Ipy

Ipy is an upright pregnant hippopotamus, which in Egypt is a protective image rather than a comic one: the animal is enormously dangerous and enormously maternal, and both halves of that are the point. She is close enough to Taweret that the two are constantly confused, and different enough to have her own temple inside the Karnak precinct, where the Ptolemaic theology has her give birth to Osiris. The Opet festival — Amun's annual procession from Karnak to Luxor — carries her name element, though what the connection amounts to is not settled.

Domains

• fertility

Relations

• counterpart of: TaweretIconographically almost indistinguishable from Taweret — an upright pregnant hippopotamus — and frequently confused with her in the modern literature. The record links them and keeps them separate, since Ipy has her own Karnak temple and her own festival name element.Reference treatments of Ipy/Opet and of Taweret, two hippopotamus goddesses of protection and childbirth with closely related iconography. (secondary)

Sources

• Ipy, also called Opet, is an Egyptian hippopotamus goddess of fertility and protection of the king, with her own temple at Karnak.: Reference treatments of Ipy/Opet, her hippopotamus form and her Karnak temple. (secondary)