Texts of theLate Period describe them as having the heads offrogs (male) andserpents (female), and they are often depicted in this way in reliefs of the last dynasty, thePtolemaic Kingdom.[3]
The names ofNu and Naunet are written with the determiners forsky andwater, and it seems clear that they represent the primordial waters.
Ḥeḥ and Ḥeuḥet have no readily identifiable determiners; according to a suggestion due toBrugsch (1885), the names are associated with a term for an undefined orunlimited number,ḥeḥ, suggesting a concept similar to the Greekaion. 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.Shu).
The names ofKek and Kauket are written with a determiner combining thesky hieroglyph with a staff or scepter used for words related to darkness and obscurity, andkkw as a regular word means "darkness", suggesting that these gods representprimordial darkness, comparable to the GreekErebus, but in some aspects they appear to represent day as well as night, or the change from night to day and from day to night.
The fourth pair has no consistent attributes as it appears with varying names; sometimes the nameQerḥ is replaced byNi, Nenu, Nu, orAmun, and the nameQerḥet byEnnit, Nenuit, Nunu, Nit, orAmunet. The common meaning ofqerḥ is "night", but the determinative (D41 for "to halt, stop, deny") also suggests the principle of inactivity or repose.[5]
There is no obvious way to allot or attribute four functions to the four pairs of deities;Budge postulates that "the ancient Egyptians themselves had no very clear idea" regarding such functions.[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").[8]
^"Drawn by Faucher-Gudin from a photograph by Béato. C.f. Lepsius,Denkm, iv.pl.66c.", published in Maspero (1897).The scene is collapsed from "the two extremities of a great scene at Philae, in which the Eight, divided into two groups of four, take part in the adoration of the king."
^Zivie-Koch, Christiane (2016). "L'Ogdoad d'Hermopolis à Thebes et ailleurs ou l'invention d'un mythe".Egitto e Vicino Oriente.39:57–90.
Baines, John D.; Shafer, Byron Esely;Silverman, David P.; Lesko, Leonard H. (1991),Religion in Ancient Egypt: Gods, Myths, and Personal Practice, Cornell University Press
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