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THE 
 
 GODS OF THE EGYPTIANS 
 

 liONDOS" 
 
 PRINTED BT GILBERT AND EIVINGTON, LTD, 
 
 ST. JOHN'B house, CLEliKENWELL, E.G. 
 
THE 
 
 GODS OF THE EGYPTIANS 
 
 OR 
 
 STUDIES IN 
 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY 
 
 BY 
 
 E. A. WALLIS BUDGrE, m.a., Litt.d., d.Litt., d.Lit. 
 
 KEEPER OP THE EGYPTIAN AND ASSYRIAN ANTIQUITIES 
 IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM 
 
 WITH 98 COLOURED PLATES 
 AND 131 ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT 
 
 VOLUME I. 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 LONDON: METHUEN & CO. 
 
 1904 
 
I 
 
 DEDICATE THIS BOOK 
 ON 
 
 THE GODS AND MYTHOLOGY OF EGYPT 
 
 BY PEEMISSION 
 TO THE BIGHT HONOURABLE 
 
 THE EARL OF CROMER 
 
 PRIVY COUNCILLOR, G.C.B., G.C.M.G., K.C.S.I., C.I.B. 
 THE EEGENEEATOE OF EGYPT 
 
 WITH 
 SINCEEE GEATITUDE AND EESPECT 
 
PREFACE 
 
 AMONG the various brandies of Egyptology which have been 
 ^closely studied during the last twenty-five years, there are 
 none which are more interesting to inquire into, or more difficult 
 to understand fully, than the religion and mythology of the inhabi- 
 tants of the Valley of the Nile. "When we consider the number 
 of works on these subjects which have been written and published, 
 both by expert Egyptologists and by competent exponents of the 
 science of religion during that period, such a statement may appear 
 at first sight to be paradoxical, and many may think when reading 
 it that some excuse must certainly be made for the philosopher 
 who asked an eminent professor of Egyptology the somewhat 
 caustic question, " Is it true that the more the subjects of Egyptian 
 religion and mythology are studied the less is known about them ? " 
 The question is, however, thoroughly justified, and every honest 
 worker will admit that there are at the present time scores of 
 passages, even in such a comparatively well-known religious com- 
 pilation as the Book of the Dead, which are inexplicable, and 
 scores of allusions of a fundamentally important mythological 
 character of which the meanings are still unknown. The reasons 
 for this state of things are many, and the chief of them may be 
 briefly recalled here. 
 
 The custom of relying absolutely upon the information about 
 the ancient Egyptian religion and mythology, which is reported by 
 Greek historians, was abandoned by Egyptologists long ago, for 
 as soon as the native Egyptian religious texts could be read, it 
 
viii PREFACE 
 
 became evident that no Greek or Latin writer had any exact 
 first-hand knowledge of these subjects, and that none of them 
 succeeded wholly in reproducing accurately in their works the facts 
 concerning them which they derived from Egyptian books or from 
 Egyptian priests. This is hardly to be wondered at, for the 
 cultured Greek writers must have, and did, as we know, look 
 with mingled pity, and contempt, and ridicule, upon the 
 animal cults of the Egyptians, and they had no sympathy with 
 the materialistic beliefs and with the still more materialistic 
 funeral customs and ceremonies, which have been, from time 
 immemorial, so dear to certain Hamitic peoples, and so greatly 
 prized by them. The only beliefs of the Egyptian religion which 
 the educated Greek or Roman truly understood were those which 
 characterized the various forms of Aryan religion, namely, the 
 polytheistic and the solar ; for the forms of the cults of the dead, 
 and for aU the religious ceremonies and observances, which pre- 
 supposed a belief in the resurrection of the dead and in everlasting 
 life, and which had been in existence among the indigenous inhabi- 
 tants of north-east Africa from predynastic times, he had no regard 
 whatsoever. The evidence on the subject now available indicates 
 that he was racially incapable of appreciating the importance of 
 such beliefs to those who held them, and that although, as in the 
 case of the Ptolemies, he was ready to tolerate, and even, for state 
 purposes, to adopt them, it was impossible for him to absorb them 
 into his life. It is important to remember this fact when dealing 
 with the evidence of Greek and Roman writers on the Egyptian 
 religion and mythology, for it shows the futility of trying to prove 
 an absolute identity in the indigenous religions of the Aryans and 
 Egyptians. 
 
 Now, although a true decipherment of the ancient Egyptian 
 hieratic and hieroglyphic texts has enabled us to draw our in- 
 
PREFACE 
 
 IX 
 
 formation on the religion and mythology of Egypt from native 
 sources, we have still to contend against the ignorance of Egyptian 
 scribes and the mistakes of careless copyists, and it must never be 
 forgotten that the theologians at the court of the Pharaohs under the 
 XVIIIth and XlXth Dynasties were just as ignorant of many facts 
 connected with their religion and mythology as we ourselves are. 
 In proof of this it is sufficient to refer to the different explanations 
 of certain passages which are given along with the text in the 
 xviith Chapter of the Booh of the Dead, and to the childish 
 punning etymologies of the names of gods and of many myth- 
 ological explanations which are set down in the texts inscribed on 
 the walls of some chambers in the tomb of Seti I. at Thebes, and 
 on the walls of the temple of Horus of Behutet at Edfu. It is 
 satisfactory to be able to say that many of the absurd etymologies 
 and trivial explanations which are products of the scribes of old 
 can now be corrected. Recent researches have shown that the 
 royal scribes under the New Empire (b.c. 1700-700) were unable 
 to read correctly the hieratic characters which formed the names of 
 some of the kings of the early Archaic Period, and this being so, 
 little surprise need be felt at the difficulties in religious texts 
 which are due to their ignorance or blunders. Apart from such 
 considerations, however, the subjects of Egyptian religion and 
 mythology themselves are full of inherent difficulties, which have, 
 unfortunately, not been' lessened by the manner in which some 
 Egyptologists have treated them. 
 
 The number of the gods, even under the IVth Dynasty, about 
 B.C. 3600, was very great, and as time went on it multiplied 
 greatly. The Pyramid Texts, which were written under the IVth, 
 Vth and Vlth Dynasties, supply the names of about two hundred 
 gods and mythological beings, but in the Book of the Dead 
 according to the Theban Recension (b.c. 1700-1200) over five 
 
X PREFACE 
 
 hundred gods are mentioned. If to these be added the names of 
 all the mythological beings which occur in the various Books of the 
 Underworld, we shall find that the number of the gods who were 
 recognized by the theologians of the XlXth Dynastj?- at Thebes 
 was about twelve hundred. If all the religious texts of this period 
 from all the religious centres of Egypt were available for study, 
 we should certainly find that the names of hundreds of additional 
 local gods, goddesses, and mythological beings could be collected 
 from them. With such a number of gods to consider, it was 
 impossible for confusion not to arise in the mind of the Egyptian 
 when dealing with them, and the texts prove that he found the 
 gods as difiicult to group and classify as the modern investigator. 
 The attributes of hundreds of them were vague and shadowy, and 
 the greater number of them were merely provincial gods, to whom 
 circumstances had given some transient importance, which resulted 
 in their names being recorded in writing. In fact, the theologian 
 of ancient Egypt found it impossible to form a system of gods 
 which should be consistent in all its parts, and should assign to 
 earth gods, water gods, air gods, village gods, city gods, nome 
 gods, national gods, and foreign gods, the exact position and 
 attributes which were their due in it. From one point of view 
 the modem investigator is more fortunate than the Egyptian 
 theologian, for he has more materials upon which to work, and, as 
 a rule, he is better equipped for his inquiry. The Egyptian knew 
 nothing about the study of comparative religion, and he was sadly 
 hampered by his own methods. 
 
 Modern scientific study of the Egyptian religion and myth- 
 ology may be said to have begun with the publication in full of the 
 texts, both hieratic and hieroglyphic, of the Heliopolitan, Theban, 
 and Saite Recensions of the Book of the Dead (Per-em-hru), and of 
 the cognate funeral texts, such as "The Book of what is in the 
 
PREFACE xi 
 
 Underworld," "The Book of Breathings," "The Book of Trans- 
 formations," the " Lamentations," and the " Festival Songs of Isis 
 and Nephthys," &c. The first to attempt to build up on a large 
 scale a system of Egyptian theology and mythology from ancient 
 native works was the late Dr. Heineich Beugsch, who collected 
 and published in his Religion unci Mythologie der alien JEgypter, 
 Leipzig, 1885-1888, a mass of facts of the greatest importance, and 
 a summary of the conclusions which he deduced from them. In 
 the same year in which the first section of Dr. Brugsch's work 
 appeared, M. Maspeeo published in the Bevue des Religions (tom. 
 xii., p. 123 £) a masterly article, entitled La Religion Egyptienne 
 d'apres les pyramides de la V" et de la VF dynastie, in which he 
 gave to the world some of the results of his study of the " Pyramid 
 Texts," which contain the oldest known Recension, i.e., the 
 Heliopolitan, of the Booh of the Bead. In 1887, Signor 
 Lanzone published the last part of his Bizionario di Mitologia 
 Egizia, which is one of the most valuable contributions to the study 
 of Egyptian mythology ever made, and which contains the names 
 of a large number of gods, demons, spirits, etc., arranged alpha- 
 betically, and a series of drawings of many of them printed in 
 outline in red ink. In 1888 and 1889, M. Maspero, in two 
 admirable articles in the Revue des Religions {La Mythologie 
 Egyptienne, tom. xviii., p. 253 f., and tom. xix., p. 1 f.), discussed 
 and criticized both the works of Brugsch and Lanzone, and shed a 
 great deal of new light upon the facts collected in both. 
 
 To M. Maspero belongs the credit of being the first to 
 consider the Egyptian religion and mythology from the anthropo- 
 logical point of view, and all the evidence on these subjects which 
 has since become available goes to prove the general correctness of 
 the opinion which he stated some fifteen or sixteen years ago. 
 Beugsoh, it must be admitted, regarded the origin of Egyptian 
 
xii PREFACE 
 
 religion from too lofty a metaphysical and philosophical standpoint, 
 and appealed for proofs of his contentions to Egyptian texts 
 belonging to too late a period to be entirely free from the influence 
 of Greek culture and thought ; in fact, he read into certain 
 Egyptian texts, ideas, doctrines, and beliefs which the primitive 
 and indigenous Egyptians could never have possessed. On the 
 other hand, it seems to me that M. Maspero has somewhat 
 underrated the character of the spiritual conceptions of the 
 dynastic Egyptians, and that he has done so because, when he 
 wrote his great article, La Mythologie Egyptienne, Egyptologists 
 had not thoroughly realized the distinction which exists between 
 the primitive or predynastic element in the Egyptian religion and 
 the Asiatic element. This element was of a solar character 
 undoubtedly, and was introduced into Egypt by the " Followers of 
 Horus," or the " Blacksmiths," who invaded the country, and 
 conquered the natives, and settling down there, built up the great 
 dynastic civilization Avhich we call Egyptian. This seems to be 
 the correct explanation of the diversity of view of two such 
 eminent experts, and the opposite character of their conclusions 
 appears to be due chiefly to the difference of the standpoints from 
 which they viewed the subject. 
 
 A prolonged study of the religious and mythological texts of 
 ancient Egypt has convinced me of the futility of attempting to 
 reconcile the conflicting beliefs and to harmonize the contradictory 
 statements which are found in them, so long as we regard the 
 Egyptian religion as "one in its extension and principle." It 
 must first of all be resolved into its constituent elements, and when 
 this has been done, it will probably be possible to classify, and 
 arrange, and assign to their proper sources the various material 
 and spiritual conceptions and beliefs which the Egyptians heaped 
 up in their minds and flung together in their religious writings. 
 
^ PREFACE xiii 
 
 It must, moreover, be studied by the light which the science of 
 comparative religion has given us, and due regard must be paid 
 to the important evidence on the subject that may be deduced 
 from the remains and monuments of the Predynastic and Archaic 
 Periods which have been unearthed during the last few years. 
 
 The primitive dwellers in Egypt undoubtedly belonged to a 
 large and important section of the inhabitants of North-East 
 Africa, and possessed physical and mental characteristics which 
 were peculiar to themselves. In the earliest times they were 
 savages, and lived and died like savages in other parts of the 
 world ; religious belief of any kind, in the modern sense of the 
 term, they had none, and they probably regarded the animate and 
 inanimate objects which they saw about them as akin to them- 
 selves. At a much later period they peopled the earth, air, sky, 
 and water with beings of various kinds, and they paid a sort of 
 homage or worship to certain stones, trees, and living creatures, in 
 which they assumed that they lived. Some beings were held to 
 be friendly and others unfriendly ; and it was thought that gifts or 
 offerings would secure the continuance of the friendship of the 
 former and avert the hostility of the latter. Friendly beings 
 gradually became gods, and unfriendly ones were classed as devils, 
 and in the ceremonies which the Egyptian savage performed in 
 their honour, and in the incantations which he recited, the magic 
 of Egypt, the forerunner of her religion, had its origin. The chief 
 object of the savage Egyptian was self-preservation, and self- 
 interest was the mainspring of his actions, all of which were 
 undertaken with a view to material benefits. When he first 
 becomes known to us in the late Neolithic Period we find that he 
 possessed a belief in an existence beyond the grave, and that it was 
 of a material character is proved by the fact that he placed offerings 
 of food in the graves of the dead. To prevent their return to this 
 
xiv PREFACE 
 
 world, and their consequent claim for food and other material 
 things, the heads of the dead were often severed from their bodies, 
 and their feet cut off; thus the living made themselves secure in 
 the possession of their homes, and wives, and goods. Nothing is 
 knoAvn of the Egyptian religion and its ceremonies at this period, 
 but whatever they were, it is pretty certain that the object of 
 them all was to secure for themselves after death a renewal of life 
 which should be full of carnal delights and pleasures, and there is 
 no doubt that the ideas of a resurrection from the dead and 
 immortality on these lines were firmly implanted in the native 
 mind long before the Dynasty Period began. 
 
 The cult of Osiris, the dead man deified, and the eaiiiest 
 forms of his worship, were, no doubt, wholly of African origin ; 
 these are certainly the oldest elements in the religion of the 
 Dynastic Period, and the most persistent, for Osiris maintained his 
 position as the god and judge of the dead from the Predynastic 
 to the Ptolemaic Period. The Followers of Horus, who brought a 
 solar religion with them into Egypt from the East, never succeeded 
 in dislodging Osiris from his exalted position, and his cult survived 
 undiminished notwithstanding the powerful influence which the 
 priests of Ra, and the worshippers of Amen, and the votaries of 
 Aten respectively exercised throughout the country. The heaven 
 of Osiris was believed to exist in a place where the fields were 
 fei'tile and well stocked with cattle, and where meat and drink 
 were abundant ; the abodes of the blessed were thought to be 
 constructed after the model of the comfortable Egyptian home- 
 steads in which they had lived during life, and the ordinary 
 Egyptian hoped to live in one of these with his wives and parents. 
 On the other hand, the followers of Ra, the sun-god, believed in a 
 heaven of a more spiritual character, and their great hope was to 
 occupy a seat in the boat of the god, and, arrayed in light, to travel 
 
PREFACE 
 
 XV 
 
 whithersoever he went. They wished to become bright and 
 shining spirits, and to live upon the celestial meat and drink upon 
 which he lived ; as he was so they hoped to be in every respect. 
 The materialistic heaven of Osiris appealed to the masses in Egypt, 
 and the heaven where Ra lived to the priests of Ea and other solar 
 gods, and to royal and aristocratic families, and to the members of 
 the foreign section of the community who were of Eastern 
 origin. 
 
 The various waves of religious thought and feeling, which 
 swept over Egypt during the five thousand years of her history 
 which are known to us, did not seriously disturb the cult of 
 Osiris, for it held out to the people hopes of resurrection and 
 immortality of a character which no other form of religion could 
 give. Secure in these hopes the people regarded the various 
 changes and developments of religious ideas in their country with 
 equanimity, and modifications in the public worship of the gods, 
 provided that the religious feasts and processions were not inter- 
 rupted, moved them but little. Kings and priests from time to 
 time made attempts to absorb the cult of Osiris into religious 
 systems of a solar character, but they failed, and Osiris, the man- 
 god, always triumphed, and at the last, when his cult disappeared 
 before the religion of the Man Christ, the Egyptians who em- 
 braced Christianity found that the moral system of the old cult 
 and that of the new religion were so similar, and the promises of 
 resurrection and immortality in each so much alike, that they 
 transferred their allegiance from Osiris to Jesus of Nazareth 
 without difficultyJ Moreover, Isis and the child Horus were 
 straightway identified with Maey the Virgin and her Son, and in 
 the apocryphal literature of the first few centuries which followed 
 the evangelization of Egypt, several of the legends about Isis and 
 her sorrowful wanderings were made to centre round the Mother 
 
XVI 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 of Christ. Certain of the attributes of the sister goddesses of 
 Isis were also ascribed to her, and, like the goddess Neith of Sai's, 
 she was declared to possess perpetual virginity. Certain of the 
 Egyptian Christian Fathers gave to the Virgin the title "Theo- 
 tokos," or "Mother of God," forgetting, apparently, that it was an 
 exact translation of neter mut, l "aN , a very old and common title 
 of Isis. Interesting, however, as such an investigation would be, 
 no attempt has been made in this work to trace out the influ- 
 ence of ancient Egyptian religious beliefs and mythology on 
 Christianity, for such an undertaking would fill a comparatively 
 large volume. 
 
 From what has been said in the preceding pages the plan 
 followed in the preparation of the present volumes will be evident. 
 In the opening chapter an attempt has been made to describe the 
 religious beliefs of the primitive Egyptians, and to explain how 
 their later ideas about the " gods " and God grew up, and how they 
 influenced the religious writings and paintings of the Dynastic 
 Period. The region which is commonly called Heaven, or the 
 " Underworld," and its denizens are next considered at some length, 
 and this section is followed by chapters on the ancient myths of 
 Ra, the legend of Ra and Isis, and the legend of the destruction of 
 mankind. The hieroglyphic texts of the myths and legends are 
 given with interlinear transliteration and translation, so that the 
 student may verify my statements for himself. Of the minor gods 
 and demons, of which nothing but the names are known, lists only 
 are printed. The great gods of Egypt have been grouped as far as 
 possible, and they are discussed in connection with the various 
 religious centres to which they belong, e.g., Ptah, Sekhet, and 
 I-em-hetep with Memphis, Amen, Mut, and Khensu with Thebes, 
 and the " Great Company " of the gods with Heliopolis. Speaking 
 generally, the first volume of this work treats of the oldest and 
 
PREFACE xvii 
 
 greatest gods and triads of gods of Egypt, and the second, of the 
 gods of Heliopolis, among whom are included Osiris and the deities 
 of his funeral cycle. The hymns to the gods have been freely 
 quoted, because they illustrate so clearly the views which the 
 Egyptians held concerning them, and the manner in which they 
 sought to praise them. In a chapter entitled " Miscellaneous 
 Gods " will be found several lists of gods of the hours, days, 
 months, winds, Dekans, etc., which I have collected from Dr. 
 Brugsch's Thesaurus of astronomical and other texts ; for the main 
 facts given in these volumes the authorities, both ancient and 
 modern, will be found at the foot of the pages wherein they are 
 first mentioned. 
 
 Most of the portraits of the gods which appear in the coloured 
 plates have been reproduced from papyri, coffins, etc., but for the 
 outlines of a few I am indebted to Signor Lanzone's Dizionario 
 Mitologia Egizia, the value of which has been already mentioned. 
 It has been thought advisalDle to print the portraits of the gods 
 which are not taken from papyri upon a papyrus-coloured ground, 
 and to enclose each within a coloured border, for the effect is 
 better, and the plan is consistent with that followed by the 
 ancient Egyptian artists at all periods. 
 
 My thanks are due to Reginald Lake, Esq., of Messrs. 
 Gilbert & Rivington, and to Mr. G. E. Hay and Mr. F. Rainer, of 
 his staff, for the care and attention which they have taken in 
 printing this work. 
 
 E. A. WALLIS BUDGE. 
 
 London, September 5th, 1903. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 Jl. The Gods of Egypt .... ... 1 
 
 Appendix : Unas, the Slayee and Eater of the Gods — 
 
 HiEEOGLYPHIC TEXT WITH INTEELINEAE TEANSLITEEATION 
 
 and teanslation ... .45 
 
 J 11. Conception of God and the "Gods" , 57 
 
 III. Primitive Gods and Nome-Gods . 95 
 
 IV. The Companions of the Gods in Heaven . . . 156 
 V. The Undeewoeld . . .170 
 
 VI. Hell and the Damned . . 263 
 
 VII. The oldest Company of the Gods and the Creation . . 282 
 
 VIII. History op the Creation of the Gods and of the Woeld — 
 
 Hieroglyphic text with interlinear transliteration 
 
 and translation . . 308 
 
 -^ IX. Ea, the SuN-GoD, AND HIS FOEMS . 322 
 
 vX. The Myths of Ea 
 
 359 
 
 XI. The Legend of Ea and Isis — Hieroglyphic text with intee- 
 
 LINEAE transliteration AND TRANSLATION 372 
 
 XII. The Destruction of Mankind — Hieroglyphic text with 
 
 INTERLINEAR TRANSLITERATION AND TRANSLATION . . . 388 
 
 XIII. ThOTH, and MaAT AND THE OTHER GODDBSSES WHO WERE 
 
 ASSOCIATED WITH^ HIM . . . , . . 400 
 
 XIV. Hathor AND THE Hathor-Goddesses . . . 428 
 
 XV. The Hoeus Gods 466 
 
 ^-XVI. The Great Triad of Memphis, Ptah, Sekhet, and I-em-hetbp 500 
 
LIST OF COLOURED PLATES 
 
 TO FACE PARE 
 
 ''l. The Creation ... . . . 298 
 
 2. The goddess Eat . 328 
 
 3. Amen-Ea-Heru-khuti . . . . 330 
 
 4. The god Khepera seated in his boat ... ... 334 
 
 5. The god Temu .... .... 348 
 
 6. The god Tern seated in his boat . . 350 
 
 7. The goddess lusaaset ... ...... 354 
 
 8. The god Khepera ... . ... 356 
 
 9. Thoth, the scribe of the gods . . . . 400 
 
 10. Aah-Tehuti and his associate the Ape . . ... 402 
 
 11. Thoth, the scribe of the gods . . . 408 
 
 12. The Moon-god Ash . . . . . 412 
 ''13. The goddess Maat ... . . .418 
 
 14. The goddess Nekhemauait ...... . . 420 
 
 15. The goddess Meh-urt ... .422 
 
 16. Nut, the goddess of heaven, as a Cow . . 424 
 
 17. The goddess Sesheta . . . . . . 426 
 
 18. The Cow-goddess Hathor looking forth from the funeral mountain at 
 
 Thebes . . 428 
 
 19. The goddess Hathor in the form of a woman . . 434 
 
 20. The goddess Hathor with horns and disk ... . . 436 
 
 21. The goddess Nekhebet, or Nekhebit . . . . 438 
 
 22. The goddess Uatchet, or Uatchit ... 440 
 
 23. The goddess Bast ... . . .444 
 
 24. The goddess Nit (Neith), as a huntress . . , 450 
 
 25. The goddess Sebek-Nit suckling Horus ... 456 
 
 26. The goddess Nit (Neith), the weaver . - 462 
 
 27. The god Heru-ur (Aroeris) . ■ . . 466 
 
 28. Heru-pa-khrat (Harpocrates) . . 468 
 
 29. Heru-khuti (Harmachis) . 470 
 
 30. Heru-sma-taui . . 472 
 
 31. Ea-Heru-Khuti of Behutet . 474 
 
 32. Heru-netch-tef-f . . .476 
 
 33. Heru-netch-hra-tef-f .... 478 
 
 34. Horus the son of Isis, and the son of Osiris 484 
 
xxii COLOURED PLATES 
 
 TO FACE PACE 
 
 35. Heru-netch-tef-Ea . . . 488 
 
 36. The four children of Horus . . . . 490 
 
 37. The god comprehending all gods . . . 492 
 
 38. Horus, the son of Isis, and the son of Osiris, or Harpoerates 494 
 
 39. The god Sept . . . . . 498 
 
 40. Ptah fashioning the Egg of the World . 500 
 
 41. The god Ptah-Seker ... . . 502 
 
 42. The Ark of the god Seker on its sledge . . 504 
 
 43. The god Seker . . 506 
 
 44. The god Tatenen . 508 
 
 45. The goddess Sekhet . 514 
 
 46. The goddess Sekhet . . 516 
 
 47. The goddess Sekhet . 518 
 
 48. The god Nefer-Temu . 520 
 
 49. The god I-em-hetep (Imouthis) . . 522 
 
LIST, OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 1. Usertsen II. receiving " life " from the god Sept 
 
 2. The serekh of Eameses II. 
 
 3. The serpent-headed leopard Setcha . 
 
 4. The eagle-headed lion Sefer 
 
 5. The fabulous beast Sak 
 
 6. A fabulous leopard 
 
 7. The animal Sha 
 
 8. The First Hour of the Night 
 
 9. The Second Hour of the Night 
 
 10. The Third Hour of the Night . 
 
 11. The Fourth Hour of the Night . 
 
 12. The Fifth Hour of the Night 
 
 13. The god on the top of the Steps 
 
 14. The Eighth Hour of the Night . 
 
 15. The Ninth Hour of the Night . 
 
 16. The Tenth Hour of the Night . 
 
 17. The Eleventh Hour of the Night 
 
 18. The gate of the Twelfth Hour of the Night 
 
 19. Sunrise ..... 
 
 20. Book of the Underworld — First Hour 
 
 21. Book of the Underworld — Second Hour 
 
 22. Book of the Underworld — Third Hour 
 
 23. Book of the Underworld— Fourth Hour 
 
 24. Book of the Underworld— Fifth Hour 
 
 25. Book of the Underworld — Sixth Hour 
 
 26. Book of the Underworld — Seventh Hour 
 
 27. Book of the Underworld — Eighth Hour 
 
 28. Book of the Underworld — Ninth Hour 
 
 29. Book of the Underworld— Tenth Hour 
 
 30. Book of the Underworld — Eleventh Hour . 
 
 31. The Oldest Company of the Gods 
 
 32. The Cow-goddess Nut .... 
 
 33. Thothmes IV. making offerings to the Sphinx . 
 
 34. Horus of Behutet armed with a bow and arrows 
 
 35. The double god Horus-Set 
 
 36. Seker-Asar ....... 
 
 37. Ptolemy Euergetes and the Hennu-Boat . 
 
 38. Asar-Hapi (Serapis) . 
 
 and a club 
 
 PAGE 
 
 25 
 
 . 26 
 
 . 59 
 
 60 
 
 60 
 
 61 
 
 . 61 
 
 . 179 
 
 . 181 
 
 183 
 
 . 185 
 
 187 
 
 169 
 
 193 
 
 . 195 
 
 . 197 
 
 . 199 
 
 . 203 
 
 . 204 
 
 206 
 
 . 209 
 
 . 213 
 
 217, 219 
 
 . 221, 223 
 
 . 225, 227, 229 
 
 231, 233, 235, 236 
 
 . 237, 239, 240 
 
 . 243, 245 
 
 247, 249 
 
 251, 253 
 
 . 282 
 
 368 
 
 471 
 
 474 
 
 475 
 
 504 
 
 504 
 
 513 
 
THE 
 
 GODS OF THE EGYPTIANS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 THE GODS OF EGYPT 
 
 THE Gi-eek historian Herodotus affirms ^ that the Egyptians 
 were "beyond measure scrupulous in all matters apper- 
 "taining to religion," and he made this statement after personal 
 observation of the care which they displayed in the perform- 
 ance of religious ceremonies, the aim and object of which 
 was to do honour to the gods, and of the obedience which they 
 showed to the behests of the priests who transmitted to them 
 commands which they declared to be, and which were accepted 
 as, authentic revelations of the will of the gods. From the 
 manner in which this writer speaks it is clear that he had no 
 doubt about what he was saying, and that he was recording a 
 conviction which had become settled in his mind. He was fuUy 
 conscious that the Egyptians worshipped a large number of 
 animals, and birds, and reptiles, with a seriousness and earnestness 
 which must have filled the cultured Greek with astonishment, yet 
 he was not moved to give expression to words of scorn as was 
 Juvenal/ for Herodotus perceived that beneath the acts of apparently 
 
 1 ii. 64. 
 
 2 " Quia nescit, Volusi Bithynice, qualia demens 
 " Aegyptns portenta colat ? crocodilon adorat 
 
 " Pars haec, ilia pavet saturam serpentibus ibin. 
 " Effigies sacri nitet aurea cercopitLeci, 
 " Dimidio magicae resonant ubi Memnone cbordae 
 " Atque vetus Thebe centum jaoet obruta portis. 
 " Illic aeluros, tic piscem fluminis, illic 
 
 B 
 
2 ANTIQUITY OF RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES 
 
 foolish and infatuated worship there existed a sincerity which 
 betokened a firm and implicit belief which merited the respect of 
 thinking men. It would be wrong to imagine that the Egyptians 
 were the only people of antiquity who were scrupulous beyond 
 measure in religious matters, for we know that the Babylonians, 
 both Sumerian and Semitic, were devoted worshippers of their 
 gods, and that they possessed a very old and complicated system of 
 religion ; but there is good reason for thinking that the Egyptians 
 were more scrupulous than their neighbours in religious matters, 
 and that they always bore the character of being an extremely 
 religious nation. The evidence of the monuments of the Egyptians 
 proves that from the earliest to the latest period of their history 
 the observance of religious festivals and the performance of 
 religious duties in connexion with the worship of the gods absorbed 
 a very large part of the time and energies of the nation, and 
 if we take into consideration the funeral ceremonies and services 
 commemorative of the dead which were performed by them at the 
 tombs, a casual visitor to Egypt who did not know how to look 
 below the surface might be pardoned for declaring that the 
 
 " Oppida tota canem venerantur, nemo Dianam. 
 " Porrum et caepe nefas violare et frargere morsu : 
 " sanctas gentes, quibus haec nascuntur in liortis 
 " Numina ! Lanatis animalibus abstinet omnis 
 " Mensa, nefas illic fetum ingulare capellae : 
 " Carnibus humanis vesci licet." — Satire, xv. 1 — 13. 
 
 That the crocodile, ibis, dog-headed ape, and fish of various kinds were venerated 
 in Egypt is true enough ; they were not, however, venerated in dynastic times as 
 animals, but as the abodes of gods. In certain localities peculiar sanctity was 
 attributed to the leek and onion, as Juvenal suggests, but neither vegetable was an 
 object of worship in the country generally ; and there is no monumental evidence 
 to show that the eating of human flesh was practised, for it is now known that 
 even the predynastic Egyptians did not eat the flesh of the dead and gnaw their 
 bones, as was once rashly asserted. Juvenal's statements are only partly true and 
 some of them are on a par with that of a learned Indian who visited England, and 
 wrote a book on this country after his return to Bombay. Speaking of the religion 
 of the English he declared that they were all idolaters, and to prove this assertion 
 he gave a list of churches in which he had seen a figure of a lamb in the sculpture 
 work over and about the altar, and in prominent places elsewhere in the churches. 
 The Indian, like Juvenal, and Cicero also, seems not to have understood that 
 many nations have regarded animals as symbols of gods and divine powers and 
 still do so. 
 
DIVINE ORIGIN OF KINGS :) 
 
 Egyptians were a nation of men who were wholly given up to the 
 worship of beasts and the cult of the dead. 
 
 The Egyptians, however, acted in a perfectly logical manner, 
 for they believed that they were a divine nation, and that they 
 were ruled by kings who were themsel ves gods incarnate ; 
 their earliest kings, they asserted, were actually gods, who did 
 not disdain to live upon earth, and to go about and up and down 
 through it, and to mingle with men. Other ancient nations were 
 content to believe that they had been brought into being by the 
 power of their gods operating upon matter, but Ihe— Egyptians 
 believed that they were the issue of the great God who created the 
 universe, and that they were of directly divine origin. When the 
 gods ceased to reign in their proper persons upon earth, they were 
 succeeded by a series of demi-gods, who were in turn succeeded 
 by the Manes, and these were duly followed by kings in whom was 
 enshrined a divine nature with characteristic attributes. _ When 
 the physical or natural body of a king died, the divine portion of 
 his being, i.e., the spiritual body, returned to its original abode 
 with the gods, and it was duly Avorshipped by men upon earth as 
 a god and with the gods. This happy result was partly brought 
 about by the performance of certain ceremonies, which were at 
 first wholly magical, but later partly magical and partly religious, 
 and by the recital of appropriate words uttered in the duly 
 prescribed tone and manner, and by the keeping of festivals at 
 the tombs at stated seasons when the appointed offerings were 
 made, and the prayers for the welfare of the dead were said. 
 From the earliest times the worship of the gods went hand in hand 
 with the deification of dead kings and other royal personages, and 
 the worship of departed monarchs from some aspects may be 
 regarded as meritorious as the worship of the gods. From one 
 point of view Egypt was as much a land of gods as of men, and 
 the inhabitants of the country wherein the gods lived and moved 
 naturally devoted a considerable portion of their time upon earth 
 to the worship of divine beings and of their ancestors who had 
 departed to the land of the gods. In the matter of religion, and 
 all that appertains thereto, the Egyptians were a " peculiar 
 people," and in all ages they have exhibited a tenacity of belief 
 
4 NUMBER AND VARIETY OF GODS 
 
 and a conservatism which distinguish them from all the other 
 great nations of antiquity. 
 
 But the Egyptians were not only renowned for their devotion 
 to religious observances, they were famous as much for the 
 variety as for the number of their gods. Animals, birds/ fishes, 
 and reptiles were worshipped by them in all ages, but in addi- 
 tion to these they adored the great powers of nature as well 
 as a large number of beings with which they peopled the heavens, 
 the air, the earth, the sky, the sun, the moon, the stars, and 
 the water. In the earliest times the predynastic Egyptians, in 
 common with every half-savage people, believed that all the 
 various operations of nature were the result of the actions of beings 
 which were for the most part unfriendly to man. The inunda- 
 tion which rose too high and flooded the primitive village, and 
 drowned their cattle, and destroyed their stock of grain, was 
 regarded as the result of the working of an unfriendly and 
 unseen power ; and when the river rose just high enough 
 to irrigate the land which had been prepared, they either thought 
 that a friendly power, Avhich was sti'onger than that which 
 caused the destroying flood, had kept the hostile power in check, 
 or that the spirit of the river was on that occasion pleased with 
 them. They believed in the existence of spirits of the air, and 
 in spirits of mountain, and stream, and tree, and all these had 
 to be propitiated with gifts, or cajoled and wheedled into bestow- 
 ing their favour and protection upon their suppliants. 
 
 It is very unfortunate that the animals, and the spirits of 
 natural objects, as well as the powers of nature, were all 
 grouped together by the Egyptians and were described by the 
 word NETERU, which, with considerable inexactness, we are 
 obliged to translate by " gods." There is no doubt that at a 
 very early period in their predynastic history the Egyptians 
 distinguished between great gods and little gods, just as they ^ did 
 between friendly gods and hostile gods, but either their poverty 
 of expression, or the inflexibility of their language, prevented 
 them from making a distinction apparent in writing, and thus 
 it happens that in dynastic times, when a lofty conception of 
 monotheism prevailed among the priesthood, the scribe found 
 
GOD AND "GODS" AND ANGELS 5 
 
 himself obliged to call both God and the lowest of the beings that 
 were supposed to possess some attribute of divinity by one and the 
 same name, i.e., netee. Other nations of antiquity found a way 
 out of the difficulty of grouping all classes of divine beings by one 
 name by inventing series of orders of angels, to each of which 
 { they gave names and assigned various duties in connexion with 
 I the service of the Deity. Thus in the Kur'an (Sura xxxv.) it is 
 V_said that God maketh the angels His messengers and that they 
 ai'e furnished with two, or three, or four pairs of wings, accord- 
 ing to their rank and importance ; the archangel Gabriel is said 
 to have been seen by Muhammad the Prophet with six hundred 
 pairs of wings ! The duties of the angels, according to the 
 Muhammadans, were of various kinds. Thus nineteen angels are 
 appointed to take charge of hell fire (Sura Ixxiv.) ; eight are set 
 apart to support God's throne on the Day of Judgment {Sura 
 Ixix.) : several tear the souls of the wicked from their bodies 
 ■with violence, and several take the souls of the righteous from 
 their bodies with gentleness and kindness (/S^wa Ixxix.); two 
 angels are ordered to accompany every man on earth, the one to 
 write down his good actions and the other his evil deeds, and these 
 wiU appear with him at the Day of Judgment, the one to lead him 
 before the Judge, and the other to bear witness either for or 
 against him (Sura 1.). Muhammadan theologians declare that the 
 angels are created of a simple substance of light, and that they 
 are endowed with life, and speech, and reason ; they are in- 
 capable of sin, they have no carnal desire, they do not propagate 
 their species, and they are not moved by the passions of wrath 
 and anger ; their obedience is absolute. Their meat is the 
 celebrating of the glory of God, their drink is the proclaiming of 
 His holiness, their conversation is the commemorating of God, and 
 their pleasure is His worship. Curiously enough, some are said 
 to have the form of animals. Four of the angels are Archangels, 
 viz. Michael, Gabriel, Azrael, and Israfel, and they possess special 
 powers, and special duties are assigned to them. These four are 
 superior to all the human race, with the exception of the Prophets 
 and Apostles, but the angelic nature is held to be inferior to 
 human nature because aU the angels were commanded to worship 
 
6 MUHAMMADAN AND SYRIAN ANGELS 
 
 Adam (Sura ii.). The above and many other characteristics 
 might be cited in proof that the angels of the Muhammadans 
 possess much in common with the inferior gods of the Egyptians, 
 and though many of the conceptions of the Arabs on this point 
 were undoubtedly borrowed from the Hebrews and their writings, 
 a great many must have descended to them from their own early 
 ancestors. 
 
 Closely connected with these Muhammadan theories, though 
 much older, is the system of angels which was invented by the 
 Syrians. In this we find the angels divided into nine classes and 
 three orders, upper, middle, and lower. The upper order is 
 composed of Cherabim, Seraphim, and Thrones ; the middle order 
 of Lords, Powers, and Rulers ; and the lower order of Princi- 
 palities, Archangels, and Angels. The middle order receives 
 revelations from those above them, and the lower order are the 
 ministers who wait upon created things. The highest and fore- 
 most among the angels is Gabriel, who is the mediator between 
 God and His creation. The Archangels in this system are 
 described as a " swift operative motion," which has dominion over 
 every living thing except man ; and the Angels are a motion 
 which has spiritual knowledge of everything that is on earth and 
 in heaven.^ The Syrians, like the Muhammadans, borrowed largely 
 from the writings of the Hebrews, in whose theological system 
 angels played a very prominent part. In the Syrian system also 
 the angels possess much in common with the inferior gods of the 
 Egyptians. 
 
 The inferior gods of the Egyptians were supposed to suffer 
 from many of the defects of mortal beings, and they were even 
 thought to grow old and to die, and the same ideas about the 
 angels were held by Muhammadans and Hebrews. According to 
 the former, the angels will perish when heaven, their abode, is 
 made to pass away at the Day of Judgment. According to the 
 latter, one of the two great classes of angels, i.e., those which were 
 created on the fifth day of creation, is mortal ; on the other hand, 
 the angels which were created on the second day of creation 
 
 1 See my edition of the Booh of the Bee, by Solomon of Al-Basra. Oxford, 
 1886, pp. 9-11. 
 
HEBREW ANGELS OR "GODS" 7 
 
 endure for ever, and these may be fitly compared with the 
 unfailing and unvarying powers of nature which were personified 
 and worshipped by the Egyptians ; of the angels which perish, 
 some spring from fire, some from water, and some from wind. 
 The angels ai'e grouped into ten classes, i.e., the Erelim, the tshlm, 
 the Ben^-Elohim, the Malachim, the Hashmalim, the Tarshtshim, 
 the Shishanim, the Cherubim, the Ophannim, and the Seraphim ; ^ 
 among these were divided all the duties connected with the 
 ordering of the heavens and the earth, and they, according to 
 their position and importance, became the interpreters of the Will 
 of the Deity. A comparison of the passages in Rabbinic literature 
 which describe these and similar matters connected with the 
 angels, spirits, etc., of ancient Hebrew mythology with Egyptian 
 texts shows that both the Egyptians and Jews possessed many 
 ideas in common, and all the evidence goes to prove that the 
 latter borrowed from the former in the earliest period. 
 
 In comparatively late historical times the Egyptians intro- 
 duced into their company of gods a few deities from Western 
 Asia, but these had no effect in modifying the general character 
 either of their religion or of their worship. The subject of com- 
 parative Egyptian and Semitic mythology is one which has yet 
 to be worked thoroughly, not because it would supply us with 
 the original forms of Egyptian myths and legends, but because it 
 would show what modifications such things underwent •when 
 adopted by Semitic peoples, or at least by peoples who h^ 
 Semitic blood in their veins. Some Avould compare Egyptian and* 
 Semitic mythologies on the ground that the Egyptians and 
 Semites were kinsfolk, but it must be quite clearly understood 
 that this is pure assumption, and is only based on the state- 
 ments of those who declare that the Egyptian and Semitic 
 languages are akin. Others again have sought to explain 
 the mythology of the Egyptians by appeals to Aiyan mythology^' 
 and to illustrate the meanings of important Egyptian words in 
 religious texts by means of Aryan etymologies, but the results 
 are wholly unsatisfactory, and they only serve to show the futility 
 
 1 See the chapter "Was die Juden von den guten Engeln lehren " in Eisen- 
 menger, Entdechten Judenthums, vol. ii. p. 370 ff. 
 
8 THE OLDEST GODS OF EGYPT 
 
 of comparing the mythologies of two peoples of difFerent race 
 occupying quite difFerent grades in the ladder of civilization. It 
 cannot be too strongly insisted on that all the oldest gods of Egypt 
 are of Egyptian origin, and that the fundamental religious beliefs 
 of the Egyptians also are of Egyptian origin, and that both the 
 gods and the beliefs date from predynastic times, and have nothing 
 whatever to do with the Semites or Aryans of history. 
 
 Of the origin of the Egyptian of the Palaeolithic and early 
 Neolithic Periods, we, of course, know nothing, but it is tolerably 
 certain that the Egyptian of the latter part of the Neolithic Period 
 was indigenous to North-East Africa, and that a very large 
 number of the great gods worshipped by the dynastic Egyptian 
 were worshipped also by his predecessor in predynastic times. 
 The conquerors of the Egyptians of the Neolithic Period who, 
 with good reason, have been assumed to come from the East and 
 to have been more or less akin to the Proto- Semites, no doubt 
 brought about certain modifications in the worship of those whom 
 they had vanquished, but they could not have succeeded in 
 abolishing the various gods in animal and other forms which were 
 worshipped throughout the length and breadth of the country, 
 for these continued to be venerated until the time of the Ptolemies. 
 We have at present no means of knoAving how far the religious 
 beliefs of the conquerors influenced the conquered peoples of 
 Egypt, but viewed in the light of well-ascertained facts it seems 
 tolerably certain that no great change took place in the views 
 which the indigenous peoples held concerning their gods as the 
 result of the invasion of foreigners, and that if any foreign gods 
 were introduced into the company of indigenous, predynastic gods, 
 they were either quickly assimilated to or AvhoUy absorbed by them. 
 Speaking generally, the gods of the Egyptians remained unchanged 
 throughout all the various periods of the history of Egypt, and the 
 minds of the people seem always to have had a tendency towards 
 the maintenance of old forms of worship, and to the preservation 
 of the ancient texts in Avhich such forms were prescribed and old 
 beliefs were enshrined. The Egyptians never forgot the ancient 
 gods of the country, and it is typical of the spirit of conservatism 
 which they displayed in most things that even in the Roman 
 
INDIGENOUS BELIEFS 9 
 
 Period pious folk among them were buried with the same prayers 
 and with the same ceremonies that had been employed at the 
 burial of Egyptians nearly five thousand years before. The 
 Egyptian of the Roman Period, like the Egyptian of the Early 
 Empire, was content to think that his body would be received in 
 the tomb by the jackal-headed Anubis ; that the organs of his 
 corruptible body would be presided over and guarded by animal- 
 headed gods ; that the reading of the pointer of the Great Scales, 
 wherein his heart was weighed, would be made known by an ape 
 to the ibis-headed scribe of the gods, whom we know by the name 
 of Thoth ; and that the beatified dead would be introduced to the 
 god Osiris by a hawk-headed god called Horus, son of Isis, who in 
 many respects was the counterpart of the god Heru-ur, the oldest 
 of all the gods of Egypt, whose type and symbol was the hawk. 
 From first to last the indigenous Egyptian paid little heed to the 
 events Avhich happened outside his own country, and neither 
 conquest nor invasion by foreign nations had any effect upon his 
 personal belief. He continued to cultivate his land diligently, 
 he worshipped the gods of his ancestors blindly, like them he 
 spared no pains in making preparations for the preservation of his 
 mummified body, and the heaven which he hoped to attain was 
 fashioned according to old ideas of a fertile homestead, well 
 stocked with cattle, where he would enjoy the company of his 
 parents, and be able to worship the local gods whom he had 
 adored upon earth. The priestly and upper classes certainly held 
 views on these subjects which difi"ered from those of the husband- 
 man, but it is a significant fact that it was not the religion and 
 mythology of the dynastic Egyptian, but that of the indigenous, 
 predynastic Egyptian, with his animal gods and fantastic and 
 half-savage beliefs, which strongly coloured the religion of the 
 country in all periods of her history, and gave to her the charac- 
 teristics which were regarded with astonishment and wonder by 
 all the peoples Avho came in contact with the Egyptians. 
 
 The predynastic Egyptians in the earliest stages of their 
 existence, like most savage and semi-savage peoples, believed that 
 the sea, the earth, the air, and the sky were filled to overflowing 
 with spirits, some of whom were engaged in carrying on the works 
 
10 BELIEF m SPIRITS 
 
 of nature, and others in aiding or obstructing man in the course 
 of his existence upon earth. Whatsoever happened in nature was 
 attributed by them to the operations of a large number of spiritual 
 beings, the life of whom was identical with the life of the great 
 natural elements, and the existence of whom terminated with the 
 destruction of the objects which they Avere supposed to animate. 
 Such spirits, although invisible to mental eyes, were very real 
 creatures in their minds, and to them they attributed all the 
 passions which belong to man, and all his faculties and powers 
 also. Everything in nature was inhabited by a spirit, and it was 
 thought possible to endow a representation, or model, or figure of 
 any object with a spirit or soul, provided a name was given to it ; 
 this spirit or soul lived in the drawing or figure until the object 
 which it animated was broken or destroyed. The objects, both 
 natural and artificial, Avhich we consider to be inanimate were 
 regarded by the predynastic Egyptians as animate, and in many 
 respects they were thought to resemble man himself. The spirits 
 who infested every part of the visible world were countless in 
 forms, and they differed from each other in respect of power ; 
 the spirit that caused the Inundation of the Nile was greater than 
 the one that lived in a canal, the spirit that made the sun to 
 shine was more powerful than the one that governed the moon, 
 and the spirit of a great tree was mightier than the one that 
 animated an ear of corn or a blade of grass. The difference 
 between the supposed powers of such spirits must have been 
 distinguished at a very early period, and the half-savage inhabi- 
 tants of Egypt must at the same time have made a sharp distinc- 
 tion between those whose operations were beneficial to them, and 
 those whose actions brought upon them injury, loss, or death. It 
 is easy to see how they might imagine that certain great natural 
 objects were under the dominion of spirits who were capable of 
 feeling wrath, or displeasure, and of making it manifest to man. 
 Thus the spirit of the Nile would be regarded as beneficent and 
 friendly when the waters of the river rose sufiiciently during the 
 period of the Inundation to ensure an abundant crop throughout 
 the land ; but when their rise was excessive, and they drowned the 
 cattle and washed away the houses of the people, whether made of 
 
ANIMALS AND REPTILES 11 
 
 Avattles or mud, or when they rose insufficiently and caused want 
 and famine, the spirit of the Nile would be considered unfriendly 
 and evil to man. An ample and sufficient Inundation was 
 regarded as a sign that the spirit of the Nile was not displeased 
 with man, but a destructive flood was a sure token of displeasure. 
 The same feeling exists to this day in Egypt among the peasant- 
 farmers, for several natives told me in 1899, the year of the lowest 
 rise of the Nile of the XlXth century,^ that "Allah was angry 
 with them, and would not let the water come " ; and one man 
 added that in all his life he had never before knoAvn Allah to be so 
 angry with them. 
 
 The spirits which were always hostile or unfriendly towards man, 
 and were regarded by the Egyptians as evil spirits, were identified 
 with certain animals and reptiles, and traditions of some of these 
 seem to have been preserved until the latest period of dynastic his- 
 tory. Apep, the serpent-devil of mist, darkness, storm, and nigh t, 
 of whom more will b e said later on, a nd his fiends, the " children o f 
 rebellion,_" were not the result of the imagination of the Egyptians 
 in historic times, but their existence dates from the period when 
 Egypt was overrun by mighty beasts, huge serpents, and noxious 
 reptiles of all kinds. The great serpent of Egyptian mythology, 
 which was indeed a formidable opponent of the Sun-god, had its 
 prototype in some monster serpent on earth, of which tradition had 
 preserved a record ; and that this is no mere theory is proved by 
 the fact that the remains of a serpent, which must have been of 
 enormous size, have recently been found in the Fayyum. The 
 vertebree are said to indicate that the creature to which they 
 belonged was longer than the largest python known.^ The allies 
 of the great serpent-devil Apep were as hostile to man as 
 was their master to the Sun-god, and they were regarded with 
 terror by the minds of those who had evolved them. On the other 
 liand, there were numbers of spirits whose actions were friendly 
 
 1 In October, 1899, the level of the water of Lake Victoria was 2 ft. below the 
 normal, and in December the level at Aswan was 5 ft. 8 ins. below the average of 
 previous years. 
 
 3 " If the proportions of this snake were the same as in the existing Python 
 " seboe it probably reached a length of thirty feet." C. W. Andrews, D.Sc, in 
 Geological Mcuj., vol. viii., 1901, p. 438. 
 
12 HEAVEN AND HELL 
 
 and beneficial to man, and some of these were supposed to do battle 
 on his behalf against the evil spirits. 
 
 Thus at a very early period the predynastic Egyptian must 
 have conceived the existence of a g reat company of spirits w hose 
 goodwill, or at all evente whose_ma£tiojt]^ould_gn^ by 
 
 bribes, i.e., offerings, and cajolfi:qL.^ijad-lati£iT ; and of a second 
 large company whose beneficent deeds to man he was wont to 
 acknowledge and whose powerful help he was anxious to draw 
 towards himself ; and of a third company Avho were supposed to be 
 occupied solely with making the sun, moon, and stars to shine, and 
 the rivers and streams to flow, and the clouds to form and the rain 
 to fall, and who, in fact, were always engaged in carrying out 
 diligently the workings and evolutions of all natural things, both 
 small and great. The spirits to whom in predynastic times the 
 Egyptians ascribed a nature malicious or unfriendly towards man, 
 and who were regarded much as modern nations have regarded 
 goblins, hobgoblins, gnomes, trolls, elves, etc., developed in dynastic 
 times into a corporate society, with aims, and intentions, and acts 
 wholly evil, and with a government which Avas devised by the 
 greatest and most evil of their number. To these, in process of 
 time, were joined the spirits of evil men and women, and the 
 prototype of hell was formed by assuming the existence of a place 
 where evil spirits and their still more evil chiefs lived together. 
 By the same process of imagination beneficent and friendly spirits 
 were grouped together in one abode under the direction of rulers 
 who were well disposed towards man, and this idea became the 
 nucleus of the later conception of the heaven to which the souls of 
 good men and women were supposed by the Egyptian to depart, 
 after he had developed sufficiently to conceive the doctrine of 
 immortality. The chiefs of the company of evil spirits subsequently 
 became the powerful devils of historic times, and the rulers of the 
 company of beneficent and good spirits became the gods ; the spirits 
 of the third company, i.e., the spirits of the powei's of Nature, 
 became the great cosmic gods of the dynastic Egyptians. The cult 
 of this last class of spirits, or gods, differed in many ways from that 
 of the spirits or gods who were supposed to be concerned entirely 
 with the welfare of man, and in dynastic times there are abundant 
 
ANTIQUITY OF EGYPTIAN MAGIC 13 
 
 proofs of this in religious texts and compositions. In tlie hymns to 
 the Sun-god, under Avhatsoever name he is worshipped, we find that 
 the greatest wonder is expressed at his majesty and glory, and that 
 he is apostrophised in terms which show forth the awe and fear of 
 his devout adorer. His triumphant passage across the sky is 
 described, the unfailing regularity of his rising and setting is 
 mentioned, reference is made to the vast distance over which he 
 passes in a moment of time, glory is duly ascribed to him for the 
 great works which he performs in nature, and full recognition is 
 given to him as the creator of men and animals, of birds and fish, 
 of trees and plants, of reptiles, and of all created things ; the 
 praise of the god is full and sufficient, yet it is always that of a 
 finite being who appears to be overwhelmed at the thought of the 
 power and might of an apparently infinite being. The petitions 
 lack the personal appeal which we find in the Egyptian's prayers 
 to the man-god Osiris, and show that he regarded the two gods 
 from entirely diff'erent points of view. It is impossible to say how 
 early this distinction between the functions of the two gods was 
 made, but it is certain that it is coeval with the beginnings of 
 dynastic history, and that |t was observed until very late times. 
 
 The element of magic( which is the oldest and most persistent 
 characteristic of the ^jvorship of the gods and of the Egyptian 
 religion, generally belongs to the period before this distinction was 
 arrived at, and it is clear that it dates from the time when man 
 thought that the good and evil spirits were beings who Avere not 
 greatly different from himself, and who could be propitiated with 
 gifts, and controlled by means of words of power and by the per- 
 formance of ceremonies, and moved to action by hymns and 
 addresses. This belief was present in the minds of the Egyptians 
 in all ages of their history, and it exists in a modified form among 
 the Muhammadan Egyptians and Sudani men to this day. It is 
 true that they proclaim vehemently that there is no god but God, 
 and that Muhammad is His Prophet, and that God's power is 
 infinite and absolute, but they take care to guard the persons of 
 themselves and their children from the Evil Eye and from the 
 assaults of malicious and evil spirits, by means of amulets of all 
 kinds as zealously now as their ancestors did in the days before 
 
14 EVIL SPIRITS 
 
 the existence of God Who is One was conceived. The caravan 
 men protect their camels from the Evil Eye of the spirits of the 
 desert by fastening bright-coloured beads between the eyes of their 
 beasts, and by means of long fringes which hang from their 
 mahlufas, or saddles, and in spite of their firm belief in the infinite 
 power of God, they select an auspicious day on which to set out 
 on a journey, and they never attempt to pass certain isolated 
 caves, or ravines, or mountains, in the night time. All the 
 members of the great family of the Jinn are to them as real to-day 
 as their equivalents were to the ancient Egyptians, and, from the 
 descriptions of desert spirits which are given by those who have 
 been fortunate enough to see them, it is clear that traditions of 
 the form and appearance of ancient Egyptian fiends and evil 
 spirits have been unconsciously preserved until the present day. 
 The modern Egyptians call them by Arabic names, but the 
 descriptions of them agree well with those which might be made 
 of certain genii that appear in ancient Egyptian mythological 
 woi-ks treating of the Underworld and its inhabitants. 
 
 The peoples of the Eastern Sudan, who are also Muhammadans, 
 have inherited many ideas and beliefs from the ancient Egyptians, 
 and this is not to be wondered at when we remember that the 
 civilization of Nubia from the beginning of the XVIIIth Dynasty 
 to the end of the XXVIth, i.e., from about B.C. 1550 to about 
 B.C. 550, was nothing but a slavish copy of that of Egypt. A 
 stay of some months in the village at the foot of Jebel Barkal, 
 which marks the site of a part of the old Nubian city ©f Napata, 
 convinced me of this fact, and visits to other places in the Eastern - 
 Sudan proved that these ideas and beliefs were widespread. The 
 hills and deserts are, according to native belief, peopled with 
 spirits, which are chiefly of a disposition unfriendly to man, and 
 they are supposed to have the power of entering both human 
 beings and animals almost at pleasure. Palm-trees die or become 
 unfruitful, and cattle fall sick through the operations of evil spirits, 
 and any misfortune which comes upon the community or upon the 
 individual is referred to the same cause. The pyramids, which 
 they call tarabil, on the hill, are viewed with almost childish fear 
 by the natives who, curiously enough, speak of the royal personages 
 
MODERN StlDANl SUPERSTITIONS 15 
 
 buried therein as Uldhdt, or "gods," and none of them, if it can 
 possibly be avoided, will go up after sundown into " the mountain," 
 as they call the sandstone ridge on which they are built. Tombs 
 and cemeteries are carefully avoided at night as a matter of course, 
 but to approach the pyramids at night is regarded as a wilful act 
 ■which is sure to bring down upon the visitor the wrath of the 
 spirits of the kings, who have by some means acquired a divine 
 character in the eyes of the natives. When 1 was opening one of 
 the pyramids at Jebel Barkal in 1897, Muhammad wad Ibrahim, 
 the shekh of the village, tried to keep the workmen at work as 
 long as daylight lasted, but after this had been done for two or 
 three evenings, several of the wives of the men appeared and 
 carried off their husbands, fearing they should either be bewitched, 
 or suffer some penalty for intrusion in that place at the time when, 
 in popular opinion, the spirits of the dead came forth to enjoy the 
 cool of the evening. The same idea prevailed further south among 
 the people who lived on the river near the pyramids of Bakrawiyeh, 
 which mark the site of the royal necropolis of the ancient city of 
 Berua, or Marua, i.e., Meroe. The local shekh was appointed to 
 go with me and to help in taking measurements of some of the 
 pyramids at this place, but when we were about half a mile from 
 them he dismounted, and said he could go no further because he 
 was afraid of the spirits of the gods, Uldhdt, who were buried there. 
 After much persuasion he consented to accompany me, but nothing 
 would induce him to let the donkeys go to the pyramids ; having 
 hobbled them and tied them to a large stone he came on, but 
 seated himself on the ground at the northern end of the main 
 group of pyramids, and nothing would persuade him to move 
 about among the ruins. The natives of Jebel Barkal viewed the 
 work of excavation with great disfavour from the very first, and 
 their hostile opinion was confirmed by the appearance at the 
 pyramids of great numbers of wasps, which, they declared, were 
 larger than any which they had seen before ; they were convinced 
 that they were evil spirits who had taken the form of wasps, and 
 that evil was coming upon their village. It was useless to explain 
 to them that the wasps only came there to drink from the water- 
 skins, which were kept full and hung there on pegs driven into the 
 
16 MODERN SUDANI SUPERSTITIONS 
 
 masonry for the use of the workmen ; and when a harmless snake, 
 about eight feet long, Avhich had also crawled there to drink, was 
 killed one morning by the men, their fears of impending evil were 
 confirmed, for they were certain that the spirit of a king had been 
 killed, and they expected that vengeance would be taken upon 
 them by the divine spirits of his companions. 
 
 About halfway up Jebel Barkal there lived four large hawks 
 which always seemed to be following any person who ascended the 
 mountain, but yet never came very near ; these were always 
 regarded by the natives as the embodied spirits of the gods whose 
 figures still remain sculptured and painted on the walls of the rock- 
 hewn sanctuary at the foot of the hill, and I never heard of any 
 attempt being made to shoot or snare them by the people of the 
 villages of Barkal, Shibba, or Marawi. The inhabitants could not 
 know that the hawk was probably the first living creature which 
 was worshipped in the Nile Valley, and therefore the respect which 
 they paid to the hawks must have been due to a tradition which 
 had been handed down to them through countless generations from 
 a past age. Their connecting the hawks with the figures of the 
 gods sculptured in the sanctuary of Amen-Ra is worthy of note, 
 for it seems to show that on such matters they thought along the 
 same lines as their ancestors. 
 
 Concerning amulets, the Sudani man is as superstitious as 
 were his ancestors thousands of years ago, and he still believes that 
 stones of certain colours possess magical properties, especially when 
 inscribed with certain symbols, of the meaning of which, however, 
 he has no knowledge, but which are due, he says, to the presence of 
 spirits in them. Women and children, especially female children, 
 protect many parts of their bodies with strings of beads made of 
 magical stones, and sometimes with plaques of metal or stone, which 
 are cut into various shapes and ornamented with signs of magical 
 power ; the positions of such plaques on the body are frequently 
 identical with those whereon the dynastic Egyptians laid amulets 
 on the dead, and, if we could learn from the Sudani folk the reasons 
 which prompt them to make use of such things, we should probably 
 find that the beliefs which underlie the customs are also identical. 
 The above facts concerning the Siidani belief in spirits might be 
 
IDEAS ABOUT THE BEETLE 17 
 
 greatly multiplied, and they are not so remotely connected with the 
 beliefs of the dynastic, and even predynastic, Egyptians, as may 
 appear to be the case at first sight, and the writer believes that a 
 large amount of information of a similar kind awaits the investigator, 
 who will devote the necessary time to living in some of the out-of- 
 the-way villages of the black (not negro) peoples who dwell on the 
 eastern bank of the Nile and of the Blue Nile. ' 
 
 In many isolated places in Southern Nubia and the Eastern 
 Sudan are trees which men regard with reverence, but this may 
 be the result of contact with the natives of Central Africa, where 
 people pray to trees on certain occasions,^ believing that the spirits 
 which are supposed to dwell in them can bestowgifts uponthosewhom 
 they regard with favour, and ensure safety both to themselves and 
 their animals when travelling. StiU further to the south certain 
 animals, e.g., the cynocephalus ape, which plays such a prominent 
 part in dynastic Egyptian mythology, are supposed to be inhabited 
 by divine spirits and to possess extraordinary powers of intelligence 
 in consequence, and the various kinds of scarabaei, or beetles, are 
 thought to be animated by spirits, which the natives connect with 
 the sun. The dead bodies of these insects were, in former days, 
 often eaten by women who wished to become mothers of large 
 families, and to this day parts of them are cooked, and treated 
 with oil, and made into medicines ^ for the cure of sore eyes, etc. 
 The dynastic Egyptians believed that the scarab was connected 
 
 1 " Under the wide-spreading branches of an enormous heglik-tree, and on a 
 " spot beautifully clean and sprinkled with fine sand, the Bedeyat beseech an 
 " unknown god to direct them in their undertakings and to protect them from 
 " danger." Slatin Pasha, Fire and Sioord in the Sudan, London, 1896, p. 114. 
 
 3 Ibrahim Rushdi, Clerk of Telegraphs at Benha, in Lower Egypt, told me in 
 January, 1895, that in many districts the beetles were boiled, and the grease 
 extracted from them ; as they are being boiled the shells come off. The bodies are 
 next roasted in oHve oil, and then steeped in myrrh, and after this they are 
 macerated in that liquid, and strained through muslin ; the liquid which runs 
 through is believed to cure the itching which is caused by a certain internal ailment. 
 Some men drink a few drops of it in each cup of coffee, and women drink it to 
 make them fat. The old women have a prescription for sore eyes, which is as 
 follows : — Stick a splinter of wood through a series of beetles for twelve hours 
 when a child is about to be born ; when the child is born, pull the splinter out of 
 the last beetle, and dip it in hoM, and rub the eyes of the child with it. If this 
 be done in the proper way the child will never suffer from sore eyes. 
 
 C 
 
18 FORMS OF EVIL SPIRITS 
 
 with the Sun-god Ra, and in religious texts of all periods it is 
 said that the beetle occupied a place in the boat of this god. 
 
 "We have already seen that the dynastic Egyptians, and their 
 predecessors, conceived the existence of spirits hostile towards 
 man, of spirits beneficent towards man, and of spirits which were 
 wholly occupied with carrying out the various operations of 
 Nature, and we must now consider the manner and forms in which 
 they became visible to man. The commonest form in which a 
 spirit was believed to make itself visible to man was that of some 
 beast, or bird, or fish, or reptile, and at a veiy early period 
 adoration, in one form or another, of the so-called inferior animals 
 was well-nigh universal in Egypt. At the time when this worship 
 began animals, as well as inanimate objects, were not considered 
 by the inhabitants of the Nile Valley to be greatly removed from 
 themselves in intelligence. Primitive man saw nothing ridiculous 
 in attributing speech to inanimate objects and animals, which 
 were supposed to think, and reason, and act like human beings ; 
 and the religious literature of many of the most ancient nations 
 contains numerous proofs of this fact. Among the baked clay 
 tablets found in the ruins of the Royal Library of Nineveh, which 
 contained copies of hundreds of documents preserved in the temples 
 of the most ancient cities of Babylonia, were fragments of a 
 dialogue between a horse and an ox, which is now known as the 
 " Fable of the Horse and the Ox," ^ and it is tolerably certain that 
 this dialogue did not originate in the reign of Ashur-bani-pal 
 (b.c. 668-626), although the tablet on which it was written is 
 not older than his time. Again, in the Creation Legend the 
 dragon-monster Tiamat, the representative of the powers of evil 
 and darkness, is made to conspire against the gods, and to create 
 a serpent brood ^ in order to do elFective battle with them ; and 
 other instances might be quoted to show that the Babylonians and 
 Assyrians attributed to the animals reason, passions, and language. 
 
 1 See Guide to the Babylonian and Assyrian Antiquities, London, 1900, p. 48 ; 
 the fragments are exhibited in the British Museum, Nineveh Gallery, Table-case C. 
 
 ~ Ibid, p. 36. For the cuneiform tablets in the British Museum see Nineveh 
 Galler , Table-case A. See also L. W. King, Seven Tablets of Creation, vol i 
 p. 1 ff. 
 
TALKING ANIMALS, TREES, ETC. 19 
 
 From the Bible we learn that the Hebrews held the same 
 views as their kinsmen on this matter, and we are told that the 
 serpent beguiled and seduced Eve by his speech, and made her 
 break the command of the Lord (Genesis iii. I &■), and that the 
 she-ass of Balaam remonstrated with her master and asked him 
 why he had smitten her three times (Numbers xxii. 28). We may 
 note in passing that this animal is said to have been able to see the 
 Angel of the Lord standing in the way, whilst her master could 
 not, and we are forcibly reminded of the belief which was current 
 among Jews and Muhammadans to the effect that dogs howled 
 before a death because they were able to see the Angel of Death 
 going about on his mission, to say nothing of our own superstition 
 to the same effect, which, however, we seem to have derived not 
 from the East, but from cognate northern European nations. We 
 see also from the Book of Judges (ix. 8 ff.) that speech and reason 
 were sometimes attributed to objects which we regard as inanimate, 
 for we read that the trees " went forth on a time to anoint a king 
 " over them ; and they said unto the olive tree, Reign thou over us." 
 When the olive tree refused, they went to the fig tree with the 
 same request, and when the fig tree refused, they went to the vine, 
 which refused to leave its wine " which cheereth God and man " ; 
 on this they applied to the bramble, which placed before them the 
 choice of coming and putting their trust in its shadow, or of being 
 burnt by the fire which should come forth from out of itself. In 
 connexion with this idea may, perhaps, be mentioned the incident 
 recorded in Numbers xxi. 17, wherein we are told that the princes 
 and nobles digged a well " with their staves " by the direction of 
 the lawgiver, and that the Children of Israel sang this song, 
 "Spring up, well; sing ye unto it." Many other examples 
 might be quoted from Hebrew literature to show that animals and 
 inanimate objects were on certain occasions regarded as beings which 
 possessed thinki'ng and reasoning powers similar to those of men. 
 
 Among the Egyptians animals thought, and reasoned, and 
 spoke as a matter of course, and their literature is full of indica- 
 tions that they believed them to be moved by motives and passions 
 similar to those of human beings. As a typical example may be 
 quoted the instance of the cow, in the Tale of the Two Brothers, 
 
20 THE DOG-HEADED APE 
 
 who tells her herd that his elder brother is standing behind the 
 door of the byre with his dagger in his hand waiting to slay him ; 
 the young man having seen the feet of his brother under the door 
 took to flight, and so saved his life. Here we have another proof 
 that animals were sometimes credited with superhuman intelligence 
 and discernment, since but for the warning of the cow, who had 
 perceived what her master had failed to notice, the herd would 
 have been slain as soon as he entered the byre. Here, too, must 
 be noted the very important part which is played in the Judgment 
 Scene in the Booh of the Dead by animals. In the Story of 'the 
 Shipwreck also we are told concerning a huge serpent thirty cubits 
 long, with a beard two cubits long, which made a long speech to 
 the unfortunate man who was wrecked on the island wherein it 
 lived. 
 
 In the papyri of the XVIIIth Dynasty we have representa- 
 tions of the weighing of the heart of the deceased in the Great 
 Balance, which takes place in the presence of the G-reat Company 
 of the gods, who act as judges, and who pass the sentence of doom, 
 that must be ratified by Osiris, according to the report of the god 
 Thoth, who acts as scribe and secretary to the gods. The Egyptian 
 hoped that his heart would exactly counterbalance the feather, 
 symbolic of Maat or the Law, and neither wished nor expected it 
 to outweigh it, for he detested performing works of supererogation. 
 The act of weighing was carefully watched by Anubis the god of 
 the dead, whose duty was to cast to the Eater of the Dead the 
 hearts which failed to balance the feather exactly ; and by the 
 guardian angel of the deceased, on behalf of the deceased ; and by 
 a dog-headed ape, who was seated on the top of the pillar, and who 
 supported himself upon the bracket on which was balanced the 
 beam of the Great Scales. This ape was the associate and com- 
 panion of the god Thoth, and he was supposed to be skilled in the 
 art of computation, and in the science of numbers, and in the 
 measurement of time ; his duty at the weighing of the heart was 
 to scrutinize the pointer of the scales, and, having made sure that 
 the beam of the scales was exactly level, i.e., that the heart and 
 the feather exactly counterbalanced each other, to report the fact 
 to Thoth, so that he in turn might make his report to the gods on 
 
THE DOG-HEADED APE 21 
 
 the case under consideration. The ape seated on the pillar of the 
 Scales belongs to a species which is now only found in the Sudan, 
 but which in late predynastic or in early dynastic times might 
 have been found all over Egypt. The dog-headed ape is very 
 clever, and even in modern times is regarded with much respect 
 by the natives, "who believe that its intelligence is of the highest 
 order, and that its cunning is far superior to that of man ; the 
 high esteem in which it was held by the ancient Egyptians is 
 proved by the fact that the god Thoth was held to be incarnate in 
 him, and by the important functions which he performed in their 
 mythology. 
 
 It will also be remembered that in the vignette which 
 represents the sunrise in the Boole of the Dead a company of six 
 or seven dog-headed apes is dej)icted in the act of adoring the god 
 of day, as he rises on the eastern horizon of heaven ; they stand 
 on their hind legs and their forepaws are raised in adoration, and 
 they are supposed to be singing hymns to the Sun-god. In a 
 text which describes this scene these apes are said to be the spirits 
 of the dawn who sing hymns of praise to the Sun-god whilst he is 
 rising, and who transform thems.elves into apes as soon as he has 
 risen. It is a well known fact in natural history that the apes and 
 the monkeys in the forests of Africa and other countries chatter 
 noisily at dawn, and it is clear that it was the matutinal cries of 
 these animals which suggested their connection with the spirits of 
 the dawn. It is not stated in the text whether the spirits of the 
 dawn were created afresh each day or not, or whether the monkeys 
 transformed themselves into spirits daily, and so were able to 
 greet the rising sun each morning. We may, however, connect 
 the idea concerning them with that which is met with in an 
 ancient Hebrew description ^ of the angels of Hebrew mythology, 
 for one group of "angels of service" from the river of fire were 
 supposed to be created daily in order to sing one hymn to God 
 Almighty and then to come to an end. 
 
 Passing now to the consideration of the worship of animals by 
 the Egyptians of .the predynastic and dynastic periods, we have 
 
 1 Compare Bisenmenger, op. cit., vol. ii., p. 371. 1^J<"in3 XDVl HUV ^2 
 
 yh-^y] vrvv noj^i lun imo rrwn oi^bD 
 
22 FEAR THE MOTIVE OF WORSHIP 
 
 to endeavour to find the reasons which induced the early inhabi- 
 tants of the Nile Valley to pay adoration to birds, beasts, fishes, 
 and other creatures of the animal kingdom. A careful examina- 
 tion of the facts now available shows that in Egypt primitive man 
 must have worshipped animals in the first instance because they 
 possessed strength, and power, and cunning greater than his own, 
 or because they were endowed with some quality which enabled 
 them to do him bodily harm or to cause his death. The funda- 
 mental motive in man for worshipping animals was probably feae. 
 When man first took up his abode in Egypt the physical conditions 
 of the country must have resembled those of some parts of Central 
 Africa at the present time, and the Avhole country was probably 
 covered with forests and the ground obscured by dense under- 
 growth. In the forests great numbers of elephants and other 
 large beasts must have lived, and the undergrowth formed a home 
 for huge serpents of various species and for hosts of deadly reptiles of 
 difi^erent kinds, and the river was filled with great crocodiles similar 
 in length and bulk to those which have been seen in recent years 
 in the Blue JSTile and in the rivers further to the south. We have 
 no means of knowing at what period the elephant was exterminated 
 in Egypt, but it was probably long before dynastic times, because 
 he finds no place in Egyptian mythology. The ivory objects 
 which have been found in predynastic graves prove that this 
 substance was prized by the primitive Egyptians, and that it was, 
 comparatively, largely used by them for making personal orna- 
 ments and other small objects, but whether they imported 
 elephants' tusks from the Sudan, or obtained them from animals 
 which they hunted and killed in some part of Egypt cannot be 
 said. On the top of one of the standards ^ which are painted on 
 predynastic vases we find the figure of an elephant, a fact which 
 seems to show that this animal was the symbol of the family of the 
 man for whom was made the vase on which it is found, or of his 
 country, or of the tutelary deity, i.e., the god of his town or tribe. 
 On the other hand, it is quite clear from several passages in the 
 texts with which the walls of the chambers and corridors of the 
 pyramid tombs of Unas and Teta, and other kings of the Early 
 1 See J. de Morgan, EthnograpMe Prehistorique, p. 93. 
 
ANTIQUITY OF SERPENT WORSHIP 23 
 
 Empire at Sakk^ra are inscribed that Egypt was infested with 
 venomous snakes and noxious reptiles of various kinds when the 
 original forms of those passages were written, and that they were 
 sufficiently formidable and numerous to cause the living grave 
 anxiety about the safety of the bodies of their dead. Thus in the 
 text of Unas/ a king of the Vth Dynasty, we find a series of 
 short magical formulae, many of which are directed against 
 serpents and fierce animals, and all are couched in terms which 
 prove that they must have been composed long before they were 
 inscribed on the walls inside this king's pyramid, and M. Maspero 
 is undoubtedly correct in thinking that they must have presented 
 serious difficulties to the king's literati. In these formulae 
 
 are mentioned the serpents Ufa, ^h^I]^, Nai, '^Ij^"^, 
 Heka, ^ (] UH , Hekret, ^ '^ ^ HH , Setcheh, ^ ^ | Bl , 
 
 ^^"^^^' \ ^ 111' ^^^' \ ^' ^^"' ra (j ^ Ml, Antaf, 
 Ij ^ ..^ ^ ^, Tcheser-tep, '^ [1 v^ @ Ml , Thethu, ^ ^ Ml , 
 
 Hemth, FD ^ ^, Senenahemthet, | ^ () ITl ^ ^ Ml, and 
 
 allusion is made to a most " terrible serpent," 
 
 n s=> (1 , At the time when these formulae were composed 
 
 each of these serpents was probably the type of a class of venomous 
 snakes, and their names no doubt described their physical charac- 
 teristics and their methods of attack. The abject fear of the 
 Egyptians for the serpent seems to have been constant in aU 
 generations, and the texts of the latest as well as those of the earliest 
 period contain numerous prayers intended to deliver the deceased 
 from the " serpents which are in the Underworld, which live upon 
 " the bodies of men and women, and consume their blood." ^ Long 
 after Egypt was cleared of snakes and when the country was in 
 the condition in which we now know it, the tradition remained that a 
 
 1 Ed. Maspero, 1. 533 ff. 
 
 /WlAW ^^ ^ M I — H— ^v f] V 1 SI) ' &^ """"^ (^ "^^^ ■ "^""^ °^ '''* 
 
 Dead, Chapter^iB., 1, 4. 
 
24 WORSHIP OF URAEUS AND VULTURE 
 
 mighty serpent, some thirty cubits, i.e., about fifty feet long, lived 
 on the top of Bakhau, J-^^^^^^'*^® Mountain of 
 the Sunrise, and his name was Ami-Hemf, i.e., "Dweller in his 
 
 flame,"(]f ^xxra^fli-^ 
 
 The worship of the serpent in Egypt is of grcTat antiqui ty, 
 and shrines to certain members ofJhe,spfid.ee - B ft ust h aa e^axigt^'^ 
 at a very early^te. In predynastic times the uraeus was held in 
 great veneration, and the great centre of its worship was in the 
 Delta, at a place which the Egyptians in dynastic times called 
 " Per-Uatchet," and the Greeks " Buto." At the period when the 
 uraeus was being worshipped in Lower Egypt, the vulture was the 
 chief object of adoration in Upper Egypt, its principal sanctuary 
 being situated in the city which the Egyptians called " Nekhebet," 
 and the Greeks " Eileithyiaspolis." The uraeus goddess was called 
 "Uatchet," or " Uatchit," and the vulture goddess " Nekhebet," 
 or " Nekhebit," and the cities which were the centres of their 
 worship became so important, probably in consequence of this 
 worship, that in the early dynastic period we find it customary for 
 kings when they wished to proclaim their sovereignty over all 
 
 Egypt to give themselves the title ^R, which may be freely 
 
 rendered by " Lord of the shrines of the Vulture and Uraeus." 
 The equivalents of these signs are found on the now famous plaque 
 inscribed with the name and titles of Aha, a king who is often, but 
 without sufiicient reason, assumed to be identical with Mena or 
 Menes, and thus it is clear that the cities of Nekhebet and Per- 
 Uatchet were important religious and administrative centres in 
 predynastic times. 
 
 Other wild animals which were worshipped by the Egyptians 
 about the same period Avere the lion, and the lynx, which they 
 called niaftet ^ ^^ ^"^^ the hippopotamus, and the quadruped 
 
 which became the symbol of the god Set ; among amphibioils 
 creatures the crocodile and the turtle were the most important. 
 Among domestic animals the bull and the cow were the principal 
 objects of worship, and proof is forthcoming that they were 
 
 1 Book of the Dead, Chapter cviii., 1. 6. 
 
WORSHIP OF THE BULL 
 
 25 
 
 regarded as deities in predynastic times. The great strength of 
 the bull, and his almost irresistible attack in fighting and headlong 
 rush, excited the fear and admiration of primitive man, and his 
 fecundating powers made him at a very early period the type of 
 the generative principle in nature. For thousands of years the 
 kings of Egypt delighted to call themselves " mighty bull," and 
 the importance which they attached to this title is evinced by the 
 fact that many of them inscribed it upon their sereJch, or cog- 
 nizance, which displayed their name as the descendant of Horus ; 
 
 Usertsen II. receiving " life " from the god Sept. Behind him is his serekh 
 inscribed with his Horns name. 
 
 in fact, it formed their Horus name. The figure of a bull is 
 found sculptured upon some of the green slate objects which date 
 from the predynastic period, and which have been erroneously 
 called palettes, and a flint model of the head and horns of the cow, 
 which in later times became the animal symbolic of the goddess 
 Hathor, was found in a predynastic grave ; all these objects are 
 in the British Museum (Nos. 20,790, 20,792, and 32,124). The 
 warrior kings of the XVIIIth and XlXth Dynasties were pleased 
 when the court scribes related in commemorative inscriptions how 
 
26 
 
 WORSHIP OF THE BULL 
 
 their lords raged and roared like lions as they mounted their 
 chariots and set out to crush the foolish enemy who had the 
 
 temerity to defy them, but they preferred 
 to be likened to the "mighty bull," who 
 trampled opposition beneath his hoofs, and 
 gored and destroyed with his horns that 
 which his hoofs had failed to annihilate. 
 Out of the reverence which was paid to the 
 bull in predynastic times grew the worship 
 of two special bulls, Hap and Mer-ur, which 
 names the Greeks modified into Apis and 
 Mnevis, the sacred animals of the ancient 
 cities of Memphis and Heliopolis respectively. 
 The worship of Apis is at least as old as the 
 beginning of the dynastic period, and we 
 know that the cult of this buU continued in 
 Memphis until the close of the rule of the 
 Ptolemies. In some way the beliefs con- 
 cerning Apis were connected with those 
 which the Egyptians held concerning Osiris, 
 the god and judge of the dead, who is called 
 in the Booh of the Dead ^ the " Bull of 
 Amentet," i.e., the "Bull of the Under- 
 world," JrL ^^ ff ^ '^ ; and in the Ptolemaic 
 period the two gods were merged into 
 one and formed the god Sarapis, to 
 whom were ascribed the attributes of the 
 Egyptian and Greek gods of the Under- 
 ., ,, „ ^ . world. 
 
 tierekh of Eameaes II., on 
 
 which iainscribed the Horns It now seeius to be generally admitted 
 
 name of this king, i.e., Ka- ° •' 
 
 NEKHT - MERi - maat. The by cthnologlsts that there are three main 
 
 canopy of the serelch is in 
 
 the form of the sky F=^, causes which have induced men to worship 
 
 and from the standard on . . '■ 
 
 which it rests spring two auimals, 1.6., they have worshipped them 
 
 human arms and hands. . , i n it 
 
 The right grasps a standard as auimals, or as the dwellmg-places of gods 
 
 surmounted by the head of . . ■ c j -i n a ; 
 
 the king, which here repre- or as representatives 01 tribal ancestors. 
 
 sen ts the" royal ka" y i. and 
 
 the left the symbol of Maat. ^ Chapter i., 1. 4. 
 
APIS BULL AND RAM OF MENDES 27 
 
 There is no reason whatsoever for doubting that in neolithic times 
 the primitive Egyptians worshipped animals as animals and as 
 nothing more ; the belief that animals were the abodes of spirits or 
 deities grew up in their minds later, and it was this which induced 
 them to mummify the dead bodies of birds, and beasts, and fishes, 
 etc., in which they thought deities to have been incarnate. We 
 have no means of knowing exactly when this belief arose, but it 
 is certainly as old as the time when the Apis Bull began to be 
 worshipped, and when the Egyptians began to keep the ram and 
 other animals, and birds, and reptiles, and fishes in sanctuaries, and 
 to worship them as deities incarnate. In connection with it we 
 must notice that, in the case of the Apis Bull and the Ram of 
 Mendes, the god Apis did not take up his abode in every bull, and 
 that the soul of Osiris, which was supposed to dwell in the Ram of 
 Mendes, did not make his habitation in every ram. The Apis Bull, 
 like the Ram of Mendes, had to be sought for diligently, and no 
 bull or ram was made the object of veneration in the sanctuaries of 
 Memphis or Mendes unless he possessed the characteristic marks by 
 which the priests recognized him. The ordinary bulls and rams of 
 the species to which the Apis Bull and the Ram of Mendes belonged 
 were not regarded in the same light as the animals which by the 
 marks upon them proclaimed themselves to be the creatures to 
 which worship should be ofi'ered, and they were, of course, sacrificed 
 in the performance of funeral ceremonies and killed and eaten as 
 food by the people, even though somewhat of the deity may have 
 been incarnate in them. When the Apis Bull or the Ram of Mendes 
 died the deity who had been incarnate in it transferred himself to 
 another animal, and therefore did not leave the earth. 
 
 The question as to whether the Egyptians worshipped animals 
 as representations 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 difl&culty. We know that many of the 
 standards which represent the nomes of Egypt are distinguished by 
 figures of birds and animals, e.g., the hawk, the bull, the hare, etc., 
 but it is not clear whether these are intended to represent "totems" 
 or not. It is pretty certain that the nome-standard of dynastic 
 times was derived from the standards which the predynastic 
 
28 NOME GODS 
 
 Egyptians set up in their boats, or caused to be carried in cere- 
 monial processions, or during the performance of public functions, 
 and there is no reason for doubting that, substantially, the same 
 ideas and beliefs underlie the use of both classes of standards. The 
 animal or bird standing on the top of a nome-perch or standard is 
 not intended for a fetish or a representation of a tribal ancestor, 
 but for a creature which was regarded as the deity under whose 
 protection the people of a certain tract of territory were placed, and 
 we may assume that within the limits of that territory it was un- 
 lawful to injure or kill such animal or bird. Thus in the Nome of 
 the Black Bull a black bull of a certain kind would be regarded as 
 a sacred animal, and it is certain that in predynastic times worship 
 would be offered to it as a god ; similarly in the Nome of the Hare 
 the ha,re would be worshipped ; and in the Nome of the Hawk the 
 hawk would be worshipped. Outside these nomes, however, the 
 bull and the hare and the hawk might be, and probably were, 
 killed and eaten for food, and from this point of view the sacred 
 creatures of the Egyptians may be thought to have something in 
 common with the totems, or deified representatives of tribal 
 ancestors, and with the fetishes of the tribes of nations which are 
 on the lowest levels of civilization. In connexion with this matter 
 it is customary to quote the statements of Greek and Roman 
 writers, many of whom scoff at the religion of the Egyptians 
 because it included the worship of animals, and charge the nation 
 with fatuity because the animals, etc., which were worshipped and 
 preserved with all c^re in some places were killed and eaten in 
 others. The evidence of such writers cannot be regarded as wholly 
 trustworthy, first, because they did not take the trouble to under- 
 stand the views which the Egyptians held about sacred animals, 
 and secondly, because they were not in a position to obtain trust- 
 worthy information. In the passage from one of Juvenal's Satires 
 already quoted, he declares that the Egyptians ate human flesh, 
 and it is possible that he believed what he wrote ; still the fact 
 remains that there is not a particle of evidence in the Egyptian 
 inscriptions to show that they ever did so, and we have every 
 reason for believing that they were not cannibals. 
 
 His other statements about the religion of the Egyptians are. 
 
ANIMAL WORSHIP NOT TOTEMISM 29 
 
 probably, as untrustworthy. There is not enough ancient Egyptian 
 religious literature extant to enable us to trace the history of 
 religion in all periods of dynastic history, still less are we able to 
 follow it back in the predynastic period, because of that time we 
 have no literature at all; such monuments and texts as we have, 
 however, serve to show that the Egyptians first worshipped animals 
 as animals, and nothing more, and later as the habitations of divine 
 spirits or gods, but there is no reason for thinking tliat the animal 
 worship of the Egyptians was descended from a system of totems 
 or fetishes, as Mr. J. F. M'Lennan believed.^ It has been assumed 
 by some ethnologists that many primitive peoples have been accus- 
 tomed to name individuals after animals, and that such animal 
 names have in certain cases become tribe names. These may have 
 become family surnames, and at length the myths may have grown up 
 about them in which it is declared that the families concerned were 
 actually descended " from the animals in question as ancestors, 
 " whence might arise many other legends of strange adventures 
 " and heroic deeds of ancestors, to be attributed to the quasi-human 
 " animals whose names they bore ; at the same time, popular 
 " mystification between the great ancestor and the creature whose 
 " name he held and handed down to his race, might lead to veneration 
 " for the creature itself, and thence to full animal- worship." ^ This 
 theory may explain certain facts connected with the animal- worship 
 of numbers of savage or half-savage tribes in some parts of the 
 world, but it cannot, in the writer's opinion, be regarded as 
 affording an explanation of the animal-worship of the Egyptians. 
 In dynastic times kings were, it is true, worshipped as gods, and 
 divine honours were paid to their statues, but the reason for this 
 was that the king was believed to be of the seed of the god Horus, 
 the oldest of all the gods of Egypt. There is reason for believing 
 that to certain men who were famous for their knowledge or for 
 some great works which they had accomplished divine honours 
 were paid, but neither these nor the kings were held to be 
 gods who were worshipped throughout the land as were the well- 
 known or natural gods of the country. In short, the worship which 
 
 1 See the Fortnightly Review, 1869-1870. 
 
 2 See Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. ii., p. 236. 
 
30 NOME STANDARDS 
 
 was paid to kings after their death, or to ordinary men, who were 
 sometimes deified, was quite different from that paid to the gods of 
 the country, whether they were in animal or human form or whether 
 they represented the spirits which concerned themselves with the 
 welfare of men or those which occupied themselves with the direc- 
 tion of the operations of Nature. 
 
 We see, moreover, from the nome-standards that several objects 
 besides animals were worshipped and regarded as gods, or that they, 
 at all events, became the symbols of the deities which were wor- 
 shipped in them. In predynastic times we know that some standards 
 were surmounted by representations of two, three, four, or five 
 
 hills,^ C:£i, Q^^, 0^^^:^, r^^^^'^^^ , another by two arrows (?) « », 
 
 another by a fish, <G=i, another by two arrows and a shield, ^^ , 
 etc. With the predynastic "^y^ is probably to be compared the 
 dynastic sign ^^, and with the predynastic ^^ the dynastic 
 sign *M^. It is not easy at present to find a dynastic equivalent 
 
 for the two arrows (?) «- », or to find the reason why the three 
 
 hills f'-^^-n were connected with a god, but we shall probably be 
 correct if we connect the two arrows (?) with some aboriginal god 
 of war, and the three hills with the abode of some, at present, 
 unknown god. The shield and the crossed arrows can, we think 
 be explained with more certainty. We know from the Nome- 
 Lists that the fifth nome of Lower Egypt, ^p , which was caUed 
 
 'rri T r 
 
 T 1 1 T r 
 
 Sapi by the Egyptians and Saites by the Greeks, had for its 
 capital the city Saut or Sais, and that the great deity of this city 
 was the goddess Nit or Neith. The dynastic pictures of this 
 goddess represent her in the form of a goddess who holds in her 
 hands two arrows and a bow ; she sometimes wears upon her head 
 the crown of the north '^, or >=><, which is the sign for her name, 
 or two crossed arrows V^; in fact, such pictures prove beyond a 
 doubt that Nit, the goddess of Sais, was the goddess of the chase 
 par excellence. That this goddess was worshipped in the earliest 
 dynastic period is certain, for we find that her name forms part of 
 
 1 See my '^ History of Egypt " {Egypt in the Predynastic and Archaic Periods) 
 vol. i., p. 78. " 
 
THE GODDESS NIT 31 
 
 the name of Nit-hetep, who seems to have been the daughter of 
 king Sma, and who was probably the wife of Aha, and also part 
 of that of the early dynastic king Mer-Nit. That the dynastic sign 
 
 J^^ is the equivalent of the predynastic sign \^ there is no reason 
 
 to doubt, and, as the former is known to represent the crossed 
 arrows and shield of the hunting goddess of Sais, we are justified 
 in believing that its predynastic equivalent was intended to be a 
 picture of the same objects, and to be symbolic of the same 
 goddess. 
 
 We have already mentioned the predynastic standard sur- 
 mounted by the figure of an elephant, which was, undoubtedly, 
 intended to represent a god, and thus it is clear that both in pre- 
 dynastic and dynastic times the Egyptians symbolized gods both 
 by means of animals and by objects connected with their worship 
 or with their supposed occupations. In dynastic Nome-Lists we 
 have for the name of Matenu a knife C^, for the nome of Ten a 
 
 pair of horns surmounted by a plumed disk [^ , for the nome 
 of Uas, or Us, a sceptre j , for the nome of Sesheshet a sistrum i , 
 
 etc. The first, third, and fourth of this group of examples are 
 clearly objects, which were connected with the worship of the gods 
 whom they symbolize, and the second is probably intended to be 
 the headdress of the god of the nome which it symbolizes. At this 
 period of the world's history it is impossible to fathom the reasons 
 which led men to select such objects as the symbols of their gods, 
 and we can only accept the view that they were the product of 
 some indigenous, dominant people who succeeded in establishing 
 their religious customs so strongly in Egypt that they survived 
 all political commotions, and changes, and foreign invasions, 
 and flourished in the country until the third century of our 
 era at least. 
 
 The cult of Nit, or Neith, must have been very general in 
 Egypt, although in dynastic times the chief seat thereof was at Sais 
 in the Delta, and we know that devotees of the goddess lived as far 
 south as Nakada, a few miles to the north of Thebes, for several 
 objects inscribed with the name of queen Nit-hetep have been found 
 
32 THE GODDESS NIT 
 
 in a grave at that place. Of the early worship of the goddess 
 nothing is known, but it is most probable that she was adored as 
 a great hunting spirit as were adored spirits of like character by 
 primitive peoples in other parts of the world. The crossed arrows 
 and shield indicate that she was a hunting spirit in the earliest 
 times, but a picture of the dynastic period represents her with two 
 crocodiles ^ sucking one at each breast, and thus she appears in 
 later times to have had ascribed to her power over the river. 
 
 It has already been said that the primitive Egyptians, though 
 believing that their gods possessed powers superior to their own, 
 regarded them as beings who were liable to grow old and die, and 
 who were moved to love and to hate, and to take pleasure in meat 
 and drink like man ; they were even supposed to intermarry with 
 human beings and to have the power of begetting offspring like the 
 " sons of God," as recorded in the Book of Genesis (vi. 2, 4). These 
 ideas were common in all periods of Egyptian history, and it is 
 clear that the Egyptians never wholly freed themselves from them ; 
 there is, in fact, abundant proof that even in the times when 
 monotheism had developed in a remarkable degree they clung to 
 them with a tenacity which is surprising. The religious texts 
 contain numerous references to them, and beliefs which were 
 conceived by the Egyptians in their lowest states of civilization are 
 mingled with those which reveal the existence of high spiritual 
 conceptions. The great storehouse of religious thought is the Book 
 of the Bead, and in one of the earliest Recensions of that remark- 
 able work we may examine its various layers with good result, In 
 these are preserved many passages which throw light upon the 
 views which were held concerning the gods, and the powers which 
 they possessed, and the place where they dwelt in company with 
 the beatified dead. 
 
 One of the most instructive of these passages for our purpose 
 forms one of the texts which are inscribed on the walls and 
 corridors of the chambers in the pyramid tombs of Unas, a king 
 of the Vth Dynasty, and of Teta, a king of the Vlth Dynasty. 
 
 u 
 
 1 In the text of Unas (1. 627) the crocodile-god Sebek is called the son of Neith 
 
KING UNAS AS A GOD 33 
 
 The paragraphs in general of the great Heliopolitan Recension 
 deal, as we should expect, with the offerings which were to be 
 made at stated intervals in the little chapels attached to the 
 pyramids, and many were devoted to the object of removing 
 enemies of every kind from the paths of the king in the Under- 
 world ; others contain hymns, and short prayers for his welfare, 
 and magical formulae, and incantations. A few describe the great 
 power which the beatified king enjoys in the world beyond the 
 grave, and, of course, declare that the king is as great a lord in 
 heaven as he was upon earth. The passage in question from the 
 pyramid of Unas is of such interest and importance that it ^ is 
 given in the Appendix to this Chapter, with interlinear translation 
 and transliteration, and with the variant readings from the pyramid 
 of Teta, but the following general rendering of its contents may be 
 useful. " The sky poureth down rain, the stars tremble, the bow- 
 " bearers run about with hasty steps, the bones of Aker tremble, 
 " and those who are ministrants unto them betake themselves to 
 " flight when they see Unas rising [in the heavens] like a god who 
 " liveth upon his fathers and feedeth upon his mothers. Unas is 
 " the lord of wisdom whose name his mother knoweth not. The 
 " noble estate of Unas is in heaven, and his strength in the horizon 
 " is like unto that of the god Tem his father, indeed, he is stronger 
 " than his father who gave him birth. The doubles (kau) of Unas 
 " are behind him, and those whom he hath conquered are beneath 
 " his feet. His gods are upon him, his uraei are upon his brow, 
 " his serpent-guide is before him, and his soul looketh upon the 
 " spirit of flame ; the powers of Unas protect him." From this 
 paragraph we see that Unas is declared to be the son of Tem, and 
 has made himself stronger than his father, and that when the king, 
 who lives upon his fathers and mothers, enters the sky as a god, 
 all creation is smitten with terror. The sky dissolves in rain, the 
 stars shake in their places, and even the bones of the great double 
 lion-headed earth-god Aker, Sii£, quake, and all the lesser powers 
 of heaven flee in fear. He is considered to have been a mighty 
 conqueror upon earth, for those whom he has vanquished are 
 
 1 The hieroglypliic texts are given by Maspero, Les Inscriptions des Pyramides 
 de Saqqarah, Paris, 1894, p. 67, 1. 496, and p. 134, 1. 319. 
 
 D 
 
34 KING UNAS AS A GOD 
 
 beneath his feet ; there is no reason why this statement should not 
 be taken literally, and not as referring to the mere pictures of 
 enemies which Avere sometimes painted on the cartonnage coverings 
 of mummies under the feet, and upon the sandals of mummies, and 
 upon the outside of the feet of coffins. An ordinary man possessed 
 one ka or " double," but a king or a god was believed to possess 
 many kaib or " doubles." Thus in one text ^ the god Ra is said to 
 possess seven souls {hau) and fourteen doubles (kau), and prayers 
 were addressed to each soul and double of Ra as well as to the god 
 himself; elsewhere^ we are told that the fourteen kau of Ra, 
 
 ^^ "m. "^"^ LJ '"^ 9 w| ) "^^^re given to him by Thoth. Unas 
 appears in heaven with his " gods " upon him, the serpents are on 
 his brow, he is led by a serpent-guide, and is endowed with his 
 powers. It is difficult to say what the " gods " here referred to 
 really are, for it is unlikely that the allusion is to the small figures 
 of gods which, in later times, were laid upon the bodies of the 
 dead, and it seems that we are to understand that he, Unas, was 
 accompanied by a number of divine beings who had laid their 
 protecting strength upon him. The uraei on his brow and his 
 serpent-guide were the emblems of similar beings whose help he 
 had bespoken — in other words, they represented spirits of serpents 
 which Avere made friendly towards man. 
 
 The passage in the text of Unas continues, " Unas is the Bull 
 " of heaven which overcometh by his will, and which feedeth upon 
 " that which cometh into being from every god, and he eateth 
 " of the provender of those who fill themselves with words of 
 " power and come from the Lake of Flame. Unas is provided 
 " with power sufficient to resist his spirits {khu), and he riseth [in 
 " heaven] like a mighty god who is the lord of the seat of the 
 "hand (i.e., power) [of the gods]. He taketh his seat and his 
 "back is towards Seb. Unas weigheth his speech with the o-od 
 "whose name is hidden on the day of slaughtering the oldest 
 " [gods]. Unas is the master of the offering and he tieth the 
 "knot, and provideth meals for himself; he eateth men and he 
 
 1 Diimichen, Tempelinschriften, vol. i., pi. 29. 
 ^ Lepsius, Denkmdler, iii., Bl. 194. 
 
KING UNAS AS A GOD 35 
 
 " liveth. upon gods, lie is the lord of offerings, and lie keepeth 
 " count of the lists of the same." The dead king is next likened 
 to a young and vigorous bull which feeds upon what is produced 
 by every god and upon those that come from the Fiery Lake to 
 eat words of power. Here we have a survival of the old worship 
 of the bull, which began in the earliest times in Egypt, and lasted 
 until the Roman period. His food is that which is produced by 
 every god, and when we remember that the Egyptians believed 
 that every object, animate and inanimate, was the habitation of a 
 spirit or god, it is easy to see that the allusion in these words is to 
 the green herbage which the bull ordinarily eats, for from this 
 point of view, every blade of grass was the abode of a god. 
 In connexion with this may be quoted the words of Sankhon- 
 yathan, the Sanchoniatho of the Greeks, as given by Eusebius, who 
 says, " But these first men consecrated the productions of the 
 " earth, and judged them gods, and worshipped those things, upon 
 " which they themselves lived, and all their posterity, and all 
 " before them ; to these they made libations and sacrifices." ^ 
 
 Now the food of this bull Unas is also said to be those who 
 came from the Lake of Fire, or the city of She-Sasa, and who are 
 these ? From Chapter cviii. of the Book of the Bead we learn that 
 She-Sasa was situated in Sekhet-Sasa,^ i.e., a district in heaven, 
 and it is clear from the text of the Chapter that it was one of the 
 abodes wherein the beatified dead obtained food. The deceased is 
 made to say, " I have not lain down in death ; I have stood over 
 " thee,* and I have risen like a god. I have cackled like a goose, 
 " and I have alighted like the hawk by the divine clouds and by 
 *' the great dew .... I have come from She-Sasa, which is in 
 " Sekhet-Sasa, i.e., the Lake of Fire, which is in the Field of 
 " Fire." Towards the end of the Chapter (line 10) mention is 
 
 made of herbage or crops \[\ *^ "^^ '^ ) , and it seems as if these 
 
 1 Eusebius, Praep. Evan., lib. i., c. 10 (in Cory, Ancient Fragments, London, 
 1832, p. 6;. 
 
 ^ ,!\J\.\ "^ P I] P (] © . See my Chapters of Coming Forth by Bay, Text, 
 
 p. 203. 
 
 3 He speaks to the Thigh, ^^, in heaven. 
 
36 KING UNAS AS A GOD 
 
 grew in the Field of Fire, or in the neighbourhood of it, 
 and it is clear that it must be these which are referred to 
 as the provender of those who come from the Lake of Fire. 
 We are next told that Unas hath power sufficient to oppose 
 or resist his spirits (khu), but it is not certain whether these are 
 beings in the Underworld which are hostile to him, or spirits 
 which belong to himself; in any case the meaning of the passage 
 is not clear. Having risen in heaven Unas takes his seat with his 
 back towards Seb, the great earth-god who was represented by the 
 mythological goose which was supposed to have laid the great 
 cosmic egg. In the latter part of the section of the text of Unas 
 quoted above we have some remarkable ideas enunciated. It is 
 asserted first of all that he "weigheth his speech with the god 
 whose name is hidden," which indicates that Unas was supposed 
 to be of equal rank and power with the god of judgment. From 
 the Theban Recensions of the Booh of the Dead ^ we know that the 
 
 expression "weighing of words," ^ ^Tl ' p^ i'^\' ^^^^^^ ^^^'^ 
 the " weighing of actions," and that it is applied to the examina- 
 tion of the deceased which is held on the day wherein his heart is 
 weighed in the Great Scales. The examination was conducted by 
 Thoth on behalf of Osiris, but the words in the text of Unas show 
 that the dead king considers himself able to judge his own actions, 
 and to award himself happiness. The god of the hidden name is 
 probably Osiris. Finally it is said that Unas eats men and feeds 
 upon the gods. We have already referred to the passage in 
 Juvenal's Fifteenth Satire in which he declares that the Egyptians 
 ate human flesh, and it has been already said that the dynastic 
 inscriptions afford no proof whatsoever that the Egyptians were 
 cannibals. 
 
 The statement here that Unas ate men is definite enough, and 
 it is not easy to give any other than a literal meaning to the words ; 
 we can only assume then that this portion of the text has reference 
 to some acts of cannibalism of which a tradition had come down 
 from predynastic to dynastic times. We gather from other 
 passages in the texts of Unas and Teta what manner of treatment 
 
 ' See my Chapters of Coming Forth hy Day, Text, p. 18, 1. 12 ; p. 19, 1. 5 ; etc. 
 
KING UNAS AS A GOD 37 
 
 was meted out to the vanquislied in battle by the victors, and it 
 seems to find a parallel in the atrocious acts which were, and in 
 some places still are, perpetrated by conquering tribes of Central 
 Africa after a battle. In predynastic times all the property of 
 those who were defeated in war was seized upon by the successful 
 warriors, and all the women fell into their hands, and at times 
 nameless abominations were committed upon the unfortunate male 
 captives. The dead king in the texts of Unas and Teta is, 
 naturally, described as the lord of heaven and of all the beings and 
 things which are therein ; as such he is master of all the women, 
 and it is said plainly of him that he is the " fecundator, and that 
 " he carries off the women from their husbands to whatsoever place 
 " he pleaseth whensoever he pleaseth." ^ Thus one of his attributes 
 was that of the buU, which, because of his fecundity and strength, 
 became the object of worship by the early Egyptians, and he 
 exercised the rights of a victorious tribal chief. Upon the con- 
 quered men who were allowed to live terrible indignities were 
 perpetrated, and in the text of Teta the dead king is exhorted to 
 rise up, " for Horus hath caused Thoth to bring unto thee thine 
 " enemy, and he (i.e., Horus) hath put thee behind him in order 
 " that he may not do thee an injury, and that thou mayest make 
 " thy place upon him, so that when [thou] goest forth thou mayest 
 "take thy place upon him, and he may not have union with 
 " thee." ^ It is possible then that in predynastic times in addition 
 to the wanton destruction which the Egyptians brought about after 
 a victorious fight with their enemies, and the slaughter, and rapine, 
 and nameless abominations which followed, they sometimes imitated 
 the example of wild and savage beasts and ate the foes they had 
 
 AA/VW\ 
 1 
 
 w-gl]kiUZ(iS|oil^^ 
 
 line 629. 
 
 ^--k-^mo'^k^- T^*Mi.e286. 
 
88 UNAS EATS THE GODS, 
 
 conquered. The accounts of the battles of dynastic times show 
 that the Egyptians looted and destroyed the cities and towns of the 
 vanquished, and that they cut down orchards and gardens, and 
 carried off all the flocks and herds which they could find ; and 
 there is abundant proof that they mutilated the bodies of their 
 dead foes after a fight, but that they either ate them or behaved 
 towards them in a manner contrary to nature there is absolutely no 
 evidence to show. 
 
 We have now to consider the remaining paragraphs of the 
 extract from the text of Unas. The gods upon whose bodies Unas 
 fed were snared by Am-kehuu, and they were examined as to their 
 fitness and condition by Tcheser-tep-f, a divine being who was in 
 later times one of the Forty-Two Judges in the Hall of Maati, and 
 is mentioned in the " Negative Confession " of the Boole of tJie 
 Dead. The gods were next bound by Her-thertu, and the god 
 Khensu cut their throats and took out their intestines ; a being 
 called Shesemu acted as butcher and cut them up and cooked the 
 pieces thereof in his fiery cauldrons. Thereupon Unas ate them, 
 and in eating them he also ate their woi-ds of power and their 
 spirits. The largest and finest of the gods he ate at daybreak, and 
 the smaller sized ones for meals at sunset, and the smallest for his 
 meals in the night ; the old and worn-out gods he rejected entirely 
 and used them up as fuel in his furnace. The cauldrons in which 
 the bodies of the gods were cooked were heated by the " Grreat One 
 in heaven," who shot flame under those which contained the thighs 
 of the oldes,t of the gods ; and the " Perer, who is in heaven," of 
 Unas cast also into cauldrons the thighs of their women. Unas is 
 then said to make a journey about every part of the double sky, or 
 
 double heaven, F=q , i.e., the night sky and the day sky, and also 
 to travel about, presumably from one end to the other, through the 
 two dtehu, ^"^^ J\'^, of Egypt, i.e., the land which lies 
 between the mountains and the Nile on each side of the river. As 
 a result of eating of the bodies of the gods Unas becomes the Great 
 Sekhem, the Sekhem of the Sekhemu ; he also becomes the Ashem 
 of Ashem, the Great Ashem of the Ashemu. The power which 
 protects Unas and which he possesses is greater than that of all the 
 
ABSORBS THEIR POWERS 39 
 
 sdhu in the heavens, and he becomes the eldest of all the firstborn 
 gods and he goes before thousands and makes offerings to hundreds 
 [of them] ; indeed, the power which has been given to him as the 
 Great Sekhem makes him to become as the star Sahu, i.e., Orion, 
 with the gods. " Unas can repeat his rising in the sky, for he is 
 " the Seben crown as lord of the heavens. He taketh count of the 
 " knots (or, sinews) and of livers, and he hath taken possession of 
 " the hearts of the gods. He hath eaten the Red Crown, he hath 
 " eaten the White Crown, and he feedeth upon fat entrails ; the 
 " offerings made to him are those in whose hearts live words of 
 " power. What the Red Crown emitteth that he hath eaten, and 
 " he flourisheth ; the words of power are in his belly, and his sdim 
 " is not turned away from him. He hath eaten the knowledge of 
 " every god, and his existence and the duration of his life are 
 " eternal and everlasting in any sdhu, which he is pleased to 
 " make. Whatsoever he hateth he shall never do within the limits, 
 "or, inside the borders of heaven. Behold their soul, i.e., the 
 " soul of the gods, is in Unas, and their spirits are with him ; 
 " his food is more abundant than that of the gods, in whose bones 
 " is the flame of Unas. Behold their soul is with Unas, and their 
 " Shadows are with their Forms, or Attributes. Unas is in, or 
 " with, the doubly hidden Kha gods (?) [as] a Sekhem, and having 
 " performed [aU] the ordinances of the (ceremony of) ploughing 
 " the seat of the heart of Unas shall be among the living upon this 
 " earth for ever and ever." 
 
 The last portion of the extract is of peculiar interest because 
 it affords some insight into the beliefs which the Egyptians held 
 about the constituent parts of the economy of the gods. We have 
 already seen that a ha, or soul, has been assigned to Unas, and lean, 
 or " doubles," and Ichu, or spirits, and a sdhu, and a sekhem ; the 
 last two words are difficult to translate, but they are rendered 
 with approximate correctness by "spiritual body," and "power." 
 The soul was intimately connected with the heart, and was 
 supposed to be gratified by offerings, which it was able to consume ; 
 the " double " was an integral part of a man, and was connected 
 with his shadow, and came into being when he wasJbjQrn, and lived 
 in the tomb with the body after death; the spirit jy as the seat of 
 
40 UNAS, THE ASHEM OF THE ASHEMU 
 
 the spiritual part of man, and gods and divine personages were 
 credited with the possession of several spirits ; the sahv, or 
 spiritual body, was the ethereal, intangible, transparent and trans- 
 lucent body, which was supposed, in dynastic times at all events, 
 to grow from the dead body, the form of which it preserved ; the 
 selchem was the "power" which seems to have animated the sdliu 
 and to have made it irresistible. From the extract given above 
 from the text of Unas we learn that the gods were composed of all 
 these various parts, and that in fact their economy resembled that 
 of man ; in other words, the Egyptians made their gods in their 
 own image, only they attributed to them superhuman powers. 
 The gods, hoAvever, preserved their existence by means of a 
 magical protection which they enjoyed, melcet, ^^ , and also 
 by hehau, \ ^ y ° ' "^^^ich is commonly translated "words of 
 power " ; the aim of every Egyptian was to obtain possession of 
 both the magical protection and the words of power, for they 
 thought that if they once were masters of these they would be able 
 to live like the gods. In the earliest times in Egypt men thought 
 that the only way to obtain the strength and immortality of the 
 gods was to eat the gods themselves, and so we read that Unas, 
 having eaten parts of the boiled bodies of the gods, " hath eaten 
 " their words of power (heka), and swallowed their spirits {kJm)." 
 As a result of this he becomes the " Great Power," the " Power of 
 Powers," i.e., the greatest Power in heaven. He becomes also the 
 Ashem of Ashem, the great Ashem of the Ashemu, that is to say, 
 the very essence of Ashem, and the greatest powers of the Ashemu 
 beings are enshrined within him because he has within him the 
 spirits and the words of power of the gods. 
 
 But what is the meaning of Ashem ? In the text of Teta the 
 word has for its determinative a hawk perched upon a standard, 
 ^, which shows that it has some meaning connected with deity or 
 divinity, but it cannot be the name of one divine being only, for 
 we find it in the plural form Ashemu, " ^ "^ ^^^. The 
 determinative, however, does not help us very much, for it proves 
 little more than that some attribute of the Hawk-god Heru Avas 
 ascribed to the Ashemu; the hawk was undoubtedly the first 
 
UNAS, THE ASHEM OF THE ASHEMU 41 
 
 creature worshipped by the predynastic Egyptians, and ^ became 
 in consequence the common determinative of all words implying the 
 idea of deity or divinity, and of the proper names of the gods in a 
 very large number of passages in the hieroglyphic texts inscribed 
 on the walls of the chambers and corridors in the pyramids at 
 Sakkara. The common name for "god," as we have already seen, 
 is "neter," |, or H 3, with the plural "neteru," \\\, or | i, or 
 
 III Jj I, or ^^^, but we find that the male gods are some- 
 times called "hawks," J SX^XN^SX, ? even when the female 
 gods are called "netert," | '^^^ (APnPn-^ I^ ^^^ Booh of the 
 
 Dead^ the word Ashemu is written ^ ^^^ ;SX i ^ '; "^vhich may 
 
 be translated by " divine Ashemu," and as the first determinative is 
 a squatting hawk, we may assume that the word ashemu means 
 " hawks." ^ If this assumption be correct, "Ashem of Ashem, 
 Great Ashem of the Ashemu," means "Hawk of Hawk, the Great 
 Hawk of the Hawks," and since the hawk was not only a god to 
 the predynastic Egyptians, but their oldest and greatest god, being 
 in fact the spirit of that which is above, i.e., heaven, the passage 
 " Ashem of Ashem, Great Ashem of the Ashemu," may very well 
 be rendered " god of god, great god of the gods." Thus with the 
 words of power and the spirits of the gods in him Unas becomes 
 the habitation of the power of God, and the firstborn of the gods. 
 He is now able to go round about heaven at pleasure, and as the 
 Great Sekhem, or Power, his visible emblem is Sah or Orion, and 
 he is able to repeat his rising [daily] in heaven like this constella- 
 tion. It is not improbable that the identification of Orion with 
 kings who had eaten the gods filtered down in tradition to the 
 Semitic people who lived in the Delta in dynastic times, and so 
 became the base of the legends about Orion which are found among 
 the Arabs and Hebrews. 
 
 1 See tlie text of Udeib, line 209 ; in the text of Teta, line 197, the gods are 
 described as " male and female," l] | | | ^\ 1^3$ ^v 
 
 2 See my Chapters of Coming Forth by Day, Text, p. 128, 1. 14. 
 
 3 A variant form of the word is dhhem m ^\^ , and Brugsch (Worterbuch, 
 Supypl, p- 279) renders it by " the symbol, or visible form of a god." 
 
42 POWER OVER THE HEART 
 
 Modern travellers have put on record the fact that certain 
 savage and semi-savage peoples were, even in recent times, in the 
 habit of eating pieces of flesh of mighty wild animals or of strong 
 men, and of drinking their blood with the view of absorbing their 
 nature, and life, and strength into their own bodies.^ This idea 
 also existed among the Egyptians, both predynastic and dynastic, 
 and we find an allusion to it in the extract from Unas under 
 consideration, for he is said to take possession of the hearts of the 
 gods, and to reckon up the thesu and beqesu, and to feed upon 
 fat small. The importance which the Egyptians attached to the 
 230Ssession of the physical heart, or of having power over it, is 
 proved by many texts, and especially by several Chapters of the 
 Book of the Dead, wherein we find many prayers which were 
 specially written for the protection of the heart. Thus in 
 Chapter xxvi. the deceased prays, "may my heart be to me in 
 "the house of hearts, may my hdti^ be to me in the house of 
 " hdtu " ; Chapters xxvii., xxviii., and xxix. were written to 
 prevent the heart being carried away by those who steal hearts 
 and destroy them, ^^^ (jl) | "^ | ^ flfl ^ ."V^i' Chapter xxix. a 
 was composed to prevent its death in the Underworld; and 
 Chapters xxx.a and xxx.b were intended to prevent a man's 
 heart from being driven away from him there, especially at the 
 time of the Judgment, when it was weighed in the Great Scales. 
 For the words thesu, beqesu, and smau it is not easy to find 
 equivalents. From the connexion in which it occurs thesu must 
 mean either the vertebra or some internal organ of the body 
 which resembles a tied or knotted cord, whilst of beqesu the 
 determinative proves that it also is an internal organ. In 
 Chapter xxx.a the deceased says, "Homage to thee, my 
 " heart (db) ! Homage to thee, my hdti (pericardium ?) ! 
 "Homage to thee, my beseJc," which is probably a variant 
 ^nT^ ^^^^^' ^^* curiously enough the determinative of besek, 
 J r^' ^^ ^ heart. In spite of this, however, it seems as if the 
 
 1 See Robertson Smith, The Beligion of the Semites, p. 295. 
 " r^A '^ ' ^^^ pericardium (?). In the ancient texts the hat, or Mti of a god 
 was the seat of the words of power by means of which he maintained his life. 
 
THE HEART AND WORDS OF POWER 43 
 
 word actually means " liver." Mr. Frazer has quoted in his 
 work^ instances which prove that savage tribes look upon the 
 liver as the seat of the soul or life of man, and that portions of 
 it are eaten by them with the view of acquiring the qualities of 
 the former possessor of the livev. The words of the text of Unas 
 do not say definitely that the king ate the thesu and livers of the 
 gods who had been killed for him, but it is evident from the 
 context that they were supposed to form part of his food. On the 
 other hand, it is said definitely that he did eat their smaiL saau, or 
 
 " fat entrails," J f J p c^ ^ ^ ^ , and their hearts, ^ ^^ , 
 
 or those portions of them which were the seats of the hekau, 
 
 I U ^ > or words of magical power, which were the source of their 
 
 life. 
 
 Now besides the spirits, and the words of power, and the 
 internal organs of the gods, Unas, it is said, hath eaten the 
 
 " knowledge," [l h ^^ "^^ sda, of every god, and the period of his 
 
 life and his existence are merged into eternity and everlastingness, 
 which he may pass in any way that pleaseth his spiritual body 
 (sdh), and during this existence he has no need whatsoever to do 
 anything which is distasteful to him. Moreover, the soul[s] and 
 spirits of the gods are in and with Unas, and their souls, and their 
 shadows, and their divine forms are with him. Thus we see that 
 Unas has absorbed within his spiritual body all the life and power 
 of the gods, and his portion is everlasting life, and he can do 
 anything and everything he pleases. Here we should naturally 
 expect the section to come to an end, but the last sentence goes on 
 to say that Unas is with the double Kha god, Avho is invisible, or 
 unknown, and that being a Power (sehhem) who hath performed 
 [the ceremony] of ploughing, " the seat of the heart ^ of Unas shall 
 " be among those who live upon this earth for ever and for ever." 
 In this sentence we have an illustration of the difficulty of under- 
 standing and explaining the Egyptian religion and the doctrine 
 of the gods. In the early portion of the passage from the text of 
 
 1 The Golden Bough, vol. ii., p. 357 (2iid edition). 
 
 2 The word here used is db "^ . 
 
44 THE DOUBLE LIFE OF UNAS 
 
 Unas already translated and analyzed we are told how the dead 
 king became the god of god, immortal and invisible, with supreme 
 power in heaven, etc., but at the end of it we read that the seat of 
 the heart of Unas shall be among those who live upon this earth 
 for ever and ever, i.e., Unas shall enjoy after death a continuation 
 of the life which he began in this world ; in fact, shall have a 
 double existence, the one heavenly and the other earthly. 
 
( 45 ) 
 
 APPENDIX TO CHAPTER I 
 
 UNAS, THE SLAYER AND EATER OF THE GODS 
 
 496. S 
 
 D ^ 
 
 dhi 
 
 A «'• 
 
 kep ]oet din sebu nem 
 
 Poureth down water heaven, tremble the stars, go about 
 
 petchet 
 
 ffi 
 
 r 
 
 498. A p 11^ 
 
 seta qes Aher her - er - sen 
 
 the bow-bearers, quake the bones of Aker, those beneath 
 
 ZS 
 
 them 
 
 ^ 
 
 Q 
 
 V 
 
 ^^ n,wv~w 499. r^^(] \\\ 
 
 henemu ma en sen Unas khd ha 
 
 take to flight [when] they see Unas rising [as] a soul 
 
 k 1 f k Hi-* ^^J 
 
 em neter dnlch em at - f usheb 
 
 like a god [who] liveth upon his fathers [and] feedeth 
 
 500. 
 
 em 
 
 ^^ (EM °fl 
 
 mut - / Unas pa 
 
 neb sabut 
 
 upon his mothers. Unas this [is] the lord of wisdom, 
 
 1 The text here given is from the Pyramid of Unas (Maspero, Recueil, torn, iv., 
 p. 59) ; the variants are from the Pyramid of Teta {Recueil, torn, v., p. 48, 1. 319) 
 
 -g^i 
 
 zs 
 
 
 6 c:> a^ c^ 
 
 \.1\ 
 
46 SLAYER AND EATER OF THE GOETS 
 
 hhem en mut-f ren - f du shejysu 
 
 knoweth not his mother his name. Is the noble rank 
 
 ^ ^ fl^lr k ^c^"-'02. 
 
 Unas em pet du user-f em Ichut md Tern 
 
 of Unas in heaven, is his strength in the horizon like Tern, 
 
 dt-f du mes - nef su useru eref 
 
 his father ; he (i.e., Tem) begot him [and] he became stronger 
 
 than he. 
 
 du Jcau JJnds ha -f du hemu set-f{?) 
 
 Are the doubles of Unas behind him, the conquered [are] 
 
 ^ ii-' ^\ 111 - ®-' >\\^^h^'J^' 
 
 Icher retui -f du neteru -f tep -f du dart - / 
 beneath his two feet. His gods are on him. His uraei are 
 
 em dpt-f du semiu Unds em hdt-f 
 
 on his brow. The serpent guide of Unas is before him. 
 
 * u u u 
 
 ""^ '""^ '■~5p 
 
 u 
 
 ^^\ 
 
SLAYER, AND EATER OF THE GODS 47 
 
 %.[J ^!'T JM°M^111(SII 
 
 petret ha Ichut ent bes cm useru Unas 
 
 Seetli soul [his] the spirit of flame. The powers of Unas 
 
 her melcet -f Unas pa ha pet en het 
 
 protect him. Unas this [is] the bull of heaven that thrusteth 
 
 ^ "O'^ f' k M> ^^^■'-- 1 
 
 em db -f dnlch em Jcheper en neter 
 with his will, living upon what cometh into being of god 
 
 4 
 
 neb dm em semu - sen iu meh 
 
 every, and eating of their food who come to fill 
 
 Tchat - sen em heJcau em She en Sdsd 
 
 their belly with words of power from the lake of Flame. 
 
 Unas pd dper-a er dab khu - f 
 
 Unas this [is] provided with power against his spirits. 
 
 ^^CSH^ k ^'"^ ^ i\ J^ 
 
 ^ 9 
 
 du Unds Icha em ur pu neb dmu dst-d 
 
 Unas riseth like a mighty one, the lord in the seat of the 
 
 hand [of the gods]. 
 
 ^ AAVSAA 
 
 
48 
 
 SLAYER AND EATER OF THE GODS 
 
 hems -f sa -f dr Seb Unas pa 
 
 He is seated [with] his back to Seb. Unas 
 
 this 
 
 
 ©3 
 I 
 
 D 
 
 1 
 
 ntchd met-f hend Amen ren - f hru pu 
 
 Aveigheth his word with Hidden of Name on day this 
 
 — TP^* Pk'l^ (EiD ° ^ 
 
 en rekhes semsu Unas i'C'^t] ■'?e& 
 
 of slaughtering the eldest [gods] Unas this [is] the lord 
 
 (3 
 
 tes 
 
 A 
 
 
 hetep tes dqa dri dut - f 
 
 of the oflfering, tying the knot, making his meals 
 
 y\^ 509- fe Q Pi ^^' + 
 
 A 
 A 
 
 Unds pd dm 
 Unas this eateth 
 
 remth anlcli 
 
 men [and] liveth 
 
 tchesef 
 for himself. 
 
 k 111 - m 
 
 em neteru neb dnnu Icha dpt 
 
 on the gods, the lord of the offerings, whoexamineth the lists of 
 
 offerings. 
 
 
 
 D 
 
 
 ra 
 
 \<? 
 
 , , ^ 
 
 ri 
 
 '^ ^ol 1 
 
 = 
 
 1 
 
 V 
 
 n ^ 
 
SLAYER AND EATER OF THE GODS 49 
 
 an dJchem apt Am-kehuu sepeh - sen 
 
 Behold, he who maketh to bow Am-kehuu hath snared 
 
 foreheads, them 
 
 A^AAA^ 
 
 - (£iEI»«-± Yi^r -^k'ZP 
 
 en Unas an Tcheser-tep-f saa-nef-sen 
 
 for Unas. Behold, Tcheser-tep-f hath known them 
 
 khesef - nef sen an Her - thertu gas - nef sen 
 
 [and] he hath driven Behold, Her-thertu hath bound them, 
 
 them [to him]. 
 
 ± ^-¥ k'-K -¥ i^-!--p- 
 
 an Khensu metes nebu tchat - f sen 
 
 Behold, Khensu the slaughterer of lords hath cut the throats of 
 
 them 
 
 '^'"^ sm 511.*^^ P"fi"'^ ^^ — ^ 
 
 en Unas shet-nef dmt khat - sen 
 
 for Unas, [and] he hath torn out what is in their belly, 
 
 apt pu habu - f er hhesef 
 
 [for] he is the messenger [whom] he sent to drive [them]. 
 
 ^^ ® MIL • "^^^ creature is mentioned in the Negative Confession; see 
 my Chapters of Coming Forth by Day, Text, p. 259, 1. 41. 
 
 
 AAAAAA 
 
 E 
 
50 SLAYER AND EATER OF THE GODS 
 
 an Shesemu rehhes -f sen en Unas feses - nef 
 
 Behold, Shesemu hath cut them up for Unas, he hath boiled 
 
 dlihet dm - sen em ketdt - f meshert Unas 
 
 pieces of them in his cauldrons blazing. Unas 
 
 pd dm heha - sen dam Jehu - sen 
 
 this hath eaten their words of [he] hath eaten their spirits, 
 power, 
 
 du uru - sen en dshet-f tuat du her-dbu - sen 
 
 Their great ones are for his meal of the morning, their middle ones 
 
 are 
 
 □as 
 
 en meshert - f du shereru-sen en dsht-f 
 
 for his sunset meal, their little ones are for his meal 
 
 i[||]^^518.(]^ll^"(l™ (]^ = VP~~ 
 
 du da - sen datu - sen 
 
 of the night, their old ones (male) their old ones (female) are 
 
 e ©. C3a 
 
 1=1 lufi m^f]\;-. 
 
 
 o o o 
 
 
 
SLAYER AND EATER OF THE GODS 51 
 
 D ^ 
 
 Is 
 
 
 ew kapt - f an dda em pet 
 
 for his furnace. Behold, the great one in heaven 
 
 I AA/«A\\ 
 
 ' utu-nef setchet er uhatu khert-sen 
 
 hath shot flame against the cauldrons beneath them 
 
 em khepeshu nu semsu - sen du Perer - dmu - pet 
 
 with the thighs of the eldest ones. Perer-amu-pet 
 
 
 O^' In ^^^* O 
 
 O 
 
 
 
 en Unas shesert - nef ketdt em retu nu 
 
 of Unas hath thrown [into] the cauldrons the legs of 
 
 liemt - sen du teben - nef pet tem-thd 
 
 their women. He hath gone round about the double heaven, all of it, 
 
 du perer - nef dtehu Tinas pa 
 
 he hath gone round about the two halves of Egypt. Unas this [isj 
 
 ^ w pt®k "5-k w (sm 
 
 sehhem ur sekhem em sekhemu Unas 
 
 the sekhem great, the sekhem of the sekhemu. Unas 
 
52 SLAYER AND EATER OF THE GODS 
 
 ]}d dshem dshem ashemu ur qemi - f 
 
 this [is] the ashem, the ashem of the ashemu great. [What] he findeth 
 
 c 1 ~ " ^ ' "^^^^ T _ 
 
 em uat-f dm - f nef su em umu 
 
 on his way he eateth it greedily. 
 
 du meket Unas em hat sdhu nehu 
 
 The protection of Unas [is] before [that of] the sahu all 
 
 drmi kJiut TJnds pd seines er semsu 
 
 in the horizon. Unas this is the eldest of the old ones. 
 
 du perer - nef Ichau du uten - nef shdut 
 
 He hath gone round thousands, he hath offered hundreds. 
 
 du ertd - nef a em sehhem ur dn 
 
 Hath been given to him the hand as the sekhem great, behold 
 
 D 
 
 2 _ 
 
 
SLAYER AND EATER OF THE GODS 53 
 
 ^'c 
 
 ^"•i TIT il^Ik™(£Il1 ^-\ 
 
 Sahxij dr neteru dii nem en Unas khatu 
 
 Orion, with the gods. Hath repeated Unas [his] rising 
 
 {lie) 
 
 em pet .... seben em neb Ichut 
 
 in heaven. He is the seben crown as lord of the horizon. 
 
 du heseb - nef tesu beqesu du thet - nef 
 
 He hath counted up knots [and] livers. He hath taken possession of 
 
 ■fv in 518.1)^+^- g^=' 
 
 hdtu neteru du am - nef teshert 
 
 the hearts of the gods. He hath eaten the Red Crown, 
 
 du am - nef uatchetu usheb JJnds em, 
 
 he hath eaten the White Crown. Feedeth Unas upon 
 
 smau saau hetep-f em dnkh em hdtu 
 
 entraUs fat, his offering whereon live in [their] hearts 
 
 [is that] 
 
54 SLAYER AND EATER OF THE GODS 
 
 helcau - sen dsth-f du Unas nesh - f seheshu 
 
 their words of power. Behold, Unas eateth what is cast 
 
 out 
 
 dmu teshert df uakhha -f du helca - sen 
 
 [from] the Red Crown, he flourisheth, their words of power 
 
 em Ichat-f dn hem em sahu TJnds 
 
 are in his belly, not is turned back the sahu of Unas 
 
 ma-f du dm - nej sda en neter neb 
 
 from him. He hath eaten the intelligence of god every, 
 
 f_^°' AMI *>- 52i-°^^ 
 
 dhdu pd neheh tcher-f pd tchetta 
 
 [his] period of life [is] eternity, his existence is everlastingness 
 
 em sdh - f pen en merer -f dr - f 
 in his sah, this what he is pleased [to do] he doeth, 
 
 ^ _^^ <=^ """^^ ] ^ 
 
 * A o o o 
 
 3 AWVV\ 
 
SLAYER AND EATER OF THE GODS 55 
 
 mestchetch-f an dr-nef dm tcher khut 
 
 [what] he hateth not doeth he in the limits of the horizon 
 
 tchetta er neheh sek .ha - sen dmt Unds 
 
 for ever and ever. Behold, their soul [is] in Unas, 
 
 p™ ^ (Em k iTmo 
 
 khu - sen kher Unds em ha khet - f 
 
 spirits their [are] with Unas, more abundant [is] his food 
 
 er neteru qerert en Unds em 
 
 than [that of] the gods. The flame of Unas [is] in 
 
 C] n n I /WW\A 1 ■> t (^^j ' ''VWVA j ^^ Oil n T I '^ V)^ /WWVA 
 
 q^esu - sen sek ba-sen kher Unds khaibitu-sen 
 
 their bones, behold, their soul is with Unas, their shadows 
 
 fl fl 
 
 q^yp™ 624.^^(511^ \\ 
 
 md dru - sen du Unds em enen khd khd 
 
 are with their forms. Unas is with these, rising, rising, 
 
 1 AWVAA 1 /WWVA I I _mi Jl 1 ^ Jl ^-"^ 
 
 dmen dmen sekhem dru dritu .... 
 
 hidden, hidden, a sekhem having performed the ordinances 
 
 I -/f 111 1 /WVV\A 1 /\Aft/VNA 
 
66 SLAYER AND EATER. OF THE GODS 
 
 525. k 'JP' ^* G 
 
 em hhebes dst-db Unas em 
 
 of ploughing, the seat of the heart of Unas [is] among 
 
 fV k ^ Ji ^^-M 
 
 dnlchu em ta pen tchetta er neheh 
 
 the living on earth this for ever and for ever. 
 
( 57 ) 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 CONCEPTION OF GOD AND THE "GODS" 
 
 THE texts in the pyramids of Unas and Teta and their 
 immediate successors prove that the religious literature of 
 the Egyptians contains a multitude of beliefs and opinions which 
 belong to all periods of their history, and represent different stages 
 in the development of their civilization. Their ideas about the 
 various parts which constitute their material, and mental, and 
 spiritual existences cannot have been conceived all at once, but it 
 is very hard to say in respect of some of them which came first. 
 We need not trouble about the order of the development of their 
 ideas about the constituent parts of the gods, for in the earliest 
 times, at least, the Egyptians only ascribed to them the attributes 
 which they had already ascribed to themselves ; once having 
 believed that they possessed doubles, shadows, souls, spirits, hearts, 
 (i.e., the seats of the mental life), names, powers, and spiritual bodies, 
 they assigned the like to the gods. But if the gods possessed 
 doubles, and shadows, and hearts, none of which, in the case of 
 man, can exist without bodies, they too must possess bodies, and 
 thus the Egyptians conceived the existence of gods who could 
 eat, and drink, and love, and hate, and fight, and make war, and 
 grow old, and die, and perish as far as their bodies were concerned. 
 And although the texts show that in very early times they began 
 to conceive monotheistic ideas, and to develop beliefs of a highly 
 spiritual character, the Egyptians never succeeded in abandoning 
 the crude opinion about the gods which their indigenous ancestors 
 had formed long before the dynastic period of their history. It is, 
 of course, impossible to assume that educated classes of Egypt held 
 such opinions, notwithstanding the fact that religious texts which 
 
58 BELIEFS IN IMMORTALITY 
 
 were written for their benefit contain as great a mixture of views 
 and beliefs of all periods as those which were written for humbler 
 folk. 
 
 The Book of the Dead in all dynasties proves that the rich 
 and the poor, and the educated and the uneducated alike prayed 
 for funeral offerings in the very Chapters in which they proclaimed 
 their sure belief in an existence in which material things were 
 superfluities. In the texts of the Early Empire the deceased is 
 declared to be a god, or God, and the son of god, or God, and the 
 oldest god of all, Horus, gives him his eye, and he sits on a great 
 throne by the side of God ; yet in the same texts we read that he 
 partakes of the figs and wine of the gods, that he drinks beer 
 which lasts for ever, that he thirsts not like the gods Shu and 
 Tefnut, and that the throne of God is made of iron, that its legs 
 terminate in hoofs like those of bulls, and that its sides are 
 ornamented with the faces of lions.^ The great god Horus gives 
 him his own " double " (/<;«), and yet there are in heaven enemies 
 who dare to oppose the deceased ; and although he is declared to 
 be immortal, " all the gods give him of their food that he may not 
 " die," and he sits down, clothed in white linen and wearing white 
 sandals, with the gods by the lake in the Field of Peace, and 
 partakes with them of the wood (or, tree) of life on which they 
 themselves live that he also may live. Though he is the son of 
 God he is also the child of Sothis, and the brother of the Moon, 
 and the goddess Isis becomes his wife ; though he is the son of 
 God we are also told that his flesh and his bones have been 
 gathered together, that his material body has been reconstructed ; 
 that his limbs perform all the functions of a healthy body ; and as 
 he lives as the gods live we see that from one point of view he and 
 the gods are constituted alike. Instances of the mixture of 
 spiritual with material ideas might be multiplied almost inde- 
 finitely, and numbers of passages containing the most contradictory 
 statements might be adduced almost indefinitely to prove that the 
 ideas of the Egyptians about the world beyond the grave, and 
 about God and the gods were of a savage, childish, and inconsistent 
 
 ^ The passages from the Pyramid Texts are collected in my Papyrus of Ani 
 London, 1894, pp. Ixxi. S. 
 
COMPOSITE ANIMAL-GODS 
 
 59 
 
 character. What, however, we have to remember in dealing with 
 Egyptian religious texts is that the innate conservatism of the 
 Egyptian in all ages never permitted him to relinquish any belief 
 which had once found expression in Avriting, and that the written 
 word was regarded by him as a sacred thing which, whether he 
 believed it not, must be copied and preserved with great care, and 
 if possible without any omission or addition whatsoever. Thus 
 religious ideas and beliefs which had been entirely forgotten by 
 the people of Egypt generally were preserved and handed down 
 for thousands of years by the scribes in the temples. The matter 
 would have been simple enough if they had done this and nothing 
 more, but unfortunately they incorporated new texts into the 
 collections of old ones, and the various attempts which the priests 
 and scribes made to harmonize 
 them resulted in the confusion 
 of beliefs which we now have 
 in Egyptian religious works. 
 
 Before we pass to the 
 consideration of the meaning 
 of the old Egyptian name for 
 god and God, i.e., "neter," 
 mention must be made of a 
 class of beings which were 
 supposed to possess bodies 
 partly animal and partly human, or were of a composite character. 
 Among the latter class may be mentioned the creature which has 
 the body of a leopard and the head and neck of a serpent, and was 
 
 called " Setcha," Ml | ; and that which has the body of a lion, from 
 
 which grow a pair of wings, and the head of an eagle, and is 
 
 called " Sefer," j I ; and that which has a body, the fore part 
 
 being that of a lion, and the hind part that of a horse, and the 
 head of a hawk, and an extended tail which terminates in a 
 flower somewhat resembling the lotus. The name of this creature 
 is Sak, —X— *^ ffl , and she is represented with a collar round her 
 
 The Berpent-headed leopard Setcha. 
 
 1 See ChampoUion, Monuments, torn, iv., Paris, 1845, pi. 382. 
 
 2 Ibid. See also Newberry, Beni-Hasan, ii., pi. iv. 
 
60 
 
 COMPOSITE ANIMAL-GODS 
 
 neck, and with bars and stripes on her body,^- which has eight 
 teats.^ Among creatures, part animal part human, may be men- 
 tioned the leopard, with a human head and a pair of wings 
 
 growing out of his back,^ and 
 the human -headed lion or 
 sphinx. The winged human 
 head which springs from the 
 back of the leopard^ strongly 
 reminds one of the modern 
 conventional representations of 
 angels in religious pictures, 
 but as the name of this fabu- 
 lous creature is unknown, it is 
 impossible even to guess at the 
 reasons for which he was fur- 
 nished with a winged man's 
 head. In connexion with the composite animals enumerated above 
 must be mentioned the "Devourer of Amenti," called "Am-mit, the 
 Eater of the Dead," whose forequarters were those of a crocodile, 
 and hindquarters those of a hippopotamus, and whose body was 
 
 that of a lion, =^ -w 
 
 The eagle-headed lion Sefer. 
 
 Hl,T,-^^Pk=J??o 
 
 tombs 
 
 at Beni-hasan, in which the 
 figures of the Setcha, the Sefer, 
 and the Sale are depicted, 
 date from the Xllth Dynasty, 
 about B.C. 2500, and there is 
 no reason for supposing that 
 their existence was not con- 
 ceived of long before that 
 time. Side by side with these 
 is also depicted an animal 
 called Sha, TtT^T , which has 
 long square ears, and an extended tail resembling an arrow, and in 
 its general appearance it much resembles the animal of the god Set. 
 
 1 See Rosellini, Monumenti Civili, pi. xxiii., No. 4. 
 
 " Ibid., pi. xxiii., No. 6. 3 See Lepsius, BenkmUler, iii., pi. 131. 
 
 The fabulous beast Sak. 
 
COMPOSITE ANIMAL-GODS 
 
 61 
 
 Two explanations of the existence of such composite creatures 
 may be given. They may be due either to the imagination of the 
 Egyptians, which conceived of the existence of quadrupeds wherein 
 were united the 
 
 strength 
 
 of 
 
 A fabulous leopard. 
 
 one 
 animal and the 
 wisdom or cunning 
 of another, e.g., 
 the Setcha which 
 united within itself 
 the strength of the 
 leopard with the 
 cunning of the ser- 
 pent, and the name- 
 less leopard with a man's winged head, or to the ignorance of 
 the ancients of natural history. The human head on an animal 
 represented the intelligence of a man, and the wings the swift 
 flight of the bird, and the body of the leopard the strength and 
 the lithe motions of that animal. In conceiving the existence of 
 such creatures the imagination may have been assisted in its 
 fabrication of fabulous monsters by legends or stories of pre- 
 dynastic animals which were current in certain parts of Egypt 
 during the dynastic period. 
 Thus, as we have said before, 
 the monster serpents of Egyp- 
 tian my thology have their pro- 
 totypes in the huge serpents 
 which lived in the country in 
 primeval times, and there is 
 no doubt that Apep was, 
 originally, nothing more than 
 a huge serpent which lived in 
 some mountain on the western 
 
 bank of the Nile. On the other hand, it is possible that the 
 Egyptians really believed in the existence of composite animals, 
 and that they never understood the impossibility of the head and 
 neck of a serpent growing out of the body of a lion, or the head 
 
 The animal Sha. 
 
62 COMPOSITE ANIMAL-GODS 
 
 of a hawk out of the body of a lion, or a human head with the 
 wings of a bird out of the body of a leopard. They were keen 
 enough observers of the animals with which they came in contact 
 daily, and their representations of them are wonderful for the 
 accurate delineation of their forms and characteristics ; but of 
 animals which they had never seen, and could only know from, 
 the reports of travellers and others, naturally they could not give 
 accurate representations. Man in all ages seems prone to believe 
 in the existence of composite animals and monsters, and the most 
 cultured of the most ancient nations, e.g., the Egyptians and the 
 Babylonians, form no exception to the rule. The early seal- 
 cylinders of the Babylonians reveal their belief in the existence 
 of many a fabulous and mythical animal, and the boundary stones, 
 or landmarks, of a later period prove that composite animals were 
 supposed to watch over the boundaries of kingdoms and estates, 
 which they preserved from invasion, and the winged man-headed 
 bulls, which the Assyrians set up in the gates and doorways of 
 their palaces to "protect the footsteps of the kings who made 
 them," indicate clearly that they duly followed the examples set 
 them by their kinsmen, the Babylonians. From the Assyrians 
 Ezekiel probably borrowed the ideas which he developed in his 
 description in the first chapter of his book of the four-faced and 
 four-winged animals. Later, even the classical writers appeared 
 to see no absurdity in solemnly describing animals, the existence 
 of which Avas impossible, and in declaring that they possessed 
 powers which were contrary to all experience and knowledge. 
 HorapoUo, i, 10, gravely states that the scarabaeus represents an 
 only begotten, because the scarabaeus is a creature self-produced, 
 being unconceived by a female, ixovo-yeves fiev on auroyei^es ian to 
 ^wov, vno drjXeias [xr) KvocfiopoviJieuov ; and in one form or another 
 this statement is given by ^Elian {De. Nat. Animal., iv, 49), 
 Aristotle {Hist. An., iv. 7), Porphyry {De Abstinentia, iv. 9), Pliny 
 {Nat. Hist., xi. 20 ff.), etc. Of the man-headed lion at Gizeh, i.e., 
 the Sphinx, Pliny, Diodorus, Strabo, and other ancient writers 
 have given long descriptions, and all of them seem to take for 
 granted the existence of such a creature. 
 
 The second explanation, which declares that composite animals 
 
THE WORD NETER 63 
 
 are the result of the imagination of peoples who have no knowledge, 
 or at all events a defective one, of the common facts of natural 
 history is not satisfactory, for the simple reason that composite 
 animals which are partly animal and partly human in their powers 
 and characteristics form the logical link between animals and man, 
 and as such they belong to a certain period and stage of develop- 
 ment in the history of every primitive people. If we think for a 
 moment we shall see that many of the gods of Egypt are closely 
 connected with this stage of development, and that comparatively 
 few of them were ever represented wholly in man's form. 
 The Egyptians clung to their representations of gods in animal 
 forms with great tenacity, and even in times when it is certain 
 they cannot have believed in their existence they continued to 
 have them sculptured and painted upon the walls of their temples ; 
 curiously enough, they do not seem to have been sensible of the 
 ridicule which their conservatism brought down upon them from 
 strangers. 
 
 We have already said above that the common word given by 
 the Egyptians to God, and god, and spirits of every kind, and 
 beings of aU sorts, and kinds, and forms, which were supposed to 
 
 possess any superhuman or supernatural power, was neter, ^ , 
 
 and the hieroglyph which is used both as the determinative of this 
 
 word and also as an ideograph is | . Thus we have j or 1 J| , 
 
 "god," and |, or | i, or 'TT\, or 111 i, "gods;" the plural is 
 sometimes written out in full, e.g., ^ V wf ' • ^^^ common word 
 for "goddess" is netert, which can be written "1 '^, or "!<=>, 
 or I <=>; sometimes the determinative of the word is a woman, 
 J| , and at other tinies a serpent, e.g. | <==> U^ . The plural is 
 
 NETEEiT,| h'I^Ki'' ^^ have now to consider what object is 
 
 supposed to be represented by 1 , and what the word netek means. 
 In Bunsen's Egypt's Place (i., Nos. 556, 557, 623) the late Dr. Birch 
 described I as a hatchet; in 1872 Dr. Brugsch placed ' | among 
 "objets tranchants, armes," in his classified list of hieroglyphic 
 
 1 Index desM^roglyjphes phonetiques, No. 394. 
 
64 THE AXE A SYMBOL OF GOD 
 
 characters ; thus it is clear that the two greatest masters of Egypt- 
 ology considered 1 to be either a weapon or a cutting tool, and, in 
 fact, assumed that the hieroglyphic represented an axe-head let into 
 and fastened in a long wooden handle. From the texts wherein 
 the hieroglyphics are coloured it is tolerably clear that the axe-head 
 was fastened to its handle by means of thongs of leather. The 
 earliest axe-heads were made of stone, or flint or chert, and later of 
 metal, and it is certain that when copper, bronze, and iron took the 
 place of stone or flint, the method by which the head was fastened 
 to the handle was considerably modified. Recently an attempt has 
 been made to show that the axe, '1 , 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 is 
 " possible, indeed, that the present object represents a fetish, e.g., 
 " a bone carefully wound round with cloth and not the cloth 
 " alone." ^ But it need hardly be said that no evidence for the 
 correctness of these views is forthcoming. Whether the hiero- 
 glyphic T was copied from something which was a roll of cloth or 
 a fetish matters little, for the only rational determination of the 
 character is that which has already been made by Drs. Birch and 
 Brugsch, and the object which is represented by | is, in the 
 writer's opinion, an axe and nothing else. 
 
 Mr. Legge has collected^ a number of examples of the 
 presence of the axe as an emblem of divinity on the megaliths of 
 Brittany and in the prehistoric remains of the funeral caves of the 
 Marne, of Scandinavia, and of America, and, what is very much to 
 the point, he refers to an agate cylinder which was published by 
 the late Adrien de Longp^rier, wherein is a representation of a 
 priest in Chaldaean garb off"ering sacrifice to an axe standing 
 upright upon an altar. Mr. Legge points out ''that the axe 
 " appears on these monuments not as the representation of an 
 "object in daily use, but for religious or magical purposes," and 
 goes on to say that this is proved by "the fact that it is often 
 " found as a pendant and of such materials as gold, lead, and even 
 "amber; while that it is often represented with the peculiar 
 " fastenings of the earlier flint weapon shows that its symbolic use 
 
 1 Griffith, Hieroglyphs, p. 46. 2 Proc. Soc. Bihl. Arch., 1899, p. 310. 
 
THE AXE A SYMBOL OF GOD 65, 
 
 "goes back to the neolithic and perhaps the palaeolithic age." 
 He is undoubtedly correct in thinking that the use of the stone axe 
 precedes that of the flint arrow-head or flint knife, and many facts 
 could be adduced in support of this view. The stone tied to the 
 end of a stick formed an effective club, which was probably the 
 earliest weapon known to the predynastic Egyptians, and subse- 
 quently man found that this weapon could be made more effective 
 still by making the stone flat and by rubbing down one end of it 
 to form a cutting edge. The earliest axe-head had a cutting edge 
 at each end, and was tied by leather thongs to the end of a stick 
 by the middle, thus becoming a double axe ; examples of such a 
 weapon appear to be given on the green slate object of the archaic 
 period which is preserved in the British Museum^ (Nos. 20,790, 
 20,792), where, however, the axe-heads appear to be fixed in 
 forked wooden handles. In its next form the axe-head has only 
 one cutting edge, and the back of it is shaped for fastening to 
 a handle by means of leather thongs. When we consider the 
 importance that the axe, whether as a weapon or tool, was to 
 primitive man, we need not wonder that it became to him first 
 the symbol of physical force, or strength, and then of divinity or 
 dominion. By means of the axe the predynastic Egyptians cut 
 down trees and slaughtered animals, in other words, the weapon 
 was mightier than the spirits or gods who dwelt in the trees and 
 the animals, and as such became to them at a very early period 
 an object of reverence and devotion. But besides this the axe 
 must have been used in sacrificial ceremonies, wherein it would 
 necessarily acquire great importance, and would easily pass into 
 the symbol of the ceremonies themselves. The shape of the axe- 
 head as given by the common hieroglyphic 1 suggests that the 
 head was made of metal when the Egyptians first began to use the 
 character as the symbol of divinity, and it is clear that this change 
 in the material of which the axe-head was made would make the 
 weapon more effective than ever. 
 
 Taking for granted, then, that the hieroglyphic 1 represents 
 an axe, we may be sure that it was used as a symbol of power and 
 
 1 See my History of Egypt, vol. ii., p. 10, wliere it is figured and described. 
 F 
 
66 THE WORD NETER 
 
 divinity by the predynastic Egyptians long before tbe period when 
 they were able to wi'ite, but we have no means of knowing what 
 they called the character or the axe before that period. In 
 dynastic times they certainly called it NETER.as we have seen, but 
 another difficulty presents itself to us when we try to find a word 
 that will express the meaning which they attached to the word ; it 
 is most important to obtain some idea of this meaning, for at the 
 base of it lies, no doubt, the Egyptian conception of divinity or 
 God. The word netek has been discussed by many Egyptologists, 
 but their conclusions as to its signification are not identical. 
 M. Pierret thought in 1879 that the true meaning of the word is 
 ^' renewal, because in the mythological conception, the god assures 
 '' himself everlasting youth by the renewal of himself in engender- 
 ^'ing himself perpetually."^ In the same year, in one of the 
 Hibbert Lectures, Renouf declared that he was " able to affirm 
 " with certainty that in this particular case we can accurately 
 " determine the primitive notion attached to the word," i.e., to 
 NUTAR (neter). According to him, " none of the explanations 
 "hitherto given of it can be considered satisfactory," but he 
 thought that the explanation which he was about to propose would 
 '' be generally accepted by scholars," because it was " arrived at as 
 " the result of a special study of all the published passages in which 
 *' the word occurs." ^ Closely allied to nutar (neter) is another 
 word NUTUA (netra), and the meaning of both was said by Renouf 
 to be found in the Coptic rt0JUT6 or rroJU^i", which, as we may 
 see from the passages quoted by Tatham in his Lexicon (p. 310), is 
 rendered by the Greek words icrxu?, irapa.KXrja-L';, and vapaKaXeiv. 
 The primary meaning of the word rtOJUii- appears to be " strong," 
 and having assumed that neter was equivalent in meaning to 
 this word, Renouf stated boldly that neter signified "mighty," 
 "might," "strong," and argued that it meant Power, "which is 
 "also the meaning of the Hebrew El." We may note in passing 
 
 1 " Le mot par lequel on rendait I'idee de Dieu- | '^ { 3^ nuter, signifie au 
 " propre, ' renouvellement,' parce que dans la conception mythologique, le dieu 
 " s'assnre une eternelle jennesse par le renouvellement de lui-meme, en s'engendrant 
 " lui-meme perpetuellement." Essal sui- la Mijthologie lEgyptienne, Paris, 1879, p. 8. 
 
 - Eeligion of Ancient Egypt, p. 93. 
 
THE WORD NETER 67 
 
 that tKe exact meaning of "El," the Hebrew name for God, is 
 unknown, and that the word itself is probably the name of an 
 ancient Semitic deity. 
 
 The passages which were quoted to prove that neter meant 
 " strong, strength, power," and the like could, as M. Maspero has 
 said,^ be explained differently. M. Maspero combats rightly the 
 attempt to make " strong " the meaning of netek (masc), or 
 NETERiT (fern.), in these words : " In the expressions ' a town 
 neterit,' ' an arm neteri,' .... is it certain that ' a strong city,' 
 'a strong arm,' gives us the primitive sense of neter? When 
 among ourselves one says ' divine music,' ' a piece of divine 
 poetry,' ' the divine taste of a peach,' ' the divine beauty of a 
 woman' [the word] divine is a hyperbole, but it would be a 
 mistake to declare that it originally meant ' exquisite ' because 
 in the phrases which I have imagined one could apply it as 
 ' exquisite music,' ' a piece of exquisite poetry,' ' the exquisite 
 taste of a peach,' ' the exquisite beauty of a woman.' Similarly 
 in Egyptian ' a town neterit ' is a ' divine town ' ; ' an arm 
 neteri ' is ' a divine arm,' and neteri is employed metaphorically 
 in Egyptian as is [the word] 'divine' in French, without its 
 being any more necessary to attribute to [the word] neteri the 
 primitive meaning of ' strong,' than it is to attribute to [the 
 word] ' divine ' the primitive meaning of ' exquisite.' The 
 meaning ' strong ' of neteri, if it exists, is a derived and not an 
 original meaning." ^ 
 
 The view taken about the meaning of neter by the lafce 
 Dr. Brugsch was entirely different, for he thought that the 
 fundamental meaning of the word was " the operative power which 
 " created and produced things by periodical recurrence, and gave 
 " them new life and restored to them the freshness of youth (die 
 " thatige Kraft, welche in periodischer Wiederkehr die Dinge 
 " erzeugt und erschafFt, ihnen neues Leben verleiht und die 
 '■'■ Jugendfrische zuriickgiebt." ^ The first part of the work from 
 which these words are quoted appeared in 1885, but that Dr. 
 Brugsch held much the same views six years later is evident 
 
 1 Etudes de Myihologie et d'Archeologie Sgyptiennes, torn, ii., p. 215. 
 
 2 Maspero, op. cit., p. 215. ' Beligion und Mytliologie, p. 93. 
 
68 THE WORD NETER 
 
 from the following extract from his volume entitled Die Aegypto- 
 logie (p. 166), which appeared in 1891. Referring to Renouf's 
 contention that netee has a meaning equivalent to the Greek 
 Zvvafjii^, he says, " Es hegt auf der Hand, dass der Gottesname in 
 " Sinne von Starker, Miichtiger, vieles fur sich hat, urn so mehr 
 "als selbst leblose Gegenstande, wie z. B. ein Baustein, adjek- 
 "tivisch als nutri d. h. stark, machtig, nicht selten bezeichnet 
 " werden. Aber so vieles diese Erklarung fiir sich zu haben 
 " schient, so wenig stimmt sie zu der Thatsache, dass in den 
 " Texten aus der besten Zeit (XVIII Dynastie) das Wort nutr als 
 " ein Synonym fiir die Vorstellung der Verjungung oder Erneue- 
 " rung auftritt. Es diente zum Ausdruck der periodisch wieder- 
 " kehrenden Jugendfrische nach Alter und Tod, so dass selbst dem 
 " Menschen in den altesten Sarginschriften zugerufen wird, er sei 
 " fortan in einen Gott d. h. in ein Wesen mit jugendlicher Frische 
 " umgewandelt. Ich lasse es dahin gestellt sein, nach welcher 
 " Richtung hin die aufgeworfene Streitfrage zu Gunsten der einen 
 " oder der anderen AufFassung entschieden werden wird ; hier 
 " sei nur betont, dass das Wort | nutr, nute, den eigentlichen 
 " GottesbegrifF der alten Aegypter in sich schliesst und daher einen 
 " ganz besonderen Aufmerksamkeit werth ist." 
 
 In this passage Dr. Brugsch substantially agrees with Pierret's 
 views quoted above, but he appears to have withdrawn from the 
 position which he took up in his Religion und Mythologie, wherein 
 he asserted that the essential meaning of neter was identical with 
 that of the Greek <^ucrt9 and the Latin " natura." ^ It need hardly 
 be said that there are no good grounds for such an assertion, and 
 it is difficult to see how the eminent Egyptologist could attempt 
 to compare the conceptions of God formed by a half-civilized 
 African people with those of such cultured nations as the Greeks 
 and the Romans. 
 
 The solution of the difficulty of finding a meaning for neter 
 is not brought any nearer when we consider the views of such 
 distinguished Egyptologists as E. de Rouge, Lieblein, and Maspero. 
 
 1 " Der Inbegrifl: dieses Wortes deckt sich daher vollstaiidig mit der ur- 
 " sprunglichen Bedeutung des griechischen physis und des lateinisohen natura " 
 (p. 93.) 
 
THE WORD NETER 69 
 
 The first of these ia commenting on the passage 1 o7| ] ■ Jf 
 
 (variant | '^ Qf) - ) ^^^^ 1 % -*^ , which he translates " Dieu 
 
 " devenant dieu (en) s'engendrant lui-meme," says in his excellent 
 Ghrestomathie Egyptienne (iii. p. 24), " One knows not exactly the 
 " meaning of the verb nuter, which forms the radical of the word 
 " nuter, 'god,' It is an idea analagous to 'to become,' or 'renew 
 " oneself,' for nuteri is applied to the resuscitated soul which 
 " clothes itself in its immortal form." Thus we find that one of 
 the greatest Egyptologists thinks that the exact meaning of netbe 
 is unknown, but he suggests that it may have a signification not 
 unlike that proposed by Pierret. Prof. Lieblein goes a step 
 further than E. de Rouge, for he is of opinion that it is impossible 
 to show the first origin of the idea of God among any people hitherto 
 known historically. " When we, for instance, take the Indo- 
 " Europeans, what do we find there ? The Sanskrit word deva is 
 " identical with the Latin deus, and the northern tivi, tivar ; as 
 " now the word in Latin and northern language signifies God it 
 " must also in Sanskrit from the beginning have had the same 
 " signification. That is to say, the Arians, or Indo-Europeans, 
 " must have combined the idea of God with this word, as early as 
 " when they still lived together in their original home. Because, 
 " if the word in their pre -historic home had had another more 
 " primitive signification, the wonder would have happened, that 
 " the word had accidentally gone through the same development 
 " of signification with all these people after their separation. As 
 " this is quite improbable, the word must have had the significa- 
 " tion of God in the original Indo-European language. One could 
 " go even farther and presume that, in this language also, it was 
 " a word derived from others, and consequently originated from a 
 " still earlier pre-historic language. All things considered it is 
 " possible, even probable, that the idea of God has developed itself 
 " in an earlier period of languages, than the Indo-European. The 
 "future will perhaps be able to supply evidence for this. The 
 " science of languages has been able partly to reconstruct an Indo- 
 " European pre-historic language. It might be able also to 
 " reconstruct a pre-historic Semitic, and a pre-historic Hamitic, 
 
70 THE WORD NETER 
 
 " and of these three pre-historic languages, whose original con- 
 " nexion it not only guesses, but even commences to prove 
 " gradually, it wiU, we trust in time, be able to extract a still 
 " earlier pre-historic language, which according to analogy might 
 " be called Noahitic. When we have come so far, we shall most 
 " likely in this pre-historic language, also find words expressing 
 " the idea of God. But it is even possible that the idea of God 
 '' has not come into existence in this pre-historic language either. 
 " It may be that the first dawning of the idea, and the word God 
 " should be ascribed to still earlier languages, to layers of languages 
 " so deeply buried that it will be impossible even to excavate 
 " them. Between the time of inhabiting caves in the quaternian 
 " period, and the historical kingdoms, there is such a long space of 
 " time, that it is difficult to entertain the idea, that it was quite 
 " devoid of any conception of divinity, so that this should first 
 " have sprung up in the historical time. In any case we shall not 
 " be able to prove historically where and when the question first 
 " arose, who are the superhuman powers whose activity we see 
 " daily in nature and in human life. Although the Egyptians are 
 '' the earliest civilized people known in history, and just therefore 
 " especially important for the science of religion, yet it is even 
 " there impossible to point out the origin of the conception of the 
 " deity. The oldest monuments of Egypt bring before us the 
 " gods of nature chiefly, and among these especially the sun. 
 " They mention, however, already early (in the IVth and Vth 
 " Dynasties) now and then the great power, or the great God, it 
 " being uncertain whether this refers to the sun, or another god of 
 " nature, or if it was a general appellation of the vague idea of a 
 " supernatural power, possibly inherited by the Egyptians. It is 
 " probably this great God indicated on the monuments, from the 
 " the IVth Dynasty, and later on, who has given occasion to the 
 " false belief that the oldest religion of the Egyptians was pure 
 " monotheism. But firstly, it must be observed, that he is not 
 " mentioned alone but alongside of the other gods, secondly, that 
 " he is merely called ' The great God,' being otherwise without 
 " distinguishing appellations, and a God of whom nothing else is 
 " mentioned, has, so to speak, to use Hegel's language, merely an 
 
THE WORD NETER 71 
 
 " abstract existence, that by closer examination dissolves into 
 " nothing." 
 
 It is necessary to quote Professor Lieblein's opinion at length 
 because he was one of the first to discuss the earliest idea of God in 
 connection with its alleged similarity to that evolved by Aryan 
 nations ; if, however, he were to rewrite the passage given above in 
 the light of modern research he would, we think, modify many of 
 his conclusions. For our present purpose it is sufficient to note 
 that he believes it is impossible to point out the origin of the 
 conception of the deity among the Egyptians, The last opinion 
 which we need quote is that of M. Maspero, who not only says 
 boldly that if the word nkteb or nbtri really has the meaning of 
 " strong " it is a derived and not an original meaning, and he 
 prefers to declare that the word is so old that its earliest significa- 
 tion is unknown. In other words, it has the meaning of god, but 
 it teaches us nothing as to the primitive value of this word. "We 
 must be careful, he says, not to let it suggest the modern religious 
 or philosophical definitions of god which are current to-day, for an 
 Egyptian god is a being who is born and dies, like man, and is 
 finite, imperfect, and corporeal, and is endowed with passions, and 
 virtues, and vices.^ This statement is, of course, true as regards 
 the gods of the Egyptians at several periods of their history, but it 
 must be distinctly understood, and it cannot be too plainly stated, 
 that side by side with such conceptions there existed, at least 
 among the educated Egyptians, ideas of monotheism which are not 
 far removed from those of modem nations. 
 
 From what has been said above we see that some scholars take 
 the view that the word neter may mean "renewal," or "strength," 
 or " strong," or " to become," or some idea which suggests "renewal," 
 and that others think its original meaning is not only unknown, 
 but that it is impossible to find it out. But although we may not 
 be able to discover the exact meaning which the word had in pre- 
 dynastic times, we may gain some idea of the meaning which was 
 attached to it in the dynastic period by an examination of a few 
 passages from the hymns and Chapters which are found in the 
 
 1 Egyptian Beligton, by J. Lieblein, Leipzig, 1884. 
 
 2 La Mytliologie Egyptienne (iStudes de Mythologie, torn, ii., p. 215). 
 
72 THE WORD NETER 
 
 various versions of the Bool of the Dead. In the text of Pepi 1. 
 (line 191) we have the words :—" Behold thy son Horus, to whom 
 ''thou hast given birth. He hath not placed this Pepi at the 
 " head of the dead, but he hath set him among the gods neteru,'* 
 
 — I \ kk 111 1 ■= ^- ^°* '>""' "'""•• 1 ■=■ 1 • 
 
 must be an adjective, and we are clearly intended to understand 
 that the gods referred to are those which have the attribute of 
 neteru; since the " gods neteru," ll'l "1 <=> % , are mentioned in 
 opposition to " the dead " it seems as if we are to regard the 
 gods as " living," i.e., to possess the quality of life. In the text of 
 the same king (line 419) a hdk Jie^er, J (1 ^^rp* ^^ | 
 
 I.e., a 
 
 hawk having the quality of neter is mentioned ; and in the text of 
 Unas (line 569) we read of haui netrui, '^^'^^^^, or the two 
 souls which possess the quality of neter. These examples belong 
 to the Vth and Vlth Dynasties. Passing to later dynasties, i.e., 
 the XVIIIth and XlXth, etc., we find the following examples of 
 the use of the words netej' and netri : — 
 
 hun netri ad heh utet se-mes su tchesef 
 
 Boy netri, heir of eternity, begetting and giving birth 
 
 to himself. 
 
 td-a tu em ab-d dti hahai netri 
 
 I am devoted in my heart without feigning, thou netri 
 
 ^ iir 
 
 er neteru 
 
 more than the gods. 
 
 1 See my CJiajders of Coming Forth Inj Bay, Text, p. 11, ]. 10. 
 ^ Ihid., p. 43, 1. 4. , 
 
THE WORD NETER 
 
 73 
 
 D 
 
 ^ 
 
 tchel - tu re pen her 
 Shall be said this chapter over 
 
 mahu en netrat 
 
 a crown of netrat. 
 
 T 
 
 neter - hud 
 I have become neter. 
 
 s.\\ 
 
 e 
 
 li ^ 1\ 
 
 du - d Tchd - hud 
 I have risen up 
 
 
 r^6 - kiid 
 
 1 
 
 w 
 em Ja/c netri 
 
 . in the form of a hawk wein. 
 
 1 
 
 Qieter - hud 
 
 khu - hud 
 
 I have become pure, I have become neter, I have become a 
 
 spirit (hhu), 
 
 user - hud ha - hud 
 
 I have become strong, I have become a soul {ba). 
 
 - 1^ 
 
 unen-f neter 
 His being neter 
 (or, he shall be) 
 
 md neteru em Neter-hhertet 
 with the gods in the Neter-khertet. 
 
 M^ 
 
 du - f 
 He shall 
 
 lif 
 
 netrd 
 netrd 
 
 ^1 A^:^ Vj: 
 
 khat-f temtu 
 his body all. 
 
 e 
 
 1 See my Chapters of Coming Forth by Bay, p. 80, 1. 10. 
 
 2 I6jU, p. 154, 1. 6. 3 Ibid., p. 168, 1. 3. * Ibid., p. 174, 1. 15. 
 5 Ibid., p. 417, 1. 12. 6 7fej-(i., p. 419, 1. 7. 
 
74 
 
 THE WORD NETER 
 
 
 netri u ha - h em ]}er Sebut 
 
 They make neter thy soul in the house of Sebut. 
 
 10 
 
 •l^f, 
 
 w 
 
 iiiir 
 
 md neteru 
 
 netri - f ha - h 
 
 He makes neter thy soul like the gods 
 
 "• II 1 
 
 w 
 
 neter netri kheper tchesef paid 
 
 God nett-i, self-produced, primeval matter. 
 
 Now, in the above examples it is easy to see that although the 
 words " strong " or " strength," when applied to translate neter or 
 netri, give a tolerably suitable sense in some of them, it is quite 
 out of place in others, e.g., in No. 6, where the deceased is made to 
 say that he has acquired the quality of neter, and a spirit, and a 
 soul, and is, moreover, strong ; the word rendered " strong " in 
 this passage is user, and it expresses an entirely different idea from 
 neter. From the fact that neter is mentioned in No. 1 in connection 
 with eternal existence, and self-begetting, and self-production, and 
 in No. 11 with self-production and primeval matter, it is almost 
 impossible not to think that the word has a meaning which is 
 closely allied to the ideas of " self-existence," and the power to 
 " renew life indefinitely," and " self-production." In other words, 
 neter appears to mean a being who has the power to generate life, 
 and to maintain it when generated. It is useless to attempt to ex- 
 plain the word by Coptic etymologies, for it has passed over directly 
 into the Coptic language under the forms nouti rfovl", and noute 
 rfOYTG, the last consonant, r, having disaj)peared through phonetic 
 decay, and the translators of the Holy Scriptures from that language 
 used it to express the words " God " and " Lord." Meanwhile, until 
 new light is thrown upon the subject by the discovery of inscrip- 
 
 1 See my Chapters of Coming Forth hy Day, Text, p. 509, 1. 13. 
 
 2 Ihid, p. 511, 1. 13. 3 Ihid, p. 49, 1. 1. 
 
THE PRIMITIVE GOD 75 
 
 tions older than any which we now have, we must be content to 
 accept the approximate meaning of neter suggested above. 
 
 The worship of the gods (neteru), which began far away- 
 back in predynastic times, continued through the archaic and 
 dynastic periods, and lasted until the IVth or Vth century of 
 our era ; it is tolerably certain that in respect of some of them the 
 ideas of the Egyptians never changed, but, as regards others, their 
 views did not remain as constant as some writers would have us 
 imagine. In the earliest days every village community in Egypt 
 had its local god, who shared the good or evil fortune of the 
 community to which he belonged. His emblem or symbol was 
 carried out to war, and was, of course, present at all great public 
 gatherings when matters connected with the welfare of his devotees 
 were discussed. A special habitation was set apart for him, and 
 its upkeep was provided for out of common funds. As the riches 
 of the people of the village increased, the rank and dignity of their 
 god kept pace with them, but his revenues suffered in times of 
 scarcity, and defeat, and war ; his emblem might even be carried 
 off into captivity and burnt, or smashed, when, of course, the spirit 
 which dwelt in his symbol was also destroyed. The number of 
 such early gods was legion, for many large communities possessed 
 several gods, each of which was famed locally for some particular 
 attribute. When a man left one village and settled in another 
 he took his god or gods with him, but he would be obliged to 
 acknowledge the god of the village or city in which he had made his 
 new abode, and to contribute towards the maintenance of his house 
 and its small compound. The reduction in the number of the gods 
 of Egypt began when man first realized that certain gods were 
 mightier than others, for he ceased gradually to worship those 
 who had, in his opinion, failed to justify his belief in them, and 
 transferred his allegiance to the gods who were able to give him 
 the most help. In process of time the god or goddess of a certain 
 village or town would obtain a fame and reputation for power 
 which would outrival those of the deities of the neighbouring 
 cities, and the growth of the worship of such god or goddess would 
 be accompanied by a corresponding decline in that of the gods in 
 the towns round about. The gods, in the first instance, grew by 
 
76 SELECTION OF GODS 
 
 a process of selection out of the spirits wlio were well disposed 
 towards man and were helpful to him, and the " great gods " of the 
 Egyptians were evolved, practically, in a somewhat similar manner. 
 It is at present hopeless to attempt to enumerate all the gods 
 who were, from first to last, worshipped by the Egyptians, for it 
 will not be possible to do this until every text extant has been 
 published. Meanwhile an examination of the earliest Egyptian 
 religious literature known to us proves that a number of gods Avho 
 were of some importance in the polytheistic system of the Early 
 Empire dropped out from it long before the period of the New 
 Empire, and thus it is very doubtful if we shall ever be able to 
 collect the names of all the gods who have been Avorshipped in the 
 Valley of the Nile between the Archaic and Roman periods, whilst 
 to make a list of all the predynastic gods is manifestly impossible. 
 
 Future discoveries in Egypt may produce texts that will tell 
 us which were the favourite gods in the archaic period and give us 
 some idea as to the pronunciation of their names, for we have 
 reason to think that during the greater part of that period the 
 Egyptians were able to write. If ever such texts are brought to 
 light we shall probably find that the gods who were worshipped 
 during the archaic period were those who Avere popular in the 
 predynastic period, just as we find that the gods of the Egyptians 
 of the Middle and New Empires were to all intents and purposes 
 the same as those of the Egyptians of the Early Empire. Speaking 
 generally, it may be said that the Egyptians of the greater part of 
 the dynastic period of their history invented few neAv gods, and 
 that they were well content to worship such deities as were known 
 to their ancestors ; we knoAv that they admitted, at times, foreign 
 gods into the assembly of the old Egyptian gods, but the religious 
 texts prove that they were never allowed to usurp the functions of 
 the indigenous gods. Political and other reasons might secure for 
 them a certain amount of recognition in the country generally, and 
 the people of the cities where their emblems and statues found 
 resting-places treated them with the easy toleration which is so 
 marked a characteristic of many countries in the East ; but as soon 
 as such reasons disappeared the foreign gods were quietly io-nored 
 and in a short time their worship was forgotten. This statement is 
 
GODS OF THE EARLIEST DYNASTIES 77 
 
 not intended to apply to the gods who were introduced from one 
 city or district of Egypt into another, for we know that the 
 Egyptian priesthood and people of a given city were ready to show 
 hospitality to almost any god of any town, or city, or district, pro- 
 vided that he belonged to the same company as that of which the 
 chief local god was a member. 
 
 We have, unfortunately, no long connected religious texts in 
 the forms in which they must have existed under the first four 
 dynasties, and we cannot therefore say what gods were worshipped 
 during that period. There is, as has been shown elsewhere,^ good 
 reason for believing that some parts of the Book of the Dead were 
 revised or edited during the early part of the period of the 1st 
 Dynasty, and if this be so we may assume that the religious system 
 of the Egyptians as revealed in the texts of a much later time closely 
 resembled that which was in existence in the later part of the 
 archaic period, i.e., during the first three dynasties. Under the Vth 
 and Vlth Dynasties we touch firmer ground, and we find abundant, 
 though not complete, materials for the study of the gods of Egypt 
 and their attributes in the lengthy hieroglyphic texts which were 
 inscribed inside the pyramid tombs of Unas, Teta, Pejai I., Mer-en- 
 Ra-Mehti-em-sa-f, and Pepi II. An examination of these texts 
 reveals the existence of an established theological system in Egypt, 
 and we find that even at that time the literature in which it was, 
 more or less, expounded, contained innumerable layers of religious 
 thought and expressions of belief which belonged to periods many 
 of which must have been separated by long intervals of time. The 
 gods are mentioned in such a way as to prove that the -writei's of 
 the texts, or at least the copyists, assumed that the reader would 
 be well acquainted with the subject matter of the compositions, and 
 from first to last neither explanation nor gloss is to be found in 
 them. The texts are, of course, sepulchral, and the greater number 
 of the gods mentioned in them are referred to in their characters 
 as gods who deal with the souls of the dead in the world beyond 
 the grave. 
 
 The Sun-god Ra and the gods of his cycle, and Osiris, the god 
 and judge of the dead, and the gods of his cycle, have definite 
 
 1 See my Sooh of the Dead, London, 1901, vol. i., p. xxxiii. 
 
78 
 
 GODS OF THE ARCHAIC PERIOD 
 
 positions and duties assigned to them, and it is very clear that both 
 the texts which describe these and the ceremonies which were 
 performed in connection with the words recited by the priests were, 
 even under the Vth Dynasty, extremely ancient. Moreover, it is 
 certain that the religious texts in use for funeral purposes under 
 that dynasty are substantially those which were compiled several 
 centuries before. We may note in passing that the funeral books 
 were edited by the priests of Annu or Anu, i.e., Heliopolis, and as 
 a result they exhibit traces of the influence of the theological 
 opinions of the great priestly college of that city ; but at bottom 
 the views and beliefs which may be deduced from them, and the 
 fundamental conceptions to which they give expression are the 
 products of the minds of the predynastic, indigenous Egyptians. 
 To the consideration of the Heliopolitan religious system we shall 
 return later, and we may therefore pass on to the enumeration of 
 the principal gods who are made known to us by the Pyramid 
 Texts at Sakkara. Among the great gods who were certainly 
 worshipped in the early archaic period may be mentioned : — 
 
 Ptah (Teta 88) ° § Heru,^ or Horus (Mer-en-Ra 454) 
 
 Nu (Unas 199) 
 Net, or Neith (Unas 67) 
 Ra (passim) 
 Het-Heru (Hathor) 
 
 
 O 
 
 Kheper J (Unas 444) 
 Kheprerj (PepiII.856) 
 Khnemu (Unas 556) 
 Sebek (Unas 565) 
 
 D 
 
 Q 
 
 J 
 
 Of these gods Heru, or Horus, was the hawk-god, i.e., the 
 spirit and personification of the " height " of heaven ; Kheper was 
 the beetle-god; Khnemu the ram-god; and Sebek the crocodile- 
 god ; Net or Neith was originally a wood- spirit, Ra and Ptah were 
 two forms of the Sun-god, and Nu was the watery mass of heaven 
 
 1 Or, Op (Unas, .399), or ^ ^ (Teta, 78). 
 
 
 
 2 Or, 
 
 3 Or, ■ 
 
 
 (Unas, 272). 
 Heru-nr, " Horus the elder " (Unas, .358). 
 
GODS OF THE PYRAMID TEXTS 
 
 79 
 
 in wkicli lie lived. With Ra and Kheper the priests of Heliopolis 
 associated the form of the Sun-god which was specially worshipped 
 in their city, and thus we have mentioned the compound gods 
 
 Ra-Tem O "^ (Unas 216, 224, Mer-en-Ra 458), and Tem- 
 Kheprer /^ ^ ^ ^^^ (Pepi II. 662). In the text of Unas 
 (line 626) Sebek is styled " son of Net," ^ ^ JXT , and he is also 
 
 called "lord of Baru," J "i^ -<s=- ^ O:^ (line 565); but if the 
 XVIIIth Dynasty texts be correct the name of this place is mis- 
 spelt, and in any case it must be identical with the Bakhau, 
 
 J ^^ "^ ^"^ ^ "^ ' ^^ Mountain of the Sunrise of Chapter cviii. 
 of the Book of the Dead. The following is a list of the other 
 principal gods mentioned in the Pyramid Texts : — 
 
 Ahu (Pepi II. 850) 
 
 Aker (Unas 498, 614, Teta 309) 
 
 Api (Unas 487) 
 
 \ 
 
 D 
 
 Ap-uat (Unas 187) ^^^ 
 
 Amen (Unas 557) 
 
 Ament (Unas 557) 
 Am-henth-f (Pepi T. 666) 
 
 imimri 
 
 Am-sepa-f (Pepi I. 666) 
 
 D 
 
 E-^^ 
 
 Ana (Unas 272, 275) J^ ^ ^ 
 
 Anpu (Unas 71, 207, 219) -^ 
 An-mut-f (Pepi II. 772) 
 
 Amsu or Min (Unas 377) 
 Amset (Teta 60, 197) (] J 
 
 1 Ahu appears to be identical with 
 Pepi II., 1. 1320. 
 
 An-tcher-f (Pepi I. 651) 
 Akhet-nen-tha (Teta 307) 
 
 Asar, Osiris (passim) n ^s^ 
 
 Ast, Isis (Unas 181) j| ^ 
 
 Asken (Pepi II. 1324) h ^ k 
 Ater-asfet (Pepi II. 980) 
 
 Ankh (Pepi I. 672) ^ ^ 
 
 ^^ 
 
 , who is Amsu or Min -asc=~ ; see 
 
80 
 
 GODS OF THE PYRAMID TEXTS 
 
 I-en-her-pes (Unas 392) 
 
 Uahu (Teta 333) fl | J ^ ^ 
 Ur-sheps-f (Pepi I. 671) 
 
 Urt (Unas 272) ^ V 
 
 Urt-hekau (Unas 269) 
 
 Usert (Unas 229) ^ 1 P "^ 
 
 Uthes (Pepi II. 976) 
 
 Ba (Mer-en-Ra 784) .^ 
 
 Baba (Unas 532) J "^ J fl 
 
 Babi (Unas 644, 647) J^ J ()(] 
 
 Baabu (Pepi I. 568) J -^(j J^ 
 
 Babua(PepiI.604)J^J^|)' 
 
 Bastet (Pepi I. 569) J P "^W 2' 
 Ba-ashem-f (Mer-en-Ra 784) 
 
 Mut (Unas 181) ^^^^r;::;. The 
 variants are 
 
 Ment (Pepi II. 849) ^^^^ \ 
 Mentef (Pepi II. 1228) 
 
 1^ 
 
 Mentb (Mer-en-Ra 784) ^ ^ 
 Meht-urt (Unas 427, 623) 
 
 Meht-urt (Unas 427, 623) 
 
 AAAAAA - ^ ^ 
 
 AAAAAA 
 AA/SAV\ d^ 
 
 D 
 
 /WNAAA 
 
 Pent (Unas 280) 
 Pesetchet (Unas 417) 
 
 Maat-Khnemu (Pepi 1. 446) "^K 
 Maat (Unas 220) 
 
 III 
 
 I I I Q 
 
 Em-khent-maati (Pepi I. 645) 
 Em-khent-maati (Pepi I. 645) 
 
 Meskha (Unas 567) | ® "^ ^ 
 Meskhaat (Pepi I. 671) 
 
 Metchetat (Pepi II. 956) 
 
 Nau (Unas 557) ^^^-^ h \\ 
 
 Nubt (Unas 479) f^ J '^ ^^ 
 
 Nebt-het (Unas 220) f^l ^ R 
 Nefer-Tem (Unas 395) J ^ 
 
 1 This god is said to have a "red ear" '''^^ , 
 
 Var. 
 
GODS OF THE PYRAMID TEXTS 81 
 
 Hem (Pepi I. 641) ^ | ^ 
 
 Hemen (Pepi II. 850) J ^^^ ^ 
 Hen-pesetchti (Teta 309) 
 
 Hent (Unas 417) 
 
 Hunt (Teta 357) 
 
 Heru (passim) 
 
 Heru-aah (Teta 365) '^ 
 Heru-am-henu (Unas 211) 
 
 Heru-khent-peru (Unas 202) 
 
 ^ ^ n 
 
 Enen (Unas 557)) ^-^ 
 Enenet (Unas 240)) [j.^ ^^ 
 
 Nekhben (Unas 459) ^ J O 
 Nehebkau (Unas 559) 
 
 Nekhebet (Mer-en-Ra 762) 
 
 Neht (Unas 601) -www | 
 
 Nesert (Unas 269) 
 
 Neti (Unas 279) 
 
 Netettbab (Unas 598) ^ ^ j (] ^ 
 Renenut (Unas 441) 
 
 Rurutba (Pepi II. 976, 979) 
 
 Hepatb (Pepi I. 636) 
 
 Henena (Pepi I. 636) [T] IJ-^ () I 
 Hetcbbetcb (Pepi I. 173) 
 
 Hettenuut (Teta, 332) 
 
 Hu (Unas 439) i ^ ^ 
 
 Hep (Unas 187) ^ ° 
 
 Hep-ur (Unas 431) | ^ ^:, 
 Hep (Teta 60, 197) 
 
 Id 
 
 Heru-kbesbetcb-maati(Unas369) 
 Heru-khuttha (Unas 471) 
 
 Heru-Sept (Unas 465) ^^/^^ 
 Heru-tesber-maati (Unas 369) 
 
 Heru-Tat (Unas 218) 
 
 Heru-kbart (Teta 301) 
 Hra-f-ha-f (Pepi I.) 
 
 Her-hepes (Unas 226) ^^ 
 
 D 
 
A 
 
 Hesmennu (Mer-en-Ra 670) 
 
 Het-Hert (Unas 575) [^ 
 
 Heka (Pepi I. 683) | J^ 
 
 Heqet (Pepi I. 570) 
 
 Khaata (Unas 536) _^ |) ^ 
 
 Khebetch (Unas 434) ® J ^ 
 
 Khent- Amenti (Unas 20 1 ) (|||^ ^ <^ 
 Khent-maati (Unas 218) 
 
 Khnemu (Unas 556, Pepi I. 455) 
 
 Khensu (Unas 510) ® — % 
 Khensu-Sept (Unas 588) 
 
 Saa (Unas 439) R |) j 
 Sathet (Pepi I. 297) 
 Seb (Unas 234) "^ J 
 
 Sephu-urt (Pepi II. 976) 
 
 Sept (Unas 219) A ^ 
 
 /Tmrr^ 
 
 /VWVV\ \ 
 
 82 GODS OF THE PYRAMID TEXTS 
 
 Hesat (Pepi II. 976) Sma-ur (Unas 280) 
 
 Smentet (Teta 355) [1 
 
 Sunth (Pepi II. 854) — ^ 
 
 Seref-ur (Teta 309) p^ 
 
 Serqet (Pepi I. 647) 
 Serqet-hetu (Teta 207) 
 
 Sehepu (Pepi I. 685) - 
 
 D 
 
 Sekbemf (Pepi II. 978) 
 Sekhen-ta-en-ur (Unas 281) 
 
 Sekhet (Unas 390) ^ ® 
 
 Sashsa (Pepi 11. 975) 
 
 Seker (Pepi I. 641) ^ ^ ' 
 
 Seksen (Pepi I. 650) [l^^^p ' 
 
 Set (Unas 6) >$-J 
 
 Sethasetha (Pepi I. 265) 
 
 Seththa (Pepi I. 259) _^ ] (] 
 Shu (Unas 185) '=^ C ^ 
 
 1 Var. -H- -=!=■ ^ Pepi I., 352. 
 ' He is identified with rfTk | '"' 
 3 Var. [1 -^i^ n "^ 
 
 fflll]:^^^''?^^^piii-'i320. 
 
Shesmu (Unas 511) 
 
 GODS OF THE PYRAMID TEXTS 
 
 83 
 
 r-^^~i 
 
 Sheskhentet (Unas 390) f||[| 
 
 Kenur (Pepi II. 979) 
 
 ^ 
 
 Kasut (Pepi II. 975) 
 
 Qebhsennuf (Teta 60) 
 Tait (Teta 376) ^ 
 Teba (Unas 428) 
 Tefen (Unas 453) 
 Tefnut (Unas 453) 
 Tern (Unas 207) 
 
 ji\\ 
 
 
 Tem-klieprer (Pepi II. 662) 
 
 Tatet (Unas 67) D 
 
 Tuamutef (Teta 60) 
 
 Tenanu (Pepi I. 269) ^ ^ 
 
 Tenten (Unas 280) ^^ ^^ 
 
 Tehuti (Unas 228) ^ 
 
 Tchent (Mer-en-Ra 773) ^ y 
 Tchenteru (Teta 198) 
 
 Tchenttclienter (Pepi I. 301) 
 
 -^^"^^ I J 
 
 Besides the above gods are mentioned the " angel (or 
 messenger) of the two gods," pj | | (Unas 408) ; and the " Ashem 
 
 that dwelleth within Aru," ^ J I] <2=- %^ (\^ (Teta 351). 
 Allusions are made to the following important stars : — 
 
 Nekhekh (Teta 218), ^ >t □ ^ 2=^- 
 
 Septet (Teta 349), ^ /\ ^ ^, i.e., the Dog Star. 
 Sah (Teta 349), ^ "^ J ^ , i.e., Orion. 
 
 Sehut (Pepi II. 857), P|^. 
 
 The Pyramid Texts show that in addition to the gods ah*eady 
 enumerated there existed certain classes of beings to whom were 
 attributed the nature of the gods, e.g. : — 
 
 The Afu (Pepi II. 951), ^ ^ ^=^^. 
 
 The Utennu (Pepi II. 951), ^ g^ J^^^. 
 
84 OTHER DIVINE BEINGS 
 
 The Urshu of Pe (Pepi II. 849), ^ ^^ f ^ ^■ 
 
 The Urshu of Nekhen (Pepi II. 849), ^ ^^ f ^ |. 
 
 The Henmemet {Unas 211), | '>-^ ^^"^^ ^ | • 
 
 The Set beings, superior and inferior, (Pepi II. 951), 
 
 The Shemsu Heru (Pepi I. 166), ^ ^ ^^^. 
 
 Of the functions of the Afu and Utennu nothing whatever is 
 known. The Urshu, i.e., the Watchers, of Pe and Nekhen may 
 have been groups of well-known gods, who were supposed to 
 " watch over " and specially protect these cities ; but, on the other 
 hand, they may only have been the messengers, or angels, of the 
 souls of Pe and Nekhen. The Henmemet beings are likewise a 
 class of divine beings about whom we have no exact information. 
 In certain texts they are mentioned in connection with gods and 
 men in such a manner that they are supposed to represent 
 " unborn generations," but this rendering will not suit many of the 
 passages in which the word occurs, and in those in which it seems 
 to do so many other hypothetical meanings would fit the context 
 just as well. The passage in which the Set beings are referred to 
 must belong to the period when the god Set was regarded as a 
 beneficent being and a god who was, with Horus, a friend and helper 
 of the dead. The text quoted above shows that, like Horus, Set 
 was supposed to be the head of a company of divine beings with 
 attributes and characteristics similar to those of himself, and that 
 this company was divided into two classes, the upper and the 
 lower, or perhaps even the celestial and the terrestrial. Last must 
 be mentioned the Shemsu Heru, or the " Followers of Horus," to 
 whom many references are made in funeral literature ; their 
 primary duties were to minister to the god Horus, son of Isis, but 
 they were also supposed to help him in the performance of the 
 duties which he undertook fori the benefit of the dead. In the 
 religious literature of the Early Empire they occupy the place of 
 the "Mesniu, []]|l ^^ ^gf j> of Horus of Behutet, the modern 
 
THE GOD OF FOUR FACES 85 
 
 Edfu, i.e., the workers in metal, or blacksmitlis, who are supposed 
 to have accompanied this god into Egyptj and to have assisted him 
 by their weapons in establishing his supremacy at Behutet, or Edfu. 
 The exploits of this god will be described later on in the section 
 treating of Horus generally. 
 
 In the text of Pepi I. (line 419) we have a reference to a god 
 with four faces in the following words : — " Homage to thee, thou 
 " who hast four faces which rest and look in turn upon what is in 
 
 " Kenset,^ and who bringest storm ! Grant thou unto this 
 
 " Pepi thy two fingers which thou hast given to the goddess Nefert, 
 " the daughter of the great god, as messengerfs] from heaven to 
 " earth when the gods make their appearance in heaven. Thou 
 " art endowed with a soul, and thou dost rise [like the sun] in thy 
 " boat of seven hundred and seventy cubits.^ Thou hast carried in 
 " thy boat the gods of Pe, and thou hast made content the gods of 
 " the East. Carry thou this Pepi with thee in the cabin of thy 
 "boat, for this Pepi is the son of the Scarab which is born in 
 " Hetepet beneath the hair of the city of lusaas the northern, and 
 "he is the offspring of Seb. It is he who was between the legs of 
 " Khent-maati on the night wherein he guarded (?) bread, and on 
 " the night wherein he fashioned the heads of arrows. Thou hast 
 " taken thy spear which is dear to thee, thy pointed weapon which 
 " thrusteth down river banks, with a double point like the darts of 
 " Ra, and a double haft like the claws of the goddess Maftet." 
 
 Throughout the Pyramid Texts frequent mention is made of 
 one group, or of two or three groups, of nine gods. Thus in Unas 
 (line 179) we read of "bowing low to the ground before the nine 
 
 gods," |p<=^ =^ ^ immn^ ^^<^ ^^ ^^^® ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ **^^^ 
 
 that the king's bread consists of "the word^ of Seb which cometh 
 
 ,„^_^ ^^^o\^^^^\^WH\ 
 
 <\h 
 
 "^ ( ^^^ ja^ MM 
 
 ^ — ^ Q 
 
 A/WW\ 
 
 p 
 
 tchet means literally " word," but it often is used to express " thing," 
 "matter," like the Hebrew ~)2.1 ■ 
 
86 PAUT OR SUBSTANCE OF THE GODS 
 
 forth from the mouth of the nine male gods," ^ «-« "^ J ^_^ ^ 
 
 ^ ^ mimii J ^ ^- T^^ g°^ ^^'^^^' p °° ^fl ' 
 
 is said in line 382 to have been " begotten by Seb and brought forth 
 
 by the nine gods," ^> ] ^ ^ ^J [1^^111111111; 
 and in line 592 Ra is said to be the " chief of the nine gods," 
 n .-^ O I 111111111 • From several passages (e.g., Unas 251) 
 we learn that one company of nine gods was called the " Great," 
 111111111 ^' ^^^ *^^* another company was called the "Little," 
 111111111^' ^^^ *^® "^^^® ^°^^ ^^ Horus" are spoken 
 of side by side with "the gods," J^ P — HI ^ ^ ^ V 
 111111111 li^ ^^'^^ ^^^^' ^^*^^^^*^er this group is to 
 be connected with the Great or Little company of gods cannot be 
 said. A double group of nine gods is frequently referred to, e.g., 
 in Teta, line 67, where it is said, "The eighteen gods cense Teta, 
 
 and his m^h is pu«," =] p= iiimnnnnmi (H] 
 
 ■""^ %. 11 ''^~^; and in Pepi I., line 273, Avhere we read that the 
 " two lips of Meri-Ra are the eighteen gods," ^ ^ =^ OH 1^ 
 111111111111111111 ' ^^^ again in line 407, where Pepi I. is 
 said to be "with the eighteen gods in Qebhu," and to be the 
 "fashioner of tlie eighteen gods,"|™ 111111111111111111 
 
 k-jil>SM]°^i-^±iniiiiiiiiiiiiiii. 
 
 We may perhaps assume that the eighteen gods include the Great 
 and the Little companies of the gods, but, on the other hand, as 
 "male and female gods" are mentioned^ in the text of Teta, nine 
 of the eighteen gods may be feminine counterparts of the other 
 nine, who must therefore be held to be masculine. But the texts 
 of Teta (line 307) and Pepi I. (line 218) show that there was a 
 third company of nine gods recognized by the priests of Helio- 
 
 1 Variant □ ^ 9 \^ ; Teta, 1. 263. 
 
COMPANIES OF THE GODS 87 
 
 polisj and we find all three companies represented thus : 
 
 nnnmimnmmimii- 
 
 The Egyptian word here rendered "company" is pauti or 
 paiot, which may be written either ^%^ \> "^^ or ®, and the 
 
 meaning usually attached to it has been " nine." It is found in 
 texts subsequent to the period of the pyramids at Sakkara thus 
 written: — ^^^^ \\ ' i^*"^^ neteru, ^^ paut of the gods"; the 
 double company of the gods is expressed by ^^ *^ ^ "^^v R wl 
 
 pautti, or we may have ^ | | ] <:^ 2, wA '^^^ji'*'^^'^^^^''^ ^** 
 paut neteru netcheset, i.e., " the Great company of gods and the 
 Little company of the gods." The fact that a company of gods is 
 represented by nine axes, nnn "Innn jn) ^^s led to the common 
 belief that a company of the gods contained nine gods, and for 
 this reason the word paut has been explained to mean " nine." It 
 is quite true that the Egyptians frequently assigned nine gods to 
 the paut, as we may see from such passages as Unas 235,'- and 
 especially from line 283, where it is said, " Grant thou that 
 this Unas may rule the nine, and that he may complete the 
 
 company of the gods," A-=' 1 ^-f (SO ^ \Zl^C^ 
 III I 1 I r But the last quoted passage proves that a paut of 
 the gods might contain more than nine divine beings, for it is clear 
 that if the intent of the prayer was carried out the jMtct referred 
 to in it would contain ten, king Unas being added to the nine 
 gods. Again, in a litany to the gods of the Great company given 
 in the Unas text (line 240 ff.) we see that the paut contains Tem, 
 Shu, Tefnut, Seb, Nut, Isis, Set, Nephthys, Thoth, and Horus, 
 i.e., ten gods, without counting the deceased, who wished to be 
 added to the number of the gods. In the text of Mer-en-Ra 
 (line 205) the paut contains nine gods,^ and it is described as the 
 
 ■'^z:^^. 
 
 
88 COMPANIES OF THE GODS 
 
 " Great paut which is in Annu " (Heliopolis), whilst in the text of 
 Pepi II. (line 669) the same pcmt is said to contain Tem, Shu, 
 Tefnut, Seb, Nut, Osiris, Osiris-Khent-Amenti, Set, Horus, Ra, 
 Khent-maati, and Uatchet, i.e., twelve gods. Similarly the gods of 
 the Little paut are more than nine in number, and in Unas (line 
 253 f.) they are thus enumerated :— Rat, °, the dweller in Annu, 
 (]_[]_ I O, the dweller in Antchet, ^ ^, the dweller in Het- 
 Serqet, I ]^, the dweller in the divine palace, '^ fl' *^® 
 dweller in Hetch-paar, | ^ ^^, the dweller in Orion, ^, the 
 
 dweller in Tep, ^ ^, the dAveller in Het-ur-ka, [^ ^=f ^ ©, the 
 dweUer in Unnu of the South, ^^ X , the dweller in Unnu of the 
 North, ^°^. 
 
 Thus the Little paut contained eleven gods, not counting the 
 deceased who desired to be added to their number. The fact that 
 the paut contained at times more than nine gods is thus explained 
 by M. Maspero ^ : " The number nine was the original number, 
 " but each of the nine gods, especially the first and the last, could 
 " be developed." Thus if it was desired to add the god Amen of 
 the Theban triad to the paut of Heliopolis, he could be set at the 
 head of it either in the place of Temu, the legitimate chief of the 
 p>aid, or side by side with him. Mut, the consort of Amen, might 
 be included in the paut, but Amen and Mut would together only 
 count as one god. Similarly, any one or all of the gods who 
 belonged to the shrine of Amen could be included with that god 
 himself in the patd of Heliopolis, and yet the number of that paid 
 was supposed to be increased only by one. In other words, the 
 admission of one god into a paid brought with it the admission of 
 all the gods who were in any way connected with him, but their 
 names were never included among those of the original members 
 of it. This explanation is very good as far as it goes, but it must 
 not be taken as a proof that the Egyptians argued in this manner, 
 or that they argued at all about it. 
 
 The nine axes '^'^^^'^'^'^']'^ are, beyond doubt, intended to re- 
 
 1 La Mythologie lEgyptienne, p. 245. 
 
SUBSTANCE OF THE GODS 89 
 
 present nine gods, i.e., a triad of triads, but the signs ® 111111111, 
 paut neteru, must be translated not "Neunheit," as Brugsch 
 rendered them,^ but the " stuff of the nine gods," i.e., the substance 
 or matter out of which the nine gods were made. The word paut, 
 
 U^ _^ _^ ^ „ , means " dough cake," or cake of bread which 
 
 formed part of the offerings made to the dead ; similarly paut is 
 the name given to the plastic substance out of which the earth and 
 the gods were formed, and later, when applied to divine beings or 
 things, it means the aggregation or entirety of such beings or 
 things. Thus in the Papyrus of Ani (sheet i., line 6) the god 
 Tatunen is declared to be " one, the maker of mankind, and of the 
 " material of the gods of the South and the North, the West and 
 " the East." ^ But there was a primeval matter out of which 
 heaven was made, and also a [primeval] matter out of which the 
 earth was made, and hence Khepera, the great creator of all 
 things, is said in Chapter xvii. (line 116) of the Booh of the Dead to 
 possess a body^ which is formed of both classes of matter (pant). 
 And again in Chapter Ixxxv. (line 8) the deceased, wishing to 
 identify himself with this divine substance, says, " I am the eldest 
 " son of the divine pautti, that is to say, the soul of the souls of the 
 " gods of everlasting, and my body is everlasting, and my creations are 
 " eternal, and I am the lord of years, and the prince of everlasting- 
 " ness." In the words which are put into the mouth of Khepera, 
 who is made to describe his creation of the world, the god says, 
 "' I produced myself from the [primeval] matter [which] I made," 
 
 1 " Der kosmogonisclie Lekre von der Ogdoas, deren aelteste Spuren sich bis 
 " zu den Pyramidentexten verfolgen lassen, schloss sich die Docti-in ' der Neunheit ' 
 
 " (Bnneas) oder der 1 an. Sie umfasste die genetische Entsteliung der netm 
 
 " TheUe und Kriifte, welche die zukiinftige Wohnung der den Leib Gottes bildeten, 
 " dessen Seele davon Besitz nahm, um alles mit ihr zu erfiillen." Aegyptologie, 
 p. 170. 
 
 cii ci .4. o i^ 
 
90 THREE COMPANIES OF THE GODS 
 
 
 ^ © ^ I <^ ^ . 1 this is the only mean- 
 
 © 
 
 irig which can be extracted from the Egyptian words, and the 
 context, which the reader will find given in the section on the 
 Creation, proves that it is the correct one. The word " primeval," 
 which is added in brackets, is suggested by the texts wherein 
 paittti is accompanied by ® tejJ, i.e., "first," in point of time, 
 
 compare ^ ^ '=^ ^ "^ © ^ i n '' " ^^'^* matter," that is to say, 
 the earliest matter which was created, and the matter which 
 existed before anything else. From the above facts it is clear 
 that the meaning " Neunheit " must not be given to the Egyptian 
 word jyaut. 
 
 We have now seen that, so far back as the Vth Dynasty, the 
 priests of Heliopolis conceived the existence of three companies of 
 gods ; the first tAvo they distinguished by the appellations " Great" 
 and " Little," but to the third they gave no name. The gods of the 
 first or " Great " company are well known, and their names are : — 
 
 1 . Tem, the form of the Sun-god which was worshipped at Heliopolis. 
 
 2. Shu. 3. Tefnut. 4. Seb. 5. Nut. 6. Osiris. 7. Isis. 8. Set. 
 9. Nephthys. Sometimes this company is formed by the addition 
 of Horus and the omission of Tem. The names of gods of the second 
 or "Little" company appear to be given in the text of Unas, 
 line 253 fF., where we have enumerated : — 1. Rat. 2. Am-Annu. 
 
 3. Am-Antchet. 4. Am-Het-Serqet-ka-hetepet. 5. Am-Neter-het. 
 6. Am-Hetch-paar. 7. Am-Sah. 8. Am-Tep. 9. Am-Het-ur- 
 Ra. 10. Am-Unnu-resu. IL Am-Unnu-meht. It must, how- 
 ever, be noted that whereas in the text the address to the Great 
 company of the gods as a whole follows the separate addresses to 
 each, the address to the Little company precedes the separate 
 addresses to each ; still there is no reason for doubting that the 
 second group of names given above are really those of the Little 
 company of the gods. The names of the gods of the third company 
 are unkno-wra, and the texts are silent as to the functions which the 
 company was supposed to perform ; the Great and Little companies 
 of the gods are frequently referred to in texts of all periods, but 
 
 1 See Archaeologia, vol, lii., p. 5.57. 
 
 " See my CJicqAers of Coming Forth hy Bay, Text, p. 348, 1. 15. 
 
THREE COMPANIES OF THE GODS 91 
 
 the third company is rarely mentioned. Thus in the text of 
 Pepi I. (line 43), the king is said to sit on an iron throne and to 
 weigh words at the head of the Great company of gods in Annu ; the 
 two companies of the gods lift up the head of Pepi (line 97), and he 
 takes the crown in the presence of the Great company (line 117) ; 
 he sits at the head of the two companies (line 167), and in their boat 
 (line 169); and he stands between the two companies (line 186). 
 It has already been suggested ^ that the Great company of gods was 
 a macrocosm of a primitive kind, and the Little company a micro- 
 cosm; this view is very probably correct, and is supported by 
 passages like the following : — " The son of his father is come with 
 " the company of the gods of heaven, ... the son of his father is 
 " come with the company of the gods of earth." 
 
 From numerous passages in texts of all periods it is clear 
 that the Egyptians believed that heaven was in many respects a 
 duplicate of earth, and, as it was supposed to contain a celestial 
 Nile, and sacred cities which were counterparts of those on the 
 earth and which were called by similar names, it is only reasonable 
 to assign to it a company of gods who were the counterparts of 
 those on earth. And as there were gods of heaven and gods of 
 earth, so also were there gods of the Tuat, or Underworld, who 
 
 were either called tuat, ® i^^ i, or ^^^i^^^wj '» or neteru 
 en tuat, \\\ 3 i «'>^ . This being so, we may assume that 
 
 when the writers of the Pyramid Texts mentioned three companies 
 
 of the gods, inninniiminnnmii. aeyre^ed 
 
 to the company of the gods of heaven, the company of 
 the gods of earth, and the company of the gods of the Under- 
 world, meaning thereby what the writer of the XXIIIrd 
 Chapter of the Book of the Dead meant when he spoke of "the 
 
 ' Maspero, La Mytliologie ^gypiiemie, p. 244. 
 2 Pepi I., 11. 298-300. 
 
92 THREE COMPANIES OF THE GODS 
 
 '' company of all the gods," ® ^ ^ j /l^ -^ ^f] ^ 5^ ',• ^^ 
 the Pyramid Texts, however, and in the later Recensions of the 
 Book of the Dead which are based upon them, the pautti neteru, 
 
 mimiiinimii. -."Jimi. -- "'-^^^ *" - 
 
 present the Great and Little companies of the gods, and these only ; 
 the members of each company varied in different cities and in 
 different periods, but the principle of such variation is com- 
 paratively simple. Long before the priests of Heliopolis grouped 
 the gods of Egypt into companies certain very ancient cities had 
 their own special gods whom they probably inherited from their 
 predecessors, i.e., the predynastic Egyptians. Thus the goddess 
 of Sais was Nit, or Net, or Neith ; the goddess of Per-Uatchet was 
 Uatchet ; the goddess of Dendera was Hathor ; the goddess of 
 Nekheb was Nekhebet ; the god of Edfu was Horus ; the god of 
 Heliopolis was Tem ; and so on. When the priests of these and 
 other cities found that, for some reason, they were obliged to 
 accept the theological system formulated by the priests of Helio- 
 polis and its Great company of gods, they did so readily enough, 
 but they always made the great local god or goddess the head or 
 
 chief, ^ "^ , of the company. 
 
 At Heliopolis, where the chief local god was called Tem, the 
 priests joined their god to Ra, and addressed many of their prayers 
 and hymns to Tem-Ra or Ra-Tem. At Edfu the great local god 
 Horus of Behutet was either made to take the place of Tem, or was 
 added to the Heliopolitan company in one form or another. The 
 same thing happened in the case of goddesses like Neith, Uatchet, 
 Nekhebet, Hathor, etc. It was found to be hopeless to attempt to 
 substitute the Heliopolitan company of gods for Neith in the city 
 of Sais, because there the worship of that goddess was extremely 
 ancient and was very important. The fact that her name forms a 
 component part of royal names very early in the 1st Dynasty proves 
 that her worship dates from the first half of the archaic period, and 
 that it is much older than the theological system of Heliopolis. 
 But when the priests of Sais adopted that system they associated 
 her with the head of the company of the gods, and gave her 
 
THE COMPANIES OF THE GODS 93 
 
 suitable titles and ascribed to her proper attributes, in accordance 
 with her sex, which would make her a feminine counterpart to the 
 god Tem. The god Tern was the Father-god, and the lord of 
 heaven, and the begetter of the gods, therefore Neith became " the 
 "great lady, the mother-goddess, the lady of heaven, and queen of 
 
 '' the gods," ^ 1 ^ ^ ^=^ I ^ ']']"]• Elsewhere^ she is called 
 
 " mother of the gods," and just as Tem was declared to have been 
 self-produced, so we find the same attribute ascribed to Neith, and 
 she is said to be " the great lady, who gave birth to Ra, who 
 "brought forth in primeval time herself, never having been 
 
 "created,"^ ^ ^ (H P I M --^ I M ^ -^ S I P' '^^^ 
 same thing happened at the cities of Per-Uatchet in the Delta and 
 Nekhebet in Upper Egypt, for at one place Uatchet, the ancient 
 and local goddess, became the head of the company of gods, 
 and the goddess Nekhebet at the other. It is interesting to note 
 that the priests of Heliopolis themselves included Uatchet in their 
 Great company of the gods, as we may see from the text of 
 Pepi 11.,^ where we find that the deceased king prays concerning 
 the welfare of his pyramid " to the great paut of gods in Annu," 
 i.e., Tem, Shu, Tefnut, Seb, Nut, Osiris, Set, Nephthys, Khent- 
 Maati, and Uatchet. 
 
 The goddess Hathor at Dendera was treated by the priests 
 there as was Neith at Sais, for every conceivable attribute was 
 ascribed to her, and her devotees declared that she was the mother 
 of the gods, and the creator of the heavens and the earth, and of 
 everything which is in them. In fact, both Neith and Hathor 
 were made to assume all the powers of the god Tem, and indeed of 
 every solar god. 
 
 The general evidence derived from a study of texts of all 
 periods shows that the chief local gods of many cities never lost 
 their exalted positions in the minds of the inhabitants, who clung 
 to their belief in them with a consistency and conservatism which 
 are truly Egyptian. In fact, the god of a nome, or the god of the 
 
 1 D. Mallet, Le Culte de Neit d Sais, Paris, 1888, p. 47. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 146. 3 See 11. 669 ff. 
 
94 LOCAL GODS 
 
 capital city of a nome, when once firmly establislied, seems to have 
 maintained his influence in all periods of Egyptian history, and 
 though his shrine may have fallen into oblivion as the result of 
 wars or invasions, and his worship have been suspended from time 
 to time, the people of his city always took the earliest opportunity 
 of rebuilding his sanctuary and establishing his priests as soon as 
 prosperity returned to the country. 
 
( 95 ) 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 PRIMITIVE GODS AND NOME-GODS 
 
 DURING- the predynastic period in Egypt every village and 
 town or settlement possessed its god, whose worship and 
 the glory of whose shrine increased or declined according to the 
 increase or decrease of the prosperity of the community in which 
 he lived. When the country was divided into sections which the 
 
 Egyptians called hespu, 8 H a %^ i^ , or " nomes," a certain god, or 
 
 group of allied gods, became the representative, or representatives, 
 of each nome, and so obtained the pre-eminence over all the other 
 gods of the home ; and sometimes one god would represent two 
 nomes. In this way the whole country of Egypt, from the Medi- 
 terranean Sea to Elephantine, was divided among the gods, and it 
 became customary in each nome to regard the god of that nome as 
 the " Great Grod," or " Grod," and to endow him with all the powers 
 and attributes possible. "We have, unfortunately, no means of 
 knowing when the country was first split up into nomes, but the 
 division must have taken place at a very early period, and the gods 
 who were chosen to represent the nomes were undoubtedly those 
 who had been worshipped in the large towns or settlements during 
 the predynastic period. Thus in the earliest dynastic times of 
 which we have inscriptions of any length we find that Neith was the 
 chief deity of Sais, Osiris of Busiris, Thoth of Hermopolis, Uatchet 
 of Per-Uatchet, Ptah of Memphis, Sebek of Crocodilopolis, Amen of 
 Thebes, Nekhebet of Nekheb, and Khnemu of Elephantine. The 
 number of the nomes seems to have been different in different 
 periods, so it is not possible to say with certainty how many the 
 early nome-gods were in number. The Egyptian lists give the 
 number of nomes as forty-two or forty-four, but the classical writers, 
 
96 NOME-GODS 
 
 Strabo, Diodorus, and Pliny, do not agree in their statements on 
 the subject. Strabo says ^ that the Labyrinth contained twenty- 
 seven chambers, and if each one represented a nome the nomes 
 must have been twenty-seven in number, i.e., ten in Upper Egypt, 
 ten in Lower Egypt, and seven in the Heptanomis. On the other 
 hand, Herodotus says ^ that the Labyrinth contained twelve halls. 
 Pliny (Bk. v., chap. 9) enumerates the nomes as follows : — 
 Ombites, ApoUopolites, Hermonthites, Thinites, Phaturites, Copt- 
 ites,Tentyrites, Diopolites, Antaeopolites, Aphroditopolites, Lycopo- 
 lites, Pharbaethites, Bubastites, Sethroites, Tanites, the Arabian 
 nome, the Hammonian nome, Oxyrynchites, Leontopolites, Athri- 
 bites, Cynopolites, Hermopolites, Xoites, Mendesium, Sebennytes, 
 Cabasites, Latopolites, Heliopolites, Prosopites, Panopolites, Busi- 
 rites, Onuphites, Sai'tes, Ptenethu, Phthemphu, Naucratites, Mete- 
 lites, Gynaeopolites, Menelaites, Maraeotis, Heracleopolites, Arsino- 
 ites, Memphites, and the two nomes of Oasites. Diodorus Siculus 
 (i. 54) gives the number of the nomes as thirty-six ; ^ Herodotus 
 (ii. 164) tells us that the country of Egypt was divided into 
 districts * or nomes, but he does not say how many of them there 
 were. These facts serve to show that the number of nom.es when 
 the country was first divided was smaller than in later times, and 
 we may assume that it was the nomes of the Delta which increased 
 in number rather than those of Upper Egypt. The following is a 
 list of the nomes of Egypt according to inscriptions at Edfla and 
 elsewhere, together with their capitals and the gods who were 
 worshipped in them : — 
 
 UPPER EGYPT. 
 Nome. Capital. God. 
 
 1. Ta-khex\t ^ Abu^Qji^^^ KhnemuQ^J 
 
 (Elephantine) 
 
 2. Thes- ]^^ Teb A J© Heru-Behutet ^ S 
 
 fflTF (ApoUinopolis Magna) 
 1 xvii. 1. § 37. 2 ii. § 148. 
 
 3 Tt/v Sc xwp"" airacrav ek U Kai rpluKOvra fjLepr] SteXoiv, a KaXovcriv AlyviTTLoi vofj.ov';. 
 * Kara yap 8r/ io/iov)s AtyvTTTos airaaa hiapaip-qTai. 
 
Nome. 
 
 3. Ten JO 
 
 NOME-GODS 
 
 Capital. 
 
 97 
 
 God. 
 
 Nekheb^oj; Nekhebet].oJ-g^ 
 
 (Eileithyia) 
 
 Senit '■'•'■^ © (Esneh) 
 
 4. Uast f 
 
 5. Herui 
 
 '[1111"; 
 
 Uart f ; (TWbes) Amen-Ralj^fl 
 
 (Coptos) 
 
 Ta-en 
 
 6. Aa-ta ^/A 4- i. 1 H 
 
 ' <=> Het-Heru n <^ '9 
 tarert L^/S i s S^ (i.e.,Hathor) Un^ o 
 
 I 
 
 7. Seshesh 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 8. Abt Y\ 
 
 (Denderah) 
 
 Het0; Het-Heru g 
 
 (Diospolis Parva) 
 
 AbtufJ^^ An-HerJ^£53| 
 
 (Abydos) 
 Thenit a'~~v« | ^ (This) 
 
 9. Amsu MiN P ^ A 
 or Khem ""NT -^ 1 
 
 
 Amsu, Min or ,-aor=- 
 Khem ^ 
 
 (Panopolis) 
 
 10a; Uatchet I^ Tebut g ^ | Het-Heru Q ^ ^ I 
 
 ^^ (Aphroditopolis) 
 
 10b. Neterui JI Tu-qat '^ ^ ^ Heru (Horus) ^ ^ 
 
 (Antaeopolis) 
 
 11. Set 
 
 m il 
 
 Shas- 
 hetep 
 
 M\^l Khnemug^^, 
 
 (Hypsele) 
 
 ' Var. 1^ ^-^^ Ab-tut, i.e., "the city of the mountain of the heart's desire"; see 
 Diimichen, Oeschichte, p. 143. 
 H 
 
98 NOME-GODS 
 
 Nome. Capital. Godi 
 
 ^ Nut-en- © 5 iste R vr^^„ P\ 
 
 10 Ttt-tt 5^;= 1 1 vi" v^ rleru v^ 
 
 ^ (Antaeopolis) 
 
 A m Saiut 
 13. Atef- « _-2 1X nntk- Ap-uat V- 
 
 KHENT ^ ^mSH_r© ^ ^S^lll 
 
 (Lycopolis) 
 
 15. Un .^. Khemennu""2 Telmti (Thoth) 
 
 (Hermopolis) 
 
 16. Meh- 
 
 MAHETCH 
 
 Hebennu § J£ Heru 
 
 TOTF (Hipponon) 
 
 17. Anpu % Kasa ^^^^ Anpu (j □ ^ ^^ ^ 
 
 ~Trn ^ 
 
 (Cynopolis) 
 
 18. Sep^ So'-^'^Qnl™; Abpu(17^ 
 
 ^^ (Alabastronpolis) 
 
 / n/ Per-Matcliet 
 
 19. TIabUI T^5^; Sat^ 
 
 ^^ (Oxyrynchus) 
 
 '"• """"henx^ HenensuJ^^ Her-shefi ^^ [jq^ 
 
 (Herakleopolis Magna) 
 
 21a. Atee- n.^ Ermen- <=> 'wwv. p==^ ^ ix tk ' 
 
 PEHu V- hert r= ^ <=. © ^^^^^^ Q ^ ^ : 
 
 ' 1 1 ' 17, : 
 
 2lB. Ta-she— — Shet^; Sebekpj 
 
 (Crocodilopolis) 
 
 22. MAT.»^ Tep-ahete^; Het-IJert Q = ^ ^ 
 
 (Aphroditopolis) 
 
NOME-GODS 99 
 
 LOWER EGYPT. 
 Nome. Capital. God. 
 
 1. Aneb- 01 Men- = j =^ ^ Ptah ° § J 
 
 HETCH ^ nefert A^AAAA o <=> @ • <=^ X ill 
 
 ^ (Memphis) 
 
 2. Khensu ' ^ Sekhemt "J" ^ ^ Heru-ur ^ ^ 
 
 (Letopolis) 
 
 3. Am...P^ ^"*Htf,2§55. 'J«'-«-QnS%l 
 
 ^ (Apis) 
 
 4. Sapi-kes ^i^-^ Tcheqa 1) Sebek, Isis, Amen 
 
 5. SAP-MEnKf Saut^^^; Net (Neith) ^ | 
 
 ^ (Sals) 
 
 6. Kaset ^^ Khasut J P % J Amen-Ra 
 
 ^ (Xois) 
 
 7. ...A....f| ^tLr=»fe B"i^ 
 
 niimiii 
 
 O I 
 
 8. ...Abx^I^ Theket ^^ Temu ^ ^ ^ 
 
 ^ (Succoth) 
 
 Per- crTD n ^ q 
 
 Atem I 1 >=n: © 
 (Pithom) 
 
 9. AtiJ^ Per-Asar^jl;^ Osiris^ 
 
 ±tu± (Busiris) 
 
 1 Perhaps a variant is ^ = Q 1 ^ = 1 "^^ ^ ' ^^'^ ^''''^''''' ^^'^- ^'^'^■• 
 1868, p. 17 ; and Diimichen, Kalendarinscliriften, 118&, 106d. 
 
 I 1 <2^^~ S ^ ' — ^ 
 
100 NOME-GODS 
 
 Nome. Capital. God. 
 
 lu. Ji.A-QBM v-^p^ — her-ab m crzn 9=0' © -^ 
 
 o 
 
 ^^ (Athribis) 
 
 11. Ka-heseb £^ Hebes-ka |J ^ 5^^ Isis j 
 
 ^ (Cabasus) 
 
 12. T„B-^^ Theb-n.ter =1T; An-herJ^™^ 
 
 ^ (Sebennytus) 
 
 13. Heq-at J|. Annu|g ^- ^,i 
 
 ^^ (Heliopolis, On) 
 
 14. Khent-abt W Tchalu^^^ I'i^ Hem 
 
 (Tanis) 
 
 15. Tehut ^ Per-Tehuti "a'% Tehuti (Thoth) ^ 
 ^™ (HermojDolis) 
 
 ,j-j^ Per-ba-neb-Tettu Ba-neb- 
 
 ^ (Mendes) * ■" ' 
 
 TT ^ — . Pa-kben-en- Amen 
 17. Sam- Jp 1^ ^ S Amen-Ra [1 — 
 
 BEHUTET "^^ //>j^ ,wwvA 1 ^ © 1 O I 
 
 1 1 1 1 1 
 
 J-LLu: 
 
 f] ^^ Amen-Ra 
 (Dios^Dolis) 
 
 18. Am-khent f. Per-Bast 1? ^ ® -^^^* 1? '^ J) 
 
 ^^ (Bubastis) 
 
 19. Am-pehu J^ Per-Uatcbet^l^^ Uatcliet|^| 
 
 (Buto) 
 
 20. Sept &^ Qesem _6_ ^ © Sept f\^' 
 
 ^ (Golhen ?) 
 
 1 The authorities to be consulted on the nomes of Egypt are Brugsch, Diet. Geog. 
 (see the list at the end of vol. iii.) ; Dtimichen, Geographie des alien Aegyptens (in 
 Meyer, GescMcnte des alien Aegyptens), Berlin, 1887 ; and J. de Rouge, Geographie 
 Ancienne de la Basse-^gypte, Paris, 1891. 
 
NOME-GODS 101 
 
 Thus every nome of Egypt possessed a representative god 
 whose temple was situated in the capital city of the nome, and 
 attached to the service of each nome-god was a body of priests who 
 divided among themselves the various duties connected with the 
 service of the gods, the maintenance of the buildings of the temple, 
 the multiplying of copies of religious works, and the religious 
 education of the community. In Upper Egypt, where the care of 
 the dead seems to have been the principal duty of the living, the 
 lower orders of the priesthood probably carried on a lucrative 
 business in mummifying the dead, and in funeral papyri and 
 amulets, and in conducting funerals. The high-priest of each 
 great city, and sometimes even the high-priestess, bore a special 
 title. In Thebes the high-priest was called " first servant of the 
 " god Ra in Thebes " ; Mn Heliopolis the title of the high-priest was 
 "Great one of visions of Ra-Atem" ;^ in Memphis, "Great chief 
 " of the hammer in the temple of him of the Southern Wall, and 
 " Setem of the god of the Beautiful Face (i.e., Ptah) " ; ' in Sais, 
 " governor of the double temple " ; * and similarly the high-priestess 
 of Memphis bore the title of " Nefer-tutu " ; ^ in Sekhem the title 
 of the high-priestess was " Divine mother";" in Sais, " Urt," i.e., 
 "great one";' in Mendes, " TJtcha-ba-f " ; ^ and so on. The 
 priests of every great god were divided into classes, among 
 which may be mentioned " those who ministered at certain hours," 
 
 JL % I ^ ^ ; " the servants of the gods," ^ J ^ | ; the " holy 
 
 fathers," 10 ^ i ; the " libationers," /^ v^ i . The 
 
 accounts of the temple were kept by the " scribe of the temple," 
 
 m- 'iiiM. •! 
 
102 NOME-GODS 
 
 ^R I '^ . and, in large temples, one or more scribes kept a 
 
 register of gifts to tlie temple and of the property of the god.^ 
 It is impossible to say how many priests of all classes ministered to 
 any given nome-god ; it seems that the highest permanent priestly 
 officials were at all times and in all cities very few in number, and 
 that the " servants of the god " were very many. The priests of 
 each nome-god were subject to no external authority, and the high- 
 priest of a great nome possessed a power which was hardly inferior 
 to that of the nomarch himself. 
 
 The worship of each nome-god contained elements peculiar to 
 itself, and the beliefs which centred in him represented all the 
 ancient and indigenous views of the inhabitants of the nome, and 
 these were carefully observed and cultivated from the earliest to 
 the latest times. We may see from the list of nome-gods given 
 above that many nomes worshipped the same god, e.g., Horus was 
 worshipped in three nomes of Upper Egypt and two nomes of 
 Lower Egypt, whilst one nome worshipped him under the special 
 form of Horus of Behutet; three nomes of Upper Egypt worshipped 
 Khnemu, two worshipped Amsu (or Min or Khem ?), two worshipped 
 Anpu, and Hathor was worshipped in five nomes in Upper Egypt 
 and one in Lower Egypt. The cults of the ram-headed god Khnemu 
 at Elephantine, of the vulture goddess Nekhebet at Eileithyia, of the 
 crocodile god Sebek in the district of Ta-she (Fayyum), of the dog- 
 headed god Anpu at Cynopolis and Alabastronpolis, of the ibis-god 
 Thoth at Hermopolis, of Horus the elder (Heru-ur) at Letopolis, 
 and of Uatchet at Buto (Per-Uatchet), were extremely ancient, and 
 with them are probably to be grouped in point of antiquity the 
 cults of the Avolf(?) -headed god Ap-uat, the lioness goddess Sekhet, 
 the cat-headed goddess Bast, and the god Set. The animal which 
 was the type and symbol of this last god has not as yet been 
 identified ; it cannot have been the ass as was once thouo-ht and it 
 is hardly likely to have been the camel ; at present, therefore, we 
 can only tentatively assume that it belonged to some class of animal 
 which became extinct at a very early period. The cults of the 
 various forms of the sky-god Horus, and of the Sun-god, and of the 
 
 1 For other temple officials see Brugsch, Aegyjitologie, p. 218. 
 
OSIRIS 103 
 
 goddess Hatlior, are the oldest of all. The goddess Neith, whose 
 symbols were two arrows and a shield, appears to have been of 
 Libyan origin, but, as has already been shown, the attributes of 
 some of the oldest indigenous gods of Egypt were ascribed to her 
 in early dynastic times. The origin of the god Osiris is obscure, 
 but it is difficult, when all the statements made concerning him in 
 the religious texts are taken into consideration, not to think that 
 the original seat of his worship was in the Delta. Early in the 
 dynastic period his most important shrine was at Abydos, which 
 became the centre of his cult and the sacred city to which his 
 worshippers flocked for countless generations. In spite of this, 
 however, the nome-lists show that the nome-god was An- Her, or 
 Anhur, and notwithstanding the special hon(?ur in which Osiris 
 was held throughout Egypt, An-Her Avas always regarded as the 
 official god of the nome Abt and of its capital of the same name. 
 
 The Elysian Fields, i.e., the Sekhet-hetepet, were situated 
 in the Delta where the country was fertile, and where the 
 land was traversed by canals and streams of water running in 
 all directions ; moreover, the " House of Osiris " par excellence 
 
 VI ri tl) ^ Per-Asar ^ = Busiris j was in the Delta, and the shrine 
 of the god who was worshipped in the form of a ram which 
 was said to contain the soul of Osiris, was also in the Delta. 
 Everywhere in the texts Osiris is called the " lord of Abydos," 
 and generally this title is followed by another, i.e., " lord of 
 Tattu." Now Tattu is the city, and " The Ram, lord of Tattu," 
 
 ^ "^^ K37 u u ^ Ba-neb-Tattu, was its god. The name Tattu was 
 
 corrupted into " Mendes " by the Greeks, and in this city the great 
 local god was worshipped under the form of a ram, which is now 
 commonly known as the " Mendesian Ram." The frequent use of 
 the title " lord of Tattu " suggests that the worship of Osiris was 
 grafted on to or was made to absorb that of the local ram-god, and 
 that in consequence Osiris became the lord of the city in his stead. 
 It may be urged that Tattu was merely the seat of the shrine of 
 the god Osiris in the northern kingdom, just as Abydos was his 
 
 1 The words Ba-neb- Tattu usnally follow here, therefore the full name of the 
 city is, "House of Osiris, the Earn, lord of Tattu." 
 
104 AMEN AND ATEN 
 
 sanctuary in the southern kingdom, but this explanation of the use 
 of the title is insufficient. It may further be urged that, inasmuch 
 as the titles " lord of Abydos," " lord of Tattu," occur in connection 
 with others which have reference to Osiris in his capacity as 
 governor of the Underworld, the Abydos and Tattu here mentioned 
 are mythological cities and not cities upon earth. But even if 
 this be so it matters little, for we knoAV that the Egyptians fashioned 
 their mythological or heavenly cities after the manner of their 
 earthly cities, and that their conceptions of things spiritual were 
 based upon things material. 
 
 Returning for a moment to the adoj)tion of gods, we may note 
 that from first to last the people of one nome were generally ready 
 to offer hospitality to the gods of another, and also to the gods of 
 strangers who had come to settle among them. At times, however, 
 a new god, or a new group of gods, was forced upon the inhabitants 
 of one or more nomes, and even upon a whole province, as the result 
 of conquest, or by the wish of the king, or by the supremacy of the 
 priesthood of a given city. Thus the priesthood of Ra or Ra-Tem 
 at HeliojDolis succeeded in making their theological system para- 
 mount in the country, and the whole of the religious jDhilosophy of 
 the Theban Books of the Dead is based wpon their teaching. Until 
 the conquest of the Hyksos by the Theban princes the god Amen 
 was a nome-god of no great importance, but when they became 
 kings of the south and north, he immediately became the king of 
 all the gods of the south and the north, and the titles and powers 
 and attributes of the great gods of the country were ascribed to 
 him by his priests. As the prince of Thebes was greater than any 
 and every prince in the other nomes of Egypt, so the Theban nome- 
 god was greater than any and every other god of Egypt. The 
 extraordinary dislike which Amen-hetep IV. exhibited towards 
 this god, and the foolish attempt which he made to substitute for 
 his worship that of Aten, or the Disk, furnishes us with an example 
 of the imposition of a god upon a priesthood and province ; the 
 attempt was successful for a time over a limited area, but it had no 
 chance of permanent success because the fundamental ideas of the 
 worship of the god as Amen-hetep interpreted them were foreign 
 to the religious conceptions of the Egyptians generally. 
 
RA AND AMEN 105 
 
 From what has been said above it will be easy to imagine 
 the remarkable spectacle which Egypt must have presented to a 
 foreigner who went there and found the country split up into a 
 series of nomes, each possessing its great god, who was ministered 
 to by a body of priests and servants who were amenable to no general 
 authority outside the nome, and who performed his worship when 
 and as they pleased, and who claimed for him powers, and rights, 
 and privileges without fear of opposition. The stranger would find 
 that each college of priests in each nome asserted that its god 
 was the father of all the other gods, and the creator of the heavens 
 and the earth, and that, generally speaking, the priests of one 
 nome-god and his divine companions were content to allow their 
 neighbours in other nomes to declare anything they pleased about 
 their nome-gods and their divine companions. As far as can be 
 gathered from the religious texts, it seems that the priests of one 
 company of gods never attempted to suppress the gods of another 
 company if the fortune of war gave them paramount power in the 
 nome wherein they were worshipped. Thus when the priests of 
 Ra attained to the great power which they enjoyed at Heliopolis 
 under the Vth and Vlth Dynasties they did not suppress the local 
 god Tern, but they associated their god with him, and produced the 
 compound god Ra-Tem. Similarly, at a later period, when Amen, as 
 the nome-god of the victorious princes and kings of Thebes, was 
 declared to be the greatest of the gods of Egypt, his priests did not 
 declare that the other gods of Egypt were not gods and try to 
 suppress them, but they asserted that all the powers of the other 
 gods were assimilated in him, and that he was in consequence the 
 greatest of the gods. In the texts of Unas and the kings who were 
 his immediate successors we read of the Great and Little companies 
 of the gods, but we also find mention of the company of gods of 
 Horus and of the double company of gods of Tem ; ' the priests of 
 Heliopolis claimed supremacy among the gods for Ra, but they 
 took care to include as far as possible the name of every god and 
 goddess to whom worship had been paid in past generations. The 
 
 ^' °j^^^iininnxk= minnimmin 
 
 ^^°^. Unas, 11. 443, 444. 
 
106 GODS OF HELIOPOLIS 
 
 same characteristic is observable in the texts of the Theban priest- 
 hood, and we find that their god Amen was even introduced into the 
 Booh of the Dead where, manifestly, he had little claim to be. The 
 hymns in the chapters of that work are addressed either to Ra, in 
 one form or another, or to Osiris, but in Chapter clxxi. we find 
 the following address :— " Tern, Shu, Tefnet, Seb, Nut, 
 " Osiris, Isis, Set, Nephthys, Heru-khuti (Harmachis), 
 " Hathor of the Great House, Khepera, Menthu, the lord of 
 " Thebes, Amen, the lord of the thrones of the two lands, 
 " Great company of the gods, Little company of the gods, gods 
 " and goddesses Avho dwell in Nu, Sebek of the two Meht, 
 " Sebek in all thy manifold names in thine every place wherein thy 
 " Ka (i.e., double) hath delight, gods of the south, gods of the 
 "north, ye who are in heaven, ye who are upon the earth, 
 " grant ye the garment of purity unto the jDerfect spirit of Amen- 
 " hetep." ^ The greater number of the gods whose names are given 
 in the Pyramid Texts are also mentioned in the religious literature, 
 especially in the Booh of the Bead of later periods, and if we pos- 
 sessed copies of all the religious works of the New Empire we should 
 probably discover that the names of all the gods, with perhaps the 
 exception of Set, worshipped under the Early Empire were pre- 
 served in them. The Egyptians, certainly in dynastic times, rarely 
 abandoned a god, and, speaking generally, it is remarkable how 
 little the character and attributes of the gods vary in the period 
 between the IVth and the XXYIth Dynasties. The obstinate 
 conservatism of the Egyptians, which seems to have been inherited 
 in an almost unaltered state by their descendants the Copts, induced 
 the writers of religious texts to introduce into their works as many 
 of the gods as possible, and they Avere moved to do this as much by 
 motives of priestly policy and by self-interest as by feelings of 
 reverence for the gods of Egypt. 
 
 In the Pyramid Texts the predominant gods are those of the 
 company of Heliopolis, but we nevertheless find that the gods 
 of remote towns and cities had duties assigned to them, and that 
 one and all of them were supposed to minister to the deceased 
 kings in the Underworld. The reason of this is not far to seek. 
 
 1 See my Chapters of Coming Forth by Bay (Translation), p. 315. 
 
SUBDIVISIONS OF HEAVEN 107 
 
 The heaven which the Egyptian conceived in his mind closely- 
 resembled Egypt in respect of its sub-divisions, and its various 
 cities and districts were ruled by gods whom it was necessary to 
 propitiate, and whose friendship must be gained at any cost. A 
 man hoped that in the next life he would be able to wander about 
 at will through the length and breadth of heaven, and the only 
 way to obtain this privilege was to secure the goodwill of the 
 gods of the four quarters of the sky by the recital of prayers of 
 various kinds, and by the performance of certain ceremonies, 
 which were always of a more or less magical character. To be 
 able to pass at pleasure along the eastern Delta of heaven and 
 without opposition presupposed the favour of Sept and Temu ; 
 and to have power to drink of the waters of the celestial Nile 
 presupposed the favour of the god Khnemu, the lord of the Island 
 of Elephantine, close to which were situated, according to Egyp- 
 tian belief, the sources of the Nile. The texts of all periods 
 exhibit an almost childish anxiety to prove that every god of 
 Egypt is interested in the welfare of the beings in the Underworld 
 who were once mortal men, and it was a common belief also in all 
 periods that the mere asserting in writing that the gods would 
 minister to the deceased would produce the assistance desired. To 
 enjoy the power to enter into certain cities in heaven the deceased 
 was obliged to know the various gods or " Souls " who were 
 worshipped in them. Thus the Souls of the West were Tem, and 
 Sebek, the lord of the Mountain of Sunrise, and Hathor, the 
 lady of the Evening ; ^ the Souls of the East were Heru-khuti 
 (Harmachis), the Calf of the goddess Khera, and the Morning 
 Star ; ^ the Souls of the city of Pe were Horus, Mestha, and 
 H api ; ^ the Souls of the city of Nekhen were Horus, Tuamutef, 
 and Qebhsennuf ; * the Souls of Heliopolis were Ra, Shu, and 
 Tefnet ; ° and the Souls of the city of Hermopolis were Thoth, 
 Sa, and Tem." Similarly every great heavenly city was held to 
 contain a company of gods, and the beatified soul was thought 
 to enjoy the duty of paying visits to their shrines just as, when 
 in the body, it made offerings to their earthly counterparts. 
 
 1 Booh of the Dead, Chap, cviii. ^ Ibid,, Chap. cix. s Jhid., Chap. cxii. 
 
 * Ibid., Chap, cxiii. ^ Ibid., Chap. cxv. ^ Ibid., Chap. cxvi. 
 
108 DEIFICATION OF THE DEAD 
 
 In the observations already made concei'ning the difficulty of 
 assigning an exact meaning to the word for God and " god," neter, 
 ^ ], we have seen that in dynastic times the chief attribute 
 which was assigned to a god was the power to renew his life 
 indefinitely, and to live for ever, and the text of Unas has shown 
 us that in very early times the Egyptian thought he could obtain 
 this power by eating his god or gods. Closely connected with this 
 belief is another which finds expression in the Pyramid Texts, and 
 also in the later Recensions of the Booh of the Bead which are 
 based upon them. In many passages scattered throughout the 
 religious texts of all periods we find it stated that the deceased 
 has acquired the powers of such and such a god, and that as a 
 result he has become the counterpart or fellow of several gods, and 
 that he takes his place among the company of gods in the proper 
 persons of several of their number. A still further development 
 of the idea makes every member of the body of the deceased to be, 
 first, under the protection of a god, and secondly, to become that 
 same member of the god its protector ; hence his whole body 
 becomes the "double company of the gods," and the "two great 
 " gods watch, each in his place, and they find him in the form of 
 " the double company of the gods weighing the words of every 
 " chief like a chief, and they bow doAvn before him, and they make 
 " offerings to him as to the double company of the gods." ^ More- 
 over, the deceased is made in the texts to stand up at the head of 
 the company of the gods as Seb, the " erpa," or hereditary chief, 
 of the gods, and as Osiris, the governor of the divine^owgrs, and 
 as Ilorus, the lord of men and^^o£^dsJ.__ His bones are the gods 
 
 1 See Pepi I., 11. 317, 318. <=> H ] 11 ->=. "^ 1k @ ^=^ 
 
 ^%sj-\\i^ innminmim' ?'s 
 
 iiimiimiiniii. 
 = i^iimmi vj qp s m i- ^p ^- HI 
 
DEIFICATION OF THE DEAD 109 
 
 and goddesses of heaven ; ^ his right side belongs to Horus, and 
 his left side to Set ; he becomes the actual son of Tem, or Tem-Ra, 
 and Shu, Tefnet, Seb, and Nut, and he is the brother of Isis, 
 Nephthys, Set, and Thoth, and the father of Horus.^ The god 
 Horus taketh his own Eye and giveth it to him,^ and he bestoweth 
 upon him his o\Yn ha or double,* and never leaveth him, and 
 the Bull of the Nine ^ maketh wide his dominions among 
 the gods. 
 
 The oldest copy of the prayer for the deification of the 
 members of the body is found in the text of Pepi I. (line 565 fF,), 
 and as it is very important from several points of view a version 
 of it is here given : — " The head of this Ra-meri is in the form 
 " of [that of] the hawk ; he cometh forth and raiseth himself up in 
 
 " heaven. The skull, ^ v^ @, of this Pepi is that of the divine 
 
 " Goose ; he cometh forth and raiseth himself up in heaven. The 
 
 " [hair] of this Pepi is the .... "'•'^ of Nu ; he cometh forth 
 
 " and raiseth himself ujd in heaven. The face of this Pepi is the 
 
 " face of Ap-uat, \J £55 £55 2^5 ^ ; he cometh forth and raiseth 
 
 " himself up in heaven. The two eyes of Ra-meri are the great 
 " goddess (Hathor ?) at the head of the Souls of Annu ; he cometh 
 '' forth and raiseth himself up in heaven. The mouth of this Pepi 
 
 "is Khens-ur, '^^^5 he cometh forth and raiseth himself up 
 
 '■ in heaven. The tongue of this Pepi is the steering-pole (?) of the 
 " boat of Maat ; he cometh forth and raiseth himself up in heaven. 
 " The teeth of this Pepi are the Souls [of Annu] ; he cometh forth 
 " and raiseth himself up in heaven. The lips of this Pepi are 
 " the . . . . ; he cometh forth and raiseth himself up in heaven. 
 
 1 See Teta, 1. 209. 2 See Unas (Renueil), torn, iii , pp. 209-211. 
 
 ' '^^"^=^<=>A'^P'— rflql °- Pepi I., 1. 457. 
 
 1. 265. 
 
 5 u ^ □[I'^lll 
 
no DEIFICATION OF THE DEAD 
 
 " The CHIN of this Pepi is Khert-Khent-Sekhem, ^ ffljj ^ @ ; he 
 " Cometh forth and raiseth himself up in heaven. The backbone of 
 " this Pepi is [the Bull] Sma, 3^^; ^^ cometh forth and 
 " raiseth himself up in heaven. The shoulders and arms of this 
 " Pepi are Set ; he cometh forth and raiseth himself up in heaven. 
 " The [breast] of this Pepi is Baabu, J "i^ O ^ ' ^® cometh 
 " forth and raiseth himself up in heaven. The heart of this 
 " Ra-meri is Bastet ; he cometh forth and raiseth himself up 
 " in heaven. The belly of this Ra-meri is Nut ; he cometh 
 " forth and raiseth himself up in heaven. The [loins of 
 " this Pepi are] the Great and Little companies of the gods ; 
 " he cometh forth and raiseth himself up in heaven. The 
 " BACK of this Pepi is Heqet ; he cometh forth and raiseth 
 " himself up in heaven. The buttocks, ® '^'^^^, of this Ra-meri are 
 '' the Semket and Mat boats ; ^ he cometh forth and raiseth himself 
 " up in heaven. The phallus of this Pepi is Hap ; ^ he cometh 
 " forth and raiseth himself up in heaven. The two thighs '^ of 
 " Ra-meri are Nit and Serqet ; he cometh forth and raiseth himself 
 " up in heaven. The two legs* of this Ra-meri are the twin soul- 
 " gods at the head of Sekhet-tcher ; ^ he cometh forth and raiseth 
 " himself up in heaven. The soles of the two feet "^ of this Ra- 
 -meri are the double Maati boat; he cometh forth and raiseth 
 " himself up in heaven. The heels (?), '®^ ^, of this Pepi are the 
 " Souls of Annu ; he cometh forth and raiseth himself up in 
 " heaven." 
 
 In the XVIIIth Dynasty versions of this interesting text were 
 written in papyri containing the Book of the Dead, and of these 
 the following exhibit variant readings which appear to indicate 
 changes of belief. 
 
 J^-i. 
 
DEIFICATION OF THE DEAD 
 
 111 
 
 From the Papyrus of Nu. 
 
 (Brit. Mus., No. 10,477, sheet 6.) 
 
 " My hair is the hair of Nu. 
 " My face is the face of the Disk. 
 " My eyes are the eyes of Hathor. 
 " My ears are the ears of Ap-uat. 
 " My nose is the nose of Khenti- 
 
 " khas. 
 " My lips are the lips of Anpu. 
 "My teeth are the teeth of 
 
 " Serqet. 
 " My neck is the neck of the 
 
 " divine goddess Isis. 
 " My hands are the hands of 
 
 " Ba-neb-Tattu. 
 " My fore-arms are the fore-arms 
 
 " of Neith, the Lady of Sais. 
 " My backbone is the backbone 
 
 " of Suti. 
 " My phallus is the phallus of 
 
 " Osiris. 
 " My reins are the reins of the 
 
 " Lords of Kher-aha. 
 " My chest is the chest of Aa- 
 
 " shefit. 
 " My belly and back are the 
 
 " belly and back of Sekhet. 
 " My buttocks are the buttocks 
 
 " of the Eye of Horus. 
 " My hips and legs are the hips 
 
 " and legs of Nut. 
 " My feet are the feet of Ptah. 
 " [My fingers] and my leg-bones 
 
 " are the fingers and leg- 
 
 " bones of the Living Gods. 
 "There is no member of my 
 
 From the Papyrus or Ani. 
 
 (Brit. Mus., No. 10,470, sheet 32.) 
 
 "The hair of Osiris Ani is the 
 
 " hair of Nu. 
 " The face of Osiris Ani is the 
 
 " face of Ra. 
 " The eyes of Osiris Ani are the 
 
 " eyes of Hathor. 
 " The ears of Osiris Ani are the 
 
 " ears of Ap-uat. 
 " The lips of Osiris Ani are the 
 
 " lips of Anpu. 
 " The teeth of Osiris Ani are the 
 
 " teeth of Serqet. 
 " The neck of Osiris Ani is the 
 
 " neck of Isis. 
 " The hands of Osiris Ani are 
 
 " the hands of Ba-neb-Tattu. 
 "The shoulder of Osiris Ani is 
 
 " the shoulder of Uatchet. 
 " The throat of Osiris Ani is the 
 
 " throat of Mert. 
 " The fore-arms of Osiris Ani 
 
 " are the fore-arms of the 
 
 " Lady of Sais. 
 "The backbone of Osiris Ani is 
 
 " the backbone of Set. 
 " The chest of Osiris Ani is the 
 
 " chest of the Lords of 
 
 " Kher-Aha. 
 " The flesh of Osiris Ani is the 
 
 " flesh of Aa-shefit. 
 "The reins and back of Osiris 
 
 " Ani are the reins and 
 
 " back of Sekhet. 
 " The buttocks of Osiris Ani are 
 
112 
 
 DEIFICATION OF THE DEAD 
 
 body whicli is not the 
 member of a god. The 
 god Thoth shieldeth my 
 body wholly, and I am 
 Ra day by day." ^ 
 
 "the buttocks of the Eye 
 
 " of Horus. 
 •The phallus of Osiris Ani is 
 
 " the phallus of Osiris. 
 ■ The legs of Osiris Ani are the 
 
 " legs of Nut. 
 ' The feet of Osiris Ani are the 
 
 " feet of Ptah. 
 'The fingers of Osiris Ani are 
 
 " the fingers of Orion. 
 'The leg-bones of Osiris Ani 
 
 " are the leg-bones of the 
 
 " Living Uraei." 
 
 The text which follows that describing the deification of the 
 members in the inscrijDtion of Pepi I.^ is perhaps of even greater 
 interest, for it declares that : — 
 
 " This Pepi is god, the son of god ; he cometh forth and raiseth 
 " himself up to heaven. This Ra-meri is the son of Ra, who loveth 
 "him ; he cometh forth and raiseth himself up to heaven. Ra hath 
 " sent forth this Ra-meri, who cometh forth and raiseth himself up 
 " to heaven. Ra hath conceived this Pepi, who cometh forth and 
 " raiseth himself up to heaven. Ra hath given birth to this Pepi, 
 "who cometh forth and raiseth himself up to heaven. This [is] the 
 " word of power which is in the body of Ra-meri, and he cometh 
 " forth and raiseth himself up to heaven. This Ra-meri is the 
 " Great Power among the great company of sovereign chiefs who 
 " are in Annu, and he cometh forth and i-aiseth himself up to 
 "heaven." 
 
 In the previous pages it has been shown that the Great 
 company of the Gods of Heliopolis contained nine or more gods, 
 and that whenever these were adopted by other cities and towns 
 the attributes of the chief of the Heliopolitan gods were transferred 
 to the local nome-god, and the identities of both gods were merged 
 in each other. It will, however, be evident at a glance that there 
 
 ^ See my Chapters of Coming Forth by Day (Translation), p. 94. 
 3 Line 574. 
 
THE GODS OF HERMOPOLIS 113 
 
 were very few localities which could afford to maintain in a proper 
 state the worship of nine or more great gods in addition to that of 
 the nome-god, and as a matter of fact we find that very few even 
 of the great towns and cities adopted all the gods of the companies 
 of Heliopolis, and that very few possessed companies of gods which 
 contained as many members as nine. The city of Khemennu 
 (Hermopolis) was famous as the sanctuary of the company of Eight 
 
 Gods, indeed the name "Khemennu," 5, means "the city of the 
 
 ' nil©' •' 
 
 Eight Gods." The names of these gods were : — 1. Nu, ~v^ JH . 
 
 ^•^^^'^^e:* ^-^^^^'H^^- ^-y^^-'H^:!- 
 
 5. Kekui, ^\\^.=^|. 6. Kekuit, ^w^-^^J). 7. 
 
 Kereh, ^ I ,-~s. -f) . 8. Kerehet, ® | ^^ J , and with their 
 
 leader Tehuti, or Thoth, they formed one of the oldest of the 
 companies of gods in all Egypt. The names of the members of the 
 paid, or company, of Hermopolis as here given are taken from the 
 texts inscribed on the walls of the temple which Darius II. built at 
 Hebet in the Oasis of Kharga/ and which is a comparatively late 
 building, but there is reason for believing that they are copied from 
 very ancient documents, and that taken together this group of gods 
 represents the oldest form of the Herrao-politan paut. In some lists of 
 the gods Amen and Ament are made to take the places of Nu and 
 Nut, and those of Kereh and Kerehet are filled by Nenu and Nenut; 
 in others Amen and Ament are substituted for Kereh and Kerehet.^ 
 Throughout Egypt generally the company of gods of a town 
 or city were three in number, and they were formed by the local 
 deity and two gods who were associated with him, and who shared 
 with him, but in a very much less degree, the honour and 
 reverence which were paid to him. Speaking generally, two 
 members of such a triad were gods, one old and one young, and 
 the third was a goddess, who was, naturally, the wife, or female 
 counterpart, of the older god. The younger god was the son of 
 the older god and goddess, and he was supposed to possess all the 
 
 1 See Brugsoh, Beise nach der grossen Oase el-Khargeh, Leipzig, 1878, pi. 14. 
 3 For the lists of the paut of Thoth at Edfu, Dendera, Karnak, Philae, etc., 
 see Brugsch, Eeligion unci Mythologie, p. 127. 
 
 I 
 
114 THE CONCEPTION OF THE TRIAD 
 
 attributes and powers which belonged to his father. The head of 
 the triad was sometimes Ra, and sometimes a god of compara- 
 tively limited reputation, to whom were ascribed the power and 
 might of the great Sun-god, which his devotees assumed that he 
 had absorbed. The feminine counterpart or wife of the chief god 
 was usually a local goddess of little or no importance ; on the other 
 hand, her son by the chief god was nearly as important as his father, 
 because it was assumed that he would succeed to his rank and 
 throne when the older god had passed away. The conception of 
 the triad or trinity is, in Egypt, probably as old as the belief in 
 the gods, and it seems to be based upon the anthropomorphic 
 views which were current in the earliest times about them. The 
 Egyptian provided the god with a wife, just as he took care to 
 provide himself with one, in order that he might have a son to 
 succeed him, and he assumed that the god would have as issue a 
 son, even as he himself Avished and expected to have a son. In 
 later times, the group of nine gods took the place of the triad, 
 but we are not justified in assuming that the ennead was a simple 
 development of the triad. The triad contains two gods and one 
 goddess, but the ennead contains five gods and four goddesses 
 being made up of four pairs of deities, and one supreme god. The 
 ennead is, however, often regarded as a triad of triads, and the 
 three enneads of Heliopolis, 11111111111111111^11111^11, 
 as a triad of a triad of triads. The conception of the ennead is 
 probably very much later than that of the triad. ^ Examples 
 of triads are : — At Mendes, Ba-neb-Tattu "^ ^e:^ ^ ^ '^ , Hat-mehit 
 
 °^ °°^ i ^^ O A ^^<^ Heru-pa-khart ^ □ g ^ 5^; at Tcheqa, 
 Sebek [l J ^, Isis j ^ ^, and Amen () " ^ ; at Memphis, Ptah 
 III S^^^* P ? ^^o I ^""^ I-em-hetep ^ |^:^ ^ ; at Thebes, 
 ^^--^M^?^'Mut^:|^ndKhensu^^^|; and 
 triads like Osiris, Isis, and Horus J^^j^, ^'^_|j^5^,and Set, 
 Nephthys, and Anubis P ;:^ 5^, ^^ |, (| ^ ^ ^ were wor- 
 
 1 An exactly opposite view is taken by M. Maspero (La Mytliologie :egyptienne, 
 p. 270). 
 
POLYTHEISM AND MONOTHEISM 115 
 
 shipped in several places in Egypt. The members of many triads 
 lin Egypt varied at different times and in diiferent places, but 
 variations were caused chiefly by assimilating local gods and 
 goddesses with the well-known members of the companies of the 
 gods of Heliopolis. 
 
 The facts recorded in the preceding pages show that the great 
 gods of the dynastic period in Egypt were selected from a large 
 number of local gods, who were in turn chosen from among the 
 representatives of the gods of the desert, and mountain, and earth, 
 and water, and air, and sky, who had been worshipped in 
 predynastic times. Thus in the great company of the gods of 
 Heliopolis we have Shu, a form of An-her i\f=^-/|, the local 
 god of Sebennytus ; Osiris, the local god both of Busiris and 
 Mendes ; Isis, a form of the still more ancient goddess " Uatchit, 
 lady of Pe," 1 1) fl ^ L,^ , "^ '^, i.e., Buto ; Tefnet, the goddess 
 of a district in the fifteenth nome of Lower Egypt ; etc. The gods 
 of the later predynastic period were, of course, developed out of 
 the multitude of spirits, good and bad, in whom the most primitive 
 Egyptians believed, and it is clear that in general characteristics 
 the gods of the dynastic period were identical with those of the 
 predynastic period, and that the Egyptians rarely abandoned any 
 god whose priests in the earliest times had succeeded in establishing 
 for him a recognized position. The form of the worship of the 
 gods must have changed greatly, but this was due rather to the 
 increase in the general prosperity of the country than to any 
 fundamental change in the views and beliefs of the Egyptians as to 
 their gods ; the houses of the gods, or temples, became larger and 
 larger and more mao;nificenfc as increased wealth flowed into the 
 country as the result of foreign conquest, but the gods remained 
 the same, and the processions and ceremonies, though more mag- 
 nificent under the New Empire, preserved the essentials of the 
 early period. But if we examine the religious texts carefully it 
 will be seen that the Egyptians were always trying to reduce the 
 number of their gods, or, in other words, were always advancing 
 from polytheism to monotheism. The priesthood and the educated 
 classes must have held religious views which were not absolutely 
 identical Avith those of the peasant who cultivated the fields, but 
 
116 ABSORPTION OF ANCIENT GODS 
 
 such, I believe, were concerned chiefly with the popular forms of 
 worship of the gods and with conceptions as to their nature. The 
 uneducated people of the country clung with great tenacity to the 
 ordinary methods of celebrating their worship, principally because 
 the frequent festivals and the imposing ceremonies, which formed a 
 large and important part of it, were regarded as essential for their 
 general well-being ; the priests and the educated, on the other 
 hand, clung to them because their influence was not sufficiently 
 powerful to establish a popular form of religion and worship which 
 would be consistent with their own private views. 
 
 Every change which can be traced in the religion of the 
 country proves that the priesthoods of the various great religious 
 centres absorbed into the new systems whenever possible the 
 ancient gods and the ancient beliefs in them ; hence during the 
 period of the highest culture in Egypt we find ideas of the grossest 
 kind jostling ideas which were the product of great intellectuality 
 and much thinking. Expressions Avhich are the result of a series 
 of beliefs in tree gods, desert gods, water gods, earth gods, and gods 
 with human passions, abound, and it is these which have drawn down 
 upon the Egyptians the contempt of the Hebrews, the Greeks, and 
 the Romans, and even of modern skilled investigators of Egyptian 
 religion and mythology. It has not been suflaciently realized that 
 the polytheism of the Egyptians had aspects which were peculiar 
 to itself, and the same may be said of one phase of the beliefs 
 of this people which appears to be, and which, the -wi'iter thinks 
 undoubtedly is, monotheistic. When the priests of Heliopolis 
 formulated their system of theogony they asserted that the o-od 
 Tern produced the two gods that issued from himself, i.e., Shu and 
 Tefnut, by masturbation,^ and there is little doubt that in making 
 this declaration they were repeating what the half savao-e and 
 primitive Egyptians may really have believed; but it would be 
 
 11. 465, 466. 
 
NOTION OF DIVINE UNITY 117 
 
 utterly -wrong to declare that the priests themselves believed these 
 things, or that such a statement represented the views of any 
 educated person in Egypt on the subject of the origin of the gods. 
 In Chapter xvii. of the Booh of the JDead^ is an allusion to the 
 fight which took place between Horus and Set, but no Egyptian 
 who accepted the refined beliefs which are found even in the same 
 chapter could have regarded this allusion as anything more than 
 the record of an act of savagery which had crept into religious 
 texts at a time when acts of the kind were common. 
 
 The same might be said of dozens of expressions and allusions 
 which are scattered throughout the texts of all periods, and no 
 just investigator will judge the Egyptians, and their religion, 
 and th^eir beliefs by the phases of thought and expressions which 
 reflect the manners and customs and ideas of the primitive dwellers 
 in the Valley of the Nile. But yet it is precisely by such things that 
 the Egyptian religion is judged by many modern writers. The 
 eminent Egyptologist, M. Maspero, says that before he began to 
 decipher Egyptian texts for himself, and so long as he was content 
 to reproduce the teaching of the great masters of the science of 
 Egyptology, he believed that the Egyptians had in the earliest 
 times arrived at the notion of divine unity, and that they had 
 fashioned an entire system of religion and of symbolic mythology 
 with an incomparable surety of hand. When, however, he began 
 to study the religious texts he found that they did not breathe out 
 the profound wisdom which others had found. " Certainly," he 
 says, " no one will accuse me of wishing to belittle the Egyptians ; 
 " the more I familiarize myself with them, the more I am persuaded 
 " that they were one of the great nations of the human race, and 
 " one of the most original and most creative, but at the same 
 " time that they always remained half savage." ^ In other words, 
 
 ~<2-0 f\ "^ ^ " — ■ ^ ?\ a ffl 
 
 2 •' J'ai cru, au debout de ma carriere, il y a bientot vingt-cinq ans de cela, et 
 " j'ai soutenu pendant longtemps, comme M. Brugsch, que les Egyptiens etaient 
 " parvenus, des lenr enfance, a la notion de I'unite divine et qu'ils en avaient tire 
 " un systeme entier de religion et de mythologie symbolique, agence d'un bout a 
 
118 NOTION OF DIVINE UNITY 
 
 the Egyptians, according to M. Maspero, never attained to the idea 
 of the unity of God, and were at the best of times nothing but a 
 half savage nation. It is easy to bring a charge of being half 
 savao-e against a 2;reat nation, but in this case the charge is ill- 
 founded, and is, in the writer's opinion, contradicted by every 
 discovery which is made in Egypt ; for the more we learn of the 
 ancient Egyptians the more complete and far-reaching we find 
 their civilization to have been. The evidence of the monuments of 
 the Egyptians will, however, be sufiicient to exhibit the character 
 of this civilization in its true light, and, as the expression " half 
 savage " is at best very vague, and must vary in meaning according 
 to the standpoint of him who uses it, we pass on to consider the 
 question whether the Egyptians attained to a cenception of the 
 unity of God or whether they did not. 
 
 We have seen that M. Maspero believes that they did not, but 
 on the other hand some of the greatest Egytologists that have 
 ever lived thought that they did. He thinks that the Egyptians 
 possessed the greater number of their myths in common with the 
 most savage of the tribes of the Old and New Worlds, that their 
 practices preserved the stamp of primitive barbarism, that their 
 religion exhibits the same mixture of grossness and refinement 
 which is found in their arts and crafts, that it was cast in a mould 
 by barbarians, and that from them it received an impression so 
 deep that a hundred generations have not been able to efface it, 
 nor even to smooth its roughnesses or to soften its outlines.^ No 
 
 " I'aufcre avec une surete de main incomparable. C'etait le temps ou je n'avais pas 
 " essaye par moi-meme le dechiffrement des textes religieux et oil je me bomais 
 " ii reproduire I'enseignement de nos grands maitres. Qnand j'ai ete contraint 
 
 " de les aborder, j'ai dii m'avouer a moi-mcme qu'ils ne respiraient point 
 
 " cette sagesse profonde que d'autres y avaient sentie. Certes on ne m'accnsera pas 
 " de Tonloir deprecier les Egyptiens : plus je me familiarise avec eux, et plus je me 
 " persuade qu'ils ont ete un des grands peuples de I'humanite, I'un des plus originaux 
 " et des plus crcateurs, mais aussi qu'ils sont toujours demeures des demi-barbares." 
 Ln Mythologie, p. 277. 
 
 1 " En art, en science, en Industrie, ils ont beaucoup invente, beaucoup 
 " produit, beaucoup promis surtout ; leur religion presente le meme melange de 
 " grossierete et de ralEnement qu'on retrouve dans tout le reste. La plupart de 
 " ses mytlies lui sont comnauns avec les tribus les plus sauvages de I'Ancien et du 
 " Nouveau-Monde ; ses pratiques gardent le cachet de la barbarie primitive, et j^ 
 " crois que les sacrifices bumains n'en avaient pas disparu dans certaines circon- 
 
EGYPTIAN MONOTHEISM 119 
 
 one will attempt to deny that traces of half savage ideas and 
 customs are to be found in Egyptian religious literature, but the 
 real question is whether such traces render it impossible for the 
 Egyptians ever to have attained to the conception of monotheism, 
 whether the existence of such half savage ideas and customs is 
 incompatible with it or not. Every one who is familiar with the 
 literatures of oriental religions knows that the sublime and the 
 ridiculous, spiritual ideas and material views, intellectuality and 
 grossness, and belief and sujDerstition, occur frequently in close 
 juxtaposition, and illustrations of these statements may be found 
 in the writings of the Arabs, and even in certain parts of the 
 Hebrew Scriptures. Yet no one will deny that the Arabs as a 
 people have been monotheists since the time of Muhammad the 
 Prophet, and no one will refuse to admit that the Hebrews, after 
 a certain date in their history, became monotheists and have 
 remained so. The literatures of both the Hebrews and the Arabs 
 are full of extravagances of every kind, but no competent person 
 has denied to these nations the right to be called monotheistic, and 
 no one in the light of modern research will attempt to judge them 
 by the coarsest expressions and materialistic thoughts which are 
 found in their Scriptures. On the other hand, no one expects to 
 find either in Hebrew or in Arabic literature the lofty spiritual 
 and philosophical conceptions which modern highly educated 
 thinkers associate with the idea of monotheism, and the same is, 
 of course, to be said for the literature, 0-Lthe_, Egyptians; but it is 
 not difficult tq^o3LthatJKe_id_eajof_mppotheism which existed iu 
 ^Sysi ^^ ^ v ery early p eriod is at least ^of the ^ame character 
 as that which grew up among both Hebrews and Arabs many 
 centuries later. 
 
 To prove this statement recourse must be had to a number of 
 extracts ^ from religious texts, and among such may be quoted the 
 following : — To the dead king Unas it is said, " Thou existest at 
 
 "stances, meme sous les grands Pharaons thebains. Bile a ete jetee au moule 
 " par des Barbares, et elle a regu d'eux une empreinte si forte que cent generations 
 " n'ont pu, je ne dirai pas I'effacer, mais en amollir les asperites et en adoucir les 
 " contours." La Mythologie, p. 277. 
 
 1 See the group given in my Papyrus of Ani, London, 1895, p. Ixxxiii. ff. 
 
120 EGYPTIAN MONOTHEISM 
 
 " the side of God," ^-^:3:^(]<^>ZSn^=1; of Teta it is said, 
 " He weigheth words, and behold, God hearkeneth unto the words," 
 
 king it is said, ''God hath called Teta (in his name, etc.)," 
 .wwvv h n /wwvv r^ (]1 1 ; to Pepi I. it is said, " Thou hast received the 
 "attribute (or, form) of God, thou hast become great therewith 
 
 "before the gods," ^□^__^[)^s-^]^ , m""^ ^^^ 
 
 111 ; and " Thy mother Nut hath set thee to be as God to thine 
 " enemy in thy name of God," A "^^-^ ^\ ^ ^^ ^^^^^ ^^ j 
 
 vvw« ; s® <;c3^ ^\ "^"^ k3:p6 ^vwna | ; aud of the same king it is 
 said, " This Pepi is, therefore, God, the son of God," (°l\\\] D ^ 
 h <=> i I "^^ i I . It may be argued that we should render neter, ] , 
 in these passages by " a god " or " the god," but this would make 
 nonsense of the passages in most cases. There is no point in 
 telling a dead king that he will live "by the side of a god," or 
 that " a god " Avill listen to his words when he is weighing words, 
 i.e., giving judgment upon matters in the next world ; Avhat the 
 writer said and what he meant his readers to understand was that 
 Unas will live with the God, or God, and that he will have such an 
 exalted position there that he will be appointed by God to act as 
 judge, an office which belonged to God himself, and that God will 
 listen to, i.e., obey his rulings. The above passages are taken from 
 texts of the Yth and Vlth Dynasties, but they are only copies of 
 older documents, for there are good reasons for thinking that even 
 so far back as the time when they were made, about B.C. 3300, the 
 texts had already been revised two or three times, and changes 
 and additions made in them as the result of modified beliefs and 
 ideas. 
 
 The value of such passages, however, consists in the fact that 
 they prove conclusively that so far back as B.C. 3300 some one 
 god had become so great in the mind of the Egyptians that 
 he stood out from among the " gods," "TV] i , and was different 
 from the First, Second, and Third companies of the gods, 
 
OSIRIS AS GOD 121 
 
 mnniinmininnimi- ^-*''- ™- ->>-'> 
 
 may be urged is that the neter, |, here referred to is either the 
 
 god Osiris or the god Ra, but even so it must be admitted that 
 Osiris or Ra occupied a position in the mind of the Egyptian 
 theologian which was far superior to that of any of the " gods." 
 On the other hand, it must be pointed out that the Pyramid 
 Texts are full of passages in which we are told what great things 
 Ra wiU do for the deceased in the next world, and the honour 
 which he will pay to him, and we must therefore conclude that 
 the God referred to in the passages which we have quoted is not 
 Ra, although he may be Osiris. But if we arrive at this conclu- 
 sion we must admit that in the relatively remote period about 
 B.C. 3300 Osiris was considered to be such a great god, and to 
 occupy such an exalted position at the head of the " gods," that 
 he could be spoken of and referred to simply as " God." We have 
 already seen it implied that Osiris was the judge of those who 
 were in the Underworld, and we know from the text of Unas 
 (line 494) that he sat on a throne in heaven ; ^ as the king is said 
 to have become " god, and the messenger (or, angel) of God " ^ 
 (line 175), and to " enterdnto the place which was more holy than 
 any^ther_place " ^ (line 178), it is perfectly clear that the God of 
 the Pyramid Texts was an entirely different being from the " gods " 
 and the " companies of the gods." The deceased is actually called 
 " Osiris Pepi," * and as he is said to have become an angel of God, 
 if Osiris be that God and judge, he must have held a similar 
 position to that of the God of the Hebrews, who is said to " judge 
 among the gods," ^ and must have been ministered to by "gods' 
 
 «P(£SI^TJ-*X«P=1. 
 
 * ra^ -^jj (JWi - Pepi I., 1.60. 
 6 Psalm Ixxxii. 1, 103^1)'' D'^fbii n"lp3 . 
 
122 CONCEPTION OF GOD 
 
 of a rank inferior to his own. We may assume, then, that the 
 God of the Pyramid Texts was Osiris, the god and judge of the 
 dead, but it is clear that the only aspects of the God which are 
 referred to are those which he bears as the god and judge of 
 the dead. We have, unfortunately, no means of knowing how 
 he Avas described by his earliest worshippers, for the priests 
 of Heliopolis, when they absorbed him into their theological 
 system, took care to give him only such characteristics as suited 
 their own views ; they have, however, shown us that he was 
 the judge of the dead, and that he occupied a unique position 
 among the gods, and enjoyed some of the powers possessed by 
 the God of the nations which are on all' hands admitted to be 
 roi)notheistic. 
 
 But Ave may obtain further information about the conception 
 of God among the Egyptians by an examination of certain passages 
 in the famous Precepts of Kaqemna and the Precepts of Ptah- 
 hetep. The first of these works was composed in the reign of 
 Seneferu, a king of the IVth Dynasty, and the second in the reign 
 of Assa, a king of the Vth Dynasty, but we only know them from 
 the copies contained in the papyrus which was given to the 
 Bibliotheque Royale in Paris by E. Prisse d'Avennes in 1847.-^ 
 This document was probably written about the period of the 
 XVIIth Dynasty, and may, of course, contain readings and addi- 
 tions reflecting the opinions of the Egyptians on religion and 
 morals Avhich were then current; but the foundations of both 
 works belong to an earlier time, though whether that time fell 
 under the Xllth Dynasty, as some think, or under the IVth and 
 Vth Dynasties as the Avorks themselves declare, matters little for 
 our present purpose. In both sets of Precepts we have a series of 
 moral aphorisms similar to those with which we are familiar in the 
 Book of Wisdom, and Ecclesiasticus, and the Book of Proverbs, 
 and they are given as the outcome of the experience of men of the 
 world ; neither the work of Kaqemna nor that of Ptah-hetep can 
 be said to have been drawn up from a religious point of view 
 and neither author supports his advice by appeals to relio-ious 
 
 1 See Facsimile d'un papyrus :Bgyptien en caracUres Meratiques Paris 
 1847, folio. 
 
CONCEPTION OF GOD 
 
 123 
 
 authority. In these works we find the following admonitions and 
 reflections : — 
 
 1. 
 
 c. Ill 
 
 y 
 
 an rehhentu Ichepert drit neter 
 
 " Not [are] known the things which maketh Grod," 
 
 i.e., the things which will come to pass by God's agency cannot be 
 known, that is to say, God's ways are inscrutable. 
 
 M^f 
 
 ffi 
 
 1 
 
 du dm tau kher seJcher neter 
 
 The eating of bread is according to the plan of God, 
 
 i.e., a man's food comes to him through the providence of God. 
 
 3-i 
 
 dm - Ic 
 Thou shalt not 
 
 ■f- -n- 
 
 dri her 
 put terror 
 
 em reth 
 
 into men and women ; 
 
 Jchesef neter 
 
 is opposed [thereto] God. 
 
 4. H^ pU^, 
 
 s 
 
 /^ D 1 c 
 
 td, set 
 
 dr seka - nek ter em sekhet 
 
 If thou hast land labour in the field (which) hath given 
 for ploughing 
 
 1' 
 
 neter 
 God. 
 
 ^.TLe author of this observation was Kaqemna ; the other ones are by 
 Ptah-hetep. 
 
124 
 
 CONCEPTION OF GOD 
 
 
 A 
 
 ar un - nek em sa dqer dri - h sa 
 
 If thou wouldst be a man perfect make thou [thy] son 
 
 kOl 1 
 
 en smam neter 
 
 to be pleasing unto God. 
 
 I ^ D 
 sehetep dqu 
 
 A' 
 
 1\ 
 
 <=^ I 
 
 Ic em Ichepert-neh khepert 
 
 Satisfy thy dependants by thy actions ; it should be done 
 
 en hesem neter 
 
 by him that is favoured by God. 
 
 ^ ^ 21' 
 mertu 
 
 What is loved 
 
 1' °^ ^^ -^ ^ 
 
 neter pu setem dn setem 
 
 of God is obedience ; disobedience 
 
 en mestetu neter 
 
 hateth God. 
 
 male 
 Verily 
 
 o t ^^ A a 
 
 IJi AA/WNA 
 
 m nefer en tdtd 
 
 a son good [is] of the gifts 
 
 1' 
 
 neter 
 of God. 
 
 And finally from the Prisse Papyrus may be quoted the exhorta- 
 tation, " If having been of no account, thou hast become great, and 
 " if, having been poor, thou hast become rich, when thou art 
 
IDEA OF DIVINE PROVIDENCE 125 
 
 " governor of the city be not hard-hearted on account of thy 
 " advancement, because thou hast [only] become 
 
 Ail! 1' 
 
 mer septu neter 
 
 " the guardian of the provisions of God." 
 
 From this group of extracts we learn that the ways of the god 
 referred to in the " Precepts " were inscrutable, that it was he who 
 was supposed to give a man children, and property, and food, that 
 he was opposed to any man tyrannizing over his fellow creatures ; 
 that he loved to be obeyed and hated disobedience, i.e., those who 
 would not hearken unto him ; that the perfect man was he who 
 brought up his son in ways pleasing to God ; that God expected the 
 man who had been favoured by him to do good to those who were 
 dependent upon him ; and the writer of the " Precepts " urged the 
 governor of a city to remember that he was only the guardian of 
 goods and provisions which belonged to God. In all these extracts 
 it is clear that the allusion is to some great and powerful being who 
 rules and governs the world and provides according to his will for 
 those who are in it. In the second extract we have the words 
 
 sekher neter, i.e., the sekher of God. The word selcher R ® : , has 
 
 many meanings, among them being "thought, plan, intention, 
 scheme, design," and the like, and when Ptah-hetep said that " the 
 eating of bread is according to the selcher of God," there is no 
 doubt that he intended his readers to understand that a man 
 obtained bread, or food, to eat according to the plan or design 
 which God had made, or decreed beforehand. A rendering which 
 would very well represent the words selcher neter is " Divine provi- 
 dence ; " but they do not justify the translation " fate " which has 
 been proposed for them. 
 
 Now we know that both the writers Kaqemna and Ptah-hetep 
 lived in the neighbourhood of Memphis, because their tombs are at 
 Sakkara, and if they lived at Memphis, their great local god would 
 be Ptah of the Beautiful Face, or Ptah of the White Wall, whose 
 
126 PRECEPTS OF KHENSU-HETEP 
 
 feminine counterpart was Sekhet and whose son was I-em-hetep. 
 But in the group of extracts just given there is no mention of any 
 of these gods, and the God referred to cannot be Osiris, first, 
 because the texts are not funereal, and secondly, because the 
 attributes ascribed to this God are not of those which we know 
 from later texts belonged to the god of the dead. Who then is the 
 God whose power, and providence, and government of the world 
 are here proclaimed ? The answer to this question is that the God 
 referred to is God, Whose power men of the stamp of Ptah-hetep 
 discerned even at the remote period in which he lived, and Whose 
 attributes they clearly distinguished ; He was in their opinion too 
 great to be called anything else but God, and though, no doubt, 
 they offered sacrifices to the gods in the temple at Memphis, after 
 the manner of their countrymen, they knew that God was an 
 entirely different Being from those " gods." 
 
 Passing now to the period of the New Empire we have to 
 consider a few extracts from the famous work commonly known as 
 the "Maxims of Ani," or the "Precepts of Khensu-hetep," which 
 was first described^ by E. de Roug(^ in 1861, and was published in 
 full fifteen years later by Chabas.^ The text ^ is written upon a 
 papyrus which was found in a box lying upon the floor of the tomb 
 of a Christian monk at Der al-Medinet, and from considerations of 
 palaeography it must probably be assigned to the period of the 
 XXIInd Dynasty, but the original composition must be a great 
 deal older, and it may well date from the XVIIIth Dynasty. The 
 following extracts will illustrate the conception of God in the mind 
 of the author of the " Maxims " : — 
 
 ^■}€\ li - f~\^m 
 
 I AAAAAA c£_i/ 
 
 jKt neter en saaud ren - f 
 
 The God is for making great his name. 
 
 1 See Moniteur, 15 Aodt, 1861 ; and Comptes Rendus, Paris, 1871 pp 
 340-350. 
 
 " See L':Egypiologie, Chalons-sur-Saone and Paris, 4to, 1876-1878. 
 
 3 A facsimile was published by Mariette in Papyrus jSgyptiens du Musee de 
 £oulaq. 
 
PRECEPTS OF KHENSU-HETEP 
 
 127 
 
 The 
 
 1 
 
 netey 
 
 V 
 
 D 
 
 dput pa 
 
 God [is] the judge of the 
 
 PI 
 
 ma a 
 
 right. 
 
 or, the God is the judge, the righteous one, i.e., the judge who 
 passes sentence according to what is straight, mad, i.e., the law, 
 the canon. 
 
 Ml 
 
 du tdu 
 Giveth 
 
 1 
 
 ^z:::^ 
 
 1 
 
 neter-hu 
 thy God 
 
 unu 
 the means of subsistence. 
 
 4. " I have given thee thy mother," the writer says to his son, 
 and she carried thee even as she carried thee, and took upon 
 herself a heavy burden for thy sake, and did not lea,n upon me. 
 When at length thou wast born after having been carried by her 
 for months, she laid herself under thy yoke, and she nourished 
 thee for three years,^ and was never weary of thee. . . . When 
 thou wast sent to school to be taught, she came every day 
 without fail to thy master [bringing] bread and beer [for thee] 
 from her house. Now thou hast become a man and hast married 
 a wife and hast a house, set thine eye upon thy child, and bring 
 him up as thy mother brought thee up. Wrong not thy mother 
 lest she lift up 
 
 
 I c:^ AAAA^^ 
 
 ddui-set en 
 "her hands to 
 
 pa neter emtuf setemu sebhu-set 
 
 the God [and] he hearken unto her prayers " 
 
 [and punish thee]. 
 
 II 
 
 ammd su 
 
 " Let [a man] give himself 
 
 en 
 to 
 
 pa 
 the 
 
 1 
 
 neter 
 God, 
 
 ' Literally, "her breasts were in thy mouth for three years." 
 
128 PRECEPTS OF KHENSU-HETEP 
 
 
 sami - k su em-ment en pa neter 
 
 " keep thou thyself daily for the God, 
 
 ra 
 
 o 
 
 dib tuauu ond-qeti pa liaru 
 
 " to-morrow (?) being like the day (to-day?)." 
 
 O (a'--' 
 
 Ichennu en neter betu-tuf 
 
 " The sanctuary of God its abomination 
 
 pu sehebu 
 is much speaking. 
 
 1 ^=i p*r £2i s^\i 
 
 senemehu-neh em db mert 
 
 " Make thou thy prayers with a heart of love 
 
 du metet - f 
 all the petitions 
 
 
 
 yWNAAA 
 
 <$. 
 
 n 
 
 I 
 
 ^ 
 
 I ^ (3 
 
 nebt dmennu dri-f 
 
 " of which are in secret. He will perform 
 
 hheru-tuh 
 thy affairs, 
 
 (3 
 
 I I 
 
 1i Sl^ ^^\z 
 
 setemu-f d tchetetu-h seshepu-[_f^ 
 
 " he will hear what thou sayest, he will accept 
 
 utennu-tuk 
 thine offerings. 
 
 <S. 
 
 utennu neter-hu sau-tu ■= er 
 
 . " In making offerings to thy God guard thou thyself against 
 
 na 
 
 betau-tuf 
 
 a 
 
 ennu 
 
 \ 
 
 viaat-Jc 
 
 er 
 
 " the things which he observe [with] thine eye 
 
 abominateth. 
 
PRECEPTS OF KHENSU-HETEP 
 
 129 
 
 
 £i (3 
 
 
 paif 
 "his 
 
 selcheru 
 plans. 
 
 qentet emtulc senenti-tu 
 
 Devote thyself to the adoration 
 
 ] 
 
 h a 
 
 em 
 "of 
 
 en 
 "of 
 
 ren - f su tat baiu 
 
 his name. It is he who giveth souls 
 
 heh 
 to millions 
 
 daru 
 forms, 
 
 C^^^q^i K 
 
 saaua 
 and [he] magnifieth 
 
 PZl^^Sfl 
 
 aaaua - f 
 " magnifieth him. 
 
 pa Shim 
 
 her 
 
 ^ w 
 pa enti 
 
 whosoever 
 
 dr neter ta pen en 
 
 Now the god of this earth is 
 
 I I I 
 
 Ichut du naif mdtui 
 
 " the god Shu, he who is over the horizons. His similitudes 
 
 her Up ta tdtd-thd senterd em 
 
 " [are] upon earth, are given [to them] offerings of incense with 
 
 U 
 
 kai-set 
 
 ^ o 
 
 em-ment. 
 
 ■ their food offerings daily." 
 
 The group of passages given above supplies a new set of 
 attributes ascribed by the Egyptians to God, and they show that 
 they believed this Being to be one who judged according to right, 
 who was jealous for the honour of his name, who received prayers 
 
130 CONCEPTION OF GOD AND THE GODS 
 
 and offerings, and who granted to the suppliant all his petitions, 
 and performed all his desires, when such petitions were made to 
 him in secret and with a " loving heart." The seventh extract is 
 peculiarly instructive, for in it we have a sharp distinction drawn 
 between this God and the solar god Shu, who is here, clearly, 
 identified with the Sun-god. The worshipper of God is exhorted 
 
 to consider His plans, or designs, ® ^ ^ '' which are manifest 
 
 upon earth, to pay good heed to the manner in which he makes 
 offerings to Him, and to dedicate himself to the adoration of His 
 name, for it is He who giveth souls, i.e., life, to millions of beings, 
 and those who exalt Him He will exalt. On the other hand, the 
 similitudes of the god Shu, the lord of the horizons, i.e., the skies 
 of the South and the North, the East and the West, and the god 
 of this earth, are upon the earth, and to them offerings of incense 
 and meat are made daily. There is no need here to dwell upon 
 the lofty conception of what is meet for the worship of God ; nor 
 upon the fact that many of the phrases in the extract are identical 
 in meaning, and almost in words, with passages in the Hebrew 
 Scriptures, for they will be familiar to all, and extracts like the 
 following will occur to every reader : — " Consider the wondrous 
 works of God " (Job xxxvii. 14) ; " them that honour me I wiU 
 honour " (1 Samuel ii. 30), etc. The word rendered " similitudes," 
 
 y ^ (1 fl , is difficult to explain in detail though its general 
 
 meaning is clear enough, and we must understand by it " things 
 which are in the likeness [of Shu] " ; these can, apparently, only 
 refer to the gods to whom incense and offerings were brought 
 daily. The great importance of the second group of extracts 
 consists in the fact that they emphasize and develop the difference 
 between the Egyptian conception of God and the gods. The 
 author of the "Maxims," like Kaqemna and Ptah-hetep, set out 
 to write a book of moral precepts by which he intended his son to 
 mould his course of life and to be guided. This work is not of a 
 funereal character, therefore the God who is referred to throughout 
 cannot be Osiris, and the context proves beyond all doubt that the 
 writer is alluding to the same Being as were the earlier writers 
 of moral aphorisms already mentioned. In the case of the 
 
ONENESS OF THE GODS 
 
 131 
 
 " Maxims," however, the word for God, neter 1 J|, is usually 
 
 qualiiied by the emphatic article pa ^K^ ^^. 
 
 But in all the passages quoted above there is no distinct 
 statement that the God alluded to therein is God alone, and that 
 there is no other God besides Him, although this is clearly implied ; 
 we must therefore turn to another class of texts in which the 
 attribute of oneness or unity is ascribed to one or more "great 
 gods," and see how it is applied. The god Ta-tunen is called, 
 " One, maker of mortals, and of the company of the gods " ; ^ the 
 god Ra-Tem is called, " lord of heaven, lord of earth, maker of 
 " beings celestial and of beings terrestrial, God One, who came 
 " into being in primeval time, maker of the world, creator of 
 " rational beings, maker of Nu (the sky), creator of the Nile, 
 " maker of whatsoever is in the waters, and giver of life to the 
 " same, knitter together of the mountains, making to come into 
 " being men and women, and beasts and cattle, and creator of the 
 " heavens and the earth " ; ^ the great Khu (Spirit) whom Tem 
 created is described as the "only One in Nu" ; ' Osiris is said to 
 be "lord of the gods, god One" ;* and in a remarkable passage, 
 in which the whole of the attributes of the Sun-god Ra have been 
 transferred to Amen-Ra, we have the following statement wherein 
 this god is said to be " the holy (or, venerable) Soul which came 
 
 ff /vww\ 
 
 of Am, sheet 1, line 6. 
 
 
 ■ ^mt ,isri> 
 
 i()K:k 
 
 /n 
 
 I ® y]^- Pc^FU'-^ 
 
 \r\ii±\i 
 
 D® I 
 
 -0 E 
 
 D W 
 
 NAAA n o n r 
 
 ZVWWX AAAAAA 
 
 C^ 
 
 >^=PJ.Sia 
 
 I It I 
 
 I ^1 
 
 Papyrus of Hunefer, sheet 1, line 5 if. 
 
 8 Sook of the Dead, Chap. Ixxviii. 16. 
 * Ibid., Chap, clxxiii. 
 
 I -<e:^ 
 
 (3 
 
132 
 
 ONENESS OF THE GODS 
 
 " into being aforetime, the great god who liveth in (or by) Maat 
 " (i.e., unfailing and unvarying order and regularity), 
 
 pautti 
 " the jpaut 
 
 ^ 
 
 tepi mes pautti 
 
 primeval [which] gave the two companies of 
 
 birth to 
 
 gods, 
 
 hheper neter 
 
 came into being god 
 
 / 
 
 <\ 
 
 I 1 
 
 a fl \\ 
 
 jieb dm - f 
 
 every through him, 
 
 I s: 
 
 an 
 
 unen 
 
 shad 
 
 ta 
 
 em 
 
 ua uaui 
 one alone, 
 
 -^ ® 
 D® DW 
 
 sep tepi 
 
 ■ he made what exists Avhen the earth began in primeval time, 
 
 shetaii 
 " hidden 
 
 I 
 
 \ 
 III 
 
 Q III 
 dsht 
 
 mesi asm Icheperiu 
 
 of births, manifold of forms, 
 
 an rekhtu 
 not is known 
 
 JP^I 
 
 A 
 
 bes - / 
 "his growth." ^ 
 
 The text goes on to say that Amen-Ra is the " holy Sekhem (i.e., 
 " Power), the god who is beloved, and is terrible and mighty in 
 "his risings, lord of space, the Power, Khepera, the creator of 
 " every evolution (or, thing) which belongeth to his existence,^ 
 " except whom at the beginning none other existed." Here then 
 we have Ta-tunen, Ra-Tem, and the god Osiris all called " God 
 
 One," neter ud, | 3 i^, and in the last extract we have the 
 
 remarkable expression " God One alone," '^7'^ ^^ 3, applied 
 
 to Amen-Ra. If we consider for a moment we shall see that the 
 
 See Maspero, Mem. Miss. Arch,., torn i., p. 594. 
 
ONENESS OF THE GODS 133 
 
 gods Tern and Khepera are only forms of the Sun-god Ra, and as 
 Tatunen was concerned in the production of the Sun-god he also is 
 a solar god ; at the time when the above extracts were written, 
 i.e., under the XVIIIth Dynasty, we have abundant proof that the 
 Egjptians_ were continually adding to the attributes which they 
 ascribed to Osiris, and that such attributes were those which 
 belonged to some form of Ra or to Ra himself. The word " One " 
 then is applied in these cases to Ra, and to the forms of Ra, and 
 to a god who had come to be regarded in one aspect at least as a 
 solar god, and it wiU be found on examination of the texts that 
 whenever a god or goddess is described as " One " it is because 
 that deity has been endowed by the writer, whether rightly or 
 wrongly is another matter, with some of the attributes of Ra. 
 
 It is easy to see from the hieroglyphic extract given above 
 that to the god there described are attributed many of the creative 
 qualities which we assign to God Almighty. Thus he is said to 
 be the primeval Paid or divine substance who gave birth to the 
 two companies of the gods (in this case we must understand the 
 company of the gods of heaven and the company of the gods of 
 earth, and not the Great and Little Companies of the gods of 
 Heliopolis), and every god came into being by him or through him. 
 Here it is quite clear that "every god" means only every inferior 
 being who possessed something of the quality of a neter or " god," 
 and every being who ministered to the great Paut, and who in the 
 Hebrew Scriptures would be grouped under the name "Elohim," 
 D\l!?j>{, or among the "angels," and in Arabic literature among the 
 good Jinn. The text goes on to say not only in primeval times, 
 i.e., "in the beginning," he created whatever exists upon the 
 earth, but also that in primeval time no other being existed with 
 him. This is a definite statement of the unity or oneness of God 
 which cannot be gainsaid, and it was this attribute of unity or 
 oneness which the priests of various cities ascribed to their local 
 god whenever they could. We have no means of saying whether 
 this idea of oneness or unity was first applied to Ra or to some 
 more ancient god such as Horus, but it is, in the writer's opinion, 
 quite certain that it existed in the minds of the educated classes of 
 Egypt in the earliest times, and that in all periods it was the 
 
134 
 
 THE GREAT SELF-CREATED GOD 
 
 central point of their conceptions of God. But the text goes on to 
 say that the great Paut who created the companies of the gods is 
 " hidden of births and manifold of forms," and that " his growth 
 (or development) is unknown." This is only another way of saying 
 that the manner in which the beings and things produced by the 
 Paut came into being is unknown, and that he appears under many 
 forms. We may here refer to the passage in the XVIIth Chapter 
 of the Booh of the Dead (line 9), wherein it is said : — 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 ■W ODD 
 
 AAAAAA 
 
 i °\ 
 
 nuk neter aa liheper tchesef Nu pu 
 
 " I am the great god self-created, jSTu, that is to say, 
 
 gemam renu - f jpaut 
 
 " who made his names the company of the gods 
 
 m 
 
 neteru 
 
 em neter 
 " as god." 
 
 Concerning this being the question is asked, " Who then is this ? " 
 and the following answer is given : — 
 
 V] ° 
 Bet jpu 
 " It is Ra 
 
 qemam 
 who created 
 
 Icheper enen 
 
 
 2nt, 
 
 " and these came into beino- 
 
 i 
 
 W 
 
 Ichet 
 
 renu 
 names 
 
 en 
 for 
 
 em 
 in the form of 
 
 at - f 
 his members 
 
 in 
 
 neteru 
 the gods 
 
 ami - Ichet Bd 
 
 " who are in the following of Ra." 
 
 On the creative power of the great Paut special emphasis is laid in 
 the extract on p. 132, for, after declaring that he created in the beo-in- 
 
HENOTHEISM 135 
 
 ning whatsoever exists, the text adds that he created everything 
 that had to do with his own coming into being ; and in the passages 
 from the Book of the Dead it is taught, according to one dogma, 
 that the names of the great, self-produced god Nu became the 
 company of gods under the form of God, and according to another 
 that the gods who were in the train of Ra were the members or 
 limbs of Ra, and that these limbs were, in turn, the names of Ra. 
 The last text quoted is of considerable importance, for it gives us a 
 direct proof that the attributes of the god Nu were transferred to 
 Ra, and that Ra was identified absolutely with Nu, and the last 
 text but one quoted shows how the attributes of Ra were transferred 
 to Amen, who was originally only the local god of Thebes, by 
 means of the fusion of the two gods into Amen-Ra, We know 
 that to many gods were ascribed the attributes of Ra, and that all 
 solar gods were, in the dynastic period at least, held to be forms of 
 him ; if we could identify them all we should be able to reduce the 
 number of Egyptian gods considerably. 
 
 The attribute or quality of oneness or unity, which is ascribed 
 first to the great God who was the creator of the heavens and the 
 earth and aU therein, and secondly to the Sun-god who was 
 regarded as the visible type and symbol of God and his various 
 forms, and thirdly, at a later period to the god Osiris, has been 
 termed "henotheism" by many writers who asserted that it 
 was a "phase of religious thought"^ which was different from 
 monotheism. According to the late Right Honourable Prof. Max 
 Miiller we have become acquainted with this phase of religious 
 thought " for the first time through the Veda," and he goes on to 
 say that "when these individual gods are invoked they are not 
 " conceived as limited by the power of others, as superior or 
 " inferior in rank. Each god is to the mind of the suppliant as 
 " good as all the gods. He is felt at the time as a real divinity, 
 " as supreme and absolute, in spite of the necessary limitations 
 " which, to our mind, a plurality of gods must entail on every 
 " single god. All the rest disappear from the vision of the poet, 
 " and he only who is to fulfil their desires stands in full light 
 " before the eyes of the worshippers," It is quite true that the 
 
 ^ Max Miiller, Hibhert Lectures, p. 285. 
 
136 HENOTHEISM 
 
 Egyptian religion passed through a phase which has been identified 
 as henotheism, but, assuming for a moment that we should be 
 correct in calling that phase henotheism, the Egyptian religious 
 texts prove that it was " not the henotheism of Max Miiller or of 
 " Hartmann, or of Asmus, but a practical henotheism, i.e., the 
 " adoration of one God above all others as the specific tribal god or 
 " as the lord over a particular people, a national or relative 
 '' monotheism, like that of the ancient Israelites, the worship of an 
 " absolute sovereign who exacts passive obedience. This practical 
 " monotheism is totally diff'erent from the theoretical monotheism, 
 " to which the Aryans, with their monistic speculative idea of the 
 " godhead, are much nearer." ^ 
 
 These words by the late Professor Tiele here quoted were not 
 applied by him to the Egyptian religion, but they so well express 
 the present writer's views about the monotheism of the Egyptians 
 that they are adopted for that purpose. Professor Tiele was, 
 undoubtedly, the greatest authority on comparative religion of his 
 day, and although he was not an Egyptologist at first hand, he 
 had discussed Egyptian religious texts with great experts like 
 Chabas, Birch, de Rouge, and others, to such good purpose that 
 his opinion on the subject is of peculiar value. According to him 
 the Egyptian religion presents two apparently contradictory and 
 irreconcilable phenomena : — 1 . A lively sentiment of the spirituality 
 of God united to the coarsest materialistic representations of 
 different divinities ; and 2. A sentiment, not less lively, of the 
 unity of God, united to an extremely great multiplicity of divine 
 persons.^ The best educated priests, he thinks, who were the 
 most vigorous promoters of rehgious progress, were as much 
 attached to forms and traditional symbols as the people themselves, 
 and they were most unwilling to give up any part of them. The 
 symbolism, being misunderstood by the ignorant folk, produced 
 serious errors, and the forms under which the Egyptians repre- 
 sented their gods, and which are repellent to our refined taste, 
 answered in their minds to the idea of divmity which was purer 
 and more spiritual than the noble and beautiful forms of the gods of 
 
 ^ C. P. Tiele, in Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. xx., p. 367. 
 ' Histoire Gomparee des Anciennes Religions, Paris, 1882. 
 
POLYTHEISM AND MONOTHEISM 137 
 
 Hellas. The ignorant felt no repugnance to monstrous representa- 
 tions because they appeared as representations having a profound 
 and mysterious meaning ; the learned understood the meanings of 
 the symbols, and paid their adoration through them to the truth 
 of which they were the coverings. In other words, the uneducated 
 loved a plurality of gods, while the priests and educated classes 
 who could read and understand books adopted the idea of One 
 God, the creator of all the beings in heaven and on earth who, for 
 want of a better word, were called " gods." 
 
 The priests and theologians saw nothing incompatible in 
 believing that God was One, and that he existed under innumer- 
 able forms. We may note the existence of the same view in the 
 Hebrew Scriptures where, in spite of the commandments, " Thou 
 " shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto 
 " thee any graven image, or any likeness [of anything] that [is] 
 " in heaven above, .... Thou shalt not bow down thyself to 
 " them, nor serve them . . . ." (Exodus xx. 3-5), the IsraeUtes 
 felt no scruple in representing God in the midst of His sons, and 
 for a very long time they continued to adore a number of divine 
 beings side by side with Yahweh.^ Thus in Joshua xxii. 22, we 
 read, " The Lord God of gods, the Lord God of gods, he knoweth and 
 " Israel shall know; " in Exodus xxii. 28 is given the commandment, 
 " Thou shalt not revile the gods nor curse the ruler of thy people ; " 
 in Psalm cxxxvi. 2, Israel is exhorted to " give thanks unto the 
 " God of gods ; " the " sons of God " we know from Genesis vi. 2 ; 
 Job ii. 1 ; xxxviii, 7 ;^ and that "gods" in some passages mean 
 nothing but beings possessing some characteristic of God is clear 
 from 1 Samuel xxviii. 13, wherein we read that the witch of 
 Endor told Saul that she " saw gods ascending out of the earth." 
 The allusion in this last passage is clearly to some kind of 
 supernatural being or beings. Returning for a moment to the 
 views of Professor Tiele, we admit that, judging from certain 
 texts of the Dynastic Period, he is justified in asserting that 
 in Egypt monotheism is anterior to polytheism; but judging 
 from the evidence of the recently discovered monuments of the 
 
 ' Tiele, Mist. Oomparee, p. 138. 
 
 2 Cf. also Deut. x. 17 ; Psalms xiv. 3 ; Ixxxii. 1, 6; Job i. 6. 
 
138 EGYPTIAN MONOTHEISM 
 
 predynastic and archaic periods, we must admit that polytheism 
 appears to be older than monotheism. On the other hand, the 
 monotheistic ideas which appear in the works of Kaqemna and 
 Ptah-hetep were certainly not invented during the period in 
 which they lived, and there is every reason for believing that they 
 originated at a much earlier date. If literary compositions 
 belonging to the first three dynasties are ever brought to light 
 from the tombs of Egypt, we shall probably find that the idea of 
 the oneness of God is expressed with just as much force and 
 certainty as it is under the following dynasties, and in the same~ 
 works we shall also find mention of the various gods who were 
 created by the great God who was proclaimed to be One, and 
 expected to be worshipped with obedience. 
 
 The final opinion of Professor Tiele on the Egyptian religion 
 was that from the beginning it was polytheistic, but that it 
 developed in two opposite directions ; in the one direction gods 
 were multiplied by the addition of local gods, and in the other the 
 Egyptian drew nearer and nearer to monotheism.^ 
 
 We may now consider the opinions of some of the greatest 
 Egyptologists on the monotheism of the Egyptians. Writing in 
 the Bevne Archeologique (1860, p. 73) B. de Rouge says, "The 
 " unity of a supreme and self-existent being, his eternity, his 
 " almightiness, and eternal reproduction thereby as God ; the 
 " attributing of the creation of the world and of all living beings 
 " to the supreme God ; the immortality of the soul, completed by 
 " the dogma of punishments and rewards ; such is the sublime 
 
 ' " Ben voorhistoriscli monotlieisme onderstelt een graad van ontwikkeling 
 " en een vordering in liet wijsgeerig nadenken, die bij een nog barbaarscb. volk 
 " niet denkbaar zijn. Ook de egyptische godsdienst is van animisme en magisch 
 " polydaemonisme uitgegaan en zoo eerst tot polytheisme opgeklommen. Dit 
 " polytbeisme ontwikkelt zicb dan in twee gebeel tegen o vergestelde ricbtingen. 
 " Aan den eenen kant wordt de godenwereld, door bijeenvoeging van plaatselijke 
 " godsdiensten, een gevolg van de onderwerping der verscMllende gewesten met 
 " bun godsdienstige middelpnnteu aan bet gezag van een koning, en door over- 
 " neming van vreemde godbeden, steeds rijker. Aan den anderen kant nadert 
 " men bet monotbeisme meer en meer, zonder bet ooitbelder en ondnbbelzinnig uifc 
 " te spreken. De geleerden tracbtten beide mit elkander overeen te brengen, onder 
 " anderen door de vele goden voor te stellen als de openbariagen van den eenen, 
 " ongesobapen, verborgen God, zijn leben, door bem zelnengeschapen." See 
 GescMedenis ran den Godsdienst in de Oudheid, Amsterdam, 1893, p. 25. 
 
EGYPTIAN MONOTHEISM 139 
 
 " and persistent base which, notwithstanding all deviations and all 
 " mythological embellishments, must secure for the beliefs of the 
 '' ancient Egyptians a most honourable place among the religions 
 " of antiquity." ^ In an article on the " Religion of the Ancient 
 Egyptians," written nine years later as a result of a close study of 
 many of the great religious texts, he asserted that more than five 
 thousand years before there existed in the Valley of the Nile the 
 hymn to the unity of God, and the belief in the unity of a supreme 
 God with the attributes of Creator of men, and Legislator of man, 
 whom he has endowed with an immortal soul. In his description 
 of the principal monuments at the Egyptian Museum at Billak in 
 Cairo, Mariette Bey said, " At the head of the Egyptian pantheon 
 " soars a God who is one, immortal, uncreated, invisible and hidden 
 " in the inaccessible depths of his essence ; he is the creator of the 
 " heavens and of the earth ; he has made everything which exists 
 '' and nothing has been made without him ; such is the God who 
 " is reserved for the initiated of the sanctuary." ^ A similar view 
 was held by Chabas,^ who said, " The One God, who existed before 
 " all things, who represents the pure and abstract idea of divinity, 
 " is not clearly specialized by [any] one single personage of the vast 
 " Egyptian pantheon. Neither Ptah, nor Seb, nor Thoth, nor Ra, 
 
 " L'miite d'un etre supreme existant par lui-meme, son eternite, sa toute- 
 " puissance et la generation etemelle en Dieu ; la creation du monde et de tons 
 " les etres vivants attribuee a ce Dieu supreme ; I'inimortalite de Tame, completee 
 " par le dogme des peines et des recompenses ; tel est le fond sublime et persistant 
 " qui, malgre toutes les deviations et toutes les broderies mythologiques, doit 
 " assurer au.x croyances des anciens Egyptiens un rang tres honorable parmi les 
 " religions de I'antiquite'." . . . . " II y a plus de 5000 ans qu'a commence, dans 
 "la vallce du Nil, Vliymne a I'TJnite de Dieu et a I'Immorialite de I'dme; et nous 
 " Yoyons dans les derniers temps I'figypte arrivee au Polytheisme le plus efErene. 
 " La croyance d V Unite du Dieu supreme, d ses attributs de Createur et de Legislateur 
 " de I'homme, qu'il a done d'une dme immortelle ; voila les notions primitives 
 " enchassees comme des diamants indestructibles au milieu des superfetations mytbo- 
 " logiques accumulees par les siecles qui ont passe sur cette vieille civilisation," 
 Annales de Philosophie Chretienne, Paris, 1869, p. 336. 
 
 2 " Au sommet du pantheon Egyptien plane un Dieu unique, immortel, incree, 
 " invisible et cache dans les profondeurs inaccessibles de son essence ; il est le 
 " createur du ciel et de la terre ; il a fait tout ce qui existe, et rien n'a ete fait sans 
 " lui ; c'est le Dieu reserve ii I'initie du sanctuaire." Mariette, Notice, Cairo, 
 1876, p. 17. 
 
 3 Ccdendrier des jours fa stes et iipfastes, p. 107. 
 
140 EGYPTIAN MONOTHEISM 
 
 " nor Osiris, nor any other god is a personification of him at all 
 " times ; but of these sometimes one and at other times another is 
 "invoked in terms which assimilate these intimately with the 
 " supreme type; the innumerable gods of Egypt are only attributes 
 " and different aspects of this unique type." 
 
 M. Pierrot, in discussing the matter, holds the view that the 
 texts prove that the Egyptians believed in a God who was One, 
 and was Avithout a second, and was infinite and eternal. At the 
 very time, however, when the scribes were writing upon papyrus 
 or cutting upon stone the inscriptions which afiirmed this belief, 
 the artists were making sculptures of the gods with heads of hawks, 
 or rams, or crocodiles, or goddesses with the heads of lionesses, 
 cats, or cows. Nevertheless the One God, who is without a second, 
 is One even among the company of the gods, for he has numerous 
 names and forms, and he appears under sa.cred and mysterious 
 forms in the temples, that is to say under the figures ^ Avhich were 
 painted on the walls, and in the statues of the gods which were 
 set up in the temples. The greatest supporter of the doctrine of 
 ancient Egyptian monotheism was the late Dr. Brugsch, who 
 assigned to the word for God, neter | 3, the highly philosophical 
 meaning which has been quoted above. Accepting the view, 
 which the Egyptians themselves held, that the gods were only 
 names of the various attributes of the One God, he searched 
 through the religious literature and collected from the hymns, 
 prayers, etc., Avhich were addressed to the various gods and 
 goddesses in various periods, a number of epithets and attributes ^ 
 which were bestowed upon them by their worshippers. These 
 extracts he classified, and when they were grouped and arranged 
 they formed a description of God such as it would be difiicult to 
 find a parallel for outside the Holy Scriptures. It has been 
 contended that as these scattered epithets are never found together 
 the ancient Egyptians had no conception of a God who was One, 
 and was self-produced, and had existed, and would exist, always, 
 and was hidden and unknown of form and name, and was the 
 Creator of heaven and the gods, and earth, and man, and aU 
 
 ^ Pierret, Le Pantheon jEgyptien, Paris, 1881. 
 
 " They -will be found in Brugsch, Relirjlon und Mythologie, p. 96 &. 
 
EGYPTIAN MONOTHEISM 141 
 
 things, and was at the same time merciful, and compassionate, and 
 loving, and the protector of the weak against the strong, and the 
 rewarder and protector of those who served him. 
 
 But this contention is not well founded, because, although 
 these attributes were ascribed to a miscellaneous number of deities, 
 we must remember that they would not have been thus associated 
 unless the writers recognized such gods as phases or aspects of the 
 Great God. The fact remains that such attributes were ascribed to 
 gods who were created by God, and that the Egyptians arrived at 
 such ideas as those described above is a lasting proof of the exalted 
 character of their religion and of their conception of monotheism. 
 The main point to keep in view is that the gods of Egypt were 
 regarded by the Egyptians generally as inferior beings to the great 
 God who made them, and that they were not held to be equal to 
 him in all respects. Further, we must repeat that the God referred 
 to in the moral precepts of the Early Empire holds a position 
 similar to that held by Yahweh among the Hebrews and Allah 
 among the Arabs, and that the gods and goddesses who were 
 ministers of his will and pleasure find their counterparts in the 
 angels, and archangels, and spirits of all kinds, both good and bad, 
 of whom the Hebrew and zirabic literatures are full. No surer 
 proof of this can be given than the well-known passage in 
 Deuteronomy vi. 4, where it is said, " Hear, Israel, Yahweh our 
 " God (literally, gods), is Yahweh One," ^ and the. Egyptian neter ud 
 
 \ J\ I , "One God," as far as the application and meaning of ud 
 
 is concerned, is identical with that of the Hebrew word inK in the 
 
 ' IT V 
 
 text quoted. We may note, too, the words, " Yahweh our gods," 
 which show that Yahweh was identified with the gods, U^iibii , of the 
 polytheistic period of the ancient Hebrew religion ; it is, however, 
 possible that when the verse in Deuteronomy was written the word 
 Elohlm had come to mean the great God of the Hebrews, although 
 originally it had meant a collection of sacred or divine beings. In 
 the Kur'an, Sura cxii., the God of the Arabs is declared to be 
 One, and from the commentaries on the Sura we know that this 
 declaration was revealed to Muhammad in answer to the people of 
 
 1 Compare St. Mark xii. 29. 
 
142 EGYPTIAN MONOTHEISM 
 
 the Kuresh, who asked him concerning the distinguishing attributes 
 of the God he invited them to worship. If we had all the litera- 
 ture of the early Hebrews, and of the Arabs at the period of the 
 propaganda of Muhammad we should probably find that many 
 local gods in Palestine and Arabia were called One, but that only 
 the God who had the moral aspects which were attributed to the 
 great God of the Egyptians by the philosophers of the Early 
 Empire succeeded in retaining it permanently. 
 
 The religion of the Egyptians has, however, always been 
 regarded from two distinct and opposite points of view ; a number 
 of scholars, among whom may be mentioned ChampoUion-Figeac, 
 de Rouge, Chabas, Mariette, D^veria, Birch, and Brugsch, have 
 considered it to have been monotheistic, but others have declared 
 unhesitatingly that it was polytheistic ; this result is due probably 
 to the way in which it is regarded. Speaking of the difference of 
 opinion which existed on the subject between the late Dr. Brugsch 
 and himself, M. Maspero says that he and Brugsch considered the 
 Egyptian religion in two different ways. Time, he says, which has 
 done so much harm to other nations, has shown itself favourable 
 to the Egyptians. It has spared their tombs, their temples, their 
 statues, and the thousand small objects which were the pride of 
 their domestic life, and it has led us in such a way that we judge 
 them by the most beautiful and the prettiest of the things which 
 they made, and has at length caused us to place their civilization 
 on the same footing as that of the Romans or the Greeks. But if 
 it be looked at more nearly the point of view changes ; to speak 
 quite shortly, Thothmes III. and Rameses II. resemble Mtesa of 
 Central Africa more closely than they do Alexander or Caesar. 
 It is not their fault, but they arrived too soon in a period which 
 was too early, and they must bear the penalty of their precocious- 
 ness. In art, in science, in trade, they have invented much and 
 produced much, aud have, above all, promised much ; their religion 
 presents the same mixture of coarseness and refinement which is 
 found in all else. Most of its myths it holds in common with the 
 most savage tribes of the Old and the New Worlds. The Egyptian 
 possessed the spirit of the metaphysician, a fact which he proved 
 when Christianity furnished him with a subject worthy of his 
 
EGYPTIAN MONOTHEISM 143 
 
 subtle powers. But, M. Maspero asks, what kind of metaphysics 
 could proceed from so naive a conception of the universe and of 
 things which he has revealed? He thinks it must be true, at 
 least in the main, because Brugsch depicted the Egyptian world in 
 a manner very similar to his own, and deeming it true he cannot 
 any longer admit the notion of the Egyptian Deity and his unity 
 which several scholars have adopted. He takes the Egyptian 
 religion for what it shows that it is, viz., a polytheism with its 
 contradictions, and its repetitions, with its dogmas indecent some- 
 times, cruel sometimes, and ridiculous sometimes, according to 
 modem ideas, and with its families of half-human gods which the 
 worshipper cherished the more or understood the better the more 
 closely they resembled himself.^ The opinion thus expressed, 
 though unfavourable to the character of the Egyptian, and directly 
 opposed to the views of some of the greatest Egyptologists of the 
 last century, is evidently honest, and coming from such a quarter 
 is entitled to the greatest respect ; but it seems that M. Maspero 
 has judged the Egyptians of all periods according to the standard 
 of religion which was in vogue in Egypt in predynastic times, 
 when the primitive Egyptians were, no doubt, half savage. 
 
 The Egyptians, being fundamentally an African people, 
 possessed all the virtues and vices which characterized the North 
 African races generally, and it is not to be held for a moment that 
 any African people could ever become metaphysicians in the 
 modern sense of the word. In the first place, no African language 
 is suitable for giving expression to theological and philosophical 
 speculations, and even an Egyptian priest of the highest intellectual 
 attainments would have been unable to render a treatise of 
 Aristotle into language which his brother priests without teaching 
 could understand. The mere construction of the language would 
 make such a thing an impossibility, to say nothing of the ideas of 
 the great Greek philosopher, which belong to a domain of thought 
 and culture wholly foreign to the Egyptian, The allusion to 
 the Christian metaphysics of the Egyptian is understandable, as 
 everyone knows who has taken the trouble to read the literature of 
 the Copts, who transferred much of the base and degraded Egyptian 
 
 ' La Mythologie iSgyptienne, p. 278. 
 
144 EGYPTIAN MONOTHEISM 
 
 mythology which was current during the first few centuries of the 
 Christian era into their newly acquired belief in Jesus Christ. 
 The lives of the Coptic martyrs show the use which the Egyptian 
 made of his metaphysical spirit, and the history of the early 
 Church in Egypt illustrates what happened when he tried to apply 
 it to the consideration of the common theological terms in Greek 
 and in Latin. Incidentally we may note that in order to express 
 the various ideas connected with the Christiaa Deity and the 
 Persons of the Trinity he was obliged to take over the actual 
 Greek words into his language, which was poor in abstract ideas. 
 In the picture which M. Maspero has given of the Egyptian's 
 conception of the universe and of the origin of gods and things he 
 has only dwelt upon the mythological side of the question, and has 
 not set forth all the passages upon which other Egyptologists have 
 based their views about Egyptian monotheism ; moreover, no 
 allowance appears to have been made for the peculiar religious and 
 mental characteristics of the race. But when all is said against 
 the Egyptian religion which can be said, the fact remains that 
 it is not the religion itself which has cruel, ridiculous, and 
 indecent dogmas, but the myths wherewith generations of foolish 
 priests obscured the pure beliefs in monotheism and immortality 
 which seem to have existed in Egypt from the earliest times. If 
 modern oriental religions were judged in the adverse manner in 
 which the religion of ancient Egypt has been judged, none would 
 escape similar condemnation ; the same thing may be said of some 
 of the religions of the Western nations. 
 
 The superstitions which exist among many Eastern nations 
 professing monotheism and even Christianity are as gross as those 
 found among so-called Pagan nations ; as examples may be quoted 
 the Christians of St. John in Southern Mesopotamia, and many of 
 the Arabic-speaking peoples of the Eastern Sudan, yet among the 
 former no one attempts to deny the existence of a sort of 
 Christianity, though he would indeed be bold who would dare to 
 compare it with the Christianity of such men as Canon Liddon or 
 Cardinal Newman ; similarly, the monotheism of the peoples of the 
 Eastern Sudan is universally admitted, but it does not prevent their 
 indulging in the coarsest and most fantastic beliefs and practices 
 
EGYPTIAN MONOTHEISM 145 
 
 many of -which, however, it must be admitted have descended to 
 them from their pagan ancestors. Fortunately, however, the 
 monotheistic character of the Egyptian religion rests on too firm a 
 foundation to be easily overthrown, and notwithstanding the 
 elaborate system of symbolic ceremonials which was so prominent a 
 feature of Egyptian worship, Egyptian monotheism always main- 
 tained its place in the minds of those who were sufficiently educated 
 to understand the ideas which the symbols thereof represented. 
 The Egyptian never confounded God with the gods, and it would 
 seem that he even discriminated between Grod and " the god of the 
 " city," for in the Negative Confession (No. 38) the deceased says, 
 " Utu-rekhit, who comest forth from thy house, I have not cursed 
 " God " ; and in No. 42 he says, " Hail, An-a-f, who comest forth 
 " from Aukert (the Underworld), I have not thought scorn of (or, 
 " belittled) the god who is in my city." Whence came the Egyptian 
 conception of monotheism, or when it first sprang up, cannot be 
 said, but in its oldest form it is coeval with the dynastic civilization 
 of Egypt at least, and it may well date from far earlier times. The 
 monotheistic idea is not the peculiar attribute of any one people 
 or period. It may seem unnecessary to discuss Egyptian mono- 
 theism at such length, but the matter is one of great interest and 
 importance because the literature of Egypt proves it to have been 
 in existence in that country for more than three thousand five 
 hundred years before Christ ; in fact, Egyptian monotheism is the 
 oldest form of monotheism known to us. It is easy enough to 
 understand how anxious the priesthoods of the various cities would 
 be to persuade the people who worshipped the local gods that this 
 or that god was the being who united in himself the attributes of 
 the original god of the city with those of the great cosmic god with 
 physical aspects who created the heavens and the earth, and with 
 those of the ethical god who was proclaimed by Kaqemna, Ptah- 
 hetep, Ani, and other writers of moral precepts. 
 
 In the earliest times it was the god Horus who was chosen in 
 this manner, for under the form of a hawk he appears to have been 
 the first god who was worshipped throughout the country generally, 
 and the numerous forms of this god, and the fact that his attributes 
 were at a later period ascribed to Horus the son of Isis, attest the 
 
146 HORUS AND RA 
 
 antiquity and importance of his cult. The next god chosen to 
 represent the great ethical God of the Egyptians was not a personi- 
 fication of the sky as was Horus, but the Sun-god Ra, on whom 
 was bestowed every epithet of power and might which was known 
 to the Egyptians, as well as the epithets and forms of the god 
 Horus. But although his worship was common throughout Egypt, 
 and his sanctuaries were for many centuries the most important 
 in the land, there is abundant proof that the Egyptians never 
 merged their conceptions of their great ethical God in their concep- 
 tions of Ra. 
 
 There seem to be traces of a belief that Ra as the spirit or 
 god of the sun may have been a form or representative of him, but 
 they are not very definite, and the worship of Ra s visible symbol, 
 the sun, as the source of heat and light, and therefore of life — as 
 the Egyptians recognized at an early period — was commoner than 
 any abstract conception of his nature or existence. In a hymn to 
 Hapi, the Nile-god, we find a remarkable passage in which some 
 of the chief attributes of God are ascribed to the power Avhich 
 causes the Inundation and who is addressed under the names of the 
 gods Ptah and Khnemu. To this Being it is said by the author of 
 the hymn, " If thou wert overcome in heaven the gods, 'I'I'l j) i , 
 "would fall upon their faces and mankind would perish." The 
 context shows that the author first pays a tribute of reverence to 
 the local god of Memphis, Ptah, whom he styles the " lord of fish," 
 and the " creator of wheat and barley," and of whom he says with 
 reference to the well-known attribvite of Ptah as the great artificer, 
 " inactivity is the abomination of his fingers," i.e., the fingers of the 
 god hate idleness. He then goes on to mention Khnemu, the local 
 god of the First Cataract, wherein the sources of the Nile were at 
 one time believed to be situated, and styles him " the bringer of 
 " food and provisions, the creator of all good things, the lord of all 
 " choice and pleasant meats, who maketh the herb to grow for the 
 " use of the cattle, who fiUeth the storehouses and heapeth up high 
 " [corn] in the granaries, who payeth heed to the poor and needy, 
 " who maketh to grow crops Avhich are sufficient for the desires of 
 " all men and yet is not diminished thereby, and whose strength is 
 " a shield." Now the author of the hymn goes on to declare that 
 
THE ATTRIBUTES OF HAPI 147 
 
 the true Hapi, or god of the Nile, " cannot be figured in stone, lie 
 " is not to be seen in the images on •which are set the crowns of the 
 " south and the north with their uraei, offerings cannot be made to 
 " him, he cannot be brought forth from his secret places, his dwell- 
 " ing-place is not to be found out, he is not to be found in the 
 " shrines which are inscribed with texts, there is no habitation 
 " which is sufficiently large for him to dwell in, and the heart [of 
 " man] is unable to depict him." ^ 
 
 The being here referred to is a physical and not an ethical 
 god, and the simplest and, from this point of view, most natural 
 explanation of these remarkable statements is that they are intended 
 to describe the inaccessibility both of the Nile-god and of his shrine. 
 The fact, however, remains that the declaration of the almighty 
 strength and inscrutability, and invisibility, and the impossibility 
 of a description of the power which moves the Nile-god being 
 made by man in writing, or in drawing, or in sculpture, proves the 
 existence in the minds of the Egyptian writers of a lofty conception 
 of the attributes of God. 
 
 But side by side with the fundamental ideas of Horus and Ra 
 and the conceptions which were at the root of the worship of these 
 gods, there existed in the minds of the Egyptians a firm and 
 continuous belief in the _god Osiris, who held a position in the 
 Egyptian religion which was quite distinct from that held by 
 any other god. About his origin nothing can be said, but there 
 is no reason for doubting that he was a god of the indigenous 
 inhabitants of Egypt, and that his worship was firmly established 
 in the country before the dynastic period. He was from the 
 earliest times associated with the doctrine of immortality, and was, 
 the writer believes, the symbol of monotheism in Egypt. It is 
 impossible to say, or even to suggest, what was the original form 
 of his worship, but we know that in the archaic period one great 
 centre of his cult was at Abydos, and from the fact that he was 
 included in the prmt, or company of gods of Heliopolis, we may 
 conclude that he was a very important god of Tattu, or of Busiris, 
 in the Delta, and that his sanctuary was much visited by the 
 peoples thereof. Under the Vth Dynasty, as we have already 
 
 ' A transcript of this text will be found in my First Steps in Egyptian, p. 208. 
 
148 OSIRIS, LORD OF TATTU 
 
 seen, he was regarded as the judge of the dead, and it is clear that 
 he was also the god of the dead jjar excellerice ; but it must be 
 noted that the priests of Ra formed at that time the predominant 
 priesthood of Egypt, and therefore care was taken to assign to 
 Osiris a position inferior to that of Ra in heaven. When the Vlth 
 Dynasty of kings came to an end the power of the priesthood of 
 Ra was greatly diminished, and the worship of Osiris grew and 
 prospered. It is unnecessary to trace here step by step the 
 growth of the cult of the god until the period of the XVIIIth 
 Dynasty, and it will be sufficient to say that between the Vlth and 
 the end of the XVIIIth Dynasty nearly all the attributes of the 
 Sun-god Ea were transferred to Osiris, and the name of Ra is 
 joined to that of Osiris, just as in much earlier times it was joined 
 to Tern and Heru-khuti to indicate the compound gods Ra-Tem 
 and Ra-Heru-khuti. Thus in Chapter cxxx. of the Book of the 
 Bead ^ the deceased says, " I shall not be turned back in the 
 "horizon, for I am Ra-Osiris," and this passage is a proof that 
 quite early in the XVIIIth Dynasty Osiris was considered to be 
 a solar god. In Chapter xvii. (1. 110 fF.) the deceased is made 
 to say, " I am the God-Soul which dwelleth in the Twin-gods, 
 
 On this the question follows, "What does this 
 
 11 
 
 ^'^ w 
 " mean ? " to which we have the answer, " It hath reference to 
 
 " Osiris when he goeth into Tattu ^ and findeth there the soul of 
 
 " Ra ; there one god embraceth the other, and the divine Souls 
 
 " spring into being within the Twin-gods." These lines of text are 
 
 illustrated by a very interesting vignette in the Papyrus of Ani 
 
 (see sheets 7-10), wherein we see a pylon-shaped building between 
 
 the double u u , which represents Tattu, and upon it stand the god* 
 
 Ra, in the form of a hawk with a solar disk upon his head, and 
 
 Osiris in the form of a human-headed hawk, wearing the White 
 
 Crown. The two gods face each other in Tattu, and, according to 
 
 the text, were absorbed or merged each in the other ; thus Osiris 
 
 obtained the attributes and characteristics of the Sun-god Ra, but 
 
 was supposed at the same time to retain all his own peculiar 
 
 attributes. 
 
 ' Papyras of Nu, Chap, cxxx., 1. 18. 
 
 ' Either Mendes in the Delta, oi- the heavenly Mendes. 
 
IDENTITY OF OSIRIS AND RA 149 
 
 The view here given is that which was favoured by the priests 
 of Thebes who, however, only reproduced that which they had 
 borrowed from the priests of Heliopolis, and having gained 
 currency in the theological colleges of the South, it spread 
 among the people to such an extent that almost every great city 
 possessed a sanctuary dedicated to Osiris. A very important 
 hymn to Osiris, which is certainly as old as the period of the 
 XVIIIth Dynasty, shows us how this god assimilated to himself 
 the old solar gods, and how he became Ea. His holy double (U lea) 
 was said to live in Mendes, he was the god who dwelt in Sekhem 
 (i.e., Horus), the lord of Qerert (i.e., the Underworld), the holy 
 one in Memphis, the lord of the temple of Hermopolis, the local 
 gods of which were Thoth and his paut, or company, and he was 
 declared to be the " soul of Ra " and the very body of this god, 
 
 ^1*^ -—J 2T| '^-=^ -^ • His essence was that of the primeval 
 god Nu, and he was the great spirit and divine body in heaven. 
 He was supposed to fight and to vanquish the traditional fiend 
 Seba, who dared to wage war against Ea, and he was the stablisher 
 
 of right and truth, inadt, throughout the world. He made 
 
 the earth with his own hands, and its winds, and its vegetation, 
 and feathered fowl, and fish, and cattle and other quadrupeds, and 
 to him belonged by right the mountains and the desert land 
 throughout the world. The lands of Egypt rejoiced ' to crown 
 him upon his throne like his father Ea. The Great and the Little 
 Companies of the gods loved him, he was the leader of every god, 
 and the brother of the stars. Finally, as a proof of the absolute 
 identity of Ra and Osiris may be quoted the opening lines of 
 Chapter clxxxi. of the Boole of the Bead, which read : — " Homage 
 " to thee, governor of Amentet, Un-nefer, the lord of Ta-tchesert, 
 " thou who risest like Ea ! Verily I come to see thee and to 
 " rejoice at thy beauties. His disk is thy disk ; his rays are thy 
 " rays ; his crown is thy crown ; his majesty is thy majesty ; his 
 *' risings are thy risings : his beauty is thy beauty ; the awe which 
 " is his is the awe which is thine ; his odour is thy odour ; his hall 
 
 ' See the text, with a transliteration and translation, in my First Steps in 
 Egyptian, p. 179 ff. 
 
150 OSIRIS AND IMMORTALITY 
 
 " is thy hall ; his seat is thy seat ; his throne is thy^^throne ; his 
 " heir is thy heir ; his ornaments are thy ornaments ; his command 
 "is thy command; his mystery is thy mystery; his things are 
 "thy things; his knowledge is thy knowledge; his attributes of 
 "majesty are thy attributes of majesty; his magical powers are 
 " thy magical powers ; he died not and thou shalt not die ; he was 
 " not vanquished by his enemies and thou shalt not be vanquished 
 " by thine enemies ; no evil thing befell him, and no evil thing 
 " shall befall thee for ever and for ever." 
 
 In such terms did the Egyptians extol the greatness and 
 power of Osiris, but they make no mention of the aspect of the 
 god which endeared him to countless generations of Egyptians. 
 From hundreds of funeral and other texts we learn that Osiris was 
 held to be partly divine and partly human, that is to say, unlike 
 any other Egyptian god he possessed two natures, and two bodies, 
 the one divine and the other human, and two doubles, the one 
 divine and the other human, and two souls, the one divine and the 
 other human, and two spirits, the one divine and the other human. 
 The human body, according to the Egyptian tradition recorded by 
 Plutarch,^ once lived upon earth and was put to deatl^ in a cruel 
 manner, and was mutilated by his brother ; but his feminine 
 counterpart, Isis, succeeded in obtaining from Thoth the knowledge 
 of certain words and ceremonies, and having learnt from him the 
 proper manner of reciting these words, and how to perform these 
 ceremonies, by means of them she raised up to life the dead body 
 of Osiris. The god Thoth was the personification of the intelligence 
 of the whole company of the gods, and thus the words which he 
 taught Isis were divine, and they were, presumably, names by the 
 utterance of which the gods themselves maintained their existence. 
 Now when Osiris had been raised from the dead he did not con- 
 tinue his life upon earth, but passed into the region of the Under- 
 world, where he became the judge and god of the dead and, as we 
 have seen, was made the possessor of all the attributes of the Sun- 
 god Ra and of the great One God. But, the Egyptians in the 
 early ages thought. Since Osiris was raised to life by the words and 
 ceremonies which Thoth taught Isis, and since Osiris has gained 
 
 ' Be Iside et Osiride, ed. Didot (Scripta Moralia, t. iii., pp. 429-469), § xii.ff. 
 
OSmiS AND IMMORTALITY 151 
 
 immortality by means of them, these same words and ceremonies 
 will raise us to life and give us immortality also. Their priests 
 therefore invented a number of magical ceremonies, which they 
 led the people to believe were identical with those which Isis had 
 performed at the bidding of Thoth, and they strung together 
 magical words which they declared to be those which had raised 
 Osiris to life, and the words were recited and the ceremonies 
 performed by priests who appear to have dressed themselves in 
 such a way as to resemble the divine beings who were concerned 
 with the resurrection of Osiris. 
 
 At a later period, however, the Egyptians put their trust in 
 Osiris himself, and addressed their prayers directly to him as the 
 Being, partly divine and partly human, who had raised himself 
 from the deai. without having seen corruption, and who had 
 bestowed upon his own earthly body, by means of his divine 
 nature, the gift of an everlasting life which it enjoyed in an incor- 
 ruptible and glorified form in heaven. The Egyptians " loved life 
 " and hated death," and they worshipped Osiris as the Great God 
 who not only possessed the power of maintaining his own life 
 indefinitely — which was supposed to be the chief distinguishing 
 characteristic of a god — but also of giving mortals the power to 
 live after death in this world. What Osiris had effected for 
 himself he could effect for man ; hence Thothmes III. is made to 
 address the god in these words, " Homage to thee, my divine 
 " father Osiris, thou hast thy being with thy members. Thou 
 " didst not decay, thou didst not turn into worms, thou didst not 
 " rot away, thou didst not become corruption, thou didst not 
 " putrefy. ... I shall not decay, I shall not rot, I shall not 
 " putrefy. ... I shall have my being, I shall live, I shall germinate, 
 " I shall wake up in peace. . . . My body shall be stablished, and 
 '* it shaU neither fall into ruin nor be destroyed off this earth." ^ 
 Because the human body of Osiris rose from the dead, the body of 
 every man could rise from the dead also, but man lacked what 
 Osiris possessed, i.e., the divine body, soul, spirit, and nature, 
 which had brought about the resurrection of his human body, soul, 
 spirit, and nature. In the earliest times of the worship of the 
 
 ' Booh of the Bead, Chap. cliv. 
 
152 OSIRIS AND IMMORTALITY 
 
 god the Egyptians, as we have seen, invented magical words and 
 ceremonies with the object of supplying the human body with the 
 power necessary to raise itself from the dead, but as time went on 
 they realized that both words and ceremonies were incapable of 
 giving eternal life to the dead, and that only Osiris himself could 
 give them that which they so earnestly desired, i.e., everlasting 
 life, by supplying to their dead earthly bodies the power to rise 
 again, a power which he himself possessed. Beyond _all doubt the 
 Egyptians realized that Osiris wa§^ the . only God who could make 
 them to inherit life everlasting, and that he alone had the power 
 of making " men and women to be-born-again." ^ 
 
 We have already seen how the attributes of the great God 
 who created all things Avere ascribed to him, land we now see that 
 he was regarded as the god who had the power to vanquish death 
 by raising up the bodies of the dead in glorified forms, and to 
 reunite to them their souls and- their spirits, and to give them 
 eternal life in his dominions. These things were declared of no 
 other god, and no other god united in his person the attributes of 
 an ethical god, and an almighty, creative god, and a god Avho Avas 
 the vivifier of the dead. The conception of Osiris included the 
 conceptions of every other god, but the conception of no other god 
 included that of Osiris during the period of the highest thought 
 and civilization of Egypt. The Sun-god Ra was called " One," 
 a few other gods who were made to usurp his attributes were also 
 each called " One ; " this in the earliest times was natural enough, 
 because the Egyptians Avere only acquainted with one Sun, and 
 whether the physical body of the sun as a symbol of the power 
 which moved it or that power itself is referred to in the hymns 
 matters little, for " One " was a suitable epithet both for the sun 
 and its god. In connexion with this matter it is important to 
 remember the unique position which Osiris occupies in the Booh 
 of the Dead and in funeral texts generally. In the texts of the 
 Vth Dynasty we find that Osiris was believed " to weigh words " 
 i.e., to inquire into the various Avords and deeds of the lives of 
 
 1. 15. 
 
 ^ ^^ ^ 3 i ^ I ^' '"' 5«o7co/«^eZ)earf,Chap.clxxxii., 
 
OSIRIS AND IMMORTALITY 153 
 
 men when their souls left their bodies, in order that he might 
 reward them according to their merits. 
 
 In later times this idea was illustrated by the vignette in 
 which the heart of the deceased was seen being weighed in the 
 Great Scales against the symbol of Maat, or the Law and right 
 and truth ; at a still later period, when the heart was the symbol 
 of the conscience, this scene became associated with the examina- 
 tion of the words and deeds of the dead which took place in the 
 Hall of Maati. In the large scenes of the weighing of the heart 
 which were prefixed to the finest papyri of the Book of the Dead of 
 the XVIIIth and XlXth Dynasties, and which were accompanied 
 by suitable hymns and texts, the ceremony takes place in the 
 presence of the gods of the Great and Little companies, but in the 
 Hall of Maati the Forty-Two Assessors are substituted for the 
 gods. In J)oth cases, however, the great judge of all is Osiris, and 
 it was to him that all Egyptians returned after death. Why the 
 Assessors were forty-two in number cannot be said, but it is very 
 probable, as has been before suggested, that each of them repre- 
 sented a district in Egypt in the earliest dynastic times, and that 
 the Hall of Maati thus became a meeting place for the Assessors of 
 the whole country when Osiris sat to judge the dead. It is, 
 moreover, impossible to say why certain assessors were supposed 
 to hear confessions about the non-committal of certain sins, and we 
 have no knowledge of the circumstances which gave rise to their 
 selection and to their admission into the Hall of Judgment. Some 
 of them appear to have been originally the gods of cities, and 
 others gods of nomes, but, on the other hand, a few of them are 
 deities who, in the earliest times, were apparently hostile to the 
 dead. Failing full information on the subject, the chief interest 
 which attaches to the Assessors and the Hall of Maati, in which 
 they sit, consists in the fact that the vignette proves how com- 
 pletely Osiris had gained the ascendancy over all the gods of 
 Egypt. 
 
 In the preceding pages an attempt has been made to trace the 
 development of the conception of a supreme being in Egypt, from 
 the earliest times to the period when Osiris became endowed with 
 many of the attributes now ascribed to God Almighty. There is 
 
154 DEVELOPMENT OF MONOTHEISM 
 
 no doubt that in predynastic times the Egyptians worshipped 
 stocks, and stones, and animals, and plants, and trees, and that 
 they only arrived at the idea of gods which were partly animal and 
 partly man at the end of a long period of what is called in modern 
 times " gross idolatry." From the idea of animal-man gods they 
 advanced to the idea of a man-god, and finally their minds 
 developed the conception of monotheism. When we first gain any 
 definite knowledge of them we find that as a people they had put 
 away the worship of stocks and stones, and most of the things 
 which that worship implies, but that certain animals were held to be 
 sacred in certain cities, and that the literature contained allusions 
 to savage habits and practices, as we have already seen. As time 
 went on, many changes took place in the minds of the Egyptians 
 concerning their gods, but little variation was made in their 
 worship and ceremonial in the temples ; in other words, the spirit 
 of the religion changed whilst the observance of the letter remained 
 unchanged. Thus the forms of worship and the literature pre- 
 served a great deal which no one believed in except the commonest 
 folk, and in this way traces of the lowest forms of religion were 
 preserved and handed down to posterity. The Egyptians, after 
 the period of the IVth Dynasty, were the victims of conservatism 
 and conventionality, and, Ave might almost add, of the priesthoods 
 of Heliopolis and Thebes ; but for these powerful and wealthy 
 confraternities the history of the religion of Egypt would have 
 been very difi'erent. The conception of monotheism, which is so 
 clearly expressed in the moral precepts of the Early Empire, would 
 have developed rapidly, and in its growth it would have obliterated 
 the remains of the old and obsolete faiths which had crystallized, 
 and which existed m layers side by side with the higher doctrine. 
 But the decay which set in after the IVth Dynasty, and which 
 stifled the development of painting and sculpture, also attacked 
 the religion of the country, and the noble conception of mono- 
 theism, with its cult of the unseen, was unable to compete with the 
 worship of symbols, which could be seen and handled, until the 
 time when Osiris was recognized as the One God, who was also the 
 giver of eternal life. The Egyptians were unlike other nations, 
 and similarly their religion and their gods were unlike the religion 
 
EGYPTIAN RELIGION 155 
 
 and the gods of other nations ; and as they must not be judged by 
 the standard of any one foreign nation belonging to any one period, 
 so their religion and their gods must not be judged by the standard 
 of the religion and gods of any later civilized nation. We can 
 only know what the Egyptians thought and believed by reading 
 and studying the texts which they wrote, and a final opinion on 
 their beliefs cannot be obtained until all their religious literature 
 has been published ; the general outline, however, of their religion 
 is clear enough, and it shows us that they possessed a good, 
 practical form of monotheism and a belief in immortality which 
 were already extremely ancient even in the days when the 
 Pyramids were built." 
 
( 156 ) 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 THE COMPANIONS OF THE GODS IN HEAVEN 
 
 IN the preceding chapters, wMcli are devoted to the considera- 
 tion of general questions concerning God and the gods, no 
 mention is made of the habitation of these divine beings or of their 
 companions. The texts of all periods are silent as to the exact 
 position of heaven, but it is certain that the Egyptians assigned to 
 it a place above the sky, and that they called it pet ^__^ ; we must 
 
 distinguish between the meanings oi i^et z. ^-nd '"-'^^ , for the 
 
 former means " heaven," and the latter " sky." We may also 
 
 note that two skies are mentioned in the texts, i.e., , the day 
 
 sky, and , the night sky. The hieroglyphic for heaven and 
 
 sky represents a slab, each end of which rests on a support, and 
 we may assume that the primitive Egyptians believed that each 
 end of heaven rested upon a support (i.e., two mountains) ; out 
 of one mountain came the sun every morning, and into the other 
 he entered every night. The mountain of Sunrise was called 
 
 Bakhau, J ^^.'^> ^"^^ V r\./\yi' ^"^^ *^® mountain of Sunset Manu, 
 ,^ Q:£^. In the earliest times the sky was divided into two 
 
 ODD -^ 
 
 parts only, the East and the West, but later another division was 
 made, and heaven was split up into four parts, and each was 
 placed under the care of a god. The latter division was made 
 long before the Pyramid Texts were written, for in them it is 
 always assumed that the flat slab of iron which formed the sky, 
 and therefore the floor of the abode of the gods, was rectangular, 
 and that each corner of it rested upon a pillar, T . That this is a 
 very ancient view concerning the sky is proved by the hieroglyphic 
 
THE FOUR PILLARS OF HEAVEN 157 
 
 'Ijjy', which is used in texts to determine words for rain, storm, and 
 the like; here we have a picture of the sky falling and being 
 pierced by the four pillars of heaven. 
 
 At a later period, the four quarters of heaven were believed 
 to be under the direction of four gods, and the four pillars of the 
 sky were poetically described as the four sceptres which they held 
 in their ,hands. Thus in the text of Teta (1. 233) it is said, " As 
 " Teta goeth towards them they bring unto him the four gods 
 " who stand with the sceptres of heaven, and they repeat the name 
 " of Teta to Ra, and they take up his name to Horus of the two 
 " horizons." ^ In several texts ^ allusion is made to the lifting up of 
 heaven upon its four pillars, e.g., ci S) ^ ^_^ <^ ^ QQ (§. Illl — "— > 
 and in one place the four pillars are said to support that on which 
 the four heavens rest, TTTT ^ -fi" ^^ ; at a comparatively late 
 period the idea arose that the sky needed support in the middle as 
 well as at the corners, and the god who acted as the prop was 
 called Heh, Mm. According to one myth which represented the 
 heavens in the form of the head of a man, and which made the sun 
 and the moon to be his eyes, the supports of heaven were supposed 
 to be formed of his long flowing hair, and thus we have in the text 
 of Unas (1. 473) an allusion to the " four elder spirits who dwell 
 " in the locks of hair of Horus, who stand in the eastern part of 
 " heaven grasping their sceptres." ^ The gods who grasped as 
 sceptres the four pillars of heaven, which eventually became the 
 
 /VWvV\ /VAAAAA AAAA^^ \ ly\ I J J *— * A^AA^^ 'v- —.3 f' \ 1 1 —11 I I I 11 -it 
 
 ^\.t^~^ . AAAAAA 
 
 f' 
 
 2 See Brugscli, Worterbuch, p. 1351. 
 
158 THE FOLLOWERS OF HORUS 
 
 four cardinal points, were Amset, (1 ^^^ flo, god of the southern 
 point, Hap, | D A ^^^= » ^^^ god of the northern point, Tua- 
 mutef, ^ \\ ^ , the god of the eastern point, and Qebhsennuf, 
 |8 1 11 ^.=^, the god of the western point. These four gods played 
 a prominent part in connexion with the deceased in the Pyramid 
 Texts, where they are called the " children of Horus," ^ for at one 
 time they are called upon to bring him the boat of the Eye of 
 Tern, ^"^^^ t\ --Jv; . which is on the Lake of Kha, and at another 
 they are exhorted to protect his life by their magical power and 
 amulets, U '^ £■ — . °8M«° ,^ and finally the deceased is said to become 
 one of these four gods (Pepi I. 1. 672), ^ ^ ^11^°^ 111 ' 
 The duties which are assigned to them as funereal gods in the Booh 
 of the Dead will be described later on. 
 
 Chief among the dwellers in heaven was the god Ra, who is 
 said to sit upon an iron throne [the sides of which were orna- 
 mented] with the faces of lions and feet which resembled the hoofs 
 of bulls.'* Round about Ra, whether walking or sitting, were the 
 gods who were " in his train," and these formed the nucleus of the 
 inhabitants of heaven. Next to these came certain companies of 
 the gods, and as the whole universe was divided into three portions, 
 namely, heaven, earth, and the Tuat, or Underworld, and each 
 portion had its own gods, we may assume that a place was reserved 
 for them in the heaven of the Egyptians. But this heaven also 
 contained several classes of beings, first and foremost among whom 
 may be mentioned the Shesu-Heru, or Shemsu-Heeu, a name 
 which appears in the Pyramid Texts under the form fl ^. -%■ >%- - %• 
 (Pepi I., 1. 166), and may be translated "Followers of Horus." 
 They are, in fact, beings who followed Horus, the son of Isis, in 
 heaven, where they waited upon him, and performed his behests, 
 
 |||o^=^, Pepi 1,1.593. 
 
 2 Pepi I., 1. 444. 3 Ibid., 11. 309, 310. 
 
THE ASHEMU AND HENMEMET 159 
 
 and when necessary defended and protected liim. They occupied 
 a position of great importance among the celestial hosts, and are 
 mentioned in such a way as to suggest that they were almost equal 
 to the gods ; thus Pepi I. (1. 166) is said to " pacify them," but on 
 the other hand it was they who " washed him, and who recited on 
 " his behalf the Chapter of those who come forth, and [the Chapter 
 " of those who] rise up." ^ Next may be mentioned the Ashemu, 
 
 ^ ^s. ^ ^^^) ^ class of beings whose characteristics are 
 
 not known, and who in the text of Teta (1. 327) are refeiTed to in 
 connexion ■with the sekhemu. The word dshem is usually supposed 
 to mean the " form in which a god is visible," but it must have 
 
 another and an older meaning. The Henmemet, g "^ ^\ ^v'^ ffi;^ 
 
 or HAMEMET, appear to have been a class of beings who either were 
 to become, or had already been, human beings, but the Egyptians 
 themselves seem to have had no very clear idea about their 
 attributes, and the passages in the Theban Booh of the Dead in 
 which they are mentioned have been understood in different ways 
 by different scholars. 
 
 In a hymn it is said of Ra, " when he riseth the rekhit (i.e., 
 
 "rational beings) live, and the hamemet, M / — ^ J| i, exult in 
 
 " him " ; Osiris is called " [lord of] the hamemet, m ^^^ ^\ "^ , in 
 " Kher-aha " ; and the deceased says in Chapter xlii. of the Booh of 
 the Dead, " And shall do me hurt neither men, nor gods, "j 
 "nor spirits,'^, ® ^ ^ i » t^oy the dead (or damned), o v\ ^ 
 
 III' 
 
 " nor the pat, -^-o ^ J] ', nor the rekhit (i.e., rational beings), nor 
 
 "the hamemet." Elsewhere the deceased prays "that the com- 
 " pany of the gods may hold their peace whilst the hamemet talk 
 " with me " ; ^ and it seems from a passage in an inscription of 
 
 ' Compare the variant rm ' Q ^ ^^ -P^ 8 | ■ 
 2 Teta, 1. 95. ^' 
 
 s See the list of passages given in my Vocabulary to the Booh of the Dead, 
 p. 205. 
 
160 THE AFAU, UTENNU, AND SETU 
 
 Hatshepset ^ as if in the latter part of the dynastic period the word 
 had come to mean a class of men and women, especially as it is 
 
 determined by the signs ^ J|, which usually indicate a number of 
 human beings. Thus Rameses III. speaks of " all the gods and 
 " goddesses of the South and the North, and all men, and all the 
 ^^ pat, and all the rekhit, and all the hamemet" ; finally, that the 
 hamemet were believed to live upon grain is proved by the passage 
 in a hymn to Amen-Ra wherein this god is said to be the " maker 
 " of the green herb which giveth life to the beasts and cattle, and 
 
 " of the plant of life, wwva ■¥• ^ ^ , of the hamemet." ^ Of the 
 
 characteristics of the classes of beings called Afa, ^^ ^^^ , 
 
 and Utennu, ^ aa^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ who are mentioned in the text 
 
 of Pepi IL (L 951), we know nothing, and the same must be said 
 
 of the Set beings, H '^ Jk^^, who were, however, divided into 
 
 two classes, the Upper and the Lower, ^ %^ "^ ^. The 
 
 following extract will show how these beings are mentioned : — 
 " great heaven, stretch out thy hand to Pepi Nefer-ka-Ra ! 
 " mighty heaven, stretch out thy hand to Pepi Nefer-ka-Ra, for 
 
 "Pepi is thy divine hawk, J 0"=^^=^^^ 1 IT* ^^P^ hath come 
 " having come forth into heaven, and he hath penetrated Qebhu ; 
 " Pepi hath paid homage to his father, and he riseth like Horus. 
 " Pepi hath come to the place where he is, and he (his father) 
 " granteth to him to rise like the sun, and he stablisheth for him his 
 
 " two divine utchats, 1 '^ "^g ^^ , and when Pepi cometh forth 
 " with him, great like Horus, son of Nut, and like the child with 
 "the lock of hair (i.e., Harpocrates), and smiting the crowns, and 
 " giving orders to the gods Utennu, the Aea gods follow Pepi, and 
 " those who are in the heavens and on the earth come to him pay- 
 " ing homage, together with the two uraei guides, 1 f| "V ^^ %^%^ > 
 " and the jackals, and the spirits, and the Set beings, both the 
 
 ^ Ed, Grebaut, section vi. 
 
 I j=L, n www ,^^.^^ r"*^ |-| 
 
 I I I I I I €> ;^ DOD AAA««' 
 
THE WATCHERS OF PE AND NEKHEN 161 
 
 " Upper and the Lower." It is possible that the Set beings may- 
 have been of like nature to the god Set, who was the brother and 
 associate of Horus in the earliest times, but who in later times lost 
 his position as a god and became the type and symbol of all evil. 
 
 In addition to these the text of Pepi II. (line 849) mentions 
 the " Watchers of the city of Pe," and the " Watchers of the city of 
 Nekhen," ^^czoj^^ D © ^_ 1=30 R ^ o ® @, from which we 
 
 may assume that certain cities were supposed to enjoy the protec- 
 tion of a number of gods whose duty it was to look after their 
 interests in heaven. We know from several passages in the Booh 
 of the Dead that groups of gods were called the " souls " of such 
 and such cities, and it is clear from the inscriptions that each city 
 and town possessed a soul which had, like the soul of a man after 
 death, the power to wander about at will. Thus on a wall in the 
 temple which Cleopatra VII. built at Brment (now destroyed), 
 was a scene in which the great queen was depicted in the act of 
 giving birth to her son Caesarion. The goddess Neith holds up 
 
 the queen's arms, and the midwife Netchemtchemt, f f T |l) > receives 
 
 the boy in the presence of several gods and goddesses. Now in the 
 upper part of the relief were two groups of souls of cities, seven on 
 the right hand and seven on the left, who were supposed to have 
 been present at the birth of the child, and to have taken him under 
 their protection. Among the cities represented are Thebes, Ant, 
 
 l^l", Het, nj@, Qeset, Unt, Ahet, Hetep, Uauaa, •f\f]~^ > 
 etc.^ Each soul is in the form of a human-headed hawk, and each 
 has on its head horns and a disk, XJ/", in the front of which is a 
 uraeus. 
 
 Want of space does not allow of the mention of many obscure 
 beings who are called gods, and who are practically innumerable, 
 and we therefore pass on to refer to the spirits and souls, etc., of 
 the righteous men and women who once lived upon this earth. To 
 these, as well as to the divine beings, was given the name " living 
 
 ones," •?■■?■■¥■ %>, as may be seen from the passage in Unas (line 206), 
 which reads, "Hail, Unas, behold thou hast not departed dead 
 
 1 See Lepsius, Denkmaler, iv. pi. 60. 
 M 
 
162 THE LIVING ONES 
 
 "(^c.^1l(]), but as one living ("^ f ) t^iou hast gone to 
 "take thy seat upon the throne of Osiris. Thy sceptre db 
 
 " ( fl I ^\ is in thy hand, and thou givest commands unto the 
 
 "living ones; thy sceptre mekes (%^^=^\^^)' ^^^ ^^J sceptre 
 ^' Nehebet (-ww^l Jc>^ are in thy hands, and thou givest thine 
 " orders to those whose habitations are hidden." When king Teta 
 is in heaven the seat of his heart is declared to " be among the 
 
 " living ones on this earth for ever," ^ f f f ^ ^ ^ l^^' 
 We have in this latter passage a proof that the Egyptians con- 
 ceived it possible for a man to attain to all the attributes of a 
 divine being, or, let us say, of an angel, and at the same time to 
 enjoy an existence upon earth as well as in heaven. This idea 
 probably arose because they wished to provide a future for the 
 dead body just as they provided a habitation in heaven for the 
 spirits and souls of the righteous. Heaven and earth were comple- 
 ments each of the other, the gods of heaven were the complements 
 of the gods of earth, and vice versa, and the existence of the 
 spiritual and mental attributes of man with the gods in heaven 
 was a complement of his continued life after death in some region 
 on this earth. The Pyi-amid Texts show that the opinion of the 
 Egyptians about the number and functions of the constituent parts 
 of his economy, both physical and spiritual, changed as time went 
 on and as they ascended the various grades which led up to the 
 high platform of their civilization, and the result of the change, or 
 rather changes, made itself manifest in their religious compositions. 
 In the early predynastic period they thought that the life after 
 death was a mere continuation of the life in this Avorld, and when 
 they had placed some food in or on the graves of their dead they 
 were satisfied. 
 
 But they knew that the body of a man in the new life could 
 
 ' Compare also J"^ ^^ [1 -w^ s=^ ^ ^ | ^^ ^ ^£5- 
 
 f TPSsM k m f Z k m f T CHE] 1 
 
 •?"?"?-,PepiI., 11. 545, 646. 
 
 A^AA'VS 
 
THE SPIRITS AND SOULS OF THE DEAD 163 
 
 not be like that which he possessed on earth, although its form 
 might be similar, and they therefore assumed the existence of 
 another body. In his dreams the Egyptian saw a figure of himself 
 or a duplicate, engaged in various occupations, and to this figure 
 he gave the name ha, ^-j ; it was born with a man, it remained 
 within him, usually inoperative, and survived him at death. It 
 never left the body in the grave or tomb, and the offerings which 
 were made in the halls of the tombs in all periods were intended 
 
 to maintain its existence. Nevertheless the ka of Horus, J=d- ^ , 
 
 is in heaven (Teta, line 88), and also the ha of Teta (line 94), which 
 is adjured to bring that which the king might eat with it ; and as 
 the kau of men and gods lived in heaven so there lived there also the 
 
 kail, of cities, e.g., of the city of Pe, vy_J4- JU- _ (Teta, line 88), 
 
 and the " lords of kau praised Ra both in the dominions of Horus 
 " and in the dominions of Set." ^ King Unas is declared to be the 
 
 " chief of the doubles," '^ '-j'^' , and he is said to " gather together 
 
 " hearts for the great wise chief" (Unas, line 395). Men and gods 
 alike possessed shadows, and they also had an existence in heaven 
 after the death of the bodies to which they belonged. When Unas 
 had eaten the bodies of the gods, and had absorbed all their souls 
 and spirits, it is said that the " flame of Unas is in their bones, for 
 " their soul is with Unas, and their shadows are with their forms " 
 (Unas, line 523, Teta, line 330). The souls and the spirits of men 
 had their abode in heaven with the gods, and the religious texts of 
 aU periods are so full of allusions to this fact that it is unnecessary to 
 
 quote examples; the soul, ba, ^^, is usually depicted in the 
 form of a hawk with a human head, and the spirit, khu, '^^5 as a 
 heron. Related intimately to the body, but with undefined 
 functions, so far as we can discover, was the sekhem, 1 ® V\ Y, a 
 word which has been translated *' power," and " form," and even 
 " vital force ; " and finally the glorified body, to which had been 
 
164 THE SAHU OR SPIRITUAL BODY 
 
 united the soul, and spirit, and power, and name of the deceased, 
 had its abode in heaven. This new body of the deceased in heaven 
 
 was called sdhu, d | %> S > ^^^ ™^y ^^^ ^ practical purposes 
 
 be termed the spiritual body ; it grew out of the dead body and 
 was called into existence by the ceremonies which were performed, 
 and the words which were recited by the priests on the day when 
 the mummified body was laid in the tomb. 
 
 Thus we see that the denizens of heaven consisted of the 
 Great, and the Little, and the other companies of the gods ; and of 
 a large number of beings, who may for convenience be called the 
 "inferior gods," and of several orders of beings who possessed 
 some characteristic which caused the Egyptians to assume that 
 they were divine ; and of the shadows, doubles, souls, spirits, 
 powers, hearts, and spiritual bodies of those who had lived upon 
 this earth. In Chapter Ixiv. of the Book of the Dead (line 21) is a 
 curious statement to the effect that the " spirits are four million, 
 
 "six hundred and one thousand, two hundred," ~ xk it^ 
 
 ^ D ^ Sti Ira' ^^ number, but whether this is intended to 
 
 be an enumeration of the spirits of heaven, or of the spirits which 
 once inhabited human bodies, cannot be said. Of the occupations 
 of the denizens of heaven little is known, but to some of them was 
 assigned the task of directing the affairs of this world, others 
 directed the operations of the celestial bodies, and others were 
 attached to the trains of the great gods, and accompanied them in 
 their triumphant courses through the heavens. All these sang 
 praises to Ra as the king and chief of the gods, and they sang 
 hymns to him describing his greatness and glory just as men sang 
 songs of joy to the sun when he rose and set. The gods nourished 
 themselves with celestial food which was supplied to them by the 
 Eye of Horus, that is to say, they supported their existence on the 
 rays of light which fell from the sun which lit up heaven, and they 
 became beings whose bodies were wholly of light. According to 
 one myth the gods themselves lived upon a "wood, or plant of 
 
 Ufe, ^ ^ AAw« ^ ^ (Pepi I., line 430), which seems to have grown 
 
 near the great lake in Sekhet-hetep, round which they were wont 
 
THE ABODE OF THE BLESSED 165 
 
 to sit/ but this idea belongs to the group of views which held that 
 the beatified dead lived in a beautiful, fertile region, where white 
 wheat and red barley grew luxuriantly to a great height, and where 
 canals were numerous and full of water, and where material enjoy- 
 ments of every kind could be found. In other places we read of 
 " bread of eternity," and " beer of eternity," i.e., bread and beer 
 which was supposed never to grow stale or to become spoiled,^ and 
 
 we also have mention of a heavenly fig-tree (csia "^^ J 1), and a 
 
 heavenly vine fO 1^)> *^^ fruit of which is eaten by the 
 
 beatified. The bread upon which the blessed fed themselves was 
 that bread which the Eye of Horus shed upon the branches of the 
 
 olive-tree, ^^ I^ ^ ^ ^ ^ - dl S' (^''^'' ^'""^ ^^^)- 
 Finally, the blessed were arrayed in apparel similar to that which 
 was worn by the gods, but they also had white linen garments on 
 their bodies, and white sandals on their feet. 
 
 All these details show the simple character of the heaven 
 which the primitive Egyptian imagined, and prove that it was at 
 first intended to be nothing but the celestial complement of a 
 terrestrial farm or estate. He wished for a vine, and a fig-tree, 
 and an olive tree, for wheat wherewith to make bread, and for 
 barley wherewith to brew beer ; he also desired clean white 
 o-arments and white sandals. His celestial homestead he expected 
 to be intersected with numerous canals, which would do away with 
 the necessity of laboriously drawing water from the celestial Nile 
 by means of some mechanical contrivance similar to the modern 
 shaduf; the tillage would, of course, be provided for in the next 
 world by the gods, who would take care that the crops did not 
 fail. This simple material heaven is very different from the 
 
 :^ 
 
 , ^~ if. S^ P ™ (j 1^ ^, Pepl, 1. 431. 
 3 Tete, 1. 288, Pepi I., 1. 442 and 1. 390. 
 
166 THE ABODE OF THE BLESSED 
 
 heaven of the Hebrew and Muhammadan writers, with its sensual 
 and sensuous joys of every kind, and its luxurious meats, and 
 drinks, and delights. We know from one or two passages in the 
 Pyramid Texts that there were women in heaven just as there 
 were goddesses, but they are not spoken of as are the Eur al-^uyun 
 (houris), i.e., the women with large, black pupils of the eye set in 
 large whites, who are mentioned in Arabic descriptions of Paradise, 
 and they are not made to be one of the chief attractions of heaven. 
 As far as can be seen, the heaven of the Egyptians had no musical 
 instrument in it, and the only sounds heard in it must have 
 been the songs of the ministering gods and of the beatified when 
 they hymned the Great God. What the Egyptian gentleman who 
 lives on his own land in places remote from towns is now, the 
 Egyptian gentleman everywhere was then ; he loved to wash and 
 anoint himself, and having put on clean linen to sit in the sun in 
 the morning, and to bear himself with dignity, and to be treated 
 with respect by his neighbours and inferiors. He loved to have 
 com, and wine, and oil in abundance, and a sufficient number of 
 slaves to minister to his wants and to maintain his dignity when he 
 moved about from village to village. He honoured his mother, 
 and usually married a very limited number of wives, among whom 
 might be a sister, or half-sister, or cousin, and he took great 
 interest in his male offspring ; we note in the Pyramid Texts that 
 the families of the deceased kings are never mentioned, and that 
 nothing is said about their wives, although Unas (lines 628, 629) is 
 
 said to carry off women from their husbands, ^w^ ^^^ ^ |-j-j 
 
 1 /wv^AA^ wheresoever he pleaseth, whensoever he pleaseth. On the 
 
 other hand, Isis is said to come to king Teta, who unites with 
 her, and the goddess having conceived like the star Sept gives 
 birth to Horus Sept,^ and in another passage Unas is said to have 
 
 H 
 
 ° , Teta, 1. 276. 
 
THE ABODE OF THE BLESSED 167 
 
 become the husband of the goddess Mauit, and also of the young 
 woman who brought bread to him.^ 
 
 But these beings were, after all, only the celestial waters 
 described under the forms of a goddess and a woman, and the 
 sensual idea conveyed by a literal interpretation of the text there- 
 fore disappears. The life of the primitive Egyptians in heaven 
 was as simple as their life upon earth, and their chief wish was 
 to enjoy a state of comfortable and dignified peace, without war 
 and without tumult or strife. We hear nothing of a heaven with 
 a floor of white flour or musk, with pearls for stones, and trees 
 with trunks of gold, and houses covered with gold and silver, and 
 rivers of milk, and honey, and wine, and innumerable maidens 
 with bodies made of pure musk, who live in pavilions made of 
 holloAv pearls and are free from all defects of their sex. The idea 
 of the means to be employed for reaching the heaven of the 
 Egyptians was as primitive as that of the heaven itself, for the 
 Egyptians thought that they could climb on to the iron floor of 
 heaven by going to the mountains, the tops of which it touched 
 in some places. At a later period it was thought that a ladder 
 was necessary, certainly for those who did not live near the 
 mountains whose tops touched heaven's floor, and in many tombs, 
 models of ladders were placed so that the deceased might make 
 use of them at the proper time. The god Osiris even was believed 
 to have needed a ladder, and to have been helped to ascend it by 
 Ra and Horus, or by Horus and Set. The idea of the need of a 
 ladder was deeply seated in the Egyptian mind, for when the 
 custom of placing models of ladders in the tombs ceased, they drew 
 
 
 l=S) 
 
 "1— gliil I^T J-^1^^ — gill 
 ™ ^ ™ dlD -- AP e ™- (51] ^P ITk 
 
 r^l % O ° , Unds, 1. 181. 
 
168 THE SEKHET-HETEP 
 
 pictures of them in the papyri of the Booh of the Dead which were 
 placed in tombs.' The model of the ladder, ^ ^^ I > ''^<^1^i> 
 could be made as long as the deceased wished by reciting certain 
 words of power over it, and by similar means the picture of the 
 ladders given in the papyri could be turned into real ladders. 
 
 The above mentioned facts will show that in his conception 
 of heaven the Egyptian never succeeded in freeing himself wholly 
 from material ideas and the wish to make sure of eternal life and 
 happiness by means of his own acts. In the latter part of the 
 dynastic period the conception of heavQn became more material, 
 and at length, if we may judge by the texts, the belief in the 
 resurrection of the actual physical body prevailed, and the life 
 after death was regarded as nothing but a continuation of the life 
 upon eax'th. Thus the title of Chapter ex. of the Booh of the Dead 
 declares that the text which follows will give a man the power of 
 " doing everything even as a man doeth upon earth." As a result 
 of this view the deceased prays thus :— " May I become a hliu 
 " (spirit) therein, i.e., in the Sekhet-hetep or Elysian Fields, may I 
 " eat therein, may I drink therein, may I plough therein, may I 
 " reap therein, may I fight therein, may 1 make love therein, may 
 " my words be mighty therein, may I never be in a state of 
 " servitude therein, but may I be in authority therein." He also 
 wishes that he may have with him in Sekhet-hetep his father and 
 mother, and presumably his wife and children, and also the god 
 or gods of his city, but in these materialistic passages we find no 
 mention of his desire to worship and praise the gods of heaven, 
 or even the Great God who is said to "grow" therein. Thus in 
 another place in the same chapter he says, " Uakh, I have 
 " entered into thee, I have eaten my bread, I have gotten the 
 " mastery over choice pieces of the flesh of oxen and of feathered 
 "fowl, and the birds of Shu have been given to me. I have 
 " plunged into the lakes of Tchesert ; behold me, for all filth hath 
 " departed from me. The Great God groweth therein, and behold, 
 " I have found [food therein] ; I have snared feathered fowl and 
 " I feed upon the best of them. ... I have seen the Osiris [my 
 
 1 See the Papyrus of Ani, 2nd edition, pi. 22. 
 
THE SEKHET-HETEP 169 
 
 " father], and I have gazed upon my mother, and I have made 
 " love." In every division of the Elysian Fields the deceased, in 
 the later period of dynastic history, found some fresh material 
 pleasure, but, in spite of all its inconsistencies and his materialism, 
 the heaven of the Egyptians was better and purer than that of 
 many more modern nations which are credited with higher intelli- 
 gence and better civilization. 
 
( 170 ) 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 THE UNDERWORLD 
 
 IN the chapters on God and the gods it has already been said 
 that the Egyptians in the earliest times believed that the 
 gods were moved by the same passions as men and grew old and 
 died like men ; later, however, they believed that it was only the 
 bodies of the gods which died, and they therefore provided in 
 their religious system a place for the souls of dead gods, just as 
 they provided a place for the souls of dead men and women. The 
 writers of the religious texts were not all agreed as to the exact 
 position of this place, but from first to last, whatever might be the 
 
 conceptions entertained about it, it was called Tuat, ^ *^ . 
 
 This word is commonly rendered " underworld," but it must be 
 distinctly understood that the Egyptian word does not imply that 
 it was situated under our world, and that this rendering is only 
 adopted because the exact signification of the name Tuat is 
 unknown. The word is a very old one, and expresses a conception 
 which was originated by the primitive Egyptians, and was probably 
 unknown to their later descendants, Avho used the word without 
 troubling to define its exact meaning. To render Tuat by " hell " 
 is also incorrect, because " hell " conveys to modern peoples ideas 
 which were foreign to the Egyptians of most schools of religious 
 thought. Whatever may be the moral ideas of the Tuat as a place 
 of punishment for the wicked in later times, it is clear that at the 
 outset it was regarded as the place through which the dead Sun- 
 god Ra passed after his setting or death each evening on his 
 journey to that portion of the sky in which he rose anew each 
 morning. In the XlXth Dynasty we know that the Tuat was 
 believed to be situated not below our earth, but away beyond the 
 
THE TUAT 171 
 
 earth, probably in the sky, and certainly near the heaven wherein 
 the gods dwelt ; it was the realm of Osiris who, according to many 
 texts, judged the dead there, and reigned over the gods of the 
 dead as well as over the dead themselves. 
 
 The Tuat was separated from this world by a chain or range 
 of mountains, and consisted of a great valley, which was shut 
 in closely on each side by mountains ; the mountains on one 
 side divided the valley from this earth, and those on the other 
 divided it from heaven. We may note in passing that the 
 Hebrews separated the blessed from the damned by a wall,^ and 
 that Lazarus was separated from Dives in hell by a " great gulf," ^ 
 and that the Muhammadans divide heaven from hell by the 
 mountain Al-A'raf, tjly:-^!,^ which, however, cannot be of any 
 great breadth because those who stand upon it are supposed to be 
 able to hold converse both with the blessed and the damned. It 
 is pretty certain that both Hebrews and Muhammadans borrowed 
 their ideas of the partition between heaven and hell from the 
 Egyptian Tuat, but there is no authority in the texts for the 
 Muhammadan view that it is a sort of limbo or purgatory for 
 those who are too good for earth but not good enough for heaven. 
 Those who stand on Al-A'raf are said to be angels in the form of 
 men, patriarchs, prophets, and saints, and those whose good deeds 
 on earth were exactly counterbalanced by their evil deeds, and 
 who therefore merit neither heaven nor hell. Through the valley 
 of the Tuat runs a river, which is the counterpart of the Nile in 
 Egypt and of the celestial Nile in heaven, and on each bank of 
 this river lived a vast number of monstrous beasts, and devils, and 
 fiends of every imaginable kind and size, and among them were 
 large numbers of evil spirits which were hostile to any being that 
 invaded the valley. 
 
 On the sarcophagus of Seti I. is a representation of the 
 Creation, which is reproduced on p. 204, and from it we see that the 
 Tuat is likened to the body of Osiris, which is bent round like 
 a hoop in such a way that his toes touch the back of his head. 
 
 '■ See Eisenmenger, " Was die Juden von der Hollen lehren " {EntdecJdes 
 Judenihum, torn, ii., p. 322 ff. 
 
 " St. Luke xvi. 26. ^ See Kur'an, Sura vii. 
 
172 THE TUAT AND AMENTET 
 
 On the top of his head stands the goddess Nut, who supports with 
 both hands the disk of the sun. From this we may conclude both 
 that Osiris is the personification of the Tuat, and that the Tuat 
 is a narrow circular valley which begins where the sun sets in the 
 west, and ends where he rises in the east. The Tuat was a terrible 
 place by reason of the monsters and devils with which it was filled, 
 and its horrors were increased by the entire absence of light from 
 it, and the beings therein groped about in the darkness of deep 
 night. That the Tuat should be a place of blackness and gloom 
 is quite natural when once we have realized that it was the path 
 of the dead sun between the sunset of one day and the sunrise of 
 the following day. The ideas about this region, which we find 
 reproduced in papyri of the New Empire, belong to different 
 periods, and we can see that the Theban writers who described it 
 and drew pictures of the beings which lived in it, collected a mass 
 of legends and myths from every great religious centre of Egypt, 
 wishing to make them all form part of their doctrine concerning 
 the great god of Thebes, Amen-Ra. As the priests of Heliopolis 
 succeeded in promulgating their theological system throughout the 
 length and breadth of Egypt by identifying the older gods with 
 their gods, and by proving that their views included those of all 
 the priesthoods of the great cities of Egypt, so the priests of 
 Thebes endeavoured to convince the priests of other great cities 
 of the superiority and greatness of their God Amen-Ra, and 
 probably succeeded in so doing. The Theban writers and scribes 
 knew perfectly Avell that originally every nome or great city 
 possessed its oato underworld just as it possessed its own company 
 of gods, and that each underworld was designated by a special 
 name : they, therefore, made the Tuat to include all these under- 
 worlds and all the various gods Avith Avhom they were peopled, 
 and they gave it the most important of the names of the local 
 underworlds. The best knoAvn of these Avas Amentet, ^'^ ^, i.e.. 
 the "hidden place," Avhich appears to have been originally the 
 place where An-her, the local god of Abydos, ruled as god of the 
 dead, under the title of " Khenti Amentet," that is to say, " he 
 Avho is the chief of the unseen land." When the importance of 
 An-her was eclipsed by the neAv-comer Osiris, the title of the former 
 
THE TUAT AND ITS INHABITANTS 173 
 
 was assigned to Osiris, who, henceforth, was always called " Khenti 
 Amentet." But this usurpation of An-lier's title as god of the 
 dead by Osiris must have taken place in very early times, for 
 Amentet was a common name for the underworld throughout 
 Egypt, and is found in texts of all periods, even in those of the 
 Vth and Vlth Dynasties. 
 
 Yet long before even this remote period the priesthoods of 
 certain nomes or cities must have developed the idea that the life 
 of a man resembled the course of the sun during the day, and that 
 setting was to the sun what death was to a man ; the sun, how- 
 ever, reappeared each morning in apparently a new body, and as 
 man wished to live again in a renewed, or new, body, the Egyptian 
 theologians set to work to form a system of theology in which the 
 souls of the blessed dead, i.e., those who had been buried with all 
 the ceremonies prescribed by the religion of the period, were made 
 to accompany the sun in his boat as he passed through the portion 
 of the Tuat which had been assigned to them. As the sun passed 
 through the Tuat large numbers of souls made their way into his 
 boat, and although it was only the dead sun that was their guide 
 and protector, and his passage was through the realms of the dead 
 which were under the sovereignty of Osiris, the god of the dead, 
 they were brought forth at length to renewed life and light as 
 soon as the boat passed out from the eastern end of the Tuat into 
 the day. This view was a very popular and widespread one, 
 especially as it made Ra and Osiris work together, each after his 
 own method, to secure eternal life and happiness for the souls of 
 the dead. As soon as the priests had made up their minds that 
 the Tuat existed, they began to people it with imaginary beings 
 which were supposed to be hostile to the souls of the dead, and to 
 invent descriptions of the various regions into which they declared 
 it was divided ; such descriptions were at length committed to 
 writing, at first in a very simple form, and after the manner of 
 every group of texts which Avere composed for the benefit of the 
 dead, but finally they became more elaborate, and attempts were 
 made to represent pictoriaUy the creatures which were found in 
 the Tuat. In fact, it was intended to compile a book which should 
 contain such accurate descriptions of the Tuat, and such true 
 
174 THE SHAT AM TUAT 
 
 pictures of the foes which the dead soul would have to meet there, 
 together with lists of their names, that when a soul was once 
 provided with a copy of it he Avould find it impossible to lose his 
 way, or to be overcome by any monster which attempted to bar 
 his way or to prevent his access to the boat of Ra. 
 
 The great work which the Egyptians called " Coming Forth 
 
 by Day," <=> V\ v^ , supplied the soul with a great many 
 
 words of power, and prayers, and incantations, as well as hymns, 
 but even in the Early Empire, about B.C. 3500, many of its 
 doctrines were antiquated, and the priests found it necessary to 
 add new chapters and to modify old ones in order to make it a 
 funeral work suitable for the requirements of newer generations of 
 men. Owing to the extreme antiquity of the " Book of Coming 
 Forth by Day," the views expressed in many of its chapters were 
 contrary to those held by Theban priests of the New Empire, about 
 B.C. 1650, and as a result, whilst preserving, and holding in great 
 reverence this work which they had borrowed from the ancient 
 priesthood of Heliopolis, they compiled two works, which may be 
 called "The Book of that which is in the Tuat," and the 
 " Book of the Pylons." In the first of these, the Shat am Tuat," 
 
 I ' " r ^v ^ '^^ ^ , were gathered together aU the views held 
 by the Heliopolitan priesthood on the life of man's soul after death, 
 and though it contained all the doctrines as to the supremacy of 
 Ra, their great Sun-god, these were so skilfully manipulated by 
 the Theban priests, that the compilation actually became a work 
 which magnified the grade and influence of Amen-Ra, the great 
 god of Thebes, and raised him to the position which the Thebans 
 claimed for him, namely, "king of the gods, and lord of the 
 thrones of the two lands." The thrones here referred to are not 
 those of kings, but the shrines of all the gods on all the land on 
 each side of the river Nile. In the Heliopolitan system of theology 
 the god Osiris held a comparatively subordinate position in the 
 paut, or company of the gods, and was in fact only the greatest of 
 the gods of the dead who were worshipped in the Delta ; in the 
 " Book of that which is in the Underworld " he also holds a position 
 subordinate to Ra, and his underworld is made to be a portion of 
 
THE BOOK OF THE PYLONS 175 
 
 the Tuat through which the dead sun passed nightly. In the Shat 
 
 EN Sbau, ^^ "^""^ ~wwv [1 ^ J "^ % ^"^^ '--', or " Book of the 
 
 Pylons," the greatest god of all is the god Osiris, and the whole 
 work is devoted to a description of the various sections of the 
 region over which he presides, and is intended to form a guide to 
 it whereby the souls of the dead may be enabled to make their 
 way through it successfully and in comfort. The Shat am Tuat 
 and the Shat en sbau were, in fact, the outcome of two distinct 
 schools of theology ; the latter, in its most primitive form, was the 
 older of the two, and described the life of man after death more 
 as a continuation of his existence on this earth than as an entirely 
 new life, while the former made the future life to be passed entirely 
 with the Sun-god. The latter maintained the views about the 
 Elysian Fields and their material delights, which found utterance 
 in the " Book of Coming Forth by Day," and was to all intents 
 and purposes an amplification of, and a companion volume to it, but 
 it also contained doctrines which were inserted in it with the view 
 of making it harmonize with the theories in the former which 
 related to the absolute supremacy of Ra. The Theban priests had 
 no wish, when once they had established the mastery of Amen-Ra, 
 but to bring all the doctrines of the various schools of religious 
 thought into harmony with their own, for such a course could do 
 nothing but contribute to the material prosperity of the great 
 brotherhood of Amen-Ra. They were tolerably sure of the 
 offerings of the faithful of Thebes, but they were anxious to 
 obtain a share of those of the devotees of Osiris who flocked to 
 Abydos, which was, rightly or wrongly, celebrated as the burial- 
 place of the god. The history of Egypt shows that the fight 
 between the kings of the South and the kings of the North for the 
 supremacy of the whole country was always going on, but as the 
 fortunes of war had given victory to the kings of the South, who 
 were the lords of all Egypt under the New Empire, the priests of 
 the god of these kings determined that Amen-Ra should be the 
 king of the gods. Religious ambition was helped by the success 
 of the great warrior kings of the XVIIIth Dynasty, and thus 
 Amen-Ra became the overlord of Osiris. 
 
176 DIVISIONS OF THE UNDERWORLD 
 
 Botli the '' Book of that which is in the Underworld " and the 
 " Book of the Pylons " divide the Tuat into twelve parts, each of 
 which corresponds to one of the hours of the night, and the 
 
 divisions are called " Field," []^l]j] ^, selchet, or " City," , nut, or 
 " Hall," ■=> arret, or " Circle," <=> qerert. In Chapter 
 
 cxliv. of the Book of the Bead, according to the Papyrus of Nu 
 (Brit. Mus.,No. 10,477), the Arrets are seven in number, and each 
 is guarded by a doorkeeper, a watcher, and a herald with the 
 following names : — 
 
 Arret I. 1. Sekhet-hra-asht-aru, P^S"^ "^ ^'"^^'^ll- 
 2. Semetu, P ^ ^ ^ ^ 5^ • 3. Hu-kheru, n: 
 
 Akbet II. 1. Tun-pehti,^ ZV^ ^ sS' 2- Seqet-hra, fl ^ ^J^ ^, 
 3. Sabes, p^Jp. 
 
 Arret III. 1. Am-huat-ent-peh-fi, ^ ^ § -jT] "^ A 
 2. Res-hra, <=> p ^ ^ ^ ^ . 3. Faau, 
 
 I <= W 
 
 Arret IV. 1. Khesef-hra-ash-kheru, ^ Uj] "^ *^ 
 
 2, Res - ab, <=> p J "^ . 3. Neteqa - hra - khesef - atu, 
 
 AAAA/NA 
 
 ^ A 
 
 AVv/\^A 
 
 "1 I r 
 
 Arret V. 1. Ankh - em - fentu, -^ 
 
 Ashebu, ^ oa J ^ . 3. Teb - her - kehaat, -=^ J ^ 
 
 ra mm© 1 
 
 Arret VI. 1. Aken-tau-k-ha-kheru, |) ^=^^D | ^"^jj %, . 
 2. An-her, ^ <^ _ 3^ Metes-hra-ari-she, |i^^^ 
 
DIVISIONS OF THE UNDERWORLD 177 
 
 Arret VII. 1. Metes-sen, ^^^^^^^-pTTi" ^- ^^-kheru, 
 
 \^. 3. Khesef-hra-khemiu, ^ ^ L=^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 In Chapter cxlv. of the Book of the Dead according to the 
 Theban and Saite Recensions the domain of Osiris, i.e., Sekhet- 
 
 ^™' M;^^S^,?,®' - Sekhet-Aanre, |||; 
 1 !m'<::!=I' I I I'S' contains Twenty-one pylons, each of which 
 has a name, generally a very long one, and each of which is 
 guarded by a god. The names of the gods who guard the first ten 
 of these pylons are:— 1. Neei, ^ij()^U=/!^- 2. Mes-Peh, 
 il](lD|_^|. 3. Ehtat-Sebanqa, ^flj^ — ^^y. 
 4- Nekau, ^ ^^5^^. 5. Henti-requ,| A^^';;^^. 
 
 6. SEMAMTI,pj;^|^;;y. 7. AkENTI,(]^|. 8. KhU- 
 TCHET-F, ^ ^ I 271 =^ 5^ • 9. TcHESEE, ^ ^ . SekHEN-UR, 
 
 IL^i /^Ss^' These names are taken from the Papyrus of 
 Nu already quoted (sheet 25), but the following come from 
 the Turin Papyrus, which was edited by Lepsius so far back as 
 1842, and they illustrate the changes which have taken place in 
 the names. 1. Nerau, ^ () ^ ^ 5^ • 2. Mes-Ptah, I P ° | • 
 3. Beq, J ^ 1 1 . 4. Hu-tepa, I ^ ^ □ ^ 5^ j . 5. Brta- 
 
 HEN-ER-REQAU, ^^ ^ a^ <=> '^ % (3 -J) j . 6. SaMTI, 1^ J\ . 
 
 7. Am-Nit, (|^^|. 8. Netchses, ^::n^. 9. Khau- 
 
 TCHET-E, ^ ^ J^ ^ --. 10. SeKHEN-UR, P ^ ^ ^^ • 
 
 The names of all the pylons are given in both the Theban and 
 Sai'te Recensions,^ but the names of the gods who guard pylons 
 XI. — XXI. are given in neither. The domain of Osiris, or Sekhet- 
 Aarru, was, according to Chapters cxlix. and cl., divided into fifteen 
 
 Aats, which are thus enumerated : — Aat ( ) I. Sekhet Aarru ; 
 
 ^ See my Chapters of Coming Forth hy Day (Text), p. 334 ff. 
 N 
 
178 DIVISIONS OF SEKHET-AARRU 
 
 A^A/v^^ 
 
 its god was Ra-Heru-khuti. Aat 11. Apt-ent-khet, V^ ^ ^\^; 
 its god was Fa-akh, ^^ ^ ^ "^ ^ | . Aat III. Tu-qa-aat, 
 
 ^^^ ^ 1\ f H "^ "^ " . Aat IV. " The Aat of the spirits," 
 
 rami 1 1 _^ -ft U - fl.^,=^=f=. 
 
 '^ ® "^ ^ I . Aat V. Ammehet, (] z= ^ | J ; ^^^ god in it 
 is caUed Sekher-remu, P ^ «^ <=* ^ ^ ."Y", 5^ • -^^'^ ^^^ 
 Asset, 1\\}\^q- Aat VII. Ha-sert, rD^-ApT"®: ^^^ 
 
 . Aat VIII. Apt-ent-qahu, %J^ ^ 
 ^ "^ I %, ^ . Aat IX. Atu, (] c^ ^ ©; the god in it is Sept, 
 A'^P-,. Aat X. Unt, ^^^; the god in it is Hetemet-baiu, 
 ■f^^ - ^ "^ ' • Aat XI. Apt-net, \J ^ aa^aw ; the god in 
 
 it is Aa-sekhemu, ^"^IP^^^©,"^!^- ^^^ -^^■^• 
 Khee-aha, ^ Q^ ■^ ^ ; the god in it is Hap, | 
 
 AAAAAA 
 
 i.e., the Nile. Aat XIII. Atru-she- en-nesert-e-em-shet, 
 
 (j^^P^; the god in 'it is Maa-thet-f, ^^ ^^ sl_ s3 • 
 
 Aat XV. Amentet-neeert, " Beautiful Amentet, ft ^^^ I <=> ," 
 wherein the gods live upon cakes and ale. 
 
 In connexion with these various divisions of the realm of 
 Osiris here will follow naturally a brief description of the Book 
 OF Pylons. An excellent copy of its text, with illustrations, is to 
 be found on the famous alabaster sarcophagus^ of Seti I., now 
 preserved in Sir John Soane's Museum in Lincoln's Inn Fields, 
 and variants of several of the passages are given on the walls of 
 the tombs of several kings of the XXth Dynasty, who were buried 
 in the Valley of the Tombs of the Kings at Thebes. Curiously 
 enough, the work, as M. Jequier has remarked,^ seems never to 
 have become popular, and copies of it are only found in royal 
 tombs ; it is generally admitted that it represents an attempt on 
 
 1 See Bonomi and Sharpe, The alabaster Sarcophagus of Oimenephtah L, King 
 of Egypt, London, 1864. 
 
 2 Le Livre de ce qu'il y a dans I'Hades, Paris, 1894, p. 13. 
 
DIVISIONS OF THE TUAT 
 
 179 
 
 the part of the Theban priests to adjust the cult of Ra to that of 
 Osiris, and if this be so there is little to wonder at if it failed. 
 According to the Book of Pylons the Tuat is a long, narrow 
 valley, with sandy slopes, and is divided into two equal strips by 
 the river on which the boat of the sun sails ; it is made to contain 
 
 
 iMMlMMM 
 
 MA 
 
 IIJJIIIIIIJJ 
 
 
 The First Hour of the Night. 
 
 twelve nomas or divisions, which correspond to the twelve hours 
 of the night. 
 
 In the First Division, i.e., the First Hour, we have the 
 Mountain of the "West, c^, divided into two portions, and along 
 its lowest part is a path which forms the entrance from this world 
 to the Tuat. On the right-hand side is a jackal-headed standard, 
 
180 FIRST DIVISION OF THE TUAT 
 
 "? , and on the left a ram-headed standard, V ; each of these is 
 
 H 
 
 adored by the god of the mountain, Set, ^ , and the god of the 
 
 Tuat, c=s:= *^ Q . On the right are the twelve gpds of the 
 
 mountain, and on the left the twelve gods of Set-Amentet, 
 
 II] J] I '=^ (1 /www. In the centre is the boat of the sun, and we 
 
 see in it a disk containing a beetle ; the disk is encircled by a 
 huge serpent in folds, which holds its tail in its mouth. In the 
 bows of the boat stands the god Sa, .^m, and in the stern, Heka, 
 t X |, the god of magical words. The boat, having moved on, 
 approaches a pylon with closed doors, guarded by a huge serpent 
 
 which stands on his tail and bears the name Saa-Set, ^^s^ \\ 
 
 This pylon forms the entrance to the Second Division, or Second 
 Hour, and when the god has passed through it " those who dwell in 
 
 " their Set, '=' i , cry out."^ On the right are twenty- four human 
 
 I I I 
 
 forms, which represent those who praised Ra upon earth, -^ 
 
 ^ '^ " and who directed their words of power against the arch 
 1 I 1 33;' J. o 
 
 fiend Apep, •^^. In the centre is the boat of the sun, in 
 which the god stands in a shrine ; he is ram-headed, and holds in 
 his hand a sceptre. The shrine is protected by the serpent 
 Mehen, ^^ , and a serpent stands upright on its tail before him ; 
 
 /NAAAAA 
 
 the boat is being towed along by four beings of the Tuat, 
 i<: \\ LZ^i Ji j , and is met by the seven gods called Nepmeh, □ , 
 
 AAAAAA . . * 
 
 Nenha, ^, Ba (?), Horus, Ua-ab, ^ O, Khnemu, and Setchet, 
 
 staff. On the left hand of the divine boat are : — (1) The god Tern, 
 leaning on a staff", ^, (2) four dead men lying on their backs, 
 and twenty men standing with their arms tied together behind 
 their backs. These last are, according to M. Lefebure's rendering^ 
 of the text, "the criminals in Ra's great hall (the world), those 
 " who have insulted Ra on the earth, those who have cursed that 
 
 1 Bonomi and Sharpe, op. cit., pll. 5 and 4. 
 ^ See Records of the Past, vol. x., p. 85 S. 
 
182 THIRD DIVISION OF THE TUAT 
 
 " which is in the Egg, those who have frustrated justice, those who 
 "have uttered blasphemies against Khuti." The pylon which the 
 god noAV approaches is quite different from the first, but it 
 resembles all the others which have to be passed through. The 
 opening is protected like a fortress by some advanced work, and 
 through the wall is an entrance to a corridor which runs between 
 two walls crowned with a series of spear heads. This corridor 
 bends at right angles, and in each angle is a uraeus, from the 
 mouth of which drop balls of fire that fill the whole length of it ; 
 at each end of the corridor is a god in the form of a mummy, one 
 is called Am-aua-qah-f, Sa "^^ ' | ' '^^^s ^^^ the other, 
 
 Sekhabsenfunen, ^^ J P ^ ^ ZI- The pylon itself is called 
 Septet-uauau, I ^ '^•^ Ol '? ^^^^l the name of the snake 
 which guards it and stands upon its tail is Aqebi, '^ '^ J ']'] im • 
 The entrance to the pylon is also protected by nine gods, in 
 mummied form, who represent the " Second Company " of the 
 ffods, ^ 1 1 1 V 
 
 The door of the pylon is opened towards the Third Division 
 OF THE Tuat, or the Third Hour. The gate is called Septet 
 
 UAUAu setet-sen-Ra, ^ ^ ^ f] fj Q, j ^ ^ [J ^ ^^ • On the 
 right hand of the boat of the god are twelve holy gods of the Tuat, 
 each in his shrine, with the doors open, and twelve gods of the 
 lakes of fire ; a huge snake lies along the tops of all the shrines, 
 and before each god of the basins of fire is an ear of corn. On the 
 left hand are: — 1. The god Tern; 2. the serpent Apep ; 3. the 
 nine gods who are called the "chiefs who drive back Apepi," 
 
 IjIj^i I |'^,_j □ gOOWih; and 4. Tern and the nine gods of 
 things, ^37 ^ I ^ ^ ^ I • The boat of the sun is towed 
 through this division by eight gods of the Tuat, and the middle of 
 the rope is fastened to a long pole or beam, each end of which 
 terminates in the head of a bull. This pole is supported by eight 
 gods in mummied form, and upon it are seated seven gods; in 
 front and behind these stands a bull, and at the end of the 
 division stand four shrouded mummy forms. The gods who are 
 
,1 _r^f I '' _'__f,_ f ^ I t d^^ 
 
 ^m\mmmmm\mmmm\mm\: 
 
 ■V.^^^■^^^=gqi^^l^1^.^:?|Vf^J i.-^-jiTjj i .■?:- j^j )3rr|L<jni ... .^ .|, ,,■,■, i 
 
 1 
 
 im 
 
 •^c: 
 
 ^^1^5 1 
 
 •^c: 
 •^^ 
 
 -^^ 
 
 
 
 S^ 
 
 ^: 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^i 
 
 ^ 
 
 
184 FOURTH DIVISION OF THE TUAT 
 
 on the left hand of the boat of the sun, and are under the direction 
 of Tern, form two companies, whose special duty it was to carry- 
 out the commands of this god in respect of the slaughter of the 
 arch-fiend Apepi. This monster was first of all to be enchanted 
 by the incantations which were recited over him, and then his 
 head was to be cut off, and his body to be hacked in pieces at the 
 joints. As the god passes out of the Third Division and the door 
 closes, all the beings who are fated to remain in it lift up their 
 voices and weep. 
 
 The pylon of the Fourth Division or Foueth Hour is called 
 
 I 
 
 N ebt-s-tchefau, ^ hJ^ i ^ and the name of the serpent which 
 guards it and stands upon its tail is Tchetbi, "^ jW' *^® S°^^ 
 in mummied forms who stand one at the beginning and one at the 
 end of the corridor are called Nenuerbesta, =. , and 
 
 Seta-ta, ^^ ^^ ' , respectively. The nine gods who guard 
 
 the wall are the " the third company of the great god," ® ill '°^^^ i 
 
 I ^ g '^T ^^ *^® right side of the boat of the god are 
 
 twelve gods, who are described as the " bringers of their doubles," 
 ^ .P ^^^ 1 ^'^'^ ' ^^^ twelve jackal-headed figures, who are 
 
 walking on the Lake of Life,^ and ten uraei, who rise out of the 
 Lake of uraei ; ^ to all these the Sun-god addresses words of 
 comfort, and they respond suitably. The uraei, who are called 
 
 " those who live," [| ^^ ^ '^ ^ I "f" ® m ' ^^® ordered to preserve 
 their flames and fire for use against the enemies of Ra, and they 
 answer the god, saying, "Come to us, unite thyself to Tanen," 
 -^ ,__, ,~7", ^ 7\ ^^ -|- ^ ^ . On the left side of the boat of 
 the god is Horus the Aged, who follows eleven human forms as 
 they march behind the uraeus called Flame, ^ ^ , to a shrine in 
 which the god Osiris, wearing the crown of the South, stands upon 
 a serpent. Behind Osiris are the twelve gods, " who are behind 
 the shrine," and four gods, who preside over pits in the earth, 
 and the "prince of destruction," Avho holds a sceptre in his left 
 
 
((ilHIilllfHiltHtHHiHiiHDflWWlDHfl 
 
 •fc*=; 
 
 •^^ 
 
 s 
 
 •^=^1 
 
 C^i 
 
 •^Cj 
 
 «<^? 
 
 f.V!i3!.!f;Sfi?.: 
 
 d 
 
 .<^^ 
 
 
 •<=^; 
 
186 FIFTH DIVISION OF THE TUAT 
 
 hand and ■?- in his right. In the middle is the boat of the sun 
 being towed along the river of the Tuat by four gods as usual, and 
 it is made to approach a long low sepulchral building in which are 
 nine chapels, each containing a mummied god lying flat on his 
 back ; these are called " the gods who are in the train of Osiris in 
 
 their caves," IH ^ ^ j X "f ^ ! ^ ^ . ? . ^7.- ^* *^" 
 end of this building are two groups, each containing six women, 
 who are the personiiications of the twelve hours in the Tuat ; 
 between them is the serpent Herert, | <=>, with multitudinous 
 coils and windings, and he is said to give birth to twelve young 
 ones to devour the hours. In this division, as in the others, Ra 
 addresses the beings who are in it, and makes arrangements for 
 their supply of food, and reminds them of their duties to him their 
 creator. 
 
 The pylon of the Fifth Division or Fifth Hour is called 
 
 Arit, (1 ^s^ [1(| ^ ; , and the serpent who guards it bears the name 
 of Teka-hra, i'^. "^ ; the jackal-headed mummy at one end of the 
 
 corridor is Aau, a ^^ '-K , and he at the other is Tekemi, 
 
 j\ . Along the front of the wall are nine gods in mummied 
 
 forms who represent the fourth company of the gods. On the 
 right hand of the boat of the god are : — 1. The twelve worshippers 
 in the Tuat ; 2. Twelve bearers of cord, %• i O %" i ^ ' 
 
 and 3. Four gods with sceptres. These beings are said to be 
 those who knew Ra upon earth, and who made offerings to him, 
 and in return for this Ra awarded them meat and drink in the 
 most holy place in Amentet, and said to them, "I am satisfied 
 " with what you did for me, whether I was shining in the Eastern 
 " heaven, or whether I was in the temple, ^'^ M ^ of my eye," 
 Therefore they feed upon the food which Ra eats, and offerings are 
 made to them upon earth on account of the praise which they 
 ascribe to Ra in Amenti. The beings who carry the cords are 
 supposed to measure the " fields of the spirits," "^^ ^ '^ 1 /wwna '^j, 
 and their cords are supposed to represent the cord of law, i.e. 
 
Urn Ifm 1^ ll'i 
 
 ^- — - 
 
 
 •^=^ 
 
 S 
 
 •ec; 
 
 m. 
 
188 FIFTH DIVISION OF THE TUAT 
 
 the measuring cord by wHch. law and justice are represented, 
 and "Ra says to them, Their law is the cord in Amentet," 
 [j^^^^O^ — ^l^^l)^. On the left side 
 of the boat of the sun are:— 1. Horus the Elder leaning upon a 
 stick; 2, Sixteen men, four of whom are ^^ ^ J ], i.e., Egyp- 
 
 tians, four are Aamu, ] ^ ^ | ^ four are Negroes, "^ | P ^ j ' 
 and four are Libyans, ^|^|; 3. Twelve men, called " those 
 
 who bear ladders (?) in Ament, ^^^jf "^^^^ 
 
 (] '— — ' ^ , and who are holding a long serpent ; and 4. Eight 
 divine sovereign chiefs in Ament. To these four classes of men, 
 whom Horus describes as being in the Tuat of Egypt and the Red 
 Land, ^ ^c=i ^^ ^o ^ , it is said by the god, " Ye are the 
 
 " tears from my Bye," 
 
 i^ I I 1 
 
 1 
 
 " in your name of ' men,' " ^ '^l ' " "^® *^^^ ^^^^ *^® Aamu, 
 
 ^ ' — ^ I , and the Negroes and the Libyans that he has 
 
 created them, and that it is the goddess Sekhet, Y ® J|, who 
 redeems their souls, q 'T " ■^ i^ i '^'■'•^^. Finally, the god 
 
 addresses those Avho hold the ladder (?), and bids them take 
 measurements of the souls that are appointed for destruction, 
 and destroy the souls that have to be destroyed ; in the hands 
 of these beings Avas the power of determining the length of the 
 period which had to be passed by souls in Amentet, and it is 
 undoubtedly passages like these which have given rise to the idea 
 that the Egyptians believed in purgatory. In the centre of this 
 Division the boat of the sun is being drawn along by four gods 
 belonging to it as before. Before these are nine gods with pro- 
 jecting elbows and covered shoulders called " holders of Ennutchi," 
 ^^^i^^^=i^^jj^_^^_ they are joined together by a 
 
 rope ; these gods follow twelve men who are described as the 
 " souls of the men who are in the Tuat," and both groups of 
 beings proceed towards a god who holds a sceptre, and is called 
 Her-qenbet-f, F=q ^ |],_^'^-=^. The duty of this god was to 
 
SIXTH DIVISION OF THE TUAT 
 
 189 
 
 call the souls of the righteous and put them in their dwellings, 
 by the corner of those who lived near him. Ra addresses the 
 gods who tow his boat along, and bids them to pull with vigour, 
 and to be strong of arm and firm of limb, and swift of foot, and 
 bold of soul to make a prosperous way for him to the hidden 
 
 circles, 
 
 A 
 
 Q 1 I— ff-i 
 
 1 
 ^ I 
 
 U I 
 
 Next he addresses the figures with draped 
 
 shoulders who bear the serpent Ennutchi, 
 and bids them to draw him along ; and 
 then praises those who have spoken truth, 
 
 I I I 
 
 upon earth, and have 
 
 magnified 
 
 the 
 
 for 
 
 forms of God, 
 
 AA/\AAft 
 
 ^ ^ I n I , and decrees 
 
 them cakes for their souls, wind for their 
 nostrils, green herbs from Sekhet-Aaru, 
 and a place among the gods of right and 
 truth, '^ '^ jj , in the corner of the abode 
 
 of Ra where the companions of the god 
 pass sentences of doom. The doctrine here 
 preached is essentially that of Osiris, and 
 there is no wonder that the Book of Pylons 
 was not popular with the priests of Amen. 
 
 The name of the pylon of the Sixth 
 Division ^ or the Sixth Hour is Nebt-aha, 
 
 Y , the guardian at the entrance to 
 the corridor is Maa-ab, a Y , " Ri^rht of 
 
 heart," and he who is at the end is Sheta-ab, 
 Heart." The wall is 
 
 ^^"^, "Secret 
 
 guarded by twelve gods in mummied 
 
 forms, who are called " the gods and 
 
 "goddesses who are in this Pylon," \\\ ^^^^(IQ'^Pn ' '] "fr V ' 
 
 fly® cr^ ^ . Behind the wall is a chamber, the wall of which 
 
 has upon it a row of spear heads, and inside we see the god Osiris 
 
 ^ The scene of the Sixth Division is so mutilated on the sarcophagus of Seti I. 
 that it is not reproduced here. 
 
190 SIXTH DIVISION OF THE TUAT 
 
 seated upon the top of a flight of nine steps, on each of which 
 stands a god ; thus the whole company of the gods of Osiris are 
 here represented. Osiris wears a double crown, ^, and holds in 
 his hands the sceptre, J, and the emblem of "life." Before him 
 stands a mummied figure Avho forms the pillar of a pair of scales, 
 and who may be regarded as the personification of the Great 
 Balance with which we are familiar in the Judgment Scene as 
 depicted in papyri. In the pan of the scales is the bird of evil, ^^ . 
 Near the scales is a boat in which are an ape and a pig ; the ape 
 is urging the pig along with a stick. In the upper part of the 
 scene are the heads of four oryxes and a figure of the god Anubis. 
 The difficult texts which accompany this scene tell us that the 
 " enemies of Osiris are beneath his feet, the gods and the spirits 
 " are before him ; he is the foe of the damned, he repulses the 
 "enemies, and he destroys them, and effects their slaughter. 
 "The bearer of the hatchet, and the supporter of the scales 
 " protect him who is in Amenti, Avho resteth in the Tuat, and who 
 " passeth through darkness and shadow. Above is Joy, and below 
 
 " are Right and Truth ( j . The god resteth and giveth forth 
 
 "the light of Maat Avhich he hath made." The ape in the boat is 
 said to hand over the pig to punishment " when the god riseth," 
 and Anubis says, "0 ye Avho bring words true or false to me 
 " [remember] that it is Thoth who weigheth them." Concerning 
 Osiris we read, " When the weighing of words taketh place he 
 " smiteth evil ; he hath a right heart, and he holdeth the words in 
 " the Scales in the holy place wherein the trial of the secret things 
 " of the secrets of the spirits taketh place. It is the god who riseth 
 " who hath made all the beings who are in the Tuat." The text 
 which relates to the four inverted heads of oryxes is not clear in 
 its meaning, but it says that their dwelling-place is the Amehet, 
 a district in the Elysian Fields, and that they hide or protect 
 the spirits. "We must note in passing the position of the Sixth 
 Division of the Tuat. Assuming that the Tuat was regarded as 
 a nearly circular valley which curved round from the West, where 
 the sun set, to the North, and curved round from the North to the 
 East, where the sun rose, it follows if all the twelve divisions of 
 
SEVENTH DIVISION OF THE TUAT 191 
 
 the Tuat be equal in lengtli, that the Sixth Division would be very- 
 near the most northerly part of the Tuat. And this is exactly 
 where it was intended to be, for the most northerly part of the 
 Tuat would include the greater part of the Delta, where the 
 principal shrines of Osiris, i.e., Mendes and Busiris, were situated, 
 and it was only right to make the position of the kingdom of 
 Osiris on earth to correspond with that of his domain in the Tuat. 
 Unlike the other divisions of the Tuat, the Sixth Division contains 
 no representation of the god Ra, and the texts belonging to it do 
 not even mention his name ; the Book of Pylons made Osiris 
 absolutely supreme in his own dominions, and the exclusion of Ra, 
 or Amen-Ra, from them was clearly the cause which made the 
 work unpopular with all the worshippers of the great god of 
 Thebes. The position of Osiris on the top of a flight of steps 
 explains the allusions to the " god who is on his staircase " in 
 the Book of the Dead, and it proves that it is this god 
 who is represented on the wooden plaque of Semti,^ and before 
 whom the king is dancing. The Sun-god Ra, having arrived 
 at the north of the Tuat, must now make his way towards the 
 East, 
 
 The serpent who guards the pylon of the Seventh Division 
 
 or the Seventh Hour ^ is called Akhan-maati, «-= , and the 
 
 guardian at the end of the corridor is called Shepi, „ M ^^ ; 
 but the mutilated state of the scene renders it impossible to give 
 the name of the pylon or of the guardian of the entrance to the 
 corridor. On the right side of the boat of the god are a number 
 of beings bearing a rope, which is usually made to resemble a 
 serpent, and on the left side are : — 1. A god bending over a staff; 
 his name is Men-sheta, : , " Stablisher of what is secret." 
 
 2. A number of mummied forms extended on couches, who are 
 described as the " mighty spirits." These beings are commanded 
 by Ra to uncover themselves and to drive away darkness. In the 
 centre is the boat of the Sun-god being towed along, presumably 
 
 1 See British Museum, No. 32,650. 
 
 ^ The scene of tlie Seventh Division is so mutilated on the sarcophagus of 
 Seti I. that it is not reproduced here. 
 
192 EIGHTH DIVISION OF THE TUAT 
 
 by four gods of the Tuat as before. Marching in front of those 
 who tow the boat are twelve gods with sceptres, and four 
 mummied forms who cry out to the inhabitants of this Division 
 of the Tuat to praise Ra, for he will weigh words and will destroy 
 their enemy. 
 
 The pylon of the Eighth Division or the Eighth Hour is 
 
 called Bekhkhi, Jr (|(]n [3^, and the name of the snake-god, 
 its guardian, is Set- lira, ^ fl , IIIJIJ *^6 guardian of the 
 entrance to the corridor is called Benen, J "^ , and the guardian 
 at its end is Hept-ta, fi '=^ '^\ . The wall is protected by nine 
 
 gods in mummied forms, © 1 1 1 ^ . On the right side of the boat of 
 
 the god are : — 1. Twelve beings in human form, who are described 
 as the " sovereign chiefs who give bread, Maat, and green herbs to 
 
 " the souls of Ta-neserser," i i a d v7^i aaw« — ^ ^::z:::^ V5. tj 
 
 '^w^ ^ ""^ ' '' — ~*~ 11 • 2. Nine souls, in the form of 
 
 bearded human-headed hawks, with their hands raised in adora- 
 tion ; these are the " souls of Ta-neserser," which are fed with 
 bread and green herbs by the command of the god Ra. On the 
 left hand side of the boat of Ra are : — 1. Horus leaning on a staff. 
 2. Twelve men, who represent the enemies of Osiris that have 
 been burnt in the fire, with their arms tied together behind their 
 backs, each group of four in a different way. Opposite the first 
 
 of these is a huge serpent called Kheti, ® (1 , which belches forth 
 
 a stream of fire into his face ; on the back of the serpent stand 
 seven gods. The twelve beings are those on whom punishment 
 has been inflicted by Horus at the command of Ra, who has 
 decreed the death both of their bodies and of their souls because 
 of what they did against Osiris, whose mysteries they despised, 
 and whose image they tore from the sanctuary. The serpent 
 Kheti, which is commanded by Horus to consume the foes of his 
 father Osiris, is adjured to burn up both the souls and the bodies 
 of these wicked ones. In the centre of this division are: — 1. The 
 boat of the sun being towed by four gods as before. 2. "The 
 dweller in Nu" leaning on a staff. 3. A rectangular lake in which 
 
194 NINTH DIVISION OF THE TUAT 
 
 are sixteen men, four of whom bathe, fD "^ ^H ^ I ' ^°^^ ^°^*' 
 
 (]dI](]^|, four swim, f^ J (](] ^1, and four dive, ^^^^'T',. 
 
 The gods who tow the boat say, " Let there be praise to the soul of 
 " Ra in heaven, and adoration to his body upon earth ; for heaven 
 " is made new by his soul, and earth is made new by his body, 
 " Hail ! We open for thee heaven, we make straight for thee the 
 " ways of Akert. Rest thyself, Ra, upon thy hidden things ; 
 " the hidden ones are adored in thy forms." He who dwelleth in 
 Nu also addresses those who are in the lake. 
 
 The pylon of the Ninth Division or Ninth Hour, is called 
 
 Aat-shefsheft, t^ ; '"^^ =^.=_ : the serpent which guards it is 
 Ab-ta, X ^^ ; and the guardians of the corridor are Anhef ta, 
 (] «A^ 8 ^^^ and Ermen-ta, . The wall is guarded by 
 
 nine gods in mummied forms, ^ in c . On the right hand side of 
 the boat of the Sun-god are : — 1. Four gods of the South, j i L v^, 
 each wearing the white crown, and grasping a rope which is also 
 
 
 held by a man who is called " the master of the front," i^ 
 
 between the man and these four gods is a pillar surmounted by a 
 bearded head, with a white croivn on it, which is being raised by 
 means of the rope. 2. A hawk-headed sphinx with the white 
 crown on his head, and a bearded head, with a white crown on it, 
 resting on his hind quarters. Standing on his back is a human 
 figure which is surmounted by the heads of Horus and Set. 
 
 3. Four gods of the North, | i °^ , each wearing the red crown, 
 and grasping a rope which is also held by a man who is called "the 
 master of the back," p=q „5i) ; between the man and these four gods 
 is a pillar, surmounted by a bearded head with a red crown on it, 
 which is being raised by means of the rope. 4. A personage called 
 Apu, ^^, holding the serpent Shemti, c3o^'^, which has four 
 heads at each end of his body. 5. A personage holding the serpent 
 Bath, J (1 s==j , with a head at each end of his body ; on his back 
 stands a serpent which is called Tepi, g^ Ofl , and which is provided 
 
%>,>miHUIMHWIItHIHIimUt>HWIH 
 
 JPijiWHttHlillWitPi 
 
196 TENTH DIVISION OF THE TUAT 
 
 at each end of his body with four human heads, breasts, and arms, 
 and four pairs of human legs, 6. Two men holding a rope (?). 
 On the left hand of the boat of the god are : — Sixteen human 
 forms which represent the (a) souls of Amentet, (b) the followers of 
 Thoth, (c) the followers of Horus, (d) the followers of Osiris ; the 
 first four have the heads of men, the second four the heads of 
 ibises, the third four the heads of hawks, and the fourth four the 
 heads of rams. These sixteen beings draw a rope to which is 
 attached a double serpent with four heads, two at each end of 
 his body, and one pair of legs at each end which support the 
 larger serpent. The serpent is called Khepri, m 00> and on one 
 of his folds is perched the hawk Heru-tuati, 25:5 ^ At the 
 other end of the rope are eight human forms called Akhmiu, 
 
 ^ ® ^ 11 ^ sS ^ si • """^ *^® ^^^^^^ °^ *^^® Division the boat of 
 the god is being towed along as before. Before him march : — 
 1. Six human forms, four apes, and four women, each holding a 
 rope (?) ; and 2. Three men holding a rope which is thrown over 
 the head and held in the hands by a prostrate man who has the 
 ears of an ass, and who is called Aai, (1 '^ M , i.e., " Ass." Each 
 man holds a pike which he is about to drive into the prostrate 
 body. In front of the man are : — 1. The serpent Apep, and 2. The 
 crocodile, with a tail which terminates in a serpent's head, called 
 Shesshes, C3c:i lirsz] 1. The beings here described are those who 
 work magic for Ra on the arch-fiend Apep, and they bid him come 
 to the place of slaughter that he may be slain ; they say, " the 
 " slaughtering places are against thee, and the Aai gods are 
 
 "againstthee,"^^^^[;,^|p^U^q^ ^^^' 
 
 The three beings with pikes drive their weapons into Apep, and 
 destroy utterly the serpent Sesi, Z^ ll HUl; ^'^^ *^ey keep fast 
 hold of the rope of Ai, ^^ W^i ^^^ ^^ ^<^* 1^* *^^* serpent rise 
 up towards the boat of the god. 
 
 The pylon of the Tenth Division or the Tenth Hour is called 
 Tcheserit, \^ 11 c:^ 5 *^^ serpent-god who guards it is Sethu, 
 5_-j _y UHl ; ^^^ ^^'^ guardians of the corridor are Nemi, ( 
 
<§- 
 
 
 S 
 
 ^?^SS~. 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 ^*^!!^ll*^!!!l^**>!*^**g^*.- <#=n 
 
 itUMUtUUIilMlitUIUtiUitim 
 
 TimnroynyFF 
 
 jj«- 
 
 .: !zi 
 
198 TENTH DIVISION OF THE TUAT 
 
 and Kefi, (I [I . The wall is guarded by sixteen uraei. On the 
 
 right hand of the boat of the god are: — 1. Four beings, each 
 holding a knife and a rope (?). 2. Four beings, similarly armed, 
 but each having four serpents' heads ; these are called Antiu, 
 
 fl T" ^ , *r ,' ^^^ Hentiu, | '5^ (](] , f" ,, respectively. 3. The 
 serpent Apep, "whose voice goeth round about in the Tuat," 
 
 held by a chain which is grasped by four beings, Stefiu, ^^^^^ nn i 
 and twelve gods, and a mighty hand called the "hidden body," 
 (1 I ^ j/l . On the chain, near Apep's head, is stretched out 
 the scorpion-goddess Serqet. Behind the hand, and growing out 
 of the chain are: — (a) Seb, "^^ J , "^-ho grasps a small chain to 
 which is attached the serpent Uamemti, -jT) / — cru . (b) Mest, 
 ^p, Hapi, ^M, Tuamutef, ^ ^^, and Qebhsennuf, % Hi =^.=^. 
 At the end stands Khenti-Amenti, or Osiris. The beings on this 
 side of the Tuat are engaged in destroying Apep and the foes of 
 the sun-god so that they may not attack the boat of the sun when 
 it comes to a narrow passage. On the left hand side of the boat 
 of Ra are: — -1. The twelve Akhmu-seku gods, h ® ^^^ ^ ^ 
 [l^^, holding paddles. 2. Twelve women, who represent the 
 hours. 3. Four gods with sceptres, Bant, J '^^ I , Seshsha, 
 P™(], Ka-Ament, [jl, and Renen-sebu, :^ J] ^ . 4. A 
 monkey on a standard, ^-^, with a star over his head, described as 
 
 the "god of Rethenu" (Syria), |^ o _ 5_ ^^ g„g 
 
 (utchat) on a standard, ^. 6. A god with a sceptre. Along 
 the middle of this division the boat of the god is towed as usual 
 by four gods. Before it are:— 1. The star god Unti, ^^'^ ^\ 
 
 2. Four deities, Sekhet, Abesh, a Ji^^^j Serq, ^^ "^ and 
 
 Horus. 3. Three star gods, who tow a small boat in which are 
 the "face of the disk," "^()'^, and a uraeus. 4. A winged 
 
 uraeus called Semi, ^[|[j, standing upon its tail. 5. A god 
 called Besi, JP (j(|, pouring flame upon a standard surmounted 
 
1^ 
 
 
 ^& 
 
 
 m 
 
 WW ■»» — y^w^^w »■ B--*^**^ 
 
 uutiuuiMiiUUiUiuau^ : 
 
 
 
 
 i__M 
 
 iUimutmuMUUiumiiu^mmtm 
 
 •^^ 
 *^<- 
 
 w 
 
 H 
 
 
200 ELEVENTH DIVISION OF THE TUAT 
 
 by the head of a horned animal. 6. A serpent caled Ankhi, 
 
 ^ 0(1 , with a bearded god in mummied form growing out from 
 
 each side of its body. 7. Four women, with hands raised in 
 
 adoration, who are called "the adorers," o^ (l(l c^. 8. The 
 
 double god Horus-Set, with two heads and two pairs of arms and 
 hands on one body, standing upon a platform which rests on two 
 bows ; from each end of the platform spring three uraei. All 
 these beings are supposed to be employed in helping Ra to con- 
 tinue his course through the Tenth Division, and to make his way 
 to the region of the sunrise ; it is evident that most of them are 
 personifications of the stars which herald the approach of the 
 dawn. 
 
 The pylon of the Eleventh Division or the Eleventh Hour 
 
 is called Shetat-besu, ^^ ^ J ^_^ i , and the serpent which 
 guards it is called Am-net-f, (] -[|- ^ ^ "^-^-UISL; the guardians 
 of the corridor are Metes, "^^^7*^, and Shetau, ^^^%. Before 
 the wall are two large sceptres surmounted by the white crown ; 
 one of these is called Sar, ^ , i.e., Osiris, and the other Horus, 
 On the right hand of the boat of Ra are: — 1. Four gods, called 
 " bearers of light," ^ f| ^ '^ ^ | > folding disks on their 
 right hands. 2. Four gods, called " bearers of stars," ^ ^ ^ ' ? 
 holding stars in their right hands. 3. Four gods " who go out," 
 2 (1(1 T:^ % . 4. The gods Ba, ^ , Khnemu, Pi, Penter, D '^ , 
 and Tent, ^, ram-headed. 5. Four gods, Horus, Horus-Sept, 
 Sept, and " he who is in his double boat," O -fl- w ^ '^-^ -, hawk- 
 headed. 6. Eight women, the Hours, seated on coiled up serpents 
 and each holding a star in her hand ; these are the " protecting 
 hours," JJRto^. 7. The god Sebek-Ra, crocodile-headed. 
 
 All these are personifications of stars which bear along the boat of 
 Ra towards the day-break, for they wish to see it floating once 
 more on the bosom of Nut, ^ ^; and when "the arms of the 
 
ELEVENTH DIVISION OF THE TUAT 201 
 
 " sky-god Nu receive Ra they shout praises with the stars which 
 " they carry, and go to him in the heights of heaven in the bosom 
 of Nut."-^ In connexion with the idea of the stars praising Ra 
 at sunrise we may note its similarity to that expressed in Job 
 xxxviii. 7, " When the morning stars sang together, and all the 
 *' sons of God shouted for joy." On the left of the boat of Ra 
 
 are: — 1. Four beings, Setheniu-tep, s=> v^ 1 1 ®, wearing white 
 crowns. 2. Four bearded gods called Akebiu, i.e., " wallers," 
 
 U ^^z::^ J Qh ' ■ S- Four beings, Khnemiu, Pj / v\ i , wearing red 
 
 crowns. 4. Four bearded gods called Renniu, ^«wv^ (jfl %■ i • 
 5. Twelve goddesses, the female counterparts of the first three 
 groups of gods. 6. Four gods, with bowed bodies, and 7. The 
 
 cat-headed goddess Mati, V vx • These beings were supposed to 
 
 place white crowns on the heads of the gods in the train of Ra, 
 and though their souls rose up, they were never able to leave this 
 Division of the Tuat or pass out of the pylon. Their duty was to 
 weep for Osiris after Ra had passed out of Ament,^ and to be with 
 him, as far as their souls were concerned, but their bodies had to 
 stay in their places ; they also had to raise up Maat and to stablish 
 it in the shrine of Ra.^ It was they who " fixed the period of the 
 " years which those who were decreed for the Tuat should pass 
 " there, and the period of those who were to live in heaven ; " * 
 but they " tore their hair in grief before the great god in Amentet, 
 " for although they drove away Set from the pylon they themselves 
 
 I I I I I I 
 
 <c=> — "— 4- ,„,^ fl ODD m P '^:rr56 —"—' a -Jr 
 
 S , ^^^ LJ __i_^ j__j I ^^_^ I I I Ji^ I I 
 
 — " — m ^ 1=^ , o , — " — »— => o Q 
 
 A '"''^ 's^-^ <^:> '"'"^ / , Bonomi and 
 
 -'-I I I I <=> P=5 ci D I I I ^1 1^=1 ' 
 
 Sharpe, op. cit, pi. 10. 
 
 sir^^^ ^=^ ~^ ^ , — u f] G 
 
 <=> ^^ — fl r= te^ w <=> ^ I ■ 
 
 . y , AAAf^AA «\ 
 
 T ® jf 
 
 
202 ELEVENTH DIVISION OF THE TUAT 
 
 " were not allowed to enter into the heights of heaven." ^ In the 
 centre of this division we have the boat of Ea being drawn along 
 by four of its gods as usual. Preceding these are : — 1. A group of 
 nine gods, each of whom holds a knife, ^■^-j in the right hand, and 
 a sceptre, ?, in the left; the first four are jackal-headed. They 
 are described as the " nine gods who annihilate Apep," ^ 1 1 1 rvj ' 
 AAAAAA h ^~S^^*"^, 2. The serpent Apep chained to the earth by five 
 chains which are called the "gods who produce winds," |T] i 2ZII 3 i. 
 
 3. Four apes, (1 /ww^ % j| i , each holding before him a large hand. 
 
 4. The god of Amenti, ft, wearing the crown of the South. 
 
 5. The goddess of the North, Herit (?), ^<^> QQ ^ - wearing the 
 crown of the North. 6. The god Sebekhti, J J ^"^ . These 
 
 gods of the Tuat say, " [This is] the exit from Ament, and the 
 place for rest in the two divisions of Nu, and [the god] maketh 
 his transformations in the hands of Nu. This god doth not enter 
 
 heaven ( '^ ) , but he openeth the Tuat upwards in his trans- 
 formations [which take place] in Nu. What openeth the Tuat 
 into heaven are the two hands of the god whose name is hidden, 
 
 He existeth in the darkness which is a solid thing, 
 , and Ea cometh forth [in] it from the night, 
 
 (j ^ v\ ' >^' . Those who are in this portion take their knives in 
 
 their hands, and grasp their weapons, and smite Apep, and effect 
 his slaughter, and smash his joints which are in heaven. The 
 chains of this fiend are in the hands of the children of Horus, 
 they advance to the god with their fetters in their fingers. The 
 god counteth his members after the hidden one hath opened his 
 
 [arms] to the Eye of Horus. The Worm (^ l^im ) '^^o is 
 in this scene is fettered by the children of Horus." The other 
 gods " acclaim Ka in the Eastern horizon of heaven, and the four 
 
 11 U ■ H 1 1 1 
 
 ^il 
 
 AA/\AAA 
 
 Ol '■""'^ r=Qt i\\ ^ ' ft QCi "AAAAA AWW* 
 
 I I I I I I U I WVAAA D I 
 
 III I I I I I I I U I WVAAA D I J\ 
 
 111^ I -J '=^ U 13tll ^VWNA Zl A I I I 
 
TWELFTH DIVISION OF THE TUAT 
 
 203 
 
 " apes guide him who created them, two on the right hand, and 
 
 " two on the left, to the double dtert (h <=> crzi iir=i) of this god." 
 
 The pylon of the Twelfth Division or Twelfth Hour is 
 
 called Tesert-baiu, """^^ ""^^ ^ , i.e.. " Red-Souls," and its serpent 
 
 god is Sebi, >lc 
 
 the two guardians of the corridor are Pai, 
 ^^ 00 I , and Akhekhi, 1] J ufl f^ • In front of the wall are two 
 
 poles, each of which is surmounted 
 by a bearded head ; on one head is 
 the disk of the god Tern, and on the 
 other the beetle of the god Khepera, 
 i.e., two forms of the Sun-god. Close 
 to the pylon " Red-Souls " was the 
 pylon of the serpent god Reri, 
 
 (I (1 , each side of which was 
 guarded by the two uraei of Isis and 
 Nephthys, one on each side. When 
 Ra had passed through these doors he 
 emerged triumphantly from the Tuat, 
 and his boat floated on the waters of 
 Nu, i.e., in the sky. In the scene in 
 which this is' depicted we see the boat 
 containing the beetle of Khepera and 
 the disk of Ra, with the five gods Seb, 
 Shu, Hek (for Heka), Hu, and Sa, and 
 the two goddesses Isis and Nephthys, 
 and three gods of pylons. The god Nu, 
 
 , is seen holding up the boat with 
 
 his hands, which " come forth from 
 
 the water, and bear up this god." 
 
 A little distance away from the boat is a sort of island which is 
 
 formed by Osiris, the body of the god being bent round in such a 
 
 way as to cause the tips of his toes to touch the back of his head ; 
 
 the text says that it is Osiris himself who forms the encircling 
 
 border of the Tuat. On the head of the god stands the goddess 
 
204 
 
 BOOK OF THE UNDERWORLD 
 
 c. 
 
 Nut, '^ " , with arms outstretched ready to receive B,a. Thus the 
 
 god reaches the end of the Tuat and passes by an opening through 
 its border, which is painted black, dotted everywhere with red 
 spots. We have seen that Ra was omnipotent in all divisions of 
 the underworld, except one, which was sacred to Osiris ; in this 
 neither Ra nor his name appears. 
 
 We may now pass on to the consideration of the contents of 
 the "Book op that which is in the Undekwoeld." The 
 authorities for the text and vignettes of this work are numerous,^ 
 and from the copies of both which have come down to us it is 
 
 1 See Sharps, Egyptian Inscriptions, 1st series, pll. 28-32 ; 2nd series, pll. 1-21 • 
 Pierret, Recueil, torn, v., pp. 103 fE; La.xizoue., Domicile cles Esprits, Paris 1879- 
 Birch, Papyrus of Nasldiem, London, 1863; Mariette, Papyrus Egyptiens, torn ii' 
 Cairo, 1878. ' 
 
FIRST HOUR OF THE NIGHT 205 
 
 clear that the book was one of considerable length. But long 
 before the end of the XXIst Dynasty (about B.C. 1100) the 
 Egyptians found it impossible to obtain or to pay for complete 
 copies -with all the vignettes, and a shortened form of it conse- 
 quently came into general use. This shortened form, which is 
 called an "Abreg^ " by M. Maspero, and a "R^sumt^" by M. 
 Lefebure, was supposed to contain all that was absolutely necessary 
 for the dead, and it became very popular throughout Egypt. In 
 the tomb of Seti I.^ we find a copy of the full text, with vignettes, 
 of the first eleven hours, and also a copy of the " Abridgment." 
 The space at our disposal will not admit of a detailed description 
 of the longer work, and therefore a notice of the "Abridgment" 
 only is given here. The complete work is entitled, " The beginning 
 " of the horn of the West, the remote boundary of thick darkness," ' 
 
 r®MTf^^^^^S^-I^T,• The "horn of 
 the West " means the most westerly point where the sun sets, and 
 keku samu, i.e., " thick darkness," or " solid darkness," refers to 
 the extreme end of the Tuat, which is painted to resemble a black 
 wall, dotted everywhere with red spots, and which contains an 
 opening through which the boat of Ra emerges every morning. 
 The shorter work is entitled "Abridgment of this book," 
 
 The First Houk of the night is called Ushemet hatu khefti 
 Ra,^ i.e., " Crusher of the forehead of the enemies of Ra," and the 
 place through which the god passes in it is described as an drrit, 
 , i.e., a haU, or a sort of ante-chamber of the Tuat. It 
 
 is quite unlike any part of the Tuat, for when Ra is in this hall he 
 
 1 See " Le Tombeau de Seti I"," in Memoires de la Miss. Arch. Frangaise, 
 Paris, 1886; First Hour, part iv., pll. 24-26; Second Hour, part iv., pU. 29-32; 
 Third Hour, part iv., pll. 32-35 ; Fourth Hour, part i., pll. 23-25 ; Fifth Horn-, 
 part i., pll. 26-29 ; Sixth Hour, part iv. , pll. 39-42 ; Seventh Hour, part iv., pll. 43-46 ; 
 Eighth Hour, part iv., pll. 47-49; Ninth Hour, part ii., pll. 15-18; Tenth Hour, 
 part ii., pll. 19-22 ; Eleventh Hour, part ii., pll. 23-26 ; and see Maspero, Les 
 Hypogees Boyaiix de Thebes, p. 29. 
 
 3 See the edition of the hieroglyphic text, with a French translation, by 
 
 Jequier, op. cit., pp. 37 if. 
 
 1 
 
 □n ^ _ — =^ ! ^^ -^^ t^ 1 
 
 I ^ m. Jm \ e i 
 
206 BOOK OF THE UNDERWORLD 
 
 has not yet arrived in that dismal valley. But even when here 
 he is an entirely different being from what he was in the day-time, 
 for instead of being the sun of day, he is the sun of night, i.e., a 
 dead god, in fact a mere dead body which is called Af, (] ,^,^,^, i.e., 
 " Flesh," and is represented with the head of a ram surmounted 
 by a solar disk. In the day time he travelled in the Atet boat, 
 
 
 
 The First Hour o£ the Night. 
 
 '^^"'^^ ^n^ , but at night he made his journey along the river of the 
 Tuat in the Sektet boat, H ^~^ ^gj , in fact, in the same boat in 
 which he sailed over the sky from noon to sunset. In the boat 
 with the dead Sun-god Af are Ap-uat, \/ ^^, "The Opener of 
 
 the ways," Sa, . -^ '^j Heru-Hekenu, ^.8 ^ , Nehes, ^ I, 
 Hu, I v^ , the double of Shu, \_J f) , the captain of the boat, 
 
FIRST HOUR OF THE NIGHT 207 
 
 <=>^ — a, and the "lady of the boat," ^ni- The last-named 
 
 celestial personage changed every hour, for she represented the 
 local goddess of one hour who was supposed to be the appointed 
 guide of the god through one portion of the Tuat only ; knowing 
 the way through her own district, she was able to instruct the 
 captain of the boat how and where to sail over difficult reaches of 
 the river. 
 
 The dwellers in the First Hour of the night appear to 
 have been the apes who opened the doors of the drrit to the god, 
 and the beings who were necessary for the singing of songs of 
 praise to Ra, and for piloting his boat through this hall to the 
 Tuat, and a large number of celestial beings who are mentioned in 
 the text, but who are otherwise unknown, and the souls of the 
 dead who had passed from the earth to this intermediate place and 
 who were waiting for the opportunity of entering into the boat 
 of Ra, wherein they would fain continue their journey. Why the 
 last-named were here cannot be said, but it is probable that such 
 souls belonged to men and women who, when living upon earth, 
 were unable to avail themselves of all the costly and complicated 
 ceremonies prescribed by the priests, and the numerous amulets 
 which were thought to be necessary for the welfare of the soul in 
 the Tuat. The descriptive text of the First Hour reads : — " This 
 " eod entereth from the earth into the drrit of the horizon of 
 " the West, and he must travel one hundred and twenty dtru 
 
 " (^ ^ V ' — ' ) ^^ *^^^ urrit before he arriveth at the gods 
 " of the Tuat, Net-Ra ( ^^^^ - — a Jj ) is the name of this first 
 
 \ ^ www O I ill/ 
 
 " country of the Tuat. Ra giveth fields to the gods who are in his 
 " following, and he beginneth to pass decrees and to give commands 
 " concerning the things which are done in the Tuat by the gods of 
 " this country. Whosoever shall do these things according to this 
 " similitude of the hidden things of the Tuat, and shall recognize 
 " that they are similitudes of the great god himself, shall find them 
 " of benefit to him on the earth, and they shall do him good in the 
 " great Tuat." The fact that this region is called " country " 
 shows that it was regarded almost as a part of this world, and it 
 is definitely stated that it is 120 dtru in length ; now, the dtru is 
 
208 BOOK OF THE UNDERWORLD 
 
 said to be the equivalent of the Greek a-xolvo^, i.e., about an 
 English furlong, and thus the region of the sunset traversed by 
 Ra in his first hour would be fifteen miles in length. It is probable, 
 however, that 120 dtru were intended to be a greater distance 
 than fifteen miles, for the second hour brought Ra into the domain 
 of Osiris, which is more than fifteen miles from Thebes. 
 
 The name of the Second Houe is Shesat maket neb-s, i.e., 
 " She who knoweth how to protect her lord." ^ The country- 
 passed through is called Ur-nes, ^^ — "^ , which the late Dr. 
 Birch compared with, and believed to be equivalent to, the Greek 
 ov/Dctvos ; this name, however, seems to be that of the Nile in the 
 second region of the Tuat, and in any case it is not applied to any 
 other division or hour except by accident.^ The descriptive text 
 says, "This great god next arriveth in Ur-nes, which is three 
 " hundred and nine dtru in length, and one hundred and twenty 
 " dtru in width (i.e., this division measures about 50 miles by 15 
 " miles). The name of the gods who are in this country is ' Souls 
 
 " of the Tuat,' ^^^ i i< "^^ ^ J^ i , and he who knoweth their 
 
 " name shall be with them. This great god will give to him fields, 
 " the situation of which shall be in the country of TJr-nes ; he shall 
 " stand up with the gods who stand up, and he shall follow after 
 " this great god. He shall make his way through the Tuat, he 
 " shall see the tresses of the gods who wear long flowing hair, he 
 
 " shall trample upon the Eater of the Ass ( a ^. % ^ """^ ^\ 
 
 " and after the division of the unoccupied land hath been made, 
 
 " he shall eat bread in the Boat of the Earth (\>l\ "^ ^s "~"^), 
 
 " and there shall be given to him of the first things of Tatuba 
 
 " (^ '^ ^ J ^ si)-" '^^® *^^* ^^^^ *^^* *^°s^ '^^'^ <5raw pictures 
 of these Souls of the Tuat and make offerings to them upon 
 earth will gain benefit therefrom a million fold after death; 
 moreover, it will be extremely useful to them in the Tuat if they 
 know what words are addressed by the gods to the great god. 
 
 - See Jequier, op. cit., p. 49, note 2. 
 
210 BOOK OF THE UNDERWORLD 
 
 The gods with long flowinor hair are the four children of Horus 
 
 Mesthii, Hapi, Tuamutef and Qebhsennuf, each of whom wore a 
 lock or tress of hair, which became a pillar-sceptre, and supported 
 one of the four corners of heaven ; these four gods became at a 
 later period the gods of the cardinal points and the lords of the 
 four quarters of heaven. The Eater of the Ass is, of course, the 
 great serpent of darkness, probably Apepi, and the Ass is a form 
 of the Sun-god, between whom and the serpent was continual war ; 
 the Ass was connected Avith the Sun-god by reason of his great 
 virile powers. According to M. Maspero,^ the Boat of the Earth 
 is a name given to the Boat of Ea when it reaches the earth ; 
 Tatuba was probably an earth god. 
 
 The illustrated version of the Second Hour shows that the 
 boat of Ra was preceded by four boats. The first of these had a 
 human head on each end, and on its side Avere the picture of 
 heaven, f=^, and the Utchat, '^^- In the boat rests the moon on 
 a pedestal, and behind it is the god Avho sets up the feather of 
 Maat. This is the boat of Osiris as the Moon, who is one of 
 the Souls of the Tuat. The second boat has a human head sur- 
 mounted by the plumes of x4.men, ]u , on each end, and in it is a 
 huge sistrum, the emblem of Hathor ; on each side of it is a 
 goddess. In the bows is a beetle, M . This is the boat of Isis as 
 
 Hathor, who is one of the Souls of the Tuat. The third boat has 
 the white crown at the bows, and the red crown at the stern ; in 
 it, between the two standards, which are the symbols of the gods 
 Anpu (Anubis) and Apuat, is a huge lizard, out of the back of 
 which spring a human head and the Avhite crown. This is the 
 boat of the god who opens the ways, and who is one of the Souls 
 of the Tuat. The fourth boat has a uraeus at the bows and 
 stern. In the centre is a kneeling woman without arms, and 
 on each side of her stands a woman also armless ; at each end of 
 the boat is a plant, or shrub. This is the boat of Nepr, □ ^ 3, 
 the god of grain and of vegetation, and a form of Osiris, and he is 
 also one of the Souls of the Tuat. The gods Avho minister to 
 
 ''■ Les Hypogees, p. 46. 
 
SECOND HOUR OF THE NIGHT 211 
 
 Osiris in the Second Hour are : — Isis who avengeth, jj ^ 'I"' °^ , 
 Seb of the two corners, "^ I] ^ 11'^^^, Khnemu of the two 
 corners, Q ^ ^ J ^ ^, Thoth on his stairs, ^ ^ ^ ^ ^, 
 Afu on his stairs, () '^-^ ^ ^ ^ ^ '<^, Ketuit-ten-ba, 
 
 ^^:>. ^ "i^ , Kherp - hu - khefti, 'y' U=a 
 
 Heru-Tuat, ^ ^ ^, Seben-hesq-khaibit, J ^ww. | ~^ ^'^ 
 
 J |jj, the two ape-gods Benth, J aa^vaa ll, and Aana, h ^^, the god 
 with two faces, ^i^, Horus-Set, Mest-en-Asar, ^ ~^ J /vwwv |j 
 Met-en-Asar, | aa,w« J_^, the term of Osiris, and a hon-headed 
 goddess Sesenet-khu, Z^ '^ i . Behind all these come seven 
 
 goddesses, Mest-tcheses, ^ ^ ^ , Amam-mitu, __ji ^ d ^ 
 
 ^ " ^ ° , Her-tuaiu, ^ @ >^ ^ | , Sekhet of Thebes, f - 'f - , 
 Amet-tcheru, ^=z ^ v:^ , Ament-nefert, (I A^A^^^ [^yv^ T ^^ . and 
 Nit-tep-Ament, V ^ ® (| ^^ . On the other side of the boat of 
 the god are Nebui, ^^^^ J (1 fl , Besabes-uaa, J — «— "^ j] — -^ 
 
 ^-^^, Nepr, D I, Tepu, @®®, Hetch-a, t^ a, Ab, 
 
 - — °J^' ^spen, ^, Ar-ast-neter, (j <=> jj "^ 1 I, Amu-aa, 
 , Heru-khabit, ^^ «-=■ J 00 ^ ^f), Anubis, Osiris- 
 
 r==Qi' 
 
 Unnefer, Khui, '^. ^ nU , Horus of the two faces, i.e., Horus and 
 
 Set, Hen-Heru, y ^. , Hun, « "4" Q(l ? Hatchetchu, 8 ^3. ^v , 
 
 Nehr, — ^i — I), Makhi, ^([(j, Renpti, ^^°Jf, 
 
 Afau, ^ ^ ^ ' ^^^ Fa-trau, '^'=- ^ §) ^ W' ^^ 
 these gods worship the great god, and guide him on his way, and 
 weep when he has left them ; some of them bear to him the 
 prayers of those who are upon earth, and also lead disembodied 
 souls to the forms which belong to them ; others apparently 
 mark the seasons of the year. When Ra addressed the beings 
 there, they came to life at the sound of his voice, and they breathed 
 
212 BOOK OF THE UNDERWORLD 
 
 again ; he gave them food in abundance, and the gods gave water 
 to the spirits to drink at his command, and the hearts of the rebels 
 of Ril were burnt in the fire. It is, however, clear from the 
 texts that although Osiris was the Lord of the Second Hour Ra 
 Avas the overlord of Osiris, and that it was he who, like Osiris, made 
 gifts to the dead. On the other hand, the followers of Osiris had 
 to perform service for Ra, and one of their chief duties consisted in 
 keeping in check his enemies, who were always attempting to 
 prevent the progress of his boat ; in a way the service of these 
 followers was unrewarded, for they were condemned to remain 
 always in the same place, and to perform the same duty. 
 
 From the above paragraph the reader will gain some idea of 
 the difference between the illustrated version of the Second Hour 
 and the abstract of it which is found in the " Abridgment." As 
 the short version makes no attempt to supply the souls which Avere 
 supposed to make use of it Avith the names of the various gods and 
 beings in it, we can only assume that they learnt them Avhen on 
 earth in the body. The larger version of the Second Hour is 
 extremely interesting in showing Avhat a subordinate place the 
 priests of Amen-Ra made Osiris occupy in respect of Ra when 
 passing through the Tuat. 
 
 The descriptive text of the Third Hour, which is called 
 Tent-baiu,^ says : — " This great god next arrives in the Country 
 
 of those Avho slav ( Q Q " "^'^ "^ Jf i ) , and he roweth over 
 
 ■' \ A"^ I <=> I I I ill I /' 
 
 the Stream of Osiris ( ^ '^^^ H j] ), a space three hundred and 
 nine dtru long,^ and one hundred and twenty dtru wide (i.e., 
 this portion of the Tuat measured about 38|- miles long by 15 
 miles wide). This great god giveth commands to the gods Avho 
 are in the following of Osiris concerning this city, and he assigns 
 to them estates from this country. The name of the gods who 
 are in this field is 'Hidden Souls' i^L ™ 1 1), and Avhosoever 
 knoweth their name shall ascend to the place where Osiris is, 
 
 1 
 
 ^^ III 
 ^""^ ^^5^-. "^^ ^ ■ 
 
 ^ A variant given by Jequier gives 480 dtru as the lengtli, i.e., about sixty- 
 miles. 
 
214 BOOK OF THE UNDERWORLD 
 
 "and water shall be given unto him for his Field. The name 
 
 111. Whosoever shall make drawings of these 
 " Hidden Souls together with a representation of the hidden 
 " things of the Tuat — beginning the same from the "West — it shall 
 "be of great benefit not only to him upon earth, but in the Under- 
 " world, and indeed always. Whosoever knoweth them shall pass 
 " [unhurt] by them as they roar, and shall not fall into their 
 " cauldrons. Whosoever knoweth these things, being attached to 
 " his place, shall have his bread with Ra. Whosoever, being a 
 " soul and a spirit, knoweth these things shall have the mastery 
 " over his legs, and he shall never enter into the place of destruc- 
 " tion, and he shall come forth in his forms and smell the air at his 
 " appointed hour." The illustrated version of the Third Hour 
 represents the boat of Ra sailing over the "Stream of Osiris" 
 preceded by three boats, each of which is moved onwards by two 
 men Avith paddles ; the beings in these boats are all forms of the 
 god Osiris, and the gods who stand on each side of the stream 
 belong to his cycle, or company. These latter had their bodies of 
 flesh, to which their shadows had been re-united, and their souls 
 talked in them, as soon as Ra had spoken to them ; they made 
 answer to the god, and sang his praise whilst he was with them, 
 but their cries of joy changed to lamentations when he left them. 
 They could not go with him, because it was their duty to guard 
 their district, and to destroy the enemies of Ra, and to support the 
 life of Ra, and to make the Nile to flow. 
 
 Among the gods in this Hour were the nine forms of the god 
 Osiris : — Osiris, lord of Ament, j] ^37 I ■ Osiris Khenti-Ament, 
 _^^^; Osiris the Throne, J^jj^; Osiris, conqueror of 
 millions, _J^^^^^; Osiris the double of Ament, j] {j |; 
 Osiris on his staircase, jl 1^=^ ® Z] : Osiris prince of the ffods, 
 
 itilll' ^^"'^® ^^^^ °^ hov^ev Egypt, J^\^\^; and 
 Osiris-Sahu, J^ |^. The duties of the beings who are grouped 
 with these are clear from their names, for these refer to destruction 
 
THIRD HOUR OF THE NIGHT 215 
 
 in one form or another, and the explanatory text tells us that they 
 are employed in " hacking and cutting souls, in shutting up the 
 " shadows of the dead, and in dragging the occupants of tombs to 
 " their place of slaughter ; " moreover, they shoot out flames, they 
 cause fires to come into being, and the heads of the enemies of Ra 
 are cut off by their swords. The master of the region traversed 
 in the Third Hour is called Khatra, ^ \\ , and we learn from the 
 
 speech of Ra that the inhabitants of the mythological district over 
 which he presides were created by Ra specially to follow and to 
 protect Osiris. To these he says, " ye whom I have hidden, 
 " whose souls I have put in a secret place, whom I have set in the 
 " following of Osiris to defend him ; to accompany his images, to 
 " make an end of those who attack him (even as the god Hu is 
 " behind thee, O Osiris, to defend thee, to accompany thy images, 
 " to destroy those who attack thee, even as Hu is to thee, Osiris, 
 " and even as Sa is to thee, Klienti Amentet), ye souls whose 
 " forms are stablished, ye souls whose magical powers make 
 " certain your coming into being, who breathe the air [through 
 " your nostrils, who look] with your faces, who listen with your 
 " ears, who are apparelled in your raiment, who are clothed with 
 " your sAva things, who have offerings made to you at stated seasons 
 "by the priests of God, who have estates set apart for your own 
 " behoof and benefit, whose souls are not cast down, whose bodies 
 " are not overthrown : [0 Hidden Souls, I say] open ye your 
 " circles, and set ye yourselves in your own places, for I have 
 " come to see my bodies, and to look upon the similitudes of myself 
 " Avhich are in the Tuat, and it is you who have brought me along 
 " and have given me the opportunity of coming to them. And 
 " now I lead thy soul to heaven, Osiris, and thy soul to earth, 
 " Khenti Aukert, with thy gods behind thee, and thy spirits before 
 " thee, and thy being and thy forms [about thee]. And thy spirit 
 " hath its word of power, Osiris, and you, ye spirits who are in 
 " the following of Osiris, have your words of power. I go up on 
 " the earth and the day is behind me ; I pass through the night, 
 " and my soul rejoins itself to your forms during the day, and I 
 " fulfil the ceremonies of the night which are needful for you. I 
 
216 BOOK OF THE UNDERWORLD 
 
 " have created your souls for mine own use, so that they may be 
 " behind me, and what I have done for them will preserve you 
 " fi'om falling down to the place of destruction." ^ 
 
 The Fourth Hour of the night, which is called Sekhbmus,' 
 conducts the boat of the Sun-god through a region of a very 
 different character from the earlier divisions. The descriptive text 
 says, " The majesty of this great god next arriveth in the hidden 
 " Circle of Amentet, and he performeth the designs of the gods 
 "Avho are therein by means of his voice without seeing them. 
 " The name of this Circle is Ankhet-kheperu ("Y- ^ ^ g ^ j| IJ |) ' 
 "and the name of the pylon of this Circle is Ament-sthau 
 '— — ' '^ " "^ %\ ~^ dzn) . Whosoever knoweth this plan 
 
 "of the hidden paths of Re-stau (^ '^^c^^ , and of the 
 " winding roads of the Ammehet ((| ^= ^ | ^^_^ , and of the 
 
 " hidden pylons which are in the Land of Seker, he who is on his 
 " sand shall eat the bread which hath been prepared for the mouth 
 " of the living gods who are in the temple of Tem. He who 
 "knoweth these things shall [know] the paths rightly, and shall 
 "have power to journey along the roads of Re-stau, and to see 
 "the forms (or guides) in the Ammehet." The Circle Ammehet 
 is, as we learn from Chapter cxlix of the Booh of the Dead, the 
 Sixth Aat, or district of the domain of Osiris which is presided 
 over by the god Seker ; the deceased addresses it thus : — " Hail, 
 " thou Ammehet which art holy unto the gods, and art hidden 
 " for the spirits, and art baleful unto the dead ; the name of the 
 " god who dwelleth in thee is Sekher-7Vt (?) [or Sekher-remu]. 
 " Homage to thee, Ammehet, I have come to see the gods who 
 " dwell in thee. Uncover your faces and put off your head-dresses 
 " when ye meet me, for, behold, I am a mighty god among you, 
 " and I have come to prepare provisions for you. Let not Sekher- 
 " At (?) have dominion over me, let not the divine slaughterers 
 
 1 See Maspero, Les Hypogeea, p. 64. 
 
FOURTH HOUR OF THE NIGHT 
 
 217 
 
 " come after me, let not the murderous fiends come after me, but 
 " let me live upon sepulchral offerings among you." ' 
 
 The illustrated edition of the Fourth Hour shows us the boat 
 of Ra passing through an entirely new country, in fact a region 
 
 bo 
 
 which is filled with huge and fearsome snakes, and represents the 
 region over which the god Seker presides. Here there is no river 
 with banks lined with the gods and the souls of the dead, and here 
 
 ^ See my Chapters of Coming Forth hy Day (Translation), p. 267. 
 
218 BOOK OF THE UNDERWORLD 
 
 there are no fields to be distributed by Ra among the faithful 
 followers of himself and of Osiris ; indeed there are so few beings 
 to render him service that he is obliged to betake himself to 
 another kind of boat, and the god of day is compelled to glide 
 through the passages of the dark and gloomy land almost without 
 a following of gods. Ra stands within a shrine in his boat as 
 before, but the boat itself is formed of a serpent with a head at 
 each end of his body ; this boat is hauled over the sandy ground of 
 the god " who is upon his sand " by gods of the company of Osiris, 
 with whom, however, are mingled the gods of the company of Ptah 
 of Memphis, and Osiris himself is merged in Seker and becomes 
 Osiris Seker. The narrow way, or road, of Re-stau has three doors, 
 
 which are called Mates-sma-ta, V\ c-^^ ^^^j.. 4 k^ X I , ? 
 Metes-mau-at, |x -<^^ .^ 1 , and Metes-neheh, v\ "^^^s-- 
 
 1k Q O 5 and by these it is divided into three parts. Into one 
 
 part the god Ra neither enters nor travels, but the door thereof 
 obeys his voice ; in another part is the body of Seker, who is on 
 his sand, the hidden form which can be neither looked at nor seen ; 
 another part is that through which Seker passeth, but neither the 
 gods, nor the spirits, nor the dead go through it, and it is filled 
 with the souls which have been consumed by the fire that comes 
 forth from the mouth of the goddess Am-mit. The region through 
 which the boat of Ra travels is full of thick darkness, and the light 
 which the god usually emits is unable to penetrate it ; in this 
 difficulty he is helped upon his way by the light of the flames of 
 fire which issue from the mouth of the serpent which forms the 
 body of his boat. Among the gods who march in front of the boat 
 are Thoth and Horus, who stand facing each other with outstretched 
 hands in which they hold an Utchat, ^^, which is here to be 
 identified with the god Seker. The serpents which are passed by 
 the god are of various kinds and of diffei-ent sizes. The first, 
 
 called Hetch-nau, ^ °^ ___^ ^ , lies at full length in a boat, 
 
 each end of which terminates in a human head, and is the 
 guardian of Seker; the second is three-headed, and he moves over 
 the ground on four human legs and feet ; the third is called Amen, 
 
220 BOOK OF THE UNDERWORLD 
 
 ^fn^nu^^^ the fourth is Hekent, 1^"^. and has a human head 
 growing out of its body just above the tail; and the fifth is 
 Menmenu, i^^^^f^^^^ q tk i^^ which has three heads, and bears on 
 
 its back fourteen stars and fourteen human heads surmounted by 
 disks. Next we have three huge serpents near the great scorpion 
 Ankhet, ^<=^, and a huge uraeus, to which libations are being 
 poured out by a man; and a three-headed serpent, Avith wings, 
 which moves along on four human feet and legs ; and the serpent 
 Neheb-kau, ''^w^ § J '^ i , which has two heads at one end of its 
 body, and one head at the other. All these monsters are said to 
 make their journey daily round about tlie region of the Fourth 
 Hour, and they live upon what they find on their way. 
 
 The last hour, as we have seen, is a part of the dominions of 
 Seker, but the Fifth Hour, which is called Semit-hek-abt-uaa-s,^ 
 contains his capital city. The descriptive text says, "This great 
 " god is drawn along over the actual roads of the Tuat, and over 
 " the hidden Circle of Seker, the god who is on his sand, and he 
 " neither seeth nor looketh upon the hidden figure of the land 
 " which containeth the flesh of this god. The gods who are with 
 " this god hear the voice of Ra-Heru (?), and they adore him at 
 " the seasons of this god. The name of the pylon of this city is 
 
 " Aha-neteru, o f a 1 " ', and the name of this Circle is 
 
 4 In' 
 
 ■ r\ ■■>■■"■■■ 
 
 " Ament, II . [Here are] the secret ways of Ament, and 
 
 '• the doors of the house of Ament, and the habitable house 
 " ( J % ^^ I ) of the earth of Seker, and his flesh, and his 
 " members, and his body, in their primeval forms. The name of 
 " those who are in this Circle is ' Baiu amu Tuat ' (i.e.. Souls in the 
 "Tuat). The forms who are in their hours and their hidden beings 
 " neither see nor look upon this form of Seker himself. Whosoever 
 " maketh a picture of these things which are in Ament in the Tuat, 
 " to the south of the hidden house, and whosoever knoweth these 
 "things, his soul shall be at peace, and he shall be satisfied 
 
^ 
 
222 BOOK OF THE UNDERWORLD 
 
 " with the offerings of Seker. And Khemit (® ^^ (Ifl ^ Jj ^ shall 
 
 " not hack his body in pieces, and he shall go to her in peace. 
 " Whosoever shall make offerings to these gods upon earth shall 
 " [find] them of benefit to him in the Tuat." 
 
 The illustrated version of the Fifth Houe shows us Ra 
 travelling in his serpent boat and being towed along by seven gods 
 and seven goddesses, who represent the gods of fourteen days of 
 the month ; before these are the divine sovereign chiefs, i.e., 
 Her-khu, c=^ ® %i | I , An-hetep, H ■=^=, Her-hequi, £5^ TT, 
 
 and H etch-met T II . Half way through the hour Ea comes to a 
 
 mound of sand, the top of which is surmounted by the head of a 
 woman, whereon rests the forepart of a beetle, only one half of 
 which is visible, symbol of the god Khejaera ; this head indicates 
 the position of the hidden abode wherein is Seker, and when the 
 beetle alights upon it the god Khepera holds converse with that 
 god. Immediately beneath the head is the " Land of Seker," 
 which has the shape < — a , and is described as the " hidden land of 
 " Seker which guardeth the hidden flesh ; " it is surrounded by a 
 wall of sand, and at each end, outside the wall, is a sphinx with 
 the head of a man and the body of a lion. Inside this land is 
 a two-headed, winged serpent, with a tail which terminates in a 
 human head ; between the wings stands a figure of the hawk- 
 headed god Seker ; this serpent monster represents the god 
 watching over his own image. The two sphinxes are watched by 
 
 two serpents, Tepan, "^ (j ^, and Ankh-aapau, f (j ^ ^ ^; 
 the first serpent enters into the presence of this god, and carries 
 to him daily the offerings which are made by the living, but the 
 second never leaves his place, and lives upon the flames which 
 proceed from his own mouth. Before the second serpent are four 
 seated gods, who bear on their knees the emblems of "hidden 
 symbols" of Seker, i.e., /J, V , S. , and [fl, and rest by the side 
 of a lake of water called Nut, ^^-^ \. ^ '^ ; fo^" ^^^ose who are in 
 
 this lake its waters are like fire, and each of the heads of the four 
 gods which rise above them bears upon it the symbol of fire. The 
 lake is watched over by the company of gods of Ra, represented 
 
FIFTH HOUR OF THE NIGHT 
 
 223 
 
 by nine axes, and five gods. But before Ra has passed through 
 the Fifth Hour he arrives at a large vaulted chamber, filled with 
 
 sand, and called '^^, i.e., "Night," and on each side, clinging by- 
 its claws, is a hawk ; from the lower part of it goes forth the 
 
224 BOOK OF THE UNDERWORLD 
 
 beetle, only one half of which is visible. This beetle, or Khepera, 
 typified the germ of life, and when the boat of Ra was drawn on 
 to the top of the mound of sand already described, it was supposed 
 to stop on it as it passed, and having done so, it went to the dead 
 god and raised him up to life. This chamber was guarded by a 
 
 two-headed serpent called Ter, 2|*^' ^^^ ^* ^^^ *° ^® 
 jealously watched in order to prevent the entrance of any one who 
 would disturb or destroy the germ of life. A little beyond the 
 chamber of sand is a group of seven gods, whose duty it was to 
 inspect the slaughter of the dead in the Tuat, and to consume 
 their bodies by the flames of their mouths in the course of each 
 day ; and a little further on is the goddess who " lives upon the 
 blood of the dead," and who is occupied in slaying a man doomed 
 to die by the gods. When the boat of Rii arrived at the end of 
 the Fifth Hour he saw the star of the " living god, who joumeyeth, 
 "and journeyeth and passeth," j ■¥■ I r-jr-i r-77-i Dr. Brugsch, 
 
 and following him M. Maspero, and others, have identified this 
 star with the planet Venus, the star of the morning, and the 
 identification is undoubtedly correct. This is an important fact, 
 for, as M. Jequier lias pointed out,^ coupled Avith the representa- 
 tion of the beetle going forth from the night to place itself in the 
 boat of Ra, it shoAvs us that the domain of Seker, although reduced 
 to two hours which have been inserted in their proper geographical 
 position in the Tuat, certainly at one time formed a complete hell, 
 and that the rising of the sun Avas the final event Avhich took place 
 in it. 
 
 The Sixth Hour, which is called Mesperit-arat-maatu,^ 
 brings us to the neighbourhood of the shrines of Osiris in the 
 Delta. The descriptive text says, " When this great god arriveth 
 " at the abyss of Avater, which is the lady of the gods of the Tuat, 
 " he holdeth discourse Avith the gods Avho are there, and he giveth 
 " the command for them to obtain the mastery over their offerings 
 
 " i1 ^ D ^ I I 1^ ^" *^^^^ ^^*^" ^^ saileth in this [Field] being 
 
 ' Le Livre de ce qu'il y a dans I'Hades, p. 76. 
 
THE PITS OF THE TUAT 
 
 225 
 
 " provided with his boat, and he commandeth them [to have] their 
 "fields for their offerings, and he giveth them water for their 
 " streams as they go about the Tuat each day. The name of the 
 
 " pylon of this city is Sept-metu (^ A f ^ ^ "^ ^^)- The 
 "hidden path of Amentet, on the stream of which this great god 
 Q 
 
226 THE SIXTH HOUR 
 
 'journeyeth in his boat to perform the affairs of the gods of the 
 " Tuat, and the collecting of their names, and the manner in which 
 " their forms rest, and all that appertaineth to their hidden hours, 
 " and the hidden similitude of the Tuat, are unknown .... The 
 " majesty of this god uttereth words, and he giveth divine offerings 
 " to the gods who are in the Tuat, and he standeth near them ; 
 " they see him, and they have the mastery over their fields and 
 "over the gifts which are made to them, and they have their 
 "beings through the command which this great god, who is 
 " mighty of words, giveth unto them. The name of this district 
 
 "is Metchet-nebt-Tuatiu ("^ '^ ^^^^Jj)." The 
 third paragraph of the text promises to those who make pictures 
 of the Sixth Hour a participation in the offerings which have 
 been made to the gods in the train of Osiris, and also that 
 offerings shall be made to them by their kinsfolk on earth. 
 
 The illustrated edition of the Sixth Hour shows us that Ra 
 has no longer any need of the boat which was made of the body of 
 a serpent wherein he passed through the realm of Seker, and that 
 he is once again in his old boat and sailing over the waters of the 
 stream in the Tuat. In front of his boat are : — 1 . Thoth, who is 
 called Khenti-Tuat, and who is represented by a dog-headed god 
 holding an ibis on his out-stretched right hand ; and 2. the goddess 
 
 Ament-semu-set, (J /vwwv 
 
 ^ 
 
 Beyond these is a large 
 
 house with sixteen divisions, in each of which is a god in mummied 
 form ; these represent the mansions of Osiris, and four contain 
 kings of the South, four contain kings of the North, four contain 
 
 Heteptiu, ^ i , and four contain Spirits. All these form the 
 
 guardians of a huge five-headed serpent called Ash-hrau, "^^ '^ i , 
 
 the body of which is bent round into an irregular oval in such a 
 way that his tail almost touches one of his heads. Lying on his 
 
 back within this oval is a god who is called Afu, ?., i.e., "Flesh," 
 and as he is touching with his right hand the leg of a beetle which 
 he holds on his head, we may assume that he represents the dead 
 body of Khepera, and is the opposite of the Sun-god in his boat, 
 who is called " Flesh of Ra," | © . The sixteen gods mentioned 
 
228 THE SIXTH HOUR 
 
 above are addressed by Ra, who commands them to be happy with 
 their offerings, and to protect him, and to slay the serpent Apepi ; 
 they hearken to his voice, and the text goes on to say that it is 
 the voice of Ra which will make the god within the folds of the 
 serpent Ash-hrau and the beetle upon his head to move. With 
 these must be mentioned the double company of the gods of Osiris, 
 one company being depicted in human form sitting on invisible 
 
 thrones ; these are : — Hetep-Henti-Tuat, , Ast-amhit, ji "^ 
 
 (]^|(](]^, Asar-am-ab-neteru, j] -{|- "? 1 ,[,! Heru-khenti- 
 
 Maa-ab-khenti-aht-f, :3^ , iffj] ^ I ^ ' ^^^ three gods whose 
 
 names are not given. The second company of nine gods is repre- 
 sented by nine sceptres, each of which has a knife fixed at its base, 
 ^^=5>^ I ; the first three are surmounted by the white crowns, /j, 
 the second three by the red crowns, %/ , and the third three by 
 uraei, R. . Next we have the lion god Ka-hemhem, U ^ '^ , 
 with Isis, and Horus, and the mummied figure, s — > ^ (?) s=3 T ' , 
 
 ^ to » _gJ5, I III? 
 
 armed with |, and, ^=5^, who keep guard over the three houses 
 of Ra, each of which is protected by a serpent god standing upon 
 its tail and emitting fire from its mouth. The first house is called 
 Het-tua-Ra O D ^ , and has for its symbol "^, and the sign ^ ; 
 
 the second is called Het-stau-Kher-aha-Ra, o f ~^~ ffl Q^ , and 
 has for its symbol, ^; and the third is called Het-temtet-Ra, 
 y ^= "^ o^' ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ symbol, @, the head of a man. On 
 the left hand side of the boat of the Sun-god are two gods 
 whose names are wanting, Ahi, (| § (|(), Netch-atef, ^^ ""f" (] '^ 
 Ankh-hra, j-^, Met-hra, | "f" (Sept-hra ^ "^p), Netch-pautti, 
 ^T^w' *^^ goddesses Antheth, (|.^~w^^^^ Henhenith, 
 ^(j(j«, Hemt, ^^^, and Sehith, fl|(](j^; and the 
 monster serpent Am-khu, — d ^ ® ^ | ] j which bears on its 
 back the heads of the four Children of Horus, Mestha, Hapi, 
 
M 
 
230 THE SEVENTH HOUR 
 
 Tuamutef, and Qebhsennuf. The duty of this serpent is to devour 
 the shadows and the spirits of the enemies of Ra, who are over- 
 thrown in the Tuat. The monster is followed by the four earthly 
 forms of Osiris, Kai, Z5%. (lO, Meni-ret, r^(|(l|, Enen-retui, 
 
 and Urt, <=>, and nine fire-spitting serpents armed 
 
 with knives, which are Ta-thenen, " ^^, Tem, Khepera, Shu, 
 Seb, Osiris, Horus, Apu, \/\, and Hetepui, ^^^. The duty 
 of these gods consisted in destroying the enemies of Khepera, 
 and in cutting up their shadows ; they lived in Nu and in the 
 water of Ta-thenen, and Khepera by means of his magical power 
 daily made them to breathe through the word of Ea, 
 
 The Seventh Houe, which is called Khesep-haa-heseq-Keha- 
 HEA,^ takes us into the region of the Tuat which contains the 
 hidden abode of the god Osiris. The descriptive text says, 
 " When the majesty of this great god arriveth in the hidden abode 
 
 " (Tephet ^ fi ,-— i) ^^ Osiris, he addresseth to the gods who are 
 " there [suitable] words. This god maketh to himself other forms 
 "for this hidden abode, so that he may turn back the way for 
 "Apep by means of the magical words of Isis, and the magical 
 
 " words of Ser, ra 3 . The name of the pylon of this city through 
 
 " which the god journeyeth is ' Gate of Osiris ' (<=> v ^ IT fl^)' 
 
 "and the name of the city is Tephet-shetat (^ | ^ ^~^^ ^ ). 
 
 "This great god passeth over the hidden way of Amentet in his 
 " boat which is endowed with magical powers, and he journeyeth 
 " over it when there is no stream in it, and when there are none to 
 " tow him. He performeth this by means of the words of power 
 " of Isis and of Ser, and by means of the mighty words of power 
 "which proceed from his own mouth, and in this region of the 
 "Tuat he inflicteth with the knife wounds upon Apep, whose 
 " place is in heaven." The man who shall make a picture of the 
 things which are to the north of the hidden house of the Tuat shall 
 find it of great benefit to him both in heaven and on earth ; and 
 
THE SEVENTH HOUR 
 
 231 
 
 lie who knows it shall be among the spirits near Ra, and he who 
 recites the words of Isis and Ser shall repulse Apep in Amentet, 
 and he shall have a place on the boat of Ra both in heaven and 
 
 upon earth. The man who knows not this picture shall never be 
 able to repulse the serpent Neha-hra. 
 
 The text continues, " The shallows of the land of Neha-hra are 
 
232 THE SEVENTH HOUR 
 
 "450 cubits long, and it is filled with Ms folds, but over one 
 " portion thereof this great god joumeyeth not when he travelleth 
 " to the hidden abode of Osiris, for he journeyeth through this city 
 " under the form of the god Mehen, ("^ Bll) . Neha-hra shall 
 "never drink the water of him that knoweth this, and the 
 " soul which knoweth it shall never be given over to the violence 
 "of the gods who are in this Circle; and the crocodile Ab-she 
 
 " ( Q J] X oo) shall never eat the soul of him that knoweth it." 
 
 From what is said above we see that the boat of Ra has arrived at 
 a shallow place in the celestial stream where there is not enough 
 water to float the boat, or even to allow it to be towed ; moreover, 
 the serpent Neha-hra opposes the advance of the god. In this 
 difficulty Isis, the great enchantress, enters the boat, and standing 
 in the bows utters the words which make it proceed on its way. 
 Neha-hra, as we see from the illustrated edition of the hour, is 
 
 seized by Serqet and Her-tesu-f, "^ ^^^ ^'^^ '^.=- , and held in 
 bonds, and is transfixed to the ground by six knives ; thus Ra, 
 with the serpent Mehen over him in the form of a canopy, moves 
 on without let or hindrance. Behind the monster serpent stand 
 four goddesses, each armed with a huge knife, whose duty it is to 
 guard the tombs of the four forms of Osiris ; the names of the 
 
 four goddesses are: — Temtith, ^=(][]s=3, Tenith, ^^^^(](]s=3, 
 
 Nakith, I) ^=^ |](] s= , and Hetemitet, | jj fllj ^- Their duty 
 
 was to drive away the enemies of Ra, and to hack in pieces with 
 their awful knives the fiend Apep every day. The four tombs of 
 Osiris are rectangular buildings, and inside each is a bed or small 
 mound of sand whereunder lie the dead souls of the god, which are 
 known by the names Tem, Khepera, Ra, and Osiris. At each end 
 of each tomb is a human head, Avhich is said to come forth from 
 the tombs whenever it hears the voice of Ra, and after he has 
 passed " they eat their own forms," i.e., the heads disappear from 
 sight. It was, no doubt, a custom in predynastic times to slay 
 slaves at the graves of kings and nobles, just as in many parts of 
 the world it has been the custom to kill human beings and to lay 
 their bodies beneath the foundations of buildings which were to 
 
THE SEVENTH HOUR 
 
 233 
 
234 THE SEVENTH HOUR 
 
 be erected iu order that the souls of the slaughtered might protect 
 them and keep away evil spirits. The human heads on the tombs 
 of Osiris probably represent a tradition that, when Osiris was 
 buried, human sacrifices were offered at his tomb for this or 
 for some similar purpose/ This view has been well discussed by 
 M. Lefebure, who has done so much to illustrate the religious 
 and funeral customs of the ancient Egyptians/ and some allusion 
 to it is probably made by HorapoUo,^ who says that when they 
 wanted to represent ^vkaKrripLov they were wont to draw two 
 human heads, one male and the other female, that of the male 
 looking inwards, and that of the female outwards. These heads 
 would keep away the attack of any evil spirit, even if no inscription 
 was placed with them. 
 
 The other illustrations of this hour show us the god Af-Asar, 
 
 (^(^q_(^(^(^q_ (] '';.=^ ^ J , i.e., "Flesh of Osiris," seated under a 
 canopy made by the body of a form of the serpent Mehen called 
 Ankh-aru-tchefau, ■?■ ^^^^ , with the human-headed serpent 
 Ankhtith, "?■ ■^ '^ ^^ , and the lion-headed goddess Hekenth, "^ s=> , 
 behind him ; a little further behind is the god Shepes, -*— , 
 
 a form of Thoth. Before the god kneel three figures, whose heads 
 have been cut off by a cat-headed god, and lying on the ground 
 are three beings who have been fettered by the god Anku, 
 
 (J v^ ' *^6se represent the enemies of Osiris whose souls have 
 
 been plucked out, and whose shadows have been hacked in pieces 
 because they rebelled against the lord of the Tuat. Before these 
 are three human-headed hawks wearing double crowns, and they 
 represent the souls of the "living;" and on a serpent near is seated 
 
 on a throne the god Af-Tem, M „ i ^^/=, i.e., "Flesh of 
 
 Tem." Among the other gods in this hour is " Horus on his 
 throne," and before him are a company of gods who have been 
 
 1 See Maspero, Les Hypogees, p. 104 ; Jequier, op. cit., p. 94. 
 
 2 Bites Sgyptiens, pp. 4 ff., 18 if. 
 
 3 ^XaK-rqpiov Se ypa(j>eiv /SoyXo/xevoi, Svo Kc^aXas avOptlrrrotv ^orypa^oCirt, Trjv fiev 
 Toi) aptrcvos tarn /BktTrovcrav, rrjv &e 6r]\vKrjV i^m. ovTta yap (fiatnv oiSiv Toiv Sai/wvioiV 
 e^ai/'€Tai, tireiS^ koI j^ojpis ■ypap.p.aTojv, k.t.X. HieroglypMca, i. 24. 
 
236 
 
 THE EIGHTH HOUR 
 
 joined to their stars, and the goddesses of the twelve hours. 
 Facing these companies is the crocodile " Ab-sha-am-Tuat," 
 
 D J ^ ^^^^ -[[- J^ , who acts as guardian of the tomb of Osiris 
 
 and of what is in it. When Ea passes by the crocodile, which is 
 described as " Osiris, the Eye of Ra," this beast is fascinated and 
 made helpless by the words so long as the god is speaking to him, 
 and the dead Osiris, who is in the ground under the crocodile, 
 puts up his head that he also may look at the Sun-god ; the 
 
 ■ •lint. * ■■■■■■'■■i'*; ■■':* v».;.j^^>r»^i\!^ j V.'.v>'.-.:.v'>v\\v*./VA\;»»iV/.- :*.*:: *'.^: 
 
 
 
 The Seventh Hour of the Night. 
 
 followers of Osiris also seize the opportunity of gazing upon Ra, 
 and do so without risk of being devoured by the monster which 
 is temporarily enchanted. 
 
 The Eighth Hour, which is called Nebt Ushau,^ brings us 
 into a very interesting division of the Tuat ; the name of its pylon 
 
 ^IiH^'=r'^^. 
 
238 THE CIRCLES OF THE TUAT 
 
 is Aha-en-urt-nef, — of °^Sl ' ^^^ *^^ ^^^^ °^ *^® 
 city is Tebat-netem-s, ^=^ J "^ ^1 n', ^- ^^ P^^^®^ through 
 this division in his boat under the protection of Mehen, and its 
 gods tow him at the command of this mighty snake ; he sees all 
 the gods in their various Circles, and those "who are on their 
 sand," and he addresses words to them. They come out of their 
 secret abodes when the god passes by, and the doors thereof open 
 of their own accord. In this Hour only gods and spirits who 
 have been mummified and buried with appropriate rites are to 
 be found, and, though dead, they quickly come to life again at 
 the words of Ra, who exhorts them to put an end to all the 
 enemies of his who are to be found in that region. The illustrated 
 edition of the Hour shows us the boat of the god being towed 
 along, and in front of it are nine large signs, the forms of which 
 are based upon the hieroglyphic character n shesu or shemsu, i,e., 
 
 " follower " or " servant." From the top of seven of these is 
 suspended a human head, which shows that we are actually 
 dealing with beings who are in the following of Osiris, and before 
 
 each is the hieroglyphic for " linen," J^. These nine remarkable 
 
 objects represent beings who have been mummified in the manner 
 prescribed by Horus, and who are suitably provided with funeral 
 bandages ; they are described as beings whose whole life is in 
 their heads, and when Ra calls to them by their names they imme- 
 diately seize his enemies everywhere and cut off their heads 
 with their knives. Before these are the four forms of the 
 
 god Ta-thenen, __ , which are depicted as rams and are 
 described as " form one," m, "form two," ^Oj "form three," 
 mmH, and " form four," MmmH- On each side of the way 
 
 by which Ra journeys are five Circles. 
 
 The door of the first Circle, Sesheta, is called Tes-neb-terer. 
 
 . . . ^,^^^^ — — ■^^, and shuts in the images of Tern, Khepera, 
 
 and Shu ; when Ra speaks to them they answer in a voice which 
 resembles the humming of bees. The door of the second Circle 
 
240 
 
 THE CIRCLES OF THE TUAT 
 
 X 
 
 "^>^ 
 
 Tuat, , is called Tes-aha-Ta-tlienen, 
 and shuts in the images of Tefnut, Seb, and Nut ; when Ra speaks 
 to them they answer in a voice which resembles that of weeping 
 women. The door of the third Circle, As-neteru, (1 ft 1 [z:3i | i, 
 is called Tes-khem-baiu, ^^ ^^ "i^ ^ and shuts in the images 
 
 of Osiris, Isis, and Horus ; when Ra speaks to them they answer 
 in a voice which resembles that of men who moan. The door of 
 
 
 ■■ ' ■ ' ■ • ^■•■- ■■ ■ •■• . . ^-^^•■^■»^■■■"■:-^:^:^^:::v:^:■^:^■^J■:?;,^^;;^^::;:v^■^:y 
 
 The Eighth Hour of the Night. 
 
 the fourth Circle, Aakebi, (ji"^ ffi J (](| ^, is called Tes-sheta- 
 em-thehen-neteru, ^ '^^^ ^=z "ffff '^'^'^ , and shuts in the images 
 
 "='5^^ 
 
 of Ka-Amentet, [j ^ , Ba-neteru, ^ "^ I'^l , and Rem-neteru, 
 ^^ 111 ' ^^^^ ^^ speaks to them they answer in a voice which 
 is like that of bulls and men when they make lamentation. The 
 door of the fifth Circle, Nebt-semu-nefu, "^^1 1 1^2*^ '", 
 
THE CIRCLES OF THE TUAT 241 
 
 is called Tes-sma-kekui, ^ P ^ Y :) ^ ^ \N '"F', and shuts 
 
 in the images of Khatri, _^ M , Affi, h '^"^ M <o<, and Aranbfi, 
 
 fl 3^ w ; when Ea speaks to them they answer in a voice 
 
 which is like unto that of him that maketh supplication in terroi'. 
 These five Circles are shut in by a door called Tes-khaibit-tuatiu, 
 
 ^TTTi^^'^^S^i" ^^^ *^^°^' °^ *^® ^^^*^ ^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^ 
 
 Tes-ermen-ta ^^ "^^ and shuts in some divine beings 
 
 ' ^=;>^ r"-^ „_J I s' 
 
 whose attributes are not yet all clearly defined ; when Ea speaks 
 to them they answer in a voice which is like that of male cats when 
 they mew. The door of the seventh Circle, Hetemet-khemiu, 
 
 ill^^^%^^1fl^i~!^' ^^ ^^^^^^ Tes - Ea - khefti - f, 
 111=^^^, and shuts in Nut, Ta, and Sebeq-hra, 
 
 .O 1 
 
 1 1 jM j ; when Ea speaks to them they answer in a voice which 
 is like the roar of the living. The door of the eighth Circle, 
 Hap - semu - s, 'W r „ ^^ ^__ i is called Tes - sekhem - aru, 
 
 n 'Y' © ^^^ • ^S5- ^ I , and shuts in four gods ; ^ when Ea 
 
 speaks to them they answer in a voice which is like the shouts of 
 war heard in the battle of Nu. The door of the ninth Circle, 
 Sehert-baiu-s, — »— \ "^ -;>% "i^ ' ' ' i^z: , is called Tes-sept-nestu, 
 
 ^S n ^ A { ^ ^ QL ' ' ^^'^ shuts in four gods ; ^ when Ea 
 speaks to them they answer in a voice which is like that of the 
 cry of the divine hawk of Horus. The door of the tenth 
 Circle, Aat-setekau, ^^0 ^ '^'VQi'ctd' ^^ called Tes-khu, 
 '^ ® % ; 3t\, and shuts in four gods in the form of uraei 
 
 1 IJ n ^ "rf , Hebset -— j"^, Senket; czS:. J "i^ ^ ;1, Tebat; and 
 Temtet, 
 
 , Keku; ^^^^ f (U , Menhi; ^ ' '^ I , Tcher-kbu; and 
 
 JP 
 
 , Khebs-ta. 
 
 3l' 
 
 R 
 
242 THE NINTH HOUR 
 
 who rest upon 1 1 ; when Ka speaks to them they answer in a 
 voice which is like the twittering and chattering of water-fowl on 
 a lake. The last five Circles are shut in by a door called Tes-am- 
 
 mit-em-sheta-f, ^'^^=[J^=(](]^1.==™ 
 
 The Ninth Hour, which is called Tuatet-maket-neb-s/ 
 brings us into a country which is called the "hidden Circle of 
 
 " Amentet " ; the name of the city is Bes-aru, J — «— "^^y^ 
 
 i\^^^y^]\\ !?^ and the name of its pylon is Sa-Akeb, 
 
 -— ^ ^ Z5 J '^i^ ■ " "When the great god arriveth in this 
 
 *' Circle he addresseth from his boat the gods who are therein, and 
 *' the sailors who are in his boat are content with this city." The 
 man who shall make a copy of the scenes of this Hour, and shall 
 know the names of the gods and their places in Amentet shall 
 attain to a position in Amentet, and he shall stand up in the 
 presence of the lord of affairs and shall enjoy the power of making 
 
 what he says to come to pass with the divine assessors, i i P /^ ^ i , 
 on the day of reckoning up accounts by Per-aa (Pharaoh). The 
 illustrated edition of this Hour shows us the boat of the god 
 travelling on as before, and in front of it are twelve divine rowers, 
 each with his paddle ; among these are Khenu, \^ '^ , Akhem- 
 sek-f, (] ® ^ ^, Akhem-urt-f, f\ ® ^[^ ^, Akhem-hemi-f, 
 i) ® ^ ^ (](j '^-^ , Akhem-khemes-f, (] ® ^ ^ ^ '^^ , Khen- 
 unnut-f, YuJ±^:r"=-' Hapti-ta-f, A^^^, Hetep-uaa, 
 =3= ^^, Neter-neteru, ^ "] | , Tcha-Tuat, | J^^, andTepi, ^"^ |)(] . 
 The duty of these sailors is not only to row, but also to throw water 
 with their paddles upon the spirits who stand on each bank of the 
 river whereon the god sails, and they have to lead the soul of Ra 
 to the place where he will reanimate the disk. Before these 
 sailors, resting on baskets, are the three gods who give abundant 
 
o 
 
 o> 
 
 B 
 o 
 
 w 
 
 a 
 
 <^^ 
 
 =< 
 
 4 
 
 ^ 
 
244 THE NINTH HOUR 
 
 ofFerings, Muti-khenti-Tuat, l^^^lTI J^n' Nesti-khenti- 
 Tuat ® rfHi' ^ ^ " , and Nebt-au-khent-Tuat, ^ <A 
 rjTK ^ . On the right the boat of Ra passes twelve gods, each 
 seated on _li^ , and twelve goddesses ; these last are said to breathe 
 after he has saluted them, and after they have heard his voice, 
 and their duty is to utter words of power wherewith they are 
 to surround the hidden soul, and thereby to cause life and 
 strength to rise up in Osiris. The names of these are : — ISTehata, 
 
 T^ ^ — ' Teba, ^ J ^ ij, Ariti, -- %, (](] "f > Menkhet, 
 
 = iX, Hebs, 5 J ^^ T"' ^^^*'' ^' ^«*i-^e*«^'' i t '^^ 1 ' 
 Asti-paut, jj^cr^i©, Hetemet-khu, |'^jj^'^» Neb-pat, 
 ^_^l,Temtu, c^ Vi '^ , Men-a, =il— i., Perit, ^ (] (] - , 
 Shemat-khu, ^ ^ '^ I , Nebt-shat, ^ ^3 ^ ^ ^ , Nebt-shef- 
 
 shefet, Y^^'^^^' Aat-aatet, ^^ ^jj- ^ ^T 'ttff' i > 
 Nebt-setau, ^^ ~^ li. % ' , Hent-nut-s, § "^ ^ ® -^, Nebt- 
 mat, vO I, Tesert-ant, -^ U^?„> Aat-khu, — a <=■ 
 
 '^ ® fl % , Sekhet-metu, "^ ® | ^ {], Netert-en-khentet-Ra, 
 I <^ w,A/v^A AA/^A^ ^ O _ Q^ ^Ijq igft are twelve uraei, each of whom 
 
 rests on h 1 , and sends out fire through his mouth ; they are said 
 
 to kindle the fire for the god who is in the Tuat with the fire 
 which is in their mouths, and when the god has passed on his way 
 they eat up the fire which they poured forth before Ra went 
 by. The object of the fire was, of course, to show light on his 
 path. Before these uraei come the nine gods of cultivation and of 
 husbandry, who are under the direction of a god in mummified 
 
 form; these nine are the selchtiU, ll„[]J] '^ i , or "field-labourers," 
 
 w I I 
 
 C3I=1 
 
 of the god Her-she-tuati, ^ zzzi i< <^^ , their leader, 
 
 s III 
 
 and they perform all the works connected with the ploughing and 
 watering of the fields. 
 
246 THE TENTH HOUR 
 
 The Tenth Houb, which is called Tentit-uhesqet-khat-ab,^ 
 brings Ra in his boat to the city called Metchet-qat-utebu, 
 
 kheperu.mes-aru, ^^| g<=-;^||i I P # ^-^^Hi ^• 
 The boat of the sun travels on as before, but Ra again holds a 
 serpent in his hand after the manner of a staff. Immediately in 
 front is the serpent Thes-hrau, ^^^^ "^ i , with a head at each end 
 of his body ; on one head is the white crown, and on the other 
 the red crown ; he has two pairs of human legs, one pair turned 
 towards the right, and the other pair towards the left. His 
 body is bent in the form of a pair of horns, and in the curve stands 
 Khent-Heru, rjIK F=q, in the form of a black hawk ; on the, left is 
 
 the goddess of the north, Neith, with her two bows. 
 
 ^i-~Si 
 
 and on 
 
 the right is the goddess Hert-ermen, . Next comes a boat 
 
 containing the serpent Ankh-ta, and before it are three groups, 
 each containing four gods. The gods of the first group have solar 
 disks for heads, and are armed with arrows, and are called 
 
 Tepthera, @ ° ' q , Shesera, — »— (j , Temau, ""^ v^ , and Utu, 
 v^i c=s3 v>. The gods of the second group carry each a javelin, 
 and are called Setu, Yi. , Rau, v:^ , Ivhesfu, —— ^ , and 
 
 JSTekenu, ^^z^ O ; and the gods of the third group carry each a 
 
 /WSA'NA _ _____ 
 
 bow, and are called Pesthi, , Shemerthi, ^ w , Thesu, 
 
 , and Kha-a, i\ — o. All these gods accompany Ra 
 
 as he goes towards the east, and they slay all his enemies who 
 live in the darkness, and wreak special vengeance on the serpent 
 Neha-hra ; they escort the god to the very limits of the Hour, and 
 form part of his train in the eastern part of the sky. The name 
 
 of the region traversed by Ra in this Hour is Akert, n ^ '^ K 
 As the boat of Ra passes the god sees the " living beetle," ® '-' ^ ^ 
 born in the presence of the god P-ankhi, D ^^^ hh , and sees how he 
 
 ll^'ll^iPCn^-^?!**- 
 
248 THE TENTH HOUR 
 
 pushes before him his zone, . Next we have the two 
 
 serpents, Menenui, ^,^11 p. w, standing on their tails, and 
 
 holding on their bent necks a solar disk ; and two seated personifi- 
 cations of the South and North ; and the two goddesses, Netheth, 
 
 ^= , and Kenat, (] ^ , one of whom supports the hatchet, 
 
 and the other the solar disk, which rests upon it, h . From the 
 serpents go forth two goddesses, those of the East and West ; and 
 from the axe, called Seftit, '^^ ']'] "^ 1 ' S° forth the goddesses of 
 the East and West also; i.e., these goddesses are the souls of the 
 serpents and of the axe, which come forth to look upon the Sun- 
 god, and as soon as he has passed they return into their material 
 bodies. 
 
 Next Ra sees eight ^ goddesses advancing to a seated dog- 
 headed god, who presents to them the Eye of Horus, ^^, and 
 their duty is to see that it is in good condition, and to take care of 
 it and protect it, so that it may shine daily. Besides these there 
 
 come the eight gods called Ermenui, , Neb-aqet, -^37 , 
 
 Tua-khu, ^ ""^ ® i, Her-she-taiu, ^^^2, Sem-Heru, ^^ ^, 
 Tua-Heru, 1 ^\ ^ Khenti-ast-f, '^ jj =^^.- , and Khenti-ment, 
 ■^^ I ; the duty of these gods, Avho lived by the breath of the 
 
 great god, was to wreck the bodies and scatter the swathings of 
 the enemies of Ra. On his left hand Ra passed in his journey 
 through this Hour Horus, and twelve beings who dive and swim 
 and perform evolutions in tanks of water. These are said to 
 beat the water in their attempts to recover their breath, and Ra 
 calls upon them to fill themselves with the water of the celestial 
 Nile, and promises that their members shall not suffer corruption, 
 and that their bodies shall not perish ; he decrees that they shall 
 
 1 I.e., Sekhet, ^^, Menkert, 1^^^=^ Hunthetli, §4=.^^^, Usit, 
 
 I iJi]^, Abet-neteru-s, \ j i — «— ^ Aritathetli, ^^^^^ s=^ , Ahat. 
 and Themath, 4 
 
 n 
 
THE TENTH HOUR 
 
 249 
 
 be masters of their own arms in their water because they are the 
 denizens of Nu, and that their souls shall live. Beyond these are 
 
 four goddesses, each with a serpent hanging down her back with 
 its head above her own, and with them is a standard surmounted 
 
250 THE ELEVENTH HOUR 
 
 by the head of Set, "^ . This god was the guardian of the Tenth 
 Hour, and when Ra was about to pass from it into the eastern part 
 of the sky, Set was believed to rouse himself and to make the 
 journey with him. The four goddesses " who lived by their 
 heads," shed light on the path of Ra. 
 
 The Eleventh Hour, which is called Sebuit-nebt-uaa- 
 KHESPET-SEBAU-EM-PERT-J',^ brings US to a city called Re-qerert-apt- 
 
 khat, "^^^ <=> "^ (| J^ "^ "^^^ O Z, with a pylon bearing the 
 
 /vWVA 
 
 name of Sekhen-tuatiu, ^ ^ m "^^^^^ Wl ' "™™"' ^^^ object of 
 
 the texts and the illustrations Avhich accompany it was to enable 
 the spirits of the dead to become participators with the gods, and 
 to provide them with such things as were necessary for their 
 equipment both in heaven and upon earth. Ra stands as usual in 
 his boat, but he has changed the serpent which he held in his hand 
 
 as a sceptre for the ordinary sceptre, |, and on the bows of the 
 boat we see a solar disk, surrounded by a serpent ; the name of this 
 
 disk is ^, , I or — »— jg.,^ , Pestu or Pestet, and it is probably 
 
 connected with some well-known star which rose heliacally at 
 certain seasons of the year. The duty of the disk was to guide 
 the boat of the great god along the paths which led to that part 
 of the Tuat, at the end of the Eleventh Hour, where the darkness 
 faded away ; the texts call the darkness at this point kehu keskesu, 
 
 ^W^ I , i.e., the opposite of the kekui samui, 
 
 I / III -"^^ ' 
 
 W "T^ ^ V\ /^ I , or the thick, solid darkness which 
 
 3^ 
 
 fiUed the greater part of the Tuat. Before the boat of Ra are 
 twelve gods, who carry upon their heads the serpent Mehen to the 
 eastern part of the sky ; their names are : — Fa, %\ , Ermenu, 
 
 <:=> ^ , Athpi, ;^ "^ (jq , Netru, ^ ^ , Shepu, miu\, 
 
 Reta, 2 -7^, Amu, ^^^, Ama, (j^^, Shetu, 
 
 cmi 111-^ 
 
252 THE ELEVENTH HOUR 
 
 ^ , Sekhenu, ^ „ , Semsem, -'srsv ^ , and Mehm, ^ 
 Before these are : — 1. A uraeus wearing the crown of the North 
 and a human head ; and, 2. A uraeus from the back of which 
 emero-es the white crown, with a human head on each side of it. 
 
 The first of these is called Sem-shet, ^^ ^ , and the second 
 Sem-Nebt-het, "5^ IT; t^e human heads on the white crown only 
 come forth when Ra is passing by, and when he has departed they 
 disappear. Next we have figures of the four forms of the goddess 
 Neith, two of them wearing the white crown, and two the red ; 
 they are called Neith the fecundator, ^^ , in allusion to the behef 
 that this goddess begat herself, Neith of the red crown, ^ V, 
 Neith of the white crown, r), and Neith the child, ^ <— >' 
 
 these goddesses came into being as soon as they heard the voice of 
 Ra, and their duty was to guard the gate of Sais, "^^ i^ e^ 5 ^^ 
 
 unknown, the unseen, the invisible, ^ =^^=— OO — n— <=> 
 
 This Circle of the Tuat through which the god travels to appear in 
 the mountain of the sunrise contains many wonderful beings, and 
 it is said to " swallow always the forms therein in the presence of 
 
 " the god who knoweth, ^ J| , who is in this city, and afterwards 
 " it giveth them for the births of those who are to come into being 
 "on this earth." Among these are: — A god with the solar disk 
 for a head ; from it project two human heads, one wearing V , and 
 the other Q. He is called Aper-hra-neb-tchetta, "~d^ ^ "^ , and 
 stands facing a god having two heads, but without crowns, whose 
 name is Tepui, @®. In the space between we see a serpent 
 provided with a pair of wings and four human legs and feet, facing 
 the serpent Shetu ^ upon the back of which is seated a 
 
 god ; the heads of both serpents are among a number of stars. 
 Standing by the side of the winged serpent, which is called 
 Tchet-s, £7|, is a god called Petra, ^ \^^-> ^"^^^ ^lis arms 
 stretched out in such a way as to keep the wings wide apart ; he 
 has on his head a disk, and his neck is between the double %iichat 
 
254 THE ELEVENTH HOUR 
 
 ^^■^g. The descriptive text says that the god with a disk and 
 two heads is "he who stands, — o I a 5 ^7 Ra,"^ and that he 
 never leaves his place in the Tuat. The god who stands by the 
 winged serpent is Temu, who springs out of the reptile's back 
 when Ra addresses it ; but as soon as the words cease Temu 
 disappears into the serpent. The second serpent is the con- 
 stellation Shetu, i.e., the Tortoise, and its soul appears in human 
 form on its back as soon as Ra addresses it, but when the words 
 have ceased like Temu it disappears into its body. The duty of 
 Shetu was to " emit life for Ra every day." 
 
 Before these march Khnemu and ten gods, five of whom have 
 no arms ; from the neck of one of these project the heads of two 
 serpents.^ From the descriptive text we learn that the souls of 
 these gods lived on the hidden light of Ra ; that the breath of his 
 mouth gave them life, and that their souls fed upon the provisions 
 which were stored in his boat ; their chief duty was to be with and 
 in attendance upon the god. Besides these gods we also have in 
 this Hour four goddesses, each of whom sits upon the bodies of 
 two uraei, which are bent upwards in such a way as to form a 
 seat ; the heads of each pair of uraei are reared up in front of the 
 knees of the goddess, who is sitting on their backs, and whose feet 
 rest upon their necks. Each goddess has her right hand raised as 
 if to hide her face, and with her left she grasps the body of one 
 of the uraei. It is possible that the uraei are only four in number, 
 and that they are two-headed ; the goddesses are called Nebt- 
 ankhiu, ^^ -^ 1 . Nebt-khu, ^^ "^ I , Nert, ^^ W^ ^^^d 
 Hent (?)-neteru, '^ | ,,,• The descriptive text says that the 
 arms of these beings are on earth, and their feet in the thick 
 
 ' M. Maspero speaks of him as the " agathodemon " of Ra. 
 
 • The names are : — Khnem-renit, PS d tJ ^ ; Nerta, <:z> , Aaiu-f-em- 
 
 kha-nef , a , Apt-taui, \j ^^^ , Mer-en-aaui-f, a , Annaauif , 
 
 (j^^Zfl"^'^' ^®^*"^' ^Ti*^' Tua-Heru, ^^, Ma5, ^^, Meskhti, 
 [f|®^,andHepa, | °^. 
 
THE PITS OF THE TUAT 255 
 
 darkness, and as long as the god is speaking to them they utter 
 cries and acclaim him ; they never move from their places, and 
 their souls live upon the voices of the uraei which go forth from 
 their feet daily. When the shadows depart the winds which arise 
 in the Tuat are diverted from the faces of the four goddesses by 
 their hands, which they hold up. In this statement we seem to 
 iiave an allusion to the keen, fresh wind of dawn with which all 
 travellers in the desert are well acquainted, and which usually 
 blows about one hour before sunrise. 
 
 In the region on the left hand side of Ra we see how 
 punishment is inflicted upon the enemies of Ra, and in it we have 
 a country of blazing fire. At one end stands Horus with a disk, 
 surrounded by a uraeus, upon his head, holding in his left hand a 
 boomerang, one end of which terminates in the head of a serpent ; 
 the idea here suggested is that the weapon held by the god is a 
 real serpent, which when thrown at an enemy will suddenly attach 
 itself to his body after the manner of the vicious uraeus. The 
 right arm of Horus rests on a staff wherewith the god usually 
 supports himself, and before him rears itself a huge serpent called 
 
 " Set of millions of years," ^, the duty of which was to 
 
 devour any of the enemies of Ra, i.e., the dead, who succeeded 
 in making their escape from the fires of the country of the 
 Eleventh Hour. In front of these were the five awful chambers, 
 or pits in the sky, which were filled with the red-hot materials of 
 blazing fires, and employed to consume the enemies of Ra. 
 
 The first chamber or pit, Hatet, "W c^s , was filled with the 
 bodies of fiends who were dashing out their own brains with axes, 
 ^^ K ^C"' ^^^ ^^^ under the charge of a lion-headed goddess, 
 called Hert-Ketit-s, ^ '^ ^HmP' ^^'^ stood by its side and 
 belched fire into it through her mouth ; when the fire had done its 
 work on the wretched creatures they were hacked to pieces by the 
 huge knife which she held in both her hands. The second 
 chamber or pit was also filled with the bodies of fiends, and was 
 
 under the charge of a woman called Hert-Hantua, 'W i u , 
 
 who spat fire upon them and who was armed with a monster knife. 
 
256 THE ELEVENTH HOUR 
 
 The third chamber or pit Avas tilled with the souls, ^^^^^^^^ j 
 of the fiends, and was under the charge of a woman called Hert- 
 
 Nekenit, ^=:^ 0(1 ''==>- ^, who spat fire upon them and who was 
 
 similarly armed. The fourth and fifth chambers, which were under 
 the charge of similar women, called H ert-Nemmat-set, ^ ^> 1 1 1 ' 
 
 and Hert-sefu-s, "^ ~^^ , P^ contained the shadows, TTT, 
 and heads, ®®®, of the damned. Passing by these chambers we 
 come to the " Valley of those who are cast down headlong," 
 n ^ -^ c=^3 v\ I , which is represented by a large hollow wherein 
 four men are standing on their heads, i^J^'i; next to this are 
 four goddesses of the desert, each of whom has upon her head 
 the emblem of desert; their names are Pesi, (1(1, Rekhit, 
 
 Her-sha-s, f=^ — a— ^, and Sait, ^^(1(1'=^. Each 
 
 I I I 
 
 name has a meaning something like " fiery," and refers to the 
 goddesses in their character of mistresses of the blazing desert. 
 
 ■"■i-i 
 
 Finally, behind these comes the god Her-ut-f, i^=^ ^ , who 
 
 was in some way connected with the embalming of the dead. The 
 descriptive text which accompanies these scenes makes the great 
 god Ra command " his father Osiris to hack in pieces the bodies of 
 " the enemies and of the dead who are cast down headlong." 
 
 Then, addressing the enemies themselves, he tells them that 
 when his father Osiris hath smitten them for destruction, and hath 
 cut in pieces their spirits and souls, and hath rent asunder their 
 shadows, and hath cut off their heads in such a way that existence 
 in the future will be impossible for them, they will be cast down 
 headlong into burning furnaces from which there is neither escape 
 nor deliverance, and Set the everlasting snake will drive his flames 
 against them, and the Lady of furnaces, and the Lady of fiery pits, 
 and the Lady of slaughtering blocks, and the Lady of swords, will 
 drive against them the flames which come forth from their mouths, 
 that they will hack them in pieces in such wise that the wretched 
 beings will never again see those who live upon the earth. The 
 slaughter of the enemies is ordered to be performed by Horus, the 
 god of those Avho are in the Tuat, and it is curious to note that the 
 
THE TWELFTH HOUR 257 
 
 gods his companions are said to live upon the voices of the enemies 
 who are slain, and on the shrieks and cries of the souls and 
 shadows which are cast down into the hlazing, fiery pits. 
 
 The Twelfth Houe, Maa-nefert-Ra/ brings the god Ra into 
 the Circle which is on the confines of thick darkness, and to a city 
 caUed Khepert-kekui-khaat-mest, ®°"^^'=^%|®-^lf|i^, 
 
 with its pylon called Then-neteru, ' ' ill- ^^ ^^^^ region the 
 
 AAAAj^A U 1111 
 
 god is born under the form of Khepera, V\ w <=> vs i i '-vwv\ 
 
 g^.y,andNu, ^^,andNut,o;^-|,Hehu,||^^, 
 
 and Hehut, O ^ '^ rlj > come into the Circle when he is born, 
 and when he goeth forth from the Tuat and resteth in the Mantit, 
 ' '^r\S , boat, and when he riseth on the body ^ of Nut. 
 
 Ra journeys in his boat, as before, but the solar disk which was at 
 the bows in the Eleventh Hour is no longer there, and its place is 
 occupied by the beetle of Khepera, the forerunner of the rising 
 sun.^ Twelve gods tow the boat, not over a river or over the 
 back of a serpent or serpents, but completely through a serpent ; in 
 front the tow-rope is held by the hands of twelve women. This 
 
 serpent is called Ka-en-Ankh-neteru, U^J ■¥■ 1 , i.e., " the life 
 
 of the gods," and the gods who draw Af, that is to say, Ra, 
 
 through it are his " loyal servants," -^^ i , Amhhiu. The boat 
 
 enters the serpent at his tail in deep darkness, and passing 
 through his body emerges through the mouth into the light of 
 day ; the god in his boat enters the snake in the form of a dead, 
 old Sun-god, and he comes forth not only alive, but made young 
 again, and appears in the sky under the form of Khepera. The 
 " loyal servants " of Ra are the souls of the blessed which have 
 been so fortunate as to obtain admission into his boat ; they were 
 his devout adorers when upon earth, and the reward which they 
 
 ^ oiii I G' 
 
 , a word sometimes rendered hj vulva, pubis, and flank. 
 
 n 
 
 .* See Lanzone, Domicile des Esprits, pi. v. 
 
258 THE TWELFTH HOUR 
 
 obtain for their fidelity is renewed youth and a new birth upon 
 the earth. What they are to do upon earth is not made clear, but 
 it is evident that they cannot remain there for an indefinite 
 period, for since their master needs to be re-born daily they also 
 must need re-birth each day. It is doubtful, if we judge by some 
 passages, if they came to the earth at all, and it is far more likely 
 that their enjoyment consisted in journeying about at will through 
 the sky and looking down from some portion of it upon the scenes 
 of their old life than in making hurried visits to the earth daily. 
 
 When the boat of Ra has passed through the serpent the 
 twelve women or goddesses, mentioned above, take the rope from 
 the gods and haul it on to the paths of the sky. The god is 
 accompanied through the Twelfth Hour by: — 1. Twelve goddesses, 
 each bearing a serpent on her head and shoulders, and 2. Twelve 
 gods, or men, with their hands raised in adoration ; all these are 
 on the right hand side. Each deity has a name, which is written 
 in front of his or her figure. The uraei of the goddesses are said 
 to proceed from them, and the flames which drive away Apep 
 come forth from their mouths. The goddesses travel with the 
 god until he rises on this earth, but after this they return to their 
 places. The duty of the twelve gods is to praise Ra. On the left 
 of the boat we have the gods Nu, 000, Nuth, ^^°, Hehu, 
 11^, Hehut, 11^-=^; tliese gods are "in their own bodies," 
 
 ^ ^^ ( I I I i' ^^^ *^®y g^ ^^ ^^ ^^ heaven, to receive 
 this great god as he cometh forth to them in the eastern part of 
 heaven daily. They live in their drrit, i.e., hall of the horizon, 
 but their forms, ^^| ,~7^, of the Tuat belong to this Circle. 
 Next we have two human -headed gods, a bird-headed god called 
 Nehui, j-g _p l|l|, a god with two birds' heads called Ni, n A , 
 
 the serpent Nesmekhef, ^ _^ ^ HH, and four human-headed 
 gods; all these carry paddles on their right shoulders. The 
 duty of the gods is to raise up, ^^, the disk of the sun daily, 
 but the serpent Nesmekhef slaughters the enemies of Ra; they 
 travel with Ra and receive their spirits, '^^ © ^ — > '^^ in this 
 
OSmiS, GOVERNOR OF AMENTl 259 
 
 Circle. Before these are ten gods, with hands raised in adoration/ 
 
 who are described as the hentiu, ft "^ '^ ^ i , of the forms of 
 
 Osiris, the Governor of the thick darkness, ^~^ \\ v^ '^^ 
 
 X \\ ^ 1r^ , and they say to him, " Live, thou Governor of thy 
 
 " darkness ! Live, thou who art great in all things ! Live, 
 " thou Prince of Amentet, Osiris, thou Governor of those who are 
 " in Amenti ! Mayest thou live, mayest thou live, thou who 
 " art Governor of the Tuat, the wind of Ra is to thy nostrils, 
 " the breath of Khepera is with thee, thou livest and they live. 
 " Hail, Osiris, lord of the living ones ; the gods who are with 
 " Osiris are those who were with him at the first time," etc. 
 
 The allusion here is to the death and burial of Osiris, when 
 Horus carried out the arrangements which had to be made for the 
 performance of the general ceremonies, and when every detail 
 connected with mummification, etc., was thought out by the loving 
 care of the son of Osiris. In the illustrated version of the Twelfth 
 Hour, published by Signor Lanzone (tav. vii.), we have represented 
 the semi-circular wall of thick darkness which forms the end of the 
 Tuat and the division between it and this world. Against this 
 wall, in the lower part of it, lies a mummied form, representing 
 Osiris, and called Sem-Af, "^ Q^, i.e., the "Image (or Form) of 
 " Af " ; this is the object of the praises which the last two groups 
 of gods lavish upon him. The descriptive text says concerning the 
 mummy, " He who is in this picture in the hidden form of Horus of 
 " thick darkness is the secret image which Shu makes to be under 
 " Nut, and which cometh forth from Keb-ur on earth in this form."^ 
 
 ' Tuati, ^ CrZD, Tes-khu, ^«?7-^'^^, Themaru, / , Aakhbu, 
 
 ~^ 1) V> ) Sekhenu, ^ ^ , Ermenu, „ , Khennu, ® ^ , Bunau, 
 
 J ^ ~r^' ^'''^' ^ 1 ' "^^ 'i a ' ^''^■^'^ ' T' 
 
 D 
 
 A^^^/^^ 
 
260 THE SUN'S NEW BIRTH 
 
 In the middle of the wall of thick darkness is a red disk, from 
 which proceeds a human head ; this is the " image of Shu," 
 
 ^'sy^. n , who extends his arms along the vaulted wall, and of 
 whose body one part is in the Tuat and the other in this world. 
 Immediately above the head of the god is the beetle of Khepera, 
 
 here spelt ® ^, which makes its way into this world through the 
 
 opening which the head and shoulders of Shu have made in the 
 wall of thick darkness. Through this opening the boat of Ra also 
 was enabled to pass into this world, and the god continued his 
 journey with the help of the deities who towed him along ; there 
 is no doubt about this because the tow-line is prolonged to the 
 wall of thick darkness. As Af, the dead body of Ra, passes into 
 our world, his new life begins, and for men and women the night 
 passes away, and a new day is born. 
 
 We have now traced the passage of the Sun-god through the 
 Tuat as it was imagined by those who believed in the absolute 
 supremacy of Osiris, and as it was described by the author of the 
 Book of Pylons, and we have briefly passed through its divisions 
 as described in the Book of that which is in the Tuat, 
 throughout which the absolute supremacy of Ra is maintained. It 
 is now easy to see that these two works represent two opposite 
 and conflicting theories as to the future life. The heaven of the 
 devotees of Osiris Avas originally most materialistic, and the life 
 which was led in it by the beatified was, to all intents and 
 purposes, merely a continuation of the life led by men and women 
 upon earth ; the heaven of the priests of Ra was of a more refined 
 character, and it lacked the grosser characteristics of the dwellers 
 in the Elysian Fields of Osiris. Some have argued from the facts 
 about the Tuat given above that the Egyptians believed in the 
 existence of purgatory, and in the everlasting punishment of the 
 wicked in a hell of fire, and in the reincarnation of souls, and in 
 many other things which would presuppose the holding by them 
 of doctrines which are commonly thought to be the products of 
 the minds of modem nations ; but the facts do not support these 
 beliefs. Whichever doctrine of the future life we take, whether 
 that of Osiris or that of Ra, we find no room in it for a purgatory. 
 
DESTRUCTION OF THE WICKED 261 
 
 In the Judgment which took place before Osiris only the righteous 
 were permitted to enter into the Elysian Fields, and the wicked 
 were destroyed immediately ; in other words, annihilation was the 
 punishment for sin. The Egyptians believed largely in the 
 efficacy of works, and in addition to the deeds of love and charity 
 which they performed in all periods, strict care concerning the 
 ceremonies of religion, worship, and of the funeral, and a proper 
 respect and reverence for words of power, and amulets, and sacred 
 writings, and figures were demanded from them by priests and 
 religious teachers at aU times. There was, of course, a large class 
 of people who could not aiFord costly burials, and who were too 
 poor to buy even cheap amulets, but they were not condemned in 
 the Judgment because of their poverty ; on the contrary, they 
 escaped annihilation and were admitted by Osiris into the first 
 division of the Tuat, where, however, they were compelled to stay 
 because they did not know the words of power which would enable 
 them to continue their journey through the remaining divisions of 
 the Underworld. But there was no punishment inflicted upon 
 them because they had been both poor and ignorant in this world ; 
 they merely remained in the place to which their religious qualifi- 
 cations enabled them to attain, and each evening, or each night, 
 they were made glad by the sight of the great god Ra as he sailed 
 through the Tuat in his boat, and they rejoiced in his daily visit. 
 
 The beings in the Tuat of Osiris upon whom punishment was 
 inflicted were the " enemies of Osiris," and these were usually the 
 " enemies of Ra" ; but in no text is it said that the punishment 
 which they had to endure there ever obliterated their guilt, 
 whatever it might be, or that when the proper time had arrived 
 they would be allowed to proceed into another division of the Tuat 
 where their punishment would be lighter, or where they would 
 undergo none at all. Though a man could earn happiness in the 
 realm of Osiris or in that of Ra by his good works on earth, and 
 by ceremonies performed at his funeral by duly qualified priests, 
 and by the presence of copies of religious texts which were buried 
 with him, there is no reason to think that when once his soul 
 reached the Underworld it could ever better its position there 
 either by sufi"ering punishment or by the performance of good 
 
262 OFFERINGS TO THE DEAD 
 
 works. The offerings made at the tombs of the dead were for the 
 benefit of the lea or double, and perhaps for the animal soul which 
 was at one time believed to exist in the human body, but neither 
 the offerings nor the prayers which accompanied them seem to 
 have been able to remove the spirits and souls of the dead from one 
 division of the Tuat into another, or to modify the state or 
 condition which had been decreed for them. Similarly, there is no 
 evidence that prayers for the dead or offerings would ameliorate 
 the condition of those who had successfully passed the ordeal of 
 the Judgment, and had been sent by Osiris into one or other of the 
 habitations of his kingdom. 
 
( 263 ) 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 HELL AND THE DAMNED 
 
 IF we examine the doctrine concerning the future life according 
 to the priesthoods of Ra we find still less room for a purga- 
 tory in their theological system. According to this the souls of 
 the dead assembled in Amentet, i.e., the "hidden" region, the 
 Egyptian Hades, where they waited for the boat of Ra to pass by. 
 When the god appeared those who had been his worshippers and 
 adorers on earth, and who were fortunate enough to have secured 
 the words of power which would enable them to enter the boat did 
 so, and they made their journey with him through the Tuat. 
 Under his protection they passed through all the dangers which 
 threatened to destroy them, and continued their journey through 
 the realms of Osiris and Seker, and at length appeared with Ra in 
 the eastern horizon of heaven at daybreak. Once there they were 
 able to wander about heaven at will, and they did so, presumably, 
 until the time of sunset, when they rejoined the god in his boat, 
 and again made the journey through the Tuat with him. Each 
 division of the Tuat, apparently, contained a host of beings who 
 wished to enter the boat of Ra, but could not do so, either for 
 want of the necessary words of power, or because they had reached 
 the place to which their qualifications entitled them ; these all, 
 however, received great benefit from the nightly visit of Ra, and 
 as he left each division to enter the next they were filled with 
 great sorrow, and many of them ceased to exist until the following 
 night, when they renewed their life for a brief period. Many 
 divisions of the Tuat contained enemies of Ra, who were, of course, 
 destroyed without mercy by the followers of the god ; but there is 
 no reason whatsoever for the view that these enemies were the 
 
264 HELL AND THE DAMNED 
 
 damned, or that they were doomed to eternal punishment. At the 
 end of the Tuat was a region where certain goddesses presided over 
 pits of fire and superintended the destruction of the bodies, and 
 spirits, and shadows, and heads of numbers of such enemies, and 
 it would seem, judging by the knives in their hands, that they 
 hacked the bodies to pieces before they were burnt. But even 
 these were not punished eternally, for as soon as the god had 
 passed through their region the fires went out, and the mere fact 
 that he was able to appear in the eastern sky proved that all his 
 enemies were destroyed. Each night and morning Ra destroyed 
 the hosts of enemies who attempted to bar his progi'ess, for such 
 enemies perished instantly by the flames which went forth from 
 the divine beings whom he had created. 
 
 Originally, too, such enemies were only the personifications of 
 the powers of nature, siich as twilight, darkness, night, gloom, the 
 blackness of eclipses, fog, mist, vapour, rain, cloud, storm, wind, 
 tempest, hurricane, and the like, which were destroyed daily by 
 Ra and his fiery beams. Many, in fact the greater number of such 
 personifications, were endowed by Egyptian artists with human 
 forms, and the pictures of the scenes of their destruction by fire 
 were supposed by many to represent the burning of the souls of 
 the damned. The ignorant and the superstitious did not under- 
 stand that the Sun-god slew and burned with fire the enemies of 
 each night and morning during that same night and morning; 
 each rising of the sun was the result of the annihilation of his 
 foes of that day. It may be urged that these foes were always 
 the same because they were always of the same kind, but the 
 Egyptians did not think so, and they believed that a new host of 
 foes appeared to attack Ra each night and morning. But even 
 had they thought so, the punishment was only intermittent, 
 and it was only renewed during that part of each night which 
 immediately preceded the dawn, and during the interval between 
 dawn and sunrise. The souls of the damned could have done 
 nothing to hinder the progress of Ra, and the Egyptians never 
 imagined that they did, but it is possible that in late dynastic 
 times certain schools of theological thought in Egypt, being 
 dissatisfied Avith and unconvinced of the accuracy of the theory of 
 
HELL AND THE DAMNED 265 
 
 the annihilation of the wicked, assigned to evil souls dwelling- 
 places with the personifications of the powers of nature already- 
 mentioned in the Tuat. The spears which pierced the enemies of 
 Ra were the fiery rays of the sun, and the knives which hacked 
 their bodies in pieces were his flames of fire ; and the lakes and 
 pits of fire were suggested to the minds of the primitive Egyptians 
 by the fiery splendour Avhich filled the eastern heavens at sunrise. 
 They certainly did not believe in everlasting punishment, and 
 there is nothing in the texts which will support the view that they 
 did ; in fact, the doctrines of purgatory and hell which were 
 promulgated during the Middle Ages in Europe with such success 
 find no equivalents in the ancient Egyptian religion. Apart from 
 the general characteristics of their religion the Egyptians were 
 too practical to entertain the idea of repeated destructions or 
 consumings by fire of the same body, but had they done so we 
 should certainly have found some texts which had been composed 
 to avert such an awful doom. They mummified the bodies of 
 their dead in the earliest times because they expected them to rise 
 again, and they did so in later times because they believed that 
 a spiritual body would grow out of them ; they never expected 
 to obtain a second physical body in the Underworld, and therefore 
 they took the greatest care to preserve, by means of magical 
 ceremonies and words, the bodies in which they lived in as 
 complete a form as possible. The destruction of the body involved 
 the ruin of the lea, or double, and of the shadow, and of many of 
 the mental and spiritual constituents of man ; and the Egyptians 
 regarded the death of the body with such dismay that, fearing lest 
 the spiritual body which sprang from it after death might be in 
 danger of dying, they caused prayers to be composed for the 
 purpose of averting from it the " second death " and the possibility 
 of its dying a second time. 
 
 "VVe may see, however, that although the Egyptians had no 
 hell for souls in the mediaeval acceptance of the term, their fiery 
 pits, and fiends, and devils, and enemies of Ra formed the 
 foundations of the hells of later peoples like the Hebrews, and 
 even of the descendants of the Egyptians who became Christians 
 i.e., the Copts. Many proofs of this fact may be found in Coptic 
 
266 OUTER DARKNESS 
 
 literature as the following instances will show. In "Pistis 
 Sophia," ^ we have the Virgin Mary asking Jesus, her Lord, to give 
 her a description of " outer darkness," ^ and to tell her how many 
 places of punishment there are in it. Our Lord replies, " The 
 " outer darkness is a great serpent, the tail of which is in its 
 " mouth, and it is outside the whole world, and surroundeth the 
 " whole world ; in it there are many places of punishment, and it 
 " containeth twelve halls wherein severe punishment is inflicted. 
 •' In each hall is a governor, but the face of each governor difFereth 
 " from that of his neighbour. The governor of the first hall hath 
 " the face of a crocodile, with its tail in its mouth. From the 
 " mouth of the serpent proceed all ice, and all dust, and all cold, 
 " and every kind of disease and sickness ; and the true name by 
 " which they call him in his place is Enkhthonin. And the 
 " governor of the second hall hath as his true face the face of a cat, 
 " and they call him in his place Kharakhar. And the governor 
 " of the third hall hath as his true face the face of a dog, and 
 " they call him in his place Arkharokh. And the governor of the 
 " fourth hall hath as his true face the face of a serpent, and they 
 " call him in his place Akhrokhar. And the governor of the fifth 
 " hall hath as his true face the face of a black ox,** and they call 
 " him in his place Markhour. And the governor of the sixth hall 
 " hath as his true face the face of a goat, and they call him in his 
 " place Lamkhamor. And the governor of the seventh hall hath 
 " as his true face the face of a bear, and they call him as his true 
 " name Lonkhar. And the governor of the eighth hall hath as 
 " his true face the face of a vulture, and they call him in his place 
 " Laraoeh. And the governor of the ninth hall hath as his true 
 " face the face of a basilisk, and they call him in his place 
 " Arkheokh. And in the tenth hall there are many governors, 
 " and there is there a serpent with seven heads, each head having 
 " its [own] true face, and he who is over them all in his place they 
 " call Xarmarokh. And in the eleventh hall there are many 
 
 ^ See Pistis Sophia. Opus Gnosiicum Valentino acJjudicaium, ed. Schwartze, 
 Berlin, 1851. 
 
 ' nK^KE ET gl Ko7\. 
 
 2 OYg,0 JUtJtJtA.CE ft KA.JUIE. 
 
THE HELL OF THE GNOSTICS 267 
 
 " governors, and there are there seven heads, each of them having 
 " as its true face the face of a cat, and the greatest of them, who is 
 " over them, they call in his place Rhokhar. And in the twelfth 
 " hall there are many great governors, and there are there seven 
 " heads, each of them having as its true face the face of a dog, and 
 " the greatest, who is over them, they call in his place Kheemaor. 
 " These twelve governors are in the serpent of outer darkness, and 
 " each of them hath a name according to the hour, and each of 
 " them changeth his face according to the hour." ^ 
 
 It is quite clear that in the above extract from the famous 
 Gnostic work we have a series of chambers in the outer darkness 
 which has been borrowed from the twelve divisions of the Egyptian 
 Tuat already described, and the reader has only to compare the 
 vignettes to Chapters cxliv. and cxlv. of the Booh of the Dead with 
 the extract from " Pistis Sophia" to see how close the borrowing 
 has been. An examination of another great Gnostic work, 
 generally known as the "Book of leu," ^proves that the Under- 
 world of the Gnostics was nothing but a modified form of the 
 Amentet or Amenti of the Egyptians, to which were added 
 characteristics derived from the religious systems of the Hebrews 
 and Greeks. The Gnostic rivers and seas of fire are nothing but 
 equivalents of those mentioned in the Book of the Dead, and the 
 beings in Amenti, and Chaos, and Outer Darkness are derived, in 
 respect of form, from ancient Egyptian models. The great dragon 
 of Outer Darkness and his twelve halls, and their twelve guardians 
 or governors who change their names and forms every hour are, 
 after all, only modifications of the old Egyptian system of the 
 Twelve Pylons or Twelve Hours which formed the Underworld. 
 The seven-headed serpent of the Gnostic system has his prototype 
 in the great serpent Nau, v^ HtSL? which is called the " bull of 
 
 "the gods," and has "seven serpents on his seven necks," 
 
 ^""^ I ^*^ J V "^ ^x^^^ '^ ^^® seven-headed serpent, Nau-shesma, 
 
 ' Pistis Sophia, Coptic text, p. 319 ff. 
 
 ^ See Schmidt, Gnostisclie Schriften in Koptisclier Sprache, Leipzig, 1892. 
 
 3 Tata, 1. 307. 
 
268 AMENTET AND THE TUAT 
 
 "^^ %■ miL ^^^ P S ^ 5 ^■^^*^ ^^^ seven uraei for heads, and lie 
 had authority over seven archers, or seven bows, | _^ J. jj "'^ 
 
 '" D 
 III 
 
 I ® 
 
 Of Amentet and the Tuat in general we find many traces in 
 
 the martyrdoms of Coptic saints, but, as was to be expected, the 
 
 writers have made the demons and the pits of fire of the Egyptian 
 
 Underworld instruments of punishment for the souls of those who 
 
 did not embrace Christianity when upon this earth. Thus the 
 
 writer of the Martyi'dom of George ^ of Cappadocia makes the saint 
 
 to raise up from the dead a pagan called Boes, who had been dead 
 
 two hundred years, and who told Dadianus, the governor, that he 
 
 had been on earth a worshipper of the " stupid, dumb, deaf, and 
 
 " blind Apollo," and that when he departed this life he went to 
 
 live in " a place in the river of fire until such time as I went to 
 
 " the place where the worm dieth not." According to another 
 
 writer, Macarius of Antioch restored to life a man who had been 
 
 dead for six hours, and who stated that his miseries during that 
 
 short time had been greater than those which he had endured 
 
 throughout all his life upon earth. He confessed that he had been 
 
 a worshipper of idols, and then went on to say that when he was 
 
 dying the fiends crowded upon him, and that these had the faces 
 
 of serpents, lions, crocodiles, and, curiously enough, of bears. 
 
 They tore his soul from his body with great violence, and fled 
 
 with it to a great river of fire wherein they plunged it to a depth 
 
 of four hundred cubits ; then they drew it out and set it before 
 
 the Judge of Truth,* who passed sentence upon it. After this was 
 
 done they took it to a " place of darkness, wherein there was no 
 
 " light whatsoever, and they cast it down into the cold where 
 
 " there was gnashing of teeth. Here," said the wretched man, " I 
 
 " saw the worm which never slumbereth, and his head was like 
 
 " unto that of a crocodile. He was surrounded by serpents of 
 
 " every kind which cast souls before him, and when his own mouth 
 
 ' Teta, 1. 306. 
 See my St. George of Cappadocia, p. 20. 
 
 ' niKpiTHC JUIJUHI. The word iXHt is the old Egyptian ^^ ^ maS, 
 
 which is coBamonly rendered by " law, right, truth, true, jnst," and the like. 
 
RA AND APEP 269 
 
 " was full he allowed the other creatures to eat ; in that place 
 " they tore us to pieces, but we could not die. After that they 
 " took me out of the place and carried me into Amenti, where I 
 " was to stay for ever," ^ In another work ^ a nameless mummy is 
 made to tell how before he died the avenging angels came about 
 him with iron knives and pointed goads, which they thrust into 
 his sides, and how other angels came and tore his soul from his 
 body, and having tied it to the similitude of a black horse they 
 carried it off to Amentet. Here he was tortured in a place filled 
 with noxious reptiles, and having been cast into the outer darkness 
 he saw a pit more than two hundred feet deep, which was filled 
 with reptiles, each of which had seven heads, and had its body 
 covered with objects like scorpions. In this place were several 
 other terrible serpents, and to one of these, which had teeth like 
 iron stakes, the poor soul was given to be devoured ; this monster 
 crushed the soul for five days of each week, but on Saturday and 
 Sunday it had respite. This last sentence seems to suggest that 
 the serpent respected the Sabbath of the Jews and the Sunday of 
 the Christians. 
 
 In all these examples, and even in the words of Isaiah, 
 who says (Ixvi. 24), " their worm shall not die, neither shall 
 " their fire be quenched," we have a direct allusion to the great 
 serpent of the Egyptian Underworld, which was, in all periods 
 of history, the terror of the worshippers of the Sun-god, and 
 which was known by many names. The allies and companions 
 of this serpent were serpents like itself, and to nearly every 
 power which was hostile to the dead or the living the form of 
 a snake or serpent was attributed. The type and symbol of all 
 enmity to Ra, whether of a physical or moral character, was the 
 arch-serpent Apep or Apepi, which attacked him daily, and was 
 overcome daily. To this monster we have several allusions in the 
 Booh of the Dead, but these do not adequately convey an idea of 
 the terror with which he was regarded, at all events in the latter 
 part of the dynastic period. 
 
 ^ Hyvemat, Les Actes des Martyrs de I'Egypte, p. 56 f. 
 
 ^ Amelineau, Monuments pour servir a VHistoire de I'^gypte Chrdtienne, p. 167. 
 
270 RA AND APEP 
 
 From a papyrus preserved in the British Museum ^ we learn 
 
 that a special service was in use in Upper Egypt for the purpose 
 
 of destroying the power of Apepi and of making his attacks on the 
 
 sun to have no effect. This service consisted of a series of chapters 
 
 which were to be recited at certain times of the day during the 
 
 performance of a number of curious ceremonies of a magical 
 
 character. Thus one rubric orders that the name of Apepi shall 
 
 be written in green colour upon a piece of new papyrus, and 
 
 that a wax figure of the fiend shall be made and his name inlaid 
 
 upon it with green colour. Both papyrus and wax figure were to 
 
 be burnt in the fire, the belief being that as the wax figure melted 
 
 and as the sheet of papyrus burnt, the fiend Apepi would also 
 
 decay and fall to pieces. Whilst the wax figure was melting in 
 
 the fire it was to be spit upon several times each hour, and when it 
 
 was melted the refuse of it was to be mixed with dung and again 
 
 burnt. It was imperative to do this at midnight, when Ra began 
 
 his return journey in the Tuat, towards the east, and at daTvn, and 
 
 at noon, and at eventide, and in fact at any and every hour of the 
 
 day. This might also be done with advantage whenever storm 
 
 clouds appeared in the sky, or whenever the clouds gathered 
 
 together for rain. The following extract will give an idea of the 
 
 general import of the service for the destruction of Apepi. The 
 
 deceased says : " Apepi hath fallen into the flame, a knife is stuck 
 
 ' into his head, his name no longer existeth upon this earth. It is 
 
 ' decreed for me to inflict blows upon him, I drive darts into his 
 
 ' bones, I destroy his soul in the course of every day, I sever his 
 
 ' vertebrae from his neck, cutting into his flesh with a knife and 
 
 ' stabbing through his skin. He is given over to the fire which 
 
 ' obtains the mastery over him in its name of ' Sekhet,' and it 
 
 ' hath power over him in its name of ' Eye burning the enemy.' 
 
 ' Darts are driven into his soul, his bones are burnt with fire, and 
 
 ' his limbs are placed therein. Horus, mighty of strength, hath 
 
 ' decreed that he shall come in front of the boat of Ra ; his fetter 
 
 * of steel tieth him up and maketh his limbs so that they cannot 
 
 ' move ; Horus repulseth his moment of luck during his eclipse, 
 
 ' and he maketh him to vomit that which is inside him. Horus 
 
 ^ See Archaeologia, vol. lii. 
 
RA AND APEP 271 
 
 " fettereth, bindeth, and tieth up, and Aker taketh away his 
 " strength so that I may separate his flesh from his bones ; that I 
 " may fetter his feet and cut off his two hands and arms ; that I 
 " may shut up his mouth and lips, and break in his teeth ; that I 
 " may cut out his tongue from his throat, and carry away his 
 " words ; that I may block up his two eyes, and carry off his ears ; 
 " that I may tear out his heart from its seat and throne ; and that 
 " I may make him so that he existeth not. May his name never 
 " exist, and may what is born to him never live ; may he never 
 " exist, and may his kinsfolk never exist ; may he never exist, and 
 " may his relatives never exist ; may he never exist, and may his 
 " heir never exist ; may his offspring never grow to maturity ; 
 " may his seed never be established ; moreover, may his soul, and 
 " body, and spirit, and shade, and Avords of power, and his bones, 
 " and his skin, never more exist." 
 
 The Rubric runs : " This Chapter is to be said over a figure 
 " of Apepi, inscribed upon new papyrus with green ink, and 
 " placed inside a covering on which his name hath been written, 
 " and thou shalt tie these round tightly with cord, and put such a 
 " figure and covering into the fire every day. Thou shalt stamp 
 " upon it and defile it with thy left foot, and thou shalt spit upon 
 " it four times during the course of every day, and when thou 
 " hast placed it upon the fire thou shalt say, ' Rii triumpheth over 
 '' ' thee, Apepi, and Horus triumpheth over his enemies, and P-aa 
 " ' (i.e., the deceased) triumpheth over his enemies.' Next thou 
 " shalt -^vrite down the names of all the male and female devils of 
 " which thy heart is afraid, the names of all the enemies of P-aa, 
 " in death, and in life, and the names of their father, mother, and 
 " children, [and place the papyrus] inside the covering, together 
 " with a wax figure of Apepi. These shall then be placed in the 
 " fire in the name of Apepi, and shall be burnt when Ra riseth in 
 " the morning ; this thou shalt repeat at noon and at evening 
 " when Ra setteth in the land of life, whilst there is light at the 
 " foot of the mountain. Over each figure of Apepi thou shalt recite 
 " the above chapter, in very truth, for the doing of this shall be 
 " of great benefit [for thee] upon earth and in the Underworld." ^ 
 
 ' On the Hieratic Papyrus of Nesi-Amsu, p. 52 (Archaeologia, vol. Hi.). 
 
272 SERPENTS AND SNAKES 
 
 To destroy the fiends whicli were associated with Apepi it 
 was necessary to make figures of them in wax, and having 
 inscribed their names upon them to tie them round with black 
 hair, and then to cast them on the ground, and kick them with the 
 left foot, and pierce them with a stone spear. To obtain the full 
 benefit of all the names of Apepi a man had to make the figure of 
 a serpent with his tail in his mouth, and having stuck a knife in 
 its back, and cast it down upon the ground, to say, " Apep, Fiend, 
 " Betet." The faithful follower of Ra is also bidden to "make 
 " another serpent with the face of a cat, and with a knife stuck in 
 " his back, and call it Hemhem. Make another with the face of 
 " a crocodile, and with a knife stuck in his back, and call it 
 " Hauna-aru-hee-hea ; make another with the face of a duck, 
 " and with a knife stuck in his back, and call it Aluti. Make 
 " another with the face of a white cat, and with a knife stuck in 
 " his back, and tie it up and bind it tightly, and call it ' Apep 
 " the Enemy.' " The papyrus which contains these interesting 
 passages was written about B.C. 312-311, though the compositions 
 in it are very much older, but it shows that, even at that period, 
 when the Macedonians had begun to reign over Egypt, and Greek 
 influence was making itself supreme in the country, the old beliefs 
 still held sway over the minds of the Egyptians. In fact, in this 
 matter as in nearly all others, they clung most tenaciously to the 
 views and opinions of their forefathers. 
 
 The primitive Egyptians feared snakes and propitiated them, 
 and the earliest dynastic people of the country employed charms, 
 and incantations, and magical formulae to keep snakes, and serpents, 
 and reptiles of every kind from their dead ; the priests of 
 Heliopolis respected the prevailing views of their countrymen, and 
 ancient formulae against snakes were copied into their funeral 
 texts. Every Recension of the Booh of the Dead contained 
 Chapters which were written to preserve the dead from the attacks 
 of snakes ; it is tolerably certain that some of them contain 
 formulae which are not older than dynastic times, and these show 
 that the fear of serpents was as great as ever, although these 
 reptiles cannot have been so numerous as formerly. The priests 
 of Amen made snakes to play very prominent parts in the Under- 
 
TUAT AND GEHENNA 273 
 
 world, and, curiously enough, they thought that the dead Sun- 
 god, or the " Flesh of Ra," was re-born into the life of a new day, 
 only after he had been drawn in his boat through the body of a 
 serpent. The Egyptians usually had some reason for the things 
 they said, and wrote, and depicted, and although it is not easy to 
 find the reason in every case, there is, fortunately, little doubt 
 about it here. They observed that snakes sloughed their skins 
 from time to time, and that their bodies were much improved in 
 appearance as the result, and it is pretty certain that they had this 
 habit of snakes in their minds, when they made their god Ra as a 
 ncAv being to emerge in his boat out of the great serpent which lay 
 in deep undulations between the end of the Tuat and this world. 
 
 Reference has already been made to the influence upon the 
 hell of the Copts of the old Egyptian mythology about the Tuat, 
 and it is right here to point out that the Hebrews appear to have 
 borrowed from it many of their ideas concerning the abodes of the 
 dead in the Underworld. It is quite certain that the hell of which 
 they conceived the existence was not derived from the Babylonians, 
 for we know from the story of Ishtar's descent into the " land of 
 no return " that, although it had Seven Gates, it contained no pits 
 of fire or monster serpents. Ishtar, we are told, found it to be a 
 place of darkness, and she saw that the beings in it were dressed 
 in garments of feathers, and that dust and mud were their food.^ 
 The commonest of the names which the Hebrews gave to the 
 abode of the damned is Ge Hinnom,^ or Gehenna, which was 
 originally the Valley of Hinnom, that lay quite near to Jerusalem," 
 where children were sacrificed to the god Moloch ; * this name 
 passed into the New Testament under the form Tiewa, and into 
 Arabic literature as " Jahannam." ^ The portion of the Valley of 
 Hinnom where the sacrifices were burnt was called " Topheth." 
 According to the Rabbis "Gehenna" was created on the second 
 day of creation, with the firmament and the angels, and just as 
 there were an Upper and a Lower Paradise so there were also two 
 
 ' See L. W. King, Babylonian Beligion, p. 179 f. 
 
 * DSrriil ^ Now generally identified witli the Wadi er-Rababi. 
 
 * See 2 Kings xxiii. 10. * ^^ 
 
 T 
 
274 HALLS OF GEHENNA 
 
 Gehennas, one in the heavens and one on the earth. As to the 
 size of Gehenna we read that Egypt was 400 parassangs ■^ long and 
 400 parassangs wide, i.e., about 1,200 miles long by 1,200 miles 
 wide ; that Nubia (ii/lD) was sixty times as large as Egypt ; that 
 the world was sixty times as large as Nubia, and that it would 
 require 500 years to travel across either its length or its breadth ; 
 that Gehenna was sixty times as large as the world ; and that it 
 would take a man 2,100 years to reach it.^ 
 
 In Gehenna, as in Paradise, there were seven " palaces " 
 (jn'?D''n), and the punishments which were meted out to their 
 inhabitants varied both in kind and in intensity. In each palace 
 there are 6,000 houses, or chambers, and in each house are 6,000 
 boxes, and in each box are 6,000 vessels fitted with gall. Gehenna 
 is so deep that it would take 300 years to reach the bottom of it ; 
 according to another opinion it is 300 miles long, 300 miles wide, 
 1,000 miles thick, and 100 miles deep. The fire in each palace is 
 fiercer and more destructive than that in the palace preceding, 
 and the flames of the deepest portion of it are able to consume 
 human souls utterly, which fire upon earth can never do. Each 
 palace is, according to one view, under the command of an angel, 
 who is subservient to Dumah, the prince of Gehenna, and who has 
 with him tens of thousands of angels who are occupied in judgino- 
 sinners and sealing their doom; but according to another the 
 seven mansions are ruled, under Dumah, nan, by three angels 
 called Mashkhtth, Af, and Khem^. The voices of the beings in 
 Gehenna rise up to heaven mingled with the cries of the wicked. 
 Dumah, the prince of Gehenna, seems to have been of Egyptian 
 origin, for we read, " At the time when Moses said, ' I will perform 
 "'judgments on all the gods of Egypt,' Dumah, the prince of 
 " Egypt, went 400 miles and God said unto him, ' This decree is 
 " ' decreed by me, even as it is written, I will visit the host of the 
 " ' height in the height ; ' ^ and in that same hour sovereignty was 
 "taken away from him, and he was appointed prince over 
 " Gehenna, and some say that he was set over the dead." 
 
 ' The parassang = 30 stadia, and the stadion = 202 yards. 
 ' Eisenmenger, Entdeclctes Judenthum, part ii., p. 328. 
 ^ Isaiah xxiv. 21. 
 
HALLS OF GEHENNA 275 
 
 Another prince of Gehenna was called 'Arsiel, and his duty- 
 was to stand before the souls of the righteous to prevent them 
 from praying to God on behalf of the wicked. Opinions vary as 
 to the number of gates or doors which are in Gehenna, some saying 
 there are 50, others 8,000, and others 40,000; but the writers 
 who followed the best traditions fixed the number at seven, and 
 this agrees with the best Muhammadan tradition also. Finally, as 
 a river runs through the Tuat so a river or canal flows through 
 Gehenna. The first division of Gehenna is 100 miles long and 50 
 miles wide, and it contains several pits wherein fiery lions dwell ; 
 when men fall into the pits the lions consume parts of them and the 
 fire devours the remainder, but soon afterwards they come into being 
 again and have to pass through the fire which is in the second 
 division, when they are again consumed and again come to life. 
 In this way they have to pass through the fire of aU the seven 
 divisions. According to another opinion one half of Gehenna 
 is fire and the other half hail, and the angel who is in charge 
 drives the souls of the damned from the fire into the hail and from 
 the hail into the fire without ceasing. Another writer says that 
 each of the seven divisions of hell contains seven streams of fire 
 and seven streams of hail, and that each division is sixty times as 
 large as that which is immediately above it. In each division are 
 7,000 small chambers, and in each chamber 7,000 clefts, and in 
 each cleft 7,000 scorpions, and in each scorpion seven joints, and 
 in each joint 1,000 vessels of gall ; through it flow seven rivers 
 filled with deadly poison, and the damned have to pass one half 
 of the year in the fire, and the other half in the hail and snow, 
 which are far more terrible than the fire. Moreover, from 
 under the throne of God Almighty there goes forth a river 
 of fire which empties itself upon the heads of the wicked, but 
 most of these have a rest from their punishment for one hour 
 and a half three times a day, i.e., at the times of morning, 
 mid-day, and evening prayer, and they have rest the whole of 
 each Sabbath and of each festival of the new moon. Some of 
 the Rabbis believed that the punishment of the wicked would 
 last for ever, but others thought that a period of punishment six 
 or twelve months in length would sufl&ce for their purification. 
 
276 TUAT AND GEHENNA 
 
 Those who are damned shall not remember the names which 
 they bore upon earth, and although the angels beat them and call 
 upon them to declare their names, they shall not be able to do so ; 
 this view was clearly held by the Egyptians, for we are specially 
 told in the text of Pepi I. (line 169), " Pepi is happy with his 
 "name," I '^'°^ ---« fn Q ° § ^'^'^.=>_. From the facts 
 
 recorded above it is easy to see how much the Hebrews were 
 indebted to the Egyptians in the construction of their Gehenna, 
 and how closely they fitted native beliefs into a framework of 
 foreign conceptions. Some of their writers seem to have possessed 
 a better insight into such matters than others, whilst a few of them 
 unconsciously reproduced the original conception of the Tuat as 
 the place of destruction for the enemies of the god, and believed 
 that Gehenna, or hell, would be abolished. These thought that at 
 some future time God would remove the sun from its place and 
 would place it in the second firmament, in a hollow place or 
 chamber specially prepared for it, and that having judged and 
 condemned the wicked He would send them into this chamber, 
 where the burning heat of the sun would consume them.^ The 
 Rabbis generally took no pains to say either how the fires of 
 Gehenna were started, or how they were maintained, but Rabbi 
 Yannai and Rabbi Shim'on ben-Lakish evidently thought it out, 
 and so reduced Gehenna, unintentionally, to the place where a 
 physical sun supplied the consuming fire, and did for the damned 
 among the Hebrews exactly what it did for the enemies of Ra 
 among the Egyptians. 
 
 It must be noted that the Gehenna of the Hebrew lacked 
 the serpents of the Egyptian Tuat, but when we consider the 
 difiierence between the physical characteristics of Egypt and those 
 of Syria and Palestine this is not to be wondered at. In 
 predynastic times Egypt ^vas filled with serpents of every kind, 
 and the terror which they inspired lived in the minds of the 
 people of dynastic times long after the country bad been 
 practically cleared from these reptiles. In Palestine and Syria 
 snakes were never very plentiful, but in the region of Southern 
 
 ' Eisenmeiiger, op. cit., p. 366. 
 
APEP AND TIAMAT 277 
 
 Babylonia, whence came Abraham and his companions, they must 
 have existed in large numbers. It is a curious fact that the 
 Hebrews, who borrowed so largely in their cosmogony from 
 Babylonian sources, did not also borrow in some form or other 
 the monster Tiamat, which played in their mythology the same 
 part that Apep or Apepi played among the Egyptian gods. The 
 Babylonian Tiamat waged war against Marduk, the champion 
 chosen by the gods, and was held to be the incarnation of all evil, 
 both physical and moral ; and although the Hebrews assigned to 
 the serpent cunning and guUe, and declared that he was " more 
 " subtle than any beast " (Gen. iii. 1), they hardly considered him to 
 be a great physical power which waged war against the sun daily. 
 Tiamat, as we learn from a cuneiform text,^ was 50 kashu long, 
 and the height of its undulations was 1 Icashu ; its mouth was one- 
 half a gar, or six cubits wide, and it moved in water 9 cubits 
 deep. Three other measurements are given, viz., 1 gar, 1 gar, and 
 5 gar, but as the text following them is broken it cannot be said to 
 what they refer. Now, the hasbu was the distance usually passed 
 over in a journey of two hours, and the cubit may be considered 
 to be about 20 inches. Reckoning the Jcasbu at six miles we thus 
 have a monster 300 miles long, which had a mouth 10 feet wide, 
 and which moved in undulations six miles high ! The measure- 
 ments of 5 gar probably refers to its girth, and if this be so the 
 creature was 100 feet round its body. 
 
 When Tiamat had been slain we are told that its blood flowed 
 from its body for three years, three months, and one day, and we 
 are able to obtain an idea of its huge size from the statement that 
 when Marduk had smashed in its skull with his club, and had slit 
 the channels of its blood, he split it, like a flat fish, into two 
 halves, one of which he made use of to form the " covering of the 
 " heavens." ^ There is no doubt that originally the Babylonian 
 Tiamat was nothing but the rain clouds, and the mist and fog 
 which lie over the Tigris and Euphrates in the early morning at 
 certain seasons of the year, and which when | looked at from the 
 
 ' See King, Cuneiform Inscriptions from Babylonian Tablets, etc., part xiiL, 
 pi. 33 f., London, 1901 ; and King, Seven Tablets of Creation, vol. i., p. 119. 
 ^ King, Babylonian Beligion, p. 77. 
 
278 APEP, TIAMAT, LEVIATHAN 
 
 desert appear like a huge serpent stretched along the length of the 
 stream, both up and doAvn the river. The Hebrew Scriptures 
 contain several allusions to a great nature serpent/ though he 
 finds no place among the Seven Mansions of their hell. Thus the 
 prophet Amos (ix. 3) refers to the serpent at the bottom of the 
 sea, which Yahweh would command to bite the wicked if they 
 attempted to hide there ; in Psalm Ixxiv. 13 f. God is referred to 
 as the breaker of the heads of Leviathan and of the dragons in the 
 waters ; in Isaiah (li. 9) we have, "Awake, awake, put on strength, 
 " arm of Yahweh ! Awake, as in the ancient days, in the 
 " generations of old ! Art thou not it that did slay the monster 
 " Rahabh, and wound the serpent (tannin) ? " Rahabh may here, 
 as some have argued, refer to Egypt, but if so, it is to Egypt as the 
 home of the great serpent monster which we now know as Apepi, 
 and which was to the prophet Isaiah the type and symbol of the 
 country, and not to the judgments which Yahweh meted out to 
 that land. 
 
 The Hebrew writers refer to the nature serpent under several 
 names, e.g., tannin, ndkhdsh, rahabh, but the monster referred 
 to under them is, in reality, one and the same, i.e., Leviathan 
 (in^l^ livydthdn), " the serpent of many twistings or folds," and 
 both Nebuchadnezzar II. and the " King of Assyria" are identified 
 with him (see Jeremiah li. 34 ; Isaiah xiv. 29). According to the 
 Rabbis he was created on the fifth day of the week of creation,^ 
 and was hunted for slaughter by Gabriel, and with the assistance 
 of Yahweh was slain by him ; here we have a series of close 
 resemblances to the history of Tiamat, for Gabriel is in every way 
 the counterpart of Marduk, and Yahweh takes the place of Anshar 
 as the head of the gods. Finally, Leviathan was slain by Gabriel, 
 just as Tiamat was killed by Marduk, and out of the skin of 
 Leviathan Gabriel made a tent wherein the righteous might dwell,^ 
 and a covering for the walls of the city of Jerusalem. This 
 
 ' See Goldziher, Mytholocjy of the Hehreivs, pp. 27, 28; King, Babylonian 
 Religion, p. 115. 
 
 ^ Eisenmenger, op. cit,, p. 877. 
 
 ' in^ib '?tt' mya D^pns'? hdid nwyb j<in inn tynpn Tnv : Eisen- 
 menger, op. cit., p. 888. 
 
SEVEN-HEADED SERPENT 279 
 
 covering was bright and shining, and it emitted light which was so 
 strong that it could be seen from one end of the world to the other. 
 The last statement recalls the words of the Fourth Tablet of the 
 Creation Series, which tell how Marduk made a canopy in the 
 heavens of one-half of the body or skin of Tiamat. In the Hebrew 
 version of the story it is said that the righteous feed upon the body 
 of Leviathan, but there is no equivalent passage in the cuneiform 
 texts at present known. From the passage in the Psalm already 
 quoted (Ixxiv. 13) it would appear that Leviathan had many 
 heads, but this view is not supported by any known description of 
 Tiamat, and in the absence of any evidence on the subject we must 
 assume that the idea of a plurality of heads came from Egypt. 
 In the Book of Revelation (xii. 3 ; xiii. 1) mention is made of a 
 " great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven 
 " crowns upon his heads," which appeared in heaven, and of a 
 beast having seven heads and ten horns, with ten crowns upon his 
 horns, which came up out of the sea, but the idea of these also was 
 not derived from Babylonia. AU the available evidence goes 
 to show that whilst the Hebrew conception of Leviathan was 
 of Babylonian origin that of a hell of fire was borrowed from 
 Egypt. 
 
 Similarly, the seven-headed dragon and beast of the Book of 
 Revelation, like the seven-headed basilisk serpent mentioned in 
 " Pistis Sophia," ^ have their origin in the seven-headed serpent 
 which is mentioned in the Pyramid Texts. In Revelations ix. 19, 
 horses are referred to which had tails " like unto serpents, and had 
 heads," and here again we have an idea suggested by a monster 
 which inhabited one of the Pylons of the Tuat, and which had the 
 body of a crocodile and a tail formed of a writhing serpent's body 
 with a serpent's head for the tip of it. 
 
 But although the Hebrews borrowed the framework of their 
 heU from Egypt they appear to have made no use of the means by 
 which the Egyptians hoped to escape from Amentet and the Tuat, 
 that is to say, there is no evidence to show that they had in early 
 
 cix it goq epe CAiyqe H ^.ne epoq ; ed. Schwartze, pp. 136, 
 
 140, 147. 
 
280 GNOSTIC MAGICAL NAMES 
 
 times any equivalent for the system of words of power which 
 played such an important part in the magical side of the Egyptian 
 religion. On the other hand, the Copts, at least those of them who 
 belonged to Gnostic sects, retained the beliefs concerning the 
 efficacy of magical words and names, and they introduced them 
 into their writings in a remarkable manner. Thus in " Pistis 
 Sophia " we are told ^ that after His resurrection Jesus stood up 
 with His disciples by the sea, and prayed to His Father, whom He 
 addressed by a series of magical names, thus : — AjEfiiouo, Iao, A6i, 
 OiAPSiNOTHEE, Thernops, Nopsiter, Zagoure, Pagour^, Neth- 
 MOMAOTH, Nepsiomaoth, Marakhakhtha, Thobarrabau, Thae- 
 NAKHAKHAN, ZoEOKOTHORA, Ieou, Sabaoth.^ Whilst He was say- 
 ing these names Thomas, Andrew, James, and Simon the Canaanite 
 stood in the west with their faces towards the east; and Philip 
 and Bartholomew stood in the south with their faces towards the 
 north. In another passage^ Jesus addresses His Father in these 
 words and by these names : — Iao Iguo, Iao, Aoi, Oia, Psinother, 
 Theropsin, Opsither, Nephthomaoth, Nephiomaoth Marakhakh- 
 tha, Maemarakhtha, I^ana menaman, Aman^i tou oueanou, 
 Israi Hamen Ham^n, Soubaibai appaap HAMfeN Hamen, deraarai 
 
 HaPAHOU HameN HAM£iN,SAESAESAETOuHAMl;NHAMAN, KoUKIAMIN 
 
 MiAi Ham£n Hamen, Iai, Iai, Toua HamSn Ham:en HamIin-, Main- 
 MARi, MaeiA, Marei Hamen Ham^n Ham£in.* In another place ^ 
 
 Ed. Schwartze, p. .357. 
 
 "• A-eHJovto" lA-uj' A.OJI' (juiA-vI/mujeep' oeprtuj'vp'" rtcu'vlAi'Tep" 
 
 ^A.VOYpH* nAVOVpH ffeeJUOJUl^CJOe- rte'Vl/IOXlA.CJUe' AJlA.pA.- 
 X^X^^' ^«jfi.AppA.RA.Y- OA.pffA.X^X''^"" ^OpOKOOOpA.- 
 
 J60V cA.&A(jue : 
 
 ' Ed. Schwartze, p. 375. 
 
 * IA.UJ JOYuj' i^cu" Acxjj tuiX 'v|/irfuoeep' ©Epuj-vl/m" cuaI/i- 
 ^ep rfecl>eoJUiA.aje- necl>iOJUiAcxJO- JUL^^p^x^X^^' AAA-pJUA.- 
 p^X^^' 'HA^riA JuextAjmArt AjmArrar toy ovpA-nov icp^i 
 gAJuiHrt ^jf^xjmn- coYRAiRA.r A.nnA.An- gAiUHit- ^^xiHif 
 2Lep.;s.A.p^s.i g^s^n^goY ^^nxHrt gA^JuiHrf c^pcA-pcApTOV 
 
 iXr TOY^n gAAAHu g^JUHrt gAJUiHrf jui*.m JUApr juiA.piH- 
 jLiAper gAJUiHrt gAAXHrt g^juHrt (p. 375). 
 
 ' Ibid., p. 375. 
 
GNOSTIC MAGICAL NAMES 281 
 
 He addresses those who forgive sins by their names thus: — 
 
 SiPHIEEPSNIKHIEU, ZeNEI, BeRIMOU, SoKHABEIKHfiR, EuTHAEI, 
 
 Nanai DieisbalmSeikh, Meunipos, Khieie, Entaie, Mouthioue, 
 
 SmOUE, PEUEHfiE, OOUSKHOTJS, MiNIONOE, IsOKHOBOETHA ; ^ and 
 
 immediately afterwards He calls upon the Powers of His Father by 
 these names : — AufiE, Bebeo, Atheoni, Eoueeph, Eonb, Souphen, 
 Knitousok:hee6ph, Mauonbi, Mneuoe, Souoni, Khokhbteoph, 
 Kh6khb, Eteoph, Memokh, and An£;mph.^ An examination of 
 the books of " Pistis Sophia" will show that many of the details of 
 the " mysteries " which are there described are based upon ancient 
 Egyptian beliefs, and that the whole of the doctrine of spiritual 
 light which is expounded therein only represents a spiritualized 
 conception of the far-reaching character of the powers of the light 
 of the sun upon both the living and the dead, which the dynastic 
 Egyptians recognized and described centuries before the Christian 
 era. This was expressed in the terms of a highly artificial system 
 wherein words of power, magical names, emanations, ranks of 
 angels, gates, watchers, and purely Christian conceptions were 
 mixed up together, with the Lord Chi'ist as the central Figure. 
 Much has yet to be done before all the comparisons and connections 
 between the Egyptian and Christian systems can be fully worked 
 out, but the facts quoted above will, perhaps, suggest the import- 
 ance of the study. 
 
 ^ ci4>ipE'vJ/rfix*ev" ^Erter fiepjjuov cox*.ApiXwp' ^'^" 
 ^A.pv itAftAr 2lI6IcRa.?mjihpi5(;' AJievrfinoc- x'P'^" erfTAip* 
 jmoYoiovp' cjuioYp" nevx^P" oovc^oovc- juimiortop" ico^o- 
 
 Rope^JC (p. 376). 
 
 ^ 3i.VHp- ReRpo)" ^eportr Hovrfeclr Hourte- coYcl>erf Krti- 
 TOYCo^opecjucI)' j(jiA.YujrfE.r jmnevoup' coYcortr ^to5(;6TEajc|>" 
 
 ^UJXE' ETeuUcl>" AXBXXUJX' A-tHAlcj) (p. 376). 
 
( 282 ) 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE OLDEST COMPANY OF THE GODS AND 
 
 THE CREATION 
 
 IN the earlier chapters of this work mention has been made 
 of three companies of gods, the existence of which was 
 formulated by the priests of Heliopolis, and it has been shown that 
 a company of gods usually consisted of four pairs of deities, four 
 gods and four goddesses, and a president or chief of the same. 
 We have also shown that a paut or company of gods did not 
 necessarily contain nine deities only, and that it as often as not 
 was supposed to include more than nine gods. Originally, how- 
 ever, the Helio- 
 politan priests, or 
 the authors of the 
 theological system 
 exhibited in the 
 Pyramid Texts, in- 
 tended the paut to 
 
 The Oldest Company of the Gods. COUSist of uiue gods, 
 
 and it seems that they arrived at this decision as the result 
 of the addition of their own local god Tem to a group of four 
 pairs of deities, four gods and four goddesses, whom they had 
 grouped together according to the plan followed by an older school 
 of theologians in forming an older company of the gods. The 
 company of the gods last mentioned is probably the oldest of all 
 the companies in Egypt, although for various reasons it never 
 seems to have attained to the popularity of the " great paut of the 
 gods of Annu," or to have enjoyed such a prominent position in 
 the minds of the religious philosophers of Egypt, This is not to 
 be wondered at, for whilst the Heliopolitan company of the gods 
 included the Sun-god Ra-Tem, or Ra-Tem-Khepera, and Osiris, 
 
THE FIRST EIGHT GODS 283 
 
 the god of the dead, the older company consisted of pairs of deities 
 who represented religious conceptions, and faiths, and beliefs, 
 which even at that remote period had been long dead, and the 
 meaning of which had been forgotten. The very gods of the older 
 company had been superseded, and their worship abolished, and 
 the knowledge of their history and attributes was preserved only 
 in the minds of priests and religious experts, who probably 
 regarded the ancient views about these gods which had come down 
 to them as the product of men belonging to a lower stage of 
 civilization than their own. The older company of the gods here 
 referred to have been described as personifications of aspects, or 
 phases, or properties of primeval matter, and may be thus 
 enumerated : — 
 
 AAA/WV 
 
 O 
 
 Kekui, ^ \^ ^ "Tf^ 5^ • Kekuit, ^ W ^ ^=r^ 
 Kerh, ^I-^j^- Keehet, ^IZt 
 
 o 
 
 The character of the first pair of gods can be readily deter- 
 mined by the hieroglyphics which form their names ; thus the 
 
 name Nu, '«~>^ r^ ,^ is expressed by three vases of water which 
 
 indicate the sound, and the outstretched heaven, f=^, and the 
 determinative for water, ^^aaa^ , and the sign for " god," all of which 
 show that this deity was the god of the watery mass of the sky. 
 The o-oddess Nut, ^ /wvaaa M^ was merely his female counter- 
 
 part, as the signs, 3, indicate. From various passages found 
 in the religious, mythological, and funereal texts of all periods it 
 is abundantly clear that in primeval times at least the Egyptians 
 believed in the existence of a deep and boundless watery mass out 
 of which had come into being the heavens, and the earth, and 
 everything that is in them. The germs of all and every kind of 
 life were in this watery mass, and they were supposed to have 
 
 ' The old form is 000, or ^^^ (Unas 199, 399), or ^^^ ^ (Teta 78). 
 
284 NU AND NUT 
 
 been there from the beginning. They do not seem to have 
 formulated any exact ideas about the position of this watery mass 
 in the sky or heaven, and they certainly did not attempt to assign 
 to it dimensions which could be expressed by the ordinary methods 
 of measurements; in later times, however, Nu was frequently 
 identified with the sky, ;pet ° '^, and with the heaven above it, 
 nut, ^ "^ , though, strictly speaking, he represented the watery 
 mass which was supposed to exist between the two. It must also 
 be noted that the ocean and also the Nile ^ were identified with 
 Nu, whose characteristics appear to have changed during the latter 
 part of the dynastic peiiod. The name of this god has been 
 compared with the Coptic word itovrr " abyss," " deep," and the 
 like, and it is possible that it may have some connection with it, 
 but it is difficult to see how in that case it can mean " young," 
 as the late Dr. Brugsch suggested.^ The true meaning is much 
 more likely to be suggested by the play on the words Nu and nen 
 which we have on p. 309 in the passage, " I raised them up from 
 out of the watery mass {nu) out of inactivity " {nen), i.e., Nu was 
 the _ inert mass of watery matter from which the world was 
 created. Of Nut, the female counterpart of Nu, little need be said 
 here, except that she was regarded as the primeval mother, with 
 whom in later dynastic times were identified several goddesses, 
 e.g., Hathor, Mut, Nit, or Neith, and whose attributes were 
 assigned to them. The forms in which Nu is depicted vary. 
 Thus he is represented in human form holding a sceptre when he 
 forms one of the company of the gods of Amen, but he is also 
 represented with the head of a frog, which is surmounted by a 
 beetle,^ and even with the head of a^snake. The goddess Nut is 
 also represented in human form, but sometimes she has the head 
 of a uraeus, surmounted by a disk,* and at other times she has 
 the head of a cat.® 
 
 ' Compare Horapollo I. 21 (ed. Leemans ; p. 28) : — Nct'Aou Se avafiacrai 
 (rr}^aivovT€s, ov koKoxxtiv AtywTiCTTt Now ; attention was first drawn to this passage 
 by Tattam. 
 
 " Beligion unci Mythologie, p. 129. 
 
 ^ Lanzone, Dizionario, pi. 167, No. 2. 
 
 ' Ibid., No 3. s Ihicl, pi. 170, No. 2. 
 
KEKUI AND KEKUIT 285 
 
 The characteristics of the second pair of gods, Hehu, || y> Jf » 
 and Hehut, S 8 ^ ^ rlj ? ^^e not easy to determine. According 
 to Signer Lanzone they are personifications of male and female 
 elements of fire/ and from the ancient pictures of them we see that 
 the Egyptian artists regarded them from different points of view. 
 Thus in one group of the eight primeval gods Hehu is represented 
 in one of the forms of Nu, i.e., frog-headed, already described, and 
 Hehut in the form of Nut ; ^ and in another group Hehu has the 
 head of a serpent, and Hehut that of a cat. According to the 
 late Dr. Brugsch ^ the name Heh is connected with the word 
 
 which indicates an undefined and unlimited number, i.e., heh, Mm ; 
 
 when applied to time the idea suggested is "millions of years," 
 and Heh is equivalent to the Greek aXoiv. In several passages 
 quoted by Dr. Brugsch mention is made of a god Heh, 
 who seems to be a personification of the atmosphere which 
 exists between heaven and earth, and to be identical with 
 Shu, and that distinguished Egyptologist went so far as to 
 compare his functions with those which were exercised by 
 Aion, Eros, and Pneuma in Greek systems of philosophy. 
 In a small scene reproduced by Signor Lanzone* we see the 
 
 god Harpocrates in his usual attitude, S), just above what appears 
 
 to be a small tree. On the right kneels the goddess Hehut, who 
 is making her outstretched hand and arm a support for the left 
 hand of the young god which rests upon it ; on the other side 
 kneels Hehu, who is represented in the act of raising or supporting 
 the feet of the god, above whose head are the beetle and disk. 
 
 The characteristics of the third pair of gods, Kekui, 
 
 ^^^ w % "^ r^' ^^"^ Kekuit, ^^^ w %> "T^ ^ J , are easier to 
 determine, and it is tolerably certain that these deities represent 
 the male and female powers of the darkness which was supposed to 
 cover over the primeval abyss of water ; they have been compared 
 by Dr. Brugsch with the Erebos of the Greeks. In some aspects 
 they appear to represent both the night and the day, that is to 
 
 ' Lanzone, Dizionario, page 685. ^ Ibid., pi. 168 ff. 
 
 5 Beligion, p. 132. * Op. cit., p. 685. 
 
286 KERH AND KERHET 
 
 say, Kekui is called " the raiser up of the light," and Kekuit " the 
 "raiser up of the night." It is not difficult to see how these 
 deities obtained these names, for Kekui represents ,that period of 
 the night which immediately precedes the day, and Kekuit is 
 that period of the night which immediately follows the day. At 
 one period Kekui and Kekuit were considered to be gods of 
 Elephantine, and their attributes were identified with those of the 
 Nubian god Khnemu and his female counterpart Sati ; but this, no 
 doubt, was a result of regarding Kekui and Kekuit as personi- 
 fications of the Nile-god Hapi, whose hidden foimtains lay beneath 
 the rocks at some part of the Island of Elephantine. According to 
 another view the crocodile-god Sebek, one of whose chief seats of 
 worship was at Kom Ombo, was a personification of the old 
 primeval god Kekui, and in any case Sebek was certainly con- 
 sidered to be one of the principal forms in which the soul of the 
 primeval darkness loved to array itself.^ In the scenes in which 
 the forms of the oldest paut or company of the gods are repre- 
 sented Kekui is usually given the head of a serpent, but Kekuit 
 has the head either of a frog or a cat.^ In one scene Kekui and 
 Kekuit are identified with Ka and Kait, [J J), U f]^ "^j *^e 
 
 former being called the " grandfather of all the gods," and the latter 
 the "grandmother of the divine company," - ^^ - ^^ ® ^ 
 
 m 
 
 this scene Ka or Kekui has the head of a frog surmounted by a beetle, 
 and Kait or Kekuit the head of a serpent surmounted by a disk. 
 
 The characteristics of the fourth pair of gods, Keeh 
 <^ i ''^ s3' ^^^ Kerhet, ^ I J^ ^, are not easy to define, 
 and the texts in some places give quite diiFerent names where we 
 should expect to find theirs; thus we have Ni Tii 
 
 or 
 
 Nenu, — (s^, or Nut, _^^-, or Amen, IJ^J), instead 
 
 of Kerb, and Ennit, '^ 1)1] J, or Nenuit, ^ , or Nut, 
 
 _^^o, or Nit, _^()()^, or 1) _ ^ ^, instead of Kerhet. 
 The common meaning of the word kerh is " night," and according 
 
 Brugsch, Religion, p. 142. ' Lanzone, op. eit., pi. 168 ff. 
 
THE FIRST EIGHT GODS 287 
 
 to this the deities Kerh and Kerhet would represent the male and 
 female powers of night; on the other hand, the determinative <r--a, 
 which occurs in each name, shows that these gods were regarded 
 as personifications of some apparently inactive powers of the 
 primeval watery abyss, and we may, therefore, regard them as 
 types of powers of nature in a state of repose either before or after 
 a state of activity. In the scenes in which the forms of the oldest 
 company of the gods are represented, Ni, that is to say, Kerh, has 
 the head of a frog, with or without a beetle upon it, or the head of 
 a snake, and Ennit, that is to say, Kerhet, has either the head of a 
 frog or that of a cat. 
 
 It is not easy to reconcile the various views which 
 Egyptologists have held about the above four pairs of deities, and 
 it certainly appears as if the ancient Egyptians themselves had no 
 very clear ideas as to their functions. As to their antiquity there 
 is no room for doubt, for although the oldest pictures of their 
 forms do not date from a period anterior to the reign of Seti I., it 
 is quite clear, from the way in which they are mentioned, that 
 they represent traditional ideas of an extremely ancient character. 
 One proof of this is the careful mention of the female counterparts 
 of the four great primeval gods, for it was usual in the case of gods 
 who were the product of the purely dynastic period to pay small 
 attention to the goddesses who were regarded as their wives. 
 
 Thus Ra and Amen possessed female counterparts called Rat, 3 , 
 
 and Ament, u 'w>aaa j| , but they play no prominent parts in 
 
 Egyptian mythology, and are rarely mentioned in the texts. Man 
 always has fashioned, and probably always will, fashion his god, 
 or gods, in his own image, and he has always, having reached 
 a certain stage in development, given to his gods wives and 
 offspring ; but the nature of the position taken by the wives of 
 the gods depends upon the nature of the position of women in the 
 households of those who write the legends and traditions of the gods. 
 The gods of the oldest companv in Egypt were, the writer 
 believes, invented by people in whose households women held a 
 high position, and among whom they possessed more power than is 
 usually the case with Oriental peoples. Nut, Hehut, Kekuit, and 
 
288 APZU-RISHTU, MUMMU-TIAMAT 
 
 Kerhet are the equals of the gods Ku, Heh, Kekui, and Kerh, and 
 not merely the bearers of offspring as were the later goddesses. 
 The general drift of the texts wherein the four pairs of gods 
 are mentioned indicates that three pairs were qualities, or 
 characteristics, or attributes of the fourth pair personified, although 
 some would make the four pairs represent the male and female 
 elements of the Four Elements, Earth, Air, Fire, and Water, and 
 others would make them stand for the primeval Matter out of 
 which all things have been made, and primeval Space, and 
 primeval Time, and primeval Power. To say definitely and 
 exactly what they represent is in the present state of Egyptological 
 knowledge impossible, for the evidence which would enable us to 
 arrive at a final decision in the matter is not forthcoming. 
 
 Before we pass on to the consideration of the events which 
 resulted in the creation of the sun and later of the world, it will be 
 interesting to compare with the above four pairs of gods the group 
 of gods that we meet with in the " Seven Tablets of Creation," ' 
 which are written in cuneiform, and contain the views and beliefs 
 of the Assjrrians as to the origin of the gods, and of the world, 
 and of mankind. The old company of primeval gods mentioned 
 in these Tablets are also eight in number, and they fall readily 
 into four pairs. The first pair consisted of Apzu - eisht6, 
 *-^]] tt^y "^yi^ *"^y ^yyy^> ^•®-' *^® "primeval abyss," and 
 MuMMU-TiAMAT, (^ t=^yyy >^ >-<y'< "^V^- ^^^ meaning of the 
 Avord mummu is unknown,^ but Tiamat is the name of the female 
 counterpart of Apzu-rishtu, and she became the mother of offspring 
 by him. These two deities, then, represent the male and female 
 powers of the watery mass which contained the germs of all life, 
 and of every kind of life, and they existed at a time " when of the 
 " gods none had been called into being, and none bore a name, and 
 " no destinies [were ordained]." When " their waters were 
 
 1 The best copies of the cuneiform texts hitherto issued -will be found in the 
 publication of the Trustees of the British Museum, entitled Cuneiform Texts from 
 Balylonian Tablets, part xiii., London, 1901. These, with many additional texts, 
 are given in Mr. L. W. King's Seven Tablets of Creation with transliterations, 
 translations, notes, etc., London, 1902. (Vol. I.) 
 
 2 Mummu = the Mouii/Ais of Damascus, and probably means " chaos." 
 
LAKHMU AND LAKHAMU 289 
 
 " mingled together " then the work of creation began. We thus 
 see that Apzu-rishtu and Mfimmu-Tiamat are the exact equivalents 
 in the Babylonian cosmogony of Nu and Nut in the Egyptian, and 
 that they are the originals of the Greek forms ^A-rraacov and TavOe, 
 which are given in the scheme of Damascius. ^ 
 
 The next pair of gods in the Assyrian texts are Lakhmu, 
 >-*-y t^Tyy< *^j and Lakhamu, >->^y >^^y if|< >T^, but of their 
 functions we know nothing, any more than we do of the Egyptian 
 primeval gods Heh and Hehut. The names of the third and 
 fourth deities in the list of Damascius (ed. Kopp, p, 125) are Jaxos 
 and ^axq, but these are clearly mistakes for ^a^os and Aaxyj, i.e., 
 Lakhmu and Lakhamu. 
 
 According to the First Tablet of the Creation Series " ages 
 increased,"^ and then two more gods came into being, viz., 
 Anshar, v^y 4i., and Kishar, >^] <J^ i^, i.e., the '^cro-w/jos 
 and Kicra-apri of Damascius. Now up to this point the three pairs 
 of gods of the Assyrians agree exactly with the first three pairs of 
 gods of the oldest Egyptian company of the gods, and the points 
 of resemblance are striking. We see from the table printed by 
 Brugsch^ that the Egyptian authorities differed as to the names of 
 the god and goddess of the fourth pair of gods, some giving Kerh 
 and Kerhet, others giving Amen and Ament, and others giving 
 Enen and Enenet-hemset, and others Ni and Ennit ; all, however, 
 agreed that a fourth pair of deities were necessary to complete the 
 company, and that one must be a god and the other a goddess. 
 
 The First Tablet of the Creation Series mentions a seventh 
 deity called Anu, >-»-y J^ *:/-, who is clearly to be identified with 
 the 'Avos of Damascius, and an eighth deity called Nudimmud, 
 »->-y )^ <^yy >-yj^, which is a title of the god Ea ; the context 
 which would probably have supplied us with the name of a ninth 
 god is broken away, and at present there is no means of restoring 
 
 ' He was bom in Syria, probably at Damascus, in the last quarter of the Vtli 
 century of our era. He studied at Alexandria and at Athens, and was a pupil of 
 Marinus and Zenodotus, and when Justinian closed the schools at Athens he went 
 to the court of the Persian king Khusrau (Chosroes). The best edition of his work 
 on " First Principles " is that of Kopp, published in 1828. 
 
 2 King, Babylonian Religion, p. 61; ^ Eeligion, p. 127. 
 
 U 
 
290 ANU, EA, BEL 
 
 the passage. Both these deities are masculine, whereas one should 
 be masculine and one feminine. In the list of the primeval gods 
 given by Damascius following Kicrcrapr) we have jiv6<;, 'IXXivo<;, 
 and 'A6<; ; the first of these is, as we have said, Anu ; the second 
 is the god Enlil, ^-tJJJ t:]]] ', and the third is Ba, >->-| t^]]]] ]}. 
 But all these are gods, and there is no goddess among them, and it 
 is difficult not to think that in making the recension of the story 
 which is preserved in cuneiform the Assyrian editors substituted 
 the three gods Anu, Bel, and Ea, who represented heaven, and 
 earth, and the abyss respectively, for those who were in the older 
 recension. The Assyrian copy which we now have was made 
 during the reign of Ashur-bani-pal, king of Assyria from b.c. 668 
 to B.C. 626, presumably from a Babylonian archetype, but it is 
 impossible to say to what period the actual version which it 
 represents is to be assigned. The Seven Tablets of Creation 
 contain several Assyrianized forms of ancient Sumerian words, a 
 fact which proves that the original traditions incorporated in the 
 work must be of Sumerian origin, and must have been formulated 
 in remote antiquity. It is surprising therefore to find so much 
 similarity existing between the primeval gods of Sumer and those 
 of Egypt, especially as the resemblance cannot be the result of 
 borrowing. It is out of the question to assume that Ashur-bani- 
 pal's editors borrowed the system from Egypt, or that the literary 
 men of the time of Seti I, borrowed their ideas from the literati of 
 Babylonia or Assyria, and we are therefore driven to the conclusion 
 that both the Sumerians and the early Egyptians derived their 
 primeval gods from some common but exceedingly ancient source. 
 The similarity between the two companies of gods seems to be too 
 close to be accidental, especially as there is every possibility that 
 the Sumerian system was taken into Egypt by the same people 
 who carried into the country the art of making bricks, the use 
 of the cylinder seal, and the like.^ Be this as it may, it is 
 certain that the company of primeval gods, which, as we have 
 seen, was common to the Sumerians and Egyptians, was quite 
 different fi'om the companies of gods of which Osiris and Ra-Tem 
 were the heads in Egypt, and also from those which Avere formed 
 
 1 See my Egyi^t in the Predynastic and Archaic Periods, p. 41. 
 
THE PRIMEVAL SPIRIT 291 
 
 in Babylonia and Assyria when these countries were inhabited by 
 Semitic populations. 
 
 Now the First Tablet of Creation gives us to understand 
 clearly that the work of creation began when the waters, or 
 essences, of the first pair of primeval gods, Apzfi and Tiamat, 
 were mingled together, and that the offspring of this union were 
 Lakhmu and Lakhamu, Anshar and Kishar, etc. What the views 
 of the ancient Egyptians on this subject were we do not know, but 
 it is quite clear from the allusions in many texts that the second, 
 third, and fourth pairs of the gods already mentioned were the 
 offspring of the union of the first pair Nu and Nut, i.e., that they 
 were their attributes. We may also conclude that Nu and Nut 
 were the male and female powers of the vast and inert watery 
 mass, with its male and female counterparts Ni and Ennit, and 
 that the second pair of gods, Heh and Hehut, represented their 
 eternal nature. The third pair of deities are nothing but the male 
 and female counterparts of Darkness personified, and thus we have 
 as the primeval material from which everything was made an eternal, 
 boundless, watery mass wherein are the germs of life, male and 
 female ; this watery mass is, however, enveloped in thick darkness. 
 The late Dr. Brugsch, basing his opinion upon certain statements 
 made in the Egyptian texts, declared that the primeval spirit (Urgeist) 
 felt the desire for creative activity, and that his word awoke the 
 world to life in a form in which it had already been mirrored in his 
 mind, and that the first act of creation began with the formation out 
 of the primeval watery mass of an egg, wherefrom issued the light of 
 day, i.e., Ra, which was the immediate cause of all life in the earthly 
 world. In this light, that is to say, in the Rising Sun, the almighty 
 power of the divine spirit incorporated itself in a brilliant form.^ 
 
 1 " Der gottliche Urgeist, unzertreniilicli von dem Urstoff des Urwassers, 
 " f iihlte das Verlangen nach schopferischer Thiitigkeit und sein Wort erweckte die 
 " Welt zum Leben, deren Gestalt und formenreiche Gebilde sich. in seinem Auge 
 " vorlier abgespiegelt batten. Ihre korperlichen Umrisse und Farben entspracben 
 "nach ihrer Entstehnng der Wabrheit d.b. der Urvorstellungen des gottlicben 
 " Geietes iiber sein kiinftiges Werk. Der erste Scbopfnngsact begann mit der 
 " Bildung eines Eies aus dem Urgewiisser, aus dem das Tageslicht (Ra), die un- 
 " mittelbare Ursacbe (ra) des Lebens in dem Bereicbe der irdiscben Welt beraus- 
 " bracb. In der aufgebenden Sonne verkorperte sich die Albnacbt des gottlicben 
 " Geistes in ihrer glanzvollsten Gestalt" (Beligim, p. 101). 
 
292 THOTH AND HIS PAUT 
 
 The opinion of the great Egyptologist is of great weight on 
 all matters of this kind, but it must be remembered that we have 
 no authority in the texts for all the details of his narrative of the 
 events which are supposed to have taken place before the appear- 
 ance of the sun in the heavens, and that for many of the ancient 
 Egyptian views on the subject of the Creation our only authorities 
 are compositions which, in the forms in which we know them, are 
 not older than the period of the end of the Middle Empire and 
 that of the beginning of the New Empire, and many of the views 
 and opinions expressed in them date from the same periods. That 
 the sun was the product of the primeval watery mass of Nu the 
 Egyptians-believed beyond doubt, because they declared repeatedly 
 that Ra came forth from Nu, but they did not, as far as we know, 
 make it to be the dwelling-place of a primeval spirit (Urgeist) 
 which designed and planned the future world in its mind before 
 it began to create it, and which carried out the various works of 
 creation on the lines which it had evolved in its consciousness long 
 before the darkness which lay on the watery mass was pierced by 
 the light of the sun. We know that the priesthood of Hermopolis, 
 the Khemennu of the Egyptian texts, i.e., the " city of the Eight 
 Gods," where Nu, Nut, Hehu, Hehut, Kekui, Kekuit, Kerh, and 
 Kerhet were worshipped, placed at the head of their divine 
 company the god Thoth, to whom certainly in later times were 
 ascribed many of the attributes which Dr. Brugsch's "Urgeist" 
 possessed. But there is no proof whatsoever that Thoth was the 
 original leader of this company of gods ; on the contrary, there is 
 reason for thinking that if the Eight ever had a leader in the 
 beginning of their existence he must have been a form of the 
 Sun-god. The fact is that as the priests of Heliopolis formed 
 their companies of gods from systems already in existence, and 
 placed their own local gods at the head of them, so the priests 
 of Hermopolis for some reason unknown to us adopted the 
 primeval company of Eight, and appointed their own local god 
 Thoth to be their head. The attempt to find any equivalent of 
 the " spirit of Elohim," which, according to the Book of Genesis, 
 moved, or brooded, on the face of the waters before the creation of 
 light, has nothing to support it in the Egyptian texts. 
 
PAPYRUS OF NES-AMSU 293 
 
 But although we do not know what the primitive Egyptians 
 imagined to be the means by which the Sun came into being, we 
 have a very good idea of what they thought about the creation of 
 the gods, and of the world, and of the animals, birds, trees, fish, 
 reptiles, etc., which are in it, and by wlaose agency it was brought 
 about. We owe our knowledge of these things to a papyrus 
 preserved in the British Museum (No. 10,188), which was written 
 for a priest of Panopolis (the modern Akhmim), of high rank and 
 lineage, called Nes-Amsu, or Nes-Min, during the thirteenth year 
 of the reign of " Alexander, the son of Alexander," i.e., about 
 B.C. 312. This remarkable document contains, among other 
 valuable compositions, a series of Chapters of a long magical work 
 which was written with the object of effecting the destruction of 
 the arch-fiend Apepi and his fiends and devils of darkness, and of 
 keeping storms and hurricanes out of the sky ; many of the 
 Chapters are followed by rubrics which, as we have already shown 
 in the description of the Tuat given above, contain directions for 
 the performance of the ceremonies which were to accompany the 
 recital of the words. Where the Chapters were to be recited is 
 not clear, but as two out of three works in the papyrus were 
 chanted in the temple of Amen-Ra, the king of the gods, at Thebes, 
 we shall not be far wrong if we assume that the third was a service 
 which was performed in the temple from time to time. The first 
 work, the " Festival Songs of Isis and Nephthys," was a very 
 important service, and the second, the " Lamentations of Isis," was 
 probably a supplement to it ; two priestesses, who dressed in the 
 characters of Isis and Nephthys, and personified these goddesses, 
 sang the sections, or " houses," of the Festival Songs in turn on 
 the great commemorative festivals of Osiris, and as the "Lamenta- 
 tions" were rhythmical they were probably sung at the same 
 service. 
 
 The rubric of the " Festival Songs " orders that they be sung 
 in the temple of Amen-Ra, and as the third work, the "Book 
 of Overthrowing Apepi," was devoted to the protection of the Sun- 
 god Ra, the great lord of the temple, provision must have been 
 made for reciting it there. Be this as it may, our present interest 
 in the papyrus centres in the fact that it contains two copies of 
 
294 THE CREATION 
 
 the story ^ of the Creation which are of the greatest interest. 
 Curiously enough, each copy is inserted among the Chapters in the 
 main body of the work, and it seems as if they represent two 
 distinct versions, although in many places the text in each is 
 identical. Each copy is entitled, "The Book of knowing the 
 Evolutions of Ra, and of Overthrowing Apepi." The word here 
 rendered by " Evolutions " is Icheperu, ^ "^ | ^, being derived 
 from the root kheper, ® ° ;], which means "to make, to fashion, 
 " to produce, to form, to become," and in a derived sense " to roll," 
 so that the title might be translated the " Book of knowing the 
 " Becomings of Ra," i.e., the things which were made, or created, 
 or came into being through Ra. In the text the words are placed 
 in the mouth of the god Neb-er-tcher, ^^^ ■^ 3 , the lord of the 
 universe and a form of the Sun-god Ra, who says, " I am he who 
 " came into being in the form of the god Khepera, m , , JJ , 
 " and I was the creator of that which came into being, that is to 
 " say, I was the creator of everything which came into being ; now 
 " when I had come into being myself, the things which I created 
 " and which came forth from out of my mouth were very many." 
 In these words Neb-er-tcher, or Ra, says that he took upon himself 
 the form of Khepera, i.e., that he was the god who was most 
 intimately connected with the creation of things of every kind. 
 Khepera was symbolized by a beetle which belonged to the class 
 of " Coprophagi," or " dung-eaters," which having laid its eggs in 
 masses of dung rolled them about until they became circular in 
 form. These balls, though made of dead, inert matter, contained 
 the germs of life, which, under the influence of warmth and heat, 
 grew, and in due course developed into living creatures which 
 could move about and seek their food. At a very early period in 
 their history the Egyptians associated the sun's disk with the dung 
 ball of the beetle, partly on account of its shape, and partly because 
 it was the source of heat, and light, and life to man, even as the 
 dung ball was to the young beetles. Having once got the idea 
 that the disk of the sun was like the ball of the beetle, they went a 
 step farther, and imagined that it must be pushed across the sky 
 
 1 The first copy is in column xxvi. and the second in column xxviii. 
 
THE CREATION 295 
 
 by a gigantic beetle just as the dung ball was rolled over tbe 
 ground by a beetle on eartb, and in pictures of the sunrise we 
 actually see the disk being pushed up or forward into the sky by a 
 beetle. Gradually the ideas of new life, resurrection, life in a 
 new form, and the like, became attached to the beetle, and the 
 god with the attributes of the beetle, among which in later days 
 was included the idea of self-proouction, became one of the most 
 important of the forms of Ra, and the creator of heaven, and earth, 
 and the Tuat and all that is in them. 
 
 Having declared under what form he had come into being 
 Khepera goes on to say that his power was not exhausted by one 
 creative act, but that he continued to create new things ouf of 
 those which he had already made, and he says that they went forth 
 from his mouth. The word " mouth " may be here a figurative 
 expression, but judging from other parts of the text we are 
 probably intended to understand it literally. The god continues 
 his narrative thus : — '' Heaven did not exist, and earth had not 
 " come into being, and the things of the earth (plants ?) and 
 " creeping things had not come into existence in that place (or, at 
 " that time), and I raised (or, built up) them from out of Nu from 
 " a state of inactivity." Thus it is clear that Khepera himself was 
 the one thing besides the watery abyss of Nu which was then in 
 existence, and it is evident that we are to understand that he 
 performed the various acts of creation without the help of any 
 female principle, and that Nu had nothing to do with them 
 except to supply the primeval matter, the "UrstofF" of Brugsch, 
 from which all things were made. The word rendered above by 
 
 inactivity is enen, ^J,^^^(^'^ , and it ought to refer to the 
 
 things which Khepera says he raised up out of Nu, in which case 
 we must understand that everything in heaven and in earth was at 
 that time existing in a quiescent state in the watery mass of Nu. 
 
 The narrative continues : "I found no place there whereon I 
 " could stand. I worked a charm upon my own heart (or, will), 
 " [and] I laid a foundation in Maa, [and] I made every form (or, 
 " attribute). I was one by myself, [for] I had not emitted from 
 " myself the god Shu, and I had not spit out from myself the goddess 
 
296 MAAT AND HOKHMAH 
 
 " Tefnut ; there was no other being who worked with me." The 
 things made clear by this passage are that Khepera alone was the 
 creator, and that he had no place to stand upon in performing the 
 various acts of creation. The words, Khut-nd em db-d, here 
 rendered " I worked a charm upon my heart," present difficulty, 
 but this or something very like must be their meaning. 
 
 The word '^, )n in texts of the kind generally means " to 
 " perform a magical rite or ceremony," and the author of the 
 story of the creation before us found himself obliged to make the 
 god resort to magical powers to get himself out of a difficulty ; 
 that Khepera worked in some way and by some means upon his 
 heart vr wiU is clear, and as a result he laid a foundation for 
 himself and the work which he was about to do in Maa. The 
 name n J] may be read either as Maa or Shu, but Shu cannot be 
 the reading here because in the next sentence Khepera tells us 
 that he had not at that time emitted Shu from himself. From the 
 texts of all periods we learn much about the conceptions which the 
 Egyptians had arrived at concerning Maa, and it is clear that the 
 word primarily meant "what is straight," and that it also came to 
 mean " straightness, rectitude, uprightness, right, law, order, 
 " regularity, justice," and other significations of like character ; the 
 goddess Maat, -^^ <=> '^ , was the personification of " Truth." 
 
 The idea which the text is intended to convey here is that Khepera 
 laid the foundation of the future world according to a clear, well- 
 defined, and unalterable plan, wherein there was no error ; Mad 
 was with Khepera exactly what Hokhmah, nDDn (a word somewhat 
 inadequately rendered " wisdom " in Proverbs viii. 2 fF.), was to 
 Yahweh. Wisdom says that she was set up from everlasting, 
 from the beginning, or ever the earth was, when there were no 
 depths, before the mountains were settled, and before the hills 
 was she brought forth when as yet Yahweh had made neither the 
 earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust of the earth, 
 and that she was there when he prepared the heavens and placed a 
 circle upon the face of the depth (Proverbs viii. 23 ff.). 
 
 The narrative continues : " I made a foundation in (or, by) 
 " my own heart, and there came into being multitudes of things. 
 
TEM, SHE, TEFNUT 297 
 
 " of things from tlie things of what was produced from the things 
 " which they produced." This sentence is both involved and 
 redundant, but about its meaning there is fortunately no difficulty, 
 for the writer only makes the god assert in an emphatic manner 
 that everything that is came into being as a result of the act of 
 the god in laying a foundation in his own heart, and that when 
 once • the creative processes had been set in motion they continued 
 their operation of their own accord, apparently without any direct 
 interference from the original creative power. In the next 
 sentence we have a reference to a curious belief which was already 
 current in the Vlth Dynasty, but at that period it had reference to 
 the god Tern and not to Khepera, and occurs with the following con- 
 text : — " This Pepi washeth himself in the Lake of Aaru wherein 
 " Ra washeth himself; Horus hath brought the back of this Pepi, 
 " and Thoth hath brought his legs, and Shu hath lifted him up 
 " to heaven ; Nut, stretch out thy hand to Pepi. Tern hath 
 " departed to Annu to satisfy his love of pleasure ; he hath thrust 
 " his member into his hand, and hath performed his desire, and 
 " hath produced the two children Shu and Tefnut,^ and these two 
 " children put Pepi between them, and they set him among the 
 " gods which are in Sekhet-hetepet." In the story of the creation 
 Khepera is made to say, " I had union with my hand, and I 
 " embraced my shadow in a love embrace ; I poured seed into my 
 '' own mouth, and I sent forth from myself issue in the form of 
 " the gods Shu and Tefnut." Now a myth of this character can 
 only be the product of a people at a low level of civilization, and 
 it is difficult to understand the character of the mind of an author 
 who in one sentence helps Khepera out of a difficulty by ascribing 
 to him the possession and use of magical powers, and in another 
 reduces him to the necessity of committing an act of masturbation 
 in order to begin the generations of the gods, and yet assigns to 
 
 /VSAAAA 
 
298 APPEARANCE OF RA 
 
 him at the same time many of the powers which are assigned by 
 Christian nations to God. The only possible way of accounting 
 for this gross passage is to assume either that it was copied into 
 the papyrus of Nesi-Amsu, or Nesi-Min, by the scribe simply 
 because he found it in the archetype from which he was working, 
 or that the author, knowing that Shu and Tefnut were held to. be 
 the children of Khepera, and that this god was unaccompanied by 
 any female counterpart, explained the origin of his children in the 
 manner described above. But in any case this brutal example of 
 naturalism was not intended to be obscene, and it must be regarded 
 as a survival in literature of the dynastic period of one of the 
 coarse habits of the predynastic Egyptians, that is to say, of one of 
 the indigenous African tribes from which dynastic Egyptians were 
 partly descended. 
 
 The next section of the narrative is difficult to translate and 
 explain, for it contains words which Khepera puts into the mouth 
 ofjbis "father" Nu, who says that his eye, i.e., the _Sun, was 
 covered up behind Shu and Tefnut, but that after henti periods, 
 
 Q \S! ^i p =- 7*7 , had passed^ that he had become three 
 
 gods instead of one, and after he had come into being in this 
 earth, Shu and Tefnut were raised up from out of the watery 
 mass wherein they were, and they brought his eye in their 
 train. The general meaning of these words seems to be that when 
 Khepera was existing in Nu by himself the sun, in which he 
 afterwards incorporated himself, was hidden in the watery deep ; 
 but as soon as Khepera had produced Shu and Tefnut the sun 
 emerged from the deep and followed in their train. In other 
 words, we learn that the Eye, '^ ^ , of Nu was unable to make 
 itself seen until after Shu and Tefnut had come into being. We 
 need not tarry to consider all the various attributes of these twin 
 gods, and it will be sufficient to say here that Shu represents the 
 daylight and, in some cases, the atmosphere which supports the 
 heavens and keeps them above the earth, whilst Tefnut, the female 
 
 1 The hen period = 60 years, but when two such periods are referred to the 
 writer does not mean necessarily 120 years, but some long, indefinite period of 
 time. 
 
The Creation 
 
CREATION OF MAN 299 
 
 counterpart of Shu, represents rain, dew, and moisture. "We have 
 already seen that these twin gods proceeded from Khepera, and 
 the words which are used to express the idea of emission, i.e., 
 
 dshesh [ ^^^f''^, and tef ^ /■''"C), indicate the processes by 
 
 which they came into being as separate entities. The creation of 
 Shu made a space between the heavens and the earth into which 
 the Eye of Nu could rise from out of the waters and shine, and 
 because the sunlight immediately followed the creation of Shu that 
 god is sometimes identified with light, and is regarded as its 
 personification. The general sense of the passage under discussion 
 makes it necessary to assume that Nu is identified with Khepera, 
 and vice versa. 
 
 The next passage refers to the creation of man, and the god, 
 presumably Khepera, says, " Now after these things, I united my 
 " members, and I wept over them, and men and women came into 
 " being from the tears which came forth from my eye." Of this 
 passage there are two interpretations possible. We may either 
 assume that the tears which feU from the Eye of Nu, or Khepera, 
 are the rays of light which fell from the sun, and that men and 
 women are the ofisprtng of the light, or what is far more probable;^ 
 that men and women are the product of the tears of water which 
 fell from the eye of the god upon his members,^ and that they 
 turned into human beings straightway. Heanwhile the god ISTu or 
 ^hepera had ma,de another Eye, by which we are, no doubt, to 
 understand the Moon, and it is said that when the first Eye found 
 that a second had been made it raged at the god ; now when the 
 god saw this he endowed the second Eye with some of the power 
 (or, splendour) which he had made, and having made it take up 
 its position in his face it henceforth ruled the whole earth. After 
 this the god brought about the creation of plants, and herbs, and 
 reptiles,, and creeping things. Finally, the gods Shu and Tefnut 
 produced the gods and goddesses Seb and Nut, Osiris and Isis, Set 
 and Nephthys, and Heru-khent-an-maati, i.e., the " Blind Horus," 
 one after the other at one birth, and these deities multiplied 
 
 _D I 
 I , 
 9. I 
 
300 KHEPERA AND OSIRIS 
 
 offspring in this earth. Thus we have a complete account of how 
 a male god who existed alone in the watery abyss of Nu produced 
 from himself by unnatural means a pair of deities, one male and 
 one female, and how this pair produced three other pairs, i.e., 
 three gods and three goddesses, and one male deity in addition, in 
 fact the paut or company of the great gods of Heliopolis, which in 
 this instance was made to include ten gods. It is interesting to 
 note the order in which the acts of creation took place. The self- 
 existent god who had lived for ever created : 1. The light, 2. The 
 firmament, or home of moisture, i.e., clouds and rain. 3. Man- 
 kind. 4. The second (?) Eye, i.e., the Moon (?). 5. Plants, and 
 herbs, and reptiles, and creeping things. 6. Seven deities, four 
 being male and three female. 
 
 In the second version of the story of creation which we shall 
 now describe some interesting variants will be found, and we shall 
 see that the god Osiris is made to usurp the position which in the 
 first version is occupied by the god Khepera. The opening words 
 are : — Neb-er-tcher saith, " I am the creator of what hath come 
 "into being, and I myself came into being under the form of the 
 " god Xhepera, and I came into being in primeval time. I came 
 " into being in the form of Khepera, and I was the creator of what 
 " came into being, that is to say, I formed myself out of the 
 "primeval matter, jind I formed myself in the primeval matter. 
 
 " My name is Ausaees, (] (3 H ""^^^ M (i.e., Osiris), [who] is the 
 " primeval matter of primeval matter. I have done all my will in 
 " this earth, I have spread abroad therein, and I have made strong 
 " (or, lifted up) my hand." In this passage we have Neb-er-tcher, 
 who-came into being in the form of Khepera, identifying himself 
 with Osiris, who is described as the vautet patitti, ^^ %v 
 
 u^ ^^ *^ ^ ci 1 ' ^■^•' *^® ^'^^y essence of primeval matter, and 
 the source of all created things. This is a remarkable attribute to 
 ascribe to the god of the dead, and it is only understandable when 
 we remember that it was a common belief of the Egyptians that 
 life rose out of death. The narrative continues, " I was alone, for 
 "they (i.e., the gods) were not born, and I had emitted from 
 " myself neither Shu nor Tefnut, I brought my name into my 
 
POWER OF THE NAME 301 
 
 " own moutli, that is to say [I uttered ifc as] a word of power, 
 
 " A I _M- ^ ^ ' ^^^^^'^> ^^^ ^ forthwith came into being under 
 " the form of thiags which were created and under the form of 
 " Khepera." 
 
 Here we have an interesting statement, for the god tells us 
 how he came into being, and he is not content with merely saying 
 that he existed. We know from the literature of Egypt how 
 great a part words of power played in its magical and religious 
 systems, and how the believer hoped to obtain all his desires by the 
 utterance of special names, or words, or formulae. Here, however, 
 we have the god Osiris transforming himself from the essence of 
 primeval matter into the active principle of creation by merely 
 uttering his own name. The belief in the potency of certain 
 names is very old in Egypt, and rests upon a still older idea that 
 no creature, animate or inanimate, could be said to have an 
 existence until it possessed a name, an idea with which every one 
 is familiar from Genesis ii. 19 f., where we read that Adam gave 
 names to every beast of the field and to every fowl of the air, and 
 to all cattle. Every god and goddess and supernatural being were 
 believed to possess a hidden name by, and through, and in which 
 he and she lived. The man who could find out these names was 
 able to command the help of the gods who bore them, and the 
 man who could obtain by any means a hidden name for himself 
 thought he would be the equal of the gods. On the other hand, to 
 destroy or " blot out " a name was to wipe out of existence the 
 being who bore it, and it was for this reason that in the earliest 
 days of civilization in Egypt services in which the name, or 
 names, of the dead were commemorated, and were mentioned with 
 laudatory epithets, were established. We may note in passing 
 that one of the greatest gifts which was to be given to the true 
 believers of the Church of Pergamos was " a white stone, and in 
 " the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he 
 " that receiveth it" (Revelation ii. 17). Here is a direct allusion 
 to the old belief in the efficacy of an amulet which was made of a 
 certain stone, and inscribed with a name, by and through and in 
 which its owner would enjoy life and happiness. 
 
302 THE CREATION 
 
 Returning to our narrative we find that the god continues, 
 " I came into being from primeval matter, and I appeared under 
 " the form of multitudes of things from the beginning. Nothing 
 " existed at that time, and it was I who made whatsoever was 
 '' made. I was alone, and there was no other being who worked 
 " with me in that place. I made all the forms under which I 
 " appeared by means (or, out of) the god-soul which I raised up 
 " out of ISTu, ^^^ y^ 3, out of a state of inertness (or, out of the 
 
 " inert mass)." In this passage we have a new element introduced, 
 
 that is, a " god-Soul," "^^3, or, in other words, the Soul which 
 
 possessed the quality of neter, and was existent in a quiescent 
 
 state in the inactive watery mass of Nu. When we consider the 
 
 general ideas of the Egyptians about the soul this statement need 
 
 not surprise us, for we know that they endowed every object in 
 
 nature with a soul, and if they assumed the existence of a mass of 
 
 primeval matter they were bound, logically, to give it a soul. 
 
 Thus we have in the second version of the story of the creation an 
 
 idea which is wholly wanting in the first. "We next read, " I 
 
 ' found there (i.e., in Nu) no place wherein I could stand. I 
 
 ' worked a spell on my heart, and I laid a foundation before me, 
 
 ' and I made whatsoever was made. I was alone. I laid a 
 
 ' foundation in (or, by) my heart, and I made the other things 
 
 ' which came into being, and the things of Khepera which were 
 
 ' made were manifold, and their offspring came into existence 
 
 • from the things to which they gave birth. It was I who emitted 
 
 ' Shu, and it was I who emitted Tefnut, and from being one god 
 
 ' (or, the one god) I became three, that is to say, the two other 
 
 ' gods who came into being on this earth came from myself, and 
 
 ' Shu and Tefnut were raised up from out of Nu wherein they had 
 
 ' been. Now, behold, my Eye, ^^ jj (i.e., the Sun), did they 
 
 ' bring to me (or, I brought to them) after a double /mi period 
 ' [had passed since] they went forth from me. I gathered 
 ' together my members which came forth from my own person 
 ' after I had union with my hand, and my heart (or will) came 
 ' unto me from out of my hand. The seed fell into my mouth, 
 ' and I sent forth from myself the gods Shu and Tefnut, and from 
 
THE CREATION 303 
 
 " being one god (or, the one god) I became three, that is to say, 
 
 "the two other gods who came into being, M _, ^^ ^^s^ I' 
 
 " on this earth came from myself, and Shu and Tefnut were raised 
 " up from out of Nu wherein they had been. " 
 
 The repetitions in the above passage are due to the fact that 
 the scribes possessed many variant readings of portions of it, these 
 representing, no doubt, the opinions of different schools, and the 
 scribe of the papyrus of Nes-Amsu, with characteristic reverence 
 for what was written, incorporated them all into his text. 
 
 The next passage contains a very interesting addition and 
 variant reading, which makes " father " Nu declare that his Eye, 
 i.e., the sun, was covered over with large numbers of "bushes" 
 for an indefinite number of periods, each containing sixty years ; 
 now " bushes," otherwise called " hair," is the name given to the 
 clouds which hang round the sun at sunrise, and obscure his rays, 
 and it seems as if the god intends to complain that his sight was 
 impeded by them for centuries. The words following seem to 
 indicate that vegetation and reptiles, including worms or serpents, 
 proceeded from the god Rem, and that they were the product of 
 the tears which fell from Khepera, but this rendering is not whoUy 
 certain. The vegetation and worms here mentioned are forms of 
 mist and cloud which wholly or partially hide the sun, and the line 
 is probably added to the text to account for the " bushes " of which 
 
 "father" Nu spoke above. Of the god Rem, ^=>^^^^, 
 
 we know nothing, but as the word rem means "to weep," and an 
 
 allusion to "crying or weeping," <r=> ^. ^^ L is contained in 
 
 the line in which the name of the god occurs, we may assume 
 that he was the personification of Ra's tears. Mention is made 
 in the Book of the Dead (Lxxxiii. 4) of a god called Remi, 
 
 <=> '^\ M <e=< J|, who seems to have been the Fish-god, and to 
 
 have been identified in some way with Sebek, the personification of 
 Nu, but it is not clear that Rem and Remi are one and the same god. 
 We next arrive at the description of the making of man, and 
 each version of the story of the creation gives a different account. 
 According to the first, Khepera joined, or united, his members and 
 
304 FOUR RACES OF MEN 
 
 wept upon them, and men and women came into being from these 
 tears ; according to the second, Khepera wept with his Eye, and 
 men and women came into being forthwith. It is impossible to 
 say decidedly which is the older view, but it is probably the 
 former. The difference between the methods employed in creating 
 gods and men must be noted ; the gods are the seed of Khepera, 
 and they came forth from his mouth, whilst men are only the tears 
 of the god, and they came forth from his Eye. The older version 
 makes the tears of Khepera to fall upon his genital organs, and it 
 is only after they have been in contact with the god's virility 
 that they turn into human beings. In late dynastic times the 
 Egyptians divided mankind into four classes, namely, the 
 Egyptians, the Aamu, the Nehesu, and the Themehu. Thus in 
 the Book of Pylons ^ Horus says to the " chiefs of Ra," [ o ^ i O , 
 who are in the Tuat of the Black Land and the Red Land (i.e., 
 Egypt and the deserts to the South), " Ye are the tears made by 
 my Eye in your name of ' Men.'"^ The Aamu, ^"^^ v\ '^ ' — ^' , 
 (i.e., the Semitic nomad tribes of the Eastern Desert), were created 
 by Horus and Sekhet, Y ^ 5] , and this goddess protected their 
 souls ; the Themehu, or Libyans, ^^ i ^ ^ ' ' ^^^^ ^^^^ created 
 by Horus and Sekhet, and the goddess protected their souls. Of 
 the Nehesu, ^ | f ^ ^ | (i-e., the Negroes), Horus says, " I 
 " masturbated for you, and I have been content at the millions 
 " who have come forth from me in your name of Nehesu ; Horus 
 " hath created you, and it is he who hath protected their souls." ^ 
 This last statement is of interest, for it connects the idea of 
 masturbation with the Negroes, that is to say, with the dark or 
 black-skinned races of Nubia who lived on the banks of the Nile 
 
 1 See Bonomi and Sharpe, Sarcophagus of Oimenepthali, pll, 7 and 6d. 
 
 /wwvA <:^^> v\\ iiii / -<2>- 
 
 
 I I I 
 
 '. H i ^ ^ 
 
 AAA/^A^ 
 
 I 
 
 I I I ^ D 1 ^ ' J\ 
 
 I I I 
 
 5^|fl^^l (lines 16-20) 
 
THE CREATION 305 
 
 so far south as the Sixth Cataract, and, as we have already said, 
 the legend as to the origin of the gods Shu and Tefnut is far more 
 likely to have been the product of some indigenous dark-skinned 
 race than of the group of mixed peoples whom we call Egyptians. 
 It will be noticed that only the Egyptians, or offspring of Ra, are 
 said to have been produced by the tears of Ra, which are the same 
 as the tears of the Eye of Horus, i.e., the sun. 
 
 According to one version of the story of the creation, men and 
 women were created after the gods Shu and Tefnut, and before the 
 plants and reptiles, but according to the other, they were created 
 after the plants and reptiles ; neither version mentions the creation 
 of beasts and cattle. A point of interest is that men and women 
 were not fashioned by Khepera, or Neb-er-tcher, himself, and that 
 they seem to have come into being almost, as it were, by accident ; 
 in making the gods Khepera showed both will and design, but men 
 and women were only the tears which fell, apparently without 
 volition, from his Eye. But it must also be noted that in both 
 versions of the Egyptian creation legends it is Ra the Sun-god, the 
 Eye of Temu, who is in reality the creator of man, and this is 
 exactly what we find in the Mesopotamian creation legends. 
 After Marduk had defeated Tiamat and her eleven fiends, and had 
 split up her body, like a fish, and made heaven out of one half of 
 her skin, he conversed with Ea, the lord of the great deep, and 
 declared his intention of making man, in the following words ; — 
 " My blood will I take, and bone will I build up, and I will make 
 " man, that man may . . . . ; and I will build up man who 
 "■ shall inhabit [the earth]." This very important passage pi'oves 
 that the statement of Berosus to the effect that man was made out 
 of the blood of Bel, i.e., Marduk, was based upon a genuine 
 Assyrian tradition ; unfortunately the cuneiform text,^ which was 
 
 1 The tablet is No. 92,629 (obv. 11. 5-7). The text reads :— ^yj^tt: ]^ 
 
 ^K a ^T t] t:t]] A^Tr "^1^ M [^^ :^] M ^r -^ 
 
 ►-PiTttT T^TT TI TI T^ RI^ ^IL*^! ^'^■™*' lu-vk-sur-ma is-si-im-tum lu-\ub-nr\ 
 lu-iish-ziz-maa amela\_a] lu a-me-lu [....] lu-ub-ni-ma amSla[^a] a-shib irsitim. See 
 L. W. King, The Seven Tablets of Creation, vol. i., pp. 86 ff., and vol. ii., pi. xxxv. 
 
306 THE CREATION OF MAN 
 
 first identified by Mr. L. W. King, is incomplete, but when 
 the inevitable duplicate is fotind we shall probably find the 
 equivalent of the rest of the story according to Berosus, who says 
 that the blood of which man was made was obtained from Bel 
 himself after his head had been cut off. 
 
 The passage which follows the mention of the creation of man 
 in the Egyptian story refers to the Eye of Nu, which, Khepera 
 says, he endowed with power or splendour, or with the serpent 
 
 hliut, "^^ LI, which possessed both these attributes. The Bye 
 
 raged at him when it found " another growth " in its place, by 
 which, apparently, the moon is referred to, and it made an 
 onslaught upon the " bushes," i.e., the light clouds, which Khepera 
 had placed over it to adorn it, or to keep order in it ; but finally 
 it took up its position in the god's face, and henceforth ruled the 
 whole earth. The text concludes with the statement that Shu and 
 Tefnut gave birth to Seb, Nut, Osiris, Heru-khenti-an-maati, Set, 
 Isis, and Nephthys, and that their offspring increase and multiply 
 in the earth, and that they invoke the name of Khepera and so 
 overthrow their enemies, and that they create words of power, 
 
 X ^^ ^ ^ ' ' "^l^^reby they overthrow Apepi. We may now 
 
 summarize briefly the results of the two versions, and we shall 
 find that the Egyptians thought that a self-begotten and self- 
 existent god lived alone in a primeval watery mass, which was 
 itself part male and part female, and which was the abode of two 
 living powers, the one male and the other female, and also of a 
 soul, and that this mass was of unlimited extent, and was eternal, 
 and was enveloped in thick darkness. The self-existent god, at 
 some unknown time and for some unknown reason, uttered his 
 own name as a word of power, and he straightway came into being 
 under the form of the god Khepera. He next roused the soul of 
 the watery abyss out of inactivity, and then having brought some 
 iafluence, probably by the utterance of certain words, to bear upon 
 his heart, he produced some material place, probably the earth, 
 Avhereon he could stand. From this place he produced the gods 
 Shu and Tefnut, which act resulted in the immediate creation of 
 light and in the dispersion of darkness, and in the formation of the 
 
THE CREATION OF MAN 307 
 
 sky or firmament. These acts were followed either by the creation 
 of men and women, or by the creation of vegetation and creeping 
 things and reptiles of every kind ; of the creation of stars and of 
 birds and beasts nothing is said. The above statement represents 
 one of the earliest of the opinions of the Egyptians about the 
 creation in its simplest form, the one in fact which was first 
 adopted by the priests of Heliopolis, and was then modified to suit 
 the theological system which they formulated. The texts on 
 which it was based are transcribed into hieroglyphics with 
 interlinear transliterations and translations in the following 
 chapter. 
 
( 308 ) 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE HISTORY OF THE CREATION OF THE 
 GODS AND OF THE WORLD. VERSION A. 
 
 xxvi. 21. 
 
 Shdt 
 The Book 
 
 O \\ 
 
 enti 
 of 
 
 Q. 
 
 
 
 rehh kheperu nu 
 
 knowing the evolutions of 
 
 Rd 
 Ra, 
 
 seJcher 
 
 [and] of over- 
 throwing 
 
 Apep 
 Apep. 
 
 I I 
 I 
 
 tchettu 
 The words of 
 
 Neb-er-tcher 
 Neb-er-tcher 
 
 tchet -f 
 
 [which] he 
 spake 
 
 J). W ^if= ill ^:37 5ll Q. W ,=±h 
 
 em-khet kheper - f nuk pii kheper 
 
 after he had come into being. I am he who came into being 
 
 22. 
 
 > I 
 I 
 
 em 
 
 Kheperd kheper-nd kheper kheperu 
 
 in the form of I was (or, became) the creator of what came into 
 Khepera, being, 
 
 
 ^^ 
 
 kheper kheperu neb em-khet kheper-d dsht 
 
 the creator of what came into all; after my coming into many- 
 being being 
 
THE CREATION 
 
 309 
 
 urzD 
 em per 
 
 em 
 
 re-a 
 
 AAAAAA 
 
 an 
 
 kheperu 
 
 [were] the things which coming forth from my mouth. Not 
 came into being 
 
 dn 
 
 hheper pet 
 existed heaven, not 
 
 I s 
 
 hheper ta 
 existed earth, 
 
 A/W\AA 
 
 dn 
 not 
 
 qemam 
 had been created 
 
 satat 
 
 Q I I I 
 tchetfet 
 
 the things of the earth, and creeping 
 (i.e., plants) things 
 
 J' 
 
 em bet 
 
 in place 
 
 
 w 
 
 put 
 that ; 
 
 ffees - nd 
 
 am 
 
 sen 
 
 em 
 
 Nil 
 
 I raised up them from out of Nu (i.e., the primeval abyss 
 
 of water) 
 
 
 1 1 1 
 
 -«klT J 
 
 trzn 
 
 n /vww 
 
 em ewew 
 
 from a state of 
 inactivity. 
 
 aw 
 Not 
 
 qem-na 
 found I 
 
 w 
 
 ami 
 wherein. 
 
 
 Jchut-nd 
 I worked a charm 
 
 J k PI 
 
 em 
 upon (or, with) 
 
 bet ahd-nd 
 
 a place I could stand 
 
 dbt-d 
 my heart. 
 
 -C2>- 
 
 T I^H 
 
 senti-nd em Mad dri-nd dru nebt 
 
 I laid a foundation in Maa [and] I made attribute every. 
 
 u 
 
 30S 
 
 >t.iiD 
 
 T %.hi 
 
 ud-lc\ud'] dn dshesh-nd em Shu 
 
 I was alone, [for] not had I spit in the form of Shu, 
 
 an 
 not 
 
310 
 
 THE CREATION 
 
 T %.f.-i 
 
 tef-nd 
 had I emitted 
 
 em 
 
 Tefnut 
 
 Teftiut,- 
 
 an 
 not 
 
 kheper 
 existed 
 
 ki 
 another 
 
 24. -<2:^ 
 
 Ci 3S 
 
 
 senti-nd 
 
 em aJ^-a tches-d 
 
 dri-nef hend-d 
 
 who worked with me. I made a foundation in my heart my own, 
 
 (or, by means of my own will) 
 
 o III 
 
 dsht 
 
 kheperu 
 
 I 
 
 nu 
 
 kheperu 
 
 kheper 
 
 [and] there came the multitudes which came of the things which 
 into being of things into being came into being 
 
 em 
 
 from out of 
 
 kheperu 
 
 the things which came 
 into being 
 
 O 
 I 
 
 nu 
 
 mesu 
 
 em 
 
 of births, from out of 
 
 O 
 
 I I I I 
 
 mesu-sen 
 
 W (2 
 kheperu nu 
 
 the things which of their births 
 came into being 
 
 dnuk pu hat-d 
 
 1, even I, had union 
 
 i 
 
 em 
 
 khefd-d 
 
 tatadt-nd 
 
 (]^ ^ Col.xxvii.1. 
 
 with my clenched hand, I joined myself in an 
 
 embrace 
 
 khaibit-d 
 my shadow, 
 
 em 
 with 
 
 kher-nd 
 I poured seed 
 
 1 
 
 em re-d 
 
 into my mouth 
 
 tches-d 
 my own, 
 
 1 I.e., I had not sent forth from my body the emanation which took the form 
 of Shu, nor the moisture which took the form of Tefnut. 
 
THE CREATION 
 
 311 
 
 r-TV-i s 
 
 
 I© 
 
 o 
 
 5f>«">D 
 
 ^ 
 
 dshesh-nd 
 I sent forth issue 
 
 em Tafnut an 
 
 em Shu tefnet-nd 
 
 in tlie form of Shu, I sent forth moisture 
 
 000 
 
 AAAftAA 
 A^AAAA 
 
 ii f\:M 
 
 dtef-d 
 
 in the form of Saith my father 
 Tefnut. 
 
 Nu 
 Nu, 
 
 satet-sen 
 
 " They make to 
 be weak 
 
 i k^P.T, ^ mi BBS flV^Pr 
 
 maat-d em-sa-sen tcher 
 
 henhenti 
 
 my eye behind them, because for double henti 
 
 periods 
 
 uau-sen 
 they proceeded 
 
 >71 
 
 1 
 
 -^■9^ 
 
 1 
 
 er-(i em-hhet kheper-d em neter 
 from me after I became from god 
 
 ud neter hhemt 
 one gods three, 
 
 D 
 
 pu er-d kheper-nd em ta pen had 
 
 that is from out of [and after] I came in earth this. Were raised up 
 myself, into being 
 
 dref 
 therefore 
 
 Hi 
 
 Shu 
 Shu 
 
 Tafnut 
 [and] Tefnut 
 
 (^ AAA«V\ ^ 
 
 em 
 in 
 
 the inert watery mass 
 
 
 prrj^. 
 
 w 
 
 ami - y 
 wherein they were, 
 
 dn-sen nd maat-d 
 
 brought they to me my eye 
 
 rjr:. kn ^r it zti^ 
 
 em khet-sen em-khet dref sam-nd dt-d 
 
 in their train. After therefore I had united my members 
 
312 THE CREATION 
 
 rem-na 
 
 her-sen Icheper reth jpih em 
 
 ! D 
 
 I wept over them, [and] came into men and from 
 
 being women 
 
 remu per em maat-d hhdru-s 
 
 the tears [which] came forth from my eye, [and] it raged 
 
 -si kr: mp '^k^p ^t t 
 
 er-d em Jchet is qemi-s dri-nd het 
 
 against me after it came [and] found [that] I had made another 
 
 em dst-s tehi-s em hhut dru-nd 
 
 ' in its place. [I] endowed it with the power I had made. 
 
 (or, splendour) which 
 
 sekhenti dref dst-s em hrd-d em-Jchet 
 
 Having made to approach therefore its place in my face, afterwards 
 
 dref heq-s ta pen er teller - / Icher 
 
 therefore it ruleth earbh this to its whole extent. Fall 
 
 en at-sen du uahu-sen tebui-nd 
 
 their moments (or, seasons) upon their plants, I endowed it 
 
 thet-s dmi-s per-nd em uabu 
 
 with what it hath in it. I came forth from (or, in the plants, 
 taken possession of the form of) 
 
THE CREATION 313 
 
 tchetfet nebt kheper nebt dm-sen 
 
 creeping things all, [and] things which all [are] in them. 
 
 came into being 
 
 mesu an Shu Tdfnut hend Nut mesu an 
 
 Grive birth Shu [and] Tefhut [Seb] and Nut. Give birth 
 
 Seh Nut Asdr Her Khent-dn-maa Set Ast 
 
 Seb and Nut to Osiris, Horus-Khent-an-maati, Set, Isis, 
 
 Nebt-het em khat ud em-sa ud dm-sen 
 
 Nephthys from the womb, one after the other of them, 
 
 III I I I I I I c> I I I I I I _SJ^ I 3S /vwwv 
 
 mes-sen dslit-sen em ta pen 
 
 they give birth [and] they multiply in earth this. 
 
 THE HISTORY OF THE CREATION OF THE 
 GODS AND OF THE WORLD. VERSION B. 
 
 xxviii. 20. 
 
 
 Shdt ent rekh kheperu nu Rd 
 
 The Book of knowing the evolutions of Ra 
 
 sekher Apep tchettu Neb-er-icher tchet-f 
 
 [and] of over- Apep. The words of Neb-er-tcher. He says : — 
 throwing 
 
314 
 
 THE CREATION 
 
 *i ■-- W Q. 
 kheper-d hheper Icheperu 
 
 ' I was (or, the creator of what came 
 
 became) into being. 
 
 I ^ 
 
 I AAAA/VA JfTp 
 
 © 
 
 kheperu-k[u']d em 
 
 I came into being in 
 
 :^ © Jill I 
 kheperu 
 
 the forms 
 
 ® 
 
 ®\\ 
 
 D 
 
 en Eheperd kheper em sep tepi 
 
 of Khepera coming into being in primeval time. 
 
 kheper-kud em 
 
 I came into 
 being 
 
 m 
 
 kheperu en 
 
 the forms of 
 
 © 
 
 D 
 
 Khepera kheper-d 
 
 Khepera. I was (or, 
 became) 
 
 
 kheper kheperu pu en pa-nd 
 
 the creator ofwhat came into being, that is to say, I produced myself 
 
 ^ 
 
 e 
 
 ^QM 
 
 du pautet 
 
 from the primeval matter 
 
 (2© 
 
 em pautet 
 
 from primeval matter. 
 
 
 
 (2 
 
 dru-nd pa-nd 
 
 [which] I made. I produced myself 
 
 ren-ci 
 
 pa 
 My name is 
 
 Ausdres 
 Osiris, 
 
 ©Q 
 
 © -^ © I 22. 
 
 pautet 
 
 pautit 
 
 w 
 dri-d 
 
 mertu-d neht 
 
 the primeval matter of primeval matter. I have done my will all 
 
 = a 
 
 ^ AAAAAA 
 
 em ta 
 
 usekht-nd 
 
 fl 
 
 i^eji uselcM-nd dm - f 
 
 in earth this, [and] I have spread abroad in it ; 
 
 thes-nd 
 I raised up 
 
THE CREATION 315 
 
 f^^-<* udu-hud an mes-sen an 
 
 my hand. I was alone ; not born [were] they. Not 
 
 ashesh-na em Shu an tdf-nd em Tdfnut 
 
 had I spit in the form of Shu, not had I emitted Tefhut 
 
 an-nd re-d tches-d ren-d pu 
 
 I brought [into] my mouth my own my name, that is to say, 
 
 hekau dnuk pu hheper - nd em 
 
 a word of power, and I, even I, came into being in the form 
 
 kheperu kheper-kud em kheperu en Eheperd 
 
 of things which and I came in the forms of Khepera. 
 came into being, into being 
 
 kheper-nd em pautti hheper 
 
 I came into being from the primeval matter, coming into being 
 
 ^11 P? (2 il I 1^ II 
 
 dsht kheperu em tep-d an kheper 
 
 [in] multitudes of forms from the beginning. Not existed 
 
 kheperu neht em ta fen dri-nd dri 
 
 created things any in land this; I made whatsoever was made 
 
vojLo; \ . THE CREATION ,:'^£" ' -0W^'^ 
 
 hat'Tid e\m hhejd-d i-nd . '' 
 
 I had union with my clenched hand, came to me (?) 
 
 ?i k ni ~^^ <^°^ km 
 
 db-d em tet'd dada hher em " '^k.a 
 
 my heart (or, will) out of my hand. The yeed [which] fell into , . 
 
 re-d dshesh-nd em Shu tdf-nd q~-^ 
 
 my mouth, I spat in the form of Shu, I etnitted water 
 
 '<<4^^„*: 
 
 tjs ■»■■' "*■' 
 
 
 em Tdfnut hheper-nd em neter ud n^eteru "^'"'^ 
 
 intheformofTeftiut, I became from [being] god one goids ^^^ 
 
 khemt pu er-d hheperiut em 
 
 three, that is to say, from myself two gods came into being on 
 
 ta pen had dref Shu Tdfnut 
 
 earth this. Were raised up therefore Shu and Tefnut __ 
 
 k ^^mi SPTJk^l' X 
 
 gfn Nu unen-sen ami an 
 
 from out of Nu (i.e., the iaert wherein they were. Saith 
 primeval watery abyss) 
 
 The paragraph beginning !] ^^ rlf and ending with :^^ I 
 is repeated, apparently by inadvertence, in the papyrus. 
 
THE CREATION 319 
 
 dtef-d Nu ati-sen viaat-d em-sa sen 
 
 my father Nu, " They covered up my eye after them 
 
 [or, made weak] 
 
 uabu sep sen hentiu uabu 
 
 [with] bushes, twice, for hen periods. Vegetation 
 
 Will 
 
 hefi em Bern em rem-th 
 
 and reptiles [came] from the god Rem, from the tears 
 
 111 W . " I d 2i xl 
 
 er-d Tea en maat-d Icheper ret . 
 
 [falling] from me. Cried my eye, came into being mankind. 
 
 yvA'vVV 
 
 pu tebu-nd su em hhut Jchdru-nes er-d 
 
 I endowed it with power. It raged at me 
 
 em-hhet i-s ket ret em hhennu en dst-s 
 
 after it came [finding] another growth within its place. 
 
 Icher en ten-ten-s du uabu'S her 
 
 Fell its vigorous power upon its bushes, upon 
 
 uahu tebui-nd dm se-ndd dm-s 
 
 the bushes [which] I placed there to make adornment in it. 
 
320 
 
 THE CREATION 
 
 
 1i 
 
 I H- 
 
 B 
 
 Tchenti dref dst-s hrd-d heq-nes ta tcher - f 
 
 Ruling therefore [on] its seat in my face it ruleth the whole earth. 
 
 AAAA'W ^ 
 
 o o 
 
 ^ W 
 
 rues en Shu Tdfnut Nut Asdr Heru-hhenti-dn-maati 
 
 Gave birth Shu [and] Tefnut to Nut, Osiris, Heru-khenti-an-maati, 
 
 
 Set 
 Set, 
 
 Ast 
 Isis, 
 
 Nebt-het 
 Nephthys, 
 
 dPiP, 
 
 an 
 [and] behold, 
 
 mesu-sen 
 their children 
 
 qemam-sen 
 they create 
 
 kheperu 
 beings 
 
 ^^ 
 
 ^ 1 I 
 
 dsht em 
 
 manifold in 
 
 ta 
 earth 
 
 D 
 
 AAAAAA 
 
 pen em kheperu 
 
 this from the beings 
 
 O 
 
 nu 
 
 mesu em 
 of children, from 
 
 I I I I I 
 mesu-sen 
 their children 
 
 P... l^iP 
 
 shent-sen 
 They invoke 
 
 7'en-a, 
 my name, 
 
 kheperu 
 the beings 
 
 S 
 
 of 
 
 P^^p... 
 
 sekher-sen 
 they overthrow 
 
 ® ^ I n ''~^ 
 '^^ J^ I I I I 
 
 kheft-sen 
 their enemies. 
 
 
 qemam-sen 
 they create 
 
 III i I 
 
 hekau en 
 
 words of power for 
 
 © 
 
 7 "^ 
 
 © 
 
 sekher Apep du-f her sau 
 
 the overthrow of Apep, who is to be bound 
 
 U=Z1 
 
 <& — fl I 
 ^ a I 
 
 I (3 I 
 
 her ddui 
 by the two hands 
 
THE CREATION 
 
 321 
 
 IS, 
 
 ^^ 
 
 AA/^A'\A AV^^/V\ 
 
 I W 
 
 /^Ar,AAA /NAift/iAA 
 
 en 
 of 
 
 Aker, 
 
 an un ddui - f an un retui - f 
 
 not may be his two hands, not may be his two feet, 
 
 I 
 
 =\ 
 
 O 
 I 
 
 satet - f en dst ud md hu 
 
 may he be chained to one place even as inflicteth Ra his blows 
 
 A I I I 
 
 Bd setchebu-f 
 
 (3 o 
 
 q,p^^^ ? r^ 111^^ 
 
 utu-nef du sekher-tuf her sati-f pui tu 
 
 decreed for him. He is overthrown on his back wicked, 
 
 8. 
 
 ^'^y-. 
 
 <^ I 
 
 D Q.' 
 
 I 
 
 W 
 
 ri 
 
 (H 
 
 senpu hrd-f her dri-nef meni su 
 
 slit is his face fgr what he hath done, and he remaineth 
 
 qs 
 
 1 w 
 
 e HH ill 
 
 
 du 
 
 sati - f 
 
 pui 
 
 tu 
 
 upon 
 
 his back 
 
 
 evil 
 
( 322 ) 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 RA, THE SUN-GOD, "^^^ J, AND HIS FORMS 
 
 I 
 
 RA. is the name which was given by the Egyptians of the 
 djmastic period to the god of the sun, who was regarded 
 as the maker and creator of everything which we see in the 
 visible world around us, and of the gods in heaven, as well as of 
 heaven itself, and of the Tuat or underworld and the beings 
 therein ; the original meaning of his name is unknown, but at one 
 period of Egyptian history it seems to have been thought that the 
 word rd indicated " operative and creative power," and that as a 
 proper name it represented in meaning something like " Creator," 
 this epithet being used much in the same way and with the same 
 idea as we use the term when applied to Grod Almighty, the 
 Creator of heaven and earth and of all things therein. The 
 worship of the sun in Egypt is extremely ancient and appeal's to 
 have been universal ; at a very early period adoration of him was 
 associated with that of the hawk-god Heru, who was the personi- 
 fication of the " height " of heaven, and who appears to have been 
 a type and symbol of the sun. The worship ot the hawk-god 
 
 Heru, t ^ ^j is the oldest in Egypt, and, strictly speaking, 
 
 he 'should have been discussed before Ea, but as Ra and the 
 personifications of his various forms are the greatest of the gods of 
 the Egyptians, he must be regarded as the true " father of the 
 gods," and his attributes, and the myths which grew up round 
 him must be considered before those of Horus. The god Ra is 
 usually depicted with the body of a man and the head of a hawk, 
 but sometimes he is represented in the form of a hawk ; on his 
 head he wears his symbol, ?C\, i.e., the disk of the sun encircled by 
 
BOATS OF THE SUN 323 
 
 the serpent khut, '^o ^Vni of which mention has already been 
 made. When he has a human body he holds the emblem of life, •¥■> 
 in his right hand, and a sceptre, 1, in his left, and from the belt of 
 his tunic hangs down the tail, which is a survival of the dress of 
 men in predynastic times, and probably later. Viewed from a 
 practical point of view Ra was the oldest of all the gods of Egypt, 
 and the first act of creation was the appearance of his disk above 
 the waters of the world-ocean ; with his first rising time began, 
 but no attempt was ever made to say when, i.e., how long ago, his 
 first rising took place. "When the Egyptians said that a certain 
 thing had been in existence " since the time of Ra " ^ it was 
 equivalent to saying that it had existed for ever. 
 
 The Egyptians, knowing that the sun was a fire, found a 
 difficulty iu assuming that it rose directly into the sky from out of 
 the watery mass wherein it was brought forth, and they, therefore, 
 assumed that it must make its journey over the waters in a boat, 
 or boats, and as a matter of fact they believed that it passed 
 over the first half of its course in one boat, and over the second 
 half in another. The morning boat of the sun was called Matet, 
 ^v o — c " Cm^^^ ; i-6.5 "becoming strong," and the name of 
 the evening boat was Semktet, ^^ ^^ g^^ , i.e., " becoming 
 
 weak"; these are appropriate names for the rising and the 
 setting sun.^ The course which Ra followed in his journey across 
 the sky was thought to have been defined at creation by the 
 goddess called Maat, who was the personification of the conceptions 
 of rectitude, straightness, law, order, unfailing regularity, and the 
 like, and there is no doubt that it was the regular and unfailing 
 appearance of the sim each morning, as much as its light and heat, 
 which struck wonder into primitive man, and made him worship 
 the sun. In passing through the Tuat, or underworld, at night 
 Ra was supposed to be obliged to leave his boat at certain places, 
 and to make use of others, including even one which was formed 
 by the body of a serpent ; according to one opinion he changed his 
 
 O IHd ^ . 2 See Unas, 1. 292. 
 
324 MYTHOLOGICAL FISH 
 
 boat every hour during the day and night, but the oldest belief of 
 all assigned to him two boats only. Ra was accompanied on his 
 journey by a number of gods, whose duties consisted in navigating 
 the boat, and in helping it to make a successful passage from the 
 eastern part of the sky to the place where the god entered the 
 Tuat ; the course was set by Thoth and his female counterpart 
 Maat, and these stood one on each side of Horus, who acted as the 
 steersman and apparently as captain also. Before the boat of Ra, one 
 
 on each side, swam the two pilot fishes called Abtu, f J , and 
 Ant, (|~^<s=c{, respectively.-' But, judging from the religious 
 and mythological texts which have come down to us, not all the 
 power of Ra himself, nor that of the gods who were with him, 
 could ward off the attacks of certain fiends and monsters which 
 eudeavoured to obstruct the passage of his boat. 
 
 Chief among such were the serpent Apep, rT,^^, and 
 
 Sebau, [1 J (] ^ mh, and Nak, (] ^3:^ ^SM, and of these the 
 
 greatest and most wicked was Apep. In dynastic times Apep was 
 a personification of the darkness of the darkest hour of the night, 
 against which Ra must not only fight, but fight successfully before 
 he could rise in the east in the morning ; but originally he was 
 the thick darkness which enveloped the watery abyss of Nu, and 
 which formed such a serious obstacle to the sun when he was 
 making his way out of the inert mass from which he proceeded to 
 rise the first time. In the Book of the Dead he is frequently 
 mentioned,^ but rather from a moral than a physical point of view. 
 Thus in the xxxixth Chapter the deceased says : " Get thee back, 
 "Fiend, before the darts of his beams. Ra hath overthrown 
 " thy words, the gods have turned thy face backwards, the Lynx 
 "(Maftet, ^"^^^j, liath torn open thy breast, the 
 " Scorpion goddess, | ^ ^^^ , hath cast fetters upon thee, and 
 " Maat hath sent forth thy destruction. Those who are in the 
 " ways have overthrown thee ; fall down and depart, Apep, 
 
 1 Booh of the Bead. {Papyrus of Ani, pi. 1, line 15.) 
 
 3 Seethe Vocabulary to my Chapters of Coming Forth by Bay, under Apep (p. 61). 
 
RA AND APEP 325 
 
 " thou Enemy of Ra." A little further on the deceased says : " I 
 " have brought fetters to thee, Ra, and Apep hath fallen because 
 " thou hast drawn them tight. The gods of the South, and of the 
 " North, of the West and of the East have fastened chains upon 
 " him, and they have fastened him with fetters ; the god 
 
 " Rekes (^^r^JJ) hath overthrown him, and the god Hertit 
 
 " (^ ^^ ^Rlil 'S^) ^^*^ P^* ^^^ ^^ chains. Apep, thou 
 " Enemy of Ra, thou shalt never partake of the delights of love, 
 " thou shalt never fulfil thy desire ! He maketh thee to go back, 
 " thou who art hateful to Ra ; he looketh upon thee, get thee 
 " back. He pierceth thy head, he slitteth up thy face, he divideth 
 " thy head Avhere its bones join and it is crushed in thy land, thy 
 " bones are smashed in pieces, thy members are hacked off thee, 
 
 " and the god Aker [ r"^. \^ ^) hath passed sentence of doom 
 " upon thee." 
 
 From the " Books of Overthrowing Apep," ^ we obtain 
 further information as to the destruction of the monster, and we 
 find that this work was recited daily in the temple of Amen-Ra 
 at Thebes. The first Book was divided into Chapters, which were 
 entitled: — 1. Chapter of spitting upon Apep. 2. Chapter of 
 defiling Apep with the left foot. 3. Chapter of taking a lance to 
 smite Apep. 4. Chapter of fettering Apep. 5. Chapter of taking 
 a knife to smite Apep. 6. Chapter of putting fire upon Apep. 
 The following Books describe with great minuteness the details of 
 the destruction which was to fall upon Apep, and they are insisted 
 on to a wearisome degree ; according to these the monster, which 
 is referred to at one time as a crocodile and at another as a 
 serpent, is first to be speared, then gashed with knives, and every 
 bone of his body having been separated by red-hot knives, and his 
 head, and legs, and tail, etc., having been cut off, his remains were 
 to be scorched, and singed, and roasted, and finally shrivelled up 
 and consumed by fire. The same fate was to come upon Apep's 
 confederates, and everything which formed parts of him and of 
 them, i.e., their shadows, souls, doubles, and spirits, were to be 
 
 1 See Archaeologia, vol. lii. [The Papyrus of Nesi-Amsu). 
 
326 NAMES OF APEP 
 
 wiped out of existence, including any offspring which they might 
 possess. Not content with reciting the words of power which 
 would have the effect of destroying Apep and his fiends, great care 
 was taken to perform various ceremonies of a magical character, 
 which were supposed to benefit not only Ra, but those who 
 worshipped him on earth, Apep was both crafty and evil-doing, 
 and like Ra, he possessed many names ; to destroy him it was 
 necessary to curse him by each and every name by which he was 
 known. To make quite sure that this should be done effectively 
 the Papyrus of Nesi-Amsu adds a list of such names, and as they 
 are the foundation of many of the magical names met with in later 
 papyri they are here enumerated: — 1. ISTesht. 2. Tutu. 3. 
 Hau-hea. 4. Hemhemti. 5. Qettu. 6. Qeeneru. 7. Iubani. 
 8. Amam. 9. Hem-taiu. 10. Saatet-ta. 11. Khermuti. 12. 
 Kenememti. 13. Sheta. 14. Serem-taui. 15, Sekhem-hra. 16. 
 Unti. 17. Karau-anembmti. 18. Khesef-hra. 19. Seba-ent- 
 SEBA. 20, Khak-ab. 21. Khan-eu .... UAA. 22. Nai. 23. 
 Am. 24. Turrupa(?) 25. Iubau, 26, Uai, 27. Kharubu, the 
 
 FOUR TIMES WICKED, 28. Sau. 29. BeTESHU.^ 
 
 In the Egyptian texts we have at present no account of the 
 
 \\ 
 
 6. 
 
 ^T*i- "^--rT*!- Mi^ 
 
 AA^AAA 
 
 
 „ . 12. ^ ^ ^. 13. <*»^, 14. 
 
 23. _J.^S|.. 24. ^^ ■,?!., 25. (|(] e ^ e S^. 26. 
 29. Ah©^^- See my paper in ./4j-c7iaeoZoj»a, vol. lii., pp. 202-204. 
 
RA AND APEP 327 
 
 first fight which took place between Ra and Apep, but it is clear from 
 several passages in the " Books of Overthrowing Apep " that such 
 a thing must have occurred, and that the means employed by the 
 Sun-god for destroying his foe resembled those made use of by 
 Marduk in slaying Tiamat. The original of the Assyrian story is 
 undoubtedly of Sumerian origin, and must be very old, and it is 
 probable that both the Egyptians and the Sumerians derived their 
 versions from a common source. In the Assyrian version^ Marduk 
 is armed with the invincible club which the gods gave him, and 
 with a bow, spear, net, and dagger ; the lightning was before him, 
 and fierce fire filled his body, and the four-fold wind and the 
 seven-fold wind went with him. Marduk grasped the thunderbolt 
 and then mounted his chariot, drawn by four swift and fiery horses 
 which had been trained to beat down under their feet everything 
 which came in their way. When he came to the place where 
 Tiamat was, Kingu, whom she had set over her forces, trembled 
 and was afraid, but Tiamat "stood firm with unbent neck." 
 After an exchange of words of abuse the fight began, and Tiamat 
 pronounced her speU, which, however, had no effect, for Marduk 
 caught her in his net, and drove the winds which he had with him 
 into her body, and whilst her belly was thus distended he thrust 
 his spear into her, and stabbed her to the heart, and cut through 
 her bowels, and crushed her skull with his club. On her body he 
 took his stand, and with his knife he split it " like a flat fish into 
 two halves," and of one of these he made a covering for the 
 heavens. With the exception of the last, every detail of the 
 Assyrian account of the fight has its equivalent in the Egyptian 
 texts which concern Ra and Apepi. An allusion to the fight is 
 found in the apocryphal work of " Bel and the Dragon," wherein 
 we are told that both the god and the monster were worshipped in 
 Babylon ; but the narrative says that the dragon was destroyed by 
 means of lumps of pitch, and fat, and hair seethed together, and 
 that these having been pushed into the creature's mouth he burst 
 asunder. In Egyptian papyri Apep is always represented in the 
 form of a serpent, in each undulation of which a knife is stuck, 
 
 ■^ See King, Babylonian Religion, p. 71 fE. 
 
328 THE CITY OF THE SUN 
 
 •Wiljh; in the " Book of the Gates " (see above p. 197) we see him 
 fastened by the neck with a chain (along which is stretched the 
 scorpion goddess Serqet), the end of which is in the hands of a 
 god, and also chained to the ground by five chains. 
 
 It has already been said that Ra was the " father of the gods," 
 and we find that as early as the Vth Dynasty a female counterpart, 
 who was the mother of the gods, was assigned to him. This 
 goddess is called in the text of Unas (1. 253) Rat, ® , and in later 
 times her title appears to have been " Rat of the two lands, the 
 
 " lady of heaven, mistress of the gods," - n \ '" \ ^ 7=i ^ \\\ '■> 
 
 she is also called "Mistress of Heliopolis." Her fuU name was, 
 perhaps, Rat-taiut, =^^ ^ J| , i.e., "Rat of the world." She is 
 
 depicted in the form of a woman who wears on her head a disk 
 with horns and a uraeus, and sometimes there are two feathers 
 above the disk ; ^ the attributes of the goddess are unknown, but it 
 is not likely that she was considered to be more important than 
 any other great goddess. 
 
 The home and centre of the worship of Ra in Egypt during 
 
 dynastic times was the city called Annu, |^, or An by the 
 
 Egyptians, On by the Hebrews, and Heliopolis by the Greeks ; its 
 site is marked by the village of Matariyeh, which lies about five 
 miles to the north-east of Cairo. It was generally knoAvn as Annu 
 meht, i.e., Annu of the North, to distinguish it from Annu Qemau, 
 i.e., Annu of the South," or Hermonthis. Among the early 
 Christians great store was set upon the oil made from the trees 
 which grew there, and in the famous " Fountain of the Sun " the 
 Virgin Mary is said to have washed the garments of her Son ; the 
 ancient Egyptians also believed that Ra bathed each day at sunrise 
 in a certain lake or pool which was in the neighbourhood. Of the 
 origin and beginnings of the worship of Ra at Heliopolis we know 
 nothing, but it is quite certain that under the Vth Dynasty, about 
 B.C. 3350, the priests of Rii had settled themselves there, and that 
 they had obtained great power at that remote period. The 
 
 1 See Lanzone, op. cit., pi. 186, Nos. 1-4. 
 
The Goddess RAT. 
 
RA WORSHIP 329 
 
 evidence derived from the Westcar Papyrus ^ indicates that User- 
 ka-f, the first king of the Vth Dynasty, was the high-priest of Ra, 
 and that he was the first to add " son of the Sun " to the titles of 
 Egyptian monarchs. Up to that time a king seems to have 
 possessed : — 1. A name as the descendant or servant of Horus. 2. 
 A name as the descendant or servant of Set. 3. A name as lord 
 of the shrines of Nekhebet and Uatchit, ^2,* ^- ^ name as king 
 of the North and South, 1 \^ . User-ka-f, however, introduced the 
 
 title of "son of the Sun," ^^, which was always followed by a 
 second cartouche, and it was adopted by every succeeding king of 
 Egypt. According to the "Westcar Papyrus User-ka-f and his two 
 immediate successors Sahu-Ra and Kakaa were the sons of the god 
 Ra by Rut-tetet, the wife of a priest of the god Ra of Sakhabu, 
 
 [q] I ^-^ jMp © j these were brought into the world by the 
 
 goddesses Isis, Nephthys, Meskhenet, and Heqet, and by the god 
 Khnemu, and it was decreed by them that the three boys should 
 be sovereigns of Egypt. 
 
 This legend is of importance, not only as showing the order 
 of the succession of the first three kings of the Vth Dynasty, but 
 also because it proves that in the early Empire the kings of Egypt 
 believed themselves to be the sons of Ra, the Sun-god. All 
 chronological tradition affirms that Ra had once ruled over Egypt, 
 and it is a remarkable fact that every possessor of the throne of 
 Egypt was proved by some means or other to have the blood of 
 Ra flowing in his veins, or to hold it because he was connected 
 with Ra by marriage. The bas-reliefs of Queen Hatshepset at 
 Der al-Bahari, and those of Amen-hetep III. at Luxor, and those 
 of Cleopatra VII. in the temple at Erment (now destroyed, alas!) 
 describe the process by which Ra or Amen-Ra became the father 
 of the kings and queens of Egypt. From these we see that 
 whenever the divine blood needed replenishing the god took upon 
 himself the form of the reigning king of Egypt, and that he visited 
 the queen in her chamber and became the actual father of the child 
 who was subsequently born to her. When the child was born it 
 
 ' See Erman, Westcar Papyrus, pi. ix. ff. 
 
330 RA AND RA-TEM 
 
 was regarded as a god incarnate, and in due course was presented, 
 with appropriate ceremonies, to Ra or Amen-Ra, in his temple, 
 and this god accepted it and acknowledged it to be his child. This 
 clever priestly device gave the priests of Ra great power in the 
 land, but their theocratic rule was not always the best for Egypt, 
 and on one occasion they brought about the downfall of a dynasty. 
 The first rise to power of the priests of Ra took place at the 
 beginning of the Vth Dynasty, when the cult of Ra became 
 dominant in the land. About the time of Userkaf we find that a 
 number of shrines, which united the chief characteristics of the 
 low rectangular tomb commonly known by its Arabic name of 
 
 mastaha, i.e., "bench," and of the pyramid, / \ , were built in 
 honour of the god ; ^ but, according to Prof, Sethe, the custom of 
 building such only lasted for about one hundred years, i.e., from 
 the reign of Userkaf to that of Men-kau-Heru. Be this as it may, 
 the priesthood of Heliopolis succeeded in making their worship of 
 Ra to supersede generally that of almost every other god of Egypt, 
 and in absorbing all the local gods of importance throughout the 
 country into their theological system, wherein they gave them 
 positions subordinate to those of Ra and his company of gods. 
 
 Originally the local god of the city was Tem, who was 
 worshipped there in a special temple, but they united his attributes 
 
 to those of Ra and formed the double god Ra-Tem, O ^^ (Unas, 
 1. 222). "With the close of the Vlth Dynasty the power of the priests 
 of Ra declined, and it was not until the reign of Usertsen I., about 
 B.C. 2433, that the sanctuary at Heliopolis was rebuilt, or perhaps 
 entirely refounded. This king dedicated the temple which he 
 built there to Ra and to two forms of this god, Horus and Temu, 
 who were supposed to be incarnate in the famous Bull of Mnevis, 
 which was worshipped at Heliopolis as Apis was worshipped at 
 Memphis. In front of the temple he set up two massive granite 
 obelisks, each 66 feet high, the pyramidions of which were covered 
 with copper ; these were still in situ about a.d. 1200. Between 
 the XTIth and the XXth Dynasties we hear little of Heliopolis, but 
 
 1 See an interesting paper on this subject by Sethe in Aegyptische Zdtschrift, 
 1889, p. Ill ff. [Die lieiligtlmmer des Be' im alien Eeich). 
 
AMEN-RA - HERU - KHUTI. 
 AMEN-RA - (Harmachis). 
 
HELIOPOLIS 331 
 
 a further restoration of the temple buildings took place under 
 Rameses III., who set apart large revenues for the maintenance of 
 the worship of Ra and the dignity of his priests and servants. 
 When Piankhi invaded Egypt, about B.C. 750, he visited 
 Heliopolis after the capture of Memphis, going by way of the 
 
 mountain of Kher-aha, a«w«a I^ Q£x©7 and he performed 
 
 certain ceremonial ablutions in the " Lake of cold water," 
 
 and washed his face in the " milk of Nu wherein Ra was wont to 
 " wash his face ;" ^ this " Lake " is clearly the fountain of the sun 
 which we have already mentioned. 
 
 At a place called Shai-qa-em-Annu ^ he " made great offerings 
 " at Sha-qa-em-Amen to Ra at sunrise, viz., white oxen, milk, dnti 
 " unguent, incense, and sweet-smelling woods, and then he passed 
 " into the temple of Ra, which he entered bowing low in 
 " adoration to the god. The chief /c^er heb priest, [Jj ■'^ © , 
 " offered up prayer on behalf of the king, that he might be able to 
 " repulse his enemies, and then having performed the ceremony 
 " connected with the ' Star-room,' , , he took the seteb girdle, 
 " and purified himself with incense, and poured out a libation, 
 " when one brought to him the flowers which are offered up in the 
 
 " Het-Benbenet,^ J J 'wv^ J 1. He took the flowers and went 
 
 " up the steps [leading to] the ' great tabernacle,' I "^^ i^z: ^^ , 
 
 " to see Ra in Het-Benbenet. He stood [on the top] there by 
 " himself, he pushed back the bolt, he opened the doors [of the 
 " tabernacle], and he saw his father Ra in Het-Benbenet. He 
 " made adoration to the Matet Boat of Ra (i.e., the boat of the 
 " rising sun), and to the Sektet boat of Tern (i.e., the boat of the 
 '' setting sun). He then drew close the doors again, and having 
 " affixed thereto the clay for a seal he stamped it with the seal of 
 
 |\ /wwvA i©> 0^ A <II3> '^'^^"^ «v\A«\ ODD A /www O 1=1 O 
 
 1 l\ <• — '"'^^ ^ V\ (I /wwNA ';;;;;^ (I a /www <:::^ | ^ 
 
 (Stele of Piankhi, 1. 102). 
 
 2 I.e., the shrine or holy of holies of the temple of Rfi, 
 
332 HELIOPOLIS 
 
 " the king himself. He then admonished the priests [saying], ' I 
 " have set [my] seal here, let no other king enter herein [or] stand 
 " here.' And they cast themselves on their bellies before his 
 " majesty, saying, ' May Horus who loveth Annu (Heliopolis) be 
 " firm and stable, and may he never come to an end,' And the 
 " king went into the Temple of Tem, and he performed all the 
 " ceremonies and service connected with the worship of father 
 " Tem-Khepera, . ^ 1 '] 1 ' *^^ prince of Annu." 
 
 From the above it is certain that the sacred boats of Ra were 
 kept in a sort of wooden tabernacle with two doors, IqI, that 
 could be fastened by a bolt, and from what we know from pictures 
 of these boats it is equally certain that the Matet boat contained a 
 hawk-headed figure of Ra, and that the Sektet boat contained a 
 man-headed figure of Ra. The text says that the tabernacle, 
 
 II ^^^ i"^^, was situated on the top of a flight of steps, and this is 
 
 what we should expect, for we know that the support was intended 
 to represent the high ground in or near the city of Khemennu, 
 
 zzz: ^ x\® (Hermopolis), whereon Ra established himself on 
 
 the day when he proceeded from the watery abyss of Nu, before 
 the pillars of Shu were set up. In the Booh of the Dead this 
 
 high ground is called " Qaqa in Khemennu," a *^ zl "^^ "wws 
 r Ms ^^ """" O _V' ©• During the period of the Persian 
 invasion the prosperity of the priesthood of Heliopolis declined, 
 and it is said that later, during the reign of Ptolemy II. (b.c. 285- 
 247) many of its members found an asylum at Alexandria, where 
 their reputation for learning caused them to be welcomed. A 
 tradition says Solon, Thales, and Plato all visited the great college 
 at Heliopolis, and that the last-named actually studied there, and 
 that Manetho, the priest of Sebennytus, who wrote a history of 
 Egypt in Greek for Ptolemy II., collected his materials in the 
 library of the priesthood of Ra. Some time, however, before the 
 Christian era, the temple buildings were in ruins, and the glory of 
 Heliopolis had departed, and it was frequented only by those who 
 went there to carry away stone or anything else which would be 
 useful in building or farming operations. 
 
CULT OF HELIOPOLIS 333 
 
 We have now to consider briefly what was the nature of the 
 doctrine which was the distinguishing characteristic of the 
 teaching of the priests of Heliopolis. In the first place it pro- 
 claimed the absolute sovereignty of Ra among the gods, and it 
 made him the head of every company of the gods, but it did not 
 deny divinity to the older deities of the country. The chief 
 authorities for the Heliopolitan doctrine are the Pyramid Texts, to 
 which allusion has so often been made, and from these we see that 
 the priests of Ra displayed great ingenuity and tact in absorbing 
 into their form of religion all the older cults of Egypt, together 
 with their magical rites and ceremonies. Apparently they did not 
 attempt to abolish the old, indigenous gods ; on the contrary, they 
 allowed their cults to be continued, provided that the local priest- 
 hoods would make their gods subordinate to Ra.jp Thus Osiris 
 and Isis, and their companion gods, were absorbed into the great 
 company of the gods of Heliopolis, and the theological system of 
 the priests of Osiris was mixed with that of the priests of Ra. 
 Nothing is known of the origin of Osiris worship, but the god 
 himself and the ceremonies which accompanied the celebration of 
 his festivals suggest that he was known to the predynastic dwellers 
 in Egypt. The belief in the efficacy of worship of the Man-god, 
 who rose from the dead, and established himself in the underworld 
 as judge and king, was indelibly impressed on the minds of the 
 Egyptians at a very early period, and although the idea of a 
 heaven of material delights which was promised to the followers of 
 Osiris did not, probably, commend itself in all particulars to the 
 imaginations of the refined and cultured folk of Egypt, it was 
 tacitly accepted as true and was regarded as a portion of their 
 religious inheritance by the majority of the peopleTj On the other 
 hand, the priests of Ra declared that the souls of the blessed made 
 their way after death to the boat of Ra, and that if they succeeded 
 in alighting upon it their eternal happiness was assured. No 
 fiends could vex and no foes assail them successfully, so long as 
 they had their seat in the " Boat of Millions of Years; " they lived 
 upon the food on which the gods lived, and that food was light. 
 They were apparelled in light, and they were embraced by the god 
 of light. They passed with Ra in his boat through all the dangers 
 
334 CULT OF HELIOPOLIS 
 
 of the Tuat, and when the god rose each morning they were free 
 to wander about in heaven or to visit their old familiar habitations 
 on earth, always however taking care to resume their places in the 
 boat before nightfall, at which time evil spirits had great power 
 to injure, and perhaps even to slay, the souls of those who had 
 failed to arrive safely in the boat. 
 
 But although the priests of Ra under the Early Empire, and 
 the priests of Amen-Ra under the Middle and New Empires, were 
 supported by all the power and authority of the greatest kings and 
 queens who ever sat upon the throne of Egypt, in their proclama- 
 tion of a heaven, which was of a far more spiritual character than 
 that of Osiris, they never succeeded in obliterating the belief in 
 Osiris from the minds of the great bulk of the population in Egypt. 
 The material side of the Egyptian character refused to be weaned ' 
 from the idea of a Field of Peace, which was situated near the 
 Field of Reeds and the Field of the Grasshoppers,-^ Avhere wheat 
 and barley grew in abundance, and where a man would possess a 
 vine, and fig trees, and date palms, and be waited upon by his 
 father and his mother, and where he would enjoy an existence 
 more comfortable than that which he led upon this earth. The 
 doctrine of a realm of light, where the meat, and drink, and 
 raiment were light, and the idea of becoming a being of light, and 
 of passing eternity among creatures of light did not satisfy him. 
 The result of all this was to create a perpetual contest between the 
 two great priesthoods of Egypt, namely, those of Ra and Osiris ; 
 in the end the doctrine of Osiris prevailed, and the attributes of 
 the Sun-god were ascribed to him. In considering the struggle 
 which went on between the followers of Ra and Osiris it is difficult 
 not to think that there was some strong reason for the resistance 
 which the priests of Ra met with from the Egyptians generally, 
 and it seems as if the doctrine of Ra contained something which 
 was entirely foreign to the ideas of the people. The city of 
 Heliopolis appears always to have contained a mixed population 
 and its situation made it a very convenient halting-place for 
 travellers passing from Arabia and Syria into Egypt and vice 
 
 ' Mk^ \ %-^ ^\ ^ \ ^^""^ '^^^'' ^'"'^' °^^^- 19). 
 
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 m 
 
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 I 
 
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 l- 
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HYMNS TO RA 335 
 
 versa ; it is, then, most probable that the doctrine of Ra as taught 
 by the priests of Heliopolis was a mixture of Egyptian and 
 Western Asiatic doctrines, and that it was the Asiatic element in 
 it which the Egyptians resisted. It could not have been sun- 
 worship which they disliked, for they had been sun-worshippers 
 from time immemorial. 
 
 The above paragraphs contain a statement of the facts 
 concerning the worships of Ha and Osiris which appear to be 
 fairly deducible from the extant religious literature of the 
 Egyptians, but it is time to let the hymns to these gods declare 
 the attributes which were assigned to them during the most 
 flourishing period of Egyptian history. More hymns were ad- 
 dressed to these two than to any other gods, a fact which proves 
 that they were considered to be the chief means of salvation for 
 the Egyptians. The foUoAving hymns are taken from the Papyri of 
 Hunefer, and Ani, and Nekht ^ : — 
 
 " Homage to thee, thou who art Ra when thou risest, and 
 " Temu when thou settest. Thou risest, thou risest, thou shinest, 
 " thou shinest, thou who art crowned king of the gods. Thou art 
 " the lord of heaven, thou art the lord of earth ; thou art the 
 " creator of those who dwell in the heights and of those who 
 " dwell in the depths. Thou art the God One who didst come 
 " into being in the beginning of time. Thou didst create the earth, 
 " thou didst fashion man, thou didst make the watery abyss of the 
 " sky, thou didst form Hapi (the Nile), thou didst create the 
 " watery abyss, and thou dost give life unto all that therein is. 
 "Thou hast knit together the mountains, thou hast made mankind 
 " and the beasts of the field to come into being, thou hast made 
 " the heavens and the earth. Worshipped be thou whom Maat 
 " embraceth at mom and at eve. Thou dost travel across the sky 
 "with heart swelling with joy; the Lake of Testes becometh 
 " contented thereat. The serpent-fiend Nak hath fallen, and his 
 " two arms are cut ofi^. The Sektet boat receiveth fair winds, and 
 " the heart of him that is in the shrine thereof rejoiceth. Thou art 
 " crowned prince of heaven, and thou art the One dowered [with 
 
 1 See my Chapters of Coming Forth by Bay (Translation), pp. 8, 36, 
 
336 HYMNS TO RA 
 
 " all attributes] who comest forth from the sky. Ra is he whose 
 " word when uttered must come to pass. thou divine Youth, 
 " thou heir of everlastingness, thou self-begotten one, thou who 
 " didst give thyself birth ! thou One, thou mighty [one] of 
 " myriad forms and aspects, King of the world, Prince of Annu 
 " (Heliopolis), lord of eternity and ruler of everlastingness, the 
 " company of the gods rejoice when thou risest and when thou 
 " sailest across the sky, thou who art exalted in the Sektet 
 "boat." (From the Papyrus of Hunefer, sheet 1.) 
 
 " Hail, thou Disk, thou lord of rays, who risest on the horizon 
 " day by day ! Homage to thee, Heru-khuti, who art the god 
 " Khepera, the self-created ; when thou risest on the horizon and 
 " sheddest thy beams of light upon the lands of the North and 
 " of the South, thou art beautiful, yea beautiful, and all the gods 
 " rejoice when they behold thee, the King of heaven. The goddess 
 " Nebt-unnut is stablished upon thy head ; and her uraei of the 
 " South and of the North are upon thy brow ; she taketh up her 
 " place before thee. The god Thoth is stablished in the bows of 
 " thy boat to destroy utterly all thy foes. Those who are in the 
 " Tuat come forth to meet thee, and they bow in homage as they 
 " come towards thee to behold thy beautiful form. And I have 
 " come before thee that I may be with thee to behold thy Disk 
 "every day. May I not be shut up in [the tomb], may I not be 
 " turned back, may the members of my body be made new when I 
 " view thy beauties, even as [are those of] all thy favoured ones, 
 " because I am one of those who worshipped thee upon earth. May 
 " I come in unto the land of eternity, may I come even unto the 
 " everlasting land, for behold, my lord, this hast thou ordained 
 " for me. 
 
 " Homage to thee, thou who risest in the horizon as Ra, 
 "thou restest upon law unchangeable and unalterable. Thou 
 "passest over the sky, and every face watcheth thee and thy 
 " course, for thou hast been hidden from their gaze. Thou dost 
 " show thyself at dawn and at eventide day by day. The Sektet 
 " boat, wherein is thy Majesty, goeth forth with light ; thy beams 
 " are upon all faces ; the [number] of thy red and yellow rays 
 " cannot be known, nor can thy bright beams be told. The lands 
 
HYMN TO RA 337 
 
 " of the gods, and the lands of Punt must be seen, ere that which 
 " is hidden [in thee] may be measured. Alone and by thyself thou 
 "dost manifest thyself when thou comest into being above Nu, 
 " May I advance, even as thou dost advance ; may I never cease to 
 " go forward as thou never ceasest to go forward, even though it be 
 "for a moment ; for with strides thou dost in one little moment 
 " pass over the spaces which would need millions and millions of 
 " years [for men to pass over ; this] thou doest and then thou dost 
 " sink to rest. Thou puttest an end to the hours of the night, and 
 "thou dost count them, even thou; thou endest them in thine 
 ' ' own appointed season, and the earth becometh light. Thou 
 " settest thyself therefore before thy handiwork in the likeness of 
 " Ra [when] thou risest on the horizon. 
 
 " Thou art crowned with the majesty of thy beauties ; thou 
 " mouldest thy limbs as thou dost advance, and thou bringest them 
 " forth without birth-pangs in the form of Ra, as thou dost rise 
 " up into the upper air. Grant thou that I may come unto the 
 " heaven which is everlasting, and into the mountain where dwell 
 " thy favoured ones. May I be joined unto those shining beings, 
 " holy and perfect, who are in the Underworld ; and may I come 
 " forth with them to behold thy beauties when thou shinest at 
 " eventide and goest to thy mother Nu. Thou dost place thyself 
 " in the west, and my two hands are [raised] in adoration of thee 
 " when thou settest as a living being. Behold, thou art the 
 " maker of eternity, and thou art adored when thou settest in the 
 " heavens. I have given my heart unto thee without wavering, 
 " thou who art mightier than the gods. A hymn of praise to 
 " thee, thou who risest Hke unto gold, and who dost flood the 
 " world with light on the day of thy birth. Thy mother giveth 
 " thee birth, and thou dost give light unto the course of the Disk. 
 "0 thou great Light, who shinest in the heavens, thou dost 
 "strengthen the generations of men with the Nile-flood, and thou 
 " dost cause gladness in all lands, and in all cities, and in all 
 "temples. Thou art glorious by reason of thy splendours, and 
 "thou makest strong thy Double with divine foods. thou 
 " mighty one of victories, thou who art the Power of Powers, who 
 " dost make strong thy throne against evil fiends ; who art glorious 
 
338 HYMN TO RA 
 
 " in majesty in the Sektet boat, and who art exceedingly mighty 
 " in the Atet boat, make thou me glorious through words which 
 " when spoken must take effect in the Underworld; and grant thou 
 " that in the nether world I may be without evil. I pray thee to 
 " put my faults behind thee ; grant thou that I may be one of thy 
 " loyal servants who are with the shining ones ; may I be joined 
 "unto the souls which are in Ta-tchesertet, and may I journey 
 "into the Sekhet-Aaru by a prosperous and happy decree." (From 
 the Papyrus of Ani, sheet 20 f.) 
 
 "Homage to thee, thou glorious being, thou who art 
 " dowered with all attributes, Tem-Heru-khuti, when thou risest 
 " in the horizon of heaven, a cry of joy cometh forth to thee from 
 " the mouth of all peoples. thou beautiful being, thou dost 
 " renew thyself in thy season in the form of the Disk within thy 
 " mother Hathor ; therefore in every place every heart swelleth 
 " with joy at thy rising for ever. The regions of the North and 
 " South come to thee with homage, and send forth acclamations at 
 " thy rising in the horizon of heaven ; thou illuminest the two 
 " lands with rays of turquoise light. Ra, thou who art Heru- 
 " khuti, the divine man-child, the heir of eternity, self-begotten 
 " and self-born, king of earth, prince of the Tuat, governor of 
 " the regions of Aukert ; thou comest forth from the water, thou 
 " hast sprung from the god Nu, who cherisheth thee and brdereth 
 " thy members. thou god of life, thou lord of love, all men live 
 " when thou shinest ; thou art crowned king of the gods. The 
 " goddess Nut doeth homage unto thee, and Maat embraceth thee 
 "at all times. Those who are in thy following sing unto thee 
 " with joy and bow down their foreheads to the earth when they 
 " meet thee, thou lord of heaven, thou lord of earth, thou king of 
 " Right and Truth, thou lord of eternity, thou prince of ever- 
 " lastingness, thou sovereign of all the gods, thou god of life, thou 
 " creator of eternity, thou maker of heaven wherein thou art firmly 
 " established. 
 
 " The company of the gods rejoice at thy rising, the earth is 
 " glad when it beholdeth thy rays ; the peoples that have been 
 " long dead come forth with cries of joy to see thy beauties every 
 " day. Thou goest forth each day over heaven and earth and art 
 
THE PRAISES OF RA 339 
 
 "made strong each day by thy mother Nut. Thou passest 
 " through the heights of heaven, thy heart swelleth with joy ; and 
 " the Lake of Testes is content thereat. The Serpent-fiend hath 
 " fallen, his arms are hewn off, the knife hath cut asunder his 
 "joints. Ra liveth by Maat the beautiful. The Sektet boat 
 " draweth on and cometh into port ; the South and the North, the 
 "West and the East turn to praise thee, thou primeval 
 " substance of the earth who didst come into being of thine own 
 " accord. Isis and Nephthys salute thee, they sing unto thee 
 " songs of joy at thy rising in the boat, they protect thee with their 
 " hands. The souls of the East follow thee, the souls of the West 
 " praise thee. Thou art the ruler of all the gods, and thou hast 
 "joy of heart within thy shrine, for the serpent fiend Nak hath 
 "been condemned to the fire, and thy heart shall be joyful for 
 "ever." (From the Papyrus of NekJd, sheet 21.) 
 
 Even more instructive, however, than these are the Seventy- 
 five Praises of Ea Avhich are found inscribed on the walls of royal 
 tombs of the XlXth and XXth Dynasties at Thebes. In these we 
 find enumerated a large number of most remarkable epithets and 
 attributes, some idea of the meaning of which will be gathered 
 "from the following rendering : — 
 
 1. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem,^ lord of the hidden 
 " circles [of the Tuat], bringer of forms, thou restest in secret 
 " places and makest thy creations in the form of the god Tamt 
 " (c^>. "^ '^^^ r^, i.e., the universal god). 
 
 2. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem, thou creative force 
 " (^ <=> !](];), who spreadest out thy wings, who restest in 
 " the Tuat, who makest the created things which come forth 
 " from his divine limbs. 
 
 3. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem, Ta-thenen, begetter 
 " of his gods. Thou art he who protecteth what is in him, and 
 " thou makest thy creations as Govemer of thy Circle. 
 
 4. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem, looker on the 
 " earth, and brightener of Amenti, Thou art he whose forms 
 
 1 Literally, " Power." 
 
340 THE PRAISES OF RA 
 
 " (^ ^^^ yr' ' ') ^^'® ^^^ °^^ creations, and thou makest thy 
 " creations in thy Great Disk. 
 
 5. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem, the Word-soul, 
 " that resteth on his high place. Thou art he who pro- 
 
 "tecteth thy hidden spirits C^. v^ ')' ^^^ ^^^^ haye form 
 " in thee. 
 
 6. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem, mighty one, bold of 
 " face, the knitter together of his body. Thou art he who 
 " gathereth together thy gods when thou goest into thy hidden 
 " Circle. 
 
 . " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem. Thou dost call to 
 " thine Bye, and dost speak to thy head, and dost give breath 
 " to the souls in their places, and they receive it and have 
 ^"^' their forms in 'him. 
 
 8. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem, destroyer of thy 
 " enemies ; thou art he who doth decree destruction for the 
 
 9. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem, the sender forth 
 " of light into his Circle ; thou art he who maketh the 
 " darkness to be in his Circle and thou coverest those who are 
 " therein." 
 
 10. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem, the illuminer 
 " of bodies in the horizons ; thou art he who entereth into 
 " his Circle. 
 
 11." Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem, support ( — ° h h /\ ) 
 " of the Circles of Ament ; thou art indeed the body of Temu 
 
 12. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem, the hidden support 
 "of Anpu (i)^^5^); thou art indeed the body of 
 "Khepera (g^>y). 
 
 13. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem, whose duration of 
 " life is greater than that of her whose forms are hidden • 
 " thou art indeed the bodies of Shu (oa [J M\. 
 
 14. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem, the guide 
 
THE PRAISES OF RA 341 
 
 " ( Jh'] ^ seii) of Ra to his members ; thou art indeed the 
 " bodies of Tefnut (^ ^ ^). 
 
 15. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou dost make 
 "to be abundant the things which are of Ra in their seasons, 
 " and thou art indeed Seb {^^ J M) • 
 
 16. "Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem, the mighty one 
 " who doth keep count of the things which are in him ; thou 
 " art indeed the bodies of Nut. 
 
 17. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem, the lord who 
 
 " advancest ; thou art indeed Isis (jl ^ r?j) • 
 
 18. "Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem, whose head 
 " shineth more than the things which are in front of him ; 
 
 " thou art indeed the bodies of Nephthys ( Q ^^ ^) . 
 
 19. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem, united is he in 
 " members, One, who gathereth together all seed ; thou art 
 
 " indeed the bodies of Horus (^ ^) • 
 
 20. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem, thou shining one 
 " who dost send forth light upon the waters of heaven ; thou 
 " art indeed the bodies of Nu ^ ^) . 
 
 21. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem, the avenger of Nu 
 " who Cometh forth from what is in him ; thou art indeed the 
 " bodies of the god Remi (^ flfl "^ ^i) • 
 
 22. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou art the two 
 " Uraei who bear their two feathers [on their heads] ; thou art 
 
 " indeed the bodies of the god Huaaiti (ffl^^^^^j^)- 
 
 23. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou goest in 
 " and comest out and thou comest out and goest in to thy 
 "hidden Circle, and thou art indeed the bodies of Aatu 
 
 24. "Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem, the Soul who 
 " departeth at his appointed time ; thou art indeed the bodies 
 
 25. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem, who standeth up, 
 
342 THE PRAISES OF RA 
 
 " the Soul One, who avengeth his children ; thou art indeed 
 " the bodies of Netuti (^ \ZS)- 
 
 26. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou raisest thy 
 " head and thou makest bold thy brow, thou ram, mightiest 
 " of created things. 
 
 27. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem, the light of Shu at 
 
 " the head of Akert (0 ^ "^ ) ; thou art indeed the bodies 
 "of Ament (0 '^^ ^ ). 
 
 V 1 /www C;C£1/ 
 
 28. "Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem, the soul that 
 " seeth, the governor of Ament ; thou art indeed the bodies 
 
 " of the double Circle (^ ^ ^ ^ ). 
 
 29. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou art 
 " the Soul that moumeth, and the god that crieth 
 " (<=>^%(](j'^^ J); thou art indeed the bodies of 
 
 "Aakebi(l]^4jqq^J). 
 
 30. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou makest thy 
 " hand to pass and praisest thine Eye, and thou art indeed 
 
 ■' the bodies of the god of hidden limbs (!\ : ft nnn ^ j. 
 
 31. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou art the Soul 
 " exalted in the double hidden place ( '^ ): thou art 
 
 . / AAA/W\ /\ liJJUluu, rf\ cs V 
 
 " indeed Khenti-Amenti (l . J ^ ^ ^ ^)- 
 
 32. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem, of manifold 
 " creations in the holy house ; thou art indeed the bodies of 
 
 " the god Kheprer (m wj). 
 
 33. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou placest 
 " thine enemies in their strong fetters, and thou art indeed the 
 
 " bodies of Mati (P"^^). 
 
 34. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou givest forth 
 " light in the hidden place, and thou art the bodies of the god 
 
 " of generation (^ '^ Tf '^^ ^)- 
 
 35. "Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem; thou art the 
 " vivifier of bodies ; thou makest throats to inhale breath, and 
 
THE PRAISES OF RA 343 
 
 "thou art indeed the bodies of the god Tebati (0=^^"!^ 
 
 36. " Praise be to thee, Ea, exalted Sekhem ; thou assemblest 
 " bodies in the Tuat, and they gain the form of life, thou 
 " destroyest foul humours, and thou art indeed the bodies of 
 "thegodSerqi (^ (Ifl ^ )• 
 
 37. "Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem, Hidden-face 
 "(^Tl). Seshen^-Nethert (~|^nS:)^ a- 
 " art indeed the bodies of Shai (JM, '^ 00 ^ J)- 
 
 38. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem, lord of might ; 
 " thou embracest the Tuat and thou art indeed the bodies of 
 
 "Sekhen-Ba(T;|fe'%.5^). 
 
 39. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou hidest thy 
 " body in that which is within thee, and thou art indeed the 
 
 40. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem, more strong of 
 " heart than those who are in his following ; thou sendest fire 
 " in the house of destruction, and thou art indeed the bodies 
 
 " of the Fire-god Rekhi (^ ? ^fl 1], j^)" 
 
 41. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem; thou sendest forth 
 " destruction, and thou makest beings to come into existence 
 " in thy creations in the Tuat, and thou art the bodies of 
 
 "Tuati L\^i)- 
 
 42. "Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem, Bua-tep (J^^^j 
 "@^V governor of his Eye; thou sendest forth light into 
 " the hidden place, and thou art indeed the body of Shepi 
 
 "(«°(iy)- 
 
 43. "Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem, Temt-hatu, 
 " stablisher of Amta (|| -|]- ^^ ^) ; thou art indeed the bodies 
 
 "of Temt-hatu (gHll^^)- 
 
 44. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem, creator of hidden 
 
344 THE PRAISES OF RA 
 
 " things, generator of bodies ; thou art indeed the bodies of 
 " the god Seshetai (^ (jl) ^). 
 
 45. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou providest 
 " those who are in the Tuat with what they need in the 
 
 " hidden Circles, and thou art indeed Aper-ta (Q "'^^ ^ \m)' 
 
 46. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thy limbs rejoice 
 " when they see thy body, Uash-Ba (-^ "^ ™ ^ "i^' ^), 
 " when thou enterest thy body, and thou art indeed the bodies 
 
 47. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem, aged one of the 
 "pupil (^^1) of the TJtchat, Bai (^(jflj^); thou 
 " makest full thy splendour, and thou art indeed the bodies of 
 
 48. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou makest 
 " straight ways in the Tuat, and openest up roads in the 
 " hidden place, and thou art indeed the bodies of Maa-uat 
 
 49. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou art the Soul 
 " who movest onwards, and thou hastenest thy steps, and 
 
 " thou art indeed the bodies of Akhpa (0 p (1 J])- 
 
 50. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou sendest 
 " forth thy stars and thou ilium inest the darkness in the 
 " Circles of those whose forms are hidden, and thou art indeed 
 
 " the god Hetchiu (| \\ ^ 5^). 
 
 51. "Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem; thou art the 
 '• maker of the Circles, thou makest bodies to come into being 
 " by thine own creative vigour. Thou, Ra, hast created 
 " the things which exist, and the things which do not exist, 
 
 "the dead (^1), and the gods, and the spirits; thou art 
 
 " indeed the body that maketh Khati ("^ '^^ ^ J|) to come 
 " into being. 
 
THE PRAISES OF RA 345 
 
 52. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou art the 
 "doubly hidden and secret god (^| ® (j " (jl) j^), and 
 " the souls go where thou leadest them, and those who follow 
 " thee thou makest to enter in ; thou art indeed the bodies of 
 
 53. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou art Uben- 
 " An (^ J^^X^IIj^) of Ament, and the light of the 
 " lock of hair on thee , . . . ; thou art indeed the bodies of 
 " the god TJben. 
 
 54. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou art the 
 " Aged One of forms who dost go about through the Tuat, to 
 " whom the souls in their Circles ascribe praises ; and thou 
 
 " art indeed the bodies of Then-aru ( w^ ^ss- % tj ; i r^ )• 
 
 55. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem; when thou dost 
 " unite thyself to the Beautiful Ament, the gods of the Tuat 
 " rejoice at the sight of thee ; thou art indeed the bodies of 
 
 56. "Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem; thou art the 
 " Great Cat, the avenger of the gods, and the judge of words, 
 " and the president of the sovereign chiefs (or, assessors), and 
 " the governor of the holy Circle ; thou art indeed the bodies 
 
 " of the Great Cat (| i) ^ |^ ^3 f)' 
 
 57. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem; when thou fiUest 
 " thine eye, and speakest to the pupil thereof, the divine dead 
 " bodies shed tears ; thou art indeed the bodies of Metu- 
 
 58. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou art the Soul 
 " on high and thy bodies are hidden ; thou sendest forth the 
 " light, and thou lookest upon thy hidden things (or, places) ; 
 
 " thou art indeed the bodies of Her-ba (| ^ £5^ ^ 1^' J), 
 
 59. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem, exalted of 
 " Soul ; thou destroyest thine enemies, thou sendest fire on 
 
 " the wicked, and thou art the bodies of Qa-Ba (^T^^^ r^). 
 
346 THE PRAISES OF RA 
 
 60. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem, Auaiu 
 
 '' ((1 % '^ M ^5^), who hidest in purity ; thou hast gained 
 
 " the mastery over the souls of the gods, and thou art indeed 
 " the bodies of Auai. 
 
 61. "Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem, Oldest one 
 
 "(/:= ^ Jjj, Great one, Governor of the Tuat, Creating 
 "one (m *=^^ tji] I w]) ; thou didst create the two Setchet 
 " ("^ ^ S)^ J|V and thou art indeed the bodies of the two 
 "Setchet gods (-^^^^^). 
 
 62. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem, Mighty One of 
 " joumeyings ; thou orderest thy steps by Maat, thou art the 
 " Soul that doeth good to the body, thou art Senk-hra 
 u/^«^qV^ i.e., Pace of Light), and thou art indeed the 
 
 " bodies of Senk-hra. 
 
 63. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem; thou dost protect 
 " (or, avenge) thy body, and thou dost hold the balance 
 
 " [among] the gods as the hidden Ama C^. ' — '\<^)' [^J^*!] 
 
 "as Am-ta (jj 41" .., " j|); ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^ indeed the bodies of 
 
 " the double god Ama-Amta (^ ^^flj^ ^^]"^^S^)- 
 
 64. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou art the lord 
 " of the fetters of thine enemies, the One, the Prince of the 
 
 "Apes (^^^"^D? and thou art indeed the bodies of 
 
 "Antetu(()^^). 
 
 65. "Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem; thou sendest 
 "forth flames into thy furnaces (^^%(|(] "^ '), and thou 
 " cuttest off the heads of those who are to be destroyed 
 « (J ^ jj ^13 (j(j ^ ^ ^ I), and thou art indeed the bodies 
 " of the two gods Ketuit (^ \^^'^S)- 
 
 66. "Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem; thou art the 
 "god of generation (^ 2 ^(j -=2) ^), thou destroyest [thy] 
 " offspring, thou art One, thou stablishest the two lands by 
 
THE PRAISES OF RA 347 
 
 " [*^y] spirit C^® '^ ^ ' 11)' ^^^ *^°^ ^^ indeed the bodies 
 " of the god Ta-Thenen (^ = ].]. |). 
 
 67. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou stablishest 
 " the gods who watch the hours (^^ r-tv-i (JO ^ j) ') ^^ t^^ir 
 " standards, and who are invisible and secret, and thou art 
 " indeed the bodies of the Watcher gods (^ oa (](] [j| j^). 
 
 68. "Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem; thou art the 
 
 "double Tchent god (^^ ^^) °^ heaven, and the gate of 
 
 "the Tuat, and the god Besi (Jpiji)^^^^) [^it^ ^^^ 
 
 " spiritual bodies ( | S ^ I jl ')> ^^^ *^°^ ^^^ *^® bodies 
 " of Besi. ° 
 
 69. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou art the 
 
 "Apes (l\ ^ ') J ^iid 'thou art the true creative 
 
 "Power of [thy] divine attributes (^^ fj^) ^H|$3 j)' and 
 " thou art indeed the bodies of the Ape-god in the Tuat. 
 
 70. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou makest new 
 " the earth, and thou openest a way for that which is therein, 
 " thou that art the Soul which giveth names unto his limbs, 
 
 " and thou art indeed the bodies of Sma-ta ( l, '^, ; '" |j|). 
 
 71. "Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem; thou art Nehi 
 " (awm 7\ 8 flfl j M) who burnest up thine enemies, the Fire- 
 
 " god Setcheti (°*^'^lir^)) "^^lo burneth up fetters, and 
 
 " thou art indeed the bodies of Nehi U^^ Ik I ^^ ^ 5^)* 
 
 72. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou art the god 
 
 "of motion (c^^^), the god of light (%.®^5^), 
 
 " who travelleth, thou makest the darkness to come into 
 " being after thy light, and thou art indeed the bodies of 
 " Shemti. 
 
 73. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou art the lord 
 
 /WVWv J \ 
 
 " thou art the chief of the gods who are supreme in their 
 
348 THE PRAISES OF RA 
 
 "districts (]^\ (|||l I^ ^ "^^ $3 i)' ^'^^ *^°^ ^^ indeed 
 " the god Neb-baiu (^37 '^L ; ' ^, i.e., Lord of souls). 
 
 74. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou art the 
 " double Sphinx-god, the Double obelisk-god (|_ ^ f]^ ^ | 
 " I A«vwv I A^/w^A M '^_^3), the Great God who lifteth up his 
 "two Eyes, and thou art indeed the bodies of the double 
 " Sphinx god Huiti (I ^ (j " y )• 
 
 75. " Praise be to thee, Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou art the lord 
 " of light and declarest the things which are hidden, and thou 
 " art the Soul that speaketh with the gods who are in their 
 " Circles, and thou art indeed the bodies of Neb-Senku 
 " (^^ ^ \o^, i.e., the Lord of light)." ^ 
 
 An impartial examination of the above translation will show 
 the reader the lofty conceptions which were associated by the 
 Egyptians with Ra the Sun-god, and there is not room for any 
 reasonable doubt that they ascribed to the god, whose symbol was 
 the sun, all the attributes which modern nations are wont to 
 regard as the properties peculiar to God Almighty. He was One, 
 and the maker of " gods " and men ; he Avas the creator of heaven, 
 earth, and the underworld ; he was self-begotten, self-created, and 
 self-produced ; he had existed for ever and would exist to all 
 eternity ; he was the source of all life and light ; and he was the 
 personification of right and truth, and goodness, and the destroyer 
 of darkness, night, wickedness, and evil. There is scarcely an 
 attribute of importance ascribed to our God for Avhich there is no 
 equivalent in the hymns and texts which relate to Ra and describe 
 his greatness and power, for he was not only the god of the living 
 but also the god of the dead, and the god of everything unborn. 
 His relations with Osiris, who was part god and part man, and was 
 the cause and type of immortality for man, were at once those of a 
 god, a father, and an equal, and when we consider that Osiris was 
 a king who reigned over Egypt, and that every king was an 
 
 ' For the hieroglyphic texts from the tombs of Seti I., Seti II., and Ram.eses IV., 
 and a French translation, see Naville, La Litanie du Soleil, Leipzig, 1875. 
 
i? 
 
 The God TEMU. 
 
TEM OF HELIOPOLIS 349 
 
 incarnation of Ra, it is easy to understand how he carae to have 
 the power to rise from the dead, and to act as the judge of the 
 dead on behalf of his father Ra. 
 
 T.M, or T.MU, ^|, ^l^^l or Atbm, (j^l^si. 
 
 Tem, or Temu, or Atem, was originally the local god of the 
 city of Annu, or Heliopolis, and in the dynastic period at all events 
 he was held to be one of the forms of the great Sun-god Ra, and to 
 be the personification of the setting sun. In the predynastic 
 period, however, he was, as M. Lefebure has pointed out,^ the first 
 man among the Egyptians who was believed to have become 
 divine, and who was at his death identified with the setting sun ; 
 in other words, Tem was the first living man-god known to the 
 Egyptians, just as Osiris was the first dead man-god, and as such 
 was always represented in human form and with a human head. 
 It is important to note this fact, for it indicates that those who 
 formulated the existence of this god were on a higher level of 
 civilization than those who depicted the oldest of all Egyptian 
 gods, Horus, in the form of a hawk, or in that of a hawk-headed 
 human body. In the papyri and on the monuments he usually 
 
 wears V, the crowns of the South and North, upon his head, and he 
 holds -T- , the emblem of life, in his right hand, and the sceptre, 1 , 
 
 in his left. In the boat of Ra he is depicted in human form even 
 when Ra is symbolized by a disk which is being roUed along by a 
 beetle, and the god Khepera is represented by a beetle, and the 
 rising sun Heru-Khuti is shown under the form of a hawk's head, 
 from which fall rays of light.^ Tem was, in fact, to the Egyptians 
 a manifestation of God in human form, and his conception in their 
 minds marks the end of the period wherein they assigned animal 
 forms to their gods, and the beginning of that in which they 
 evolved the idea of Grod, almighty, inscrutable, unknowable, the 
 maker and creator of the universe. It is useless to attempt to 
 assign a date to the period when the Egyptians began to worship 
 
 1 Trans. Soc. libl. Arch., ix., p. 175. ^ Lanzone, op. cit., pi. 398. 
 
350 TEM OF HELIOPOLIS 
 
 God in human form, for we have no material for doing so ; the 
 worship of Tem must, however, be of very great antiquity, and the 
 fact that the priests of Ra in the Vth and Vlth Dynasties united 
 him to their god under the name of Ra-Tem, © ^^ , proves that 
 his worship was wide-spread, and that the god was thought to 
 possess attributes similar to those of Ra. 
 
 The Pyramid Texts show that the attributes of Temu were 
 confounded with those of Ra, and that the protection and favour 
 of this god were all essential for the well-being of the deceased in 
 the Underworld ; indeed, it is Tem the father who stretches out 
 his hand to Pepi I. and sets him at the head of the gods, where he 
 judges the great and the wise.-' This passage shows that Tem was 
 regarded as the father of the human race, and as he was also 
 divine his powers to help the dead were very great. In many 
 respects he was held to be the equal of Ra, and the prayers and 
 hymns which were addressed to him frequently show that the 
 Egyptians were very anxious to propitiate him. This is not 
 difficult to understand if we remember the dogmas of the 
 Heliopolitan priesthood about the means by which the souls of the 
 blessed departed from this world. They taught that souls when 
 they left this world went to the region which lay between the 
 earth and the beginning of the Valley of the Tuat, and which was 
 called Amentet, and that they waited there until the Boat of the 
 Setting Sun, i.e., the boat of Ra in his form of Temu, made his 
 appearance there ; as soon as it arrived the souls flocked to it, and 
 those who had served Ra upon earth and whose bodies had been 
 buried with the orthodox rites, and ceremonies, and prayers of the 
 priesthood of Ra, and were, therefore, provided with the necessary 
 words of power, were admitted to the boat of Tem, where they 
 enjoyed the protection and favour of the god in his various forms 
 to aU eternity. 
 
 There was, moreover, another aspect of Tem which gave the 
 god a position of peculiar importance in the minds of the Egyptians, 
 

 a 
 III 
 
 t; 
 111 
 
 CO 
 
 111 
 
 t- 
 
 o 
 o 
 
 a 
 
 lU 
 
 z 
 I- 
 
RA-TEM OF HELIOPOLIS 351 
 
 i.e., he was identified not only witli the god of the dead, Osiris, but 
 also with the young Horus, the new and rising sun of the morrow. 
 All these ideas are weU expressed in a hymn to Tern which is found 
 in the Papyrus of Mut-hetep (Brit. Mus., No. 10,010, sheet 5), and 
 which was composed to enable every spirit who recited it to " come 
 forth by day " and in any form he pleased and to have great power 
 in the Tuat. The lady Mut-hetep says, " Ra-Tem, in thy 
 " splendid progress thou risest, and thou settest as a living being 
 " in the glories of the western horizon ; thou settest in thy 
 "territory which is in the Mount of Sunset (Manu, -^c^^iii), 
 " Thy uraeus is behind thee, thy uraeus is behind thee. Homage 
 " to thee, thou who art in peace ; homage to thee, thou who 
 " art in peace. Thou art joined unto the Eye of Tem, and it 
 " chooseth its powers of protection [to place] behind thy members. 
 " Thou goest forth through heaven, thou travellest over the earth, 
 " and thou journey est onward. Luminary, the northern and 
 " southern halves of heaven come to thee, and they bow low in 
 " adoration, and they do homage unto thee, day by day. The 
 " gods of Amentet rejoice in thy beauties, and the unseen places 
 " sing hymns of praise unto thee. Those who dwell in the Sektet 
 " boat go round about thee, and the Souls of the East do homage 
 " to thee, and when they meet thy Majesty they cry : ' Come, 
 " come in peace ! ' There is a shout of welcome to thee, lord 
 " of heaven and governor of Amentet ! Thou art acknowledged 
 " by Isis who seeth her son in thee, the lord of fear, the mighty 
 " one of terror. Thou settest as a living being in the hidden 
 " place. Thy father [Ta-]tunen raiseth thee up and he placeth 
 " both his hands behind thee ; thou becomest endowed with divine 
 " attributes in [thy] members of earth ; thou wakest in peace and 
 " thou settest in Manu. Grant thou that I may become a being 
 " honoured before Osiris, and that I may come to thee, Ra-Tem ! 
 " I have adored thee, therefore do thou for me that which I wish. 
 " Grant thou that I may be victorious in the presence of the 
 " company of the gods. Thou art beautiful, Ra, in thy western 
 " horizon of Amentet, thou lord of Maat, thou being who art 
 " greatly feared, and whose attributes are majestic, thou who art 
 " greatly beloved by those who dwell in the Tuat ! Thou shinest 
 
352 KHEPERA-RA-TEMU 
 
 " -witli thy beams upon the beings that are therein perpetually, 
 " and thou sendest forth thy light upon the path of Re-stau, 
 " Thou openest up the path of the double Lion-god, thou settest 
 " the gods upon [their] thrones, and the spirits in their abiding- 
 " places. The heart of Naarerf (i.e., An-rut-f, a region of the 
 " Underworld) is glad [when] Ra setteth ; the heart of Naarerf is 
 " glad when Ra. setteth. Hail, ye gods of the land of Amentet 
 " who make offerings and oblations unto Ra-Tem, ascribe ye glory 
 " [unto him when] ye meet him. Grasp ye your weapons and 
 " overthrow ye the fiend Seba on behalf of Ra, and repulse the 
 " fiend Nebt on behalf of Osiris, The gods of the land of Amentet 
 " rejoice and lay hold upon the cords of the Sektet boat, and they 
 " come in peace ; the gods of the hidden place who dwell in 
 " Amentet triumph." In the opening words of another hymn Tem 
 is addressed as " Ra, who in thy setting art Tem-Heru-khuti 
 " (Tem-Harmachis), thou divine god, thou self-created being, thou 
 " primeval matter," ^ from which we see that the attributes of self- 
 creation, etc., which, strictly speaking, belonged to Khepera, 
 were ascribed to Tem. 
 
 In the Myth of Ra and Isis Ra is made to say, " I am Khepera 
 "in the morning, and Ra at noonday, and Temu in the evening,"^ 
 From which we may understand that the day and the night were 
 divided into three parts, each of which was presided over by one 
 of the three forms of Ra here mentioned. In the time of the 
 Middle Empire Tem is often mentioned with Heru-khuti, Ra, and 
 Khepera, and the priests of Heliopolis always attempted to prove 
 that he was the ancestor of all the other forms of the Sun-god. 
 
 In the Booh of the Dead (xvii. 5 ff.) the deceased is made to 
 identify himself with Tem as the oldest of the gods, and he says, 
 " I am Tem in rising ; I am the only One ; I came into being in 
 " Nu. I am Ra who rose in the beginning," The statement is 
 followed by the question, " Who then is this ? " and the answer is, 
 
 1 Naville, Todtmbuch, Bd. i., pi. 19. 
 
 i. 
 
 ^ yes „ r-^n .g^ I I , O 
 
SHRINES OF TEM 353 
 
 " It is Ra when at the beginning he rose in the city of Suten- 
 " henen, crowned like a king in rising. The pillars of Shu were 
 " not as yet created when he was upon the high ground of him 
 " that dwelleth in Khemennu" (i.e., Thoth). Thus it is clear that 
 the Heliopolitans made out that it was Tem who was the first 
 god to exist in primeval matter, and they consistently coupled 
 him with Harmachis, ^ ^ ^ | ^^^,,S^^, -d with 
 
 Khepera, w <=> (I jj , as forms of the rising sun ; on the other 
 
 hand, they often, with fine inconsistency, identified him with the 
 setting sun, and made the wind of evening, which gave refreshment 
 to mortals and breath to the dead, to go forth from him, 
 
 It is difficult to say definitely where the original shrine of 
 Tem was situated, but it appears to have been in the Eighth 
 
 Nome of Lower Egypt,(^^, Nefer Abt, the Heroopolites of 
 the Greeks), at the place Avhich is called both Thuket, ^ , and 
 
 Pa-Atemt, h ^^ ^ , and it is described as the " gate of the 
 
 East." Under the form " Pithom " the sacred name of the city 
 Pa-Atemt is familiar to all from the Bible. The site of Pa-Atemt or 
 Pithom was long thought to be buried beneath the ruins called by the 
 Arabs Tell al-Maskhutah,^ which are situated close to the modern 
 village of Tell el-Kebir, and the excavations made on the spot by 
 M. Naville prove that this view is correct. The inscriptions prove 
 beyond all doubt that the great god of Pithom was Tem, and from 
 the allusions which are made in them to the " Holy serpent " 
 therein, and from the fact that one part of the temple buildings was 
 
 called Pa-Qerhet,^ ^ <^ i "" B\ ^ ' °^ Ast-qerhet, J ^ ||% , 
 that is, "the house of the snake-god Qerhet," it is tolerably 
 certain that one of the forms under which Tem was worshipped 
 was a huge serpent. A town situated as Pithom was on the large 
 canal joining the Red Sea and the Nile, and on the highway from 
 Arabia to Heliopolis must have contained a very mixed population, 
 which would include a number of merchants and others from Western 
 Asia. These probably brought in with them a number of strange 
 
 1 <il=ji-.^\ Js. 2 This is the Pi-hahiroth of the Bible. 
 
 A a 
 
354 lUSAASET AND NEBT-HETEP 
 
 practices connected with the worship of their own gods, which 
 having been adopted by the indigenous peoples in the district 
 modified their worship. From a passage in the Pyramid Texts 
 already quoted it seems that the original form of the worship of 
 Tern was phallic in character, but if it was nothing is known 
 about it ; some scholars have regarded obelisks as phallic emblems, 
 and have pointed to their earliest forms, in which their tops were 
 surmounted by disks, in proof of the correctness of their view. 
 
 Attached to the god Tem were two female counterparts 
 called respectively Iusaaset, -^ "^^ P u Pn ' ^^^ Nebt-Hetep, 
 Q n^&»' ^^^ *^^y formed members of the company of the 
 gods of Heliopolis, being mentioned with Tem, lord of the two 
 lands of Annu, Ra, and Heru-khuti.-^ Iusaaset, the ^awcris of 
 Plutarch, is called the " mistress of Annu," and the " Eye of Ra," 
 
 , and she is regarded as the mother, and wife, and daughter 
 
 of Tem according to the requirements of the texts ; ^ as the wife of 
 Tem she is said to be the mother of Shu and Tefnut. She is 
 
 depicted ^ in the form of a woman who holds the sceptre, I, in her 
 right hand, and " life," ■¥-, in her left ; on her head she wears the 
 vulture head-dress surmounted by a uraeus, and a disk between a 
 pair of horns. In this form she is called the " mistress of Annu," 
 
 ^ ^ ^ ^ o i i' ^^^ "^^^ *^^ "*^if^ of Tem-Heru-khuti. The 
 goddess jSFebt-hetep appears to have been nothing but a form of 
 Iusaaset, for in the scene in which she is represented in the 
 form of a cow she is called " mistress of the gods, lusaaset-Nebt- 
 hetep." 
 
 According to Brugsch* Tem was joined to the god Osiris 
 under the phase Tem-Asar, and formed with Hathor of Annu, or 
 
 Ant, j~«;« ~^^ and Heru-sma-tam, vis. Y '■ the head 
 
 of the triad of Heroopolis, As local forms of the god Tem-Ra 
 he enumerates Khnemu in Elephantine, Khnemu-Heru-shefit in 
 Heracleopolis Magna, and Khnemu-Ba-neb-Tettet in Mendes. 
 
 ^ Great Harris Papyrus, sheet i., line 4. ^ Brugseli, Beligion, p. 284. 
 3 Lanzone, op. cit., pi. 51. * Op. cit., p. 290. 
 
The Goddess IUSASET. 
 
KHEPERA 355 
 
 Khepera ^ <=> h 3 . 
 
 The third form of Ra, the Sun-god, was Khepera kheper- 
 TCHESEP, M <=> l\3m "^^^ -*^ 5 i'6-> Khepera the self-produced, 
 whose type and symbol was a beetle ; he is usually represented in 
 human form with a beetle upon the head, but sometimes a beetle 
 takes the place of the i human head. In one scene figured by 
 Lanzone he is represented seated on the ground, and from his 
 knees projects the head of the hawk of Horus, which is surmounted 
 by -T-, " life." ^ In the section which treats of the Creation we 
 have already translated and discussed the text which tells how 
 the Sun-god Ra came into being under the form of Khepera 
 from out of the primeval watery mass of Nu, and how by 
 means of his soul, which lived therein with him, he made a 
 place whereon to stand, and straightway created the gods Shu 
 and Tefnut, from whom proceeded the other gods. The worship 
 of the beetle was, however, far older than that of Ra in Egypt, 
 and it is pretty certain that the identification of Ra with the 
 beetle-god is only another example of the means adopted by the 
 priests, who grafted new religious opinions and beliefs upon old 
 ones. The worship of the beetle, or at all events, the reverence 
 which was paid to it, was spread over the whole country, and the 
 ideas which were associated with it maintained their hold upon 
 the dynastic Egyptians, and some of them appear to survive among 
 the modern inhabitants of the Nile valley. The particular beetle 
 which the Egyptians introduced into their mythology belongs 
 to the family called Scarabseidae (Coprophagi), of which the 
 Scarabaeus sacer is the type. These insects compose a very 
 numerous group of dung-feeding LameUicorns, of which, however, 
 the majority live in tropical countries ; they are usually black, 
 but many are adorned with bright, metallic colours. They fly 
 during the hottest hours of the day, and it was undoubtedly this 
 peculiarity which caused the primitive Egyptians to associate 
 them with the sun. Thus as far back as the Vlth Dynasty the 
 dead king Pepi is said " to fly like a bird, and to alight like a 
 
 ' Lanzone, op. cit., pi. 329. 
 
356 KHEPERA 
 
 " beetle upon the empty throne in the boat of Ra." ^ According 
 
 to Latreille ^ it was the species of a fine green colour {Ateuchus 
 
 Aegyptiorum) which was first identified with the sun. The insect 
 
 lays a vast numbers of eggs in a mass of dung, which it proceeds to 
 
 push about with its legs until it gradually assumes the form of a 
 
 ball, and then rolls it along to a hole which it has previously dug. 
 
 A ball of dung containing eggs varies in size from one to two 
 
 inches in diameter, and in rolling it along the beetle stands almost 
 
 upon its head, with its head turned away from the ball ; in due 
 
 course the larvae are hatched by the heat of the sun's rays beating 
 
 down into the hole wherein it has been placed by the beetle, and 
 
 they feed upon the covering of dung which protected them. The 
 
 mind of the primitive Egyptian associated the ball of the beetle 
 
 containing potential germs of life with the ball of the sun, which 
 
 seemed to be rolled across the sky daily, and which was the source 
 
 of all life. The beetle shows great perseverance in conveying the 
 
 egg-laden balls of dung to the holes in which the larvae are to be 
 
 hatched, and they frequently carry them over rough ground on 
 
 the broad, flat surface of their heads, and seek, when unable singly 
 
 to complete the work, the assistance of their fellows. It is this 
 
 habit of the beetle which is represented in mythological scenes 
 
 where we see the disk or ball of the sun on the head of the beetle, 
 
 o 
 
 tt. A curious view was held by the ancient writers Aelian,^ 
 
 Porphyry,* and HorapoUo ^ to the effect that beetles were all males 
 (Kdvffapos yas vras appr/v), and that as there were no females among 
 them, the males were, like the Sun-god Ra, self-produced. This 
 erroneous idea probably sprang up because the male and female 
 scarabaeus are very much alike, and because both sexes appear to 
 divide the care of the preservation of their offspring equally 
 between them, but in any case, it is a very ancient one, for in the 
 Egyptian story of the Creation the god, whose type and symbol 
 
 i 
 
 O (Unas, 1. 477). 
 
 - Cailliaud, Voyage, torn, ii., p. 311. ^ De Nat. Animal., x. 15. 
 * De Abstinentia, iv. 9. ^ Ed. Leemans, p. 11. 
 
The God KHEPERA. 
 
THE FATHER OF THE GODS 357 
 
 was a beetle, not only produced himself, but also begot, conceived, 
 and brought forth two deities, one male (Shu), and the other 
 female (Tefnut). 
 
 In the Egyptian texts Khepera is called the " father of the 
 
 gods," ^ 111' ^^^ ^^ 't^^ Booh of the Dead (xvii, 116) the 
 deceased addresses him, saying, " Hail, Khepera in thy boat, the 
 " double company of the gods is thy body," but the form of the 
 Sun-god with which he is most closely allied is that of Heru-khuti, 
 or Harmachis. In the Booh of the Dead Khepera plays a 
 prominent part in connection with Osiris ; he is called the 
 "creator of the gods" (Ani, 1, 2); " Heru-khuti-Temu-Heru- 
 Khepera " (Qenna, 2, 15), and whatever forms he takes, or has 
 taken, the deceased claims the right to take also. Moreover, the 
 god Khepera becomes in a manner a type of the dead body, that is 
 to say, he represents matter containing a living germ which is 
 about to pass from a state of inertness into one of active life. As 
 he was a living germ in the abyss of Nu, and made himself to 
 emerge therefrom in the form of the rising sun, so the germ of the 
 living soul, which existed in the dead body of man, and was to 
 burst into a new life in a new world by means of the prayers 
 recited during the performance of appropriate ceremonies, emerged 
 from its old body in a new form either in the realm of Osiris or in 
 the boat of Ra. This doctrine was symbolized by the germs of 
 life rolled up in the egg-ball of the beetle, and the power which 
 made those to become living creatures was that which made man's 
 spiritual body to come into being, and was personified in the god 
 Khepera. Thus Khepera symbolized the resurrection of the body, 
 and it was this idea which was at the root of the Egyptian custom 
 of wearing figures of the beetle, and of placing them in the tombs 
 and on the bodies of the dead ; the myriads of scarabs which have 
 been found in all parts of Egypt testify to the universality of this 
 custom. As to its great antiquity there is no doubt whatsoever, 
 for the scarab was associated with burial as far back as the period 
 of the IVth Dynasty. Thus in the Papyrus of Nu (Brit. Mus., 
 No. 10,477, sheet 21) we are 'told in the Rubric that Chapter 
 Ixiv. of the Booh of the Dead was found inscribed in letters of 
 
358 KHEPERA AND THE HEART 
 
 real lapis-lazuli inlaid in a block " of iron of the south " under the 
 feet of the god (i.e., Thoth), during the reign of Men-kau-Ra 
 (Mycerinus), by the prince Heru-ta-ta-f in the city of Khemennu, 
 
 At the end of the second paragraph this Chapter is ordered to 
 be recited by a man " who is ceremonially clean and pure, who 
 " hath not eaten the flesh of animals or fish, and who hath not had 
 " intercourse with women," The text continues, " And behold, 
 " thou shalt make a scarab of green stone, with a rim of gold, and 
 " this shall be placed in the heart of a man, and it shall perform 
 " for him the ' Opening of the Mouth.' And thou shalt anoint it 
 " with dnti unguent, and thou shalt recite 'over it the following 
 "words of power." The "words of power" which follow this 
 direction form Chapter xxx b. of the Book of the Dead, wherein 
 the deceased addresses the scarab as " my heart, my mother ; my 
 " heart, my mother ! My heart whereby I came into being." He 
 then prays that it will not depart from him when he stands in the 
 presence of the " guardian " of the Balance wherein his heart is to 
 be weighed, and that none may come forward in the judgment to 
 oppose him, or to give false or unfavourable evidence against him, 
 or to " make his name to stink." Curiously enough he caUs the 
 scarab " his double " (ka). Another Rubric makes the Ixivth 
 Chapter as old as the time of Hesepti (Semti), the fifth king of the 
 1st Dynasty, and the custom of burying green basalt scarabs inside 
 or on the breasts of the dead may well be as old as his reign. Be 
 this as it may, scarabs were worn by the living as protective 
 amulets, and as symbols of triumphant acquittal in the Judgment 
 Hall of Osiris, and as emblems of the resurrection which was to be 
 effected by the power of the god Khepera whom they represented, 
 and the words of power of Chapter xxx b made them to act the 
 part of the ka or double for the dead on the day of the " weighing 
 of words " before Osiris, and his officers, and his sovereign chiefs, 
 and Thoth the scribe of the gods, and the two companies of the 
 gods. If scarabs were placed under the coffin no fiend could harm 
 it, and their presence in a tomb gave to it the protection of the 
 " father of the gods." 
 
( 359 ) 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 THE MYTHS OF RA 
 
 IN tlie preceding pages it has been shown how among theologians 
 and thoughtful Egyptians Ra was regarded as God, but 
 among certain classes, that is to say magicians, and astrologers, 
 and soothsayers, quite other views were held about his nature and 
 attributes. It will be remembered that among such men in ancient 
 times it was customary to prescribe as antidotes to poison and 
 sicknesses the recital or wearing of certain magical texts ; the 
 power of such texts was thought to be very great, especially if it 
 contained a narrative of how some god or divine being had been 
 delivered by the power of a great being from death by poison or 
 by a sickness caused by poison. We may note in passing that 
 such beliefs were not confined to the Egyptians, and that we find 
 exactly the same ideas existent in Babylonia and Assyria ; this is 
 illustrated by the following interesting extract from a Babylonian 
 tablet recently published by Mr. R. Campbell Thompson.^ The 
 text reads : — " From Anu [came the heavens], the heavens created 
 " [the earth], the earth created the rivers, the rivers created the 
 " canals, the canals created the marshes, and the marshes created 
 " the Worm. Then came the Worm before Shamash, the Sun-god, 
 " weeping, and before Ea came up her tearful plaint, [saying], 
 " ' What wilt thou give me to eat ? What wilt thou give me to 
 "gnaw?' [The gods said], 'I will give thee dry bones [to eat], 
 " ' and the pungent hhashhhar wood.' [The Worm said], ' What 
 " ' are thy dry bones to me ? Or, what is thy khashkhar wood to 
 " ' me ? Let me drink among the teeth [of men], and give me 
 " ' my place in [their] gums, that I may suck the blood of the teeth^ 
 
 ' Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets, part xvii., pi. 50; and see E. C. 
 Thompson, The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, vol. i., Introduction, at the end. 
 
360 RA AND ISIS 
 
 " ' and that I may tear asunder the flesh of the gums. In this wise 
 " ' I shall have power over the bolt of the door ' (i.e., the mouth of a 
 " man). Therefore, sick man, shalt thou say the following words, 
 " ' Worm, may Ba smite thee with all his might.' " Following 
 these words come the rubrical directions which order the patient to 
 mix together a prescription compounded of beer, oil, and the juice 
 of a certain plant, and when the incantation has been recited over 
 the man with the toothache three times, the mixture is to be rubbed 
 on the tooth. In the one case the object of the narrative was to cure 
 the man who had been bitten by a venomous serpent, and in the 
 other to ease the pain in the teeth and the inflammation of the 
 gums which were supposed to be caused by a worm, a descendant 
 of the original Worm which claimed before Ba the right to make 
 teeth decay and to suck the blood of the gums. 
 
 The Bgyptian texts which were Avritten for magical purposes 
 have preserved for us some very curious and interesting myths of Ra, 
 and among these may be quoted the following story about him and 
 the goddess Isis.^ The title reads : — " The Chapter of the divine 
 " god, the self-created being, who made the heavens and the earth, 
 " and the winds which give life, and the fire, and the gods, and men, 
 " and beasts, and cattle, and reptiles, and the fowl of the air, and the 
 " fish of the sea ; he is the king of men and of gods, he hath but 
 " one period to his life, and with him a double hen period (i.e., one 
 " hundred and twenty years) is as a single year ; his names are 
 " manifold and unknown, the gods even know them not." The 
 story runs : — " Now Isis was a woman who possessed words of 
 " power ; her heart was wearied with the millions of men, there- 
 " fore she chose the millions of the gods, but she esteemed more 
 " highly the millions of the spirits. And she meditated in her 
 "heart, saying, ' Cannot I by means of the sacred name of God 
 " ' make myself mistress of the earth and become a goddess of like 
 " ' rank and power to Ra in heaven and upon earth ? ' And 
 
 1 The hieratic text will be found in Pleyte and Rossi, Xe Papyrus de Turin, 
 1869-1876; pll. 31-37, and 131-138; and a transcript into hieroglyphics with a 
 transliteration and translation in my First Steps in Egyptian, 1895, pp. 241-266. 
 A French translation by Lefebure was published in Aeg. Zeit, 1883, pp. 27 ff. ; and 
 for English renderings see my Papyrus of Ani, 1895, p. Ixxxix., and Egyptian 
 Magic, p. 137. 
 
RA IS POISONED 361 
 
 " behold, each day Ra entered at the head of his holy mariners 
 " and established himself upon the throne of the two horizons ; 
 " but the divine one (i.e., Ra) had grown old, he dribbled at the 
 " mouth, his spittle fell upon the earth, and his slobbering dropped 
 " upon the ground. And Isis kneaded [some] thereof with earth 
 " in her hand, and formed therewith a sacred serpent in the form 
 " of a dart ; she did not set it upright before her face, but let it 
 " lie upon the ground in the path whereby the great god went 
 " forth, according to his heart's desire, into his double kingdom. 
 " Now the holy god arose, and the gods who followed him as 
 " though he were Pharaoh went with him ; and he came forth 
 " according to his daily wont ; and the sacred serpent bit him. 
 " The flame of his life departed from him ; and he who dwelt 
 " among the cedars was overcome. The holy god opened his 
 " mouth, and the cry of his majesty reached unto heaven ; his 
 "company of the gods said, 'What hath happened?' and his 
 "gods exclaimed, "What is it?' But Ra could not answer, for 
 " his jaws trembled and all his members quaked, the poison spread 
 " swiftly through his flesh just as Nile rusheth through all his 
 " land. When the great god had stablished his heart, he cried 
 " unto those who were in his train, saying, ' Come unto me, ye 
 " ' who have come into being from my body, ye gods who have 
 " ' come forth from me, make ye known unto Khepera that a dire 
 " ' calamity hath fallen upon me. My heart perceiveth it, but my 
 " ' eyes see it not ; my hand hath not caused it, nor do I know 
 " ' who hath done this unto me. Never have I felt such pain, 
 " ' neither can sickness cause more woe than this. I am a prince, 
 " ' the son of a prince, the sacred essence which hath proceeded 
 " • from God. I am the great one, the son of the great one, and 
 " ' my father planned my name ; I have multitudes of names, and 
 " ' multitudes of forms, and my being is in every god. I have 
 " ' been proclaimed by the heralds Temu and Horus; and my father 
 " ' and my mother uttered my name ; but it hath been hidden 
 " ' within me by him that begat me, who would not that the words 
 " ' of power of any seer should have dominion over me. I came 
 " ' forth to look upon that which I had made, I was passing thi'ough 
 " ' the world which I had created, when lo ! something stung me, 
 
362 THE HOLY NAME OF RA 
 
 " ' but what I know not. Is it fire ? Is it water ? My heart is 
 " ' on fire, my flesh quaketh, and trembling hath seized all my 
 " ' limbs. Let there be brought unto me my children, the gods 
 " ' who possess the words of power and magical speech, and mouths 
 " ' which know how to utter them, and also powers which reach 
 " ' even unto the heaven.' 
 
 " Then the children of every god came unto him uttering 
 " cries of grief. And Isis also came, bringing with her her words of 
 " magical power, and her mouth was full of the breath of Hfe ; for 
 '■' her talismans vanquish the pains of sickness, and her words make 
 " to live again the throats of those Avho are dead. And she spake, 
 " saying, ' What hath come to pass, holy Father ? What hath 
 " ' happened ? Is it that a serpent hath bitten thee, and that a 
 " ' thing which thou hast created hath lifted up his head agaiust 
 " ' thee ? Verily it shall be cast down by my effective words of 
 " ' power, and I will drive it away from before the sight of thy 
 " ' sunbeams.' The holy god opened his mouth and said, ' I was 
 " ' passing along my path, and I was going through the two 
 " ' regions of my lands according to my heart's desire, to see that 
 " ' which I had created, when lo ! I was bitten by a serpent which 
 " ' I saw not. Is it fire ? Is it water ? I am colder than water, 
 " ' I am hotter than fire. All my flesh sweateth, I quake, mine 
 " ' eye hath no strength, I cannot see the sky, and the sweat 
 " ' rusheth to my face even as in the time of summer.' Then said 
 " Isis unto Ra, ' tell me thy name, holy Father, for whosoever 
 " ' shall be delivered by thy name shall live.' And Ra said, ' I 
 " ' have made the heavens and the earth, I have knit together 
 " ' the mountains, I have created all that is above them, I have 
 " ' made the water, I have made to come into being the goddess 
 " ' Meht-urt, and I have made the Bull of his mother, from whom 
 " ' spring the delights of love, I have made the heavens, I have 
 " ' stretched out the two horizons like a curtain, and I have placed 
 " ' the souls of the gods within them. I am he who, if he openeth 
 " ' his eyes, doth make the light, and, if he closeth them, darkness 
 " ' Cometh into being. At his command the Nile riseth, and the 
 " ' gods know not his name. I have made the hours, I have 
 " ' created the days, I bring forward the festivals of the year, I 
 
ISIS THE ENCHANTRESS 363 
 
 ' create the Nile-flood. I make the fire of life, and I provide 
 ' food in the houses. I am Khepera in the morning, I am Ra at 
 ' noon, and I am Temu at even.' Meanwhile the poison was not 
 taken away from his body, but it penetrated deeper, and the 
 great god could no longer walk. 
 
 " Then said Isis unto Ra, ' What thou hast said is not thy 
 ' name. tell it unto me, and the poison shall depart ; for 
 ' he shall live whose name shall be revealed.' Now the poison 
 burned like fire, and it was fiercer than the flame and the 
 furnace, and the majesty of the great god said, ' I consent that 
 ' Isis shall search into me, and that my name shall pass from me 
 ' into her.' Then the god hid himself from the gods, and his 
 place in the Boat of Millions of Years was empty. And when 
 the time had arrived for the heart of Ra to come forth, Isis spake 
 unto her son Horus, saying, ' The god hath bound himself by 
 ' oath to deliver up his two Eyes (i.e., the Sun and the Moon).' 
 Thus was the name of the great god taken from him, and Isis, 
 the lady of words of magical power, said, ' Depart, thou poison, 
 ' go forth from Ra. Eye of Horus, go forth from the god, and 
 ' shine outside his mouth. It is I who Avork, it is I who make to 
 ' fall down upon the earth the vanquished poison, for the name 
 ' of the great god hath been taken away from him. Let Ra live, 
 ' and let the poison die ! Let the poison die, and let Ra live ! ' 
 These are the words of Isis, the mighty lady, the mistress of the 
 gods, who knew Ra by his oavh name." The above text was to 
 be recited over figures of Temu, " the BuU of his mother," and 
 Horus, and Isis and Horus, and there is little doubt that these 
 figures were made to represent the various scenes which took 
 place when Ra was poisoned, and when the goddess Isis succeeded 
 in taking from him his name. 
 
 Another myth of Ra of considerable interest is that which 
 describes the destruction of mankind, and tells how men scorned 
 the great Sun-god because he had become old ; ^ the text of this, 
 
 1 Tor the hieroglyphic text see Lefebure, Tombeau de Seti I., part iv., pll. IS- 
 IS ; Brngsch, Die neue Weltordnung, Berlin, 1881 ; Naville in Trans. Soc. Bihl. 
 Arch., iv., pp. 1 f£. ; viii., pp. 412 fE. ; Bergmann, Sist. Inschrift., pll. 75-82; and 
 my First Steps in Egyptian, pp. 218-230. 
 
364 REVOLT OF MEN AGAINST 
 
 in a mutilated condition, is found inscribed upon the walls of the 
 tombs of Seti I. and Rameses IV. at Thebes, and from it the 
 following is clear, " [Ra is] the god who created himself after he 
 had risen in sovereignty over men, and gods, as weU as over 
 things, the One. And mankind was uttering words of complaint, 
 saying, ' Behold now, his Majesty, life, strength, and health [to 
 ' him] ! hath become old, his bones are like silver, his limbs are 
 ' like gold, and his hair is like unto real lapis-lazuli.' Now his 
 majesty heard the words which mankind spake [concerning 
 him], and he said unto those who Avere following him, ' Cry out, 
 ' and bring ye unto me mine Eye, and Shu, and Tefnut, and 
 ' Seb, and Nut, and the fathers and the mothers who were with 
 ' me when I was in Nu, together with my god Nu. Let him 
 ' bring his ministers with him, and let them be brought silently, 
 ' so that mankind may not perceive it and take to flight with 
 ' their hearts. Come thou with them to the Great House, and 
 ' let them declare their plans, for I will go forth from Nu unto 
 ' the place wherein I performed creations, and let those [gods] be 
 ' brought unto me there.' Now the gods were on both sides of 
 Ra, and they bowed down even to the ground in presence of his 
 Majesty, and he sj^ake his words in the presence of the father of 
 the firstborn gods, the maker of men, and the king of those who 
 have knowledge. And they spake before his Majesty, [saying], 
 ' Speak unto us, for we are listening ' ; and Ra spake unto Nu, 
 saying, ' thou firstborn god, from whom I came into being, 
 ' ye gods [my] ancestors, behold ye what mankind is doing, they 
 ' who were created by mine Bye are uttering murmurs against 
 ' me. Give me your attention, and seek ye out a plan for me, 
 ' and I will not slay them until ye shall say [what I am to do] 
 ' concerning it.' 
 
 " Then the Majesty of the god Nu, the son of Ra, spake 
 [saying], ' Thou art the god who art greater than he that made 
 • thee, and who art the sovereign of those who were created by 
 ' him, thy throne is set, and the fear of thee is great ; let 
 ' then thine Eye be upon those who have uttered blasphemies 
 ' against thee.' And the Majesty of Ra spake [saying], 
 ' Behold ye how they have taken flight into the mountain ! 
 
THE SUN-GOD RA 365 
 
 " ' Their hearts are afraid because of what they have said.' 
 " ' Then the gods spake before his Majesty, saying, ' Make 
 " ' thine Eye to go forth, and let it destroy for thee those who 
 " ' utter evil words of blasphemy against thee. There is not an 
 " ' eye upon all this earth which can resist thine when it 
 " ' descendeth in the form of Hathor.' And the goddess [Hathor] 
 " went forth and slew the people on the mountain, and the Majesty 
 " of this god spake, [saying], ' Come, come in peace, Hathor, the 
 " ' work is accomplished.' And the goddess said, ' Thou livest for 
 " ' me. When I had gained the mastery over men it was well 
 " ' pleasing to my heart.' And the Majesty of Ra spake, [saying], 
 " ' I will gain the mastery over them as king, and [I] will destroy 
 " ' them ' ; and it came to pass that Sekhet waded about in the 
 " night season in their blood, beginning at Suten-henen (Herakleo- 
 " polis Magna). Then the Majesty of Ra spake, [saying], 'Cry out 
 " ' and fetch me swift and speedy messengers who can run like the 
 " ' wind ' ; and straightway one brought these messengers. And 
 " the Majesty of this god spake, [saying], ' Let them go to Abu 
 " ' (Elephantine), and bring me mandrakes in great number ' ; and 
 " one brought to him these mandrafees, and the Majesty of this god 
 " gave them to Sekhet who [dwelleth] in Annu (Heliopolis) to 
 " crush. And behold, when the ■vSfomen were crushing the barley 
 " to [make] beer, he placed these mandrakes in the vessels which 
 " were to hold the beer, and some of the blood of the men [who 
 " had been slain]. Now they made seven thousand vessels of 
 " beer. ^ 
 
 " Now when the king of the Sputh and North, Ra, had come 
 " with the gods to look at the beer^ and the daylight appeared 
 " after the goddess had slaughtered mankind in their season as she 
 " sailed up the river, the Majesty of Ra said, ' It is doubly good, 
 " ' but I must protect mankind against her.' And Ra spake, 
 " [saying], ' Let them take up the vases and carry them to the 
 " ' place where men and women are being slaughtered.' Then the 
 " Majesty of the king of the South and North, Ra, commanded 
 " them to pour out from the vessels during the [time of the] 
 " beauty of the night the beer which made [men] wish to lie down, 
 " and the regions of the four heavens were fiUed therewith even 
 
366 REVOLT OF MEN AGAINST 
 
 according to the Will of the Majesty of this god. Now when the 
 goddess Sekhet came in the morning and found the regions flooded, 
 her face beamed with joy, and she drank of the beer and blood, 
 and her heart was glad, and she became drunk, and she took no 
 further heed of mankind. And the Majesty of Ra spake unto 
 this goddess, [saying] ' Come, come in peace, fair and gracious 
 ' goddess ; ' [and henceforth] there were young and beautiful 
 women in the city of Amen.^ Then the Majesty of Ra said unto 
 this goddess, ' There shall be prepared for thee vases of drink 
 ' which shall make thee wish to sleep at every festival of the New 
 ' Year, and the number thereof shall be in proportion to the 
 ' number of my handmaidens ; ' and from that day until this 
 present men have been wont to make on the occasions of the 
 festival of Hathor vases of beer which will make them sleep, in 
 number according to the number of the handmaidens of Ra. 
 And the Majesty of Ra spake unto this goddess, [saying], 
 ' Behold, the pain of the burning heat of sickness hath come 
 ' upon me ; whence cometh [this] pain ? ' Then the Majesty of 
 Ra said, ' I am alone, but my heart hath become exceedingly 
 ' weary of being with them (i.e., with men) ; I have slain [some 
 ' of] them, but there is a remnant of worthless ones, and the 
 ' destruction which I wrought among them was not commensurate 
 ' with my power.' And the gods who were in his train said 
 [unto him], ' Tarry not in thy weariness, for thy might is in 
 ' proportion to thine own will.' Then the Majesty of this god 
 said unto the Majesty of Nu, ' For the first time my limbs have 
 ' lost their power, and I will never permit this thing to happen 
 ' a second time.' " 
 
 At this point the inscription becomes much broken, and it is 
 difficult to make out the general meaning which is to be attached 
 
 1 Here there is a pun on the appellation of the goddess Amit | 
 and on the name of the city Amen, fflM ©, i.e., the capital of the nome. 
 
 "T 1 1 I" I ^ 
 
 Ament, where the goddess Hathor was worshipped. The city is also called 
 
 n I A A A ^ 
 ffl ^ § go^ ) S'ld the " city of Apis.'' 
 
THE SUN-GOD RA 367 
 
 to the scattered words ; according to the late Dr. Brugsch/ the 
 myth ends somewhat as follows : — When Ra had described his 
 weariness to Nu, this god commanded Shu to perform the work of 
 Ra and to take the place of his Eye, and directed the sky goddess 
 Nut to help Ra. Nut asked Nu how this was to be done, and he 
 told her to take Ra upon her back ; thereupon Nut took the form 
 of a cow, and Ra seated himself upon her back. In due course 
 mankind saw Ra on the back of Nut, and they were filled with 
 remorse at their former behaviour towards him, and they wished to 
 see slain his enemies who had blasphemed him, but his Majesty did 
 not tarry, and he went on into the temple. On the following day 
 as soon as the morning had come, men went forth armed with 
 bows and spears in order to do battle with the enemies of Ra, and 
 as soon as the god saw this he said to them, " Your sins are 
 " forgiven you, for the sacrificial slaughters which ye have made 
 " have done away with the murders [which mine enemies have 
 " committed]." Then Ra raised himself from the back of the 
 goddess Nut into the sky, where he made for himself a kingdom 
 in which all people were to be assembled. Finally he ordered a 
 
 Field to come into being, |],yj] '^ hetep selchet, and straight- 
 
 way the Field of Hetep (" Peace "), j]„[]Q J^ 8 ehhet-hetep,^ came 
 
 into being, and the Majesty of the god said, "I will plant 
 " (^ "^v ^^^^^^ H r^ ^ dardi-d, literally, I will make to grow) 
 " green herbs therein," and straightway there came into being 
 
 Sekhet-aaru,^ MIv" J^^^l^^m' "^^^ ^ ^^^ P^^^^^^ 
 " it with objects which sparkle,* that is to say with stars." 
 Thereupon the goddess Nut quaked in all her members, and Ra 
 declared that he would make supports to come into existence 
 to strengthen her, and straightway supports appeared. Ra next 
 
 1 Die Neue Weltordnung nacli VernicMung des siindigen MenscJiengescMechies, 
 von H. Brugsch, Berlin, 1881, p. 23. 
 
 3 Note the jingle in tlie words selchet and hetep. 
 
 3 Note the play on the verbal aarat-d and the noun aani. 
 
 * Note the jingle in : l khet, " objects," and H ® (I © >lic I " things which 
 sparkle." 
 
THE COW-GODDESS NUT 369 
 
 ordered his son Shu to place himself beneath the goddess Nut, 
 who was trembling, in such a way as to support her body, and he 
 ordered him to take heed to the supports, or pillars, whereon 
 the goddess rested, and to protect them, and to keep Nut stayed 
 upon his head. 
 
 Near this place in the text we have a representation of the 
 great cow-goddess Nut, i.e., the heavens and the sky (see opposite). 
 Along the belly of the cow, which is emblematic of the sky, and is 
 supported by the god Shu, are thirteen stars, and immediately below 
 are the two boats of the Sun-god. In the Matet boat stands a figure 
 of Ra as god of the day, with a disk upon his head, and in the Sektet 
 boat we see the god seated in a shrine ; the former boat is between 
 the fore-legs of the cow of Nut, and the latter by her udders. 
 Each leg of the cow is supported by two gods, one in front and 
 one behind, and each god who is with the cow has a special name, 
 which is duly set forth in the text which runs in vertical columns 
 on each side of the scene.^ 
 
 When the narrative recommences (line 56) we are told that 
 the Majesty of the god Ra commanded Thoth to give the order 
 
 that the god Seb, or Sab, ^\ J 3 (whom Brugsch calls " Keb "), 
 
 should come into his presence forthwith, and when he had done so, 
 and Seb had appeared before him, Ra told him that strife had 
 arisen by reason of the worms (or snakes), S ^ wS- , which 
 
 were in his (i.e., Seb's) territory, and, he added, " May they fear 
 me as long as I am alive." Ra also told him to find out what their 
 plans were, and then to go to the place wherein was his father Nu, 
 and to warn him to be careful about what was on the earth and in 
 the water. The text which immediately follows is full of difficulty, 
 but its general meaning seems to be that Ra expects Seb to keep 
 watch on the serpents in the earth, and that although he is about 
 to betake himself to the uppermost regions of heaven his light will 
 find them in their holes, and will watch them. Moreover, Ra 
 promises that he will give the men who have knowledge of words 
 
 of power, I LJ '^ M y ^ ' ; dominion over them, and that he 
 
 ■ See Lefebure, Tombeau de Seti I., part iv., pi. 16, 11. 47 ff. 
 B b 
 
370 THOTH, VICAR OF RA 
 
 will furnish them with spells and charms which shall draAv them 
 from their holes. After these things the Majesty of the god 
 Ra ordered that Thoth should come into his presence speedily, 
 and when he had arrived he said to him, " Come, let us depart 
 " from heaven, and from my place, because I am about to create 
 
 " a thing of light (^ °) of the god of light C^ ® ^ f| 5^), 
 " in the Tuat ( 'Z) and in the Land of Babat (^ ^^ ^ "i^ Z\ . 
 
 " And there thou shalt write down for punishment among the 
 " dwellers therein those who have committed deeds of rebellion, 
 " and those whom my heart hateth. And thou shalt be in my 
 
 "place N "^ dst), and thou shalt be called Asti (fj^J^J)), 
 " that is to say, the deputy of Ra. And it shall be permitted to 
 "thee to send for thy messenger (iTl ^ J '^ 7^ hab), and at 
 " these words the ibis (pD "^ J \\ '^ habi), which is the envoy 
 " of Thoth, came into being." Ra next tells Thoth that he will 
 give him the power to lift up his hand before the great companies 
 
 of the gods, ^ ^ ^ - \ I I ^ j , and makes a play on the 
 words khe7i ® 3 , and Tekhni '^ ^ \\3, a bird sacred to Thoth ; 
 he also promises to make Thoth to embrace h <e=<! | '^ ■; — q dnh, 
 the two heavens with his beauties, and straightway the Moon, 
 
 (| D I -.<=>-' ^ , came into being. Thoth is to drive back, 
 
 the Ha-nebu, ^ ^p ^ c^rw^ , and straightway the Ape, 
 
 diidn, of the god came into being ; and finally Thoth is to be 
 wholly the representative of Ra upon earth. 
 
 From the observations which follow the words of Ra we 
 can see how holy these words were considered to be. Any one 
 who wished to repeat them must anoint his face with oil, and rub 
 his hands and the places behind his ears with incense, and cleanse 
 his mouth with natron, and wash his new apparel in Nile water, 
 and put on white sandals, and lay a figure of Maat upon his 
 tongue ; and he must cleanse himself with a sevenfold cleansing 
 each day for three whole days. Finally, the king (Seti I.) for 
 
 /wwv\ an. 
 
THE KING'S SOUL 371 
 
 whom these texts were written declares that his soul is the soul of 
 Shu, and [Khnemu], and Neheh, ~w>aa § O « 1 Q I r^ , and Kek, 
 '^^'"W, and Kerh, ^ ^ '^T^ J) , and Nu, and Ra, and Asar-Ba- 
 Tettet, and the souls of the Sebak gods, I J (1 '::z:^ ^^ i , and of 
 the Crocodiles, and the soul of every god in the form of a serpent, 
 I ML UBL jj , and the soul of Apep, and of Ra in all the earth. 
 
( 372 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 THE LEGEND OF RA AND ISIS 
 
 HIEROGLYPHIC TEXT WITH TRANSLITERATION AND 
 
 TRANSLATION 
 
 /VSAAAA 
 
 1 
 
 1^ 1^:21 §■? 
 
 Re en neter neterti Icheperu tchesef dri 
 
 Chapter of the god divine (?) self-produced, the maker 
 
 .^\ 
 
 A/WAAA — p 
 
 pet ta mdu en dnkh Ichet 
 
 of heaven, [and] earth, [and] the breath of life, of fire, 
 
 m^j 2ti i^^i zz^i ^^... 
 
 neteru reth dut menmen tcheifet 
 
 of gods, of men, of beasts, of cattle, of reptiles and 
 
 creeping things, 
 
 apt remu suten reth neteru em 
 
 of the fowl [and] of fishes, the king of men [and] of gods, in 
 of the air, 
 
 
 ^ p, <^ <=>^\ 
 
 I III ^111 /www Hi! I 
 
 kJier ud henti er renpid dsht renu 
 
 form one, [to whom] periods [are] as years, of many names, 
 of 120 years 
 
RA AND ISIS 373 
 
 ^%2 
 U^^ 
 
 ^^ IIIJIJ 
 
 w " I M ill I 
 
 a» rehh pefi an rekh peji neteru 
 
 not known is that [god], not known is that [god to] the gods. 
 
 dstu Ast em set saa en 
 
 Behold, Isis was in the a woman [who was] skilled in 
 form of 
 
 ^1 ^^-?- - T\ k 
 
 tchetu khah-db-s er hehu em 
 
 words (i.e., matters). Her heart rebelled at the millions of 
 
 Ti kinii i^p' 
 
 reth setep eres hehu em neteru apt-set 
 
 men, she chose rather the millions of the gods, and she esteemed 
 
 hehu em khti an khem set em pet 
 
 the millions of the spirits " Could she not be in heaven 
 [of more value]. 
 
 ta ma Ra dri kert ta 
 
 [and] earth like Ra [and] make herself mistress of the earth 
 
 netert ka-set em db-set er rekh 
 
 and a goddess," she meditated in her heart, " by knowing 
 
 ren neter shepsi 
 
 the name of the god holy ? " 
 
374 
 
 RA AND ISIS 
 
 A 
 
 dstu dq en Rd hru neb em hat qet - [/] 
 
 Behold, came in Ra every day in front of [his] sailors. 
 
 1 AAAWV\ <^ 
 
 smen-thd 
 and was stablished 
 
 <§. 
 
 daut 
 Had become old 
 
 1 AAA/v\A ^.^=a— 
 
 AA^AA^ ^ ' ^1 
 
 sat - / 
 he poured out 
 
 1^ 
 
 I 
 
 her 
 
 upon 
 
 crz2 
 
 nest 
 the throne 
 
 hhuti 
 of the two horizons. 
 
 1 
 
 W 
 
 AAAAAA i 
 
 netri 
 the divine one. 
 
 eTO7^w - nef re - f 
 he dribbled at his mouth, 
 
 nebdut - f 
 his exudations 
 
 <=^ I 
 
 pekas en su selcher her sat 
 
 and his spittle fell upon the earth. 
 
 er ta 
 
 upon the ground, 
 
 =^^ — m\ 
 
 seh-nes Ast 
 Isis she kneaded [it] 
 
 k:^P=i 
 
 AAA/^A^ p 
 AWVV\ I 
 
 ^ 
 
 P-Q^ 
 
 em tet-set hend ta unenet her-set qet-nes-set 
 
 in her hand with earth which was on it, she fashioned it 
 
 em tchetfeti 
 
 in the form of a serpent 
 
 w 
 
 A^^vsA^ I i^ 
 
 P' 
 
 qaa 
 the form 
 
 heti 
 of a dart. 
 
 an 
 Not 
 
 shepsi dri en set em 
 
 sacred, [and] she made [it] in 
 
 nemunemud-s 
 did it move along 
 
RA AND ISIS 375 
 
 dnkh-thd er kheft-set kJiad-set hamu her 
 
 alive before her, [and] she left [it] lying on 
 
 ■Mai (2pep neter aa hers er aba - f 
 
 the path whereon journeyed the great god according to his desire 
 
 em khet taui - f 
 through his two lands, 
 
 1 M2.i ^i- -f\f m^i 
 
 neter shepsi khd - f er ha neteru 
 
 The god holy rose up, behind the gods 
 
 em Aa-perti dnkh utcha senb em khet- f 
 
 in the great double house, life, strength, health! [were] following him, 
 
 seftseft - f m,d hru neb unkhu-set em 
 
 [and] he marched on as [he did] every day [when] bit [him] 
 
 tchetfeti shepsi khet dnkhet per-thd 
 
 the serpent sacred ; the fire of life was coming out 
 
 dm - f tchesef ter-nes ami na ashu 
 
 from him himself, it destroyed the dweller in the cedars. 
 
RA AND ISIS 
 
 neter netri 
 
 The god divine 
 
 >1 
 
 © 
 
 [mtc] - / 're - f kheru en 
 
 he opened his mouth, the voice of 
 
 hen -f a. u. s. peh-nef er pet 
 
 his Majesty L. S. H. ! reached unto heaven. 
 
 e 
 
 Paut 
 The company 
 
 nil 
 
 O (S 
 
 ^ 
 
 D © 
 © III 
 
 nil 
 
 neteru tuf her md pu-u neteru - f 
 
 of the gods was for [saying], " What is it ? " His gods [were] 
 
 D ^ 
 
 her petrd-u 
 
 for [saying] '' What is the matter ? " 
 
 ^ 
 
 an 
 Not 
 
 qem - f 
 found he 
 
 niettu 
 words 
 
 J 
 
 er 
 to 
 
 C3a Jj X 
 ushebt 
 
 answer 
 
 I 
 about it. 
 
 drti-Ji 
 His two jaws 
 
 her khetkhet at - f neb 
 rattled, his limbs aU 
 
 © 
 
 W 
 
 thetet-nef em dufi 
 
 took possession of his body 
 
 1' 
 
 e')n khet - f 
 of his river bed. 
 
 dstiti 
 trembled, 
 
 
 ^ ©f 
 metu 
 
 the poison 
 
 !V0 
 
 
 V 
 
 md thetet Hap 
 
 as taketh possession the Nile 
 
 /VWV |H, 
 
 /SAA^AA vii/ 
 
 The god great 
 
 smen-nef 
 stablished 
 
 d6-/ 
 his heart, 
 
RA AND ISIS 
 
 377 
 
 
 /\ AAAAAA VOl 
 
 III sC 
 
 [nas] - / er dmiu Ichet -f mdi-ten nd 
 
 he [cried] out to those in his train : — " Come to me, 
 
 -fl I 
 
 nil 
 
 .c. w ^ 
 
 khepert em hdt-d neteru 
 
 ye who have come into being from my members, [ye] gods 
 
 © 
 
 A a 
 
 AAWVA 
 I I I 
 
 J\ 111 , 
 
 peru em-d tat reJch-ten 
 
 who have proceeded ft-om me, and I will make you to know 
 
 Ttheperd-set 
 
 © 
 
 
 temu-entu Jchet meru 
 
 what hath happened : I am wounded by something deadly, 
 
 S 
 
 ©' 
 
 db-d 
 
 I 1 ^1 AAAA/VA O O 
 
 rekh-set db-d dn maa su maa-d dn 
 
 knoweth it my heart. Not have seen it my eyes, not 
 
 -<s>- 
 
 dri set tet-d dn rekh-set 
 
 em dri-nd nebt 
 
 made it my hand, not know [I] it who hath done [this] to me 
 
 anyone, 
 
 a ^ 
 
 (2 
 
 n: 
 
 i"""^ c^ A <=i Ci I 
 
 f 
 
 I I I 
 
 dn teptu-d merit mdtet-set dn * meru 
 
 not have I tasted pain like it, never was deadly [anything] 
 
 1 ^zi:^ 
 
 dnuk 
 
 M 
 
 er-s anuic ser sa ser 
 
 more than it. I am a prince, the son of a prince, 
 
578 
 
 RA AND ISIS 
 
 AA/"VW 
 
 (2 
 
 1 
 
 mu kheperu em neter 
 
 the divine issue produced by a god. 
 
 d7iu]c 
 I am 
 
 Mr 
 a great one, 
 
 ^, 
 
 sa ur maut en dtef-d ren-d 
 
 the son of a great one, thought out my father my name. 
 
 ^ /VW\AA 
 
 I t I © 
 
 ^ III 
 
 © 
 
 q 
 
 (2 
 
 dnuJc dshu rennu dsht kheperu du 
 
 I am of many names, of many forms (or, existences) is 
 
 Til 
 
 (2 
 
 hheperd-d iinu em neter neb nds-d-tu 
 
 my form (or existence) living in god every. I have proclaimed 
 
 CjuriE 
 
 © 
 
 
 Teonu Heru hehennu 
 Temu and Heru Hekennu. 
 
 du tchet 
 Have uttered 
 
 dtef-d 
 my father 
 
 J) (1 = 11P. 
 
 mut-d ren-d dmen-set em Jchat-d er 
 
 and my mother my name, hidden was it in my body by 
 
 SI <==> 11 21/ ^Jiot 
 
 mes-d en . men ^em 
 
 my begetter who wished not 
 
 hekau-d en 
 
 him who would enchant me by 
 
 © 
 
 ^ w 
 
 eriai kheperu pehti 
 to let have power 
 
 /le/cai er-a 
 
 enchantments over me. 
 
RA AND ISIS 379 
 
 ^ 
 
 (g ^ H J&g^ I o o 
 
 peru-h er ha er maa dri-nd 
 
 I had come forth from the abode to see what I had made 
 
 <^ -^ fv =^^ ^ ^ VCk ^.X @ 
 
 sutet em taui qemamu-nd 
 
 [and] was being led through the lands [which] I had created, 
 
 em tchetem kher-d dn reJch-d su 
 
 when [something] aimed a blow at me [and] I know not what it is. 
 
 '0^x m w 
 
 a 
 
 ■^Jl— r. 
 
 AA/VAAA f\ 
 
 
 (S. 
 
 AAAAAA 
 
 
 dn hhet ds pu dn mu ds pu db-d Icheri 
 
 Behold it is not fire, behold it is not water. My heart contains 
 
 [khetju hat-d dstiti dt-[_d'\ Icheri 
 
 fire, my limbs [are] trembling, [my] members contain 
 
 mesu hesiu dmmd dntu-nd 
 
 the children of quakings. I pray you let be brought to me 
 
 mesu-d neteru Ichui metet rekhi 
 
 my children, the gods mighty of words, skilful 
 
 Tprr, p^^ss^ip™ -f p™ X- 
 
 re-sen sart-sen peh-sen her 
 
 with their mouths, their powers, they reach to heaven. 
 
380 
 
 KA AND ISIS 
 
 J\ 
 
 A 
 
 M 
 
 iu-eref mesu neter neb dm 
 
 Came to him [his] children, god every there 
 
 1 
 
 neter 
 
 ffi W 
 
 Icheri 
 with 
 
 \-K 
 
 
 -^ 
 
 lloSx 
 
 m 
 
 w 
 
 dkebu-nef 
 his cries of weeping. 
 
 iu en Ast 
 
 Came Isis 
 
 Icheri 
 with 
 
 khut-set 
 her power 
 
 (isi re-set em nifu en dnJch thes-set 
 
 and her skilled mouth, with the breath of life, her incantations 
 
 ^ 
 
 I I I 
 
 i:iP- Pf 
 
 a 
 
 Aer ^er men^ mettu-set 
 
 sdnhh 
 
 ka 
 
 heti 
 
 destroy diseases, her word maketh to live stinking throats 
 
 (i.e., throats of the dead). 
 
 KliUL 
 
 tchet-set md pu-u dtef neter petrd tchetji 
 
 She said, What is this, father god ? What is it ? A snake 
 
 =5. X mi^_£7 n 
 
 A^w^ Vrx [I 
 
 te7i mennu 
 
 dm-k 
 
 mes-k 
 
 ua mes-lc fa 
 
 hath shot sickness into thee. A thing made by thee hath lifted up 
 
 ® 
 
 tep-f 
 
 erek 
 
 ka 
 
 sekher-set 
 
 em 
 
 its head against thee. Verily it shall be overthrown by 
 
 U 
 
 ■ Utitllit 
 
 hekaiu 
 
 , ^1 
 
 menkhiu 
 
 ^® Q 
 
 td-d khetkhet - f 
 
 er 
 
 words of power beneficent, I will make it to depart from 
 
RA AND ISIS 
 
 sati-h neter tcheseri 
 
 the sight of thy rays. The god holy 
 
 381 
 
 o o 
 maa 
 
 x% 
 
 a ©, 
 
 dpu-nef Te - f 
 opened his mouth: 
 
 O 
 
 D 
 
 (3 
 
 ^ 
 
 dnuk pu shemi 
 I was passing 
 
 
 <= I 
 
 sutut em 
 
 over the way going through 
 
 w 
 
 1 
 
 ^ 1 
 
 
 her 
 
 uat 
 
 u\. 
 
 ■0- 
 
 taui 
 the two lands 
 
 set-d 
 of my country, 
 
 a?)a en db-d er 
 
 wished my heart to 
 
 o o 
 
 maa 
 
 see 
 
 ^ ^ 
 
 y 
 
 Q. 
 
 U I 
 
 ^ 
 
 qemam,u-nd hhunen-nd em 
 
 what I had created [when] I was bitten by 
 
 w w 
 tchetfi 
 a snake 
 
 o o I 
 
 an maa set 
 invisible. 
 
 ^ 
 
 JJS 
 
 AAAAAA 
 
 qehehh-hud 
 I am colder 
 
 D 
 Behold it is not fire, 
 
 D 
 
 AA'WVN /vVVW\ I I ^_ 
 
 behold it is not water. 
 
 AAAAAA I \V I 
 
 © 
 
 than water. 
 
 shemem-Jcud 
 I am hotter 
 
 er 
 than 
 
 X 
 
 seshet 
 fire, 
 
 I 
 
 hdt-d 
 my limbs 
 
 \\ \\ 
 
 dstiti 
 tremble, 
 
 c:^\ Ci 
 
 neb 
 all 
 
 [L W 
 
 er Men 
 are full of 
 
 AAA^AA v^ 
 
 ^ ^ III 
 
 fetet 
 sweat. 
 
 tud 
 I 
 
 © ^ 
 -^1 
 
 maat-d dn smen dn qemhu-d 
 
 my eye is without stability, I cannot see 
 
382 
 
 RA AND ISIS 
 
 =\ 
 
 AAAAA^ 
 
 V 
 
 ^ 
 
 I 
 
 K\ iVVVW\ 
 
 \^A AAAAAA 
 
 o 
 
 pei /iw mu her hrd-d em sliemu 
 
 the heavens, bursteth out water on my face [as] in summer. 
 
 ii± fA ™o| 1i ^ 
 
 tchet an 
 Said 
 
 Ast 
 Isis 
 
 en 
 to 
 
 Rd 
 Ra, 
 
 (i tchet-nd 
 tell me 
 
 ren-h 
 thy name, 
 
 dtef 
 father 
 
 1 
 
 neter 
 god; 
 
 f 
 
 (3 
 
 ^ 
 
 © 
 
 dnkh 
 liveth 
 
 the person 
 
 temu-tu her 
 
 who hath declared 
 
 fl 
 
 
 -<2>- 
 
 re?i - / anzi/c dri pet ta 
 
 his name. [Said Rii] I am the maker of heaven [and] earth, 
 
 -_1 
 
 Q.Q. 111 
 
 ^> 
 
 (2 
 
 i/ies tuu qemamu unnet 
 
 the knitter together of the mountains, the creator of what exists 
 
 her - f 
 upon it. 
 
 nuh 
 I am 
 
 the maker 
 
 /VvWV\ 
 
 of the water 
 
 hhepertu 
 making to exist 
 
 °^ 
 
 A'VW>A 
 
 ■<2>- 
 
 Meht-ur 
 Meht-ur, 
 
 u 
 
 (=5) 
 
 ari /crt 671 mut -f Icheperu 
 
 acting [as] bull of his mother, the creator 
 
 
 O 
 
 D 
 
 X 
 
 netchem netchemiu nuk dri pet sesheta 
 
 of the joys of love. I am the maker of heaven and have covered over 
 
cO] Liz: 
 Ichuti 
 
 RA AND ISIS 
 
 ^ ^1 ? nil 
 
 383 
 
 M 
 
 D (3 
 
 td-d 
 
 ha 
 
 mi, neteru em-lchennu-set 
 
 the two horizons, I have set the soul of the gods within them 
 
 O 
 
 ^^n T^ITT| ^ 
 
 (3 Q I 
 
 e 
 
 i^!i 
 
 ftTitt/c tin maati-f kheperu hetchetcMu 
 
 I am he who openeth his eyes, becometh the light ; 
 
 
 W 
 
 © 
 
 <2 w 
 
 ^ 
 
 AA/v.V\A 
 A/WV\A k„„^ 
 
 akhennu maati-f kheperu kekui hu mu 
 
 shutteth [he] his eyes, becometh the dark. Riseth the flood 
 
 D 
 
 AAA/SA 
 
 V 
 
 Hap 
 of Hap (Nile) 
 
 kheft 
 when 
 
 © 
 
 he giveth the command, 
 
 a7i 
 not 
 
 111 
 
 rekh en neteru 
 know the gods 
 
 ren - f 
 his name. 
 
 7i«/i; dn unnu 
 
 I am the maker of hours. 
 
 khepent, 
 
 IT 
 
 the creator of days, lam the opener of the festivals of the year, 
 
 hru 
 
 nuk 
 
 a <S. 
 dpu 
 
 (s o I 
 hebu 
 
 qemamu 
 the creator 
 
 U I 
 
 fl 
 
 V 
 
 dtru 
 of streams of water. 
 
 nuk 
 I am 
 
 the maker 
 
 I 
 
 I I 
 
 1 ci ® I <=r=> o 1 1 
 
 /c^ei dnkhet er sekheperu kat en amu 
 
 of flame of life making to be performed works in the houses. 
 
384 
 
 
 
 RA AND ISIS 
 
 mtk Kheperd em iiiauu ltd 
 
 I am Khepera in the morning, Ra 
 
 (2 O 
 
 em 
 
 ♦ 
 
 in 
 
 dhdu-f 
 his noontide, 
 
 ^ 
 
 (S 
 
 Temu 
 Temu 
 
 
 w 
 
 J] _2si I 
 
 
 mni mdsheru 
 
 in the evening. 
 
 T 
 
 a?i khesef 
 
 [But] not was driven 
 
 met em shemi-set 
 
 the poison out of its course. 
 
 \M 1 
 
 "1 ' i 
 
 Said 
 
 Ast 
 Isis 
 
 ew. 
 to 
 
 © 
 I 
 
 Bd 
 Ea 
 
 aw netchem neter da 
 
 not was relieved the great god. 
 
 an ren-k dpu 
 
 : — Thv name is not enumerated 
 
 em 
 among 
 
 .^ (2 
 
 na tchetu-k-nd d 
 
 the things which thou hast 
 
 said to me : 
 
 I III ar 
 tchet-k set nd 
 
 tell thou it to me, 
 
 A 
 
 w 
 
 f=Qi 
 
 fen 
 and shall come out 
 
 ta 
 the 
 
 
 1^ 
 
 tnetu dnkh sa 
 
 poison. Shall live a person 
 
 © 
 
 (3 
 
 r==u) 
 
 temu-tu ren - f 
 
 having uttered his name. 
 
 em 
 with 
 
 (3 
 
 tchetemu 
 burnings, 
 
 ? 
 
 S 
 
 
 metu 
 The poison 
 
 sekhemu-nes 
 it was stronger 
 
 er 
 than 
 
 4P= 
 
 . tchetemu-set 
 it burned 
 
 nehdu en 
 
 the flame of 
 
RA AND ISIS 385 
 
 ^ 
 
 art tchet an hen en Bd tdt-nd 
 
 fire. Said the majesty of Ra, I give myself 
 
 hehui md Ast per em ren-d em 
 
 to be searched out by Isis, shall come forth my name from 
 
 su netri 
 
 my body into her body. Hid himself the divine one from 
 
 Ichat-d er khat-s dnien en su netri em 
 
 neteru usekh dst em uda en heh renput 
 
 the gods, empty was the place in the Boat of millions of years. 
 
 ar kheperu md sep pert ent 
 
 When it became about the time of the coming forth of 
 
 ^ °^_^ -^ J ^ .1) — ^YpiK -^ 1^ 
 
 a6 tchet-s en sa Heru senha ent su 
 
 the heart she said to [her] son Horus: — Let him bind himself by 
 
 an oath 
 
 em dnkh neter ertdt neter maati-f 
 
 sworn by the life of the god that the god will give his two eyes. 
 
 11 X -mZ?ri«-^ tA ^IH- 
 
 neter dat uthes - nef her ren - f Ast urt-hekauti 
 
 The god great was removed from his name, Isis, great in words 
 
 of power [said]: — 
 
 c c 
 
386 RA AND ISIS 
 
 n T^r=i s i^o«- 
 
 shept metu per em Bd maat Rem 
 
 Run out, ■ poison, comefortli from Ra, Eye ofHorus, 
 
 peri em, neter nubdu en re - f 
 
 come forth from the god, and shine without his mouth. 
 
 iuik dri-d niik hau er mddi her ta 
 
 I, I have worked, I make to fall down " upon the ground 
 
 "^^^ /^ zxi {)' i\ ® t\ ' — ° ^"^ ® 1 ~wwv i ^ 
 
 ^ (S f /VWW I -Mi "i -B^ "^3^ .-^"^ AAAWV A I 5ll 
 
 er meiii sekhemu mdki uihes en neter 
 
 the poison which is defeated, verily was removed from the god 
 
 O^ QAA^^^^^ (=0^ ^ 
 
 AAAA/W 
 
 f : 
 
 aa ren - f Bd dnkh -f met mit 
 
 great his name. Ra may he live, the poison may it die 
 
 1 V> f^^JW\A /VV\A'V\ ^U 
 
 thes rer men mes en m,ent 
 
 and conversely. A certain one, the son of a certain woman, 
 
 I ® ^ f — . TM.j^ .^f JJo(a\ <=> 
 
 a?i^/i - / metu mit tchet en Ast ur 
 
 may he live, the poison may it die. [Thus] said Isis, great lady, 
 
 Q I 
 
 hent neteru rehh Bd em ren - f tchesef 
 
 mistress of the gods, who knew Rii by his name his own. 
 
RA AND ISIS 387 
 
 ^:jn=n:Jg^ SH A fl J^rfJXo ©Si/ill I 
 
 tchet her tut en Temu hend Heru-hekennu 
 
 To be said over an image of Temu and Heru-hekennu, 
 
 rh\:i ill ;u %i 
 
 erpit Ast tut Eeru 
 
 and [over] a figure of Isis, and an image of Horus. 
 
( 388 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 THE DESTRUCTION OF MANKIND 
 
 EGYPTIAN TEXT WITH TRANSLITERATION AND TRANSLATION 
 
 .^ 
 
 1,., ,*, . ^» 
 
 neter kheper tchesef em-khet un-nef em 
 
 god, who created himself. After he was in 
 
 \ 
 
 sutenit 
 the sovereignty 
 
 reth 
 of men, 
 
 111 
 
 neteru 
 and of gods, 
 
 I I I 
 em khet 
 and of creation, 
 
 -J] 
 
 ^ W 
 
 Udti 
 the One, 
 
 un an 
 
 W^^$ 
 
 I ^ 
 I I 
 
 reth her 
 
 Jcat 
 
 men and women were blaspheming 
 
 (2 
 dstu 
 
 Behold, 
 
 I 
 
 kesu-f 
 
 f i P 
 
 eref hen dnkh utcha senb 
 
 his majesty, life, strength, health. 
 
 i 
 
 metet 
 and saying, 
 
 dauu 
 has grown old, 
 
 em 
 
 (%w(^ 
 
 III xe?e 
 
 hatch hdu - f em nub 
 
 W I 
 
 V, I 
 
 9 
 
 his bones are like silver, his limbs like gold. 
 
 H — ^ o o o - D 
 
 em khesbet madt 
 
 is like lapis-lazuli real ; 
 
 un an 
 
 hen-f 
 
 sheni - f 
 his hair 
 
 <^ 
 
 her setem 
 
 was his majesty listening to 
 
i 
 
 DESTRUCTION OF MANKIND 389 
 
 metet an reth tchet an hen-f dnhh utcha senh 
 
 what said mankind. Said his majesty, life, strength, health, 
 
 ^ w 
 
 A 
 
 :^i 
 
 er enti emkhetti-f nds md-nd er maat-d 
 
 to those who were in his train. Call, bring me my Eye, 
 
 er Shu Tefnut Seh Nut liend dtefiu mut 
 
 and Shu, Tefnut, Seb, Nut, and the father and mother 
 
 gods 
 
 \\ I 
 
 DDO 
 
 dstu-d 
 
 Ih 
 
 unemu hend-d dstu-d em Nu hend kher 
 
 who lived with me when behold I was in Nu, together with 
 
 1 
 
 
 i 1 
 
 5]^^' 
 
 neter-d 
 my god 
 
 Nu 
 Nu. 
 
 dn-nef shenthi - f 
 
 Let him bring his ministers 
 
 hend - f 
 with him. 
 
 J] ^=^ I III 
 
 dn-neh set em 
 
 Bring thou them in 
 
 reth dm 
 
 mankind, not 
 
 -<s>- 
 
 ketket 
 silence, 
 
 udr 
 may flee their hearts. 
 
 am 
 that not 
 
 I I I I 
 
 db-sen 
 
 I I I 
 
 I I I 
 
 maa 
 may see 
 
 m 
 
 i-k 
 Come thou 
 
 P^^ 
 
 I I I I 
 
 hend-sen er het-dat tchet-sen sekheru-sen 
 
 with them into the great temple, let them declare their counsel 
 
390 
 
 DESTRUCTION OF MANKIND 
 
 ^-W, y^\ 
 
 tcJiertu 
 fully; 
 
 m-a 
 I will enter 
 
 em 
 into 
 
 
 Nu 
 Nu 
 
 to 
 
 bu 
 the place 
 
 kheper-nd dm dn-nd dn-tu enen neteru un an 
 
 wherein I was born, let be brought to me those gods. Were 
 
 11'^ 111 1) ° ? 
 
 ^ 
 
 W 
 
 ra ® 
 
 I s 
 
 i'=ii) ; 
 
 enen neteru dpen her kesui-f her tehen ta em-bah 
 
 those gods on both sides of him, bowing to the earth before 
 
 hen - f 
 his majesty. 
 
 tchet-f 
 He spake 
 
 metet - / 
 his words 
 
 (=0 
 
 I 
 em-hah 
 
 before 
 
 I fl 
 
 dtef 
 the father 
 
 PkP^tM 
 
 I 
 
 semsu 
 
 of the firstborn gods, 
 
 f\\ 
 
 rekhit 
 of rational beings. 
 
 ari 
 the maker 
 
 ^ ^ ^ , 
 
 '^^^ \ /VVWV\ I I I 
 
 tchet dn sen 
 They said 
 
 reth 
 of men, 
 
 suten 
 the king 
 
 I /VAAAAA 
 
 I I 
 
 kheft 
 before 
 
 hen - f 
 his majesty, 
 
 metu-en-n er setem-en-set tchet dn Bd 
 
 Speak to us, for we are listening to them. Said Ra 
 
 A/V^A^^ 
 
 ODD ""'■^ ^"=151 
 
 V J AAAA/V\ J 1 i — 1 
 
 PkP^fi 
 
 en 
 
 iV'U v/r^er 
 
 semsu 
 
 to 
 
 Nu, god 
 
 firstborn, 
 
 kheper-nd dm - / 
 
 from whom I came into 
 being, 
 
DESTRUCTION OF MANKIND 
 
 391 
 
 inii?-i 
 
 neteru tep-du md-ten reth kheperu 
 
 and ye ancestor gods, take ye heed to mankind who came into being 
 
 ein maat-d 
 from my eye, 
 
 'k^ ^\— ^P, , . i 
 
 ka-en-sen 
 they speak 
 
 ■^ ^Lll ^ HI ' 2f 
 
 metet er-d tchet-nd 
 
 words against me. Tell me 
 
 £1^ A/\/\AAA <^ ■:> H 
 
 I I I I I I 
 
 drit-ten er-s 
 
 [what] ye would do about it. 
 
 -,\ 
 
 md-ten-ud 
 take ye heed to it for me, 
 
 hehi-d 
 
 "'^^ 
 
 setemu-d 
 seek out a plan for me. Not will I slay them until I hear 
 
 an 
 
 sma-na 
 
 set er 
 
 w 
 
 I I 
 
 I /vv^A^^ 
 
 
 tchet-thd ten er-s tchet an hen en 
 
 what ye say concerning it. Said the majesty of 
 
 neter 
 
 Nu 
 Nu, 
 
 \\ 
 
 sa JRd 
 
 the son of Ra : 
 
 aa er an su 
 
 Grod greater than he who made him, 
 
 nr 
 mightier 
 
 i 
 
 [r3i 
 dst-k 
 
 er 
 than 
 
 ur 
 
 qemalml-iu-su 
 those who were created with him. 
 
 sent-k 
 
 maat-k 
 
 au 
 
 hems 
 sit on 
 
 er 
 
 thy throne, great is the fear of thee, let thine Eye be upon 
 
392 DESTRUCTION OF MANKIND 
 
 uaiu dm-k 
 
 those who blaspheme thee. 
 
 tchet an hen en Rd 
 
 Said the majesty of Ra : — 
 
 AA/WNA 
 
 I I I 
 
 K^ 
 
 md-ten set 
 
 Behold ye them 
 
 r\ AAAAAA -f\ jO 
 
 udr 
 fleeing 
 
 (vry] 
 
 ■&I 
 
 p: 
 
 ^1 I I 1 1 I I 
 
 er set db-sen 
 
 into the mountain, their hearts 
 
 ^V 
 
 I I I 
 
 sentu her tchet en sen tchet dn-sen 
 
 are afraid because of what they have said. They said 
 
 ■^^ 
 
 ^ o I 
 kheft hen - f td shem maat-k 
 
 before his majesty : — Let go forth thine Eye, let it destroy for thee 
 
 hau-s-nek 
 
 set uaiu 
 
 those who blaspheme 
 
 khenti dm-s 
 
 n^'^-o 
 
 I I 
 
 em 
 with 
 
 tu 
 
 wickedness, 
 
 dn maat 
 not an eye 
 
 ^^^ 
 
 
 -k set' ha-s 
 
 er hu . . . 
 can precede it in resistance [when] it goeth down 
 
 Het-Hert 
 
 AAAAA^ 
 
 dn 
 
 1 
 
 em ilet-tlert iti an eref netert ten 
 
 in the form of Hathor. Went forth then goddess this. 
 
 "'5>^ 
 
 smam-nes 
 she slew 
 
 reth 
 mankind 
 
 1 
 
 her 
 
 set tchet dn 
 
 on the mountain. Said 
 
DESTRUCTION OF MANKIND 
 
 393 
 
 1 
 
 D 
 
 iVl^^\ 
 
 hen 611 neter pen idi-ui em hetep Het-Hert 
 
 the majesty of this god : — Come, come in peace, Hathor, 
 
 -<2>- 
 
 m^w iTi™ f 
 
 ^^^ 
 
 drit en drit tchet dn netert ten dnkh-k nd 
 
 for the deed is done. Said this goddess : — Thou gavest me life, 
 
 du sekhem-nd 
 when I had power 
 
 i\ ^\ m 
 
 ^ 
 
 em 
 over 
 
 reth 
 mankind 
 
 db-d tchet dn hen en Bd 
 
 my heart. Said the majesty of Ra : 
 
 du netchem her 
 it was pleasing to 
 
 !\M^r 
 
 I I I 
 
 1 ^ i kP^^.'^.P 
 
 T AVS/W\ i — t -LT^ I V J ft I I I 1 
 
 du-d er sekhem 
 I will be master 
 
 em sen em suten em sdntu-set kheper 
 
 over them as king destroying them. It came to pass that 
 
 ?: 
 
 D 
 
 
 a 
 
 ■if^ 
 
 zv 
 
 ^ 
 
 Sekhet pu shebebet 
 
 Sekhet of the offerings 
 
 f III I I 
 
 ent 
 of 
 
 kerh 
 the night 
 
 ni c 
 er rehet her 
 waded about in 
 
 senf-sen 
 their blood 
 
 shad 
 beginning 
 
 ^^ o /v\/wv\ 
 
 A/W\AA 
 
 em 
 in 
 
 ^V 
 
 O 
 
 SuteM-henen tchet dn Rd 
 Suten-henen. Said Ra:- 
 
 I" v\:A^'i\ 1^^,^ n^\ 
 
 nas ma-na 
 Call, bring to me 
 
 dputi 
 messengers 
 
 Jr III 
 
 khau sdnnu 
 
 swift [and] speedy, 
 
394 DESTRUCTION OF MANKIND 
 
 sekhsekh-sen shut en khat 
 
 they shall run [like] the wind of the body ; 
 
 an an-iu enen dputi dpen her dui 
 
 one brought messengers these straightway. 
 
 D 
 
 AAAAAA 
 I I I 
 
 n W j AAAAAA I 
 
 tchet dn hen en neter fen sha-sen er 
 
 Said the majesty of this god :— Let them go to 
 
 Ahu dn nd tdtddt er ur 
 
 Elephantine [and] bring me mandrakes in great number. 
 
 j^™qr| ™ ;|z 1^^:^ ^W h 
 
 dn dn-tu nef enen tdtddt ertdt dn hen 
 
 One brought to him these mandrakes, gave the majesty 
 
 AAAAAA 
 
 I ,vww> ^ c. $1] <:^ W J^ 111 © I I ^ 
 
 en neter jjen Sektet enti em Annu her netch 
 
 of this god to Sektet who is in Heliopolis to crush 
 
 tdtddt dpen dstu kher hent her tesh 
 
 mandrakes these. Behold, when the women were bruising 
 
 ■pertu er heqt erta dn-tu tdtddt dpen 
 
 the barley for beer, and they were placing mandrakes these 
 
DESTRUCTION OF MANKIND 
 
 395 
 
 her shebebet 
 in the beer vessels, 
 
 /www mm^i ^~ 1 I 
 
 ten senf 
 [they became] blood 
 
 en 
 of 
 
 reth 
 men. 
 
 Q III 
 Having been made of beer 
 
 drit-dn-fu 
 
 ^«>/Wv CJQQQQQCJ -fV A 
 
 ^^o iiimi ^iH 
 
 ar?iei 7000 m dn 
 
 vessels seven thousand, came 
 
 (23 i 
 
 ere/ 
 
 ^e» 
 
 en 
 
 suten bdt 
 
 therefore the majesty of the king of the South 
 
 and North 
 
 1 /^/^A/v^^ 
 
 —^^ P^^ r^^ -«jr--j^ /www 
 
 neteru dfen er 
 
 maa e»e» 
 
 gods these to 
 
 see this 
 
 i ol 1 s 
 
 Ill /www 1 ^ ^ (K 
 
 hetch ta 
 
 en sinama 
 
 when it was da^vn5 
 
 after had slaughtered 
 
 o 
 _i 
 
 Bd 
 
 Ra 
 
 ^ III 
 
 hend 
 with 
 
 heqet 
 beer. 
 
 '=^>~- 
 
 dstu 
 Behold, 
 
 reth 
 men 
 
 dn netert em sesu-sen nu 
 
 the goddess during their period of sailing up the river, 
 
 khentithit 
 
 metch dn hen 
 
 said the majesty 
 
 en 
 of 
 
 O 
 I 
 
 Bd 
 Ra :- 
 
 neferui 
 It is good, it is good. 
 
 1 1 
 set 
 
 'W 
 
 au-a 
 I am 
 
 13! XP l^WU 
 
 reth hers tchet dn Bd 
 
 for protecting mankind against her. Said Ra : — 
 
 er 
 
 mdket 
 
396 
 
 DESTRUCTION OF MANKIND 
 
 ^■'^, 
 
 fai md set er bua nes sma 
 
 Let them carry and bring them to the place she slew 
 
 'li ^k SoW f 
 
 reth 
 
 am 
 
 hej) an 
 
 hen 
 
 en 
 
 suten bat 
 
 mankind therein. Commanded the majesty of the king of the 
 
 South and North 
 
 Bd 
 
 m 
 
 neferu 
 
 ffl 
 
 kerh 
 
 _fl 
 
 ^=^^ 
 
 A'VWNA 
 AAAAftA 
 
 ertdt scdet-ki 
 
 em nereru fcerii er 
 
 Ra during the beauties of the night to cause to be poured out 
 
 flV 
 
 uii an 
 
 ahet 
 
 I 
 
 ^ W 
 
 11 — n B ^te^^ 
 
 enen setchert im an ahet enti 
 
 these vases of sleep-causing beer, were the fields of 
 
 ^ 
 
 °^ 
 
 A'SAAA^ 
 
 I 
 
 )|| I AA/V\AA 
 
 J I 
 
 j?ei /^rt ^er meh em mu em baiu en 
 
 heaven the four filled with water by the Will of 
 
 I — ^^^^V 1"^8\ 
 
 hen en neter pe7i shemt an 
 
 the majesty of this god. Came 
 
 netert 
 
 ten em 
 
 goddess this in 
 (i.e., Sekhet) 
 
 ^^^^ ^ 
 
 o 
 
 w 
 tuaiu 
 
 TT 
 
 1 ^ \ 
 
 
 mornmg. 
 
 qem-nes 
 found she 
 
 enen 
 this [heaven] 
 
 her melit 
 flooded. 
 
 nefer 
 joyful 
 
 an hrd-set dm un an 
 
 was her face because of it, was 
 
 \y h Tfeq 
 
 /VSAAAA 
 
 set 
 she 
 
 her surd 
 drinking, 
 
DESTRUCTION OF MANKIND 397 
 
 nefer her db-set i-nes tehh-thd 
 
 merry was her heart, she came to a condition of drunkenness, 
 
 du sa-nes reth tchet dn hen en Ed 
 
 not knew she mankind. Said the majesty of Ra 
 
 >NAiWV\ 
 
 ett netert ten it-ui em hetep Amit 
 
 to goddess this: — Come, come in peace, Beautiful one ; 
 
 Icheper nefert em Am tchet dn 
 
 and there became beautiful young women in Am. Said 
 
 n (T) q c> 9^ Q — *— 
 
 A I I C2. {{A ,^w>» <=■ 
 
 /leri e% i2a ew netert ten dri en set 
 
 the majesty of Ra to goddess this : — Let be made for her 
 
 setchertet em trdiu renpet dpen 
 
 vases of sleep-causing beer at seasons of the year these ; 
 
 set er hent-d kheper drit 
 
 they [shall be] in proportion to my handmaidens. There were made 
 
 setchert pu em dpt hent 
 
 vases of sleep- according to the number of the handmaidens 
 causing beer 
 
398 DESTRUCTION OF MANKIND 
 
 heb en Het-hert an reth neb tcher hni 
 
 of the festival of Hathor by mankind all since the day 
 
 ?\^ ^± f' — o| _ ^^g^ 2^ 
 
 tepi tchet an hen en Bd en netert ten 
 
 first. Said the majesty of Ra to goddess this :— 
 
 an du mer en heh en mer kheper 
 
 Behold a pain of fire of sickness hath come [on me], 
 
 ^^\\^^^\ ± m iiw !' ™ 
 
 kher trd-ui an mer tchet an hen en 
 
 whence, whence is the pain ? Said the majesty of 
 
 Rd dnkh-nd du db-d urtu ur unen 
 
 Ra : — I live, [but] my heart is very weary of being 
 
 n AAA/VV\ r\ A/^A/V\A r\ I 
 
 >.^ I'm, 
 
 hend-sen smam-d set sep en 
 
 with them. I slew them, [but] there remain of 
 
 %i^ 
 
 dti dn un dnt dutu 
 
 the worthless, for not was the destruction as wide-spreading 
 
 ^ ^ III ^ \\ m 
 
 
 d-d tchetet en neteru enti am- Jchet- f 
 
 [as] my power. Said the gods who were in his train ; 
 
DESTRUCTION OF MANKIND 399 
 
 em beh em urt-k du-k sekhem-thd 
 
 Tarry not in tliy weariness [for] thou art mighty 
 
 <;;> ci ^ I -^ZZ^ ^^ I] y I /www 1 1 Q 
 
 em merret-k tchet an hen en neter fen 
 
 according to thy will. Said the majesty ot this god 
 
 JJ J30Q ~VW« CJ J, Q .il Ik fll 
 
 AA/VA/W y I AAAAAA A^A/W\ ^ "^ *' V\J\ \V^ \ " '-' 
 
 e« ^ew eti Nu hdu-d ahet em 
 
 to the majesty of Nu : — My members are weak for 
 
 ®. 
 
 w 
 
 D ® D /w>/w\ 
 
 Sep tepi dn 
 
 the first time, not 
 
( 400 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THOTH ^ (TEHUTI), AND MAAT, ^^f^, AND 
 
 the" OTHER GODDESSES WHO WERE 
 
 ASSOCIATED WITH HIM 
 
 T 
 
 ~"^HE hymns to Rii which are found in the Book of the Bead 
 and in other funeral works of the ancient Egyptians 
 state that the deities Thoth and Maat stand one on each side of 
 the great god in his boat, and it is clear that they were believed 
 to take some important part in directing its course ; and as they 
 were with Ra when he sprang up from the abyss of Nu their 
 existence must have been coeval with his own. The conceptions 
 which the Egyptians formed about Thoth and Maat were both 
 material and spiritual, and it is impossible to arrive at any 
 conclusion concerning the functions of these deities without 
 enumerating the facts about them which may be derived from the 
 texts ; speaking generally, Maat may be considered the female 
 counterpart of Thoth. In the Pyramid Texts, our earliest 
 authorities, the functions of Thoth are of a purely funereal character, 
 that is to say, he appears only as a god who is willing to be a 
 helper of the deceased kings, and, although it is certain from many 
 passages that his assistance was eagerly awaited by souls in the 
 Underworld, there is no description given in these early works of 
 the functions of the god. We must, then, rely upon the inscrip- 
 tions of the later dynastic period for our knowledge of the powers 
 of Thoth, and from these we learn that he was called, " Lord of 
 " Khemennu, self-created, to whom none hath given birth, god 
 " One ; " "he who reckons in heaven, the counter of the stars, the 
 " enumerator of the earth and of what is therein, and the measurer 
 " of the earth ; " and the " heart of Ra which cometh forth in the 
 
THOTH. THE Scribe of the Gods. 
 
THOTH 401 
 
 " form of the god Thoth." ^ The chief shrine of the god was 
 in Khemennu, zz©, called Hermopolis by the Greeks, and 
 Eshmunen by the Arabs, but he also had shrines in Abydos, 
 
 <=>|^'^©^, Ta-ur, ^, Sep, ^, Hat, =^, Pselket, 
 _7_ @ 5 Talmis, s=s Ij^ R ^ , Aa-tcha-Mutet, u-°-si | "^^ "^ ^ 
 
 Bah, ^©, Amen-heri-ab, H <=>>Q:®, and Ta-kens, >ns. 
 As lord of these places he was " lord of divine words," T i ^^^^ , 
 "lord of Maat," , and "judge of the two combatant gods," 
 
 \/ <=> f \\ y ir^ rj) 7 i-6-, Horus and Set ; and among other titles 
 we find him called "Twice great," ^^, and "Thrice great," 
 {^ *-='. From this last were derived the epithets "Trismegistos" 
 
 and " ter maximus " of the classical writers. 
 
 The above facts prove that Thoth was regarded as a god who" 
 was self-begotten and self-produced, that he was One, that he made 
 the calculations concerning the stablishing of the heavens, and the 
 stars, and the earth, that he was the heart of Ra, that he was the 
 master of law both in its physical and moral conceptions, and that 
 he had the knowledge of " divine speech.", From many passages 
 we see also that he was the inventor and god of all arts and 
 sciences, that he was the " lord of books," and the " scribe of the 
 gods," and " mighty in speech," i.e., his words took effect, and he 
 was declared to be the author of many of the funeral works by 
 which the deceased gained everlasting life. In the Book of the. 
 Dead he plays a part which gives him a unique position among 
 the gods, and he is represented as the possessor of powers which 
 are greater than those of Osiris, and even those of Ra himself. 
 Before, however, we go on to consider these the forms in which he 
 appears on the monuments must be mentioned. Usually he 
 appears in human form with the head of an ibis, but he also 
 appears as an ibis. When in human form he holds in his hands 
 
 ^ See Lanzone, op. cit, p. 1265. 
 
 D d 
 
402 THOTH 
 
 the sceptre and emblem of " life " common to all gods, but his 
 headdress varies according to the particular form of the god in 
 which the artist wishes to depict him. As the reckoner of times 
 and seasons he has upon his head the crescent moon and disk, 
 O; as a form of Shu and An-Her he wears the headdresses of these 
 gods ; he is also seen wearing the atef crown, ^^^ , and the united 
 
 crowns of the South and the North,^ In the Book of the Bead he 
 appears as the " scribe of Maat of the company of the gods," 
 ffii ^^ w h ^^^ '^Qn he holds in his hands the writing reed 
 and palette of the scribe ; but his connection with Ra and his first 
 rising in primeval times is indicated sometimes by the utchat ^^, 
 i.e., the power or strength, of the Eye of Ra, which he is seen 
 carrying along in his hands. 
 
 The name of the god Thoth, ^>^ , Tehuti, appears to be 
 derived from the supposed oldest name of the ibis in Egypt, i.e., 
 tehu, to which the termination ti has been added, with the idea of 
 indicating that the king called Tehuti possessed the qualities and 
 attributes of the ibis.'^ A derivation of the name which appears to 
 have been favoured by the Egyptians connected it with the word 
 tehh, ~ "0", "a weight," and in passages quoted by Lanzone'' we 
 find the god actually called tehh, ^ ^'>^ "^ . Now the determinative 
 
 for the word tekh, a weight, is the sign for "heart," 'O, and we 
 know that the bird called tekh or tekhnu, which closely resembled 
 the ibis, the bird sacred to Thoth, was in the opinion of some 
 ancient writers connected with the heart. Thus HorapoUo says 
 (i. 36) that when the Egyptians wish to write "heart" they draw 
 an ibis, for this bird was dedicated to Hermes (i.e., Thoth) as the 
 lord of all knowledge and understanding ; and JElian {De Nat. 
 Animal, x. 29) supports his testimony by adding several curious 
 and interesting facts about the habits of the ibis. Other names 
 
 given to Thoth were,* A, (J ^ , and Sheps, lord of Khemennu, 
 
 gp^EE©,Asten,(]p^^,Khenti,t7;,Mehi,o^yy, 
 
 1 See Lanzone, op. cit., pi. 402 f. ^ Compare Brugscli, Beligion, p. 439. 
 
 3 Op. cit., p. 1265. * See Brugscli, Beligion, p. 441. 
 
lU 
 
 a. 
 < 
 
 (0 
 
 I 
 
 □ 
 
 z 
 < 
 
 1- 
 
 I- 
 Ul 
 
 I- 
 I 
 
 I- 
 l< 
 •< 
 
THOTH 403 
 
 etc. The commonest name given to Thoth is hah, fD ''^' J " V^ '^^' 
 
 " ibis," a word which finds its equivalent in the Coptic glRtui, 
 
 and one of his commonest forms is the dog-headed ape, a ^ , 
 
 which occupies such a prominent position in the Judgment Scene 
 in the Book of the Dead. Here we see him seated on the top of the 
 support of the beam of the Balance in which the heart of the 
 deceased is weighed, where his duty is to watch the pointer, and 
 tell the ibis-headed Thoth when the beam is exactly level ; 
 according to Brugsch, this ape is a form of Thoth as the god of 
 " equilibrium," ^ and he appears to be a symbol of the equinoxes. 
 The ape dan is also connected with the moon, for he is often seen 
 with the lunar crescent and disk, O, upon his head ; but there is 
 no doubt that he represented Thoth in his character of " lord of 
 divine words and the scribe [of the gods]," for in a scene re- 
 produced by Lanzone ^ we see him holding in one paw the god's 
 palette and writing reeds, and these titles are given to him. 
 Besides these forms of Thoth may be also mentioned those in 
 which he possesses the attributes of other gods. Thus as a god of 
 Mendes he has a human body with the head of a bull surmounted 
 by a disk and uraeus ; as Shu he is depicted in the form of a man 
 wearing the crown of Shu ; as An-her he is depicted in the form 
 of a man wearing the crown of this god ; as Sheps he has the head 
 of a hawk ; ^ the ibis and the ape dan are his commonest forms. 
 
 The principal seat of the worship of Thoth was Khemennu, or 
 Hermopolis, a city famous in Egyptian mythology as the place 
 
 containing the " high ground," a ^^ A *^ , on which Ra rested 
 
 when he rose for the first time. Here he was regarded as the head 
 of the company of the gods of the city, who Avere eight in number : 
 Nu and Nut, Hehu and Hehut, Kek and Keket, and Kerh and 
 Kerhet (or Nau and Nait), i.e., four pairs of deities, each pair 
 consisting of a male and a female deity. As to the importance of 
 this company of the gods two eminent Egyptologists have held 
 directly opposite opinions, for the late Dr. Brugsch thought that 
 
 1 Beligion, p. 443. ^ 3 Op. cit., pi. 404, No. 1. 
 
 3 Ibid., pU. 402 ff. 
 
404 THOTH 
 
 the four pairs of deities formed the oldest example of the ogdoad, 
 while M. Maspero is of opinion that we must join the four pairs to 
 Thoth, when the nine gods will form an independent paut, con- 
 structed partly on the model of the pmd of Heliopolis. Dr. Brugsch 
 thought that the eight gods of Hermopolis were primordial deities, 
 but M. Maspero thinks that their character is entirely artificial, and 
 that they are only " gods formed according to the laAvs of grammar, 
 " four being masculine, and four feminine." ' The latter argues 
 that because the high priest of Hermopolis was called by a title 
 which indicates that he served " him that is chief of five," the gods 
 of the city were only five in number, i.e., Thoth and the four gods 
 of the cardinal points ; to the four gods of the cardinal points were 
 then assigned female counterparts, hence the " Eight gods " 
 
 1 I „ V J) I- Thoth, according to M. Maspero, is to these what 
 Tem or Ra-Tem was to the paut of Heliopolis, and the Hermo- 
 politan paut was constructed after the model of the Heliopolitan 
 paut ; thus Nu and Nut = Shu and Tefnut, Hehu and Hehut = 
 Seb and Nut, Kek and Keket = Osiris and Isis, and Kerh and 
 Kerhet (or, Nau and Nait) = Set and Nephthys. This view is, 
 however, not supported by the evidence of the texts, which, in 
 the writer's opinion, indicates, as has already been said, that the 
 four pairs of gods of Hermopolis belong to a far older conception 
 of the theogony than that of the company of gods of Helio- 
 polis. Another point to be remembered is that Thoth was 
 intimately associated with the ape, as were also the gods of his 
 company ; this takes us back to a very remote period when super- 
 natural powers were assigned to the particular class of ape which 
 was the companion of Thoth, and when the primitive Egyptian 
 regarded the knowledge and cunning of the dog-headed ape as 
 proofs of his divine nature. Between the period when this took 
 place and the development of the Heliopolitan theogony, a very 
 long interval of time must have passed ; the two conceptions 
 belong not only to different stages of civilization, but probably to 
 two distinct races of men. 
 
 One of the most interesting titles of Thoth is " Judge of the 
 
 1 La Mythologie JSgyptienne, p. 257. 
 
THOTH 405 
 
 " Rehehui, the pacifier of the gods, who dwelleth in Unnu 
 " (Hermopolis), the great god in the Temple of Abtiti."^ A very 
 early Egyptian tradition made a great fight to take place between 
 the god of light and the god of darkness, and in later days Ra 
 himself, or some form of him, generally one of the Horus gods, 
 was identified with the god of light, and Set, in one form or other, 
 was identified with the god of darkness. Thus the fights of Ra 
 and Apep, and Heru-Behutet and Set, and Horus, son of Isis, and 
 Set, are in reality only different versions of one and the same 
 story, though belonging to different periods. In all these fights 
 Thoth played a prominent part, for when the Eye of Ra, i.e., the 
 Sun, was doing battle with Set, this evil power managed to cast 
 clouds over it, and it was Thoth who swept them away, and 
 " brought the Eye alive, and whole, and sound, and without defect 
 "to its lord" [Book of the Dead, xvii. 71, ff.) ; he seems also to 
 have performed the same office for Ra after his combat with Apep. 
 At the contest between Horus, son of Isis, who fought with Set in 
 order to avenge the murder of his father Osiris, Thoth was present, 
 and when Horus had cut off his mother's head because of her 
 interference in the fight at the moment when victory was inclining 
 to him, it was Thoth who gave her a cow's head in place of her 
 own. In all these fights Thoth was the arbiter, and his duty 
 was to prevent either god from gaining a decisive victory, and 
 from destroying the other ; in fact, he had to keep these hostile 
 forces in exact equilibrium, the forces being light and darkness, or 
 day and night, or good and evil, according to the date of the 
 composition of the legends, and the objects which the scribes 
 intended to secure by writing them down. In the group of titles 
 of Thoth quoted in this paragraph we see that he is called " great 
 god in Het-Abtit," or the Temple of Abtit, which was one of the 
 chief sanctuaries of the god, and was situated in Hermopolis. 
 
 The hieroglyphics with which the name " Het Abtit" are 
 written prove that they mean the " House of the Net," i.e., the 
 
 /*AAAA\ AlWVW ' 
 
 
406 THOTH 
 
 temple where a net was preserved and venerated, but the questions 
 naturally arise, what was this net, and what was its signification ? 
 "We know from the two versions of Chapter cliii. of the Book of the 
 Bead that a net was supposed to exist in the Underworld, and that 
 the deceased regarded it with horror and detestation. Every part 
 of it, its poles, and ropes, and weights, and small cords, and hooks, 
 had names which he was obliged to learn if he wished to escape 
 from it, and would make use of it to catch food for himself, instead 
 of being caught by " those who laid snares." Thus in a prayer we 
 read, " Hail, thou ' god who lookest behind thee,' thou ' god who 
 " hast gained the mastery over thine heart,' I go a-fishing with 
 " the cordage of the ' uniter of the earth ' (Horus ?), and of him 
 " that maketh a way through the earth. Hail, ye fishers who have 
 " given birth to your own fathers, who lay snares with your nets, 
 " and who go round about in the chambers of the waters, take ye 
 " not me in the net wherewith ye ensnared the helpless fiends, and 
 " rope me not in with the rope wherewith ye roped in the 
 " abominable fiends of earth, which had a frame which reached 
 " unto heaven, and weighted parts that rested upon the earth." 
 From this passage it is clear that the Egyptians possessed a legend 
 in which one power or the other in the mythological combats was 
 armed with a net wherein he tried to ensnare his adversary. In 
 Chapter cxxxiii. the deceased says, " Lift thyself up, thou Ra, 
 " who dwellest in thy divine shrine, draw thou into thyself the 
 " winds, inhale the north wind, and swallow thou the begesu 
 
 '' iJ^W^) of thy net ((]J '=^ ^) on the day wherein thou 
 " breathest Maat." The meaning of beqesu is not quite clear in 
 this passage, because from its determinative, (^ , we should naturally 
 connect it with some organ of the human body, but it is evident 
 from its context that Ra possessed a net, and we are certain from 
 the former extract that it was one of the weapons which he 
 employed in his war against the god and fiends of darkness. 
 
 An interesting parallel is afforded by the Assyrian and 
 Babylonian versions^ of the fight between the Sun-god Marduk 
 and the monster Tiamat and her fiends, for it is said in them, 
 
 1 See L. W. King, Babylonian Beligion, p. 71. 
 
THOTH 407 
 
 " He {i.e., Marduk) set the lightning in front of him, with burning 
 " fire he filled his body. He made a net to enclose the inward 
 " parts of Tiamat, the Four Winds he set so that nothing of her 
 " might escape ; the South wind, and the North wind, and the 
 " East wind, and the "West wind, he brought near to the net which 
 " his father Anu had given him." It is interesting to note that in 
 the passage from the cxxxiiird Chapter the winds are also men- 
 tioned in connexion with the net of Ra, and it is difficult not to 
 arrive at the conclusion that the use to which the Sun-god put his 
 net was the same in each legend ; whether this be so, however, or 
 not matters little for our purpose here. It is quite clear that in 
 the Egyptian legend the god Thoth was supposed to have some 
 connexion with the net of Ra, and it is equally clear that in his 
 temple, Avhich was called the Temple of the Net, the emblem of a 
 net, or perhaps even a net itself, was venerated. 
 
 "We are now able to sum up the attributes ascribed to Thoth, 
 and to consider how he employed them in connection with the 
 dead. In the first place, he was held to be both the heart and the 
 tongue of Ra, that is to say, he was the reason and the mental 
 powers of the god, and also the means by which their will was 
 translated into speech ; from one aspect he was speech itself, and 
 in later times he may well have represented, as Dr. Birch said, the 
 \dyos of Plato. In every legend in which Thoth takes a prominent 
 part we see that it is he who speaks the word that results in the 
 wishes of Ra being carried into effect, and it is evident that when 
 he had once given the word of command that command could not 
 fail to be carried out by one means or the other. He spoke the 
 words which resulted in the creation of the heavens and the earth, 
 and he taught Isis the words which enabled her to revivify the 
 dead body of Osiris in such wise that Osiris could beget a child by 
 her, and he gave her the formulae which brought back her son 
 Horus to life after he had been stung to death by a scorpion. His 
 knowledge and powers of calculation measured out the heavens, 
 and planned the earth, and everything which is in them ; his will 
 and power kept the forces in heaven and in earth in equilibrium ; 
 it was his great skill in celestial mathematics which made proper 
 use of the laws (madt ^^ <=■ : \) upon which the foundation and 
 
408 THOTH 
 
 maintenance of the universe rested ; it was lie who directed the 
 motions of the heavenly bodies and their times and seasons ; and 
 without his words the gods, whose existence depended upon them, 
 could not have kept their place among the followers of Ra. He 
 was the " scribe of the gods," and possessed almost unlimited power 
 in the Underworld ; the god Osiris was in many ways wholly 
 dependent upon his good offices, and the ordinary mortal sought 
 his words and help with great earnestness. In the Judgment 
 Scene in the Booh of the Bead it is Thoth who acts the part of the 
 recording angel, and it is his decision which is accepted by the 
 gods, who ratify the same and report it to Osiris ; for when once 
 Thoth said that the soul of the deceased had been weighed, and 
 that it had been found true by trial in the Great Balance, and 
 that there was no wickedness whatsoever in it, the sfods could not 
 fail to answer, " That which cometh forth from thy mouth is true, 
 " and the deceased is holy and righteous " ; and in consequence 
 they straightway award him a place with Osiris in the Sekhet- 
 Hetepu, or Elysian Fields. Thoth as the great god of words was 
 rightly regarded as the judge of words, and the testing of the soul 
 in the Balance in the Hall of Osiris is not described as the judging 
 or " weighing of actions," but as the " weighing of words," 
 
 To words uttered under certain conditions the greatest 
 importance was attached by the Egyptians, and in fact the whole 
 efficacy of prayer appears to have depended upon the manner and 
 tone of voice in which the words were spoken. Thoth could teach 
 a man not only words of power, but also the manner in which 
 to utter them, and the faculty most coveted by the Egyptian 
 was that which enabled him to pronounce the formulae and 
 Chapters of the Boole of the Bead in such a way that they could 
 not fail to have the effect which the deceased wished them to have. 
 After the names of deceased persons we always find in funeral 
 
 papyri the words mad Icheru ^^ I v §() ' *^^ ^^ ^ -®^ v I dil ' 
 which mean " he whose word is mad,'' that is to say, he whose 
 
 1 See the passages enumerated in my Vocabulary to the Booh of the Dead, 
 p. 96. 
 
THOTH, THE Scribe of the Gods. 
 
THOTH 409 
 
 words possess such power that Avhenever they are uttered by him 
 the effects which he wished them to produce unfaiHngly come to 
 pass. The words, however, here referred to are those which must 
 be learned from Thoth, and without the knowledge of them, and of 
 the proper manner in which they should be said the deceased could 
 never make his way through the Underworld. The formulae of 
 Thoth opened the secret pylons for him, and provided him with 
 the necessary meat, and drink, and apparel, and repelled baleful 
 fiends and evil spirits, and they gave him the power to know the 
 secret or hidden names of the monsters of the Underworld, and to 
 utter them in such a way that they became his friends and helped 
 him on his journey, until at length he entered the Fields of Peace 
 of Osiris or the Boat of Millions of Years. These are the words 
 referred to in the title of Thoth, " lord of divine words," or " lord 
 of the words of god." The whole of the Booh of the Bead was 
 assumed to be the composition of Thoth, and certain chapters of it 
 he '' wrote with his own fingers." In the late work called the 
 " Book of Breathings " it is said, " Thoth, the most mighty god, 
 " the lord of Khemennu, cometh to thee, and he writeth for thee 
 " the ' Book op Breathings ' with his own fingers. Thus thy 
 " soul shall breathe for ever and ever, and thy form shall be 
 " endowed with life upon earth, and thou shalt be made a god 
 " along with the souls of the gods, and they shall be the heart 
 " of Ra, and thy members shall be the members of the great god." ^ 
 In later times the epithet mad hheru appears to have had a some- 
 what different meaning from that given to it above, and at times it 
 may well be rendered " he whose word is right," and have 
 reference to the words of Thoth in the Judgment, Avhen he informs 
 the gods that the heart of Osiris has been weighed with the 
 strictest care on the part of himself and his ape, which sits on the 
 support of the Balance, and that at the weighing the heart in one 
 pan of the Scales was able to counterbalance exactly the feather of 
 Right or the Law in the other, and that the case of the individual 
 under examination was a " right " one. 
 
 From many passages in the Book of the Dead we learn of the 
 
 1 Chapters of Coming Forth by Bay (Translation), p. cxcvii. 
 
410 THOTH 
 
 services which Thoth performed for Osiris, and which he was to 
 repeat for the benefit of every man who was acquitted in the 
 Judgment. In the xviiith Chapter is a list of calamities which 
 were averted from Osiris by Thoth, who gave words to the dead 
 god and taught him to utter them with such effect that all the 
 enemies of Osiris were vanquished. Thus he made him to triumph 
 
 (semaa-kheru '^ ■ | ^ ) "in the presence of the great assessors 
 
 " of every god and of every goddess; in the presence of the assessors 
 " Avho are in Annu on the night of the battle and of the overthrow 
 " of the Sebau-fiend in Tattu ; on the night of making to stand up 
 " the double Tet in Sekhem ; on the night of the things of the 
 " night in Sekhem, in Pe, and in Tepu ; on the night of stablishing 
 " Horus in the heritage of the things of his father in Rekhti ; on 
 " the night when Isis maketh lamentation at the side of her 
 " brother Osiris in Abtu ; on the night of the Haker festival when 
 " a division is made between the dead and the spirits who are on 
 " the path of the dead ; on the night of the judgment of those who 
 " are to be annihilated at the great [festival of] the ploughing and 
 " the turning up of the earth in An-rut-f in Re-stau ; and on the 
 " night of making Horus to triumph over his enemies." In the 
 clxxxiiird Chapter the deceased Hunefer says to Osiris, " I have 
 " come unto thee, son of Nut, Osiris, Prince of everlastingness ; 
 " I am in the following of the god Thoth, and I have rejoiced at 
 " every thing which he hath done for thee. He hath brought unto 
 " thee sweet (i.e., fresh) air for thy nose, and life and strength to 
 " thy beautiful face, and the north wind which cometh forth from 
 " Tem for thy nostrils, lord of Ta-tchesert. He hath made the 
 " god Shu to shine upon thy body ; he hath illumined thy path 
 " with rays of splendour ; he hath destroyed for thee [all] the evil 
 " defects which belong to thy members by the magical power of 
 " the words of his utterance. He hath made the two Horus 
 " brethren to be at peace for thee ; he hath destroyed the storm- 
 " wind and the hurricane ; he hath made the Two Combatants to be 
 " gracious unto thee, and the two lands to be at peace before thee ; 
 " he hath put away the wrath which was in their hearts, and each 
 " hath become reconciled unto his brother." 
 
THOTH 411 
 
 In the xcivth Chapter the deceased addresses the " guardian 
 of the book of Thoth," and says, " I am endowed with glory, I am 
 " endowed with strength, I am filled with might, and I am 
 " supplied with the books of Thoth, and I have brought them to 
 " enable me to pass through the god Aker, who dwelleth in Set. 
 " I have brought the palette and the ink-pot as being the objects 
 " which are in the hands of Thoth ; hidden is that which is in 
 " them ! Behold me in the character of a scribe ! Heru-khuti, 
 " thou didst give me the command, and I have copied what is 
 " right and true, and I do bring it unto thee each day." In the 
 vignette of the chapter we see the deceased seated with a palette 
 and an ink-pot before him. 
 
 In the Pyramid Texts there is evidence^ that Thoth was 
 connected with the western sky just as Horus was identified with 
 the eastern sky, and this idea is amplified in an interesting fashion 
 in the clxxvth Chapter of the Book of the Bead, where we find 
 that the deceased addresses Thoth both as Thoth and as Temu, the 
 setting sun, or god of the west. He is disturbed about that which 
 " hath happened to the divine children of Nut," for " they have done 
 " battle, they have upheld strife, they have done evil, they have 
 " created the fiends, they have made slaughter, they have caused 
 " trouble ; in truth, in all their doings the mighty have worked 
 " against the weak .... And thou regardest not evil, nor art 
 " thou provoked to anger when they bring their years to confusion 
 " and throng in and push to disturb their months ; for in all that 
 " they have done unto thee they have worked iniquity in secret." 
 The deceased adds, " I am thy writing palette, Thoth, and I 
 " have brought unto thee thine ink-jar," and as he declares that 
 he is not one of those who work iniquity in secret places, at the 
 same time he clearly dissociates himself from those who do. These 
 words are followed by a very remarkable passage in which the 
 deceased, addressing Thoth under the name of Temu, asks the god 
 what the place is into which he has come, and he says that it is 
 without water, that " it hath not air, it is depth unfathomable, it 
 " is black as the blackest night, and men wander helplessly therein. 
 
 1 Brugsch, Eeligion, p. 451. 
 
412 THOTH 
 
 " In it a man may not live in quietness of heart ; nor may the 
 " longings of love be satisfied therein." A little further on in the 
 Chapter he asks the lord Tern, i.e., Thoth, " How long have I to 
 live ? " i.e., how long will my existence in this new world be ? 
 and the god replies, " Thou art for millions of millions of years, 
 " a period of life of millions of years," [1 ^ k=^ <=r> ^ i a«wva ^ i 
 f rrT^ "^^^ ^ ' ■ It is a remarkable fact that it is not Osiris, the 
 lord of life everlasting, but Temu-Thoth who promises the deceased 
 this coveted gift. 
 
 In the first part of the Chapter from which the above extracts 
 have been made Thoth is, clearly, appealed to in his capacity of 
 measurer and regulator of times and seasons, that is to say, as the 
 Moon-god, who is commonly called Aah-Tehdti, n _ — d | O ■cv/t ^ ' 
 or n — D I O j!^) " the great god, the lord of heaven, the king of 
 
 the gods," and "the maker of eternity and creator of everlasting- 
 ness." Under this form the god Thoth is depicted : — 1. As a 
 mummy, standing upon the symbol of madt ^=i, and holding in 
 his hands the emblems of " life," •¥•, "stability," n, " sovereignty 
 and dominion," J\^ | , and the sceptre j; on his head is the 
 crescent moon, O, and by the side of his head he has the lock of 
 hair, symbolic of youth, %. 2. As a bearded, mummied human 
 figure with the crescent moon on his head, and the lock of hair 
 symbolic of youth. The head, however, has two faces, which are 
 intended, presumably, to represent the periods of the waxing and 
 the waning of the moon.^ In some scenes we have Aah-Tehuti 
 represented in the form of a disk resting between the horns of the 
 crescent moon, and placed upon a pedestal in a boat similar to 
 that in which Ra is usually seen; sometimes sm utchat, ^^, is 
 placed over each end of the boat. In one interesting scene the 
 god Aah-hetep is represented with the head of an ibis surmounted 
 by the lunar disk and crescent seated in a boat, and a dog-headed 
 ape stands before him and presents an utcJiat ; it is noteworthy 
 that the curved end of the boat is notched like the notched palm 
 branch which symbolizes "years," ^, In the narrowest sense 
 
 1 For the figures see Lanzone, op. cit., pll. 36 iS. 
 

 The Moon God AAH. 
 
THOTH 413 
 
 Aah-Tehuti symbolizes the new moon, and this is only natural, 
 for, as is well known, all calculations made by the moon in the 
 East from time immemorial have been based upon the first 
 appearance of the new moon in the sky ; but, generally speaking, 
 Thoth as the Moon-god represents the moon during the whole 
 
 month. On the other hand, the JJtchat of Thoth, ^^ , indicates 
 
 the full moon, just as the JJtchat of Ra ^^ stands for the mid-day 
 
 sun ; this fact is proved by an interesting scene reproduced by 
 
 Signor Lanzone ^ from Brugsch, Monuments (Berlin, 1857). Here 
 
 we see the god Thoth, ibis-headed, standing by the side of a lotus 
 
 [==1 
 pillar which supports heaven, | , resting on heaven is a crescent, 
 
 and in it is the Utchat of Thoth, ^^. Leading up to the top of 
 
 the pillar is a flight of fourteen steps, of unequal length, which are 
 intended to represent the first fourteen days of the month, and at 
 the foot of it stand fourteen gods,^ the first of these being Tem, who 
 has his right foot resting on the first step, which is the shortest of 
 the whole flight. The gods who stand behind him are : — Shu, 
 Tefuut, Seb, Nut, Horus, Isis, Nephthys, Heru-em-het-Aa, Amseth, 
 Hap, Tua-mut-f, Qebh-sennuf, and a god without a name. 
 
 In a more extended sense the Utchat of Thoth represented the 
 left eye of Ra, or the winter half of the year, when the heat of the 
 sun was not so strong, nor its light so great, and when darkness 
 remained in the skies for a longer period. This Utchat of Thoth, 
 or of Thoth-Horus, as it should more correctly be called, is 
 mentioned in the Pyramid Texts,^ where it is called the " Black 
 Bye of Horus " ; thus of King Unas it is said, " Thou hast seized 
 " the two Eyes of Horus, the White Eye and the Black Eye, 
 " and thou hast carried them off and set them in front of thee and 
 " they give light to thy face."* The White Eye here referred to 
 
 1 Op. cit., pi. 39. 
 
 2 The head and name of the fourth god are wanting. 
 
 3 Unas, 1. 37 ; the reference given by Brugsch is, like many others in his 
 Religion, incorrect. 
 
 1 
 
414 THOTH 
 
 is, of course, the sun. Thus we see that Thoth not only brought 
 the Eye of Ra to the god, as we have already said, but that he also 
 established the Eye of the Moon-god, who was indeed only a form 
 of himself, and that Thoth was also in certain aspects identified 
 
 with Osiris, Aj\ Jj, and with Horus, ^^ ^%, and with Tern, 
 
 and therefore with Khepera. One other attribute of Thoth 
 remains to be noticed, i.e., that which is made known to us by 
 the xcvth Chapter of the Book of the Dead, wherein the deceased 
 says, " I am he who sendeth forth terror into the powers of rain 
 " and thunder, .... I have jnade to flourish my knife along with 
 " the knife which is in the hand of Thoth in the powers of rain and 
 " thunder." The short composition in which this passage occurs is 
 called the " Chapter of being nigh unto Thoth," and in the vignette 
 the deceased is seen standing before Thoth with both hands raised 
 in adoration. 
 
 From the above facts it is quite clear that the Greeks were 
 generally coiTect in the statements which they made about the 
 wisdom and learning of Thoth, whom they identified with their 
 own Hermes. They described him as the inventor of astronomy 
 and astrology, the science of numbers and mathematics, geometry 
 and land surveying, medicine and botany ; he was the first to 
 found a system of theology, and to organize a settled government 
 in the country ; he established the worship of the gods, and made 
 rules concerning the times and nature of their sacrifices ; he 
 composed the hymns and prayers which men addressed to them, 
 and drew up liturgical works ; he invented figures, and the letters 
 of the alphabet, and the arts of reading, writing, and oratory in all 
 its branches ; and he was the author of every work on every 
 branch of knowledge, both human and divine. According to 
 Clemens Alexandrinus {Stromata, vi.) the " Books of Thoth " ^ were 
 forty-two . in number, and they were divided into six classes ; 
 books i.-x. dealt with the laws, and the gods, and the education of 
 
 1 On the Books of Thotli, see some interesting remarks by Brugscli in 
 Beligion und Mythologie, pp. 448 S. ; this distingnished Egyptologist thought he 
 had discovered the original hieroglyphic titles of many of these inscribed on the 
 walls of the temple of Edf il. 
 
THOTH 415 
 
 the priests ; books xi.-xx. treated of the services of tlie gods, i.e., 
 sacrifices, offerings, forms of worship, etc. ; books xxi.-xxx. related 
 to the history of the world, geography, and hieroglyphics ; books 
 xxxi.-xxxiv. formed treatises on astronomy and astrology ; books 
 XXXV. and xxxvi. contained a collection of religious compositions ; 
 and books xxxvii.-xlii. were devoted to medicine. An attempt was 
 made some years ago to include the Book of the Dead among the 
 " Books of Thoth," but it is now quite certain that, although Thoth 
 was declared to have written some of its Chapters, it must be re- 
 garded as an entirely separate work and as one which enjoyed a much 
 greater reputation than they. How Thoth was able to perform all 
 the various duties which Avere assigned to him by the ancients it is 
 difficult to understand, until we remember that according to the 
 Egyptian texts he was the heart, i.e., the mind, and reason, and 
 understanding of the god Ra. The title given to him in some 
 
 inscriptions, ^^ ^^ ; , "three times great, great," from which 
 
 the Greeks derived their appellation of the god 6 Tpicr/ieyto-To?, 
 or " ter maximus," has not yet been satisfactorily explained, and 
 at present the exact meaning which the Egyptians assigned to it is 
 unknown.^ It is, hoAvever, quite clear that Thoth held in their 
 minds a position which was quite different from that of any other 
 god, and that the attributes which they ascribed to him were 
 unlike the greater number of those of any member of their 
 companies of the gods. The character of Thoth is a lofty and a 
 beautiful conception, and is, perhaps, the highest idea of deity ever 
 fashioned in the Egyptian mind, which, as we have already seen, 
 was somewhat prone to dwell on the material side of divine 
 matters. Thoth, however, as the personification of the mind 
 of God, and as the all-pervading, and governing, and directing 
 power of heaven and of earth, forms a feature of the Egyptian 
 religion which is as sublime as the belief in the resurrection of 
 the dead in a spiritual body, and as the doctrine of everlasting 
 life. 
 
 1 A number of valuable facts have been collected on the subject generally by 
 Pietschmann, in his Hermes Trismegistus, nach aegyptischen, griechischen und 
 orientalischen Ueherliefungen, 1875. 
 
416 MA AT 
 
 The goddess Maa, or Maat, ^^|=^^j ^e ^fl[)J: ], 
 
 Closely connected with Thoth, so closely in fact that she may 
 be regarded as the feminine counterpart of the god, is the goddess 
 Mag,t, who stood with Thoth in the boat of Ra when the Sun-god 
 rose above the waters of the primeval abyss of Nu for the first 
 time. The type and symbol of this goddess is the ostrich feather, 
 
 R, which is always seen fastened to her head-dress, and is some- 
 times seen in her hand. She is represented in the form of a woman 
 seated, or standing, JJ, and she holds the sceptre, jj , in one hand, 
 and ■¥-, the emblem of "life," in the other; in many pictures of 
 her she is provided ivith a pair of wings which are attached one to 
 each arm, and in a few cases she has the body of a woman with an 
 ostrich feather for a head. 
 
 The reason for the association of the ostrich feather with Maat 
 is unknown, as is also the primitive conception which underlies the 
 name, but it is certainly very ancient, and probably dates from 
 predynastic times. The hieroglyphic ^=^, which also has the 
 phonetic value of Maat, is described by some as a "cubit," i.e., the 
 measure of a cubit, and by others as a "flute," which would, 
 presumably, be made of a reed. "We see, however, that the god 
 Ptah usually stands upon a pedestal made in the shape of ^=i, and 
 that figures of the god Osiris stand upon pedestals of similar form, 
 and as we have no reason for supposing that the figures of these 
 two gods were placed upon flutes it is tolerably certain that / — \ 
 must mean something else besides flute. We know that Ptah of 
 Memphis was the god of artificers in general and of workers in 
 metal and of sculptors in particular ; it is far more likely that the 
 form of his pedestal, / — i, was intended to represent some tool 
 which was used by sculptors and carvers, e.g., a chisel, or the 
 identification of the object as a " cubit " may be correct if it 
 means that it was some instrument used for measuring purposes. 
 
 About the meaning of the word maat "^ ^ ; I i , there is, fortunately, 
 no difficulty, for from many passages in texts of all periods we 
 
CONCEPTIONS OF MAAT 417 
 
 leam tliat it indicated primarily " that which is straight," and it 
 was probably the name which was given to the instrument by 
 which the work of the handicraftsman of every kind was kept 
 straight ; as far as we can see the same ideas which were attached 
 to the Greek word kovwv (which iirst of all seems to have meant 
 any straight rod used to keep things straight, then a rule used by 
 masons, and finally, metaphorically, a rule, or law, or canon, by 
 which the lives of men and their actions were kept straight and 
 governed) belong to the Egyptian word madt. The Egyptians 
 used the word in a physical and a moral sense, and thus it came to 
 mean " right, true, truth, real, genuine, upright, righteous, just, 
 steadfast, unalterable," etc. ; khesbet madt is "real lapis-lazuli " as 
 opposed to blue paste ; shes madt means " ceaselessly and regularly," 
 em un madt indicates that a thing is really so, the man who is 
 good, and honest is madt, the truth {madt) is great and mighty, 
 and " it hath never been broken since the time of Osiris " ; finally, 
 the exact equivalent of the English words " God wiU judge the 
 
 right " is found in the Egyptian im neter dpu pa madt, 
 
 The goddess Maat was, then, the personification of physical 
 and moral law, and order and truth. In conhexioh^with the Sun- 
 god Ra she indicated the regularity with which he rose and set in 
 the sky, and the course which he followed daily from east to west. 
 Thus in a hymn to Ra we read, " The land of Manu (i.e., the Wes^ 
 " receiveth thee with satisfaction, and the goddess Maat embraceth 
 " thee both at morn and at eve;" " the god Thoth and the goddess 
 " Maat have written down thy daily course for thee every day ; " 
 " may I see Horus acting as steersman [in the. boat of Ra] with 
 " Thoth and Maat, one on each side of him." ^ In another hymn 
 Qenna says, " I have come to thee, Lord of the gods, Temu- 
 " Heru-khuti, whom Maat directeth ; " Amen-Ra is said to "rest 
 upon Maat," i.e., to subsist by Maat; Ra is declared to "live by 
 Maat ; " Osiris " carries along the earth in his train by Maat in his 
 name of Seker." In her capacity of regulator of the path of the 
 
 1 Papyrus of Ani, slieet 1. 
 E e 
 
418 HALL OF MAAT 
 
 Sun-god Maat is said to be the " d aughter of Ra." a nd the '^ eye of 
 Ra," and '' lad^ujljieayen, qu5£n„Qf Jiie-^apth,-ani mistI^^^ 
 Underworld," and she was, of course, " the lady of the gods and 
 goddesses?' As a moral power MaSt was the greatest of the . 
 
 godd esses, and in her dual fo rm of Maati, DD ^ J| j|j ^■^■■> the Maat 
 
 goddess of the South and the North, she was the lady of the 
 Judgment Hall, and she became the personification of justice, 
 who awarded to every man his due ; judgi ng by s om e vignett es^ 
 whigh_ represent the weighin g of t he.Jieart she took at times the 
 form of the Balance itself. The hall in which Maat sat in double 
 form to hear the " confession " of the dead is often depicted in 
 connection with the cxxvth Chapter of the Book of the Dead, 
 and we see that it was spacious, and that the cornice thereof 
 was formed of uraei and of feathers symbolic of Maat. In the 
 centre of it is a god with both hands stretched out over a 
 lake, and at each end of the hall is seated an ape before a pair 
 of scales. 
 
 Anubis was the guardian of the door at the end by 
 which the deceased entered, and which was called Khersek-Shu, 
 
 «=—> \ ^~~° [i >> r^ 5 o^^ I'^^f of ^^^ *loor was called Neb-Maat- 
 heri-tep-retui-f, ^=7 g ' i ^^ i 11 '^^ ' ^^^ *h® other leaf 
 Neb-pehti-thesu-menmenet, •'^zz^ —^ f]f] ^ ~wvaa "fej i . 
 These names had to be learnt and uttered by the deceased before 
 he was allowed to enter the Hall of the Maati goddesses, %. ® 
 
 ^^3% (°^' ^^MlkJkt)- ^^'^ he arrived inside'S 
 Hall he found assembled there the Forty-two Assessors or Judges 
 drawn up in two rows, each of which contained twenty-one Judges, 
 one on each side of the length of the Hall. Before each of these 
 he was obliged to make a solemn declaration that he had not 
 committed a certain sin ; these forty-two denials are commonly 
 known as the "Negative Confession." ^ The names of the Assessors 
 
 1 An Englislx translation will be found in my Chapters of Coming Forth 
 Day, p. 193 ff. 
 
The Goddess MAAT. 
 
ASSESSORS OF MAAT 
 
 419 
 
 according to the Papyrus of Nebseni (Brit. Mus., No. 9,900, sheet 
 30) are as follows : — 
 
 1. Usekht-nemmat, %,n^: ^ 
 
 2. Hept-shet, |°Q 
 
 3. Fenti, </p '~ ' 
 
 X 
 
 4. Am - khaibetu, — 
 6. Neha-hau, Y "^ 
 
 ? Ill 
 
 _2ai '=^ 
 
 W 
 
 6. Rerti, 
 
 7. Maati-f-em-tes, 
 
 H— irnm 
 
 /WVA 
 
 8. Neba-per-em-khetkhet, | 
 
 
 J\ 
 
 9. Set-kesu, |1 
 LO. Uatch 
 11. Qerti, 
 
 10. Uatch-nes, 
 
 Z! O O 
 
 12. Hetch-abehu 
 
 A 
 
 x> X N I 
 
 o 
 
 <:• 
 
 13. Am-senf, -jj- 
 
 U. Am-beseku, -J-^^ JP 
 
 15. Neb-Maat, ^=^ ^ ^ P 1 1 
 
 16. Thenemi^^l^llijyi. 
 
 17. Aati, _,^-= 
 
 18. Tutu-f, (^^[^ 
 
 19. Uamemti,'^ 
 
 20. Maa-an-f, 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 w 
 
 ^ 
 
 21. Heri-seru, 
 
 22. Khemi, ® 
 
 23. Shet-kheru,^ 
 
 24. Nekhen, ® S). 
 
 25. Ser-kheru, ^f^f^l). 
 
 26. Basti, ^;;|. 
 
 27. Hra-f-ha-f, tlf\£. 
 
 28. Ta-ret, -^[J|y^. 
 
 29. Kenemti, 
 
 30. An-hetep-f, ^ 
 
 31. Neb-hrau, ^^^7 -^ 
 
 32. Serekhi, ^(j(] ^• 
 
 33. Neb-abui, ^37 ^ W^^ 
 
 34. Nefer-Tem, J^^^. 
 
 35. Tem-sep, ^^^@|. 
 
 36. Ari-em-ab-f, -c^ ^ "^ ' 
 
 37. Ahi-mu (?), (] I (j(j ^ 
 
 38. Utu - rekhit, j ^ | ' 
 
 
 39. Neheb - nefert, "^ |J 
 
 12- 
 
 40. Neheb-kau,'^|JxLpll 
 
 41. Tcheser-tep, '*==-^ H ® 
 
 42. An-a-f, 
 
 •'1 
 
420 ASSESSORS OF MAAT 
 
 Even when the deceased had satisfied the Forty-two Assessors 
 he could not pass out of the Hall of Maati unless he knew the 
 magical names of the various parts of the door which opened into 
 the regions of the blessed. In the address which he makes to the 
 gods collectively, and which is usually considered to have been 
 made after the Negative Confession, he summarizes his good deeds, 
 and declares to the god Osiris, whom he calls the " lord of the 
 Atef crown," that he has done Madt, and purified himself with 
 Madt, and that none of his members lack Madt. He tells how he 
 has been to the " Field of the Grasshoppers," and how he has 
 bathed in the pool wherein the sailors of Ra bathe, and describes 
 all the things which he has done, including the finding of a sceptre 
 of flint in the " furrow of Maat." Finally, having satisfied all the 
 various parts of the door by declaring to them their magical names, 
 
 he comes to the god Mau-taui, ^^^ a ,^^ v\ ^ '" ^ ^ 3 , who acts 
 
 as guardian of the Hall of Maati, and who refuses to allow him to 
 pass unless he tells his name. The deceased says, " Thy name is 
 
 Sa-abu-tchar-khat," .■^m \\ Qa '^ i 2^1) ) A , and demands 
 
 ' .m si' 1 I ^=.U ^-^ ^ III' 
 
 to be admitted, but the god is not satisfied, and asks him, " Who is 
 
 the god that dwelleth in his hour ? " In reply the deceased utters 
 
 the name Mau-taui, whereupon he is at once asked by the god, 
 
 " And who is this ? " and in answer the deceased says, " Mau-taui is 
 
 Thoth." On this Thoth asks the reason of his coming to the Hall, 
 
 and when the deceased has told him that he has come because he 
 
 wished his name to be written down by him, Thoth questions him 
 
 further as to the fitness of his condition and as to the identity of 
 
 the being " whose heaven is of fire, whose walls are living uraei, 
 
 " and the floor of whose house is a stream of water." In answer to 
 
 these questions he says that he is " purified from evil things," and 
 
 that the being whose house is described is Osiris, whereupon Thoth 
 
 calls upon him to enter, saying that his name shall be " mentioned " 
 
 or recorded. 
 
 Thus we see r how closely the attributes of Maat merge into 
 
 those of Thoth, and how the fate of the deceased depends ultimately 
 
 upon these deities. It was not, however, sufficient for him to pass 
 
 the Assessors, for beyond them stood Thoth with his final, search- 
 
The Goddess NEKHEMAUAIT. 
 
NEHEMAUAIT 421 
 
 ing questions ; Thoth spake the word which caused the universe to 
 come into being, and it was he who had the power to utter the 
 name of the deceased in such a way that his new spiritual body- 
 would straightway come into being in the realm of Osiris. Thoth 
 in one respect was greater than Ra, and in another he was greater 
 than Osiris, but both from a physical and a moral, point of viawJie 
 was connected-inseparably with the-Maat, which was the highest 
 conception-Qf,_^physical and moral law and order known to the 
 Egyptians. 
 
 The goddess Nehemauait ^ ^^^^^^41 ^^'^J^- 
 
 Now besides Maat or the Maati goddesses we find that there 
 were other goddesses who were associated with Thoth in different 
 parts of Egypt, and among these is Nehemauait, who is described 
 
 as the dweller in Aat-tchamutet, 1^^=^ | \\ "^ , and as the " holy 
 
 and mighty lady in Khemennu " (Hermopolis),^ and the " mistress of 
 
 and "the dweller in Dendera," l-°~sI A ®. Thus we see that she 
 
 was the goddess of the great temple in the city of Thoth, i.e., 
 Hermopolis, and that she had a shrine in Dendera, and in the 
 metropolis of the fifteenth nome of Lower Egypt, which is here 
 mentioned under its civil name " Bahut " ; the sacred name of 
 
 the city was Per-Tehuti-ap-rehuh, ^ > ^ ^ k^k©, i.e., 
 
 " Temple of Thoth, the judge between the Behui (Horus and Set)." 
 The texts described her as the " daughter of Ra," and the manner 
 in which she is depicted proves that she was regarded as a form of 
 the goddess Hathor. In the examples given by Signer Lanzone ^ 
 she has the form of a woman, and she wears upon her head either 
 
 the sistrum, 1 , or a disk resting between a pair of horns ; in one 
 
 picture a papyrus sceptre, |, rests on the palm of her right hand, 
 
 and a figure of Maat, ^ , on that of her left. A very interesting 
 
 t 
 
 = = 
 
 Bizionario, pi. 174; and see Brugsch, Eeligion, p. 471. 
 
422 NEHEMAUAIT— MEHURT 
 
 sketch also given by Signer Lanzone shows that her emblem was a 
 Hathor-headed standard, on the top of which was a sistrum ; on 
 each side of the sistrum is a uraeus with a disk on its head, Q , 
 
 and from each side of the face of the goddess hang two similar 
 uraei. The standard is held up in a vertical position by two men 
 who stand one on each side. Plutarch, as Brugsch has noted, says 
 that Typhon was driven away by a sistrum, which seems to 
 indicate that the rattling of the wires produced a sound that had a 
 terrifying effect upon that evil beast ; ladies of high rank and 
 priestesses are often depicted with sistra in their hands, and 
 though this fact is usually explained by assuming that those who 
 hold sistra assisted in the musical parts of the services in the 
 temples, it is very probable that they carried them both as amulets 
 and as musical instruments. Dr. Brugsch quotes two passages 
 from texts in which a royal personage declares that demoniacal 
 powers are kept away from him by means of the sistrum which he 
 holds in his hand. Nehemauait is not mentioned in the Booh of 
 the Dead, and it seems that she is not an ancient deity ; she is 
 probably a comparatively modern form of some well kno^vn older 
 goddess. 
 
 From the texts of the late dynastic period we find that she 
 was identified with Meh-urt ^ and with the goddess whose name 
 
 is variously read Sefekh-aabu and Sesheta. Meh-urt, °^ 9 /^^wv 
 <=> ^:a Up,, is mentioned but rarely in the Book of the Bead 
 (xvii. 76, 79; Ixxi. 13; cxxiv. 17), but the passage in the 
 xviith Chapter tells us exactly who she is. The deceased says 
 there, " I behold Ra who was born yesterday from the buttocks of 
 " the goddess Meh-urt," and as answer to the question, " What 
 " then is this ? " we have the words, "It is the watery abyss of 
 " heaven, or (as others say), It is the image of the Eye of Ra in 
 " the morning at his daily birth, Meh-urt is the Eye (Utchat) of 
 " Ra." Meh-urt was originally a female personification of the 
 watery matter which formed the substance of the world, and her 
 name, which means "mighty fulness," indicates that she was the 
 
 1 The Methyer {Medvep) of Plutarcli. 
 
I 
 
 I- 
 111 
 
 2 
 
 « 
 u 
 
 a 
 a 
 o 
 O 
 
 u 
 
 X 
 
 I- 
 
NEHEMAUAIT— ME^URT 423 
 
 abundant and unfailing source of the matter of every kind whicli 
 was fecundated by the male germs of life of every kind ; she was, 
 in fact, a form of the primeval female creative principle, and in 
 some aspects was identified with Isis and Hathor. She, of course, 
 is a later conception than Nut, or Nit (Neith), of both of whom she 
 was also a form. In one of the representations of the goddess 
 figured by Signor Lanzone ' she is depicted in the form of a 
 pregnant woman with full, protruding breasts, emblem of fertility, 
 but she usually appears as the great cow of the sky, either in the 
 form which is illustrated on p. 368, or in that given in the accom- 
 panying plate. Sometimes she has the body of a woman and the 
 head of a cow, and then she holds in her right hand a sceptre 
 round which is twined the stalk of a lotus flower which she appears 
 to be smelling ; the flower itself is between ^ , the symbols of the 
 
 South and the North, and is supposed to represent the great world 
 lotus flower, out of which rose the sun for the first time at the 
 Creation. The usual titles of the goddess are "lady of heaven, 
 " mistress of all the gods, mistress of the two lands," but she is also 
 said to have " existed from the beginning," and to have helped 
 Thoth to create the first things which appeared in Khemennu or 
 Hermopolis. In primitive times the " weighing of words," i.e., the 
 examination and judgment of the dead, was believed to take place ta 
 the HaU of Meh-urt, which seems to prove that in very early times 
 the attributes of Maat were ascribed to the great goddess, whose 
 form was the cow, and that the souls of the dead were thought to 
 be judged in the sky. The first conception of the Judgment was 
 probably physical, and it was not until the period when the cult of 
 Osiris became predominant that it assulhed the character with 
 which we are familiar from the Booh of the Dead. It would seem 
 that in the very ancient times it was the body and not the soul 
 that was the subject of examination by the celestial powers, and 
 this is what is to be expected in predynastic times when the 
 theory of the resurrection then current demanded a renewed or 
 revivified physical body. 
 
 Closely associated with Thoth in the performance of certain of 
 
 1 Op. oit., pi. 131 ff. 
 
424 THOTH AND SEFKHET-AABUT 
 
 his duties as the god of letters and learning, was the goddess 
 
 ^'^Jj, whose name is generally read Sefkhet-aabut, 1 
 
 >^ X X "^Jj; the reading "Sesheta" has also been proposed for 
 
 the hieroglyphic sign, T, which forms the symbol of this goddess, 
 
 but both readings are merely guesses, for the phonetic value of the 
 sign has not yet been ascertained, and even the sign itself has not 
 been identified. All that is certain about it is that in some 
 pictures of the goddess the sign seems to be compounded of a pair 
 of horns inverted over a seven-rayed star, or flower with seven 
 petals, supported on a standard. Dr. Brngsch believed that 
 Sefkhet-aabut was the correct reading of the name, and that it 
 either meant, " she who has inverted her horns," or, " she who is 
 provided with seven horns," the latter meaning being suggested by 
 the similarity of the first part of the name Seflchet with the ordinary 
 word for " seven." From the pictures of the goddess and the titles 
 which accompany them it is quite certain what her functions 
 were. We see her wearing her characteristic symbols on her 
 head, with a close-fitting panther skin garment upon her body, 
 and in her hands she holds a scribe's palette and writing reed ; 
 in this form she is called " the great one, the lady of the house of 
 
 books," . Thus she was a goddess of literature 
 
 and the library. 
 
 Elsewhere we see her without her panther skin garment, 
 
 holding a writing reed in the right hand, and the cartouche CZDI, 
 
 symbolic of " name " in her left ; in this form she suggests the 
 idea of being a kind of recording angel, not so much of the deeds 
 committed by man, but of their names, of which she, presumably, 
 took note, that her associate Thoth might declare them before 
 Osiris. In the title which accompanies this picture she is called 
 " great one, lady of letters, mistress of the house of books," 
 
 ^^:^' ^R ^ "^^^ '^ . In another scene ^ she holds a notched 
 
 palm branch in her hand, and she appears to be counting the 
 notches ; the lower end of the branch rests on the back of a frog, 
 
 1 For all these pictures see Lanzone, op. cit., pi. 340. 
 
5 
 
 o 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 Q 
 O 
 
 CD 
 
 I 
 H 
 
 n 
 z 
 
SEFKHET-AABUT 425 
 
 seated upon Q, the emblem of "eternity," and from the upper 
 end hangs the symbol of the double Set festival, LM. Thus she 
 
 appears in the character of the chronographer and chronologist ; 
 the use of the notched palm-branch as a symbol of the counting of 
 years takes us back to a custom which was probably prevalent in 
 predynastic times. In yet another scene we find the goddess 
 standing before a column of hieroglyphics meaning "life," and 
 " power," and " thirty-year festivals," which rest upon a seated 
 figure who holds in each hand •¥-, "life," and who typifies 
 " millions of years." In connection with this must be noted a 
 passage in a text in which she declares to a king that she has 
 inscribed on her register on his behalf a period of life which shall be 
 " hundreds of thousands of thirty-year periods," and has ordained 
 that his years shall be upon the earth like the years of Ra, i.e., that 
 he shall live for ever. In the Boole of the Dead (Ivii. 6) the deceased 
 says, " My mouth and my nostrils are opened in Tattu, and I have 
 " my place of peace in Annu, wherein is my house ; it was built 
 " for me by the goddess Sefekh-aabut (or Sesheta), and the god 
 " Khnemu set it up for me upon its walls." And again he says 
 (clii. 3), " The goddess Sefekh-aabut hath brought the god Nebt, 
 " and Anpu (Anubis) hath called unto the Osiris Nu (i.e., to me) 
 "to build a house on the earth. Its foundation is in Kher-aha, 
 " its shrine is the god Sekhem, who dwelleth in Sekhem, according 
 " to that which I have written the renewal thereof, and men and 
 " women bring offerings, and libations, and ministrants. And 
 " Osiris saith unto all the gods who are in his train, and who 
 " journey [with him], ' Behold ye the house which hath been built 
 " ' for a spirit who is well-equipped, and who cometh daily to 
 " ' renew himself among you.' " In the clxixth Chapter (line 18) 
 the goddess is said to be seated before the deceased, and the 
 goddess Sa protects his members. 
 
 These passages show that Sefekh-aabut was supposed to be 
 
 the " goddess of construction," I ^, and she would thus be a 
 
 suitable counterpart of Thoth, and one fitted to carry out his 
 commands concerning the Creation. It is, however, certain from 
 many passages that her chief duties were connected with the writing 
 
426 THOTH AND UNNUT 
 
 of history, and happy was the king who was fortunate enough to 
 have his deeds recorded by the fingers of the goddess herself, and 
 his abode in the next world built on the plan which she drew up 
 in accordance with her attributes as the inventor of letters, the 
 lady of the builder's measure, and the founder of architecture.^ 
 In a text quoted by Brugsch she declares to Seti that her words 
 concerning him shall never be gainsaid, that her hand shall set 
 down in writing his fame after the manner of her brother Thoth, 
 and all according to the decree of Tem. She was identified with 
 the goddess Renenet, ^^ ^ D- , and with Isis, and at Dendera she 
 is called the " daughter of Nut ; " at Lycopolis she was regarded 
 as the sister of Osiris, and the mother of Heru-nub, '^, or the 
 " Horus of gold." 
 
 Yet another goddess must be mentioned in connection with 
 Maat and Thoth, that is to say, TJnnut, ^^ ^ ^ , the lady of Unnu, 
 ■^^ ^ e^ 1 '^^'^ must not be confused with Unnut, the goddess of 
 the hours, who is depicted in the form of a woman with a star upon 
 her head. The former goddess has, on the other hand, the body 
 of a woman with the head of a hare, and she usually holds in each 
 hand a knife, ^''^^^ ; ^ sometimes she holds a sceptre in one hand, 
 and ■¥-, "life," in the other. One aspect of her, i.e., that of the 
 goddess who destroys with her knives, was identified with Sekhet, 
 Y P„ , and in this form she was the deity of the city Menhet, 
 
 8 g^ . From a passage in the cxxxviith Chapter of the Booh 
 
 of the Dead we may gain some idea of the antiquity of the goddess 
 Unnut, for towards the end of the rubric (line 38) it is said that 
 the Chapter was found in the handwriting of the god Thoth 
 
 in the temple of "Unnut, lady of Unnu," ^^^ ^""J^Pn ^^ 
 ■^^O V®? ^y Heru-tata-f, the son of Khufu, i.e., Cheops, a 
 king of the IVth Dynasty. Thus it is clear that even in that 
 remote period a temple in honour of the goddess existed at 
 Unnu, i.e., Hermopolis, or the city of Thoth. Unnu, as we know, 
 was the chief city of the nome Un, the chief local god of which 
 
 1 See Brugsch, Beligion, p. 474. 2 gee Lanzone, op. cit., pi. 52. 
 
The Goddess SESHETA. 
 
AP-REHUI 427 
 
 was depicted in the form of a hare, ^^ , and Unnut is the female 
 counterpart of the god Unnu, and was the old local goddess of the 
 metropolis of the nome. 
 
 In the vignette of the cxth Chapter of the Book of the Dead 
 (Papyrus of Ani, pi, 35) we see the deceased standing with hands 
 raised in adoration before three seated deities, the iirst having the 
 head of a hare, the second that of a snake, and the third that of a 
 bull ; behind him stands the god Thoth with palette and reed, but 
 whether he is in any way connected with the three gods cannot be 
 said. A hare-headed god is also seen as one of the group of 
 three gods who preside over one of the Arits in the Underworld ; 
 according to the Papyrus of Ani it is the first Arit, and according 
 to the Papyrus of Nu it is the second. At Dendera a hare- 
 headed god is seen wrapped in mummy swathings, with his hands 
 in such a position that they suggest his identification with Osiris, 
 and an attempt has been made ^ to show in connexion with this 
 representation that the hare -headed god was called Un, that this 
 name appears in the compound name "Un-nefer," the well-known 
 title of Osiris, that the hare-god Un was only another form of 
 Osiris, and that the name Un was applied to Osiris because he 
 " sprang up," like the hare, which, as the rising sun, is said to be 
 the " springer." According to this view the goddess Unnut would 
 be a female form of the hare-god Un or Unnu, but Brugsch's 
 opinion which makes her to be the goddess of the city of Unnu, or 
 Hermopolis, is more correct, especially when we remember that 
 the cities An, and Apt, and Behutet, etc., possessed goddesses of 
 the city which were called Anit, and Apit, and Behutit. We have 
 already seen that the goddess Maat had two forms, i.e., Maat of 
 the South and Maat of the North, and similarly we find that 
 Unnut had two forms, one of which belonged to Hermopolis of the 
 South, and the other to Hermopolis of the North, the ^^W" 
 Unnu meht of the text, i.e., Hermopolis Parva, wherein Thoth 
 was worshipped under the form of Ap-eehtji, \J <=> | 
 together with his female counterpart Nehemauait,^ 
 
 1 See Renouf in Trans. Soc. Bill. Arch., vol. ix., pp. 281-294. 
 
 2 Brugscli, Beligion, p. 477 ; de Rouge, G6ograpMe, pp. 30, 102. 
 
( 428 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 HATHOR, 0^^q|, HET-HERT, AND THE 
 HATHOR GODDESSES 
 
 THE goddess Hathor is one of the oldest known deities of 
 Egypt, and it is certain that, under the form of a cow, 
 she was worshipped in the early part of the archaic period, 
 because a flint model of the head and horns of the cow, which was 
 her type and symbol, has been found among the early archaic, or 
 late predynastic flints in Egypt.^ The forms in which the goddess 
 is depicted are numerous, but this is not to be wondered at, 
 because during the course of the dynastic period she was 
 identified with every important local goddess, and all their 
 attributes, of whatever class and kind, were ascribed to her. 
 The oldest form of all is probably that of the cow, and this was 
 preserved, though chiefly in funeral 'scenes and in the Book of 
 the Dead, until the beginning of the Roman period. Het-Hert, 
 
 "^ rv if J '^^^ name of the goddess, means the " House above," 
 
 Q 
 
 i.e., the region of the sky or heaven, and another form of it, 
 which is to be read Het-Heru, and which means " House of 
 Horus," shows that she was a personification of the house in which 
 Horus the Sun-god dwelt, and that she represented the portion of 
 the sky through which the course of the god lay. In the earliest 
 times Hathor, the 'Adcop of the Greek writers, typified only that 
 portion of the sky in which, Horus, the oldest form of the Sun- 
 god, had been conceived and brought forth, and her domain was in 
 the east of the sky ; but at length she came to represent the whole 
 
 1 This is preserved in the British Museum, No. 32,124. 
 
■^JIHIiyiWKJt'-hiii J7r-"«l"'f 
 
 i»£B!V9ran.«iimKm mpwv..u 
 
 ''.■'I^WI1JBIJIW1WJ« 
 
 (HET-HERT) Hathor the Cow-Goddess looking forth from the 
 Funeral Mountain at Thebes. 
 
HATHOR 429 
 
 sky, and in so doing, she, no doubt, absorbed many of the attributes 
 of predynastic goddesses. In the text of Pepi I. (line 593) it is 
 said, " Every god will take the hand of Ra-meri in heaven, and 
 " they will conduct him to Het-Heru ( ^ ^)> which is in the 
 
 " heaven of Qebtiu (-^ J 1 1^ ^ f=^) , and his double shall be able 
 
 " to make his voice (or word) take effect upon Seb." From this 
 passage it seems as if the House of Horus was only one special part 
 of the great watery mass of heaven which is generally known by 
 the name of " Qebh." 
 
 At the time when the Egyptians first formulated their 
 theogony Hathor was certainly a cosmic goddess, and was 
 associated with the Sun-god Ra, of whom she was the principal 
 female counterpart. In the theological system of the priests of 
 HeliopoHs she became, as Brugsch says,^ the " mother of the light," 
 the birth of which was the first act of creation ; her next creative 
 act was to produce Shu and Tefnut, that is to say, certain aspects 
 of these gods, for according to a very old tradition Temu was 
 their begetter and producer. Of the various forms in which Hathor 
 is depicted may be mentioned the following^: — As the "chief- 
 
 tainess," '§»■ ® , of Thebes and the mistress of Amentet she is usually 
 
 represented in the form of a woman who wears upon her head a 
 pair of horns within which rests the solar disk ; as the lady of 
 
 Hetepet, ^@, she wears the vulture tiara, with a uraeus in 
 
 front and five uraei on the top of it ; as the lady of Senemet, 
 
 — " — ^^ 
 
 '^'■"'^ ^, she appears in the form of a woman with the headdress 
 
 yY? , or with plumes and horns ; as the lady of Abshek, h J r-trn ^~^ , 
 she wears a disk between horns ; as the great goddess of Dendera, 
 m , she appears m the form of a lioness, with a uraeus on her 
 
 head, and as a woman wearing X^ and p, or [Jl , or O and \J, or 
 Xpr and n , or the sistrum, i , or ^ and ^ , or y' and fll , or \/ 
 and y^, and )u , and [h , and she usually carries a sceptre, 1 or |, 
 
 1 Beligion, p. 312. 3 Lanzone, op. cit., pi. 314 jEE. 
 
430 HATHOR 
 
 in one hand, and '-life," ■?-, in the other; as the lady of the 
 
 w 
 
 " southern sycamore," k X, , she has the head of a cow ; as 
 
 the lady of Annu she has on her head ^^; as the goddess of 
 turquoise [land], i.e., the Sinaitic Peninsula, called "Mafek," 
 
 D ^^ o, she wears the crown of the north, V , or /^y and \Jf; 
 
 and in another form she wears the vulture head-dress surmounted 
 by a tiara formed of uraei, and above these is a pylon set among a 
 mass of lotus flowers and buds. As the " lady of the Holy Land," 
 i.e., the Underworld, and Amentet, ft ^^^ she appears in the form 
 of a cow walking out from the funeral mountain, and she is some- 
 times represented in the form of a cow standing in a boat sur- 
 rounded by papyrus plants which are growing up to a considerable 
 height above her body. As the cow-goddess of the Underworld, 
 however, she wears a long, pendent collar, and on the back of her 
 neck is the Mendt, (^ , an emblem of joy and pleasure. On her 
 back also is a kind of saddle-cloth with a linear design, and the 
 whole of her body is sometimes marked with crosses, which are 
 probably intended to represent stars. Two other interesting forms 
 of the goddess which are illustrated by Signer Lanzone ^ represent 
 her holding in her hand the notched palm branch, which is usually 
 the characteristic of the goddess Sefekh-aabut, who acted as 
 assistant chronographer and chronologist to the god Thoth, and 
 from this point of view Hathor must be regarded as a female 
 counterpart of Thoth. Finally, she is represented as a sphinx, 
 wearing on her head the vulture head-dress, with uraeus and disk ; 
 the side of her body is made to resemble a part of a mendt, and she 
 rests upon a pylon. The titles which accompany this last form call 
 her " lady of Hetep, the eye of Ra, dweller in his disk, lady of 
 
 "heaven, mistress of all the gods," |^| "ir"^ 
 
 (j^K_ Y ^ iZ 111 IT.- 
 
 We have already seen that the worship of Horus was universal 
 in Egypt, probably from the earliest period, and that in dynastic 
 times shrines which were specially consecrated to his worship were 
 
 1 Op. cit., pi. 325 ff. 
 
HATHOR 431 
 
 common throughout the country ; the texts prove that the worship 
 of Hathor was also universal, and that her shrines were even more 
 numerous than those of Horus. She was, in fact, the great mother 
 of the world, and the old, cosmic Hathor was the personification of 
 the great power of nature which was perpetually conceiving, and 
 creating, and bringing forth, and rearing, and maintaining all 
 things, both great and small. She was the " mother of her father, 
 " and the daughter of her son," and heaven, earth, and the Under- 
 world were under her rule, and she was the mother of every god 
 and every goddess. In all the important shrines of the local 
 goddesses she was honoured with them, and she always became the 
 chief female counterpart of the head of the company or triad in 
 which she had been allowed to enter as a guest. A clear proof of 
 this fact is given in the list compiled by the late Dr. Brugsch, which 
 showed the various names and forms she took in all the large 
 cities in Upper and Lower Egypt, and from this we see that she 
 was identified with Satet, J|^ 3 , and Anqet, AA^/^ ^ Pn ' ^^ 
 Elephantine ; with Ta-sent-nefert, ^ "^ | ^ T ^^ J, in Ombos; 
 with Behutet, J I % ^ t^ ' ■'^'^ ApoUinopolis Magna ; with 
 Nix, ^5, Nebuut, ^^5, and Me.hxt, =|(l(i;|, in 
 Latopolis ; with Mut, '^ ^ J , and Nekhebet, ^ 2 J ^ ' ^^ 
 Eileithyiaspolis ; with Eat-tauit, __-a '" J| , and Thenenet, 
 s=>ll^, in Hermonthis ; with Mut, ^\, and Amenthet, 
 (] "^^^^^^ '^ in Thebes; with Heqet, T <::)J], in ApoUinopolis 
 
 Parva; with Isis, jirJ; and Anit, lOOrJ? in Coptos ; with 
 Sbekhet - AABUT, in Diospolis Parva ; with Mehit - Tefnut - 
 
 This ; with Isis and Khent Abtet, rfTK "^ j J ^^ ^ J| , in 
 Panopolis ; with Heqet and Anthat, ll ^ Pn j ^^ Aphrodi- 
 
 topolis ; with Nit, Uatchet, | ^ Pi , Seehet, y ^® ^ , etc., in 
 Hypselis ; with Maat and Isis in Hierakonpolis ; with Mut and 
 
432 HATHOR 
 
 Sefkhet-aabut in Lycopolis ; with Sekhet and Maat in Cusae ; 
 with Nehemaitait, ^ ^ — °'^^^o^' ^^^ Sefkhet-aabut, 
 and Meh-urt, "^f"^^) i^ Hermopolis ; with Heqet and 
 AsHET, "^^ '~^^ , in Ibiu ; with Paehth, '-' ® .Bas , at the Speos 
 Artemidos ; with Anpet, (j ^ ^ J| , in Cynopolis ; with Uatchet 
 in Alabastronpolis ; with Hathor of Oxj'^rinchus ; with Anthat and 
 Mersekhent t — r n ® — iw '^, in Herakleopolis Magna; with Renpit, 
 in Crocodilopolis ; with Khersekhet in Ptolemais ; with Isis 
 
 and Tep-ahet in Aphroditopolis ; with Bast, ^ (^ rlv i Sekhet, and 
 
 
 Renpit in Memphis ; with Nebuarekht-aat, ^^^^^ -^ "^ 
 
 in Letopolis ; with Usert-heqet, | | zi , in Prosopis 
 
 X 
 
 with Nit (Neith) in Sais ; with Urt-Apset, \/ '^ , in 
 
 Xots ; with Isis in Canopus ; with Uatchet in Buto ; with Tefnut 
 in Pa-Tem (Pithom) ; with Tatet or Tait, n'^Q^^^? in 
 Busiris; with Khuit, Afj^^J? ^^ Athribis; with Tetet, 
 daughter of Ra, M n ^ ^ ^ ? ^^^ Tefnut, in the form of a lion. 
 
 A^/VW\ 
 
 O / _2si, and Hert, v\, , i.e., the female 
 
 counterpart of Horus, and Nesert, ^^ \l Q. ; with Iusaset, 
 
 ^ n .. D ^ ^ ^^^ Nebt-hetep, n ^ Jl j ^^^ Menat, 
 
 .4. ^ Q 
 
 and Repit, ^ qt] ^ sJJ ' ^^*^ Khent-Abtet, ^ | ^^^, in Sele (?) ; 
 with Nehemauait, Tefnut, and Isis in Hermopolis ; with Hat- 
 MEHiT, ^^flu^J) in Mendes; with Mut, Tefnut, and Khent- 
 
 Abtet, in Diospolis ; with Bast, ^ l]'/ ,;. j in Bubastis ; with Isis 
 and Uatchet in Ammet, (I /= ^\ ^ ; and with Septit, P QQ "^ J)? 
 and Khekhsit, ^^ (JM 'Q;^^, in the nome of Sept. It is, then, 
 
 quite certain that in late dynastic times, at least, Hathor became 
 the representative of all the great goddesses in Egypt, and that 
 shrines in her honour were built in most great cities there. In 
 his valuable Dizionario di Mitologia Egizia (p. 875), Signor 
 
THE SEVEN HATHORS 433 
 
 Lanzone has collected the names of a number of cities which 
 contained shrines of Hathor, but the enumeration of them all ^ 
 here would serve no useful purpose, because the identifications 
 of the goddess described above are sufficient to indicate the 
 universality of her worship. 
 
 A little consideration of the texts shows us that it was quite 
 impossible for any worshipper of Hathor, however devout, to 
 enumerate all the forms of the goddess which existed, and also 
 that some of them were considered of greater importance than the 
 others ; as a result Ave find that at a comparatively early period a 
 selection of the Hathors was made, and that it usually contained 
 seven. The Seven Hathors who were worshipped at Dendera 
 
 were : — 1. Hathor of Thebes, ^Z. 2. Hathor of Heliopolis, | ^. 
 3. Hathor of Aphroditopolis, i^ '^-yt ^. 4. Hathor of the Sinaitic 
 Peninsula, ° °^^o ® . 5. Hathor of Momemphis (Ammu), 
 III©" ^" Hathor of Herakleopolis, ^f)^- '^- Hathor of 
 Keset, Hj^ ^ . These were represented ^ in the form of young and 
 handsome women arrayed in close-fitting tunics, and wearing 
 
 ^ The following selection may, however, be of interest : — Arit, (I (I , 
 
 Akent, ^ J, Sekhet-Ra, ||| ©, Keset, ^ ^, Senmet, ^ ^, Khauit, 
 
 11^, Matchet, ^ a^\70>, Shetenu, ^q, Akenu, ^^©, 
 
 Khakhat (?), ^ ^ ^ "^ © ' She-Tesher, ™ ^, Kepenut (in Syria), 
 ^0(Jyi@, Per-tennu in Ankh-tanit, ^ ^-l| ■7==.^©' Rehesu, 
 
 Menthn, y ;, Maati, pfj, Sebti, ^ J;;©, Kennu, ^'^©, Tcherutet, 
 
 B^r^©, Sek, pffl©, Per-Utchat, ^^@, Has, | ^ , Kenset, 
 
 ^^, Ifeferus, J ^ ^ ^ ©, Khekhnit, J ^^^ f^, Antet, |] ^ ^^, 
 
 Sennut, III;. 
 
 2 Brugsch, Mythologische Lischri/ten, Leipzig, 1884, p. 801 ff. 
 
 r f 
 
434 THE SEVEN HATHORS 
 
 vulture head-dresses surmounted by X°/ ' and holding tambourines 
 in their hands. In the " Tale of the Two Brothers " ^ we find the 
 Seven Hathors acting the part of prophetic fairies, for in that 
 entertaining narrative they are made to come and look upon the 
 wife whom Khnemu had fashioned for the younger brother Bata, 
 and who '' was more beautiful in her person than any other woman 
 " in all the earth, for every god was contained in her ; " but when 
 they had looked upon her, they said with one voice, " Her death 
 will be caused by the knife." Unfortunately we do not know the 
 districts which these Seven Hathors, ^ "^^ J ^ '^Un^^ 
 
 represented. The Seven Hathors mentioned by Mariette ^ com- 
 prise the Hathors of Dendera, nl ^, Keset (Cusae), Nehet 
 A^l©, the Two Mountains, '^^^ (i.e., the modern Gebelln), 
 Eileithyiaspolis, -1- ^ J ©' ^^^ Mafek (Sinai), Kepenut ^ O [Xj ^ 
 (Byblos), and Het-seshesh, | (Diospolis Parva) ; thus it is clear 
 
 that the company of the Seven Hathors did not always include the 
 same forms of the goddess. In the Litanies of Seker ^ we have also 
 a " Litany of the Hathors," wherein are mentioned the Hathors 
 of :— 1. Tep-ahet. 2. Mafek and Thebes. 3. Thebes. 4. Nebt- 
 hetep. 5. Suten-henen. 6. Memphis. 7. She-Tesher ; here, then, 
 is a different group of Seven Hathors. In the six lines of text 
 which follow, Hathor is identified with the goddesses : — 1. Bast. 
 2, Sati. 3. Uatchet. 4. Sekhet. 5. Lady of Ammu. 6. Mt 
 (Neith) ; and after this we have addresses to the Hathors of 
 Thebes, Suten-henen, Tep-ahet, Nehau, Rehsau, Shet-Teshert, 
 Mafek, Aneb, XJaua, Ammu, Amem, and Hathor, lady of the " City 
 of Sixteen," | £ ^ ^ PI ||| J, i.e., Lycopolis, in all Twelve Hathors. 
 If we had full information on the subject we should probably find 
 that each great city possessed its own selection of Hathors, and 
 that the forms of the goddess whose names were inscribed on 
 funeral papyri were only those which were popular with those who 
 caused such documents to be made. 
 
 1 Page ix., 1. 8. (Bircli, Select Papyri.) 
 
 2 See Denderali, torn. 1, pi. 27 ; Brugsch, Diet. Geog., p. 972. 
 
 8 See my paper in Archaeologia, vol. Hi. (Papyrus of Nesi-Amsu). 
 
The Goddess HATHOR. 
 
HATHOR-APHRODITE 435 
 
 The Greeks identified Hathor with, their goddess Aphrodite, 
 and there are many passages in the Egyptian texts which show 
 that they were justified in doing so. She represented not only 
 what was true, but what was good, and all that is best in woman 
 as wife, mother, and daughter ; she was also the patron goddess of 
 all singers, dancers, and merry-makers of every kind, of beautiful 
 women, and of love, of artists and artistic works, and also of the 
 vine and wine, and ale and beer, and, in fact, of joy and happiness, 
 and of everything which contributed thereto. She was identified 
 astronomically with the star Sept, ] A '^ , or Sothis, which was 
 
 called the " second sun " in heaven, she was thereby connected 
 with the rise of the Nile preparatory to the Inundation, and she 
 appeared in the form of this star in the heavens in the neighbour- 
 hood of the sun in the second half of July. Sothis rose heliacaUy 
 on the first day of the Egyptian New Year, and when the Sun-god 
 Ra had entered his boat, Hathor, the goddess of the star Sothis, went 
 with him and took up her place like a crown upon his forehead.^ 
 She was, as we have seen, both the wife of Ra, and the daughter of 
 Ra ; she herself was brought forth by the goddess Nut in the form 
 of a black-skinned, ^ — i "iji^ , or blackish-red skinned child and 
 received as her name that of the last hour of the day, <Khnemet- 
 ankh, Q ^ '=' | "f"'^' ^^ '^^•'' Hathor, as lady of the 
 Underworld, played a very prominent part in connection with the 
 welfare of the dead, for without her friendly help and protection 
 the deceased could never attain to everlasting life. 
 
 The position which Hathor held among the gods of the 
 Underworld is well illustrated by the following passages from the 
 Booh of the Dead. In his hymn to Ra the deceased ofiicer Nekht 
 says, "0 thou beautiful being, thou dost renew thyself in thy 
 " season in the form of the Disk within thy mother Hathor," with 
 which words he refers to the goddess as a nature power. In the 
 Judgment Scene we find that she is one of the company of the 
 gods who watch the " weighing of words," and who afterwards 
 decree joy and felicity for the heart which has been weighed and 
 
 1 Brugsch, Religion, p. 318 ; Lanzone, op. cit., p. 865. 
 
 3 Brugscli, Mythologische Inschriften, p. 844 (Twelfth Hour of the Day). 
 
436 HATHOR OF THE DEAD 
 
 found just. When the deceased is face to face with the monster 
 Apep, Hathor is one of the group of gods consisting of Netcheb- 
 AB-P, ^ Jl?--, Tem, Nentcha, ZZ^A^ ^eb, Nut, and 
 Khepera, who encourage the deceased to do battle with him, and 
 she cries out to the deceased, " Take your armour ; " but she, like 
 the deceased, is in terror of Apep and " she quaketh " thereat 
 (xxxix. 22). In the Chapter (xlii.) which describes the deification 
 of the members of the deceased, she becomes his two eyes, and he 
 declares, " My eyes are the eyes of Hathor." Now Hathor was, 
 according to one myth, the star Sothis, A ^ , Sept, and she took 
 
 up her place in the face of Horus or Ea as his right eye ; another 
 myth which made her the night sky also made her the moon 
 therein ; hence the eyes of Hathor are the sun and moon, and the 
 deceased regards these as his own eyes in the text. In other 
 Chapters (lii., Ixiii.A, Ixviii.), she appears as the goddess who 
 provides the deceased with meat and drink, and thus we find the 
 following : — " Let me eat my food under the sycamore tree of my 
 " lady Hathor, and let my times be among the divine beings who 
 " have alighted thereon ; " and again, " In a clean place I shall sit 
 " on the ground beneath the foliage of the date palm of the goddess 
 " Hathor, who dwelleth in the spacious Disk as it advanceth to 
 " Annu, having the books of the divine words of the writings of 
 "the god Thoth; " and again, "Let me have power over cakes, 
 " and let me eat of them under the leaves of the palm tree of the 
 " goddess Hathor, who is my divine lady " (Ixxxii. 7). 
 
 In the Hall of Maati the name of the left foot of the deceased 
 was " Staff of Hathor " (cxxv. 35), and a special Chapter (ciii.) 
 Avas composed with the view of enabling the deceased to "be 
 among those who are in the following of Hathor." Thus we see 
 that she was held to be sufficiently important to have a train of 
 attendant gods, or ministering angels, about her. In the vignette 
 of Chapter cxxxiv. Hathor forms one of the company of the gods 
 of Heliopolis, which here consists of Tem, Shu, Tefnut, Seb, Nut, 
 Osiris, Isis, Nephthys, Hathor, and Horus, the last named taking 
 the place of Set or Suti ; and in Chapter cxl. Hathor, with Tern, 
 Utchatet, ^i'^^^^'^, Shu, Seb, Osiris, Suti, Horus, 
 
The Goddess H£T-HERT(HATH0R). 
 
HATHOR OF THE DEAD 437 
 
 ^-*^' Z ] 1 ' B^h, J -- i f- E|: 1^-— heh, O ^ <:=> 
 
 — -|®|, Thoth, Mau-tchetta (?) q^^^' N^*- ^^i^r 
 
 Nephthys, Nekht, ^^, Mert, (?) ^2^^, Maat, Anep, and 
 Ta-mes-tchetta, |Tj I ^^ , are said to be " the soul and body of 
 
 Ra." In Chapter cli.A Nephthys addresses the deceased and says, 
 " Ra hearkeneth unto thy cry ; thou, daughter of Hathor, art 
 " made to triumph, thy head shall never be taken away from thee, 
 " and thou shalt be made to rise up in peace." It was Hathor in 
 the form of a cow who received the dead when they entered the 
 Underworld, she gave them new life, and celestial food wherewith 
 to maintain it, and in the Roman period the personality of the 
 deceased is merged in that of the goddess in the funeral texts, just as 
 during the dynastic period it was merged in that of Osiris. Finally, 
 it is said in a passage quoted from a papyrus by M. Maspero^ 
 which prescribes the placing of the " swathing of Hathor " on the 
 face of the deceased, " She (i.e., Hathor) shall make thy face 
 "perfect among the gods, she shall make thy thighs large among 
 " the goddesses, she shall open thine eye so that thou shalt see 
 " each day, she shall enlarge thy place in Amentet, she shall make 
 " thy voice to prevail over thy adversaries ; and she shall make 
 " thy legs to walk with ease in the Underworld in her name of 
 " Hathor, lady- of Amentet." 
 
 In an interesting text in the Ptolemaic temple at Der al- 
 Medina,^ on the western bank of the Nile opposite Thebes, we find that 
 Hathor is caUed Nubt, f^™^, i.e., the "Golden One," and that she 
 is addressed as the " queen of the gods," and her adorer says, 
 " thou standest high in the south as the lady of Teka (Eileithyias- 
 " polls), and thou illuminest the west as lady of Sais. Thou 
 " appearest and thou art commemorated in festivals as Hathor, 
 " the great lady, the beloved of Ra in [thy] seven forms." Thoth, 
 we are told, comes to look upon her face, and he praises her 
 according to her desire, and she is built up by his words. As 
 
 1 Memoire sur quelques Papyrus du Louvre, Paris, 1875, p. 104. 
 3 The Egyptian name of the place was s!i^=_ ^ w^^^^ ^zz^ I @ , Kheft-hra- 
 en-neb-s, and the Greek Pasemis ; Brugsoh, Did. Geog., p. 574. 
 
438 NEKHEBET 
 
 Nebt-hetepet she is glorious in heaven, and mighty upon earth, 
 and queen of the Underworld. As the goddess Temt she is the lady 
 of the " two lands," and of the red covering, and she shines in the 
 cities of Buto and Bubastis. It is evident from the above that as 
 the goddess of the Underworld Hathor was identified with the four 
 great and ancient goddesses, Nekhebet of Nekhebet (Eileithyias- 
 polis), Uatchet of Per-Uatchet, Bast of Bubastis, and Nit (Neith) 
 of Sai's, i.e., with the four typical goddesses of the four quarters of 
 the world and of the four cardinal points, and it is also quite 
 evident that this identification is the product of a late period, 
 when the earliest attributes of Uatchet and Nekhebet, etc., were 
 forgotten. It is, however, convenient to consider these goddesses 
 under the head of Hathor, and they will, therefore, be described 
 here, not because the writer regards the Ptolemaic identification 
 as the correct one, but because there is something to be said for it. 
 
 Nekhebet, 1 J 2 X»^ ' '^^^ goddess of the South. 
 
 From the hieroglyphic inscriptions which belong to the 
 archaic period we find that the kings of Egypt were in the habit 
 
 of placing before their names the sign ^£ , by which they intended 
 
 to indicate their sovereignty over the South and the North ; it is 
 uncertain how these signs are to be read, but there is no doubt 
 whatsoever about their meaning. The vulture is the symbol of 
 the goddess of the South, and the uraeus is the symbol of the 
 goddess of the North, and down to very late dynastic times the 
 kings of Egypt gloried in declaring that they were sovereigns of 
 the country by virtue of the favour of the goddesses whose emblems 
 were the vulture and uraeus. It is tolerably certain that in 
 predynastic times the vulture was worshipped generally throughout 
 Upper Egypt, and that a particular form of the serpent was 
 venerated in the Delta ; the centre of the worship of the vulture 
 was in the city called Nekhebet, !|.oj^,or, c:=sQ(j'^ 1©J, 
 which was named Eileithyiaspolis by the Greeks, and " Civitas 
 LucinaB " by the Latins, and formed the capital of the third nome 
 of Upper Egypt, and the centre of the worship of the serpent was 
 
The Goddess NEKHEBIT. 
 
NEKHEBET 439 
 
 Per-Uatchet, I Pn ^ ' ^^® Bovto<; of the Greeks and the Buto 
 of the Latins, and the capital of the seventh nome of Lower Egypt. 
 Nekhebet was declared to be the daughter of Ra, , and also 
 
 the " divine wife of Khent Amenti," | ^ /www «> . The shrine 
 of the goddess was Nekhent, ^ , or, '^~wv or, ® ^ , and its 
 
 site is represented by the modern Arab village of El-Kab ; in late 
 times Nekhebet lost all its political importance, and the neigh- 
 
 bouring towns of Ani, | U ©, and Senit, ^~VA^@^ came into 
 prominence in its place. ^ Nekhen, also written, t^^) i-^-, the 
 " White iSTekhen," was the town which contained the sanctuary of 
 the "venerable (or, holy) vulture," ""^ 1] % \n ^0, and the 
 vulture goddess Nekhebet in the land of the South is distinctly, in 
 later texts, identified with Hathor.^ 
 
 Nekhebet is usually represented in the form of a woman who 
 wears on her head the vulture head-dress surmounted by the white 
 
 crown, (J , the sign of sovereignty over Upper Egypt, to which are 
 attached two plumes ; sometimes she holds in one hand the sceptre, 
 I , and sometimes 1 , and in the other we see the symbol of " life," 
 
 ■¥-. Occasionally the sceptre is formed of a long-stemmed flower, 
 
 which seems to be a water-lily, with a serpent twined round it ; 
 this serpent is none other than the winged serpent, with the crown 
 of the South upon its head, which is as symbolic of the goddess as 
 the vulture. Nekhebet is also represented in the form of a woman 
 with the head of a vulture, and in a picture of her reproduced by 
 Signor Lanzone'^ she stands upon madt / — i, and holds a bow and 
 an arrow in her left hand. In the form of a uraeus Nekhebet took 
 her place, with her twin sister TJatchet, upon the brow of Ra, and 
 both goddesses devoted themselves to destroying the enemies of 
 the god ; this idea is alluded to in the winged disks which are seen 
 
 1 Brugsch, Bid. Geog., p. 352 £. 
 3 Op. cit., pi. 348. 
 
440 NEKHEBET 
 
 sculptured over the doors of temples in Egypt, for on each side is 
 a serpent, that on the right, or south side, being Nekhebet, and 
 that on the left, or north side, being Uatchet. Nekhebet was, 
 astronomically, the western or right eye of the sun during his 
 journey in the Underworld, and Uatchet was his eastern or left 
 eye. As a nature power Nekhebet was a form of the primeval 
 abyss which brought forth the light,^ and she is therefore called the 
 " father of fathers, the mother of mothers, who hath existed from 
 " the beginning, and is the creatrix of the world." In the bas- 
 reliefs in Egyptian temples she is usually represented with her 
 twin sister Uatchet, and also in coronation scenes, for it was most 
 
 important for a king to be crowned with the double crown, 
 by these deities. 
 
 According to Brugsch, special rooms or chambers were set 
 apart in the temples of Egypt, near the sanctuaries of the gods 
 wherein Uatchet and Nekhebet were supposed to abide ; the 
 chamber of the former was on the west, or right side of the 
 
 sanctuary, and Avas called per nesert — ^^IKor "house of 
 
 fire," and that of the latter was on the east, or l6ft side of the 
 
 sanctuary, and was called per ur, or "great house," ^^. 
 
 And it is very probable that at the time of the coronation of a 
 king priestesses dressed themselves in the character of the two 
 goddesses, and that the one declared the South had been given to 
 him whilst the other asserted the same concerning the North. In 
 
 coloured pictures of Nekhebet Fakit, S flq , we find that she 
 
 is painted of a light yellow, or almost white colour, which is 
 probably intended to represent the colour of the desert regions of 
 the South, and of the white light of the newly risen sun or moon. 
 From one aspect she was identified with Isis, the fertile nature, 
 goddess, just as Uatchet was identified with Nephthys, who was 
 supposed to act the part of nurse to the offspring whom Isis 
 brought forth ; in other words, Nekhebet Avas the mother of the 
 Sun-god, and therefore also of the king of Egypt, his son, and 
 Uatchet Avas his nurse. A passage in the text of Mer-en-Ra 
 
 1 Brugsch, Religion, p. 324. 
 
The Goddess UATCHIT. 
 
UATCHET 441 
 
 (line 762) seems to connect Nekhebet with Annu, for we read, 
 " Thou protectest Mer-en-Ra, Nekhebet, thou hast protected 
 " Mer-en-Ra, Nekhebet, in the House of the Prince in Annu ; 
 " thou hast committed him to Am-hent-f, and Am-hent-f hath 
 " committed him to Am-sepa-f ;" ^ if this be so it is probable that 
 Nekhebet was identified with one or other of the local goddesses 
 lusaaset or Nebt-hetep. In an interesting text published by 
 M. Maspero^ an allusion is made to the natron of the city of 
 Nekheb, which was apparently much used in embalming the dead, 
 and it was believed that in consequence the goddess Nekhebet would 
 watch over them in the Underworld, and woiild change their faces 
 into things of beauty with two brilliant eyes of light. To make 
 certain of this result the " bandage of Nekheb " was laid upon the 
 forehead of every carefully prepared mummy. 
 
 UaTCHET, 'HK Qlj'^Po) THE GODDESS OF THE NOETH. 
 
 Uatchet, or Uatchit, as we have already said above, is a 
 goddess who was worshipped under the form of a serpent, and the 
 
 oldest seat of her cult was at Per- uatchet, I Pn © ' ^^® jBovtos 
 
 of the Greeks, a city which was situated in the "land of Uatchet," 
 ^^K =^^^ c/ I "^ Pn ^X^'^ ^•®-' ^^ ^^® seventh nome of Lower Egypt, 
 or Nefer-Ament, '^f . The temple in which Uatchet was 
 venerated and its precincts are known in texts of all periods by 
 the name Pe-Tep, £^^? and from the frequent mention of this 
 double name in the Pyramid Texts it is clear that the shrine was 
 both very famous and very old. Uatchet was identified with Isis 
 
 ■^ 
 
 >~™l^flkf iZ^k 
 
 ri 
 
 2 The ^SevoTijs of Ptolemy, and the Ptenetu of Pliny; see de Rouge, 
 GeograpMe, p. 41. 
 
 3 Memoire sur quelques Papyrus, pp. 60, 83. 
 
442 UATCHET 
 
 at a very early period, and there is abundant proof that Horus, the 
 son of Isis, was worshipped with Isis at Per-Uatchet ; we are, then, 
 driven to the conclusion that Pe-Tep was a city with two distinct 
 divisions, in one of which Uatchet-lsis was worshipped, and in the 
 other Horus, and that Horus dwelt in Pe, and Uatchet-lsis in Tep. 
 Among the variants of the name worthy of mention are Pi-Tchepet, 
 
 M °^ ^ , and Pi-Tep, D O ^ .^ In late dynastic times Uatchet 
 was called Ap-taui, i.e., " opener of lands," \/ '" TL , but the exact 
 meaning of this title is not quite certain. Near the city of the 
 goddess was situated the Island of Khebit, © J |^ ^ , or 
 ©J'i^ijjorejljfjl^ ^,' ^^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ rightly identified 
 with the island called Xe/A/xis and Xe/^pes ^ by classical writers, and 
 
 •^ [I c=s i A' 
 Na-ateh, the Natho of the Greeks, which play such a prominent 
 part in the legends of Isis and Horus. According to these, Isis 
 retreated to the papyrus swamps after she had conceived her child, 
 and she remained hidden in them until her months were fulfilled, 
 when she brought forth Horus, who afterwards became the 
 "avenger of his father;" Set never succeeded in finding her 
 hiding place, because the great goddess had found some means 
 whereby she caused the papyrus and other plants -to screen her 
 from his view, and the goddess Uatchet visited her and helped her 
 in her retreat. 
 
 In pictures and reliefs the goddess is represented in the form 
 
 of a woman who wears upon her head the crown of the North, >/ , 
 and she holds in one hand the papyrus sceptre, round which 
 is sometimes twined a long snake ; in some examples she is seen 
 bearing in her right hand the croAvn of the North, 1/ , which she 
 
 is about to place upon the head of a king. Occasionally we find 
 her in the form of a large winged serpent ^ with the crown of the 
 North upon her head ; her titles are " Uatchet, lady of heaven ; " 
 " Uatchet, lady of Pe, mistress of Tep, the august one, the mighty 
 
 1 Bmgscli, Diet. Geog., p. 215. 3 Ibid., p. 668. 
 
 2 See Lanzoue, op. cit., pi. 58 f. 
 
UATCHET 443 
 
 one ; " " Uatcliet, lady of heaven, mistress of all the gods ; " 
 
 "Uatchet, lady of Nebiui, ^ J 1)1] ^ ^ f]f}©, lady of Neter- 
 
 "ta, I ^^, lady of Per-Menat, ^^j ^^^ ^^^Y ^^ Amemt, 
 
 " [1 £=:^ ^\ ' ~" © ." Besides her shrines in these last named cities 
 one built in her honour seems to have existed in Sept, ^-. The 
 
 views held about the goddess in connexion with the dead are well 
 illustrated by certain allusions made to her in the Booh of the Dead. 
 In the xviith Chapter she is mentioned in connexion with a god 
 
 called Rehu, 1 ^ r^ ' ^^^ ^^® ^^ definitely identified with Isis 
 
 who is said to have protected her son Horus by shaking her hair out 
 over him, although Uatchet appears in the form of a serpent twined 
 round the stalk of a papyrus plant and is called the " eye of Ra." 
 In the xliind Chapter the shoulder of the deceased is said to 
 be the shoulder of Uatchet ; in the Ixvith Chapter the deceased 
 says, " I have knowledge, I was conceived by Sekhet, and the 
 " goddess Nit (Neith) gave me birth. I am Horus, and I have 
 " come forth from the Eye of Horus (i.e., Ra), I am Uatchet who 
 " came forth from Horus, I am Horus, and I fly up and perch 
 " myself upon the forehead of Ea in the bows of his boat which is 
 " in heaven." In Chapter cxxxvi.A the deceased is said to be 
 
 the " lord of Maat (^_n j i ), which the goddess Uatchet worketh ; " 
 
 in Chapter cxxxvi.B he says, " I am the spiritual body (sdh 
 
 " ft Q ; ^ of the lord of Maat which is made by the goddess 
 
 " Uatchet ; " and in Chapter clxxix, he says, " The Enemy hath 
 " come to an end beneath me in the presence of the Assessors, 
 " and I eat him in the great field on the altar of Uatchet ; " 
 finally, in Chapter clxxii. (1. 19) certain bones in the head of 
 the deceased are identified with those of the Uatchti goddesses, 
 i.e., Nekhebet and Uatchet. During the ceremonies connected 
 with embalming, the operator or priest addressed the mummy, 
 saying, " The goddess Uatchet cometh unto thee in the form of the 
 
 " living Uraeus (*=> ^ Pn ? Ardt), to anoint thy head with their 
 
 1 Their = Uatcliet and Nekhebet. 
 
444 BAST 
 
 " flames. She risetli up on the left side of thy head, and she 
 " shineth from the right side of thy temples without speech ; they 
 " rise up on thy head during each and every hour of the day, even 
 " as they do for their father Ra, and through them the terror 
 " which thou inspirest in the holy spirits is increased, and because 
 " Uatchet and Nekhebet rise up on thy head, and because thy brow 
 " become th the portion of thy head whereon they establish them- 
 " selves, even as they do upon the brow of Ra, and because they 
 " never leave thee, awe of thee striketh into the souls which are 
 " made perfect." ^ 
 
 In the Book of the Dead Uatchet generally plays the part of 
 destroyer of the foes of the deceased, but her connexion with 
 Maat shows that she was identified with some one of the female 
 counterparts of Thoth. In a calendar published by Brugsch^ we 
 
 see that under the name of Apt, (1 , or, (1 '-' ^^zsy , Uatchet was 
 
 regarded as the goddess of the eleventh month of the Egyptian 
 year (Epiphi). 
 
 Bast, ^ ^ J) , the Lady or the East. 
 
 Bast was the goddess par excellence of the eastern part of the 
 Delta, and the centre of her worship was at Per-Bast, or Pa-Bast, 
 
 ^ ^ © , or, J "(^^ J] ^ ) °^' Bubastis, the capital of the 
 
 Am-khent, - f , the seventh nome (Bubastites) of Lower Egypt ; 
 
 ' 1 1 1 1 [ 
 
 this city is often referred to by classical writers (Herodotus ii. 
 137, 156; Diodorus 16, 51; Strabo xvii. ; Pliny v. 9), and is 
 mentioned in the Bible under the name Pibeseth, non'^B (Ezekiel 
 XXX. 17). The site is marked by the ruins at Tell-Basta which 
 were carefully excavated by M. Naville, who made some interesting 
 discoveries concerning the great antiquity of the city of Bubastis, 
 and who published the inscriptions Avhich are still to be found 
 upon the ruins of the great buildings which once stood there.^ 
 
 1 Maspero, Me.moire sur quelques Papyrus, p. 82. 
 3 Astronomische und Astrologisclie Inschri/tea, p. 473, No. II. 
 3 See Bubastis, Eighth and Tenth Memoirs of the Egypt Exploration Fund, 
 1891 and 1892. 
 
t 
 
 The Goddess BAST. 
 
BAST 445 
 
 In the version of Manetho according to Julius Africanus (Cory's 
 Ancient Fragments, p. 98), it is said that in the reign of Boethus, 
 the first king of the Ilnd Dynasty, a chasm opened at Bubastis, 
 and that many persons perished, but M. Naville found no historical 
 remains so old as this period on the site ; he has, however, 
 discovered on blocks of stone there the names of Khufu and Khaf- 
 Ra, kings of the IVth Dynasty, written in such a way as to prove 
 that the inscriptions were cut during the period of the Early 
 Empire. Of the kings of the Vlth Dynasty only the name of 
 Pepi I. is found at Bubastis, and in connection with this king it is 
 interesting to note that in his funeral inscription (line 569) his 
 heart is said to be the heart of Bestet, i.e.. Bast, JP^^'^lf- 
 This fact shows that the Avorship of Bast was already very old in 
 Egypt, at all events in the Delta, and that a definite position 
 was assigned to her in the theological system of the priests of 
 
 Heliopolis. In the text of Pepi II. f^ (|[|1 fo J ul, it is said, 
 
 " god of the double town ( | ) the double of Pepi is for thy 
 
 " two fingers ; Pepi hath swept off towards the heavens like a crane, 
 " Pepi hath scented out the heavens like a hawk, Pepi hath flown 
 "up to heaven like the grasshopper of Ra ; Pepi must not be 
 " repulsed, king, there is no green herb for Pepi, Bast 
 
 " (^^: 1]?'^^), and none hath made dances for Pepi [who 
 
 " standeth] like a great man at the door" (line 869). To find the 
 name of Bast in the Pyramid Texts is natural enough, for their 
 Heliopolitan editors introduced many local, and even foreign 
 deities into the companies of their gods ; in the Theban Recension 
 of the Booh of the Dead, however, Bast and her city are very 
 rarely mentioned, and her name is entirely omitted from the list 
 of the gods mentioned in connexion with the deification of members 
 (Chapter xlii.). 
 
 In the " Negative Confession " (line 16) of the cxxvth Chapter 
 we have the mention of the assessor called Thenemi, ( ^.^^ OO A., 
 i.e., he who goes backwards, who is said to come forth from Bast, 
 ^ ^, and an assessor called Basti, ^'^3 (line 26), is said to come 
 forth from the city of Shetait. 
 
446 BAST 
 
 The goddess Bast is usually represented in the form of a 
 woman with the head of a cat, but she also has, at times, the head 
 of a lioness surmounted by a snake ; in her right hand she holds 
 a sistrum, and in her left an aegis with the head of a cat or 
 lioness on the top of it. The form in which the goddess was 
 worshipped in the earliest times was that of a cat, and her identifi- 
 cation with a lioness probably belongs to a comparatively late 
 period. From the inscription we find that she was also identified 
 
 with Eat, ^ , the female counterpart of Ra, and with Temt, 
 ^^^ T , the female counterpart of Tern ; she is often called the 
 
 " eye of Ra," and the " eye of Tem," and the Shetat, ^ f=^ „ 
 i.e., the " Hidden one." According to one legend Bast was the 
 personification of the soul of Isis, ^^, n^ ^ ® ' ^"^^ ^^^ 
 worshipped as such in Bubastis, and it was only at " Bubastis of 
 the South," '^ -=X-fl ^ , i.e., Dendera, that she was regarded as 
 
 the female counterpart of Tem. From the fact that she is asso- 
 ciated with the god Sept, " the lord of the East," it is tolerably 
 certain that in one aspect as least she was regarded as a foreign 
 goddess, whose attributes and characteristics had been transferred 
 
 to her. As Temt, ^vZrr T T? at Dendera, she was said to be the 
 mother of the lion-headed god Ari-hes, 5r7^ v ■^^, the lord of 
 Aphroditopolis, -7J , the holy Sekhem, Y M Q ' ^^'^ dwelt in 
 the temple of Bast of Dendera ; ^ her husband in this case was the 
 god An, f|| 3 , who was a form of Osiris. 
 
 At Thebes Bast was identified with Mut, the lady of Asheru ; 
 at Memphis with Mut and Uatchet, at Heliopolis with lusaaset, 
 and in Nubia with Sekhet and Menhet, at a town in the Delta 
 
 called Sekhet, jj^lj^l] ©, her name appears to have been Bare- 
 
 Ast, J ^^: J] "^ Pn •" -"-^ ^^ ^^® *° ^^^^ ^'-'^ ^^^ derivation of 
 
 the name Bast in Egyptian we must connect it with the word for 
 
 1 See Bnigscli, Diet. Geog., p. 208; Religion, p, 332. 
 
 2 Lanzone, op. cit., p. 226. 
 
BAST 447 
 
 "fire," bes J Ml? ^^^ regard the .goddess as a personification of 
 a power of the sun which made itself manifest in the form of heat. 
 That this view is correct is certain from several passages in 
 Egyptian texts, wherein both Bast and Sekhet are described as 
 closely connected forms of a female personification of the heat and 
 light of the Sun-god, and wherein they are made to act as the 
 destroyers both of the enemies of the Sun-god, and of the deceased. 
 Thus of Sekhet it is said in the " Book of Overthrowing Apep " 
 (xxvii. 15), "The Eye of Horus falls upon him cutting and 
 " hacking his head from his neck ; the goddess Sekhet tears out 
 " his intestines and kicks them on the fire with her left leg ; she 
 " places them on the fire and burns into him in her name of ' Set- 
 
 " usert-aa ' ( fl | H ^^^^ ^ J) -^ {) ; she burns into him and 
 " drives out his soul from his body ; she obtains the mastery over 
 " him in her name of ' Sekhet ' (v ^ Jjj ; and she overpowers 
 
 "him in her name of 'Khut-nebat' ( '^^ -^3- ^ '^•^■^■^ JrJ^ll,' 
 " i.e., Eye of Flame) ; she consumes his interior and blazes in it 
 " with the flame of her mouth." Speaking generally, Sekhet 
 personified the burning, fiery, and destructive heat of the sun, and 
 Bast represented the milder heat which at certain periods of the day 
 and year encouraged the growth of vegetation, and the germination 
 of seeds. 
 
 That Sekhet and Bast are goddesses of fire is quite clear, for 
 they accompany Hathor in her character of the " Eye of Ra," and 
 as forms of the Sun-god they symbolize the heat of the late and 
 early summer respectively. It has already been said that Bast is 
 identified with Mut at Thebes, but we also find that at Thebes 
 Mut-Bast ' is depicted as Isis, and we see her wearing upon her 
 
 head the feathers of the god Shu, nfj, and horns with the sun's 
 
 disk between them. The god of whom she is the female counter- 
 part is in this case Amen-Ra-Temu-Khepera-Heru-khuti, who is 
 represented with the head of a hawk wearing the crown of Shu ; 
 
 the offspring of the two deities is Khensu, ^ i V wj • These 
 1 See Brugsch, Beligion und Myihologie, p. 334. 
 
448 FESTIVALS OF BAST 
 
 considerations lead us to the conclusion that Bast was, at all 
 events in dynastic times, a personification of the moon, especially 
 when we remember that Khensu was a lunar god. With the head 
 of a lioness, which is usually painted green, she symbolized the 
 sunlight, but when she is given the head of a cat her connexion 
 with the moon is undoubted ; Dr, Brugsch refers to Plutarch's 
 remark that the pupils of the eyes of cats become full and very 
 large at the time of the full moon, and it is probable that the 
 primitive Egyptians held the same view, and that as a result 
 they identified the cat-headed goddess Bast with the moon. 
 From another aspect Bast was regarded as exercising a special 
 influence over women Avho were with child, and she appears on 
 several occasions as one of the goddesses of the birth-chamber ; 
 her son Khensu was declared " to make women fruitful, and make 
 " the human germ to grow in his mother's womb," and he was 
 supposed to do this especially in his character of the " moon, the 
 light-bearer." 
 
 According to the Stele of Canopus, the chief festivals of the 
 goddess Bubastis were celebrated in the months of April and May, 
 and of one of these Herodotus (ii. 60) furnishes some interesting 
 information. He says : — " Such of this people as with entyre and 
 " affectionate zeale most religiously obserue the feast at Bubastis, 
 " behaue and beare themselues on this maner. Certayne shippes 
 " being addressed, wherein infinite numbers of men and women 
 " sayle towards the city, in the meane season whiles they be in 
 " voiage on ye water, certaine of the women play upon drums and 
 '^ tabers, making a great sound and noyse, ye men on pipes. Such 
 " as want these implements, clap their hands and straine their 
 " uoice in singing to ye highest degree. At what city soeuer they 
 " ariue, happely some of the women continue their mirth and dis- 
 " port on ye timbrels, some others raile, reuile, and scold at the 
 " dames of ye city beyond measure : many trauise and daunce 
 " minionly : other cast up their clothes, and openly discouer and 
 " bewray their shame, doing this in all those cittes yt are neere 
 " adioyning to the riuers side. Being assembled and gathered 
 " together at Bubastis, they honour the feast day with principall 
 " solemnity, making large offerings to Diana, wherein is greater 
 
FESTIVALS OF BAST 449 
 
 " expence and effusion of grape wine than all the yeare besides. 
 " To this place by the voice of ye countrey are wont to repayre 
 " 7000 men and women, besides children, and thus they passe the 
 " time at Bubastis." ^ Of the city of Bubastis itself the same 
 writer says ^ (ii, 137, 138) : — " The noble city of Bubastis seemefch 
 " 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, then 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 reste 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 leaning 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 of men : in the whiche temple is standing an 
 " image. The length of the temple is in euery way a furlong. 
 " From the entrance of the temple Eastward, there is a fayre large 
 " causey leading to the house of Mercury, in length, three furlongs 
 " and four acres broade, all of faire stone, and hemmed in on each 
 " side with a course of goodly taU trees planted by the hands of 
 " men, and thus as touching the description of ye temple." 
 
 1 B. R.'s Translation, fol. 86a. 2 g. R.'g Translation, fol. 108a. 
 
 G g 
 
450 NET OR NEITH 
 
 According to Brugsch/ the great triad of the city of Bubastis 
 consisted of Osiris, Bast, and their offspring, who was called Heru- 
 hekennu, ^' | ^~^ 3 , or Nefer-Tem, or Bast ; their equivalents 
 in Heliopolis were Tem, lusaaset, and Nefer-Tem ; in Memphis, 
 Ptah-Sekhet, and Nefer-Tem ; in Thebes, Amen-Ra-Heru-khuti, 
 and Mut-Bast, and Khensu, or Horus, or Neb-aut-ab ; in Aphro- 
 ditopolis, Osiris- An, and Bast-Temt, and 'Ari-hes. In the Bu- 
 bastite nome were many temples and localities in which the 
 worship of Bast was paramount, and among such may be 
 
 mentioned Bairast, J "(^ ^=> J^ ^ © , the modern Belb^s, and 
 
 Netert, ^1 ^ , or "1 "^ © , where was preserved a thigh of Osiris, 
 ^ o , shut up in a " hidden chest." ^ 
 
 Net, ^ ^^, or ^ \( , or ^ ^^, or ^ ;><;, 
 THE Lady or the "West. 
 
 Net, or Neith, was one of the oldest of all the Egyptian 
 goddesses, and it is tolerably certain that her worship was wide- 
 spread even in predynastic times ; many attempts have been made 
 to arrive at a decision about her earliest attributes by means of 
 etymological processes, but they are unsatisfactory because they only 
 illustrate the views which the Egyptians held concerning her in com- 
 paratively late dynastic times, and several of them only explain 
 the objects which the goddess is seen holding in her hands in 
 pictures. The examples reproduced by Lanzone represent the 
 goddess in the form of a woman, who wears upon her head the 
 crown of the North, y • she often holds a sceptre, 1, or I, in one 
 hand, and the symbol of life in the other, but sometimes the hand 
 which holds the sceptre also grasps a bow and two arrows, which 
 are her characteristic symbols. She once ^appears in the form of 
 a cow with eighteen stars on one side, and a collar round her neck 
 from which hangs -V- ; on her back is a ram-headed lion with horns 
 and plumes, 1^ , upon his head. The cow stands in a boat, the 
 
 1 Religion, p. 336. 3 See de Eouge, Geographie, p. 122. 
 
 3 Op. cit, pi. 175 fE. 
 
THE Goddess NIT (Neith). 
 
NET OR NEITH 451 
 
 prow of which terminates in a lion's head with a disk upon it, and 
 is provided with wings ; the stern of the boat terminates in a 
 ram's head, and by the fore feet of the cow, which is described as 
 "Net, the Cow, which gave birth to Ra," ^ ^^^ |^' 
 is an utchat, ^^. In one scene she is represented with a crocodile 
 sucking at each breast.^ In late dynastic times there is no doubt 
 that Net or Neith was regarded as nothing but a form of Hathor, 
 but at an earlier period she was certainly a personification of a 
 form of the great, inert, primeval watery mass out of which sprang 
 the Sun-god Ra, and it is possible, as Brugsch has suggested, that 
 the name Net may be akin in meaning to Nut. On the other 
 hand, if we connect her name with the root netet, ^ , 
 
 " to knit, to weave," and the like, we may accept the view of 
 those who describe Net as the goddess of weaving, and who 
 identify the signs, >cx:, and ;c=k, which are often seen upon 
 her head, with a shuttle. It is, however, quite clear that the 
 oldest and most characteristic symbols of the goddess were two 
 arrows and a shield, which at a very early period became the 
 recognized emblems, not only of Net herself, but also of the city in 
 which her chief temple was situated, and they also served as the 
 symbols which formed the name of the nome of which the 
 city Sais ^^as the capital. Now since Net was represented by a 
 bow and two arrows, there is no good reason for doubting that she 
 was originally either a goddess of war or of the chase, and it is 
 probable that she was identified with a local wood-spirit, or 
 hunting-spirit, which was worshipped in the east of the Delta in 
 the predynastic period. In any case it is quite certain, when we 
 consider the attributes which are ascribed to her in the texts, that 
 she represents several goddesses who were the conceptions of quite 
 different periods of history and of stages of civilization. Thus, at 
 times, her attributes cannot be distinguished from those of Isis, 
 Uatchet, Sekhet, Bast, Mut, Nekhebet, and other goddesses, and 
 she was identified with one and all of them by turns. 
 
 The most ancient and famous sanctuary of Net was at Sais, 
 '^= ^\ s^ ' ^^'^''^■' *^^ capital of the fifth nome of Lower Egypt^ 
 ' Lanzone, op. cit., pi. 175, No. .3. 
 
452 NET OR NEITH 
 
 wliicli bore the name of y(-i* W " Sapi-meht," i.e., " Sapi of the 
 Xorth," and which was also called Het Net, '="()<»» i-e-, " House 
 
 of Net," and "Ast-Net," jj^ [j^' ^■^■> "The seat of Net;" 
 a rare name of the city quoted by Brugsch ^ and de Rouge ^ is 
 "Sapi," P^°^» ^^' -^^f j|- The texts often mention the 
 "temples of Net," U , that is to say, the temples of the gods 
 who were worshipped with Net at Sai's ; the names of these 
 
 u^, Resenet and Mehenet, J., ^ , 
 
 «^, Per-Ra, , "^ , and Per-Tem, ^'^ . The great temple of 
 Net at Sais must, of course, not be confounded with that of Sais of 
 Upper Egypt, i.e., Esneh, which was called Per-Net-mut-kheper- 
 
 hetch, , ic=K \\ Ml®: the names of Esneh are Ani, 
 
 and Seni, ^'^. At Sais was held the ajreat annual festival in 
 
 honour of Isis-Net, as recorded by Herodotus (ii. 59), and it is this 
 which is described by the same writer (ii. 62) in the following 
 Avords ^ : — " In like manner meeting (as before) at the city Sais, 
 " there to accomplishe the rites and ceremonies due to the day, at 
 " the approche and neere poynt of the euening, they furnish and 
 " beset their houses with torches and lampes, which being re- 
 " plenished with pure oyle mingled with salte, they giue fire to the 
 " weike, and suffer them to continue burning till the next 
 " morning, naming the day by the feast of lampes. Such as 
 " resort not to this feast, do neuerthelesse at their owne homes giue 
 " due honour to the night, jolacing in euery corner of theyr house 
 " an infinite number of tapers and candles, the custome being not 
 " only kept at Sais, but spread and scattered throughout the 
 " whole region. But for what ende this night is held solemne by 
 " lighting of lampes, a certayne mysticall and religious reason is 
 " yeelded which we must keepe secret." 
 
 After describing the place in the temple of Sais where Apries 
 
 1 Bid. Geog., p. 1323. ^ GeograpMe de la Basse jEgypte, p. 24. 
 
 8 B. R.'s translation, fol. 8Qh. 
 
NET OR NEITH 453 
 
 was buried, and mentioning the " fayre Chamber builte of stone, 
 " beautyfied with sundry Pyllers ingrauen like unto Palme-trees, 
 " being otherwyse very sumptuously and royally garnished," and 
 the two " mayne posts in the middest of the chamber, betweene 
 " the which standeth a Oophine," and the " toumbe in the same, 
 " the name whereof," he says, " I may not descry without breache 
 " of Religion," Herodotus goes on to speak of other matters 
 connected with SaTs, and says (ii. 170) : — "At Sai's 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 earned with most exquisite 
 " arte, in biggnesse matchinge with that in Delos, which is called 
 " Trochoides. Herein euery one counterfayteth the shadowes of 
 " hys 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." ^ The " Mysteries " here referred to were probably the 
 ceremonies performed in connexion with the annual commemoration 
 of the sufferings and death of Osiris, who, according to an old 
 legend, was buried at Sai's. 
 
 Passing now to consider the antiquity of the cult of Net at 
 Sais we find much to prove that the worship of this goddess dates 
 from the latter part of the predynastic period. The earliest form 
 of Net's name is found on an ivory cover of a box and on an ivory 
 vase,^ where it occurs in connexion with hetep, and so serves as a 
 
 constituent part of the proper name Net-hetep, \C — '^ • Now, 
 Net-hetep, we know, was connected with the early king Sma, and 
 she appears to have been the wife of king {}£x, Aha, who has been 
 commonly, but on insufficient evidence, identified with Mena, the 
 first historical king of Egypt. But whether Aha is Mena or not 
 matters little for our purpose here, for it is quite certain that both 
 he and Sma flourished about the beginning of the period of the 
 
 ' B. R.'s translation, fol. 1166. 
 
 ^ See Petrie, Royal Tombs, ii., pp. 4-20, and pi. ii. 
 
454 NET OR NEITH 
 
 1st Dynasty, and this being so the name of the goddess which 
 forms part of the name of the queen Net-hetep must also be as 
 old. Thus it is clear that even in the 1st Dynasty the cult of Net 
 must have been of considerable antiquity. During the first four 
 dynasties the goddess possessed sanctuaries in many parts of 
 Egypt, and several of her priests and priestesses were buried in 
 mastaba tombs in and near Sakkara. M. Mallet quotes^ an 
 interesting passage from the sarcophagus of Apa-ankh in which 
 she is addressed together with Anunu, (] ^ Q L^; and Nesert, 
 — »— Q ^ , who are two very ancient goddesses, and in which it is 
 declared that she came forth from the god, and that the god came 
 forth from her.^ "We thus see that in the IVth Dynasty she was 
 thought to be at once the mother and the daughter of the Sun-god 
 Ra, and that she had more than one form, and possessed also the 
 power to conceive and bring forth the new Sun-god daily by 
 means of the divine and magical formulae with which she was 
 provided. Among her early titles is that of Apt-uat, i.e., " Opener 
 
 of the ways," V £^£=f5£53, which seems to suggest that she 
 was in some way a female counterpart of Anubis. 
 
 In the text of Unas (line 67) we find the " temples of Net," 
 
 mentioned, side by side with the city of Tep, , and 
 
 
 the name of the goddess is coupled with that of Tatet, D 
 
 who was supposed to dress the dead ; thus the passage clearly 
 proves that Net was believed to perform some important ceremonies 
 in connexion with the preservation of the dead, and it would 
 seem that these were of a magical character. We may note in 
 passing that in the late " Ritual of Embalmment," published by 
 M. Maspero,* it is directed that a piece of linen, upon which were 
 drawn or painted figures of Hapi and Isis, be placed in the hand 
 of the deceased, and that Isis is identified with Neith. This piece 
 
 1 Le Oult de Neit d Sais, Paris, 1888, p. 104. 
 
 crz2 
 
 2 <^Z= 
 
 * Memoire siir quelques Papynis du Louvre, p. 90. 
 
NET OR NEITH 455 
 
 of linen was intended to serve as an amulet, and to bring to the 
 mummy the protection of Net, who is referred to under the name 
 of Isis. In the text of Unas (line 597) we have the following 
 address : — " Homage to thee, Horus, in the regions of Horus ; 
 "homage to thee, Set, in the regions of Set; homage to thee, 
 "0 Aarer (^ ^ ^) in Sekhet-Aarer ; ^ homage to thee, 
 
 " Netetthaab ^^ ^ | '] "^j > ^^^^ ^°^ ^f these four gods who are in 
 " the Great Temple, wherefrom the voice of Unas goeth not out. 
 " Take oiF your apparel in order that Unas may see you as 
 " Horus seeth Isis, and that Unas may see you as Nehebu-kau 
 " (a^vwv I^ ^ J ^ '^ 3)) seeth Selqet ; and that Unas may 
 " see you as Sebek seeth Net, and that Unas may see you as Set 
 " seeth Netetthaab." A little further on (lines 620-627) we have 
 another reference to Net and her son Sebek in these words, " Unas 
 
 fUh ^v 
 
 <' °\ ^,ww^ <K S J O ""^^ ) , and this Unas is Sebek with the green 
 
 "feather (■^''^Ip)? "^^^ watcheth and who raiseth up his 
 " forehead, and who is the white one who cometh forth from the 
 " thigh[s] of Khebset-urt (® J ^ <^) , who is in the light. 
 " Unas hath come to his pools which are on the banks of the canal 
 " ( K\ ffl A«wv\) of Meht-urt ( ^ "'■^^ <=^) ; at the place where 
 " offerings flourish, and in the fields which are in the horizon, and 
 " he hath made to flourish his garden on the banks of the horizon. 
 
 g=i 8 ^ 'jjff'j to the Great 
 " Eye which is in the field. Unas hath taken his place in the 
 " horizon, he riseth like Sebek, the son of Net ( y\) ; ^^ 
 " eateth with his mouth, he voideth water," etc. In the text 
 of Teta (line 204) Net is mentioned in connection with Isis, 
 Nephthys, and Serqet-Hetu, J ^ c> ^ ^ R ^^ 5 . 
 
 as one of the four goddesses who shot forth flame, I "jj f'. ^ , 
 
 -2s> 
 
456 NET OR NEITH 
 
 and worked "protection," =w«°, on belialf of tlie god Nu, ^, 
 when lie was seated on liis throne. 
 
 These same four goddesses also appear in connection with the 
 Four Children of Horus, whom they assisted in protecting by 
 magical means the various parts of human bodies which were 
 placed in " Canopic jars." Thus Isis says, " I conquer the foe, I 
 " make protection for Amseth who is in me " ; • Nephthys says, 
 " I hide the hidden thing, and I make protection for Hapi who is 
 " in me " ; Net says, " I pass the morning and I pass the night of 
 "each day in making protection for Tuamutef who is in me"; 
 Serqet says, " I employ each day in making protection for Qebh- 
 " sennuf who is in me." ^ The Egyptian word used here to 
 express the meaning of " protection " is sa, =sw-, and the character 
 represents a knot of a peculiar kind ; the part which knots and 
 cords tied in various ways have always played in magical 
 ceremonies is too well known to need description, and it need 
 only be pointed out here that the sign =OT^ indicates that the 
 protection Avhich Net exercised on behalf of the dead must have 
 been of a magical character. This view is supported by a passage 
 in the text of Unas (1. 271 fF.) in which we find Net mentioned in 
 
 connection with the goddesses Ana, J\ h Y ? Urt, <^ Y > 
 
 Nesert, ^^L,, and Urt-hekau, -^ | '-fV ^ ; ^ow Urt- 
 hekau is distinctly said to be the " protective power of the Eye of 
 Horus," and thus the attributes of Net and of the other goddesses 
 must be of a kindred nature. In the text of Pepi I. (1. 572), in 
 the passage relating to the deification of the members of the 
 deceased it is said that the thighs of Pepi are " Net and Serqet," 
 
 n X S ; biit in the Theban Recension of the Book of the 
 
 Dead (Chapter xlii. 11), it is the fore-arms of the deceased which 
 are identified with the fore-arms of the lady of Sais, i.e., Net. In 
 the Theban Recension the deceased declares (Ixvi. 2) that he was 
 conceived by the goddess Sekhet, and that the goddess Net gave 
 birth to him. In Chapter Ixxi. 15, we read, " Behold, the god of 
 " One Face is with me. The god Sebek hath stood up within his 
 
 ' For the texts see my Mummy, p. 199 S. 
 
The Goddess SEBEK-NIT suckling HORUS. 
 
NET OR NEITH 457 
 
 " ground, and the goddess Net hath stood up within her planta- 
 " tion " ; and elsewhere (cxiv. 5 ; cxvi. 2) we read that she 
 shineth in the city of Matchat, or Mentchat. In Chapter cxvi. 4, 
 the deceased says, " ye gods who dwell in Khemennu, ye know 
 me even as I know the goddess Net" ; and in Chapter cxlv. 81, 
 he says, " I have entered into the house of Astes, and I have made 
 " supplication to the Khati gods and to Sekhet in the Temple of 
 " Net." In the Rubric to Chapter clxiii., which has for its vignette 
 a serpent on legs, and two utchats on legs, it is ordered that in the 
 pupil of one utchat there shall be drawn a figure of the " god of the 
 lifted hand " with the face of Net, and having plumes and a back 
 like unto a hawk. From one aspect at least it is clear that Net must 
 have been a form of the power of the Eye of Horns, as well as of 
 Isis, his mother ; her son Sebek is a local form of Horus, and it is 
 probable that the two crocodiles, which are seen accompanying her, 
 and which have been already mentioned, are in some way connected 
 
 with the god Henti, "^^^ 3, whose symbols are two crocodiles. 
 
 Henti, there is every reason to believe, was a form of Osiris. It is, 
 however, possible that one of the crocodiles may represent Horus, 
 or Osiris, and the other Hetch-nefer-Sebeq, y I ' J > the son of 
 
 Net. "^^ 
 
 We have, unfortunately, no description of the ceremonies 
 connected with the worship of Net, but there is good reason for 
 believing that they were of a mystic character, and that they were 
 modified from time to time in accordance with the change of beliefs 
 of the priests in respect of the attributes of the goddess. Origin- 
 ally its chief characteristics must have been those of a local Delta 
 or Libyan goddess of nature, and it is probable that it included 
 ceremonies which were intended to represent the various processes 
 of generation and reproduction. This view is supported by several 
 of the titles which are given in Egyptian texts to her and to her 
 kindred goddesses. Thus as Isis she was the first to give birth to a 
 
 god, T(T(T ° n ffi®;^ as Hathor she was the " great cow which 
 gave birth to Ra ; " and she is called " the great goddess, the mother 
 
 ' See Mallet, Le Culte cle Kelt, p. 140. 
 
458 NET OR NEITH 
 
 " of all the gods," and " Rat (i.e., the female Sun), the lady of 
 " heaven, the mistress of all the gods, who came into being in the 
 " beginning." In a text quoted by M. Mallet she is actually called 
 
 " One," pp. , a fact which proves that at a certain period of her 
 
 history she was to goddesses what Ra was to gods. A certain 
 amount of light is thrown upon the history of Net by the inscrip- 
 tion ^ on the famous shrine-bearing statue of Utchat-Heru now 
 preserved in the Vatican, but it must be remembered that this 
 monument is not older than the early part of the Persian period. 
 Utchat-Heru was an official of very high rank in Sai's, and he was 
 high-priest of Net, and as such bore the official title of Ur-sun, 
 
 ^=t p. , i.e., "great one of knowledge." He was commander of 
 
 the vessels of Aahmes II. (Amasis), and when Cambyses came to 
 Egypt and visited Sais after his conquest of the country, it was 
 Utchat-Heru who received him, and explained to him the antiquity 
 and greatness of the goddess Net, and conducted him through the 
 various sanctuaries which were grouped together in her temple. 
 In the course of his conversation with the king he told him that it 
 was Net, the mighty mother, who had given birth to Ra, and that 
 she was the first to give birth to anything, and that she had done 
 so when nothing else had been born, and that she had never her- 
 self been born. For some reason or other Utchat-Heru found 
 favour in the sight of Cambyses, and the text tells us that the 
 king made offerings " even as every other good king had done." 
 The funds provided by Cambyses were spent by Utchat-Heru in 
 reviving the schools which had fallen into decay, and in refounding 
 colleges for the priests of Sais. The fame and traditions of the 
 antiquity of Net and her worship were current among the late 
 Greek writers, and it will be remembered that Plutarch {De Iside 
 et Osir., ix.) refers to an inscription on a statue of Pallas which he 
 renders, " I am everything which hath been, and which is, and 
 " which shall be, and there hath never been any who hath un- 
 " covered (or revealed) my veil." ^ Elsewhere (Chapter Ixii.) he 
 
 ' See Revillout in Bevue JSgijjytologique, torn, i., p. 72 S. 
 
 Eyti} (t/xi -n-av to yeyovbs, Kai ov, Kal i(T6fj.€vov, (cat toi/ tjuoi/ iriirXov oiSeis ttu) 
 
NET OR NEITH 459 
 
 says that tlie Egyptians often called Isis by the name Athene, 
 which signifies, " I have come from myself." ^ 
 
 Up to the present no hieroglyphic inscription has been found 
 which can be regarded exactly as the original of the Greek words, 
 but there is no doubt that Plutarch only turned into words the 
 opinions about the goddess Net which were current when he wrote 
 his famous treatise on Isis and Osiris. In a passage of Proclus, 
 who gives a Greek rendering of an Egyptian text in terms closely 
 resembling those of Plutarch, after the words Tov i^jMv ^nwva ouSels 
 aneKciXvipev, the goddess Net is made to say, 6v iyo) Kap-irov ercKov, 
 T^Xtos iydveTo, which beyond all doubt reflects with considerable 
 exactitude the meaning of the Egyptian title of " Net, the mighty 
 mother, 'who gave birth to Ra." ^ The words put into the mouth of 
 the goddess, " I am what has been, what is, and what shall be," 
 are, as M. Mallet has remarked,^ only a development of a play 
 
 upon her name Net and the word e7it , or entet , i.e., a 
 
 person or thing which is, or which exists, or which has being. 
 In other words, the Egyptians regarded Net as the " Being " par 
 excellence, i.e., the Being who was eternal and infinite, and was 
 the creative and ruling power of heaven, earth, and the under- 
 world, and of every creature and thing in them. Plutarch, how- 
 ever, was not without authority when he made Net say, koX tov 
 ifjLov TreirXov ouSet? irio dveKoiXvxjjev, for in an Egyptian text published 
 by Pierret* under the title of "lady of the sycamore house," 
 ^—7 /ww>A |||| Q ^^^ goddess Net is addressed in the following 
 
 words : — 
 
 d milt ur an sefekh mesu-s 
 
 Hail, mother great, not hath been uncovered thy birth ! 
 
 ' ^\6ov oltt' ifiavT^i. 
 
 2 n '^=f V\ fn JtI Net urt mut mes Ba. 
 
 3 Op. cit., p. 191. 
 
 * Mtudea jBgyptologiques, etc., Paris, 1873, p. 46 ff. 
 
460 
 
 NET OR NEITH 
 
 1 
 
 o 
 
 O 
 
 ■k 
 
 X 
 
 @ 
 
 d netert dat 
 Hail, goddess great, 
 
 em Mien en Tuaut shetat sep sen 
 
 within tlie underworld which is doubly 
 
 hidden, 
 
 P ^ 
 
 diet rekh-s 
 thou unknown one ! 
 
 a 
 Hail, 
 
 netrdi 
 thou divine one 
 
 X 
 
 urt 
 great. 
 
 an 
 not 
 
 sefeJch-tu 
 hath been unloosed 
 
 A 
 
 flpsp ^ 
 
 qeras-s 
 thy garment ! 
 
 \ 
 
 5o 
 
 a 
 
 
 J (£ 
 
 sefelch 
 unloose 
 
 senhu-s 
 thy garment. 
 
 £t3 
 
 ^ A 
 
 ft i7ap^ au erta-tu uat-d en dq 
 
 Hail, Hapt (Hidden one), not is given my way of entrance 
 
 er-es 
 
 \1 
 
 mddt 
 
 
 
 V 
 
 ha 
 
 to her, come. 
 
 sliept ha en Asdr 
 
 receive thou the soul of Osiris, 
 
 Jchui-s 
 protect it 
 
 em Ichen en 
 within 
 
 a 1 e 
 
 I \\ 
 
 ddui 
 
 [thy] two hands. 
 
 These lines form a prayer which is put into the mouth of 
 Ankh-f-en-Khensu, and, in the form in which we have it here, is 
 not older than the Saite period, i.e., about B.C. 550 ; but the 
 petition refers very distinctly to the mysterious character of the 
 births of Net, and to her attribute of inscrutability in the doubly 
 hidden underworld, and whilst the deceased declares that none has 
 ever penetrated the cloak wherewith she is shrouded, he beseeches 
 her to unloose it for him. Two words are used to express " cloak," 
 
NET OR NEITH 461 
 
 i.e., qerds and senhu '] ' S ^^^ JLa ft V ?^' ^ ^^^^ which calls 
 
 to mind the two words TreVXos and x'-'^^^ which are used by 
 Plutarch, and Proclus respectively to express the same word. It 
 is, however, quite certain that the ideas and beliefs expressed in 
 tbe above prayer are far older than the time of the Psammetici, 
 and in one form or other they may be actually traced back to the 
 period of the Early Empire. 
 
 Another proof of the mysterious and remarkable powers 
 which were attributed to Net by Greek writers is given by 
 HorapoUo, who in his " Hieroglyphica " (i. 12) says that when the 
 Egyptians wish to depict a figure of Hephaistos they draw a scarab 
 and a vulture, and when they want to represent Athene (i.e., Net) 
 they draw a vulture and a scarab, for they believe that the world 
 is composed of two elements, the one male and the other female, 
 these two being the only gods whom they believe to be both male 
 and female.^ We have already seen that the god Khepera was 
 supposed to possess the powers of begetting and conceiving, and 
 giving birth, and, in fact, to be at once both male and female, 
 " and other forms of the Sun-god were said to be self-begotten, 
 self-produced, and self-born ; " these characteristics are, however, 
 not applied to any goddess except Net, Since the Egyptians 
 declared that she was eternal, and was self-produced, it followed as a 
 matter of course that both a masculine and a feminine nature must be 
 attributed to her. We have already described how Khepera pro- 
 duced his son Shu and his daughter Tefnut, the information on these 
 points being derived from ancient Egyptian writings, but details of 
 the birth of Ra by Net have not come down to us, and as far as 
 can be seen the Egyptian conception of the manner in which this 
 goddess exerted her reproductive powers is of a far loftier character 
 than that which appertained to the creation of Shu and Tefnut by 
 Khepera. It is customary to say that the Egyptians possessed 
 no philosophical conceptions until the arrival of the Greeks in 
 their country, but this view is a mistaken one, for there is much 
 evidence extant which proves that already under the Early Empire 
 Egyptian philosophers were constantly engaged in thinking out the 
 
 1 ovTOL yap //.bvoi Oewv Trap' airois, apa-evod-qXui vTrdpxov(ri (ed. Leemans, p. 19). 
 
462 NET OR NEITH 
 
 problems whicli are connected witli cosmogony and theogony. 
 The reason why they did not advance as a nation further in 
 such matters is that they allowed themselves to be hamperedNby 
 traditional opinions and beliefs, and by the rituals and ceremonies 
 which the people in general demanded should be integral portions 
 of the public worship of the gods. The statements of Greek 
 writers, taken together with the evidence derived from the hiero- 
 glyphic texts, prove that in very early times Net was the personi- 
 fication of the eternal female principle of life which was self- 
 sustaining and self-existent, and was secret, and unknown, and 
 all-pervading ; the more material thinkers, whilst admitting that 
 she brought forth her son Ra without the aid of a husband, were 
 unable to divorce from their minds the idea that a male germ was 
 necessary for his production, and finding it impossible to derive it 
 from a power or being external to the goddess, assumed that she 
 herself provided not only the substance which was to form the 
 body of Ra but also the male germ which fecundated it. Thus Net 
 was the prototype of partheno-genesis. 
 
 "When, however, as HorapoUo says, the Egyptians represented 
 Net by a vulture they referred to her in her character of the 
 universal mother, and as such many allusions are made to her in 
 the texts. Certain passages, it is true, speak of her having set her 
 arrow to her bow,^ and of her enemies falling daily under her 
 darts, but usually she is said to provide clothing for the dead, just 
 as the house-mother arrays her dead in linen. Thus in the form of 
 Mehenit, ^^ ^'j ^ M\' ^^^ brought linen apparel and coverings of 
 white, green, red, and purple linen to deck the face of the 
 deceased, and an ancient legend declared that she arrayed Osiris 
 in the apparel which had been specially woven for him by the two 
 Rekhti goddesses, "^ ^, i.e., Isis and Nephthys. And because of 
 the part which she had taken in arraying Osiris in his grave- 
 clothes Net was made to preside over the " good house " 
 , ([).;->> 1-e-, the chamber in which the dead were embalmed 
 and swathed in linen, and over the chambers of the temples in 
 which the unguents which were employed in public worship were 
 
 ^ See Brugsch, Religion, p. 340. 
 
F 
 
 -1 
 
 The Goddess NIT (NeiTH). 
 
NET OR NEITH 463 
 
 compounded. The unguents which she mixed for Osiris proved to 
 be the means by which the body of the god was preserved from 
 destruction and made young again, and happy were the dead who 
 were able to secure the ministrations of Net. We must note in 
 connexion with these facts that many of the attributes of Net as a 
 goddess of the dead were assigned to her because of her association 
 with Osiris, and it is clear from the texts of the late dynastic 
 period that Net was regarded in the light of a mother of Osiris, 
 and Sai's was actually called the city of Osiris. At certain seasons 
 of the year, festivals were celebrated there in commemoration of 
 the embalming, and bandaging, and burial of this god, and the 
 great feast of lamps, which is also referred to by Herodotus, was 
 one of the most important. Another very important festival was 
 that kept in the spring, on the birthday of Osiris, the son of Isis- 
 Net, which the late Dr. Brugsch identified with the birthday of the 
 spring sun.-" 
 
 In Upper Egypt Net was chiefly worshipped at Seni (Esneh), 
 the Latopolis of the Greeks, which is called in the texts, "the 
 house of Net in the land of the south." Here she was identified 
 with Nebuut, m ^ ^ ' Menhit, Sekhet, and Tefnut, and was 
 represented with the head of a lioness painted green ; and her 
 titles were, " Father of fathers, and Mother of mothers," and 
 " Net-Menhit, the great lady, lady of the south, the great coav 
 " who gave birth to the sun, who made the germ of gods and 
 " men, the mother of E.a, who raised up Tern in primeval time, 
 " who existed when nothing else had being, and who created that 
 " which exists after she had come into being." The people of 
 Seni (Latopolis) assigned to her as husband the ram-headed god 
 Khnemu, Pj ^^^ <2 ^ , the lord of the First Cataract, and she be- 
 came therefore "lady of Abu" (Elephantine), and the mother of 
 Tutu, a form of the god Shu, whose symbol was a lion walking. 
 Tutu, ^ '^ J| ,^ is also known by the names Her-ka, '^U %,^ and 
 
 1 Religion und Mythologie, p. 347. 
 
 2 Variants, '^^^^5?7^,or^'^5;^. 
 
 3 Or, "^ LJ D pi Her-ha-p-Jchart. 
 
464 NET OR NEITH 
 
 HETCH-NErER-SEBEQ, z!^ 1 J /^ ; and he is depicted in the form 
 of a young man ^ wearing on his head the crown of the North, and 
 the Atef crown with uraei and disks ; the forefinger of his right 
 hand is raised to his mouth, which suggests that he had something 
 in common with the Harpocrates gods. According to Dr. Brugsch 
 he is the personification of the sun when he enters the zodiacal 
 sign of Leo, and the same scholar would connect the lion-headed 
 rain-spouts of the temples of Dendera, Khensu at Thebes, Bdf6, 
 and Philae, with the summer sun.^ In the texts which describe 
 these spouts they are called " Lion," the " Strong one of strength," 
 "mighty of strength," "possessor of two-fold strength," "the 
 mighty one of roarings," " fiery-face," and " lion of the face which 
 enchanteth (or terrifieth)." A form of Tutu, the son of Net and 
 
 Khnemu, called Ar-hes-nefer, (j "^^ — -^ I Jj , often appears in 
 
 inscriptions wherein he is described as a " god of the south," and 
 he must be identified with the crocodile-headed god who appears 
 in the temple at Esneh under the names Sebee-Ra and Hes- 
 nefee-Sebek, the son of Net. 
 
 From certain passages in the texts quoted by Dr. Brugsch ^ it 
 is clear that Amen-Ra, the " king of the gods," was the son of Net, 
 and in the hymn which Darius 11. caused to be inscribed on the 
 walls of the temple of Hebt, in the Great Oasis, it is said that the 
 
 Cow, '^ ^ ^:^, i.e., Net, rejoiceth in the " Bull of his mother." 
 
 Here the Sun-god is described as the husband Avho maketh fertile 
 with his seed,* and he is said to come to the town of Sapi, 
 
 y\ ^ , i.e., Sai's. The hymn continues,^ " Thine image reposeth 
 " in Het-khebit, in the nest of the lady of Sais. Thy mother Net 
 " uniteth herself unto thee H II <=> *^\ in the form of Nu, and with 
 
 " thy body arrayed in the veil [which she hath woven] thy body 
 " dwelleth in the temples Resenet and Mehenet. Thy raiment is 
 
 1 Lanzone, op. cit., pi. 407, No. 3. 
 
 3 Religion, p. 349. s Ihid., p. 353. 
 
 ^ See Brugsch, Reise nach der grossen Oasp, pi. xxvi., L 28 f. 
 
NET OR NEITH 465 
 
 I 
 I. 
 
 I I I I I "33=- I 
 
 " upon the hands of the two crocodile gods," J[S I i '^^3:''^ 
 
 The crocodile gods here mentioned are, of course, the two crocodiles 
 which are seen one on each side of the goddess in certain pictures 
 of her. Finally, we find that in Thebes Net, as the mother and 
 wife of Amen-Ra, was known under the form and name of the 
 ancient goddess Ament. She is represented as a young woman 
 who wears upon her head the crown of the North, and holds in 
 each hand the emblem of water, /wv~w; as such she is called "Ament, 
 
 , r\ .llliuilll. wi:^ ca |\ --] www AAAAAA 
 
 the dweller in Apt, Nini," fl ^^^ - ^ ^ J ^ ,, ,, . Under the 
 
 ^ 1 /www I Ci T Q \«> NS 
 
 a IN ■■■■'■■■" -^ 
 
 name of Ament-Ra, (I /^^w^ ^ ^ she is seen suckling Horus, and she 
 
 also appears as a ram-headed goddess wearing the Atef crown.^ 
 AU the attributes of Net were ascribed to Ament, who was origin- 
 ally the female counterpart of the local god Amen, and of necessity 
 a deity of little importance. Thus Ament is styled, " the Cow, the 
 " great lady, who fashioned the company of the gods, the mother 
 " of Ra, who gave bii'th to Horus." It is very difficult to 
 harmonize all the various statements which are made in the texts 
 concerning the attributes of Net, and the above paragraphs on this 
 goddess will illustrate the difficulty. They prove, however, that 
 the opinions which the Egyptians held concerning her varied from 
 time to time, and that contradictions in their statements are due, 
 not so much to inconsistency or ignorance on the part of the priests 
 and copyists, as to the attempt made to harmonize every new 
 religious system of belief with every one which had existed 
 before it. 
 
 ' See Lanzone, op. cit., pi. 25. 
 
 H h 
 
( 466 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 THE HORUS GODS 
 
 IT lias already been stated that the hawk was probably the first 
 living creature which was worshipped generally throughout 
 Egypt, and that as the spirit of the heights of heaven, and as the 
 personification of the god who made the sky he was called Heeu, 
 
 I "^ %^, i.e., "he who is above," or, "that which is above." 
 It appears, however, that at a very early period this conception of 
 Heru was partly lost sight of, and whether as a result of the 
 different views held by certain early schools of thought, or whether 
 due to the similarity in sound between the name " Heru" and the 
 word for " face," Her or Hra, the idea which became associated 
 with the god Heru was that he represented the Face of heaven, 
 i.e., the Face of the head of an otherwise unknown and invisible 
 god. We can see that this view was an ancient one even in the time 
 when the Pyramids were built, for several allusions are made in 
 the funeral texts of the Vth and Vlth Dynasties to the " hair " or 
 
 "tresses," ft ^^ ^^ [10 Kl , of the Face of Heru as the Face of 
 heaven, and four gods who are called the " children of Horus," 
 
 (ti 
 
 are declared to have their abodes in these tresses.^ 
 The Face of heaven was supported by the four gods by means of 
 the four sceptres which they held in their hands, and these four 
 
 sceptres took the place of the four pillars, 1 1 T T , of the god Shu 
 which, according to an older myth, supported the four comers, i.e., 
 the four cardinal points of the great iron plate that formed the floor 
 
 1 Pepi I., 11. 593, 600 ; and see Maspero, La Mylhologie jEgyplienne, p. 227. 
 
 2 The " Children of Horus " will be described later. 
 
 1 
 
The God HERU-UR, 
 
HORUS THE ELDER 467 
 
 of heaven and the sky above the earth. That the heavens, or the 
 skies, were considered to be a Face is evident from many allusions. 
 Thus the Sun is frequently called " Eye of Horus," and the Moon 
 is also an " Eye of Horus," the Sun being the right eye, and the 
 Moon the left ; a -well known title of the Face is " Horus of the 
 
 Two Eyes," ^^ n n ^ ' ^^^ when neither Eye is visible it is called 
 
 " Horus dwelling without Eyes, ^^ Jj jjTk am>«>a j| . 
 
 The forms of Horus mentioned in Egyptian texts are numerous, 
 but the following are the most important : — 
 
 1. Heeu-uk, ^^'^'rll) i-6-) Horus the elder" (or the 
 "aged"), the'Ap(t)r)pi<; of the Greeks, so called to distinguish him 
 from Heru-pa-khart, or, " Horus the younger." He is depicted in 
 the form of a man with the head of a hawk, and also as a lion with 
 the head of a hawk ; he usually wears the crowns of the South and 
 North united, but he is once seen with the horns of Khnemu 
 upon his head, and above them are a crown with plumes, uraei, 
 disks, etc.^ According to the Egyptian texts Heru-ur was the 
 son of Ra and Hathor ; the Hathor here referred to is the form of 
 
 the goddess which was specially worshipped at Qesqeset, ^ ; 
 
 i.e., ApoUinopolis Parva ; but Plutarch declared him to be the 
 son of Kronos and Rhea, i.e., Seb and Nut, and therefore the 
 brother of Osiris. This statement was probably correct enough in 
 late dynastic times, when men had wholly identified Horus, the 
 son of Isis, with Horus the Elder. Originally Heru-ur represented 
 a phase or aspect of Horus, the Face of heaven, and it was he who 
 was the twin god of Set ; Heru-ur was the Face by day and Set 
 the Face by night. There was also a Heru-ur of the South, as we 
 learn from the picture of the god given by Lanzone,^ the seat of 
 
 whose worship was at Makhenut, -^^ ^ ^ , near Bl-Kab in Upper 
 
 Egypt, and a Heru-ur of the North, theseat of whose worship was at 
 
 Sekhemet, ^ ^^n®' '''' ^@' '''' Seshemet, ^^@, the 
 Latopolis of the Greeks, and the ot^bsjl of the Copts, which lay a 
 
 1 See Lanzone, op. cit., pi. 226. ^ Ihid., No. 3. 
 
468 HORUS THE ELDER 
 
 few miles to the north of Memphis ; other shrines of Heru-ur were 
 at Ombos, (^ ^ , at Smennut, P " § @ » and at ApoUinopolis. 
 The most important shrine of the god was at Sekhem, where stood 
 the sanctuary Pa- Ait, ^ fl ^ fl^ c:^5 ^ its shrine was preserved 
 the shoulder, mdJchag, ^^ ^^ 9., of the god Osiris, and close by 
 
 grew the famous Nebes, a^^ J 1|, and Shent, 9^1' *^^^s- 
 
 Heru-ur of Sekhem is called " lord of the Utchati, ^^," i.e., lord 
 of the Sun and Moon. In the Book of the Dead (xviii.c) it is said 
 that the sovereign princes in Sekhem are Heru-khent-an-maati 
 and Thoth, but it is clear that locally the great gods of the city 
 were Isis, Osiris, and Horus. The form in which Heru-ur was 
 worshipped at Sekhem and other places was a lion. The inscrip- 
 tions on the walls of the temple at Ombos ^ prove that he was called 
 the " lord of the south," the " lord of Nubti (Ombos)," and that 
 he was identified with Shu, son of Ra; with " Heru-tema, the 
 " great god and lord of heaven, of two-fold strength, mighty one 
 " among all the gods, whose power hath vanquished the foes of his 
 " father Ra "; with Amen-ur, or Amen the Elder ; and in fact with 
 several gods who were regarded as gods of light and of aspects of 
 the rising Sun, and also with the various gods who were connected 
 with them. At Ombos Heru-ur was the head of a triad which 
 consisted of himself, and his female counterpart, Ta-sent-nefeet, 
 
 "^ "^^ 1 ^ A ^ ' ^'^'^ their son P-neb-taui, D ^^zzy' " "' " ,2 who is 
 
 sometimes called "the child," D ^. The third member of this 
 
 triad wears a disk upon his head, and has a lock of hair at the side 
 of his face like Harpocrates, and he is called the " young sun," 
 and the general titles which are given to Heru-ur and Ta-sent- 
 nefert indicate that in later days they Avere considered to be 
 identical with Shu and Tefnut. 
 
 2. Heru-p-khart, ^. I I a), i.e., "Horus the Younger" 
 
 (or, the " Child "), the 'Ap-noKpa.T-q'i of the Greeks, so called to 
 
 1 Brugscli, Beligion, p. 539. ^ gge de Morgan, Koni Ombos, pp. 156, 181 fi. 
 
HERU-PA-KHRAT (HARPOCRATES). 
 
HORUS THE YOUNGER 469 
 
 distinguish him from IJeru-ur, or Horus the Elder. la Egyptian 
 pictures he is represented in the form of a youth wearing a lock 
 of hair, the symbol of youth, on the right side of his head ; some- 
 times he wears the triple crown with feathers and disks, and the 
 
 like, and sometimes a disk with plumes, iljoU; but usually his 
 croAvn is formed by the united crowns of the South and North, 
 fJ . In one scene he is seated inside a box which rests on the 
 back of a lion/ Heru-p-khart was the son of a Horus god by the 
 goddess Rat-tauit, ^ "' C J) , who is said to have brought him 
 
 n o ?^ ' ^^ Hermonthis, 
 
 in a birth chamber, my , in the precincts of the building 
 
 Qemqem, ®; the goddess seems to have been wor- 
 
 shipped here under the form of a hippopotamus, <= 
 
 Heru-p-khart, or Harpocrates, was a form of the rising sun and 
 represented his earliest rays; the Egyptians distinguished seven 
 forms or aspects of the god, which may be thus enumerated : — 
 
 1. Heru-Ra-p-khart, ^ 5CX '^ ^, the dweller in Hermonthis. 2. 
 Heru-Shu-p-khart the great, ^ (1 '^l D /* .^j ^i^ father was 
 Saaba, OvT^r^, and his mother Anit, |'](]q^' 3. Sma-taui-p- 
 khart [son] of Hathor, J^^^nYH' ^- ^eru-p-khart, 
 the dweller in Busiris, ^^'^. 5. Ahi, *^, son of Hathor. 
 
 ii U ^^ fes Jj 
 
 6. Haq-p-khart, v^^^D^, thesonof Sekhet. 7. Heru-Hennu, 
 
 3. Heeu-merti, ^ ^ o o si • ^^ *^^^ ^°^^^ *^® ^^^ ^^ 
 represented as a man with a hawk's head, above which are the 
 horns of the god Khnemu and the solar disk encircled by a uraeus ; 
 
 iu' his hand he bears the ITtchati, ^^. A passage in a 
 
 Lanzone, op. cit., pi. 328. ^ See Brugscli, Diet. Geog., p. 
 
 348. 
 
470 HARMACHIS 
 
 papyrus quoted by Lanzone ^ calls him " Horus of the Two Eyes," 
 
 Amseti-Aah (^^ 3 ^ M) , in the city of Apu," i.e., Panopolis, 
 and this seems to show that Heru-merti was a local form of the 
 god Amsu, or Khem, or Min, as the Moon. 
 
 4. Heru-an-mut-f, vN. m ° °, was a local form of Horus 
 
 which was worshipped at Ateb, i]^©, i.e., Edfu, but the exact 
 characteristics of the god here are unknown. 
 
 5. Heru-nub, ^^ f%«<^. This was the form of the god which 
 
 was worshipped at Hierakonpolis, Per-Heru-nubt, ^ Z , and 
 
 he was depicted as a hawk seated on the head of an antelope, 
 which, according to Brugsch,^ commemorates his triumphant 
 victory over Set, the murderer of Osiris. 
 
 6. Heru-khenti-Khat, *^ fUll <^ • •'■^ *^^® form the god is 
 represented with a human body and the head of a crocodile, on 
 which he wears the horns of Khnemu, and the triple crown and 
 plumes ; ^ this form of Horus does not appear to be ancient. 
 
 7. Heru-khenti-an-maati, ^ (fill no 5^' ^•^■' "Horus at 
 the head of sightlessness," or the " Blind Horus ; " he appears to 
 represent the god when neither of his eyes was visible. 
 
 8. Heru-khuti, <^° '^^e"^^,^^^^ 
 
 " Horus of the two horizons," or the Harmachis of the Greeks. 
 He was one of the chief forms of the Sun-god Ra, and, speaking 
 generally, represented the sun in his daily course across the skies 
 from the time he left the Mount of Sunrise (Bakhau) to the time 
 when he entered the Mount of Sunset (Manu). Thus he combined 
 in his own person the god Ra and several of his forms, and in the 
 Booh of the Dead and other funeral works he is joined to Temu, 
 
 1 Op. cit. p. 617. 3 Eeligion, p. 664. 
 
 3 See Lanzone, p. 622, pi. 17 ; Brugscli, Eeligion, p. 606. 
 
 * For the passages see my Vocabulary to the Chapters of Coming Forth by Day, 
 p. 225. 
 
HERU KHUTI (Harmachis)- 
 
HARMACHIS 
 
 471 
 
 Temu here indicates tlie god of the setting sun, and Khepera the 
 god of the sun when he is about to rise. When Heru-khuti was 
 identified with the various forms of the Sun-god he was also 
 supposed to possess their particular attributes, and thus it happens 
 that he is said to have produced himself, and it is this fact which 
 supplies the reason why hymns addressed to him are found. In 
 the texts he is called the " lord of heaven," " the great god, lord of 
 
 Sept-Hat," =tTffF °=^j a city or district near the First Cataract, 
 
 'the governor of the Aat of Ra," 
 
 kSJ. 
 
 J 1 
 
 ^ (Heliopolis), 
 
 Thothmes IV. making offerings to the Sphinx. 
 
 " Heru-khuti-Tem, the lord of the two lands of Annu," and the 
 "dweller in Behutet." The chief shrines of the god were, how- 
 ever, situated at Annu and at ApoUinopolis, and the greater of 
 these was Annu, or Heliopolis, where he was identified with the 
 forms of Ra which were Avorshipped there. The largest known 
 monument or figure of Heru-khuti is the famous Sphinx, near the 
 Pyramids of Gizeh, which was his type and symbol. This 
 marvellous object was in existence in the days of Kha-f-Ra, 
 or Khephren, the builder of the Second Pyramid at Gizeh, and it 
 is probable that it is a very great deal older than his reign, and 
 
472 HERU-SMA-TAUI 
 
 that it dates from the end of the archaic period. No mention, 
 however, is made of the Sphinx in the inscriptions until the time 
 of Thothmes IV., when we are told in the text inscribed on the 
 stele between the paws of the Sphinx, that the image had become 
 entirely covered over with sand. To this king the god of the 
 Sphinx, Heru-khuti-Ra-Temu-Khepera, appeared one day when 
 he was sleeping his midday sleep, and promised to give him the 
 crown of Egypt if he would clear away the sand from his image, 
 and restore his temple. Thothmes IV. carried out the wishes of 
 the god, and having excavated the Sphinx, and rebuilt the temple 
 between his paws, Thothmes set up an inscribed stele to com- 
 memorate his work. Judging by the silence of the ancient 
 monuments about the Sphinx this figure of Heru-khuti cannot 
 have been popular in dynastic times, and if this was so it is 
 possible that it Avas due to the fact that the Sphinx was thought to 
 be connected in some way with foreigners or with a foreign religion 
 which dated from predynastic times. A recent but fanciful theory 
 makes the Sphinx to be the Avork of Amenemhat, a king of the 
 Xllth Dynasty; its name in Egyptian was Hu, fi v:i.Sss. The 
 forms in Avhich Heru-khuti is represented are many, but whether 
 in human form or not, he usually has the head of a hawk ; in the 
 examples collected by Signor Lanzone ^ we see him wearing on his 
 head the solar disk encircled with a uraeus or the triple crown, 
 ^&, or the atef crown. In one scene he is depicted as a double 
 man with a head having the faces of two hawks, one looking to the 
 right, and the other to the left, and above this two-faced head is an 
 utcliat, ■^^; in another scene he has the head of a ram, which 
 identifies him with Khnemu, the god of the First Cataract, and in 
 another he is seated on a throne which is carried on poles by two 
 snake- and two beetle-headed gods. 
 
 9. Heru-sma-taui, ^ T ^^, i.e., " Horus, the uniter of the 
 South and North." He is said to be the son of Hathor ; his chief 
 places of worship were Aat-hehu, i-:S=j||%@, a district near 
 Herakleopolis Magna, and Ant, | ^ ^, i.e., Denderah, and the city 
 
 ^ Op. cifc., pll. 229 ff. 
 
HERU - SMA - TAUI. 
 
HORUS OF BEHUTET 473 
 
 of Khatat, 1 A ^ ? and the creatures in which he was thought to 
 be incarnate were the hawk and a species of serpent. He is 
 usually depicted with the body of a man with the head of a hawk, 
 
 or serpent, or man, and he wears as head-dresses, sCX, ^, and iM.; 
 
 in one scene he is represented as a hawk/ and he wears upon his 
 
 head a disk and plumes, yly . In this form Horus was believed to 
 
 spring into existence out of a lotus flower which blossomed in the 
 heavenly abyss of Nu at dawn at the beginning of the year. 
 
 10. Heru-hekennu, '^8 "~^r^> He is said to have been 
 
 the son of the goddess Bast, and the seats of his worship were the 
 
 towns of Netert, 'I ^ f ^ > ^^^ Het-Nefer-Tem ; he is usually 
 
 depicted in the form of a hawk-headed man, with the solar disk 
 encircled by a serpent on his head. The exact attributes of the 
 god are unknown. 
 
 11. Heru-Behutet, ^^ j| V*^^^^^®" '^^^^ ^^ ^"^^ °^ *^® 
 greatest and most important of all the forms of Horus, for he 
 represents that form of Heru-khuti which prevailed in the 
 southern heavens at midday, and as such typified the greatest 
 power of the heat of the sun. It was under this form that Horus 
 waged war against Set or Typhon, and the inscriptions are full of 
 allusions to the glorious victory which the god of light gained over 
 the prince of darkness and his fiends. 
 
 The principal shrines of the god were at Mesen, jT| >/ , ^^^ 
 
 Qem-baius, '^ '^> ^ , Aat-ab, kSid / J ^^^^^ ^ (Philae), and 
 Tebt, A J ^ (Tanis) ; in the last named place he was worshipped 
 under the form of a lion, which wears the triple croAvn upon its 
 head, and is depicted in the act of trampling upon its enemies,. 
 The god is, however, usually depicted with the head of a hawk, 
 and carrying in his hands some weapon which indicates his 
 character as a destroyer. Thus, in one illustration given by 
 Signor Lanzone,^ we see him holding a weapon like a club or mace 
 
 1 See Lanzone, op. eit., pi. 239. ^ Op. cit., pU. 242 £E. 
 
474 
 
 HORUS OF BEHUTET 
 
 in his right hand, and a bow and three arrows in his leffc^; in 
 another he is about to club an ass-headed man in fetters with the 
 club, -S — ^ ; in another we see him standing on an oryx or 
 antelope, and holding a long hawk-headed spear in his right hand, 
 
 and three cords, to each of which is attached a prisoner, 3k. 
 
 Elsewhere we see him depicted with the head of a lion, which 
 seems to have been the form in which he was worshipped at 
 
 Tchar, ^Z^ <=> (X) , or Tanis, in the Delta, and in one place he is 
 
 seated on a throne which rests on the back of a lion. As the god 
 
 Horns of Behutet armed with a bow and arrows and a club. 
 
 of generation and reproduction he appears as a hawk with a 
 phallus terminating in the head of a lion, and in a scene of the late 
 period he is represented with the body of a man, and the head and 
 wings of a hawk, kneeling upon two crocodiles ; on his head he 
 wears 2CV , and in his left hand he holds a scorpion, ^ . 
 
 1 He is here called ^Z^ 1-°-^ / I 
 
 - He is here called " smiter of the rebel," f[] 
 
 AAAAAA 
 
 i=^!fc=i 
 
 ,T--~Si 
 
 J^ 
 
RA-HERU-KHUTI. the Dweller in Behutet. 
 
HORUS OF BEHUTET 475 
 
 In an extract from a text inscribed on a wall of the temple of 
 Edfli given by Dr. Brugscb/ Heru-behutet is described as the 
 power which dispels dai'kness and night, and drives aAvay clouds, 
 rain, and storms, and fills all heaven and the world with his 
 brilliance and light ; he rises with golden disk as the holy beetle of 
 gold, and he is declared to be the lord and creator of the gods. 
 He created himself, there is none like unto him, he renews his 
 birth daily, and year by year he performs his appointed course in 
 the heavens, bringing in his train the seasons, and their proper 
 produce. In one of his aspects he is identified 
 with Osiris, and then the goddesses Isis and 
 Nephthys are said to help him to emerge 
 from the abyss of Nu ; he made the heavens 
 to be the dwelling-place for his soul, and he 
 created the deep that it might serve as a 
 place wherein to hide his body, which is here 
 called Un-nefer, -^^ T "^"^ J\ . But the forma 
 in which Heru-behutet appealed most strongly 
 to the mind of the Egyptians were those in 
 AvhiclL as jfche god of light he fought against 
 S_et,J;he god of darkness, and as the god of 
 good against the god of evil. We know 
 from a passage in the xviith Chapter of 
 the Book of the Dead (line 66) that in 
 very early times a combat took place 
 between Horus and Set, wherein the 
 
 The double god Horns-Set. 
 
 former destroyed the virility of Set, 
 and the latter cast filth in the face of Horus, and it is this form of 
 the traditional fight between the two "Combatants," or Rehui, 
 ^^ I %i J| Jj , which is the base of the narrative inscribed on the 
 walls of the great Temple of Edfta. There was, however, one very 
 great difference between the fight of Horus and Set of predynastic 
 times and that described between the Horus and Set known at 
 Edfu ; in the former fight the two combatants were unarmed, but 
 in the latter Horus was armed with weapons of iron, and he was 
 
 ' Religion, p. 648. 
 
476 HORUS OF BEHUTET 
 
 accompanied by a number of beings who are called mesniu, 
 m\\ M^i I , or mesnitu, fl] h ^ ^ K ' • " ^^ pretty certam from 
 RAcrfET, the Coptic equivalent of the word mesneti, that the 
 mesniu were workers in metal, and that this name was first applied 
 to them as blacksmiths, and that at a later period the mesniu 
 were men armed with weapons made of metal. The place where 
 metal work was done, i.e., where the ore was smelted and the 
 
 weapons were forged, was called mesnet, , the " foundry," and 
 
 the worshippers of Horus of Behutet never tired of describing 
 their god as the " lord of the forge-city," i.e., Edfu, the place 
 where tradition declared he first established himself as the great 
 master blacksmith. And Edfu itself was regarded as the foundry 
 Avherein the great disk of the sun was forged, as we see from a 
 passage quoted by Dr. Brugsch, in which it is said " when the 
 " doors of the foundry are opened the Disk riseth up," \/ 
 
 •' ■■■ X '^ iiiiiiiii 
 
 In support of this tradition we find that a certain chamber in 
 the temple of Edfu, which lay just behind the sanctiiary, was called 
 
 mesnet, jn I ^^ , and it was here that the " blacksmiths " waited 
 
 in attendance to usher forth the image of the god in his temple. 
 From the representations of the " blacksmiths " given on the walls 
 of the temple of Edfu ^ we see that they were originally men with 
 shaven heads who wore a short tunic and a deep collar, and that in 
 their right hands they carried a spear inverted, I , and in their left 
 a metal instrument, A. In the same scene in which these occur 
 Horus of Behutet is represented standing in a boat, dressed like 
 his followers, and driving a long spear into the head of a hippo- 
 potamus beneath the boat Avith his right hand, and holding the 
 monster in restraint by a double chain which he grasps in his left 
 hand. In the bows of the boat kneels Isis, who also holds the 
 hippopotamus by a chain in each hand, and we may note that 
 
 1 Variants are . , , , . „ 
 
 0(3 
 
 W 
 
 ^^^,|o^ 
 
 2 Worterhuch, p. 703. 
 
 3 See Naville, Mythe d'Horiis, Geneva, 1870, pi. 7. 
 
HERU-NETCH-TEF-F. 
 
HORUS OF BEHUTET 477 
 
 the tackle of the boat consists of chains, presumably of iron, and 
 not of ropes. In another place ^ Horus stands on the back of the 
 hippopotamus, the legs of which are tied together by chains, and 
 the lower jaw of which is held fast by a chain. The story of the 
 defeat of Set by Heru-Behutet is told in the texts on the walls of 
 the temple of Edfu substantially as follows : — In the year 363, 
 
 ©©©[^[^[^ III, of Ra-Heru-khuti, 'Cxr''^^^, the king of the 
 South and North who liveth for ever and ever, his Majesty found 
 himself in the country of Ta-kens (^^^^, or Nubia), for he had 
 gone to the district of Uauat,^ because certain folk had conspired 
 against their lord. Having suppressed the rebellion he returned 
 to Edfu, and deputed his son Heru-behutet to continue the war 
 on his behalf; this god had observed how men had conspired 
 against his father, and he was ready to carry out his behests. 
 Thereupon Heru-behutet flew up to heaven in the form of a 
 winged disk, 'ss?, and ever after he was called "great god, lord of 
 heaven." 
 
 From the height of heaven he was able to see his father's 
 enemies, and he chased them in the form of a great winged disk ; 
 he attacked them with such wrath and vigour, that they lost their 
 senses and could see neither with their eyes nor hear with their 
 
 ears, ^ ^=: ^ [1 ^ ,^ ^ ^^ ^ ^g) ^ p O , and every man fell 
 
 upon his neighbour and slew him, and in a moment all were dead. 
 And straightway Horus, with many-coloured shapes and feathers, 
 
 ^^ '^^ O '■'^•^ ^ , returned to his form as a winged disk and 
 
 took up his position in the boat of Rii. At this juncture Thoth 
 declared that Horus, son of Ra, should be called Heru-Behutet, 
 and Behutet (Edfu) should be called the city of Horus ; and Ra 
 referred with pleasure to the blood which his son had shed and 
 which he likened to grapes. Then Horus suggested that Ra 
 should come and look upon his dead enemies, and Ra, escorted by 
 
 1 Naville, op. cit., pi. 9. 
 
 3 Note the pun on the name Uauat, X ) X ) , and the verb " to murmur, 
 
 conspire," ■*" 1 4' Qi) • 
 
C) 
 
 478 HORUS OF BEHUTET 
 
 Hatlior, and foUoAved by the goddess Asthertet, ^ 
 
 wlio is described as the " mistress of horses," 9, ^ 
 
 and who in the form of a woman with the head of a lioness is seen 
 standing in a chariot, agrees to his son's proposal. The chariot of 
 the goddess is drawn by four horses, which trample upon the foes 
 of Ka, who lie upon the ground bound with fetters. When Ra 
 
 saw this he said to Horus, " This is a very pleasant life," | ■¥" | , 
 
 and therefore the temple of Horus was called " Pleasant Life," 
 from that day. Then Thoth observed, " This was the spearing of 
 
 my foes," and therefore Bdfii was called Teb, A © JN from that 
 
 day ; and he further said to Horus, " Thou art a great protector," 
 
 ^ „ '^^^ |, and straightway the boat of Horus was called " Great 
 
 Protector." After this Ra proposed that they should journey 
 upon the water, and his enemies also went to the water, and as 
 soon as they had entered it they turned into crocodiles, emsuhu 
 
 "^^^ , and hippopotamuses, '^^ i , te;pu, and when they were 
 
 near enough to him they opened their mouths intending to swallow 
 up the god. Then Horus came along with his "blacksmiths," 
 
 r\\\ Av>AA^ c M?i 1 , each having a spear made of divine iron, 1 i) <^^^, 
 and a chain, ^ , in his hand, and they slew the crocodiles, and 
 
 the hippopotamuses, and they brought in 651 ^ enemies, (1 J "^=K, 
 
 immediately. Ra-Heru-khuti next ordered that statues of himself 
 should be set up in the land of the south in the place called 
 
 A/VWV. PI 
 
 Het-a-nekht, ^'^ i — a li , and Thoth applauded Horus because 
 
 he had made use of the formulae which were to be found in the 
 
 Book of the slaughter of the Hippopotamus, "^^^^ /"a^aaa '^ <. — a ^ <^D| ; 
 
 from that day the blacksmiths of Heru-Behutet have existed at 
 BdfCi. 
 
 (S(3(a fi n n 
 
 Naville gives (pi. xiii., 1-8) I, but Bmgscli {Ahhandhmgen 
 
 Koniglichen Gesellschaft der Wissensehaften zv, Gottingen, Bd. xiv., p. 216) and 
 
 (3 PP nnn 
 
 Wiedemann both give 381, i.e., they read I . 
 
 "^ nnn nn 
 
HERU-NETCH-HRA-TEF.-F. 
 
HORUS OF BEHUTET 479 
 
 And Horus once again took the form of a winged disk, and 
 placed himself in the bows of the boat of Ra, and he took with him 
 
 the two goddesses Nekhebet, 4- J Pn ' ^^^ Uatchit, | "^ Pn , in 
 the form of two serpents, that they might destroy the crocodiles 
 and the hippopotamuses in their dens. As soon as the enemies of 
 Ra perceived that they were being followed they turned round and 
 fled to the south, but they were overtaken by Horus and his 
 blacksmiths, each with his spear and his chain in his hands, and a 
 mighty slaughter took place on a plain which was situated to the 
 
 south-east of Thebes, i ¥ V \ ^j ^^^ which on account of the 
 
 terrible scenes of carnage that were enacted there was called 
 
 Tchetemet, ^°1 , i.e., " slaughter." This was the second 
 
 slaughter of the foes of Ra, and after this they retreated north- 
 wards, to the region of the Mediterranean Sea, and they were 
 utterly disheartened and in fear of Horus ; but this god followed 
 after them in the boat of Ra, and with him were his companions 
 who were provided with spears and chains, Horus himself was 
 
 provided with a battle spear, Q^ <^^ > and a chain, ^ ^ <§. , and 
 blacksmiths, t=3ifc=i w> i , and when he had waited a whole day he 
 saw his foes to the north-east of Dendera, ^^¥ W fe^, and 
 having attacked them he made a third great slaughter, T "^^ M ^'5>., 
 Jchai, among them : the name of the place where the enemy was 
 defeated was caUed "Divine Slaughter," j <= I'^v^'J^*'^' ^^^ 
 it was situated quite close to Dendera. Heru-Behutet was made 
 the god of the region, and the acacia, x ^°^ ra , and the sycamore, 
 /ww^ J n i , were sacred to him. 
 
 Once more the enemy fled to the north and was pursued 
 closely by Horus, who was armed as before ; for four whole days 
 
 and nights, ® ' ^ , he saw nothing whatsoever of the enemy, for 
 
 they had changed themselves into crocodiles and hippopotamuses, 
 but when he did see them he attacked them with great vigour and 
 slew them in large numbers. One hundred and forty-two of them 
 he bound in chains and dragged on to the boat of Ra, and he 
 
480 HORUS OF BEHUTET 
 
 captured also a " male hippopotamus," <^^ (=5) ; all the fiends he 
 
 slew, and he gave their entrails to his companions, and their bodies 
 to the gods and goddesses who were in the boat of Ra near the 
 
 town of Heben, 8 5 J • As a proof of his victory he got up and 
 
 stood upon the back of the hippopotamus, and as a result he was 
 called " Her-pest," i.e., " He who is on the back." All these 
 things took place on the piece of ground which formed the temple 
 estate of the town of Heben, and which measured 342 hhet, 
 
 -^'-^ ©(2(2 1 1 , on the South, North, "West, and Bast. The enemy, 
 however, was not wholly defeated, and some fled to the north 
 hoping to reach the " Great Green Sea," "Hhi ^5' ^"-^ ^^ S*-**^ 
 Horus followed after them and slew many of the rebels, the 
 remainder of whom went to the Sea of Mertet, /^"^ '--' 
 
 and there joined themselves to the fiends of Set, ^$-J. After 
 some difficulty Horus found out where the enemies were, and 
 having come up with them he captured 381 rebels, whom he 
 slew in the bows of the boat of E,a, and he sent one body to each 
 of his companions. When Set saw what had been done to his 
 friends he cried out and uttered awful imprecations and complaints 
 of the terrible destruction which Horus had wrought, and because 
 of his foul words, | ^ ^ "^'^^ 'W ' — ° , metu-neha, the fiend was 
 ever after called Nehaha, /wwva 'W 'W 4^^ . Horus straightway 
 attacked Set, and hurled his lance at him, and threw him down 
 upon the ground in a place near the city which was always after- 
 wards called Per-Rereliu, ^~~^ ^^^^ § ; when he came back he 
 brought Set with him, and his spear was in his neck, '^ ^^^^ <r=> 
 ^ ^^ , and the legs of the monster were chained, and his mouth 
 had been closed by a blow from the club of the god. After these 
 exploits Ra ordered that Horus should be called Urui-Tenten. 
 <=> S[, and he further decreed that the enemies of 
 
 himself and Horus, Set and his confederates, should be handed 
 over to the goddess Isis and her son Horus for them to do 
 with them as they pleased. Thereupon Isis and Horus took up 
 
HORUS OF BEHUTET 481 
 
 their position near Ra, and the young god drove his weapon, 
 
 mdb, into Set, at a place called " She-nu-aha," Q>i, i.e., 
 
 " Lake of Battle," or, " She-neter," oa "1 ^ , i.e., " Lake of 
 
 God ; " he next cut off his head, and the heads of his followers, 
 in the presence of Ra and the great company of the gods, and then 
 dragged his body through the length and breadth of his land with 
 his spear thrust through his head and his back. 
 
 Then Ra ordered that Horus, the son of Isis, should drag the 
 body of the monster about, and because of this "dragging" the 
 
 place was called " Atha," i] '^^ \|/ , ever after. At this juncture 
 the divine Isis asked her father Ra, that the winged sun-disk, ^^, 
 might be given to her son Horus as a talisman, because he had cut 
 off the heads of the fiend and his companions, and as a result Heru- 
 behutet and Horus, son of Isis, together pursued the foe Set, and 
 both gods were of the same form and appearance. They had the 
 bodies of men, and the heads of hawks, and they wore the White 
 and Red Crowns, with plumes, and uraei. AU these events 
 
 took place on the seventh day of the month Tybi, | <=> '^ , 
 and the place wherein they happened was called Aat-shatet, 
 
 After these things Set changed himself into a serpent which 
 hissed loudly, and he sought out a hole for himself in the ground 
 wherein he hid himself and lived, whereupon Ra said, " the monster 
 
 " Ba (I ^S^) , hath turned himself into a hissing serpent, let 
 " Horus, the son of Isis, set himself above his hole in the form of a 
 " pole on the top of which is the head of Horus, (y) , so that he 
 " may never again come forth therefrom." As the result of this 
 the serpent of that town was called " Hisser " or " Roarer," 
 Hj ("lI T =,fl ^ Hemhemet, and Horus the son of Isis stood upon 
 
 him in the form of a pole, or staff, on the top of which was the 
 head of a hawk. When all these things were done the boat of Ra 
 arrived at Per-aha, crzi Q^, or " House of Battle " ; the fore part 
 of the boat was made of acacia wood, and the after part of 
 sycamore wood, and both kinds of wood were, henceforth, holy. 
 I i 
 
482 HORUS OF BEHUTET 
 
 Meanwhile, however, there still remained some of the enemies of 
 Ra in the land, and this god exhorted his son to set out and 
 to make an end of them, whereupon Horus told his father that if 
 he would allow the boat to go whither he pleased, he would treat 
 the enemy in such a way that it would be pleasing to Ra. When 
 
 the boat had sailed but a little way on the water of Meh, =>=\ a^ww , 
 
 he found one of the friends of Set, and having hurled his spear at 
 him, he caught him, and slaughtered him in the presence of Ra, at 
 
 a place called Astabet, J] ¥ J fp] @ ■ -^ truce for six days and six 
 nights then followed, and Horus had rest, while Isis made use of 
 her words of power to keep away Ba, i.e., Set, from the district 
 called " An-rut-f." Soon afterwards Horus slew 106 of the enemy, 
 and then made a final attack upon them in the neighbourhood of 
 An-hat, 1^^^, and Tchar, ^^^J' °^ Tanis ; some 
 made their escape and succeeded in getting away to the moun- 
 tains, and others threw themselves into the sea. Horus changed 
 himself into the form of a lion, with the head of a man sur- 
 mounted by the triple crown, and grasping in his hand his keen- 
 edged knife he pursued them, and brought back 142 of the enemy, 
 whom he slew, and he tore out their tongues, and their blood 
 
 gushed out upon the ridges of the ground, n T^ I O 
 
 <::> /^ n o "f" ^:^ D c^3 ^^-^ 
 
 1 I 111 1 \> III O' 
 
 When this was done Ra told Horus that he wished to travel 
 further upon the sea, and to smite the remainder of his foes who 
 still lived in the form of crocodiles and hippopotami near Egypt, 
 but Horus told him that it was impossible to sail further on the sea 
 because the one-third of the enemy which still remained were 
 therein.^ When Thoth heard this he recited certain chapters 
 containing magical formulae, with the view of protecting the Boat 
 and the vessels of the blacksmiths which were with it, and of quiet- 
 ing the sea during the period of storm. It is clear that when 
 these chapters had been recited, Ra and his company set out and 
 went over the whole sea, but as no more enemies were seen they 
 
HORUS OF BEHUTET 483 
 
 returned to Egypt, travelling by night. Finally, Horus and his 
 companions went back to Nubia, to the town of Shashertet, 
 
 TtTtT I "^ ^n^' "P^liGi'S he destroyed the rebels of Uauat, and 
 their ablest soldiers. When this was done Horus changed himself 
 once more into the form of the winged sun-disk with uraei, and 
 took with him the goddesses Nekhebet and Uatchit in the form of 
 two serpents, that they might consume with fire any rebels who 
 still remained. When the gods who were in his boat saw this 
 they said, " Great indeed is that which Horus hath done by means 
 " of his double snake diadem ; he hath smitten the enemy who 
 " were afraid of him ! " And Horus said, "Henceforward let the 
 " double snake diadem of Heru-Behutet be called Ur-uatchti 
 
 "(^'11^^)'" ^^*^ ^* ^^® ^°- ^ft^'^ *li6se things Horus 
 journeyed on in his ship, or boat, and arrived at Apollinopolis 
 Magna (Edfu) {fj^v©; and Thoth decreed that he should be 
 called the " Light-giver, who cometh forth from the horizon 
 " / 1 [} ^cs^ '^""^ (^\ ; " hereupon Horus commanded Thoth that the 
 
 -winged sun-disk with uraei, ?Ds, should be brought into every 
 sanctuary wherein he dwelt and in every sanctuary of all the gods 
 of the lands of the South and of the North, and in Amentet, in 
 order that they might drive away evil from therein. Then Thoth 
 made figures of the winged sun-disk with uraei, and distributed 
 them among the temples, and sanctuaries, and places wherein 
 there were any gods, and this is what is meant by the winged 
 disks with uraei which are seen over the entrances of the courts of 
 the temples of all the gods and goddesses of Egypt. The snake 
 goddess on the right hand side of the disk is Nekhebet, and that 
 on the left is Uatchit.^ 
 
 The above legend is very important for the study of Egyptian 
 mythology, notwithstanding the fact that in its form here described 
 it belongs to a very modern period. The fundamental facts of the 
 story are very old, for they belong to the earliest period of 
 
 ' For the text of tlie legend summarized above see Naville, Mytlie d'Sorus, 
 pll. xii. fE. ; and for a translation, with transliteration of text and commentary, see 
 Brugsch, Die Sage von der gefliigelten Sonnenscheihe in the Abhandlungen of the 
 Royal Society of Sciences in Gottingen (Phys. Classe, Bd. xiv., p. 173 ff.). 
 
484 HORUS OF BEHUTET 
 
 Egyptian history, and are derived from the old nature myth 
 of the combat between Light and Darkness. With these, how- 
 ever, we have mingled another element, which is apparently 
 historical, and is also of very great antiquity. In the original 
 fight between Ra and Apep, or Horus and Set, the Sun-god was 
 accompanied by his followers, whose duties, apparently, consisted 
 in watching the combat, and who were, like Ra himself, un- 
 connected with the earth. But in the fight of Heru-Behutet with 
 Set, the companions of the gods were beings in the forms of men 
 who were armed with spears and chains for fettering purposes, and 
 they were rewarded by him after the manner of men. The god 
 himself was armed with a very long spear made of " iron of the 
 god " or " divine iron," and with a chain of unusual length, and 
 his method of fighting was to hurl his spear at his foes, and when 
 it had struck home, he fettered them with his chain, and having 
 dragged them to his boat, slaughtered them at leisure. The 
 first great defeat of the enemy took place at Aat-Tchetemi, 
 
 k°> i ]) ^=: Ofl ©, near Thebes ; the second took place at Neter- 
 
 Khaita, 1 "^^ I ^^ (J A © , near Dendera, and was followed by the 
 overthrow of small bodies of them in the neighbouring nomes 
 going towards the north ; and the last great conquest was effected 
 by the god, who took the form of a lion, at Tchar, ^^ _2^ | f^/^/^ , 
 or Tanis, in the east of the Delta, not far from the modern 
 Suez Canal. 
 
 All these facts indicate that we are not dealing entirely with 
 mythological events, and it is nearly certain that the triumphant 
 progress ascribed to Heru-Behutet is based upon the exploits of 
 some victorious invader who established himself at Edfu in very 
 early times, and then made his way with his followers northwards, 
 beating down all opposition as he went. It is pretty clear that 
 he owed his success chiefly to the superiority of the weapons 
 with which he and his men were armed, and to the material of 
 which they were made ; given equality of bravery in two bodies 
 of men opposed each to the other, troops armed with W(iapons of 
 flint would not long oppose successfully those armed with weapons 
 of iron. In other words, the followers of Horus, who are called 
 
HORUS, THE Son of ISIS, the Son of OSIRIS. 
 
HORUS OF BEHUTET 485 
 
 mesniti in the text, as we have already shown, were actually 
 workers in metal, or, " blacksmiths," and men who knew how to 
 smelt iron ore and to forge the metal into weapons of offence 
 and defence. These men called their workshop or foundry mesnet 
 or mesnit, and later, when their leader and themselves had become 
 deified, and priests had been appointed to perform the worship of 
 the god, the portion of the temple which was set apart for them 
 was also called mesnet or mesnit, and when the metal statue of 
 the god of the rising sun, Heru-Behutet, was brought out by 
 them from their chamber the god was said to issue from the 
 foundry wherein he had been cast, and the mesnet was identified 
 with that portion of the sky from which the Sun-god appeared. 
 
 It is, of course, impossible to say who were the blacksmiths 
 that swept over Egypt from south to north, or where they came 
 from, but the writer believes that they represent the invaders in 
 predynastic times, who made their way into Egypt, from a country 
 in the East, by way of the Red Sea, and by some road across the 
 eastern desert, e.g., that through the Wadi Hammamat, or that 
 which touches the Nile a little to the south of Thebes. They 
 brought with them the knowledge of working in metals and of 
 brick-making, and having conquered the indigenous peoples in the 
 south, i.e., those round about Edfu, they made that city the centre 
 of their civilization, and then proceeded to conquer and occupy 
 other sites, and to establish sanctuaries for their god or gods.^ In 
 later times the indigenous priesthoods merged the legendary 
 history of the deified king of the blacksmiths in that of Horus, the 
 god of heaven in the earliest times, and in that of Ra, which 
 belonged to a later period. The priests of Edfu found many 
 parts of this mixed history very difficult to explain, and they 
 endeavoured to get out of their difiiculties by the fabrication of 
 foolish etymologies and puns, whereby they sought to elucidate 
 events and names. These, however, have a certain importance, 
 for they at least prove that parts of the legends were not under- 
 stood when the puns or plays on words were made, and that the 
 
 ' The historical element in the legend was long ago recognized by Maspero ; 
 see Les Forgerons d'Horus et la Legende de I'Horns d'Ed/ou (in Bib. Egypt., torn, ii., 
 pp. 313 S.). 
 
486 HORUS, SON OF ISIS 
 
 legends themselves are of great antiquity ; another point is also 
 made clear by them, i.e., that the Egyptians themselves were not 
 better informed on such subjects than we are. 
 
 12. Heru-thema, ^ ^^ — °, i-e., " Horus the piercer." 
 This form of Horus is that in which the god attacked Set, the 
 nuirderer of his father Osiris, with his long spear with a sharp- 
 pointed iron head ; he is represented in the form of a hawk- 
 headed man in the act of driving his long spear into some unseen 
 foe on or below the ground. 
 
 13. Heetj-Hebenu, ^s^ § H^, i.e., Horus of Hebenu, or 
 Hebennut, fi J ^ , the metropolis of the sixteenth nome of 
 
 Upper Egypt.^ He is mentioned in the myth of Heru-Behutet, 
 with whom he is often identified, and he is usually depicted in the 
 form of a hawk-headed man standing uj)on the back of an antelope ; 
 this animal was supposed to be connected with Set, and Horus of 
 Hebennu mounted upon his back as a symbol of his sovereignty 
 over the god of darkness and all his host. 
 
 14. Heru-sa-Ast-sa-Asar, ^'^ "^^ j^g^ ^^ J^, 
 
 i.e., " Horus, son of Isis, son of Osiris," like many other forms of 
 Horus, represented in general the rising sun, and appears to have 
 been to the Egyptians exactly what Apollo was to the Gi-reeks in 
 this respect ; the aspects of this god were many, and in consequence 
 his shrines were very numerous both in the South and in the 
 North. In him were at one time or another included all the 
 
 various Horus gods, beginning with Heru, | "^ ^^, the god 
 
 of the heights of heaven, and Horus the Elder, and ending with the 
 least important Horus, i.e., the god of some provincial town. His 
 principal aspects were, however, two, i.e., he represented the 
 new Sun which was born daily, and which was the successor of 
 Heru-khuti or of Ra, and he was also the offspring of the dead 
 man-god Osiris and his lawful successor. JHorus, the son of Isis 
 and of Osiris, was a god whose attributes appealed strongly to the 
 Egyptians from one end of Egypt to the other, because in him 
 
 ^ Brugsoh, Diet. Geog., p, 490 ; and Brugsch, Religion, pp. 558 fE. 
 
HORUS, SON OF ISIS 487 
 
 ev ery man and woman saw the type of what he or she wished to 
 possess, that is to say, renewed life, and life as opposed to death, 
 and movement as opposed to inactivity, and intercourse with the 
 living ^instead of with the dead. In a way Osiris and Horus were 
 complements, each of the other, but the chief difference was that 
 Osiris represented the past, and Horus the present, or, as we have 
 it expressed in the Booh of the Dead (xvii. 15), "Osiris is Yester- 
 " day, and Ra (i.e., Horus grown up) is to-day," (1 <=> jl "^^ J] 
 D ^ (| <=> -k "^ "^ O ^^ "^ D % . The texts are not always 
 
 consistent in the matter of the paternity of Horus, for though Isis 
 is invariably regarded as his mother, his father is sometimes said 
 to be Osiris, and sometimes Ra ; but this inconsistency is easily 
 accounted for by remembering that Osiris is, under one aspect, a 
 form of the dead Sun-god. Of the circumstances under which 
 Horus was begotten we gain a good idea from a hymn to Osiris 
 in which the sorrow of his mother Isis at the death of her 
 husband is described. The goddess was greatly distressed, but 
 she was equipped with mighty words of power, and she knew how 
 to utter them so that they might have the greatest effect, and she 
 set out in search of the dead body of Osiris and never rested until 
 she had found him. With her hair she made light, and with her 
 wings she stirred the air as she made lamentation for her brother 
 Osiris, and at length she brought his body into a state of activity, 
 and was then united to him ; thus she became with child by him, 
 and her son Horus was born in a secret place where she suckled 
 him and reared him.^ 
 
 This spot appears to have been situated among the papyrus 
 swamps in the Delta, and the event is alluded to in many scenes in 
 which the goddess is seen, suckling her child amidst a dense mass 
 of papyrus plants. Soon after the birth of her child she was 
 persecuted by Set, who kept herself and Horus prisoners in a 
 house, but by the help of Thoth she escaped with her child one 
 evening, and set out on her way under the protection of seven 
 scorpions called Tefen, '^(M, Befen, j^^^c^, Mestet, 
 
 > See Chabas, Eeiue Archeologique, 1857, p. 65; Ledrain, Monuments 
 Sgyptiens, plL 22 ff. 
 
488 HORUS, SON OF ISIS 
 
 ^2<M, Mestetef, |;^^^, Petet, °^^, Thetet, ^c^, 
 
 O Off 
 
 and Matet, _^ d®S» These scorpions probably represent the 
 
 seven stars of the constellation Canis Major, in which the stars of 
 Isis and Sothis were situated. The last three scorpions showed 
 
 Isis the way and led her to the town of Per-Sui, =1 V 'J'] '^'^ 
 
 or Crocodilopolis, and then on to the city of Thebti, the city of the 
 Two Sandals-Goddesses, ^ w ^ w J) J) ' "where the swamp country 
 begins. Whilst Isis was absent one day Horus was stung by a 
 scorpion, and when she came home she found him lying on the 
 ground, and the foam was on his lips, and his heart was still, and 
 there was not a muscle or limb of him which was not rigid ; she had 
 protected him against Set, and against the possibility of attack by 
 any being in the papyrus swamps, but a scorpion had stung the 
 child, and he was dead. Whilst Isis was lamenting his death her 
 sister Nephthys came with Serqet, the scorpion goddess, and 
 advised her to cry out to heaven for help, and she did so, and her 
 cry penetrated to Ra in his " Boat of Millions of Years." The 
 great god stopped his boat, and Thoth came down with words of 
 power, and by means of these her son was once more raised to life 
 and health. Soon after these things had taken place Horus set to 
 work to avenge the death of^ his father Osiris, and it was under his 
 form of " Horus, the avenger of his father," ^^ T v^" T 
 "^ Jj '^-=— ,^ that he appealed so strongly to the imagination of 
 the Egyptians. 
 
 According to a notice in the Calendar given in the Fourth 
 SaUier Papyrus (Brit. Mus., No. 10,184), Horus began his fight 
 with Set, which lasted three days, on the 26th day of the month 
 of Thoth, and the two gods fought in the form of two men. Isis 
 was present at the fight and, because she in some way supported 
 Set against Horus, her son turned upon her with the fury of a 
 " panther of the south," and cut off her head. Thoth, however, 
 seeing what had been done, took the head of the goddess, and by 
 
 1 The story is told on the Metternichstele, ed. Golenischeff, Leipzig, 1877, 
 pi. iii., 11. 46 ff. 
 
 - For reference.s to him in the Boole of the Bead see my Vocabulary, p. 225. 
 
HERU-NETCH-TEF-RA, 
 
HORUS, SON OF ISIS 489 
 
 means of his words of power transformed it into the head of a cow, 
 and then fixed it upon the body of Isis.^ According to Plutarch 
 {De Iside et Osiride), Isis found that her son Horus had succeeded 
 in fettering Set and in binding him in chains, but not wishing that 
 he should perish she loosed his fetters and set him at liberty ; then 
 it was that Horus tore off her head the symbols of sovereignty 
 which were upon it. "We have no means of assigning a date to the 
 composition of the above legend, but it must be very old, and it is 
 easy to see that it is only a version of the older legend of the 
 combat between Ra and Apep, and Heru-ur and Set, and Heru- 
 Behutet and Set, and it is, of course, one of the sources of all the 
 post- Christian legends of the overthrow of dragons by kings and 
 heroes, e.g., Alexander the Great and Saint George. When Horus 
 had overcome Set he succeeded to the inheritance of his father, and 
 took his seatupon the throne of Osiris, and reigned in his stead; 
 and, in the words addressed to Osiris by the official Hunefer, " Horus 
 *' is triumphant in the presence of the whole company of the gods, 
 " the sovereignty over the world hath been given unto him, and his 
 " dominion is in the uttermost parts of the earth. The throne of 
 " the god Seb hath been adjudged unto him, along with the rank 
 " which hath been founded by the god Temu, and which hath been 
 " stablished by decrees in the Chamber of Books, and hath been 
 " inscribed upon an iron tablet according to the command of thy 
 " father Ptah-Tanen, on the great throne. . . . Gods celestial and 
 " gods terrestrial transfer themselves to the service of thy son 
 " Horus, and they follow him into his hall, [where] a decree is 
 " passed that he shall be lord over them, and they perform the 
 " decree straightway." ^ 
 
 Now, besides the fight in which he engaged with Set, Horus 
 performed many other filial duties which endeared him to the 
 Egyptians. Thus he took the greatest care that every ceremony 
 which could possibly benefit the deceased was performed on his 
 father's behalf, and every detail of the mummification of the god, 
 and of the method of swathing, and of the placing of amulets, etc., 
 upon the body was watched by him with loving attention, and his 
 
 ' Chabas, Calendrier, Paris, ] 863, pp. 29 ff . 
 ^ Book of the Dead, Chap, clxxxiii., 11. 12 fif. 
 
490 HORUS, SON OF ISIS 
 
 filial affection became the pattern which was followed by every 
 pious Egyptian from time immemorial. We find, however, that 
 Horus was believed to help the dead generally, even as he helped 
 Osiris, and all men hoped that he would come to their assistance 
 after death, and act as a mediator between the judge of the Under- 
 Avorld and themselves. In the Judgment Scene in the Book of the 
 Dead (Pap5TUS of Ani, plates 3 and 4), Horus, the son of Isis, 
 leads the deceased, after his heart has been weighed, into the 
 presence of Osiris, and he says to his father, " I have come to thee, 
 " Un-nefer, and I have brought unto thee Osiris Ani," and then 
 goes on to say that Thoth has weighed Ani's heart in the Balance 
 according to the decree of the gods, and has found it right and 
 true. He also asks Osiris that Ani may be allowed to appear in his 
 presence, and that cakes and ale may be given to him, and that he 
 may be among the followers of Horus for ever. In none of the 
 variants of the Judgment Scene do we find that the place of Horus 
 as introducer of the dead is taken by any other god, and there is 
 no doubt that this duty was assigned to him because it was 
 believed that Osiris would favourably receive those who were led 
 into his presence by the son who had done so much for him. From 
 the Pyramid Texts we learn that, at the time when man believed 
 that it was necessary to have a ladder in order to ascend into 
 heaven from the earth, Horus was regarded as the god of the 
 ladder, and that he was entreated to set up the ladder and to hold 
 it in place whilst the deceased climbed up it. Sometimes Ra held 
 one side of it whilst Horus held the other, and sometimes its 
 supporters were Horus and Set, but even so the deceased seems 
 sometimes to have experienced difficulty in ascending it, for we 
 read that Horus had to give him a push upwards with his two 
 fingers.-' 
 
 More than this, however, was done for the deceased by Horus, 
 for he took the bodies of the dead under his care just as he took the 
 body of his father Osiris into his own hands, and superintended the 
 performance of his funeral rites and ceremonies. In this great 
 work he was assisted by a number of beings called Heru-shemsu, 
 
 ^ English renderings of the passages -will be found in my Egyptian Magic, 
 pp. 52 fe. 
 
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HORUS, SON OF ISIS 491 
 
 ^ ^ ^ ^ -^ S^ ' ' ^•^•' " Followers of Horus." Now we know 
 from several passages in the Book of the Dead that Osiris, Ra, 
 Nefer-Tem, Neb-er-tcher, Mehi, Hathor, and, in fact, all great 
 gods were ministered to by a number of lesser gods, but none of 
 these are of the importance of the followers of Horus, and none of 
 them are as old. We have already seen that the original Horus- 
 
 god, 0^ ^ ^ 5 "who represented the face of heaven, was 
 
 supposed to have long hair which hung down from his face, and which 
 probably supported it, and that in the myth of Shu the supports 
 
 of this god, i.e., the four pillars, T||T, which held up the vast, 
 
 rectangular, iron plate that formed the floor of heaven were placed 
 in the tresses of Horus. At a later period, when the four followers 
 of Horus, son of Isis, were identified with the followers of the 
 older Horus, these gods were made to dwell near the pillars of Shu 
 and to have dominion over them, and also over the four quarters 
 of heaven, and they took the place of the earlier gods of the 
 cardinal points. In the Book of the Dead these four children 
 of Horus play very prominent parts, and the deceased endeavoured 
 to gain their help and protection at all costs, both by ofiferings and 
 prayers. In the pictures of the funeral procession four men draw 
 along the coffin containing the mummied intestines of the deceased, 
 four animals are taken for sacrifice, and all the instruments used in 
 the ceremony of " opening the mouth," as well as the vases, and 
 boxes of unguents, etc., are in quadruplicate. Even prayers and 
 formulae are said four times over, e.g., in Chapter xL, the deceased 
 in addressing the Eater of the Ass says, " I know thee," four times; 
 and in Chapter cxxiv., he says, " I am pure," four times. Most 
 important of all, however, it was to remember that the four 
 children of Horus shared the protection of the body of the deceased 
 among them, and as far back as the Vth Dynasty we find that they 
 presided over his life in the underworld. The names of the four 
 
 gods are : — Hap, § □ A ^^ , Tuamutef, -k ^^ ^^ , Amset, 
 
 (j^=[l-, and Qebhsennuf, ^J||5|||o^''^; ^^^^ ^^ *lie 
 order in which they are mentioned in the Pyramid Texts, but in 
 
492 HORUS, SON OF ISIS 
 
 later times the order of the names and the spelling vary thus : — 
 Mestha, ^]y,Hapi, g(|y , Tuamutef, ^^"^l^^^^^ 
 and Qebh-sennuf, |y | "tT % J| I =^^- . The two arms of the de- 
 ceased were identified with Hapi and Tuamutef, and his two legs 
 with Amset and Qebhsennuf ; and when he went into the Sekhet- 
 Aaru they were his guides and went in with him, two on each side. 
 Hapi represented the north and protected the small viscerae of the 
 body; Tuamutef represented the east, and protected the heart and 
 lungs ; Amset represented the south, and protected the stomach 
 and large intestines, and Qebhsennuf represented the west, and 
 protected the liver and the gall bladder. Associated with the four 
 gods, perhaps as female counterparts, were the goddesses Nephthys, 
 Neith, Isis, and Selqet, or Serqet. 
 
 As Horus, son of Isis, was so thoroughly identified with 
 Horus the Elder, and with other forms of the rising sun, it is 
 not surprising to find that the sanctuaries of the god were very 
 numerous, and that they existed in all parts of the country ; the 
 names of a great many of these have been collected by Signor 
 Lanzone,^ and from them we learn that Horus, dweller in the two 
 
 Egypts, ;^^ ^ , was lord of Nubti, rwl ^ (Ombos), and lord of 
 
 Uast, ij (Thebes), and of Maam, U ~^ r^/vn ^ Kenset, > " fv^^ 
 
 Het-Ant, [l'^^, Re-ur, ''^^^^', Pe, '-'©, Behen, I) ^ i>^^ 
 Nekhen, ^ , Per-netchem, etzdJ^,^©, R,e-au, '^f^@ 
 Hurent, | ^ ^, Ka-qem, .^^, Reqetit, <^ ^ ^ I]!) 
 
 Therer, g\®, Bak, ^ ^, Aat-aat, l^^ , Hu, '^^ ^ 
 Tchart, ^ ^, Aat-ab, ^S:d ^ ©, Hut, ^, Het-suten, ^ Q g 
 Petchatcha, dH®>I*>^^^©> Rethma ^ ^, Heben, |J ^ 
 Sekhem, ^ '^^^^q, Abtu, ^ri J"-^©, Shes-en-meh, S ^ /ww^a #* 
 Het-neh, Q0|, Hebt, ^ J, Shep, ^ ° , Khat, |^, Qah 
 
 ' Op. cit., p. 569. 
 
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HORUS, SON OF ISIS 493 
 
 ^11®' Tenretut, ^f^;, Ant, | ;, and Baka, 
 
 r^Aj\ J GtC. 
 
 The forms in which Horus, son of Isis, is depicted are both 
 numerous and interesting, and they show how completely he 
 absorbed the attributes of all the other Horus gods. Thus he is 
 represented as a child seated on a lotus flower, with one of his 
 forefingers touching his lips, and with the lock of hair on the side 
 of his head ; he wears the crowns of the South and North, and 
 holds both /\ and | .^ In another section he stands on the back 
 of a hippopotamus, into the head of which he is driving a spear ; 
 in this instance he is clearly identified with Heru-Behutet. In 
 late dynastic times the god was depicted in a great many fantastic 
 forms, and the various attributes which were ascribed to him are 
 indicated in many curious ways. Thus as guardian of the funeral 
 coflTer of Osiris he has the head of a hawk, on which is the triple 
 crown, with the body of a lion, and a tail in the form of a head 
 and neck of some unknown animal. Elsewhei-e he is represented 
 with seven heads, among which are those of a bull, a ram, a cat, 
 and a crocodile, and with the body of a man, ithyphallic, and the 
 legs and hoofs of a bull, and the wings of a bird ; in one hand he 
 holds a knife, and in the other a serpent. 
 
 But besides the attributes of the other Horus gods, Horus, 
 son of Isis, was endowed with many of the characteristics of other 
 gods. Thus with the god Anpu or Anubis, he becomes Heru-em- 
 Anpu, i.e., Horus as Anubis, and is said to dwell in the " divine 
 hall," 1 inri ^ 1 ^ ^^ recalls under this name the god " Her- 
 manubis," who is mentioned by Plutarch (De Iside et Osiride, § 61) 
 and by Diodorus (lines 18, 87). This dual god is represented in 
 the form of a man with the head of a jackal, and it is impossible to 
 distinguish him by his picture from the two jackal gods Anpu, or 
 Anubis, and Ap-uat, who are only two forms of one and the same 
 god. Strictly speaking, Anpu is the " opener of the roads of the 
 
 South, the power of the two lands," \/ ^^ \ Y ^^^^> and 
 Apuat is the " opener of the roads of the JSTorth, tlie power of 
 
 ^ See Lanzone, op. cit., pU. 214 ff. 
 
494 
 
 HORUS, SON OF ISIS 
 
 heaven," \/ ^ ^ ^ ^ZA^ ^^'^ *^° ^^^^^^ ^o^s are often 
 seen depicted on stelae, where they symbolize the two halves of 
 the year, and the night and the day sky, and the periods of waxing 
 and waning of the powers of nature in summer and winter. 
 
 The particular form of Horus which was identified with 
 
 Horus, son of Isis, was Horus of Hebennu, 8 J f^^©) 'the 
 Hipponon of the Greeks, where also Anubis was specially venerated. 
 The identification of Horus, son of Isis, with Anubis is easy to 
 explain, for both gods assisted in mummifying the dead body of 
 Osiris, and it is expressly stated in the Booh of the Dead (xvii. 
 125 ff.), that it is Anubis who passes through the purification 
 
 chamber in the Mesqet m\\ , and that he stood "behind the 
 
 chest which contained the inner parts of Osiris." According 
 to the same chapter (lines 100-108), it was Anubis who 
 appointed the Seven Spirits, " the followers of their lord Sepa," 
 
 — »— ^^ "n^ ^^ rVi ; 'to be the protectors of the dead body of 
 
 Osiris. One authority quoted in the same chapter stated that the 
 
 , were the Four Children of Horus, 
 
 III 
 i nil 
 
 Seven Spirits, 
 
 already mentioned above, and Maa-atef-f, ^^ "^^ ^^ u 
 
 and Kheri-beq-f, ^ \\ a jLd ^ '':^=— r;/] > ^^^ Heru-khenti-maati, 
 
 fi 
 
 Q w 
 
 ; but another authority gives the names of the 
 
 Seven Spirits as follows: — 1. Netcheh-netcheh ; 2. Aaqetet ; 
 3. An-erta-nef-bes-f-khenti-heh-f ; 4. Aq-her-ammi-unnut-f ; 6. 
 Tesher-maati-ammi-het-Anes ; 6. Ubes-hra-per-em-khetkhet ; 7. 
 Maa-em-kerh-an-nef-em-hru.^ In connexion with these must be 
 
 1 Booh of the Dead, Chap, cxlii., § iv. 24, 25. 
 
 I j\ 
 
 ■~ji^ 
 
 M 
 
 2*t 
 
 •'■S%^l1ik"Qc^^=^l- ^-^Mi 
 
 .A. 7. 
 
 ffi 
 
 i^Jl 
 
 
HORUS, THE Son of Isis, the Son of Osiris. 
 
HARPOCRATES 495 
 
 mentioned the goddess Hetep-sekhus, ^ ^ \\ y P Pn > 
 
 who is identified either with the Bye of Ra or with the flame 
 which follows Osiris to bum. up his enemies, and the assessors of 
 that section of the Underworld which is called An-aareretef, 
 
 — "— "^ "^ ) "^^^ An-aretf, (] ^ , i.e., the 
 
 " place where nothing grows," the chief of whom was Heru-netch- 
 
 HKA-ATEF-E, ^ J f ^ T ^ =^ S^ ''^' '^^ " HorUS, the 
 
 avenger of his father." 
 
 15. Heeu-pa-khaet, ^^ ^'^ 2^S§» i-e-, " Horus 
 the Child." We have already described Horus the Child, who was 
 the son and successor of Horus the Elder, and brief mention must be 
 made of Horus the Child who was the son and successor of Osiris. 
 The greater number of the attributes which belonged to the old 
 Horus gods were transferred to the son of Isis and Osiris, especially 
 in late dynastic times when the worship of Osiris was dominant in 
 Egypt, and Horus the Child became the type of the new birth, and 
 new life, the first hours of the day, and the first days of the month, 
 and the first months of the year, and in fact of everything which 
 was young and vigorous. Soon, however, the characteristics of 
 the great forms of the Sun-god were added to his own, and his 
 original conception as Horus the Child was somewhat forgotten ; 
 at times it is very difficult to distinguish in the texts exactly 
 which Horus is referred to. In all the great sanctuaries of Egypt, 
 from the period of the New Empire onwards, we find that Horus 
 the Child, or Harpocrates, was identified by the priests of the local 
 gods as a form of their principal deities in which the chiefs of the 
 companies or triads of gods had renewed and rejuvenated them- 
 selves. The late Dr. Brugsch collected a large number of examples 
 of this fact,^ and he proved that as Heru-sma-taui-pa-khart he was 
 identified with Tem, and was said to be son of Heru-khuti and 
 
 Hathor; that joined with Ahi, Of tjO Tl; Harpocrates became a 
 form of Ra, and was called " son of Hathor, to whom Isis gave 
 birth," and was regarded as the offspring of Un-nefer, ^^ I , 
 
 1 Beligion und Mythologie, p. 373. 
 
496 HARPOCRATES 
 
 i.e., of Osiris ; and that he was also made to be the renewed form 
 of the gods Shu, Seb, Khensu, and Amsu, or Min. 
 
 In connexion with Horus, son of Isis, in one or other of his 
 forms must be mentioned the interesting legend which is preserved 
 in the cxiith Chapter of the Booh of the Dead, and which has 
 
 reference to the district or place called Khat, j1 v\ i , of the 
 dweller in Khat, in the city of Anpet, ^'^wv © ^ in the nome of Ha- 
 
 
 D ■^ 
 
 mehit, y ^., i.e., the sixteenth nome of Lower Egypt. Strictly 
 
 speaking, Anpet was the name of the temple and quarter of the 
 city of Mendes, the local triad of which consisted of Ba-neb-Tetet, 
 
 Ha-mehit, -— ^ °^^. \ i-U ^i ^"^^ Heru-pa-khart. 
 Mendes was full of associations with the worship of the god Osiris, 
 for in the temple there were preserved the phallus and the back- 
 bone of Osiris ; the temple was called Het-baiut, J ^^ 1 1 1 «§ > ^•^•i 
 " House of the Rams," and the place where the relics were found 
 Per-khent, cd © -^ The rams here referred to recall the legend 
 in which the Ram of Mendes was said to unite within himself the 
 souls of Ra, Osiris, Shu, and Khepera, and he was known as the 
 
 "Ram with four heads upon one neck," X^«vn\^===J q .^ 
 It is possible that he is also referred to in the text of Pepi I. (line 
 419) where a god with four faces is mentioned, ''^"'^ ^z:^ ^ ^ v '^''• 
 In the Chapter above mentioned the deceased is made to ask a 
 number of gods, " Do ye know for what reason the city of Pe hath 
 " been given unto Horus ? " and he goes on to say, " I, even I, 
 " know it though ye know it not. Behold, Ra gave the city to him 
 " in return for the injury to his Eye ; for which cause Ra said to 
 " Horus, ' Let me see what is coming to pass in thine eye,' and 
 " forthAvith he looked thereat. Then Ra said unto Horus, ' Look 
 " at that black pig,' and he looked, and straightway an injury was 
 " done unto his eye, that is to say, a mighty storm [took place 
 
 ' See de Rouge, Geoijraphie Anciemie, p. 114. 
 
HARPOCRATES 497 
 
 " therein]. Then said Horus unto Ra, ' Verily, my eye seems as if 
 " it were an eye upon which Suti had inflicted a blow ' ; and [thus 
 " saying] he ate his heart/ Then said Ra to those gods, ' Place ye 
 " him in his chamber, and he shall do well.' Now the black pig 
 " was Suti (Set) who had transformed himself into a black pig, and 
 " he it was who had aimed the blow of fire which struck the eye of 
 " Horus. Then said Ra unto those gods, * The pig is an abominable 
 " ' thing unto Horus ; but he shall do well, although the pig is an 
 " ' abomination unto him.' Then the company of the gods, who 
 " Avere among the divine Followers of Horus when he existed in 
 " the form of his own child, said, ' Let sacrifices be made of his 
 " bulls, and of his goats, and of his pigs.' Now the father of 
 " Mesthi, Hapi, Tuamutef, and Qebh-sennuf is Horus, and their 
 " mother is Isis. Then said Horus to Ra, ' Give me two divine 
 " ' brethren in the city of Pe and two divine brethren in the city of 
 " ' Nekhen, who [have sprung] from my body and who shall be with 
 " ' me in the guise of everlasting judges, and then shall the earth 
 " ' blossom and thunder-clouds and rain be done away.' And the 
 
 " name of Horus became Her-uatch-f, '^ f=^ | '^^=^." 
 
 In addition to the forms of Horus mentioned in the above 
 paragraphs the Pyramid Texts make known the following: — 
 
 1. Heru-Aah, ^^ I fid, i.e., Horus, the Moon-god;^ 2. Heru- 
 
 KHENT-PERU, ^[|||l|-^;^ 3. HeRU-AM-HeNNU, ^Ij^^ni;* 
 
 and Heru of Tat, ^. c^^ '^, ^ .^ According to the same 
 authorities Horus possessed one white eye and one black, 
 ^ga C\ T ^ ^ — 1 ^^ which king Unas is said to have taken to 
 illumine his face ; and two other titles of the god are " Horus of 
 the two blue eyes," ^ ® f' J °^ '^.■>' ^^^ " Horus of the two 
 red eves," ^ ^^ />^ ""^^^^ .^ In the Theban Recension of the 
 
 ' I.e., he lost his temper and raged. 
 
 . [D^ (]<:^ ^^ I ^!\^l), Teta, 1.365. 
 
 3 Unas, 1. 202. * Unas, 1. 211. ^ Unas, 1. 218. 
 
 6 Unas, 1. 37. ' Unas, 1. 369. « Unas, 1. 869. 
 
 K k 
 
498 MISCELLANEOUS HORUS GODS 
 
 Book of the Dead these, titles are also mentioned (Chap, clxxvii. 7) 
 as well as the following : — Heru-aa-abu, ^^ i i n ^ ' ?®^^" 
 
 ahai, ^ — a jM, Heru-ami-abu-her-ab-ami-khat, ^^ 3 -jr^^^W 
 1^ ^ I] -[j- \\ ^, Heru-ami-athen, ^ I) - - ^ W I) ^ ^, Heru- 
 em-khebit, 'w' 'Oy \^ M, Heru-neb-ureret, ^^ •^:z:^ <=> -^^ iL JJ i, 
 Heru-her-neferu, ^^ "^ I V QA '"'^ ' » Heru-khent-heh, 
 
 ~^ '^JlN^i, Heru-khenti-heh, *^ ^ jr i , Heru-sekhai, 
 
 ^PJ(](j^5^, Hem-shet-hra, ^^^T' ^**'- ^'''^^^^' ^ 
 the text of Unas (line 462 if.) we meet with the form of Hertj- 
 Sept, v\ I a , who is mentioned in connexion with Ra, Tern, 
 Thoth, and Horus of Tat, and the star Nekhekh, ^_ . Heru-Sept 
 
 is a form of Horus, presumably the god of the rising sun, united to 
 the particular form of the same god Sept which was worshipped 
 in the twentieth nome of Lower Egypt, i.e., the nome Sept, 
 
 y.^. In the examples given by Signor Lanzone of the various 
 
 forms under which Sept is depicted he is sometimes seen in the 
 form of a man having upon his head either the symbol A , or double 
 plumes, [|| , or a disk, O , and sometimes in the form of a mummied 
 hawk, rC , with plumes on his head, and the symbol A in front of 
 him, and the mendt, (w , on his back. The titles which accompany 
 
 these representations describe him as the " lord of the east," i.e., 
 the eastern part of the Delta and Arabia. On a shrine discovered 
 at Saft al-Henna by M. Naville he appears in the form of the god 
 
 Bes, J ' (jj who is represented with outspread arms, hands, and 
 
 wings, and with feathers on the top of his head. In this form 
 
 11 1 1 mill ^^ rt-, I 
 
 he is called, " Sept, the smiter of the Menti," awa« f^ ^ ^ i ^ 
 i.e., the tribes of the Eastern Desert and Arabia. Sept was 
 
 3sn 
 
 clearly a god of battles, ^ d^T%' ^^^ ^® ^^^ called 
 
 the "Bull that trample th on the Menti;" he was the 
 
The God SEPT. 
 
MISCELLANEOUS HORUS GODS 499 
 
 " strengthener of Egypt, and the protector of the temples of the 
 gods."i 
 
 The principal seat of the worship of the god was in the 
 
 metropolis of the nome, i.e., at Per-Sept, '""' A R Z • if Kesem, 
 
 Q ^k, @ ' "^^^ ^ distinct city from Per-Sept a temple to the god 
 
 may have stood there also. The female counterpart of Heru-Sept 
 
 was a form of the goddess Hathor to whom, in the twentieth nome 
 
 of Lower Egypt, the name Septit, O'^QO'^J). was given; his 
 
 sanctuary contained some fine nebes ^ trees, hence its name dst 
 
 nebes, jj ^ aaaa^a J ' l) i , " house of nebes trees." As the " lord of 
 
 battle," \z:7 Q£x , Sept is depicted in the form of a hawk-headed 
 lion with the tails of a lion and a hawk, and in his hands, which 
 are those of a man, he holds a bow and a club ; on his head are a 
 disk ^ and plumes. Sept is mentioned even in the Book of the Dead 
 with the attributes of a god of war, and in Chapter xvii. (line 30) 
 he is said to " thwart the acts of the foes of Neb-er-tcher." In the 
 xxxiind Chapter the deceased drives away the Crocodile of the 
 South, and says, " I am Sept " ; and in the cxxxth Chapter 
 (line 11) we read of the "slaughtering block of the god Septu," 
 
 p|> > "^ A V v^ • ^P *° ^^^ present no satisfactory explanation 
 has been given of the object A which is the symbol of the god 
 Sept, but it appears to have been some kind of a triangle ; a figure 
 or model of it was preserved at Amen-kheperutet, Ij^ ^ *^~^ fj ^ , 
 which is described in the Edfu list as A ^^ j «>«wv ^^ «wwv ^£\^ ^ 
 i.e., " the hidden A of Khas (?) en-Sept." 
 
 ' De Rouge, GeograpMe Ancienne, p. 141. 
 
 ^ The Cordia Sehestena, or Zizyphus Lotos W., according to Brugsch, Religion, 
 p. 567. 
 
 ' Lanzone, op. cit., p. 1048. 
 
( 500 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE GREAT TRIAD OF MEMPHIS, PTAH, ° 
 SEKHET, ^5^, AND I-EM-HETEP, ]j(j(j^^ 
 
 THE greatest of all the old gods of Memphis was undoubtedly 
 Ptah, ^ I J| , or Ptah-neb-ankh, ^ | ■^^^ T" ^ r^ j and 
 his worship, in one form or another, goes back to the earliest part 
 of the dynastic period. He has usually been regarded as a form 
 of the Sun-god, and as the personification of the rising sun, either 
 at the time when it begins to rise above the horizon or immediately 
 after it has risen. The name has often been explained to mean 
 " Opener," and to be derived from a root which was cognate in 
 meaning with the well-known Semitic root pdthahh, HjOD, in fact 
 Ptah was thought to be the " Opener " of the day just as Tern was 
 considered to be the " Closer " of the day. The chief drawback, 
 however, to the acceptance of this derivation is the fact that Ptah 
 never forms one of the groups of the chief forms of the Sun-god in 
 the texts, and his attributes are entirely different from those of 
 Khepera, Tern, Heru, and Ra. Moreover, although the word 
 2ytah, ^ § , is found in Egyptian it never has the meaning " to 
 
 open," in the sense of opening a door, and the determinative which 
 follows it,^ '^=, proves conclusively that although it does mean 
 "to open" it is always in the sense of "to engrave, to carve, to 
 chisel," and the like ; compare Heb. ^^Pi^ " engraving, sculpture." 
 The meaning proposed for the name "Ptah" by Dr. Brugsch is 
 " sculptor, engraver," and many passages in the texts of all periods 
 make it plain that Ptah was the chief god of all handicraftsmen, 
 
 ' Brugsch, Worterbuch, p. 528. 
 
PTAH FASHIONING THE EQQ OF THE WORLD UPON A POTTER'S 
 
 Wheel, which he works with his Foot. 
 
PTAH THE ARTIFICER 501 
 
 and of all workers in metal and stone. What the form of the god 
 was originally it is, unfortunately, impossible to say, but from the 
 titles which the dynastic Egyptians gave to him it is clear that 
 his main characteristics did not change from the period of the 
 Ilnd Dynasty to that of the Ptolemies and Romans. At a very 
 early period he was identified with one of the great primeval gods 
 of Egypt, and he was called " the very great god who came into 
 "being in the earliest time," "^^ ^^ ^ M __|j S ^ ? "father 
 " of fathers. Power of powers," ^ ^ '^^ "^ "f iii ;" father of 
 "beginnings, and creator of the egg[s] of the Sun and Moon," 
 ii°1^j^ilP^i ©---; "lord of Maat, king of the two 
 " lands, the god of the Beautiful Face in Thebes, who created his 
 " own image, who fashioned his own body, who hath established Maat 
 throughout the two lands ; " ^ " Ptah, the Disk of heaven, illuminer 
 " of the two lands with the fire of his two eyes."^ In the text of 
 
 Teta (lines 87, 97) the "workshop of Ptah," |^ ^f. is men- 
 tioned, and the general sense of the passages indicates that it was 
 Ptah who was believed to fashion the new bodies in which the 
 souls of the dead were to live in the Underworld. Ptah, as we 
 shall see later from the passages quoted from the Booh of the Dead, 
 was the great artificer in metals, and he was at once smelter, and 
 caster, and sculptor, as well as the master architect and designer 
 of everything which exists in the world. The Greeks and the 
 Latins rightly identified one form of him with Hephaistos and 
 Vulcan. 
 
 Ptah was the fellow-worker with Khnemu in carrying into 
 effect the commands concerning the creation of the universe which 
 were issued by Thoth, and whilst the latter was engaged in 
 fashioning man and animals, the former was employed in the 
 construction of the heavens and the earth. The large rectangular 
 
 I AW\AAA U 
 
 D 
 
 , Lanzone, op. cit., p. 240. 
 
 o 
 
 I [j^ _ P=, [1{^ ^ ^ ^; ;^^,m',.,p.240. 
 
502 FORMS OF PTAH 
 
 iron slab whicli formed the floor of heaven and the roof of the sky 
 was beaten out by Ptah, and he and his assistants made the stays 
 and supports which held it in position. In the character of 
 architect of the universe he partakes of the nature of Thoth, 
 especially in respect of his title " lord of Maat ; " and, as the god 
 who beat out the iron firmament with a hammer and supported it, 
 his attributes resemble those of Shu. In other capacities he was 
 supposed to be endowed with powers which we are wont to 
 associate with other gods, and thus we find enumerated in religious 
 and funeral texts Ptah-Asab (Ptah-Osiris), Ptah-Hapi, Ptah-Nu, 
 Ptah-Sekek, Ptah-Seker-Asar, Ptah-Seker-Tem, Ptah-Tanen, 
 and the like. The part which Ptah in his various forms plays in 
 the Book of the Dead is well illustrated by the following : — In 
 Chapter iv. he is said to come forth from the Great Temple of the 
 Aged One in Annu ; in Chapter xi. the deceased says, " I shall 
 " stand up like Horus, I shall sit down like Ptah, I shall be mighty 
 " like Thoth, and I shall be strong like Tem." From Chapter xxiii. 
 we learn that Shu or Ptah performed the ceremony of " opening 
 the mouth " of the gods with an iron knife ; in Chapter xlii. the 
 feet of the deceased are identified with the feet of Ptah ; in 
 Chapter Ixiv., line 8, he is said to have covered his sky with 
 crystal ; Chapter Ixxxii. is a text by the use of which a man 
 transforms himself into Ptah, when his tongue becomes like that of 
 the god ; in Chapter cxlv., line 67, the " writings of Ptah " are 
 referred to ; in Chapter cli.A Mestha tells the deceased that he 
 has " stablished his house firmly according to what Ptah hath 
 commanded;" and in Chapter cliii., line 6, the "hook of Ptah" 
 is mentioned ; in Chapter clxvi. Ptah is said to overthrow 
 the enemies of the deceased (see also Chapter clxxii. 10). In 
 Chapter cli. the hair of the deceased is compared to that of Ptah- 
 Seker, and in Chapter clxx. this god is said to give him help with his 
 kliaheru, ^^zz^ » ^ ' ' weapons from his divine house. In a hymn to 
 Osiris (Chapter xv.) Osiris is addressed as Un-nefer Heru-khuti, 
 and as "Ptah-Seker-Tem, ^ ^ ^^ W '^£^:^'^^ i^ Annu, the 
 "lord of the hidden place, and the creator of Het-ka-Ptah (i.e., 
 " ' the House of the Double of Ptah,' or Memphis) ; " finally, Ptah- 
 
The God PTAH-SEKER. 
 
FORMS OF PTAH 603 
 
 Tanen is mentioned in Chapter clxxxiii,, line 15, as having caused 
 to be inscribed certain decrees concerning Horus upon an " iron 
 tablet." 
 
 The commonest form in which Ptah is represented is that of a 
 bearded man with a bald head who is shrouded in a close-fitting 
 garment, from an opening in the front of which project his two 
 hands ; from the back of his neck hangs the mendt, symbol of 
 
 pleasure and happiness, and in his hands he holds a sceptre, 1, 
 
 and the emblems of " life," ■¥-, and " stability," u. When standing 
 
 upright his feet rest upon a pedestal made in the shape of the 
 sign madt £=^, and when seated his throne rests upon a pedestal 
 of similar shape. At the back of standing figures of the god we 
 
 sometimes see an obelisk, j| , or the tet, u , which symbolizes both 
 
 "stability" and the tree trunk in which the body of Osiris was hidden 
 
 by Isis. Ptah under his forms of Ptah-JSTu, b wj cVi > ^^^ 
 
 Ptah-Hapi, '^ I Wf I PI 'XCCSi^ <M ? merely represents the union of 
 
 the great celestial workman and architect with the primeval 
 elements of earth and water, and there are no representations 
 specially set apart for these forms. 
 
 On the other hand, his forms of Ptah-Sekee, or Ptah-Seeer- 
 
 ^«^«' °i si' °i si jS' ^-^ ptah-tanen, °y 
 
 ^ 9 12. 4] 5 mu^st be specially considered. Ptah-Seker represents 
 
 a personification of the union of the primeval creative power 
 with a form of the inert powers of darkness, or in other words, 
 Ptah-Seker is a form of Osiris, that is to say, of the night sun, or 
 dead Sun-god. Seker is depicted in the form of a hawk-headed 
 man in mummied form resembling that of Ptah, and his hands 
 project from the front of his close-fitting garment and hold the 
 
 emblems of sovereignty and dominion, [ , J\, T; sometimes he has 
 the head of a man and holds in each hand a knife.^ Seker was 
 originally a power of darkness, or of the night, which in later 
 times was identified with forms of the night sun like Tdm. He is 
 
 ' Lanzone, op. cit,, pi. 368, No. 4. 
 
504 
 
 THE SEKER BOAT 
 
 intitmtjitmmiK 
 
 called " the great god, who came into being 
 " in the beginning, he who resteth upon the 
 
 "darkness." "]„g^fr^f^^ 
 
 T S'^lf^- In the xviith Chapter of the 
 Book of the Dead (line 113) occurs a petition 
 in which the deceased begs to be delivered 
 from the " great god who carrieth away 
 " the soul, who eateth hearts, and who 
 " feedeth upon offal, the guardian of the 
 " darkness, the god who is in the Seker 
 
 — H- 
 
 " boat, ^^^ 
 
 Seker- Asar. 
 
 ," and in the explanation 
 
 of the passage which is given in answer to 
 the question, " Who is this ? " the god who is 
 in the Seker boat is said to be either Suti, 
 
 \\l^, or Smam-ue, P^^^I 
 
 ^*, the soul of Seb. Thus it is clear that 
 
 Seker was an ancient spirit or god whose attributes were such that 
 he might well be represented by Set, or Suti, the enemy of Ea, or 
 by the soul of the earth-god Seb. In comparatively early dynastic 
 times Seker was 
 exalted to the 
 position of god of 
 that portion of the 
 Underworld which 
 was allotted to the 
 souls of the in- 
 habitants of Mem- 
 phis and the neigh- 
 bourhood, and it 
 is tolerably certain 
 that he was re- 
 garded as the tute- 
 lary deity of the 
 necropolis of Sak- 
 
 ^'^^^' Ptolemy Euergetes and the Henna Boat. 
 
Ill 
 e 
 o 
 111 
 
 -I 
 
 (0 
 CO 
 
 UI 
 
 m 
 
 CO 
 
 o 
 o 
 a 
 
 ID 
 
 Z 
 I- 
 
 b. 
 O 
 
 < 
 
SEKER OR HENNU BOAT 505 
 
 The Sekee Boat whicli has been mentioned above is often 
 represented on sepulchral monuments and papyri, and it was 
 certainly made to play a very prominent part in certain solemn, 
 sacred ceremonies. It was not made in the form of an ordinary 
 boat, but one end of it was very much higher than the other, and 
 was made in the shape of the head of some kind of gazelle or oryx ; 
 the centre of the boat was occupied by a carefully closed coffer 
 which was surmounted by a hawk with protecting wings stretched 
 out over the top of it. This coffer contained the body of the dead 
 Sun-god Ap, or of Osiris, and it rested upon a framework or sledge 
 which was provided with runners. On the great day of the 
 festival of Seker which was celebrated in many places throughout 
 Egypt, the ceremony of placing the Seker boat upon its sledge was 
 performed at sunrise, at the moment when the rays of the sun 
 were beginning to spread themselves over the earth. The whole 
 ceremony was under the direction of the high priest of Memphis, 
 
 whose official title was " Ur kherp hem," "^^t f f ' " ^•^■> g^^^^ chief 
 
 of the hammer " ; this official was expected to lift the Seker Boat 
 upon its sledge, and to march at the head of the procession of 
 priests which drew the loaded sledge round the sanctuary. By 
 this action the revolution of the sun and other celestial bodies was 
 symbolized, but no texts explaining the symbolism have come 
 down to us. From the inscriptions which are found at Memphis 
 and in the neighbourhood we know that the office of high priest of 
 Ptah was considered to be a most honourable position, and that 
 many men of noble family and of high rank held it as far back as 
 the period of the Ilnd Dynasty. Now since the priestly office 
 existed in those remote times it is only reasonable to assume that 
 the Seker Boat also existed, and that the ceremonies with which it 
 was used in the later period were also performed in the earlier ; 
 the god Seker was, even when the Pyramids were built, an ancient 
 god, and the chief characteristics of his worship must be as old as 
 the god himself. 
 
 The name given to the Seker Boat is " Hennu," h ^ ^ ^3i/> 
 and it is mentioned several times in the Book of the Dead, and 
 sometimes in connexion with traditions of great importance. 
 
506 SEKER OR HENNU BOAT 
 
 Thus after the Ixivth Chapter we have a rubric which states 
 that the composition was found in the masonry below the shrine of 
 Hennu during the reign of Semti (Hesepti) a king of the 1st 
 Dynasty ; now Hennu can only be the god of the Hennu boat, 
 and the shrine of Hennu must be the place where it was kept. A 
 most valuable proof of the antiquity of this boat is found on an 
 ebony tablet in the British Museum ^ which was made for the royal 
 chancellor Hemaka, who flourished during the reign of Semti, 
 whose Horus name was Ten. On this we see a representation of 
 the king dancing before Osiris, who is seated within a shrine on 
 the top of a flight of steps, and in the register immediately below 
 it is a figure of the Hennu Boat. The Seker or Hennu Boat was 
 probably a form of the Sektet Boat, i.e., the boat in which the 
 sun sailed over the sky during the second half of his daily journey, 
 and in which he entered the Underworld in the evening, for Ka 
 
 the Aged, ^ 1 f^ ? is said to be like Horus, and Ra the Babe, 
 ^ I ""^^ , to be like Seker. The sanctuaries of Seker must have 
 
 been extremely numerous ^ in Lower Egypt in very early dynastic 
 times, but it appears that before the great development of Ra 
 worship took place, the god Seker was already identified with and 
 merged in Ptah, and that these gods were adored together in one 
 temple. The forms in which Ptah-Seker is represented are 
 interesting, for they illustrate the attributes of the double god, and 
 prove that it was Ptah who usurped the characteristics of Seker, 
 and that Seker was the older god. Ptah-Seker is often depicted 
 in the form of a man who wears upon his head a crown composed 
 
 of disk, plumes, horns, and uraei with disks on their heads, ^^ ; 
 
 a cognate form is perhaps that reproduced by Lanzone ^ in which 
 the god, who in this case is called " Ptah whose double plumes are 
 lofty," has upon his head horns, plumes, and a uraeus, and a uraeus 
 upon his forehead. Another interesting form is that of a mummy 
 
 with a disk and the two feathers of Maat, 9pp, upon his head.* 
 
 Elsewhere he is found in the usual form of Ptah seated upon 
 
 ' No. 32,660. ^ See a list given by Lanzone, op. oit., p. 1117. 
 
 3 Op. cit., pi. 94, No. 4. i lUd., pi. 96. 
 

 ^^BP^ITiC riY^ 
 
 
 ■J 
 
 r 
 
 r 
 
 S 
 
 L 
 
 \wm 
 
 
 
 1^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 ' 
 
 ■Hmii 
 
 SEKER 
 
PTAH-SEKER-ASAR 507 
 
 a throne behind Osiris and followed by Anubis, Horus, son of Isis, 
 and Hathor. 
 
 Under the name of Ptah-Seker-Asar we find Ptah and 
 Sekfir united with Osiris to form a remarkable triad, which is 
 depicted in various ways. A common representation of the god is 
 the hawk, with the White Crown and plumes upon his head, 
 standing upon a low pedestal, from the front of which projects a 
 serpent ; in this form he is often met with on painted coffins and 
 sepulchral chests. In the Papyrus of Anhai (Brit, Mus., plate 5) 
 the god is seated within a shrine in human form with the crown, 
 
 /(5i_, upon his head ; behind him stand Isis and Nephthys. The 
 
 titles here given to him are, " Dweller in the secret place, great 
 " god, lord of Ta-tchesertet, king of eternity, governor of ever- 
 
 I 3 ^% . Before the god is the skin of the pied bull, of which 
 
 the head has been cut off, with blood dripping from it into a bowl, 
 and perched on the side of the throne is his son Horus in the form 
 of a hawk. The cornice of the shrine in which the god is seated 
 is composed of uraei with disks on their heads, and before it stand 
 
 the Mer goddess of the South, ^L , wearing a red garment, and 
 
 the Mer goddess of the North, 'W , wearing a blue garment, 
 
 and it is quite clear from the general arrangement of the vignette 
 that in the XXIInd Dynasty Ptah-Seker-Asar was wholly 
 identified with Osiris. A very interesting form of the triune god 
 is that in which he appears as a squat pigmy with a large, bald 
 head, and thick limbs ; on the top of his head he usually has a 
 beetle, but occasionally plumes are given to him. An examination 
 of the variants of this form proves that he was supposed to possess 
 all the virile power of Amsu, or Min, and the creative power of 
 IQiepera, which is symbolized by the beetle, and the youth and 
 vigour of Harpocrates, which is represented by the lock of hair on 
 the right side of his head; and as sometimes he stands upon a 
 crocodile, and holds a serpent in each hand, he must have possessed 
 besides the powers of several of the great solar gods. , Ptah-Seker- 
 Asar is, then, like Osiris, the type and symbol of the resurrection 
 
508 PTAH-TANEN 
 
 from the dead, and he has been fittingly described as the " triune 
 god of the resurrection " ; that he was the outcome of some local 
 Memphite belief, or the result of some compromise between the 
 priests of Osiris and the priests of the old Memphite god is toler- 
 ably certain, but there is no evidence to show exactly what belief, 
 or doctrine, or dogma was associated with this mysterious god who 
 united within himself the attributes of Seker, and those of Ptah 
 the architect and builder of the material world, and of Khepera 
 the self-begotten and self-born, and Osiris the giver of everlasting 
 life. 
 
 Finally must be mentioned Ptah in his connexion with the 
 
 primeval god Tenen, ,^ii\, or Ta-tu-nen, '/^ ^\> -j--!' 4)> °^ 
 Ta-thunen, "^^ s=> % ZX ii^, or Ta-thu-nenet, ^ 2.1 "'^'^ j^. 
 This god is represented in the form of a man, either sitting or 
 standing, who wears on his head the crown, [^ , and holds in his 
 hands the symbols of sovereignty and dominion, J\, [, and 1; 
 
 in a figure reproduced by Lanzone ^ we see him seated upon the 
 oval object, ( — >. Another figure represents the god seated with 
 a potter's wheel before him, which he works with his foot, and on 
 the upper part of it is the egg of the world which he is fashioning 
 with his hands ; elsewhere he is depicted with a scimitar in his 
 right hand, which suggests that in one form he was regarded as a 
 destructive power of nature, or as a warrior-god. Tenen, or 
 Ta-Tenen, must have been one of the earliest gods of Lower Egypt, 
 and have been a personification of a nature power, the exact 
 attributes of which appear to have been unknown even to the 
 Egyptians. In the early part of the dynastic period it was thought 
 that Ptah, the local god of Memphis, might be fittingly identified 
 with Tenen, or Ta-Tenen, and his name was, therefore, joined to 
 that of the older god, just as in later days the name of Amen was 
 joined to that of Ra ; later Tenen and Ta- tenen were merely forms 
 and names of Ptah. From a hymn to Ptah-Tenen,^ which is pro- 
 bably a product of the XXth or XXIst Dynasty, we may gain some 
 
 Op. cit., pi. 401, No. 3. 
 * For tlie hieratic text see Lepsius, Denhmaler, vi., pi. 118. 
 
TATENEN 
 
HYMN TO PTAH-TANEN 509 
 
 idea of the meaning of the name Ta-tenen, " Ta," ■■ , is of course 
 " earth," and "Tenen," «>^, is probably to be connected with the 
 
 word, 4-4- /wv>AA (w' ^'^'^^s ^^ ''*^'*» which means "inertness, in- 
 activity, rest, motionless," and the like, and if this derivation be 
 correct Ta-Tenen must be the god of the inert but living matter of 
 the earth. 
 
 The passage on which this view is based is a very difficult 
 one, and appears to read, " There was given to thee a Sekhem 
 " (i.e., Power) upon the earth in its things which were in a state 
 " of inactivity, and thou didst gather them together after thou 
 " didst exist in thy form of Ta-Tenen, in thy becoming the ' Uniter 
 " of the two lands,' which thy mouth begot and which thy hands 
 " fashioned." ^ It is, as Dr. Brugsch suggested, quite possible 
 that in this passage the writer was not discussing the derivation 
 of the name Tenen, or Ta-Tenen, seriously, and was only making 
 a play upon the words of similar sound. In the hymn to Ptah- 
 Tenen already mentioned we find the following address to the god 
 and titles : — " Homage to thee, Ptah-Tenen, thou great god, 
 " whose form is hidden ! Thou openest thy soul and thou wakest 
 "up in peace, father of the fathers of all the gods, thou Disk 
 " of heaven ! Thou illuminest it with thy two Eyes, and 
 " thou lightest up the earth with thy brilliant rays in peace." 
 
 i\ AA^ AAAAAA P=5 .TV ^^^ AAAAW ^5.=^ || i ^^ | ^ 
 
 <2 
 
 > k ^ ^ s '=1^ k f^ 1- I^ '^l^'' ""^'^ f°^^^- ^' ^' 
 
 called the " begetter of men," ^ ^ (=iD ^^ ^ ^ 1 ' *^® " "^^ker 
 
 
 n I a _ iii <=> A 
 
510 
 
 HYMN TO PTAH-TANEN 
 
 of their lives," the " creator of the gods," " he who passeth through 
 eternity and everlastingness," [i J LOi | O | ^1 5 " of multitudinous 
 (1 tH I , " the hearer of prayers which men 
 
 , " builder of 
 
 forms," 
 
 make to him," ^ 
 
 his own limbs," 
 
 D 
 
 and maker of his body, 
 " when as yet heaven and earth were not created, and when the 
 
 <l III 
 
 S. 
 
 " waters had not come forth, 
 
 O ^ 
 
 J[i^™§11 
 
 I IS 
 
 AAAA/V\ ■ 
 
 H 
 
 " Thou didst knit together the 
 
 " earth, thou didst gather together thy members, thou didst 
 " embrace thy limbs, and thou didst find thyself in the condition 
 " of the One who made his seat, and who fashioned (or, moulded) 
 " the two lands.^ Thou hadst no father to beget thee in thy 
 " person, and thou hadst no mother to give birth unto thee ; thou 
 " didst fashion thyself without the help of any other being. Fully 
 " equipped thou didst come forth fully equipped." ^ Next we have 
 
 an allusion to thy "aged son," "^^ J| ^;:3:=6 '^^^^^h/^I' ■^•^•' -^^^ 
 and to the dissipation? of night and darkness by the sun and moon, 
 which are called the " Byes " of Ptah-Tenen. The hymn continues, 
 " Thy feet are upon the earth and thy head is in the heights above 
 " in thy form of the dweller in the Tuat. Thou bearest up the 
 " work which thou hast made, thou supportest thyself by thine 
 " own strength, and thou boldest up thyself by the vigour of thine 
 " own hands. . . , The upper part of thee is heaven and the lower 
 
 " part of thee is the Tuat." 
 
 f- 
 
 © 
 
 I I 
 
 W 
 
 w 
 
 H 
 
 \^^1 
 
 -^kl 
 
 i 
 
 /w\AAJ\ g 
 
 
 (3 Q. 
 
 
 f— I AiVWSA n 1 
 
 \^ck^l-*!Pi,/\i¥P^Al 
 
 s I 
 
 I . 
 
 s: I 
 
HYMN TO PTAH-TANEN 511 
 
 V < %%% -<25^ <::r> '■'^'"'^ V. 6 a 5 <=> "u,^ n a ' Y 
 
 2^=;^ ^k^^*^^^ 
 
 " The winds come forth, from thy nostrils, and the celestial water 
 " from thy mouth, and the staff of life (i.e., wheat, barley, etc.), 
 " proceeds from thy back ; thou makest the earth to bring forth 
 " fruit, and gods and men have abundance, and they see Meh-urit 
 " cattle in thy field. When thou art at rest the darkness cometh, 
 " and when thou openest thy two eyes beams of light are produced, 
 " Thou shinest iu thy crystal form according to [the wont of] 
 
 " thy majesty The company of the gods of thy supreme 
 
 " company praise thee, and they acclaim thee at thy rising and 
 " hymn thee at thy setting in the land of life." A few lines lower 
 down Ptah-Tenen is called the " great god who stretched out the 
 " heavens, who maketh his disk to revolve in the body of Nut and 
 *' to enter into the body of Nut in his name of Ra, Moulder of 
 " gods, and of men, and of everything which is produced, maker of 
 " all lands, and countries, and the Great Grreen Sea in his name of 
 "Kheper-ta (w '■ ), Bringer of Hapi ( J^ ^^ s j from his 
 " source, making to flourish the staflf of life, maker of grain which 
 
 ^_^ AAAAAA YR^I 
 
 " who maketh fertile the watery mass of heaven, and maketh to 
 " come forth the water on the mountains to give life to men 
 
 "and women (^^^^Tfe^^ffl') ^^ ^^^ name of Aei-ankh 
 .<2>- ■¥■ ™ 3^ ) , Maker of the Tuat with all its arrangements, 
 " who drive th away the flame from those who live in their corners 
 " in his name of Suten-taui Q "^ ^^ ^ i ) , King of eternity 
 " and everlastingness, and lord of life." Among other titles of the 
 god in this hymn we have: — "Babe, born daily," ^ 00 |j) [fj ' ' 
 ^ ' : "Aged one on the borders of eternity," ^^P^ 11^^^^ 
 ^ (^ ^^ "^ i ® i ' " ^gsd one traversing eternity," || "^ © ^ 
 i<i \\j\ "^X 'i " Inert one passing over all his aspects," 2,1 '^"'^ N\ 
 —— X <^ ^=^ ,,^_. a Exalted one without his strength," ^ "^ T jl 
 
512 SHRINES OF PTAH 
 
 ~"7! "^ □ § ■^^ '^-=>- ; " Lord of the hidden throne, hidden is he," 
 
 S ^ S ^ I () _ J ^; " Hidden one, whose eternal 
 
 " form is unknown," []'^^f^'^^I^^J=^--'5\;" Lord 
 
 III A — D 1 ® <=» 21/ 2^^=^ 
 
 The -above extracts are sufficient to show the importance of 
 the god Ptah-Tenen in the eyes of the Egyptians about B.C. 1100, 
 at which time, if we may judge from palaeographical evidence, the 
 hymn was probably written, and there is no reason for supposing 
 that he was thought less of during any period of Egyptian history. 
 The papyrus upon which the text is inscribed is said to have been 
 found at Thebes, and there is no doubt that the style of writing 
 closely resembles the fine bold hand of the great papyrus of 
 Rameses III., king of Egypt about B.C. 1200, which also was 
 discovered at Thebes ; we should not, however, expect to find, in 
 the city of Amen-Ra, the king of the gods, papyri containing 
 hymns to Ptah-Tenen, the god of Memphis, in which this god is 
 made to possess aU the attributes of all the great gods of Egypt, 
 yet such has been, undoubtedly, the case. The fact that the triad 
 of Ptah, Sekhet, and Nefer-Tem was worshipped at Thebes is 
 another proof of the influence which the priests of Heliopolis 
 exerted over the religious views of the Thebans in almost every 
 period of Egyptian history after the Vlth Dynasty. 
 
 Returning now to the consideration of Ptah in his simplest 
 form, it must be noted that the principal centre of his worship was 
 
 in the city of Men-nefer. T A , i.e., Memphis, the capital of 
 
 Aneb-hetch, f ^, the first nome of Lower Egypt. The commonest 
 
 names for Memphis in the religious texts are : — 1, Ha-nefer, 
 
 ^^©. 2. Het-ka-PtaV Oc^ °i V®' ^^^^ ^^^^^ *^® 
 Greek name for Egypt, 'AiyvnTos, has been commonly derived. 
 3. Khut-taui, [O3 q, i.e., "horizon of the two lands." 
 
 1 le., " House of the Double of Ptah." 
 
ASAR-HAPI OR SERAPIS 513 
 
 4. Het-ka-khnem-neteru/ Q^VqII" ^- Anebu, O'll, 
 i.e., the "city of walls." 6. Makha-taui, ^J^fjl ^J, 
 I.e., " the balance of the two lands." In the city of Memphis or its 
 neighbourhood were the temples of Ptah, Sekhet, Bast, Hathor, 
 Osiris, Seker, and I-em-hetep, the most important being the 
 Het-aa, Q^f^, "the house of the Aged One," i.e., Ra. In 
 the temple called Ankh-taui, .^"^ ^, were the sacred persea 
 
 and acacia trees ; in Hekennut, | ^^ Z , 
 Osiris was worshipped ; in Het-utet, H ^ 
 
 _y @ 7 i.e., " house of the begetter," the 
 
 ]^ |[_ cult of Khnemu was observed ; another sacred 
 place was called the "Path of Anubis," 
 
 "^ ^ "^Svf CC^ '^^ ^'"^^ ij m ; and another 
 
 9^ Ta-het-pa-Aten, ^ ^ Q ci ?^ 1 'i^' '■^■' 
 the " House of the Disk" ; and in Tepeh-tchat, 
 g § 4 ^ , was yet another sacred tree.^ 
 
 The Serapeum, which was discovered 
 by M. Mariette in 1868, was known by 
 the name of " Neter-het per en Asar-Hap," 
 
 nj O rlJ) ; a district called Bahtet, 
 
 ^^ « '^gf' , was the centre of the worship of 
 Seker ; the district of Pa-penat, D 
 
 Asar-Hapi (Serapis). 
 
 A/V\AAA /v\ n 
 
 was the centre of the worship of Bast ; Osiris 
 was adored in the district of Hekennut, s^"^®; Hathor was 
 adored in the district of Smen-Maat, I j [i eg ' ^tL^^^mu was 
 
 adored at Uafet, -C) '^ ©; and Ptah and Sekhet and their son 
 
 I-em-hetep appear to have possessed temples wherein they were 
 worshipped exclusively. The city of Memphis is often called in 
 the hieroglyphic texts "Aneb," a name which is written : t @, 
 
 1 I.e., " House of the Double which uniteth the gods." 
 " See de Rouge, GeograpMe, pp. 4 ff. 
 
 l1 
 
514 SEKHET AND NEFER-TEM 
 
 *-*'' ia' *^^' 3 [^ f] F ia'^ ^'^'^ there is no doubt tliat the appellation 
 of "Walls" was given to it because of its strong fortifications. 
 Once a year the priests of Ptah-Seker-Asar formed a solemn 
 
 procession, and led by the Sem-priest, 1 ^^, and usually ac- 
 companied by the king, they marched all round the walls of 
 Memphis ; it is probable that the image of this triune god was 
 carried in the procession. The god Ptah himself was worshipped 
 in a temple on the eastern side of the city called " Aneb-abt," 
 tK; the temple of Tenen bore the name of " Aneb Athi," d E l| ©; 
 and Ptah-Seker-Asar was adored in a temple on the south side of 
 the city called " Aneb-rest-f," i.e., " his southern wall," 5^ 3 F ^^ • 
 
 The whole city was known by the name of " White Wall," { ^ , 
 to which reference is made by Herodotus^ (iii. 91). 
 
 The principal female counterpart of Ptah was the goddess 
 
 Sekhet, 1 ® "^ , who was at once his sister and wife, and the 
 
 ' I ci ill, ' ' 
 
 mother of his son Nefer-Tem, and a sister-form of the goddess 
 Bast. She is generally depicted in the form of a woman with the 
 head of a lioness which is surmounted by the solar disk encircled 
 by an uraeus, O, but sometimes the disk is omitted, and a uraeus 
 only is seen upon her head. The name of the goddess appears in 
 the Pyramid Texts (Unas, line 390), where after the statement 
 that Unas hath proceeded from the thighs of the company of 
 
 the gods, A^wwN — ^ MM MM I ' ^® ^^ ^^^^ *^ have been conceived 
 
 by Sekhet, I ® , and by Sheskhentet, rlTh ^ j ^^^ ^J Sothis, 
 
 I JHc 1 A . In comparatively late dynastic times Sekhet and 
 
 Bast were identified with forms of Hathor, and were regarded as 
 the goddesses of the West and the East respectively, just as Nekhe- 
 bet and Uatchet were the goddesses of the South and the North 
 respectively. Each goddess had the head of a lioness, but the body 
 of Sekhet is said to have been draped in a red garment whilst that 
 of Bast was arrayed in a green garment. Several special forms of 
 Sekhet are known to have existed, viz., Sekhet, lady of Rekht, 
 
 1 Brugsch, Diet. Geog., p. 55. ^ iv t<3 Acvkw T^cix^'i to) iv MejLi^i. 
 
The Goddess SEKHET. 
 
SEKHET-MEHENET 515 
 
 P!t 
 
 J, Sekhet, lady of Sa, ^, ©, Sekhet, 
 lady of Rehesaui, -=> | P [q] ^@ \ Sekhet, the great lady, the 
 queen of Ant, § (j ^, Sekhet in Bashu, J (1 cia R %i ®, Sekhet 
 in Sah, ™T) ^ ©, Sekhet-Nut in Het-khat, P ^ ® g^ ^ ^, 
 and Sekhet in Nefer (?)-Shuu, J oa ^ ^ ©. The principal titles 
 of Sekhet were " Mighty lady, lady of Flame, Tefnut in Senemet," 
 ^ ^ lioS^^^^©; "greatly beloved one of 
 
 -^ O 
 
 Ptah, lady of heaven, mistress of the two lands," '-' | ^~^ 
 
 ^^^ __^; " lady of Tep-nef," 7 ,,_ V®' '' lady of T char, 
 ^7 | ^ Ty^, and of Sehert, |-j-| ^^"; "chief of the Libyan 
 lands, mistress of Pa-mertet," '^ f=^ | | tL ' | ^ 
 
 O 
 ©. 
 
 The name " Sekhet " appears to be derived from or connected 
 
 with the root seJchem, I ® ^v Y ;|, " to be strong, mighty, violent," 
 
 and the like, and as she -was the personification of the fierce, 
 scorching, and destroying heat of the sun's rays, these attributes 
 would be very suitable for her character. In the form of the 
 
 serpent-goddess Mehenet, °===\ | -wn^w M ^, she took up her position 
 
 on the head of her father Ra, and poured out from herself the 
 blazing fir^ which scorched and consumed his enemies who came 
 near, whilst at those who were some distance away she shot forth 
 swift fiery darts which pierced through and through the fiends 
 whom they struck. In a text quoted by Dr. Brugsch^ she is made 
 to say, " I set the fierce heat of the fire for a distance of millions 
 " of cubits between Osiris and his enemy, and I keep away from 
 " him the evil ones, and remove his foes from his habitation." One 
 of the commonest names of the goddess is " Nesert," i.e., Flame, as 
 a destroying element, and in texts of all periods she plays the pai't 
 of a power which protects the good and annihilates the wicked. 
 
 'Var. ^ ® S^^/ITP O """^ 
 I ^ O Cl ^ s lUl I \ ' r^^"^ ci 
 
 2 Meligion, p. 520. 
 
516 SEVEN GODS OF LEARNING 
 
 In some aspects she may be compared with Hatchet, of whom a 
 well-known name is " Lady of flame." We have already said that 
 in some respects Sekhet may be regarded as a form of Hathor and 
 Net, and indeed several of the titles of the last named goddesses 
 are bestowed upon her, e.g., " Lady of Amentet, lady of Manu 
 " (i.e., the mountain of the setting sun), the queen of the Libyan 
 " lands," etc. ; these appear to suggest a western or Libyan origin 
 for the goddess. 
 
 In connexion with Sekhet and her relationship with Hathor, 
 Net, and Maat must be mentioned the Seven Wise Ones of the 
 
 goddess Meh-urt, who together with Thoth, ^^ '^^ , Teeh, 
 planned the world ; they were born of Meh-urt, °<=><y 
 
 at the feet of Nu, t=^, in their home in Nehet-rest, 
 
 AAAAAA A 1 V. 
 
 m f X I ' ^^^ ^^^y came forth from the water, from the 
 pupil of the Eye of Ra, and they took the form of seven hawks 
 and flew upwards, and together with Asten, 1 ^^^ '^ , a form of 
 Thoth, they presided over learning and letters; The names of 
 these Seven Wise Ones, i "^ Q P ^ ^ i '" ; ^I'e : — Nefee-hati, 
 Aper-pehui, Neb-Tesheru, Ka, Bak, Khekh, and San.^ Ptah, 
 as the master architect and workman who carried out the designs 
 of Thoth and his Seven Wise Ones, partook, in some respects, of 
 the characteristics of them all, and as Sekhet was his female 
 counterpart she ap|)ears to have acquired some of their attributes 
 also, because Thoth was in reality only a personification of the 
 intelligence of Ptah. It is in this way that Sekhet becomes 
 identified with the goddess Maat, for Maat was the inseparable 
 companion of Thoth, and inasmuch as Thoth was contained in 
 Ptah, Maat became the female counterpart of Ptah and a sister 
 form of Sekhet. In one of the titles of Sekhet given above, the 
 goddess is identified with Tefnut, the female counterpart of Shu ; 
 
 A J]' """ — ^ cJ ! ®^® Dumiohen, Tempelinschriften, pi. 25; Brugsch, 
 
 Eelir/ion, p. 622. 
 
The G0DD6SS SEKHET. 
 
SEKHET, BAST, PAKHT 517 
 
 this need cause no surprise, because Thoth was only the Hermo- 
 politan form of Shu, and Tefnut was therefore his female counter- 
 part, and as Ptah absorbed Thoth, that is to say, Shu, the female 
 counterpart of Ptah (i.e., Sekhet) absorbed the female counterpart 
 of Thoth, or Shu (i.e., Tefnut). In many texts Sekhet is called 
 
 the " Eye of Ra," ^ , and in a scene reproduced by Lanzone ^ we 
 
 see the goddess in the form of a woman, with the Utchat, "^^ , in 
 place of a head, kneeling upon a rectangular throne, whilst a hawk 
 with outstretched wings stands behind her. Her titles in this 
 form are, " Great lady, beloved of Ptah, holy one, powerful one, 
 
 " dweller in At-Tefnut," ^^ "^ O". 
 
 We have already mentioned the small porcelain figures of 
 Ptah-Seker-Asar, and seen how they were intended to represent 
 the union of the powers of the three great gods whose names are 
 here joined together, and we must now note that on the backs of 
 certain examples we find outlined the form of a goddess, who 
 might be identified with any of the female counterparts of the 
 great gods to whom the head of a lioness was given by Egyptian 
 sculptors and artists. The goddess here found, however, is Bast, 
 
 ^ Jj , who was for some time confounded by Egyptologists with 
 
 the goddess Pekheth, £ s=> _2^ , or Pekhet, ^ '^ , or Pekh, 
 
 „ tSn, the Cat or Lioness deity of Pekhit, S ul] t^ <%? i^i honour 
 
 of whom a temple of Pekheth, tSj ctzd , was hewn out of the 
 
 solid rock in the mountain near the modern village of Beni 
 Hasan in Upper Egypt ; this temple is known by the names of 
 " Stabl al-Antar," and " Speos Artemidos." The name Pekht, or 
 Pakht, or Pasht means the " tearer," and is, of course, suitable for 
 a goddess who possessed the attributes of the cat or lioness ; this 
 
 goddess was the lady of Ant, (1 ^ , and of Set, ,.^^^7 or ^-y' 
 
 the supplementary nome of which the city Pekht, _ ^ , was the 
 capital.^ Her title was " lady of Sept," ^ A ^ , i.e., of the star 
 Sothis, and she was identified with Isis and with a form of 
 
 1 Op. cit., pi. 364, No. 3. " Bid. Giog., pp. 225, 226. 
 
518 SEKHET-BAST-RA 
 
 Hathor, and also with a form of Sekhet. In the great inscription 
 of Beni Hasan (line 18) we find the mention of Horus Pakht, 
 ^^ D ^^ ^ -23i , and we may therefore assume that Pakht was 
 in some way connected with one of the forms of Horus, and that 
 she was a local deity of great importance. 
 
 It is probable that Bast was a female counterpart of the 
 triune god Ptah-Seker-Asar, and that she possessed attributes 
 which cannot at present be clearly defined. As a nature power 
 she represented the gentle, fructifying heat of the sun, and its 
 regenerative influence in the most comforting form. In late 
 dynastic times Bast, and Sekhet, and Ra formed a deity whose 
 existence is made known to us by a Chapter in the Booh of the 
 Dead (clxiv.). In the vignette Sekhet-Bast-Ra is represented as a 
 woman with a man's head, and wings attached to her arms, and the 
 heads of two vultures springing either from her head or neck ; she 
 has the phallus of a man and the claws of a lion. One vulture's 
 
 head is like that of Pekhat, ^ T "^^ " Pn ? ^^^ ^^^ plumes upon 
 it, and the other is like that of an ordinary vulture, and appears 
 to have plumes upon it also; the man's head has upon it the 
 united crowns of the South and North, and taken together with 
 the phallus they indicate that the body of the woman, who is here 
 called Mut, was supposed to possess the generative and procreative 
 powers of Ra. 
 
 The text which forms the chapter is a very interesting one, 
 and reads : — " Homage to thee, Sekhet-Bast-Ra, thou mistress 
 " of the gods, thou bearer of wings, thou lady of the red apparel 
 
 AAAA/vx 5 dnes), queen of the crowns of the South and North, 
 
 H 
 
 only One, sovereign of her father, superior to whom the 
 gods cannot be, thou mighty one of enchantments (or, words 
 of power) in the Boat of Millions of Years, thou who art pre- 
 eminent, who risest in the seat of silence, mother of Pashakasa 
 
 ( ^^ IM, "^ "^^^ "^ "V" 5I ) ' 1^'^^^ of Parehaqa - Kheperu 
 
 the tomb, Mother in the horizon of heaven, gracious one, beloved, 
 destroyer of rebellion, ofi^erings are in thy grasp, and thou art 
 
 "ffl 
 
The Goddess SEKHET. 
 
o 
 
 SEKHET-BAST-RA 519 
 
 'standing in the bows of the boat of thy divine father to over- 
 ' throw Qetu.^ Thou hast placed Maat in the bows of his boat. 
 'Thou art the fire goddess Ammi-seshet (- - ^ QQ 11'^ J))' 
 ' whose opportunity escapeth her not ; thy name is Tekaharesa- 
 
 ' PUSAREMEAKAREMET ( "^ "^ [[] "^ '^^^^^ 'd' D "^ 'O^ '^^^^ ' ^ 
 
 . _ u 
 
 j . Thou art like unto the mighty flame of the 
 ' goddess Saqenaqat (^0^ "^ %. a %v "^ J) ) , which is in the 
 ' bows of the boat of thy father Haeepukakashareshabaiu 
 
 ' for behold, thus is [his] name in the speech of the Negroes, and 
 ' of the Anti, and of the people of Ta-kensetet (Nubia). Praise 
 ' be unto thee, Lady, who art mightier than the gods, words of 
 ' adoration rise unto thee from the Eight Gods of Hermopolis. 
 ' The living souls who , are in their hidden places praise the 
 ' mystery of thee, thou who art their mother, thou source from 
 ' which they sprang, who makest for them a place in the hidden 
 ' Underworld, who makest sound their bones and preservest them 
 • from terror, who makest them strong in the abode of everlasting- 
 ' ness, who preservest them from the evil chamber of the souls 
 ' of Hes-hra - (I P y -^^ v?l ) ' ^^*^ ^® among the company 
 ' of the gods. Thy name is SEFi-PER-EM-HES-nEA-HAPU-TCHET-p 
 
 each side of Sekhet-Bast-Ra in the vignette is a dwarf with 
 two faces, one of a hawk and one of a man, and the body of each 
 
 is fat ; each has on his head the disk and plumes, m_ , and each 
 has one hand and arm raised after the manner of Amsu, or 
 Min. The name of one dwarf is Atare-am-tchee-qemtu-eennu- 
 
 PAE - SHETA, H^^S"^"^^^^ <2> ^ 
 
 .2ai ^^ , and that of the other, Pa-nemma-nemma. 
 
 (1 ^^ 1 1 . Finally, the last name given to 
 Sekhet-Bast-Ra is Utchat-Sekhet-ukt-hent-neteru, "^ Y 2 ^ 
 
 1 \ "^^^ '^ 5 the name of a fiend. ^ I.e., " god of the terrible face." 
 
520 FORINIS OF NEFER-TEM 
 
 9 Ml ' ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^^ **-* ^^ *^® emanation of Mut, " Avho 
 " maketh souls to be as gods, who maketh bodies to be sound, and 
 " who delivereth them from the abode of the fiends which is in the 
 " chamber of the evil one." According to the Rubric, the deceased 
 for whom pictures of the goddess and the two dwarfs were made 
 would become like the immortals, and worms would not eat his 
 body, and his soul would never be fettered, and he would drink 
 water at the source of the river, and would have a homestead of 
 his own in Sekhet-Aanre, and he would become a star of heaven, 
 
 and he would fight and overcome the fiends Tar, ^ "^^ _2s, ^ , 
 and Nbkau, ^_^ IJ ^ m. 
 
 The third member of the Memphite triad is Nefer-Tem, 
 f j^ J| , or Neeer-Temu, m^e ^ ^ % , who is the son of Ptah and 
 
 Sekhet, or of Ptah and Pakht, or of Ptah and Bast. He is usually 
 represented in the form of a man who holds in his hands either 
 
 the tchdm sceptre, ^^ ^.^ | , and the symbol of life, or the lotus 
 
 sceptre surmounted by plumes, | ; in these forms he is called 
 
 " Nefer-Tem khu taui," and " Nefer-Tem khu taui aneh 
 
 REKHIT," J^ ^ ^, and J^ ^ ^ I ^. The small 
 
 blue and green glazed porcelain statues of the god make him to stand 
 upon a lion, and sometimes he appears in religious scenes with the 
 lotus flower, or the lotus flower and plumes upon his head.^ In 
 some cases Nefer-Tem has the head of a lion, and his body has the 
 form of a mummy, and consistently with this his hands project 
 from a close-fitting garment, and he holds in them the tchdm 
 sceptre and flail, ^ | . In the earliest times the lotus flower was 
 associated with Nefer-Tem, and in the Pyramid Texts we find 
 allusions to this fact. Thus in the text of Unas (line 392) the 
 dead king is compared to a lotus at the nostrils of the Great 
 
 Sekhem, () <='™^ P "y' © ^ ^, and a line or two further 
 on it is said, " Unas hath risen like Nefer-Tem from the lotus to 
 
 ' See Lanzone, op. cit., pll. 147 and 148. 
 
The God NEFER-TEMU. 
 
FORMS OF NEFER-TEM 521 
 
 " the nostrils of Ra, and he goeth forth from the horizon on each 
 " day, and the gods are sanctified by the sight of him." ^ 
 
 In the Theban Recension of the Booh of the Dead (xvii. 24) is 
 a passage which appears to show that the attributes of Nefer-Tem 
 were not well defined, and we find him mentioned in connexion 
 with a number of gods in a manner which is hard to explain. 
 The text makes the deceased to beseech Ra to deliver him from 
 the god " whose form is hidden, and whose eyebrows are like unto 
 " the two arms of the Balance on the night of reckoning destruc- 
 " tion," and in answer to the question, " Who then is this ? " we 
 have the words, " It is An-a-f," i.e., the " god who bringeth his 
 
 who is usually regarded as a form of 
 
 ."1 
 
 Amsu, or Min. The words " night of reckoning destruction " are 
 explained by making them refer to the burning of the damned and 
 the slaughter of the wicked on the block of the god by the 
 
 I I 
 
 Slaughterer of Souls," /www ^^^.^ ^^ i , Tent-baiu. The opinions 
 
 of the Egyptian theologians differed greatly as to the identity of this 
 god Tbnt-baiu, for some thought he was ISemu,^ ¥^ K\ % 3, 
 
 the headsman of Osiris, and others thought he might be Apep, 
 with one head, or Horus with two heads, or Horus the Great 
 of Sekhem, or Thoth, or Nefer-Tem, or Septu, f\\ ^- ^^^^ ^« 
 
 remember that Nefer-Tem is the " young Tern," i.e., a god of the 
 rising sun, and that the Horus gods and Septu were likewise forms 
 of the rising sun, it is evident that Nemu and Apep must have had 
 some characteristic in common with the son of Ptah and Sekhet. 
 From Chapters Ixxxi., versions a and B, we learn that the deceased 
 had power to transform himself into a lotus ; in the first version of 
 the text he says, " I am the pure lotus which springeth up from 
 " the divine splendoui' that belongeth to the nostrils of Ra," and in 
 the second we read, " Hail, thou Lotus, thou type of the god 
 
 } ^Ms 0>=ir -^ oa Awwv T ^ jy 
 
 ^(E^ In T." 1\ 
 
 2 He is one of tlie Forty-two Assessors in the Hall of Maati. 
 2 See £oolc of the Dead, cliii.A 8, 31, 32 ; cliii. 5 ; clxx. 6. 
 
522 I-EM-HETEP 
 
 " Nefer-Tem ! I am he who knoweth you, and I know your 
 " names among the gods, the lords of the Underworld, and I am 
 " one of you." The vignette of the first version is a lotus, and 
 that of the second is a lotus plant with a flower and buds 
 growing out of a pool of water, and out of the flower springs a 
 human head, i.e., the head of the deceased. 
 
 The idea conveyed by the last vignette seems to have 
 originated in the mind of some early writer who was accustomed 
 to see the sun rise over the flooded lands of the Delta where the 
 lotus grew in abundance. In Chapter clxxiv. 19, the deceased 
 says, " I rise like Nefer-Tem, who is the lotus at the nostrils of 
 " Ra, when he cometh forth from the horizon each day," and in 
 Chapter clxxviii. 36, Nefer-Tem has the same title. We must 
 also note that he is the thirty-fourth Assessor in the Hall of 
 Maati and that the deceased makes the following address to 
 him : — " Hail, Nefer-Tem, who comest forth from Het-ka- 
 " Ptah (Memphis), I have not acted with deceit, and I have not 
 " worked wickedness." In the late Egyptian texts Nefer-Tem 
 is identified with a number of gods, all of whom are practically 
 forms of Horus and Thoth, and in consequence the mother of each 
 of these gods becomes his mother. 
 
 The Egyptian texts prove that besides Nefer-Tem another son 
 
 of Ptah called I-em-hetep, U ^\ 3 , was regarded as the 
 
 third member of the great triad of Memphis ; he was called 
 'I/jLovdri? by the Greeks, and possessed many attributes in common 
 with their god Aesculapius. The name of l-em-hetep means, " He 
 who cometh in peace," and is appropriate to the god who brought 
 the art of healing to mankind. The god is represented like Ptah, 
 with a bald head, and he is depicted in a seated position with a roll 
 of jpapyrus open upon his knees ; he was a god of study and learn- 
 ing in general, but he owed his great power to the knowledge of 
 medicine which he possessed. As a god of learning he partook of 
 some of the attributes of Thoth, and he was supposed to take the 
 place of this god in the performance of funeral ceremonies, and in 
 superintending the embalming of the dead ; in later times he 
 absorbed the duties of Thoth as " scribe of the gods," and the 
 
The God I-EM-HETEP (Imouthis). 
 
1-EM-HETEP 523 
 
 authorship of the words of power which protected the dead from 
 enemies of every kind in the Underworld was ascribed to him. 
 In certain aspects the god had a funeral character which somewhat 
 resembled that of Ptah-Seker-Asar, although he is not mentioned 
 in the Theban Recension of the Booh of the Dead. In the " Ritual 
 of Embalmment " ^ it is said to the deceased, " Thy soul uniteth 
 " itself to I-em-hetep whilst thou art in the funeral valley, and thy 
 " heart rejoiceth because thou dost not go into the dwelling of 
 " Sebek, and because thou art like a son in the house of his father, 
 " and doest what pleaseth thee in the city of Uast (Thebes)." The 
 oldest shrine of the god was situated close to the city of Memphis, 
 and was called "the Temple of I-em-hetep, the son of Ptah," 
 
 ' ' f| / "^ "^ '^ I ' ^° which the Greeks gave the name, 
 
 TO 'AaKXrjTTLeLov ; ^ it stood well outside the city, and lay quite near 
 the Serapeum, on the edge of that portion of the desert which 
 formed the necropolis of the city. Under the Ptolemies a small 
 temple was built in honour of I-em-hetep on the Island of Philae ; 
 the hieroglyphic inscriptions are those of Ptolemy IV., Philopator, 
 but the Greek text over the door was placed there by the command 
 of Ptolemy V., Epiphanes. From one of the former we learn that 
 the god was entitled, "Great one, son of Ptah, the creative god, 
 " made by Thenen, begotten by him and beloved by him, the god 
 "of divine forms in the temples, Avho giveth life to all men, the 
 " mighty one of wonders, the maker of times (?), who cometh unto 
 " him that calleth upon him wheresoever he may be, who giveth 
 "sons to the childless, the chief kher-heb (^ ^, i.e., the wisest 
 " and most learned one), the image and likeness of Thoth the 
 
 " Wise. 
 
 I-em-hetep was the god who sent sleep to those who were 
 suffering and in pain, and those who were afflicted with any kind 
 of disease formed his special charge ; he was the good physician 
 both of gods and men, and he healed the bodies of mortals during 
 life, and superintended the arrangements for the preservation of 
 the same after death. If we could trace his history to its 
 
 1 See Maspero, op. cit., p. 80. ^ Brugsch, Diet. Geog., p. 1098. 
 
 3 See Brugsch, Thesaurus, p. 783 ; Eeligion, p. 527 ; Sethe, Imhotep, 1903. 
 
524 1-EM-HETEP AND HERUTATAF 
 
 beginning we should find probably that he was originally a very 
 highly skilled " medicine man " who had introduced some ele- 
 mentary knowledge of medicine amongst the Egyptians, and who 
 was connected with the practice of the art of preserving the 
 bodies of the dead by means of drugs, and spices, and linen 
 bandages. He Avas certainly the god of physicians and of all those 
 who were occupied with the mingled science of medicine and 
 magic, and when we remember that several of the first kings of 
 the Early Empire are declared by Manetho, whose statements have 
 been supported by the evidence of the papyri, to have written, i.e., 
 caused to be edited, works on medicine, it is clear that the adora- 
 tion of the god of medicine was in Memphis as old as the archaic 
 period. In the songs which were sung in the temple of Antuf, 
 the writer says, " I have heard the words of I-em-hetep and of 
 
 " Heru-tata-f, (^^ 3 ^ — o M j , which are repeated over and over 
 
 "again, but where are their places this day? Their walls are 
 " overthrown, their seats (or places) have no longer any being, and 
 " they are as if they had never existed. No man cometh to declare 
 " unto us what manner of beings they were, and none telleth us 
 " of their possessions," etc. Heru-tiita-f, as we know from later 
 texts, was a very learned man, even though his speech could only 
 with difficulty be understood, and we also know the prominent 
 part which he took as a recognized man of letters in bringing to 
 the court of his father, Khufu, the magician Tetteta, and how his 
 name is associated with the " finding " of certain Chapters of the 
 Book of the Dead. Of the sage I-em-hetep, who is mentioned in 
 connexion with him, it is difficult not to think that he was famous 
 as a skilled physician whose acts and deeds were worthy of being 
 classed with the words of Hera-tata-f. 
 
 From the manner in which these great and wise men are 
 referred to it is clear that they, who were the chosen representatives 
 of the ablest and most learned among men, had become, even at 
 the time when the Songs of Antuf Avere composed, mythical beings 
 in whole or in part, and there is no good reason Avhy I-em-lietep, 
 the third member of the triad of Memphis, should not be a 
 deified form of a distinguished physician who Avas attached to the 
 
I-EM-HETEP 525 
 
 priesthood of Ra, and who flourished before the end of the rule of 
 the kings of the Ilird Dynasty. The pictures and figures of the 
 god suggest that he was of human and of strictly local origin, but 
 it is not evident how he came to usurp the place of Nefer-Tem at 
 Memphis, especially as he was not the son of Ptah by Sekhet, or 
 Bast, or any form of these goddesses. The worship of I-em-hetep 
 was commoner in the Sai'te and Ptolemaic periods than in the 
 Early and Middle Empires, and all the bronze figures of the god 
 belong to a period subsequent to the XXIInd Dynasty. The 
 titles given to him in the inscriptions at Philae may, it is true, 
 represent ancient beliefs, but it is improbable, and as he does not 
 appear in the Theban Recension of the Book of the Dead it is 
 tolerably certain that his worship was as popular and fashionable 
 at Memphis immediately before and during the Ptolemaic period 
 as that of Amen-lietep, the son of Hapu, the famous sage who 
 had seen and conversed with the gods, was at Thebes about the 
 same time. 
 
 END OP VOL. I. 
 
LONDON 
 PRINTED BY GILBERT AND RIVINGTON, LD. 
 
 ST. John's house, clerkenwell, e.c.