Amun

Amun
Amun
	After the Amarna period, Amun was painted with blue skin, symbolizing his association with air and primeval creation. Amun was also depicted in a wide variety of other forms.
Name in hieroglyphs	Amun: Amun-Ra: Amun-Ra written in a Cartouche:
Major cult center	Thebes, ; Hermopolis, (as a member of the Ogdoad)
Symbol	two vertical plumes, the ram-headed Sphinx (Criosphinx)
Temple	Siwa Oasis
Consort	Amunet; Wosret; Mut; Rhea (Libyan);
Offspring	Khonsu; Harpara; Tjenenyet; Dionysus (Libyan)
Equivalents
Greek	Zeus

Amun was a major ancient Egyptian deity who appears as a member of the Hermopolitan Ogdoad. Amun was attested from the Old Kingdom together with his wife Amunet. His oracle in Siwa Oasis, located in Western Egypt near the Libyan Desert, remained the only oracle of Amun throughout. With the 11th Dynasty (c. 21st century BC), Amun rose to the position of patron deity of Thebes by replacing Montu.

Initially possibly one of eight deities in the Hermapolite creation myth, his worship expanded. After the rebellion of Thebes against the Hyksos and with the rule of Ahmose I (16th century BC), Amun acquired national importance, expressed in his fusion with the Sun god, Ra, as Amun-Ra (alternatively spelled Amon-Ra or Amun-Re). On his own, he was also thought to be the king of the gods.

Amun-Ra retained chief importance in the Egyptian pantheon throughout the New Kingdom (with the exception of the "Atenist heresy" under Akhenaten). Amun-Ra in this period (16th–11th centuries BC) held the position of transcendental, self-created creator deity "par excellence"; he was the champion of the poor or troubled and central to personal piety. With Osiris, Amun-Ra is the most widely recorded of the Egyptian gods. Ra's name simply means "sun". Like most gods in Egyptian mythologies, gods had multiple names; his additional names were Re, Amun-Re, Khepri, Ra-Horakhty, and Atum.

As the chief deity of the Egyptian Empire, Amun-Ra also came to be worshiped outside Egypt, according to the testimony of ancient Greek historiographers in Libya and Nubia. As Zeus Ammon and Jupiter Ammon, he came to be identified with Zeus in Greece and Jupiter in Rome.