Well documented. Several independent sources across different periods. In the record from the very beginning.
Duamutef dwꜣ-mwt-f
the jackal-headed one, east
Part of the Four Sons of Horus.
Overview
Duamutef takes the east and the heart and lungs — the two organs that matter most, in a religion where the heart is what gets weighed [budge-1904].
He is jackal-headed, which puts him visually alongside anubis without being him. And his name, unusually for this group, appears to say something: dwꜣ-mwt-f, "he who adores his mother."
Attestation history
Old Kingdom. Budge's roster of gods named in the Pyramid Texts gives Tuamutef at Teta 60 [budge-1904]. He is among the four "children of Horus" who "played a prominent part in connexion with the deceased" in that corpus, and at Pepi I l. 672 the deceased becomes one of them [budge-1904].
Book of the Dead. In the judgment scene: "the third, Tuamutef, the head of a jackal" [budge-1904]. In the seventh hour, a serpent "bears on its back the heads of the four Children of Horus, Mestha, Hapi, Tuamutef, and Qebhsennuf" [budge-1904].
Budge also records that Set "was accompanied by the four children of Horus… who were said to be 'behind the…'" [budge-1904] — the passage breaks off in the archived scan and is flagged below rather than guessed at.
With Neith. Her protection formula is the most temporal of the four: "I pass the morning and I pass the night of each day in making protection for Tuamutef who is in me" [budge-1904]. Budge notes that Neith is one of four goddesses "who shot forth flame and worked protection on behalf of the god Nu when he was seated on his throne," and that the same four then assist the Four Sons with the canopic jars [budge-1904].
The Souls of Nekhen. "The Souls of the city of Nekhen were Horus, Tuamutef, and Qebhsennuf" (Book of the Dead ch. cxiii) [budge-1904] — placing him in the Upper Egyptian half of that scheme, against Imsety and Hapy in the Delta. See the Souls of Pe and Nekhen.
What the texts say
The four are one system, and it is unusually tidy. Each son takes a cardinal point, a set of organs, a head, and a protecting goddess:
| Son | Direction | Organs | Head | Goddess |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Imsety (Mestha) | south | stomach, large intestines | man | Isis |
| Hapy | north | small viscera | ape | Nephthys |
| Duamutef (Tuamutef) | east | heart and lungs | jackal | Neith |
| Qebehsenuef | west | liver, gall bladder | hawk | Serqet |
Budge gives the directions and organs in vol. I and the heads from the judgment scene of the Papyrus of Ani in vol. II [budge-1904].
He guards the organ that testifies. The heart is not an ordinary viscus in Egyptian thought — it is the seat of the person, and at the judgment it is placed on the scale and can speak against its owner. The heart scarab exists precisely to keep it quiet (see khepri).
Which makes Duamutef's assignment the most consequential of the four, and raises a question the sources here do not resolve: the heart was normally left in the body, not placed in a canopic jar. Recorded as unresolved rather than smoothed over.
An arm. "The two arms of the deceased were identified with Hapi and Tuamutef" [budge-1904].
A name that means something. Most of this group's names resist translation. "He who adores his mother" does not, and it points at the Osirian story — the son whose devotion to his mother is the whole plot is horus, whose sons these are.
Iconography
A mummiform figure with a jackal's head [budge-1904]. Canopic jar lid; on the lotus before Osiris in the judgment scene; among the heads carried on a serpent's back in the seventh hour of the night.
The jackal is the animal of the desert cemetery and of anubis. Two different gods wearing the same animal, in the same tomb, doing different jobs.
Cult and practice
No temple. His practice is the canopic jar and the funerary equipment — coffin texts, boats, and the images beneath the bier [budge-1904].
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, Pyramid Texts god-list, Teta 60 | Tuamutef among the gods of the Pyramid Texts |
[budge-1904] | *Gods of the Egyptians* I, citing Pepi I l. 672 | the deceased becoming one of the four children of Horus |
[budge-1904] | *Gods of the Egyptians* I, on the Four Children | Tuamutef represents the east; protects the heart and lungs |
[budge-1904] | *Gods of the Egyptians* I, on the four protecting goddesses | Neith: "I pass the morning and I pass the night of each day in making protection for Tuamutef who is in me" |
[budge-1904] | *Gods of the Egyptians* I, Book of the Dead ch. cxiii | the Souls of Nekhen: Horus, Tuamutef and Qebhsennuf |
[budge-1904] | *Gods of the Egyptians* II, judgment scene, Papyrus of Ani | "the third, Tuamutef, the head of a jackal" |
[budge-1904] | *Gods of the Egyptians* I, the seventh hour | a serpent bearing the heads of the four Children of Horus |
Sources
[budge-1904]— Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians (1904), vols I–II. Public domain, archived insources-texts/. Budge caveat applies (04-BIBLIOGRAPHY.md). The Pyramid Text line numbers, Book of the Dead chapters and the organ assignments are transcription and reporting, which is where Budge is most reliable.[sethe-1908]— Sethe, Die altägyptischen Pyramidentexte (1908–22). Public domain. Verify the Teta and Pepi I loci.[wilkinson-2003]— Wilkinson, The Complete Gods and Goddesses. In copyright; cited only.
Open questions
- Resolve the heart problem. Duamutef is assigned the heart and lungs, but the heart was normally left in the body during embalming. Either Budge's assignment is loose, or the tradition and the practice diverged. Check a modern account of canopic contents. This is the sharpest unresolved question on the four.
- Verify the "he who adores his mother" reading of dwꜣ-mwt-f against a lexicon.
- Recover the broken passage on Set being accompanied by the four children of Horus; the OCR fails mid-sentence and the claim is interesting enough to want whole.
- Verify Teta 60 and Pepi I 672 against Sethe.
- Establish the relationship between Duamutef's jackal and Anubis's — same animal, same tomb, different gods, and no source here explains the overlap.
Cite this entry
Research grade: ●full — Multiple attestations across periods.
"Duamutef", The Egyptian God Corpus,
graded full, retrieved 2026-08-10.