Khonsu, the god of the moon

Some time ago, Disney released a Marvel series based on the character Moon Knight, featuring the anti-hero Egyptian moon god Khonshu. In the series, he is the god of justice, punishing those who committed evil and protecting the "travellers of the light".

Now returning to the real world, Khonshu is inspired by a real-life Egyptian god (sure they wouldn't get inspired by a Maori deity!) named Khonsu. Yeah, creativity was on vacation the day Marvel named this character. Just like his Marvel counterpart, he is the god of the moon. Unlike his Marvel counterpart, he has nothing to do with justice and vengeance. Justice was the domain of the goddess Matt, while vengeance was the domain of the dreaded Sekhmet. Khonsu, besides representing the moon, also ruled over time and …baboons? Sometimes mythology is undoubtedly weird.

Back to Khonsu himself, in terms of appearance, he is one of the rare Egyptian gods with a human head and is described as relatively young. This is quite ironic since he's probably one of the oldest Egyptian gods, predating the likes of Taweret, Osiris and Toth. After all, he is the son of two primal gods, Amun, the god of air (call his domain lame, and you might find yourself in trouble. What would you do without it?) and Mut, goddess of creation. This, in terms, would make Khonsu a third-generation god, standing right behind the 8 primal deities (including his parents) and, finally, the primordial water, Nun, kind of the mother of the 8 deities.

Couple of fun facts on Amun and Mut. They used to be the principal deities of the Egyptian pantheon at the time in Thebes. Their city was, after all, one of the capitals of the New Kingdom of Egypt (yeah, it had several) and was overall a city with a lot of power. So, take that Ra, Amun and Mut were the actual head honchos of the pantheon. Well, until Ra and Amun fused so the former could take his place. Also, there is a story saying that Mut was Amun's second wife, the first one being Amunet, the invisible goddess. But one day, the air god couldn't get his hand on his first wife, so he replaced her.

Of course, Khonsu had many faces and representations over his long existence. In his early days, he was depicted as an asshole who liked to torment people all around him. However, just like any teenager, he would eventually leave his edgy lord phase and turn into a rather lovely guy. So no cackling maniac distributing PTSD left and right for his Moon Knight like his Marvel counterpart. Also, during the new moon, he turns into a sacred animal known as the Mighty Bull, and this was one hell of a bovine. This beast was able to gain not only control over all the evil spirits but also plant growth and love.

Khonsu would ultimately be later assimilated by another now more popular Egyptian god, Toth. Though he is best known for being the sovereign of wisdom and knowledge, as well as overseeing the judgement of the souls of the dead. He did also share many fields with Khonsu. That's right, Toth was also the god of the moon, time and, …baboons?! Damn, those monkeys are surely persistent.