Resheph ršpw

Overview

Resheph is a Syrian war god who arrived in Egypt with a gazelle on his head.

Budge describes the figure: "a warrior who holds a shield and spear in his left hand, and a club in his right; on his head he wears the White Crown, round the base of which is bound a turban. Above his forehead, projecting from his turban, is the head of a gazelle, which appears to be a very ancient symbol of the god, and to indicate his sovereignty over the desert" [budge-1904].

Three layers in one headdress: an Egyptian crown, a Syrian turban, and an animal older than either.

Attestation history

His Egyptian titles are extravagant. "In the Egyptian texts he is described as the 'great god, the lord of eternity, the prince of everlastingness, the lord of two-fold strength among the company of the gods; great god, lord of heaven, governor of the gods'" [budge-1904].

Those are not the titles of a tolerated foreigner. They are the titles of a principal deity, and Egypt gave them to an import.

Where he was worshipped. "The chief centre of his worship was at Het-Reshp in the Delta, but it is very probable that he was specially worshipped at many small provincial shrines on the eastern frontier of Egypt" [budge-1904].

A Syrian god with his own Delta town, and a scatter of shrines along the road into Asia.

In a Semitic triad. On British Museum stele No. 191 he stands with Min and Qetesh, who is called "Kent, lady of heaven" — and Budge admits he cannot tell which of the two gods is her husband and which her son [budge-1904].

Fire and lightning. "Reshpu is connected with the god who was known to the Phoenicians under the name of [ršp], and was, no doubt, a god of burning and destructive fire, and of the lightning" [budge-1904].

The name. Budge weighs two readings: "Reshef, i.e., 'lightning'," and "Rashshaf, i.e., 'he who shoots out fire and lightning'." He judges that "the Egyptian transcription Reshpu supports the first, and from every point of view it seems to be the correct one" [budge-1904].

What the texts say

He is armed the same way as Anat, and that is the tell. Shield, spear, club — the identical kit. Egypt's own fierce deities are dangerous by nature: a lioness, a cobra, a disc sent out to burn. These two carry equipment, and they carry the same equipment, because they come from the same place.

The gazelle is the oldest thing about him. Budge calls it "a very ancient symbol of the god" and reads it as desert sovereignty. It is also the one element of his appearance that is neither Egyptian nor military — the crown is borrowed, the turban is his own culture's dress, the weapons are a soldier's. The gazelle is what he brought that is genuinely archaic.

Import, on the diagnostic. Partly borrowed regalia: an Egyptian White Crown fitted over a Syrian turban. That is the signature of a deity imported and then accommodated, as against one invented to fill a gap, whose equipment is borrowed entirely (see Iusaaset).

Lightning is a coherent brief. Fire, destruction, war, the desert. Compare Set, Egypt's own god of the desert and disorder — the two are natural counterparts, and Egypt paired Syrian gods with Set repeatedly (Anat was made his daughter; Baal was written with Set's animal as a determinative).

Iconography

A warrior. Shield and spear in the left hand, club in the right. White Crown over a turban, with a gazelle's head above the brow [budge-1904].

Cult and practice

Het-Reshp in the Delta, and provincial shrines along the eastern frontier [budge-1904]. He appears on private stelae as well — BM 191 is one.