Egyptian God Kek Deity of Darkness, Obscurity and Night

O you eight chaos gods, keepers of the chambers of the sky...The bnbn [phoenix] of Ra was that from which Atum came to be as ... Kek, darkness... I am the one who begot the chaos gods again, as Heh, Nun, Amun, Kek. I am Shu who begot the gods.

-- Coffin Text, Spell 76

Kek (also Kuk) is the deification of the concept of primordial darkness (kkw sm3w) in the Ancient Egyptian Ogdoad cosmogony of Hermopolis.

The Egyptians believed that before the world was formed, there was a watery mass of dark, directionless chaos. In this chaos lived the Ogdoad of Khmunu (Hermopolis), four frog gods and four snake goddesses of chaos. These deities were Nun and Naunet (water), Amun and Amaunet (invisibility), Heh and Hauhet (infinity) and Kek and Kauket (darkness). The chaos existed without the light, and thus Kek and Kauket came to represent this darkness. They also symbolized obscurity, the kind of obscurity that went with darkness, and night.

The Ogdoad were the original great gods of Iunu (On, Heliopolis) where they were thought to have helped with creation, then died and retired to the land of the dead where they continued to make the Nile flow and the sun rise every day. Because of this aspect of the eight, Budge believe that Kek and Kauket were once deities linked to Khnum and Satet, to Hapi - Nile gods of Abu (Elephantine). He also believed that Kek may have also been linked to Sobek.

He was the god of the darkness of chaos, the darkness before time began. He was the god of obscurity, hidden in the darkness. The Egyptians saw the night time, the time without the light of the sun, as a reflection of this chaotic darkness.

The characteristics of the third paid of gods, Keku and Kauket, are easier to determine, and it is tolerable certain that these deities represent the male and female powers of the darkness which was supposed to cover over the primeval abyss of water; they have been compared by Dr. Brugsch with the Erebos of the Greeks.

-- The Gods of the Egyptians, E. A. Wallis Budge

As a god of the night, Kek was also related to the day - he was called the "bringer-in of the light". This seems to mean that he was responsible for the time of night that came just before sunrise. The god of the hours before day dawned over the land of Egypt. This was the twilight which gave birth to the sun.

Egyptian God Heh

Ḥeḥ (also Huh, Hah, Hauh, Huah, Hahuh and Hehu) was in Egyptian mythology, the personification of infinity or eternity in the Ogdoad, his name itself meaning "endlessness". His female counterpart was known as Hauhet, which is simply the feminine form of his name.

Like the other concepts in the Ogdoad, his male form was often depicted as a frog, or a frog-headed human, and his female form as a snake or snake-headed human. The frog head symbolised fertility, creation, and regeneration, and was also possessed by the other Ogdoad males Kek, Amun, and Nun. The other common representation depicts him crouching, holding a palm stem in each hand (or just one), sometimes with a palm stem in his hair, as palm stems represented long life to the Egyptians, the years being represented by notches on it. Depictions of this form also had a shen ring at the base of each palm stem, which represented infinity. Depictions of Heh were also used in hieroglyphs to represent one million, which was essentially considered equivalent to infinity in Ancient Egyptian mathematics. Thus this deity is also known as the "god of millions of years".

Origins and mythology

The primary meaning of the term ḥeḥ was "million" or "millions"; subsequently, a personification of Ḥeḥ was adopted as the Egyptian god of infinity. Together with his female counterpart Ḥauḥet, Ḥeḥ represented a member of the Ogdoad of eight primeval deities whose worship was centered at Hermopolis Magna. The other members of the Ogdoad, Nuand Naunet, Amun and Amaunet, Kuk and Kauket, who joined together to create the cataclysmic event that gives rise to the sun and sun god, Atum.

Forms and iconography

Heh

The god Ḥeḥ was usually depicted anthropomorphically, as in the hieroglyphic character, as a male figure with divine beard and lappet wig. Normally kneeling (one knee raised), sometimes in a basket—the sign for "all", the god typically holds in each hand a notched palm branch (palm rib). (These were employed in the temples for ceremonial time-keeping, which use explains the use of the palm branch as the hieroglyphic symbol for rnp.t, "year"). Occasionally, an additional palm branch is worn on the god's head.

In Ancient Egyptian Numerology, Gods such as Heh were used to represent numbers in a decimal point system. Particularly, the number 1,000,000 is depicted in the hieroglyph of Heh, who is position in his normal seated position.

Cult and worship

The personified, somewhat abstract god of eternity Ḥeḥ possessed no known cult centre or sanctuary; rather, his veneration revolved around symbolism and personal belief. The god's image and its iconographic elements reflected the wish for millions of years of life or rule; as such, the figure of Ḥeḥ finds frequent representation in amulets, prestige items and royal iconography from the late Old Kingdom period onwards. Heh became associated with the King and his quest for longevity. For instance, he appears on the tomb of King Tutankhamen, in two cartouches, where he is crowned with a winged scarab beetle, symbolizing existence and a sun disk. The placement of Heh in relation to King Tutankhamen's corpse means he will be granting him these "millions of years" into the afterlife.

The primordial Egyptian Nun

Your offering-cake belongs to you, Nun and Naunet,

Who protects the gods, who guards the gods with your shadows

-- Pyramid Text 301

Nun, also spelled Nu , oldest of the ancient Egyptian gods and father of Re, the sun god. Nun’s name means “primeval waters,” and he represented the waters of chaos out of which Re-Atum began creation.

Nun appearance portrayed as a bearded man or a frog headed man with blue green skin which represents water and wearing the palm frond that symbolized long life, one on his head, and another on his hand. Naunet appearance portrayed as a snake headed woman or as a snake itself. Sometimes, Nun also depicted as man carrying a solar bark on his upraised arms. On the boat standing is by eight deities.

Nun’s qualities were boundlessness, darkness, and the turbulence of stormy waters; these qualities were personified separately by pairs of deities. Nun, his female counterpart, Naunet, and three further pairs together formed the Ogdoad (group of eight gods) of Hermopolis. Various Egyptian creation myths retain the image of the emergence of a primeval hillock formed of mud churned from the chaotic waters of Nun. Since it was believed that the primeval ocean continued to surround the ordered cosmos, the creation myth was reenacted each day as the sun god rose from the waters of chaos. Nun was also thought to continue to exist as the source of the annual flooding of the Nile River.

According to the theology of the Ogdoad the universe was formed from the interaction of eight elements (instigated by one of a number of possible gods including Thoth, Amun, Horus and Ra); water, nothingness or invisibility, darkness and infinity. 

(The Masuline is illustrated as Frogs while Feminine are snakes) 

Water was represented by Nun and Naunet (the female form). 

Although the Egyptians had many different creation myths, they all agreed that the universe came from the primordeal waters of Nun, and many legends suggested that everything would slip back under these waters at the end of the world. 

There were no priests or temples devoted specifically to Nun, but he was represented by the sacred lake of each temple and was frequently referred to in religious inscriptions.

"You [the Eight] have made from your seed a germ [bnn], and you have instilled this seed in the lotus, by pouring the seminal fluid; you have deposited in the Nun, condensed into a single form, and your inheritor takes his radiant birth under the aspect of a child."  

(Edfu VI, 11-12, and Esna V, 263.)

Nun existed in every particle of water and formed the source of the river Nile and the yearly innundation. The god was also associated with the laying of foundations for all temples, possibly because the Egyptians used simple and effective technique which took advantage of the fact that water will always form a horizontal level in order to ensure that the foundation layers of structures were flat.

Nun is often associated with the forces of chaos. When Ra decided that the people were not giving him the respect he was due, it was Nun who suggested that Re should send out his 'eye' to destroy mankind and end the world. 

However, unlike the water serpent Apep (who was the enemy of Ra and a purely destructive force) Nun had a positive aspect. Nun protected Shu and Tefnut from the forces of chaos, as represented by demonic snakes. 

According to one myth it was Nun who told Nut to transform herself into a solar cow and carry Ra across the sky because he had become old and weary.

Nun was represented as a frog or a frog-headed man (as a member of the Ogdoad) but could also be depicted as a bearded man with blue or green skin (reflecting his link with the river Nile and fertility). 

In the latter form he can look fairly similar to Hapi, the god of the Nile, and often appears either standing on a solar boat or rising from the waters holding a palm frond (a symbol of long life) Occasionally he appears as hermaphroditic with pronounced breasts.

In Memphis, Nun was associated with the creator god, Ptah in the form of the composite deity Ptah-Nun. 

Both gods were described as the father of the sun god (Ra or Atum), However, rival priests claimed that Thebes was the place where the primeval mound first rose above the waters of Nun. 

As Amun was both the creator god of Thebes and a member of the Ogdoad they suggested that Nun had been a powerful, but inert force until Amun turned himself into the primeval mound and thereafter created the other gods.

 Naunet and Nun

In the 12th Hour of the Book of Gates Nu is depicted with upraised arms holding a "solar bark" (or barque). The boat is occupied by eight deities, with the scarab deity Khepri standing in the middle surrounded by the seven other deities.

During the late period when Egypt became occupied, the negative aspect of the Nun (chaos) became the dominant perception, reflecting the forces of disorder that were set loose in the country.

The Egyptian Creation Epic

In the beginning there was only the Nun: the great celestial waters of the Unmanifest; the depths of the nighttime sky. Swimming within this primordial Deep were the mighty Ogdoad: eight Gods who consisted of four Serpents, and four Frogs. There names were Nun and Nunet, deities of the watery abyss; Heh and Hehet, deities of infinite space; Kek and Keket, deities of darkness; and Amon and Amonet, deities of the invisible. These primordial Gods swam within the Waters, guarding the Great Egg that incubated the Creator.

In time, the Egg began to hatch. It split into two halves, dividing the waters of the Nuninto the upper and lower, and making between them a space wherein the Creator could fashion the world.

From the Egg arose a single blue Lotus. It rose high above the darkness of the abyss, and opened it's great petals. Within it's golden heart rested a beautiful young God, the Creator Amen-Re, with one single finger pressed against His lips in Silence.

Light streamed from the body of this Divine Child, banishing darkness to the far reaches of the universe. Like a phoenix with flaming plumage He arose, uttering a cry that shattered the eternal silence. This was the first sound- the first Word- and that Word manifested as a living God. Thoth was His name: the Self-Created, the Logos, Wisdom.

Amon-Re then constructed an island for Himself to rest upon, and He surveyed the expanse of water around Him. He knew that He was alone, and soon found He could not bear the solitude. He longed for others to share the Light with Him.

Thus, He began his creation. In this He is known as Khephera, the God of Creation, the God of the Rising Sun. He brought order to the chaotic Ogdoad- setting Them in Their proper places- and it was thus the world came into existence. He accomplished this through the mighty power of the Divine Word, Thoth, and that power was yet another God: Ptah, the architect of the world and all of its creatures.

The first to be created was the Great Goddess Maat; Justice, Truth, the Judge and Balance of Dualities; for, duality is the law of the universe. Thoth took Her as His wife, and the two sustain the universe even unto this day; the Divine Word and Truth.

And more were created, in Their turn, by the thoughts of Amen-Re. He empowered Them with His word- by naming Them. First among Them were Shu, the God of Air, and Tefnut, the Goddess of Moisture.

Yet, Shu and Tefnut were quickly lost to Re in the waters of the abyss, and He was once again alone. He therefore took an Eye from His face and filled it with His own power. He called the Eye his daughter, Hathor, Goddess of the Sky, and sent Her out into the darkness to find His children.

The light of Hathor pierced the forces of darkness and Shu and Tefnut were quickly found and returned to Their Father. As a reward, Re set the Eye upon His brow in the form of the Great Cobra, the Uraeus Serpent. He swore an oath to Her that She would ever have power over His enemies, and in ages to come both Gods and men would fear Her.

Now Shu and Tefnut loved each other, and in time Tefnut gave birth to twins. The eldest was Geb, God of the Earth. The younger was Nut, Goddess of the Heavens. Re took the Star Goddess Nut for His wife, yet it was Geb for whom She yearned. It was Geb that She moved toward. The Earth and Sky, entangled in love, were intermixed and chaotic. The universe was formless; as if rebelling against order.

Re, unaware, stumbled upon this union of Geb and Nut. Angered at his unfaithful wife, He forced the lovers apart. He pulled the Sky far above the Earth, and held Them distant by force. He then set Shu between the lovers, upholding Nut in Her place to keep Them forever apart. It was thus that the Air came to reside between Sky and Earth.

Though Re's wrath against His wife was not yet complete. He further decreed that Nut, impregnated by Her union with Geb, should never give birth to Her young in any month of any year. Instead, They were to be locked within Her, never to see the light of day.

Nut mourned for Her loss; the loss of both Her lover and Her unborn children. Her lamentations reached even unto the ears of Thoth, the Self Created. He rushed to Her side, and dried Her tears. He soothed Her and spoke with Her, discovering the pain which inflicted Her. Thoth, who was the Lord of all magick and spells, knew that Re's decree could not be undone. Yet, he knew also that there was a way in which to relieve great Nut of Her suffering.

To this end, Thoth created the game of draughts, and challenged the Moon Goddess Silene; whose light then rivaled that of the sun. Thoth convinced Her to gamble a seventieth part of Her light for each day of the year. Being the Lord of Wisdom, He easily won from Her this light, and to this day the moon dwindles and darkens at certain periods. Thoth pieced together the light he had won- enough to fashion five whole days- and added them to the end of the 360-day lunar year.

These days did not rest within any month, nor any year, and thus Nut was able to bear Her children, one on each day. On the first was born Osiris. As he came into the World a Great Voice was heard throughout the heavens proclaiming that the Lord of Creation was born.

On the second day was born the great Elder Horus, whose right eye is the sun, and left eye the Moon. The Sky Goddess' name, Hathor, literally means "The Abode of Horus."

On the third day was born dark Set, the Lord of warfare and the burning deserts.

On the fourth day was born Isis, Goddess of Love, Magick, and Wisdom. The Great Lady of the heavens. Osiris took Her as His wife, and there was great love between Them.

Finally, on the fifth day, was born Isis' beloved sister Nephthys. The dark aspect of Her sister, She was taken by Set as His wife, but there was never love between Them at all. She, instead, remained always loyal to Her sister.

And thus is the birth of the Great Shining Ones, the Company of the Gods of Annu. They are the Ennead, the Great Company of Gods: Re; His children Shu and Tefnut, His grandchildren Geb and Nut, and His great-grandchildren Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys. Many other Gods were also created by Re; and He filled the sky above the earth, and the abyss below it with spirits, demons, and lesser Deities.

Last of all was created Man and the other creatures of the earth. The mighty Khnem'u fashioned them upon His potter's wheel, and Re breathed into them the breath of life. Further, He made a land for them to dwell within, and named the kingdom Khemet (Egypt).

He protected the land with great barriers of desert, and created the river Nile so that it's waters would flood the land and rich crops would be plentiful. He also made other countries, and for them he created a Nile in the sky that would rain down its waters and sustain their life. He populated the world with all forms of animal, bird, fish, and plant; and gave them also the breath of life.

Each day Re walks through His kingdom, or sails across the sky in His Barque of Millions of Years (that is- the Ship of Eternity). To restrain the forces of darkness and chaos, He created the kingship; He then established Himself as the first and greatest King of Egypt and reigned for countless centuries in joy and peace.

But, alas, every evening the great primordial Lotus closes it's petals and sinks once more into the waters of the abyss. Darkness reigns throughout the Night until the young God within the Lotus is reborn. The forces of darkness were not conquered forever at the beginning of time; instead they surrounded the earth as serpents poised to attack the Sun God. The war between darkness and light sustains the world; and when it comes to a final end, so too will the world.

Ancient Egyptian creation myths

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ancient Egyptian creation myths are the ancient Egyptian accounts of the creation of the world. 

The Pyramid Texts, tomb wall decorations and writings, dating back to the Old Kingdom (2780 – 2250 B.C.E) have given us most of our information regarding early Egyptian creation myths. These myths also form the earliest religious compilations in the world. The ancient Egyptians had many creator gods and associated legends. Thus the world or more specifically Egypt was created in diverse ways according to different parts of the country.

In all of these myths, the world was said to have emerged from an infinite, lifeless sea when the sun rose for the first time, in a distant period known as zp tpj (sometimes transcribed as Zep Tepi), "the first occasion". Different myths attributed the creation to different gods: the set of eight primordial deities called the Ogdoad, the self-engendered god Atum and his offspring, the contemplative deity Ptah, and the mysterious, transcendent god Amun. While these differing cosmogonies competed to some extent, in other ways they were complementary, as different aspects of the Egyptian understanding of creation.

Common elements

The different creation myths have some elements in common. They all held that the world had arisen out of the lifeless waters of chaos, called Nu. They also included a pyramid-shaped mound, called the benben, which was the first thing to emerge from the waters. These elements were likely inspired by the flooding of the Nile River each year; the receding floodwaters left fertile soil in their wake, and the Egyptians may have equated this with the emergence of life from the primeval chaos. The imagery of the pyramidal mound derived from the highest mounds of earth emerging as the river receded.

The sun was also closely associated with creation, and it was said to have first risen from the mound, as the general sun-god Ra or as the god Khepri, who represented the newly-risen sun. There were many versions of the sun's emergence, and it was said to have emerged directly from the mound or from a lotus flower that grew from the mound, in the form of a heron, falcon, scarab beetle, or human child.

Another common element of Egyptian cosmogonies is the familiar figure of the cosmic egg, a substitute for the primeval waters or the primeval mound. One variant of the cosmic eggversion teaches that the sun god, as primeval power, emerged from the primeval mound, which itself stood in the chaos of the primeval sea.

Cosmogonies

The different creation accounts were each associated with the cult of a particular god in one of the major cities of Egypt: Hermopolis, Heliopolis, Memphis, and Thebes. To some degree these myths represent competing theologies, but they also represent different aspects of the process of creation.

Hermopolis

The creation myth promulgated in the city of Hermopolis focused on the nature of the universe before the creation of the world. The inherent qualities of the primeval waters were represented by a set of eight gods, called the Ogdoad. The god Nu and his female counterpart Naunet represented the inert primeval water itself; Huh and his counterpart Hauhetrepresented the water's infinite extent; Kuk and Kauket personified the darkness present within it; and Amun and Amaunet represented its hidden and unknowable nature, in contrast to the tangible world of the living. The primeval waters were themselves part of the creation process, therefore, the deities representing them could be seen as creator gods. According to the myth, the eight gods were originally divided into male and female groups. They were symbolically depicted as aquatic creatures because they dwelt within the water: the males were represented as frogs, and the females were represented as snakes. These two groups eventually converged, resulting in a great upheaval, which produced the pyramidal mound. From it emerged the sun, which rose into the sky to light the world.

Heliopolis

In Heliopolis, the creation was attributed to Atum, a deity closely associated with Ra, who was said to have existed in the waters of Nu as an inert potential being. Atum was a self-engendered god, the source of all the elements and forces in the world, and the Heliopolitan myth described the process by which he "evolved" from a single being into this multiplicity of elements. The process began when Atum appeared on the mound and gave rise to the air god Shu and his sister Tefnut, whose existence represented the emergence of an empty space amid the waters. To explain how Atum did this, the myth uses the metaphor of masturbation, with the hand he used in this act representing the female principle inherent within him. He is also said to have "sneezed" and"spat" to produce Shu and Tefnut, a metaphor that arose from puns on their names. Next, Shu and Tefnut coupled to produce the earth god Geb and the sky goddess Nut, who defined the limits of the world. Geb and Nut in turn gave rise to four children, who represented the forces of life: Osiris, god of fertility and regeneration; Isis, goddess of motherhood; Set, the god of chaos; and Nephthys, the female complement of Set. The myth thus represented the process by which life was made possible. These nine gods were grouped together theologically as the Ennead, but the eight lesser gods, and all other things in the world, were ultimately seen as extensions of Atum.

Memphis

The Memphite version of creation centered on Ptah, who was the patron god of craftsmen. As such, he represented the craftsman's ability to envision a finished product, and shape raw materials to create that product. The Memphite theology said that Ptah created the world in a similar way. This, unlike the other Egyptian creations, was not a physical but an intellectual creation by the Word and the Mind of God. The ideas developed within Ptah's heart (regarded by the Egyptians as the seat of human thought) were given form when he named them with his tongue. By speaking these names, Ptah produced the gods and all other things.

The Memphite creation myth coexisted with that of Heliopolis, as Ptah's creative thought and speech were believed to have caused the formation of Atum and the Ennead. Ptah was also associated with Tatjenen, the god who personified the pyramidal mound.

Thebes

Theban theology claimed that Amun was not merely a member of the Ogdoad, but the hidden force behind all things. There is a conflation of all notions of creation into the personality of Amun, a synthesis which emphasizes how Amun transcends all other deities in his being "beyond the sky and deeper than the underworld". One Theban myth likened Amun's act of creation to the call of a goose, which broke the stillness of the primeval waters and caused the Ogdoad and Ennead to form. Amun was separate from the world, his true nature was concealed even from the other gods. At the same time, however, because he was the ultimate source of creation, all the gods, including the other creators, were in fact merely aspects of Amun. Amun eventually became the supreme god of the Egyptian pantheon because of this belief.

Amun is synonymous with the growth of Thebes as a major religious capital. But it is the columned halls, obelisks, colossal statues, wall-reliefs and hieroglyphic inscriptions of the Theban temples that we look to gain the true impression of Amun's superiority. Thebes was thought of as the location of the emergence of the primeval mound at the beginning of time.