Banebdjedet
also Banebdjet
A fertility god, the "Ba of the Lord of Mendes" [1] was originally a ram with horns shaped like cork-screws, later he was often thought of as a he-goat. He was the ba of Re, Shu, Geb and Osiris.According to Herodotus his devotees did not sacrifice goats:
[2.42.1] Those, on the contrary, who possess a temple dedicated to Mendes, or belong to the Mendesian canton, abstain from offering goats, and sacrifice sheep instead.According to Diodorus Siculus the ram represented the most basic of urges and was thus the prime originator of life:
[2.46.1] I mentioned above that some of the Egyptians abstain from sacrificing goats, either male or female. The reason is the following:- These Egyptians, who are the Mendesians, consider Pan to be one of the eight gods who existed before the twelve, and Pan is represented in Egypt by the painters and the sculptors, just as he is in Greece, with the face and legs of a goat. They do not, however, believe this to be his shape, or consider him in any respect unlike the other gods; but they represent him thus for a reason which I prefer not to relate. The Mendesians hold all goats in veneration, but the male more than the female, giving the goatherds of the males especial honour. One is venerated more highly than all the rest, and when he dies there is a great mourning throughout all the Mendesian canton. In Egyptian, the goat and Pan are both called Mendes.Herodotus, Euterpe
The Egyptians have deified the ram for the same reasons for which the worship of Priapos was introduced among the Greeks: because of his member of procreation. They attribute the strongest copulation drive to these animals and consider the member, to which all living things owe their existence, to be worthy of veneration. They claim that it was considerd holy as the fount of animal life during secret initiation ceremonies in all other lands as well, it was this deity into the secrets of which the priests of Egypt when entering into the office of their fathers were initiated first. For the same reason the Pans and satyrs were venerated; and for the same reason their images in the temples were endowed with erect penes so that they would resemble the ram which was a very fertile animal. With such images the people wanted to express their thanks for the large number of their childrenBanebdjedet was one of the umpires in the Contendings of Horus and Seth, having to decide who should inherit Osiris as ruler of the earth.Diodorus Siculus Historical Library I.88
After a German translation by Julius Friedrich Wurm
