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Creator
Banebdjedet
bꜣ-nb-ḏdtGenerative powerKingshipMendes
How it changed
His name means the ba, lord of Djedet, and ba puns on the word for a ram, so a living ram was kept and worshipped as his soul. He was read as the combined ba of four great gods, Ra, Osiris, Shu and Geb, which turned a small Delta ram-cult into a claim that one animal held the power of the whole pantheon. In the Contendings it is Banebdjedet who counsels the tribunal to write to Neith.
Cult centre
Mendes (Djedet), in the Delta
Best attested
Old Kingdom onward
Family
- ConsortHatmehit
- ChildrenHorus the Child, at Mendes
Consort of the fish goddess Hatmehit; father of Horus the Child at Mendes.
Epithets
- “The Ram, Lord of Mendes”
How to recognise the figure
A ram, or a ram-headed man, sometimes with four heads for the four rams whose souls he unites.
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