Alternative Spellings: Hah, Hauh, Huh, Huah, Hu and Hahuh, Hehet

Other Names & Epitaphs: “The God of Millions of Years”

Etymology: “flood,” “million,” “millions” or “endless”

Heh or Huh, as I first came across this deity, is one of the oldest Egyptian gods. Effectively, they are the deification or personification of Eternity in the Ogdoad.

Ogdoad

Huh is a member of a group of eight deities known as the Ogdoad. All members of this group are genderless, having aspects of both male and female. Huh is the male aspect of this deity and Hauhet is the female aspect of this deity.

The male Ogdoads are depicted as men with the head of a frog or a frog outright. The female Ogdoads are depicted as women with the head of a snake or as just a snake.

Heh would sometimes be shown as crouching, holding a palm stalk in each hand, and a shen ring on the end of each palm stem. The shen ring symbolized long life or infinity.

These were four pairs of deities as follows:

Water – Nun and Naunet

Void – Amun and Amaunet

Infinite Time – Heh and Hauhet

Darkness – Kuk and Kauket

Temples & Worship

All eight of the Ogdoad were worshiped in their temple of Khmunu, later renamed to Hermopolis Magna.

The God Of Eternity

Huh is the god of infinity, time, long life, and eternity.

The image of Heh with his arms raised up is the hieroglyph for one million, the equivalent of infinity in Egyptian mathematics.

Heh’s iconography could be found on many amulets and items of prestige in which the owner or wearer would wish for a long life or rule. Eventually, Heh’s symbol would become associated with the Pharaoh. The most famous example we have was found with King Tut where Heh’s hieroglyph is found on two cartouches.

God Of The Air & Wind

Heh is also associated as an Air God and in this respect, identified with Shu. Both Shu and Heh are sometimes shown holding their arms up to hold up the sky.

As a wind god, Heh, he is linked to the four pillars believed in Egyptian mythology to hold up the sky.

In The Beginning…

Like many of the creation myths and stories, in the beginning, there was nothing, only chaos represented by a vast quantity of endless water. A formless nothing. No land.

In this void and chaos, there were four frog gods and four snake goddesses who were members of the Ogdoad who lived here.

Nun created the first land, raising it up out of the watery depths. From this mound of earth, the first god Atum would emerge. Shortly after, he would create or give birth/rise to all of the other gods of the Egyptian pantheon.

Hieroglyphics

In the Egyptian system of writing, Heh would be shown as a man with a beard and lappet wig, sometimes he is kneeling or he is in a basket. This would be the sign for “all.” The palm branches are the symbol for “year.”

Numerology

Surprisingly, the ancient Egyptians used the decimal system in their mathematics. Many deities would be used to represent numbers in this system.

Heh’s hieroglyph in his seated position, represented the number 1,000,000.

Hauhet

She is essentially the feminine of Heh. She is shown as a snake-headed woman or as just a snake. Otherwise, her symbolism and attributes are the same as Heh.