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en·ne·ad
Noun
/?en??ad/
enneads
plural
- A group or set of nine
The Greek term ennead is the equivalent of the
Egyptian word pesedjet (nine) which may refer to any group of
nine gods. In the Pyramid Texts, for example, we find the Great
Ennead (PT 1655, etc...); Lesser Ennead (PT 178); Dual Ennead
(PT 121, etc...); plural enneads (PT 278, etc...) and even the
seven enneads (PT 511). As three (plurality) multiplied by
itself, the number nine seems to have represented the concept
of a great number and was used of many groups. Most commonly,
the number appears in conjunction with the Great Ennead of
Heliopolis which bound together nine "related" deities. The
group consisted of Atum, the so-called "father" of the Ennead,
his "children" Shu and Tefnut, "grandchildren" Geb and Nut, and
"great-grandchildren" Osiris, Isis, Seth and Nephthys.
A variant of this ennead included Horus and Elder as
second-born after Oiris. Although this group may have been
constructed by priests of Heliopolis in order to incorporate
Osiris and his related deities into their own theological
system in a manner which placed the netherworld god at a lower
position than their own sun god, together the various gods of
the Heliopolitan Ennead nevertheless formed a group of great
significance. The deities represented were not only those of
creation but also of afterlife and, through Osiris and his
eventual son Horus, of the ideology and mythology of kingship.
Thus, the three are as which are arguably the most important
concepts in ancient Egyptian religion were contained within the
Heliopolitan Ennead.
Other cult centers constructed enneads of otherwise unrelated
deities to which they awarded special veneration - as in the
temple of Redesiyah in the eastern desert where Amun, Ra,
Osiris, Ptah, Isis and Horus were grouped into an ennead
through the addition of three forms of the deified SethosI. The
number of deities in these groups did not always equal nine,
however, as the ancient Egyptian term pesedjet can have a
generalized meaning. Although the members of enneads are often
specified, the number most often represents a general,
all-encompassing group. The nine gods who stand before Osiris
in the sixth hour of the underworld thus represent the rule of
that deity over all the netherworld gods, just as the "nine
bows" symbolize all Egypt's traditional enemies.
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Complete Gods and
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