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Apedemak

Apedemek
Nubian Lion God of War
The fragment, discovered in the lion temple at Meroë, capital of the Meroitic Kingdom, was part of a commemorative monument to King Tanyidamani. One side depicts the ruler in royal costume with ram's-head earrings, an Egyptian crown, and a scepter in his hand. An image of the lion-headed war- and fertility-god Apedemak appears on the other side. The deity holds a bundle of sorghum and a scepter topped with a small seated lion. The inscriptions are in Meroitic script and name the king and the god.
Votive Plaque of King Tanyidamani and Apedemak, The Naqa kiosk, Excavation by John Garstang, 1909-1910, in the Temple of Apedemak, Meroe
Name in hieroglyphs
M17p
r		 Aa11
k		 R8A40

Apedemak
Jprmk
Major cult centerLion Temple, Naqa
ConsortAmesemi
Equivalents
RomanJupiter

Apedemak or Apademak (originally, due to the absence of the /p/ phoneme in Meroitic, it was probably pronounced 'abademak' (Father king) [1]) was a major deity in the ancient Nubian and Kushite pantheon. Often depicted as a figure with a male human torso and a lion head, and at the temple of Naqa with a snakes body and a lion head, Apedemak was a war god worshiped by the Meroitic peoples inhabiting Kush. He is often considered the equivalent of Maahes the lion-headed war god of Egypt, despite a claim of the two not being counterparts.[2] As a war god, Apedemak came to symbolize martial power, military conquest, and empire. Apedemak is also closely associated with Amun, the state-sponsored Egyptian deity during the preceding Napatan period, and is assumed to hold an equal level of importance.

  1. ^ "The Meroitic Language and Writing System".
  2. ^ The Ancient World : Extraordinary People in Extraordinary Societies. Michael Shally-Jensen. Ipswich, Mass.: Salem Press. 2017. ISBN 978-1-68217-190-5. OCLC 975044922.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)

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