DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41333#0063
Andrds Gulyas
Budapest
The Gods of the Type «Amun of Ramesses» and their Meaning
in the Context of Religious Developments of the Ramesside Period
(Plate 15)
A novelty of the Ramesside Period are the gods com-
posed hum the name of the ruler and a god. For the first
time such gods appear during the reign of Ramesses II.
In this practice he is followed by his successors,
Merenptah or Ramesses IH, where we find again and
again statues of this fonn of god. In this paper I would
like to discuss the gods such as Amon-of-Ramesses
and Ptah-of-Ramesses and to contribute to a better un-
derstanding of their meaning by defining their context.
The comprehension of these forms of god is not
easy because they usually stay alone, just the names
are given, without any further explication. Let us men-
tion some examples:
dd mdw jn Jmn-n-(Rr-msj-sw mrj-Jmn) m prJmn
To be recited by Amun-of-Ramesses II, in the house
of Amun1
P > Rr-n-(Rc-msj-sw mrj-Jmn) ntj rsjjnbw Mn-nfr
The Re-of-Ramesses n, south of Memphis2
As we can see, this form of god is not limited to the
Nubian temples and they can be composed with vari-
ous deities:
Dhwtj n (Rr-msj-sw mrj-Jmn)
Thot-of-Ramesses IT
They occur after the mle of Ramesses II as well.
So for example from the time of Merenptah:
‘Ktf/n, p.737.
2 KRI HI, p.435.
3 KRI [V, p. 27.
4 Ibidem, p. 27.
5 We have also a god composed with Menes, from
the Ramesside period. See WILDUNG, Die Rolle
dgyptischer Konige im Bewufitsein Hirer Nachwelt,
MAS 17, Berlin 1969, pp. 12-15.1 would like to express
my thanks to Professor Laszlo KAKOS Y for this obser-
vation and for other critical remarks.
6 P. MONTET, Les Dieux de Ramses-aime-d'Amon a Tanis,
Jmn-n-(Mrj.n-Pth htp-hr-mPt)
Amun-of-Merenptah4
Because of the examples where we find similar
gods with the name of Merenptah51 cannot accept
the intepretation of MONTET, according to which
the addition of the name of Ramesses would be an
abbreviation of “Per-Ramesses”.6
We can find a similar god in the small temple of
Ramesses III in the Karnak temple as well. Here
the pharaoh makes an offering before such a god
(pi. 15, fig. 1):
Jmn n (Rc-msj-sw hid Jwnw)
Amun-of-Ramesses HI
At first sight, we could think, as NAVTTI.F. did,
that the n in the names of these gods expresses the
idea that the gods belong to the mler, ‘a kind of right
of property or possession.’8 Even if this idea is usu-
ally not so clearly formulated one has the impression
that other researchers accept it as well. I can under-
stand only, as the reflection of such an implicit, as-
sumption that in the Lexikon der Agyptologie the
god of the temple of Gerf Hussein is simply said to
be Ptah even if in reality he is Ptah-of-Ramesses.9
The n Rc-msj-sw is treated as an addition that has
nothing to do with the god himself.
In view of the Egyptian sculptures it would be
rather unusual that the owner or the producer of
in: Studies presented to F. LI. Griffith, London 1932,
p. 406. Several theories concerning these god-forms are
collected by EATON-KRAUSS, Ramesses-Re who creates
the gods, in: Fragments of a shattered visage. Interna-
tional Symposium of Ramesses the Great, Memphis 1987.
7 Reliefs and Inscriptions at Kamak I: Ramesses Ill’s tem-
ple within the great inclosure of Amun, Part I. by Epi-
graphic Survey, OIP XXV, Chicago 1936, pi. 107.
8 E. NAVILLE, Bubastis (1887-1889), EEF Memoir 8, Lon-
don 1981, P- 42.
9 D. WILDUNG, Gerf Hussein, LA II, cols. 534-535.
57
Budapest
The Gods of the Type «Amun of Ramesses» and their Meaning
in the Context of Religious Developments of the Ramesside Period
(Plate 15)
A novelty of the Ramesside Period are the gods com-
posed hum the name of the ruler and a god. For the first
time such gods appear during the reign of Ramesses II.
In this practice he is followed by his successors,
Merenptah or Ramesses IH, where we find again and
again statues of this fonn of god. In this paper I would
like to discuss the gods such as Amon-of-Ramesses
and Ptah-of-Ramesses and to contribute to a better un-
derstanding of their meaning by defining their context.
The comprehension of these forms of god is not
easy because they usually stay alone, just the names
are given, without any further explication. Let us men-
tion some examples:
dd mdw jn Jmn-n-(Rr-msj-sw mrj-Jmn) m prJmn
To be recited by Amun-of-Ramesses II, in the house
of Amun1
P > Rr-n-(Rc-msj-sw mrj-Jmn) ntj rsjjnbw Mn-nfr
The Re-of-Ramesses n, south of Memphis2
As we can see, this form of god is not limited to the
Nubian temples and they can be composed with vari-
ous deities:
Dhwtj n (Rr-msj-sw mrj-Jmn)
Thot-of-Ramesses IT
They occur after the mle of Ramesses II as well.
So for example from the time of Merenptah:
‘Ktf/n, p.737.
2 KRI HI, p.435.
3 KRI [V, p. 27.
4 Ibidem, p. 27.
5 We have also a god composed with Menes, from
the Ramesside period. See WILDUNG, Die Rolle
dgyptischer Konige im Bewufitsein Hirer Nachwelt,
MAS 17, Berlin 1969, pp. 12-15.1 would like to express
my thanks to Professor Laszlo KAKOS Y for this obser-
vation and for other critical remarks.
6 P. MONTET, Les Dieux de Ramses-aime-d'Amon a Tanis,
Jmn-n-(Mrj.n-Pth htp-hr-mPt)
Amun-of-Merenptah4
Because of the examples where we find similar
gods with the name of Merenptah51 cannot accept
the intepretation of MONTET, according to which
the addition of the name of Ramesses would be an
abbreviation of “Per-Ramesses”.6
We can find a similar god in the small temple of
Ramesses III in the Karnak temple as well. Here
the pharaoh makes an offering before such a god
(pi. 15, fig. 1):
Jmn n (Rc-msj-sw hid Jwnw)
Amun-of-Ramesses HI
At first sight, we could think, as NAVTTI.F. did,
that the n in the names of these gods expresses the
idea that the gods belong to the mler, ‘a kind of right
of property or possession.’8 Even if this idea is usu-
ally not so clearly formulated one has the impression
that other researchers accept it as well. I can under-
stand only, as the reflection of such an implicit, as-
sumption that in the Lexikon der Agyptologie the
god of the temple of Gerf Hussein is simply said to
be Ptah even if in reality he is Ptah-of-Ramesses.9
The n Rc-msj-sw is treated as an addition that has
nothing to do with the god himself.
In view of the Egyptian sculptures it would be
rather unusual that the owner or the producer of
in: Studies presented to F. LI. Griffith, London 1932,
p. 406. Several theories concerning these god-forms are
collected by EATON-KRAUSS, Ramesses-Re who creates
the gods, in: Fragments of a shattered visage. Interna-
tional Symposium of Ramesses the Great, Memphis 1987.
7 Reliefs and Inscriptions at Kamak I: Ramesses Ill’s tem-
ple within the great inclosure of Amun, Part I. by Epi-
graphic Survey, OIP XXV, Chicago 1936, pi. 107.
8 E. NAVILLE, Bubastis (1887-1889), EEF Memoir 8, Lon-
don 1981, P- 42.
9 D. WILDUNG, Gerf Hussein, LA II, cols. 534-535.
57