This was a very unusual ancient Egyptian god. His name is translated as "hidden" or "secret", and meanwhile the sun, the embodiment of which he was, shone over the heads of his admirers, accessible to all eyes. Extraordinary wisdom was attributed to him, but his sacred animals personified it were the goose and the ram. As a local patron of Thebes, the capital of Upper Egypt, he extended his power throughout the country. God Amon is one of the central figures of the Egyptian pantheon.
The divine triad from ancient Thebes
The god Amun was depicted as a fantastic creature with a human body and the head of an animal - most often a ram he loved so much. However, images with a human head decorated with a crown with two high feathers are also known. Usually the picture was supplemented by a solar disk as a symbol of the fact that Amon is the ruler of this eternal star. In his hands were a cross with a noose, denoting life. For a modern person, such an appearance may seem meaningless, but for the ancient Egyptians, it was full of specific symbolism.
As mentioned above, Thebes was the main center of his veneration. Together with his wife, the sky goddess Mut, and son, the moon god Khonsu, theyconstituted the so-called Theban triad and were full-fledged arbiters of the fate of the city. Some sources, however, indicate that his wife was not Mut at all, but another goddess named Amaunet. Perhaps it was so, but after years of prescription, no one remembers for sure.
The sun god who won the war
It was not easy for Amun to win the championship among the many other deities that lived in the upper reaches of the Nile and claimed leadership. For example, during the period of the Middle Kingdom, that is, in the twenty-first century BC, when the XI dynasty of pharaohs ruled in Egypt, the god of war Montu insistently asserted his rights. He was very formidable and could not stand competition, but over time he either grew old, or simply relaxed, but after some one hundred and fifty or two hundred years, during the reign of the next in a row - the XII dynasty, Amon pressed him. In the beginning, they were identified or, simply put, confused, but gradually the sun god Amon expelled the rude martinet and firmly took his place.
It must be said that in the same period, the sun god Ra, who reigned before, is also gradually losing ground. His name goes to the head of the Theban triad, who from now on is referred to as Amon-Ra.
The path to the top of power
More than two hundred years have passed, and Amon-Ra got bored in his Thebes. I felt that I was capable of more. And here, back in the period of the Middle Kingdom, the god of fertility Ming tried to fight him, so stubbornly that for some time they were even identified - they were so closely intertwined in a duel. But the god Amun overcame hisopponent, and he was forced to retreat.
Soon, unheard-of luck smiled at the sun god. By the beginning of the sixteenth century BC, the center of the earthly political power of Egypt had moved to ancient Thebes. It was there that the rulers of the XVIII Theban dynasty founded their residence, and the god Amun immediately acquired the status of the king of all gods, and his cult became nationwide.
Reverence and ex altation of the supreme deity
Whether he understood that he owed his rise to the game of chance, or attributed it solely to personal merits - it is not known, but only since then Amon favorably listened to the obsequious choir, rewarding him with more and more new titles. He became both a creator god and the ruler of the world, and in general - the height of perfection.
The priests of Amon went so far in their doxology that they began to assert that the earthly rulers - the pharaohs - are born from the marriage between the queen mother and Amon himself, who appeared to her on the bed in the guise of a lawful husband. Amon himself, although he was embarrassed by such details, was proud in his soul, because the pharaoh was now considered his son, and therefore, inferior to him in his greatness.
Accordingly, the status of his wife, the sky goddess Mut, also grew. She became the "first lady" of the divine pantheon and the other gods of Egypt bowed before her. Amon, with his son, the moon god Khonsu, strictly followed everything that happened on the banks of the Nile. In Thebes, he was erected the largest temple in Egypt, called Karnak. Once a year, during the celebrations, the priests carried a barque out of the temple, on whichthe radiant Amun towered - the god of the sun and the ruler of the world. On this day, the pharaoh, who was considered, as it was said, his son and a living incarnation, on his behalf, but with his own lips spoke the will of the deity and administered judgment.
A finale repeated for centuries
However, the happiness of those who have found it by chance is not permanent. Centuries passed, and in the fourteenth century BC the reign of the Theban dynasty ended. They were replaced by other rulers, and the center of political power moved elsewhere. The time has come to declare oneself to other gods and overthrow the triad accustomed to supreme power from the shining peaks: Amon, the goddess of the sky Mut and their first-born, the god of the moon Khonsu. Again they became privates of the Egyptian pantheon. This is an old story. It has been repeated for as many centuries as the world has existed. No reign lasts forever.
