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Hail to thee, O Nile! Who manifests thyself over this
land, and comes to give life to Egypt!
Come and prosper!
Come and prosper!
O Nile, come and prosper!
O you who make men to live through his flocks and his flocks
through his orchards!
Come and prosper, come,
O Nile, come and prosper!
 Hapi (Hep,
Hap, Hapy) was probably a predynastic name for the Nile -
later on, the Egyptians just called the Nile iterw,
meaning 'the river' - and so it became the name of the god of
the Nile. ('Nile' comes from the Greek corruption - Neilos -
of the Egyptian 'nwy' which means 'water'.) He was mentioned
in the Pyramid Texts ("who comest forth from Hep")
where he was to send the river into the underworld from
certain caverns, where he was thought to have lived at the 1st
Cataract. The Nile was thought to have flown through the land
of the dead, the heavens and finally flowing into Egypt where
it rose out of the ground between two mountains which lay
between the Islands of Abu (Elephantine)
and the Island of Iat-Rek (Philae).
Hapi was also mentioned in the Pyramid Texts as a destructive
power, but one that worked for the pharaoh.
As a water god, Hapi was a deity of fertility - he provided
water, food and the yearly inundation of the Nile. He was also
known as 'Lord of the Fishes and Birds of the Marshes,'
indicating that he provided these creatures to the Egyptians
along with the Nile itself. Without Hapi, Egypt would have
died, and so he was sometimes revered even above Ra, the sun
god. The depiction of Hapi himself, though, was that of a
rather well-fed, blue or green man with the false beard of the
pharaoh on his chin. Other than showing his status as a god of
fertility by his color, the Egyptians showed Hapi as having
rather large breasts, like those of a mother with a baby.
At a very early period he absorbed the attributes of Nun,
the primeval watery mass from which Ra, the Sun-god, emerged
on the first day of the creation; and as a natural result he
was held the father of all beings and things, which were
believed to be the results of his handiwork and his
offspring. When we consider the great importance which the
Nile possessed for Egypt and her inhabitants it is easy to
understand how the Nile-god Hapi held a unique position
among the gods of the country, and how he came to be
regarded as a being as great as, if not greater than Ra
himself.
 Hapi was
also both god of Upper and Lower Egypt - this duality was
shown by having twin Hapi deities, one wearing the papyrus of
the north (Upper Egypt) as a headdress, the other wearing the
south's (Lower Egypt) lotus as a headdress. The Upper Egyptian
Hapi was called 'Hap-Meht' while the Lower Egyptian Hapi was
known as 'Hap-Reset'. They were depicted together, pouring
water from a carried vase or together, tying the two plants of
the northern or southern region into a knot with the sema
hieroglyph, symbolising the union of Upper and Lower Egypt. He
was thought to be the husband of the vulture goddess Nekhebet
in Lower Egypt, and of the cobra goddess Uatchet (Uatch-Ura,
Wadjet) in Upper Egypt. When he took on the attributes of Nun
(Nu), Hapi became husband to Nun's wife, the primeval goddess
Naunet of the Ogdoad. He was also linked with Osiris - another
water-related fertility god - and thus Nekhebet and Uatchet
were also seen as a form of Isis,
Osiris' wife.
...the Egyptians had no clue how or why the Nile flooded
each year. They believed that the gods Khnemu,
Anqet, and Satet
were the guardians of the source of the Nile. Their duty was
to make sure that the right amount of silt was released
during the yearly inundation. Hapi was in charge of the
waters that flowed during the floods.
During the inundation flood, the Egyptians would throw
offerings, amulets and other sacrifices into the Nile at
certain places, sacred to Hapi. Hapi was thought to come with
the inundation (the 'Arrival of Hapi') with a retinue of
crocodile gods and frog goddesses, and the sacrifices were
given in the hopes that the flood would not be too high, nor
too low. If the inundation was too high, many homes would be
destroyed (the Egyptians built their homes and even palaces
out of mud brick, which was easily washed away in a large
flood). On the other hand, if the flood was too low, there
would not be enough water for the fields and cattle - Egypt
would be in drought. During inundation, statues of Hapi were
carried about through the towns and villages so that the
people could honor and pray to him - it was a solemn occasion.
Even Akhenaten, the 'heretic king', could not banish Hapi
completely as he did with the other gods. Instead, he tried to
suggest that Hapi was an incarnation of the Aten
(Akenaten's god, the sun disk):
I propitiate him who lives by truth,
The Lord of Diadems, Akhenaten,
Great in his lifetime.
O Hapi, by whose command
One is powerful
The food and nourishment of Egypt,
The vital ruler who forms me,
Makes me, fosters me...
There are no known temples of Hapi, but his statues and
reliefs are found in the temples of other deities. He was
worshiped throughout the land of Egypt, but especially at
Aswan and Gebel El-Silisila.
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