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“Let others
praise ancient times; I am glad I was born in these.” - Ovid
In Egyptian
mythology, Herishef or Heryshaf,
(Egyptian Ḥry-š=f “He who is on his
lake”), transcribed in Greek as Arsaphes or Harsaphes (Ἁρσαφής) was an ancient
ram-god whose cult was centred in Heracleopolis Magna (now Ihnasiyyah
al-Madinah).
He was identified
with Ra and Osiris in Egyptian mythology, as well as Dionysus or Heracles in
Greek mythology. The identification with Heracles may be related to the fact
that in later times his name was sometimes re-analysed as Ḥry-šf.t “He who is over strength”. One of his titles was “Ruler of
the Riverbanks”. Heryshaf was a creator and fertility god who was born from the
primordial waters. He was pictured as a man with the head of a ram, or as a
ram. Among his epithets are also “Mighty Phallus,” “Majesty of the Gods,” and
“Lord of the Blood”.
The Palermo
Stone records that his cult dated back to the first dynasty of Ancient Egypt
(the Early period) but the earliest known temple dedicated to him at
Hwt-nen-nesu is dated to the Middle Kingdom. However, we know that he was
fairly powerful during the First intermediate Period when Hwt-nen-nesu briefly
became the capital of Lower Egypt. The Temple of Herishef was expanded during
the New Kingdom by Ramesses II who added a number of huge granite columns with
palm leaf capitals and remained active until well into the Ptolemaic Period.
Herishef is a god
who was exceptionally popular in antiquity, with numerous feast days dotting ancient
calendars, and was even elevated to the status of Supreme High God of the
unified Egyptian State during the 9th and 10th Dynasties under the
Herakleopolitan Kings. Despite his prominence in historical Egyptian religion,
Herishef fell into almost total obscurity.
“I think that any time of great pain is a time of transformation, a fertile time to plant new seeds.” - Debbie Ford
Wadj-wer is an Egyptian god of fertility whose name means the “Great Green”. It was commonly believed that Wadj-wer was a personification of the Mediterranean Sea; however, it is apparently more likely that he rather represented the lagoons and lakes in the northernmost Nile Delta, as suggested by some texts describing the “great green” as dry lands which could be crossed by foot, possibly a mention of the edge between two or more lakes.
The earliest known attestation of Wadj-wer is dated back to the 5th Dynasty, in the mortuary temple of the pyramid of Sahure, at Abusir; here, he appears similar to the god Hapi, but with his body filled by water ripples. He also appears on the walls of the much later (20th Dynasty) tomb QV55 of prince Amunherkhepeshef, son of pharaoh Ramesses III.
Just as Hapi embodies the fertility made possible by the Nile’s annual inundation, Wadj-wer embodies the productivity of the ‘Great Green’, especially fishing. In PT utterance 366, the king is compared to Wadj-wer: “You are hale and great in your name of ‘Sea’; behold, you are great and round [i.e. encircling] in your name of ‘Ocean’.”
Most references to Wadj-wer, however, denote a place rather than a divinity, albeit sometimes it is a mythic locale: In the Conflict of Horus and Seth, the three-month combat between Horus and Seth in the form of hippopotami is said to take place in the wadj-wer.
The only myth we know in which Wadj-wer features, and which is known in very fragmentary fashion, told of how Seth subdued the sea on behalf of the other Gods. The myth is possibly to be regarded as originally involving the Canaanite Gods Ba’al and Yamm. Indeed, in one of the attestations of the myth, reference is made indifferently first to Seth, then to Ba’al. In a spell against “the Asiatic disease,” it is said that the disease is to be conjured by Seth “just as Seth conjured Wadj-wer”.
