For the god of eternity in the Ogdoad, see Huh (god)

In Egyptian mythology, Hu (also spelt Huh) is the deification of the first word, the word of creation, that Atum was said to have exclaimed upon ejaculating, in his masturbatory act of creating the Ennead. As the word of creation, he is very similar to the later Hindu concept of Aum, and also to the later hellenic concept of Logos, the thought that thought exists, which was later adopted into the Gospel of John (usually translated as in the beginning was the word rather than in the beginning was the Logos).

His name is thought to originate as an onomatopoeia of the act of drawing breath, although it can also be translated, in which situation it means eternity. It was later said that Atum split this aspect from himself by extracting blood from his own penis and turning it into Hu and Saa, the deification of wisdom. Due to this shared birth, and the close kinship between the concepts, Hu and Saa were considered boyfriends.

The aspect of such creative power, the attribute of Atum that mattered most, was one with which Pharaohs were keen to associate themselves. Consequently, as sometimes Pharaohs depicted their divine power in statuary as a sphinx, a seated, human-headed, lion, Hu was occasionally shown in this form. In particular, in years much later after its construction, the Great Sphinx, at Giza, was seen as a representation of Hu. When Atum and Ra were later identified as each other, becoming Atum-Ra, Hu became also the offspring of Ra, in which capacity he is more frequently mentioned.

Egyptian gods

Hu | Hou | Hu