,
Rilke, Rainer Maria, 17, 199, 204 dreams)
rituals, 206 small gods, 231
Roeder, Gunther, 25-26 snake, 81, 88, 129-130, 275, 282; end of
Romans, 85, 122 time and, 163-164: noncxistcnc,.•
293

-
 Inde x
snake (m11ti111lt'ti)
and , 178; regeneration and , 160-
161; time and , 17S-179
Sobek, 46, 79, 115, 147
Sokar, 61, 85, 97, 126n52, 127, 218, 245
Sokaret, 85, 218
son: of god, 192-193; in triad, 218
sons of Horus, 145, 146, 222
Sothis, 80, 97
soul(s), 238; local, 60-61
soul birds, 123
space, 283; before creation, 174-175;
transcendence and , 167-168, 191
special gods, 69
sphinxes , 123, 274 (seealso Great
Sphinx)
staff, as hieroglyph, 3S-38, 39, 40
standards (seeflags)
stars(s): as gods , 80-81; as hieroglyph
for "god," 40
statues , 13S-136; portable, 166
sun disk, 200, 247, 275
sun god , 54, 55, 56, 59, 92, 96, 98,
115, 127, 130, 134, 138, 140, 141, 142,
145, 146, 153, 154, 155, 157, 159, 160,
161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 167, 168,
169nl03, 174, 178, 187, 192, 193,
195, 200, 201, 205, 208, 209, 222, 228,
232, 233, 235, 245, 246, 247
sweat of god , 149--150
syncretism , 91-99, 126, 235--236;
under Akhenaten, 245; multiplicity
of fonns and , 126
Tanis, 35, 193
Tarkhan , 108
Tatenen , 80, 88
tears of god, 149--150
Tefnut , 146, 171, 222
temples , 53, 229; additions to 256·
maatin, 214 ' ' .-. ship and , 253 (seealso differentia-
Theban nome , 7.1
Thebes , n; Amenophis I and, 136n91i
capital, 220; deities 75 85 156
1~7, 170, 22.l--224,236
, '274'._284
'pas-
sun; ennead , 222 (seealso Deir el-
Medina)
theocracy, 193
294
Index
theol_ogy, 56, 95, 211, 239; on gods ' d·er Jacques , 27-28 , 71 west , 117, 122n39, 160
1
union , 9~94 ; "'."1emphite, 189; not Van ' Jozef 51-52, 55, 56, 59, 195 Wiedemann, Alfred , 23, 25, 127, 128,
Vergo 1e, •
closed, 184; pnests' , 137-lJS violence , 205, 279, 282 150-151, 237
theophanies, 12S-135; reaction to visible images , 230 wigs , gods ' , 115
theos, 42 ' 197 will, gods ' , 210-212
visibility ' Aten ' s, 230
Thoeris , 118, 125 wine, 205, 206, 283
visions , 130
Thoth, 45, 52, 53n62, 54, 68, 76, viziers , defined, 57 . wisdom teachers , 50, 238-239; writing
115
126, 137, 154, 155, 186, 187, 202 ' von Strauss und Tomey , Victor , 22, aims of, 57-58
217, 232, 236 ' word , creative , 209
151, 237
threats against gods , 206, 210 "world-encircler, " 160-161
three , symbolism of, 218-219 Wadjet, 47n51, 144, 207n38 wordplays , 67, 150
time: snake and , 178-179; transcen- worship (seecult)
war (see army) .
dence and , 168, 191 water , 77-80, 282 (seealso ocean , pn- Wr, 27, 188-189
Im , 66
meval) Yamm, 79n49
tombs , royal, 190-192 weariness in primeval state , 66, 168,
transcendence , divine, 26, 29, 167- youth, gods' , 14~145
176
168, 182- 185, 190-196, 234, 256; z' , 62
Wenamun , 166
existence and , 242-243 ; kings and Zabkar , Louis V., 60
Wenut, 82
gods' , 140 Wepwawet , 45, 46, 226, 234n66 Zimmerman , Friedrich , 69
transformation spells , 98 zoolatry , 39, 40, 83, 101
Werethekau , 85n82
travelers , 166
tree cults , 41
triads, gods ', 56, 97, 218-219 , 276
Tuna el-Gebel , 186n156
Turin Canon of kings, 154, 168, 194,
233
Tutankhamun , 84, 139, 139nl05 , 165,
219, 250
Tuthmos is I, 133, 154
Tuthmosis III , 139n104, 193
Tuthmosis IV, 130, 150
Ucko, Peter , 102
underworld, 62, 96, 168-169, 177-178,
228, 229, 230, 274; Aker in, 274;
light in, 200
union of deities , 9~96, 207
uniqueness of god , 184-185 , 195
unity , creation and, 66-67 , 176; wor-
; tion)
i.uiiversal deities , 70-72, 72, 223, 224,
32S-326
Upper Egypt , 71, 101, 226
vagueness in idea of god , 26, 98-99
van der Leeuw , Gerardus 26 98 127
152 I I I I
295