Khonsu: The Legend Of The Ancient Egyptian Moon God Explained

Like many ancient cultures, the Ancient Egyptians had an expansive pantheon of gods, and one of the most interesting among them is Khonsu, the god of the moon. He's most recently been popularized by Marvel's "Moon Knight" as Khonshu, but his true legacy is a complex mythology going back thousands of years. Even his name, as Britannica notes, isn't straightforward and is also written as Khons, Chons, and Khenzu. As Egyptologist Mariam Alfy explains, Khonsu's name comes from the word "khenes" and refers to the moon's journey across the sky, but he was much more than simply a moon good. Among the Egyptians, Khonsu was also associated with time, healing, and fertility. He also had a darker side and is described in a set of ancient funerary spells known as the Coffin Texts as a devourer of hearts.

That may all seem a little contradictory, and a big reason is because of Khonsu's long history — he's among the oldest of Egypt's gods. The Ancient Egyptian civilization lasted for over 3000 years, so there was plenty of time for legends behind gods like Khonsu to grow and evolve with the ages. While his origins are lost to time, the oldest known references to Khonsu go back to at least 2350 B.C., so he was a part of Egyptian culture for most of their history (via "Egyptian Gods & Goddesses"). The result is that he's a complicated figure in Egyptian mythology, with multiple roles and several alternate identities.

The oldest forms of Khonsu are his most bloodthirsty, spoken of in some of the oldest writing that survives from Ancient Egypt (or anywhere for that matter). Inscribed on the inner walls of Egypt's pyramids are the Pyramid Texts, a collection of prayers, hymns, and spells intended to protect the deceased kings into the afterlife, helping them prosper once they reach the other side. Written in the Pyramid Texts is a brutal description of Khonsu, describing him as slaughtering the lords and cutting their throats. As the "Handbook of Egyptian Mythology" explains, he was "the angry one of the gods" — the strangler of lesser deities, ferocious enough that his name was invoked in spells to oppose powerful demons. He was also the Keeper of the Books of the End of the Year, the ledgers kept by the gods themselves, where they'd write the names of everyone who would die over the course of the year.

According to Ancient Egypt Online, this part of the Pyramid Texts is known as the Cannibal Hymn, where Khonsu's role was to help the dead king slaughter and devour the other gods. Another set of ancient writings, the Coffin Texts, describes him as "Khonsu who lives on hearts." This sanguinary description of the moon god, however, wasn't his only characterization. In fact, the version of Khonsu, who came to be known later on in Ancient Egypt's history, was very different.

Khonsu, like other Egyptian gods, had many alternate identities, known as aspects or epithets. Part of this was due to his overlap with other similar gods. As a conference paper from the XIth International Congress of Egyptologists explains, there were two other moon gods, Thoth and Iah. These gods were sometimes merged and given names like Iah-Thoth and Iah-Khonsu, a combination known as a syncretism. Discovering Egypt elaborates further, saying how both Khonsu and Thoth were associated with baboons. Khonsu and Thoth were also sometimes linked together under the name Khonsu-Djehuti.

Ancient Egypt Online describes several of Khonsu's different aspects, such as Khensu-pa-khart, which is linked with fresh air and the light of the crescent moon. It was this specific aspect of Khonsu that governed fertility. Another aspect was Khonsu pa-khered, or "Khonsu the child." This aspect of Khonsu was seen as a child every morning and an old man at each nightfall. Other well-known aspects of Khonsu were Khonsu pa-ir-sekher ("Khonsu the provider") and Khonsu heseb-ahau ("Khonsu the decider of lifespan").

Khonsu's different aspects were seen as so distinct that they were sometimes depicted as entirely different people. In some stories, different aspects of the god could even meet and converse with each other. One prominent myth involves Khonsu asking for help from a different manifestation of himself!

Thebes grew to be the religious capital of Ancient Egypt, eventually becoming home to the largest of Egypt's temple complexes (per "Handbook of Egyptian Mythology"). It was also the center of Khonsu's cult following, as noted by "Gods of Ancient Egypt." Worshipped in Thebes were three gods known as the Theban Triad. These gods were Amun-Ra, his consort Mut "the Great Mother," and their child Khonsu, as explained by a page from the University of Memphis (the Memphis in Tennessee, not the Memphis in Egypt). Egyptian gods were often divided into family groups of three like this.

World History Encyclopedia has plenty to say about these three gods. Amun-Ra was the king of the Egyptian gods, the most powerful among them, as well as one of the most popular. He personified the sun and the air, though he originated as a fertility god himself. His wife Mut was a protector of both the living and the dead and a savior of damned souls. Older legends, however, depict Amun-Ra and Mut with a different son named Montu. Seemingly, when Khonsu took his place in the newer legends, he also inherited Montu's role as a god of protection.

Depictions of Khonsu often show him holding an ankh, which was a symbol of life in Ancient Egypt (via "Tales of the Egyptian Gods"). It's a symbol that is still popularly known in the world today, thousands of years later. In fact, the ankh is one of the most recognizable symbols from Egyptian culture and also one of the oldest — the symbol, a cross with a looped head, dates back over 5000 years (per World History Encyclopedia). As well as mortal life, the symbol was believed to cover the afterlife. It carried the meaning of either "life" or "breath of life."

Khonsu was popularly worshipped as a fertility god, but this was not restricted to influencing the conception of Egyptian children (via Ancient Egypt Online). Instead, Khonsu was responsible for the fertility of the entire world. It was Khonsu who was said to influence livestock to breed, and it was Khonsu who was said to stir the plants to grow and cause the fruit to ripen. In a society like Ancient Egypt, which relied so heavily on agriculture, it's no wonder Khonsu became such a popular god. The Egyptians would likely have believed that their whole society depended upon him.

Khonsu had a long-standing reputation as a healer, which persisted for much of Egyptian history. As noted in the book "Gods of Ancient Egypt," his reputation remained all the way into Ptolemaic times, when Egypt was ruled by the Greeks. Khonsu's healing power was believed to be exceptional, with the ability to miraculously heal the sick instantly (per World History Encyclopedia).

In Ancient Egypt, as in other ancient human societies, medicine was a combination of science, superstition, and religion, often relying on magic spells. As Medical News Today explains, healers were often priests. They viewed the human body as full of channels, like those used to irrigate fields, and ailments were believed to be caused by evil spirits blocking these channels. This, according to Ancient Egypt Online, is why Khonsu was invoked as a healer. He was believed to hold ultimate power over all of the evil spirits in the world, including those who caused pain, sickness, and decay. As the "Handbook of Egyptian Mythology" explains, Khonsu's healing powers were attributed to his ability to drive away even the most powerful of these spirits.