Harmachis
| Harmachis in hieroglyphics | |||||
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Heru-em-achet Ḥrw-m-3ḫ.t Horus in the horizon |
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Harmachis is a deity in Egyptian mythology . He has been considered a local form of the god Horus since the beginning of the New Kingdom .
Presentation and meaning
The representations of Harmachis are varied. Sometimes he was depicted as a falcon-headed man with different crowns, other depictions occasionally show him as a falcon-headed or ram-headed lion. In its subsidiary form as Harmachis-Chepre-Re-Atum , his most famous image can be seen as the great Sphinx of Giza with the head of King Chephren .
General meaning
As Horus in the horizon, he personifies the rising sun and was merged with Chepri as a symbol of eternal life and resurrection. In later times Harmachis was equated with the Near Eastern falcon god Hauron. Texts on steles connect him to Chepri and Atum as the sun at noon and in the evening. Harmachis was not only considered a special form of the god Horus, but also an incarnation of wisdom.
In addition, in Egyptian astronomy, the equation of the title "Horus in the horizon" with Re and Red Horus ( Hor-descheru ) was made, but its connection to the representation with the falcon's head was only intended for the duration of sunrise and sunset . It shows Re in the state of giving birth to Nut shortly before appearing on the horizon or in the state of dying after sinking below the horizon.
The background to equating Re with Horus is, among other things, the mythological merging with the birth of the Dean stars in the Nutbuch , in which Re is also considered the son of Osiris and Isis or Nut, who in turn is often embodied by Nephthys . Every heliacal rising Dean star was therefore represented in the childlike form of Horus.
Meaning as the Sphinx of Giza
At least since the New Kingdom , the Great Sphinx of Giza has been understood and venerated under the name "Horus in the horizon". Between the front paws of the sphinx is the so-called dream stele Thutmose IV, which reports that Harmachis will help the prince to become king when he frees the sphinx from the sand. Thutmose IV granted Harmachis' request and later gained kingship. Presumably Harmachis was also venerated in the upstream Sphinx temple .
Harmachis and Harachte
At times, these two special forms of the god Horus are combined into one deity in literature. Due to the different spellings of their names and their own meanings in Egyptian mythology, it is clear that Harmachis ( Ḥrw-m-3ḫ.t - Heru-em-achet) and Harachte ( Ḥrw-3ḫtj - Heru-Achti) is about two different deities.
cult
The worship of Harmachis began as a popular cult, which was then taken up by the official religion. Evidence for this can be found under the governments of the kings of the New Kingdom: Amenophis II and the Thutmosids. The cult continued into the Greco-Roman period.
See also
literature
- Hans Bonnet : Lexicon of the Egyptian religious history. Nikol, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-937872-08-6 .
- Rolf Felde: Egyptian deities. 2nd enlarged and improved edition. R. Felde self-published, Wiesbaden 1995.
- Veronica Ions: The gods and myths of Egypt (= the great religions of the world - gods, myths and legends ). Neuer Kaiser Verlag - Book and World, Klagenfurt 1988.
- Alexandra von Lieven : Floor plan of the course of the stars - the so-called groove book. The Carsten Niebuhr Institute of Ancient Eastern Studies (among others), Copenhagen 2007, ISBN 978-87-635-0406-5 .
- Richard H. Wilkinson : The world of the gods in ancient Egypt. Faith - Power - Mythology. Theiss, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-8062-1819-6 .