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Banebdjedet
Banebdjedet
	Banebdjedet wielding a Was-sceptre and Ankh
Name in hieroglyphs
Major cult center	Mendes
Consort	Hatmehit
Offspring	Horus the Child

Banebdjedet (Banebdjed) is an ancient Egyptian ram god with a cult centre at Mendes. Khnum was the equivalent god in Upper Egypt.^[1]

Family

His wife was the goddess Hatmehit ("Foremost of the Fishes"), who was perhaps the original deity of Mendes.^[1] Their offspring was "Horus the Child" and they formed the so-called "Mendesian Triad".^[2]

Etymology

The words for "ram" and "soul" sounded the same in Egyptian, so ram deities were at times regarded as appearances of other gods.^[1]

Image

Typically, the horned god Banebdjedet was depicted with four rams' heads to represent the four Bas of the sun god. He may also be linked to the first four gods to rule over Egypt (Osiris, Geb, Shu and Ra-Atum), with large granite shrines to each in the Mendes sanctuary.^[1]

Accounts

The Book of the Heavenly Cow describes the "Ram of Mendes" as being the Ba of Osiris, but this was not an exclusive association. A story dated to the New Kingdom describes him as being consulted by the "Divine Tribunal" to judge between Horus and Seth, but he proposes that Neith do it instead as an act of diplomacy. As the dispute continues, it is Banebdjedet who suggests that Seth be given the throne as he is the elder brother.^[1]

In a chapel in the Ramesseum, a stela records how the god Ptah took the form of Banebdjedet, in view of gaining his virility, in order to have union with the woman who would conceive Rameses II.^{[citation needed]}

Gallery

A statuette likely depicting Banebdjedet with four ram heads facing in four directions. Faience ceramic, ca 500-200 BC. Metropolitan Museum of Art
An amulet depicting Banebdjedet as a ram with four heads, Late Period. Metropolitan Museum of Art
Banebdjedet as a four-headed ram, surmounted by Nekhbet
Prince Mentuherkhepeshef giving offerings to a mummiform-depicted Banebdjedet, KV19, 20th dynasty (ca 1129–1111 BC)
Banebdjedet (center) on the hypocephalus of Tasheritkhons, Ptolemaic Period (ca 305–30 BC), British Museum, London