| Khnum | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 The Egyptian god Khnum was usually depicted with the head of a ram. | ||||
| Name in hieroglyphs |
| |||
| Major cult center | Elephantine, Esna | |||
| Symbol | the potter's wheel | |||
| Consort | Heqet, Satis, Neith, Menhit, and Nebtuwi | |||
| Offspring | Heka, Serket and Anuket | |||
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Khnum, also romanised Khnemu (/kəˈnuːm/; Ancient Egyptian: 𓎸𓅱𓀭 ẖnmw, Koinē Greek: Χνοῦβις), was one of the earliest-known Egyptian deities in Upper Egypt, originally associated with the Nile cataract. He held the responsibility of regulating the annual inundation of the river, emanating from the caverns of Hapy, the deity embodying the flood. Since the annual flooding of the Nile brought with it silt and clay, and its water brought life to its surroundings, he eventually became known as the creator of human bodies and the life force kꜣ ("ka"). Using a potter's wheel and clay, he fashioned these entities and placed them within their mothers' wombs. Often, his creative endeavors were overseen by another god. He was later described as having moulded the other deities, and was revered as the creator of the animal kingdom.[1][2][3]
Worship of Khnum spanned from the First Dynasty and persisted even into the Greco-Roman period when rule by native dynasties had ended. Initially, his primary cult center was at Herwer in Middle Egypt. While his presence on the island of Elephantine dates back to the Early Dynastic Period, it wasn't until the New Kingdom that he ascended to become the principal deity of the island, acquiring the title as the overseer of the First Cataract of the Nile River. At Elephantine, Khnum formed a divine triad alongside the goddesses Satis and Anuket. His religious significance also extended to Esna, located south of Thebes.[2][4][5]
Khnum's primary function in the inception of human beings was typically portrayed with the horns of a ram, one of the sacred animals worshiped in Ancient Egypt, representing aspects such as fertility, rebirth, regeneration, and resurrection. He was originally illustrated with horizontally spiraled horns (based on the extinct ovis longipes palaeoaegyptiacus), but his representation later evolved to feature the down-turned horns of Ammon in the New Kingdom (based on the extinct ovis platyra palaeoaegyptiacus). Khnum's imagery also includes the crocodile head, denoting his dominion over the Nile. He can additionally be found wearing the atef crown adorned with two feathers, or the white crown of Upper Egypt.[2][6][7][8]
- ^ Velde, H. te (1980). "A Few Remarks upon the Religious Significance of Animals in Ancient Egypt". Numen. 27 (1): 76–82. doi:10.2307/3269982. ISSN 0029-5973. JSTOR 3269982.
- ^ a b c Hart, George (2005). The Routledge dictionary of Egyptian gods and goddesses (2 ed.). London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-36116-3.
- ^ Pinch, Geraldine (2004). Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Goddesses, and Traditions of ancient Egypt. USA: Oxford University Press.
- ^ Redford, Donald B. (2001). "Khnum". The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195102345.
- ^ Hallof, Jochen (2011-10-27). "Esna" (PDF). UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology. 1602 (1). Los Angeles: UCLA: 1–15.
- ^ Ali, Mona Ezz (2020). "God Heryshef" (PDF). Journal of Association of Arab Universities for Tourism and Hospitality. 18 (2): 27.
- ^ Treasure, Matthew (2021-01-31). ""Four Faces on One Neck": The Tetracephalic Ram as an Iconographic Form in the Late New Kingdom". Theses and Dissertations.
- ^ Hassib, Ayat Abid El Aziz; Mahmoud, Abeer Fathy (2022). "Publication of a funerary stela of (WAH-ib-Ra) GEM 15461 "In the Grand Egyptian Museum"". International Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Heritage Research. 5 (2): 97–116. doi:10.21608/ijmshr.2022.274669 – via Academia.