Bes: Encyclopedia - Bes

Bes

Bes (also spelt as Bisu) was an Egyptian deity worshipped in the later periods of dynastic history as a protector of households. While past studies identified Bes as a Middle Kingdom import from Nubia, some more recent research believes him to be an Egyptian native. Mentions of Bes can be traced to the southern lands of the Old Kingdom; however his cult did not become widespread until well into the New Kingdom.

His name appears to be connected to a Nubian word for cat, besa, which literally means protector, and indeed, his first appearances have the suggestion of a cat god. Egyptians kept cats in order to attack snakes, and creatures that might ruin crop stores, such as mice, and so Bes was naturally singled out as worthy of worship in Egypt.

Bes - Mythology

Bes, like many other Egyptian Gods, went through many metamorphosis in his history. As Bes' cult was never official, and he never had dedicated temples or priests, the details of the particular deity are even more difficult to trace. Researches such as Richard Wilkinson believe that in its later inceptions Bes was a grand general term encompassing up to ten weaker deities - Aha, Amam, the earlier Bes, Hayet, Ihty, Mefdjet, Menew, Segeb, Sopdu and Tetenu. And as those minor deities became associated with Bes, the greater Bes was also becoming associated with the even greater set of protective deities such as Amun, Min, Horus, Sopdu, Reshef, and others.

Mythologically, Bes was most often linked to Horus, even creating a merged single deity, Horbes. To complicate matters, in the hellenic era, the feminine form of Bes' name - Beset - became considered a deity in its own right as Bes' wife, and owing to the Horus association, Beset was sometimes thought of as Horus' mother.

Bes - Iconography

Modern scholars such as James Romano demonstrated that in its earliest inceptions, Bes was a representation of a lion rearing up on its hind legs. Over time, this image became grossly distorted, and he came to be seen as a hideously ugly dwarf, with long tongue, bow legs, and some feline body parts, and sometimes a lion's head.

After the Third Intermediate Period, Bes is often seen as just the head or the face, often worn as amulets.

Bes - Worship

Images of the god were kept in homes to ward off evil, and so he was depicted quite differently from the other gods. Normally gods were shown in profile, but instead Bes appeared in portrait, ithyphallic, and sometimes in a soldier's tunic, so as to appear ready to launch an attack on any approaching evil.

Bes was a household protector, throughout its history becoming responsible for such varied tasks as killing snakes, fighting off evil spirits, watching after children, and aiding (by fighting off evil spirits) women in labour (and thus present with Taweret at births).

Since he drove off evil, Bes also came to symbolize the good things in life - music, dance, and generic, and sexual, pleasure. Later, in the Ptolemaic period of Egyptian history, chambers were constructed, painted with images of Bes and his wife Beset, thought by egyptologists to have been for the purpose of curing fertility problems or general healing rituals.

Many instances of Bes masks and costumes from the New Kingdom and later have been uncovered. These show considerable wear, thought to be too great for occasional use at festivals, and are therefore thought to have been used by professional performers, or given out for rent.

Like many Egyptian gods, the worship of Bes was exported overseas, and he, in particular, proved popular with the Phoenicians and the (ancient) Cypriots.

Bes - Sources

• The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt, Richard H. Wilkinson. ISBN: 0500051208
• The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, Ian Shaw. ISBN: 0192804588

Categories: Arts gods | Egyptian gods | Fertility gods | Fortune gods

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Bes", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki