DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14695#0422
346 The Ram and the Sun in Egypt
Ikaros, Nisos, Pterelaos are so many mythical expressions of one
belief, and that all alike imply the primitive conception of the sun
as a bird.
(f) The Sun and the Ram.
i. The Ram and the Sun in Egypt. Zeus Ammon.
(a) Khnemu and Amen.
Another animal that came to be associated with the sun in
Egypt was the ram. Khnemu, the great god of Elephantine1, was
represented originally as a ram2, but in historical times generally
as a ram-headed human figure. From the beginning of the New
Kingdom (s. xvi B.C.) onwards he was fused with the sun-god Ra
and worshipped throughout southern Egypt as Khnemu-Ra, a
ram-headed deity often depicted as wearing the solar disk3. Ra
himself was on occasion addressed as a ram, to judge from one of
The Seventy-five Praises of Ra found at Thebes on the walls of
royal tombs of the nineteenth and twentieth dynasties:
' Praise be to thee, o Ra, exalted power. Thou raisest thy head, and thou
makest bold thy brow, thou ram, mightiest of created things 4.'
At Herakleoupolis {Henen-su) Khnemu was equated with the local
solar god Her-shef, who not only receives many of the titles of Ra.
but is also represented with a ram's head5. At Mendes too Khnemu
has a quiver and holds a bow in his lowered left hand, a torch in his extended right
(J. Friedlander in the Arch. Zeit. 1869 xxvii. 103 pi. 23, 21, Imhoof-Blumer Monn. gr.
p. 141, Head Hist, nutn.^ p. 321). The torch suggests that the cult was solar.
1 Lanzone Dizion. di Mitol. Egiz. p. 956 ff. pi. 336 f., W. Drexler in Roscher Lex.
Myth. ii. 1250 ff., K. Sethe in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. iii. 2349 ff.
2 This is inferred from the hieroglyphic form of his name (Sethe loc. cit. p. 2350).
3 A.Wiedemann Religion of the Ancient Egyptians London 1897 p. 128, E. A. Wallis
Budge The Gods of the Egyptians London 1904 ii. 51 ff., Drexler loc. cit. p. 1252 f., Sethe
loc. cit. p. 2351.
A coin of the Hypselite nome, struck under Hadrian, shows Isis holding in her hand a
ram with a disk on its head {Brit. Mus. Cat. Corns Alexandria p. 363), i.e. Khnemu-Ra.
in the form of a ram (cp. Sethe id.).
4 E. A. Wallis Budge op. cit. i. 342.
5 Id. id. ii. 58 ff., Drexler loc. cit. i. 1848 ff. and ii. 1252, R. Pietschmann in Pauly—
Wissowa Real-Enc. ii. 1271 f. Cp. Ariston Alex. frag. 3 {Frag. hist. Gr. iii. 324f.
Muller) ap. Plout. de Is. et Os. 37 'Apicrrcov to'lvvv 6 yeypa<pios 'Adrjvaiwv diroiKiav iirLcrroXfj
tlvl 'AXe^dpxov irepi£ireo~ev, ev y Aios IcrropeiTat. Kal"lai.8os vlbs wv 0 AiSvvaos virb AIjvtttlojp,
ovk "Ocripcs, dWd 'Apaacpijs {ev rip a\0a ypdpLpLari) \eyeo~6cu, d^Xovvros to dvSpeiov rod
6v6p,aTOS. ip,(paiveL 5e tovto /cat 6 'E/^cuos, ev rrj irpwrrj Uepi tQv AlyvirriioV "Op,[3pip.ov
ydp (pyaL p.edepp:r]vev6p,evov elvai Tdv"0<ripiv (Hermaios in Frag. hist. Gr. iv. 427 Muller).
A magnificent gold statuette of Her-shef with a ram's head was found by Prof. Flinders
Petrie at Herakleoupolis: it dates from the twenty-fifth dynasty, s. viii B.C. {Man 1904
Ikaros, Nisos, Pterelaos are so many mythical expressions of one
belief, and that all alike imply the primitive conception of the sun
as a bird.
(f) The Sun and the Ram.
i. The Ram and the Sun in Egypt. Zeus Ammon.
(a) Khnemu and Amen.
Another animal that came to be associated with the sun in
Egypt was the ram. Khnemu, the great god of Elephantine1, was
represented originally as a ram2, but in historical times generally
as a ram-headed human figure. From the beginning of the New
Kingdom (s. xvi B.C.) onwards he was fused with the sun-god Ra
and worshipped throughout southern Egypt as Khnemu-Ra, a
ram-headed deity often depicted as wearing the solar disk3. Ra
himself was on occasion addressed as a ram, to judge from one of
The Seventy-five Praises of Ra found at Thebes on the walls of
royal tombs of the nineteenth and twentieth dynasties:
' Praise be to thee, o Ra, exalted power. Thou raisest thy head, and thou
makest bold thy brow, thou ram, mightiest of created things 4.'
At Herakleoupolis {Henen-su) Khnemu was equated with the local
solar god Her-shef, who not only receives many of the titles of Ra.
but is also represented with a ram's head5. At Mendes too Khnemu
has a quiver and holds a bow in his lowered left hand, a torch in his extended right
(J. Friedlander in the Arch. Zeit. 1869 xxvii. 103 pi. 23, 21, Imhoof-Blumer Monn. gr.
p. 141, Head Hist, nutn.^ p. 321). The torch suggests that the cult was solar.
1 Lanzone Dizion. di Mitol. Egiz. p. 956 ff. pi. 336 f., W. Drexler in Roscher Lex.
Myth. ii. 1250 ff., K. Sethe in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. iii. 2349 ff.
2 This is inferred from the hieroglyphic form of his name (Sethe loc. cit. p. 2350).
3 A.Wiedemann Religion of the Ancient Egyptians London 1897 p. 128, E. A. Wallis
Budge The Gods of the Egyptians London 1904 ii. 51 ff., Drexler loc. cit. p. 1252 f., Sethe
loc. cit. p. 2351.
A coin of the Hypselite nome, struck under Hadrian, shows Isis holding in her hand a
ram with a disk on its head {Brit. Mus. Cat. Corns Alexandria p. 363), i.e. Khnemu-Ra.
in the form of a ram (cp. Sethe id.).
4 E. A. Wallis Budge op. cit. i. 342.
5 Id. id. ii. 58 ff., Drexler loc. cit. i. 1848 ff. and ii. 1252, R. Pietschmann in Pauly—
Wissowa Real-Enc. ii. 1271 f. Cp. Ariston Alex. frag. 3 {Frag. hist. Gr. iii. 324f.
Muller) ap. Plout. de Is. et Os. 37 'Apicrrcov to'lvvv 6 yeypa<pios 'Adrjvaiwv diroiKiav iirLcrroXfj
tlvl 'AXe^dpxov irepi£ireo~ev, ev y Aios IcrropeiTat. Kal"lai.8os vlbs wv 0 AiSvvaos virb AIjvtttlojp,
ovk "Ocripcs, dWd 'Apaacpijs {ev rip a\0a ypdpLpLari) \eyeo~6cu, d^Xovvros to dvSpeiov rod
6v6p,aTOS. ip,(paiveL 5e tovto /cat 6 'E/^cuos, ev rrj irpwrrj Uepi tQv AlyvirriioV "Op,[3pip.ov
ydp (pyaL p.edepp:r]vev6p,evov elvai Tdv"0<ripiv (Hermaios in Frag. hist. Gr. iv. 427 Muller).
A magnificent gold statuette of Her-shef with a ram's head was found by Prof. Flinders
Petrie at Herakleoupolis: it dates from the twenty-fifth dynasty, s. viii B.C. {Man 1904