Month
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Montju Mnṯ.w |
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Month (also Ment , Menthu , Montu , Mont or Montju ) is the falcon-headed god of Thebes in Egyptian mythology . He is the god of war and protector of arms.
Representations
A white Buchis bull with a black face served as an earthly image of the god . In Armant , the god Month is shown accompanied by the goddesses Junit and Rat-taui .
In later times the god Month also merged with the sun god Re to form Month-Re through the general cult of the sun . This seems to have happened quite early in the Old Kingdom , which is why Month was depicted as a falcon-head.
development
Originally, Month was the main god of the Gaues (Nomos) of Thebes. He was worshiped in Medamut in the north and in at-Tod in the south on the east bank. It seems that he was guarding the north and south borders of the district.
During the 11th Dynasty , Month was particularly venerated by the kings Mentuhotep I to Mentuhotep IV . They built a barge house on the east bank near Medamut . This housed the barque with which Month could both maintain a connection between his northern and southern sites, as well as cross over to the west bank, where Mentuhotep II had built his great mortuary temple in Deir el-Bahari . This barque house was probably also used by the barque of the god Min from Koptos , who also translated to Deir el Bahari. During the 12th dynasty , the memory of Mentuhotep II was still cherished, but Min seems to have entered into a special relationship in the barque house with a local special form of Amun , who originally came from Hermopolis .
Under the 18th dynasty Month was from the common bark House of Amun ousted . He received his own temple to the north of it, where the road from his temple in Medamut arrived. His bark was moved to its own bark house after at-death. During the supremacy of Amun, Month led a quiet life of its own between his venues.
Under the 29th Dynasty , the Month cult was again emphasized more strongly after the Amun worshipers had evaded to Meroe . The long-standing pictorial connection between Months and the Buchis bull has now also been represented by the keeping of a living bull. This bull was probably used in at-death in the south and then brought north to Medamut by barge. There he spent some time in his apartment and then returned to the south. A cemetery has now been set up for him on the west bank in Armant (Hermonthis), the so-called Bucheion . The mother cows were later also given their own cemetery. Under the Ptolemies , the form of worship reached its late bloom.
See also
literature
- Hans Bonnet : Month. In: Lexicon of Egyptian Religious History. Nikol, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-937872-08-6 , pp. 475-479.
- Wolfgang Helck , Eberhard Otto : Month. In: Small Lexicon of Egyptology. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1999, ISBN 3-447-04027-0 , p. 191.
- Robert Ludwig Mond , Oliver Humphrys Myers: Bucheion. 3 volumes, 1934.
- Robert Ludwig Mond, Oliver Humphrys Myers: The Cemeteries of Armant I. 2 volumes, 1937.
- Robert Ludwig Mond, Oliver Humphrys Myers: The Temples of Armant. A preliminary survey. 2 volumes, 1946.
- Fernand Bisson de La Rocque: Report on the fouilles de Médamoud. 1926-33.
- Fernand Bisson de La Rocque: Tôd 1934 à 1936. 1937.
- Fernand Bisson de La Rocque: Le Trésor de Tod. 1953.
