Also called Menu, Min of Koptos, Pan (to the Greeks).
Their story
Min is one of the oldest known Egyptian gods, with cult figures from Koptos dating before the First Dynasty. He was shown as an ithyphallic figure with one arm raised holding a flail, and his sacred plant was a tall lettuce whose milky sap was linked with fertility. At his harvest festival, recorded at Medinet Habu, the king cut the first sheaf of grain. Travellers on the routes through the eastern desert to the Red Sea sought his protection, and the Greeks identified him with Pan.
Best times to give to them
- Festival of Min at harvest
- the first day of Shemu
- before a journey
What they like being given
- lettuce
- bread
- water
- fresh greens
- incense
How to honour them
- Offer crisp lettuce, his sacred plant, at harvest time.
- Ask his protection before long road journeys, as desert travellers did.
How they can help you
- fertility
- vitality
- good harvests
- safe travel
Symbols
- lettuce
- flail raised behind the head
- double plumes
- black skin
- thunderbolt-like emblem
Sources
- Medinet Habu reliefs of the Festival of Min
- Wilkinson, The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt
- Hart, The Routledge Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses
More Egyptian gods
- Osiris Lord of the afterlife and new growth
- Horus The falcon, protector of the rightful king
- Ra The sun who sails the sky
- Thoth Scribe of the gods, lord of wisdom
- Anubis Guardian and guide of the dead
- Khonsu The Traveller, the moon who heals
- Amun The hidden king of the gods at Thebes
- Ptah Creator by word and patron of craftsmen