Real, but the surviving record is thin or comes from one period only. Arrives with the Book of the Dead.
An-hetep
second of the four who provide food
Part of the Her-Hequi.
Overview
An-hetep is the second of the four sovereign chiefs of the fifth hour, and his name carries the word the whole group is about.
Hetep is one of the most common words in the Egyptian language. It means offering, and it means peace, and it means being satisfied — the same word covers a plate of food and a state of contentment, which tells you something about the culture that used it. It is the word carved on every offering formula on every stela in Egypt.
A god named with hetep, in a group whose function is "to provide food," is not a coincidence.
Attestation history
The scene. In the fifth hour Ra travels in his serpent boat, towed by seven gods and seven goddesses "who represent the gods of fourteen days of the month," and "before these are the divine sovereign chiefs" [budge-1904]. The Am-Tuat text calls the four "the great sovereign chiefs who provide food in this Circle," and places them "under the guidance of Isis of Amentet" [budge-1905-amtuat]:
| God | Holds | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Her-khu | a staff |
| 2 | An-hetep | a sceptre |
| 3 | Heru-hequi | a crook — hawk-headed |
| 4 | Ut-metu | a tree, in his left hand |
Their address from Ra is lost: "The text containing the address of the Sun-god to the seven gods is broken away" [budge-1905-amtuat].
What the texts say
The name states the function. This corpus keeps meeting the pattern: a deity named with the word for what he does. Tefnut from tef, to spit. Khonsu from khens, to travel. Renen-sbau with sba, star. An-hetep carries hetep and provides offerings.
Food and peace are the same word. Worth pausing on, because the whole fifth hour turns on it. Ra "makes arrangements for their supply of food, and reminds them of their duties to him their creator" [budge-1904]. Being fed and being at peace are not two benefits in Egyptian; they are one, and the god in charge of the first is named for the second.
The first element is unresolved. An has several possible values in Budge's transliteration and he does not gloss it. See open threads.
Iconography
A god holding a sceptre [budge-1905-amtuat]. No head type recorded.
Cult and practice
None.
The record
Every claim above traces to a row here. Source, exact place in that source, and what it actually supports.
| Source | Locus | Attests |
|---|---|---|
[budge-1904] | *Gods of the Egyptians* I, Fifth Hour, p. 222 | An-hetep second of the four divine sovereign chiefs |
[budge-1905-amtuat] | *Book of Am-Tuat* I, fifth circle | An-hetep holds a sceptre; one of the chiefs "who provide food in this Circle" |
Sources
[budge-1904]— Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians (1904), vol. I, on the Fifth Hour of the Book of the Underworld, p. 222. Public domain, archived insources-texts/. Budge caveat applies (04-BIBLIOGRAPHY.md).[budge-1905-amtuat]— Budge, The Book of Am-Tuat (1905), vol. I, fifth circle. Public domain, archived insources-texts/. Budge transcribes the fourth chief differently in the two books — see open threads.[wilkinson-2003]— Wilkinson, The Complete Gods and Goddesses. In copyright; cited only.
Open questions
- Establish the first element. Hetep is secure; an is not. Without it the name cannot be translated, and the hetep/food connection above stays an observation rather than a reading.
- Confirm that hetep in this name is the offering word and not a homophone.
- Find the broken Ra address in another Amduat witness.
- Check whether An-hetep appears in any other hour or composition.
Cite this entry
Research grade: ◐partial — Genuinely attested, but the record is thin or single-period.
"An-hetep", The Egyptian God Corpus,
graded partial, retrieved 2026-08-10.