Deities

Ra is the god of the sun, who, conceived of as a man, or as a man with a hawk’s head, guides the heavenly bodies, creates new life by his rays, and thus blesses mankind, although at times he a shoots forth consuming fire (his eye is the goddess Sechet, cf. above, p. 182). The centre of his worship is Heliopolis (Egyp. An [Heb. jk] or Pa-Ra, Gr. ‘HXwodzrods [Heb. wpv m3]), where the kings of the 12th dynasty built him a great temple.

For the most part he stands alone, but occasionally an artificially formed consort (see above, p. 179%), Ra-t (Ra-t-ta-ui), is placed by his side. The monuments of the cult of Ra resemble the conical stone in which among others he embodied himself at Helio- polis. In the time of the Old Empire huge build- ings were erected to him in the form of a flat- topped pyramid surmounted by an obelisk. The best known of these was that erected by king | Ra-en-user at Abusir (see above, p. 183°).

The god pursued his course in the heavens b ship. Two Vara! bearing the names Madet an Sekti, are generally attributed to him; in later | times he is supposed to use a special vessel for | every hour of the day. The name of Ra is associ- ated with numerous legends which depict him as | a king decaying with age, against whom gods and men rebel, but who always emerges victorious from the resulting conflicts. The texts name a number of other sun-gods along with and often confused with Ra.

five most important— (1) Horus.—Our treatment of this god is rendered difficult by the circumstance that under this name were understood two deities, who were originally quite distinct, although afterwards they pee into one another: Horus, the son of Isis (see below, p- 194°), and Horus the sun-god, The latter, again, — is separated into a number of independent indi- vidual forms, which are distinguished by additions to the name Horus.

Thus we have: Her-ur, ‘Horus the ancient,’ of Letopolis; Her-men-ti, | ‘ Horus of the two eyes,’ of Shedenu in the Delta; Her-chent-an-ma, ‘Horus in the condition of not seeing,’ of Letopolis; Her-em-chuti, ‘Horus on the horizon,’ the Greek Harmachis, at Tanis, and in the environs of Memphis, where the great sphinx of Gizeh is his symbol; Her-nub, ‘the golden Horus,’ who is regarded especially as the midda; sun; Her-behudti, ‘Horus of Edfu,’ whose symbol, | the winged solar disc, used to be placed as am | omen-averter on temples, steles, etc.

Then, agnie Her-ka, ‘Horus the bull’; Her-desher, ‘the r Horus’; Her-ap-shetu, ‘Horus the revealer of the secret,’ answer to the planets Saturn, Mars, Jupiter, which were thus thought of as solar forms.—Her-t is a later-formed female complementary form of the male Horus (see p. 179*). (2) Chepera, ‘he that becomes’ (Germ. ‘der Wer- dende’), is primarily the morning sun.

A Turin text declares: ‘I am Chepera in the morning, Ra — at midday, Tum in the evening,’ but the threa | deities just named are usually thought of in pretty mach one and the same way as=the sun in | general. (3) Tum or Of these we now proceed to notice the | Atum is the god of Heliopolis, and | | | | | ; f Bi aR | | | RELIGION OF EGYPT RELIGION OF EGYPT 185 is frequently regarded as the creator; he is por- trayed mostly as a man with the crowns of Egypt.

A great temple dedicated to him was situated at the modern Tell el-Maskhuta, and known as Pa- Tum (‘house of Tum,’ the biblical Pithom; ef. Naville, The Store-city of Pithom, London, 1885). (4) Shu appears, above all, as creator, and at Thebes and Memphis is named as one of the Egyptian kings of the gods. His female consort and twin sister is the lion-headed Tefnut.

The notions cherished regarding this goddess, and especially her genealogical place in the Egyptian religious system, underwent numerous variations. In the myths she does not come at all prominently forward. (5) Aten, ‘the sun’s disc,’ of whom we have spoken already (see p. 183»), is, in contrast to Ra, not an anthropomorphic form, but the celestial body itself. He is portrayed as the solar disc from which rays stream down towards the earth.

These end in hands which reach down the signs for life, power, etc. Amenophis IV. (c. 1450 B.c.) desired to make Aten the ruling god in Egypt, called himself in honour of him Chu(achu)-en-aien, ‘splendour of the solar disc,’ and built him a great temple at Tel el-Amarna in Central Egypt, to whose neighbourhood he removed the royal residence, which had been at Thebes.

Apart from the prominence it gave to the new god, the henotheistic (not monotheistic) refor- mation of this king made little change in Egypt. The organization of officials remained the same (cf. Baillet, Rec. de trav. rel. a V Egypt. xxiii. 140 ff.), and so did the cultus and the religious formule, in which the ancient Divine names were simply replaced in many instances by that of Aten.

In numerous hymns, touched with poetical feeling, which have been found in the tombs of el-Amarna, the god is hailed as beneficent star, bringer of light aad heat, rejoicer of man and beast, creator and nourisher of all things and beings, the only deity that is worthy of veneration, etc. As a matter of course, no myth is attached to the nature god himseif.

Amon of Thebes was presumably at first a god of the reproductive natural force which generates animals and plants, as were his neighbour gods, Ment of Hermonthis and Min of Koptos. The three names probably go back to the root men (=‘stand’), the allusion being to the erected phallus. At a later period Amon blends more and more with the sun-god (see above, p. 184%), and thus arises Amon-Ra, who is now hailed re- peatedly in hymns as creator, dispenser of nourish- ment, ete.

More and more he arrogates the functions of other gods, and is first invoked in a henotheistic sense, and then designated panthe- istically as god of the All, the other gods being his members and parts. During this period the custom originated of deriving his name from amen (‘ to be hidden’), the idea being that his true name, 7.¢. his rea] nature, is concealed (see above, p. 181%). He is portrayed as a man with a high feather crown.

At Thebes Amon does not usually appear alone, but in company with the goddess Mut and their son Chunsu. There is thus constituted a Divine family, a triad, the members of which, however, always remain independent, and never blend into a trinity. It was generally held in ancient Egypt that a god, like a man, grows old and dies.

In order to secure, in spite af this, the perpetual life -of the god, he is supposed to generate by his wife, who is usually also his sister, a son like himself, who, when the father dies, steps into his place. He in turn generates, by her who had been his own mother, a son like himself—he becomes, as the Egyptians say, ka-mut-f, ‘husband of his mother,’ —who succeeds him on his death. Strangely enough, there is no word of the goddess dying.

But this is probably due, not to any real immor- tality being attributed to her, but to the meagre significance of goddesses in Egyptian mythology. Besides the triad, we find in Egyptian temples oups of four or eight, and especially of nine eities. The composition of these groups rests upon a variety of principles: at times the forms have actually a close connexion, at other times one of the gods is regarded as king, the others as his court, etc.

Pre-eminent in this class is the ennead of Heliopolis, in the formation of which a mythological system co-operated, and which then exercised an influence upon other temples as well (cf. Maspero, Ht. de myth. ii. 337 ft.) In place of a single ennead some temples have two, a great and a small, while others have a still larger number.

Mut, depicted as a woman with a human head or that of a lion, had a temple of her own to the south of Karnak in Thebes (Benson-Gourlay, The Temple of Mut in Asher, London, 1899), where she passed for queen of heaven and eye of Ra, and where numerous lion-headed statues were dedicated to her or to Sechet (see below, p. 1864), particularly by Amenophis UI. and Sheshonk 1. Instead of her we occasionally meet with the grammatically formed goddess Ament by the side of Amon.

She has nothing to do with the almost homonymous goddess of the under world, Amenti, ‘she who belongs to the realm of the dead.’ Chunsu appears to have been primarily a moon- god [chens=‘ pass through,’ here with reference to the motion of the stars]. He bears upon his hawk’s head a moon-crescent and gun’s disc, and the mention of him runs parallel with that of the other moon-deities (Thoth, Aah, ete.)

In later times he becomes the god of healing, and falls apart into two forms, ‘Chunsu, the beautifully resting one,’ who always abides in the temple at Thebes, and ‘Chunsu, the executor of plans,’ who is sent out by the other as physician and magician. To the first of these a great temple was erected at Karnak by Ramses I. and his successors; the latter had a small sanctuary beside it, which is mentioned as late as the Ptolemaic era (cf. Aegyp. Zitschr. xxxviii. 126).

‘ Ment was worshipped at various places in the Thebaid; he has a hawk’s head, solar disc, and the Amon feathers, and in the Theban period of be oes history he is regarded especially as the god of war, to whom the Pharaoh, as he sets out for battle, is compared. His embodiment at Erment is the Bacis (see below, p. 190*). Min [formerly read Chem or Amsi] was the god of Panopolis, Koptos, and other places; he pre- sents himself as an ithyphallic man, and is viewed as the god of procreation.

Harvest and other joyous festivals are held in his honour, and he often coincides with Amon ka-mut-f, as the god tie constantly reproduces himself and thus lives ‘or ever. Chnum or Chnuphis, the ram-headed god of the cataract region, is creator of the world, which he fashioned upon the potter’s wheel, and of human beings, whom he ‘constructed.’ By his side appear the goddesses to be presently mentioned, Sati and Anukit.

In addition, we find occasionally coupled with him the frog-headed goddess Hekt, who is frequently mentioned from the earliest times down- wards, without our being able, however, to fix her exact significance. At all events, she played a part in the resurrection dogma, which was symbolized down to the Christian-Coptie era by her sacred animal, the frog. Ptah (Gr.

$04) was the god of Memphis, and, 186 RELIGION OF EGYPT as such, well known to the Greeks, who for un- known reasons call him Hephestos, Herodotus visited and described his temple (Herod. ii. 99, 101, 121,176). Ptah appears in mummy form, swathed, with only the head free; the feet are placed upon the sign for truth.

In Memphis he was regarded as the first king of the country and as creator, a réle which at Phils is assigned to Ptah-Tatunen, a combination of Ptah and Tanen or Tatunen, a deity who makes his appearance especially in Nubia, and who, as earth-god, recalls the Egyptian Seb (Keb). Ptah is also combined with other deities so as to form new special gods.

Thus we have Ptah- Aten-en-pet, ‘Ptah solar dise of the heaven,’ who illumines the earth with his rays; Ptah-Nu, the father of the gods; Ptah-Hapi, Ptah the Nile; and, above all, Péah-Sokaris, to whom Ptah-Sokaris-Osiris, Ptah-Osiris, and Sokaris alone (see below) correspond. The triad at Mem- phis is composed of Ptah along with Sechet and their son Nefer-Tum or Imhetep (Imfthes). Sechet (Sechmet) is a lion-headed sun-goddess, who, under the title of ‘theeye of Ra,’ slaughters Ra’s enemies.

In her essential significance she coincides pretty nearly with the lion-headed Mut of Thebes, Tefnut, Pacht of Speos Artemidos, and the cat-headed Bast of Bubastis. Nefer-Tum appears, particularly in more recent texts, aS @ man whose head is surmounted by a budding lotus, from which we may infer that he was a god of the regeneration and reawakening of nature, although there are no specific details of this in the inscriptions.

Imhetep, ‘he who comes in peace,’ is depicted as a youth with a closely- fitting cap upon his head. He generally appears seated, with a rolled-up papyrus upon his knees. In earlier times his figure does not seem to occur, but in the later New Empire, and, above all, in the Saitic period, numerous bronzes of him are found, notwithstanding which he does not become any more prominent in the texts, where he is intro- duced as a learned god. —For the associates of Ptah, see above, p. 179°.

Sokaris, conceived of as hawk-headed, is pri- marily a sun-god. His principal festival fell at the winter solstice, and in the Ptolemaic period was . celebrated on the morning [at an earlier period perhaps on the evening] of the 26th of Choiak (cf. Brugsch, Rev. égyp. i. 42 ff.)

He was worshipped especially in the neighbourhood of the necropolis of Memphis (where there is still a reminiscence of him in the name Saqggarah), and thus became blended on the one side with the Memphitic Ptah, and on the other with the god of the dead, Osiris, heed symbols were, in consequence, often assigned to him. Nechebit of Eileithyiaspolis, the vulture-formed tutelary goddess of Upper Egypt, generally ap- pears in company with the serpent-formed Uat?

-it of Buto, the tutelary goddess of Lower Egypt. The combination of the two stands for the empire of the Pharaoh, who united both their spheres of authority under his sway. Hathor, ‘the house of Horus’ according to the later etymology, is mentioned times without num- ber, and had her principal temple at Denderah. She is the goddess of joy, the patroness of mirthful gatherings.

Her sacred animal was the cow, in consequence of which she occasionally appears with a cow’s head, and, even when she wears a human form, she has very frequently cow’s ears. Another Hathor is regarded as the goddess of the under world, and yet other Hathors are the seven female beings who made their appearance at the birth of a child and, like our fairies, foretold its fortune. Sebak (Suchos) appears with a crocodile’s head or as a crocodile.

nder this same name, how- RELIGION OF EGYPT ever, we must distinguish at least three different deities. In the first place there was a sun-god, who is combined with Ra and makes his appear- ance pre-eminently at Ombos, side by side with the sun-god Aroéris, Another Sebak constitutes a kind of by-form of Osiris. Finally, there is a Sebak who is regarded/as the god of evil.

His sacred animals were the crocodiles, which were supposed to be the associates of Set in the under world, and which in most of the nomes of Egypt were hunted to the death. The centre of worship of a Sebak who was well disposed to men con- tinued till a late period to be the Fayum. (2) FOREIGN DEITIES. —The Egyptian gods during the flourishing period of the country’s history were not exclusive.

They admitted into their number such of the gods of neighbourin, peoples as had been found to be powerful an capable of resistance. It is a sign of deterioration that such a course was not followed with the Greek and Roman deities, who had no p assigned to them in the temple cult, but had to be content with the worship of certain circles of the people who would regard them as special gods. In the first millennium B.c.

the Egyptian religion was too ossified to permit of its assimilation of new ideas. And this all the more because at this very time an archaizing tendency made itself felt in religion, so that from the time of the 25th dynasty the oldest attainable religious formule are in the most unmistakable fashion sought out and employed once more. In earlier times it was different.

Libyan, African, Semite deities were then worshipped in the Nile valley along with _ area She Lib he E in invading (a) From the Libyans the Egyptians, in in their future settlermete presumably borrowed the goddesses Neith and Bast, who at the beginning of Egyptian history play a considerable part, then recede entirely, and come forward once more in the Saitic period (from B.c. 700 onwards).

Bast appears pre-eminently as the local of Bubastis in the Delta, where she hada sharein | the cult of the principal temple (Naville, Bubastis, London, 1891; Festival Hall of Osorkon II., London, 1892). She is portrayed with a cat’s head, an like all lion- and cat-headed goddesses, is regard as an embodiment of the sun. She plays no con- siderable part in the mythology. Neith was thought of as an armed woman, with bow and arrow in her hand.

As local goddess of Sais she was well known to the Greeks. In myth- ology she is ae et as the mother of Ra, and then becomes blended with Isis, along with whom she plays a réle in the Osirian festivals, which under the New Empire had one of their centres at Sais. SEEnEERREEREEEEEEEEEiEEEeeee The Libyans of the time of Setil. tattooed | | the ideogram of Neith upon their arms and wove | it into their clothes (ef. Mallet, Le culte de Neith a Sais, Paris, 1889; Petrie, Nagada, p. 64).

Amongst deities that were originally Libyan : should perhaps be included also the two goddesses | Sati and Anukit, who at a later period make their ‘| mie oa in the cataract district as companions of Chnum (see above). Sati is depicted with the crown of Upper Egypt and the cow’s horns, and is | pt, queen | reeks with | Hera, although she has fundamentally nothing in | regarded as queen of heaven and of E of all gods, and is compared by the common with her.

Anukit wears a feather cro is regarded above all as mistress of the island of | Sehel in the neighbourhood of Phile, and is com- } pared with Hestia, but never succeeded in gaining | any firm eae 4 in Egypt proper. (6) Bes and to be of African origin, by which is not meant that -urt and their companions appear we are to think of divinities of a pronounced | RELIGION OF EGYPT RELIGION OF EGYPT 187 negro type.

We have to do rather with deities whose acquaintance the Egyptians made through the medium of the tribes on the southern border of their empire, and to whom they left their gro- tesque forms, although these stood in the most glaring opposition to the refined forms of the genuine Egyptian gods, and permanently retained the stamp of their barbarian origin. Bes is portrayed as a bearded dwarf, with long ears, bandy legs, long and generally bent arms, with a feather crown on his head.

Behind him hangs down to the ground a long tail, probably that of the cynelurus guttatus, whose name (bes) the god himself bears. Apart from occasional ornaments, he is represented naked, and almost always as of the male sex. It is only rarely that a female form appears beside him. In later times a number of Sefhcias (Hait, Abti, Sepd, Ahaui, etc.) take their place by his side. These are at one time identified with him, and at another re- main independent.

In the Old Empire he seems to have as yet played no part; in the Middle Empire there is still little mention of him ; it is during the New Empire, especially in the Saitic period, that he attains his bloom (ef. Krall in Jahré. d. Wien. Kunsthist. Samml. ix. p. 72ff.; A. Grenfell, PSBA xxiv. 21ff.)

He is regarded as a deity who renders aid at the birth of gods and kings, who amuses the newborn babe with his dances and waits ae it, protecting it at the same time from all evil, and especially against witchcraft. He thus becomes one of the most important of the omen-averting deities. At times he is confused with the young sun, and at a later period is thought of also as a pantheistic divinity.

Ta-urt’s embodiment is a female hippopotamus standing upon its hind legs, with thick belly and pout breasts, and often with a long mane anging down to the ground. She, too, is ready with her aid at the birth of gods and kings, and in certain localities she is regarded, in her by-form Apet, as mother of Osiris. In representations of the under world she takes her place by the side of the cow-formed Hathor.

She appears at the entrance to necropoleis and to the realm of the dead, presumably occupying this position that she may render aid at the new birth of the dead, the resurrection. Her symbol is one of the most fre- quently occurring amulets in tombs belonging to the more recent periods of Egyptian history. (c) Asiatic, principally Semitic, deities (cf. Meyer, ZDMG xxi. 716ff. ; W. Max Miiller, Asien wu. Europa, 311 ff.)

found their way into the Egyptian temples under the New Empire, a period during which the Egyptian people was much brought into contact, alike in peace and war, with the ditierent tribes of Western Asia. The principal deities of this class are Baal, Reshpu, I abaxte, Anta, and the city goddess of Kadesh. The last named will be dealt with in the same category as the Egyp- tian city goddesses (see below, p. 191).

Baal was worshipped notably in the Ramesside period, and indeed his cult appears to have had its starting-point at the city of Tanis in the eastern Delta, where Ramses II. gave to this god a place even in the chief temple. His name has frequently for its determinative the sacred animal of the god Set, with whom he thus appears to have been identified—a result which would be reached all the more readily because the by-form of Set, namely Sutech, was also regarded hers as god of the Asiaties.

No statues of Baal have been discovered in Evyptian temples up till now. Reshpu, the Phoenician Reseph, carries a lance, exhibits Semitic features, and makes his appear- ance frequently upon steles belonging to the flourishing period of Egyptian history. Astarte was worshipped in several Egyptian temples. The most frequently mentioned is her shrine at Memphis, which existed down to the Ptolemaic period, and must have stood not far from the Serapeum. In the treaty between Ramses 1.

and the Asiatic Kheta, she appears as goddess of the Kheta, but even Ramses I. himself esteemed her so highly that he named one of his sons after her—Mer-A-(s)trot (Wiedemann, Hero- dot’s Zweites Buch, 433; cf. Spiegelberg, PSBA xxiv. 41 ff.) Anta likewise makes her appearance as goddess of the Kheta. She bears sen ti lance, and battle- club, and is occasionally mounted on horseback. Ramses II, and 111.

worshipped her, and the first named of these monarchs called his favourite daughter and future wife after her—Bent-Anta, ‘daughter of Anta.’ But neither her cult nor that of her Semitic associates appears to have laid hold upon the mass of the people. It remained an official cult, quite in contrast with that of the Libyan and African divinities, who appear to mete found their principal worshippers in popular circles. (3) DEIFIED MEN.

—In treating of the Egyptian religion, great importance has frequently been attached to the worship of the king of the land and a whole pantheon of kings has been attributed to the Egyptians. But this way of putting it is not correct. The Pharaoh was, as we have seen already (p. 180), the direct offspring of a god, and hence bore the title ‘beautiful god,’ and felt him- self to belong to the order of heavenly beings.

Even during his lifetime hymns were composed which attributed to him all manner of divine attributes (for examples see Maspero, Genre hae 76 ff.); he is portrayed with the insignia of the gods; his subjects approached him as a god, and no doubt offered adoration to him in the popular cult and elsewhere. But in the temple cult his worship had avery subordinate place. Amenophis Ill. indeed prays to his own ka, and obtains from the latter the promise of all kinds of heavenly gifts. Ramses I.

admits himself into the number of his temple gods, ete. But, upon the whole, even these monarchs stand a long way behind the great gods. It may be noted also as a circum- stance connected with this, that the cult ceases as a rule upon the death of the particular Pharaoh concerned.

It is true indeed, that occasionally, even after their death, offerings continue for a con- siderable time to be presented to them in accordance with their own directions and from funds left by them for the purpose, until later generations apply these gifts to their own use, but it is seldom that the defunct Pharaohs continue to be invoked as actual heavenly powers. Only a few of them are mentioned after the lapse of centuries as deities (cf. e.g.

for the kings of the first dynasties, Erman, Aegyp. Ztschr. xxxviii. 121 ff), and even then only in company with others. The temples to the dead, which the Pharaohs erected to themselves, appear to have been nearly all very quickly alienated from their proper use. Still less frequently than kings did ordinary mortals attain to Divine honours afterdeath. One of these rare instances is found in the time of Amenophis II.

in the person of Amenophis the son of Hapu, who is still regarded as a god as late as the Ptolemaic period (cf. Wiedemann in PSBA xiv. 334, Urquell, vii. 289 ff. ; Sethe, & yp- tiaca, 107ff.) Another is the prince of Cu ' Pa-ser, who for a length of time bears the title of ‘the god’ (Wiedemann, PSBA xiv. 332f.), and there are examples of the same in other two private persons under the 18th dynasty (Wiede- mann, Orient, Lizg. iii. 361 ff.)

The Greeks assert, further (see the citations in Wiedemann, 188 RELIGION OF EGYPT RELIGION OF EGYPT PSBA xiv. 335), that in the otherwise unknown city of Anabis a man was venerated as a god, and had gifts presented for him to eat. But such notices are isolated ; the veneration of such men being confined as a rule to the narrow circle of the clan to which they belonged, or the officials of the building erected by them.

Naturally, we must not confound Divine venera- tion of this kind with the proper cult of the dead, the object of which was to ensure a supply of food and drink to the deceased so as to prevent his wandering about as a ghost, but which did not necessarily imply the attributing to him of any Divine attributes in the stricter sense of the term. (4) THE POPULAR GODS.—Partition of the great gods.

—The older investigators of the history of Egyptian religion proceeded on the principle that the best way to arrive at a thorough knowledge of the character of the particular deities was to collect all the references to them in the monuments and to draw conclusions from these.

But the progress of study showed that identity of name is in the Nile valley no necessary guarantee for identity of deity, that, for instance, Horus of Edfu is quite a different form from Horus of Letopolis or Horus the son of Isis, This circumstance it was sought in the first instance to explain by assuming that the original Egyptian gods were worshipped at different places, and that, under the influence of the varying local development of doctrine, the varying images, etc.

, there arose in course of time different conceptions of the gods, which found expression in the local by-names for the primeval divinities. This view is in general correct, but the phenomenon had a much fuller scope than was formerly supposed. It happened not infrequently that even in one and the same place the same god was worshipped under several forms, and that each of these forms was regarded as an independent personality.

When in invocations a mod appears with different by-names, as for instance Amon-Ra the king of the gods, side by side with Amon-Ra the lord of the throne of the world, our first impulse is to find here two titles of one and the same god, and we shall thus do justice upon the whole to the notion of the worshipper.

But when in pictorial represen- tations we see a number of forms seated together who all represent the same god, but with the addition in each instance of a different by-name, and who are worshipped together, the Egyptians held in such cases that each of the pictures had also a special divine personality corresponding to it. Thus Thutmosis II. appears at Karnak (Leps. Denkm. iii.

36c, d) in the act of worshipping ten gods who are seated side by side and who are all called Amon, but one is Amon the lord of the throne of the world, another Amon-Ra the lord of heaven, another Amon of western Thebes; and these are followed by Amon the bull of his mother, Amon-Ra the great in love, ete. Sometimes the texts in such instances indicate that one is to address the god by his names.

But in Egypt to name any one must not be understood in our weakened sense; the name is an independent part of the Ego, the different names have different in- dependent forms corresponding to them. This occurrence of different forms of one and the same primeval god, if one might use the expression, explains how it is that upon certain steles the same god is portrayed in a variety of embodiments, Thus a stele now at Berlin (No. 7295, publ. by Wiedemann in élanges déd. a Harlez, p. 372 ff.)

re- presents one of the king’s shoemakers, Amen-em- apt (about the 20th dynasty), engaged in worship- ping the following forms: (1) the human-formed Amon-Ra in the valley, the lord of heaven; (2) the goose-formed Amon-Ra, the lion of valour, the great god; (3) the ram-formed Amon-Ra of Surerii, t.e. probably the deity who lived in animal form in a shrine erected by Surerii.

It will scarcely be safe to assume that in such instances as the above there has been uniformly a partition, due to local conditions, of the god into a number of individualities. Rather may we find in not a few of these forms originally independent deities, whose old names afterwards became by- names of a greater divinity, without the memory of their original independence being thereby per- manently lost.

Many indications in the texts suggest that there was once a god known as ‘lord of heaven,’ another as ‘lord of the All,’ a third as ‘creat in love,’ etc., and that these titles were gradually drawn into the sphere of Osiris, Amon, etc., Just as happened, for instance, in Greece with deities like Hygieia, Eubuleus, Basileia, and others (ef. Usener, Gétternamen, 216 ff.)

But the old deities never became completely absorbed in the new form, but always detached themselves from it afresh, as may be seen from the variety of their embodiments. To each particular form of the deity a special form of embodiment must corre- spond, for the Egyptians recognized no gods but such as were conceived of personally, whether as man or beast or any other perceptible object.

Thus there could be in the same place different embodi- ments of the same great god, the latter being only apparently a unity, but in reality composed of a long series of Divine individualities independent of one another. (a) The Divine forms for heaven and earth are sup- plied, in the Egyptian mythology known to us, by personal forms that animate these concepts, nanialy: the goddess of heaven, Nut, and the earth-god, Seb, to whom we have referred already in dealing with the creation myths.

So is it with the heavenly bodies. Here, again, there isin general no mention of the worship of the natural body but of that of a deity animating it. For the most part, it is true, these remained special gods; it is only in a few instances that we have to do with great gods whose functions extended beyond giving its prone movement to the heavenly body. Occasionally, at Thebes the special gods were readily brought into relation to i nonere (see above, p. 1858).

e thus hear of Isis-Sothis instead of Sothis alone as goddess of the dog-star, or of Bennu-Osiris in- stead of Bennu (Phenix). The combination of Horus with the bein also belongs to this category. The old month-gods were almost wholly replaced by great gods, to whom the months were dedicated ; the lists of later times have preserved of the old deities, proper] great heat’ and ‘the little heat’ for the two prin cipal summer months (see, for lists of such divini- ties, Leps. Denkm. iii. 170f.)

The gods ef the particular days of the week were also combined with great gods, whereas the goddesses of the hours of day and night were able to preserve their independence down to the latest times. It is only rarely then that we find an invocation of the stars themselves, or that a particular star is mentioned as a god except in star catalogues.

The sort moon-god Aah gradually passed into the od Thoth, and, even when he is not exactly amalgamated with the latter, he is depicted simi- larly to him. In later times he is further attached also to Osiris.

In the case of Thoth it is probable that, at least in some localities, we have in him an actual moon-god whose personality originally ran | parallel with that of Aah, and to whom the cyno- cephalus was sacred; whereas the later more im- portant Ibis-Thoth, associated with writing and | the healing art, is, to all appearance, of a different | carn speaking, only ‘the — however, the attempt was made to combine the | special god with a great god, in the same way as RELIGION OF EGYPT origin.

Egyptology has not as yet succeeded in separating the various Divine primary elements combined in the same god, although the task is one that in the Nile valley is at once suggested and facilitated by the presence of the various sacred animals. (6) Stone worship prevailed especially in Heli- opolis, where the sun-god embodied hiranalt amongst other forms, ina stone.

It is hard to say whether we should detect here the influence of the Semites, in whose native land Divine stones played a great art, or whether we have to do with genuine gyptian notions, In any case, this species of worship exhibits itself as long established.

The form of the deity appears to have varied ; the texts | speak now of a pyramid, now of an obelisk (whence | the obelisks in the classical period of Egyptian | history are always dedicated to Ra or to some deity } amalgamated with him), and again of a kind of pillar ; but the essential form is always that of a | cone, the shape common to the Semites. It was | probably owing simply to the influence of Heli- | opolis that the belief in this embodiment of Ra | found entrance into other temples.

The god Set, the opponent of Osiris, was occasionally thought } of as embodied in a stone, as is shown by the determinative of his name, which is a stone in the shape of a brick-mould. Late texts mention also | .worship paid to the metals and to half-precious } stones, but such notices are rare.

(c) The worship of high places could naturally attain to no great proportions in the Nile valley, as characteristic elevations are in general wanting in the flat plateaus that stretch along both banks of the river; but instances of it do occur. The cir- ) cumstance that the temple of the Hathor of the | copper mines of the Sinaitic peninsula was situated } upon a mountain height, may, it is true, have been | due to Semitic influence.

But we find a similar | state of things in other places as well. At Heli- | opolis there was a sandhill, on which sacrifices were | offered to the sun-god at his rising (Piadnchi stele, -} 1.102). At Gebel Barkal the mountain on which | the temples were situated was called the holy | mountain, probably because it was itself regarded | as holy, nee not merely because of the sanctuaries | to which it afforded shelter. From the end of the | second millennium B.C.

come some notices pointing | to the paying of Divine honours to the mountain | peak over Sheh Abd el-Gurnah at Thebes. This mo peak has prayers addressed :to it; a ka, a Divine ee pe ality, is attributed to it; transgressions may | be committed against it, which it punishes severely, | or forgives if entreaty to that effect is addressed to |} it.

In other texts itis brought into connexion or | even identified with the serpent Mer-seker (‘she | who loves silence’), one of the most popular deities | of the Theban necropolis. But originally the | mountain was an independent Divine form (cf. the texts in Maspero, Et. de myth. ii. 402 ff.; Capart, Revue dev Université de Bruxelles, vi. [April 1901}), } which, amongst other functions, was supposed to | discharge those of a healing deity.

A more exact study of the rock-inscriptions of Egypt may be expected to bring to light more of these high- | place deities; in temple-inscriptions, on the con- trary, they appear to be practically wanting, showing that here they were not regarded as of | sufliciently high rank to find mention by the side of the great gods, (d) The cult of springs and streams was in the Nile valley naturally confined to a few instances, there being so slender a supply of independent watercourses.

Of springs, the only one, properly speaking, that comes into consideration, is at eliopolis. In it, according to a stele of the 8th cent. B.C. (Pianchi stele, 1. 102), the sun-god Ra washed his face, and his example was followed by = os : o ie h RELIGION OF EGYPT 189 kings when they visited the sanctuary. It is not said whether the spring actually received Divine honours, but it certainly possessed a certain sacred- ness, which it retained even after the fall of the Egyptian State.

The Arabs regarded it as the fountain of the sun; and, according to the Chris- tian legend, the Virgin Mary, when fleeing from Herod, washed the swaddling-bands of the infant Jesus in it (Hvang. Inf. Arab. c. 24; Abd Allatif, Rel. de V Egypte (i rench tr. by de Sacy], p. 88 fi.)

Far more important was the place held by the Nile (Hapi), on whose flow and inundation the prosperity and even the existence of Egypt de- pended, and which was conceived of as a fat man with nipple-formed breasts, flowers upon his head, and wearing a loin-cloth composed of sedge. He had temples in a number of places (Nilopolis near Memphis, Heliopolis, ete.) ; in other instances he was received into the important temples in com- pany with other deities.

The greatest of the popular festivals were held in his honour and to, mark the phases of his increase ; numerous hymns celebrating his beneficence have come down to us, being found even engraved upon rock-walls alon with lists of offermegs to be presented to him (cf. e.g. Stern, Aeqyp. Zischr. 1873, p. 129 ff.; Maspero, Hymne au Nil, Paris, 1868). In these texts he is hailed as giver of life to all men, bringer of joy, creator, nourisher of the whole land.

In all this we have no myth in the proper sense of the term, and the Nile comes into no further relations with the great deities of the temples. Occasionally the Nile is not viewed as one divinity, but is divided into the Nile of Upper and of Lower Egypt. When these two bind together for Pharaoh the plants that characterize them, he is thereby constituted lord of the whole land. There are other instances where the process of partition is carried atill further, and each nome has its own Nile.

In the train of the Nile appear a number of forms which embody the blessings dispensed by him. Thus we have the god of provisions, Ka (not to be confounded with the soul-form ka), who is also called the father of the gods; the gods Hu, T’efa, and Resef, which stand for abundance and nourishment; the goddess of corn, Nepera, and the serpent-headed goddess of the harvest, Rennut. (e) The worship of animals (cf. Wiedemann, *‘Culte des animaux’ in the Muséon, viii. 211 ff., 309 ff. ; Mél.

de Harlez, 372 ff. ; Herodot’s Zweites Buch, 271 ff.) has been regarded from ancient times as one of the most remarkable features of Egyptian religion. In discussing this subject we must dis- tinguish between the “Divine honours paid to cer- tain individual animals, and the high regard for whole classes of animals sacred to certain gods.

In the latter instance it was supposed that cer- tain animals were specially dear to certain gods, whether because they were fond of incorporating themselves in these, or for some other mythological reason. The animals in question must not be hurt or killed, in their lifetime they must be fed, after their death they were frequently embalmed and buried, but were not worshipped.

The pheno- menon with which we are dealing may be com- pared with the high regard for certain animals shown in other lands: for instance, at the present day, for the stork in N. Germany ; it is not animal worship, properly so called. Almost every species of animal found in Egypt is included in this category of sacred animals (see list in Parthey’s Plutarch, de Is. 261 ff.)

, but regard for a aruigalat species is commonly confined to particular nomes or districts, and one nome had no scruple about killing and eating the sacred animals of another. The case is quite different with individual animals that ranked as Divine. In them a par- ticular god embodies himself when he descends to 190 RELIGION OF EGYPT RELIGION OF EGYPT earth, and lives on in this incarnation in the temple.

The cult is then occupied essential] with this god-animal, which is oly supplied mith food, drink, adornments, ete. We learn this, above all, from the classical writers ; the inscrip- tions in such cases always speak of the god him- self. These animal deities were immortal in the sense that, whenever the animal incorporation died, a fresh embodiment of the god in an animal of the same species immediately took place.

Moreover, the death of the first embodiment was not a com- plete one ; its immortal soul passed, like that of man, as Osiris, into the world beyond. Hence the Osiris dirge was raised for the animal, and it was solemnly interred, sometimes in an isolated tomb, sometimes in a spot where there were numerous such graves of animals. Besides real animals, we encounter, amongst these embodiments of deity, certain fabulous creatures. Pre-eminent amongst these is the pheniz, an embodiment of Ra.

The Egyptians came to look upon these fancied forms as actually existing creatures, like the sphinx, the perry ete., which were supposed to inhabit the esert (ef. e.g. Leps. Denkm. ii. 131). The most important of the god-animals, or at least the most frequently mentioned in the classi- cal authors, are the following :— Apis (Egyp. Hapi)—a bull in the form of which Ptah of Memphis embodied himself, and whose -worship is attested from the 4th dynasty down to the time of the emperor Julian.

This animal was believed to be engendered by a moonbeam ; the cow which gave birth to him shared in the veneration paid him. He was recognized by a number of marks, about whose appearance tradi- tion varies as to details. Solemnly introduced into the temple, the animal gave oracles, partly directly, and partly through his attendants.

His death occasioned general mourning; his place of burial, from the middle of the 18th dynasty, was a rock-cut catacomb, the so-called Serapewm, in the middle of the necropolis of Memphis. The soul of the animal passed as Osiris-Apis into the world beyond, and this double form became blended, in the minds of the Greeks who were settled in Egypt, with the notions of Pluto and Asclepios.

Thus arose the hybrid god Sarapis or Serapis, whose cult at the beginning of the Christian era was diffused over the whole of the Roman Empire (cf. e.g. Lafaye, Hist. du culte des divinités d’Alex- andrve, Paris, 1884). Mnevis—an incorporation of Ra as a bull, at Heliopolis. Bacis—a bull form of Ra (Mont), at Her- monthis. Suchos—a crocodile embodiment of Sebak in a lake in the Fayum, which likewise gave oracles, earts interred in the catacombs of the laby- rinth.

A ram form belonged, amongst others, to Osiris at Mendes, and Amon-Ra at Thebes. Thoth had the form of an 7bts at Hermopolis Magna, and, it would appear, also in a temple at Memphis, where the ibis was regarded as a sacred animal, and buried accordingly. The Phoenix (bennu), in earlier times conceived of as a heron, in later also as an eagle, was an embodiment of Ra, especially as the morning sun, in a temple at Heliopolis (cf. Wiedemann, Aegyp. Zischr. 1878, p. 89 ff.), but.

worshipped also in other places in Egypt, and one of the forms of the blessed dead, whose resurrection was guaranteed by that of the Pheenix itself. The Sphinx, a lion with human head, was an embodiment of Ra-Harmachis, who is represented in this manifestation-form by the great Sphinx of Gizeh. The Sphinx, further, represents more- generally the form assumed by various deities when they descend to the earth as watchers.

The figures representing sphinxes generally have the features cf the dedicator of the particular sphinx, t.e., for the most part, the features of a king. The majority of sphinxes are of the male sex. But if the deity portrayed should be female, and the dedicator of the monument a woman, the sphinx may also have a female form. The sphinx was originally unwinged; it was only under Asiatic influence that it came to assume wings. The cow was an embodiment of Hathor and of other maternal deities.

—The serpent was the form of embodiment of several deities of the tomb dis- tricts—above all, of Mer-seker (see above, p. 189*), as well as of harvest deities like Rennut and many others. (f) In the Nile valley there is less frequent men- tion of the worship of plants and trees than one might expect in the case of an essentially agri- cultural people.

This deficiency of statement is Lae on the re that the cult of vege- table life was part of the popular religion, and onl found occasional admittance into’ the temple cul Even when the latter was the case, one can always see clearly how loose was the connexion of the cult of plants with that of the great gods, and how little, in consequence, this connexion was main- tained.

Thus, a religiously important tree is the sycomore which stood in the West on the way to the world beyond, and from which a goddess, who is more or less identified with the tree, supplied the dead with food and drink for their wanderings. This notion took its rise from the actually existin isolated trees growing at the commencement 0: the desert, in small hollows where water is found.

Under the shadow of these the shepherd or the huntsman would seek rest, and express his grati- tude by paying veneration to them. A great deal of vacillation is shown as to the particular deity with whom this sycomore is to be brought into relation. The one usually selected was Hathor, the mistress of the West, but besides her we find Isis, Selkit, Neith, Nut (cf. Wiede- mann, Rec. de trav. rel. a VEgypt. xvii. 10f.)

Within the sacred domain of the temples there were groves, the trees of which were occasionally — venerated in the same sense as everything else connected with the temple. period an attempt was made systematically to establish this veneration in the case of all temples and thus to include the various species of sacr trees in the lists of materia sacra.

Thus in 24 nomes we find the Nile acacia, in 17 the Cordia — myxa (2), in 16 the Zizyphus Spina Christi, in — 1 or 2 the sycomore, the Juniperus Phenicea, and — the Tamarix Nilotica. In all, 10 species of trees appear as sacred. Of these as many as 3 are some- times venerated in the same nome (Moldenke, Ueber die in altigyp. Texten erwihnten Baume, 8 ff.)

So far as we know, the only tree that played a con- — siderable réle in the temple cult was one that grew — at Heliopolis near the spot where the sun-cat — killed the Apepi serpent. From this tree the — Pheenix took flight, and on its leaves Thoth or — Safech inscribed the name of the king in order thus to endue him with everlasting life (cf. Lefé- bure, Sphinz, v. 1 ff., 65 ff.)

The most surprising circumstance in connexion with the whole subject of plant worship is that — the tree which is most characteristic of the Nile valley, namely the palm, makes its appearance only very rarely in the cultus inscriptions. Thus, the palm is found instead of the sycomore of Nut upon a relief now at Berlin (No. 7322); and a stele — at Dorpat (PSBA xvi. 152) mentions the goddess Ta-urt of the Dum palm; but such notices are only — | exceptional.

In the Ptolemaic | | due, RELIGION OF EGYPT With greater frequency than sacred trees we encounter the eat gods of corn, who, as noted above, are sometimes assigned to the train of the Nile god. Also the dogma of the resurrection of Osiris is brought into connexion with plant life, and Osiris awakening to new life is portrayed as a mummy ly:ag upon its back, and with corn Prout ing from it (Papyr. Louvre, v. 27, in Pierret, Dogme de la resurrection ;: relief at Phils, in Rosellini, Mon.

del culto, p, 23). Allusions to this doctrine are found as early as the Middle Empire (Birch, | Coffin of Amamu, pl. 276), and then repeatedly in | the Book of the Dead. Even in the Osiris festivals | of late times the sprouting of grains of corn from the figure of Osiris still plays a part; and in a tomb of the time of Amenophis III. proof has been discovered by Loret (cf. SpAinz, iii. 106 f.)

that it was occasionally the practice then, in connexion with burial, to make corn grow from an image 4 Osiris as a kind of pledge of human immor- tality.

(g) Of city divinities there must have been a con- siderable number, but only one of them is men- | tioned somewhat frequently, namely the goddess of Thebes, who was conceived of as an armed woman, and who appears in two forms, namely Uas-t ‘Thebes,’ and ‘she who is there in sight of her lord’ (originally the necropolis of Drah abu Neggah ; cf. Maspero, Ft. de myth. ii. 403). As yet, we know nothing of temples erected in honour of such personifications.

Even a foreign city deity found admittance into the Egyptian pantheon, namely the goddess Kadesh, who derived her name from a Syrian city on the Orontes, and who comes before us as queen of heaven, mistress of all gods, daughter of Ra.

She is portrayed, with a front view, as a woman standing upon a lion, To what foreign deity she originally answered, whether a Semitic Astarte in her local form as worshipped at Kadesh, or a Hittite god- dess, cannot be determined, but the fashion of her portraiture makes the latter supposition the more probable. (h) There were also certain buildings, temples, pyramids, and the like, that were temporarily regarded as divinities to whom veneration was _ (5) DEIFIED ABSTRACT NOTIONS.

—These hold | a special place in the list of Egyptian objects of | veneration. It would be a mistake to look upon } such deification as the result of profound philo- sophical speculation ; it is simply a development of the fundamental idea which never ceased to | make itself felt in Egypt, namely, that every _| word must have corresponding to it a perceptible form, a kind of personality, which could be por- trayed and, if necessary, worshipped.

The number of abstract notions known as yet from lists of gods or from other indications, is pretty large; the dis- covery of fuller lists will no doubt increase the number. The base of an altar (now at Turin, pub. in TSBA iii. p. 110ff.) dating from the time of king Pepi I. (6th dynasty), supplies the following group: Day (Hru), Year (Renpt), Eternity (Heh), Unendingness (Z’et-ta) ; followed by Life (Anch), Stability (Tet), and Joy (Fu-t-ab).

Further, we find here Seeing (Ma), and Hearing (Sen), and, finally, Right Speaking (Mad-cher). In other inscriptions appear Taste (Hu), Perception (Sa), Strength (Us), etc. When it is desired to portray these abstract notions, they are simply provided with a human form having the appropriate written sign on its head, or their ideographic hieroglyph sign is drawn with arms and legs ap- pended to it.

In the temple cult these forms in general scarcely received actual worship, although some of them are mentioned not infrequently RELIGION OF EGYPT 191 under the New Empire.

A number of abstract notions seem to make their appearance as a con- nected group at Hermopolis, where the so-called eight elementary deities enjoyed Divine honours, These eight, divided into four pairs, each with a male and a female, were Eternity (Heh), Darkness (Kek), Heavenly Water (Nu), Earthly Water of Inundation (of the Nile, Nenz); see the Literature in Wiedemann, Orient. Ltztg. iv. 381ff. From this starting-point they found admittance into other temples as well.

There was only one abstract notion which b itself played a prominent part, namely the god- dess Maat, ‘ Truth,’ who appears as a woman, with the ideogram for ‘truth’ upon her head. She is quite materialistically conceived of; one can eat and drink the truth, in order to become truthful. Maat is mentioned from the earliest times onwards, but, in spite of the widely diffused veneration for her, she had seldom a sacrificial cult of her own.

When prominent officials are called ‘ priests of the truth,’ this is probably rather a title intended to characterize them as specially truthful, and not the name of an actual office. Occasionally we hear of two Truths, in which case there was prob- ably in view the distinction between truth in action, #.e. justice, and inward sincerity. The goddess of ‘Truth, when represented as human, appears at times blindfolded, because she judges without respect of persons.

She conducts the dead into the judgment-hall of Osiris, where she attends to the weighing of the heart. In myth- ology she plays no part; and if at times she ap- pears as the consort of Thoth, this has nothing to do with her proper significance, but rests upon later speculation, which desired to bring the god of wisdom into connexion with the truth. A similar judgment is to be passed on the statement that Maat is a daughter of Ra.

This is simply an expression of the thought that the light of the sun brings the truth to view. None of these notions has been further worked up (cf. for Maat, Stern, Aegyp. Ztschr. 1877, pp. 86ff., 113 ff. ; Wiedemann, Ann. du Musée Guimet, x. 581 ff.) iii, THE CULTUS.—The worship of the deity in the temple was concerned, above all, with the charge of the image of the god or the sacred animal that found a place in the holiest part of the build- ing, the naos.

The door leading to the naos, or the barred gate giving access to the god-animal, was fastened by a priest every evening with a strip of papyrus, the ends of which were smeared with clay and a stamp impressed upon them. The following morning it was one of the first sacred functions to break this seal, and thus to renew the possibility of communion between the deity and man.

Regarding this ceremony and others which accompanied or followed the breaking of the seal, we are informed through the ritual books of vari- ous temples which have come down to us, and which describe the various sacred duties to be performed on the morning of each day. We have the ritual at Abydos, in the time of Seti 1, for Osiris, Isis, Horus, Amon, Ra-Harmachis and Ptah (publ. by Mariette in Abydos, i. 34-86) ; at Karnak (in the Hall of Pillars, back wall), from the time of Seti I.

, for Amon-Ra (not yet publ.) Then there are isolated pieces ; mostly with refer- ence to royal visits to the temple, containing also pictures of the various ceremonies, mostly in the correct order, but furnished with abbreviated legends. These are to be met with on most temple walls, on the outside of the naos, temple doors, obelisks, ete. Further texts may be found in Papyr.

Berlin 55 [now 3055] for Amon, and 14 and 53 [now 3014 and 3053] for Mut, both dating from the time of the 20th dynasty (publ. ig 192 RELIGION OF EGYPT Hieratische Papyr. aus der Kénigl. Mus. zu Berlin, i,, Leipzig, 1896-1901) ; cf. Lemm, Ritwal- buch des Ammondienstes, Leipzig, 1882 ; and Moret, Le rituel du culte divin journalier en Egypte, Paris, 1902. For the parallel texts of the ritual for the dead, cf. especially Schiaparelli, J2 Libro dei Funerali, ii.

, where numerous examples are given ; for the meaning and translation of the latter texts, cf. Maspero, Ht. de myth. i. 283 ff. A number of the statements that come under the present category are already found in the Pyramid texts of the 6thdynasty. These surviving accounts of the ritual show that the ceremonies were nearly the same in almost all Egyptian temples.

There is first a brief indication of the ritual act to be performed, with a picture of it also when the text happens to be engraved in relief on the temple wall, and then follow the terms of the prayer which the priest is to utter as he performs each of the acts named.

These prayers consist almost exclusively of invocations of the deity, without any further point of interest, whereas the acts themselves have a higher significance, as they let us see what was the form of the ancient Egyptian divine service.

They show at the same time that the latter was very much of one cast, for the same ceremonies as were performed before the god every morning were performed also by the king when he brought a great offering to the temple in the hope of obtaining from the god in return the pro- mise of victory over his enemies, joy, strength, or everlasting life.

Much the same usages were fol- lowed, moreover, when the object was to reani- mate a dead man, that he might be able to enter the world beyond and eat and drink there. We cannot go more fully into these ceremonies here, but we must speak of their order :—(1) There was first the ‘striking or rubbing of the fire,’ we.

a spark was generated by striking a flint or rubbing dry pieces of wood against each other, and this spark was regarded as Divine and as an effluence of the eye of the sun-god Horus. It furnished the means of lighting the temple and of kindling the fire for the burnt-offering. The latter was the main object, for now follow: (2) the taking hold of the censer, (3) the placing of the incense-container on the censer, (4) the casting of the incense into the flame.

Thereupon (5, 6) the ministrant advanced to the elevated place, the naos, (7) loosed the band that fastened its door, (8) broke the seal, (9) opened the naos, and thus (10) made the face of the god himself visible, and (11) looked upon the god. Reverently (12-17) he cast himself upon the ground, raised himself, and repeated the prostration a number of times, keep- ing his face all the while turned towards the earth, and then (18, 19) commenced a hymn of praise to the god.

When this was ended, a series of oflerings were presented to the god: first of all (20) a mixture of oil and honey, with which it was customary to anoint the images of the gods, and then (21) incense. After this the priest stepped back from the maos into the adjoining room of the temple, where (22) he uttered a short prayer.

Then (23, 24) he took his place once more in front of the naos, and (25) solemnly Preree ascended the steps which led from the temple floor to the level of the interior of the naos. Whereas he had hitherto stood lower than the deity, he now felt himself, after poate the above, mentioned ceremonies, to be on an equal footing with him, and might thus stand on the same level.

But scarcely had he taken this step when he was seized once more with awe of the god, whose countenance was now distinctly visible (26, 27), he looked upon him (28), and repeated the pros- trations he had previously performed (29-34). Then he burned incense (35, 36), and uttered one RELIGION OF EGYPT A ee or more prayers and hymns in honour of the god (87-41).

A figure of the goddess of Truth was now presented to the god (42), who, in order to be truthful, must receive the truth into himself by eating or drinking. Then followed an incense- offering, meant not only for the god who was the special object of worship, but for all his com- panions who shared the veneration of the temple (43). Then began the purifying and clothing of the god.

First of all the priest laid both his hands upon the god himself (44), then upon the upper side of the case in which the figure was placed, in order to effect its purifications as well (45). Then he purified the deity with four libation, pitchers full of water (46) and with four red pitchers full of water (47), fumigated him with incense (48), brought a white sash (49) and put it on the god (50).

Then he put on him, successively, a green, a bright-red, and a dark-red sash (51-53), after which he brought to him two kinds of ointment (54, 55), then green and black eye-paint (56, 57), an act which was followed by scattering dust before the god (58), in order thereby to make even the epee on which the god or the sacred animal stood, clean.

The priest next walked four times round the god (59), and this ceremony ex- plains why the temple naos occupied a detached position in the sanctuary, namely, in order that this walking round it might be possible. At the close of this performance the presentation of offer- ings again took place.

First the god received natron with which he was purified (60), then he was fumigated with incense (61), and underwent a purification with four See of a substance brought from the south, and then with four grains of the same from the north (62, 63), then a purifi- cation with water (64), followed by a fumigation with ordinary incense, and another with the Anti incense from Arabia (65, 66). Here ended the regular Divine service. The object of all these acts was to clothe and to purify the god.

The latter point was considered important, because the Egyptians in all matters of religion laid special stress upon bodily cleanness, Washings of every kind were required before any sacred transaction; even the gods must wash them- selves repeatedly if they desire to consult the sacred books.

Fumigating and rubbing with ointment also come under the cate ory of purification, it being the custom in the Nile valley to perfume oneself before important transactions of a civil as well as a religious character. The man who above all had to wash himself was the priest, who was accordingly designated ‘the clean’ (ab, wab), the ideogram for which is a man over whom water is poured or who finds himself beside water, in allusion to these frequent washings.

In addition to the purifying, the supplying of food and drink to the god or to the sacred animal played a part in the cultus ; but here we have no extensive books of ritual to tell us in detail, for instance, about the prayers to be uttered in con- nexion with the performance of the various acts. No doubt, all this was regulated by as exact a code of ceremonial as the actions and prayers connected with the clothing and the purifying of the god.

In regard also to other religious ceremonies we are without the prescriptions as to the occasions and the ordering of processions, burnt, offerings, and various consecrations. There are merely allusions in the inscriptions, but these show that here too everything was fixed by a hard-and-fast rule instead of being left to the discretion of the individual worshipper or the temple college. iv. CONCEPTIONS OF A FUTURE LIFE.—(1) The © notions as to a world beyond (cf.

Wiedemann, The Realms of the Egyptian Dead, London, 1901), SE il a ee ee RELIGION OF EGYPT RELIGION OF EGYPT 193 where gods and the dead have their home, are primarily connected in the Nile valley with the sun and his 24-hours’ course.

The gun rises in the east in the morning, and sails in his bark to the west ; for the motion of the sun, like that of all the heavenly bodies, is conceived of by the Egyptians as effected by a vessel, the waters on which it sails being sometimes viewed as a peolennl ocean, and sometimes as a Nile that flows through the brazen heaven.

The sun-bark is generally supposed to be carried along by the stream, re- quiring merely to be steered ; it is only exception- ally that it is represented as drawn by jackals which run on both banks of the heavenly stream. In the cabin of the bark sits the sun-god, while other gods man the vessel.

The day voyage lasts 12 hours, that is to say, the Egyptians divided the time from sunrise to sunset into 12 equal parts, these being consequently, as a matter of course, longer in summer than in winter. The sun sets in the west, and commences now upon a subterranean stream its night voyage, which zit lasts 12 hours. The whole voyage of the sun is compared by the Egyptians to the life of man.

The god is born in the morning, grows old during his course, sinks in the evening, as an old man, into the night, to rise again as a new god the following morning. Usually the whole process is accomplished, as indicated above, within four and twenty hours; more rarely, instead of this, it is spread over a whole year or over longer periods of 365 and more years.

Wherever the sun comes, he finds gods and spirits, but the distribution of these beings over heaven, earth, and the under world is variously conceived of at different times. (2) As to the dwelling-place of the gods them- selves we have only meagre data. In the matter of the cultus, apart from the offerings which were daily offered to the sun upon open-air altars, the whole concern was with the embodiments of the gods that dwelt in the temples.

If ered angers who did not dwell on earth were postulated for these, they were spoken of without any precise localizing of them, or they were called by such general titles as ‘lord of heaven or earth or Egypt,’ ete. In later times, in addition to this, the various gods are frequently conceived of pantheistically as inhabit- ing the whole world. Thus it is said (Horrack, Lamentations d’ Isis, pl. 5, 1.

2) of Osiris: ‘The heaven contains thy soul, the earth contains thy forms, the under world (Duat) contains thy secrets.” A dwelling-place of the gods in the sense of the Greek Olympus is unknown to the Egyptians. (3) Far more numerous than the statements regarding the abodes of gods are those about the region which was believed to be the place of so- journ of dead men when they were awakened to new life. This region is variously placed— (a) Above the earth, in heaven.

—Different views prevailed as to how the soul succeeded in gaining admittance into the sun-bark among the stars or into the spreading Plain of the Blessed. According to some, the soul, immediately upon a man’s death, hastened to the west to the spot where the sun sank through a narrow opening into the deep, and there clambered into the solar bark. On board of the latter it passed through the under world, and the following morning rose to heaven.

Others believed in a ladder, by whose aid the soul could climb to heaven. Another set of notions attached themselves to the cremation of the dead ; the soul Was supposed to ascend with the smoke from the burning corpse. But the most widely diffused view was that the soul had the form of a bird, that of kings being in the form of a hawk, that of other men in that of a bird with a human head. In this