TYPE: Chthonic or Earth god
ORIGIN: Egyptian (Upper)
INFORMATION: Said to create human life on a potter's wheel but strictly at the behest of the creator deities. He is usually seated before a potter's wheel on which stands a naked figure in the process of molding. The Khnum cult was principally directed from sanctuaries at Esna, north of the first Nile cataract, and at Elephantine where mummified rams covered with gold leaf and buried in stone sarcophagi have been discovered. Khnum supervises the annual Nile flood, which is physically generated by the god Hapy. His consort at Esna is the goddess Menhyt. Khnum is also described at other sites as the Ba or soul of various deities including Geb and Osiris. Depicted anthropomorphically or with the head of a ram.