Denominations of the Egyptian God Ha

Abstract

The desert-god Ha had theologically integrated the ancient Egyptian religious beliefs from a veryearly period as he was mentioned in the main funeral corpus of the Pyramid and Coffin Texts aswell. This survey aims to shed more light on the different aspects of Ha and the roles he playedthroughout an analytical study of his formal and particular names and epithets from the OldKingdom (2647-2150 BC) to the end of the Greco-Roman period (332 BC-642 AD). Named «1A: HA, 1A-Imn-Wn-nfr: HA-Amon-Wen-nofre, 1A aA: Ha-the-Great, 1A-m-5tA: Ha in Sheta,1A-4pd: Ha-Soped, 1A-4kr: Ha-Soker and 1r-1A: Horus-HA », the desert-god Ha was describedas « Nb Imntt: Lord of the West », « aA pHty: Great of might », « wr Sfyt: Great of terror », « nbpHty: Lord of might », « nTr mnx: Potent god », « sxm dm pt: Puissance who touches the sky »and « qA-a: High of arm », whose invincibility was thought to provide protection not only forEgypt especially the western deserts and their oases from enemies such as desert nomads,invading Libyan tribesmen, Asiatic people and Bedouin tribes, but also for the Underworld. Forthe most part, the different names and epithets applied to Ha determine definitely his dual natureof hostility and protection: he appeared as a punisher of the foreign Lands and, at the same time,as a powerful protector and a funerary god.