Ogdoad (Egyptian)

The earliest certain reference to the Ogdoad is from the Eighteenth Dynasty, in a dedicatory inscription by Hatshepsut at the Speos Artemidos.

[2] Texts of the Late Period describe them as having the heads of frogs (male) and serpents (female), and they are often depicted in this way in reliefs of the last dynasty, the Ptolemaic Kingdom.

From the context of a number of passages in which Ḥeḥu is mentioned, however, Brugsch also suggested that the names may be a personification of the atmosphere between heaven and earth (c.f.

The common meaning of qerḥ is "night", but the determinative (D41 for "to halt, stop, deny") also suggests the principle of inactivity or repose.

[6] Nevertheless, there have been attempts to assign "four ontological concepts"[7] to the four pairs: For example, in the context of the New Kingdom, Karenga (2004) uses "fluidity" (for "flood, waters"), "darkness", "unboundedness", and "invisibility" (or "repose, inactivity").

A depiction of the Ogdoad based off a Roman era relief at the Hathor temple in Dendera in which some have frog heads and others have serpent heads
The Ogdoad with both their male and female consorts
Drawing of a representation of the Ogdoad in the temple of Philae [ 1 ]