Amaunet

Amaunet


 * Other Names:**

Amentet, Amentit, Imentet, Imentit, Ament


 * Meaning of Name:**

“She Who is Hidden”


 * Hieroglyphics:**




 * Titles:**

“The Mother Who is Father” (by which the Egyptians meant “the mother who needed no husband to conceive children”)

“She of the West” (the land of the dead)


 * Family:**

She was the female counterpart of Amun, and as such was thought to be his wife. Sometimes Amaunet was thought to have been created by Thoth, or to be the mother of Ra.

One of the Ogdoad, Amaunet was a mother goddess and the personification of the life-giving north wind. She offered bread and water to the deceased in Sehet Aaru, and guided them to their new homes. Amaunet was regarded as the Mother of Creation and she was seen as owning the tree from which all life emerged and returned, the Tree of Life (the sacred acacia tree), said to reside on the desert’s edge.

Amaunet was regarded as the protectress of the nation, and had a prominent part in pharaohs’ accession ceremonies. The companion of the goddess of the East, Iabet, these two goddesses appear together on private tombs, on coffins and sarcophagi, and on funerary papyri.

Amaunet was pictured as a woman with the hieroglyphic for "west" or a falcon on her head, wearing a white or red dress and a ribbon around her hair. Occasionally she was seen as a winged goddess, and wore the Red Crown. In some instances Amaunet was depicted as a cobra, a lioness-headed woman, a cow, a sycamore tree, or as a cobra-headed woman.

Egyptian Deities - A