In ancient Egypt, Khnum is the god of fertility and potters, the lord and guardian of the stormy Nile rapids and the creator of man and animals. According to legend, Khnum created them from clay using a potter's wheel.
What functions did Khnum perform?
It is known that in translation from the ancient Egyptian Khnum means “creator”. It was believed that he created gods, people and animals. In one of the tombs, in hieroglyphic writing, it is told how Khnum took clay and, with the help of a potter's wheel, sculpted the first people.
Some scholars see a parallel here with the Bible, according to which Adam was created by a god from red clay. Despite the honorary functions of a demiurge, Khnum was not widely revered. The spread of his cult was limited to the provincial cities of Elephantine and Letopolis, where the central sanctuaries were located.
Elephantine - the main place of worship of Khnum - is a city in the Aswan depression, near the first rapids of the Nile. The city was located near Nubia, inhabited by black people. This is probably the origin of the tradition of depicting God as black.
God was part of the so-called Elephantine triad of Nile deities - Khnum, Satis and Anuket. Khnum was depicted as a man with a ram's head with spirally twisted horns. Another description of Khnum was preserved by Plutarch: the god was dark-skinned, humanoid, has a scepter in his hand, and a royal feather on his head. At a later time, God became solar and was identified with Amun, Ra and Osiris.
The father of Khnum was considered the primordial god Nun, symbolizing the primordial ocean of chaos, from which Ra and the creator of the world Atum emerged.
Legend of Khnum and Pharaoh
The cult of Khnum is associated with the breadwinner of Ancient Egypt - the great Nile River. His wife Satis is considered the ruler of the Nile rapids, and his daughter Anuket is the patroness of the Nile flood. Their favor depended on how abundant the harvest would be. The following legend is associated with the name of Khnum, which was retold several times by ancient authors.
In the third millennium BC Egypt was ruled by the famous Pharaoh Djoser, who built the first pyramid in history. He had a dignitary and an architect named Imhotep. For seven years, famine raged in the country and many people died. Djoser did not know what to do and turned to the wise Imhotep for advice.
The dignitary retired to the desert to inquire of the gods, and returning, gave Djoser advice to make a rich offering to the god of fertility Khnum. Pharaoh followed the advice and on the same night Khnum appeared to him in a dream, promising to free the waters of the Nile. In that year, the Nile overflowed its banks and irrigated the plain, green with cereals. After that, the pharaoh ordered to widely venerate the cult of the god and establish the days of his special glorification associated with the periods of flooding of the Nile delta.
