part in the history of his father Osiris, and nothing

is said about Thoth ; both gods are, however, included
in the company in various passages of the text, and
it may be that their omission from it is the result of
an error of the scribe. We have already given the
chief details of the history of the gods Horus and
Thoth, and the principal gods of the other companies

may now be briefly named.

Hu was the “ father of the gods,” and progenitor
of the “ great company of the gods ” ; he was the
primeval watery mass out of which all things came.

Ptah was one of the most active of the three great
<mds who carried out the commands of Thoth, who

iD

gave expression in words to the will of the primeval,
creative Power ; he was self-created, and was a form
of the Sun-god Ra as the “ Opener ” of the day. Prom
certain allusions in the Book of the Dead he is known
to have “ opened the mouth ” 1 of the gods, and it
is in this capacity that he became a god of the cycle
of Osiris. His feminine counterpart was the goddess

1 “ May the god Ptah open my mouth” ; “ may the god Shu open
my mouth with his implement of iron wherewdth he opened the
mouth of the gods r (Chap. XXIII.)

KHEPERA THE CREATOR. 99

Sekhet, and the third member of the triad of which
he was the chief was Nefer-Temu.

Ptah-Sekek is the dual god formed by fusing Seker,
the Egyptian name of the incarnation of the Apis
Bull of Memphis, with Ptali.

Pt ah- Seker- Ausar was a triune god who, in brief,
symbolized life, death, and the resurrection.

Khnemu was one of the old cosmic gods who assisted
Ptah in carrying out the commands of Thoth, who
gave expression in words to the will of the primeval,
creative Power , he is described as “ the maker of
things which are, the creator of things which shall
be, the source of created things, the father of fathers,
and the mother of mothers.” It was he who, accord¬
ing to one legend, fashioned man upon a potter’s
wheel.

Khepera was an old primeval god, and the type
of matter which contains within itself the germ of
life which is about to spring into a new existence ;
thus he represented the dead body from which the
spiritual body was about to rise. He is depicted in the
form of a man having a beetle for a head, and this
insect became his emblem because it was supposed
to be self-begotten and self-produced. To the present
day certain of the inhabitants of the Sudan pound
the dried scarabaeus or beetle and drink it in water,
believing that it will insure them a numerous progeny.
The name “ Khepera ” means “ he who rolls,” and

100 RA THE SUN GOD.

when the insect’s habit of rolling along its ball filled
with eggs is taken into consideration, the appropriate¬
ness of the name is apparent. As the hall of eggs rolls
along the germs mature and burst into life ; and as
the sun rolls across the sky emitting light and heat
and with them life, so earthly things are produced

and have their being by virtue thereof.

/ i Ra was probably the oldest of the gods worshipped
I /in Egypt, and his name belongs to such a remote
period that its meaning is unknown. He was in all
periods the visible emblem of God, and was the god
of this earth to whom offerings and sacrifices were
made daily ; time began when Ra appeared above the
horizon at creation in the form of the Sun, and the
life of a man was compared to his daily course at a
very early date. Ra was supposed to sail ovei heaven
in two boats, the Atet or Matet boat in which he
journeyed from sunrise until noon, and the Sektet
boat in which he journeyed from noon until sunset.
At his rising he was attacked by Aggjk a mighty
“ dragon ” or serpent, the type of evil and darkness,
and with this monster he did battle until the fiery
darts which he discharged into the body of Apep
scorched and burnt him up \ the fiends that were
in attendance upon this terrible foe were also destroyed
by fire, and their bodies were hacked in pieces. A
repetition of this story is given In the legend of the
ficrht between Horus and Set, and in both forms it

O - „

HYMN TO RA.

IOI

represented originally the fight which was supposed
to go on daily between light and darkness. Later,
however, when Osiris had usurped the position of Ba,
and Horus represented a divine power who was about
to avenge the cruel murder of his father, and the
wrong which had been done to him, the moral con¬
ceptions of right and wrong, good and evil, truth and
falsehood were applied to light and darkness, that is
to say, to Horus and Set.

As Ba was the “ father of the gods,” it was natural
that everv £od should represent some phase of him,
and that he should represent every god. A good
illustration of this fact is afforded by a Hymn to
Ba, a fine copy of which is found inscribed on
the walls of the sloping corridor in the tomb of
Seti I., about B.c. 1370, from which we quote the
following : —

11. “ Praise he unto thee, 0 Ba, thou exalted Power,
who dost enter into the habitations of Ament, behold
[thy] body is Temu.

12. “ Praise be unto thee, 0 Ba, thou exalted Power,
who dost enter into the hidden place of Anubis, behold
[thy] body is Kliepera.

13. “Praise be unto thee, 0 Ba, thou exalted Power,
whose duration of life is greater than that of the hidden
forms, behold [thy] body is Shu.

14. “ Praise be unto thee, 0 Ba, thou exalted Power,

. . . behold [thy] body is Tefnut.

102

RA THE FATHER OF THE GODS.

15. “ Praise be unto thee, 0 Ea, thou exalted Power,
who bringest forth green things in their season, behold
[thy] body is Seb.

16. “Praise be unto thee, 0 Ea, thou exalted Power,
thou mighty being who dost judge, . . . behold [thy]
body is Nut.

17. “ Praise be unto thee, 0 Ea, thou exalted Power,
the lord . . . behold [thy] body is Isis.

18. “ Praise be unto thee, 0 Ea, thou exalted Power,
whose head giveth light to that which is in front of
thee, behold [thy] body is Nephthys.

19. “Praise be unto thee, 0 Ea, thou exalted Power,
thou source of the divine members, thou One, who
bringest into being that which hath been begotten,
behold [thy] body is IPorus.

20. “Praise be unto thee, 0 Ea, thou exalted Power,
who dost dwell in and illumine the celestial deep,
behold [thy] body is Nu.” 1

In the paragraphs which follow Ea is identified with
a large number of gods and divine personages whose

— TIT--- — -run i ■ "h*1 ir‘l" WimiMrinmiiiiiiiinni miwiniidifflir

names are not of such common occurrence in the texts
as those given above, and in one way or another the
attributes of all the gods are ascribed to him. At
the time when the hymn was written it is clear that
polytheism, not pantheism as some would have it,
was in the ascendant, and notwithstanding the fact

1 For the text see Annales du Musfe Guimet : Le Tombeau de Seli 1.
(ed. Lefebure), Paris, 18SG, pi. v.

RISE OF AMEN WORSHIP.

103

that the Theban god Amen was gradually being forced
to the headship of the companies of the gods of Egypt,
we find everywhere the attempt being made to
emphasize the view that every god, whether foreign
or native, was an aspect or form of Ra.

The god Amen just referred to was originally a local
god of Thebes, whose shrine was either founded or
rebuilt as far back as the Xllth dynasty, about
B.c. 2500. This “ hidden ” god, for such is the mean¬
ing of the name Amen, was essentially a god of the
south of Egypt, but when the Theban kings vanquished
their foes in the north, and so became masters of the
whole country, Amen became a god of the first im¬
portance, and the kings of the XVIIIth, XIXth, and
XXth dynasties endowed his temples on a lavish
scale. The priests of the god called Amen “ the king
of the gods/’ and they endeavoured to make all Egypt
accept him as such, but in spite of their power they
saw that they could not bring this result about unless
they identified him with the oldest gods of the land.
They declared that he represented the hidden and
mysterious power which created and sustains the
universe, and that the sun was the symbol of this
power ; they therefore added his name to that of Ra,
and in this form he gradually usurped the attributes
and powers of Xu, Khnemu, Ptah, Hapi, and other
great gods. A revolt headed by Amen-hetep, or
Amenophis IY. (about B.c. 1500), took place against

104 THE HERESY OF THE DISK.

the supremacy of Amen in the middle of the XVIIIth
dynasty, but it was unsuccessful. This king hated
the god and his name so strongly that he changed his
own name into that of “ Khu-en-Aten,” the glory
of the solar Disk,” and ordered the name of Amen
to be obliterated, wherever possible, on temples and
other great monuments ; and this was actually done
in many places. It is impossible to say exactly what
the religious views of the king were, but it is certain
that he wished to substitute the cult of Aten, a form
of the Sun-god worshipped at Annu ( i.e ., On or
Heliopolis) in very ancient times, for that of Amen.
“ Aten ” means literally the “ Disk of the Sun,” and
though it is difficult to understand at this distance

-- ,v - . . . • '

of time in what the difference between the worship

- ' - - -w-' ■ ‘ ' - ' - - -- -

of Ra and the worship of “ Ra in his Disk” consisted,
we may be certain that there must have been some
subtle, theological distinction between them. But
whatever the difference may have been, it was sufficient
to make Amenopkis forsake the old capital Thebes
and withdraw to a place 1 some distance to the north
of that city, where he carried on the worship of his
beloved god Aten. In the pictures of the Aten
worship which have come down to us the god ^ appears
in the form of a disk from which proceed a number of
arms and hands that bestow life upon his worshippers.
After the death of Amenophis the cult of Aten

1 The site is marked by the ruins of Tell el-Amarna.

TITLES OF AMEN. 105

declined, and Amen resumed his sway over the minds
of the Egyptians.

Want of space forbids the insertion here of a full list
of the titles of Amen, and a brief extract from the
Papyrus of the Princess Nesi-Khensu 1 must suffice to
describe the estimation in which the god was held
about B.c. 1000. In this Amen is addressed as “ the
holy god, the lord of all the gods, Amen-Ea, the lord
of the thrones of the world, the prince of Apt ( ie .,
Karnak), the holy soul who came into being in the
beginning, the great god who liveth by right and truth,
the first ennead who gave birth unto the other two
enneads,2 the being in whom every god existeth, the
One of One, the creator of the things which came into
being when the earth took form in the beginning, whose
births are hidden, whose forms are manifold, and whose
growth cannot be known. The holy Form, beloved
and terrible and mighty . . . the lord of space, the
mighty One of the form of Khepera, who came into
existence through Khepera, the lord of the form of
Khepera; when he came into being nothing existed
except himself. He shone upon the earth from primeval
time, he the Disk, the prince of light and radiance. . . .
When this holy god moulded himself, the heavens and
the earth were made by his heart (or mind). ... He

1 For a hieroglyphic transcript of the hieratic text, see Maspero,
Mfmoires , tom. i., p. 594 ff.

2 I.e., the great, the little, and the least companies of the gods ;
each company ( paut ) contained nine gods.

io 6 AMEN THE ONE OF ONE.

is the Disk of the Moon, the beauties whereof pervade
the heavens and the earth, the untiring and beneficent
king whose will germinatetli from rising to setting,
from whose divine eyes men and women come forth,
and from whose mouth the gods do come, and [by
whom] food and meat and drink are made and pro¬
vided, and [by whom] the things which exist are
created. He is the lord of time, and he traverseth
eternity ; he is the aged one who reneweth his
youth. ... He is the Being who cannot be known,
and he is more hidden than all the gods. ... He
giveth long life and multiplieth the years of those who
are favoured by him, he is the gracious protector of
him whom he setteth in his heart, and he is the
fashioner of eternity and everlastingness. He is the
king of the .North and of the South, Amen-Ba, king
of the gods, the lord of heaven, and of earth, and of
the waters and of the mountains, with whose coming
into being the earth began its existence, the mighty
one, more princely than all the gods of the first
company.”

In the above extract, it will be noticed that Amen
is called the “ One of One,” or the “ One One,” a title
which has been explained as having no reference what¬
ever to the unity of God as understood in modern times :
but unless these words are intended to express the idea
of unity, what is their meaning ? It is also said that
he is “ without second,” and thus there is no doubt

THE CHILDREN OF HORUS.

107

whatever that when the Egyptians declared their god
to be One, and without a second, they meant precisely
what the Hebrews and Arabs meant when they declared
their God to be One.1 Such a God was an entirely
different Being from the personifications of the powers
of nature and the existences which, for want of a better
name, have been called “gods.”

But, besides Ra, there existed in very early times a
god called Horus, whose symbol was the hawk, which,
it seems, was the first living thing worshipped by the
Egyptians ; Horus was the Sun-god, like Ra, and in
later times was confounded with Horus the son of
Isis. The chief forms of Horus given in the texts
are: (1) Heru-ur (Aroueris), (2) Heru-merti, (3)
Heru-nub, (4) Heru-khent-khat, (5) Heru-khent-
an-maa, (6) Heru-khuti, (7) HERU-SAM-TAUI, (8)
Heru-hekennu, (9) Heru-Behutet. Connected with
one of the forms of Horus, originally, were the four
gods of the cardinal points, or the “four spirits of
Horus,” who supported heaven at its four corners ; their
names were Hapi, Tuamutef, Amset, and Qebiisennuf,
and they represented the north, east, south, and west
respectively. The intestines of the dead were embalmed
and placed in four jars, each being under the protection
of one of these four gods. Other important gods of
the dead are : (1) Anubis, the son of Ra or Osiris, who
presided over the abode of the dead, and with Ap-uat
1 See Deut., vi. 4 ; and Koran , chapter cxii.

10S MAAT AND HATHOR.

shared the dominion of the “ funeral mountain ; the
symbol of each of these gods is a jackal. (2) Hu and
Sa, the children of Temu or Ba, who appear in the
boat of the sun at the creation, and later in the Judg¬
ment Scene. (3) The goddess Maat, who was asso¬
ciated with Thoth, Ptah, and Khnemu in the work of
creation; the name means “straight/* hence what is
right, true, truth, real, genuine, upright, righteous, just,
steadfast, unalterable, and the like. (4) The goddess
Het-Hert (Hathor), i.e., the “ house of Horus,” which
was that part of the sky where the sun rose and set.
The sycamore tree was sacred to her, and the deceased
prays to be fed by her with celestial food from out of it
(5) The goddess Meh-uet, who represented that portion
of the sky in which the sun takes his daily course ;
here it was, according to the view held at one peiiod
at least, that the judgment of the deceased was sup¬
posed to take place. (6) Neith, the mother of Sebek,
who was also a goddess of the eastern portion of the
sky. (7) Sekhet and Bast, who are represented with
the heads of a lion and a cat, and who were symbols
of the destroying, scorching power of the sun, and of the
gentle heat thereof, respectively. (8) Serq, who was a
form of Isis. (9) Ta-urt (Thoueris), who was the
genetrix of the gods. (10) Uatchet, who was a form
of Hathor, and who had dominion over the northern
sky, just as Nekhebet was mistress of the southern
sky. (11) Neheb-ka, who was a goddess who possessed

SEBAK, HAPI, AND AMSU. IO9

magical powers, and in some respects resembled Isis in
her attributes. (12) Sebak, who was a form of the
Sun-god, and was in later times confounded with Sebak,
or Sebek, the friend of Set. (13) Amsu (or Min or
Khem), who was the personification of the generative
and reproductive powers of nature. (14) Beb or Baba,
who was the “ firstborn son of Osiris.” (15) Hapi, who
was the god of the Nile, and with whom most of the
great gods were identified.

The names of the beings who at one time or another
were called “ gods ” in Egypt are so numerous that
a mere list of them would fill scores of pages, and
in a work of this kind would be out of place. The
reader is, therefore, referred to Lanzone’s Mitologia
JEgizia, where a considerable number are enumerated
and described.

( no )