Sopdu (also rendered Septu or Sopedu) was a
god
In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...
of the sky and of eastern border regions in
the religion of Ancient Egypt.
[Wilkinson, Richard H. (2003). ''The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt''. Thames & Hudson. p. 211]
He was
Khensit's husband.
As a sky god, Sopdu was connected with the god
Sah, the personification of the constellation
Orion, and the goddess
Sopdet, representing the star
Sirius
Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky. Its name is derived from the Greek word (Latin script: ), meaning 'glowing' or 'scorching'. The star is designated Canis Majoris, Latinized to Alpha Canis Majoris, and abbr ...
. According to the
Pyramid Texts
The Pyramid Texts are the oldest ancient Egyptian funerary texts, dating to the late Old Kingdom. They are the earliest known corpus of ancient Egyptian religious texts. Written in Old Egyptian, the pyramid texts were carved onto the subterranea ...
, Horus-Sopdu, a combination of Sopdu and the greater sky god
Horus
Horus (), also known as Heru, Har, Her, or Hor () in Egyptian language, Ancient Egyptian, is one of the most significant ancient Egyptian deities who served many functions, most notably as the god of kingship, healing, protection, the sun, and t ...
, is the offspring of
Osiris
Osiris (, from Egyptian ''wikt:wsjr, wsjr'') was the ancient Egyptian deities, god of fertility, agriculture, the Ancient Egyptian religion#Afterlife, afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He was ...
-Sah and
Isis
Isis was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingdom () as one of the main characters of the Osiris myth, in which she resurrects her sla ...
-Sopdet.
As a god of the east, Sopdu was said to protect Egyptian outposts along the frontiers and to help the
pharaoh
Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian language, Egyptian: ''wikt:pr ꜥꜣ, pr ꜥꜣ''; Meroitic language, Meroitic: 𐦲𐦤𐦧, ; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') was the title of the monarch of ancient Egypt from the First Dynasty of Egypt, First Dynasty ( ...
control those regions' foreign inhabitants. He was referred to as ''Lord of the East'', and had his greatest
cult
Cults are social groups which have unusual, and often extreme, religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals. Extreme devotion to a particular person, object, or goal is another characteristic often ascribed to cults. The term ...
centre at the easternmost
nome of
Lower Egypt
Lower Egypt ( ') is the northernmost region of Egypt, which consists of the fertile Nile Delta between Upper Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea, from El Aiyat, south of modern-day Cairo, and Dahshur. Historically, the Nile River split into sev ...
, which was named
Per-Sopdu, meaning ''place of Sopdu''. He also had shrines at Egyptian settlements in the
Sinai Peninsula
The Sinai Peninsula, or simply Sinai ( ; ; ; ), is a peninsula in Egypt, and the only part of the country located in Asia. It is between the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the south, and is a land bridge between Asia and Afri ...
, such as the turquoise mines at
Serabit el-Khadim
Serabit el-Khadim (Arabic language, Arabic: سرابيط الخادم Arabic pronunciation: Help:IPA/Arabic, araːˈbiːtˤ alˈxaːdɪm also transliterated Serabit al-Khadim, Serabit el-Khadem) is a locality in the southwest Sinai Peninsula, ...
.
Name
Sopdu's name is composed of the
hieroglyph
Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs ( ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined ideographic, logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with more than 1,000 distinct characters. ...
for ''sharp'', a pointed
triangle
A triangle is a polygon with three corners and three sides, one of the basic shapes in geometry. The corners, also called ''vertices'', are zero-dimensional points while the sides connecting them, also called ''edges'', are one-dimension ...
, and the
3rd person plural suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns and adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can ca ...
(a
quail
Quail is a collective name for several genera of mid-sized birds generally placed in the order Galliformes. The collective noun for a group of quail is a flock, covey, or bevy.
Old World quail are placed in the family Phasianidae, and New ...
); thus a literal translation of his name is ''sharp ones''.
[''Greek and Egyptian Mythologies'' By Yves Bonnefoy and Wendy Doniger, p. 221. University of Chicago Press, 1992
] He was said, in the Pyramid Texts, to protect the teeth of the deceased pharaoh.
Sopdu was depicted as a falcon sitting on a religious standard, often with a two-feathered crown on his head and a
flail over his shoulder. In his border-guarding role he was shown as a
Near Eastern
The Near East () is a transcontinental region around the Eastern Mediterranean encompassing the historical Fertile Crescent, the Levant, Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and coastal areas of the Arabian Peninsula. The term was invented in the 20th ...
warrior, with a ''
shemset'' girdle and an axe or spear.
Gallery
File:Sopdu as falcon.svg, drawing of Sopdu as a reclining falcon with a flail and feathered headdress
File:Berlin 122009 018b.jpg, A relief of Sopdu from the mortuary temple of Sahure at Abusir.
File:Lintel of Raiay, the King's scribe, and the first god's servant of Sopdu Nakht. Both stand before Osiris. 19th Dynasty. From Egypt. The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London.jpg, Lintel of Raiay, the King's scribe, and the first god's servant of Sopdu Nakht. Both stand before Osiris. 19th Dynasty. From Egypt. The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London
See also
*
Shu
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Egyptian gods
Sky and weather gods