"Mūt"

MUT, whose name means ‘MOTHER’, is usually depicted either anthropomorphically, wearing a Vulture Headdress and the Double Crown of Egypt united – the only Goddess to wear this Crown regularly – or as a Lioness-Headed Woman. Although the hieroglyphic sign of the vulture forms her name, she is NOT a Vulture Goddess like Nekhbet; rather, the Vulture Headdress serves, as in the case of other Goddesses who wear it, to signify Her MATERNAL QUALITY.

As MUT, was said to be the wife of AMUN, with whom she is the MOTHER of KHENSU. From the time of HATSHEPSET onward, MUT is also regarded as the MOTHER OF THE PHAROAH. She almost always bears the epithet Weret, or ‘Great’, which, interestingly, when combined with Mut can be read as ‘Grandmother’.

Mut is said to be “THE MOTHER WHO BECAME A DAUGHTER,” or “THE DAUGHTER-MOTHER WHO MADE HER BEGETTER,” expressing A POWER OF SELF-CREATION similar to that expressed for AMUN by the epithet kamutef, ‘BULL OF HIS MOTHER’, meaning 'one who is his own father'.

Related to this aspect of MUT may be depictions of Her with an erect penis, indicating Her CAPACITY to CREATE HERSELF ANEW AS HER OWN DAUGHTER.

An extraordinary work undertaken in honor of Mut is the so-called ‘Crossword Hymn to Mut’, designed to be read in three directions. In this long hymn, MUT absorbs the attributes of many other Goddesses. Her distinctive character of MOTHER/DAUGHTER emerges, however, in passages like these: “His [Amun-Re's] daughter lives in his sight, she having appeared as his mother, and he being protected because of her,” (19 vertical).

The protective function exercised by MUT here is both essentially hers, in common with other deities envisioned as LIONESSES, WRATHFUL DEITIES who DEFEND LIFE and THE COSMIC ORDER, and a result of her identification in this hymn with the URAEUS, the PROTECTIVE COBRA perched upon the brow of RE as His SPECIAL PROTECTION.

Characteristic of MUT are the explicit references to Her REJUVENATION OF HERSELF:
“Her limbs are rejuvenated … Re of Heliopolis … recognizes Her as His daughter,”
(20 vertical);

“… Her Name of ‘She Who becomes rejuvenated’,” (54 vertical).

Particular to Mut as well is the juxtaposition between the HIDDENESS of Her Husband (AMUN, literally ‘THE HIDDEN’) and HER OWN MANIFESTNESS:

“The Lord of Eternity sits while She acts by means of Her Word,” (13 vertical).
She is the MANIFEST ENERGY OF THE SUN ITSELF:

“The Ennead sees by means of Her Rays every day,” (44 vertical);

“Indeed, She is This Light of Day, The Great One Who Endures Through Her Name,”
i.e. of MUT, ‘MOTHER’ (46 vertical);

“The Noble Sun-Disk, Who is in The Heart, The Sole One, whose Face is The Light,”
(54 vertical).
~ ♥ ∞∞ ♥ ~