Part 3 (1/2)

98.] also has an important reference to the head of Osiris. It is ent.i.tled ”The Chapter of not letting the head of a man be cut off from him in the underworld,” and must be of considerable antiquity. In it the deceased says: ”I am the Great One, the son of the Great One; I am Fire, and the son of the Fire, to whom was given his head after it had been cut off. The head of Osiris was not taken away from him, let not the head of the deceased be taken away from him. I have knit myself together (_or_ reconst.i.tuted myself); I have made myself whole and complete; I have renewed my youth; I am Osiris, the lord of eternity.”

From the above it would seem that, according to one version of the Osiris story, the head of Osiris was not only cut off, but that it was pa.s.sed through the fire also; and if this version be very ancient, as it well may be and probably is, it takes us back to prehistoric times in Egypt when the bodies of the dead were mutilated and burned. Prof.

Wiedemann thinks [Footnote: See J. de Morgan, _Ethnographie Prehistorique_, p. 210.] that the mutilation and breaking of the bodies of the dead were the results of the belief that in order to make the KA, or ”double,” leave this earth, the body to which it belonged must be broken, and he instances the fact that objects of every kind were broken at the time when they were placed in the tombs. He traces also a transient custom in the prehistoric graves of Egypt where the methods of burying the body whole and broken into pieces seem to be mingled, for though in some of them the body has been broken into pieces, it is evident that successful attempts have been made to reconst.i.tute it by laying the pieces as far as possible in their proper places. And it may be this custom which is referred to in various places in the Book of the Dead, when the deceased declares that he has collected his limbs ”and made his body whole again,” and already in the Vth dynasty King Teta is thus addressed--”Rise up, O thou Teta! Thou hast received thy head, thou hast knitted together thy bones, [Footnote: _Recueil de Travaux_, tom.

v. p. 40 (I. 287).] thou hast collected thy members.”

The history of Osiris, the G.o.d of the resurrection, has now been traced from the earliest times to the end of the period of the rule of the priests of Amen (about B.C. 900), by which time Amen-R[=a] had been thrust in among the G.o.ds of the underworld, and prayers were made, in some cases, to him instead of to Osiris. From this time onwards Amen maintained this exalted position, and in the Ptolemaic period, in an address to the deceased Ker[=a]sher we read. ”Thy face s.h.i.+neth before R[=a], thy soul liveth before Amen, and thy body is renewed before Osiris.” And again it is said, ”Amen is nigh unto thee to make thee to live again.... Amen cometh to thee having the breath of life, and he causeth thee to draw thy breath within thy funeral house.” But in spite of this, Osiris kept and held the highest place in the minds of the Egyptians, from first to last, as the G.o.d-man, the being who was both divine and human; and no foreign invasion, and no religious or political disturbances, and no influence which any outside peoples could bring to bear upon them, succeeded in making them regard the G.o.d as anything less than the cause and symbol and type of the resurrection, and of the life everlasting. For about five thousand years men were mummified in imitation of the mummied form of Osiris; and they went to their graves believing that their bodies would vanquish the powers of death, and the grave, and decay, because Osiris had vanquished them; and they had certain hope of the resurrection in an immortal, eternal, and spiritual body, because Osiris had risen in a transformed spiritual body, and had ascended into heaven, where he had become the king and the judge of the dead, and had attained unto everlasting life therein.

The chief reason for the persistence of the wors.h.i.+p of Osiris in Egypt was, probably, the fact that it promised both resurrection and eternal life to its followers. Even after the Egyptians had embraced Christianity they continued to mummify their dead, and for long after they continued to mingle the attributes of their G.o.d and the ”G.o.ds” with those of G.o.d Almighty and Christ. The Egyptians of their own will never got away from the belief that the body must be mummified if eternal life was to be a.s.sured to the dead, but the Christians, though preaching the same doctrine of the resurrection as the Egyptians, went a step further, and insisted that there was no need to mummify the dead at all. St.

Anthony the Great besought his followers not to embalm his body and keep it in a house, but to bury it and to tell no man where it had been buried, lest those who loved him should come and draw it forth, and mummify it as they were wont to do to the bodies of those whom they regarded as saints. ”For long past,” he said, ”I have entreated the bishops and preachers to exhort the people not to continue to observe this useless custom”; and concerning his own body, he said, ”At the resurrection of the dead I shall receive it from the Saviour incorruptible.” [Footnote: See Rosweyde, _Vitae Patrum_, p. 59; _Life of St. Anthony_, by Atha.n.u.sius (Migne), _Patrologiae_, Scr. Graec, tom. 26, col. 972.] The spread of this idea gave the art of mummifying its death-blow, and though from innate conservatism, and the love of having the actual bodies of their beloved dead near them, the Egyptians continued for a time to preserve their dead as before, yet little by little the reasons for mummifying were forgotten, the knowledge of the art died out, the funeral ceremonies were curtailed, the prayers became a dead letter, and the custom of making mummies became obsolete. With the death of the art died also the belief in and the wors.h.i.+p of Osiris, who from being the G.o.d of the dead became a dead G.o.d, and to the Christians of Egypt, at least, his place was filled by Christ, ”the firstfruits of them that slept,” Whose resurrection and power to grant eternal life were at that time being preached throughout most of the known world. In Osiris the Christian Egyptians found the prototype of Christ, and in the pictures and statues of Isis suckling her son Horus, they perceived the prototypes of the Virgin Mary and her Child. Never did Christianity find elsewhere in the world a people whose minds were so thoroughly well prepared to receive its doctrines as the Egyptians.

This chapter may be fittingly ended by a few extracts from, the _Songs of Isis and Nephthys_, which were sung in the Temple of Amen-R[=a] at Thebes by two priestesses who personified the two G.o.ddesses. [Footnote 1: See my _Hieratic Papyrus of Nesi-Amsu (Archaeologia, vol. III_)]

”Hail, thou lord of the underworld, thou Bull of those who are therein, thou Image of R[=a]-Harmachis, thou Babe of beautiful appearance, come thou to us in peace. Thou didst repel thy disasters, thou didst drive away evil hap; Lord, come to us in peace. O Un-nefer, lord of food, thou chief, thou who art of terrible majesty, thou G.o.d, president of the G.o.ds, when thou dost inundate the land [all] things are engendered. Thou art gentler than the G.o.ds. The emanations of thy body make the dead and the living to live, O thou lord of food, thou prince of green herbs, thou mighty lord, thou staff of life, thou giver of offerings to the G.o.ds, and of sepulchral meals to the blessed dead. Thy soul flieth after R[=a], thou s.h.i.+nest at dawn, thou settest at twilight, thou risest every day; thou shalt rise on the left hand of Atmu for ever and ever. Thou art the glorious one, the vicar of R[=a]; the company of the G.o.ds cometh to thee invoking thy face, the flame whereof reacheth unto thine enemies. We rejoice when thou gatherest together thy bones, and when thou hast made whole thy body daily. Anubis cometh to thee, and the two sisters (_i.e._, Isis and Nephthys) come to thee. They have obtained beautiful things for thee, and they gather together thy limbs for thee, and they seek to put together the mutilated members of thy body. Wipe thou the impurities which are on them upon our hair and come thou to us having no recollection, of that which hath caused thee sorrow. Come thou in thy attribute of 'Prince of the earth,' lay aside thy trepidation and be at peace with us, O Lord. Thou shalt be proclaimed heir of the world, and the One G.o.d, and, the fulfiller of the designs of the G.o.ds. All the G.o.ds invoke thee, come therefore to thy temple and be not afraid.

O R[=a] (_i.e._, Osiris), thou art beloved of Isis and Nephthys; rest thou in thy habitation forever.”

CHAPTER III.

THE ”G.o.dS” OF THE EGYPTIANS.

Throughout this book we have had to refer frequently to the ”G.o.ds” of Egypt; it is now time to explain who and what they were. We have already shown how much the monotheistic side of the Egyptian religion resembles that of modern Christian nations, and it will have come as a surprise to some that a people, possessing such exalted ideas of G.o.d as the Egyptians, could ever have become the byword they did through their alleged wors.h.i.+p of a mult.i.tude of ”G.o.ds” in various forms. It is quite true that the Egyptians paid honour to a number of G.o.ds, a number so large that the list of their mere names would fill a volume, but it is equally true that the educated cla.s.ses in Egypt at all times never placed the ”G.o.ds” on the same high level as G.o.d, and they never imagined that their views on this point could be mistaken. In prehistoric times every little village or town, every district and province, and every great city, had its own particular G.o.d; we may go a step farther, and say that every family of any wealth and position had its own G.o.d. The wealthy family selected some one to attend to its G.o.d, and to minister unto his wants, and the poor family contributed, according to its means, towards a common fund for providing a dwelling-house for the G.o.d, and for vestments, etc. But the G.o.d was an integral part of the family, whether rich or poor, and its destiny was practically locked up with that of the family. The overthrow of the family included the overthrow of the G.o.d, and seasons of prosperity resulted in abundant offerings, new vestments; perhaps a new shrine, and the like. The G.o.d of the village, although he was a more important being, might be led into captivity along with the people of the village, but the victory of his followers in a raid or fight caused the honours paid to him to be magnified and enhanced his renown.

The G.o.ds of provinces or of great cities were, of course, greater than those of villages and private families, and in the large houses dedicated to them, _i.e._, temples, a considerable number of them, represented by statues, would be found. Sometimes the attributes of one G.o.d would be ascribed to another, sometimes two or more G.o.ds would be ”fused” or united and form one, sometimes G.o.ds were imported from remote villages and towns and even from foreign countries, and occasionally a community or town would repudiate its G.o.d or G.o.ds, and adopt a brand new set from some neighbouring district Thus the number of the G.o.ds was always changing, and the relative position of individual G.o.ds was always changing; an obscure and almost unknown, local G.o.d to-day might through a victory in war become the chief G.o.d of a city, and on the other hand, a G.o.d wors.h.i.+pped with abundant offerings and great ceremony one month might sink into insignificance and become to all intents and purposes a dead G.o.d the next. But besides family and village G.o.ds there were national G.o.ds, and G.o.ds of rivers and mountains, and G.o.ds of earth and sky, all of which taken together made a formidable number of ”divine”

beings whose good-will had to be secured, and whose ill-will must be appeased. Besides these, a number of animals as being sacred to the G.o.ds were also considered to be ”divine,” and fear as well as love made the Egyptians add to their numerous cla.s.ses of G.o.ds.

The G.o.ds of Egypt whose names are known to us do not represent all those that have been conceived by the Egyptian imagination, for with them as with much else, the law of the survival of the fittest holds good. Of the G.o.ds of the prehistoric man we know nothing, but it is more than probable that some of the G.o.ds who were wors.h.i.+pped in dynastic times represent, in a modified form, the deities of the savage, or semi-savage, Egyptian that held their influence on his mind the longest.

A typical example of such a G.o.d will suffice, namely Thoth, whose original emblem was the dog-headed ape. In very early times great respect was paid to this animal on account of his sagacity, intelligence, and cunning; and the simple-minded Egyptian, when he heard him chattering just before the sunrise and sunset, a.s.sumed that he was in some way holding converse or was intimately connected with the sun.

This idea clung to his mind, and we find in dynastic times, in the vignette representing the rising sun, that the apes, who are said to be the transformed openers of the portals of heaven, form a veritable company of the G.o.ds, and at the same time one of the most striking features of the scene. Thus an idea which came into being in the most remote times pa.s.sed on from generation to generation until it became crystallized in the best copies of the Book of the Dead, at a period when Egypt was at its zenith of power and glory. The peculiar species of the dog-headed ape which is represented in statues and on papyri is famous for its cunning, and it was the words which it supplied to Thoth, who in turn transmitted them to Osiris, that enabled Osiris to be ”true of voice,” or triumphant, over his enemies. It is probably in this capacity, _i.e._, as the friend of the dead, that the dog-headed ape appears seated upon the top of the standard of the Balance in which the heart of the deceased is being weighed against the feather symbolic of Ma[=a]t; for the commonest t.i.tles of the G.o.d are ”lord of divine books,”

”lord of divine words,” _i.e._, the formulae which make the deceased to be obeyed by friend and foe alike in the next world. In later times, when Thoth came to be represented by the ibis bird, his attributes were multiplied, and he became the G.o.d of letters, science, mathematics, etc.; at the creation he seems to have played a part not unlike that of ”wisdom” which is so beautifully described by the writer of Proverbs (see Chap. VIII. vv. 23-31).

Whenever and wherever the Egyptians attempted to set up a system of G.o.ds they always found that the old local G.o.ds had to be taken into consideration, and a place had to be found for them in the system. This might be done by making them members of triads, or of groups of nine G.o.ds, now commonly called ”enneads”; but in one form or other they had to appear. The researches made during the last few years have shown that there must have been several large schools of theological thought in Egypt, and of each of these the priests did their utmost to proclaim the superiority of their G.o.ds. In dynastic times there must have been great colleges at Heliopolis, Memphis, Abydos, and one or more places in the Delta, not to mention the smaller schools of priests which, probably existed at places on both sides of the Nile from Memphis to the south.

Of the theories and doctrines of all such schools and colleges, those of Heliopolis have survived in the completest form, and by careful examination of the funeral texts which were inscribed on the monuments of the kings of Egypt of the Vth and VIth dynasties we can say what views they held about many of the G.o.ds. At the outset we see that the great G.o.d of Heliopolis was Temu or Atmu, the setting sun, and to him the priests of that place ascribed the attributes which rightly belong to R[=a], the Sun-G.o.d of the day-time. For some reason or other they formulated the idea of a company of the G.o.ds, nine in number, which was called the ”great company _(paut)_ of the G.o.ds,” and at the head of this company they placed the G.o.d Temu. In Chapter XVII of the Book of the Dead [Footnote: See _Chapters of Coming Forth by Day_, p. 49.] we find the following pa.s.sage:--

”I am the G.o.d Temu in his rising; I am the only One. I came into being in Nu. I am R[=a] who rose in the beginning.”

Next comes the question, ”But who is this?” And the answer is: ”It is R[=a] when at the beginning he rose in the city of Suten-henen (Heracleopolis Magna) crowned like a king in rising. The pillars of the G.o.d Shu were not as yet created when he was upon the staircase of him that dwelleth in Khemennu (Hermopolis Magna).” From these statements we learn that Temu and R[=a] were one and the same G.o.d, and that he was the first offspring of the G.o.d Nu, the primeval watery ma.s.s out of which all the G.o.ds came into being. The text continues: ”I am the great G.o.d Nu who gave birth to himself, and who made his names to come into being and to form the company of the G.o.ds. But who is this? It is R[=a], the creator of the names of his members which came into being in the form of the G.o.ds who are in the train of R[=a].” And again: ”I am he who is not driven back among the G.o.ds. But who is this? It is Tem, the dweller in his disk, or as others say, it is R[=a] in his rising in the eastern horizon of heaven.” Thus we learn further that Nu was self-produced, and that the G.o.ds are simply the names of his limbs; but then R[=a] is Nu, and the G.o.ds who are in his train or following are merely personifications of the names of his own members. He who cannot be driven back among the G.o.ds is either Temu or R[=a], and so we find that Nu, Temu, and R[=a] are one and the same G.o.d. The priests of Heliopolis in setting Temu at the head of their company of the G.o.ds thus gave R[=a], and Nu also, a place of high honour; they cleverly succeeded in making their own local G.o.d chief of the company, but at the same time they provided the older G.o.ds with positions of importance. In this way wors.h.i.+ppers of R[=a], who had regarded their G.o.d as the oldest of the G.o.ds, would have little cause to complain of the introduction of Temu into the company of the G.o.ds, and the local vanity of Heliopolis would be gratified.

But besides the nine G.o.ds who were supposed to form the ”great company”

of G.o.ds of the city of Heliopolis, there was a second group of nine G.o.ds called the ”little company” of the G.o.ds, and yet a third group of nine G.o.ds, which formed the least company. Now although the _paut_ or company of nine G.o.ds might be expected to contain nine always, this was not the case, and the number nine thus applied is sometimes misleading. There are several pa.s.sages extant in texts in which the G.o.ds of a _paut_ are enumerated, but the total number is sometimes ten and sometimes eleven.

This fact is easily explained when we remember that the Egyptians deified the various forms or aspects of a G.o.d, or the various phases in his life. Thus the setting sun, called Temu or Atmu, and the rising sun, called Khepera, and the mid-day sun, called R[=a], were three forms of the same G.o.d; and if any one of these three forms was included in a _paut_ or company of nine G.o.ds, the other two forms were also included by implication, even though the _paut_ then contained eleven, instead of nine G.o.ds. Similarly, the various forms of each G.o.d or G.o.ddess of the _paut_ were understood to be included in it, however large the total number of G.o.ds might become. We are not, therefore, to imagine that the three companies of the G.o.ds were limited in number to 9 x 3, or twenty-seven, even though the symbol for G.o.d be given twenty-seven times in the texts.

We have already alluded to the great number of G.o.ds who were known to the Egyptians, but it will be readily imagined that it was only those who were thought to deal with man's destiny, here and hereafter, who obtained the wors.h.i.+p and reverence of the people of Egypt. These were, comparatively, limited in number, and in fact may be said to consist of the members of the great company of the G.o.ds of Heliopolis, that is to say, of the G.o.ds who belonged to the cycle of Osiris. These may be briefly described as follows:--

1. TEMU or ATMU, _i.e._, the ”closer” of the day, just as Ptah was the ”opener” of the day. In the story of the creation he declares that he evolved himself under the form of the G.o.d Khepera, and in hymns he is said to be the ”maker of the G.o.ds”, ”the creator of men”, etc., and he usurped the position of R[=a] among the G.o.ds of Egypt. His wors.h.i.+p must have been already very ancient at the time of the kings of the Vth dynasty, for his traditional form is that of a man at that time.

2. SHU was the firstborn son of Temu. According to one legend he sprang direct from the G.o.d, and according to another the G.o.ddess Hathor was his mother; yet a third legend makes him the son of Temu by the G.o.ddess Ius[=a]set. He it was who made his way between the G.o.ds Seb and Nut and raised up the latter to form the sky, and this belief is commemorated by the figures of this G.o.d in which he is represented as a G.o.d raising himself up from the earth with the sun's disk on his shoulders. As a power of nature he typified the light, and, standing on the top of a staircase at Hermopolis Magua, [Footnote: See above, pp. 69 and 89.] he raised up the sky and held it up during each day.