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Ancient Egyptian deities: Sopdu
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- sopdu

Sopdu

also Sopedu
 
    Sopdu (MdC transliteration spd or spd.w) was a god of the 20th nome of Lower Egypt, who became the god of the East and of the country's borders.[1] As defender of the countries eastern border against incursions of the Asiatic beduins he became early on a falcon god and as such a god of war.[3] Early on he was affiliated with Horus and was at times referred to as Horus of the East, or as the syncretic Har-Sopdu (Horus-Sopdu):
Be not in ignorance of Unas, Har-Sopdu
Pyramid of Unas, PT 262 (line [465])
Har-Sopdu was the result of the deceased king's (or of Osiris in his astral form as Sah) union with Isis in her astral form of Sopdet (Sothis, i.e. the star Sirius). When the king became a star-god, his teeth were identified with Sopdu, Sharp of Teeth:[2]
148: Your head is that of Horus of the Duat, O Imperishable One, your brow is the One-with-the-Two-Eyes, O Imperishable One, your ears are (those of) the Twins of Atum, O Imperishable One, your eyes are (those of) the Twins of Atum, O Imperishable One, your nose is (that of) a jackal, O Imperishable One, your teeth are (those of) Sopdu, O Imperishable One,
Faulkner, Pyramid Texts, Utt.215
    His main cult centre was at Saft-el-Henna. He was also worshiped as protector it the turquoise mines at Serabit el Khadim in the Sinai peninsula[2]. His female counterpart was Hathor, Lady of Turquoise.[4]
 
    He is often depicted as a beduin with a full beard, wearing a two feathered crown on his head and the shesmet-belt or as a crouching falcon.
[1] Manfred Lurker, Lexikon der Götter und Symbole der alten Ägypter, Scherz 1998, p.193
[2] George Hart, The Routledge Dictionary of Egyptian Gods and Goddesses, Routledge 2005, p.151
[3] Yves Bonnefoy, Wendy Doniger, Greek and Egyptian Mythologies, University of Chicago Press, 1992 ,p. 225
[4] Geraldine Pinch, Egyptian Mythology, Oxford University Press US, 2004, p.205
 
 
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