A Life-Bestowing Body Part of the Demiurge Atum in the Ancient Egyptian Religious Context: Textual and Archaeological Evidence | ||
| Shedet | ||
| Volume 14, Issue 14, January 2025, Pages 438-461 PDF (1.81 M) | ||
| Document Type: research articles | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/shedet.2024.241654.1217 | ||
| Author | ||
| Youmna Adel Zaki Nasr* | ||
| Lecturer, Department of Tourist Guiding, Faculty of Tourism and Hotels, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt | ||
| Abstract | ||
| In ancient Egypt, the hand played a life-giving role in both creating deities and perpetuating human beings. The Pyramid Texts describe the creative power of the hand of the god Atum, in creating the earliest divine couple. The emphasis of the life-bestowing hand when the world came into being demonstrates the pivotal role the hand of the demiurge god played in the creation of life. By the end of the Second Intermediate Period and beginning of the New Kingdom, the Hand of Atum became a special title borne by mothers of the children of Atum. In the iconography of the New Kingdom, the creative hand of the self-resurrected dead, who in this case incarnated Atum, was also essential for surviving in the afterlife. This paper seeks to characterize the culture of the fertile hand, which were of prime importance in activating the procreative ability of both the creator god, Atum, and the risen dead. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Atum; Shu; Tefnut; hand; creation | ||
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