The Ogdoad of Khmunu

 

 

The Ogdoad is a system of four pairs of Deities each pair having a male and female aspect. These are the four creative powers of primeval chaos, the number four being the number of completeness. The Ogdoad is the personification of the forces of primeval chaos

 

These creative powers are:

 

Nun and Naunet, the primeval waters,

Heh and Hauhet eternity or infinite space,

Kuk and Kuaket darkness before time began,

Amun and Amaunet that which is invisible or hidden.

 

They are symbolically depicted as aquatic creatures because they dwelt within the water of chaos.

 

The male Deities are depicted with frog heads and the female Deities with serpent heads

 

Ogdoad means eight in Greek, Khmunu meaning city of eight in the ancient language which was used in the lands of Mizraim and Kham named after Noah's son, known today as Egypt.

 

Khmunu (Khemenu) is better known as Hermopolis Magna or Hermopolis which is Greek for the city of Hermes, known today asel-Ashmunein. Hermopolis was the fifteenth Nome of Upper Egypt.

 

A nome (Greek) or sepat in Egyptian is an administrational division of Ancient Egypt in use as far back as before 3100 BC.

 

Hermopolis was the centre for the worship of Thoth, known as Hermes in Greece.

 

Thoth the god of magic, healing and wisdom, and the patron of scribes is represented by the Ibis. Thoth is the direct descendent of Amun and Amaunet the creative power of that which is hidden.

 

These four dual Deities comprise the substance from which creation was made. The interaction of these eight elements caused a burst of energy out of which the primeval mound arose from the waters of chaos.

 

This primeval mound was originally called the ‘Isle of Flame’ because the sun god Re was said to have risen for the first time from there. The Isle of flame would later come to be knows as Hermopolis.

 

The city of Hermopolis claimed to have the oldest creation theory and it is this story of the Ogdoad that has distinct similarities to the creation story found in the Christian Books of the Old Testament.