Heka

The God of Magic

Domain: Magic, Medicine & Divine Power
Alignment: True Neutral
Element: Light
Relics of Power: Two Entwined Serpents

Speak with Heka

The full Codex

5 sections of this entry are open to everyone: the summary, the people, the symbols, the lineage and the sources. The other 9 (Name and epithets, In the ancient sources, The myths, Worship and archaeology, How the god was depicted, What scholars debate, After antiquity, Did you know?, Codex relic) are part of the full Codex: PRO opens the whole study of all 500 deities, and without a subscription you can read one full entry a day, just like in the app.

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The People

People

Ancient Egyptians

Region

Nile Valley, Egypt

Period

c. 3100 BC – 400 AD

The Egyptian gods were worshipped for over three millennia along the banks of the Nile, with monumental temples at Karnak, Luxor, and Heliopolis. The pharaohs were held to be divine, and life revolved around cosmic order (Maat) and preparation for the afterlife. The cult endured until the rise of Christianity in Roman Egypt.

At the Opet festival, Amun's sacred barque sailed from Karnak to Luxor amid celebrating crowds. In the temples, priests woke, dressed, and fed the god's statue every day, and the Beautiful Festival of the Valley carried the deities to visit the shore of the dead.

At a glance

Budge, in The Gods of the Egyptians, vol. I (1904, pp. 180, 203–205), places Heka in the stern of Ra’s boat and calls him “the god of magical words”; vol. II, index p. 131, records him beside Osiris with a serpent in each hand. In the Pyramid Texts, Faulkner translates Utterances 273–274 and 472 as magical power possessed by the king and taken from the gods. These passages do not tell an independent myth of Heka.

The ancient sources on this deity are scarce. This study gathers only what is on record.

6 min read · Reviewed on October 14, 2026 · How we research

Sacred symbols

The entwined serpents, the ankh, the scepter and the word

Family

Parents

Shu-Khnemu-Ra (per Budge, at Latopolis)Tefnut-Nebuut-Sekhet (per Budge, at Latopolis)

Heka

Genealogy according to Única menção de filiação lida: Budge, Gods of the Egyptians, vol. 2, p. 357, que chama Heqa de filho de Shu-Khnemu-Rá e Tefnut-Nebuut-Sekhet em Latópolis: https://archive.org/details/cu31924092320518

Sources and further reading

Primary sources

Budge, E. A. Wallis, Egyptian Magic. translation: English text of 1901. read
Budge, E. A. Wallis, The Gods of the Egyptians, vol. 1. translation: English text of 1904. read
Budge, E. A. Wallis, The Gods of the Egyptians, vol. 2. translation: English text of 1904. read
Anonymous (King Unas and others), Pyramid Texts, Utterances 273–274 and 472. translation: R. O. Faulkner, 1969. read

Studies

Lichtheim, Miriam, Ancient Egyptian Literature, vol. 2: The New Kingdom (introduction to the Book of the Dead). open

Name and epithets

Budge writes the name as Heka and elsewhere as Heqa; he translates the plural hekau as "words of power" (Egyptian Magic, chapter on amulets and "words of power"; Gods of the Egyptians, vol. 1, pp. 40-41).

In the ancient sources

Pyramid Texts, Utterances 273-274 ("The king hunts and eats the gods", Faulkner's heading), pyramid of King Unas, Fifth Dynasty according to Budge.

The myths

Heka in the boat of Ra. In the Book of what is in the Duat, Budge describes the sun god's night journey. In the First Division the boat carries a disk with a scarab ringed by a great serpent; the god Sa stands in the bo…

Worship and archaeology

The open works consulted describe no temple, priesthood or festival of Heka. They describe the practice of magic: Budge states that formulae were inscribed on amulets and that the hekau were necessary to the dead, and h…

How the god was depicted

Budge describes Heka in The Gods of the Egyptians, vol. I, pp. 180 and 203–205, in scenes of the solar boat; the vol. II index, p. 131, records the figure beside Osiris.

What scholars debate

God, concept or serpent?. In the works read, the word heka covers three things: magical power in general (Faulkner), "words of power" (Budge) and a god in the Amduat scenes.

After antiquity

In 1901 Budge defines the magic of early nations as the transfer of power from a supernatural being to man, to obtain superhuman results.

Did you know?

Budge recounts, from the Westcar Papyrus, that a magician turned a wax crocodile seven spans long into a living crocodile to punish a lover.

Codex relic

Two Entwined Serpents. The serpents he grasps, symbol of the magical power that upholds the gods and creation itself.

The rest of this scroll is sealed

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