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For the Stargate character, see Amonet (Stargate).
In
Egyptian mythology,
Amunet (also spelled
Amonet,
Amaunet,
Amentet,
Amentit,
Imentet,
Imentit, and
Ament) was the female form of the original deity,
Amun who was without a gender since it was a concept. Amun/Amunet originally were the aspects of the primordial concept of
air, in the
Ogdoad cosmogony. Of the name for primordial air meaning,
(one who) is hidden, the male aspect is Amun, and the female aspect is Amunet. As with all females in the Ogdoad, Amunet was depicted either as a
cobra snake or as a snake-headed woman. The male deities in the
Ogdoad were generally depicted with the head of a
frog.
When Amun became regarded with greater importance, and his identity increasingly overlapped with that of
Atum, Amaunet, as the female aspect, became increasingly identified with
Iusaaset, Atum's shadow. By becoming identified as Iusaaset, Amunet was regarded as the mother of creation and she was seen as owning the tree from which all life emerged and returned, the
tree of life, an
acacia tree said to reside on the
desert's edge. Iusaaset was seen as the mother and grandmother of the gods. The strength, hardiness, medical properties, and edibility, lead the acacia tree to be considered the tree of life, and thus the oldest, which was situated close to, and north of, Heliopolis, was said to be the birthplace of all of the gods. Thus, as the mother, and grandmother, of the gods, Iusaaset was said to own this tree.
Amaunet was said to be
the mother who is father, implying that she's a creator goddess, who needed no male to procreate, reproducing asexually through
parthenogenesis. The Egyptians thought that animals without
sexual dimorphism, such as snakes, were all female.
As Amun was increasingly identified as a significant deity, rather than a mere concept, so Amunet increasingly became identified as a distinct female goddess, and eventually Amun became identified as her husband. As Amunet continued to be identified as the goddess of air, she was sometimes depicted as a winged goddess, or as a woman with a
hawk, or
ostrich feather, on her head.
When Amunet later was displaced as Amun's consort by
Mut, she was said, as representing the air, to have become associated with Iah, the
moon itself, and was depicted in association with him on tombs, coffins, and
sarcophaguses.
The similar name
Amentet or
Imentit was sometimes used to refer to
the underworld, and this goddess provided a welcome to the newly dead, since the tree she was associated with, was said to be near
Heliopolis, the place where bread was provided for the surrounding population, during winter.
She also is depicted with one of the
hieroglyphs for the concept "
West" on her head, on which the hawk or ostrich feather rest. Her name means "She of the
West", as she's regarded as a personification of the direction West. References to the west also relate to the place where the dead enter the underworld, relating to her role as a a funerary goddess.
Further Information
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