Banebdjedet also spelled Banebdjed is an

Ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

ian ram god with a

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 Mendes. Khnum was the equivalent god in

Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ', shortened to , , locally: ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the Nile River valley south of the delta and the 30th parallel North. It thus consists of the entire Nile River valley from Cairo south to Lake N ...

. Most notably known for appearing in the myth of

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 ...

and

Set Set, The Set, SET or SETS may refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics Mathematics *Set (mathematics), a collection of elements *Category of sets, the category whose objects and morphisms are sets and total functions, respectively Electro ...

Family

His wife was the goddess

Hatmehit Hatmehit or Hatmehyt () was an Ancient Egyptian goddess associated with the city in the Nile Delta known as Djedet () or Mendes (). Etymology Hatmehit's name is typically translated as "Foremost of Fish", literally from the words ''ḥꜢt'' ...

("Foremost of the Fishes"), who was perhaps the original deity of Mendes. Their offspring was " Horus the Child" and they formed the so-called "Mendesian Triad".

Etymology

The words for "ram" and "soul" sounded the same in Egyptian, so ram deities were at times regarded as appearances of other gods.

Image

Typically, the horned god Banebdjedet was depicted with four rams' heads to represent the four Bas of the sun god. He may also be linked to the first four gods to rule over Egypt (

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 ...

, Geb, Shu and Ra-

Atum Atum (, Egyptian: ''jtm(w)'' or ''tm(w)'', ''reconstructed'' ; Coptic ''Atoum''), sometimes rendered as Atem, Temu, or Tem, is the primordial God in Egyptian mythology from whom all else arose. He created himself and is the father of Shu and ...

), with large granite shrines to each in the Mendes sanctuary.

Accounts

The '' Book of the Heavenly Cow'' describes the "Ram of Mendes" as being the ''Ba'' of Osiris, but this was not an exclusive association. A story dated to the New Kingdom describes him as being consulted by the "Divine Tribunal" to judge between Horus and

Seth Seth, in the Abrahamic religions, was the third son of Adam and Eve. The Hebrew Bible names two of his siblings (although it also states that he had others): his brothers Cain and Abel. According to , Seth was born after Abel's murder by Cain, ...

, but he proposes that Neith do it instead as an act of diplomacy. As the dispute continues, it is Banebdjedet who suggests that Seth be given the throne as he is the elder brother. In a chapel in the Ramesseum, a stela records how the god Ptah took the form of Banebdjedet, in view of gaining his virility, in order to have union with the woman who would conceive Rameses II.

Gallery

File:Banebdjedet as ram.svg, Banebdjedet as a four-headed ram File:Banebdjedet as a four-headed ram with wings and a dual-feathers crown.png, Banebdjedet as a four-headed ram with wings and a dual-feathers crown File:Banebdjedet-Osiris.svg, Banebdjedet as a mummified man with the head of a ram File:God with four ram heads facing in four directions, probably Khnum MET LC-26 7 889 EGDP023507.jpg, A statuette likely depicting Banebdjedet with four ram heads facing in four directions. Faience ceramic, ca 500-200 BC.

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

File:Banebdjed, depicted with four ram heads MET 26.7.894 view 2.jpg, An amulet depicting Banebdjedet as a ram with four heads, Late Period.

File:Mendeswidder.jpg, Banebdjedet as a four-headed ram, surmounted by Nekhbet File:Tomb KV19 (Kairoinfo4u).jpg, Prince Mentuherkhepeshef giving offerings to a mummiform-depicted Banebdjedet, KV19, 20th dynasty (ca 1129–1111 BC) File:Hypocephalus of Tasheritkhons (c. 305–30 BCE), British Museum, London - 20080821.jpg, Banebdjedet (center) on the hypocephalus of Tasheritkhons, Ptolemaic Period (ca 305–30 BC),

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

Notes

External links

* {{Authority control Egyptian gods Fertility gods Horned gods Osiris Mythological caprids