The Religion of Ancient Egypt Part 3

{58}

CHAPTER VIII

THE ABSTRACT G.o.dS

Besides the cla.s.ses of G.o.ds already described there are others who stand apart in their character, as embodying abstract ideas. Of these some are probably tribal G.o.ds; but the principle of each is so clearly marked that they must have been idealised by people who were at a relatively high level of mind. Others are frankly abstractions of artificial ideas devised in a civilised state, much like the deities Flora or the Genius of the Roman Emperor. The general inference is that these G.o.ds all belong to the latest of the peoples who contributed to the mythology, the dynastic rulers of the land.

+Ptah+ the creator was especially wors.h.i.+pped at Memphis. He is figured as a mummy; and we know that full length burial and mummifying begin with the dynastic race. He was identified with the earlier animal-wors.h.i.+p of the bull Apis; {59} but it is not likely that this originated his creative aspect, as he creates by moulding clay, or by word and will, and not by natural means. He became united with the old Memphite G.o.d of the dead, Seker, and with Osiris, as Ptah-Seker-Osiris.

Thus we learn that he belonged neither to the animal wors.h.i.+ppers, the believers in Seker, nor to the Osiride race, but to a fourth people.

The compound G.o.d Ptah-Seker is shown as a bandy-legged dwarf, with wide flat head, a known aberration of growth. It seems as if we should connect this with the _pataikoi_ who were wors.h.i.+pped by Phoenician sailors as dwarf figures, the name being similar. This points to a connection of the Phoenician race with the dynastic Egyptians. Ptah was wors.h.i.+pped in all ages down to Greek times.

+Min+ was the male principle. He was wors.h.i.+pped mainly at Ekhmim and Koptos, and was there identified with Pan by the Greeks. He also was the G.o.d of the desert, out to the Red Sea. The oldest statues of G.o.ds are three gigantic limestone figures of Min found at Koptos; these bear relief designs of Red Sea sh.e.l.ls and sword fish. It seems, then, that he was introduced by a people coming across from the east. His wors.h.i.+p continued till Roman times.

{60}

+Hat-hor+ was the female principle whose animal was the cow; and she is identified with the mother Isis. She was also identified with other earlier deities; and her forms are very numerous in different localities. There were also seven Hathors who appear as Fates, presiding over birth. Thus this G.o.ddess has a position different from any other, more generalised, more widely spread, and identified with many places and ideas. The similarity of such a position, with that of the Madonna in Italy in relation to earlier wors.h.i.+ps, suggests that the widespread devotion to her was of later introduction and superimposed on varied beliefs. The figure of Hathor sometimes has the cow's head, and often has cow's ears. The myth of Horus striking off the head of his mother Isis and replacing it by a cow's head, points to the Horus wors.h.i.+ppers uniting Hathor with Isis. Statuettes of Hathor are not common; the head was used for an architectural capital and in the form of the sistrum, a rattle which was employed in her wors.h.i.+p.

+Maat+ was the G.o.ddess of truth. She is always of human form, and shown as seated holding the _ankh_, emblem of life, in her hands. She was never wors.h.i.+pped, and had no temples or shrines, but was represented as being offered by the kings {61} to the G.o.ds. She also occurs in the names of several kings, and appears in the judgment scene of the weighing of the heart. She was the only idea of the older religion which was preserved by Akhenaten in his reformation; he always names himself as 'living in truth,' but as an abstraction and without the notion of any actual G.o.ddess. She is linked with Ptah, Thoth, and Ra, on different occasions.

+Nefertum+ is a G.o.d of late times, in human form, as a youth with a lotus flower on his head. He appears to have represented growth and vegetation; and is systematised as a son of Ptah and Sekhet. No temple of his remains; but his figures, usually of bronze, are common.

+Safekh+ was the G.o.ddess of writing. She is named in the pyramid times, and appears in scenes of the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties. Four pairs of elemental G.o.ds were wors.h.i.+pped at Hermopolis, each pair male and female; _Heh_, Eternity; _Kek_, Darkness; _Nu_, the heavenly ocean; _Nenu_, the Inundation. They are shown as human figures with the heads of frogs and serpents. There were also personifications of Seeing, Hearing, Taste, Perception, Strength, and the 'true voice' necessary to intone the magic formulae.

{62}

CHAPTER IX

THE FOREIGN G.o.dS

Besides the incorporation into purely Egyptian usage of all the G.o.ds that we have noticed, there were others who always retained a foreign character. It is true that Bast, Neit, and Taurt are counted by some as foreign; but deities who are found from the pyramid times to the Roman age, and who were the patrons of capitals and of dynasties, must be counted as Egyptian; and of Taurt we do not know of any foreign source, nor should we look for any, as the hippopotamus abounded in Egypt itself.

+Bes+, though figured from the eighteenth dynasty to Roman times, yet retained a foreign character. He is a dwarfish, clumsy figure, wearing a feline skin on his back, with the tail hanging down to his heels. A female figure wearing the feline skin similarly is known from the twelfth dynasty. Rarely female forms of Bes {63} occur in late times. The source of this type is the Sudany dancer, such as may still be seen performing in Egypt, and we know that even in the fifth dynasty dancers called Denga (=d.i.n.ka tribe?) were brought as curiosities to Egypt. Bes was often figured as dancing with a tambourine; he was the G.o.d of the dance, and protected infants from evil and witchcraft; hence he appears on the imposts of the capitals of the birth-house at Dendereh. The animal whose skin he wears is the _cynaelurus guttatus_, whose name is _bes_. Possibly Bastet, the feline G.o.ddess, was originally a female form of Bes.

+Dedun+ was a Nubian G.o.d, who appears to have been a creative earth-G.o.d. He was unified with Ptah, and is often named in the nineteenth dynasty.

+Sati+ was a G.o.ddess of the cataract region, similar to Hathor, with cow's horns. She is called queen of the G.o.ds, and seems to have been the great deity of a frontier tribe.

+Anqet+ was the G.o.ddess of the cataract island of Seheyl, and is figured wearing a high crown of feathers.

+Sutekh+ must not be confounded with the purely Egyptian G.o.d Set or Setesh, though the two were identified. Probably they were one in {64} prehistoric ages; but Set was the G.o.d known to the Egyptians, while Sutekh was the G.o.d of the Hitt.i.tes from Armenia, where he was wors.h.i.+pped in their home cities.

+Baal+ was another Syrian G.o.d also identified with Set, and sometimes combined with Mentu as a war-G.o.d in the nineteenth dynasty, when Syrian ideas prevailed so largely in Egypt.

+Reshpu+, or +Reseph+, was occasionally wors.h.i.+pped as a war-G.o.d in the Syrianised age; but no statues or temples are known to him or to Baal.

+Anta+, or +Anaitis+, was a G.o.ddess of the Hitt.i.tes, who appears fully armed on horseback in the Ramesside times. Ramessu II called his daughter Bant-anta, 'daughter of Anta.'

+Astharth+, +Ashtaroth+, or +Astarte+, was another Syrian G.o.ddess, who was wors.h.i.+pped mainly at Memphis, where the tomb of a priestess of hers is known. Ramessu II named a son of his Merastrot, 'loved of Ashtaroth.'

+Qedesh+, 'the holy one,' is shown as a nude G.o.ddess standing on a lion; she may be a form of Ashtaroth, as patroness of the _qedosheth_ girls attached to her service. The position on a lion is a well-known one of Hitt.i.te G.o.ddesses.

{65}

Figures of foreign G.o.ddesses are often found in Egypt; they are of pottery, coa.r.s.ely made, nude, and with the b.r.e.a.s.t.s held in the hands.

They probably represent Ashtaroth.

We may also here mention some theories about the foreign connections of the Egyptian G.o.ds. The early Sumerians of Babylonia wors.h.i.+pped Asari, 'the strong one,' 'the prince who does good to men.' This has a strong resemblance in name and character to Asar, Osiris, of Egypt. But the connection which is proposed, from both names being written with the signs of an eye and a place, seems baseless, as the syllabic values of the signs were reversed in the two languages; either the writing or the sound of the name must be only a coincidence. Istar, another Sumerian deity, became softened in Semitic speech to Athtar, the moon-G.o.ddess of Southern Arabia; and the connection of this moon- and cow-G.o.ddess with the similar Hathor of Egypt seems very probable. Ansar was another Sumerian G.o.d, meaning 'the sky,' or the spirit world of the sky; and this might have pa.s.sed into Anhar, the sky-G.o.d, known both in Upper and Lower Egypt. These connections are all with Sumerian G.o.ds, but may have been derived through their later Semitic forms. They have a general {66} probability from the names and nature in each instance; but until we can trace some point of connection in place and in period, we can only bear these resemblances in mind as material for some larger view of early history.

{67}

CHAPTER X

THE COSMOGONY

Man in all times and places has speculated on the nature and origin of the world, and connected such questions with his theology. In Egypt there are not many primitive theories of creation, though some have various elaborated forms. Of the formation of the earth there were two views. (1) That it had been brought into being by the word of a G.o.d, who when he uttered any name caused the object thereby to exist.

Thoth is the princ.i.p.al creator by this means, and this idea probably belongs to a period soon after the age of the animal G.o.ds. (2) The other view is that Ptah framed the world as an artificer, with the aid of eight _Khnumu_, or earth-gnomes. This belongs to the theology of the abstract G.o.ds. The primitive people seem to have been content with the eternity of matter, and only personified nature when they described s.p.a.ce (Shu) as separating the sky (Nut) from the earth (Seb). This {68} is akin to the separation of chaos into sky and sea in Genesis.

The sun is called the egg laid by the primeval goose; and in later time this was said to be laid by a G.o.d, or modelled by Ptah. Evidently this goose egg is a primitive tale which was adapted to later theology.

The sky is said to be upheld by four pillars. These were later connected with the G.o.ds of the four quarters; but the primitive four pillars were represented together, with the capitals one over the other, in the sign _dad_, the emblem of stability. These may have belonged to the Osiris cycle, as he is 'lord of the pillars' (_daddu_), and his centre in the Delta was named Daddu from the pillars. The setting up of the pillars or _dad_ emblem was a great festival in which the kings took part, and which is often represented.

The creation of life was variously attributed to different great G.o.ds where they were wors.h.i.+pped. Khnumu, Osiris, Amen, or Atmu, each are stated to be the creator. The mode was only defined by the theorists of Heliopolis; they imagined that Atmu self-produced Shu and Tefnut, they produced Seb and Nut, and they in turn other G.o.ds, from whom at last sprang mankind. But this is merely later theorising to fit a theology in being.

{69}

The cosmogonic theories, therefore, were by no means important articles of belief, but rather a.s.sumptions of what the G.o.ds were likely to have done similar to the acts of men. The creation by the word is the most elevated idea, and is parallel to the creation in Genesis.

The conception of the nature of the world was that of a great plain, over which the sun pa.s.sed by day, and beneath which it travelled through the hours of night. The movement of the sun was supposed to be that of floating on the heavenly ocean, figured by its being in a boat, which was probably an expression for its flotation. The elaboration of the nature of the regions through which the sun pa.s.sed at night essentially belongs to the Ra theology, and only recognises the kingdom of Osiris by placing it in one of the hours of night. The old conception of the dim realm of the cemetery-G.o.d Seker occupies the fourth and fifth hours; the sixth hour is an approach to the Osiride region, and the seventh hour is the kingdom of Osiris. Each hour was separated by gates, which were guarded by demons who needed to be controlled by magic formulae.

{70}

CHAPTER XI

THE RITUAL AND PRIESTHOOD

The accounts which we have of the temple ritual are of the later periods, and we must look to the buildings themselves to trace differences in the system. The oldest form of shrine was a wicker hut, with tall poles forming the sides of the door; in front of this extended an enclosure which had two poles with flags on either side of the entrance. In the middle of the enclosure or court was a staff bearing the emblem of the G.o.d. This type of shrine and open court was kept up always, and is like the Jewish type. We find stone used for the doors in the sixth dynasty, and stone-built temples in the twelfth dynasty. The earlier type of temple was essentially a resting-place for the G.o.d between the excursions of the festivals. It was open at both front and back, and a processional way led through it, so that the priests walked through, taking up the ark of the G.o.d, {71} carrying it in procession, and then returning and depositing it again in the temple as they pa.s.sed. This form lasted till the middle of the eighteenth dynasty; but the fixed shrine was already coming into use then, and seems to have become the only type after that age. This was emphasised still more in the twenty-sixth dynasty by the great monolith boxes of granite which contained not only precious statuettes, but even life-sized statues of granite. It seems that the processional form of ritual had been supplanted by the service of a more mysterious Holy of Holies.

The course of daily service by the priests was of seven parts. 1st.

_Fire-making_--rubbing the fire sticks, taking the censer, putting incense in it, and lighting it. 2nd. _Opening the Shrine_--going up to the shrine, loosening the fastening, and breaking the seal, opening the door, seeing the G.o.d. 3rd. _Praise_--various prostrations, and then singing a hymn to the G.o.d. 4th. _Supplying food and incense_--offering oil and honey and incense, retiring from the shrine for a prayer, approaching and looking on the G.o.d, various prostrations, again incense, and then prayers and hymns, a figure of Maat (G.o.ddess of truth) was then presented to the G.o.d, and, lastly, more incense for all the companions of the G.o.d. {72} 5th. _Purifying_--cleansing the figure and its shrine, and pouring out pitchers of water, and fumigating with incense. 6th. _Clothing_--dressing the G.o.d with white, green, bright red, and dark red sashes, and supplying two kinds of ointment and black and green eye paint, and scattering clean sand before him. The priest then walked four times round the shrine. 7th. _Purifying_--with incense, natron of the south and north, and two other kinds of incense.