ADMISSION. - The name of the supreme god of the Egyptian pantheon, later also of the Greco-Roman world. The Egyptian name is Amūn, which the Greeks rendered as Ἄμμων; the Hebrews, 'Amôn. The etymology is uncertain: the Egyptians themselves interpreted it as "the hidden one." Originally a local god of Hermopolis, he became, after the rise of Thebes, the great god of the empire, identified with the sun under the name Ammon-Râ. Thebes, his city, was called Nô'-Amôn, i.e., "city of Ammon." The high priest of Ammon at Thebes inaugurated the dynasty of priest-kings (XXI). Many hymns and prayers to Ammon-Râ have come down to us (cf. A. Erman, Die Literatur der Aegypter, Leipzig 1923, p. 350 ff.).

The cult of A. then spread into North Africa (Nubia, the Libyan oases). At Siwa, Alexander the Great was proclaimed by the oracle as the son of A. (332 B.C.). This oracle of A. at Siwa became very famous (hence Marmaricus Ammon, in Claudian, Eutropius), down to the 3rd century A.D. The god spread as far as Greece, where he was identified with Jupiter, whence Zeus-Ammon "maker of gods and men." Jupiter A. was confused by the Romans (who therefore wrote Hammon: Virgil, Aeneid, IV, 198) with the Phoenician god Baal Hammon, honored at Carthage.

A. is named in the Masoretic text in Nah. 3:8, and Jer. 46:25. In Nah., Thebes is called "dwelling of A." (Nô'-Amôn), in Jer. 46:25 (and Ez. 30:10, 15 f.) Nô'. The Vulgate wrongly translates in these passages Nô' as "Alexandria" and 'Amôn as "populi" (Nah.) or "tumultus" (Jer.).

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: A. Mallon, in Christus by J. Huby, 4th ed., Paris 1923, pp. 624 f., 634-38 (hymns), 652-59; K. Sethe, Amus und die acht Urgüter von Hermopolis, in Abhandlungen der preuss. Akad. der Wissenschaft, (1929, IV); L. Speleers, in DBs, fasc. II, coll. 821, 834-36; A. Calderini, La religione degli Egiziani, in Storia delle Religioni, edited by P. Tacchi Venturi, I, Turin 1934, pp. 231-36, 249; G. Perin, Onomastica, I, Padua 1940, p. 103 (texts of the Latin writers).

Antonino Romeo

@incollection{ec1_ammissione, author = {Romeo, Antonino}, title = {Ammissione}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {I}, pages = {1085--1087}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1948}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/ammissione} }

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