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For other uses, see Mut (disambiguation).

Mut

Goddess of queens and lady of heaven

A contemporary image of goddess Mut, depicted as a woman wearing

the double crown plus a royal vulture headdress, associating her

with Nekhbet.

Name in hieroglyphs

Major cult center Thebes

Symbol the vulture

Consort Amun

Parents none (self-created)

Offspring Khonsu

Nineteenth dynasty statue of Mut, part of a double statue, c. 1279-1213 BCE, Luxor Museum

Mut, which meant mother in the ancient Egyptian language,[1] was an ancient Egyptian mother goddess with

multiple aspects that changed over the thousands of years of the culture. Alternative spellings

are Maut and Mout. She was considered a primal deity, associated with the waters from which everything was

born through parthenogenesis. She also was depicted as a woman with the crowns of Egypt upon her head.

The rulers of Egypt each supported her worship in their own way to emphasize their own authority and right to

rule through an association with Mut.

Some of Mut's many titles included World-Mother, Eye of Ra, Queen of the Goddesses, Lady of

Heaven, Mother of the Gods, and She Who Gives Birth, But Was Herself Not Born of Any.

Contents

  [hide] 

1 Changes of mythological position

2 Depictions

3 In Karnak

4 Personal piety

5 References

6 External links

Changes of mythological position[edit]

Mut was a title of the primordial waters of the cosmos, Naunet, in the Ogdoad cosmogony during what is called

the Old Kingdom, the third through sixth dynasties, dated between 2,686 to 2,134 BCE However, the distinction

between motherhood and cosmic water later diversified and lead to the separation of these identities, and Mut

gained aspects of a creator goddess, since she was the mother from which the cosmos emerged.

The hieroglyph for Mut's name, and for mother itself, was that of a vulture, which the Egyptians believed were

very maternal creatures. Indeed, since Egyptian vultures have no significant differing markings between female

and male of the species, being without sexual dimorphism, the Egyptians believed they were all females,

who conceived their offspring by the wind herself, another parthenogenic concept.

Schist statuette of Mut, Late Period,Dynasty XXVI, c. 664-525 BCE

sculpture ofSekmet the lioness deity in the eighteenth dynasty temple to Mut

Much later new myths held that since Mut had no parents, but was created from nothing; consequently, she

could not have children and so adopted one instead.

Making up a complete triad of deities for the later pantheon of Thebes, it was said that Mut had

adopted Menthu, god of war. This choice of completion for the triad should have proved popular, but because

the isheru, the sacred lake outside Mut's ancient temple inKarnak at Thebes, was the shape of a

crescent moon, Khonsu, the moon god eventually replaced Menthu as Mut's adopted son.

Lower and upper Egypt both already had patron deities–Wadjet and Nekhbet–respectively, indeed they also

had lioness protector deities–Bast and Sekhmet–respectively. When Thebes rose to greater prominence, Mut

absorbed these warrior goddesses as some of her aspects. First, Mut became Mut-Wadjet-Bast, then Mut-

Sekhmet-Bast (Wadjet having merged into Bast), then Mut also assimilated Menhit, who was also a lioness

goddess, and her adopted son's wife, becoming Mut-Sekhmet-Bast-Menhit, and finally becoming Mut-Nekhbet.

Later in ancient Egyptian mythology deities of the pantheon were identified as equal pairs, female and male

counterparts, having the same functions. In the later Middle Kingdom, when Thebes grew in importance, its

patron, Amun also became more significant, and soAmaunet, who had been his female counterpart, was

replaced with a more substantial mother-goddess, namely Mut, who became his wife. In that phase, Mut and

Amun had a son, Khonsu, another moon deity.

The authority of Thebes waned later and Amun was assimilated into Ra. Mut, the doting mother, was

assimilated into Hathor, the cow-goddess and mother of Horus who had become identified as Ra's wife.

Subsequently, when Ra assimilated Atum, the Ennead was absorbed as well, and so Mut-Hathor became

identified as Isis (either as Isis-Hathor or Mut-Isis-Nekhbet), the most important of the females in the Ennead

(the nine), and the patron of the queen. The Ennead proved to be a much more successful identity and the

compound triad of Mut, Hathor, and Isis, became known as Isis alone—a cult that endured into the 7th century

A.D. and spread to Greece, Rome, and Britain.

Depictions[edit]

In art, Mut was pictured as a woman with the wings of a vulture, holding an ankh, wearing the united crown of

Upper and Lower Egypt and a dress of bright red or blue, with the feather of the goddess Ma'at at her feet.

Alternatively, as a result of her assimilations, Mut is sometimes depicted as a cobra, a cat, a cow, or as

a lioness as well as the vulture.

In Karnak[edit]

Precinct of Mut at the Karnak temple complex

There are temples dedicated to Mut still standing in modern-day Egypt and Sudan, reflecting the widespread

worship of her, but the center of her cult became the temple in Karnak. That temple had the statue that was

regarded as an embodiment of her real ka. Her devotions included daily rituals by the pharaoh and

her priestesses. Interior reliefs depict scenes of the priestesses, currently the only known remaining example of

worship in ancient Egypt that was exclusively administered by women.

Usually the queen, who always carried the royal lineage among the rulers of Egypt, served as the chief

priestess in the temple rituals. The pharaoh participated also and would become a deity after death. In the case

when the pharaoh was female, records of one example indicate that she had her daughter serve as the high

priestess in her place. Often priests served in the administration of temples and oracles where priestesses

performed the traditional religious rites. These rituals included music and drinking.

The pharaoh Hatshepsut had the ancient temple to Mut at Karnak rebuilt during her rule in the Eighteenth

Dynasty. Previous excavators had thought thatAmenhotep III had the temple built because of the hundreds of

statues found there of Sekhmet that bore his name. However, Hatshepsut, who completed an enormous

number of temples and public buildings, had completed the work seventy-five years earlier. She began the

custom of depicting Mut with the crown of both Upper and Lower Egypt. It is thought that Amenhotep III

removed most signs of Hatshepsut, while taking credit for the projects she had built.

Hatshepsut was a pharaoh who brought Mut to the fore again in the Egyptian pantheon, identifying strongly

with the goddess. She stated that she was a descendant of Mut. She also associated herself with the image

of Sekhmet, as the more aggressive aspect of the goddess, having served as a very successful warrior during

the early portion of her reign as pharaoh.

Later in the same dynasty, Akhenaten suppressed the worship of Mut as well as the other deities when he

promoted the monotheistic worship of his sun god,Aten. Tutankhamun later re-established her worship and his

successors continued to associate themselves with Mut afterward.

Ramesses II added more work on the Mut temple during the nineteenth dynasy, as well as rebuilding an earlier

temple in the same area, rededicating it to Amun and himself. He placed it so that people would have to pass

his temple on their way to that of Mut.

Kushite pharaohs expanded the Mut temple and modified the Ramesses temple for use as the shrine of the

celebrated birth of Amun and Khonsu, trying to integrate themselves into divine succession. They also installed

their own priestesses among the ranks of the priestesses who officiated at the temple of Mut.

The Greek Ptolemaic dynasty added its own decorations and priestesses at the temple as well and used the

authority of Mut to emphasize their own interests.

Later, the Roman emperor Tiberius rebuilt the site after a severe flood and his successors supported the

temple until it fell into disuse, sometime around the third century A.D. Some of the later Roman officials used

the stones from the temple for their own building projects, often without altering the images carved upon them.

Personal piety[edit]

In the wake of Akhenaten's revolution, and the subsequent restoration of traditional beliefs and practices, the

emphasis in personal piety moved towards greater reliance on divine, rather than human, protection for the

individual. During the reign of Rameses II a follower of the goddess Mut donated all his property to her temple

and recorded in his tomb:

And he [Kiki] found Mut at the head of the gods, Fate and fortune in her hand, Lifetime and breath of life are

hers to command...I have not chosen a protector among men. I have not sought myself a protector among the

great...My heart is filled with my mistress. I have no fear of anyone. I spend the night in quiet sleep, because I

have a protector.[2]

References[edit]

1. Jump up^ Velde, Herman te (2002). Mut. In D. B. Redford (Ed.), The ancient gods speak: A guide to

Egyptian religion (pp. 238). New York: Oxford University Press, USA.

2. Jump up^ "Of God and Gods", Jan Assmann, p. 83-84, University of Wisconsin Press, 2008, ISBN 0-299-

22554-2

Jennifer Pinkowski - Egypt's Ageless Goddess (Archaeology magazine September/October 2006)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mut