Part 31 (1/2)
The Egyptian G.o.d _Ra_ was born from the side of his mother, _but was not engendered_.[122:6]
The ancient Egyptians also deified kings and heroes, in the same manner as the ancient Greeks and Romans. An Egyptian king became, in a sense, ”the vicar of G.o.d on earth, the infallible, and the personated deity.”[122:7]
P. Le Page Renouf, in his Hibbert Lectures on the Religion of Ancient Egypt, says:
”I must not quit this part of my subject without a reference to the belief that the ruling sovereign of Egypt was the living image and vicegerent of the Sun-G.o.d (_Ra_). _He was invested with the attributes of divinity_, and that in the earliest times of which we possess monumental evidence.”[122:8]
_Menes_, who is said to have been the first king of Egypt, was believed to be a G.o.d.[122:9]
Almost all the temples of the left bank of the Nile, at Thebes, had been constructed in view of the wors.h.i.+p rendered to the Pharaohs, their founders, after their death.[122:10]
On the wall of one of these Theban temples is to be seen a picture representing the G.o.d Thoth--the messenger of G.o.d--telling the _maiden_, Queen Mautmes, that she is to give birth to a _divine son_, who is to be King _Amunothph_ III.[123:1]
An inscription found in Egypt makes the G.o.d _Ra_ say to his son Ramses III.:
”I am thy father; by me are begotten all thy members as divine; I have formed thy shape like the Mendesian G.o.d; I have begotten thee, impregnating thy venerable mother.”[123:2]
_Raam-ses_, or _Ra-me-ses_, means ”Son of the Sun,” and _Ramses Hek An_, a name of Ramses III., means ”engendered by Ra (the Sun), Prince of An (Heliopolis).”[123:3]
”_Thotmes_ III., on the tablet of Karnak, presents offerings to his predecessors; so does _Ramses_ on the tablet of Abydos. Even during his life-time the Egyptian king was denominated '_Beneficent G.o.d_.'”[123:4]
The ancient Babylonians also believed that their kings were G.o.ds upon earth. A pa.s.sage from Menaut's translation of the great inscription of Nebuchadnezzar, reads thus:
”I am Nabu-kuder-usur . . . the first-born son of Nebu-pal-usur, King of Babylon. The G.o.d _Bel_ himself created me, the G.o.d _Marduk_ engendered me, and deposited himself the germ of my life in the womb of my mother.”[123:5]
In the life of _Zoroaster_, the law-giver of the _Persians_, the common mythos is apparent. He was born in innocence, of an immaculate conception, of a ray of the Divine Reason. As soon as he was born the glory from his body enlightened the whole room.[123:6] Plato informs us that Zoroaster was said to be ”the son of Oromasdes, which was the name the Persians gave to the Supreme G.o.d”[123:7]--therefore he was the _Son of G.o.d_.
From the East we will turn to the West, and shall find that many of the ancient heroes of Grecian and Roman mythology were regarded as of divine origin, were represented as men, possessed of G.o.d-like form, strength and courage; were believed to have lived on earth in the remote, dim ages of the nation's history; to have been occupied in their life-time with thrilling adventures and extraordinary services in the cause of human civilization, and to have been after death in some cases translated to a life among the G.o.ds, and ent.i.tled to sacrifice and wors.h.i.+p. In the hospitable Pantheon of the Greeks and Romans, a niche was always in readiness for every new divinity who could produce respectable credentials.
The Christian Father Justin Martyr, says:
”It having reached the Devil's ears that the prophets had foretold the coming of Christ (_the Son of G.o.d_), he set the _Heathen Poets_ to bring forward a great many who should be called _the sons of Jove_. The Devil laying his scheme in this, to get men to imagine that the _true_ history of Christ was of the same character as the _prodigious fables_ related of the sons of Jove.”
Among these ”sons of Jove” may be mentioned the following: _Hercules_ was the son of Jupiter by a mortal mother, Alcmene, Queen of Thebes.[124:1] Zeus, the G.o.d of G.o.ds, spake of Hercules, his son, and said: ”This day shall a child be born of the race of Perseus, who shall be the mightiest of the sons of men.”[124:2]
_Bacchus_ was the son of Jupiter and a mortal mother, Semele, daughter of Kadmus, King of Thebes.[124:3] As Montfaucon says, ”It is the son of Jupiter and Semele which the poets celebrate, and which the monuments represent.”[124:4]
Bacchus is made to say:
”I, son of Deus, am come to this land of the Thebans, Bacchus, whom formerly Semele the daughter of Kadmus brings forth, being delivered by the lightning-bearing flame: _and having taken a mortal form_ instead of a G.o.d's, I have arrived at the fountains of Dirce and the water of Ismenus.”[124:5]
_Amphion_ was the son of Jupiter and a mortal mother, Antiope, daughter of Nicetus, King of Botia.[124:6]
_Prometheus_, whose name is derived from a Greek word signifying foresight and providence, was a deity who united the divine and human nature in one person, and was confessedly both man and G.o.d.[124:7]
_Perseus_ was the son of Jupiter by the virgin Danae, daughter of Acrisius, King of Argos.[124:8] Divine honors were paid him, and a temple was erected to him in Athens.[124:9]
Justin Martyr (A. D. 140), in his Apology to the Emperor Adrian, says:
”By declaring the Logos, the first-begotten of G.o.d, our Master, Jesus Christ, to be born of a virgin, without any human mixture, we (Christians) _say no more in this than what you_ (Pagans) _say of those whom you style the Sons of Jove_.
For you need not be told what a parcel of sons the writers most in vogue among you a.s.sign to Jove. . . .