Min, whose cult centres were Chemmis in the Delta and Koptos, was a deity of predynastic origin whose fetish was a thunderbolt. In early times Min was considered to be a sky-god, a supreme being whose title was Chief of Heaven. Until well into the Middle Kingdom, he was identified with the falcon-god Horus the Elder. He was called the son of Ra, or of Shu.

Min was above all a god of fertility, worshipped by men as a bestower of sexual powers. As a rain-god he personified the generative force in nature, especially the growth immanent in grain. In representations of one of the important Min festivals, the Pharaoh was shown hoeing the ground and watering the fields while Min looked on. At the Min festival held at the beginning of the harvest season, the Pharaoh was seen ceremonially reaping the grain. In the Middle Kingdom , Min was identified with Horus son of Osiris through this connection with the Pharaoh as source of abundance. When he begot his heir (ritually at the same festival) the Pharaoh was again identified with Min. As Pharaohs were also said to be the sons of Ra, Min came to be identified with the sun-god; and in the New Kingdom he was still more closely linked with Amon-Ra. At this period Min became a very popular deity and orgiastic festivals were held in his honour.

Despite his fertility associations, Min was well-known as Lord of the Eastern Desert, for he was the tutelary deity of the caravan routes to the Red Sea which departed from Koptos, passing through dangerous tribal lands. He was also called Lord of Foreign Lands and was the protector of nomads and hunters.

Min was represented as an ithyphallic bearded man, usually a statue with legs close together in the archaic fashion, painted black. He wore the same headdress as Amon, two tall feathers, and held one arm raised to brandish a scourge or a thunderbolt. In the New Kingdom he was shown presiding over the harvest festival in the form of his sacred animal, a white bull, which was often fed his special plant, the lettuce, believed to have aphrodisiac properties

Min’s sacred lettuce
Banquets of flowers were offered to Min, as to other deities, with the idea of stimulating fecundity in the Nile valley. But one plant was to become special to Min, appearing on chests or stands near him, or carried by priests in his festivals, which was the long lettuce (lactuca sativa). This plant was supposed to assist the god perform the sexual act untiringly. The symbolism stems less from the vaguely phallic shape of the plant, as from its milk-sap which could suggest the god’s semen. Min is shown with the lettuce as early as dynasty VI on tax-immunity decrees at Qift. Over 2,000 years later, the emperor Augustus is shown offering lettuces to the god in the temple of Kalabsha. The lettuce also played a central part in the festival of the "coming-forth of Min", when crops were blessed, and gymnastic games held in Min’s honour.