Study Guide

Banebdjed Sightings

Sightings

Dec 20, 2019 - Dec 20, 2019

A Princely Offering

Ramses IX’s son Montuherkhopeshef (what a mouthful) makes offerings to Banebdjed for eternity, on the walls of his beautifully painted tomb in the Valley of the Kings near Luxor, Egypt. Check out the ram-headed vase the prince uses to pour water.

Dec 20, 2019 - Jan 1, 1970

Don’t Touch This—Or Else

Setting up Banebdjed’s new temple was serious business. A donation stela (a kind of legal paper carved in stone), showing how much land and resources had been given for temple reconstruction, included a curse on anybody who tried to keep any of the land or building materials for himself. Would you want this god mad at you?

Jan 1, 1970 - Dec 20, 2019

Latin Lover

Banebdjed’s priests provided services to Roman visitors, along with the priests of Isis. You could pick them out by their weird curly wigs and ram-head accessories, like in this bronze statue from Mendes.

Dec 20, 2019 - Dec 20, 2019

Could it be… Satan?

Greeks coming to Egypt misunderstood what kind of animal Banebdjed’s symbol was, and often referred to him as “the goat of Mendes” (instead of a ram). In later periods, this misunderstanding, and the knowledge that Banebdjed was a sex god, caused him to be confused with Baphomet. Baphomet was a scary-looking a goat-headed spirit that the Catholic Church accused the Knights Templar of worshipping as a form of Satan. Banebdjed’s not evil, or even mean, so the comparison’s not fair, but it stuck.