Three Heads Are Better than One
September 18, 2009

The deity has a lion head, a snake head and a cobra head. Maybe three heads=three mouths, so he feeds better?
The model was a rare three headed deity,
seen in in the latest KMT magazine, Volume 20, Number 3, Fall 2009, page 66:


Detail from a 22nd Dynasty cartonnage now at Brighton Museum, probably originally from Heracleopolis Magma

Michael Oakey, author of the article "Egypt Seaside at the Brighton Museum, UK", gives footnotes:
4.Alan W. Shorter, A Possible Late Representation of the god 'Ash (London, 1914), 78-79
The depiction is also discussed by Margaret Murray in an appendix to her book The Splendour that was Egypt (New York, 1963)

But I'm thinking a combination of lion headed Maahes, snake Nehebu-Kau and vulture Nekhbet???

I will do more research...

The Shorter article does refer to this cartonnage at the Brighton Museum:


"Ash with many faces"


Grayscale, smaller, but gives view of surrounding area...

Murray says further of Ash:


"In the xviii-th dynasty (c. 1500 B.C.) his name occurs in chapter xcv of the Book of the Dead in a rain-charm,
"I am the Terrible One in the thunderstorm, I am refreshed by this 'Ash".(Murray, page 223)

Hmmm, are there connections with Set, as 'terrible' and 'thunderstorms' are adjective and nouns sometimes associated with Set? Yes, TeVelde states, "The chief god of the Libyans, Ash, the chief god of the Western Semites, Baal, the chief god of the Hittites, Teshub, were recognised as forms in which Seth revealed himself." _Seth, God of Confusion_, page 109
And "Since the reign of Peribsen, the Libyan god Ash can be depicted with the head of Seth..." ibid, page 114

Curiouser and curiouser...