Min, the victorious Horus. The god Min in the Middle Kingdom

Volume I : Corpus A
Volume II : Corpus B
Volume III: Summary

This work is the revised and corrected publication of a doctoral thesis completed at Paris-Sorbonne University and defended in 2017, published in the collection CENiM 33 , dealing with the image and cult of the god Min, from the First Intermediate Period to the dawn of the New Kingdom.

It presents a vast corpus of sources which, once brought together, reveal the theological and cultic transformations of one of the oldest Egyptian deities during this period. This work also offers a rereading of the various known elements concerning his image, the attributes assigned to him, and his areas of worship.

The detailed analysis of the sources collected for the period from the beginning of the 8th Dynasty to the end of the 17th Dynasty reveals a complex and cryptic elaboration in the use of the various elements that compose his image. This image was especially emphasized at the beginning of the Middle Kingdom through its reappropriation by the Theban clergy in order to "create" ex nihilo that of the god Amun. At the beginning of the First Intermediate Period, an ephemeral paredra also emerged within the temple of Min in Coptos: the goddess Mut-Min, the "mother of Min." Over this long span of time, Min was the object of a particular and primary veneration, both among rulers and among the Egyptian people. Praised during festivals linked to agrarian and dynastic functions, he was also revered in expeditionary contexts for his warlike, mineral, and meteorological attributes.

It is finally during the Middle Kingdom and the Second Intermediate Period that Min seems to have been especially praised in a city not originally attributed to him: the sacred city of Abydos. His integration into the Osirian myth testifies to the expansion, displacement, and growing funerary and dynastic scope of his cult at that time. Through dedications, hymns, and architectural evidence mentioning him and discovered at Abydos, the remains of a forgotten sanctuary dedicated to his cult in the form of "Victorious Horus" emerge there. In light of all the collected documentation, Min appears as a god of force in its purest state, with dynastic, regenerative, and destructive functions, dominating sky, earth, and the underworld alike.

This work benefited from the support of LabEx ARCHIMEDE under the “Investing the Future” program ANR-11-LABX-0032-01

Thanks again to Paris-Sorbonne University for my entry into Egyptology, as well as the University of Montpellier Paul-Valéry and the CNRS for this scientific publication dedicated to the oldest god of Egypt. May this work bear fruit today and for future generations.