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Khonsu (Khons, Chons, Khensu) was a god of the moon and time. His cult center was at Thebes where he was part of a triad with Amun and Mut. He was one of the companions of Thoth (who was also associated with the moon and the measurement of time). It was thought that he could influence the fertility of both the people and their livestock and one myth (recorded on the walls of the Ptolemaic temple of Khonsu at Karnak) gives him a prominent role in the creation of the universe. He was also revered as a god of healing, as is recorded in the story of the "Princess of Bekheten". It was said that he personally healed the pharaoh Ptolemy IV (who took the epithet "beloved of Khonsu who protects the king and drives away evil spirits" in thanks for the gods help) and he was also thought to extend his protection to the common people. As a result, many Egyptians were named after him.
However, he also had a darker side. During the early part of Egyptian history, Khonsu seems to have been considered to be a violent and dangerous god. He appears in the "Cannibal hymn" (part of the Pyramid Texts) as a blood-thirsty deity who helps the deceased king to catch and eat the other gods and the Coffin Texts describe him as "Khonsu who lives on hearts". Yet, by the New Kingdom he was worshipped primarily as the gentle and compassionate son of Amun and Mut.
There has been some dispute regarding the meaning of his name. Some scholars have suggested that it represented the royal placenta (transliterated as h-nisw), but it is now generally held that it was derived from the word "khenes" (hns) meaning "to cross" or "to travel" (referring to his journey across the sky). However, he was also known by the more specific names; "Khonsu nefer hotep" (in Thebes) was described as the "lord of Ma´at", an epithet he shared with Ptah. When there was a new moon he was known as the "mighty bull" and during the full moon he was associated with a neutered bull. This god not only ruled the month, but he also supposed to possess absolute power over the evil sprits which infested earth, air, sea, and sky, and which made themselves hostile to man and attacked his body under the forms of pains, sickness, and diseases, and produced decay, and madness, and death. He it was, moreover, who made plants to grow, and fruit to ripen, and animals to conceive, and to men and women he was the god of love.
As "Khensu-pa-khart" he was the personification of the light of the crescent moon. He was also thought to help women conceive children and help the livestock to breed successfully. This aspect of the god also has an association with fresh air, and hence the god Shu. "Khonsu pa-khered" ("Khonsu the Child") was described as the "first great son of Amun", the son of the goddess Nubt, and an aspect of the god Ra. Like Ra-Horakhty he was thought to be a child in the morning and an old man in the evening. He was also characterised as, a youth at the beginning of the year, who cometh as a child after he had become infirm, and who reneweth his births like Disk. Thus Khensu-pa-khart was both the spring sun, and the spring moon, and also the moon at the beginning of each month, in fact, the symbol of the renewed light of the sun and moon, and the source of generation and reproduction. In these aspects he could be linked to Horus, Ra, or Min. He was also known as "Khonsu pa-ir-sekher" ("Khonsu the provider" -Chespisichis to the Greeks) and "Khonsu heseb-ahau" ("Khonsu, decider of the life span").
The Great Temple of Khonsu was built in the precinct of the temple of Karnak. It was begun by Ramesses III, in the New Kingdom but expanded by a number of later rulers. There were three shrines dedicated to specific aspects of the god; "The Temple of Khensu", "The Temple of Kenshu in Thebes, Nefer-hetep" and "The Temple of Khensu, who works his plans in Thebes". Other forms of the god were probably worshipped in the main portion of the temple as aspects of the moon god. Different aspects of this god could actually converse with each other! For example, the Bentresh Stela (created in the 4th century BC but claiming to record a statement of Ramesses II) describes how a Khonsu approaches Khonsu pa-ir-sekher, a manifestation of himself in order to free a foreign princess from a hostile spirit.
Khonsu was also associated with a number of other gods. In Khumnu (Hermopolis) he was called "Khonsu-Djehuti" associating him with Thoth. While in Thebes, Khonsu was associated with Ra, Shu, Min and Horus. During the later period Osiris and Khonsu were known as the two bull and represented the sun and the moon respectively.
Although firmly associated with Amun and Mut at Thebes at Kom Ombo Khonsu was considered to be the son of Sobek and Hathor (again linking him to Horus) and in Edfu he was considered to be the son of Osiris and known as "the son of the leg" (the leg being the part of the dead king's body which was thought to have been found in that nome).
He was usually depicted as a young mummiform man in the posture of a mummy. In his role as the young son of Amun he generally wears the sidelock of youth and the curved beard of the gods. He often wears a full lunar disc resting in a crescent moon as a headdress and carries a crook and flail in his hands (linking him with the pharaoh and Osiris). Ocassionaly he bears a staff topped by the Was (representing power) or the Djed (representing stability). He generally wears a loose necklace with a crescent-shaped pectoral and a counterpoise in the shape of an inverted key-hole. In his mummiform aspect he looks so similar to Ptah that the only way to tell them apart is to check his necklace as the counterpoise worn by Ptah is a different shape.
Khonsu could also be depicted as a falcon-headed man, but unlike Horus or Re his headdress is sometimes topped by a lunar, not solar symbol. Like Thoth he was associated with the baboon, but was only rarely depicted in this form. During the later period he may be depicted on plaques as fully human or in his falcon-headed form, together with his parents Amun and Mut, He may also be depicted standing on the back of a crocodile, like Horus. As "Khensu, the chronographer" he wears the solar disk on his head and holds a stylus in his right hand. Khonsu was also a great lover of games, especially senet. He was also frequently recorded playing a game of Senet against Thoth.
Khonsu was a moon-god and the son of Amon-Re and Mut. His name derives from the root, "khens" which means to travel, to move about, to run. He was usually portrayed as a man with the head of a hawk and wearing the lunar disk. He was also shown as a child with the sidelock of youth.
Khonsu was a very old god of primitive times. Khonsu was associated with the moon and was considered a form of Thoth by the Thebens, and it was in Thebes that Ramses III built the "House of Khonsu in Thebes, Nefer-hetep"
It was said that when Khonsu caused the cresent moon to shine, women conceived, cattle became fertile, and all nostrils and every throat were filled with fresh air.
Re, Re-Herachte(Ra):(god)
De zonnegod Re met valkenkop trad al in het Oude Rijk op als Re-Herachte; als de morgenzon. Als bekendste godheid van het Egyptische pantheon was hij in de cultus en mythe in vele vormen aanwezig. Zo is de voorstelling van de cyclische baan van de zon, die de god in zijn bark (de boot heette mandjet) als dag- en nachtreis van elk twaalf uur voltrekt, synoniem met de eeuwige herhaling van de schepping en alle herscheppende krachten. De belangrijkste cultusplaats lag sinds het Oude Rijk in Heliopolis, de zonnestad. De heersers van de 5de dynastie lieten speciale gebouwen voor de Re-cultus, de zogenaamde zonnetempels, bij Aboesir bouwen. De indrukwekkende cultussymbolen zijn de obelisken, waarvan de vergulde toppen als zetel van de zonnegod werden geïnterpreteerd. Het waarschijnlijk beroemdste heiligdom van Re-Herachte werd onder Ramses II (19de dynastie) in Abu Simbel gebouwd. De opvallende relatie tot de god van elke heerser wordt weerspiegeld in de titulatuurbenaming ‘ zoon van Re’.
Ra
Ra (Re) was the primary name of the sun god. He was often considered to be the King of the Gods and thus the patron of the pharaoh and one of the central gods of the Egyptian pantheon. He was also described as the creator of everything. Ra was so powerful and popular and his worship was so enduring that some modern commentators have argued that the Egyptian religion was in fact a form of veiled monotheism with Ra as the one god. This seems to be somewhat of an overstatement, but underlines his primary position within religious texts throughout Egyptian history.
It is sometimes proposed that the pyramids represent the rays of light extending from the sun and thus these great monuments connected the king with Ra. The Egyptians also built solar temples in honour of Ra. Unlike the standard type of Egyptian temple, these temples were open to the sunlight and did not feature a statue of the god because he was represented by the sunlight itself. Instead the temple centred on an obelisk and altar. The most significant early solar temple is thought to be the one erected in Heliopolis, sometimes known as "Benu-Phoenix". Its location was thought to be the spot where Ra first emerged at the beginning of creation, and the city took its name ("Iwn") from the word for a pillar.
History
Ra was an ancient god, but not the oldest of the gods; the first references to Ra date from the Second Dynasty. However, by the Fifth Dynasty he was a powerful god who was closely associated with the pharaoh. The Pharaoh was already seen as the embodiment of Horus and so the two gods became linked, sometimes as the composite deity Ra-Horakhty ("Ra (is) Horus of the Horizon"). Ra also came to be associated with Atum (the creator god of the Ennead in Heliopolis) as Atum-Ra. By the Fifth Dynasty the pharaoh was referred to as the son of Ra and the name of Ra was incorporated into the throne name of every king from that point onwards. Many Old Kingdom pharaohs built sun temples in which to worship Ra.
The Middle Kingdom saw the rise to prominence of Amun of Thebes. Although Ra kept his association with the pharaoh, he was to some degree absorbed by Amun as Amun-Ra . However, the priests of Amun became very wealthy and influential and so some of the pharaohs of the New Kingdom chose to elevate Ra in his stead, perhaps partly because he was already closely associated with the pharaoh. For example, Thuthmosis promoted Re-Horakhty as his favoured god while Amenhotep III took the epithet "the dazzling sun" and named his wife´s pleasure boat "the Aten Gleams". His successor (and probable son) Akhenaten went one step further and rejected Amun and many of the other gods in favour of The Aten (a solar god).
The worship of Ra was at its peak during the New Kingdom. Many of the tombs in the Valley of the Kings (dating from this period) included depictions of Ra´s journey through the underworld over twelve "hours" or stages. In the fifth hour, Ra dies and is reunited with Osiris in the underworld, but in the twelfth hour he is reborn as the scarab (Khepri). Sun temples were again constructed during the New Kingdom (although those of the Armarna Period are dedicated to the The Aten).
Amun-Ra was also popular in Nubia and was the chief deity of the Nubian Kingdom of Napata during the Twentyfifth Dynasty . The Greeks associated Ra with Zeus and so he remained popular during the Ptolemaic Period. However, after this point Egypt was governed by a series of foreign rulers who were not associated with the god of the pharaohs and so his popularity declined.
Associations with other gods
Ra was often described as the father of the gods. He was sometimes thought to be married to Hesat or Hathor although the latter is usually referred to as his daughter. As his worship was pre-dated by that of some of his "children" (such as Hathor and Horus) it seems likely that he took on this role when he was associated with the creator god Atum.
According to the Pyramid Texts, Ra (as Atum) emerged from the waters of Nun as a benben stone (an obelisk-like pillar). He then spat forth Shu (air) and Tefnut (moisture), and Tefnut in turn gave birth to Geb (earth) and Nut (sky). Ra tried to separate Geb and Nut by placing Shu between them and decreed that Nut could not give birth on any day of the calendar. However, Thoth won an extra five days from the moon so that Nut could give birth to Osiris, Set, Isis, Nephthys and Horus the Elder.
It was thought that Ra "died" or was swallowed by Nut every evening as the sun dipped below the horizon. He travelled through the world of the dead by night and was then reborn in the morning (making Nut both his granddaughter and his mother). At sunset he was linked to Horakhty (Horus on the Horizon) and Atum and at dawn he was linked to the scarab beetle, Khepri ("the Emerging One") and Nefertum
Re-Horakhty-Atum was associated with Osirisas the manifestation of the sun at night. When Osiris was murdered by his brother Set, he became the God of the Underworld. Thus the Pharaoh was the son of Ra who ruled as the living Horus and who became Osiris on his death.
According to another myth, Ra ruled on earth as Pharaoh until he became old and weary. The people had lost respect for him and no longer obeyed his laws and so Ra decided that they should be punished. He sent his "Eye" to teach them a lesson, but then had to arrange to get her drunk to prevent her killing everyone. Once the danger had been averted, Ra decided it was time for him to leave the world to Horus ( who took his place as the king) and travel across the sky on Nut´s back
