ABSTRACT
Khnemu, the first member of the great triad of Ābu, or Elephantine, is one of the oldest gods of Egypt, and we find him mentioned in the text of Unȧs in such a way as to show that even at the remote period of the reign of that king his cult was very old. The views which the Egyptians held concerning this god changed somewhat in the course of their long history, but the texts show that Khnemu always held an exalted position among the ancient gods of their country, and we know from Gnostic gems and papyri that he was a god of great importance in the eyes of certain semi-Christian sects for some two or three centuries after the birth of Christ. It is probable that Khnemu was one of the gods of the predynastic Egyptians who lived immediately before the archaic period, for his symbol was the flat-horned ram, and that animal appears to have been introduced into Egypt from the East; he disappears from the monuments before the period of the XIIth Dynasty. In the text of Unȧs the name of Khnemu is found in a section which contains twenty-five short paragraphs, the greater number of which must certainly date from a period far older than the reign of this king, for the forms of the words and the language are very archaic, and few of the names of the serpents which are addressed in them occur in later texts. Khnemu is represented on the monuments in the form of a ram-headed man who usually holds in his hands the sceptre https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203040713/0679aeac-0ac5-4de4-8323-4903ae48a861/content/page49_02.tif"/>, and the emblem of life, https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203040713/0679aeac-0ac5-4de4-8323-4903ae48a861/content/page49_03.tif"/>. He wears the White Crown, to which are sometimes attached plumes, uraei, a disk, etc.; in one example 50quoted by Lanzone 1 he has the head of a hawk, which indicates that he possessed a solar aspect. As a water-god he is seen with outstretched hands over which flows water, and he is sometimes seen with a jug, https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203040713/0679aeac-0ac5-4de4-8323-4903ae48a861/content/page50_01.tif"/>, above his horns, which indicates his name. The name of Khnemu is connected with the root khnem, https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203040713/0679aeac-0ac5-4de4-8323-4903ae48a861/content/page50_02.tif"/>, “to join, to unite,” and with khnem, https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203040713/0679aeac-0ac5-4de4-8323-4903ae48a861/content/page50_03.tif"/>, “to build”; astronomically the name refers to the “conjunction” of the sun and moon at stated seasons of the year, 2 and we know from the texts of all periods that Khnemu was the “builder” of gods and men. He it was who, according to the statements which were made by his priests at Elephantine, the chief seat of his worship, made the first egg from which sprang the sun, and he made the gods, and fashioned the first man upon a potter’s wheel, and he continued to “build up” their bodies and maintain their life.
