I was browsing through one of my books, The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt, and ran across something very interesting...there are deities for each and every hour of the day and night!

Day- Hour 1 Maat, hour 2 Hu, hour 3 Sia, hour 4 Asbet, hour 5 Igaret, hour 6 Seth, Hour 7 Horus, hour 8 Khonsu, hour 9 Isis, hour 10 Heka, hour 11 The god who is given the tow-rope of the solar barque.

Night-Hour 1 Splitter of the heads of Re's enemies hour 2 The wise, guardian of her lord, hour 3 slicer of souls, hour 4 great of power, hour 5 she on her boat, hour 6 proficient leader, hour 7 Apophis, hour 8 mistress of the night, hour 9 adorer, hour 10 beheader of rebels, hour 11 the star, repulser of rebels and hour 12 beholder of the beauty of Re.

Now I may be the last one to know about this, but found it fasinating and would love to know more! I, of course, know many of these deities, but some are totally unknown, so to make things short, some additional info and or some sites would be very helpful! Thanks in advance!

Did the Ancient Egyptians have an equivelent to Hela?

Do you think that Hermod a Norse god, was inspired by Hermes the Greek deity?

As you can see I'm a big fan of Asgard. :thor: :loki: and :valkyrie:

Selket~ you know I really don't know... it would be interesting though. I have some free time over the next few days and I will do some reading and research and try and find out.

Isn't that book terrific, mary500? I consider it indispensable and refer to it often. I mean, who among us can seriously keep the pantheon of Egyptian deities straight in our heads, beyond the better-known gods and goddesses? I genuinely recommend it to anyone and everyone interested in ancient Egypt; here's the Amazon link for it, for anyone who's interested.

Anyway, I'm pretty certain the deities related to the hours of the day and night come from the royal Books of the Netherworld, including the Amduat, the Book of Gates, the Book of Caverns, and the Enigmatic Book of the Netherworld. Most of these originate in the New Kingdom, some specifically after the Amarna Period.

These are the books painted in the tombs of the pharaohs that describe the passage of Re through the netherworld, his battles against evil (particularly Apophis), his union with Osiris, and his successful rebirth at dawn as a winged scarab. Note particularly the sinister nature of the names of some of the nighttime deities. These weren't just deities but guardians of the twelve gates or barriers through which Re had to pass before being reborn in the morning. He could control them merely by knowing their names.

We see that the seventh hour of the night is named Apophis, the primary nemesis of Re in most of these netherworld books. Hour 7 in the Book of Gates, for instance, features the elimination of all evil forces in the netherworld so that the sun's (Re's) regeneration will not be hampered. A similar scene is shown in the same hour of the Amduat, where all enemies are punished--particularly Apophis, the serpent. Here, Isis and Set control Apophis magically while Selket binds him, after which Apophis is dismembered by other divine assistants.

Fun stuff, these Books of the Netherworld. One has to wonder how the priests of this period came up with all of this, and how ancient to them many of its elements already were.

Originally posted by Selket



yes I have that book too:-)
I love the Norse aswell. Thor and the valkyries yes but Loki??????:-( A nasty little sneak if ever I saw one. Now what about Heimdal and Balder?:-)