The Ogdoad: Eight Primordial Deities of Chaos in Egyptian Mythology

In Egyptian mythology, the Ogdoad were eight primordial deities. They were also called the Hehu or Infinites, the celestial rulers of a cosmic age. 

They were believed to be the origin of all myths and legends.

The Ogdoad predate the Egyptian religious system currently recognized and more commonly known Egyptian gods, such as Osiris, his sister/wife Isis, and the emissary of the underworld, Anubis.

References to the Ogdoad date to the Old Kingdom of Egypt, and even at the time of composition of the Pyramid Texts towards the end of the Old Kingdom, they appear to have been antiquated and mostly forgotten by everyone except religious experts. They are frequently mentioned in the Coffin Texts of the Middle Kingdom. 

The Ogdoad were concerned with the preservation and flourishing of the celestial world, and later—as well as indirectly—the formation of the human race. 

According to ancient Egyptian myths, before the world was formed, there was a watery mass of dark, directionless chaos. In this chaos lived the Ogdoad. The Ogdoad was a system of eight deities, four gods and their female aspect (the number four was considered to represent completeness). 

Texts of the Late Period describe them as having the heads of frogs (male) and serpents (female), and they are often depicted in this way in reliefs of the Ptolemaic Kingdom.

The eight deities were arranged in four male-female pairs (the female names being merely derivative female forms of the male names). 

These deities were Nun and Naunet represented the primeval waters; Heh and Hauhet represented eternity; Kek and Kuaket represented darkness; and Amun and Amunet represented air (or that which is hidden). However, the gods difffer from one source to another. 

E. A. Wallis Budge (1904) compares the concept to a group of four pairs of primeval gods mentioned in the Babylonian Enûma Eliš, viz. Abzu and Tiamat, Lahmu and Lahamu, Anshar and Kishar, Anu and Nudimmud.

Primeaval darkness was sometimes represented by Gereh and Gerehet and Heh and Hehet are sometimes included as forces of chaos, possibly representing the currents of the primeaval waters. When Amun rose in prominence as a creator god in his own right, he and Amunet were replaced by Nia and Niat, gods of the void.

Nun and Nunet 

Nun (Nu) is referred in Egyptian mythology as the “father of the god”. The name Nun means “primeval waters”. Nunet (or Naunet) is the female aspect of Nun. She is depicted as “the Mother of all Mothers”. 

The name Nun means “waters”. They represented chaos and the primeval waters to which everything have sprouted from nothingness. 

Nun appearance portrayed as a bearded man or a frog headed man with blue green skin which represents water and wearing the palm frond that symbolized long life, one on his head, and another on his hand.  Sometimes, Nun also depicted as man carrying a solar bark on his upraised arms. On the boat standing is by eight deities.

Nunet, like her three sisters Kauket, Amaunet and Hauhet, was represented as a woman with the head of a snake, mostly that of a cobra, or as a snake itself. 

Nunet is believed to be the goddess of the primordial abyss to the underworld. She guards the twelve veils of negation believed to be the flaws of the original creation. Access to these cracks would lead to the void that was Nun. She embodies the primal womb – where cycles of life, death and rebirth continues for all creatures and beings. She is also believed to be the mother of the sun god together with the composite deity known as Nun-Ptah.

In Khumunu, she is believed to be the goddess who supported the mountains that helped support the sky where the sun god was born from the watery abyss.

She is rarely mentioned as an individual deity outside her connection with Nun. Together they do not have a specific cult center yet they represented sacred lakes and underground streams that are known to be found in the country.

Huh and Hauhet

Huh is the male aspect and Hauhet also known as Heh or Hehet is the female aspect. 

The name Huh also spelled as Heh, Hah, Hauh, Huah, or Hahuh literally means “endlessness.” They represented space, eternity and infinity. They also symbolizes limitless, long life, intelligence and a perceptive mind. 

Huh is sometimes depicted as a crouching man holding a palm stem in each hand with shen ring at the base of each palm stem, the Egyptian sign of long life. The shen ring symbolized infinity. The image of Heh with his arms raised was the hieroglyph for the number one million, which was essentially considered equivalent to infinity in Egyptian mathematics. So, he was also given the title as “the god of millions of years”.

Hauhet represented fire and had the head of a cat in some myths. Most often, she is just thought of as a representation of her husband Huh and not a separate goddess. She exists, as scholars would say, because of the duality of the nature of the Ogdoad deities. However, legend has it, that the cosmic egg (the first act of creation) was believed to have arisen from the hands of Hauhet and Huh out of the proto matter. Out of the egg, Ra, the sun and light god, arises thus the creation of life in the world. Because of this, together with Huh, they represented the 12th hour of the night welcoming the rebirth of the sun.

Kek and Kauket

Kek (Kuk, Keku, or Pepe.. lol, j/k) is the deification of the primordial concept of darkness. The name Kek means darkness, the god of the darkness of chaos before the creation was began. 

Kek's female counterpart was Kauket also known as Keket.

Kek and Kauket represented darkness, obscurity and night. In some aspects they also represent night and day, and were called "raiser up of the light" and the "raiser up of the night", respectively.

Like her Ogdoad brothers and sisters, Kek was represented as a frog-headed man, and the female form as a serpent-headed woman.

Amun and Amaunet

Her name, jmnt, is a feminine noun that means "The Hidden One". She is a member of the Ogdoad of Hermopolis, who represented aspects of the primeval existence before the creation: Amunet was paired with Amun — whose name means "The Hidden One" too, with a masculine ending (jmn) — within this divine group, from the earliest known documentation. Such pairing of deities is characteristic of the religious concepts of the ancient Egyptians, being the Ogdoad itself composed by four balanced couples of deities or deified primeval concepts.

It seems likely that Amunet may have been artificially conceived by theologians as a complement to Amun, rather than being an originally independent deity. The Pyramid Texts mention the beneficent shadow of Amun and Amunet:

O Amun and Amunet! You pair of the gods, who joined the gods with their shadow.

— PT 446c

The fourth pair appears with varying names; sometimes the name Amun is replaced by Ni, Nenu, Nu, or Qerḥ, and the name Amunet Qerḥet by Ennit, Nenuit, Nunu, Nit, or Qerḥet. 

Amun and Amaunet were deities having several different characteristics during the long history of the pantheon of Ancient Egypt. 

But initially, they were the two aspects of the primordial concept of air and invisibility in the Ogdoad cosmogony. Amun's name translates into the “Hidden One” suggestive of his role as the invisible god of the wind and air. Their powers are also connected to the words silence, stillness, mystery and obscurity.

As with all goddesses in the Ogdoad, Amunet was depicted either as an Egyptian cobra snake, or as a snake-headed woman. The male deities in the Ogdoad generally were depicted with the head of a frog. 

Amun is believed to be a self-created god. Amaunet was said to be the mother who is father, implying that she was a creator who needed no male to procreate.

As the deites became more significant, eventually both aspects of the abstract concept were depicted as independent deities and identified as a pair. 

Amun and Amaunet changed in personification over the duration of the dynasties of Egypt.

Because Amun represented the element of "hiddenness" or "obscurity" while the others represented more clearly defined concepts such as "darkness," "water," and "infinity." Amun as "The Obscure One" left room for people to define him according to their own understanding of what they needed him to be. 

 The Cosmic Egg

There are at minimum three different views from the Egyptians that succeeded the time of the Ogdoad as to how the world as they knew it came into creation.  

The first held that the world was born from a cosmic egg created by the gods of the Ogdoad. It was invisible as the sun had not yet been born. When it cracked, it revealed the “bird of light" (occasionally the egg was said to contain air, associated with Amun and Amaunet). This form of the sun was called Ra, one of the only Egyptian deities to have surpassed the laws of time to be accepted by both the followers of the Ogdoad and the later religion, and thus the world was born.

Alternatively, a second version says that the egg was laid by an ibis, (a bird sacred to Thoth). However, the cult of Thoth developed after the original myth of the Ogdoad, so it is probable that this story was an attempt to incorporate Thoth into the pre-existing Ogdoad (who were sometimes known as “the souls of Thoth” or the “Eastern Souls”, eight baboons who helped the sun to rise every morning).

Another belief is that the universe was created from a lotus flower that "rose from the Sea of the Two Knives". Within the petals was the same sun god as mentioned above, Ra, who then forged the cosmos. 

And finally, another opinion begins in the same way—a lotus flower rising from the sea—however, within the flower was not Ra but one of the sacred scarab beetles representing the sun. This beetle then transformed into a boy whose tears made humanity, and went by the name Nefertum ("young Amun"). 

It is also interesting to note the similarity between the Ogdoad and the description of the creation of the world found in the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Old Testament).

Also read:

• Chaos in Mythology
• The nine parts of the human soul according to ancient Egypt

The nine parts of the human soul according to ancient Egypt

According to ancient Egyptian creation myths, the god Atum created the world out of chaos, utilizing his own magic. Because the earth was created with magic, Egyptians believed that the world was imbued with magic and so was every living thing upon it. When humans were created, that magic took the form of the soul, an eternal force which resided in and with every human being. 

The ancient Egyptians were convinced that the human soul was composed of nine main parts.

The concept of the soul and the parts which encompass it has varied from the Old Kingdom to the New Kingdom. In some eras, the soul was thought to be comprised of five parts and in others seven, but, generally, it was nine. 

Ab (The heart) was an extremely important part of the Egyptian soul. It was believed to form from one drop of blood from the child’s mother’s heart, taken at conception. In ancient Egyptian mythology, the heart was the key to the afterlife. The Ab was the heart, the source of good and evil, which defined a person's character. This was the spiritual heart which rose from the physical heart (hat) which was left in the mummified body of the deceased for this reason: it was the seat of the person's individuality and the record of their thoughts and deeds during their time on earth. It was the ab which was weighed in the balances against the white feather of truth by Osiris and, if found heavier than the feather, it was dropped to the floor where it was devoured by the monster Amut. Once the heart was eaten, the soul ceased to exist. If the heart was found lighter than the feather, the soul was justified and could proceed on toward paradise. 

Shuyet (The Shadow) was the shadow self which means it was essentially the shadow of the soul. The shadow in Egypt represented comfort and protection, and the sacred sites at Amarna were known as Shadow of Ra for this reason. Exactly how the shuyet functioned is not clear, but it was considered extremely important and operated as a protective and guiding entity for the soul in the afterlife. The Egyptian Book of the Dead includes a spell where the soul claims, "My shadow will not be defeated" in stating its ability to traverse the afterlife toward paradise.

Ren (The name) was another crucial part of the soul. A person’s Ren was given to them at birth and the Egyptians believed that it would live for as long as that name was spoken.

Bâ is most often translated as 'soul' and was a human-headed bird aspect which could speed between earth and the heavens and, specifically, between the afterlife and one's corpse. Each ba was linked to a particular body, and the ba would hover over the corpse after death but could also travel to the afterlife, visit with the gods, or return to earth to those places the person had loved in life. The corpse had to reunite with the ka each night in order for the ka to receive sustenance, and it was the job of the ba to accomplish this. The gods had a ba as well as a ka. Examples of this are the Apis bull which was the ba of Osiris and the Phoenix, the ba of Ra.

Ka (The vital spark) According to the Ancient Egyptians the Ka was a vital concept in the soul as it distinguishes the difference between a living and a dead person. The Ka was one’s double-form or astral self and corresponds to what most people in the present day consider a 'soul.' This was the vital source that enabled a person to continue to receive offerings in the next world. The ka was created at the moment of one's birth for the individual and so reflected one's personality, but the essence had always existed and was passed across the successive generations, carrying the spiritual force of the first creation. The ka was not only one's personality but also a guide and protector, imbued with the spark of the divine. It was the ka which would absorb the power from the food offerings left in the tomb, and these would sustain it in the afterlife. All living things had a ka - from plants to animals and on up to the gods - which was evident in that they were, simply, alive.

Khat (The Body) was the physical body which, when it became a corpse, provided the link between one's soul and one's earthly life. The soul would need to be nourished after death just as it had to be while on earth, and so food and drink offerings were brought to the tomb and laid on an offerings table. The dead body was not thought to actually eat this food but to absorb its nutrients supernaturally. Paintings and statues of the dead person were also placed in the tomb so that, if something should happen to damage the body, the statue or painting would assume its role.

Akh (The Immortal Self) according to ancient Egyptians, the Akh was the transformed immortal self which offered a magical union of the Ba and Ka. Once the akh had been created by this union, it survived as an 'enlightened spirit,' enduring and unchanged for eternity. Akh is usually translated as 'spirit' and was the higher form of the soul. Spell 474 of the Pyramid Texts states, "the akh belongs to heaven, the corpse to earth," and it was the akh which would enjoy eternity among the stars with the gods. The akh could return to earth, however, and it was an aspect of the akh which would come back as a ghost to haunt the living if some wrong had been done or would return in dreams to help someone they cared for.

Sahu (The Judge) The Sahu was the aspect of Akh which would come to a person as a ghost or while asleep in dreams. The Sahu was the aspect of the Akh which would appear as a ghost or in dreams. It separated from the other aspects of the soul once the individual was justified by Osiris and judged worthy of eternal existence.

Sechem was another aspect of the Akh which allowed it mastery of circumstances. It was considered the vital life energy of the person which manifested itself as the power to control one's surroundings and outcomes.

The Egyptian Dream Book

Do you believe that dreams can foretell the future? If you do, then you are not alone. The divination of dreams, or oneiromancy as it is also called, has its roots in the ancient world. Dreams played a powerful role in the past.

From ancient Egypt to Greece, Rome, China, and the European middle ages dreams have been an important means for communicating with the dead, predicting the future and diagnosing illness. To many cultures the dream was an extension of reality, though often more powerful.

In the Book of Genesis, Joseph, the son of the Jewish Patriarch, Jacob, had the ability to divine the future based on dreams. According to the Bible, this ability allowed Joseph to interpret Pharaoh’s dream, which foretold a 7-year famine. This enabled Egypt to avoid this disaster and contributed to Joseph’s meteoric rise in the Egyptian hierarchy. 

The Bible is not the only ancient literary source that records the interpretation of dreams. The Egyptians had a ‘Dream Book’ which set on the meaning of many different types of dreams.

Thousands of years ago, ancient Egyptians used the messages in their dreams in order to cure illnesses, make important State decisions, and even to decide where to build a temple or when to wage a battle.

The ancient Egyptian word for Dreams was "rswt" meaning "To be awake". 

In ancient Egypt, priests acted as dream interpreters. The ancient Egyptians were often considered the fathers of the dream incubation technique. When an Egyptian had trouble he would sleep in a temple where he would dream, sometimes to the sleep enhancing fragrance of lilac oils. Upon waking the priest would interpret that night's dreams.

Dreams were considered to be divine predictions of the future. They were messages from the gods that could be foretelling of impending disasters or, conversely, of good fortune; therefore, understanding the significance of ones dreams was an important part of the culture.

It was also believed that dreams served as a window to the other side. Living people could see the activities of the deceased through dreams.

The ancient Egyptian Dream Book is a hieratic papyrus that probably dates to the early reign of Ramesses II (1279-1213 BC). The papyrus  was found in the cemetery at Deir el-Medina, near the Valley of the Kings. 

According to the British Museum, “it is uncertain who the original owner was, but it passed into the hands of the scribe Qeniherkhepshef; on the other side of the papyrus, the scribe copied a poem about the Battle of Kadesh, which took place in the reign of Ramesses II (1279-1213 BC).

The book passed to Khaemamen, Qeniherkhepshef’s wife’s second husband, and then to his son Amennakht (both added their name to the papyrus). It passed down through the family for more than a century.

On each page of the papyrus a vertical column of hieratic signs begins: ‘if a man sees himself in a dream’; each horizontal line describes a dream, followed by the diagnosis ‘good’ or ‘bad’, and then the interpretation.

For example, ‘if a man sees himself in a dream looking out of a window, good; it means the hearing of his cry’. Or, ‘If a man sees himself drinking beer, bad; it means suffering will come to him.’ The text first lists good dreams, and then bad ones; the word ‘bad’ is written in red, ‘the color of ill omen’.

Dreaming of for example a deep well meant prison. A mirror indicated a second wife. Getting bitten  by a snake was associated with gossip and a blossom symbolized prosperity.

Other examples are:

• If a man sees himself plunging or swimming or diving in a river, good; it means he will get rid of all illnesses.
• If a man sees himself drinking wine, good; it means he will live in righteousness.
• If a man sees himself dead, good; it means he will live in a long life.
• If a man sees himself drinking blood, good; it means he will put an end to his enemies.
• If a man sees himself reading aloud from a Papyrus or an old (sacred) book, good; it means he will feel his dominion established.
• If a man sees himself watching a blossom, good; it means he will be blessed with prosperity.
• If a man sees himself watching the Moon shining, good; it means he will be blessed by the Divine Powers.
• If a man sees himself in a dream, his bed catching fire, bad; it means driving away his wife.
• If a man sees himself getting hurt by a thorn, bad; it means his lies will get him in trouble.
• If a man sees himself having sex, bad; it means he will hear sad news.
• If a man sees himself throwing a piece of wood in fire, bad; it means pain will come to his house.
• If a man sees himself cutting his hair, bad; it means he will experience a loss in his house.
• If a man sees himself getting bitten by a dog, bad; it means magic is against him, probably someone casted a dark spell on him!

Around 108 dreams, which describe 78 activities and emotions, are recorded in the ‘Dream Book’. These activities may be said to be things commonly undertaken by the average person. Most of these activities deal with some form of sight or seeing. The second largest category deals with eating and drinking, and a few more deal with receiving and copulating.  

Another interesting thing about the ‘Dream Book’ is that it was once part of an archive. In addition to this papyrus, there were a variety of papyri which dealt with literary, magical, and documentary works. 

The Indo-Greek king Artemidoros Aniketos who first wrote the most important ancient book of Interpreting dreams, the Oneirocritica based his work so much in this Manuscript. 

This manuscript now is being exhibited by the British Museum “No. III (BRIT. Mus. 10683)“.

Also read:

• 10 Ancient legends about dreams