Amunet

(Also spelled as Amaunet or Amonet)

Mythology of Amunet

Amunet, whose name means 'the female hidden one', was the consort of Amun and one of the eight Hermopolitan Egyptian gods who who represented aspects of the primordial existence before the time of creation. As this group of original powers consisted of four balanced pairs of male and female deities, and Amunet's name is clearly derivative of that of her husband, it seems likely that she may have originally been an artificially created complement to Amun rather than an independent deity. Mythologically, as the Pyramid Texts show, the shadow of Amun and Amunet was a symbol of protection (PT 446), and it may have been for this reason that Amunet entered the ideology of royal ritual as a protective, tutelary deity. The goddess appears in this role in the Akhmenu or festival hall of Tuthmosis III at Karnak and in Ptolemaic times she was shown nursing the infant figure of Philip Arrhidaeus at her breast as part of scenes depicting the king's enthronement which were carved on the wall of Karnak's inner sanctuary. In a typical contortion of Egyptian mythology, Amunet as 'mother of Ra' could also be the mother of her own consort, Amun in the form of Amun-Ra.

Iconography of Amunet

In representational works Amunet is usually depicted as a goddess in human form, wearing the Red Crown of Lower Egypt and carrying a papyrus-headed staff. The exact reason for this iconography is unclear, but at Karnak she is shown to have been identified with the goddess Neith whose cult center was in the Delta region. A colossal statue of the goddess set up in the temple of Amun at Karnak in the time of Tutankhamun is the most famous and imposing known representation of this goddess. A type of vulture amulet called 'amunet' is probably not to be connected with Amunet and, like the goddess Mut, her representations are normally anthropomorphic.

Worship of Amunet

Despite her probable origins as the female complement of Amun, at Thebes Amunet was overshadowed by Amun's other consort, Mut, since at least the time of Senwosret I (12th Dynasty) in Middle Kingdom times. However, Amunet is known to have had her own priests at Karnak and to have found some prominence in rituals associated with the king's accession and Sed or jubilee festivals. Although she does not seem to have been widely worshipped outside the Theban area, Amunet did maintain her identity into the later dynasties of Egyptian history as an important local goddess.