Khensu
The third member of the great triad of Thebes was Khensu, who described to be the son of Amen-Ra and Mut, and who was worshipped with great honor at Thebes. According to Dr. Brugsch, the name "Khensu" is derived from the root khens, "to travel, to move about, to run," and the like, and Signor Lanzone renders the name by "il fugatore, il persecutore' ; for both groups of meanings there is authority in the 12212d36m texts, but the translations proposed by the former scholar represent the commonest meaning of the word. Khensu was, in fact the "traveler," and as he was a form of Thoth and was identified by the Thebans with the Moon-god the epithet was appropriate. As far back as the time of Unas the motion of Thoth as the Moon-god in the sky was indicated by the Thebans with the Moon-god the epithet was appropriate. As far back as the time of Unas the motion of Thoth as the Moon-god in the sky was indicated by the word khens, for in line 194 we read, "Unas goeth round about heaven like Ra, and travelleth "through heaven like Thoth." In the passage of the text of the of the same king which describes how he haunted, and killed, and ate the gods, mention is made of the god "Khensu the slaughter," who cut their throats for "the king, and drew out their intestines for him," and he is described as the "messenger whom he sent out to meet them." Khensu the slaughter and the messenger can, then, be no other than Khensu the Moon-god of later times, and thus we see that, under the early Empire, Khensu occupied a very important position in the mythology of the period as the "messenger" of the great gods, and the "traveler" who journeyed through the sky.
Worship of Khensu
Worship of Khensu under the form of the moon. We have already
referred to the great antiquity of the section of the text of Unas in which the
hunting of the gods by the king is described, and there is every reason to
believe that the existence of Khensu was formulated in the minds of the
Egyptians in very primitive times, and that his name is older than the dynastic
period. We may note in passing that the other gods mentioned in the section are
Aker, Tem, and Seb, all of whom are well known from texts of the dynastic
period, and Tchester-tep-f, Her-Thertu, and Sheshemu, who assist in marking,
and snaring, and cutting up the gods. Among certain ancient Oriental nations
the worship of the Moon always preceded that of the Sun, and there is reason
for thinking that several of the oldest gods of Egypt were forms of the Moon in
her various phases. In the theological system which the priests of Heliopolis
succeeded in imposing upon the country some of these were preserved either by
identification with the gods of the new scheme or by adoption, and
comparatively fixed attributes were assigned to them. At a still later period,
when the cult of amen and Amen-Ra was common throughout the country, a further
selection from the old gods was made, and some gods had positions apportioned
to them in the company of the gods of Amen-Ra at Thebes. The priesthood of that
city showed great astuteness in making Khensu, one of the most ancient forms of
the Moon-god, to be the son of Amen-Ra, and the identifying him with the sons
of the great cosmic gods Horus and Ra. The chief center of the worship of
Khensu in the latter part of the dynastic period was Thebes,,where Rameses III.
built the famous "House of Khensu in Thebes," or "house of
Khensu in Thebes, Nefer-hetep,". AS the great deity of his temple he was
styled "great god, lord of heaven," "Khensu in Thebes,
"Nefer-hetep, Horus, lord of joy of heart in the Apts,"
and the texts show that shrines were built in his honor at Bekhent, in the Delta
, at Shentu, at Nubit, , at Brhutet, , at Sma-Behutet, and at
Khemennu . In the last-named place he was called
"Khensu-Tehuti, the twice great, the lord of Khemennu, a fact which proves
that in the late dynastic times he was wholly identified with Thoth ; as
Khensu-Tehuti he was also worshipped at Behutet, or Edfu. In the Thebes his
name was united with that of Ra and of Shu, and we find such forms as
Khensu-Ra, and Khensu-Shu, . The great temple of Khensu at Thebes appears to
have contained three shrines, which probably corresponded to three aspects of
the god, and we thus have :--- The Temple of Khensu. The Temple of
Kenshu in Thebes, Nefer-hetep. The Temple of Khensu, who worketh
plans in the Thebes,. The forms of the god Khensu-Pa-Khart, i.e.,, "Khensu
the Babe," and Khensu-Hunnu, i.e., "Khensu the Child," were
probably worshipped in the main portion of the temple, for they were purely
forms of the Moon-god, and they bore the same relation to him that Heru-pa-khart
and Heru-Hunnu bore to Horus the Great or to Ra. From a series of
extracts quoted by Dr. Brugsch from the inscriptions on the temple of Khensu at
Thebes we find that he was the "lord of Maat," like Ptah, and the
"moon by night" as the new moon he is likened to a mighty, or fiery
bull, and as the full moon he is said to resemble an emasculated bull. As
Khensu-pa-khart he caused to shine upon the earth the beautiful light of the
crescent moon, and through his agency women conceived, cattle became fertile,
the germ grew in the egg, and all nostrils and throats were filled with fresh
air. He was the second great light in the heavens, and was the "first
great of Amen, the "beautiful youth, who maketh himself young in
Thebes in the form of Ra, the son of the goddess Nubit, a child in the morning,
an old man in the evening, a youth at the beginning of the year, who cometh as
a child after he had become infirm, and who reneweth his births like Disk. From
this passage it appears that khensu-pa-khart was both the spring sun, and the
spring moon, and also the moon at the beginning of each month, in fact, the
symbol of the renewed light of the sun and moon, and the source of generation
and reproduction. In these aspects he was readily identfied with many forms of
the young Sun-god, whether Horus or Ra, and with some of the gods of
reproduction, i.g., Amsu, or Min. As a Horus god he became the son of Osiris.
As Dr. Brugsch pointed out, the two Bulls mentioned in texts of the late period
are Osiris and Khensu, and they represent the Sun and the Moon.
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