The name Amun means “Hidden” or “Invisible One”, and he was a deity of the air. The oldest god known by the name of Amun was a member of the Ogdoad of Hermopolis, but at the end of the First Intermediate Period, a god named Amun appeared in the 4th nome of Upper Egypt. Whether this Amun can be identified as the Ogdoad Amun is not known. What is certain is that within a matter of a hundred or so years, Amun had displaced the indigenous god of that nome, Montu, and had begun the rise to power that was to make him King of the Gods.

Amun was unknown because he represented absolute holiness, and in this regard, he was different than any other Egyptian deity. So holy was he that he remained independent of the created universe. He was associated with the air as an invisible force, which facilitated his growth as a supreme deity. He was the Egyptian creator deity par excellence, and according to Egyptian myth, was self-created. It was believed that he could regenerate himself by becoming a snake and shedding his skin. At the same time, he remained apart from creation, totally different from it, and fully independent from it.

Incarnations of Amun

Amun adopted the ram (Ovis platyura aegyptiaca) as his particular symbol, though he was never depicted in the form of a ram, or as a man with a ram’s head (though he was depicted as a ram in the form of Amun-Re).



He was always portrayed in human shape wearing a cap surmounted by two tall plumes and a sun’s disk. The mysterious, hidden part of his nature was expressed by the custom of covering the shrine that held his statue with a shroud. The soul of Amun was supposed to be enshrined in a serpent-shaped scepter known as Kem-at-ef, which was perhaps his original fetish.

A further incarnation of Atum was a snake in which the god bears the name of Kematef, “he-who-has-completed-his-time”. At various times he also appeared as a man with the head of a frog, the head of a uraeus, the head of a crocodile, or as an ape. In the Greek period, he was sometimes depicted in bronze with the bearded head of a man, the body of a beetle with the wings of a hawk, the legs of a man and the toes and claws of a lion. He was provided with four hands and arms and four wings.

The goose was also associated with Amun, who was sometimes known as “The Great Cackler”.

Amun’s association with Thebes

As early as the Middle Kingdom, a temple was built for Amun in the 4th nome, at Waset. Eventually Waset became known as the City of Amun, and today we know it as Thebes, after a description in Homer.

Amun, and his city of Thebes, achieved great importance during the New Kingdom, especially during the reigns of Thutmose III and Ramesses II.

Amun and Dynasty 18

Both Hatshepsut and Thutmose III were particular devotees of Amun, Hatshepsut claiming him as her heavenly father in reliefs in her temple at Deir el-Bahri showing her divine birth. Following rulers attributed their successes at home and abroad to Amun, and even claimed their rights to the throne of Egypt by virtue of the fact that each of them was the son of the god.

Throughout Egypt, new shrines and temples were built to Amun, often replacing those of other deities. Small chapels dedicated to those deities were erected within the precincts of Amun’s temple at Karnak, emphasising their subordination to Amun. The dead, as well as the living, came under the jurisdiction of Amun’s priesthood, for it governed not only the East Bank at Thebes, but also the West Bank. They had charge of the royal tombs and the tombs of the nobles, and they also ran the memorial temples that stretched along the western bank of the Nile.

King of the Gods

From about 1390BC, the character of Amun began to change. From simply a god of war, he usurped some of the functions of Ta-tanen of Memphis and Re of Heliopolis. His priests proclaimed that he was a cosmic creator-god, and that Thebes was the birthplace of the whole universe. Eventually, the priests added Re’s name to that of Amun, so that he became known as Amun-Re, King of the Gods.

Amun-Re

While Amun remained hidden, the addition to his name of "Re" revealed the god to humanity. Re was the common Egyptian term for the sun, thus making him visible. Hence, Amun-Re combined within himself the two opposites of divinity, the hidden and the revealed. As Amun, he was secret, hidden and mysterious, but as Re, he was visible and revealed. In some respects, this even relates to his association with Maat, the Egyptian concept of order and balance, and reflects back upon the ancient Egyptian's concepts of duality.

Amun and the New Kingdom

With the exception of the Amarna Period, Thebes flourished as the centre of the cult of Amun. During Dynasty XXI, a custom arose that a daughter of the reigning king should be consecrated to Amun to be his wife, “The Divine Wife of Amun”. Having wielded great power in her lifetime, the Divine Wife of Amun, when she died, was buried in the same manner as a King of Egypt, usually on the west bank of Thebes at Medinet Habu.

Despite the fact that Amun was King of the Gods, his priests encouraged ordinary Egyptians to see him as a compassionate deity, one whom they could turn to in times of trouble. Therefore, they built a small temple at Karnak, called “The Temple of Amun-who-hears-prayers”, where the Egyptians could petition him by leaving a small stele at the gate of the temple. Amun, to many Egyptians, was a kind god who protected the weak, succoured orphans, defended the oppressed and healed the sick.

As was customary in Egyptian religion, Amun formed part of a triad, playing the role of husband and father to Mut and Khonsu respectively.

Alexander and the Late Period

Proof of Amun’s continued power into the Late Period is provided by Alexander who, after his arrival in Egypt, crossed 500km of desert to visit the Temple of Amun at Siwa. After this, he was accepted by the Egyptians as the son of Amun and the rightful ruler of Egypt.

The Greeks continued to worship Amun under the name Zeus-Ammon, and later, the Romans honoured him as Jupiter-Ammon.