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In Egyptian mythology,
the Ogdoad are the eight deities worshipped in Hermopolis.
They were arranged in four male-female pairs, with the males
associated with frogs, and the females with snakes: Nu/Naunet,
Amun/Amaunet, Kuk/Kauket,
Huh/Hauhet. Apart from their gender,
there was little to distinguish the male god in a pair from
the female goddess, indeed the names of the females are merely
the female forms of the male name. Essentially, each pair
represents the male and female aspect of one of four concepts,
namely water (Nu/Naunet), air (Amun/Amunet),
darkness (Kuk/Kauket), and eternity
(Huh/Hauhet).
Creation Myth
Together the four concepts represent the primal fundamental
state of the beginning, they are what always was. In the myth,
however, their interaction ultimately proved to be unbalanced,
resulting in the arising of a new entity. When the entity
opened, it revealed Ra, the fiery sun, inside. After a long
interval of rest, Ra, together with the other gods, created
all other things.
There are two main variations on the nature of the entity
containing Ra.
Egg variant
The original version of the myth has the entity arising from
the waters after the interaction as a mound of dirt, the milky
way, which was deified as Hathor. In
the myth an egg was laid upon this mound by a celestial bird.
The egg contained Ra. In the original version
of this variant, the egg is laid by a cosmic goose (it is not
explained where the goose originates). However, after the rise
of the cult of Thoth, the egg was said
to have been a gift from Thoth, and
laid by an Ibis, the bird with which he was associated.
Lotus variant
Later, when Atum had become assimilated
into Ra as Atum-Ra, the belief that Atum
emerged from a (blue) lotus bud, in the Ennead
cosmogeny, was adopted and attached to Ra.
The lotus was said to have arisen from the waters after the
explosive interaction as a bud, which floated on the surface,
and slowly opened its petals to reveal the beetle, Khepri,
inside. Khepri, an aspect of Ra
representing the rising sun, immediately turns into a weeping
boy - Nefertum (young Atum),
whose tears form the creatures of the earth. In later egyptian
history, as the god Khepri became
totally absorbed into Ra, the lotus was
said to have revealed Ra, the boy, straight
away, rather than Ra being Khepri
temporarily. Sometimes the boy is identified as Horus, although
this is due to the merging of the myths of Horus and Ra
into the one god Ra-Herakty, later in egyptian history.
Egyptian
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