Punny names of Egyptian gods
The names of practically all Egyptian gods seem to have direct meanings, most of which are not taught in textbooks. These meanings are usually some aristocratic nastiness, linked to power, finance, secrecy. At the same time, they are related or homonymous with the animal or object used to depict the respective god. All Egyptian gods are thus encodings of aristocratic concepts.
This is just an inexhaustive list for note-taking. Most of the god names warrant further examination.
- Horus, written ḥr, means “face” & “front”, and by derivation “foreman” & “leader”. Horus is depicted by a falcon with a white face. Straightforward.
- Osiris, written wsjr, means “power” & “wealth”. Osiris is consequently depicted with crook & flail.
- Amun, written jmn, means “hidden”. He is also an anagram pun with jnm for “skinny hide”, and is sometimes depicted as a ram with a wooly hide.
- Min, written mnw, means “cudgel”, and is depicted with an erect penis. He also puns with mnj for “dead”, and is depicted as a mummified corpse.
- Uraeus, written jˤr, means “rising”, which in many languages also means “exalted” & “high-born”. Uraeus is depicted as a cobra which raises its head.
- Anubis, written jnp, means “decaying”, and is similar to nhp “mourning”. But his name is also similar to jnpw “secret” & “royal child”, and puns with jnb “walling off” & “fencing in”. Anubis is depicted by a jackal, which eats carrion, i.e. decaying animals.
- Thoth, written ḏḥw.tj, seems related to a word root meaning “downwards”, and puns with tḥn for “ibis”, so he is depicted by an ibis whose beak is curved downwards. The root puns with Egyptian zḥ / Semitic ṣḥḥ for “writing” & “copying”, so Thoth is a scribe. The root is also related to Semitic tḥt for “downwards”, which also means “instead of”. The ibis puns with tḥn for “hidden”.
- Seth, written stẖ and stḫ, puns with sdḫ for “hidden” and sth for “confusion”. Seth is depicted by a confusing animal which does not exist.
- Nephthys, written nb.t-ḥwt, means “lady of the house”, but in general form also “landlord” & “ownership of real estate”. Nephthys is depicted with a basket, a holding vessel, which is also the phonogram used to write nb meaning “lord”.
- Isis, written ȝs.t and st, means “throne” & “position”. Isis is depicted with a throne glyph.
- Nekhbet, written nḥb.t, puns with nḥb.t and nḫb.t for “neck” & yoke, which also mean “assigned lands” & “loan”. Nekhbet is sometimes depicted by a long-necked, dancing vulture with a torch, because these words all pun with nḥb.
- Sekhmet, written sḫm.t, means “power” & “ruling”. Sekhmet is depicted by the powerful lion.
- Wadjet, written wȝḏ.t, means “fresh” & “papyrus-green”, and also puns with “allotment” & “commanding”. Wadjet is depicted by a green cobra, which doesn’t exist, but spells out her name as wȝḏ-ḏt.
- Hathor, written ḥw.t-ḥr, means “house of Horus”, but also “supreme command”, and puns with ḥtr for “taxation”, and with compounds like ḥȝtj-ḥr for “obscuring the leader”. Hathor is depicted with horns, written wp.t, which pun with “topmost” & “business”.
- Selket, written srq.t, means “breathing” & “inhaling”, but puns with srḫ which means “accusing” & “gathering information”, and also “throne” & “palace”. Selket is depicted with a scorpion, because a water scorpion breathes through its snorkel tail.
- Ptah, written ptḥ, means “building” & “opening” (as in Semitic). The equivalent Semitic words ptḥ & pth also have the meaning of “deception” & “propagating”. Ptah also puns with Egyptian pjṯȝ for “mockery”. Ptah is depicted with symbols for “power”, “life” and “endurance”.
- Ra, transliterated as rˤ and rˤw, means “sun”, and may pun with ȝr for “oppression”, and with wr for “greatness” & “aristocracy”. Ra is depicted by a sun, which also stands for Aten, which puns with “substitution”, “secrecy” & “obscurity”.
- Aten, transliterated jtn, means disk, but puns with “substitution”, “secrecy” & “obscurity”, perhaps derived through a disk being a shield.
- Khepri, written ḫpr, means “creation”. Khepri is depicted by a scarab which creates balls of dung.
- Mut, written mw.t, means “mother”, but also “death” (as in Semitic). Mut is depicted by a vulture which feeds on dead animals.
- Maat, written mȝˤ.t, means “correctness” & “leadership”, but seems related to mtj for “controlling” & “overseeing”, and puns with mȝwṯ for “making things up”. Maat is depicted with a šwtj ostrich side feather, the phonogram for both “balance” & “commerce”, both having 2 sides. The feather also puns with štȝ for “hidden”.
- Hapi, written ḥˤpj, is derived from ḥˤp and ẖˤp for “flood”, but puns with ḥȝp for “secrecy” & “disguise”. He is depicted with a beard and female breasts, which may be a disguise, or some other pun.
- Bastet, written bȝs.t, is depicted as a cat, possibly for a pun with ḫbs for “tail” & “beard”, which puns with ḥbs for “cover”. The actual word for cat is mjw, which puns without mj for “likeness” and m-mj for “doing as if”.
- Bes, written bz, means “swelling” & “protection”, but also “secrecy”. Bes is depicted as a swollen dwarf.
- Ankh, written ˤnḫ, means “life”, but seems related to jnq & jnḥ for “enclosing” & “holding together”, because life holds together body & soul. It puns with jnḥ “riddle” & “secret”, and with wnḫ “adornment” & “decoration”. The ankh symbol is often interpreted to be a sandal strap, which holds together sandals.
- Netjer, written nṯr, is the general Egyptian word for “gods” & “lords”. It may be derived from ṯȝr meaning “enclosing” & “possessing”, which would correspond to the Semitic name mṣrym for Egypt. Its logogram seems to be a flagpole, perhaps used to mark estate possession.