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Anhor in hieroglyphics | ||||||
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mostly |
Anhor (An hor) Jnj ḥr.t |
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or shorter |
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transcription | Jnj ḥr.t | |||||
Greek |
Ὀνούρις Onuris |
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Old Coptic table | ⲁⲛ ϩ ⲟⲩⲣⲉ (Anhure) |
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Statuette of Anhor (Onuris); Walters Art Museum , Baltimore |
Anhor , also Anhuret , is an ancient Egyptian god of war and hunting who was also worshiped in Nubia ( Abu Simbel ). The Greeks called him Onuris (Ὀνούρις), derived from the Egyptian “an-heret”: “Who brings the vastness (heret = the distant, heaven ) close ”.
meaning
In the belief of the ancient Egyptians, this deity destroyed Re's enemies , turning him from a god of hunting into a god of war. His companion and wife is the lion goddess Mehit , whom he brought from afar (name!). He was very popular in the New Kingdom , famous warriors identified with him and show battles were held in his honor. Both have belonged to the Ninth of Heliopolis since the time of Ramses IV . Sometimes his name is also translated as heaven bearer (“an” = carries , “heret” = heaven ) and later identified as “ Schu ” (same hairstyle). Ultimately, both merged into one deity. The cult center of the god was in ancient times Thinis , but later also in Armant and Gebel el-Silsile . Representations dated to the late period show that the god was worshiped as Anhor-Schu in Sebennytos and Hibis . Emperor Tiberius was represented as an anhor with a fourfold pen. There was also a connection with Schu- Arensnuphis in Lower Nubia .
presentation
Anhor is depicted as a warrior carrying a lance, with a beard and long robe, wearing four high feathers on his head. Rare images also show him with an ibis head or a lion head, symbolic of his strength and power, and with a rock-like robe.
See also
literature
- Hans Bonnet : Onuris. In: Hans Bonnet: Lexicon of the Egyptian religious history. 3rd unchanged edition. Nikol, Hamburg 2000, ISBN 3-937872-08-6 , pp. 545-547.
- Onuris. In: Wolfgang Helck , Eberhard Otto : Small Lexicon of Egyptology. 4th revised edition. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1999, ISBN 3-447-04027-0 , p. 210.
- Hermann Junker : Die Onurislegende (= Imperial Academy of Sciences in Vienna. Philosophical-historical class. Memoranda. Vol. 95, Abh. 1–2). Hölder, Vienna 1917.
- Richard H. Wilkinson : The world of the gods in ancient Egypt. Belief, power, mythology. Theiss, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-8062-1819-6 , p. 118.