Amun’s Family Tree

About Amun →

Family

• Mut(spouse),Khonsu(child)— Marriage

  Amun and Mut form the divine parents of the Theban Triad, with Khonsu the moon god as their son, the sacred family worshipped at the Karnak temple complex.

• Amaunet(spouse)— Consort

  Amun and Amaunet formed the primordial pair of hiddenness in the Ogdoad of Hermopolis — he the frog-headed god, she the serpent-headed goddess, two faces of the unseen force that existed before creation.

• Wosret(spouse)— Consort

  Wosret served as Amun's early consort at Thebes during the Middle Kingdom before Mut replaced her in the Theban Triad.

Aspect of

• Atum,Ra

  Amun merged with Ra and Atum during the New Kingdom, the hidden god of Thebes absorbing the entire Heliopolitan solar theology to become Amun-Ra, supreme deity of the Egyptian empire.

• Khepri

  In later New Kingdom theology, Amun-Ra incorporated Khepri's dawn aspect, the Theban state god encompassing all three solar phases — Khepri at dawn, Ra at noon, Atum at dusk.

• Min

  Min was syncretized with Amun during the Middle and New Kingdoms as the composite deity Amun-Min, also called Kamutef, combining Amun's cosmic sovereignty with Min's procreative power.

Has aspect

• Sobek

  Sobek absorbed Amun's kingly and creative attributes in the Faiyum, becoming Sobek-Amun — the crocodile god crowned with Amun's double-plumed headdress and worshipped as a creator deity at Shedet.

Enemy of

• Akhenaten

  Akhenaten closed Amun's temples throughout Egypt, chiseled his name from monuments, and disbanded his priesthood. After Akhenaten's death, the Amun clergy restored their cult and condemned his memory.

• Aten

  Akhenaten proclaimed the Aten the sole god of Egypt, closed Amun's great temples at Karnak, and ordered his name chiseled from every monument — a divine usurpation reversed only after Akhenaten's death, when Amun's priests restored the hidden god and condemned the Aten's worship as heresy.

Member of

• Ogdoad

  The Ogdoad of Hermopolis comprised eight primordial deities in four male-female pairs representing the pre-creation forces: Nun and Naunet (watery abyss), Amun and Amaunet (hiddenness), Kek and Kauket (darkness), and Heh and Hauhet (boundlessness).

• Theban Triad

  The Theban Triad — Amun, Mut, and Khonsu — formed the ruling divine family of Thebes, their three temples at Karnak linked by processional avenues and their sacred barques parading together during the Opet Festival.

Equivalent to

• Jupiter(Roman),Zeus(Greek)

  The Greeks identified Amun with Zeus as Zeus-Ammon, worshipped at the oracle of Siwa where Alexander the Great was hailed as son of Ammon. Romans knew the same deity as Jupiter-Ammon.

Associated with

• Akhetaten

  Akhetaten was founded as a deliberate rejection of Amun's Thebes, Akhenaten building his new capital on virgin ground free from the theological influence of the god he sought to supplant.

• Khnum

  In divine birth scenes at Deir el-Bahri and Luxor, Khnum fashions the royal child on his potter's wheel after Amun conceives the future pharaoh by visiting the queen in her husband's form.

• Nun

  In Hermopolitan theology, Amun emerged from the primordial waters of Nun as one of the eight deities of the Ogdoad, his hidden nature originating in the formless chaos before creation.

• Tutankhamun

  Tutankhamun's Restoration Stela restored Amun's cult, renewed his priesthood, and refurnished his cult statues with gold and lapis lazuli. The king changed his name from Tutankhaten to Tutankhamun in honor of Amun.