Hi BA,

Geez, I just managed to delete a rather longish answer to your posting.... sounded very civilised, with many foreign words and all. Maybe I'll just be myself again and make it short and simple, eh?


> My understanding is that there were two phases of
> creation, the first or the beginning forced by Nun
> which created the two realms, am I wrong to
> associate Akeru with this first phase? In the
> second phase Ptah creates Re by digging a tunnel
> between the two realms which allowed Re to be
> re-born every day, it is my assumption that Aker
> guards the entrances for Ptah's creation and then
> Geb is featured as the earth god. I associated
> Aker via Ptah's creation of Re. The confusing
> part is when we try to understand Khnum as an
> equivalent creator god that is contemporary with
> Ptah, hence my belief that Akeru and Aker concepts
> belong or trend toward lower Egypt as opposed to
> upper from whence Khnum belongs. All said it
> seems more that geographical locations played less
> of a role or point of origin; Khnum-Khufu built at
> Giza.


I don't know if one can divide the AE creation in different phases. While it all stars with Nun, the process seems to be continuous i.e. one thing leads to another. Unless you take two different creation stories and look at them as being two phases, which you seem to be doing here?
I wouldn't associate Aker (Akeru) with Ptah, because Ptah as the supreme creator (and Khnum as well!) date to the Shabaka stone, and hence the LP!! (Therefore nothing to do with Giza) Aker is already mentioned in his/their function in the PTs. Therefore, if you want to link it to a creation story, the only contemporary one is the Heliopolitan i.e. Atum/Re, Osiris, Isis, Seth, Nephthys and Horus.
However, Aker is very possibly older than so, and may actually be the forerunner of Geb. Hence the possibility of translating is as "a strip of land", meaning the burial ground and also the earthly ground (as seen in the images of horizon). Therefore, Aker could very well be associated with the very beginning of the creation, since it could have been the original earthly realm. This, of course, is just my opinion.

>
> I have a few questions; archaic/pre-dynastic era -
> was there a god represented by an eel?


Not that I know of (which does by no means mean that there isn't!!). On the other hand, a snake can be confounded with an eel, eh?


and was Nun
> ever represented in human form?


Always. Wig, beard and all. Mostly seen lifting up the sun or a boat carrying it.









Ritva