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'Mut' was an ancient Egyptian mother goddess with multiple aspects that changed over the thousands of years of the culture. The rulers of Egypt supported her worship in their own way to emphasize their own authority and right to rule through a association with Mut.

Contents

Changes of mythological position

Depictions

In Karnak

References

External links

Changes of mythological position

Mut (also spelled 'Mout'), meaning ''mother'', was originally a title of the primordial waters of the cosmos, Naunet, in the Ogdoad cosmogony. However, the distinction between motherhood and cosmic water later diversified and lead to the separation of these identities, and Mut gained aspects of a creator goddess, since she was the ''mother'' from which the cosmos emerged.
The hieroglyph for Mut's name, and for ''mother'' itself, was that of a white vulture, which the Egyptians believed were very maternal creatures. Indeed, since Egyptian white vultures have no significant differing markings between female and male of the species, bring without sexual dimorphism, the Egyptians believed there were all females, and so they did not reproduce, but were conceived by the wind herself. Consequently, they held that Mut had no parents, but was created from nothing, and that she could not have children, and so adopted one instead.
Making up a complete ''triad'' of deities for the later pantheon of Thebes, it was said that Mut had adopted Menthu, god of war. This choice of completion for the triad should have proved popular, but because the ''isheru'', the sacred lake outside Mut's temple in Karnak at Thebes, was the shape of a crescent moon, Chons, the moon god eventually replaced Menthu as Mut's adopted son.
Lower and upper Egypt both already had a patron deities–Wadjet and Nekhbet–respectively, indeed they also had lioness protector deities–Bast and Sekhmet–respectively. When Thebes rose to greater prominence, Mut absorbed these warrior goddesses as some of her aspects. First, Mut became ''Mut-Wadjet-Bast'', then ''Mut-Sekhmet-Bast'' (Wadjet having merged into Bast), then Mut also assimilated Menhit, who was also a lioness goddess, and her adopted son's wife, becoming ''Mut-Sekhmet-Bast-Menhit'', and finally becoming ''Mut-Nekhbet''.
Later in ancient Egyptian mythology deities of the pantheon were identified as equal pairs, female and male counterparts, having the same functions. In the later Middle Kingdom, when Thebes grew in importance, its patron, Amun also became more significant, and so his wife Amaunet, who had been his female counterpart, was replaced with a more substantial mother-goddess, namely Mut. In that phase, Mut and Amun had a son, Khonsu, another moon deity.
The authority of Thebes waned later and Amun was assimilated into Ra. Mut, the doting virgin mother, was assimilated into Hathor, the cow-goddess and mother of Horus who had become identified as Ra's wife. Subsequently, when Ra assimilated Atum, the Ennead was absorbed as well, and so Mut-Hathor became identified as Isis (either as ''Isis-Hathor'' or ''Mut-Isis-Nekhbet''), the most important of the females in the Ennead (the nine}, and the patron of the queen. The Ennead proved to be a much more successful identity and the compound of Mut, Hathor and Isis, became known as Isis alone.

Depictions

In art, Mut was pictured as a woman with the wings of a white vulture, holding an ankh, wearing the united crown of Upper and Lower Egypt and a dress of bright red/blue, with the feather of the goddess Ma'at at her feet.
Alternatively, as a result of her assimilations, Mut is sometimes depicted as a cobra, a cat, a cow, or as a lioness as well as the white vulture. Some of Mut's many titles included ''World-Mother'', ''Eye of Ra'', ''Queen of the Goddesses'', ''Lady of Heaven'', ''Mother of the Gods'', and ''She Who Gives Birth, But Was Herself Not Born of Any''.

In Karnak

There are temples dedicated to Mut all over modern-day Egypt and Sudan, reflecting the wide-spread worship of her, but the center of her cult became the temple in Karnak. That temple had the statue that was regarded as an embodiment of her real ''ka''. Her devotions included daily rituals by the Pharaoh and her priestesses. Interior reliefs depict scenes of priestesses, currently the only known example of worship in ancient Egypt that was exclusively administered by women. Usually the queen, who always carried the royal lineage among the rulers of Egypt, served as the chief priestess in the temple rituals. The pharaoh participated also and would become a deity after death. In the case when the pharaoh was female, records of one example indicate that she had her daughter serve as the high priestess in her place. Often priests served in the administration of temples and oracles. The rituals included music and drinking.
The pharaoh Hatshepsut had the temple built in Karnak. Previous excavators had thought that Amenhotep III had the temple built because of the hundreds of statues of Sekhmet that bore his name. However, Hatshepsut, who completed an enormous number of temples and public buildings, had completed the work 75 years earlier. She began the custom of depicting Mut with the crown of both Upper and Lower Egypt. It is thought that Amenhotep III removed most signs of her, while taking credit for the projects she had built.
Hatshepsut was a pharaoh who brought Mut to the fore, identifying strongly with the goddess. She stated that she was a descendant of Mut. She also associated herself with the image of Sekhmet, as the more aggressive aspect of the goddess, having served as a very successful warrior during the early portion of her reign as pharaoh.
Akhenaten suppressed the worship of Mut as well as the other deities when he promoted the monotheistic worship of his sun god, Aten. Tutankhamun re-established her worship and his successors continued to associate themselves with Mut afterward.
Ramesses II added more work on the Mut temple, as well as rebuiding an earlier temple in the same area, rededicating it to Amun and himself. He placed it so that people had to pass his temple on their way to that of Mut.
Kushite pharaohs expanded the Mut temple and modified the Ramesses temple for use as the shrine of the celebrated the birth of Amun and Khonsu, trying to integrate themselves into divine succession. They also installed their own priestesses among the ranks of the priestesses who officiated at the temple of Mut.
The Greek Ptolemaic dynasty added its own decorations and priestesses at the temple as well and used the authority of Mut to emphasize their own interests. Later, the Roman emperor Tiberius rebuilt the site after a severe flood and his successors supported the temple until it fell into disuse sometime around the third century A.D. Some of the later Roman officials used the stones from the temple for their own building projects, often without altering the images carved upon them.

References

★ Jennifer Pinkowski - ''Egypt's Ageless Goddess'' (''Archaeology'' magazine September/October 2006)

External links

★ Mut Article on Pantheon.org