Khonsu

**Khonsu**


 * Other Names:**[[image:khonsu6hfdhf.jpg width="233" height="281" align="right" caption="Khonsu wearing the Sidelock of Youth and a Menat"]]

Khensew, Khons, Khensu, Chons


 * Meaning of Name:**

“The Wanderer”


 * Hieroglyphics:**




 * Titles:**

“The Embracer” //Em-waset Nefer-hetep// ("He of Thebes," the main center of his worship)

“He Who Traverses the Sky”

//Pa-ir-sekher// ("The Provider")

"Lord of Ma’at"

“The Pathfinder”

//Heseb Ahau// (“Decider of the Life Span”)

"Mighty Bull"

//Pa-khered// ("The Child")

"The Choreographer"

“The Defender”

//Pa-khart// ("The Crescent Moon")


 * Family:**

Khonsu was thought to be the son of Amun and Mut. He was occasionally said to be the son of Sekhmet, Bast, Hathor, Osiris, or Sobek.

As a moon god, Khonsu constantly moved across the night sky. Consequently, he was thought to watch over night travelers. A very old god of primitive times, Khonsu was invoked to protect against wild animals, increase male virility, and to aid with healing. Amulets of Khonsu, made of bronze, silver, limestone, and faience, were worn to drive away illness. A statue of Khonsu was reputed to have cured a foreign princess of possession by an evil spirit.

As the moon, Khonsu was thought to embody peace and destructiveness, death and regeneration. Khonsu takes the place of Ra when he is in the Duat, illuminating the darkness for those on earth. It was said that when Khonsu caused the crescent moon to shine, “women conceived, cattle became fertile, and all nostrils and every throat were filled with fresh air.”

Khonsu was a great lover of games, and is frequently shown playing a game of //senet// against Thoth. During his festivals a statue of Khonsu was carried on a sacred barque which was identified by a falcon's head at its prow and stern. Khonsu’s sacred animals were the turtle and the baboon, the latter considered a lunar animal by the ancient Egyptians.

Khonsu was depicted as a man with the head of a falcon, wearing the crescent of the new moon subtending the disk of the full moon. Occasionally Khonsu was depicted as a young man dressed in mummy wrappings, holding the crook and flail of the pharaoh, wearing the //menat// necklace. His head was shaven except for the Sidelock of Youth worn by Egyptian children, signifying his role as “Khonsu the Child.” He was sometimes pictured on the back of a goose, ram, or two crocodiles. As a child-god, he was offered milk.

Khonsu also had the title of “The King’s //H-nisw// (Placenta),” and consequently in early times, he was considered to slay the pharaoh’s enemies, and extract their innards for the king's use, metaphorically creating something resembling a placenta for the king. This bloodthirsty aspect leads him to be referred to in the Pyramid Texts as the “One Who Lives on Hearts.” Khonsu also became associated with more literal placentas, becoming seen as a deification of the royal placenta, and so as a god involved with childbirth. A mummified placenta was borne on a standard as part of the regalia on state occasions.

**Feast and Holy Days:**

March 1st (Month of Khonsu)


 * Quotes from the Book of the Dead and other sources:**

The Pyramid Texts compare the waxing and waning phases of Khonsu with a bull and an ox. When the moon is in its brightest phase, so Khonsu is a heated bull provoking growth and fertility; when he is old and waning, he is emasculated, an ox of darkness deprived of vigor: “The Moon is his form. As soon as he as rejuvenated himself he is a heated bull. When he is old he is an ox because he causes only darkness. His waxing moon, however, brings light and causes bulls to cover cows, brings the cows in calf, and causes the egg to grow in the body.”


 * Egyptian Names Honoring This Deity:**

Khonsuemhab, Djedkhonsefankh, Neskhonsu, Pakharkhonsu, Deniuenkhonsu, Shedsukhonsu, Ahkhenkhonsu, Mereskhonsu ("Khonsu Loves Her"), Khonsunima ("Khonsu in His Divine Barque"), Bekenkhonsu ("Maiden of Khonsu"), Khonsumose ("Born of Khonsu")

Egyptian Deities - K