The Gender Ambiguity of Fertilization: The Hemusets as a Case Study

Abstract

The role of women in the processes of fertilization and procreation in ancient Egypt has been traditionally regarded as passive. This article sets out to challenge this view, by introducing the new evidence that the study of the Hemusets provide. The Hemusets have been largely neglected by the Egyptological scholarship, and consequently, their important contribution to the discussion of fertilization is still ignored, but this research examines for the first time their relevant textual and iconographic sources. This investigation shows that the Hemusets are involved in the creation of food and provision of fertility for both lands and humans. Furthermore, the sexual ambiguity of their iconography, and their chthonic nature frames them in a broader Mediterranean context of androgynous creative goddesses.