Khnum was one of the earliest known Egyptian deities, closely associated with the flooding of the Nile, the river that brought life to the Nile valley and the Egyptian people with its annual flood. As an extension of his role of bringing life to the land of Egypt, he became known as the creator of man, moulding their bodies on a potter’s wheel from clay.
Maker of Man
Khnum’s worship started in Upper Egypt, viewed as the source of the Nile, and he regulated the level of the annual Nile flood, which was embodied by the god Hapi.
Because the Nile brought life, in the form of fertile silt and clay, Khnum became associated with the creation of life, specifically moulding the bodies of men from clay using a potter’s wheel and placing them within the wombs of their mothers. He also created the Ka, part of the Egyptian soul. It is created at inception and continues to exist after death.
In the Morning Hymn to Khnum, he is described as the lord of life with the ability to shape human bodies. In the Great Hymn of Khnum, he is celebrated as the creator of all men, gods, and animals, as well as the provider of minerals and the nurturer of plant life. It also acknowledges him as creating the diversity of languages across the regions.
Khnum is sometimes explicitly described as overseeing the birth of the pharaoh. An image from the Old Kingdom shows King Sahure suckling on the goddess Nekhbet with Khnum presiding. Queen Hatshepsut had herself depicted on Khnum’s potter’s wheel at the Temple of Deir el-Bahari, bestowing her with the gifts needed to rule.
Khnum in Texts
In the Pyramid Texts, Khnum is described as the crafter of ferry boats and a ladder that ascends to the heavens. It could be that he created the sun barge of Ra, who is sometimes described as his son. In the Great Second Hymn of Khnum, he is called Khnum-Re and sails across the sky to establish pillars in the four corners of existence, associating him with the god Shu, who holds up the sky.
In the Coffin Texts from the Middle Kingdom, it says that Khnum does not engage in creation during famine due to the state of the land. A Ptolemaic stela known as the Famine Stela recounts an episode from the Old Kingdom in which King Djoser reportedly had a vision of Khnum telling him that he would end a famine after seven years. In response, Djoser decreed that one-tenth of all revenue be allocated to the Temple of Khnum in gratitude.
In the Book of the Dead, from the New Kingdom, Khnum is part of a spell to prevent the heart of the deceased from preventing them from entering the Necropolis. Also in the New Kingdom, in the Tale of Two Brothers, Khnum creates Bata’s wife.
Appearance and Symbols
Khnum was an anthropomorphic god with the head of a crocodile, like Sobek, and horns of a ram, representing fertility and regeneration. He was often depicted with green skin, again representing fertility and resurrection, like Osiris.
Khnum is often depicted seated beside a potter’s wheel, with a formed entity standing upon the wheel, representing the act of creation.
He sometimes appears with the was-scepter in his left hand and an ankh in his other, often wearing a kilt and an atef crown topped with a solar disk.
Cult Centers
Early worship of Khnum was focused on the Elephantine island in the far north of the country, along with Hapi. Mummified rams embellished with golden headgear and placed in stone coffins have been found on the island.
He later had a major cult center established at Herwer in Middle Egypt, where he was considered the city’s patron along with his consort Heqet, a frog-headed goddess.
Khnum also had an important temple at Esna, near Thebes, where he was worshipped alongside Menhit, Nebtu, Neith, and Heka, the embodiment of magic. This temple emphasizes the role of Khnum as the divine potter through numerous hymns. This is the same temple that records the Greek zodiac as connected to the Egyptian star decans.
During the New Kingdom, his main cult center moved back south to the First Cataract of the Nile, where he formed part of a divine triad alongside the goddesses Satis, who protected Egypt’s southern border with Nubia, and Anuket. New temples were built under Hatshepsut and Thutmose III. Later Ptolemaic and Roman rulers expanded this complex.
Rites at Khnum’s temples were exclusively for women trying to conceive, and male priests were barred. They installed a potter’s wheel, for Khnum to make children to place in their womb, and the festival culminated with a feast on the first day of the month of Parehmat, so mid-March.
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