Mut

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mut
in hieroglyphs

For other uses, see Mut (disambiguation).

Mut was an ancient Egyptian mother goddess with multiple aspects that changed over the centuries. Rulers of Egypt supported her worship in their own way to emphasize their own authority and right to rule.

1 Changes of mythological position
2 Depictions
3 Mut in Karnak
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Changes of mythological position

Mut (also spelled Mout) (mother) was originally a title of the primordial waters of the cosmos, Naunet, in the Ogdoad cosmogony. However, the distinction between motherhood, and cosmic water, lead to the separation of these identities, and Mut gained aspects of a creator goddess, since she was the mother from which the cosmos emerged.

In the Middle Kingdom, when Thebes grew in importance, its patron, Amun also became more significant, and so his wife Amaunet, who was simply a female version of Amun, was replaced with a more substantial mother-goddess, namely Mut. Mut and Amun had a son, Khonsu.

The hieroglyph for Mut's name, and for mother itself, was that of a vulture, which the Egyptians believed were very maternal creatures. Indeed, since Egyptian vultures have no significant differing markings between female and male of the species, the Egyptians believed there were no males, and so they did not reproduce but were conceived by the wind itself. Consequently, they held that Mut had no parents, but was created from nothing, and that she could not have children, and so adopted one instead.

Originally, it was said that Mut had adopted Menthu, god of war, making up a complete triad of gods for the pantheon of Thebes. This choice of completion for the triad should have proved popular, but, because the isheru, the sacred lake outside Mut's temple in Karnak at Thebes, was the shape of a crescent moon, Chons, the moon god eventually replaced Menthu as Mut's adopted son.

Lower and upper Egypt both already had a patron deity – Wadjet and Nekhbet respectively, indeed they also had lioness protector deities – Bast and Sekhmet respectively. When Thebes rose to greater prominence, Mut absorbed these goddesses as her aspects. First, Mut became Mut-Wadjet-Bast, then Mut-Sekhmet-Bast (Wadjet having merged into Bast), then Mut also assimilated Menhit, who was also a lioness goddess, and her adopted son's wife, becoming Mut-Sekhmet-Bast-Menhit, and finally becoming Mut-Nekhbet.

The authority of Thebes waned later and Amun was assimilated into Ra, Mut, the doting virgin mother, was assimilated into Ra's wife, Hathor, the cow-goddess and mother of Horus. Subsequently, when Ra assimilated Atum, the Ennead was absorbed as well, and so Mut-Hathor became identified as Isis (either as Isis-Hathor or Mut-Isis-Nekhbet), the most important of the females in the Ennead, and the patron of the queen. The Ennead proved to be a much more successful identity and the compound of Mut, Hathor and Isis, became known as Isis alone.

[edit] Depictions

In art, Mut was pictured as a woman with the wings of a vulture, holding an ankh, wearing the united crown of Upper and Lower Egypt and also a dress of bright red/blue, with the feather of Ma'at at her feet. Alternatively, as a result of her assimilations, she is sometimes depicted as a cobra, a cat, a cow, or as a lioness. Some of Mut's titles included World-Mother, Eye of Ra, Queen of the Goddesses, Lady of Heaven, Mother of the Gods, and She Who Gives Birth, But Was Herself Not Born of Any.

[edit] Mut in Karnak

There are temples dedicated to Mut all over modern-day Egypt and Sudan but the center of the cult was the temple in Karnak. The temple had the statue that was regarded as an embodiment of her real ka. Her devotions included daily rituals by the Pharaoh and her priestesses. Interior reliefs depict scenes of priestesses, currently the only known example of worship in ancient Egypt that was exclusively led by women. The rituals included music and drinking.

The queen Hatshepsut had the temple built in Karnak. Previous excavators had thought that Amenhotep III had originally had the temple built because of the hundreds of statues of Sekhmet that bore his name. However, Hatshepsut had begun the work 75 years earlier and began the custom to depict Mut with the crown of both Upper and Lower Egypt. It is possible the later ruler tried to eclipse his predecessor by removing most signs of her and adding his own.

Hatshepsut was the ruler that brought Mut to the fore, probably trying to enhance her image to strengthen her own authority. She stated that she was a descendant of Mut. She also associated herself with the image of Sekhmet, as the more aggressive aspect of the goddess.

Akhenaten suppressed the worship of Mut alongside the other gods when he promoted the worship of his sun god Aten. Tutankhamun re-established their worship and his successors continued to associate themselves with Mut afterwards.

Ramesses II added more work on the Mut temple but also rebuilt an earlier temple in the same area, dedicating it to Amun and himself. People had to pass his temple on their way to that of Mut.

Kushite pharaohs expanded the Mut temple and modified Ramesses temple for the use of the shrine the celebrated the birth of Amun and Khonsu, trying to integrate themselves into divine succession. Their also installed their own priestesses to the temple of Mut.

The Greek Ptolemaic dynasty added its own decorations and priestesses and used her authority 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 3rd century AD. Some of the later occupants used the stone from the temple for their own building projects.