The gate of the year

Figures above and below:

Details of the ram-headed sphinx avenue that connects Luxor and Karnak temples, near the city of Thebes. The great temple complex of Karnak, in Upper Egypt, was devoted to the god Amun-Ra. Inaugurated during the Middle Kingdom, during the New Kingdom was continually enlarged and embellished by every ruler, becoming the most important religious center of Egypt. Amun was originally one of the eight primordial gods venerated in the city of Hermopolis, in Middle Egypt and, together with his wife, Amaunet, represented the underground aspect of “hiddenness”, the way of being preceding creation. Subsequently, his cult was assimilated to that of Montu, a warrior god, and to that of Min, an ithyphallic fertility god, both worshiped in the Thebes area. The new divinity Amon-Ra, the identification of Amun with the Sun god Ra, took the place of the latter and assumed the characteristics of an omnipotent and anthropomorphic god, the “King of the gods”, somewhat represented as a ram or a divinity with a ram’s head. The statue of the king is represented between the sphinx’s forelegs and surmounted by the animal’s head, to mean the protection conferred by the gods (Fig. 5 ter.). It was believed that the queens of Egypt were impregnated by the god Amun, who thus became the father of the new king. The pharaoh was believed to be the direct descendant of Amon-Ra, a divinity showing part-human and part-animal features (Lesko 2005b; Remler 2010).

[Image: http://factsanddetails.com/world/cat56/sub364/item1950.html;
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SFEC_EGYPT_KARNAK_2006-015.JPG]




Animals

Back

Figures above and below: Details of the ram-headed sphinx avenue that connects Luxor and Karnak temples, near the city of Thebes. The great temple complex of Karnak, in Upper Egypt, was devoted to the god Amun-Ra. Inaugurated during the Middle Kingdom, during the New Kingdom was continually enlarged and embellished by every ruler, becoming the most important religious center of Egypt. Amun was originally one of the eight primordial gods venerated in the city of Hermopolis, in Middle Egypt and, together with his wife, Amaunet, represented the underground aspect of “hiddenness”, the way of being preceding creation. Subsequently, his cult was assimilated to that of Montu, a warrior god, and to that of Min, an ithyphallic fertility god, both worshiped in the Thebes area. The new divinity Amon-Ra, the identification of Amun with the Sun god Ra, took the place of the latter and assumed the characteristics of an omnipotent and anthropomorphic god, the “King of the gods”, somewhat represented as a ram or a divinity with a ram’s head. The statue of the king is represented between the sphinx’s forelegs and surmounted by the animal’s head, to mean the protection conferred by the gods (Fig. 5 ter.). It was believed that the queens of Egypt were impregnated by the god Amun, who thus became the father of the new king. The pharaoh was believed to be the direct descendant of Amon-Ra, a divinity showing part-human and part-animal features (Lesko 2005b; Remler 2010). [Image: http://factsanddetails.com/world/cat56/sub364/item1950.html; http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SFEC_EGYPT_KARNAK_2006-015.JPG]