by Korbinian Ring
The Eight of Hermopolis (or Ogdoad) and its history is one of the great local cosmogonies of the New Kingdom. Eight primordial deities – four gods with snake heads and four goddesses with frog heads, each appearing in pairs – embody the chaotic primordial state of the cosmos. During this state, at the beginning of things, a piece of land rises up from the primordial sea, known as the primordial mound. On it, the Eight create an egg, or depending on the version – as in the depiction in the Amun temple of Hibis – a lotus plant. This gives rise to the sun god Re-Harachte – who can also be replaced by Shepsi – who appears as the child of the eight. He begins his work of creation, and the primordial state is overcome.
The idea that the world begins when fertile land rises from the water is characterised by the annual Nile floods. The creation of the world on a primordial mound is in turn closely linked to the local topography. The map of Hermopolis in the Description de l’Égypte impressively shows the numerous hills that rise above the plain.
The four pairs of gods of the eight are composed differently. The first three pairs are always Nun and Naunet (the primordial sea), Huh and Hauhet (the spatial endlessness) and finally Kuk and Kauket (the primordial darkness). The fourth pair mentioned in various sources is Gereh and Gerhet (the lack), Niau and Niaut (the nothingness) or Tenem and Tenemut (the disappearance) – from the New Kingdom onwards they are usually replaced by Amun and Amaunet (the concealment). The fourth pair therefore always stands for a negative, the great emptiness. The primordial sea, endlessness, primordial darkness, and emptiness together form the primordial state, which is embodied by the octogenarian.
Bibliography:
- Bonnet 3(2000) 5–6 s. v. Achtheit (H. Bonnet)
- M. Biloo, Les Cosmo-Theologies Philosophiques d’Heliopolis et d’Hermopolis. Essai de thématisation et de systématisation, Travaux de l’Académie de la Pensée Africaine 1, 2 (Kinshasa 1986)
- L. Medini, La mythologie de la XVe province de Haute Égypte aux époques hellénistique et romaine. Recherches de géographie religieuse, Weltentstehung und Theologie von Hermopolis Magna IV, Tuna el-Gebel 13 (Vaterstetten 2021)
- S. Morenz – J. Schubert, Der Gott auf der Blume. Eine ägyptische Kosmogonie und ihre weltweite Bildwirkung (Ascona 1954)
- H. A. Schlögl, Der Sonnengott auf der Blüte. Eine ägyptische Kosmogonie des Neuen Reiches, Aegyptiaca Helvetica 5 (Geneva 1977)
- K. Sethe, Amun und die acht Urgötter von Hermopolis. Eine Untersuchung über Ursprung und Wesen des ägyptischen Götterkönigs, Abhandlungen der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften Jahrgang 1929. Philosophisch-Historische Klasse Nr. 4 (Berlin 1929)