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The Egyptians believed that before the world was formed, there was a watery
mass of dark, directionless chaos. In this chaos lived the Ogdoad of Khmunu
(Hermopolis), four frog gods
 and four snake goddesses of chaos. These deities
were Nun and
Naunet (water), Amun and Amaunet (invisibility),
Heh and
Hauhet (infinity) and Kek and Kauket (darkness). The chaos existed without
the light, and thus Kek and Kauket came to represent this darkness. They also symbolized
obscurity, the kind of obscurity that went with darkness, and night.
The Ogdoad were the original great gods of Iunu (On, Heliopolis) where they
were thought to have helped with creation, then died and retired to the land of
the dead where they continued to make the Nile flow and the sun rise every day.
Because of this aspect of the eight, Budge believe that Kek and Kauket were once
deities linked to Khnum
and Satet,
to Hapi
- Nile gods of Abu (Elephantine). He also believed that Kek may have also been
linked to Sobek.
Kek
 
 Kek (Kuk, Keku) means darkness. He was the god of the
darkness of chaos, the darkness before time began. He was the god of obscurity,
hidden in the darkness. The Egyptians saw the night time, the time without the
light of the sun, as a reflection of this chaotic darkness.
The characteristics of the third paid of gods, Keku
and Kauket, are easier to determine, and it is tolerable certain that these
deities represent the male and female powers of the darkness which was supposed
to cover over the primeval abyss of water; they have been compared by Dr.
Brugsch with the Erebos of the Greeks.
-- The Gods of the Egyptians, E. A. Wallis
Budge As a god of the night, Kek was also related to the day - he was called
the "bringer-in of the light". This seems to mean that he was responsible for
the time of night that came just before sunrise. The god of the hours before day
dawned over the land of Egypt. This was the twilight which gave birth to the
sun.
Kauket
The feminine of the
god Kek, Kauket (Keket) was a much more obscure goddess than her husband. She
was a snake-headed woman who ruled over the darkness with her husband. Her name
also meant darkness, as did her husband's name, but with a feminine ending.
 O you eight chaos gods, keepers of the chambers of
the sky...The bnbn [phoenix] of Ra was that from which
Atum came to be as
... Kek, darkness... I am the one who begot the chaos gods again, as Heh,
Nun, Amun,
Kek. I am Shu
who begot the gods.
-- Coffin Text, Spell 76 Kauket was the
feminine to Kek's masculine, more of a representation of duality than an actual
goddess, so she was even less of a deity than Kek, and much more of an abstract.
She was, though, also related to the day - she was the "bringer-in of the
night". This seems to show her to be the goddess of the night, just after
sunset. The goddess of the the hours of the evening, as night covered Egypt, and
the sun had disappeared. This was the twilight which turned into the darkness of
night.
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