Heka (Egyptian mythology)
| Heka in hieroglyphics | ||||||||
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| Old empire |
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| Middle realm |
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| New kingdom |
Heka Ḥk3 ( The Magician (s ) ) |
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| Greek | Magia | |||||||
| Coptic | hike | |||||||
In Egyptian mythology , Heka was the personification of magic in ancient Egypt .
Name / representation
In the Old Kingdom he is depicted as a human god with drooping arms as well as an Ankh sign and staff. His name is that of the deceased who speaks to the gods through Heka. Heka's name is also recorded in two Hem-netjer titles from the Old Kingdom.
The hieroglyph for his name identified two intertwined flax strands. In its design, the hieroglyph also allows the interpretation that two intertwined snakes are floating over the arms of a person.
As a result, Heka was said to have fought two snakes and defeated them both. Therefore, pictorial representations of Heka show how he strangled two twisted snakes . Medicine and the activity of healers were viewed as a form of magic, so the priesthood of Heka dealt with medicine and healing rites .
meaning
According to the interpretation as the creator of the Ka, Heka was said to be the son of Atum , who was seen as the creator of things in general. Occasionally Heka was seen as the son of Khnum , who was believed to be the creator of Ba , another aspect of the soul in Egyptian mythology. In the form of Heka-pa-chered he was the son of Khnum and Menhit in Esna .
literature
- Mary Barnett, Michael Dixon: Gods and Myths of Ancient Egypt. Gondrom, Bindlach u. a. 1998, ISBN 3-8112-1646-5 .
- Hans Bonnet : Lexicon of the Egyptian religious history. Nikol, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-937872-08-6 .
- Erik Hornung : The one and the many, Egyptian ideas of God. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1971, ISBN 3-534-05051-7 , pp. 67f., 166, 204, 274.
- Christian Leitz : Lexicon of the Egyptian gods and names of gods :. Volume 5: ḥ-ḫ. Peeters Publishers, Leuven 2002, ISBN 90-429-1150-6 .
- David Rankine: Heka: The Practices of Ancient Egyptian Ritual and Magic. Avalonia, London 2006, ISBN 1-905297-07-6 .
- Herman te Velde : The God Heka in Egyptian Theology. In: Jaarbericht van het Vooraziatisch-Egyptisch Genootschap Ex Oriente Lux. No. 21, Leiden 1970, pp. 175-186.
Web links
- Heka. www.khemet.de, accessed on March 8, 2013 .