Hapi

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This article is about the funerary deity. Hapi is also an alternate spelling for Hapy, a Nile god.

Hapi in hieroglyphs

Hapi was one of the Four sons of Horus depicted in funerary literature as protecting the throne of Ausare (Osiris) in the Underworld. Hapi is depicted as a baboon-headed mummified human on funerary furniture and especially the canopic jars that held the organs of the deceased (Hapi's jar held the lungs). Later Hermetic philosophers would equate Hapi with the element of air because of his association with the funerary protectress Nebet Het (Nephthys) and the East. He was also believed to dwell in a great cave near the cataracts. Each and every year he would increase the Nile so that it flooded, depositing rich soil on the farmlands. Hapi (Hapy) was the character of the Nile.

[edit] See also

• Four Sons of Horus – in-depth treatment of the Four Sons and their interrelationships.