Ammon
or
Hammon (Egyptian
Amun, the hidden or veiled one). A
god native to Libya and Upper Egypt. He was represented sometimes in the shape of a ram with
enormous curving horns, sometimes in that of a ram-headed man, sometimes as a perfect man
standing up or sitting on a throne. On his head were the royal emblems, with two high feathers
standing up, the symbols of sovereignty over the upper and under worlds; in his hands were the
sceptre and the sign of life. In works of art his figure is coloured blue. Beside him is
usually placed Muth (the “mother,” the “queen of
darkness,” as the inscriptions call her), wearing the crown of Upper Egypt or
the vulture-skin. His chief temple, with a far-famed oracle, stood in an oasis of the Libyan
desert, twelve days' journey from Memphis. Between this oracle and that of Zeus at Dodona a
connection is said to have ex
 |
|
Ammon and Muth.
|
isted from very ancient times, so that the Greeks early identified the Egyptian god
with their own Zeus, as the Romans did afterwards with their Iupiter; and his worship found an
entrance at several places in Greece—at Sparta, Thebes, and also
Athens—whence festal embassies were regularly sent to the Libyan sanctuary. (See
Theoria.) When the oracle was consulted by
visitors, the god's symbol, made of emerald and other stones, was carried round by women and
girls, to the sound of hymns, on a golden ship hung round with votive cups of silver. His
replies were given in tremulous shocks communicated to the bearers, which were interpreted by
a priest.
