Mut
Mut | |
---|---|
Ma'at and Bastet | |
Consort | Amun |
Offspring | Khonsu |
Mut, also known as Maut and Mout, was a mother goddess worshipped in ancient Egypt. Her name means mother in the ancient Egyptian language.[1] Mut had many different aspects and attributes that changed and evolved greatly over the thousands of years of ancient Egyptian culture.
Mut was considered a primal deity, associated with the primordial waters of
In art, Mut was usually depicted as a woman wearing the double crown of the kings of Egypt, representing her power over the whole of the land.
During the high point of Mut's cult, the rulers of Egypt would support her worship in their own way to emphasize their own authority and right to rule through an association with Mut. Mut was involved in many ancient Egyptian festivals such as the Opet Festival and the Beautiful Festival of the Valley.
Mythology
Part of a series on |
Ancient Egyptian religion |
---|
Ancient Egypt portal |
Mut was the consort of
Depictions
In
Alternatively, as a result of her assimilations, Mut is sometimes depicted as a
Before the end of the New Kingdom almost all images of female figures wearing the Double Crown of Upper and Lower Egypt were depictions of the goddess Mut, here labeled "Lady of Heaven, Mistress of All the Gods". The last image on this page shows the goddess's facial features which mark this as a work made sometime between late
In Karnak
There are temples dedicated to Mut still standing in modern-day Egypt and Sudan, reflecting her widespread worship. The center of her cult in Sudan became the
Usually the queen served as the chief priestess in the temple rituals. The pharaoh participated also and would become a deity after death. In the case when the pharaoh was female, records of one example indicate that she had her daughter serve as the high priestess in her place. Often priests served in the administration of temples and oracles where priestesses performed the traditional religious rites. These rituals included music and drinking.
The pharaoh
Hatshepsut was a pharaoh who brought Mut to the fore again in the
Later in the same dynasty, Akhenaten suppressed the worship of Mut as well as the other deities when he promoted the monotheistic worship of his sun god, Aten. Tutankhamun later re-established her worship and his successors continued to associate themselves with Mut afterward.
The Greek Ptolemaic dynasty added its own decorations and priestesses at the temple as well and used the authority of Mut to emphasize their own interests.
Later, the Roman emperor Tiberius rebuilt the site after a severe flood and his successors supported the temple until it fell into disuse, sometime around the third century AD. Later Roman officials used the stones from the temple for their own building projects, often without altering the images carved upon them.
Personal piety
In the wake of Akhenaten's revolution, and the subsequent restoration of traditional beliefs and practices, the emphasis in personal piety moved towards greater reliance on divine, rather than human, protection for the individual. During the reign of Rameses II a follower of the goddess Mut donated all his property to her temple and recorded in his tomb:
And he [Kiki] found Mut at the head of the gods, Fate and fortune in her hand, Lifetime and breath of life are hers to command ... I have not chosen a protector among men. I have not sought myself a protector among the great ... My heart is filled with my mistress. I have no fear of anyone. I spend the night in quiet sleep, because I have a protector.[4]
References
- ^ te Velde, Herman (2002), "Mut", in Redford, D. B. (ed.), The Ancient Gods Speak: A Guide to Egyptian Religion, New York: Oxford University Press, p. 238
- ^ Wilkinson, Richard H. (2003). The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson. pp. 153–155, 169
- ^ "Relief of the Goddess Mut". Brooklyn Museum. Archived from the original on 7 March 2016. Retrieved 17 June 2014.
- ISBN 978-0-299-22554-4.
- Pinkowski, Jennifer (2006). "Egypt's Ageless Goddess". Archaeology. 59 (5). Retrieved 29 November 2015.
Further reading
- Hays, Christopher B. "The Egyptian Goddess Mut in Iron Age Palestine: Further Data From Amulets and Onomastics." Journal of Near Eastern Studies 71, no. 2 (2012): 299–314. Accessed June 16, 2020. doi:10.1086/666652.
External links
- Media related to Mut at Wikimedia Commons