Apedemak

Common card · No. 392577

Apedemak or Apademak (originally, due to the absence of the /p/ phoneme in Meroitic, it was probably pronounced 'abademak', meaning 'father king') was a major deity in the ancient Nubian and Kushite pantheon. He was often depicted as a figure with a male human torso and a lion head, and at the temple of Naqa with a snake's body and a lion's head. Apedemak also appears as a three-headed leonine god with four arms. Apedemak was a war god worshiped by the Meroitic peoples inhabiting Kush. There are no counterparts of him in Ancient Egyptian religion. As a war god, Apedemak came to symbolize martial power, military conquest, and empire. Apedemak is also closely associated with Amun, the state-sponsored Egyptian deity, and is assumed to hold an equal level of importance. In Meroe, he became the head of the Kushite pantheon.

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