Mythology

The god Nemty (previously read as Anti) was an ancient falcon deity (Egyptian ‘wanderer’) whose cult was assimilated from quite early times into that of the god Horus. Nemty may also be associated with two other falcon gods mentioned in the Pyramid Texts and Coffin Texts respectively: Dunanwi and Dunawi. The Coffin Texts characterize Nemty as supervising the Imiu boat of the falcon deity Sokar, and in later texts he appears as the ferryman who transports Re and other gods. A late Egyptian myth preserved in the Ptolemaic Period Papyrus Jumilhac relates how the head of the cow goddess Hathor was cut off by Nemty - an act reminiscent of that perpetrated by Horus against Isis in the ‘Contendings of Horus and Seth’. Nemty was flayed of his skin and flesh for this crime, which appears to be an etiological story explaining why the worshippers of Nemty in the 12th Upper Egyptian nome constructed their cult image of silver - the rnetal associated with the bones of the gods - rather than the usual gold of which the flesh and skin of the gods was said to be formed.

Iconography

Nemty is usually depicted as a falcon squatting on a curved, stylized boat which resembles a lunar crescent or even a throw stick in its simplicity. On the standard of the 18th Upper Pfgyptian nome, however, the boat does not appear; and in the form of Dunanwi, the god stands atop the standard’s pole

. wings outstretched. His association with 'US means that the god could indirectly be asso--ed with Seth and, as a result, Nemty is known to •ve been depicted with the head of Seth on at least ne occasion.