The Ancient Egyptian religion includes over 2000 gods and goddesses. Although there’s so many, there’s a great number of Egyptian gods & goddesses that we know very little (or sometimes nothing) about. Because of this, you’ll often find a select few of the most popular gods and goddesses are included in every book, worksheet, article and classroom display about Ancient Egyptian religion.

We’ve even written an article about these popular Egyptian deities ourselves!

But what about the less well-known gods and goddesses? What about the ones that nobody mentions because they’re just a bit… well… odd?

Well, we’ve scoured the long lists of Egyptian deities to find you 7 of the weirdest Ancient Egyptian gods & goddesses that you’ve (probably) never heard of.

Dua

God of: Toilets

Dua was the Egyptian god of sanitation and, yes, toilets! This meant he was responsible for keeping things clean, particularly in very dirty places such as bathrooms. Sanitation also includes the safe disposal of everything that ends up in your toilet (yes, this was a long winded way of saying “getting rid of your poop”!). So in many ways he could be described as a deified flush.

Khenti-Khas

God of: The Noses of the Dead

And the award for the most obscure job for an Egyptian god goes to Khenti Khas, who is responsible for protecting the noses of the deceased. And clearly Khenti-Khas had his work cut out for him: many Egyptian statues were vandalised by ancient Egyptian people who believed that chopping off a statue’s nose would kill any part of that person’s spirit still living inside the statue. Lets hope Khenti-Khas was more successful in protecting the noses on the mummified dead bodies themselves.

Tefnut

Goddess of: Spit

Alright so you may have heard of Tefnut before – she is often summarised as the goddess of water. But “goddess of the water” is a very generalised title and we certainly don’t want to get her confused with Anuket who is also a goddess of water, but more specifically the water in the River Nile. So let’s get down to the specifics. Tefnut is the goddess of moisture. This includes moist air, dew, a light drizzle and yes, even spit. In fact, Tefnut’s name can be translated as meaning “to spit”. And she has even been depicted as a picture of a mouth in mid-spit action. Poor woman!

Hedjhotep

God of: Fabric

Hedjhotep was said to have invented clothing and was responsible for creating the clothes for the Pharaohs, the gods and the deceased. Not a lot is known of Hedjhotep, but he occasionally turns up in Egyptian mythology stories alongside other gods and goddesses. For example, he often hangs out with Tayet, the goddess of weaving. He also occasionally turns up in mythical stories featuring Shezmu, the god of treatments for headaches and stomach aches (pretty sure he should have made it onto this list too) where Hedjhotep sensibly makes bandages for him.

Sepa

God of: Centipedes

Centipedes seems a strange thing to be a god of – but Sepa’s job was a very important one. The Egyptians were obsessed with preserving their dead and would mummify dead bodies to keep them in tip-top condition. Unfortunately for the Egyptians, insects would often attack the dead bodies before they could preserve them, forcing the body to start to decay. But the Egyptians had a secret weapon – the centipede. Centipedes feed on other insects so the Egyptians believed they protected the dead. So it was Sepa’s job to protect the dead through the use of predatory myriapod invertebrates with 100 legs (that's a centipede to you and I).

Kebechet

Goddess of: Freshness

No, we’re not saying that Kebechet was the goddess of armpit deodorant or fabric conditioner. Kebechet was the daughter of Anubis, the Egyptian god of death & mummification. So Kebechet was responsible for keeping the dead bodies nice and fresh during the embalming process. Imagine what a difficult job that must have been. But Kebechet knew what she was doing, because she was also the goddess of embalming fluid. Lucky thing.

Gengen Wer

God of: The Celestial Egg

If this isn’t something straight out of a video-game, we don’t know what is. Believe it or not, Gengen Wer was a celestial goose. And if that wasn’t enough, his name means the “Great Honker”. In Egyptian mythology, it is said that Gengen Wer laid a great honking heavenly egg that contained the life force. Gengen Wer’s job is to protect that life force. What a goose!

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