Dictionary Of God And Godedesses

AMUN 17in which case his attributes include bell, threemonkish robes and prayer wheel. Emanationsinclude Visvapani and many other minor names.See also AKSOBHYA, AMITABHA, RATNASAMB-HAVA and VAIROCANA.AmorGod of love. Roman. Developed from the Greekgod EROS. Depicted as a winged youth. Accordingto tradition he awoke the goddess Psyche with akiss. Attributes include arrows, bow and torch. Thepopular epithet Cupid was only applied by poets.AmphionGod. Greek. Theban variant on the god POLY-DEUKES.AmphitriteSea goddess. Greek. According to Theogony (Hesiod),one of the fifty daughters of NEREUS andDORIS. Considered to calm stormy seas, travelingin a boat made of mussels. She was among thosepresent at the birth of APOLLO.AMUN (the hidden one)ORIGIN Egypt. Supreme creator god.KNOWN PERIOD OF WORSHIP probably pre-Dynastic but historically circa 2400 BC to end ofEgyptian period (circa AD 400).SYNONYMS Amun kem-atef (snake god); Amunkamutef (fertility god).CENTER(S) OF CULT Thebes (Luxor)—GreatTemple of Amun at Karnak; Luxor Templesouth of Karnak dedicated to the ithyphallicform of Amun kamutef.ART REFERENCES many portraits on temple walls,etc; reliefs; statues; obelisks including notablythat of Queen Hatshepsut; stelae.LITERARY SOURCES Pyramid Texts from the endof Dynasty V (2494-2345 BC); temple hymns;the Book of the Dead; the Great Harris Papyrus;many other textual references.Amun is a sun god, lord of the sky and king of theEgyptian world. He is perceived as a primevaldeity present in chaos at the creation of the cosmosand is therefore also one of the eight deitiesof the OGDOAD coupled with the goddessAMAUNET and representing hidden power. He isportrayed as a pharaoh, with blue skin and wearinga modius (turban) surmounted by two tallplumes of feathers symbolic of dominance overboth Upper and Lower Egypt. In addition to themajor temples at Luxor, further sanctuaries werebuilt beyond the first Nile cataract at Amada,Soleb, Gebel Barkal and Abu Simbel.Amun is symbolized chiefly by a ram withcurved horns. The Nile goose is also sacred tohim. He is a god regarded as hidden but spreadingthroughout the cosmos, unseen but everywhere.Though depicted anthropomorphically, intemple hymns other deities describe him as “hiddenof aspect, mysterious of form.” In the NewKingdom, from the middle of the sixteenth centuryBC onward, Amun was drawn as a manifestationof the ancient sun god of Heliopolis, whicheffectively raised his prestige still further andearned him the title “king of the gods.” He wasalso regarded as being the father of each pharaoh.At Thebes he was revered as a snake deity withattendant connotations of immortality and endlessrenewal. As a member of the Ogdoad he hasthe head of a snake.Amun’s ithyphallic form probably came fromthe notion that because he was “first formed” ofthe gods, he could not have a father and thereforehad to impregnate his own mother. He is generallyregarded as a god with great sexual attributes.The Temple of Queen Hatsepsut at Deir el-Bahari bears a relief of her mother impregnated