The Gods of The Egyptians, Studies in Egyptian Mythology Vol. 2
The Gods of The Egyptians, Studies in Egyptian Mythology Vol. 2
The Gods of The Egyptians, Studies in Egyptian Mythology Vol. 2
^CORNELL
UNIVERSITY
.LJBRA'RY
Cornell University
'/J®, Library
http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924092320518
THE
STUDIES IN
EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY
BY
VOLUME II.
CHICAGO
THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING COMPANY
LONDON: METHUBN & CO.
1904
—
CONTENTS
CHAP.
I. Amen, and Amen-Ea, and the Tbiad op Thebes ... PAGE
1
Hymn — Hieeoglyphio
IX. to Osieis,
transliteeation and teanslation
text
.....
with inteelinbab
162
IXJIirisis 202
vi CONTENTS
Miscellaneous Gods {contimied) —
CHAP.
6. Gods of the Houes op the Night .... PAGE
294
. .302
13. Gods op the Planets 302
Index 385
LIST OF COLOURED PLATES
TO TAOB PACE
1. Amen-Ea, king of the gods Frontispiece
The goddess Apit
.... 2
2.
5.
Menthu, lord of Thebes
The goddess Mut
.... 24
28
6. Ta-urt (Thoueris) 30
7. Khensu in Thebes, Nefer-hetep . 34
8.
9.
10.
Nefer-hetep
The Nile-god Hapi
......
The dual god Khensu standing upon crocodiles 36
38
42
11. Khnemu fashioning a man upon a potter's table 50
12.
13.
The goddess Sati
The goddess Anqet ..... 54
56
14.
15. The goddess Anit
Ba-neb-Tatau, the Eam-god
.....
Heru-shefit, lord of Suten-henen
Mendes
58
60
16.
19.
20.
Seb, the Erpa of the gods ....
The god Shu raising up Nut from Seb, and the Boats of the Sun
90
94
Khent-Amenti
132
136
138
81. The goddess Meskhenet 142
32.
33.
34.
The goddess Isis ....
The Judgment Scene (five-fold
Apet ........
Menthu giving Hfe to Ptolemy Alexander . 24
29
The Beams
......
family
of
.
.
.
196
198
215
36. The Seven Stars of the Great Bear . 249
37- -40. Gods from the Metternich Stele 268-273
Qetesh, Min, and Anthat
41.
42.
43.
Anthat
'Ashtoreth
....
....
. .
.
276
277
279
44.
45.
46.
Qetesh
Eeshpu ....
Bes playing a harp .
.
.
. 280
282
284
47. Head of Bes . 285
48. Gods of the Winds 295, 296
49. The gods of the Senses . 297
50. The gods of the Planets . 303
51- 87. The Dekans . 304-308
88. The Boat of Osiris, the oldest company of the giods, &c. . 311
89. The Star-gods near the North Pole . 313
90. The Signs of the Zodiac . 315
91. Portraits of seventy-four gods from the tomb of Seti I 318, 319
92. The gods of the fourteen days of the waxing moon . 321
93. The gods of the fourteen days of the waning moon . 321
B
THE
GODS OF THE EGYPTIANS
CHAPTER I
Texts, e.g., Unas, line 558, where they are mentioned immediately
"""^
after the pair of gods Nau and Nen, a^^va (1 %> § 12.®,
and in connexion with the twin Lion-gods Shu and Tefnut, who
are described as the two gods who made their own bodies,^ and
with the goddess Temt, the female counterpart of Tem. It is
evident that even in the remote period of the Vth Dynasty Amen
and Ament were numbered among the primeval gods, if not as
gods in chief certainly as subsidiary forms of some of them, and
from the fact that they are mentioned immediately after the
deities of primeval matter, Nau and Nen, who we may consider
to be the equivalents of the watery abyss from which all things
sprang, and immediately before Temt and Shu and Tefnut, it
ii:£]ii-^iip™-^P"™^pp
A/WV\A ^^
D D°S'
II —
2 FORMS OF AMEN
assigned great Of the attributes
antiquity to their existence.
ascribed to Amen in the Ancient Empire nothing is known, but,
if we accept the meaning "hidden" which is usually given to his
something more than the " sun which has disappeared below the
horizon," and that it indicates the god who cannot be seen with
mortal eyes, and who is invisible, as well as inscrutable, to gods as
well as men. In the times approaching the Ptolemaic period the
name Amen appears to have been connected with the root men
(I, "to abide, to be permanent;" and one of the attributes
which were applied to him was that of eternal.
Amen is represented in five forms : — 1. As a man, when he
is seen seated on a throne, and holding in one hand the sceptre,
, and in the other the symbol of " life " in ; this form he is one
1
of the nine deities who compose
company of the gods of Amen- the
Ra, the other eight being Ament, Nu, Nut, Hehui, Hehet, Kekui,
Keket, and Hathor.^ 2. As a man with the head of a frog, whilst
his female counterpart Ament has the head of a uraeus. 3. As a
man with the head of a uraeus, whilst his female counterpart has the
head of a cat. 4. As an ape. 5. As a lion couchant upon a pedestal.
'
See Lanzone, op. cit., pi. 12.
The Goddess APIT.
,
AMEN OF THEBES 3
later,
^ j] m ® from
5 this word, with the addition of the feminine
article T, the Copts derived their name for the city Tape, Tatib,
and from it also comes the common name " Thebes." Over Apt
the quarter of the city there presided a goddess also called Apt,
q
Q who, was either the personification of it, or a mere local
glyphic which has for its phonetic value Apt, and stands for the
name of the goddess. The
and the horns prove that the
disk
tutelary goddess of Thebes was a form of Hathor.
Up to the time of the Xllth Dynasty Amen was a god of no
more than local importance, but as soon as the princes of Thebes
had conquered their rival claimants to the sovereignty of Egypt,
and had succeeded in making their city a new capital of the
country their god Amen became a prominent god in Upper
Egypt, and it was probably under that dynasty that the attempt
was made to assign to him the proud position which was after-
wards claimed for him of " king of the gods." His sanctuary at
Karnak was at that time a comparatively small building, which
consisted of a shrine, with a few small chambers grouped about it
Horus and Hekan presentinp; Amen-hetep III., when a babe, and his double, to Amen-Ra,
lord of the thrones of Egypt, king of the gods.
and in the great deep, and in the Underworld, and. which .made
itself manifest_under the. form of Ra. -Nearly^ every attribute of
deity with which we are made familiar by the hymns to Ra was
ascribed to Amen after his union with Ra ; but the priests of Amen
were not cojatent witb^laimin^gjhgjjheir^qd was one of the greatest
of the deities of Egypt, for they proceeded to declare that there was
no other^godlike him,.and that he was^the greatest^o^them all.
The power and might ascribed to Amen-Ra are well described
in hymns which must be quoted in full. The first of these occurs
in the Papyrus of Hu-nefer (Brit. Mus., 'No. 9,901, sheet i.), where
it follows immediately after a hymn to Ra this papyrus was ;
the two gods are addressed separately, and that the hymn to Ra
precedes that to Amen-Ra. The text reads — " Homage : to thee,
" Amen-Ra, who dost rest upon Maat ; as thou passest over the
"heavens every face seefch thee. Thou dost wax great as thy
"majesty doth advance, and thy rays [shine] upon all faces.
"Thou art unknown, and no tongue hath power to declare thy
" similitude only thou thyself, [canst do this]. Thou art One,
;
" even as is he that bringeth the tend basket. Men praise thee in
" thy name, and they swear by thee, for thou art lord over them.
" Thou hearest with thine ears and thou seest with thine eyes.
;
6 HYMN TO AMEN-RA
" Millions of years have gone over the world, and I cannot tell the
'
number of those through which thou hast passed. Thy heart
" hath decreed a day of happiness in thy name of ' Traveller.'
"Thou dost pass over and dost travel through untold spaces
" [requiring] millions and hundreds of thousands of years [to pass
'*
over]thou passest through them in peace, and thou steerest
;
" thy way across the watery abyss to the place which thou lovest
" this thou doest in one little moment of time, and then thou dost
" sink down and dost make an end of the hours." How far the
^ "Bull in Annu, the- chief of all the gods, the beautiful god, the
" beloved one, the giver of the life of all warmth to all beautiful
" cattle.^ Homage to thee, Amen-Ra, lord of the thrones of the
" two lands, the governor of the Apts (i.e., Thebes, north and south),
" thou BuU of thy mother, who art chief in thy fields, whose steps are
" long, who art lord of the land of the South, who art lord of the
" Matchau peoples, and prince of Punt, and king of heaven, and first-
" bom god of earth, and lord of things which exist, and stablisher of
" creation, yea, stablisher of all creation.
Thou art One among the
" godsby reason of his seasons. Thou art the beautiful Bull of the
" company of the gods, thou art the chief of all the gods, thou art
" the lord of Maat, and..tiie_£ather.of the gods, and the creator of
^ For the hieratic text see Marietta, Les Papyrus ^gyptiens du Muse'e de
Boulaq, pll. 11-13 ; and a French version of the hymn is given by Grebaut, Hymne
a Ammoii-Ba, Paris, 1875.
^ The word used here for cattle
is nienmen, and a play is intended upon it and
the name Amen, who in his character of " bull of Annu " was the patron of cattle.
HYMN TO AMEN-RA
men and women, and the maker of animals, and the lord of
thingg—yfEich e xist, andrjEe""progacer--.o£,lhfi--S±aff--ef life (i.e.,
wheat and barley), and the maker of the herb of thejfield which
giveth life uniiQxatfcle. Thou Sekhem who wast
art the beautiful
made (i.e.,. begotten) by Ptah, and the beautiful Child who art
beloved. The gods acclaim thee, thou who art the maker of
things which are belowj3ad--<)f things, which are above. Thou
ilTumihesF^^ two lands, and thou sailest over the sky in peace,
king of the South and North, Ra, whose word hath unfailing
elFect, who art over the two lands, thou mighty one of two-fold
strength, thou lord of terror, thou Being above who makest the
lord,thou lord who art feared, thou Being of whom awe is great,
thou Being whose souls are mighty, who hast possession of
;
8 HYMN TO AMEN-RA
" crowns, who dost make offerings to be abundant, and who dost
" make divine food (tchefau).
" Adorations be to thee, thou creator of the gods, who hast
" stretched out the heavens and made solid the earth. Thou art
" the untiring watcher, Amsu-Amen (or Min-Amen), the lord of
" eternity, and maker of everlastingness, and to thee adorations
" are paid as the Governor of the Apts. Thou hast two horns
" which endure, and thine aspects are beautiful, and thou art the
" lord of the urei-et crown (^^ "^ ^) , and thy double plumes are
" lofty, thy tiara is one of beauty, and thy White Crown (| ^ /I^)
"is lofty. The goddess Mehen f'^^^)? and the Uatcheti
''
thou receivest the crowns of the South and the North, and thou
" receivest the amesu sceptre and thou art the lord of the
(f )
,
" hidden, thou lord of the gods ; thou art Khepera in thy boat,
" and when thou didst speak the word the gods sprang into being.
^ In the text of Unas (1. 206 f.) we have, " O Unas, thou hast not departed
"as one dead, but as one living thou hast gone to sit upon the throne of Osiris.
" Thy sceptre a6 ( is in thy hand, and thou givest commands to the living, thy
y J
" thy hands, and thou givest commands to those whose places are hidden."
^''Wrv''''fe!^''?-3*;i^-'Sft'd:'!te!'^*'''i
HYMN TO AMEN-RA 9
"Thou art Temu, who didst create beings endowed with reason;
" thou makest the colour of the skin of one race to be different
" from that of another, but, however many may be the varieties of
" mankind, it is thou that makest them all to live. Thou hearest
" the prayer ofhim that is oppressed, thou art kind of heart unto
" him that calleth upon thee, thou deliverest him that is afraid
" from him that is violent of heart, and thou judgest between the
" strong and the weak. Thou art the lord of intelligence, and
" knowledge is that which proceedeth from thy mouth. The Nile
" cometh at thy will, and thou art the greatly beloved lord of the
" palm tree who makest mortals to live. Thou makest every work
" to proceed, thou workest in the sky, and thou makest to come
" into being the beauties of the daylight the gods rejoice in thy
;
" beauties, and their hearts live when they see thee. Hail, Ra,
" who art adored in the Apts, thou mighty one who risest in the
"shrine: Ani ^11 M Jl\, thou lord of the festival of the new
" moon, who makest the six days' festival and the festival of the
" last quarter of the moon. Hail, Prince, life, health, and strength,
" thou lord of all the gods, whose appearances are in the horizon,
" Hail to thee, thou who art in peace, thou lord of joy of
" heart, thou crowned form, thou lord of the ureret crown, whose
" plumes are exalted, whose tiara is beautiful, whose White Crown
" is lofty, the gods love to look upon thee the crowns of the ;
" South and North are established upon thy brow. Beloved art
" thou as thou passest through the two lands, as thou sendest
" forth rays from thy two beautiful eyes. The dead are rapturous
" with delight when thou shinest. The cattle become languid
" when thou shinest in full strength ; beloved art thou when thou
" art in the southern sky, and thou art esteemed lovely when thou
" art in the northern sky. Thy beauties take possession of and
" carry away all hearts, and love for thee maketh all arms to relax,
" thy beautiful form maketh the hands to tremble, and all hearts
" melt at the sight of thee.
" Hail, thou Form who art One, thou creator of all things
10 HYMN TO AMEN-RA
" hail, thou Only One, thou maker of things which exist. Men
" came forth from thy two eyes, and the gods sprang into being
" as the issue of thy mouth. Thou makest the green herbs whereby
" cattle live, and the staff of life for the use of man. Thou makest
" the fish to live in the rivers, and the feathered fowl in the sky ;
" thou givest the breath of life to that which is in the egg, thou
" makest birds of every kind to live, and likewise the I'eptiles that
" creep and fly ; thou causest the rats to live in their holes, and
" the birds that are on every green tree. Hail to thee, thou
" who hast made all these things, thou Only One thy might ;
" hath many forms. Thou watchest all men as they sleep, and
" thou seekest the good of thy brute creation. Hail, Amen, who
" dost establish all things, and who art Atmu and Harmachis, all
" people adore thee, saying, '
Praise be to thee because of thy
" '
resting among us ; homage to thee because thou hast created
" '
us.' All creatures say, '
Hail to thee ' ! and all lands praise
" thee ; from the height of the sky, to the breadth of the earth,
" and to the depths of the sea thou art praised. The gods bow
" down before thy majesty to exalt the Will of their Creator ; they
" rejoice when they meet their begetter, and say to thee, '
Come
" '
in peace, father of the fathers of all the gods, who hast spread
" '
out the sky, and hast founded the earth, maker of things which
" '
are, creator of things which exist, thou Prince (life, health, and
" '
strength [to thee !]), thou Governor of the gods. We adore thy
" '
Will (or, souls) for thou hast made us ; thou hast made us and
" '
hast given us birth.'
" Hail to thee, maker of all things, lord of Maat, father of the
" gods, maker of men, creator of animals, lord of grain, who
" makest to live the cattle on the hills. Hail, Amen, bull,
" beautiful of face, beloved in the Apts, mighty of rising in the
" shrine, who art doubly crowned in Heliopolis thou art the ;
" judge of Horus and Set in the Great Hall. Thou art the head
" of the company of the gods. Only One, who hast no second,
" thou governor of the Apts, Ani head of the company of the
at the
" gods, living in Maat daily, thou Horus of the East of the double
" horizon. Thou hast created the mountain, and the silver aud
" real lapis-lazuli at thy will. Incense and fresh dntl are prepared
HYMN TO AMEN-RA 11
" for thy nostrils, beautiful Face, who comest forth from the
" land of the Matchau, Amen-Ra, lord of the thrones of the two
" lands, at the head of the Apts, Ani, the chief of thy shrine.
" Thou king who art One among the gods, thy names are manifold,
" and how many they are is unknown thou shinest in the eastern
;
" and western horizons, and overthrowest thy enemies at thy birth
" daily. Thoth exalteth thy two eyes, and maketh thee to set in
" splendour the gods rejoice in thy beauties which those who are
;
" in thy [following] exalt. Thou art the lord of the Sektet Boat
" and of the Atet Boat, which travel over the sky for thee in
" peace. Thy sailors rejoice when they see Nak overthrown,
" and his limbs stabbed with the knife, and the fire devouring
" him, and his filthy soul beaten out of his filthy body, and his
" feet carried away. The gods rejoice, Ra is content, and Annu
" (Heliopolis) is glad because the enemies of Atmu are over-
" thrown, and the heart of Nebt-Ankh (i.e., Isis) is happy because
" the enemies of her lord are overthrown. The gods of Kher-aha
" rejoice, and those who dwell in the shrine are making obeisance
" when they see thee mighty in thy strength. Thou art the
" Sekhem (i.e.. Power) of the gods, and Maat of the Apts in thy
" name of Maker of Maat.' Thou art the lord of tchefau food,
'
" the Bull of offerings (?) in thy name, Amen, Bull of his mother.'
'
" Thou art the fashioner of mortals, the creator, the maker of all
" things which are in thy name of Temu-Khepera. Thou art the
" Great Hawk which gladdeneth the body ; the Beautiful Face
" which gladdeneth the breast. Thou art the Form of [many]
" forms, with a lofty crown the Uatcheti goddesses (i.e., Nekhebet
;
" and Uatchet) fly before his face. The hearts of the dead (?) go
" out to meet him, and the denizens of heaven turn to him his ;
had risen from the position of a mere local god to that of the
;
(the No-Amon of Nahum iii. 8), and there is reason to think that
many of the great Egyptian raids in Syria and Nubia were made
as much for the purpose of supplying funds for the maintenance
of the temples, and services, and priests of Amen-Ra as for the
glory and prestige of Egypt. The slavish homage which the
Thothmes kings, and the Amen-heteps, and the Ramessids paid to
Amen-Ra, and their lavish gifts to his sanctuaries suggest that it
was his priests who were, in reality, the makers of war and peace.
Under the XXth Dynasty their power was still very great, and
the list of the gifts which Rameses III. made to their order
illustrates their influence over this monarch. Towards the close
of this dynasty we find that they had succeeded in obtaining
authority from the feeble and incapable successors of Rameses III.
to levy taxes on the people of Thebes, and to appropriate to the
use of their order certain of the revenues of the city ; this was
only what was to be expected, for, since the treasury of the god
was no longer supplied by expeditions into Syria, the priests
found poverty staring them in the face. When the last Rameses
was dead the high-priest of Amen-Ra became king of Egypt
almost as a matter of course, and he and his immediate successors
formed the XXIst Dynasty, or the Dynasty of priest-kings of Egypt,
Their chief aim was to maintain the power of their god and
of their own order, and for some years they succeeded in doing so
but they were priests and not warriors, and their want of funds
became more and more pressing, for the simple reason that they
had no means of enforcing the payment of tribute by the peoples
and tribes who, even under the later of the kings bearing the
name of Rameses, acknowledged the sovereignty of Egypt. Mean-
while the poverty of the inhabitants of Thebes increased rapidly,
and they were not only unable to contribute to the maintenance
^
NESI-KHENSU 13
" who came into being in the beginning the great god who liveth ;
" by {or upon) Maat ; the first divine matter which gave birth
" unto subsequent divine matter !
^ the being through whom every
1^
A
hieroglyphic transcript of the hieratic text of this remarkable document,
together with a French translation, has been published by Maspero in Les Momies
Boijales de Deir-el-bahari, p. 594 f.
2 Or, " the primeval paid which gave birth nnto the [other] two pautti."
;
M NESI-KHENSU
" [other] god hath existence ; the One One who hath made every-
" thing which hath come into existence since primeval times when
" the world was created the being whose births are hidden, whose
;
" evolutions are manifold, and whose growths are unknown ; the
" holy Form, beloved, terrible, and mighty in his risings ;
the lord
" of wealth, the power, Khepera who createth every evolution of
" his existence, except whom at the beginning none other existed
" who at the dawn in the primeval time was Atennu, the prince of
" rays and beams of light who having made himself [to be seen,
;
" caused] all men to live who saileth over the celestial regions
;
''
and faileth not, for at dawn on the morrow his ordinances are
" made permanent who though an old man shineth in the form of
;
" one that is young, and having brought (oi- led) the uttermost
" parts of eternity goeth round about the celestial regions and
" journeyeth through the Tuat to illumine the two lands which he
"hath created ; the God who acted as God, who moulded himself,
" who made the heavens and the earth by his will (or heart) the ;
" greatest of the great, the mightiest of the mighty, the prince who
" is mightier than the gods, the young Bull with sharp horns, the
" protector of the two lands in his mighty name of The everlast- '
" ing one who cometh and hath his might, who bringeth the
'
" '
remotest limit of eternity,' the god-prince who hath been prince
" from the time that he came into being, the conqueror of the two
" lands by reason of his might, the terrible one of the double
" divine face, the divine aged one, the divine form who dwelleth in
" the forms of all the gods, the Lion-god with awesome eye, the
" sovereign who casteth forth the two Eyes, the lord of flame
" [which goeth] against his enemies the god Nu, the prince who
;
" advanceth at his hour to vivify that which cometh forth upon his
" potter's wheel, the disk of the Moon-god who openeth a way
" both in heaven and upon earth for the beautiful form ; the
" beneficent {or operative) god, who is untiring, and who is
"vigorous of heart both in rising and in setting, from whose
" divine eyes come forth men and women at whose utterance
the
;
" gods come into being, and food is created, and tchefau food
is
" made, and all things which are come into being the traverser of
;
" eternity, the old man who maketh himself young [again], with
;
NESI-KHENSU 15
life, who giveth unto whom he pleaseth the circuit of the earth
along with the abode of his divine face, who setteth out upon his
journey and sufFereth no mishap by the way, whose work none
can destroy; the lord of delight, whose name is sweet and
beloved, at dawn mankind make supplications unto him the
Mighty one of victory, the Mighty one of twofold strength, the
Possessor of fear, the young Bullwho maketh an end of the
Mighty one who doeth battle with his foes,
hostile ones, the
through whose divine plans the earth came into being the ;
Soul who giveth light from his two Utchats (Eyes) the god ;
Baiti who created the divine transformations ; the holy one who
is unknown the king who maketh kings
; to rule, and who
girdeth up the earth in
its courses, and to whose souls the gods
FORMS OF AMEN-RA
3 more distinguished than all the gods of the first and foremost
ompany." ^
provided with human legs and arms, offering lotus flowers to the
god.^ Thus he becomes the god both of Heliopolis and Thebes."
In many scenes we find Amen-Ra with the head of a ram, when he
usually wears the solar disk, plumes, and uraeus ; at times, how-
ever, he wears the disk and uraeus, or the disk only. In this form
he is called "
Amen-Ra, lord of the thrones of the two lands, the
" dweller in Thebes, the great god who appeareth in the horizon,"
plumes, or the united crowns of the South and North, and has one
hand and arm raised to support ^, which he holds above his
II-
18 FORMS OF AMEN-RA
In one of the examples reproduced by Lanzone ^ Amen-Ra in
his ithyphallic form stands by the side of a pylon-shaped building,
on the top of which are two trees, one on each side of a large lotus
flower;* the lotus flower represents the rising sun, which was
supposed to issue daily from two persea trees. In between
another form Amen-Ra has the head of a crocodile, and he wears
the crown which is composed of the solar disk, plumes, and horns,
and is called the " disposer of the life of Ra and of the years of
Temu." Finally, the god was sometimes represented in the form
of a goose ; the animal sacred to him in many parts of Egypt,
and all over Nubia, was the ram. In very late dynastic times,
'
Op. cit., pi. 20, No. 1.
— ,
FORMS OF AMEN-RA 19
phallus," X37 ^
transformations, whose skins
o^i'^j "lofty of plumes," "lord of
(i.e., complexions) are manifold,"
''
the mighty runner of mighty strides," etc. The second address
is to the Cow Ahat, "^ fD "^^^^3? ^•^•' *^^ goddess Meh-urt
*' Hail, Amen, thou divine Bull Scarab [~^ ^v^ M "^ l^) '
sehetch-nef-taui," ^
and on his behalf the following prayer is
I
20 FORMS OF AMEN-RA
" wherein he will no more appear, and 'An' ( <f?) is his
(?)
" name. let him be a perfect spirit, or (as others say) a strong
" spirit, and let him be the soul of the mighty body which is in
" Sau (Sais), the city of jSTet (Neith)."
The third passage is Chapter clxv., which is really a petition
to Amen-Ra by the deceased wherein the most powerful of the
magical names of the god are enumerated. The vignette of the
chapter contains the figure of an ithyphallic god with the body of
a beetle ; on his head are the characteristic plumes of Amen, and
his right arm is raised like that of Amsu, or Min, the god of the
reproductive powers of nature. The text reads, " Hail, thou
" Bekhennp
(
J! ^ ^y ) , Bekhennu ! Hail, Prince, Prince !
" Hail Amen, Hail Amen ! Hail Par, Hail Iukasa (^^ '^ .2a, J
" (1(1 %> -c=^ '^ 'o') ! Hail God, Prince of the gods of the eastern
"^^^<^(](] ^,andKasaika(^=^^^l(](j^:^^|),
"is thy name. Thy name is Arethi-kasathi-ka ("^ "^ 1(1(1
" ^^^^
^^ 1 I ^^
^^^^ '^ 5^) '
^^^ *^^ name is Amen-naiu-an-
" ta-entek-share
(O^— ^i|V^I^^T^'
"or Thekshare-Amen-Rerethi, ]^^M^^|(1"|
"
-2^ I Hi m) ^^^' -^^^^' ^®* ™® make supplication unto thee,
"for I know thy name, and [the mention of] thy transformations
"is in my mouth, and thy skin is before mine eyes. Come, I pray
" thee, and place thou thine heir and thine image, myself, in the
" everlasting underworld. Grant thou that all my members may
"repose in Neter-khertet (the underworld), or (as others say)
" in Akertet (the underworld) ; let my whole body become like
" unto that of a god, let me escape from the evil chamber and let
" me not be imprisoned therein ; for I worship thy name. Thou
'
NAMES OF AMEN 21
" hast made for me a skin, and thou hast understood [my] speech,
"iand thou knowest it exceedingly well. Hidden
(Q'^^^^^l)
"is thy name, Letasashaka
(^ ^if M "^ -=^ ^ ^),
" and I have made for thee a skin. Thy name is Ba-ire-qai
"
(^'i 11T -^ ^ I). %naMei«Marqatha (-^^^
"]ljj^), thy name is Rerei (;^l(j(]j§)» % name is Nasa-
" Thanasa Q jj
~wvaa "^ t^ ^ ®\ i}yj name is Sharshathakatha
" thou that I may have peace in the Tuat (underworld), and that
" I may possess all my members therein." And the divine Soul
which is in Nut saith, " I will make my divine strength to protect
" thee, and I will perform everything which thou hast said."
This interesting text was ordered to be recited over a figure of the
" god of the lifted hand," i.e., of Amen in his character of the god
of generation and reproduction, painted blue, and the knowledge
22 AMEN WORSHIP
they were held to be of considerable importance in the Ptolemaic
period, and they probably represented which were wide-
beliefs
^^ ^ ^
(i.e., Farafra),
{i.e.. Oasis Minor, or Dakhel), Ta-ahet,
in Nubia,
| J
when an Egyptian viceroy, who bore the title of " royal son of
Gush," was appointed to rule over the land, and no efforts were
spared to make Napata a second Thebes.
The Nubians were
from the poverty of their country unable to imitate the massive
temples of Kamak and Luxor, and the festivals which they
celebrated in honour of the Nubian Amen-Ra, and the processions
which they made in his honour, lacked the splendour and
magnificence of the Theban capital; still, there is no doubt
that, considering the means which they had at their disposal, they
erected temples for the worship of Amen-Ra of very considerable
MENTHU 23
way to Napata, and settling down there made plans and schemes
for the restoration of their rule in Egypt ; fortunately for Egypt
their designs were never realized. In Syria also the cult of
Amen-Ra was introduced by the Egyptians under the XVIIIth
Dynasty, a fact which is proved by the testimony of the Tell
el-'Amama tablets. Thus in a letter from the inhabitants of the
bore from the time of the Vth Dynasty onwards. This evidence
supports an old tradition to the effect that the Heliopolitan form of
the worship of the Sun-god was derived from Heliopolis in Syria.
In connexion with Amen-Ra must be mentioned an important
form of the Sun-god which was called Menthu, ^^^^^
s==5 %3 ,
1 See The Tell el-'Amarna Tablets in the British Museum, pp. Ixv., Ixxi.
24 MENTHU-RA
» HUH 1
"^^^
or Menthu-Ra. O^ ; though he was commonly
described as " lord of Thebes," the chief seat of his worship was at
/Ti
P^
MENTHU, Lord of Thebes.
MENTHU-RA 25
the First Cataract, and his commonest titles are, " Menthu-Ra, lord
" of Thebes, King of the gods, he who is on his
throne in Aptet,
" Merti, mighty one of two-fold strength, lord of
Thebes of the
" North, Snia-taui, Governor of Behutet, lord of Annu
of the South,
" prince of Annu of the North," ^ and "lord of Manu,"
i.e., the Libyan
is about to address to
them. Nekhebet of the Temple of Sar, f] <==>, in Heliopolis is
J ^ \/ ,
J
and the gods who traverse the land of the
Thehennu,
^ ^^ ^ ^'^lo' ^^^ ^^^ ^^^® °^ *^® "^^"
destructible heavens,"
" provideth him with his form, Thoth heareth for him that which
" is in the books of the gods, Horus openeth out a path for him,
" Set protecteth him, and Mer-en-Ra riseth in the eastern part of
" heaven even as doth Ra. He hath gone forth from Pe with the
" spirits of Pe, he is even as is Horus and is^fortified by the Great
^ ODD
26 MENTHU-RA
" and the Little Companies of the gods. He riseth in the con-
" dition of a king, he entereth into heaven like Ap-uat, he hath
" received the "White Crown and the Green Crown u^M J "^
V)j
" his club is with him, his weapon (or sceptre) ams ("^ ^^ \\ jM,
" is in his grasp, his mother is Isis, his nurse is Nephthys, and the
" for he hath gone forth as Mejjth (^^ '=%)> ^^ hath gone down
"
" like Ba (^ "i^ ^) , and he hath hunted like Ba-ashem-f
~~^
(^^ ^. ^ '^^^)- ^^ *^® origin and early history of
Menthu nothing is known, but his worship must have been vfery
ancient if we are to judge by the passage quoted above from the
text of king Mer-en-Ra, for, although mentioned with the two
obscure gods Ba and Ba-ashem-f, it is quite clear that he Avas a
great god and that the deceased hoped to resemble him in the
Underworld. Menthu is twice mentioned in the Theban Recen-
sion of the Book of the Dead, but curiously enough, only as one of
a number of gods. Thus, in Chapter cxl. 6, together with Ra,
Tem, Uatchet, Shu, Seb, Osiris, Suti, Horus, Bah, Ra-er-neheh,
Tehuti, Naam, Tchetta, Nut, Isis, Nephthys, Hathor, Nekht,
Mert(?), Maat,Anpu, and Ta-mes-tchetta, he is said to be the
" soul
and body of Ra," and in Chapter clxxi. his name occurs
among the names of Tem, Shu, Tefnut, Seb, Nut, Osiris, Isis, Set,
Nephthys, Heru-khuti, Hathor, Khepera, Amen, etc., who are
entreated to bestow a garment of purity upon the deceased.
Menthu usually depicted in the form of a man with the head
is
Thebes."
In a figure reproduced by Lanzone he has two hawks' heads,
^
each of which is provided with the solar disk, two uraei, and two
plumes ;
in his right hand Menthu grasps the scimitar, (?=5t_ which
MENTHU-RA 27
(
J <=> \||j in his hour," he leaped into his chariot and drove
'
Op. cit., pi. 120, No. 4. ' Ibid., pi. 120.
28 MUT
in the act of embracing a young Horus god who wears on his head
the solar disk with plumes, and a tight-fitting cap with a uraeus in
front of it, and who stands on the edge of the throne by the side of
the god.
The principal female counterpart of Amen-E,a, the king of the
gods, in the
" Mother," and in
New Empire was
all her attributes
MuT,
^
we
^ ^,
whose name means
see that she was regarded
as the great "world-mother," who conceived and brought forth
whatsoever exists. The pictures of the goddess usually represent
her in the form of a woman wearing on her head the united crowns
of the South and the North, and holding in her hands the papyrus
sceptre and the emblem Elsewhere we see her in female
of life.
form standing upright, with her arms, to which large wings are
attached, stretched out full length at right angles to her body; at
her feet is the feather of Maat. She wears the united crowns, as
before stated, but from each shoulder there projects the head of a
vulture ; one vulture wears the crown of the North, V , and the
other two plumes, j]l,^ though sometimes each vulture head has
upon two plumes, which are probably those of Shu or Amen-Ra.
it
isurp the attributes and powers of the older gods of Egypt, and
we can see by such figures of the goddess as those described above
;hat Mut was, in like fashion, identified with the older goddesses
)f the land with whom, originally, she had nothing in common.
Thus the head of the lioness which projects from one shoulder
indicates that she was identified with Sekhet or Bast,
and the
culture heads prove that her was grafted on to that of
cult
^"ekhebet, and the double crowns show that she united in herself
ill the attributes of all the goddesses of the South and North.
Apet.
name " Thebes " (Ta-apt) ; she was also identified with the
goddess of Amentet, i.e., Hathor in one of her forms as lady of the
30 FORMS OF MUX
Underworld ; and with the primeval goddess Ament, who formed
one of the four goddesses of the company of the gods of Hermo-
polis, which was adopted in its entirety by the priests of Amen
with every goddess who could in any way be regarded as a " mother-
goddess." The centre of the worship of Mut was the quarter of
Thebes which was called Asher, or Ashrel, or Ashrelt/ and which
probably derived its name from the large sacred lake which existed
^
there ; the temple of the goddess, M ^^\ ^, Het-Mut, with its
gods,"
^ % - qS = ; ^ ^Nu-1
she was thought to have existed with in
1 ^, a.d tbat
primeval time,
^^^ 8 /wwAA ^^ Itul , bhe was, moreover, called
" Mut, who giveth birth, but was herself not born of any,"
several goddesses," and referred to as the " lady of the life of the
1 The forms of the name given by Brugsch [Diet. Geog., p. 73) are
(3
TEMPLE OF MUT 31
Pa-khen-Ament,
^ ^ ^g (j
, the naxvafiowi? of Ptolemy
other than the city of Amen and Mut in the Delta. Among other
Lower Egypt, the Khas, f^^^ -5^, of the Egyptians, and the
near the capital of the nome which was called Khasut, 1 '
y^
by the Egyptians and Xols by the Greeks. Another shrine of Nut
MuT,
^^ Z:^ , a variant spelling of which is Mauit,"^
" with the goddess Mut,* Unas hath drawn unto himself the flame
" of Isis, Unas hath united himself to the lotus," etc.^ The only
mention of Mut in the Theban Recension of the Booh of the Dead
is found in a hymn to Osiris,® which forms the clxxxiiird Chapter;
the deceased is made to say to the god, "
Thou risest up like an
" exalted being upon thy standard, and thy beauties exalt the
" face of man and make long his footstep[s], I have given unto
" thee the sovereignty of thy father Seb, and the goddess Mut, thy
3S '=;^^
Diet. Geog., p. 118.
^ Becueil de Travaux, torn, iii., p. 197, note 1.
MuiT, are the same goddess as ^v\ o , it wonld seem that her name was read as
Mut, Tinder the Early Empire.
KHENSU 3B
" mother, who gave birth to the gods, brought thee forth as the
" first-bom of five gods, and created thy beauties and fashioned
" thy members." The papyrus which contains this passage was
written during the reign of Seti I., about B.C. 1370, and it is
evident that at that period Mut was identified with Nut, and that
she was made to be the female counterpart of Seb.
The third member of the great triad of Thebes was Khensu,
i ^ 5^ J
""^lio "f^as declared to be the son of Amen-Ra and Mut,
and who was worshipped with great honour at Thebes. According
to Dr. Brugsch,^ the name " Khensu " is derived from the root
Tchens, ® y J\, ^^to travel, to move about, to run," and the like,
" the king, and drew out their intestines for him," and he is
great gods, and the "traveller" who journeyed through the sky
M°^ra^J>---«C4-
II —
,
34 WORSHIP OF KHENSU
under the form of the moon. We
have already referred to the
great antiquity of the section of the text of Unas in which the
hunting of the gods by the king is described, and there is every
reason to believe that the existence of Khensu was formulated in
the minds of the Egyptians in very primitive times, and that his
name is older than the dynastic period. We may note in passing
and Khensu-Shu, ® 1 () e |
. The great temple of Khensu at
became fertile, the germ grew in the egg, and all nostrils and
throats were filled with fresh air. He was the second great light
in the heavens, and was the " first great [son] of Amen, the
1
AAA/VSA
Isis, and as the " Bull of his mother," ^ '^^ \\ ^ ^^c^-, he was
his hands |
and ^. As Khensu Nefer-hetep he appears on the
stele of Pai,
^^ '^ |||1 ^, in the form of a mummied man seated
on a throne ;
^ over his forehead is the uraeus of royalty and by
the side of his head is the lock of youth. Behind his neck hanfs
the mendt (^ , and below his chin is the collar which is usually
worn by Hathor; in his hands are ^, ?, ^, and 1. On the
stele behind his back are two pairs of ears and two pairs of eyes,
KHENSU NEFER-HETEP 37
;
^^ "^^^^
, J
he is provided with two hawks' heads, one
facing to the right and the other to the left, and four wings, and
he stands with each foot upon the head of a crocodile on his ;
heads rest the lunar crescent and disk. In this form he represents
both the sun at sunrise and the new moon, and the two crocodiles
symbolize the two great powers of darkness over which he has
r-n-i ^^ ^'
^ ''^^
or Bent-enth-reshet,
J >/ CJ ^ . Thereupon the king
summoned into his presence all the learned men of his court,
and called upon them to choose from among their number a skilled
physician that he might go to Bekhten and heal the Queen's young
sister ; the royal scribe Tehuti-em-heb was recommended for this
purpose, and the king at once sent him off with the envoy from
Bekhten to that country. In due course he arrived there and
found that the princess of Bekhten was under the influence of
'
See Rosellini, Monumenti Storici, torn, ii., tav. 48; de Rouge, Journal
Asiatique, 5" serie, torn, viii., pp. 201-248; x., pp. 112-168; xi., pp. 509-572;
xii., pp. 221-270 and my Egyptian Beading Boole, pp. xxvii.
; fi. and 40 S.
^ The meaning of this name appears to be " daughter of joy," or " daughter of
pleasure," resJiet being a well-known word for pleasure, joy, and the like the first ;
part of the name hent must represent the Semitic word hath, J13, " daughter," from.
nj3 = nj3.
NEFER-HETEP.
PRINCESS OF BEKHTEN 39
moveable head, for after each of the petitions of the king we have
the words hen ur sep sen ^ ^r-~s:> ^* ® II, which mean that the
god " nodded firmly twice " as a sign of his assent to the king's
40 PRINCESS OF BEKHTEN
was done is not stated, but it is tolerably certain that the statue of
Khensu was brought near that of Khensu Nefer-hetep, and that
the hands of the latter were made to move and to rest upon the
head or shoulders of the former four times. That statues of gods
were made to move their arms and hands on special occasions is
well known, and in proof may be quoted the instance given in the
Stele of the Nubian prince ISTastasenen. Before this prince was
crowned king, we are told, he was one of those who were chosen
by the priests of Amen, the great god of Napata, to appear in the
Temple of the Holy Mountain in order that their god might tell
them which was to be king of those of the royal family who
were claimants of the throne of Nubia. On a certain day all the
young princes assembled in the chamber wherein was the statue
of the god, and as they passed before it the arms and hands of
Amen-Ra extended themselves and took hold of the prince whom
the god had chosen to be his representative upon the throne of
Nubia, and he was forthwith acclaimed by the priests and generals
of the soldiers, and in due course his coronation took place. It
would be idle to assume that statues of gods with moveable heads
and limbs were employed in this way in Nubia only, and we may
be quite certain that the Nubian priests of Amen-Ra merely
followed the customs connected with the election of kings which
were current in Egypt. The better informed among the people
must have known that the limbs of the statue were moved by
mechanism worked by the priests, but the ignorant, who believed
that the doubles of the gods animated their statues, would assume
that was they who moved the head and limbs of the statues
it
1 Compare also Maspero, Ammaire, 1897, Pai-is, 1896, pp. 15 ff. ; and Le
Double et les Statues PropMtiques, p. 88.
;
PRINCESS OF BEKHTEN 41
s^as, and lie found that Bent-reshet was possessed of an evil spirit
»ut as soon as lie liad made use of his magical power the demon
eft her and she was healed straightway. Then that demon spoke
o Khensu, and acknowledged his power, and having tendered to
lim his unqualified submission he offered to return to his own
)lace; but he begged Khensu to ask the Prince of Bekhten to
Qake a feast at which they both might be present, and he did so,
,nd the god, and the demon, and the Prince spent a very happy
lay together. When the feast was concluded thedemon returned
o his own land, which he loved, according to As
his promise.
oon as the Prince recognized the power of Khensu he planned to
:eep him and the god actually tarried there for three
in Bekhten,
•^ears, four months, and five days, but at length he departed
he story which the priests of Khensu under the New Empire were
ront to relate concerning their god " who could perform mighty
^
'
P^llXd" =-m^-
( 42 )
CHAPTER II
" ue), who comest forth from Hep, thou Ap-uat (^^^3); "who
" comest forth from the Asert Tree (h <==' '^V the mouth of Unas
" is pure." It is important to note that Hep is mentioned in
connexion with Kenset, www ^^^^; now Kenset here means the
first nome of Egypt, in which were included the First Cataract
o
CD
I-
o
CO
u.
o
o
C3
Q.
I<
I-
THE NILE GOD 43
and its Islands Elephantine, Sahel, Philae, Senmnt, etc, and thus
itwould seem as if the Nile-god Hep, and Ap-uat, " the opener of
the ways," were even in the Vth Dynasty connected with the
places in which in later times the Nile was thought to rise. In
the lines which follow the extract given above there is an allusion
to the food which Unas is to eat in the Underworld, and to the
Sekhet-Aaru, or Elysian Fields, where he is to live, and it is clear
that the Nile-god and Ap-uat were exhorted to send forth the
waters of the river from Kenset in order that they might produce
grain for the needs of the king. In another passage (Unas, line 43 1)
the destroying power of Hep is referred to, and it is said that
the houses of those who would steal away the king's food shall
be given to the thieves (?), and their habitations to Gkeat Hep,
a -^ fT^ n 9 D ^
<=> U
[P I Xt=t: ^^^'
Hep, or Hapi, is always depicted in the form of a man, but
woman, and they are intended to indicate
his breasts are those of a
the powers of fertility and of nourishment possessed by the god.
As the Egyptians divided their country into two parts, the South
and the North, so they divided the river, and thus there came into
being the god of the Nile of the South and the god of the Nile of
the North. An attempt has been made to show that the Nile of
the South was that portion of the river which flowed from the Sudan
to Philae, but this is not the case, for the Egyptians believed that
" Double Cavern," and the Nile of the South was to them that
portion of the river which extended from Elephantine to a place
some little distance north of the modern Asyut. The god of the
are indicated in a single figure, the god holds in his hands the two
plants, papyrus and lotus, or two vases, from which he was
believed to pour out the two Niles. By a pretty device, in which
the two Nile-gods are seen tying in a knot the stems of the lotus
44 THE NILE GOD
and papyrus round T, the emblem of union, the Egyptians
symbolized the union of the South and North, and a slight
modification of the design, ^M^, was cut upon the sides of the
Upper and Lower Egypt. When once Hapi had been recognized
as one of the greatest of the Egyptian gods he became rapidly
identified with all the great primeval, creative gods, and finally he
was declared to be, not only the maker of the universe, but the
creator of everything from which both it and all things therein
sprang. At a very early period he absorbed the attributes of Nu,
AAAAAA Jrl . the primeval watery mass from which Ra, the Sun-
1 Herodotus calls these moTintams KpuJc^t and Matjii, which have, by some,
been derived from Qer-Hapi, ^Q fi
ZXS:, and Mu-Hapi, /ww^
THE NILE GOD 45
and the rise and fall of the river were undoubtedly a genuine
mystery to them. The profound reverence and adoration which
they paid to the Nile are well expressed in the following extract
from a hymn to the Nile, as found in a papyrus of the XVIIIth
or XlXth Dynasty, it reads:
to thee,
— "Homage Hapi, thou
" appearest in this land, and thou comest in peace to make Egypt
" to live. Thou art the Hidden One, and the guide of the dark-
" ness on the day when it is thy pleasure to lead the same. Thou
"art the Waterer (or Fructifier) of the fields which Ra hath
" created, thou givest life unto all animals, thou makest all the
" land to drink unceasingly as thou descendest on thy way from
" heaven. Thou art the friend of bread and of Tchabct (^^ J ® c^ ?
" i.e., the god of drink), thou makest to increase and be strong
o the god of corn), thou makest pros-
(J
j I Jj , i.e.,
" perous every workshop, Ptah, thou lord of fish ; when the
" Inundation riseth, the water-fowl do not alight upon the fields
" that aresown with wheat. Thou art the creator of barley, and
" thou makest the temples to endure, for millions of years repose
" of thy fingers hath been an abomination to thee. Thou art the
" lord of the poor and needy. If thou wert overthrown in the
" heavens the gods would fall upon their faces, and men would
" perish. He causeth the whole earth to be opened by the cattle,
" and princes and peasants lie down and rest Thy form is
" that of Khnemu. When thou shinest upon the earth ^ shouts of
"joy ascend, for all people are joyful, and every mighty man
" receiveth food, and every tooth is provided with food. Thou art
" the bringer of food, thou art the mighty one of meat and drink,
" thou art the creator of all good things, the lord of divine meat
jj/oann^, | ^\ pleasant and choice. . . . Thou makest the
" herb to grow for the cattle, and thou takest heed unto what is
" sacrificed unto every god. The choicest incense is that which
" folio weth thee, thou art the lord of the two lands. Thou fiUest
" the storehouses, thou heapest high with corn the granaries, and
" thou takest heed to the affairs of the poor and needy. Thou
'
The form of Khnemu here referred to is Khnemu- Ra.
46 THE NILE GOD
" makest the herb and green things to grow that the desires
" of all may be satisfied, and thou art not reduced thereby. Thou
" makest thy strength to be a shield for man,"
exist," ^^ ,,,,
and that the epithet of "Vivifier" M t ^ 5
°=^ fi (3 •
flSe°Jfli?HP-^B,
_ru.
o (5
^
_ju. c^c=-^^
©
^^-^ ^ (^ a 00^
V^q
(^ X *JU.
I A/W^V*. U ^ '
Q
D i^j (2 (2
t AA/VAAA
o
I
1 is •0',
(3
I
(3
Hapi, but there is little doubt that in very early dynastic times
other goddesses were assigned to him as wives or sisters. Thus
of Hapi of the South the female counterpart was undoubtedly
Nekhebet, but then this goddess was only a form of Isis in
dynastic times, whatever she may have been in the predynastic
period. In the north of Egypt the ancient goddess Uatch-ura,
njL ^^f \\ ,w>A/v\ T=T , appears to have been the equivalent of
Nekhebet in the South. But Hapi was also identified with Nu,
the great primeval water abyss from which all things sprang,
and as such his female counterpart was Nut, or one of her many
forms. The oldest form of this goddess appears to be Mut,
"^^^^
rSTpl •
'^^® mention of Mut, Isis, and Nekhebet in this
ji
long before the copies of the Pyramid Texts which we have were
Avritten.
E
( 49 )
CHAPTER III
this god changed somewhat in the course of their long history, but
headed man who usually holds in his hands the sceptre |, and the
emblem of life, -r-. He wears the White Crown, to which are
" beginning,"
^ ,
"f ,
^ ^=^=^
^ ^ ^=
" things which are, creator of things Avhich shall be, the source
j
]M. °; " maker of
(0
o
z
<
10
I
o
z
X
lU
m
uT
_i
a
<
H
(O
K
UI
O
0.
z
o
a.
3
Z
<
o
z
z
g
5
z
I
a
o
O
UI
I
I-
KHNEMU-RA 51
^=-^ =^. The first ram's head was the head of Ra, and symbolized
Khnemu of Elephantine ; the second was the head of Shu, and
symbolized Khnemu of Latopolis the third was the head of Seb, ;
and symbolized Khnemu of Het-urt; and the fourth was the head
of Osiris, and symbolized Khnemu as lord of Hypselis. As
Sheft-hat Khnemu was the lord of Hermopolis Magna and of
Thmuis, and possessed all the attributes which have been
enumerated above. From another text we learn that the four
rams also symbolized the life of Ra, the life of Shu, the life of Seb,
and the life of Osiris, and that the ram of Ra gave him sovereignty
over the South and North, and identified him with the Ram of
I
, or Nubia. He appears in these as the lord of all the
31 f^^^
the South, and in fact is to the South of Egypt exactly what Ptah-
Tanen, who was associated with Nephthys, was to the Delta and
the North of Egypt. To him was ascribed every attribute of Ra,
and thus he is described as the god who existed before anything
else was, who made himself, and who was the creative power
which made and which sustains all things. When the cult of
Khnemu-Ra became general in the south his priests increased the
importance of their god by identifying him with Nu, aaaaaa
the great primeval god of the watery abyss, and from being the
local river-god of the Nile in the First Cataract he became the god
Hap-ue,
^
latter aspect
^ ^ j3 ffi Sll
'
king of the Ilird Dynasty, the whole of the region of the South,
and the Island of Elephantine, and the district of Nubia were
ruled by the high official Mater, \
d
^ . The king sent a
South Wall, who, it would seem, had once delivered Egypt from a
KHNEMU-HAPI 53
'^^^ ^P°* '^^ *^® island out of which the river rose was
\\\ m '
the double cavern (?) Qerti, <=> ^ , which was likened to two
breasts, /www
^ , from which all good things poured forth ; this
double caveim was, in fact, the " couch of the Nile," ^^ ')^ ^
Z""^^^, and from it the Nile-god watched until the season
was Khnemu, and it was he who kept the doors that held it in,
and who drew back the bolts at the proper time. Mater next
went on to describe the temple of Khnemu at Elephantine, and
told his royal master that the other gods in it were Sept (Sothis),
Anuqet, Hapi, Shu, Seb, Nut, Osiris, Horus, Isis, and Nephthjs,
and after this he enumerated the various products that were found
in the neighbourhood, and from which ofi'erings ought to be made
to Khnemu. When the king heard these words he offered up
sacrifices to the god, and in due course went into his temple to
make supplication before him; finally Khnemu appeared before
him, and said, " I am Khnemu the Creator. My hands rest upon
" thee to protect thy person, and to make sound thy body. I
,^^HM-^7S^
—
54 KHNEMU-HAPI
" to give health, for me to those who toil. I am the guide and
" director of all men, the Almighty, the father of the gods,
" Shu, the mighty possessor of the earth." Finally the god
promised that the Nile should rise every year, as in olden time,
and described the good which should come upon the land when he
had made an end of the famine. When Khnemu ceased to speak
king Tcheser remembered that the god liad complained that no
one took the trouble to repair his shrine, even though stone lay
near in abundance, and he immediately issued a decree in which
it was ordered that certain lands on each side of the Nile near
Elephantine should be set apart for the endowment of the temple
of Khnemu, and that a certain tax should be levied upon every
product of the neighbourhood, and devoted to the maintenance of
the priesthood of the god ; the original text of the decree was
written upon Avood, and as this was not lasting, the king ordered
that a copy of it should be cut upon a stone stele which should be
set in a prominent place. ^ It is nowhere said that the god kej)t
his promise to Tcheser, but we may assume The that he did.
form of the narrative of the Seven Years' Famine summarized
above is not older than the Ptolemaic period,^ but the subject
matter belongs to a much older time, and very probably represents
a tradition which dates from the Early Empire.
We have seen that the Khnemu pervaded all
spirit, or soul, of
things, and that the god whose symbol was a ram Avas the creator
of men and gods, and in connexion with this must be noted
the fact that, together with Ptah, he built up the edifice of the
material universe according to the plans which he had made under
the guidance and direction of Thoth. As the architect of the
universe he possessed seven forms Avhich are often alluded to in
texts ;
they are sometimes represented in pictures, and their names
are as follows :
Q1 ^ i ° E S'
^^^^^^u Nehep, " Khnemu the Creator."
' For the hieroglyphic text see Brugsch, Bie hihlischen sieben Jahre der
Hungersnoth, Leipzig, 1891.
p
•
i-.^l.: . .. .v<«^-,.-,^ >'.-J-
J^I>^^-^.^-~K-'^ .
FORMS OF KHNEMU 55
I (fUl
'""'
Tn' ^^^^^^ Khenti per-ankh, "Khnemu,
Governor of the House of Life."
f; ,
Khnemu Neb-ta-Ankhtet, "Khnemu, lord of
the Land of Life."
J]
3 , Khnemu Neb, " Khnemu, Lord."
S^^Ti'
£53' °^ S^'^^^' ^5''°^'' T""B\' '^''' *e prin-
shoot, to eject, to pour out, to throw," and the like, and sat is
also used in connexion with the scattering abroad and sowing of
seed, and with the sprinkling of water thus at any rate at one ;
period she must have been regarded as the goddess of the inunda-
tion, who poured out and spread over the land the life-giving
when the temple of Dendera was built she was identified with the
1
This goddess must not be confounded with the Satet, ^ ^ 3 , who is
represented in the form of a woman, and bears upon her head the Utcliat "^^ ,
and was a local Alexandrian form of Isis ; see Lanzone, Bizionario, p. 1124.
2 Beligion, p. 299.
,
56 SATI OR SATET
Memphis, the goddess of the year, etc. In the text of Pepi I.
Sati is mentioned (line 297) under the form Sethat, y s=> (| ^^,
and we see from the context that in that early period the goddess
possessed a temple at Elephantine. The dweller in Tep,
^ ^,
is said to have aided the king, who "has censed himself and
" performed his ceremonies of purification with a vessel of wine,
" which hath come from the vine of the god.^ Seb stretcheth . . .
" out his hand to Pepi and guideth him through the gates
" of heaven, a god in his beautiful place, a god in his place,
'^"'^
"^ '^' ^^^ behold Sethat washeth
1 ^v ll
[1'^ ' '
Ik. I
" him with the water which is in her four vases in Abu " (Elephan-
tine). The mention of Tep shows that there was some connexion
between the goddess of the city of Per-Uatchet and the goddess of
Elephantine long before the period of the Vlth Dynasty. In the
preface to cxxvth Chapter of the Book of the Dead the
the
deceased enumerates the various sacred places which he has
visited, and says, " I have been in the waters of the stream, and I
" have made offerings of incense. I have guided myself to the
" Shbntet Tree of the [divine] children, and I have been in Abu
"(Elephantine) in the Temple of Satet," ^^2^- This is
Sati was connected by the Egyptians with the star Sept, A rlj
Ayherein dwelt the soul of Isis, and from this point of view Sati
was a form of Isis, and became in consequence a female counter-
part of Osiris ; this fact will account for the mention of Sati in the
Booh of the Dead. The centre of the worship of Sati appears to
have been the Island of Sahal, i>-^, which lies about two miles to
the south of Elephantine, in the First Cataract.
U o o o
J
'— '
_^ I I I
The Goddess ANQET.
ANQET 57
Anqet,
2^ Vn , was the third member of the triad of
Elephantine, which consisted of Khnemu, Sati, and Anqet, and
she seems to have possessed many of the attributes of her sister-
goddess Sati. In pictures Anqet is represented in the form of a
woman who holds in her hands the sceptre |, and the emblem of
"life," ip; she wears on her head a crown of feathers which are
arranged in such a way as to suggest a savage origin. She
appears to have been originally a goddess of some island in the
First Cataract, but in early dynastic times she was associated with
Khnemu and Sati, and her worship was common throughout
Northern Nubia later the centre of her worship was at Sahal,
;
and she was regarded as a goddess of that island, and was called
" lady of Satet," ^^z^^"^, Nebt Satet. Her temple there seems
^^^^^^
to have been named " Amen-heri-ab," h <S> i ?, but it is clear
form of Khnemu, and Khnemu a form of Osiris, and Isis and Sati
were sister goddesses, it followed as a matter of course that Anqet
should be identified with Nephthys. According to Dr. Brugsch,^
the name " Anqet " is derived from the root dnq, (1 : ,
" to
aegis of a goddess, who wears on her head a disk and horns, •\Ay,
she is seen suckling a young king whose neck she embraces with her
leftarm, and in a text which accompanies another representation
she is described as the " giver of life, and of all power, and of all
On the other hand tAvo variant forms of the name of the god
"^
are: Her-she-f. '"•^^j i-e., " He who is on his lake," and
"^
Heri-sha-f, fl , i.e., " He who is on his sand."
The first form would connect the god with Lake Moeris, and the
second refers to him as an aspect or phase of Osiris, who bears this
title in Chapter cxli., line 109, and Chapter cxlii., line 24, of the
Booh of the Dead. In Chapter xlii., line 14, the god Aa-shefit,
'
, is mentioned, and it is probable that he also is
for the first time when the heavens and the earth were created
(xvii. 7-9), and it was this rising which formed the first great act
HERU-SHEFIT, the Lord of Suten-Henen
—
THE BENNU 59
refers to " the mingling of earth with earth in the coffin of Osiris,
" who is the Soul that dweUeth in Henen-su, and the giver of
" meat and drink, and the destroyer of wrong, and the guide of
" the everlasting paths, i.e., Ra himself." An entirely different
arms and hands the sky which Ra had made to separate it from
the earth. ^^^^^ _^
At Henen-su lived the Great Benntj,
J q^^^^ ° ^ fl^
"^^ and in the neighbourhood dwelt the
(Chapter cxxv. 18),
^
Naville, Heracleo^polis, p. 8.
' —
60 HER-SHEF
place (cxxxvii.A, 25). Near Henen-su were the two great mytho-
logical lakes called
forms
Heh, ^i
the
I , and Uatch-tjea,
of these
'^
are
^ ^S ()
Semu - heh,
;
P ^^^ -^ ^' j
' and Utet-heh,
^ ^^i j
AAA/\A\
• The sanctuary
" An-rut-f," _n_ "^ '^^j i.e., "-the place where nothing groweth,"
and itwas entered by a^door on the south side called Re-stau,
~*^ (Chapter xvii. 52) in some portion of the sanctuary
'
' '
^^
^^^ and Heri-sep-f, -=> „ ^ ''^
^,
u®
,
I •
ill \\
These facts, which are derived chiefly from the xviith Chapter
of the Sooh of the Dead, prove that Henen-su, or Herakleopolis,
possessed a system of theology of its own, and that this system
must be very ancient, but whether it is older than that of Helio-
polis it is impossible, at present, to say definitely. What is
right eye was the sun and his left eye the moon, that his soul was
the light, and that the north wind which gave life to all came
forth from his nostrils. He is said, moreover, like Rii, to be
" One." ^ In a figure of the god reproduced by Lanzone^ he has
'
Religion, p. 304. ^ Dizionario, p. 552.
The Goddess ANIT.
'
HEU-SHEF 61
four heads ; one is the head of a bull, one that of a ram, and two
are the heads of hawks. Above these are the characteristic horns
of Khnemu which are surmounted by two plumes and four knives.
These four heads represent the four gods who formed Khnemu of
Henen-su, i.e., Ra, Shu, Seb, and Osiris, and thus he might be
identified with Ra-Tem of Heliopolis, or Amen-Ra of Thebes, and
either of these compound gods might be worshipped as one of his
forms.
The female counterpart of Her-shef possesses various names,
and as she was identified with various goddesses this is not to be
wondered at ; her chief attributes were those of Hathor and
Isis, and her local name was] Atet, J), or Meksekhnet,
'Set (Neith),
^"^r^l) and Meh-urt, and Heqet, and Anit, n
o'
as the last named goddess she/ was the sister of Ka-hetep, i.e.,
"and thus his name became 'Mau' (i.e., Cat)." The fight here
referred to is the first battle which the god of light waged against
62 HENEN-SU
the fiends of darkness at Annu, after whicli he rose in the form of
the sun upon this world.
Finally, in connexion with the city Henen-su we must note
that there existed in the temple there a shrine which was dedicated
and ambrosia on which the gods of Olympus lived, and which grew
in the portion of the Sekhet-Aaru, or Elysian Fields, called
TcHEFET, -^-^ -4r © . What this food was cannot be said, but the
Aat X., 1. 6.
HENEN-SU 63
" daughter of these four gods who are in the Great House. Even
" when the command Unas goeth not forth, uncover yourselves
of
" in order that Unas may see you as Horus seeth Isis, as Nehebu-
" KAU («,wvv ^ J ^ Uy 3)) seeth Serqet, as Sebek seeth Net
" (Neith), and as Set seeth Netetthab."
when men began to plough the land after the subsidence of the
waters of the Inundation. Under the heading " Osiris " reference
the Saite period the ofl&cial Heru planted two vineyards of the ;
1
Eeligion, p. 305.
' Briagsoli, Diet. Gi'og., pp. 852, 1364.
64 FORMS OF KHNEMU
Coming now to the second great form of Khnemu, viz., that
under which he was worshipped at Mendes, we find that at a very
early date he was identified with the great god of that city, and
was known as Ba-neb-Tettu, "^ ^3:7 u u ^, i.e., the Ram, lord
of Tettu. Now
word for " soul " in Egyptian was Ba, and
as the
as a name of the ram was also Ba, the title Ba-neb-Tettu was
sometimes held to mean the " Soul, the lord Tettu," and this was
the name at Mendes of the local form of Khnemu, whose symbol
there, as elsewhere, was a ram. Ba-neb-Tettu, whose name was
corrupted by the Greeks into McVStjs, and Tamai al-Amdid by ^
the Arabs, was said to be the " living soul of Ra, the holy Sekhem
principle in gods and men, and is styled, " King of the South and
" North, the Ram, the virile male, the holy phallus, which stirreth
" up the passions of love, the Ram of rams, whose gifts are brought
" forth by the earth after it hath been flooded by the Nile, the
" Soul, the life of Ra, who is united with Shu and Tefnut, the One
" god, who is mighty in strength, who riseth in the heavens with
" four heads, who lighteth up the heavens and the earth (like Ra),
" who appeareth in the form of the Nile like (Osiris), who vivifieth
" the earth (like Seb), and who formeth the breath of life for all
" men, the chief of the gods, the lord of heaven and the king of
" the gods," ^ Ba-neb-Tettu was originally a local form of Ra,
but he subsequently was made to include within himself not only
the Soul of Ra, but the Souls of Osiris, and Seb, and Shu. These
four Souls are reproduced by Signor Lanzone,' and appear in the
form of four rams, the horns of each being surmounted by a
uraeus ; they are described as " The Soul of Seb, lord of Het-
' .xjA*S\ ,_j*j. As a matter of fact the first portion of this name represents
®jxovU, the Greek nam.e of one portion of the ancient city of Tettu, and the second
— —
al-Amdid " is a corruption of Ba-neb-Tettu, which became Ba-neb-Tet, then
"
Ba-n-Tet, and finally Man-Tet, Mendes.
See Brugsch, Religion, p. 309. ' Dizionario, pi. 68.
F
HAT-MEHIT 65
J,
The female counterpart of Ba-neb-Tettu was Hat-mehit,
was, of course, a form both of Isis and Hathor, and as such was
called " the Eye of Ra, the lady of heaven, and the mistress of the
gods." In late dynastic times, when Ba-neb-Tettu was especially
regarded as the Soul of Osiris, and when the other aspects of the
god were not considered importance, Hat-Mehit was
of so much
wholly identified with Isis, and her son " Harpocrates, the
dweller in Mendes," became to all intents and purposes " Horus,
the son of Isis," by Osiris. Thus we see that the local god of
Mendes, who was originally a form of Ra, the Sun-god by day,
was merged into Osiris, the Sun-god by night the priests, how- ;
the city which bore the name of Per-khet, ^q^ ^•^•> ^^^
" House of the staircase." The Ram of Mendes was then a form
II —
66 DECAY OF MENDES
in Chapters cxli. and cxlii. of the Bool of the Dead, and the
popularity of his cult in the Delta was probably due to the
elaborate phallic ceremonies which were celebrated at Mendes and
in the neighbourhood annually.
Before the close of the Ptolemaic period, however,some
calamity seems to have fallen upon Mendes, and her sanctuary
was forsaken and her god forgotten; on the other hand, the
portion of the city which was known by the name Thmuis,
0fjLovL<;, survived, and was sufficiently important in Christian
times to possess a The Copts called
bishop of its own.
the place -ejuioveajc, or -^-Raki ©jlioyi, and a Bishop of
Thmoui was present both at the Council of Nice and the Council
of Ephesus.-^
Finally, we have to note that Khnemu as a form of Shu, i.e.,
gods, and he made man upon his potter's wheel. He is the One
god, the source from which sprang the regions on high, the
primeval architect, the maker of the stars, the creator of the gods,
who was never born, and the begetter or maker of his own being,
whom no man can understand or comprehend. Many other
passages in the inscriptions at Esna ascribe to him naturally aU
the powers and attributes^ of Ptah. Among several interesting
'
Amelineau, La Geographie de V^gypte, p. 601.
^ For tlie enumeration of several of them see Brugscli, Eeligion, p. 504.
KHNEMU-SHU 67
"and thou didst make the great deep that it might serve as a
"hiding-place for thy body." Finally, it may be noted that as
Khnemu-Shu absorbed the attributes of Nu, Ra, Ptah, Thoth, etc.,
CHAPTER IV
Nekht says to Ra, " thou beautiful being, thou dost renew
" thyself and make thyself young again under the form of Aten " ;
Ani says to Ra, " Thou turnest thy face towards the Underworld,
" and thou makest the earth to shine like fine copper. The dead
" rise up to see thee, they breathe the air and they look upon thy
" face when Aten shineth in the horizon ;
" " .... I have come
" before thee that I "
may be with thee to behold thy Aten daily;
" thou who art in thine Egg, who shinest from thy Aten," etc.
These passages show that Aten, at the time when the hymns
from which they are taken were composed, was regarded as the
material body of the sun wherein dwelt the god Ra, and that he
represented merely the solar disk and was the visible emblem of
the great Sun-god. In later times, owing to protection afforded
to him by Amen-hetep III., thp great warrior and hunter of the
XVIIIth Dynasty, other views w^'^^promulgated concerning Aten,
and he became the cause of one of Ims, greatest religious and social
revolutions which ever convulsed Egypt. After the expulsion of
the Hyksos, Amen, the local god of Thebes, as the god of the
victorious princes of that city, became the head of the company of
the gods of Egypt, and the early kings of the XVIIIth Dynasty
endowed his shrine with possessions, and gave gifts to his priest-
(|(j
%s. (j
'^, and Thuau, s=» ^ ^ ^; ^^o
()
"^^^ ^ foreigner and
Having married this lady, he gave her as dowry the frontier city
of Tcharu, -^ ^ 1 ®? ^^*^ ^®^ natural ability, coupled with the
70 THI AND AMEN-HETEP III.
favour of her husband, made her chief of all the royal wives, and a
great power in the affairs of the government of the country. It
has been thought by some that she was a native of the country near
Heliopolis, and it is possible that she herself was a votary of Aten,
but be that as may, she appears to have supported the king in
it
The beams of Aten illumining the names of Khn-en-Aten and his family.
his marriage with Thi, Amen-hetep III. dug, in his wife's city of
Tcharu, a lake, which was about 6000 feet long by 1000 feet broad,^
and on the day of the festival when the water was allowed to flow
into it, he sailed over it in a boat called " Aten-neferu," O ^^ III;
i.e., the " Beauties of Aten ;
" the name of the boat is a clear proof
of his devotion to the god Aten. Amen-hetep IV., the son of
Amen-hetep III. by the foreign lady Thi, not only held the
religious views of his father, but held them very strongly, and his
ee
X7 .->-~Si ee, i.e., "its length. 3600 cubits,
ea
its breadth 600 cubits."
AMEN-HETEP IV. (KHU-EN-ATEN) 71
life shows that he must have been from his youth up an adherent
of the worship of Aten it is supposed, and with much probability,
;
that the intensity of his love for Aten and his hatred for Amen-Ra
were due to his mother's influence.
Amen-hetep IV. succeeded his father without difficulty, even
though his mother was not a member of the royal family of Egypt,
and for the first few years of his reign he followed the example of
the earlier kings of his dynasty, and lived at Thebes, where he no
doubt ruled according to his mother's wishes ; he offered up
sacrifices to Amen-Ra at the appointed seasons, and was, outwardly
at least, a loyal servant of this god, whose name formed a part
of his name as " son of the Sun." We may note in passing, that
he had adopted on his accession to the throne the title " High-
" priest of Ra-Heru-khuti, the exalted one in the horizon, in his
worshipped both Amen and Aten, the former in his official position
as king, and the latter in his private capacity. It was, however,
1^\ t
72 THE CITY KHUT-ATEN
impossible for the priests of Amen-Ra to tolerate the presence of
between the king and that powerful body soon became strained.
On the one hand the king asserted the superiority of Aten over
every god, and on the other the priests declared that Amen-Ra
was the king of the gods. As, however, Amen-Ra was the centre
of the social life of Thebes, and his priests and their relatives
a great temple to Aten, a palace for the king, and houses for
all those who were attached to the worship of Aten and were
ATEN WORSHIP 73
the Obelisk " it was begun on a very large scale, but was never
;
"aSwpl'; ;
but as far as can be seen now the worship of Aten was
something like a glorified materialism, Avhich had to be expounded
by priests, who performed ceremonies similar to those which
belonged to the old Heliopolitan sun-worship, without any con-
nexion whatsoever with the worship of Yahweh, and a being of
the character of Adon, the local god of Byblos, had no place in it
hymns to Ra, and none of the beautiful ideas about the future life,
with which we are familiar from the hymns and other compositions
in the Book of the Dead.
The chief source of our knowledge of the attributes ascribed
to Aten is obtained from the hymns to this god which Amen-
hetep IV. caused to be inscribed on his monuments, and from
one of them which has twice been published in recent years ^ we
'
First by Bouriant in Memoires de la Mission, torn, i., pp. 2ff., and later, witli
numerous corrections of Bonriant's text and a running commentary by Mr. Breasted,
in De Hymnis in Solem sub rege Amenophide IV. conceptis, Berlin (no date).
—
HYMN TO ATEN I
75
" in the Disk,' and who liveth for ever and for ever, Aten the
" Living One, the Great One, he who is [celebrated] in the thirty
" year festival, the lord of the orbit [0 '-^^^j of the sun, the lord
" of the sun, the lord of heaven, the lord of earth, the lord of the
" House of Aten in the city of Khut-Aten, 2. by the king of the
" South and of the North, who liveth by Maat, the Lord of the Two
" in the duration of his life, 3. and by his great royal wife, his darling,
" the Lady of the Two Lands, fNefert-iti, Nefer-neferu-Aten j,
''
the living one, the strong one for ever." The hymn proper
begins after the words, " He (i.e., the king) saith, 4. Thy rising is
'
" '
beautiful in the horizon of heaven, 5. thou Aten, who hadst
" '
thine existence in primeval time. 6. When thou risest in the
" '
eastern horizon thou iillest every land with thy beauties, 7. thou
" '
art beautiful to see, and art great, and art like crystal, and art
" '
high above the earth. 8, Thy beams of light embrace the lands,
" '
even every land which thou hast made. 9. Thou art as Ra,
" and thou bringest [thyself] unto each of them, 10. and thou
'
" '
is dead. 14. They lie down and sleep in their habitations,
" '
15. their heads are covered up, and their nostrils are stopped,
" '
and no man can see his neighbour, 16. and all their goods and
'
These titles mean something like, " Beauty of the creations of Ra, the only-
one of Ra."
3 I.e., '- Glory of Aten."
3 The proper name is Nefert-iti, and her title means " Beauty of the beauties
of Aten."
76 HYMN TO ATEN
'
possessions may be carried away from under their heads without
'
their knowing it. 17. Every lion cometh forth from his den,
'18. and serpents of every kind bite ; 19. the night becometh
'
blacker and blacker, 20. and the earth is silent because he who
'
hath made them hath sunk to rest in his horizon.
"21. When thou risest in the horizon the earth lightens, and
when thy beams shine forth it is day. 22. Darkness taketh to
flight as soon as Two Lands keep
thy light bursteth out, and the
festival daily. 23. Then [men] wake up and stand upon their
feet because thou hast raised them up, 24. they wash themselves,
and they array themselves in their apparel, 25. and they lift up
to thee their hands with hymns of praise because thou hast risen.
26. [Over] all the earth they perform their work. 27. All beasts
and cattle repose in their pastures, 28. and the trees and the
green herb put forth their leaves and flowers. 29. The birds
fly out of their nests, and their wings praise thy Ka as they fly
forth. The sheep and goats of every kind skip about on
30.
their legs, 31. and feathered fowl and the birds of the air also
live [because] thou hast risen for them. 32. The boats float
down and sail up the river likewise, 33. for thy path is opened
when thou risest. 84. The fish in the stream leap up towards
thy face, 85. and thy beams shine through the waters of the
great sea.
" 36. Thou makest male women, and thou
seed to enter into
causest the liquid seed to become a human being. 37. Thou
makest the man child to live in the body of his mother.
38. Thou makest him to keep silent so that he cry not, 39. and
thou art a nurse to him in the womb. 40. Thou givest breath
that it may vivify every part of his being. 41. When he goeth
forth from the belly, on the day wherein he is born, 42. thou
openest his mouth that he may speak, 43. and thou providest
for him whatsoever is necessary. 44. When the chick is in the
the egg, and is making a sound within the shell, 45. thou givest
it air inside it so that it may keep alive. 46. Thou bringest it
to perfection so that it may split the eggshell, 47. and it cometh
forthfrom the egg to proclaim that it is a perfect chick,
48. and as soon as it hath come forth therefrom it runneth
!
HYMN TO ATEN 77
" about on its feet. 49. How many are the things which thou
" hast created
" 50. There were in the face of the One God, and his
" had rest. 51. Thou didst create the earth at thy will
" when thou didst exist by thyself, 52. and men and women, and
" beasts and cattle, and flocks of animals of every kind, 53. and
" every thing which is upon the earth and which goeth about on
" its feet, 54. and everything which is in the air above and which
" flieth about with wings, 55. and the land of Syria and Nubia,
and Egypt, 56. Thou settest every man in his place, 57. and
thou makest for them whatsoever they need. 68. Thou pro-
'
videst for every man that which he should have in his storehouse,
and thou computest the measure of his life, 59. They speak in
tongues which are different [from each other], 60. and their
dispositions (or characteristics) are according to their skins.
61, Thou who canst discern hast made the difference between
the dwellers in the desert to be discerned.
" 62, Thou hast made Hapi (i.e., the Nile) in the Tuat, 63. and
78 HYMN TO ATEN
" thou bringest him on according to thy will to make rational
" beings to live, 64. inasmuch as thou hast made them for thyself,
"65. thou who art the lord of all of them, and who dost remain
" with them. 66. Thou art the lord of every (?) land, and thou
" shinest upon them, 67. thou art Aten of the day, and art
"revered in every foreign land (?), 68. and thou makest their
" lives. 69. Thou makest Hapi in heaven to come down to them,
" 70. and he maketh his rushing waters to flow over the hills like
"the great green sea. 71. and they spread themselves abroad
" and water the fields of the people in their villages. 72. Thy
" plans (or, counsels) are doubly beneficent. 73. Thou art the
" Lord of eternity, and thou thyself art the Nile in heaven, and
" all foreign peoples and all the beasts on all the hills 74. go about
" on their feet [through thee]. 75. Hapi (i.e., the Nile) cometh
" from the Tuat to Egypt, 76. and thou givest sustenance to its
" people and to every garden, and 77. [when] thou hast risen they
" live for thee.
" 78. Thou hast made the seasons of the year so that they
" may cause the things which thou hast made to bring forth,
"79. the winter season bringeth them cold, and the summer
" season fiery heat. 80. Thou hast created the heavens which are
" far extending that thou mayest rise therein and mayest be able
" to look upon all which thou didst create when thou didst exist
" by thyself, 81. and thou dost rise in thy creations as the living
" Aten, 82. and thou dost rise, and dost shine, and dost depart on
" thy path, and dost return. 83.Thou didst create [the forms]
" of created things in thyself when thou didst exist alone. 84.
" Cities, towns, villages and hamlets, roads and river[s], 85. from
" these every eye looketh upon thee, 86. for thou art the Aten of
" the day and art above the earth. 87. Thou journeyest through
" that which existeth in thine Eye. 88 89.
" Thou art in my heart, 90. and none knoweth thee except thy
" kind live ; and wlien thou settest they die. 94. As long as thou
" art in the sky they live in thee, 95. and the eyes of all are upon
" thy beauties until thou settest, 96. and they set aside their
" work of every kind when thou settest in the west. 97. Thou
" risest and grow
thou makest to for the king.
"98 from the time when thou didst lay the foundations
" of the earth, 99. and thou didst raise them up for thy son who
" proceeded from thy members." [Here follow two lines wherein
the names and titles of the king are repeated.]
The above version of the hymn to Aten will serve to illustrate
the views held by the king and his followers about this god, and
may be compared with the hymns to Ra, which are quoted in the
section on the forms of the Sun-god, when it will be seen that
many of the most important characteristics of hymns to sun-gods
are wanting. There is no mention of enemies or of the fiends, Apep,
Sebau, and Nak, who were overcome by Ra when he rose in the
eastern horizon ; no reference is made to Khepera, or to the
services which Thoth and Maat were believed to render to him
daily ; and the frequent allusions to the Matet and Sektet Boats
in which Ra was thought to make his journey over the sky are
beautiful, glorious, and self- existent, he had created the sun and
his path, and heaven, and earth, and every living being and thing
therein, and he maintained the life in man and beast, and fed all
creatures according to his plans, and he determined the duration
of their life. Everything came from Aten, and everything
depended upon him; he was, moreover, everlasting. From the
absence of any mention of the " gods or of the well-known great
"
supplies us with the reason why he did not settle in one of the
80 ATEN WORSHIP
ancient religious centres of his kingdom. We should expect that,
as he styled himself the high-priest of Heru-khuti (i.e., Harmachis),
he would have taken up his abode in Memphis or Heliopolis,
where this god was greatly honoured, but as he did not, we are
driven to conclude that there was in the worship of Aten and in
the doctrines of his priests something which could neither brook
nor tolerate the presence of another god, stiU less of other
gods, and that that something must have been of the nature of
monotheism.
Now although the hymn quoted above gives us an idea of the
views held by Amen-hetep IV. and his adherents concerning
Aten, it is impossible to gather from it any very precise imforma-
tion about the details of the belief or doctrine of Aten, but it is
later was only during the reign of Amen-hetep IV. that the
; it
ATEN WORSHIP 81
human-handed rays shining upon the king, and his queen and
family, and upon the cartouches containing the names of himself
and of his queen Nefert-ith. The simple interpretation of such
scenes is that the sun is the source of all life and of everything
which supports upon earth, but it is probable that the so-caUed
it
Aten heresy was in some way founded upon the views which the
Atenites held about this method of representing their god. Be
this as it may, Amen-hetep IV. loved to be depicted with the
human-handed rays falling upon him, and whatever his doctrines
of Aten were he preached them with aU the enthusiasm of an
Oriental fanatic, and on special occasions he himself officiated as
high-priest of the cult. The wisdom of his policy is open to
doubt, but there is no reason for regarding him as anything but
his chest is rounded, his stomach inflated, his thighs are large and
broad, and in many respects his figure resembles that of a woman.
It is impossible that such representations of the king would
82 AMEN-HETEP IV.
84 AMEN-HETEP IV.
rejected the cult of Aten, and that he was, at all events outwardly,
a loyal follower of the god Amen-Ra. On the death of Ai several
pretenders to the throne rose up in Egypt, and a period of anarchy
followed. Of the details of the history of this period nothing is
known, and the only certainfact about it is that the power of the
XVIIIth Dynasty was broken, and that its downfall was certain.
During the reigns of Tut-ankh-Amen and Ai the prosperity of the
city Khut-Aten declined rapidly, and as soon as the period of
anarchy which followed their reigns began its population left it,
deserted, and very soon after men came from far and near to carry
off, for building purposes, the beautiful white limestone blocks
which were in the temple and houses. Heru-em-heb was the
nominee of the priests of Amen-Ra, and he used all his power and •
( 85 )
CHAPTER V
A
least nine
PERUSAL
gods ;
of the Pyramid Texts
priests of Heliopolis believed in the existence of three
companies of gods, and that to each company they assigned at
company contained eleven,
in certain cases a
reveals the fact that the
twelve, or more gods. In the text of Unas (line 222 flf.) we find
a series of addresses to Ra-Tem, wherein are mentioned Set
^ ° ,
Thoth, Anubis, and Usert, ^, ^, ']\^^, and
I
Horns, which seems to show that one company of gods, of which the
dual god Ra-Tem was the head, consisted of Set, Nephthys, Her-
hepes, Osiris, Isis, Thoth, Anubis, Usert, and Horus, i.e., in all ten
gods. In the next section but one of the same king's text (line 240 f.)
1 . Tem, ^ . 2. Shu,
f
oa ^ . 3. Tbfnut, |^ . 4. Seb, "^ J
5. Nut, ^. 6. Isis, L 7. Set, >$_j. 8. Nephthys,
9. Thoth, ^%. 10, Hokus, '^. Here again we have ten gods
(line 665), the gods who are declared to form " the Great Company
of the gods who are in Annu " are :
— 1. Tem. 2. Shu. 3. Tefndt.
fi -<2>-
—
TEM, SHU, TEFNUT 87
lesser gods whose worship was quite local, and in this way they
succeeded in causing their doctrines to be accepted throughout the
length and breadth of Egypt, and there is no doubt that the great
theological system of Thebes under the Middle and New Empires
was based entirely upon that of Heliopolis. We have now to
describe the attributes of the gods of the Great Company, which
for convenience may be assumed to consist of the following :
Tern, Shu, Tefnut, Seb, Nut, Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys.
Tbm^, or.-__^
Tem was a form of the Sun-god, and was the great local god
of Annu, and the head of the company of gods of that place. His
name is connected with the root tem, ^ V\ ;
,
or temem,
^
-^jnr
^ ¥iv
_M^ Ja?!^
:
U
,
" to be complete," " to make an end of," and he
was regarded as the form of the Sun-god which brought the day to
an end, i.e., as the evening or night sun. He is always depicted
in the human form. The attributes of the god have been already
described in the section which treats of the forms of the Sun-
god E,a.
2. Sh,, poo^,orP^^.orp||^,orQQ^.
8. Tefkdt, w_|.
empty," and the like, and the name Tefnut must be connected
/^ «^vv^^, or "to spit,
with the root tef, ^ teftef, ^,
be moist," and the like ; thus Shu was a god who was connected
with the heat and dryness of sunlight and with the dry atmosphere
which exists between the earth and the sky, and Tefnut was a
personification of the moisture of the sky, and made herself
—
88 SHU AND TEFNUT
manifest in various forms. The oldest legend about the origin of
the gods is contained in the text of Pepi I., wherein it is said
(line 465) that once upon a time Tern went to the city of Annu and
that he there produced from his own body by the irregular means
of masturbation his two children Shu and Tefnut. In this crude
form the myth is probably of Libyan origin, and it suggests that its
acted the part of wife to him ; another view was that the goddess
lusaaset was his wife.^
The old ideas about the origin of the twin gods, however,
maintained their position in the minds of the Egyptians, and we
find them categorically expressed in some of the hymns addressed
to Amen-Ra, who under the New Empire was identified with Tern,
just as at an earlier period Ra was identified with the same god.
In two hymns quoted by Brugsch^ we have the following:
" Amen-Ra, the gods have gone forth from thee. What flowed
" forth from thee became Shu, and that which was emitted by thee
" became Tefnut thou didst create the nine gods at the beginning
;
" of all things, and thou wast the Lion-god of the Twin Lion-gods,"
'='
.&& 3 ^f I 3 1ft . The Twin Lion-gods are, of course,
Shu and Tefnut, who are mentioned in the Book of the Dead in
several passages.* In the second hymn to Amen-Ra it is said,
'
In the passage referred to the opening words are, " Tern came to take
of the goddess lusaaset, _/^ v\ <'^=» JIJ , may be derived from them. See
Il (I [I
^ ; see the list of passages given in my Vocabulary to the Boole of
"Thou art the One God, who didst form thyself into two gods,
" thou art the creator of the Egg, and thou didst produce thy
" Twin-Gods." In connexion with the production of Shu and
Tefnut Dr. Brugsch refers to the well-tnown origin of the gods of
Taste and Feeling, Hu,
said to
| ^
have sprung into being from the drops of blood which fell
'^'^
^ , and Sa, .^ei
^ ^, who are
from the phallus of Ra, and to have taken up their places among
the gods who were in the train of Ra, and who were with Temu
every day.^ {Booh of the Dead, xvii. 62).
Shu is represented in the form of a man who wears upon his
head one feather, U , or two, ||1
, or four, i^ ; the phonetic value
of the sign () is shu, and the use of it as the symbol of the god's
name seems to indicate some desire on the part of the Egyptians to
connect the word shit, or shdu, " feather," with shiL, " light, empty
space, dryness," etc. As the god of the space which exists
between the earth and the sky, Shu was represented under the
form of a god who held up the sky with his two hands, one
supporting it at the place of sunrise, and the other at the place of
sunset, and several porcelain figures exist in which he is seen
kneeling upon one knee, in the act of lifting up with his two
hands the sky with the solar disk in it. When Shu wears no
feather he bears upon his head the figure of the hind-quarter of a
lion ^^^ ,
jpeh ; in mythological scenes we find him both seated and
standing, and he usually holds in one hand the sceptre |, and in
the other ¥ . In a picture given by Lanzone ^ he grasps in his
left hand a scorpion, a serpent, and a hawk-headed sceptre. The
goddess Tefnut is represented in the form of a woman, who wears
upon her head the solar disk encircled by a serpent, and holds in
her hands the sceptre I , and 4- ; she, however, often appears with
the head of a lioness, which is surmounted by a uraeus, and she is
r\°\^%.i=^\-^i
I
^
I
3 , and to him the king who caused the words to be inscribed
'
in his name of Ptah. He beareth up [(] ^^ f'"'^) ^o^ ^'^^e
'
heaven with his hands in his name body of the
of Shu, the
'
sky." ^ It must be noted that the same word dshesh, [ ^~^ Z"^,
is used to express both the idea of " pouring out " and of
'supporting," and it is difficult to reconcile these totally different
meanings unless we remember that it is that which Tern, or
Ra-Tem, has poured out which supports the heavens wherein
shines the Sun-god. That which Tem, or Ra-Tem, has poured
out is the light, and light was declared to be the prop of the sky.
1 HieroghjpMscJie Inschriften, Vienna, 1879, pi. 42, 11. 1-4, 10, 11.
<^(^^'=^'.o°l 1]°°^
«*=>
The Goddess TEFNUT.
SHU 91
Dr. Brugsch went so far as to identify him with the " spiritual
Pneuma in a higher sense," and thought that he might be regarded
as the vital principle of all living beings. He was certainly, like
his father Tem, thought to be the cool wind of the North, and the
dead were grateful to him for his breezes. Shu was, in fact, the
god of the space which is filled with the atmosphere, even as Ra
was the god of heaven, and Seb the god of the earth, and Osiris
the god of the Underworld. From the Booh of the Dead (xvii, 16)
we learn that Shu and Tefnut were supposed to possess but one
soul between them, but that the two halves of it were identified
with the soul of Osiris and the soul of Ra, which together formed
the great double soul which dwelt in Tattu. The gate of Tchesert
in the Underworld was called the "gate of the pillars of Shu"
(xvii. 56), and Shu and Tefnut laid the foundations of the house
1 Beligion, p. 432.
.
92 SHU
rightly identified Bebi or Baba with the Be/Soju or Be^coua of
Plutarch {De hide, § 62) and with the Bd/3v<; of Hellanicus/
Bebon was a name of Typhon, i.e., Set, and that he was represented
by an animal is proved by the hieroglyphic form of his name,
which is determined by the skin of an animal,
J ^^: J ^^: W
In Chapter xxiii. the deceased prays that his " mouth may be
in the Roman period Shu was merged in Ra, the god of light.
The part played in Egyptian mythology by Tefnut is not easily
defined, and but little is known about her. In the text of Unas
(line 453) she is mentioned together Avith the two Maat goddesses,
tohave have had set apart for them any special city or district,
but at the same time titles were given to certain cities which pre-
supposed some connexion between them and these gods. Thus
Dendera was '""' "
called Per- Shu,
^ © 1 , i.e., House of Shu," and
ApoUinopolis Magna was
'-^^^, kSrj-i^©, or
, H. ffii-
Whether there were statues of Shu and
Tefnut in these cities cannot be said, but it is very probable that
they were worshipped in their sanctuaries under the forms of lions,
Ra
Hathor, " the eye of Ra," go forth and slay ;
accepted the
advice straightway, and Hathor went forth and slew all mankind,
Seb was the son of Shu and Tefnut, and was the brother and
husband of Nut, and the father of Osiris and Isis, Set and
Nephthys, and some say of one of the Horus gods ; according to
the late Dr. Brugsch his name should be read Geb or Keb, or
Gebb, or Kebb, and in very early times this undoubtedly seems to
have been the correct form of the god's name. He is usually
represented in the form of a man who bears upon his head either
the white crown Q , or the crown of the North, to which is added
called seb. This bird was sacred to him because he was believed
to have made his way through the air in its form. Seb was the
god of the earth, and the earth formed his body and was called the
" house of Seb," just as the air was called the " house of Shu,"
and
the heaven the " house of Ra,"and the Underworld the " house of
Osiris." As the god of the surface of the earth from which spring
up trees, and plants, and herbs, and grain he played a very
prominent part in the mythology of the Underworld, and as the
god of the earth beneath the surface of the ground he had
authority over the tombs wherein the dead were laid. In hymns
SEB, THE ERPA of the GODS.
"
,
SEB 95
declared that he was " to live upon the bread of Seb (Ixviii. 9). In
"
a burst of joy, Nu, the overseer of the house of the overseer of the
seal, is made to say, " The doors of heaven are opened for me, the
" doors of earth are opened for me, the bars and bolts of Seb are
" opened for me " (Ixviii. 2), and " I exchange speech with Seb
" (Ixxviii. 12), I am decreed to be the divine heir of Seb, the
"lord of the earth, and to be the protector therein. The
" god Seb refresheth me, and he maketh his risings to be mine
(Ixxx. 11, 12).
The show that there was no special city or
religious texts
district set apart for the god Seb, but a portion of the temple
'^'^^^^1^
11 rf) 5 ^^^ ^ name of Dendera was "the home of the children
of Seb," ^ ra (](] ^ —
'^
I Tl ^J iT
^^'^^ ^^^^^ ^^^* °^ ^^^ ^^^
96 SEE
god under the form of a phoenix.^ Because of his connexion with
this Egg Seb is sometimes called the " Great Cackler," Kenken-ue,
ffl ffl "^^f % _ Thus the deceased says, " Hail, thou god Tem,
" grant unto me the sweet breath which dwelleth in thy nostrils.
" I embrace that great throne which is in the city of Hermopolis,
" and I keep watch over the Egg of the Great Cackler (or,
of seven thousand and six years, and another view was that the
new phoenix from the burnt and decomposing remains of his
rose
old body, and that he took these to Heliopolis where he burnt
them.^ All these fabulous stories are the result of misunder-
standings of the Egyptian myth which declared that the renewed
morning sun rose in the form of a Bennu, and of the belief which
declared that this bird was the soul of Ra and also the living
symbol of Osiris, and that it came forth from the very heart of the
" Heliopolis" (xvii. 27), and the scholion on this passage expressly
informs us that the Bennu is Osiris. Elsewhere the deceased
says, " I am the Bennu, the soul of Ra, and the guide of the gods
"in the Tuat; (xxix.c 1) let it be so done unto me that I may
;
" enter in like a hawk, and that I may come forth like Bennu,
"the Morning Star" (cxxii. 6). On a hypocephalus quoted by
Prof. Wiedemann,^ the deceased is made to say, " I am in the form
" of the Bennu, which cometh forth from Het-Benbenet in Annu,"
and from many passages we learn that the Bennu, the Soul of Ra,
which appeared each morning under the form of the rising sun,
was supposed to shine upon the world from the top of the famous
Persea tree wherein he renewed himself. We may note that a
Chapter of the Book of the Dead (Ixxxii.) was written with the
special object of enabling the deceased to transform himself into a
Bennu bird if he felt disposed to do so ; in it he identifies himself
with the god Khepera, and with Horus, the vanquisher of Set^
II H
;
and it was the heirship of this god which the kings of Egypt
boasted they had received when they sat upon their thrones.
Seb was the hereditary tribal chief of the gods, and his throne
represented the sovereignty
both of heaven and of earth
as a creative god he was
identified with Tern, and
so, as Dr. Brugsch pointed
out, became the " father of
his father." As an elemen-
tary god he represented the
earth, as Ra did fire, and
Shu air, and Osiris water.
In some respects the attri-
the entrance into and the exit from this passage, and as the head
of one lion symbolized the evening and the west, and the other
symbolized the morning and the east, in later days each lion's
head was provided with a separate body, and the one was called
Sep, R ,
i.e., "Yesterday," and the other was called Tuau,
^ ^O
Though he was god
i.e., "To-day" [Book of the Dead, xvii., lines 14, 15).
of the earth Seb also acted as a guide to the
deceased in heaven, and he provided him with meat and drink ;
numerous passages in the Book of the Dead refer to the gifts which
he bestowed upon Osiris his son, and the deceased prayed fervently
that he would bestow upon him the same protection and help
which he had bestowed upon Osiris.
Shn supporting the boat of the Sun-god beneath the sky-goddess N nt.
"who shut in his father together with his mother on the day of
"making the great slaughter," and the text adds, "now, the father
" is Seb, and the mother is Nut." The word used for " slaughter "
100 NUT
is shut, _ — a JK , and there is no doubt whatsoever about its
"H" ^^ ^^ ^ ^^'^^^
V^ ' ' ^P^'^'^g from the drops of blood ^ which fell
Nut ^ " or ®^ or ®® or ^^ ^
The goddess Nut was the daughter of Shu and Tefnut, and
the wife of Seb, the Earth-god, and the mother of Osiris and Isis,
and Set and Nephthys ; she was the personification of the heavens
and the sky, and of the region wherein the clouds formed, and in
fact of every portion of the region in which the sun rose, and
travelled from east to west. As a goddess of the late historical
period in Egypt Nut seems to have absorbed the attributes of a
number of goddesses who possessed attributes somewhat similar to
those of herself, and the identities of several old nature goddesses
were merged in her. In the Pyramid Texts (e.g., Unas, line 452)
Nut appears as the regular female counterpart of Seb, who is
2 v\/v^ ^
f]k*^^-T^9:T I I I
NUT 101
Nut giving birth to the Sun, the rays of which fall on Hathor in the horizon.
of Unas (line 557) we find mentioned the two gods Nau and Naut,
-wwvA (] "^ ^
ll ® ,
who are, however, regarded as one god
;
102 NUT
and are addressed accordingly. Thus it is said, " Thy cake is to
" thee, Nau and Naut, even as one who uniteth the gods and who
" maketh the gods to refresh themselves beneath their shadow."
In this passage it is certainly right to assume that Naut represents
the Night-sky because of the determinative of the name —
t
i,
—
f^®
t 1 ^1®
,
t=^ p. and the latter form is several times found in
or
(ill
,
the Papyrus of Nu, which dates from the first half of the period of
the XVIIIth Dynasty; whenever one or other of these forms is
found in good papyri it is the Night-sky which is referred to in
the text. We have already seen in the paragraphs on the god
Nu that he had a female counterpart called Nut, who represented
the great watery abyss out of which all things came, and who
watery path was divided into two parts, that whereon the Sun
sailed by day, and that over which he passed during the night.
The goddess Nut, whom the texts describe as the wife of Seb, is
for all practical purposes the same being as Nut, the wife of Nu
this fact is proved by her titles, which are, " Nut, the mighty one,
"the great lady, the daughter of Ra" "Nut, the lady of heaven, ;
" the mistress of the gods " " Nut, the great lady, who gave birth
;
" to the gods " Nut, who gave birth to the gods, the lady
" ; of
Nut-ma-Shu, | zrz2
D ca £i o O ci ^
,and^"=j- (5^1 The
goddess is usually represented in the form of a
woman who bears upon her head a vase of water,
O, which has the phonetic value Nu, and which
indicates both her name and her nature ;
^ she
sometimes wears on her head the horns and disk of
the goddess Hathor, and holds in her hands a
papyrus sceptre and the symbol of "life." She
once appears in the form of the amulet of the
buckle, A, from the top of which projects her
o ^ -^^f o ^ ^^
J
,1^
Plll;^«P111IY'-i 366.
^ Bmgscli, Diet. G6og., p.
" For a good collection of figures of the goddess see Lanzone, op. cit., pi. 150 ff.
104 NUT
emblem of Above her head is the solar disk
gold, fw^.
with uraei, and she is accompanied by the symbols of Ne-
khebet, Uatchet, and Hathor as goddess of the West; by her
feet standtwo snake-headed goddesses of the sky, each of whom
wears the feather p on her head. The goddess herself wears the
vulture crown with uraei, and above are the uraei of the South
and North and the hawk of Horus wearing the white crown.
Below her is the sycamore tree, her emblem, and in it sits the
great Cat of Ra who is cutting off the head of Apep, the god of
darkness and evil. In the form in which she appears in this
picture Nut has absorbed the attributes of all the great goddesses,
and she is the type of the great mother of the gods and of the
world.
On coffins and in many papyri we find her depicted in the
form of a woman whose
body is bent round in
such a way as to form a
semi-circle ; in this atti-
picture we see Ra in his boat with Shu and Tefnut (?) sailing
up through the watery abyss behind the legs of Nut, in the Atet
Boat, and sailing down the arms of the goddess in the Sektet Boat
into the Tuat or Underworld the whole of the body and limbs of
;
the heaven over which the Moon makes her way at night, whilst
the male body within them is the almost circular valley of the
Tuat ; others, however, say that the two women are merely personi-
fications of the Day and Night skies, and this view is, no doubt,
the correct one. The raising up of Nut from the embrace of Seb
represented, as we have before said, the first act of creation, and
the great creative power which brought it about having separated
the earth from the waters which were above it, and set the sun
between the earth and the sky, was now able to make the gods,
and human beings, animals, etc. The Egyptians were very fond of
representations of this scene, and they had many variants of it, as
may be seen from the collection of reproductions given by
Lanzone.-* In some of these we find Shu holding up the Boat of
Ra under the body of Nut, in others we see the two boats of Ra
placed side by side on her back, the god in one boat being
Khepera, and the god in the other being Osiris. Shu is some-
times accompanied by Thoth, and sometimes by Khnemu in one ;
instance Seb has a serpent's head, and in another the goose, which
is his symbol, is seen standing near his feet with its beak open in
the act of cackling. The Egyptian artists were not always con-
sistent in some of their details of the scene, for at one time the
region wherein is the head of Nut is described as the east, Th, and
at another as the west, ft ; at one time Seb lies with his head to the
'
Op. cii, pll. ]50fE.
106 NUT
appears holding up in her hands a tablet, on which stands a
youthful male figure who is probably intended to represent
Harpocrates, or one of the many Horus gods in this example she ;
" mother Nut hath spread herself out over thee in her name of
and in line 268 we have, " Nephthys hath united again for thee
" thy members in her name of Sesheta, H oa "^ ^5^, the lady
" of the buildings through which thou hast passed, and thy mother
" Nut in her name of Qersut, ^ "^ ^^^^ granted that she
P "V '
" shall embrace thee in her name Qersu, ^ % , and that she
" shall introduce thee in her name of '
Door.' " In the text of
Pepi I. (line 256) it is said, " Pepi hath come forth from Pe with
" the spirits of Pe, and he is arrayed in the apparel of Horus, and
" in the dress of Thoth, and Isis him and Nephthys is is before
" behind him Ap-uat hath opened unto him a way, and Shu
;
" lifteth him up, and the souls of Annu make him ascend the
" steps and set him before Nut who stretcheth out her hand to
"him." In the Booh of the Dead are several allusions to Nut and
to the meat and drink which she provides for the deceased, and a
chapter (lix.) is found which was specially composed to enable him
to " snuiF the air, and to have dominion over the waters in the
""^^ffli^f^ffliffllliSS^
'
Underworld." The text reads :-
— " Hail, thou sycamore of the
' goddess Nut ! Grant thou to me of the water and of the air
' which dwell in thee. I embrace the throne which is in Unnu
'
(Hermopolis), and I watch and guard the egg of the Great
'
Cackler,^ It groweth, I grow ; it liveth, I live ; it snuffeth the
'
air, I snuff the air." To make sure that the recital of these
words should have the proper result they were accompanied by a
vignette, in which the goddess is seen standing in a tree, out of
which she reaches to the deceased with one hand a table covered
with bread and other
articles of food with the other she sprinkles ;
'
I.e., the Egg out of wliicli sprang the Sun, whieh was produced by Seb and
Nut.
108 NUT
were the plants among which the Great Cackler Seb laid the Egg
of the Sun, and these may well be identified with the famous
balsam trees, from which was expressed the
which was so oil
always watered with water drawn from the famous 'Ain Shems
(a name really meaning the " Eye of the Sun "), i.e., the well of
water which is fed by a spring in the immediate neighbourhood,
and is commonly called the " Fountain of the Sun." We may
note in passing another legend, which was popular among the
Copts, to the effect that the Virgin Mary once hid herself and her
Son from their enemies in the trunk of the sycamore at Heliopolis,
and that it is based upon an ancient Egyptian myth recorded by
Plutarch which declared that Isis hid the body of Osiris in a tree
trunk.
In the later times of Egyptian history the priests of Dendera
asserted that the home of Nut was in their city, and in an inscrip-
tion on their temple ^ they recorded that it was the birthplace,
1^^ ,
of Isis, and that it contained the birth-chamber,
of love," Q '^^
T ^ ^^^ T=T , on the fourth of the five epagomenal
days. When Nut saw her child, she exclaimed, "As ((10, i.e.,
behold), I have become thy mother," and this was the origin of
the name Ast, or Isis. In Thebes Nut was identified with Isis,
epagomenal days of the year, or as they are called in Egyptian, " the
ki<-k
—
no NUT
kS^' T V ^^^ ''
The part wliicli Nut played in the Egyptian
before sunrise.
The favour Nut gave the deceased the power to rise in a
of
renewed body, even as Ra rose from the Egg which was produced
by Seb and Nut, and it enabled him to journey with the Sun-god
each day from sunrise to sunset, and to pass through the dreary
habitations of the Tuat in safety. So far back as the time of
Men-kau-Ra (Mycerinus) the Egyptians delighted to inscribe on
the cover of the cofl&ns of their dead a portion of the following
extract :
Q ^
pesliesh-nes mut-k Nut her-k em
Spreadeth herself thy mother Nut over thee in
C3nD D <=
AP
ren-s en shet-pet erta-s un-nek em
her name of coverer of heaven, she maketh thee to be as
1 1
neter an khefti-k em ren-k en neter
a god without thine enemy in thy name of god.
'
Brugscli, Thesaurus, p. 481.
NUT 111
mesu-s
"
she hath brought forth ;
( 113 )
CHAPTER VI
hieroglyphics, the first of which represents a " throne " and the
other an "eye," but the exact meaning attached to the combination
of thetwo pictures by those who first used them to express the
name of the god, and the signification of the name in the minds of
those who invented it cannot be said. In the late dynastic period
the first syllable name appears to have been pronounced
of the
Aus or TIs, and by punning it was made to have the meaning of
the word usr, " strength, might, power," and the like, and there
doubt that the Egyptians at that time supposed the name
is little
of the god to mean something like the " strength of the Eye," i.e.,
the strength of the Sun-god Ea. This meaning may very well
have suited their conception of the god Osiris, but it cannot be
accepted as the correct signification of the name. For similar
reasons the suggestion that the name As-ar is connected with the
Egyptian word for " prince," or " chief," ser, cannot be entertained.
<=>
1 Other forms are j
^^^^
©^ , Use-Ra,
^ [1
^ , Usee, -^ _____
II —
,,
114 OSIRIS-UNNEFER
be understood as referring to the great Eye of heaven, i.e., Ra, but
the connexion of the first with it is not clear, and as we have no
means of knowing what attributes were assigned to the god by his
earliest worshippers the difficulty is hardly likely to be cleared up.
his object was rather to play with words on the name As-ar than
to afford a trustworthy derivation of the name of Osiris. We may
note in passing that modern derivations and explanations of the
name Un-nefer are equaUy
The truth of the unsatisfactory.^
matter seems to be that the ancient Egyptians knew just as little
,::::.j:scsmEt!idik:ki!a±::
OSIRIS - UNNEFER.
ATTRIBUTES OF OSIRIS 115
about the original meaning of the name As-ar as we do, and that
they had no better means of obtaining information about it than
we have.
Passing^^w t o th e cons_id_eration o f the original characteristics
" I the hidden Soul create the gods, and I give sepulchral meals to
" the divine beings in Amenti and in heaven." Osiris is mentioned
by name in connexion with " his city," and Tem^_Khepera,
Shu, the Urti goddesses, i.e., Isis and Nephthys, the goddess
Aukert, the Chief of Re-stau, Helii, the Bennu, and the 4,601,200
spirits, who are twelve cubits high, are referred to, and we see that
king in whose reign the Ixivth Chapter of the Book of the Dead
was " found." On the right-hand side of the plaque is a scene in
which the king is represented in the act of dancing before a deity,
who wears the crown of the South and is seated within a shrine
set upon the top of some steps; from various texts and scenes
inscribed upon papyri and coffins, etc., of the New Empire we
know that Osiris was called the " god on the top of the steps," and
that he was depicted as a being seated in a shrine set on the top of
a flight of steps, and there isno doubt that the god before whom
Semti danced was Osiris. Immediately below the scene on the
plaque described above is a representation of a ceremonial boat,
and we compare it with certain vignettes in the Booh of the Dead
if
in assuming that the god was first worshipped there, and when we
remember the frequent allusions in the Pyramid Texts to Pe and
Tep, the two divisions of the city of Per-Uatchet in the Delta, it is
difiicult not to think that even under the 1st Dynasty shrines
had been built in honour of Osiris at several places in Egypt.
Dynastic tradition asserted that the head of Osiris was buried at
118 OSIRIS KHENT-AMENTI
Abydos, and for this reason that city became of the first importance
to worshippers of the god, but we know that the local god of the
nome was An-Her, and that his cult was thrust out by that of
"
Osiris, who was adored under the title of " Osiris Khent-Amenti ;
there must then have been a time when Osiris was brought to
Abydos, and it is probable that he was introduced into that city
from the North, for the following reasons. In the Pyramid Texts,
which are the oldest exponents of the religious system which made
Osiris the supreme god of the dead, we have frequent allusions to
the food and drink which the deceased enjoys, and to the apparel
wherein he is arrayed in the Underworld. We find that he wears
white linen garments and sandals, that he by a lake
sits in the
Field of Peace with the gods, and partakes with them of the tree of
life, ^ wwvAA -^ J
and that he eats figs and grapes, and driuKs
oil and wine, and that he lives on the " bread of eternity," and
the " beer of everlastingness," ^ ^ a«^w>
^ ^
g) Q y\ Ar^v/VNA ^W,/SAA
-^^
Q Q
o Q .
1
His bread was made of the wheat which Horus ate, and the four
children of Horus, Mestha, Hapi, Tuamutef, and Qebhsennuf
" appeased the hunger of his belly, and the thirst of his lips." He
abhorred the hunger which he could not satisfy, and he loathed
the thirst which he could not slake, and one of the greatest delights
of his existence Avas the knowledge that he was " delivered from
the power of those who would steal away his food."
Another source of great joy was the power which he possessed
of washing himself clean, and he and his double are represented as
sitting down to eat bread together, each having washed himself
clean ;
yet another source of enjoyment was his journeying by
water in a boat which was rowed by the mariners of the Sun-god
Ra. All these and similar statements point clearly to the fact that^
the reward which Osiris bestowed after death upon his follower
was a life which he led in a region where corn, and wine, and oil,
1 See the Chapter " Doctrine of Eternal Life " in my Papyrus of Ani, London,
1894, pp. Ixxv.-lxxvii.
,
cults, i.e., the cult of Osiris an d thejcult of Ra, existed side by si de,
From what has been said above it is quite clear that the
tree Asert, l\
•=' w , are called upon to witness that the mouth
of the kino- pure, because he eats and drinks nothing except that
is
upon which the gods live. The text says, " Ye have taken Unas
" with you, and he eateth what ye eat, he drinketh that which ye
" drink, he liveth as ye live, he dwelleth as ye dwell, he is powerful
120 THE MATERIAL HEAVEN
" as ye are powerful, and he saileth about as ye sail about " ;
thus
the heaven where Unas lived after death was in some place where
there were waters whereon he could sail in a boat. The text
continues, "
Unas hath netted [fowl and fish] with the net in
" Aaru, Unas hath possession over the waters in Sekhet-hetef,
" and his offerings of meat and drink are among the gods. The
" water of Unas is as wine, even as it is for Ra, and Unas goeth
" about heaven like Ra, and he traverseth heaven like Thoth."
From this extract we see that the region where the heaven of Unas
was situated is called Aaru, ^^ _2^ ))))))))
' *^® name having as
Sekhet-Aarru, (|]|0
'^
h "^ '^^^ %, ^ 1^
, and Sekhet- Aanru,
MkZ
the Dead.
^ ^S^ i^i'
From a number of other passages we find that Aaru
"^^ *^^ ^^*®^ Recensions of the Booh of
or
Sekhet- Aaru was divided into a number of districts, the chief of
^ .^ ^ ^ I
'
"'^' " ^^^^^ ^^ ^^® Grasshoppers,"
^~~^ ^~~^ ^~~^ ^-=^ ^
^ and in
it AYere the Lakes of the Tuat, jT) and the
Lakes of the Jackals,
waters of Aaru, or
^
Sekhet-Aaru,
^^ ^^^J^^°_ Ra purified himself (Pepi
In the
I.,
line 234), and it was here that the deceased also purified himself
before he began his heavenly life ; here also dwelt the three classes
of beings who are called Akhemu-seku, Akhemu-Betesh, and
Akhemu-Sesh-emau,^ that is to say, three classes of celestial bodies
J
See Book of the Dead, oxxv. Pt. iii., 1. 19
^tr
THE SEKHET-HETEPU
[FROM THE PAPYRUS OF ANl
CZZ)
mm.
ji_
4 e--^^^
"
([1 J 1^ = ^ ^^ (]
^J$)
I)
, be hath come forth from Uart,
"m^ '^^)' ^^^ since he is the body which hath come forth
"
("if]
" from God, and the uraeus which hath come forth from Ra, he
" hath sailedon to Sekhet-Aar, having the four Spirits of Horus,
"Hap, Amset, Tuamutef, and Qebhsennuf, with him, two on each
" side." This view of the position of Sekhet-Aaru is supported by
several passages in the Theban Recension of theBook of the Dead,
and the pictures of the district, with its lakes and canals which
122 TETTU-BUSIRIS
"grain, and let my beer be made from red grain, and may tbe
" persons of my father and mother be given unto me as guardians
" of my door, and for the ordering of my homestead. Let me be
" sound and strong, and let me have much room wherein to move,
" and let me be able to sit wheresoever I please " (Chapter Hi.).
Neb-sekert, was
^zz^ I
.J^^ /^ : preserved, according to one
young Horus to take his place, becoming thus the " father of his
^
father."
Among a people like the Egyptians it would not be very long
before the annual rise, and inundation, and fall of the Nile would
be compared to the chief periods in the lives of men, and before
the renewed rise of the Nile in the following year would be
compared to man's immortality, which in Egypt was taken for
granted from the earliest times and that this is exactly what
;
' Ed. Didot (Scripta Moralia, torn, iii., pp. 427-469), §xii,ff.
124 ISIS AND OSIRIS
writer is so important that an English rendering of it by
Mr. Squire is given at the end of this chapter, but it will be
cast into the Nile, which carried it down to its Tanaitic mouths.
When Isis heard what had befallen her husband she cut off a lock
of her hair as a sign of grief, and then set out to find his dead
body. At length she traced it to Byblos, whither it had been
carriedby the sea, and she found that the waves had gently laid
it among the branches of a tamarisk tree, which had grown to a
magnificent size, and had enclosed the chest within its trunk.
The Byblos here referred to is not Byblos in Phoenicia, but the
papyrus swamps of Egypt, which are called in Egyptian Athu,
(1 C3^5
i VX '
^ ^^^^ meaning "papyrus plants;" the Greeks
rendered the Egyptian AYord for " papyrus" by Bvfi\o<;, and some
copyist of the Grreek text misunderstood the signification of the
word in this passage, and rendered it by the name of the city of
Phoenicia,
The king of the country, admiring the tree, had it cut down
and made a pillar for the roof of his house it is this tree trunk ;
ISiS AND OSIRIS 125
from her head the royal diadem, but Thoth gave her a helmet
in the shape of a cow's head. In two other battles fought between
1 Moses was laid in an ark of bulrushes, and was therefore believed to be safe
of all fought in the form of two men, but they afterwards changed
themselves into two bears, and they passed three days and three
nights in this form.
''JFrom the above sji mmar y it is clear that_in Plutarch's time
the Egyptians believed that Osiris was the sob" of a god, that he
lived a goodupon earth and ruled as a wise and just king,
life
that he was slain by the malice of evil men, that his body was
mutilated, and that his wife Isis collected his limbs which had
been scattered throughout Egypt by Set, or Typhon, and that
Osiris by some means obtained a new life in the next world, where
-^^, his ears, ^^^, his loins, ^"^^^l, bis body, '^ ^,
1See Brugscli, Aeg. Zeitschrift, 1881, p. 79 ff. Another list of the sixteen
sanctuaries is given by M. Loret in Eecueil, torn, v., p. 85, where they are
(f>
© '
"^^y^"®' "yy f\/\/i
herakleopolis, Kusae,
Memphis, Ot^H' ^^'^^^' ^^^ffi' [ ^^^.
Atef -khent, A =^^ f ^, Sais, %^ ^"TT, Mehtet,
^ J'
^°^"'
Sma-Behutet, '^
^@ >
Re-aqiu, ^
^l ^' ?®^' ^2>^. Netrat,
1 The hieroglyphic texts tell us that the head of Osiris was buried in the
sanctuary of Arq-heh, <::i=> r.
^ I
© , in Abydos ; his left eye was buried in
^
(Pelusium) ; his jaw-bones were buried at Faket in Upper Egypt ; certain portions
of his head were buried at Heb-kert, V^^ "^ ^ , in the Delta ; his neck was
buried in the Delta ; an arm and his right leg were buried at Aterui qema,
parts of his body were buried at diJierent places, and in the case of a few members
the honour of possessing them was claimed by more than one city.
* See Brugsch, Becueil, i., 16, 16 Diimichen, Besultais, iv. 1-27 Marietta,
; ;
year was taken out from its place and buried suitably, and the new
Osiris was embalmed in the sanctuary ; on the last day of the month
the Tet, n was set up in Tettu, because on this day the divine
,
members of Osiris, |
'^'^9,5 were brought. The new Osiris remained
without burial for seven days because of the tradition which
declared that the god had remained for seven days in the womb of
his mother Nut when she was with child.
' °
T , Sent,
^ ^ ^3- 1 , Ari-maat-f-tchesef, -S ^^ ;^ 1
Sebakhsen, |1 ^ ^^ o j
'^, Heqes, | ^ [1 f]-
'^ , Neter-bah, Q '°^ "^
UNNUT-F,
TT^O 1 '
NeTCHEH-NeTCHEH, ^
'^ '^ _
[,
AsBU, i]
P J "V 1 ' Per-em-khet-khet, '^^ c=z ^^'^ "] , Brta-
het-Anes,
fQ|)^p6l, Maa-em-qerh, ^>-=^oT
An-f-em-hru-seksek,
J\
^ ^=- <=> —<— ^^ -*- '^ . The above
facts prove that in the Ptolemaic period the views which were held
generally about Osiris were substantially the same as those which
were in vogue in the times when the Pyramid Texts were
II—
130 FORMS OF OSIRIS
composed, and it is clear that the cult of Osiris was widespread
even in the Vth Dynasty, or about B.C. 3500,
From Pyramid Texts we learn that the dead kings were
the
already identified with Osiris, and that Osiris was identified with
the dead Sun-god, but we have no means of knowing when he was
merged in Seker, the god of the Memphite Underworld. The
Heliopolitan priests declared that he was the son of Seb and Nut,
but it is much to be regretted that they did not preserve for us the
genealogy of the god according to the priests of the predynastic
period. The festivals which were celebrated in the month of
Khoiak were, no doubt, founded upon very ancient tradition, but
the elaboration of detail given in the text at Dendera, to which
reference has already been made, does not suggest a primitive
antiquity, although it shows how deeply seated was the cult of
Osiris in the hearts of the people. The numerous aspects under
which the god was worshipped show that some of the original
also
We
must now consider the various forms in which Osiris is
represented on the monuments, and in papyri, etc. The common
form of the god is that of a mummy, who wears a beard, and has
the White Crown, /J, on his head, and a mendt, (^ , hanging from
the back of his neck. In a scene reproduced by Lanzone^ he
appears in a group with the Hawk-god Seker, the Beetle-god
Kheprer, and the goddess Shent, ,^, and has two forms, i.e.,
Osiris, lord of Khut, and Khent Amenti, r| ^s>- 'e^ '^ '^
, and
^^ another scene ^ he appears in the form of the Tet
dih
"^
^^ t
1 Dizionario, plate 15. -Ibid., pi. 17.
OSIRIS WEARING THE White Crown and Menat and holding the Sceptre,
Crook, and Flail. Before him are the Four Children of Horus, and
behind him is his wife isis.
—.
pillar, and is called " Osiris Tet," and stands at the head of a bier,
on which lies the god Seker in mummied form. On a stele at
Turin ^ Osiris appears in mummied form, seated, and holding in his
hands the sceptre |
, and the flail or whip/\; on his head is the
White Crown with plumes, to which the name Atef is usually-
given. His titles are " Osiris Khenti-Amentet, Un-nefer, lord of
Tatcheser, the great god, king of the living." Behind him are
seated Ptah-Sekei, ^^ ^-^ ^c^? "lord of the hidden chest,"
knives.^ A common symbol of the god is -^^, i.e., the box which
contained the head and hair of Osiris and which was preserved at
Abydos, where these relics were buried. Elsewhere we see the
body of the god bent round backwards in such a way as to form the
region of the Tuat or Underworld (see vol. i., p. 229). Sometimes
the god is seated on a throne, which is supported on the back of a
monster serpent that rests on the top of the mythological flight of
solar disk, and Atef Crown, and uraei with disks and horns, d
In each hand she holds a knife.^
his four crowns ; he is called, " Osiris, beloved of his father, the
1 Lauzone, op. cit., pi. 96. ^ Ihid., pi. 143. ' Ibid., pi. 211,
* See Mariefcte, DendSrah, torn, iv., pi. 65 £E., Paris, 1873.
132 FUNERAL OF OSIRIS
king of the gods, tlie lord of life, Osiris." In front of Osiris is
WW
No. 1.
No. 2.
3. Osiris, ithyphal-
son of Isis. Above is the soul of Osiris. Below the bier are two
crowns, a tunic, and a cap.
4. Osiris, naked and beardless, lying on his bier, at the head
of which is a statue of Isis, and at the foot a statue of Nephthys.
5. Osiris, naked and beardless, lying on his bier, at the head
of which stands Isis who is addressing the god ; beneath the bier are
figures of the four children of Horus, Mestha, Hapi, Tuamutef, and
Qebhsennuf, who, besides representing the gods of the four cardinal
points, may here be considered as personifications of the four large,
internal organs of the body.
6. Osiris, naked, lying upon
his bier, over the foot of which
is the vulture goddess Uatchet,
and over the head the uraeus
goddess Nekhebet.
7. Osiris, in mummied form,
lying on his bier beneath a funeral No. 6.
8. Osiris, 1 ^^ |
, of Behutet (Edfu) lying on his bier, with
No. 8.
No. 16,
above it appear the head of Osiris and the sceptre and flail, or
whip.
The mummy of Osiris on its bier with the hawk of Horus aboTS ; at the head is Nephthys,
and at the foot Isis.
No. 20.
No. 22.
'
Dixionario, p. 853.
138 RESURRECTION OF OSIRIS
and holding in his hands the sceptre and flail, or whip, raising
himself up on his knees from his bier, which is enclosed within
the funeral chest. Beneath the bier are most of the crowns of
the god. Beside it stands Isis.
seen kneeling within the boat of the double Tet, u h , wherein are
Xo. 23.
a papyrus plant and a lotus plant, the emblems of the South and
North respectively. The boat
upon a sledge, the supports rests
of which are made in the form of inverted lotus flowers, which are
well known types of the dawn and of renewed life. The title of the
god here is " Osiris Seker, lord of the funeral chest [at] Abydos,"
flail,
|, |, /\, and wears the White Crown, Sometimes he
appears as a man, with a large mouth and eyes and nose, and with
a Tet surmounted by a disk, plumes, horns, uraei, etc., issuing
from his head.^ He once appears in the form of Ptah pouring
out ^ water from a libation vase for a deceased person who kneels
before him, and once he appears with the head of the Bennu.^ In
1 Lanzone, Dhionario, pi. 29.3. 3 jfc;^.^ pi. 294. ^ Ibid., pi. 295.
King SETI I. Aooressinq OSIRIS Khent-Amentet.
—;
called " Osiris," rl'^, and from which four trees grow. Above the
mound is a large serpent with the White Crown upon its head, and
two small serpents growing out from its body on the right are: ;
birth into the new life of the world which beyond the grave and
is
" dieth not, and this Unas dieth not he is not destroyed, and this ;
" Unas shall not be destroyed if he begetteth not this Unas shall
;
Tem was identified with Ra, and Ra, at the time when this text was
written, was held to be the father of Osiris, and to all intents and
purposes the question of the scribe Ani was addressed to Osiris.
It has already been said that the great source of information
1 I]
^
the SooJc of the
-;=^ <^ ^
Bead
Ji
—
(Ani, pi. 19, 1.
^1
16).
1 f ^— ^
made to point out to man the necessity for leading a pure and
good life upon earth, and to instruct him in the words and deeds
which will enable him to attain eternal life, and we must now
briefly describe the relations which were believed to exist between
this god of truth and life and the deceased. In the accompanying
plate, which contains the famous " Judgment Scene " of the Booh
of the Bead, as contained in the Papyrus of Ani in the British
Museum, we have a re present ation of Osiris in his c apacity asjthe
Judge of the dead, and a description of it will explain the views
of the ancient Egyptians on the judgment of the souls of the dead.
From certain passages and allusions in the Pyramid Texts it is
clear that the ancient Egyptian s believed that the sguk_of-the
dead, and perhaps__also theirjbodjes^ were, judged, _aiidjt]lfi-piace
of their judgment seems to have been situated in the sky no ;
V [/\1
\ ^^ ^=^> "^ ) utchd metu, that is to say, the weighing of
actions, for the word metu means " deed, action," as much as
" word " (like the Hebrew ddbhdr, ^l'^). The " weighing of words"
^ D I (]
^ "j] i^, which were presided over by Thoth, who from
very remote days was known as Ap-rehui, \/ «=> § "%> ^
i.e., " Judge of the two combatant gods," that is to say, " Judo'e of
" words " were being tried in it on behalf of Osiris at least this —
was the view in later times.
The Egyptians, having once conceived the existence of a
Balance in the Underworld, proceeded to represent it pictorially, and
as a result we have in the vignette of the Judgment Scene a pair
" rectitude," all of which they expressed by the word madt, "^ ;
,
and it was against the emblem of Madt, the feather, R, that they
weighed either the heart or the whole body. Why the feather was
chosen as the symbol of madt instead of the usual object, it is / — i,
impossible to say, and this fact suggests that all the views which
the Egyptians held about the weighing of the heart have not yet
been understood. As the Judgment Scene stands it represents
a mixture of different views and opinions which belong to different
periods, but it seems impossible to doubt that at some remote time
they believed in the actual weighing of a portion of the physical
body of a man as a part of the ceremony of judgment. The
judgment of each individual seems to have taken place soon after
death, and annihilation or everlasting life and bliss to have been
decreed at once for the souls of the dead ; there are no sufficient
grounds for assuming that the Egyptians believed either in a
general resurrection or in protracted punishment. How far they
thought that the prayers of the living for the dead were efficacious
in arresting or modifying the decree of doom cannot be said, but
very considerable importance was attached by them to funeral
prayers and ceremonies in all ages, and there is no doubt that they
were the outcome of the firm belief that they would result in the
salvation and well-being of the souls of the dead. The Judgment
Scene as given in the Papjrrus of Ani may be thus described :
The scribe Ani and his wife Thuthu enter the Hall of Maati,
" found true by trial in the Great Balance. No evil hath been
"found in him, he hath not wasted the offerings in the temples,
"he hath not done harm by his deeds, and he hath uttered no
" evil report whilst he was upon earth." In answer to these words
the gods ratify the sentence of Thoth, and they declare that he is
holy and righteous, and that he hath not sinned against them
1' /\' fr<^i^ l^is neck hangs the mendt, (|o(w, i.e., the
I'
amulet which was associated with joy and pleasure. The title of
the god is " Osiris, lord of everlastingness." Behind him stand
Isis and Nephthys ; before him, standing on a lotus flower, are the
four Children of Horus, i.e., the four gods of the cardinal points.
The first, Mestha, has the head of a man ; the second, Hapi, the
head of an ape ; the third, Tuamutef, the head of a jackal ; and
the fourth, Qebhsennuf, the head of a hawk. In some papyri the
lotus on which these gods stand is seen to have its roots in a lake,
or stream, of water, which flows from under the throne of Osiris.
Near the lotus hangs the skin of the pied bull which was sacrificed
at the beginning of that portion of the funeral ceremony when two
gazelles and a goose were also slain as sacrifices. The side of the
He wears on his head a whitened wig, and the so-called " cone,"
the signification of which is unknown. In his speech Horus, the
son of Isis, says, " I have come to thee, TJn-nefer, and I have
" brought unto thee the Osiris Ani. His heart is righteous, and it
" hath come forth innocent from the Balance it hath not sianed ;
" against any god or any goddess. Thoth hath weighed it accord-
" ing to the decree pronounced unto him by the company of the
" gods most true and righteous. Grant that cakes and
•
and it is
" ale may be given unto him, and let him appear in the presence
" of Osiris and let him be like unto the followers of Horus for
;
" ever and ever." The scribe Ani then makes his prayer to Osiris
in the following words " Behold I am in thy presence, —
lord of
:
II —
146 OSmiS AS JUDGE
"favoured of the beautiful god, and beloved of the lord of the
" world, [I] wbo am indeed a royal scribe, wbo loveth thee,
" Ani MAA KHERU before the god Osiris." The reply of the god
Osiris is not recorded, but we may assume that the petition of Ani
was granted by him, and that he ratified the decision of the gods
in respect of a habitation in the Sekhet-Aaru. Thus Ani was free
to pass into all the various regions of the dominion of Osiris, and
to enter into everlasting life and happiness.
In the description of the Judgment Scene given above,
reference is made to the Eater of the Dead, and in connexion with
way the souls of all those who were condemned in the Judgment
Hall of Osiris, and that from one point of view the punishment of
the wicked consisted of annihilation. Above, too, it has been said
Avhen once his heart had been weighed and had not been found
wanting. Egyptologists have investigated the meaning of these
words very carefully, but have not agreed as to their meaning ; as
a result maa kherp has been rendered " victorious, triumphant,
"just, justified, truth-speaking, truthful, true of voice, mighty of
"word or speech, etc." Their true meaning seems to be "he
whose word is right and true," i.e., he whose word is held to be
right and true by those to whom it is addressed, and therefore,
Avhatsoever commanded by the person who is declared
is ordered or
in the Judgment Hall to be maa kheru is straightway performed
by the beings or things who are commanded or ordered. Before a
man who is maa kheru every door in the Underworld opened
itself, and every hostile power, animate or inanimate, was made to
remove itself from his path.
Passing now from the consideration of Osiris as the king and
judge of the dead, we must briefly refer to the beautiful hymns to
the god which are found in the Booh of the Dead and elsewhere.
First among these must be mentioned the very remarkable
composition which is inscribed on a stele in the Bibliotheque
Rationale, Paris, and which was first made known by Chabas.
The text is in the form of a hymn addressed to Osiris, but it is of
OSIRIS AS JUDGE 147
CHAFl'ER VII
HYMN TO OSIRIS
XVIIITH DYNASTY, ABOUT B.C. 1500
- Qereret = Qerti, _ , or <:z=> ,—n i were the two caverns where the
Nile was thought to rise at Elephantine.
3 A sanctuary near Herakleopolis.
HYMN TO OSIRIS 149
"thy waters from the abyss of heaven, thou bringest along the
" north wind at eventide and air for thy nostrils to the satisfaction
" of thy heart. 5. Thy heart germinateth, thou producest the light
" for divine food, the height of heaven and the starry gods obey
" thee, thou openest the great pylons [of heaven], and thou art he
"unto whom praises are sung in the southern heaven, and to
"whom adorations are performed in the northern heaven. The
" stars which never set 6. are under the seat of thy face, and the
" stars which never rest are thy habitations and unto thee
;
" offerings are made according to the decree of the god Seb.
" The company of the gods sing praises unto thee, and the
" starry gods of the Underworld bow down with their faces to the
" earth [before thee], the ends of the earth prostrate themselves
" before thee, and the bounds of heaven make supplication unto
"thee when they see thee. Those who are among the holy
7.
" ones are in awe of thee, and the two lands in their length and
"breadth ascribe praises unto thee when they meet thy majesty,
" thou glorious master, thou lord of masters, who art endowed
" with divine rank and dignity, who art stablished in [thy] rule,
" its reptiles, and [all] its four-footed beasts. The desert is thine
"by right, son of 12. Nut, and the two lands are content to
"make him to rise up upon the throne of his father like Ra.
"Thou risest in the horizon, thou givest light through the
" darkness, thou makest light to spread abroad from thy plumes,
"and thou floodest with light the two lands like the 13. Disk at
" the beginning of sunrise. Thy crown pierceth heaven, thou art
"a brother and the guide of every god, and
of the starry gods,
" thou dost work by decree and word, thou favoured one of the
" company of the gods, who art greatly beloved by the Lesser
" Company of the gods.
" Thy sister protected thee, and she drove away thy foes,
" 14. and she warded off from thee evil hap, and uttered the
" words of power with all the skill of her mouth ;
her tongue was
" trained, and she committed no fault of utterance, and she made
" [her] decree and [her] words to have effect, Isis, the mighty one,
" the avenger of her brother.
She sought thee without weariness,
"15. she went round about through this land in sorrow, and sh&„^
" set not to the ground her foot until she had found thee. She /
" made light with her feathers, she made air to come into being
" with her wings, and she uttered cries of lamentation at the bier
" of her brother. 16. She stirred up from his state of inactivity
" him whose heart was still (i.e., Osiris), she drew from him his seed,
" she made an heir, she suckled the babe in solitariness, and the
" place wherein she reared him is unknown, and his hand is mighty
(.(.
within the house 17. of Seb. The company of the gods rejoice
" and are glad at the coming of Horus, the son of Osiris, whose
" heart is stablished, and whose word taketh effect, the son of Isis
" and the heir of Osiris. The
Maat gather together
assessors of
" unto him, and with them are assembled the company of the gods,
"and Neb-er-tcher himself, and the lords of Maat. 18. Verily
" those who repulse faults rejoice in the house of Seb to bestow
"the rank [of Osiris]upon its lord, to whom is by right all
" sovereignty. The voice of Horus hath found the power of maat.
HYMN TO OSIRIS 151
" The rank of his father hath been given unto him, and he hath
"come forth crowned 19. by the command of Seb. He hath
" received the sceptre of the two lands, and the White Crown is
" stablished upon his head. He judgeth the earth according to
" his plans, and heaven and earth are open before his face. He
" layeth his commands upon men, and spirits, and upon the pat
"and hen-memet beings, and Egypt, and the Ha-nebu, and all the
" region 20. wherein the Disk revolveth are under his plans, as
"well as the north wind, and the river flood, and the celestial
" waters, and the stafl?" of life, and every flower. [He is] Nepra,
" and he giveth his green herbs ; he is the lord of tchefau food, he
" leadeth on abundance, and he giveth it unto all lands.
" the avenger of his father, the son of Isis, cometh against him, he
" shooteth forth his anger in his season. Holy and beneficent is his
" name, and the awe of him abideth in its place. 23. His laws are
" stablished everywhere, the path is cleared, the roads are opened,
" and the two lands are content wickedness departeth, evil goeth
;
" away, the earth is at peace under [the rule of] its lord, and Maat
" is stablished by 24. its lord, and setteth its back against iniquity.
" what hath been decreed for thee by thy father Seb be performed
" according to his word.
" May Osiris, Governor of Amentet, lord of Abydos, give a
" royal offering ! May he give sepulchral meals of oxen, and fowl,
" and bandages, and incense, and wax, and gifts of all kinds, and
" the [power to] make transformations, and mastery over the Nile,
" and [the power] to appear as a living soul, and to see the Disk
152 HYMN TO OSIRIS
" daily, and entrance into and exit from Re-stau ; may [my] soul
" not be repulsed in the Underworld, may it be among the favoured
" ones before Un-nefer, may it receive cakes and appear before the
" altar of the Great God, and snufF the sweet breath of the north
"wind."
( 153 )
CHAPTER VIII
f^
Y^T"
LORY ^ BE TO THEE, OsiEis Un-neeer, the great god who
dwellest within Abtu (Abydos), thou king of eternity,
'thou lord of everlastingness, who passest through millions of
'
years in the course of thine existence. Thou art the eldest son
'
of the womb of Nut, and thou wast engendered by Seb, the
'
Ancestor ( d ^ erpdt) ; thou art the lord of the crowns of
'
the South and North, thou art the lord of the lofty white crown,
'
and as prtace of gods and men thou hast received the crook, |
, and
'
the whip, A , and the dignity of his divine fathers. Let thine
'
heart, Osiris, who art in the Mountain of Amentet, be content,
'
thy son Horus is stablished upon thy throne. Thou art
for
crowned lord of Tettu (Mendes), and ruler in Abtu (Abydos).
'Through thee the world waxeth green in triumph before the
'might of Neb-er-tcher. He leadeth in his train that which is,
'
and that which is name Ta-her-sta-nef he toweth
not yet, in his ;
'
along the earth by Maat in his name of 'Seker'; he is exceedingly
'
mighty and most terrible in his name Osiris he endureth for
'
'
;
'
ever and for ever in his name of Un-nefer.' '
'
the Underworld (l\ <M> c=C=Q Akert). Thy members are [like]
(
,
)/
^ ©) . Isis
"in Kher-aha, thou god Unti, who art more glorious than the gods
"who are hidden in Annu. 2. Homage to thee, O An ((|i
'
^) in
"thou art One and thou makest the strength which is thine own
"protection, and thou dwellest in Tettu. 5. Homage to thee,
" lord of the Acacia Tree
(^^ ^ ^ M, the Seker Boat is upon its
'
From the Papyrus of Ani, sheet 19.
HYMN TO OSIRIS 155
''
worker of and thou causest the Utchat (^^) to rest upon
evil, ,
" its seat. 6. Homage to thee, thou who art mighty in thine hour,
"
( r^ ( [I
^==*"
^ 1) ; ""^hose word is madt, thou possessor of the two
" lands in thy seasons of operative power thou art the lord of the ;
" Atebui (i.e., the two lands which lay one on each side of the
" madt, thou son of Nut, thou first-born son of Seb, thou mighty
" one who comest forth from Nut, thou king in the city of Nifu-ur,
" thou Governor of Amentet, thou lord of Abtu, thou lord of souls,
"thou mighty one of strength, thou lord of the Atef crown, ^^^,
"in Suten-henen, thou lord of the divine form in the city of
"Nifu-ur, thou lord of the tomb, thou mighty one of souls in
"Tattu, thou lord of [sepulchral] offerings, whose festivals are
"many in Tattu. The god Horus exalteth his father in every
"place, and he uniteth himself unto the goddess Isis and unto her
glorifyings which are within him, and which come forth from his
mouth, and the heart of Horus is stronger than that of all the
gods. Else up, then, Isis, and avenge
Horus, thou son of thy
father Osiris. Hail, come unto thee I
Osiris, I have ; am
Horus and I have avenged thee, and I feed this day upon the
sepulchral meals of oxen and feathered fowl, and upon all the
beautiful things offered unto Osiris. Else up, then, Osiris, for
I have struck down for thee all thine enemies, and I have taken
vengeance upon them for thee. I am Horus upon this beautiful
day of thy fair rising in thy Soul, which exalteth thee along with
itself on this day before thy divine sovereign princes. Hail,
Osiris, thy double (ka) hath come unto thee and rests with
thee, and thou restest therein in thy name of Ka-Hetep. It
maketh thee glorious in thy name of Khu, and it maketh thee like
unto the Morning Star in thy name of Pehu, and it openeth for
thee the ways in thy name of Ap-uat. Hail, Osiris, I have
come unto thee, and I have set thine enemies under thee in
every place, and thy word is madt in the presence of the gods
and of the divine sovereign chiefs. Hail, Osiris, thou hast
received thy sceptre and the place whereon thou art to rest, and
thy steps are under thee. Thou bringest food to the gods, and
thou bringest sepulchral meals unto those who dwell in their
tombs. Thou hast given thy might unto the gods, and thou
hast created the Great God ; thou hast thy existence with them
in their spiritual bodies, thou gatherest thyself unto all the gods,
and thou hearest the word of madt on the day when offerings to
thisgod are ordered on the festivals of Uka."
.5^ V. " Homage to thee,^ Governor of Amentet, Un-neeer,
lord of Ta-tchesert, thou who art diademed like Ra, verily I
come to see thee and to rejoice at thy beauties. His disk is thy
disk ; his rays of light are thy rays of light ; his Ureret crown is
thy Ureret crown; his majesty is thy majesty; his risings are
thy risings ; his beauties are thy beauties ; the terror which he
inspireth is the terror which thou inspirest ; his odour is thy
odour ; his hall is thy hall ; his seat is thy seat ; his throne is thy
throne ; his heir is thy heir ; his ornaments are thy ornaments ;
"thou art raised up, Osiris, and I have given unto thee thy
" hand, and I make thee to stand up a living being for ever and
ever.
VI. "
Homage to thee,^ Governor of those who are in
" Amenti, who makest mortals to be born again, who renewest thy
" youth, thou comest who dwellest in thy season, and who art more
" beautiful than , thy son Horus hath avenged thee ; the
"rank and dignity of Tem have been conferred upon thee, Un-
" nefer. Thou art raised up, Bull of Amentet, thou art stablished
"in the body of Nut, who uniteth herself unto thee, and who
" Cometh forth with thee. Thy heart is stablished upon that which
" supporteth it, and thy breast is as it was formerly thy nose is ;
"firmly fixed with life and power, thou livest, and thou art
" renewed, and thou makest thyself young like Ra each and every
VII. " Thy heart rejoiceth,^ lord of the gods, thy heart
" rejoiceth greatly ; the BlackLand and the Red Land are at
" peace, and they serve thee humbly under thy sovereign power.
" The temples are stablished upon their own lands, cities and
" nomes possess firmly the goods which are inscribed in their names,
" The lords of all lands praise thy beauties even as they praise Ra
"when he riseth at the beginning of each day. Thou risest up
" like an exalted one upon thy standard, thy beauties exalt the
" face and make long the stride. I have given unto thee the sove-
" reignty of thy father Seb, and the goddess Mut, thy mother, who
" gave birth to the gods, brought thee forth as the first-born of
" five gods, and created thy beauties, and fashioned thy members.
" Thou art stablished as king, the white upon thy head,
crown is
" and thou hast grasped in thy hands the crook and the whip ;
" whilst thou wert in the womb, and hadst not as yet come forth
" therefrom upon the earth, thou wert crowned lord of the two
" lands, and the Atef crown of Ra was upon thy brow. The gods
" come unto thee bowing low to the ground, and they hold thee in
" fear they retreat and depart when they see thee possessing the
;
" terror of Ra, and the victory of thy Majesty is in their hearts.
" Life is with thee, and offerings of meat and drink follow thee,
" and that which is thy due is offered up before thy face."
VIII. " Homage to thee,^ thou holy god, thou mighty and
"beneficent being, thou Prince of eternity who dwellest in thy
"abode in the Sektet Boat, thou whose risings are manifold in the
" Atet Boat, to thee are praises rendered in heaven and upon
"earth. Peoples and nations exalt thee, and the majesty of thy
" terror is in the hearts of men, and spirits, and the dead. Thy
" Soul is in Tattu (Mendes) and the terror of thee is in Suten-henen
" (Herakleopolis) ; thou settest the visible emblems of thyself in
"Annu and the greatness of thy transformations in the double
" place of purification."
truth I have come to thee, and I have brought Maat to thee, and
I have destroyed wickedness for thee. I have not done evil to
(i.e., cheated the seller). I have not misread the pointer of the
scales (i.e., cheated the buyer). I have not carried away the
milk from the mouths of children. I have not driven away the
cattle from their pastures. I have not snared the feathered fowl
of the preserves of the gods. I have not caught fish [with bait
made of] fish of their kind. I have not turned back the water at
the time [when it should flow]. I have not cut a cutting in a
canal of running water. I have not extinguished a fire when it
should burn. I have not violated the seasons of the chosen meat
offerings. I have not driven off the cattle from the property of
the gods. I have not repulsed God in his manifestations. I am
pure. I am pure. I am pure. I am pure. My purity is the
purity of that great Bennu which is in the city of Suten-henen
(Herakleopolis Magna), for, behold, lam the nose of the god of
the winds who makefch all mankind to live on the day when the
M
" Eye of Ra is full in Annu at the end of the second montli of the
" season Pert^ in the presence of the divine lord of the earth.
" I have seen the Eye of Ra when it was full in Annu, therefore let
" not evil befall me in this land and in this Hall of Maati, because
" I, even I, know the names of these gods who are therein and who
" are the followers of the great god."
1 I.e., the Season of Growing ; tlie second month of Pert is the sisth month
of the Egyptian year.
II —
( 162 )
CHAPTER IX
HYMN TO OSIRIS 1
1
-^ D \-^\
ash rennu tclieser Jcheperu sJieta dru em
many of names, holy of creations, hidden of forms in
'=^\\
Athi
dlh
hhent
^
tchef
k
em
IS
Annu neb
the nome Athi, chief of the sacred food in Heliopolis, the. lord
^ k
tcheser em
.01
Aneb-hetch
^v ?
ba Ba
:n---^
-
tchet f tchesef
holy one, in White Wall, the soul of Ra, of his very body,
hetej) em
M^f^
Suten-henen
3
menJch
-f-^
Jiennu
k
em Ndrt
satisfied with in Henen-suten, abundant of praise in Nart,
offerings
==
^3
hhejper setheset ba -
f neb het aa em Khemennu
hath become exalted his soul [as] lord of the Great in Khemennu,
House
the two lands, Tem the divine god of the /cas, chief oi the paut
164 HYMN TO OSIRIS
AAAAAA
1 a
neteru khu menhh emmd khu khenp en nef
ofthegods, spirit beneficent among the spirits, lie draweth
ODD
Nu
A/W\/vA
AAAAAA
mu -
'
f
ii
A/vAA/V\
khent-nef
AWW\
^
meht
T m^ meses
V
nef er
£?,
fentet-f er heteptu
I
a5 -/
[and] air to his nostrils to the satisfaction of his heart,
0=
C3ED
retet en cub -f meses-nef khut tclief
C^' III I Ml I I I
ra
/\f\AJ\AA
-k
D
neb hennu em pet reset tuau em pet mehtet
lord of praises in the southern adored in the northern
heaven. heaven.
^ 111 1
j! crrzi I
f]
a ^ ^
^
•^ ^ mil III
S'
tuat em sen ta ichtcha.ti
of the underworld smell the earth [before the boundaries [of
him], earth]
k=[j]i^r I I
/www
7 ^^^^ hh/yf^hf\
I I I \
^ Ml
\
maa-sen su naiu am shepsu
[when] they see him. Those who are among the holy ones
•% /^ I
flkl
her ner-nef taui temt her ertd nef daiu
fear him, the two lands, all [of them] give to him praises
-t^ !:
em khesefu hen-f sdhu khu khent safm
in meeting his majesty, the master glorious, chief of masters.
t J
uah dat smen heqet sekhem nefer
endowed with divine rank, stablished of dominion. Form beautiful
8.
1 I
him that seeth him. He putteth his fear in all lands, through
-^^ I
love [of him] they all proclaim his name before [every name].
=^^- I
nebu
r 1
neb
n\
sekhau
^em
fe7'p - nef
Make offerings to him all men, the lord who is commemorated in
1 — |0^^K ^\ "- 2 li
tep en sennu -
f seru en paut neteru
first of his divine brethren, prince of the paut of the gods,
her nest-f da en at -
f 8eb merer mut -
f
upon his throne great of his father Seb, darling of his mother
1 1 I
kheft -
f ertd sent -
f em hheru -
f an
his enemy placing his fear in his foe. Bringer
of boundaries remote, firm of heart, his two feet are lifted up.
command
V I
AVv/Wv I—
AAWWV ^ _ -C35- '-'
f _ a '^-=^-
D © S
I
I
'^^ I AAWWV
AAAA/V\ I n f • 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 I
n 1 1 1 n 1
AA/VSAA '
AA'WNA
mu -
f nef -
f sem -
f menment -
f nebt
its waters, its air, its green herbs, its cattle all,
/AAAA/\
r^^i <^ I I I
1
the desert is by right to the son of Nut, the two lands are content
AAAAAA
O
shu em shuti-f hdh-nef taui md dthen
with light from his plumes, he floodeth with the two like the Disk
light lands
©
1i
• metu hesi en paut neteru aat merer
and word, favoured one of ih.epaut of the gods great, beloved of
e =1
1! 1
"^^ n
kem
%•¥,
hhu
TP fl^ ^ - \^
res dqert nes an uh
with the power of her mouth, perfect of tongue, not erring
AA^^AA
without finding him, she made light with her hair (or,
feathers)
of her brother. She raised up [from] inactivity the one still of heart,
170 HYMN TO OSIRIS
i> £S
HYMN TO OSIRIS 171
'WW A/SAAAA y^ ,
. -. n Ill
1 »L=^ I 31 ^~S^
dm tejp-f dp-nef ta er hhert-f
upon his head. He judgeth the earth according to his plan.
I
31
ffl
<=> i ?«- n\\ •a
I
Heaven and are under the seat of his face. Hecommandeth men,
earth
khu
D
pat
fl
im\
hamemet
-2U® Ta-merd
f
Ha-nebu
spirits, the dead, the ,
and Egypt, the lords of the north,
the circle of the Disk, are under his plans, and the north the flood,
wind,
172 HYMN TO OSIRIS
''
'V^'^^-^M
..AAA*
AAAAAA
„^ ^^ /WWVN
td -
f sem -
f neb tchefau bes -
f
he giveth his green herbs, the lord of tchefau food, he leadeth on
A^AAA^
sesau td -
f su em taiu bu neb Ichent
I
"^^ ^^ III
/wjvwv %;5^
V22. 2^
1
ri
I I I I iJ
hheft -
f kher en qen -
f dri tu
His enemy hath fallen before his wrath, the maker of evil
HYMN TO OSIRIS 173
'^^ B^ %\^=?^ ^
/VVAAAA
A
sper eref sa Ast netcU-nef dt-f
Cometh unto him the son of Isis, the avenger of his father.
fu men er hepu -
f uat sesh-thd
the roads are opened, content are the two lands, wickedness
^^P ^\ ^\\^ I I I
ffi
- !\fT^ I ?-- ±1 V i: «i
er dsfet netchem db-Jc Un-nefer sa Ast shep
an
I
-
f
25-ii2^i
t^t^
tcliatchat
^mher-thd
\\i
utu en
---
td -
- ^
per hheru
T
dh
?
apt
M
shesa
-^
sentra merhet
«
f
may he give sepulchral meals, oxen, fowl, bandages, incense, wax,
^'M=
mat renpet
^
neb
^
dri
ei
Icheperii,
tk
selchem
mHap
¥ k V
pert em ha
n\
dnhlii
5 k
maa em
w
dthen
of Nile, appearance as a soul living, the sight of the disk
HYMN TO OSIRIS 175
@ ^ J\ ZV
/vvvvv\
o
tep tuait dq pert em Be-stcm an shend
atdawndaily, entrance and exit from Re-stau, not beingrepulsed
into
27. — I
ha em Neter-lchert terp - tu -
f em - md
the soul in the Underworld, reception among
I f=^
A
hesiu embah JJn-nefer sliep sennu per
the favoured before Un-nefer, receipt of cakes, coming forth
ones
I
^ 1' 'a.£f
netchem meht-s
sweet of the north.
( 176 )
CHAPTER X
1. Asar Un-nefer .
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2. Asar Ankhti
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3. Asar Neb-ankh
4. Asar Neb-er-tcher 1]
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5. Asar Khenti-
6. Asar Sah .
7. Asar Saa .
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8. Asar Khenti-peru
L^ <= W
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II
9. Asar Em Resenet
1
^i-
10. Asar Em Mehenet .
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27. Asar Qeftennu .
Em D
28. Asar Sekri Pet-she w 31 I
Ifflh ^ w
D
30. Asar Em Pesek-re
cx:=><
31. Asar Em-ast-f-amu-Ta-meh
D
32. Asar Em Pet .
Jl
<=^
C3> 1.— W
35. Asar Smam-ur .
II —
178 NAMES OF OSIRIS
CSS
II
w
53. Asar Em Nepert „
Asar Em Ta-Sekri w
56.
Li%.
57. Asar Em Shau .
CSS
59. AsaremMaati.
_D W
60. Asar Em Hena.
ilkiEfl®-
NAMES OF OSIRIS 179
1. , Asar Un-nefer .
i2±J
2. Asar Ankhi
4. Asar Neb-er-tcher
8. Asar Sail .
9. Asar Seps-baiu-Annu
zl
17. Asar Heq taiu her-ab Tattu V^V
18. Asar Her-ab set . .
J^ ^ ^ m
19. Asar Ba sheps em Tattu . r|
26. Asar Em Pe .
M D I
M D
48. Asar Em ta
M 1 s
49. Asar Em nest .
ipr^i-
66. Asar Em Seker
j^
182 NAMES OF OSIRIS
(3
MD
76. Asar Her shai-f
o o o
<£f
77. Asar Ivhent sehet kauit-f
ii
78. Asar Em Sa
M P1=l'
79. Asar Em Sati .
M s (S
II
88. Asar
Asar
Em
Em
Pe Nu
M _ AWAAA
89. Het-aat
cnn
90. Asar Neb-Ankh em Abtu
f' WSi'
.. '
Q
101. TemKakhapautneteruaat ^^ ^^ | r=s> ^Tl-
102. Ap-uat rest sekhem taui .
V
K \>
107. Heru-ur
109. Heru-sa-Ast .
'^'j
o
110. Amsu (Mm)-suten-HerU'
nekht
112. Khnemu-Heru-hetep
113. Heru-Sekhai .
PPI^I-
184 NAMES OF OSIRIS
114. Heru-khent-khatthi
115. Hem-Tehuti .
m
116. An-her .
1-1
117. Anpu-khent-neter-seh
1
118. Nut . . .
120. Re-sekhait
o
121. Shenthit 9
O
122. Heqtit .
O
123. Neshmet neb tchetta
is:
124. Net . . .
125. Serqet
126. Maat
''
127. Ahit ra
O
129. MeskbenAat .
134. Hapi .
D
135. Tua-mut-f
I I I
136. Qebh-sennu-f .
.
#
137. Aarat her-ab neter het
1 —
- a o '0' 1Q
138. Neteru semu Tuat . I .
1
142. Amkhiu nu Asar
148. Asar Khent Amentet
I-
144. Asar Em ast-f nebu. M (S
II
153.
© III
a
154. Asar Em ahat-f nebu
© III
neb ....
155. Heru-netch-tef-f em ren-f I ^ I V
^
156. Anpu khent neter seh em r 1
ren-f neb
CHAPTER XI
XII. ""T^k Tow the story of Isis and Osiris, its most significant and
I ^^ " superfluous parts omitted, is thus briefly related :
" Rhea, they say, having accompanied with Kronos by stealth, was
" discovered by Helios, who hereupon denounced a curse upon her,
" '
that she should not be delivered in any month or year.' Hermes
" however, being likewise in love with the same Goddess, in
" recompence of the favours which he had received from her, plays
" at tables with Selene, and wins from her the seventieth part of
" each of her illuminations ; these several parts, making in the
" whole five new days, he afterwards joined together, and added to
" the three hundred and sixty, of Avhich the year formerly
" consisted which days therefore are even yet called by the
:
" as the birth-days of their Gods. For upon the first of them, say
" they, was Osiris born, just at whose entrance into the world a
" voice was heard, saying, the lord of all the earth is born.'
'
" There are some indeed who relate this circumstance in a diff'erent
"manner, as that a certain person named Pamyles, as he was
" fetching water from the temple of Jupiter at Thebes, heard a
" committed the education of the child to him, and that in memory
"of this event the Pamylia were afterwards instituted, a festival
"much resembling the PhaUephoria or Priapeia of the Greeks.
" Upon the second of these days was Aeoueris {'Apovripi<;) born
" whom some call Apollo, and others distinguish by the name of
"the elder Orus.^ Upon the third, Typho [i.e., Set ^i^]
"came into the world, being bom neither at the proper time, nor
"by the right place, but forcing his way through a wound Avhich
"he had made in his mother's side. ^Isisjwas boriLPn the fo urth
" of them, in the_inarshes _£if_Eg;yp±4 as Nephthys was upon the
"last, whom some call Teleute and Aphrodite, and others Nike.
" Now as to the fathers of these children, the two them are
first of
" said to have been begotten by Helios ; Isis by Hermes Typho ;
"womb before they were born, and that from this commerce sprang
" Aroueris, whom the Egyptians likewise call the '
elder Orus,' and
"
" the Greeks ApoUo.' '
" he gave them a body of laws to regulate their conduct by, and
" instructed them in that reverence and worship, which they Avere
" to pay to the gods with the same good disposition he afterwards
;
" travelled over the rest of the world, inducing the people every-
" where to submit to his discipline, not indeed compelling them by
" force of arms, but persuading them to yield to the strength of
" his reasons, which were conveyed to them in the most agreeable
"manner, in hymns and songs accompanied with instruments of
" music ; from which last circumstance, the Greeks conclude him
" to have been the same person with their Dionysos or Bacchus.
"During Osiris's absence from his kingdom Typho had no
" did not fit any of them, last of all Osiris lays himself down in it,
" the Tanaiticmouth of the Nile which for this reason is still held
;
XIV. " The first who knew the accident which had befallen
" their king, were the Pans and Satyrs who inhabited the country
" about Chemmis ;^ and they immediately acquainting the people
" with the news gave the first occasion to the name Panic Terrors,
" which has ever since been made use of to signifie any sudden
" aff"right or amazement of a multitude. As to Isis, as soon as the
" report reached her, she immediately cut off one of the locks of
" her hair, and put on mourning apparel upon the very spot where
1 I.e., Apu, (I D ^ ©, the Panopolis of the Greeks; the name Xi/xfju';, the
^^
modern Akhmim, is derived from the old Egyptian name, '"
^ .
ISIS AND OSIRIS 189
" she then happened to be, which accordingly from this accident
" has ever since been called Coptos, or the City
of Mourning, though
" some are of opinion that this word rather signifies Deprivation.
" After this she wandered everywhere about the country, full of
" disquietude and perplexity, in search of the chest, enquiring of
"every person she met with, even of some children whom she
" chanced to see, whether they knew what was become of it. Now
" it so happened that these children had seen what Typho's accom-
" plices had done with the body, and accordingly acquainted her by
" what mouth of the Nile it had been conveyed into the sea. For
''
this reason therefore the Egyptians look upon children as endued
" with a kind of faculty of divining, and in consequence of this
" notion are very curious in observing the accidental prattle which
"they have with one another whilst they are at play (especially if
" it be a sacred place), forming omens and presages from it. Isis,
" during this interval, having been informed that Osiris, deceived by
"her sister Nephthys who was in love with him, had unwittingly
" enjoyed her instead of herself, as she concluded from the melilot
"dogs that conducted her to the place where it was, she found it
" and bred it up so that in process of time it became her constant
;
" the kindest manner possible, plaiting their hair for them, and
" transmitting into them part of that wonderfully grateful odour,
" which issued from her own body. This raised a great desire in
" the queen their mistress, to see the stranger, who had this
" admirable faculty of transfusing so fragrant a smell from herself
" into the hair and skin of other people. She therefore sent for
" her to court, and after a further acquaintance with her, made her
"nurse to one of her sons. Now the name of the king, who
" reigned at this time at Byblos,^ was Melcarthus, as that of his
" queen was Astarte, or according to others, Saosis, though some
" call her Nemanoun, which answers to the Greek name of
" Athenais.
XVI. " Isis fed the child by giving it her finger to suck
"instead of the breast she likewise put him every night into the
;
1 The Byblos really referred to here is a city in the Papyrus Swamps of the
Delta.
;;
" loud and terrible lamentation over it, as frighted the younger of
who heard her, out of his life. But the elder of
" the king's sons,
" them she took with her, and set sail with the chest for Egypt
" and it being now about morning, the river Phaedrus sending
"forth a rough and sharp air, she in her anger dried up its
" current.
" call upon in their banquets, is none other than this very boy.
"This relation is again contradicted by such as tell us, that the
" true name of this child was Palaestinus, or Pelusius, and that the
" city of this name was built by the goddess in memory of him
" adding farther, that the Maneros above mentioned is thus
" honoured by the Egyptians at their feasts, because he was the
" first who invented music. There are others again, who affirm
" that Maneros is not the name of any particular person, but a
" mere customary form, and complimental manner of greeting
" made use of by the Egyptians one towards another at their more
" solemn feastsand banquets, meaning no more by it than to
"wish 'that what they were then about might prove fortunate
" and happy to them,' for that this is the true import of the word.
" In like manner, say they, the human skeleton, which at these
" times of jollity is carried about in a box, and shewn to all the
" guests, is not designed, as some imagine, to represent the par-
" ticular misfortunes of Osiris, but rather to remind them of their
" mortality, and thereby to excite them freely to make use of and
" to enjoy the good things which are set before them, seeing they
" must quickly become such as they there saw and that this is ;
;
" she there buried it. There are others however who contradict
*'
this relation, and tell us, that this variety of sepulchres was owing
" rather to the policy of the queen, who, instead of the real body,
" as was pretended, presented these several cities with the image
" only of her husband and that she did this, not only to render
;
" the honours, which would by this means be paid to his memory,
" more extensive, but likewise that she might hereby elude the
of Typho who, if he got the better of
'
' malicious search ;
" Orus in the war wherein they were going to be engaged, dis-
*' tracted by this multiplicity of Sepulchres, might despair of being
^'
able to find the true one —we are told moreover, that notwith-
" standing all her search, Isis was never able to recover the privy-
^'
member of Osiris, which having been thrown into the Nile
"immediately upon its separation from the rest of the body,
" had been devoured by the Lepidotus, the Phagrus, and the
^'
Oxyrynchus, fish which of all others, for this reason, the
1 I.e., Per-Uatchit,
'--'
1 MO
'
" offered to his father and mother.' He then asked him, what '
" creature to one who stands in need of help, yet is the horse more
" useful in overtaking and cutting off a flying adversary.' These
"replies much rejoiced Osiris, as they shewed him that his son
" was sufficiently prepared for his enemy. We are moreover told,
" that amongst the great numbers who were continually deserting
" from Typho's party was hjis concubine Thueris,' and that a serpent
" pursuing her as she was coming over to Orus, was slain by his
" soldiers —the memory of which action, say they, is still preserved
" in that cord, which is thrown into the midst of their assemblies,
—
" and then chopt into pieces afterwards it came to a battle between
" them, which lasted many days ;
but victory at length inclined to
" Orus, Typho himself being taken prisoner. Isis however, to
" whose custody he was committed, was so far from putting him to
"death, that she even loosed his bonds and set him at liberty.
" This action of his mother so extremely incensed Orus, that he
" laid hands upon her, and pulled off the ensign of royalty which
" she wore on her head ; and instead thereof Hermes clapt on an
"helmet made in the shape of an oxe's head. After this Typho
" publicly accused Orus of bastardy but by the assistance of ;
1 I.e., Ta-urt, ^
II —
194 ISIS AND OSIRIS
" tlie Gods themselves. After there were two other battles
this,
" fought between them, in both which Typho had the worst. Fur-
" thermore, Isis is said to have accompanied Osiris after his death,
"and in consequence hereof to have brought forth Harpocrates,
" who came into the world before his time, and lame in his lower
" limbs."
( 195 )
CHAPTER XII
together under the form Sdpani<;, and, although the exact nature
of the attributes which they assigned to Osiris and Apis united is
not quite clear, it seems tolerably certain that they regarded Serapis
as the form which Apis took after death. According to the
hieroglyphic texts ^ which were found on stelae and other objects in
the Serapeum at Sakkara, Apis is called " the life of Osiris, the
Paris, 1856.
196 SERAPIS
joined together by the Memphis, and that the attributes
priests of
m
the same text we have a
3f;ir;iirf^,s^-r^,ief.H{}[oifrssf®^;0:cirOi
mention of the " temple
\:TfzU:iM:m^^i:rjm:m^
n\WMii\hmmmE-i^tAmm:\mK::j\znm of Asar - H api," r| ?\
u:^imiim^ut^w\L:h^^BBLr\jtivmit
aiiasEifvO^EOiiiiiU'^r^i^E^^ g^, i.e., of Serapis,
seen adoring Osiris, Serapis, and other gods. as the proper places at
which the worship of the double god should be paid. Apis was, in
fact, believed to be animated by the soul of Osiris, and to be Osiris
'"^ =^
1 In the text of Pepi I. (1. 671) the god Ue-sheps-f, ^^ [1
" After this, say they, both Isis and Osiris, on account of their
" eminent virtue, were translated from the order of good Demons
" to that of Gods, as in after ages were Hercules and Bacchus and ;
" therefore the honours which are paid them are very properly of
" the mixed kind, such as are due both to Gods and Demons, their
" power being very great, not only upon earth, but in those regions
" likewise which are under the earth. For, say they, Osiris is none
" other than Pluto, nor is Isis different from Proserpine, as Arche-
" machus the Euboean asserts, and as appears likewise to have
" been the opinion of Heraclides of Pontus from his declaring the
" oracle at Canopus to belong to Pluto.
XXVIII. " But the following facts will make this point stUl
" more evident. Ptolemy, surnamed the Saviour, had a dream,
" wherein a certain Colossean statue, such as he had never seen
" before, appeared unto him, commanding him to remove it as soon
" as possible from the place where it then stood to Alexandria.
" Upon this the king was in great perplexity, as he knew neither
" to whom the statue belonged nor where to look for it. Upon his
" relating the vision to his friends, a certain person named Sosibius,
''
who had been a great traveller, declared that he had seen just
" such a statue as the king described at Sinope. Soteles and
" Dionysius were hereupon immediately dispatched in order to
" bring it away with them, which they at length accomplished
" though not without much difficulty, and the manifest interposi-
" tion of providence. Timotheus the Interpreter, and Manetho, as
" soon as the statue was shown to them, from the Cerberus and
" Dragon that accompanied it, concluded that it was designed to
" represent Pluto, and persuaded the king that it was in reality
''
none other than the Egyptian Sarapis ; must be observed,
for it
" that the statue had not this name before it was brought to
" Alexandria, it being given to it afterwards by the Egyptians, as
" equipollent, in their opinion, to its old one of Pluto. So again,
" when Heraclitus the Physiologist asserts that Pluto and Bacchus
" are the same, does not this directly lead to the same conclusion ?
" For as to those who say that by Pluto is here meant the body,
200 SERAPIS
" because tlie soul, whilstwere intoxicated and
it is in it, is as it
" beside itself, and that from hence springs the relation between
" it and Bacchus, this is too subtle and finespun an allegory to
" deserve our serious notice. Heraclitus's assertion therefore may
" be much more probably accounted by supposing the Bacchus for,
" here meant to be the same as Osiris, and Osiris again the same
" as Sarapis, this latter appellation having been given him, upon
" his being translated from the order of Genii to that of the Gods,
" Sarapis being none other than that common name by which all
" those are called, who have thus changed their nature, as is well
" known by those who are initiated into the mysteries of Osiris.
" Little regard therefore is to be paid to those Phrygian Tales,
" wherein mention is made of one Sarapis, as the daughter of
" Hercules, and of Typho, as born of Isaeacus one of his sons :
" nor does Phylarchus better deserve our credit, when he tells us
" that '
Bacchus first brought two bullocks with him out of India
" into Egypt, and that the name of the one was A]jis, and that of
" the other Osiris,' adding moreover, that Sarapis, in the proper '
" meaning of the word, signifies him loho disposed the Universe
" into its present heautifnl order.' Now though this assertion of
" Phylarchus be weak enough, yet it is not quite so absurd as that
''
of those who assert, that '
Sarapis is no god at all, but the mere
^'
denomination of the sepulchral chest, wherein the body of Apis
" after its death is deposited much more tolerable than either of
;
'
^'
the preceding is their opinion, who would derive this name from
" words which in the Greek language import, '
one loho first
" impelled and gave motion to the universe.' The priests indeed, at
" least the greatest part of them, tell us, that Sarapis is none other
" than the mere union of Osiris and Apis into one word ; declarative
" as it were of that opinion, which they are perpetually explaining
" and inculcating, '
that the Apis ought ever to be regarded by us,
" as a fair and beautiful image of the soul of Osiris.' For my part
" I cannot but think, that if this word be of Egyptian extraction,
" it ought to be interpreted so as to express joy a,nd gladness, seeing
" that festival, which we Grecians call Charmosyna, or the feast of
"joy, is by the Egyptians expressly termed Sarei. Nor altogether
" disagreeable to this last notion of Sarapis, is the explication which
;
SERAPIS 201
''
Plato gives of the corresponding name Hades or Pluto, stiling
of
" him, '
the son of cheerfulness, and a kind and gentle Deity to all
" such as come unto him.' There are likewise many other words,
" which when interpreted into Greek, become entire sentences
" such particularly is Amenthes, or that subterraneous region
" whither they imagine the souls of those who die to go after their
" decease, a name which expressly signifies in the tongue, the receiver
" and giver} But whether this likewise be not one of those words,
" which were originally transplanted from Greece into Egypt, we
" will enquire in another place."
1 The Egyptian form of the word is ft Amentet, and the name means
" hidden place."
( 202 )
CHAPITER XIII
the sound of her name. Sometimes she wears the double crowns
The Goddess ISIS.
ISIS 203
of the South and the North, to the back of which is attached the
feather of Maat, and sometimes she wears with the pair of horns
and the solar disk two plumes.^ Her horns are usually those of
the cow of Hathor, or of one of the sister forms of this goddess,
\/,
but occasionally ^ she wears a pair of ram's horns, '~s~' under her ,
is certain that their views concerning her varied from time to time,
and that certain aspects or phases of the goddess were worshipped
more generally at one period than at another, it is correct to say
that from the earliest to the latest dynasties Isis was thegrea test \
the position which she held in the cycle of their gods between
B.C. 4000 and B.C. 300^ the duties which she was thought to
perform in connexion with the dead were clearly defined, and were
identical with those which belonged to her in the Graeco-Roman
period. / Isis was the great and beneficent goddess and mother,
whose influence and love pervaded all heaven, and earth, and the
abode of the dead, and she was the personification of the great
feminine, creative power which conceived, and brought forth every
and thing, from the gods in heaven, to man on the
living creature,
earth, and to the insect on the ground what she brought forth ;
she protected, and cared for, and fed, and nourished, and she
1 See Lanzone, Dizionario, pll. 306 S. ^ Ihid., pi. 308, No. 3.
;
204 ISIS
I
and of the conception and birth, and rearing of her child power-
i fully impressed the imagination of the Egyptians, and hieroglyphic
literature is full of allusions to them. In the Pyramid Texts
the deceased is said (Unas, line 181) "to breathe the breath
of Isis," and to make his passage in heaven, with Isis, in the
Matet Boat, the boat of the rising sun (line 293) moreover,
i.e., ;
Isis and Nephthys as his " sisters." These things the Egyptians
believed because their ancient traditions told them of all that Isis
had done for her husband and child, and they hoped that the
goddess would be present at the celebrations of their funeral rites,
and that she would secure for them a new birth. In the illustrated
Recensions of the Booh of the Dead Isis frequently appears both
as the mother of HoruSj the^heir Hro' tHe^throne of Osiris7and as
the mourning widow of her husband. In the vignette to the
clist Chapter Isis kneels at" the "bier of the" deceased, and says to
him, " I have come to protect thee with the north wind which
" cometh forth from Tem; I have strengthened for "thBethy throat;
" I have caused thee to be with the god ; and I have placed all
"thine enemies under thy feet." This speech refers to the air
which Isis produced by the beating of her wings when she restored
Osiris to life in order that she might conceive an heir by him, and
also to the air which she provided for her son Horus after he had
been stung to death by a scorpion. Everywhere ..iajthe^^o/c of
the'Dead Isis is regarded as a giver of life and of food to the dead,
and she appears behind the god in the shrine wherein Osiris is
seated in the Judgment Hall, and in one of her aspects she is
identified with one of the two Maat goddesses she may, in fact, ;
allusions to her relations with Osiris, but it says little about her
devotion to her son Horus, whom she reared with loving care that
he might become the " avenger of his father," and we must have
recourse to the texts which are found inscribed on the " Metternich
stele," ^ if we would gain a clearer idea of the troubles which Isis
endured after the death of Osiris. In one of these the goddess is
'
This stele was found in Alexandria in 1828, and was given to Prince
Metternioh by Muhammad 'Ali for a facsimile of it, and renderings of the texts
;
of restraint. Whilst Isis was thus confined, " Thoth, the great
"god, the prince of Law both in heaven and upon the earth,"
came to her and said, " Come, thou goddess Isis, it is good to be
" obedient, for there is life for him that will follow the advice of
" another. Hide thou thy son the and this is what
child [Horus],
"shall happen: his limbs shall grow, become endowedand he will
" with two-fold strength, and then he shall be made to sit upon the
" throne of his father, and he shall avenge him and take possession
"of the rank of the prince of the Two Lands." Isis took the
advice of her friend Thoth and, she says, " I came forth from the
"house at eventide, and there also came forth with me Seven
" Scorpions, who were to accompany me, and to be my helpers.
" Two scorpions, Tefen and Befen, were behind me, two scorpions,
" Mestet and Mestetef were by my side, and three scorpions, Petet,
" Thetet, and Maatet, shewed me the way. I cried out unto them
" in a very loud voice, and my speech entered into their ears even
" as into the ears of one who knoweth that obedience is a thing
" which is applauded, and that disobedience is the mark of the
" person who is of no account, and I said unto them, Let your '
" faces be turned to the ground that ye may [shew me] the way.'
" So the leader of this company brought me unto the marshes of
" Pa-sui, the city of the two Divine Sandals, which lay at the
"beginning of the Papyrus Swamps
" I had arrived Teb
([] |
cr=i. ^ Ateh). When
at I came forth to the habitations of the
"women who belonged to the overlord of the district, and the chief
"woman who had seen me coming along shut her doors in my face,
"and was angry with me in her heart because of those (i.e., the
" Seven Scorpions) that were with me. Now the scorpions took
:
" counsel on the matter, and they all at one time ejected their
" poison on the tip of the tail of Tefen ; but as for me, a poor
" fen- woman opened her door to me, and I entered into her house.
" Meanwhile the Scorpion Tefen entered under the leaves of the
" door of the lady [who had shut her doors upon me], and she
" stung her son, and fire straightway broke out in the house
of the
" noble lady but there was no water forthcoming to put it
;
out,
" and the heavens dropped down no rain upon the house of the
" noble lady, for it was not the season for rain. And, behold, the
on
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ISIS 207
" heart of the "woman who had not opened her doors to me was
" sad, for she knew not whether her son would live, and although
" she went round about through her city uttering cries of lamenta-
" tion none came at her call. But mine own heart was sad for the
"child's sake, and I wished to restore to life him that had com-
" mitted no fault. Thereupon I cried out to the noble lady,
" '
Come to me. Come to me, for my speech hath in it the power
" to protect, and it possesseth life. I am a woman who is well-
" known in her city,and I can drive the evil out of thy son by one
" of my utterances, which my father taught me, for I was the
" beloved daughter of his body.'
The noble lady presumably listened to the words of Isis, who,
it seems, either went to her house, or had the dead child brought
into her presence, for the narrative continues, " Then Isis laid her
" hands upon the child to restore to life him that was without
" breath (literally him whose throat was foul'), and said,
' poison '
" of Tefen, come forth, and appear on the ground come not in, ;
" approach not poison of Befent, come forth, and appear on the
!
" ground ! for I am Isis the goddess, and I am the lady of words of
" power, and I know how to work with words of power, and most
" mighty are [my] words ! all ye reptiles which sting, hearken
" unto me, andfall ye down on the ground ! poison of Mestet?
" come not hither poison of Mestetef, rise not up
! poison of !
" Petet and Thetet, enter not here [0 poison of] Maatet, fall down !'"
!
Next in the narrative we have the words of the " Chapter of the
stinging [of scorpions] " which " Isis, the goddess and great
enchantress at the head of the gods," spake on this occasion, and it
is said that she learnt her method of procedure from Seb, who had
taugWrher-iow to drive out- poison. At the dawn of day she
uttered the words, " poison, get thee back, turn away, begone,
retreat," and added " Mer-Ra " and at eventide she said, "
;
The
Egg of the Goose " cometh forth " from the Sycamore." Then
turning to the Seven Scorpions she said, " I speak to you, for I
" am alone and am in sorrow which is greater than that of anyone
" in the nomes of Egypt. I am like a man who hath become old,
" and who hath ceased to search after and to look upon women in
" their houses. Turn your faces down to the ground, and find ye
—
208 ISIS
" child liveth and the poison dieth the Sun liveth and the poison ;
" dieth," and then the wishes, " May Horus be in good case for his
" mother Isis ! And may he who shall find himself in a similar
" state be in good case also !
" As the result of the utterances of
Isis the fire in the house of the noble lady was extinguished, and
" heaven was satisfied with the words which the goddess Isis " had
spoken. The narrative is continued by Isis in these words :
" Then came the lady who had shut her doors against me, and
" took possession of the house of the fen- woman because she had
" opened the door of her house unto me, and because of this the
" noble lady sufi'ered pain and sorrow during a whole night, and
" she had to bear [the thought] of her speech, and that her son had
" been stung because she had closed the doors and had not opened
'"them to me." Following this come the words, "0, the child
" liveth, the poison dieth ! Verily, Horus shall be in good case for
" his mother Isis ! Verily, in like manner shall he be in good case
" who shall find himself in a similar position ! Shall not the bread
" of barley drive out the poison and make it to return from the
" limbs ? Shall not the flame of the hetchet plant drive out the fire
" "
from the members ?
" '
Isis, Isis, come to thy child Horus, thou whose mouth is
:
" wise, come to thy son ' thus cried out the gods who were near
" her after the manner of one whom a scorpion hath stung, and like
" one whom Behat, whom the animal Antesh put to flight, hath
" wounded. Then came Isis like a woman who was smitten in her
" own body. And she stretched out her two arms, [saying], I will
" protect thee, I wiU protect thee, my son Horus. Fear thou not,
" fear thou not, son, my glorious one. No evil thing whatsoever
" shall happen unto thee, for in thee is the seed whereof things
" which are to be shall be created. Thou art the son within the
neighbourhood of the city of Buto (Pe and Tep), which, according to Herodotus,
floated.
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ISIS 209
" Mesqet, who hast proceeded from Nu, and thou shalt riot die by
" the flame of the poison. Thou art the Great Bennu who wast
" born on the Incense Trees in the House of the Great Prince in
"Heliopolis. Thou art the brother of the Abtu Fish, who dost
" arrange that which is to be, and who wast nursed by the Cat
"within the House of Net. Eeret, Hat and Bes protect thy
"limbs. Thine head shall not fall before him that is hostile to
" thee. The fire of that which hath poisoned thee shall not have
" dominion over thy limbs. Thou shalt not fail on land, and thou
" shalt not be in peril on the water. No reptile that stingeth shall
" have the mastery over thee, and no lion shall crush thee or gain
" the mastery ovgr thee. Thou art the son of the holy god an d
"dost proceed from Seb. Thou art Horns, an^ the poison which
" is in thy limbs shall not have the mastery over thee. And even
" so shall it be with him that is under the knife. And the four
" noble goddesses shall protect thy limbs."
From the above we see that the gods informed Isis that her
son Horus had been stung by a scorpion, and from what follows we
shall see in what condition Isis found her son. She says, " I, Isis,
" conceived a man child, and I was heavy with Horus. I, the
" goddess, bare Horus, the son of Isis, within a nest o f papyru s
" plants or, ' Island of Ateh.') I rejoiced over him with exceedingly
(
" great joy, for I saw in him one who would make answer for his
" father. I hid him, and I concealed him, for I was afraid lest he
" should be bitten. Now I went away to the city of Am, and the
" people thereof saluted me according to their wont, and I passed
" the time in seeking food and provision for the boy ; but when I
"returned to embrace Horus, I found him, the beautiful one of
" gold, the boy, the chUd, inert and helpless. He had bedewed the
" ground with the water of his eye, and with the foam of his lips
" his body was motionless, and his heart was stUl, and his muscles
" moved not, and f sent forth a cry Then straightway
" the dwellers in the swamps came round about me, and the fen
" men came out to me from their houses, and they drew nigh to
" me at my call, and they themselves wept at the greatness of my
"misery. Yet no man there opened his mouth to speak to me
" because they all grieved for me sorely and no man among them;
II —
210 ISIS
" knew how to restore Horus to life. Then there came unto me a
" woman who was well known in her city, and she was a lady at
" the head of her district, and she came to me to restore [Horus] to
"life. Her heart was filled with her own affairs, according to
" custom, but the child Horus remained motionless and moved not.
" The son of the goddess-mother had been smitten by the evil of
" his brother. The plants [where Horus was] were concealed, and
" no hostile being could find a way into them.
" The word of power of Tem, the father of the gods, who is in
" heaven, acted as the maker of life, and Set had not entered into
" this region, and he could not go round about the city of Kheb
" (Khemmis) ; and Horus was safe from the wickedness of his
" brother. But Isis had not hidden those who ministered unto him
" many times each day, and these said concerning him, '
Horus
''liveth for his mother;' they found out where he was, and a
" scorpion stung him, and Aun-ab (i.e., Slayer of the Heart)
" stabbed him."
Then " Isis placed her nose in the mouth of Horus to learn if
" there was any breath in him that was in his coflin, and she opened
" the wound of the divine heir, and she found poison therein.
" Then she embraced him hurriedly and leaped about with him like
" a fish when it is placed over a hot fire, and she said, Horus is '
" stung, Ra, thy son is stung. Horus, thy very heir, and the
"lord of the of Shu is stung. Horus, the child of the
" Papyrus Swamps, the child in Het-ser is stung the beautiful ;
" Child of gold is stung, and the Child, the Babe, hath become a
" thing of nothingness. Horus, the son of Un-nefer, is stung,' etc.
" Then came Nephthys shedding tears, and she went about the
" Papyrus Swamps uttering cries of grief, and the goddess Serqet
" said, '
What is it ? What is it ? What hath happened to the
"child Horus?'
" Isis, pray thou to heaven so that the sailors of
' Ra may
"cease rowing, so that the Boat of Ra may not depart from the
" place where the child Horus is.' Then Isis sent forth a cry to
"heaven, and addressed her prayer to the Boat of Millions of
" Years ; and the Disk stood and moved not from the place
still,
" magical powers and possessed the great power which made [his]
"word to become Maat (i.e., Law), and he said: '0 Isis, thou
" goddess, thou glorious one, who hast knowledge how to use thy
" mouth, behold, no evil shall come upon the child Horus, for his
" protection cometh from the Boat of Ra. I have come this day in
" the Boat of the Disk from the place where it was yesterday.
"When the night cometh the light shall drive [it] away for the
" healing of Horus for the sake of his mother Isis, and every person
" who is under the knife [shall be healed] likewise.' " In answer to
makes that deity to be both god and man, and it is quite con-
ceivable that in the predjmastic times the sorrows of Isis, like those
of Osiris, formed the subject of miracle plays which were acted
annually in all the centres of the worship of Isis. Isis as the faithful
and loving wife, and as the tender and devoted mother won the
hearts of the Egyptians in all periods of their history, and we can
only regret that the narrative of the wanderings and sorrows of the
212 ISIS X
Bull,
D ^^
^ "^ / and went away with him to the Apis temple,
^
^ , in order that she might see his father Osiris, who was
therein.
Another great human element in the story of Isis which
appealed strongly to the Egyptians was the desire of the goddess
to be avenged on the murderer of her husband, and it is this which
is referred to in the words of Isis, who says, " I rejoiced over
him
" with exceedingly great joy, for I saw in him one who would make
^'answer for his father." The manner in which Horus "made
answer for "and avenged his father is told in the Sallier Papyrus
(translated by Chabas,^) where it is said that Horus and Set fought
together, standing on their feet, first in the forms of men and next
in the forms of two bears. For three days and for three nights the
fightbetween them raged, and Horus gained the victory over Set,
but when Isis saw that Set was being overpowered her heart was
touched on his account, and she cried out and ordered the weapons
which her son was wielding against her brother to fall down, and
they did so, and Set was released. When Horus saw that his
mother had taken his adversary's part he raged at her like a
panther of the south, and she fled before his wrath ; a fierce
struggle between Isis and Horus then took place, and Horus cut
off his mother's head. Thoth, by means of his words of power,
transformed her head into that of a cow which he attached to her
body straightway,
Isis, though worshipped aU over Egypt, was specially
venerated in certain cities, and the following are among the
commonest of her titles^ :
— " The great lady, the God-mother, lady
Isis of Ta-at-nehepet,
"ftlP'^^5 -\2t'^@; Isis,
"Usert-Isis, "[[1^
(-^ ^ ^@; Isis, lady of Khebt, ® J^'f";
gi^^r of lady of Abaton, lady of
j^^' life,
" Philae, lady of the countries of the south," etc. From a list of
titles of the goddess collected by Dr. Brugsch,^ it is clear that Isis
^=3 (1 c>
p or TcHETUT, ^^ 3 , in Aphroditopolis, and Shetat,
those of " the divine one, the only one, the greatest of the gods
" and goddesses, the queen of all gods, the female Ra, the female
^'
Horus, the eye of Ra, the crown of Ra-Heru, Sept, opener of the
" year, lady of the New Year, maker of the sunrise, lady of heaven,
" the light-giver of heaven, lady of the North "Wind, queen of the
" earth, most mighty one, queen of the South and North, lady of
" the solid earth, lady of warmth and fire, benefactress of the Tuat,
'
See the translation of the Legend of Ra and Isis given in vol. i., p. 372 ff.
The Goddess RENNUT.
• ,
ISIS-SEPT 215
slie appealed for help to restore Horus to life after lie had been
stung to death by a scorpion.
In the Theban Recension of the Booh of the Dead is found a
Chapter (No. clvi.) which was composed for the purpose of bestow-
ing upon the deceased some of the magical power of the goddess.
The Chapter was intended to be recited over an amulet called thet
'^
I
lO , made of camelian, which had to be steeped in water of
dnkhami flowers, and set in a
flood she was Sati, *Y* 3 , and Sept, as the embracer of the land
as the producer and giver of life she was Ankhet, T^^^m > ^s
the goddess of cultivated lands and fields she was Sekhet, Y cI) >
as the goddess of the harvest she was Renenet, w^^ " Pn ' ^^ ^^^
goddess of food which was offered to the gods she was Tcheft, hJ!^ ,
"^
and lived in the Temple of Tchefau, M '^^^(^a, and as
" hidden " goddess. In this last capacity she shared with Osiris
the attribute of " giver of life," and she provided food for the dead
as well as for the living ; as Ament
was declared to be the also she
mother of Ra. In fact, at a comparatively early period in Egyptian
history Isis had absorbed the attributes of all the great primitive
goddesses, and of all the local goddesses such as Nekhebet, Uatchet,
Net, Bast, Hathor, and she was even identified as the female
etc.,
'
Pompeii, its Life and Art, London, 1899, p. 162.
218 ISIS IN ROME
Christianity, and the festival of these gods was recognized in the
public Calendar.
The chief temple of Isis in Rome stood in the Campus Martius,
where the goddess was called "Isis Campensis"; and an inscription
of the year 105 B.C. found at Puteoli proves that a temple of
Serapis was then standing in that city.^ The important temple of
Isis at Pompeii appears to have been built soon after this date,
the latter half of the second century a.d., and adds some curious
details about the attributes of the goddess herself. Thus in his prayer
to her he calls her " queen of heaven," regina coeli,^ and he identifies
her with Ceres, and Venus, and Proserpine, and refers to her in
her capacity as goddess of wheat and crops. At daybreak on the
day of the festival of the goddess the priest went into her temple,
and threw open the doors, leaving nothing but white linen curtains
across the doorway to screen the interior. When the courts were
filled with people, these curtains were drawn, and the worshippers
once the people began to pray, and the women rattled their sistra,
and the prayers were followed by an interval, during which the
devout crowd engaged in silent prayer and contemplation of the
goddess. About one hour after daybreak, i.e., when the sun had
risen, the multitude sang a hymn to the newly risen god, and then
departed to their homes. In the afternoon another service was
held, at which sistra were shaken, and
were oiFered up, sacrifices
and incense was burnt, and an elaborate ceremony in connexion
with the use of a vessel of holy Nile water was performed.
The holiest of all the sanctuaries of Isis known to the Grreeks
was that at Tithorea, and Pausanias tells us^ that festivals were
" retumed to Tithorea and told what he had beheld when he gave
" up the ghost. I have heard a like story from a Phoenician man.
" He said that the Egyptians hold the festival of Isis at the time
" when they say she is mourning At that time the
for Osiris. Nile
" begins to rise, and it is a common saying among the natives
that
" it is the tears of Isis that cause the river to rise and water the
" fields. Well, then, my informant said that at that season the
" Roman govemor Egypt bribed a man to go down to the
of
" shrine of Isis at Coptos. The man who was thus sent in returned
" from the shrine ; but after he had told us all that he had beheld,
" he, too, I was informed, immediately expired. Thus it appears to
" be a true saying of Homer's that it is ill for mankind to see the
" gods in bodily shape."
220 ISIS AND THE VIRGIN MARY
Among the various peoples by whom Isis is venerated must
be mentioned those of Syria, who identified her with certain of
Egypt were due mainly to the fact that the new religion, which
was preached there by Saint Mark and his immediate followers, in
all its essentials so closely resembled that which was the outcome
of the worship of Osiris, Isis, and Horus that popular opposition was
entirely disarmed. In certain places in the south of Egypt, e.g.,
Philae, the worship of Osiris and Isis maintained its own until the
beginning of the fifth century of our era, though this was in reality
due to the support which it received from the Nubians, but,
speaking generally, at this period in all other parts of Egypt Mary
the Virgin and Christ had taken the^'places of Isis and Horus, and the
" God-mother," or " mother of the god," 1
^\ j was no longer Isis,
CHAPTER XIV
|«49.p crzi f
sena-a Set
aet er-s as tcJiet-nd Tehuti ur
my brother Set in it. Behold, said to me Thoth, the great one,
^ @
[2
her tep Madt em pet ta mddt ert Ast
chief of Maat in heaven and earth, " Come, thou Isis,
i: J.
/I\
U \^ f ^^^ ^^
netert nefer hher pu setem dnhh ua sems
goddess, good (it is) to possess obedience ; life (is to the) one (who is)
led
® 50.
AAAAA^
ji\ AV\/WS
1'1<^
iu -
f enen hdu-f rut pehpeh-f neb
will happen these things, his limbs (will) grow, he wiU. grow
strong whoUy,
1 See Golenischefi, Die Metternichstele, Leipzig, 1877, pi. 3, 1. 48, ff.
SORROWS OF ISIS 223
vSja
D ^
Mep tei Tietep-f her nest tef -
f netchet-nef
T I © 1 O
dat heq taui per-lcud her trdt en
?i(i a Te/ew
«> J™^
Befen
fl
ha-d
®"
sep sen
(H
Mestet
with me at Tefen and Befen were behind me, twice, Mestet and
my side.
^ %^ T
^ ^
O 1
5
X ^^1
AA/NA«\ Hi' ill
52. ®
II
I I I
\^1 tesher em sa sa
ushet
J^ .JSi 53.
S>
O
nut ent Thebt hat dt
^^ =>J'
V vv vv
^ F^ c^ c:^ V]
I
f\ A
hai du teka - nud shejps em ua
of the governor. Had seen me the chief woman on the march,
^5..
f""^ ^^ ^<0
I I I I
<^
iT T:
entet er hen-d netch-sen re her-s ertd-sen
those who were with me. They decreed about it (and) they placed
vvvvv
A^WWA
I Mo a ^^ I 1 I o
sa usert khet pertu em pa usert
the son of the noble fire broke out in the house of the noble
lady, lady,
an un mu dm er dhhem-s an pet hi
not was water there to quench it, not did heaven let fall
A/VWVA
And behold, she who had not her heart (was) sad
opened to me,
= f- ^- SP Tflk-=i
an rehh dnJch-f serer-nes nut-s em dmem
not knowing if he lived. She went round her city with lamentation,
through
not came [any] at her call. My heart was sad about the child
II —
226 SORROWS OF ISIS
for her sake, (I wished) to (him that was) without I cried out
revive fault.
1
i^v:^ ^ II ^^ ^ 1 <=> 1
G 7^ ^^ ^ — , ©^_ ^ 1]
-=
em
£JP
tep-re-s
hir\
sha-nud
^m dff-d
<-
er
T ^
relch nuk
by her utterance. Taught me my father to know. I am
_^ =^^ ^ A ilO D 1
the daughter beloved of his body. Laid Isis her hands upon
nekhen
^ -
er
pf
sednkh
n- ^
entet em ka
!
dhet
A.r
met
the child to vivify that of which had closed the throat. poison
1 iV iV %•
netert nebt helca dri keka khu
the goddess, lady of words of worker with words of mighty-
power, power,
D °^ ffl
j^
met en Mestet dn sekheset met en Mestetef
D -JU.
A ^
dn theset met en Petet Thetet dji dqet
60. ->3^
Matet hher Icher re en pehes
pelies tchet en
Ast
1
netert urt
IV
Tielca
df
Ichent
m
neteru
Isis, the goddess, the great one of words of power, head of the gods.
® £2^ j^^
the dawn saying, " Ra-mer, the Egg of the Goose cometh
forth
\ iZM IS
em nehet mdlcu inetet-s hentu
from the sycamore. A protection (are) her words spoken
—"—
^ ^
"^^^
<=> ''^ fl"^ ' ,
'
<® S[
lO'
^LU 1
r\
\J I
I 11
I I
/^AA^^^
AAAAAA
„.
<^—-->.^
If
d ankh
#
nekhen
k°
mit
Ar met
f
dnkh
?
Bd -
V
mit
liveth the boy, dieth the poison ; liveth Ra, dieth
SORROWS OF ISIS 229
Ar -^ met ha
PTj
snib
66-
^
Heru
™"
en
.^^
mut-f
i;
Ast
the poison. Verily, healthy be Horus for his mother Isis.
-^ ka
PTJ
snib
r; ^
hher
--
metes
i: ;a
enti mdtet hhet
AAA/V\A
<3=> iJ
the goddess. The lady (who) came, (she who) had shut her house,
on me
t 1
'='8
she seized the house of the poor woman because the poor woman
o
^
1
f^^-"""!
her son, was closed her house in return for her not having opened
for her to me.
230 SORROWS OF ISIS
If
d dnlch nehhen
^ V Ar -^
mit met lea
PTJ
senib
Eem en mut -
f Ast ha snib enti
drive out poison ? It shall return all the limbs the flame of
through
hetchet ter -
f neb em hdu en Ast sep sen
hetchet and drive out the fire from the members Isis. Twice.
¥- ^i \V 111 - Sm- u
sa-t d dn neteru em oner - s ma
thy son. " Hail," say the gods in her neighbourhood, like
73.
"^ =,n,,_ i<=^^^ Q:^^^-.
D
11^ —H— (C
yv
® 75.
II
c^^
son, my glory. Not shall happen thing any evil unto thee.
A/WW\ 76.
^'
mu dm-k en an unnet entek sa
Seed is in thee for making things which Thou art the son
are to be.
zi ^ DOD
^ =&
li
J/>-AAAA/i
D
ta na met entek Bennu
nennu aa mes
the flame of the poison. Thou art the Bennu Great born
i
her tep trd em Het-ser ur em Annu entek
AAA/W\
78.
ri <&< lO
79.
^^ ®
e??
Bes em sa en hdu-k an kher tep-k en
and Bes, protect thy limbs. Not shall faU thy head before
D
X BoJk D
tcliat dm-k an shep hdu-k tai
him that is to thee. Not shall conquer thy limbs the fire
hostile
AV*AAA J\ ^ ^Ji—
^ (3 I H
en metu-k an hen-k her ta, an
of thy poison. Not shalt thou fall on the ground, not
81.
I ?
khas-k her mu an sekhem re neh
shalt thou be in on water. Not shall have the reptile any
peril mastery
D
5^
pesh dm-k an rehen r)iai neh
stinging over thee. Not shall crush thee lion any
W^
1
sekhemet dm-k entek sn neter tchesert
(or) be master over thee. Thou art the son of a god holy
SORROWS OF ISIS
'' ¥
per
k ¥J
em Seb entek Heru
>JU.
dn sekhem
proceeding from Seb. Thou art Horus, not shall have the
mastery
nr meko
=1^--
em hdu-k
^
entek
¥sa
1^
neter
¥'
tchesert
the poison in thy limbs. Thou art the son of a god holy
j\
jper em Seb
n pa entet
ffi
kher
^'^^^
tern mdtet
proceeding from Seb. ("With him) under the knife likewise (is it).
that is
i\\'n
du iv,
«'-«pr,°
shepset
=-v
em sa en
i.Tt-
lidu-k
.
netert
^ i
mes-nd
^
Heru
^
sa
M
Asdr
ou
em khen
&
sesh
--
en
one who would answer for his father. I hid him, I concealed him
—
D la 1k«
kher sent netef-f shema-d dm tud
having fear of his being I went to the city Am, (the people) saluted
bitten.
£Sf?)
O I
1
m zv ^
her dri hher -f hem net er sehhen Heru qem-nd
C\ I
XTO. AAAAAA f^tR^y
I
su Heru nefer en nub nekhen suk
him, Horus, the beautiful one of gold, the boy, the child,
A/WsAft /VVVv/\A
^^
^^.^ —
AAAAAA
A/^\AAA
AAfy^AAi
^^-(=^
wv T
A^ftA'v^
A/sAAAA
O
dtet -
f netef-nef taiu em mu nu
he was nothing. He had bedewed the ground with the water of
^
maat-f
1 T
em netet
:r ?
nu septi-f
^
tchet-f urt
his eye, and with the foam of his lips ; his body was motionless,
& <1<11
I
I i
db-f betesh dn pa metu nu hdu-f utu-nd
his heart stQl, not moved the muscles of his body, I sent forth
lier
III
uru
^^
men-d
180. ^1^
an un
.^ f P
em re
s -f
at the greatness of my misery. There was none who his mouth
opened
there, man every among them grieved greatly. There was none
knowing
II j£r J^ I Ji r~vr~i
185.
J ^^ !i; -^Tt y ^^
ha dmen-tu an dq em khefti
^^^^
k <=> f^^^^ /wvAAA 111 !i;.^ _A_ ^^ Ij^ n
Horus was smitten by the wickedness of his brother. Not had she
hidden
dmu shesu -
f heh sep hru enen
those who were in his service many time[s] a day. These (said)
^^ ?-
^ — \n "
P T 189.^-=^
her-f dnkh Eeru en mut-f s em un-eref
concerning "Shall Horus for his mother?" they found where he
him, live was.
SORROWS OF ISIS 237
c^ r\Us/^f\f^ li —— H / ^^ ^ I
a Uo I 1 Q ci^ "li I 1
^191. G ^ m^ \/^ ^ o^
em Jchen en sheta -
f djt - s men nu dudd
he who was in his cofi&n. She opened the wound of the heir
Is
netert
'^:r:i92.
qem-nes
ffi
hher
TTmet
OP
selchen-s
\f1o
asta
and leaped about with him like a fish laid upon a fire
194.
^^. — ^ -^ :^IZ — ^\
Heru dd en du neb en Shu
Horus, heir of heir, lord of the [pillars ?] of Shu.
D 195.
^ 1^
Athet nekhen em
pesh Heru huii en
f S-^ 196. fi J
A«^ P^n 000^
Het-ser pesh nekhen nefer en nub nu
Het-ser. Stung is the child beautiful of gold. The child,
-^ ^ o
silk diet -
f pesh Herii, sa JJn-nefer
^=^
fl^-if PTI?2«*-i II
the swamp, and Serqet (who said), What, twice, what then is
^ ? ^ Jo ^M T ^ ^
er sa Eeru Ast tua ert er pet
205.
1 W 2l) I I J\
j: IP - - -Ji- -
Ast hheru-s er pet sebeh-s er uda en
Isis her cry to heaven, her prayer (was) to Boat of
I
207. [I WA^AA / — ^Jl_^
I AAAAA^ I © A J!l /W\AAA AAAA^^
M %1 209.^ ^^ ^ ^
netert Ichut rehJi re - s dn tu
O
en Bd i-nd mdn em tept dten
( 241 )
CHAPTER XIV
father of Anubis the worship of the god is, however, very much
;
older than this system, and in primitive times the attributes of the
god were very different from those which are usually ascribed to
him in the late dynastic period. In the Pyramid Texts we find
Set associated very closely with Horus, and he always appears in
them in the character of a god who is a friend and helper of the
dead. It will be remembered that according to one myth the floor
493) said, "Unas cometh forth upon the Ladder which his
it is
" father Ra hath made for him, and Horus and Set take the hand
" of Unas, and they lead him into the Tuat." On the other hand, ^
in another passage Ra and Horus are said to set up the Ladder for
Osiris (line 579 ff.), but even so when the dead king " standeth up
"he is Horus, and when he sitteth down he is Set."
The association of Set with Horus in these and many other
passages well illustrates the antiquity of the cult of Set, and helps
us to understand his attributes. Here we find him regarded as the
equal in every respect of Heru-ur, i.e., " Horus the Elder," who
was admittedly one of the oldest gods in Egypt, and it was
considered necessary for the welfare of the deceased that Set should
be propitiated, and his favour secured. From other passages,
however, it is and hostility
clear that there existed opposition
between Heru-ur and and that the destruction of one god bv
Set,
the other was only prevented by Thoth, who in his capacity as
regulator of the strife which existed between the two gods, was
called Ap-eehu, \/ <=>
^ ^ , or Ap-eehui, ^/ | %W , or
^ "^
thus
i
"^"^
^ ^I^' ^•®-' " Ji^<Jg6 of *^e two opponent gods," and
'kJ or , ra n I <=>
'kJ or
, 1 ^ >$-j) ; the former of these indicates
that the god was the personification of the stony or desert land and
the regions of death, but the signification of the latter is not so
easy to understand because the animal has not yet been identified.
The pictures of the animal which was supposed to be the incarnation
of Set represent it with a head something like that of a camel,
with curious, pricked ears, and a straight tail, bifurcated at the
end. we must assume
In the absence of any facts on the subject
that the animal which was the symbol of Set was one that prowled
about by night in the deserts and in waste places of the towns and
cities, and that his disposition was hostile to man, and wicked
generally, and that owing to his evil reputation he was hunted and
slain with such diligence that he became extinct in comparatively
early times.
The region in which the Set animal lived appears to have
been situated in the South, and the god Set became, in consequence,
the god of the South, just as Heru-ur became the god of the
North, and as such he assisted at the coronation ceremonies of
kings. Thus a relief^ at Thebes represents Horus and Set standing
one on each side of Seti L, and each god is pouring out a libation
and Set are represented in the act of placing the double crown of
the South and the North upon the head of Rameses II. Horus
says to the king, " I will give thee a life like unto that of Ra, and
years even as the years of Tem," and Set says, " I stablish the
'^
" crown upon thy head even like the Disk [on the head of]
((] )
"
" Amen Ra, and I will give thee and strength, and health
all life, ;
in his character of giver of life each god holds in his hand the
notched palm branch, ^, symbol of " years," which rests upon a
frog, ^,
and Q, the emblem of the Sun's path in the heavens
and of eternity. In yet another scene ^ we find Set teaching
Thothmes III. the use of the bow in connexion with the emblem of
the goddess Neith, whilst Horus instructs him how to wield some
weapon, which appears to be a staff. According to Dr. Brugsch,^
Set was the god of the downward motion of the sun in the lower
hemisphere, in a southerly direction, and for this reason he was the
source of the destructive heat of summer and since the days;
destroying heat of the sun, and the darts and spears of light. The
result of the fight was always the same Apep was shrivelled and
;
and the avowed intention of Horus is to slay him that slew his
father Osiris.
The two gods fought men, and afterwards in
in the forms of
the forms of bears, and Horus would certainly have killed Set,
whom he had fettered, had not Isis taken pity upon her brother
and loosed his bonds and set him free. The fight between Horus,
son of Osiris and Isis, and Set, had a very important bearmg on"
theHes Lluie b u f Lhe dea:d,
i
for to it was attached thelnoral iHiaTof
xviii.H 1 &., we may see that although the fiends of Set changed
themselves into wild beasts on the night of the breaking and
turning up of the earth in Tattu, Osiris, by the help of Thoth,
slew them, and mixed their blood with the sods. In Chapter
"!,
246 SET-TYPHON
xxiii. 2,we find the deceased praying that Thoth will come to him,
and will by means of his words of power loose the bandages where-
with Set has fettered his mouth and in Chapter xxxix. 15, we find ;
him declaring that he is Set who " letteth loose the storm-clouds
" and the thunder in the horizon of heaven, even as doth the god
"Netcheb-ab-f,
(^ J ^^ '^ ^- Elsewhere (xl. 1 fF.) Apep is
is
a
^ ^^
declared to be a being
J
I^
i.e.,
and elsewhere (cviii. 8), he is said " to depart, having the harpoon
" of iron in him," and to have thrown up everything which he had
eaten and to have been put in a place of restraint.
A statement in Plutarch's De hide
Osiride (§ 62), informset
us that Typhon was called Seth, and Bebo, and Smy, " all of them
" words of one common
import, and expressing certain violent and
" forcible restraintand withholding, as likewise contrariety and
" subversion we are, moreover, informed by Manetho that the
;
Thoth is said to have obtained from Set the knife with which he
cut up the bull.
It has been said above that the serpent and the Set animal
were the common symbols of Set, but instances are known in
which he is represented in the form of a man, wearing a beard and
a tail, and holding the usual symbols of divinity. In the example
figured by LanzoneHhe god is called "mighty-one of two-fold
strength," ^-=>|]|]v_d, and is accompanied by Nephthys, who
wears upon her head a pair of horns and a disk, Now, as Set was
the personification of the powers of darkness, and of evil, and of
the forces of the waters which were supposed to resist light and
order, a number of beasts which dwelt in the waters, or at least
partly on land and partly in the water, were regarded as symbols
of him and as beings wherein he took up his habitation. Among
these were the serpent Apep, the fabulous beast, Akhekh, _ 4^
which was a species of antelope with a bird's head surmounted by
three uraei, and a pair of wings, the hippopotamus, the crocodile,
the pig, the turtle, the ass, etc. These animals were, however, not
the only ones which were regarded as types of Set, for as Dr.
Brugsch has rightly observed, every creature which was snared or
caught in the waters or hunted in the desert, was treated as an
incarnation of Set and animals with red, or reddish-brown hair
;
1 TawfAn, t)^y=, or o^ijJ', the Arabic word for " storm, deluge, inundation,
whirlwind," etc., appears to be derived from the name Typhon.
2 Religion, p. 707. ^ Dizionario, pi. 377.
248 SET-ANIMALS
under tlie influence of Set. On the other hand, the animals which
were used by man in the chase, i.e., dogs, cheetas, etc., and certain
other animals, e.g., lions, cats, etc., were held to be sacred to the
" enemies, and thus doth Heru-Behutet, the great god, the lord of
" heaven, triumph over all his enemies." On such occasions, we learn
from Plutarch {Be Iside, § 63), sistra^ were shaken in the temples,
"for, say they, the sound of these Sistra averts and drives away
" Typho ; meaning hereby, that as corruption clogs and puts a
1 The sistrum is thus described by Plutarch : —
" Now the outer surface of this
" instrument is of a convex figure, as within its circumference are contained those
" four chords or bars, which make such a rattling when they are shaken nor is —
" this without its meaning for that part of the universe which is subject to
;
" generation and corruption is contained within the sphere of the moon and ;
" whatever naotions or changes may happen therein, they are all effected by the
" different combinations of the four elementary bodies, fire, earth, water, and air.
" Moreover, upon the upper part of the convex surface of the sistrum is carved the
" effigies of a Cat with a human, visage, as on the lower edge of it, under those
" moving chords, is engraved on the one side the face of Isis, and on the other that
" of Nephthys," etc.
KINGDOM OF SET 249
this power of darkness securely The seven stars of the Great Bear.
fettered by a chain this goddess ;
Set and to make clear a way in the sky for the birth of Heru-sma-
TAUi, whom Dr. Brugsch identified with the spring sun ; the texts,
however, make it clear that Reret was nothing but a form of Isis.
the Thigh in the northern sky," and were believed to take part in
curbing the evil deeds of Set. They may be identified with the
Thigh of Set,"
times it is
[t]
"J~ ^ ^^^^
'ty*'
^^ ^^^^^ dynastic
was wide-
spread, and his cult seems to have flourished until the period which
lies between the Xllth and the XVIIIth Dynasties ; but about
B.C. 1700 a change came over his fortunes, and the Egyptians began
to show the greatest detestation for him. He had, of course,
always been connected with evil, but it appears that the popularity
of his cult suffered greatly at this period because he was associated
with the occupation of Northern Egypt by the Hyksos, who
identified him with certain Semitic, Syrian gods. At Kom Ombo
and in the south of Egypt a common name of Set was Nubti,
r*^ J'^^^^, or Set-Nubti, ''kl P^ J'^©, and as such he is
usually represented with one body and two heads, one being that
of a hawk, and the other that of the remarkable animal which was
the symbol of the god.^ In the North and South of Egypt Set was
in the Delta with all the attributes of the Semitic god Baal,
byi^ whose name appears in Egyptian under the form Bar, or
god stands upright and wears the double crown of the South and
the North and a uraeus. When found the figure was bent double,
a position which it was made by violence, probably by
to take
someone who detested the god, but the body has been straightened
out and it is now possible to examine the head of the Set animal,
which in this specimen is finely shaped. Another interesting
figure of Set is No. 22,897, which is of good workmanship this, ;
The ideas which were held by the Egyptians about Set in the
their rites and ceremonies " that they hold him in the greatest
" contempt, and do all they can to vilify and affront him. Hence
"their ignominious treatment of those persons, whom from the
" redness of their complexions they imagine to bear a resemblance
" to him ; and hence likewise is derived the custom of the Coptites
" of throwing an Ass down a precipice ;
because it is usually of
"this colour. Nay, the inhabitants of Busiris and Lycopolis
" carry their detestation of this animal so far, as never to make any
" use of trumpets, because of the similitude between their sound
" and the braying of the ass. In a word, this animal is in general
" regarded by them and impure, merely on account of
as unclean
" the resemblance which they conceive it bears to Typho and in ;
" consequence of this notion, those cakes which they offer with
" their sacrifices during the last two months Paiini and Phaophi,
254 NEPHTHYS
" and that, after he had got into a place of security, he begat two
" sons, Hierosolymus and Judaeus, 'tis obvious from the very face
" of the relation, that their design is to give an air of fable to
" [what] the Jewish history [relates] of the flight of Moses out of
" Egypt, and of the settlement of the Jews about Hierusalem and
"Judaea" (Squire's Translation).
As a proof of the correctness of Plutarch's statements may be
mentioned the figure of Set, which is reproduced from a Demotic
papyrus at Leyden by Signer Lanzone,^ and which represents the
god as having the head of an ass on his breast, which is that of a
;
man, is inscribed the name CH©. We have now seen how the god
Set was the opponent first of Heru-ur, then of Ra, andfi nally of
Osiris and his son Horus, and that during the long period of
Egyptian history his attributes changed according to the various
modifications which took place in the beliefs concerning this god
in the minds of the Egyptians, and that from being a power of
nature, the darkness, he became the symbol and personification of
both physical and moral evil. We have now to consider briefly the
female counterpart of Set, that is to say the goddess Nephthys,
and to describe the part which she played in the Great Company
of the gods of Heliopolis.
Nebt-het
^Q(^5, or ^"^, Nephthys.
supposed to form the abode of the Sun-god Horus ; in fact " het
in the name of Nebt-het is used in exactly the same sense as " het "
in the name "Het-Hert," or Hathor, i.e., the "house of Horus."
In the earliest times Nephthys was regarded as the female counter-
part of Set, and she was always associated with him ; nevertheless
she always appears as the faithful sister and friend of Isis, and
helps the widowed goddess to collect the scattered limbs of Osiris
and to reconstitute his body. In the Pyramid Texts she appears
as a friend of the deceased, and she inaintains that character
throughout every Recension of the Booh of the Bead ; indeed, she
seems to perform for him what as a nature goddess she did for the
gods in primeval times when she fashioned the "body" of the
" Company of the Gods," and when she obtained the name
Nebkhat, (^} r^^'' i-^-' "Lady of the body [of the Gods]."
the gods," " great goddess, lady of life," " sister of the god, eye of
Ra, lady of heaven, mistress of the gods," " lady of heaven, mistress
of thetwo lands," " sister of the god, the creative goddess who liveth
within An," etc. The chief centres of her worship were Senu
which the disk of the Sun is thrust upwards by the " living Ra,"
^ ^H^ , at sunrise ; she is one of the " great sovereign chiefs in Tettu,"
Isis, has many forms, for she is one of the two Maat goddesses, and
she is one of the two Mert goddesses, and she is one of the two
plumes which ornamented the head of her father Ra. In her
birth-place^ in Upper Egypt, i.e., Het-Sekhem, or "the house of
the Sistrum," the goddess was identified with Hathor, the lady of
the sistrum, but the popular name of the city, "Het," i.e., the
" House," seems to apply to both goddesses. In the Serapeum
which belonged to the city, or the House of the Bennu, Osiris was
re-bom under the form of Horus, and Nephthys was one of his
"nursing mothers." The form in which Osiris appeared here was
the Moon, and as such he represented the left eye of the Bennu or
Ra, and as he thus became closely associated with Khensu and
Thoth, to his female counterparts were ascribed the attributes of
Sesheta and Maat, who were the female counterparts of Thoth.
Nephthys, as the active creative power which protected Osiris, the im
III til ^^^
NEPHTHYS 257
" the secret commerce between Osiris and Nephtliys and as the ;
moreover, that " on the upper part of the convex surface of the
" sistrum is carved the effigies of a Cat with a human visage, as on
" the lower edge of it, under those moving chords, is engraved on
" the one side the face of Isis, and on the other that of Nephthys."
The face of Isis represents Generation, and that of Nephthys
Corruption, and Plutarch says (§ 63) that the Cat denotes the
moon, " its variety of colours, its activity in the night, and
" the peculiar circumstances which attend its fecundity making
" it a proper emblem of that body. For it is reported of
" this creature, that it at first brings forth one, then two, after-
" wards three, and so goes on adding one to each former birth till
" it comes to seven ; so that she brings forth twenty- eight in all,
II —
258 NEPHTHYS
From the above paragraphs it is clear that Nephthys is the
personification of darkness and of all that belongs to it, and that her
attributes were rather of a passive than active character. She was
the opposite of Isis in every respect ; Isis symbolized birth, growth,
development and vigour, but Nephthys was the type of death, decay,
diminution and immobility. Isis and Nephthys were, however,
associated inseparably with each other, even as were Horus and
Set, and in all the important matters which concern the welfare of
the deceased they acted together, and they appear together in
bas-reliefs and vignettes. Isis, according to Plutarch (§ 44),
represented the part of the world which is visible, whilst Nephthys
represents that which is invisible, and we may even regard Isis as
the day and Nephthys as the night. Isis and Nephthys represent
respectively the things which areand the things which are yet to
come into being, the beginning and the end, birth and death, and
life and death.^ We have, unfortunately, no means of knowing
what the primitive conception of the attributes of Nephthys was,
but it is most improbable that it included any of the views on the
subject which were current in Plutarch's time. Nephthys is not
a goddess with well-defined characteristics, but she may, generally
speaking, be described as the goddess of the death which is not
eternal. In the Book of the Dead (Chap. xvii. 30), the deceased
is made to say, "I am the god Amsu (or, Min) in his coming
" forth may his two plumes be set upon my head for me."
; In
answer to the question, " Who then is this ? " the text goes on to
say, " Amsu is Horus, the avenger of his father, and his coming
''forth is The plumes upon his head are Isis and
his birth.
" Nephthys when they go forth to set themselves there, even as his
''protectors, and they provide that which his head lacketh, or (as
" others say), they are the two exceeding great uraei which are
" upon the head of their father Tern, or (as others say), his two
" eyes are the two plumes which are upon his head."
This passage proves that Nephthys, although a goddess of
death, was associated with the coming into existence of the life
which springs from death, and that she was, like Isis, a female
counterpart of Amsu, the ithyphallic god, who was at once the type
^ Eeligion, p. 735.
— ;
inscribed " to Isis," and on the arm of the other was to be a fiUet
inscribed " to Nephthys." On five days during the month of
December these women took their places in the temple of Abydos
and, assisted by the kher heb, or precentor, they sang a series
of groups of verses to the god, of which the following are
specimens :
" Hail, lord Osiris. Hail, lord Osiris. Hail, lord Osiris. Hail,
"lord Osiris. Hail, beautiful boy, come to thy temple straight-
" way, for we see thee not. Hail, beautiful boy, come to thy
"temple, and draw nigh after thy departure from us. Hail,
" beautiful boy, who leadest along the hour, who increasest except
" at his season. Thou art the exalted image of thy father Tenen,
"thou art the hidden essence who comest forth from xitmu.
"thou lord, thou lord, how much greater art thou than thy
"father, thou eldest son of thy mother's womb. Come thou
" back again to us with that which belongeth unto thee, and we
" will embrace thee ; depart not thou from us, thou beautiful
"and greatly loved face, thou image of Tenen, thou virile one,
" thou lord of love. Come thou in peace, and let us see thee,
"our lord, and the two sisters will join thy limbs together, and
260 NEPHTHYS AND ISIS
" thou shalt feel no pain, and they shall put an end unto all that
" hath afflicted thee, even as if it had never been Hail,
" Prince, who comest forth from the womb. Hail, Eldest son of
" primeval matter. Hail, Lord of multitudes of aspects and created
" forms. Hail, Circle of gold in the temples. Hail, Lord of time,
"and Bestower of years. Hail, Lord of life for all eternity. Hail,
" Lord of millions and myriads. Hail, thou who shinest both in
" rising and setting. Hail, thou who makest throats to be in good
" case. Hail, thou Lord of terror, thou mighty one of trembling.
" Hail, lord of multitudes of aspects, both maleand female. Hail,
" thou who crowned with the White Crown, thou lord of the
art
" Urerer Crown. Hail, thou holy Babe of Heru-hekennu. Hail,
"thou son of Ra, Avho sittest in the Boat of Millions of Years.
" Hail, thou Guide of rest, come thou to thy hidden places. Hail,
" thou lord of fear, who art self-produced. Hail, thou whose
"heart is still, come to thy city. Hail, thou who causest cries
" of joy, come to thy city. Hail, thou beloved one of the gods
" and goddesses. Hail, thou who dippest thyself [in Nu], come to
" thy temple. Hail, thou who art in the Tuat, come thou to thy
" offerings. . . . Hail, thou holy flower of the Great House. Hail,
"thou who bringest the holy cordage of the Sekti Boat. Hail,
" thou Lord of the Hennu Boat, who renewest thy youth in the
"secret place. Hail, thou Perfect Soul in Neter-khert. Hail,
" thou holy Judge (?) of the South and of the North. Hail, thou
" hidden one,
who art known to mankind. Hail, thouwho dost
"shine upon him that is in the Tuat and dost show him the
" Disk. Hail, lord of the Atef Crown, thou mighty one in Suten-
"henen. Hail, mighty one of terror. Hail, thou who risest in
" Thebes, who dost flourish for ever. Hail, thou living Soul . . .
"of Osiris, who art diademed with the moon. Hail, thou who
" hidest thy body in the great coffin at Heliopolis."
( 261 )
CHAPTER XV
e
Heru-ti, ^^5©, Ta-hetchet,
"^^^f^, Saiut,
262 ANUBIS AND OSIRIS
(3 Ci
(Lycopolis), Sekhem, (Leto-
^ S^[3:=i®
jDolis)/ etc.In the Theban Recension of the Book of the Dead he
plays some very prominent parts, the most important of all being
those which are connected with the judgment and the embalming
of the deceased. Tradition declared that Anubis embalmed the
body of Osiris, and that he swathed it in the linen swathings which
were woven by Isis and Nephthys for their brother ; and it was
believed that his work was so thoroughly well performed under
the direction of Horus and Isis and Nephthys, that it resisted the
influences of time and decay. In the vignette of the Funeral
Procession the mummy is received by Anubis, who stands by the
side of the tomb door and in the vignette to Chapter cli. of the
;
Boole of the Dead the god is seen standing by the side of the
mummy as it lies on its bier, and he lays his protecting hands upon
it. In the speech which is put into the mouth of Anubis, he says,
"I have come to protect Osiris." In the text of Unas (line 219)
the nose of the deceased is identified with the nose of Anubis, but
in the xliind Chapter of the Booh of the Dead the deceased declares,
" My lips are the lips of Anpu." From various passages it is clear
that in one part of Egypt at least Anubis was the great god of the
Underworld, and his rank and importance seem to have been as
great as those of Osiris. (See Chapter liii.)
Nebseni prays, saying, " May Anubis make my thighs firm so that
" I may stand upon them." In allusion to his connexion with
the embalmment of Osiris the god Anubis is called Am Ut,
-] -
^.^ O , i.e., " Dweller in the chamber of embalmment ;
" as
of the Book of the Dead the deceased says, " I have washed myself
" in the water wherein the god Anpu washed when he had
" performed the office of embalmer and bandager " and elsewhere ;
the deceased is told (clxx. 4) that " Anpu, who is upon his hill,
" hath set thee in order, and he hath fastened for thee thy
"swathings, thy throat is the throat of Anubis (clxxii. 22), and
" thy face is like that of Anubis " (clxxxi. 9).
The duty of guiding the souls of the dead round about the
Underworld and into the kingdom of Osiris was shared by Anubis
with another god Avhose type and symbol was a jackal, and whose
name was Ap-uat,
of the " formerly
^ ^^^
Anubis and Ap-uat were considered to be
ways ;
or \/ ^^' ^^' ^'^^ "Opener
two names of one and the same god, but there is no longer any
reason for holding this view. In the vignette to the cxxxviiith
Chapter of the Booh of the Dead we find represented the scene of
setting up the standard which supports the box that held the
side of the standard that we are dealing with symbols either of the
South and the North, or of the East and the West, we are justified
in thinking that one jackal represents
Ap-uat and the other
Anubis. Moreover, from the cxlvth Chapter we find
that the
over by seven
xxist Pylon of the House of Osiris was presided
among whom were Ap-uat and Anpu,^ and as in the xviiith
oods,
" upon the confines of both light and darkness, it may be looked
" upon as common to them both — and from this circumstance arose
" that resemblance, which they imagine between Anubis and the Dog,
" it being observed of this animal, that he is equally watchful as
" well by day as night. In short, the Egyptian Anubis seems to
" be of much the same power and nature as the Grecian Hecate, a
" deity common both to the celestial and
infernal regions. Others
" again are of opinion that by Anubis is meant Time, and that his
" denomination of Kuon does not so much allude to any likeness,
^'
which he has to the dog, though this be the general rendering of
" the word, as to that other signification of the term taken from
w
m
D
Z
<
Ui
<
o
I-
o
UI
Q.
a
z
<
o
<
_I
o
z
o
I
o
UJ
m
<
u
o
Ul
X
I-
ANUBIS 265
" breeding ; because Time begets all things out of it self, bearing
" them within itself, as it were in a womb.
But this is one of those
" secret doctrines which are more fully made known to those who
" are initiated into the worship of Anubis. Thus much, however,
" is certain, that in ancient times the Egyptians paid the greatest
" reverence and honour to the Dog, though by reason of his devour-
" ing the Apis after Cambyses had slain him and thrown him out,
" when no other animal would taste or so much as come near him,
" he then lost the first rank among the sacred animals which he had
" hitherto possessed." Referring to Osiris as the " common Reason
" which pervades both the superior and inferior regions of the
the " sacred things " was the symbol of the sarcophagus of Osiris
which contained his relics. Before these fitly marched Anubis in
his two-fold character, and thus we have types of Osiris and his
and
mysteries, of Isiswho revivified him, and of Anubis Avho
embalmed him. Had Apuleius understood the old Egyptian
ceremonies connected with the Osiris legend and had he been able
to identify all the characters who passed before him in the Isis
procession, he would probably have seen that Nephthys and Horus
and several other gods of the funeral company of Osiris were duly
represented therein. On the alleged connexion of Anubis with
Christ in the Gnostic system the reader is referred to the interest-
ing work of Mr. C. W. King, Gnostics and their Remains, Second
Edition, London, 1887, pp. 230, 279.
( 267 )
CHAPTER XVI
CIPPI OF HORUS
connexion with the god Horus and his forms as the god of
IN the sun and the symbol and
rising personification of Light
must be mentioned a comparatively numerous class of small
rounded stelae on convex bases, on the front of which are sculptured
in relief figures of the god Horus standing upon two crocodiles.
These curious and interesting objects are made of basalt and other
kinds of hard stone, and of calcareous stone, and they vary in
height from 3 ins. to 20 ins. ; they were used as talismans by the
Egyptians, who placed them in their houses and gardens, and even
buried them in the ground to protect themselves and their
property from the attacks of noxious beasts, and reptiles, and
insects of every kind. In addition to the figures of Horus and of
the animals over which he gained the victory, and the sceptres,
emblems, etc., which are sculptured upon cippi of Horus, the
backs, sides, and bases are usually covered with magical texts.
The by the figures and the texts are extremely old,
ideas suggested
but the grouping and arrangement of them which are found on the
stelae under consideration are not older than the XXVIth Dynasty;
it is doubtful if this class of objects came into general use very
much earlier than the end of the period of the Persian occupation
of Egypt. The various museums of Europe contain several
examples of cippi, but the largest, and finest, and most important,
is undoubtedly tliat which is commonly known as the "Metternich
Stele; "^ it was found in the year1828 during the building of a
cistern in a Franciscan monastery in Alexandria, and was pre-
sented by Muhammad 'Ali Pasha to Prince Metternich, "We are,
fortunately, enabled to date the stele, for the name of Nectanebus I.,
'
See Mettevnielistele, ed. Golenisclieff, Leipzig, 1877, pi. 3, 1. 48 ££.
—
Sept ra
\ D o
4. Qeften,
5. Ap, 6. As-
D X
TEN 7. Kehkeh,
etc.
emblem of Set.
5. A miscellaneous group of gods, nearly all of whom are
backs of two crocodiles, and he grasps in his hands the reptiles and
animals which are the emblems of the foes of light and of the
powers of evil. He wears the lock of youth, and above his head is
the head of the old god Bes, who here symbolizes the Sun-god at
eventide. The canopy under which he stands is held up by Thoth
and Isis, each of whom stands upon a coiled up serpent, which has
a knife stuck in his forehead. Above the canopy are the two
Utchats, with human hands and arms attached, and within it by
the sides of the god are: —
1. Horus-Ra standing on a coiled up
From the head of the god proceed jets of fire, [1, and on each side
of him is an Utchat, which is provided with human hands and
arms. The god stands upon an oval, within which are figures of a
lion, two serpents, a jackal, a crocodile, a scorpion, a hippopotamus,
272 METTERNICH STELE
and a turtle. Below this relief are five rows of figures of gods and
mythological scenes, many of which are taken from the vignettes
of the Booh of the Bead. The gods and goddesses are for the
most part solar deities who were believed to be occupied at all times
in overcoming the powers of darkness, and they were sculptured
on the Stele that the sight of them might terrify the fiends and
prevent them from coming nigh unto the place Avhere it was set up.
There is not a god of any importance whose figure is not on it, and
there is not a demon, or evil animal, or reptile who is not depicted
upon it in a vanquished state.
The texts inscribed upon the Stele are as interesting as the
figures of the gods, and relate to events which were believed to
have taken place in the lives of Isis, Horus, etc. The first compo-
sition is called the " Chapter of the incantation of the Cat,"^ and
contains an address to Ra, who is besought to come to his daughter,
for she has been bitten by a scorpion ; the second composition,
which is called simply " another Chapter," has contents
somewhat
similar to those of the The third text is addressed to the
first.
" Old Man who becometh young in his season, the Aged One who
" maketh himself a child again." The fourth and following texts
contain a narrative of the troubles of Isis which were caused by
the malice of Set, and of her wanderings from city to city in the
Delta, in the neighbourhood of the Papyrus Swamps. The
principal incident is the death of her son Horus, which took place
whilst she was absent in a neighbouring city, and was caused by
the bite of a scorpion ; in spite of all the care which Isis took in
hiding her son, a scorpion managed to make its way into the presence
of the boy, and it stung him until he died. came When Isis
back and found her child's dead body she was distraught and
frantic with grief, and was inconsolable until Nephthys came and
advised her to appeal to Thoth, the lord of words of power. She
did so straightway, and Thoth stopped the Boat of Millions of Years
in which Ra, the Sun-god, sailed, and came down to earth in
answer to her cry Thoth had already provided her with the words
;
of power which enabled her to raise up Osiris from the dead, and
1 /V\AA/V\
T
t'^^\^m3'7^'^k7or^rwTmiMrAm\^ir^''i^\i-Hi
^m :l :V
irp:£ir<f°^^J:r;tL¥P^iu^i^^/^^(
These Isis recited with due care, and in the proper tone of voice,
and the poison was made to go forth from the body of Horus, and
his streno-th
o was renewed, his heart once more occupied its throne,
II —
274 METTERNICH STELE
and all was well with him. Heaven and earth rejoiced at the sight
of the restoration of the heir of Osiris, and the gods were filled
CHAPTER XVIII
FOREIGN GODS
we consider for a moment it will at once be apparent from
IF the geographical position of Egypt that her people must
have been brought in contact with a large number of foreign gods,
and that in certain places a few must have become more or less
identified with Egytian gods of similar attributes and characteristics.
As a rule Orientals have always been exceedingly tolerant of alien
gods, and the Egyptians formed no exception to the rule there is, ;
any deity, except Bes, from Nubia, or the country still further to
the south of Egypt.
First among the foreign deities who are made known to us
ANT HAT 277
probable that this origin was assigned to her only after her cult
was well established in Egypt. She is depicted in the form of a
woman seated on a throne or standing upright ; in the former
position she grasps a shield and spear in her right hand and wields
Anthat.
a club in her left, and in the latter she wears a panther skin and
"
holds a papyrus sceptre in the right hand and the emblem of " life
and sometimes this has a pair of horns at the base. Anthat was,
undoubtedly, a war goddess, and her cult seems to have extended
throughout Northern and Southern Syria, where certain cities and
'
Variant forms of her name are Annuthat, 'y^ V^ ll 'J cn |?n
' ^^^ Antit,
O
278 'ASHTORETH
towns, e.g., Bath-Anth,
J^^^ ^^v-^c^j^q^ and Qarth-Anthu,
worship of the goddess Anthat appears to have made its way into
Egypt soon after the Egyptians began to form their Asiatic
Empire, and from an inscription published by Virey ^ we learn that
a shrine was built in her honour at Thebes in the reign of Thothmes
III. This, however, is only what might be expected, for Thothmes
III. must have brought large numbers of Syrians with him into
Egyptian texts, and she is called " mistress of horses, lady of the
^"^^
'^^
^^ ^^ S^ ^ ^ il ^.^ Conformably to this description
'
See Muller, W. M., Asien mid Europa, p. 195.
2 Tomheau de Kliem (Memoires Miss. Arch. Fr., torn, v., p. 368).
5 See Aeg. Zeitschrift, 1869, p. 3 ff. ; Naville, Mythe d'Horus, pi. 4.
'ASHTORETH 279
Tushratta, king of Mitani, to this king lie refers to the going down
of " Ishtar of Nineveh (i.e., Ashtoreth, or Astharthet), lady of the
world," into Egypt, both during his own reign and that of his
father,^ and he seems to indicate that her worship in Egypt had
declined, and begs Amen-hetep to make it to increase tenfold.
From would appear that the Egyptians adopted the worship
this it
who was also called the " mistress of all the gods, the eye of Ra,
2 Variant,
\ ^^ V^ 3 ,
Qetshu.
'
280 AASITH
without a second," ^ .=^ §
O 111 ^ "^ ^ -^ '
' Gen. xxxviii. 21, 22 ; Deut. xxiii. 18 ; Numbers xxv. 1 ; Hosea iv. 14.
^ Asien unci Europa, p. 316.
BAR-BAAL 281
female form of the hunter Esau, YW, who, under the form Usoos,
was regarded as a god who wore skins and was appeased by means
of blood offerings. That she was a goddess of war and of the
desert is clear from a relief, which is found on a stele near the
^J^?'3,
J ^')y
of the Hebrews.
, or Pa-Bar,
Bar appears
^ J ^^^^
to
i-e.,
mountain and the desert, and his worship was introduced into
Egypt under the XVIIIth Dynasty. Like most of the Semitic
gods and goddesses he was primarily a god of war and battle, and
he may have been a personification of the burning and destroying
heat of the sun and blazing desert wind. To the Egyptians of the
Delta he soon became familiar, and as he was supposed to be the
god who supported their foes the Syrians in many a hard-fought
battle they regarded him with a certain awe and reverence. Of
his form and worship we know nothing, but the Egyptians placed
after their transliterations of his name a figure of the fabulous
animal in which the god Set became incarnate, and it is clear
that they must have believed Bar and Set to have qualities
and attributes in common, Rameses II. boasts in his triumphal
inscriptions that when he put on his panoply of war, and mounted
his chariot, and set out to attack the Kheta soldiery he was like
the god Bar, and we are justified in assuming from this and similar
passages that the king of Egypt was proud to compare himself to
the mighty Syrian war-god. Bar was worshipped in the Delta,
chiefly in the neighbourhood of Tanis, where Rameses II. carried
out such extensive building operations, and where a temple of the
god existed.
Here for the sake of convenience may be mentioned the
'
the gods, n
e D ^
The
Mill- chief centre of his Avor-
'
Muller, Asien und Europa, p. 315.
^ I owe this reference to Mr. R. C. Thompson of the British Museum.
' IHzionario, p. 483.
'
SUTEKH-GODS 283
I
%^ ^
, sees the equivalent of the D'~t!< of the Hebrew
Scriptures ; the female counterpart of the god appears under the
Enndkaeu, 5^^^^ ,
^, and Amait,
In the list of the gods whose names are found at the end of
the copy of the treaty which Rameses II. made with Kheta-sar,
'
Asien und Europa, p. 316.
284 BES
Set. Sutekh was supposed to be, more or less, a god of evil, but
the Egyptians attempted to obtain his favour, even as they did
that of Set, by means of offerings and prayers.
Among the foreign gods known to the Egyptians is usually
mentioned Bes, J
I
Bes.
<^6ss Qetesh. As a god of music
and the dance he is sometimes
represented playing upon a harp ;
^ as a god of war and slaughter,
and as a destroying force of nature he carries two knives
in his hands ; as a warrior he appears in a short military
tunic, which is fastened round his body by a belt, and he
' Miiller, Asian unci Europa, p. 310 ; Wiedemann, Religion of the Ancient
Egyptians, p. 159.
'
J I V '
^^^'
J "^s I' '^^^ ~ "^^^^^ Cynailurus; see Aeg. Zeit. ii. 10.
holds in his left hand a shield and a short sword in his right.
Figui'es of Bes are found carved upon the handles of mirrors, on
Icohl vessels, and on pillows, all of which indicate that in one aspect
at least he was associated with rest, and joy, and pleasure. From
anumber of scenes on the walls of the temples and from bas-reliefs
we see that Bes was supposed to be present in the chambers and
places wherein children were born, and he seems to have been
regarded as a protector of children and youths, and a god who
studied to find them pleasure and amusement.
According to Miiller,^ two figures of the god were found at
Kahim, and, if these really belong to the period when that city was
flourishing, Bes must have been honoured there as early as the
Xllth Dynasty. Taken by itself, however, this evidence is not
worth a great deal, because the
figures may have been placed in the
tombs Kahun during burials of a
at
much later date. One of the oldest
representations of Bes, as Prof.
Wiedemann has pointed out, is
are found in the various Museums of Europe, that Bes was merged
wholly in Horus, and that the Egyptians bestowed upon him the
body and wings of a hawk united to the body of a vigorous young
man, who, however, had the head of a very aged man surmounted
by the group of heads with which we are familiar from the Cippi of
Horus. On the Metternich Stele (see above, p. 273) we see him
wearing the plumes of Shu and of the other gods of light and air,
and the horns of Amen or of the Ram of Mendes, and above these
are eight knives and the emblem of million of years, and he holds
in his hands all the emblems of sovereignty and dominion which
Osiris holds, besides serpents, which he crushes in his grasp. He
stands upon an oval wherein are grouped specimens of all the
Typhonic beasts, and we may gather from his attitude that he is
Eg.gagywg?ag»:
boywhoproceedetlifromtliesonoflsis," |
-^^ ^ 1 k^ z= '^
jl
-gs. M 5^, and ^ <=>1 ', i.e., Menruil, Menlil, and Mer-
uter ; from the two of these was formed the
first classical name of
the god — Mandulis. The centres of the worship god were of the
at Telmes and Philae ; at the former place the temple of Merul
was rebuilt by Augustus on the site of an earlier building, but the
ruins of the little shrine of the god at Philae, which stood behind
the colonnade of the Temple of Ari-hes-nefer, suggests that the
building was the work of one of the early Ptolemies, perhaps of
Philadelphus.
In connexion with the question of the cult of foreign gods in
Egypt, and of the gods of Egypt in foreign lands, reference may
here be made to a theory which has recently been put forward^ to
the effect that several of the gods of Egypt were worshipped as
idols by the Arabs of the pre-Islamic times. According to this
Menat,
Reret,
^
™ =^ = ^
, Lat,
''
See Bnigscli, GeograpMe, p. 964.
^ See Akmed-Bey Kamal, Les Icloles Arahes et les Bivinites £gyptiennes
(Recueil, xxiv., p. 11 ff.).
II —
290 FOREIGN GODS
certain similarity between the Egyptian and Arabic names little
Under the Middle and New Empires this knowledge would become
very widespread, and might have reached the tribes in the extreme
south of the Arabian Peninsula. On the other hand, we have no
proof that the pre-Islamic Arabs adopted Egyptian gods, or that
they even attempted to understand their attributes and cult.
Before the theory already referred to can be accepted must be it
shown that the Egyptian and Arabian gods whose names are
quoted above are really identical, and that it has more to rest
upon than similarities of names. The pre-Islamic gods were pro-
bably indigenous, and the pre-Islamic tribes being Semitic, their
gods would be, naturally, of a character quite different from that
of the gods of Egjrpt, and the attributes of the Semitic gods would
be entirely different from those of the Egyptian gods. Whatsoever
borrowing of gods took place under the early dynasties was from
Egypt by Arabia and not from Arabia by Egypt, and this is true
for all periods of Egyptian history, mth the exception of the late
Ptolemaic period, when a few local and unimportant Arabian gods
appear to have been adopted at certain places in Egypt. The
pre-Islamic Arabs were worshippers of stocks and stones, and it is
exceedingly doubtful they were sufficiently developed, either
if
( 291 )
CHAPTER XIX
MISCELLANEOUS GODS
I. The Gods op the Twenty-eight finger-breadths of the
Royal Cubit
Ra, O.
1. 16. Sep, ^.
2. Shu, p.
17. Hbq, \a\
3. Khent, £S.
4. Seb, '^.
18. Armaua,
^fl^.
-<E>- Q
19. Maa-en-tef,
5. Nut, O".
7. AST, j^.
2.
—
MISCELLANEOUS GODS 293
Montli Deity
lUi
1 Variants, awva^ Menkhet and ^3^ DO a Heb-Ipt.
® ^ O
2 Var., M <©> ^ , BIa-hbe-ka-hEB. 3 Var.,
J J,
Shef-bbti.
* Var.,
W
O Makhiae.
^ Variants,
,£?
Heru-khent-khatith and 'vX^
^
,
(J
Hbb-Antbt.
^ Variants, (I U ^ , Apt-hent and '^:SIP (I X I
, Heb-api-hent-s.
By Day
—
0=:= T I
itll.
X7
ordinary form of a man-god, and he has upon his head the sign
is said that the dead king has " taken possession of Hu and hath
gained
^^
the
-%
mastery
'
^"^
over Saa," s^ ^"^^ | ^ -^
*^® Theban Recension of the Book of the Dead,
P ?^ ^
r H
Saa, or Saa, appears in the Judgment Scene among the gods who
watch the weighing of the heart of the deceased in the Great
Balance, and he is mentioned in the xviith Chapter as one of the
gods who came into being from the drops of blood which fell from
Ra when he mutilated himself. From the same Chapter we learn
that it was he who made the pun on the name of Ra, the Cat,
"
which he declared to be " Mau," x u y t^; because it was "like
(vidu, Q (] % :
) that which he made. Saa with Thoth, and Sheta,
and Tern formed the " souls of Khemennu " (Hermopolis),^ and Saa
had a place in the Boat of Ra (cxxxvi.B 12), with Hu and other
gods. In Chapter clxix. (line 19), Saa is declared to protect the
The texts make it clear that Saa was the personification of the
intelligence,whether of a god or of a human being, and the
deceased coveted the mastery over this god because he could give
him the power to perceive, and to feel, and to understand. At the
end of the clxxivth Chapter (lines 16, 17), a " Great Intelligence,"
Amenti
mentioned.
of Ra," H
(] ^ .^ J- ^ ^W' Saa-Amenti-Ra, are
^ , which is both the emblem of his chief attribute and the symbol
—
MISCELLANEOUS GODS 299
Maat, ^, to the god. Behind him are the gods of the senses of
Taste and Touch, and behind the boat stand the gods of the senses
of Sight and Hearing. An interesting variant form of the god
Setem is reproduced by Signor Lanzone, from which we see that
he sometimes had the head of a bull with the body of a man the ;
text which accompanies the figure describes the god as " the
dweller in Pa-Shu " (i.e., Dendera), and calls him the " bull, lord
^
of strength."
X. The Soul-God.
Night.
Goddesses.
o
]
»r^--^^^Y<^^-
MISCELLANEOUS GODS 301
Goddesses.
Hour V. Neb-ankhet.
VII. ^^Q^t- •k
Her-tep-ajja-her-neb-s.
VIII. Mert.
^
IX. ^ Neb-senti.
X. ^ Mux- NEB-SET.
^ o
XL 4. ^ Khesee-khemt.
A'VWvA
XII ° ^ Par-neferu-en-neb-set.
JJJ ^ O
Gods.
Ab-em-tu-e.
III. Neb-neteru.
-,1,1,1* •
IV. An-mut-e.
Bapi-e.
VII. ^ Seker.
VIII. Heeu-her-khet.
•k
IX. ^^ Maa-hea.
X. Pesh-hetep-e.
1^
Ka-taui.
Ka-khu.
—
NUNUT. Shu.
. .
p.l .
V. JSTesbet.
Jo
\7 ^
YI. Ahabit. . . Tehuti.
® o
VII. (3 Nekiu. Heeu-em-au-ab.
o
VIII.
© o
Khepertj.
Q hi Khensh.
X. ^1M-JO
MQ ^' Sati-aeut. Heq-ue.
Maa-ennu-am-
KHEPEEU.
UAA.
V\ \/ f=,
""'
, and in the Graeco-Roman period Heru-ap-sheta,
^ \/ D ^^ ^ , or Heru-pe-sheta, ^ Jj Q
""^^
^ . This planet
" Horus, Bull of heaven," under the XlXth and XXth Dynasties,
and in the Graeco-Roman period Heru-p-ka and Heru-ka,
^ ^ ^^ '
^^^
^^ ^^ i< • The god of this planet was Horus.
3. Mars, the "star of the East of heaven," ^ |] ^, which
is described as the " [star] which journey eth backwards in travelling,"
1
1
\ ^_^ ^sJ ^^ ^ ^ y:\, was called " Heru-ehdti," ^°, under
the XlXth and XXth Dynasties, and in the Graeco-Roman period
" Heed-tesher,"
__ ==-, I.e., '
the Red Horus." The god of
J ^Tf^,^ in the
^
Graeco-Roman period. The god of this planet was Set, I
i<: .
5, Venus was called the " star of the ship of the Bennu-
AsAR,"
PJ^i^i^J"o"5^' ^^^^^ *^^ XlXth and
a i=L \\ ^-
Var,p^^=^(]^^.
— —
1. Tepa-Kenmut A
^ AA/^A^ ATP
i:? Q *
1. Tepa-Kenmut. 2. Kenmut.
2. Kenmct .
T*.
'V
. . .
-k'
3. Kher-khept-Kenmut ^ Cd
*™ *
3. Kher-khept-Kenmut. 4. Ha-tchat.
5. Pehui-tchat ^.
w
5. Pehui-tchat.
6. Themat-hert cl Ci
* D"*,
7. Themat-khert. 8. Ustha.
8. Ustha. D ^^2
9. Bekatha .
10. Tepa-khentet .
®
11. Khentet-hert .
fflll
^ •
^cm*
ffi
12. KhENTET-KHERT . rjjj] ^. >l<
13. Themes-en-khentet
fllll k •
(flbi^'
* T> -jif
* tv
OY€CT€— BIKWTI =
A<|>OCO COYXWC ^
CnTXN€ 8
II —
306 MISCELLANEOUS GODS
The Dekans. Ptolemaic Variants.
-^
15. Her-ab-uaa . . . "y •C ^-k. O ^Tk.
16. Shesmo . . . .
/WWV\
17. Kenmu . . . .
^
f! . J5r
18. Semtet . .
^•
19. Tepa-semt ® ®
.
^ -fl I Q :?k'
20. Serfc.
1^^-
^.
^ 5lc
22. Khee-khept-sert .
1^ ^i o ,»c
23. Khukhu ^.
I*'
26. Heb-ab-khentu ^
. .
, ^(Hb-^^
27. Khent-kheeu ffl
. .
(flh fllb ^ •
Ti <I
•ft is
28. Qet . .
/I\
7
29. Sasaqet .
30. Aet ^
^ 1
1 TRHXY ^ XY TRHBIOY ^ * BIOY, THIBIOY
5
XONTAP6 XONTAXP6
« ' CIK€T ^ XWOY
308 MISCELLANEOUS GODS
The Dekans. Ptolemaic Variants.
Khau
31.
m*-
» Sir
32. Remen-heeu-an-Sah
'"^^^I'Hi Z^^
33. Mestchee-Sah k •
34. Remen-khee-Sah .
"^ A U^ "^
35. A-Sah — -k
^h -k-
36. Sah . k^
37. Septet
h ^'
tt «
37. Septet.
Hapi-Mestha.
2. Ba, ^ J,
crisis.
3. Khentet-khast, ^ '^
? P ^, or Isis, or the Children of Horus.
4. AsT (Isis),
jI
"^j
or Tuamutef, or the Children of Horns.
7. Qebh-sennuf, |y
r ' ', or Tnamutef.
8. Tuamutef, ic \\ "^
.
20. Ast,
jj^.
21. Tuamutef, Qebhsennuf.
22. Qebhsennuf.
310 MISCELLANEOUS GODS
?,8
312 MISCELLANEOUS GODS
XVI. —The Star-gods of the Southern and Northern Heavens.
{8eep. 313.)
without name.
5. A man standing upright; he holds a spear which he is
some have done, that the Egyptians were the inventors of the
Zodiac, for they borrowed their knowledge of the Signs of the
Zodiac, together with much else, from the Greeks, who had
derived a great deal of their astronomical lore from the Baby-
lonians ; this is certainly so in the matter of the Zodiac. It is at
MISCELLANEOUS GODS 313
314 THE ZODIAC
present a subject for conjecture at what period the Babylonians
first divided the heavens into sections by means of the constella-
tions of the Zodiac, but we are fully justified in assuming that the
earliest forms of the Zodiac date from an exceedingly primitive
time. The early dwellers in Babylonia who observed the heavens
systematically wove stories about the constellations which they
beheld, and even went so far as to introduce them into their
national religious literature, for Babylonian astrology and theology
are very closely connected. Thus in the Creation Legend the
brood of monsters which were spawned by Tiamat and were
intended by her to help her in the fight which she was about to
wage against Marduk, the champion of the gods, possessed astro-
logical as well as mythological attributes, and some of them at
least are to be identified with Zodiacal constellations. This view
has been long held by Assyriologists, but additional proof of its
accuracy has recently been furnished by Mr. L. W. King in his
"Seven Tablets of Creation,"^ wherein he has published an
interesting Babylonian text of an astrological character, from which
it is clear that Tiamat, under the form of a constellation in the
neighbourhood of the Ecliptic, is associated with a number of
Zodiacal constellations in such a manner that they may be identified
with members of her mythical monster brood. The tablet in the
British Museum from which Mr. King has obtained this text is not
older than the Persian period ; but there is little doubt that the
beliefs embodied in it were formulated at a far earlier time. That
certain forms of the Creation Legends existed as early as B.C. 2300
there is satisfactory evidence to show, and the origins of the
systematized Zodiac as used by the later Babylonians and by the
Greeks are probably as old ; whether the Babylonians were them-
selves the inventors of such origins, or whether they are to be
attributed to the earlier, non- Semitic, Sumerian inhabitants of the
country cannot be said. It is, however, quite certain that the
Greeks borrowed the Zodiac from the Babylonians, and that they
introduced it into Egypt, probably during the Ptolemaic period.
The following are the forms of the Signs of the Zodiac as given at
Dendera.
'
Vol. I., page 204.
SIGNS OF THE ZODIAC 315
1. Aries.
4. Cancer.
g g •
H I
^ . < "j
? ^ & -^'
5 's^
Ha<t5-<N^5p^^o^
CO
D
1
ci5 -^
a
m i<
-
- - - -
P3 "
t-5 M
L—
'^
li 4]- „ .? J^
'"
s ^T ,
^^1 ^T i !^ 1? S^ ^ ' §5
•^-
•-^
«
^TTTTTTTTTTT
^ ^
4- ^V "^ It "u ir It "iT "u "ir
|
^.
C -H T U U U U U ii U ii ii u ii -
Eh
§ ^^ s
Hr ^^ I lii
" 9 ^
^1 A _ 7-^
cc Cl-
to T
T W
S^§ :J<^.^^ ^S'^ ^
^ f3 o a 5 ^^ :r i H, ., .5 i
d r^
'
Netch-baiu,
^ "fg
°^
^ I
4. Nef-em-baiu, ^
i±3
^
°^^j. 5. Senki, ^|)(]o. 6. Ba-Ra, »^^'^.
'^- Tem, ^^=. 8. Shu, oap^. 9. See,
"^J. 10. Ast,
KHATi, Ameni,
Pe^-\,?, 28.
^'^W. 29. Aai,
(]
flljl). 30. Mau-aa,
I^ ^|- 31. Metu-khut-e, | S
HRA,
^W 39. Ra-Ateni,
^f ^ (j ^(j
®- ^0- Sekhem-
44. Nut, ,
. 45. Teenut, . 46, Nebt-het, If^.
'
See Lefebure, ies Hypogees Royaux de Thebes, Paris, 1886, pt. i., pi. 15 ff.
10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18.
r~\
28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37.
y
46. 45. 44. 43. 41. 40. 39. 38.
65. 64. 63. 62. 61. 60. 59. 58. 57. 56.
w
1
^ III
62. Hetchuti,
I^^. 63. Uben,
^J O 64.
Then - Aru,
^"^ i] -cs>- % il 1 . 66. Her-ba, '^
%5 ^
66. Qa - BA, ^
'^ T °^'^^. 67. Netchesti
74. Xeb-senku,
III
XIX. The Names of the Days oe the Month and their Gods.
Heb-enti-paut, or
Q^^ZE^. Day of Thoth.
1.
?4^'
2-
T5^- Heb-abet. Day of Heru-netch-tef-f.
^- ^5:7-
Heb-tep-[abet] Day of Maa-tef-f.
I
9.
D Heb-kep. DayofAri-tcbet-f,<2>-'^«
Y
II —
.
CZDi
X
of ISTetchti-urj'T^O
n.T8 I I r
Heb-satu. Day
„
13-
fa ^:3^. Heb-maa-set. Day of Teken-en-Ra,.;^
Day of Heru-her-uatcb-f,
17. p^^3:7. Heb-sa. ?\
23. "
'
Heb-tenat. Day of Na-ur, g UH ^ ^37.
24.
^0 Heb-qenh. Day of jSla-tesber, '^g=
"^
25
Q (3
Heb-setu. Day of Shem,
^ f.
26. Heb-pert. Day of Ma-tef-f,°^^.
28. ] c, ^3:7"
Heb-set-ent-pet. Day of Khnemu.
29.
f^. Heb-ari-sekhem (?) Day of Utet-tef-f, (3 " ^.
Day of Heru-netch-tef-f or
30. "^370^. Heb-nu-pet.
Nehes H] .
. .
Arethi-ka-sa-thika
]fl^--\^]flfl-M
Aseb
Ashu
.
.
\nu r-^r-i
Ashbu
Asher
Akeru I
Atef-ur
Ates-hra-she ^^s-.
^ r"n~i
Aahet
Aakhabit
Aaqetqet
i
Aah .
Asar .
Ast .
Aukert
Aukert-khentet-ast-s
Abu-ur
Ap-uat
D X Q I
Ap-uat-meht-sekhem-pet V ^ D '=^
Ap-uat-resu-sekhem-taui V
1 The passages in which, these names occur are given in the Vocabulary to my
edition of the Book of the Dead. {Chapters of Coming Forth by Bay, London, 1898.)
1
Am-snef
Am-hauatu-ent-pehui-f w
Amen .... 1 1 1 1 11 1
Amen-Ra ,
AAAAAA I
Amen-Ra-Heru-khuti .
AAAAAA 1
Amen-natliek-retlii- Amen
Amen-na-an-ka-entek-share
liV
Amsu {or, Min) .
^
-i^OO ©v
Amsu-Heru
I
Amseth
An-erta-nef-bes-f-khenti-heh'-f
M' dill- wral'
An-heri-ertit-sa . [^cr
w
Aneniu
1=(|^^^.
An ... .
An-temt
An-atef-f
AAAAVv I
An-a-f
AAAAAA I
Anpu ....
An-mut-f .
.. , .
An- Her
An-hra
An-hetep-f .
An-tebu
Ari-Maat .
Ari-em-ab-f >&
Ari-en-ab-f & I.
Axi-hetch-f
Ari-si
Ala ,
Ahi .
Ahiu .
Ahibit
Aheti
Akhsesef
Astennu
Astes .
Aken-tau-k-ba-kheru ra
Akenti
^w
Aqen .
Aqeb .
Akau .
Akert-khent-ast-s
.
par-sheta. i~wn X
-2^
Atem . . . . . u ^
Aten . . . . .0 «^ jj
Atek-tau-kehaq-kheru . (I A
Di ra
....
1 I
Aa-kheru
I^^H^J
Au-a .
Aurau-aaqer-sa-anq-re-bathi
Aba-ta . . . .
Aha-aaui . . . .
o
^
Q^
I
Ahau-hrau
I
. . . .
"?>!
I I I
Abt-tesi-rut-en-neter .
U ^ T
Apep .
"mi.
D
Aapef .
D
Am-aau
m:z\^-
Amam-maat
^ I
Am-heh il.
I
Am-kbebitu
Amam
Amemet
I-
Ankbi
Q AA/V\AA ,-2i
Ankbti
GODS OF THE BOOK OF THE DEAD 327
l^/^^
Ankh-em-fentu .
....
I I I
Anti
J
Aha-an-urt-nef .
J] o>- ^
Akben-maati-f
Akbekbu .
Ua . . . .
^
Uaipu
Uamemti
\\
Uart-neter-semsu
fl IPI^P^^I-
Uatcli-Maati
Uatcb-Nesert
Uatcliit
Uaau ....
Ui . . . .
Ubes-hra-per-em-khetkbet
WP4«^ J\
A-
a D
Unpepet-ent-Het-Heru
Unnut ^
.
Un-hat ^
71,11 TH I r
^=S
Oi I
Unti .
Ur-at .
Q
Ur-pehui-f
w
Ur-maat
III
Ur-maat-s
—X-
^
I
"Tn
Ur-mertu-s-tesliert-sheni
9.
I I I III
Ur-hekau u
User-ab
I
User-ba
Usert ....
Usekh-nemt ®
U ^ III"
Usekh-hra
1
Utu-rekbit
Utet-lieh
^ ^ US/ I
Utcha-re
Ireqai
W I
o
Ba .
Bai .
h^Wi-
Bati .
w
Bati-erpit
h\^ W D
GODS OF THE BOOK OF THE DEAD 329
^^"
J^l--
Bai .
Baba .
J%.^^
Ba-neb-Tettet
Barekathatchaua
•^5 fl^'o:!.-
Bast .
o
Ci
Basti .
Baba .
Bah .
J
Bebi .
J J fly-
J/V\AAA/\
Bennu
0\
Pa-rehaqa-kheperu -gas'
ra
Pa-shakasa
Penti .
D
'=' W
Pehreri a
Pekhat D
Peskheti D ® '^ -Q
Pesek-re
Pestu .
a
Peti .
^w
a o
Petra .
il-
Ptah .
D
. .
Ptah-Seker
Ptali-Tanen
iWI-
Fa-pet
Maa-anuf .
/n
w ;
Maa-atef-f-kheri-beq-f .
14S- X
Maati-f-em-shet .
w
Maati-f-em-tes
w
Maa-em-kerh-an-nef-em-hru
i^i AA/WVi
ra o
Maa-ha-f ®
Maa-heh-en-renpit I
AAAAAA
I I
Maatuf-her-a
Maaiu-su (?)
I
Maa-thet-f .
Maat .
Maati . ^ w
Maau-taui .
H
-fl
Marqatha .
A
_232>
cznzD
Mi-sbeps
D P-
iim
Ment . AAAAAA
1 1 111 11 m
Menkh
. 1
Menqet
Ment .
-§!
1 1 1 1 H 1 1 1
Menthu
Mer .
m.
Mert .
Merti .
'^ w
Mer-ur
Meris .
Mert .
. r^ —Si
Meh-urt .
Mehanuti-Ea
Mehi .
Mehiu
Mehen
Mehenit
°^
V\-
Meht .
o
Meht-khebit-sah-neter .
^-^isn")*?!^.
Mes-peh (1d|^|.
Mes-sepekh
D ©
Mestha
Metu-ta-f .
Metes-hra-ari-she "^^>^
^;^^oo.
Metes-sen .
^^>^
}32 GODS OF THE BOOK OF THE DEAD
Naai'ik
N asaqbubu
Nak .
AAAAAA ^^\ v. -^ $V^
Natlikerthi
Nak .
— flm-
Naau .
Nart .
Nu . AAAA/V\
Nubti .
O ^
Nut .
Neb-abui
Nebt-unnut
Neb-hrau
Neb-pehtet-pefcpet-seba
y
Neb-pehti-thes-mennient
Neb-maat-heri-tep-retui-f I ^ W ®
w
Neb-er-tcher
Nebt-het
TA-
Neb-s .
Neba .
Nepera a
Nefert
Nefer-Temu
.
Nem-hra
Nem .
'D'
i<
Nemu
%.\i-
.
Nenutu-hru ^ ra o
III
AAAAAA
Nen-unser
A^AAAA
AAAAAA
Nentclia
AA>V\AA
Ner .
Nerau
'W^i-
Neri .
A/vvvv\ r\ ^ ^
Nerau-ta
Nehesiu
Neha-hra
I
Neha-hau
Neheb-nefert
Neheb-ka
Nekhebet
Nekhen
®©1 '•
Neka .
Nekau
Nekau
Nekek-Tir
fflffl
Neti (?)
W
Net (Neith) XDC J.
.
Neti-hra-f-emma-mast-f ^
^ w J-S'-il-
Neteqa-hra-khesef-atu 1?4-'
^ A.
Netit .
Netcheb-ab-f
I
Netcbefet .
Netcbem
Netcbeh-netcbeh
AWW\ £-^
Netcbesti
W
Netcbses
Re-Sekbait
I O
Re-iukasa ^-
Re-Ra
Ra .
-J I
Ra-Asar
Jl^-
Ra-Heru-kbuti
O ^ W
Ra-Tem
O ill "^nnr
Rut-en-Ast
Rutu-nu-Tem
^^ II 1 ^innr
Rutu-neb-rekhit
III
Remi .
s^qfl-«^-
Remrem
.
Renenet
/WVWN \j
Rennutet
O
Rertu-nifu
Ci (O
Rerek
Rerti .
I I W
Rehu .
Rehui w
Rehti .
Re-hent
Re-lienenet
Rekhti-merti-neb-Maati ^>
w ^ w
Res-ab
n^r
Res-hra
n
Rekes (?)
Reqi .
Retasashaka
R.eta-nifu
Reta-hen-er-reqau
AAA^AA
Reta-sebanqa
Hab-em-atu ra (S.
o
Ha-hetep ra ^ n-
Ha-kheru .
ra
Haker ra
. 1
Hemti ra J\
\\
Hai .
Ha-hra
H apt-re D
D
s
Harpukakashareshabaiu
Harethi
Hapi (Nile)
D W
Hapi .
D
Hapiu (Apis) A \'m-\\
Hu .
Hui .
h\
Hu-tepa
D
Hi-mu
Hit .
n
Hebt-re-f
J X
Hept-seshet D X
1 1 i 1 1 1 1 11
Hemen
Hem-nu (?)
00
Henbi
Hensek
Mm^
z
Henti (Osiris) . . .
^^J.
Henti-requ
o \\ ^
Hent-she •^ ^ rvn
/W\AAA
Heri-akeba-f
^M AAA^/^A
Heri-uru
w &\i-
Hertit-an
I ^ I
Heri-sep-f
Q- -
Her-ta
Her-taui ^
Heru .
Heru-ur
H eru-em-khent- aa-maati
Heru-netch-hra-atef-f
Heru-khuti
Heru-sa-Ast
J
K[ra-ua
I
Hra-nefer-
1
Hra-f-ha-f ®
Hehi .
VI
Hes-hra
H—
m^^i-
338 GODS OF THE BOOK OF THE DEAD
Hes-tchefetch j^S~
Heqtit
vjr.i
Hetep
D
Hetep-sekhus
D
E etep-ka ^ u
D I
Hetep-taui
D
Hetemet
Hetetet
H etch- re
Hetch-re-pest-tep o
I I
Hetch-abehu o I I I
Kharsatha .
Khu-kheper-ur .
Khu-tchet-f
Khut . &
Khebent
^ I-
Khepera
Khepesh
ISO i<
Khemi
Khemennu
0\
Khnemu
Khnemet-em-ankh-annuit
Khenememti ^ w
GODS OF THE BOOK OF THE DEAD 339
Khensu
Khenti-Amentet
Khenti-Khattlii
<£?
m
Kher .
Khera
Kherserau .
Khersek-Shu
Khesef-at 4^
Khesef-hra-ash-kheru
Khesef-hra-khemiu
Khesef-khemiu
4 Pi
Sa-pa-nemma
i}^\iim I I I
Sa-Amenti-Ra
Saau-ur
p^^4^^
Sau <2
Sabes .
P^J
Samait
Saqenaqat .
,of
Sukati
Sut .
r
T HD
Seba .
PJfl^-
1
Sebek
Sepa
Sepes
Sept
w
Sept-kheri-nehait-ami-beq
Sept-mast- en-Rerti
Semu-taui
Semu-heh
.1
Smam.
Smamti
i'=a) t
Smetu
Smetti
(=a >=^ w
Ser-kheru
Serat-beqet
Serekhi
Seres-hra .
Serqet
A ^
Sekhiu
Sekhem-ur ,
Sekhem-em-ab-f
GODS OF THE BOOK OF THE DEAD 341
Q I I
I T .^^ ; D ,^^^
Sekhemet-ren-s-em-abut-s
Sekhen-ur .
Sekher-at .
Sekher-remu
I I I
Sekhet
Sekhti-hetep iLijiua
w ^ d
Sekhet-hra-ash-aru
I c::^^ /h I I 1 I
Seshet
Sesheta
Seshet-kheru
Seker .
Sek-hra
^
Seksek
Seqebet
pdi:a-
Seqet hra
O 1
Set .
iCiimi]]
Set-qesu
\> X li
Setek .
PT^'
Shabu
Shapuneterarika .
III'
Shareshareshapuneterarika
.
Shakanasa .
^
Shu
Shefit .
rm
D ^
Shenat-pet-utheset-neter
AAAA I \-hl
1
Shenthit
Sherem
r
" ~r r 1 A/vV\/>A
Shes-khentet
Sheta-hra .
.D I
Ka-hetep 1
Kaa
Kaarik
q^
ra ^a\i^
Kaharesapusaremkaherremt
1
1 o
Kasaika
Kep-hra
Kemkem
Kenemti "T='.
w
Ker
Kehkehet .
Qa-ha-hetep
ll^\ J\
.
Qa-hra
Qahu .
Qebh-sennuf AAAAAA
Qemamu
Qemhusu
/\ r o
Qerti .
A
Qetetbu
j^i-
Qetu .
r
Ken-ur
Ta-ret
D
Taiti .
D w
Tait .
D
Tatunen
1 s ^ ±1. '""^ t
Tefnut
D ^
Temu .
Tem-sep
Tenait
m-
Tenemit
o
Tehuti
Tehuti-Hapi
D W
Teshtesh
i—^rn r~\Yn
Tekem
Tun-pehti .
Teb-hra-keha-at .
o
Tena .
Tenpu
D
Tesher
Thanasa
Thenemi
Thest-ur
Tckeruu
Tchehes
Tchesert i^^
Tcheser-tep ^-^ ^ ®
( 345 )
CHAPTER XX
reptiles from the earliest to the latest times, and in spite of the
statements to the contrary which are often made this custom must
be regarded as a survival of one of the most popular forms of the
religion of the predynastic peoples of the Nile Valley. At first !
animals were worshipped for their strength and power, and because |
developed the idea that individual animals were the abodes of gods, i
each animal must have formulated some system which would satisfy
the devout, and they must have had some means of making the
animals move in such a way that the beholder would be made to
think that the will of the god incarnate was being revealed to him.
We may assume, too, that when sacred animals became too old and
infirm to perform their duties they were put to death either by
the priests or at their command, and also that care was taken, so
" and the Egyptians say that lightning descends upon the cow from
Atyei 0£ Tis TOJ)' Tvpot^riruiv A.oyos ov ttSktiv ekttvo-tos, ort apa [M^ns] 6 tiuv
AiyuTTTtcui/ pa(Ti.\€v<; iirivo-qu^ ^uiov S)(tt€ (re^iiv ifji<jiv)^ov, ctra /xeuTOL npoei\€To ravpov,
awavTwv (hpaiorarov elvai. avTOV TreTrio-reuKw;. De Nat. Animal, xi. 10.
- See Cory's Ancient Fragments.
APIS BULL 347
" heaven, and that from thence it brings forth Apis. This calf,
" which is called Apis, has the following marks : it is black, and
" has a square spot of white on the forehead ; and on the back the
" figure of an eagle and in the tail double hairs and on the
; ;
"tongue a beetle." Pliny relates (viii. 72) that the Apis Bull
was distinguished by a conspicuous white spot on the right side,
in the form of a crescent, and he adds that when the animal had
lived a certain number of years, it was destroyed by being drowned
in the fountain of the priests. A general mourning ensued upon
this, and the priests and others went with their heads shaven until
they found a successor ; this, however, Pliny says, did not take
long,and we may therefore assume that an Apis was generally
kept in reserve. As soon as the animal was found, he was brought
to Memphis, where there were two Thalami set apart for him to ;
The sacred animals were also washed in hot baths, and their
bodies were anointed with precious unguents, and perfumed with
the sweetest odours ; rich beds were also provided for them to
lie upon. When any of them died the Egyptians were as much
348 APIS BULL
concerned as if they bad lost theirown children, and they were wont
to spend largely in burying them when Apis died at Memphis of
;
old age in the reign of Ptolemy Lagus his keeper not only spent
everything he had in burying him, but also borrowed fifty talents
of silver from the king because his own means were insufficient.
Continuing his account of Apis Diodoras says, " After the splendid
funeral of Apis is over, those priests that have charge of the
business seek out another calf as like the former as possibly they
can find ;and when they have found one, an end is put to all
further mourning and lamentation, and such priests as are
appointed for that purpose, lead the young ox through the city
of Xile, and feed him forty days. Then they put him into a
barge, wherein is a golden cabin, and so transport him as a god
to Memphis, and place him in Vulcan's grove. During the forty
days before mentioned, none but women are admitted to see him,
who being placed full in his view, pluck up their coats and
expose their persons. AfterAvards they are forbidden to come
into the sight of this new god. For the adoration of this ox,
they give this reason. They say that the soul of Osiris passed
into an ox ; and therefore, whenever the ox is dedicated, to this
very day, the spirit of Osiris is infused into one ox after another,
to posterity. But some say, that the members of Osiris (who
was by Typhon) were thrown by Isis into an ox made of
killed
wood, covered with ox-hides, and from thence the city Busiris
was called."
In his account of Apis (xi. 10) vElian states that Apis was
recognized by twenty-nine distinct marks, which were known to
the priests, and that when it was knoAvn that he had appeared
they went to the place of his birth and built there a house towards
the East, and the sacred animal was fed therein for four months.
new moon, the priests made ready
After this period, at the time of
a barge and conveyed the new Apis to Memphis, where fine
chambers were set apart for him, and spacious courts for him to
walk about in, and where moreover, a number of carefully chosen
cows were kept for him. At Memphis a special well of water
was provided for Apis and he was not allowed to drink of the
itself to Osiris, when it formed with him the dual god Asar-Hapi
or Osiris-Apis. Early in the Ptolemaic period the Greeks ascribed
toAsar-Hapi the attributes of their god Hades, and Graecized the
Egyptian name under the form " Serapis " both Egyptians and ;
male counterpart of Isis. It has already been said that the cult
elKaa-jj-evou ;
of the beetle which he says was on the tongue of Apis
and the double hairs in the tail the bronze figures naturally show
no traces.
Of the tombs in which the Apis bulls Avere buried under the
Early and Middle Empires nothing is known, but the discovery of
the famous Serapeum at Sakkara, called by Strabo (xvii. 1, § 33)
the " temple of Sarapis," which, he says, was " situated in a very
" sandy spot, where the sand is accumulated in masses by the
" wind," revealed the fact that so far back as the XVIIIth Dynasty
the bodies of the Apis bulls were mummified with great care, and
that each was buried in a rock-hewn tomb, above which was a
small chapel. In the reign of Rameses II. a son of this king,
called Kha-em-Uast, made a subterranean gallery in the rock at
Sakkara, with a large number of chambers, and as each of these
was occupied by the mummied Apis in his coffin its entrance was
walled up, and the remains of the sacred animals were thus
preserved for a very long period. Psammetichus I. hewed a
;
about 1200 feet long, 18 feet high, and 10 feet wide. Above
these galleries stood the great Temple of the Serapeum, and
close by was another temple which was dedicated by
to Apis
Nectanebus II., the last native king of Egypt. In the Serapeum
of Kha-em-Uast and Psammetichus I. a number of Egyptian holy
men lived a stern, ascetic life, and
appears that they were
it
1 See Zeller, History of Greek Philosophj, London, 1881, vol. i., pp. 306-352
Ritter and Preller, Historia Phil-Graece el Ronanae, 1878.
352 MNEVIS BULL
of Momemphis kept a sacred cow in their city just as Apis was
maintained at Memphis, and Mnevis at Heliopolis, and adds,
" these animals are regarded as gods, but there are other places,
" and these are numerous, both in the Delta and beyond it, in
" Avhich a bull or a cow is maintained, which are not regarded as
" gods, but only as sacred." Mnevis, like Apis, was consecrated
to Osiris, and both Bulls Avere " reputed as gods generally by all
out that the bull was of all creatures the " most extraordinarily
" serviceable to the first inventors of husbandry, both as to the
" sowing of corn, and other advantages concerning tillage, of which
" all reaped the benefit." The cult of Mnevis was neither so
widespread nor so popular as that of Apis, and Ammianus
Marcellinus says (xxii. 14, 6) that there is nothing remarkable
related about him. A curious story is related by ^lian {De Nat.
Animal, xii. 11) to the effect that king Bocchoris once brought
in a wild bull to fight against Mnevis, and that the savage
creature in attempting to gore the ^acred animal miscalculated his
distance, and having entangled his horns in the branches of a
persea tree, fell an easy victim to Mnevis, and was
slain by him.
The Egyptians regarded this impious act with great disfavour, and
probably hated him as they hated Cambyses for stabbing Apis.
Among the Egyptians another sacred bull was that of
Hermonthis (Strabo, xvii. 1, 47) which, according to Macrobius
{Saturn, i. 26) was called Bacchis (or Bacis, or Basis, or Pacis),
and according to Jj^lian (xii. 11) Onuphis ; the latter name is
of the
''
Mountain of the Sunset." He wears between his horns a disk
RAM OF MENDES 353
goats, and more to the males than to the females, and particularly
to one he-goat, on the death of which public mourning is observed
throughout the whole Mendesian district ; they call both Pan and
the goat Mendes, and both were worshipped as gods of generation
and fecundity. Diodorus (i. 88) compares the cult of the goat of
Mendes with that of Priapus, and groups the god with the Pans
and the Satyrs. The goat referred to by all these writers is the
famous Mendean Ram, or Ram of Mendes, the cult of which was,
according to Manetho, established by Kakau, a king of the Ilnd
Dynasty.
In the hieroglyphic texts he is called Ba-neb-Tet, ^^ '^i^
depicted in the form of a ram with flat, branching horns which are
surmounted by a uraeus pictures of the god of this kind are, of
;
II —A a
354 THE CROCODILE
was led to the city of Mendes, and a procession of priests and of
the notables of the city having been formed he was escorted to the
temple and enthroned therein with great honour. From the Stele
of Mendes ^ we learn that Ptolemy II., Philadelphus, rebuilt the
temple of Mendes, and that he assisted at the enthronement of two
Rams, and in a relief two Ptolemies and
on the upper portion of it
Khnemu.
Among the animals which Avere worshipped devoutly as a
result of abject fear must be mentioned the crocodile, which the
Egyptians deified under the name of Sebek, or
[I
J'^^^^,
Sebeq, I^ |^\, and which was called Souchos, Sovxo<;, by the
Greeks. In primitive when the canals dried up this
times
destructive beast was able wander about the fields at will, and
to
to eat and kill whatsoever came into its way, and the Egyptians
naturally regarded it as the personification of the powers of evil
and of death, and the prince of all the powers of darkness, and the
associate of Set, or Typhon. According to Herodotus (ii. 69),
crocodiles were sacred insome parts of Egypt, but were diligently
killed in others. At Thebes and near lake Moeris they were held
to be sacred, and when tame the people put crystal and gold ear-
rings into their ears, and bracelets on their fore paws, and they fed
them regularly with good food after death their bodies were
;
1 Mariette, Monuments Divers, pi. 42; Aeg. Zeit, 1871, pp. 81-85; 1875,
p. 33.
SEBEK-RA.
THE CROCODILE 355
" tame, and gentle to the priests, and is called ^ovxo';. It is fed
" with bread, flesh, and wine, which strangers who come to see
" it always present. Our host, a distinguished person, who was
" our guide in examining what was curious, accompanied us to the
" lake, and brought from the supper table a small cake, dressed
" meat, and a small vessel containing a mixture of honey and milk.
" We found the animal lying on the edge of the lake. The priests
" went up to it ; some of them opened its mouth, another put the
" cake into it, then the meat, and afterwards poured down the
" honey and milk. The animal then leaped into the lake, and
" crossed to the other side. When another stranger arrived with
" his offering, the priests took it, and running round the lake,
" caught the crocodile, and gave him what was brought in the
" same manner as before."
identified with Ra, the Sun-god, and with the form of Ra who
was the son of Xeith, and with Set the opponent and murderer of
Osiris, According to the late Dr. Brugsch, Sebek was a four-fold
deity who represented the four elemental gods, Ra, Shu, Seb, and
Osiris, and view receives support from the fact that in the
this
a new constitution and life to the elements which had been severed
by death. ^ This view may be correct, but it certainly cannot be
very old, and it cannot represent the opinions which the pre-
dynastic Egyptians held concerning the god. That, however,
Sebek was believed to be a god who was good to the dead is clear,
and it was held that he would do for them that which he had done
in primitive times for Horus.
From the cviiith Chapter of the Book of tlie Dead, we learn
that Sebek, Temu, and Hathor were the Spirits of the West, and
that Sebek dwelt in a temple which was built on the Mount of the
Sunrise, and that he assisted Horus to be re-born daily. In the
Pyramid Texts, Sebek is made to restore the eyes to the deceased,
and to make firm his mouth, and to give him the use of his head,
and to bring Isis and Nephthys to him, and to assist in the over-
throw of Set, the enemy of every " Osiris." He opened the doors
of heaven to the deceased, and led him along the bypaths and
Avays of heaven and, in short, assisted the dead to rise to the new
life, even as he had helped the child Horus to take his seat upon
the throne of his father Osiris. The centre of the cult of Sebek
was Ombos, f^s^ W@i Nubit, where he was held to be the father
of Heru-ur, and was "Father
identified with Seb, and was called,
" of the gods, the mighty one among the gods and goddesses, the
" great king, the prince of the Nine Bow Barbarians." As Sebek-
Ka-Temu he was the power of the sun which created the world,
and he is styled, " the beautiful green disk which shineth ever, the
" creator of whatsoever is and of whatsoever shall be, who proceeded
"from Nu, and who possesses many colours and many forms."
Other important seats of the cult of Sebek were :
— 1 . Silsila (Khennu,
Y Q ^ ®) '
"^^here he was adored with Tem, Nu, Heru-ur, and
Heru-Behutet ; 2. Pa-khent
(^ ^^), where he Avas wor-
shipped with Amen-lia; 3. Latopolis, where he was identified
texts, which was situated near Lake Moeris, and was called the
" city of Sebek " par excellence. In the north of Egypt the chief
sanctuaries of Sebek were Prosopis, Sai's, Metelis, Onuphis, and
the city of Apis, Avhich was situated in the Libyan nome ;
^ in this
last-named place Osiris was worshipped under the form of a
crocodile, and Isis under the usual form of Isis.
" other times, yet as if they had concluded an armistice, they are
"always quiet, laying aside all their ferocity, during the seven
" days of festival on which the priests at Memphis celebrate the
" birthday of Apis." Herodotus (ii. 68) and Diodorus (i. 36), like
no tongue, an error which
Aristotle, declare that the crocodile has
was wide-spread in ancient times, and which was commonly
believed even in the Middle Ages it was also thought to eat no ;
food during the coldest months of the year, and to be blind in the
water. Many crocodiles were killed by an animal called the
"hydrus" in the following manner. It is related that a little
bird called the trochilus was in the habit of entering the mouth of
the crocodile as it lay asleep with its jaws open " towards the
west " and of picking out the leeches which clung to its teeth and
enter the crocodile's mouth, and crawl along through the throat
into its stomach, and having devoured its entrails, would crawl
back again ; the hydrus also is declared to have been in the habit
of searching for the eggs of the crocodile, which were always laid
in the sand, and of breaking the shell of every one which it found.
Notwithstanding the reverence in Avhich the crocodiles were held
in many parts of Egypt numbers of people made a living by
catching them and killing them. According to Herodotus (ii. 70)
and other writers, a hook baited with the chine of a pig was let
down by the fishermen into the river, while a young pig was held
on the bank and beaten until it squealed ; the crocodile, hearing
the noise, made its way towards the sound of the little pig's cries,
and coming across the bait on the hook, straightway swallowed it.
Then the men hauled in the line and the crocodile was soon landed,
and its eyes having been plastered up, it was slain. Crocodiles
at one time were regarded as the protectors of Egypt, and
Diodorus held the view (i. 35) that but for them the robbers from
Arabia and Africa would swim across the Nile and pillage the
country in all directions.
The crocodile played a prominent part in Egyptian mythology,
in which it appears both as the friend and foe of Osiris; one
legend tells how the creature carried the dead body of Osiris upon
its back safely to land, and another relates that Isis was obliged to
make the little ark in which she placed her son Horus of papyrus
plants, because only by
means could she protect her son from
this
now preserved in the British Museum (No. 35,700), proves that its
TuAU, i.e., " Yesterday " and " To-day " respectively. Because
the Egyptians believed that the gates of morning and evening
were guarded by Lion-gods, they placed statues of lions at the
doors of their palaces and tombs to guard both the living and the
dead, and to keep evil spirits and fleshly foes from entering into
the gates to do harm to those who were inside them. To such
lion guardians they sometimes gave the heads ofmen and women,
and these are familiar to us under the name which was given to
them by the Greeks, i.e., " Sphinxes."
The oldest and finest human-headed lion statue is the famous
has no connexion with the views which the Greeks held about their
monstrous being the Sphinx, who is declared to have been a
daughter of Orthus, or Typhon, and Chimaera, or of Typhon and
Echidna ; moreover, Greek sphinxes are winged, and their heads
and breasts are always those of a woman, whilst Egyptian
lion statues have sometimes the heads of men, and some-
times the heads of sheep or rams. The " Sphinx " at Gizeh is
that Amen-hetep III. boasts of having shot with his own bow one
hundred and two lions during the first ten years of his reign, but
these were undoubtedly lions of Mitanni and not of Egypt. The
bas-reliefs and texts prove that Rameses II. and Rameses III. each
possessed a tame lion Avhich not only accompanied them into battle,
but also attacked the enemy ; it is probable, however, that these
kings valued their pet lions more as symbols of the Sun-god and of
his protective power, than as effective combatants. In the Theban
Bool of the Dead the double lion-god who is so often mentioned
J? I y
[1-^3-, etc.; lioness-goddesses were Pakheth, .S^,
Sekhet, P Y
^
v^ '
Menat, '''wva
^ Renenet,
^ ^^ ^ JL ,
Sebqet,
hllk^ Uet-hekau,
^IItISi' Asthertet,
^^|,
and a form of Hathor, and another of Nekhebet. The destroying
power of the Lion-god is alluded to in the figure of the monster
Am-mit, which was part crocodile, part lion, and part hippo-
potamus. The vignettes to the cxlvith and cxlviith Chapters of
the Boole of the Dead show that lion-headed deities guarded certain
of the halls and jaylons of the Underworld, and some connexion of
the Lion-god with the dead is certainly indicated by the fact that
the head of the bier is always made in the form of the head of a
lion, and that the foot of it is frequently ornamented with a repre-
sentation of a lion's tail. For an account of Bast, the great
goddess of Bubastis, who was depicted with the head either of
a lioness, or of a cat, the reader is referred to the section on the
subject.
In connexion with the lion must be mentioned the Lynx
The Goddess URT-HEKAU.
LYNX AND CAT 363
^^ c^ ,
or ^ *^ c^ ^^irh--
'> ^^ former spelling being that of the
Pyramid Texts, and the latter that in use in the Theban Eecension
of the Booli of the Dead. The animal is like a large cat and hafe
a small patch of hair on the tip of each ear, and its disposition is,
[j %. tS^ , by the god Sa, and the vignette depicts the Cat in the
stated. The Ass and the Cat are forms of the Sun-god, and it is
probable that the deceased learned from them the words which
Avould enable him, like them, to vanquish the powers of darkness.
From a stele reproduced by Signer Lanzone,^ we find that prayers
and they called the animals to their meals by special sounds. When
a cat died its master had it placed in a linen sheet and taken to
the embalmers, who treated the body with spices and drugs, and
then laid it Whosoever killed a cat,
in a specially prepared case.
wittingly or unwittingly, was condemned to die, and an instance is
cited by Diodorus in which a certain Roman who had killed a cat
was attacked in his house by the infuriated populace and was slain.
Herodotus narrates (ii. 68) that " When a conflagration
" takes place a supernatural impulse seizes on the cats. For the
" Egyptians, standing at a distance, take care of the cats, and
" neglect to put out the fire ; but the cats making their escape,
" and leaping over the men, throw themselves into the fire ; and
" when this happens great lamentations are made among the
" Egyptians. In whatsoever house a cat dies of a natural death,
" all the family shave their eyebrows only ; but if a dog die, they
" shave the whole body and the head. All cats that die are
"carried to certain sacred houses, where being first embalmed,
" they are buried in the city of Bubastis."
'
Bizionario, pi. 118.
;
writers rightly discuss this ape in connexion with the moon, and
we know that sacred cynocephali were kept in many temples
which were dedicated to lunar gods, e.g., of Khensu at Thebes
certain classes of apes were regarded as the spirits of the dawn
which, having sung hymns of praise whilst the sun was rising,
turned into apes as soon as he had risen. The cult of the ape is
gotten the Hebrew word ^J^J, "wolf," with which tebi is most
'
See J. de Morgan, Becherches stir Us Orujines, Paris, 1897, p. 93. A carnelian
elephant amulet is preserved in the British Museum (4th Eg. Room, Table Case F,
" All persons bury their dogs in sacred vaults within their own
" city." If any wine, or corn, or any other necessary of life
happened to be in a house when a dog died its use was prohibited ;
and when the body had been embalmed it was buried in a tomb
amid the greatest manifestations of grief by those to whom it
belonged. If we accept the statement of Diodorus (i. 85) that a
dog was the guardian of the bodies of Osiris and Isis, and that
dogs guided Isis in her search for the body of Osiris, and protected
her from savage beasts, we should be obliged to admit that the dog
played a part in Egyptian mythology ; but there is no reason for
doing so, because it is clear that Diodorus, like many modern
writers, confounded the dog with the jackal. The dog, like the
jackal, may have been sacred to Anubis, but the mythological and
religious texts of all periods prove that it was the jackal-god who
ministered to Osiris, and who acted as guide not only to him but
to every other Osiris in the Underworld.
Like the dog, the Wolf enjoyed considerable respect in
certain parts of Egypt, e.g., the Wolf-city, Lycopolis, but there is
reason for thinking that ancient writers confounded the wolf with
the jackal. Thus Herodotus tells us (ii. 122) of a festival which
was celebrated in connexion with the descent of Rhampsinitus into
the Underworld, and says that on a certain day " the priests
JACKAL AND ASS 367
" having woven a cloak, blind the efes of one of their number
" with a scarf and having conducted him with the cloak on him to
" the way that leads to the temple of Ceres, they then return
;
" upon which, they say, this priest with his eyes bound is led by
" two wolves to the temple of Ceres, twenty stades distant from
" the city, and afterwards the wolves lead him back to the same
"place." The two wolves here referred to can be nothing but
representatives of the jackal-gods Anpu and Ap-uat, who played
very prominent parts in connexion with the dead. Another
legend recorded by Diodorus (i. 88) declares that when Horus was
making ready to do battle with Set, his father's murderer, Osiris
returned from the Underworld in the form of a wolf to assist him
in the fight. It is important to note here the statement of
Macrobius, who says {Saturn, i. 19) that Apollo, i.e., Horus, and
the wolf were worshipped at Lycopolis with equal reverence, for
it connects the wolf with Horus and Set, and indicates that these
gods fought each other in the forms of wolves and not of bears.
Legends of this kind prove that the Egyptians did not carefully
distinguish between the wolf, jackal, and dog.
At a very early period the Jackal was associated with the
dead and .their tombs, because he lived in the mountains and
deserts wherein the Egyptians loved to be buried. The principal
which proves that the animal was associated with Apep, and Set,
and the other gods of darkness and evil. On the other hand, the
xlth Chapter of the Booh of the Dead is entitled the " Chapter of
driving back the Eater of the Ass," and its vignette shows us the
deceased in the act of spearing a monster serpent which has
fastened its jaws in the back of an ass. Here the ass is certainly
a god. In the cxxvth Chapter we are told that the Ass held a
conversation with the Cat, and the passage in which the statement
occurs affords additional proof that the ass was a symbol of the
Sun-god. The probable explanation of the existence of these two
opposite views about the ass is that Egyptian opinion changed
about the animal, and that the later form of it held the ass to be
a devil and not a god as in the oldest times. Plutarch records a
legend {De Iside, § 31) to the effect that Typhon, i.e., Set, escaped
from out of the battle with Horus on the back of an ass, and that
after he had got into a place of safety he begat two sons, Hiero-
solymus and Judaeus ; but no reliance can be placed on a state-
spleen, and caul, and fat from the belly burnt in the fire, would
;
eat the flesh at the period of full moon, but at no other time,
HorapoUo (ii. 37) says that the hog was the symbol of a filthy
man, and ^Elian, in his account of the pig {De Natura Animalium,
X. 16), after stating that it eats human flesh, goes on to say that
the Egyptians abominated more than any other animal. On the
it
other hand, they kept pigs and did not sacrifice them too
abundantly, because they employed them to tread the grain into
the ground with their feet. According to the Rubric to the
cxxvth Chapter of the Booh of the Dead, the vignette was to be
drawn in colour upon " a new tile moulded from earth upon which
" neither a pig nor any other animal hath trodden." Why, how-
ever, the pig should be especially mentioned is hard to say. From
one point of view the pig was a sacrosanct animal, and it is clear
that the idea of its being holy arose from its connexion with Osiris ;
l-hemw, I
370 ICHNEUMON
{Symp. iv. 5) that it was held to be the proper symbol of darkness
in connexion with this it is interesting to note that the inscriptions
on the bronze figures of the animal identify it with Heru-khent-
an-maa, i.e., the "Blind Horus," or, " Horus Avho dwelleth in
darkness."
cy^©OY?\,
The Ichneumon, in
'
repeatedly into the mud, and then dries itself in the sun : as soon
'
as, by these means, it has armed itself with a sufficient number
'
of coatings, it proceeds to the combat. Raising its tail, and
'turning its back to the serpent, it receives its stings, which are
'
inflicted to no purpose, until at last, turning its head sideways,
'
and viewing its enemy, it seizes it by the throat." The
ichneumon was said to destroy not only the eggs of the crocodile,
but also the animal itself. According to Strabo, their habit was
to lie in wait for the crocodiles, when the latter were basking in
the sun with their mouths wide open ; they then dropped into
their jaws, and eating through their intestines and belly issued
forth from the dead body. Diodorus declares that the ichneumon
only breaks the eggs with the idea of rendering a service to man,
and thinks that the creature derives no benefit itself from its act,
and he goes on to say that but for the ichneumon the number of
crocodiles would be so great that no one would be able to approach
the Nile. Several figures of the ichneumon in bronze have been
found in the tombs, but the texts supply no information about the
beliefs which the Egyptians entertained about this remarkable
animal. Modern naturalists have shown that there is no truth in
the statement that it is immune from the efi'ects of snake-bite, or
that having been bitten it has recourse to the root of a certain
plant as an antidote ; the fact is that its great agility and quickness
of eye enable it to avoid the fangs of the serpent, and to take the
first opportunity of fixing its own teeth in the back of the reptile's
neck. It is very fond of eggs, and for this reason seeks out those
of the crocodile with great avidity, but it loves equally well the
eggs of poultry, and in consequence it sometimes bears an evil
reputation among the keepers of hens, turkeys, etc.
The Hahe was worshipped as a deity, and in the vignette of
the Elysian Fields we see a hare-headed god, and a snake-headed
god, and a bull-headed god sitting side by side ; a hare-headed
god also guards one of the Seven Halls in the Underworld. The
Hare-god was probably called Unnu.^
Among the birds which were worshipped by the Egyptians,
or held to be sacred, the following were the most important :
to Herodotus (ii. 77), the phoenix only made its appearance once in
having filled it with perfumes he lay down and died. From his
bones and marrow there sprang a small worm which in process of
time changed into a little bird, which, having buried the remains
of its predecessor, carried off" the nest to the City of the Sun.
2. The Vulture was the symbol of the goddesses Nekhebet,
Mut, Neith, and others who were identified with Nekhebet the ;
other cognate gods, and its worship was universal throughout Egypt
in predynastic times ; the centre of the cult of the Hawk-god was
Hieraconpolis, or the " Hawk City." The hawk was not only a
Sun-bird but, when represented with a human head, was symbolic
of the human soul. According to Herodotus (ii. 65), death was
the punishment of the man who killed a hawk or an ibis, and
Diodorus records (i. hawks were maintained
83) that the sacred
at the public expense, and that they would come to their keepers
when called, and would catch the pieces of raw meat which they
threw to them in full flight. The Egyptians venerated two
species, i.e., the golden hawk,
J
"^^^^^^ ^^ "^"^ f^**!^ ^^^^ ^j^g
;
sacred hawk,
^
Dizionario, pi. 118.
374 GOOSE
took upon herself the form of a swallow when she was lamenting
side the five lines of the text above read, " Amen-Ra, the beautiful
;
offerings. The words above the god read, " Amen-Ra, the hearer
of entreaty," and those over the goose are " the beautiful Goose,
with Seb the erfdt^ d , of the gods, who is called in the Boole
of the Dead "the Great Cackler" (Chapters liv., Iv.). The goose
was a favourite article of food in Egypt, and was greatly in
request for offerings in the temples ; according to Herodotus
(ii. 37) a portion of the daily food of the priests consisted of goose
flesh. The goose is said to have been sacred to Isis, and the centre
of the great trade in the bird was Xrji>o/3ocrKLov, or Xrjvofioa-KLa
(Chenoboscium or Chenoboscia), i.e., the " Goose pen," a town in
Upper Egypt, which was situated in the nome Diospolites, and was
quite near to the marshes wherein large numbers of geese were
fattened systematically. The Copts gave the name of " Sheneset"
to the town, and this has been identified with the Egyptian
are equivalent in meaning to " the place where the geese are
fattened." The meaning of the goose as a hieroglyphic is " child"
' Dizionario, pi. 22. « Ibid., pi. 361. » j)ict. Oeog., p. 659.
IBIS 375
01^ " son," and HorapoUo goes so far as to say (i. 53) that it was
chosen to denote a son from its love to its young, being always
ready to give up to the hunter
itself if only they might be pre-
served, and that owing to this trait in its character the Egyptians
revered it.
7. The
was universally venerated throughout Egypt, and
Ibis
the centre of its cult in very early times was the city of Khemennu,
or Hermopolis, where the bird was associated with the Moon
and with Thoth, the scribe of the gods.-' It seems to have been
worshipped in the first instance because it killed snakes and
reptiles in general in large numbers, and it was thought to destroy
the winged serpents, which, it was declared, were brought over
into Egypt from the deserts of Libya by the west wind. Herodotus
tells us that he once Avent to a certain place in Arabia, almost
exactly opposite the city of Buto, to make inquiries concerning
the winged serpents. On his arrival he " saw the back-bones and
'
ribs of serpents in such numbers as it is impossible to describe ;
'
of the ribs there were a multitude of heaps, some great, some
'
small, some middle-sized. The place where the bones lie is at
'
the entrance of a narrow gorge between steep mountains, which
'
there open upon a spacious plain communicating with the great
'plain of Egypt. The story goes, that with the spring, the
'
winged snakes come flying from Arabia towards Egypt, but
'
are met by the
in this gorge birds called ibises, who forbid their
'
entrance and destroy them aU. The Arabians assert, and the
'
Egyptians also admit, that it is on account of the service thus
'
rendered that the Egyptians hold the ibis in so much reverence.
'
The ibis is a bird of a deep black colour, with legs like a crane ;
'
its beak is strongly hooked, and its size is about that of the
'
landrail. This is a description of the black ibis which contends
'
with the serpents. The commoner sort, for there are two quite
'
distinct species, has the head and the whole throat bare of
'
feathers ; its general plumage is white, but the head and neck
'
are jet black, as also are the tips of the wings and the extremity
'
of the tail ; in its beak and legs it resembles the other species.
p. 75 ;
Diodorus, i. 83 ; Plutarch, Be Iside, § 75 ; etc.
376 TORTOISE, SERPENT
•'
The winged serpent is shaped like the water-snake. Its wings
^
-'
are not feathered, but resemble very closely those of the bat."
Among the reptiles which were deified by the Egyptians,
or were regarded as sacred creatures, may be mentioned the
following :
— 1. The Tortoise or Turtle, which probably came
from Nubia, and was worshipped or revered through fear. The
the tortoise.
2. Of the Serpent and Snake many varieties were worshipped
by the Egyptians for the sake of the good qualities which
they possessed, and many were revered through fear only. In
predynastic times Egypt was overrun with serpents and snakes
of all and the Pyramid Texts prove that her inhabitants
kinds,
were terribly afraid of them the formulae which are found in the
;
I 00 f^
^5 in early dynastic times. This city enjoyed with that
^
Rawlinson's Herodotus, vol. ii., pp. 124, 125.
The Goddess SERQET.
SCORPION 377
^gyP*) ^iid they were first founded in primitive times when the
vulture and the uraeus were especially worshipped. The great
enemy of Horus, and Ra, and Osiris, and also of the deceased in
the Underworld was the monster serpent Apep, or Apophis, which
directed the attacks on gods and men of numbers of serpent broods,
and which was held to be the personification of all evil on the ;
other hand the uraeus was the symbol of divinity and royalty, for
the walls of the abode of Osiris were surmounted by "living uraei,"
and the god Ra Avore two uraei upon his forehead, and every king
is represented with a uraeus upon his forehead. In primitive times,
when man coveted the powers of various birds and reptiles, and
when he appears to have wished to be able to assume their forms
after death, the priests provided a number of formulae which would
enable him to do this, and among them was one which gave the
'
deceased the power of becoming the serpent Sata, "^^ , and
which read, " I am the serpent Sata whose years are many. I die
"and I am born again each day. I am the serpent Sata which
" dwelleth in the uttermost parts of the earth. I die and I am
" born again, and I renew myself, and I grow young each day." ^
'
Booh of the Bead, Chapter Ixxxvii.
;
depicted with the head of a frog, while his female counterpart has
the head of a serpent.
The cult of the frog is one of the oldest in
Egypt, and the Frog-god and the Frog-goddess were believed to
have played very prominent parts in the creation of the world.
GRASSHOPPER, BEETLE 379
criv, because it was generated from the slime of the river, whence
it occasionally happens that it is seen with one part of a frog, and
the remainder formed of slime, so that should the river fall, the
animal would be left imperfect ; the half-formed creatures referred
to by Diodorus (i. 10) seem to have been frogs. iElian also
declares (ii. 56) that in a shower which once fell upon him there
were half-formed frogs, and that whilst their fore parts were
provided Avith two feet their hind parts were shapeless !
(Ml
'^
'^'^^'^^' Seehet-Sanehemu), wherein was
Q '^^^
j\ "^^ , and was the symbol of Khepera, w <=> <^ ,
the
sented at times with a beetle upon his head, and at others with a
beetle for a head as Khepera' s attributes have already been fully
;
described we need only repeat here that he was the " father of the
gods," and the creator of all things in heaven and earth, that he
was self-beo-otten and self-born, and that he was identified with the
risino- and new birth generally. The beetle or scarabaeus
sun,
which was modelled by the Egyptians in such large numbers
belongs to the family called Scarabaeidae (Coprophagi), of which
the Scarabaeus sacer is the type. These insects compose a very
numerous group of dung-feeding Lamellicorns, of which, however,
the majority are inhabitants of tropical countries. remarkable A
peculiarity exists in the structure and situation of the hind legs,
380 BEETLE
which are placed so near the extremity of the body, and so far
from each other as to give the insect a most extraordinary
appearance when walking.
This peculiar formation is, nevertheless, particularly serviceable
to its possessors in rolling the balls of excrementitious matter in
which they enclose their eggs ; wherefore these insects were
named by the first naturalists Pilulariae. These balls are at first
means of the hind legs. Sometimes these balls are an inch and a
half, or two inches in diameter, and in rolling them along the
beetles stand almost upon their heads, with the heads turned from
the balls. These manoeuvres have for their object the burying of
the balls in holes, which the insects have previously dug for their
reception and it is upon the dung thus deposited that the larvae
;
feed. It does not appear that these beetles have the instinct to
distinguish their own balls, as they will seize upon those belonging
to another, in case they have lost their own ; and, indeed, it is said
that several of them occasionally assist in rolling the same ball.
The males as well as the females assist in rolling the pellets. They
fly during the hottest part of the day.^ From the above extract it
of the sun daily, and secondly, with the resurrection of man. And
since the scarabaeus was identified with him that insect became at
1 J. 0. Westwood, An Introduction to the Modern Classification of Insects
London, 1839, vol. i., p. 204 ff.
BEETLE 381
once the symbol of the god and of the Resurrection. Now the dead
human body, from one aspect, contained the germ of life, that is
to say, the germ of the spiritual body, which was called into being
by means of the prayers that were recited and the ceremonies that
were performed on the day of the funeral ; from this point of view
the egg-ball of the scarabaeus and the dead body were identical.
Moreover, as the scarabaeus had given potential life to its eggs in
the ball, so, it was thought, would a model of the scarab, itself the
symbol of the god of new life and resurrection, also give potential
life to the dead body upon which it was placed, and keep life in
the living body, always provided that the proper words of power
"
were first said over it or written upon it. The idea of " life
" a bird and he alighteth like a beetle upon the throne which is
n
I)
D
^ (^^ l,%^\^h-
f\ -^ D
'^
"^ R "^ c. -||- Q ^ni ^^=^ O . In the text of Teta
(line 89) the king is said "to live [like] the scarab," T ® n jm -— • >
and Pepi I. is declared to be " the son of the scarab which is born
" in Hetepet under the hair of lusaas the Northern, and the issue
writers^ the opinion prevailed that female scarabs did not exist,
and Latreille thinks that this belief arose from the fact that the
females are exceedingly like the males, and that both sexes appear
takes some ox-dung, and shapes it into a spherical form like the
into the water, and from it the scarabaei come forth.The idea
of " generation " arises from its supposed acts. The scarabaeus
denotes a " father " because it is engendered by a father only, and
" world " because in its generation it is fashioned in the form of
the world, and " man " because there no female race among
is
was held in the greatest reverence ; this fish was supposed to have
swallowed the phallus of Osiris ^ when Set was hacking the body of
this god in pieces, and for this reason was sacred not only in the
nome of the Oxyrhynchites and its metropolis, but all over Egypt.
In certain places the Egyptians would not eat it. The Phagrus,
or was worshipped in Upper Egypt, and mummied eels have
eel,
head of the goddess Hatmehit, =^ °^ I ^^ ^ 'D ' ^^® ^°* 7®* heen
identified. In the Booh of the Dead two mythological fish are
these fish were supposed to swim, one on each side of the bows of the
boat of the Sun-god, and to drive away from it every evil being or
thing in the waters which had a mind to attack it. The identifica-
tion of Nile fish is at present a difiicult matter, but it is to be
hoped that when the Egyptian Government issues the monograph
on the fish of Egypt and the Delta, and of Nubia and the Sudan
it may be possible to name correctly the various bronze and
886 INDEX
Aelian, ii. 346, 352, 369, Akau, ii. 325 Alabastronpolis, i. 98,
370, 372, 379, 381 Akebiu, i. 201 102, 432
Mlia.n, ii. 358, 360; Akeneh, i. 23 Alabes fish, ii. 382
quoted.i. 63, 356, 402; Akent, 433 i. Al-A'raf, i. 171
ii. 93 Aken-tau-k-ha-kheru, i. Al-Basra, i. 6
Af, the dead Sun-God, i. 176 ; ii. 325 Ale, i."l78
206,257,505; his new Akenti, i. 177 Aleppo, ii. 283
i. 260
birth, Akenu, i. 433 ; ii. 325 Alexander the Great, i.
INDEX 387
Amen, derivations of the Amen-Ea, Hymn to, ii. Amesu sceptre, ii. 8
name, ii, 2 5 Amet-tcheru, i. 211
Amen-ha, ii. 320 Amen-Ea, incarnation of, Am - hauatu - eut - pehui-f
Amen-hau, i. 342 i. 330 ; spread of his ii. 324
388 INDEX
Amsii (nome), i. 97 Aneb-hetch (nome),i. 99, Ani 439
(city), i,
98
i. 454 ; ii. 85, 129, 261- 187
Anpu am Uhet, ii. 185 266, 366 Aphroditopolis, i, 97, 98,
Anpu-Horus, i. 493 Anubis, Path 513 of, i, 431, 432, 446
Anpu khent neter seh, ii, Anubis-Horus, i. 493 Aphroditopolites, i, 96
184 Anubis = Osiris, ii. 139 Api, i, 79 ; ii. 30, 109
Anpu khent neter seh em Anu-Ea-Bel, i. 290 Apis, ii. 353
ren-f neb, ii. 185 Anunu, i. 454 Apis, incarnation of
Anqet, i. 431 ; ii. 50, Anuqet, ii. 53 Osiris, i. 830
57 ff. Aoi, i. 280 Apis Bull, i. 26, 27 ; ii.
Anqet (Isis), 216 ii. Ap, ii. 268, 292 195-201, 212; signs
Anqet Nephthys, ii. 57 Apa-ankh, i. 454 of, described, ii. 350
An-rut-f,i. 352,410,482; 'ATTaaoiv, i. 289 Apis (city), i. 99
60
ii. ; 155 Ape = Amen, ii. 2 Apis-Osiris, ii. 195-201
Anshar, i. 289, 291 Ape, a form of Thoth, i. Apit, goddess, i. 427
Ant (city), i. 493, 515 Ape and pig, i. 190 431 ; ii. 93, 95, 278
Ant (country), i, 517 Ape, worship of, i. 2 ; the Apollinopolis Parva, i.
Apt-renpit, ii. 293 Arenna, ii. 283 Asar Aa am Annu, ii. 182
Apts, the, ii. 6, 7, 9, 10 Arethi-kasathi-ka, ii. 20 Asfir Aheti, ii. 183
Apt-taui, i. 254 Arethi-ka-sa-thika,, ii. Asar Athi her ab Abtu,
Apu, i. 97, 470 ii. 188 ;
323 ii. 183
Apu, a god, i. 194 Ai- gods, ii. 249 Asar Athi her ab Shetat,
Apu (serpent), i. 230 Ar-hes-nefer, i. 464 ii. 183
Ap-uat, i. 79, 102, 109, Ari-ankh, i. 511 Asar-am-ab-neteru, i. 228
206,210, 454, 493; Arians, i. 69 Asar Anklii, ii. 179
ii. 26, 43, 119, 156, Ari-em-ab-f, i. 419 ; ii. Asar-Ankhti, ii. 176
263, 322, 323, 367 325 Asar Ap-shat-taui, ii. 179
Ap-uat of Lycopolis, i. Ari-en-ab-f, ii. 325 Asar-Asti 214 i.
Apuleius, ii. 217, 218, Ari-si, ii. 325 Asar-bati 214 (?), i.
265, 266 Aristotle, ii. 357, 370; Asar Bati-er pit, ii. 176
Apzu, i. 291 quoted, i. 62 Asar em Aat-urt, ii. 181
Apzu-rishtu, i. 288, 289 Arit, city, i. 433 Asar em ahat-f em ta
Aqan, ii. 327 Arit (a pylon), i. 186 Meht, ii. 185
Aqebi, i. 182 Aritatheth, i. 248 Asar em ahat-f nebu, ii.
Aqeh, ii. 325 Ariti, i. 244 185
Aqen, ii, 325 Arits, the, i. 427 Asar em Akesh, ii. 182
INDEX 391
Asar em ankh em Ptah- Asar em khau-f-nebu, ii. Asar em Sau Khert, ii,
Asar Her-shai, ii. 178 Asar neb-tchetta, ii, 178, Ashet, 432 i.
Atet Boat, i. 206, 338; of, i. 64 ; the double, Bai (Eam-god), ii. 329
ii. 11, 104, 105, 159 i. 65 Bai (Soul-god), ii. 328
Ateuchus Aegyptiorum, Azrael, i. 5 Bairast, i. 450
i. 356 'Azza, ii. 289 Baireqai, ii.21
Atha, i. 481 Bairtha, ii. 281
Athenais, ii. 190 Baiu amu Tuat, i. 220
Athene, i. 458, 461 ; ii. Ba, i. 80, 163 Bak, i. 492
217 Ba, a god, i. 180 ; ii. 26 Bak, i. 516
Athep, i. 259 Ba (god of Xlth Hour), Baka, i. 493
Athi, name of, ii. 148 i. 200 Bakha, the Bull, ii. 352
394 INDEX
Bakhau, i. 24, 79, 470 ;
Bast-Sekhet-Renpit, i, Behutet (goddess), i. 431
ii. 101, 352 432 Behutit, i. 427
Bakrawiyeh, i, 15 Basu, 284
ii. Bekatha, ii. 305
Balaam, i, 19 Bat, the, ii. 369 Bekennu, ii. 20
Balance, i. 521 Bath, i. 194 Bekheu, ii. 31
Balance, the Great, i. Bath-Anth, ii. 278 Bekhennu, ii, 20
358 Bati, ii. 328 Bekhent, ii. 34
Balu, ii. 250 Bati-erpit, ii. 328 Bekhkhi, i. 192
Bandage of Hathor, i. Ban, ii. 329 Bekhten, ii. 37
437; of Nekliebet, i. Beads, nse of, i. 14 Bekhten, Princess of, ii.
INDEX 395
BlindHorus,i. 299, 470; Breast = Baabu, i. 110 122, 148, 252, 348
ii. 370 Breasted, Mr., ii. 74 Busirites, i. 96
Blue Nile, i. 17 ii. 360 ; Bringers of doubles, i. Buss, ii. 289
Boat of Isis, i. 210 184 Buto, i. 24, 100, 115,
Boat of Millions of Years, Brittany, i. 64 438 ; ii. 208, 211
i. 333, 368, 488, 518 Brugsch, Dr. H.,i. 63,67, Butos, ii. 192
ii. 210, 260, 272 89, 224, 284, 285, 291, Buttocks = two boats, i.
Bone of Horus, ii. 246 Bubastis, triad of, i, 450 96, 107, 108
Bone of Typho, ii, 246 Bubastitea, i, 96, 444 Caesarion, i. 161
Bonomi, i. 178, 304 Bull = Amen-Ea, ii. 11 Cailliaud, i. 356
;
396 INDEX
Cakes, i. 178 Citharus fish, ii. 382 Cusae, i. 98, 432 ; ii. 22;
Cambyses, i, 458; ii. 352 Civitas Lucinae, i, 439 Hathon of, i. 434
Campus Martius, ii. 218 Clemens Alesandrinus, i. Cyclopes, ii. 100
Canis Major, i. 488 414 Cynocephalus Ape, i. 17 ;
Chabas, i. 126, 136 ; ii. Coukhos, 305 ii. lucky, ii. 109 ;
gods of,
or=Nut, ii. 106 Elysian Fields, i. 103, Esneh, i. 452, 463, 464
31 147 i.25
Hapi (son of Horus), ii. Hathor of Aphrodito-
'
386 polis, i. 97, 98
a,as, ii. 246 Hapi-Asmat, ii. 309 Hathor of Cusae, i. 98
ibal, ii. 289 Hapi-Khuemu, ii. 45 Hathor of Dendera, i. 97
ib-em-atu, ii. 835 Hapi-Ptah, ii. 45 Hathor of Diospolis
Hauna- aria- her -hra, i. Heh, central support of Hell, prototype of, i. 12
272 heaven, i. 157 Hell, Seven Mansions of,
Hebrews, i. 41, 119 ; ii. Heliopolis, lions of, ii. HennuBoat,i. 505,506;
73 360 ii. 117, 260
Hebrews, Heaven of, i. Heliopolis, Mnevis god Henotheism, i. 136
166 of, i. 26 Hen-pesetchi, i. 81
Hebrews, Hell of, i. 171, Heliopolis, paut of gods Hensek, ii. 336
265 of, i. 88 Hent, i. 81
Hebrews, their system of Heliopolis, souls of, i. Hent (Isis), ii. 213
Angels, i. 6 ff. 107 Hentch-hentch, ii. 294
;
INDEX 401
Her-ba, i. 320
345 ; ii. Her-pest, i. 480 489
Hercules, ii. 199, 200 Her-qenbet-f, i. 188 Heru-em-au-ab, ii.302
Herent, i. 492 Her-sha-f, ii. 58 Heru-em-heb, ii. 84
II —D d
;;
402 INDEX
Heru-em-het-Aa, i. 413 Heru-kbuti-Ea, i. 352 Heru-sbu-p-kbart, i. 469
Heru-em-kliebit, i. 498 Heru-kbuti-Tem, i, 470 Heru-sma-taui, i. 354,
'
81 499 Hesmennu, i. 82
Heru-kbuti, i. 336, 349, Heru-shefi = Osiris, ii. Hes-nefer-Sebek, i. 464
470 ff., ii. 4, 293, 337 139 Hespu, tbe, i. 95-100
Heru-kbuti-Kbepera, i. Heru-sbemsbu, i. 490 Hes-tebefetcb, ii. 19, 838
'
INDEX 403
Horns of the East, ii. 10 Hunger, ii. 118 10, 11, 44, 63, 123
Horns of the Papyrus Hunt, i. 81 louo, i. 280
swamps, i. 442 Huntheth, 248 i. Ireqai, ii. 328
Horns of Tu-f, i. 98 Hur al-'uyun, i. 166 Iron, ii. 241
Horus Pakht, i. 518 Hurt, ii. 213 Iron floor of heaven, i.
Isis and Ea, Legend of, J^quier, quoted, i. 178 Kakaa, i. 829
i. 360 ff. Jerusalem, i. 273, 278 Ka-kau, ii, 346, 351, 353
Isis, mysteriei of, ii. 217; Jews, i, 19 Ka-khu, ii, 301
sorrows Egyptian of, Jinn, i. 133 14, KaMbsheh, ii, 288
text, ii. 222-240; wan- John, Saint, i. 144 Ka-qem, i, 492
derings and troubles of, Judaeus, ii. 254, 868 Ka-qem (nome), i, 100
ii. 206 ff. Judges, Book of, i. 19 Kaqemna, i, 122, 138
Isis of Cabasus, i. 100 Judgment Scene, ii. 142 Karau-Anememti, i, 326
Isis of Sapi-res, i. 99 ff. Karnak, ii, 22
Isis of Tithorea, ii. 218- Julius Africanus, i, 445 Kasa, i, 98
220 Juno, ii, 258 Kasaika, ii. 20, 342
Isis-Athene, 459 i. Jupiter, ii, 186, 258, 302, Ka-set (nome), i. 99
Isis-Hathor, ii. 55 303 Ka-Shu, i. 206
Isis-Nebuut, ii. 213 Jupiter Ammon, ii. 22 Kasut, i. 83
Isis-Net, i. 452 Justinian, i. 289 Ka-taui, ii. 301
Isis-Sati, ii. 57 Juvenal, i. 28, 86; Katna, ii. 23
Isis-Sothis, ii, 55 quoted, i. 1, 2 Kau i. 34
of Ea,
Island of Ateh, ii. 209 Keb, 369
i.
Khabesu, the, ii. 154 457 ; ii. 149, 297, 338 Khentet-Khast, ii. 309
Kha-em-Uast, ii. 350, Khemennu, Eight gods Khentet-khert, ii. 305
351 of, i. 113, 292 Khenthi, ii. 298
Kha-f-Ea, i. 445, 472 Khemi, i. 419 ii. 838 ; Khenti = Thoth, i. 402
Khak-ab, i. 326 Khemit, i. 222 Khenti Amentet, i. 172,
Khakhat, i. 433 Khemmis, ii. 208, 210, 173 ii. 389
;
Kharsatha, ii. 838 447, 448, 464 ; ii. 33, Khenti-heh-f, ii. 129
Khartiim, ii. 360, 865 35, 36, 97, 293, 302, Khenti-khas, i. Ill
Khambu, i, 826 389 Khenti-Khatthi, ii. 339
'
INDEX 407
Khenu, i, 242 ; ii.25 Kherserau, ii. 339 Khnemu -Osiris, ii. 51,
Khen-unmit-f, i. 242 Khesef-at, ii. 339 57,58
Kheper, i. 78 Khesef - baa-heseq-Neha - Khnemu-qenbeti, i. 211
Khepera, i. 203, 257, bra, i. 230 Khnemu-Ea, ii, 45, 51,
294, 295, 297, 306, Kbesef-hra, i. 326 131
308-321, 336, 340, Kbesef-hra-asb-kheru, i. Khnemu- Seb, ii. 51
349, 470 ii. 4, 14, 15,
; 176; ii. 339 Khnemu-Shu, ii. 51, 66
97, 301, 317, 338, 371, Khesef- bra -kbemiu, i. Khnemu, the seven forms
380 177 ii. 339
; of, ii. 54, 55
Khuti, a god, i. 182 Lakes of the Tuat, ii. 120 Liddon, Canon, 144 i.
410 INDEX
Matet Boat, i. 323, 331, Melcarthus, ii. 190 Menelaites, i. 96
382, 369 ; ii. 104, 204 Members, deification of, Menenui, i. 248
Mati, cat-headed goddess, i. 109, 110 Menes, i. 24
i. 201 Memnon, i. 1 Menhet, i. 426, 446 ; ii.
50'
Mati = Sun-god, i. 342 Memokh, i. 281
Matter, primeval, i. 288 Memphis (see Het-ka- Menhet (Isis), ii. 213
Mau, ii. 297 Ptah), ii. 157 Menhi, i. 241
Man (Ka), ii. 61 Memphis, i. 27, 95, 99, Menhit, 431, 463
i. ; ii.
47 26 110
Mauonbi, i. 281 Memphis, captured by Menkert, i. 248
Mau-taui, i. 420 Piankhi, i. 331 Menkh, ii. 330
Mauti, ii. 317 Memphis, great triad of, Menkhet, i. 244 ii. 213, ;
Maxims 126
of Ani, i. i. 500 ff. 256, 293
of Khensu-hetep, i. 126 Memphis, high-priest of, Menlil, ii. 289
Medan, ii. 289 i. 101, 505 Menmemu, i. 220
Meh, i. 482 Memphis, high-priest and Men-nefer, i. 512
Meh-mahetch (nome), i. high-priestess of, i. 101 Men-nefert, i. 99
98 Memphis, triad of, i. 114 Mennipos, i. 281
Meh-ta-f, ii. 127 Memphites, i. 96 Menqet, ii. 331
Meh-urit, i. 511 Men and women, creation Menruil, ii. 289
Meh-urt, i. 422, 432; of, i. 312 Men-sheta, i. 191
ii. 19, 61, 331 Men, destruction of, ii. Ment (?) i. 437
Meh-urt, Seven wise ones 93 Ment, i. 80 ii. 330, 331;
516
of, i. Men, origin of, i. 304 Mentchat, i. 457
Mehanuti-Ea, ii. 331 Mena,i.24, 453;ii.346 Mentef, i. 80
Mehen, i. 180, 232, 234, Men-a, i. 244 Month, i. 437
238 ii. 8, 331
; Menat, i. 430, 432, 498 ; Menthu, ii. 23, 24 ff.,
INDEX 411
Meskhen Seqebet, ii. 184 Metes-sen, i. 177; ii. Moon, creation of, i. 370
Meskhen, the, ii. 144 331 Moon-god, i. 412, 413
Meskhenet, i. 329; ii. Methyer, i. 422 Moon on a pedestal, i.
144, 359 Metternichj Prince, ii. 210
Meskhenet of Isis, ii. 108 205 Mophi, ii. 44
Meskhent, ii. 285 Metternich, Stele, ii. 205, Morgan, J. de, i. 22 ii. ;
412 INDEX
Mtesa, i. 142 Naam, 26ii. 308, 491 ; ii. 61, 123,
Muhammad, i. 5, 141, Naarerf, 351 i. 150, 153, 214, 332
142 Naarik, ii. 332 Neb-hrau, 419 i. ; ii. 332
Muhammad 'Ali, ii. 205, Na-ari-ka, ii. 20 Neb-khat, 255 ii.
ii. 332
Muhammadans, heaven Naau, 332 Neb-neteru, ii. 301
of, i. 166 Naau-tchetta, i. 437 Neb-pat, i. 244
Muhammadans, hell of, Nai, i. 23, 326 ; ii. 322 Neb - pehtet - petpet- seba,
i. 171 Nak, i. 324, 335 ; ii. 8, ii. 332
Muhammad wad-Ibrahim, 11, 79, 332 Neb -pehti thes-menment,
•
Miiller, Eight Hon. Prof. Name, use and impor- Neb-sekert, ii. 122
F. Max, i. 135 tance of, i. 10, 301 Neb-Senku, i. 348; ii.
INDEX 413
Nebt-unimt, i. 336; ii. 332 Neheb-ka, ii. 333 Nekhekb, i. 83 ii. 102 ;
INDEX 415
200, 257, 283, 284, Oases, ii. 22, 251 his Cycle, i. 77 ; as a
291, 309, 341, 367, Oasis, the Great, i. 464 ; Water-god, ii. 122,
456 ; ii. 2, 14, 15, 25, ii. 22 123; as God, i. 121;
44, 317, 332; battle Oasis, Minor, ii. 22 as god of the dead, i.
Nu, Papyrus of, i. 357, Obelisk-god, i. 348 Four earthly forms of,
427; ii. 62, 102 Obelisk, House of, ii. 66, i. 230 Four souls of,
;
ii. 12, 17, 22, 40, 57, Ogdoad, i. 404 i. 232; head of, ii. 118;
92 Oia, i. 280 his nine forms, 214 i.
Nubia, civilization of, Oil in heaven, ii. 118 his sixteen members,
Egyptian origin, i. 14 Oimenephtah, i. 178 ii. 127 history of, ii.
;
upper, ii. 51 Olive tree, i. 165 ; ii. Plutarch, ii. 187 ff.
Nubt (goddess), ii. 108 On, i. 100, 328; ii. 176 ff. ; scenes of his
Nubt (Hatbor), i. 437 148 burial and resurrection,
Nubti, i. 468; ii. 250, One=:Amen-Ea, ii. 9, 10, ii. 131-138; shrines of,
416 INDEX
Osiris-Ea, i. 334 Pan, ii. 353 Paut of eleven gods, i.
Oxyrynchus, i. 98, 432 Papyrus Swamps, ii. 190, Pehu, ii. 156
206 Pehui, ii. 304
Pa-Qerhet, i. 353 Pekh, i, 517
Pa-ait, 468
i. Par, ii. 19, 20 Pekhat, i. 518 ; ii. 329
Pa-atemt, i. 353 Paradise, Egyptian, i, Pekhet, i. 517
Pa-Bar, ii. 281 165, 166 Pekheth, i. 517
Pa-Bast, i. 444 Parehaqa-kheperu, i. 518 Pekhit, i. 517
Pa-bil-sag, ii. 316 ii. 329 Pekht (city), i. 517
Pachons, ii. 248 Par-neferu-en-neb-set, ii, Pelusium, ii. 128
PagoTire, i. 280 301 Pelusius, ii. 191
Pai, i. 203 Pa-Sebek, ii. 357 Pent, i. 80
Paireqa, ii. 283 Pasemis, i. 437 Penter, i. 200
Pa-khen-Ament, ii. 31 Pashakasa, i. 518; ii. 329 Penti, ii. 329
Pa-khen-en- Amen, i. 100 Pasht, 517
i. Pepi I., i. 72, 77, 297,
Pa-khent, ii. 356 Pa-Shu, ii. 299 445
Pakheth, ii. 362 Pastophori, ii. 217 Pepi II., i. 77, 445
Pakht, i. 517, 518 Pa-sui, ii. 206 Per-aa, 242 i.
Pallas, 458
i. Paut of heaven, i. 91 Pergamos, Church of, i.
INDEX 417
Per-netchem, i, 492 Phagrus fish, ii. 192 96, 347, 370, 372;
Per - net - mut - klieper - Phallephoria, ii. 186 quoted, i. 62
hetch, i. 452 M Phallus = Hap, i. 110 Plutarch, i, 150, 353, 422,
Per-netch- Shu -ma-Nut, x^hallus of Osiris, i. 496 448, 458, 459, 467,
ii. 103 ii. 65, 128, 193, 382 489, 493 ; ii, 58, 123,
Per-Nubt, ii. 108 Pharaoh, i. 242, 361 126, 147, 241, 248,
Per-Nut, ii, 103 Pharbaethites, i. 96 349,358,361,368,370,
Per-Pakht, ii, 213 Phaturites, i. 96 373, 375, 382; his
Per-Ea, i. 452 Philae, i. 473, 523, 525 ;
history of Osiris and
Per-rerehu, i. 480 ii. 43, 45, 50, 57, 289 Isis, ii, 186
Persea Tree, ii. 61, 371 Philip, St., i. 280 Pluto, ii. 199 ; ii. 217,
Persephone, ii, 217 Philostratus, ii. 96 253
Per-Sept, i,499 Phoenicia, ii. 124 P-neb-taui, i. 468
Per-sui, i, 488 Phoenix, ii. 96, 371 Pneuma, i, 285
Per-Tehuti, i. 100 Phout^t, ii, 304 Polytheism, i. 137
Per-Tehuti-ap-rehuh, i, Phthemphu, 96 i, Pompeii, ii. 218
421 ^vXaKTrjpiov, 1, 234 Pomponius Mela, ii, 96
Per-Tem, 452 i. ^uo-t9, i, 68 Pontus, ii. 197, 198
Per-tennu, i. 433 Phylarchus, ii, 200 Porphyry, i, 356 quoted, ;
418 INDEX
Prosopis, i. 432 ; ii. 357 Ptenetu, i. 441 Qebti, i. 97
Prosopites, i. 96 Ptolemais, i. 432 Qebui (N. wind), ii. 295
Proto-Semites, i. 8 Ptolemies, the, i. 26 Qeften, ii. 268
Providence, Divine, i. Ptolemy Alexander, ii. Qemamu, ii. 343
125 24 Qemhusu, ii. 343
Psammetichus I., ii. 350, Ptolemy II., i. 332; ii. Qemqem, i. 469
351 354 Qem-baius, i,473
Pselket, i. 401 Ptolemy lY., i. 523 Qereret, ii. 148
P-she-hert, ii. 213 Ptolemy V. i. 523 Qerert, i. 149
Psinotiier, i. 280 Ptolemy Lagus, ii. 348 Qererti, 342 i, ; ii. 320
Ptah,i.78,218,500ff.; Ptolemy Philadelphus, ii. Qer-Hapi, 44 ii.
350 ; the second, ii. 196 Punt, ii. 6, 7, 65, 287, 419
Ptah-aneb-res-f, ii. 293, 288 Qerti, the, ii. 43
330 Purgatory, i. 171, 261, Qesqeset, i. 467 ; ii. 108
Ptah Asar, i. 502 265 Qesem, i, 100
Ptah Hapi, i. 146, 502, Puteoli, ii. 21 Qeset, i. 161
503' Pythagoras, ii. 351 Qesi, i. 98
Ptah-hetep, i. 122, 125, Pythagoreans, ii. 252 Qet, ii. 294, 307
126, 138 Python, i. 11 Qetesh, ii. 276, 279, 280,
Ptah-neb-ankh, i. 500 284
Ptah-Nu, i, 502, 503 Qetet, ii. 129
Ptah-Seker, i. 502 ; ii. Qa (god), ii. 42 Qetetbu, ii, 343
330 Qa-Ba, i. 345 ; ii. 320 Qettu, i, 326
Ptah-Seker-Asar, i. 502, Qah, i, 492 Qetu, i. 519 ; ii. 343
503, 523; ii, 134, Qa-ha-hetep, ii. 342
269 Qa-hra, ii. 343
Ptah-Seker-Tem, i. 502; Qahu, ii. 343 EA,i. 34,78, 146, 322 ff.;
ii. 154 Qaqa of Khemennu, i. 332 ii. 334
and his cycle, ;
Ptah-Tettet sheps ast Ea, Qebhu, i, 429 332 ff.; soul of, i. 149
ii. 183 Qebhu, eighteen gods of, ii, 64; the Aged, i.
INDEX 419
the fourteen doubles of, Eameses IV., i. 348, 364 Eekht, i. 514
ii. 300 ; tlie seven Eamessids, ii,12 Eekhti, i, 410
souls of, ii. 300 the ; Eam-god, ii. 203 Eekhti goddesses, i, 462
Seventy -five Praises of, Eam of four faces, ii. 65 Eekhti -merti-neb- Maati,
i. 339-348 Earn of Mendes, i. 27 ii, 335
Ea and Amen, i, 105 ii. 286, 351 ; four souls Eem, i, 303
85, 86, 90, 115, 334 Eehti, ii. 335 Eenpti, i. 211
Eihabh, i. 278 Eekeh netches, ii, 293 Eeret, ii. 209, 249, 289,
420 INDEX
Ees-ab, i. 176 ; ii. 335 Saa-set, i. 180 Sapi, i. 30, 452, 464
Ees-hra, i. 176 ; ii. 385 Sa-abu-tchar-khat, i. 420 Sap-meh (nome), i. 99
Eesenet, i. 452, 464 Sa-Akeb, i. 242 Sapi-meht, i. 452
Eeshef, ii. 283 Sa-Amenti-Ea, ii. 339 Sapi-res (nome), i. 99
Eeshpu, ii. 280, 282 Sabaoth, i. 280 Sapt-khennu, ii, 305
Eest-f, i. 254 Sabes, i. 176 ; ii. 339 Saqenaqat, i, 519 ii, 339;
INDEX 421
Seb and Nut, embrace of, Sebti, i. 433 Sekhem = Amen-Ea, ii.
422 INDEX
Sekhen-ta-en-Tir, i. 82 Sekhet- SanehemUjii. 120 Senket, 241 i.
INDEX 423
328, 456, 488 ; ii. 26, Set of Oxyrynchus, i. 98 Seven Spirits, the, i. 494
184, 269, 312, 340, Set, the serpent, i. 481 Seven Tablets of Creation,
Set, the snake, 256 i. 290
362, 377 i,
426 INDEX
Ta, i. 241 Tatau, ii. 121 ff. Teheqa, i. 99 ; triad of,
i. 19 Ta'ut, 289
ii. Tehetbi, 184 i,
Tartarus, ii. 100 Tchehes, ii. 344 Tefen, i.83,487; ii. 92,
Ta-sent, ii. 65 Tchemtch-hat, ii. 317 206, 207
Ta-sent-nefert,i. 431,468 Tchen, ii. 263 Tefer-Tem, i. 514
Ta-she (Payyiim), i. 98 Tchent, ii. 25, 83 Tefnet, i. 115 ; ii. 92
Ta-Shetet, ii. 357 Tchenteru, i. 83 Tefnut, i. 58, 83, 305,
Taste, god of, ii. 299 Tchenti, i. 347 310, 341, 463, 515;
, "
INDEX 427
Tehuti, i. 83, U3; ii. Tem-Ea, i. 92, 109 Tepa-kenmut, ii. 304
26, 289, 302, 343 Tem-sep, i. 419 ii. 343 ; Tepa-khentet, ii.305
Tehuti, derivation of, i. Tem-Thoth, i. 412 Tepa-semt, ii. 306
402 Temau, i. 246 Tepan, i. 222
Tehuti-Hapi, ii. 343 Temretut, i. 493 Tepeh-tchat, 513 i.
330; ii. 1, 25, 34, 66, Tena basket, ii. 5 Teshtesh, ii. 343
87, 98, 115, 210, 244, Tena Festival, ii. 128 Tes-khaibit-tuatiu, i.
'
Tern = Osiris, ii. 139 Tenen, i. 508 Testes, Lake of, i. 335,
428 INDEX
Tes-sept-nestu, i. 241 Thenen, i, 523 211, 244; angels of,
Tes - sheta - em - thehen- Thenenet, i. 431 ; ii.213 ii. 119 ; as recording
f et, ka of Ea, ii. 330 Thenti, i. 344 ; ii. 317 his staircase, i. 211
Tet = Osiris, ii. 139 Theodosius, ii. 351 the intelligence of God,
Tet, pillar of, ii, 131 Theogony of Heliopolis, i, 150
Thebes, i. 31, 431, 492, Thigh of Set, ii. 250 Thunder, i, 414
523 ; ii. 3, 12, 21 ; of Thigh, the, ii. 249 Thuthu, wife of Ani, ii.
INDEX 429
Tree gods, i. 116 Turtle, i. 24; ii. 376 8, 48, 71, 104, 289
Trees, talking, i. 19 Tushratta, ii. 279 Uatchet (nome), i. 97
Tree-trunk of Osiris, ii. Tut-ankh-Amen, ii. 83, Uatchet-Isis, i. 440
124, 125 84 Uatehit, i. 24; ii. 292,
Tree worship in the Tutu, i. 326, 463, 464 327
Stid^n, 17 i. Tutu-f, i. 419 ii. 343 ; Uatohit (Isis) ii. 213
Triad, the, 114 ff. i. Tu-ui, Hathor of, i. 434 Uatch, ka of Ea, ii.
'
Tuati, i. 259; ii. 317 Uart, ii. 121 502 ; ii." 154
Tuati, a god, i. 343 Uart-neter-semsu, ii. 327 Un-nefer (Osiris), i. 490
Tuau = To-day, ii. 99, Uas (nome), i. 31 Un-nefer, son of Nut, ii,
'
361 Ua seqeb em HetBenben, 154
Tu-f (nome), i. 98 ii. 183 Unas, 22, 23, 32,-33
i,
Tu-menkh-rerek, ii. 344i Uash, ii. 25 ii, 8, 32, 33, 34, '43 ;
430 INDEX
gods, i. 34 ff. ; on the Urshiu, a god, i. 847 Utennu gods, i. 83, 84
Ladder, ii. 242 Urshiu, the Watchers, i. Utet-heh, ii. 60, 828
Underworld, the, ii. 105, 347 Uteti, i.' 846
170 Paut of, i. 91
ff. ; Urshu of Pe, i. 84 Utet-tef-f, ii. 822
Unen-nefer, ii. 328 Urshu of Nekhen, i. 84 Uthes, i. 80
Unnu, i. 405; ii. 107 Urt, i. 80, 101, 230, 456 Utu, i. 246
251; city of, i. 426; Urt-ab, ii. 189 Utu-rekhit, i. 145, 419
the Hare-god, ii. 871 Urt-Apset, i. 432 ii. 828
PEINTED Br GILBERT AKD EIVIITGTON, LTD., BT. J0H17 B KOUBS, CLERKESWELL. LOND ON, E.C.