Heka (god)
Heka, the ancient Egyptian deity of magic and medicine, is described in one Coffin Text as existing "before duality had yet come into being." That line comes from spell 261, and it places Heka before pairs of any kind. Before one thing could be set against another, there was already Heka.
Egyptian writers used the term ḥkꜣ for more than a god. It also named the practice of magical rituals. So the figure at the centre of this documentary is both a being and an activity.
How does a force that predates all pairs come to have a cult, a family and a job? What did the Egyptians believe magic actually did? And why did they treat it as a legitimate belief rather than a superstition to be hidden?
The name Heka is identical with the Egyptian word ḥkꜣ(w), meaning magic. In Coptic, the last stage of the Egyptian language, it appears as hik. Scholars also write the plural form as Hekau.
The hieroglyphic spelling contains the symbol for the word ka, written kꜣ. The ka was the ancient Egyptian idea of a vital force. Magic was therefore spelled with a sign for life energy.
Names mattered enormously in ancient Egypt, and Heka turned up inside people's own names. Hekawy and Hekaf are two examples, and some people were simply called Heka.
The goddess Isis is sometimes linked to this power too. She carries the title Weret Hekau, which means Great Lady of magic.
In the Old Kingdom Pyramid Texts, Heka is not yet a god with a face. He appears as a supernatural energy that the gods possess, something they hold the way a person holds strength.
That raised an awkward problem for a king who wanted this energy. The texts imagine a figure called the "cannibal pharaoh," who must devour other gods to take their magical power into himself.
Over time the picture changed. Heka was elevated to a deity in his own right, and a cult devoted to him developed. A power that gods once carried became a god that people could worship.
Atum, the creator, is said to have made Heka at the beginning of time. Yet the Egyptian view of creation went further than that. In their cosmology, the world itself came into being through Heka.
The Egyptologist Ritner describes Heka as the primary force of life, working as a creative act. Magic was not decoration added to the cosmos. It was how the cosmos got made.
Spell 648 of the Coffin Texts gives Heka a voice of his own: "His powers put fear into the gods who came into being after him, his myriad of spirits is within his mouth. It was Heka who came into being of himself, at seeing whom the gods rejoiced, and through the sweet savor of whom the gods live, who created the mountains and knit the firmament together."
Notice that the spell says he came into being of himself. That claim sits oddly beside the account of Atum as his maker, and the texts leave both standing.
In later depictions, Heka takes a place in the tableau of the divine solar barque, the sacred boat that carried the sun across the heavens.
He also serves as a protector of Osiris in the Duat, the Egyptian realm of the dead. There his magic has a very practical use. He is said to be capable of blinding crocodiles.
Under the Ptolemaic dynasty his duties shifted toward the throne. Heka was given the role of proclaiming the pharaoh's enthronement, announcing the king as a son of Isis while holding him in his arms.
That same Ptolemaic era is also when a town in Upper Egypt gave him a family of his own.
Esna was the Ptolemaic and Roman capital of the Third Nome of the Thebaid of Upper Egypt. There Heka appears as part of a divine triad.
His father in this arrangement is Khnum, the ram-headed god. His mother is harder to pin down. Local tradition named a succession of goddesses before it was settled.
The first was Nebetu'u, a form of Hathor. Next came the lion-headed Menhit, and then the cow goddess Mehet-Weret. In the end the role went to Neith, a war and mother goddess.
A figure named Werethekau is also sometimes connected with the force of Heka. Her name means "she who has great magic."
The Egyptologist Ogden Goelet, writing in 1994, pointed out that magic is a problematic subject in the Book of the Dead. The text uses various words that correspond to magic. Goelet explains the reason: the Egyptians regarded magic as a legitimate belief.
He also describes what made Heka distinctive. In his words, "Heka magic is many things, but, above all, it has a close association with speech and the power of the word."
Goelet adds that actions did not necessarily speak louder than words in this world. Often the two were one and the same thing.
He sums up the idea in one sentence: "Thought, deed, image, and power are theoretically united in the concept of Heka." Readers who meet one of the several Egyptian words for magic in a Book of the Dead spell are meeting a practice its authors considered entirely real.
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Common questions
Who is Heka in ancient Egyptian religion?
Heka is the ancient Egyptian deity who personifies magic and medicine. His name is the Egyptian word for magic, written ḥkꜣ(w).
What does the name Heka mean?
The name Heka is identical with the Egyptian word ḥkꜣ(w), meaning magic. Its hieroglyphic spelling includes the symbol for ka, the ancient Egyptian concept of the vital force.
How was Heka created according to Egyptian myth?
Heka is said to have been created at the beginning of time by the creator Atum. Egyptian cosmology also held that the world itself was created through Heka.
What role did Heka play in the Pyramid Texts?
In the Old Kingdom Pyramid Texts, Heka is a supernatural energy that the gods possess. The "cannibal pharaoh" must devour other gods to gain this magical power.
Who were Heka's parents in the Esna triad?
At Esna, Heka is the son of the ram-headed god Khnum. His mother was variously said to be Nebetu'u, Menhit or Mehet-Weret before the tradition settled on Neith.
What did Heka do for the pharaoh in the Ptolemaic period?
During the Ptolemaic dynasty, Heka proclaimed the pharaoh's enthronement as a son of Isis, holding the king in his arms.
Why did the Egyptians connect Heka with speech?
The Egyptologist Ogden Goelet explains that Heka magic has a close association with speech and the power of the word. In this view, actions and words were often one and the same thing.
All sources
10 references cited across the entry
- 4BookAncient Magic and Ritual PowerPaul Mirecki — BRILL — 2015-08-24
- 5BookAncient Egyptian magic a hands-on guideChristina Riggs — Thames & Hudson — 2020
- 6BookThe Egyptian myths A guide to the ancient gods and legendsGarry J. Shaw — Thames and Hudson — 2014
- 7BookThe Routledge Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and GoddessesGeorge Hart — Psychology Press — 2005
- 8BookGods and Men in Egypt: 3000 BCE to 395 CEFrançoise Dunand et al. — Cornell University Press — 2004
- 9BookEgypt, Trunk of the TreeSimson R. Najovits — Algora Publishing — May 2003
- 10BookThe Egyptian Book of the Dead: The Book of Going Forth by DayAni — Chronicle Books — 1994