God Names

Hapy

The Egyptian god of the Inundation (flooding of the Nile), often depicted with a baboon head.

Hapy

Horus

An Egyptian god in the form of a falcon, recognized in Hierakonpolis and Edfu as contemporary with and opponent of Seth. The falcon's eyes stood for the sun and the moon. He later was considered the son of Isis and Osiris, with the reigning pharaoh being his incarnation. Horus is one of the oldes...

Horus

Four Sons of Horus

The Egyptian gods who protected the internal organs of the deceased. From the 19th Dynasty, canopic jars' lids were shaped as the heads of these gods. Wax figures of these deities were often contained within the mummy wrappings, sometimes the appropriate figure was placed with the wrapped, prepar...

Four Sons of Horus

Bes

A minor god of ancient Egypt, appearing only in the New Kingdom, represented as an ugly dwarf. The name Bes is now used to designate a group of deities of similar appearance. Bes, associated with music and childbirth, was intended to inspire joy or to drive away evil spirits. He was also popular ...

Bes

Khepri

The ancient sun god, conceived as a great scarab beetle rolling the sun across the heavens, whose cult was centered at Heliopolis. This deity is sometimes depicted in tomb painting and funerary papyri as a man with a scarab as a head or as a scarab in a boat held aloft by Nun. This was just one o...

EnglishGod Names, Mythology

Khepri

archaeologsGod Names, Mythology

Apepi

An evil serpent- or snake-god, whose name was adopted by at least one Hyksos pharaoh (Apopis I, c 1585-1542 BC) who ruled a large area of Egypt in the Second Intermediate Period. The deity symbolized the forces of chaos and evil. Apophis is represented on funerary papyri and on the walls of royal...

Apepi

Shu

In Egyptian religion, the god of air and sunlight, created solely by Atum. Shu and his sister and companion, Tefnut (goddess of moisture), were the first couple of the group of nine gods called the Ennead of Heliopolis; Nut and Geb were their children. In some Middle Kingdom texts, Shu was given ...

Shu

Amen

The god of Thebes (Upper Egypt) who came into prominence with the dynasties of the Middle and New Kingdoms. Many pharaohs from the 11th Dynasty onward include his name in theirs, as Amenemhet and Tutankhamen. Amen is associated with the ram, though represented in human form, and sometimes incorpo...

Amen

Khnum

The ancient Egyptian god of fertility, associated with water and procreation. Khnum was worshipped from the 1st Dynasty, c 2925-2775 BC, into the early centuries AD. He was represented as a ram with horizontal, twisting horns or as a man with a ram's head. Khnum was believed to have created human...

Khnum

Deity

An ancient god that was worshipped. The god chosen was often an appropriate god for the purpose behind the prayer of the worshipper.

Deity

Anubis

The Egyptian god of the dead, in the form of a wild-dog or jackal-headed man. Anubis guarded the tombs and the underworld and presided over mummification and embalming. In the Early Dynastic period and the Old Kingdom, he enjoyed a dominant position but was later overshadowed by Osiris.

Anubis

Enlil

The chief god of the Sumerian pantheon, the patron god of Nippur and most important god of the Sumerians until ousted by Marduk in the late 2nd millennium BC. His particular domain was the air, sky, and the storm ('Lord Wind'). He was the son of Anu and inherited his father's title of 'father' or...

Enlil

Amun

The supreme god of the Egyptian pantheon, who was established by the 11th Dynasty at Thebes. The name means "hidden" or "secret". Amun was frequently identified with Ra the sun-god of Heliopolis and called Amun-Ra. His temple at Karnak is the best surviving example of a religious complex of the N...

Amun

Harshaf

An ancient Egyptian and Greek ram-headed god whose cult center was at Herakleopolis Magna. A shrine was built in the 1st Dynasty (3100-2890 BC) according to the Palermo Stone. Harshaf was a fertility god.

Harshaf

Min

An Egyptian fertility god and symbol of the harvest, who was also worshipped as the Lord of the Eastern Desert. His cult originated in predynastic times (4th millennium BC). His cult was strongest in Coptos and Akhmim (Panopolis), where festivals were held celebrating his coming forth with a publ...

Min

Aker

An earth god of the Early Dynastic period, most often represented as a form of double-sphinx of two lions back to back. Aker's symbolism was closely associated with the junction of the eastern and western horizons in the underworld.

Aker

Baal

A god worshipped in many ancient Middle Eastern places and the most important deity of the Canaanites. He was first mentioned in inscriptions of the Middle Bronze Age, middle of the 2nd millennium BC, and was depicted as a young armed warrior with bull's horns coming from his helmet. He was the f...

Baal

Sobek

In ancient Egyptian religion, crocodile god whose chief sanctuary in Fayyum province included a live sacred crocodile, Petsuchos. He was portrayed as crocodile or as a man with crocodile's head and may have been an early fertility god or associated with death and burial before becoming a major de...

Sobek

Quetzalcóatl

The Náhuatl name for the principal Aztec god of Late Postclassic central America, usually depicted as a feathered serpent. He was the god of self-sacrifice, patron of the arts and crafts, and inventor of agriculture and the calendar. In another form he was also the wind god and god of the morning...

Quetzalcóatl

Ra

The supreme god of ancient Egypt before his displacement by Amen (Amun). He was sun god and deity of the city of Heliopolis, whose cult is first attested in the name of the 2nd Dynasty ruler Raneb (c 2865 BC). Ra is depicted as a hawk-headed man with a sun disc on his head. He was especially impo...

EnglishGod Names, Mythology

Ra

archaeologsGod Names, Mythology

Nun

The oldest of the ancient Egyptian gods and father of Re-Atum, the sun god. He personified the original formless ocean of chaos from which the Primeval Mound of the sun-god Re-Atum arose.

Nun

Montu

Falcon-headed god of war, usually represented with a headdress consisting of a sun-disc and two plumes. He was the god of the 4th Upper Egyptian nome, whose original capital of Hermonthis (modern Armant) was replaced by Thebes during the 11th Dynasty (2081-1939 BC). The cult is attested in Theban...

Montu

Utu

Sumerian god, equal to the Akkadian Shamash, god of the sun and light and was the god of justice and righteousness.

Utu

Heh

The Egyptian god of infinity or infinite space, usually represented as a kneeling man either holding a notched palm-rib in each hand or wearing a palm-rib or sun disk on his head.

Heh

Anu

The Mesopotamian sky god, whose seat was at Uruk. Anu was part of the ruling triad with Bel (Enlil) and Ea (Enki). In the city of Uruk there was a series of seven superimposed temples dedicated to Anu. Anu was the god of kings and the yearly calendar, but he had only a small role in Mesopotamian ...