View source for Buchis

{{short description|Ancient Egyptian deity}}
{{Infobox deity
| type = Egyptian
| name = Buchis
| cult_center = [[Hermonthis]]
| image = Buchis.svg
| symbol = white bull with a black snout
| hiero = <hiero>b-X-E1</hiero>
}}
{{Ancient Egyptian religion}}
In [[Egyptian mythology]], '''Buchis''' ({{Langx|grc|Βουχις}}, {{Langx|cop|ⲃⲱⲱϩ, ⲃⲟϩ}})<ref>{{Cite book|last=Černý|first=Jaroslav|title=Coptic Etymological Dictionary|year=1976|pages=29}}</ref> (also spelt '''Bakh''' and '''Bakha''') was the deification of the [[ancient Egyptian concept of the soul#kꜣ "double"|kꜣ]] ("power, life-force", [[Egyptological pronunciation]] ''ka'') of the war god [[Montu]]<ref>W. Max Muller, ''Egyptian Mythology'', Kessinger Publishing 2004, p.160</ref> as a [[sacred bull]] that was worshipped in the region of [[Hermonthis]].<ref name=dod>{{cite book |last=Dodson |first=Aidan |author-link=Aidan Dodson |chapter=Bull cults |editor-last=Ikram |editor-first=Salima |editor-link=Salima Ikram |title=Divine Creatures: animal mummies in ancient Egypt |year=2004 |pages=72–105|isbn=9789774248580|doi=10.5743/cairo/9789774248580.003.0004 |publisher=American University in Cairo Press|chapter-url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/289139852}}</ref>{{rp|95}} In order to being chosen as the Buchis incarnation of Montu, a bull was required to have a white body and black face. When these bulls – and in later times also their mothers – died, they were [[mummy|mummified]], and placed in a special cemetery known as the ''[[Bucheum]]''.<ref name=dod/>{{rp|95–100}}

Unlike the other Egyptian sacred bulls – the [[Apis (deity)|Apis]] and the [[Mnevis]] – the Buchis cult started towards the end of the pharaonic period, with the earliest known burial taking place in [[regnal year]] 14 of [[Nectanebo II]] (mid 4th century BC). However, four different bull cults dedicated to Montu were known in earlier times in [[Upper Egypt]], and it seems that the Buchis was the result of their [[syncretism]].<ref name=dod/>{{rp|95}} Eventually, the Buchis bull was identified as a form of the Apis, and consequently became considered an incarnation of [[Osiris]].

It is uncertain when the Buchis cult disappeared. The last confirmed tomb at the Bucheum is dated to the regnal year 12 of [[Diocletian]] (circa 295 CE),<ref name=dod/>{{rp|100}} while the latest attestation of a Buchis burial is a stela reporting its installation in regnal year 33 of Diocletian (317 AD) and its demise in regnal year 57 of the same pharaoh (more precisely on 4 November 340 AD).{{Refn|Diocletian's rule ended in 305 AD (after circa 20 years of reign) and he died in 312 AD, yet the author of the stela kept counting the years from the beginning of Diocletian's reign as if he were still alive and ruling, while the installation and the death of this Buchis actually occurred under the rule of [[Licinius]] and [[Constans]] respectively.<ref name=grenier>Jean-Claude Grenier, "La stèle funéraire du dernier taureau Bouchis (Caire JE 31901 = Stèle Bucheum 20). Ermant - 4 novembre 340", ''[[BIFAO]]'' '''83''' (1983), pp. 197-208</ref><ref>[http://attalus.org/egypt/bukhis.html The last funerary stela of a Buchis bull]</ref>|group=nb}}<ref>M. W. Daly, Carl F. Petry, ''The Cambridge History of Egypt'', Cambridge University Press 1998, p.28</ref><ref>David Frankfurter, ''Religion in Roman Egypt: Assimilation and Resistance'', Princeton University Press 1998, p.72</ref><ref name=grenier/>

==Notes==
{{Reflist|group=nb}}

==References==
<references />

==External links==
{{Commons category|Buchis}}
* [http://attalus.org/egypt/buchis_bull.html Epitaphs of Buchis bulls] 
* [https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA1694 British Museum object page with information about Buchis]

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[[Category:Egyptian mythology]]
[[Category:Mythological bulls]]
[[Category:Sacred bulls]]