The cult of monthu from the late period onwards

Abstract EN

Monthu ranTw ‘ preceded Amun as god of the land between Kus and Gebelen, during the Middle Kingdom.

During New Kingdom, he became the war-god of the Pharaoh (fig.l).

However, during the Third Intermediate Period, his cult has decayed.

From the Twenty-fifth Dynasty onwards, and until the Greco-Roman Period; his cult rose again to importance.^ Monthu was an ancient Egyptian deity, first worshiped as a warrior god.

He was particularly prominent around Thebes, as a local upper Egyptian solar deity who became state god.^ Monthu attested from the Old Kingdom, his first occurrence in royal inscriptions was in the sixth Dynasty, in the Pyramid Texts.

Although a priesthood of his cult known from the reign of 'Pepi 1',“* Monthu became firmly established as a dynastic figure rather than a popular deity.

Fighting was the work of Monthu; he attacked the enemies of m3at, the enemies of the order of Egypt.

He inspires kings and warriors on the battlefield.

Battleships were decorated with protective images of the "four Monthus" Thebes,-Arraant, Medamud, and Tud, spearing and trampling Egypt's enemies.^ During the Twenty-third and Twenty-fifth Dynasties; priests of Monthu helped the Libyan rulers to expand south from the Delta (fig.2).

They also helped the Nubian rulers who came from north of Kush to consolidate the control of Thebes.

During that time, Monthu’s priests transformed the New Kingdom mortuary temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari into their elite necropolis.® From the Thirtieth Dynasty; the bull had an elaborate cult and major temple complexes at North of Kamak, Armant, Tud, and Mudamude.^ The sacred bull called the Buchis were buried regarded to physical manifestations of Monthu, as the Aps bulls were associated with god Ptah and the Mnevis bulls linked with Ra at Heliopolis.* The Ptolemaic and the Roman emperors supported the cult of Amun of Thebes, and other deities such as Monthu.

The Greeks identified several Egyptian gods with one of their gods, for instance; they called Monthu as 'Apollo', and his temple the Apolloneion.

Thus, religious and cultic life of Thebes lived on, but it was no longer the political and administrative centre of the south.

The worship of Monthu through the Late Period onwards; was mainly presented to the region of Thebes.^ Monthu was the god of Thebes; the fourth upper Egyptian Nome, known as The Nome of the Sceptre'.

The region's capital was Haermonthis, modem Armant, this was replaced in the Eleventh Dynasty by the city of W3st 1 mm.

The cult centres of Monthu were all within the Theban region, and incorporated four important temples.

Ptolemy I founded a New Greek capital in Upper Egypt called Ptolemais Hermiou.

However, it was still named after Thebes, even Greeks spoke of the Thebaid." It flourished under the Roman emperor Antoninnnus Pius, with a series of small temples containing, at least, through the third century.

Generally, he was regarded as a universal solar god, with the punitive aspect continued until the Greco-Roman Period.*^