Khonsu, 'The Traveller', or 'Wanderer', refers to the moon wandering across the sky. The name Khonsu is considered deriving from the verb 'khenes', meaning 'to cross over or transverse'. He went through a complete transformation of character during time. In the 'Cannibal Hymn' in the Pyramid Texts, he is a bloodthirsty deity, the 'angry one of the gods' who helps the deceased king to slay deity enemies in the Underworld. Having some time later been associated with childhood, he appears in the New Kingdom as Divine Child of Amun and Mut of the Theban Triad. Here he is depicted as a young boy in the form of a mummy, wearing the side-lock of youth and with the moon crescent above his head. In Thebes he also appears in several different aspects; Khonsu pa-khered - Khonsu the Child, Khonsu pa-ir-sekher - Khonsu the Provider, Khonsu heseb-ahau - Khonsu decider of the lifespan, Khonsu em-waset nefer-hetep - Khonsu in Waset (Thebes) Nefer Hetep. From the Bentresh-stela (see below) it is understood that these various forms could interact with each other at times. The title Khonsu pa-khered - Khonsu the Child, refers to his form as young sun-god who was invoked as protection against dangerous animals. In later times both Khonsu and Horus is shown on cippi standing on crocodiles. His fame as healer became so widespread in the later periods that he was believed to have personally healed Ptolemy IV, which caused this king to call himself 'Beloved of Khonsu who protects the king and drives away evil spirits'. Khonsu heseb-ahau - Khonsu Decider of the Lifespan associates him with the reckoning of time and the gestation period of humans and animals. As moon god he also has an association with Djehuty. This association is also seen when Khonsu occasionally appears in baboon-form (Cynocephalus). In this form he was known to be the 'Keeper of the Books of the End of the Year' and feared, as in these books were written the names of those who were going to die during the year. As a moon-deity he was also connected to Shu, the supporter of the sky, as well as to Horus from whom he acquired the royal insignia the crook and the flail. Khonsu can therefore also be shown with a falcon´s head and with the moon crescent becoming a sun-disc. Despite his importance at Thebes as part of the Triad Amun, Mut and Khonsu, at Kom Ombo he is the son of Het-Hert and Sobek, and at the temple of Edfu, he is called Khonsu of Behdet and a small room there, the 'Mansion of the Leg' was devoted to this form. The Leg was said to be the left leg of Osiris, here worshipped in the form of an obelisk. Therefore Khonsu also became associated with Osiris here. Usually Khonsu is depicted in human form, either with the sidelock of youth or with the full moon-disc resting in a moon crescent. He is often wrapped in a tight-fitting garment, almost mummiform, and seen holding the crook and the flail as well as the was- or djed-staff, associating him with Horus and Osiris. He can also be seen in human form but falcon-headed and with the crescent and full moon-disc, pointing at his association with the sky. The moon-disc with its crescent differs him from Re or Horus in falcon-form. Another typical attribute of Khonsu is his necklace with a crescent-shaped pectoral. On his back is its counterpoise in the form of an inverted 'keyhole', which can be sued to differ him from Ptah who also wears a necklace but with a quite different-looking counterpoise. Though there existed many temples to Khonsu throughout Egypt, the main cult center was at Thebes. In Karnak he had a precinct of his own, and its temple pylon made out a starting point of the processional avenue leading to Ipet Resut, the Opet Temple at Luxor. At the celebrations of the New Year, Khonsu was carried on his sacred barque with a falcon´s head at the prow and at the stern, to the Luxor temple to join his 'parents' Amun and Mut for the festivities. Sources: A Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddeses - George Hart The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt - Richard H. Wilkinson The House of Horus at Edfu - Barbara Watterson Handbook of Egyptian Mythology - Geraldine Pinch

Main center of worship: Wast/Thebes/Luxor, 4th Nome, Upper Egypt The Bentresh-stela: In the 4th Century bc, a group of priests at Karnak forge a stela to appear as being from some 800 years earlier, in the reign of Ramesses II. This probably in order to give it more authority. The content of the stela is more or less following: Ramesses II married a princess in far off Bakhtan and she comes to Egypt as the Great Royal Wife Neferure. During a festival in Thebes, the king and queen learns that the sister of the princess, Bentresh, has fallen very ill in Bakhtan. The king sends his scribe Djeheutyemheb out there, and he reports back that the princess is possessed by an evil spirit. Back at Thebes Ramesses consults Khonsu em-Waset Nefer-Hetep who approaches his other aspect of Khonsu pa-ir-sekher. The statue of this aspect of Khonsu is sent to Bakhtan and arrives there after seventeen months, and cures the princess Bentresh. Instead of returning the statue of Khonsu pa-ir-sekher, the prince of Bakhtan keeps it for three years and nine months, until Khonsu appeared to him in a dream of in the form of a golden falcon, clearly stating that he wanted to return home. The statue is then returned to Egypt, laden with gifts for the Khonsu em-Waset Nefer-Hetep at Karnak.