KHENTI-AMENTIU

I. Name

Khenti-Amentiu's name, possibly still a title, is attested from royal necropolis seals that date to the era of the Pharaoh Den at Abydos after 2970BCE. They reference the reign of the first Pharaoh, Narmer, but nonetheless cannot be proven to be a copy from that period.

The name Ḫntj-jmntjw means the Foremost [One] of the Westerners, the name being equated with the mysterious western direction of the sunset, important to the mechanics of symbolism of the Egyptian necropolis for thousands of years.^{1, 2, 3}

Khenti-Amentiu in terms of this symbolism is thought to be a very old god. The earliest iconographic form attached to the name is the jackal determinative on the Early Dynastic evidence. Mark Smith’s exact caution about using this is that Khenti-Amentiu is written with a “recumbent jackal determinative” that makes a specific identification difficult.^{4, 5, 6}

Unequivocal evidence for him as an independent deity is later, during the second half of the Fifth Dynasty, where his ritual formulae begin to diverge from those of Osiris and Anubis.^{4, 7}

Sources: Wilkinson, Early Dynastic Egypt (1999); Smith, ollowing Osiris: Perspectives on the Osirian Afterlife from Four Millennia (2017); “ḫnt.j-jmn.tjw,” Lemma ID 119180. Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae^3,4,8

II. Ancient God

Khenti-Amentiu is probably one of the oldest Egyptian gods. Abydos, one of the most ancient Egyptian polities, is where he emerges in tandem with the oldest Pharaohs. His jackal symbolism is arcane and particularly difficult to distinguish from that of Wepwawet or Anubis whose presence in Egyptian religion dates quite a long way back in turn. In the quoted written evidence, he appears with many Horus names^{9, 10}:

Khentiamentiu, Horus Narmer, Khentiamentiu, Horus Aha, Khentiamentiu, Horus Djer, Horus Wadj, Horus Den, King’s Mother Meret-Neith...
Seal sequence, the necropolis seal of Den

Toby Wilkinson says it is likely that the first temple of Abydos founded in the late Predynastic period was dedicated to Khenti-Amentiu, but his contention is a reconstruction of cult history rather than being rooted in any particular evidence. After the Old Kingdom, he increasingly is conflated with Osiris, whose worship at the old city absorbs his with time, particularly when the god of the dead dons the white crown.³

The title is used numerous times in the Pyramid Texts in reference to Osiris and Anubis. In the Unis text 306, offerings of abundance to the deceased seem to be connected to the title. The Pharaoh Teti as Osiris is said in numerous places to act in the guise of the Foremost of the Westerners, and Pepi is shown in this way also. Anubis is likened to the Pharaoh's staff at the westerner's fore. Uniquely, one goddess, Neith, is also taken to assume that identity in the Pyramid Text 666.¹¹

The final depiction of Khenti-Amentiu as a deity in his own right belongs to an Eleventh Dynasty depiction at Abydos, especially the mahat-chapel of Nebhepetre Mentuhotep II. It is a curiosity to Egyptologists why the god as an independent form seems to disappear, dispersing his cult title among Osiris and Anubis. Mentuhotep ended the first Intermediate Period, reuniting Egypt and becoming the first Pharaoh of the Middle Kingdom. The dispersal may be rooted in that union.^{12, 13}

III. The Lord of the Westerners

Khenti-Amentiu is an epithet meaning the Lord of the Westerners. The title seems to indicate a rulership over the setting place where she sun disappears, a realm tied to the dead in Egyptian thought. He was also called the Sovereign of the Ennead.^{16, 17}

IV. The Temples of Khenti-Amentiu

Abydos

As said, the first temple at Abydos was possibly consecrated to Khenti-Amentiu. Penn’s Abydos report states for that reason: “the earliest were dedicated to Khentamenty, the original god of Abydos...” It existed within the temple enclosure of Osiris, and it eventually became the Great Temple of Osiris-Khentiamentiu that dominated the area.^18,19

Another site existed at the presinct of Pepi I to the south, which intersects with the evidence from the Pyramid Texts. Pepi built a rock-cut shrine to Khenti-Amentiu that explicitly shows him as an indpendent god with a distinctive liturgical bent. The Mahat-chapel of Nebhepetre Mentuhotep II is the final site referencing the god independently.^6,12,20

V. The West in the Egyptian Mind

Egyptians often conveyed that burial places would be eternal resting homes, even sometimes named as the real and true homes, of the deceased. The necropolis was seen as being, in a sense, visible as the world of our direct perception before us all. The orientation of Egyptian society was singularly unique in that way, the way in which it put the abode of the invisible on an equal par. Khenti-Amentiu being the foremost one of the direction concerned with the dead was a major status.^21,22

The west is where the sun disappears because the earth spins from west to east, doing so exactly on the spring and autumn equinoxes. It then makes its mysterious renewal from the east the next day. So, in its essence, the cardinal direction was almost viewed as a portal, allegorical of death. The sign of Libra and the 7th House represents this astrologically.^23,24

A litany of ancient authors commenting on Egypt corroborate the importance of the western direction. Herodotus, Diodorus and others place the pyramids' direction towards Libya. Strabo paying witness to Thebes in his time says the Memnonium and the rock-cut "tombs of kings" are located on the far side of the river, to the west-bank necropolis.^26,27,28

Additionally, the west itself was codified as a goddess, the mysterious Amentet.²⁹ Amenti themselves as a group were believed to dwell where the sun set, and Khenti was their lord. Occasionally, Khenti-Amentiu was represented as a hawk.^30,31