Topic: Egyptian Mythology

[Prometheus]

https://archive.org/details/mythologyofallra12gray/page/n22

Volume XII

EGYPTIAN



PLATE I

Hnit-ma-dawgyi Nat

This Nat is the elder sister of Min Magaye, or
Mahagiri, and is usually worshipped together with
him. After Temple, Thirty-Seven Nats of Burma,
No. 3. See pp. 347-48-



THE MYTHOLOGY
OF ALL RACES

IN THIRTEEN VOLUMES
LOUIS HERBERT GRAY, A.M., PH.D., Editor

GEORGE FOOT MOORE, A.M., D.D., LL.D., Consulting Editor

EGYPTIAN INDO-CHINESE



BY
W. MAX MtJLLER



BY



SIR JAMES GEORGE SCOTT



K.C.I.E.



VOLUME XII




BOSTON
MARSHALL JONES COMPANY
MDCCCC XVIII .




Copyright, 191 8
By Marshall Jones Company



Entered at Stationers' Hall, London



All rights reserved

Printed February, 191 8



PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS

BOUND BY THE BOSTON BOOKBINDING COMPANY



CONTENTS

EGYPTIAN

Author's Preface 3

Introduction 7

Chapter I. The Local Gods 15

II. The Worship of the Sun 23

III. Other Gods Connected with Nature ... 33

IV. Some Cosmic and Cosmogonic Myths .... 68
V. The Osirian Circle 92

VI. Some Texts Referring to Osiris-Myths . . 122

VII. The Other Principal Gods 129

VIII. Foreign Gods 153

IX. Worship of Animals and Men 159

X. Life after Death 173

XI. Ethics and Cult 184

XII. Magic 198

XIII. Development and Propagation of Egyptian

Religion 212

INDO-CHINESE

Author's Preface 249

Transcription and Pronunciation 251

Chapter I. The Peoples and Religions of Indo-China 253

IL Indo-Chinese Myths and Legends 263

III. The Festivals of the Indo-Chinese .... 323

IV. The Thirty-Seven Nats 339

Notes, Egyptian 361

Notes, Indo-Chinese 429

Bibliography, Egyptian 433

Bibliography, Indo-Chinese 448



ILLUSTRATIONS

FULL PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS

PLATE FACING PAGE

I Hnit-ma-dawgyi Nat — Coloured Frontispiece

II I. Greek Terra-Co tta of the Young Horus Floating in

his Boat ii6

2. Bes in the Armour of a Roman Soldier
- 3. Zeus-Serapis

III I. Amen-hotep 170

X2. I-m-hotep

3. The Zodiacal Signs

IV Shrine of the Tree-Spirit 254

V Tsen-Yii-ying 260

VI Shrine of the Stream-Spirit 268

VII I. Naga Min — Coloured 272

2. Galon

3. Bilu

VIII Shrine of the Tree-Spirit 280

IX Prayer-Spire 300

X The Guardian of the Lake 302

XI Sale of Flags and Candles 310

XII A. The White Elephant 316

B. The White Elephant 316

XIII Funeral Pyre of a Burmese Monk 326

XIV The Goddess of the Tilth 330

XV Red Karen Spirit-Posts . 336

' XVI Thagya Min Nat — Coloured 342

XVII Mahagiri Nat — Coloured 344

XVIII An Avatar Play 346

XIX Shwe Pyin Naungdaw Nat — Coloured 348

XX The Guardian of the Lake 352

XXI Min Kyawzwa Nat — Coloured 354



viii ILLUSTRATIONS



ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT

FIGURE PAGE

1 The Triad of Elephantine: Khnum, Sa|et, and 'Anuqet . 20

2 Some Gods of Prehistoric Egypt whose Worship Later was

Lost 22

3 The Sun-God Watching the Appearance of his Disk in the

Eastern Gate of Heaven 24

4 Pictures of Khepri in Human Form 24

5 Khepri as the Infant Sun 25

6 Khepri with the Sun in Double Appearance 25

7 The Sun-God Rows a Departed Soul over the Sky ... . 26

8 A Star as Rower of the Sun in the Day-Time 26

9 The Sun-Boat as a Double Serpent 26

10 The Sun-God at Night-Time 27

1 1 Atum behind the Western Gate of Heaven 28

12 Thout as a Baboon 32

13 Baboons Greet the Sun 32

14 Baboons Saluting the Morning Sun 32

15 Thout 33

16 Thout, the Scribe 33

17 Thout in Baboon Form as Moon-God and Scribe of the Gods 33

18 Khons as Moon-God 34

19 A Personified Pillar of the Sky 35

20 The Sun-God on his Stairs 35

21 The Dead Witnesses the Birth of the Sun from the Celestial

Tree 35

22 The Sun-Boat and the Two Celestial Trees 36

23 The Dead at the Tree and Spring of Life 36

24 Amon as the Supreme Divinity Registers a Royal Name on

the "Holy Persea in the Palace of the Sun" 37

25 Symbol of Hat-hor from the Beginning of the Historic Age 37

26 Hat-hor at Evening Entering the Western Mountain and the

Green Thicket 38

27 The Sun-God between the Horns of the Celestial Cow . 38

28 The Dead Meets Hat-hor behind the Celestial Tree ... 39

29 "Meht-ueret, the Mistress of the Sky and of Both Coun-

tries" (i. e. Egypt) 39

30 The Goddess of Diospolis Parva 40

31 Nut Receiving the Dead 41



ILLUSTRATIONS ix

FIGURE PAGE

32 Nut with Symbols of the Sky in Day-Time 41

33 Qeb as Bearer of Vegetation 42

34 Qeb with his Hieroglyphic Symbol 42

35 Qeb as a Serpent and Nut 42

36 Qeb Watching Aker and Extended over him 43

37 Disfigured Representation of Aker Assimilated to Shu and

Tefenet 43

38 Shu, Standing on the Ocean (?), Upholds Nut, the Sky . . 43

39 Shu-Heka and the Four Pillars Separating Heaven and

Earth 44

40 Tefenet 44

41 The Nile, his Wife Nekhbet, and the Ocean 45

42 Nuu with the Head of an Ox 47

43 "Nuu, the Father of the Mysterious Gods," Sends his

Springs to "the Two Mysterious Ones" 47

44 Two Members of the Primeval Ogdoad 48

45 Heh and Hehet Lift the Young Sun (as Khepri) over the

Eastern Horizon 48

46 Unusual Representation of the Husband of the Sky-Goddess 49

47 The Sky-Goddess in Double Form and her Consort ... 49

48 The Young Sun in his Lotus Flower 50

49 Khnum Forms Children, and Heqet Gives them Life ... 51

50 Meskhenet 52

51 Sekhait, Thout, and Atum Register a King's Name on the

Celestial Tree, Placing the King within it 53

52 The Planet Saturn in a Picture of the Roman Period . . 54

53 Sothis-Sirius 54

54 Sothis (called "Isis") 55

55 Sothis and Horus-Osiris Connected 55

56 Decanal Stars from Denderah 56

57 Early Picture of Orion 57

58 The Double Orion 58

59 The Ferryman of the Dead 58

60 Constellations Around the Ox-Leg 59

61 Three Later Types of Epet (the Last as Queen of Heaven) 60

62 An-Horus Fighting the Ox-Leg 61

63 Old Types of Bes from the Twelfth and Eighteenth Dynas-

ties 61

64 Bes with Flowers 62

65 Bes Drinking 62



X ILLUSTRATIONS

FIGURE PAGE

66 The Female Bes 63

67 The Female Bes 63

68 A"Pataik" 64

69 Lost Stellar Divinity 64

70 The East and West Winds 65

71 The Air-God Shu-Heb with the South and North Winds 65

72 An Hour 66

73 Nepri, the Grain-God, Marked by Ears of Grain .... 66

74 The Field-Goddess 67

75 The Birth of the Sun-God 71

76 Further Symbols of the Birth of the Sun-God 71

'j'j The Heavenly Cow, the Sun-God, and the Gods Support-
ing her (Shu in the Centre) 78

78 Thout in Ibis-Form (Twice), with Shu and Tefenet as the

Two Lions 87

79 Thout Greets Tefenet Returning from Nubia 88

80 The Solar Eye In the Watery Depth 89

81 The Solar Eye Guarded In the Deep 89

82 Osiris as a Black God 92

83 Osiris Hidden in his Pillar 92

84 Osiris in the Celestial Tree 93

85 The Nile Revives the Soul of Osiris in Sprouting Plants . . 94

86 Osiris Rising to New Life In Sprouting Seeds 94

87 Birth and Death of the Sun, with Osiris as Master of the

Abysmal Depth 96

88 Osiris as Judge on his Stairs 97

89 Osiris with the Water and Plant of Life, on which Stand

his Four Sons 97

90 Isis 98

91 The Symbol of Isis 99

92 Isis-Hat-h6r 99

93 The West Receiving a Departed Soul 99

94 The Celestial Arms Receiving the Sun-God 100

95 "The Double Justice" 100

96 The Symbol of the Horus of Edfu loi

97 One of the Smiths of Horus loi

98 Oldest Pictures of Seth 102

99 Seth Teaches the Young King Archery, and Horus Instructs

him in Fighting with the Spear 103

100 Apop Bound In the Lower World 104



ILLUSTRATIONS xi

FIGURE PAGE

loi The Sons of Osiris Guard the Fourfold Serpent of the Abyss

before their Father 105

102 'Apop Chained by "the Children of Horus" 105

103 The Unborn Sun Held by the Water Dragon 105

104 The Cat-God Killing the Serpent at the Foot of the Heav-

enly Tree 106

105 "TheCat-LikeGod" 106

106 The Dead Aiding the Ass against the Dragon 107

107 The God with Ass's Ears in the Fight against Apop . . 108

108 The God with Ass's E^ars 109

109 Genii Fighting with Nets or Snares 109

no Horus-Orion, Assisted by Epet, Fights the Ox-Leg ... no

111 Nephthys no

112 Anubis as Embalmer in

113 Divine Symbol Later Attributed to Anubis in

114 The Sons of Horus in

'?' 115 The Four Sons of Osiris-Horus United with the Serpent

of the Deep Guarding Life 112

116 The Sons of Horus-Osiris in the Sky near their Father

Orion (called "Osiris") 112

/'I17 Osiris under the Vine 113

118 Isis (as Sothis or the Morning Star.'') and Selqet-Nephthys

Gathering Blood from the Mutilated Corpse of Osiris . 114

>'II9 Isis Nursing Horus in the Marshes 116

120 Osiris in the Basket and in the Boat, and Isis 117

121 Horus Executes Seth (in the Form of an Ass) before Osiris 119

122 Horus Kills Seth as a Crocodile . 119

123 Amon 129

124 Amonet 130

125 Antaeus 130

126 Buto 132

127 Ehi 133

128 Hat-mehit 133

129 Hesat .- 134

130 Kenemtefi 134

131 Old Symbol of Mafdet 135

132 Meret in Double Form 136

133 Mi-hos, Identified with Nefer-tem 137

134 Hieroglyphic Symbols of Min from Prehistoric Objects 137

135 Barbarians of the Desert Climbing Poles before Min . . 138



xii ILLUSTRATIONS

FIGURE PAGE

136 The Earliest Sanctuaries of Min, Decorated with a Pecu-

liar Standard 138

137 Min before his Grove 139

138 Mon^u 139

139 Oldest Type of Mon^u 140

140 Mut with a Head-Dress Assimilating her to Amon .... 140

141 Nefer-tem 140

142 Emblem of Nefer-tem 141

143 Nehem(t)-'auit 141

144 Neith 142

145 Nekhbet Protecting the King 142

146 Late Type of Onuris 143

147 Ophois 144

148 Opet 144

149 Ptalj 145

150 Sekhmet 147

151 Sokari Hidden in his Boat or Sledge 148

152 Sopd as an Asiatic Warrior 148

153 Archaic Type of Sopd 149

154 Tait Carrying Chests of Linen 150

155 Ubastet 150

156 Unut 151

157 Statuette of the Museum of Turin Showing Hat-hor of

Byblos 154

158 Reshpu 155

159 Resheph-Seth 155

160 "Astarte, Mistress of Horses and of the Chariot" ... 156

161 Astarte 156

162 Astarte as a Sphinx 156

163 Qedesh 157

164 Asit 157

165 Anat 157

166 Hieroglyphs of Dedun and Selqet 158

167 Statuette of the Apis Showing his Sacred Marks .... 162

168 Buchis 163

169 The Mendes Ram and his Plant Symbol 164

170 Amon as a Ram 164

171 Atum of Heliopolis 164

172 "Atum, the Spirit of Heliopolis" 165

173 Shedeti 165



ILLUSTRATIONS xiii

FIGURE PAGE

174 KhatuH-Shedeti 165

175 The Phoenix 165

176 "The Soul of Osiris" in a Sacred Tree Overshadowing his

Sarcophagus-like Shrine 166

177 Statue of a Guardian Serpent in a Chapel 166

178 Egyptian Chimera ?. . 169

179 The Birth of a King Protected by Gods 170

180 The Ka of a King, Bearing his Name and a Staff-Symbol

Indicating Life 170

181 The Soul-Bird 174

182 The Soul Returning to the Body 174

183 The Soul Returns to the Grave 175

184 The Dead Visits his House 175

185 The Dead Wanders over a Mountain to the Seat of Osiris 176

186 The Dead before Osiris, the Balance of Justice, the Lake of

Fire, and "the Swallower" 179

187 The Condemned before the Dragon 179

188 Shades Swimming in the Abyss 180

189 A Female Guardian with Fiery Breath Watches Souls,

Symbolized by Shades and Heads, in the Ovens of Hell 180

190 Thout's Baboons Fishing Souls i8l

191 Dancers and a Buffoon at a Funeral 182

192 Large Sacrifice Brought before a Sepulchral Chapel in the

Pyramid Period 182

193 Temples of the Earliest Period 187

194 Guardian Statues and Guardian Serpents of a Temple . 187

195 Front of a Temple according to an Egyptian Picture . . 188

196 Royal Sacrifice before the Sacred Pillars of Bubastos . . 190

197 The King Offering Incense and Keeping a Meat-Offering

Warm 191

198 Temple Choir in Unusual Costume 191

199 Two Women Representing I sis and Nephthys as Mourners

at Processions I92

200 "The Worshipper of the God" 192

201 Priest with the Book of Ritual 193

202 Archaistic Priestly Adornment 193

203 A King Pulling the Ring at the Temple Door 193

204 A God Carried in Procession 194

205 A Small Portable Shrine . 194

206 Mythological Scenes from a Procession 194



xiv ILLUSTRATIONS

FIGURE PAGE

207 An Acrobat Following a Sacrificial Animal 195

208 Small Holocaustic Sacrifice on an Oven 195

209 Human Sacrifice at a Royal Tomb of the First Dynasty 196

210 Nubian Slaves Strangled and Burned at a Funeral . . . 196

211 A Ritual Priest 198

212 A Section of the Metternich Stele 207

213 Fragment of a Magic Wand 208

214 Late Nameless God of the Universe 223

215 Amen-hotep IV and his Wife Sacrificing to the Solar Disk 225

216 Profile of Amen-hotep IV . 226

217 Prayer-Stele with Symbols of Hearing 232

218 Antaeus-Serapis 240

219 Guardian Deities on the Tomb of Kom-esh-Shugafa near

Alexandria 241

220 Guardian Symbol from the Same Tomb 241

221 Nut, Aker, and Khepri 368

222 Shu with Four Feathers 368

223 Ageb, the Watery Depth 371

224 " Sebeg in the Wells " 373

225 "Horus of the Two Horizons" 388

226 The Jackal (?) with a Feather 393

227 The Harpoon of Horus 397

228 "Horus on his Green" 401

229 Symbol of Selqet as the Conqueror 412

230 Souls In the Island of Flames among Flowers and Food . 417

231 The Earliest Construction Commemorating a " Festival of

the Tail" 419

232 A Priestess Painting the Eyes of a Sacred Cow 420



EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

BY
W. MAX MtJLLER



TO
MORRIS JASTROW, JR., ph.d.

OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

AND TO

ALBERT TOBIAS CLAY, ph.d., ll.d.

AND

CHARLES CUTLER TORREY, ph.d., d.d.

OF YALE UNIVERSITY



AUTHOR'S PREFACE

THIS study can hope to give only a sketch of a vast theme
which, because of its endless and difficult material, has
thus far received but superficial investigation even from the
best of scholars; its complete elaboration would require several
volumes of space and a lifetime of preparation.

The principal difficulty is to make it clear to the modern
mind that a religion can exist without any definite system of
doctrine, being composed merely of countless speculations that
are widely divergent and often conflicting. This doctrinal
uncertainty is increased by the way in which the traditions
have been transmitted. Only rarely is a piece of mythology
complete. For the most part we have nothing but many scat-
tered allusions which must be united for a hazardous restora-
tion of one of these theories. In other respects, likewise, the
enormous epigraphic material presents such difficulties and is
so confusing in nature that everything hitherto done on the
religion of Egypt is, as we have just implied, merely pioneer
work. As yet an exhaustive description of this religion could
scarcely be written.

A minor problem is the question of transliterating Egyptian
words and names, most of which are written in so abbre-
viated a fashion that their pronunciation, especially in the case
of the vowels, always remains dubious unless we have a good
later tradition of their sound. It is quite as though the abbre-
viation "st." (= "street") were well known to persons having
no acquaintance with English to mean something like "road,"
but without any indication as to its pronunciation. Foreigners
would be compelled to guess whether the sound of the word



4 AUTHOR'S PREFACE

were set, sat, seta, sota, etc., or este, usot, etc., since there is abso-
lutely nothing to suggest the true pronunciation "street." A
great part of the Egyptian vocabulary is known only in this
way, and in many instances we must make the words pro-
nounceable by arbitrarily assigning vowel sounds, etc., to them.
Accordingly I have thought it better to follow popular mispro-
nunciations like Nut than to try Newet, Neyewet, and other
unsafe attempts, and even elsewhere I have sacrificed correct-
ness to simplicity where difficulty might be experienced by a
reader unfamiliar with some Oriental systems of writing. It
should be borne in mind that Sekhauit and Uzoit, for example,
might more correctly be written S(e)khjewyet, Wezoyet, and
that e is often used as a mere filler where the true vowel is quite
unknown.

Sometimes we can prove that the later Egyptians themselves
misread the imperfect hieroglyphs, but for the most part we
must retain these mispronunciations, even though we are con-
scious of their slight value. All this will explain why any two
Egyptologists so rarely agree in their transcriptions. Returning
in despair to old-fashioned methods of conventionalizing tran-
scription, I have sought to escape these difficulties rather than
to solve them.

In the transliteration kh has the value of the Scottish or
German ch;h is a. voiceless laryngeal spirant — a rough, wheez-
ing, guttural sound; q is an emphatic k, formed deep in the
throat (Hebrew p) ; ' is a strange, voiced laryngeal explosive
(Hebrew ^); J Is an assibilated t (German z); z is used here
as a rather Inexact substitute for the peculiar Egyptian pro-
nunciation of the emphatic Semitic s (Hebrew V, in Egyptian
sounding like ts, for which no single type can be made).

For those who may be unfamiliar with the history of Egypt
It will here be sufficient to say that Its principal divisions (dis-
regarding the intermediate periods) are : the Old Empire (First
to Sixth Dynasties), about 3400 to 2500 b. c; the Middle
Empire (Eleventh to Thirteenth Dynasties), about 2200 to



AUTHOR'S PREFACE 5

1700 B. c; the New Empire (Eighteenth to Twenty-Sixth
Dynasties), about 1600 to 525 b. c.

Pictures which could not be photographed directly from
books have been drawn by my daughter; Figs. 13, 65 (b)
are taken from scarabs in my possession.

Since space does not permit full references to the monu-
ments, I have omitted these wherever I follow the present
general knowledge and where the student can verify these
views from the indexes of the more modern literature which I
quote. References have been limited, so far as possible, to
observations which are new or less well known. Although I
have sought to be brief and simple in my presentation of Egyp-
tian mythology, my study contains a large amount of original
research. I have sought to emphasize two principles more than
has been done hitherto: (a) the comparative view — Egyptian
religion had by no means so isolated a growth as has generally
been assumed; (b) as in many other religions, its doctrines
often found a greater degree of expression in religious art than
in religious literature, so that modern interpreters should make
more use of the Egyptian pictures. Thus I trust not only that
this book will fill an urgent demand for a reliable popular
treatise on this subject, but that for scholars also it will mark
a step in advance toward a better understanding of Egypt's
most interesting bequest to posterity.

W. MAX MtJLLER.

University of Pennsylvania,
September, 19x7.

[Prometheus]

INTRODUCTION

FOR almost two millenniums the religion of ancient Egypt
has claimed the interest of the nations of the West.
When the Classical peoples had lost faith in the credence of
their forefathers, they turned to the "wise priests" of Egypt,
and a certain reverence for the "wisdom of Egypt" survived
even the downfall of all pagan religions. This admiration
received a considerable impetus when Napoleon's expedition
revealed the greatness of that remarkable civilization which
once had flourished on the banks of the Nile. Thus today
an Egyptian temple seems to many a peculiarly appropriate
shrine for religious mysticism, and the profoundest thoughts
of the human mind and the finest morality are believed to be
hidden in the grotesque hieroglyphs on obelisks and sphinxes.
Yet the only bases of this popular impression are two argu-
ments which are quite fallacious. The first has been im-
plied — the religious thought of a nation which produced
such a wonderful and many-sided civilization ought, one would
naturally suppose, to oflFer an achievement parallel to what it
accomplished in architecture, art, etc. The principal reason
for this excessive regard, however, has been the unwarranted
prejudice of Classical paganism. Modern readers must be
warned against following this overestimation blindly, for It is
largely founded on the very unlntelllgiblllty of the Egyptian
religion, which. In its hyperconservatism, absolutely refused
to be adapted to reason. Even the anxiety of dying heathenism
could not force the endless number of gods and their contra-
dictory functions Into a rational system or explain away the
crudity of such aspects of the Egyptian faith as the worship
of animals; and the missionaries of Christianity selected these



8 INTRODUCTION

very features as the most palpable illustrations of the folly or
the diabolical madness of heathen creeds. Yet the unintelli-
gible always wields a strong attraction for the religious mind,
and the appeals of the early Christian apologists to reason
alone would scarcely have annihilated all faith in Isis and
Osiris even outside the Nile valley, where that belief was not
supported by the national traditions of many thousand years.
The fact that the Egyptians themselves were so utterly unable
to reduce their religion to a reasonable system seemed the
best proof of its mystic depth to the Romans of post-Christian
times and may still impress some persons similarly. Even
after the science of the history of religion had developed,
scholars did not examine the religion of Egypt with sufficient
impartiality, but constantly sought to overrate It. Of course,
the modern student will scarcely be Inclined to treat all ab-
surdities as wonderful mystic depths and to place the Egyp-
tian religion at the acme of all religious systems simply because
of its many obscurities. Yet scholars have hesitated to treat
its crudities as real and have often tried to find more hidden
meaning in them than was seen by the Egyptians themselves,
so that considerable time elapsed before science dared to
examine the religious "wisdom of Egypt" critically and to
treat it as what it really was — a bequest of most primitive
ages and In great part a remnant of the barbarism from which
the Egyptians had gradually emerged.

The earliest Egyptologists dared not venture to explain
the Egyptian religion, whose hieroglyphic texts they under-
stood only Incompletely. The first decipherers, J. F. Cham-
pollion and Sir J. G. Wilkinson, did. little more than collect
the pictures of the gods. R. Lepslus made the first feeble
attempts at the Investigation of special chapters of the
texts. The earlier school of French Egyptologists, J. J.
ChampollIon-FIgeac, E. de Rouge, and P. Pierret, sought to
explain the religion of the Pharaohs as a kind of monotheism,
drawing this inference, strangely enough, from such epithets



INTRODUCTION 9

as "the Great One," "the Unique," or "the Eternal," even
though these titles were given to so many different gods. To
their minds a pure monotheism was disguised under the out-
ward appearance of a symbolic polytheism, which had at its
root the belief that all the different gods were in reality only
diverse manifestations of the same supreme being. It is quite
true that such views are found on some monuments,^ but it is
utterly erroneous to regard them as the general opinion or as
the original religion of the Egyptians. As additional religious
texts were discovered in course of time, the religion revealed
itself to be increasingly crude and polytheistic in direct pro-
portion to the earliness of the date of the documents con-
cerned: the older the texts, the ruder and lower are the
religious views which they set forth. All pantheistic or sup-
posedly monotheistic passages represent only the development
of Egyptian thought from a comparatively recent period.
Furthermore, they were isolated attempts of a few advanced
thinkers and poets and did not affect the religion of the
masses; and finally, they are still far removed from a real
monotheism or a systematic pantheism.

Among the apologists for Egyptian religion in an earlier
generation of scholars H. K. Brugsch endeavoured with
special zeal, but in a way which was far from convincing, to
demonstrate that Egyptian religion was originally pantheistic;
to maintain his theory he was compelled to analyse the divine
principle into eight or nine cosmic forces by means of bolder
identifications of the various divinities than even the later
Egyptians ever attempted. Previous to him Le Page Renouf
had emphasized the cosmic features of the pantheon in a
manner which was not confirmed by the discovery of the
earliest religious texts; and still earlier Lepsius had tried to
interpret Egyptian polytheism as a degeneration of a solar
monotheism or henotheism, thus taking a position intermedi-
ate between that of the earlier French scholars and that
of later investigators. In like fashion, though assuming a



lo INTRODUCTION

more complicated hypothetical development, J. Lieblein also
stressed an alleged degeneration from original simplicity;
and certain similar theories, holding that Egyptian poly-
theism was partially (or even largely) developed from mono-
theism or henotheism by local differentiation, or evincing an
erroneous tendency to discover a cosmic origin for all gods,
continue to influence more than one of the most modern
writers. But, we repeat, even if some elements of higher
thought may be gleaned from the texts, these scattered traces
did not touch the earliest form of Egyptian belief as it can
now be read from texts anterior to 3000 B.C., nor did they
affect the religion of the masses even during the latest periods
of history. The further back we go, the more primitive are
the ideas which we find, with absolutely no trace of mono-
theism; and those rude concepts always predominated in the
religion of the people to such an extent that they represented
the real Egyptian creed.

The first step toward an understanding of the fundamental
crudity of the Egyptian religion was in 1878, when R. Pletsch-
mann^ proposed to regard its beginnings as precisely parallel
to the pure animism and fetishism of Central Africa, showing
at the same time that such a religion must everywhere assume
in large part a magic character. The effect of this step has
been very great; and although it encountered much opposition
and is still denied by some prejudiced scholars and many
laymen, it has done much to develop the theory on this sub-
ject which now prevails among students of religion. The
writer who has been most energetic in the promulgation of
this theory has been G. Maspero, whose numerous essays have
been the chief factors in establishing a fuller knowledge and
understanding of Egyptian religion, although he never wrote
an exhaustive presentation of these beliefs.

The stereotyped objection against such a low view of Egyp-
tian religion is its extreme contrast to the whole civilization
of the Egyptian nation. Can It be possible that, as Maspero



INTRODUCTION ' ii

boldly stated, the most highly developed people of the ancient
Orient, a nation inferior only to the Greeks in its accomplish-
ments, held in religion a place no higher than that which is
occupied by some barbarous negro tribes? Yet the develop-
ment of civilization rarely runs quite parallel to that of re-
ligious thought. The wonderful civilization of the Chinese,
for example, is quite incongruous with the very primitive
character of their indigenous religion; and, on the other hand,
Israel, the source of the greatest religious progress, took a
very modest place in art and science before it was dispersed
among the Gentiles. Above all, religion is everywhere more or
less controlled by the traditions of the past and seeks its basis
in the beliefs and customs of early days. According to the
usual reasoning of man, his forefathers appear as more and
more happy and wise in direct proportion as history is traced
further and further back, until at last they are portrayed as
living with the gods, who still walked on earth. The ultra-
conservative Egyptians were especially anxious to tread in
the ways of the blessed forefathers, to adore the same gods to
whom their ancestors had bowed down in time immemorial,
and to worship them in exactly the same forms; so that the
religion of the later, highly developed Egyptians after 3000
B.C. remained deplorably similar to that of their barbarous
forefathers. Our present knowledge of the state of Egyptian
civilization about and before 4000 B.C. is sufficient to show
that some development had already been made, including the
first steps toward the evolution of the hieroglyphic system of
writing; but the crude artistic attempts of that age, its burials
of the dead in miserable holes or in large jars, its buildings in
straw and in mud bricks, and its temples of wicker-work and
mats still form such a contrast to the period of the Second and
Third Dynasties, when Egyptian architecture and art made the
first strides toward the perfection of the Pyramid Age, that
we do not hesitate to place the religious development of the
Egyptians of the fifth millennium on the level of ordinary



12 INTRODUCTION

African paganism. The rude carvings of that time show that
most, If not all, of the later gods, with their names, symbols,
and artistic types, existed then and that they had already been
transmitted by ancient tradition from ancestral days. Thus
we may assume that the Egyptian pantheon had Its origin in
the most remote and obscure neolithic (or, perhaps, even palse-
ollthlc) age, and we may safely consider It a product of a
most primitive barbarism. It may seem a little strange that
the swift development of Egyptian civilization somewhat
before 3000 B.C. should not have led to a better systematizatlon
of the religious traditions. Until we know what political con-
ditions produced that rapid evolution,^ we must rest content
with the explanation which we have already advanced, I. e.
that everywhere conservatism Is one of the most Important
factors in religion, and that the mind of the ancient Egyptians
was peculiarly conservative throughout their history. This
conservatism is strikingly Illustrated by Egyptian art, which,
even In the time of Its highest development, could not free
Itself from the fetters of traditionalism, but tenaciously kept
the childish perspective of primitive days, although as early
as the Pyramid Age artists were able to draw quite correctly,
and occasionally did so. In the religious art this adherence to
tradition constituted an especially grave barrier to artistic
development; accordingly the figures of the gods always pre-
served, more or less, the stiff and — In some details — child-
ishly Imperfect style of the early period. For example, all
the pictures of Ptah, one of the oldest gods, point back to a
clumsy type betraying an age when the artists were not yet
able to separate arms and legs from the body. The savage
simplicity of the age which created the Egyptian religion and
Indelibly stamped Its subsequent evolution is clearly evidenced
likewise In the barbarous head-dresses of the divinities,^ which
consist of feathers, horns, and rush-plaited crowns, as well as In
the simple emblems held in their hands. These Insignia, In the
case of male deities, are generally staves terminating In the



INTRODUCTION 13

head of the Seth animal, while the goddesses usually hold a
flowering lotus stalk; the appearance of weapons as insignia
is comparatively rare. In this same way the animal shapes of
most Egyptian divinities and the genesis of the animal cult
itself, such fetish-like receptacles as the one worshipped at
This, the strange local divine symbols which remind us of
totemistic emblems, etc., all become easily intelligible when
considered as a survival from the barbaric age, which we shall
endeavour to reconstruct in the next chapter.



EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

CHAPTER I
THE LOCAL GODS

ANIMISM is a very wide-spread form of primitive religion.
It has no gods in the sense of the advanced pagan re-
ligions; it only believes that earth and heaven are filled by
countless spirits, either sedentary or wandering. These spirits
can make their earthly abode in men, animals, or plants, or
any object that may be remarkable for size or form. As soon
as man, in his fear of these primitive deities, tries to placate
them by sacrifices, they develop into tutelary spirits and
fetishes, and then into gods. Some scholars claim that all
religions have sprung from a primitive animism. Whether
this be true or not, such an origin fits the primitive Egyptian
religion especially well and explains its endless and confused
pantheon. The Egyptians of the historical period tell us that
every part of the world is filled by gods, an assertion which
in our days has often been misinterpreted as if those gods
were cosmic, and as though a primitive kind of pantheism
underlay these statements. Yet the gods who lived, for in-
stance, in the water, like the crocodile Sobk, the hippo-
potamus-deity Epet, etc., did not represent this element; for
the most part they merely inhabited a stretch of water. We
find that in general the great majority of the old local gods
defy all cosmic explanation: they still betray that once they
were nothing but local spirits whose realm must primarily
have been extremely limited. In the beginning there may
have been a tendency to assume tutelary spirits for every tree



i6 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

or rock of unusual size or form or for every house and field,
such spirits being worshipped in the first case in the form of
the sacred object itself in which they abode, and in the latter
case being embodied in some striking object in the locality or
In some remarkable animal which chanced to frequent the
place. Many of these tutelary spirits never developed Into
real gods, I. e. they never received a regular cult. The transi-
tional stage appears In such Instances as when, according to
certain Theban wall-paintings, the harvesters working In a
field deposited a small part of their food as an offering to a
tree which dominated that field, I. e. for the genius inhabiting
the tree; or when they fed a serpent discovered on the field,
supposing it to be more than an ordinary creature.^ This ser-
pent might disappear and yet be remembered In the place,
which might in consequence remain sacred forever; perhaps
the picture of its feeding may thus be Interpreted as meaning
that even then the oflPering was merely In recollection of the
former appearance of a local spirit In serpent form.

Another clear Illustration of primitive animism surviving In
historic times Is furnished by an old fragment of a tale in a
papyrus of the museum of Berlin. Shepherds discover a
goddess" hiding herself In a thicket along the river-bank.
They flee in fright and call the wise old chief shepherd, who
by magic formulae expels her from her lair. Unfortunately
the papyrus breaks off when the goddess came forth with
terrible appearance," but we can again see how low the term
"god" remained In the Pyramid Age and later.

Such rudimentary gods, however, did not play any part
In the religion of the historic age. Only those of them
that attracted wider attention than usual and whose wor-
ship expanded from the family to the village would later
be called gods. We must, nevertheless, bear In mind that a
theoretical distinction could scarcely be drawn between such
spirits or "souls" (baiu) which enjoyed no formal or regular
cult and the gods recognized by regular offerings, just as there



THE LOCAL GODS 17

was no real difference between the small village deity whose
shrine was a little hut of straw and the "great god" who had a
stately temple, numerous priests, and rich sacrifices. If we
had full information about Egyptian life, we certainly should
be able to trace the development by which a spirit or fetish
which originally protected only the property of a single peasant
gradually advanced to the position of the village god, and con-
sequently, by the growth of that village or by its political
success, became at length a "great god" who ruled first over
a city and next over the whole county dominated by that city,
and who then was finally worshipped throughout Egypt.
As we shall see, the latter step can be observed repeatedly;
but the first progress of a "spirit" or "soul" toward regular
worship as a full god ^ can never be traced in the inscriptions.
Indeed, this process of deification must have been quite infre-
quent in historic times, since, as we have already seen, only
the deities dating from the days of the ancestors could find
sufficient recognition. In a simpler age this development from
a spirit to a god may have been much easier. In the historic
period we see, rather, the opposite process; the great divinities
draw all worship and sacrifices to their shrines and thus cause
many a local god to be neglected, so that he survives only in
magic, etc., or sinks into complete oblivion. In some Instances
the cult of such a divinity and the existence of its priesthood
were saved by association with a powerful deity, who would
receive his humbler colleague into his temple as his wife or
child; but in many instances even a god of the highest rank
would tolerate an insignificant rival cult in the same city,
sometimes as the protector of a special quarter or suburb.

Originally the capital of each of the forty-two nomes, or
counties, of Egypt seems to have been the seat of a special
great divinity or of a group of gods, who were the masters and
the patrons of that county; and many of these nomes main-
tained the worship of their original deity until the latest
period. The priests in his local temple used to extol their pa-

[Prometheus]

1 8 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

tron as though he was the only god or was at least the supreme
divinity; later they often attributed to him the government of
all nature and even the creation of the whole world, as well
as the most important cosmic functions, especially, in every
possible instance, those of a solar character; and they were
not at all disturbed by the fact that a neighbouring nome
claimed exactly the same position for its own patron. To us
it must seem strange that under these conditions no rivalry
between the gods or their priests is manifest in the inscrip-
tions. To explain this strange isolation of local religion it is
generally assumed that In prehistoric times each of these
nomes was a tribal organization or petty kingdom, and that
the later prominence given to their divine patron or patrons
was a survival of that primitive political independence, since
every ancient Oriental state possessed its national god and
worshipped him in a way which often approximated heno-
thelsm.^ Yet the quasi-henothelstic worship v/hlch was
given to the patron of these forty- two petty capitals recurred
in connexion with the various local gods of other towns in
the same nome, where even the chief patron of the nome in
question was relegated to the second or third rank in favour of
the local idol. This was carried to such an extent that every
Egyptian was expected to render worship primarily to his
"city-god" (or gods), whatever the character of this divinity
might be. Since each of the larger settlements thus worshipped
its local tutelary spirit or deity without determining his pre-
cise relation to the gods of other communities, we may with
great probability assume that In the primitive period the
village god preceded the town god, and that the god of the
hamlet and of the family were not unknown. At that early
day the forces of nature appear to have received no worship
whatever. Such conditions are explicable only from the point
of view of animism.^ This agrees also with the tendency to
seek the gods preferably In animal form, and with the strange,
fetish-like objects in which other divinities were represented.



THE LOCAL GODS 19

Numerous as the traces of animistic, local henotheism are,
the exclusive worship of its local spirit by each settlement
cannot have existed very long. In a country which never was
favourable to individualism the family spirit could not com-
pete with the patron of the community; and accordingly,
when government on a larger scale was established, in innumer-
able places the local divinity soon had to yield to the god of a
town which was greater in size or in political importance.
We can frequently observe how a chief, making himself master
of Egypt, or of a major part of it, advanced his city god above
all similar divinities of the Egyptian pantheon, as when, for
instance, the obscure town of Thebes, suddenly becoming the
capital of all Egypt, gained for her local god, Amon, the chief
position within the Egyptian pantheon, so that he was called
master of the whole world. The respect due to the special
patron of the king and his ancestors, the rich cult with which
that patron was honoured by the new dynasty, and the officials
proceeding from the king's native place and court to other towns
soon spread the worship of Pharaoh's special god through the
whole kingdom, so that he was not merely given worship at
the side of the local deities, but often supplanted them, and
was even able to take the place of ancient patrons of the
nomes. Thus we find, for instance, Khnum as god of the first
and eleventh nomes; Hat-hor, whose worship originally spread
only in Middle Egypt (the sixth, seventh, and tenth nomes),
also in the northernmost of the Upper Egyptian nomes (the
twenty-second) and in one Lower Egyptian nome (the third) ;
while Amon of Thebes, who, as we have just seen, had come
into prominence only after 2000 B.C., reigned later in no less
than four nomes of the Delta. This latter example is due to
the exceptional duration of the position of Thebes as the capi-
tal, which was uninterrupted from 2CXX) to 1800 and from 1600
to 1 100 B.C.; yet to the mind of the conservative Egyptians
even this long predominance of the Theban gods could not
effect a thorough codification of religious belief in favour of



20



EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY



these gods, nor could it dethrone more than a part of the local
deities.

As we have already said, the difficulty of maintaining separate
cults, combined with other reasons, led the priests at a very
early time to group several divinities together in one temple as
a divine family, usually in a triad of father, mother, and son; ^
in rarer instances a god might have two wives (as at Elephan-
tine, and sometimes at Thebes) ; ^ in the case of a goddess
who was too prominent to be satisfied with the second place

as wife of a god, she
was associated with
a lesser male divin-
ity as her son (as at
Denderah). We
may assume that all
these groups were
formed by gods
which originally
were neighbours.
The development of

Fig. I. The Triad of Elephantine: KhnOm, Satet. the ennead (perhaps

*^^'^^"^^^ a triple triad in

source) is obviously much later (see pp. 215-16).

As long as no cosmic role was attributed to the local gods,
little mythology could be attached to their personality;
even a deity so widely worshipped as the crocodile Sobk, for
example, does not exhibit a single mythological trait. Of
most gods we know no myths, an ignorance which is not due
to accidental loss of information, as some Egyptologists
thought, but to the fact that the deities in question really
possessed little or no mythology. The only local divinities
capable of mythological life, therefore, were those that were
connected with the cycle of the sun or of Osiris.

A possible trace of primitive simplicity may be seen in the
fact that some gods have, properly speaking, no names, but




THE LOCAL GODS 21

are called after their place of worship. Thus, the designation
of the cat-shaped goddess Ubastet means only "the One of
the City Ubaset," as though she had long been worshipped
there without a real name, being called, perhaps, simply
"the goddess"; and, again, the god Khent(i)-amentiu ("the
One Before the Westerners," i.e. the dead),' who was originally
a jackal (?), seems to have received his appellation simply from
the location of his shrine near the necropolis in the west of
This. These instances, however, admit of other explanations
— an earlier name may have become obsolete;^ or a case of
local differentiation may be assumed in special places, as when
the jackal-god Khent(i)-amentiu seems to be only a local
form of Up-uaut (Ophois). Names like that of the bird-
headed god, "the One Under his Castor Oil[?] Bush" ibeq),
give us the impression of being very primitive.^ Differentia-
tion of a divinity into two or more personalities according to
his various centres of worship occurs, it is true; but, except for
very rare cases like the prehistoric differentiation of Min and
Amon, it has no radical effect. In instances known from the
historic period it is extremely seldom that a form thus dis-
criminated evokes a new divine name; the Horus and Hat-hor
of a special place usually remain Horus and Hat-hor, so that
such differentiations cannot have developed the profuse poly-
theism from a simpler system. On the contrary, it must be
questioned whether even as early an identification as, e. g., of
the winged disk Behdeti ("the One of Behdet" [the modern
Edfu]) with Horus as a local form was original. In this in-
stance the vague name seems to imply that the identification
with Horus was still felt to be secondary.

Thus we are always confronted with the result that, the nearer
we approach to the original condition of Egypt, the more we
find its religion to be an endless and unsystematic polytheism
which betrays an originally animistic basis, as described above.
The whole difficulty of understanding the religion of the
historic period lies in the fact that it always hovered between



22



EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY



that primitive stage and the more advanced type, the cosmic
conception of the gods, in a very confusing way, such as we
scarcely find in any other national religion. In other words,




Fig. 2. Some Gods of Prehistoric Egypt whose Worship Later was Lost

(a), {b) A bearded deity much used as an amulet; (c), (d) a double bull (Khonsu?);
(e) an unknown bull-god; (/) a dwarf divinity (?) similar to Sokari, but found far in
the south.

the peculiar value of the ancient Egyptian religion is that it
forms the clearest case of transition from the views of the
most primitive tribes of mankind to those of the next higher
religious development, as represented especially in the religion
of Babylonia.



CHAPTER II
THE WORSHIP OF THE SUN

TAKING animism as the basis of the earliest stage of
Egyptian religion, we must assume that the principal
cosmic forces were easily personified and considered as divine.
A nation which discovers divine spirits in every remarkable
tree or rock will find them even more readily in the sun, the
moon, the stars, and the like. But though the earliest Egyp-
tians may have done this, and perhaps may even have ad-
mitted that these cosmic spirits were great gods, at first they
seem to have had no more thought of giving them offerings
than is entertained by many primitive peoples in the animistic
stage of religion who attach few religious thoughts to the
great cosmic factors. Was it that these forces, which were
beheld every day, appeared to be less mysterious and, there-
fore, less divine than the tutelary spirits of the town, or did
these local spirits seem nearer to man and thus more interested
in his welfare than the cosmic gods, who were too great and
too remote for the ordinary mortal.^ At any rate, we can ob-
serve that, for instance, in historic times the god of the earth
(Qeb) is described as the father of all the gods and as one of
the most important personages of the pantheon, but that,
despite this, he does not seem to have possessed temples of his
own in the New Empire; and the like statement holds true of
the god Nuu (the abyss), although he is declared to be the
oldest and wisest of all gods, etc. By their very contradictions
the later attempts to transform the old local spirits and fetishes
into personifications of cosmic powers prove that no such per-
sonification was acknowledged in the prehistoric period to



24



EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY




which the majority of Egyptian cults are traceable, thus con-
firming the general absence of homage to cosmic powers.
It is even doubtful whether the worship of the sun-god was
originally important; while the scanty attention paid to the
moon in historical times and the confu-
sion of three planets under one name
again make it certain that no cult of
them had been transmitted from the
days of the ancestors.

On the other hand, the first attempts
Fig. 3. The Sun-God at philosophical thought which accom-

Watching the Appear- • 1 1 1 1 r t-«

ANCE OF HIS Disk IN THE panied the development of Egyptian
Eastern Gate of civilization evidently led to a closer con-

Heaven ... , ,

templation oi nature and to a better
appreciation of it. Yet, although we find traces of various
attempts to create a system of cosmic gods, no such system
was ever carried through satisfactorily, so that a large part
of the pantheon either never became cosmic or, as has been
said above, was at best only unsuccessfully made cosmic.

The first of all cosmic powers to find general worship was
the sun, whose rays dominate Egypt so strongly. The earliest
efforts to personify it identified it with an old hawk-god, and
thus sought to describe it as a hawk which flew daily across
the sky. Therefore, the two
most popular forms of the
solar deity. Re' and Horus,
have the form of a hawk or
of a hawk-headed man (later
sometimes also of a lion with
a hawk's head). Both divini- Fig. 4.
ties had so many temples in
historical times that we cannot determine their original seats
of worship. At the beginning of the dynastic period Horus
seems to have been the sun-god who was most generally wor-
shipped in Egypt.^ Though Re' does not appear to find offi-




Pictures



OF Khepri
Form



IN Human



THE WORSHIP OF THE SUN



25





Fig. 6.



cial recognition until later, in the Second and Third Dynas-
ties, nevertheless he seems to be the older personification of
the sun since his name furnishes the popular designation of
the solar disk.

Less popular is the description of the sun as Khepri (Kheprer
in the earlier orthography), or "the Scarab-Like," i. e. as a
scarab rolling his egg (the sun) across the sky, or as a man who
wears a scarab on his head or instead of a head. Later theo-
logians endeavoured to harmonize this idea with the other
representations of the sun-god by explaining Khepri as the
weaker sun, i. e. as it appears in the morning when the solar egg
is formed, or, sometimes, in the evening, or even as the sun
in embryonic condition beneath the hori- r\
zon at night,^ when it traverses the
regions of the dead and shines on the
lower world. When the scarab draws a
second egg behind it, or carries two eggs

Fig. s. ^g j|- ^jgg athwart the sky, it symbolizes Khepri with
Khepri as . '. c

THE Infant the mommg and the evenmg sun.^ ^^ Double

At the very earliest period, however, Appear-
the sun was also described as a man whose face,
eye, or head-ornament was the solar body. In the latter in-
stance this was regularly compared to the uraeus, the fiery
asp, wound about Pharaoh's brow as a sign of his absolute
power over life and death. When, as we shall see, the sun-god
is bitten by a serpent as he walks across the sky, on the celes-
tial road, this is merely a later reversion of the myth and
blends the interpretations of the sun as an eye (which may
be lost) and as an asp. The most popular idea, however, is
that in a ship (which has perhaps replaced an earlier double
raft)^ the sun sails over the sky, conceived as a blue river or
lake which is a continuation of the sea and of the Nile. At
the prow of this solar ship we frequently find a curious detail,
sometimes represented as a carpet or mat^ on which the god
is seated, often thus duplicating a second figure of himself in



26



EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY




the cabin. This detail still awaits explanation. The deity may
either be the only occupant of the boat, which moves by itself
or is paddled by him; or he may be accompanied by many

prominent gods, especially the nine
gods of the Heliopolitan ennead and
the personifications of wisdom, etc.
In the latter case the great ship, which
one text® describes as seven hundred
and seventy cubits in length, is rowed
Fig. 7. The Sun-God Rows a by numerous gods and souls of kings
Departed Soul over the and Other (originally especially promi-
nent) dead, the "followers of Horus,"
or "of ReV' ^ i- e. of the god to whom the ship of the sun belonged.
The Book of the Gates ^ reverts to an ancient idea by explain-
ing that "the never-vanishing stars" (i. e. again the elect souls)
become the rowers of the sun by day. Then the sun may rest
in the cabin as a disk in which the god himself may be en-
throned, or as the uraeus asp, the symbol of fire; in the latter
form he may also twine around the prow, cabin, or any other
part of the vessel. In one instance a double asp actually forms
the boat which carries the stairs of the sun, i. e. the symbol
of its daily way (see below on the double nature of the asp).
An extremely ancient idea, which occurs, for instance, as early
as the famous ivory tablet of King Menes, is the blending of
the human shape of the sun with his hawk form, so that the





Fig. 8. A Star as Rower of
THE Sun in the Day-Time



Fig. 9. The Sun-Boat as a
Double Serpent



solar bird sails in the cabin of the huge ship as though it had
no wings.

On its daily way the ship of the sun has adventures and



THE WORSHIP OF THE SUN



27




adversaries which apparently symboHze clouds and eclipses;
and its perils increase still further at night, when it passes
the western mountain ridge, the limit of the earth, and enters
hostile darkness. In the morning, however, it always emerges
victorious over the eastern mountains; the sun himself and his
brave rowers and soldiers have scattered all opponents, sailing
successfully through the subterranean course of the Nile or
crossing the abysmal ocean into which the sun dips at even-
ing.^ During the night (or part of it) the sun-god illumines
the regions of the dead, who for a time awaken from their
sleep when his
rays shine upon
them, and who
are sometimes
believed to tow
the sun's ship
through the
dead or windless
lower waters or
through espe-
cially difficult
parts of them,^" or who assist it there against its enemies. At
night the sun may also take rest in its special abode in the
nether world, in "the island of flames," ^^ where the fiery ele-
ment has its proper centre.

To speak more exactly, the sun-god has two diflFerent ships:
one — the Me'enzet — for the day, and the other — the
Semektet ^^ — for the night; sometimes he enters the "evening
ship" in the afternoon. This distinction is no more difficult
to understand than the later difi"erentiation of the sun into
three distinct personalities during the day-time, when he is
called Horus (or Har-akhti, "Horus of the Horizon") in the
morning. Re' (his ordinary name) at noon, and Atum(u)
toward evening. The latter form, taken from the local god of
Heliopolis,^^ is depicted as human, very rarely in the oldest



Fig. 10. The Sun-God at Night-Time

With "Wisdom" and "Magic" in his boat, he is drawn by
the " spirits of the underworld."




28 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

form of Atum as an ichneumon. The accompanying picture
shows this god of the evening sun in his original animal form
behind the closed western gate of heaven, built on the moun-
tain of the west. We have already seen that the name
Khepri was used for the weaker manifestations; later Re',
as the oldest name, was also employed more for the weak
and aged sun; ^^ while the dying sun of evening and the dead
sun of night were soon identified with Osiris, as we shall see
in the chapter on the Osiris-myth. The representation of the
sun with a ram's head during his nightly journey through
the lower world seems to date from the New Empire only.^^
Its obvious explanation is identification with
Khniim, the guardian of the waters coming
from the lower world and master of Hades.
The sun at night-time is lost in Khnum's
dark realm and unites with him. The de-
FiG. II. Atum be- scription of the sun as a fragrant flame of
HIND THE Western incense seems to find its explanation in the

Gate of Heaven ^ i • • • i • i

[Prometheus]

tact that It rises m the eastern regions whence
spices and perfumes come.

After 2000 b. c. the worship of the sun, thanks to increasing
official favour, became so dominant that identifications with
the sun or with a phase of it were tried with almost every god
who had not received a clear cosmic function at an earlier
time; and in this way most local divinities were at last explained
as difi"erent manifestations of the sun, as the "members" of
Re' or as his "souls." Attempts to systematize these mani-
festations tell us that such a great god as the sun has seven or
fourteen souls or doubles.^® The later solar identifications, of
course, far exceed these numbers.

A slightly more modest place is attributed to the sun-god
when he is parallel with the moon, each of these great lumi-
naries being an eye of the heavenly god, although this celestial
divinity still bears the name of the sun-god as master of the
sky, usually of Horus (whence he is also called "Horus of the



THE WORSHIP OF THE SUN 29

Two Eyes"), more rarely of Re' or of other identifications with

the sun.^^ The fact that this celestial deity shows only one

eye at a time is explained by the various myths which, as we

shall see later (pp. 85-91) recount how the sun-god lost an eye;

according to the belief which prevailed later, and which was

adapted to the Osirian myth, this occurred in a combat with
Seth.^8

The Egyptian word for "eye" being feminine, the disk of
the sun could also be regarded as female. A theory concerning
the sun, reaching the same general conclusion, has already been
mentioned: the solar orb is compared to the fiery asp, the
''ar^et (the uraeus of the Greeks and Romans), which Pharaoh,
the sun-god's representative on earth, wore round his forehead.
Understood as a symbol of fire, this serpent was originally
thought to deck the forehead or to occupy the ship of the
solar or celestial god, as has been described on p. 26, but it
was soon so closely identified with his flaming eye that "eye"
and "asp" became synonymous. Thus both eyes of the celestial
god were identified with asps, regardless of the milder light of
the moon; or two uraei were thought to be worn on the sun's
forehead just as they sometimes adorned Pharaoh. These two
eyes or serpents are often called "the daughters of the sun-
god," ^^ and we shall find below the myth of these two rival
daughters. (See also Fig. 9 for a picture of the double asp
as the ship which carries the sun-god's staircase.)

All these expressions furnished methods of solarizing female
divinities. The chief goddesses who were regarded as solar and
described as the daughter, eye, asp, or crown of the sun were
Tefenet, Sekhmet, and Ubastet, whose animal forms (the
lioness with the first and second, and the cat with the third)
also seem to have contributed toward associating them with
the luminary of day, because the sun-god often had a leaning
toward a lion's form (p. 24). Moreover Hat-hor, Isis, and
other celestial goddesses sometimes betray a tendency to such
a solar interpretation, precisely as male divinities like Horus



30 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

hover between solar and celestial functions (pp. 28-29). 2° We
must, however, emphasize the fact that all female personifica-
tions of the sun had no real hold on the mind of the Egyptians,
who were agreed that the sun was a male deity. These solar-
izations of female gods give us the impression of early tran-
sitory attempts whose history is not yet clear. For a myth
of the sun's eye as a daughter who wilfully deserts her father
see pp. 86 ff. as well as for other legends of the injured (or
blind) eye of the sun-god, which is euphemistically called "the
sound, intact one," {uzat, uzait), because it cannot be damaged
permanently.

Religious poetry also calls everything which is good and
useful "the eye of the sun," either because all life is due to the
rays of the great celestial body, as some hymns graphically
declare, or, perhaps, also because the eye, torn out and falling
to the earth, created life.

There was much difference of opinion as to the time when
the sun came into the world; some held that he proceeded
directly from the abyss and created (or at least organized) the
whole world, begetting all the gods, and others maintained
that, especially in the later solar form of Osiris, he was the
result of the first separation of heaven and earth, the two
greatest cosmic forces (see pp. 77-78). In any case, the sun is
always regarded as the creator of men, who "proceeded from
his eye(s)" in a way which was variously interpreted by the
Egyptians, and as the god who (alone or through his clerk
Thout) organized the world, at least in its present form.

The substance most sacred to the sun-god was the bright
metal gold. It played an important part in religious symbol-
ism,^^ and such goddesses as Hat-hor were connected with the
sun by epithets like "the golden."

The dominant worship of the sun influenced the whole
Egyptian religion and affected all the cults of the local gods,
even before it became the fashion to explain most gods as solar.
Thus the pair of monolithic red obelisks erected before the



THE WORSHIP OF THE SUN 31

gates of the Egyptian temples were originally intended merely
to symbolize the limits of the sun's course, and especially its
yearly bounds, the equinoxes. We are also told that the sun
has two obelisks on earth and two in heaven; ^^ 3.ga.'m, only
one of these pillars may be treated as actually important.
An allusion to this conception is doubtless to be found in the
huge, single obelisk-like structures on a cubic base which only
the kings of the Fifth Dynasty erected to the honour of Re',
because they seem to have claimed him for their ancestor more
literally than did the other royal families.^^ Later all obelisks
were themselves worshipped as signs of the sun's presence on
earth. ^'*

On (Un[u ?],Eun[u ?] in the earliest orthography), the most an-
cient and the most sacred city of Egypt, the "City of the Sun"
— the Heliopolis of the Greeks — was the principal seat of
the solar mythology, although the general name of the sun-
god. Re', seems even there gradually to have replaced the old
local deity, Atum(u), only after 2000 B.C. Heliopolis contained
the earthly proxy of the tree of heaven, the holy Persea, and
the sacred well which to this day is called "the Sun's Well"
('AIn Shams) and in which the sun was believed either to
bathe himself morning and night or to have been born at the
beginning of the world, when he arose from the abyss, etc.
Thus the pool was not merely a type, but a real remnant of the
primeval flood.^^ Such sacred lakes were imitated in many
sanctuaries, just as the sacred tree of Heliopolis had local
parallels.

In all sanctuaries of the sun the god's presence on earth
was indicated by single or double reproductions of the solar
ship, which sometimes were enormous constructions of stones
or bricks, although generally they were made of wood and
were portable, so that the priests could Imitate the daily and
yearly course of the sun In solemn procession as they carried
or dragged the ship around the temple or floated It on the
sacred lake near by.



32



EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY




Fig. 12.

Thout as a

Baboon



jac





Most closely associated with the sun we find his secretary

Thout (i) (the moon), who also heals his eye when it is wounded

or torn out. When the

gods or "souls" of the

prehistoric capitals of

divided Egypt, Buto

and Hierakonpolis, ^^ ^^

who were represented V '"'^^ir::^ 7

as human figures with ^ j

the heads of hawks or Fig. 13. Baboons Greet the Sun

kals,2S and who were also (^) Over the celestial pillar; (b) in
1 r 1 j> ^^^ celestial tree.

called the souls 01 the east,

are described as saluting the sun every morning, some scholars
have attempted to see in this allusions to the cries with which

the animals of the wilder-
ness seem joyfully to hail
the rising sun. However,
the cynocephalous ba-
boons who, according to
the Egyptian view, like-
wise welcome the sun thus
with prayers and hymns
at his rising, also bid him
farewell at his setting and
even salute, accompany,
and aid the nocturnal sun
as he voyages through the
nether world. ^^ Therefore

Fig. 14. Baboons Saluting the Morning Sun their Tol^ seemS tO have

He rises in the eastern mountains from the been developed from the
symbols of the Osirian state and of life. , . , rxii 1 1

part which liiout played
as assistant to the sun-god, and the hawks and jackals already
mentioned likewise rather suggest mythological explanations.




CHAPTER III
OTHER GODS CONNECTED WITH NATURE




IT is remarkable that the moon, which was so important,
especially in Babylonia, never rivalled the sun among the
Egyptians.^ At a rather early time it was iden-
tified with the white ibis-god Thout(i) (earlier
Zhouti, Dhouti), the local divinity of Khmun(u)-
Hermopolis, who thus became the deity of reck-
oning and writing and in his capacity as secretary
of the company of gods acted as the judge of di- '°* ^^' "°"^
vinities and of men.^ The reason is clear: the moon is the
easiest regulator of time for primitive man. In like manner
when Thout takes care of the injured eye of the solar or ce-
lestial god, and heals or replaces it, the underlying idea seems
to be that the moon regulates such

disturbances as eclipses;

it may, however, equally

well imply that the

moon, being the second

eye of the heavenly

god, is simply a weaker

reappearance of the sun

at night.

Some scholars formerly

sought the reason for the

^'THE^ScIfBT^' ib^S-^O^"^ in the crescent- Fig. 17. Thout in Baboon
shaped bill of the bird, J""^ ^^ Moon-God and
, . Scribe of the Gods

but such explanations fail when we find

the cynocephalus regarded as another (somewhat later.'') em-
bodiment of the same god of wisdom; so that this species of

XII — 4





34



EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY



baboon appears not only as a special friend of the sun-god
(p. 32), but also as the deity of wisdom, the patron of scribes
and scholars.^ Thout is sometimes de-
picted as sailing, like the sun, across the
heavenly ocean in a ship. Originally, like
the hawk-gods Re' and Horus, he was
thought to fly over the sky in his old bird-
form as a white ibis.

During the period of the Middle Empire'*
also Kh6ns(u), the least important mem-
ber of the Theban triad (Ch. I, Note 6), as-
sumed the character of a moon-god because
the union of Amen-Re' as the sun with
Mut as the sky led to the theory that the
moon was their child, ^ He is usually re-
presented In human form, wearing a side-
lock to Indicate youth; but later, like Horus,
he sometimes has the head of a hawk and
also appears very much like Ptah; although
he Is frequently equated with Thout, an
Ibis-head for him Is rare. A symbol, some-
times identified with him. Is thus ^
far unexplained (unless It belongs C y^
to another god, see the statements on Dua, p. 132); ''
and It Is rather doubtful whether he Is represented by the
double bull with a single body (Fig. 2 {d)).^ His name seems
to mean "the Roamer, the Wanderer," and It was perhaps for
this reason that the Greeks Identified him with Herakles.

We have already noted the thought that the sky Is
water and that It forms a continuation of the Nile or
of the ocean, on which the solar barge pursues Its way.
It Is not clear how this was harmonized with the parallel,
though rarer, idea that the sky was a metal roof, a belief
which may have been derived from observation of meteo-
rites. Sometimes only the centre of heaven, the throne




Fig. 18. Khons as
Moon-God



OTHER GODS CONNECTED WITH NATURE 35




of Its master, is thought to be of metal; while other
texts speak of "the solar ship sailing over the metal" as
though this was under the celestial waters. This conception
of a metal dome explains some
expressions of later times, such as
the name of Iron, be-ni-pet ("sky-
metal"), or the later word
for "thunder," khru-bai (literally,
"sound of the metal"), I.e. thun-
der was evidently explained as
the beating of the great sheets of
metal which constituted the sky.
This heavenly roof was thought to
rest on four huge pillars, which were

usually pictured as supports forked Fig. 19. A Personified Pillar

above / V ^ ' '^^^^ rarely they were

inter \ I /preted as mountains or (in the latest period) as
four women upholding the sky.'^ The sky may
also be explained as a great staircase (mostly
double) which the sun was supposed to ascend
and to descend daily (cf. Fig. 9).

Another early concept describes the sky as a

Fig. 20. The Sun- huge tree overshadowing

God on his ^-j^g earch, the stars being
Stairs , ,

the fruits or leaves which
hang from Its branches. When "the gods
perch on its boughs," they are evidently
Identified with the stars. The celestial
tree disappears in the morning, and the
sun-god rises from Its leaves; in the even-

• ^ 1 1-1 1 • ir • • ^i_ r !• Fig. 21. The Dead Wit-

mg he hides himself again m the foliage, ^^^3^3 ^^^ g^^^^ „^

and the tree (or Its double of evening the Sun from the Ce-
^- X 1 111 LESTiAL Tree

time) once more spreads over the world,

so that three hundred and sixty-five trees symbolize the year,

or two typify its turning-points, or night and day.^ This





36



EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY




thought of the celestial or cosmic tree or trees, which is found
among so many nations, also underlies the idea of the tree of

life, whose fruit keeps the gods and
the chosen souls of the dead in eter-
nal youth and in wisdom in Egypt
as elsewhere. The tree of fate, whose
leaves or fruits symbolize events or
Fig. 22. The Sun-Boat and the the lives of men, represents the same

Two Celestial Trees 111 n 1

thought: the past as well as the
future is written in the stars. Osiris, as the god of heaven, is
frequently identified with the heavenly tree or with some im-
portant part of it, or is brought into connexion with its fruit
or blossom. Egyptian theology tries to determine the terres-
trial analogy of this tree. As the world-tree it is thus com-
pared to the widest branching tree of Egypt, the sycamore;
more rarely it is likened to the date-palm or tamarisk, etc.;
sometimes it is the willow, which grows so near the water
that it may easily be associated with the celestial tree spring-
ing from the abyss or the Osirian waters. In connexion with
the Osiris-myth, however, the tree is mostly the Persea or (per-
haps later) the fragrant cedar growing on the remote moun-
tains of Asia, or, again, the vine through whose fruit love
and death entered into the
world; while as the tree of
fate it is once more usually
the Persea of Osiris. These
comparisons may refer to
the inevitable attempts to
localize or to symbolize the
wonderful tree on earth.
By a transition of thought
it is described as localized
in a part of the sky. Thus
"a great island in the Field of Sacrifices on which the great
gods rest, the never vanishing stars," ^ holds the tree of life,




Fig. 23.



The Dead at the Tree and Spring
OF Life



OTHER GODS CONNECTED WITH NATURE 37




evidently between the ocean and sky, between the upper and
the lower world, where the dead, passing from the one realm
to the other, may



find it. As we have
already seen, the
most famous of
earthly proxies was
the sacred Persea-tveo.
of Heliopolis, which
we find, e. g. in the
accompanying pic-
ture, completely iden-
tified with the heav-
enly tree; but the
central sanctuary of

every nome had a Fig. 24. Amon as the Supreme Divinity Registers
, , , . , , A Royal Name on "the Holy Persea in the

holy tree which, prob- palace of the Sun "

ably, was always

claimed to symbolize heaven; even more botanical species

were represented in these earthly counterparts than those

which we have mentioned (p. 36).

When heaven is personified, it is a female being, since the

word pet ("heaven") is feminine. Therefore the sky is com-
pared to a woman bending over the
earth (Figs. 35, 47), or to a cow whose
legs correspond to the four pillars at the
cardinal points (Fig. 27).^° The god-
dess Hat-hor " of Denderah, who was
originally symbolized by the head or
skull of a cow nailed over the door of a

Fig. 25. Symbol of Hat- temple, or on a pillar, was very early

HOR FROM the Beginning :j„„+.:i:„j vu *u i j jj

OF THE Historic Age Identified With the COW-shaped goddeSS

of heaven; and many other female di-
vinities Identified with the sky — especially Isis — indicated
their celestial nature in the pictures by wearing the horns or




38



EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY




Fig. 26. Hat-hor at Evening
Entering the Western Moun-
tain AND THE Green Thicket



even the head of a cow. The popular symbol of Hat-hor be-
came a strange mixture of a human and a bovine face, thus

suggesting how long the human
and the animal personification must
have existed side by side. As a sym-
bol of heaven this celestial face may
claim to have the sun and the moon
as eyes (cf. p. 28), although the
goddess more frequently represents
only the principal eye of the celes-
tial god, the sun. In cow-form the
goddess is usually shown as wear-
ing the sun between her horns and
as appearing among flowers and
plants, i. e. in a thicket analogous
to the green leaves of the celestial tree which send forth the
sun in the morning and hide him at evening.^^ These plants
appear at the eastern or western mountain wall, from which
the sun-god arises at dawn or into which he retreats at even-
ing. During the day he may travel under the belly of the cow
or over her back, or may wander only between her horns,
which then symbolize the daily and yearly limits of his course,
in analogy to the two obelisks, or to
the two world-mountains, or to the
two trees, etc. (pp. 31, 35). The sun
may also be thought to hide himself
in the body of the heavenly cow
during the night; so that he enters
her mouth at evening and is born
again from her womb in the morn-
ing. Thus, by a conception through ^^^ 27. The Sun-God between
the mouth, the sun-god "begets him- the Horns of the Celestial

self" every night and is called "the

bull of his mother," i. e. his own father, a name which is much

used in hymns. As carrying the sun, Hat-hor may herself




OTHER GODS CONNECTED WITH NATURE 39

[Prometheus]

Fig. 28. The Dead

MEETS HaT-HOR BE-
HIND THE Celes-
tial Tree



again be regarded as a solar divinity (see p. 29 on the solari-

zations of goddesses).

As the mistress of heaven sitting amid green rays, Hat-hor

can become seated in or can be identical with the celestial

tree, from which she gives heavenly food and

drink to the souls of the dead (as in Fig. 23),

and thus she is shown as bestowing eternal

life upon them. Her four blue-black tresses

hang across the sky or form it, each tress

marking a cardinal point. Sometimes these

tresses are also attributed to Horus as a

celestial god and the male counterpart of

Hat-hor (see pp. 111-13 on the four sons of

Horus). Much mythological fancy seems to

have been attached to this network, beau-
tiful but dangerous, delicate yet strong, which surrounds the

whole world. ^^

The idea of the sky as a cow is likewise combined with one

which we have already noted, according to which the sky is

the water of a river or a continuation of the ocean; so that the

cow's body may be covered with lines representing water, and

in this form the divinity is sometimes called Meh(e)t-ueret

(Greek Medvep), or "the Great Flood." Since this name is

more suggestive than Hat-hor, the sun
is usually said to have been born on or
by "the great flood" (Meht-ueret), or
to have climbed on her back or be-
tween her horns on the day of crea-
tion; but the same process may also
take place every morning, for the daily
and the cosmogonic processes are
always parallel. Even when the sun's
primeval or daily birth is described as

being from a blue lotus flower in the celestial or terrestrial

ocean, he can be called "child of Meht-ueret." The annual




Fig. 29. "Meht-ueret, the
Mistress of the Sky and
OF Both Countries" (i. e.
Egypt)



40



EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY



parallel in the inundation brought Meht-ueret into connexion
with the harvest as well. The cosmic cow is likewise called
Ahet, Ahit, Ahat, or Ehat, Ehet, principally as the nurse and
protector of the new-born sun-god at the creation of the world.
As the goddess of the sky in cow-form Hat-hor assumed many
of the functions of the Asiatic Queen of Heaven, so that later
she became the special patroness of women
and the deity of love, beauty, joy, music,
and ornaments; while, again exactly like
the Semitic Astarte, she was sometimes
mistress of war. Her husband, as we have
seen, is usually Horus, the male ruler of
the sky.

This goddess has been multiplied into
the group of the "seven Hat-hors" who
foretell the future, especially of every
child at his birth. The suspicion that
these seven fates were originally the Plei-
ades, which, among certain other nations,
were the constellation of human fate (es-
pecially of ill-omened fate), and also the
foretellers of the harvest,^^ is confirmed
when we find the ' seven Hat-hor cows
with their bull"; for the Pleiades are in
the constellation of Taurus. Since this
zodiacal sign is not Egyptian, the New
Empire probably borrowed from Asia the connexion of con-
stellations which we have described, although they failed to
understand it. Various efforts were made to localize the
single forms of these seven Hat-hors in Egyptian cities. ^^

At an early period Hat-hor assimilated various other god-
desses. The name of Bat(?), the female deity of the city of
Diospolis Parva, was written with a similar symbol or with
one embodying Hat-hor's head; later this symbol was identi-
fied with the great goddess Hat-hor herself and was explained




Fig. 30. The Goddess of
Diospolis Parva



OTHER GODS CONNECTED WITH NATURE 41




Fig. 31. Nut Receiving the Dead



as a sistrum, i. e. a sacred rattle, as It was used especially
at the festivals of the joyful goddess. ^^

The representation of the sky in human, feminine form,
which Hat-hor might also assume, led to the Identification
with many goddesses
who were originally
local, but who were
often solarized in later
times, among these
divinities being Isis
(sometimes with her
sister and rival, Neph-
thys), the Theban Mut, and the fiery Tefenet. For the noc-
turnal sky in particular, the prevalent personification Is Nut,^^
who, in conformity with her name, is generally understood to
be a celestial counterpart of the abyss Nuu (or Nun?), I. e. as
the heavenly waters which form a continuation of the ocean
ttiat flows around and under the earth. We should expect her
to be Nuu's consort, but she Is seldom associated with him in
this capacity; she is, instead, the wife of the
earth-god, by whom she gives birth to the sun
each morning; and in similar fashion, as "the
one who bore (or bears) the gods" (I. e. all the
heavenly bodies), she is the mother of all life,
or at least of the younger generation of gods
who form the transition to mankind, as we shall
see on pp. 72, 78. She is often represented as a
dark woman covered with stars, bending over the
withSymbolI earth-god as he reclines on his back (see Figs.
OF THE Sky IN 33^ 2S) 38, 39)- Funerary pictures, especially
on coffins, show her receiving the souls of the
dead into her star-decked bosom, arms, and wings. As the
counterpart of the dark abysmal depth she Is also explained
as the sky of the underworld, where the firmament hangs
permanently upside down or whence by night It ascends from




42



EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY



the waters, to change place with the bright sky of day.

Therefore Nut, the mother of the stars, is united with the

stellar tree of heaven,
in which she is hidden,
or whose branches are
formed by her limbs.
She is, however, not
always clearly distin-




FiG. 33. Qeb as Bearer of Vegetation




guished from the sky in the day-time, and, correspondingly,
all goddesses identified with the vault of heaven may likewise
take the place of the nocturnal sky, especially Hat-hor in her
frequent function of divinity of the West and of the dead.

Nut's husband, by whom she bears the sun-god (and the
moon), is Qeb,^^ the god of the earth, who is often
depicted as a man resting on his back or his side,
and with plants springing from his body. The
goose which sometimes adorns his head when he is
pictured as standing erect is simply the hieroglyph
which forms an abbreviation of his name, but the
theologians soon misinterpreted this to mean that Fig. 34. Qeb
the earth-god was a huge gander, "the Great Cack- hierogly-
ler," who laid the solar egg.^^ He also has a ser- phic Sym-
pent's head as being the master of snakes, his
special creatures (p. 104); or on his human head rests the com-
plicated crown of the Egyptian
crown prince" as he is often
called. 2° In all probability Qeb
was originally only a local di-
vinity (near Heliopolis?) with-
out cosmic function, for the
earlier traditions know another
god of the earth, who is called

Fig. 35. Qeb as a Serpent and Nut . , . , „, rr-n • i •

Aker or Akeru.^^^ Ihis deity is
depicted as a double lion with two opposite heads (sometimes
human) on one body,^^ the one mouth swallowing the sun at




OTHER GODS CONNECTED WITH NATURE 43



evening, when he enters the desert mountains in the west;
while from the other he comes forth in the morning, so that





Fig. 36. Qeb Watching Aker and Extended over him
To the left is seen the sun, as Khepri, in the lower world.

by night the sun-god passes through Aker's body, the earth.
Later theologians sought to reconcile the existence of the
superfluous Aker with that of his successor Qeb
by making the older god the representative
of the lower regions of the earth and depicting
him as black; then Qeb is placed over him as
a guardian,^^ so that some scholars could actu-
ally confuse Aker with the Satanic dragon Fig. 37. Disfigured
'Apop, lying in the depths of the earth.^^ Cer- Representation

. . . OF Aker, AssiMi-

tain later artists and theologians also separated latedtoShuand
the composite figure of Aker into two lions efenet
turning their backs to each other and carrying the two moun-
tains between which the sun rises. Subsequently some com-
mentaries called
these mysterious
lions "the morning"
and "yesterday,"
whereas others con-
fused them with the
"two celestial lions,"
Fig. 38. Shu, Standing on the Ocean (?), Upholds Shu and Tefenet, and
^"^'™^S^^ accordingly repre-

Four phases of the sun are represented. ^ j ^i i

sented them as seated
In bushes (i. e. the horizon; see p. 38) or as sustaining the
sky (see Fig. 37).




44



EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY




The latter two gods, Shu and Tefenet, were mostly under-
stood by the Egyptians as the ethereal space which separates
earth and ocean from heaven. This function is especially clear
with Shu,^^ who is often represented as a man upraising the

sky on his outstretched
hands or holding one of the
pillars of heaven; as the sup-
porter of sky and sun he can
be pictured with the sun-
disk on his head or can even
be treated as a solar god.^^
Whether he was a son of

Fig. 39. Shu-Heka and the Four Pillars the SUn-god (as was the
Separating Heaven and Earth ^ ^ ^' \

most common acceptation;,
or was an emanation from the source of the gods, the abyss,
which preceded the sun, was a theological problem. At an
early date Shu was identified with Heka ("Magic," or "the
Magician"), who thus came likewise to be regarded as the
sun; but the reason is not so clear as when he is blended with
Heh ("Infinite Space"), as in Fig. 71, or with Horns.

In pictures of his cosmic function we find an avoidance of
his leonine form, although this shape was evi-
dently original, so that his local place of worship
was called Leontopolis. Later he was identified
with several other deities in human form, e. g.
rarely with the lunarized god Khons at Thebes,
more frequently with the warrior An-horet
(Greek 'Ovovpi^) of This.^^

How the lioness Tefenet ^^ came to be associ-
ated with Shu as his twin sister and wife and
thus received the function of a goddess of the
sky 29 Is uncertain; perhaps her lion-form, which never inter-
changes with haman features, furnishes the explanation, or
the accidental neighbourhood of the two gods when they were
once only local divinities may account for it. Modern com-




F1G.40. Tefenet



OTHER GODS CONNECTED WITH NATURE 45

parisons of Tefenet to the rain-clouds or the dew are quite
unfounded; if she and Shu are later said to cause the growth
of plants, this refers to other celestial functions than to fur-
nishing moisture, which in Egypt so rarely comes from the
sky.^" The Egyptian texts speak rather of Tefenet as send-
ing flaming heat (i. e. as solar) and describe her as a true
daughter or eye of the sun-god or as the disk on his head.




Fig. 41. The Nile, his Wife Nekhbet, and the Ocean

The pictures likewise always connect her with the sun. As a
female counterpart of Shu she can be identified with such god-
desses of the sky as Isis, whence in some places she is called the
mother of the moon; but she is also termed mother of the
sky (in other words, of Nut) and, contrariwise, daughter of the
sky (i. e. of Nut or Hat-hor). She and her brother Shu are
likewise named "the two lions " ^^ (cf. the explanation of
?f'ig- 37)- The idea of the wicked Seth as a god of thunder-
storms and clouds, which developed at a fairly early period,
will be discussed on pp. 103-04.

Turning to the element of water, we must first mention its
nearest representative, Ha'pi, the Nile, which is depicted as



46 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

a very stout blue or green human ligure,^^ wearing a fisherman's
girdle around his loins and having aquatic plants on his head.^^
Although much praised by poets, he does not enjoy such
general worship as we should expect, this being another proof
that the earliest Egyptian theology did not emphasize the cos-
mic character of the gods (pp. 23-24). From the earliest period
it was believed that the source of the Nile was on the frontier
of Egypt, between the cataracts of Assuan. There it sprang
from the nether world or from the abyss, or sometimes from
two distinct sources, and divided into two rivers, one of which
flowed northward through Egypt, while the other took a
southerly course through Nubia. The Asiatic tradition of four
rivers flowing to the four cardinal points ^^ has left a trace in
the Egyptian idea that the deeper sources of the Nile at
Elephantine were four in number,^^ so that the water of life
flows from four jars presented by the cataract-goddess Satet,
etc. For mythological explanations of the origin and rise of
the Nile according to the Osiris-myth, see pp. 94-95, 116, 125,
where we find Osiris becoming identical with the Nile.

Two water-goddesses are joined to the Nile,^^ Mu(u)t (or
Muit) and Nekhbet. In harmony with her name ("Watery
One," "Water-Flood"), in the earliest period the former was
sometimes taken to be the wet, primitive principle of the
Universe and the mother of all things, though usually she has
little prominence. Nekhbet, who is said to stand at the
entrance to the abyss,^^ is evidently connected with the prehis-
toric capital of Upper Egypt, even if she is not directly iden-
tical with the vulture-goddess of that city; and the question
arises whether the earliest theology did not make the Egyptian
course of the Nile begin there instead of at the First Cataract,
as was the belief somewhat later. Both wives of Ha'pi some-
times imitate him in being corpulent.

Occasionally the "ocean" (literally "the Great Green")
is obese like the Nile, as though he brought fertility; and
once his spouse likewise is Mu(u)t, or Mu(i)t. Usually, how-



OTHER GODS CONNECTED WITH NATURE 47




Fig. 42. Nuu

WITH THE

Head OF AN
Ox



ever, he Is identified with Nuu (or Nun?),^^ the god of the
abyss. Originally the latter represented not only the dark,
unfathomable waters which flow under the earth and can be
reached in the south,^^ I. e. at the source of the Nile, but
also their continuation which surrounds the world
as the all-encircling ocean; the ends of the ocean,
disappearing in darkness 'and endless space, lead
back to the subterranean waters. These abysmal
floods represent the primeval matter from which
all the deities arose, so that their personification,
Nuu, is called the oldest and wisest god, who ex-
isted "when there was no heaven and no earth," ^°
the possessor of all secrets, and the father of all
gods and of the world. This cosmogonic idea
finds its parallel in the sun's daily descent into and rebirth
from the ocean. In Egypt the ocean's representative was the
Nile, which was, accordingly, largely identified with Nuu.^^
Somewhat later and more mystic conceptions, as we have
already seen, identify Osiris, as the source of the subterranean
waters, with Nuu, and thus connect him with the ocean; still
later Ptah(-Tatunen) also is directly equated with the abyss,
probably after identification with Osiris.

Nuu is ordinarily depicted in human form, though occa-
sionally he has the head
of a frog and once ^^ that
of an ox; when he is
shown with two spread-
ing ostrich-feathers on
his head, his later iden-
T^ u^r r^ ,^ ~" tification with the wise

riG. 43. Nuu, THE rATHER OF THE Mysterious

Gods," Sends his Springs to "the Two Mys- Ptah-Tatunen is implied.
TERious Ones" r\ u. ^i

One very noteworthy
mythological picture ^^ represents "Nuu, the father of the mys-
terious gods," emitting the two or four sources of all waters
from his mouth while two gods, probably the southern and




48



EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY




northern Nile, each receive a part of these streams and spit
them out again." For the ocean in human circular form see
Fig. 46 and p. 96; on the late attribution of the ocean to
powers hostile to the sun and its identifi-
cation with 'Apop-Seth see pp. 104 ff.

The question of the relationship and se-
quence of the principal parts of the cosmic
structure and of the four elements was
never solved in a way which met with
Fig. 44. Two Members general acceptation. At first the myth of
OF THE Primeval xh^ creation of the world may have existed

Ogdoad

in a number of local variants. That Nuu,
the abysmal water, was the primary element was, however,
one of the first agreements of earliest theology, and the next
conclusion was that the creation of the sun was the most im-
portant step in the cosmogonic process. In the New Empire
the speculations regarding the state of the world before the
creation symbolized this cha-
otic state by four pairs of gods
(an ogdoad), the males, as
aqueous creatures, being repre-
sented with frogs' heads, and
the females with the heads of
serpents.'*^ Their names were
Nuu and Nut, the abysmal
forces; Heh(u) and Hehet (or
Hehut; "Endless Space");
Kek(u) (or Kekui) and Keket
(or Kekut; "Darkness");
Ni(u)andNit(" Sultry Air").''«
On account of their number
these eight parents or ancestors
of the sun-god were connected with Khmun(u), ("the City of
Eight") in Middle Egypt (p. 33), and some priests made this
(or its "high field") the scene or beginning of creation.




Fig. 45. Heh and Hehet Lift the Young
Sun (as Khepri) over the Eastern
Horizon



OTHER GODS CONNECTED WITH NATURE 49




Fig. 46. Unusual Representation of the Husband
OF THE Sky-Goddess



In reality only the first pair, Nuu and Nut, were the parents
of the sun-god according to the doctrine just set forth; but
it was easy to transfer the cosmic personalities of the ogdoad
to the daily birth of
the sun, as in Fig.
45, which represents
Heh and Hehet, in
the function of Shu
and Tefenet, lifting
the infant sun "in the east," i. e. every morning. There seems
to have been some uncertainty, however, whether the Nut
of the ogdoad was the same divinity as the celestial goddess
Nut, who bears the sun every day, or whether she was only
the primeval sky or merely an aspect of the watery chaos;
but the two personalities were probably identical. According
to this theory, then, with Nut as the flood, or with the old
water-goddess Mu(u)t, Mu(i)t, Nuu, the father of the gods,
begat the sun-god. As a daily event this act of creation
once represents Nut as the heaven bending over the ocean,
whose circular position seems to distinguish him from the

^ earth-god, who is pictured as
^ lying flat (see Fig. 46).

The later Egyptians do not
seem to have understood who
\ this male figure, passing the
^ sun from west to east, was; ^^
and the same statement holds
1^ true of a very similar repre-
sentation in the temple of

Fig. 47. The Sky-Goddess in Double Philae which sought tO pre-

FoRM and her Consort gent the Upper and the lower

sky as distinct personalities bending over the male principle;
It depicts the sun no less than eight times. Very soon the
belief became current that the sun, the greatest of all cosmic
forces, grew quite by himself out of the abyss as the "god

[Prometheus]

50 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

who begat" or "formed himself";'*^ and that he then created
the space of air between heaven and earth (Shu and Tefenet),
after whom heaven and earth (Qeb and Nut) themselves were
brought into being. From these gods came the rest of the
creation, including the new sun as Osiris, or the sun-god con-
tinued to create gods and finally produced men from his eyes,
etc. This is the old Heliopolitan doctrine of creation as re-
flected in the arrangement of the ennead of Heliopolis (see
pp. 215-16). We may thus infer that the doctrine of the ogdoad
rested on the different belief that air preceded the sun and
separated the sky (Nut) and the abyss (Nuu),
from whom the sun was born at the creation, as it
is born anew every day (cf. pp. 47, 49). The double
occurrence of the sun as Atum-Re' and as Osiris
in the Heliopolitan doctrine, and the very ancient
rjTji^yyA^ Tole of Shu as the separator of the two principal
\H V V i( parts of the world, again lead us to suppose that
w7^// variants existed according to which the sun-god
took a later place in the creation. In similar
'young Sun ^^shion we read in some texts that after growing
IN HIS Lotus in the ocean, or in the blue lotus which symbolizes
it, the sun-god climbed directly on the back of the
heavenly cow (see Fig. 27), thus implying the pre-existence of
heaven, air, and other elements, and of the earth as well.

An old variant of this creation of the world from the abyss
seems to be preserved in the tradition which makes the ram-
headed god Khnum(u) of Elephantine and his wife, the frog-
headed Heqet, "the first gods who were at the beginning, who
built men and made the gods." ^^ The underlying idea simply
seeks the origin of all waters, including the ocean, in the
mythological source of the Nile between the rocks of the First
Cataract; so that Khnum as "the source-god" is treated as a
mere localized variant of Nuu. Even in the Ancient Empire
Khnum and Heqet were transferred to Abydos for the sake
of fusion with the Osiris-myth, which found there not only the



OTHER GODS CONNECTED WITH NATURE 51

burial-place of Osiris, but also the spring of life, the entrance
and source of the abyss, etc.

It is doubtful how long the original meaning of Khnum and
Heqet as the gods of the Cataract region was still understood
correctly after they had been located "at the cradle [more
literally, "at the birth-place," meskhenet] of Abydos." ^°




Fig. 49. Khnum Forms Children, and Heqet Gives them Life

In any case later theology no longer comprehended the
abysmal nature of Khnum when it sought to explain the tradi-
tion of his creatorship by an etymology from the root khonem,
"to form like a potter," so that he became a "potter-god"
who once had made all beings, from gods to animals, on his
potter's wheel and who still determined the shape of every
new-born child, apparently creating It, or at least Its "double,"
in heaven before the Infant's birth. ^^ In conformity with this



52



EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY



development Khnum's later consort, Heqet, became a goddess
of birth.

Thus Heqet sometimes is parallel to Meskhenet, a divinity
explained as the "Goddess of the Cradle" (or more literally,
"of the Birth-Seat"), another deity who governs not only
earthly birth, but also the rebirth of the dead for the new life
with Osiris. As her symbol she wears on her head an ornament
resembling two bent antennae ^ of insects. She can also

be symbolized by a brick ( \ *-\ ), or by two of them, al-
luding to the bricks on which the Egyptian woman bore chil-
dren, as described in Exodus i. i6. The sun and
Osiris have four different Meskhenets, or birth-
goddesses, a symbolism which admits of various
interpretations (with Osiris preferably of the
four sources of the Nile [p. 46]; with the sun of
the sky, symbolized by the number four [p. 39]).
The name Meskhenet can be explained as "co-
incidence, happening, omen," i. e. as the coin-
cidence of the omens accompanying birth and
thus determining destiny, so that this divinity
becomes a goddess of fate. It is not impossible
that this etymology is the original one, and that the func-
tion of birth-goddess was merely derived from it.^^ As we
shall see, Renenutet also is connected with birth and education.
For ordinary people a male principle, Shay ("Fate"),
appears in the New Empire as a male counterpart and com-
panion of the birth-goddess. He is pictured in human form;
later, identified with the Greek Agathodaimon, he takes the
shape of a serpent, sometimes with a human head.

To the cosmic deities we may also reckon, as being apparently
stellar in origin, the very interesting divinity Sekha(u)it
(or possibly Sekha(u)tet),^^ the "goddess of writings," or
Fate, whose pen directs the course of all the world. She is
termed "the one before the divine place of books," i. e. the
librarian of the gods, and in one passage ^^ she has the title of




Fig. so.
Meskhenet



OTHER GODS CONNECTED WITH NATURE 53



*'the one before the book-house of the south," which may sug-
gest a locaHzation in the old capital Nekhbet, or may rather
be a hint at her home in the depths of the world, i. e. in the
south. A priestly costume (i. e. the leopard's skin) and pen
and inkstand (or two inkstands tied together, hanging over
her shoulder) characterize her office; while her connexion with
the subterranean sky is indicated by two horns, symbolizing
her celestial nature (p. 37), but pointing downward. ^^ The star
between the horns emphasizes this nature; but, contrary to
the custom of picturing
all stars with five rays,
this particular one has
seven, a careful indica-
tion of a symbolism which
we do not yet understand
or which may possibly
have come from Asia.^^
As a goddess of fate Se-
khait sits at the foot of the
cosmic tree, or, in other

words, in the nethermost p^^ ^^ Sekhait, Thout, and Atum Register
(southern) depths of the a King's Name on the Celestial Tree,
, . . Placing the King within it

sky or at the meetmg-

place of the upper and lower sky; and there she not only
writes upon this tree or on its leaves all future events, such as
length of life (at least for the kings), but also records great
events for the knowledge of future generations, since every-
thing, past and future, as we have already seen (p. 36), is
written in the stars.^^ Consequently she is sometimes localized
at the sacred Persea of Heliopolis. She is also identified with
the sky, e. g. as Isis, with the heavens by day, or, as Neph-
thys, with a more remote and less known personification of
the (lower?) sky; ^^ but not, as we should expect, with Nut.
At a comparatively early date the common folk lost the sig-
nificance of all this symbolism and gave her the meaningless





54 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

name Sefkhet 'Abui ("the One Who Has Laid Aside her
Horns," ^^ i. e. from her head).

Although the Egyptian priests claimed to be great astron-
omers, the planets ("the stars who never rest") did not enjoy
the prominence which they possessed in Baby-
lonia. In no place did they receive special wor-
ship; and if three (or, originally, four) of them
were called manifestations of the same god,
FiT^ Horus, In his capacity of ruler of the sky, it Is

The Planet Sat- extremely doubtful whether early times were

URN IN A Picture , j ^ j- ^' • i ^i r\ji

OF. THE Roman Hiuch concerned to distmguisn them. Ur course.
Period the momlng star (which probably was once dif-

ferentiated from the evening star) was always the most impor-
tant of the planets.^" It was male, being called "the Rising
God" (Nuter Dua). Regarded as the nocturnal representa-
tive of the hidden sun-god, it symbolized Osiris or his soul, the
Phoenix (benu, bin), or the renascent Osiris as Horus-Re';
while later it was also called "the One Who Ferries Osiris,"
or "Who Ferries the Phoenix." In the earliest texts the morn-
ing star and Orion as the rulers of the sky are often compared.
For some gods with a similar name who seem to be confused
with the morning star see pp. 132-33 on Dua and Dua-uer.
Clearly viewed as a female principle (an Idea which Is wide-
spread in Asia, where the concept of Venus as the "Queen of
Heaven" early dominated over the older Interpretation as
a male god 'Athtar or "Lucifer"),
we find Venus-Isis only In the latest
times In Egypt. In the earlier
period the comparison of Sothis
and Venus as daughter and wife of
the sun-god and mother of Osiris- ^'^- "? Sothis-Sirius

Horus Is uncertain and can have existed only vaguely.^^ The
other planets are less prominent. Jupiter's name was later
misread "Horus, the Opener of Secrets" (Up-shetau) ; the
original reading was Upesh ("the Resplendent Star"), or




OTHER GODS CONNECTED WITH NATURE 55



"Horus, the Resplendent," ^^ and also "the Southern Star."
Saturn is "Horus, the Bull"; and Mars is "the Red Horus"
or "Horus of the Horizon" (Har-akhti). It is somewhat sur-
prising that Sebg(u)-Mercur7 has no connexion
with the wise Thout, as we should expect from
Asiatic and European analogues; and sometimes
this star is actually dedicated to the wicked
god Seth.^^

The fixed stars are all gods or "souls," and
particular sanctity attaches to "the never-van-
ishing ones," i. e. to those stars in the northern
sky which are visible throughout the year. For
these stars as the crew of the solar ship see
supra, p. 26. They also function as the body-
servants of the sun-god, carrying arms in his
service ®* and acting as his messengers. In these
"children of Nut" (p. 41) or their groups the
Egyptians fancied at the same time that they Sothis (called
recognized various fields of heavenly flowers and
plants and that these meadows formed the habitations of the
blessed dead. At the same time they called the heavenly

fields by such
names as "this
^$§)\ field which pro-

duces the gods,
on which the gods
grow according to
their days every
year." ^^ Not-
withstanding the
Egyptian belief
that the gods




Fig. 54.




Fig. 55. Sothis and Horus-Osiris Connected



manifested themselves in the appearance and wanderings of
every star, only the most conspicuous of them played a
part of much importance in religion. First stands the dog-



s6



EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY



star, or Sirius, which the Egyptians called Sopdet ®^ (Greek
2&)^t<?). Since the dog-star is the queen of the fixed stars and
of heaven, Sothis-Sirius was early identified with Hat-hor or
Isis, In consequence she is usually pictured as a cow reclin-
ing in a ship (like the other heavenly bodies, pp. 26, 34) to sym-
bolize her rule over the heavens (see pp. 37-40 on the cow-shape
of the sky). When portrayed in human form, she usually in-
dicates that she is the companion of her neighbour (and son,
or brother and husband, or father) Orion by lifting one arm
like him. A noteworthy representation also shows her in asso-
ciation with (or rather in opposition to) Horus as the morning




Fig. 56. Decanal Stars from Denderah

Star, and thus in a strange relation to this leader of the plan-
ets and ruler of the sky which we cannot yet explain from
the texts. This same picture further blends her with a (neigh-
bouring and later.'') constellation, an archer-goddess, because
she holds a bow and arrows.®^ This most brilliant of the fixed
stars is used as the regulator of the year, whence Sothis is
called "the year (star),"^^ and the astronomical cycle of four-
teen hundred and sixty years, in which the ordinary, uninter-
calated year of three hundred and sixty-five days coincides
with the astronomically correct year, is termed the "Sothic
cycle." The identification of Sopdet with Isis gives her an
important part in the Osiris-myth.

Neither do the constellations seem to have been the source
of quite so much religious thinking as in Babylonia. Their
description differed very widely from that of the Babylonian
constellations, so that the Egyptian Lion is not in the least



OTHER GODS CONNECTED WITH NATURE 57



connected with the Babylonian group of the same name, as
can be seen from the picture given on p. 59; the "Giant"
or "Strong Man" (Nakht) has nothing in common with Orion,
who in Asia is called "the Hero, the Giant," etc. Even the
twelve Asiatic signs of the zodiac are entirely absent from the
sacred astronomy of Egypt before the Greek period. Allu-
sions to them in the more popular mythology, like references
to the bull of the Pleiades {supra, p. 40), or the myth of Virgo
holding Spica and Hydra (pp. 84, 153, Ch. VHI, Note 11), are
scanty and do not seem to occur as early as 2000 b. c. To di-
vide the year the Egyptians used,
in place of the zodiacal signs, the
decan-stars, marking on the sky
thirty-six sections of ten days each,
the surplus of five epagomenal days
being counted separately. This belt
of stars began with Sopdet-Sothis,
the dog-star, the "mistress of the
year." In Graeco-Roman times the
zodiacal signs became very popular,

and we find them pictured in many Fig. 57. Early Picture of Orion

richly developed representations.

Orion, the most remarkable and most beautiful of all con-
stellations, "fleet of foot, wide of steps, before the south-
land," ^^ represents the hero of the sky, exactly as in the
mythology of Asia.^° He is early identified with the victorious
sun-god Horus,. while his father Osiris (in other words, the dead
or unborn form of Horus himself, who equals Osiris), the deity
in a box or a little boat, is sought chiefly in the constellation
directly below, i. e. the ship Argo or its principal star, Canopus.
Often, however, both gods and their constellations are freely
Interchanged as manifestations of the same deity. We can
trace the representation of Orion as a man running away and
looking backward to the time before 2000 B.C. For the most
part he lifts his right arm, usually with the hand empty,




58



EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY



though sometimes he holds a star or the hieroglyph of life.
Later he grasps a spear, in order to connect him with the mili-
tant Horus. As we have seen, he often appears as a companion



o o o
o o o o o



^i^




of Sothis. In the New Empire we find
also the idea of the two Orions which
is so richly developed in universal myth-
ology as a year-myth; these celestial
twins appear united as in the picture
here given, ^^ or are separated. ^^ The
Egyptians do not seem to have recog-
nized that this idea corresponded with
their own myth of Osiris-Seth in many
versions of universal mythology. In
like manner the probable original iden-
tity of Orion (or his counterpart or
double, Canopus, the steersman of

the ship Argo.^), with the ferryman

Fig. 58. The Double Orion r .1 1 1 j u 1 r

^ 01 the lower world whose face is

backward" or "who looks backward" was forgotten at
an even earlier date.^^

Among the other decans the most remarkable is the six-
teenth, the principal star of the constellation Shesmu (Greek
transcription "Zea/xr]), an old deity of somewhat violent char-
acter who occasionally appears
as the lord of the last hour of
the night. ''^ From the hiero-
glyph of a press which marks
his name, later theologians in-
ferred that he was an oil-presser
and "master of the laboratory,"
a giver of ointment; but earlier
texts describe him rather as a
butcher or as a cook.^^ He is pictured in human form or with
the head of an ox or of a lion, the latter apparently being the
more original. In other words, Shesmu seems to be the com-




FiG. 59. The Ferryman of the Dead



OTHER GODS CONNECTED WITH NATURE 59

panion of the goddess Shesemtet, who likewise was probably
lion-headed. Her members once were thought to be repre-
sented in the tenth, eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth decans.
At one time, therefore, she was a powerful divinity and was
called mistress of the sky, but she was almost forgotten even
in the Pyramid Period and later disappeared completely; as
early as 2000 b. c. her name ^^ is so corrupted in the list of
decans as to be devoid of meaning.^^

The seven-starred constellation of Ursa Major (Charles's
Wain, popularly called the Great Dipper in the United States)
was only later fully identified with the wicked god Seth-




FiG. 60. Constellations Around the Ox-Leg

Typhon, the adversary of Osiris, yet even under its old names,
*'the Ox-Leg," or "the Club, the Striker" {Mesekhti),'^^ itwsLS
an ill-omened constellation, although it belonged to the especi-
ally venerable "indestructible stars," i.e. those visible during
the whole year in the most remarkable region of the sky near
the North Pole (p. 55).

Following the picture which we here give from the temple
of King Sethos (Setkhuy) I, we can identify a few constella-
tions near the great "Ox-Leg," which here has the form of
an ox. The most prominent among them is the strange god-
dess Epet.^^ She is represented as a female hippopotamus
(perhaps pregnant) with human breasts and lion's feet. On
her back she carries a crocodile (which later she sometimes
bears in her paws), and from this association she receives
the head and tail — or only the tail — of a crocodile; later



6o



EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY



still she may assume also the head of a lion or of a heavenly
goddess in a human form, thus indicating her celestial nature.
At one period she must have been worshipped very widely, for
the month Epiphi is sacred to her; and accordingly she bears
the name of Ueret or, later, T-ueret (Greek Oour^/ji?), i. e. "the
Great One." Originally she seems to have been simply a local
divinity, but before the New Empire, as we see in Fig. 60, she
was identified with the constellation of Bootes as the guar-
dian of the malev-
olent "Ox-Leg."
Despite her hor-
rible appearance,
she is in reality
beneficent and is
a "mistress of
talismans." She
affords protection
against sickness
and is pre-emi-



— .„ »„ ^.^ . .

nently helpful in jP/M
child-birth, whence ' ?




she aDDears not ^'*^' ^^' "^^^^^ Later Types of £pet (the Last as
^^ ^ Queen of Heaven)

only at the birth

of the sun each morning, but, strangely enough, also at its
death at evening. Accordingly she is later called "She Who
Bears the Sun," and is, therefore, identified with Nut or has
the head of Hat-hor-Isis.

In this representation of the circumpolar stars we also see
the later attempt to discover, as further guardians of the
dangerous group of seven stars, the Nubian goddess Selqet
(to be discussed on pp. 147, 157), and the "four sons of Horus"
(see pp. 111-13). There we likewise find 'An, *Anen,^° a god
who holds a staff behind his shoulders (hence his name from
the verb 'n, "to turn back".^) and who is stellarized as another
guardian of the Great Bear, so that sometimes he even be-



OTHER GODS CONNECTED WITH NATURE 6i

[Prometheus]

Fig. 62.



'An-Horus Fighting the
Ox-Leg



comes a manifestation of Horus fighting the monster of the
northern sky.

The strange, ugly, serpent-strangling dwarf (or giant)
Bes ^^ may also be considered here,
since, like Epet, he was placed
among the stars at an early period.
He has the ears, mane, and tail
of some wild animal of the cat-
tribe from which he seems to de-
rive his name, although the artists
are often uncertain whether these
details do not belong rather to a
detachable skin. In the stellar
mythology he appears to corres-
pond to the serpent-strangling
constellation Ophiuchos (or Serpentarius) of the Classical
world. It is probable that this Classic localization in the sky
was borrowed from Egypt, although the later Egyptians seem
no longer to have been conscious of any stellar interpretation.
If we may judge from the numerous pictures
of Bes among the amulets, a very rich myth-
ology must have attached to this strange
personality, but since it flourished in oral
tradition only, it is left to our fancy to guess
the stories according to which,
for example, he was so fond
of dancing and music that he
became the patron of these
pleasures, as well as of other
female arts like binding flow-
ers, preparing cosmetics, etc.
As a joyous deity he is also
fond of drinking and is represented especially as sucking beer ( ?)
from large jars through a straw. He appears as amusing in-
fants, principally the new-born sun-god, whom he protects




M

#



r=



Fig. 63. Old Types of Bes from the
Twelfth and Eighteenth Dynasties



62



EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY




Fig. 64. Bes with Flowers



and nurses, and this explains why he becomes the companion
(sometimes the husband) of Ueret-Epet as a protector of child-
birth, etc. ^2 He not only strangles or devours serpents, but also

catches boars, lions, and ante-
lopes with his hands. His image
on the wooden headrests for
sleeping, or over the door, etc.,
keeps away not merely noxious
animals, but also evil spirits.
Representations of him in Ro-
man times as brandishing knives
or as a warrior in heavy armour
(Plate n, 2), seem to show him in
this same protective function. As
his name cannot be traced be-
yond 1500 B. c, and as his exact
picture is not found with full
certainty before 2000, while his
representation en face is rather unusual in Egyptian art,^^ it
has often been supposed that he was a foreign god. Never-
theless, passages describing him as ' coming from the east,
Master of the Orient," or localizing him at Bu-gem (or Bu-
gemet) ^^ in eastern Nubia, evidently do not point to his origi-
nal local worship, but merely to myths concerning him in
Nubia or in Arabia; all the gods come, like the
stars, from the eastern sky or from the lower
world. The long tresses of his
beard and hair, and the leop-
ard's (.^) skin which he wears
(originally, as we have just
seen, a part of his body), as
well as the feather crown
which adorns him (from the Eighteenth Dynasty.?), might, in-
deed, be considered as analogous to the dress of the red and
brown African tribes on the Red Sea; but we ought to know




Fig. 65. Bes Drinking®




OTHER GODS CONNECTED WITH NATURE 63

more about myths speaking of dwarfs in the south and
about certain dwarf-shaped gods of the earliest period, whose
models seem to be unborn or rhachitic children, to understand
these and other connexions. ^^

The earliest similar dwarf divinities of both types
are usually feminine. The nude female Bes (prob-
ably called Beset) appears not only in the latest
period, ^^ when we find a male and female deity Fig. 66. The
of this type among gods whose prevailing char- ^^'^^'''^ ^^s
acter is stellar, but also in the magic wands of the Twelfth
Dynasty,^^ from which date we here reproduce a statuette of
the female Bes, crushing a serpent and wrapped in the skin
of some one of the Felidae, while her ears likewise are those of
that animal.

We do not know why the cult of these ancient gods was
neglected in the Pyramid Period. It is not until about 2000
B. c. that we find Bes represented on magic objects, and even
later he seems to have been a deity worshipped chiefly by the
common people and without much official recognition. He
became most prominent after 1000 b. c, when his artistic
type developed such popularity that not only did many
minor gods assume his form,^^ but it very strongly
influenced Asia and Europe, so that it can be
traced, for example, in Greek art and mythology
in the types of the Satyr, Gorgo, Silenus, etc.

Thus, probably as being one of the oldest
divine forms known, Bes and his earlier proto-
types or relatives, the bow-legged, undeveloped
dwarf gods, furnished the patterns for certain
deities in whom the later pantheistic age wished
Fig. 67. The to symbolize the most universal or the most

Female Bes ... - __,, .

primitive power of nature. This mode of rep-
resentation was subsequently applied also to a divinity who
claimed to be the oldest of all, Ptah, the god of Memphis,
and his local variant, Sokari; and then was fitted to Nuu





64 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

(the abyss) when he was idenliified with Ptah-Sokarl as the
primeval god, and with Khepri, the sun while still un-
formed (p. 25). Herodotus calls the protective amulet figures
of Bes at the prow of Phoenician ships "representa-
tions of Hephaistos" (i.e. Ptah) of Memphis, giving
their Phoenician name very exactly as Pataikoi, or
"little Ptahs." ^° The dwarfed, infantile, or even
embryo-like representation of these gods then ap-
pears to have been understood as symbolizing the
beginning of all things. Tearing up and devouring
Fig. 68. serpents, which probably seemed symbols of primi-

A "PaTAIk" . , ., If • • -r.'-

tive hostile powers, they lorm a transition to rSes.
Some of these speculations may also lead back to the idea
of Bes as guardian of the young sun, while others seem to
have been earlier. The development of these thoughts and
pictures needs further investigation (see Fig. 2 (/) for a pre-
historic statuette of the dwarf type).

We know little about some other divinities who are found in
the stars, e. g. Hephep, who appears in human form and wears
royal crowns, ^^ or about Heqes,^^ who is once called a god of
fishermen and "lord of the mouth of the rivers" (in Lower
Egypt.?). The meaning and name of many such gods were lost
at an early date. Thus a deity called Sunt, who is frequently
mentioned in the Pyramid Texts ^^ as appearing or circulating
in the sky, was later forgotten completely. The same fate
befell a strange mythological being, a leopard or
lion with an enormously long, serpent-like neck

which occurs very frequently (often in pairs) on

the prehistoric monuments, then appears for a ,^^^)/j\a
short time on the magic wands of the Middle yw. 69. Lost
Empire, and finally vanishes. The special interest Stellar Di-

VINITY

of this lost divinity is that it has exact analogies
in the earliest Babylonian art. Some stellarizations, on the
other hand, appear only later. The age and the true estima-
tion of the value of these stellar speculations are often



1L



OTHER GODS CONNECTED WITH NATURE 65








Fig. 70. The East and West Winds



uncertain. They are of special importance in some of the

earliest funerary texts which treat of the wanderings of the

dead king among the stars, where he himself becomes a star (cf.

p. 178). Later even

the astronomical

meaning of these texts

was forgotten, and

the conception of the

stars as the souls of

the dead grew less

distinct. New interest

in their groups was

awakened especially

by Greek influence when the twelve signs of the zodiac, which

the Greeks had received from the Babylonians, penetrated

into the sacred astronomy of Egypt (p. 57).^^

The four winds also were considered to be divine. The
north wind is a ram or bull with four heads, although variants
sometimes occur; the east wind is a hawk, perhaps because
the sun-god rises in the east; the south and west winds reveal
their burning character by having the head or body of a lion
and a serpent respectively. Many of these attributes are
quadrupled, four being the celestial number (pp. 39, 52); oc-
casionally they occur in even greater repetitions.^^ Frequently
all four winds have the shape or head of a ram as an allusion




Fig. 71. The Air-God Shu-Heh with the South and North Winds

to the word bai ("soul, breath"). They are usually winged.
Their names are known only from very late times.

On the analogy of the four "souls," or rams, of the winds,
the Greek period attempted to represent the gods of the four




66 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

elements also as rams, these deities being Re' (sun and fire),

Shu (air), Qeb (earth), and Osiris (water). ^^ Possibly the

sun-god with four rams' heads was another basis for this

/I idea, which may have been connected also with the

- ram of Mendes as representing all nature in Osiris,

etc., by theological speculators.

Special gods represented the twenty-four hours
of the day.^^ Though the thirty days of the month
were not personified, each was placed under the
protection of a well-known god, the first, charac-
teristically enough, under that of the moon-god
_^Thout, as the great regulator of time (p. 33).
Fig. 72. An Plant life may be personified in Osiris, so far as it
symbolizes the resurrection of the dead. As a more
special harvest-goddess the serpent Renenutet (later pro-
nunciation Remute[t]), i. e. "the Raising Goddess," was
worshipped, and the eighth month (Pha-rmuthi in later pro-
nunciation) was dedicated to her, evidently because harvest
once fell in it.®^ The "God of Grain," Nepri (or, as a female,
Nepret, who sometimes is identified with Renenutet), is more
of a poetic abstraction like the gods "Abundance"
and "Plenty" (Hu, Zefa), etc., all of whom, includ-
ing Nepri, are often pictured as fat men like the
Nile-god (p. 45), with whom they are frequently
connected. The "field-goddess" carries a green field
on her head. Tenemet seems to have been a pa-
troness of intoxicating drink,^^ and a goddess of
baked things was also known. ^°° ^ig 71

We may close our enumeration of the gods of Nepri, the

... . ~ . - , . Grain-God,

nature with the personmcations or the four senses. Marked by

who appear as men bearing on their heads the organ Ears of
connected with the sense in question and frequently
accompanying the sun-god, probably in his capacity of cre-
ator of all things. These deities are Hu ("Feeling, Wisdom,"
frequently confused with Hu, "Abundance"), Sa(u) or Sia(u)




OTHER GODS CONNECTED WITH NATURE 67



("Taste"), Maa(?) ("Sight"), and Sozem (later Sodem,
Sotem, "Hearing"). The first two also symbolize wisdom.
Heka ("Magic") is similarly personified, ^°^ as is
Nehes ("Wakefulness [?], Awakening [?]"), both
of whom often accompany the sun-god in his ship
(cf. Fig. 11). To these male abstractions we some-
times ^°^ find added the female personifications of
"Joy" (Aut-[y?]eb) and "Happiness" (Hetpet).
On the strange development of Ma'et ("Justice")
see p. 100. Countries and cities have female per- The Field-
sonifications, as is shown by Nekhbet (p. 46). Goddess
Naturally, however, these abstract deities play little part
in Egyptian mythology, and their role was quite inferior to
that which similar divinities have enjoyed in certain other
religious systems.




Fig. 74.



CHAPTER IV

SOME COSMIC AND COSMOGONIC MYTHS

I. THE CREATION OF THE WORLD AND OF MEN

THE fullest text about the creation of the world is a hymn
which is preserved only in a papyrus copy written in the
reign of Alexander II ^ (310 b. c.), but which seems to go back
to originals that are considerably earlier.

THE BOOK OF KNOWING THE GENESIS OF THE SUN-GOD
AND OF OVERTHROWING 'APOP

"The Master of Everything saith after his forming:
*I am he who was formed as Khepri.^
When I had formed, then (only) the forms were formed.
All the forms were formed after my forming.
Numerous are the forms from that which proceeded from my mouth.'

The heaven had not been formed,
The earth had not been formed,
The ground had not been created
(For.'') the reptiles in that place*

I raised (myself) among them [variant: there] in the abyss, out

of (its) inertness.
When I did not find a place where I could stand,
I thought wisely (?) in my heart,
I founded in my soul (?).
I made all forms,^ I alone.

I had not yet ejected as Shu,

I had not spat out as Tefenet,®

None else had arisen who had worked (?) with me.

(Then) I founded in my own heart; ^

There were formed many (forms?),®

The forms of the forms in the forms of the children,

(And) in the forms of their children.



SOME COSMIC AND COSMOGONIC MYTHS 69

Ego sum qui copulavi pugno meo,
Libidinem sentivi ^ in umbra mea,^"
Semen cecidit (?) e meo ipsius ore.

What I ejected was Shu,
What I spat out was Tefenet.
My father, the abyss, sent them.^^
My eye followed them through ages of ages (?) ^^
As (they) separated from me. After I was formed as the only

(g0d),13

Three gods were (separated) from me (since?) I was on this earth.
Shu and Tefenet rejoiced in the abyss in which they were.
They brought me my eye (back) (following) after them.
After I had united my members, ^^ I wept over them.

The origin of men was (thus) from my tears which came from my
eye.
It became angry against me after it had come (back),
When it found that I had made me another (eye) in its place
(And) I had replaced it by a resplendent eye;
I had advanced its place in my face afterward,
(So that) it ruled this whole land.

Now (?) at its (?) time were their (f) plants (?).^^
I replaced what she had taken therefrom.
I came forth from the plants (?).
I created all reptiles and all that was in (?) them.'^
Shu and Tefenet begat [Qeb] and Nut.
Qeb and Nut begat Osiris, Horus (the one before the eyeless) (?),

Seth, Isis, and Nephthys from one womb.
One of them after the other;
Their children are many on this earth.'"

Like most ancient Oriental texts concerned with the prob-
lem of cosmogony, this is an attempt to use various traditions
of very contradictory character. We see, for example, that it
starts with the assumption that the abyss was occupied by
strange monsters, or "reptiles," among whom the sun-god
grew up; while another theory, evidently much more recent,
regards the solar deity as the very first being that actually
lived and as the creator of all things, so that the sun-god
created, first of all, these primeval monsters. ^'^ With the forma-
tion of the first pair of cosmic gods by the sun the poet loosely
connects the different theory that the creation of ordinary



70 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

life or of the present order of the world began by the loss of
the deity's eye. He also alludes to various interpretations
of this myth, of which we shall speak below: (a) the lost eye
of the supreme god wanders abroad as the sun; (b) it is re-
stored to its former place as the daily sun by Shu and Tefenet,
evidently in their capacity of solar or celestial divinities who
hold the sun in its place; (c) the quarrel between the roving
eye and the one which the deity had put in its place, and
the strife with their father, the great cosmic deity, give scope
for various interpretations of this legend by the course of
the sun. The poet does not try to harmonize these inter-
pretations; to him the most important point is the creation
of mankind. The oldest theory, that man originated from
a divine essence flowing from the eye which had been lost
or damaged in some adventure of the creator, is not clearly
set forth; and the hymn emphasizes, rather, the version
which attributes man's creation to a more peaceful ema-
nation from the weeping of the divine eye, a paronomasia
based on the similarity between remy, "to weep," and romet,
rdme{t), "man," which recurs very often in Egyptian literature
after 2000 b. c. and which admits of a rationalistic interpre-
tation of human and general creation by the rays of the sun.^^
In its closing lines our text gives yet another theory: men are
descendants of the later divine generations; they are, so to
say, debased gods, connected especially with Osiris, the source
of mortality and ancestor of mortal men. This efi'ort to con-
dense the various cosmogonic theories and traditions into a
few words refers to further myths as well, but we do not con-
sider these here. Our hasty examination of the text sufficiently
shows how impossible it was for the priestly poet to construct
a rational theory of creation from such contradictory material.
This constant incongruity of Egyptian myths is also illus-
trated by a remarkable series of cosmogonic pictures ^^ which
show first "the sun-god growing (in?) members" ^° in a strange
representation which seeks to indicate his embryonic condi-



SOME COSMIC AND COSMOGONIC MYTHS 71




tlon. Near him sit the air-gods Shu and Tefenet as little
children. This symbolizes their primeval nature and their
precedence of the sun-god, as has been stated on pp. 49-50 (in
opposition to the theory set forth in the ,^?1
hymn given on pp. 68-69). Next the sun-
god again appears in an embryonic state,
floating in an ornamented box which,

the explanation says, represents Nut, p— ^^_ ^he Birth of the
the heavenly flood, although we should Sun-God

expect the abyss or ocean as the place of the new-born sun (pp.
49-50); the chest adapts this idea to the Osiris-Horus myth
(p. 57). Then comes the cow "Ehet (p. 40), the development
of the members of Khepri," with double emblems of Hat-hor
and with the symbol of the sky, carrying the sun both on her
head and on her body.-^ Before her stands Hu, the god of
wisdom and the divine word (p. Gj), holding an egg, a sym-
bol which may be explained as an allusion to the earth-god
Qeb, whose name is sometimes written with the sign of the
Qgg (p. 42), or to the solar egg (?), or to the creation in gen-
eral. At any rate he represents quite a unique cosmogonic
symbolism which would seem to be in conflict with all the other
pictures. This is not more strange, however, than *' the sun-
god (in?) members" (p. 28) in the background as the heav-
enly face and the half-developed flower, growing from a base
which the artist made to be midway between an indication of a

[Prometheus]

pool of water and the solar
disk. The value of these
mystic pictures, claiming to
be reproduced according to
the earliest traditions, is

Fig. 76. Further Symbols of the Birth that they again illustrate
OF THE Sun-God ,i u • ^' r

the combmation or so many
different theories about the origin of the sun and of the world;
the divergence of these views makes the mystery the more
solemn to the Egyptian mind.




72 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

In the Book of the Dead^"^ we find a cosmogonic fragment
which includes allusions to various other disconnected myths.

"Furthermore I shall ruin all that I have made.
This earth will appear (?) as an abyss,
In (or, as) a flood as in its primeval condition.
I am the one remaining from it together with Osiris.
My forming is (then) made to me among other (?) serpents
Which men never knew.
Which the gods never saw."

The text continues with an account of the distribution of
the world among the gods; the connexion with the preceding
fragment is very unintelligible:

"What I have done for Osiris is good.
I have exalted him above all gods;
I have given him the underworld [variant: as ruler];
His son Horus (shall be) his heir on his throne in the island of

flames (p. 27).
I have made his throne [variant: his substitute] in the Boat of

Eternities."

The text then loses itself in the ordinary OsIris-myth, giving
an interesting description of the fate of Osirls's enemy Seth :

"Furthermore I have sent the soul of Seth to the west,
Exalted above all gods;
I have appointed guardians of his soul, being in the boat." ^^

We are here informed that Seth's soul, after his destruction
on earth, is kept imprisoned in the west, evidently as the ocean-
serpent which lies in darkness, a confusion of Seth and 'Apop,
which shows that this part of the text, at first unconnected
with the cosmogonic fragment, is subsequent to 1600 b. c.
In like manner we cannot be quite certain that the threat to
return the world to its primeval condition was originally as-
sociated with a mythological fragment which precedes it and
which speaks of a rebellion of the gods:

"O Thout, what is it that hath arisen among the children of Nut? "^^
They have committed hostilities, they have instigated (?) disorder,
They have done sin, they have created rebellion.



SOME COSMIC AND COSMOGONIC MYTHS 73

They have committed murder, they have created destruction,
And they have done (it), the great one against the small
With all which I (?) have done.
Give, O Thout, an order to Atum!"^^

The compiler seems to have understood this last fragment
to refer to the rebellion of Seth and his companions against
Osiris which brought about a reorganization of the world, a
parallel to the rebellion of men against the sun-god (p. 74).
Whether the first fragment may be interpreted as an allusion
to the deluge (as Naville thought) is uncertain; it seems to
be only a threat of the sun-god, under his name of Atum.
Its interest lies in the fact that it confirms a cosmogonic theory
found in the Papyrus of Nesi-Amsu, as recorded in the hymn
quoted on pp. 68-69: the sun-god grew among the monsters
which filled the abyss and constituted the oldest generation of
divine beings, thus possibly affording a parallel to the good
gods who dwell in the abyss described in the following myth.

The Asiatizing theory that this older generation opposed
the new cosmic power and that the sun-god created the new
order of the world in a war against the abysmal powers (or at
least against some of them) does not belong to the earlier
strata of Egyptian theology, as has been noted above from the
mention of 'Apop, the serpent of the abyss, but it forms a
transition to the next collection, which is very important.

II. THE DESTRUCTION OF MANKIND

A document of the Middle Empire — probably from the
early part of that period — which has been preserved in a
much disfigured tradition in two royal tombs of the Nine-
teenth and Twentieth Dynasties is a compilation of various
mythological texts similar to those which we have just con-
sidered, full of contradictions and redacted with equal careless-
ness. ^^ There we find an important legend of the destruction
of the human race.

"[Once there reigned on earth Re', the god who^^j shines,



74 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

the god who had formed himself. After he had been ruler of
men and gods together, then men (2) plotted [against him] at
a time when His Majesty — life, welfare, health (to him)! —
had grown old. His bones were of silver, his members of gold,
his hair of genuine lapis lazuH. His Majesty (3) recognized
the plot which the men [had formed] against him and he said
to his followers: 'Call to me my eye and Shu (4) and Tefenet,
Qeb and Nut, together with my fathers and mothers who were
with me when I was In the abyss, and also the god ^^ Nuu.
He shall (.f") bring his courtiers (5) with himself. Bring ^^
them secretly (?); the men shall not see it, and their heart
shall not run away.^'^ Come with them to the palace that they
may speak their opinions respectfully {?), (6) and that I may
go in the abyss to the place where I was born.'

"Those gods were brought [to this god], and those gods
[placed themselves] at his side, touching the ground with their
foreheads (7) before His Majesty (that he should) make his
report before his father, the oldest god (i. e. Nuu), (he) the
maker of men, the king of human beings (.^).^^ They said
before His Majesty: * Speak ( to us that we may hear It.'
Re' said to Nuu: 'Thou oldest god, from whom I have arisen,
and ye gods of a former age! behold, the men that have arisen
(9) from my eye, they have plotted against me. Tell me what
ye would do against this. Behold, I am undecided. I would
not slay them before I shall have heard what (10) ye say con-
cerning It.' The Majesty of Nuu said: *My son Re', the god
greater than the one who made him and more powerful than
those who created him, stay In thy place! (11) Thy fear Is
great; thine eye will be against those who plot against thee.'
Re' said: 'Behold, In terror of their hearts they have run away
to the (desert) mountains because of what they have said.'
^^(12) They said before His Majesty: 'Make thy eye go that It
/^smlte for thee those who have plotted wicked things ! Let not
the eye be in front of her ^^ to smite them for thee!' (13) (So)
It went as Hat-hor.^^



SOME COSMIC AND COSMOGONIC MYTHS 75

"Then this goddess came (back) when she had slain the
men on the mountains. Then the Majesty of this god said:
'Welcome, O Hat-hor, hast thou done that for which I sent
thee?' (14) That goddess said: 'By thy life for me, I have
been powerful among the men; that was pleasure for my heart.'
Said the Majesty of Re': 'Thou shalt be powerful among them
in Herakleopolis (15) by their annihilation.' ^'* This was the
origin of Sekhmet (i. e. "the Powerful One") and of the mixed
drink( ?),^^ of the night of passing over their blood, originally ( .'')
in Herakleopolis.^®

"Re' said: (16) 'Call me now speedy messengers, swift-
running like the shadow of a body.' Such messengers were
brought (17) immediately. This god said: 'Go to Elephantine
and bring me many mandrake fruits.' ^^ Those mandrakes
were brought, and [Re' appointed] (18) the miller (?)^^ who
dwells in Heliopolis to (.'*) grind those mandrakes while slave
women brewed (?) grain for beer. Then those mandrakes
were put in that mixture, and it was like (19) human blood,
and seven thousand jars of beer were made.

"Then came the Majesty of the King of Upper and Lower
Egypt, Re', with those gods to see that beer when the morning
broke (20) on which the men were to be killed by the goddess
at their ^^ (appointed) time of going southward. The Majesty
of Re' said: 'How fine this is! I shall protect (21) the men
before her.' Re' said: 'Bring this now to the place where she
said she would kill the men.'

"On that day Re' [stood up] (22) in the best part (?) of the
night ^° for causing this sleeping-draught to be poured out,
and the fields were flooded four spans high by [that] liquid
through the power of the Majesty of this god. When (23)
that goddess came in the morning, she found this causing
an inundation. Her face looked beautiful (reflected) therein.
She drank from it and liked it and she came (home) drunken
without (24) recognizing the men. Re' said to that goddess:
'Welcome, thou pleasant one!'



76 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

"Thus originated the girls in the Pleasant City.^^ Re'
said (25) to that goddess: 'Make sleeping-draughts for her
at the time of the New Year festival! Their number (shall be)
according to (?) that of my (temple) slave-girls.' Thus origi-
nated the making of sleeping-draughts for ( ?) the number of
slave-girls at the festival of Hat-hor by all men since that day."

Here we again find the story closed by learned etymologies
of divine names and by explanations of local ceremonies. The
most interesting feature of this myth, however, is the possi-
bility, as Naville first pointed out, of seeing an analogy to
Semitic deluge-traditions in the almost complete destruction
of mankind and the flood of drink which covered the land.
Egyptian fancy would thus have turned the deluge, sent for
destroying the human race, into the means of saving men from
their deserved punishment of extinction; but until we find
further texts, the analogies of the Egyptian story with the
flood-stories of other countries must remain rather problem-
atic. Similar uncertainty attaches to the mythological frag-
ment (p. 72) which presents certain parallel ideas, although It
belongs, rather, to the following myth which tells why the sun-
god departed from earth. Plato's statement ^^ that the deluge
did not reach Egypt also Implies that the Egyptians had no
distinct flood-legend. The only faint Egyptian parallel to the
deluge is the legend of Osiris or Horus, the ancestor of mankind,
floating in a chest at his birth or death, as will be told In the
following chapter. The connexion between the myth just
related and the New Year admits of various interpretations.^^

III. WHY THE SUN-GOD WITHDREW FROM EARTH

To the tradition of the destruction of mankind the same
text adds another story which seemed capable of association
with it.

"The Majesty of Re' said to that goddess: 'Is this Illness ^*
the burning of (ordinary.^) illness.^ What, then, hath befallen



SOME COSMIC AND COSMOGONIC MYTHS ^'j

(me?) (27) by illness?' The Majesty of Re' said: *By my life,
my heart hath become very weary to be with them. I have
killed them, (but it is) a case as though I was not (?). Is
the stretching out of my arm a (28) failure?' ^^ The gods who
were following him said: 'Do not yield (?) to thy weariness;
thou art powerful whenever thou wilt.' The Majesty of that
god (29) said to the Majesty of Nuu: 'My limbs are weak for
the first time; I shall not come (back that) another (such case?)
may reach me.'^e

"The Majesty of Nuu said: 'My son Shu, the eye (30) of
(his?) father [who is wise at?] his consultation, (and?)^^ my
daughter Nut, put him [on thy back].' Nut said: 'How so, my
father Nuu?' Nut said: ' . . . (31) . . . Nuu.' Nut became
[a cow (?)]. [Then] Re' [placed] himself on her back. When
those men had [come] (32) [they sought the sun-god.^]. Then
they saw him on the back of the [heavenly] cow. Then those
(33) men said: '[Return] to us (that?) we may overthrow thine
enemies who have plotted [against thee].' [Although they said.-*]
this. His Majesty (34) went to his palace [in the west (.?)].
[When he was no longer] with them, the earth was in darkness.
When the earth became light in the morning, (35) those men
came forth with their bows and their [weapons] for shooting
the enemies (of the sun). The Majesty of this god said:
*Your sins are behind you.^^ The murderers (36) are (too)
remote (for their) murderous (plans).' Thus originated the
(ceremony of) murdering . . . The Majesty of this god said
to Nut: 'Put me on thy back to raise me.'"

The next lines are too mutilated for coherent translation,
but, as we see, the sun-god establishes his permanent abode
in heaven, where he creates the celestial fields "with all shin-
ing (or: verdant, growing) stars" (cf. p. 55).

"Then Nut began (41) to tremble in (?) the height" (i. e.
under the weight of these new things), and the endless space
(Heh) was created for support.'*^ Then Re' said: (42) 'My son
Shu, put thyself under my daughter Nut. Take heed for me



78 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

of the (sun-bark called) 'Millions of Millions' (which is)
there, and (?) of those who live among (or, of?) the stars (?).
Put her on thy head.'"

Thus heaven and earth were separated, and the sun-god
remained on the back of the heavenly cow. In this way human
sin had driven the gods from this earth, and no repentance
could bring them back to dwell again among mankind. This
legend is obviously a different version of the preceding myth,
though all its allusions are not yet intelligible; the "bows," for
instance, may be an astronomical term. We may also compare
the analogous collection of fragmentary myths
given on p. 72, where the rebels against the
sun-god seem to be regarded as partly divine

and are termed
"children of Nut."
After rather ob-
scure directions how
to depict the new
order of things,^"
1 this same collection

Fig. 77. The Heavenly Cow, the Sun-God, and the gives another Very
Gods Supporting her (Shu in the Centre) • ^ • 1

mterestmg explana-
tion of the sun-god's departure from the earth to the sky.

(56) "The Majesty of that god said to Thout: 'Call now for
me to the Majesty of Qeb thus: "Come, hurry immediately!"'
Then the Majesty of Qeb came. The Majesty of that god (i. e.
Re') said: 'Take care ^^ (57) with thy serpents which are in
thee! Behold, I have feared them as long as I have existed.
Now thou knowest their magic (formulae) .^^ Thou shalt, there-
fore, go to the place of my father Nuu and shalt say to him:
(58) : "Guard against the reptiles inhabiting land and water," ^'
and thou shalt make a (magic) writing for every place ^^ of
thy serpents which are there, saying namely: "Guard against
playing any tricks!" They shall know that (59) now I shall
give light for them.^^ But behold, they belong (?) to (thee,




SOME COSMIC AND COSMOGONIC MYTHS 79

my) father, who is (?) on this earth forever. Beware now of
these sorcerers, skilled (60) with their mouth. Behold, the
god of magic ^^ (himself) is there. Who swallows him (?), be-
hold there is not one who guards (me?) from a great thing (?).
It has happened (61) before me. I have destined them for
thy son Osiris (who will.^) guard against their small ones and
make the heart of their great ones forget. Those prosper (?)^^
who do (62) as they like on the whole earth with their magic
in their breast.'"

In great part the text is mutilated to a degree which renders
it hopelessly obscure, yet we may at least infer that, in the
opinion of the compiler of these ancient mythological frag-
ments, we have here another reason why the heavenly gods
no longer dwell on earth: serpents or a serpent drove them
away. The writer's only doubt is whether this was done by
a serpent of the earth-god after the organization of the world
or whether it refers to the primeval beings who inhabited the
abyss (p. 69) and from whom the sun-god separated himself
when he began to build this world. The writer or redactor
thus confuses two ages of the world and two theories; and he
even seems to allude to a third theory, namely, to that of the
great enemy of the gods, the cosmic serpent 'Apop, who con-
stantly threatens to swallow the sun-god and thus forces him
to be on his guard and to keep high in the heavens. This com-
bination of theories about serpents which were dangerous to
the gods seems then to have been worked into a magic incanta-
tion for protection against reptiles, at least so far as we can
understand the hopelessly obscure lines 58-61.

IV. THE SUN-GOD, ISIS, AND THE SERPENT

On the basis of the compilation of myths from which we
have thus far given four sections it is possible to gain a
better understanding of the somewhat later myth of the sun-
god and Isis.^®



8o EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

(TURIN PAPYRI, PLATE CXXXI)
Line

(12) "Chapter of the divine god who arose by himself,

Who made the heaven, the earth, the air of life, and the fire,
The gods, the men, the wild animals, and the flocks.
The reptiles, the birds, and the fish,
The king of men and of gods together,

(13) (Whose) ages are more than (human?) years, ^^
Rich in names which people here know not.
Neither do those yonder know.^°

At that time ^' there was Isis, a woman
Skilful in sorcery (?), whose heart was tired
Of living forever ^^ among men;

(PLATE CXXXI I)

(i) She preferred time forever among the gods;

She esteemed (more highly) living forever among the illuminated

spirits.
Was she not able ^^ (to be) in heaven and on earth like Re',
To become mistress of the land of gods? ^
So she thought in her heart

(2) To learn the name of the holy god.

Now Re' came every day
At the head of his followers,®^
Established on the throne of both horizons.
The god had grown old; his mouth dripped,

(3) His spittle flowed to the earth.
His saliva fell on the ground.

Isis kneaded this with her hand
Together with the earth on which it was.^'
She formed it as a holy (4) serpent;
She made it in the form of a dart
It did not wander alive before her;
She left it rolled together ( ?) on ( ?) the way "
On which the great god wandered
At his heart's desire over (5) his two countries.®^

The holy god — life, welfare, health (to him) — appeared
(from) his palace,
The gods behind ^^ following him.
He walked as every day.
(Then) the holy snake bit''" him.

A living flame came forth from (6) himself ^^
To drive away (?) the one in the cedars. ^^



SOME COSMIC AND COSMOGONIC MYTHS 8i

Line The b.oly god opened '^ his mouth.

The voice of His Majesty — life, welfare, health (to him) —

reached heaven.
His circle of gods (said), 'What is it?'
His gods (said), 'What is the matter?'

(7) He found not a word ^'* to answer to this (question).
His jaws trembled,

All his limbs shook,

The poison took possession of his flesh

As the Nile takes possession [of the land, spreading ^^] over it.

( The great god concentrated all his will-power.''^
He cried to his followers:

' Come to me, ye who have arisen from my members,

Ye gods who have come forth from me.

That I may inform you what hath happened! ^'^

(9) Something painful hath pierced me
Which my heart had [not?] noticed.
And mine eyes had not seen,^*
Which my hand hath not made.

I know not who hath done all this.
I have not (ever) tasted such suffering;
No pain is stronger than this.

(10) I am the prince, the son of a prince.
The issue of a god which became a god;

I am the great one, the son of a great one.

My father hath thought out my name;

I am one with many names, with many forms.

(11) My form is in every god.

I am called Atumu and Har-hekenu.^^

My father and my mother (however) told me my (real) name;

It hath been hidden within me since (?) my birth

(12) In order that power and magic (force) ^^ may not arise for one

[Prometheus]

who (may desire to) bewitch me.

I had come forth to see that which I (once) made,

I (began to) walk in the two countries which I created,

(13) When something pierced me which I know not.
Neither is it fire,

Nor is it water. ^^

My heart is aglow,

My limbs tremble,

All my members shiver (14) with cold.

The children of the gods^^ should be brought to me,

XII — 7



82 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

Line Those wise of words,

Skilled with their mouth,

Who with their knowledge reach the firmament.



(PLATE CXXXIII)

(i) There came the children of the god; each one
Was there with his lamentations.
There came (also) Isis with her wisdom,
The place of her mouth (full) of breath of life,
(With) her formulse expelling suffering,
(With) her words (2) quickening those deprived of breath.
She said: 'What is it? what is it, my divine father?
Hath a serpent spread pain (?) within thee?
Hath one of thy children lifted his head against thee?
Then I shall subject (3) it by excellent magic,
I shall drive it away at ( ?) the sight of thy rays.'

The majestic god opened his mouth:

'I walked on the road,

I wandered in the two countries and the desert,

(4) (For) my face (?) ^^ wished to see what I had created.
(There) I was bitten by a serpent without seeing it.
It is not fire,

Nor is it water.

I feel colder than water,

I feel hotter than fire.

(5) All my limbs are sweating;

Mine eye trembleth and cannot be fixed;
Nor can I look upward.

A flood covereth my face like (the inundation) at the time of
summer.'

(6) Isis said: 'Tell me thy name, divine father!

The man will keep alive who is worshipped ^* by his (correct)

name.'
(The sun-god replied:)
'I am the one who hath made heaven and earth, who hath

raised ^^ the mountains,
And created what is upon it.*^

(7) I am the one who hath made the water which became the Great

Flood,"
Who made the Bull of his Mother,
Who became the wanderer (?).^^



SOME COSMIC AND COSMOGONIC MYTHS 83

Line J am the one who made heaven as a secret and (its) two hori-
zons, ^^
In which I have placed the soul ^^ of the gods.

( I am the one who (only) openeth his eyes, and there is light;
When his eyes close, darkness falleth.

The flood of the Nile riseth when he hath ordered it.

(9) The gods know not his name.

I am the one who made the hours so that the days came.
I am he who made the year begin and created the rivers.
I am he who made the living fire

(10) For producing works of smithcraft. ^^

I am Khepri in the morning, Re' at his standing still, ^^
Atumu at evening time.'

The poison was not stopped as it went on;
The great god did not feel well.

(11) Isis said: 'Thy name is not in the enumeration which thou hast

made.
Tell it to me, and the poison will leave;
The man will live whose name is pronounced.' ^^

(12) The fire burned like a flame;

It became more powerful than a melting stove in flame.

The Majesty of Re' said:

'I have been searched (too much) by Isis;

My name will come forth from my bosom into thy bosom.'

(13) The god hid himself from his gods;

His place was prepared in the ship (called) 'Millions [of Years].'
In the moment in which (the name) had left (his) heart.
She (Isis) said to her son Horus:
'I have bound him by a holy oath (14) that the [great?] god

give up [to thee] his two eyes.'
[The great god, his name was betrayed to Isis, great in magic.
Leave, O spell; come forth from Re'!]."

The last two verses do not seem to belong to the original
poem, but to the application of the myth as a conjuration for
a person bitten by a snake. The story, the papyrus explains,
is to be written twice, one copy to be wrapped around the
neck of the patient, and the other to be washed off and drunk
by him in beer or wine, according to a custom to be described
in the chapter on magic (p. 199).



84 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

This myth, which is as remarkable for its poetry as for its
theology, seems to date from the beginning of the New Empire,
since its pantheistic views scarcely admit of a period more
remote. The story shows in good logical connexion the ancient
Asiatic astral myth associating the constellations Virgo, Hydra,
and Orion (= the sun) which we shall find again in our chap-
ter on foreign influences; and it gives another version of the
legend which precedes it, answering the question why the gods
dwell no more on earth : a serpent caused the sun-god to with-
draw to higher spheres. Its relation to the series of myths
which we have considered in II and III is not yet clear; the
incoherence and the language of that collection give 'the im-
pression that its legends belong to an older epoch than the
papyrus. For an earlier Egyptian idea which prepared the way
for the legend of Isis and the sun-god see p. 25 and the myth
of the lost eye of the solar deity (pp. 86-88).

V. HOW THE MOON BECAME RULER OF THE NIGHT

The compilation of myths which has told us of the destruc-
tion of mankind and why the sun-god withdrew from earth
also contains a legend of the way in which the moon was in-
stalled as lord of night.

(62) "The Majesty of this god (i. e. Re') said: 'Call Thout(i)
now to me.' He was brought directly. The Majesty (63) of
this god said to Thout: 'Behold,''^ I put thee now in the sky
(64) in my place while I (65) give light to the luminous spirits
(i. e. of the dead) (66) in the underworld and the island of
Baba.^^ {Gy) Write there thy judgement (.^) ^^ of those who
are in them (i. e. those two places) (68) (for) what they have
done (.?) committing (69) sins. Art not thou [among?] (70) my
servants in (.f') this shameful act.-* ®^ (71) Thou shalt be in
my place, my representative.^^ Now let this be said to
thee, Thout, the representative of Re': I shall let thee send
{hah) such as are greater than thou.' (Thus) originated the ibis



SOME COSMIC AND COSMOGONIC MYTHS 85

{hahi) of Thout. 'I shall (72) let thee stretch out thy hand
against (?) the gods of [my?] circle who are greater than thou.
My (?) khen is fine.' ^^ (Thus) originated the two wings
{tekhenui) of the ibis of Thout. 'I shall let thee surround
{enh) (75) the sky with thy beauty and with thy rays.' (Thus)
originated the moon (fo'A) of Thout. 'I shall let thee turn
back the barbarians ('(3n'««).'^°° Thus originated the cyno-
cephalus {'an'an) of Thout. '[Thou] shalt be (76) judge
(while) thou art my representative. The face of those who
see thee will be opened in (?) thee. The eyes of all men
will thank thee.'"

This installation of a vicegerent instead of the sun for the
dark night offers various interesting features. In the first place
it is connected with the judgement of the rebels : from the time
of their uprising Thout takes a more prominent place, since a
judge becomes necessary for the sinful world; but there is
only an obscure and passing allusion to the parallel thought
that the sun-god must descend to hell where the rebels are
instead of shining on earth throughout the twenty-four hours.
The most important thing, however, is to explain the origin
of the cult of Thout's animals by plays on the words by
which the sun installed him. We see here the first attempts
to interpret a piece of animal worship — a remarkable proof
that this most primitive feature of the ancestral religion began
to disturb Egyptian thinkers about 2000 b. c, the period
from which this legend would seem to date. Plays on words
always had a very deep significance to the ancient Orient,
as we can see also from the explanations of ceremonies
given on pp. 75-76.

VI. THE LOST EYE OF THE SUN-GOD

We have already had a reference (p. 70) to the myth which
tells how the sun-god once lost his eye (the sun) and how it
rebelled against him. Fuller information on this legend has



86 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

been preserved only In very late texts ^°^ in which its mean-
ing is much effaced and where it runs, in several variants, as
follows.

The sun's eye, as Tefenet or Hat-hor, had retired from
Egypt to Nubia, where it lived as a wild lioness or lynx.
As messengers to bring her back the sun-god sent Tefenet's
brother, the lion-formed Shu (or his local manifestation,
Eri-hems-nofer), and the baboon or ibis Thout (or both in
the form of two baboons or two lions). Wandering through
all Nubia, they finally discovered her in the eastern mountain
of sunrise in a place called Bu-gem(et) ("the Place of Find-
ing "),^°^ and winning her consent with some difficulty (es-
pecially by the wise speech of Thout), they finally brought her
back to Egypt. There she was received with music, dancing,
and banquets, and thus the memory of her return was cele-
brated in many temples throughout the ages that followed.
The sacred baboons, i. e. the two gods just mentioned, or else
the baboons who greet the sun each morning (p. 32), saluted
and guided the returning goddess; and in Heliopolls she was
reconciled to her father. The theologians then tried to con-
nect this myth with the battle of Re' and Hat-hor, his "eye
and daughter," against rebellious men (pp. 74-75). Thus, for
example, the temple of Ombos boasts of being

"The place of Shu at the beginning.
To which came his father Re',

Hiding himself from those who plotted against him
When the wicked came to seek him.
Then Shu made his form

(As that) of Horus, the fighter (?) with his spear; ^°^
He killed them immediately in this district.
The heart of the sun-god was glad over this,
Over that which his son Shu had done for him." ^"^

Later "came Nuu (?), the one without (?) eyes (.'*), ^°^ to this
district as a lion great of strength to avenge his father Re*
again. . . . Then came Tefenet to this place with her brother
Shu when she came from Bu-gem(et.^)." This returning god-



SOME COSMIC AND COSMOGONIC MYTHS 87

dess is then identified with Hat-hor and with the terrible Sekh-
met, the destructive solar force (p. 75). We have, however,
no early connexion of this myth with that revolution of sinful
men to which allusion is made in various myths already
studied, especially in the tale of the moon's installation as
ruler of night; even in the late legend just quoted this asso-
ciation looks feeble and secondary.

The old hymn of the creation, which we have considered in




Fig. 78. Thout in Ibis-Form (Twice), with Shu and Tefenet as the Two Lions

the first section of this chapter, refers to the myth of the lost
eye in another way: the eye follows Shu and Tefenet into the
abyss to bring them back; but later these air-gods themselves
make the eye return from that place (p. 69). In either version
Tefenet and the sun's eye are difi^erentiated, although it is
difficult to say whether this was the earliest form of the story.
The following reference to a myth of two eyes of the sun, the
old one which came back from the depth and its (temporary?)
substitute, describes the estrangement between the sun-god
and his one daughter or eye (pp. 29-30) as a consequence of
jealousy between the two eyes (perhaps the solar and the lunar,
or the one of day-time and the one invisible at night) and as



88 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

. subsequent to the return of the single eye.^°^ On the other
hand, the texts of the Ptolemaic period make the estrange-
ment of the "angry goddess" from her father the reason for
her departure to Nubia, though they fail to give any explana-
tion for the hostility of the pair. It Is remarkable that in all
these traditions we find no connexion with the Osiris-cycle,
and this looks like a trace of the fact that the myth in its original
form was based on a very old tradition, dating from a time
when the Osiris-cult had not yet spread through Egypt.
The ancient Pyramid Texts have, for the most part, only




Fig. 79. Thout Greets Tefenet Returning from Nubia (a Continuation
OF THE Preceding Cut)

indistinct allusions to the sun's eye, "which is born every
day," ^°^ as a fiery asp (see p. 29 for this form of the single or
double eye of the sun) ; although even they begin to connect
It with the struggle between Horus and Seth. Thus we have
mention of "the asp proceeding from Re'" and of "the asp
[of the royal crown, which Is mentioned previously in the same
passage] proceeding from Seth [!], which was taken away
and brought back." ^°^ This restoration was scarcely to Seth,
although such an asp was worn "on the head of Seth," ^"^
just as it regularly adorned the forehead of the solar deity;
It would seem rather that Seth had stolen it for a time, and
that the sun-god had accidentally found it.^^° The most



SOME COSMIC AND COSMOGONIC MYTHS 89




The Solar Eye in the
Watery Depth



definite allusion declares that " (the king going to heaven will)
take the eye of Horus to him(self?); (the king) is a son of
Khnum." ^^^ In other words, the lost eye disappeared in the
depths of Khnum's watery realm, in the source of the Nile
and the ocean, at the First Cat-
aract, where it lives as "the
(goddess), great in magic, of the
south." "2

All this enables us to under-
stand the mythological picture Fig
which accompanies the seven-
teenth chapter of the Book of the Dead. It represents two
subterranean lakes or springs which are guarded by two
water-gods, one of whom is portrayed as youthful or as less
fat than the other. One of them holds the palm-branch
which symbolizes time, year, renewal, fresh vegetation; and
he stretches his other hand over a hole which contains the
eye of a hawk, i. e. the eye of the hawk-shaped (p. 24) sun-
god which was lost in the underworld. Before long this rep-
resentation was misunderstood and disfigured, so that two
eyes of the sun were depicted. The Papyrus of Ani adds an
explanatory inscription to the basin holding the hawk's eye:
"The ocean; his name is 'Lake of Purification of Millions'";
and thus indicates a parallel interpretation of the legend as

the daily descent of the
sun's eye to the depths of
the ocean and its return
from it; while the deity
to the left, holding the
palm branch, is explained
as Heh (infinite space),
i.e., like Shu, an air-god (p. 44). Thus we understand why
parallel representations (see p. 43) substitute for the pictures
here given the two lions who carry the sun, i. e. the air-gods
Shu and Tefenet, who each day separate the eye of the sun from




Fig. 81. The Solar Eye Guarded in the Deep



90 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

Its place in the water, and so restore it to the world. Here we
have the origin of the role of Shu and Tefenet, but we also
see, to our surprise, that their participation in the myth was
secondary and comparatively late (1500 b. c. ?), for the Papyrus
of Ani, like other early manuscripts of the Book of the Dead,
still depicts the alleged air-god as the deity of the Nile and
covers even his body with lines to represent water.

In other variants "^ we see the source-god Khnum himself,
sometimes armed like a watchman, and sometimes holding In
one hand the solar eye, while Its double (the sorely disfigured
hawk's eye) is In one of Khnum's two water-holes. The
baboon of the wise divinity Thout likewise appears, evidently
as the healer of the eye. Once Khnum stands on a lion, in
which we recognize the old earth-god Akeru (p. 43); the
crocodile which here accompanies him cannot be interpreted
with certainty (p. 109). Thus we see once more that the
place where the eye was lost is found In the mythical source
of the Nile, the ocean, and all waters of the whole world, at
the First Cataract or the region south of It.^^^ "

Next, the Nile's water is itself explained as the lost eye, since
it Is an important manifestation of Oslris-Horus, disappearing
or diminishing in winter, but brought back from Nubia In the
summer Inundations by Isis, or by her tears, or as Isis herself,
since she is another daughter of the sun. Allusions to this in-
terpretation of the myth will be found In the magic text of the
tears of Isis translated on pp. 125-26. There the wise Thout
also reappears; and this healer, reconciler, and regulator of all
solar manifestations thus leads us back to the connexion of the
lost eye with the Oslrlan myth. Like the body of Osiris, the
solar eye of the renascent Osiris, the sun-god Horus, is torn
into many parts in the combat with Seth, so that Thout must
put together its six, or fourteen, or sixty-four pieces. The
fifteenth or sixty-fifth fragment apparently had been com-
pletely lost and was restored only by the magic of the divine
physician; hence It is declared that the sixth and fifteenth day



SOME COSMIC AND COSMOGONIC MYTHS 91

of each month "fill the sacred eye." ^^^ To this restoration
and to the numerical interpretation of "the safe eye," "the
intact eye" (uzait), the priests alluded when they depicted the

solar eye in the pecuHar symbol _ j »^ which became the

most popular amulet of the Egyp- *^!r^^^ tians. Thus the
older solar myths and their sub- ^"^^ ^ sequent tendency
toward adaptation to the Osirian cycle, which was partly solar,
merged in such various ways that we can no longer separate
them.

We may infer that the myth of the eye which went to, or was
]ost in, the region of darkness and the abysmal depths existed
in endless variants, of which some day we may hope to recover
many more. The versions which are extant, especially those
of the Grseco-Roman period, as we have already said, contain
little more than a very dim recollection of this wealth. To cite
but a single instance, even the cosmic meaning of Nubia as the
corridor to the underworld, or as the underworld itself (pp. 46-
47, 86, 147), had then been completely forgotten.

Thus far it is unsafe to compare this myth with analogous
traditions in stories from other mythologies which tell how the
sky-god or the solar deity lost an eye (usually the lunar one)
which sank into a pit, etc.^^^ The study of such parallels must
be reserved for future researches.

All the legends which we have recorded show that the
mythology of the ancient Egyptians must have been one of the
richest In the world, notwithstanding the deplorable fact that
for the most part we are forced to gain our knowledge of this
wealth by gathering fragmentary allusions. We might endeavour
to reconstruct much more here, but this first necessitates the
re-establishment of a group of myths to be set forth in the
following chapter.

[Prometheus]

CHAPTER V
THE OSIRIAN CYCLE

\T a very early time a special group of gods, all local in
JTm. origin, was brought into a mutual connexion which gave
rise to an extremely rich growth of myths that overshadowed
all other mythology ^ and thus made those divinities the most
popular, not only of Egypt, but, subsequently, of
the whole ancient world. Accordingly, they are
best treated separately from the other members of
the pantheon, although their cosmic functions have
been mentioned in great part In the chapters on
the cosmic deities. Here we have the most com-
FiG. 82. Osiris pl^te grouping of divine personalities in the whole
AS A Black Egyptian religion, and yet in this very connexion
we can notice with especial clearness how little the
Egyptians cared for a systematic and logical presentation of
their religious beliefs. The only feeble attempt to describe this
cycle systematically was made by the Greek Plutarch of Chae-
ronea (about 120 a. d.) in his famous treatise "On
Isis and Osiris." Although he failed, and intro-
duced many non-Egyptian ideas, this little study
gives us some valuable information, whereas other
Grseco-Roman accounts of Egyptian religion con-
tain only fragments of truth
have occasion to refer to it in our study

Osiris 2 was originally the local god of the city of Ded(u)
(also called Dedet) in the Delta, which the Greeks termed
Busiris, i. e. "Home of Osiris," and where a strangely shaped
pillar with circular projections separating bands of various




Fig 8'i

We shall often Osiris Hidden
IN HIS Pillar



THE OSIRIAN CYCLE



93



colours was his symbol,^ At a rather early date he became a
cosmic deity, and after oscillating between symbolizing either
the sun or the sky, he finally developed into the god of changing
nature in the widest sense. Thus he could become the divinity
of the most important change, I. e. death, and could be evolved
into the patron of the souls of the departed and king of the




Fig. 84. Osiris in the Celestial Tree

The deity stands between the two obelisks which symbolize time. From a ,
sarcophagus in the Museum of Cairo.

lower world, being at the same time the lord of resurrection and
of new and eternal life. The latter conception gave him great
pre-eminence over the many earlier deities of necropoles who
had nothing to do with the hope of resurrection and who,
therefore (with the exception of Anubis, an ancient Upper
Egyptian god of the departed, see infra^ p. iii), remained local
guardians of the dead. This explains his great popularity. As
changing nature, Osiris, according to the views of historic
times, may be seen in the daily and yearly course of the sun,
which dies every evening and revives in the morning, becomes



94



EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY



old and weak in winter and strong again in spring. Tlie dis-
persion of the god's members originally seems to have involved
a belief that the stars are scattered fragments of the dead sun.
As ruler of the sky, however, he can actually be identified with
the sky; he can sit in the celestial tree, or can be that tree itself,
or an important part of it. When he grows forth from the tree,
he shows his solar nature (p. 35). As a bull (especially of
black colour) he is also celestial.^ Three hundred and sixty or
three hundred and sixty-five lights were burned in his honour,
three hundred and sixty-five trees were said to be planted
around certain of his temples, etc., thus showing him
le god of changing time and of the year. As
master of the year his festivals were chiefly
lunar, so that he could easily assume fea-
tures of the moon, the regulator of the sky;
later he was directly
called the moon as
" renewing himself."

Fig. 85. The Nile Re- Moreover he can be
vivestheSoulofOsi- sought in many im-

Ris IN Sprouting Plants

portant stars or con-
stellations. Thus the morning star was brought into connexion
with him, or, rather, with his double, Horus; the parallel
queen of the fixed stars and of heaven, Sothis, was then asso-
ciated with him as sister-wife or as mother (p. 56). He can
be found likewise in the planet Jupiter as another ruler of the
sky.^ In the constellation Argo and its chief star, Canopus,
he appears as a child or as dead, floating in a chest,^ while in
Orion he is seen as the victorious warrior, i. e. renascent as
Horus (for the easy interchange of these constellations see
pp. S7~5^)- The rising Nile likewise reminds the faithful of
him because it is an annual calendric phenomenon of reviving
nature, side by side with other explanations of this event as
Osirian (see below).

By laying the major emphasis on the death of Osiris he





Fig. 86. Osiris Rising to
New Life in Sprouting
Seeds



THE OSIRIAN CYCLE 95

becomes the master of the underworld, the ruler of the dead.
Nevertheless he is not treated as an earth-god/ although he is
symbolized in a way quite analogous to that in which the
Asiatic god of plants and springs, Tammuz-Adonis, is typified ^
by the new life of the vegetation which springs from the ground.
Osiris can also be compared to or identified with the water of
the summer inundation because it enables the crops to grow
again, and both ideas are combined in a picture (Fig. 85)
which shows how the Nile-god awakens to life the soul (i. e.
manifestation) of the " Phoenix-Osiris " in the new plants. The
rebirth of the life-giving river reveals Osiris himself;^ or the
water flows from his wounded or dismembered body in mysteri-
ous depths, or he causes it through the tears of Isis (and
Nephthys) which flow for and over him. The modern Egyptians
still believe that a mysterious drop, falling into the river on a
spring night, causes its sudden swelling, a thought which is only
another version of the tears of Isis. When Osiris thus becomes
identical with the Nile, this applies especially to its mysterious
subterranean portion, so that Osiris is identified with the abyss,
and even with the ocean (p. 46). Even in the late period, which
understands the sea as "Typhonic," i. e. antagonistic to Osiris,
we still find it plainly stated that Osiris is the ocean. ^° Thus
he often represents the whole principle of water as the life-
giving element, whence a magician of Roman days, writing in
Greek, calls Osiris "water," and Isis "dew," because of her
falling tears. ^^ As the subterranean Nile Osiris has four birth-
genii, or Meskhenets (p. 52), a symbolism which seems to allude
to the four sources of the Nile (p. 46).^^ As the ocean which
encircles the lower world, the conception of Osiris reverts to the
idea of ruling or representing the dark realm of the dead. In
this connexion particular interest attaches to the famous
picture from the sarcophagus of King Setkhuy (Sethos) I,
This cosmic scene shows Nuu, the god of the abyss, in the
morning, lifting the solar ship from the depths; the inscription
reads, "These arms come from the water; they lift this god."



96



EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY



The sun as a scarab is accompanied by Isis and Nephthys,
showing that Re', Khepri, and Osiris are identified. Strangely
enough, the earth god Qeb stands next in the ship, and then
Shu, Heka ("Magic"), Hu ("Wisdom"), and S(i)a ("Knowl-
edge"), while to
[(/<• the right are three
"keepers of the
gate," evidently of
the lower world.
Mother "Nut re-
ceives the sun" at
nightfall and passes
him on to his
resting-place in the
western deep,
where the lowest
circle of the water
of the abyss is de-
picted as a god in
circular form (cf.
Fig. 46), and de-
scribed as "this is
Osiris who encircles
the underworld"
(Duat).'^ See Fig.
87.

Thus there is

Fig. 87. Birth and Death of the Sun, with Osiris as scarcely any part
Master of the Abysmal Depth r 1

OT changmg nature
in which Osiris cannot be found, which is in itself a proof that
originally he possessed no cosmic function whatever. Because
of this universal sway he seems to bear the frequent title of
Neb-er-Zer, or "Lord of Everything."

The main function of this god, however, always remained
that of ruling over the region of the departed, whence he is




THE OSIRIAN CYCLE



97




Osiris as Judge
ON HIS Stairs



the



frequently pictured as black. ^^ He sits on his "throne of
metal," ^^ or on a platform (sometimes of a shape which re-
sembles a hieroglyph for justice," / I), or on lofty stairs.
The stairs in the accompanying picture,
on which the (personified) balance of jus-
tice and the gods of the divine circle of
Osiris stand, must originally have meant
the stairs on which the sun-god ascends
and descends (p. 35). The later period,
however, seeks Osiris's throne preferably
in the depths of the earth or of the sky.
From his seat he directs the occupations *
of the dead, supervising especially — Fig
since he is connected with the vegetation
which comes mysteriously from the deep — the work in
fields of Earu (the "field of sprouts "; p. 55). Under or near
his throne he guards the water and the plant of life (with both
of which, as we have seen, he is often identified) ; and since he

decides the fate of the dead in their
second life, this kind king of the de-
parted becomes a stern judge of their
past moral life. • On his divine help-
ers in this judicial function, see
p. 1 76. With the stars he and his whole
kingdom arise at night-time from
the depths,^® and in other respects
also his solar and celestial functions
mingle with those of the keeper of
the lower world. This again shows
r, o r\ \XT him as the lord of resurrection and

Fig. 89. Osiris with the Water

AND Plant of Life, on Which as the prototype of the dead who

Stand his Four Sons • ^ 1 tj- t-' 1 •

gam eternal lire, ror this reason
his name Un(en)-nofer, or Unnofru (Greek 'Ovo(f)pi^), "the
Good Being," characterizes him as the mildest and most
beneficent of all the gods.




98 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

His worship spread from Busiris over all Egypt, but its
1/ principal seat soon became Abydos in Middle Egypt, the

necropolis of the ancient capital This, where he replaced the
old wolf(?)-god Ophoi's (Egyptian Up-uaut) and his variant
Khent(i)-amentiu (p. 21). There a hole in the ground at
U-peqa (or U-peqer, Re-peqer, "the Place, the Mouth of
Peqer") was shown as the entrance to the lower world, a pond
was regarded as the celestial "Jackal Lake " or as the source of
the abyss (p. 51), a great flight of steps represented the stair-
way of the sun (pp. 35, 97), etc. Osiris himself had once been
buried there; and after the dispersion of his members
the head at least had remained behind at Abydos,
where it was worshipped as the holiest of all relics of
the "good god."^^ The tomb where his body once
had lain (or still was preserved) was found later in a
(r royal tomb of the earliest period, whose owner had
been forgotten. This nearness of Osiris made all
Egyptians wish to find immortality by being buried at
Abydos, so that an immense cemetery developed there.
Fig. 90. At Memphis he was soon identified with the local god
of the necropolis, the hawk Sokari,^^ and then with
Ptah and the deities identified or associated with him, such as
the local sacred bull Apis (Hap). This led to the name Osor-
hap ("Osiris-Apis"), the Serapis of the Greeks. ^^ His worship
at the "City of the Sun," Heliopohs, was less distinct, although
the old solar symbols of this earliest of the holy cities (p. 31)
later received explanations in great part from the Osirian
myth.

At a very early period Isis was associated with Osiris as his
wife, probably because she enjoyed a neighbouring cult and
also because her name (Eset in Egyptian) was sufficiently like
that of Osiris ^° to permit the wide-spread idea of the celestial
twins (with different sex) to be seen in this divine pair. We
do not know enough about the earliest seats of worship of Isis
in the Delta to say with any certainty whether her primitive



THE OSIRIAN CYCLE



99





Fig. 91. The Symbol of
Isis



local cult was, e. g. at Per-hebet (the Iseion of the Greeks and
the modern Behbelt). It is possible that the strange amulet
(a peculiar knot of flax?) which symbolizes
Isis may be the hieroglyph for a long-for-
gotten place in which she had her original
local cult. Her most famous temple in the
latest times, on the island of Philae in the
First Cataract, was not built until near
the Greek period (see p. 244).

Parallel with the solarization of Osiris,
Isis had to represent the heaven as wife and mother of the sun,
principally in the daytime, though as mother of the stars she also
symbolized the sky of night. She is identified with
other celestial goddesses, above all with the heav-
enly cow Hat-hor, etc., and hence she often bears
the horns of a cow on her human head, as a symbol
of heaven (p. 37). Thus she is even identified with
her own mother (Nut) ,2^ with the tree of heaven
and of life (notwithstanding the fact
that Osiris also was identified with
this; see p. 94), and then likewise with Selqet,
the scorpion-goddess from the lower world, etc.
Later, as consort of the dying god, Isis is often
called "Goddess of the West" (i.e. the western
sky or the necropoles of Egypt), and thus she is
compared with "the West," that mythological
personage who wears, as a symbol of the western
regions, an ostrich-feather on her head or instead
of her missing head, or simply appears as a head-
less (i. e. lifeless) figure. This personification of
the regions of death receives the sun at evening,
stretching her arms from the sky. Later we even
find similar arms stretched from the sky (or from
the ocean, as in Figs. 87, 94) to send the sun forth in the
morning, so that they become a symbol of heaven. As a




Fig. 92.
Isis-Hat-hor




Fig. 93. The
West Receiv-

I N G A D E-

parted Soul



lOO



EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY



personification of the region of the dead the headless goddess
is euphemistically called "the good, beautiful west," or "the
good, fine necropolis," or, even more euphemistically, "the
good (goddess)," Nofret. This mysterious fig-
ure receives further strange Interpretations.

Since as a hieroglyph the ostrich-feather sig-
nifies both "west" and "justice," she Is soon
also called "(the goddess of) justice (or, truth),
the daughter of (the sun-god) Re'." ^^ Thus
"Justice" often stands In the boat of the sun
W/A or near his celestial throne in a function which




is never explained, but which must have meant
F1G.94. TheCeles- j^Qj.g than that the god Is righteous. Some-

TiAL Arms Re- _ _ .

cEiviNG THE SuN- tlmcs thIs daughtcr of the sun Is connected with
'^ the solar asp as his daughter (p. 29). Her

presence at Osirls's judgement of the dead and at his balance
is more In harmony with this secondary explanation as a per-
sonification of righteousness, but It still alternates there with
the original conception of the feather-wearing goddess as "the
West, the beautiful West," who introduces the dead to Osiris
and to their second life. Plutarch still knows that Isis Is
identical with "Justice or Nemesis." By a mis-
reading of the word ma'tiu, the "judges" who are
mentioned In the hall of Osiris, the theologians
of the New Empire come to the conclusion that
"the justice" of Osiris Is double; and accordingly
the pictures often represent her thus or as diff"eren-
tiated Into the headless (I. e. dead) and the com-
plete (I. e. live) form. In the mythologies of other
nations a virgin (often explained as the constel-
lation Virgo) occurs as dying at or after giving
birth to the god or gods, and frequently as being
deprived of her head. This conception seems to be traceable
to the Egyptian symbolism which we have just described.
Probably the people of the Nile-land sought thus to have a




Fig. 95.

"The Double

Justice"



THE OSIRIAN CYCLE



lOI




dying goddess as parallel to the dying god Oslris.^^ When
this doctrine of the "double justice" became popular, Isis and
Nephthys ^^ were identified with these two feather-wearing
goddesses at the
judgement of Osiris.
Male deities with

^ , Fig. 96. The Symbol of the Horus of Edfu

two leathers were

referred to the same function, ^^ All this symbolism, mixed

with the Osiris-myth, remained very vague.

Isis is early connected with Sothis, the queen of the fixed
stars (see the picture on p. 55), and in the latest period she
is also associated with the planet Venus ^ as the evening star
(daughter of the sun) or the morning star (mother of the sun),
all these stellar manifestations of the queen of heaven having
Asiatic analogies (see p. 54).

The Osirian celestial triad was completed by the addition
of Horus (Egyptian Hor, Horn), a solarized deity with the
form or, at least, with the head of a hawk (more exactly, per-
haps, a falcon) and possessing, as we have
said (p. 24), too many temples for us to de-
termine his original localization. His cult at
Edfu (Greek Apollinopolis) is very old, and
that city is often supposed to have been his
original home; but the special symbol of the
Horus of Edfu (the winged disk) seems to
militate against this hypothesis, since it be-
trays the blending of several personifications
of the sun-god (Fig. 96). The mythology of
this temple has been handed down only in
very late tradition, but it contains interesting
features, such as a crowd of valiant "smiths"
(mesniu, mesentiu) as companions of Horus,
the lioness Men'et as nurse, etc. Hierakonpolis ("the City of
Hawks"), west of Eileithyiaspolis (the modern el-Kab), at or
near the oldest capital of Upper Egypt, would seem to be a




Fig. 97. One of the
Smiths of Horus



I02 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

much more ancient seat of Horus," but a temple in the Delta
would better explain his place in the triad. His worship was,
at the beginning of Egyptian civilization, so general that the
hieroglyph of a hawk or falcon came to serve as the class-sign
for all male divinities, just as a serpent stands for all god-
desses.2^ His name seems to mean "the High One," which
would point to an original function as god of the sky, and
even in the latest period he appears as such when sun and moon
are called "the eyes of Horus " (pp. 28-29) or when he is re-
garded as the morning star (p. 54) or as Orion. He was incor-
porated into the Osirian family by being interpreted as the
young rising sun in opposition to the dying evening sun as Osiris ;






a b d

Fig. 98. Oldest Pictures of Seth
{a) prehistoric; {b) and (c) from the Second Dynasty; (J) from the Third Dyiiasty.

[Prometheus]

in other words, since Horus was such an important god that
he could not be subordinate to his father, he was explained
as Osiris reborn in the morning or in the proper season (p. 94).^'
No excessive stress was laid on this interpretation, however,
for both priests and worshippers still liked to keep the two gods
as distinct and as individual as possible. The wife of Horus
is usually the goddess Hat-hor, the mistress of the sky (p. 39).
After the completion of this triad the political contrast
between two dynasties of kings and between their local gods
caused the formation of an adversary to the triad, the divinity
of the older city of Ombos in Upper Egypt (the modern
Naggadah or Naqqadah),^° the strange deity Seth.^^ This
god is often called "Lord of the South," and his worship seems
to date from a time even more remote than that of any member
of the Osirian triad.^^ He was represented in the shape of an
animal which perplexed the ancient Egyptians themselves,



THE OSIRIAN CYCLE



103



so that we feel tempted to explain it as derived from one
which had perhaps become extinct in prehistoric times or
from an archaic statue of so crude a type that it defied all
zoological knowledge of subsequent artists.^^ At all events, the
later Egyptians no longer understood it. In the New Empire
Seth is sometimes represented in ordinary human form.
Originally the adversary (and brother) of Horus only, Seth
became the enemy of the whole Osirian triad, the murderer
of his brother Osiris, and the persecutor of Isis and Horus. Al-




FiG. 99. Seth Teaches the Young King Archery, and Horus Instructs him
IN Fighting with the Spear

though this made him the villain among the gods,^^ yet he
held full standing as a deity and was especially honoured by
soldiers, who considered this wild, reckless character, "the son
of Nut, great of strength," to be their most suitable patron.^^
In contrast to Horus, whose chief weapon is the spear, he is
an archer. The cosmic role ascribed to him is that of the god
of the sky and of thunder in the conception of the nations north
of Egypt, but in a degraded, harmful form, which corresponds
to the fact that thunder-storms in Egypt are rare and unprofit-
able. Thus Seth manifests himself in the thunder-storm,^^ but
this is explained as a battle between Horus and Seth, so that




I04 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

lightning is the spear of Horus, and thunder the voice of his
wounded antagonist, roaring in his pain.^^ A Greek papyrus
addresses Seth as "hill-shaker, thunderer, hurricane-raiser,
rock-shaker; the destroyer, who disturbs the sea itself."

After 2500 B. c. the Asiatic myth of the combat between the
god of heaven and light (Bel-Marduk, etc.) and the abysmal
dragon of the ocean (Tiamat) penetrated into Egypt, where it
gave rise to the story of the gigantic serpent 'Apop (Greek
' A7ro(f)i< ,^^ the enemy of the sun-god. Only faint traces of the
Asiatic tale of the creation of the world from the carcass of
the primeval monster, the all-covering abyss, are found in

Egypt, perhaps
in the idea that
iron represents
"Typhon's
bone." Better
preserved is the
parallel Asiatic

version that the dragon was not killed and annihilated, but
still lies bound in the depths under the earth ^^ or in the ocean,
so that an earthquake or the raging of the sea betrays its
vain struggles against its fetters. We find the idea recurring
in many variants that countless hands of gods or of departed
souls (including even those of all foreigners) must hold down
the "wriggling monster" (nuzi) in the depths of the earth.
Here belongs the accompanying picture (Fig. 100) of 'Apop,
"whose voice re-echoes in the lower world." He is bound
with chains of metal, and at his head lies the Nubian god-
dess Selqet, who appears repeatedly as guarding him (Fig. 60
and p. 60). This suggests that the four-headed watchmen are
an allusion to Khniim, the master of the four sources of the
Nile and the neighbour of Selqet. A variant shows the earth-
god Qeb (not reproduced in Fig. loi) and the four sons of
Osiris or Horus (pp. 111-13) binding four serpents, while a
fifth rises from the ground; behind them stands "Osiris before



Fig. 100. 'Apop Bound in the Lower World



THE OSIRIAN CYCLE



105



the West." Here also the scene is laid in the Cataract region,

and the artist seeks mystically to express the belief that the

four sources of the Nile, rising from the lower world, may be

considered either

(according to older

traditions) as part

of Osiris (p. 95) or

as coming from an

abysmal depth

hostile to this good

god. Another

variant, shown In

Fig. 102, misses this symboHsm by making the "children of

Horus " equal to five chains.^" There the watchmen (only one of

whom Is visible here) have the heads of dogs or jackals like Anu-

bis, while the baboons, which carry four hands away, seem to hint




Fig. ioi. The Sons of Osiris Guard the Fourfold
Serpent of the Abyss before their Father







Fig. 102. 'Apop Chained by "the Children of Horus"

at Thout's wisdom as instrumental In depriving the monster
of his limbs. Although he appears in a useful and worshipful
function, we may still recognize the serpent of the abyss In
another picture where he wraps himself around the infant sun-
god Khepri, thus alluding
to Osiris as the ocean and
the Nile, or as hidden In
them ^^ (see Fig. 115 for a
parallel representation of
"the many-headed ser-
pent," whose four heads ^^ symbolize the four sources of the
Nile); while, as encircling the unborn sun, it becomes another
expression of the chest holding this god (pp. 71, 94). There




Fig. 103.



The Unborn Sun Held by the
Water Dragon




io6 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

are numerous variants of such pictures, of which later artists
had scant comprehension.''^ Side by side with these applica-
tions of the myth to the Nile or to its source (i. e. the local

ocean of the Egyptians, who were little
given to sea-faring), we find the recol-
lection that in reality the wide ocean
represents 'Apop in captivity, girding
the earth in bonds and keeping it to-
gether, but at the same time threaten-

FiG. 104. The Cat-God Kill- • .1 iL*r^^ j^j^

iNG THE Serpent at the ^^g to break his fetters and to destroy

Foot of the Heavenly the world. Accordingly the sea becomes

"Typhonic," or anti-Osirian, in contrast

to its early Osirian character (p. 95). That 'Apop "is thrown

into the ocean at the new year's day" is a reminiscence of the

Babylonian doctrine that the struggle of creation is typologi-

cally repeated at the beginning of the new year in spring. At

an early time, however, the Egyptians began to interpret the

combat between light and darkness, between the sun-god and

his gigantic adversary, as a daily phenomenon. The sun is

swallowed up by 'Apop at evening when it sinks into the

ocean, or has, at least, to battle with the dragon as it journeys

by night through the underworld. There, from the dark river

or behind the mountain of sunrise, the monster raises himself

against the solar bark; but in the morning he has been cut

to pieces, and the sun reappears victorious, or at least the

monster must disgorge it (p. 27).

We also find pictures ^^ of a serpent at the foot

of the celestial tree (i. e. in the watery deep), where

it is cut into fragments by a divine cat which is

explained as symbolizing the sun. Unfortunately

we have no text which gives a full description of Fig. 105. "The
, . , , , , . . Cat-Like God"

this myth, so that we are unable to say with cer-
tainty whether the cat is connected with Mafdet, "the Lynx-
Goddess," who is sometimes described as fighting on behalf of
the sun. A male deity, called "the cat-god," or, more literally.




THE OSIRIAN CYCLE 107

"the one like a she-cat," and holding a serpent,'^^ may allude
to the same myth, which seems to represent no more than
another version of the story of 'Apop. A knife-bearing cat
is also depicted at the side of the stellar divinities men-
tioned on p. 63, so that it may once have been explained
as a constellation.

This battle may likewise be found In the sky by day when
storm-clouds darken the face of the sun, so that the myth of
the serpent and the solar deity Re' merges into the old story of
the conflict between Horus and Seth. Thus the serpent becomes
more and more identical with Seth as being an additional
manifestation of the wicked god who later is said to have
fought against Horus In
the form of other water
monsters as well, such as
the hippopotamus and the
crocodile. This confusion
of 'Apop and Seth, how-
ever, does not take place
until after the Eighteenth

Dynasty. Monuments of F^°- ^°^- ^he Dead Aiding the Ass against

THE Dragon

thatsdynasty still not only

distinguish the warrior Seth from the great serpent, but make
him fight against it In company with the gods, while In one
chapter of the Book of the Dead^^ the serpent even attacks the
ass of Seth (Fig. 106). In like manner the Harris Magic
Papyrus says of the dragon:

"The god of Ombos (I. e. Seth) sharpeneth (?) his arrows in (!) him;
He shaketh sky and earth by his thunder-storms;
His magic powers are mighty, conquering his enemy;
His battle-axe ( ?) ^'^ cutteth up the wide-mouthed dragon."

Similarly "the god of Ombos (plerceth?) the serpent with
his arrows ";^^ and In the Vatican Magic Papyrus'^^ we find a
curious passage which, somewhat parallel to the one which we
have already quoted on p. 72, seeks to rehabilitate Seth:




io8 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

"Stand up, O Seth, beloved of Re' !
Stand at thy place in the ship of Re' !
He hath received his heart in justification;
Thou hast thrown down [the enemies] of thy father Re'
Every day."

, This text tries to associate the warlike Seth w^ith the bene-
ficent Re', and begins to intermingle the Osirian myth. Here,
as has been shovi^n on p. 103, the Asiatic idea, according to which
the thunder-storm is a revelation of the good god of light and of
heaven against the power of darkness and inert matter below,
conflicts with the Egyptian conception of this phenomenon. In



\)A\ 1/»1




Fig. 107. The God with Ass's Ears in the Fight against 'Apop

Egypt, therefore, the storm-clouds are Seth, but in contradiction
to this the rain which falls from them is often called another
manifestation of the good god (Osiris), as in Asia. Thus we
have conflicting views on storms quite similar to those which
we have previously found to exist regarding the ocean as
beneficent and representing Osiris, or as opposed to him and
to the whole order of the world (pp. 95, 105-06).

The beginning of the confusion of Seth and 'Apop can be
traced in the scene (Fig. 107) in which the latter attacks the
sun-god, whose head, united legs, and falling position indicate
his Osirian character. The ornament at the side of his solar disk
is here indistinct, so that we might think of the winged disk of
Horus, but doubtless it developed into the ears of an ass in such
variants as the one given in Fig. 108;^° and thus it has been
supposed that the strange name of the sun-god in this scene,
Eay, Ay, meant (or was later interpreted to mean) "ass" (20').



THE OSIRIAN CYCLE



109




Fig. 108. The
God WITH Ass's
Ears



If this be true, a strange confusion of Seth (in the solar-bark?)
and Osiris must be assumed. At all events the Egyptians were
puzzled by this old picture, as its two accompanying descrip-
tions show. The "harpoon-bearers" seemingly
either drag the god along or uphold him with
their rope, but the text reads, "They guard the
ropes of Ay, not permitting this serpent to rise
against the ship of the great god." The meaning
of the strange crocodile Shes-shes above the dragon
is obscure (cf. the crocodile in the depth, with
Khnum, p. 90), like several other details of this
picture; ^^ but it is possible that the rope origi-
nally represented a net. The Asiatic idea that the
dragon was caught alive or was killed in a net
seems to be alluded to elsewhere in the represen-
tation of a huge net for catching the enemies of
the sun-god.^^ Good spirits fighting against the
monster often swing above their heads what later looks like
a rope, but originally appears distinctly as a net. The spear
of Horus, like various other details, again betrays the Asiatic
origin of this whole dragon-myth (see Note loi).

The confusion of the older tradition of Seth and the later
legend of 'Apop soon becomes complete, so that subsequently
we find Seth called "the serpent that is cut in pieces, the
obscene (.'*) serpent" {nik, neyek), etc.^^ This
contributes most toward making the old
thunder-god at last the representative of all
evil ("all red things"), a real Satan, whose
name it is best not to pronounce, but to re-
FiG. 109. Genii Fight- place by a contemptuous "that one" (pefi),

Snar™ ^^""^ ""^ °^ ^y ^ ^^^'^' °^ ^>' spitting, so that Seth
is invoked only in forbidden black art.^^

The identification of Seth with the seven stars in the con-
stellation of the Great Bear (Charles's Wain)^^ runs practi-
cally parallel to the equation of the deity with 'Apop. This




no



EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY




constellation, called "the Ox-Leg" In ancient Egypt (p. 59),
Is then occasionally explained as being, for example, a foot of
Seth, which must be kept chained and watched by guards.

The confusion began by
Identifying the "Ox-Leg"
with the water-dragon (pos-
sibly on the basis of Asiatic
theories), so that the schol-
ars of the New Empire
sought to find the four sons
of Horus, the guardian Sel-
FiG. no. Horus-Orion, Assisted by £pet, qet, etc.. In Stars near the

Fights the Ox-Leg (cf. Fig. 62) ,

northern monster, as is
shown by the representation given In Fig. 60.

The reasons why the obscure goddess Nephthys (Egyptian
Nebt-hot, "Mistress of the Temple") ^® was associated with
Seth as his wife are unknown, and the Egyptians themselves
were quite uncertain as to what cosmic role was to be attributed
to her. Horns and the disk sometimes symbolized her as
mistress of the sunny sky.^^ When called "Mistress of the
West," she became queen of the night and of the dead, like
IsIs-Hat-hor (p. 99), so that several times she Is Identified with
the "Book-Goddess," or Fate (pp. 52-53), and with the headless
queen of the west, the so-called "Justice" (p. 100). Thus, as the
sky of the underworld, she forms — as Plutarch also knew — a
counterpart of Isis when the latter Is understood as the sky
of day.^^ Nephthys Is never described as hostile to
her brother Osiris; notwithstanding her union with
Seth, she bewailed Osiris and cared for his body to-
gether with Isis, and she nursed the Infant Horus,^^
while according to some traditions she even bore
Anubis to Osiris, perhaps another connexion of Neph- ^^'^- "^•

Nephthys

thys with the lower world.

Anubis (Egyptian Anupu) was originally a black jackal (or
possibly a dog; often the wolf, jackal, and dog cannot easily




THE OSIRIAN CYCLE



III



f-^ff£>^^t H^w




Fig. 112. Anubis as Embalmer



be distinguished), usually pictured in a recumbent position.

"On his mountain" he ruled over some local necropolis, perhaps

at Kynopolis in the seventeenth

nome ^^ or in the Delta or at

the site of the modern Turrah

near Memphis. Then, at least

for Upper Egypt, he seems to

have become the general god

of the dead, guiding their souls

on the dark ways to the lower

world.^^ This function devel-
oped even before he was associated with the Osirian cycle;

after this incorporation he was called the son (or, more rarely,
the brother) of Osiris or of the (identical) sun-god or
of Seth, and was said to have aided Isis in burying
Osiris and to have given him the embalmment which
ensured freedom from destruction, whence all the de-
parted pray that Anubis may care for their bodies.
iG. 113. p^^ assists also at the examination of the dead before

UIVINE

Symbol Osiris; evidently in earlier times he was their only

Attmb- i^^S^ (P- 93)- It ^s quite uncertain how his emblem,

uTEDTo apparently from the Middle Empire onward, came to

be the skin of a newly killed ox, spotted black and






white, hanging from a pole, and some-
times dripping blood into a vessel placed
beneath it.^^ Originally this symbol
seems to have represented an entirely
different god.

In magic an evil spirit called Maga,
or Mega(y), pictured as a crocodile,
appears as a "son of Seth" or is repre-
sented as his double.

Four genii termed "the sons of
Horus" or "of Osiris" ^^ often follow Osiris, watching his corpse
and assisting him in his judgement; accordingly they become




Fig. 114. The Sons OF Horus



112



EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY




Fig. 115. The Four Sons of Osiris-
HoRus United with the Serpent
of the Deep Guarding Life



guardians of the embalmment of all dead, whose viscera are
placed under their protection in "canopic vases," which are
ornamented with their likenesses, i. e. a man, a baboon, a

jackal, and a hawk. The regular
order of their names was Emesti,
Hepi, Dua-mut-f ("Honouring
his Mother"), and Qebh-sneu-f
( Refreshing his Brothers").
Their interpretation as the four
sources of the Nile, which we have already noted (pp. 104-05),
appears at an early date, when they are connected with the
cataract-god Khnumu or with the extreme south, "the door of
the water region, the water of Nubia," ^'* or when they grow
from a flower (the flower of life, parallel to or synonymous
with the water of life) which springs from the throne of Osiris
(cf. Fig. 89), or swim in the water, whence the crocodile Sobk
fishes them out.^^ As coming from the abyss (i. e. Osiris) they
are symbolized in later times (Figs. 103, 115) as four heads grow-
ing from a serpent who holds the hieroglyphic symbol of life
(again a confusion of their father Osiris, as the life-giving Nile,
with the later dragon of the abyss). ^^ On the other hand, a very
old parallel interpretation considers them . .^ -^^^^-H*
to be celestial; in other words it identifies
them with the four Horuses dwelling at the
four cardinal points or in the east or south
of the sky (see Note 67), or with "the four
tresses of Horus " at the four cardinal points
(P- 39))^^ whence they "send the four
winds." ^^ Attempts were made to localize Fig. 116. The Sons of
them in the constellations, and in one pic- Horus-Osiris in the

' ^ ^ Sky near their

ture they seem to be found In the sky no Father Orion (called
less than five times.^^ They are sought es- Osiris )
pecially near their father, Orion, among the decanal stars, or
close to the celestial counterpart of the dragon of the abyss,
the dangerous "Ox-Leg," whom they guard, as they hold 'Apop

[Prometheus]

THE OSIRIAN CYCLE



113



in Figs. 100-02. They also have an (immovable.^) place in
the eastern horizon as patrons of the first four hours of the
day. Their original meaning remains uncertain after all.

By combining the most important of the various fragmentary
and widely divergent views about the group of gods who form
the Osirian circle we can obtain the following connected myth,
using Plutarch's sketch
as a basis wherever
possible and marking
the most important
variants by brackets,

Osiris, who was es-
pecially "fine of face"
and tall, was a child
of the earth-god, Qeb,
and the sky, Nut
(p. 41), as a new im-
personation of the sun.
He was born on the
first of the five epa-
gomenal days which
closed the year and
which were regarded
as particularly sacred.^"
With him his twin sis-
ter, Isis, saw the light
[some sources, however, state that she was born on the fourth
epagomenal day]. When his birth is described as from the
ocean, like his son and double, the solar deity Horus,'^^ this is
merely another interpretation of his mother, Nut, since there
is little distinction between the ocean and Its continuation, the
sky. Osiris created all life, especially mankind, and ruled over
it. [Others later declared that he established civilization,
teaching men religion and agriculture, particularly the culti-
vation of his special plant, the vine (p. 36), etc. ,'^2 and abolish-




FiG. 117. Osiris under the Vine




114 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

ing barbarism; his reign was usually limited to Egypt, since
the countries outside aroused little interest.] ^^ He provoked
the jealousy of his [older] brother, Seth. According to the
earliest tradition, Seth waylaid Osiris when he hunted gazelles
in the desert and slew him.^^ [Later sources declare that Seth
acted with a band of seventy-two confederates '^^ or, according
to Plutarch, also with an Ethiopian queen named Aso;^^ and
the conspirators placed Osiris, either murdered or alive, in a
coffin which they threw into the river.] His faithful wife, Isis
[who, Plutarch tells us, received her first information from the
" Pans and Satyrs " of Chemmis, i. e. from the spirits who accom-
panied the birth of the sun],'^ hunted
for him, and finding him in the desert
or river, she revived him with some kind
of magic. [According to other versions,
^ , ^ she discovered that Seth had hacked

Fig. ii8. Isis (as Sothis or .

THE Morning Star?) and him mto fourteen '^^ pieccs, which she
Selqet-NephthysGather- ^^ together with great care with the as-

ingBloodfrgmthe-^^ ° °

Mutilated Corpse of sistance of Anubis Or of the wise Thout.]

^'^'^ In the belief of later times, when all

gods were represented as winged, ^^ she fanned life [for a time
only] into him with her wings. According to another (later)
version, Isis did not unite the fragments, but buried them
wherever she discovered them — a rationalistic attempt to ex-
plain the relics of Osiris which were found all over Egypt ^° in
the principal temples or special burial-places of Osiris, the so-
called Serapeums. [Where the reuniting of these members is
emphasized, the spot only is considered to be hallowed by the
finding of one of them.] ^^ According to another (later) version,
she followed the body in the coffin to the Phoenician coast,
whither it had drifted. At Byblos, Plutarch tells us, it had been
taken into the house of the royal couple, Melqart and Astarte
(i. e. the two Byblian city-gods as Asiatic doublets of Osiris
and Isis), as a beam [having been overgrown by an erica or
tamarisk, or having become such a shrub or tree; other myths



THE OSIRIAN CYCLE 115

imply a reminiscence of a cedar containing Osiris or his heart
or head^"]. On account of her sweet smell the ladles of the
court engaged Isis as nurse to the infant prince, and she nursed
him by putting her finger in his mouth, ^^ while at night she
laid him aside in a "purifying fire"^"* and in the form of a
swallow flew wailing around the wooden column which con-
tained the body of Osiris. The queen surprised her one night,
cried out when she saw the child amid the flames, and thus
deprived it of immortality.^^ Revealing her divine nature,
Isis obtained from the king the coveted column and cut the
sarcophagus or the body out of the stem of the tree; the col-
umn itself, wrapped in linen like a mummy and sprinkled
with myrrh (cf. Fig. 83 ?), remained as an object of worship at
Byblos.^^ Accompanied by her sister, Nephthys, Isis took the
body, either alone or in the cofHn, back to Egypt to bewail it;
as mourners both sisters were often represented in the form
of birds. [Plutarch makes Seth, hunting by moonlight,^^ again
find the body and cut it in pieces, which Isis Is obliged to
reunite.]

According to some versions, Horus had been bom [or con-
ceived] before his father's death [others maintained, however,
that he was begotten while Osiris and Isis were yet In the
womb of their mother, i. e. the sky]; but the prevalent theory
was that from the corpse of Osiris, [temporarily] revived [with-
out opening the coffin completely, or from the reunited body,
or even from mere pieces of It], Isis conceived him, either in a
human way, as when she Is often represented as sitting on the
coffin and usually reassuming the form of a bird, or from blood
oozing from the body, or from Its pieces (Fig. 118). [Earlier ideas
are that she conceived from the fruit of the cosmic or fatal tree
(usually the vine ^^) or from another part of this tree; these
views are, however, applied also to the birth of Osiris, who Is
after all, as we have so often observed. Identical with his son,
though he tends to represent the pessimistic side of the
myth.]




ii6 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

With her son Horns [still unborn, or new-born, or very young]
Isis fled [from prison] to the marshes of Lower Egypt and [in
the form of a cow (cf. pp. 37, 99)] hid herself from the persecu-
tions of Seth in the green bushes of the jungles on an island
[or on a floating island, whose name the Greeks rendered by
Chemmis], where Horus, like other solar divinities, was born
in green thickets. ^^ Various gods and goddesses, especially her
sister, Nephthys, and the wise Thout,^° helped to protect and
nurse her and the infant god (see p. 114 on the "Pans and
Satyrs").

Some taught that to hide the child Isis placed it in a chest
or basket, which she let float down the Nile.
This conception permits the blending of the
birth, death, and revivification of the two
identified deities, Osiris and Horus, in the chest
which swims in the abyss, or in the ocean, or
Fig. 119. ijj i-j-g Egyptian counterpart, the Nile, repre-

Isis Nursing <->•' ^

Horus in the senting Osiris-Horus. This chest could also
Marshes ^^ found in the sky in the constellation Argo

(p. 58), symbolizing the dead or infant deity floating in the
ocean; and the principal star of this group, Canopus, could
be regarded as the god himself. ^^ According to Plutarch,
Horus was found in the river and was educated [at the bidding
of Kronos, i. e. the old sun or the old year ^2] by a water-
carrier [called Pamyles at Thebes, who was told to announce
to the world the birth of the great divinity]. ^^ Another
version seems to hold that the divine nurse Renenutet (Greek
@€pfiovdi<;; cf. p. 66) took care of him in the lower regions of
the sky until he could reveal himself to the world. ^^ The
birth and education of Horus are localized at or near Buto,
the earliest capital of the marshy Delta (see supra on the
island of Chemmis). Some adventures embellish this period
of his life, telling, for example, how the infant Horus was
once stung by a scorpion ^^ and healed by his mother, the
great magician, or by Thout; or narrating how, on the



PLATE II

I. Greek Terra-Cotta of the Young
HoRus Floating in his Boat

The infant god has his finger raised to his lips as a
conventional sign of childhood, though later this
was misinterpreted as an admonition to maintain
silence before divine mysteries. Cf. pp. 94, 243.

2. Bes in the Armour of a Roman
Soldier

The divinity here appears in an apotropaic func-
tion. A primitive god, and long obscure, he finally
rose to such popularity that representations of him
even influenced Classical conceptions of Silenus and
the Satyrs. See pp. 61-64.

3. Zeus-Serapis

From a local divinity at Ded, in the Delta, Osiris
became a god of changing nature in the widest sense.
Among his many identifications was that with the
bull Apis, called Hap in Egyptian; and hence arose
Osor-hap, the Serapis of the Greeks. When the cult
of Serapis became popular in the declining days of
Classical religion, Serapis was naturally equated with
the Greek Zeus as all-god and was represented in
Classical style. Cf. pp. 92-93, 98, 239-40, 242-43.



THE NEW YOHK

PU&LIC LlBrtARY



ASTOR, LENOX AND
TILDBN FOU-NUATiONS



THE OSIRIAN CYCLE 117

contrary, he enjoyed the protection of seven scorpions (cf.
p. 147), etc.

In later times two forms of the young Horus were distin-
guished: Har-uer (Greek 'Apovr]pt<;, "Great [i. e. adult, or
elder?] Horus") and Har-pe-khrad (Greek 'ApiroKpart]^,
"Horus the Child, Young Horus"). [The latter, who was
the most popular form of Horus, especially in the Roman
period, was confused by Plutarch with the dwarf gods (pp. 63-
64), since he alleged that the deity had been prematurely born.]
Some regarded these two forms of Horus as two distinct
personalities born at different times, or distinguished the
elder Horus ^^ from Har-si-eset (Greek 'Apairjai^, "Horus, son
of Isis"), but the oldest myth-
ology knows only one Horus,
who is the reincarnation of his
father Osiris.

According to some sources,
Isis also took care of Anubis,
her sister's child [by Osiris, who

begat him through confusing Fig. 120. Osiris m the Basket and

Isis and Nephthys^^], and by in the Boat, and Isis

rearing him she gained a faithful companion, this legend
being a reversion of the older variant that Anubis or
Nephthys [or both] took care of the infant Horus in the
underworld. ^^

When Horus attained manhood, "putting on his girdle (i. e.
the sign of manhood) in the jungle" ^^ and resolving to be
"his father's avenger" ^°° [being exhorted by his father's
spirit], he ascended the Nile with a host [of smiths (cf. p. loi)]
and "conquered his heritage." [He fought in the form of the
winged disk of Edfu, or for the struggle he and Seth changed
themselves into men or hippopotami.^"^] At the great battle
[which lasted three days, or even longer] Seth hurt or put out
an eye of Horus, but he lost his virility and finally was con-
quered. According to most later texts, he [together with his




Ii8 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

followers in the form of wild animals ^°^] was annihilated by
being burned or cut in pieces, or he was flayed [alive]. ^°^ Others
explain the repetition of the combat as due to the fact that,
being merely wounded and chained [or caught in a net (pp.
io6, 109)], he broke loose again. [Isis set him free; or at least,
according to another version which will be set forth below,
she protected him against the death-blow; Horus decapitated
his mother for this act — an explanation of the headless woman
(p. 99) as Isis. Later her human body and cow's head in some
pictures were interpreted as the result of the healing of that
wound by the god Thout, who also cured the eye of Horus
when it was injured by Seth (pp. "33, 90).] The confusion with
the dragon ' Apop in the ocean or the lower world (p. 106) made
the renewal of the struggle easily intelligible; thus it could be
understood, as we have already seen, of tempests and clouds,
of the stormy sea and the night, of the changes in the course
of the sun or .moon, and (very dimly) ^°^ of the world's be-
ginning; while in various ways it could be read in the stars
(p. no).

Rather early the struggle between Horus and Seth was made
a legal contest, an idea which evidently had its origin in the
conception of Osiris as the great judge [and Isis as Justice
(p. 100)], although the judgement is usually transferred to the
wise Thout, who not only heals the wounds of the two con-
testants, but also reconciles them after deciding their claims.
Both Osiris and Horus are called "the one just of voice,"
i. e. justified, victorious in court, an expression which is
likewise applied to the human dead to designate them as
blessed souls, vindicated by Osiris, the judge. According to
later theories, the legitimacy of the posthumous child Horus,
contested by Seth, was proved, or his claim to the throne
of Osiris was vindicated [or Thout or the earth-god Qeb
decided that Egypt should be divided between Horus and
Seth, so that the former inherited the north and the latter
became the heir of the south].



THE OSIRIAN CYCLE



119




Fig. 121. HoRus Exe-
cutes Seth (in the
Form of an Ass) be-
fore Osiris



Since Osiris was tlie type of righteousness, and thus was

worthy to initiate resurrection and eternal life, whether directly

in the lower world or indirectly in his son, the young solar

deity, the question seems sometimes to

have been asked, especially in the New

Empire, Why had he to die? Why did

death come on all humanity through

him? This pessimistic conception of

Osiris had to be explained by some wrong

deed. Wedlock with one's sister was a

general and ancient custom; therefore

it was not clear what guilt he contracted

by his marriage, except in some variants

which made Isis his daughter or mother^"^

(or, perhaps, inviolable as being "Jus-
tice"). In these variants the fault was

usually laid on his wife [or daughter, or mother], who caused
his death by her love, but the numerous diver-
gent forms of this pessimistic speculation are
only faintly preserved in more popular sources
like fairy stories and magic texts ^°^ and are
obscured in the official religion, so that we can
understand them solely by comparison with
the Asiatic myths of the Queen of Heaven,
the mistress of love and life, who nevertheless
brings death and misery to her lovers and all
humanity. Traces of such thoughts about
Osiris's death are, however, hinted at in the
very earliest religious texts of Egypt and are,
therefore, at any rate something more than
late loans from Asia.

Though all the gods once lived and reigned

on earth, ^°'^ Osiris is often regarded as the first ruler of Egypt

and thus as analogous to the Pharaohs. The idea is that he,

who brought death among the gods, and whose tomb can be




Fig. 122. HoRUS
Kills Seth as a
Crocodile



I20 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

worshipped In this world (pp. 98, 114), Is the ancestor of man-
kind, although several gods ought to have reigned again on
earth after hlm.^°^ Accordingly the later Egyptians celebrated
the jubilee of the reign of Osiris, thus treating him quite like
a human king.^°^

From 1500 B. c. onward the Egyptians themselves appeared
to be fully conscious of the similarity of the myths of Osiris
and of Adonis-Tammuz and even liked to connect the story
with romantic Asia, especially with the ancient holy city of
Byblos.^^° Quite a number of evident reciprocal borrowings
connect Osiris and the Asiatic dying god, Tammuz-Adonis
(the Babylonian Dumuzu-Duzu), and make it difficult to
decide the priority of Asia or Egypt."^ It Is probable that
the worship of Osiris and Isis remained local in the Delta
for a long time; it is even questionable whether It was officially
recognized in Upper Egypt before the Second Dynasty, although
the power with which It soon afterward spread through all
Egypt and Influenced Its whole mythology makes us suspect
that it played an important role at an earlier period, at least
in popular religion. Until we know more completely the
Babylonian form of the legend of Tammuz,^^^ It Is unsafe to
derive the Osiris-myth wholly from Asia. It is quite probable
that its primitive Ideas came from Asia; but If this be so,
they had an early, rich, and rather independent development
In Egypt, whence a portion of them wandered back to
Asia. It Is particularly noteworthy that It was only In
Egypt that Osiris fully developed Into a judge of the dead.
Isis, on the other hand, Is a rather meaningless and colour-
less character compared with her original, the Asiatic goddess
of love.

When the Egyptian rehgion spread through the whole
Classical world In the Roman period, it was almost entirely
the Osirian circle which found so much Interest and worship,
and the richly varied mythology which we have just sketched
proved one of the strongest reasons for this success. This



THE OSIRIAN CYCLE 121

subject and the very un-Egyptian character which those
Egyptian gods finally assumed in Europe will be discussed in
the concluding chapter of our study. This superficial adop-
tion of Egyptian divinities was, in reality, only a desperate
attempt to bolster up Classical paganism in its declining days;
but the spirits of Egypt and of Greece and Rome were too
unlike for any true blending. The Isiac mysteries " could
never possess the deep influence over the Classical mind
which was exercised by the other two great religious impor-
tations — the " Great Mother " of Asia Minor and the Mithra
of Iran.



CHAPTER VI

SOME TEXTS REFERRING TO OSIRIS-MYTHS

I. THE DIRGE OF ISIS AND NEPHTHYS

"Hymn sung by the two divine sisters in the house of Osiris, the
one before the west/ the great god, lord of Abydos, in the month of
Choiak,^ the twenty-fifth day."

"Isis saith:
' Come to thy home, come to thy home.

Thou pillar-god (?),^ come to thy home!

Thy foes are not (longer in existence);

Thou good king, come to thy home,

That thou mayest see me!

I am thy sister who loveth thee.

Mayest thou not separate thyself from me (again),

beautiful youth!

Come to thy home immediately, immediately!
(When) I see thee no (more),
My heart bewaileth thee.
Mine eyes seek thee;

1 search for thee to behold thee.

' How good it is to see thee, to see thee!
O pillar-god (.''), how good to see thee!
Come to thy love, come to thy love!

Un-nofer,^ thou blessed one!
Come to thy sister.

Come to thy wife, come to thy wife.

Thou god whose heart standeth still, come to the mistress of
thy house!

1 am thy sister of thy mother,
Separate not thyself from me!

Gods and men, their faces are on thee,
Beweeping thee all together when (they) see me.

I cry for thee with weeping

To the height of heaven.

[Prometheus]

SOME TEXTS REFERRING TO OSIRIS-MYTHS 123

(But) thou doest not hear my voice.

I am thy sister who hath loved thee on earth.

None loveth thee more than I,

The sister, the sister!'

Nephthys saith:

'O good king, come to thy home!

Make glad thy heart; all thy foes are not (longer in existence).
Thy two sisters are beside thee
Protecting thy funeral bed,
Calling thee in tears.
Thou art prostrate on thy funeral bed.
Thou seest (our) tenderness;
Speak with us, O king, our lord!
Expel all grief which is in our hearts!
Thy courtiers among gods and men,
When they see thee, (exclaim) :
"Give to us thy face,
O king, our lord!

It is life for us when we behold thy face.
May thy face not turn from us !
Joyful are our hearts when we behold thee,

good king, [joyful are] our hearts when we behold thee."
I am Nephthys, thy sister who loveth thee.

Thine enemy is overthrown,
He is no more.

1 am with thee

Protecting thy members for ever and in eternity.'"

The hymn goes on in endless repetitions from which we select
the following : ^

"Shine ^ for us in the sky, every day.
We cease not to behold thy rays;
Thout is thy protection;
He establisheth thy soul in the bark of night
In this thy name, 'Divine Moon.'"

Thus Osiris is here called both sun (like Re' and Atum) and
moon, the latter being merely another manifestation of the
ruler of the day. Accordingly he is termed "master of the sixth
day" (p. 90), and of him it is said not only that "thou comest
to us as a little child every month" (i. e. as the crescent moon),



124 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

but also that "thy picture (?) is glorious in Orion (and?) the
stars in the sky," i. e. all heavenly bodies are his manifestation.
He represents all good in nature and appears principally in
vegetation and in the Nile (p. 95).

"Thy glorious emanation proceeding from thee
Keepeth alive gods and men.
Reptiles and (four-footed) animals
Live from it.

Thou approachest us from thy (dark) cave at thy season,
Pouring out the water of thy soul-force ^
To increase sacrifices for thy double (i. e. soul),
To nourish gods and men alike.

Hail to (our) lord!
There is not a god like thee;
Heaven holdeth thy soul,
The earth thy figure;
The underworld is fitted out with thy mysteries." *

H. THE PIG IN THE SUN'S EYE

The myth which tells how a black pig penetrated into the
eye of Horus, temporarily making him half blind, is the
earliest trace of the identification of the pig with Seth (Ch. V,
Note 33). Otherwise it is only a new version of the myth of
the lost solar eye (p. 90), although the writer tries to distin-
guish both ideas. So far as we can understand the very cor-
rupt text of this remarkable story,^ it runs thus:

"Re' said to Horus: 'Let me look at what is in thine eye
[today].' He looked at it. Re' said to Horus: 'Look, pray, at
that black pig yonder.' He looked [at it]; behold, his eye was
hurt with a great disturbance.

"Horus said to Re': 'Behold, mine eye (feeleth) like that
stroke which Seth hath done against mine eye.' Behold, he felt
grieved. Re' said to the gods: 'Put him on his bed; may he
become well again! It is Seth who hath changed his form into
a black pig. Behold, the wound in his eye burneth him.' Re'
said to the gods: 'The pig is an abomination to Horus.'"

The text then becomes confused, but it would seem that



SOME TEXTS REFERRING TO OSIRIS-MYTHS 125

advice is given to cure (?) Horus by "a sacrifice of his oxen,
his small cattle, his sheep." The name of "Horus on his green
(plant)" ^° arose, according to line 13 of this same chapter,
because Horus expressed the wish, "Let the earth be green, and
let the heavenly disturbances (i. e. the thunder-storms) be
quenched"; in other words, the old interpretation of Seth as
the storm-clouds obscuring the sun is clearly applied here to a
myth which originally, in all probability, referred to eclipses.

III. THE TEARS OF ISIS

Reference has already been made (p. 90) to a magic formula
which describes the result of the tears of Isis when they fall
in the Nile. The text itself runs as follows : "

"Isis struck with her wing,
She closed the mouth of the river,
She made the fish lie still on the surface {?); ^^
Not a wave moistened it.
(Thus) the water stood still, (but) it rose
When her tear fell on '^ the water.

Behold, Horus violated his mother-

Her tear fell into the water,

A cubit among the uz-fish.

(And.'') in the mouth of the baboon;

A cubit of shrubs reported (?) ^* in the mouth of Qeb (.^).^^

It is Isis who demanded it.

No crocodile doth (anything.^).

Magic protection is coming, protection!"

The meaning seems to be that water and vegetation rise In
a parallel way through the tears of Isis, exactly as Osiris Is
visible in both forces of nature (p. 95). The uz- or zvoz-fish,
to which a curse is attached, according to the Osiris-myth
allude to the sin for which Horus-Osiris had to die (p. 119), and
the baboon Thout seems to be a reference to the flight of Isis
(as the lost solar eye) to Nubia (p. 90), whence the wise god
brought her back, another explanation of the rising of the Nile



126 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

after the season of low water. The last three lines seek to turn
these blended myths into a magic spell for safe travel on the
river.

IV. ISIS IN THE COMBAT OF HORUS AND StTW

"The thirteenth day of the month Thout/^ a very bad day. Thou
shah not do anything (7) on this day. It is the day of the combat
which Horus waged with Seth.

Behold, they struck each other, standing on their soles together,
( Making their shape that of two hippopotami,
(At?) the temple (?) of the masters of Khar-'ahaut.^^
Then they spent three days and three nights thus.

Then Isis let fall (9) their ^^ metal on them.

It fell toward (?) Horus.

He cried aloud, 'I am thy son Horus.'

Isis called to the metal thus,
'Break away! break away (iii. i) from my son Horus!'
She let another fall toward ( ?) her brother Seth.
He cried aloud, 'Have pity (?)!'

(2) She called to the metal thus, ['Stop!'].^''

He said to her many times,

'Have I [not] ^^ loved and honoured the son of my mother?'

Her heart was filled with compassion for her elder brother.
She called to the metal thus, 'Break away, break away,
Because he is my elder brother!'

The metal loosened itself from him;

They stood there as two persons who would not speak^^ to each other

The Majesty of Horus grew wroth with his mother Isis like a

panther from the south;
She fled (?) before him.
This is the ordering (?) of a combat of (?) a storm.^^

He struck off the head of Isis;
Then Thout gave (it) its form by magic,
Fixing it upon a cow.^^

Let a sacrifice be brought to her name and to that of Thout on this
day."

We may note here that Plutarch ^^ also knew the story of how
Horus tore off his mother's head because she had released



SOME TEXTS REFERRING TO OSIRIS-MYTHS 127

Seth (p. 118), a legend which was very offensive to the Greek
writer.



V. THE DESTRUCTION OF THE DRAGON 'APOP ^e

"The god ^^ great of magic saith:
'My soul {ka) is magic.
I sent them ^* forth to annihilate my enemies with the best (words)

on their lips.
I sent those who arose from ^^ my limbs
To conquer that wicked enemy.'"

After this lame attempt to connect the text with the creation-
myth which has been translated on pp. 68-69, the hymn begins :

"He hath fallen by (?) the flame;
A knife is in his head;
His ear is cut off (.^);

His name is not (any longer) on this earth.
I ordered him stricken with wounds;
I annihilated (?) his bones;
I destroy his soul every day;
I cut the vertebrae of his neck asunder,
Opening with (my) knife,
(And) separating his flesh,
Cutting off (?) 3" his hide.
He was given to the flame.

Which overpowered him in her name, 'the Powerful One';^^
She hath lit on him in her name of 'the Lighting One.'
(I?) have burned the enemy;
I have ^2 annihilated (?) his soul,
I have incinerated his bones;
His members passed into the fire.

Then I commanded Horus, the one great of strength.

At the prow of the boat of Re' ;

He fettered him.

He fettered him with metal;

He made his members

So that he could not struggle at his time after his malice.

He forced him to vomit what was in his stomach. ^^

He is guarded, fettered, bound;

Aker took his strength away.^^



128 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

I separated his members from his bones;

I cut (?) his feet;

I cut off his hands;

I shut his mouth and his lips;

I blunted (?) ^^ his teeth;

I cut his tongue from his throat;

(Thus) I took away his speech.

I blinded his eyes;

I took his hearing from him;

I cut his heart from its place.

I made him as though he never had been.

His name is not any more (in existence);

His children are not;

He existeth no more,

Nor his kindred. ^^

He existeth not, nor his record ;^^

He existeth not, nor his heir.

His egg cannot grow,

Nor is his seed (?) raised;

His soul or body is not (longer in existence),

Nor his spirit, nor his shadow, nor his magic (power)."

The hymn, which was to be repeated during the rite of burn-
ing a wax or papyrus figure of 'Apop,^^ after trampling it and
spitting on it, wanders along in endless, jejune repetitions.
It evidently dates from a much later time than the creation-
myth (pp. 68-69), because the legend is here so lifeless. That
the most contradictory views on the fate of the dragon are
mentioned side by side, is, however, a phenomenon which is
neither late nor unusual (see pp. 69, 71, etc.).

An interesting fragment referring to Osiris and Seth has
already been translated on p. 72.



CHAPTER VII
THE OTHER PRINCIPAL GODS



BESIDES the Egyptian divinities who have been con-
sidered in the preceding chapters, there were many others,
whose names and characteristics are here given in alphabetic
order.^

Ahi: see Ehi.

Ahu (?), Ahuti (?) : see Note 40 on Khasti.

Amon (earhest pronunciation Amonu, Amanu; In the Middle
Empire rarely Amoni ^) was the chief god of Thebes. When he
is represented in human form, he has blue skin
and wears two very high feathers on his head.
He was also called "Master of the Head-Band"
from the fillet which holds these feathers straight
and hangs down his back. Numerous pictures
show that his earliest statues exactly Imitated
those of Min, being blue-black and ithyphalllc,
having one arm upraised, and with the same
chapel and tree (or trees) behind him, etc.; his
very name shows that he was a local dissimi-
lation of the latter ancient god.^ At first his
sacred animal was a goose, but after 1600 b. c.
it became a ram, whence Amon himself is often
represented in the shape of that animal or with
its head."* He was then associated with Mut and Khonsu; and
his early consort, Amonet, became a very obscure personality.
Amon is an especially clear instance of solarization; and as a
sun-god he became the highest divinity of the Egyptian pan-
theon in the New Empire (p. 19), so that the Greeks called




Fig. 123. Amon



I30



EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY




Fig. 124.

Amonet



him Zeus, which caused him to be misinterpreted as the god

of air.^ His temporary persecution will be considered in our

last chapter (pp. 224-26),

Amonet (Amenet), the earlier consort of Amon, was, as we

have just seen, almost forgotten in the days of her husband's
greatness. Her name seems to mean merely "the One
of Amon, Amon's Wife." Curiously enough, she always
wears the crown of Lower Egypt.^ She is also called
Nebt-taui, or "Mistress of Both Countries." ^

'Anezti, an ancient god wearing two ostrich-feathers
on his head and carrying a royal flagellum and a
crooked staff in his hands, was called "the one before

the eastern districts" and (because of his insignia.'') was iden-
tified with Osiris at an early date.^
An-horet: see Onuris.
Anit (Enit), the spouse of Montu, was represented in human

form, often wearing a symbol like the "antennae" of Mes-

khenet (p. 52).

Antaeus (Antaios) is known only by this classical name,

though he can scarcely have shown much similarity to the

wrestling giant of the Greek myth of

Herakles. He was worshipped at Antai-

opolis in Middle Egypt, where he was

associated with Nephthys and some-
times compared with Horus.^ Our only

pictures of him date from the Roman

period, when he was represented as a

warrior or hunter of gazelles (reminding

us of the Syrian god Reshpu, for whom

see p. 155), with high feathers on his

head and clad in very modern armour.

For a remarkable picture of him see

the Classical concept in Fig. 218.^°

'Anti was identified with Osiris at the temple on the site of

the modern Gurna.




Antaeus



THE OTHER PRINCIPAL GODS 131

Anupet, once termed "the female greyhound," was the
consort or female form of Anubis at Kynopolis (cf. the parallel
Instance of Amon-Amonet) .

'Anuqet, a goddess of the Cataract region, and thus associ-
ated with Khnum(u) (see Fig. i), is characterized by a
feather crown of unusual shape and on rare occasions appears
as a vulture." Why the Greeks compared her with Hestia,
their divinity of the hearth, is obscure.

Ari-hems-nofer : see Eri-hems-nofer.

Asbet ("the Flaming One") was a goddess, perhaps in
serpent-shape,^^ and possibly was the same as Sebit.

Ash was a god in human form who was worshipped in the
west of the Delta (?).^^

Babi (Babai, Bebi, Bibi[?]) must have been worshipped
extensively in Upper Egypt from the earliest times, since
his name is sometimes written with the white crown and
the royal whip, O [y symbols of dominion over the whole
southern country. / / \\ Accordingly his name still seems to
have been used ^4 extensively as a proper name in the
Middle Empire. The Pyramid Texts " term him "master of
darkness" and compare him to a bull, as though he had once
been a rival of Osiris or had been understood as another name
for Osiris or Bati. Thus the Book of the Dead mentions him
as "the first-born son of Osiris," ^^ though it usually describes
him as a terrible persecutor and butcher of souls who guards
the entrance to the lower world. ^^ A later passage of the same
book already makes him a fiend somewhat parallel to Seth;
and in the Greek period Bebon (or Babys) becomes synony-
mous with Seth. For the confusion between Babi and Bati
see the paragraph on the latter.

Bast(et) : see Ubastet, which is the correct reading.

Bati, another deity of the earliest period, was later wor-
shipped only in the obscure town of Saka, where he received
honour beside Anubis (Ch. V, Note 60) and Ubastet. The
author of the Tale of the Two Brothers^ therefore, regards




132 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

Bati (not to be read Bata or Batau) as a celestial and solar
divinity synonymous with Osiris. Manetho seems to refer to
him as a mythical king Bytes. ^^ He appears to have been
confused to a considerable extent with Babi.^^

Behdet, i.e. "the goddess of Edfu," as the con-
sort of the Horus of that city (pp. 21, loi) was neces-
sarily, according to later theology, like Hat-hor (pp.
39, 102).

Bi-n-ded(u): see Mendes (p. 164).
Breith: see Note 55 on Merui.
Fig. 126. Buto (Egyptian Uazit, Uzoit) was the serpent-

^"™ shaped goddess of Pe(r)-uzoit, the Buto of the
Greeks and the earliest capital of Lower Egypt. Accordingly,
whether represented in serpent-form or as a woman, she usu-
ally wears the crown and holds the sceptre of that region. She
and the vulture-goddess Nekhbet, as two serpents (cf. pp. 26,
29), frequently symbolize Lower and Upper Egypt.^^

Dedet, "the One of Busiris," was worshipped at Busiris
and at Mendes (at Sebennytos as well.^) and was later regarded
as a celestial goddess like Isis-Hat-hor, though originally she
was probably distinct from Isis.^°

Depet: see Note 19.

Dua(u) ("the Worshipper," or "Rising One"[.^]) was a deity
whose name was written with a symbol closely resembling the
one for Khons which has been discussed on p. 34, except that
in the old passages the piece of meat which it seems to represent
hangs down behind from the standard. If this god was adored
at Herakleopolis, we have an inexplicable Greek comparison
with Herakles, as in the case of Khons. ^^

Dua[-uer] ("the [Great] Worshipper" [.?]) was called, because of
his hieroglyph, a bearded chin,^^ / \ /^"^ "the barber of
the gods" or "the washer of ^H^ |J their faces." ^^
When termed "husband of the ^^ ^^ Sothis star," ^^
he seems to be confused, because of the similarity of names,
with the morning star ("the Divine Worshipper") and with



THE OTHER PRINCIPAL GODS 133

Orion-Horus. (The accompanying symbol of a full face ,
with a long beard ^^ appears to refer to a different deity.)
Ehi (Ahi) was associated with the Hat-hor of Den-
derah as her little son (p. 20), whence he was repre-
sented like Horus; he often bears musical instruments.

Ekhutet ("the Resplendent "[?]), an ancient goddess, was
a deity of whom little was known.^^
Emesti: see p. 112.

Enit: see Anit.

[Prometheus]

Eri-hems-nofer (Ari-hems-nofer, Greek ^Apeva-
vov(f)L<i; "the Companion Good to Dwell With")
was the local deity of a small cataract island
near Philae and was compared especially with
the lion-shaped Shu.^^

Esdes: see Ch. HI, Note 3.
Ha {^): see Note 40 on Khasti.
Hat-mehit ^^ was the goddess of the nome of
Mendes and, therefore, wore its hieroglyph, a
Fig. 127. Ehi ^^j^^ ^^ ^^^ head. Associated with the (Osiris-)
ram of Mendes, she became like Isis and was called the mother
of Harpokrates ("the young Horus"). Later she was also
associated with Horus as his wife.

Heka (late form Heke) was identified with Shu, as in Fig. 39.
It is a question whether he is another deity than the divinity
Heka ("Magic"; Fig. 10).

Heken was a hawk-god (identical with Har-heken "^^^^v^
[Ch. V, Note 28].?). 29 ' h \

Heknet ("the Praiseworthy"; earlier form Heknu- '
tet ^°) was a little-known goddess who was pictured Hat me^ i
in various forms, principally with the head of a vulture.

Hemen, a hawk-god ^^ of Tuphion ( ?) in Upper Egypt, was
widely known only in the Twelfth Dynasty.

Hem(.'')-hor ("Servant of Horus") was a lion-headed god.^^

Heqet,^^ a goddess with the shape or head of a frog, was

worshipped at the city of Her-uret near Edfu and later at





134 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

Abydos as well (p. 50). At an early date she was associated
with her neighbour Khnum as the creator, whence she became
a protector of birth (p. 52). Her cult was politi-
cally important in the Pyramid Period.

Her-shef ("the Ram-Faced," Greek 'Apaa(f)7]'i,
I. e. evidently a wrong etymology, based on a
pronunciation which compared him with Horus)

was worshipped at Herakleopolis.
Fig. 129. Hesat 1 • 1 ,.,,.•

Hesat was early explamed as a celestial divm-

ity like Hat-hor or Isis, being a cow-goddess.^* Her local cult

seems to have been on the site of the modern Atfiyeh.^^

Hetmet (or Hetmit, "the Destroyer "[?]) is once depicted
like Epet, but with a lion's head.^®

Hu ("Taste, Feehng, Wisdom") was a god in the form of a
man or of a sphinx. He often accompanied the solar deity
in his boat (cf. Fig. 87). Hu, the divinity of plenty, cannot
well be separated from him (pp. 66-67).

lu-s-'a-s ("She Who Comes is Great") was a goddess of
northern Heliopolis ^^ and the wife of Har-akhti. She was,
therefore, treated as a celestial goddess like Hat-hor, etc.

Kenemtef(i) ("the One Who Wears His Leopard's Skin")
is usually reckoned among the four sons of Horus (p. 112),
though he is sometimes identified with Horus himself.^^ The
picture here given depicts him like a priest of the class called

Wearers of the Leopard's Skin." It is a
question whether he may not be the same
as the lost divinity Kenemt(i), who fills the
first three decanal stations.^^

Kenemt(i): see Kenemtef(i).

Khasti (.?),'"' "the lord of the west," was
adored in the city of Sheta (in the Delta.?). ^'''- '^°- Kenemtefi
Because of his symbol (three mountains, the sign of foreign
lands) he was also termed "lord of all foreign countries,"
whence his representations as a warrior arose. At an early
date he was identified with Horus.




THE OTHER PRINCIPAL GODS 135

Khenset (Khensit), the wife of Sopd, being treated like the
celestial goddesses, was pictured in the human shape of Hat-
hor-Isis, or wearing a feather on her head as "Justice" (p. 100),
or as a cow.

Khnemtet was usually understood to mean "the Nurse,"
whence her name was applied to the nursing goddesses Isis
and Nephthys."*^ Later she was also explained as a divinity
of bread and cakes (p. 66).'*^

Khnum(u) (Greek Xvov/Stq) ^^ was the deity of Elephantine,
the Cataract region (" Lord of the Cool Water"), and some other
places in Upper Egypt, such as Esneh, Shas-hetep, Herakleopo-
lis, etc. He is represented as a ram or as ram-headed, and later
he sometimes receives four rams' heads,
probably symbolizing the four sources of
the Nile. See pp. 28, 50-51, 89.

Ma'et, the goddess of justice, was char-
acterized by an ostrich-feather (p. 100).

Mafdet ("Lynx") was a warlike goddess

. , . I .. Fig. 131. Old Symbol

Widely known m the early dynastic period.*^ of Mafdet

Ma-hos: see Mi-hos.

Mandulis: see Note 55 on Merui.

Matet, "the portress of the sky," was a goddess who later
was nearly forgotten, but who was connected with a tree or
shrub.^^

Matit ("the One Like a Lioness" [?]), a goddess adored under
the form of a lioness in the twelfth (and fifth .'') nome of Upper
Egypt, was later compared with Hat-hor.

Ma(t)-si-s ("the One Who Sees Her Son"), worshipped in
the fifth and eleventh nomes of Upper Egypt, was later called,
like so many other goddesses, a form or an epithet of Hat-hor.

Mehen (?) (Mehnet, Mehenit [?]; see also under Menehtet,
infra) was a name for the mythological serpent which wound
about the sun-god or about his head (p. 25). In later times
"uraeus gods" (i. e. deities wearing the uraeus on their heads),
both male and female, were called "followers of Mehen." '*^




136 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY



Mehet was a lioness who was worshipped in the old city of



ThI



is



47



Mehi (Mehui ? '^^) was a deity of whom little was known and
who was perhaps identified with Thout.

Meht-ueret ("Great Flood") was a name of the celestial
cow (p. 39) and was perhaps localized in the fifteenth nome
of Upper Egypt.

Menehtet (Menhet,Menhit), a leontocephalous goddess, some-
times, like Sekhmet and other solarized divinities, wore the
solar disk. She was worshipped at or near Heliopolis (.'') and
was also identified with Neith and confused with the solar
serpent Mehen, mentioned above.

Men'et, the lion-headed "Nurse," is men-
tioned at Edfu and compared with Hat-hor
as the wife of Horus (p. loi).

Menhu(i), a god in human form, is men-
tioned as a special giver of food.^^ At Esneh
he was confused with Menehtet in a ser-
pent-headed form.
Fig. 132. Meret IN Menkhet ("the Kind One") was wor-
DouBLE Form shipped at Memphis and was identified with
Isis (sometimes with Nephthys as well [Ch. V, Note 59]). The
"linen-goddess" Menkhet is probably a different divinity.

Menqet, a goddess mentioned as producing vegetation and
orthographlcally connected with a tree, is later pictured as a
woman holding two pots and is often described as making beer
and other drinks.^o It is uncertain whether she was thus com-
pared to Hat-hor, who gives food and drink from the celestial
tree (pp. 36, 39).

Meret wore a bush of aquatic plants on her head, like the
Nile, and was, therefore, explained as a water-goddess.^^ Her
name usually occurs in the dual number as Merti ("the two
Merets"), or these are divided into "Meret of the South"
and "Meret of the North," whence the pair are compared to
the two Nlles (p. 46) or the two divine representatives of the




THE OTHER PRINCIPAL GODS



137




Fig. 133. Mi-Hos,
Identified with
Nefer-tem



two kingdoms of Buto and Nekhbet. One of them sometimes
has a Hon's head,^^ and both are described as musicians.^^
The query arises whether they are "the two daughters of the
Nile who split (?) the dragon" (i.e. divide the
water of the abyss and the Nile into an upper
and a lower course.?) ^'^ Such a conflict with
the older Osirian theology, however, would not
be unusual (pp. 95, 106).

Merhi, a divinity with the shape or the head
of a bull, was worshipped in Lower Egypt.

Mert-seger ("the One Who Loves Silence")
was patroness of a portion of the Theban ne-
cropolis and was usually pictured in the guise
of a serpent, though in rare instances she was represented also
in human form like the great goddess Hat-hor.

Merui (.''), a deity in human form, though probably originally
in the shape of a lion, was called "son of Horus" and was
worshipped at Kalabsheh in Nubia, near the First Cataract.^^
Meskhenet was the goddess of fate and birth (p. 52) and
was sometimes identified with Isis and similar deities, espe-
cially with Tefenet (as coming from the deep.? cf. p. 90).

Mi-hos (inferior reading Ma-hos ; Greek Mtwo-i?; "the Grim-
Looking Lion") was usually represented as a lion rising up in

the act of devouring a captive. He
was worshipped in the tenth nome
of Upper Egypt, and being regarded
as the son of the solar deity Re' and
the cat or lioness Ubastet, he was
t;. TT c identified with the lion-god Shu

riG. 134. Hieroglyphic Symbols °

OF MiN FROM Prehistoric (p. 44) Or with Nefer-tSm, as in
Objects t?-

Fig. 133.
Min(u),^^ one of the oldest Egyptian gods, was worshipped
at many places in Upper Egypt, where his hieroglyphic sym-
bols, looking somewhat like a thunderbolt or a double harpoon,
were wide-spread in prehistoric times; but the special sites




138



EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY




of his cult were at Chemmis (i. e. Khem-min, or "Sanctuary
of Min," the modern Akhmim) and at Koptos, where the

most important road to the
Red Sea branches off to the
desert. Hence he was called
the patron of the wild in-
habitants of the eastern
desert, the Aritiu tribes
(the Troglodytes, or Tro-
godytes, of the Greeks),
and even of regions farther
to the south, such as the
incense coast of Punt.
These barbarians assembled
at his festivals for a strange
ceremony — a contest in

Fig. 135. Barbarians OF THE Desert Climb- dinibinp' Doles ^^ Min's
iNG Poles before Min ° ^

oldest prehistoric statues ^^
show him standing erect, grasping his immense phallus with
his left hand, and in his hanging right holding a fiagellum,
while the back of his body is decorated with animals of the
sea and of the desert. Later pictures make this ithyphallic
god, whose colour was originally black,^^ lift his whip in his
right hand; his head is ornamented with high feathers; and a
fillet with a long pendant be-
hind serves to keep these feath-
ers upright, exactly like Amon
of Thebes, who seems to be
merely an old localized and
slightly differentiated form of
Min (pp. 21, 129). Behind
him is pictured his chapel in
various peculiar forms, or a
grove is indicated by a group of tall trees (generally three
in number) within an enclosure, or the grove and chapel




Fig. 136. The Earliest Sanctuaries
OF Mm, Decorated with a Pecul-
iar Standard



THE OTHER PRINCIPAL GODS



139



are combined. He is subsequently identified with Osiris, as be-
ing likewise phallic,®" and thus is called a god of the harvest,®^
whence "Min, fair of face," is associated still later with the
Asiatic goddess of love (see p. 156), Tra-
dition also regards him as son of the sun (or
of Osiris and Isis, or of Shu) and thus identi-
fies him either with the young sun or with
the moon. The Greek identification with
the Hellenic shepherd-god. Pan, seems to
depend on his pillar-like archaic statues.
His sacred animal was a (white.'') bull.

Mont(u) (Greek Mcui^^), the deity of Her-
monthis (Egyptian An-montu, the modern
Erment) and other places south of Thebes,
was also adored at Thebes in the earliest
times and regained worship there in the
latest period, when this city and its god,
Amon, had lost their importance. He is
usually pictured as a hawk or as a man ^^^- ^37- Mm before

. HIS Grove

With a hawk s head, wearmg two high
feathers (like Min and Amon.^); he is frequently adorned
with the solar disk, since he was identified with
the sun-god at a very early date, so that he is
also called Montu-Re'. His original form, however,
which was later preserved at Zeret (perhaps to be
identified with the modern Taud), had the head of
a bull; and even at Her-monthis his sacred animal
remained a black bull, called Buchis in the Roman
period (see p. 163). His hawk's head was borrowed
from the solar deity, Re'-Horus, and later Montu's
bull was actually called "the soul of Re'" (or of
Osiris).®^ All texts agree in describing Montu as terrible and
warlike, alluding, evidently, to the weapons which he holds.
At different places various goddesses were associated with him
as his wife, such as Ra't-taui (Ch. II, Note 20), Enit, and Hat-hor.





Fig. 138.
Montu



140



EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY




Fig. 139. Oldest Type OF

MONTU



Mut ("Mother"), the later wife of Amon (pp. 129-30),
was represented either as a vulture or in human form. She is
to be distinguished from Mu(u)t "the
Water-Flood" (p. 46).

Nebet (Nebit.?), i.e. "the Golden One,"
was the name of a local form of Hat-hor
(cf. p. 30 on gold as solar).

Neb-taui (modernized as P-neb-taui), i.e.
"the Lord of Both Countries," a local deity
of Ombos, was treated as the son of Horus
and Sonet-nofret (or T-sonet-nofret) and
was depicted like the young
Horus (with a human head) or
like Khons (cf. Fig. 18).

Nebt-hotep ("Mistress of
Peace" or "Mistress of the
Lake of Peace") was later explained as a form of
the goddess Hat-hor.
Nebt-taui: see Amonet.

Nebt-uu ("Mistress of the Territory") was re-
garded as another form of Hat-hor and received Fig. 140.

1 . ^ T? 1 MuT WITH A

adoration at Lsneh. Head -Dress

Nefer-ho(r) ("Fair of Face") was a Assimilating
•ir rT~»i T\T 1-1 -1 HER to Amon

special lorm 01 rtah at Memphis, besides
being an epithet of various other divinities, especially
P of Osiris (pp. 113, 139).

Nefer-hotep ("Fine of Peace," i. e. " the Peaceful ")
was a local form of the Theban deity Khons (u),
although an independent divinity of this name also
occurs in the seventh nome of Upper Egypt.

Nefer-tem, adored at Memphis, was grouped with
Fig. 141. Ptah and Sekhmetas their son, while as the offspring

Nefer-tem r t ti i 111 • r n ^ ^ 1

01 Ubastet, the cat-headed variant 01 behkmet, he was
also connected with Heliopolls. His emblem is very unusual,
being an open lotus flower from which two tall feathers and





THE OTHER PRINCIPAL GODS



141




^



other ornaments project. The god, in the form either of a
man or of a lion (cf. under Mi-hos, with whom he is identified),
holds this symbol on a staff in his hand or wears it on his
head. We know nothing about his functions, rY^

except that allusions ascribe a cosmic role to
his fragrant and beautiful flower "before the
nose of Re'" (possibly implying the cosmic
flower, i. e. the ocean; pp. 39, 50), he is, ac-
cordingly, identified with Horus.^^

Neha-ho(r) : see the following paragraph.
Neheb-kau ("the Overturner of Doubles")
was originally an evil spirit in the form of a Fig. 142. Emblem
serpent ("with numerous windings ")6* who of Nefer-tem
attacked and devoured the souls of the deceased in the under-
world or on the way thither, south of the Cataracts (cf. under
Selqet, infra). Later, however, he was honoured by being
made one of the forty-two assessors in the law-court of Osiris,
exactly like a similar serpent named Neha-ho(r) ("the One
Turning the Face"), who subsequently was sometimes con-
fused with the Satanic dragon Apop.^^

Nehem(t)-'auit ("the One Who Removes Violence, Delivers
[from] Violence "[.?] ; Greek Ne/iai^ov? [.'']), a goddess
associated with Thout, the divinity of wisdom, es-
pecially at Hermopolis (and at Ba'h in Lower
Egypt .^), Is pictured in human form, wearing the
sistrum or pillar or other emblems of Hat-hor on
her head. She must have been identified with this
goddess at an early date, for she is also called "the
one who is fond of music" (cf. p. 40),^^ "daughter
of the sun," and the like.

Nehes ("Awake, Awakening"): see p. 6^ on

this abstraction as companion of the sun-god. A

similar epithet later applied to Seth seems to characterize him

as the watchful" dragon, lurking in the lower world (p. 106).

Neith (Greek pronunciation;^^ Egyptian orthography Nt,




Fig. 143.

Nehem(t)
'auit



142



EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY



once Nrt) was a very ancient goddess who was known through-
out Egypt even In the prehistoric period, when she extended
her Influence from Sais, her centre of worship, over the entire
western frontier of the Delta and up to the
Fayum. Accordingly the local deity of the
latter region, Sobk, was called her son
(whence she Is represented as giving the
breast to crocodiles); and she is even
termed patroness of all Libyans. She is
represented as a woman with the ordinary
yellow (sometimes light green?) skin which
characterizes her sex in Egyptian art and
she wears the red crown of Lower Egypt;
yet she often appears also as a cow, I. e. as
a celestial divinity (p. 37). Because of her
hieroglyph, two crossed arrows, she fre-
quently bears bow and arrows ;^^ but later
this sign was misunderstood as a weaver's
shuttle,^^ so that she was connected with
the art of weaving ^° and of tying magic
knots as "a great sorceress" like Isls.

Nekhbet was the vulture-goddess of the earliest capital of
Upper Egypt, the Eileithylaspolis of the Greeks and the
modern el-Kab, and was, conse-
quently, the oldest patroness of
that portion of the land, the
counterpart of Buto (p. 132).
Accordingly she is regularly rep-
resented as flying above the king
and holding a ring or other royal

emblems. She likewise appears ^ig. 145- Nekhbet Protecting the

/ . ., King

as a woman (sometimes with a

vulture's head), and since she wears the white crown of Upper

Egypt, she is termed "the white one,"^^ and her cities Nekhbet

and Nekhen (cf. p. lOi) are called "the white city." In later




Fig. 144. Neith




THE OTHER PRINCIPAL GODS

[Prometheus]

143



days she, as "daughter and eye of the sun-god," was compared
with the celestial divinities. The Greeks and Romans Identi-
fied her with Eileithyia-Lucina, the lunar goddess who pro-
tected birth, possibly because she later watched over Osiris
and his resurrection; but distinct connexion of this deity with
the moon cannot be proved from Egyp-
tian sources. Her role as wife of the
Nile-god (p. 46) is evidently in accord
with a very old tradition which made
the Egyptian course of that river begin
at the capital, situated very near the
southern frontier, since the two southern-
most nomes must at that time have
been populated by Nubian tribes. This
seems again to explain her connexion
with the birth of Osiris as the Nile.
Whether a Greek transcription S/ii^t?
referred to the name Nekhbet is open
to question (see under Semtet).

Nemanus: see Nehem(t)-'auit.

Nesret ("the Flaming, Fiery [Ser-
pent]"; p. 26) was a deity whose local-
ization is doubtful, but who was later
identified with the serpent-goddess Buto.

Onuris (Egyptian An-horet, "Guiding Fig. 146. Late Type of
[on] the Highway") was localized in

This, Sebennytos, and elsewhere, and was usually represented
as a man In a standing posture, holding a spear In his raised
hand (or in both hands), and wearing four high feathers on
his head. Since he was regarded as a warrior (whence the
Greeks Identified him with Ares) who aided the sun-god In his
struggle, his picture later protected the house against noxious
animals and other evils. Thus he was regarded as the same as
Horus and was likewise represented occasionally with the head
of a hawk. The prevalent Identification, however, was with





144 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

Shu, the god of the air (p. 44), because of the similar head-
dress of four feathers, so that it is possible that, like those
feathers, "the highway" was interpreted celestially.

Ophois (Egyptian Up-ua(u)t, "Opener of the

Way"), the wolf-god of Lykopolis (Assiut),

This, and Sais, was frequently confused with

Anubis(pp. iio-ii). The Egyptians of the Greek

^ period explained his animal as a wolf, perhaps

^ .. because it was represented standing, whereas the
Fig. 147. Ophois ^ ^ _ °'

jackal (?) of Anubis was recumbent. The war-
like features of Ophois may be derived from his worship at the
capital This, or from the weapons which decorate the bases
of his pictures, or from celestial interpretations of his name.
The Ophois of SaTs "follows the King of Lower Egypt," ^^ as
the older form is the "jackal of the South."

Opet ( .'') (Greek 'flc^t?) was the goddess of a quarter of east-
ern Thebes, whose hieroglyph she bears in the accompanying
picture, together with celestial symbols.

Pekhet (Pakhet, once erroneously Pekhet?) was a lioness
who was worshipped in Middle Egypt in the desert valley near
Speos Artemidos, a name which shows that the Greeks iden-
tified her with Artemis, probably because she was a huntress
and roved in the desert. ^^

Peyet: see Note 19.

Ptah (Greek ^da), the god of Memphis (Egyp-
tian Hat-ka-Ptah, "Place of the Soul of Ptah"),
was pictured as a bearded man of unusually light
(yellow) '^^ colour and as clad in white, close-
fitting garments, a tassel from his neck holding
his collar in position. His head is usually bare,

though later various royal crowns are worn by him, ' ^

. . . Fig. i^

and a sceptre is generally held in both his hands.

The feet, ordinarily united as though the deity were mummi-
fied, reveal the very primitive antiquity of the artistic tradi-
tion (cf. Figs. 136-37 for equally primitive, pillar-like statues of




THE OTHER PRINCIPAL GODS



145



Mm, and the archaic divine types, p. 12). His cult is, indeed,
declared to be the oldest in Egypt, and he is called "the
Ancient," ^^ while "the age of Ptah" and "the years of Ptah"
are proverbial phrases. The divinity stands on a peculiar
pedestal which was later explained as the hieroglyph of jus-
tice,''^ and this pedestal is generally represented within a small
chapel. Coming into prominence when the pyramid-builders
moved their residence near his temple, he was called "the
first of the gods," "the creator of the gods and of the world."
He was the divine artist "who formed works of art" and was
skilful in all material, especially in metal, so that
the Greeks compared him to Hephaistos, and his
high-priest had the title of "chief artificer." '^^
Therefore on a potter's wheel Ptah turned the
solar and the lunar eggs (or, according to others,
the cosmic egg, though this is doubtful). In his
special capacity of creator he bears the name Ptah-
Tatunen, being Identified with a local deity Tatu-
nen, who appears in human form, wearing feathers
and a ram's horn (cf. pp. 47, 150); and later he ^^' ^'*^' ^^^
is equated with the abyss (Ptah-Nuu) or with the Nile,'^® but
also with the sun (Ptah-Aten, "Ptah the Solar Disk"), or with
the air (Ptah-Shu), so that he becomes a god of all nature.
When plants are said to grow on his back, this may come
quite as well from his identification with Sokari, and from the
subsequent blending of Ptah-Sokari with Osiris (p. 98), as from
comparison with Qeb (p. 42). Sokhmet and Nefer-tem were
associated with him as wife and son.'^^

Qebhet (Qebhut) was a serpent-goddess, and as "the
daughter of Anubis" was localized near that divinity In the
tenth nome. Her name ("the Cool One") gives rise at an
early date to myths which connect her with sky or water. ^^

Qed was a deity with the head of an ox ^^ (cf. the decanal
constellation Qed(u.^), which, however, has no human repre-
sentation elsewhere).




146 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

Qerhet, a serpent-goddess, protected the eighth nome of
Lower Egypt, the later land of Goshen,

Re'et: see Ch. II, Note 20.

Renenutet (Remenutet, Remutet): see pp. 66, 116.

Repit (Greek Tptcj)i<i; "Youthful One," "Maiden") was a
very popular goddess in the latest period. She is often repre-
sented as wearing on her head the hieroglyphic sign of a palm-
branch, symbolizing fresh vegetation and youth (p. 89), which
renders it difficult to separate her from the personification of
time and the year (Ronpet.^), who has a similar symbol. ^^

Ronpet: see the preceding paragraph. For the Sothis-star,
called "the year-goddess" as the regulator of time, cf. p. 56.

Ruruti: see Ch. Ill, Note 31.

Satet^^ (Greek 'Eari^) was worshipped at the First Cataract
and was associated with Khnum. She is represented in human
form and wears a high conical crown with the horns of a cow
(cf. the picture given on p. 20); later she was occasionally
compared with such celestial divinities as Isis and Hat-hor.
Her name denotes "the Thrower, the Shooter," and hence she
carries bow and arrows, although the original meaning referred,
rather, to the falling waters of the Cataract.

Seb (.?) was a little-known deity who was worshipped in the
form of a flying hawk.

Sebit (Sebait) was a goddess of whom little is known ^^
(identical with Asbet?).

Sekha(i)t-hor ("the One Who Thinks of Horus") was
depicted as a recumbent cow and was worshipped in the third
nome of Lower Egypt.^^ On account of her name, she was
often identified with Isis.

Sekhmet ^® ("the Powerful"), a leontocephalous goddess,
was adored at Memphis (cf. supra on Ptah and Nefer-tem
as her associates) and at some other places, chiefly in the
Delta, as well as in the thirteenth nome of Upper Egypt.
Generally she wears the solar disk on her head, and the texts
speak of her as a warlike manifestation of the sun, a solar




THE OTHER PRINCIPAL GODS 147

eye (p. 29), "the fiery one, emitting flames against the
enemies" of the gods (cf. p. 75). She is often compared with
the neighbouring cat, Ubastet, who is termed her friendly
manifestation.

Selqet (Greek SeX^t?) was symbolized by a scorpion, al-
though in later times she was usually represented in human
form (see p. 60 and Fig. 60). Her name is abbreviated from
Selqet Ehut ("Who Cools Throats")," one of the four god-
desses who assist Nuu, the deity of the abyss, and protect or
represent the four sources which he sends to the upper world.
This confirms the tradition that Pselchis, in northern Nubia
near the mythological sources of the Nile, was her original
home.^^ With her sting she later protects the dead
Osiris and the nursing Isis (with whom she is occa-
sionally identified), so that some of the entrails of the
embalmed, etc., are placed under her guardianship.
As the patroness of magic power she is also called
"mistress of the house of books," so that she seems Fig. 150.
to have been felt to be analogous to the goddess of
fate (p. 53) as dwelling, like her, in the extreme south, i. e.
in the underworld. Accordingly she is associated with the sub-
terranean serpent Neheb-kau.^^ Later she is sometimes termed
the wife of Horus, a fact which corresponds with her occasional
celestial and solar insignia. ^°

Sema-uer ("Great Wild Ox") was an old name of the
celestial bull (Ch. Ill, Note 10).

Semtet is a goddess who reminds us of Smithis, but her name
cannot be read with certainty. ^^

Sepa: see Sop.

Seqbet: see Note 100.

Ser ("Prince") was usually explained in later times as
Osiris ^^ and was localized at Heliopolis.

Shemtet, a goddess mentioned only on rare occasions, had
the head of a lioness. ^^

Shenet, whose name likewise seldom occurs, was pictured



148



EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY




Fig. 151. SoKARi Hidden
IN HIS Boat or Sledge



in human form, with long tresses like a child. ^* She was

probably" identical with the following divinity.

Shentet (later forms Shentit, Shentait) was a goddess whose
earliest representation seems to have been
a long-haired girl (holding a child }) . Later
she Is treated as a variant of such celes-
tial goddesses as Isis, and also appears In
the form of a cow.^^ Her seat of worship
was Hellopolis or Abydos (?). Cf. the
preceding paragraph.

Shut (Shuet; "the One of Shu") Is a
rare name for the lioness Tefenet.^^ Cf.
names like Amonet, Anupet, etc.
Smentet was a little-known goddess who was treated as

parallel to Isls.®^

Smithls : see under Nekhbet and Semtet.
Sobk (Greek 'Eov'xo'i) ,^^ a crocodile-god,

seems originally to have ruled over the lake

and the country of the Fayum in the west- ^

ern part of Middle Egypt, whose capital IT

was Shedet(i)-KrokodIlopolIs. He was also

the lord of some other places along the

western frontier of the Delta (see p. 142

for his association with Neith) and likewise

enjoyed worship at an early period in Upper

Egypt at Ombos (where he was associated

with Hat-hor), Ptolemais, Her-monthis, etc.

Later he became, especially at Ombos, a

form of the solar deity Sobk-ReV^ ^nd at

other places still more strange attempts

were made to identify him with Osiris,

perhaps because crocodiles dwell in the

darkest depths of the water. ^°°
Sobket: see Note 100.
Sokar(i) (Greek '2oxapi<i)y a deity of a place near Memphis




Fig. 152. SoPD as an
Asiatic Warrior




THE OTHER PRINCIPAL GODS 149

(whence the modern name Saqqarah may perhaps be derived)
"at the bend {pezut) of the lake," ^°^ was at first regarded as
a manifestation of Horus, the sun, and thus was represented as
a hawk or falcon sitting in a strange bark on a sledge (henu)
which was drawn around his temple at festivals as a solar
bark.^°2 When this place became the necropolis of the great city
of Memphis, "Sokari in his crypt {shetait) " was made a god of
the dead and was identified with Ptah and Osiris, so that his
temple Ro-setau ("Gate of Corridors") was explained as the
entrance to the passages which led to the underworld. Thus,
as the revived Osiris, ^°^ "Sokar, the lord of the ground "(!),
became the earth-god as well (cf. p. 98 and above rrA

on the deity Ptah), M

Sonet-nofret (modernized form T-sonet-nof ret; "the
Fine Sister"), a deity at Ombos, was identified with
Tefenet, whence she was sometimes represented with
the head of a lioness, though she usually appeared as p^'^' ^^^'
human, resembling Hat-hor. Her husband was the Type of
Horus of Ombos, and her son was (P)-neb-taui (p. 140).

Sop (earlier Sepa), a god who was worshipped in and near
Heliopolis, was later identified with Osiris. This and the later
pronunciation are shown by Osarsyph, the alleged Egyptian
name which Manetho ascribes to Moses. ^°^

Sopd(u), "the lord of the east, the one who smites the
Asiatics," was the deity of the twentieth nome of the Delta
(later termed "the Arabian Nome") at the western entrance
to the valley of Goshen, with the capital Pe(r)-sopd(u) ("House
of Sopd"; also called "House of the Sycamore"), the modern
Saft el-Hene. This warlike divinity is usually represented as a
man wearing two high feathers on his head, and sometimes, as
master of the Asiatics, he appears in an Asiatic type and
bearded. He is also shown as a falcon In the archaic type
(cf. Ch. V, Note 27), a fact which results in comparing him
with Horus. Later he Is also pictured like a winged Bes
(p. 61).^*'^ Khenset is his wife.



ISO



EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY




Fig. 154. Tait Carrying Chests of
Linen



Tait ("Mistress of Linen") was the goddess of weaving,

perhaps in Busiris, although this may be an artificial connexion

with Osiris, the divinity swathed in linen, whence she is also

called Isis-Tait.106

Tatunen (Tetenen, etc., perhaps

also Tanen, Tenen) was usually

identified with Ptah, and then

also with Nuu (pp. 47, 145). He

had human form and wore two

ostrich-feathers and two ram's

horns on his head.

Tebi was a name of a solarized

god.i"

Tekhi, a goddess in human

form, wore a pair of high feathers

(like Amon) and was patroness of the first month instead of

Thout, with whom she was likewise interchanged elsewhere. ^°^

This identification seems to be based principally on the vague

similarity of the name and does not appear to be ancient.

Temhit ("the Libyan") was a goddess who was worshipped

in Hellopolis {?).

Tenenet (later Tanenet) received adoration at Her-monthis,

where she was identified with Isis and Anit. Like the latter, she

wears two royal crowns or bending antennae (p. 130) on her head.

Triphis: see Repit.

Ubastet 1°^ ("the One of the City of Ubaset" [p. 21]) was

the cat-goddess of Bubastos, the Pi-beseth of Ezekiel

XXX. 17, but she also had an ancient sanctuary at

Thebes on the Asheru Lake near Karnak which was

later appropriated byMut. She is often identified with

Sekhmet (see, e. g., under Nefer-tem), whence her

head is frequently that of a lioness, as in the accom- .t'^' '^^'
^ •' ' Ubastet

panying cut, where the asp characterizes her as a
"daughter of the sun-god" (p. 29). As an alleged huntress,
the Greeks called her Artemis, like the lioness Pekhet (p. 144).




THE OTHER PRINCIPAL GODS 151

Ung (Ungi; "Sprout" [?]), a "son of the solar deity" or his
messenger,^^" treated like Shu, was later identified with Osiris.

Unut (Unet) was a goddess said to have been worshipped
at Unut (?), Hermopolis ("Hare-City"), Menhet, and Den-
derah; she is not to be confused with "the hour-goddess"
Unut (p. 66). A picture shows "the Unet of the South" in
human form and lying on a bed as though dead, and "the
Unet of the North" like Isis suckling Horus.^^^ The later
Egyptians inferred from her name that she was a female hare,
but we suspect that originally the name meant simply "the
Heliopolitan" (see p. 31 on On-Heliopolis and cf. Note 37).

Upset was identified with Tefenet, Isis, and
similar solar and celestial goddesses at Philae, etc.

Ur-heka ("Great in Magic") was a god in the
form of a man (or of a serpent?).

Urt-hekau, a leontocephalous goddess, was called

"wife of the sun-god," possibly because she was

compared with Isis as a sorceress (p. 82). She is

also represented with a serpent's head, and is then ^^^- ^56-

Unut
not easily distinguished from a male divinity of the

same name. Urt-hekau is likewise an epithet of Isis, Neith,

Nephthys, Epet, etc., so that this goddess is often confused

with them.

Usret ("Mighty One") was applied as an epithet to many
goddesses, but in its special sense it was the name of a very
popular divinity of the earlier period, who was, perhaps, in the
shape of a serpent. She is described as "residing on the western
height," ^^^ in the fifth nome of the Delta. Later she was
little known, although once ^^^ she is called, curiously enough,
"mother of Min."

Utet was a deity who possibly had the form of a heron. ^^^

Uzoit: see Buto.

Zedet (Zedut) : see Note 20.

Zend(u) (Zendr(u); "the Powerful One," "the Violent One")
was a very ancient deity who, like Sokari, sat in a sacred sledge-




152 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY

ship and, again like him, was compared with Osiris at an early
date.ii^

The ambiguity of hieroglyphic letters makes the reading of
some names especially doubtful, as in the following examples.

Igay (Egay) was the leading god of the Theban nome in
earliest times. ^^^

lahes (Eahes), "the patron of the South," must have been
worshipped near the southern frontier.^^^

lamet (Eamet) was a goddess who is described as nursing
young divinities. ^^^

Ukhukh(.?), a god worshipped near the site of the modern
Me'ir, was symbolized by a staff decorated with two feathers
and two serpents."^