Andjety

(‘Anzata) A God worshiped in the ninth nome (or district) of Lower Egypt, whose name identifies him with the city of Andjet (or Djedu), known to the Greeks as Busiris; hence sometimes simply ‘the Busirite’. In utterance 224 of the Pyramid Texts, the king is granted universal governance over the spirits “as Anubis who presides over the Westerners, as Andjety who presides over the eastern nomes [districts]” (similarly in utterance 650). In utterance 364 it is said that Horus has revived the king “in this your [the king’s] name of Andjety,” that is, the king is revived in the form of Andjety or by virtue of an identification with Andjety. In spell 468 of the Coffin Texts, one has power to immerse the waterways of the Field of Offerings as Osiris and as “Andjety, bull of vultures,” an epithet referring to Andjety’s sexual potency, ‘vultures’ being a term for certain Goddesses. Andjety’s two-feathered crown is sometimes replaced by a uterine symbol, associating him with birth. Over time Andjety comes increasingly to be identified with Osiris, perhaps because the king is associated at once with Andjety and with Osiris, and ‘the Busirite’ becomes one of the standard epithets of Osiris, e.g. in spell 185A of the Book of the Dead, where Osiris is “lord of joy as the Busirite.” It is sometimes postulated that identification with Andjety is the source of the attribute of sovereignty for Osiris, who is, according to this theory, initially associated purely with natural phenomena (on this theory see the discussion in Griffiths). Andjety seems, at any rate, to have exerted an important influence on the iconography of Osiris, three of whose characteristic insignia apparently belonged in the first place to the Busirite God: the shepherd’s crook, the flail (perhaps a fly whisk), and the atef crown, which resembles the ‘white crown’ of Upper Egypt in shape although the white crown is apparently made of fabric or leather and the atef crown woven from plant stems (as can be seen from its tip) and has in addition two ostrich feathers on the side which, in an Osirian context, are taken sometimes to represent Isis and Nephthys (e.g., spell 14 in Borghouts).

Griffiths, J. Gwyn. 1980. The Origins of Osiris and His Cult. Leiden: Brill.

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