The Buchis bull was a sacred bull of ancient Egypt — a living bull worshipped at Hermonthis as the incarnation of the war-god Montu (and associated with Ra and Osiris), famous for its strange coat that was said to change colour. The bull of the war-god, the Buchis was the fierce living embodiment of Montu and the sun.
The Bull of Montu
The Buchis (Egyptian Bakha) was a sacred living bull worshipped at Hermonthis (Armant), near Thebes, as the living incarnation of the fierce falcon-headed war-god Montu — and, like the other sacred bulls, associated with the sun-god Ra and, in death, with Osiris. As the bull of the war-god, the Buchis embodied Montu's fierce, conquering, solar power in animal form. It was one of the three great sacred bulls of Egypt, alongside the Apis (of Ptah, at Memphis) and the Mnevis (of Ra, at Heliopolis).
The Bull of Changing Colour
The Buchis was famous for a remarkable feature: its coat was said to change colour. Ancient sources report that the Buchis bull had hair that changed colour every hour, or that its body was white while its face was black, or that its hair grew in the opposite direction to that of an ordinary animal — strange and marvelous features that marked it as a divine and supernatural creature. These wonders set the Buchis apart as a clearly sacred and god-touched animal, its very appearance proclaiming its divine nature. (The colour-changing was perhaps connected to the changing aspects of the sun through the day.)
The Sacred Bull and the Bucheum
Like the Apis and Mnevis, the Buchis was a single living bull at a time, identified by sacred signs, venerated and cared for at its sanctuary at Hermonthis, and serving as a focus of worship (and the cows associated with the cult had their own sacred status). At its death, the Buchis was elaborately mummified and given an honourable burial in a special cemetery called the Bucheum, alongside previous Buchis bulls (and the mothers of the Buchis bulls were buried in a nearby cemetery). A new Buchis was then sought to incarnate the war-god anew. The cult of the Buchis continued late into the Roman period. As the fierce bull of the war-god Montu, the Buchis represented the conquering, solar power of the god in living form.
The Fierce Bull of the War-God
The Buchis endures as one of the three great sacred bulls of ancient Egypt — the living bull worshipped at Hermonthis as the incarnation of the war-god Montu and the sun, famous for its colour-changing coat and buried in the Bucheum. It embodies the Egyptian veneration of the divine incarnate in a living animal, here the fierce war-god in bull form; and it stands as the bull of Montu — the fierce, solar, marvelous living bull whose very coat changed colour, the conquering war-god made flesh.
The fierce sacred bull of the war-god Montu, whose marvelous coat was said to change colour hour by hour — the conquering, solar war-god made flesh, buried at last in the Bucheum.
