Hapi (Nile god)

Hapi was the god of the annual flooding of the Nile in ancient Egyptian religion.
Hapi
The flood deposited rich silt (fertile soil) on the river's banks, allowing the
Egyptians to grow crops.[1] Hapi was greatly celebrated among the Egyptians.
Some of the titles of Hapi were "Lord of the Fish and Birds of the Marshes" and
"Lord of the River Bringing Vegetation". Hapi is typically depicted as an
androgynous figure with a big belly and large drooping breasts, wearing a
loincloth and ceremonial false beard.[2]

Contents
Mythology
Iconography
References
Further reading
External links

Mythology
The annual flooding of the Nile occasionally was said to be the Arrival of
Hapi.[1] Since this flooding provided fertile soil in an area that was otherwise
desert, Hapi symbolised fertility. He had large female breasts because he was
said to bring a rich and nourishing harvest. Due to his fertile nature he was Hapi, bearing offerings
sometimes considered the "father of the gods",[1] and was considered to be a Name in hieroglyphs
caring father who helped to maintain the balance of the cosmos, the world or
universe regarded as an orderly, harmonious system.[1] He was thought to live
within a cavern at the supposed source of the Nile near Aswan.[3] The cult of Major cult center Elephantine
Hapi was mainly located at the First Cataract named Elephantine. His priests
Symbol Lotus plant
were involved in rituals to ensure the steady levels of flow required from the
annual flood. At Elephantine the official nilometer, a measuring device, was carefully monitored to predict the level of the flood,
and his priests must have been intimately concerned with its monitoring.

Hapi was not regarded as the god of the Nile itself but of the inundation event.[1] He was also considered a "friend of Geb" the
Egyptian god of the earth,[4] and the "lord of Neper", the god of grain.[5]

Iconography
Although male and wearing the false beard, Hapi was pictured with pendulous breasts and a large stomach, as representations of
the fertility of the Nile. He also was usually given blue[2] or green skin, representing water. Other attributes varied, depending
upon the region of Egypt in which the depictions exist. In Lower Egypt, he was adorned with papyrus plants and attended by
frogs, present in the region, and symbols of it. Whereas in Upper Egypt, it was the lotus and crocodiles which were more present
in the Nile, thus these were the symbols of the region, and those associated with Hapi there. Hapi often was pictured carrying

Limestone slab showing the Nile
flood god Hapi. 12th Dynasty. From
the foundations of the temple of
Thutmose III, Koptos, Egypt. Petrie
Museum of Egyptian Archaeology,
London
seated statues of the pharaoh.[2]
offerings of food or pouring
water from an amphora, but
also, very rarely, was depicted
as a hippopotamus. During the
Nineteenth Dynasty Hapi is
often depicted as a pair of
figures, each holding and tying
together the long stem of two
plants representing Upper and
Lower Egypt, symbolically
binding the two halves of the
Hapi, shown as an iconographic pair
country around a hieroglyph
of genii symbolically tying together
meaning "union".[2] This upper and lower Egypt
symbolic representation was
often carved at the base of

Egyptian historian Al Maqrizi (1364–1442) related in his "El Khutat El Maqrizia

(The Maqrizian Plans) that living virgins were sacrificed annually as "brides of
the Nile" ("Arous El Nil") and this has been historically accepted as late as the
1970s.[6] but this claim is disputed by some Egyptologists such as Bassam El
Shammaa.[7]

Hapi is featured in Egyptian Money.

References
1. Wilkinson, p.106
2. Wilkinson, p.107
3. Wilkinson, p.108
4. Wilkinson, p.105
5. Wilkinson, p.117
6. Desmond Stewart, Wonders of Man The Pyramids and the Sphinx pg.99
7. https://www.masress.com/en/dailynews/107916

Works cited

Wilkinson, Richard H. (2003). The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt (https://archive.org/details/c
ompletegodsgodd00wilk_0). Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-05120-7.

Further reading
Bonneau, Danielle (1964). La Crue du Nil: Divinité égyptienne, à travers mille ans d'histoire 332 av.–641 ap. J.–
C., d'après les auteurs grecs et latins (in French). C. Klincksieck.

External links
Hapi, God of the Nile, Fertility, the North and South (http://www.thekeep.org/~kunoichi/kunoichi/themestream/hap
i.html)
Egyptian God - Hapi: Father of the gods (http://www.egyptartsite.com/hapi.html)
Ancient Egypt: The Mythology - Hapi (http://www.egyptianmyths.net/hapi.htm)
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