Mut was a sky and mother goddess, whose very name means "mother". Mut's role was an older woman among the gods. Her origins lay in the Nile Delta or Middle Egypt. During the 18th Dynasty, she became the consort of Amun, and together, they had a son Khonsu. Mut and Amun also adopted Montu, the original Theban war-god, but soon afterwards, disowned him. Mut was associated with the uraeus (cobra), lioness, and crowns. She is often depicted as a woman wearing the double-crown of Egypt, usually reserved for the gods Atum, Amun, and Pharaoh; or with the vulture headdress. She was also identified with other goddess such as Sekhmet, Hathor, and Bastet. At Thebes, the prinicipal festival of Mut was her "navigation" on the horseshoe-shaped Isheru, or lake, that surrounded her temple complex at Karnak.

His name is also spelled Khons, Khensu, or Chons. In the Pyramid Texts (2350 B.C.), he was Khenzu, a diety associated with astronomy; he was also a moon god. Khonsu was the son of Amun and Mut. In the late New Kingdom, a temple was built for Khonsu in the Karnak temple. He was usually depicted as a youthful male with the traditional side-lock of hair, or a uraeus on his head and a lunar disk. He was also associated with baboons, and sometimes paired with Thoth, another god who was depicted as being a baboon.

Not only was Khonsu a lunar diety, but he was also a major god of medicine and healing. His help was not just sought out by Egyptians. In one famous tale, he delegated a form of himself in Syria to cure the daughter of a prince, and later, he supposedly appeared to the prince in a dream as a falcon flying toward Egypt. With his daughter cured, the grateful prince immediately traveled back to Egypt to return the statue to Karnak...along with expensive gifts. It is no doubt the priest of Karnak relished such calling-in of debts.