The Theban Triad
- Amun, Mut and Khons
Amun was the mysterious creator god whose
name meant Hidden One. He was most commonly shown as a bearded man in the prime
of life wearing a headdress surmounted by a double plume. His origins are
obscure, but Amun and his female counterpart Amunet (Amaunet) were listed among
the divine protectors of the king in the Pyramid Texts. Amun and Amunet were
part of the group of eight primeval deities who came to be known as the Ogdoad
of Hermopolis. During the Middle Kingdom, Amun gradually became the chief god
of the Theban area, where he acquired a new consort, Mut, and a son, Khonsu. In
the New Kingdom, the cult of Amun was combined with that of the creator sun god
Ra. Amun-Ra was worshipped as the King of the Gods and creator of the world and
its inhabitants.
In his chief cult temple at Karnak in
Thebes, Amun, Lord of the Thrones of the Two Lands, ruled as a divine pharaoh.
Unlike other important deities, Amun does not seem to have been thought of as
living in some distant celestial realm. His presence was everywhere, unseen but
felt like the wind. His oracles communicated the divine will to humanity. Amun
was said to come swiftly to help Egyptian kings on the battlefield or to aid
the poor and friendless. When he was manifest in his cult statues, Amun
periodically visited the necropolis of Thebes to unite with its goddess,
Hathor, and bring new life to the dead.
Amun tended to be the subject of
speculative theology rather than mythical narratives, but he did play a role in
the creation myths of Hermopolis. One of his incarnations was as the Great
Shrieker, a primeval goose whose victory shout was the first sound. In some
accounts this primeval goose laid the “world egg;” in others, Amun fertilized
or created this egg in his ram-headed serpent form known as Kematef (“He who
has completed his moment”). The temple of Medinet Habu in western Thebes was
sometimes identified as the location of this primal event. A cult statue of the
Amun of Karnak regularly visited this temple to renew the process of creation.
By the end of the New Kingdom, Amun was
often depicted as a virile ram with curved horns or as a ram-headed sphinx. It
was in these forms that he was primarily worshipped in Nubia and Libya. As
early as the Middle Kingdom, Amun had been linked with the god Min to become
the embodiment of male sexual power. Amun-Min, the “bull of his mother,” was an
ithyphallic self-generating god. Amun-Ra was the mysterious originator of all
life, the “one who made himself into millions.” In the temples of Thebes he was
given a partner in the form of a royal priestess known as the “god’s wife” or
“god’s hand.” One of her duties seems to have been to physically arouse the god
so that he would continue the ongoing work of creation by generating life.
Like the ram-god Banebdjedet, Amun was said
to mystically unite with the queen of Egypt to sire the heir to the throne.
This royal-birth myth was depicted in several Theban temples (see Figure 20).
The idea persisted as late as the Greco-Roman Period, when legends were told
about how the world-conquering Macedonian king, Alexander the Great, was sired
by Amun. Alexander seems to have been acknowledged as the god’s son when he
made a pilgrimage to the remote temple of Amun at Siwa Oasis. According to some
Classical writers, Alexander and his companions were in danger of dying in the
desert when two serpents appeared to lead them safely to Siwa. The oracle of
Amun at Siwa was believed to be infallible. The Greeks wove it into their own
mythology, claiming that the heroes Perseus and Heracles had consulted
Amun/Zeus there.
References
and further reading: J. Assmann. Egyptian Solar
Religion in the New Kingdom: Re, Amun, and the Crisis of Polytheism. Translated
by Anthony Alcock. London and New York: 1995. G. Hart. “Amun.” In A Dictionary
of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses. London and Boston: 1986, 4–17. V. A. Tobin.
“Amun and Amun-Re.” In The Oxford Encyclopaedia of Ancient Egypt I, edited by
D. B. Redford. Oxford and New York: 2001, 82–85. Primary sources: PT 301;
Leiden hymns; P. Boulaq XVII; Amun prayers; Qadesh inscriptions; Khonsu
Cosmogony; Arrian Book 3; Alexander Romance
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