Min despited by Jeff Dahl
Min was an Egyptian god of fertility, notably male virility.
He was usually considered to be the son of Ra or Shu, or the Semitic Anat and Resheph, and the consortof Sekhmet. Occasionally he was thought to be the son-husband of Isis or Iabet and the father of Horus.
A sky-god whose symbol was the thunderbolt, Min was worshiped to restore lost male fertility, and evolved into a much revered god. The barbed thunderbolt-arrow of Min, over time, became the very first hieroglyph, the one above the standard in his name. Min was the oldest known god in Egypt, predating even Ra. Known since the Predynastic Period, Min was possibly worshiped by the ancient Scorpion King.
Min was worshiped right through Predynastic times up to the Roman Period, a deity whose temples were built and rebuilt through Egypt's entire history. Amulets of Min, made of gold, bronze, and faience, were very popular with men. One myth claims that Min was a human man who was promoted to the God of Fertility after making love to all the women in Egypt while the men were away at war, his children growing up to be the greatest army that Egypt had ever seen.
Min was a god of creation and vegetation, and was also the patron of miners and of travelers and caravans in the eastern desert. He was preeminently a god of male sexuality, and was honored in the coronation rites of the pharaohs to ensure their sexual vigor and the production of a male heir. Men left wooden and stone phalli in his temples, seeking cures for impotence. Under a temple of Min, archeologists have unearthed a collection of baked clay fertility charms representing both the male and female sex organs.
Min was seen as a rain god that promoted the fertility of nature, especially in the growing of grain. There are scenes of pharaohsceremonially hoeing the ground and watering the fields under the supervision of Min. The beginning of Shemu, the harvest, was called the “Coming Forth of Min.” During festivals of Min his statue was carried by priests throughout the city, preceded by a white bull and followed by men holding bundles of lettuce. Statues of Min were carried out to protect and bless the fields, and the first fruits of the harvest were presented to him.
Not surprisingly, the Festival of Min was blatantly sexual in nature, with sacred dances and naked gymnastic games played in his honor. Women ate phallus-shaped loaves of bread for fertility. Depictions of men climbing poles at the Festival of Min used to be thought of as an activity Egyptologists called “Climbing for Min.” It is now known that this was a important part of the festival - the erection of a huge festival tent.
As a god of male sexual potency, Min was honored during the coronation rites of the New Kingdom, when the pharaoh was expected to sow his seed - generally thought to have been plant seeds, although there have been suggestions that the pharaoh was expected to demonstrate that he could ejaculate, and thus prove that he had the vigor and health expected of a ruler.
An inscription from the Temple of Abydos concerning the pharaoh Ramses II calls him “Lord of many provisions and abundance of barley . . . there is a plenteous harvest wherever his sandals may be.” The scribe here makes a sly pun, referring not simply to the growing fields of grain, but also to the sandals of Ramses under the beds of his many courtesans. Ramses II, known to scholars as Ramses the Great, was said to have sired well over ninety children, and was considered in his time to be the living embodiment of the god Min.
Min was called the “most male of the gods.” He was depicted as a mummified, bearded man with legs bound together, holding his erect phallus in his left hand, and a flail in his upraised right hand. The way Min holds his flailmay be symbolic of sexual intercourse - the flail forms the V while his upraised forearm seems to thrust inside the V. Min often wears the Two Feathers Crownor around his forehead a red ribbon that trails to the ground, representing sexual energy. Min’s skin was often black, a reference to the fertile Nile soil. In rare instances he was pictured as a falcon.
The symbols of Min were the white bull Mnevis, a barbed arrow-thunderbolt, and a bed of lettuce (believed to be an aphrodisiac, as Egyptian lettuce is long, firm, and releases a milky substance when pressed, an innuendo clearly referring to the phallus.) Lettuces in pots were left as votive offerings in his temples. Min was also associated with the constellation Orion - the three bright stars of Orion's Belt were thought to be his erect phallus.
Despite being a god of the barren desert, Min was still a fertility god and also a lunar god – moon deities tended to be gods relating to moisture and thus of fertility. As a lunar deity Min was sometimes given the title “Protector of the Moon.” In this capacity, the god was related to the Egyptian calendar - the last day of the lunar month was consecrated to the deity, and the day was known as “The Exit of Min.” One of his most important titles was Kamutef (“Bull of His Mother”) - Min was thought to secretly unite with his mother under cover of darkness to begot his own reborn Self.
Min also had a destructive side, rather than just creative. There are some indications that there was a ritual in the Egyptian military for ensuring the subjugation of prisoners - as in the story of Set and Horus - it involved “impregnating” (and so emasculating) the prisoner, and so the erect state of his penis could relate to victory over the enemy. Consequently, some war goddesses were depicted with the body of Min (including the erect phallus), and this also led to depictions, ostensibly of Min, with the head of a lioness. The flail that Min often holds was used to show the pharaoh’s supremacy over his enemies, and was therefore linked to both power and destruction