Chapter 6

part venerates the crocodile; another trembles before

✦

an ibis gorged with serpents. The image of a sacred
monkey glitters in gold, where the magic chords sound
from Memnon broken in half, and ancient Thebes lies
buried in ruins, with her hundred gates. In one place
they venerate sea-fish, in another river-fish; there,
whole towns worship a dog : no one Diana. It is an
impious act to violate or break with the teeth a leek
or an onion. 0 holy nations ! whose gods grow for
them in their gardens! Every table abstains from
animals that have wool : it is a crime there to kill a
kid. But human flesh is lawful food.” 1

1 Juvenal, Satire XV. (Evans’ translation in Bolin’s Series, p. 180).
Led astray by Juvenal, our own good George Herbert ( Church
Militant ) wrote : —

“ At first he ( i.e ., Sin) got to Egypt, and did sow
Gardens of gods, which every year did grow

HYMN TO THE NILE-GOD.

The epithets which the Egyptians applied to their
gods also bear valuable testimony concerning the ideas
which they held about God. We have already said
that the “ gods are only forms, manifestations, and
phases of Ba, the Sun-god, who was himself the type
and symbol of God, and it is evident from the nature
of these epithets that they were only applied to the
“gods” because they represented some quality or
attribute which they would have applied to God had
it been their custom to address Him. Let us take as
examples the epithets which are applied to Hapi the
god of the Nile. The beautiful hymn1 to this god
opens as follows : —

“ Homage to thee, 0 Hapi ! Thou comest forth in
this land, and dost come in peace to make Egypt to
live, 0 thou hidden one, thou guide of the darkness
whensoever it is thy pleasure to be its guide. Thou
waterest the fields which Ba hath created, thou makest
all animals to live, thou makest the land to drink

Fresh and fine deities. They were at great cost,

Who for a god clearly a sallet lost.

Ah, what a thing is man devoid of grace,

Adoring garlic with an humble face,

Begging his food of that which he may eat,

Starving the while he worshippeth his meat !

Who makes a root his god, how low is he,

If God and man be severed infinitely !

What wretchedness can give him any room,

\Y hose house is foul, while he adores his broom ?

1 The whole hymn has been published by Maspero in Hymne au
Nil , Paris, 1868.

l8 HAPI AS PTAH AND KHNEMU.

without ceasing; thou descendest the path of heaven,
thou art the friend of meat and drink, thou art the
giver of the grain, and thou makest every place of
work to flourish, 0 Ptah ! . . . If thou wert to he
overcome in heaven the gods would fall down head¬
long, and mankind would perish. Thou makest the
whole earth to be opened (or ploughed up) by the
cattle, and prince and peasant lie down to rest. . . .
His disposition (or form) is that of Khnemu ; when
he shineth upon the earth there is rejoicing, for all
people are glad, the mighty man (?) receiveth his meat,
and every tooth hath food to consume.”

After praising him for what he does for mankind
and beasts, and for making the herb to grow for the
use of all men, the text says : —

“ He cannot be figured in stone ; he is not to be seen
in the sculptured images upon which men place the
united crowns of the South and the North furnished
with uraei; neither works nor offerings can be made
to him ; and he cannot be made to come forth
from his secret place. The place where he liveth is
unknown ; he is not to be found in inscribed shrines ;
there existeth no habitation which can contain him ;
and thou canst not conceive his form in thy heart.”

First we notice that Hapi is addressed by the names
of Ptah and Khnemu, not because the writer thought
these three gods were one, but because Hapi as the
great supplier of water to Egypt became, as it were,

THE UNITY OF GOD.

a creative god like Ptah and Khnemu. Next we see
that it is stated to be impossible to depict him in
paintings, or even to imagine what his form may be,
for he is unknown and his abode cannot be found, and
no place can contain him. But, as a matter of fact,
several pictures and sculptures of Hapi have been pre¬
served, and we know that he is generally depicted in
the form of two gods ; one has upon his head a papyrus
plant, and the other a lotus plant, the former being the
Nile-god of the South, and the latter the Nile-god of
the North. Elsewhere he is portrayed in the form
of a large man having the breasts of a woman. It
is quite clear, then, that the epithets which we have
quoted are applied to him merely as a form of God.
In another hymn, which was a favourite in the XVIIIth
and XIXth dynasties, Hapi is called “ One,” and is said
to have created himself; but as he is later on in the
text identified with Ba the epithets which belong to
the Sun-god are applied to him. The late Dr. PI.
Brugsch collected1 a number of the epithets which
aie applied to the gods, from texts of all periods;
and from these we may see that the ideas and beliefs
of the Egyptians concerning God were almost identical
with those of the Hebrews and Muhammadans at
later periods. When classified these epithets read
thus : —

“God is One and alone, and none other existeth
1 Religion ur.d Mythologie, pp. 96-99.

ATTRIBUTES OF GOD DESCRIBED.

with Him ; Clod is the One, the One Who hath made
all things.

“ God is a spirit, a hidden spirit, the spirit of spirits,
the great spirit of the Egyptians, the divine spirit.

“ God is from the beginning, and He hath been from
the beginning ; He hath existed Irom of old and was
when nothing else had being. He existed when nothing
else existed, and what existeth He created after He
had come into being. , He is the father of beginnings.

« God is the eternal One, He is eternal and infinite;
and endureth for ever and aye ; He hath endured for
countless ages, and He shall endure to all eternity.

“ God is the hidden Being, and no man hath known
His form. Ho man hath been able to seek out His
likeness; He is hidden from gods and men, and He
is a mystery unto His creatures.

<( Ho man knoweth how to know Him. His name
remaineth hidden ; His name is a mystery unto His
children. His names are innumerable, they are mani¬
fold and none knoweth their number.

“ God is truth, and He liveth by truth, and He
feedeth thereon. He is the King of truth, He resteth
upon truth, He fashioneth truth, and He executeth

truth throughout all the world.

“ God is life, and through Him only man liveth.
He o-iveth life to man, and He breathetli the breath
of life into his nostrils.

“God is father and mother, the father of fathers,

GOD THE CREATOR AND FATHER.

and the mother of mothers. He begetteth, but was
never begotten ; He produceth, but was never produced,
He begat Himself and produced Himself. He createth,
but was never created; He is the maker of His own
form, and the fashioner of His own body.

“ God Himself is existence, He liveth in all things,
and liveth upon all things. He endureth without in¬
crease or diminution, He multiplieth Himself millions
of times, and He possesseth multitudes of forms and
multitudes of members.

“ God hath made the universe, and He hath created
all that therein is : He is the Creator of what is in this
world, of what was, of what is, and of what shall be.
He is the Creator of the world, and it was He Who
fashioned it with His hands before there was any
beginning ; and He stablished it with that which went
forth from Him. He is the Creator of the heavens and
the earth ; the Creator of the heavens, and the earth,
and the deep ; the Creator of the heavens, and the
earth, and the deep, and the waters, and the mountains.
God hath stretched out the heavens and founded the
earth. What His heart conceived came to pass straight'
way, and when He had spoken His word came to pass,
and it shall endure for ever.

aGod is the father of the gods, and the father of the
father of all deities ; He made His voice to sound, and
the deities came into being, and the gods sprang into
existence after He had spoken with His mouth. He

THE HIDDEN GOD AND HIS SYMBOL.

formed mankind and fashioned the gods. He is the
great Master, the primeval Potter Who turned men
and gods out of His hands, and He formed men and
gods upon a potter’s table.

“ The heavens rest upon His head, and the earth
supporteth His feet \ heaven liideth His spirit, the
earth hideth His form, and the underworld shutteth
up the mystery of Him within it. His body is like
the air, heaven resteth upon His head, and the new
inundation [of the Nile] containeth His form.

« God is merciful unto those who reverence Him,
and He hearetli him that calletli upon Him. He
protecteth the weak against the stiong, and He hearetli
the cry of him that is bound in fetters ; He judgeth
between the mighty and the weak. God knoweth him
that knoweth Him, He rewardeth him that serveth
Him, and He protecteth him that followeth Him.”

We have now to consider the visible emblem, and
the type and symbol of God, namely the Sun-god Ra,
who was worshipped in Egypt in prehistoric times.

> According to the writings of the Egyptians, there was
a time when neither heaven nor earth existed, and
when nothing had being except the boundless primeval 1
water, which was, however, shrouded with thick dark¬
ness. In this condition the primeval water remained for
a considerable time, notwithstanding that it contained
within it the germs of the things which afterwards

1 See Brugsch, Religion, p. 101.

THE CREATION.

came into existence in this world, and the world
itself. At length the spirit of the primeval water felt
the desire for creative activity, and having uttered
the word, the world sprang straightway into being in
the form which had already been depicted in the mind
of the spirit before he spake the word which resulted
in its creation. The next act of creation was the form¬
ation of a germ, or egg, from which sprang Ba, the
Sun-god, within whose shining form was embodied the
almighty power of the divine spirit. <

Such was the outline of creation as described by the
late Dr. H. Brugscli, and it is curious to see how
closely his views coincide with a chapter in the
Papyrus of Nesi Amsu preserved in the British
Museum.1 In the third section of this papyrus we
find a work which was written with the sole object of
overthrowing Apep, the great enemy of Ba, and in
the composition itself we find two versions of the
chapter which describes the creation of the earth and
all things therein. The god Neb-er-tcher is the
speaker, and he says : —

“ I evolved the evolving of evolutions. I evolved
myself under the form of the evolutions of the god
Khepera, which were evolved at the beginning of all
time. I evolved with the evolutions of the god
Khepera; I evolved by the evolution of evolutions —

1 No. 10,188. See my transcript and translation of the whole
papyrus in Arcliseologia , vol. 52, London, 1891.

THE PRIMEVAL TRINITY.

that is to say, I developed myself from the primeval
matter which I made, I developed myself out of the
primeval matter. My name is Ausares (Osiris), the
germ of primeval matter. I have wrought my will
wholly in this earth, I have spread abroad and filled
it, I have strengthened it [with] my hand. I was
alone, for nothing had been brought forth ; I had not
then emitted from myself either Shu or Tefnufc. I
uttered my own name, as a word of power, from my
own mouth, and I straightway evolved myself. I
evolved myself under the form of the evolutions of
the god Khepera, and I developed myself out of the
primeval matter which has evolved multitudes of
evolutions from the beginning of time. Nothing ex¬
isted on this earth then, and I made all things. There
was none other who worked with me at that time.
I performed all evolutions there by means of that
divine Soul which I fashioned there, and which had
remained inoperative in the watery abyss. I found
no place there whereon to stand. But I was strong
in my heart, and I made a foundation for myself, and
I made everything which was made. I was alone. I
made a foundation for my heart ( or will), and I created
multitudes of things which evolved themselves like
unto the evolutions of the god Khepera, and their
offspring came into being from the evolutions of their
births. I emitted from myself the gods Shu and
Tefnut, and from being One I became Three; they

THE CREATION.

The god Nu rising out of the primeval water and bearing in his hands the boat of Ra,
the Sun-god, who is accompanied by a number of deities. In the upper portion of the
scene is the region of the underworld which is enclosed by the body of Osiris, on whose
head stands the goddess Nut with arms stretched out to receive the disk of the sun.

BIRTH OF GODS OF THE OSIRIS CYCLE. 27

sprang from me, and came into existence in this earth.

. . . Shu and Tefnut brought forth Seb and 'Nut, and
Nut brought forth Osiris, Horus-khent-an-maa, Sut,
Isis, and Nephtliys at one birth.”

The fact of the existence of two versions of this
remarkable Chapter proves that the composition is
much older than the papyrus1 in which it is found,
and the variant readings which occur in each make
it certain that the Egyptian scribes had difficulty in
understanding what they were writing. It may be
said that this version of the cosmogony is incomplete,
because it does not account for the origin of any of
the gods except those who belong to the cycle of Osiris,
and this objection is a valid one ; but in this place we
are only concerned to shew that Ba, the Sun-god, was
evolved from the primeval abyss of water by the agency
of the god Khepera, who brought this result about by
pronouncing his own name. The great cosmic gods,
such as Ptah and Khnemu, of whom mention will be
made later, are the offspring of another set of religious
views, and the cosmogony in which these play the
leading parts is entirely different. We must notice,
in passing, that the god whose words we have quoted
above declares that he evolved himself under the form
of Khepera, and that his name is Osiris, “ the primeval
matter of primeval matter,” and that, as a result, Osiris
is identical with Khepera in respect of his evolutions

1 About b.c. 300.

\r*

2 8

CREATION OF MEN AND WOMEN.

and new births. The word rendered “ evolutions ” is
kheperu , literally “ rollings ” ; and that rendered “ pri¬
meval matter” is pciut, the original “stuff” out of
which everything was made. In both versions we

are told that men and women came into being from

• - - — ----- ------- — «,

the tears which fell from the “ Eye ” of Khepera, that

- • v w- r,,,- ..I..- 1 ' WtPWIW#

■ < is to say from the Sun, which, the god says, “ I made
take to up its place in my face, and afterwards it ruled
the whole earth.”

>• We have seen how Ea has become the visible type
and symbol of God, and the creator of the world and
of all that is therein ; we may now consider the
position which he held with respect to the dead. As
far back as the period of the IYth dynasty, about
B.c. 3700, .he was regarded as the great god of heaven,
and the king of all the gods, and divine beings, and
of the beatified dead who dwelt therein. The position
of the beatified in heaven is decided by Ea, and of all
the gods there Osiris only appears to have the power
to claim protection for his followers ; the offerings
which the deceased would make to Ea are actually
presented to him by Osiris. At one time the Egyptian’s
greatest hope seems to have been that he might not
only become “ God, the son of God,” by adoption, but
that Ea would become actually his father. < Eor in the
text of Pepi I.,1 it is said : “ Pepi is the son of Ea who
loveth him; and he goeth forth and raiseth himself

1 Ed. Maspero, line 57G.

RA THE HEAD OF THE GODS.

up to heaven. Ra hath begotten Pepi, and he goeth
forth and raiseth himself up to heaven. Ra hath con¬
ceived Pepi, and he goeth forth and raiseth himself
up to heaven. Ra hath given birth to Pepi, and he
o-oeth forth and raiseth himself up to heaven; ” Sub-

stantially these ideas remained the same from the
earliest to the latest times, and Ra maintained his
position as the great head of the companies, notwith-
standing the rise of Amen into prominence, and the

attempt to make Aten the dominant god of Egypt by

1 .....

the so-called “ Disk worshippers.” The following good

. .

typical examples of Hymns to Ra are taken from the
oldest copies of the Theban Recension of the Book of
the Dead.