Shai

Shai, also Schaj, Schay or Shai is an ancient Egyptian god of fate, which is represented as a serpent since the 18th Dynasty.

Name

The name Shai is in gräzisierter form Psais or Psois. In Egyptian derived from this root word Š3 what determine means by which the name can be translated as determination.

Representation

Compared to other gods in the Egyptian mythology, there are depictions of God Schai find quite rare in Egyptian art. It is mainly represented as a serpent, but can be found on Totenpapyri the New Kingdom also pictures that show him as an anthropomorphic deity.

Importance

Since the New Kingdom Schai was in the Egyptian religion, the personification of fate -determining values ​​such as happiness, prosperity and life, which were assigned to a man at his birth. He caused the personal well-being of a person. Due to this importance of which could be called both as an idea of the determination as a personified God. " Gives Schai, the life.": Then have, for example inscriptions from the reign of Akhenaten out where it is, sometimes in relation to the sun god Aton At times Schai is called as personified God with Meschenet or Renenutet who shared the importance of the fate determination with him.

Both in the late period as well as in the Greco -Roman period Schai became the primal and protective god, who was a self- acting being Equating with the Agathos Daimon ( Agathodaimon ), who was a god of divination, was in the Ptolemaic period.

Cult

An extensive cult of this god did not exist. Rather, the few remaining representations and texts out that Shai was seen as an abstract personification of determination or of fate.