At the harvest festivals, the Pharaoh would ceremoniously hoe the fields under Min's supervision. Because of his rather noticeable genitalia, images of Min were subject to a great deal of damage at the hands of more prudish Christians immigrants and during the Victorian period Egyptologists regularly omitted the lower part of his body in photographs and drawings. It is thought that this related to the construction of a huge festival pavilion where the festivities were held. Min is an ancient Egyptian god whose cult originated in predynastic times (4th millennium BCE). It is perhaps unsurprising that the Greeks linked Min to their fertility god, Pan. Godchecker guide to Min (also known as Menu), the Egyptian God of Fertility from Egyptian mythology. Ancient Egyptians also associated Min with a bull, in which form he was also believed to be present at the annual harvest festival held in his honor. As a god of fertility, he was shown as having black skin to reflect the fertile black mud of the Nile's inundation. He was represented in many different forms, but was often represented in male human form, shown with an erect penis which he holds in his left hand and an upheld right arm holding a flail. The flail represents Pharonic power and fertility (it was used to thresh corn and remove the husk) and it is suggested that the position of his arm replicates the stance associated with Orion and that the position of his arm in relation to the flail represents sexual intercourse (with the flail representing a vagina and his arm representing his penis). The earliest forms of the god - his fetish - was of a barbed arrow or a thunderbolt. Min was generally depicted as a mummiform human man with an ithyphallic (erect and uncovered) penis wearing a crown with two large feathers (like that of Amun). https://ancientegypt.fandom.com/wiki/Min?oldid=9400. Min, Festival of Autumn Min was an ancient Egyptian god, often identified with Amun and Horus. Min is an Ancient Egyptian god whose cult originated in predynastic times (4th millennium BC). That is not to say that the ancient Egyptians never drew graphic pictures; often, at least one party was drawn as an animal to censor the act as the Egyptians had a certain prudishness towards illustrations of sex between t… MIN was an ancient Egyptian god whose worship dates back to the predynastic times. Instead of the god's usual tall, feathered crown, this statuette (a rare example) depicts the god wearing the … Primarily, the god of wind Amun came to be identified with the solar god Ra and the god of fertility and creation Min, so that Amun-Ra had the main characteristic of a solar god, creator god and fertility god. In depictions of one of Min’s festivals, the pharaoh hoes and waters the ground while Min watches. He was also known as the god of rain who protects the fertility of nature, especially by watering the grains. Around his forehead, Min wears a red ribbon that trails to the ground, claimed by some to represent sexual energy. Aten is the name given to represent the solar disc. In the 19th century, there was an alleged erroneous transcription of the Egyptian for Min as ḫm ("khem"). The last day of the lunar month was sacred to Min and by the Ptolemaic period, he was patron of the fifth month of the Egyptian calendar (called Tybi by the Greeks). English: Min is an Ancient Egyptian god whose cult originated in predynastic times (4th millennium BC). Our sculptures are cast in a variety of materials - bonded stone, polyresin, and bronze. This site uses functional cookies and external scripts to improve your experience. Min was associated with Amun during the New Kingdom, partly because both were linked to the ram and the bull, both of which were seen as a symbols of virility. 304-322. In this area, he was known as “Min, the (foremost) Man of the Mountain”. Which cookies and scripts are used and how they impact your visit is specified on the left. When he is represented as the constellation Orion he can be distinguished from Osiris because the three bright stars of Orion’s belt are made to represent his erect penis. However, his main centres of worship were Qift (Coptos) and Akhmim (Khemmis). He was also linked to a number of leonine warlike goddesses (particularly Sekhmet). Often considered among one of the most important ancient Egyptian gods, Amun was the divine entity who represented the… As he represented male virility, it is not surprising that it was Min who presided over the Heb Sed festival, in which the pharaoh ran a course carrying ritual objects to rejuvenate him and to prove his virility. In one of the most important Min festivals, the Pharaoh would hoe the fields as Min looked on. Min continued to be associated with Horus until the Middle Kingdom when he became more closely associated with fertility and the solar aspects of Horus were emphasised. The ancient Egyptians would emphatically argue that he was once a flesh-and-blood man before he died and became a god. Hugh Nibley treated Min in his magnum opus One Eternal Round, pp. At the beginning of the harvest season, Min’s statue was carried through the fields in a festival known as “the departure of Min”. Min’s cult center was Gebtu (Koptos), the capital of the fifth Nome of Upper Egypt, but in later times he was also associated with Khent-Min (Panopolis, Akhmim) the capital of the ninth Nome of Upper Egypt. Often represented in male human form, he was the god of reproduction. He also had connections with Nubia. A reference in the Pyramid Texts to “the one who raises his arm in the east” is thought to relate to Min. Ancient Egypt Wiki is a FANDOM Lifestyle Community. Ithyphallic God of Fertility. Min (Menew, Menu, Amsu) was an ancient Egyptian god whose worship dates back to the predynastic times. He was represented in many different forms, but was often represented in male human form, shown with an erect penis which he holds in his left hand and an upheld right arm holding a flail. Min was a fertility god who was believed to bestow sexual powers to all men. However, Akhmim is an alleged corruption of ḫm-mnw, meaning Shrine of Min, via the demotic form šmn. Question: Who is this Egyptian god "Min"? In later periods, Min was linked to Reshep, the Semitic god of war and thunder. Take your favorite fandoms with you and never miss a beat. His title was Chief of Heaven. Both gods were thought to be married to Qadesh the Semitic love goddess, although Min was often considered to be the child of Reshep and Qadesh. Write CSS OR LESS and hit save. Above all, Min was worshipped by men as a fertility god, a bestower of sexual powers. You may change your settings at any time. Min (Menew, Amsu) was one of the Egyptian gods worshiped from predynastic times. Cookies that are necessary to enable my site to function. The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt (2003) Richard H. Wilkinson, God’s Wife, God’s Servant: The God’s Wife of Amun (2009) Mariam F. Ayad, Ancient Egyptian Literature: Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms (2006) Miriam Lichtheim, Egyptian Mythology (1997) Simon Goodenough, Gods of Ancient Egypt (1996) Barbara Watterson. He was a god of the Eastern Desert, and a god and patron of traveling caravans. He welcomed the deceased pharaoh Apep … When he takes the form of Amun-Min, he sometimes wears a sun disk between the two feathers on his headdress. The being that is approaching Min is not the Holy Ghost in the form of a dove; it is yet another ithyphallic figure, specifically, a serpent, probably the Egyptian God Nehebka, presenting to Min the wedjat-eye, the symbol of good gifts. Although it is true that one of Min's attributes was that of a fertility god, or a god of procreation, he had other traits that are analogous to the attributes of both the Northwest Semitic deities of El and Baal. His early images are the oldest examples of large scale statuary found in Egypt so far. He was also a lunar god (relating him to moisture and fertility) and was given the epithet, “Protector of the Moon”. He was represented in many different forms, but was often represented in male human form, shown with an erect penis which he holds in his left hand and an upheld right arm holding a flail. The name Kamutef ("bull of his mother") conveys that the god is both father and son and, therefore, self-created. He offered protection to travellers and traders and was also worshiped by the miners and masons who worked around the Wadi Hammamat. The symbols of Min were the white bull, a barbed arrow, and a bed of lettuce, that the Egyptians believed to be an aphrodisiac, as Egyptian lettuce was tall, straight, and released a milk-like substance when rubbed, characteristics superficially similar to the penis. However, in Gebtu (which was the cult site of both Min and Isis) Min was considered to be the husband of Isis and the father of Horus (again associating him with Osiris). Min also known as Menew, Menu or Amsu is an ancient Egyptian god since pre-dynasty. He was worshipped by King Scorpion of the Early Dynastic Period and his symbol appears on the El Amrah palette (which is also known as the min palette). Your choices will not impact your visit. Attributes: In early times Min was a sky-god whose symbol was a thunderbolt. Flinders Petrie excavated two large statues of Min at Qift which are now in the Ashmolean Museum and it is thought by some that they are pre-dynastic. (It is unclear whether the lettuce’s development in Egypt predates its appearance on the island of Kos.) Osiris, one of Egypt’s most important deities, was god of the underworld. Aten expresses indirectly the life-giving force of light. In both Akhmin and Coptos he was worshipped in the form of a white bull (representing virility) known as “Bull of the Great Phallus” and in Heliopolis he was associated with the Mnevis bull cult. He guarded the eastern and western borders of the netherworld.He protected Ra, the sun god, when he entered the netherworld at sunset and when he returned to the world of the the living at sunrise and bore the sun on his back through the underworld.. Some of the most important and popular Egyptian gods include Osiris - the god of the underworld, Horus - the god of the skies, Seth - the god of chaos, violence, and storms, Thoth - the god of wisdom, and Re - the god of the sun. Min Min (Menew, Menu, Amsu) was an ancient Egyptian god whose worship dates back to the predynastic times. Even some war goddesses were depicted with the body of Min (including the phallus), and this also led to depictions, ostensibly of Min, with the head of a lioness. Lettuce was his sacred plant, for it was believed by the Egyptians to be an aphrodisiac. Hugh Nibley treated Min in his magnum opus One Eternal Round, pp. He also symbolized death, resurrection, and the cycle of Nile floods that Egypt relied on for agricultural fertility. Min Egyptian God of Fertility Story Min was the god of fertility and was celebrated in one of the more interesting festivals during the Twentieth Dynasty. Osiris – god of death and resurrection who rules the underworld and enlivens vegetation, the sun god, and deceased souls. Min was honored with a variety of ceremonies, some involving the harvest, others praying for a male heir to the pharaoh. Neper – A god of grain. Min usually was depicted in an ithyphallic (with an erect and uncovered phallus) style. Min Egyptian God of Fertility Story Min was the god of fertility and was celebrated in one of the more interesting festivals during the Twentieth Dynasty. Some of them have loomed large in pop culture and the public imagination: Ra, Apophis, Anubis, Isis, Bast, Osiris, etc. As the central deity of fertility and possibly orgiastic rites Min became identified by the Greeks with the god Pan. God of Lettuce and Sex He is none other than Enmerkar, known also as Nimrod in the book of Genesis, who ruled over the first super-kingdom of history with a political base in Uruk and a spiritual base in Eridu. Current location: Louvre Museum, Paris. Well into the Middle Kingdom he was identified with the falcon-god Haroeris (Horus the Elder). PERSONALITY. Mormon god and Egyptian god Min There are countless gods in Egyptian mythology who are representations of animals, nature, acts of men or simply ideas. During the New Kingdom, the pharaoh was expected to sow his seed metaphorically using plant seeds to prove that he was fertile, although some scholars suggest that the pharaoh was also expected to prove that he was still sexually potent by ejaculating. Ra – The sun god. Description: a very ancient god, Min has become rather popular in the modern era, a sort of resurgence of his cult. In Egyptian mythology Osiris death and resurrection symbolize the change of the seasons. … He also was a god of the rain who was a generative force of nature. As a god of male sexual potency, he was honoured during the coronation rites of the New Kingdom, when the Pharaoh was expected to sow his seed — generally thought to have been plant seeds, although there have been controversial suggestions that the Pharaoh was expected to demonstrate that he could ejaculate — and thus ensure the annual flooding of the Nile. Min was the God of Fertility and Harvest. 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