|
|
Iabet was the goddess of the Eastern Desert, of fertility and rebirth. She was a personification of the land of the east - iabt - and was known as Khentet-Iabet (Khentet-abet), 'Before the East'. She was believed to wash the god Re, and was linked to the rising of the sun in the east.
The chthonic goddess of the East, Iabet, who is far less important than her counterpart of the West, Amentet, does appear together with her in New Kingdom private tombs, on coffins and sarcophagi, and on funerary papyri in scenes relating to the course of the sun (variants are Isis = Amentet and Nephthys = Iabet). She is virtually absent in royal tombs of the New Kingdom (possibly present in the Amduat, 1st hour).
-- Ein ägyptisches Glasperlenspiel, Beiträge Hornung
One princess, from the reign of Khufu, may have included this goddess as part of her name - Nefert-Iabet (Nefret-Iabet, Neferet-Iabet) 'Beauty of Iabet'. Then again, her name may have meant 'Beautiful One of the East', with no link to the goddess Iabet. (The Hieroglyph is used in words relating to 'east' or to 'left'.)
It was believed that Iabet had been charged to wash Re, and thus linked to Kebechet (Kabechet, Kebechet, Kebehut, Kebhut), daughter of Anubis, who was a deity of freshness and purification of the dead through water. At temples throughout Egypt, some of the priests had a special job as part of the daily ritual - that of purifying the temple deity. Using incense to purify the air, the deity was lifted out of his or her shrine, was washed, anointed with oils, dressed in white, green, red and blue cloths and fed. Iabet's washing of Re may have been related to a belief in Re's morning ritual, similar to the priestly ritual of serving the gods.
The Egyptians personified the cardinal points of the horizon in goddesses that differentiated themselves by the headdress which they wore on the head ... She was a celestial goddess, mother and wife of Min who was known as "The Bull of His Mother", the original title of Re.
-- Iabet, Amigos de la Egiptología
Iabet was thought to be the mother-wife of the god Min, god of the Eastern Desert and fertility. She was also linked to Re, as the east was the birthplace of the rising sun, who comes back from his nightly travel in the underworld, returning the the land of the living. She was to the goddesses Isis, Nephthys and to Hathor, who took the name Khentet-Iabet. She was sometimes depicted with Amentet, the goddess of the west. Like Amentet, she was a goddess of the desert and of rebirth, and thus fertility.
Iabet's relationship to Min, being thought of as both his mother and his wife, may have come from Min's title, "The Bull of His Mother":
What that epithet means is not clear until we examine what happens within a herd of cattle. The dominant bull impregnates all heifers, including his mother!
-- Family and Sexual Mores in Ancient Egypt, Daniel Kolos
There may have been a male version of Iabet. In The Book of the Earth, there are two male deities who are shown to welcome the sun - iabtht and amntht. Iabeth may have been the male personification of the east, and maybe a husband or companion of Iabet.
Ihy was a young god personifying the jubilation emanating from the sacred rattle.
The name of Ihy was interpreted by the Egyptians as "sistrum-player" which was the raison d'etre of this god. The sistrum was a cultic musical instrument used primarily (but not exclusively) in the worship of Hathor, mother of Ihy. At Dendera temple Ihy is the child of the union of Hathor and Horus and is depicted as a naked young boy wearing the sidelock of youth and with his finger to his mouth. He can hold the sacred rattle and necklace (menat).
In the temple complex the birth house or "mammisi" was a sanctuary where the mystery of the conception and birth of the divine child Ihy was celebrated. His name is rarely found outside the confines of Dendera temple, though for example, we occasionally find it in spells of the Coffin Texts or Book of the Dead where he is called "lord of bread...in charge of beer", a possible reference to the celebrations of Dendera deliberately requiring a state of intoxication on the part of the acolyte in order to communicate with Hathor.
Patron of: architecture and the sciences.
Appearance: a man dressed in the robes of a noble with the punt beard and carrying the tools of a builder.
Description: Not really a god in the truest sense of the word, Imhotep was a deified man. He was originally the chief architect, grand vizier, physician, and scientist under Zoser (III Dynasty, c.2635-2570 BC). He designed the Step Pyramid at Saqqara and formulated the architectural theories that would lead to the construction of the Pyramids of Giza only a few generations later. He was also an accomplished astronomer and physician.
After his death a cult sprang up dedicated to him. It quickly grew in popularity among the learned people of Egypt (Imhotep's life had occurred during a sort of Renaissance) and continued for many centuries. His followers believed him to be the son of Ptah, the architect of the entire universe.
Worship: Worshipped widely throughout Egypt, he even had a flourishing cult in Greece where he was identified with Asclepius, another deified man and the god of healing.
Ipet was a benign hippopotamus goddess known as a protective
and nourishing deity. Her name seems to mean 'harem' or 'favored place'. Our
first reference to her comes from the Pyramid Texts, where the king asks that
he may nurse at her breast so that he would "neither thirst nor hunger...forever".
Afterwards, she is called "mistress of magical protection" in funerary
papyri. Under the epithet 'the great Opet', she is fused to some extent with
Taweret, 'the great one', but she never completely losses all of her independent
characteristics, irregardless of the fact that many modern texts completely
assimilate her with Taweret.
She appears to have had a very strong connection with the Theban area and might
have even been considered a personification of that city. In the theology of
Thebes, she was thought to be the mother of Osiris and therefore her afterlife
associations are clear in the funerary texts in which she appears.
Ipet was usually depicted as some sort of combination of hippopotamus, crocodile, human and lion, though her hippopotamus aspect is dominant. She was represented as a female hippopotamus, usually standing upright on legs which have the feet of a lion. In this guise, her arms are usually human in appearance though they generally terminate in leonine paws. Sometimes she was depicted with the swollen belly of a pregnant woman and with large pendent human breasts. Her back and tail were those of a crocodile and sometimes this aspect was emphasized by a complete crocodile stretched over her back.
Ipet was only one of several goddesses, including Taweret, Reret and Heqet, who could take the form of a hippopotamus. All of these goddesses were associated with pregnancy and protection, and they were often difficult to distinguish from each other, not only in their form but also in their characteristics.
Sometimes her depictions appear to be apotropaic in nature, and the vignettes of funerary papyri such as Spell 137 of the Book of the Dead, the goddess is shown holding a torch and lighting incense cones to provide light and heat for the deceased.
Though dating to the Pyramid Age prior to the rise of Thebes as an important Egyptian city, she was particularly venerated in that city where her temple just west of the temple of Khonsu was an integral part of the Karnak complex, even though it was a fairly late addition. In fact, it was on the ground that her temple sits, according to Theban beliefs, that she rested after giving birth to Osiris. Interestingly, while she even appears as a protective figure on the back of a statue of a 17th Dynasty ruler, in most areas of Egypt there appear to be no cult centers associated with the goddess.
Patron of: women, mothers, children, magic, medicine, and the Ritual of Life.
Appearance: A beautiful woman in magnificent clothing, sometimes shown wearing the sun disk. She has almost no variant forms.
Description: Isis may be the oldest deity in Egypt, and certainly the oldest to survive the ages in much the same form. She may also be the most important, for although the other gods were worshipped widely, Isis was worshipped almost universally by all Egyptians. The major goddess of the Egyptian pantheon, she had many of the same attributes of other mother-goddesses found all over the world. She was revered as the great protector, prayed to for guidance, and beseeched for peace in the world. Temples to Isis are found everywhere in Egypt, some of them quite ancient, and many houses had shrines to her devotion. Her worship was taken up by the Greeks and the Romans, and indeed, Isis followers are still found today.
She was the daughter of Nut and Geb, the sister to Osiris, Set, and Nephthys, and the mother of Horus. In earlier times she was not only the wife to Osiris, but his female counterpart, equal in all ways and powers. In the Legend of Osiris it is she who travels the world to find all the pieces of his body and it is she who brings him back to life with the aid of Thoth. But that is not the only time she is associated with Thoth. Together they taught man the secrets of magic, medicine, and agriculture. Her power is spoken of much in the ancient stories, and she may have been even more powerful than Ra and Osiris. She did after all trick Ra's secret name out of him to gain his power. Yet she is never shown as selfish or cruel, except to those who would harm those she loves. Power and compassion, crafty but merciful, Isis represents all the qualities of women.
Iusaas was a goddess of Heliopolis whose name means, "she comes who is great". Wearing a scarab beetle on her head she can easily be seen as a counterpart to the sun god Atum, and like Nebethetepet plays a crucial role as the feminine principle in the creation of the world. Late text equates her with the hand of Atum with which he masturbated to begin his creative act.
Jacques Vandier has pointed out that Iusaas, along with Nebethetepet, actually enjoyed a rather widespread importance in many of the temples in Egypt, particularly considering that she seems to have a strong local character.
Worship: Worshipped widely not only throughout Egypt but also much of the known world.