Facing the Gods: Selected Guide

Terence DuQuesne

Reproduced from Erik Hornung and Betsy M. Bryan, eds. The Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt [exh. cat., National Gallery of Art] (Washington, DC, 2002). Copyright ©2002 Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington, and United Exhibits Group

On the walls of Thutmose III's tomb no fewer than 741 gods and goddesses are depicted, all of whom interact with the king when he comes to life again in the Beyond.

The task of comprehending such a refined and complex system of religion is not easy at this distance in time and metaphysical belief. Part of the problem is in classifying the inhabitants of the other world in some appropriate way. Not all the deities shown or referred to in the Egyptian Books of the Netherworld and other texts are of equal consequence. Relatively few are major figures, such as the sun god Re and Hathor, Lady of the Sky. Some are not full-fledged goddesses and gods with their own personalities but are instead just manifest functions. Among these are the pair of gods Hu and Sia, who respectively symbolize "magical utterance and divine understanding." Certain others represent the divine aspects of natural phenomena, such as the divisions of time: hence there are twenty-four goddesses of the hours. Many more, perhaps better described as spirits or demons although still called netjeru (gods) in Egyptian, have ancillary and other subordinate functions, such as the Spirits of the West, who are shown as black jackals and whose tasks include towing the barque of the nocturnal sun.

All these entities, separate as they may seem, nevertheless work as an ensemble. Every aspect of Egyptian funerary art is planned--nothing is arbitrary or without symbolic meaning. Even the colors in which the tomb walls are painted, while allowing sometimes for artistic idiosyncrasy, conform to principles or canons that are self-consistent and never completely arbitrary. If the face of Osiris is shown as black, that signifies, among other things, that the god is symbolizing the fertility of the earth and the numinous magic of night.

The owner of the tomb, royal or otherwise, would expect to be familiar with the principal divinities, so as to engage with them, and if necessary propitiate them, in the other world. He would see the images of the major divinities painted on the walls of his tomb as a sort of aide-mémoire to guide him on his travels as a justified soul.

Amun

Name: The name means "The Hidden One."
Appearance: Amun is most commonly shown in entirely human form. Often he is standing or sitting on a throne and wearing a flat-topped crown with two tall plumes. In his aspect as "bull of his mother," he takes a form identical to that of the god Min and is represented as an ithyphallic, mummiform deity. Amun can also assume the appearance of a ram, his particular sacred animal.
Divine associations: The syncretism of Amun and Re became important in the later New Kingdom, when Amun-Re, creator and sun god, was seen as the preeminent divine entity, and his popularity for a time eclipsed that of other major deities. Since both Amun and Min are deities of generation and natural increase, they are closely associated. The warrior-god Montu was known as a manifestation of Amun. A Theban triad consisted of Amun; his wife Mut; and their offspring Khonsu, the moon god. All three had temples at Karnak.
Origin and cult: It is possible, but not certain, that Amun's original cult center was Thebes, where he was worshiped as the major local god from the Middle Kingdom onward. The enormous temple complex of Karnak was then the principal home of his worship, although the nearby Luxor temple was also dedicated to him by the New Kingdom. He may have been native to Hermopolis in Middle Egypt.
Character: Amun is a god whose attributes are so extensive that he seems to lack the personality of other deities. His role as creator is emphasized in many hymns. Regarded as having been self-generated, he is a fertility god who impregnates his mother, the Celestial Cow, to ensure the fecundity of animals and plants. He was closely involved with kingship, and many pharaohs regarded themselves as one of his incarnations and included the god's name in their own. Amun was therefore also seen as the divine consort of Egyptian queens. Queen Hatshepsut presented herself as an offspring of the god during a visit to her mother. His virile strength made him an appropriate deity for ensuring military victory for the pharaoh. Amun was invoked for healing from the bites of dangerous animals and other illnesses. During the New Kingdom he was a personal-savior god of ordinary working people, as numerous devotional stelae testify.
Myth: Religious texts relating to the city of Hermopolis speak of Amun and his shadowy consort Amaunet as creators of the pantheon of the eight primeval deities.

Assmann, Jan. Re und Amun. Fribourg, 1983.

------. Egyptian Solar Religion in the New Kingdom: Re, Amun, and the Crisis of Polytheism. Trans. Anthony Alcock. London/New York, 1995.

Barta, Winifred. Untersuchungen zum Götterkreis der Neunheit. Munich, 1973.
Otto, Eberhard. Osiris und Amun. Munich, 1966.

------. Egyptian Art and the Cults of Osiris and Amon. Trans. Kate Bosse Griffiths. London, 1968.

Sethe, Kurt. Amun und die acht Urgötter von Hermopolis. Leipzig, 1929.

Zandee, Jan. Der grosse Amonhymnus des Papyrus Leiden I 344, verso. 3 vols. Leiden, 1992.

Anubis

Name: Of uncertain meaning, the name may be an onomatopoeic word for young jackal or puppy.
Appearance: Anubis is most often seen as either a jackal-headed god in human form or a seated black jackal.
Divine associations: He is given as the son of Re or of Osiris. Among the goddesses regarded as being his mother are Isis, Sakhmet, and the cow-goddess Hesat.
Origin and cult: It is likely, but not certain, that the original jackal deity of the sacred city of Abydos, Khentyamentiu, was the prototype of Anubis. On the other hand, he may originally have been venerated in the Cynopolitan province of Middle Egypt, whose local deity, the goddess Anupet, was his original manifestation or his consort. As a complement to his fellow jackal deity, Wepwawet of Asyut in Middle Egypt, Anubis was the patron deity of the necropolis of that town. He was also closely connected with the Memphite region.
Character: The best-known function of Anubis is that of embalmer. He is frequently depicted with his jackal's head as he tends the mummy on its bed. Anubis is also associated with the judgment of the dead at the Tribunal of Osiris, where he tests the accuracy of the balance. His role in reviving the deceased and guiding him through the netherworld is important and attested early. Anubis is an archetypal deity of initiation and was probably involved in the circumcision of the divine king. In later times he was often invoked for healing and especially in love-magic. In the Amduat, Anubis is the only deity to have access to the subterranean cavern of Sokar, through which the sun god passes at midnight.
Myth: Anubis is recorded as having assisted Isis in the quest for and regeneration of the scattered limbs of Osiris after the latter's dismemberment by the god Seth. Later myths report how the goddess Hesat squirts her milk on the cow skin that is the emblem of Anubis to separate the bones and the soft organs prior to rebirth of the deceased. Another mythical story relates how Anubis' mother, Isis-Sakhmet, taking the form of a snake or a scorpion, bites or stings her son, who is then told to lick the wound to heal it.

DuQuesne, Terence. Jackal at the Shaman's Gate. Thame Oxon, U.K., 1991.

------. Black and Gold God: Colour Symbolism of the God Anubis. London, 1996.

Grenier, Jean-Claude. Anubis alexandrin et romain. Leiden, 1977.

Geb

Name: The meaning is uncertain, but the word is possibly onomatopoeic, from the sound made by a goose: the Cackler.
Appearance: Geb is usually seen in entirely human form. Often he is shown supine below the sky goddess Nut. His color is green. The sacred animal of Geb is the goose, and he is sometimes depicted in that form.
Divine associations: Relationships between Geb and the other chthonic deities such as Sokar and Tatjenen are hard to unravel, but Geb is primeval. References to him in the Books of the Netherworld are elliptical. In the Book of Earth the corpse of Geb seems to be complementary to that of Osiris, with both personifying the fallow earth.
Origin and cult: Geb's association with the ritual hoeing of the earth in Heliopolis may suggest an early cult association in that city. Geb's origin is entirely obscure, but he was believed to have been the earliest earthly king.
Character: Geb represents the power and fecundity of the earth. Funerary offerings were made to him. Minerals, food plants, and natural phenomena such as earthquakes were considered to be his gifts. As the ancestral member of the Divine Ennead (the nine great gods of Heliopolis, the family of the sun god), together with the sky goddess, he had the highest judicial power.
Myth: When Horus and Seth, sometimes explained as nephew and uncles and sometimes as brothers, engaged in conflict over which of them was to rule over Egypt, it was Geb as president of the divine tribunal who eventually ordered that Horus would prevail. A late myth records how, during a time of turbulence, Geb wrested the kingship of the gods from his father Shu.

Bedier, Shafia. Die Rolle des Gottes Geb in den ägyptischen Tempelinschriften der griechisch-römischen Zeit. Hildesheim, 1995.

Hathor

Name: The name means something like "Dwelling of Horus," probably expressing a symbolism similar to that of the shekhinah, or earthly habitation of the divinity, in Jewish mysticism.
Appearance: One of Hathor's most consistent manifestations is that of a cow. But she is also often shown as a human figure with the head of a cow, or as an entirely human deity with a headdress of cow's horns and a sun disk.
Divine associations: In later Egyptian history Hathor of Dendera was regarded as the consort of Horus of Edfu, and an annual procession traveled up the Nile from Edfu to Dendera so that the two deities could renew their sacred marriage. Hathor is often regarded as assimilated to the goddess Isis. She was likewise the Wre- and life-giving Eye of the Sun and therefore has close connections with Re, occurring as his daughter.
Origin and cult: The cult of Hathor is very ancient and is recorded in Gebelein in Upper Egypt and the Memphite region during the Old Kingdom, at which time there were also temples to her in the royal funerary complexes of Giza and Sakkara. Her many other centers of worship included Deir el-Bahari, Kusae, Atfih, and Byblos. In Asyut, Hathor of Medjed was the consort of the warlike jackal deity, Wepwawet. It is impossible to determine when worship of her began.
Character: From the Old Kingdom or before, Hathor was believed to be the mother of the king, a function that was extended later to all humanity, and the queen was regarded as her incarnation. Her numerous solar associations have to do with the life-giving power of the sun. As a goddess who manifested in the form of a cow, milk was sacred to her, and so she was concerned with nourishment and child-rearing. In the Pyramid Texts, the Old Kingdom guide to the afterlife for kings, and elsewhere, she is described as Lady of the Sycamore, and is mistress of the Tree of Life. She is strongly associated with love. Hathor is quintessentially the goddess of regeneration, patroness of song and dance and ecstatic states, whether induced by sex or intoxicants. She was invoked for healing and to encourage pregnancy. By the Middle Kingdom, one of Hathor's aspects was Lady of the West. She presided over the burial ground on the west bank of Thebes and participated in guiding the justified soul to the netherworld. Her numerous functions and attributes made her virtually a universal goddess.
Myth: In the Book of the Celestial Cow, Hathor in her warrior aspect annihilated much of the human race before restoring the sun god Re.

Allam, Schafik. Beiträge zum Hathorkult. Berlin, 1963.

Bleeker, Claas Jouco. Hathor and Thoth. Leiden, 1973.

Daumas, François. "Hathor" (pp. 1024 - 33) in Wolfgang Helck and Wolfhart Westendorf, eds., Lexikon der Ägyptologie, vol. 2. Wiesbaden, 1977.

Pinch, Geraldine. Votive Offerings to Hathor. Oxford, 1993.

Roberts, Alison. Hathor Rising: The Power of the Goddess in Ancient Egypt. Totnes, U.K., 1995; Rochester, Vermont, 1997.

Horus

Name: The name probably signifies "The Far Away One."
Appearance: Commonly shown as a falcon or a falcon-headed human; in the latter case, he often has the solar disk on his head. In his aspect as Horus the Child, he is represented as a preadolescent boy with a Wnger in his mouth.
Divine associations: Re and other solar deities link up with various aspects of Horus, notably Horakhty, "Horus of the Two Horizons."
Origin and cult: From predynastic times, Horus was a quintessentially royal god, as well as a divinity of the sky, and in the Old Kingdom the pharaoh's Horus name was of exceptional importance. His earliest cult site may have been at Hierakonpolis in Upper Egypt, but he was worshiped throughout Egypt. His many cult centers include Letopolis, Edfu, Aniba, Libya, and the Fayum.
Character: Horus has many manifestations, of which only the most important are named here. It is not at all clear whether the various deities called Horus were originally separate, or whether a single divine archetype evolved to encompass many functions, as in the case of Re and Isis. Harsomtus (Horus the Uniter of the Two Lands) conjoins Upper and Lower Egypt in the name of the king. Harpocrates (Horus the Child) symbolizes the undifferentiated but still potent aspect of childhood, and in this form was considered a strong healing divinity. Harendotes (Horus the Avenger of His Father) is the son and heir of Osiris and is instrumental in securing his father's royal inheritance. He is therefore often equated with the pharaoh. In the Books of the Netherworld, Horus and Sokar protect the Solar Eye. Amulets in the shape of the wedjat, or Eye of Horus, symbolize completeness, healing, and magical protection.
Myth: According to one story, Horus and Seth were rival claimants to the Egyptian throne, and Horus was granted the kingship by the god Geb, who acted as judge. Horus and Seth represent order and chaos and hence are often described as being in conflict.

Alliot, A. Le culte d'Horus à Edfo. 2 vols. Cairo, 1949, 1954.

Mercer, Samuel. A. B. Horus: The Royal God of Egypt. Grafton, Mass., 1942.

Isis

Name: The name of Isis could mean foundation, seat, or throne, or all of these.
Appearance: Generally, Isis is seen as a beautiful young woman with the usual attributes of Egyptian deities. Sometimes she wears the cow's horns associated with Hathor. She is sometimes shown as a flying or resting kite, and more often in later iconography as a royal cobra. Her twin sister, Nephthys, who may be seen as her dark alter ego, is frequently depicted with her.
Divine associations: Isis shares a number of characteristics of Hathor, both being patronesses of ecstasy and fertility and also deities of the sky. The goddess Sothis, the star Sirius in the Orion constellation, is one of her manifestations. As Sothis, Isis was associated with the annual flood that rose at the time Sirius reappeared in the sky.
Origin and cult: Isis seems to have been originally an Upper Egyptian goddess, but the earliest evidence is obscure.
Character: The first attested functions of Isis have to do with birth and funerary rituals. As she protected and complemented her consort, Osiris, and cared for their son, Horus, it was hoped she would exert a similar role for mortals. In the Pyramid Texts, Isis and Nephthys help the deceased king ascend to the sky. Later, her cult expanded greatly. Isis became a goddess of magic and healing, eventually assuming the functions of universal mother goddess and queen of the sky.
Myth: In the best-known myth, recorded in classical times but obviously referring to much earlier documents, Isis searches the land of Egypt for the scattered limbs of Osiris after his dismemberment by Seth, finds them, and restores the god
to life.

Merkelbach, Reinhold. Isis regina -- Zeus Sarapis. Stuttgart, 1995.

Münster, Maria. Untersuchungen zur Göttin Isis. Berlin, 1968.

Witt, Reginald Eldred. Isis in the Ancient World. London, 1971. Reprinted as Isis in the Ancient World. Baltimore, 1997.

Khnum

Name: The name is no doubt connected with an Egyptian verb meaning "to unite."
Appearance: Most commonly, Khnum is represented with a human body and the head of a ram, his sacred animal.
Divine associations: Khnum is associated with the sun god (as Khnum-Re) and with the air god Shu. He was also assimilated to the crocodile god Sobek.
Origin and cult: His worship is attested very early at Elephantine in the cataract region of Upper Egypt, and in Ptolemaic times he had an important temple at Esna, south of Thebes.
Character: Khnum was always regarded as the creator of human beings, as is shown by numerous images in which he is seen fashioning people on a potter's wheel. In later times he was a god of oracles.

Badawy, Alexander. "Der Gott Chnum." Ph.D. diss. Berlin, 1937.

Neith

Name: The name is possibly connected with the Lower Egyptian or northern crown.
Appearance: Neith is commonly depicted as a woman wearing the Red Crown of Lower Egypt and carrying a bow and arrows.
Divine associations: She shares with the jackal god Wepwawet the designation "Opener of the Ways," in her case probably meaning the ways to royal conquest.
Origin and cult: The principal cult center of Neith was Sais in Lower Egypt, and as early as the First Dynasty she was, like Horus, associated with the royal family, primarily with the queens. She was supplanted by Hathor in the Fourth Dynasty.
Character: Essentially Neith is a warrior goddess, who is also concerned with the magical protection of the body after death.

El-Sayed, Ramadan. La déesse Neith de Saïs. 2 vols. Cairo, 1982.

Nut

Name: The meaning is not certain; it is perhaps connected with a verb for vision or with the word for waters, nu.
Appearance: Nut appears either as a young woman with divine attributes and a pair of large wings, or as a schematic female figure stretched out with her hands and feet touching the ground. Her body is blue and arrayed with figures of stars.
Divine associations: The closest associations are with Geb, her consort, god of earth, and with Shu, the deity of air. She is also connected with Hathor, both being manifestations of the tree goddess.
Origin and cult: Nut may have had her origin in Heliopolis, but this is uncertain.
Character: From being originally a personification of the sky, Nut became a funerary goddess in the sense that the deceased person would expect to be wrapped in her body and become part of the heavenly host. At the western horizon, Nut swallowed the sun each evening, and, within her, the solar deity traveled the netherworld and was reborn twelve hours later, as she gave birth to him in the east.
Myth: According to the Book of Nut, one of the Books of the Netherworld, Geb and Nut argued about the propensity of the goddess to eat the stars, which were regarded as her children. The god Shu then decreed that the heavenly bodies were to be born again periodically.

Rusch, Adolf. Die Entwicklung der Himmelsgöttin Nut zu einer
Totengottheit. Leipzig, 1922.

Osiris

Name: The name of Osiris is of uncertain interpretation, but possibilities include "seat of the eye" and more plausibly, "the one who copulates with the throne" (the goddess Isis).
Appearance: Osiris is usually depicted as a mummiform man, sitting on a throne or standing. He wears either the crown of upper Egypt or the tall atef crown with two plumes at either side and carries the crook and flail, symbols of royal authority.
Divine associations: The syncretism between Osiris and Re in Egyptian religious texts, which developed after the Old Kingdom, is important as representing the union of the king of the netherworld with the ruler of the sky -- a union that was believed to be transferred to the dead king and, later in Egyptian history, to other humans. Osiris was equated with many other deities, especially chthonic gods such as Sokar and Khentyamentiu. Osiris has strong astronomical associations, being identified with Orion and linked to Sirius through its connection with Isis.
Origin and cult: Osiris may well have been originally a form of Khentyamentiu (Foremost of the Westerners), the ancient chthonic deity of the city of Abydos in Upper Egypt who took the form of a jackal and was closely connected with Anubis. Important centers of his cult were Heliopolis and Busiris in Lower Egypt.
Character: A useful key to his character is the frequent epithet wennefer, "the one who is perennially fresh" as ruler of the netherworld. This is a reference to mummification and to Osiris as the corn king, who dies in autumn to be reborn in springtime. Each justified soul took on the characteristics of Osiris and had his or her name prefixed by that of the god. This process would guarantee the integrity of the mummy, and hence rebirth in the netherworld. Similarly, Osiris represents the fertility of the earth that continues underground even during winter. As one manifestation of the king of the gods, the pharaoh was identified with him from very early times. The importance of Osiris as god of grain is illustrated by the figures of the god made of earth and corn that have been found in New Kingdom and later tombs -- in some cases the grain can be seen to have sprouted. Osiris is also a deity of seasons and water, and generally of the cyclical phenomena of nature, as his associations with Sirius and Orion, and with the Nile inundation, testify. Equally important, he was regarded as judge of the dead and presided over the tribunal in which the heart of the deceased was weighed against the feather of Maat (balance). In the Books of the Netherworld, Osiris occupies a passive role as the dead king of the Beyond. By being united with Re, he is brought back to life and empowered. In the Amduat and the Book of Gates, the sun god, shown with a ram's head, symbolizes the union of Re and Osiris.
Myth: Such myths as survive about Osiris emphasize the god's death and capacity for rebirth. In one version, he was murdered by his brother Seth and found and revived by the goddesses Isis and Nephthys. A later account by the Greek writer Plutarch describes the etiological myth whereby the disjunct members of Osiris, scattered all over Egypt, were discovered by Isis and Anubis and magically restored. The places where Seth scattered the severed limbs became the capitals of each of the provinces of Egypt.

Budge, E. A. Wallis. Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection. 2 vols. London, 1911. Reprint, New York, 1973.

Griffiths, John Gwyn. The Origins of Osiris and His Cult. Leiden, 1980.

Hare, Tom. Remembering Osiris. Stanford, 1999.

Helck, Wolfgang. "Osiris: Number, Gender, and the Word in Ancient Egyptian Representational Systems" (pp. 469 - 513). In Pauly-Wissowa, Realenzylopaedie der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft, suppl. 9. Leipzig, 1962.

Otto, Eberhard. Osiris und Amun. Munich, 1966.

------. Egyptian Art and the Cults of Osiris and Amon. Trans.
Kate Bosse Griffiths. London, 1968.

Re

Name: The name Re originally meant the visible disk of the sun.
Appearance: Images of Re are ubiquitous in Egyptian art in the New Kingdom. He is most frequently shown as a falcon or falcon-headed human figure. He wears the solar disk, around which the uraeus snake is coiled on his head. Sometimes he is fully human in form. In the Book of the Dead, he assumes the appearance of a tomcat who fights the chaos serpent Apophis in the city of Heliopolis. The Books of the Netherworld show Re either as ram headed or falcon headed.
Divine associations: In the Pyramid Texts, Re is the son and consort of the sky goddess Nut. Later, he is blended with his son Horus as Re-Horakhty (Re-Horus of the Two Horizons) as a composite deity. Forms of Re include Khnum, the ram-headed creator deity, as well as Khepri, the rising sun, and Atum, the setting sun,
who was regarded as the primeval creative force. The falcon, the scarab beetle, and the tomcat are the principal animals sacred to Re.
Origin and cult: Like certain other deities such as Maat (personification of cosmic order), Re is more of a symbol or function than a god (such as Anubis or Thoth) with a defined personality, no doubt in part because of the multiplicity of his divine tasks. This may somewhat explain the fact that evidence for a specific cult of Re is very scanty. From early times, his major cult center was Heliopolis in Lower Egypt, though it is possible that another form of the solar deity, the falcon god Horakhty, may originally have been venerated there. It is significant that Heliopolis was near the royal pyramids of the Old Kingdom across the river in Memphis. Atum, god of the setting sun, also had a temple in Heliopolis. A round-topped stone, called the benben, is associated with Heliopolis, and later obelisks were erected there as larger forms of the solar symbol of "ascent to the sky." The phoenix (benu) is closely associated with the city. The solar cult is exemplified in the New Kingdom by the Books of the Netherworld, in which the king joins Re on his travels through the twelve districts of the Beyond that represent the night hours.
Character: From early times, Re was closely linked with the Egyptian kingship. Many royal names, the first of which occurs in the Second Dynasty, are compounded with the name Re. Early examples are Re-neb and Men-kau-Re. By the Fifth Dynasty, a special "son of Re" name was accorded to the pharaoh. The pyramids of the Old Kingdom are often correctly regarded as being, or incorporating, temples to the sun.

As king of the gods, as early as the Pyramid Texts, which were the Old Kingdom guides to the afterlife, Re was regarded as sovereign over the inhabitants of the sky. Later, he received many of the same designations and attributes as the earthly pharaoh. Re was also seen as a universal deity, as is shown by his epithet either "lord of all" or "lord to the limit." Titles such as "the one who generated himself" reveal him as a form of the primeval godhead. As a manifestation of Atum, Re was naturally regarded as the creator of all living things. Re probably preceded Osiris as administrator of justice, and specifically as president of the divine tribunal and guarantor of universal equilibrium (Maat). From the Old Kingdom onward, Re had strong funerary associations -- initially the king, and then others, hoped to effect a celestial ascent like the rising of Re, joining the personnel in the boat of the sun on its journey through the sky. In the Books of the Netherworld, for the first time the king's participation is detailed, and in the Book of Gates he accompanies Re through the night sky.
Myth: The sun was regarded by the Egyptians as traveling through the sky in two boats, one for the day and one for the night. According to the Books of the Netherworld, Re becomes united with the funerary god Osiris in the underworld, and the two effectively defeat the forces of chaos while the world sleeps. Re is renewed each morning in the form of Khepri, the rising sun often shown as a scarab beetle, and comes to rest at night as Atum, the complete one. The conjunction of Re and Osiris was considered to guarantee the continuation of the solar cycle and hence, ultimately, of all life. According to a myth preserved in the Book of the Celestial Cow, humanity rebelled against the authority of Re, who sent his Eye, in the form of the warlike Sakhmet (the destructive aspect of the goddess Hathor), to quell the uprising. The conflict ends with the establishment of the heavenly cow goddess Hathor (the nurturing aspect of Sakhmet), who conveys Re to heaven again on her back.

Assmann, Jan. Re und Amun. Fribourg, 1983.

------. Egyptian Solar Religion in the New Kingdom: Re, Amun, and the Crisis of Polytheism. Trans. Anthony Alcock. London/New York, 1995.

Assmann, Jan. "Re" (pp. 156 - 80) in Wolfgang Helck and Wolfhart Westendorf, eds., Lexikon der Ägyptologie, vol. 5. Wiesbaden, 1984.

Quirke, Stephen. The Cult of Re. London, 2001.

Sakhmet

Name: The name signifies "The Powerful One."
Appearance: This goddess is regularly shown with a woman's body and the head of a lioness.
Divine associations: Sakhmet has close associations with Hathor, Isis, and Mut, the consort of Amun-Re, for each of whom she can alternate.
Origin and cult: Sakhmet's cult center was in Memphis, where she was the consort of the artificer god Ptah.
Character: Sakhmet was associated with the fortune of passing time, particularly governing the good or bad outcome of the year. She had the potential for a warlike temperament and was invoked to smite foreigners and the enemies of the sun god. Her color is red, for the blood of menstruation and warfare. She was regarded as a powerful protective and healing divinity, and some of her priests appear to have been surgeons.
Myth: In the myth of the Destruction of Mankind, Sakhmet slaughters large numbers of people after a revolt of humanity against the gods. She is prevented from annihilating the human race by the ruse of being plied with intoxicating liquor, colored red to resemble blood. In the Book of Gates, persons of foreign races awaiting rebirth are placed under the protection of Sakhmet and Horus.

Germond, Phillipe. Sekhmet et la protection du monde. Geneva, 1981.

Hoenes, Sigrid-Eike. Untersuchungen zu Wesen und Kult der Göttin Sachmet. Bonn, 1976.

Känel, Frédérique von. Les prêtres-ouâb de Sekhmet et les conjurateurs de Serket. Paris, 1984.

Sobek

Name: The meaning is unknown, but the name is conceivably connected with sebeq, a word related to keenness of the senses and good fortune.
Appearance: Sobek is almost always represented as a crocodile, his sacred animal, or as a crocodile-headed human.
Divine associations: In the Middle Kingdom and later, Sobek was regarded as a manifestation of Re and was linked with the ram deity Khnum. He was equated with Horus as a royal god, and later with Osiris. He was regarded as the son of Neith, perhaps because of her warlike character.
Origin and cult: It is likely that the Fayum, an oasis west of Middle Egypt, dominated by a large lake, Moeris, was the earliest center of Sobek's cult. He was popularly venerated there until Roman times. In the New Kingdom an area close to Thebes was also sacred to him, as was the Upper Egyptian site of Kom Ombo, where he shared veneration with Horus the Elder. At all his cult centers, as early as the reign of Amenhotep III (1390 - 1352 bce) sacred crocodiles were bred and venerated. Sobek also had celestial aspects and was believed to have a palace at the horizon.
Character: Sobek began as a deity of fertility and water. He was later regarded as a primeval creator god and was associated with magical effectiveness.

Brovarski, Edward. "Sobek" (pp. 995 - 1031) in Wolfgang Helck and Wolfhart Westendorf, eds., Lexikon der Ägyptologie, vol. 5. Wiesbaden, 1984.

Dolzani, Claudia. Il dio Sobk. Rome, 1961.

Sokar

Name: The name may be connected with a verb of movement, perhaps related to sledging.
Appearance: Sokar appears either as a falcon (living or mummified)
or as a falcon-headed human.
Divine associations: Sokar is closely linked with the Memphite god Ptah, no doubt partly because of the latter's role as divine artificer. He was also seen as a form of Osiris with the potential for rebirth.
Origin and cult: The necropolis of Memphis (Ro-setau) was sacred to Sokar from very early times and was likely his home -- Ro-setau was the gateway between this world and the next, and Sokar's role as its guardian was crucial to the process of rebirth. Most of his sanctuaries appear to have been in Lower Egypt, but he was also venerated in towns elsewhere, such as Sheikh Said and Dendera. An important sacred boat is closely connected with his cult.
Character: He was regarded early as a patron deity of metalworkers and other craftsmen. His chthonic and funerary aspects are probably also very ancient. The Cavern of Sokar is the liminal place in the Amduat where the sun god, becalmed in his boat, spends midnight.

Graindorge-Héreil, Catherine. Le dieu Sokar à Thèbes au Nouvel Empire. 2 vols. Wiesbaden, 1994.

Tatjenen

Name: The meaning is uncertain but is possibly "the rising earth."
Appearance: Tatjenen is generally entirely human in appearance. He may be shown wearing a ram's horn and two tall plumes on his head.
Divine associations: He was assimilated to Osiris, Ptah, and Sokar in their function as earth deities, and later with Khnum. In the Books of the Netherworld he is closely associated with Re. Tatjenen can be seen as a manifestation of the earth god Geb.
Origin and cult: It is not certain where his cult originated, but the god's home may have been in Memphis. He seems to have had local associations in Asyut in Middle Egypt. He became an important deity only in the New Kingdom.
Character: Originally, Tatjenen seems to have been a deity of the depths of the earth, presiding over its mineral and vegetable resources. In the Book of Gates, Tatjenen personifies the entire area of the netherworld, protecting the deceased in the Beyond. He is able to rejuvenate the sun on its nocturnal journey. In later Egyptian history, he was thought of as a creator deity, like Khnum, fashioning humans on a potter's wheel. The sacred animal of both was the ram.

Schlögl, Hermann Alexander. Der Gott Tatenen: nach Texten und Bildern des Neuen Reiches. Fribourg, 1980.

Thoth

Name: The meaning of Thoth's name is completely obscure, and perhaps derives from the name of a town where he was worshiped.
Appearance: Typically, he is shown as an ibis or as a human with the head of an ibis. Sometimes he is represented as a baboon, one of his sacred animals and a symbol of wisdom.
Divine associations: Of the deities linked with Thoth, Khonsu and Iah are also lunar deities. Thoth is associated with Anubis at the Weighing of the Heart of the deceased, and with the goddess Seshat. Both Thoth and Seshat are guardians of the sacred hieroglyphs.
Origin and cult: The cult of Thoth may have originated in the Delta, or in the area of Hermopolis, the city sacred to him, in Middle Egypt. He was venerated in various other areas of Egypt, such as at Pnubs in Nubia and in the Dakhla Oasis region.
Character: Thoth is a lunar god and also the patron of knowledge and writing. He also exercised judicial functions, mediating disputes between deities. The profession of scribes was under his protection, as the writing of hieroglyphs was a sacred and magical act. In the netherworld, Thoth records the names of every justified soul who passes through the Tribunal of Osiris.
Myth: In the myth of the Eye of the sun, Thoth must go in search of the missing Eye and return it to Re. The Eye, identified with Tefnut in the myth, was eventually restored.

Bleeker, Claas Jouco. Hathor and Thoth. Leiden, 1973.

Boylan, Patrick. Thoth, The Hermes of Egypt. Oxford, 1922.

Derchain-Urtel, Maria-Teresa. Thot: A travers ses épithètes dans les scènes d'offrandes des temples d'époque gréco-romaine. Brussels, 1981.

Kurth, Dieter. "Thot" (pp. 497- 523) in Wolfgang Helck and Wolfhart Westendorf, eds., Lexikon der Ägyptologie, vol. 6. Wiesbaden, 1986.

General References

Bonnet, Hans. Reallexikon der ägyptischen Religionsgeschichte. Berlin, 1952.

Hart, George. A Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses. London, 1986.

Hornung, Erik. Der Eine und die Vielen: Ägyptische Göttervorstellungen. Darmstadt, 1971.

------. Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: The One and the Many. Trans. John Baines. Ithaca, New York, 1982.

Kees, Hermann. Der Götterglaube im alten Ägypten. 2d. ed. Berlin, 1956.

Koch, Klaus. Geschichte der ägyptischen Religion. Stuttgart, 1993.

Lesko, Barbara S. The Great Goddesses of Egypt. Norman, Okla., 1999.

Helck, Wolfgang, and Eberhard Otto, eds. Lexikon der Ägyptologie. 7 vols. Wiesbaden, 1972-92.

Meeks, Dimitri, and Christine Favard-Meeks. La vie quotidienne des dieux égyptiens, 1993. Reprinted as Les dieux égyptiens. Paris, 1995.

------. Daily Life of the Egyptian Gods. Trans. G. M. Goshgarian. Ithaca, New York, 1996.
Quirke, Stephen. Ancient Egyptian Religion. New York, 1992.
Traunecker, Claude. Les dieux de l'Égypte. Paris, 1992.

------. The Gods of Egypt. Trans. David Lorton. Ithaca, New York, 2001.

Vernus, Pascal. Dieux de l'Égypte. Paris, 1998.

------. The Gods of Ancient Egypt. Trans. Jane Marie Todd. New York, 1998.

Principal Divine Symbols

Clark, R. T. Rundle. Myth and Symbol in Ancient Egypt. New York, 1959.

Goff, Beatrice Laura. Symbols of Ancient Egypt in the Late Period: The Twenty-first Dynasty. The Hague, 1979.

Lurker, Manfred. Götter und Symbole der alten Ägypter. 2d ed. Munich, 1974.

------. The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Egypt: An Illustrated Dictionary. Trans. Barbara Cummings. London, 1982.

Wilkinson, Richard H. Symbol and Magic in Egyptian Art. London, 1997.

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