Real, but the surviving record is thin or comes from one period only.
Kerhet krḥt
the last of the eight
Part of the Ogdoad of Hermopolis.
Overview
Kerhet closes the Ogdoad, and like her partner she is a slot rather than a settled figure.
Budge records that the texts substitute "Ennit, or Nenuit, or Nut, or Nit, instead of Kerhet" [budge-1904]. One of those substitutions is Nit — that is, Neith, a major goddess with a great cult at Saïs. The eighth position of the oldest divine company was, at some point and by someone, filled by her.
Attestation history
Named eighth and last among the eight gods of Khemennu [budge-1904].
Budge concedes the pair's characteristics "are not easy to define" [budge-1904]. Her two available readings are those of kerh: kerh means "night," so she is the female power of night; but the determinative in the name points instead to "personifications of some apparently inactive powers of the primeval watery abyss… types of powers of nature in a state of repose either before or after a state of activity" [budge-1904].
Iconography. "Ennit, that is to say, Kerhet, has either the head of a frog or that of a cat" [budge-1904].
What the texts say
A position, not a person. Between them, Kerh and Kerhet accept at least eight substitute names. That is not how a deity with a cult behaves; it is how a structural slot behaves. The Ogdoad needed a fourth pair to be an Ogdoad, and various traditions supplied one.
This is the strongest evidence in the corpus for Maspero's side of the argument — that the eight were "gods formed according to the laws of grammar, four being masculine, and four feminine" [budge-1904] — even though Budge himself rejected that reading. The honest position, set out on the group page, is that the eight are not uniform: kekuit has a defined independent function, and Kerhet has a name that will not stay attached.
The Neith substitution deserves following. Neith is one of the oldest attested goddesses in Egypt and is elsewhere identified with naunet, the first female of the Ogdoad. If she can stand at both positions two and eight, either the positions are less distinct than the list implies, or Neith was absorbing primeval-goddess material generally. Both are interesting; neither is settled here.
Iconography
Frog-headed or cat-headed [budge-1904].
Cult and practice
None recorded in the sources here.
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, paut of Hermopolis | Kerhet eighth of the eight gods of Khemennu |
[budge-1904] | *Gods of the Egyptians* I, on the fourth pair | the substitute names Ennit, Nenuit, Nut and Nit |
[budge-1904] | *Gods of the Egyptians* I, on the fourth pair | *kerh* = "night"; the determinative indicating inactive powers of the abyss |
[budge-1904] | *Gods of the Egyptians* I, citing Lanzone pll. 168 ff. | frog head or cat head |
Sources
[budge-1904]— Budge, The Gods of the Egyptians (1904), vol. I, the section on the paut of Hermopolis. Public domain, archived insources-texts/. Budge caveat applies (04-BIBLIOGRAPHY.md).[lanzone]— Lanzone, Dizionario di Mitologia Egizia, pll. 168 ff., cited by Budge at second hand. Public domain; not archived here.[brugsch-religion]— Brugsch, Religion und Mythologie der alten Aegypter, p. 142, cited by Budge. Public domain; not archived here.[maspero-myth]— Maspero, La Mythologie Égyptienne, p. 257, cited by Budge. Public domain; not archived here.
Open questions
- Trace the Nit / Neith substitution. Neith appearing at both the second and eighth positions of the Ogdoad is the most promising loose thread in this pair. Check neith for the reciprocal claim and find a text for either.
- Establish whether Ennit and Nenuit are spellings or separate absorbed deities.
- Check the Ptolemaic Ogdoad inscriptions for a stable name in the eighth position.
- Count the substitutions properly and write them up. Kerh and Kerhet between them take at least eight alternative names in Budge's account; a short note on what that instability means for the Ogdoad's antiquity would be worth more than either entry alone.
Cite this entry
Research grade: ◐partial — Genuinely attested, but the record is thin or single-period.
"Kerhet", The Egyptian God Corpus,
graded partial, retrieved 2026-08-10.