The Gods Of The Egyptians Or Studies In Egyptian Mythology Vol.1

Source and rights: Internet Archive historical scan, published 1904. The source text below is imported without translation or rewriting.

THE

GODS OF THE EGYPTIANS

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THE

GODS OF THE EGYPTIANS

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STUDIES IN

EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

BY

E. A. WALLIS BUDGE, ala., Litt.d.. d.Litt., d.Lit.

KEEPER OF THE EGYPTIAN AND ASSYRIAN ANTIQUITIES IN THE BRITISH .MUSEUM

WITH 98 COLOURED PLATES AND 131 ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT

VOLUME I.

METHUEN & CO.

36 ESSEX STREET W.C. LONDON 1904

^ -A 4. The gods Ba, Khnemu, Tenter, n

and Tent, ram-headed. 5. Four gods, Horus, Horus-Sept,

Sept, and “ he who is in his double boat,” (j -jj- 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,” * ^ O ^ 7. The god Sebek-Ra, crocodile-headed.

All these are personifications of Stax’s which bear along the boat of Ra towards the day-break, for they wish to see it floating once

more on the bosom of N ut,

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; 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.”1 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=s ij ! ®, wearing white crowns. 2. Four bearded gods called Akebiu, i.e., “ wailers,” || JJ /jlj ! . 3. Four beings, Khnemiu, ^ crrr. ^ j , wearing red

crowns. 4. Four bearded gods called Renniu y AAA/NAA mi- 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, ^ (j 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-,2 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 Mailt and to stablish it in the shrine of Rii.3 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 ; ” 1 but they “ tore their hair in grief before the great god in Amentet, “ for although they drove away Set from the pylon they themselves

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202 ELEVENTH DIVISION OF THE TUAT

“ were not allowed to enter into the heights of heaven.” 1 In the centre of this division we have the boat of lla 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, in the right hand, and a scepti’e, J, in the left; the first four are jackal-headed. They are described as the “ nine gods who annihilate Apep,” ® j ! j ^ j Ij 2. The serpent Apep chained to the earth by five

chains which are called the “gods who produce winds,” j.

3. Four apes, (j ^ ^ j , each holding before him a large hand.

4. The god of Amenti, , wearing the crown of the South.

5. The goddess of the North, Herit (?), (|(J jJLj, wearing the

crown of the North, (>. The god Sebekhti, p J| ® L^_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 openetlx the Tuat upwards in his trans-

“ formations [lvhich take place] in Nu. What openeth the Tuat “ into heaven are the two hands of the god whose name is hidden,

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lie existeth in the darkness which is a solid thing, iJp and Rii cometh forth [in] it from the night, 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 (iXtfk) who is “ in this scene is fettered by the children of Horus.” The other gods “ acclaim Ha in the Eastern horizon of heaven, and the four

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203

“ apes guide him who created them, two ou the right hand, and

icm) of this god.”

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u two on the left, to the double dtert

The pylon of the Twelfth Division* or Twelfth Hour is

called Tesert-baiu, <=^> i.e., “ Red-Souls,” and its serpent

god is Sebi, (j(j the two guardians of the corridor are Pai,

2^ (j(J | , and Akhekhi, (j ® (j(j r-^ . 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 Tvhepera, i.e., two forms of the Sun-god. Close to the pylon “ Red-Souls ” was the pylon of the serpent god Reri,

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 lie 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 sec the boat containing the beetle of Khepera and the disk of Ra, with the five gods Seb,

Shu, llek (for Heka), Hu, and Sa, and the two goddesses Isis and Ncphthys, and three gods of pylons. The god Nu,

t 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

On the head of the god stands the goddess

border of the Tuat.

204

BOOK OF THE UNDERWORLD

Nut, 0 Q. with arms outstretched ready to receive Ra. 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 of that which is in the Underworld. *’ The authorities for the text and vignettes of this work are numerous,1 and from the copies of both which have come down to us it is

1 See Sharpe, Egyptian Inscriptions , 1st series, pll. 28-32 ; 2nd series, pll. 1-21 ; Prerret, Recueil , tom. v., pp. 103 ff; Lanzone, Domicile des Esprit #, Paris, 1879; Birch, Papyrus of Nasthem , London, 1863 ; Mariette, Papyrus Egyptians , tom. ii.f 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 “Abrege” by M. Maspero, and a “Resume” 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.1 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,’’

The “horn of

the West” means the most westerly point where the sun sets, and keku mmu, i.e., “ thick darkness,” or “ solid darkness,” refers to the extreme end of the Tuat, which is painted to resemble a black Avail, dotted everywhere Avith red spots, and which contains an opening through Avhich the boat of Ra. emerges every morning. The shorter Avork is entitled “Abridgment of this book,”

The First Hour of the night is called Ushemkt iiatlt khefti Ra,:i i.e., “ Crusher of the forehead of the enemies of Ra,” and the place through Avhicli the god passes in it is described as an arrit, |j(j i.e., a hall, 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 Iv\” in M ‘moh t* de fa Mia*. Arch . Franraisc, Paris, 1880 ; First Hour, part iv., pll. 21-20 ; Second Hour, part iv., pll. 29-32 ; Third Hour, part iv., pli. 32-35 ; Fourth Hour, part i., pll. 23-25; Fifth Hour, parti., pll. 20-29 ; Sixth Hour, part iv., pll. 39-42 ; Seventh Hour, port iv. , pll. 43-40 ; Eighth Hour, part iv., pH. 47-49 ; Ninth Hour, part ii., pll. 15-18; Tenth Hour, part ii., pll. .19-22; Eleventh Hour, part ii., pll. 23-20; and see Maspero, Lea Ihjjjog^ca lloyaiix tic Thebes, p. 29.

• See the edition of the hieroglyphic text, with a French translation, by Jcquier, op. eit., pp. 37 ft*.

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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, (j 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 of the Night.

o ^ hut at night he made his journey along the river of the Tuat in the Sektet boat, ^r,s , 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, \jf “The Opener of

the ways,” Sa, Heru-Hekenu, ^ ^ Nehes, ^ [1,

yu> f ^ » the double of Shu, |_j p , the captain of the boat,

FIRST HOUR OF THE NIGHT

<=>t— and the “lady of the boat,” ^ >jns. 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 arrit 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 lla, 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 “ (;od entereth from the earth into the arrit of the horizon of “the West, and he must travel one hundred and twenty dtrn

“ fd 0 c — > ® \ in this arrit befoi’e he arriveth at the gods VM <=> on/ — — <->

“ of the Tuat. Nct-Rii ( — o Jft ) is> the name ot this first

“ 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 tilings 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 1 20 dtrn in length ; now, the dtrn is

208

BOOK OF THE UNDERWORLD

said to be the equivalent of the Greek a^oli/os, i.e., about an English furlong, and thus the region of the sunset traversed by

• Rii in his first hour would be fifteen miles in length. It is probable, however, that 120 atm 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 Hour is Shesat makkt neb-s, i.e., “ She who knoweth how to protect her lord.” 1 The country

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passed through is called Ur-nes, which the late Dr.

Birch compared with, and believed to be equivalent to, the Greek ovpavo> ;; 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.2 The descriptive text says, “This great god next arriveth in Ur-nes, which is three “ hundred and nine dim in length, and one hundred and twenty “ dt.ru 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

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“ name ‘shall be with them. This great god will give to him fields, “ the situation of which shall be in the country of Ur-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

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“ shall trample upon the Eater of the Ass (

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“ and after the division of the unoccupied land hath been made, “ he shall eat bread in the Boat of the Earth (j p ^),

“ and there shall be given to him of the first things of Tatuba “ ^ Jj [J jfj’).” The text adds that those who draw 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.

2 See J£quier, op, cit., p. 49, note 2.

The Second Hour of the Night.

210 BOOK OF THE UNDERWORLD

The gods with long flowing hair are the. four children of Horus, Mestha, Hiipi, 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 with the Sun-god by reason of his great virile powers. According to M. Maspero,1 the Boat of the Earth is a name given to the Boat of Ra when it reaches the earth ; Tatuba was probably an earth god.

The illustrated version of the Second llo on shows that the boat of Ka was preceded by four boats. The fii’st of these had a human head on each end, and on its side were the picture of heaven, t==^, and the Utchat, In the boat rests the moon on

a pedestal, and behind it is the god who 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 Amen, [j], 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, 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 white 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 hiepr, ^ | ^/j ,

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 who minister to

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SECOND HOUR OF THE NIGHT

211

Osiris in the Second Hour are : — Isis who avengeth, J o, .

Seb of the two corners, J Khnemu of the “two

corners, Q A 1) ^ , Thoth on his stairs, <~> J3L yi

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Afu on his stairs, (j

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Heru-Tuat, Seben-hesq-khaibit. |1 | ^

^ tlie two ape-gods Benth, Jj A/VVSAA ^ and A.an fly (| VW/, ^ the god with two faces, ^L2, Horus- Set, Mest-en- Asar. f\ I ij

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Met-en-Asar, J the term of Osiris, and a lion-headed

goddess Sesenet-khu, 77Z77 ! . Behind all these conic seven

goddesses, Mest-tcheses, jfj ^ , Amani-mitu,

P,0,. Her-tuaiu, @ ^ j . Sekhet of Thebes, o ‘J o,

Ainet-tclieru, Ament-nefert, (j rv^i J . and

Nit-tep- Ament, ^ o (| On the other side of the boat of

the god are Nebui, ^-‘a J (J (J , Besabes-uaa, J — J

Nepr, Jj^g, Tepu, ®®&, Heteh-a, | o. Ab,

• — a J Nepen, jjT\ Ar-ast-neter, (j <=> jj ^ I, Amu-aa,

lleru-hhabit, ^ *— J Anubis, Osiris-

Unnefer, Kliui, (j(j, Horus of the two faces, i.c., Horus and

Set, Hen-Heru, Hun, ^ *4^ ^ Hatchetchu,

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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 bx*eathed

212

BOOK OF THE UNDERWORLD

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again ; 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 Ra were burnt in the tire. It is, however, clear from the texts that although Osiris was the Lord of the Second Hour Ra was 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 wore supposed to make use of it with the names of the various gods and beings in it, wre can only assume that they leamt them when on earth in the body. The larger version of the Second Hour is extremely interesting in showing what 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,1 says : — “ This great god next arrives in the Country

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“nine atm long,2 and one hundred and tweuty dim, wide (i.c., “this portion of the Tuat measured about 38^ miles long by 15 “ miles wide). This great god giveth commands to the gods who “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 liehl is ‘Hidden Souls’ CS^ jj !), and whosoever “knoweth their name shall ascend to the place where Osiris is.

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The Third Hour of t he Night.

214

OF THE UNDERWORLD

“ and water shall be given unto him for |his Field. The name

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“ Hidden Souls together with a representation of the hidden “things of the Tuat- — beginning the same from the West — it shall “ he of great benefit not only to him upon earth, but in the Uuder- “ world, and indeed always. Whosoever knowetli 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 Ha. Whosoever, being a “ soul and a spirit, knoweth these tilings 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 with paddies; 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 soxds 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, Osiris Khenti- Ament,

XdHih 0s iris the Throne, jj Osiris, conqueror of

millions, zn3 ^ * Osiris the double of Ament,

Osiris on his staircase, ® ^l] ; Osiris prince of the gods,

if 1i!i; 0siris king of Uwci* K«yp*» X an<1

Osiris-SSaliu, 1 The duties of the beings who are. grouped with these are clear from their names, for these refer to destruction

215

THIRD HOUR OF THE NlGHpfer

in one form or another, and the explanatory text tells us that they are employed in “ hacking and cutting souls, in shutting up the “ shallows of the dead, ami 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 Ka are cut off by their swords. The master of the region traversed

in the Third Hour is called Khatra, {] , and Ave learn from the

speech of Ka that the inhabitants of the mythological district over Avhicli he presides were created by Ra specially to follow and to protect Osiris. To these he says, “ O 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 avIio 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 IIu is to thee, 0 Osiris, “ and oven as fta is to thee, O Khenti Amentct), ye souls Avliose “ forms arc stablished, ye souls Avliose magical poAvers make “certain your coming into being, who breathe the air [through “ your nostrils, avIio look] Avith your faces, avIio listen Avith your “ears, who are apparelled in your raiment, avIio are clothed Avith “ your SAvathings, avIio have offerings made to you at stated seasons ‘‘by the priests of God, who have estates set apart for your OAvn “ 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 1 have “ come to see my bodies, and to look upon the similitudes of myself “ Avhicli are in the Tuat, and it is you Avho have brought me along “ and have given me the opportunity of coming to them. And “ now I lead thy soul to heaven, 0 Osiris, and thy soul to earth, O “ 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, 0 Osiris, and you, ye spirits who are iu “ the folloAving of Osiris, have your Avords of power. 1 go up on “ the earth and the day is behind me ; I pass through the night, “ and my soul rejoins itself to vour forms during the day, and I “ fulfil the ceremonies of the night Avhieh 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 “ from falling down to the place of destruction.” 1

The Fourth Hour of the night, which is called Sekuemus,8 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 tin’s great god next arriveth in the hidden “Circle of Amentet, and he performeth the designs of the gods “who are therein by means of his voice without seeing them.

“The name of this Circle is Ankhet-kheperu ^ fjf III)’ “and the name of the pylon of this Circle is Ament-sthau “ [(j ~ ^ crzij . Whosoever knoweth this plan

“of the hidden paths of Re-stau ( <~]=> > ( , and of the

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“ winding roads of the Ammehet ^ ^

“ 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 Tom. lie 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 Auunchot is, as we learn from Chapter cxlix of the Hook 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-At (?) [or Sekher-remu |. “Homage to thee, 0 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 1 have come to prepare provisions for you. Let not Sekher- “ At (?) have dominion over me, lot not the divine slaughterers

Sw Mifepcro, Lcs Unpaged s, p. 04.

*.

or Ukt-sekukmU’H,

I 1 I

FOURTH HO l Jit OF THE NIGHT

217

“ come after me, let not tlie murderous fiends come after me, but “ let me live upon sepulchral offerings among you.” 1

The illustrated edition of the Fourth Hour shows us the boat of Rii passing through an entirely new country, in fact a region

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 by Day (Translation), ]>. 1207.

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 Ptali of Memphis, and Osiris himself is merged in Seker and becomes Osiris Seker. The narrow way, or road, of Re-stau has three dooi*s,

which are called Mates-sma-ta, ^ T I i~

Metes-mau-at, V>. 1 f, and Metcs-neheh, V\

h I i I Nc- * * ~~ h —

Ul G, 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 lillcd with the souls which have been consumed by the lire 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 omits is unable to penetrate it ; in this difficulty he is helped upon his way by the light of the flames of fire whicli issue from the mouth of the serpent which forms the bodv of his boat. Among the gods who march in front of the boat areThoth and Horus, who stand facing each other with outstretched hands in which they hold an Utcliat, which is here to be

identified with the god Seker. The serpents which are passed by the god arc of various kinds and of different sizes. The first,

called H etch-nan, ^ ^ q ^ , 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,

Thu Fourth Hour of the Xisht-.

220

BOOK OF THE UNDERWORLD

!j C“1; the fourth is Hekent, ^ and has a human head

growing out of its body just above the tail; and the fifth is Menmenu, O > BKL? which has three heads, and bears on

A.VWSA A - Ji

its baek 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, witli wings, which moves along on four human feet and legs ; and the serpent

Neheb-kau, H JU V I ’ wkich two heads at one end of its bodv, and one head at the other. All these monsters are said to

W *

make their journey daily round about the l’egion 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-hkr-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, ami ho “neither seetli 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-ncteru, — ny — a *1 and the name of this Circle is

a I L . J

“ Ament, (1 . [Here are] the secret ways of Ament, and

1 A/WWV I- *”

“the doors of the house of Ament, and the habitable house

U ( JI Jt* <=> I ) 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

The forms who are in their hours and their hidden beings

“Tuat).

“ 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

o

222

BOOK OF THE UNDERWORLD

“ with the offerings of Seker. And Khemit Ij(J 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 Houit 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-kliu, jj j , An-hetep, | s&i, Her-hequi, £*5 |>j>,

and H etch-met ? _|. Half way through the hour Ra 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 Khepera; 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’cuo, and is described as the “ hidden land of “ Seker which guardetli 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- lieaded god Seker ; this serpent monster represents the god watching over his own image. The two sphinxes are watched hy

two serpents, Tepan, “ (| and Ankh-aapau, j (j ^ ^ :

the first serpent enters into the presence of this god, and carries to him daily the offerings which arc 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, ^ , 3L , and [j], and rest by the side of a lake of water called Nut, ; ^or ^lose who arc 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

F

te axes, ifth Hou!

and call aws, is j

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 Rii 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 ‘Per, jj ? and it had to be

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 Taut, and to consume their bodies bv 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,” ^ i j rjp rjp . l)r. Urugseh,

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. Jcquier has pointed out,1 coupled with the representa- tion of the beetle going forth from the night to place itself in the boat of Ra, it shows us that the domain of Scker, 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 was the final event which took place in it.

The Sixth Hour, which is called M e si* b hit- a u a t- m a .vr u ,a

brings us to the neighbourhood of the shrines of Osiris in the Delta. The descriptive text says, “ W hen this great god arri veth “ at the abyss of water, which is the lady of the gods of the Tuat, “ he holdeth discourse with the gods who are there, and he giveth “ the command for them to obtain the mastery over their offerings

*) in this city. He saileth in this [Field] being

1

2

THE PITS OF THE TUAT 225

provided with his boat, and he comraandeth them [to have] their fields for their offerings, and he giveth them water for their streams as they go about the Tuat each dav. The name of the

tosa;

to!

pylon of this city is Sept-mctu /\ fl ^ ^ ^). The

hidden path of Amentet, on the stream of which this great god

226

THE SIXTH HOUR

‘ journeycth 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 appei’taineth to their hidden hours, “ and the hidden similitude of the Tuat, are unknown …. The “ majesty of this god utteretli 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

Ofh

A/VWNA

AMAM

AWAA

£!)•■

The

I ’ CTD

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 j| j ^ . 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, ^ j , and four contain Spirits. All these form the guardians of a huge five-headed serpent called Ash-hrau, ^ ! ,

v— , * I 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,” | o . The sixteen gods mentioned

The Sixth Hour of the Night.

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-IIenti-Tuat, *, Ast-amhit, jj

Asiir-am-ub-neteru, X ^ f , Benti-ar-aht-f, Jj

to

I

III’

Heru-khenti-

<=* w

, and three gods whose

Maa-ab-khenti-aht-f, flit) ^ ^ Q

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, J ; the first three are surmounted by the white crowns, , the second three by the red crowns, ^/, and the third three by uraei, Next we have the lion god Ka-hemhem, lj ro

with Isis, and Horus, and the mummied figure, s=j s=s ^

i

ill’

armed with and, , 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 oflX and has for its symbol ~2pt, and the sign - ^ ; the second is called Het-stau-Kher-nha-Ra, n Q fl\ , and has for its symbol, ® ; and the third is called Het-temtet-Rii, Q <=^‘ **, and has for its symbol, the head of a man. On the left hand side of the boat of the Sun-god are two gods whose names aie wanting, Ahi, (J (j(J, Netch-atef, n— {j ^ , Ankh-hra, Met-hra, | ^ (Sept-hra ^ ?), Netch-pautti,

; the goddesses Antheth, (j A MW

n '

\Tr\Tr hi

Henhenith,

1|(J s==»# Hemt, ^ an<^ Sehith, and the

monster serpent Am-khu, — a ^ | j , which bears on its

back the heads of the four Children of Horus, Mesthu, Hupi,

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, S (j(|, Meni-ret, /j/| Enen-retui, ^ and Urt, , and nine fire-spitting serpents armed with knives, which are Ta-thenen, ~ Tern, Ehepera, Shu, Seb, Osiris, Horus, Apu, Xjf and Iletepui, . The duty

of these gods consisted in destroying the enemies of Kliepera, and in cutting up their shadows; they lived in Nu and in the water of Ta-thenen, and Kliepera by means of his magical power daily made them to breathe through the word of Iia.

The Seventh Hour, which is called Ivhesef-haa-iieseq-Neha- hka,1 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

“ ( Tephd ^ ^ Osiris, lie addressetli 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, , The name of the pylon of this city through “ which the god journeyeth is ‘ Gate of Osiris ’ (<=> ^ J^);

“ and the name of the city is Tepliet-shetat ^ ^

“ This great god passe th over the hidden way of Araentet 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

1 ro^C IMu. -If fco T** *i-

THE SEVENTH HOUR

231

he 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 Rsi both in heaven and

upon earth. The man who knows not this picture shall never be able to repulse the serpent Nelm-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 his folds, but over one “ portion thereof this great god joumeyeth not when he travefleth “ to the hidden abode of Osiris, for he journeyeth through this city

“ under the form of the god Mehen, lAJl) . Neha-hra shall

“never drink the water of him that knoweth this, and the “ soul which knoweth it shall never bo given over to the violence “of the gods who are in this Circle; and the crocodile Ab-she

“ ( a JJ csa) 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

and held in

seized by Serqet and Her-tesu-f, ^

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,

Tenith,

Nakith, /j /j£j s=*, and Hetcmitet, ^ jj (j(j 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 whereundcr lie the dead souls of the god, which are known by the names Tern, Khepera, Ra, and Osiris. At each end of each tomb is a human head, which 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

The Seventh Hour of the Night.

234

THE SEVENTH HOUR

be erected in 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.1 This view has been well discussed by M. Lefobure, who has done so much to illustrate the religious and funeral customs of the ancient Egyptians,3 and some allusion to it is probably made by Horapollo,3 who says that when they wanted to represent tf>v\a.KTrjpi.ov 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, QSSSSSSL ^ , 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 Hekentli, ^ 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,

IN /WWW A

(1 , these 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, (j j 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, Lea Hypoyt’ea , p. 104 ; Jequier, op. cit., p. 94.

2 Hites jEgyptiena^ pp. 4 ff., 18 ff.

• &v\aKTrjpiov 81 ypatjxiv /3ov\6pavoit Svo Kca\ds avOpunrmv (prypa^owrij Trjv piv rou apcrcvos Jcroi fJKiirowrav, rryv Si OrjkvKtjv i(ta. ovru) yap a tnv oiSiy r&y Satfiovwv itfraifrtrai, inttSri teal \u>pls ypa/x/xarcuv, k.t.K. ffieroglyplrica, i. 24.

The Seventh Hour of tho Night.

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-l \0™ § who acts as guardian of the tomb of Osiris and of what is in it. When Ha 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

Tho 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 whicli is temporarily enchanted.

The Eighth Hour, which is called Nebt Ushau,1 brings us into a very interesting division of the Tuat ; the name of its pylon

1

% Isltl % ‘=F51 * j) .

Tho Eighth Hour of the Night.

238 THE CIRCLES OF THE TUAT

is Alia-en-urt-nef, — 0 f > an<^ the name of the

city is Tebat-neteru-s, <=a JJ ^ “j J (__j. Ra passes through

this division in his boat under the protection of Melien, 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 li& 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 fj 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,” .IX • 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,” “form two,” “form three,”

’ anc* “ ^orm ^our»” • On each side of the way

by which Ra journeys are five Circles.

The door of the first Circle, Seslieta, is called Tes-neb-terer.

• • . ^37 <|> ffff, 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,

The Eighth Hour of the Night.

240 * THE CIRCLES OF THE THAT

Tuat, *, is called Tes-aha-Ta-thenen, — n f —

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, |j ^ p cm ^ j , is called Tes-khem-baiu, ~ and shuts in the images

of Osiris, Isis, and Horus ; when Rii speaks to them they answer in a voice Avhich resembles that of men who moan. The door of

The Eighth Hour of the Night.

the fourth Circle, Aakebi, (j ^ ffi J !j|] is called Tes-sheta- ein-tliehen-neteru, — ™ c=z ^nfj» , and shuts in the images of Ka-Amentet, j_j ^ , Ba-neteru, ^7 “‘j6]6] » and llem-neteru,

cJcjcj ; when Ru speaks to them they answer in a voice which is like that of bulls and men when they make lamentation. The

n | M A 0 111

door of the fifth Circle, Nebt«semu-nefu, a || j q >

THE CIRCLES OF THE THAT

241

is called Tes-sma-kekui, ^ jj ^ w*Tr\ and shuts

in the images of Khatri,

, Affi, I)

and Aranbfi,

A J1 ’^1 \; when Ra speaks to them they answer in a voice

which is like unto that of him that maketh supplication in terror. These five Circles are shut in by a door called Tes-khaibit-tuatiu,

TTT I * C”~:1 ! ‘ ^ie ^oor °f the sixth Circle is called

m„u -rmon-tn ? <=> and shuts in some divine beings

les-eimenta, fe

whose attributes are not yet all clearly defined ; when Ra 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,

01 ^

O

is called Tos - Ra - khefti - f, and shuts in Nut, Ta, and Sebeq-hra,

P J| A 1 T’ w^en 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, j is called Tes - sekhem - aru,

■- ^ |, and shuts in four gods;1 when Ra

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, — jj <^> ^ ^ ‘JJ cm, is called Tes-sept-nestu, ^2 ] JJ ^ | ^ j , and shuts in four gods ; 2 when Ra

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, j) JJ ^ Qj JJ> *3 caded Tes"khu>

^ H i’ and shuts iu four °otls iu tlie forra of uraei

1 i J P o T’ ?ebset s Senkot; J ^ *=> Tebat; and

Temtet, ^ ° .

c=i±=>

u Keku; JJ | Ijlj, Menlju; ^ ^ j , Tcher-klm ; and

® J p jJJ Khobs-ta.

242

THE NINTH HOUR

who rest upon 11; when Ra 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, = •

The Ninth Hour, which is called Tuatet-maket-neb-s,1 brings us into a country which is called the “hidden Circle of

“ Amentet ” ; the name of the city is Bes-aru, J — ‘5P

and th® name of its pylon is Sa-Akeb,

“ When the great god arrivetli 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, ! ,

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,

v rl wav •

each with his paddle ; among these are Rlienu, ^ , Akhem-

sek-f, (j © Akliem-urt-f, (| © xZ* ’ Akhem-hemi-f,

{j © ^ (j|j Akhem-khemes- a Khen-

unnut-f, ^ ? Hapti-ta-f> ye^eP"u^a>

— ^n5, Neter-neteru, ^ ^ ! . Tcha-Tuat, | and Tcpi, (|(J .

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 lia to the place where he will reanimate the disk. Before these sailors, resting on baskets, are the three gods who give abundant

3 801,10 w>J,iC8 add f T’J-M A ! •

The Ninth ITour of the Night.

244

THE NINTH HOUR

offerings, Muti-klienti-Tuat, ^ ^ (Hh ^ vv Nesti-khenti- Tuat, ® rflh ^ JL, and Nebt-au-khent-Tuat, v ({111 o^n *be right the boat of Ra passes twelve gods, each seated on 11, 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 : — Nehata,

Teba, <==» J |, Ariti, ^s=- 1-^ Menkhet,

1 1 . I.lebs, J Nebti, Asti-neter, jj ~ cm ^ ,

Asti-paut, jj^cm®, Hetemet-khu, ° J Neb-pat,

ra

© a

■ D n ! O I

i , Temtu,

‘sx ! — , Meu-a,

• c^£=

) — a, Perit,

Shemat-khu, <=> j , Nebt-shsit, shefet, x=7 130 00 o , Aat-aatet,

" ^ _ jc _ ■*— *

Nebt-setau,

^ ! , Hent-nut-s, ^

KZ7 C30

o i l l o

, Nebt-shef-

; ■

WvW 1

AVAAA

.VLYKLY, I

W !

•, Nebt-

mat, v Q (1 ° ! , Tesert-ant, ^ (1 fX , Aat-khu, HZi ^

’ Q 4Hl’ ‘ ’ <=> rr“=i 1 Ka ’ ’ c-“=>

Sekhet-metu, ^ ® | ^ jj, Netert-en-khentet-Rsi,

^ <=> JL ^ ® . On the left are twelve uraei, each of whom

rests on j! 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 sekhtiu , (}jjj| ^ ^ j , or “ field-labourers,”

of the god Her-she-tuati, ^ cm k | , their leader,

and they perform all the works connected with the ploughing and watering of the fields.

Tho Ninth Hour of the Night.

246

THE TENTH HOUR.

The Tenth Houb, which is called Tentit-uhksqet-khat-ab,1 brings Ra in his boat to the city called Metchet-qat-utebu,

T®’ with ite i>y|on called Aa-

kheperu-mes-ara. | ||

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-hriiu, fc"9<r *** ! , 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, |jj|^ c=3, in the form of a black hawk ; on the left is

the goddess of the north, Neith, with her two bows, and on the right is the goddess Hert-ermen, ‘r~^* 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, ® (j, Shesera, ^55 {j, Temau, . and Utu,

^ The gods of the second group carry each a javelin,

and are called Setu, % . Rau, , Tvhesfu, , and

Nekenu, o ; and the gods of the third group carry each a

bow, and are called Pesthi, a , Shemcrthi, ’ ’’ ’ w, Thesu,

7S9eS ^ I’ an<^ Kk*-a, | — d. 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, |j ^ ® °

nan

[W)

As the boat of Ra passes the god sees the “living beetle,” * ° born in the presence of the god P-anklii, □ M , and sees how he

248

THE TENTH HOUR

pushes before him his zone, 0 ^ C=D. Next Ave have the two

serpents, Menenui, ^ )•)- \ 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,

/wwvx ^ r\

*==>, and Ivenat, (1^, one of whom supports the hatchet, and the other the solar disk, which rests upon it, ^j. From the serpents go forth two goddesses, those of the East and West ; and from the axe, called Seftit, (j(j ^ “j , go 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 eight1 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, ‘”“7, Neb-siqet, ‘^37 M,

Tua-khu, ^ © j , Her-she-taiu, Sem-Ileru,

Tua-Heru, ^ ^ , Khenti-ast-f, jj , and Khenti-ment,

“5^ 0 j j the duty of these gods, who lived by the breath of the great god, was to wreck the bodies and scatter the swatlrings 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., Sekliet, ^ <=»} Menkert, ^ (jtj -a, Abet-weteru-s, ^ ^ j — *— , and Theinatli, *

<=> , Huntlietli, j? -JU , Usit,

A/VWVA & A V S- - >

crr.v5=a _ M fl

Aritathetli, ^ s-ra y Aliat, fl T 0 >

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

4b —

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 Houb, which is called Sbbuit-nebt-uaa- KHESFET-SKBAU-EM-PEHT-r,* brings us to a city called Re-qerert-apt-

khat, T* ^ o 1 9, ®> with a py,on bc“rins the

name, of Sekhen-tuatiu, ^ ^ crm j -man-; the object of

the texts and the illustrations which 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 ^ <=^‘ j or Pestu or Pestet, and it is probably

connected with some well-known star which l’ose heliaeally 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 keku /ecskexu,

^ WTT*

i i r

h

i.e., the opposite of the kelcu i sanmi ,

<2 w i

i , or the thick, solid darkness which

filled the greater part of the Tuat. Before the boat of Ra are twelve gods, who carry upon their heads the serpent Me hen to the

eastern part of the sky; their names are: — Fa, , Erinenu,

O, Athpi,

Retu,

a Net.ru, » ^ , Shepu, X □ \ >

Amu’ Ama> She*u-

S‘ ’ ■* *

The Eleventh Hour of the Night.

252

THE ELEVENTH HOUR

^ , Sekhenu, ^ ^ , Semsem, , and Mehni, (J(J .

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 emerges the white crown, with a human head on each side of it.

The first of these is called Sem-shet, ‘Tft 1 30 , and the second

^ -u D

Sem-Nebt-het, Tt?-* ‘jj ; the 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 ;

Q , in allusion to the belief f=G)

A/WWV

they are called Neith the fecundator, that this goddess begat herself, Neith of the red crown,

Neith of the white crown, ^ Q, and Neith the child, ^

V’

these goddesses came into being as soon as they heard the voice of Ra, and their duty was to guard the gate of Sais, (|(j the

unknown, the unseen, the invisible, *-=_ ~fL’ OO -a— <=>

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, Jj , 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 and

the other /^f. He is called Aper-hra-neb-tchctta, atl^

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

eJtSa (II *

god ; the heads of both serpents are among a number of stare. Standing by the side of the winged serpent, which is called

Tchet-s, ^7) , is a god called Petra, (j with his arras

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 utchat,

The Eleventh Hour of the Night.

254

THE ELEVENTH HOUR

The descriptive text says that the god with a disk and

~j^y by Ha,” 1 iind that he

never leaves his place in the Tuat. The god who stands by the winged serpent is Teniu, who springs out of the reptile’s back when Ha 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 Slietu 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.3 From the descriptive text we learn that the souls of these gods lived on the hidden light of 11a ; 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 sis 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, -“p j . Nebt-khu, ! , Nert, and

Hent (?)-neteru, ^ (*||. The descriptive text says that the arms of these beings are on earth, and their feet in the thick

two heads is “he who stands,

1 M. Miispern s]X*aks of him ;is the a^ratliodenum ” of Ra.

‘ The names are : — Klinem-remt, kha-nof, ZIZj]

‘ , Nuria,

, Apt-taui, , Mer-cm-aaai-f,

1 c 7

, Aaiu-f-oin- , Aun&auif.

i| \ w, Rest-f, p Tua-^leru, * Mai, Moskhti,

jj] & , and Ifepa,

THE PITS OF THE THAT

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 have an allusion to the keen, fresh wind of daAvn 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.<, 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 wore filled with the red-hot materials of blazing fires, and employed to consume the enemies of Ra.

The first chamber 01

• pit, llatet, ^

was filled with the

bodies of fiends who were dashing out their own brains with axes, ’ an^ Avas un^er the charge of a lion-headed goddess, called llert-Ketit-s,

p, who 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 pieecs 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

underthechargeofawomancalledHert-Hant.ua, ^ ijjjp j (|, who spat fire upon them and Avho Avas armed Avitli a monster knife.

256

THE ELEVENTH HOUR

The third chamber or pit was filled with the souls, ^jj*^^^** of the fiends, and was under the charge of a woman called Hert- Nekenit, (1(1 <=>, who spat fire upon them and who was

^ /WWW II

similarly armed. The fourth and fifth chambers, which were under the charge of similar women, called H ert-N emmat-set, v ^ ni P ° ’

and Hert-sefu-s, ‘r~^i < ( (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,”

(j ^ <=a j , which is represented by a large hollow wherein four men are standing on their heads, next to this are

four goddesses of the desert, each of whom has upon her head the emblem of desert; their names are Pesi,

(j !j ^ , Her-sha-s,

nr~i

i i i

. and Sait, (j(j

Rekhit, . Each

name has a meaning something like fiery,” and refers to the goddesses in their character of mistresses of the blazing desert.

Finally, behind these comes the god Her-ut-f, t=* , 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 who 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 blazing, fiery pits.

The Twelfth Hour, Maa-nefekt-Ra,1 brings the god Rii into the Circle which is on the confines of thick dai’kness, and to a city

called Khepert-kekui-khaat-mest, ^ ^ ! Qn ~~qJ1 ! jj|

with its pylon called Then-neteru, ! 1 jj ^ In this region the god is born under the form of Khepera, ^ <=> | | WW\A

$ <=> W’ and Nu> H and Nut, 0 Helm,

and IJehut, || \ ** $ , come into the Circle when he is born, and when he goeth forth from the Tuat and resteth in the Man tit, ^ |j(j o zjnj , boat, and when he risetli on the body 2 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 thromjh a serpent ; in front the tow-rope is held by the hands of twelve women. This

serpent is called Ka-en-Ankh-neteru, ULJ f 1 in’ i,e,» “the life of the gods,” and the gods who draw Af, that is to say, Ra, through it are his “ loyal servants,” ! , Amlcltin. 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 appeal’s 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

J>

l

° O *

III 10

3 [ , a word sometimes rendered by rnha, / mbia , and , flunk.

8 See ljttnzone, Domicile (let Esjirita, 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: — I. 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 A pep 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 Ha. On the left

of the boat we have the gods Nu, GOO, Nuth, Hehu,

Wmt, these gods are “in their own bodies,*’

k^rf.‘icr; and they go to Ra in 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, | |wp’A) , of the Tuat belong to this Circle.

Next we have two human -headed gods, a bird-headed god called

/WWSA f\ ft /VWAA

Nehui, f[] (jlj y a god with two birds heads called Ni, [) jj ,

the serpent Nesmekhef, "”” ‘Wit and four human-headed

gods; all these carry paddles on their right shoulders. The duty of the gods is to raise up, s=» the disk of the sun daily, but the serpent Nesmekhef slaughters the enemies of Ra; they travel with Ra and receive their spirits, V® t=» in this

OSIRIS, GOVERNOR OF AMENTI

Circle. Before these are ten gods, with hands raised in adoration,1 who are described as the hentiu, ^ ® ! , of the forms of

Osiris, the Governor of the thick darkness, \ ^

Y w^*T!% and they say to him, “Live, thou Governor of thy

“ darkness ! Live, 0 thou who art great in all things ! Live, 0 “ thou Prince of Amentet, Osiris, thou Governor of those who are “ in Amenti ! Mayest thou live, mayest thou live, 0 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, R.> 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.”3

, ^ I l , Tes-kliu, , Theuiaru, ^ ^ <=^> , Aaklibu,

L W’ /Wv-WN J-~\ Tr

Sekhenn, ^ ^ , Ermenu, ^ , Kheunn, ^ Bunfui,

, Anru, Atliep, (j * ^ *, and Am -Jj-.

->ki 0 •

A.WW

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,”

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 ® |r|, 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 jn 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 was 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 modern 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 all times. There was, of course, a large class of people who could not afford 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 Kii 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 II a 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 suffering 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 ha 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 pi’ayers 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 Rfi 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 lia 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 lla 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 lla, 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 lla, 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 lie was able to appear in the eastern sky proved that all his enemies were destroyed. Each night and morning Itfi destroyed the hosts of enemies who attempted to bar his progress, for such enemies perished instantly by the flames which went forth from the dime beings whom he had created.

Originally, too, such enemies were only the personifications of the powers of nature, such 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 with 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 which 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 hi, 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.

We 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

200

OUTER DARKNESS

literature as the following instances will show. In “ Pistis Sophia,” 1 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 Ivharakuab. And the governor “ of the third hall hath as his true face the face of a dojr, and “ they call him in his place Auku arokii. 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,3 and they call “ him in his place Markhoub. 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 Lonkuar. And the governor of the eighth hall hath as “ his true face the face of a vulture, and they call him in his place “ Laraokh. And the governor of the ninth hall hath as his true “ face the face of a basilisk, and they call him in his place “ Arkiieokii. 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 X arm arokii. And in the eleventh hall there are many

1 See IJin tit Sophia . Ojnn Guosticvw Valentino udjudicolvni, ed. Sclrwartze, Berlin. 1851.

• I1KAKE ET Ql Ko7.

3 OVgO JUtJUA.CE ft KAJUE.

THE HELL OF THE GNOSTICS

267

“ governors, and there are there seven heads, each of them having (i as its true face the face of a cat, and the greatest of them, who is “ over them, they call in his place IJhokhar. 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 Khremaor. “ 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.” 1 *

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 Book 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, fl ^ which is called the ‘4 bull of

“ the gods,” and has “ seven serpents on his seven necks,”

P ,’m *— (1 « \ “ & Mi o $ «= P jk P Tz ,“u

| JJ ^ ;3 the seven-headed serpent, Nau-shesma,

1 Pistis Sophia, Coptic tost, p. 319 ff.

3 See Schmidt, Gnostische tichriflen in Koptischer Sprachr, Leipzig; 189^.

3 Teta, 1. 307.

268

AMENTET AND THE TUAT

nnjl^ ^,n, also had seven uraei for heads, and he had authority over seven archers, or seven bows, | % 1 1

| ® o ||||_ <*( >=<

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 Martyrdom of George 2 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 lire 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 lie 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,3 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 “ sawr the worm which never slumbereth, and his head was like “ unto that of a crocodile. He was surrounded by serpents of “ eveiy kind which cast souls before him, and when his own mouth

1 Teta, 1. 306.

■ See my St. George of Cappadocia, p. 20.

• YlIKpiTHC JUUUtHI. The word JUtHI is the old Egyptian £5^, wm««. which ie commonly rendered by “ law, light, troth, true, just,” and the like.

RA AND A PEP

269

“ was full lie allowed the other creatures to eat ; iu 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.” 1 In another work 2 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 Ea, whether of a physical or moral character, was the arch-serpent Apep or Apepi, which attacked him dailjr, and was overcome daily. To this monster we have several allusions in the Book 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 pai’t of the dynastic period.

1 Hyvomat, Les A ctes dee Martyr a dr PHhjyptr, p. •">*> f.

‘ Amulinean, Monuments pour serrir a VHietoire dr- /’ f.‘jijptv Chriticnne , p. 167.

270

KA AND APEP

From a papyrus preserved in the British Museum 1 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 eftect. 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 dunjr and a<rain burnt. It was imperative to do this at midnight, when h’a began his return journey in the Tuat, towards the east, and at dawn, 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 u ^to 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 u bones, I destroy his soul in the course of every day, I sever his l” 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 11 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 u 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 *” movc ; Horus repulseth his moment of luck during his eclipse,

“ and he maketh him to vomit that which is inside him. Horus

1 See Archaeoloijia , 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 existctli not. May his name never “ exist, and may what is born to him never live ; may lie 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 words 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, 11 lui triumpheth over “ ‘ thee, Apepi, and Horus triumpheth over his enemies, and P-aa “ ‘ (i.e., the deceased) triumpheth over his enemies.’ Next thou “ shalt write 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] insido 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 Ha 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 u of great benefit [for thee] upon earth and in the Underworld.” 1

1 On the Hieratic Papyrus of Nesi-Amsu, p. 52 ( Arckaeolvgia , voi. Hi.)*

272

SERPENTS AND SNAKES

To destroy the fiends which were associated with Apcpi 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, Jfiend, “ Betet.” The faithful follower of Rii is also bidden to “make “ another serpent with the face of a cat, and with a knife stuck in “ his back, and call it Hemiiem. Make another with the face of “ a crocodile, and with a knife stuck in his back, and call it “ Hauna-aru-her-hra ; 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 w<jre copied into their funeral texts. Every Recension of the of the Dewl, 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, find 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 new 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.1 The commonest of the names which the Hebrews gave to the abode of the damned is G ft Hinnom,2 or Gehenna, which was originally the Valley of Hinnom, that lay quite near to Jerusalem,3 where children were sacrificed to the god Moloch ; 4 this name passed into the New Testament under the form Teewa, and into Arabic litei*ature as “ Jahanuain.” 5 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, liahyloiiian lMiyiov, p. 170 f.

Now generally identified with the Wadi or-Rabnbi.

4 See 2 Kings xxiii. 10.

5 * -

3

274

HALLS OF GEHENNA

Gehennas, one in the heavens and one on the earth. As to the size of Gehenna wc read that Egypt was 400 parassangs 1 long and 400 parassangs wide, i.e., about 1,200 miles long by 1,200 miles wide; that Nubia (jtns) 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.3

In Gehenna, as in Paradise, there were seven “ palaces ” (/rforr), 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 o£ 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 judging sinners and sealing their doom; but according to another the seven mansions are ruled, under Dflmuh, non, by three angels called Mashkhith, Af, and Khema. The voices of the beings in Gehenna rise up to heaven mingled with the cries of the wicked. Dfimah, 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,’ Dftmali, 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 ; ’ 3 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.”

1 The parassaug = 30 stadia, and the stadion = 202 yards,

2 Eisemneiiger, EnUfockte# Jmlenthnrn , part ii., p. 328.

a Isaiah xxiv. 21.

HALLS OF GEHENNA

275

Another prince of Gehenna was called ‘Arsitsl, 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 1 00 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 tlxey have to pass through the fire of till 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 arc 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 danuied 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 lxave 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 suffice 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,” f ***~ fl (H ^ § <==>Ka—. 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.1 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 Rii 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 difference between the physical characteristics of Egypt and those of Syria and Palestine this is not to be wondered at. In prcdynastic times Egypt was 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 had been practically cleared from these reptiles. In Palestine and Syria snakes were never very plentiful, but in the region of Southern

1 Eisenmenger, op. cit., p. 366.

A PEP 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 HebreAvs assigned to the serpent cunning and guile, 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,1 was 50 kaslni long, and the height of its undulations was 1 kasha; its mouth was one- half a (far, or six cubits wide, and it moved in water 9 cubits deep. Three other measurements are given, viz., 1 (jar, 1 jar, and 5 jar, but as the text following them is broken it cannot be said to what they refer. Now, the kasbu 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 kasbu 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 Avhich he made use of to form the “ covering of the “ heavens.” * There is no doubt that originally the Babylonian Tiamat Avas nothing but the rain clouds, and the mist and fog Avhich lie over the Tigris and Euphrates in the early morning at certain seasons of the year, and which when looked at from the

1 See King, Cuneiform Inscriptions from Babylonian Tablets, etc., part xiii., pi. 33 f., London, 1901 ; and King, Seven Tablets of Creation , vol. i., p. 119.

• King, Babylonian Jleligion, p. 77.

278

APEP, TIAMAT, LEVIATHAN

desert appear like a huge serpent stretched along the length of the stream, both up and down the river. The Hebrew Scriptures contain several allusions to a great nature serpent,1 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 lxxiv. 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, “ O arm of Yahweh ! Awake, as in the ancient days, in the “ generations of old ! Art thou not it that did slay the monster “ Rsihabh, and wound the serpent (tannin) ? ” Ritkabh 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 Apcpi, 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 , nakhdsh, rdhabh, but the monster referred to under them is, in reality, one and the same, i.e.. Leviathan (tnrfr livydthdn), “ the serpent of many twistings or folds,” anti 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,3 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,3 and a covering for the walls of the city of Jerusalem. This

1 See Goldxiher, Mythology of the Hebrew h, pp. 27, 28; King, Babylonian Religion, p. 115.

2 Emenmenger, op. eit., p. 877.

4 yn1? crpHx1? .-did jrwy1? nvt 7 m wrrpn T/iy : Eisen-

monger, op. cifc., p. 888.

SEVEN-HEADED SERPENT

279

covering was bright and shining, and it emitted light which was so strong that it could he 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 (lxxiv. 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. All 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,” 1 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 hell 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 sIioav that they had in early

err it goq epe CAjgqe H A.ne t poq ; «i. Schwartzo, 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 1 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 : — Afiftioud, Iao, A6i, Oiapsinothf.r, Tiikrnops, Nopsiteh, ZagoiirP:, PagourP, Neth- momaoth, Nepsiomaoth, Marakiiakhtha, Thobarrabau, Tiiar- nakhakuax, Zorokothora, Ikou, Sabaotii.8 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 passage3 Jesus addresses His Father in these words and by these names: — Iao Iouo, Iao, Adi, OrA, Psinother, Theropsin, Opsither, Nephthomaotji, Nrpiiiomaotii Marakiiakh- tha, Marmara khth a, IP ana menaman, Am an Pi tou ouranou, Israi Hamen HamPn, Soubaibai appaap HamPn Hamkn, deraarai IIapahou HamPn H amP.n, Sarsarsartou H amP:n H amP;n, Koukiamin miai If am Ax Hamen, Iai, Iai, Tou a HamBn Ham An HamAn, Main- mari, MariA, Marei HamP:n Ham fix H am An.4 In another place 5

Ed. Sell wart zc, p. 357.

1 aehioyuj* iaut Aour tui A\jsmu)&Ep’ eepfta>\J/- itui’iJ/rTep’

^ATovpH* nAvoYpH nGejuojuAtoe- rfeip’ioJUAtue’ AAApA- X^X^-’ 0UjftAppAftAY’ ^OpOKOdOp.’

ieov CA.ftA.uje:

3 Ed. Scliwartze, p. 375.

• i’Au> ioYur i’AU)* AUJi ujia \J/muueep’ 0epuj\pirr eep rtecl>eoJUAuJ0- necJnojuAure* JutApA^CAX^A* JUApjuA- pA3C0A JHAftA JUerfAUArr AJUtAItHI TOY OYpAltOY* ICpAI gAJUHrt g,AJUHff COYftAlftAi* AnnAAIT* gAJUtHff’ gAJULHrr 2v€pAApAI gAnAgOY gAJULHIY g,AJAHft CApCApCApTOY ^AJULHff gAJUHfT KOYKIAAitft JUIAI gAAAHfY’ gAJUtHtt* IAI* IAI* TOY An gAJUHff gAJUHIT gAJUHfT JUAfff JUApt* JULAplH’ JUtAper gAJUHN gAJUtHfY gAJUHff (p. 375).

4 Ibid., j>. 375.

GNOSTIC MAGICAL. NAMES

281

He addresses those who forgive sins by their names thus: — SlTHIREPSNIKHIEU, ZENEI, BeRIMOU, SoKHABRIKHAu, EUTHABl, Nanai DieisbalmArikit, Meunifos, Kiiirie, Entair, Mouthiour, Smoub, PeukiiAr, Oouskiious, Minionor, Isokhobortua ; 1 and immediately afterwards He calls upon the Powers of His Father by these names: — AuAr, Bebro, Atiironi, Eolrepii, Bone, Souphen, K nitousoki ireopii , Mau6nbi, Mneuor, Souoxi, KhOkheteoph, Kiiokhe, EteAfii, Memokh, and AnAsipji.2 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 power’s 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 Christ 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.

1 ciipe\Jm!3(;i€V ^erter Aepuuov cox*&piXHP* eY_ «Apr itAftA.!* :Alelcf^LA.?^JUlHpl^(;• JtieYrrinoc- ^P16’ e«TA.ip’ AJtoveioYp- cjuiovp* nev^wp* ooycxoyc* jumiortop* icoxo- ftopeA. (p. 370).

3 A.YHp’ Beftpur Aeporrr Hovitecjr Hourre’ coyen* Kiti- tt o yco^c pe ujcJ> ‘ JutAYoorrAr JurteYoup* coYumr xuJXerreou4>* X^OC6’ erreoKp* xjiextujx’ (p. 370).

( 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 pant 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 pant to consist of nine gods, and it seems that they arrived at this decision as the result of the addition of their own local god Tern 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 pant 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 Hcliopoiitan company of .the gods included the Sun-god Rii-Tem, or llu-Tem-Kheperu, and Osiris,

r

THE FIRST EIGHT GODS

283

the god of the dead, the older company consisted of pail’s 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 : —

,T OOO S\

Nu, —

V— H WWA\ k 1

000 ^ eft

Nut, J.

• J /WWW VJ k_i

JJkhu, HM-

Bejiut,

Xekui,

Kkkuit,

Kekh, ^ ^ ^ .

Kebhet,

The character of the first pair of gods can be readily deter- mined by the hieroglyphics which form their names ; thus the name Nu, PPO Jj ,x is expressed by three vases of water which indicate the sound, and the outstretched heaven, s=5, and the determinative for water, . and the sign for “ god,” all of which show that this deity was the god of the watery mass of the sky. The goddess Nut, PPP Q J) . was merelv his female counter-

part, as the signs, ^ 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

WwW\ /WW-A

1 The old form is OCO, or (Unas 199, STOP), or ^ (Tela 78).

284

N U AND NUT

w

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 0 ^ and witli the heaven above it, unt, 0 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 1 were identified with Nu, whose characteristics appear to have changed during the latter part of the dynastic period. The name of this god has been compared with the Coptic word itovit abyss,” “ deep,” and the like, and it is possible that it may have some connection with it, but it is difficult to sec how in that case it can mean “ young,” as the late Dr. Brugseh suggested.2 The true meaning is much more likely to be suggested by the play on the words Nu and ueu which we have on p. o09 in the passage, “ l raised them up from out of the watery mass (nu) out of inactivity ” (nun), 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 whoso 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,3 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,4 and at other times she has the head of a cat.5

1 Compare Horajiollo I. 21 (ed. Loemans ; p. 28) : — NtiAou Si Ava/3a<rtv fr/)/u.aiVovT«s, Sr «a\ ovaiv Atyvimori Now ; attention was first drawn to this passage by Tatt&ni.

’ - Religion untl Mylhologie, p. 120.

1 Canzone, ftiziomtrio , P>- 167, No. 2.

4 V>id., No 5 lhul, pi. 170, No. 2.

KEKUI AND KEKUIT

The characteristics of the second pair of gods, Hchu, ^ ?

and Idehut, ^ ^ are not easy to determine. According

to Signor Lanzonc they are personifications of male and female elements of fire,1 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 Heliut in the form of Nut ; 2 and in another group Hehu has the head of a serpent, and IJehut that of a cat. According to the late Dr. Brugsch 3 the name Heh is connected with the word

which indicates an undefined and unlimited number, i.e., heh, ;

when applied to time the idea suggested is “millions of years,” and Hell is equivalent to the Greek alatv. In several passages quoted by I)r. 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 lie 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 Lanzone1 we see the

,Q

god Harpocrates in his usual attitude, jjiO, just above what appeal’s

to be a small tree. On the right kneels the goddess Heliut, 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 arc the beetle and disk.

The characteristics of the third pair of gods, Kekuj,

and Kekuit, xx ’ ar° casier 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

■ //>/(/., pi. 168 ff.

4 Op. oil., p. 685.

1 Lanzone, Dizionario , page (585. 3 Religion , p. 132.

286

KERH AND KERHET

• • *

say, Ivekui 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 Khnernu and his female counterpart Sati ; but this, no doubt, was a result of regarding Ivekui and Kekuit as personi- fications of the Nile-god Hapi, whose hidden fountains lay beneath the rocks at some part of the Island of Elephantine. According to another view the crocodile-god Scbek, 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 sold of the primeval darkness loved to array itself.1 In the scenes in which the forms of the oldest pant 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.2 In one scene Kekui and

Kekuit are identified with Ka and Kait, ( f^j, ( I (j(j the

former being called the “ grandfather of all the gods,” and the latter the “ grandmother of the divine company,” <=* o ® ^ ; in

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, Kerh,

^ ^J, and Kerhet, ^j, are not easy to define,

and the texts in some places give quite different names where we

VAW rv

should expect to find theirs ; thus we have Ni, |j[j , or

A/VW/W O

Nenu, ^£<3^, or Nut, of Kerb, and Ennit, f"r or Nit,

or Amen, (J t=i instead

/VWWl _

or Nenuit, <wvvv’ e , or Nut,

’ — cv ^ k» • *

The common meaning of the word kerh is “ night,” and according

O

O’

o’

or

Cb \ ‘

instead of Kerhet.

2 Lanzone, op. cit., pi. 168

Bmgsch, llelijion , p. 142.

THE FIRST EIGHT GODS

287

to this the deities Kerb and Kcrhet would represent the male and female powers of night; on the other hand, the determinative 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, Xi, 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.

Tlius Eli and Amen possessed female counterparts called Rat,

and Ament, (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 company 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. Xut, Hehut, Ivekuit, and

288 APZU-lilSHTU, M&MfU-TIAMAT

Kerliet are the equals of the gods Nu, Hell, lvekui, and Kerb, 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,” 1 which are written in cuneiform, and contain the views and beliefs of the Assyrians 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 - risht6, fcfiy tyyty- t^TyTt , i.e., the “primeval abyss,” and

Mummu-Tiamat, s-yyy ^ wT< ■£-V>. The meaning of the word nmrnmu is unknown,2 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, untitled Cuneiform Texts from Jlubylouiun Tablets, part xiii., London, 1901. These, with many additional texts, are ffiven in Mr. L. W. King’s Seem Tablets of Creation with, transliterations, translations, notes, etc., London, 1902. (Vol. I.)

• Mummu = the Merii/ut of Damascus, and probably means “ chaos.”

LAKHMP^i.ftD LAKHAMIJ 289

“ mingled together ” then the work of creation began. We thus see that Apzh-rishtu and Mflmmu-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 ‘Avaortov and TavOe, which are given in the scheme of Damascius. 1

The next pair of gods in the Assyrian texts are Lakh mu, m-T tTTT< and Lakhamu, hut 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-da^os and Jaxv, hut these are clearly mistakes for and Aa-xv, i.e.,

Lakhmu and Lakhamu.

According to the First Tablet of the Creation Series “ ages increased,”2 and then two more gods came into being, viz., Anshar, Hf and Ivishar, ►*>*y <m a, i.e., the ‘A crcrcopos and Kicrcraprj 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 :t that the Egyptian authorities differed as to the names of the god and goddess of the fourth pair of gods, some giving Kerh and Kcrhet, 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 tliat one must be a god and the other a goddess.

The First Tablet of the Creation Series mentions a seventh deity called Asru, «-T R </-. who is clearly to be identified with the ‘Avos of Damascius, and an eighth deity called Nudimmud, —T y- <STf -HA. 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

1 He was born in Syria, probably at Damascus, in the last quarter of the Vth century of our era. Ho studied at Alexandria and at Athens, and was a pupil of Marinus and Zenodotus, and when Justinian closed the schools at Athens lie went to the court of the Persian king Khusrau (Chosrocs). The best editiou of his work

on u First Principles ‘* is that of Kopp, published in 1828.

3 Babylonian lielujion , p. 61. 3 lle/i<jivnf 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 Kurcrap-q we have kvo?, ’IMiros, and ‘A6$ ; the first of these is, as we have said, Anu ; the second is the god Enlil, fcjyj ; and the third is Ea, ~T CTTTT !?• 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 Auu, 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 Asliur-bani-pal, king of Assyria from n.o. 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 tiie cylinder seal, and the like.1 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 from the companies of gods of which Osiris and Ra-Tem were the heads in Egypt, and also from those which were formed 1 Soo my ’Etjijiit in the Predynaetic and Archaic Periods, p. 41.

291

THE PRIMEVAL SPIRIT

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, Apzu 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. Hell 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 Risiug Sun, the almighty power of the divine spirit incorporated itself in a brilliant form.1

1 “Der go til iclie Urgeist, un/.ertreimlidi von dem Uvstoff des Urwassers, “fiihlte das Verlangen nach sdio pf cri seller Tluitigkeit und sein Wort erweekte die u Welt zuin Lehen, deren Gestalt und formeiireidie Gebilde sidi in seineiu Auge “ vorher abgespiegeit batten. Hire korperliclien Umrisso und Farben. entspradien “ nacb ihrer Entstehung der Wabrheifc d.li. dor Urvorstellungen des gottlichen li Geistes uber sein kiinftiges Werk. Der era to Scliopfungsact begann mit der “ Bildung eines Eies ans dem Urgowiisser, aus deni das Tagesliclit (Ril), die un- “ mittelbare Ursache (ra) des Lebens in dom Bereiche der irdischen Welt heraus- “ brack. In der aufgehenden Sonne verkorperte sicb die Allmacht des gottlidien “ Pistes in ihrer glanzvollsten Gestalt” (Religion, p. 101).

‘2 92

THOTH AND HIS

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 lla 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, Kerb, 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 2»3

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 whose 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 Akhniim), 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 reeital 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 story1 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 khf peril,

<2

being derived

from the root kheper, ® ^ jj, 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 Rfi. In the text the words are placed in the mouth of the god Neb-er-tcher, ^ , 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, ^ || ,

“ 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 thtj,t 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 the ground by a beetle on earth, 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-production, 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 out 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 Xu 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, an<* ^ ougkt 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 iu 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 IJOKHMAh

“ 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 | 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 l’esort to magical powers to get himself out of a difficulty ; that Khepera worked in some way and by some means upon his heart or will 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 p ^ 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 Hokumah, noprr (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 dearth, 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 cirple upon the face of the depth (Proverbs viii. 23 ff.).

% The narrative continues : “ I made a foundation in (or, by) own heart, and there came into being multitudes of things,

TEM, SHE, TEFNUT

*297

“ of things from the 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 Tem and not to Khepera, and occurs with the following con- text:— “This Pepi washeth himself in the Lake of Aaru wherein “ Ra washeth himself ; Ilorus hath brought the back of this Pepi, “ and Thoth hath brought his legs, and Shu hath lifted him up “ to heaven ; 0 Nut, stretch out thy hand to Pepi. Tem 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,1 and these two “ children put Pepi between them, and they set him among the “ gods which are in Sekhet-lietepet.” 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 /ewers, 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

Jjts Jj

O

AWVNA

aa/wna

m

,‘yVA\

o

1. Pepi I., 1. 40f> ff.

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 counterpai*t, 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 whieh 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 of his “father” Nu, who says that liis eye, i.e., the Sun, was covered up behind Shu and Tefnut, but that after henti periods,

5 ^ hftd passed1 that he had become three

A w/m /www I I LJ 1 A

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. “VVe 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 = CO years, but when two such periods are referred to the writer does not mean necessarily 120 years, bat 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.,

dffhesh /] , and tef ^ * f’*®, 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. verm.

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 teal’s which came forth from my eye.” Of this passage there are two interpretations possible. We may either assume that the tears which fell from the Eye of Nu, or Khepera, are the rays of light which fell from the sun, and that men and women are the offspring 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,1 and that they turned into human beings straightway. Meanwhile the god Nu or Khepera had made 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 u Blind Horus,” one after the other at one birth, and these deities multiplied

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 pail’s, i.e., three gods and three goddesses, and one male deity in addition, in fact the paid, 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- teller saith, “ I am the creator of what hath come “ into being, and I myself came into being under the form of the “ god Khepera, 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, and I formed myself in the primeval matter.

“ My name is Ausakes, (j <© ^ (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 panted pautti , ® ®

^ i ’ **e,» very 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 mouth, that is to say [I uttered it as] a word of power,

’ i V 5- J^) i be&au an(i I forthwith came into being under

“ the form of things 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 formula?. Here, however, Ave have the god Osiris transforming himself from the essence of primeval matter into the active principle of creation by merely uttering his OAvn 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 Avith Avhich every one is familiar from Genesis ii. 19 f., where avc read that Adam gave names to every beast of the field and to every foAvl of the air, and to all cattle. EA*ery god and goddess and supernatural being Avere believed to possess a hidden name by, and through, and in Avhich he and she lived. The man who could find out these names Avas able to command the help of the gods who bore them, and the man Avho could obtain by any means a hidden name for himself thought he Avould be the equal of the gods. On the other hand, to destroy or “ blot out ” a name Avas to Avipe out of existence the being Avho bore it, and it Avas for this reason that in the earliest days of civilization in Egypt services in Avhich the name, or names, of the dead Avere commemorated, and were mentioned Avith laudatory epithets, Avere established. We may note in passing that one of the greatest gifts Avhich Avas to be given to the true believers of the Church of Pcrgamos was “ a Avhite stone, and in “ the stone a new name Avritten, Avhich no man knowetli saving he “ that receiveth it” (Revelation ii. 17). Here is a direct allusion to the old belief in the efficacy of an amulet Avhich Avas made of a certain stone, and inscribed Avith a name, by and through and in which its OAvner would enjoy life and happiness.

302

THE CREATION

Returning to our narrative Ave 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 aatis I Avho made Avhatsoever was “ made. I Avas alone, and there Avas no other being Avho worked “ with mo in that place. I made all the forms under Avhich 1 11 appeared by means (or, out of) the god-soul Avhich I raised up “ out of Nu, £££ out of a state of inertness (or, out of the “ inert mass).” In this passage avc haA*e a neAv element introduced, that is, a “ god-Soul,” or, in other Avords, the Soul Avhich

possessed the quality of nefer, and Avas existent in a quiescent state in the inactive watery mass of Nu. When avc consider the genei’al ideas of the Egyptians about the soul this statement need not surprise us, for Ave knoAv that they endoAved e*ery object in nature Avith a soul, and if they assumed the existence of a mass of primeval matter they Avere bound, logically, to give it a soul. Thus Ave 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 Avherein I could stand. I “ Avorked a spell on my heart, and I laid a foundation before me, “ and I made Avhatsoever Avas made. I Avas alone. I laid a “ foundation in (or, by) my heart, and I made the other things “ which came into being, and the things of Khcpera Avhich Avere “ made Avere manifold, and their offspring came into existence “ from the things to Avhich they gave birth. It was I Avho emitted ‘‘ Shu, and it was I Avho emitted Tefnut, and from being one god “ (or, the one god) I became three, that is to say, the tAvo other “ gods Avho 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, ^ (i.e., the Sun), did they

“ bring to me (or, I brought to them) after a double /ten period “ [had passed since] they went forth from me. I gathered “ together my members Avhich came forth from my own person “ after I had union Avith 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, ^ <==> f|(| ^ j »

“ 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 Avere the product of the tears Avhich fell from Khepera, but this rendering is not wholly certain. The vegetation and worms here mentioned are forms of mist and cloud which Avholly 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, <=>

Ave knoAV nothing, but as the Avord rem means “ to Aveep,” and an allusion to “crying or weeping,” <=> > is contained in

the line in Avhich the name of the god occurs, Ave may assume that he was the personification of Ra’s tears. Mention is made in the / took of the Dead (lxxxiii. 4) of a god called Remi,

{ ( oi , Avho seems to have been the Fish-god, and to

have been identified in some way Avith 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, Ivhcpera 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 Ivhepera, and they came forth from his mouth, Avhilst men are only the tears of the god, and they came forth from his Eye. The older version makes the tears of Ivhepera 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 Themeliu. Thus in the Book of Pylons 1 Horus says to the “ chiefs of Rii,” J ° ^ J ® > 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.’”3 The Aamu, ^ n ^ j ,

(i.e., the Semitic nomad tribes of the Eastern Desert), were created by Horus and Sekhet, ^ ® ^ , and this goddess protected their souls ; the Themehu, or Libyans, ’ $ ^ ^ | > were also created

by Horus and Sekhet, and the goddess protected their souls. Of the Nehesu, $ P <§. ^ j (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 Jkmomi and Sliarpe, Sarcophagus of Qimenepthah , pll. 7 and 6r>.

AWWVS

‘S

*=> I I I

U n ^ ¥ - rr, 15 \ “HZ rr, — ^ I f « s$ j (’“<» ic-2°)-

.A

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 Ivhepera, 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].” Tills very important passage proves 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,1 which was

1 The tablet is No. 92,629 (obv. 11. 5-7). The text reads :-grr<ce m

« ET tT SETT A4T M [sfc Sf=] M «

et ess -sM m tt m tt meh m et ^ et ks

Hi Ef R R V MB ^a~wl

ln-titih.ziz.maa aincla[a] In a-me-lu [. . . .] Iv-ub-ni-ma am’la[(t’] a-»hib irsitim. See W. King, The Seren Tablets of Creation, vol. i., pp. 86 IT., and vol. ii., pi. xxxv.

X

306

THE CREATION OF MAN

first identified by Mr. L. W. King, is incomplete, but when the inevitable duplicate is found 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

kkiit, ® which possessed both these attributes. The Eye

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 Ivhepera 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-un-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,

l V <§> ^ j ? whereby 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 influence, probably by the utterance of certain words, to bear upon his heart, he produced some material place, probably the earth, whereon 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. I he 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.

CHAPTER VIII

THE HISTORY OF THE CREATION OF THE GODS AND OF THE WORLD. VERSION A.

A.WVNA

xx vi. 21.

<=> 1 o \

® i

$ <» M

? oi

Shat enti

rekh

kheperu

nu Rd

The Book of

knowing

the evolutions

of Ra,

2I1!

Kzy ta. ®

<=> <=> ill

• whiter Apep

tchejtu

Neb-er-tcher

tchel -f

[and] of over- Apep. The words of throwing

Neb-er-tcher

[which] he spake

■ £1

1 <a

em-khet Icheper - f

nuk

pH

kheper

after he had come into being. I am he who came into being

Ik 18 SIM

era, Kheperd

in the form of I was (or, became) Khepera,

& <=>

W c^£=>

Iclieper

the creator

i

i

i

khepcru

of what came into being,

82

kheper

the creator

82i 82^1

kheperu neb em-khet kheper-d

of what came into all ; after my coming into being being

J

O 1 I

dsht

many

THE CREATION

309

i e II

hheperu

ctzj

em per

cm

roa

WW\A

an

[were] the things which coming forth from my mouth. Not came into being

^

*JU

/WWW

Sf ^ 1 E

Jcheper pet

dn>

kheper to.

an

fjemam

existed heaven,

not

existed earth,

not had been created

■ .1 £a | 1 1

kJ’^

wi.

satat

tchetfet

em bet

pui

the things of the earth,

and creeping

in place

that ;

(i.e., plants)

things

r-Tikirr, k

coo

JO, AAAWA

P'1 ■”! ///A/ SA

thes - nd

dm - sen em

Nu

I raised up them

from out of

Nu (i.e., the primeval abyss

of water)

kUZl

i>r.

™ ^kiT J-=

H 0 ™

1 A h

em cnen

dn qem-nd

bet

dhd-nd

from a state of

Not found I

a place

I could stand

inactivity.

qkjL

r\ yvwwv

1 i

k

ami

khut-nd

cm

dbt-d

wherein. I worked a charm upon (or, with) my heart.

k PI

senti-nd em Mad

/WVA\

T ASH

ari-na

aru

o

nebt

1 laid a foundation in Maa [and] I made attribute every.

q

kP*l

ud-k\ua’\ an dshesh-ud em Shu

I was alone, [for] not had I spit in the form of Shu,

an

not

310

THE CREATION

A ftVWW

‘Lr* &

k

-JU.

/VWWv

8^

tef-na

em Tefnut

an

kheper

H

had I emitted

Tefnut,1

not

existed

another

senti-nd em dbt-d tches-d

,VW/V\

o ss

24. <2=-

V-w t

dri-nef hend-d

who worked with me. I made a foundation in my heart my own,

(or, by means of my own will)

<5={v

o HI

as fit

0

i

8T1I

8T!I

hheper as fit Jchepem nu

[and] there came the multitudes which came of the things which into being of things into being came into being

iern

k

8TIII

0

1

API k

em

kht •pern

nu

mesu em

from out of the things which came of

into being

births, from out of

8TIII

? apip.t,

°

Jchepem

nu mesusen

dnuk

pv hat-d

the things which came into being

of their births.

I, even

I, had union

k l Col xxvii-1- k

em Ichefd-d taUidt-nd em

with my clenched hand, I joined myself in an with

embrace

Ml

kkaibit-d my shadow,

c — S’

i^AWA

kher-nd

I poured seed

em. re-d into my mouth

Ml

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 Tefnafc.

THE CREATION

311

<=> n

1aa^T kPel

dshesh-nd era Shu tefnet-nd

I sent forth issue in the form of Shu, I sent forth moisture

^ AWVAA

em T of nut dn dtef-d Nn

in the form of Saith my father Nu, Tefnut.

i IklMT.

satd-sen

u They make to be weak

a kfirr, 7 islsl mm flkmT

rnaa t-d em-sa-sen trher

hcnhenti

uan-sen

my eye behind them, because for double henti they proceeded

periods

er-d ein-lchet Icheper-d em neter

from me after I became from god

II in

ud neter Jchernt one gods three,

□

(2

erTkrr a

pn er-d hheper-nd em la pen had.

that is from out of [and after] I came in earth this. Were raised up myself, into being

fir

p^f

§

a-j o a

a Oil

k

XI1

/WWW CV

5. Jf

(wwv\ !_/

dref

Shu

Tdfnut

em

one nn

therefore

Shu

[and] Tefnut

in

the inert

; watery mass

& n —

wvw\ 1 1 1 1

Ik

\

n a

J] — P. . .

/■.vwsr cv

A J

71

un-sen

dmi

f

dn-sen

nd

uiaat-d

wherein they

were

brought they

to mo

my eye

kHP

^ AAWA

1 1 1

k

f\ <7>

@ O 1

r-— 1 /VW\W

1 A

It/ lot m

‘Mil

cnt-i

khet dref

sam-

•nd

fit- a

in their train. After therefore I had united my members

312

THE CREATION

rem-na

I wept

<£> n

i I i i i

her-sen

! □

her-sen Iheper reth pu em

over them, [and] came into men and from

being

i

k T,i

em maat-d

women

jJ

khnru-s

the teal’s [which] came forth from my eye, [and] it raged

kn O ^kJLP ^ T T

cr-a em k.

nevus

an-na

against me after it came [and] found [that] I had made another

d^P

P k V

em dst-s

febi-s

C*\ v/vV*

• 3

drn-nd

in its place. [I] endowed it with the power I had made.

(or, splendour) which

Pffl>r> qr d^PkTMkn

sekhenti dref dst-s em hrd-d em-khet

Having made to approach therefore its place in my face, afterwards

dref heips ta pen er teller - / Icher

therefore it ruleth earth this to its whole extent. Fall

““ko’P.T. i«flkj«,*.prr, ajit«

en at-sen da uabusen febui-nd

their moments (or, seasons) upon their plants, I endowed it

k— mmD ]

i

thet-s

I endowed it

fl k flk-kl1,

ineis amis per-na em uatm

with what it hath in it. I came forth from (or, in the plants, taken possession of the form of)

THE CREATION

313

1 O I 1 1

^ ® <=>

• W e-a

VZ7

o

ilk err,

tchetfet

nebt hheper

iie.bt

dm-sen

creeping things

all, [and] things which came into being

all

[are] in them.

iliP!± P«!

«• 1™

mix

mesu an Shu Tdfnut hand

Nut mesu an

Give birth Shu [and] Tefnut [Seb] and

Nut. Give birth

a o

O

13

3

Seb Nut

As dr Her Khent-dn-maa

Set Ast

Seb and Nut to Osiris, Horus-Khent-an-maati,

Set, Isis,

k

r :sk$

1

D

HkP,™

Nebt-het era

khat ud eni-sa

ud

dm-sen

Nephthys from

the womb, one after the other

of them,

Wi p;t.

O | 1 | 1 1 1 JPQs, 1

□

/WWW

mes-sen dsht-sen era 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. ck;

<=> i

/vww <^> n

o © ll

f? G JiS i

?

Shat

cut rekh

Jcheperu

nn Iia

The Book

of knowing

the evolutions

of Ra

P

D a$k 2^ i1 i

setcher

Apep

tehettu

Neb-er-tcher

tchet-f

[and] of over-

■ Apep.

The words of Neb-er-tcher.

He says : —

throwing

314

THE CREATION

BTiai

Meper-d Icheper kheperu

u I was (or, the creator of what came became) into being.

0T— k

khepern-lc\j<~\d em I came into being in

02Mi — 0W k ®®”

kheperu en Eheperd kheper em sep tepi

the forms of lvhepera coming into being in primeval time.

02®$

k 021$

kheper-kud

em kheperu

I came into

in the forms

being

02

0TJ$i

kheper

kheperu

the creator of what came into being,

“*■“ 02M 02#$

en Kheperd kheper-d

of Kliepera. I was (or,

became)

pu en pa-ad

that is to say, I produced myself

du pautet from the primeval matter

dru-nd pa-ad

[which] I made. I produced myself

em pautet

from primeval matter.

pa ren-d Amdres

Mv name is Osiris,

pautet pautit dri-d mertu-d

the primeval matter of primeval matter. I have done my will

O

wbt

all

□

I 51 WMW

am ta

a

I

W— ,

a

pen usekht-nd dm - /

in earth this, [and] I have spread abroad in it ;

tJws-nd I raised up

THE CREATION

315

S4.Tt

8 ™ API I1

1 1 1 AAAAAA

tet-d

udu-kud

an mes-sen an

my hand.

I was alone ;

not born [were] they. Not

n ran ^

•Idd^ 1

k hi

•jl. a. n

WWW ^ 1 51

k^-°J

dshesh-na

em Sh u

a« taf-nd

m Tdfnut

had I spit in the form of Shu, not had I emitted

Tefnut

A ftV.VA

h — 1

\ 3

□

<5

an-nd

re-d

tches-d ren-d

pu

I brought [into]

my mouth

my own my name,

that is to say,

IVVfil

114^

23- T

k

hekau

dunk

pu kl icper - nd

em

a word of power

, and I, even I, came into being

in the form

8TMI

8««l

k8~Mi -

kheperu

kheper-kud

m kheperu eu Khepera

of things which

and I came

in the forms of Khepera.

came into being,

into being

{1$ , w ,

k k

Jk-fkSI

khcper-nd

em

pautti

kheper

I came into being from the primeval matter, coming into being

rM mi k

dshi kheperu- em

[in] multitudes of forms from

© — 0 i I

tep-d

the beginning.

.JU.

an

Not

&

P3

existed

8TMi iL

kheperu nebt em ta pen created things any in land this;

I

dri-nd L made

an

whatsoever was made

316

THE CREATION

=> 24. = ™

nebt w««-£[wd] an kheper Id en dru^nef

everything. I was alone, not existed [any other] who worked

a k j

crzj

hend-d em bet

with me in place

□

<2

w

pm

that ;

%> i

ami em ha

therein by means of divine soul

firm

art- a, hheperu-d

I made what I made

w

□

w

VAW

I

pui thes-nd

that [which] I raised up

4kJL k

:i k 44

/WWV\

amt

em

Nu

em

enen

an

therein out of Nu (i.e., the primeval from a state of not

abyss of water) inertness,

-*kJLT J’cA,

w

qemi-na found I

bet

dha-nd

arm

khut-nd

a place whereon I could stand. I worked with the

spirit [which] was

k

db-d

/www

^ w

® 25- T kT $

w

m

em

w $

senti - nd em hrd-d dri-nd art

in my heart, I laid a foundation before me, I made whatsoever

was made

37 +02. <3

’ rs® T k ?i A

nebt udu-k[ud~\ aenti-nd em db-d qemam-nd all. I was alone, I laid a foundation in my heart, I made

WiTMi T’i ®Tl!i ?

hi kheperu dsht kheperu nu Kheperd.

other things which and manifold were the things of Khepera came into being, which came into being

THE CREATION

317

er jLftPi p.t. k

i 1 1 1 1

Icheper an mem-sen em Icheperu vu mesu-sen Came into what they gave out of the creations of their offspring.

being

birth to

dnulc pu dshesh-nd em Shu taf-nd

I, even I, spat in the form of Shu, [and] I emitted

& '

klisil “■

em Tafnnt kheper-nd em neter nd neter khemt Tefuut, [and] I became from god one gods three,

® Wc^TUXiMi J^i s

pu er-d kheperiut em ta pen

that is to say, from myself two gods came into being on earth this.

A — 0 o

had dref Shu Tdfnvt- em Xu

Were raised up therefore Shu and Tefnut in Nu (i.e., the

primeval watery abyss)

jiirrjk,

unen-sen amt

i jh*t »-i);

an maat-a

au-na

wherein they were. Behold, my eye brought to me they

kn iMm flVTPrr.

em-lchet henti uav-sen er-d

in the train of a lienti period, they proceeded from me.

TTkrJia ^.T.

sam-nd em at-d per-sen ami tches-d

I collected my members, they came forth from myself

ami tches-d

em-Jchet

after

318

THE CREATION

(fl

k

WIT

hat-nd

em

khefcl-d

i-nd

I had union

with

my

clenched hand,

came to me (?)

?i9

k

<=» jS <=> <t £L

i

k

db-d

cm

fet-d

aaaa

Icher em

my heart (or, will)

out of my hand. The seed

[which] fell into

r<?-« dshesh-nd em Shu taf-nd

my mouth, I spat in the form of Shu, I emitted water

k

0<=>T

k

*o2- 1 fl

u

cm

Tdfuut

kheper-nd

em neter

ad

netcru

in the form of Tefnut,

I became

from [being] god one

gods

i i i

□

©

• i

IAA\

k

Jchemt

jm

er-d

hheperiut

cm

three.

that is to say,

from myself

two gods came into being on

€==r?r=3

1 3S

□

AWwSA

i

ta

pen

lidd

•

dref

Shu Tdfnut

earth

this. Were raised up

therefore

Shu and Tefnut

k

/ww/ c\

essii

n a w i

£££ 1 1 1 1 S |-“~1

/MW

em

Nu

Unen~Sen

ami

from out of Nu (i.e., the inert wherein they were,

primeval watery abyss)

Saith

i

The paragraph beginning Q ’ and ending with

<vw*vi o I lU

is repeated, apparently by inadvertence, in tho papyrus.

THE CREATION

310

dtef-d Nu ati-sen

my father Nu, “They cover

i i i t=> i

& kfp;

ati-sen maat-d em-sa sen

Nu, “They covered up my eye after them [or, made weak]

uabu sep sen hentiu

[with] bushes, twice, for hen periods.

hentiu

ua bn

Vegetation

Will

hefi em Rem em rem-tk

and reptiles [came] from the god Hern, from the tears

[falling] from me.

T$li

lea en maat-d klieper ret

Cried my eye, came into being mankind.

«T 1® k

en /WWVN

pu tebu-nd sa em Ichut I endowed it with power.

maru-nes er-a It raged at me

kn mi-

em-khet i-s

ret em khennu en dst-s

after it came [finding] another growth within its place.

K ^ I1 Q« flk’J«.W T

Tcher en ten-tens du uabu-s her

Fell its vigorous power upon its bushes, upon

flkM, AJ^T ilk Pr3fl Mkl>

uabu tebui-nd dm se-ndd dm-s

the bushes [which] I placed there to make adornment in it.

uabu-s

320

THE CREATION

3 !

khenti dref dst-s hrd-d heq-nes ta tcher - f

Ruling therefore [on] its seat in my face it ruleth the whole earth.

jip-MwAa ft

me sen Shu Tdfnut Nv.t visa/ Ilevu-lchenti-dn-maati Gave birth Shu [and] Tefnut to Nut, Osiris, Heru-khenti-an-maati,

P

cm

Set

Set,

(|

/\A*>AA

(in

API P.T.

o

Ast Nebt-het an inesn-sen

Isis, Nephthys, [and] behold, their children

kkIKIPT e

1 r I

i G. 1

i ^ n

qemam-sen they create

kheperu

beings

I 31

dsht em tn.

manifold in earth

□

/WWVv

! 0 I I

e

•pen em kheperu nv mesu em

this from the beings of children, from

k 8TJ«9I 0

kheperu nv, of

APIP.T, l^P.‘T

mesu-sen

their children.

4-fcl P.T,

kheft-sen

their enemies,

shent-sen They invoke

i

•d

my name,

A.VWSA

ren~d

the beings

PJ>^PT,

sekhry-sen

they overthrow

PT. IV ^

| AA/WVA

qemam-sen they create

hekau en

words of power for

□ □

VI

ddui

sekher Apep du-f her sau her the overthrow of Apep, who is to be bound by the two hands

THE CREATION

321

en Aker dn un ddui - f cut, un retui -f

of Aker, not may be his two hands, not may be his two feet,

AAAAAA

U

.sated - f

eu

dst ud md

hu Rd

setchcbu-f

may he be chained

to

one place even as

inflicteth Ra

his blows

A (D ^ amma

1<=“=i J^=w.

(j©

p ® ~ e V

t

utu-nef

du

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sali-f

pui tu

decreed for him.

He

is overthrown on

his back

wicked,

g ^ 1 ®

□ © * a I

senpu hrd-f her slit is his face for

Q® fw’- a MU

du sati - / pui upon his back

•< H=»-

dri-nef meni sn

what he hath done, and he remaineth

I

i

hi

evil.

Y

( 322 )

CHAPTER IX

HA, THE SUN-GOT), AND HIS FORMS

RV is the name which was given by the Egyptians of the dynastic 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 .‘is 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 ra 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 God Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth and of all things therein. The worship of the sun in Egypt is extremely ancient and appears to have been universal ; at a very early period adoration of him was associated with that of the hawk-god Hem, 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 ol the hawk-god

Heru, | ^ ^ j^, is the oldest in Egypt, and, strictly speaking,

he ‘should have been discussed before Ra, but as Ra and the personifications of his various forms are the greatest of the gods of the Egyptians, ho 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 j on his head he wears his symbol, to, i.e., the disk of the sun encircled by

BOATS OF THE SUN

the serpent Jchut, ® j^, 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, j, 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 ” 1 it was equivalent to saying that it had existed for ever.

The Egyptians, knowing that the sun was a fire, found a difficulty in 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,

n — c j i.e., “ becoming strong,” and the name of

the evening boat was Seinktet, , i.e., “ becoming

weak ” ; these are appropriate names for the rising and the setting sun.2 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 sun 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 lie changed his

See Unas. 1. 202.

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, ^ Jj and Ant, respectively.1 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 endeavoured to obstruct the passage of his boat.

Chief among such were the serpent Apep, and

Sebau, jl Jj (j ^ ■ii&hh, and Nak, ^ (J ami 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 Boole 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 , hath torn open thy breast, the

“ Scorpion goddess, e|p! » 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, 0 Apep,

1 Book of the Dead. (Papyrus of Aru\ pi. 1, line 15.)

See the Vocabulary to my Chapters of Coming Forth by Day , under Apep (p. 61).

RA AND APEP

325

“ thou Enemy of Ra.” A little further on the deceased says : “ T “ have brought fetters to thee, 0 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 hath overthrown him, and the god Hertit

“ (1 | ^ !sfl) Put him in chains. 0 Apep, thou

li Enemy of Ra, thou slialt never partake of the delights of love, “ thou shalt never fulfil thy desire ! He niakcth thee to go back, “ 0 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 where 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 ( jf)) ^ia^1 Passed sentence of doom

“ upon thee.”

From the “ Books of Overthrowing Apep,” 1 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. (>. 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 A pep’s confederates, and everything which formed parts of him and of them, i.e., their shadows, souls, doubles, and spirits, were to be

1 »Soo Archacolofjia , vol. lii. (The Pajiyrus of Neat - Am* u ) .

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 Bit, lie 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. Nesiit. 2. Tutu. 3. Hau-hra. 4. Hemhemti. 5. Qettu. 6. Qerneru. 7. Iubani.

8. A mam. 3. Hem-taiu. 10. Saatet-ta. 11. Khermuti. 12.

Kenememti. 13. Sheta. 14. Serem-taui. 15. Sekjiem-hra. 16. Uim. 17. Ivarau-anememti. 18. Kheskf-rra. 19. Seba-ent-

seba. 20. Khak-ab. 21. Khan-ru …. uaa. 22. Nai. 23.

Am. 24. Turrupa(?) 25. Iubau. 26. Uai. 27. Kiiarubu, the FOUR TIMES WICKED. 28. SaU. 29. BeTESHU.1

In the Egyptian texts we have at present no account of the

‘ l

w

f^- “>-n\T^7Z- " kk:^- «•“

o

\

kA^- 12!

“•^.^‘akk

<=> <?. jba

23- k 24-

am**-

»■ &s © . See my papor in Archaeologia f vol. Hi., 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 version1 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. Mat’d uk 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 spell, which, however, had no effect, for Marduk caught her in his net, and drove the winds which he had with him

a

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 qerpent, in each undulation of which a knife is stuck.

1 See King,%J Babylonian linlujiun, p. 71 ff.

328 THE CITY OF THE SUN

■tofcfch; 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,” ^ t=5 ^ cjcjcj ;

she is also called “ Mistress of Heliopolis.” Her full name was, perhaps, Rat-taiut, ^ ^ ^f|, 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 ; 1 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 known as Annu meht, i.e., Annu of the North, to distinguish it from Aunu 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 R,i had settled themselves there, and that they had obtained great power at that remote period. The

1 See LanzoiK-, op. cit. , pi. 186, Nob. 1-4.

The Q000E8S RAT.

HA WORSHIP

329

evidence derived from the Westcar Papyrus 1 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 : — l. 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,

of the North and South,

4. A name as king

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 Ivakaa were the sons of the god Ra by Rut-tetet, the wife of a priest of the god Ra of Sakhabu,

[q] i •*-=■ Jj ^ these were brought into the world by the

goddesses Isis, Nephthys, Meskhenet, and Heqct, 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 afiirms that lia 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 Ha flowing in his veins, or to hold it because he was connected with Ra by marriage. The bas-reliefs of Queen II atshepset at Dor al-Bahari, and those of Amcn-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- lift 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 bom to her. When the child was born it

1 See Ernmn, West cur Papyrus, pi. ix. IT.

330

HA 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

mastaba, i.e., “bench,” and of the pyramid, /\ , were built in honour of the god ; 1 but, according to Prof. Sethc, the custom of building such only lasted for about one hundred year’s, 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 supei’sede 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 Tern, who was worshipped there in a special temple, but they united his attributes

to those of Ra. and formed the double god lla-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 Xllth and the XXth Dynasties we hear little of Heliopolis, but

1 See an interesting paper on this subject by Sethe in Aegyptinclic Zeitschrift , 1889, p« Ill If. (Die HeUujthumer ties i?o4 im alien Reich).

AMEN-RA - HERU - KHUTI.

AMEN-RA - (Harmachis).

HELIOPOLIS

331

a further restoration of the temple buildings took place under Eameses 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 ^ fV\ © , 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 1 this “ Lake” is clearly the fountain of the sun which we have already mentioned.

At a place called Shai-qa-em-Annu 2 he “ made great offerings “ at Sha-qa-em-Amen to Ra at sunrise, viz., white oxen, milk, anti “ 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 kher heh priest, ^ ® , “ offered up prayer on behalf of the king, tliat 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,3 QJ JJ ^ t_]Cj. He took the flowers and went “ up the steps [leading to] the ‘ great tabernacle,’ p czzd ,

“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 Tem (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

/WWW WWW QQQ

yVWVAA AWW^

‘vvvvv’ WWW

AAAAAA Q /WWW

^ (Stele of Pianklii, 1. 102).

3 I.c.t the shrine or holy of holies of the temple of K:>

— 0 I

HELIOPOLIS

332

“ 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-Khcpera, ^ I] ^ prince of Annu.”

From the above it is certain that the sacred boats of 11a. were

P

kept in a sort of wooden tabernacle with two doors, jf^§ , 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 11a. The text says that the tabernacle,

^ cmj, 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,

— — /vwwv A

” — q (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 Hook of the Dead this

high ground is called “ Qaqa in Khemennu,” a A ° f \ n q ^ ©. 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 Rsi 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. 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 people. 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 wore 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 Mew 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, whicli 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,1 where 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 wei’e 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

1 Mi * i & ( Book of the Dead , exxv. 19).

The God KHEPERA seated in his Boat.

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 Ra 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 following hymns are taken from the Papyri of Tlunefer, and Aui, and Neklit1 : —

“ Homage to thee, 0 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 Mailt “ 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 off. 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, 3<>.

336

HYMNS TO RA

“ all attributes] who eomest forth from the sky. Ra is he whose “word when uttered must come to pass. 0 thou divine Youth, “thou heir of everlastingness, thou self-begotten one, thou who “didst give thyself birth! 0 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, 0 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, O Heru-kliuti, who art the god “ Ivhepera, 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 lung 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 1 “ 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, 0 my lord, this hast thou ordained “ for me.

“ Homage to thee, 0 thou who risest in the horizon as Rii, “thou rcstest 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 “ llii [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, “ 0 thou who art mightier than the gods. A hymn of praise to “ thee, 0 thou who risest like 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 niakest strong thy Double with divine foods. 0 thou “ mighty one of victories, thou who art the Power of Powers, who

• dost make strong thy throne against evil fiends ; who art glorious z

HYMN TO RA

‘Wb

“ 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 Aui, sheet 20 f.)

“ Homage to thee, 0 thou glorious being, thou who art “ dowered with all attributes, 0 Tem-Heru-khuti, when thou risest “ in the horizon of heaven, a cry of jov cometh forth to thee from “the mouth of all peoples. 0 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. O Rii, thou who art Heru- “khuti, the divine man-child, the heir of eternity, self-begotten “and self-bom, 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 ordereth “ thy members. O 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

33ff

“made strong each day by thy mother Nut. Thou passest “ through the heights of heaven, thy heart swell eth 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. 11a liveth by Mafit 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, 0 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 Nekht, sheet 21.)

Even more instructive, however, than these are the Seventy- five Praises of Ra. which are found inscribed on the walls of royal tombs of the XIXth and XXtli Dynasties at Thebes. In these wc 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, 0 Ra, exalted Sekhem,1 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 Taint

“ C==f^ jfj, i.e., the universal god).

2. “ Praise be to thee, 0 Ra, exalted Sekhem, thou creative force

“ <=> |j(j , who spreadest. out thy wings, who restest in

“ the Tuat, who makest the created things which come forth “ from his divine limbs.

“ Praise be to thee, 0 Ra, exalted Sekhem, Ta-thenen, begetter “ of his gods. Thou art he wlio protecteth what is in him, and “ thou makest thy creations as Governer of thy Circle.

“ Praise be to thee, 0 Ra, exalted Sekhem, looker on the “ earth, and brightener of Amenti. Thou art he whose forms

1 Literally, “ Power.”

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PRAISES OF RA

are liis own creations, and thou makest thy “ creations in thy Great Disk.

5. “ Praise he to thee, 0 Ra, exalted Sekliem, the Word-soul,

“ that resteth on his high place. Thou art he who pro- “ tecteth thy hidden spirits j), and they have form

“ in thee.

6. “ Praise be to thee, 0 Ra, exalted Sekhem, mighty one, bold oi “ face, the knitter together of his body. Thou art he who “ gatheretli together thy gods when thou goest into thy hidden “ Circle.

7. “ Praise be to thee, 0 Ra, exalted Sekhem. Thou dost call to “ thine Eye, 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, 0 Ra, exalted Sekhem, destroyer of thy “ enemies ; thou art he who doth decree destruction for the

“dead

9. “ Praise be to thee, 0 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, O Ra, exalted Sekhem, the illuminer “ of bodies in the horizons ; thou art he who cntereth into “ his Circle.

11. “ Praise be to thee, 0 Ra, exalted Sekhem, support

“ of the Circles of Ament ; thou art indeed the body of Temu

“(w t^d).

12. “ Praise be to thee, 0 Ra, exalted Sekhem, the hidden support

“ of Anpu ((j D ^ ) ; thou art indeed the body of

“ Khepera (^ <=> (j jfj) .

13. “Praise be to thee, 0 Ra, exalted Sekhem, whose duration of “ life is greater than that of her whose forms are hidden ;

“ thou art indeed the bodies of Shu (cso

14. “ Praise be to thee, 0 Ra, exalted Sekhem, the guide

341

THE PRAISES OF? M

“ (0 0 qfl * selri) of Ra to his members ; thou art indeed the “ bodies of Tefnut (x_ ^ JJj .

15. “ Praise be to thee, 0 Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou dost make “ to be abundant the things which are of Ra in their seasons,

and thou art indeed Seb Jj .

16. “ Praise be to thee, 0 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, 0 Ra, exalted Sekhem, the lord who “ advancest ; thou art indeed Isis (]j ^ $$}) •

18. “ Praise be to thee, 0 Ra, exalted Sekhem, whose head “ shineth more than the things which are in front of him ;

“ thou art indeed the bodies of Nephthys .

19. “ Praise be to thee, O Ra, exalted Sekhem, united is he in

“ members, One, who gatlicreth together all seed ; thou art “ indeed the bodies of Horns •

20. (i Praise be to thee, 0 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, O Ra, exalted Sekhem, the avenger of Nu

“ who cometh forth from wliat is in him ; thou art indeed the “ bodies of the god Remi {<==> !](] .

22. “ Praise be to thee, 0 Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou art the two “ Uraei who bear their two feathers [on their heads]; thou art

u indeed the bodies of the god II uaaiti \ £§)*

23. “ Praise be to thee, 0 Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou goest in “ and comest out and thou coinest out and goest in to thy “ hidden Circle, and thou art indeed the bodies of Aatu

24. “ Praise be to thee, 0 Ra, exalted Sekhem, the Soul who “ departeth at his appointed time ; thou art indeed the bodies

“ of Nethert «=> ~).

25. “ Praise be to thee, 0 lla, exalted Sekhem, who standeth up,

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THE PRAISES OF RA

“ the Soul One, who avengeth his children ; thou art indeed “ the bodies of Netuti ^ ^).

26. “ Praise be to thee, 0 Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou raisest thy “ head and thou makest bold thy brow, thou ram, mightiest “ of created things.

27. “ Praise be to thee, 0 Ra, exalted Sekhem, the light of Shu at

“the head of Akert ((j fv^); thou art indeed the bodies

“ of .Ament ((j

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28. “ Praise be to thee, 0 Ra, exalted Sekhem, the soul that “ seeth, the governor of Ament ; thou art indeed the bodies

“of the double Circle J).

29. “ Praise be to thee, 0 Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou art “ the Soul that mourneth, and the god that crieth

“ (<=> ^ lj(] thou art indeed the bodies of

“ Aakebi j M In si)-

30. “ Praise be to thee, 0 Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou makest thy “ hand to pass and praisest thine Eye, and thou art indeed

ii m e5)*

“ the bodies of the god of hidden limbs ([j

31. “ Praise be to thee, 0 Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou art the Soul “exalted in the double hidden place thou art

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“ indeed Khenti-Amenti ^ ^ (J

32. “ Praise be to thee, 0 Ra, exalted Sekhem, of manifold “ creations in the holy house ; thou art indeed the bodies of

“ the god Kheprer ^

33. “ Praise be to thee, O Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou placest “ thine enemies in their strong fetters, and thou art indeed the

“ bodies of Mati £| ^ ^ )•

34. “ Praise be to thee, 0 Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou givest forth “ light in the hidden place, and thou art the bodies of the god

. “ of generation (“ ^ ^ ).

35. “ Praise be to thee, 0 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 ^

36. “ Praise be to thee, O Ka, 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

“ god Serqi (<> ()() | $ ).

37. “Praise be to thee, 0 Rfi, exalted Sekhem, Hidden-face

Seshem-Nethert CkilSo)! thou

“ art indeed the bodies of Sliai (|(| 23

38. “ Praise be to thee, O Rii, exalted Sekhem, lord of might ; “ thou embracest the Tuat and thou art indeed the bodies of

“ Sekhen-Ba || fe ^ |).

39. “ Praise be to thee, 0 Rii, exalted Sekhem ; thou hidest thy “ body in that which is within thee, and thou art indeed the

“ bodies of Amen-kUat (1] = | ^ ^ £ i s3)-

40. “ Praise be to thee, 0 Rii, exalted Sekhem, more strong of “ heart than those who are in his following ; thou scndest fire “ in the house of destruction, and thou art indeed the bodies

“ of the Fire-god Rekhi | (j[j

41 . “ Praise be to thee, 0 Rii, 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

42. “ Praise be to thee, O Ra, exalted Sekhem, Bua-tep {]

“ ® ^), governor of his Eye; then sendest forth light into “ the hidden place, and thou art indeed the body of Shepi “(*□!)!) ^)-

43. “ Praise be to thee, 0 Rii, exalted Sekhem, Temt-hiitu,

“ stablisher of Amta ((J -|J- j l,= ; thou art indeed the bodies

“ of Temt-hatu

44. “ Praise be to thee, 0 Ra, exalted Sekhem, creator of hidden

344

THE PRAISES OF RA

“ things, generator of bodies ; thou art indeed the bodies of

the god Seshetai (gag [|(j ^).

45. “ Praise be to thee, O 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 ^

46. “ Praise be to thee, 0 Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thy limbs rejoice

“ when they see thy body, 0 Uash-Ba L~^~l

“ when thou enterest thy body, and thou art indeed the bodies

“ofaaid^l).

47. “ Praise be to thee, 0 Ra, exalted Sekhem, aged one of the

“pupil ^chat, Bai ^ ’ thou

“ makest full thy splendour, and thou art indeed the bodies of

c:m-

48. “ Praise be to thee, 0 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

ii

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49. “ Praise be to thee, 0 Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou art the Soul “ who inovest onwards, and thou hastenest thy steps, and

“ thou art indeed the bodies of Akhpa ((j ® (j ^fj).

50. “ Praise be to thee, 0 Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou sendest “ forth thy stars and thou illuminest the darkness in the “ Circles of those whose forms are hidden, and thou art indeed

“ the god IJetchiu w ^ ^).

51. “Praise be to thee, 0 Ra, exalted Sekhem; thou art the “ maker of the Circles, thou makest bodies to come into being “ by thine own creative vigour. Thou, O Ra, hast created “ the things which exist, and the things which do not exist,

“the dead (^j)? and the gods, and the spirits; thou art

“ indeed the body that maketh Khati ® ^)-t° come

“ into being.

THE PRAISES OF RA

345

52. “ Praise be to thee, 0 Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou art the “doubly hidden and secret god (‘J^| ® [} (j(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

“ Ameni (f) = ()^).

53. “ Praise be to thee, 0 Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou art TTben-

“ An J \ $5? | £?)) of ^ment, and the light of the

“ lock of hair on thee . . . . ; thou art indeed the bodies of “ the god Uben.

54. “ Praise be to thee, 0 lia, 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

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it

art indeed the bodies of Then-aru

Praise be to thee, 0 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

MJ)-

“ Praise be to thee, 0 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 tj ^ jj).

57. “ Praise be to thee, 0 Ra, exalted Sekhem; when thou fillest “ thine eye, and speakest to the pupil thereof, the divine dead “ bodies shed tears ; thou art indeed the bodies of Metu-

“khut.f (|^|

58. “ Praise be to thee, 0 lla, 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 ^ ^

59. “ Praise be to thee, 0 Ra, exalted Sekhem, exalted of “ Soul ; thou destroyest thine enemies, thou sendest fire on

“ the wicked, and thou art the bodies of Qa-Ba

346

THE PRAISES OF RA

60. “ Praise be to thee, 0 Ra, exalted Sekhem, Auaiu

“ (^) ^ ^ S^)’ w^° h^est hi 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, 0 Ra, exalted Sekhem, Oldest one “ (*== \ $), Great one, Governor of the Tuat, Creating

“one thou didst create the two Setchet

“ ^ ^), and thou art indeed the bodies of the two

“ Setchet «orls (— 2^ §>$ $)■

62. “ Praise be to thee, 0 Ra, exalted Sekhem, Mighty One of “ joumeyings ; thou orderest thy steps by Mailt, thou art the “ Soul that doetli good to the body, thou art Senk-hra

«‘(=q* i.e.. Face of Light), and thou art indeed the “ bodies of Senk-hra.

63. “ Praise be to thee, 0 Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou dost protect “ (or, avenge) thy body, and thou dost hold the balance

“ [among] the gods as the hidden Ama c=l (j ^), [and]

“as Am-ta ([) -[[- aud thou art indeed the bodies of

“ the double god Ama- Anita £=. ^ l| -]]- *=**=»

64. “ Praise be to thee, 0 Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou art the lord “ of the fetters of thine enemies, the One, the Prince of the

“Apes 0 ^ ^1 !)’ an<^ thou art *n^eed the bodies of

“ Antetu (() ^ jf|).

65. “ Praise be to thee, O Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou sendest “ forth flames into thy furnaces ^ (j|j j), and thou “cuttest off the heads of those who are to be destroyed

“ ^ jJ -frrg (j(J ^ ^ j), and thou art indeed the bodies

“ of the two gods Ketuit (v^b ^ (|(j

66. “Praise be to thee, 0 Ra, exalted Sekhem; thou art {the “god of generation ^ (j(j ‘TO=a $fj)’ thou destroyest [thy] “ offspring, thou art One, thou stablishest the two lands by

THE PRAISES OF RA

347

“ [thy] spirit <=» ^ ! |)» an<^ hou ar indeed the bodies

“ of the god Ta-Thenen s=» -|**|* ^)*

67. “ Praise be to thee, 0 Rfi, exalted Sekhem ; thou stablishest “ the gods who watch the hours cn IMS) on their “standards, and who are invisible and secret, and thou art “ indeed the bodies of the Watcher gods crszi |J|J ®

68. “ Praise be to thee, 0 Rfi, exalted Sekhem ; thou art the

“double Tchent god of heaven, and the gate of

“the Tuat, and the god Besi [with] his

“ spiritual bodies ( q ^ ^ J j! j), and thou art the bodies

“ of Besi.

69. “ Praise be to thee, 0 Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou art the

“ Apes ((j 0 ^ j) , and thou art the true creative

“Power of [thy] divine attributes (-css- (j(j ^ j), and

“ thou art indeed the bodies of the Ape-god in the Tuat.

70. “ Praise be to thee, O Rfi, 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 | , s

71. “Praise be to thee, O Rfi, exalted Sekhem; thou art Nehi “ (www ^ (j|j | who bumest up thine enemies, the Fire-

“god Setcheti ^ ^), who bunieth up fetters, and

“ thou art indeed the bodies of Nehi ^ ][ (|[| ^ ^).

72. “ Praise be to thee, 0 Rfi , exalted Sekhem ; thou art the god

“of motion (cjip the god of light

“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, 0 Ra, exalted Sekhem ; thou art the lord “ of souls who art in the house of thy obelisk (JJ Jj C_J), “thou art the chief of the gods who are supreme in their

348

THE PRAISES OF RA

“districts dsDj crzi^l !), and thou art indeed

“ the god Neb-baiu | j i.e., Lord of souls).

74. “Praise be to thee, O Ra, exalted Sekhem; thou art the

“ double Sphinx-god, the Double obelisk-god (j(j

“ Jj JJ (j(j the Great God who lifteth up his

“ two Eyes, and thou art indeed the bodies of the double “ Sphinx god Huiti £§)*

75. “ Praise be to thee, O 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

“ (‘w7 ^>0^, i.e., the Lord of light).” 1

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 was 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 which 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

1 For the hieroglyphic textH from the tombs of Seti I., Seti II., and Ramoses IV., and a French translation, see Naville, La Utanie du Soldi , Leipzig, 1875.

The Goo TEMU.

TEM OF HELIOPOLIS

349

incarnation of Ra, it is easy to understand how he came to have the power to rise from the dead, and to act as the judge of the dead on behalf of his father Ra.

Tem, or Tf.mu, or Atem, 1]^

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,1 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 tho 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 the crowns of the South and North, upon his head, and he

holds , the emblem of life, in his right hand, and the sceptre, j ,

in his left. In the boat of Ra he is depicted in human form even when lla is symbolized by a disk which is being rolled 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 Avhich fall rays of light.3 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 God, 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 Tram, Soe. Lihl. Arch,, ix., p. 175.

2 Lanzone, op. cii, pi, 39fc>.

350

TEM OF HELIOPOLIS

God in human form, for we have no material for doing so ; the worship of Tern 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 Eii-Tem, © proves that his worship was wide-spread, and that the god was thought to possess attributes similar to those of I ‘a.

The Pyramid Texts show that the attributes of Temu were

a#

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.1 This passage shows that Tem was regarded as the father of the human race, and as he was also divine his power’s 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 all eternity.

There was, moreover, another aspect of Tem which gave the god a position of peculiar importance in the minds of the Egyptians,

ii’= 111 4° w

The God TEM Seated in his Boat.

RA-TEM OF HELIOPOLIS

351

i.e., he was identified not only with the god of the dead, Osiris, but also with the young Horus, the new and rising sun of the morrow. All these ideas are well expressed in a hymn to Tem which is found in the Papyrus of Mut-hetep (Brit. Mus., Xo. 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, “ O Ka-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, r^n).

“ Thy uraeus is behind thee, thy uraeus is behind thee. Homage “ to thee, O thou who art in peace ; homage to thee, 0 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 fortli through heaven, thou travellest over the earth,

“ and thou joumeyest onward. 0 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, 0 lord “ of heaven and governor of Amentet ! Thou art acknowledged “ by Isis who sceth 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, 0 Rfi-Tem ! “ I have adored thee, therefore do thou for me that which I wish. u Grant thou that I may be victorious in the presence of the “ company of the gods. Thou art beautiful, 0 Ru, in thy western “horizon of Amentet, thou lord of Maat, thou being who art “ greatly feared, and whose attributes are majestic, 0 thou who art “ greatly beloved by those who dwell in the Tuat ! Thou shinest

352

kheperA-ra-temu

“ with thy beams upon the beings that are therein perpetually, “ and tliou 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, 0 ye gods of the land of Amentet “ who make offerings and oblations unto Rii-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 Tern is addressed as “ Ra, who in thy setting art Tem-Heru-khuti “ (Tem-Harmachis), thou divine god, thou self-created being, thou “ primeval matter,” 1 from which we see that the attributes of self- creation, etc., which, strictly speaking, belonged to Khepera, were ascribed to Tern.

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.” 8 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 hero mentioned. In the time of the Middle Empire Tern 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 Book of the Bead (xvii. 5 ff.) the deceased is made to identify himself with Tern as the oldest of the gods, and he says,

“ I am Tern in rising ; I am the only One ; I came into being in “Niu. 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, Tortlenbuch, Bd. i., pi. 19.

■iFk’xk

cm i

<2 i

nr

SHRINES OF TEM

353

« It is Ra when at the beginning he rose in the city of Suten- “ lienen, 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 Kheniennu ” (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 Harmachia, s§ 004 with

Khepera, ^ <=> I) jf), 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 appeal’s to have been in the Eighth

ffY’ A

Nome of Lower Egypt/ v^, Nefer Abt, the Heroopolites of

’ TH IT-

-U H I «»■ ■

the Greeks), at the place which is called both Thuket, r ^ q , and

Pa-Atemt, L~(~J (| ^ ^ , 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,1 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 tlxe temple buildings was

called Pa-Qerhet,2 L"i_J i ^ ’ or ^st-qerhet, jj ^ ,

that is, “the house of the snake-god Qorhet,” 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 j».

a a

3 This is the Pi-lialriroth of the Bible.

354

I US A ASET AND NEBT-IjlETET

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 Tem 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 anc* ^EBT'9ETEP>

and they 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.1 * Iusaaset, the Sawo-is of Plutarch, is called the “mistress of Annu,” and the “ Eye of Ha,”

^3Z>\ and she is regarded as the mother, and wife, and daughter

of Tem according to the requirements of the texts ; 3 as the wife of Tem she is said to be the mother of Shu and Tefnut. She is

depicted 3 in the form of a woman who holds the sceptre, J, in her right hand, and “ life,” in her left ; on her head she weal’s 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,”

A^-A <>-==■ ~|g, and was the wife of Tem-Heru-khuti. The goddess Nebt-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, Iusaaset-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, and i.ieru-sma-taui, ^ the head

of the triad of Heroopolis. As local forms of the god Tem- 1 la he enumerates Khnernu in Elephantine, Khnemu-H eru-sliefit in Heracleopolis Magna, and Khnemu-Ba-neb-Tettet in Mcndes.

1 fj ‘mat Harris Papyrus, sheet i., line 4.

Lanzoue, op. cifc., pi. 51.

3 Brngseh, Religion, p. 284.

• Op. cit., p. 290.

The Qoooess IUSASET.

KHEPERA

355

K HEP ERA

The third form of Ra, the Sun-god, ivas Khepera kheper- tchesef, ^ <=> (J ^ ^ <=* , i.e., 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 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 ■¥•, “ life.” 1 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 Scarah&idae (Coprophagi), of which the Scarahueus surer is the type. These insects compose a very numerous group of dung-feeding Lamellicoms, 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

1 Ltvnzone, op. cit., pi. 3-0.

356

kheperA

“ beetle upon the empty throne in the boat of 11a.” 1 According to Latreille 2 it was the species of a fine green colour ( Ateuckus 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

A curious view was held by the ancient writers Aelian,3

Porphyry,4 and Horapollo 5 to the effect that beetles were all males (KdvBapos yds ire U apfav), and that as there were no females among them, the males were, like the Sun-god lla, 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

^ ShiV eee

“jf- O (Unaa, 1. 477)

2 Cailliaud, Voyage, tom. ii., p. 311. 3 De Nat . Animal x. 15.

4 ])e Abstincntia, iv. 9. 6 Ed. Lcemans, p. II.

Ck

THE FATHER OF THE GODS

;iov

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,” ^ ejCjCj, and in the Boole 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 Ileru-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); “ Ileru-khuti-Temu-H eru- Kliepera ” (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 Nil, 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 Jin. 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 lxiv. of the Book 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 Kliemennn.

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 anti unguent, and thou shalt recite over it the following “words of power.” The “words of power” which follow this direction form Chapter xxx a. 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 calls the scarab “ his double ” (ka). Another Rubric makes the lxivth 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 HA

IN the 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 hold 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 bo 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.1 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 hlwskkhar wood.’ [The Worm said], * What “ ‘ are thy dry bones to me ? Or, what is thy khashkhav 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,

1 Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets, part xvii., pi. 50 ; and see R. 0. v-V. rhompson, The Devils and Evil Spirits of Babylonia, vol. i., Introduction, at the end. ; ’ j

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, O sick man, shalt thou say the following words, “ ‘ O Worm, may Ea 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 Ea the right to make teeth decay and to suck the blood of the gums.

The Egyptian texts which were written for magical purposes have preserved for us some very curious and interesting myths of Ea, and among these may be quoted the following stoiy about him and the goddess Isis.1 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 Ea in heaven and upon earth ? ’ And

1 The hieratic text will be found in Pleyte and Bossi, Le Papyrus de Turin, 1809- 1876; pll. 31*37, and 131-138; and a transcript into hieroglyphics with a transliteration and translation in my First Steps in Egyptian , 1893, pp. 241-256. A French translation by Lefcbure was published in Ary. Zeit 1883, pp. 27 B. ; and for English renderings see iny 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, 0 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 tnis. 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 Homs: 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 through i( ‘ 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 u * 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 life ; for “ her talismans vanquish the pains of sickness, and her words make ** to live again the throats of those who are dead. And she spake, “ saying, * What hath come to pass, 0 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 against “ ‘ 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 sec the sky, and the sweat “ ‘ rusheth to my face even as in the time of summer.’ Then said “ Isis unto Ra, * O 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 thv “ * name. 0 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 Ilorus, 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. O Eye of Horus, go forth from the god, and “ * shine outside his mouth. It is I who work, 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 own name.” The above text was to be recited over figures of Temu, “ the Bull 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 ; 1 the text of this,

1 For tho hieroglyphic text see Lefebure, Tomhoan de Seti I., part iv., pH. 15- ,18; Brngsch, Die nene Weltordnung, Berlin, 1881; Naville in Tram. Soe. Bibl. Arch., iv., pp. 1 ff. ; viii., pp. 412 ff. ; Bergmann, Hist. Inschri/t., 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 well 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 were 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 “ 1 their hearts. Come thou with them to the Great House, and “ * let them declare their ‘plans, for I* will go forth from Nu unto “ f 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 spake 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, * O thou firstborn, god, from whom I came into being, 0 “ ‘ 7° gods [my] ancestors, behold ye what mankind is doing, they “ * who were created by mine Eye 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 !

365

THE SUN-GOD RA

“ ‘ Their hearts are afraid because of what* they have said.’ “ ‘ Then the gods spake before his Majesty, saying, * Make “ 1 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 Rii, 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 mandrakes, and the Majesty of this god “ gave them to Sekliet who [dwelletli] in Annu (Heliopolis) to “ crush. And behold, when the women 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 Soutli 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, “ 1 but I must protect mankind against her.’ And Ila 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, Rii, 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 filled 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 44 this goddess, [saying] ‘ Come, come in peace, 0 fair and gracious “‘goddess;’ [and henceforth] there were young and beautiful “ women in the city of Amen.1 Then the Majesty of Rii 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 Rii. “ And the Majesty of Rii spake unto this goddess, [saying], “ 4 Behold, the pain of the burning heat of sickness hath come “ 4 upon me ; whence cometh [this] pain ? ’ Then the Majesty of 44 Ra said, 4 1 am alone, but my heart hath become exceedingly 44 4 weary of being with them (i.e., with men) ; I have slain [some 44 4 of] them, but there is a remnant of worthless ones, and the 44 4 destruction which I wrought among them was not commensurate 44 4 with my power.’ And the gods who were in his train said 44 [unto him], 4 Tarry not in thy weariness, for thy might is in 44 4 proportion to thine own will.’ Then the Majesty of this god 44 said unto the Majesty of Nu, 4 For the first time my limbs have 44 4 lost their power, and I will never permit this thing to happen 44 4 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

Here there is a pun on the appellation of the goddess Arnit 1 1

and on the name of the city Amen, © , i.e., the capita) of the nome.

Ament, ■where the goddess Hathor was worshipped. The city is also called

n i iAA a . . . „

gj, and the “city of Apis.

THE SUN-GOD HA

367

to the scattered words ; according to the late Dr. Brugsch,1 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 Rii 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 Avished 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 Avent forth armed Avitli boAvs and spears in order to do battle Avith the enemies of Rii, and as soon as the god suav this he said to them, “Your sins are “ forgiven you, for the sacrificial slaughters Avhich ye have made “ have done aAvay Avith the murders [which mine enemies have “ committed].” Then Ra raised himself from the back of the goddess Nut into the sky, Avhere he made for himself a kingdom in Avhich all people Avere to be assembled. Finally he ordered a

Field to come into being, D DUD , hetejt sekhet, and straight-

Avay the Field of Hetep (“ Peace ”), \ j) j| ( Sek/t et-hete p,2 came into being, and the Majesty of the god said, “I Avill plant

dardt-dy literally, I Avill make to groAv)

“ green herbs therein,” and straightAvay there came into being Sekhet-aaru,3 4 (j ^ <=> ^ YJ ®, , “and I will plenish

“ it with objects Avhich sparkle,1 that is to say AArith 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 Weltordnuiuj nach Vernichtumj des suadiyen Menscliengeschlcchle von H. Brngscli, Berlin, 1881, p. 23.

2 Note the jingle in the words sekhet anil hetejK

8 Note the play ou the verbal dara(-u and the noun dam.

4 Note the jingle in ® i| ! hhet , 11 objects,” and (I © (j © ^ I 4* things which sparkle.” ^ U ’ ‘

The Cow-froililusA Nut.

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.1

When the narrative recommences (line 56) wc are told that the Majesty of the god lla commanded Thoth to give the order

that the god Seb, or Sab, Jj ^ (whom Brugsch calls “ Iveb ”),

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), m, 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, , dominion over them, and that he

1 See Lefcbure, Tombcau r/c Set! I., part iv„ pi. 16, 11. 47 ff.

b b

370

THO¥ip|^AR OF RA

will furnish them with spells and charms which shall draw them from their holes. After these things the Majesty of the god Itii 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 ^ ^

“ in the Tuat (^_^) and in the Land of Babat ^ @) •

“ And there thou shalt write down for punishment among the “ dwellei*s therein those who have committed deeds of rebellion,

“ and those whom my heart hateth. And thou shalt be in my

“place dst), and thou shalt be called Asti ( j ^),

“ that is to say, the deputy of Ha. And it shall be permitted to “ thee to send for thy messenger (ro JJ J\ hub), and at

“ these words the ibis ((”□ Jj \ hnbi), which is the envoy

“ of Thoth, came into being.” Ha next tells Thoth that he will give him the power to lift up his hand before the great companies

of the gods, ^ ^ ^ j ! , and makes a play on the

words kheu ® Jj, and Tehh-ni Q ° \ 3 , a bird sacred to Thoth; he also promises to make Thoth to embrace [j <01 ^ < — a dnh,

the two heavens with his beauties, and straightway the Moon,

(j o came into being. Thoth is to drive back, ZyJ an,

the Ha-nebu, ‘j e/vo, and straightway the Ape, ^

dndn, of the god came into being; and finally Thoth is to be wholly the representative of lla 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 Avhite 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

THE KIN#fSOlTE 371

whom these texts were written declares that his soul is the soul of Shu, and [Khnemu], and Nelieh, and Kek,

-■’* . and Kerh, ^ ^ T” and Nu, and Ida, and Astu*-Ba-

Tettet, and the souls of the Sebak gods, p J (j ^ , and of

the Crocodiles, and the soul of every god in the form of a serpent, ^ ^jUL and the soul of Apep, and of Hu in all the earth.

( 372 )

CHAPTER XI

THE LEGEND OF ltA AND ISIS

HIEROGLYPHIC TEXT WITH TRANSLITERATION AND

TRANSLATION

T - II 1^1

Re en neter neterti kheperu tchesaf an

Chapter of the gocl divine (?) self-produced, the maker

t==q

pet

I 3S

ta

iTi a

man

1111:

neteru

of gods,

rcth out

of men, of beasts,

AA/VW A/VWA

men m en

of cattle,

en.

dnlch

lihet

of

life,

of fire.

<=* i i i

\effet

of reptiles and creeping things,

1 “ li

*==» ^ i

111: k

apt

remit

siiten

rcth

neteru em

of the fowl

[and] of fishes,

the king

of men

[and] of gods, in

of the air,

liken’

4.r iT-

v.a

ir*m

henti

er

<==>

1 l i

O 111

renput

dsht

rewtt

form one, [to whom] periods [are] as years, of many names, of 120 years

RA AND ISIS

™ Ti

an relch

not known

pefi

is that [god],

_ru.

an

not

©I 111^!

rehli. pejl neleru

known is that [god to] the gods.

’ll1® j:Bi

dstti Ast Behold, Isis

“V,

i

tchetu

words (i.e., matters).

em set

was in the a woman form of

lchak-dh-s Her heart rebelled

bkkf “““

SCbth Gib

[who was] skilled in

er helm em at the millions of

ir-i kinii nzzh

reth setep ores helm em neteru apt-set

men, she chose rather the millions of the gods, and she esteemed

f’i k

hehu em • •

the millions of

Ichu

the spirits [of more value].

an Ichem set “Could she not be

em pet

in heaven

“=m=»

I SS

ta

[and] earth

HQ e>| JLJL

md Ra dri Jeert

like Ra [and] make herself mistress

=FK=“

I SS

ta

of the earth

netert

and a goddess,”

b

ka-set

she meditated

k

?b

em

db-set

in

her heart,

er relch “ by knoAving

II $M)I

ren neter shepsi

the name of the god holy ? ”

0 a

374

RA AND ISIS

A — °i i

O

e ^ A ‘-‘EU i JS^oi’liiLliL J

dstu dq en ltd hnt neb ern hot qet - [/]

Behold, came in Ra every day in front of [his] sailors,

Of

a men-thd

and was stablished

dnut

Had become old

9

i

her

upon

S

cm

• w

nest

the throne

cO) cm o \ cm

of the two horizons.

1

\

AMAAA

0 <5

netri

the divine one,

ennn - nef re - f

he dribbled at his mouth,

T

/wwv\ J A/WWA

VWWs

sat - f he poured out

p.

vebdut - / his exudations

© 9

er

upon

I xt to

the ground.

t” I — s l

pekas en su selcher her sat sck-nes Asl

and his spittle fell upon the earth. Isis she kneaded [it]

-23s*

• _ /wvw\ . .

I (Www I I »

h M

P

k~P- 11

em tet-set hend ta unenet her-sel qet-nes-set

in her hand with earth which was on it, she fashioned it

k ii’rf1 j&‘P«2J

*CSO- wvw, 1 1 Gk

P’

em tchetfeti

in the form of a serpent

9 si ari en set em

sacred, [and] she made [it] in

Sj

Vllfl HUI

qua heti

the form of a dart.

A

an

Not

k®“™ke(l7i

nemunemud-s did it move along

RA

ANI) ISIS

375

1 ^ A P °

fkk®

ankh-thd

er kheft-set

khadse.t.

ham -u

her

alive

before her,

[and] she left [it]

lying

on

o o

^ 1

^1,8 ~?P

0

—

L=

y?

I

uat

dpep neter da

hers

er dha

• /

the path whereon journeyed the groat god according to his desire

em kliet through

taui - f his two lands.

1

1 sSsf}’-

0

-s>

Q

B

Q

■neter shepsi

khu - f

er /m

neteru

The god holy

rose up,

behind

the gods

nn^

f i

P k

©ja

cm

Aa-perti

dakh n tch a.

se?dy em

kliet- f

in the great double house, life, strength, health! [were] followinghim,

P^PTi^’- k

aeffseft - f met hru neb uakhuset em

[and] he marched on as [he did] every day [when] bit [him]

«=•( W

tchetfe ti the serpent

£‘iuj :ii ^

shepsi kliet unkind per-thd

sacred ; the fire of life was coming out

Ik”- s=l §=

dm - f tchesef fer-nes

from him himself, it destroyed

ik”

/wwvs

cgS \5c <® 1 1

dmi

na

dshu

the dweller

in the

cedars.

376

RA AND ISIS

y 1

r j r n

L/VWWV J

at — at

1

tuter

netri

M ■

f re - /

Merit en

The god

divine

he opened his mouth,

the voice of

¥ 1 I1

AVAAA

©

cx

hen -/

a. u . s.

peh-nef

er pet

Pant

his Majesty

L. S. H. ! reached

unto heaven.

The company

a

n

Q

IS&

(2

9

i

Try:-

neteru

tuf

her

md pu-n

neteru - f

of the gods was for [saying], “ What is it ? ” His gods [were]

9

i

□ <=>

%

her petrd-n

for [saying] “ What is the matter ? ”

an

Not

qem - / found he

unfit]

mettu

words

er

to

® r-

rm J1 x ; nshcbt

answer

9^

i

her -/ about it.

drti-fi

His two jaws

| © © e» J\

■? !

^ \ i

■ [

«T /WWW

^ (5 1

her khetkhet

dt - f neb

%r

dstiti

metii

rattled,

his limbs all

trembled,

the poison

CX Gk AArfVWV

o

tmrJ . „

.<=>o 0^ qtt

t o Urr v

thetet-nef

evn dufi

md thetet

Hup

took possession

of his body

as

taketh possession

the Nile

T

Z Q!Z

em khel - f

neter

da emen-nef

db-f

of his river bed. The god great stablished his heart,

RA AND ISIS

377

rani- -

ike S3-

Cj /WWW

MAMA \A

III Hi

\xids] - f er

diniu lchet - f

max-ten nd

he [cried] out to

those in his train

“ Come to me,

s r?*.

^ h

rt! $

D

Q

D

12*

khepert

em

hf/t-d

neteru

0 ye who have come

into being from my

members,

[ye] gods

CTZ3 e

<7k> m

k$

iL_D <=>l o © 1

1 ^

1 /WWW

Jill

pern

em-d

tat rekh-ten

who have proceeded

from me, and I will make you to know

BMP-

R , /www

a —

kheperd-set

temu-eutn

lchet

meru

what hath happened : I am wounded by something deadly,

© U rekh-set

knowcth it

U

db-d

my heart.

-> 1 O O T

0

•pJU.

WWW

an maa su

Not have seen it

rnaa-d my eyes,

an

not

-cs>-

dri set tet-d du

rekh-set em dri-nd nebt

made it my hand, not know [I] it who hath done [this] to me

anyone,

/VWSAiA

Cl

/WWW

O-

iU.

/WWW

f-k.T,

dn

teptu-d

ment

mdtet-set

an

meru

not

have I tasted

pain

like it, never was deadly [any thing]

T l

IM

v .

, M

•

dnuk

ser

m

ser

more than it.

I am

a prince,

the son

of a prince,

378

RA AND ISIS

¥1 8T k II

mu khepern em neter

the divine issue produced by a god.

<)SI SI

(in uk ur

I am a great one,

%‘S SI J — flJLl Hill

sa nr mav.t en dtcf-d ren-d

the son of a great one, thought out my father my name.

<1SI

dunk

I am

i i i

dshu of many

rennu

names,

^ III

ash U

of many

SHI I ^

khepern du

forms (or, existences) is

eyn % kii - mi;

kheperd-d unu em neter neb nds-d-tn

my form (or existence) living in god every. I have proclaimed

Tent u Hern helennu

• •

Temu and Heru Hekennu.

^)of9

mut-d ren-d

and my mother my name,

— SMi

ine.s-d en meri

my begetter who wished

hekau-d

him who would enchant me

<1.111 dtcf-d my father

Olb k TH

draenset em khat-d er hidden was it in my body by

tern ertat kheperu pehti

not to let have power

en hekai er-d

by enchantments over me.

du tchet Have uttered

RA AND ISIS

379

CTZ)

I

pern-lr er ha

T. had come forth from the abode

Jr

-cs>-

o o

er mo a dri-nd

to see what I had made

f) <2. e

I oa A sit let

on

=FF= S

taut

/.

e

qemamu-na

[and] was being led through the lands [which] I had created.

Q

Ml®

f\ ^ f \ ^ ©

on tehetem l’ker-d an relch-d sn

when [something] aimed a blow at me [and] I know not what it is.

n

.flflPS

□

.V/AV.

/WWW

/WW\A /WWW I I CSi

dw /i7/r/ d.s pit an mu as pu

Behold it is not fire, behold it is not water.

db-d khen My lieart contains

CM

\khc(\u

fire,

Irtii qpntfi rlM

hat-d dstiti dt-\d~\

my limbs [are] trembling, [my] members

l:hen

contain

WAW AVWS’

ftl P \ i 5 J P xx flQ 2t3 III 1 JJ <a (2

wic*« /testis dmmd dntu-nd

the children of quakings. I pray you let be brought to me

™i

mesu-d neteru Ichui

my children, the gods mighty

i

• i i

metet

of words,

© WH

rekhi

skilful

, prr, p^s^p™ -f prr.

resen sart-sen pehsen her

with their mouths, their powers, they reach to heaven.

380

RA AND ISIS

e

iP\i 11

• qk

ffi \

iu-eref

mesa neter

neb dm

kheri

Came to him [his] children, god

every there

with

q-KZ

-A A — jj“j^

ffl "

<=» tr=5f=J

%>:p-

dkebu-ncf

in en Ast

kheri

khut-set

his cries of weeping.

Came Isis

with

her power

k ^in ™”

Q tXM >2 n

T © r

d*’/. re-get

em nifn en

dnkh

thes-set

and her skilled mouth.

with the breath of

life, her incantations

C=a r“uui

■* ■» AAAAAA

I V-

her ter merit meftu-set

— 1 I ° <& n ,

l < a o ill 4J- <® SiM

n T l-M

smile h Jca

heti

destroy diseases, her word maketh to live stinking throats

(i.e., throats of the dead).

Zuh 4*SS HZd II

tchet-set md pu-u dtef neter petrd tclietji

She said, What is this, 0 father god ? What is it ? A snake

ten

/WW\A

o e

i

i

^|l ^=76

mennu dm-k ud mes-k fa

hath shot sickness into thee. A thing made by thee hath lifted up

©;

I

tep -/ trek ka

its head against thee. Verily

P<£>2|U

sekher-set em

it shall be overthrovm by

£=1 C

WAVi |

menkhiu

hekaiu

words of power beneficent, I will make it to depart from

$ O© O

kheikhet - /

er

RA AND ISIS

381

0 uss- yzz r-

maa sati-lc neter tcheseri dpu-nef re - / the sight of thy rays. The god holy opened his mouth:

1

<=> 1

1 QO J

k

dv.uk

pa shemi

her

nat

H U tut

em

I

was passing

over

the way

going

through

tJkd — ?$"=• sK

taui set-d aha en dh-d e,r maa

the two lands of my country, wished my heart to see

ti

©l&Sx Vs

(WVW\ ✓

qemamu-n d khuncn-iid

what I had created [when] I was bitten

tchetfi a snake

,> (U

/W’./WV O O I

d/t v/n/ti .sv< invisible.

d» khet as pu Behold it is not tire,

mwvw

/\VW\

/WV\AA

A/\AAA\

IP

□

d/1 »i« ds /)?/

behold it is not water.

‘ <=>

,WAA

AVvWV

www\

Tl

? <=*

qehehh-kud

or

mu

shemem-kud

er

I am colder

than

water,

I am hotter

than

lit Id

^3?

ffl w

<0 c=*i=s

^ ^ ill

«d

«es/ie< /tdf-d

•

neb

er A7/m

fetet

iud

fire, my limbs

all

are full of

sweat,

I

.JU.

AVWW

Of

^’«kii

Id

dstiti ’ maat-d

an

smen

d/i qemhu-

’ti

tremble, my eye is without stability, I cannot see

382

RA AND ISIS

Ji n

/WWW. /WVW\ Sy

/vww> v

i

V So

pet

fill

ww

7ter

hr d-d

e?« shemn

s heavens,

bursteth out

water

on

my face

[as] in summer.

1

\ /WWW

jj“S\ —

i)i

Q A/WW\

tcA/d da

Ad en

AV

d

t chef -rui

ren-lc

Said

Isis to

lift,

0

tell me

thy name,

iwia

11

p WWW

T ©

1 $

is ?

dtef

neter

diilih

na

t.enui-tu her

father

god ;

livetli

the person

who hath declared

re n - / (in u.k

his name. [Said R;i] I am

--

dW /><d

the maker of heaven

I w la

[and | earth,

c__ -o

then

E3 (2(2 III tun

the knitter together of the mountains,

ye nt am n the creator

i!

i ^

i - w

11 p v ,

ll I .‘./v/w I I '

Hit lift

of what exists

9

A#

-<2>-

W/M

WWW

<£} °

<::=>

WWW

/or - /

■unit

ari

mu,

left e part n

upon it.

1 am

the maker

of the water

making to exist

0«0< Q Wvw.

A 0 www A /www

«<so-

u

r=o

wwva \ — _

Jkfchj

■ ^ fj| e

Meftt-ur

dri

hi

CH lUUt - f

hlie. peril

Meht-ur, acting [as] bull of his mother, the creator

An#‘iV /■/V/l/V‘. p. I>

IA Aift

c=* £} =*L>

GO ^ 1 1 1

netehem netekaniu

nnlc

dri

pet,

senheta

of the joys of love. I am the maker of heaven and have covered over

RA AND ISIS

383

<=> w crzi khuti

“& h-i ?™i k^P*

tti-d ha nn neteru cm-khennuset

the two horizons, I have set the soul of the gods within them

I ara

(D

/WvWV V-

mamr --

/WWVA ^ ■ ■■■ ^ -<2>*

un maati-f

he who openetli his eyes,

e

khepern

becometh

1^*1 hetchetchtu the light ;

-<32>-

XX Bf ©

(ilthmnn maati-f kheperu lcekni shutteth [he] his eyes, becometh the dark.

A/AW AAA/SAA ^

/www v

/m mn Risetli the flood

□

a/vw/xa

/WWXA ^ /VWvNX V

r-=r

A

Hop

lilt eft

utu-uef

du

of I.lfvp (Nile)

when

he giveth the command,

not

© i — mil —

1’-

i -C2>-

• ! ?T8o li

relch eu netcru

ran

• f link

dri

nnnti

know the gods

his name. I am

the maker

of hours,

i V

0 @

‘iC£7 J e o i

IT

kheperu hru

nnlc

dpu

hcbti

rev pit

the creator of days,

I am

the opener of the festivals of the year,

i

i i

i

ftQ (D IW WV

II /WWW

Lj avm v

1 <3>

-cs>.

tjemamu

atm

nuk

dri

the creator

of streams of water.

I am

the maker

t

/ww vs o ©

e

HI

o i y

I /WWW

I I I

CTZ3 I

ti ankhet er sekhepem kat en umu

of flame of life making to be performed xvorks in the houses.

384

RA AND ISIS

ewi k °i k

»«& Kheperd cm fuaun lid em dhdu-f

I am Ivhepera in the morning, Ra in his noontide,

<2*

» e i i

ik^‘kS

Temu ami mdshem

Temu in the evening.

r=a mvm

f /WWA

^ 1 AA/WVN

4-

kite iief

[But] not was driven

/wvw\

du

k^klh ^ tk!

me/ ewt shemi-set an netchem neter da

the poison out of its course, not was relieved the great god.

^ ,JL jjoSi ™~

tchet an Ast m Said Isis to

/WV-W (VWWV

ltd an ren-k d/m

Ra : — Thv name is not enumerated

em

na

/WW\

r*“3* $

tchdu-k-nd

it

tchvt-fc

a

K

set

na

among the things which thou hast 0 tell thou it to me, said to me ;

<=* Jf 1

Q AWWW

f ® ni

peri

ta

metu

dnkh so.

and shall come out

the

poison.

Shall live a person

itk^h

iemu-tu

ren - f

metu

tchetemu-set

having uttered

his name.

The poison

it burned

k itk®a ?k*

• — U"1 A/WWS

0

**« Jjj (j <5 Q /wWv’

em tchetemu

sekhemu-nes er

nebau en

■with burnings,

it was stronger than

the flame of

RA AND ISIS

385

Q.

** || WAMA

art

tchet dn

fire.

Said

l’i —

hev. en

the majesty of

ltd tdl-rui US, I give myself

hehni ntd Ast per em ren-d em

to be searched out by Isis, shall come forth my name from

lchat-d er my body into

khat-s

her body.

I* l^M

amen, en m netri em Hid himself the divine one from

llls^i ®P§! jXkik^- T\

netern nsekh ast em nan en heh renput

the gods, empty was the place in the Boat of millionsof years.

x n

dr kheperu md When it became about

? il kl

dh tehet-s en sa Hera He aha cut su

• • I

the heart she said to [her] son Horus: — Let him bind himself by

an oath

kfTS

em ankh sworn by the life

u z ja x ux

neter ant uthes - nef her ren - f Ast urt-hekauti

•The god great was removed from his name, Isis, great in words

of power [said]: —

i « <=> i ^

1 5LI ^ i £Lf -cs=- \

neter erf at neter maati-f

of the god that the god will give his two eyes.

□ © sep

the time of

Q J) Q

pert eut

the coming forth of

386

RA AND ISIS

f-TT’J jt*$> I

□ a/ !

shept

Run out,

(*=0) fk /WWA i cm

v\ ir AAAAM | <^>

^ jr i A/wwN i ^

k °l

-- o I

niftftt per m AVi waa£ IJeru

poison, come forth from Ra, Eye ofHorus,

& k II ~ TT

peri an neter nubdu en re - f

come forth from the god, and shine without his mouth.

link dri-d nuk I, I have worked, I

rakl-Ml ? ~

hau er mddi her ta make to fall down upon the ground

^ @ i A/WVSA I V .■■—*)

er metn sekliemu the poison which is defeated,

s3. —

nuiki nthes en neter verily was removed from the god

da ren - /

great his name.

?l

ltd

Ra

f=a —

r* A/VWA

^ 1 jVWVA

dnkh - f met

may he live, the poison

mil

may it die

Cr-xmca

S)

the.s rcr

and conversely.

“a kh

men mes

A certain one, the son

i

en ment

of a certain woman,

• f metu mit tchet en Ast ur

may he live, the poison may it die. [Thus] said Isis, great lady,

I2i niii ti 3i k ri- =>

hent neteru rekh Ra em ren - / tchesef,

mistress of the gods, who knew Ra by his name his own.

RA AND ISIS

387

T

sli ~~

a t\ <? 8

; Mfiii

tell el her

tut an

Taum hand

ll.erti-hi’fomvn

• m

Tobesaid over

an image of

Temu and

ilcru-hekcnnu.

□ Wo I

1 ill

erpil

Ast

tut

lieu

anil [over] a figure of Isis, and an image of liorus.

( 388 )

CHAPTER XII

THE DESTRUCTION OF MANKIND

EGYPTIAN TEXT WITH TRANSLITERATION AND TRANSLATION

1,9 =

neter /che.per te/ictu./ nn-khet. nn-nef cm

god, who created himself. After he was in

1

111

cru -T

I I I

fmtcnU

the sovereignty

reih of men,

ndc.ru and of gods,

em khd and of creation,

S \

Uuti

the One,

—

I <©> I *

I I

mi an rdh her hat men and women were blaspheming

i a HKI

metal

and saying,

ri’i t i

I1

dstu

are/ hen ankh utrha

senb

(iuuu

Behold,

his majesty, life, strength, health,

has grown old,

11

T

fS3^

O r, o

avm a III 1

hem- J’

em he/ch hdu - f

em

nub

sheni - /

his bones

are like silver, his limbs

like

gold,

his hair

1*^

© n<=5’

■■■-«■ — 0 O 0

±W hi’-

TvU

em

khesbet

madt

un an hen-f

her setein •

is like

lapis-lazuli

real ;

was his majesty

listening to

DESTRUCTION OF MANKIND

389

ii- f i p

metet an rdh tchut an hen-f tlnkh vkha sent) what said mankind. Said his majesty, life, strength, health,

AA/Wt*

-A

v JJ.

ipI

/ /wvw

— i. fi

ur

enti

e.mkheJti-f

lids

md-iui,

to

those

who were in his train.

Call,

bring me

nr niaul-d

my Eye,

-m £,1 zi iz

ec Slut. Trfnvt Sch Nut heed. and Shu, Tefnut, Seb, Nut, and

ate fiu mut

the father and mother gods

my « -

linen in hend-d, dstu-d cm

who lived with me when behold I was in

OOO j- — fl\

Nu licud, khvr Xu, together with

W

ueter-d my god

000

ww\a

^AVAA

A

Nil, dii-n cf

Nu. Let him bring

die n tlii- - f his ministers

he nd - J with him.

dn-nck set em ketket dm iihm

Bring thou them in silence, that not may see

ruth

mankind,

dm

not

nav

v ww.\

I I I I

db-sen

may flee their hearts.

i-k

Come thou

l

WMA

fl

A*VW\A

I I I

• hend-sen with them

*=> §=> 23 rr. P^iirr

er het-dat fehet-seu . sek hern-sen

into the great temple, let them declare their counsel

300 DESTRUCTION OF MANKIND

aM «= z=i

lu-d cm Nn er bu

I will enter into Nu to the place

<&<=>

$5

ilk

A a 4a

wzmn

Ichc per-

mi dm

dn-nd dn-tu

mm netern

vn dn

wherein I was born, let be brought to

me those gods.

Were

^ A/WSM

T *[ AAWv\

111 1Z

9

1 1 w

t fB1® rz

-t!

men

net cm dpen

/«?r kesni-f

her tehcn to

• «

cm-hah

those

gods on both

sides of him,

bowing to the earth

before

hf-u - f lrhet-f

metet - /

em-tmh dtef

his majesty. He spake

his words

before the father

PkPMId!

•<2

-dll 1ZJ

c*jy //niy.

a ’(Diitsitf

of the firstborn gods,

(.(> 1 l

the maker

1 (. f-lP » »€•■« /<■

of men, the king

4- M-

rckhlt

tchel dn xen

Ml/t /«?7t - /

of rational beings.

They said

before his majesty,

i ^ iD ! — . . .

^ JL ©“i ^

tne/u-en-n

er xetem-cn-i

let tc.hvt dn lid

Speak to us, for we are listening

to them. Said Ra

oco,a,w* ® ea fij

— Itfl

cuMi e-nk-

rii Nu netcr

xemm

kheper-nd dm - /

to Nu, 0 god

firstborn,

from whom I came into being,

DESTRUCTION OF MANKIND

391

neteru tep-du vui-ten reth khepern

and ye ancestor gods, take ye heed to mankind who came into being

o 1 1

mu maat-d from my eye,

n AAA/W.

ka-en-seu they speak

$

llf’

ineiet m-d tchet-nd words against me. Tell me

-0Z>- Ci O /wvwv

I I II 1 I

aril-ten

[what] ye would do

er-s

about it,

Ok

/wvaaa

I I I

/ na-ten-nd

take ye heed to it for me,

111$

hehi-d

seek out a plan for me.

an sma-ud set er sdemn-d Not will I slay them until I hear

M rh •=> —

fell ef-t lid fen er-s

what ye say concerning it.

‘I i !

feliet an hen. on • »

Said the majesty of

000 ,-w”- /WNAAA

^ >1 /V///A

$

iVn

Nu,

sa

the son

o -

Q

Bd

neter

(lit

er

dri sit

of lla : —

God

greater

than

he who made him,

nr

mightier

er qema_m~-iu-su hems

than those who were created with him, sit on

ast-lc

thy throne,

ur senl-k

great is the fear of thee,

=

an uiant-k er let thine Eye be upon

392

DESTRUCTION OF MANKIND

noiu lim-k

those who blaspheme thee.

Pm

vul-ten set udr

Behold ye them fleeing

^ qy !’

0 ^

tehet an hen

• m

en lid

Said the majesty

of Ra: —

(W)

o j n —

t i 1 * 1 1

vr sid

(ibseh

into the mountain, their hearts

P^M T ZaS-P.T; ^YP.T

seiitu her tehet en Ken tehet dnsm

are afraid because of what they have said. They said

4- M-

kheft hen - / (a ahem vnwt-k havs-nek

before his majesty: — Let go forth thine Eye, let it destroy for thee

n°

i in

■flkii

set

min

those

who blaspheme

k

^JU.

/vww

1

em

tu

an

maat

with

wickedness,

not

an eye

(flh <=> w ^ S\ *

khenti arn-8 can precede it

er

in

i\i^m

ft it i § • § » mfi*

resistance . . . ,

Ph^P

set has [when] it goeth down

em Het-Hert

in the form of Ilathor.

a\ fl

-JLL AAVvVS

iu an Went forth

<=>

1 <^> HI

Ok

/WVWk

eref

ne.tert

ten

then

goddess

this,

smam-nes

she slew

reth her set tehet an

m •

mankind on the mountain. Said

DESTRUCTION OF MANKIND

■m

i

i

□

/VWWA

hen eu neter pen the majesty of this god :

A,

idi-ni mi, hetep Het-Uert Come, come in peace, Hathor,

AWW -<2>- %%%

1T3

r\ AA/WVA AMVA

nr _ V

AwyM 1 © J-1;!

‘dr it eu dr it

ft’het an

net n’t ten dnkh-k ltd.

for the deed is done.

Said

this goddess : — Thou gavest me life.

IMS!

lft=i T

nu sekhem-nd

(Mil

re th

«/« nctchem her

when I had power

over mankind

it was pleasing to

f1

O ^

j (IM^S

dh-d Ic.h et tin

hen

eu lid

dii-d tr srhhein

my lieart. Said the

majesty

of liii:

— I will be master

rr, = 1™I

rm -s<

hi em snfeu

eni,

sdntu-set

khvfw

over them as king

destroying them. It came to pass that

O

AWM

-=*

t

tiekhet.

pu shehebet

nit.

kerh (

• m

y r tltrl hrr

Sekhet

of the offerings

of

the night waded about in

T <=* A /vvvvv’

1 2JJ -wvw\

T AWAA jl ©

^iy ?

senf-sen shad

evi

tiutiM-ljeuen

trhet dn lid

their blood beginning in

Suten-lienen.

Said Ka:- —

/vw*a n 1

1P$!

YKMi MS

• nas

md-nd

dpnti

A7w« .

sdmiu

Call,

bring to me messengers

swift

. [and] speedy,

394 DESTRUCTION OF MANKIND

PePWi P,™ —

eekhsekh-sen shut en

they shall run [like] the wind of the body ;

^ i

hJtat

an an- In

eiten djmf i

dpen her dui

one brought

messengers

these straightway.

;h i

f==Z3\ /WWW

I /WWW

1 D

1 A/WAAA

Htf’krri •=•

tchet an

hen en

neter pen

sha-sen er

Said the

majesty of

this god : —

Let them go to

— a

A, . .

¥ ^48

<=> ^

Aha

an

nd tatadt

er ur

Elephantine

[and] bring

me mandrakes in great number.

-j www ^ o r\ ^ o

T T A Jl\ 111

my i’

tin dn-lv

nof enrn

tatadt,

• •

erldt, an hen

• *

One brought to him these

mandrakes,

gave the majesty

WWWI | u

1 AVlM^

/www pa

-=» \

IS T

en neter pen

Sektet

enti e m

•

Anna her notch

of this god

to Sektet

who is in Heliopolis to crush

“° B o n (!«,%> m 0“,*! ♦ “ x

W III I /WWW 1 1 Jr <=> 1 l ui i cm < — a

tatadt dpen dstu kher hent her teeh

mandrakes these. Behold, when the women were bruising

bOb I

a. Ill

■perlu er hegt erta dn-tu tatadt dpen

the barley for beer, and they were placing mandrakes those

DESTRUCTION OF MANKIND

“ 111 — /~\

her shebehei tan sanf en rath

in the beer vessels, [they became] blood of men.

tw-* i-s ^ ffiffli

drif-dn-in hai/t drnel 7000 in d\

Having been made of beer vessels seven thousand, came

rath

men.

7000 in an

mi ten Init

(SB I

Ha In

therefore the majesty of the king of the South Kit

and North

111 <=

net can d/ian of

gods these to

ketch ta

when it was dawn,

WI Ut W-*

niiia alien heqet data

see this beer. Behold,

Si — P^kV

an sitianui

after had slaughtered

IV ira k pppkp.t, ?

dn netart em sem-sen

khentithit

the goddess during their period of sailing up the river,

■’ll 1

U ’ AA/WVS

J, — o$ J

K

metch du

hen en Ed

ne/erui

set

said

the majesty of Ra : — It is

good, it is

good.

• ~M\ XP

.^V

-O

du-d

er nidket reth her- a

tc.hel dn

Ed

I am

for protecting mankind against her.

. Said

Ra: —

396

DESTRUCTION OF MANKIND

i i i

P;

1 1

fai md set er hua

Let them carry and bring them to the place

:p:

nes sma she slew

4k

reth

am

I1

hen

i’ll

sulen bat

hep an

mankind therein. Commanded the majesty of the king of the

South and North

c=> i — e

fl 1 v’ MAM^ as

l..s as as ] aaaa

(SB k III <2.1-*- -

Tin cm ue fern kerb er or hit satet-hi

« • • •

Ka during the beauties of the night to cause to be poured out

W

/wwv\

&

III

^Y kl

men setohert vn an

these vases of sleep-causing beer, were

j ftW.V,

N> | \

a hot on ft

the Helds of

mi

9

oo^

I

/WVWl

wwv\

k SM

I

I AAA/WN

f/u her Utah em mu ein bain en heaven the four filled with water by the Will of

0 1 awaa ’l n

A 1 VAAM

■3PMY

1*H

1 <WW\A

hen a

u neter pen

shorn

t an

ve ter l

fen em

the majesty of this god.

Came

goddess this in

(i.e., Sekhet)

11

E>^

4-:

\ /WWVA

J AAAAAA

^ ~=v

I ^ ,

0 f

5 wwv\ r

^ MA/IM 0 ^

fun in

i/em-nes

Va

uen

her inch t nefer

morning,

found she

this [heaven

i] flooded, joyful

4Y ?P-

4k

jS§i» A

/WVW\ 1

lY

P- T

P£4=fl

an hrd-set

dm

un

(in

set

/ter swrd

was her face

because of it,

was

she

drinking,

DESTRUCTION OF MANKIND

T?r jur

»e/cr W d/>-se< i-nes telch-thd

merry was her heart, she came to a condition of drunkenness,

akl!i~ iUL !’ ~~

fsa-uea reth Icltcf, an hen en ltd

knew she mankind. Said the majesty of Ra

ini

air nrtc ft, ten

to goddess this

• To mu*

it-ill cm he l ap Amit

Come, come in peace, 0 Beautiful one ;

Irhcprr nefert cm Am tchel an

and there became beautiful

young women in

Am.

Said

|l I AWVSA AA/WV\

14>l

)

J l /wvw

-- A/VWVA

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DESTRUCTION OF MANKIND

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DESTRUCTION OF MANKIND

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( 400 )

CHAPTER XIII

THOTH ^ (TEHUTI), AND HI A AT, j|, AND

THE* “OTHER GODDESSES WHO WERE ASSOCIATED WITH HUM

T*^I1E hymus to lla which are found in the Hook of the Dead, 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 Maiit 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.” 1 The chief shrine of the god was in Khemennu, called Hermopolis by the Greeks, and

Esbmunfin by the Arabs, but he also had shrines in Abydos, Hesert, Urit, Per-ab, Rehui,

<=>| 1 ® 1’ Ta’ur’ SeP> Hat, Pselket,

□ ^ ,crr^> ©

, Talmis,

©

, Aa-tcha-Mutet, i-^si 1^

rso-o*

Bah, ’J*-©, Amen-heri-ab, (j <==> O©, and Ta-kens, |s|.

As lord of these places he was “lord of divine words,” *1 ^

“lord of Maat,” . and “judge of the two combatant gods,

\f <=> ^ \ j , *-e-7 Horns 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 knoAvledge 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 ga»*ed everlasting life. In the Book of the Bead 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

d d

1 See Lanzone, op. cifc. , p. 1265.

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, Q; 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.1 In the Book of the Dead he appears as the “ scribe of Maiit of the company of the gods,”

f^!| ^T”* ^ ^ 1 ’ and then 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 ntehat 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, , Teliuti, appears to be derived from the supposed oldest name of the ibis in Egypt, i.e,, tehn, to which the termination ti has been added, with the idea of indicating that the king called Teliuti possessed the qualities and attributes of the ibis.2 A derivation of the name which appears to have been favoured by the Egyptians connected it with the word teJeh, ^ O, “a weight,” and in passages quoted by Lanzone3 we find the god actually called tekh, “ 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 Horapollo says (i. 30) 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 ASlian (Do 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,

SlN^EE®’ Afl?en> *) Khenti> d M«w-

1 .Sets Lanzone, op. cit-,, pi. 402 f. 2 Compare Brngsch, Religion, p. 439.

3 Op. oit., p, 1265. * See Brngsch, Religion , p. 441.

THOTH

403

etc. The commonest name given to Thoth is halt, fO Jj “ ibis,” a word which finds its equivalent in the Coptic gifiujl, iind one of his commonest forms is the dog-headed ape, ’ n

which occupies such a prominent position in the Judgment Scene in the Book of the Demi. 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 Brugscli, this ape is a form of Thoth as the god of “ equilibrium,” 1 and he appears to be a symbol of the equinoxes. The ape nan is also connected with the moon, for he is often seen with the lunar crescent and disk, ©, 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 3 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 lie possesses the attributes of other gods. Tlius as a god of Mendcs 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-lier he is depicted in the form of a man wearing the crown of this god ; as Sheps he has the head of a hawk ; 3 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,” j 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 were eight in number : Nu and Nut, Hehu and Iiehut, Kek and Iveket, 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 ot this company of the gods two eminent Egyptologists have held directly opposite opinions, for the late Dr. Brugsch thought that

2 Op. cit., pi. 404, No. 1.

» Ibid., pll. 402 ff.

1 Itdujion, p. 443.

404

THOT11

the four pail’s 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 paut 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 laws of grammar, “ four being masculine, and four feminine.” 1 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 lour gods of the cardinal points were then assigned female counterparts, hence the “Eight gods”

PP $ i ‘ according to M. Maspero, is to these what

Tern or Ra-Tern was to the pant of Heliopolis, and the Hermo- politan pant was constructed after the model of the Heliopolitan pant ; thus Nu and Nut = Shu and Tefriut, Ijehu and II chut = Seb and Nut, Kek and Keket = Osiris and Isis, and Kerb 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 Mylhologie, J3gyjUienne, p. 257.

THOTH

405

“ Rehehui, the pacifier of the gods, who dwelleth in Unnu “ (Hermopolis), the great god in the Temple of Abtiti.” 1 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 llorus 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 A pep, and Hcru-Behutet and Set, and ll orus, 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” ( Hook 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 Horns, 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 w;is 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 sec that he is caUed “ 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 “Hot Abtit” are written prove that they mean the “ House of the Xet,” i.e., the

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 Dead 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, arid 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-fisliing with “ the cordage of the * uuiter 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, 0 thou Rii, “ who dwellest in thy divine shrine, draw thou into thyself the “ winds, inhale the north wind, and swallow thou the bet/em

“ ( J| A \ ^ R.) thy net ((J JJ <=> on the day wherein thou

“ breathest Maat.” The meaning of beqesn 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 R;i 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 versions1 of the fight between the Sun-god Marduk and the monster Tiarnat and her fiends, for it is said in them,

1 So e L. W. Kintf, Babylonian Ileliyion, 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 “ Bast wind, and the West wind, lie 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 Rfi, and it is difficult not to arrive at the conclusion that the use to Avliich 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 Tlioth was supposed to have some connexion with the net of Rsi, and it is equally clear that in his temple, which 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 Xoyo? of Plato. In every legend in which Thoth takes a prominent part wo 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 earned 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 he 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. Ife was the “ scribe of the gods,” and possessed almost unlimited poAver in the Underworld; the god Osiris was in many ways Avholly dependent upon his good offices, and the ordinary mortal sought his words and help with great earnestness. In the Judgment Scene in the Book of the Dead it is Thoth Avho acts the part of the recording angel, and it is his decision Avhich is accepted by the gods, who ratify the same and report it to Osiris ; lor when once Thoth said that the soul of the deceased had been Aveighed, and that it had been found true by trial in the Great Balance, and that there was no Avickedness Avhatsoever in it, the gods could not. fail to ansAver, “ That Avhich cometh forth from thy mouth is true, “ and the deceased is holy and righteous ” ; and in consequence they straightAvay award him a place Avith Osiris in the Sekhet- Iietepu, 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 Iiall of Osiris is not described sis the judging or “ Aveighing of actions,” but as the “ weighing of Avords,”

^ 2^ 1 ^ | Hi uteM •***■’

To words uttered under certain conditions the greatest importance Avas attached by the Egyptians, and in fact the Avholc efficacy of prayer appears to have depended upon the manner and tone of voice in which the Avords Avere spoken. Thoth could teach a man not only words of poAver, but also the manner in Avhich to utter them, and the faculty most coveted by the Egyptian was that Avhich enabled him to pronounce the formulae and Chapters of the Book of the Dead 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 kheru | ^ °r

which mean “he whose word is mad,” that is to say, he whose

1 See the passages enumerated in’ my Vocabulary to the Jiook of the Dead, p. 96.

THOTH, the Scribe of the Qods.

THOTH

409

words possess such power that whenever they are uttered by him the effects which he wished them to produce unfailingly come to pass. The words, however, here referred to are those which must he learned from Tlioth, 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 liends 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 oil 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 Haul: of the Dead was assumed to be the composition of Thoth, and certain chapters of it lie “ 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 Kheinennu, coineth to thee, and he writeth for thee “ the ‘ Book of Breathings * with his own fingers. Thus thy “ soul shall breathe for ever and ever, and thv 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.” 1 In later times the epithet mad khc.ru, 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, when 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

i Chapters of Coming Forth by Day (Translation), p. exwrii.

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 jl jj | “in the presence of the great assessors

“ of every god and of every goddess; in the presence of the assessors who are in Arrau 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 Sekhein ; on the night of the things of the “ night in Sekhem, in Pe, and in Tepu ; on the night of stablishirig “ Horus in the heritage of the things of his father in Rekhti ; on “ the night when Isis makcth lamentation at the side of her u brother Osiris in Abtu ; on the night of the Maker 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 Cliapter the deceased Hunefer says to Osiris, “ I have “ come unto thee, O 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, 0 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 storra- “ 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.

*• J 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 ! 0 Heru-khuti,

4- 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 evidence1 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 Hook of thv. Demi, 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, 0 Thoth, and I “have brought unto thee thine ink-jar,” and as he declares that he is not one of those who work iniquity hi 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, Retiyioui 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,” (j ^ <=» ^ ! </>>* ^ j

^ ^ jvvvvva S’ I- “ 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-Tehuti, (J — o or (j a ^ “ the great god, the lord of heaven, the king of

the gods,” and “ the maker of eternity and creator of cverlasting- ness.” Under this form the god Thoth is depicted: — 1. As a mummy, standing upon the symbol of via (if and holding in

his hands the emblems of “ life,” u stability,” j|, “ sovereignty and dominion,” J\ 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.1 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 an utehat, 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 utehat ; it is noteworthy that the curved end of the boat .is notched like the notched palm branch which symbolizes “years,” :P. In the narrowest sense

1 For tiie figures see Law zone, op. cit., pll. 36 ff.

The Moon Qod 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 Utchat of Thoth, , indicates the full moon, just as the Utchat of Ra stands for the mid-day sun ; this fact is proved by an interesting scene reproduced by Signor Lanzone 1 from Brugsch, Monuments (Berlin, 1857). Here we see the god Thoth, ibis-headed, standing by the side of a lotus

pillar which supports heaven, j , 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,2 the first of these being Tern, 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, Tefnut, Seb, Nut, Horus, Isis, Nephthys, Heru-em-het-Aa, Amseth, liap, Tua-mut-f, Qebh-sennuf, and a god without a name.

In a more extended sense the Utcha t. of Thoth represented the left eye of liu, 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,3 where it is called the “ Black Eye of Horus” ; thus of King Unas it is said, -‘Thou hast seized “ the two Eyes of Horus, the White Eye aud 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 E ye here referred to

1 Op. eit., pi. 39.

2 The head and name of the fourth god are wan t ing.

3 Unas, 1. 37 ; the reference given by Brugsch is, like many others in his Religion , incorrect.

4

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A/WvV\

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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, and with Horus, and with Tern,

and therefore with Kliepera. One other attribute of Thoth remains to be noticed, i.e., that which is made known to us by the xcvtli 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 made to flourish my knife along with “ the knife tvhich 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 correct 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 rales 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”1 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 Thoth, see some interesting remarks by Brngsch in Religion und Mythologie, pp. 448 ff. ; this distinguished Egyptologist thought he, hod discovered the original hieroglyphic titles of many of these inscribed on the walls of the temple of Edffl.

THOTH

415

the priests ; books xi.-xx. treated of the services of the 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 were 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 rpto-fteyio-ro?, or “ ter maxirnus,” has not yet been satisfactorily explained, and at pi’esent the exact meaning which the Egyptians assigned to it is unknown.1 It is, however, 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

Pietechmann, in his Hermes Trismegistm , naeh aegyptisehen , griechUcften nnd orientalischm Ueberliefungen , 1875.

MAAT

416

The goddess Maa, or Maat,

Closely connected with Thoth, so closely in fact that she may be regarded as the feminine counterpart of the god, is the goddess Maat, who stood with Thoth in the boat of lia 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,

p, 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, J, in one hand, and the emblem of “life,” in the other; in many pictures of

her she is provided witli 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 /=>, 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, *=>, 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 u cubit ” may be correct if it means that it was some instrument used for measuring purposes.

About the meaning of the word maat | j ? there is, fortunately, .

no difficulty, for from many passages in texts of all periods we

CONCEPTIONS OF MAAT

417

learn that it indicated primarily “ that Avhich 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 koihov (which first of all seems to have meant any strnvjhl vod 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. ; khexbet madt is “ real lapis-lazuli ” as opposed to blue paste ; shes madt means “ ceaselessly and regularly,” cm tm 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 will judge the

right ” is found in the Egyptian pa neter dpu pa madt ,

The goddess Mailt was, then, the personification of physical and moral law, and order .and truth. In connexion 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 West) " receiveth thee with satisfaction, and the goddess Maat embraeeth “ 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 [i i the boat of Ra] with “ Thoth and Maat, one on each side of him.” 1 In another hymn Qenna says, “ I have come to thee, 0 Lord of the gods, Temu- “ Ileru-khuti, whom Maiit directeth ; ” Amen-Ru is said to “ rest upon Maat,” i.e., to subsist by Maat ; Rii 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

s e

1 Papyrus of Aui , sheet 1.

418

HALL OF MAAT

Sun-god Moat is said to be the “ daughter of Ru,” and the “ eye of Ra,” and “ lady of heaven, queen of the earth, and mistress of the Underworld,” and she was, of course, “ the lady of the gods and goddesses.” As a moral power Ma.it was the greatest of the

goddesses, and in her dual form of Maati, PP ^ J) Jj? i.e., 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 ; judging by some vignettes which represent the weighing of the heart 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 exxvth Chapter of the Hook of the Data!, 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 au 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 Khersck-Sliu,

one leaf of the door was called Neb-Maat- lieri-tep-rct ui-f, v — 7 3 ’ ^ ®

c I ■»

— I I

SIT

Neb-pehti-thesu-inenmenet,

and the other leaf

t–»o (& I rT^ -*r I

^ AAAAAA I

AAAAAA

^ 0 AAA/VSA

These names had to be learnt and uttered by the deceased before he was allowed to enter the Hall of the Maati goddesses, ^ ^ ®

When he «n-ived inside the

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.” 1 The names of the Assessors

1 An Koglish translation will be found in my Clusters of Coming Forth by

Itoy , p. 193 tf.

ASSESSORS OF MAAT

419

according to the Papyrus of Nebseni (Brit. Mus., No. 9,900, sheet 30) are as follows : —

1. Usckht-nemmat, ^ ® | ^

2. Ilept-shet, j[ ^ Q

x

£2i

3. Fenti, <{F

4. Ain - khaibetu, ^

T-*L

T,. Neba-l.au,

6. Rerti,

7. Maati-f-eni-tes,

C2l

• w - nna

AV/A’ /-V

8. Nebii-per-em-khetkhot, J ^

9. Heri-seru,

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9. Set-kesu, |1

10. Uatch-ncs, | ^

11. Qerti, <=> °

12. Hetch-abehu,

13. W,}^| ™f"tr U- Am-taeku, J|1

14. Nob-Maat, ^ p j j ^j.

15. Thenemi,

1T- A“ft

IB. Tutu-f,

19. Uamemti,

xx»

20. Maa-an-f,^^^

m-

24. Nekheu, q %.

A/W .AA ii

25. Ser-kheru,

26. Basti,

27. Khemi, ©UHg.

28. Shct-kheru, c*=^

CSJ

A\

©

f-A-

27. Hra-f-ha-f,

28. Tji-ret, “ ^ [

29. Kenemti, ^

30. An-betep-f, ““

31. Neb-brau, ^3?

32. Serekhi,

©

33. Neb-abui, 37

34. Nefcr-Tem, J

35. Tem-sep, D®|-

36. Ari-em-ab-f, ^ ^ 1

37. Alii-rau (?), I)1I|(|‘X

38. Utu - rekhit, |^>| <^> (j(j

i .

39. Neheb - nefert, jj jj c *

12.

0 C^=>

40. N cheb-kau, i J x V I

41. Tcheser-^ep, |

42. An-a-f, ^ ^ 71^ 1ASL-

420

ASSESSORS OF MAAT

Eveu 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 Atrf 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 lias bathed in the pool wherein the sailors of lla 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, o ^ 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-tchiir-khat,” ^ j 2^ j and demands

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. how closely the attributes of Moat 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.

421

NEHEMAUAIT

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 It a, and in another he was greater than Osiris, but both from a physical and a moral point of view he was connected inseparably with the Maat, which was the highest conception of physical and moral law and order known to the Egyptians.

The goddess Neuemauait

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 Neiiemauait, who is described

as the dweller in Aat-tchamutet, J (vr^, and as the “ holy and mighty lady in Ivhemennu ” (Hcnnopolis),1 and the “ mistress of l’er-Khemennu,” and the “ lady of Baliut,” JJ — a ^ “ ,

and “ the dweller in Deudera,” L-fhd ^ ® . 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 iri Denderu, and in the metropolis of the fifteenth nome of Lower Egypt, which is here mentioned under its civil name “ Baliut ” ; the sacred name of

the city was Pcr-Tehuti-ap-rehuh, i ® - i-0’?

“ Temple of Thoth, the judge between the lieliiri (Horns and Set).’ The texts described her ns the “ daughter ol llii,’’ 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 Signor Lanzone 2 she has the form of a woman, and she wears upon her head either

the sistrum, |, or a disk resting between a pair of horns ; in one picture a papyrus sceptre, J, rests on the palm of her right hand, and a figure of Maat, *j| , on that of her left. A very interesting

1

3

Dizionario , pi. 174 j and see Brugscli, Religion, p. 471.

422

NEHEMAUAIT — MEHURT

sketch also given by Signor 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, |[ ,

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 Brugseh has noted, says .that Typhon Avas driven aAvay by a sistrum, Avhieh 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 Avith sistra in their hands, and though this fact is usually explained by assuming that those Avho 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. Brugseh quotes tAvo passages from texts in Avhicli a royal personage declares that demoniacal poAvers are kept aAvay from him by means of the sistrum which he holds in his hand. Nehemiiuait is not mentioned in the Book of the Dead, and it seems that she is not an ancient deity ; she is probably a comparatively modern form of some well known older goddess.

From the texts of the late dynastic period Ave find that she Avas identified with Mkh-ukt 1 and with the goddess whose name

is variously read Sefekh-aabu and Sesheta. Meh-urt, 8

“Sfe* ‘A /VWWA

o (/., is mentioned but rarely in the Book of the Dead

(xvii. 7b, 79; lxxi. 13; exxiv. 17), but the passage in the xviith Chapter tells us exactly Avho she is. The deceased says there, “ I behold Ra Avho Avas born yesterday from the buttocks of “ the goddess Meh-urt,” and as ansAver to the question, “ What “ then is this ? ” Ave have the Avords, “ It is the Avatery 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 Avas originally a female personification of the watery matter which formed the substoince of the world, and her name, which means “mighty fulness,” indicates that she was the

1 The Mefchyer (M tOvtp) of Plutarch.

The Goddess MEH-URIT.

KEHEMAUAIT— MEgURT 423

abundant and unfailing source of the matter of every kind which 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 1 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. 308, 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 lvhemennu or Hermopolis. In primitive times the “ weighing of words,” i.c., the examination and judgment of the dead, was believed to take place in the Hall of Meh-urt, which seems to prove that in very early times the attributes of Mailt 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 assumed the character with which we are familiar from the Book of ’he 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. cit., pi. 131 ff,

424

THOTH AND SEFKHET-AABUT

his duties as the god of letters and learning, was the goddess whose name is generally read Skkkhet-aabut, |1 ; the reading* “ Sesheta ” lias also been proposed for the hieroglyphic sign, 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. Brugsch 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 Sefkhet 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

• . l« y T 1 it<__ f ’ W ‘ “*

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 cnx,

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,”

vrr? ^7 i . Jn another scene1 she holds a notched

10 ^ o l <=*?:crz)

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.

NUT, the Goddess of Heaven, as a Cow.

SEFKHET-A ABUT

425

seated upon Q, the emblem of “eternity,” and from the upper end hangs the symbol of the double Set festival, 2E . Thus she

appears in the character of the chronoghipher 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 pi’obably prevalent in predynastie 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.c., that he shall live forever. In the Hook of the Dead (lvii. 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 Sefekli-aabut (or Sesheta), and the god “ Kim emu set it up for me upon its walls.” And again he says (clii. 3), “ The goddess Sefekh-afibut hath brought the god Nebt, “ and Anpu (Anubis) hath called unto the Osiris Xu (i.e., to me) “ to build a house on the earth. Its foundation is in Kher-aha, “ its shrine is the god Sekhem, who dwelletli in Sekhem, according “ to that which I have written the renewal thereof, and men surd “ women bring offerings, and libations, and ministrants. And “ Osiris saith unto all the gods who are in his train, and who “ journey [with liim], ‘ 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-iiabut was supposed to be

the “ goddess of construction,” 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 lingers 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.1 In a text quoted by Brugseh 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 Tern. She was identified with the goddess Renenet, “ f/n , 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 l.Ieru-nub, , or the “ Horus of gold.”

Yet another goddess must be mentioned in connection with Maat and Thoth, that is to say, Unnut, ® f , the lady of Unnu,

/V) /wwv\ ^ O *

who must not be confused with Unnut, the goddess of

/WWW Q

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, ; 2 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, ^ ^ *o ’ an<^ *n form she was the deity of the city Menliet,

c~“s § ^ . From a passage in the cxxxviith Chapter of the Book

/WWW A w

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,” L~“J ° Pn ■^*0 v©» by 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.

2 See Larzone, op. cit., pi. 52.

1 See Brugseh, Religion, p. 474.

The Goooess 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 cxtli 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 first 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-lieaded god is also seen as one of the group of three gods who preside over one of the Ants 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 Dcndera 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 1 to show in connexion with this representation that the hare -headed god was called Un, that this name appears in the compound name “ TJn-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 IJnnu, but Brugsek’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 ealled Anit, and Apit, and Behutit. AVe have already seen that the goddess Maat had two forms, i.e., Maat of the South and Maat of the North, and -imilarly 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 Si If Unnu meht of the text, i.e., Hermopolis Parva, wherein Thoth was worshipped under the form of Ap-rehui, / <=> ^ together with his female counterpart Nehemauait.2

1 See Renonf in Trans. Soc. ffibl. Arch., vol. ix., pp. 281-294.

9 Brugach, Religion, p. 477 ; de Ronge, Geographic, pp. 30, 102.

( 428 )

CHAPTER XIV’

HATHOR, HET-HEliT, AND THE

HATHOR GODDESSES

THE goddess Hatiior 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.1 The forms in which the goddess is depicted are numerous, but this is not to bo 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. Hkt-IIert,

, the name of the goddess, means the “ House above,” 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 * Ad tap 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.

^ET-yERT) Hathor the Cow-Goddess looking forth from the Funeral Mountain at Thebes.

HATHOIt

429

sky, and in so doing, she, no doubt, absorbed many of the attributes of prcdynastic goddesses. In the text of Pepi I. (line 593) it is said, “ Every god will take the hand of l»a-meri in heaven, and

“they will conduct him to Het-IIeru ^), which is in the “ heaven of Qebliu J] ^ t=q) , and his double shall be able

“ to make his voice (or word) take effect upon Sob.” From this passage it seems as if the House of Ilorus was only one special part of the great watery mass of heaven which is generally known by the name of “ Qebli.”

At the time when the Egyptians first formulated their thcogony .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 Heliopolis she became, as Brugsch says,1 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 2 : — As the “ chief- tain css,” ^ ^ , 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, ‘~L ^ ©, she wears the vulture tiara, with a uraeus in front and five uraei on the top of it ; as the lady of Senemet, ^wvvv q , she appears in the form of a woman with the headdress

, or with plumes and horns ; as the lady of Abshck, Ij Jj r-v-» ,

she wears a disk between horns ; as the great goddess of Dendera,

♦ ‘WWW

|0g, she appears in the form of a lioness, with a uraeus on her head, and as a woman wearing XjX and p, or jp, or CX and \J, or Xj/ and [p , or the sistrum, ^ , or ^ and p , or and , or \J and and and (p , and she usually carries a sceptre, j or |,

1 Religion , p. 312.

8 Lanzone, op. cvt.., pi. 314 ft.

430

IJATHOR

< - mm\ - - . ’ '’

in one hond,and “life,” in the other; tplpke lady of the

£’ /ww^ i a it

“ southern sycamore,” m 0 l| sg 3. > she has the head of a cow ; as the lady of Anna she has on her head ; as the goddess of turquoise [land], i.e., the Sinaitic Peninsula, called “ Miifek,” a — c o, she wears the crown of the north, ^ , or and/;

and in another form she weal’s 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, 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 Mxndt, iVy , 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 bodv is sometimes marked with crosses, which are probably intended to represent stars. Two other interesting forms of the goddess which are illustrated by Signor Lanzone 1 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-di’ess, with uraeus and disk ; the side of her body is made to resemble a part of a mend). (, and she rests upon a pylon. The titles which accompany this last form call her “ lady of Hetep, the eye of Rii, dweller in his disk, lady of

“ heaven,

() K

1 O

mistress of all the gods,” o <=> q qqq o p=q X <=» I I I i i i*

V37 -- 5CX

e> o G o I I

We have already seen that the worship of Horns was universal

in Egypt, probably from the earliest period, and that in dynastic

times shrines which were specially consecrated to his worship were (i

» Op. cit., pi. 325 ff.

HATHOR

431

common throughout the country ; the texts prove that the worship of Hatlior 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, Avhich 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 Satkt, , and Axqf.t, ^ in

Elephantine ; with Ta-sent-nkfekt, <=> ^ ^ J <55 , in Ombos;

with Bf.hutet, ^ , in Apollinopolis Magna; with

4

AVSAAA ^ '

Nit- Xebuut> and MExt,n> in Latopolis; with Mut, and Xekhei;kt, -j- 2 J| ^ ’ *n

Eileithyiaspolis ; with Rat-tauit, ant^ Thenexkt,

in llermonthis; with Mut, and Amextiiet,

, in Thebes; with Heqet, in Apollinopolis

Larva; with Isis, and Anit, jj} ^ *n Coptos; with

Skfkiiet - a abut, in Diospolis Larva; with Mkhit - Tefnut -

-s m z a \ • a “ w “

This ; with Isis and Khent Abtet, ^ ^ | J ^ ^ , in Lanopolis; with IIeqet and A nth at, ° ^ o lik’ in Aphrodi- topolis ; with Kit, Uatchet, |^j^, Sekhet, ^ j^\ > etc., in

Hypselis; with Mailt and Isis in Hierakonpolis ; with Mut and

482 HATH OR

Sefkliet-aabut in Bycopolis; with Sekhet and Maat in Cusae ; with Neiiemauait, ^ o -^j £j ^ 5 and Sefkhet-aabut,

and Meli-urt, CK=\ -^3- ^ , in Hermopolis ; with ldeqet and Ashet, in Ibiu ; with Pakhth, a ® -gas, at the Speos

Artemidos; with Anpet, (| in Cynopolis; with Hatchet

in Alabastronpolis ; with Hatiiok of Oxyrinchus ; with Anthat and Meksekhent iz=x p ® o in Heraklcopolis Magna; with Renpit, fa. in Crocodilopolis ; with Khersekhet in Ptolemais ; with Isis and Tep-ahet in Aphroditopolis ; with Bast, ^ ^ ^ , Sekhet, and

Renpit in Memphis; with Nebuarekiit-aat, xzt- £ j ^ ^

in Letopolis ; with Uskrt-hkqet, J xj in Prosopis;

with Nit (Neith) in Sais ; with Urt-Apset, * / ^ ^ in

A’ots ; with Isis in Canopus ; with Hatchet in Buto ; with Tefnut in Pa-Tem (Pithom) ; with Tatet or Tait, ^ ^ !

Busiris ; with Kiiuit, ^ > in Athrihis; with Tetet,

daughter of lta, an^ Tefnut, in the form of a lion,

G ^ e=- u-^> aTul WERT> i*c-> tll° female

AA/WV\ -■ Ck

counterpart of Horus, and Desert, ^ ‘4i0\5 with Iusaset,

and NliBT-HKTEP, “d MESAT- “O’

and Repit, <=^> (}(j “ with Khext-Abtet, ^ ^ in Sele (?) ; with Nehemiiuait, Tefnut, and Isis in Hermopolis; with IIAt- mehit, in Mendes; with Mut, Tefnut, and Khent-

Abtet, in Diospolis ; with Bast, U ^ > in Bubastis ; with Isis and Hatchet in Ammet, /j c=z and with Septit, |1 ^ (j/) ^ $?)>

and Khekhsit, ® ® (j(j ^ ‘{j^, in the nomo of Sept.. It is, then,

quite certain that in late dynastic times, at least, Ilathor 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

43*3

Lanzone has collected the names of a number of cities which contained shrines of Hathor, but the enumeration of them all 1 here would serve no useful purpose, because the identifications of the goddess described above ai’e 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 we find that at a comparatively early period a selection of the Hathors was made, and that it usually contained seven. The Skvkn Hatiioks who were worshipped at Dendera

were: — 1. Hathor of Thebes, ^ ^ . 2. Hathor of Heliopolis, |

3. Hathor of Aphroditopolis, & ^ . -1. Hathor of the Sinaitic

Peninsula, 0 Hathor of Alomeinphis (Amina),

lH ^ . 6. Hathor of Herakleopolis, j ^ “• Hathor of

lveset, ^ . These were represented 2 in the form of young and handsome women arrayed in close-fitting tunics, and wearing

i <r

The following selection may, however, be of interest :

n ck r\ o r\ /7> ^

11 ^ ^ kekhet-Ra, J ? Kesct,

-Arif,

© ’

Miitchet, khat. (?),

, Seuiuet, IWVVA ®, Khauit.

©

UO>, Slietenu, Akenu, © ,

^ , Slie-‘JVsher, Kepeimt (in Syria),

M rrva /-* i rv' W / ^ 1

^ r ■ i <=-_ n A.A r\ < — — -n TT /”>

’ Per-tennu in Ankh-taui

3^.^©’ An*

^ o©> Tclierutet,

AVWv> Vi.

? l eMier, ^ ^ JX ’ ivsjjcuuu ujna;,

in Ankli-tauit, jj ^ ^ g* ? itehesu.

Veka, Xj” ©» Tep-ahct, Alkat’ An‘

’ |4©> Maiiti’ PPS’ Sebti* P Ju®’ *°ann’ jLe®’ Tclierutet,

*©, Sek, pZS®, Per-Utchat, Hes> ^ @ ; Ken3et’

f »c=w. fv’ n _ a : . . I) O*

Noferus, J ^ |l ©,

dub °

I v

Kheklmit, f ^ ® ’ An to, A

® \ <=» O ■ -1

•■ex

AMNW f <£k £Zz

MVvVv fW/1 ^

G>

k&k®’

ugaclt, Mythologischc Jn&chriftcn

a 4?

434

THE SEVEN HATHORS

vulture head-dresses surmounted by » and holding tambourines in their hands. In the “ Tale of the Two Brothers ” 1 we lind the Seven Ilathors actingt 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 avc do not know the

disti’icts which these Seven Ilathors, ^ Q |_^_J ^ j ,

represented. The Seven Hatliors mentioned by Mariette 2 com-

| /wwv\ ^

prise tlie Hathors of Dendera, |q^, lveset (Cusae), Neliet

l^j ^ ^ the Two Mountains, ^ (i.e., the modern Gebelen), Eileithviaspolis, Ij- O J| and Mafek (Sinai), Kepenut isQ O (X| $ (Byblos), and Het-sesliesh, ^ (Diospolis Parva) ; thus it is clear

that the company of the Seven Hatliors did not always include the same forms of the goddess. In the Litanies of Seker :t we have also a “ Litany of the Hathors,” wherein are mentioned the Hathors of : — 1 . Tep-ahct. 2. Mafek and Thebes. 3. Thebes. 4. Nebt- hetep. 5. Suten-henen. (>. 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. (>. N it (Neith) ; and after this we have addresses to the Hathors of Thebes, Suten-henen, Tep-ahet, Nehau, Rehsau, Shet-Teshert, Mafek, Aneb, Uaua, Ammu, Amem, and Hathor, lady of the “ City

of Sixteen,” ^ H i.e., I ^ycopolis, 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., L 8. (Birch, Select Papyri.)

2 See Dendemh, tom. 1, pi. 27 ; Brngseh, Diet . Grog., p. 972.

!i See my paper in Archaeologic i, vol. lii. (Papyrus of Nesi-Amsu).

The Goddess HATHOR

H ATHOR-APHROD ITE

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 j 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, ^ ^ , 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 hcliacally 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, Avent Avitli him and took up her place like a crown upon his forehead.1 She Avas, as Ave have seen, both the Avife of Rfi, and the daughter of Ra ; she herself Avas brought forth by the goddess N ut in the form of a black-skinned, a i ^ , or blackish-red skinned child and received as her name that of the last hour of the day. Khnemet-

f *

ilnkli, or $ Hathor, as lady of the

Underworld, played a very prominent part in connection Avith the Avelfare of the dead, for Avithout her friendly help and protection the deceased could never attain to everlasting life.

The position Avhich Hathor held among the gods of the Underworld is well illustrated by the folloAving passages from the Hook of the Dead. In his hymn to Ra the deceased officer Nekht says, “0 thou beautiful being, thou dost renew thyself in thy “ season in the form of the Disk within thy mother Hathor,” Avith Avhich 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 Avords,” and who afterwards decree joy and felicity for the heart Avhich has been weighed and

1 Bragacli, Religion , p. 318 ; Lanzone, op, cit>, p. 865,

2 Brugscli, Mythologifiche 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 Apcp, Hathor is one of the group of gods consisting of Netcheb- ab-f, | ^ ^ Tern, Nentchii, Seb, 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, ^ , >SVp/, and she took

up her place in the face of Horus or Rii 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., lxiii.A, lxviii.), 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 ” (lxxxii. 7).

In the Hall of Maati the name of the left foot of the deceased was “ Staff of Hathor ” (exxv. 35), and a special Chapter (ciii.) was 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 |he place of Set or Suti ; and in Chapter cxl. Hathor, with Ten), tJtchatet, \ Shu> Seb, Osiris, Suti, Horus,

Twe Goddess HET-HERT(HATHOR).

HATHOR OF THE DEAD

43/

Menth’ “II’ BiUl> J — J i ‘S’ *E J)> RR-^-neljel., © ^ •=►

**« ® j^, Thoth, Naau-tchetta (?) q (j Nut, Isis,

Nephthys, Nekht, Mert, (?) <==> ^ , Maat, Anep, and

Ta-mes-tchetta, ~ |jj 1 , are said to be “ the soul and body of

Ra.’ In Chapter cli.A Nephthys addresses the deceased and says, “ Rii hearkencth unto thy cry ; thou, 0 daughter of Hathor, art “ made to triumph, thy head shall never be taken away from thee, “ and thou slialt 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 Jhe 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 called Nubt, 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- “ polis), and thou illuminest the west as lady of Sals. Thou “ appearest and thou art commemorated in festivals as Hathor, “ the great lady, the beloved of Rii 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 Mi’moire aur quelqms Papyrus dtt Louvre , Paris, 1875, p. 104.

• 2 The Egyptian name of the place was ^ VvWVA |1 © , Kheft-hm-

en-neb-s> and the Greek Pasemis ; Brugsch, Diet. G<:o<j., 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 Buba&tis. 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-Uatehet, Bast of Bubastis, and Nit (Neith) of Su’is, 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, TUE 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 prcdynastic 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, O Jj @ > or» ^ ^ T } ® Jj ’ which was named Eileithyiaspolis by the Greeks, and “ Civitas Lucinae ” by the Latins, and formed the capital of the third nome» of Upper Egypt, and the centre of the worship of the serpent was

NEKHEBET

439

Per-Uatchet, ^ @ > the BoGros 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,” ^ ^ ^ . The shrine

of the goddess was Nekhent, , or, 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-

• | /WW\A 4» ■-

bouring towns of Ani, || [}[j ©, and Senit, came into

prominence in its place.1 Nekhen, also written, | i.e., the

“ White Neldien,” was the town which contained the sanctuary of the “venerable (or, holy) vulture,” ^ ^ and the

vulture goddess Nekhcbet in the land of the South is distinctly, in later texts, identified with Hathor.2

Nekhebet is usually represented in the form of a woman who wears on her head the vulture head-dress surmounted by the white

croAvn, the sign of sovereignty over Upper Egypt, to which are attached two plumes ; sometimes she holds in one hand the sceptre, J, and sometimes j, 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 Lanzone3 she stands upon maat 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 Hatchet, 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 BrugBch, Did. Grog., p. 352 ff.

J Op. dt., 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 Uatchct was his eastern or left eye. As a nature power Nekhebet was a form of the primeval abyss which brought forth the light,1 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- l’eliefs 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 Avas on the Avest, or right side of the

sanctuary, and Avas called per nexeri ( ^ or “house of

fire,” and that of the latter Avas on the cast, or left side of the sanctuary, and Avas called per vr, or “great house,” t~|~J

And it is very probable that at the time of the coronation of a king priestesses dressed themselves in the character of the tAVo goddesses, and that the one declared the South had been given to him Avhilst the other asserted the same concerning the North. In

coloured pictures of Nekhebet Fakit, ~*~~n S l|(| we find that she

is painted of a light yellow, or almost Avhite colour, Avhich 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 Avas identified with Isis, the fertile nature goddess, just as Uatchet was identified Avith Nephthys, Avho was supposed to act the part of nurse to the offspring whom Isis brought forth ; in other Avords, Nekhebet was 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 Brngadi, Religion, p. 324.

The Goddess UATCHIT.

UATCHET

441

(line 762) seems to connect Nekhebet with Annu, for we read, “ Thou protectest Mcr-en-Ra, 0 Nekhebet, tliou hast protected “ Mer-en-Rii, 0 Nekhebet, in the House of the Prince in Annu ; “thou hast committed him to Am-hijnt-f, and Am-hent-f hath “ committed him to A.m-sei*a-f 1 if this be so it is probable that Nekhebet was identified with one or other of the local goddesses Iusaaset or Nebt-lietep. In an interesting text published by M. Maspero2 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 N ekhebet would watch over them in the Underworld, and would 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.

Uatcuet, the goddess of tiie North.

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-uatehet, L~l-J | ^ @ • the Bovtos of the Greeks, a city which was situated in the “land of Uatchet,” f *’e,? 111 ^1C soventh liome of Lower Egypt,

or Nefer- Ament, v^y } . The temple in which Uatchet was

n nrr 3 1.1 1 C

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

*2 (HMk- IS

w I”™1]

i* - ifc Qktf iz. Ik-#- Tkr-

2 The <&0ff’ori9$ of Ptolemy, and the Ptenetu of Pliny; see de Rouge, Geographic, p. 41.

• ‘Monwire stir qudques Papyrus, pp, 50, 83.

442

UATCHET

at a very early period, and there is abundant proof that Horns, 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 IJatchet-Isis was worshipped, and in the other Horus, and that Horus dwelt in Pe, and IJatchet-Isis in Tep. Among the variants of the name worthy of mention are Pi-Tchepet,

□ |j(j ^ , and Pi-Tep, □ (|{| J In late dynastic times Uatchet was called Ap-taui, i.e., “ opener of lands,” / but the exact

meaning of this title is not quite certain. Near the city of the goddess was situated the Island of Kliebit, © Jj q , or

Jj ^ ^ , or © J (j(J has ^cen rightly identified

Avith the island called Xep/, and Xeppe s1 2 by classical writers, and

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, Avhen she brought forth Horus, avIio 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 ivears 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, , which she

is about to place upon the head of a king. Occasionally we find her in the form of a large winged serpent 3 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 Bragsch, Diet. Gt’og., p. 215. 2 Ibid., p. 568.

3 See Lanzone, op. cit., pi. 58 f.

round about Avhich Avere the papyrus sivamps

UATCHET

443

one ; " “ Uatchet, lady of heaven, mistress of all tlie gods ; ” “ Uatchet, lady of Ncbiui, v*** JJ [|(j \ lj?j ©> lady of Neter-

lady of Pcr-Mcnat,

crzi <=>

I 21 ©’ an<l lady °f Amemt, © Besides her shrines in these last named cities

41

“ta, ^

one built in her honour seems to have existed in Sept, ^jp5-. The

views held about the goddess in connexion with the dead are well illustrated by certain allusions made to her in the Book o f the Dead. In the xviith Chapter she is mentioned in connexion with a god

called Uehu, ^ > and she is 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 lxvith 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 Ra in the bows of his boat which is “ in heaven.” In Chapter cxxxvi.A the deceased is said to be

the ‘‘lord of Moat | j), which the goddess Uatchet worketh ; ”

in Chapter cxxxvi.B he says, “ I am the spiritual body (mh “ a ^ 8 I) °f the lord of Mailt which is made by the goddess

“ Uatchet ; ” and in Chapter clxxix. he says, “ The Enemy hath “ come to an end beneath me in the pi’csence 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, saving, “ The goddess Uatchet cometh unto thee in the form of the

“living Uraeus ( ^ j^, Amt), to anoint thy head with their

1 Their ss= Uatchet and Nekhebet,

444

BAST

“ flames. She riseth 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 lta, ancl through them the terror “ which thou inspirest in the holy spirits is increased, and because “ Hatch ct and Xekliebet rise up on thy head, and because thy brow u becometh the portion of thy head whereon they establish them* “ selves, even as they do upon the brow of Ka, and because they “ never leave thee, awe of thee striketh into the souls which are “ made perfect.” 1

In the Book of the Dead Hatchet 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 Brugsch2 we

see that under the name of Apt, ( ^ , or, (j ^ vx? , Hatchet was

regarded as the goddess of the eleventh mouth of the Egyptian year (Epiphi).

Bast, ^

c>

thk Lady of the East.

Bast was the goddess par excellence of the eastern part of the Delhi, and the centre of her worship was at Per-Bast, or I ‘a- Bast,

L-(~J ^ , or, or Bubastis, the capital of the

JS3

, , the seventh norne (Bubastites) of Lower Egypt ;

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, nD:p3 (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 which are still to be found upon the ruins of the great buildings which once stood there,®

l Maspero, Mt’moire sur qnel quest Papyrus*, p. 82,

• AstronomUche und Axtrologi&chc Inschriflen , p. 473, No. IT. s *See Eighth and Tenth Memoirs of the Egypt Exploration Fund,

1891 and 1892.

The Godoess 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 Buhastis, and that many persons perished, but M. Navillo 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- Ka, kings of the IVtli 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 Buhastis, and in connection with this king it is interesting to note that in his funeral inscription (line 509) his heart is said to be the heart of Bestet, i.e., Bast, JJ p ^ .

This fact shows that the worship 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. Q] (o J Lijj , it is said, “ 0 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, O king, there is no green herb for Pepi, 0 Bast

“(%-PS^)’ 01,(1 none hath made dances for Pepi [who

“ standeth] like a great man at the door” (line 809). To find the name of Bast in the Pyramid Texts is natural enough, for their Heliopolitan editors introduced many local, and even foi’eign deities into the companies of their gods ; in the Theban Recension of the Book 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 oi members

(Chapter xlii.).

In the “ Negative Confession ” (line 16) of the cxxvth Chapter we have the mention of the assessor called Thenemi, Ao

i.e., he who goes backwards, who is said to come forth from Bast, ^ and an assessor called Basti, U ^ (line 20), is said to come forth from the city of Shetait.

BAST

446

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 Rat, the female counterpart of Ra, and with Temt,

X o’ ^e ^ema^e counterpart of Tern; she is often called the “eye of Ra,” and the “eye of Tern,” and the Shetat, ^ , i.e., the “ Hidden one.” According to one legend Bast was the personification of the soul of Isis, jj ^ ^ , and was

worshipped as such in Bubastis, and it was only at “ Bubastis of

the South,” Jj ^ , i.e., Dendera, that she was regarded as

the female counterpart of Tern. 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, at Dendera, she was said to be the

mother of the lion-headed god Ari-hes, f , the lord of Aphroditopolis, ~rf , the holy Sekhem, ^ i cj who dwelt in the temple of Bast of Dendei’a ; 1 her husband in this case was the god An, i| ^j, who was a form of Osiris.

At Thebes Bast was identified with Mut, the lady of Asheru ; at Memphis with Mut and Hatchet, at Heliopolis with Iusaaset, and in Nubia with Sekhet and Menhet, at a town in the Delta

called Sekhet, DM T©> her name appears to have been Bare- Ast, Jj <j:> jj ^ If we are to seek for the derivation of the name Bast in Egyptian we must connect it with the word for

1 See Brugsch, Diet, G{og.f p. 208; Religion , p. 332.

2 Lanzone, op. cit., p. 226.

BAST

447

“fire,” bes JJ |1 f^, and 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 4 Set-

“ usert-aa ’ fl “| P ‘^s ^ ^ |) > she burns into him and

“ drives out his soul from his body ; she obtains the mastery over “ him in her name of 1 Sekhet ’ ^|J) ; and she overpowers

“ him in her name of ‘ Ivhut-nebat ’ AWAA JJ l] “ Q, ?

“ 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 ot Ha,” 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 1 is depicted as Isis, and we see her wearing upon her

head the feathers of the god Shu, Jjji, 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, ^ ^ ^ • These

l See Brugscli, Religion und ‘Mythologies 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 Ivhensu 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 who 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 ol Canopus, the chief festivals of the goddess Bubastis were celebrated in the months of April and May, and of one of these Herodotus (ii. (»<>) 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 themselucs on this manor. 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, certain c 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 yearc 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.” 1 Of the city of l^ubastis itself the same writer says 3 (ii. 137, 138) : — “ The noble city of Bubastis seemeth “ to be very haughty and highly planted, in which. city is a temple “ of excellent memory dedicate to the goddesse Bubastis, called in “ our speech Diana, then the which, albeit there be other churches “ both bigger and more richly furnished, yet for the sightly grace “ and seemelyncsse 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 streaines of the river Nil us, which runne to either “ side of the path way, and leauing as it were a lane or causey “ betweene them, without meeting, take their course another way. “ These urines 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 m 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 mooned, is in maner of a lofty and stately tower, in open and cleare vie we to euery parte of ye “city. Bound 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 tall trees planted by the hands of “ men, and thus as touching the description of ye temple.”

%■

1 B. R.’b Translation, fob 86a. 3 B. It’s Translation, iol. 108a.

Q g

450

NET OH NEITH

According to Brugsch,1 the great triad of the city of Bubastis consisted of Osiris, Bast, and their offspring, who was called Heru- hekennu, or Nefer-Tem, or Bast ; their equivalents

in Heliopolis were Tern, Iusaaset, and Nefer-Tem ; in Memphis, Ptali-Sekhet, and Nefer-Tem ; in Thebes, Amen- Ra- I;I eru-khuti , and Mut-Bast, and Kliensu, 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 Bairsist, JJ <=> jj “ © , the modem Belbfls, and

Netert, Q nr where was preserved a thigh of Osiris,

shut up in a “hidden chest.” 2

Net,

■vNA AiWWA n t

0|> ,m - v>

on

A/VWSA /wv,vw

o •=» 0K o

the Lady op the West.

Net, or Neitii, was one of the oldest of all the Egyptian goddesses, and it is tolerably certain that her worship was wide- spread even in predynastie 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, ; she often holds a sceptre, |, or J, 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 3 appears inthefomiof a cow with eighteen stars on one side, and a collar round her neck from which hangs on her back is a ram-headed lion with horns

and plumes, , upon his head. The cow stands in a boat, the

1 Religion , p. 336. 2 See de J.louge, Geographic p. 122.

3 Op. cit., pi. 175 if.

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 rain’s head, and by the fore feet of the cow, which is described as “Net, the Cow, which gave birth to Rfi,” (] ^ j fj}^’ 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 Rii, 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 nrh-L ^ ,

“ 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, >oc, and xtk, 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 die.

4#

city Sa’is was 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 cast of the Delta in the predynnstic 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 die conceptions ot quite different periods of history and of stages of civilization. Thus, at times, her attributes cannot be distinguished from those gf Tsis, Hatchet, Sekhet, Bast, Mut, Xekhebet, 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 Suis, , Sant, the capital of the fifth nome of Lower Egypt,

1 Laiizoue, op. eiL, pi. 175, No. 3.

452

NET Oil NEITH

which bore the name of M “ Sapi-meht,” i.e., “ Sapi of the

n nTt i rriTr

iiiiji. lxtm

North,” and which was also called Het Net, U ^ i.e., “ House

of Net,” and “Ast-Net,” j jj~, i.e., “The seat of Net;” a rare name of the city quoted by Brugsch 1 and de Rouge 3 is

““rt”

“ temples of Net,”

or

*> A ,‘A

• | jj ^ . The texts often mention the |. that is to say, the temples of the gods

who were worshipped with Net at Sa’is ; the names of thcs< temples are: — Het-khebit, Q Resenet and Mehenet,

CT3’

Per-Rii, Jj , and Per-Tcm, t11 ^ . The great temple of

Net at Saifs must, of course, not be confounded with that of Sais of Upper Egypt, i.e., Esneh, which was called Pcr-Nct-mut-kheper-

lietch, L“1_J ^ Q ©; the names of Esneh are Ani, | (j/j

and Seni, At Sais Avas held the great 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. 92) in the following words 3 : — “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 cuening, 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 “ Aveike, 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, placing in euery corner of theyr house “ an infinite number of tapers and candles, the customc being not “ only kept at Sais, but spread and scattered throughout the “ whole region. But for what onde this night is held soleinne by “ lighting of lampes, a certayne mystieall and religious reason is “ yeelded Avhich we must keepe secret.”

After describing the place in the temple of Sais where Apries

a Diet. Ot’og p. 1323. 8 Geographic de la Jianse’figyptei p> 2^-”

8 B; K.’s translation, fol. 80b,

NET Oil NE1TH

453

was buried, and mentioning the “ fayre Chamber builte of stone, “ beauty fied with sundry Pyllers ingrauen like unto Palme- trees, “ being otherwyse very sumptuously and royally garnished,” and the two “ inayne posts in the middest ol’ the chamber, bctweene “ the which standeth a Cophine,” and the “ toumbe in the same, “ the name whereof,” he says, “ 1 may not descry without breaehe “ of Religion,” Herodotus goes on to speak of other matters connected with Sa’is, and says (ii. 170) : — “ A t Sa’is in the Temple “ of Minei’va, beneath the Churche and neerc unto the walle of " Minerva, in a base Chappell, are standings certayne grcate “ brooches of stone, whereto is adioyninge a lowe place in manner “ of a Dungeon, couered over wvth a stone curiously wroughte, tho “ vaute it selfe being on cilery side earned with most exquisite “ arte, in biggnesse match inge with that in Delos, which is called “Trochoides. Hei’cin euei*y one counterfav tetli the shadowes of hys owne affections and phantasies in the nvghte season, which “ the Aegyptians call Mysteryes ; touchinge wliiche, God forbid, I “ should aduenture to discouer so much as they vouchsafed to tell “ inee.” 1 * 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, Avas buried at Sais.

Passing now to consider the autiquity of the cult of Net at Sa’is Ave find much to prove that the Avorship 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,3 Avhere it occurs in connexion Avitli /u.7ep, and so serves as a

constituent part of the proper name Xet-hetep, ^><^c=s=». Xoav,

Net-hetep, Ave knoAv, Avas connected Avith the early king Sma, and she appears to have been the Avife of king CkA, Aha, avIio has heen commonly, but on insufficient evidence, identified Avith Mena, the first historical king of Egypt. But Avhether 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

1 B. R.’s translation., fol. 1106.

• See Petrie, lloyal Tombs, ii., pp. 4-20, anil pi. ii.

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. Al allot quotes 1 an interesting passage from the sarcophagus of Apa-fmkli in which she is addressed together with Anunu, (1 ^ O and Ncscrt,

— ^ o jL’ . 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 he at once the mother and the daughter of the Sun-god

lift, 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 wavs,” . 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,”

J ,’ mentioned, side by side with the citv of Top, „ _ , and ijlrb ^ ’ J • ’ 1 ’ □ ©

the name of the goddess is coupled with that of Tatet,

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,1 it is directed that a piece of linen, upon which were drawn or painted figures of Fliipi and Isis, be placed in the hand of the deceased, and that Isis is identified with Neith. This piece

i

o

lji Cult tie Neit a Sat*-, Paris, 1888, p, 104.

1 MWZ =

• Me moire snr quel quo* Papyru * dn 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 Tinas (line 597) we liave the following addi’ess: — “Homage to thee, 0 Ilorus, In the regions of Horns; “ homage to thee, 0 Set, in the regions of Set ; homage to thee,

“ 0 Aarer ^ in Sekhet-Aarer ; 1 homage to thee, 0

“ Netetthaab (^ ^ “| [| <>) , thou son of these four gods who are in

“ the Great Temple, wherefrom the voice of Unas goeth not out. “ Take oflf your apparel in order that Unas may see you as “ Ilorus seeth Isis, and that Unas may see you as Nehebu-kau

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 sou Sebek in these words, “ Unas

“hath come in the form of Khent-em-meht-akcba

/WNAAA AVUUM ^ iVMV,

/wvA.‘V’k '

/vww\

) , and this Unas is Sebek with the green

“ feather ( f’j J p) , who 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. u Unas hath come to his pools which are ou the banks of the canal “ £ J ™) of Meht-urt ™ <§*) , at the place where

offerings flourish, and in the fields which are in the horizon, and 6i he hath made to flourish his garden on the banks of the horizon.

“ Unas hath brought the crystal (s=> jj o Tflf ) to ^ie ^reat “ Plye which is in the field. Unas hath taken his place in the “ horizon, he riseth like Sebek, the son of Net ( ^

“ 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-IIetu, Jp^fo] 0 3^P ^

as one of the four goddesses who shot forth flame, p jj ^ .

456

NET OR NEITH

and worked “protection,” on behalf of the god Nu,

when he was seated on his 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 Hiipi 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.” 1 The Egyptian word used here to express the meaning of “ protection ” is »*«**», 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 indicates that the protection which 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,

A

AVWSA

1

Urt,

LIU V . U 44’

&

now Urt-

Nesert, q and Urt-hekau,

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:

5^; but in the Theban Recension of the Hook 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 (lxvi. 2) that he was conceived by the goddess Sekhet, and that the goddess Net gave birth to him. In Chapter lxxi. 15, we read, “ Behold, the god of “ One Face is with me. The god Sebek hath stood up within his

1 For the texts see my Mummy, p. 199 ff.

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, “ 0 ye gods who dwell in Khemennu, ye know me even as I know the goddess Net ” ; and in Chapter cxlv. 81, he says, “ 1 have entered into the house of Astcs, 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 ntrhat 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 Horus, 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 Avhich have been already mentioned, are in some way connected

with the god Ilenti, ^j, whose symbols are two crocodiles.

llenti, 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 J leteh-nefer-Sebcq, Q £ [1 JJ ^ , the son of

Net.

We have, unfortunately, no description of the cei’emonies 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, JtTjT “I fj] ® ; 1 as Hathor she was the great cow which gave birth to Ra ; ” and she is called “ the great goddess, the mother

1 See Mallet, he CuUe ,le Neit, p. 140.

458

NET OR NE1TH

“ of all the gods,” and “ Rat (i.e., the female Sun), the lady of “ heaven, the mistress of all tlie gods, who came into being in the “ beginning.” In a text quoted by M. Mallet she is actually called

“ One,” ^ » 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 1 on the famous shrine-bearing statue of Utcliat-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. Utcliat-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-. -mu,

<^<f , i.e., “gi’eat one of knowledge.” He was commander of

the vessels of Aahmes II. (Amasis), and when Cambyses came to Egypt and visited Sai’s after his conquest of the country, it was Utcliat-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 Ha, 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-IIeru 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 Utehat-Heru in reviving the schools which had fallen into decay, and in refoundiug colleges for the priests of Sai’s. 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 (I)e hide nt Ouir., 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.” 2 Elsewhere (Chapter lxii.) he

1 See itevilloufc in Revue fiijyptolotjiqne, tom. i., p. 72 ft.

• ‘fiyw tifjLt iruv to ytyovbs, «eai or, xal tirofiuov, kcu rbv i/iw iriir\ov ovSut irv> aV€Kd\v\f/€P.

NET OR NEITH

459

says that the Egyptians often called Isis by the name Athene, which signifies, “ I have come from myself.” 1

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 ipbv xLT“>va ovBeU a.7T€Kci\vifj£i’, the goddess Net is made to say, ov iyot Kapirbv ctckov, fj\i o« iyevero, which beyond all doubt reflects with considerable exactitude the meaning of the Egyptian title of “ Net, the mighty mother, who gave birth to Ha.” 2 The words put into the mouth of the goddess, “ 1 am what has been, what is, and what shall be,” are, as M. Mallet has remarked,3 only a development of a play

upon her name JSet and the word rat , or mtet , i.e., a

q ■ a q

person or tiling 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 tiling* in them. Plutarch, how- ever, was not without authority when lie made Net say, nal tov ipov iriir’kov oiiSeis ttcj aireKd\v\jjev, for i n an Egyptian text published by Pierrot 1 under the title of “lady of the sycamore house,”

^•—^7 /WAVK

a

words : —

crzP

the goddess Net is addressed in the following

II

d

Hail,

X

WVM 1 V -/j

IK! P

mat

ur

an sefekh

mesv-s

mother

great,

not hath been uncovered

thy birth !

1 rjXOov air* ifiavrijs.

8 Op. cit., p. 191.

4 JStudc * HgyptologiqueH, etc Paris, 1873, p. 45 ff.

^ Net urt mut mes Ra.

460

NET OR NEITH

4S i: ik^-

d vrtert flat am hb.cn en Tuaut shetat sep sen

Hail, goddess great, within the underworld which is doubly

hidden,

at at. rekh-s thou unknown one !

l«f.

iidrdi

thou divine one

great,

P*© ^ ct

sefekh-tn-

Q J\ sefekh

m p

sal etc ft -l a, qeras-s a sajelrn senhu-s

hath been unloosed thy garment ! 0 unloose thy garment.

□ ~ f Soil

a Ha pi an ertfi-tn nat-ii en dq

Hail, Hapt (Hidden one), not is given my way of entrance

miidt

sh&pt

jj ® 1 ®^,A$ I’

him is

to her, come, receive thou the soul of Osiris, protect it

era hhrii an

tifiui

within [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 wo have it here, is not older than the Saite period, i.e., about n.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

4H1

i.e., qerda and sen/m (jpg and ~ ^ a fact which calls

to mind the two words ireVXos and yiTwc which are used by Plutarch and Prod us respectively to express the same word. It is, however, quite certain that the ideas and beliefs expressed in the above prayer arc 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 bv Horapollo, who in his “ Hieroglyph iea ” (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.1 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 Ka 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 ovroi yap /torai Qtusv vap’ avroU, aptrtvoO^ktu iirdpxowri (ed. Leemans, p. 19).

462

NET OR NEITH

problems which are connected with cosmogony and theogony. The reason why they did not advance as a nation further in such matters is that they allowed themselves to be hampered by 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 Avas to form the body of Ra but also the male germ Avhicli fecundated it. Thus IS’ et was the prototype of partheno-genesis.

When, hoAvever, as Horapollo says, the Egyptians represented Net by a vulture they referred to her in her character of the unh’ersal mother, and as such many allusions are made to her in the texts. Certain passages, it is true, speak of her having set her arroAV to her boAV,1 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, (){)“=* she brought linen apparel and coverings of Avhite, green, red, and purple linen to deck the face of the deceased, and an ancient legend declared that she arrayed Osiris in the apparel Avhich had been specially Avoven for him by the tAvo Rekliti goddesses, i.e., Isis and Nephthys. And because of

the part which she had taken in arraying Osiris in his grave- clothes Net Avas made to preside over the “good house,” L"i~1 J) ’ **e., chamber in Avhich the dead were embalmed and swathed in linen, and over the chambers of the temples in Avhich the unguents Avhich Avcre employed in public worship Averc

1 See Bnigsch, Ifeli/jiov, p. 340.

The QODOE88 NIT .

NET OR NE1TH

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 SaVs 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.1

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, ^ ^fj, 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 cow “ who gave birth to the sun, who made the germ of gods and “ men, the mother of lla, 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, Q @ ^ > 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 Avalking. Tutu, is also known by the names Her-ka, ^ LJ jjv),3 and

1 Ueliyion und Mythologies p. 347.

3 Variants, <=> ^ > or 5r?k •

3 Or, ^ | j □ Her-ka-p-lihttrt.

464

NET Oil NEITH

Hetch-xefkr-sebeq, Q J p Jj ^ , and he is depicted h^pbe form

of a young man 1 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-lieaded rain-spouts of the temples of Dendcra, Khensu at Thebes, Edfii, and Philae, witlx the summer sun.3 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,” “ ficry-face,” and “ lion of the face which enchanteth (or terrifieth).” A form of Tutu, the son of Net and

Ivhnemu, called Au-hf.s-xf.fer, jj ^ ^ , often appears in

inscriptions wherein he is described as a “ god of the south,” and he must be identified witlx the crocodile-headed god who appears in the temple sit Esneh under the names Sebek-Ra and Hes- neff.r-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 II. caused to be inscribed on the walls of the temple of Hcbt, in the Great Oasis, it is said that the

Cow, i.e., Net, rejoiceth in the “Bull ofj his mother.”

Here the Sun-god is described as the husband who maketh fertile with his seed,1 and he is said to come to the town of Sapi,

i.e., Sai’s. The hymn continues,5 “ Thine image reposeth “ in Ilet-khebit, in the nest of the lady of Sai’s. Thy mother Net “ uniteth herself unto thee 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.

2 Rdiijion , p. 349.

• Ihid,, p. 353.

1)1)

mr?.

5 See BragBch, Raise nach tier yroasen Oa»e, pi. xxvi., 1. 28 f.

NET OR NEITH

465

“ upon theflands of the two crocodile gods,” JJ ^ j-

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, as such she is called “Ament,

the dweller in Apt, Nini,” (1 C~1 -=> ^ O A <3 Under the

1 /wwv\ 1^1^ \V VS.

name of Ament-Ra, (j A/VWVN ^ she is seen suckling Horus, and she

also appears as a ram-headed goddess wearing the Ate/ crown.1 All 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 birth 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 Avill 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.

1 See Lanzone, op. cit., pi. 25.

( 466 )

CHAPTER XV

THE HORUS GODS

IT has 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 Heru,

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,” ? (JO ’th. , of the Face of Heru as the Face of

7 X o ill i r

heaven, and four gods who are called the “ children of Horus,”

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, j 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 Hgypticnne , p. 227. 8 The “ Children of Horus ” will be described later.

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,” ^j, and when neither Eye is visible it is called

“ Horus dwelling without Eyes,” ^ ^ ^ .

The forms of Horus mentioned in Egyptian texts are numerous, but the following are the most important : —

1. Heru-ur, *‘e,} H°rus the elder” (or the

“ aged ”), the hipuffpis 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 Ivhnemu upon his head, and above them are a crown with plumes, uraei, disks, etc.1 According to the Egyptian texts Heru-ur was the son of Ilii and Hathor ; the Hathor here referred to is the form of

the goddess which was specially worshipped at Qesqeset, ^ ^ @ >

i.e., Apollinopolis Parva; but Plutarch declared him to be the son of Ivronos 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 Ileru-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,4 the seat of

whose worship was at Makhenut, q ^ , near El-Kab in Upper

Egypt, and a Heru-ur of the North, theseat of whose worship was at

Sekhemet, m or or Seshemet, the

Latopolis of the Greeks, and the OYujeJU. of the Copts, which lay a

1 See Lftnzone, op. cit., pi. 1226.

s Ibid., No. 3.

468

HORUS THE ELDER

few miles to the north of Memphis ; other shrines of Heru-ur were at Ombos, q , at Smennut, p 4=3 O ^ , and at Apollinopolis. The most important shrine of the god was at Sekliem, where stood the sanctuary Pa- Ait, 1| ^ (jlj [JLj; in its shrine was preserved

the shoulder, mdlchaq , J|^ ^ ^ 9 > of the god Osiris, and close by

grew the famous Nebes, ***** an(^ Shent, $ ^ trees.

Heru-ur of Sekhem is called “ lord of the Utchati , 5n5,” 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 H eru-khent-an-maati and Tlioth, but it is clear that locally the great gods of the city were Isis, Osiris, and Horus. The form in which Heru-ur Avas worshipped at Sekhem and other places was a lion. The inscrip- tions on the walls of the temple at Ombos 1 prove that he was called the “lord of the south,” the “lord of Nubti (Ombos),” and that he was identified with Shu, son of Rii ; with “ Heru- tenia, 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 wcx-e connected with them. At Ombos Heru-ur was the head of a triad which consisted of himself, and his female counterpart, Ta-sent-nefert,

o and their son P-neb-taui, □ Avho is

sometimes called “ the child,” □ ^ . 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 ho is called the “ young sun,” and the general titles Avhich are given to Heru-ur and Ta-sent- nefert indicate that in later days they were considered to be identical with Shu and Tefnut.

2. Heru-p-khart, i.e., “Horus the Younger”

(or, the “ Child ”), the ‘Apnoupdr r)t of the Greeks, so called to

1 Brugsch, Religion, p. 539. 2 See de Morgan, Korn Ombos , pp/ 156, 181

HERU-PA-KHRAT (HARPOCRATES).

HORUS THE YOUNGER

469

distinguish him from Heru-ur, or Horus the Elder. In 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, ^p, but usually his crown is formed by the united crowns of the South and North, ^ . In one scene he is seated inside a box which rests on the back of a lion.1 Heru-p-khart was the son of a Horus god by the goddess Riit-tauit, ^ , who is said to have brought him

forth in the temple of Het-ennut, [] c~3 111 Hermonthis,

in a birth chamber, L~(~J ^ 1 . in the precincts of the building

Qemqern, ( ©: 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, so. ^ the dweller in Hermonthis. 2.

l.ieru-Shu-p-khart the great, P <5 ^ ^ ; his father was

Saaba, |1 , and his mother Anit,

khart. [son] of Hathor, ^ ^ p) 0 ^

3. Sma-taui-p-

4. Heru-p-khart, the dweller in Busiris, jj ‘r>- A^b ^ > 9011 of Hathor.

5. 11 aq-p-khart, *=^ □ £;} , the sou of Sekhet. 7. Heru-IIennu,

6. IIebu-merti, o o ‘ *orm ^e “°& 19

represented as a man with a hawk’s head, above which are the horns of the god Khncmu and the solar disk encircled by a uraeus ;

in> his hand he bears the Utchati, A passage in a

1 Lunzone, op. cit., pi. 328.

2 See Urugsch, Diet. Grog., p. 348.

470

HARMACHIS

papyrus quoted by Lanzone 1 calls him “ Horus of the Two Eyes,” for this is what the name means, “ lord of Slietennu ©) ,

Amseti-Asi, ) , 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 Ivhem, or Min, as the Moon.

4. Heru-an-mut-f, | was a local form of Horus

which was worshipped at Ateb, [j ^ i.e., Edfu, but the exact

characteristics of the god here are unknown.

5. Heru-xub, This was the form of the god which

was worshipped at Hierakonpolis, Per-Heru-nubt, ^y"3 ^ ^ , and

he was depicted as a hawk seated on the head of an antelope, which, according to Brugsch,2 commemorates his triumphant victory over Set, the murderer of Osiris.

6. Heru-khenti-Khat, ^ . In this form the god is

represented with a human body and the head of a crocodile, on which he wears the horns of Khncmu, and the triple crown and plumes ; 3 this form of Horus does not appear to be ancient.

i.e.

7. Heru-khentj-an-maati, jjJli jfj, i.e., “ Horus at the head of sightlessness,” or the “ Blind Horus ; ” he appeal’s to represent the god when neither of his eyes was visible.

8. Rf.bo-k.iuti,

“ 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 liis daily course across the skies from the time he left the Mount of Sunrise (Bakhau) to the tiiAe 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,

\ s v- 1 *ni *> KhePera> ^

1 Op. cit. p. 617. 2 Religion, p. 664.

3 Seo Lanzone, p. 622, pi. 17 ; Brugsch, Religion, p. 606.

4 For the passages see my Vocabulary to the Chapters of Coining Forth by Day , p. 225.

HERU KHUTI (Harmachis)-

IIAKMACHTS

471

Temu here indicates the god of the setting sun, and Khepcra the god of the sun when he is about to rise. When Heru-khuti was identified with the various forms of the Sun-<rod 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,” SHE a city or district near the First Cataract, ;the governor of the Aat of Ra,” <=>D (Heliopolis),

Thotlimca 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 Apolliuopolis, and the greater of these was Annu, or Heliopolis, where he was identified with the forms of Ra which were worshipped 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 JHERU-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 lie 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 was 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 prcdyuastic times. A recent but fanciful theory makes the Sphinx to be the work of Amenemhiit, a king of the Xllth Dynasty; its name in Egyptian was Hu, The

forms in which 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 1 we see him wearing on his head the solar disk encircled with a unions or the triple crown, or the a/t’f 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 ul chat , in another scene lie has the head of a ram, which

identifies him with Khnemu, the god of the First Cataract, and in another ho is seated on a throne which is carried on poles by two snake- and two beetle-headed gods.

0. IiERU-sMA-TAur, i.e., “ Horus, the uniter of the

South and North.” He is said to be the son of Ilathor ; his chief places of worship were Aat-liehu, a district near

Herakleopolis Magna, and Ant, | ___ i.e., Denderab, and the city

1 Op. cit., pll, 229 ft.

HERU - SMA - TAUI.

HORUS OF BEHUTET 473

• *

of Kliatat, ^ ^ @ > 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,

3

or serpent, or man, and ho wears as head-dresses, and iljjk;

in one scene he is represented as a hawk,1 and he wears upon his head a disk and plumes, JJjy • 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, ^ | He is said to have been

the son of the goddess Bast, and the seats of his worship were the

towns of Netert, and Hct-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.

Heuu-Behutet, J i ^

This is one of the

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, |jj ^ anf^

Qem-baius, ^ , Aat-fib, kf^J ^ J q (Pliilae), and

Tebt, ^ J © (Tanis) ; in the last named place he was worshipped

under the form of a lion, which wears the triple crown 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,2 we see him holding a weapou like a club or mace

See Liuizone, op. cit., pi. -39.

3 Op. cit., pll. 242 ff.

474

HORUS OF BEHUTET

iu his right hand, and a bow and three arrows in his left 1 ; in another he is about to club an ass-headed man in fetters with the club, -8 — 2 ; in another we see him standing on an oiyx or antelope, and holding a long liawk-headed spear in his right hand,

and three cords, to each of which is attached a prisoner, 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, <r=» jXj , 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 cod

Horus of Bcliutet 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 and in his left hand he holds a scorpion, M .

1 He is here called ^

r^O A*AAAA

W

edtttsj

<=>©*

5 He is here called “ smitcr of the rebel/’

RA-HERU-KHUTI,

THe Dweller IN Behutet.

HORUS OF BEHUTET

475

In an extract from a text inscribed on a Avail of the temple of Edfii given by Dr. Brugsch,1 Heru-behutet is described as the power which dispels darkness and night, and drives aAvay clouds, rain, and storms, and fills all heaven and the Avorld Avith his brilliance and light ; he rises Avith 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 reneAvs 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 Avith Osiris, and then the goddesses Isis and Ncphthys arc said to help him to emerge from the abyss of Nu ; he made the hea\rcns to be the dAvclling-place for his soul, and he created the deep that it might serve as a place Avherein to hide his body, which is here called Un-nefer, I ^ . But the forms in Avhich Heru-behutet appealed most strongly to the mind of the Egyptians Avere those in Avhich as the god of light he fought against Set, the god of darkness, and as the god of good against the god of evil. We knoAv from a passage in the xviith Chapter of the Hook of the Dtcul (line 66) that in very early times a combat took place betAveen Horus and Set, Avherein the foimer destroyed the virility of Set, and the latter cast filth in the face of Horus, and it is this form of the traditional fight betAveen the two “ Combatants,” or Rehui, i ^ Avhich is the base of the narrative inscribed ou the

Avails of the great Temple of Edfii. There Avas, hoAvever, one very great difference betAveen the fight of Horus and Set of predynastic times and that described betAveen the Horus and Set knoAvn at Edfii ; in the former fight the tAvo combatants were unarmed, but

The double god Horus- Sol.

in the latter Horus Avas armed Avith Aveapous ot iron, and he was

1 Religion, p. 548.

476

HORUS OF BEHUTET

accompanied by a number of beings who are called memriu, (|j [1 ^ ^ j , or memitu, ^ p o vx $j j .l It is pretty certain from

AACfteT, the Coptic equivalent of the word memeti, that the mesnin were workers in metal, and that this name was first applied to them as blacksmiths, and that at a later period the tncsniu 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 me* net, the “foundry,” and

the worshippers of Horus of Jlehutet 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 wherein 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,” / ^

In support of this tradition we find that a certain chamber in the temple of Edfu, which lay just behind the sanctuary, was called

mesnet, |j| j’ ; |. 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 tlve walls of the temple of Edfu 3 we see that they were originally men with shaven heads who wore a short tunic arid a deep collar, and that in their right hands they carried a spear inverted, j , and in their left a metal instrument, (j. 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 with 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

. T»ri,»U»re|P0e|) ^0^$.

3 WOrtcrbnrh, p. 703.

3 See Naville, Mtjlhe d’lforus, Geneva, 1870, pi. 7.

HERU-NETCH-TEF-F.

477

HORUS OF BEHUTET

the tackle of the boat consists of chains, presumably of iron, and not of ropes. In another place 1 * 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 Edfii substantially as follows : — In the year 363,

III, of Ra-Heru-klxuti , 3CX the kin° °f 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,3 because certain folk had conspired against tlieir 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, sses?, and ever aftex* 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 aud vigour, that they lost their senses and could see neither with their eyes nor hear with their ears, ^ ^ P ju ^ J f $$ f p ® , and every man fell

upon his neighbour and slew him, and in a moment all were dead. And straightway Horus, with many-coloured shapes aud feathers, returned to his form as a winged disk and

took up his position in the boat of Ra. At this junctui’e Thoth declared that Horus, son of Ru, should be called H cru-Behutet, and Behutet (Edfu) should be called the city of Homs ; 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, lin^ ^ie ver^ ** 111U1 mui *

conspire,”

478

HORUS OF BEHUTET

■ •

Hathor, and followed by the goddess Asthertet, who is described as the “ mistress of horses,” ^ £

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 Ra, 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 Edfu was called Teb, © JJ, from that day ; and he further said to Horus, “ Thou art a great protector,” u n |, 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, mnsuhu

and hippopotamuses, ^ <2^ j , f«pu, and when they were

near enough to him they opened their mouths intending to swallow up the god. Then Homs came along with his “blacksmiths,”

UP- — ^ j , each having a spear made of divine iron, ^ D ,

AIWVNA

and a chain, <§. , in his hand, and they slew the crocodiles, and

the hippopotamuses, and they brought in 651 1 enemies, jl [j JJ

immediately. Ra-Heru-khuti next ordered that statues of himself should be set up in the land of the south in the place called

Het-a-nekht, o D n , and Thoth applauded Homs because

he had made use of the formulae which were to be found in the Book of the slaughter of the Hippopotamus, < — a ^ <2^ ;

from that day the blacksmiths of Heru-Behutet have existed at Edfh.

non

1 Naville gives (pi. xiii., 1. 8) ^ ^ I, bnt Brugsch ( Ahhanrtlvuycn

Koniglichen Gesellmha/t tier Wistenscha/ten zu Gottingen, Bd. xiv,, p. 216) and Wiedemann both give 381, i.e., they read I .

• ’ nnn nn

x • T- ,nr J ^ •’/•-*> . -V . V tW?’- . .. ’ V

HERU-NETCH-HRA-TEF.-F.

470

HORUS OF BEHUTET

• •

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, 2 J| » anc* ^Tatchit, | “ ^ , 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 © ’* ant^ on account of the

terrible scenes of carnage that were enacted there was called Tclietemet, *•©•» “ 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 Avho were provided with speai’s and chains, Horus himself was

provided with a battle spear, and a chain, ^ ^ and

blacksmiths, t=afc=i ^ j , and when he had waited a whole day he saw his foes to the north-cast of Dendera, and

having attacked them he made a third great slaughter, ^ (j(j ‘==>-. lhai, among them : the name of the place where the enemy was defeated was called “ Divine Slaughter,” 1“ ‘’-•> and

it was situated quite close to Dendera. Iieru-Behutet was made the god of the region, and the acacia, 9 and the sycamore,

fl A A /WWW \ JL

”*** jl [1 4, Avere sacred to him.

Once more the enemy fled to the north and Avas pursued closely by Horus, Avho Avas armed as before ; for four whole days

and nights, ^ J, lie saAv nothing whatsoever of the enemy, for

they had changed themselves into crocodiles and hippopotamuses, but when he did see them he attacked them Avitli great vigour and slew them in large numbers. One hundred and forty-tAvo 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,” r=a; 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 IJeben, Jj. ’ 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 Jehet,

ee© ^ 1 1 , on the South, North, West, and East. The enemy, however, was not wholly defeated, and some fled to the north hoping to reach the “ Great Green Sea,” ; but the god

Horus followed after them and slew many of the rebels, the remainder of whom went to the Sea of Mertet, ° ,

/VWW> Q OIW)’

and there joined themselves to the fiends of Set, 4. After some difficulty Horus found out where the enemies were, and having come up with them ho captured 381 rebels, whom he slew in the bows of the boat of Ra, and he sent one body to each of his ‘companions. When Set saw what had been done to his friends be cried out and uttered awful imprecations and complaints of the terrible destruction which Horus had wrought, and because

of his foul words, | ^ ^ inetu-neha, the fiend was

ever after called Neliaha, A-wvV’ ^ ^ • 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-Rerehu, L"J ^ ® : when he came back he

brought Set with him, and his spear was in his neck, ^ <=> ® ^ , 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-Tenfen,

he further decreed that the enemies of

^ W /W>W /WVWi LI l

himself ami 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,” fy>. i.e., “Lake of Battle,” or, “She-neter,” oa ^ 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,” fj <=> <^> ^ ,* 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 Hcru- 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. All these events

took place on the seventh day of the month Tvbi, | <55> * , 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

“ Bu (JJ > hath turned himself into a hissing serpent, lot, “ 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, , so that he

“ may never again come forth therefrom.” As the result of this the serpent of that town was called “ Hisser ” or “ Roarer,”

^ m Y 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, ctzd Q£y, 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 Iia 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, ’ — ,

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, A 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 100 of the enemy, and then made a final attack upon them in the neighbourhood of

An-hat, ‘Z2, and Tchar,

, or Tanis : some n-‘vi 1 ©’

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 hack 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 ^ j’O ^

■ri

jo ^ ^ □ in i v. in o*

When this was done

Ila told Horus

that he wished to travel

further upon the sea, and to smite the remainder of his toes 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.1 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, Horns and his companions went back to Nubia, to the town of Shashertet,

tdlt (J P ^ where he destroyed the rebels of Uauat, and their ablest soldiers. When this was dorfe Horus changed himself once more into the form of the winged sun-disk with uraei, and took with him the goddesses Nekhebct 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

“QiSff anc* ^ was so‘ After these things Horus

journeyed on in his ship, or boat, and arrived at Apollinopolis Magna (Edfii) ©, and Thotli decreed that he should be

called the “ Light-giver, who comcth forth from the horizon

“ p ^ rO-i^; ** hereupon Horus commanded Thoth that the

winged sun-disk with uraei, «Qs, 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 miglit drive away evil from therein. Then Thoth made figures of the winged sun-disk with uraei, and distributed them among the temples, and sanctuaries, aud 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.1

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

1 For the text of the legend summarized above see Nhville, Mytlie tl’ Horns, pll. xii. ff. ; and for a translation, with transliteration of text and commentary, seo Bragsoh, Die. Sage von der gcfliigclt.cn Sunnenscheibe in the Abhandlnngcn of the Boyal Society of Sciences in Gottingen (Phys. Classe, I3d. 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 Rii 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 Rii himself, un- connected with the earth. But in the fight of lleru-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,

£=. (|(j ©, near Thebes; the second took place at Ncter-

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 Tehar, ‘j twj,

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 iu two bodies of men opposed each to the other, troops armed with weapons 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.

485

IIORUS OF BEIIUTET

memiti 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 memet 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 mesvet or nutntit , and when the metal statue of the god of the rising sun, I.leru-Behutet, was brought out by them from their chamber the g6d was said to issue from the foundry wherein he had been cast, and the inwnef was identified with that portion of the sky from which the Sun-god appeared.

It is, of course, impossible to sav 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.1 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 Ka, which belonged to a later period. The priests of Edfu found many parts of this mixed history very dilficult to explain, and they endeavoured to get out of their difficulties 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

1 The historical element iu the legend was long ago recognized by Maspero ; see Jjts Vorgorons d’ Horus el la Legctxde do l’ Hunts iChdfou (in Z lib. hgypt., tom. ii., pp. 313 ff.).

/

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, _ — o, i.e., “Horns the piercer.”

This form of Horus is that in which the god attacked Set, the murderer 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.

u

Heru-Hebenu, i.e., Horus of Hebenu, or

UAAAA,V\

a p q, the metropolis of the sixteenth nonie of

Upper Egypt.1 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 upou the back of fin antelope; this animal was supposed to be connected with Set, and Horus of Ilebennu mounted upon his back as a symbol of his sovereignty over the god of darkness and all his host.

If. Hbhu-sa-Ast-sa- Asin, jlj ^.j$| JS*

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 Greeks 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 Ileru, ^ ^ , 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 lla, and he was also the offspring of the dead man-god Osiris and his lawful successor. Horus, 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

1 Brugsch, Diet. G(og., p. 490 ; and Bragsoh, Religion, pp. 558 ff.

HORUS, SON OF ISIS

487

every 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 Book of the Dead (xvii. 15), “ Osiris is Yester- “ day, and Ra (i.e., Horus grown up) is to-day,” (j <r=> jl □ ^ (J <=> ic ^ O <==>n ^ . 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 win(rs she stirred the air as she made lamentation for her brother

O

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 l’eared him.1

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, Befen, Jj ^ese>

1 See C hallos, Rerue Archeologique, 1857, p. <15; Ledrain, Monuments Bgyptiens, pll. 22 ff.

488

HORUS, SON OF ISIS

j|) “ Mestetef, [|j “ d8®, Petet, o°o cM, Thetet,

O Of

and Matet, 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, LyJ!j. (j{j or Crocodiiopolis, and then on to the city of Tliebti, the city of the Two Sandals-Goddesses, ® ^ ^ ^fj , where the swamp country

begins. Whilst Isis was absent one day Homs 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,” ^ “J** ^ ^

() ,2 that ho appealed so strongly to the imagination of

the Egyptians.

According to a notice in the Calendar given in the Fourth Sallier 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 MeUerniclmtclc , ed, Golenischeff, Leipzig, 1877, pi. iii., 11. 46 Jf.

2 For references to him in the Book of the Dead sec my Vocabulary , p. 225.

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.1 According to Plutarch {De Iside et Oxiride), 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 11a and Apep, and Heru-ur and Set, and I.Ieru- 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 Gi’eat and Saint George. When Horus had overcome Set he succeeded to the inheritance of his father, and took his seat upon 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 Established by decrees in the Chamber* of Books, and hath been “ inscribed upon an iron tablet according to the command of thy “ father Ptah-Tancn, 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.” 2

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

1 C halms, Calendricr, Paris, 1 Still, pp. 20

2 Book of the Dead, Chap, elxxxiii., 11. 12 ff.

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- world and themselves. In the Judgment Scene in the Hook of the Dead (Papyrus 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, “ 0 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 aseeud 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, aud 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.1

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 Hebu-shemsu,

1 English renderings of the passages trill be found in my Egyptian Magic , pp. 52 ff.

FOUR CHILDREN OF HORUS. or the Gods of the Cardinal Points.

The Deceased Risinci from the Funeral Chest, which is the type of the Aat of Abydos

• with the Symbol of Life in each Hand.

HORUS, SON OF ISIS

491

$ P ^ $fl I ’ ^e’’ “ Followers of Horus.” Now we know

from several passages in the Book of the Dead that Osiris, Ra, Nefer-Tem, Neb-er-tcher, Mclii, Hathor, and, in fact, all great gods were ministered to b)r a number of lesser gods, but noue 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, ^ ^ ^ , who represented the face of heaven, was

supposed to have long hair which huyg 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, jjj|, 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 offerings 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 exxiv., ho 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 ot the four

gods are : — Hap, ^ □ A , Tuamutef, * ^ > Amset,

(j c= |) o, and Qeblisennuf, A Jj ^ ^ ||| 0 ^ this is the

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 : — MesthO, I) 9api, § ()() Tuamutef, fl

and Qebh-sennuf, | O ’ ^ ^ J • ^ie two arms °f the de- ceased wore identified Avith Hiipi and Tuamutef, and his two legs with Amset and Qebhsennuf ; and when he Avent into the Sckhet- Aaru they Avere his guides and Avent in Avith him, two on each side. Hapi represented the north and protected the small viseerae 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 Avest, and protected the liver and the gall bladder. Associated Avith the four gods, perhaps as female counterparts, Avei’e the goddesses Nephthys, Neith, Isis, and Selqet, or Sen jet.

As Horus, son of Isis, Avas so thoroughly identified Avith Horus the Elder, and with other forms of the rising sun, it is not surprising to find that the sanctuaries of the god Avere 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,1 and from them Ave learn that Horus, dweller in the tAvo

Egvpts, ^ 3 fyz ^ , ‘vas lord of Nubti, rs|n ^ (Ombos), and lord of

Bast, ^ ^ (Thebes), .and of Maam, ^ ’ 0 r/vo? Kensct,

Het-Ant, Q <=>, Re-ur, , Pe, Belien, II ^ c=~d,

Neklien, Pcr-netchem, Re-iiu, ^ /Jt.©,

Hurent, Ka-qem, Reqetit, <=> r[]]

Therer, Bak, ^ Aat-fmt, k=bJ^, llu, ^

Tchart, ^ Aat-ab, Hut, Het-suten, ^ Q

Petchatclia, □ | | ©, It, jjj (j(j ^ , Rethma Heben, ^ JJ^,

Sekhem, Abtu, f Shes-en-meh, ^

Het-neh, [)g|, Hebt, QQ^, Shep, ° , Ivhat, | G, Qah,

1 Op. cit., p. 569.

THE GOD COMPREHENDING ALL GODS.

HORUS, SON OF ISIS

493

I 1 ®> Tenrotut, etc-

<=> _S53£. <=> s ,

. Ant,

AAAAAA ^

| and Buka, ^

The forms in which Horus, son of Isis, is depicted are both numerous and interesting, and they sdiow 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 J.1 In another section he stands on the back of a hippopotamus, into the head *of which lie is driving a spear ; in this instance he is clearly identified with Heru-Bchutet. 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 coffer 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. Elsewhere 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.c., Horus as Anubis, and is said to dwell in the “ divine

hall,” ^ ^ jPipl l_^_| • he recalls under this name the god “ Her- manubis,” who is mentioned by Plutarch {lh>. hide ef Oxiride, § 01) 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

^outli, the power of the two lands,” \J =j= ^ ° and

Apuat is the “opener of the roads of the North, the power of

1 See Liuizone, op. c*it., pH. 214 ff.

494

HORUS, SON OF ISIS

heaven,” \J ^ ^ ^ The two Jackal Sods 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 Homs which was identified with

yA/WWV

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 botli gods assisted in mummifying the dead body of Osiris, and it is expressly stated in the Bool: of the Dead (xvii. 125 ff.), that it is Anubis who passes through the purification

chamber in the Mesqet $ ft 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 Spibits, “ the followers of their lord Sepa,”

— — ‘»# , to be the protectors of the dead body of

Osiris. One authority quoted in the same chapter stated that the Seven Spirits, Q ^ , were the Four Children of Horus,

already mentioned above, and Maa-atef-f, and Kheri-beq-f, \ | J|

aw//, -C£t>-

^ \ ^e>- » ^ut an°ther authority gives the names of the

Seven Spirits as follows: — 1. Netclieh-netcheh ; 2. Aaqetet ;

8. An-erta-nef-bes-f-khenti-lieh-f ; 4. Aq-her-ammi-unnut-f ; 5.

Tesher-maati-ammi-het-Anes ; 6. Ubes-hra-per-em-khetkhet ; 7.

Maa-em-kerli-an-nef-em-hru.2 In connexion with these must be • »

^ (| , and Ileru-khenti-maati,

1 j Boole of the Dead , Chap, cxlii., § iv. 24, 2a.

dlh

<; > /www n /~v

Jii

li-l- VA?Wk’’±2L!i9-

H-k” EUJS’r’i- «

ra o wra

tzrza

i

7

HARPOCRATES

495

mentioned the goddess Hetep-sekiius,

□ © ^ A ^ PSv

who is identified either with the Eye of Ra or with the flame which follows Osiris to burn up his enemies, arid the assessors of that section of the Underworld which is called An-aareretef,

or Aa-*ret-f- Sft V’ ie-

“place where nothing grows,” the chief of whom was Heru-netch- iira-atef-f, , or “Horus, the

avenger of his father.”

15. llKltu-l’A-KHART, ^ ^ ^ i.c., “ 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 llorus 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 iu 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 Chilcf 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. Brugscli collected a large number of examples of this fact,1 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, (| ^ ()(j Harpocrates became a form of Ra, and was called “ son of Hatliof, to ’whom Isis gave birth,” and was regarded as the offspring of Un-nefcr,

1 Religion nnd Mythologies p. S73.

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 Book of the Dead , and which has

reference to the district or place called Khat, ^ j , of the

dweller in Khat, in the city of Aupct, © , in the nome of Hii-

mehit, 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,

1.1 a-mehit, 1 |j(j “ ^fj, and Heru-pa-kluirt.

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, y 35? ill i-e., “ House of the Rams,” and the place where the relics were found Per-khent, C-)“:3 ^ . 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 *i%)on one neck,” ^ ^ Jj .“ 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, J J (j □

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 “ Ilorus, ‘ Let me see what is coming to pass in thine eye,’ and “ forthwith 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

^ czz z 1 1 o <2

• Sett do Rougu, Grotjy aphifi Ancienne. p. 114.

*32

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.1 * Then said Ra to those gods, * Phice 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 u ‘ thing unto Horus ; but he shall do well, although the pig is an “ ‘ abomination unto him.’ Then the company of the gods, who “ were 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 L’e 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, ^ I 1 s^-.”

In addition to the forms of Horus mentioned in the above paragraphs the Pyramid Texts make known the following : —

1. Heru-Aaji, Q n | i.e., Horus, the Moon-god;3 2. Heru-

KH ENT- PERU, 3. HeRU-AM-HeNNU,

and Heuu of Tat, authorities Horus possessed one white eye and one black, <=» £ — i,a which king Unas is said to have taken to illumine his face ; and two other titles of the god arft “ Horus of

©’

According to the same

the two blue eyes,” ^ J ^\7 and “ Horus of the two red i,eyes,” In the Theban Recension of the

1 I.e., he lost his temper and raged.

» ■==’ H =- 2: ’e= 2 ^ Tet»,l. 365.

3 Unas, 1. 202. 4 Unas, 1. 211. * Unas, 1. 218.

« Unas, 1. 37. 7 Unas, 1. 369. 8 Unas, 1. 869.

498

MISCELLANEOUS HORUS GODS

Booh of the Dead these titles are also mentioned (Chap, clxxvii. 7) as well as the following: — Heru-aa-abu, ^ 1 ^ J, Heru-

ahai, — o Ueru-ami-abu-her-ab-ami-khat, ^

m % 4 -f xx Heru-ami-athen, M Heru-

em-khebit, ^ ^ Heru-neb-ureret, ^ ^ ~ ^ ^ j,

Heru-her-neferu, Heru-khent-heh, ^

™ j, Heru-khenti-heh, ^ (f^ ™ n ^ I ’ ^eru-sekhab

Weru-shet-hra, etc* Finally» hl

the text of Unas (line 462 ff.) we meet with the form of Heku-

is mentioned in connexion with Rii, Tern,

Thotk, and Horus of Tat, and the star Nekhekh,

/WWW

Hem-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 norae Sept,

Mp ‘ In the examples given by Signor Lanzone of the various 85 c

forms under which Sept is depicted he is sometimes seen in the form of a man having upon his head either the symbol ^ , or double plumes, jj] , or a disk, © , and sometimes in the form of a mummied hawk, , with plumes on his head, and the symbol ^ in front of him, and the mendt , , 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, Jj J1 who is represented with outspread arms, hands, and wings, and with feathers on the top of his head. In this form he is called, “Sept, the smiter of the Menti,” |>

i.e., the tribes of the Eastern Desert and Arabia. Sept was clearly a god of battles, (j(j and he was called

the “ Bull that trampleth on the Menti ; ” he was the

The God SEPT.

MISCELLANEOUS HOllUS GODS 499

“ strengthener of Egypt, and the protector of the temples of the gods.” 1

The principal seat of the worship of the god was ’in the metropolis of the nome, i.e., at Per-Sept, L~(_J ^ ^ ; if Kesem,

@ , was a 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 Sectit, was Siven> his

sanctuary contained some fine vebes 2 trees, hence its name axt

nebes, jj

crz]

JJ P Q j , “ house of nebes trees.” As the “ lord of

battle,” ^37 (y\ , 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 disk3 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) Ave read of the “ slaughtering block of the god Septu,”

. Up to the present no satisfactoiy 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, tj^| ^ f © > which is described in the Ed ft! list as ^ ‘j A/WW\ WVWl J i.e., “ the hidden ^ of Khas (?) en-Sept.”

1 Do Rouge, Geographic Aucienne , p. 141.

3 The Cordia Sehestena , or Zizyphm Lotos Tlr., according to Brngsch, Religion, p. 567.

3 Lanzone, op. cit., p. 1048.

( 500 )

CHAPTER XVI

THE GREAT TRIAD OF MEMPHIS, PTAH, SEKHET, AND I-EM-HETEP,

THE greatest of all the old gods of Memphis was undoubtedly Ptah, ° | or Ptah-neb-ankh, ^ | ^ 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 pdthalch, nrs, in fact Ptah was thought to be the “ Opener ” of the day just as Tem 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, Tem, Heru, and Ha. Moreover, although the word

ptah, ^ j[ > is found in Egyptian it never has the meaning “ to

open,” in the sense of opening a door, and the determinative which follows it,1 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. HIT© “ 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,

1 Brugsch, Worterlmch, p. 528,

FTAH FASHIONING THE EGG 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,” “j ->-==> lYhT 1 n ^ “father

“ of fathers, Power of powers,” ^ ^ ^ ^ “j’j’j; “father of

“beginnings, and creator of the egg[s] of the Sun and Moon,” | P ^ ? “ lord of Mafit, 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 ; ” 1 “ Ptah, the Disk of heaven, illuminer “ of the two lands with the fire of his two eyes.” 2 In the text of

Teta (lines 87, 97) the “workshop of Ptah,” | 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 Book of the Dead, was the great artificer in metals, and lie 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

avav\ tJ

1

Ck

/WWW

, Lanzone, op. cit., p. 240.

502

FORMS OF PTAH

iron slab which 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 Ptafj-Asar (Ptah-Osiris), Ptaii-Hapi, Ptah-Nu, Ptah-Seker, Ptah-Seker-Asar, Ptah-Sekkr-Tkm, 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 Tern.” 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 lxiv., line 8, he is said to have covered his sky with crystal; Chapter lxxxii. 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 07, 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 11 hook of Ptah ” is mentioned ; in Chapter clxvi. Ptah is said to overthrow the enemies of the deceased (see .also Chapter clxxii. 1 0). 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

khakern, ynr* ^ jj j , weapons from his divine house. In a hymn to Osiris (Chapter xv.) Osiris is addressed as Un-nefer IJeru-kliuti, and as “ Ptah-Seker-Tem, in Annu, the

“lord of the hidden place, and the creator of Het-ka-Ptah (i.e., “ 1 the House of the Double of Ptah,’ or Memphis) ; ” finally, Ptah-

FORMS OF PTAH

503

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, and the emblems of “ life,” and “ stability,” j^. When standing

upright his feet rest upon a pedestal made in the shape of the sign moot /— n, 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, or the tet, |j, which symbolizes both “stability” and the tree trunk in which the body of Osiris was hidden by Isis. Ptah under his forms of Ptah-Nu,

Ptah-Hapi, | “Hsi’ 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-Seker, or Ptah-Seker-

asar, anta?-tanbn> sy

JJ| ^ tjfr , must 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 , jf, sometimes he has

the head of a man and holds in each hand a knife.1 Seker >yas originally a power of darkness, or of the night, which in later times was identified with forms of the night sun like lem. He is

Lanzoiie, op. cit.., pi. 3(58, No. 4.

504

THE SEKER BOAT

iSokor-Asar.

called “ the great god, who came into being “ in the beginning, he who resteth upon the

“ ’tarlmesa,”

T 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

“ boat, 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,

°r smam-™>

^=t, 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 Ra, 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;- k&ra.

Ptolemy Eaergetea and the Henna Boat.

505

SEKER OR HENNIJ BOAT

The Seker Boat which 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 Ar, 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 klierp hem,” f f ’ U i-e-> great 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,” ^ ^

and it is mentioned several times in the Booh of the. Dead and sometimes in Connexion with traditions of great importance.

506

SEKER OR HENNU BOAT

Thus after the lxivth 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 1 which was made for the royal chancellor Heinaka, 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 Rft

the Aged, is said to be like Horus, and Ra the Babe,

T 1 <—>’ to be like Seker. The sanctuaries of Seker must have

been extremely numerous 2 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 Utah, 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 9 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, upon his head.4 Elsewhere he is found in the usual form of Ptah seated upon

• See a list given by Lanzone, op. cifc., p. 1117.

• Ibid., pi. 95.

• No. 32,650.

3 Op. cifc.f pi. 94, No. 4.

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 PtaE and Seker 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 ho 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,

^ , 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-

eQp DO

T Sll 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 tlirohe is his son Horus in the form of a hawk. The cornice of the shrine in which the god is seated is composed of uraci with disks on their heads, and before it stand

the Mer goddess of the South, ^ ^ , wearing a red garment, and

the Mer goddess of the North, <^>, 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 Khepera, 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. Ptali-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-bom, and Osiris the giver of everlasting life.

Finally must be mentioned Ptah in his connexion with the

primeval god Tenen y AAAAAA or Ta-tu-nen, Ta-thunen,

or

M = ^ ii I- or TA-rao-nnwr. ^44 “

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 j;

in a figure reproduced by Lanzone 1 we see him seated upon the oval object, ezra. 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 ho 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. 8.

• For the hieratic text see Lepsius, DenkmiUer, vi., pi. 118.

tatenen

HYMN TO PTAII-TANEN

509

idea of the meaning of the name Ta-tenen, “Ta,” ( , is of course

“ earth,” and “ Tenen,” a^a , is probably to be connected with the

^ _ AAAAAA £ A/VWSA

word, . cnen, or nen, which means “inertnesS, in-

activity, rest, motionless,” and the like, .and if this derivation bo 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 See hem “ (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.” 1 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-Tcnen, seriously, and was only making a play upon the words of similar sound. In the hymn to Ptali- Tenen already mentioned we lintl the following address to the god and titles : — “ Homage to thee, O Ptah-Tenen, thou great god, “ whose form is hidden ! Thou openest thy soul and thou wakest “ up in peace, O 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.”

rsiuiaiijjMini

o,

glia ’nnnir

A/WWV

@ III

I)

O

m

^ \

n

I

I

«==–=» 3S |

J? l S Ul_* 1*5 I- In “ whkh follo"r he “

called the “ begetter of men,” ^ /e==a ^ j > the “ mftker

HYMN TO PTAH-TANEN

of their lives,” the “ creator of the gods,” “ he who passeth though eternity and everlastingness,” PJ J\ lol *^1, “of multitudinous forms,” ^ ]jg | (j J | j , “ *be hearer of prayers which men make to him,” ^ ^ | D <=> ‘j| ™ ^ ^ ^ j , “ builder of his own limbs,” ^ ^ ^ and maker of his body,

“ when as yet heaven and earth were not created, and when the “ waters had not come forth,” ~JU‘ 0 <=> 0 Q <o *wJ’

zz a-.? “ti,ou <udst kni* *°sether &e

“ earth, thou didst gather together thy members, thou didst “ embrace thy limbs, and thou didst hnd thyself in the condition “ of the One who made his seat, and who fashioned (or, moulded) “ the two lands.1 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.” 3 Next we have

an allusion to thy “aged son,” (J ^ he., Ra,

and to the dissipation of night and darkness by the sun and moon, which are called the “ Eyes ” of Ptah-Teneri. 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 holdest 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.”

^ | 3X

laid

n G | QQ 0,1

<— S3 U 1 <1 A O <=» tl.