# Mut

Source: https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods/mut
Language: en

# Mut

Amun’s consort and the mother of the Theban triad — a queen among goddesses.

**Also written**: Mout · Lady of Isheru · موت سيدة إشرو

Useful clues to take into the temple.

## How to recognise them

Mut often appears as a woman with a vulture headdress and the double crown. She can also take a lioness form. These attributes guide recognition, but inscriptions and the scene’s context are needed when deities share features.

## Who they were

Mut is the second member of the Theban triad (a group of three deities worshipped together), worshipped as Amun’s wife and Khonsu’s mother. Her name is written with a vulture and is the ordinary Egyptian word for “mother”. She had her own walled precinct south of Amun’s at Karnak, with a crescent-shaped sacred lake called the Isheru around three sides of the temple — a lake shape reserved for dangerous lioness goddesses, which is a clue to the other half of her character: she could be gentle mother or raging lioness, and the two were not felt to be a contradiction.

## Where you meet them

Mut’s walled precinct lies south of Amun’s at Karnak and includes the crescent-shaped Isheru lake. This is its historical location, not confirmation of a current walking route or admission. In temple scenes, look for Mut with Amun and Khonsu, including the Opet procession at Luxor Temple.

God

## Who they are shown with

[

God

### Amun

Amun often wears a crown with two tall feathers and may appear as a man or in ram-related forms. These are useful clues, but other gods can share attributes: inscriptions and the surrounding scene help confirm an identification.

](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods/amun)[

God

### Khonsu

Khonsu commonly has a youthful sidelock, a wrapped body and a lunar disc with a crescent. He may also be falcon-headed. The lunar crown is a useful clue; read the accompanying name when it survives.

](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods/khonsu)[

God

### Sekhmet

A lioness-headed woman with a sun disc is a useful starting clue for Sekhmet, not an exclusive identifier. Other lioness goddesses share features; read the caption where it survives.

](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods/sekhmet)[

God

### Hathor

Cow horns around a sun disc can point to Hathor. A sistrum is a hand-held ritual rattle; a menat is a beaded necklace with a counterweight at the back. Both are associated with her worship. Isis and other deities can share attributes, so check the inscription too.

](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods/hathor)

Continue reading

## Where to look

1–1 / 4

[Temple complex · East bank

### Karnak Temple Complex

Two thousand years of building, rebuilding and royal ambition, gathered around the temples of Amun.

](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/karnak)[Temple · East bank

### Luxor Temple

A temple of Amun in the heart of today’s city, shaped by royal ritual and the annual Opet festival.

](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/luxor-temple)[Temple · West bank

### Medinet Habu

Colour survives here wherever the roof did — on a temple built by a king fighting to hold Egypt together.

](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/medinet-habu)[Temple · West bank

### The Ramesseum

Ramesses II’s mortuary temple, largely collapsed — including the colossus that put “Ozymandias” into English.

](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/ramesseum)

Sources & further reading 3

Tier 2 The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt, Richard H. Wilkinson 

Thames & Hudson

Tier 2 Egyptian Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Goddesses and Traditions of Ancient Egypt, Geraldine Pinch 

Oxford University Press

Tier 1 [Survey, excavation and restoration in the temples of Karnak](https://www.cfeetk.cnrs.fr/accueil/programmes-scientifiques/projet-karnak/) 

Centre franco-égyptien d’étude des temples de Karnak (CFEETK)

Official page indexed · checked 2026-09-19

Source review is incomplete. Consultation dates are shown only for checked references.

Published works and institutional references for further reading.

[Sources and review status](mailto:corrections@egyptmore.com?subject=Luxor101%20correction)

[Gods](https://luxor101.com/ancient-luxor/gods)