Kuk (also spelt as Kek or Keku) is the ancient Egyptian deity of night and darkness. As a concept, ancient Egyptians viewed Kuk as having male and female qualities. His female form was known as Kauket (also spelt as Keket), simply the female form of the word Kuk.
Depiction of Goddess Kauket
Ancient Egyptians represented Kuk’s male form as a frog or a frog-headed man. However, they showed the female form as a snake or a snake-headed woman. He also symbolized the unknown and chaos. Kuk was the god of the hours before dawn, known as “Bringer-in-of-the-Light”, as he guided the sun barge of the god Ra toward the sky from the underworld. Egyptians depicted Kauket, his feminine balance, as a woman with the head of a serpent, also called “Bringer-in-of-the-Darkness”. In ancient Egyptian religion, she presided over the twilight hours when the sun was setting and guided the sun barge into the underworld.
History
In the oldest representations, ancient Egyptians gave Kekui the head of a serpent and Kekuit the head of either a frog or a cat. In one scene, Egyptians identified them with Ka and Kait. Ka-Kekui had the head of a frog surmounted by a beetle. However, Kait-Kekuit has the head of a serpent surmounted by a disk.
In the Greco-Roman period, Egyptians depicted Kek’s male form as a frog-headed man and the female form as a serpent-headed woman, as were all four dualistic concepts in the Ogdoad.
Popular culture
Concerning the 2016 United States presidential election, individuals associated with online message boards, such as 4chan, noted a similarity between Kek and the character Pepe the Frog. This, combined with the frequent use of the term “kek” as a popular stand-in for the internet slang “lol”. The word was often paired with Pepe images, resulting in a resurgence of interest in the ancient deity.
