Ancient Egypt was famous throughout the ancient world for its
many varied gods and goddesses, as well as for their worship
of animals (or more correctly animals as manifestations of
gods). Bulls,
cows,
cats,
dogs,
geese,
crocodiles and
even scarab
beetles, along with many other animals were the
object of such worship as embodiments of gods. Some animals,
such as the Apris Bull seem to have been worshipped
specifically in their physical animal form. They might have
been seen in a very similar manner to the single statue of a
specific god in a temple's shrine, being the earthly
manifestation of that god, which in the case of the Apris
Bull, was Ptah. They are often referred to as temple animals,
and one specific beast was chosen for this honor. Other
animals such as the goose, an early manifestation of Amun,
were kept in numbers and appear to have not been given the
sacred status of the individual temple animals. One animal
associated with perhaps some of Egypt's best known and most
important gods was the Ram, who like the bull, seems to have
also been specifically worshipped as a temple animal, though
we currently know much less about this cult then that of the
Apris bull. The ram was associated with various gods from
Egypt's earliest periods even though sheep were considered not
to be clean, or pure, by the ancient Egyptians.
Throughout history, rams have been important to
mythological and religious concepts, associated with ancient
gods from all over the world. The ram even became a
symbol of Christ in ancient times. They also sometimes
suffered from religion, being the objects of sacrifice to
various gods. In fact, perhaps one of the most famous ancient
accounts of a ram involves one in the Old Testament that Abraham found trapped by its horns in a thicket on Mount Moriah where he had gone to sacrifice his only son
Isaac. [Gen 22:1-14] An angel stopped the hand of Abraham just as he was about to kill his boy and the ram was sacrificed in his stead.
The ram, like the bull, was perhaps even more venerated by
the ancient Egyptians for its fertility, as well as for its
warlike attributes. As a temple animal at such locations as
Mendes and
Karnak, a single animal appears to have been cared for and
treated very similar to the holiest of god's statues within
the temple. These individual rams were almost certainly taken
to visit the gods at other temples, and could give oracles
(usually by some act to a yes or no question).
The very earliest gods that were depicted with ram features
were probably based on the ram species known as Ovis longipes
palaeoagytiaca known from predynastic
times. Khnum, an
important god throughout Egypt, but especially at Elephantine,
who created mankind and even gods on his potters will, was
apparently depicted as this species, with its long wavy horns
and heavy build, as was Banebdjedet
(Ba-neb-Tetet), an early
ram headed god at Mendes. Banebdjedet was the
manifestation of the Lord of Djedet, as well as the ba, or
soul of another of
ancient Egypt's most famous gods, Osiris. In fact, Osiris is
often depicted with a pair of ram horns attached to the base
of his atef crown also from this earliest species of ram.
Fairly recent excavations at Mendes have exposed an early
Old Kingdom and First Intermediary Period Temple dedicated to
the ram god, as well as the "hypogeum", apparently a
facility that might be considered the ram oriented equivalent
of the Serapeum, where the sacred Apris bulls were buried at
Saqqara.
The most recent information on its excavation indicates that
twelve granite and three limestone ram sarcophagi were
discovered in the hypogeum,
Later in Egyptian history, a second species of ram known as
Ovis aries platyra aegyptiaca, a curved horn ram, appeared
around the 12th Dynasty of Egypt's
Middle
Kingdom. The most
important deity of Egypt's New Kingdom and later periods,
Amun, seems to have been associated with this species of Ram.
Amun is sometimes referred to as "lord of the two
horns" and
on his splendid, gilded, wooden festival boat a ram's head
adorned both its prow and stern. As most people who have ever
visited Luxor
(ancient Thebes)
are probably aware, the processional road to the
Temple of Amun was flanked with ram headed lion sphinxes, each
one guarding between its front legs a statue of the
pharaoh.
There were actually a number of other gods of ancient Egypt
associated with the ram, either having ram heads, or sometimes
simply ram horns. These included Arsaphes (Herishef, Harsaphes),
a god of Heracleopolis, Kherty (or perhaps Cherti), a ram
headed god that probably originated at Letopolis and had a
dual nature being both hostile and protective, Andjety, who's
main cult center was at Busiris in the Delta and who was in
many aspects the precursor of Osiris, Auf
(Efu Ra), who was an
aspect of the sun god, Re as a ram headed deity surmounted by
a sun
disk, and Harmakhet, a variant of Horus, who was the God of the dawn and of the morning
sun, who was depicted in the form of a sphinx or a sphinx with the head of a
ram.
Reference:
| Title |
Author |
Date |
Publisher |
Reference Number |
|
Ancient Gods Speak, The: A Guide to Egyptian Religion |
Redford, Donald B. |
2002 |
Oxford University Press |
ISBN 0-19-515401-0 |
|
Dictionary of Ancient Egypt, The |
Shaw, Ian; Nicholson, Paul |
1995 |
Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers |
ISBN 0-8109-3225-3 |
|
Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, A |
Hart, George |
1986 |
Routledge |
ISBN 0-415-05909-7 |
|
Egyptian Religion |
Morenz, Siegfried |
1973 |
Cornell University Press |
ISBN 0-8014-8029-9 |
|
Gods of the Egyptians, The (Studies in Egyptian Mythology) |
Budge, E. A. Wallis |
1969 |
Dover Publications, Inc. |
ISBN 486-22056-7 |
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