Goddess Mut | Egyptian Goddess of Heaven

• 16 / 5 / 2023

Goddess Mut

Mut, the goddess of heaven who had the wind god Amun as her husband, due to her name is known as the mother of all creation, she and her husband were idolized in Thebes, represented with a double crown and an ornament in the form of a vulture on top of it, he was seen wearing a bright blue or red suit and in his hands, he carried a papyrus and the ankh that was the key to life.

She was also recognized as a world mother, eye of Ra, and lady of heaven, they also represented her through hieroglyphs as a vulture for being considered maternal animals.

This divinity was shown with wings for being the deity of the firmament among all the Egyptian gods, she was also frequently seen as a cow behind her husband or as a lioness for being a warrior.

Mout (or Mut), whose name means “mother,” symbolizes maternal values and is one of the oldest deities in the Egyptian pantheon. She is also a dangerous goddess when she takes the form of the “Distant Goddess” (Hathor), assimilated to Sekhmet. She was adopted by the Greeks as the goddess Hera, Zeus's wife, during the Hellenistic Period (305–30).  Mother of the World, Eye of Ra, Queen of Goddesses, Lady of the Sky, and Mother of the Gods were some of her titles.
 

Her place of worship was Isheru, a village south of Karnak. She is venerated there, in her sanctuary located south of the Temple of Amun, called Hout-Mou, in the guise of Sekhmet, but more generally as a woman wearing a white crown or a vulture. Other shrines are attested in Bubastis, Hermonthis, Memphis, Tanis, Saïs, and in the oases of Kharga and Dakhla.

Egyptian Goddess of Heaven

In this way, the sun was represented by her husband Amun-Ra and the moon god Khonsu, which is why Mut symbolizes the third eye that reveals the universal superiority which cooperated in the flood of the Nile.

This goddess was requested in the Book of the Dead to prevent a mummy from rotting, a few words were said holding an image of her that had 3 heads: the first was the head of the goddess Pajet, ''a minor Egyptian deity, from the time of the Middle Kingdom'' with two feathers, then it was a human head with two crowns and finally a vulture head with two feathers.

She is associated with the Theban triad (Amon, Mut, and Khonsu), where she is both the wife, mother, and daughter of Amon and the mother of the moon god Khonsu... During the 18th Dynasty (1549-1295), her cult became important, replacing that of the goddess Amonet, wife of Amun, in Thebes.  Having no children, she decided to adopt Montu, then Khonsu, as Montu declined the offer. She was between the sun (Amon-Re) and the moon (Khonsu) as the third eye, showing cosmic perfection and promoting the flooding of the Nile. 

She is mentioned in the Book of the Dead as helping the deceased reach the afterlife and preventing them from decomposing. She appears on the walls of many temples alongside her husband Amun as “Mistress of the Nine Bows” (symbol of all the enemies of Egypt).

Built by Amenhotep III in honor of the goddess Mut, wife of the god Amun, this temple suffered great damage during the religious revolution of Akhenaten, but was repaired during the reign of King Tutankhamun and then during the reign of the kings of the 21st Dynasty. Ptolemy I added some buildings to it, especially its great gate. Only a few ruins remain of the temple's first courtyard. We then reach the second gate, whose entrance is decorated with an image of the dwarf god Bes, lord of joy.

Among the ruins of the temple are statues of the goddess Sekhmet, who appears to have represented the goddess Mut herself, as well as a huge statue of King Amenhotep III and several statues representing monkeys, which symbolized the god Khonsu, son of the goddess Mut... Next to the temple is a large pit, which is the sacred lake of this temple, and the temple is surrounded by a great mud brick wall.

The god Amun used to visit his wife, the goddess Mut, once a year, traveling from his temple in Karnak to the temple in Luxor... Therefore, they made Karnak the official palace of Amun and Luxor his private residence, where he lived with his wives. However, he would only move to that residence in his official procession on a special day of the year. This day was his wedding day, which the people set in the month of “Baba,” which was named after the residence itself. They did not choose that date for Amun's throne by chance or improvisation, but rather after deep reflection inspired by a love of life and a hope to enjoy its bounty.

This month is the season of flooding, a season of fertility and abundance, when the river waters the land of Egypt, bringing with it great goodness that provides sustenance for the people living in this valley. If people made the marriage of their lord “Amun” in this month of the year, it meant that they were seeking goodness and blessing for him and for themselves at the time of goodness and blessing, and they wished him fertility in his married life so that he would bless them with his fertility and shower them with his mercy and compassion.

This is a form of human thought inspired by the desire for survival and security in life and the search for sustenance from its sources. Thus, the Egyptians thought of marrying their god Amun, and then they began to celebrate the anniversary of that marriage when the river flooded every year.