March 17, 2021
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Ipy mistress of magical protection

 

Classification: Goddess/neter

 

Culture: North African Kemetic/Egyptian

 

Cult Center: Thebes, Karnak Temple Complex

 

Associated: Motherhood

Literary references: Pyramid text

 

Ipy appear as a benevolent guardian and wet nurse to the pharaoh.

 

She is perceived to exert a benign influence on amulet.

 

Opet was usually depicted as some sort of combination of hippopotamus, crocodile, human and lion, though her hippopotamus aspect is dominant. She was represented as a female hippopotamus, usually standing upright on legs which have the feet of a lion.

The Hippo itself is associated with the protective nature of mother as is reflected in the neter Taweret.

 

First reference to her comes from the Pyramid Texts, where the king asks that he may nurse at her breast so that he would "neither thirst nor hunger...forever".

 

 Afterwards, she is called "mistress of magical protection" in funerary papyri. Under the epithet 'the great Opet',

 

She appears to have had a very strong connection with the Theban area and might have even been considered a personification of that city. In the theology of Thebes, she was thought to be the mother of Ausar.

 

 

 

Title

 

Author

 

Date

 

Publisher

 

Reference Number

 

Ancient Gods Speak, The: A Guide to Egyptian Religion

 

Redford, Donald B.

 

2002

 

Oxford University Press

 

ISBN 0-19-515401-0

 

Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt, The

 

Wilkinson, Richard H.

 

2003

 

Thames & Hudson, LTD

 

ISBN 0-500-05120-8

 

Conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt: The One and the Many

 

Hornung, Erik

 

1971

 

Cornell University Press

 

ISBN 0-8014-8384-0

 

Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, A

 

Hart, George

 

1986

 

Routledge

 

ISBN 0-415-05909-7

 

Egyptian Religion

 

Morenz, Siegfried

 

1973

 

Cornell University Press

 

ISBN 0-8014-8029-9

 

Gods and Myths of Ancient Egypt

 

Armour, Robert A.

 

1986

 

American University in Cairo Press, The

 

ISBN 977 424 669 1

 

Gods of Ancient Egypt, The

 

Vernus, Pascal

 

1998

 

George Braziller Publisher

 

ISBN 0-8076-1435-1

 

Gods of the Egyptians, The (Studies in Egyptian Mythology)

 

Budge, E. A. Wallis

 

1969

 

Dover Publications, Inc.

 

ISBN 486-22056-7