 |
Per AnkhThe Temple Pages
Egyptian Gods, their main centers of worship |
|
On this page:
Hathor, Hat-Mehit, Hapi, Heka, Heket, Horus, HuPlease note - Festival days are not historically Hathor/Het-Hert
correct but an estimation compiled from several sources.
|
Meaning "the House of Horus". In early times seen as the sky-goddess and mother of Horus, in the New Kingdom she was merged with Isis to become the same deity. Already in the Old Kingdom her cult center seems to have been in Dendera. During the Ptolemeian period a great temple was built here, and dedicated to her. Beside her mother characteristics she was also called the "Eye of Re", who in myth brought disaster to her enemies. In Thebes she was worshipped as a goddess of the dead. Hathor was frequently shown with a woman's head and a cow's ears. Her forms were many, she was often depicted with a sun-disc on her head and cow's horns but also shown with a cow's head, a lioness, a snake and a tree nymph. In Thebes she held some importance even as a mortuary deity, shown here in the form of a cow and thought to receive the deceased, just as she received the setting sun, preserving it from the powers of darkness. Thus she was sometimes called the 'female soul with two faces'. Her greatest importance was perhaps as a goddess for women, for beauty, love, joy, dance and music. At times she had a large female priesthood who acted as singers and dancers in temple rituals and processions.
|
Main center of worship: Iunet/Tentyris/Dendera Other Temple sites: Iunu/Heliopolis/Cairo 3rd Nome, Lower Egypt Mennefer/Memphis 1st Nome, Lower Egypt Aphroditopolis/Atfih, 22th Nome, Upper Egypt Quis/Cusae/el-Qusiya, 14th Nome,Upper Egypt Per-Hathor/Pathyris/Gebelein, 4th Nome, Upper Egypt P-aaleq/Philae 1st Nome, Upper Egypt For a virtual page: Festivals:(dates not historically verified) Hathor Going Forth from Dendera to marry Horus at Edfu once a year 29 August - 12th Paopi - Birthday of Het-Hert (Hathor) 17th September - 1st Hethara - Feast of Het-hert (Hathor) 21st September - 5th Hethara - Autum Equinox; Honors to Het-hert (Hathor) 4th October - 18th Hethara - Festival of Het-Hert (Hathor) 21st October - 5th Koiak - Het-Hert Goes Forth to Her people 29th October - 13th Koiak - Day of Going Forth of Het-Hert and the Ennead 2dn November - 17th Koiak - Festival of Het-Hert. 28th November - 13th Tybi - Feast of Het-Hert and Sekhmet 23rd December - 8th Mechir - Festival of the Great Heat; Feast Day of Het-Hert 23rd January - 9th Pamenot - Day of Het-Hert (Hathor) 1st April - 17th Pachons - Day of Het-Hert (Hathor) 15th May - 1st Epipi - Festivals of Het-Hert and Bast 19th May - 5th Epipi - Het-Hert(Hathor) returns to Punt; the Netjers are saddened 21st May - 7th Epipi - Sailing of the netjers after Het-Hert(Hathor) 16th June - 3rd Mesore - Feast of Raet, Feast of Het-Hert as
Sirius |
Hat-Mehit
|
A local fish-goddess from the Delta city of Mendes, where the ram-headed BaNebDjedet was the main god. Hat-Mehit was usually depicted in the form of a woman with a fish above her head. |
No festivals are known from history.
|
Hapi/Hapy
|
The great god of the Nile was called Hapi. In sacred art, he was depicted as a man, somewhat overweight to symbolize abundance, and with female breasts to symbolize the river’s fertile properties. He is an ancient god, to the Egyptians as well as modern man, and the syllable “hep”, the root of his name, is probably an ancient name for the Nile. Often he holds before him a tray of offerings, the gifts of the Nile, produce of Nile silt. He wears a crown of riverine plants, the lotus of Upper Egypt and the papyrus of Lower Egypt. Wearing the former, he was called “Hap-Meht”; while as the latter, he was “Hap-Reset”. When an artist was trying to show Hapi as god of the whole Nile, he holds both papyrus and lotus plants, or else two vases. Hapi had a wife in both halves of the country, and they were the personifications of the river banks. Nekhebet, the vulture goddess, was his southern wife; while Uadjet, the cobra goddess, was his northern wife. He was also the patron god of fish and marsh birds. Epithets for Hapi include "lord of the fishes and birds of the marshes", which might explain the god being depicted with a double-goose head in the temple of Abydos. His home was thought to be a cave on the island of Bigeh on the Nile. He was worshipped at Abu (Elephantine to the Greeks) and he was closely associated with the god Khnum. No temples or sanctuaries were built specifically in his honor, but his statues and reliefs are found in the temples of other deities. Hapi was Identified with Osiris as a river or water god .However, in his own right ,he was recognized as one of the greatest Egyptian gods and he was declared maker of the universe. |
Main center of worship: Abu, where he was worshipped in conjunction with other Netjers; Festivals:(dates not historically verified) 28th September– 12th Hethara - Fest of Hapi: Creating of
the Nile 15th December– 30th Tybi - Day of crossing before Nun in
the Temple of Hapi |
Heka
|
There are two aspects of this concept. The first one is the name of the deity Heka. The other one is the act of using heka. Heka the deity: One of the three creative powers of the Sungod Ra, which were necessary for Creation to come about. Thus Heka was the divine energy or the life force, the other two were Hu - divine utterance, and Sia - divine knowledge. Heka was personified as a man standing in front of the naos where the Sungod is seen, in the sunboat, and sometimes holding different ritual objects. Using Heka - A note about heka and "magic": The ancient Egyptian word heka could be translated as "magic". It would be more correct to call it Life Force in Action. In our modern day Western society the word magic has other connotations than the ancient Egyptians attached to the concept of heka. The word was neutral in itself and could be used to direct oneself to the centerpoint of cult and of creation, for maintaining the Cosmic Order and Balance (see Ma´at). In other words, it was no more and no less a form of ritualized prayer. It could be used to refer to texts which were written or spoken.
|
Words in themselves were regarded as divine by the ancient Egyptians, and were to be treated with great respect. Weret-Hekau, Great of Magic, was one of the titles of Aset, as in myth she managed to trick Ra into revealing his secret name to her. The same title was also used for Sekhmet. To know the name of something meant to have power over it. Heka was not only particular to the deity who acted from and with it, humans too have life force and can of course use heka to come into contact with the divine. The ancients believed that with the help of heka they could influence the world of the gods. As heka was used both in temple ritual and in more informal situations, one sees the possible reason of equating it for "magic". It had, however, nothing to do with evoking spirits or any supernatural phenomena. It was a way of addressing oneself to God.
|
Heket/Heqet
|
Heket - a water deity in the form of a frog or a frog-headed woman. She made her debut into the Egyptian pantheon in pyramid inscriptions, in a magical text destined to allow the king to ascend into the sky. Later she became connected with birth, in a Middle Kingdom papyrus, containing tales of wonder from the age of the pyramids. As she developed into a
symbol of fecundity and resurrection, Heket, who helped Osiris to rise
from the dead, presided over the birth of kings and queens. In a passage
concerning the wife of the High Priest of Ra giving birth to the three
kings who inaugurated the fifth dynasty, she hastens the final stage of
labor. Amulets and scarabs worn by women to protect them in childbirth
often bear the image of the frog-goddess. Similarly, magical knives of
ivory which were popular in the Middle Kingdom, bore her image to protect
the home. She was often called the wife of Khnum and a birth-deity of all his creatures. Sometimes Heket was taken as a form of Hathor, and called the mother of Horus the Elder. |
Main center of worship: Other places: |
Horus/Her
|
Differ first between Horus the Elder and Horus son of Isis. The falcon, soaring with outstretched wings was already in Predynastic times seen as the sky-god, his eyes were called the sun and the moon. The sky, the sun and the falcon were at this time equaled with the king and out of this came the symbol of the winged disc which was one of the many forms of Horus. This became the royal insignia, used on lintels over doors of temples and royal building, as well as on many other places. This refers to the form of him as "Horus the Elder", or 'Heru-Wer'. Then there is Horus son of Isis, or Heru-sa-Aset in ancient Egyptian, or Harsiese in Greek. Next there is also the Living Horus, the form which embodies the ruling King, or rather his spirit or 'ka'. What makes it so confusing is that these three forms are given local names, like Harendotes or Heru-Behdety and many other, but in reality they all come from these two different ones, Horus the Elder and Horus son of Isis. The Living Horus is all tied in with the concept of the Divine Kingship so it is a bit different. In early times he was the ruler of Lower Egypt, in later times he was considered to rule all of Egypt. In the tale of the Contending of Horus and Set it is told about his fight against his uncle Set, who had slain his father Osiris and how he finally gained his father´s throne back from Set. |
Main center of worship: Iunu/Heliopolis/Cairo 13th Nome, Lower Egypt: Other temple sites: Djeba/Apollinopolis Magna/Edfu 2nd Nome, Upper Egypt Nekhen/Hierakonpolis 2nd Nome, Upper Egypt Gesy/Apollinopolis Parva/Qus 5th Nome,Upper Egypt Iunet/Tentyris/Dendera 6th Nome, Upper Egypt Khem/Letopolis/Ausim 2nd Nome, Lower Egypt Hut-Heryib/Athribis 10th Nome,Lower Egypt 15th of July, the 2nd Epagomenal Days, is the Birthday of Heru(Horus) 13th August - 26th Thuti - Day of battle between Horus and Set 14th August - 27th Thuti - Day of Peace between Horus and Set 17th August - 30th Thuti - Rituals in the Temples of Ra, Horus and Osiris 19th August - 2ndPaopi - Procession of Heru to Neith 20th August - 3rd Paopi - Thoth orders the healing of the eye of Horus 31st August - 14th Paopi - Horus receives the White Crown 9th October - 23rd Hethara - Ra judges the dispute of Set and Horus 12th October - 26th Hethara - The Black Land is given to Horus, The Red Land is given to Set 14th October - 28 Hethara - Festival of establishing Heru as King, The appearance before Ptah 15th November - 30th Koiak - The Ennead feast in the House of Ra, Heru and Wasir 25th December - 10th Mechir - Birth of Heru (Horus), the child of Aset (Isis), Day of elevating the Great Netjret (goddess) in all her names and manifestations. 6th February - 23rd Pamenot - Feast of Heru (Horus) 21st February - 8th Parmutit - Day of counting the partos of the eye of Heru (Horus) 15th March - 30th Parmutit - Offerings to Ra, Wasir, Heru, Ptah, Sokar and Atum 16th March - 1st Pachons - Feat of Heru and His Companions 15th April - 1st Payni - Festival of Heru (Horus) 29th May - 15th Epipi - Heru(Horus) hears prayer in the presence of the Netjers 30th June - 13th Epipi - Ceremony of Heru the Beloved 26th June - 13 Mesore - Holiday for the Shemsu (followers) of
Heru |
Hu
|
Personification of the sound of the creative speech, the principle of Divine Utterance, which together with Heka (divine power) and Sia (divine omniscience) were necessary for the King´s creative powers during the Old Kingdom. They are seen together with the falcon-headed sungod standing in the Sunboat as it travels across the sky; "in order to sustain the life of men, and all the cattle, and all the worms, [everything] he has created". This points to the mythical concept that every sunrise is equal to the world being created anew, after having fought back all dangers on its way through the Underworld.
|
Hu is a deity without a special worship, belonging to the Heliopolitan Creation myth and its´ early sun cult.
|
Front page - Gods - Egyptian Temples - History of Religion - Priesthood - Rituals
