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Patron of: truth, law and universal order.
Appearance: A woman wearing a crown surmounted by a huge ostrich feather. Her totem symbol is a stone platform or foundation, representing the stable base on which order is built.
Description: Maat was the personification of the fundamental order of the universe, without which all of creation would perish. The primary duty of the pharaoh was to uphold this order by maintaining the law and administering justice. To reflect this, many pharaohs took the title "Beloved of Maat," emphasizing their focus on justice and truth.
At any event in which something would be judged, Maat was said to be present, and her name would be invoked so that the judge involved would rule correctly and impartially. In the underworld, the heart of the deceased was weighed by Anubis against Maat's feather. If the heart was heavy with wicked deeds, it would outweigh the feather, and the soul would be fed to Ammit. But if the scales were balanced, indicating that the deceased was a just and honorable person in life, he would be welcomed by Osiris into the Blessed Land. Maat's presence in all worlds was universal, and all the gods deferred to her.
Worship: Worshipped and revered widely throughout all of Egypt. Even the gods are shown praising Maat.
Patron of: protection against snakes, scorpions and other dangerous animals.
Appearance: a woman with the head of a cheetah, her hair braided and ending in scorpion tails. Sometimes she wears a headdress of snakes.
Description: The ancient Egyptians revered felines as sacred for many centuries apparently, as Mafdet is a very old goddess, dating to around the First Dynasty. She was prayed to for protection against scorpion stings and snakebite, and invoked in healing rituals for those who had been afflicted by such.
Mafdet, "the runner", was a panther goddess whose ferocity prevails over snakes and scorpions. the scratch of her claws is lethal to snakes, so symbolically the harpoon of the king becomes Mafdet's claws for decapitating his enemies in the Underworld. When Mafdet is described as leaping at the necks of snakes, the imagery seems to suggest her form takes on that of a mongoose. In one epithet, Mafdet wears braided locks, probably a reference to her displaying the jointed bodies of the scorpions which she has killed.
Worship: As her cult was incredibly ancient but supplanted by that of Bast, it is unknown how widespread Mafdet's cult was.
Mahaf was the ferryman who navigates the boat provided by Aken, along the winding waters of the Underworld. he also acts as a herald announcing the arrival of the king into the presence of the sun god, Re.
Other Names: similar to the Furies of Greek mythology being called "The
Kindly Ones," Mahes was rarely referred to by name and was instead referred
to as "The Lord of the Massacre." His name is also found spelled "Maahes."
Patron of: punishment of those who violate Maat, the universal order.
Appearance: a man with the head of a young lion, often shown carrying a knife.
Description: Another feline deity, Mahes was the son of Bast and Ptah and may be an Egyptian assimilation of the Nubian lion-god Apedemak. When Maat was violated, the other gods would work to set it aright, but Mahes would be sent to punish the one who had committed the transgression. Interestingly enough, he encompassed his own opposite, and his name was invoked as a protection for the innocent.
Worship: Cult center at Leontopolis, also worshipped alongside Bast at Bubastis. The Greeks also worshipped him for a time, possibly aligning him with the Furies.
Male child deities in ancient Egypt overlapped considerably
in both their mythology and worship. Sometimes they were worshipped in both
their forms as children and adults, though that was rare. They usually were
the male children of major deities, and so such child gods frequently played
a role related to the divine conception and birth of the king. Some were associated
with the mammisis, or 'birth houses' that were found in later temples.
Horus the Child
Probably one of the best known of the child deities was Horus the Child, which was actually a name given to a number of related forms of divine infant. Most were the son of Osiris and the goddess Isis whom she birthed in the papyrus marshes of Chemmis (Khemmis) in the northeast Delta and raised in secret there in fear of the god Seth. However, Horus the Child could also be grouped with other divine parents at specific temples. At Medamud he was the son of Montu and Raettawy, for example.
Horus the child might have more specific names. For example, in the Pyramid Texts this god is referred to as 'the child with his finger in his mouth'. In that form, he was called Harherywadj, or 'Horus upon his papyrus plants' and sometimes as 'Horus hidden behind the papyrus'. As 'Horus upon his papyrus plant', the child deity appears visually in a wall relief in the temple of Seti I at Abydos as a hawk on a column in the shape of papyrus reed.
The child deity was most frequently called Harpakhered (Greek Harpokrates), which translates as 'Horus the Child' and was often represented in this form as a vulnerable looking child seated on the lap of Isis while sucking his thumb, or he could be alone, depicted standing in the amuletic plaques known as cippi of Horus.
Note that at the top of some cippi of Horus, Bes is depicted. Bes could protect the solar child as part of the Hathor myth. However, the 'cippi' itself was that to act as an amuletic force warding off dangerous creatures.
As Harsiese, he was 'Horus son of Isis', and was clearly identified in his role as the goddesses' legitimate son and heir of Osiris. This was also the case with the related names, Horus iunmutef, or 'Horus pillar of his mother' and Harnedjitef (Greek Harendotes) or 'Horus savior of his father'.
Ihy, the Mucisian
The name of Ihy was interpreted by the Egyptians themselves as 'sistrum player', or 'musician'. He was a personification of the jubilation associated with the use of this sacred instrument. However, another translation of his name could be 'calf', referring to his relation to the cow goddess Hathor, who was usually thought to be his mother. This was especially true at Dendera and Edfu, where he appears as Harsomptus. He was also regarded as the son of a few other deities though, and could be associated in this way with Isis, Nephthys and Sekhmet. Horus was most frequently considered to be his father, but he was also said to be the child of Re.
Ihy was certainly most often thought of as a deity connected with music. However, he was also associated with the afterlife in some contexts. For example, in the Coffin Texts and also in the Book of the Dead, Ihy is called 'the lord of bread' and is said to be 'in charge of the beer' in reference to offerings, but also possibly with regards to ritual celebrations which involved intoxication in the worship of Hathor.
Ihy was typically depicted as a naked boy with his thumb in his mouth, who wears the sidelock of youth. Even though a child, he is not always depicted in a diminutive size, and may be shown at the same scale as his mother and other deities or the king when he appears in the same scene. Sometimes he wears the uraeus on his brow and may be depicted holding the sistrum and the menal necklace which were his symbols. They were also the symbols of his mother, Hathor. There is also some limited evidence that he might have at times also been depicted in the form of a calf.
Ihy, as the son of Horus and Hathor, was one of the triad of deities who were worshipped at Dendera, which was Ihy's main cult site. In fact, a very early shrine specifically dedicated to Hathor and Ihy was rebuilt in this location by the 4th Dynasty King, Khufu. The child god played a very significant role in the mammisi of Nectanebo I at Dendera where his divine conception and birth, as well as that of the king, were celebrated. In fact, 'mystery plays' in thirteen acts concerning the divine birth appear to have been performed at this location. A second birth house at this site built by Caesar Augustus celebrates the divine birth of Ihy as the son of Hathor.
Neferhetep
In the town of Hiw near Nag Hammadi, Neferhetep was locally worshipped also as an infant deity. Though less well known, he was also considered the child of Hathor. His name can be translated as 'perfect in conciliation', which probably reflected the mythological idea that the raging goddess Hathor was transformed into a gentle and loving mother. However, he was also viewed as a divine ram and therefore a symbol of male potency. He was believed to be loved by 'wives at the site of his beauty', in which beauty here is a circumlocution for the god's phallus. Thus, he functioned both as a child, and the power behind the child's conception.
Nefertem
Normally, we think of Nefertem as a god of perfumes but in reality, that was a secondary association. Primarily, Nefertem was the youthful god of the lotus blossom which rose from the primeval waters according to Egyptian myth. Hence, he was not only associated with the blue lotus (Nymphaea cerulea), but with the sun god who emerged from it as well. Therefore, he is frequently associated with Re as a solar deity.
His name, Nfr-tm, means 'Amun is good' or "he who has newly appeared is perfect'.
In the Pyramid Texts he is called 'the Lotus blossom which is before the nose of Re' and therefore his association with perfume was both early and natural. He eventually unites with Re to form a single deity. In spell 249 of the Pyramid Texts, he is also described as "the king as a flower in the and of the sun god".
In later periods, Nefertem was also very closely related to Horus, the son of Re, and the two deities were even sometimes merged. At Memphis during the New Kingdom, Nefertem came to be associated with the God, Ptah, and his consort, Sekhmet, in a very important triad in which he was commonly viewed as their child In this aspect, Nefertum could take on a warlike role and be associated with other warlike gods such as Montu, Sopdu and Hormenty, as well as with other
However, other ancient Egyptian cities also claimed Nefertem, so for example, at Buto he was the son of the cobra goddess Wadjet and he was also sometimes viewed as the son of the goddess Bastet.
Nefertem is most frequently represented anthropomorphically as a male god wearing a lotus blossom on his head. This headdress is sometimes augmented by two upright plumes and twin necklace which hang at its sides. Nefertem may also be depicted as a lion headed god when he is the son of the leonine goddess Sekhmet. Even in this guise, he might still infrequently wear his distinctive lotus headdress. He could also be shown standing on the back of a lion, but this may have been more closely connected with his solar association with Re. The child god usually wears a short kilt and may hold a khepesh sickle sword, which may be connected to his epithets, khener tawy, or 'protector of the Two Lands'.
Due to his connection with the primeval creation myths, Nefertem may also be depicted as a child seated on a lotus blossom, and a variation of this motif is found in examples which depict only the head of the god emerging from the lotus. We have, from the tomb of Tutankhamun, a famous painted wooden example of this form of the god. In these images, the connection between Nefertem and the infant sun god is particularly striking, and such representations could be seen as depicting the king as one or the other, or even both of these deities.
Nefertem was primarily a deity of royal and divine monuments and was therefore not popularly worshipped. In fact, as the son of the ferocious goddess, Sekhmet, he was frequently feared. Hence, by the Third Intermediate Period, amulets with divine decrees made when a child was born often promised to protect the child from manifestations of Nefertem, along with other potentially harmful deities. Yet, and very interestingly, we also find a few protective amulets depicting the god that were made during the same period.
Shed, the Savior God of the New Kingdom
Shed was a protective god who was venerated mainly from New Kingdom times, though he is known to us prior to that period. In fact, he appears to possibly be an Egyptian aspect of the Semitic god Reshef. Known as 'He who rescues' or 'the enchanter', he was the master of wild beasts of the desert and river as well as weapons of war. He was believed to pursue and kill dangerous animals. Hence, he was suppose to provide protection from dangerous animals such as the scorpion as well as from martial harm. In addition, he also a guardian against illness and inimical magic.
Shed was associated with Horus, and sometimes appears in the form of Horus-Shed, to the extent that by the Late Period he was largely subsumed by Horus.
The iconography of Shed usually depicted a child or young man, most often with a shaved head except for the sidelock of youth. He wears a kilt, sometimes with a broad collar and a quiver slung over his back. He may grasp serpents and wild, symbolically noxious animals while standing on the back of one or more crocodiles. This is essentially the same iconographic attributes found associated with cippi of Horus. Shed is also sometimes depicted in a chariot that is pulled by a Griffin with a Seth animal head known as 'the swift one".
It was popular religion that seems to have spawned Shed and we know of no temples or cult centers for his worship. His name is attested within individual's personal names, and we find representations of the god on protective plaques, pendants and amulets known from a variety of contexts. There were two staelae found in a chapel in the workmen's village at Amarna that were dedicated to the god, which is unusual and shows his popular support, given the restrictive religion of that period. In fact, it may have been this period of uncertainty in Egyptian history that caused the rise of Shed as a savior god.
Other Child Deities
Where there other male child deities worshipped by the ancient Egyptians? Probably, but though a number of gods were referred to as the 'sons' of one deity or another, most of these were actually portrayed as adults (such as the son's of Horus).
Manulis was a sun god of Lower (northern) Nubia. He is usually depicted wearing a crown of ram horns surmounted by high plumes, sun disks and cobras. His name in Egyptian inscriptions is "Merwel" but the Greek version, as found in the text known as the "Vision of Mandulis" is used almost universally.
Left: The Ba of Mandulis; Right: Mandulis from Kalabsha
A chapel to Mandulis existed on the island of Philae off the eastern colonnade approaching the temple of Isis, a goddess who seems to be regarded at least as his close companion. But it is in the temple of Kalabsha (now moved to a location just above the High Dam at Aswan), the most impressive monument in Lower Nubia from the Graeco-Roman period, that the best evidence of the cult of Mandulis can be found. Constructed on the site of an earlier New Kingdom sanctuary, Kalabsha (ancient Talmis) took its present form during the reign of the Roman emperor Augustus. Mandulis, as represented on its walls, does not seem at all out of place among the other members of the Egyptain pantheon placed in his company. From the "Vision of Mandulis" we find the unforced equation of this Nubian solar deity to Egyptian Horus and to the Greek Apollo.
Patron of: defender of the Sun Boat
Appearance: A serpent-headed man holding a spear, standing in the prow of the Sun Boat, or as a giant snake coiled around it.
Description: In the Old Kingdom and in predynastic literature, Mehen, along with Set in his original form, fights Apep daily as the sun travels across the sky. Mehen wraps his coils around Apep, while Set strikes at Apep with a spear.
Mehet-Weret was a cow goddess of the sky. Her name means "great flood". In the age of the Pyramids, Mehet-Weret represented the waterway in the heavens, sailed upon by both the sun god and the king. She is also a manifestation of the primeval waters, and so is sometimes considered as the "Mother of Re". From vignettes in the New Kingdom funerary papyri the goddess is pictured as a cow lying on a reed mat with a sun disk between her horns.
Patron of: war.
Appearance: A lion-headed woman.
Description: Together with her husband Khenmu and their son Hike, Menhit was worshipped in Upper Egypt, the three were called the Esna Triad. She is called "The Slaughterer" and like most Egyptian war-deities, she was believed to ride ahead of the Egyptian armies and cut down the great warriors of their enemies. Her consort was Onuris, the war god who was said to have bought her from Nubia.
Worshipped: Cult center at Latopolis.
Patron of: the Valley of the Kings.
Appearance: a woman with the head of cobra, or a scorpion with a woman's head.
Description: Mertseger was the protector and guardian of the Valley of the Kings, where she lived on a nearby mountain. Her wrath would descend on anyone who disturbed the tombs there, usually by sending poisonous animals against the transgressor.
She also protected the valley against unscrupulous workers who might try to steal treasure, or carve out a secret entrance. Yet for all her ferocity, she was merciful. Should a person repent of his crimes against the valley or the tombs, she would heal the wounds he had suffered.
Worshipped: Worshipped by the the workers of Deir el-Medina, the people who built many of the tombs in the Valley of the Kings.
Meskhenet was a goddess who presided at child birth. In her form of a tile terminating in a female head (called in the Book of the Dead "cubit-with-head") she represents one of the bricks upon which women in ancient Egypt took a squatting position to give birth. Her presence near the scales in the hall of the Two Truths, where the dead person's heart is examined and weighed to ascertain suitability for the Egyptian paradise, is there to assist at a symbolic rebirth in the Afterlife. Her symbol of two loops at the top of a vertical stroke has been shown to be the bocornuate uterus of a heifer.
In addition to ensuring the safe delivery of a child from the womb, Meskhenet takes a decision on its destiny at the time of birth. In the Papyrus Westcar the goddess helps at the birth of the future first three kings of the 5th Dynasty. On the arrival of Userkaf, Sahure and Neferirkare into the arms of Isis, she approaches each child and assures it of kingship. Similarly she is the force of destiny that assigns to a scribe promotion among the administrators of Egypt.
A hymn in the temple of Esna refers to four "Meskhenets" at the side of the creator god Khnum, whose purpose is to repel evil by their incantations
Mihos was the lion god and son of Bastet called Miysis by the Greeks. His local roots were at Leontopolis (modern Tell el-Muqdam) in nome eleven of Lower Egypt in the Eastern Delta. Osorkon III of the 22nd Dynasty erected a temple to him at Bubastis, the town sacred to the god's mother. Mihos' name is also found in amuletic papyri of the late New Kingdom
Patron of: fertility, sexuality, and travelers through the eastern Sahara.
Appearance: a man with a large erect penis. Sometimes he is shown in the garb of a pharaoh, wearing a feathered crown and carrying a flail.
Description: a very ancient god, Min has become rather popular in the modern era, a sort of resurgence of his cult. Min was honored with a variety of ceremonies, some involving the harvest, others praying for a male heir to the pharaoh. Lettuce was his sacred plant, for it was believed by the Egyptians to be an aphrodisiac. The Greeks identified him with their god Pan, and the Romans believed Min to be the same god as Priapus.
Worshipped: Worshipped widely throughout Egypt by the end of the New Kingdom, his cult centers were at Koptos and Akhmin (Panopolis)
Montu, who we generally identify as an ancient war god in
Egypt, actually originated in the form of a local solar god in Upper (southern)
Egypt, apparently at Hermonthis (City of the Sun). His worship seems to have
been exported to Thebes during the 11th Dynasty.
Because of this god's association with the successful King Nebhepetre Montuhotep
I (or II, same king), who ruled during Egypt's 11th Dynasty, Montu (Mentu) achieved
the rank of state god. Montuhotep I reunited Upper and Lower Egypt after the
chaos of the First Intermediate Period. His association with Montu is obvious
from his name, which means, "Montu is satisfied".
However, by the 12th Dynasty, Montu became subordinated to Amun, another deity who probably originated in Upper Egypt, and would later be known as the "King of Gods". It was during this period that Montu's role in Egyptian religion took on the true attributes of a war god.
Actually, Montu's veneration as a war god can be traced originally to the Story of Sinuhe, where Montu was praised by the tale's hero after he defeated the "strong man" of Retjenu. By the New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty pharaohs, some of whom followed a very military tradition, sought specifically to emulate Montu. For example, the Gebel Barkal Stele of Tuthmosis III, often referred to as the Napoleon of Egypt, describes the king as "a valiant Montu on the battlefield". Later in the New Kingdom, he became so personally identified with the Ramesses II that a cult statue bearing the king's throne name, Usermaare Setepenre, with the epithet, "Montu in the Two Lands", was venerated in Ramesses II's honor during his lifetime. When kings such as Ramesses II are referenced as "mighty bulls", they are claiming the association with Montu as his son.
It should also be noted that Montu had a connection with Egyptian households and was probably considered a protector of the happy home. He was often cited in marriage documents. One document from Deir el-Medina invokes the rage of a husband to his unfaithful wife with, "It is the abomination of Montu!"
Montu was honored with cult centers in a number of locations. Specifically, he was worshipped at four sites within the Theban region. The cult centers included Armant (ancient Greek Hermonthis), southwest of modern Luxor (ancient Thebes) on the west bank of the Nile, Medamud (ancient Madu) northeast of Luxor, Tod (ancient Greek Tuphium), southwest of Luxor on the eastern bank, and at Karnak which is just northeast of modern Luxor. Most of these cult centers appear to have been established during the Middle Kingdom, with the exception of Karnak. There, the earliest monument dates from the New Kingdom, and specifically to the reign of Amenhotep III.
A hymn from an Armant Stele says of him, "the raging one who prevails over the serpent-demon Nik," and the one "who causes Re to sail in his park and who overthrows his serpent enemy". Therefore, it is perhaps not surprising that the ancient Egyptian warships were equipped with figures of a striding Montu holding maces or spears. Each of these statues were styled as a god of one of his four primary cult centers.
Montu is commonly depicted as a man with the head of a falcon surmounted by a solar disk. He wears the double uraeus behind which two tall plumes extend vertically. Later, he became associated with the Bull Cults such as Buchis at Armant, and so he is depicted with the head of a bull and a plumed, solar headdress. Another bull sacred to Montu was also worshipped at Medamud.
Like a number of other deities, Montu also became associated with Re in the form of Montu-Re. He was also paired with the solar Atum of Lower Egypt, and in this guise, was often depicted escorting the king into the presence of Amun. Other documentary evidence suggests that he was also sometimes paired with Set (Seth), perhaps acting as a controlled divine aggressor to balance Set's chaotic attributes.
Montu is also sometimes accompanied by one of his consorts in ancient scenes. Three are known, consisting of Tjenenet, Iunyt and Rettawy ( or Raettawy). Rettawy is the female counterpart of Re, and is depicted like Hathor as a cow with a sun disk surmounting her head. Through Rettawy, Montu is connected with Horus and thus the king, for their son was Harpocrates (Horus the child).
Montu's worship survived for many years, and he was eventually considered by the Greeks to be a form of their war god, Ares.
Patron of: the sky, mothers.
Appearance: A vulture-headed woman or a woman wearing a vulture for a crown.
Description: The very word Mut means "mother" and Mut was the great mother goddess of Egypt, even outranking Isis. Often Mut was believed to be a sort of grandmother figure, as Isis was the mother figure for the world. She was said to be the consort of Amun, and their son was the moon-god Khonsu.
The three formed a sort of heavenly family for their people. Each year a festival would be held celebrating the marriage of Amun and Mut. The high priest of Amun would lead a procession from Karnak to the temple at Luxor.
Worshipped: Amun, Mut and Khonsu were worshipped as a trinity in Luxor.