Denominations of the Egyptian God Ha

Shaikh Al Arab, Walid

doi:10.21608/ijhth.2019.35109

Denominations of the Egyptian God Ha

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Walid Shaikh Al Arab

10.21608/ijhth.2019.35109

Abstract

The desert-god Ha had theologically integrated the ancient Egyptian religious beliefs from a very
early period as he was mentioned in the main funeral corpus of the Pyramid and Coffin Texts as
well. This survey aims to shed more light on the different aspects of Ha and the roles he played
throughout an analytical study of his formal and particular names and epithets from the Old
Kingdom (2647-2150 BC) to the end of the Greco-Roman period (332 BC-642 AD). Named «
1A: HA, 1A-Imn-Wn-nfr: HA-Amon-Wen-nofre, 1A aA: Ha-the-Great, 1A-m-5tA: Ha in Sheta,
1A-4pd: Ha-Soped, 1A-4kr: Ha-Soker and 1r-1A: Horus-HA », the desert-god Ha was described
as « Nb Imntt: Lord of the West », « aA pHty: Great of might », « wr Sfyt: Great of terror », « nb
pHty: Lord of might », « nTr mnx: Potent god », « sxm dm pt: Puissance who touches the sky »
and « qA-a: High of arm », whose invincibility was thought to provide protection not only for
Egypt especially the western deserts and their oases from enemies such as desert nomads,
invading Libyan tribesmen, Asiatic people and Bedouin tribes, but also for the Underworld. For
the most part, the different names and epithets applied to Ha determine definitely his dual nature
of hostility and protection: he appeared as a punisher of the foreign Lands and, at the same time,
as a powerful protector and a funerary god.

Keywords