In Egyptian, paut, symbolized by three or more of the neter “
” hieroglyphs, e.g. “”, equals “three god group”, refers to or means “god company”, group of gods, or god family, generally of a particular city or state capital, e.g. Hermopolis had an eight god paut “”, called by the Greeks the Ogdoad, and Heliopolis had a nine god paut “”, called by the Greeks the Ennead, .
Quotes
The following are example quotes:
“Osiris in men’s mouths, is the ‘paut-ti’ of the world, Atum, feeder of beings among the gods, beneficent spirit in the abode of spirits. The word ‘paut-ti’ or double-paut is connected with the idea of creation.”
— Samuel Birch (1874), “Hymn to Osiris” (line 4), on tablet made in reign (1506-1493BC) of Thutmose I of the 18th dynasty [2]
“Besides the nine gods who were supposed to form the ‘great company”’ of gods of the city of Heliopolis, there was a second group of nine gods called the ‘little company’ of the gods, and yet a third group of nine gods, which formed the least company. Now although the paut or company of nine gods might be expected to contain nine always, this was not the case, and the number nine thus applied is sometimes misleading. There are several passages extant in texts in which the gods of a paut are enumerated, but the total number is sometimes ten and sometimes eleven. This fact is easily explained when we remember that the Egyptians deified the various forms or aspects of a god, or the various phases in his life. Thus, the setting sun, called Temu or Atmu [Atum], and the rising sun, called Khepera [Khepri], and the mid-day sun, called Ra, were three forms of the same god; and if any one of these three forms was included in a paut or company of nine gods, the other two forms were also included by implication, even though the paut then contained eleven instead of nine gods.”
— Wallis Budge (1899), Egyptian Ideas of a Future Life [1]
References
1. Budge, Wallis. (1899). Egyptian Ideas of a Future Life (paut, 3+ pgs; quote, pgs. 90-91). Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., 1908.
2. Birch, Samuel. (1874). Records of the Past: English Translations of the Assyrian and Egyptian (pg. 99). Publisher.
