Horon (god)
| Horon in hieroglyphics | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| since the New Kingdom |
Hurun Ḥwrn |
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Horon (also Hurun , Hauron and Horonu ; Hebrew חורון ) is an originally Sumerian - Akkadian deity or a demon of the Ugaritic mythology . He was later especially venerated in ancient Egypt and, curiously, is better documented there than in the original Ugaritic texts.
description
Little is known about Horon, his name probably means "the one from the pit". Contemporary , Canaanite portraits of him do not exist. One of the few ancient Egyptian representations of the god is a statue from Tanis , which shows him in the form of a falcon with the young Ramses II .
Cult and adoration
In Canaanite sources
There are only imprecise sources of information about Horon's origins, but he is already in the early 2nd millennium BC. Chr. Attested. According to Ugaritic texts, he was conjured up by curses , so that he was primarily worshiped as the god of calamity and disease. His mythological home was the underworld . The Ugaritic texts also describe him as ambivalent and "moody". Usually he commanded a large army of demons and monsters (especially snake demons and scorpions ), rarely he protected people against these same. Horon is also said to be married to eight goddesses, whose names, however, have not been passed down.
In ancient Egypt
Horon was also worshiped in ancient Egypt as Hurun or Hauron ( ancient Egyptian Ḥwrn ). Under Pharaoh Amenophis II ( 18th Dynasty ) he was equated with the god Sched . This was considered a protector against dangerous animals from the desert. Fittingly, he was depicted as a Horus falcon with snakes in its claws. Horon also appears in the Harris I papyrus from the 20th Dynasty . This was under Pharaoh Ramses III. writes and describes Horon as a "shepherd" and protector against wild animals such as wolves . Furthermore, his name appears in a topographical list of Pharaoh Scheschonq I ( 22nd dynasty , around 940 BC) in Karnak .
It is possible that the famous Great Sphinx of Giza was worshiped as a representation of Horon from the New Kingdom onwards . Several tiles made of Egyptian faience with the cartouche of Amenhotep II and the inscription: "Beloved by Hauron, the great god" were found in Giza . Other tiles show the inscription: "Loved by Harmachis (Hor-em-Achet)". The cult of Horon in Giza lasted an unusually long time: as late as the 14th century AD, Arab historians reported a cult of Horon that included annual pilgrimages to Giza and incense offerings to the Sphinx. Devout Muslims loathed the cult so much that a fanatical iconoclast chopped off the Sphinx's nose and was then killed by cult supporters. Then the Horon cult came to a standstill.
Other places of worship and sources
Horon was worshiped in large parts of the Mediterranean region in late antiquity . His name is preserved on an ostracon from Tell el-Qasile with Hebrew inscriptions . A Phoenite seal mentions a certain Abed-Horon , who may have been named after Horon. Punic inscriptions from Antas (today's Sardinia ) equate him with the local deity Ṣid . Horon is also mentioned several times in the Old Testament as the namesake of two cities ( e.g. Beth Horon ).
See also
literature
- Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, Pieter Willem van der Horst: Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible . BRILL, Leiden 2018 (new edition), ISBN 9780802824912 , pp. 425 & 426.
- Okasha El Daly, Daly El: Egyptology: The Missing Millennium: Ancient Egypt in Medieval Arabic Writings . Psychology Press, London (UK) 2004, ISBN 9781844720637 , p. 89.
- John Gray: The Legacy of Canaan: the Ras Shamra Texts and Their Relavance to the Old Testament (= Supplements to Vetus Testamentum , 5th volume). BRILL, Leiden 1965, pp. 150 & 180.
- Gabriele Höber-Kamel: Cultural Transfer - Asian Gods in Egypt . In: Egypt and the Middle East . (= Kemet , Issue 1/2000), Kemet Verlag, Berlin 2000, ISSN 0943-5972 , pp. 15-16.