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Solar
Montu
mnṯwWarThe sun's fierce aspect
How it changed
The original state god of Thebes, before Amun. Several Eleventh Dynasty kings were named Mentuhotep, Montu is content, and the city rose under them. He was then displaced in his own city by Amun and settled into the narrower role of war god, invoked when a king wanted to be described as a raging bull. It is the clearest case of a god demoted by the success of a neighbour.
Cult centre
Armant and Thebes
Best attested
Eleventh Dynasty onward
Family
Absorbed into the Theban solar circle around Amun-Ra.
Epithets
- “Lord of Thebes”
- “Bull of Armant”
How to recognise the figure
A falcon-headed man with a sun disc and two tall plumes; also a bull, the living Buchis bull kept at Armant.
Worshipped at
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