Aker (deity) on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
Aker was an ancient Egyptian earth and underworld god.
Aker was first described as one of the earth gods guarding the "gate to the yonder site". He protected the deceased king against the three demonic snakes ''Hemtet'', ''Iqeru'' and ''Jagw''. By "encircling" (i.e. interring) the deceased king, Aker sealed the deceased away from the poisonous breath of the snake demons. Another earth deity, who joined and promoted Aker's work, was
Description
Aker was first depicted as the torso of a recumbent lion with a widely opened mouth. Later, he was depicted as two recumbent lion torsos merged with each other and still looking away from each other. From Middle Kingdom onwards Aker appears as a pair of twin lions, one named ''Duaj'' (meaning "yesterday") and the other ''Sefer'' (meaning "tomorrow"). Aker was thus often titled "He who's looking forward and behind". When depicted as a lion pair, ahieroglyph
A hieroglyph ( Greek for "sacred carvings") was a character of the ancient Egyptian writing system. Logographic scripts that are pictographic in form in a way reminiscent of ancient Egyptian are also sometimes called "hieroglyphs". In Neoplatoni ...
ic sign for "horizon" (two merged mountains) and a sun disc was put between the lions; the lions were sitting back-on-back.Pat Remler: ''Egyptian Mythology, A to Z''. Infobase Publishing, 2010, , pp. 4 & 5.
In later times, Aker can also appear as two merged torsos of recumbent sphinx
A sphinx ( , grc, σφίγξ , Boeotian: , plural sphinxes or sphinges) is a mythical creature with the head of a human, the body of a lion, and the wings of a falcon.
In Greek tradition, the sphinx has the head of a woman, the haunches of ...
es with human heads.
Cult
Aker appears for the first time during the 1st Dynasty with the kings (pharaoh
Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: '' pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until the ...
s) Hor Aha and Djer. An unfinished decorative palette from the tomb of Djer at Abydos shows Aker devouring three hearts.Peter Kaplony: ''Die Inschriften der ägyptischen Frühzeit'', 3rd edition. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1963, pp. 65. The location of Aker's main cult center is unknown, though. His mythological role was fully described for the first time in the famous Pyramid Texts
The Pyramid Texts are the oldest ancient Egyptian funerary texts, dating to the late Old Kingdom. They are the earliest known corpus of ancient Egyptian religious texts. Written in Old Egyptian, the pyramid texts were carved onto the subterrane ...
of king Teti
Teti, less commonly known as Othoes, sometimes also Tata, Atat, or Athath in outdated sources, was the first king of the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt. He was buried at Saqqara. The exact length of his reign has been destroyed on the Turin King List bu ...
.
Mythology
Aker was first described as one of the earth gods guarding the "gate to the yonder site". He protected the deceased king against the three demonic snakes ''Hemtet'', ''Iqeru'' and ''Jagw''. By "encircling" (i.e. interring) the deceased king, Aker sealed the deceased away from the poisonous breath of the snake demons. Another earth deity, who joined and promoted Aker's work, was Geb
Geb was the Egyptian god of the earth and a mythological member of the Ennead of Heliopolis. He could also be considered a father of snakes. It was believed in ancient Egypt that Geb's laughter created earthquakes and that he allowed crops to ...
. Thus, Aker was connected with Geb. In other spells and prayers, Aker is connected with Seth and even determined with the Set animal
In ancient Egyptian art, the Set animal, or ''sha'', is the totemic animal of the god Set. Because Set was identified with the Greek monster Typhon, the animal is also commonly known as the Typhonian animal or Typhonic beast.
Unlike other totemi ...
. This is interesting, because Seth is described as a wind deity, not as an earth deity.Georg Meurer: ''Die Feinde des Königs in den Pyramidentexten'' (= ''Orbis biblicus et orientalis'', vol. 189). Saint-Paul, 2002, , pp. 295, 296 & 311.
In the famous Coffin Texts of Middle Kingdom period, Aker replaces the god Kherty, becoming now the "ferryman of Ra in his nocturnal bark". Aker protects the sun god during his nocturnal travelling through the underworld caverns. In the famous '' Book of the Dead'', Aker also "gives birth" to the god Khepri, the young, rising sun in the shape of a scarab beetle
The family Scarabaeidae, as currently defined, consists of over 30,000 species of beetles worldwide; they are often called scarabs or scarab beetles. The classification of this family has undergone significant change in recent years. Several sub ...
, after Aker has carried Khepri's sarcophagus safely through the underworld caverns. In other underworld scenes, Aker carries the nocturnal bark of Ra. During his journey, in which Aker is asked to hide the body of the dead Osiris
Osiris (, from Egyptian ''wsjr'', cop, ⲟⲩⲥⲓⲣⲉ , ; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎𐤓, romanized: ʾsr) is the god of fertility, agriculture, the afterlife, the dead, resurrection, life, and vegetation in ancient Egyptian religion. He wa ...
beneath his womb, Aker is protected by the god Geb.Friedrich Abitz: ''Pharao als Gott in den Unterweltsbüchern des Neuen Reiches'' (= ''Orbis biblicus et orientalis'', vol. 146). Saint-Paul, 1995, , pp. 119, 158 & 159.
In several inscriptions, wall paintings and reliefs, Aker was connected to the horizon of the North and the West, forming a mythological bridge between the two horizons with his body. Certain sarcophagus texts from the tombs of Ramesses IV
Heqamaatre Setepenamun Ramesses IV (also written Ramses or Rameses) was the third pharaoh of the Twentieth Dynasty of the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt. He was the second son of Ramesses III and became crown prince when his elder brother Amenhe ...
, Djedkhonsuiusankh and Pediamenopet
Padiamenope (also known by the hellenised form Petamenophis) was an ancient Egyptian royal scribe and chief lector priest between the late 25th Dynasty and the early 26th Dynasty, known mainly for his immense tomb, one of the largest ever buil ...
describe how the sun god Ra travels through the underworld "like Apophis going through the belly of Aker after Apophis was cut by Seth". In this case, Aker seems to be some kind of representation of the underworld itself.Geraldine Pinch: ''Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Goddesses, and Traditions of Ancient Egypt''. Oxford University Press, Oxford (UK) 2004, , page 99.
See also
*Aqen
Aqen was a rarely mentioned ancient Egyptian deity of the underworld. He is first mentioned in the famous Book of the Dead. There, he guided the sun god Ra as the "protector of Ra's celestial bark" by "bringing the ''shenw''-ring to his majest ...
References
{{Ancient Egyptian religion footer, collapsed Egyptian death gods Egyptian underworld Underworld gods Lion deities