Montu

Before Thebes had Amun it had Montu. He is the war god of the fourth Upper Egyptian nome, falcon-headed under two plumes and a double cobra, and the Eleventh Dynasty kings who put Egypt back together after the First Intermediate Period were called Mentuhotep — 'Montu is satisfied' — which is a statement about who they thought had won it for them. Amun displaced him at Thebes afterwards, but his four temples went on being enlarged into the Roman period, and his bull at Armant, the Buchis, got a catacomb of its own.

Domains

• war

Relations

• manifested as: BuchisThe Buchis bull is Montu alive and walking about, one animal at a time, at Armant. The cult becomes elaborate from the Thirtieth Dynasty and the bulls are buried in their own catacomb, the Bucheion.Reference treatment of Montu: a bull was his sacred animal, and from the 30th dynasty this bull, the Buchis, received an elaborate cult at Armant. (secondary)

Sources

• Montu is the falcon-headed Egyptian war god of the fourth Upper Egyptian nome, raised to prominence by the Eleventh Dynasty Theban kings, with temples at Armant, Karnak, Tod and Medamud and the Buchis bull as his living form.: Reference treatments of Montu, his cult centres, his iconography and the Buchis bull. (secondary)