Hemen

Hemen

Hemen

Ancient Egyptian god


Hemen is a falcon god in the Ancient Egyptian religion

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Places of worship

Different perspective showing Hemen in more detail.

Often worshipped as a divine entity unified with Horus, as Horus-Hemen lord of Asphynis[1] or Horakhte-Hemen of Hefat.[2][3][4] Flinders Petrie refers to Hemen as a god of Tuphium. Hemen is also used for the name of a town of ancient Egypt (as mentioned by Flinders Petrie during his studies of Abydos).[5]

Some examples of artifacts containing references to Hemen

Hemen is mentioned in a limited number of inscriptions and texts. Some of these include:

  • In the Pyramid Texts, Utterance 231.[6]
  • Ankhtifi, a nomarch (= provincial governor) dated to the First Intermediate Period, is shown inspecting a fleet, killing a hippopotamus in Hefat during festivities and offering the hippopotamus to Hemen.[7]
  • A round-topped stela from the 13th dynasty invokes Ptah-Sokari-Osiris and Horus-Hemen lord of Asphynis. The stela was formerly in the V. Golenishchev collection, but is now in Moscow, in the State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts.[8]
  • The chief sculptor Userhat who lived at the end of the 18th dynasty/beginning 19th dynasty mentions "causing cult statues to rest in their shrine". Hemen of Hefat is one of the gods listed among those Userhat was responsible for.[9]
  • Statue from the time of Amenhotep III; Now in Avignon, Musée Calvet.[10][11]
  • In the 22nd dynasty Hemen of Hefat is mentioned as an oracle. A man named Ikeni appears before Hemen in Hefat and the god says "Ikeni is right! He paid (etc.)".[12]
  • The 25th dynasty pharaoh Taharqa is shown before the god Hemen in a statue which is now in the Louvre.
  • In ca. 300 BC Hemen's cult is still active as attested by an inscription of an official named Hornefer.[2]
  • In the Griffiths Institute listing: A stone object with Hemen possibly hawk-headed showing text of Amenophis III ‘beloved of Hemen lord of the sed-festival’.[13]

See also


References

  1. "Text of Hor-nefer". Archived from the original on 2012-03-03. Retrieved 2010-04-29.
  2. The Griffiths Institute formerly in V. Golenishchev colln. 4157, now in Moscow, State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts
  3. Henri Wild, Statue de Hor-Néfer au Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne, BIFAO 54 (1954) pp.173-222 via Text of Hornefer Archived 2012-03-03 at the Wayback Machine
  4. Mentioned in Jean Capart, Primitive art in Egypt , 1905, accessed at Primitive Art in Egypt retrieved 12/09/2011
  5. J.M.A. Janssen, Annual Egyptological Bibliography, 1947
  6. Elizabeth Frood, John Baines, Biographical texts from Ramessid Egypt, 2007
  7. location (listed 14th on page)Statues of Deities), Oxford: Griffith Institute, 1999 Archived 2011-07-25 at the Wayback Machine ISBN 0-900416-69-6 retrieved 20/09/2011
  8. Kim Ryholt, A Pair of Oracle Petitions Addressed to Horus-of-the-Camp, The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 79 (1993), pp. 189-198

Further reading


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