Epithets:
by Djedetmiwesir © 2001- 2005
"...Behind all of these is a reality of myth, cult, or word play"
-Eric Hornung on Epithets, From conceptions of God in Ancient Egypt.

"Epithet" can be better understood by just looking at it's definition in the Dictionary:

Ep·i·thet (n.)
1. A term used to characterize a person or thing, such as the "Great" in "Catherine the Great."
2. A term used as a descriptive substitute for the name or title of a person, such as "The Great Emancipator" for Abraham Lincoln.

The ancients believed that the power of a name, and of words was powerful. Titles and descriptive terms, placed in Hymns and Prayers "fed" the God with honor, adoration and the Heka (Magic)found in words of power. The more names a divinity possesses the more august and omnipotent they become. Epithets, also had With the addition purpose of identification, there are some prayers where the God is never mentioned by name once, only by his Epithet and legend. Epithets also have the obvious effect of singing the praises of the God,

Epithets are very important when it comes to learning about a specific god or goddess. Because in a nutshell, much of the modern information we have on how the ancients envisioned and worshipped, Their divinity came from the descriptive utterances found with in Hymns. Wesir is one of those Netjeru who has Many, many Epithets. The importance of Epithets hasn't made this work very easy for me, so I will have to settle for a small portion of examples, if I expect to do any other work!

Separating the Epithets from Hymns allows us to take an objective moment to learn about who the god is, and to understand that the Ancient praise singers were not just showering their venerated one with hero-worship. The praises of power and domain found in the Epithets serve a greater purpose. Epithets are also very often interchangeable and shared between various other gods. If the concept of more than one god sharing the same Epithets confuses you, then I encourage you to read this on Monolarity.

Click here for Sources