AMMON, or HAMMON, in Heathen Mythology, the name of the Egyptian Jupiter, worshipped under the figure of a ram. Bacchus having subdued Asia, and passing with his army through the deserts of Africa, was in great want of water; but Jupiter, his father, assuming the shape of a ram, led him to a fountain, where he refreshed himself and his army; in gratitude for which favour, Bacchus built there a temple to Jupiter, under the title of Ammon, from the Greek αμμος, which signifies sand, alluding to the sandy desert where it was built. In this temple was an oracle of great note, which Alexander the Great consulted, and which lasted till the time of Theodosius.