Amentet

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Aments in hieroglyphics
mostly
X1 R13 X1

Amentet
Jmnt.t
west, realm of the dead, western desert, necropolis
or
R14 X1
X1 		N25

or
H6 E17 ( X1 X1)
N25

or
R14

Hieroglyph for west
( Gardiner list , character R14)
La tombe de Horemheb (KV.57) (Vallée des Rois Thèbes ouest) -2.jpg
Amentet greets Haremhab in the guise of Hathor

Amentet or Imentet is an ancient Egyptian goddess of the dead . Since the Old Kingdom she has been the personification of the realm of the dead, of the West. She has been mentioned in the literature of the dead since the New Kingdom and is a goddess of Amduat .

presentation

Amentet in the form of Hathor and Re-Harachte (tomb of Nefertari)

She was invoked in ritual texts on statues, steles and in graves, and since the New Kingdom also on temple walls. Representations of the Amentet can be found in various tombs, for example in the tomb of King Haremhab ( KV57 ) in the Valley of the Kings or in the tomb of Queen Nefertari ( QV66 ) in the Valley of the Queens . Since Amenhotep III. the goddess was part of the decoration program for royal and official graves together with Nut .

Since the New Kingdom she has been depicted as a woman with a black wig and the hieroglyph for “West” on her head. Mostly she is represented in the form of Isis or Hathor . So it seems that despite its independent iconography, she is a manifestation of these goddesses, both of whom can bear the nickname “Mistress of the beautiful West” ( nebet-imentet-nefer ). In the coffin texts , Amentet was equated with Isis.

meaning

In the mythology of the ancient Egyptians, the afterlife lies in the west. Therefore, the necropolises were mainly built in the mountains west of the Nile. As the goddess of the west, Amentet is also the mistress of all countries in the west. As the underworld goddess, she receives the dead entering the duat . In the New Kingdom, Amentet became the patron goddess of the Theban necropolis.

Amentet belongs to the retinue of Osiris . However, there was no cult of their own for them. Since the late period , however, their image has been placed on the floors of the coffins.

See also

List of Egyptian gods

literature

  • Hans Bonnet : Real Lexicon of Egyptian Religious History. 3rd edition, de Gruyter, Berlin 2000; License edition: Nikol, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-937872-08-6 , pp. 22-23.
  • Hosam Refai: The goddess of the west in the Theban tombs of the New Kingdom. (= Treatises of the German Archaeological Institute Cairo. ) (ADAIK) (= Egyptological series , Vol. 12). Achet-Verlag, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-9803730-2-9 .
  • Richard H. Wilkinson: The world of the gods in ancient Egypt: Faith, power, mythology. Theiss, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-8062-1819-6 , pp. 145-146.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rolf Felde: Egyptian gods. 2nd expanded and improved edition, R. Felde Eigenverlag, Wiesbaden 1995, p. 2.
  2. ↑ Richard H. Wilkinson: The world of the temples in ancient Egypt. Stuttgart 2003, p. 146.
  3. ↑ Rolf Felde: Egyptian gods. Wiesbaden 1995, p. 2.