by Korbinian Ring
For the Egyptian era, numerous deities and cults can be traced in Hermopolis. However, only a few cults can be securely located in the topography. In the temple district north of the Antinoite Road stood the great Amun temple from the 19th Dynasty as well as the Thoth temple. Thoth was the city’s deity and, alongside the Ogdoad, which also had a temple, held the most important position. He appears in many forms and can embody various aspects, with his roles as the moon god, scribe, in magic, and as a creator being particularly relevant. The depictions in the Amun temple in Hibis confirm several aspects and different priesthoods in Hermopolis. An oracle of Thoth was located at the entrance to the animal necropolis of Tuna el-Gebel.
In addition to Thoth and the octogenarian god Shepsi, the creator god Nehmenttaui, the scribe goddess Seshat, Chnum, Heqet and Wenut, the titular goddess of Hasengau, appear.
New deities were added in the Greco-Roman period. At least three sanctuaries of Serapis – two of them in Hermopolis itself and one in Tuna el-Gebel – as well as temples and priesthoods for Apollo, Athena and Aphrodite can be reconstructed from mentions in inscriptions and papyri. Fragments of a copy of Aphrodite of Knidos also bear witness to the latter. Hadrian and Antinous were probably also given temples in the city after their deification.
Bibliography:
- Bonnet (2000) 293–295 s. v. Hermopolis Magna (H. Bonnet)
- D. Kessler, Hermopolitanische Götterformen im Hibis-Tempel, in: K. Martin – E. Pardey (eds): Es werde niedergelegt als Schriftstück. Festschrift für Hartwig Altenmüller zum 65. Geburtstag, Studien zur altägyptischen Kultur 9 (Hamburg 2003) 211–223
- L. Medini, La topographie religieuse d’Hermopolis à l’époque gréco-romaine, Camenulae 7, 2011
- M. A. Stadler, Weiser und Wesir. Studien zu Vorkommen, Rolle und Wesen des Gottes Thot im ägyptischen Totenbuch, Orientalische Religionen in der Antike 1 (Tübingen 2009)