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| Amun a God of Fertility |
Afterwards, when Egypt captured Kush, they discovered the chief deity of the Kushites as
Amun. This Kush deity was depicted as ram-headed, more specifically a woolly ram with curved horns so God Amun grown associated with the ram. Indeed, due to the aged appearance of the Kush ram deity, the Egyptians came to trust that this image had been the original form of Amun and, that Kush was where he had been born. Since rams were seen a symbol of manfulness due to their furrowing behavior, Amun besides gone thought of as a fertility deity, and thus started to steep the identity of Min, becoming Amun-Min. This association with virility led to Amun-Min gaining the epithet Kamutef, meaning Bull of his mother, in which form he was found shown on the walls of
Karnak, ithyphallic, and with a scourge, as Min was.
As the cult of Amun got in importance, Amun became discovered with the chief deity who was favorite in other regions during that period, Ra-Herakhty, the merged identity operators of Ra, and Horus. This designation led to another fusion of identities, with Amun becoming Amun-Ra. In the Hymn to Amen-Ra he is discovered as "Lord of truth, father of the Gods, maker of men, creator of totally animals, Lord of things that are, creator of the staff of life." By then
Ra had been described as the father of
Shu, Tefnut, and the rest of the Ennead, so Amun-Ra alike, became discovered as their father.
Ra-Herakhty had been a solar deity and this nature grown ascribed to Amun-Ra as well, Amun becoming considered the hidden aspect of the sun during the night, in demarcation to Ra-Herakhty as the open look during the day. Amun clearly meant the one who is hidden. This complexity over the sun led to a gradual movement toward the living of a more perfect form of deity.
By the later part of the
18th dynasty, the pharaoh
Akhenaten (also known as Amenhotep IV) disliked the power of the temple of God Amun and modern the worship of the Aten, a deity whose power was manifested in the sun disk, both literally and symbolically. He defaced the symbolisation of many of the old deities and located his religious applies upon the deity, the Aten. He moved his capitol off from Thebes, but this heavy change was very unpopular with the priests of Amun, who now seen themselves without any of their gone power. The religion of Egypt was inexorably close to the leadership of the country, the pharaoh being the drawing card of both. The pharaoh was the fullest priest in the temple of the capital and the next lower level of divine leaders were important advisers to the pharaoh, many being executives of the bureaucracy that ran the country.
When Akhenaten died, the priests of Amun confirmed themselves. His name was took from Egyptian records, all of his religious and governmental modifications were out, and the capitol was given to Thebes. The return to the previous capital and its sponsor deity was set so swiftly that it looked this almost monotheistic cult and its governmental reforms had never existed. Worship of the Aten finished and adoration of Amun-Ra was repaired. The priests of Amun even persuaded his young son, Tutankhaten, whose name entailed (the living image of Aten) - and who later would went a pharaoh - to change his name to King
Tutankhamun, (the living image of Amun).
