| Buchis | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Major cult center | Hermonthis |
| Symbol | white bull with a black snout |
InEgyptian mythology,Buchis (Ancient Greek:Βουχις,Coptic:ⲃⲱⲱϩ, ⲃⲟϩ)[1] (also speltBakh andBakha) was the deification of thekꜣ ("power, life-force",Egyptological pronunciationka) of the war godMontu[2] as asacred bull that was worshipped in the region ofHermonthis.[3]: 95 In order to being chosen as the Buchis incarnation of Montu, a bull was required to have a white body and black face. When these bulls – and in later times also their mothers – died, they weremummified, and placed in a special cemetery known as theBucheum.[3]: 95–100
Unlike the other Egyptian sacred bulls – theApis and theMnevis – the Buchis cult started towards the end of the pharaonic period, with the earliest known burial taking place inregnal year 14 ofNectanebo II (mid 4th century BC). However, four different bull cults dedicated to Montu were known in earlier times inUpper Egypt, and it seems that the Buchis was the result of theirsyncretism.[3]: 95 Eventually, the Buchis bull was identified as a form of the Apis, and consequently became considered an incarnation ofOsiris.
It is uncertain when the Buchis cult disappeared. The last confirmed tomb at the Bucheum is dated to the regnal year 12 ofDiocletian (circa 295 CE),[3]: 100 while the latest attestation of a Buchis burial is a stela reporting its installation in regnal year 33 of Diocletian (317 CE) and its demise in regnal year 57 of the same pharaoh (more precisely on 4 November 340 CE).[nb 1][6][7][4]
