ḫntj-jmntjw

Egyptian

Etymology

ḫntj (“foremost”) +‎ jmntjw (“westerners, i.e. the dead”), plural of jmntj (“western(er)”).

The word is first attested in the tombs of First Dynasty kings Den (dn) and Qaa (qꜣ-ꜥ), where it is associated with the dead kings. However, there is no certain evidence that it referred to a separate deity (rather than being an epithet for other deities) until the second half of the Fifth Dynasty.

Pronunciation

• (modern Egyptological) IPA^(key): /xɛnti imɛntiuː/
  • Conventional anglicization: khenti-amentiu

Proper noun

 m

1. Foremost of the Westerners, an epithet used for various gods of the dead such as Osiris and Anubis
   • c. 1401 BCE, Amduat of Amenhotep II (tomb of Amenhotep II, KV35) First Hour, closing text, lines 7–8:

     sḥḏ kk(w)t srq.k ḥtm(y)t (j)ꜥr.k m rn.k n(j) rꜥ r bw ẖr(j) wsjr ḫntj-jmntjw

     Brighten the darkness that you might make the Place of Destruction breathe, that you might ascend in your name of Ra to the place where Osiris, Foremost of the Westerners, is.

2. Khentiamentiu, a god of the dead and patron god of the necropolis at Abydos

Alternative forms

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of ḫntj-jmntjw  

ḫnt-jmntjw

Descendants

• Old Coptic: ⳓⲛⲧⲉⲙⲛⲧ (ḫntemnt)

References

• James P[eter] Allen (2010) Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, 2nd edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, pages 92, 365.
• Smith, Mark (2017) Following Osiris: Perspectives on the Osirian Afterlife from Four Millennia, pages 65 et seq.