Amun

AMMON, the Graecized name of an Egyptian deity, in the

native language Amun, connected by the priests with a root

meaning "conceal." He was, to begin with, the local deity of

Thebes, when it was an unimportant town on the east bank of

the river, about the region now occupied by the temple of

Karnak. The XIth dynasty sprang from a family in the

Hermonthite nome or perhaps at Thebes itself, and adorned

the temple of Karnak with statues. Amenemhe, the name of

the founder of the XIIth dynasty, was compounded with that

of Amun and was borne by three of his successors. Several

Theban kings of the later part of the Middle Kingdom adopted

the same name; and when the Theban family of the XVIIth

dynasty drove out the Hyksos, Ammon, as the god of the royal

city, was again prominent. It was not, however, until the

rulers of the XVIIIth dynasty carried their victorious arms

beyond the Egyptian frontiers in every direction that Ammon

began to assume the proportions of a universal god for the

Egyptians, eclipsing all their other deities and asserting

his power over the gods of all foreign lands. To Ammon the

Pharaohs attributed all their successful enterprises, and on

his temples they lavished their wealth and captured spoil.

Ammon is figured of human form, wearing on his head a plain deep

circlet from which rise two straight parallel plumes, perhaps

representing the tail feathers of a hawk. Two main types are

seen: in the one he is seated on a throne, in the other he is

standing, ithyphallic, holding a scourge, precisely like Min,

the god of Coptos and Chemmis (Akhmim). The latter may be

his original form, as a god of fertility, before whom the king

ceremoniously breaks up the ground for sowing or cuts the ripe

corn. His consort was sometimes called Amaune (feminine of

Amun), but more usually Mut, "mother": she was human-headed,

wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt, and their

son was Khons (Chon or Chons), a lunar god, represented as

a youth wearing the crescent and disk of the moon. A great

temple was built to Mut at Karnak not later than the XVIIIth

dynasty, and another to Khons not later than the XXth dynasty.

The name of Re, the sun-god, was generally joined to Ammon,

especially in his title as "king of the gods": the rule of

heaven belonged to the sun-god in the Egyptian cosmos, and

this identification with Re was only logical for a supreme

deity. Ammon was entitled "lord of the thrones of the two

lands," or, more proudly still, "king of the gods." Such

indeed was his unquestioned position when suddenly he was

overthrown and his worship proscribed. Not even a henotheist

fervently worshipping one of many gods, Amenophis (Amenhotp)

IV. of the XVIIIth dynasty became the monotheist Akhenaton;

discarding all the gods of Egypt, and especially persecuting

Ammon the arch-god, he devoted himself to the purer and more

sublime worship of Aton, the sun. But he failed to win the

permanent adhesion of the people to his reform, or to conciliate

or entirely crush the enormously powerful priesthood of

Ammon. A few years after the reformer's death, the old cults

were re-established and the monuments of Aton studiously

defaced. Hymns were then addressed to Amen-re, which are

almost monotheistic in expression. The cult of the supreme

god spread throughout Egypt and was carried by the Egyptian

conquerors into other lands, Syria, Ethiopia and Libya, and

was accepted by the natives both in Ethiopia and in the Libyan

cases, where civilization was low and Egyptian influence

permanent. After the XXth dynasty the centre of power was

removed from Thebes, and the authority of Ammon began to

wane. In the XXIst dynasty the secondary line of priest kings

of Thebes upheld his dignity to the best of their power, and

the XXIInd dynasty favoured Thebes: but as the sovereignty

weakened the division between Upper and Lower Egypt asserted

itself, and thereafter Thebes would have rapidly decayed had

it not been for the piety of the kings of Ethiopia towards

Ammon, whose worship had long prevailed in their country.

Thebes was at first their Egyptian capital, and they honoured

Ammon greatly, although their wealth and culture were not

sufficient to effect much. Ammon (Zeus) continued to be the

great god of Thebes in its decay, and notwithstanding that

a nome-capital in the north of the Delta and many lesser

temples, from El Hibeh in Middle Egypt to Canopus on the

sea, acknowledged Ammon as their supreme divinity, he probably

in some degree represented the national aspirations of Upper

Egypt as opposed to Middle and Lower Egypt: he also remained

the national god of Ethiopia, where his name was pronounced

Amane. The priests of Amane at Meroe and Napata, in

fact, regulated through his oracle the whole government

of the country, choosing the king, directing his military

expeditions (and even compelling him to commit suicide,

according to Diodorus) until in the 3rd century B.C.

Arkamane (Ergamenes) broke through the bondage and slew the

priests. Ammon had yet another outburst of glory. There was

an oracle of Ammon established for some centuries in Libya,

in the distant oasis of Siwa. Such was its reputation among

the Greeks that Alexander journeyed thither, after the battle

of Issus, and during his occupation of Egypt, in order to be

acknowledged the son of the god. The Egyptian Pharaohs of

the XVIIIth dynasty had likewise been proclaimed mystically

sons of this god, who, it was asserted, had impregnated

the queen-mother; and on occasion wore the ram's horns of

Ammon, even as Alexander is represented with them on coins.

The Egyptian goose (chenalopex) is figured in the XVIIIth

dynasty as sacred to Ammon; but his most frequent and celebrated

incarnation was the woolly sheep with curved ("Ammon") horns (as

opposed to the oldest native breed with long horizontal twisted

horns and hairy coat, sacred to Khnum or Chnumis). It is found

as representing Ammon from the time of Amenophis III. onwards.

As king of the gods Ammon was identified by the Greeks with

Zeus and his consort Mut with Hera. Khnum was likewise

identified with Zeus probably through his similarity to

Ammon; his proper animal having early become extinct, Ammon

horns in course of time were attributed to this god also.

See Erman, Handbook of Egyptian Religion (London, 1907); Ed.

Meyer, art. "Ammon" in Roscher's Lexikon der griechischen und

romischen Mythologie; Pietschmann, arts. "Ammon," "Ammoneion"

in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopadie; and works on Egyptian

religion quoted under EGYPT, section Religion. (F. LL. G.)

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Initial text from 1911 encyclopedia -- Please update as needed