Mentu

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Categories: Egyptian Godforms | The Gnostic Saints

Revision as of 17:53, 10 Jul 2005

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In Egyptian mythology, Menthu was a hawk-god of war. Bakha the bull-god was his avatar. Menthu's name is technically transcribed from Egyptian hieroglyphs as mntw. Because of the difficulty in transcribing Egyptian, it is often realised as Mentju, Montju, Menthu, Ment, Month, Montu or Mont. Montu’s name means "Nomad." A powerful royal god, he made pharaohs victorious in battle. Montu was the patron of all manner of martial arts and warfare, strength, and masculine virility. He was pictured as a falcon-headed or bull-headed man who wore the sun-disc, with two plumes on his head. Montu was also associated with a white bull with a black face, called Buchis. Egypt’s greatest general-kings called themselves "Mighty Bulls," the sons of Montu. Montu was thought to be the son of Amun and Mut.

Menthu and Thelema

The Stele of Revealing was prepared for (and possibly by) Ankh-af-na-khonsu, a priest of Mentu. On the obverse of the Stele he is referred to as "The deceased, priest of Monthu, Lord of Thebes. . . ." On the reverse, he is again described as "the Osiris (i.e. the deceased), the priest of Monthu (Mentu), Lord of Thebes, the one who opens the doors of the sky in Karnak, the justified Ankh-f-n-Khonsu." These words were paraphrased by Aleister Crowley in The Book of the Law as:

I am the Lord of Thebes, and I

      The inspired forth-speaker of Mentu. . .

I am thy Theban, O Mentu, The prophet Ankh-af-na-khonsu!

and on the reverse:

Saith of Mentu the truth-telling brother

      Who was master of Thebes from his birth . . . .

References

• Wikipedia. (2005). Menthu (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menthu). Retrieved March 2, 2005.
• Thelemapedia. (2005) [1] (http://www.thelemapedia.org/index.php/Stele_of_Revealing). Retrieved July 10, 2005.
• Crowley, Aleister. The Book of the Law (c)OTO.