Weneg (also read as Uneg) was a

sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space. In the field of astronomy, ...

and

death deity Many have incorporated a god of death into their mythology or religion. As death, along with birth, is among the major parts of human life, these deities may often be one of the most important deities of a religion. In some religions in which a ...

from ancient Egyptian religion, who was said to protect the earth and her inhabitants against the arrival of the "great

chaos Chaos or CHAOS may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional elements * Chaos (''Kinnikuman'') * Chaos (''Sailor Moon'') * Chaos (''Sesame Park'') * Chaos (''Warhammer'') * Chaos, in ''Fabula Nova Crystallis Final Fantasy'' * Cha ...

Mythology

The first known mention of a god named Weneg appears in a spell from 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 subterrane ...

from the

Sixth Dynasty The Sixth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (notated Dynasty VI), along with the Third, Fourth and Fifth Dynasty, constitutes the Old Kingdom of Dynastic Egypt. Pharaohs Known pharaohs of the Sixth Dynasty are listed in the table below. Manetho acc ...

, where he is described both as a death deity and as the deceased king. He is addressed as "Son of Ra". The texts contain several

prayer Prayer is an invocation or act that seeks to activate a rapport with an object of worship through deliberate communication. In the narrow sense, the term refers to an act of supplication or intercession directed towards a deity or a deified ...

s asking that the king receive safe travel across the sky together with Ra in his celestial

barque A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts having the fore- and mainmasts rigged square and only the mizzen (the aftmost mast) rigged fore and aft. Sometimes, the mizzen is only partly fore-and-aft rigged, b ...

. The king is addressed by the name of Weneg.Christian Leitz u.a.: ''Lexikon der ägyptischen Götter und Götterbezeichnungen''., ''vol. 7''. Peeters, Leuven 2002, , S. 418.

PT 363; column 607c–d:
''Ra comes, ferry the king over to yonder side,''
''as thou thy follower over,''
''the wng-plant, which thou lovest!''

PT 476; column 952a–d:
''O thou keeper of the way of the king, who art at the great gate,''
''certify the king to these two great and powerful gods,''
''for the king is indeed the wng-plant, the son of Ra,''
''which supports the sky, which governs the earth''
''and which will judge the gods!''

Weneg as a deity is sparsely attested. He appears only in another Pyramid Texts spell from 6th Dynasty, where he is identified and equated with the sky god Shu. The name ‘Weneg’ as a such is otherwise known only as the name of a

king King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

from the

Second Dynasty The Second Dynasty of ancient Egypt (or Dynasty II, c. 2890 – c. 2686 BC) is the latter of the two dynasties of the Egyptian Archaic Period, when the seat of government was centred at Thinis. It is most known for its last ruler, K ...

, whose chronological position and length of reign is uncertain. Jochem Kahl: ''Ra is my Lord: Searching for the rise of the Sun God at the dawn of Egyptian history,'' Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2007, , page 4–5.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weneg (Egyptian God) Egyptian gods Sky and weather gods Death gods