Egyptian God Amun

The earliest form of the Egyptian god Amun shows him in the form of a ram. He is depicted this way in limestone reliefs dating to the 13th - 12th centuries BCE. Amun was thought to represent the breath of life; the word literally means `breath'. The word is spelled slightly differently depending on whether it is being transcribed from Egyptian, Greek or Latin.

Amun was an especially important god in the Egyptian city of Thebes, where he became identified with the pharaohs of the 11th dynasty. At this time he came to be represented as a human being with a "double crown." This may have originally been a representation of the ram's horns, but it was depicted as a double crown, part red and part white that represented the dual kingship of both north and south in the united kingdom of Egypt. As the chief god of the pharaohs of the ruling dynasty, he came to be seen as the father of the pharaohs, both as the original divine father of the first pharaoh, and then subsequently as the divine father of each succeeding pharaoh.

He also became associated with the sun god Re. The two names are often seen in compound form, usually as Amun-Re, which eventually became one of the dominate gods of the whole of Egypt.

Amon was also syncretized with the gods of Greece and Rome, so that his name appears in conjunction with Zeus Ammon, and Jupiter Ammon or Jupiter Om. Jupiter Om is often interpreted as Jupiter O.M., the O.M. standing for optimus maximus `best and greatest' but that seems to be a later misinterpretation of the many inscriptions for him, originally appearing in the Middle-east, and later becoming more common in Rome.

One of the major temples of Ammon was in the desert to the west of the Nile river at the Oasis of Siwa. This is now in Egypt near the border of Libya, somewhat south of the Mediterranean Ocean. This was the site of a very important oracle which was visited by Alexander the Great during his time of conquest (around 331 BCE). The priests of the oracle informed him that the oracle had said that Alexander was the son of the god Amun, and therefore he had the right to be a pharaoh of Egypt. Everyone accepted this and Alexander made himself a pharaoh of Egypt. This didn't last long of course, but he was followed in the rule of Egypt by the Ptolemies who ruled after him for several hundred years, which resulted in considerable interchange between the Egyptian culture and the Greek culture. In the meantime, Alexander had himself depicted with ram's horns on coins.

Another temple of Ammon was in Jordan. This is now the modern city of Amman in Jordan. There is a different explanation for this name given in the Bible, Gen. 19:30 which is quite revolting. Ammonites, which are a type of sea creature from ancient times, were often found in fossilized form at his temple; they are named after the god Amon, and are considered sacred to him. They have the appearance of ram's horns, and are used in the ceremony of the marriage of sacred basil in India.

A description of a ceremony for him, involving the use of a ram's pelt is given in the Golden Bough.

References

Larousse World Mythology by Pierre Grimal, Prometheus Press, NY, 1965