Atum

Atum
Atum
God of creation

Atum, finisher of the world

Name in hieroglyphs
Major cult center

Heliopolis

Consort

Iusaas

[1]

Atum (/-tum/), sometimes rendered as Atem or Tem, is an important deity in Egyptian mythology.

Name
Atum's name is thought to be derived from the word tem which means to complete or finish. Thus he has been
interpreted as being the 'complete one' and also the finisher of the world, which he returns to watery chaos at the end
of the creative cycle. As creator he was seen as the underlying substance of the world, the deities and all things being
made of his flesh or alternatively being his ka.[2]

Origins
Atum is one of the most important and frequently mentioned deities from earliest times, as evidenced by his
prominence in the Pyramid Texts, where he is portrayed as both a creator and father to the king.

Atum

Role
In the Heliopolitan creation myth, Atum was considered to be the first god, having created himself, sitting on a
mound (benben) (or identified with the mound itself), from the primordial waters (Nu). Early myths state that Atum
created the god Shu and goddess Tefnut by spitting them out of his mouth.[3] To explain how Atum did this, the
myth uses the metaphor of masturbation, with the hand he used in this act representing the female principle inherent
within him.[4]
In the Old Kingdom the Egyptians believed that Atum lifted the dead king's soul from his pyramid to the starry
heavens.[5] He was also a solar deity, associated with the primary sun god Ra. Atum was linked specifically with the
evening sun, while Ra or the closely linked god Khepri were connected with the sun at morning and midday.[6]
In the Book of the Dead, which was still current in the Graeco-Roman period, the sun god Atum is said to have
ascended from chaos-waters with the appearance of a snake, the animal renewing itself every morning.[7][8][9]
Atum is the god of pre-existence and post-existence. In the binary solar cycle, the serpentine Atum is contrasted with
the ram-headed scarab Kheprithe young sun god, whose name is derived from the Egyptian hpr "to come into
existence". Khepri-Atum encompassed sunrise and sunset, thus reflecting the entire solar cycle.[10]

Relationship to other gods

Atum was a self-created deity, the first being to emerge from the darkness and endless watery abyss that existed
before creation. A product of the energy and matter contained in this chaos, he created his childrenthe first deities,
out of loneliness. He produced from his own sneeze, or in some accounts, semen, Shu, the god of air, and Tefnut, the
goddess of moisture. The brother and sister, curious about the primeval waters that surrounded them, went to explore
the waters and disappeared into the darkness. Unable to bear his loss, Atum sent a fiery messenger, the Eye of Ra, to
find his children. The tears of joy he shed on their return were the first human beings.[11]

Iconography
He is usually depicted as a man wearing either the royal head-cloth or the dual white and red crown of Upper Egypt
and Lower Egypt, reinforcing his connection with kingship. Sometimes he also is shown as a serpent, the form he
returns to at the end of the creative cycle, and also occasionally as a mongoose, lion, bull, lizard, or ape.

Worship
Atum's cult centered on the city of Heliopolis (Egyptian: Annu).

References
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]

Wilkinson, Richard H. (2003). The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson. p. 150
Wilkinson, Richard H. (2003). The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson. pp. 99101
Egyptian gods Atum (http:/ / www. philae. nu/ akhet/ NetjeruA. html#Atum) URL accessed December 30, 2006.
Wilkinson, Complete Gods and Goddesses, pp. 18, 99.
http:/ / www. philae. nu/ akhet/ NetjeruA. html#Atum retrieved November 9, 2006
Wilkinson, Richard H. (2003). The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson. pp. 205
Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=yCkRz5pfxz0C& pg=PA121#v=onepage& q& f=false)
2nd edition, 1999, p. 121
[8] Ellis, Normandi Dreams of Isis: A Woman's Spiritual Sojourn (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=NJ9j6EE_dL0C& pg=PA128&
dq=ouroboros+ atum& hl=en& ei=HP3kTOXcEcvrsga1r6CtCw& sa=X& oi=book_result& ct=result& resnum=2&
ved=0CCgQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage& q=ouroboros atum& f=false) p. 128
[9] Bernal, Martin Black Athena: the Afroasiatic roots of classical civilization (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=yFLm_M_OdK4C&
pg=PA468& lpg=PA468#v=onepage& q=Atum Ouroboros& f=false) p. 468
[10] Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=yCkRz5pfxz0C& pg=PA123#v=onepage& q&
f=false) 2nd edition, 1999, p. 123

Atum
[11] Pinch, Geraldine (2004). Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Goddesses, and Traditions of Ancient Egypt. Oxford University Press.
pp. 6364

External links
Atum - Archaeowiki.org (http://www.archaeowiki.org/Atum)

Article Sources and Contributors

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