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 Hu was depicted as a man with the hieroglyph for tongue above his head | |||||
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Hu (ḥw), in ancient Egypt, was "the personification of a religious term, the 'creative utterance'" and closely connected to Sia. Hu was deification of the first word, the word of creation, that Atum was said to have exclaimed upon ejaculating in his masturbatory act of creating the Ennead.
Hu is mentioned already in the Old Kingdom Pyramid texts (PT 251, PT 697) as companion of the deceased pharaoh. Together with Sia, he was depicted in the retinue of Thoth.
In the Middle Kingdom, all gods participated in Hu and Sia, and were associated with Ptah who created the universe by uttering the word of creation. Hu was rarely depicted visually, when Hu was depicted it would be as an anthropomorphic deity.
In the New Kingdom, both Hu and Sia together with Heka, Irer and Sedjem were members of the creative powers of Amun-Ra. By the time of Ptolemaic Egypt, Hu had merged with Shu (air).
References
- Assem, Rehab (2012). "The God Ḥw – A Brief Study". Studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur. 41: 21–31. ISSN 0340-2215. JSTOR 41812218.
- Hart, George (2005). The Routledge dictionary of Egyptian gods and goddesses. Routledge dictionaries (2nd ed.). London ; New York: Routledge. p. 76. ISBN 978-0-415-34495-1. OCLC 57281093.
- ^ Wilkinson, Richard H. (2003). The complete gods and goddesses of ancient Egypt. London: Thames & Hudson. pp. 75–76. ISBN 978-0-500-05120-7.
- Hornung, Erik (1982). Conceptions of God in ancient Egypt : the one and the many. Internet Archive. Ithaca : Cornell University Press. p. 76. ISBN 978-0-8014-1223-3.
Further reading
- Wilkinson, R. H., Die Welt der Götter im Alten Ägypten. Glaube - Macht - Mythologie , Stuttgart 2003
- Assem, Rehab (2012). "The God Ḥw – A Brief Study". Studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur. 41. Helmut Buske Verlag GmbH: 21–31. ISSN 0340-2215. JSTOR 41812218. Retrieved 2024-02-01.
See also
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