Mnevis

Mnevis is the sun with hooves. He is Ra's living body at Heliopolis, and the strongest evidence of how seriously that was meant is that Akhenaten — who shut everything else — specifically provided for a Mnevis burial at his new city. The Heliopolitan priests spent the Ptolemaic period trying to argue their bull up the ranks, and the claim they landed on was that Mnevis had fathered Apis, which is a fairly transparent piece of institutional positioning and also, as theology, quite neat.

Domains

• divination

Relations

• subordinate to: RaRa's living body at Heliopolis. Even Akhenaten, who abolished the rest, made provision for the Mnevis bull at Akhetaten — solar enough to survive the purge.Reference treatment of the Mnevis bull as the ba of Re and the bodily form of Re-Atum. (secondary)
• counterpart of: ApisThe Heliopolitan priesthood, trying to raise their bull's standing in the Ptolemaic period, declared that Mnevis was Apis's father. A theological claim with a budget behind it.Reference treatment noting that in the Ptolemaic period the Heliopolitan priests proclaimed Mnevis to be the father of Apis. (secondary)

Sources

• Mnevis is the sacred bull of Heliopolis, the ba of Ra and bodily form of Ra-Atum, second in importance to Apis and likewise an oracle, whom the Ptolemaic Heliopolitan priesthood proclaimed Apis's father.: Reference treatments of the Mnevis bull and of the Egyptian bull cults. (secondary)