Atum 92

Atum
Atum

Atum, finisher of the world

God of creation

Name in hieroglyphs

Major cult center Heliopolis

Consort [1]
Iusaas

Atum (/ɑ-tum/), sometimes rendered as Atem or Tem, is an important deity in Egyptian mythology.

Name
Atum's name is thought to be derived from the word tem which means to complete or finish. Thus he has been
interpreted as being the 'complete one' and also the finisher of the world, which he returns to watery chaos at the end
of the creative cycle. As creator he was seen as the underlying substance of the world, the deities and all things being
made of his flesh or alternatively being his ka.[2]

Origins
Atum is one of the most important and frequently mentioned deities from earliest times, as evidenced by his
prominence in the Pyramid Texts, where he is portrayed as both a creator and father to the king.[2]
Atum 93

Role
In the Heliopolitan creation myth, Atum was considered to be the first god, having created himself, sitting on a
mound (benben) (or identified with the mound itself), from the primordial waters (Nu).[3] Early myths state that
Atum created the god Shu and goddess Tefnut by spitting them out of his mouth.[4]
In the Old Kingdom the Egyptians believed that Atum lifted the dead king's soul from his pyramid to the starry
heavens.[5] He was also a solar deity, associated with the primary sun god Ra. Atum was linked specifically with the
evening sun, while Ra or the closely linked god Khepri were connected with the sun at morning and midday.[6]
In the Book of the Dead, which was still current in the Graeco-Roman period, the sun god Atum is said to have
ascended from chaos-waters with the appearance of a snake, the animal renewing itself every morning.[7][8][9]
Atum is the god of pre-existence and post-existence. In the binary solar cycle, the serpentine Atum is contrasted with
the ram-headed scarab Khepri—the young sun god, whose name is derived from the Egyptian hpr "to come into
existence". Khepri-Atum encompassed sunrise and sunset, thus reflecting the entire solar cycle.[10]

Relationship to other gods

Atum was a self-created deity, the first being to emerge from the darkness and endless watery abyss that girdled the
world before creation. A product of the energy and matter contained in this chaos, he created divine and human
beings through loneliness: alone in the universe, he produced from his own sneeze, or in some accounts, semen, Shu,
the god of air, and Tefnut, the goddess of moisture. The brother and sister, and husband and wife curious about the
primeval waters that surrounded them went to explore the waters and disappeared into the darkness. Unable to bear
his loss, Atum sent a fiery messenger to find his children. The tears of joy he shed on their return were the first
human beings.[11]

Iconography
He is usually depicted as a man wearing either the royal head-cloth or the dual white and red crown of Upper Egypt
and Lower Egypt, reinforcing his connection with kingship. Sometimes he also is shown as a serpent, the form which
he returns to at the end of the creative cycle, and also occasionally as a mongoose, lion, bull, lizard, or ape.[2]

Worship
Atum's cult centered on the city of Heliopolis (Egyptian: Annu).[2]

References
[1] Wilkinson, Richard H. (2003). The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson. p. 150
[2] Wilkinson, Richard H. (2003). The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson. pp. 99–101
[4] Egyptian gods Atum (http:/ / www. philae. nu/ akhet/ NetjeruA. html#Atum) URL accessed December 30, 2006.
[5] http:/ / www. philae. nu/ akhet/ NetjeruA. html#Atum retrieved November 9, 2006
[6] Wilkinson, Richard H. (2003). The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson. pp. 205
[7] Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=yCkRz5pfxz0C& pg=PA121#v=onepage& q& f=false)
2nd edition, 1999, p. 121
[8] Ellis, Normandi ♦ Dreams of Isis: A Woman's Spiritual Sojourn (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=NJ9j6EE_dL0C& pg=PA128&
dq=ouroboros+ atum& hl=en& ei=HP3kTOXcEcvrsga1r6CtCw& sa=X& oi=book_result& ct=result& resnum=2&
ved=0CCgQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage& q=ouroboros atum& f=false) p. 128
[9] Bernal, Martin ♦ Black Athena: the Afroasiatic roots of classical civilization (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=yFLm_M_OdK4C&
pg=PA468& lpg=PA468#v=onepage& q=Atum Ouroboros& f=false) p. 468
[10] Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=yCkRz5pfxz0C& pg=PA123#v=onepage& q&
f=false) 2nd edition, 1999, p. 123
[11] Pinch, Geraldine (2004). Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Goddesses, and Traditions of Ancient Egypt. Oxford University Press.
pp. 63–64
Atum 94

External links
• Atum - Archaeowiki.org (http://www.archaeowiki.org/Atum)

Ba-Pef
Ba-Pef was a minor underworld god in Egyptian mythology. The name literally means that Ba, meaning that soul
(ba ).
Ba-Pef is commonly portrayed as an obscure malevolent deity known from the Old Kingdom. During the Old and
Middle Kingdom the priesthood of Bapef was held by queens.[1][2]
According to references among the Pyramid Texts he had a cult following and was associated in some way with pain
or spiritual anguish affecting the pharaoh. [citation needed]

References
[1] Robyn A. Gillam, Priestesses of Hathor: Their Function, Decline and Disappearance, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Vol.
32, (1995), pp. 213, JSTOR (http:/ / www. jstor. org/ stable/ 40000840)
[2] Wolfgang Helck, Eberhard Otto, Wolfhart Westendorf, Stele-Zypresse, Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, 1986, p 394

• Michael Jordon, Encyclopedia of Gods, Kyle Cathie Limited, 2002

Babi (mythology)
In Egyptian mythology, Babi, also Baba,[1][2] was the deification of the baboon, one of the animals present in Egypt.
His name is usually translated as Bull of the baboons, and roughly means Alpha male of all baboons, i.e. chief of the
baboons.[] Since Baboons exhibit many human characteristics, it was believed in early times, at least since the
Predynastic Period, that they were deceased ancestors. In particular, the alpha males were identified as deceased
rulers, referred to as the great white one (Hez-ur in Egyptian), since Hamadryas baboon (the species prevalent in
Egypt) alpha males have a notable light grey streak. For example, Narmer is depicted in some images as having
transformed into a baboon.
Since baboons were considered to be the dead, Babi was viewed as an underworld deity. Baboons are extremely
aggressive, and omnivorous, and so Babi was viewed as being very bloodthirsty, and living on entrails.[][3]
Consequently, he was viewed as devouring the souls of the unrighteous after they had been weighed against Ma'at
(the concept of truth/order),[4] and was thus said to stand by a lake of fire, representing destruction. Since this
judging of righteousness was an important part of the underworld, Babi was said to be the first-born son of Osiris,[5]
the god of the dead in the same regions in which people believed in Babi.
Baboons also have noticeably high sex drives, in addition to their high level of genital marking, and so Babi was
considered the god of virility of the dead. He was usually portrayed with an erection, and due to the association with
the judging of souls, was sometimes depicted as using it as the mast of the ferry which conveyed the righteous to
Aaru, a series of islands.[] Babi was also prayed to, in order to ensure that an individual would not suffer from
impotence after death.
Babi (mythology) 95

References

Banebdjedet
[1]
Banebdjedet
in hieroglyphs

Banebdjedet (Banebdjed) was an Ancient Egyptian ram god with a cult

centre at Mendes. Khnum was the equivalent god in Upper Egypt. His wife
was the goddess Hatmehit ("Foremost of the Fishes") who was perhaps the
original deity of Mendes.[2] Their offspring was "Horus the Child" and they
formed the so called "Mendesian Triad".[3]
The words for "ram" and "soul" sounded the same in Egyptian so ram deities
were at times regarded as appearances of other gods.[2]
Typically Banebdjedet was depicted with four rams' heads to represent the
four Ba's of the sun god. He may also be linked to the first four gods to rule
over Egypt (Osiris, Geb, Shu and Ra-Atum), with large granite shrines to
each in the Mendes sanctuary.[2]
The Book of the Heavenly Cow describes the "Ram of Mendes" as being the
Ba of Osiris but this was not an exclusive association. A story dated to the
New Kingdom describes him as being consulted by the "Divine Tribunal" to Banebdjedet
judge between Horus and Seth but he proposes that Neith do it instead as an
act of diplomacy. As the dispute continues it is Banebdjedet who suggests that Seth be given the throne as he is the
elder brother.[2]

In a chapel in the Ramesseum, a stela records how the god Ptah took the form of Banebdjedet, in view of his virility,
in order to have union with the woman who would conceive Rameses II. It was the sexual connotations associated
with his cult that led early Christians to demonise Banebdjedet.[2]

Notes
[1] Hermann Ranke: Die ägyptische Persönennamen. Verlag von J. J. Augustin in Glückstadt, 1935. , p.89
[2] Handbook of Egyptian mythology, Geraldine Pinch, p 114-115, Oxford University Press, 2004, ISBN 0-19-517024-5
[3] "Mistress of the House, Mistress of Heaven: women in ancient Egypt", Anne K. Capel, Glenn Markoe, p 72, Cincinnati Art Museum,
Brooklyn Museum, Hudson Hills, 1996, ISBN 1-55595-129-5
Bastet 96

Bastet
Bastet

Bastet the goddess of cats

Bastet the Goddess of Cats, Lower Egypt, the sun and the moon

Name in hieroglyphs
Unicode: ጺጼጅ
Major cult center Bubastis

Symbol the cat, woman with cat as an head, the sistrum

Consort Ptah

Parents Ra

Siblings Tefnut, Shu, Serqet, Sekhmet (in some occasions), Hathor (in some occasions)

Offspring Maahes

Bast refers to a cat goddess of ancient Egyptian religion who was worshipped as early as the Second Dynasty (2890
BC). She was the goddess of warfare in Lower Egypt, the Nile River delta region, before unification of the cultures
that became Ancient Egypt. Her name also is spelled Baast, Ubasti, and Baset.[1]
The two cultures that united had deities that shared similar roles and usually the same imagery. In Upper Egypt
Sekhmet was the parallel warrior lioness deity to Bast. Often similar deities merged into one with the unification, but
that did not occur with these deities with such strong roots in their cultures, instead these goddesses began to diverge.
During the twenty-second dynasty c.945-715 BC, Bast worship had changed from being a lioness warrior deity into
being a major protector deity represented as a cat.[2] Bastet, the name associated with this later identity, is the name
commonly used by scholars today to refer to this deity.
Bastet 97

Name
Bastet, the form of the name which is most commonly adopted by Egyptologists today because of its use in later
dynasties, is a modern convention offering one possible reconstruction. In early Egyptian, her name appears to have
been ጌꜣጨጼጼ. In Egyptian writing, the second ጼ marks a feminine ending, but was not usually pronounced, and the
aleph ꜣ may have moved to a position before the accented syllable, as witnessed by the Aramaic spelling ꜣጌጨጼ.[3]
By the first millennium, then, ጌꜣጨጼጼ would have been something like *Ubaste (< *Ubastat) in Egyptian speech,
[3]
later becoming Coptic Oubaste.
During later dynasties, Bast was assigned a lesser role in the pantheon bearing the name Bastet, but retained. During
the eighteenth dynasty Thebes became the capital of Ancient Egypt. As they rose to great power the priests of the
temple of Amun, dedicated to the primary local deity, advanced the stature of their titular deity to national
prominence and shifted the relative stature of others in the Egyptian pantheon. Diminishing her status, they began
referring to Bast with the added suffix, as "Bastet" and their use of the new name was well documented, becoming
very familiar to researchers. by the twenty-second dynasty the transition had occurred in all regions.
The town of Bast's cult (see below) was known in Greek as Boubastis (Βούβαστις). The Hebrew rendering of the
name for this town is Pî-beset ("House of Bastet"), spelled without Vortonsilbe.[3]
What the name of the goddess means remains uncertain.[3] One recent suggestion by Stephen Quirke (Ancient
Egyptian Religion) explains it as meaning "She of the ointment jar". This ties in with the observation that her name
was written with the hieroglyph "ointment jar" (ጌꜣጨ) and that she was associated with protective ointments, among
other things.[3]
She was the goddess of protection against contagious diseases and evil spirits.[4]
She is also known as The Eye of Ra.

From lioness-goddess to cat-goddess

From the third millennium BC, when Bast begins to appear in our record, she is depicted as either a fierce lioness or
a woman with the head of a lioness.[5] Images of Bast were created from a local stone, named alabaster today.[citation
needed]
The lioness was the fiercest hunter among the animals in Africa, hunting in cooperative groups of related
females.
Originally she was viewed as the protector goddess of Lower Egypt. As protector, she was seen as defender of the
pharaoh, and consequently of the later chief male deity, Ra, who was also a solar deity, gaining her the titles Lady of
Flame and Eye of Ra.
Her role in the Egyptian pantheon became diminished as Sekhmet, a similar lioness war deity, became more
dominant in the unified culture of Lower and Upper Egypt known as the Two Lands.[citation needed]
In the first millennium BC, when domesticated cats were popularly kept as pets, during the eighteenth dynasty Bastet
began to be represented as a woman with the head of a cat and ultimately, by the twenty-second dynsty emerged as
the Egyptian cat-goddess par excellence.[5] In the Middle Kingdom, the domestic cat appeared as Bast’s sacred
animal and after the New Kingdom she was depicted as a woman with the head of a cat or a lioness, carrying a
sacred rattle and a box or basket.[6]