In
ancient Egyptian religion
Ancient Egyptian religion was a complex system of polytheistic beliefs and rituals that formed an integral part of ancient Egyptian culture. It centered on the Egyptians' interactions with many deities believed to be present in, and in contro ...
, Aani is the dog-headed ape sacred to the Egyptian god
Thoth
Thoth (; from grc-koi, Θώθ ''Thṓth'', borrowed from cop, Ⲑⲱⲟⲩⲧ ''Thōout'', Egyptian: ', the reflex of " eis like the Ibis") is an ancient Egyptian deity. In art, he was often depicted as a man with the head of an ibis or ...
. "One of the Egyptian names of the
Cynocephalus Baboon, which was sacred to the god Thoth."
The Egyptian hieroglyphic word for "baboon" is ''
jꜥnꜥ'' in the German style of transliteration. Attested roughly forty times in extant literature, this word refers to the animal itself. Many Egyptian gods can manifest in a baboon aspect or have other associations with the animal, including
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Hapy
Hapi ( Ancient Egyptian: ''ḥʿpy'') was the god of the annual flooding of the Nile in ancient Egyptian religion. The flood deposited rich silt (fertile soil) on the river's banks, allowing the Egyptians to grow crops.Wilkinson, p.106 Hapi was gre ...
, a god who protects the canopic jar containing the lungs after embalming.
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Khonsu
Khonsu ( egy, ḫnsw; also transliterated Chonsu, Khensu, Khons, Chons or Khonshu; cop, Ϣⲟⲛⲥ, Shons) is the ancient Egyptian god of the Moon. His name means "traveller", and this may relate to the perceived nightly travel of the Moon ...
, a god known as “eater of hearts” in the Pyramid Texts.
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Thoth
Thoth (; from grc-koi, Θώθ ''Thṓth'', borrowed from cop, Ⲑⲱⲟⲩⲧ ''Thōout'', Egyptian: ', the reflex of " eis like the Ibis") is an ancient Egyptian deity. In art, he was often depicted as a man with the head of an ibis or ...
, a god of reason and writing: “And so the Baboon of Thoth came into being,” says one 18th Dynasty text.
Animal iconography does not imply the Egyptians identified the animals concerned as deities themselves. Rather, the animal was an icon, or a large hieroglyph, representing a god.
[Hornung, Erik, ''Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: The One and the Many'', Cornell Univ. Press, 1996, p. 124]
Notes
Egyptian deities
Egyptian legendary creatures
{{Egyptian-myth-stub