One of about 3 main deities associated with the Moon in Egyptian mythology, Khonsu was an important for many different reasons over the course of ancient history and continues to fascinate people today, even being included in the Marvel universe as a part of the Moon Knight series.
Khonsu is closely associated with the keeping of time, like his fellow moon god, Thoth. He is considered specifically to be the god of the Crescent Moon which was when his power was at its most potent. This time of the month was said to bring fresh air with healing qualities that also aided human mothers in giving birth and cattle becoming fertile.
Khonsu’s earliest reference is his role in the “Cannibal Hymn” from the Pyramid Texts. In this representation he is a fearsome and arguably terrifying entity that helped the
king in the afterlife to attain power in a rather unsettling fashion. Specifically, these texts display him as, "Khonsu who slew the lords, who strangles them for the King, and extracts for him what is in their bodies".
Over time, Khonsu gained even more favor, eventually by Theban times being one of the main triad of deities in the religion of that time and place, but had softened quite a bit. Here is where this ferocious lunar deity gained more depth and subtlety in concept. Men and women prayed to him as a god of love, and fruits were said to ripen by his hand just as animals were aided in conceiving.
One of the most popular myths from this period had a Pharaoh lending a statue of Khonsu to another royal house in need, with a princess ailing due to malevolent spirits.It was said that with some devotion and supplication, the protector god agreed to manifest in to the statue and then visit the princess and take away the spirits thought to be affecting her, over which Khonsu was said to have absolute power. Here we see a much different perception of his character and concept.
While Khonsu changed from a god eating power transformer, to a more benign deity aiding in rites of fertility and healing, much of his nature remained the same when seen as a whole. In the Cannibal Hymn, though gruesome in nature, we still see an entity allied with humanity. He is aiding the king in the afterlife, and clearly represents a power that is much better to have on your side! Even when he became known as The Defender or The Protector later in epithet, he was still thought of as having the same dynamic power and thus, maybe it is only our modern culture and way of reading the original tales that has us thinking that these shifts were anything but the waxing and waning states or phases of the same moon god!
​Reference: https://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/godkhonsu.htm
