Renniu

Overview

The Renniu are four bearded gods in the eleventh division, and they are described by their beards.

That is not a joke at the source's expense — it is the whole of what Budge records about their appearance. Where the Setheniu-tep get white crowns and the Khnemiu red ones, the Renniu and the Akebiu are distinguished only as "bearded." Two of the four companies in this register are marked by regalia; two are not.

Attestation history

They stand in one register, and only make sense as a set. Budge lists what is on the left of the boat of Ra in the eleventh division [budge-1904]:

1. Setheniu-tep — four beings wearing white crowns 2. Akebiu — four bearded gods, "wailers" 3. Khnemiu — four beings wearing red crowns 4. Renniu — four bearded gods 5. Twelve goddesses, the female counterparts of the first three groups 6. Four gods with bowed bodies 7. Mati, the cat-headed goddess

Their shared duty, and their shared sentence, is on the group page.

The sentence. Budge gives the terms exactly: "though their souls rose up, they were never able to leave this Division of the Tuat or pass out of the pylon. Their duty was to weep for Osiris after Ra had passed out of Ament, and to be with him, as far as their souls were concerned, but their bodies had to stay in their places; they also had to raise up Maat and to stablish it" [budge-1904].

So the arrangement is this: the soul travels, the body does not, and the job is mourning. These are gods serving an indefinite term.

What the texts say

A company defined by absence of insignia. The register's logic seems to be crowned / uncrowned as much as north / south. The Renniu are on the uncrowned side of it, paired with the Akebiu — who at least have a translated name ("wailers"). The Renniu have neither a crown nor a gloss.

What this entry declines to claim. The name Renniu looks as though it should relate to ren, "name" — a loaded word in Egyptian thought, where knowing a being's name confers power over it. That would be an attractive reading for gods stationed at a gate. No source archived here supports it, and it is recorded as a hypothesis to test rather than as a fact. See open threads.

Iconography

Four bearded male figures [budge-1904], with four unnamed female counterparts among the twelve goddesses of the register — which is itself slightly odd, given the beards.

Cult and practice

None recorded.