Listing of the Principal Gods of Ancient Egypt - ancient Egypt - Egypt

AMUN (AMEN, AMON) : the great god of Thebes of uncertain origin; represented as a man, sometimes ithyphallic; identified with Re as Amen-Re; sacred animals, the ram and the goose.

ANAT : goddess of Syrian origin, with warlike character; represented as a woman holding a shield and an axe.

ANUBIS (ANPU): the jackal-god, patron of embalmers; the great necropolis-god.

ANUKIS (ANQET): goddess of the cataract-region at Aswan; wife of Khnum; represented as a woman with a high feather head-dress.

ARSAPHES (HERISHEF): ram-headed god from Heracleopolis.

ASTARTE: goddess of Syrian origin; introduced into Egypt during the Eighteenth Dynasty.

ATEN: god of the sun-disk, worshipped as the great creator-god by Akhenaten.

ATUM (TUM): the original sun-god of Heliopolis, later identified with Re; represented as a man.

BASTET (BAST): cat-goddess whose cult-centre was at Bubastis in the Delta; in the Late Period regarded as a beneficent deity.

BES: dwarf-deity with leonine features; a domestic god, protector against snakes and various terrors; helper of women in child-birth.

EDJO (WADJET, BUTO): the cobra-goddess of Buto in the Delta; tutelary deity of Lower Egypt, appearing on the royal diadem, protecting the king.

GEB: the earth-god; husband of Nut; member of the ennead of Heliopolis; represented as a man.

HAPY: god of the Nile in inundation; represented as a man with full, heavy breasts, a clump of papyrus on his head, and bearing heavily laden offering-tables.

HAROERIS: a form of Horus, the 'Elder Horus'; identified with the falcon-god and particularly the patron of the king.

HARPOCRATES (HOR-PA-KHRED): Horus-the-Child, a late form of Horus in his aspect of being son of Isis and Osiris; represented as a naked child wearing the lock of youth and holding one finger to his mouth.

HARSIESIS: a form of Horus, specifically designated son of 'Isis'.

HATHOR: goddess of many functions and attributes; represented often as a cow or a cow-headed woman, or as a woman with horned head-dress; the suckler of the king; the 'Golden One'; cult-centres at Memphis, Cusae, Gebelein, Dendera; the patron deity of the mining-region of Sinai; identified by the Greeks with Aphrodite.

HAT-MEHIT: fish-goddess of Mendes in the Delta; sometimes represented as a woman with a fish on her head. 

HEQET: frog-goddess of Antinoopolis where she was associated with Khnum; a helper of women in child-birth.

HORUS: the falcon-deity, originally the sky-god, identified with the king during his lifetime; also regarded as the son of Osiris and Isis, for the former of whom he became the avenger; cult-centres in many places, e.g. Behdet in the Delta, Hierakonpolis and Edfu in Upper Egypt. See also, Haroeris, Harpocrates, Harsiesis, Re-Harakhty.

IMHOTEP (IMOUTHES): the deified chief minister of Djoser and architect of the Step Pyramid; in the Late Period venerated as the god of learning and medicine; represented as a seated man holding an open papyrus; equated by the Greeks with Asklepios.

ISIS: the divine mother, wife of Osiris and mother of Horus; one of the four 'protector'-goddesses, guarding coffins and Canopic jars; sister of Nephthys with whom she acted as a divine mourner for the dead; in the Late Period Philae was her principal cult-centre.

KHEPRI: the scarab-beetle god, identified with Re as a creator-god; often represented as a beetle within the sun-disk.

KHNUM: ram-headed god of Elephantine, god of the Cataract-region; thought to have moulded man on a potter's wheel.

KHONS: the moon-god, represented as a man; with Amun and Mut as father and mother, forming the Theban triad.

MAAT: goddess of truth, right, and orderly conduct; represented as a woman with an ostrich-feather on her head.

MIN: the primeval god of Coptos; later revered as a god of fertility, and closely associated with Amun; represented as an ithyphallic human statue, holding a flagellum.

MONTH (MUNT): originally the local deity of Her-monthis, just south of Thebes; later the war-god of the
Egyptian king; represented as falcon-headed.

MUT: the divine wife of Amun; cult-centre at Asheru, south of the main temple of Amen-Re at Karnak; originally a vulture-goddess, later represented usually as a woman.

NEFERTUM: the god of the lotus, and hence of unguents; worshipped at Memphis as the son of Ptah and Sakhmet; represented as a man with a lotus-flower head-dress.

NEHEB-KAU: a serpent deity of the underworld, some-times represented with a man's body and holding the eye of Horus.

NEITH (NET): goddess of Sais; represented as a woman wearing the red crown; her emblem, a shield with crossed arrows; one of the four 'protector'-goddesses who guarded coffins and Canopic jars; identified by the Greeks with Athena.

NEKHBET. vulture-goddess of Nekheb (modern El-Kab); tutelary deity of Upper Egypt, sometimes appearing on the royal diadem beside the cobra (Edjo).

NEPHTHYS (NEBET-HET): sister of Isis; one of the four 'protector'-goddesses, who guarded coffins and Canopic jars; with Isis acted as mourner for Osiris and hence for other dead people; represented as a woman.

NUN (NU): god of the primeval chaos.

NUT: the sky-goddess, wife of Geb, the earth-god; represented as a woman, her naked body curved to form the arch of heaven.

0NURIS (ANHUR): god of This in Upper Egypt; the divine huntsman; represented as a man.

0SIRIS (ASAR): the god of the underworld, identified as the dead king; also a god of the inundation and vegetation; represented as a mummified king; principal cult-centre, Abydos.

PTAH: creator-god of Memphis, represented as a man, mummiform, possibly originally as a statue; the patron god of craftsmen; equated by the Greeks with Hephaestus.

PTAH-SEKER-OSIRIS: a composite deity, incorporating the principal gods of creation, death, and after-life; represented like Osiris as a mummified king.

QADESH: goddess of Syrian origin, often represented as a woman standing on a lion's back.

RE (RA): the sun-god of Heliopolis; head of the great ennead, supreme judge; often linked with other gods aspiring to universality, e.g. Amen-Re, Sobk-Re; represented as falcon-headed.

RE-HARAKHTY: a god in the form of a falcon, embodying the characteristics of Re and Horus (here called 'Horus of the Horizon').

RENENUTET (ERNUTET, THERMUTHIS),: goddess of harvest and fertility; represented as a snake or a snake-headed woman.

RESHEF (RESHPU): god of war and thunder, of Syrian origin.

SAKHMET: a lion-headed goddess worshipped in the area of Memphis; wife of Ptah; regarded as the bringer of destruction to the enemies of Re.

SARAPIS: a god introduced into Egypt in the Ptolemaic Period having the characteristics of Egyptian (Osiris) and Greek (Zeus) gods; represented as a bearded man wearing the modius head-dress.

SATIS (SATET): goddess of the Island of Siheil in the Cataract-region; represented as a woman wearing the white crown with antelope horns; the daughter of Khnum and Anukis.

SELKIS (SELKIT, SERQET),: a scorpion-goddess, identified with the scorching heat of the sun; one of the four 'protector'-goddesses, guarding coffins and Canopic jars; shown sometimes as a woman with a scorpion on her head.

SESHAT: the goddess of writing; the divine keeper of royal annals; represented as a woman.

SETH (SET, SUTEKH),: the god of storms and violence; identified with many animals, including the pig, ass, okapi, and hippopotamus; represented as an animal of unidentified type; brother of Osiris and his murderer; the rival of Horus; equated by the Greeks with Typhon.

SHU: the god of air; with Tefnut, forming the first pair of gods in the Heliopolitan ennead; shown often as a man separating Nut (sky) from Geb (earth).

SOBK (SEBEK, SUCHOS),: the crocodile-god, worshipped throughout Egypt, but especially in the Faiyum, and at Gebelein and Kom Ombo in Upper Egypt.

SOKARIS (SOKAR, SEKER),: a falcon-headed god of the necropolis; cult-centre in Memphis.

SOPDU: the ancient falcon-god of Saft el-Henna in the Delta; a warrior-god, protector of the eastern frontier; represented often as an Asiatic warrior.

SOTHIS (SEPDET): the dog-star Sirius, deified as a goddess; shown as a woman with a star on her head.

TATJENEN: the primeval earth-god of Memphis; later identified with Ptah.

TEFNUT: the goddess of moisture; with Shu forming the first pair of the Heliopolitan ennead.

THOERIS (TAURT, TAWERET),: the hippopotamus-goddess; a beneficent deity, the patron of woman in child-birth.

THOTH: the ibis-headed god of Hermopolis; the scribe of the gods and the inventor of writing; the ape as well as the ibis being sacred to him.

UNNEFER (WENEN-NEFER, ONNOPHRIS),: a name meaning 'he who is continually happy', given to Osiris after his resurrection.

WEPWAWET (UPUAUT): the jackal-god of Asyut in Middle Egypt; a god of the necropolis and an avenger of Osiris.

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