MIHOS
Real Name:
Mehen (Mihos is the Greek spelling)
Occupation:
Sentry of Celestial Heliopolis
Legal Status:
Citizen of Celestial Heliopolis
Identity: The general populace of Earth is unaware of the existence of Mihos except as a mythological deity.
Other Aliases:
Bast, The Lion-God, Apedemek (Meroe name)
Place of Birth:
Marital Status: Single
Known Relatives:
Ammon-Ra
(father), Bast I
(mother), Sakhmet
(sister, alias Bast II), Atum-Ra (grandfather), Gaea
(mother, alias Nun I), Horus,
Min, Neper, Anubis,
Bata (uncles),
Hathor
(possible half-sister), Osiris
(maternal grandfather), Isis
(maternal grandmother),
Group Affiliations: The Gods of Egypt
Base of Operations:
Celestial Heliopolis
First Appearance: (name) Marvel Family #1, (as Bast II) Black Panther #1
History: Mihos is a member of an extra-dimensional race of beings known as the Ennead who were worshipped as gods in Ancient Egypt and their territories through the lands of the Mediterranean. According to ancient myths, their divine ancestor, Re was born from Nun, the physical personification of the watery abyss. Re became known as Atum and later mated with Nun to sire the Ogdoad, the first generation of the Egyptian gods. There is some indication that Nun, later known as Neith, was actually Gaea, patron goddess of the Earth who later gave birth to all the gods of Earth. (The similarities between Gaea as Nun to Atum-Re and Gaea to Ouranus suggests the Olympian gods and the Egyptian gods may have developed from common ancestors, but this is undetermined.) Among the Ogdoad, Ammon-Ra became ruler of the Egyptian gods, taking the goddess, Amaunet (Maat), as his wife, but he also had several children out of wedlock. He later seduced the goddess Bast, descendant of other Egyptian gods, and sired Sakhmet, who became goddess of war, and Mihos, who stood guard at the gates of Heliopolis.
Mihos eventually gained the favor of Osiris, a mortal ruler (pharaoh) who later replaced Ammon-Ra at some point as ruler of the gods. Mihos served as guardian to the gates of Celestial Heliopolis, the home of the Egyptian gods, while Sakhmet was often invoked by the pharaohs as a war-goddess against their enemies to Egypt, such as Seth, god of death and misfortune, who hated his brother Osiris and sought to usurp his power. Their mother, Bast, at some point became patron goddess to the people of Wakanda, an East African nation, with Mihos possibly appearing as her representative on Earth. Eventually, Mihos was worshipped as the male form of his mother and was also called Bast. Possibly jealous of her brother's worshippers in Wakanda, Sakhmet decided to support Seth in conquering Celestial Heliopolis, and Seth successfully overthrew Osiris, imprisoning him and his relatives and supporters in a pyramid that he then sank beneath the sands. Sakhmet seized her brother's worshippers in Wakanda after Bast and Mihos vanished.
Seth also sought to corrupt the power of the wizard Shazam. After conferring with Solomon, the ruler of Canaan, for a need of a champion with the power of the Greek gods, Shazam imbued his spell upon an Egyptian warrior named Teth-Adam, giving him godly powers to benefit mortals. Seth however, corrupted the spell with the names of Egyptian gods whose powers or attributes he had usurped. Among those gods was Mihos under his original Egyptian name, and Teth-Adam turned against Shazam and sought to seize power on Earth for himself. Shazam used his powers to exile Teth-Adam to another dimension.
Eventually, Mihos and the Egyptian gods forced the pyramid they were in to appear in the United States, and from within it, he and the gods trapped within it cast a spell over the Asgardian god Odin causing him to believe he was the reincarnation of their divine ancestor, Atum-Re. (Whether or not there was any actual connection between Atum-Re and Odin is unknown.) Odin's son, Thor, tried in vain to force Osiris and the other Egyptian gods to release Odin from his spell, and accompanied Mihos and the freed Egyptian gods to Celestial Heliopolis where they fought Seth's army of animated skeletons. Seth was defeated, and Osiris resumed his rightful place as ruler of Celestial Heliopolis. Mihos and the released Egyptian gods then established Odin as the reincarnation of their ancestor, Atum-Re.
Mihos would come to fight on the side of the Asgardians
several times. Absorbing the life forces of the Egyptian gods, Seth eventually
attempted to conquer Asgard, the home of the Asgardian gods, and Mihos and the
Egyptian gods in their weakened condition came to defend Asgard on behalf of the
Asgardians. Seth was defeated once more and exiled in other-dimensional space.
Due to their pact with the Asgardians, Mihos and the Ennead have maintained
close friendship with the Asgardian gods.
Height: 6' 8"
Weight: 545 lbs.
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black
Unusual Physical Characteristics: Mihos sometimes
appears with the head of a lion. In Wakanda, he appears as a large black panther
with bright green eyes.
Strength Level: Mihos possesses superhuman strength enabling her to lift
(press) 65 tons under optimal conditions.
Known Superhuman Powers: Mihos possesses the
conventional physical attributes of the Ennead or Egyptian gods. Like all of the
Egyptian gods, he is extremely long-lived, but he is not immortal: he has aged
at an extremely slow rate since reaching adulthood and cannot die by any
conventional means. He is immune to all Earthly diseases and is resistant to
conventional injury. If he were somehow wounded, his godly life force would
enable him to recover with superhuman speed. It would take an injury of such
magnitude that it dispersed a major portion of his bodily molecules to cause him
a physical death. Even then, it might be possible for a god of significant
power, such as Ammon-Ra, Osiris and Seth or for a number of Egyptian gods of
equal power working together to revive him. Mihos also possesses superhuman
strength and his Ennead metabolism provides him with far greater than human
endurance in all physical activities. (Ennead flesh and bone is about three
times as dense as similar human tissue, contributing to the superhuman strength
and weight of the Egyptian gods.)
Sebek has greater strength, stamina, endurance and resistance to injury than any other Egyptian god, with the obvious exception of gods like Osiris, Seth and Horus. He has incredible senses, similar to but not on par with Heimdall of the Asgardians. He has limited mystical potential to an unknown extent.
Abilities: Mihos is a capable warrior of incredible cunning and strategic experience.
Comments: This bio involves Mihos as he possibly appears in the Marvel and DC Universes.
It should be noted that Marvel and DC Comics are not allowed to copyright mythological characters; they are only allowed to copyright their interpretations of these figures. As such, the male Bast/Mihos of the Marvel Universe is possibly one of the most mythologically-askew characters in the Marvel Universe with a history and family tree quite unlike the mythological deity described above. There is no evidence in the Marvel Universe that the Panther God of the Marvel Universe is actually the mythological Mihos.
According to the "Encyclopedia of Gods" by Michael Jordan (not that Michael Jordan), the African lion-god Apedemek is actually Mihos. Given the similarity of the names of other Meroe gods (Asis to Isis...) to the Egyptian gods, it would suggest that the Meroe as well as the Nubians might have Egyptian cultural parallels.
Last updated: 08/04/13