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Benben or Ben-ben, in Egyptian mythology
Egyptian mythology

Ancient Egyptian religion encompasses the various religious beliefs and rituals practiced in ancient Egypt over at least 3,000 years, from the Predynastic Egypt until the adoption of Coptic Christianity in the early centuries Common Era....
, or more specifically in the Heliopolitan tradition, was the mound that arose from the primordial water
Water

Water is a common chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of life. In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or States of matter, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor or steam....
s, Nu
Naunet

"Nu " redirects here. For other uses, see Nu.In Egyptian mythology, Nu is the deification of the primordial watery abyss. In the Ogdoad cosmogony, the name means abyss....
, and on which the creator god
God

God is a deity in theism and deism religions and other belief systems, representing either the sole deity in monotheism, or a principal deity in polytheism....
 Atum
Atum

Atum is an important deity in Egyptian mythology, whose cult centred on the city of Heliopolis . His name is thought to be derived from the word 'tem' which means to complete or finish....
 settled. In the Pyramid
Pyramid

A pyramid is a building where the outer surfaces are triangular and converge at a point. The base of pyramids are usually quadrilateral or trilateral , meaning that a pyramid usually has four or five faces....
 Texts, e.g. Utterance 1587, Atum himself is at times referred to as "mound". It was said to have turned into a small pyramid, located in Annu
Heliopolis (ancient)

Heliopolis , meaning sun-city, was one of the most ancient cities of Egypt, and capital of the 13th Lower Egyptian Nome . Its name also refers to an unrelated Heliopolis of Cairo, also known as ??? ???????, Masr al-gidedah ....
, which was the place Atum was said to dwell within. Other cities developed their own myths of the primeval mound.






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Benben or Ben-ben, in Egyptian mythology
Egyptian mythology

Ancient Egyptian religion encompasses the various religious beliefs and rituals practiced in ancient Egypt over at least 3,000 years, from the Predynastic Egypt until the adoption of Coptic Christianity in the early centuries Common Era....
, or more specifically in the Heliopolitan tradition, was the mound that arose from the primordial water
Water

Water is a common chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of life. In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or States of matter, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor or steam....
s, Nu
Naunet

"Nu " redirects here. For other uses, see Nu.In Egyptian mythology, Nu is the deification of the primordial watery abyss. In the Ogdoad cosmogony, the name means abyss....
, and on which the creator god
God

God is a deity in theism and deism religions and other belief systems, representing either the sole deity in monotheism, or a principal deity in polytheism....
 Atum
Atum

Atum is an important deity in Egyptian mythology, whose cult centred on the city of Heliopolis . His name is thought to be derived from the word 'tem' which means to complete or finish....
 settled. In the Pyramid
Pyramid

A pyramid is a building where the outer surfaces are triangular and converge at a point. The base of pyramids are usually quadrilateral or trilateral , meaning that a pyramid usually has four or five faces....
 Texts, e.g. Utterance 1587, Atum himself is at times referred to as "mound". It was said to have turned into a small pyramid, located in Annu
Heliopolis (ancient)

Heliopolis , meaning sun-city, was one of the most ancient cities of Egypt, and capital of the 13th Lower Egyptian Nome . Its name also refers to an unrelated Heliopolis of Cairo, also known as ??? ???????, Masr al-gidedah ....
, which was the place Atum was said to dwell within. Other cities developed their own myths of the primeval mound. At Memphis
Memphis, Egypt

Memphis was the ancient capital of the first Nome of Lower Egypt, and of the Old Kingdom of Egypt from its foundation until around 2200 BC and later for shorter periods during the New Kingdom, and an administrative centre throughout ancient history....
 the god Tatenen, an earth god and the origin of all things in the shape of food and viands, divine offers, all good things was the personification of the primeval mound.

Benben stone


The Benben stone
Stone

Stone may refer to:...
, named after the mound, was a sacred stone in the solar temple
Temple

A temple is a structure reserved for religious or spiritual activities, such as prayer and sacrifice, or analogous rites. A ??templum?? constituted a sacred precinct as defined by a priest, or augur....
 of Heliopolis
Heliopolis (ancient)

Heliopolis , meaning sun-city, was one of the most ancient cities of Egypt, and capital of the 13th Lower Egyptian Nome . Its name also refers to an unrelated Heliopolis of Cairo, also known as ??? ???????, Masr al-gidedah ....
. It was the location on which the first rays of the sun fell. It is thought to have been the prototype for later obelisk
Obelisk

An obelisk An Obelisks is a tall, narrow, four-sided, tapering monument which ends in a pyramid like shape at the top. Ancient obelisks were made of a single piece of stone, a monolith; however, most modern obelisks are made of individual stones, and can even have interior spaces....
s, and the capstone
Capstone

A capstone or coping stone is one of the finishing or protective stones that form the top of an exterior masonry wall or building. The term is also used for the stones making up the covering structure of an archaeological tomb....
s of the great pyramids were based on its design. Their tips (pyramidia
Pyramidion

In archaeology parlance, a pyramidion, , is the uppermost piece, or capstone, of an Egyptian pyramids. They were called benbenet in Ancient Egyptian, which associated the pyramid as a whole with the sacred benben stone....
) were probably gilded. The phoenix, the benu bird, was venerated at Heliopolis, where it was said to be living on the Benben or on the holy willow. According to B. Kemp the connection between the benben, the phoenix and the sun may well have been based on alliteration: the rising, weben, of the sun sending its rays towards the benben, on which the benu bird lives. Utterance 600 of the Pyramid Texts speaks of Atum as you rose up, as the benben, in the Mansion of the Benu in Heliopolis (Hart, p.16).

Bibliography

  • Manfred Lurker Lexikon der Götter und Symbole der alten Ägypter, Scherz 1998
  • Barry John Kemp Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization, Routledge 1991, p. 88
  • Katheryn A. Bard Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt, Routledge 1999, p.205
  • George Hart Egyptian Myths, University of Texas Press 1990, pp. 11, 12, 16