Egyptian Gods
Ancient Egyptian Gods, Goddesses and Religion
Hu
Picture: The god Hu, directly in front of the deceased, stands with Khepri, Thoth and Isis in this afterlife scene. 20th Dynasty. Tomb of Inherkha, Western Thebes. Hu personified the concept of 'authoritative utterance' and was thus closely connected to idea of power and control. He was said to have come into being from a drop of blood from the phallus of the sun god and therefore was tied to the power of the pre-eminent deity Ra. However, he is also closely linked - at least conceptually - with the Memphite idea of creation, in which the god Ptah created the universe through his own authoritative utterance. Hu is often found in connection with Sia, the personification of perception, understanding or knowledge, especially in contexts such as creation or the sun god's journey through the underworld. Hu's association with the netherworld and afterlife is an early one. In the Pyramid Texts the god appears as the companion of the deceased king in the heavens (PT 251), and these texts repeatedly assert that the king assumes authority - in one instance explicitly saying 'authority (Hu) has bowed his head to me' (PT 697) - showing that the king maintains his monarchical authority and has power over the forces of the afterlife. Hu was rarely represented pictorially, but is sometimes depicted as an anthropomorphic deity and appears as such in scenes showing the boat of Ra and his attendant deities in the underworld.
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