Amun
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Amun (later syncretised as Amun-Re) was one of the most important deities of ancient Egypt, ascending to the status of pre-eminent state deity as early as the Middle Kingdom period.
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Origins and Mythology
Amun finds earliest mention alongside his feminine counterpart Amaunet in the Pyramid Texts of the Old Kingdom period [PT 446].
After these somewhat obscure references, Amun next appears as a local god of the Theban region in the Eleventh Dynasty, when four rulers of the dynasty adopted the name "Amenemhat" ("Amun is preeminent", literally, "Amun is at the front"). Gradually, Amun increased in importance against that of the previous regional deity Montu, a displacement made complete with the rise of Amun (in the combined form of Amun-Re to the position of chief state god alongside the rise of successive Theban dynasties as rulers of all Egypt.
Amun was closely associated with two other Theban regional deities, who together composed the local triad: Amun's consort, the goddess Mut, and the lunar deity Khonsu, now recognised as their son.
Function
Transcendent invisible god
The original etymology of the name of Amun is commonly linked to the invisible power of the wind, emphasising Amun's later primary aspect as a hidden, mysterious deity that transcended close definition. Such an explanation attracts ancient support: Plutarch cites Manetho in stating that Amun meant "he who is concealed", or "he who is invisible". A common epithet of the god, moreover, was "mysterious of form".
Creator deity
Amun appears as a member of the Ogdoad, a group of eight primeval gods who were venerated in Hermopolis. Amun himself was venerated as Amun kematef, "Amun who has completed his moment", the creator god in the form of a serpent that renewed itself periodically. In this aspect, Amun was understood to anticipate the other seven members of the Ogdoad.
Fertility god
An ithyphallic form of Amun—Amun kamutef, "the bull of his mother"—appeared in ritual scenes in the Theban temple complexes from the Twelfth Dynasty onwards. The Temple of Luxor, in particular, made much of this depiction. As well as emphasising the sexual energies of the bull, a premier Egyptian symbol for strength and fertility, the epithet hinted at a self-engendering nature to the god, signifying that he conceived himself on his own mother, the divine cow representing the creator goddess of the sky. In this ithyphallic aspect, Amun was unsurprisingly associated with the fertility god Min, and frequently in the syncretised form of Amun-Min.
Solar deity
Amun was designated "eldest of the gods of the eastern sky" in the Book of the Dead, reflecting both his primeval origins and a solar nature. A later, Eighteenth Dynasty hymn to Amun preserved on a British Museum stela praises Amun when he rises as Horakhty. Equating the hidden god with the visible sun, this identification encapsulates Amun's ready syncretism with the sun god Re in the composite form Amun-Re. As such, Amun absorbed a number of key aspects and functions of a solar deity. These remained clearly secondary, however, to his older, hidden nature. Moreover, during the Amarna Period, Amun was officially regarded as foreign and contradictory to the divine sun disk.
Forms and Iconography
The god Amun was normally represented by Egyptian artists in human form, a male divine figure in a short kilt (the kilt frequently with an attached bull's tail), a feather pattern tunic and a tall double-plumed crown or headdress.
Amun could also be depicted in zoomorphic form, his animals including the ram and the Nile goose.
A distinctive species of ram with curved horns (ovis platyra aegyptiaca) frequently performed as Amun's sacred animal, almost certainly on the basis of the animal's reputed reproductive vigour. Ram symbolism is obvious in a number of prominent contexts associated with the god: the great festival barque of Amun 'Lord of the the Two Horns' displayed rams' heads at bow and stern, for example, while the processional routes that led between the temples of Luxor and Karnak were bordered by the figures of seated rams or ram-headed lions. Less frequently, Amun might be portrayed as a male figure with a ram's head, a guise often confused with the night-time aspect of the sun god.
The Nile goose (Alopochen aegyptiaca) also acted as a common animal symbol of the god, likely owing to the animal's association with the primeval creation of the cosmos. On a connected basis, the god Amun might also be depicted as a snake—the use of this form in iconography is quite rare, however.
Combined with the solar deity Re in the guise of Amun-Re, Amun was often portrayed with lion imagery. This choice is probably best rendered in the ram-headed lions (criosphinxes) which represented the god in Karnak and Luxor, for example.
Bibliography
- Assmann, Jan [1995], Egyptian Solar Religion in the New Kingdom: Re, Amun and the Crisis of Polytheism, (translated from the German by Anthony Alcock), [Studies in Egyptology], London: Kegan Paul International, 1995. ISBN 071030465X
- Dolinska, M. [1990], "Red and Blue Figures of Amun", Varia Aegyptiaca 6:1-2 (April - August 1990), pp.3-7.
- Kitchen, Kenneth A. [2007], "Festivity in Ramesside Thebes and Devotion to Amun and His City", in Schneider, T. and Szpakowska, K. (eds), Egyptian Stories: A British Egyptological Tribute to Alan B. Lloyd on the Occasion of his Retirement, Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, 2007, pp.149-153. ISBN 9783934628946
- Schenkel, W. [1974], "Amun-Re: Eine Sondierung zu Struktur und Genese altägyptischer synkretischer Götter", SAK 1 (1974), pp.275-288.
- Tobin, V.A., "Amun and Amun-Re", OEAE Volume 1, pp.82-85.
- Wainwright, G.A. [1934], "Some Aspects of Amun", JEA 20 (1934), pp.139-153.
