Hapy
Encyclopedia
Flood
A flood is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land. The EU Floods directive defines a flood as a temporary covering by water of land not normally covered by water...
ing (inundation) of the Nile River in Ancient Egyptian religion, which deposited rich silt on its banks, allowing the Egyptians to grow crops. His name means Running One, probably referring to the current of the Nile. Some of the titles of Hapi were, Lord of the Fish
Fish
Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...
es and Birds of the Marshes and Lord of the River Bringing Vegetation. He is typically depicted as a man with a large belly wearing a loincloth, having long hair and having pendulous, female-like breasts. The annual flooding of the Nile occasionally was said to be the Arrival of Hapi. Since this flooding provided fertile
Fertility
Fertility is the natural capability of producing offsprings. As a measure, "fertility rate" is the number of children born per couple, person or population. Fertility differs from fecundity, which is defined as the potential for reproduction...
soil in an area that was otherwise desert, Hapi, as its patron, symbolised fertile lands. Consequently, although male
Male
Male refers to the biological sex of an organism, or part of an organism, which produces small mobile gametes, called spermatozoa. Each spermatozoon can fuse with a larger female gamete or ovum, in the process of fertilization...
and wearing the false beard
Beard
A beard is the collection of hair that grows on the chin, cheeks and neck of human beings. Usually, only pubescent or adult males are able to grow beards. However, women with hirsutism may develop a beard...
, Hapi was pictured with breasts and a large belly, as representations of the fertility
Fertility
Fertility is the natural capability of producing offsprings. As a measure, "fertility rate" is the number of children born per couple, person or population. Fertility differs from fecundity, which is defined as the potential for reproduction...
of the Nile. He also was usually given blue or green skin, resembling that of Nu, representing water. Due to his fertile nature he was sometimes considered the "father of the gods", and was considered to be a caring father who helped to maintain the balance of the cosmos.
It may be the case that originally, Hapi (or a variation on it), was an earlier name used for the Nile itself, since it was said (inaccurately) that the Nile began between Mu-Hapi and Kher-Hapi, at the southern edge of Egypt where the two tributaries entered the region (its sources are two lakes, one of which is Lake Victoria
Lake Victoria
Lake Victoria is one of the African Great Lakes. The lake was named for Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, by John Hanning Speke, the first European to discover this lake....
). Nevertheless Hapi was not regarded as the god of the Nile itself but of the inundation event. He was also considered a "friend of Geb
Geb
Geb was the Egyptian god of the Earth and a member of the Ennead of Heliopolis. It was believed in ancient Egypt that Geb's laughter was earthquakes and that he allowed crops to grow. The name was pronounced as such from the Greek period onward,...
" the Egyptian god of the earth
Soil
Soil is a natural body consisting of layers of mineral constituents of variable thicknesses, which differ from the parent materials in their morphological, physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics...
, and the "lord of Neper
Neper (mythology)
In Egyptian mythology, Neper was a god of grain, while Nepit was a goddess of grain, and the female counterpart of Neper. -In myth:...
", the god of grain
GRAIN
GRAIN is a small international non-profit organisation that works to support small farmers and social movements in their struggles for community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems. Our support takes the form of independent research and analysis, networking at local, regional and...
.
Other attributes varied, depending upon the region of Egypt in which the depictions exist. In Lower Egypt, he was adorned with papyrus
Papyrus
Papyrus is a thick paper-like material produced from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus, a wetland sedge that was once abundant in the Nile Delta of Egypt....
plants and attended by frog
Frog
Frogs are amphibians in the order Anura , formerly referred to as Salientia . Most frogs are characterized by a short body, webbed digits , protruding eyes and the absence of a tail...
s, present in the region, and symbols of it. Whereas in Upper Egypt, it was the lotus
Blue lotus
Blue lotus may refer to:* Nymphaea caerulea, also known as the Blue Egyptian water lily, an aquatic flower native to Egypt* Nymphaea nouchali, also known as the Red and blue water lily, Blue star water lily or Star lotus,an aquatic flower native to the Indian subcontinent* Nelumbo nucifera, also...
and crocodile
Nile crocodile
The Nile crocodile or Common crocodile is an African crocodile which is common in Somalia, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Egypt, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Gabon, South Africa, Malawi, Sudan, Botswana, and Cameroon...
s which were more present in the Nile, thus these were the symbols of the region, and those associated with Hapi there. Hapi often was pictured carrying offerings of food or pouring water from an amphora
Amphora
An amphora is a type of vase-shaped, usually ceramic container with two handles and a long neck narrower than the body...
, but also, very rarely, was depicted as a hippopotamus
Hippopotamus
The hippopotamus , or hippo, from the ancient Greek for "river horse" , is a large, mostly herbivorous mammal in sub-Saharan Africa, and one of only two extant species in the family Hippopotamidae After the elephant and rhinoceros, the hippopotamus is the third largest land mammal and the heaviest...
.
When pairing of deities began to occur in the Egyptian pantheon
Egyptian pantheon
The Egyptian pantheon consisted of the many gods worshipped by the Ancient Egyptians. A number of major deities are addressed as the creator of the cosmos. These include Atum, Ra, Amun and Ptah amongst others, as well as composite forms of these gods such as Amun-Ra. This was not seen as...
, occasionally a token wife, named Meret
Meret
In Egyptian mythology, Meret was a goddess who was strongly associated with rejoicing, such as singing and dancing.-In myth:...
(simply meaning beloved), was given to him. However, more usually, since the Nile was tied to the land, later, Hapi was said to become the husband of the patron of the land, which in Upper Egypt
Upper Egypt
Upper Egypt is the strip of land, on both sides of the Nile valley, that extends from the cataract boundaries of modern-day Aswan north to the area between El-Ayait and Zawyet Dahshur . The northern section of Upper Egypt, between El-Ayait and Sohag is sometimes known as Middle Egypt...
was Nekhbet
Nekhbet
In Egyptian mythology, Nekhbet was an early predynastic local goddess who was the patron of the city of Nekheb, her name meaning of Nekheb...
, and in Lower Egypt
Lower Egypt
Lower Egypt is the northern-most section of Egypt. It refers to the fertile Nile Delta region, which stretches from the area between El-Aiyat and Zawyet Dahshur, south of modern-day Cairo, and the Mediterranean Sea....
was Wadjet
Wadjet
In Egyptian mythology, Wadjet, or the Green One , was originally the ancient local goddess of the city of Dep , which became part of the city that the Egyptians named Per-Wadjet, House of...
. After a while, he became identified with Nun
Naunet
In Egyptian mythology, Nu or Nun is the deification of the primordial watery abyss. In the Ogdoad cosmogony, the name nu means "abyss"....
, a paired deification created for the primordial waters, Naunet
Naunet
In Egyptian mythology, Nu or Nun is the deification of the primordial watery abyss. In the Ogdoad cosmogony, the name nu means "abyss"....
, in the late Ogdoad
Ogdoad
In Egyptian mythology, the Ogdoad were eight deities worshipped in Hermopolis during what is called the Old Kingdom, the third through sixth dynasties, dated between 2686 to 2134 BC...
cosmogony. Thus, Hapi gained her as wife also, since Nu was created to make a pair for Naunet.
He was thought to live with a cavern at the supposed source of the Nile near Aswan
Aswan
Aswan , formerly spelled Assuan, is a city in the south of Egypt, the capital of the Aswan Governorate.It stands on the east bank of the Nile at the first cataract and is a busy market and tourist centre...
. The cult of Hapi was mainly located at the First Cataract named Elephantine
Elephantine
Elephantine is an island in the River Nile, located just downstream of the First Cataract at the southern border of Ancient Egypt. This region is referred to as Upper Egypt because the land is higher than that near the Mediterranean coast. The island may have received its name because it was a...
. His priests were involved in rituals to ensure the steady levels of flow required from the annual flood. At Elephantine the official nileometer, a measuring device, was carefully monitored to predict the level of the flood, and his priests must have been intimately concerned with its monitoring.
During the Nineteenth dynasty
Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt
The Nineteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt was one of the periods of the Egyptian New Kingdom. Founded by Vizier Ramesses I, whom Pharaoh Horemheb chose as his successor to the throne, this dynasty is best known for its military conquests in Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria.The warrior kings of the...
Hapi is often depicted as a pair of figures, each holding and tying together the long stem of two plants representing Upper and Lower Egypt, symbolically binding the two halves of the country around a hieroglyph meaning "union". This symbolic representation was often carved at the base of seated statues of the pharaoh.
The Hymn to the Flood says:
- Lightmaker who comes from the dark
- Fattener of herds
- Might that fashions all
- None can live without him
- People are clothed with the flaxFlaxFlax is a member of the genus Linum in the family Linaceae. It is native to the region extending from the eastern Mediterranean to India and was probably first domesticated in the Fertile Crescent...
of his fields - Thou makest all the land to drink unceasingly, as thou descendest on thy way from the heavenHeavenHeaven, the Heavens or Seven Heavens, is a common religious cosmological or metaphysical term for the physical or transcendent place from which heavenly beings originate, are enthroned or inhabit...
s.