Taharqa presenting god Hemen with wine E25276 mp3h9203

Egyptian mythology Egyptian mythology is the collection of myths from ancient Egypt, which describe the actions of the Egyptian gods as a means of understanding the world around them. The beliefs that these myths express are an important part of ancient Egyp ...

, Hemen was a

falcon Falcons () are birds of prey in the genus ''Falco'', which includes about 40 species. Falcons are widely distributed on all continents of the world except Antarctica, though closely related raptors did occur there in the Eocene. Adult falcons ...

– god.

Places of worship

Often worshipped as a divine entity unified with

Horus Horus or Heru, Hor, Har in Ancient Egyptian, is one of the most significant ancient Egyptian deities who served many functions, most notably as god of kingship and the sky. He was worshipped from at least the late prehistoric Egypt until the ...

, as Horus-Hemen lord of Asphynis or Horakhte-Hemen of

Hefat El Mo'alla ( ar, المعلّى) is a town in Upper Egypt located about 35 km south of Luxor, on the east bank of the Nile. Known as Hefat by ancient Egyptians, it served as a necropolis for the nearby city of Djerty (nowadays El-Tod) sinc ...

Flinders Petrie Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie ( – ), commonly known as simply Flinders Petrie, was a British Egyptologist and a pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology and the preservation of artefacts. He held the first chair of Egyp ...

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).

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 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 subterran ...

, Utterance 231. *

Ankhtifi Ankhtifi (or Ankhtify) was a nomarch of Hierakonpolis and a supporter of the pharaoh in Herakleopolis Magna (10th Dynasty), which was locked in a conflict with the Theban based 11th Dynasty kingdom for control of Egypt. Hence, Ankhtifi was poss ...

, a nomarch (= provincial governor) dated to the

First Intermediate Period The First Intermediate Period, described as a 'dark period' in ancient Egyptian history, spanned approximately 125 years, c. 2181–2055 BC, after the end of the Old Kingdom. It comprises the Seventh (although this is mostly considered spuriou ...

, is shown inspecting a fleet, killing a hippopotamus in Hefat during festivities and offering the hippopotamus to Hemen. * A round-topped stela from the

13th dynasty In music or music theory, a thirteenth is the note thirteen scale degrees from the root of a chord and also the interval between the root and the thirteenth. The interval can be also described as a compound sixth, spanning an octave p ...

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. * 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. * Statue from the time of

Amenhotep III Amenhotep III ( egy, jmn-ḥtp(.w), ''Amānəḥūtpū'' , "Amun is Satisfied"; Hellenized as Amenophis III), also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent or Amenhotep the Great, was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. According to different ...

; Now in Avignon, Musée Calvet.(with D. Magee and E. Miles) Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Statues, Reliefs and Paintings, viii, Objects of Provenance Not Known, Part 2. Private Statues (Dynasty XVIII to the Roman Period). Statues of Deities. Oxford: Griffith Institute. 1999
description of statue from page 1041 of Griffiths Institute of Oxford retrieved 20/09/2011 * 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.)". * The 25th dynasty pharaoh

Taharqa Taharqa, also spelled Taharka or Taharqo ( Egyptian: 𓇿𓉔𓃭𓈎 ''tꜣ-h-rw-k'', Akkadian: ''Tar-qu-u2'', , Manetho's ''Tarakos'', Strabo's ''Tearco''), was a pharaoh of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt and qore (king) of the Kingdom of ...

is shown before the god Hemen in a statue which is now in the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the '' Venus de Milo''. A central ...

. * In ca. 300 BC Hemen's cult is still active as attested by an inscription of an official named Hornefer. * 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’. (with D. Magee and E. Miles) Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Statues, Reliefs and Paintings, viii, Objects of Provenance Not Known, Part 2. Private Statues (Dynasty XVIII to the Roman Period). Statues of Deities. Oxford: Griffith Institute. 1999
description of statue from page 1041 of Griffiths Institute of Oxford retrieved 20/09/2011

Places of worship

Some examples of artifacts containing references to Hemen

See also

References

Further reading