AMON

National god of Egypt. His name is spelled also as Amun. Amon was originally one of the local gods of thebes (Noh), but when that city became prominent in the Twelfth Dynasty (1991–1786 b.c.), he became the chief god of Thebes, which then became known as No-Amon (City of Amon), as it is called in Nehemiah 3.8; see also Jeremiah 46.25. st. jerome translated nō' 'āmôn in Nehemiah 3.8 erroneously as Alexandria populorum (Alexandria of the nations); therefore Amon's name does not appear in the Vulgate. In the Eighteenth Dynasty (1570–c. 1304) Amon emerged as the supreme god of the whole nation, having been identified with ra (Re) the sun-god and called Amon-Ra, "the King of the gods." The main sanctuary of Amon was the enormous temple in the section of Thebes now known as Karnak, but he was worshiped throughout Egypt and even in Libya and Nubia (Biblical Ethiopia). His wife Mu (the mother) and his son Chonsu (the wanderer, i.e., the moon) formed a triad of gods. Amon's name (Egyptian i’mn, "hidden") stresses his mysterious and inscrutable nature; he was difficult to find and was often associated with the invisible wind that could only be heard and that, as breath, was the mysterious source of life in man and beast. Amon was also worshiped under several names with different attributes. As Khen or Kin he was the god of reproduction, and as Khnum he was "the maker of gods and men." He was sometimes represented by a human body with the head of a ram, the animal sacred to him, or simply by a pair of ram's horns. More often, however, he was featured in wholly human form with two long feathers on his head. The Greeks and Romans identified Amon with Zeus or Jupiter and called the Egyptian city of Thebes Διόσπο λιS (city of Zeus).

See Also: egypt, ancient, 1

Bibliography: Encylopedic Dictionary of the Bible, tr. and adap. by l. hartman, (New York 1963), from a. van den born, Bijbels Woordenboek, 70–71. h. jacobsohn, Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 7 v. (3d ed. Tübingen 1957–65) 1:327. h. stock, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10 v. (2d, new ed. Frieburg 1957–65) 1:464. k. sethe, Amun und die acht Urgötter von Hermopolis [Abhandlungen der Deutschen (Preussischen, to 1944) Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin 4; 1929]. j. a. wilson, The Burden of Egypt: An Interpretation of Ancient Egyptian Culture (Chicago 1951) 130–131, 169–172. h. frankfort, Ancient Egyptian Religion (New York 1961).

[h. mueller]