Min is an anthropomorphic god who is the supreme symbol of sexual
procreativity in ancient Egypt. H is also the protector-deity of the
mining regions in the desert east of the Nile.
Min is usually shown standing with his legs closely linked and his
arm raised from the crook of the elbow. The impression from two-dimensional
representations of the god is that the arm is stretching out behind the body:
this is the Egyptian artist avoiding any obscuring of the god’s body, and statuary
makes it quite clear that the god’s arm is raised on his right side. The royal flagellum
or whip rests semi-folded just above the god’s upright fingertips on the raised
arm – visually suggesting sexual penetration, although inscriptions (e.g. in Edfu
temple) refer to the arm poised to destroy the god’s enemies. Two high plumes rise
from a low crown from which hangs a ribbon. The most distinctive feature of Min
is his phallus projecting out at a right angle to his body, the symbol par excellence
of the fertility god. On rare occasions Min can be depicted with a lion’s head
as in a chapel in the temple of KHONSU at Karnak.
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| A Bronze statuette of Min |
The emblem of Min, comprising two horizontal tapering
serrated cones emanating from a central disk, appears, prior to his
anthropomorphic iconography, on predynastic monuments such as standards on boats
painted on Naqada II pottery. Like the name of the god himself – Menu in Egyptian
– no explanation for it has met with a consensus of agreement.
Suggestions for the symbol range from a bolt of lightning
or a circumcision instrument to a fossil belemnite. This emblem on a standard
on a macehead from Hierakonpolis indicates that Min is counted among the allies
of King Scorpion just prior to the lasting unification of Upper and Lower Egypt
c.3000 BC. Although there is a small element of doubt due to the
monument dating from Dynasty V, the Palermo Stone, in mentioning the making of
a statue of Min in Dynasty I, provides an image of the god as anthropomorphic
and ithyphallic, indicating that this was his form from the beginning of Egypt’s
dynastic history.
Sizeable fragments of three limestone colossal statues of
Min, discovered at Qift and now in the Ashmolean Museum, could prove the point
if they date to this archaic period. It is definitely a ‘primitive’ Min
represented by these statues in the cylindrical body and the style of the wide
beard. Incisings on the statues of elephants and sawfish are of a genre found
on small ivories and cylinder seals of the late Predynastic Era and even
support the archaeologically attested contact with civilisations flourishing in
southern Iraq and Iran. But some scholars have doubted that the sculptures
predate the Old Kingdom.
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| A king presenting to Min |
Min in the Pyramid Age
The god is likely to be the deity described in the Pyramid
spells as ‘he whose arm is raised in the east’. In a princess’s mastaba tomb at
Giza (Dynasty V) there is a reference to a feast celebrating the god – the ‘procession
of Min’ – so his cult is obviously well established in terms of an organised
priesthood. Relating to the god’s temple at Qift are royal decrees from the end
of the Old Kingdom exempting certain chapels (e.g. that built in the name of Queen
Iput, mother of King Pepi I, Dynasty VI) from taxation.
Min in the Middle Kingdom
Some of the finest representations of the god in Egyptian
art date to this era, such as the limestone relief in the Petrie Museum at
University College London from Qift showing Senwosret I (Dynasty XII)
performing part of his jubilee celebrations before Min. In the private Coffin
Texts, the sexual prowess of the god is seen as a desirable quality to possess
in the Afterlife, hence the deceased describes himself as the ‘woman-hunting’
Min. Some interesting epithets of Min occur in the hymn of Sobek-Iry (Dynasty
XII) in the Louvre Museum. The god ‘high of plumes’ is the ‘lord of awe’ who
humbles the proud. He possesses all the valued incense originating from
equatorial Africa by his domination of Nubia – compare the Wadi Hammamat
inscription of King Mentuhotep IV (Dynasty XI) which calls him ‘ruler of the
Iuntiu’, i.e. Nubian bowmen.
The New Kingdom festivals of
Min
The pharaoh, in the celebratory rituals surrounding his
coronation, participated in a major procession and feast in honour of Min whose
powers of fertility and regeneration could be seen as symbolising the vigorous
renewal of sovereignty. At Thebes this festival has been carved on the second
pylon of the Ramesseum, the mortuary temple of Ramesses II (Dynasty XIX) but a
better preserved representation is found in the second court of the temple at
Medinet Habu, built by Ramesses III (Dynasty XX).
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