Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 1): Zeus god of the bright sky (Cambridge, 1914)

Khnemu and Amen

347

was identified with another local form of Ra, namely Ba-neb-Tettu,
'the Ram, lord of Tettu1.'

Amen, the provincial god of Thebes2, who rose with the rise of
Theban power till as Amen-Ra he became ' King of the Gods ' of
all Egypt3, was another ram-divinity. He was figured sometimes
as a ram, more often as a ram-headed or ram-horned god wearing
the solar disk. But, whereas the ram of Khnemu belonged to a
very ancient Libyan species with goat-like horns projecting hori-
zontally from its head, the ram of Amen, like the rams of ' Minoan '
art, had horns curving sharply downwards4—a fact of which we
are reminded by the 'ammonites' of our geologists. In the time
of the eighteenth dynasty (s. xvi B.C.) Khnemu acquired the horns
of Amen in addition to his own5, while en revanche Amen acquired
those of Khnemu and was even represented as a ram of the
Khnemu-species6.

Amen and Zeus Thebaieus.

Herodotos, who speaks of Amen-Ra more than once as the
Theban Zeus7, reports a remarkable myth concerning him :

' All who have a temple of Zeus Thebctieics or belong to the Theban nome

abstain from sheep and sacrifice goats____But those who possess a temple of

Mendes or belong to the Mendesian nome abstain from goats8 and sacrifice
sheep. The Thebans, then, and those who on their account abstain from sheep
explain that this custom of theirs arose in the following way. Herakles was
very eager to set eyes on Zeus, and Zeus did not wish to be seen by him. At

p. 113 ff. pi. H, W. M. Flinders Petrie The Arts and Crafts of Ancient Egypt Edinburgh
& London 1909 p. 94 fig. 107).

1 E. A. Wallis Budge op. cit. ii. 64 ff., 353 f., A. Erman A Handbook of Egyptian
Religion trans. A. S. Griffith London 1907 p. 205 f.

2 Lanzone Dizion. di Mitol. Egiz. p. 29 ff. pi. i8ff., E. Meyer in Roscher Lex. Myth.
i. 283 ff, R. Pietschmann in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. i. 1853 ff.

3 R. Pietschmann id. i. 1874 s.v. ' Amonrasonther.'

4 O. Keller Die antike Tierwelt Leipzig 1909 p. 3098"., who holds that the tradition
of Herakles importing sheep from north Africa into Greece (Palaiph. 18 (19), Varr. rer.
rust. 2. 1. 6) corresponds with a cultural fact.

5 K. Sethe in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. iii. 2350. Cp. Euseb. praep. ev. 3. 12. 1
Kara be tt]V "EjXe(pavTbr]v itoXlv TeTifArjTCLL dyaXfxa, TTeirXaafMeuov fxev, dXX' dvbpeiKeXov Kai
Kadrjfxevov, Kvavovv re tt)v X90L^vi ne(paXr)v be Kpcov KeKrrjfxevou, /cat fia.aiXet.ov, Keparct
rpdyeia exov, oh eireari kvkXos bLtTKoetbris. Kddrjrat. be irapaKeifxevov tcepa/meov dyyeiov, i(p'
ov avdpu)Trov avairXdcraeiv (see Lanzone op. cit. pi. 336, 3). drjXoi 5e dirb /xiu rod Kpiov
irpbaojivov 'e'xeLV KaL a^yos Kepara ttjv ev KpcLp o~tivo§ov rjXLov kcu <reXr)pr]s' to de e/c kvclvov
XP&H.a, otl vbpaywybs iv avvbbu) i) aeXrjPT].

6 R. Pietschmann in Pauly—Wissowa Real-Enc. i. 1855, A. Wiedemann op. cit.
p. n8f.

7 Hdt. 1. 182, 2. 42, 2. 54, 4. 181, cp. Eudok. viol. 75 rod Qyj^aiov Alos.

8 On the goat-cult of Mendes see Find. frag. 201 Christ with n., Hdt. 2. 46, Plout.
Gryll. 5, Souid. s.v. Mevbrjjs.