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A Life-Bestowing Body Part of the Demiurge Atum in the Ancient Egyptian Religious Context: Textual and Archaeological Evidence

Article

Last updated: 09 Mar 2025

Subjects

-

Tags

EGYPTOLOGY

Abstract

In ancient Egypt, the hand played a life-giving role in both creating deities and perpetuating human beings. The Pyramid Texts describe the creative power of the hand of the god Atum, in creating the earliest divine couple. The emphasis of the life-bestowing hand when the world came into being demonstrates the pivotal role the hand of the demiurge god played in the creation of life. By the end of the Second Intermediate Period and beginning of the New Kingdom, the Hand of Atum became a special title borne by mothers of the children of Atum. In the iconography of the New Kingdom, the creative hand of the self-resurrected dead, who in this case incarnated Atum, was also essential for surviving in the afterlife. This paper seeks to characterize the culture of the fertile hand, which were of prime importance in activating the procreative ability of both the creator god, Atum, and the risen dead.

DOI

10.21608/shedet.2024.241654.1217

Keywords

Atum, Shu, Tefnut, Hand, Creation

Authors

First Name

Youmna

Last Name

Nasr

MiddleName

Adel Zaki

Affiliation

Lecturer, Department of Tourist Guiding, Faculty of Tourism and Hotels, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt

Email

youmna.adel@alexu.edu.eg

City

-

Orcid

-

Volume

14

Article Issue

14

Related Issue

53108

Issue Date

2025-01-01

Receive Date

2023-10-09

Publish Date

2025-01-01

Page Start

438

Page End

461

Print ISSN

2356-8704

Online ISSN

2536-9954

Link

https://shedet.journals.ekb.eg/article_395556.html

Detail API

http://journals.ekb.eg?_action=service&article_code=395556

Order

395,556

Type

research articles

Type Code

1,264

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Shedet

Publication Link

https://shedet.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

A Life-Bestowing Body Part of the Demiurge Atum in the Ancient Egyptian Religious Context: Textual and Archaeological Evidence

Details

Type

Article

Created At

25 Feb 2025