Egyptian Deities

Early Inhabitants


Dynastic Period

Afura
  • Body of the sun god of night

Aker
  • Earth god of passage
  • Benevolent against snake bites

Am-Heh
  • Minor underworld god
  • Has the head of a hound
  • Inhabits a lake of fire

Amaunet
  • Fertility goddess

Amen
  • Local god of Thebes
  • Represented the powers of generation and growth in the unborn child

Ami-ut
  • God of the dead

Ammut
  • Goddess of the underworld
  • Sat beside forty-two juror gods

Amset
  • One of the four sons of Horus who protected the viscera of the dead

Amun
  • God of mystery, healing, justice, and welfare of the state
  • Husband of Mut

Amunet
  • Goddess of Mystery and fertility

An-her
  • Ancient god of This

Andjety
  • Minor underworld god
  • Responsible for rebirth in the afterlife

Angit
  • With Satit and Khnemu, the great triad of Elephantine and the First Cataract

Ani
  • Form of the moon god

Anpu (Anubis)
  • Divine physician
  • Guardian of all mummies

Anti
  • God of ferrymen

Anubis
  • God of the dead and embalming
  • Protector of tombs
  • Son of Osiris

Anzety
  • God of Busiris

Apep
  • Arch enemy of all the solar gods

Apophis
  • Demon of darkness

As
  • Local fertility god
  • God of oases and other fertile areas of the desert

Asar
  • (See Osiris)

Asar-Hapi
  • Name of the deified Apis bull

Ast
  • (See Isis)

Asten
  • Companion of Thoth

Aten
  • God of the sun, light, providence, and life

Atum
  • First-born of the gods
  • Son of Nun

Baba (Beb)
  • First-born son of Osiris

Bast
  • Mother goddess of the city of Bubastis
  • Goddess of life, fruitfulness, and cats

Bekha
  • Bakhis bull

Bes
  • Dwarf god --
  • God of music and dancing --
  • Protector of women in childbirth
  • Protector against terrors

Buto
  • God who guarded Lower Egypt

Chonsu
  • God of the moon

Dunanwy
  • Falcon god
  • One of the forms of Horus

Geb
  • Son of Shu and Tefnut
  • Father of Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys
  • One early form of the earth god

Hap
  • The Apil bull
  • Brother of Amset

Hapi
  • God of the Nile

Hathor
  • Goddess of love, mirth, and joy
  • Goddess of the sky
  • Protector of infants and consoler of the dead

Heqit
  • One of the oldest mother goddesses of Egypt
  • Goddess of fertility and rebirth

Heh
  • God of the immeasurable

Hehit
  • Goddess of the immeasurable

Her
  • God of the sky
  • Sun god

Her-em-aakhut
  • One form of the sun god

Her-khenti
  • The unborn Horus, or sun god

Her-p-khart
  • Horus the Child

Her-sa-Ast
  • Horus, son of Isis

Her-sakhuti
  • Sun god in the two horizons

Herur (Horus the Elder)
  • One of the oldest gods
  • Personifies the face of the sky

Hether
  • Goddess of love, beauty, and fertility

Hotep
  • Divine entity of contentment and happiness
  • Rules over abundance in the beyond

Horus
  • God of the sky and the sun
  • Son of Osiris and Isis

Imhetep
  • Deified native of Memphis
  • Great architect and very wise and learned man

Ini-Herat
  • Goddess of mediators, diplomats, statesmen, and conciliators

Isis
  • Sister and wife of Osiris and mother of Horus
  • Patroness of loving wives and mothers

Kek
  • God of darkness

Keket
  • Goddess of darkness

Khensu
  • Moon god
  • One of the great triad of Thebes

Khentimentiu
  • God of the destiny of the dead

Khepera
  • Type of manner about to come into a state of activity

Khepri
  • God of becoming

Khnemu
  • Builder of the universe and the first man

Khnum
  • God of potters

Khons
  • God of the moon

Maat
  • Goddess of physical and moral law
  • Associate of Thoth
  • Daughter of Ra

Meh-urit
  • One of the sky goddesses

Menhit
  • One of the lion goddesses

Mentu
  • God of war of Hermonthis and Thebes

Menu
  • God of generation and fertility

Mer-segerit
  • One of the Thebian goddesses

Merit
  • Goddess of inundation

Merur
  • Mnevis bull

Meskhenit
  • Goddess of the birth-chamber

Min
  • God of plant life and generative powers

Month
  • God of Thebes

Mut
  • Mother goddess of Thebes
  • Wife of Amen-Ra
  • Queen of heaven

Nebthet (Nephthys)
  • Sister and the wife of Set and the mother of Anpu

Nefer-Temu
  • Son of Ptah and Sekhmit of Memphis

Nefertum
  • God of the sun

Nehebka
  • Benevolent serpent goddess

Neith
  • Mother of the gods

Nekhebit
  • Old mother goddess of Upper Egypt
  • The great protector of pregnant women

Nenu (Nu)
  • Primeval watery mass in which Khepera existed

Nephthys
  • Goddess sister of Isis and Osiris
  • Sister-wife of Seth

Net
  • Great mother goddess of the city of Saïs
  • Gave virgin birth to the sun god

Nun
  • God of the ocean

Nunet
  • Goddess of the ocean

Nut (Nent)
  • Great sky goddess
  • Sister and wife of Geb

Onuris
  • Warrior god

Osiris
  • King of the gods
  • God of the flood, of agriculture, of law, of learning
  • Judge and god of the dead
  • Son of Geb and Nut
  • Brother and husband of Isis

Pakhit
  • Local cat goddess

Ptah
  • God of law and justice, of metal-workers, and of sculptors
  • First member of the triad gods of Memphis
  • Assisted in the creation of the world
  • Son of Nun

Ptah-Seker
  • Sun god of night
  • God of death

Ptah-Seker-Asar
  • Triad of the gods of death
  • Triune god of resurrection

Ptah-Taten
  • Creator of the matter of which the world was formed

Qebhsenuf
  • Brother of Amset

Ra
  • Sun god of Heliopolis
  • Head of the Company of Gods
  • Represented the noonday sun

Renenutet
  • Goddess of abundant harvests
  • Snake goddess

Rennit
  • Goddess of birth and the harvest

Reshef
  • God of war

Sakhmet
  • Mother goddess of Memphis
  • Goddess of war
  • Daughter of the sun god

Seker
  • Ggod of death and the underworld of Memphis

Sekhmit
  • Wife of Ptah of Memphis

Selkis
  • Goddess of scorpions
  • Guardian of coffins
  • Beauty which would last forever

Sept (Sothis)
  • Goddess of the dog star (Sirius)

Serapis
  • God who cured the sick

Serqit
  • Scorpion goddess

Seshet
  • Goddess of writing and literature
  • Associate of Thoth

Set (Setesh)
  • Brother of Osiris and son of Geb and Nut
  • Adversary of all the solar gods
  • God of chaos, adversity, and destruction

Shai
  • God of luck or destiny

Shu
  • God of light, heat, air, and dryness
  • Supported the horizon and the solar disc on his shoulders
  • Brother and husband of Tefnut and father of Geb and Nut

Sobek
  • Crocodile god of Faiyum
  • Son of Neith

Sokaris
  • God of the dead
  • Assimilated with Ptah and Osiris as Ptah-Sokar-Osiris

Soped (Sopdu)
  • Warrior god
  • Protector of the frontiers of Egypt

Sothis
  • Goddess, the personification of the starSirius

Tanen (Ta-Tenen)
  • One of the cosmic gods

Taurit
  • One of the oldest mother goddesses of Egypt

Tefnut
  • Sister and wife of Shu
  • Mother of Geb and Nut
  • Goddess rain, dew, heat, and moisture

Tehuti (Thoth)
  • God of time, the moon, writing, science, medicine, and wisdom
  • Scribe of the gods
  • Inventor of writing, mathematics, alchemy, and magic

Tem (Atmu)
  • Ancient solar god
  • Head of the Great Company of Gods

Theoris
  • Goddess of women in childbirth
  • Protectress of babies

Thoth
  • Ibis-god
  • Inventor of writing and master of learning in general
  • Mediator of the gods

Tuamutef
  • Brother of Amset

Uatchit
  • One of the oldest mother goddesses of Lower Egypt

Un-Nefer
  • Hare god

Up-uatu
  • Wolf god --
  • Associate of Anpu

Uraeus
  • Cobra-goddess
  • Guardian deity of the forehead of the gods and the king
  • Guardian of the red crown

Wadj Wer
  • Fertility god --
  • Associated with the richness of the Nile delta waters

Wadjet
  • Serpent goddess
  • Guardian deity of Lower Egypt

Wepwawet
  • God of passage
  • Depicted as a jackal
  • Born beneath a tamarisk tree
  • Opened the way to the womb

Wasret
  • Localized guardian goddess
  • Early consort of Amun

Yah
  • Minor underworld god
  • Represented in the form of man, falcon, or ibis


Deities of Foreign Origin

Aasit (Syrian-Hittite) -- A goddess of battle

Ahu (Sudani)

Antat (Syrian-Hittite) -- A goddess of conception

Anthreta (Syrian-Hittite) -- A goddess associated with Sutekh

Astharth (Ashtoreth) (Syrian-Hittite) -- The mistress of horses and the lady of the chariot

Bar (Baal) (Syrian-Hittite) -- A god of battle

Bes (Sudani)

Kent (Syrian-Hittite) -- The lady of heaven

Meril (Sudani)

Qetesh (Syrian-Hittite) --
Mistress of the gods

Reshpu (Syrian-Hittite) -- A god of war and of lightning

Sutekh (Syrian-Hittite) -- Equivalent of Set

Tetun (Sudani)

Bibliography

  1. Baumgartner, Anne S. A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Gods. New York: Wing Books, 1984.
  2. Budge, E. A. Wallis. The Dwellers on the Nile. New York: Dover Publications, 1926, 1977.
  3. Jordan, Michael. Encyclopedia of Gods. London: Kyle Cathie, 2002.
  4. Antelme, Ruth Schumann and Stéphane Rossini. Becoming Osiris. Trans. from the French by Jon Graham. Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 1998.