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ATUM
ATUM
Creator-god and solar deity of HELIOPOLlS, where he was gradually syncretized with the sun-god RA, to form lhe god Ra-Atum. According to the Heliopolitan theology, Atum caine into being before heaven and earth were separated, rising up from NUN, the waters of chaos, to form the PRIMEVAL MOUND. His name means 'the all', signifying his CREATION and summation of all that exists.
Atum's creation of the universe was conceptualized in terms ofa family of nine gods known as the Heliopolitan ENNEAD. Thus the two offspring of Atum, SHU (air) and TEFNUT (moisture), became the parents of GEB (earth) and NUT (sky), and the grandparents of OSIRIS, 1515, SETH and NEPI-ITHYS. Atum was said to have produced Shu and Tefnut by copulating with his hand or, according to other sources, spitting them into being. There has been some debate as to whether Arum's act of procreation constituted masturbation or copulation, in that his hand seems to have represented the female principle. Both Atum and his hand were therefore portrayed as a divine couple on coffins of the First Intermediate Period. Similarly, the title 'god's hand' was adopted by Theban priestesses supposedly married to the god AMUN.
Arum was regarded as a protective deilY, particularly associated with the rituals of kingship. It was Atum who lifted the dead king from his pyramid to the heavens in order to transform him into a star-god, and in later times he protected the deceased during the journey through the underworld.
He is usually depicted as an anthropomorphic deity often wearing the double crown. The animals particularly sacred to him were the lion, the bull, the ICHNEUMON and the lizard. while he was also believed to be manifested in the SCARAB, which emerged from its ball of dung just as ATUM appeared from the primeval mound. Sometimes he was portrayed in the essentially primordial form of a snake.
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