A name and a job. Nothing else survives — and that is the finding, not a gap in our work. Arrives with the Book of the Dead.
Her-nest-f
a god without a description
Part of the Akhemu-seku.
Overview
Her-nest-f stands in the tenth hour of the night holding a sceptre, and that is everything anyone can say about him from the sources here.
This entry is ○ name-only and will stay that length until a further attestation turns up. It exists because the alternative is to leave a god out of a roster he is demonstrably in.
Attestation history
He is the ninth and last figure Budge lists in the lower register of the tenth division: "A god called HER-NEST-F, holding a sceptre" [budge-1905-gates].
The register. In the lower register of the tenth division, Budge lists [budge-1905-gates]:
1. Twelve male beings, each carrying a paddle — "gods who never diminish" 2. Twelve female beings, each grasping a rope, a star above each head — "the hours who tow along the boat of Ra" 3. Banti, cynocephalus-ape-headed, holding a sceptre 4. Seshsha, man-headed, a star above him, holding a sceptre 5. Ka-Amenti, bull-headed, holding a sceptre 6. Renen-sbau, man-headed, a star above him, holding a sceptre 7. A monkey with a star over his head, called "the god of Rethenu" 8. A bracket, on which rests the Utchat 9. Her-nest-f, holding a sceptre
And the source says outright that he is undescribed. Budge, having assigned the four available description-paragraphs to Banti, Seshsha, Ka-Amenti and Renen-sbau, concludes: "therefore the god of Rethenu, the Utchat, and the god Her-nest-f remain without descriptions" [budge-1905-gates].
That is unusually helpful. The gap is not in Budge's reporting; it is in the composition itself. Three figures are drawn and named in this register and given no caption.
What the texts say
Nothing, and that is the entry. No function, no head type, no speech, no epithet. He holds a sceptre, which every god in the register does.
What can be said is where he stands: last in a line of celestial gods, after the monkey called the god of Rethenu and the bracket bearing the Utchat. Whether that position means anything is unknown.
A note on the name. Nest or nesut is "throne, seat," and her is "upon" or "face"; a reading like "he who is upon his throne" is available and is not asserted here. Budge does not translate it, and a plausible parse of an Egyptian name is not an attestation of anything.
Iconography
A god holding a sceptre [budge-1905-gates]. No head type recorded, and no star.
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-1905-gates] | *Book of Gates* II, tenth division, lower register | "A god called Her-nest-f, holding a sceptre" |
[budge-1905-gates] | *Book of Gates* II, tenth division | Budge's explicit statement that Her-nest-f "remains without a description" |
Sources
[budge-1905-gates]— Budge, The Egyptian Heaven and Hell / The Book of Gates (1905), vol. II, tenth division of the Tuat, pp. 273–278. Public domain, archived insources-texts/. Budge caveat applies (04-BIBLIOGRAPHY.md); this is scene description and translated caption, his most reliable register.[budge-1904]— Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians (1904), vol. I, on the beings of Sekhet-Aaru. Public domain, archived insources-texts/.[wilkinson-2003]— Wilkinson, The Complete Gods and Goddesses. In copyright; cited only.
Open questions
- Find the figure in a tomb version of the scene. Budge cites Lefébure for the Ramesses VI text; the painted register would at minimum supply a head type, which is the cheapest possible promotion for this entry.
- Test the "upon his throne" reading of the name against a lexicon.
- Check whether Her-nest-f appears anywhere else in the Book of Gates or the Amduat. A second occurrence with a caption would move him off ○ name-only immediately.
- Establish whether the three undescribed figures (Her-nest-f, the god of Rethenu, the Utchat bracket) form a set, or are simply the leftovers of a damaged or abbreviated text.
Cite this entry
Research grade: ○name-only — A name and a function in a spell list. That is all that survives.
"Her-nest-f", The Egyptian God Corpus,
graded name-only, retrieved 2026-08-10.