  In this volume the religious history of ancient Egypt has been reviewed in the light of the science of modern mythology. Few Egyptologists are well informed regarding the basic laws of that science, and much misapprehension regarding the character and attributes of many of the deities worshipped in the Nile Valley in times past has thereby resulted. The statement that Egyptian religious ideas cannot be collated with barbarian and savage conceptions simply because they are Egyptian and therefore 'classic' and inviolate will no longer remain unquestioned among that section of the public accustomed to think for itself, and such pronouncements as that the animal gods of Egypt have no connexion with totemic origins will shortly assume their proper perspective. In advancing ideas so iconoclastic—which all will remember were adumbrated by the late Mr. Andrew Lang and strongly buttressed by Sir James Frazer—it is essential that I should at the outset protect myself against any charges of lack of acquaintance with the science of Egyptology. Such a work as this, which attempts to further recent views concerning a well-worn subject, must by the very circumstances of its effort be cast and written in popular style. That such a treatment is sufficient to prejudice it in the eyes of a certain type of critic I am well aware. A long series of handbooks and articles had prepared critics for my work in this series upon Mexican and Peruvian myth, and it was generally admitted that I spoke upon these subjects out of the authority of long experience. I find it necessary to state, then, that the study of Egyptian hieroglyphs is not new to me. For several years I laboured at these assiduously, studying the Their lifelong acquaintance with original texts gives them, of course, authority to which I gladly bow, but I feel, on the other hand, that my own close studies of mythological problems, which are as vital to the interests of the science as its linguistic and archÆological sides, entitle me to advance my personal views upon such, even when these are opposed to those of authorities whose reputation in the field of Egyptology stands deservedly high. Students of myth and Egyptology, as well as the general reader drawn to the subjects by the glamour of the mystic atmosphere which, let us hope, will ever surround them, will find that I have not hesitated to attack hypotheses concerning the character and attributes of certain deities the mythological type of which may have been regarded by many as ultimately fixed. This applies especially to my attempted reconstruction of the natures of Osiris, Isis, Thoth, and several other No one can rightly comprehend the trend and currents of Egyptian faith who does not possess some acquaintance with Egyptian history, manners, and customs. I have therefore provided brief synopses of these, as well as some account of Egyptian archÆology. To Mr. W.G. Blaikie Murdoch, whose works and influence on modern art are well known to its more serious students, I am obliged for the greatest possible assistance and guidance in the section dealing with the art of ancient Egypt. To my assistants, Miss Mavie Jack and Miss Katherine Nixey, I am much beholden for the collection and arrangement of valuable material and for many suggestions. L.S.
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| I. | INTRODUCTORY | 1 | |
| II. | EXPLORATION, HISTORY, AND CUSTOMS | 33 | |
| III. | THE PRIESTHOOD: MYSTERIES AND TEMPLES | 52 | |
| IV. | THE CULT OF OSIRIS | 63 | |
| V. | THE GREAT GODS | 130 | |
| VI. | EGYPTIAN LITERATURE | 182 | |
| VII. | MAGIC | 252 | |
| VIII. | FOREIGN AND ANIMAL GODS: THE LATE PERIOD | 275 | |
| IX. | EGYPTIAN ART | 311 | |
| GLOSSARY AND INDEX | 329 |
(Extended TOC, added by transcribers.)
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
The Presentation of Ani to Osiris Frontispiece
The Egyptian Symbol of the Soul
Pylon, Karnak
The Pyramids of Gizeh
Model of a Funeral Boat
Canopic Jars representing the Four Sons of Horus
Temple of Horus at EdfÛ
Scene representing the driving of a Herd of Cattle
Rahetep, a Priest
Osiris
Osiris beguiled into the Chest
Isis and the Baby Prince
The Departure of Isis from Byblos
A Shrine of Osiris
Isis
Winged Isis
Cippus of Horus
Horus in Battle
Nephthys
Set
Anubis
Thoth and Maat
The Weighing of the Heart
Ra
Isis and Ra
Amen-Ra
Mut and Ptah
Sekhmet and Bast
Khnemu, I-em-hetep and Nefer-Tem
Aten
Hathor
Hapi
Taurt and Khonsu
The Maiden of Bekhten
The Goddesses as Dancing-girls
Thoth and the Chief Magician
"Who are you?"
The Treasure-Chamber of Rhampsinites
Isis conjured Ra to tell his Name
Amulet of Hathor
Bes
Procession of the Sacred Bull
Sebek
Rameses II accompanied by a Lion
Mummied Cats
Horus the Child
Hauling Blocks of Stone for the Pyramids
Head-rest
Temple of Isis at PhilÆ
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTORY
The group of beliefs which constituted what for convenience' sake is called the Egyptian religion in an existence of some thousands of years passed through nearly every phase known to the student of comparative mythology. If the theologians of ancient Egypt found it impossible to form a pantheon of deities with any hope of consistency, assigning to each god or goddess his or her proper position in the divine galaxy as ruling over a definite sphere, cosmic or psychical, it may be asked in what manner the modern mythologist is better equipped to reduce to order elements so recondite and difficult of elucidation as the mythic shapes of the divinities worshipped in the Nile Valley. But the answer is ready. The modern science of comparative religion is extending year by year, and its light is slowly but certainly becoming diffused among the dark places of the ancient faiths. By the gleam of this magic lamp, then—more wonderful than any dreamt of by the makers of Eastern fable—let us walk in the gloom of the pyramids, in the cool shadows of ruined temples, aye, through the tortuous labyrinth of the Egyptian mind itself, trusting that by virtue of the light we carry we shall succeed in unravelling to some extent the age-long enigma of this mystic land.
One of the first considerations which occur to us is that among such a concourse of gods as is presented by the Egyptian religion it would have been surprising if confusion had not arisen in the native mind concerning them. This is proved by the texts, which display in many cases much difficulty in defining the exact qualities of certain deities, their grouping and classification. The origin of this haziness is not far to seek.
Another cause which made for confusion was that in every large town of Upper and Lower Egypt and its neighbourhood religion took what might almost be called a local form. Thus the great gods of the country were known by different names in each nome or province, their ritual was distinctive, and even the legends of their origin and adventures assumed a different shape. Many of the great cities, too, possessed special gods of their own, and to these were often added the attributes of one or more of the greater and more popular forms of godhead. The faith of the city that was the royal residence became the religion par excellence of the entire kingdom, its temple became the Mecca of all good Egyptians, and its god was, so long as these conditions obtained, the Jupiter of the Egyptian pantheon. It might have been expected that when Egypt attained a uniformity of culture, art, and nationhood, her religion, as in the case of other peoples, would also become uniform and simplified. But such a consummation was never achieved. Even foreign intercourse failed almost entirely to break down the religious conservatism of priesthood and people. Indeed, the people may be said to have proved themselves more conservative than the priests. Alterations in religious policy, differentiation in legend and hieratic texts emanated from time to time from the various colleges
The evolution of religion in ancient Egypt must have taken the same course as among other races, and any hypothesis which attempts to explain it otherwise is almost certainly doomed to non-success. Of late years many works by learned Egyptologists have been published which purport to supply a more or less wide survey of Egyptian mythology and to unravel its deeper significances. The authors of some of these works, however admirable they may be as archÆologists or as translators of hieroglyphic texts, are for the most part but poorly equipped to grapple with mythological difficulties. To ensure success in mythological elucidation a special training is necessary, and a prolonged familiarity with the phenomena of early religion in its many and diverse forms is a first essential. In the work of one foreign Egyptologist of standing, for example, a candid confession is made of ignorance regarding mythological processes. He claims to present the "Egyptian religion as it appears to an unprejudiced observer who knows nothing of the modern science of religions." Another Egyptologist of the first rank writes upon the subject of totemism in the most elementary manner, and puts forward the claim that such a system never existed in the Nile valley. But these questions will be dealt with in their proper places.
Beginning with forms of the lower cultus—forms almost certainly of African origin—the older religion
The Egyptian religion of the Middle and Late Kingdoms was as much a thing of philosophic invention as later Greek myth, only, so far as we have the means of judging, it was not nearly so artistic or successful. For, whereas we find numerous allusions in the texts to definite myths, we seldom find in Egyptian literature the myths themselves. Indeed, our chief repository of Egyptian religious tales is the De Iside et Osiride of the Greek Plutarch—an uncertain authority. It is presumed that the myths were so well known popularly that to write them down for the use of such a highly religious people as the Egyptians would have been a work of supererogation. The loss to posterity, however, is immeasurable, and, lacking a full chronicle of the deeds of the gods of Egypt, we can only grope through textual and allied matter for scraps of intelligence which, when pieced together, present anything but an appearance of solidity and comprehensiveness.
It has been admitted that the ancient Egyptians, like other early races, could not have evolved a religion unless by the usual processes of religious growth. Thus we discover, by means of numerous clues more or less strong, that they passed through the phase known as animism, or animatism.
But what proof have we that the early dwellers in Egypt passed through this phase? Besides the belief in a human soul, the animistic condition of mind sees in every natural object a living entity. Thus trees, rivers, winds, and animals all possess the gift of rational thought and speech. How is it possible to prove that the ancient Egyptians believed that such objects possessed conscious souls and individualities of their own?
First as to the early Egyptian belief that man himself possessed a soul. The Egyptian symbol for the soul (the ba) is a man-headed bird. Now the conception of the soul as a bird is a very common one among savages and barbarians of a low order. To uncultured man the bird is always incomprehensible because of its magical power of flight, its appearance in the sky where dwell the gods, and its song, approaching speech. From the bird the savage evolves the idea of the winged spirit or god, the messenger from the heavens. Thus many supernatural beings in all mythological systems are given wings. Many American Indian tribes believe that birds are the visible spirits of the dead. The Powhatans of Virginia believed that birds received the souls of their chiefs at death, and the
We see from these parallel examples, then, that the ancient Egyptians were not singular in figuring the soul in bird-shape. This idea partakes of the nature of animistic belief. But other and more concrete examples of this phase of religious activity occur to us. For instance, the objects found in early graves in Egypt, as elsewhere, are sometimes broken with the manifest intention of setting free their 'spirits,' doubtless to join that of their owner. Again, in the myth of Osiris we find that his coffin when at rest in Byblos became entangled in the growth of a tree—an obvious piece of folk-memory crystallizing the race reminiscence of an early form of tree-worship—a branch of animistic belief. In the texts, too, statements frequently occur which can be referred only to an early condition of animism. Thus each door in the otherworld was sentient, and would open if correctly adjured. We find in chapter lxxxvi of the Papyrus of Ani the Flame of the Sun addressed as an individual, as is the ferry-boat of Ra in chapter xlii.
The Egyptian Symbol for the Soul In the British Museum
Fetishism, too, bulks largely in Egyptian religious conceptions. Many of the gods are represented as carrying the fetishes from which they may have originally been derived. Thus the arrow of Neith is fetishistic (a statement which will afterwards be justified), as are the symbols of Min and other deities.
Fetishism, regarding which I have given a prolonged explanation elsewhere,
Many Egyptologists deny that totemism entered as a force into the religion of ancient Egypt. Totemism may be defined as the recognition, exploitation, and adjustment of the imaginary mystic relationship of the individual or the tribe to the supernatural powers or spirits which surround them. Whereas the fetish is to some extent the servant of its owner, a spirit lured to dwell in a material object to do the behest of an individual or a community, the totem, whether personal or tribal, is a patron and protector and is often represented in animal or vegetable shape. The basic difference between the individual and tribal totem is still obscure, but for our present purpose it will be sufficient to deal with the latter. The most notable antagonist of the theory that some of the divinities of ancient Egypt are of totemic origin is Dr. E.A. Wallis Budge, the well-known Egyptologist. In his Gods of the Egyptians he says: "It now seems to be generally admitted by ethnologists that there are three main causes which have induced men to worship animals, i.e. they have worshipped them as animals or as the dwelling-place of gods or as representatives of tribal ancestors. There is no reason whatsoever for doubting that in neolithic times the primitive Egyptians worshipped animals as animals and as nothing more." None of the above statements approaches a definition of totemism. The theory that the totem is a tribal ancestor is now regarded as doubtful. Dr. Budge continues: "The question as to whether the Egyptians worshipped animals as representatives of tribal ancestors or 'totems' is one which has given rise to much discussion, and this is not to be wondered at, for the subject is one of difficulty. We know that
Wherefore, it may be asked, was Egypt alone immune from the influence of totemism? Dr. Budge continues, by way of final refutation of the totemic theory, that on nome standards several objects besides animals were worshipped and regarded as gods, or that they became the symbols of the deities which were worshipped in them. Thus on some standards were displayed representations of hills, arrows, fish, and so forth. These objects, Dr. Budge seems to imply, cannot be fetishistic or totemic. Dr. Budge cannot, for example, find the reason why three hills were connected with a god. This does not present a mythological problem of high complexity. In many parts of the world mountain-peaks, separately or in groups, are objects of direct worship. A mountain may be worshipped because it is the abode of a god; for its
"Thou art my birthplace,
Thou art my lifespring,
Guard me from evil,
O paccarisca!"
These mountains were, of course, oracular, as those represented on the Egyptian standards would probably be. That they were worshipped as the houses of oracles and for their own sakes, and not as the home of a deity, seems to be proved in that they, rather than such a deity, are represented in the standards.
Neither can Dr. Budge decipher in a mythological sense the symbol of two arrows placed notch to notch with double barbs pointing outward. Arrows of this type are common as fetishes in several parts of the world. Among the Cheyenne Indians of the Plains the set of four sacred 'medicine' arrows constitutes the tribal palladium which they claim to have had from the beginning of the world, and which was annually utilized in tribal ceremonial as lately as 1904. They also had a rite spoken of as 'fixing' the arrows, which was undertaken by priests specially set apart as the guardians of this great fetish.
But there are other and much more apparent proofs of the totemic nature of a number of the Egyptian deities. It is obvious, for example, that the cat-headed Bast, who was worshipped first in the shape of a cat,
There is no reason to suppose, however, that in later times animals were not worshipped in Egypt for other than totemic reasons. The later worship of animals may have been a relic of totemism, but it is more likely to have been merely symbolic in character. Even when the attendant rites and beliefs of totemism cease to be recognized, the totem animal may retain its bestial form instead of assuming a semi-human one. There is a pony totem worshipped by a certain tribe of North American Indians which is at present in course of evolution into a full-fledged divinity, but which persists in retaining its equine form. Again, the ability of the Egyptian gods to transform themselves into animals by means of magical
Pylon, Karnak, from the North—Photo Bonfils
There are several accounts in existence which deal with the Egyptian conception of the creation of the world and of man. We find a company of eight gods alluded to in the Pyramid Texts as the original makers and moulders of the universe. The god Nu and his consort Nut were deities of the firmament and the rain which proceeds therefrom. Hehu and Hehut appear to personify fire, and Kekui and Kekuit the darkness which brooded over the primeval abyss of water. Kerh and Kerhet also appear to have personified Night or Chaos. Some of these gods have the heads of frogs,
Khepera then wept copiously, and from the tears which he shed sprang men and women. The god then made another eye, which in all probability was the moon. After this he created plants and herbs, reptiles and creeping things, while from Shu and Tefnut came Geb and Nut, Osiris and Isis, Set, Nephthys and Horus at a birth. These make up the company of the great gods at Heliopolis, and this is sufficient to show that the latter part of the story at least was a priestly concoction.
But there was another version, obviously an account of the creation according to the worshippers of Osiris. In the beginning of this Khepera tells us at once that he is Osiris, the cause of primeval matter. This account was merely a frank usurpation of the creation legend for the behoof of the Osirian cult. Osiris in this version states that in the beginning he was entirely alone. From the inert abyss of Nu he raised a god-soul—that is, he gave the primeval abyss a soul of its own. The myth then proceeds word for word in exactly the same manner as that which deals with the creative work of Khepera. But only so far, for we find Nu in a measure identified with Khepera, and Osiris declaring that his eye, the sun, was covered over with large bushes for a long period of years. Men are then
We have references to other deities in the Pyramid Texts, some of whom appear to be nameless. For example, in the text of Pepi I we find homage rendered to one who has four faces and who brings the storm. This would seem to be a god of wind and rain, whose countenances are set toward the four points of the compass, whence come the four winds. Indeed, the context proves this when it says: "Thou hast taken thy spear which is dear to thee, thy pointed weapon which thrusteth down riverbanks with double
In the Pyramid Texts we find frequent mention of several groups consisting of nine gods each. One of these companies of gods, or Enneads, was called the Great and another the Little, and the nine gods of Horus are also alluded to. It is not known, however, whether this group is in any way connected with either of the others. We also read in the Pyramid Texts of Teta of a double group of eighteen gods which recur in the text of Pepi I. These eighteen gods may simply be the Great and Little companies of gods taken together. In the texts of Pepi I and Teta, however, we find a third company of nine gods, officially recognized by the priests of Heliopolis, and all three companies are represented by twenty-seven symbols representing the word neter (god) placed in a row.
Although these companies of gods are spoken of as containing nine deities, that is owing to their designation of Pesedt, which signifies 'nine'. The Little company in reality contains eleven gods, but nine was their original number, and, as Sir Gaston Maspero says, each of them, especially the first and last, could be developed. A local company such as that of Heliopolis might have the god of another nome or district embraced in it in one of two ways; that is, the alien god might replace one of the local gods or be set side by side with him. Again, strange gods could be absorbed in the leader of the Pesedt. When a fresh god was admitted into a company all the other deities who were connected with him were also included, but their names were not classed beside those of its original members.
These three companies of gods were fully developed
To the third Pesedt they gave no name. The gods of the first company are Tem, Shu, Tefnut, Qeb, Nut, Osiris, Isis, Set, Nephthys. Occasionally Horus is given as the chief of the company instead of Tem. In the text of Unas we find the names of the gods of the Little company given, but they are for the most part quite unimportant. The third company is rarely mentioned, and the names of its gods are unknown. Earth as well as heaven and the underworld had its quota of deities, and it is considered highly probable that the three companies of gods are referable one to each of these regions. The members of each company varied in different periods and in different cities. But the great local god or goddess was always the head of the company in a given vicinity. As has been said, he might be joined to another deity. At Heliopolis, for example, where the chief local god was Tem, the priests joined to his name that of Ra, and addressed him in prayer as Ra-Tem. Texts of all periods show that the chief local gods of many cities retained their pre-eminence almost to the end. The land of Egypt was divided into provinces called hesput, to which the Greeks gave the name of nome. In each of these a certain god or group of gods held sway, the variation being caused by racial and other considerations. To the people of each nome their god was the deity par excellence, and in early times it is plain that the worship of each province amounted almost to a separate religion. This division of the country must have taken place at an early epoch, and it certainly contributed greatly to the conservation of religious differences. The nome gods
The word by which the Egyptians implied deity and, indeed, supernatural beings of any description was neter. The hieroglyphic which represents this idea is described by most Egyptologists as resembling an axe-head let into a long wooden handle. Some archÆologists have attempted to show that the figure resembled in outline a roll of yellow cloth, the lower part bound or laced over, the upper part appearing as a flap at the top, probably for unwinding. It has been thought possible that the object represents a fetish—for instance, a bone carefully wound round with cloth, and not the cloth alone.
We are ignorant of most of the gods worshipped during the first four dynasties, chiefly because of the lack of documentary evidence, although some are known from the inscription called the Palermo Stone, which alludes to several local deities. Some portions of the Book of the Dead may have been revised during the First Dynasty, and from this we may argue that the religion of the Egyptians, as revealed in the later texts, closely resembled that in existence during
In order to understand this earliest fixed phase of religious thought in Egypt, it is necessary to pass in brief review the deities alluded to in the Pyramid Texts, and for the moment to regard them separately from the rest of the Egyptian pantheon. In doing so we must beware of definitely labelling these conceptions with such names as 'water-god,' 'thunder-god,' 'sun-god,' and so forth. Despite the labours of the last half-century, the science of mythology is yet in its infancy, and workers in its sphere are now beginning to suspect that mere variants or phases of certain deities, which are by no means separate entities, have in many cases been credited with an individual status they do not deserve. The deities of the Greek and Roman pantheons are doubtless good examples of gods whose attributes are finally fixed. Thus one may say of Mars that he is a war-god, and of Pallas Athene that she is a goddess of wisdom, but these were merely the attributes
We are not at present finally considering the natures or characteristics of the deities mentioned in the Pyramid Texts, but merely affording such a brief outline of them as will give the reader some idea of Egyptian religion in general during the early dynasties.
The goddess Net, or Neith, who is mentioned in the Pyramid Texts of Unas, is a figure in which we descry a personification of moisture or rain, because of her possession of the arrow, the symbol of lightning. The hawk-headed Horus, probably originally a hawk totem, is one of the manifestations of the sun-deity, from whom he may have evolved, or with whom he may have been confounded. Khepera, also found in the Unas Texts, is another form of the sun. His possession of the beetle glyph is symbolical of the manner in which the sun rolls over the face of the sky as the Egyptian beetle or scarabÆus rolled its eggs over the sand. Khnemu, the ram-headed, whose name signifies 'the moulder' or 'uniter,' was probably the totemic deity of an immigrant race who had achieved godhead, and perhaps monotheism, or at least creatorship, in another sphere, and who had been accepted into Egyptian belief with all his attributes. Sebek, the crocodile-god, Ra and Ptah, two other forms of the sun-god, Nu, the watery mass of heaven, are also alluded to in the Pyramid Texts of Unas and Teta, as is Hathor.
Egyptian religious tenets carefully fostered the idea of the preservation of the human body after death. In
In the Old Kingdom, which may be designated the Pyramid Age, we find a new description of burial coming into fashion. Mummification of a simple kind became the vogue. There is good reason to suppose that this custom arose out of the cult of Osiris, the god of the dead, and it powerfully influenced all future Egyptian funerary and theological practice and thought. But between what may be conveniently described as the 'prehistoric' period and that of the Pyramids several other types of tomb had found popularity. The Pharaoh, during the First Dynasty, was buried in a large rectangular building of brick, which had several chambers inaccessible from outside. In one of these the body of the king was laid, and in the others a
From such a resting-place was gradually evolved the stupendous conception of the pyramid. The pyramid is, in effect, nothing but a vast funeral cairn, a huge grave-mound, on which, instead of stones or pieces of rock, enormous blocks of granite were piled. Often the burial-chamber it contains is nothing more than a mere vault, to which access is gained by a narrow passage or gallery, which was carefully blocked up after the royal funeral.
Originally these burial-chambers were quite unadorned, and it was not until the end of the Middle Kingdom that it became usual to inscribe their walls
The pyramidal form of architecture is peculiar to Egypt, and even there is confined to the period from the Fourth to the Twelfth Dynasty, or before 3000 B.C. The Mexican and Central American teocalli, or stepped temple, has frequently been erroneously compared to the pyramid, but whereas it was a place of worship, the Egyptian form was purely a place of sepulture. A definite design lay behind each of these vast structures. It seems to have occurred to some writers that the pyramids were built haphazard and by dint of brute force. So far from this being the case, they were constructed with extraordinary care, and mathematical computations of considerable complexity are manifest in their design.
The early pyramids were composed of horizontal layers of rough-hewn blocks of stone, held together principally by their own weight, but between the interstices of which mortar was placed. In the later stages of the type the core of the structure was formed chiefly of rubble, of which stone, mud, and mud bricks were the principal constituents. This was faced outwardly with a fine casing of stone, carefully dressed and joined, and the mortuary-chambers showed similar care in construction. These were generally placed below the ground level, and access was gained to them by a gallery opening on the northern side of the pyramid. These are usually blocked once or more by massive monoliths, and were sometimes closed externally by stone doors revolving on a pivot in order that the priests might gain entrance when desired.
The first pyramid has been definitely attributed to Cheops or Khufu, and is situated at Gizeh. The second is credited to Dad-ef-ra, and was built at Abu Roash. Khafra was entombed in the second pyramid of Gizeh, and that known as 'the Upper' at the same place was tenanted by the corpse of Menkaura. The smaller structures at Gizeh near the great and third pyramids were constructed for the families of Khufu and Khafra.
The Pyramids at Gizeh—Photo Bonfils
Several of the pyramids alluded to in the ancient texts of these buildings have either entirely disappeared, or cannot be identified. Thus the burial-place of Shepseskaf, known by the delightful title of 'the Cool,' is unknown. We can picture the shaven priests stealing into the recesses of its thickly shadowed galleries to shelter from the fierce Egyptian sun. No doubt the ka of Shepseskaf found its shade acceptable
So much has been written of late concerning the pyramids that it would be idle to pursue the subject further in a work such as this, which professes to give an account of the mythology of Egypt and an outline only of its polity and arts. There can be little interest for the general reader in mere measurements and records of bulk.
Mummification was, as has been said, probably an invention of the Osirian cult. The priests of Osiris taught that the body of man was a sacred thing and not to be abandoned to the beasts of the desert, because from it would spring the effulgent and regenerated envelope of the purified spirit. In prehistoric times some attempt appears to have been made toward preservation, either by drying in the sun or smearing the corpse with a resinous preparation; and as the centuries went by this primitive treatment developed into
We do not find the process of mummification reaching any degree of elaboration until the period of the New Kingdom. At first it was confined to the Pharaohs alone, who were identified with Osiris; but the necessity for a retinue which would attend him in the dark halls of the Tuat prescribed that his courtiers also should be embalmed. The custom was taken up by the wealthy, and filtered down from rank to rank until at length even the corpse of the poorest Egyptian was at least subjected to a process of pickling in a bath of natron. The art reached its height in the Twenty-first Dynasty. At that period the process was costly in the extreme, and a mummification of an elaborate kind cost about £700 in modern currency. When the relations of the deceased consulted the professional embalmers they were shown models of mummies, one of which they selected. The corpse was then placed in the hands of the embalmers. First of all they injected a corrosive into the brain cavity, after which its softened contents were removed through the nostrils by hooked instruments. A mummifier,
The canopic jars in which the intestines were placed had lids so carven as to resemble human heads, but subsequent to the Eighteenth Dynasty the heads of the four sons of Horus, the man-headed Mesti, the ape-headed Hapi, the jackal Tuamutef, and the falcon Qebhsennuf, the 'genii' who guarded the north, south, east, and west, were represented upon their covers. In their respective jars were placed the stomach and larger intestines, the smaller intestines, the lungs and heart, and the liver and gall-bladder. These jars were placed in the tomb beside the mummy,
Model of a Funeral Boat with figures symbolizing Isis and Nephthys &
Canopic Jars representing the Four Sons of Horus—Photo W.A. Mansell & Co.
The tomb furniture of the Egyptians of the higher ranks was elaborate and costly—chairs, jars, weapons, mirrors, sometimes even chariots, and wigs. Beginning with the Middle Kingdom (Eighteenth Dynasty), small statuettes, called ushabtiu, were placed in each tomb. These represented various trades, and were supposed to assist or serve the deceased in the otherworld. The walls of the tomb and the sides of the sarcophagus were usually covered with texts from the Book of the Dead, or formulÆ devoting offerings of loaves, geese, beer, and other provisions to the ka of the deceased. The burial ceremony was stately and imposing. Sometimes it chanced that the corpse had to be conveyed by water, and gaily painted boats held the funeral procession; or else the chain of mourners moved slowly along by the western bank of the Nile. The ceremonial
The dead man was practically at the mercy of the living for subsistence in the otherworld. Unless his kinsmen continued their offerings to him he was indeed in bad case, for his ka would starve. This ka was his double, and came into the world at the same time as himself. It must be sharply distinguished from the ba, or soul, which usually took the form of a bird after the death of its owner, and, indeed, was capable of assuming such shape as it chose if the funeral ceremonies were carried out correctly. Some Egyptologists consider the ka to be the special active force which imbues the human being with life, and it may be equivalent to the Hebrew expression 'spirit' as apart from 'soul.' In the book of Genesis we are informed that God breathed the breath of life into man and he lived. In like manner did He lay His arms behind the primeval gods, and forthwith His ka went up over them, and they lived. When the man died his ka quitted the body, but did not cease to take an interest in it, and on occasion even reanimated it. It was on behalf of the ka that Egyptian tombs were so well furnished with food and drink, and the necessities, not to say the luxuries, of existence.
The ba, as has been mentioned, did not remain with the body, but took wing after death. Among primitive peoples—the aborigines of America, for instance—the soul is frequently regarded as possessing the form and attributes of a bird. The ability of the bird to make passage for itself across the great ocean of air, the incomprehensibility of its gift of flight, the mystery of its song, its connexion with 'heaven,' render it a being at once strange and enviable. Such freedom, argues primitive
No race conferred so much importance and dignity upon the cult of the dead as the Egyptian. It is no exaggeration to say that the life of the Egyptian of the cultured class was one prolonged preparation for death. It is probable, however, that he was, through force of custom and environment, unaware of the circumstance. It is dangerous to indulge in a universal assertion with reference to an entire nation. But if any people ever regarded life as a mere academy of preparation for eternity, it was the mysterious and fascinating race whose vast remains litter the banks of the world's most ancient river, and frown upon the less majestic undertakings of a civilization which has usurped the theatre of their myriad wondrous deeds.
CHAPTER II: EXPLORATION, HISTORY, AND CUSTOMS
The River Nile is the element which creates the special characteristics of Egypt, and differentiates it from other parts of the Sahara Desert. At its annual overflow this river deposits a rich sediment, which makes the fertile plains on either side such a contrast to the brown monotony of the desert. East and west of the Nile valley stretch great wastes, broken here and there by green oases, and the general scenery is too uniform to be interesting, the Delta itself presenting a richly cultivated level plain, interspersed by the lofty dark brown mounds of ancient cities and villages set in groves of palm-trees.
In Upper Egypt the Nile valley is narrow, and is bounded by mountains inconsiderable in height, and which never rise into peaks. Sometimes they approach the river in the form of promontories, and sometimes are divided by the beds of ancient watercourses. These are sufficiently picturesque, but otherwise the landscape is not striking. In colour, however, it is remarkably so. "The bright green of the fields, the reddish brown or dull green of the great river contrasting with the bare yellow rocks seen beneath a brilliant sun and deep blue sky, present views of great beauty."
The question of the racial origin of the people of ancient Egypt is one of great complexity. In graves and early cultural remains we find traces of several races which at remote periods entered the country, and concerning whom the data are so scanty that it is highly dangerous to generalize about them. According to
Another theory is that which would people the Nile valley in early times with a pygmy race, who were dispossessed and driven out by the immigrant Mediterraneans. The theory that the Mediterranean people entered Egypt directly from their original home does not agree with that which would make a stone-working race populating the country at an early period emanate from Palestine. It would appear from a consideration of the data that these were Mediterraneans who had had long practice in working in stone in a country abounding in that material. These were probably followed by successive immigrations from the east and from Arabia or its neighbourhood, whence came a people cognate with the Babylonians and conversant with their culture, which they had absorbed in a common early home which cannot now be located. These imposed their Semitic vocabulary upon the Hamitic syntax of the people they found in the Nile valley. But although they revolutionized the language, they only partially succeeded in altering the religion, which remained for the most part of the Osirian type, blending later with the Horus hawk-worship of the new-comers. There are not wanting those who think that these immigrants from Arabia were Hamites, who attained to a high civilization in Western Arabia, and, pressed on by Semitic hordes from the north, crossed the Red Sea in vessels and made their first base in Egypt at Berenice. The
The dynastic history of ancient Egypt extends, at the lowest computation, over a period of more than three thousand years. In view of chronological difficulties, it has been found convenient to adopt the dynastic system of reckoning chosen by Manetho, an Egyptian priest who lived in the third century before Christ. Manetho divided the history of Egypt into thirty-one dynasties, of which some twenty-six comprise the period between Mena's Conquest and the Persian Conquest, while the others cover the period of Persian, Hellenic, and Latin supremacy. With the Persian Conquest, however, came the disintegration of the Egyptian Empire, and at that point purely native history comes to an end.
Though Manetho's dynastic divisions have been adopted by modern Egyptologists, his chronology is not so well received, though it is supported by at least one distinguished authority—Professor Flinders Petrie. The general tendency at the present day is to accept the minimum chronology which is known as that of the Berlin School, which places Mena's Conquest at 3400 B.C. and the Twelfth Dynasty about 2000 B.C., rather than that of Professor Petrie, which would place these events at 5500 B.C. and 3400 B.C. respectively. It is customary to group the various dynasties into three
| PETRIE (1906) | BERLIN SCHOOL (1906) | ||
I | B.C. 5510 | B.C. 3400 | |
| II | 5247 | — | |
| III | 4945 | 2980 | |
| IV | 4731 | 2900 | |
| V | 4454 | 2750 | |
| VI | 4206 | 2625 | |
| VII | 4003 | 2475 | |
| VIII | 3933 | — | |
| IX | 3787 | 2445 | |
| X | 3687 | — | |
| XI | 3502 | 2160 | |
| XII | 3459 | 2000 | |
| XIII | 3246 | 1788 | |
| XIV | 2793 | — | |
| XV | 2533 | — | |
| XVI | 2249 | — | |
| XVII | 1731 | — | |
| XVIII | 1580 | 1580 | |
| XIX | 1322 | 1350 | |
| XX | 1202 | 1200 | |
| XXI | 1102 | 1090 | |
| XXII | 958 | 945 | |
| XXIII | 755 | 745 | |
| XXIV | 721 | 718 | |
| XXV | 715 | 712 | |
| XXVI | 664 | 663 | |
| XXVII | 525 | 525 | |
| XXVIII | 405 | — | |
| XXIX | 399 | — | |
| XXX | 378 | — |
Egypt, with its mighty ruins wrapped in silence and mystery, long ago attracted the curiosity of the traveller, for the traditions of a high civilization, of its religion, government, and culture, lingered in the memory of man; and there, from temple, pyramid, palace, and city, he has sought and gained actual and manifold proofs of the existence of that ancient kingdom. And not only has its own history thus been unveiled to the modern world, but intertwined therewith has been traced that of other nations and powers, among them Persia, Greece, and Rome.
The earliest instance in this country of the collecting of Egyptian antiques is in 1683, when a valuable stele belonging to the Old Kingdom was brought from Saqqara and presented to the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, while in the eighteenth century some attempt was made at planning and describing Egyptian ruins, and the identification of some of the sites with cities mentioned in classical writings. In 1798 a scientific commission, including artists and archÆologists, accompanied Napoleon's military expedition into Egypt, and much valuable work was accomplished by these savants, the record of which fills several volumes of the Description de l'Egypte, while the large collection of antiquities gathered by them, including the famous Rosetta Stone, which proved the key to the mystery of the Egyptian hieroglyphic writing, came into British possession in the year 1801. Then, under Mehemet Ali, Egypt was opened to Europeans, and from this time onward great numbers of antiquities were taken from the country and found their way into European collections and museums, especially the British Museum, the Louvre, and those at Leyden, Berlin, and Turin.
Temple of Horus at EdfÛ.
In 1821 came the decipherment of the Rosetta Stone by Champollion, and this added a new zest to exploration and collecting. Champollion himself, together with Rosellini, was sent by the Governments of France and Tuscany on an expedition to Egypt, and much was done in copying stelÆ and inscriptions. But the Prussian Government initiated a greater undertaking in 1842, under Lepsius, who extended his researches from Egypt into Nubia as far as Khartoum, and again into Syria and Palestine. This expedition, with its scientific methods, yielded a wonderful harvest of valuable results. The official preservation of the ancient monuments and ruins against exploitation by dealers or destruction by vandals was first undertaken by Mehemet Ali, who appointed Mariette to this onerous post, and under his wise and able direction invaluable work was accomplished. This has been developed under the British suzerainty. The ancient sites are claimed by the Government, and the Service of Antiquities has an annual grant of large dimensions and employs many European and native officials. All provinces are included in its survey, and no excavations may take place without its permission; and this is granted to responsible persons only, and on the terms that half of the antiquities discovered shall become the property of the Egyptian Government, the other half going to the finders. Sir Gaston Maspero, director of the Museum at Cairo, has made many brilliant contributions to Egyptian archÆology. As early as 1862 the Scottish archÆologist, Rhind, saw the necessity for some definite scientific and comprehensive system of excavation if
Much of the mystery that hung over Egypt has departed, but the glamour and fascination she exerted in the past are still as great as ever. These are not lessened by our more intimate knowledge of her ancient civilization, but rather increased a hundredfold. The silence of centuries has been broken, the hieroglyphs have told their tale to modern man, who listens with ever-deepening interest to the voice of the Past. The drifting sand of the desert has been cleared away and ancient buildings stand again in the sunlight and yield their secrets veiled for so many centuries. The graves tell over again the unchanging sorrow of death and the world-old longings of man. Apart from the literary remains, papyri and inscriptions, the material results have been immense. The ancient topography of the land has become known by the remains of roads, canals, quarries, and mines. The sites of towns, with the temples, fortifications, and private dwellings, have been comprehensively treated, so that the record is almost complete from the building of the foundation to the decorative designs of the artists. The site of each city, again, is generally that of several belonging
The plan of a town excavated shows the houses gathered closely around the temple and its square enclosure. This served as fortress and refuge if the town were attacked. The plan was regular in towns that were built in one period, with wide paved streets running at right angles and provided with stone channels to carry off water and drainage. The buildings were arranged in line. In cities that were the product of centuries there was, however, great irregularity—houses heaped in mazes of blind alleys, and dark, narrow streets. There was generally an open space, shaded by sycamores, used two or three times a month as a market-place. The poorer classes were housed in hovels, rarely exceeding 12 or 16 feet in length, and little better than the huts of the fellaheen of to-day. The houses of the middle class, such as shop-keepers, small officials, and foremen, were of a better description, though rather small. They usually
The palaces and mansions of the wealthy and great generally stood in the midst of a garden or courtyard planted with trees surrounded with crenellated walls, broken only by a doorway, which often indicated the social importance of the family. At times it was a portico supported on columns and adorned with statues; at others, a pylon similar to those at the entrance of temples. "The interior," says Maspero, "almost resembled a small town divided into quarters by irregular walls. In some cases the dwelling-house stood at the farther end; while the granaries, stables, and domestic
These excavations cover a large area. Upper, Middle, and Lower Egypt and Nubia have been extensively explored, likewise the Sinai Peninsula and Syria, with its numerous tablets of conquest. In Nubia, states an authority, owing to the poverty of the country and its scanty population, the proportion of monuments surviving is infinitely greater than in Egypt. Many temples, tombs, quarries, forts, grottos, and pyramids have been found in a good state of preservation. In Upper Egypt are to be found the great pyramids and the necropolis of Memphis, with various smaller pyramids to the south, and it also boasts of the stupendous ruins of Thebes on both sides of the river, the tombs and quarries of Assuan, and the temples of PhilÆ, though these by no means exhaust the list of sites which have been excavated, while it is well known that many still hold mysteries as yet untouched.
The existence of Egypt as a native monarchy stretched over such an extended period that it is extremely difficult to generalize concerning the method of its government or the life of its people. At the same
The feudal system was general throughout ancient Egypt, and the Pharaoh was chiefly employed in keeping his greater subjects in check. These modelled their principalities upon the central power, and even such as had no claim to royal blood kept up establishments of considerable magnitude. Officials swarmed in the Nile valley, and it does not seem that they were actuated by a very high standard of political morality, or, at least in practice, they fell short of it. Members of the royal family were generally granted high office, and this meant that the country was in effect administered by an hereditary bureaucracy. A chancellor or vizier was directly responsible to the monarch for the condition of the country—its business, finance, and legal administration.
Scene representing the driving of a large herd of cattle on an Egyptian farm From a Tomb at Thebes, XVIIIth Dynasty
Reproduced by Permission from "Wall Decorations of Egyptian Tombs,"
published by the Trustees of the British Museum—
We know but little concerning the commercial affairs of ancient Egypt. In all probability open-air markets were held. Currency was unknown until the era of the Persian invasion, and until then rings of gold, silver, and bronze were employed in exchange. Barter, however, prevailed universally. Corn was, of course, the staple produce of Egypt, and seems to have been exported to some extent to other countries, as were papyrus rolls and linen; but practically all silver and copper had to be imported, as had precious woods, the pelts of rare animals, ivory, spices and incense, and stone for the manufacture of rare vessels. Many of these supplies reached Egypt in the shape of tribute,
Agriculture was the backbone of Egyptian wealth; the nature of the soil—rich, black mud, deposited by the Nile, which also served to irrigate it—rendered the practice of farming peculiarly simple. The intense heat, too, assisted the speedy growth of grain. Cultivation was possible almost all the year round, but usually terminated with the harvests gathered in at the end of April, from which month to June a period of slackness was afforded the farmer. A great variety of crops was sown, but wheat and barley were the most popular; durra, of which bread was made, lentils, peas, beans, radishes, lettuces, onions, and flax were also cultivated. Fruits were represented by the grape, pomegranate, fig, and date. Timber was scanty and, as has been said, was mostly imported. In early times it was probably more abundant, but the introduction of the camel and the goat proved its ruin, these animals stripping the bark from the trees and devouring the shoots. Wine was chiefly made in the district of Mareotis, near Alexandria, and appears to have possessed a very delicate flavour. The papyrus plant was widely cultivated from the earliest times; the stem was employed for boat-building and rope-making, as well as for writing materials.
Egyptian law appears to have been traditional, and no remains of any specific code have come down to us. Royal decrees and regulations were promulgated from time to time, and these were usually engraved on stone and carefully preserved. In the Ptolemaic period travelling courts were instituted, which settled litigation of all descriptions; but the traditional law of the country appears to have been well known to the people and fully recognized by their rulers. A favourite way of having a grievance redressed was to petition the king or one of the great feudal princes. Courts sitting to hear specific cases were nearly always composed of royal or territorial persons in early days, and in later times of officials. The right to appeal to the king existed. Evidence was given upon oath, a favourite oath being "By the king" or "By the life of the king." Only occasionally was torture employed for the purpose of extracting evidence. Penalties were various. In many instances the accused was allowed to take his own life. For minor crimes the bastinado or disfigurement by cutting off the nose, banishment or fine, were the usual punishments. During the Old Kingdom decapitation was the usual means of inflicting death. The drawing up of contracts was universal, and these were, as a rule, duly witnessed. From the time of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty these are discovered in abundance, and usually refer to sales or loans. Although a woman could inherit property, she had not the entire right of dealing with it, but, if divorced, her dowry could not be forfeited. Many of these ancient documents deal with the buying and selling of slaves. It is not clear, however, whether or not the consent of a slave was necessary to his sale.
Knowledge and learning of every description were, of course, subordinated to the religious idea, which was the paramount consideration in Egyptian life. With architecture we have dealt elsewhere. It would seem that scientific operations of all sorts were carried out, not by means of any given formulÆ, but merely by rule of thumb. Wonderful results were obtained by the simplest means, and the methods by which the pyramids were raised are still somewhat of a mystery. The dates of festivals were astronomically fixed; and it has been stated that the pyramids and other large buildings were orientated in the same manner. The beginning of the inundation of the Nile was marked by the rising of the star Sothis or Sirius. A great many Egyptian inventions appear to be of considerable antiquity, but the inventive faculty of the race would seem to have been stunted or altogether lost in later times. Attempts at progress were absolutely unknown even when the Egyptians came into contact with foreigners, and all innovations were looked upon askance.
It is uncertain to what extent the people followed the nobility in the very rigorous religious programme that these had set themselves. That they were as deeply superstitious as their betters there can be little doubt; but that they regarded themselves as fit subjects for the same otherworld to which the aristocracy were bound is unlikely in the extreme. Probably at the best they thought they might find some corner in the dark realm of Osiris where they would not be utterly annihilated, or that at least their kas would be duly fed
The fashion of apparel differed considerably with the dynasties. As we have already noted, the Pharaoh possessed a peculiar attire of his own, upon which that of the upper ranks of society was to some extent modelled. The climate did not permit or encourage the wearing of heavy material, so that fine linen was greatly in use. The upper portions of the body were only partially covered, and amongst the nobility in ancient times a species of linen skirt was worn. The women's dress from the earliest times was a dress reaching from the armpits to the ankles, with straps over the shoulders. The men's dress was usually a form of loin-cloth. The wearing of wigs was practically universal, and originated in
In general appearance the Egyptian was tall, being considerably above the European average in height. The race were for the most part dolichocephalic, or long-skulled, narrow-waisted and angular. In later life they frequently became corpulent, but during youth and early manhood presented rather a 'wiry' appearance. They had, however, broad shoulders and a well-developed chest-cavity. The examination of thousands of mummies by Dr. Elliot Smith has proved that in later times the Egyptian race greatly improved in physique and muscular qualities. In character the Egyptian was grave, and perhaps a little taciturn, being in this respect not unlike the Scot and the Spaniard; but, like these peoples, he had also a strain of gaiety in his composition, and his popular literature is in places eloquent of the philosophy of laissez-faire. It is probable that the stern religious code under which he lived drove him at times to deep disgust of his surroundings. The Egyptian peasant's amusement at times took the form of intoxication, and pictures are extant which show the labourer being borne home on the shoulders of his fellows. Among the upper classes, too, it cannot be denied that a philosophy of pleasure had gained a very strong hold, especially in later times. They probably thought that if they
CHAPTER III: THE PRIESTHOOD: MYSTERIES AND TEMPLES
The power and condition of the Egyptian priesthood varied greatly with the passing of the centuries. It was in all likelihood at all times independent of the royal power, and indeed there were periods in Egyptian history when the sway of the Pharaohs was seriously endangered, or altogether eclipsed, by the ecclesiastical party. Vast grants of land had enriched the hundreds of temples which crowded the Egyptian land, and these gave employment to a veritable army of dependents and officials. Under the New Kingdom, for example, the wealth and power of the god Amen rivalled, if it did not eclipse, that of the Pharaoh himself. In the time of Rameses III this influential cult numbered no fewer than 80,000 dependents, exclusive of worshippers, and its wealth can be assessed by the circumstance that it could count its cattle by the hundred thousand head. The kings, however, periodically attempted to diminish the power of the priesthood by nominating their own relatives or adherents to its principal offices.
In early days the great lords of the soil took upon themselves the title and duties of chief priest in their territory, thus combining the feudal and ecclesiastical offices. Beneath them were a number of priests, both lay and professional. But in later times this system was exchanged for one in which a rigorous discipline necessitated the appointment of a professional class whose duties were sharply outlined and specialized. Despite this, however, and contrary to popular belief, at no time did the priestly power combine itself into a caste that was distinctly separate from the laity, the
Rahetep, a Priest. (IVth or Vth Dynasty)
The duties of the priesthood were arduous. A most stringent and exacting code had to be followed so far as cleanliness and discipline were concerned. Constant purifications and lustrations succeeded each other, and the garb of the religious must be fresh and unspotted. It consisted entirely of the purest and whitest linen, the wearing of woollen and other fabrics being strictly forbidden, and even abhorred. The head was closely shaven, and no head-dress was worn. The priest's day was thoroughly mapped out for him. If he was on duty, he duly washed himself and proceeded to the Holy of Holies, where he repeated certain formulÆ, accompanying them by prescribed gestures, preparatory to breaking the seal which closed the sanctuary. Standing face to face with the god, he prostrated himself, and after performing other ritualistic offices he presented the deity with a small image of Maat, the goddess of Truth. The god, powerless before this moment to participate in the ceremonial, was then supposedly regaled with a collation the principal items in which seem to have been beef, geese, bread, and beer, having consumed which he re-entered his shrine, and did not appear until the morning following. In the entire
Early Greek travellers in Egypt, and especially Herodotus and Strabo, speak with enthusiasm of the abilities of the Egyptian priests and the high standard of philosophic thought to which they had attained. The great college of priests at Thebes is alluded to with admiration by Strabo. Its members were probably the most learned and acute theologians and philosophers in ancient Egypt. Colleges of almost equal importance existed elsewhere, as at Anu, the On or Heliopolis of the Greeks. Each nome or province had its own great temple, which developed the provincial religion regardless of faiths which existed but a few miles away. The god of the nome was its divinity par excellence, Ruler of the Gods, Creator of the Universe, and giver of all good things to his folk.
But it must not be imagined that, if the priesthood as a body was wealthy, some of its members did not suffer the pinch of hardship. Thus, although the best conditions attached to office in the great temples, these were by no means overstaffed. At Abydos only five priests composed the staff, while Siut had ten attached to it. Again, the smaller temples
Priestesses also held offices in the temples. In earlier times these officiated at the shrines of both gods and goddesses, and it is only at a later date that we find them less often as celebrants in the temples dedicated to male deities, where they acted chiefly as musicians.
There is a popular fallacy to the effect that 'volumes' have been written concerning the Egyptian 'mysteries,' those picturesque and unearthly ceremonies of initiation which are supposed to have taken place in subterranean dusk, surrounded by all the circumstances of occult rite and custom. The truth is that works which deal with the subject are exceedingly rare, and are certainly not of the kind from which we can hope to glean anything concerning the mysteries of Egyptian priestcraft. We shall do better to turn to the analogous instances of Grecian practice or even to those of savage and semi-civilized peoples concerning whose mysteries a good deal has been unearthed of recent years.
Regarding the Egyptian mysteries but little is known. We have it on the authority of Herodotus that mysteries existed, possibly those in the case cited being the annual commemoration of the sufferings and death of Osiris. Says Herodotus:
"At SaÏs in the Temple of Minerva, beneath the Churche and neere unto the walle of Minerva, in a base Chappell, are standinge certayne greate brooches of stone, whereto is adioyninge a lowe place in manner of a Dungeon, couered over wyth a stone curiously wroughte, the vaute it selfe being on euery side carued with most exquisite arte, in biggnesse matching with that in Delos, which is called TrochoÏdes. Herein euery one counterfayteth the shadowes of his owne affections and phantasies in the nyghte season, which the Aegyptians call Mysteryes; touchinge whiche, God forbid, I should aduenture to discouer so much as they vouchsafed to tell mee."
In chapter i of the Book of the Dead, too, we
Chapter cxlviii (SaÏte Recension) is to be recited "on the day of the new moon, on the sixth-day festival, on the fifteenth-day festival, on the festival of Uag, on the festival of Thoth, on the birthday of Osiris, on the festival of Menu, on the night of Heker, during the mysteries of Maat, during the celebration of the mysteries of Akertet," and so forth. Herodotus, who was supposed to have been initiated into these mysteries, is righteously cryptic concerning them, and just as he has aroused our interest to fever heat he invariably sees fit to remark that his lips are sealed on the subject.
But is there anything so very extraordinary in these terrible doings? Theosophists and others would lead us to suppose that in the gloomy crypts of Egypt weird spiritistic rites of evocation and magical ceremonies of dark import were gone through. What are the probabilities?
Let us briefly examine the mysteries of ancient Greece. We find that these are for the most part pre-Hellenic, and that the conquered populations of the country adopted the mystic attitude in order to shroud their religious ceremonies from the eyes of the
We seem to see some such society outlined in
In the first place, all growth is mysterious, and primitive man probably regarded it as in some manner magical. Secondly, it is noticeable that nearly all these mysteries, in the old world at least, took place underground, in darkness, and that there was enacted the symbolism of the growth of corn, probably for the purpose of inciting the powers of growth to greater activity by dint of sympathetic magic.
The earliest form of temple was a mere hut of plaited wickerwork, serving as a shrine for the symbols of the god; the altar but a mat of reeds. The earliest temples evolve from a wall built round the name-stelÆ, which was afterward roofed in. With the advent of the New Empire the temple-building became of a much more complicated character, though the essential plan from the earliest period to the latest
These temples stood in the midst of populous cities, the huge surrounding wall shutting out the noise and bustle of the narrow streets. Leading up to the great pylon, the chief gateway, was a broad road carried right through the inhabited quarter and guarded on each side by rows of lions, rams, or other sacred animals. In front of the gateway were two obelisks, likewise statues of the king who founded the temple, as protector of the sanctuary. On either side of the entrance stood a high tower, square in shape, with the sides sloping inward. These were of course originally designed for defensive purposes, and the passage through the pylon could thus be successfully barred against all foes, while from postern-gates in the wall sorties could be made. Tall masts were fixed in sockets at the foot of the pylon. From these gaily coloured streamers waved to keep afar all menace of evil, as did the symbol of the sun, the Winged Disk, over the great doors. These were often made of wood, a valuable material in Egypt, and covered with a sheathing of glittering gold. The outer walls were decorated with brightly coloured reliefs and inscriptions, depicting the deeds of the founder, for the temple was as much a personal monument as a shrine of the tutelary deity. Inside the pylon was a great court, open to the sky,
This, the Holy Place, was the chief room of the temple. Here stood the naos, a box rectangular in shape and open in front, often with a latticework door. This served as the receptacle of the divine symbols or in some cases as the cage of the sacred animal. On either side of the sanctuary were dark chambers, used as the store-rooms for the sacred vestments, the processional standards and sacred barque, the temple furniture, and so on. It is to be noted that as the progression was from the blazing light of the first great court to the complete darkness of the Holy of Holies, so the roofs grew less lofty. The inside walls and columns were decorated with reliefs in brilliant colours depicting the rites and worship connected with the presiding deity in ceremonial order.
Surrounding the temple was the temenos, enveloped by a wall in which were situated other and smaller temples, with groves of sacred trees and birds, lakes on which the sacred barque floated, the dwellings of the priests, and sometimes palaces amid the gardens. Outside again were sacred ways that led in different directions, some branching from temple to temple, through cities, villages, and fields, while at the side steps sloped down to the Nile, where boats were anchored. Along these ways went the sacred processions,
Greece has frequently been alluded to as the 'Land of Temples.' The appellation might with greater justice be applied to Egypt, where fanes of Cyclopean magnitude rose in every nome ere yet Hellas could boast knowledge of the mason's art. Still they stand, those giant shrines, well-nigh as perfect as when fresh from the chisels of the old hierophants who shaped and designed them. And so long as a fostering love of the past dwells in the heart of man so long shall they remain.
Osiris—Photo W.A. Mansell & Co.
CHAPTER IV: THE CULT OF OSIRIS
One of the principal figures in the Egyptian pantheon, and one whose elements it is most difficult to disentangle, is Osiris, or As-ar. The oldest and most simple form of the name is expressed by two hieroglyphics representing a throne and an eye. These, however, cast but little light on the meaning of the name. Even the later Egyptians themselves were ignorant of its derivation, for we find that they thought it meant 'the Strength of the Eye'—that is, the strength of the sun-god, Ra. The second syllable of the name, ar, may, however, be in some manner connected with Ra, as we shall see later. In dynastic times Osiris was regarded as god of the dead and the under-world. Indeed, he occupied the same position in that sphere as Ra did in the land of the living. We must also recollect that the realm of the under-world was the realm of night.
The origins of Osiris are extremely obscure. We cannot glean from the texts when or where he first began to be worshipped, but that his cult is greatly more ancient than any text is certain. The earliest dynastic centres of his worship were Abydos and Mendes. He is perhaps represented on a mace-head of Narmer found at Hieraconpolis, and on a wooden plaque of the reign of Udy-mu (Den) or Hesepti, the fifth king of the First Dynasty, who is figured as dancing before him. This shows that a centre of Osiris-worship existed at Abydos during the First Dynasty. But allusions in the Pyramid Texts give us to understand that prior to this shrines had been raised to Osiris in various parts of the Nile country. As has been outlined in the chapter on the Book of the Dead,
Osiris is usually figured as wrapped in mummy bandages and wearing the white cone-shaped crown of the South, yet Dr. Budge says of him: "Everything which the texts of all periods record concerning him goes to show that he was an indigenous god of North-east Africa, and that his home and origin were possibly Libyan." In any case, we may take it that Osiris was genuinely African in origin, and that he was indigenous to the soil of the Dark Continent. Brugsch and Sir Gaston Maspero both regarded him as a water-god,
Plutarch is our principal authority for the legend of Osiris. A complete version of the tale is not to be found in Egyptian texts, though these confirm the accounts given by the Greek writers. The following is a brief account of the myth as it is related in Plutarch's De Iside et Osiride:
Rhea (the Egyptian Nut, the sky-goddess) was the
In course of time the prophecies concerning Osiris were fulfilled, and he became a great and wise king. The land of Egypt flourished under his rule as it had never done heretofore. Like many another 'hero-god,' he set himself the task of civilizing his people, who at his coming were in a very barbarous condition, indulging in cannibalistic and other savage practices. He gave them a code of laws, taught them the arts of husbandry, and showed them the proper rites wherewith to worship the gods. And when he had succeeded in establishing law and order in Egypt he betook himself to distant lands to continue there his work of civilization. So gentle and good was he, and so pleasant were his methods of instilling knowledge into the minds of the barbarians, that they worshipped the very ground whereon he trod.
He had one bitter enemy, however, in his brother Set, the Greek Typhon. During the absence of Osiris his wife Isis ruled the country so well that the schemes of the wicked Set to take a share in its government were not allowed to mature. But on the king's return Set fixed on a plan whereby to rid himself altogether of the king, his brother. For the accomplishment of his ends he leagued himself with Aso, the queen of Ethiopia, and seventy-two other conspirators. Then, after secretly measuring the king's body, he caused to be made a marvellous chest, richly fashioned and adorned, which would contain exactly the body of
When the feast was over Set had the beautiful chest brought into the banqueting-hall, and said, as though in jest, that it should belong to him whom it would fit. One after another the guests lay down in the chest, but it fitted none of them till the turn of Osiris came. Quite unsuspicious of treachery, the king laid himself down in the great receptacle. In a moment the conspirators had nailed down the lid, pouring boiling lead over it lest there should be any aperture. Then they set the coffin adrift on the Nile, at its Tanaitic mouth. These things befell, say some, in the twenty-eighth year of Osiris' life; others say in the twenty-eighth year of his reign.
When the news reached the ears of Isis she was sore stricken, and cut off a lock of her hair and put on mourning apparel. Knowing well that the dead cannot rest till their bodies have been buried with funeral rites, she set out to find the corpse of her husband. For a long time her search went unrewarded, though she asked every man and woman she met whether they had seen the richly decorated chest. At length it occurred to her to inquire of some children who played by the Nile, and, as it chanced, they were able to tell her that the chest had been brought to the Tanaitic mouth of the Nile by Set and his accomplices. From that time children were regarded by the Egyptians as having some special faculty of divination.
Osiris beguiled into the Chest—Evelyn Paul.
By and by the queen gained information of a more exact kind through the agency of demons, by whom she was informed that the chest had been cast up on the shore of Byblos, and flung by the waves into a tamarisk-bush, which had shot up miraculously into a magnificent tree, enclosing the coffin of Osiris in its trunk. The king of that country, Melcarthus by name, was astonished at the height and beauty of the tree, and had it cut down and a pillar made from its trunk wherewith to support the roof of his palace. Within this pillar, therefore, was hidden the chest containing the body of Osiris. Isis hastened with all speed to Byblos, where she seated herself by the side of a fountain. To none of those who approached her would she vouchsafe a word, saving only to the queen's maidens, and these she addressed very graciously, braiding their hair and perfuming them with her breath, more fragrant than the odour of flowers. When the maidens returned to the palace the queen inquired how it came that their hair and clothes were so delightfully perfumed, whereupon they related their encounter with the beautiful stranger. Queen Astarte, or Athenais, bade that she be conducted to the palace, welcomed her graciously, and appointed her nurse to one of the young princes.
Isis fed the boy by giving him her finger to suck. Every night, when all had retired to rest, she would pile great logs on the fire and thrust the child among them, and, changing herself into a swallow, would twitter mournful lamentations for her dead husband. Rumours of these strange practices were brought by
Arrived in Egypt, Isis opened the chest and wept long and sorely over the remains of her royal husband. But now she bethought herself of her son Harpocrates, or Horus the Child, whom she had left in Buto, and leaving the chest in a secret place, she set off to search for him. Meanwhile Set, while hunting by the light of the moon, discovered the richly adorned coffin and in his rage rent the body into fourteen pieces, which he scattered here and there throughout the country.
Upon learning of this fresh outrage on the body of the god, Isis took a boat of papyrus-reeds and journeyed forth once more in search of her husband's remains. After this crocodiles would not touch a papyrus boat, probably because they thought it contained the
Isis and the Baby Prince—Evelyn Paul.
By this time Horus had reached manhood, and Osiris, returning from the Duat, where he reigned as king of the dead, encouraged him to avenge the wrongs of his parents. Horus thereupon did battle with Set, the victory falling now to one, now to the other. At one time Set was taken captive by his enemy and given into the custody of Isis, but the latter, to her son's amazement and indignation, set him at liberty. So angry was Horus that he tore the crown from his mother's head. Thoth, however, gave her a helmet in the shape of a cow's head. Another version states that Horus cut off his mother's head, which Thoth, the maker of magic, stuck on again in the form of a cow's.
Horus and Set, it is said, still do battle with one another, yet victory has fallen to neither. When Horus shall have vanquished his enemy, Osiris will return to earth and reign once more as king in Egypt.
From the particulars of this myth Sir J. G. Frazer has argued
"The general similarity of the myth and ritual of
A Shrine of Osiris—(XIIth Dynasty)
"But Osiris was more than a spirit of the corn; he was also a tree-spirit, and this may well have been his
Sir J.G. Frazer goes on to combat the theory of Lepsius that Osiris was to be identified with the sun-god Ra. Osiris, says the German scholar, was named Osiris-Ra even in the Book of the Dead, and Isis, his spouse, is often called the royal consort of Ra. This identification, Sir J.G. Frazer thinks, may have had a political significance. He admits that the myth of Osiris might express the daily appearance and disappearance of the sun, and points out that most of the writers who favour the solar theory are careful to indicate that it is the daily, and not the annual, course of the sun to which they understand the myth to apply. But, then, why, pertinently asks Sir J. G. Frazer, was
Plutarch says that some of the Egyptian philosophers interpreted Osiris as the moon, "because the moon, with her humid and generative light, is favourable to the propagation of animals and the growth of plants." Among primitive peoples the moon is regarded as a great source of moisture. Vegetation is thought to flourish beneath her pale rays, and she is understood as fostering the multiplication of the human species as well as animal and plant life. Sir J. G. Frazer enumerates several reasons to prove that Osiris possessed a lunar significance. Briefly these are that he is said to have lived or reigned twenty-eight years, the mythical expression of a lunar month, and that his body is said to have been rent into fourteen pieces—"This might be interpreted as the waning moon, which appears to lose a portion of itself on each of the fourteen days that make up the second half of the lunar month." Typhon found the body of Osiris at the full moon; thus its dismemberment would begin with the waning of the moon.
The Departure of Isis from Byblos—Evelyn Paul.
Primitive man explains the waning moon as actually dwindling, and it appears to him as if it is being broken in pieces or eaten away. The Klamath Indians of South-west Oregon allude to the moon as 'the One Broken in Pieces,' and the Dacotas believe that when the moon is full a horde of mice begin to nibble at one side of it until they have devoured the whole. To continue Sir J.G. Frazer's argument, he quotes Plutarch
Placeth thy soul in the barque Maat
In that name which is thine of god-moon.
And again:
Thou who comest to us as a child each month,
We do not cease to contemplate thee.
Thine emanation heightens the brilliancy
Of the stars of Orion in the firmament.
In this hymn Osiris is deliberately identified with the moon.
In effect, then, Sir James Frazer's theory regarding Osiris is that he was a vegetation or corn god, who later became identified, or confounded, with the moon. But surely it is as reasonable to suppose that it was because of his status as moon-god that he ranked as a deity of vegetation.
A brief consideration of the circumstances connected with lunar worship might lead us to some such supposition. The sun in his status of deity requires but little explanation. The phenomena of growth are attributed to his agency at an early period of human thought, and it is probable that wind, rain, and other atmospheric manifestations are likewise credited to his
Osiris in his character of god of the dead affords no great difficulties of elucidation, and in this one figure we behold the junction of the ideas of the moon, moisture, the under-world, and death—in fact, all the phenomena of birth and decay.
The reader cannot fail to have observed the very close resemblance between the myth of Osiris and that of Demeter and Kore, or Persephone. Indeed, some of the adventures of Isis, notably that concerning the child of the king of Byblos, are practically identical with incidents in the career of Demeter. It is highly probable that the two myths possessed a common origin. But whereas in the Greek example we find the mother searching for her child, in the Egyptian myth the wife searches for the remains of her husband. In the Greek tale we have Pluto as the husband of Persephone and the ruler of the under-world also regarded, like Osiris, as a god of grain and growth, whilst Persephone, like Isis, probably personifies the grain itself. In the Greek myth we have one male and two female principles, and in the Egyptian one male and one female. The analogy could perhaps be pressed further by the inclusion in the Egyptian version of the goddess Nephthys, who was a sister-goddess to Isis or stood to her in some such relationship. It would seem, then, as if the Hellenic myth had been sophisticated by early Egyptian influences, perhaps working through a Cretan intercommunication.
It remains, then, to regard Osiris in the light of ruler of the underworld. To some extent this has been done in the chapter which deals with the Book of the Dead. The god of the underworld, as has been pointed out, is in nearly every instance a god of vegetable growth, and it was not because Osiris was god of the dead that he presided over fertility, but the converse. To speak more plainly, Osiris was first god of fertility, and the circumstance that he presided over the underworld was a later innovation. But it
We must also take into brief consideration his personification of Ra, whom he meets, blends with, and under whose name he nightly sails through his own dominions. This would seem like the fusion of a sun and moon myth; the myth of the sun travelling nightly beneath the earth fused with that of the moon's nocturnal journey across the vault of heaven. A moment's consideration will show how this fusion took place. Osiris was a moon-god. That circumstance accounts for one half of the myth; the other half is to be accounted for as follows: Ra, the sun-god, must perambulate the underworld at night if he is to appear on the fringes of the east in the morning. But Osiris as a lunar deity, and perhaps as the older god, as well as in his character as god of the underworld, is already occupying the orbit he must trace. The orbits of both deities are fused in one, and there would appear to be some proof of this in the fact that, in the realm of Seker, Afra (or Ra-Osiris) changes the direction of his journey from north to south to a line due east toward the mountains of sunrise. The fusion of the two myths is quite a logical one, as the moon during the night travels in the same direction as the sun has taken during the day—that is, from east to west.
It will readily be seen how Osiris came to be regarded not only as god and judge of the dead, but also as symbolical of the resurrection of the body of man. Sir James Frazer lays great stress upon a picture of Osiris in which his body is shown covered with sprouting shoots of corn, and he seems to be of opinion that this is positive evidence that Osiris was a corn-god.
Isis, or Ast, must be regarded as one of the earliest and most important conceptions of female godhead in ancient Egypt. In the dynastic period she was regarded as the feminine counterpart of Osiris, and we may take it that before the dawn of Egyptian history she occupied a similar position. The philology of the name appears to be unfathomable. No other deity has probably been worshipped for such an extent of time, for her cult did not perish with that of most other Egyptian gods, but flourished later in Greece and Rome, and is seriously carried on in Paris to-day.
Isis was perhaps of Libyan origin, and is usually depicted in the form of a woman crowned with her name-symbol and holding in her hand a sceptre of papyrus. Her crown is surmounted by a pair of horns holding a disk, which in turn is sometimes crested by her hieroglyph, which represents a seat or throne. Sometimes also she is represented as possessing radiant and many-coloured wings, with which she stirs to life the inanimate body of Osiris.
No other goddess was on the whole so popular with the Egyptians, and the reason for this is probably to be found in the circumstances of travail and pity which run through her myth. These drew the sympathies of the people to her, but they were not the only reasons why she was beloved by the Egyptian masses, for she was the great and beneficent mother-goddess and represented the maternal spirit in its most intimate and affectionate guise. In her myth, perhaps one of the most touching and beautiful which ever sprang
Isis—Photo W.A. Mansell & Co.
Although Isis had undoubtedly many forms, and although she may be regarded as the great corn-mother of Egypt, the probabilities are that in one of her phases she represents the wind of heaven. This does not appear to have been recognized by students of Egyptology, but the record seems a fairly clear one. Osiris in his guise of the corn dies and comes to life again and is sown broadcast over the land. Isis is disconsolate and moans terribly over his loss; in fact, so loud and heartrending is her grief that the child of the King of Byblos, whom she is nursing, dies of terror. From her, grateful odours emanate, as the women of the Queen of Byblos experience. She transforms herself into a swallow. She restores the dead Osiris to life by fanning him with her wings and filling his mouth and nostrils with sweet air. It is noteworthy that she is one of the few Egyptian deities who possess wings. She is a great traveller, and unceasingly moans and sobs. If these qualities and circumstances are not allegorical of the wind, a much more ingenious hypothesis than the above will be necessary to account for their mythological connexion. Isis wails like the wind, she shrieks in tempest, she carries the fragrance of spices and flowers throughout the country, she takes the shape of a swallow, one of the swiftest of birds and typical of the rapidity of the wind, she employs the element of which she is mistress to revivify the dead Osiris, she possesses wings, as do
Isis is one of those deities who from fortuitous and other circumstances are fated to achieve greatness. From a Libyan spirit connected in some manner with the growth of the crops, she rose to such supreme importance during her reign of nearly four thousand years in Egypt that every description of attribute was heaped upon her in abundance. This is invariably the case with successful deities. Not only do they absorb the attributes of their contemporaries in the pantheon, but qualities which are actually at variance with their original character are grafted upon them because of their very popularity. This was the case, for instance, with Tezcatlipoca, a Mexican deity, originally god of the air, who later became god of fate and fortune, and practically head of the Aztec pantheon; and many other instances might be adduced. Thus Isis is a giver of life and food to the dead in the Duat—that is, she brings with her the fresh air of heaven into the underworld—and as the air-god Tezcatlipoca was identified with justice, so Isis is identified with Maat, the goddess of justice.
Winged Isis (The wings are in the attitude of protecting Horus)—Photo W.A. Mansell & Co.
Isis may also typify the wind of morning, from which the sun is born. In most countries at the moment of sunrise a wind springs up which may be said to usher the sun into existence. In her myth, too, we find that on leaving the house where she had been imprisoned by Set (the summer dwelling of the
The myth of Isis became so real to the people of Egypt that they came to regard her very intimately indeed, and fully believed that she had once been a veritable woman. In a more allegorical manner she was of course the great feminine fructifier of the soil. She was also a powerful enchantress, as is shown by the number of deities and human beings whom she rescued from death. Words of great and compelling power were hers. Her astronomical symbol was the star Sept, which marked the spring and the approach of the inundation of the Nile, an added evidence that in one of her phases she was goddess of the winds of spring. As the light-giver at this season of the year she was called Khut, and as goddess of the fruitful earth Usert. As the force which impelled the powers of spring and sent forth the Nile flood she was Sati, and as the goddess of fertile waters she was Anqet. She was further the deity of cultivated lands and fields, goddess of harvest and goddess of food. So that from first to last she personified the forces which make for growth and nourishment. She personifies the power of the spring season, the power of the earth to grow and yield grain, motherhood and all the attributes and
Cippus of Horus—Photo W.A. Mansell & Co.
As we have seen, the god Ra was depicted as a falcon, but there was another god of similar form who had been worshipped before him in the land of Egypt. This was the god Heru, or Horus, 'He who is above.' This god had many shapes. As Horus the Elder he is delineated as a man with the head of a falcon, and was believed to be the son of Geb and Nut. Horus proper was perhaps regarded as the face of heaven, the countenance of the sky, and as Horus the Elder he represented the face by day in contradistinction to Set, who was the face by night. Horus the Younger, or Harpocrates as he was called by the Greeks to distinguish him from Horus the Elder, is represented as a youth, and was the son of a Horus-god and the goddess Rat-Tauit, who appears to have been worshipped at Hermonthis in the form of a hippopotamus. Horus the Younger represented the earliest rays of the rising sun, and had no fewer than seven aspects or forms. To detail all the variants of Horus would be foreign to the purpose of this work, so it must suffice to enumerate the more important of them. The Horus of the Two Horizons, the Harmachis of the Greeks, was one
Horus in Battle—Evelyn Paul
There was a king in Egypt called Thothmes, a mighty monarch, skilled in the arts of war and of the chase. He was good to look upon, too, with a beauty like unto that of Horus, whom Isis bare in the Northern Marshes, and greatly was he loved by gods and men.
He was wont to hunt in the burning desert, alone, or with only a few companions, and this is told of one of his hunting expeditions.
One day, before he had ascended the throne of Egypt, he was hunting unattended in the desert. It was noontide, and the sun beat fiercely down upon him, so that he was fain to seek the shadow of the mighty Harmachis, the Sphinx. Great and powerful was the god, and very majestic was his image, with the face of a man and the body of a lion, a snake upon his brow. In many temples were sacrifices made to him, in many towns did men worship with their faces turned toward him.
In the great cool shadow Thothmes laid himself
"Behold me, O Thothmes, for I am the Sun-god, the ruler of all peoples. Harmachis is my name, and Ra, and Khepera, and Tem. I am thy father, and thou art my son, and through me shall all good come upon thee if thou wilt hearken to my words. The land of Egypt shall be thine, and the North Land, and the South Land. In prosperity and happiness shalt thou rule for many years."
He paused, and it seemed to Thothmes as if the god were struggling to free himself from the overwhelming sands, for only his head was visible.
"It is as thou seest," Harmachis resumed; "the sands of the desert are over me. Do that quickly which I command thee, O my son Thothmes."
Ere Thothmes could reply the vision faded and he awoke. The living god was gone, and in his place was the mighty image, hewn from the solid rock.
And here the story must perforce end. It is inscribed on a stele in the little temple which lies between the paws of the Sphinx, and the remainder of the inscription is so defaced as to be indecipherable.
One of the greatest and most important of all the forms of Horus is Heru-Behudeti, who typifies midday, and therefore the greatest heat of the sun. It was in this form that Horus waged war against Set. His principal shrines were at EdfÛ, PhilÆ, Mesen, Aat-ab, and Tanis, where he was worshipped under the form of a lion trampling upon its enemies. In general,
In the year 363 of the reign of Ra-Horakhti upon the earth it befell that the god was in Nubia with a mighty army. Set, the Evil One, had rebelled against him, for Ra was advanced in years, and Set was of all beings the most cunning and treacherous. He it was also who had slain his twin-brother Osiris, the great and good king; and for this reason Horus, the brother of Osiris, desired greatly to have his life.
With his chariots and horsemen and foot-soldiers Ra embarked on the Great River and came to EdfÛ, where Horus of EdfÛ joined him.
"O Ra," said Horus, "great are thine enemies, and cunningly do they conspire against thee!"
"My son," answered Ra, "arm thee and go forth against mine enemies, and slay them speedily."
Thereupon Horus sought the aid of the god Thoth, the master of all magic, by whose aid he changed himself into a great sun-disk, with resplendent wings outstretched on either side. Straight to the sun he flew, and from the heavens he looked so fiercely upon his enemies and Ra's, that they neither heard nor saw aright. Each man judged his neighbour to be a stranger, and a cry went up that the foe were upon them. Each turned his weapon against the other, the majority were slain, and the handful of survivors scattered. And Horus hovered for a while over the battle-plain, hoping to find Set, but the arch-enemy was not there; he was hiding in the North Country.
Then Horus returned to Ra, who embraced him kindly. And Horus took Ra and the goddess Astarte, and showed them the battlefield strewn with corpses.
Ra, king of the gods, said to those in his train: "Come, let us voyage to the Nile, for our enemies are
Then Horus and Ra sailed northward toward the sea in search of Set and his allies, hoping to slay all the crocodiles and hippopotami, which were the bodily forms of their foes. But the beasts kept under water, and four days had elapsed ere Horus caught sight of them. He at once attacked them, and wrought great havoc with his glittering weapons, to the delight of Ra and Thoth, who watched the conflict from the boat. A hundred and forty-two prisoners were taken on this occasion. Yet did Horus continue to pursue his enemies, always in the form of a burning disk with wings like unto the sunset, and attended by the goddesses Nekhbet and Uazet in the shape of two snakes.
Then was Set very greatly incensed, and decided to come forth in person to do battle with Horus. Horrible indeed were his cries and curses when he heard the losses his army had sustained. And Horus and his followers went out to meet the army of Set, and long and furious was the battle. At length Horus took a prisoner whom he believed to be Set. The wretched being was dragged before Ra, who gave him into the hands of his captor, bidding the latter do with him what he would. Then Horus killed his prisoner, cut off his head, dragged him through the dust, and cut his body in pieces, even as Set had done to Osiris. But, after all, it was only one of Set's associates who had perished thus miserably. The Evil One himself was still at large, vowing vengeance on his enemies. In the form of a large snake he hid himself under the earth, while his followers took courage from the knowledge that he had eluded his enemy. Yet again, however, were they defeated by Horus, who slew great numbers of them. The gods remained for six days on the canal, waiting for the reappearance of the foe, but none were to be seen. Then Horus scattered abroad his followers to destroy the remnant of Set's army.
The last two battles were fought at ThalÛ (Zaru), and at ShaÏs, in Nubia. At ThalÛ Horus took the form of a fierce lion, and slew a hundred and forty-two enemies. At ShaÏs he appeared once more in the shape of a great shining disk with wings of splendid plumage, and with the goddesses Nekhbet and Uazet
There are various endings to this myth. It is said that the prisoner whom Horus caused to be decapitated was none other than Set, whose fate, however, did not hinder him from living again and taking the form of a serpent. According to this version Horus of EdfÛ was accompanied by Horus the Child, son of Isis and Osiris. In the same inscription which gives an account of the battles Horus the Elder and Horus the Child are utterly confused at the end. So while Horus the Elder fights the battles, Horus the Child kills Set. They are looked upon as one and the same. On capturing Set, therefore, Horus, according to one account, delivered him into the hands of Isis, who cut off his head.
Another version, again, has it that the decisive battle has not yet been fought, and that Horus will finally destroy his enemy, when Osiris and the gods once more return to earth.
Yet another account states that when Horus the Child had become a man Set came forth and challenged him to mortal combat. So Horus set out in a boat splendidly decorated by Isis, who also laid magic spells upon it, so that its occupant might not be overcome. Meanwhile the arch-foe of the gods had taken upon himself the shape of a huge red hippopotamus. And he caused a raging storm to break over the boats of Horus and his train, so that the waters were lashed into fury; and had it not been that the boats were protected by magic, all would assuredly have perished. Horus, however, held on his course undismayed. He had taken the form of a youth of giant stature, and towered at the gilded prow of his boat, which shone
In the myth of the battles of Horus it is easy to discern what is perhaps the most universal of all mythological conceptions—the solar myth. Horus (called in the EdfÛ text HorbehÛdti, i.e. Horus of EdfÛ) was originally a sun-god, and as such was equivalent to Ra, but in time the two gods came to be regarded as separate and distinct personages, Ra being the highest, and Horus serving him as a sort of war-captain. The winged disk, therefore, and all his train represented the powers of light, while the wicked Set and his companions symbolized darkness. Thus it is that while Horus was always victorious over his enemies, he never succeeded (according to the most widespread form of the tradition) in destroying them utterly.
When Horus had routed the enemy in the form of a winged disk, that symbol came to be regarded as an excellent protective against violence and destruction. It was therefore repeated many times—especially in the New Kingdom—in temples, on monuments, stelÆ, and so on, and it was believed that the more numerous the representations of it, the more efficacious did the charm become. In its simplest form the image is
The principal version of the myth, dealing with Hor-BehÛdti, or Horus of EdfÛ, was really a local form belonging to EdfÛ, though in time it gained a wider acceptance. In other forms of the legend other gods took the chief rÔle as destroyer of the enemies of Ra.
With this legend of light and darkness came to be fused another, that which relates how Horus avenged the death of Osiris. It is noticeable that in this second myth there exists some confusion between Horus the Elder and Horus the Child, respectively brother and son of Osiris. No mention is made of Osiris in the EdfÛ text, but that this myth is a sequel to the legend of Osiris is implied by the circumstance that Set is handed over for punishment to Isis and Horus the Child. In the later form of the story the conflict is not properly between light and darkness, but rather between the forces of good and evil.
In this legend one of the most noteworthy circumstances is that the followers of Horus were armed with weapons of metal. His followers are called in the Egyptian text Mesniu, or Mesnitu, which in all probability signifies 'workers in metal,' or 'blacksmiths.' The worshippers of Horus of Behudet continually alluded to him as 'Lord of the Forge-city,' or EdfÛ, where tradition asserted he carried on the work of a blacksmith. At EdfÛ, indeed, the great golden disk of the sun itself had been forged, as we see from a certain inscription, and in the temple of that city was a chamber behind the sanctuary called Mesnet, or 'the foundry,' where the blacksmith caste of priests attended upon the god. From sculptures upon the walls of the
Another important form of Horus was that known as Horus, son of Isis, and of Osiris. He represented the rising sun, as did several other forms of Horus, and possessed many aspects or variants. His shrines
Osiris became the father of Horus after he was dead; such is the origin of several sun-heroes. As has been said, the birth of such is usually peculiar and obscure. Isis, while tending the infant Horus and in fear of the persecutions of Set, took shelter in the swamps of the Delta, and hid herself and her child amidst a dense mass of papyrus plants. To the Egyptian of the Delta it would of course seem as if the sun took its rise from amidst the papyrus-covered swamps which stretched on every side to the horizon, so we may regard this part of the myth as allegory pure and simple. The circumstances of the escape of Isis from Set have already been detailed in the myth of Osiris.
The filial respect which Horus displayed for the memory of his father Osiris won him much honour from the Egyptians. He it was who fixed the details of the god's mummification, and who set the standard for the pious Egyptian son. In this respect he was regarded as a helper of the dead, and was thought to mediate between them and the judges of the Taut. In his work of caring for the deceased he had a number of helpers, known as the followers of Horus, who were regarded as gods of the cardinal points. They are given positions of great importance in the Book of the Dead, and shared the protection of the body
Horus, son of Isis and Osiris, was regarded as of such importance that he absorbed the attributes of all the other Horus-gods, but in certain texts he is represented as a child, with forefinger to lip, and wearing the lock of hair at the side of the head which indicates youth. In later times he was figured in a great many different fanciful forms.
Ra, Set, and Horus are concerned in an Egyptian myth which attempts an explanation of eclipses of the sun and moon. Set and Horus were bitter enemies, yet Set did not dare to enter the fray openly, for he feared Horus as evil must ever fear good. So he devised subtle and underhand schemes whereby he might compass the fall of Horus, and this is how the matter fell out.
One day Horus sought Ra with a request to be allowed to read the future in his eyes. This request Ra granted willingly because of his love for Horus, the beloved of gods and men. Whilst they conversed there passed them a black hog, a huge, sinister animal, ferocious of aspect, and with eyes that glinted with cunning and cruelty. Now, though neither Ra nor Horus was aware of the fact, the black hog was Set himself, who had the power to take upon him the shape of any animal he chose.
"What an evil monster!" cried Ra, as he looked upon the animal.
Horus also turned his gaze in the direction of the black hog, in whom he still failed to recognize his
When the young god recovered his sight Ra gave to him the city of PÉ, whereat he was much delighted; and at his smile the cloud of darkness passed away, and all the land rejoiced.
A Greek version of the myth has it that the black hog tore out the eye of Horus and swallowed it, but was forced by Ra (Helios) to restore it. The eyes of Horus are of course the sun and moon, one of which is swallowed or destroyed by the 'black hog' during an eclipse. The restoration of light to the earth is occasioned by the joy of Horus on being presented with the city of PÉ.
Nephthys—Photo W.A. Mansell & Co.
The female counterpart of Set was Nephthys. She was the daughter of Geb
Set
The cult of Set was of the greatest antiquity, and although in later times he was regarded as evil personified, this was not his original rÔle. According to the priests of Heliopolis he was the son of Geb and Nut, and therefore brother of Osiris, Isis, and Nephthys, husband of the latter goddess and father of Anubis. These relationships, however, were all manufactured for him at a comparatively late period. In the Pyramid Texts we find Set acting as a friend to the dead, and he even assisted Osiris to reach heaven by means of a ladder. He is also associated with Horus and is regarded as his equal. But in time they came to be regarded as mortal enemies, who were only prevented from entirely destroying one another by the wise Thoth. Horus the Elder was the god of the sky by day, and Set the god of the sky by night. The one was in fact the direct opposite of the other.
The derivation of the name Set presents many difficulties of elucidation. The determinative of his hieroglyph is either the figure of an animal or a stone, which latter seems to symbolize the stony or desert country on either side of the Nile. As to the animal which pictorially represents him, it has by no means been identified, but various authorities
As Horus was the god of the North, so was Set god of the South. Dr. Brugsch considered Set symbolized the downward motion of the sun in the lower hemisphere, thus making him the source of the destructive heat of summer. As the days began to shorten and the nights to lengthen it was thought that he stole the light from the sun-god. He was likewise instrumental in the monthly destruction of the moon. Storms, earthquakes, and eclipses and all natural phenomena which caused darkness were attributed to him, and from an ethical point of view he was the god of sin and evil.
We find the myths of the combat between Set and Horus evolving from a simple opposition of day and night into a combat between the two gods. Ra and Osiris, instead of Horus, are sometimes ranged against Set. The combat symbolized the moral idea of the victory of good over evil, and those of the dead who were justified were regarded as having overcome Set as Osiris had done. In his combat with the sun-god Set took the form of the monster serpent Apep and was accompanied by an army of lesser serpents and reptiles of every description. In later times we find him identified with Typhon. All desert animals and those which inhabited the waters were regarded as the children of Set, as were animals with red hair or skins, or even red-haired men. Such animals were often sacrificed ritually in propitiation of Set. In the month Pachons an antelope and a black pig were sacrificed to him in order to deter him from attacking the full moon, and on the great festival of Heru-Behudeti such birds and fish as were thought to be of his following
Set had also a kingdom in the northern sky, and his peculiar abode was the Great Bear. As in some other countries, the north was considered by the Egyptians as the place of darkness, cold, and death. Thus we find that by the Mexicans and Maya the abode of the god of death was considered to be the north, and that among the latter people the hieroglyph for the north is a human bone placed before the head of the death-god. The goddess Reret, who has the head and body of a hippopotamus, was supposed to have the evil influence of Set in restraint. She is pictured as holding darkness fettered by a chain, and is considered to be a form of Isis.
It was probably about the Twenty-second Dynasty that the worship of Set began to decline, and that he took on the shape of an evil deity. The theory has been put forward that the Hyksos invaders identified him with certain of their gods, and that this sufficed to bring him into disrepute with the Egyptians.
Plutarch, in his De Iside et Osiride, has an interesting passage concerning the alleged resemblance between the ass and Set. He says (the translation is the old one of Squire):
"Hence their ignominious treatment of those persons, whom from the redness of their complexions they imagine to bear a resemblance to him; and hence likewise is derived the custom of the Coptites of throwing an Ass down a precipice; because it is usually of this colour. Nay, the inhabitants of Busiris and Lycopolis carry their detestation of this animal so far, as never to make any use of trumpets, because of the similitude between their sound and the braying of an ass. In a word, this animal
In certain phases of his myth Set is symbolized as a black pig. Especially is this the case when he is shown by Ra to Horus, and tears the latter's eye out of his head.
Anubis
Anubis, or, as the Egyptians called him, An-pu, was, according to some, the son of Osiris and Nephthys, and to others the son of Set. He had the head of a jackal and the body of a man, and was evidently symbolical of the animal which prowled about the tombs of the dead. His worship was of great antiquity, and it may be that in early times he had been a totem. He was the guide of the dead in the underworld on their way to the abode of Osiris. In many mythologies a dog is the
Anubis was particularly worshipped at Lycopolis, Abt, and elsewhere. He plays a prominent part in the Book of the Dead, especially in those passages which are connected with the justification and the embalming of the deceased. He it was who embalmed the body of Osiris. Indeed, he rendered great assistance to the mourning sisters, and in this he may typify the faithful and helpful qualities of the dog. This is all the more striking if he is to be accepted as the son of Set, and the whole evolution of the deity would seem to imply that whereas the semi-savage, half-domesticated dog was originally nocturnal and of doubtful value, under domestication its virtues became apparent. It is probable that, could research be pushed back to a sufficiently remote epoch, and did paintings of such an early period exist, we should find Anubis pictured as the faithful dog preceding the deceased on the journey to the Duat. Later, when every deity in the picture had received a special function through the aid of priestly ingenuity, and perhaps in an area where the jackal or dog was totemic, we find the companion of the dead still accompanying him indeed, still his guide through the darkness, but in the guise and with the attributes of a full-grown deity. How he came to be the mummifier of Osiris it would, indeed, be hard to say; probably
It is the duty of Anubis to see that the beam of the great balance wherein the heart of the deceased is weighed is in its proper position. As Thoth acts for the gods, so Anubis appears for the dead man, whom he also protects against the 'Eater of the Dead.' He also guided the souls of the dead through the underworld, being assisted in this duty by Up-uaut, another jackal-headed deity, whose name signifies 'Opener of the Ways.' These gods have sometimes been confounded with one another, but in certain texts they are separately alluded to. The name of the latter deity is significant of his probable early function. Anubis, thinks Dr. Budge, was the opener of the roads of the north, and Up-uaut of those of the south. "In fact," he says, "Anubis was the personification of the summer solstice, and Ap-uat [Up-uaut] of the winter solstice." He goes on to say that when they appear with the two Utchats, or eyes of Ra, they symbolize the four quarters of heaven and of earth, and the four seasons of the year. Plutarch has also a passage upon the astronomical significance of Anubis which seems far from clear.
At Heliopolis, Anubis was to some extent fused with Horus as regards his attributes, and in some manner
Thoth—Photo W.A. Mansell & Co.
Maat—Photo W.A. Mansell & Co.
Thoth, or Tehuti, was a highly composite deity. His birth was coeval with that of Ra. Let us enumerate his attributes before we seek to disentangle his significance. He is alluded to as the counter of the stars, the measurer and enumerator of the earth, as being twice great and thrice great lord of books, scribe of the gods, and as possessing knowledge of divine speech, in which he was 'mighty.' In general he was figured in human form with the head of an ibis, but sometimes he appears in the shape of that bird. He wears upon his head the crescent moon and disk, the Atef crown, and the crowns of the North and South. In the Book of the Dead he is drawn as holding the writing reed and palette of the scribe, and as placing on his tablets the records of the deceased whose heart is being weighed before him. There is no reason to suppose that Thoth was totemic in character, as he belongs to the cosmogonic or nature deities, few or none of whom were of this type. Another form of Thoth is that of the dog-headed ape, which, it has been stated, symbolizes his powers of equilibrium. His principal seat of worship was Hermopolis, where Ra was supposed to have risen for the first time. To Thoth was ascribed the mental powers of Ra, and, indeed, the dicta of Ra seem to have come from his lips. He was the Divine Speech personified. But we are looking ahead. Let us discover his primitive significance
It is pretty clear that Thoth is originally a moon-god. He is called the 'great god' and 'lord of heaven.' Among primitive peoples the moon is the great regulator of the seasons. A lunar calendar is invariably in use prior to the introduction of the computation of time by solar revolution. The moon is thus the 'great measurer' of primitive life. Thus primitive peoples speak about the 'seed moon,' the 'deer moon,' the 'grain' or 'harvest moon,' and so on. Thoth, then, was a measurer because he was a moon-god, and conversely because of his lunar significance he was the measurer. As Aah-Tehuti he symbolizes the new moon, as it is from the first appearance that time is measured by primitive peoples. His eye signifies the full moon in the same manner that the eye of Ra signifies the sun at mid-day. But it also symbolizes the left eye of Ra, or the cold half of the year, when the sun's rays were not so strong. It is sometimes also called the 'black eye of Horus,' the 'white eye' being the sun. This serves to illustrate how greatly the attributes of the Egyptian deities had become confused. As he was a moon-god, so he was to some extent connected with moisture, and we find him alluded to in chapter xcv of the Book of the Dead as a rain and thunder god.
It is, however, as the recorder of souls before Osiris that Thoth was important in the eyes of the Egyptian priesthood. He held this office because of his knowledge of letters and his gift of knowing what was right or in equilibrium. Again, he had the power of imparting the manner in which words should be correctly
The Greek writers upon things Egyptian imagined Thoth, whom they called Trismegistos, or Hermes the Thrice Great, as the prime source of all learning and wisdom. They ascribed to him the invention of the sciences of astronomy and astrology, mathematics, geometry, and medicine. The letters of the alphabet were also his invention, from which sprang the arts of reading and writing. According to them the 'Books of Thoth' were forty-two in number, and were divided into six classes, dealing with law and theology, the service of the gods, history, geography and writing, astronomy and astrology, religious writings and medicine. It is almost certain that most of this mass of material was the work of Alexandrian Greeks sophisticated by ancient Egyptian lore.
The goddess Maat closely resembles Thoth, and has indeed been regarded as the female counterpart of that god. She was one of the original goddesses, for when the boat of Ra rose above the waters of the primeval abyss of Nu for the first time she had her place in it beside Thoth. She is symbolized by the ostrich feather, which she either holds or which decorates her headdress. Dr. Budge states that the reason for the
The Book of the Dead, the Egyptian title of which, Pert em hru, has been variously translated 'coming forth by day' and the 'manifestation day,' is a great body of religious compositions compiled for the use of the dead in the otherworld. It is probable that the name had a significance for the Egyptians which is incapable of being rendered in any modern language, and this is borne out by another of its titles—'The chapter of making perfect the Khu' (or spirit).
The generality of the texts comprised in the Book of the Dead are in one form or another of much greater antiquity than the period of Mena, the first historical king of Egypt. Indeed, from internal evidence it is possible to show that many of these were revised or edited long before the copies known to us were made. Even at as early a date as 3300 B.C. the professional writers who transcribed the ancient texts appear to have been so puzzled by their contents that they hardly understood their purport.
A hieratic inscription upon the sarcophagus of Queen Khnem-nefert, wife of Mentu-hetep, a king of the Eleventh Dynasty (c. 2500 B.C.), states that a certain chapter of the Book of the Dead was discovered in the reign of Hesep-ti, the fifth king of the First Dynasty, who flourished about 4266 B.C. This sarcophagus affords us two copies of the said chapter, one immediately following the other. That as early as 2500 B.C. a chapter of the Book of the Dead should be referred to a date almost 2000 years before that time is astounding, and the mind reels before the idea of a tradition which, during comparatively unlettered centuries, could have conserved a religious formula almost unimpaired. Thus thirty-four centuries ago a portion of the Book of the Dead was regarded as extremely ancient, mysterious, and difficult of comprehension. It will be noted also that the inscription on the tomb of Queen Khnem-nefert bears out that the chapter in question was 'discovered' about 4266 B.C. If it was merely discovered at that early era, what periods of remoteness lie between that epoch and the time when it was first reduced to writing? The description of the chapter on the sarcophagus of the royal lady states that "this chapter was found in the foundations beneath the Dweller in the Hennu Boat by the foreman of the builders in the time of the king of the South and North, Hesep-ti, whose word is truth"; and the Nebseni Papyrus says that the chapter was found in the city of Khemennu or Hermopolis, on a block of alabaster, written in letters of lapis-lazuli, under the feet of the god. It also appears from the Turin Papyrus, which dates from the period of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, that the name of the finder
A bas-relief of the Second Dynasty bears an inscription dedicating to the shade of a certain priest the formula of the "thousands of loaves of bread, thousands of jugs of ale," and so forth, so common in later times. We thus see that 4000 years B.C. it was regarded as a religious duty to provide offerings of meat and drink for the dead, and there seems to be good evidence, from the nature of the formula in question, that it had become fixed and ritualistic by this period. This passage would appear to justify the text on the sarcophagus of the wife of Mentu-hetep. A few centuries later, about the time of Seneferu (c. 3766 B.C.), the cult of the dead had expanded greatly from the architectural point of view, and larger and more imposing cenotaphs were provided for them. Victorious wars had brought much wealth to Egypt, and its inhabitants were better able to meet the very considerable expenditure entailed upon them by one of the most expensive cults known to the history of religion. In the reign of Men-kau-Ra a revision of certain parts of the text of the Book of the Dead appears to have been undertaken. The authority for this is the rubrics attached to certain chapters which state that they were found inscribed upon a block of alabaster in letters of lapis-lazuli in the time of that monarch.
We do not find a text comprising the Book of the Dead as a whole until the reign of Unas (3333 B.C.),
It would appear that each chapter of the Book of the Dead had an independent origin, and it is probable that their inclusion and adoption into the body of the work were spread over many centuries. It is possible that some of the texts reflect changes in theological opinion, but each chapter stands by itself. It would seem, however, that there was a traditional order in the sequence of the chapters.
There were three recensions or versions of the Book of the Dead—the Heliopolitan, the Theban, and the SaÏte. The Heliopolitan Recension was edited by the priests of the College of Anu, or On, known to the Greeks as Heliopolis, and was based upon texts not now
The Theban Recension was much in vogue from the Eighteenth to the Twenty-second Dynasties, and was usually written upon papyri and painted upon coffins in hieroglyphs. Each chapter was preserved distinct from the others, but appears to have had no distinct place in the entire collection.
The SaÏte Recension was definitely arranged at some date prior to the Twenty-sixth Dynasty, and is written upon coffins and papyri, and also in hieratic and demotic script. It continued to be employed to the end of the Ptolemaic period.
As we have previously noticed, the Book of the Dead was for their use from the moment when they found themselves inhabitants of the otherworld. Magic was the very mainspring of existence in that sphere, and unless a spirit was acquainted with the formulÆ which compelled the respect of the various gods and demons, and even of inanimate objects, it was helpless. The region to which the dead departed the primitive Egyptians called Duat. They believed it to be formed of the body of Osiris. It was regarded as dark and gloomy, containing pits of fire and dreadful monsters which circled the earth, and was in its turn bounded
We learn from the Theban Recension that there were seven halls or mansions in the Field of Reeds, all of which had to be passed through by the soul before it was received by the god in person. Three gods guarded
We find other descriptions of the Duat in the Book of Gates and the Book of Him that is in the Duat, in which is outlined the journey that the sun-god makes through the otherworld after he has set upon the earth-world. Immediately after sinking he takes the form of Osiris, which in this instance is that of a ram with a man's head. Coming to the antechamber of the Duat in the west, his entrance is heralded by songs of praise, raised by the Ape-gods, while serpents blow fire from their mouths by the light of which his Pilot-gods steer his craft. All the doors are thrown open, and the dead,
The principal gods alluded to in the Book of the Dead are: Tem or Atmu, Nu, Ra, Khepra, Ptah, Ptah-Seker, Khnemu, Shu, Set, Horus, Thoth, Nephthys, Anubis, Amen, and Anu—in fact, the majority of the principal divinities of Egypt. Besides these there were many lesser gods and a great company of spirits, demons, and other supernatural beings. Many of these demons were very ancient forms of half-forgotten deities. It will be noticed that at practically every stage of his journey Osiris left behind him one or more of his divine companions, who henceforth were supposed to become the rulers or satraps of the regions in which he had quitted them. So might an earthly Pharaoh reward his courtiers for services rendered.
It was only during the Middle Kingdom that the conception of Osiris as judge of the dead took definite form and received general recognition. In one of the chapters of the Book of the Dead we find him seated in a large hall the roof of which is covered with fire and symbols of truth. Before him are the symbol of Anubis, the four sons of Horus, and the Devourer of the West, a monster who serves as his protector. In the rear sit the forty-two judges of the dead. The deceased makes his appearance before the god and his heart is placed in a great balance to be weighed by Anubis, Thoth, the scribe of the gods, standing by to note the result upon his tablets. Having communicated this to Osiris, the dead man, if found worthy, is presented to the deity, to whom he repeats a long prayer, in which he states that he has not committed any evil. Those who could not pass the test were hurried away, and so far as is known were in danger of being devoured by a frightful monster called Beby, which awaited them outside. The justified deceased took part in the life of Osiris and the other gods,
The Book of the Dead is obviously an allegory of the passage of the sun through the underworld. The sinking of the sun at nightfall would naturally arouse in primitive man thoughts as to where the luminary dwelt during the hours of gloom, for the sun was to early man a living thing. He could watch its motion
It is curious that in his recent interesting book on Mexican ArchÆology Mr. T. Athol Joyce, of the British Museum, has mentioned that the court of the Maya underworld, as alluded to in the Popol Vuh, "seems to have been conducted on the principle of a secret society with a definite form of initiation." It is practically certain that the mysteries of Eleusis, and similar Greek initiatory ceremonies, were concerned with the life of the underworld, especially with the story of Demeter and Kore, or Ceres, and that a theatric representation of the wanderings of the mother in search of her daughter in the underworld was given in the course of the ceremonial. These Greek deities, besides being gods of the dead, were gods of agriculture—corn-gods;
The Weighing of the Heart—From the Papyrus of Ani
Reproduced from the Facsimile by Permission of the Director of the British Museum
Although there does not appear to have been a portion of the Duat specially reserved for the wicked, they were sufficiently tormented in many ways to render their existence a punishment for any misdeeds committed during life. At one end of this region were pits of fire where grisly deities presided, superintending the destruction of the bodies of the deceased and hacking them to pieces before they were burned. Their punishment was, however, mitigated by the appearance of Ra-Osiris on his nightly journey, for as he advanced their torments ceased for the time being.
The deities who inflicted punishment upon the damned were the enemies of Ra-Osiris—personifications of darkness, night, fog, mist, vapour, tempest, wind, and so forth, and these were destroyed daily by the fiery beams of the luminary. These were pictured in human form, and the scenes of their destruction by fire have often been mistakenly supposed to represent the burning of the souls of the doomed. This evil host was renewed with every revolution of the sun, so that a fresh phalanx of enemies appeared to attack Ra each night and morning. It was during the interval between dawn and sunrise that they were discomfited and punished. The souls of the doomed were in no wise enabled to hinder the progress of Ra, but in later times these were in some measure identified with the enemies of Ra, with whom they dwelt and whom they assisted to attack the sun-god. In the strife which ensued they were pierced by the fiery sun-rays, symbolized as darts or spears, and the knives which hacked their bodies in pieces were typical of the flames of fire emanating from the body of Ra. The lakes and pits of fire in which they were submerged typified the appearance of the eastern heavens at sunrise.
There was nothing in the Egyptian creed to justify the belief in everlasting punishment, and such a view is unsupported by the material of the texts. There is, in fact, no parallel in the Egyptian religion to the Gehenna of the Hebrews, or the Purgatory and Hell of medieval Europe. The Egyptian idea of death did not include the conception of the resurrection of a second physical body in the underworld, but, should the physical body be destroyed, they considered that the ka or double, the shadow and spirit of man, might also perish. It is strange, all the same, to observe that the Egyptian idea of temporary punishment after death
As has been said, the exact position of heaven does not appear to have been located, but it may be said in a general sense that the Egyptians believed it to be placed somewhere above the sky. They called it Pet, which expression they used in contradistinction to the word Nu, meaning sky. The heavens and the sky they regarded as a slab, each end of which rested on a support formed of the two mountains Bakhau and Manu, the mountains of sunrise and sunset. In primitive times heaven was conceived as consisting of two portions, the east and the west; but later it was divided into four parts, each of which was placed under the sovereignty of a god. This region was supported by four pillars, each of which again was under the direction of a deity, and at a comparatively late period an extra pillar was added to support the middle. In one myth we find the heavens spoken of as representing a human head, the sun and moon forming the eyes, and the supports of heaven being formed by the hair. The gods of the four quarters who guarded the original pillars were those deities known as Canopic (see p. 28), or otherwise called the Children of Horus.
In heaven dwelt the great god Ra, who sat upon a metal throne, the sides of which were embossed with the faces of lions and the hoofs of bulls. His train or company surrounded him, and was in its turn encircled by the lesser companies of deities. Each of the gods who presided over the world and the Duat had also
In the Book of the Dead it is stated that the spirits of heaven are in number 4,601,200. It has been suggested that this number was probably the Egyptian enumeration of all those human spirits who had died and had attained to heaven; but this is hardly probable, for obvious reasons. The manner in which these spirits employed their time is a little obscure. Some directed the revolutions of the heavenly bodies; others accompanied the great gods in their journey through the heavens; while still others superintended mundane affairs. They chanted eternal praises of Ra as supreme monarch of the gods, and their hymns described the wonders of his power and glory. They lived upon the rays of light which fell from the eye of Horus—that is, they were nourished upon sunlight, so that in time their bodies became wholly composed of light. According to one myth the gods themselves lived upon a species of plant called the 'plant of life,' which appears to have grown beside a great lake. But such a conception is in consonance with an almost separate theological idea to the effect that the deceased dwelt in a Paradise where luxuriant grain-fields were watered by numerous canals, and where material delights of every kind abounded. It was perhaps this place in which the 'bread of eternity' and the 'beer of eternity,' the celestial fig-tree, and other such
All this goes to show that the heaven of the primitive Egyptians was nothing more than an extension of terrestrial conditions, or perhaps it might be said an improvement upon them. So long as the Egyptian had the wherewithal to make bread and to brew beer, and had cleanly garments, and shelter under a homestead the ground round which was intersected with numerous canals, he considered that to be the best of all possible heavens. The crops, of course, would grow of themselves. The whole idea was quite a material one, if the life was simple but comfortable. There is nothing sophisticated about the Egyptian heaven like the Mohammedan or Christian realms of bliss; even the manner of reaching it was primitive, the early dwellers by the Nile imagining that they could reach it by climbing on to its metal floor by way of the mountains which supported it, and their later descendants believing that a ladder was necessary for the ascent. In many tombs models of these ladders were placed so that the dead people might make use of their astral counterparts to gain the celestial regions. Even Osiris required such a ladder, and was helped to ascend it by Ra and Horus, or by Horus and Set. Many pictures of such ladders are also found in various papyri of the Book of the Dead which were placed in tombs. Its length was regulated by the deceased himself according to the power of the magical words he pronounced over it. The deceased by words of power was further enabled to turn himself into many bird and animal shapes. It is difficult to understand the reason for these animal
Ra
CHAPTER V: THE GREAT GODS
Ra, the great god of the sun, appears to have occupied a prominent position in the Egyptian pantheon at a very early period. The Egyptians of later days appear to have thought that the name was in some way associated with creation. Sun-worship in Egypt was very ancient, and it is probable that a number of sun-cults became fused in that of Ra. It is certain, indeed, that this was the case with the cult of the hawk-god Heru or Horus. Both of these deities are usually figured with the body of a man and the head of a hawk, but they sometimes have the veritable form of that bird. The hawk in Egypt appears to have been identified with the sun from the earliest times. Its power of flight and the heights to which it can rise were probably the reasons assigned for its association with the great luminary of day. But in many lands birds of heaven-aspiring flight have symbolized the sun. Among several of the North American Indian tribes the eagle typifies the sun. The condor typified the orb of day in ancient Peru, and perhaps the eagle did the same in some aspects of the Mexican religion. But it is not always birds of lofty flight which typify the sun. Thus the quetzal bird seems to have stood for it in Mexico and Central America, and in the same countries the humming-bird or colibri was sometimes associated with it. It is strange that just as we find the bird and the serpent combined in the Mexican god Quetzalcoatl, so we discover them to some extent associated in Ra, who wears as his symbol the disk of the sun encircled by the serpent Khut.
The Egyptians had several varying conceptions as to the manner in which the sun crossed the heavens. One of these was that it sailed over the watery mass of
The daily voyage of Ra was assisted by a company of friendly deities, who navigated his barque to the place of the setting sun, the course being set out by Thoth and Maat, while Horus acted as steersman and commander. On each side of the boat swam one of two pilot fishes called Abtu and Ant, but, notwithstanding the assistance of his fellow deities, the barque of Ra was constantly beset by the most grisly monsters and demons, who strove to put every obstacle in the way of its successful passage.
By far the most potent of these was the serpent Apep, who personified the darkness of night, and concerning whom we gain much information from the Book of Overthrowing Apep, which gives spells and other instructions for the checkmating of the monster, which were recited daily in the temple of Amen-Ra at Thebes. In these Apep is referred to as a crocodile and a serpent, and it is described how by the aid of sympathetic magic he is to be speared, cut with knives, decapitated, roasted, and finally consumed by fire, and his evil followers also. These magical acts were duly carried out at Thebes day by day, and it was supposed that they greatly assisted the journey of the sun-god. In Apep we have a figure such as is known in nearly every mythology. He is the monster who daily combats with, and finally succeeds in devouring, the sun. He is the same as the dragons
In the late period there was invented for Ra a female counterpart, Rat, who is depicted as a woman having on her head a disk with horns and a urÆus. She does not seem to have been of any great importance, and perhaps only sprang from the idea that every great deity must have his female double. The worship of Ra in Egypt during the dynastic period was centred in the city of Anu, On, or Heliopolis, about five miles from the modern Cairo. The priests of the god had settled there during the Fifth Dynasty, the first king of which, User-ka-f, was high-priest of the god, a circumstance which denotes that the cult must even at this early period (3350 B.C.) have gained great ascendancy in that part of Egypt.
An ancient legend describes how the progeny of Ra first gained the Egyptian throne, and will be found on page 200.
This tradition proves that in early times the kings of Egypt believed themselves to have been descended from Ra, who, it was affirmed, had once ruled over the country, and whose blood flowed in the veins of the entire Egyptian royal family. Indeed, Ra was said to have been the actual father of several Egyptian kings, who were therefore regarded as gods incarnate. Such priestly fictions gave the theocratic class added power, until at last the worship of Ra practically superseded that of almost every other deity in the Nile valley,
It is not in Egypt alone that we find such astute subterfuges made to subserve the purposes of the priesthood. In most mythologies we discover that legends of creation and of the origin of deities have in many cases been manufactured from two or more myths which have been so skilfully amalgamated that it is only by the most careful and patient study that they can be resolved into their original components. Thus we find in the Book of Genesis that beside the existence of Jahveh, the creative power, we have evidences of a polytheistic pantheon called Elohim. This shows that two accounts of the Hebrew creation, the one monotheistic and the other polytheistic, have become fused together. Perhaps one of the best examples of this dovetailing of myths is to be found in one of the creation legends of Peru, in which philosophic skill has fused all the forms of worship through which Peruvian thought passed into one definite whole. Thus the various stages of belief from simple animism to anthropomorphism are visible to the student of mythology in perusing this one legend. That the same feat had been accomplished by the Kiches of Central America in their wonderful book, the Popol Vuh, was shown by the writer in an article printed in the Times some years ago.
The original local god of Heliopolis was Tem or Atum, who was united with Ra as Ra-Tem. The power of the priests of Ra declined somewhat about the close of the Sixth Dynasty, but in the reign of Senusert I
Primitive as is the nature of sun-worship, it possesses elements which enable it to survive where many more advanced and complicated cults succumb. Even in such a country, side by side with an aristocracy of real intelligence but limited opportunities, there must naturally have existed millions of peasants and helots who were only to be distinguished from savages because of their contact with their superiors and their settlement as an agricultural race. To them the sun would, it might be thought, appear as the god par excellence, the great quickener and fructifier; but we find the cult of Ra more or less of an aristocratic theological system, in early times at least; and for the cult of the people we have to turn to the worship of Osiris. Undoubtedly the best parallel to the worship of Ra in Egypt is to be found in that of the sun in ancient Peru. Just as the monarch of Peru personified the sun on earth, and acted as his regent in the terrestrial sphere, so the Egyptian monarchs styled themselves 'sons of the sun.' In both instances the solar cult was eminently aristocratic in character. This is proved by the circumstance that the paradise of Ra was a sphere more spiritual by far than that of Osiris, with its purely material delights. Those happy enough to gain the heaven of the sun-god were clothed with light, and their food was described as 'light.' The Osirian paradise, again, it will be recalled, consisted of converse with Osiris and feasting with him. Indeed, the aristocratic caste in all countries shrinks from the conception that it must in the afterlife
A great but silent struggle was waged for many centuries between the priesthoods of Ra and Osiris, but in the end the beliefs clustering around the latter deity gained pre-eminence, and he took over the titles, powers, and attributes of the great god of the sun. Then it was probable, as has elsewhere been stated, that the conception of a moon- and a sun-god became fused in his person. The worship of Osiris was fundamentally African and Egyptian in character, but there is strong reason to believe that the cult of Ra possessed many foreign elements, possibly West Asiatic in origin, which accounts for the coldness with which the masses of Egypt regarded his worship. Heliopolis, his city, contained many inhabitants of Asiatic birth, and this may account to some extent for the introduction of some of the tenets in his creed which the native Egyptians found unpalatable.
There is no doubt, however, that, to the aristocracy of Egypt at least, Ra stood in the position of creator and father of the gods. Osiris stood in relation to him as a son. In fact, the relations of these two deities may be regarded as that between god the father and god the
The god Tem, or Atum, who, as has been said, was originally the local deity of Heliopolis, was in the dynastic period held to be one of the forms of Ra, and a personification of the setting sun. Tem was one of the first gods of the Egyptians. He is depicted as sailing in the boat of Ra, with whom he was clearly united in early times as Ra-Tem. He appears to have been a god who possessed many attributes in common with Ra, and later on he seems to have been identified with Osiris as well. In the myth of Ra and Isis Ra says, "I am Khepera in the morning, and Ra at noonday, and Tem in the evening," which shows that to the Egyptians the day was divided into three parts, each of which was presided over by a special form of the sun-god. Tem was worshipped in one of his forms as a serpent, a fairly common shape for a sun-god, for in many countries the snake or serpent, tail in mouth, symbolizes the disk of the sun.
Isis and Ra—Evelyn Paul
Khepera, the remaining form of Ra, is generally represented in human form with a beetle upon his head. The worship of the beetle was very ancient in Egypt, and we must regard its fusion with the cult of Ra as due to priestly influence. The scarabÆus, having laid its eggs in the sand of Egypt, rolls them into a little ball of manure, which it then propels across the sand with its hind legs to a hole which it has previously dug, where the eggs are hatched by the rays of the sun. This action of the beetle seemed to the ancient Egyptians to resemble the rolling of the sun across the heavens, so that Khepera, the rising luminary, was symbolized by it.
Khepera is a deity of some importance, for he is called creator of the gods and father of the gods. He was also looked upon as a type of the resurrection, because of his symbolizing the ball enclosing living germs, and probably in a secondary sense, because the rising sun steps as it were from the grave of night morning after morning with the greatest certainty. The scarabs which were found on Egyptian mummies typified this hope of resurrection, and have been found in Egyptian tombs as old as the time of the Fourth Dynasty.
Amen-Ra
Although the god Amen appears to have been numbered among the deities of Egypt as early as the Fifth Dynasty, when he was alluded to as one of the primeval gods,
Amen was represented in numerous forms:
Many hymns of Amen-Ra, especially that occurring in the papyrus of Hu-nefer, show the completeness of this fusion and the rapidity with which Amen had risen to power. In about a century from being a mere local god he had gained the title of 'king of the gods' of Egypt. His priesthood had become by far the most powerful and wealthy in the land, and even rivalled royalty itself. Their political power can only be described as enormous. They made war and peace, and when the Ramessid Dynasty came to an end the high-priest of Amen-Ra was raised to the royal power, instituting the Twenty-first Dynasty, known as the 'dynasty of priest-kings.' But if they were strong in theology, they were certainly not so in military genius. They could not enforce the payment of tribute which their predecessors had wrung from the surrounding countries, and their poverty increased rapidly. The shrines of the god languished for want of attendants, and even the higher ranks of the priesthood itself suffered a good deal of hardship. Robber bands infested the vicinity of the temples, and the royal tombs were looted. But if their power waned, their pretensions certainly did not, and even in the face of Libyan aggression in the Delta they continued to vaunt the glory of the god whom they served. Examining the texts and hymns which
No part of Egypt was free from the dominion of Amen-Ra, which spread north and south, east and west, and had ramifications in Syria, Nubia, and other Egyptian dependencies. Its most powerful centres were Thebes, Hermonthis, Coptos, Panopolis, Hermopolis Magna, and in Lower Egypt Memphis, SaÏs, Heliopolis, and Mendes. In one of the oases in later times he had a great oracle, known as that of Jupiter-Ammon, a mysterious spot frequented by superstitious Greeks and Romans, who went there to consult the deity on matters of state or private importance. Here every roguery of priestcraft was practised. An idol of the god was on occasion carried through the temple by his priests, responding, if he were in a good humour, to his votaries, not by speech, but by nodding and pointing with outstretched arm. We know from classical authors that the Egyptians possessed the most wonderful skill in the manufacture of automata, and there is no room for doubt that the god responded to the questions of the eager devotees who had made the journey to his shrine by means of cleverly concealed strings. But the oracle of Jupiter-Ammon in Libya is surrounded in obscurity. Even Alexander the Great paid a visit to this famous shrine to satisfy himself whether or not he was the son of Jupiter. Lysander and Hannibal also journeyed
The great female counterpart of Amen-Ra was Mut, the 'world-mother.' She is usually represented as a woman wearing the united crowns of north and south, and holding the papyrus sceptre. In some pictures she is delineated with wings, and in others the heads of vultures project from her shoulders. Like her husband, she is occasionally adorned with every description of attribute, human and animal, probably to typify her universal nature. Mut, like Amen, swallowed up a great many of the attributes of the female deities of Egypt. She was thus identified with Bast, Nekhebet, and others, chiefly for the reason that because Amen had usurped the attributes of other gods, she, as his wife, must do the same. She is a striking example in mythology of what marriage can do for a goddess. Even Hathor was identified with her, as was Ta-urt and every other goddess who could be regarded as having the attributes of a mother. Her worship centred at Thebes, where her temple was situated a little to the south of the shrine of Amen-Ra. She was styled the 'lady of heaven' and 'queen of the gods,' and her hieroglyphic symbol, a vulture, was worn on the crowns of Egypt's queens as typical of their motherhood. The temple of Mut at Thebes was built by Amen-hetep III about 1450 B.C. Its approach was lined by a wonderful avenue of sphinxes, and it overlooked an artificial lake. Mut was probably the original female counterpart of Nu, who in some manner became associated with Amen. She is mentioned only once in the Book of the Dead in the Theban Recension, which
Mut —— Ptah
Ptah was the greatest of the gods of Memphis. He personified the rising sun, or, rather, a phase of it—that is, he represented the orb at the time when it begins to rise above the horizon, or immediately after it has risen. The name is said to mean 'opener,' from the circumstance that Ptah was thought to open the day; but this derivation has been combated. Dr. Brugsch suggests 'sculptor' or 'engraver' as the true translation, and as Ptah was the god of all handicrafts it seems most probable that this is correct. Ptah seems to have retained the same characteristics from the period of the Second Dynasty down to the latest times. In early days he seems to have been regarded as a creator, or perhaps he was confounded with one of the first Egyptian creative deities. We find him alluded to in the Pyramid Text of Teta as the owner of a 'workshop,' and the passage seems to imply that it was Ptah who fashioned new boats in which the souls of the dead were to live in the Duat. From the Book of the Dead we learn that he was a great worker in metals, a master architect, and framer of everything in the universe; and the fact that the Romans identified him with Vulcan greatly assists our understanding of his attributes.
It was Ptah who, in company with Khnemu, carried out the commands of Thoth concerning the creation of the universe. To Khnemu was given the fashioning of animals, while Ptah was employed in making the heavens and the earth. The great metal plate which was supposed to form the floor of heaven and the roof of the sky was made by Ptah, who also framed the
Ptah is usually represented as a bearded man having a bald head, and dressed in habiliments which fit as closely as a shroud. From the back of his neck hangs a Menat, the symbol of happiness, and along with the usual insignia of royalty and godhead he holds the symbol of stability. As Ptah-Seker he represents the union of the creative power with that of chaos or darkness:
In the great ceremonies connected with this god, and especially on the day of his festival, a boat called the Seker-boat was placed upon a sledge at sunrise, at the time when the rays of the sun were slowly beginning to diffuse themselves over the earth. It was then drawn round the sanctuary, which act typified the revolution of the sun. This boat was known as Henu, and is mentioned several times in the Book of the Dead.
Ptah was also connected with the god known as Tenen, who is usually represented in human form and wearing on his head the crown with ostrich feathers. He is also drawn working at a potter's wheel, upon which he shapes the egg of the world. In other drawings he is depicted as holding a scimitar. Dr. Budge suggests that this weapon shows that he is the destructive power of nature or the warrior-god, but this is most unlikely. The scimitar of Ptah in his guise as Tenen is precisely the same as those axes which are the attributes of creative deities all over the world. With this scimitar he carves out the earth, as the god of the Ainu of Japan shapes it with his hatchet, or as other deities which have already been mentioned
Sekhmet—Photo W.A. Mansell
Bast—Photo W.A. Mansell
The principal centre of the worship of Ptah was Memphis, in which were also situated the temples of Sekhmet,
We occasionally find Ptah in company with certain beings called the Seven Wise Ones of the goddess Meh-urt, who was their mother. We are told that they came forth from the water, from the pupil of the eye of Ra, and that they took the form of seven hawks, flew upward, and, together with Thoth, presided over learning and letters. Ptah as master-architect and demiurge, carrying out the designs of Thoth and his assistants, partook of the attributes of all of them, as did his female counterpart Sekhmet.
Bast, the Bubastis of the Greeks, possessed the attributes of the cat or lioness, the latter being a more modern development of her character. The
Herodotus gives a very picturesque description of a festival of this goddess, which took place in the months of April and May. He says that the inhabitants
Of the city of Bubastis he gives a vivid picture, which has been translated by an old English author as follows: "The noble city of Bubastis seemeth to be very haughty and highly planted, in which city is a temple of excellent memory dedicate to the goddesse Bubastis, called in our speech Diana, than the which, albeit there be other churches both bigger and more richly furnished, yet for the sightly grace and seemelynesse of building, there is none comparable unto it. Besides, the very entrance and way that leadeth unto the city, the rest is in forme of an Ilande, inclosed round about with two sundry streames of the river Nilus, which runne to either side of the path way, and leauing as it were a lane or causey betweene them, without meeting, take their course another way. These armes of the floud are each of them an hundred foote broade, beset on both sides the banckes with fayre braunched trees, ouershadowing ye waters with a coole and pleasant shade. The gate or entry of the city is in heighth 10. paces, hauing in the front a beautifull image, 6. cubites in measure. The temple it selfe situate in the middest of ye city, is euermore in sight to those yt passe to and fro. For although ye city by addition of earth was arrered and made higher, yet ye temple standing as it did in ye beginning, and neuer mooued, is in maner of a lofty and stately tower, in open and cleare viewe to euery parte of ye city. Round about the which goeth a wall, ingrauen with figures and portraitures of sundry beasts. The inner temple is enuironed with an high grove of trees, set and planted by the hande and industrie
Nefer-tem was the son of Ptah and Sekhmet, or of Ptah and Bast. He is drawn as a man surmounted by plumes and sometimes standing upon a lion. Indeed, occasionally he is painted as having the head of a lion and with a body in mummy-shape. In early times he was symbolized by the lotus-flower. He was the third member of the triad of Memphis, which was made up of himself with Ptah and Sekhmet. His attributes are anything but well defined, but he is probably the young Tem, god of the rising sun. He is perhaps typified by the lotus because the sun would often seem to the Egyptians to rise from beds of this plant in the Delta of the country. In later texts he is identified with numerous gods all of whom appear to be forms of Horus or Thoth.
Khnemu (left, Photo W.A. Mansell & Co.) —— I-em-hetep (middle) —— Nefer-Tem (right, Photo W.A. Mansell & Co.)
I-em-hetep, another son of Ptah, was also regarded as the third member of the great triad of Memphis. The name means 'Come in peace,' and was given him because he was supposed to bring the art of healing to mankind. Like his father Ptah, he is depicted as wearing a skull-cap. Before him is stretched a roll of papyrus to typify his character as a god of study and learning; but it is as a god of medicine that he was
At the city of Elephantine or Abu a great triad of gods was held in reverence. This consisted of Khnemu, Satet, Anqet. The worship of the first-mentioned deity was of great antiquity, and even in the inscription of King Unas we find him alluded to in a manner which proves that his cult was very old. His position, too, had always been an exalted one, and even to the last he appears to have been of importance in the eyes of the Gnostics. Khnemu was probably a god of the pre-dynastic Egyptians. He was symbolized by the flat-horned ram, which appears to have been introduced into the country from the East. We do not find him referred to in any inscription subsequent to the Twelfth Dynasty. He is usually represented in the form of a ram-headed man wearing the white crown, and sometimes
Khnemu had been worshipped at Elephantine from time immemorial and was therefore the god of the First Cataract. His female counterparts, Satet and Anqet, have been identified as a form of the star Sept and as a local Nubian goddess. From the texts it is pretty clear that Khnemu was originally a river-god who, like Hapi, was regarded as the god of the Nile and of the annual Nile flood, and it may be that he and Hapi were Nile gods introduced by two separate races, or by the people of two different portions of the country. In the texts he is alluded to as "father of the fathers of the gods and goddesses, lord of created things from himself, maker of heaven and earth and the Duat and water and mountains," so we see that, like Hapi, he had been identified with the creative deities. He is sometimes represented as having four rams' heads upon a human body, and as he united within himself the attributes of Ra, Shu, Geb, and Osiris, these heads may have typified the deities in question. Dr. Brugsch considered, however, that they symbolized the four elements—fire, air, earth, and water. But it is a little difficult to see how this could be so. In any case, when represented with four heads Khnemu typified the great primeval creative force.
The powers that were ascribed to Khnemu-Ra as god of the earthly Nile are exemplified in a story found inscribed on a rock on the island of Sahal in 1890. The king mentioned in the inscription has been identified as Tcheser, the third monarch of the Third Dynasty.
The story relates that in the eighteenth year of this king's reign a famine spread over Egypt because for seven years the Nile had not risen in flood. Thus grain of all kinds was scarce, the fields and gardens yielded naught, so that the people had no food. Strong men tottered like the aged, the old fell to the ground and rose no more, the children cried aloud with the pangs of hunger. And for the little food there was men became thieves and robbed their neighbours. Reports of these terrible conditions reached the king upon his throne, and he was stricken with grief. He remembered the god I-em-hetep, the son of Ptah, who had once delivered Egypt from a like disaster, but when his help was invoked no answer was vouchsafed. Then Tcheser the king sent to his governor Mater, who ruled over the South, the island of Elephantine, and Nubia, and asked him where was the source of the Nile and what was the name of the god or goddess of the river. And to answer this dispatch Mater the governor went in person before the king. He told him of the wonderful island of Elephantine, whereon was built the first city ever known; that out of it rose the sun when he wanted to bestow life upon mankind. Here also was a double cavern, Querti, in shape like two breasts, and from this cavern rose the Nile flood to bless the land with fruitfulness when the god drew back the bolts of the door at the proper season. And this god was Khnemu. Mater described to his royal
Satet,
Anqet, the third member of the triad of Elephantine, was a sister-goddess of Satet. She wears a crown of feathers, which would go to show that her origin is a purely African one, and she may have been a goddess of some of the islands in the First Cataract. She had been associated with the other members of the triad from very early dynastic times, however, and her cult was fairly widely disseminated through Northern Nubia. In later times her worship was centred at Sahal, where she was regarded as a goddess of that island, and where she had a temple built perhaps in the Eighteenth Dynasty. She had also a shrine at PhilÆ, where she was identified with Nephthys, as was almost necessary, seeing that Osiris had been identified with Khnemu and Satet with Isis. Dr. Brugsch considered her a personification of the waters of the Nile, and thought that her name signified 'to surround,' 'to embrace,' and that it had reference to the embracing and nourishing of the fields by the river.
Aten
Aten, the disk of the sun, stands in a class by himself in Egyptian mythology. Although he possesses certain broad characteristics in common with other sun-gods of Egypt, yet an examination of this deity shows that he
With the overthrow of the Hyksos kings and the consequent establishment of the Theban monarchy (at the beginning of the Eighteenth Dynasty), Amen, the local god of Thebes, took the place of honour in the Egyptian pantheon, and was worshipped as Amen-Ra. However, it is known that Thothmes IV did much to restore the worship of Ra-Harmachis. His son, Amen-hetep III, built temples to this deity and to Aten at Memphis and Thebes. In this he would appear to have been supported by his wife Tyi,
One of the features of the new religion was that it was essentially monotheistic, and could not tolerate the inclusion of other deities. Thus whereas certain sun-gods in like circumstances might have become fused with Ra, such fusion was impossible in the case of Aten. Not only was he king of the gods, he was the god, the divinity par excellence. Yet did this monotheistic religion retain many of the forms and rites of other cults, paradoxical as this must have appeared. The king retained his title of 'son of the sun' (Aten), while he exchanged his Horus and other titles for Aten titles. The burial customs and the use of scarabs were still continued. Yet the name of Amen-Ra, with which they had previously been associated, was everywhere obliterated by order of the king, even where it formed part of proper names. The temple which
The religion thus thrust upon the people of Egypt met with a by no means ready acceptance. The deities which had hitherto been evolved in each nome or province had each his special attributes and ritual, any or all of which might be absorbed by the central deity. But, as has been said, Aten was incapable of this fusion with the local gods. He was indeed a much more colourless deity than Amen or Horus.
It is interesting to speculate upon the probable motives of Akh-en-Aten in introducing this new cult into Egypt. It has been suggested that his inauguration of Aten-worship was an enlightened, if somewhat misplaced, attempt to unite Egypt under the sway of one religion, a religion in which all could participate, which did not bear the cachet of any one race or caste, and which in consequence would prove equally acceptable to Syrian, Ethiopian, or Egyptian. If such were his aim, it is evident that the people of Egypt were not prepared for the upheaval. The drastic and fanatical measures, too, of Akh-en-Aten defeated his own ends and roused distrust and hatred of the 'Aten heresy.'
Accompanying this religious revolution came a social and artistic revolt of no less striking proportions. Aten as a deity was freed, in theory at least, from the trammels of myth and ritual which had grown up round his predecessors in Egypt. His was essentially a naturalistic cult. Social life in Akhet-Aten, therefore, tended to become much freer and more natural. The king and queen moved among the people with less formality than had hitherto obtained; family life was
We have unfortunately no means of knowing the exact period of Akh-en-Aten's reign. Probably it covered about a score of years. After him came various other rulers, but none of these upheld the Aten cult, which speedily declined, while the supremacy of Amen-Ra was triumphantly restored. All monuments and temples in honour of Aten were effaced, and only recovered within recent times by Lepsius, Petrie, and Davies. The last refuge of the god was at Heliopolis, where a sanctuary remained to him.
Now as to the attributes of Aten. As already stated he was a somewhat colourless deity, and is perhaps better to be distinguished by the attributes which are not ascribed to him than by those which are, though in time some of the attributes of Ra, Horus, and other forms of the sun-god were given to him. From his original subordinate position as the abode of Ra—the material disk wherein the sun-god had his dwelling ('Ra in his Aten')—Aten came in time to signify both the god and the actual solar disk. Attempts made to identify him with the Semitic Adonai, the Greek Adonis, have met with no success. Evidence of Aten's early position in the pantheon is to be found in the Book of the Dead, where Ra is addressed thus: "O thou beautiful being, thou dost renew thyself and make
During the period when his cult was supreme in Egypt Aten was regarded by his worshippers as the creator, self-existent and everlasting, fructifier and nourisher of the earth and all it contains, measurer of the lives of men. Aten was invested with a cartouche, wherein he is styled 'Lord of heaven,' 'Lord of earth,' 'He who liveth for ever,' 'He who illumineth the earth,' 'He who reigneth in truth'. A singularly beautiful and poetic version of a hymn to Aten, in which he is exalted as the giver of life and fruitfulness to all things, has been found in the tomb of AÏ, a high official under Amen-hetep, or Akh-en-Aten. It begins thus:
Beauteous is thy resplendent appearing on the horizon of
heaven,
O Aten, who livest and art the beginning of life!
He it was who made the Nile in the Duat and conducted it to men, causing its waters to rise; he, also, who sent the rain to those lands which were beyond the reach of the Nile's beneficent flood.
Thou makest the Nile in the underworld, thou conductest
it hither at thy pleasure,
That it may give life to men whom thou hast made for
thyself, Lord of All!
Thou givest the Nile in heaven that it descendeth to them.
It causeth its waters to rise upon the rocks like the sea;
So are thy methods accomplished, O Lord of Eternity!
thou who art thyself the celestial Nile:
Thou art the king of the inhabitants of the lands,
And of the cattle going upon their feet in every land,
which go upon feet.
The Nile cometh out of the underworld to Egypt.
The Aten hymns, then, ascribe to the deity such attributes as any people might see in their sun-god. All the paraphernalia of the cult of Ra, Osiris, and like divinities are absent. There is no mention of the barques in which they sailed across the heavens; of Apep, the great serpent, and the other enemies of Ra; of the companies of gods and goddesses which formed his train. We find in the cult of Aten no myths such as that of the battles of Horus, nor do the ceremonies and ritual of the domain of Osiris enter into it. All these are without parallel in the Aten-worship. It is easily understood why it failed in its appeal to the Egyptian people.
Aten was not even figured as anthropomorphic, as were Ra and Osiris, but was invariably represented as the sun-disk, with rays emanating from it in a downward direction. Each ray terminated in a human hand, to which were sometimes attached the sign of life, the sign of power, and so on. Reliefs of this period frequently depict the king and queen seated with their children, over their heads the symbol of Aten, one of whose numerous hands presents the sign of life to each member of the royal family.
In short, the cult of Aten was the worship of the sun-god pure and simple, shorn of the picturesque story and ritual so dear to the heart of the Egyptian.
Hathor—Photo W.A. Mansell.
It is no easy matter to gauge the true mythological significance of the Egyptian goddess Hathor, patron of
The original form under which Hathor was worshipped was that of a cow. Later she is represented as a woman with the head of a cow, and finally with a human head, the face broad, kindly, placid, and decidedly bovine, sometimes retaining the ears or horns of the animal she represents. She is also shown with a head-dress resembling a pair of horns with the moon-disk between them. Sometimes she is met with in the form of a cow standing in a boat, surrounded by tall papyrus-reeds. Now in mythology the cow is often identified with the moon—why it is hard to say. Perhaps it may not be too far-fetched to suppose that the horned appearance of the moon at certain seasons has suggested its association with the cow. Mythology is largely based on such superficial resemblances and analogies; it is by means of these that the primitive mind first learns to reason. Or it may be that the cow, naturally of great importance to agricultural peoples, was, by reason of this importance, associated with the moon, mistress of the weather and principle of growth and fruitfulness. The fact that Hathor the cow is sometimes shown in a boat suggests that she was also a water-goddess, and heightens the probability that she was
The name Hathor signifies 'House of Horus'—that is, the sky, wherein dwelt the sun-god Horus, and there is no doubt that at one time Hathor was regarded as a sky-goddess, or a goddess of the eastern sky, where Horus was born; she has also been identified with the night sky and with the sunset sky. If, however, we regard her as a moon-goddess, a good deal of the mythology concerning her will become clear. She is, for example, frequently spoken of as the 'Eye of Ra,' Ra, the sun-god, probably possessing in this instance the wider significance of sky-god. She is also designated 'The Golden One,' who stands high in the south as the Lady of Teka, and illumines the west as the Lady of SaÏs. That she is mistress of the underworld is likewise not surprising when we consider her as identical with the moon, for does not the moon make a daily pilgrimage through Amentet? Neither is it astonishing that a goddess of moisture and vegetation should be found in the underworld dispensing water to the souls of the dead from the branches of a palm or a sycamore.
On the same hypothesis we may explain the somewhat paradoxical statement that Hathor is 'mother of her father, daughter of her son'—that she is mother, wife, and daughter to Ra. The moon, when she appears in the heavens before the sun, may be regarded as his mother; when she reigns together with him she is his wife; when she rises after he has set she is his daughter. It is possible that the moon, with her generative and sustaining powers, may have been considered the creative and upholding force of the universe, the great cosmic
As guardian of the dead Hathor is figured as a cow, issuing from the Mountain of the West, and she is also represented as standing on its summit receiving the setting sun and the souls of the dead (the latter travelling in the footsteps of the sun-god). In this case Hathor might be regarded as the western sky, but the myth might be equally significant of the moon, which sometimes "stands on the mountains of the west" after the time of sunset, with horns resembling hands outstretched to welcome the unseen souls. Yet another point is worthy of note in connexion with the mythological aspect of Hathor. When she was born as the daughter of Ra (her mother was Nut, the sky-goddess) she was quite black. This fact admits of several interpretations. It may be that Hathor's swarthy complexion is indicative of an Ethiopian origin, or it may be that she represents the night sky, which lightens with the growth of day. It is still possible, however, to regard her as typifying the moon, which is 'born black,' with only a narrow crescent of light, but which grows brighter as it becomes older. It is unlikely that the keen eyes of these primitive peoples would fail to
In the following myth of Ra and Hathor the latter is plainly identified with the lunar deity:
Long ago there dwelt on earth Ra, the sun-god, the creator of men and things, and ruler over the gods. For a time men gave to him the reverence due to his exalted position, but at length he began to grow old, and they mocked him, saying, "Behold! his bones are like silver, his limbs are like gold, his hair is like unto real lapis-lazuli." Now Ra was very wroth when he heard their blasphemy, so he called together his followers, the gods and goddesses of his train, Shu and Tefnut, Geb and Nut, and Hathor, the eye of Ra.
The gods assembled secretly, so that the race of mankind might know nothing of their meeting. And when they were all gathered about the throne of Ra, he said to Nun, the oldest of the gods:
"O Nun, thou first-born of the gods, whose son I am, I pray thee give me thy counsel. The men whom I have created have conceived evil against me, even those men who have issued forth from mine eye. They have murmured in their hearts, saying, 'Behold! the king has become old, his bones are like silver, his limbs like gold, his hair like unto real lapis-lazuli.' Tell me what shall be done unto them? For this have I sought thy counsel. I will not destroy them till thou hast spoken."
Then answered Nun:
"O thou great god, who art greater than he who made thee, thou son who art mightier than his father, do thou but turn thine eye upon them who blaspheme thee, and they shall perish from off the earth."
All night Sekhmet
In the morning Ra bade his attendants carry the beer to the place where Hathor would seek to slay the remnant of mankind, and there pour it out. For the sun-god said within himself, "I will deliver mankind out of her hands."
And it came to pass that at dawn Hathor reached the place where the beer lay, flooding the fields four spans
Henceforward festivals were celebrated with high revelry in commemoration of this event.
There is no doubt that in this myth the beer represents the annual rise of the Nile, and if further evidence be required than that contained in the story, it lies in the fact that the Intoxication festivals of Hathor fall in the month of Thoth, the first month of the inundation.
The vengeance of Ra is doubtless the plagues and starvation which accompany the dry season immediately preceding the rise of the river. The eye of Ra—that is, Hathor—must be either the sun or the moon; but Ra himself is the sun-god, therefore Hathor is most probably the moon. It must be borne in mind, of course, that the Egyptians believed the moon wilfully to prevent the inundation, and thus were likely to regard her as the source of disasters arising from the drought. It is evident, too, that the eye of Ra wrought havoc among men during the night—"Day dawned, after this goddess had been slaughtering men as she went upstream."
Hathor is sometimes identified with the star Sept, or Sothis (Sirius), which rose heliacally on the first day of the month of Thoth. When Ra entered his boat Sothis, or the goddess Hathor, took her place on his head like a crown.
Reference has already been made to the numerous forms of this goddess. She was identified with Aphrodite by the Greeks, and by the Egyptians with a
Briefly, Hathor is a personification of the female principle—primitive, fruitful, attractive—such as is known to most barbaric peoples, and becoming more sophisticated as the centuries pass.
Hapi
This deity was especially connected with the great river whence Egypt drew her sustenance, and as such was a god of very considerable importance in the Egyptian pantheon. In time he became identified with Osiris. The name Hapi still baffles translation, and is probably of pre-dynastic origin. Perhaps the first mention of this deity is in the Text of Unas, where the Nile god is exhorted to fructify grain for the requirements of the dead monarch. In the same texts Hapi is alluded to as a destructive force, symbolizing, of course, the inundations so frequently caused by the River Nile.
In appearance Hapi possesses both male and female characteristics, the latter indicating his powers of nourishment. As god of the North Nile he is crowned with papyrus plants, and as god of the southern part of
The very position of Hapi made it certain that he would become successful as a deity. The entire country looked to the Nile as the source of all wealth and provender, so that the deity which presided over it rapidly rose in public estimation. Thus Hapi quickly became identified with the greater and more outstanding figures in early Egyptian mythology. He thus became a partner with the great original gods who had created the world, and finally came to be regarded as the maker and moulder of everything within the universe. We find him credited with the attributes of Nu, the primeval water-mass, and this in effect made him a father of Ra, who had emerged from that element. Hapi, indeed, stood in more immediate relationship to the Egyptians than almost any other god in their pantheon. Without the sun Egypt would have been plunged into darkness, but without the Nile every living creature within its borders would assuredly have perished.
The circumstance, too, that the source of the River Nile was unknown to the Egyptians tended to add a mystery to the character of its presiding deity. The people of the country could not understand the rise and fall of the river, which appeared to them to take place under supernatural auspices.
On the occasion of the annual rise of the Nile a great festival was held in honour of Hapi, and statues of the god were carried about through the towns and
Isis was in a manner regarded as the female counterpart of Hapi, but we also find that in the north of Egypt the goddess Natch-ura was regarded as the female companion of Hapi, and that Nekhebet reigned in the south in a like capacity. The following hymn to Hapi, found in a papyrus of the Eighteenth or Nineteenth Dynasty, clearly shows the great importance of his worship in Egypt: "Homage to thee, O Hapi, thou appearest in this land, and thou comest in peace to make Egypt to live. Thou art the Hidden One, and the guide of the darkness on the day when it is thy pleasure to lead the same. Thou art the waterer of the fields which Ra hath created, thou givest life unto all animals, thou makest all the land to drink unceasingly as thou descendest on thy way from heaven. Thou art the friend of bread and of Tchabu, thou makest to increase and be strong Nepra, thou makest prosperous every workshop, O Ptah, thou lord of fish; when the Inundation riseth, the waterfowl do not alight upon the fields that are sown with wheat. Thou art the creator of barley, and thou makest the temples to endure, for millions of years repose of thy fingers hath been an abomination to thee. Thou art the lord of the poor and needy. If thou wert overthrown in the heavens the gods would fall
The goddess Nut was the daughter of Shu and Tefnut, the wife of Geb, and the mother of Osiris and Isis, Set and Nephthys. She personified the sky and the vault of heaven. A good many other goddesses probably became absorbed in her from time to time. She is, however, the personification of the day sky, a certain Naut representing the sky of night, but this distinction was an early one. She was indeed the counterpart of Nu, and represented the great watery
Her most general appearance, however, is that of a woman resting on hands and feet, her body forming an arch, thus representing the sky. Her limbs typified the four pillars on which the sky was supposed to rest. She was supposed originally to be reclining on Geb, the earth, when Shu raised her from this position. This myth is a very common one among the aborigines of America, but in an inverted sense, as it is usually the sky which takes the place of the original father, and the earth that of the great mother. These are usually separated by the creative deity, just as were Geb and Nut, and the allegory represents the separation of the earth from the waters which were above it, and the creation of the world.
According to another myth Nut gave birth daily to the sun-god, who passed across her body, which represented the sky. In a variant account he is represented as travelling across her back. The limbs and body of the goddess are bespangled with stars. In another pictorial description of Nut we see a second female figure drawn inside the first, and within that again the body of a man, the last two conforming to the semicircular shape of the sky-goddess. This is explained as meaning that the two women personify the day and night skies, but it does not account for the male body, which may represent the Duat. Again we read that Nut was transformed into a great cow, and she is frequently represented in this form. The deceased are
It was asserted by the priests of Denderah that Nut had her origin in their city, and that there she became the mother of Isis. Her five children, Osiris, Horus, Set, Isis, and Nephthys, were born on the five epagomenal days of the year—that is, the five days over the three hundred and sixty. As in Mexico, certain of these were regarded as unlucky. Nut plays a prominent part in the underworld, and the dead are careful to retain her good offices, probably in order that they may have plenty of air. Indeed, her favour renewed their bodies and they were enabled to rise and journey with the sun-god each day, even as did Ra, the son of Nut. A portrait of the goddess was often painted on the cover of the coffin as a mark of her protection, and this was rarely omitted in the Egyptian burial ceremonies.
Taurt—Photo Bonfils
Taurt is usually pictured as a hippopotamus standing upon her hind legs, holding in her hand an amulet which has not yet been satisfactorily explained. She wears on her head the solar disk and two tall feathers. Occasionally she is pictured in human form with the cow-horns worn by all Egyptian goddesses. She was regarded as the mother and nurse of the gods, and had a counterpart in Apet, the hippopotamus-goddess of
Hekt, the frog-headed goddess, was regarded as the wife of Khnemu, although in some degree she may be looked upon as a form of Hathor. Her character has not been made very clear by writers on Egyptian mythology, but the circumstance that she possesses the head of a frog obviously shows her connexion with water, and therefore with the powers of fructification. She appears also to have been associated with the deities of growth. Many corn-gods are deities of resurrection and re-birth. At the festival of a certain Mexican goddess of the maize a frog was placed upon the top of a sheaf of grain as being symbolical of the goddess. It might be hazardous to identify Hekt with the Greek Hecate, who was perhaps a moon-goddess, and as such associated with water. It is noticeable that Hecate is regarded by Farnell as a foreign importation from Thrace. She is, of course, the goddess of the lower world as well, just as Osiris, the moon-god, was god of the Egyptian dead. She was also worshipped at the Samothracian
Khonsu
Khonsu was a lunar deity, and as such was often identified with Thoth. Indeed, at Hermopolis and EdfÛ the two were occasionally joined under the name of Khonsu-Thoth. The name is derived from the root khens, to traverse, showing that he was the traveller who nightly crossed the heavens. He was depicted as a hawk-headed god crowned with the lunar crescent and the solar disk. Rameses III built him a great temple at Thebes between those of Amen and Mut. He had two distinct forms: Khonsu in Thebes Neferhetep, and Khonsu the carrier out of plans. The Greeks compared Khonsu to Heracles, for what reason it would be difficult to say. Occasionally the Egyptians fused him with Horus, Shu, and Ra, which shows that he could assume a solar character, as is indicated by his hawk-head. It would appear as if Khonsu, originally a moon-god, became also a sun-god when the lunar calendar was merged into or abandoned for the solar method of computation.
The following tale illustrates the healing power of Khonsu:
The Princess and the Demon
In the reign of King Rameses there were many fair women in Egypt, but lovelier than them all was the daughter of the prince of Bekhten, one of the king's vassals. Tall and slender and very shapely, of exquisite form and feature, there was nothing on earth with which to compare her beauty, so men compared it with the beauty of Amen-Ra, the great sun-god, the god of the light of day.
Now King Rameses was a great conqueror and a mighty man of valour, who numbered among his vassals princes of no mean degree. These latter came every year to Naharaina, at the mouth of the Euphrates, to do homage to their overlord and to render tribute to him. Rich indeed was the tribute that the king received, for every prince who bowed before him was accompanied by a retinue of slaves bearing treasures of gold and precious stones and sweet-smelling woods, the choicest things that their dominions could afford.
On one such occasion Rameses and his princes were gathered at Naharaina, and the vassals vied with each other in the splendour of their offerings. But the Prince of Bekhten had a treasure which far surpassed that of the others, for he had brought his beautiful daughter, she whose beauty was as that of Amen-Ra. When the king saw her he loved her beyond all else, and wished to make her his wife. For the rest of the tribute he cared nothing, and the homage of the remaining princes was a weariness to him. So he married the princess, and gave to her a name which signifies 'Beauty of Ra.' And when they returned home the queen fulfilled her royal duties as became the Great Royal Wife, and was beloved of her husband and her people.
Now it came about that on the festival of the god Amen, when the sacred barque is born aloft for all to see, the king and queen went up to the temple to do honour to the sun-god. And while they worshipped, attendants sought them with the news that a messenger from the Prince of Bekhten waited without and would have speech with them. The king bade that the messenger be admitted. Rich gifts he bore from the Prince of Bekhten to his daughter, the Great Royal Wife, while to the king he bowed very low, saying:
"Behold, O king, the little sister of the Great Royal
Then the king called his wise men about him and deliberated whom he should send to the succour of his wife's sister. At length the wise men brought before the king one of their number, a scribe named Tehuti-em-heb, who was accordingly appointed to accompany the messenger to Bekhten, there to heal the queen's sister, Bent-reshy.
But, alas! when they reached the domains of the Prince of Bekhten Tehuti-em-heb found that the demon who was the cause of the princess's affliction was far too powerful to be expelled by his skill. When the maid's father heard that the Egyptian scribe was powerless to cast out the demon he fell into despair, thinking his last hope had gone. But Tehuti-em-heb comforted him as best he might, bidding him send once more to Egypt to beseech the intervention of Khonsu, Expeller of Demons, on his daughter's behalf. So the Lord of Bekhten sent yet another messenger to the court of Rameses.
Now the land of Bekhten was far from the land of Egypt, and the journey between them occupied a year and five months. When the messenger of the Prince of Bekhten reached Egypt he found Rameses in Thebes, in the temple of Khonsu, for it was the month which was sacred to that god. And the messenger bowed before Rameses and gave him the message sent by the queen's father. In the temple at Thebes there were two statues of the god Khonsu, one called Khonsu in Thebes Neferhetep, the other Khonsu, Expeller of Demons, both representing the god as a handsome youth. Rameses approached Khonsu in Thebes Neferhetep and prayed that he would permit Khonsu, the Expeller of Demons, to go to the land of Bekhten for
"O Khonsu," said the spirit, "I am thy slave. If thou commandest that I go from hence, I will go. But I pray thee ask of the Prince of Bekhten that he will make a holy day for me and a sacrifice. Then shall I go in peace."
"It shall be as thou hast said," replied Khonsu, and he commanded the Prince of Bekhten to make a sacrifice and a holy day for the demon who had possessed Bent-reshy.
First the people made a great sacrifice to Khonsu, the Expeller of Demons; then they made one for the demon, who thereafter departed in peace. But when he had gone the mind of the Prince of Bekhten was grievously troubled, for he thought: "Perchance he will come again unto our land, and torment the people even as he has tormented my daughter, Bent-reshy." So he determined that Khonsu, the Expeller of Demons,
For more than three years, therefore, the Prince of Bekhten kept Khonsu within his domains, and would not allow him to depart. But one night he had a dream which altered his determination. In his dream he stood before the shrine of Khonsu, Expeller of Demons. And as he looked, behold! the doors of the shrine were flung wide, and the god himself issued forth, took the form of a hawk with wonderful golden plumage, and flew toward Egypt. When he awoke the Lord of Bekhten knew that the real god had departed to Egypt, and that it was useless to keep any longer his statue. Moreover, he feared the vengeance of Khonsu. So on the morrow he loaded the statue of Khonsu, the Expeller of Demons, with rich and beautiful gifts, and sent him away to Egypt with a princely retinue.
When the return journey was accomplished Khonsu, Expeller of Demons, bestowed all the costly gifts on Khonsu in Thebes Neferhetep, keeping nothing for himself of all he had received.
The Maiden of Bekhten—Evelyn Paul
There were hundreds of minor gods surrounding the Egyptian pantheon, and the characteristics of only a few of these can be dealt with. Each hour of the day had its representative deity, as had each hour of the night. The four winds were also represented in the Egyptian pantheon, as in the Greek. The north wind was called Qebui, and is pictured as a four-headed ram with wings; the south wind, Shehbui, is represented as a man with a lion's head, and wings; and the west wind, Huzayui, has a serpent's head on the body of a winged man. The east wind, Henkhisesui, sometimes
The senses were also symbolized by deities. Saa was the god of the sense of touch or feeling. He is depicted in human shape and wears upon his head a sign composed of parallel lines, which as they rise grow smaller. In the Theban Recension of the Book of the Dead he is shown in the judgment scene amongst those gods who watch the weighing of the heart of the deceased. Saa is sometimes shown as sailing with Thoth and other gods in the boat of Ra. In one passage he is alluded to as the son of Geb. He is the personification of intelligence, human and divine.
The god of taste was called Hu. He is also depicted as a man, and is said to have come into existence from a drop of blood which fell from Ra. He became the personification of the divine food upon which the gods and the blessed dead lived.
Maa was the god of sight. He is also drawn as a man having an eye placed over his head, which is also the symbol of his name.
Setem was the god of hearing, and in his case his head is surmounted by an ear.
The planets were also deified. Saturn was called Horus, the bull of heaven; Mars was also identified with Horus under the name of the 'red Horus,' but, strictly speaking, was under the guardianship of Ra; the god of Mercury was Set, and of Venus, Osiris. Some of the constellations were also identified with deities. The Great Bear was known as 'the haunch,' and Draco was identified with the hippopotamus Reret.
The days of the month had also patron gods.
CHAPTER VI: EGYPTIAN LITERATURE
The earliest knowledge we have of the Egyptian language is furnished by ancient inscriptions belonging to the First Dynasty, about 3300 B.C. From these onward its rise and its decay may be traced down through the different writings on temples, monuments, and papyri to the fourteenth century A.D.,
That Egyptian is related to Semitic is practically certain, though here a racial problem intervenes and confuses, for the Egyptian race proper is not and never was, so far as can be ascertained, Semitic in type. Erman tries to explain this by the quite probable theory that in the prehistoric period a horde of warlike Semites conquered a part of Egypt and settled there, like the Arabs of a later period, and imposed their language on the country, but as a distinct race died out, either by reason of the climate or absorption by the native population, who, however, had acquired the strangers' language, though but imperfectly. Under these conditions the language gradually changed. The consonants were mispronounced, strong consonants giving place to weak, and these in turn, disappearing altogether, produced biliterals from the triliteral roots. This tendency, together with periphrastic instead of
The Egyptian language naturally divides into its progressive stages. These are Old Egyptian, Middle and Late Egyptian, Demotic and Coptic. Old Egyptian is the language belonging to the Old Kingdom. It supplied the literary model for the later period, as evidenced by the inscriptions, but that it should be affected by the changing forms of contemporary speech was inevitable, though in the main its chief characteristics were preserved. The earliest specimens we have are inscriptions belonging to the First Dynasty, which, however, are too brief to give much insight into the language and speech of that period. Next come many inscriptions and some few historical texts in the language of the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Dynasties. The greatest amount belonging to this phase is the large collection of ritual texts and spells inscribed in the Pyramids belonging to the Sixth Dynasty.
Middle and Late Egyptian belong to the Middle and New Kingdoms respectively, and approximate to the common speech of the people. Writings in the former, extant to this day, are tales, letters, and business documents of the Twelfth Dynasty on to the beginning of the New Kingdom, written on papyri in hieratic script. The Eighteenth to the Twenty-first Dynasty furnish us with specimens of Late Egyptian in various hieratic papyri. In regard to these an authority states: "The spelling of Late Egyptian is very extraordinary, full of false etymologies, otiose signs, etc., the old orthography being quite unable to adapt itself neatly to
Demotic represents the vulgar dialect of the SaÏte period, and is really applied to the character in which it is written. It may be traced back to the Twenty-fifth Dynasty, about 900 B.C., and it continued in use until the fourth century A.D. Demotic documents are mostly contracts of sale and legal matters, though some magical texts and a curious tale, the Papyrus of Setna, are also written in this character. Coptic is the latest form which the language took, or rather it is a dialect form of Egyptian, of which four or five varieties are known. Coptic is written with the letters of the Greek alphabet, and is really the only stage of the language where the spelling gives a clear idea of the pronunciation. To the Greek characters were added six taken from the Demotic in order to express sounds peculiar to the Egyptian language. This, together with Greek transcriptions of Egyptian names and words, have supplied the only means of arriving at some idea of the accurate vocalization of the Egyptian language. One reason for this ignorance that of necessity prevailed is the fact that the Egyptian system of writing gives merely the consonantal skeletons of words, never recording the internal vowel changes, and often omitting semi-consonants.
The ancient Egyptian system of writing would seem to be, from all available evidence, of purely native origin. Its rise, development, and final extinction can all be traced within the Nile valley, though it travelled by conquest into Syria under the Eighteenth Dynasty and onward for the engraving of Egyptian inscriptions
If one commences the study of Egyptian texts with an examination of the Book of the Dead, and turns from its gloomy, if picturesque, pages to the rest of the national literature, he is perhaps doomed to disappointment, for the field of Egyptian letters, though somewhat widespread, presents a poverty of invention and verbiage exhibited by few literatures, ancient or modern. In the early periods, as might be expected, the style is simple to banality, whilst later a stiff and pompous fashion too often mars what might otherwise have been meritorious work.
Documents of almost every conceivable kind have come down to us—letters of business men, legal scripts, fragments of historical information, magical papyri; scientific, theological, and popular works, even fiction and poetry, are fairly well represented. Most of the standard works, such as books of proverbs or instructions like those attributed to Ptah-hotep and Kagemni, appear to have been of great age, dating not later than the Middle Kingdom. The style of these was imitated by most writers, just as the shape and colour of the hieroglyphs and wall-paintings were sedulously copied by draughtsmen and scribes. Amenemhat I wrote a work resembling Machiavelli's The Prince for the instruction of his son in the principles of good government, and the instructions of Ani to his heir are of similar character. In Egyptian literature we frequently find parallelisms of phrase like those of Hebrew poetry, and repetitions are common.
Another such discussion, which possesses some rather amusing characteristics, is found in a Late Demotic papyrus, and is perhaps tinged with Greek ideas.
Some of the most interesting passages in Egyptian literature are those which deal with travel and adventure. The natives of Egypt were by no means travellers, and for the most part confined their journeyings and excursions to the precincts of their own country, and even to their own nomes or provinces. To pass beyond the borders of Khemi appeared to them a formidable undertaking. But it was necessary that ambassadors should be sent to the surrounding states, and that tribute which had been agreed upon should be properly enforced. As the benefits of trade grew apparent Egyptian merchants pushed their way into the surrounding regions, and criminals often saved themselves by flight into foreign countries. Those who had sojourned abroad were wont upon return home to gather their friends and neighbours about them and regale them with an account of their travels. Some of these are in the best style of Sir John Maundeville, while others again are simple and correct narratives of possible events.
One of these, the story of Saneha, dates from the Middle Kingdom, and possessed a great vogue for at least a thousand years. It is unknown whether its central figure is real or fictitious, as the name was a fairly common one at that period. Saneha was an official under the first king of the Twelfth Dynasty, Amenemhat I. When Amenemhat died and his son Senusert I
The papyrus is valuable as affording vivid descriptions of the life of the tribes of Southern Palestine, the forays of the various clans and the picturesque barbarism of nomadic life. But the narrative is often interrupted by irritating eulogies upon the King of Egypt.
In sharp contradistinction to this is a tale of the Twelfth Dynasty, known as the Story of the Shipwrecked Sailor, preserved in the Hermitage Collection at Petrograd. A wandering sailor, recounting his
All at once a terrible uproar like to the rumbling of thunder surprised him out of his equanimity. At first he took it to be the noise of a tempest at sea, but shortly he perceived that the trees shook and that the earth had become violently agitated. Just before him lay a great serpent thirty cubits long, with a beard two cubits in length; its back was covered with scales of gold, and its body was the colour of lapis-lazuli. Terrified, the sailor threw himself on his face before this monster, which regarded him for a moment with its terrible eyes, and then, opening its ponderous jaws, addressed him as follows: "What has brought thee to this island, little one? Speak quickly, and if thou dost not acquaint me with something I have not heard, or knew not before, thou shalt vanish like flame." Without giving the unfortunate mariner time to answer, it raised him
In reply the serpent merely smiled at him indulgently and a little disdainfully. "Tell me not," he said, "that you are rich in perfumes, for I know that all you have is but ordinary incense. I am Prince of the Land of Punt and possess as much perfume as I require, and let me tell you that when you depart from this place you shall never behold it again, for it shall be changed into waves."
In due time the ship approached, as the serpent had prophesied, and in order to observe by what sort of company it was manned the sailor climbed into a high tree. As it neared the shore the serpent bade him farewell,
Romances regarding life in Egypt, such as that dealing with King Rhampsinitus given elsewhere, are frequent. A papyrus of about 1250 B.C. has for its background the war against the Hyksos, and describes an encounter between rival princes—Apepi, leader of the Hyksos, and the nationalist prince, Ra-sekenen, who dwelt in Upper Egypt. They propounded riddles to one another, and on their solutions the fate of one of them depended. Fables were extremely popular in the Nile valley from an early period. In the Turin
In a papyrus of the Ptolemaic period we find the old expedient of rebuking a king by recounting to him an apposite story. The monarch in question was Amasis (died 526 B.C.), a pleasure-loving ruler, who was wont to imbibe too freely and too often of an Egyptian intoxicating beverage called kelebi. It happened one day that he spake to his nobles, "It is my good pleasure to drink Egyptian kelebi." They spake, "O our mighty lord, it is hard to drink Egyptian kelebi." He said unto them, "Hath that which I say unto you an evil savour?" They said, "O our mighty lord, that which pleaseth the king, let him do." The king commanded, "Let Egyptian kelebi be brought to the lake," and they did according to the word of the king. The king washed himself, with his children, and there was no other wine set before them but Egyptian kelebi. The king feasted with his children, he drank much wine for the love which he bore to Egyptian kelebi; then, on the evening of that day, the king fell asleep by the lake, for he had commanded a couch to be placed in an arbour on the shore of the lake. When the morning dawned the king could not arise because of the heaviness of his carouse. When an hour had passed and he still could not arise, then the courtiers lamented, saying, "Can such things be? Behold, the king drinketh himself drunken like a man of the people.
As was only to be expected, a goodly number of Egyptian stories abounded in the magical element. Notably is this the case in the Westcar papyrus written about 1800 B.C. and now in the Berlin Museum. Unluckily both the beginning and end of this manuscript are wanting, yet sufficient of it remains to permit us to glean the purport of the whole. It recounts how Khufu, or Kheops, the famous builder of the great pyramid at Gizeh, gathered his sons and his councillors
"O king," said Uba-aner, "whatever I desire this crocodile to do, he will do." The king requested
So pleased was Khufu with this story that he ordered that the shade of Nebka should be presented with a thousand loaves, a hundred draughts of beer, an ox, and two jars of incense, and that the ka of Uba-aner should receive a loaf, a jar of beer, a jar of incense, and a portion of meat.
Another of the king's sons then told of a marvellous happening which came to pass in the days of King Seneferu. Seneferu, feeling extremely bored and jaded, sought in every apartment of his palace for something with which to amuse himself, but in vain; so he called for Zazamankh, his chief reciter and scribe of the rolls, to whom he told his predicament. Zazamankh advised that the king should command that a boat be made ready, and that he should go upon the lake of the palace and be rowed to and fro upon its glassy surface by the royal ladies. He asked for twenty oars of ebony inlaid with gold, with blades of light wood inlaid with electrum. These were to be rowed by twenty ladies. The king's heart was gladdened by the exercise; but one of the ladies who was steering lost a jewel of malachite from her hair. Immediately she ceased her singing, and so did her companions, and
But a third son told the king that, so far from recounting tales concerning persons of bygone times, he could tell him a magical story of a man who lived in his own days. His name was Dedi, and he dwelt at Dedsneferu. He was 110 years old, and he ate daily five hundred loaves of bread and a side of beef, and drank a hundred draughts of beer. So great was his magical learning
Khufu, delighted with the success of these experiments, then asked Dedi if he knew of the designs of the House of Thoth. The magician replied that he did not know their number, but that he knew where they were. Pharaoh then asked him their hiding-place, and was told that in a chamber in Heliopolis, called the Plan-room, was a chest of whetstone in which the plans were concealed, Dedi adding, "O king, it is not I that shall bring them to thee." "Who, then," asked Khufu, "shall bring them to me?" And Dedi replied, "The eldest of the three children of Rud-didet shall bring them to thee." "And who is Rud-didet?" asked Khufu. "She is," replied Dedi, "the wife of a priest of Ra, lord of Sakhebu. But these three sons of hers are the sons of Ra the god, who has promised her that they shall reign over all this land, and that the eldest of them shall be high-priest in Heliopolis." At this the king's heart was much troubled, and Dedi, seeing that he was in fear of the future, said to him, "Be not afraid because of what I have said, O king; for thy son shall reign, and thy son's son, before Rud-didet's sons shall rule the land; and behold! this progeny of Ra is not yet born." Khufu then announced his intention of visiting the temple of Ra when the banks of the canal of Letopolis were cut, and Dedi promised that the banks of the canal should hold at least four cubits of water. The sorcerer was then placed in the palace of Hordedef, and was daily provided with a thousand loaves, a hundred draughts of beer, an ox, and a hundred bunches of onions.
The Goddesses as Dancing-girls—Evelyn Paul.
Now when the sons of Ra and Rud-didet were born, that deity requested Isis, Nebhat, Meskhent, Hakt, and Khnumu to go to her, and taking the form of dancing-girls, all except the god Khnumu, who followed them as a porter, they descended to earth and approached the house of the priest Ra-user, Rud-didet's husband, and played before him with their instruments of music. They endowed the children with various attributes, and called them User-ref, Sah-ra, and Kaku. They then quitted the house and bade Ra-user rejoice. In return for their good wishes he bestowed upon them a bushel of barley, which Khnumu placed upon his head; but as they were on the way back to their divine abode Isis said unto the others, "Would it not have been better had we done a marvel for these children?" To this the others assented, and they there and then fashioned a likeness of the crowns of Egypt, of the crown of the Upper Land, and of the crown of the Lower, and hid them in the bushel of barley. They then returned to the house of Ra-user and requested permission to leave the barley in a closed chamber, which they sealed up, and then took their leave. A few weeks afterward Rud-didet asked her handmaid if the house and all that was in it were in good condition, and the handmaid replied that all was satisfactory except that the brewing barley was not yet brought. Her mistress then inquired why that had not been done, and the servant answered that their store had been given to the dancing-girls, who had arrived on the day of the children's birth, and that it now lay in the closed chamber under their seal. Rud-didet then ordered the maid to use it for the present, saying that Ra-user
Some days after, Rud-didet had occasion to rebuke her servant and beat her with stripes, and the maid grumbled and said to her companions, "Why has this been done to me? I will go to King Khufu and tell him that her three sons are destined to become kings." She then betook herself to her uncle; but he would not hearken to her treachery and struck her a violent blow with a bunch of flax which he held. Feeling faint, she went down to the riverside for a draught of water, but was seized upon by a crocodile, who carried her away. Her uncle then presented himself to Rud-didet, whom he found in a most dejected condition. He asked her what made her downcast, and she replied that she feared treachery from the handmaiden. "You need not fear for her," replied the man, "because she has been seized upon by a crocodile." At this point the manuscript fails us. It is indeed unfortunate that such an interesting domestic passage has not been spared. The three kings whose names appear in the story as the triplet sons of Rud-didet reigned during the Fifth Dynasty, so that they could hardly have been
Egypt was not without its lyric and folk poetry; however, the romantic was not the forte of the Egyptians. It is noteworthy at the same time that most Oriental peoples sing while at their work, and it would be strange if the labourer on the banks of the Nile had not done so. The fellah of to-day chants monotonously and endlessly while toiling, repeating the same words and music over and over again; but the scribe of early Egypt regarded the folk-song as unfit for transmission to posterity. Occasionally a song is recaptured from mural inscriptions. The shepherd who wades through the half-submerged fields, driving his sheep before him, sings: "In the water walks the shepherd with the fishes. He talks with the cat-fish; with the fish he exchanges a greeting." We have also a threshing song: "Thresh ye, O oxen; thresh for yourselves. Thresh straw for your fodder and grain for your masters. Rest not, for the air is cool this day."
A few love-songs have also survived. These were probably very numerous. For the most part they are intense and passionate. Three collections of love-songs of about 1200 B.C. have been unearthed, one of which is contained in a papyrus now in the British Museum. On a stele in the Louvre the praise of the wife of a king of about 700 B.C. is sung as follows: "The sweet one, sweet in love; the sweet one, sweet in love in the presence of the king; the sweet one, sweet in love before all men; the beloved before all women; the king's daughter who is sweet in love. The fairest among women, a maid whose like none has seen. Blacker is her hair than the darkness of night, blacker than the berries of the blackberry bush. Harder are her teeth than the flints on the sickle. A wreath of flowers is each of her breasts, close nestling on her arms."
This story was discovered written on some papyrus belonging to the British Museum. An English translation was published in 1900 by Mr. F. Ll. Griffiths, and one in French by Sir G. Maspero in 1901. It is written on the back of some official documents in Greek and dates from the seventh year of the Emperor Claudian. The papyrus is much dilapidated and pasted end to end; it is incomplete, and the beginning of the history has disappeared. By the writing one would judge the copy to belong to the latter half of the second century of our era. The Setne alluded to is the same who figures in the story of Setne and the Mummies related in the chapter on Magic.
Once upon a time there was a king called Ousimares,
Now Setne and his wife MahÎtouaskhÎt were greatly grieved, for they had no son. One day when he was troubled more than usual over this his wife went to the temple of Imhetep, and she prayed before him, saying, "Turn thy face to me, O Imhetep, son of Ptah, thou who workest miracles, who art beneficent in all thy doings. It is thou who canst give a son to those who are sonless. Oh, hear my prayer, and grant that I shall bear a son!" And that night MahÎtouaskhÎt slept in the temple, and there she dreamed a dream wherein she was directed to prepare a magical remedy, and told that by this means her desire for a son should be fulfilled. On waking she did all according to her dream, and in time it was known that a child was to be born to her and Setne, who told it before Pharaoh with great joy, while to his wife, for her protection, he gave an amulet and put spells about her.
And one night Setne dreamed, and a voice said to him, "MahÎtouaskhÎt, thy wife, will bring forth a son, and through him many wonders shall be accomplished in the land of Egypt. And the name of thy son shall be Se-Osiris." When Setne awoke and remembered these words he rejoiced and was glad in heart.
Se-Osiris
In due time a son was born, and according to the dream he was called Se-Osiris. And the child developed rapidly beyond all other children, and Setne loved him so greatly that scarce an hour passed without his seeing him. In time he was put to school, but soon showed that he knew more than the tutor could teach him. He began to read the magical papyri with the priestly scribes in the 'Double House of Life' of the temple of Ptah, and all those about him were lost in astonishment. Then was Setne so pleased that he led his son before Pharaoh to the festival that all the magicians of the king might strive against him and have to acknowledge their defeat.
And one day, when Setne, together with the boy Se-Osiris, was preparing for the festival, loud voices of lamentation rose upon the air, and Setne, looking forth from the terrace of his apartments, saw the body of a rich man being carried to the mountains for burial with great honour and loud wailing. Again he looked forth, and this time he saw the body of a peasant borne along wrapped in a mat of straw and without a soul to mourn him. And seeing this Setne exclaimed, "By the life of Osiris, god of Amenti, may it be that I come into Amenti as this rich man comes, honoured and lamented, and not as the peasant, alone and already forgotten!" Upon hearing this Se-Osiris said, "Nay, my father, rather may the fate of the poor man be
Then Setne demanded of him how he could accomplish this. The child Se-Osiris began to recite words from the magical books, words of power. Next he took his father by the hand and led him to an unknown place in the mountains of Memphis. Here there were seven great halls filled with people of all conditions. They traversed three of these without hindrance. Upon entering the fourth Setne saw a mass of men who rushed hither and thither, writhing as creatures attacked them from behind; others, famished, were springing and jumping in their efforts to reach the food suspended above them, whilst some, again, dug holes at their feet to prevent them attaining their object. In the fifth hall were venerable shades who had each found their proper and fitting place, but those who were accused of crimes lingered kneeling at the door, which pivoted upon the eye of a man who ceaselessly prayed and groaned. In the sixth hall were the gods of Amenti, who sat in council, each in his place, whilst the keepers of the portals called out the causes. In the seventh hall was seated the great god Osiris on a golden throne, crowned with the plumed diadem. On his left was Anubis, and on his right the god Thoth. In the midst were the scales wherein were weighed the faults and virtues of the souls of the dead, while Thoth wrote down the judgment that Anubis pronounced. Then those whose faults outweighed their virtues were delivered to
Then Setne saw near the place of Osiris one of exalted rank and robed in the finest linen. And while Setne was marvelling at all he had seen in the land of Amenti, Se-Osiris, his little son, said unto him, "My father Setne, seest thou that great personage in fine robes and near to Osiris? That peasant whom thou didst see carried out of Memphis without a soul to accompany him, and his body wrapped in a mat, dost thou remember, my father? Well, that peasant is the one beside Osiris! When he had come to Amenti and they weighed his faults and virtues, lo! his virtues outweighed all. And by the judgment of the gods all the honours that had been the share of the rich man were given to the peasant, and by the law of Osiris he takes his place midst the honoured and exalted. But the rich man, when he had come to Hades and his merits were weighed, lo! his faults weighed heavier, and he is that man you have seen upon whose eye pivots the door of the fifth hall, the man who cries and prays aloud with great agony. By the life of Osiris, god of Amenti, if upon earth I said to thee, 'Rather may the fate of the peasant be thine than that of the rich man,' it was because I knew their fates, my father."
And Setne answered and said, "My son Se-Osiris, numberless marvels have I seen in Amenti; but tell me the meaning of those people we saw rushing before creatures who devoured them, and the others ever trying to reach the food beyond their reach."
Se-Osiris answered him:
"In truth, my father, they are under the curse of the gods; they are those who upon earth wasted their substance, and the creatures who devour them without ceasing are the women with whom they squandered both life and substance, and now they have naught, though they should work day and night. And so it is with all: as they have been on earth, so it is with them in Amenti, according to their good and bad deeds. That is the immutable law of the gods, the law that knows no change and under which all men must come when they enter Hades."
Then Setne and his son returned hand in hand from the mountains of Memphis. A fear was upon Setne because of Se-Osiris, who answered not, and then he pronounced words that exorcize the ghosts of the dead. Always afterward he remembered all he had seen and marvelled thereat, but spoke of it to no man. And when Se-Osiris was twelve years of age there was no scribe or magician in Memphis who was his equal in the reading of the magical books.
After this it happened one day that the Pharaoh Ousimares was seated in the Hall of Audience with the princes, the military chiefs, and the nobles of Egypt, each according to his rank, gathered about him. One said unto Pharaoh, "Here is a rascally Ethiopian who would fain have speech with you and who carries a sealed letter." And Pharaoh commanded that the man be brought before him. And when he was come he made obeisance and said, "Here is a sealed letter which I bear, and I would fain know if amongst your wise men there are any who can read its contents without breaking the seals. If, O king, you have not
And Setne, pondering and much disturbed, threw himself upon his couch, but knew no rest. His wife MahÎtouaskhÎt came to him and would fain have shared his trouble, but he said that it was not for a woman to share or one that she might help him in. Later, his son Se-Osiris came and begged to know what so sorely troubled his father, and again Setne refused to speak, saying that it was not for a child. But the boy persisted, and at last Setne told him of the challenge of the Ethiopian. The moment he had finished Se-Osiris laughed, and his father asked the reason of his mirth.
"My father," he answered, "I laugh to see you there, so troubled in heart because of such a small affair. I will read that letter of the Ethiopian, read it all without breaking the seals."
Hearing this, Setne rose instantly.
"But what proof can you give me of the truth of what you say, my son?"
Se-Osiris answered, "My father, go thou to the lower floor of this house and take what books you please from their place. As you do so I shall read that which you have taken from its place while I stand before you."
And it happened as Se-Osiris had said. Each book that his father lifted the boy read without its being opened. Upon this Setne lost no time in acquainting Pharaoh with all that Se-Osiris had done, and so lightened was the heart of the king that he made a feast in honour of Setne and his young son.
After this Pharaoh sent for the Ethiopian. And when he entered the Hall of Audience he was placed in the midst of all, and the young Se-Osiris took up his place beside him. But first the boy put a curse upon the man and his gods if he should dare to say falsely that what he read was not true. And seeing the boy, the Ethiopian prostrated himself before him in fear. Then Se-Osiris began to read the letter with its seals still unbroken, and all heard his voice. And the words were:
"It happened during the reign of the Pharaoh ManakhphrÊ-Siamon, who was a beneficent ruler and in whose time the land overflowed with all good things, who endowed the temples richly, that when the King of Nubia was taking his rest in the pleasure-kiosk of Amen he overheard the voices of three Ethiopians who were talking behind the house. One of them was speaking in a high voice, saying, among other things, that if the god Amen would preserve him from the enmity of the King of Egypt he could put a spell on the
"He said unto them, 'Which of you said that he would cause that the people of Egypt should not see the moon for three days and three nights?' And they answered that it was Horus, the son of Tririt (the sow).
"Again the king said, 'Which of you said that he had power to cause the King of Egypt to be brought hither?' And they answered that it was Horus, the son of Tnahsit (the negress).
"Again the king said, 'Which of you said that he would cause a blight to fall upon Egypt?' And they answered that it was Horus, the son of TriphÎt (the princess).
"Then the king bade Horus, the son of Tnahsit, come near, and he said to him, 'By Amen, the Bull of Meroe, if thou canst accomplish what thou hast said, then rich rewards shall be thine.'
"And Horus, the son of Tnahsit, fashioned a litter and four bearers of wax. Over them he chanted magical words, he breathed upon them and gave them life, and finally he bade them wend their way to Egypt and bring back the king of that land in order that he might
Here Se-Osiris paused and, turning to the Ethiopian, said, "The curse of Amen fall upon thee! These words that I have said, are they not written in the letter thou holdest in thine hand?" And the rascally Ethiopian bowed low before him, saying, "They are written there, my lord!"
Then Se-Osiris resumed his magical reading:
"And all happened as Horus, the son of Tnahsit, had devised. By the power of sorcery was Pharaoh taken to the land of the Negroes, and there suffered five hundred blows of the kourbash. After that he was carried back to Egypt, as had been said, and, wakening the next morning in the temple of the god Horus, he lay in great pain, his body sorely bruised. Bewildered, he asked his courtiers how such could have happened in Egypt. They, thinking some madness had fallen upon their king, and yet ashamed of their thoughts, spoke soothingly to him, and said that the great gods would heal his afflictions. But still they asked him the meaning of his strange words, and suddenly he remembered all that had happened to him and recounted it to his courtiers."
"When they saw his bruised body they made a great clamour. And then Pharaoh sent for his chief magician, and he at once cried out that the evil and affliction of the king were due to the sorceries of the Ethiopians.
"'By the life of Ptah,' he continued, 'I shall bring them to torture and execution.'
"And Pharaoh bade him make all speed lest he should be carried away the next night. And the chief magician carried his secret books and amulets to the
"On waking the magician remembered all, and without losing a moment fulfilled all that he had been told in his dream. And then he wrote the charm to preserve Pharaoh from all sorcery. On the second day the Ethiopians endeavoured to renew their enchantments, but all was now unavailing against the person of Pharaoh. The third morning Pharaoh recounted to his chief musicians all that had happened during the night, and how the Ethiopians had failed in their attempts.
"Then the magician fashioned a litter and four bearers of wax. He put a spell upon them and breathed life into them, bidding them go and bring before Pharaoh the King of the Negroes, that he might suffer five hundred blows upon his body and then be carried back to his own land again. And the waxen figures promised to do all as the magician had commanded."
Again Se-Osiris paused, and again he demanded of the Ethiopian if his words were not the words of the sealed letter. And the Ethiopian bowed low to the ground, saying they were the words in very truth.
Se-Osiris began again to read the hidden words:
"And as it happened to Pharaoh, so was the fate of the King of the Negroes, who awoke sorely bruised in the morning following. He called loudly for his
"But no spell devised by the Ethiopian could preserve the king from the magic of the Egyptians, and three times was he carried to that country and humiliated, whilst his body was in great pain, so sorely bruised was it. Then he cursed Horus, the son of Tnahsit, and threatened him with a slow and dreadful death unless he could preserve him from Pharaoh's vengeance.
"Then in fear and trouble Horus went to his mother Tnahsit and told her all, and that he must go to Egypt to see the one who had worked these powerful sorceries and endeavour to inflict upon him a fitting punishment. And his mother, Tnahsit, on hearing this, warned him against coming into the presence of Pharaoh's chief magician, for against him he would never prevail, but know defeat. But he answered that he must go. Then she arranged with him that by signs and signals between them he should let her know how he fared, and if he were in danger, then she should try to save him. And he promised, saying that if he were vanquished, then that which she ate, that which she drank, and the sky above should turn to the colour of blood."
Thoth and the Chief Magician—Evelyn Paul.
"And after this he journeyed to Egypt, tracking the one whose sorceries had prevailed against his own. He penetrated to the Royal Hall of Audience and
"And Pharaoh's chief magician called out in answer, saying, 'Ha! Ethiopian, is it thou who workedst evil against Pharaoh?' and Horus, the son of Tnahsit, cried out in great anger and by a spell he caused a great flame to rise from the midst of the hall, at which Pharaoh and the Egyptians cried out to the chief of the magicians to succour them. Then by his power he caused a shower of rain to fall so that the flame was extinguished.
"Again the Ethiopian wrought his magic and thereby caused a great darkness to fall upon them all so that the people could not see each other, but this also was dispersed by the magician of the Egyptians. Then followed more machinations by Horus, the son of Tnahsit, but each time was he vanquished. At last he asked for mercy and vowed before the gods that never again would he trouble Egypt or Pharaoh. They gave him a boat and sent him back to his own land. So were the sorceries of the Ethiopians rendered as naught."
With this Se-Osiris finished the reading of the sealed letter. And then he began to reveal to all there, Pharaoh, the princes, and the nobles, that the Ethiopian now before them was none other than that Horus, son of Tnahsit, returned after five hundred years to trouble Egypt and its king again. But against this day he himself, Se-Osiris, had been born again, for he was that former chief magician of the Pharaoh ManakhphrÊ come back once more to protect Egypt and Pharaoh from the wiles of the Ethiopians.
And with these words he caused a great flame to consume the Ethiopian, there in the midst of the Hall of Audience, so that not a vestige of the creature remained. But afterward when they looked for Se-Osiris
At these happenings everyone marvelled, and Pharaoh said that Se-Osiris was the wisest and most wonderful of all magicians, and that never again would the world see his like.
But the hearts of Setne and his wife were troubled, and they grieved sorely for their son Se-Osiris. Then comfort came to them, and again the wife of Setne bore a son, and they called him Ousimanthor. And so the heart of Setne was glad and he made offerings in the name of Se-Osiris in remembrance.
After the close of the reign of Amysis a priest of 'Vulcan' named Setnau ascended the throne. And this king treated the army with contempt and disdain, thinking he had no need of them. Among other injustices he appropriated the lands which former kings had given to them.
Now it came to pass that when Sennacherib, King of the Arabs and Assyrians, led his hosts against Egypt, the soldiers of the Egyptian army refused to fight and repel them. Setnau, thus reduced to powerlessness, went to the temple and prayed the gods to help him in his dire straits. While thus troubled a sleep fell upon him, and in a dream it seemed that the god himself appeared and exhorted him to courage, saying that all would fall to his advantage in the campaign against the Assyrians.
Greatly cheered by this dream, Setnau called upon those of the army who would follow him, and they camped at Peluce, a main approach into Egypt. Not only soldiers followed him, but merchants, artisans, and men of the street.
Now when the Assyrians besieged the town, as they lay encamped about the field rats during the night gnawed and devoured all the quivers, bows, and fittings of shields of the invaders, so that, on the morrow, when they would have given battle, behold! they were weaponless. Thus disarmed, many of the hosts fled and many perished.
And now in the temple of Vulcan stands a stone image of the god, bearing in his hand the figure of a rat. And the legend inscribed thereon runs, "Who beholds me beholds God."
A tale of the Ninth Dynasty, which from the number of copies extant would seem to have been very popular, relates how a peasant succeeded in obtaining justice after he had been robbed. Justice was not very easily obtained in Egypt in those times, for it seems to have been requisite that a peasant should attract the judge's attention by some special means, if his case were to be heard at all. The story runs thus:
In the Salt Country there dwelt a sekhti (peasant) with his family. He made his living by trading with Henenseten in salt, natron, rushes, and the other products of his country, and as he journeyed thither he had to pass through the lands of the house of Fefa. Now there dwelt by the canal a man named Tehuti-nekht, the son of Asri, a serf to the High Steward Meruitensa. Tehuti-nekht had so far encroached on the path—for roads and paths were not protected by law in Egypt as in other countries—that there was but a narrow strip left, with the canal on one side and a cornfield on the other. When Tehuti-nekht saw the sekhti approaching with his burdened asses, his evil heart coveted the beasts and the goods they
This was the plan he conceived. "I will take," said he, "a shawl, and will spread it upon the path. If the sekhti drives his asses over it—and there is no other way—then I shall easily pick a quarrel with him." He had no sooner thought of the project than it was carried into effect. A servant, at Tehuti-nekht's bidding, fetched a shawl and spread it over the path so that one end was in the water, the other among the corn.
When the sekhti drew nigh he drove his asses over the shawl. He had no alternative.
"Hold!" cried Tehuti-nekht with well-simulated wrath, "surely you do not intend to drive your beasts over my clothes!"
"I will try to avoid them," responded the good-natured peasant, and he caused the rest of his asses to pass higher up, among the corn.
"Do you, then, drive your asses through my corn?" said Tehuti-nekht, more wrathfully than ever.
"There is no other way," said the harassed peasant. "You have blocked the path with your shawl, and I must leave the path."
While the two argued upon the matter one of the asses helped itself to a mouthful of corn, whereupon Tehuti-nekht's plaints broke out afresh.
"Behold!" he cried, "your ass is eating my corn. I will take your ass, and he shall pay for the theft."
"Shall I be robbed," cried the sekhti, "in the lands of the Lord Steward Meruitensa, who treateth robbers so hardly? Behold, I will go to him. He will not suffer this misdeed of thine."
"Thinkest thou he will hearken to thy plaint?" sneered Tehuti-nekht. "Poor as thou art, who will concern himself with thy woes? Lo, I am the Lord
In vain the sekhti wept and implored him to restore his property. Tehuti-nekht bade him hold his peace, threatening to send him to the Demon of Silence if he continued to complain. Nevertheless, the sekhti petitioned him for a whole day. At length, finding that he was wasting his breath, the peasant betook himself to Henen-ni-sut, there to lay his case before the Lord Steward Meruitensa. On his arrival he found the latter preparing to embark in his boat, which was to carry him to the judgment-hall. The sekhti bowed himself to the ground, and told the Lord Steward that he had a grievance to lay before him, praying him to send one of his followers to hear the tale. The Lord Steward granted the suppliant's request, and sent to him one from among his train. To the messenger the sekhti revealed all that had befallen him on his journey, the manner in which Tehuti-nekht had closed the path so as to force him to trespass on the corn, and the cruelty with which he had beaten him and stolen his property. In due time these matters were told to the Lord Steward, who laid the case before the nobles who were with him in the judgment-hall.
"Let this sekhti bring a witness," they said, "and if he establish his case, it may be necessary to beat Tehuti-nekht, or perchance he will be made to pay a trifle for the salt and natron he has stolen."
The Lord Steward said nothing, and the sekhti himself came unto him and hailed him as the greatest of the great, the orphan's father, the widow's husband, the guide of the needy, and so on.
Very eloquent was the sekhti, and in his florid speech he skilfully combined eulogy with his plea for
Now at that time there sat upon the throne of Egypt the King Neb-ka-n-ra, and to him came the Lord Steward Meruitensa, saying:
"Behold, my lord, I have been sought by a sekhti whose goods were stolen. Most eloquent of mortals is he. What would my lord that I do unto him?"
"Do not answer his speeches," said the king, "but put his words in writing and bring them to us. See that he and his wife and children are supplied with meat and drink, but do not let him know who provides it."
The Lord Steward did as the king had commanded him. He gave to the peasant a daily ration of bread and beer, and to his wife sufficient corn to feed herself and her children. But the sekhti knew not whence the provisions came.
A second time the peasant sought the judgment-hall and poured forth his complaint to the Lord Steward; and yet a third time he came, and the Lord Steward commanded that he be beaten with staves, to see whether he would desist. But no, the sekhti came a fourth, a fifth, a sixth time, endeavouring with pleasant speeches to open the ear of the judge. Meruitensa hearkened to him not at all, yet the sekhti did not despair, but came again unto the ninth time. And at the ninth time the Lord Steward sent two of his followers to the sekhti, and the peasant trembled exceedingly, for he feared that he was about to be beaten once more because of his importunity. The message, however, was a reassuring one. Meruitensa declared that he had been greatly delighted by the peasant's eloquence and would see that he obtained satisfaction. He then caused the sekhti's petitions to
Meruitensa therefore deprived Tehuti-nekht of all his offices and his property, and gave them to the sekhti, who thenceforth dwelt at the king's palace with all his family. And the sekhti became the chief overseer of Neb-ka-n-ra, and was greatly beloved by him.
The manuscript of this tale of the Nineteenth Dynasty was bought in Italy by Mme. Elizabeth d'Orbiney, and is called the d'Orbiney Papyrus. It was acquired by the British Museum in 1857 and copied in facsimile. It has been translated over and over again. The manuscript extends to nineteen pages of ten lines each, the first five pages having been considerably torn. Several gaps have been filled in by the modern possessors of the manuscript, and the restorations are signed. The original manuscript is stamped in two places with the name of its ancient owner, Sety Merenptah, whom we know as Sety II. It was executed by Anena, a scribe who lived during the reigns of Rameses II, Merenptah, and Sety II, and is more than three thousand years old. Bitou, the hero of the story, a herd and husbandman, is perhaps identifiable with the Greek god Bitys.
Anapou and Bitou were two brothers who lived in Egypt a long time ago. To Anapou, as the elder, belonged house, cattle, and fields; and Bitou, the younger, worked for him. Bitou was marvellously clever in his management of the cattle and in all things relating to agriculture—he could even tell what
He went to the valley and his brother returned home, killed his wife, and mourned for Bitou.
Bitou, in the valley, spent his days in hunting, and at night slept under the acacia, on top of which his
Pharaoh, hearing of this beautiful woman, desired to take possession of her, and sent armed men into the valley, all of whom Bitou killed. Pharaoh at last enticed her away and made her his chief favourite. She told him her husband's secret and bade him cut down the acacia-tree, which was accordingly done, and Bitou fell down dead at the same moment.
Then what Bitou had foretold happened to his brother. Beer that foamed was brought to him, and then wine which became muddy while he held the cup. By these signs he knew that the time had come to act, and taking his clothes and sandals and weapons, he set off for the valley. When he got there he found his brother lying dead on his bed. He went to the acacia to look for the heart, but could find only a berry, which, however, was the heart. He placed it in cold water, and Bitou was restored to life. They embraced each other, and Bitou said to his brother, "I shall now become a sacred bull (Apis). Lead me, then, to Pharaoh, who will reward you with gold and silver for having brought me. I shall then find means to punish my wife for having betrayed me." Anapou did as Bitou directed, and when the sun rose again next day, Bitou having then assumed the form of a bull, he led him to court. There were great rejoicings over the miraculous bull, and Pharaoh rewarded Anapou richly and preferred him before any other man.
Some days after, the bull entered the harem and
At this second miracle all the people rejoiced again and offered sacrifices to the two trees.
A long time after, Pharaoh, in his crown of lapis-lazuli, with a garland of flowers round his neck, got into his electrum chair and was carried out to look at the two trees. His chief favourite—Bitou's wife—was brought after him and they were set down, one under each tree. Then Bitou, the tree under which his wife was seated, whispered to her, "Faithless woman! I am Bitou, and I am still alive in spite of you. You made Pharaoh cut down the acacia, and killed me. Then I became a bull and you had me slain."
Afterward, when she was seated again with Pharaoh at table, she made him swear another oath to do whatever she asked him, and Pharaoh swore again. Then she said, "Cut me down these two trees and make them into two good beams." What she demanded was done, but as the trees were being cut down a chip flew into
"Who are you?"—Evelyn Paul.
This story is to be found in the Harris Papyrus in the British Museum. It was complete when first discovered, but an unfortunate accident partly destroyed it, so that the end of the tale is lost. It is supposed to belong to the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty.
There was once a king who was sore in heart because no son had been born to him. He prayed the gods to grant his desire, and they decreed that as he had prayed, so it should be. And his wife brought forth a son. When the Hathors came to decide his destiny they said, "His death shall be by the crocodile, or by the serpent, or by the dog." And those who stood round, upon hearing this, hurried to tell the king, who was much grieved thereat and feared greatly.
And because of what he had heard he caused a house to be built in the mountains and furnished richly and with all that could be desired, so that the child should not go abroad. When the boy was grown he went one day upon the roof, and from there he saw a dog following a man upon the road. Then he turned to his attendant and said, "What is that which follows the man coming along the road?" And he was told that it was a dog.
And the child at once wished to possess a dog, and
As time went on and the child became a man he grew restive, and, being told of the decree of the Hathors, at once sent a message to his father, saying, "Come, why and wherefore am I kept a prisoner? Though I am fated to three evil fates, let me follow my desires. Let God fulfil His will."
And after this he was free and did as other men. He was given weapons and his dog was allowed to follow him, and they took him to the east country and said to him, "Behold, thou art free to go wheresoever thou wilt."
He set his face to the north, his dog following, and his whim dictated his path. Then he lived on all the choicest of the game of the desert. And then he came to the chief of Nahairana. And this chief had but one child, a daughter. For her had been built a house with seventy windows seventy cubits from the ground. And here the chief had commanded all the sons of the chiefs of the country of Khalu to be brought, and he said to them, "He who climbs and reaches my daughter's windows shall win her for wife."
And some time after this the prince arrived, and the people of the chief of Nahairana took the youth to the house and treated him with the greatest honour and kindness. And as he partook of their food they asked him whence he had come. He answered them, saying, "I come from Egypt; I am the son of an officer of that land. My mother died and my father has taken another wife, who, when she bore my father other children, grew to hate me. Therefore have I fled as a fugitive from her presence." And they were sorry for him and embraced him.
Then one day he asked the climbing youths what it
And he climbed the dizzy height and reached her window. So glad was she that she kissed and embraced him.
And thinking to make glad the heart of her father, a messenger went to him, saying, "One of the youths hath reached thy daughter's window." The chief inquired which of the chief's sons had accomplished this, and he was told that it was the fugitive from Egypt.
At this the chief of Nahairana was wroth and vowed that his daughter was not for an Egyptian fugitive. "Let him go back whence he came!" he cried.
An attendant hurried to warn the youth, but the maiden held him fast and would not let him go. She swore by the gods, saying, "By the being of Ra Harakhti, if he is taken from me, I will neither eat nor drink and in that hour I shall die!"
And her father was told of her vow, and hearing it he sent some to slay the youth while he should be in his house. But the daughter of the chief divined this and said again, "By the great god Ra, if he be slain, then I shall die ere the set of sun. If I am parted from him, then I live no longer!"
Again her words were carried to the chief. He caused his daughter and the youth to be brought before him, and at first the young man was afraid, but the chief of Nahairana embraced him affectionately, saying, "Tell me who thou art, for now thou art as a son to me." He answered him, "I come from Egypt;
Then the chief gave him his daughter to wife; he gave him a house and slaves, he gave him lands and cattle and all manner of good gifts.
The time passed. One day the youth told his wife of his fate, saying to her, "I am doomed to three evil fates—to die by a crocodile, a serpent, or a dog." And her heart was filled with a great dread. She said to him, "Then let one kill the dog which follows thee." But he told her that could not be, for he had brought it up from the time it was small.
At last the youth desired to travel to the land of Egypt, and his wife, fearing for him, would not let him go alone, so one went with him. They came to a town, and the crocodile of the river was there. Now in that town was a great and mighty man, and he bound the crocodile and would not suffer it to escape. When it was bound the mighty man was at peace and walked abroad. When the sun rose the man went back to his house, and this he did every day for two months.
After this as the days passed the youth sat at ease in his house. When the night came he lay on his couch and sleep fell upon him. Then his wife filled a bowl of milk and placed it by his side. Out from a hole came a serpent, and it tried to bite the sleeping man, but his wife sat beside him watching and unsleeping. And the servants, beholding the serpent, gave it milk so that it drank and was drunk and lay helpless on its back. Seeing this, with her dagger the wife dispatched it. Upon this her husband woke and, understanding all, was astonished. "See," she said to
And then the youth made sacrifices to his god and praised him always.
One day after this the youth walked abroad in his fields, his dog following him. And his dog chased after the wild game, and he followed after the dog, who plunged into the river. He also went into the river, and then out came the crocodile, who took him to the place where the mighty man lived. And as he carried him the crocodile said to the youth, "Behold, I am thy doom, following after thee...."
At this point the papyrus is so extensively mutilated that in all probability we shall never know what happened to the prince. Was he at last devoured by the crocodile? or perchance did his faithful dog lead him into still graver danger? Let everyone concoct his own ending to the tale!
On the sixteenth day of the thirteenth month, the harvest month, Ounamounou, the chief priest of the temple of Amen-Ra, departed on a voyage to procure wood for the fashioning of the sacred barque of the god.
"When I arrived at Tanis," he says, "I gave them the edicts of Amen-Ra, which they read and decided to obey. I stayed at Tanis till the fourteenth month of Shomou, when I embarked to voyage upon the Syrian sea. When the ship arrived at Dora, city of Zakkala, the Prince of the place, BadÎl, sent bread, meat, and wine unto me.
"While in this place a man of the vessel deserted, carrying with him much gold and silver. Thereupon I went to the Prince and made my complaint to him, saying that the gold belonged to Amen-Ra. And the
"Then I embarked again and reached Tyre, to whose Prince I recounted my loss, and complained that the Prince of Dora had not found my gold, but, being a friend of BadÎl, he would not listen—indeed, threatened me. At break of day we set out in the direction of Byblos, and on the way a vessel of Zakkala overtook us with a coffer on board. On opening this coffer I discovered money, and took possession of it. I said to them that I would keep and use it until my stolen gold was restored to me. When they saw I was firm they accepted the situation and left me, and we at last reached Byblos.
"I disembarked, carrying the naos containing the statue of Amen-Ra, having put therein the treasure. But the Prince of Byblos bade me begone. I said to him, 'Is this because the men of Zakkala have told you that I took their money? That money is my own, for in their port the gold of Amen-Ra was stolen. Besides, I come from Herihor to procure wood for the sacred barque of the god Amen-Ra.' I stayed in this port for nineteen days, and each day the Prince sent this message bidding me begone.
"Then one eve when the Prince of Byblos sacrificed to his gods, and one danced before them, he mocked me and bade me bring my god to life. That night I
"He turned and left me and went to the Prince, who this time sent a message to the captain of the vessel bidding him wait till the morrow. The next morning he sent for me to be brought to the palace in which he lived beside the sea. I was taken to his chamber, and there he asked me how long it was I had been on this journey. I answered five months, but he doubted me, asking where were the edicts of Amen-Ra which ought to be in my hands, and where was the letter of the high-priest? I told him that I had given them to other princes. He was angered, and said that I came with no proofs, and what was there to hinder him ordering the captain of the vessel to kill me? Again I answered that I had come from Egypt for wood for the sacred barque. And then he told how formerly those from Egypt had come in state to visit his city. After a long altercation with the Prince, and when I had told him that if he executed the commands of Amen-Ra much good would be his, he still hesitated. Then I asked for a messenger to take a letter from me to the other Princes, Smendes and Tantamounou, and he would see how they would do my bidding and succour me.
"It seemed that the Prince had changed his mind, for after he had given my letter to his messenger he
"His messenger went to Egypt and returned to me in the first month of the winter. And soon the Princes Smendes and Tantamounou sent me ships laden with many gifts. Seeing this, the Prince was rejoiced, and soon he commanded much wood to be hewn for me. And when it was finished he came saying that he had done as his fathers had done before him, and giving orders that the wood should be loaded on a vessel. He also said that I had not been treated as were the envoys of KhamoÎs, who had lived seventeen years in the country and died there. Turning to his courtier, he bade him show me their tomb. But I had no desire to see it, and said so. I also said, 'The envoys of KhamoÎs were but men of his household; I came as the messenger of the great god Amen-Ra.'
"Then I bade him erect a stele and this inscription to be engraved thereon:
"'Amen-Ra, the great god of the gods, sent me a divine messenger, together with Ounamounou as his human ambassador, for the wood wherewith his sacred barque should be fashioned. I cut down trees for this and loaded them, furnishing the vessels by which it was carried into Egypt. I did this that I may obtain immortal life from the great god Amen.'
"'And,' I continued, 'a messenger shall come from the land of Egypt who shall read your name upon the stele, and you shall receive the water of Amenti even as the gods.'
"He said, 'This is a wonderful thing you tell me.' Then I told him that when I returned I should acquaint the high-priest of Amen of how he, the Prince, had done all as he was commanded, and that he should assuredly receive the gifts.
"When I went down to the shore where the wood was loaded I beheld eleven vessels sent from Zakkala to seize and imprison and prevent me from reaching Egypt. Then I was distressed and cried out, and a messenger from the Prince approached me, saying, 'What troubles you?'
"I explained to him what menaced me, and he went and told the Prince, who was much distressed. To cheer me he sent gifts of food and wine, and an Egyptian singer, Tantnouit, whose songs he thought might chase away my sorrow. His message was, 'Eat, drink, and be not troubled. You shall hear my plans in the morn.'
"And when the day was come the Prince called his men, and they set out and spoke to the men of Zakkala, asking them the object of their coming. They answered that they had come to seize the vessels and their rascally crews. He answered, 'I have not the power to take prisoner the messenger of Amen-Ra in my country. I shall let him go, and after you can do with him as you please.'
"I embarked and left the port, and the wind drove me into the country of Alasia. There the people of the town came to put me to death, dragging me to the presence of Hatibi, the Princess of the city. I looked at the men around, and asked was there not one who could understand Egyptian? One came forward saying that he understood it. I said that I had heard that if justice was to be found anywhere it was in Alasia, and yet here were they ready to work an injustice. The Princess inquired what I had said.
"Again I spoke, and pleaded that as the storm had driven me into their country they should not slay me, for in truth I was a messenger of the great god Amen-Ra. Then I pointed out that if harm came to me
Here the papyrus ends. It is tantalizing not to know how Ounamounou managed to return to Egypt, but we may be sure a person of such infinite resource and determination, not to say doggedness, accomplished all he desired.
The Treasure-chamber of Rhampsinites—Evelyn Paul.
The oldest form of this legend has been handed down to us by Herodotus. It occurs in the ancient folklore of both Eastern and Western peoples and its origin has often been debated. If not really of Egyptian origin, it had certainly become Egyptianized when Herodotus found it. It relates how King Rhampsinites possessed so much treasure that none of his successors ever surpassed or even came near to having a like amount.
To ensure its safety he had a seemingly impregnable stone house built, in which he placed all his great wealth. By a clever trick, however, the architect contrived to provide access to the treasure. He made one of the stones in two parts, so that one part could be removed; but so skilfully were the two parts placed together that they presented a perfectly even surface, as of one single stone. Before he died he acquainted his two sons with the secret of the treasure-house, and after his death they did not delay in putting their knowledge into practice. They went by night, found the stone without any difficulty, withdrew it, stole a large sum of money, and replaced it in position.
When the king discovered that thieves were at work he had man-traps placed near the site of the
When the king found the headless body he was much disturbed, for there were no traces of entrance to or exit from the treasure-house, and he bethought himself of this expedient: he had the dead body exposed on the city wall and placed a guard round it with instructions to watch and report whoever manifested any sign of grief on seeing the body. This act was contrary to the practice of the Egyptians, who had usually too much respect for the dead to indulge in it. Even in the case of an executed criminal the remains were returned to the relatives to be embalmed. Nevertheless Rhampsinites considered himself justified in adopting this measure. The body was exposed, and the mother, although she did not betray any sign of grief, insisted on her other son bringing it to her; otherwise she threatened to divulge his secret to the king. Seeing that he dared not disobey, the son devised a stratagem. He saddled some asses and loaded them with goatskins full of wine—skins were used in Egypt for water only at most times, wine being held in short narrow vases—he drove the asses past the guard and, when passing, stealthily untied one or two of the skins, and as the wine ran down and flowed on the ground began to beat his head and make a great outcry. The guards ran for vessels to save the precious liquid, and over the catastrophe they became quite friendly with the thief and gave him
When the king heard of the trick he was furious, and, determined by fair means or foul to discover its author, he hit upon the following plan. He ordered the princess, his daughter, to receive any man in the land, no matter whom, and to grant him whatever favour he might ask of her, but first she must make him tell her what was the cleverest and wickedest thing he had ever done. When the thief told her his trick she was to have him bound before he could escape. The princess was ready to do her father's bidding, but the thief, knowing well what the king had in his mind, resolved to circumvent him a third time. He cut off the arm of a newly dead man and, hiding it under his robe, obtained admission to the princess. On being asked the question that she put to all comers, he told her first about cutting off his brother's head in the trap, and then went on to tell how, having made the guards tipsy, he had cut down his brother's body. She at once called out and tried to seize him, but he placed in her hand that of the dead man, which she grasped firmly, believing it to be the thief's, and he escaped in the darkness of the room.
The king now owned himself beaten, and offered a free pardon and rich rewards to the man who had so
In the reign of the Pharaoh Petoubastis the Delta and great part of Lower Egypt were divided into two rival factions, one part being headed by the chieftain Kamenophis, Prince of Mendes, and the other ruled by the king-priest of Heliopolis, Ierharerou, and his ally Pakrourou, the great chieftain of the east. Only four nomes in the middle of the Delta were subject to Kamenophis, whilst Ierharerou had succeeded in establishing either his children or relations in most of the other nomes. Ierharerou possessed a cuirass to which he attached great value and which was generally regarded as a talisman. At his death Kamenophis, taking advantage of the mourning and confusion in Heliopolis, seized the cuirass and placed it in one of his own strongholds. Prince PimonÎ 'the little'—"PimonÎ of the strong fist," as he is sometimes called in the narrative—the successor of Ierharerou, demanded its restoration. Kamenophis refused, and hence arose a quarrel in which all the provinces of Egypt were implicated.
PimonÎ and Pakrourou both presented themselves before King Petoubastis, asking his permission to be revenged on Kamenophis; but Pharaoh, who knew that this would entail civil war, endeavoured to dissuade PimonÎ from taking steps against Kamenophis and, indeed, forbade him to proceed with his intentions, promising as compensation a splendid funeral for
Pharaoh then sent for Kamenophis, and requested him urgently to return the shield, but in vain. Kamenophis declined to do so.
Then said PimonÎ, "By Tem, the lord of Heliopolis, the great god, my god, were it not for Pharaoh's decree and that my respect for him protects you, I should kill you this very instant."
Kamenophis replied, "By the life of Mendes, the great god, the war which will break out in the nome, the battle which will break out in the city will stir up clan against clan, and man against man, before the cuirass shall be wrested from the stronghold where I have placed it."
The Horrors of War
Pakrourou then said before the king, "Is it right what Kamenophis has done, and the words he has just spoken are they not said to provoke us to anger that we may measure our strength against his? I will make Kamenophis and the nome of Mendes feel the shame of these words uttered to provoke civil war which Pharaoh has forbidden; I will glut them with war. I said nothing because I knew the king did not want
Pharaoh said, "Be neither boastful nor timid, Pakrourou, great chieftain of the east, but now go each one of you to your nomes and your towns in peace, and give me but five days, and I swear by Amen-Ra that I shall cause the cuirass to be put back in the place from which it was taken."
PimonÎ then said that if the cuirass were replaced nothing more should be said about it, and there should be no war; but if it were withheld, he would fight for it, against the whole of Egypt if necessary.
Kamenophis at this respectfully asked and obtained permission from Pharaoh to order all his men to arm themselves, and to go with him to the Lake of the Gazelle and prepare to fight.
Then PimonÎ, encouraged by Pakrourou, sent messages of a similar import to all his nomes and cities. Pakrourou further advised him to hasten to the Lake of the Gazelle and be there before Kamenophis had assembled all his men, and PimonÎ, with only one band of men, took his advice and was first in the field, intending to wait there till his brothers, at the head of their respective clans, should join him.
News of this was taken to Kamenophis, and he hastily assembled his four nomes, Tanis, Mendes, Tahait, and Sebennytos. Arrived at the lake, he at once challenged PimonÎ, and PimonÎ, though his other forces had not yet arrived, accepted the challenge.
PimonÎ put on a shirt of byssus embroidered with silver and gold, and over that a second shirt of gold tissue; he also donned his copper corselet and carried two golden swords; he put on his helmet and sallied forth to meet Kamenophis.
While they were fighting, Zinonfi, PimonÎ's young servant, ran off to watch for the forces that were to come to PimonÎ's aid, and he soon descried a flotilla so large that the river could hardly carry all the barges. They were the people of Heliopolis coming to help their chief. As soon as they came within earshot Zinonfi called out to them to hurry, because PimonÎ was being hard pressed by Kamenophis, which, indeed, was true, for his horse was slain under him.
Kamenophis redoubled his efforts when he saw the fresh forces arriving, and Petekhousou, PimonÎ's brother, challenged Anoukhoron, the king's son, to single combat. When Pharaoh heard this he was very angry. He went in person to the field of battle and forbade the combatants to proceed, and also commanded a truce until all the forces should be assembled.
Petoubastis and all the chieftains occupied prominent positions so that they could watch what was going on, and the men were as numerous as the sands of the seashore and their rage against each other uncontrollable. The bands of the four nomes were ranged behind Kamenophis, and the bands of the nome of Heliopolis behind PimonÎ the Little.
Then Petoubastis gave Pakrourou a signal and he armed himself and went down among the forces, stirring them all to deeds of valour; he pitted man against man, and great was the ardour he aroused in them.
Succour for Pakrourou
After Pakrourou had left the mÊlÉe, he met a mighty man in armour leading forty galleys and eight thousand soldiers. This was Moutoubaal, a prince of Syria, who had been warned in a dream to repair to the Lake of the Gazelle to help to regain the stolen cuirass. Pakrourou gave him a place, though all the forces were
After this Anoukhoron, the royal prince, was overthrown by Petekhousou, the brother of PimonÎ, but Pharaoh interposed and persuaded Petekhousou to spare his son, so the young man was allowed to withdraw unhurt.
The king said, "By Amen-Ra, the sceptre has fallen from the hands of Kamenophis, prince of Mendes. Petekhousou has vanquished my son, and the bands of the four strongest nomes in Egypt have been overthrown."
The Shield Regained
Then Minnemai, Prince of the Eupuantine, the son of Ierharerou, the priest-king, to whom the shield had belonged, advanced from Thebes with all his forces. They assigned him a place next the ship of Takhos, the chief soldier of the nome of Mendes, and it happened that in the galley of Takhos lay the cuirass itself. And Minnemai called upon his gods to let him behold his father's cuirass that he might be the instrument of its recapture. He armed himself, went to the galley of Takhos, and met there nine thousand soldiers guarding the cuirass of Ierharerou, son of Osiris. Minnemai placed thirty-four guards on the footbridge of the galley to prevent anyone from getting off, and he fell upon the soldiers guarding the cuirass. Takhos fought well and killed fifty-four men, but finally gave in and retired to his vessel, where Minnemai followed him with his Ethiopian warriors. The children of Ierharerou supported him and they seized the cuirass of Ierharerou.
Thus was the armour recaptured and brought back to its former place. There was great joy among the children of Ierharerou and the troops of Heliopolis. They went before Pharaoh and said to him, "Great master, have the history of the war of the cuirass written, and the names of the warriors who waged it, that posterity may know what a war was made in Egypt on account of the cuirass, in the nomes and in the cities; then cause the history to be engraved on a stone stele in the temple of Heliopolis." And King Petoubastis did as they asked.
The following story of the birth of Hatshepsut, the great queen, the beloved of the gods, mistress of all
In the land of the gods Amen-Ra held court. King of the gods was Amen-Ra, and the maker of men. On his right was Osiris, with the twin goddesses Isis and Nephthys, Hathor the goddess of love, and Horus and Anubis. On his left was Mentu, the god of war, with Geb, the earth-god, and Nut, the sky-goddess, the gods Atmu and Shu, and the goddess Tefnut. And to the assembled gods Amen-Ra spake thus:
"I will make a great queen, who shall rule over Egypt and Syria, Nubia and Punt, so that all lands may be united under her sway. Worthy must the maiden be of her great dominions, for she shall rule the whole world."
As he spoke the god Thoth entered, he who has the form of an ibis, that he may fly more swiftly than the swiftest arrow. In silence he listened to the words of Amen-Ra, the mightiest of the gods, the maker of men. Then he said:
"Behold, O Amen-Ra, there is in the land of Egypt a maiden of wondrous beauty. The sun in his circuit shines not on anything more fair. Surely it is fitting that she be the mother of the great queen of whom thou speakest."
"Thou sayest well," said Amen-Ra. "Where shall we seek this fair princess? What is her name?"
"Her name is Aahmes," answered Thoth; "she is wife to the King of Egypt, and dwelleth in his palace. I will lead thee to her."
"It is well," said Amen-Ra.
Then Thoth, in the shape of an ibis, flew toward the land of Egypt, and with him went Amen-Ra, in the form of the King of Egypt, and all the gods and
Silently the gods and goddesses entered the sleeping palace, and were conducted by Thoth to the chamber of Queen Aahmes. The queen lay asleep on a couch shaped like a lion, and as they gazed upon her they saw that Thoth had spoken truly, that she was indeed the fairest of mortal women, and they stood speechless with admiration for her beauty. But the fragrance which they had borne with them from the land of Punt awoke the maiden, who looked with astonishment on her supernatural visitors. Very magnificent was Amen-Ra, the king of the gods, the maker of men, as he stood before the queen. Jewels of gold and precious stones adorned his person, and his beauty was as the beauty of the sun, so that the maiden's heart was filled with delight. Amen-Ra placed in her hand the sign of life and the emblem of power, and the goddesses Neith and Selk raised her couch above the ground, so that she might be above the earth while she conversed with the gods.
At length the gods returned to the land of Punt, and Amen-Ra called for Khnum, the creator, the fashioner of the bodies of men.
"Fashion for me," said Amen-Ra, "the body of my daughter, and the body of her ka. A great queen shall I make of her, and honour and power shall be hers all the days of her life."
"O Amen-Ra," answered Khnum, the creator, "it shall be done as thou hast said. The beauty of thy daughter shall surpass that of the gods, and shall be worthy of her dignity and glory."
So Khnum fashioned the body of Amen-Ra's daughter and the body of her ka, the two forms
Then did the gods bring the bodies to the palace of the King of Egypt. Khnum, the creator, and Hekt, the goddess of birth, Isis, the great mother, and her twin sister Nephthys, Bes, the protector of children, and Meskhent and Ta-urt, all were present to hail the birth of Hatshepsut, the great queen, the daughter of Amen-Ra and Queen Aahmes.
Great were the rejoicings when the child was born, and loud the praises chanted in her honour. And in time she became ruler of all countries, rich and powerful and beloved of Amen-Ra, the great queen for whom she had been designed by the king of the gods.
In the valley of the Nile there was erected a temple to Queen Hatshepsut. The temple stands to this day, and is now known as Deir-el-Bahari, the Northern Convent.
The fragments of this story are inscribed on the Harris Papyrus. Like the story of the Predestined Prince, they were discovered in 1874 by Goodwin, who recognized in them the remnants of an historical narrative, and who informed the ArchÆological Society of his find. The beginning is lost. At the point where the narrative commences there are three characters: an Egyptian officer called Thoutii, the prince of a town in Syria, and his equerry. The tale deals with the recapture of Joppa (a town of Palestine mentioned in the Bible) by Thoutii's stratagem. The
In the reign of Thothmes III, King of Egypt (Eighteenth Dynasty), the Prince of Joppa rose in rebellion and murdered all the Egyptian soldiers that were quartered in the town. This news naturally excited Pharaoh's wrath, and he called together his nobles and generals and scribes to see what could be done. None of them, however, had any suggestion to make except Thoutii, a brilliant young infantry officer.
"Give me," he begged, "your magic cane, O my king, and a body of infantry and of charioteers, and I undertake to kill the Prince of Joppa and to take the town."
Pharaoh, who esteemed this officer highly and knew his worth, granted all that he asked—not exactly a modest request, for the cane was a talisman supposed to render invisible anyone into whose possession it fell.
Thoutii then marched to Palestine with his men. Having arrived there, he had a large skin bag made, big enough to hold a man, and he had irons made for feet and hands, one pair being especially large and strong; also shackles and yokes of wood, and four hundred jars. Then he sent to the Prince of Joppa the following message: "I am Thoutii, the Egyptian infantry general. King Thothmes was jealous of my bravery and sought to kill me; but I have escaped from him, and I have stolen his magic cane, which is hidden in my baggage; and, if you like, I will give it to you, and I will join forces with you, I and my men, the pick of the Egyptian army."
This message was very pleasant news to the Prince of Joppa, for he knew Thoutii's reputation, and knew
This was done: his horses were fed and tied up, the baggage was searched, and the magic cane found.
The Stratagem
Hearing this, the Prince of Joppa expressed his eager wish to behold the magic cane. Thoutii went and fetched it; then suddenly seizing the Prince by his clothes, he said, "Behold here King Thothmes' magic cane," and with that he raised his hand and struck the Prince on the forehead so that the latter fell down unconscious before him. Then he put him into the big leather sack he had with him and clapped the handcuffs on his wrists and the irons on his feet. The face of the dead man being invisible, Thoutii's stratagem was to pass off the corpse as his own. He had the two hundred soldiers put into an equal number of the four hundred jars he had brought with him and filled the remainder with the ropes and wooden shackles; then he sealed them, corded them, and gave them to as many strong soldiers, saying, "Go quickly and tell the Prince of Joppa's equerry that I am slain. Let him go and tell his mistress, the Princess of Joppa, that Thoutii is conquered, that she may open the city gates
After he had rested Thoutii sent a message to Pharaoh saying, "I have killed the Prince of Joppa and all the people of Joppa are prisoners. Let them be sent for and brought to Egypt, that your house may be filled with male and female slaves who will be yours for ever. Let Amen-Ra, thy father, the god of gods, be glorified."
CHAPTER VII: MAGIC
To the peoples of antiquity Egypt appeared as the very mother of magic. In the mysterious Nile country they found a magical system much more highly developed than any within their native knowledge, and the cult of the dead, with which Egyptian religion was so strongly identified, appeared to the foreigner to savour of magical practice. If the materials of the magical papyri be omitted, the accounts which we possess of Egyptian magic are almost wholly foreign, so that it is wiser to derive our data concerning it from the original native sources if we desire to arrive at a proper understanding of Egyptian sorcery.
Most of what has been written by Egyptologists on the subject of Egyptian magic has been penned on the assumption that magic is either merely a degraded form of religion, or its foundation. This is one of the results of the archÆologist entering a domain (that of anthropology) where he is usually rather at a loss. For example, we find Sir Gaston Maspero stating that "ancient magic was the very foundation of religion. The faithful who desired to obtain some favour from a god had no chance of succeeding except by laying hands on the deity, and this arrest could only be effected by means of a certain number of rites, sacrifices, prayers, and chants, which the god himself had revealed and which obliged him to do what was demanded of him."
Let us glance for a moment at the question of the origin of magic. Considerable diversity of opinion exists regarding this subject among present-day anthropologists, and the works of Frazer, Marett, Hubert, and Mauss, etc., although differing widely as regards its foundations, have thrown much light upon a hitherto obscure problem. All writers on the subject, however, appear to have ignored one notable circumstance in connexion with it—that is, the element of wonder, which is the true fount and source of veritable magic. According to the warring schools of anthropology, nearly all magic is sympathetic or mimetic in its nature. For example, when the barbarian medicine-man desires rain he climbs a tree and sprinkles water upon the parched earth beneath, in the hope that the deity responsible for the weather will do likewise; when the ignorant sailor desires wind, he imitates the whistling of the gale. This system is universal, but if our conclusions are well founded, the magical element does not reside in such practices as these. It must be obvious, as Frazer has pointed out, that when the savage performs an act of sympathetic magic he does not regard it as magical—that is, to his way of thinking it does not contain any element of wonder at all; he regards his action as a cause which is certain to bring about the desired effect, exactly as the scientific man of to-day believes that if he follows certain formulÆ certain results will be achieved. Now the true magic of wonder argues from effect to cause; so it would appear as if sympathetic magic were merely a description of proto-science, due to mental processes entirely similar to those by which scientific laws are produced and scientific acts are performed—that there is a
It would, however, be rash to attempt to differentiate sympathetic magic entirely from what I would call the 'magic of wonder' at this juncture; indeed, our knowledge of the basic laws of magic is too slight as yet to permit of such a process. We find considerable overlapping between the systems. For example, one of the ways by which evilly disposed persons could transform themselves into werewolves was by means of buckling on a belt of wolfskin. Thus we see that in this instance the true wonder-magic of animal transformation is in some measure connected with the sympathetic process, the idea being that the donning of wolfskin, or even the binding around one of a strip of the animal's hide, was sufficient to bestow the nature of the beast upon the wearer. In passing, I may say, for the sake of completeness, that I believe the magic of wonder to be almost entirely spiritistic in its nature, and that it consists of evocation and similar processes. Here, of course, it may be quoted against me that certain incenses, planetary signs, and other media known to possess affinities for certain supernatural beings were brought into use at the time of their evocation. Once more I admit that the two systems overlap; but that will not convince me that they are in essence the same.
Like all magic, Egyptian magic was of prehistoric origin. As the savage of to-day employs the sympathetic process, so did the savage of the Egyptian Stone Age make use of it. That he also was fully aware of the spiritistic side of magic is certain. Animism is the
But prehistoric logic did not stop here. So much premised, it extended its soul-theory to all animate beings, and even to things inanimate. Where, for example, did the souls of men go after death? Their bodies decayed, so it was only reasonable to suppose that they cast about them for other corporeal media. Failing their ability to enter the body of a new-born infant, they would take up their quarters in a tree, a rock, or any suitable natural object, and the terrified savage could hear their voices crying down the wind and whispering through the leaves of the forest, possibly clamouring or entreating for that food and shelter
Egyptian magic differed from most other systems in the circumstance that the native magician attempted to coerce certain of the gods into action on his behalf.
If our conclusions are correct, it would seem that Maspero's statement that magic is the foundation of religion is scarcely consonant with fact. We have seen that at least the greater part of barbarian magic so-called (that is, sympathetic magic) is probably not of the nature of magic at all, so that the scope of his
One of the most striking circumstances in connexion with Egyptian magic was the use of what has come to be known as 'names of power.' The savage fancies that there is a very substantial bond between a man and his name—that, in fact, magic may be wrought on a man just as easily through his name as through the possession of his hair or his nails. Indeed, primitive man regards his name as a vital portion of himself. Sir John Rhys has shown that among the ancient Celts there was a universal belief not only that the name was a part of the man, but that it was that part of him which is termed the 'soul,' and many barbarian races at the present day regard their names as vital parts of themselves and take extraordinary precautions to conceal their real names lest these should give to the witch, or shaman, a handle by which to injure their owners. Howitt has shown in a monograph on Australian medicine-men that the Australian aborigine believes that if an enemy has his name he has something which he can use magically to his detriment. The Australian black is always reluctant to reveal his
Occasionally the gods themselves vouchsafed to mankind the secret of their names, and divulged the formulas by which they might be evoked. We find a parallel in the mythology of certain North American Indian tribes, where the secrets of initiatory ceremonies and 'medicine' in general are divulged by deities to men.
Isis conjured Ra to tell his Name—Evelyn Paul.
There is no exact evidence that magical force was supposed in Egypt to be drawn from a great central reservoir like the orenda of the North American Indians, the kramat of the Malays, or the mana of the Melanesians. But it is possible that an examination of the texts which had for its end the discovery of the belief in such a force would prove successful. Magic had its recognized representatives; these were the 'kheri-heb' priests, and in the period of the Old Kingdom the higher offices in this caste were filled by sons of the Pharaohs. Great importance was laid upon the manner in which the spell or magical formula was spoken. When a magician once found that a certain formula was effective at a certain time, he was careful to repeat it, when next he desired to say it, in an exactly similar tone and in similar circumstances. This was called 'right speaking,'
In these circumstances, then, we see how universal must have been the belief in magic, and, trading upon this, many magical books were written and doubtless sold. One of the most interesting of those that have come down to us is the Harris Papyrus, which contains many spells and charms. Such manuscripts seem to have been housed in the royal libraries, and we read of how a certain official at the court of Rameses III (about 1200 B.C.), holding the office of overseer of the Treasury, conspired with certain of his fellows to dethrone the king. The conspiracy was discovered, and in the official account of it we read that Hui, overseer of the royal cattle, procured a magical book from the king's library by means of which he attempted to injure the king. Betaking himself to a secret place, he moulded figures of men in wax, and these he succeeded in smuggling into the royal palace through another official. The figures were evidently intended to work harm to the king. He was charged with carrying out "all the wickednesses which his heart could imagine," to the horror of the gods; and with making gods of wax and figures of men, which should cause the persons
Amulets of Hathor—Photo W.A. Mansell & Co.
In no country was the amulet more in use than in ancient Egypt. It was worn both by the dead and the living, and, indeed, every member of the body was under the specific protection of some such talisman. A number of the amulets found upon mummies are inscribed with words of power, or magic formulÆ, which would prove of use to them in the otherworld. Some of the more important amulets were those of the Heart, the Scarab, which protected the heart; the Pillow, which was placed under the neck of the mummy with the object of protecting its head; the Collar of Gold, which was intended to give the deceased power to free himself from his swathings; the amulet of the Eye of Horus,
The use of spells was universal. In the most primitive times the magician seems to have imagined that all that was necessary for him to do was to inform the evil demon that he intended to exorcize it. To the dead who haunted a certain house and brought illness into it he threatens destruction of their graves and deprivation of food-offerings. To a disease which has attacked a patient he explains that it has fastened upon a most unlikely subject, who would probably do it more harm than good. Later, however, we find the magician requesting the aid of the gods. He invokes Ra, begging that he will keep watch over the evil spirits, and relates to that god their delinquencies. Occasionally he himself takes the name of a divinity, and hurls his thunders at the demon or the malady that threatens his client, saying, for example, "Thou hast not the upper hand over me; I am Amen; I am the Great One, the Lord of Might." The magician was often guided in his choice of a guardian deity by episodes that occurred in the legends connected with him. For example, a god who had once triumphed over serpents would probably be the best protection against them. We find a certain spell which was supposed to cure scorpion stings desiring Ra to remove the poison as the goddess Bast the Cat was cured—an incident in the history of the goddess. But we find that the deities who were nearest humanity, and should typify in their legends the life of a man, were most generally invoked. The crocodile, for example, will hurry off when he is told how the body of Osiris lay in the water and was guarded by the gods. Isis and Horus at one time hid in the swamps of the Delta, and if this
All this is, of course, of the nature of sympathetic magic, and we can observe from it how often the spoken word can partake of the character of proto-science. But even in the case of the spoken word we have a cleavage between the two systems, for we find that it may consist, as in these last examples, of sympathetic allusion to an incident in the life of a god, or else of mere gibberish, which certainly constitutes it a part of the magic of wonder. A great many of these seemingly nonsensical spells consist of foreign words and expressions, some of them of Syrian origin. It is well known that the shamanistic class in savage communities is prone to invent a secret language or dialect of its own, and that the vocabulary of such a jargon is usually either archaic or else borrowed from a neighbouring language. For example, we find in one magical formula such a sentence as the following: "I am he that invokes thee in the Syrian tongue, the Great God, ZaalaÊr, Iphphon. Do thou not disregard the Hebrew appellation Ablanathanalb, AbrasilÔa."
A tale which well instances the high standing of the magician in ancient Egypt and the use of magical models or figures is that related in a papyrus of the Ptolemaic period regarding the prince Setne, who had studied to good purpose the manuscripts in the Double House of Life, or Library of Magical Books. He was conversing on one occasion with one of the king's wise men who appeared sceptical of his powers. In reply to his strictures upon the efficacy of magic Setne offered
The wise man thereupon very naturally requested Setne to tell him the repository of this marvellous volume, and learned that it was in the tomb of Nefer-ka-Ptah at Memphis. Thence Setne proceeded, accompanied by his brother, and passed three days and nights in seeking for the tomb of Nefer-ka-Ptah, which he eventually discovered. Uttering over it some magical words, the earth opened, and they descended to the chamber where the actual tomb was situated. The book, which lay in the sarcophagus, illuminated the place so brilliantly that they required no torches, and by its light they perceived in the grave not only its original inhabitant, but his wife and son, who, buried at Coptos, had come in their ka-shapes to reside with their husband and father. Setne informed them that he desired to remove the book, but Ahura, the wife of Nefer-ka-Ptah, earnestly requested him not to do so, and informed him how its possession had already proved unfortunate to others. Her husband, she said, had given up most of his time to the study of magic, and for the price of a hundred pieces of silver and two elaborate sarcophagi had bought from the priest of Ptah the secret of the hiding-place of the wonderful volume. The book was contained in an iron chest sunk in the middle of the river at Coptos; in the iron box was a bronze box; in the bronze box a box of
But the god Thoth was angry with him for what he had done, and acquainted Ra with the sacrilegious act. Ra at once decided that Nefer-ka-Ptah, his wife and child, should never return to Memphis; and whilst returning to Coptos, Ahura and her son fell into the
Magic very naturally played a large part in the practice of Egyptian medicine. Many illnesses were supposed to be caused by demoniac possession, and the only cure was the expulsion of the evil spirit who had taken up his abode in the body of the afflicted person. The Egyptian physician could not have found the practice of his art very arduous, for he theoretically divided the human body into thirty-six parts, each of which was presided over by a certain demon, and if the demon who attacked a specific part was properly invoked, it
It has been averred with much likelihood that the science of alchemy originated in ancient Egypt. The derivation of the word is usually referred to the Arabic al khemeia, but it has also been stated
The idea of animal transformation was evidently a very ancient one in Egypt. We find from the texts that it was thought that in the future life both the gods and men were able at will to assume the form of certain animals, birds, and plants. Nearly twelve chapters of the Book of the Dead are occupied with spells which provide the deceased with formulÆ to enable him to
In his valuable work upon Egyptian Magic, by far the most illuminating text-book on the subject, Dr. Budge says: "The Egyptians believed that as the souls of the departed could assume the form of any living thing or plant, so the 'gods,' who in many respects closely resembled them, could and did take upon themselves the forms of birds and beasts. This was the fundamental idea of the so-called 'Egyptian animal-worship,' which provoked the merriment of the cultured Greek, and drew down upon the Egyptians the ridicule and abuse of the early Christian writers." He further states that the Egyptians paid honour to certain animal forms because they considered they possessed the characteristics of the gods, to whom they made them sacred.
In another chapter we have dealt with the question of the totemic origin of certain of the Egyptian deities. There can be little doubt that the origin of the conception whereby the gods took upon themselves the forms of animals was a totemic one, and not magical at all in its basis. Regarding Dr. Budge's other statement that it is wrong to say that the Egyptians worshipped animals in the ordinary sense of the word, one must differentiate between the attitude of primitive man toward his personal or tribal totem and toward the full-fledged deity. It is extremely difficult at this time of day, even with the example of living totemic tribes before us, to ascertain the exact status of the totem as regards worship or adoration. The Egyptian god
We do not hear very much concerning animal transformation on earth—that is, few tales exist which describe the metamorphosis of a sorcerer or witch into an animal form. So far as one can judge, the idea of the werewolf or any similar form was unknown in ancient Egypt. But a kindred type of great antiquity was not wanting—that of the vampire. We do not find the vampire in any concrete form, but figured as a ghost—indeed, as the wicked or spiteful dead so common in Hindu, Burmese, and Malay mythology. The Egyptian ghost slew the sleeping child by sucking its breath, and, strangely enough, the charm employed against such a being was the same as that used to-day in the Balkan peninsula against the attacks of the vampire—to wit, a wreath of garlic, a plant the vampire is known to detest.
The astrological knowledge of the Egyptians appears to have been exercised chiefly in the casting of horoscopes. Certain gods presided over certain periods of time, while others were identified with the heavenly bodies, and all were supposed to have power over the events which occurred in the periods subject to their control. In the later papyri spheres or tables of nativity are found, by means of which the fate of a
Dreams were also greatly relied upon in the affairs of life. These were believed to be sent by the gods, and it is probable that the Egyptian who was exercised over his private affairs sought his repose in the hope of being vouchsafed a dream which would guide him in his conduct. Such a practice is in vogue amongst certain North American Indian tribes to-day. Savage man goes to sleep trusting that his totem will grant him a vision for the regulation of his future affairs. If the ancient Egyptian desired such illumination, he considered it wiser to sleep within a temple famous as the seat of an oracle. A class of professional interpreters existed whose business it was to make clear the enigmatic portions of dreams. It was thought that diseases might be cured by nostrums communicated by the gods during sleep.
The treatment of the mummy and the various ceremonies in connexion with embalmment were undoubtedly magical in origin. As each bandage was laid in its exact position certain words of power were uttered which were supposed to be efficacious in the preservation of the part swathed. After consecration the priest uttered an invocation to the deceased and then took a vase of liquid containing ten perfumes, with which he
CHAPTER VIII: FOREIGN AND ANIMAL GODS: THE LATE PERIOD
The attitude of the Egyptians as a nation toward 'other gods' seems to have been singularly free from any bigotry for their native deities, though of course the priesthood, of necessity, were more jealous and conservative in this respect. But the middle and lower classes adopted foreign gods freely, and in time the widespread belief in certain of these compelled official recognition and consequent inclusion in the Egyptian pantheon. Various reasons for this lack of exclusiveness are quite apparent. The state religion was purely a matter of royal and priestly organization, of moment to the attendant court of nobles and officials, but having no permanent or deep-seated effect on the people generally, each district following its local cult. Polytheistic worship was thus a national tendency, and therefore, when the people came into contact with foreign deities who possessed desirable qualities and powers, there was no sufficiently restraining force in their own religion to prevent them from becoming devotees of the strange god. Again, the divinity of another nation's god never seems to have been disputed, for if a nation were powerful, then that itself was sufficient proof of the divine and magical nature of their deity, and by so much, therefore, his power was to be feared and propitiated. That an element of fear was present in much of this god-adoption cannot be doubted. This would hold true especially in the case of the soldiery, who would propitiate gods of war belonging to nations who had shown themselves savage and furious in warfare; also in that of merchants, who, convoying their precious
Semitic Asia supplied the greatest number of gods borrowed by the Egyptians, foremost among them being Baal, Ashtoreth, Anthat, Reshpu, and the goddess Qetesh. The greatest of all is, of course, the Syrian Baal, the terrible god of war, also a personification of those terrors of the desert, the burning heat of the sun and the destroying wind. This god first became known to the Egyptians under the
Anthat was a war-goddess whose cult was widespread in Syria, and at the time when the Egyptians were making their Asiatic Empire she naturally became one of the adopted deities. Again, the huge number of Syrian captives brought into Egypt would undoubtedly introduce her worship as well as that of others into the country, and therefore it is no surprise to learn that in the reign of Thothmes III a shrine was built and dedicated to Anthat at Thebes. Rameses II, of the Nineteenth Dynasty, honoured this goddess often in his inscriptions, a custom followed by Rameses III, also a great warrior, and the latter gave to his favourite daughter the name of Banth-Anth, 'daughter of Anth.' Of the form of her worship little is known, but on Egyptian monuments she is called the "lady of heaven and mistress of the gods," and is depicted seated on a
Ashtoreth was called by the Egyptians "mistress of horses, lady of the chariot, dweller in Apollinopolis Magna." She is a Syrian deity, the terrible and destroying goddess of war, and her cult would seem to have been brought into Egypt during the Syrian campaign of Thothmes III. Her worship seems to have been well established in the country by the time of Amen-hetep III, for in a letter from Tushratta, king of the Mitanni, to this Pharaoh, he speaks of "Ishtar of Nineveh, Lady of the World," going down into Egypt in his own reign and that of his father, and seems to infer that her worship there has declined, for he begs Amen-hetep to make it increase tenfold. That it was widespread cannot be doubted. It flourished in the Delta, and was known there down to Christian times. The eastern quarter of Tanis was dedicated to Ashtoreth as was a temple near by on the shores of the Serbonian lake. Mention is made of a priest of Memphis who served Ashtoreth together with the moon-god Ah, for she was also regarded as a moon-goddess, and was identified with one of the forms of Hathor, or Isis-Hathor. In the treaty concluded between the Kheta and the Egyptians she is mentioned as the national goddess of the Syrians, though by this time she was
Qetesh in her native Syria seems to have been worshipped as a nature-goddess with rites that tended to the licentious. In Egypt she came to be identified with one of the forms of Hathor, the goddess of love and beauty, also as a moon-goddess. By some authorities she is considered to have been another form and aspect of Ashtoreth. In Egyptian art she is represented as standing upon a lion, her figure entirely nude; in her right hand she holds lotus blossoms and a mirror, while in her left are two serpents. At a later period she is still depicted in the same attitude, but on her head she wears the headdress of Hathor. On inscriptions of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties she is called "lady of heaven, mistress of all the gods, eye of Ra, who has none like unto her." She was prayed to for gifts of life and health, and that after extreme old age her devotees might have a good burial in the west of Thebes, proving that her worship existed in the capital of the country. She sometimes appears with Amsu and the god Reshpu, with whom she seems to be associated as one of a trinity.
Reshpu is another Syrian god whose cult became known in Egypt, the chief centre of his worship being at Het-Reshp, in the Delta. In Syria he was regarded as a god of war, and in Egyptian monuments and temples he is depicted in the form of a warrior with shield and spear in his left hand and a club in his right. Above his forehead projects a gazelle, which would seem to be an ancient symbol of the god denoting his sovereignty over the desert. His titles as given in the Egyptian texts, where he is described as "the great god, the lord of eternity, the prince of everlastingness, the lord of twofold strength among the company of gods," are largely borrowed from the native deities. Reshpu corresponds to the god known to the Phoenicians and worshipped both in Cyprus and Carthage, and is considered by some authorities to be a god of the burning and destructive power of fire, also of the lightning.
Besides supplying the Egyptians with specific deities, Semitic thought influenced their religious ideas regarding the mythology and nature of their own gods. Certain inanimate objects—especially stones, and in some cases trees—under this influence came to be looked upon as incorporations of deity, as that of the sun-god in Heliopolis, while a sign representing the archaic form of the symbol Kh is the usual determinative of the name Set. It is a circumstance of some significance that the Asiatic deities in representation, as regards physical appearance and symbolism, are depicted according to the Egyptian religious convention; but with gods of African origin it is far otherwise. They are figured as hideous, frightful, distorted, and enormously fat creatures, resembling the negro human
It is undoubted that many local cults existed in different parts of Egypt and that gods of many and varied origins were the presiding deities, but usually their power remained purely local and never attained to any great influence or fame.
Bes—Photo W.A. Mansell & Co.
From the many sources whence comes our knowledge of ancient Egypt there is to be gathered a most comprehensive survey of the great extent and influence which animal-worship attained to in that country. It prevailed there from the earliest times and was far older than Egyptian civilization. That much of it is of totemic origin cannot be gainsaid, an origin to be
The inspiring cause of animal-worship was undoubtedly at first nothing more or less than fear, with an admixture of awesome admiration of the creature's excelling power and strength. Later there developed the idea of animals as typifying gods, the actual embodiments of divine and superhuman attributes. Thus the bull and the ram, possessors of exceptional procreative energy, came to represent gods of nature and the phenomena of yearly rejuvenescence, as is stated by Wiedemann: "The generative power in the animal was identical with the force by which life is renewed in nature continually and in man after death." Throughout Egypt the bull and the cow, the latter as typifying fertility, were worshipped as agricultural gods.
Again, to the Egyptian mind, incapable of abstract thought, an immaterial and intangible deity was an impossible conception. A god, and more so by reason of his godhead, must manifest and function in an actual body. The king was believed to be an incarnation of a god, but he was apart and only one, and as the Egyptian everywhere craved the manifestation of and communion with his gods, it thus came about that incarnations of deity and its many attributes were multiplied. Certain animals could represent these to a greater degree than man, though of course to Egyptian thought man was the standard by which all in the universe was to be measured and weighed. The gods were but little greater than men; they were limited, and might know death. Their immortality was only acquired by the power of transmigration from one body to another, escaping human death by transference to successive forms and a renewal of the life force.
The symbolism of the Egyptian religion is mostly
Procession of the Sacred Bull
From the picture in the Corcoran Art Gallery, Washington, by F.A. Bridgman.
From the earliest times the bull was worshipped in Egypt as the personification of strength and virility and might in battle. Manetho traces the cult of Apis to Kaiekhos, a king of the Second Dynasty, who appointed a chosen bull, Hap, to be a god; but Ælian ascribes this to Mena, the first historical king of Egypt.
Much of our knowledge concerning this cult is derived from Greek sources. Herodotus gives the following description of Apis: "He is the calf of a cow which is incapable of conceiving another offspring, and the Egyptians say that lightning descends upon the cow from heaven and that from thence it brings forth Apis. This calf has the following marks: it is black and has a square spot of white on the forehead; and on the back the figure of an eagle; and in the tail double hairs, and on the tongue a beetle."
Again, Diodorus gives an account of the finding of the Apis and the method of its installation on the death
Great honour was also paid to the mother of the chosen bull, and apartments in the temple were set apart for her beside the splendid ones occupied by the Apis. This animal was given rich beds to lie upon, its food was of the purest and most delicate, while water from a special well at Memphis was given to it alone, the water of the Nile being considered fattening. A number of carefully selected cows were presented to the Apis, and these again had their attendant priests. Usually the sacred bull was kept in seclusion, but when on certain occasions he appeared in public a crowd of boys marched in procession beside him singing hymns. The birthday of the Apis was
Thus in the temple of Ptah were great honours paid to the Apis bull, and the Pharaohs gave lavishly of their wealth to its cult, and foreigners, such as Alexander the Great and Titus, presented it with offerings. Oracles, as usual, were looked for from this god, and the method of obtaining them is thus described by Wiedemann:
"Chiefly it was renowned for its oracles, which were imparted in very various ways. When the bull licked the garments of the celebrated Eudoxus of Cnidus, this signified the astronomer's approaching death; a like fate was predicted to Germanicus when it refused to eat at his hand; and the conquest of Egypt by Augustus was announced beforehand by its bellowing. Some inquiries were answered by the animal's passing into one or other of the two rooms placed at its disposition, and others by dreams which were vouchsafed to inquirers who slept in the temple, and which were explained by the sacred interpreters. Other inquiries, again, though presented to the creature itself, found their reply through the voices of children playing before the temple, whose words assumed to the believing inquirer the form of a rhythmic answer to his question. Prophecies of a general kind took place during the procession of the Apis." Of this Pliny says: "Then the youths who accompanied him sang hymns in his honour, while the Apis appeared to understand all, and to desire that he should be worshipped. Suddenly the spirit took possession of the youths and they prophesied."
There were also sacrifices made to the Apis, and these, strangely enough, were oxen, chosen with the greatest care. The head of the slaughtered animal was usually thrown into the Nile with the following words pronounced above it: "If any evil be about to befall either those who now sacrifice or upon the land of Egypt, may it be averted on this head."
Some authorities state that after a certain number of years the Apis was slain and a new one obtained, but it is generally believed that the Apis died a natural death. Its body was embalmed and general mourning was observed. The mummy was buried with all magnificence.
At Heliopolis another bull, Mnevis, was worshipped as typifying the sun and its life-giving powers. Manetho ascribes this cult also to Kaiekhos, of the Second Dynasty, as well as the worship of the Ram of Mendes.
This obtained chiefly in the Deltaic cities, such as Hermopolis, Lycopolis, and Mendes, the last named being the most famous shrine. The origin of this worship was merely that of a local and tribal animal god, but, persisting through the changing civilization, it became of more than local influence as the city grew in wealth and importance, while the priesthood were among the most wealthy and powerful in Egypt, and the animal god was identified "first with the indigenous god Osiris, secondly with the sun-god Ra, and thirdly with the great Ram-god of the South and Elephantine, i.e. Khnemu."
Greek writers furnish us with much graphic material concerning these animal cults, as in some instances they were eye-witnesses of the ritual connected with them. Herodotus states that the god Pan and another goat-like deity were worshipped with a wealth of symbolic display and gorgeous rite as gods of generation and fecundity. As in many countries where animal worship obtained the beast chosen for adoration was picked from a number because of certain distinguishing marks upon its hide, was enthroned with much pomp and received an imposing public funeral on its decease.
On the stele of Mendes deciphered by Mariette was found an inscription stating that Ptolemy II Philadelphus rebuilt the temple of Mendes and assisted in person at the enthronement of two Rams, and in a relief on the upper portion of this stele are to be seen the figures of two royal Ptolemies and an ArsinoË making offerings to the Ram and his female counterpart Hatmehit.
Sebek
The crocodile was the incarnation of the god Sebek. It would seem beyond doubt that abject fear was the primal origin of the worship of this repulsive creature, and the idea that its evil and menacing traits might be averted by propitiation, for in the dry season these reptiles wandered over the cultivated lands and devoured all at will. Later, beneficent attributes were ascribed to it, but the dark side always persisted. In the benign aspect he is connected with Ra, and again with Osiris, though in legendary lore he is both the friend and foe of Osiris. One version tells how a crocodile carried the dead body of Osiris safely to land upon its back, whilst another relates that only by Isis placing Horus in a little ark woven of papyrus reeds was she able to protect him against the attacks of the malevolent Sebek. This clearly identifies him with Set, the murderer of Osiris, and in this connexion the powers of darkness are symbolized by four crocodiles, who are shown in the Book of the Dead as menacing the deceased. Whilst still living, men sought deliverance from these horrible shapes of the underworld by means of incantations.
But again he is said to be beneficent to the dead, and in the Pyramid Texts it is Sebek who restores sight to the eyes of the deceased, who, indeed, revives all his faculties, is his guide in the untried new life, and helps him to overthrow Set, the evil one who preys upon every 'Osiris.' In this character he is the helper and protector of the child Horus. But his characters are multiple, and he is to be found participating in the rites of all the other gods of the Egyptian pantheon.
Quite in consonance with this is the fact that while in some parts of Egypt the crocodile was held sacred, in
Herodotus also states these conflicting views regarding the crocodile, together with many of the fabulous stories of its wisdom and habits. He tells how at Thebes and Lake Moeris they were held sacred, and how when tame the people bedecked them with jewels, placing bracelets on their fore-paws, while they were fed on the most delicate foods. After death the body was embalmed with many rites and buried in the subterranean Labyrinth, a place held so sacred that Herodotus was not allowed to enter it.
The centre of this worship was Krokodilopolis, in the FayÛm, and Strabo, who visited Egypt during the reign of the Emperor Augustus, gives the following account in which he tells that the sacred crocodile "was kept apart by himself in a lake; it is tame and gentle to the priests. It is fed with bread, flesh, and wine, which strangers who come to see it always present. Our host, a distinguished person, who was our guide about the city, accompanied us to the lake, and brought from the supper table a small cake, dressed meat, and a small vessel containing honey and milk. The animal was lying on the edge of the lake. The priests went up to it; some of them opened its mouth, another put the cake into it, then the meat, and afterward poured down the honey and milk. The animal then leaped into the lake and crossed to the other side. When another stranger arrived with his offering, the priests took it and, going round to
This cult lasted far into the Roman period. Sebek also had his oracle, and foretold the demise of King PtolemÆus by refusing to listen to him or obey the attendant priests.
In religious art Sebek is often represented as a crocodile-headed man wearing the solar disk with a urÆus, or, again, with a pair of horns and the plumes of Amen.
The lion could hardly fail to be the centre of a cult, and there is ample proof that this animal was, from early dynastic times, worshipped for his great strength and courage. He was identified with the solar deities, with the sun-god Horus or Ra. The Delta was the home of the Egyptian lion, and the chief centre of the cult was the city of Leontopolis, in the Northern Delta, where, according to Ælian, the sacred lions were fed upon slaughtered animals, and sometimes a live calf was put in the den that they might have the pleasure of killing it. Whilst the feeding was proceeding the priests chanted and sang. But the same writer also states that lions were kept in the temple at Heliopolis, as well as at many other places throughout Egypt.
Rameses II accompanied by a Lion—Evelyn Paul.
The outstanding characteristic of the lion was that of guardianship, and this is to be found in the part played by the ancient lion-god Aker, who guarded the gate of the dawn through which the sun passed each morning. The later idea that the sun-god passed through a dark passage in the earth which hid his
The most famous of all is, of course, the wonderful 'Sphinx' at Gizeh, the symbol of the sun-god Ra, or rather his colossal abode erected there, facing the rising sun that he might protect the dead sleeping in the tombs round about.
There were many lion-headed gods and goddesses, in some cases personifying the destructive power. In the underworld lion-headed deities guarded some of the halls and pylons there, and that the lion was connected in some way with the dead is proved by the fact that the head of the bier was always made in the form of a lion's head, while the foot was not seldom decorated with a lion's tail.
A curious point is that it was evidently permissible to kill the lions of another country, if not those of Egypt, for we find that Amen-hetep III boasted of having shot with his own bow one hundred and two fierce lions. Rameses II and Rameses III both kept a tame lion, which accompanied them into battle and actually attacked the enemy. In this case, however, it is evident that primarily the lion was a symbol of guardianship.
The cat was regarded both as an incarnation of Bast, the goddess of Bubastis, and therefore sacred to her, and as a personification of the sun. Throughout Egyptian mythology the cat is to be found, and generally in a beneficent aspect. In the Book of the Dead it is a cat who cuts off the head of the serpent of darkness and who assists in the destruction of the foes of Osiris. On every side there is ample evidence that everywhere in Egypt the cat was held in great reverence after the Twenty-second Dynasty. The classical writers are again our authorities. Diodorus relates that the cats were fed on bread and milk and slices of Nile fish, and that the animals came to their meals at certain calls. After death their bodies were carefully embalmed and, with spices and drugs, swathed in linen sheets. The penalty of death was meted out to anyone who killed a cat, be it by accident or of intent, and a case is given in which a Roman who had killed a cat was set upon by the enraged populace and made to pay for the outrage with his life. A passage from Herodotus further illustrates the esteem in which these animals were held: "When a conflagration takes place a supernatural impulse seizes on the cats. For the Egyptians, standing at a distance, take care of the cats and neglect to put out the fire; but the cats, making their escape, and leaping over the men, throw themselves into the fire; and when this happens great lamentations are made among the Egyptians. In whatsoever house a cat dies a natural death all the family shave their eyebrows only, but if a dog die they shave their whole body and the head. All cats that die are carried to certain sacred houses, where, being first embalmed, they are buried in the city of Bubastis."
Mummied Cats—In the British Museum
Dogs were held in great honour by the Egyptians, as in the city of Cynopolis, yet strangely enough, they were never looked upon as a possible incarnation of a god, though there seems to have been some confusion of the dog with the jackal, sacred to Anubis, who ministered to Osiris and acted as guide to the souls of the dead. Another animal so confounded was the wolf, which was specially venerated at Lycopolis. The fact that the jackal was to be found chiefly in the deserts and mountains where tombs were usually located led to its early association with the dead and the underworld in Egyptian mythology, the character ascribed to it being beneficent and that of a guide.
Another cult probably founded on fear was that of the hippopotamus. Ta-urt, the hippopotamus-goddess, came in time to be identified with nearly every goddess in the Egyptian pantheon, and though her attributes are those of benevolence and protectiveness, the original traits of ferocious destructiveness were not wholly obliterated, for we find these personified in the monster, half-hippopotamus, called Amemt, who attends the Judgment Scene. In this same scene is the dog-headed ape, who sits and watches the pointer of the scales and reports the results to Thoth. This animal was greatly revered by the Egyptians. The cult is probably extremely ancient. Apes were kept in many temples, mostly those of the lunar deities, as that of Khensu at Thebes.
Two animals, the ass and the pig, attained a peculiar reputation for evil, though in some aspects looked upon as sacrosanct. They were always connected with the powers of darkness and evil. In the case of the ass opinion seems to have fluctuated, for in some instances this animal figures as a personification of the sun-god Ra. Many smaller animals are to be found in the mythology of Egypt, among which may be mentioned the hare, which was worshipped as a deity, the shrew-mouse, sacred to the goddess Buto, the ichneumon, and the bat, whilst reptiles were represented by the tortoise, associated with night, therefore with darkness and evil; and the serpent, clearly propitiated through fear at first, though afterward credited with beneficent motives. The urÆus became the symbol of divinity and royalty, a symbol worn by the gods and the kings. But the evil side was undoubtedly prominent in the mind of the Egyptian, for all the terrors of death and the Unknown were personified in the monster serpent Apep, who led his broods of serpents against both gods and men in the gloom of the underworld. Others were the scorpion, associated sometimes with evil, but also sacred to Isis; and the frog, worshipped in pre-dynastic times as the symbol of generation, birth, and fecundity. This cult was the most ancient in Egypt and is connected with the creation myth. The goddess Heqt, identified with Hathor, is depicted with the head of a frog.
Amongst birds worshipped by the Egyptians, one of the most important was the ibis. It was associated with Thoth and the moon, and in the earliest period
Another bird held in great reverence was the bennu, a bird of the heron species which gave rise to the mythical bird, the phoenix. It is identified with the sun, a symbol of the rising and the setting sun. Many fables arose concerning this bird, and are recounted by Herodotus and Pliny. Another sun-bird was the falcon, sacred to Horus, Ra, and Osiris, and this was worshipped throughout Egypt in the pre-dynastic period. In another form, represented with a human head, it was symbolic of the human soul, a
Though as a country Egypt was not rich in trees, yet certain of the family played a not unimportant part in the religious cult, so much so that tree-worship has been accepted as a fact by most Egyptologists. That these trees were held in special veneration would support that belief, though recorded instances of actual tree-worship are rare. This Wiedemann attributes to the same reason that accounts for the scant notice taken in Egyptian texts of animal-worship, though we know from other sources that it formed the most considerable part in popular religion. And the reason is that official religion took but little notice of the 'minor' divinities to whom the people turned rather than to the greater gods; that the priestly class hardly admitted to their pantheon the 'rustic and plebeian' deities of the lower classes. He goes on to say that "so far as we can judge, the reception of tree-worship into temple-service and mythology was always the result of a compromise; the priests were compelled to make concessions to the faith of the masses and admit into the temples the worship of the people's divinities; but they did so grudgingly, and this explains the apparent insignificance
In their religious symbolism we find the ancient sacred tree which grew in the 'Great Hall' of Heliopolis on the place where the solar cat slew that great serpent of evil, Apep, the place, too, from which the Phoenix rose. The leaves of this tree possessed magical powers, for when Thoth or the goddess Safekht wrote thereon the name of the monarch, then was he endowed with immortality. Again, there was the wonderful tree, a tamarisk, which wound its stem and branches about the chest that held the dead Osiris. An olive-tree is mentioned, too, the habitation of a nameless demon.
The sycamore, whose shade was so welcome in the brazen glare of Egypt, had its counterpart in the Land of the Dead, and from its midst leaned out a Hathor, Lady of the Underworld, offering sustenance and water to the passing souls. Sometimes it is a palm-tree from which she ministers to the dead, and perhaps it is a leaf from this tree circled by inverted horns which stands for the peculiar symbol of Safekht, the goddess of learning. But the sycamore seems to have been first favourite, and on some monuments it is represented with peasants gathered round fervently paying their devotions to it and making offerings of fruit and vegetables and jars of water. It was always held as sacred to Nut and Hathor, and their doubles were believed to inhabit it, a certain species being regarded as "the living body of Hathor on earth"; indeed, the Memphite Hathor was called the 'Lady of the Sycamore.'
As to the later development of this belief Wiedemann states: "In Ptolemaic times a systematic attempt was made to introduce this form of cult into the temple of every nome; according to the contemporary lists relating to the subject, twenty-four nomes worshipped
Amongst flora the only kind which may be said to be sacred is the lotus. In Egyptian symbolism and decoration it is to be found everywhere. From the cup of a lotus blossom issues the boy Horus, the 'rising sun,' and again it is the symbol of resurrection, when Nefer-tem, crowned with the flowers, grants continuance of life in the world to come. On the altars of offering the blossoms were laid in profusion.
The conclusion of the New Empire and the succession of political chaos during what is known as the Libyan period witnessed what was really, so far as Egyptian religion is concerned, the beginning of the end. Thenceforward a gradual decline is apparent in the ancient faith of the Pharaohs, a subtle decay which the great revival of the eighth century and onward was powerless to arrest. The ever-increasing introduction into it of foreign elements, Greek and Persian and Semitic, and the treasuring of the dry husks of ancient things, from which the soul had long since departed—these
At the beginning of the Libyan period, then, there were a number of petty rulers in the land of Egypt—a monarch held court at Tanis, in the Delta; at Thebes the priesthood of Amen's cult were the rulers; other districts were governed by the chief men among the Libyan soldiery. One of these latter, Sheshonk by name, attained supremacy about the middle of the tenth century B.C., and as his capital was at Bubastis, Bast, the cat-headed goddess of that locality, became for a time supreme deity of Egypt, while other Delta divinities also came into vogue. A share of the worship also fell to Amen. It is remarkable that this deity was himself the ruler of Thebes, being represented by a Divine Wife, always the eldest princess of the ruling family. So firm was the belief in the divine government of Thebes that no human monarch of the Late period, however powerful, made any attempt to take the city. Meanwhile a revulsion of feeling occurred against Set, the dark brother of Isis and Osiris. Hitherto his position among the gods of the Egyptian pantheon had been unquestioned, but now he was thrown from his high estate and confused or identified with the dragon Apep; he was no longer a god, but a devil.
The cult of the oracle flourished greatly during the decadent period, and afforded, as we may conjecture, considerable scope for priestly ingenuity. The usual method of consulting the oracle was to write on papyrus certain words, whether of advice or judgment, which it was proposed to put into the mouth of the deity, and to which he might assent by nodding.
Toward the end of the eighth century B.C. a great religious reaction set in. Hitherto the brilliant opening of the New Empire, particularly the time of Rameses II, had set a model for the pious of the Late period; now the Old Kingdom, its monuments, rites, and customs, its fervent piety and its proud conservatism, was become the model epoch for the whole nation. It was, however, less a faithful copy than a caricature of the Old Kingdom which the Decadent period provided. All that was most strange and outrÉ in the ancient religion was sought out and emulated. Old monuments and religious literature were studied; the language and orthography of long-past centuries were revived and adopted; and if much of this was incomprehensible to the bulk of the people, its very mystery but made it the more sacred. In the funerary practices of the time the antiquarian spirit is very evident. Ancient funerary literature was held in high esteem; the Pyramid Texts were revived; old coffins, and even fragments of such, were utilized in the burying of the dead. The tomb furniture was elaborate and magnificent—in the case of rich persons, at least—while even the poorest had some such furnishings provided for them. Ushabti figures of blue faience were buried with the deceased, to accomplish for him any compulsory labour he might be called upon to do in the domain of Osiris, and scarabs also were placed in his coffin. The rites and ceremonies of mummification followed those of the Old Kingdom, and were religiously carried out. The graves of even the royal Thebans were not so magnificent as those of private persons of this era. Yet because their inscriptions were almost invariably borrowed from the Old Kingdom,
A very prominent feature of the religion of the Late period, and one which well illustrates the note of exaggeration already mentioned, was the worship of animals, carried by the pious Egyptian to a point little short of ludicrous. Cats and crocodiles, birds, beetles, rams, snakes, and countless other creatures were reverenced with a lavishness of ceremony and ritual which the Egyptian knew well how to bestow. Especially to Apis, the bull of the temple of Ptah in Memphis, was worship accorded. The SaÏte king Amasis, who did a great deal in connexion with the restoration of ancient monuments, is mentioned as having been especially devoted to the sacred bull, in whose honour he raised the first of the colossal sarcophagi at Saqqara. But these elaborate burial rites were not reserved for individual sacred animals; they were accorded to entire classes. It was a work of piety, for instance, to mummify a dead cat, convey the remains to Bubastis, where reigned the cat-headed Bast, and
It is notable that, despite the exclusiveness which characterized this phase of the Egyptian religion and the contempt with which the Egyptians regarded everything that was not of their land, several foreign elements crept into their faith and were incorporated with it during the SaÏtic and Persian supremacies. The oracles, which played a conspicuous part in the religious government of the country, were probably not of Egyptian origin; the burning of sacrifices was a Semitic custom which the people of the Nile valley had adopted. Already there was a considerable Greek element in Egypt, and in the time of Amasis a Greek town—Naukratis—had been founded there. It is therefore not improbable that Greek ideas also entered into the national faith, colouring the ancient gods, and perhaps suggesting to Herodotus that resemblance which caused him to identify the divinities of Egypt with those of Greece—Osiris with Dionysos, Isis with Demeter, Horus with Apollo, Set with Typhon, and so on. Naturally this identification became much more general and complete in later years, when the Hellenes were masters in Egypt.
Besides these foreign ideas grafted on the Egyptian religion, there were innovations suggested by the native priests themselves, such as the deification of certain national heroes admired by the populace for their skill in learning and magic. Such hero-gods were Imhotep, a distinguished author and architect under King Zoser at an early period of dynastic history, and Amenhetep, son of Hapu, who was thought to have seen
If the SaÏte rulers endeavoured to keep on good terms with the priesthood, the Persian monarchs who succeeded them were no whit behind in this matter. Even the boldest of them found it to his advantage to bow before the native deities, and to give to these his protection. Meanwhile the Egyptian dynasts, who ruled contemporaneously with the Persians, were allowed to proceed unmolested with the building of temples and monuments. Strangely enough, in view of the nearness of the Greek conquest and the consequent amalgamation of the religions of Greece and Egypt, this period was characterized by a hatred and contempt on the part of the Egyptians for all foreigners dwelling in their cities. Kambyses, who heaped indignity upon the Apis bull and finally slew the animal, was afterward persuaded by his physician, Usa-hor-res-net, to recant his heresy, and was further induced to banish foreigners out of the temple area and to destroy their houses. Other rulers levied taxes on Greek imports, devoting the revenue thus obtained to the goddess Neith.
Horus the Child.
As has been said, Greek ideas had already found their way into the religion of Egypt when the Alexandrine conquest in the fourth century B.C. made the Greeks dominant. Yet the ancient religion held its ground and maintained its established character in all essential respects. The Hellenic monarchs vied with their predecessors in the tolerance and respect which they accorded to the native religion. It was they who
This was the great epoch of temple-building in Egypt. The temples of Dendereh, EdfÛ, Kom Ombo, PhilÆ, and many other famous structures were raised under Ptolemaic and Roman rulers. For the favours shown them by the conquerors the priests were duly grateful, even to the extent of deifying their rulers while they were yet alive. It was said of Ptolemy and his consort that "the beneficent gods have benefited the temples in the land and greatly increased the dignity of the gods. They have provided in every way for Apis, Mnevis, and the other esteemed sacred animals with great sumptuousness and cost." There was even a new order
During the period of Roman ascendancy the high-priest was the most important religious official within a considerable area, acting as the representative of a still higher Roman official, the high-priest of Alexander and of all Egypt. The priests of the larger temples, on which grants of money and land had been lavishly bestowed, were doubtless sufficiently well provided for, but in the smaller temples things were far otherwise, if we are to judge from the evidence at our disposal. The Theban priests especially were regarded as sages well versed in the lore of antiquity, and as such were much sought after by travellers from Rome. In Thebes also were priestesses, consecrated to the service of Amen, the god of that district, to whom the Greeks as well as the Egyptians rendered homage, identifying him with Zeus.
The worship of animals continued unabated during the Hellenic period; it is even probable that this phase of the Egyptian religion had become more pronounced under the Greek rule, for Strabo, writing in the time of Augustus, asserts that statues of sacred animals had practically displaced those of the gods. The sacred Ram (Khnemu) of Mendes was worshipped both by conquered and conquerors, as was the Apis bull and the sacred crocodile, and it would seem that the temple revenues were at times increased by the displaying of these animals to the curious gaze of strangers.
Meanwhile Greek and Egyptian ideas were becoming more and more completely fused. As already mentioned, Amen was identified with Zeus, Isis with Demeter, Hathor with Aphrodite, Osiris with Pluto, Set with Typhon, Bast with Artemis, and Horus with Apollo. This feature was very strikingly exemplified in the god Sarapis,
"Ptolemy, surnamed the Saviour, had a dream wherein a certain colossean statue, such as he had never seen before, appeared unto him, commanding him to remove it as soon as possible from the place where it then stood to Alexandria. Upon this the king was in great perplexity, as he knew neither to whom the statue belonged nor where to look for it. Upon his relating the vision to his friends, a certain person named Sosibius, who had been a great traveller, declared that he had seen just such a statue as the king described at Sinope. Soteles and Dionysius were hereupon immediately dispatched in order to bring it away with them, which they at length accomplished, though not without much difficulty and the manifest interposition of providence. Timotheus the Interpreter and Manetho, as soon as the statue was shown to them, from the Cerberus and Dragon that accompanied it concluded that it was designed to represent Pluto, and persuaded the king that it was in reality none other than the Egyptian Sarapis; for it must be observed that the statue had not this name before it was brought to Alexandria, it being given to it afterward by the Egyptians, as the equivalent, in their opinion, to its old one of Pluto."
Another version of the tale asserts that the people of Sinope would not consent to part with the statue of their god, whereupon the statue of its own accord set sail for Alexandria, which it reached at the end of three days. But whatever the means by which Ptolemy contrived to bring the statue to Egypt, there is no doubt that his provision of a god which could be worshipped both by Greeks and Egyptians, without violation of the principles of either, was a diplomatic move which was justified in its results. In the temples
If Sarapis was one of the most important of Egyptian deities of this period, Horus the Child (the Greek Harpocrates) was one of the best-loved. In the early centuries of the Christian era he is shown as a child, sometimes seated in a lotus-blossom, sometimes in a ship, or again enthroned as a follower of the sun-god; frequently he carries a cornucopia or a jar. It is as a child that he was loved and worshipped by the people, with whom he seems to have been a universal favourite. Another popular deity was Isis, some of whose forms were decidedly Grecian. She was the goddess of Alexandria and patron of sea-faring, the Aphrodite of the Greeks and the Isis of the Egyptians, and at times she is confused with Hathor. She and Osiris are also figured as serpents, though the god of the dead is more often represented in his Sarapis form, ruling in the underworld and accompanied by Cerberus. Another deity who became popular during the Hellenic period, though formerly occupying a very obscure position in the Pantheon, was the god Bes, figured as an armed warrior, still, however, retaining his grotesque character. A figure borrowed, doubtless, from Christianity represents Isis and Horus in a posture strongly reminiscent of the Madonna and Child.
The cult of the Old Kingdom persisted through the early, and perhaps even into the later, Hellenic period. Those temples raised in the time of the Ptolemies
During the early centuries of the Christian era foreign religions began to penetrate the land of the Pharaohs and to mingle with the GrÆco-Egyptian compound in a manner most perplexing to the student of the period. The predominant alien faith, and the one which finally triumphed, was Christianity. Osiris, the Greek gods, and the archangel Sabaoth are mentioned in the same breath. In the magical texts especially this confusion is noticeable, for they frequently contain Christian, Jewish, Greek, and Egyptian allusions. Doubtless the magicians reasoned that if the deities of one faith failed them those of another might prove more successful, and so, to make assurance doubly sure, they included all the gods they knew in their formulÆ.
Meanwhile a change took place in the popular conception of the underworld. It was still the Duat,
At length, however, Christian fanaticism blotted out the ancient religion of the Pharaohs, as well as many of its priests and adherents. The temple of Sarapis was stormed amid scenes of riot and turbulence, and the last refuge of the Egyptian faith was gone. Henceforth the names and myths of the ancient deities survived only in the spells and formulÆ of the magicians, while their dreary ghosts haunted the ruined temples wherein they were nevermore to reign.
CHAPTER IX: EGYPTIAN ART
The output of the great Egyptian masters of the graphic arts has virtually no counterpart, and, bold as this statement may appear at first sight, it will be found to withstand tolerably close scrutiny. Looking at some of the incomparable embroideries of bygone Persia, studying the divine porcelain of mediÆval China, or turning over woodcuts by the great Japanese artists of the UkiyoÉ school—men like Hokusai and Utamaro, Hiroshige, Yeizan and Toyokuni—we no doubt feel ourselves in touch with something different from European art, yet only partly different. Strange as these Eastern objects are, we find in them a certain familiarity, we find them expressive of emotions and sentiments not altogether unknown to us; and herein Egyptian things are different, for these seem to us entirely novel, they suggest some weird, enchanted world untrodden by the foot of man, perhaps a supernatural world. Nor is their strangeness, their almost sinister unfamiliarity so very hard to explain, it being due not only to the curious conventions which the Egyptian masters obeyed so implicitly century after century, but to the fact that the arts were indigenous to ancient Egypt. Japan derived her painting from China about the fourteenth century A.D.; Chinese work, in turn, frequently discloses affinities with that of ancient Greece; and the great Italian masters of the Renaissance owed much to the GrÆco-Roman school; while the old Spanish artists, again, were under obligations to the Moors and Arabs, and in England and in Scotland, in Germany and in France, painting did not grow up like a flower, but was rather an exotic imported chiefly from the Low Countries. In short, throughout bygone times, no less essentially than in
It is always difficult to speak of the origin of anything, for even the oldest thing has its ancestry. And while it is possible to treat with some definiteness of the first great period of Egyptian art, the Thinite, which commenced about 5000 B.C., we have to remember that the output of this period was no exception to the rule aforesaid, but had its ancestry, this consisting in the work of the shadowy pre-dynastic time. Even at that far-off era crude images of living animals were made in Egypt, mud, of course, being the material commonly used; while a great deal of pottery, some of it incised with quaint patterns, was also produced; and if many of these vases and the like are no better than those of most primitive artists, others, again, manifest a distinct feeling for shapeliness and proportion. Nor did the Egyptians of this period eschew that immemorial practice, the decoration of themselves; for among the oldest relics of the country's art are numerous personal ornaments, some made of bone or of shell, some of stone or ivory, and some even of precious metals. Moreover, rude forms of architecture were early essayed, this in its turn begetting pristine efforts at mural embellishment.
In pre-dynastic Egypt the dead were usually interred in shallow graves with no embellishment, only one
A wealth of other statues belonging to the early dynastic era are still extant, many of them possessing rare artistic value. And if the same can hardly be said with reference to existing specimens of the relief-cutting of this period, when turning from these to early
To an early period also, that of the Pyramid Kings, should be assigned those amazing monuments of the industry and ingenuity of bygone Egypt, the Pyramids and the Sphinx—works which have evoked nearly as much eloquence, alike in prose and verse, as the Monna Lisa of Leonardo da Vinci and the Elgin Marbles of Phidias. Usually supposed to have been wrought early in the era in question, their inception is, however, wrapped in mystery; but whatever the true solution of that enigma, this Memphite period was certainly one which witnessed considerable developments in Egyptian art. True, there is little opportunity of studying the architecture of the time, such relics as exist consisting in little more than heaps of stone or masses of sun-dried brick; yet in the field of sculpture, on the contrary, we are enabled to note and scrutinize progress. Heretofore sepulchral statues had been virtually a preserve of the rich and great, but now all sorts and conditions of tombs—or, at least, the tombs of many comparatively poor people—were garnished in this way; and as the defunct was often portrayed in an attitude indicating his career on earth, this statuary offers a valuable sidelight on Memphite Egyptian life. Thus we find, here a man engaged in brewing, there another seated at secretarial work, his posture practically that of the modern tailor; while we
It should be noted at this juncture that these Egyptian bas-reliefs were not usually left in a monochromatic state as is customary in modern Europe; for the painter, on the contrary, was generally called to the sculptor's aid, while even portrait statues were
Leaving these technical details and returning to the actual history of the arts in Egypt, we must speak now of the Middle Kingdom, which commenced with the Ninth Dynasty (c. 2445) and lasted to the Seventeenth Dynasty. During this time the craft of building developed apace, among the results being the obelisk of Heliopolis. And if these are works reflecting thaumaturgic mechanical ingenuity rather than great artistic taste, the latter is certainly manifest in two other vast structures of early Theban days, the temple of Kom-es-Sagha and the portico of Sa Renput I. Much fine domestic art was also made at this time, as witness the diadem and crown of Khnemit, both of which are now at Cairo. A more natural style became discernible, both as regards bas-reliefs and paintings. Indeed, many sketches and paintings of this period, especially those which delineate scenes of sport, war, and athletics, possess a spirit and dash which show that the race of Egyptian artists was becoming more skilled in the free use of the brush. One of the most remarkable paintings of this period is a picture at Beni Hassan, the subject of which is a series of wrestling bouts.
Hauling Blocks of Stone for the Pyramids—Evelyn Paul.
In the period of the New Empire (Eighteenth to Thirty-first Dynasties) the student of Egyptian art is confronted with a veritable embarrassment of riches, chiefly architectural. It was this period which witnessed the completion of such imposing structures as the hypostyle hall at Karnak, the temple of Rameses III at Medinet-habÛ, and the great assemblage of ecclesiastical edifices at DÊr-el-Bahari. The finest and most imposing buildings at Luxor likewise belong to this
During this period the use of wood as a medium for artistic representation seems to have been on the increase. Contemporaneously the craft of casting in metal was improved and then virtually perfected, a consummation which had an important influence upon sculpture. This, too, was the epoch at which the Egyptian artists in colour revolted against the conventionality which had in ancient times beset their craft. Until this time
The last period of Egyptian art, the SaÏte, commenced about 721 B.C. During this epoch the incursions of the Persians, Greeks, and finally of the Romans are seen acting materially on the country's productions, often to their detriment, for instead of working naturally, instead of employing their own national style, the Egyptian artists of the SaÏte period were prone to imitate, uttering themselves haltingly in fashions borrowed from other races.
But it is a mistake to maintain, as is occasionally done, that this waning of lofty traditions began with the very advent of the SaÏte age. It is a mistake to contend that no vital art was executed by the Egyptians thenceforward. Not till the eve of the advent of Christ did Egyptian jewellery and craftsmanship in general begin to decline; while as to architecture, Herodotus speaks in the most eulogistic terms of the great buildings at SaÏs. Unfortunately most of these are demolished, and we have no chance of studying them at first hand. The Pharaohs of the SaÏtic period lost the vast command of labour of their Theban and
The painting of this period embraces numerous works equal to any product of earlier times—for example, the vignette of the Judgment before Osiris contained in the papyrus of Queen Mat-ka-rÉ. But we also observe Egyptian artists forsaking their time-honoured colour-schemes and using such tints as green and mauve, probably copied from Hellenic decorations. In the bas-reliefs of the time, moreover, we find much which is sadly mechanical—so mechanical that we are persuaded that it was done to order from drawing supplied by foreigners. Nor is the history of SaÏte statuary greatly different from that of those arts mentioned above, for while at first a wealth of splendid things were achieved—notably a study of Osiris recumbent and a portrait of Petubastis—the mechanical element crept into this domain as it had done into the others. Sculptors became mere artisans, slaving at the reproduction of prescribed patterns. Some actually kept in stock ready-made statues of the human body, the heads to be added as clients presented themselves.
A Head-rest—British Museum.
Still, the expression of a nation's soul does not entirely vanish, and if Egyptian artists were ultimately influenced by the conquering Romans, the Italian
The pseudo-Egyptian craftsmanship of the Empire—so apt an expression of the temper of French thought at that time—may be studied well at Fontainebleau or at Marlborough House in London, while of course it is in evidence in the backgrounds of many Empire pictures, in particular those of Louis David. Indeed, that master himself, the most influential French painter of his day, owed something to the Egyptian school, while a similar debt is suggested by sundry works of the sculptors Chinard and Houdon; and a study of Empire buildings reveals that the architects of the period, mainly devoted though they were to ancient Greece and Rome, were not uninfluenced by the art of the land of the Pharaohs. Nor was this true only of the French architects, for that great Scottish artist in stone, Robert Adam, who died the year the French Republic was established, would seem to have shared the attraction. He often introduced Egyptian objects into his decorative schemes, while the large, imposing simplicity he frequently attained is rich in suggestion of notable Egyptian edifices. The same massive 'Egyptian' simplicity is to be seen in the statuary of the mighty Serb, Ivan Mestrovic, as also in that of the Swede, David EdstrÖm. Indeed, it would be wearisome to enumerate all the artists of different nationalities who have clearly been indebted to the genius of Egypt, but we must not conclude without some reference to the influence of the school on the Post-Impressionist painters.
The Post-Impressionists were not, as is commonly said, direct descendants of the Impressionist group,
Returning to our main subject, we may ask, What is the actual Æsthetic value of Egyptian art to our own generation?
Imagine a museum, some thousands of years hence, ostensibly representing the art of France from the beginning of the fifteenth century to the end of the nineteenth; and suppose this crammed with the off-scourings of the Salon school and the autotypes and bric-À-brac of the Rue de Rivoli, with only here and there a Clouet, a Boucher, or a Lancret, only here and there a Clodion, a Dalou, or a Rodin. Would not visitors to such a collection be certain to conclude that the French were anything but artistic? Conditions such as those indicated above obtain in nearly every Egyptian collection of the present day. The point of view of those in charge of museums and exhibits seems to be that anything of Egyptian origin should be treasured, however lacking it may be in artistic merit, and small wonder if the average visitor of taste has not the patience to search through such heterogeneous collections in which the few vital articles are buried. The great mass of Egyptian remains are far inferior to those of Greek origin, wrought in the time of Phidias and Apelles; the master works of Egypt, on the other hand, are equal to the artistic products of any age, and it is with these master works, and only with these, that we must concern ourselves here.
The Egyptian painter seldom or never sought to blend his different shades into each other, he seldom or never dealt in gradations; instead he painted in large patches, each patch clearly demarked from its neighbour. But with this system he achieved some of the grandest colour-harmonies, as witness the papyrus of Ani,
If the Egyptian was a divine colourist, he was still more surely a master of composition. The artist striving after harmony in design may arrange a host of figures upon a canvas, or he may take for his purpose only a very few objects. The former, the usual practice of the European school, is infinitely the easier of the two; but the Egyptian commonly chose the latter, and on his piece of papyrus or on his plaque of stone he placed his few objects so happily and in such perfect Æsthetic relationship to each other that the whole space used appears to be decorated. His draughtsmanship, besides, is usually of high excellence; here, too, he faces a difficulty, giving a bold impression rather than a detailed drawing, yet so expressive are his lines that the work possesses abundantly the illusion of life.
Temple of Isis at PhilÆ—Photo Bonfils.
We have spoken of sundry Egyptian works as subtle, delicate, and refined; but these are not characteristic examples, they are not those which chiefly command homage. Subtlety, an exquisite quality, one of the ultimate qualities, is nevertheless closely allied to weakness, and the sustained effort to express it is apt to prove injurious to the artist. Whistler, for one, striving after the delicate, the refined and subtle, too often approximated effeminacy; and some of the greater Japanese painters, preoccupied with dreamy half-tints and febrile lines, came dangerously near producing the merely pretty. In the characteristic work of the Egyptians, however, we never detect a hint of this failing; for theirs is before all else a powerful, bold, simple art, often reflecting a grand, ruthless brutality like that in the great English dramatists. We have seen that it was their simplicity which engaged the Frenchmen of the Empire, eager to make something of a strenuous temper; we have seen that it was this element, too, which commanded homage from the Post-Impressionists, so intensely serious and aspirational a group. And may we not add that this simplicity is the loftiest factor discernible in Egyptian art? May we not add that the Egyptians achieved this merit with a triumph almost unrivalled by other races? And may we not say, finally, that simplicity is the noblest of all artistic qualities? The great poems, those which live from generation unto generation, are most assuredly those in which the subject is expressed with divine simplicity, the poet attaining the maximum of expression with the minimum of means, which is exactly what the great painters and sculptors of Egypt compassed.
But simplicity, like subtlety, has its concomitant danger, for what is very simple is apt to be deficient in mystery, so essential an item in a vital work of art. Yet here, again, we find the Egyptian victorious; he has adroitly evaded the peril of baldness. The Egyptian sculptor, producing a portrait, always adumbrates the character of his sitter, itself a mysterious quality, and there is in a host of Egyptian works of art a curious sense of infinity, a suggestion of the eternal riddle of the universe. They are the most mysterious works ever wrought by man, some seeming verily eloquent of silence; we feel in their presence a strange mood of awe, a feeling which has been thus happily expressed:
Tread lightly, O my dancing feet,
Lest your untimely murmurs stir
Dust of forgotten men who find death sweet,
At rest within their sepulchre.
These lines, written by Lady Margaret Sackville while tarrying at Assuan, crystallize the reverential mood which often possesses us in the presence of Egyptian art; and yet, are these entombed men of whom the writer sings really forgotten?
Past ruined Ilion Helen lives,
eternal life vouchsafed to her by the song of Homer; surely bygone Egyptians have, in like fashion, won immortality through the genius of their mighty artists.
GLOSSARY AND INDEX
THE PRONUNCIATION OF EGYPTIAN
The correct pronunciation of Old, Middle, and Late Egyptian can only be gleaned by analogy from that of Coptic, which represents the popular language of Egypt from the third to the ninth century A.D. But this tongue was strongly reinforced by Greek loan-words, and as it was rendered in writing by the Greek alphabet it is difficult to say how much of the native linguistic element it really represents. But its orthography gives a clear idea of its pronunciation, and it is the mainstay of Egyptian philologists in restoring the word-forms of the ancient language, or at least Late Egyptian, between which and the Middle and Old dialects there is a wide linguistic gap. Indeed, the pronunciation of these archaic forms is probably for ever lost to modern scholarship. Speaking generally, Egyptian words and names are usually pronounced by scholars as they are spelt.
A
AAH'MES, QUEEN. Wife of King of Egypt, 246;
visited by Amen-Ra, 247;
raised above the earth by Neith and Selk 247;
the mother of Queen Hatshepsut, 248;
likeness, of, 318
AAH-TE-HU'TI, or TE-HU'TI. Equivalent, Thoth, 106, 107
AA-RU. Underworld known as, 64
AAT-AB. Shrine of Heru-Behudeti at, 86
AB'TU. A pilot fish to Ra's barque, 131
ABU. Alternative, Elephantine, 152
ABU RO'ASH. Second pyramid built at, 25
AB-Y'DOS. Five priests comprised the staff at, 54;
centre of worship of Osiris, 63;
oracle of Bes at, 281, 310;
likeness of Seti I at, 318
AB-YSS-IN'IA, 259
AB-YSS-IN'IANS, 34
ADAM, ROBERT, 322
AD-O'NIS. Similarity of myth to that of Osiris, 70;
reference to, 160
Æ-GE'AN. Merchants of the, evolved their alphabet from Egyptian hieratic, 185
Æ'LI-AN, 284, 291
ÆSOP'S FABLES, 195
AF'A. Beings in heaven; characteristics of, unknown, 126
AF'RA. Variant of Ra-Osiris, 78;
boat of, meets boats of Osiris in underworld, 117;
as Afra, Osiris continues his journey through the Duat, 118;
passes through body of monstrous serpent, and emerges as Khepera, 118
AFRICA-N. Origin of older religion of Egypt certainly, 3;
Osiris, god of North-east, 64;
origin, Osiris of, 64;
origin, Anqet of, 156
AFRICA-N INFLUENCE. Semitic and, on Egyptian religious ideas, 280-282;
deities, Bes the most important of, 281
AH. The moon-god; Ashtoreth and, 278
AH-U'RA. Wife of Neper-ka-Ptah, 268;
her prophecy regarding Setne, 268;
requests Setne not to remove her husband's book, 266
AÏ. The palace of, 42;
hymn to Aten found in tomb of, 161
AI'NU OF JAPAN. God of the, 146
AK'ER. The lion-god; guarded the gate of the dawn, 291
AK'ER-BLAD. One who helped decipher Rosetta Stone, 187
AK'ER-TET. Celebration of mysteries of, 57
AK'HEN-AT-EN. See Amen-hetep IV.
1. King; Amen-hetep changes his name to, 158;
religion of, 158;
introduced cult of Aten into Egypt, 159;
his reign, 160;
reference to, 161.
2. Palace of, 42;
new capital built by Amen-hetep, 158;
social life in, 159
AL-AS'IA. Ounamounou drives into the country of, 236;
Hatibi, the Princess of, 236
AL'CHE-MY, 269
ALEXANDER THE GREAT, 142
ALEXANDRIA. Wine made in Mareotis, 46;
writings of Greeks of, 108;
statue of Sarapis at, 307;
Sarapis, principal deity in, 310
ALEXANDRINE-CONQUEST. The religion of Egypt and, 304
AL KHE-MEI'A, 269
AM-A'IT. The attendant of the Lord of Amenti, 209, 210
AM-AS'IS. An Egyptian monarch who died 526 B.C., 196, 197;
SaÏte King, 302;
raised sarcophagi to the sacred bull, 302;
Naukratis founded in time of, 303
AM'ELINEAU, 124
AMEMT. Monster, who attends the Judgment Scene, 294
AM'EN. Great wealth and power of the god, 52;
alluded to in Book of the Dead, 119;
associated with Ra; temple at Thebes, 131;
Ra and Osiris, worship widespread Nile valley, 137;
centre of worship and power, Thebes; all attributes of Ra attributed
to him, 138, 139;
national deity; fusion of Ra and Amen, 139, 140;
'king of the gods,' 140;
his cult an attempt at monotheism, 141;
in Egyptian pantheon was worshipped as Amen-Ra, 157;
reference to, 144, 158, 159, 176;
the god, Pharaoh ManakhphrÊ-Siamon, and, 213, 214;
appellation, the Bull of Meroe, 214;
invoked in connexion with spells, 264;
Sebek represented with the plumes of, 291;
shared in worship of Egypt during Libyan period, 300;
priestesses in service of, 305;
Zeus identified with, 305, 306
A'MEN-EM-HAT I. Wrote work on good government, 187;
first king of Twelfth Dynasty, 190
AM'EN-EM-HAT III. Pyramid of, at Dahshur, 26
AM'EN-HET'EP III. Temple of Mut built by, 143;
temples of Ra-Harmachis and Aten built by, 157;
worship of Ashtoreth in the time of, 278;
boasted to have shot one hundred and two lions, 292;
son of Hapu, 303;
a hero-god who was thought to have seen and conversed with the gods, 303
AM'EN-HET'EP IV. Cult of Aten in reign of; regarded as abode of
sun-god, 157, 58;
built new capital dedicated to faith of Aten, 158;
reference to, 161
AM'EN-RA. Political power of priests of, 140;
all the attributes of the Egyptian pantheon lavished upon him,
with the exception of those of Osiris, 141;
one of his forms that of a goose, 141;
dominion of, 142;
Nut, female counterpart, 143;
worshipped in Eighteenth Dynasty, 157;
struggle for supremacy between votaries of, and those of Aten; name of,
obliterated from inscriptions
by order of king, 158;
supremacy triumphantly restored on death of Akh-en-Aten, 160;
beauty of, 176, 177;
festival of, 177;
Ounamounou, chief priest of, 232;
gold of, 232;
statue of, 233;
sacred barque of, 233;
Pharaoh Petoubastis swears by, 244;
king of gods and maker of men, 246;
Queen Hatshepsut daughter of, by Queen Aahames, 246-248;
Prince Thoutii extols, 251;
goose sacred to, 297
AM-EN'TET. A region of Field, or Place of Reeds, where dwelt souls living upon
earth-offerings, 116;
ruled over by Menuqet, 116;
reference to, 124, 164
AM-EN'TI. Reference to, 208;
a vision of, 209-211;
the gods of, seen by Setne, 209-211;
Amait, the attendant of the Lord of, 210
AMERICA. Tribes, and animal totems, 11;
aborigines of, and soul, 31;
myth of Nut common among aborigines of, 173
AMERICA-N, NORTH. Superstition among tribes of, re new name 259;
parallel to practice of Egyptian gods found in the mythology of
certain tribes of, 261;
Indians; the orenda of the, 261;
Indian; dreams and, 273
AMERICAN INDIAN. Reference to belief of the, 5;
belief in resurrection by, 79
AM'HET. A portion of the underworld, 117
AM'SET. Equivalent, Mesti, 28;
one of the four helpers of Horus, 96
AM'SU. Variant of Ptah-Seker, Asar, 146;
Qetesh associated with, 279
AMULET-S. Use in Egypt, 263;
some of more important ones—the Heart (the Scarab), the Pillow, the Collar of Gold,
the Eye of Horus, etc., 263;
efficaciousness of, 269
AN'AP-OU. Brother of Bitou, 224-228;
kills his wife and mourns for Bitou, 225;
rewarded by Pharaoh, 226;
succeeds Bitou on throne of Egypt, 228
ANCIENT EMPIRE. Reference to, 137
AN'I. Papyrus of, 6;
reference to, 57;
instructions to his heir, 187;
reference to the papyrus of, 324
ANIMAL-S. Spells in Thoth's Library of Magical Books capable of
enchanting, 266;
transformation, 270-273;
Dr. Bridge and the idea of transformation of, 271;
provision of spells in the Book of the Dead to enable the deceased to transform
himself from a bird, serpent, etc., 270, 271;
worship; Egyptians incurred merriment of the cultured Greek and the ridicule of early
Christian writers, by, 271;
worship; the attitude of primitive man and Egyptians, 271;
transformation; origin of, 271;
form; of Egyptian gods, question re totemic origin, 272;
sacred, in Egypt, 282-297;
worshipped in Egypt—the bull, 284-288;
the crocodile, 289-291;
the lion, 291-292;
the cat, 293;
the dog, 294;
the hippopotamus, 294;
the ibis, 295-297;
other animals in Egyptian mythology—the ass, the pig, the hare,
the shrew-mouse, the ichneumon, the bat, the tortoise, the serpent,
the urÆus, the scorpion (sacred to Isis), and the frog (symbol
of generation, birth, and fecundity), 295;
worship of, during the Late period, 302-304;
worship of, during Hellenic period, 306;
Strabo, and statues of sacred, 306;
crude images of living, made of mud in Egypt during the Thinite period, 312
AN'IM-ISM. Ancient Egyptians passed through phase of, 4;
the mother of Spiritism, 254, 255
ANKH-NET'ERU. A great serpent through whose body Af Ra is drawn
in his boat by twelve gods, 118
AN-OUK-HOR'ON. The Prince of Tiome; breaks under the stress of the bonds of Sebennytos, 244;
is overthrown by Petekhousou, 244
AN-PU. Equivalent, Anubis, 103
AN'QET. Isis, as goddess of fertile waters was called, 83;
one of a triad of gods held in reverence at Elephantine, 152;
female counterpart of Khnemu; local Nubian goddess, 153;
sister-goddess of Satet; origin; worship centred at Sahal; shrine at PhilÆ,
where she was identified with Nephthys, 156;
personification, 156
ANT. A pilot fish to Ra's barque, 131
ANTH. See Anthat
AN'THAT. Egyptian war-goddess, 276;
her cult in Syria, 277;
shrine at Thebes to, 277;
Rameses II and, 277;
name given by Rameses II to his daughter, 277;
appellation, 'lady of heaven and mistress of the gods,' 277;
Set and, 278
ANTIQUITY-IES. Service of, 38;
of Egyptian magic, 254;
reference to Comte de Caylus, 321
AN'TUF. Temple of, 151
AN'U, or AN'NU. College at, 54;
the On or Heliopolis of the Greeks, 54, 113;
alluded to in Book of the Dead, 119;
worship of Ra centred in, 132
AN'U-BIS. Representation of, 11;
mask of, 30;
body of Osiris and, 79;
son of Nephthys, 97, 98;
son of Set, 99;
alternative, An-pu; guide of the dead, 103;
worshipped at Lycopolis, Abt, and elsewhere; part in the Book of the Dead;
embalmed body of Osiris, 104;
assisted by Up-uaut; personification of the summer solstice, 105;
had votaries in Rome, 106;
reference to, 109, 119;
weighs hearts of the dead before Osiris, 119;
Setne sees beside Osiris, 209;
his judgment on the dead, 209;
in the court of Amen-Ra, 246;
mummy magic and, 274;
the jackal sacred to, <
a href="@public@vhost@g@html@files@43662@43662-h@43662-h-5.htm.html#Page_157" class="pginternal">157, ra158;
king builds capital to faith of, ra158;
king of the gods, the god, ra158;
his cult a naturalistic one, ra159;
signified both the sun-god and the solar-disk;
in Book of the Dead, 160;
words referring to, 161;
his control of the Nile; titles given to, 161;
cult of, was worship of sun-god, 162
AT'MU. Equivalent, Tem, 119;
or Atum, 133;
god, in the court of Amen-Ra, 246
AT'TIS. Similarity of myth to that of Osiris, 70;
rites of, 72
AT'UM. Original local god of Heliopolis; united with Ra-Tem, 133;
equivalents, Atmu, 119;
Atum, or Tem, 136
AUDIENCE, HALL OF, 211-219;
Se-Osiris and, 218
AUGUSTUS, EMPEROR. The Apis Oracle and, 286;
Strabo's visits Egypt during reign of, 290;
Strabo writes in time of, 306
AUSTRALIA-N. Societies; almost identical with those of Eleusis, 58;
initiatory ceremonies, 122;
aborigine; reluctance of, to reveal real name, 258, 259;
superstition in, regarding new name, 259
AYLLU. Each localized tribe or, had its place of origin, 10
AZ'TEC-S. Belief of, 6;
pantheon; Tezcatlipoca, head of, 82;
reference to, 129
B
BAAL. Egyptian god of war, 276;
the Ramessides esteemed, 277;
temple at Tanis to, 277;
identified with Set, 277;
name in texts of EdfÛ, 277
BABYLONIANS. A people cognate with the, 34
BACCHUS. Reference to, 102
BA'DÎL. The prince of Dora; Ounamounou and,
232, 233
BAK'HAU. The mountain of sunrise, 125
BANTH-AN'TH ('Daughter of Anth'). Name given by Rameses II to daughter, 277
BAS-RELIEF-S. Egyptian, 315;
specimens of the New Empire period, 318
BAST. Worshipped first in shape of cat, 10;
Mut identified with, 143;
temple of, at Memphis, 147;
typified mild heat of the sun; amalgamated with Sekhmet and Ra; mentioned
in Pyramid Texts and Book of the Dead, 148;
festival of, 148, 149;
reference to, 150, 175;
story in which monster cat represents goddess, 189;
the cat that was cured and, 264;
considered of Libyan origin, 276;
the cat an incarnation of, 293;
the goddess of Bubastis, 300, 302;
identified with Artemis, 306
BAT'TAS. Of Sumatra; the soul and, 32
'BEAUTY OF RA.' Meaning of name given to wife of Rameses, 177
BE'BY. A frightful monster, 119
BE-EL'ZE'BUB. An example of the broken-down deity, 257
BE-HU'DET. Horus of, 94
BEKH'TEN. Prince of, vassal of King Rameses, 176;
daughter of, 177-180
BE'LIN, SIR. Reference to, 87
BEN'I HASS'AN. Graves of, 27;
a remarkable picture at, 317
BENT-RESHY. Little sister of Rameses' wife, 177-179
BE'O-WULF. Reference to, 87, 132
BER'E-NICE. Arabian immigrants' base at, 34
BERLIN, 37, 188, 197
BERLIN SCHOOL. Reference to, 35;
dating of Egyptian history according to, 36
BES. Popularity of, 175, 308;
the most important of African deities, 281;
associated with birth, 281;
a representation of, 281;
appears in all 'Birth Houses' in Egyptian temples, 281;
the god of the dance, etc., 282;
identified with his ward Horus, 282;
transformation of, 282;
appellation, 'the Warrior,' 282;
the oracle of, at Abydos, 310
BES'A. Appellation, Bes, derived from word, 281
BIBLE, THE. Reference to, 248
BIL-QUI'LA. Conception of the, 6;
their belief, 32
BIRDS. Spell in Thoth's Library of Magical Books capable of enchanting, 266;
worshipped by the Egyptians—the ibis, 295, 296;
the bennu, the falcon, the swallow, the heron, the goose, the vulture, 297
BIRTH HOUSES.' Representations of Bes in, 281
BI'TOU. Greek god Bitys, and, 224;
the hero in the tale of "Two Brothers," 224;
Anapou brother of, 224-228;
goes to Vale of the Acacia, 225;
wife of, 225;
the Seven Hathors, and, 226;
the treachery of his wife, 226-228;
Pharaoh entices wife of, 226;
dies and is restored to life, 226;
assumes the form of a sacred bull (Apis), 226;
slain by Pharaoh, 227;
assumes form of two trees, 227;
born as Pharaoh's son, 228;
succeeds Pharaoh, 228;
slays his wife and makes Anapou his successor, 228
BITTER LAKES. Reference to, 191
BIT'YS. Greek god, perhaps identifiable with Bitou, 224
BLACKFELLOWS OF AUSTRALIA. Societies and celebrations of, 58;
initiatory ceremonies of, 122
BLACK POWDER. Identified with Osiris, 270;
the genesis of practical alchemy and, 270
BLESSED, THE. Heavenly beings; chanted praises of Ra; nourished upon sunlight, 127
BOHEMIA. Belief in, 6;
soul conceived as a white bird in, 32
BOOK OF BREATHINGS. Believed to be work of Thoth, 108
BOOK OF GATES. Description of the Duat in, 116;
Book of Him that is in the Duat and, 118
BOOK OF HIM THAT IS IN THE DUAT. See Book of Gates, 116, 118
BOOK OF SLAYING THE HIPPOPOTAMUS. Horus repeats formulÆ in, 89
BOOK OF THE DEAD. Supplies Theban Recension, 2;
revision of, 18;
walls of tomb covered with texts from, 29;
if memorized ensures blissful future, 51;
reference to, 56, 63, 114, 143-145, 148, 152, 181, 187;
quotation from, 57;
society outlined in the, 58;
Osiris-Ra in, 73;
myth of Osiris in, 77;
the authority upon Osiris, 79;
helpers of Horus given positions in the, 95;
Anubis in, 104, 106;
a speech by Anubis in, 105;
Thoth alluded to in the, 107;
believed to be the work of Thoth, 108;
Egyptian title, Pert em hru; compiled for use of the dead, 109;
texts in, of great antiquity, 110, 111;
revision of, 112;
discoveries made by Maspero; three versions of, 113;
all good men made study of the, 115;
gods in the, 119;
description of Osiris in, 119;
book, an allegory, 120;
analogy to the, in the Popol Vuh, 121;
may preserve prehistoric ritual, 122;
Egyptian faith in the, 124;
states number of spirits in heaven, 127;
pictures of ladders in, 128;
Satet appears in, 156;
Aten appears in, 160;
deceased described in, as relying on Nut, 174;
magic formulas and guardians pictured in, 262;
provisions of spells in, 270, 271;
Set symbolized in, 289;
cat named in, 293
BOOK OF THE OPENING OF THE MOUTH, 30
BOOKS, LIBRARY OF MAGICAL. Equivalent, The Double House of Life;
written by Thoth, 265-268;
Setne's study in, 265
'BOOKS OF THOTH.' Number of, 108
BOOKS OF OVERTHROWING AP'EP. Gives spells and instructions, 131
BORNEANS. The soul and, 32
BOR'OS or BOR-O'ROS. Belief of, re the soul, 6, 32
BRAZIL. Boros of, 6, 32
BREASTED, PROFESSOR, 36
BRITAIN. Worship of Isis and, 84
BRITISH. Rosetta Stone in possession of, 37;
suzerainty, 38
BRITISH COLUMBIA, 6, 32
BRITISH MUSEUM. Papyri in the, 12, 206, 224, 228;
antiquities brought from Egypt to, 37;
reference to, 121;
Egyptian love-songs in, 206
BROTHERS. The story of the Two, 224-232
BRUGSCH. Osiris and, 64;
statement by, 73;
Set and, 100;
Ptah and, 144;
Khnemu and, 153
BU-BAS'TIS. Bast worshipped at, 148, 293, 300;
Herodotus and, 149;
cats buried at, 293, 302;
Sheshonk's capital at, 300
BUDGE, DR. E. A. WALLIS. On divinities of ancient Egypt, 8;
totemic theory and, 9;
reference to, 10, 269;
quotation from, 64;
Osiris and, 64;
compares Isis and Nephthys, 98;
view of, regarding Anubis and Up-uaut, 105;
Maat and, 108, 109;
on Book of the Dead, 110;
Ptah, 146;
on origin of I-em-hetep, 151, 152;
on magic, 252, 258, 270;
animal transformation and, 271
BULL OF MEROE, THE. One of Amen's appellations, 214
BULL, THE. Worship of, 284-288;
Amasis and, 302
BU-SI'RIS. Inhabitants of, never use trumpets, 101;
the port of, 260, 261
BU'TO. 1. Goddess; the shrew-mouse sacred to, 295.
2. City—Herodotus at, 296
BYB'LOS. Coffin of Osiris at, 6, 68, 69;
death of child of King of, 81;
Ounamounou and, prince of, 233
C
CAB-I'RI. Mysteries of the, 122
CAI'RO, 38
CAI'RO MUSEUM. Museum at, 38;
reference to, 132, 313, 314, 318
CALENDAR-S. Astrological, 273
CANO'PIC. Deities known as, 125;
otherwise called Children of Horus, 125
CAR'MEL. Worshipped, 9;
high place of deities, 10
CARTHAGE. Worship of Reshpu and, 280
CAS'TOR. Describes impress of the SphragistÆ, 103
CAT, THE. Worship of, 293;
an incarnation of Bast, 293;
Egyptian mythology and, 293;
Book of the Dead, and, 293;
Diodorus and, 293;
penalty for killing, 293;
Herodotus and, 293;
ceremonies at death of, 293;
buried in city of Bubastis, 293
CAU'AC A Deity of the ancient Maya; equivalent, Hozanek, 29
CENTRAL AMERICA-N. Teocalli of, 24;
the Maya of, 29, 109;
the Popol Vuh of, 58, 121;
Mayas' belief in resurrection, 79, 121;
the Kiches of, 133
CERES. Reference to, 102, 121
CHAMPOLLION. Rosetta Stone and, 38;
expedition to Egypt, 38;
allusion to his work, 187
CHARMS. Spells and, 262
CHE'OPS. First pyramid attributed to, 25;
alternative, Khufu, 25;
reference to, 112
CHEYENNE INDIANS, 10
CHI'LE. Superstition among tribes of, 259
CHINA. Japanese painting and, 311;
care for the dead in, 313
CHINESE. Mythology, 132
CHRIST, 319
CHRISTIANITY. Egyptian religion and, 300, 309
CHRISTIAN-S. Egyptian realms of bliss compared with, 128;
era, fable of lion and mouse dates within, 195;
Egyptian, or Copts, 269
CLAUDIAN, EMPEROR, 206
'COMPANIES' OF THE GODS. In the Pyramid Texts, 16;
alternative, Enneads, 16
COMTE DE CAY'LUS. Reference to, 321
CONSPIRACY. A magical, by Hui against Rameses III, 29;
date of Twelfth, 35;
division of dynasties, 36;
Eighteenth, 41;
Third, 46;
worship of Set in Twenty-second, 101;
king of the Eleventh, 111;
king of the First, 111;
Twenty-sixth, 111;
bas-relief of the Second, 112;
fully formed Book of the Dead in Sixth, in vogue in Second,
and probably First, 113;
Theban Recension in vogue from Eighteenth to Twenty-second, 114;
priests of Ra at Heliopolis during Fifth, 132;
Sixth, 133;
scarabs dating from Fourth, 137;
Amen, deity of Egypt in Fifth, 137;
temple built in honour of Amen, during Twelfth, 138;
military successes of Eighteenth, 159;
Second, 144;
Twenty-second, 146;
Third, 151, 154;
Twelfth, 152;
Anqet had temple built in Eighteenth, 156;
Theban monarchy at beginning of Eighteenth, 157;
papyrus of Eighteenth, 171;
inscriptions belonging to First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, 182, 183;
tales, letters, of the Twelfth, 183;
papyri of the Eighteenth and Twenty-first, 183;
Demotic dialect traced to Twenty-fifth, 184;
Egyptian system of writing in Syria under the Eighteenth, 184;
hieroglyphic character in inscriptions of First;
practically unaltered from Fourth, 185, 186;
Demotic form of script in Twenty-sixth, 186;
king of Twelfth, 190;
tale of Twelfth, 191;
three sons of Rud-didet reigned during Fifth, 204, 205;
tale of the Nineteenth, 224; give name of nome to provinces of Egypt, 17; in Book of the Dead, 119;
story of the Eighteenth, 228;
Prince of Joppa's rebellion in Eighteenth, 249;
Baal known to the Egyptians under the Eighteenth, 277;
Nineteenth, 277;
Qetesh's title on inscriptions of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth, 279;
cult of Apis traced to the Second, 284;
the Middle Kingdom from Ninth to Seventeenth, 317;
New Empire period from Eighteenth to Thirty-first, 317
E
EARLY BURIALS. Preservation of body, 21
EARTH-GOD. Gab, the, 246
EAST. Dwelling-houses in the, 41;
names of power common over all the, 259
EASTERN. Fable, makers of, 1
'EATER OF THE DEAD.' Anubis protects the dead man against, 105
ED'FÛ. Shrine of Heru at, 86;
reference to, 88, 92, 93, 176;
Horus in the text of, 92;
name of Baal in texts of, 277;
temple of Horus at, 320
ED'STRÖM, DAVID, 322
E'GYPT. Ancient, 1;
Upper, 2;
Lower, 2;
religion, 2, 3, 4;
gods of, 4;
early dwellers in, 5;
early graves in, 6;
totemism in religion of, 8, 9, 11;
totemic origin of divinities of, 8;
standards of, 9;
fable current in, 11;
certain animals not eaten in, 11;
animals worshipped in, 11;
creation myth of, 15;
divided into provinces, 17;
religious thought in, 19;
Pyramid Texts of, 24;
architecture, 24;
description of Nile valley in Upper, 33;
origin of its people, 34;
dynastic ancient history of, 35;
dynasties, 35;
traditions of, 37;
expeditions sent to, 38, 39;
sanitary conditions of, 41;
Ai ascended throne of, 42;
domestic life of, 43;
explorations in, 43;
pyramids and necropolis in Upper, 43;
native monarchy, 43;
invaders of, 44;
horse and camel, importation into, 45;
feudal system throughout, 45;
commercial affairs, 45;
corn, staple produce of, 45;
tribute to, 45;
Greek trade in, 46;
theologians and philosophers in, 54;
crypts of, 57;
early Grecians influence from, 58;
wood in, 60;
under Osiris, 66;
body of Osiris brought to, 69;
tombs of Osiris in, 70;
conception of resurrection in, 79;
Isis, great corn-mother of, 81;
her myth real to people of, 83;
Thothmes king of, 85;
promised to Thothmes by Harmachis, 86;
the sun in early, 94;
first historical king of, 110;
victorious wars of, 112;
sun-worship in, 130;
cult of Ra in, 132;
priestly subterfuges in, 133;
worship of beetle in, 136;
votaries of Amen powerful in, 137;
goose sacred in, 141;
dominion of Amen-Ra in, 142;
vulture symbol on crowns of, 143;
god of medicine in, 151;
famine in, 154;
sun-gods of, 156;
State religion of, 157;
Tell-el-Amarna in, 158;
new cult introduced into, 159;
cult of Aten supreme in, 161;
pantheon of ancient, 163;
temple of Hathor in Upper, 165;
division into Higher and Lower 170;
worship of Hapi in, 171;
fair women in, 176;
language of, 186;
natives of, 190;
lyric and folk poetry, 205;
superiority of, in story, 207;
the nobles of, 211;
Horus goes to, 217;
Anapou and Bitou, in, 224;
Ounamounou visits, 232-236;
civil war in, 240-245;
Queen Hatshepsut designed to reign over, 246;
Aahmes, wife of King of, 246;
Thothmes III King of, 249;
no equal of Thoutii in all, 249;
amulets used in, 263;
alchemy originated in, 269, 270;
metal-working in, 270;
animal transformation in, 270;
Mena, first historical king of, 284;
the crocodile a protector of, 290;
worship of the cat in, 293;
not rich in trees, 297;
the arts were indigenous to ancient, 311
E-GYP'TIAN-S. Phases of religion, 1;
faith of, 2;
pantheon, 2, 19, 63, 130, 141, 157;
mythology, 3, 156, 175;
religion, 3, 4, 7, 14, 18, 21, 48, 159, 257, 304;
literature, 4, 187, 190, 194, 196, 197;
religious tales, 4;
beliefs of, 5, 6;
manuscripts, 7;
fetishism in, 7;
amulets, 7;
animal-worship of, 9;
standards, 10, 11;
totemic nature of deities, 10;
transformation of gods, 12;
conception of the creation, 12;
source of religious system, 14;
theology, 17;
idea of God, 18;
Khnemu and Egyptian religion, 21;
idea of preservation of human body, 21;
funerary, 22;
mummification, 27, 28;
details of tomb furniture, 29;
ka, the, 31;
dignity conferred on the dead by the, 32;
preparation for death, 32;
race origin, 34, 35;
priest; Manetho an, 35;
divisions of history, 36;
systems of dating, 36;
earliest antiques, 37;
description of ruins, 37;
key to hieroglyphic writing, 37;
preservation of antiquities, 38;
contributions to archÆology, 38;
architects, 40;
monuments, 40;
mode of life, 44;
domestic animals, 44;
trade, 46;
agriculture, 46;
law was traditional, 47;
religion paramount consideration, 48;
inventive faculty, 48;
peasants, 49, 50;
fatalists, 49;
character, 50;
love of justice, 51;
priesthood, 52;
dutiful sons, 54;
abilities of priests, 54;
mysteries of priestcraft, 56:
kings enlarged buildings of predecessors, 60;
Osiris texts; complete legend of Osiris not found in, 64;
Isis beloved by, 80;
St. George an hero of, 87;
Horus the child honoured by the, 95;
8
GODDESS-ES. Isis and Nephthys, twin, 246;
deities of the pantheon, 19;
deities; earlier forms, 20;
trade; Naucratis, centre of, 46;
early travellers in Egypt, 54;
Anu the Heliopolis of the 54;
religious mysteries, 58;
legend of Osiris as given by writers, 64;
reference to myths of Demeter and Persephone, 77;
myth of the Black Hog, 97;
'Book of Thoth' and Alexandrian, 108;
ceremonies, initiatory, 121;
oracle of Jupiter-Ammon, and, 142;
identified Hathor with Aphrodite, 168;
Khonsu compared with Heracles by, 176;
pantheon, 180;
language, 184, 185, 186;
ideas, Egyptian story tinged with, 188;
fable, 195;
myth, 205;
story in, 206
GRIFFITHS, MR. F. LL., 206
GUATEMALA. Reference to Kiche Indians of, 12
H
HA'DES. 1. Place; gods of, 58;
dogs dispatched with the deceased on the way to, 105;
the Maya Hades, referred to in the Popol Vuh, 121;
road to, 175;
the rich man in, 210;
those guilty of bad deeds in, 211.
2. Greek deity; attributes of, ascribed by Greeks to Sarapis
(Osiris-Apis), 287
HAKT. Goddesses, 203
HALL OF AUDIENCE. Pharaoh Ousimares in, 211-219
HAM'ITES. Immigrants from Arabia thought to be, 34
HAM-IT'IC. Syntax, 34;
dynastic Egyptians said to be, 35
HAN'NI-BAL. Oracle of Jupiter-Ammon, and, 142
HAP. A chosen bull, appointed to be a god, 284
HA'PÎ. The ape-headed, represented on canopic jars, 28;
one of the four helpers of Horus, 96;
god of the Nile, 153;
in Egyptian pantheon; identified with Osiris, 169;
crowned with papyrus and lotus plants, 169, 170;
festival held in honour of, 170;
female companions of; hymn to, 171
HAPU. Amen-hetep, son of, 303
HAR-MAC-HIS. Greek name for Horus the Elder, 84-86
HAR-POC'RA-TES. Equivalent, Horus the Child, son of Osiris and Isis, 69
HARRIS PAPYRUS, THE. 228, 248;
contains many spells and charms, 262
HA'THOR. Worship of, 18, 163, 169;
in Pyramid Texts of Unas and Teta, 21;
Mut identified with, 143;
temple of, at Memphis, 147;
reference to, 148, 173, 175;
mythological significance, 162;
general description of, 163, 164;
patron deity of love, 165, 246;
myth of Ra and, 166-168;
intoxication festivals of, fall in month of Thoth, 168;
identified with the star Sept and Aphrodite by the Greeks, 168, 169;
personification of the female principle, 169;
Ashtoreth identified with, 278;
Qetesh identified with, 279;
goddess Heqt identified with, 295;
the Memphite, 298;
sycamore sacred to, 298;
Lady of the Underworld, a, 298;
identified with Aphrodite, 306;
Isis confused with, 308
HA'THORS. The Seven, 169, 226;
the Doomed Prince and the, 228, 229
HAT-I'BI. The Princess of Alasia, 236
HATME'HIT. Female counterpart of the Ram, 288
HAT-SHEP-SUT. The story of the birth of, 245-248;
daughter of Amen-Ra and Aahmes, 246, 247;
body of, fashioned by Khnum, 247;
Hekt imparts breath of life to, 248;
birth of, 248;
temple created to, 248;
designed to rule over Egypt, etc., 246;
Bes and, 281
HAU. Osiris grapples with the serpent, 117
HEALTH. One of Ra's appellations; 'God of Light and,' 269
HEBREW. Reference to the, 31, 133, 265;
comparison of Egyptian literature with, 187
HE'CAT-E. Greek goddess; goddess of the lower world;
goddess of fertility, 175, 176
HE'HU AND HE'HUT. Gods personifying fire, 12
HEK'ER. Night of, 57
HEKT. Frog-headed goddess, wife of Khnemu; a form of Hathor, 175;
the goddess of birth; fills the body of Hatshepsut with
the breath of life, 247
HEL-I-O'POL-IS. Names of great gods at, 14;
characteristics of gods at, 16;
gods recognized by priests of, 16;
caste of priests ruling at, 17;
chief local god of, 17;
priest's title at, 53;
equivalent, On, 54;
Anubis fused with Horus, at, 105, 106;
worship of Ra centred in, 132;
priests of, 99, 133;
original local god of, 133;
temple re-built, 134;
reference to, 136;
one of the centres of Amen-Ra at, 142;
Aten first worshipped in neighbourhood of, 157;
Aten's last refuge, 160;
Hathor of, 169;
sacred tree of Nut at, 174;
chamber in, called the Plan-room, 202;
Ierharerou, the King-priest of, 240;
record re the cuirass of Ierharerou in temple at, 245;
stones as incorporations of the sun-god at, 280;
worship of the bull Mnevis at, 288;
lions kept in temple at, 291;
the ancient tree in the 'Great Hall' of, 298;
the obelisk of, 318
HEL-I-O-POL'ITAN RECENSION. A version of the Book of the Dead,, 113
HE'LI-OS. Rhea, wife of, 65;
equivalent, Ra, 65
HELL. Reference to, 123
HEL-LEN'IC. Supremacy, period of, 35;
Greek mysteries, pre-, 57;
myth, 77
HEN-EN-NI-SUT. Peasant lays his case before the Lord Stewart
Meruitensa at, 222-224
HEN-EN-SET-EN. Peasant of Salt Country trades with, 220
HENKH-IS-ES'UI. East wind called, 180
HEN-MEM'ET. Dwellers in heaven, 126
HEN'U. Seker-boat known as, 145
HEQT. Goddess, identified with Hathor, 295
HER'AC-LES. Reference to, 176
HER-AK-LE-OP'OL-IS. Hathor of, 169
HER'MES. Greek name for Thoth, 65, 108
HERMITAGE COLLECTION. At St. Petersburg, 191
HER-MON'THIS. Goddess Rat-Tauit worshipped at, 84;
one of the centres of Amen-Ra at, 142
HER-MOP'OL-IS. Seat of worship of Thoth, 106;
equivalent, Khemennu, 111;
one of the centres of Amen-Ra at, Magna, 142;
reference to, 176;
worship of the Ram of Mendes in, 288;
cult of the ibis at, 295, 296
HER-OD'OT-US, 54, 56, 57, 59, 148, 149, 237, 288, 293, 296, 302, 303
HERO-GODS. Deification of certain national heroes as, 303, 304
HER'U-BE-HUD'ETI. Equivalent, Horus, 84;
waged war against Set, 86;
principal shrines of, 86;
represented force of good against that of evil, 87;
festival of, 100;
reference to, 130
HER'U-TA-TA-F. Son of Cheops, 112;
reference to, 151;
of great learning, 152;
equivalent, Hordedef, 201
HES-EP'TI. Equivalents, Udy-mu or Den, fifth king of the First Dynasty, 63, 111
HET-BEN-BEN. Temple built to his god by Amen-hetep, 159
HET-RESHP. Reshpu's chief centre of worship at, 280
HI-ER-AC-ON'POL-IS. Mace-head of Narmer found at, 63
HIP-POC'RAT-ES. I-em-hetep a species of Egyptian, 152
HIP-POL'Y-TUS, 58
HIPPOPOTAMUS, THE. Book of Slaying, 89;
worship of, in Egypt, 294;
goddess, Ta-urt the, 294;
the monster called Amemt, 294
HOB'NIL. A deity of the ancient Maya, 29;
equivalent, Kan, 29
HOLY OF HOLIES, 53, 61
HOLY PLACE, 61
HOR-BE-HÛD'TI. Alternative, Horus 92;
his worshippers alluded to him as EdfÛ, 93
HOR-DED'EF. Otherwise Her-tata-ef, a son of Khufu, 201, 202
HOROSCOPE-S. Casting of, by Egyptians, 272, 273
HORSE-S. Use of in war of, by Egyptians, 279
HOR'US. Sacred eye representative of, 7;
depicted with head of hawk, 11;
one of the great gods at Heliopolis, 14;
nine gods of, 16;
chief of company, 17;
worshipped in six nomes, 18;
manifestation of, 21;
heads of the four sons of, on canopic jars, 28;
hawk-worship of, 34;
officiating priest represents, 54;
Horus the Child, son of Isis, equivalent Harpocrates, 69;
does battle with Set, 70;
resurrection beliefs and, 79;
stung by scorpion, 83;
his beauty, 85;
confused in the legend with Horus the Elder, 91, 93;
originally a sun-god; his symbol, the winged disk, 92;
Horus the Child represented the rising sun, 94;
type of resurrection, 95;
absorbed the attributes of all other Horus-gods, 96;
eyes of, 97;
reference to, 103;
children of, 125;
the son of Tririt (the sow), 214;
the son of Tnahsit (the negress), 214, 217;
the son of TriphÎt (the princess), 214;
the King of Nubia and, 213, 214;
King of the Negroes and, 216;
in the court of Amen-Ra, 246;
one of the more important amulets, the Eye of, 263, 264;
Sebek, the helper and protector of child, 289;
the lion identified with, 291;
the falcon sacred to, 296;
the boy, issues from the cup of a lotus, 299;
identified with Apollo, 303, 306;
the Child (the Greek Harpocrates) one of the best loved Egyptian gods, 308;
Isis and, represented in a figure, 308;
the temple of, at EdfÛ, 320
HOR'US THE ELDER. Worshipped in Egypt; equivalent, Heru; believed to be
the son of Geb and Nut, 65;
regarded as face of heaven; Harmachis of the Greeks, 29
KAN-ZIC-NAL. A deity of the ancient Maya; equivalent, Muluc, 29
KAR'NAK. Assa mentioned in tablet at, 26;
temple of, 61;
Imhotep and Amenophis adored at, 303, 304;
the hypostyle hall at, 317;
the famous Avenue of Sphinxes at, 318
KEK'U-I AND KEK'U-IT. Gods, 12
KEMT. Word 'alchemy' derived from Egyptian word, 269
KERH AND KER'HET. Personified Night or Chaos, 12
KES'ET, Hathor of, 169
KH. Sign, the determinative of the name Set, 280
KHAF'RA. Entombed in second pyramid of Gizeh, 25;
family, 25;
tells tale of magic to his father, 198-199
KHAL'U. The country of, 229
KHAM'O-ÎS. The envoys of, 235
KHAR'TOUM, 38
KHEM-EN'NU. Equivalent, Hermopolis, 111
KHEM'I, 190
KHEN'SU. The Moon-god; a form of Amen, 141;
son of Bast, 148;
apes in temple of, 294
KHEP'ER-A. Deity; laid foundation in Ma?t, 13;
magical skill of, 13;
tears of, 14;
states he is Osiris, 14;
Nu identified with him, 14;
a form of the sun, 21;
Harmachis refers to his identity with, 86;
Af Ra transformed into, 118;
in Book of the Dead, 119;
Ra as, 136;
type of resurrection, 137;
reference to, 146
'KHE'RI-HEB.' Priests, 261
KHNEM'IT. The diadem and crown of, 317
KHNEM-NEF'ERT, QUEEN. Sarcophagus of, 111;
reference to, 112
KHNEM'U. Worship of, 18, 152, 153;
probably a totemic deity, 21;
creation of universe and; fashioned the animals, 144;
symbol of, 152, 153;
female counterparts; attributes, 153;
the Nile flood and, 154;
King Tcheser and, 155;
reference to, 156, 172;
Hekt, wife of, 175;
worship of the Ram of Mendes and, 288
KHNEM'U-RA. Power of, 154
KHNUM. Fashions the body of Queen Hatshepsut, 247, 248
KHNUM'U. God; and the priest Ra-user, 203
KHNU'MU-HO'TEP. Coffin of, 324
KHON'SU. Lunar deity, identified with Thoth, 176;
Expeller of Demons, 178-180
KHON'SU IN THEBES NEF-ER-HET'EP. One of the forms of Khonsu, 178;
gives protection to Expeller of Demons, 179, 180
KHORP HEM'TI-U. Distinctive title of priest, 53
KHU. The Spirit-souls, 117
KHU'FU. Equivalent, Cheops, 25;
first pyramid and, 25;
reference to, 152;
magic story related to, 197-202
KHUT. Isis, called, 83;
the serpent called, 130
KICHE-S. Tribe referred to, 12;
all forms of worship fused in one by the, 133
KING ARTHUR. Reference to, 87
KINGDOM. The Old, the Middle, and the New, 36
KOM-ES-SAGHA. The temple of, 317
KOM-OM'BOS. The pronaos of, 320
KO-RE'. Figure in mysterious cult, 58;
alternative, Persephone, 58;
myth of, 77;
reference to story of, 121
KRAM'AT. Of the Malays, 261
KROK'-O-DIL-O'-POL-IS. The crocodile, incarnation of the god Sebek,
dwelt in lake near, 11;
the centre of the worship of the crocodile, 290
KRO'NOS. Loved by Nut, 65;
equivalent, Geb, 65
L
LAB'Y-RINTH. Crocodiles buried in the subterranean, 290;
Herodotus not allowed to enter, 290
'LADY OF THE SYCAMORE.' The Memphite Hathor was called, 298
LAKE MOERIS, 55
LAND OF PUNT, 193
LANE. Reference to, 261
LATE KINGDOMS. Reference to, 4
LATIN. Reference to supremacy, 35
LEF-É'BURE. Reference to, 259
LE-O-NAR'DO DA VIN'CI. Reference to, 314
LE-ON-TOP'O-LIS. City of, 291
LEP'SIUS. Researches into Egypt, &c., by, 38;
theory of, re Osiris, 73;
monuments recovered by, 160;
animal stories and, 195
LET-OP'OL-IS. Canal of, 202
LETTER. Pharaoh Ousimares and the sealed, 211;
read to Pharaoh Ousimares by Se-Osiris, 213-215
LEY'DEN, 37, 195
LIB'YA. Oracle of Jupiter-Ammon in, 142
LIB'YAN. Home of Osiris, 64;
desert, 76;
Isis of Libyan origin, 80, 82;
aggression in the Delta, 140
LIB'YAN PERIOD, THE, 300
LIFE, DOUBLE HOUSE OF. Equivalent, Library of Magical Books;
written by Thoth, 265-268
'LIGHT AND HEALTH.' One of Ra's appellations, 269
LION-S, THE. Worship of, 291, 292;
identified the sun-god Horus, 291;
the Delta the home of the Egyptian, 291;
Leontopolis, the centre of the cult of, 291;
kept in the temple at Heliopolis, 291;
the ancient lion-god Aker, 291;
Sef and Dua, two guardian, 292;
statues of, familiar under Greek name of 'Sphinxes,' 292;
Amen-hetep III and his boast re, 292;
Rameses II and Rameses III both kept a tame, 292
LOCAL GODS. Confusion in consequence of, 2;
distinctive marks of, 2
LOGIC Prehistoric, 255, 256
LONDON, 194
LOS'KI-EL. On resurrection, 79
LOTUS, THE. In Egyptian symbolism, 299;
boy Horus issues from cup of, 299;
the symbol of resurrection, 299
LOUIS XIV. Painting under, 321
LOUVRE, 37, 72, 206
LOVE. Hathor, the goddess of, 246
LUX'OR. Buildings at, 317
LY-COP'O-LIS. Inhabitants of, 101;
worship of the Ram of Mendes in, 288;
the wolf venerated at, 294
LY-SAN'DER. Consulted the oracle of Jupiter-Ammon, 142, 143
M
MAA. God of sight, 181
MAA KHER'U ('Right speaking'). Etymological meaning, 261
MAAT. Signifies law, &c., 53;
goddess of justice, identified with Isis, 82;
closely resembles Thoth; one of the original goddesses;
symbolized by ostrich feather, 108;
appellations, 109;
path of Ra across the sky planned by, 131
MAC'BETH. Reference to, 143
MACH-I-A-VEL'LI. Reference to, 187
MAF'TET. Reference to the goddess, 16
MAGIC-AL. Chapter on, in tale of the Magicians, 132, 206;
force in Egypt, 261;
formulÆ ('right speaking') in Egypt, 261;
versus Magic; tale of, 215-219;
cane, King Thothmes', 249, 250;
Egypt the mother of, 252;
Egyptian, is assumed to be a degraded form of religion, 252;
Professor Maspero's statement re, 252;
Dr. Budge's statement re, 252;
the antiquity of Egyptian, 254, 255;
Frazer, Marrett, Hubert and Mauss, on origin of, 253, 256;
the savage of the Egyptian Stone Age and, 254;
difference between other systems and Egyptian, 256;
statement of Professor Maspero re, 257;
names of power in connexion with Egyptian, 258;
force, in Egypt, 261;
its recognized representatives, 261;
formulÆ, Book of the Dead and, 262;
conspiracy, of Hui, 262, 263;
words of power, inscribed on amulets, 263;
the gibberish of, 265;
Books—the Double House of Life, or Library of, 265;
medical, 268;
powers, belief re, in Egypt, 270;
mummy, 273, 274;
Amenophis author of a book on, 303
MAGICIAN-S. Tale of the, 132, 152;
none in Memphis equal to Se-Osiris, 211;
Pharaoh Ousimares' chief, 215;
war of enchantments between Horus and Pharaoh's chief, 217-219;
coercion of the gods by, 256
MAH-Î-TOU'AS-KHÎT. Wife of Setne; prays to Imhetep for a son, 207, 212;
her prayer is answered, 208
MALAY-S. Depict the soul in bird-shape, 32;
magical force in Egypt and the kramat of the, 261
MALAYSIA. Belief occurring in, 6
MA'NA. Of the Melanesians, 261
MAN-AKH'PHRÊ-SI-AM'ON. See Pharaoh ManakhphrÊ-Siamon
MAN-E'THO. Divided Egyptian history into dynasties, 35;
chronology of, 35;
cult of Apis traced by, to Kaiekhos, 284;
the Sarapis statue and, 307
MANHOOD. Superstition regarding new name given at initiation rites
conferring, 259
MAN'U. The mountain of sunset, 125
MAN'ZET. The barque, 131;
model of the, in temple at Heliopolis, 134
MAR'DUK. Slew Assyrian monster Tiamat, 132
MAR-E-O'TIS. District of, 46
MA-RI-ETTE. Reference to, 38, 169, 287, 288
MARETT. The works of, and the origin of magic, 253
MARS. A war-god, 19;
reference to, 102;
identified with Horus, 181
MAS-A'I. Reference to, 34
MAS-PE'RO, SIR GASTON. Reference to companies of gods, 16;
contributions to Egyptian archÆology, 38;
reference to, 41, 42, 64, 112, 113, 257;
translated "True History of Setne and his Son, Se-Osiris," 206;
his statement re Egyptian magic, 252
MA'TER. Governor of King Tcheser, 154, 155
MAT-KA-RÉ, QUEEN. Papyrus of, 320
MAUN-DE-VILLE, SIR JOHN. Allusion to writings of, 190
MAUSS. The works of, and the origin of magic, 253
MA'YA OR MA'YAS. Of Central America, 29;
use of funerary jars by, 29;
belief in resurrection, 79;
abode of god of death and the, 101;
ostrich feather and the, 109;
description of their Hades, 121
MAYPOLE. Custom of bringing in the, reference to, 72
MEC'CA. Reference to, 2
MEDITERRANEAN. Civilizing stock on southern shores of, 34;
theory re people of, 34
MEDICAL MAGIC. Egyptian medicine and, 268
MEDICINE. Secrets of, divulged to men by certain deities among
North American tribes, 261;
medical magic in the practice of Egyptian, 268
ME-DI'NET-HABÛ. Temple of Rameses III at, 317
ME-DUM. First pyramid structure at, 24
ME'HEM-ET ALI. Egypt opened to Europeans under, 37;
preservation of ancient monuments undertaken by, 38
MEH-URT. Seven Wise Ones offspring of goddess Meh-urt, 147
MEL-AN-ES'IAN-S. Magician, sends forth his soul in form of eagle, 6;
magical force in Egypt and the Mana of the, 261
MEL-CAR'THUS. King of Byblos, 68;
elder son of, goes to Egypt with Isis, 69
MEM'NON. Colossal figures of, at Thebes, 318
MEM'PHIS. Walls still exist at, 40;
one of the centres of Amen-Ra at, 142;
Ptah, greatest of the gods, at, 144;
Seker ruled over, 145;
centre of worship of several gods, 147;
reference to the triad of, 150;
worship of I-em-hetep of ancient date in, 151;
Ammen-hetep built temples at, 157;
Se-Osiris leads Setne to unknown place in mountains of, 209;
no scribe or magician in, equal to Se-Osiris, 211;
Nefer-ka-Ptah's tomb at, 266, 267;
a priest of, who served Ashtoreth with the moon-god Ah, 278;
sacred bulls of, 287;
Apis, the bull in the temple of Ptah in, 302
ME'NA. The first historical king of Egypt, 110;
Apis and, 284
ME'NA'S CONQUEST. Reference to, 35
MEN'DES. 1. Kamenophis, Prince of, 240.
2. The great god; Kamenophis swears by, 241.
3. City of; high priest's title at, 53;
centre of worship of Osiris, 63;
one of the centres of Amen-Ra, 142;
worship of the Ram of Mendes in the, 288;
the god Pan worshipped with a goat at, 288;
the stele of, found by Mariette, 288
MEN-KAU-HOR. Pyramid constructed by, 26
MEN-KAU-RA. Corpse of, placed in Upper pyramid, 25;
revision of parts of Book of the Dead undertaken in his reign, 112
MEN-NI-US AG-RIP'PA. 195
MEN'TU. The god of war, 246
MEN'TU-HET'EP. A king of the Eleventh Dynasty, 111, 112
ME'NU. Festival of, 57
ME'NU'QET. Ruled over Field of Reeds, 147, 155, 174;
Book of the Dead and, 156
NEP'RA. Mention of, in hymn to Hapi, 171
NES'ERT (Flame). Name of Sekhmet, 147
NEW EMPIRE. Equivalent New Kingdom, 27;
reference to, 36;
temple-building and advent of, 59
NEW EMPIRE ART. Described, 317-319;
period witnessed the completion of the hypostyle hall at Karnak,
the temple of Rameses III at Medinet-habÛ, and the great assembly
of ecclesiastical edifices at DÉr-el-Bahari, 317;
buildings at Luxor, 317, 318;
rock-cut temples at BÊt-el-WÁlÎ and Abu-Simbel, 318;
Memnon at Thebes and the Avenue of Sphinxes at Karnak, 318;
the statues of Thothmes III; Amenophis, the son of Hapu,
and Queen Tyi, 318;
re bas-relief, the likenesses of Seti I (Abydos), Septah Meneptah,
and Queen Aahmes, 318
NEW KINGDOM. Process of mummification during period of, 27;
equivalent, New Empire, 36;
wealth and power of gods in, 52;
symbol of winged disk in, 92;
language, 183
NILE. Dynastic Egyptians along the banks of the, 35;
description of house on banks of the, 42;
inundation of, 48, 83;
dead carried across the, 62;
country, shrines to Osiris in, 63;
Osiris supposed god of the, 64;
coffin of Osiris on the, 67;
moon-god identified with the, 76;
Ra, voyages on the, 88, 89;
sacrifice thrown into, 103;
belief of early dwellers by the, 128;
gods of the, 153;
flood of the, 154, 155;
reference to the, 161, 168, 169, 194, 201, 205;
source of all wealth and provender, 170;
Bitou made Prince of the Upper, 228;
temple to Queen Hatshepsut erected in the valley of the, 248;
cows cast into the sacred waters of the, 284, 303;
the Apis and the, 285
NILE VALLEY. Divinities worshipped in, 1;
totemism non-existent in the, 3;
practice of magic in, 7;
funeral processions along, 30;
belief in, regarding soul, 32;
characteristics of, 33;
inhabitants of, 34;
language of, 34;
religion of, 34;
inhabitants of, little affected by time, 44;
feudal system in, 45;
nature of soil, 46;
worship of Ra in, 132;
worship of Amen in, 137, 141;
Egyptian system of writing traced within the, 184;
fables early popular in, 194
NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. Pony totem worshipped by, 11;
celebrations by, almost identical with that of Eleusis, 58;
initiatory ceremonies of, 122;
eagle a symbol of the sun among, 130
NORTH LAND. Promised to Thothmes by Harmachis, 86
NORTHERN MARSHES. Horus born in the, 85
NU. Deity of the firmament and the rain, 12;
things created from out of, 13;
children of, 13;
eye of, 14;
identified with Khepera, 14;
alluded to in the Pyramid Texts, 21;
primeval abyss of, 108;
great mass of celestial waters called, 118;
has place in Book of the Dead, 119;
Pet, a contradistinction to word, 125;
Mut, original female counterpart of, 143;
reference to, 170, 173
NU'BI-A. Researches in, 38;
explorations of, 43;
monuments in, 43;
battles between Horus and followers of Set, in, 90;
power of Amen-Ra in, 142;
Mater, ruler of, 154;
cult of Anqet in Northern, 156;
reference to, 194;
reference to King of, in sealed letter read by Se-Osiris, 213;
Queen Hatshepsut designed to reign over, 246
NUBIANS. Racial origin, 34;
moon-god of the Neolithic, 76
NUN. The oldest of the gods; Ra seeks counsel of, 166
NUT. Deity of the firmament and the rain, 12;
one of great gods at Heliopolis, 14;
reference to, 17;
equivalent, Rhea, 64;
Thoth, 65;
five children of, and, 65;
frequently portrayed in a sycamore tree, 72;
mother of Horus the Elder, 84;
mother of Nephthys, 97, 172;
mother of Set, 99;
personification of the morning, 118;
mother of Hathor, 165;
follower of Ra, 166;
daughter of Shu and Tefnut; wife of Geb, and mother of Osiris
and Isis; personification of sky, 172;
counterpart of Nu, 172;
the spouse of Nu, and of Geb, 173;
general appearance, 173;
frequently represented in form of cow, 173;
the sycamore sacred to, 174, 298;
place of origin, Denderah, 174;
office in the underworld, 174;
portrait of, painted on coffins as a charm, 174;
the sky-goddess; in the Court of Amen-Ra, 246
O
OB'EL-ISK-S. Of Heliopolis, 317
OCH'US. Persian monarch reigning over Egyptians, and nicknamed the Ass, 103
OD'IN. Reference to eye of, 13
OLD KINGDOM. Alternative, the Pyramid Age, 22;
comprised dynasties I to VIII, 36;
domestic architecture of, 43;
decapitation, a mode of death in, 47;
language of, 183;
monuments, &c., of a model for the New Empire, 301;
reference to the priests of the, 305;
statues in the, 315
OL-YM'PUS. Worship of, 9;
the high place of deities, 10
ON. Equivalent for Heliopolis, 54, 113, 114;
worship of Ra in, 132
'OPENER OF THE WAYS.' Equivalent for Up-uaut, 105
ORACLE-S. The Apis, in the temple of Ptah, 286;
not of Egyptian origin, 303
'ORE, BLACK.' See Black powder, also Alchemy.
ORENDA. Of the North American Indians; reference to, 261
ORIENT, ANCIENT. The peoples of, invoked evil beings equally with good, 258
ORIENTALS. Like Egyptians, fatalists, 49;
like Egyptian labourers, sing while at work, 205
OR-I'ON. Stars of, 75
OS-I'RIS. Myth of, 6, 64;
coffin of, 7;
one of the great gods at Heliopolis, 14;
account of creation according to worshippers of, 14;
cause of primeval matter, 14;
one of the first of the company of gods, 17;
mummification arose out of the cult of, 22;
sacredness of man's body taught by priests of, 26;
Pharaohs identified with, 27;
night journey of, 30;
religion in Nile valley and, 34;
dark realm of, 48;
son of, 54;
annual commemoration of sufferings and death of, 56;
birthday of, 57;
one of principal figures in Egyptian pantheon, 63;
equivalent, As-ar, 63;
god of the dead and the underworld, 63, 76, 77;
origins extremely obscure, 63;
centre of Osiris-worship at Abydos, 63;
shrines to, 63;
dwells peaceably in underworld, 64;
usually figured as wrapped in mummy bandages, 64;
African in origin, 64;
son of Nut, 65;
his birth, 65, 174;
Pamyles proclaims birth of, 66;
education by Pamyles, 66;
prophecies concerning, 66;
wife rules for, 66;
Set invites banquet, 67;
gets into fatal chest, 67;
death of, 67;
coffin enclosed in pillar at Byblos, 68;
his many tombs, 70;
promising to return to earth when his wrongs are avenged, 70;
Sir G. Frazer on myth of, 70;
use of corn and; cultivation of vine and; corn-spirit and tree-spirit, 71;
myth of, as tree-spirit, 72-73;
identified with sun-god, Ra, 73;
lunar significance, 74-75;
pigs sacrificed to, 75;
hymn addressed by Isis to, 75;
god of fertility, 77;
personification of Ra, 78;
typical of bodily resurrection, 79;
Book of the Dead and, 79, 80;
in his guise of the corn dies and is restored to life again by Isis, 81;
reference to, 88, 90-93, 98, 99, 100, 103, 104, 107, 109, 110,
114-116, 122, 128, 137, 139, 141, 145-147, 153, 155, 156, 167, 208;
represented 'yesterday,' 95;
journey of, in the underworld, 116, 117;
his journey as Af Ra through the Duat, 118;
description of his rÔle as judge of the dead, 119;
Osirian paradise consisted of converse with, 134;
struggle between priesthoods of Ra and, 135;
worship of, 135;
overshadows Ra; identified with Tem, 136;
Hapi identified with, 169;
identified with Venus, 181;
seen in a vision by Setne, 209, 210;
on right hand of Amen-Ra in the land of the gods, 246;
threatened to be named aloud in the port of Busiris, 260, 261;
invoked in connexion with spells over crocodiles, 264;
black powders identified with the body possessed by, 270;
mummy magic and the god, 274;
the Apis and, 284-287;
the spirit of, infused into the ox, 285;
a dual god with the Apis, 287;
worship of Ram of Mendes, and, 288;
crocodiles, friend and foe of, 289;
the falcon sacred to, 296;
Set the dark brother of, 300;
identified with Dionysos, by Herodotus, 303;
identified with Pluto, 306;
reference to the vignette of the Judgment before, 320;
a study of, in SaÏte statuary, 320
OUN-AM'OU-NOU. The chief priest of the temple of Amen-Ra;
visits coasts of Egypt, 232-236;
arrives at Tanis, 232;
arrives at Dora, city of Zakkala, 232;
Prince BadÎl sends food to, 232;
reaches Tyre, 233;
sails in direction of Byblos, 233
OUS-I-MAR'ES, PHARAOH. Name of king in "History of Setne
and his son Se-Osiris," 206, 207;
see Pharaoh Ousimares.
OUS-I-MAN'THOR. Son born to Setne, 219
OXFORD. Reference to museum at, 37
P
PACH'ONS. Month of; sacrifices to Set during, 100
PA-HER'I. Prince of El Kab, 120
PAINTING. Of Japan, derived from China, 311;
in England, Scotland, Germany, and France, imported
chiefly from the Low Countries, 311;
the materials of, 315-317;
of SaÏte period, 320;
French, 321
PAK'ROU-ROU. Ally of Ierharerou, King-Priest of Heliopolis, 240;
meets Moutoubaal, a prince of Syria, 243
PALÆOLITHIC MAN. Sleep a puzzle to, 255
PALERMO STONE. Inscription called the, 18
PALESTINE. Theory that stoneworking race immigrated to Egypt from, 34;
researches into, 38;
spoil of conquered, loaded temple of Amen, 139;
reference, to, 191, 194;
Joppa, a town in Thontii and, 248
PAL'LAS ATH-E'NÉ. Alluded to, 19
PAM-IL'I-A. Festival of, 98;
quotation from, regarding Set and the Ass, 101;
statement on Anubis, 104;
gives the astronomical significance of Anubis, 105;
his allegation regarding the form in which Isis
lamented death of Osiris, 297;
the Legend of Sarapis and, 306, 307
PLUTO. One of the chief figures in the Eleusinian mystery, 58;
husband of Persephone; god of grain and growth, 77;
reference to, 102
POP'OL VUH. Story of creation recorded in the, 12;
reference to, 58, 133;
book of the Central Americans, resembling Book of the Dead, 121;
story of wonderful crop of maize, in, 122
POL-Y-THE-IS'TIC WORSHIP. A national tendency, among Egyptians, 275
PORCELAIN. Of mediÆval China, 311
POST-IMPRESSIONIST-S. See Art
POWER, NAMES OF. See Names
POW-HAT'ANS. Their belief re the souls of their chiefs at death, 5
PRAYER-S. Prescribed, in connexion with medical magic in Egypt, 269
PREDESTINED PRINCE. Alternative "The Doomed Prince," 228-232;
Story of the, discovered by Goodwin, 248
PRIEST-S. The 'kheri-heb,' the recognized representations of
magic in Egypt, 261;
the higher offices filled by sons of the Pharaohs, 261;
new order known as the 'priesthood of the beneficent gods,' 305;
the Theban, regarded as sages, 305;
reference to the, of the old kingdom, 305
PRIESTESSES. In Thebes, consecrated to the service of Amen, 305
PRINCE, THE. Work by Machiavelli, 187
PRINCE, THE DOOMED. The story of, 228-232;
doomed, to three evil fates—to die by a crocodile, a serpent,
and a dog, 231
PRO-CON-NES'US. Aristeas of, 6
PROPHECIES. The Apis Oracle, and, 286
PRUSSIA. Reference to expedition sent by, into Egypt, Nubia, Syria,
and Palestine, 38
PSAM-MET'ICH-US I. Founded town of Naucratis, 46;
story of the days of, 197
PTAH. A form of the sun-god, 21;
temple of, 53;
Book of the Dead, and, 119;
greatest of the gods at Memphis; derivation of name, uncertain, 144;
alluded to in Pyramid Texts, 144;
a master architect and framer of everything in the universe, 144;
partakes of the nature of Thoth, and also of Shu, 145;
as Ptah-Seker represents union of creative power with that of
chaos or darkness, 145;
absorbs attributes of Seker; also connected with Tenen, 146;
had variants which took attributes of Min, Amsu, and Khepera;
described as, triune god of the resurrection, 146;
centre of worship at Memphis, 147;
female counterpart, Sekhmet, 147;
Seven Wise Ones, and, 147;
reference to, 150, 154, 171, 207;
Pharaoh ManakhphrÊ-Siamon swears by, 215;
the Apis oracle in temple of, 286;
Apis, the bull of the temple of, 302
PTAH-ANKH. One of the Pyramid Age sculptors, 315
PTAH-HOT'EP. Books of proverbs or instructions attributed to, 187
PTAH OF ANKH'TAUI. Temple of, 198
PTAH-SEK'ER. One of the gods alluded to in Book of the Dead, 119;
represents union of creative power with that of chaos or darkness, 145
PTAH-SEK'ER-AS'AR. Equivalent, Ptah-Seker-Osiris, 146
PTAH-SEK'ER-O-SIR'IS. See Ptah-Seker-Asar.
PTOL-EM-Æ'US. Demise of King of foretold by oracle of Sebek, 291
PTOL-E-MA'IC. Period; travelling courts instituted in, 47;
SaÏte Recension employed to the end of the, period, 114;
forms small figures of Amen-Ra made in, 141;
period; references to, 152, 186, 196
PTOL'EM-IES. Reference to text of the, 151
PTOL'EM-Y II, PHIL-A-DEL'PHUS. Temple of Mendes rebuilt by, 288;
Apis and Mnevis provided for, by, 305
PTOLEMY III. Decree of Canopu, belonging to, 186
PTOLEMY SO'TER. Identification of Sarapis with Pluto, assigned by
tradition to reign of, 306
PUNT. Queen Hatshepsut designed to reign over, 246
PYRAMID AGE. Equivalent to the Old Kingdom, 22
PYRAMIDION, HOUSE OF THE. Temple built to his god by Amen-hetep, 159
PYRAMID-S. Ritual texts and spells inscribed in the, 183;
the Sphinx and the; monuments of bygone Egypt, 314;
the Monna Lisa of Leonardo da Vinci and the Elgin Marbles
of Phidias, evoked by the, 314;
age sculptors; Ptah-Ankh, one of the, 315;
days; craft of painting on sun-dried clay, during, 316
PYRAMID TEXTS. Allusion to the, 12;
mention of deities in the, 15, 19-21;
a double group of eighteen gods mentioned in the, 16;
inscriptions antedating the, 18;
material for study of Egyptian pantheon found in the, 19;
origin of, 24;
Set alluded to in the, 99;
reference to, 63, 110;
Ptah alluded to in the, 144;
Bast mentioned in, 148;
Sebek referred to in the, 289;
revival of the, 301
PYTHAGOREANS. Typho and the, 102
Q
QEB. One of the first company of gods, 17
QEBH-SEN'NÛF. The falcon; represented on canopic jars, 28
QET'ESH. An Egyptian goddess borrowed from Semitic Asia, 276;
in Syria, worshipped as a nature goddess, 279;
in Egypt identified with one of the forms of Hathor, 279;
considered by some authorities to be an aspect of Ashtoreth, 279;
one other appellation, the 'eye of Ra,' &c., 279;
prayed to for gifts of life and health, 279;
associated as one of a trinity with Amsu or Min and the god Reshpu, 279
QU-EB'UI. North wind, called, 180
QU-ER'TI. Cavern from which flowed Nile flood, 154
QUET'ZAL-CO-ATL. Reference to the Mexican god, 130
R
RA. Ferry-boat of, 6;
representation of, 11;
the creative faculty and, 13;
darts of, 16;
name joined to that of Tem, 17;
a form of the sun-god, 21;
night journey of, 30;
comparison with Osiris, 63;
equivalent, Helios, 65;
pronounced curse upon Nut, 65;
Thoth turns curse aside, 65;
identified with Osiris, 73, 78;
Horus the elder one of the chief forms of, 85;
Harmachis refers to his identity with, 86;
Horus assists, 88;
shrine erected to Horus, by desire of, 89;
prisoners of Horus brought before, 90;
at one time identified with Horus, 92;
Horus legends and, 93;
grants request of Horus, 96;
gives Horus the city of PÉ, 97;
reference to, 100, 101, 103;
eyes of, 105;
mental powers of, 106;
reference to eye of, 107;
boat of, 108;
solar doctrine of, 114;
alluded to in Book of the Dead, 119;
dwells in heaven, 125;
helps Osiris to climb into heaven, 128;
position in Egyptian pantheon, 130;
number of sun-cults became fused in that of, 130;
bird and serpent associated in, 130;
daily voyage of, 131;
worship of, in Egypt, 132;
how progeny of, first gained Egyptian throne, 132;
worship of, supreme in Nile valley, 132;
power of his priests, 133, 134;
temple at Heliopolis dedicated to, 134;
his sphere more spiritual than that of Osiris, 134;
struggle between priesthoods of Osiris and, 135;
cult of, foreign elements in, 135;
overshadowed by Osiris, 136;
reference to, 137, 138;
fusion with Amen, 139, 140;
temple of, at Memphis, 147;
reference to, 148, 151, 153, 158, 160, 162, 164, 165, 171, 174,
176, 181, 202, 203, 205;
Hathor and myths of, 166-168;
Isis and the secret name of, 259;
invoked in connexion with spells, 264;
one of the spells in Thoth's Library of Magical Books enabled
a man to see, 266;
word 'recipe' said to be an invocation to the 'god,' 269;
'God of Light and Health,' one of the appellations of, 269;
Qetesh termed the 'eye of,' &c., 279;
worship of Ram of Mendes, and, 288;
Sebek connected with, 289;
the lion identified with, 291;
the 'Sphinx' at Gizeh, the symbol of the sun-god, 292;
the falcon sacred to, 296
RA-TEM. Blending of Ra and Atum, 133
RA-HAR-MACH-IS. Worship of, restored by Thothmes IV, 157;
obelisk built by Amen-hetep IV, 158
RA-HER'U-AKH'TI. See Ra-Heru-Khuti
RA-HER'U-KHU'TI. Ruled over a region of Field of Reeds, 116;
equivalent, Ra-Heru-Akhti; Aten adopted the title of high-priest of, 157
RA-HOR-AKH'TI. The reign of, 88
RAM'ES-ES. Pyramid of, cannot be placed satisfactorily, 26;
tale illustrating the healing power of Khonsu, located in the
time of King, 176-180
RAM'E-SES II. Anena, a scribe who executed the original d'Orbiney papyrus,
lived in reign of, 224;
a temple to Baal existed at Tanis under, 277;
named one of his sons Mer-Astrot, after Ashtoreth, 279;
tame lion kept by, 292;
the New Empire during time of, a model for the Late period, 301
RAM'-E-SES III. Power of god Amen in time of, 52;
temple built for Khonsu at Thebes by, 176;
the conspiracy of Hui against, by means of magical books, 262, 263;
goddess Anthat honoured by, 277;
tame lion kept by, 292;
reference to temple of, at Medinet-habÛ, 317
RAMESSIDES. Baal especially esteemed by, 277
RAMESSID DYNASTY. High-priest of Amen-Ra raised to royal power at
end of the, 140
RAM OF MENDES. The cult of; ascribed by Manetho to Kaiekhos, 288;
worship of, in the Deltaic cities Hermopolis, Lycopolis, and Mendes, 288;
Herodotus relates Pan was worshipped with the, 288;
Ptolemy II Philadelphus rebuilds temple of, 288;
appellation, Khnemu, 288;
worshipped both by conquered and conquerors, 306
RAM, THE. Reference to, 288
RA-OSIRIS. The two gods blended in one, 78;
equivalent, Afra, 78;
punishment of the wicked mitigated in the Duat by appearance of, 122;
enemies of, and the souls of the doomed, 123
RA-SEK-EN-EN. Nationalist prince portrayed in fable, 194
RAT. Female counterpart of Ra, 132
RAT-TAU'IT. Goddess worshipped at Hermonthis; mother of Horus the younger, 84
REALM OF SEK'ER A separate realm of the dead, 117
RECENSION. The Heliopolitan, Theban, and SaÏte, of
Book of the Dead, 113, 114
'RECIPE.' Word is said to be an invocation to Ra, whose symbol it is, 269
RED MAN. Reference to imaginings of the, 15
RED SEA. Crossed by immigrants from Arabia to Egypt, 34
RELIGION-S. Egyptologists regard Egyptian magic to be a degraded form of, 252;
numerous strata in Egyptian, 257;
Egyptian magic more in common with, than most other systems, 258;
evolution of, on Egyptian soil, 258;
Semitic and African influence on Egyptian, 280-282;
Egyptian; symbolism of, mostly expressed by means of animals, 283, 284;
of the Late period, 299-303;
under Persian rule, 304;
the Ptolemaic period, 304-306;
under the Decadent period, 301;
the Libyan period, 299;
Egyptian, thrown into obscurity by the devotees of Christianity, 300;
the Alexandrine conquest and Egyptian, 304;
under Greek rule, 306;
foreign, penetrate the land of the Pharaohs, the alien faith which
finally triumphed was Christianity, 309
RENAISSANCE. An architectural, 308, 309;
Italian masters of the, owed much to the GrÆco-Roman school, 311;
colours in many old Egyptian works better than those in divers
Italian frescoes of the, 316;
the Romans and the Italian masters of the, 321
RER'ET. Goddess; evil influence of Set and, 101;
a form of Isis, 101;
equivalent, Taurt, 175;
identified with Draco, 181
RESH'PU. An Egyptian god borrowed from Semitic Asia, 276;
Syrian god, associated as one of a trinity with Qetesh, 279;
his cult in Egypt, 280;
chief centre of worship, Het-Reshp, 280;
in Syria regarded as a god of war, 280;
corresponds to the god known by Phoenicians and worshipped
in Cyprus and Carthage, 280
RE-STAU. Hidden things in, 57;
the other world of Seker, 57
RHAMP-SI-NI'TES. The story of, handed down to us by Herodotus, 237-240;
Egyptians duped by, 240
RHAMP-SIN-I'TUS, KING. Reference to, 194;
See Rhampsinites
RHE'A. Equivalent, Nut, 64;
reference to, 102
RHIND. Scottish archÆologist, 38
RHYS (pron. Reece), PROFESSOR. The Celtic belief re the name
being the 'soul,' and, 258
RIGHT SPEAKING (MA? KHERU). Term applied to a certain formula which
a magician once found effective and which had to be always repeated
exactly, 261
RO'DIN. Reference to the sculptor, 315, 323
RO'MAN-S. Pantheon; reference to deities in, 19, 20;
oracle of Jupiter-Ammon consulted by, 160
SEMITIC INFLUENCE. African and, on Egyptian religious ideas, 280-282
SEN'EF-ER-U. The cult of the dead in time of, 112;
tale of magic of the days of King, 199, 200
SENEGAMBIA. Superstition among tribes of, re new name given
at initiation ceremonies, 259
SEN-NACH'ER-IB. King of Assyria; defeated by Setnau, 219, 220
SEN-U-SERT. Pyramid of, 26;
equivalent, Usertsen, 133, 190;
story of Saneha and, 190, 191
SE-O-SI'RIS. The son of Setne; noted for his wisdom, 208;
recites from the magical books to Setne, 209;
leads Setne to unknown place in mountains of Memphis, 209;
shows Setne a vision of the gods of Amenti, 209-211;
no scribe or magician in Memphis his equal, 211;
reads sealed letter to Pharaoh Ousimares, 212-219;
his former identity as chief magician of Pharaoh ManakhphrÊ, 218;
disappears as a shadow, 219
SEPT. Astronomical symbol of Isis, 83;
Seker and, 145;
goddess Bast entitled 'the lady of Sept,' 148;
equivalent, Sothis, 148;
reference to, 156;
Hathor identified with, 168
SEP'TAH MEN-EP'TAH. Likeness of, example of bas-relief during
SaÏte period, 318
SER-A-PE'UM. The famous; discovered by Mariette, 287;
votive statues and stelÆ found in the chapels of, 287
SER-BON'IAN LAKE. Temple to Ashtoreth on shores of, 278
SER'GI, PROFESSOR. Reference to, 34
SERVICE OF ANTIQUITIES. Reference to, 38
SET. One of the great gods at Heliopolis, 14;
birth of, 65;
enemy to his brother, Osiris, 66;
alternative, the Greek Typhon, 66;
causes death of Osiris, 67;
discovers coffin of Osiris, 69;
Horus battles with, 70;
as a prisoner is set at liberty by Isis, 70;
pigs possibly symbolical of, 75;
Isis imprisoned by, 82;
represented face of heaven by night, 84;
reference to Horus's war against, 86, 87, 88;
schemes against Horus, 89, 96;
Horus takes prisoner one whom he wrongly thinks to be Set, 90;
end of, 91, 92;
symbol of darkness, 92;
reference to, 17, 95, 98, 103, 104, 106;
assumes form of black hog, 96;
causes temporary blindness to Horus, 97;
Nephthys, sister and wife of, 97;
cult of, 99;
friend to the dead; assisted Osiris to reach heaven; mortal
enemy of Horus the Elder, 99;
derivation of name, 99;
god of sin and evil; storms, earthquakes, eclipses, &c.,
attributed to, 100;
animals regarded as children of, 100;
the 'Great Bear' abode of, 101;
goddess Reret and, 101;
decline of worship of, 101;
Plutarch the ass, 101;
likens to; alluded to in Book of the Dead, 119;
helps Osiris climb into heaven, 128;
reference to birth of, 174;
identified with Mercury, 181;
Baal identified with, 277;
name of Baal substituted for, in texts of EdfÛ, 277;
Kh, the usual determinative of the name Set, 280;
the evil one who preys upon every 'Osiris,' 289;
revulsion of feeling against, 300;
the brother of Isis and Osiris, 300;
confused with the dragon Apep, 300;
identified with Typhon by Herodotus, 303, 306
SET'EM. God of hearing, 181
SET'I I. Reference to bas-relief at Abydos giving likeness of, 318
SET-NAU. A priest of 'Vulcan,' 219;
defeats the Assyrians under King Sennacherib, 219, 220
SET'NE. ancient story of him and his son, Se-Osiris, 206-208;
Se-Osiris recites from the magical books to, 209;
led by Se-Osiris to unknown place in mountains of Memphis, 209;
Se-Osiris grants a vision of the gods of Amenti to, 209-211;
son of Pharaoh Ousimares, 212;
MahÎtouaskhÎt wife of, 212;
Se-Osiris, son of, 212;
Se-Osiris disappears as a shadow from, 219;
Ousimanthor, son of, 219;
a tale of, related in a papyrus of the Ptolemaic period, 265-268;
his study in the manuscripts in the Library of Magical Books, 265;
his offer to the king's wise men re book written by Thoth, 266;
Ahura, wife of Nefer-ka-Ptah, and, 266;
plays draughts with Nefer-ka-Ptah, 268;
Ahura's prophecy regarding, 268;
commanded by Pharaoh to return Thoth's magical book to Nefer-ka-Ptah, 268
"SET'NE AND HIS SON SE-OSIRIS." The true History of, 206-219
"SET'NE AND THE MUMMIES." Reference to story of, 206
SET'Y II. See Sety Merenptah, 224
SET'Y MER-EN'PTAH (SETY II). Owner of original d'Orbiney papyrus, 224
SEVEN HATHORS, THE. A selection of forms of the goddess Hathor, 169;
Bitou's wife and, 226
SEVEN WISE ONES. Offspring of goddess Meh-urt; came forth from pupil of Ra,
form of, seven hawks, 147;
together with Thoth, presided over learning and letters, 147
SHAÏS. Battle by Horus at, 90
'SHEIKH-EL-BEL'ED' (KA-APER). See Sculpture
SHEM'SHU-HER'U. Gods of heaven, followers of Horus, 126
SHEP'SES-KAF. Buried in pyramid called 'the Cool,' 25
SHESH'ONK. A Libyan governor; capital at Bubastis and Bast
the goddess of locality, 300
SHOM'OU. Month of, 232
SHU. Child of Nu, 13;
followed by eye of Nu, 14;
gives birth to several gods, 14;
represents daylight, 14;
one of the first company of gods, 17;
god of the atmosphere; Af Ra and, 118;
alluded to in Book of the Dead, 119;
reference to, 153, 155, 157, 166, 173, 176;
god in the court of Amen-Ra, 246;
mummy magic and the gods Geb and, 274
SILENE. The moon-goddess; her game with Thoth, 65
SILENCE. The Demon of; Tehuti-nekht threatens to send the sekhti to, 222
SI'NAI. Reference to Mount, 10
SINAI PENINSULA. Explorations in, 43
SINAITIC PENINSULA. Hathor of the, 169
SIN'OPE. People of, and the Sarapis statue, 307
SIR'IUS. Inundation of Nile marked by rising of the star, 48;
equivalent, Sothis, 168
SI'UT. Staff of priests at, 54
SIXTH DYNASTY. Egyptian pantheon and, 19;
Book of the Dead and, 113;
power of priests of Ra at close of, 133;
inscriptions in language of, 183
SKY-GODDESS. Nut, the, 246
SLEEP. The phenomenon of, a puzzle to the PalÆolithic man, 255;
Egyptian desiring illumination through dream and, 273
SMEN'DES. Prince; Ounamounou and, 234, 235
SMITH, DR. ELLIOT. Reference to, 50
SOBK OF THE ISLAND. Temple of, 55;
equivalent, Sebek, 55;
called by Greeks Soknopaios, 55
SOK-NO-PAI'OS. Greek name for temple of Sobk, 55
SOMALI. Branch of race peopling southern shores of Mediterranean, 34
SO'THIS. Equivalent, Sirius, 48;
reference to, 148, 168
SOUL-S. Of the dead; delivered to Amait or Sekerosiris, 209, 210;
prehistoric logic and the destination of the, 255, 256;
Herodotus and transmigration of, 302
SOUTH LAND. Promised to Thothmes by Harmachis, 86;
encounter between Horus and Set in the, 89
SO-TEL'ES. The Sarapis statue and, 307
SPANIARD. Character of, compared with Egyptian, 50
'SPEAKING, RIGHT' (Maa Kheru). See Maa Kheru
SPELLS. Charms and; the Harris Papyrus contains many, 262;
the use of, universal, 264;
gods invoked in connexion with, as Ra, Amon, Osiris, Isis and
Horus, &c., 264, 265;
Nefer-ka-Ptah copies those in Thoth's Library of Magical Books, 267;
provision of, in the Book of the Dead to enable the deceased
to transform himself, 270, 271
SPHINX-ES. Reference to Harmachis, the, 85, 86;
the Greek name for the statues of lions, 292;
characteristics of Egyptian lion-statue different from Grecian, 292;
that at Gizeh the symbol of the sun-god Ra, 292;
the Pyramids and the, 314;
the Monna Lisa of Leonardo da Vinci and the Elgin Marbles
of Phidias evoked by the, 314;
the famous Avenue of, at Karnak, 318
SPHRAG-IS'TÆ. An order of priests, 103
SPIRIT. The wandering, of man, during sleep, 255, 256
SPIR'IT-ISM. Animism, the mother of, 254, 255
SPIRIT-SOULS. The place of, in Field of Reeds, 116;
equivalent, 'Khu,' 117
SQUIRE. Reference to his translation of Plutarch's De Iside et
Osiride, 101
ST. GEORGE. Reference to, 87
STONE-S. Trees and, looked upon as incorporations of deity, 280
STORY, THE. Of the Shipwrecked Sailor; a Tale of the Twelfth Dynasty, 191;
of the Two Brothers, 224-232;
of Rhampsinites, 237-240
STRA'BO. Early Greek traveller in Egypt, 54;
his account of the crocodile, 290;
his assertion re the statues of sacred animals, 306
SUMATRA. The Battas of, and the soul, 32
SUN-GOD. Stones as incorporations of deity in Heliopolis, 280;
lion identified with the, Horus, 291;
Ra the; the 'Sphinx' at Gizeh the symbol of, 292;
Ra; ass figures as a personification of the, 295
SUNRISE, MOUNTAIN OF THE. Af Ra directs his course to the, 118
SYRIA-N. Researches into, 38;
explorations in, 43;
spoil of conquered, loaded the temple of Amen, 139-142;
Egyptian religion and, 159;
Egyptian system of writing in, 184;
Queen Hatshepsut designed to reign over, 246;
Thoutii the prince of a town in, 248;
origin; words and expressions of, in spells, 265;
cult of Anthat in, 277
T
TABLES OF NATIVITY. Found in later papyri, 272
TAK'HOS. Galley of; Minnemai recaptures his father's shield from the, 245
TAN-A-IT'IC. Mouth, of the Nile, where body of Osiris drifted to, 67
TAN'IS. Scientific system of investigation inaugurated at, 39;
shrine of Heru at, 86;
Ounamounou, chief priest of Amen-Ra arrives at, 232;
under Rameses II, a temple to Baal existed at, 277;
eastern quarters of, dedicated to Ashtoreth, 278
TAN-TAM-OU'NOU. Prin
ce; Ounamounou and, 234, 235
TANT-NOU-IT. An Egyptian singer who cheers Ounamounou, 236
TAT'U. Pillar; erected at close of annual festival of Osiris, 72
TA-URT. Identified with Mut, 143;
mother and nurse of the gods; counterpart in Apet, 174;
known as Rert or Reret; identified with Isis, Hathor, Bast, 175;
her image in faience, favourite amulet, 175;
road to Hades and, 175;
popularity during New Empire, 175;
the hippopotamus-goddess, 294
TA-UT. Horus the child, the dead, and judges of the, 95
TCHA'BU. Mentioned in hymn to Hapi, 171
TCHES'ER. Third king of Third Dynasty; seeks help of Khnemu, 154, 155
TEF'NUT. Child of Nu, 13;
followed by eye of Nu, 14;
father of several gods, 14;
represents moisture, 14;
one of the first company of gods, 17;
reference to, 166;
goddess, in the Court of Amen-Ra, 246
TE-HU'TI-EM-HEB. Scribe sent to heal daughter of Prince of Bekhten, 178
TE-HU'TI-NEKHT. Son of Asri, serf to the High Steward Meruitensa, 220;
story of peasant and, 220-224
TEK'A, LADY OF. Pseudonym for the sun when high in the south, 164
TELL-EL-AMAR'NA. System of water-supply found at, 41;
remains of houses at, 42;
Amenhetep IV built capital, dedicated to Aten, on the site of, 158
TEM. Chief of the first company of gods, 17;
name joined to that of Ra, 17;
Harmachis refers to his identity with, 86;
alluded to in Book of the Dead, 119;
equivalent, Atmu, 119;
or Atem, 136;
original local deity of Heliopolis, 136;
one of the forms of Ra, 136;
identified with Osiris, 136;
god of the rising sun, 150;
the lord of Heliopolis, the great god; PimonÎ swears by, 241
TEMPLE-S. TO Queen Hatshepsut, 248;
Egyptian desiring illumination, and, 273;
Egyptian; representations of Bes in 'Birth Houses' in, 281;
representations of Bes in Hatshepsut's, 281;
apes kept in, 294;
epoch of building, in Egypt, 305;
of Dendereh, EdfÛ, Kom Ombo, PhilÆ, &c., 305;
Ptolemy and, 305;
re the, of Kom-es-Sagha, 317;
of Isis at PhilÆ, 320
TEN'EN. Ptah and, 146;
co-ordinated with Ptah, 96
TU'AT. Dark halls of the, 27
TURIN. Egyptian antiquities removed to, 37;
papyrus of, 111;
fable in museum at, 194, 195
TUSCANY. Government of, sends expedition to Egypt, 38
TUSH'RAT-TA. King of the Mitanni; mention of Ashtoreth in letter of, 278
TWELFTH DYNASTY. Pyramidal architecture ends with, 24;
date of, 35;
temple built in honour of Amen during, 138;
Khnemu and inscriptions subsequent to, 152;
tales, letters, &c., of the, 183;
first king of, 190;
tale of, in Hermitage Collection at St. Petersburg, 191
TWENTY-FIFTH DYNASTY. Contracts common during, 47;
Demotic dialect traced back to, 184
TWENTY-FIRST DYNASTY. Mummification during, 27;
the 'dynasty of priest-kings,' 140;
hieratic papyri of the, 183
TWENTY-SECOND DYNASTY. Worship of Set in the, 101;
reference to, 146
TWENTY-SIXTH DYNASTY. Period of the, 111;
reference to, 114;
Demotic form of script in use in, 186
TWILIGHT OF THE GODS. The obliteration of the Egyptian faith, 310
TY'I OR THI. Wife of Amenhetep III, 157
TY'PHON. Greek form for Set, 66;
finds body of Osiris, 74;
reference to, 98, 100;
equivalent, Typho, 102;
detestation of, 102;
likened to the Ass, 103
TYRE. Ounamounou, chief priest of Amen-Ra, reaches, 233
U
U'AG. Festival of, 57
U-AZ'ET. Horus attended by the goddess, 89, 90;
representation, 93
UBA-AN'ER. Chief figure in magic story told by Khafra to his father Khufu, 198, 199
UD'Y-MU. Equivalents, Den and Hesepti; fifth king of the First Dynasty,
63
UK-I-YO'É SCHOOL, THE. Reference to the great Japanese artists of, 311
UN'AS. Names of gods of the Little company given in text of, 17;
reference to, 19;
Pyramid Texts of, 21;
a text comprising the Book of the Dead as a whole in the reign of, 112;
some texts identical with those of Teta, 113;
the Pyramid of, contains original texts of Heliopolitan Recension, 114;
reference to inscription of King, 152;
first mention of the god, Hapi in Text of, 169
UNDERWORLD. Bes underwent a transformation in, 282;
Osiris the great god of the, 287;
lion-headed deities in the, 292;
jackal associated with the, in Egyptian mythology, 294;
a Hathor, Lady of the, 298;
change in popular conception of the, 309;
still the Duat, governed by Osiris or Sarapis, 309, 310
UNKNOWN, THE. Terrors of, personified in the monster serpent Apep, 295
UPPER EGYPT. Civil war between the Delta and, 240-245
UPPER DARLING. Natives of, 11
UPPER PYRAMID. Tenanted by corpse of Menkaura, 25
UP-U'AUT. Assists Anubis in guiding souls of the dead through underworld;
personification of the winter solstice, 105;
name signifies 'Opener of the Ways,' 105;
equivalent, Ap-uat, 105
UR MA. Distinctive title of priest, 53
UR'NES. Second part of the Duat, 117
US'A-HOR-RES-NET. Kambuses' physician, 304
US'ER-KA-F. First king of Fifth Dynasty, high priest of the god Ra, 132
US'ER-REF. One of the three children of Ruddidet, 203;
name of first king of Fifth Dynasty, and, 205
US'ERT. AS goddess of the fruitful earth, Isis named, 83
USH-AB'TI FIGURES. Buried with the deceased, 301
UT'CHATS. Eyes of Ra; their symbolization, 105
UT-EN-NU. Beings in heaven, 126
V
VALE OF THE ACACIA. Bitou goes to the, 225
VAM'PIRE. The idea, of great antiquity; figured as a ghost, 272;
charm against to-day in the Balkan peninsula, 272
VENUS. Reference to, 102;
Osiris, god of, 181
VESTA. Reference to, 102
VIRGINIA. Powhatans of, 5
VISION. Se-Osiris grants to Setne a, of gods of Amenti, 209-211
VUL'CAN. Romans identified Ptah with, 144;
Setnau, priest of, 219;
temple of, 220
W
WAITE, A. E. Reference to his Hidden Church of the Holy Grail, 270
WAR. Mentu, the god of, 246;
between peoples, was war between their respective deities, 276;
Baal, the terrible god of, 276;
Ashtoreth, the terrible goddess of, 278;
Reshpu regarded in Syria as a war god, 280
WERE'WOLF. Idea of, unknown in ancient Egypt, 272
WEST ASIATIC. Invader; story of, confused with legend of Horus, 94
WESTCAR. Papyrus, containing a tale of magic, 197-199
WESTERN WATERS OF MERT. Horus overtakes allies of Set at the, 90
WIE'DE-MANN. Quotation from, 12;
Bes derived from Besa according to, 281;
worship of sacred trees, and, 297
WINGED DISK. Symbol of the sun, 60;
myth of, 88
WINGED SUN DISK. The legend, related in texts of EdfÛ, 277
WOLF, THE. Venerated at Lycopolis, 294
WORKMAN. The Peasant (Tehuti-nekht) and the; story of, 220-224;
son of Asri, 220
WORSHIP. Egyptian animal—provoked merriment of cultured Greek and
ridicule of early Christian writers, 271;
polytheistic, a national tendency among Egyptians, 275;
of sacred animals in Egypt—the bull, 284-288;
the crocodile, 289-291;
the lion, 291, 292;
the cat, 293;
the dog, 294;
the hippopotamus, 294;
the ibis, 295-297;
of trees in Egypt, 297-299;
of animals during the Late period, 302-304
X
XPI'YA-COC AND XMU'CAN-E. Ancient serpents, 12
XQUIQ. (Pron. Shqueek), Daughter of lord in underworld, 122
Y
YORK. Cult of Sarapis in, 287
YOUNG. Helped decipher Rosetta stone, 187
Z
ZAAL-A'ÊR. The Great God Iphphon and, invoked in a magical spell, 265;
the Hebrew appellation Ablanathanalb, AbrasilÔa, 265
ZAC'ZI-NI. One of the four deities of the ancient Maya, 29;
equivalent, Ix, 29
ZAK-KA-LA. Dora, city of; BadÎl Prince of; Ounamounou arrives at, 232;
vessels sent from to prevent Ounamounou from reaching Egypt, 236
ZAZ'A-MANKH. Chief reciter and scribe of the rolls of court of King
Seneferu, 199, 200
ZEUS. Amen identified with, 305, 306
ZO'SER, KING. Imhotep, author and architect under, 303
Chap. 1 Introductory
Local Gods—Animism—Fetishism and Totemism—Creation Myths—The 'Companies' of the Gods—The Egyptian Idea of God—Deities of the Pyramid Texts—Early Burials—The Pyramid—Pyramidal Architecture—'Lost' Pyramids—Mummification—Funeral Offerings—The Ka—The Ba.
Chap. 2 Exploration, History and Customs
The Nile Valley—Racial Origin—Egyptian Exploration—Early Researches—Town Planning—Palaces and Mansions—Life and Law in Ancient Egypt—Commerce—Agriculture—Legal Code—Science—The Peasantry—Costume.
Chap. 3 The Priesthood: Mysteries and Temples
The Priesthood—The College of Thebes—Mysteries—The Greek Mysteries—The Egyptian Temple—The Holy Place.
Chap. 4 The Cult of Osiris
Isis—Isis as the Wind—Manifold Attributes of Isis—Horus—The Dream of Thothmes—Heru-Behudeti—The Myth of the Winged Disk—The Slaughter of the Monsters—Other Horus Legends—The Black Hog—Nephthys—Set—Set and the Ass—Anubis—Thoth—Thoth as Soul-Recorder—Maat—The Book of the Dead—A 'Discovery' 3400 Years Old—The Three Recensions—The Place of Reeds—The Journey of Osiris—The Place of Punishment—The Egyptian Heaven—How the Blessed Lived.
Chap. 5 The Great Gods
The Seven Wise Ones—Bast—The Festival of Bast—Nefer-Tem—I-em-hetep—Khnemu—The Legend of the Nile's Source—Satet—Anqet—Aten— A Religion of One God— A Social Revolt— Aten's Attributes—A Hymn to Aten—Hathor—Hathor as Love-Goddess—The Slaying of Men—The Forms of Hathor—Hapi, the God of the Nile—Counterparts of Hapi—Nut—Taurt—Hekt—Khonsu—Minor Deities.
Chap. 6 Egyptian Literature
The Shipwrecked Sailor—The Fable of the Head and the Stomach—The Rebuking of Amasis—Tales of Magic—The Parting of the Waters—The Visit of the Goddesses—Lyric and Folk Poetry—The True History of Setne and his son Se-Osiris—A Vision of Amenti—The Reading of the Sealed Letter—The Contents of the Letter—Magic versus Magic—The War of Enchantments—How Setnau Triumphed over the Assyrians—The Peasant and the Workman—Story of the Two Brothers—The Treachery of Bitou's Wife—The Doomed Prince—The Visit of Ounamounou to the Coasts of Egypt—The Story of Rhampsinites—Civil War in Egypt: The Theft of the Cuirass—The Birth of Hatshepsut—How Thoutii took the Town of Joppa.
Chap. 7 Magic
Antiquity of Egyptian Magic—The Wandering Spirit—Coercing the Gods—Names of Power—'Right Speaking'—A Magical Conspiracy—Amulets—Spells—The Tale of Setne—A Game of Draughts with the Dead—Medical Magic—Alchemy—Animal Transformation—Dreams—Mummy Magic.
Chap. 8 Foreign and Animal Gods: The Late Perod
Ashtoreth—Semitic and African Influence—Sacred Animals—Apis—The Apis Oracle—The Crocodile—The Lion—The Lion Guardian—The Cat—The Dog—The Hippopotamus—Other Animals—The Ibis—Sacred Trees—The Lotus—Religion of the Late Period—A Religious Reaction—The Worship of Animals—Religion under Persian Rule—The Ptolemaic Period—Fusion of Greek and Egyptian Ideas—The Legend of Sarapis—An Architectural Renaissance—Change in the Conception of the Underworld—Twilight of the Gods.
Chap. 9 Egyptian Art
The Materials of Painting—New Empire Art—Egyptian Art Influences—Artistic Remains—Egyptian Colour-harmonies—The Great Simplicity of Egyptian Art.
