Banebdjedet (Banebdjed) was an ancient Egyptian ram god with a

cult In modern English, ''cult'' is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. This ...

centre at

Mendes Mendes ( grc-gre, Μένδης, ''gen''.: ), the Greek name of the ancient Egyptian city of Djedet, also known in ancient Egypt as Per-Banebdjedet ("The Domain of the Ram Lord of Djedet") and Anpet, is known today as Tell El-Ruba ( ar, تل ال ...

Khnum Khnum or also romanised Khnemu (; egy, 𓎸𓅱𓀭 ẖnmw, grc-koi, Χνοῦβις) was one of the earliest-known Egyptian deities, originally the god of the source of the Nile. Since the annual flooding of the Nile brought with it silt an ...

was the equivalent god in

Upper Egypt Upper Egypt ( ar, صعيد مصر ', shortened to , , locally: ; ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south. In ancient ...

Family

His wife was the goddess

Hatmehit Hatmehit or Hatmehyt ( egy, ḥꜢt-mḥyt) was an Ancient Egyptian goddess associated with the city in the Nile Delta known as Djedet ( egy, Ḏdt) or Mendes ( grc-gre, Μένδης). Etymology Hatmehit's name is typically translated as "For ...

("Foremost of the Fishes"), who was perhaps the original deity of Mendes.''Handbook of Egyptian mythology'', Geraldine Pinch, p 114-115, Oxford University Press, 2004, Their offspring was " Horus the Child" and they formed the so-called "Mendesian Triad"."Mistress of the House, Mistress of Heaven: women in ancient Egypt", Anne K. Capel, Glenn Markoe, p 72, Cincinnati Art Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Hudson Hills, 1996,

Etymology

The words for "ram" and "soul" sounded the same in Egyptian, so ram deities were at times regarded as appearances of other gods.

Image

Typically, the horned god Banebdjedet was depicted with four rams' heads to represent the four Bas of the sun god. He may also be linked to the first four gods to rule over Egypt (

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 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 ...

, Shu and Ra-Atum), with large granite shrines to each in the Mendes sanctuary.

Accounts

The ''

Book of the Heavenly Cow The ''Book of the Heavenly Cow'' ( ar, كتاب البقرة السماوية '), or the ''Book of the Cow of Heaven'', is an Ancient Egyptian text thought to have originated during the Amarna Period and, in part, describes the reasons for th ...

'' describes the "Ram of Mendes" as being the ''Ba'' of Osiris, but this was not an exclusive association. A story dated to the New Kingdom describes him as being consulted by the "Divine Tribunal" to judge between Horus and

Seth Seth,; el, Σήθ ''Sḗth''; ; "placed", "appointed") in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Mandaeism, and Sethianism, was the third son of Adam and Eve and brother of Cain and Abel, their only other child mentioned by name in the Hebrew Bible. A ...

, but he proposes that

Neith Neith ( grc-koi, Νηΐθ, a borrowing of the Demotic (Egyptian), Demotic form egy, nt, likely originally to have been nrt "she is the terrifying one"; Coptic language, Coptic: ⲛⲏⲓⲧ; also spelled Nit, Net, or Neit) was an early ancien ...

do it instead as an act of diplomacy. As the dispute continues, it is Banebdjedet who suggests that Seth be given the throne as he is the elder brother. In a chapel in the

Ramesseum The Ramesseum is the memorial temple (or mortuary temple) of Pharaoh Ramesses II ("Ramesses the Great", also spelled "Ramses" and "Rameses"). It is located in the Theban Necropolis in Upper Egypt, on the west of the River Nile, across from the m ...

, a

stela A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), whe ...

records how the god

Ptah Ptah ( egy, ptḥ, reconstructed ; grc, Φθά; cop, ⲡⲧⲁϩ; Phoenician: 𐤐𐤕𐤇, romanized: ptḥ) is an ancient Egyptian deity, a creator god and patron deity of craftsmen and architects. In the triad of Memphis, he is the hu ...

took the form of Banebdjedet, in view of gaining his virility, in order to have union with the woman who would conceive

Rameses II Ramesses II ( egy, rꜥ-ms-sw ''Rīʿa-məsī-sū'', , meaning "Ra is the one who bore him"; ), commonly known as Ramesses the Great, was the third pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt. Along with Thutmose III he is often regarded as t ...

Gallery

File:DeirMedinaTemple2ndHallWinds.jpg, Banebdjedet depicted as a ram with four heads and two pairs of wings.

Deir el-Medina Deir el-Medina ( arz, دير المدينة), or Dayr al-Madīnah, is an ancient Egyptian workmen's village which was home to the artisans who worked on the tombs in the Valley of the Kings during the 18th to 20th Dynasties of the New Kingdom of ...

, Ptolemaic Period File:God with four ram heads facing in four directions, probably Khnum MET LC-26 7 889 EGDP023507.jpg, A statuette likely depicting Banebdjedet with four ram heads facing in four directions. Faience ceramic, ca 500-200 BC.

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

File:Banebdjed, depicted with four ram heads MET 26.7.894 view 2.jpg, An amulet depicting Banebdjedet as a ram with four heads, Late Period.

File:Mendeswidder.jpg, Banebdjedet as a four-headed ram, surmounted by

Nekhbet Nekhbet (; also spelt Nekhebit) is an early predynastic local goddess in Egyptian mythology, who was the patron of the city of Nekheb (her name meaning ''of Nekheb''). Ultimately, she became the patron of Upper Egypt and one of the two patron d ...

File:Tomb KV19 (Kairoinfo4u).jpg, Prince

Mentuherkhepeshef Mentuherkhepeshef ''(mnṯ-ḥr-ḫpš=f;'' „Montu is with his strong arm”) is an ancient Egyptian name. It may refer to: * Mentuherkhepeshef (son of Ramesses III), an ancient Egyptian prince of the 20th dynasty * Mentuherkhepeshef (son of Ra ...

giving offerings to a mummiform-depicted Banebdjedet,

KV19 Tomb KV19, located in a side branch of Egypt's Valley of the Kings, was intended as the burial place of Prince Ramesses Sethherkhepshef, better known as Pharaoh Ramesses VIII, but was later used for the burial of Prince Mentuherkhepshef instead, t ...

20th dynasty The Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XX, alternatively 20th Dynasty or Dynasty 20) is the third and last dynasty of the Ancient Egyptian New Kingdom period, lasting from 1189 BC to 1077 BC. The 19th and 20th Dynasties furthermore toget ...

(ca 1129–1111 BC) File:Hypocephalus of Tasheritkhons (c. 305–30 BCE), British Museum, London - 20080821.jpg, Banebdjedet (center) on the

hypocephalus A hypocephalus is a small disk-shaped object generally made of stuccoed linen,British Museum Dept. of Egyptian Antiquities, ''A General Introductory Guide to the Egyptian Collections in the British Museum'', Published by Trustees of the British ...

of Tasheritkhons, Ptolemaic Period (ca 305–30 BC),

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Notes

External links

* {{Authority control Egyptian gods Fertility gods Horned deities Osiris Mythological caprids