Khnum

Ram-god whose principal cult centre was on the island of I'.lephantine at a. swan, where he was worshipped, probably from the Early Dynastic period (3100-2686 bc) onward. s, as part of a triad with the goddesses s vit. t and ANUkiiT. In his earliest form he appears to have been portrayed as the first type of ram domesticated in Egypt {Ovis hnigipes), which had corkscrew horns extending horizontally outwards from the head, as opposed to the later species {Ovis phityra), which had horns curving inwards towards the face and was more often associated with the god amun.

Khnum’s strong association with both the Nile INUNDATION and the fertile soil it. self contributed to his role as a potter-god and therefore also to his cosmogonic role as one of the principal creator-gods (see (;ri;atio). 'I'his creative role stemmed inevitably from the combination of the creative symbolism of moulding pottery, the traditional potency of the ram and the fact that the Egyptian word for ram, ba, also had the meaning of‘spiritual essence' (although the latter was usually written with the stork hieroglyph). Perhaps partly because of this punning connection with the concept of the ba, Khnum was regarded as the quintessential ha of the sun-god k , who was therefore depicted with a ram's head as he passed through the netherworld in the solar bark.

The best-preserved temple of Khnum is the Greco-Roman construction at ]:s\, where his consort was Menhyt, a relatively unknown

FrapnaU of samis/one ivall-relief decorated nnih a representation of the god Khnum as a ram-headed man. IHih Dynasty, c. I. lOO hc„ //. 45 cm. (IU63544)

Lioness-goddess, although the goddess nkith also features promincntlv in the reliefs. ”Ehe texts on the walls of the Esna temple celebrate his creation of the entire universe including gods, humans, animals and plants. The so-called FAMINE Stele at Sehcl describes appeals

To Khnum at a time of famine caused by low inundations.

A. M. Bad. awi, Der Gott Chniim (Gluckstadt, 1937).

L. 1 Iauachi, ‘Was.' ukis considered as the w'ifc of Khnum or as his daughter?’, AS.4F. 50 (1950), .301-7.

P. Bargl KT, La sle/e de hi famine ii Schel (Cairo, 1953).

P. BI'JIRENS, ‘Widder’, lAwibon der Agyptologiew, ed. W Helck. E. Otto and W. Westendorf (Wiesbaden, 1986), 124.3-5.