Osiris was the Egyptian god of fertility, abundance, vegetation, and later the underworld. 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 cult may have developed from the worship of his fetish, which was thought to be a barbed arrow, a thunderbolt, or a fossilized belemnite (an ancient relative of the cuttlefish). As time progressed, he was given a human form and represented by the Min standard which resembles a double-headed arrow on a hook. Egyptian mythology has a lot of gods. 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… His right arm is raised in a gesture of rejoicing. In later periods, Min was linked to Reshep, the Semitic god of war and thunder. (The strange arrow, over time, became the first hieroglyph, the one above the standard, in his name -) ... 5 Minute Quiz 5 Min. Occasionally, he wears a red ribbon which may represent sexual power. NOTE: These settings will only apply to the browser and device you are currently using. Description: a very ancient god, Min has become rather popular in the modern era, a sort of resurgence of his cult. Min blessed the harvest and the people held games in his honour, most of which involved the menfolk climbing a huge pole (which had a connection with fertility not unlike the maypole). Min, in ancient Egyptian religion, a god of fertility and harvest, embodiment of the masculine principle; he was also worshipped as the Lord of the Eastern Desert. Min was generally thought to be the son and husband of the goddess of the east, Iabet. 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. His importance grew in the Middle Kingdom when he became even more closely linked with Horus as the deity Min-Horus. When the pharaoh successfully fathered an heir he was identified with the god, and a virginal girl was sometimes called an “unploughed field”. CTRL + SPACE for auto-complete. This connection with Orion also connected Min with Horus because the three were depicted with their arms raised above their head (a pose linked to the “smiting” pose of the pharaoh) and later provided a connection with Osiris. 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. As a result, the body of Min is sometimes given the head of a lioness. 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. Because of this association, they renamed named Akhmim, Panopolis (city of Pan). They do not store any information about you other than that which is strictly required for navigation and function, and I have no aceess to any of the data. When he takes the form of Amun-Min, he sometimes wears a sun disk between the two feathers on his headdress. A reference in the Pyramid Texts to “the one who raises his arm in the east” is thought to relate to Min. The full title of Akhenaten's god was The Rahorus who rejoices in the horizon, in h… God of Lettuce and Sex 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. In a final insult to the god, nineteenth century scholars mistranslated his name as Khem (or Chem meaning “black” in Egyptian). Osiris – god of death and resurrection who rules the underworld and enlivens vegetation, the sun god, and deceased souls. Min is an Ancient Egyptian god whose cult originated in predynastic times (4th millennium BC). But in Ancient Egypt around 2,000 B.C., lettuce was not a popular appetizer, it was an aphrodisiac, a phallic symbol that represented the celebrated food of the Egyptian god of fertility, Min. Min is an Ancient Egyptian god whose cult originated in predynastic times (4th millennium BC). His early images are the oldest examples of large scale statuary found in Egypt so far. Question: Who is this Egyptian god "Min"? Aker (also known as Akeru) is the ancient Egyptian god of Earth and the horizon. Min was often shown standing before offering tables, covered with heads of lettuce. As the god of fertility and rain, he was frequently represented holding a thunderbolt. Godchecker guide to Min (also known as Menu), the Egyptian God of Fertility from Egyptian mythology. 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. Aten was the focus of Akhenaten's religion, but viewing Aten as Akhenaten's god is a simplification. Ithyphallic God of Fertility. Current location: Louvre Museum, Paris. 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. Hugh Nibley treated Min in his magnum opus One Eternal Round, pp. His cult centers were Koptos and Panopolis, and there is evidence of his worship as … Your choices will not impact your visit. Min also known as Menew, Menu or Amsu is an ancient Egyptian god since pre-dynasty. Ancient Egypt Wiki is a FANDOM Lifestyle Community. 304-322. Osiris, one of Egypt’s most important deities, was god of the underworld. Khem, Min or Amsi - Images of Ancient Other Gods (Egyptian Gods at Bible History Online) Khem, Min or Amsi Egyptian god Khem, also known as Min or Amsi. Although he was associated with the desert, Min was a god of fertility and sexuality. Which cookies and scripts are used and how they impact your visit is specified on the left. Often represented in male human form, he was the god of reproduction. Write CSS OR LESS and hit save. Min is an ancient Egyptian god whose cult originated in predynastic times (4th millennium BCE). 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 ancient Egyptians would emphatically argue that he was once a flesh-and-blood man before he died and became a god. He also was a god of the rain who was a generative force of nature. In this area, he was known as “Min, the (foremost) Man of the Mountain”. 304-322. He also symbolized death, resurrection, and the cycle of Nile floods that Egypt relied on for agricultural fertility. Ancient Egyptian Gods Horus (left), Osiris (middle), Isis (right). He was also a lunar god (relating him to moisture and fertility) and was given the epithet, “Protector of the Moon”. Christians routinely defaced his monuments in temples they co-opted and Victorian Egyptologists would take only waist-up photographs of Min, or otherwise find ways to cover his protruding penis. Ra – The sun god. It is perhaps unsurprising that the Greeks linked Min to their fertility god, Pan. He also adopted the aspect of the ram from the Nubian solar god, besides numerous other titles and aspects. 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. You may change your settings at any time. Egyptian gods and goddesses played a major part in the daily lives of Egyptians who made many statues and replicas of the gods. 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. In one of the most important Min festivals, the Pharaoh would hoe the fields as Min looked on. A cookie which helps me track how many visitors come to my site and what pages they look at. In depictions of one of Min’s festivals, the pharaoh hoes and waters the ground while Min watches. 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. At the beginning of the harvest season, his image was taken out of the temple and brought to the fields in the festival of the departure of Min, when they blessed the harvest, and played games naked in his honour, the most important of these being the climbing of a huge (tent) pole. In Egyptian mythology Osiris death and resurrection symbolize the change of the seasons. Ptah – A creator deity and god of craftsmen, the patron god of Memphis. MIN was an ancient Egyptian god whose worship dates back to the predynastic times. Min (Menew, Menu, Amsu) was an ancient Egyptian god whose worship dates back to the predynastic times. 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 Egyptian art, Min was depicted as wearing a crown with feathers, and often holding his penis erect in his left hand and a flail (referring to his authority, or rather that of the Pharaohs) in his upward facing right hand. He also had connections with Nubia. However, Min was not just a fertility god, but a patron of male sexuality who could help men to father children. 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. Well into the Middle Kingdom he was identified with the falcon-god Haroeris (Horus the Elder). His cult was strongest in Coptos and Akhmim (Panopolis), where in his honour great festivals were held celebrating his “coming forth” with a public procession and presentation of offerings. 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). 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. The existence of a god named Khem has been understood as a faulty reading only by Egyptologists who have contained their learning to the traditional Greek and Roman languages taught in American and British universities. His association with the desert led to an association with foreign lands and with the god Set. This site uses functional cookies and external scripts to improve your experience. In art, sex is not usually explicitly detailed, though since much artwork was either in tombs or temples it can be argued that their sexual acts were not depicted so as to avoid their desecration. He was a god of the Eastern Desert, and a god and patron of traveling caravans. Cookies that are necessary to enable my site to function. Min Min (Menew, Menu, Amsu) was an ancient Egyptian god whose worship dates back to the predynastic times. By the New Kingdom he was also fused with Amen in the deity Min-Amen-kamutef (Min-Amen - bull of his mother). 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. As a god of fertility, he was shown as having black skin to reflect the fertile black mud of the Nile's inundation. 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). At the harvest festivals, the Pharaoh would ceremoniously hoe the fields under Min's supervision. Lettuce was his sacred plant, for it was believed by the Egyptians to be an aphrodisiac. In the 19th century, there was an alleged erroneous transcription of the Egyptian for Min as ḫm ("khem"). This deity was depicted as a winged goddess with leonine feet, an erect penis, and three heads (the head of a lion head wearing Min’s headdress, a woman’s head wearing the double crown of Egypt, and a vulture’s head wearing the red crown of Lower Egypt). Hugh Nibley treated Min in his magnum opus One Eternal Round, pp. Alternatively, Min initially represented the constellation Orion and was thought to control thunder and rain (linking him to Set). At the beginning of the harvest season, Min’s statue was carried through the fields in a festival known as “the departure of Min”. 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.. Min (Menew, Amsu) was one of the Egyptian gods worshiped from predynastic times. The whole concept of Egyptian gods is to provide protection, wealth, revenge or power. This was in fact one of his epithets which related to his fertility aspect because black was associated with the fertile soil of the Nile. 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). Since Khem was worshipped most significantly in Akhmim, the separate identity of Khem was reinforced, Akhmim being understood as simply a corruption of Khem. https://ancientegypt.fandom.com/wiki/Min?oldid=9400. 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). 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. Min usually was depicted in an ithyphallic (with an erect and uncovered phallus) style. (It is unclear whether the lettuce’s development in Egypt predates its appearance on the island of Kos.) Around his forehead, Min wears a red ribbon that trails to the ground, claimed by some to represent sexual energy. Min was closely associated with fertility and agriculture, and so with Osiris. According to the myth, Osiris was a king of Egypt who was murdered and dismembered by … One feature of Min worship was the wild prickly lettuce Lactuca virosa and Lactuca serriola of which is the domestic version Lactuca sativa which has aphrodisiac and opiate qualities. His early images are the oldest examples of large scale statuary found in Egypt so far. This site uses functional cookies and external scripts to improve your experience. 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. Min is an Ancient Egyptian god whose cult originated in predynastic times (4th millennium BC). However, to the ancient Egyptians, Min was not a matter of scandal - they had very relaxed standards of nudity: in their warm climate, farmers, servants, and entertainers often worked partially or completely naked, and children did not wear any clothes until they came of age. The representation of the mummiform Amun-Min-Kamutef with an erect phallus alludes to his role as a fertility god. Min was the God of Fertility and Harvest. This black soil was so central to the Egyptian way of life that the word also became a common term for the land of Egypt itself. 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. Min’s skin is black (linking him to fertile black soil). It’s something most Westerners aren’t accustomed to in our monotheistic views of God. His cult originated in predynastic times (4th millennium bce). 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. In Memphis he was associated with Ptah as the composite god Ptah-Min. 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. 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. Some of them have loomed large in pop culture and the public imagination: Ra, Apophis, Anubis, Isis, Bast, Osiris, etc. Above all, Min was worshipped by men as a fertility god, a bestower of sexual powers. In another, the pharaoh ceremonially reaps the grain. The name Kamutef ("bull of his mother") conveys that the god is both father and son and, therefore, self-created. 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. He was also associated with the composite deity Mut–Isis–Nekhbet, known as “the Great Mother and Lady”. 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. He was also linked to a number of leonine warlike goddesses (particularly Sekhmet). As Khem or Min, he was the god of reproduction; as Khnum, he was the creator of all things, "the maker of gods and men". The term Aten was used to designate a disc, and since the sun was a disc, gradually became associated with solar deities. 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. Which Underrated Norse God or Goddess Matches Your Soul? 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).