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Patron of: purification of the body of the deceased.
Appearance: a serpent or ostrich bringing water.
Description: Kabechet is the daughter of Anubis, and she aids him in preparing the body for mummification. When Anubis washes the entrails, it is she who brings him the sacred water for the task. She also gives a cooling drink to the spirits of the dead who must wait while they are being mummified.
Worship: Not truly worshipped, but mentioned in many hymns and passages of The Book of the Dead.
The Egyptians believed that before the world was formed, there was a watery mass of dark, directionless chaos. In this chaos lived the Ogdoad of Khmunu (Hermopolis), four frog gods and four snake goddesses of chaos. These deities were Nun and Naunet (water), Amun and Amaunet (invisibility), Heh and Hauhet (infinity) and Kek and Kauket (darkness). The chaos existed without the light, and thus Kek and Kauket came to represent this darkness. They also symbolized obscurity, the kind of obscurity that went with darkness, and night.
The Ogdoad were the original great gods of Iunu (On, Heliopolis) where they were thought to have helped with creation, then died and retired to the land of the dead where they continued to make the Nile flow and the sun rise every day. Because of this aspect of the eight, Budge believe that Kek and Kauket were once deities linked to Khnum and Satet, to Hapi - Nile gods of Abu (Elephantine). He also believed that Kek may have also been linked to Sobek.
Kek (Kuk, Keku) means darkness. He was the god of the darkness of chaos, the darkness before time began. He was the god of obscurity, hidden in the darkness. The Egyptians saw the night time, the time without the light of the sun, as a reflection of this chaotic darkness.
The characteristics of the third paid of gods, Keku and Kauket, are easier to determine, and it is tolerable certain that these deities represent the male and female powers of the darkness which was supposed to cover over the primeval abyss of water; they have been compared by Dr. Brugsch with the Erebos of the Greeks.
-- The Gods of the Egyptians, E. A. Wallis Budge
As a god of the night, Kek was also related to the day - he was called the "bringer-in of the light". This seems to mean that he was responsible for the time of night that came just before sunrise. The god of the hours before day dawned over the land of Egypt. This was the twilight which gave birth to the sun.
The feminine of the god Kek, Kauket (Keket) was a much more obscure goddess than her husband. She was a snake-headed woman who ruled over the darkness with her husband. Her name also meant darkness, as did her husband's name, but with a feminine ending.
O you eight chaos gods, keepers of the chambers of the sky...The bnbn [phoenix] of Ra was that from which Atum came to be as ... Kek, darkness... I am the one who begot the chaos gods again, as Heh, Nun, Amun, Kek. I am Shu who begot the gods.
-- Coffin Text, Spell 76
Kauket was the feminine to Kek's masculine, more of a representation
of duality than an actual goddess, so she was even less of a deity than Kek,
and much more of an abstract.
She was, though, also related to the day - she was the "bringer-in of the
night". This seems to show her to be the goddess of the night, just after
sunset. The goddess of the the hours of the evening, as night covered Egypt,
and the sun had disappeared. This was the twilight which turned into the darkness
of night.
Patron of: the creation of people and animals.
Appearance: a man with the head of a ram.
Description: Khenmu formed a triad with Anuket and Satis, and was possibly a Nubian god originally. The worship of Khenmu dates to the earliest of times in Egypt, the Unas Pyramid Text indicates that his cult was already old when that ancient document was written. Called "the Great Potter," Khenmu was the creator of people. He sculpted them out of clay from the Nile, held them up so that Ra could shine his life-giving rays upon them, and then placed them in the womb. His wife was the lioness-goddess Menhit, and their son was Hike. Originally a primal force deity of creation like Ptah, his role was later modified to fit him into the pantheon of the state religion.
Worship: Worshipped throughout Nubia and Egypt, his cult centers were Elephantine, Sunnu, Abu, and Semnut.
Kherty was a ram god with a dual nature of hostility and protection. From Kherty the king has to be protected by no less a deity than Re. However, Kherty, as his name which means "Lower One" indicates, is an earth-god and so can act as the guardian of the royal tomb. The king's power over the winds is likened to the grasp of Kherty's hand.
In the Old Kingdom Kherty is eminent enough to figure as a partner of Osiris and his ram form leads naturally to a relationship with Khnum. Kherty's major cult center appears to have been at Letopolis, northwest of Memphis.
Patron of: the sun, creation, life, resurrection.
Appearance: A scarab-headed man, a scarab, and a man wearing a scarab as a crown.
Description: The word kheper means scarab, and as the animal was associated with life and rebirth, so was Khephri. The scarab lays its eggs in a ball of dung and rolls it to hide in a safe place. From this unlikely substance the Egyptians observed new life emerging. Similarly, they believed that Khephri, in the form of a gigantic scarab, rolled the sun like a huge ball through the sky, then rolled it through the underworld to the eastern horizon. Each morning Khephri would renew the sun so that it could give life to all the world
Patron of: the moon, time, knowledge.
Appearance: A young man in the posture of a mummy with the royal sidelock and punt beard. He wears the moon disk on his shoulders.
Description: Khonsu is the son of Amun and Mut, and is the god of the moon. He is also revered as the god of time, and is thus regarded as one of the companions of Thoth. Khonsu is a great lover of games, and is frequently shown playing a game of Senet against Thoth for one thing or another.
Worship: His cult center is at Thebes where he forms a triad with Amun and Mut.