Maahes (also spelled
Mihos,
Miysis,
Mios,
Maihes, and
Mahes) was an ancient
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
ian
lionThe Lion is one of four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...
-headed
godA deity is a postulated preternatural or supernatural immortal being, who may be thought of as holy, divine, or sacred, held in high regard, and respected by believers....
of
warWar is a reciprocated, armed conflict, between two or more non-congruous entities, aimed at reorganising a subjectively designed, geo-politically desired result...
, whose name means "he who is true beside her". He was seen as a lion prince, the son of the goddess
BastIn Egyptian mythology, Bast is an ancient solar and war goddess, worshipped at least since the Second Dynasty...
in
Lower EgyptLower Egypt is the northern-most section of Egypt. It refers to the fertile Nile Delta region, which stretches from the area between El-Aiyat and Zawyet Dahshur, south of modern-day Cairo, and the Mediterranean Sea....
and of
SekhmetIn Egyptian mythology, Sekhmet , was originally the warrior goddess of Upper Egypt. She is depicted as a lioness, the fiercest hunter known to the Egyptians. It was said that her breath created the desert...
in
Upper EgyptUpper Egypt is the strip of land, on both sides of the Nile valley, that extends from the cataract boundaries of modern-day Aswan north to the area between El-Ayait and Zawyet Dahshur . The northern section of Upper Egypt, between El-Ayait and Sohag is sometimes known as Middle Egypt...
and shared her natures. His father was told to be a human unaware of Bastet's/Sekhemet's intentions to conceive. Maahes was a deity associated with war and
weatherWeather is a set of all the phenomena occurring in a given atmosphere at a given time. Weather phenomena lie in the troposphere. Weather refers, generally, to day-to-day temperature and precipitation activity, whereas climate is the term for the average atmospheric conditions over longer periods...
, and was considered the protector of
matrilinealityMatrilineality is a system in which lineage is traced through the mother and maternal ancestors. In this article matrilineality also is a societal system in which one belongs to one's matriline or mother's lineage, which can involve the matrilineal inheritance of property and/or titles.A...
and of the high priests of
AmunAmun, reconstructed Egyptian Yamānu , was a deity in Egyptian mythology who in the form of Amun-Ra became the focus of the most complex system of theology in Ancient Egypt...
, as well as that of
knivesA knife is any cutting edge or blade, handheld or otherwise, with or without a handle. Knives were used at least two-and-a-half million years ago, as evidenced by the Oldowan tools. Originally made of rock, flint, and obsidian; knives have evolved in construction as technology has with blades...
,
lotusLotus identifies various plant taxa:* Nelumbo, a genus of aquatic plants with showy flowers, and the source of lotus seeds used in Chinese medicine and desserts.** Nelumbo nucifera, an archetypal species in the genus...
es, and
devouring captivesCannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other humans.The word can be extended into zoology to mean any species consuming members of its own kind, and used outside of biological fields in a metaphorical sense: "Cannibalization" refers to the reuse of parts or ideas, such as...
.
Maahes (also spelled
Mihos,
Miysis,
Mios,
Maihes, and
Mahes) was an ancient
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
ian
lionThe Lion is one of four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...
-headed
godA deity is a postulated preternatural or supernatural immortal being, who may be thought of as holy, divine, or sacred, held in high regard, and respected by believers....
of
warWar is a reciprocated, armed conflict, between two or more non-congruous entities, aimed at reorganising a subjectively designed, geo-politically desired result...
, whose name means "he who is true beside her". He was seen as a lion prince, the son of the goddess
BastIn Egyptian mythology, Bast is an ancient solar and war goddess, worshipped at least since the Second Dynasty...
in
Lower EgyptLower Egypt is the northern-most section of Egypt. It refers to the fertile Nile Delta region, which stretches from the area between El-Aiyat and Zawyet Dahshur, south of modern-day Cairo, and the Mediterranean Sea....
and of
SekhmetIn Egyptian mythology, Sekhmet , was originally the warrior goddess of Upper Egypt. She is depicted as a lioness, the fiercest hunter known to the Egyptians. It was said that her breath created the desert...
in
Upper EgyptUpper Egypt is the strip of land, on both sides of the Nile valley, that extends from the cataract boundaries of modern-day Aswan north to the area between El-Ayait and Zawyet Dahshur . The northern section of Upper Egypt, between El-Ayait and Sohag is sometimes known as Middle Egypt...
and shared her natures. His father was told to be a human unaware of Bastet's/Sekhemet's intentions to conceive. Maahes was a deity associated with war and
weatherWeather is a set of all the phenomena occurring in a given atmosphere at a given time. Weather phenomena lie in the troposphere. Weather refers, generally, to day-to-day temperature and precipitation activity, whereas climate is the term for the average atmospheric conditions over longer periods...
, and was considered the protector of
matrilinealityMatrilineality is a system in which lineage is traced through the mother and maternal ancestors. In this article matrilineality also is a societal system in which one belongs to one's matriline or mother's lineage, which can involve the matrilineal inheritance of property and/or titles.A...
and of the high priests of
AmunAmun, reconstructed Egyptian Yamānu , was a deity in Egyptian mythology who in the form of Amun-Ra became the focus of the most complex system of theology in Ancient Egypt...
, as well as that of
knivesA knife is any cutting edge or blade, handheld or otherwise, with or without a handle. Knives were used at least two-and-a-half million years ago, as evidenced by the Oldowan tools. Originally made of rock, flint, and obsidian; knives have evolved in construction as technology has with blades...
,
lotusLotus identifies various plant taxa:* Nelumbo, a genus of aquatic plants with showy flowers, and the source of lotus seeds used in Chinese medicine and desserts.** Nelumbo nucifera, an archetypal species in the genus...
es, and
devouring captivesCannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other humans.The word can be extended into zoology to mean any species consuming members of its own kind, and used outside of biological fields in a metaphorical sense: "Cannibalization" refers to the reuse of parts or ideas, such as...
. His cult was centred in Taremu and Per-Bast.
Origin
He is first mentioned in the
New KingdomThe New Kingdom, sometimes referred to as the Egyptian Empire, is the period in ancient Egyptian history between the 16th century BC and the 11th century BC, covering the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Dynasties of Egypt. The New Kingdom followed the Second Intermediate Period and was...
, and some Egyptologists have suggested that Maahes was of foreign origin; indeed there is some evidence that he may have been identical with the lion-god
ApedemakApedemak, alt Apademak, was a lion-headed warrior god worshiped in Nubia.The term Nubia is a misnomer in that it was created in post-dynastic times to describe eastern Sudan, a region that was at various times in history considered a part of Egyptian territory. The Beja people are indigenous to a...
worshipped in
NubiaNubia is the region in the south of Egypt, along the Nile and in northern Sudan. Most of Nubia is situated in Sudan with about a quarter of its territory in Egypt...
and Egypt's Western Desert.
As a lion-god and patron, he was also considered the son of
RêRA is an abbreviation or code which may refer to :Science* Right ascension, an astronomical term for one of the two coordinates of a point on the celestial sphere when using the equatorial coordinate system...
and of Bast, the feline war goddess and patron of Lower Egypt as well as Sekhmet, the lioness war goddess and patron of Upper Egypt. Since his
cultCult may popularly refer to a religious group with relatively few adherents whose beliefs or practices are regarded by others as strange or sinister.The term "cult" was originally used to denote a system of ritual practices...
was centred in Per-Bast (Bubastis in Greek) or in Taremu (Leontopolis in Greek), he was more known as the son of Bast. As he became a tutelary deity of Egypt, his father was said to be the chief male deity at the time - either
PtahIn Egyptian mythology, Ptah was the deification of the primordial mound in the Ennead cosmogony, which was more literally referred to as Ta-tenen , meaning risen land, or as Tanen, meaning submerged land, though Tatenen was a god in his own right before being assimilated with Ptah...
, or Ra who had by this time already merged with
AtumAtum 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...
into Atum-Ra. In his role of son of Ra, Maahes fought the serpent
ApepIn Egyptian mythology, Apep was an evil demon, the deification of darkness and chaos , and thus opponent of light and Ma'at , whose existence was believed from the Middle Kingdom onwards...
during Ra's daily night voyage.
Considered to have powerful attributes, feline deities were associated with the
pharaohPharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. In antiquity this title began to be used for the ruler who was the religious and political leader of united ancient Egypt. This was true only during the New Kingdom, specifically during the middle of...
s, and became patrons of Egypt. The male lion hieroglyphic was used in words such as "prince", "mashead", "strength", and "power".
He was also known as "the lion Egyptian headed god of war".
Name
His name begins with the hieroglyphs for the male
lion, although in isolation it also means
(one who can) see in front. However, the first glyph also is part of the glyph for
Ma'at, meaning
truth and
order and so it came to be that Maahes was considered to be the
devourer of the guilty and protector of the innocent. Some of the titles of Maahes were
Lord of Slaughter,
Wielder of the Knife, and
The Scarlet Lord. Maahes was rarely called by his name and came to be referred to, somewhat misleadingly, as "Lord of Slaughter." The "Lord of Slaughter" terminology was adopted during the Persian and later Roman periods when foreign conquerors met with fierce resistance from Maahes chiefs and their supporters. Cambyses ill-fated army which intended to destroy the Maahes Caste and their High Priest of Amen, the Oracle at Siwa, vanished in the desert during a sudden sand storm. The Maahes were known as Lord of the Storm and Lord of the Powerful KA in reference to legends giving them powers to control the weather.
Depictions
He was pictured as a man with the head of a male lion, occasionally holding a knife and wearing the
double crownThe Pschent, , was the name of the Double Crown of Ancient Egypt. The Ancient Egyptians generally referred to it as sekhemti, the Two Powerful Ones. It combined the Red Deshret Crown of Lower Egypt and the White Hedjet Crown of Upper Egypt.The Pschent represented the pharaoh's power over all of...
of Egypt, or the
atef crown. Sometimes Maahes was identified with
NefertemIn Egyptian mythology, Nefertem was originally just the young Atum , at the creation of the world, who had arisen from the primal waters, in the Ennead cosmogeny...
and was shown with a bouquet of lotuses near him, but he also was depicted as a lion devouring a captive.
Sacred animals
Tame lions were kept in a temple dedicated to Maahes in Taremu, where Bast/Sekhmet were worshipped, his temple was adjacent to that of Bast. The ancient Greek historian
AelianClaudius Aelianus , often seen as just Aelian, born at Praeneste, was a Roman author and teacher of rhetoric who flourished under Septimius Severus and probably outlived Elagabalus, who died in 222...
wrote:
"In Egypt, they worship lions, and there is a city called after them. (...) The lions have temples and numerous spaces in which to roam; the flesh of oxen is supplied to them daily (...) and the lions eat to the accompaniment of song in the Egyptian language", thus the Greek name of the city
LeontopolisLeontopolis or Leonto or Latin: Leontos Oppidum or Egyptian: Taremu, was an Ancient Egyptian city that is known as Tell al Muqdam today.-History:The city is located in the central part of the Nile Delta region...
was derived.
External links